The Athenaeum

"True Detective," A socio-cultural review

 

"The second season has received generally positive reviews, however many critics feel it is not as strong as the first. On Rotten Tomatoes, the season has a rating of 65%, based on 72 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "True Detective‍ '​s second season stands on its own as a solid police drama, with memorable moments and resonant relationships outweighing predictable plot twists."^[42] On Metacritic, the season has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".^[43]

David Hinckley of the New York Daily News gave it a very positive review, and wrote "It's still the kind of show that makes TV viewers reach for phrases like 'golden age of television drama'" and that "the second installment of True Detective goes out of the way not to echo the first."^[44] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post gave it a generally positive review, praising the performances, and wrote, "There is something still lugubrious and overwrought about True Detective, but there's also a mesmerizing style to it — it's imperfect, but well made."^[45]

A more mixed review came from Brian Lowry of Variety, who wrote "Although generally watchable, the inspiration that turned the first [season] into an obsession for many seems to have drained out of writer Nic Pizzolatto's prose."^[46]" 

wiki

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IMO both seasons are evidence of an emerging Golden Age in American TV drama productions.  The quality of writing, production and direction were all superb.

These series exist at a number of artistic levels.  They can be seen as mere cop show extravaganzas.  At that level they work remarkably well.

More importantly, they are, IMO, powerful metaphors for the general disintegration of what were not long ago well accepted cultural norms involving personal behavior and expectations regarding the functions of government.

This is not to say that there was a utopian age in an America that worked well for all, but there were enough shared values in pre-60s America for it to have been possible to say without irony that there were such things as coherent national and regional cultures.  Such a thing as national or regional epic was possible based on shared values.  IMO and evidently in the collective mind of the "True Detective" crew such coherent, functioning cultures are no more.  They were systematically destroyed over the last fifty years by those who sought a brave new world disorganized on the basis of and excused by a drive for extreme forms of social justice and leveling. This drive has treated all tradition as enemy.  This brave new world has resulted, once again IMO, in a Hobbesian universe in which the juggernaut of "progress" rolls over and crushes American social institutions one by one.  The latest victims of this institutional destruction are the police, the guardians of social order.  In the new and wonderfully dystopian America, policemen who have done their duty in defense of life and property are persecuted and dismissed by politicians and police chiefs who are mere warriors in the struggle of all against all.  There are, of course policemen guilty of egregious misconduct as in the case of the fool in North Charleston, S.C. who shot a fleeing man in the back, but what is happening in the media is a general assault on the policing powers of the states and cities.

Season 1 of "True Detective" focused on this kind of descent into dystopia in Louisiana and East Texas.  My impression is that the writer and director simply are more familiar with that part of the country and were more comfortable with a regional format as an "opening gun."

Season 2 is set in California and more closely devoted to Southern California, a lurking abscess in the fabric of the America that once was.  In that world of the dark imaginings of the "True Detective" artists government is a cesspool of money corruption and selfish striving for personal gain that know no limits.

IMO this series will not live long.  In season 2 the bad guys win and consolidate their gains, ready to move on to new depths.  Americans, especially flyover Americans are unaccustomed to spectacles that do not end well in reward of virtue.  "Put a ribbon around it" is a common exhortation in US TV production.  This means that happy endings are expected and demanded.   "True Detective" puts paid to that distortion of reality.  In the "True Detective" world there are no Yellow Brick Roads, Lassie does not come home and Shirley Temple does not dance with Bojangles Robinson.

THE PEOPLE, the real people sense the decline of their way of life and its rejection by the Borgist elites.  The unhappiness of THE PEOPLE can be seen in the reaction to Trump and Sanders.  pl  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Detective_(season_2)

New York City (and other) wildlife

"The animals will come if we let them. Northern Manhattan alone has six large parks, and it is connected by five bridges to substantial woodlands in New Jersey, the Bronx and the forested suburbs beyond. In recent years, woodchucks have begun to make their way into Manhattan from the north. They are leaving the suburbs for the same reason rats began heading uptown long ago: overpopulation. As farming near the city has subsided, the woods have returned, and with the woods the wildlife. It’s natural dispersal, driving the woodland creatures to follow the landscape into the city.

Soon, thanks to a series of city- and state-sponsored greenway projects, the woods in the highlands that spill down to the Hudson will be interconnected, and a path will run along the river from the northernmost point of Manhattan down to the Battery — a great route for a bike ride or run, and a new, complete byway for the wild things coming down from the north. A fisher, a sort of weasel that preys on rodents, was seen in the Bronx last summer. That was unusual, but there could be more, moving farther south, as the paths into the city ease."  NY Times

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We have wildlife in my neighborhood as well.  We have seen deer, coyotes, raccoons, possum (not so much now), and rabbits.

Last year, a neighbor, neglectful of the common good, let a shed on his property become the roof under which a colony of black rats thrived.  In a remarkably short time they spread across the space dissected by back garden fences until, apparently believing themselves to be no worse than the grey squirrels so easily tolerated, they were wandering about in daylight in suburban Alexandria, Virginia.  The inevitable reaction occurred, exterminators made money and the black rats are no more.  This piece made me think of them.  pl

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/magazine/the-rat-paths-of-new-york.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-2&action=click&contentCollection=Magazine&region=Footer&configSection=article&isLoggedIn=true&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=article

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I have a rat story.  This is another piece of my autobiography.  It concerns an aspect of the "domestic life" of the clandestine intelligence detachment I commanded in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1968.  pl

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“You killed him.  You killed him, you heartless bastard!”

One of Whitey’s friends to his “murderer.”

They had a lot of fun together.  Illustrative of the “family life” of the detachment is the saga of “Whitey the Rat.”  In the detachment headquarters house in Song Be, there was a large room that served as a lounge.  There was a bar in one end, and behind the bar an ancient refrigerator to keep beer cold.  A television set sat on the bar.  AFNVN TV came in clear with the TV antenna seated atop the team’s 100- foot radio mast.  Comfortable chairs, arranged in a semicircle faced the bar.  Along one wall next to the bar was a day bed the men had “scrounged” somewhere.  An electrical “knife” switch was placed on the wall that enabled the TV audience to kill the generator, and the lights, when firing started outside the house.  In the evenings, Lang in his capacity as “Laird of the Manor,” would take his ease upon this couch while they all watched television.  They dressed in black “VC” pajamas and sandals made by the enemy from airplane tires. The dress was required on the theory that if it became necessary to fight their way out of the town, then they would seem less obvious in the dark.  Rifles, pistols, hand grenades and other weaponry occupied every corner of the room. 

The house was inhabited by a tribe of rats, large, healthy, furry brown rats.  For some time the detachment experimented with methods of killing off these unwanted neighbors, but after a while it had become clear that this was a pointless and counterproductive effort for a number of reasons: The house was in the Vietnamese town.  The town was overrun with rats.  The more you killed, the more their relatives moved in.

Dead rats smell bad.

There was a neighbor cat who was a friend of the house.  The men were afraid of poisoning the cat.

 The rats were so well fed that they did not seem interested in the team’s possessions and they did not bite.  Based on this analysis, the troops decided at a “family meeting” that they wanted to leave the rats alone.  That was all right with Lang.  He had no wish to participate in unnecessary killing.

Because of this decision, the team developed personal relations with a number of these rats.  Among them was “Whitey.”  This robust specimen of masculine rathood must have weighed at least two pounds. He had one white foreleg, and so the name.  The rest of him was an attractive medium brown.  He seemed to take particular pride in his magnificent white whiskers.  Over some months he learned that he was accepted, indeed he seemed to believe that he was part of the household.  He would walk around at night on the ceiling beams in Lang’s bedroom, peering down from time to time to see what was going on.

A game developed between Whitey and one of the men.  This soldier sawed off the barrel of an M-1 Carbine, pried the bullets out of some ammunition, poured out most of the gunpowder and filled the cartridge cases with soap.  Whitey had the nightly habit of tiptoeing along the wall next to Lang’s couch, sticking his whiskers out at the foot to check for clear running, and then making a dash across the space between the bar and the wall.  His “playmate” would wait patiently until one of his “mates” said, “I see his nose.”  Then, when the rat made his run the sniper would fire, plastering the wall with soap while Whitey “scooted” to safety to the accompaniment of cheers from all on hand.  Lang would plug his ears with his fingers to block out the report of the Carbine while the “boys” played with the rat.

The inevitable happened one night.  The soldier got the “lead” right and hit Whitey with the whole load of soap.  Lang took his fingers out of his ears and joined them all where they stood in a semicircle looking down at the rat’s motionless body.  It lay on its back, next to the wall, four feet in the air, plastered with pink soap.  The other soldiers reacted with fury.  “You hit him!  What the hell is the matter with you!  You killed Whitey!  You weren’t supposed to hit him!  You dumb bastard.”  These were among the milder rebukes. 

Lang kept quiet, but his opinion was not much different.  They stood there grieving for a moment while the “killer” tried to tell them how sorry he was.  These were the same men who had stood “in the breach” and done serious work in fighting a brigade of infantry to a standstill.  After a few minutes, Whitey responded to being poked solicitously with a finger.  His whiskers began to twitch, a leg quivered.  Smiles broke out as he staggered to his feet and wandered off behind the bar.  The next night the game was resumed, but he was never hit again."  From "So Long To Learn."

 

 

Memorial Day 2013

 
 

I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did. 

~Benjamin Harrison 

 Are they dead that yet speak louder than we can speak, and a more universal language?  Are they dead that yet act?  Are they dead that yet move upon society and inspire the people with nobler motives and more heroic patriotism? 

~Henry Ward Beecher

 

Hoping all TA/SST readers, commenters, & posters can spend a relaxed, enjoyable weekend in the company of family & friends. 

-Maureen Lang

I have added the following essay to my sister's post for Memorial day.  I wrote this piece at the beginning of the Iraq War.  pl

Download Dear Hearts Across the Seas

Nautical Archaeology: The Wreck Of The Evelyn (Norcom)

Using LIDAR (light detection and ranging), INA researchers were able to obtain more than 160 million data points on the 1908 sternwheeler Evelyn.

 

The Evelyn (renamed Norcom) was originally a U.S. registered, wooden-hulled stern wheel steamboat built at St. Michael, Alaska in 1908 by Bratnobar for the Upper Tanana Trading Company. Her hull measured 39.6 meters by 8.7 meters with a depth of 1.28 meters. The vessel was powered by two horizontal, high pressure cylinders. At some point the ship was sold to the Northern Navigation Company- it wrecked in the Tanana River. Her machinery was removed & taken to St. Michael where a new hull was built.  She was converted to Canadian registry in 1913, & then owned by the British Yukon Navigation Co. in 1919. She was beached on Shipyard Island & her engines installed in the Steamer Keno in 1922. Registration was  cancelled in 1931.

The ship now lies on blocks at a once important (now abandoned) shipyard & wintering area between Dawson City & Whitehorse, at the base of the Thirty Mile Section of the Yukon River. One boiler & smokestack remain- the rest of the machinery has been removed. The paddlewheel axle, flanges, & crank lie near the ship. While the upper superstructure is largely collapsed, the hull & freight deck are intact. The three tiller-rudder assemblies are complete- they still work.

The LIDAR Survey

The mission of the Yukon River Survey was to locate/document historic Yukon River shipwrecks & hulls. Canada's Yukon Territories contains more accessible early sternwheelers than anywhere else in North America. Approximately 290 sternwheelers once plied the Yukon River, of which 110 were built in 1898 in response to the Klondike Gold Rush. Unlike broken fragments found in the Mississippi or Columbia River systems, the Yukon's steamer wrecks are intact to the point you can walk their decks, swing their tillers, watch their rudders turn. A July 2007 project marked the beginning of detailed documentation in the Yukon. In the first phase, an INA team & EPICSCAN staff spent five days at Shipyard Island, 60 km from the nearest road, & LIDAR-surveyed the 39.6 meter 1908 wooden-hulled sternwheeler Evelyn. The result was a data "cloud" of millions of highly accurate survey shots inside & outside of the vessel, such that features down to 3 mm in width were recorded. The 3-D model shows all timbers & planking.  It can be cross-sectioned as required.

The image quality of the animation below has been reduced for online viewing.

Reduction was done by EPICSCAN:

 

(courtesy of inadiscover.com)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Undated photograph of the Evelyn (Norcom)

 

 

-Maureen Lang

 

 

"The Music of Words" by Richard Sale

"Hemingway’s writing has three outstanding qualities – a sense of suggestiveness, of moving forward on different levels, and the ability to present a story in a way that is highly emotional and intensely immediate -- a story that depends on using telling, visual details. These virtues are ones that Pat shares in his stories."  Richard Sale 

Download The Music of Words

What will befall Carter's Grove?

"Before the house, the land was the site of Martin’s Hundred plantation and Wolstenholme Towne, an ill-fated English settlement founded in 1620, just a few years after the establishment of Jamestown five miles upriver. Wolstenholme was destroyed during a native Powhatan massacre of English settlers in 1622.

But Carter’s Grove had better luck. For 260 years, it steadfastly survived looting, flood, hurricane, earthquake, a Hollywood crew filming a now-forgotten Cary Grant movie, and a marauding Revolutionary War colonel who billeted his Redcoats there and, legend has it, rode a horse up the main staircase, hacking the grand railing with his sword along the way. A 1928 renovation diminished the Palladian perfection of its exterior, but still, it endured.

Carter’s Grove may have finally met its ruin, however, in the unlikely form of Halsey Minor, a brash 40-something technology investor living in San Francisco."  Washpost

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My.  My.  It appears that some FFV families have their own share of "brash irresponsible punks."

I have visited Carter's Grove a couple of times, always a little unwillingly, but visitors want to go to Colonial Williamsburg and Carter's Grove used to be part of the show.

The last time was in the '80s.  I had some French friends in tow.  It was a week day and a glorious Virginia display of fine weather was underway.  I had gotten tired of the damned syllabub and other treacle in Williamsburg itself.  At Carter's Grove the historical enactors both in the house and in the painstakingly created slave quarter were relentless.  Their mission, whether dictated or self assigned, was clearly to revile Carter Burwell, the Carters in general and anyone who had ever lived in the house as other than a servant.  In the house, one wizened creature announced himself to be a Ph. D. in history from a private university of note in the Deep North.  He took our group around the house in a constant enthusiasm for the business of mocking the Carters, the history of the house and particularly the lady whose husband bought the place in 1928 so that she could play the role in society that she thought befit her.  To that end she spent vast amounts of her Northern businessman's money on a restoration that made the place comfortable and made it look good.  She lived there for about 35 years and was evidently an adornment to the neighborhood and a pillar of local charity, but to this fellow she was just another phantom from the "Lost Cause."

The "slave quarter" was similarly manned and womaned with a variety of Black Studies and history doctors costumed as 18th Century agricultural workers.  They were engaged in whittling, making soap, stirring pots of smoking liquids, etc.   The group of visitors I was following with my puzzled French guests was a tour group from Georgia.  Some were white, some were black.  The assigned woman "instructor" got underway in her task of convincing us that Carter's Grove had been a premonition of 20th Century European horrors unnamed.  The audience grew increasingly restive under instruction and sensing their inattention she told us that the slaves had been forced to eat hominy, field greens and fat back.  There was no reaction and she asked "how many of you would want to eat hominy?"  All the hands went up, white and black, including mine but not the French, who knew not.  Frustrated, she pressed them to know if that was the truth.  The response was that a number of people offered recipes for these ingredients.  She was unhappy.  I asked if any of the re-enactors were from the South.  There were none.

Am I surprised that Colonial Williamsburg sold Carter's Grove to this spoiled wretch?  No.  At the time, I wote a long note to the adminstration in which I gave my view that perhaps SOME FEW people friendly to Carter's Grove might be included in the staff.

The reply told me that their interpretation was one that they were going to stay with. 

Attendance fell off?  My. My.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/the-sorry-fate-of-a-tech-pioneer-halsey-minor-and-historic-virginia-estate-carters-grove/2012/05/30/gJQAwdJG4U_story_4.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter%27s_Grove

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%27s_Hundred

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Williamsburg

 

Archaeology News- February/March 2012

ALASKA: In a pit house dating to around A.D. 1200, archaeologists uncovered a cast-bronze buckle that appears to be East Asian in origin and older than the house in which it was found. The oldest known cast bronze in Alaska, the artifact may have been part of a horse fitting, perhaps traded in from as far away as Manchuria. It was probably used as a charm or noisemaker by a local Inupiat shaman.  (Courtesy Jeremy Foin, University of California, Davis) TEXAS: The last issue of Archaeology detailed sites at risk (Top Ten Discoveries of 2011"), including those exposed by the drought in Texas. In addition to wrecks and human remains, receding waterlines revealed a mysterious 4-foot aluminum sphere. NASA officials confirmed that it was a fuel-cell tank from the space shuttle Columbia, which was destroyed during reentry in 2003. Along with other remains from the shuttle, it can teach us something about the effects of high-speed atmospheric reentry.  (Courtesy Nacogdoches, Texas, Police Department) GRENADA: People on the tiny island of Carriacou may have feasted on animals imported from South America over 1,000 years ago. Remains of South American animals, including piglike peccaries, armadillos, and guinea pigs—none of which are native to the island today—were excavated from prehistoric middens. The find suggests regular contact between natives and people on other islands and the mainland, but because the bones are scarce, archaeologists think only a select, high-status few got to eat these exotic treats.  (Wikimedia Commons) ENGLAND: Using stable isotope analysis, researchers examined remains of infants from the crypt at Christ Church in Spitalfields, London, to study breastfeeding in the 18th and 19th centuries. They found that prolonged breastfeeding was common in the 19th century among this relatively well-off population, which does not necessarily agree with the idea that more women were entering the workforce at the time as a result of industrialization. The breastfeeding mothers of these infants may have had the means to hire wet nurses—or they may have been homebound due to an economic downturn.  (Wikimedia Commons) SWITZERLAND: High-end Swiss watchmaker Hublot has created a wrist-mounted version of the Antikythera Mechanism, the mysterious 2,000-yearold astronomical machine recovered from a Greek shipwreck in 1901. It contains 495 precision elements in a 3x4-centimeter package. The manufacturers claim that it is the first watch inspired by an archaeological finding. Would a wrist-mounted sundial count?  (Courtesy Hublot)

CHINA: A cracked skull may be the oldest known evidence of interpersonal aggression among modern humans. A CT scan of the skull, which is around 130,000 years old and known as Maba Man, revealed evidence of severe blunt force trauma, possibly from a clubbing. Remodeling of the bone around the injury, however, shows that he survived the blow and possibly was well cared for after his injury—for months or even years.  (Courtesy Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Science) JAPAN: An excavation at a train yard in Dazaifu has revealed the remains of two large, prestigious buildings, as well as expensive eating utensils and pottery. The finds, including tin and copper alloy spoons, Chinese and Korean pots, and Nara tricolored ware (the finest tableware in Japan at the time), date to the 8th and 9th centuries. The assemblage appears to identify the site as a diplomatic facility, mentioned in ancient documents, that housed and fed envoys from China and Korea.  (Courtesy Nobumasa Inoue, Board of Education of Dazaifu, Japan) PAKISTAN: 4,500-year-old Indus city of Harappa is thought to have been relatively peaceful. A new analysis of human remains excavated at the site found that while the overall level of violence in the city was on the low side for a statelevel society, it was not evenly distributed. Some communities endured much higher levels of trauma, inflicted on women in particular, suggesting a potentially brutal social hierarchy.  (Images of Asia) PAPUA NEW GUINEA: The seafaring Lapita, who settled the South Pacific more than 3,000 years ago, were not thought to have lived in Papua New Guinea. Findings from a new dig there have overturned that idea. The remains of several villages, including stone tools, shell ornaments, and thousands of pottery fragments have been discovered. The site is both unusually deep—including pre- and post-Lapita sequences—and perhaps the largest Lapita landscape yet discovered. According to researchers, the site opens a whole new chapter in Pacific history.  (Courtesy Steve Mortin, Monash University) OMAN: It's often thought that modern humans emerged from Africa through the Arabian Peninsula by hugging its shores, which may have protected them from swings in climate. However, 100,000-year-old stone tools found in the Dhofar Mountains suggest that some people traveled over the now arid—though once wet—interior. The find adds another layer of complexity and understanding to the path that modern humans took on their way around the world.  (Courtesy Jeffrey Rose, University of Birmingham)

(courtesy of www.archaeology.org)

-Maureen Lang

Archaeology News- January 2012

Starting in 2012, at the end of each month, I will be posting world archaeology news here at The Athenaeum.  Also plan to participate in digs on the West Coast of CA & will periodically post journal entries from that as well.

-Maureen Lang

 

CALIFORNIA: Over 7,500 years, the skulls of the Chumash people and those of their ancestors gradually shrank. Scientists think that these people, who inhabited coastal California for over 10,000 years, might have suffered a long-term health decline and growth impairment from exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), common pollutants found in oil and coal. The Chumash had extensive and increasing exposure to PAHs through tar, which they used to seal baskets and canoes, applied to the body as medicine, and even chewed like gum.  (Courtesy Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History) NEW YORK:During demolition at what was once Bellevue Hospital Medical College, a 15-pound metal box, sealed on November 14, 1897, was discovered. Among student registries and notebooks found in the time capsule was a vial containing spores of Clostridium perfringens, bacteria that live in the intestine. Bacteriologist Edward Dunham included them so future generations could check if they were still viable. They weren't, but doctors today might be able to observe how bacteria have changed since the introduction of antibiotics in the late 1920s.  (Courtesy New York University Langone Medical Center) LOUISIANA: In the time before bridges made the bayou more accessible, small rafts and cable ferries were the only path into the swamps and between plantations. Now, in a few tarred wooden platforms and some rusted gearwork, a river guide might have located the remains of Vester's Crossing, one of the last cable ferries—a boat pulled back and forth via cable—in the area. The site may become part of a heritage paddle trail.  (Courtesy Web Helbling, Bastrop Daily Enterprise) NORWAY: As glaciers recede, hundreds of artifacts are discovered each year. One of the latest finds was a men's tunic or coat that emerged from a glacier in Breheimen National Park. Dating to the 4th century A.D., the wool garment—made with an advanced technique called diamond twill—is one of very few known from this period in Europe. Without close attention, many of the artifacts that emerge from melting ice will be lost—decomposed or washed away—before they can be studied.  (Vivian Wangen, Museum of Cultural History, UiO) SPACE: One of the next frontiers for archaeology is out of this world. Scientists in England are attempting to contact Prospero, a satellite launched in 1971, to see how its circuits have held up. First, they have had to rummage for the satellite's communications codes and build custom equipment, and now they are attempting to make contact by sending a simple signal. NASA has also begun drafting guidelines to protect three dozen lunar sites, including the Apollo 11 and 17 landing sites. The guidelines could include ground-level boundaries and no-fly zones—for when private spaceships (and even tourists) start arriving.  (NASA/Wikimedia Commons)

AUSTRALIA: Hanged for the murder of three policemen 131 years ago, Ned Kelly—the country's most notorious bushranger and outlaw—is considered both folk hero and killer. He robbed banks, wore homemade armor to his final confrontation with police, and reflected the tension between poor Irish settlers and the wealthy Anglo elite. Following his execution, Kelly was buried in a mass grave. Forensic scientists, ending decades of speculation, have identified his bones by comparing DNA with a descendant's. But his skull, perhaps separated as a souvenir, remains at large.  (Damien Plemming, The Age, Courtesy Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine) TURKEY: On the Gallipoli battlefield of World War I, where Allied armies, including soldiers from Australia and New Zealand called Anzacs, were defeated by Ottoman forces, archaeological surveys have revealed some of the battlefield conditions, which historical sources state were quite dreadful. In particular, it appears the Anzacs were eating canned or stale food, while the Turkish forces had frontline kitchens, suggesting they had access to hot meals. Other artifacts found include water bottles with bullet holes in them, fragments of barbed wire, and expended ammunition.  (Courtesy Antonio Sagona, University of Melbourne) KENYA: From the banks of Lake Turkana archaeologists have excavated what they believe are the oldest "advanced" stone tools yet discovered. At 1.78 million years old, the handaxes are the oldest known examples of Acheulean tools, probably made by Homo erectus, and predate other examples by 300,000 years. Compared with older, cruder stone tools, the handaxes are heavier and have sharp edges for butchering, scraping, and smashing. The find raises interesting questions about which early humans first left Africa and what tool technologies they took with them.  (Courtesy Pierre-Jean Texier, National Center of Scientific Research, France) EGYPT: An analysis of 15 mummy hair samples shows just how important styling was more than 2,000 years ago. To understand how the complex hairdos were achieved and maintained after death, scientists studied coatings on the hair with electron microscopy and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. They found that the ancient Egyptians used a kind of fatty hair gel to keep their hair coiffed in both life and the afterlife. The absence of embalming materials in the hair suggests that it was covered during mummification.  (A. Aufderheide, Courtesy Natalie McCreesh, University of Manchester) EL SALVADOR:Under 17 feet of volcanic ash at the ancient Maya city of Ceren, archaeologists have discovered a raised road called a sacbe. Usually these roads, connecting temples, plazas, or towns, were lined with stone, but this one, which probably led to two ceremonial buildings nearby, was not. In the absence of the stones, the rapid burial by the eruption of the Loma Caldera volcano helped keep it intact for identification.  (Courtesy Payson Sheets, University of Colorado)

www.archaeology.org/1201/world/clostridium_gallipoli_acheulean_tools_nasa_prospero.html

Archaeology in the Americas, Part 2- Mitla Ruins, Oaxaca, Mexico

Located 45 kilometers SE of the city of Oaxaca, Mexico, Mitla was inhabited at least since the Classic Period (100-650 C.E.) and perhaps as early as 900 B.C.E.  It began as a fortified village, then became the main religious center for the area.  The Mixtecs took control of the area around 1000 C.E. although it also remained populated by the Zapotec.  The city reached its height and largest size between 750 and 1521, with both Zapotec and Mixtec influences in its architecture during that time.  Mitla is one of the areas which represents Mesoamerican attitudes towards death as the most consequential part of life after birth. It was built as a gateway between the world of the living and the world of the dead.  

(courtesy of www.oaxaca-mio.com)

Mitla was occupied until the 16th century when the Spaniards destroyed or dismantled a temple building in order to use the foundation and many of the cut bricks from the original city to build a cathedral. What we now call the Town of Mitla or San Pablo Villa de Mitla, grew up around the ruins (and cathedral) which makes an interesting contrast between a once beautiful and great city in ruins and the current city, which has never regained the stature of the pre-Spanish era. 

The ruins of Mitla are one of Mexico's most interesting sacred places. Evidence shows that the site was occupied from about 900 B.C.E. Mitla's visible structural remains date from about 200 C.E. to 900 C.E. when the Zapotecs were ruling the area, from 1000 CE when the Mixtecs took control of the site, and from 1200 CE (some sources say 1500), when the Zapotecs were back in control.

Mitla was the second most important ceremonial center after Monte Alban. The name Mitla or Mictlan is of Nahuatl origin and means "Place of the Dead" or "Inframundo". In Zapotec it is called "Lyobaa", which means "Burial Place", and in Mexico it became known as Mictlan, "Place of the Dead" which is shortened in Spanish to Mitla. The archaeological site and town itself are Zapotec. Mitla was inhabited in the Classic Period (100-650 DC), with its greatest growth and height in the Post Classic period (750-1521 DC).

 

The most unique feature of Mitla is the rich variety of mosaic tile (grecas) that is displayed throughout the site's different buildings. This achievement is also due to a system of columns, that sets it apart from the rest of Mexicos archaeological zones. The nearby ruins of Yagul show some of these characteristics, however they are not as well made as at Mitla.

The archaeological zone of Mitla includes five main groups of structures, and by the beginning of the Christian era the town stretched for more than two thirds of a mile along either side of the Mitla river. There are five different groups of buildings, known as: Southern Group, Clay Group, Creek Group, Columns Group and Church Group. The first two have been classified as ceremonial centers, formed by the presence of mounds and central squares. The last three are classified as palaces, comprised by several chambers, set around square yards. From these five groups perhaps the most studied/well known are the Columns Group and the Church Group.

The "Hall of Columns," 120 x 21 feet in size, has six monolithic columns of volcanic stone that originally supported a roof covering the entire hall. The darkened doorway leads through a low and narrow passageway to the interior of another enclosure, now roofless, but also covered in ancient times. This chamber is one of the most astonishing artistic artifacts of pre-Columbian America. Its walls are covered with panels of inlaid cut-stone mosaic known as stepped-fret design. The motif of these intricate geometric mosaics are believed to be a stylized representation of the Sky Serpent and therefore a symbol of the pan-regional Mesoamerican deity, Quetzalcoatl. Archaeologists are mystified regarding the use of this chamber. An early Spanish explorer, named Canseco, who visited Mitla in 1580, wrote of the Hall of Columns, "In this building they had their idols, and it was where they assembled for religious purposes, to make sacrifices to their idols, and to perform heathen rites". Regarding the interior chamber, Canseco says it was the residence of the high priest. The oldest information we have about the chamber however, and possibly the most revealing, is a legend that says the chamber was used for the final initiation of shamans who had been trained in magic and healing in the school of Mitla. In the "Patio of Tombs" adjacent to the Hall of Columns is a 2.8 meter tall column known as the "Pillar of Death."  Legend says that if you hold your arms around this pillar and feel it move, then your death is immanent. The "Pillar of Death" is now blocked off and inaccessible to visitors.  

The most characteristic architecture in Mitla is the group of the columns where the Great House of Pezelao is located, generally considered by many to be the most beautiful archaeological site in the Americas. The group contains two squares. The northern is bordered by platforms on all four sides- the main building is in the northern part. In the central patio there are vestiges of an altar. It is formed by two bands raised over the base, the panel and the cornice. The great Hall of Columns is rectangular. You pass through this hallway to enter the main palace which is behind a narrow door. Behind this passageway is the decorated patio, which provides access to each of the four salons. Each is decorated by three panels with ornate mosaics of carved stone which forms different geometric designs in each band. The panels contain thousands of polished stones, which are cut to fit without mortar.

The most beautiful tombs are located in the northern and eastern buildings, where the Zapotec priests and kings were buried. In the first, in front of the stairs, is the entrance to a cruciform tomb with antechamber. The ceiling has large single stone dinteles and the walls are decorated with ornate mosaic panels. The eastern is characterized by a monolithic stone column that supports the ceiling.

Mitla was considered to be the fabled home of Mictlantecuhtle, Lord of The Underworld.

 

In the Seventeenth Century, the Church Of San Paublo was built upon the Mitla Courtyard C and the church was constructed of stone from the Prehispanic Mitla Temples. This archaeological site dismantling for church/monastery construction was common throughout all of Mexico until 1850, when Benito Juarez passed the Ecclesiastical Real Estate Nationalization Law which put an end to the practice.

(courtesy of www.saa.org and www.delange.org/Mitla)

-Maureen Lang

Archaeology in the Americas, Part 1- Ocmulgee Mounds, Macon GA

Ocmulgee National Monument, located near Macon, is a large mound group that features a restored ceremonial earth lodge. While the Indian culture thrived here between AD 900 to 1150, there is evidence of at least 10,000 years of human habitation from Ice Age hunters to the Creek Indians to an English trading post in 1690.

Georgia Council on American Indian Concerns

OCMULGEE  CHRONOLOGY

 

pre-9,000 BC              Paleo Indian Period

Ice Age hunters arrive in the Southeast, leaving one of their distinctive "Clovis" spear points on the Macon Plateau (in the 1930s this became the first such artifact found in situ in the southern U.S.).                      

8,000-9,000  BC        Transitional Period

People adjust to gradually warming weather as the glaciers melt and many Ice Age mammals become extinct.  

1,000-8,000 BC         Archaic Period

Efficient hunting/gathering; adaptation to a climate much like today; use of the atlatl (spear thrower), woodworking tools, etc.; white-tail deer becomes a staple; extensive shell mounds along the coast and some inland rivers.  

2,500 BC                   First pottery in this country appears along the Georgia/South                 Carolina coast and soon filters into what is now Middle Georgia; it is tempered or strengthened with plant fibers which burn out during firing, giving a worm-hole appearance to the vessel surface.

1,000 BC-AD 900       Woodland Period

Pottery tempered with sand and grit, sometimes decorated with elaborate designs incised, punctuated, or stamped into its surface before firing;  cultivation of sunflowers, gourds, and several other plants; construction of semi-permanent villages; stone effigy mounds and earthen burial and platform mounds; connections to the Adena/Hopewell Cultures further North and to Weeden Island in Florida and South Georgia.

A.D. 900-1150           Early Mississippian Period

 A new way of life, believed to have originated in the Mississippi River area appears on the Macon Plateau.  These people, whose pottery is different from that made by the Woodland cultures in the area, construct a large ceremonial center with huge earthen temple/burial/domiciliary mounds and earth lodges, which serve as formal council chambers.  Their economy is supported by agriculture, with corn, beans, squash and other crops planted in the rich river floodplain.  Indigenous Woodland people in surrounding areas interact with these people, who possess early symbols and artifacts associated with the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (Southern Cult).

1150-1350         Mature Mississippian Period

The great Macon Plateau town declines and  the Lamar and  Stubbs Mounds and Villages appear just downstream.  These towns are a combination of the old Woodland culture and Mississippian ideas.  The Southern Cult, distinguished by flamboyant artistic motifs and specialized artifacts, flourishes at places like Roods Landing and Etowah (GA), Moundville (AL), Hiwasee Island (TN), Cahokia (IL), and Spiro (OK).

1350-1650        Late Mississippian Period (Protohistoric)

The Lamar Culture, named for the Lamar Mounds and Village Unit of Ocmulgee National Monument, becomes widespread in the Southeast;  chiefdoms marked by smaller, more numerous, often stockaded villages with a ceremonial center marked by one or two mounds; combination of the both Woodland and Mississippian elements.  

1540         Chroniclers of Hernando DeSoto's expedition into the interior of North America write the first descriptions of the Lamar and related cultures, ancestors of the historic Creek (Muscogean), Cherokee (Iroquoian), Yuchi (Euchee), and other Southeastern people.  Most of their main towns are situated near rich river bottom land fields of corn, beans and squash.  Many towns feature open plazas and earthen temple mounds. Public buildings and homes are constructed of upright logs, interwoven with vines or cane and plastered with clay (wattle and daub).  Some are elaborately decorated and contain large woodcarvings.  DeSoto’s expedition’s 600 men and 300 horses devastate local food supplies; epidemics of European diseases decimate many populations.                               

1565         The Spanish establish their first permanent settlement at St. Augustine, set up outposts at towns along the Atlantic coast to the North, and begin to missionize the Indians.  Priests and soldiers travel up the river systems to other towns in the interior of the area which would become Georgia.  

1670         The British establish Charles Town (Charleston, SC) on the Atlantic coast.  Despite Spanish opposition, English explorers initiate contact and trade with towns in the interior.

1690        A British trading post is constructed on Ochese Creek (present Ocmulgee River at the site now protected within Ocmulgee National Monument).  A number of Muscogee towns move from the Chattahoochee River to this vicinity to be near the English. At this time, the Ocmulgee river is called Ochese-hatchee or Ochisi-hatchi (various spellings).  The towns are known as the Ochese Creek Nation. The British eventually refer to them simply as the "Creeks."  They speak variations of the Muscogean language, but their confederacy incorporates other groups, such as the Yuchi, who speak different languages.  The Creeks acquire horses from Spanish Florida and guns from the British.  Their culture and dress is modified by use of trade goods such as iron pots, steel knives, and cotton cloth. 

1704       Col. James Moore, with a band of some fifty men from Charles Town, leads 1,000 warriors from the Creek towns on  the Ocmulgee River to Florida. They devastate the Spanish Apalachee Mission system and drive the Spaniards back to St. Augustine.  After many of the inhabitants of northern Florida are exterminated, some of the Creeks move into the area and incorporate the survivors into their own group.  These people are subsequently known as the Seminole and Miccosuki.

1715       The Yamassee War erupts in protest against British indignities related to the fur trade, including the taking of Indians shipped as slaves to work in Caribbean sugar plantations.  Many traders in Indian territory are killed.  In retaliation, the British burn Ocmulgee Town on Ochese Creek. The Creek towns withdraw to the Chattahoochee River and the Yuchis move with them. The people are known as the Lower Creeks.  The Upper Creeks are centered on the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers to the northeast.

1733        The Georgia Colony settles on lands along the banks of the Savannah River given to General James Oglethorpe by Chief Tomochichi of the Yamacraws, a group related to the Lower Creeks. The Colony serves as a buffer between South Carolina and Spanish Florida.

1739        General James Oglethorpe, founder of the Georgia Colony, travels the ancient trading path through the mounds and old planting fields at Ocmulgee enroute to Coweta (near what is now Columbus, GA) to meet with the Creeks.  One of his Rangers writes a short description of the mounds at what is now Ocmulgee National Monument.  A western boundary for the colony is defined along the Ogeechee River. The area extends along the coast to the present northern border of Florida.        

1774                    William Bartram, renowned naturalist and botanist, follows the Lower Creek Trading  Path from Augusta through the area.  In his journal, he records this account of the Ocmulgee Old Fields:  

                             "On the heights of these low grounds are yet visible

                                   monuments, or traces, of an ancient town, such as artificial

                                   mounts or terraces, squares and banks, encircling considerable

                                   areas.  Their old fields and planting land extend up and down

                                   the river, fifteen or twenty miles from this site.  If we are to

                                   give credit to the account the Creeks give of themselves, this

                                   place is remarkable for being the first town or settlement, when

                                   they sat down (as they term it) or  established themselves, after

                                   their emigration from the west..."

 1778           During the Revolutionary War many Creeks want to remain neutral, but Alexander McGillivray (of Creek-Scottish descent, educated in South Carolina, Principal Chief of both the Upper and Lower Creeks) leads them into an alliance with England.