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!

--------------------------------------------------------------

* 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....

Little Rhody

An odd progression of seasons in 2024.  Usually spring arrives right about when I'm heading overseas on the annual archaeology jaunt.  The most dramatic consequence of this is that for the past fifteen years (other than the ##%%## Covid Times) I've missed our rhododendron bush in its roughly 72 hours of floral glory.  But this year:

Pretty impressive sight in late April.

In discussing the matter it came to light that I was confused regards the name.  I was pretty sure that it had to do with the Greek letter Rho.  Or....wasn't Cecil Rhodes - 19th century adventurer/scoundrel - associated with something wholesome?  

Actually, Rhododendron means "rose tree", which is a fair description.  I'm calling this one little because we've seen examples down in Cornwall that were nearly 100 feet tall.  Little Rhody is also of course a nick name for Rhode Island.  

Now, there is also a Greek island called Rhodes.  Once the location of the famous Colossus. And where did it get its name?  Some try to link it with the Greek rhodon which does mean rose.  After all roses still grow on Rhodes.  But actually, as with many Greek things there was a randy Greek god and a nymph involved, the latter named Rhode.  Guess it mostly worked out as she and Helios stayed together long enough to have her bear him seven sons.

I went looking for pictures of the large Rhodys we saw back in 2014 but instead came across this example that put ours to shame....

Oh, and Cecil Rhodes.  Tried to atone for his sundry misdeeds by establishing the Rhodes Scholar program.  Something that has been enjoyed by many future political animals and as such thus far hands off for those who would like to cancel the past.  

Prelude to Archaeology - 2024

I've mentioned it a while back, but this year's spring digging jaunt will again be to England, but to a different site along Hadrian's Wall.  

In other years I've been at Vindolanda, a Roman fort side run by the Trust of the same name.  Well, the Vindolanda Trust has a second site called Magna.  About 6 miles away, it had a preliminary dig last year and gets a full season/full teams excavation for 2024.

Anyway, just a couple of weeks now.  Almost within the long range - albeit inaccurate - weather forecasts that allow for final packing decisions.   A few views of Magna 2024....

The site before excavations.  It's mostly top layers on down this year.  Lots of cobbles.

The first crew on the site, well, they never got sunburned...

Recently a sharp eyed volunteer spotted a tiny glass bead covered in gold foil.  Somebody was sad to lose this 18 centuries ago.

I hope, nay, expect to be equally keen eyed.  After many years of doing this my archaeological "scanners" never turn off.  On my daily dog walks I'm always spotting coins and such, often at considerable distances.  

ADDENDUM

And here's the Latest.  A well!  Who knows what's at the bottom of that.

Wastrels and Scoundrels and Doggerel

I don't know if the world in general thinks much about words, their origins and their meanings.  I do, but must admit that it is a dangerous pursuit.  In our puzzling times - both knowledge and ignorance increasing apace - a word can mean radically different things to different people.  That alone makes the pursuit of etymology more than a minor hobby.  

There are a bunch of words that end with "-rel".  Most of them seem to have negative connotations.

A wastrel wastes things (I suppose typing on a keyboard for the internet counts as wasting time).

A scoundrel is not to be trusted.

Doggerel is bad poetry.

Scoundrel is a word of uncertain origins, possible from the Vulgar Latin (my favorite variant of same) "excondere" meaning to "hide, put away, store".  I'm seeing my ongoing workshop clean up project in a new light now.

Wastrel is easier, combining Waste with what is referred to as the "pejorative suffix" -rel.   Now we are getting somewhere.

Doggerel is simply poetry bad enough that only dogs would appreciate it, or alternatively of a quality suggesting it was written by clumsy puppies.  It would have been a serious zero stars review for a wandering bard when it was first recorded in the 1630's.  Oddly it seems to have been a surname prior to that.  No doubt a good story there, lost to history.

And while we are on matters loyal and furry.....Mongrel.  It comes from the Proto Germanic word "mangjan" meaning to mix things together.  The suffix was tacked on like the tail of a dubious mutt sometime in the 1500's.

I had expected to encounter more words with this suffix.  But about the only other one that seems to still be in circulation is Pickerel.  It had the implication of a small fish in earlier times, but now it designates two delightful piscenes related to the Northern Pike.  I'd like to catch a Chain or American Pickerel someday.  Additions to my Life Species Caught list are getting harder.

Perhaps in a time when we speak negatively about so many things the sting of a "-rel" designation is fading.  We all appreciate a proper scoundrel, so long as we are not the victims of his or her behaviour.  Wastrelry is in the eye of the beholder.  I devote time, energy and pocket change to my grandchildren in ways that are frankly a bit ridiculous.

And regards mongrels....big fan.  I don't specifically read poetry to mine but I talk to him on a regular basis and he's a great audience.

He has been known to express impatience/disapproval, usually with a shake of his head and a loud sneeze.  But I'm thinking any poetry I recite that contains the words "Walk, Food, and Out" would be well received indeed.

Robotics 2024 - Random Odd Things.....

The FIRST Robotics competition season is over, but the work goes on.  We are starting to recruit for what will be a major training effort.  Graduating nine seniors tends to do that.  And we have lots of things to ponder regards team organization, which areas to concentrate our prototyping on, etc.  But first, and FIRST, lets tidy up some random things that have been sitting around....

No, not some strange new robot mechanism.  The pit crew was very excited when we got them a vacuum cleaner that runs off the same Milwaukee tool battery packs as our drills and other power tools.  It helps keep things clean in our build space and in our competition pit.  The excitement over a vacuum cleaner?   Well, these are small town kids who get excited by the escalators in one of our competition venues....

Testing your robot requires a degree of driving beyond gentle steering.  And with our plywood prototype field elements that poses an issue.  So....we found some bags of cement sitting around the shop!  The stuff taped to the back of the tool cabinet are extra pieces of polycarbonate for robot repairs at the event.  Thankfully these at least were not needed...

Opinions vary, but mine is that this year's game was sub par.  Among other things, the game pieces were not robust.  Immediately everyone's mechanisms started generating bits of orange debris we called Cheezit Dust.  Eventually the rings just broke.

You'd think that all these years of robot stuff and I'd know things like this, but recently I learned the origins of the "Mr. Roboto" song.  As this year's game had a musical theme it should not have been a surprise that a team from up the road a ways had a decorative device based on this:

Pretty clever, it is a wooden "record player" built into the structure and launching mechanism of their robot.  Oh, but it gets cooler....

And as long as I'm trying to embed video clips into a blog running on 20 year old software.....

You may recall that there were a number of team to team awards being given out this year.  We got several including a "Cooperatition Award" made from an old 45 that had been painted and had decals applied to it.  So.....could you still play it?  And what would you hear?????

Feckless and to No Effect

I try to be apolitical in what I write.  Most Screeds on the internet serve no purpose and are penned by folks who are simply looking to validate things they already believe.  Their time would be better spent studying how their beliefs actually work in the real world.

But I will say that the ability of our political leaders to actually get things done seems to have dropped precipitously in recent decades.  I'm old enough to remember when goals like "get to the moon in the next ten years" were taken seriously.  And accomplished.

No, what we have at present are feckless leaders.

Feckless is an odd, little used word.  I'm sure that is in part because it is to the careless ear a bit too much like a profanity that is so freely employed by the vocabulary challenged.  

Like so many of our guttural yet pithy words "feck" is of Scottish origin.  It dates back to the 15th century and means "value or vigor" being as it is a Caledonian shortening of "effect".  

And like so many of our refined and elegant words "Effect" goes back to Latin by way of French.  "Effectus" meaning "Accomplishment or Performance".  Feckless is simply a haggis flavored variation on ineffectual. 

So much goes back to the Romans.  We still have populism versus elitism, still have corruption and nepotism.  

To show how little new there is under the sun I put forward the term nepotism.  It comes from the Italian for "nephew" (originally of course the Latin "nepote") and reflects the practice of steering lucrative jobs to family members.  The subtext being that it was often the Pope's "nephew" , and that this was a universally acknowledged term for an unacknowledged child of said Pope!

Sigh.  Sweetheart deals going to sons, uncles and brothers.  Unacknowledged children.  How little things have changed.

Non Zero Odds of a Stinkbug

I'm occasionally advised that turning a Dixie Cup upside down is Wrong, yet another example of the Error of my Ways.

To which I'd respond that the odds of a Brown Marmorated Stink Bug  (YUCK! ) crawling in there, while not high, cannot be regarded as zero.....

Catfish Geocache

Sometimes there is a logical progression from one "season" to another.  As the robotics storage closet got cleared out I, as usual, got a bunch of stuff that had to come home with me.  I refer to my basement as Area 51.  And some things actually proved useful for geocache construction.

I take my geocaches seriously.  Oh, lots of folks just cram a piece of paper into a film container, maybe add a little camo tape and call it good.  I regard that as unambitious.  I want my containers to look cool and to remain water and damage proof for years.  Trying to keep up roughly 30 caches when I'm busy with other things is a pain.

One series I've had fun with is Strange Fish.  I try to catch some weird denizen of the muddy depths, then commemorate them with a geocache on the spot.  When possible, in the shape of a fish.

One of these was Channel Cat, Strange Fish number 6.  

It was getting a bit weathered and beat up after a couple of winters "in the wild".  Time for a new one.

Lets start with a section of PVC pipe.

When you want something to be waterproof....start with a pipe designed to keep water in.  Should work to keep it out too.  There are end caps that we'll get to shortly, but I wanted this to look a bit "fishier".  A series of plastic discs cut with a hole saw and glued into place.  The bolt is tightened in and serves as an anchor point for the tail.

Like everything else so far, the tail is made of old robot supplies, in this case thin polycarbonate plastic, later covered with black duct tape.

Tail assembled, attached and covered, similar set of fins made the same way.

The head is just an end cap, not glued on of course, with a couple of bolts for eyes.  Memo to self, purchase more stick on googly eyes.  The cache now being near complete it only required a bit of covering tape( the grippy stuff used on baseball bats) and whiskers, and to be released into the wild....

I know it does not look too much like a channel catfish, but I enjoy a bit of whimsey in such matters.  There are various ways to mount these with hangers and such, but the head is press fit well enough that a ground hide should be fine, especially since the paper log and a small pencil are contained inside a heavy duty ziplock.

I look forward to refining the technique further to approximate other Strange Fish.  Good thing I don't live near an ocean, a flounder would be a tough mod!

Tree Shaped Tombstones - Full Kit in Rural Indiana

My brother was off chasing the eclipse recently and ran across some impressive Tree Shaped Tombstones in very rural Indiana.  Civil War vets, obviously.

Here's a long row in Cornettsville, IN.  The one in front has either a generic shroud or perhaps a soldier's cloak hanging off the upper limb.  And a very nice ruck sack and bed roll down at the base.  Ready one supposes to be taken up again in The Next Life.  There's also a musket but you can't see it well in this view.

On the other hand, here's the marker of a certain Jacob McCann in Plainville, IN.  Nearly identical, note the pack and bed roll down and to the right.

Jacob still has someone putting flowers on his grave.  Right down front below the canteen.

Chippewa City - A Gently Fading Ghost Town

When you think of Ghost Towns you usually imagine somewhere out west.  Maybe a prospector struck gold and the town sprang up overnight....only to wither and die when the lode ran out.  A life cycle that starts with nothing, booms into full life, then rapidly fades leaving only some tumbledown buildings to remember that it was ever there.

But there are other life cycles for Ghosts, and Chippewa City has had three or four stages of existence.

Technically it got going in 1825.  That's when a treaty was signed in which the Ojibwa natives gave up rights to some of Wisconsin.  And as a provision of this treaty a combination farm, trading post and blacksmith shop was to be established at a convenient point on the Chippewa River.  After some delays it seems this was actually done in 1838.

There was frankly very little European presence in this area for many years.  One event of note that did occur here was a summit meeting of sorts between the Ojibwa and Dakota tribes.  These groups had been contesting the area for several generations.  They met, gestured a bit, went their own ways and remained antagonistic towards each other.

There is little information on what was at the site later to become Chippewa City in these early days.  A Lyman Warren had a log dwelling and presumably was in charge of things.  He had an Ojibwa wife and remarkably, a library.  This was also the site of the American Fur Company post.

In 1856 there was a rumor that the railroad would come to this spot and build a bridge.  The economic impact of this would be gigantic, probably putting Chippewa City on a path to eclipse its rival, the later established town of Chippewa Falls five miles down stream.  A bank was established, at least on paper.  There land was surveyed and platted.  Homes and of course saloons appeared.

It was an illusion.  Or yet another real estate scam.  After this brief second phase as a true boom town Chippewa City began its long decline.  Here's a plat of the area in the early 1870's.

By 1888 things had changed.  The originally platted village was mostly abandoned and there were newer buildings along a road that had since appeared.  Note the school and post office.  There was also said to be a church.  The peak population of Chippewa City somewhere in this time span was around 200.

Looking at these two maps something very odd strikes me.  The mill is in the wrong place.  Pretty clearly O'Neill Creek has been dammed to form a mill pond, so why is the mill that far away, and up a hillside to boot?  Not all these maps tell the gospel truth, and in my reading I have come across references both to a mill near the pond and an unspecified "Eagle Steam Mill".

The world has passed Chippewa City by.  No railroad.  The lumbering industry sent all the logs right on past to the larger and more powerful sawmill at Chippewa Falls.  But there were still people living here.  The farmland around it was filling up and there was a need for a few basics.  School for the kids.  Salvation for everybody.  I'd be surprised if there was not a store.  

But with the advent of automobiles it became less important to have these things in walking distance.  And the third phase of Chippewa City's life was related to the new mobility.

People wanted recreation.  They wanted to stay in a cabin for a week or two.  Go fishing.  Maybe have a beer or two.  So a resort appeared.  This post card is in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.  It is thought to be from the 1920's.

From the same source, a detail of one of the images....

If that indeed is the proprietor, Prosper LeDuc, then I suspect the photo might be later.  With a name that distinctive you'll pick up a few biographical details.  Prosper was evidently from the area but was living in Montana in 1909, and in Canada in both 1928 and 1934.  He and Mrs. Leduc were married sometime around 1910.  To me these look like people in their 50's, even given the hard work associated with these times.  The first I can definitely place him in Chippewa City is 1938.   

Here's the spot today.

And down by the river, what looks to be remains of a stone dam that once held back the mill pond.

The cabins from (?) the 1940's are slowly falling apart.  The tavern is gone other than a wind mangled sign advertising a brand of beer that is also extinct.  But people still live here.  It is after all a very pretty spot on the river and a string of nice new homes along the river represent a fourth wave of life in the oldest community along this stretch of the Chippewa River.

If such things are of interest I do have a geocache here.....   Ghost Town on the Chippewa