England 2024 - Appalling Dog Treats at the Boot Fair

When I'm over to northern England on my archaeology jaunts I always make a point of attending the Hexham Car Boot Fair the Sunday before the dig begins.  Why?  Well I always make the trip with carry on only luggage and sometimes it is helpful to pick up a few extra, cheap garments.  And its fun, always something peculiar to see, especially if you are a bit jet lagged and culture shocked by a recent trans Atlantic flight.  And this year the Boot Fair - its basically a flea market -did not disappoint.

I found a booth that sold the most unusual treats for dogs.  Oh, I'm used to things like pigs ears and cow hooves, sometimes Hank gets that sort of treat at Christmas.  But....Ostrich Neck???

And how about:  Rabbit Ears!

There was only one item that was fully sold out.  I wonder what Puffed Beef Lung is like?

They had big bins of "Hairy Buffalo Ears".  This of course prompted me to pose for another silly photo.  Note the Mr. Whippy ice cream truck in the background.

But the weirdest one of all was also the least specific.  I was not tempted to take any of this stuff home.  Just imagine trying to get through security checkpoints and various agricultural control stations.  "Sir, what is this?"  "Well, its a trachea."  "Whose trachea was it?" "Well....I'm really not sure......"

Oy! Tim the Tool Man!

As in the US, England in recent years has seen a revival in small breweries.  So generally when I'm Over There I try to drink the local ales.  But of course there are also those that are sold regionally or nationally, and in a pinch my go to is the quite serviceable Timothy Taylor.

Actually, my pint here is from a local brewery now sadly about to go out of business.  "Leaky Tap" was pretty tasty but not relevant to our story.

Because right around the corner from the Black Bull pub in Haltwhistle I saw this:

Hardware House.  Is this where Tim the Toolman Taylor ended up after Home Improvement wrapped production?  If I were bold enough to walk up those steps would Wilson peer over the red brick wall and say "Hi - di - Ho, neighbor!" in a Cumbrian accent?

Home with the Turkeys

Back home.

It's a long journey.  We woke up at 6am back in Northern England.  A fellow excavator gave us a ride to the Newcastle airport for a flight leaving at 9:30. 

Newcastle has a weird airport....you have to get there early as with any international flight.  But after clearing security you wait in a large, heavily commercial hall until 20 or 30 minutes before your departure time.  I guess they want you to buy all kinds of duty free swag.  The smell of high priced perfume is pervasive.  But its sort of fun.  There are always Stag Parties and Bachelorette Parties heading off to various destinations.  Elaborate and often embarrassing costumes are often involved.

One hour flight to Amsterdam.  With a tight connection on the other side it was nice that they read out the gate connections for you before landing.

We walked straight from the Newcastle flight to the Minneapolis one which was already boarding.  International transport is really quite remarkable.

I spent the 8 hour flight watching movies.  I had not previously seen Barbie, which I mostly enjoyed as unserious satire.  

Short walk to the shuttle which took us to the larger town near us, then a short drive home.  

6am to 6pm, although of course we were flying west and crossed five or six time zones.

When we got home there were wild turkeys walking around on our front lawn.  Having never seen such critters in town before I did consider the possibility I was hallucinating.  But the photographic evidence suggests otherwise.

A few days of catching up are in order.  I'll have additional thoughts on travels and digging over the next couple of weeks.

Magna 2024 - Amphibians

No update yesterday.  It rained all day and the site could not be walked in much less excavated.  We had talks in the morning and a nice walk in the afternoon.  

Today, our last day of the session, started out better.  I was delighted when at start of work a wheelbarrow was turned over and a rather handsome toad had taken up residence under it.  I guess Thursday was even too wet for him.

And of course, no opportunity for a silly photo should ever be missed.....

Then it was most of a day of digging.  Everything was just a little harder.  The trowel comes away coated in mud.  Makes you remember that they are usually used by brick layers to slather on mortar.  Every bucket and wheel barrow clings to its load of extra heavy stuff.  And you have to step carefully on slick surfaces.  Still, a fair bit of work got done.  I was just too busy to take pictures of it.

I'll have some follow up thoughts on the dig in a few days.

Cheers!

Crrroooaaakkkk!

Magna Deluge 2024

It rained.  A lot.  No excavating today.

In the morning we went over to the "original site" at Vindolanda and had a chilly, damp site tour by Bellissima Marta, the archaeologist in charge there.

Being Italian, nobody gestures at wet stones with greater verve than Marta.  It was good to walk in the old places again, to see the walls and roads we once worked on.  It's been a bit of tough going over there as well this season, 1920's excavations left a mass of stirred up archaeology, and until the debris and spoil has been shifted its slow work.

Then for the afternoon a lecture on Roman pottery.

Forecast tomorrow is again looking very moist.  Not much can be done about that.  It is a chance to reflect on what I've dubbed "Badger's First Law".  The less successful the excavations, the more fun the nights in the pub.  The reasons for this are obscure, but it is consistent across many seasons of ups and downs, of sun and rain.....

Magna Dig 2024 - Day Seven

 As we are actually digging some distance from the actual fort/civilian community there are fewer "features" than on my various digs at Vindolanda.  It's an interesting "zone" of the Roman defense system, one that has not been much studied.  But in place of walls and floors we get a fair number of.......ditches.  Just channels to move water.

Only moderately interesting.  I'm pretty sure my ancestors left the Old World because they were tired of digging ditches and, well, here I am back doing it.  But its all part of the patterns that help us understand things.  And there is the occasional bit of stuff to remind us that Rome was once here.

When I come back from these jaunts I'm often asked if I found anything old.  Why yes indeed.  In addition to the above sort of thing the pathway to the excavator's hut is made of various stone bits.  Including ancient fossils!

Magna Dig 2024 - Science n' Stuff

Archaeology has gotten a bit more "scientific" in recent decades.  And the dig at Magna reflects this new focus.

This is Wally, named of course for the nearby Hadrian's Wall.  It is monitoring various aspects of underground chemistry.  Water levels, pH, oxygen levels.  There is a concern that climate change is damaging the anaerobic layers deep under ground.  

The fence is there to keep sheep, especially the new lambs, from getting too frisky around the electronics.

One day we had some University types show up and deploy this equipment:

It looks like something you'd use to shock night crawlers out of the ground.  It actually is some sort of new geophysical imaging gear.  I asked, and was assured that the nightcrawlers are in no way bothered by whatever rays or beams are being sent into the earth.

We do a fair amount of sampling of pits and ditches.  In theory you can figure out what people were doing, what they were eating, what sort of plants were growing on the site in times past.  The samples collected are stirred and sieved.  

Not as exciting as excavating, but when I was assigned to this duty a sudden thunderstorm brought everyone back to the dig HQ looking like drowned rats, so there was that.

An Annual Tradition

 For reasons hardly worth trying to explain our little band of recurring excavators takes a "70's Album Cover" photo every year.  Here's this year's offering from the Old as Dirt Tour.

One of these years I'll get around to doing a complete back story to The Anaerobes, perhaps even a "Spinal Tap" sort of mockumentary film would be in order.....

Magna Dig 2024 - Day Five

With the split teams and offset periods it is more difficult to have social occasions.  Last night we got together with our friends digging "the other site".

Ribald birthday cards, various ciders and ales, and some really outstanding Wild Boar and apple pie at The Mile Castle.

Back to work today.  It is Sytennte Mai, the Norwegian equivalent of the 4th of July.  Although instead of kicking out the British I guess they just exchanged being run by the Danish for being run by the Swedes.  Some kind of upgrade I guess.  Our Norwegian excavator brought flags. 

Not much else happened.

Magna Dig 2024 - Day Four

Well here's more what you'd like to see....

A barrow full of nice dark organic stuff.  It's about to go on the spoil heap with all the dry, boring rock and clay material.  We are getting into more interesting features which I can't show at the present time.  But, something that was shown officially is kind of fun...

On the far end of the site is a stone lined Roman well.  It too had dark, funky anaerobic material in it but almost no artifacts.  

Obviously a bright, sunny, perfect day for archaeology.  Tomorrow we'll get a bit of drizzle but nothing that should stop the fun.

Magna Dig 2024 - Day Three

Here's where we are working.

Notice that standing water and patch of reeds down there?

I spent a good part of the day taking off nasty, tenacious patches of soggy reeds.  Reeds are pretty tough.  When you try to put a spade through them they resist with vigor.

The trick is to "comb" them out of the way.  

As neither I nor the fellow I'm digging alongside have had to use a comb for some years, this was a skill that required re-learning.   

Magnificent weather, really could not be improved upon.  The next few days should start getting interesting.

Magna Dig 2024 - Day Two

Moving along.  Excavations currently are in an area where there are ditches.  And roads.  And roads going around and over ditches.  True in Roman times.  True today.  The walk to the trench has modern, temporary crossings of ancient ditches.

We are still chasing cobbled surfaces.  Roads mostly, trying to see where they are going.  The occasional bit of pottery and glass turns up.  And of course the chase requires more areas to be opened up.  That means more de-turfing.  I rather enjoy the duty.  Here Simon and I hoist the World Cup De-Turfing trophy!

Actually just a really big hunk of the stuff with a bunch of reeds growing out the top.  Tells you a ditch is nearby.  Go figure!

This was a barrow load all by itself, and yes I know lifting something like that is not a brilliant idea even for comic effect.

Magna Dig 2024 - Day One

More of a half day really.  Magna is a very complicated site, one on which minimal exploration has been done previously.  So there was a long walk around and site orientation.  Then it was time for....

Deturfing.  The turf here is extra thick and heavy, but we got a good bit cleared.

The actual archaeology at this point is difficult to show.  In fact we are somewhat discouraged from highlighting features until they are fully explored and described.  I don't think I'm breaking any confidences by saying there are cobbles down under that turf.  Lots of cobbles.

Its a very pretty site to dig.  Here's a look off the edge of where the fort wall once stood.  You can see Thirlwall castle - mostly built of stones nicked from Hadrian's Wall - and beyond it, Gilsland Spa, the faded Victorian era health resort I visited a couple of years ago.

And there are sheep wandering around the excavation area.  Not the trench specifically as we have fences, but everywhere else.  As it is just a week or two later than my usual visiting time the lambs are no longer innocent and trusting.  Sorta teen aged punks actually...

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  Rain, if you believe the forecast.

England 2024 - Jet Lag Drinks Hour

Night before excavations.  It's a tradition to get together, trade stories of the off season and to raise a glass to "Absent Friends".  

Some new offerings on tap at our spiritual headquarters,  The Bowes in Bardon Mill.

I have of course taken on the responsibility of sampling each of these and can report that they all pass muster.

A lively group convened.  Excavators from both the Magna and Vindolanda sites, along with a number of non-digging Old Friends and supportive types.

One of the better iterations of a long standing tradition.  Digging starts in the morning.  Updates as possible.

Off the (Ancient) Map

I will shortly be off to excavate again.  But this time not at my usual location - Vindolanda - but another site a few miles away.  Magna. 

Vindolanda predates Hadrian's Wall but was certainly part of the overall defense system even though it was almost a mile south of the Wall.

Magna was much closer to the actual Wall, only a hundred yards or so away.

So in theory there'd be a lot more known about it.  And shortly there will be, thanks to excavations.  But for the moment we are not even really sure what its name was in Roman times.  Magna and Magnis seem to be contenders.  Sure would be nice to have a nice Roman map to refer to.  And in a limited way we do.

This nifty bit of ancient metalwork is The Amiens Skillet.  Or Patera if you think skillet is too silly sounding.  It is one of a very small grouping of what can only be called ancient Wall souvenirs.  They actually list the forts along the Wall, and were perhaps keepsakes that discharged soldiers or departing visitors would take with them.  This lettering on this one lists the following forts: 

                           "MAIS ABALLAVA VXELODVNVM CAMBOG...S BANNA ESICA"

But there's a problem.  Between the forts - giving them their modern names now - of Birdoswold and Great Chesters there should be another one.  Magna.  It is omitted.

And then there is this similar artifact called The Rudge Cup.  This photo was taken by my fellow excavator - whose talents extend to photography and tour guiding - Pete Savin.

Again it lists a series of forts, five in this case, with Banna/Birdoswald being the last in the series.  Magna was the next in line.  Some speculate that the geometric shapes below the text represent aspects of Wall fortifications but you can get a good argument going over that sort of thing.

So why was Magna left off?  These two artifacts, and a third similar one, seem to focus on the western end of the Wall.  Perhaps the workshop that made all three was somewhere in the Carlisle area.  And there was only so much room for readable text, so five or six locations is the most you could fit in there.  Was Magna left off because it was a hundred yards or so south of the actual Wall?  Or because it predated the Wall's construction and so was not part of the commemorative aspect of these souvenirs?   

Well, what else do we have?  There is the frustrating, enigmatic Antonine Itinerary.  This is a list of Roman places and the mileage between them.  It is spotty, and Magna is not one of the places that earns a mention despite it being at a T intersection of two important roads.*

Magna does get a mention in an even dodgier source, the Ravenna Cosmography.  This is a post Roman mash up from a variety of sources including the Antonine Itinerary.  It's a hodge podge of place names all the way from India to Ireland!

And finally, another post Roman document - albeit an imperfect medieval a copy of a Roman original - the Notitia Dignatatum.  This is not so much a map as a list of offices and appointments in the Empire.  And lo and behold we find this entry:

        Tribunus cohortis secundae Dalmatarum, Magnis

It is unfortunate that the Notitia is such an odd duck.  It is a very late guide to the Roman empire and has entries that appear to be decades out of date.  The Romans had probably left Britannia entirely by the time this compilation was assembled under the Emperor Theodosius, last man to rule an intact Empire.  It may have been for the benefit of his two dullard sons who divided things up after his death and pretty much ran them into the ground.  A fanciful bit of obsolete fiction would probably have been right up their alley for reading material.

Well, only one thing for it.  I'll have to dig up a nice inscription stone....or maybe another of those fancy enameled Cups!

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* Weirdly the "north of the wall" outpost fort at High Rochester is documented in both the Itinerary and the Cosmography.  It was once on an important road that went somewhere.  Now it is one of the loneliest places in the UK.

Happy as a Dog in a Truck

Yes, I know the common expression is "Happy as a Pig in Mud", but on a warm spring day you can't really exceed the happiness level of a dog in a pickup truck.

American Scene - May of 2024

It's Drive your Tractor to School week here in rural America!

Tractors large and small.  They all have flags on them.

Here, blowing in what I suspect are winds of change....Old Glory and the flag of Mexico.

SmartDog

Well, smart might not be a fair comparison between dogs and humans.  Our canine pals are keen observers and do notice a lot.  Putting things together is a bit beyond the contents of their little dog craniums.  For instance:

Hank knows that Walks generally occur in the mornings.  There are certain cues, factors he needs to check off the list before going to full obnoxious dog pleading.  Sun must be up.  Alpha Human not shuffling around in pajamas.  The cup of mysterious dark liquid that does not smell like food must be filled, emptied, filled one or two more times, then set on the counter.  Only then is it time to spring into action.

Next step for the dog is getting a pair of socks and dropping them next to the front door, ideally on the toes of the walking boots.  He's learned to grab a pair from upstairs then sprint down and drop them.  Sometimes he collects several pairs just to be sure:

So does that make him smart?  Well, here's another bit of evidence.  Hank expectantly holding a pair of socks.  Notice that the fur on his butt is a weird color?  That's because he had a day with too darn much fun and exercise, then fell asleep in front of the wood stove, giving his coat a good singe.  And the next opportunity to do the same thing?  He plopped right in the same spot again.

So....I Might Become an Orc.....

Idle Hands....you know what they say about 'em.

In this interval where robotics is ramping down but England is still a ways off my attention wanders here and there.

Recently one of my geocaches was found by someone whose note indicated he was in town to watch his son play for the Eau Claire Orcs Rugby Team.  I had no inkling that there was such a thing.  It brought back memories.

When my boys were in the high school/middle school age bracket I took a couple of them over to England for a visit.  The oldest came back and decided to start an informal rugby league.  In his role as Commissioner of Rugby he did get a couple of teams together, and they played with enthusiasm and a loose understanding of the rules.  The fad ended when one of his pals broke both wrists.

Fast forward a couple of decades....

Here's The Orcs, or as they sometimes style themselves, The Horde.

A redoubtable looking crew, with no casts or splints visible.  I do wonder about the guy in the front row who has some kind of mouth guard in place.  Perhaps to prevent him from biting people?

Their facebook page does have a form you can fill out if you are interested in playing.  That would be.......well, all sorts of adjectives could serve.  Fun, Brief, and Ill Considered are the first few that occur to me.

So I'll probably settle for just getting a shirt.  This one is pretty cool:

But I opted for the simpler T shirt version.  They are being printed locally and I can save delivery costs if I pick it up from a guy whose name is unfamiliar to me but is presumably The Head Orc.  Perhaps that's him in the team photo wearing a jersey with a gigantic White Hand of Saruman on it?!

Looking around for a photo of one of these "White Hand" orcs from Lord of the Rings I ran across what looks to be a photo of a cast member on break.   Art imitates Life I suspect....