The Daily Thistle
The Daily Thistle ā News From Scotland
Friday 2nd February 2018
Hello, Good Morning and Welcomeā¦. Ā Quite amazing the things Iāve ādug upā in Scotland for this weekās archeological news, from a Crown to a Murdered Archer, gives a new twist on William Shakespeareās Ā Hamlet, To be, or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?... or to Quote Robbie Burns: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men Gang aft a-gley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain For promis'd joyā¦.
FOURTH-CENTURY B.C. CROWN REPATRIATED TO TURKEYā¦. ANKARA, TURKEYāHurriyet Daily Ā News reports that an ancient gold crown, stolen from the Aegean site of Milas, has been returned to Turkey. The 2,400-year-old crown is said to have been taken from the burial chamber of Hecatomnus in 2008. It was found in Edinburgh, Scotland, two years later, when Scottish police pursued a lead from auction house officials. In addition, a sixteenth-century Quran is in the process of being recovered. āWe will not stop pursuing the artifacts that belong to our country,ā said Numan KurtulmuÅ, Turkeyās culture and tourism minister. The crown will be put on display at the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations in Ankara.
NEOLITHIC HOUSE UNEARTHED IN SOUTHERN SCOTLANDā¦. EAST AYRSHIRE, SCOTLANDāThe Scotsman reports that a 6,000-year-old dwelling has been found in a field in southwestern Scotland. Kenneth Green of GUARD Archaeology said the buildingās post holes indicate it measured about 45 feet long by 25 feet wide. Neolithic pottery, hazelnut shells, and charcoal were also recovered at the site. Green noted that just the deepest sections of some post holes remain after thousands of years of plowing, but that the width and depth of the holes suggest they once held very large upright posts. Early farmers are thought to have lived in the structure with extended family or groups of families. They probably grew wheat and barley, and kept cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs. The excavation also uncovered evidence of a stream that ran by the house.
REMOTE CAVE IN SCOTLAND MAPPEDā¦. BRADFORD, ENGLANDāAccording to a Live Science report, researchers led by Ian Armit of the University of Bradford have created a 3-D virtual map of Scotlandās Sculptorās Cave, which overlooks the North Sea and can only be entered at low tide. The cave is known for the images carved at its entrance by the Picts between A.D. 500 and 600. It may also have served as a place to lay out bodies for funerary rites beginning around 1000 B.C. Analysis of one group of human remains suggests the people may have been decapitated in the cave, sometime around A.D. 250, near the end of the period the cave was is use. āThe site is pretty hard to get to, so if people want to appreciate it and want to understand it, then the idea was to create a resource that was as close to being in the cave without actually having to get there,ā Armit said. The caveās main chamber and twin entrance passageways were mapped with a terrestrial laser scanner. Different equipment and lighting techniques were employed to capture the Pictish symbols and other fine details.
SCOTLANDāS DANDALEITH STONE MAY BE UNIQUEā¦. ABERDEENSHIRE, SCOTLANDāA large, pink granite boulder carved with symbols on adjacent faces was discovered last year by a farmer after it broke his plow. The stone was carved by the Picts, who lived in the region between the third and ninth centuries, with a large eagle, crescent and V-rod, notch rectangle and Z-rod. The Picts are thought to have created such stones between the sixth and eighth centuries as markers or commemorations. āThe presence of two sets of symbols on a single stone is itself a very unusual feature relative to the corpus of symbol-bearing stones,ā David V. Clarke, former Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Scotland, told Culture 24. Archaeologists will investigate the field where the stone was found to try and determine if that was its original setting, or if it had been deposited there during a large-scale flood.
ANATOMICAL SPECIMENS UNEARTHED IN SCOTLANDā¦. EDINBURGH, SCOTLANDāSome 60 bones from at least four adults and one child that were unearthed in a backyard in Edinburgh last year by consultants from GUARD Archaeology may have been used by medical students to study human anatomy in the early nineteenth century. The bones have small holes drilled in them that could have been used to articulate them with wire. Some of the bones also have shiny patches, suggested that they had been handled often. āEdinburghās medical schools acquired human remains legally from hangings, unclaimed poor, or, in fact, from illegally dug graves,ā commented John Lawson of the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service. These bones in particular may have been acquired illegally and then buried in order to hide them, or perhaps they were buried when they were no longer needed.
MEDIEVAL MURDER VICTIM IDENTIFIED IN SCOTLANDā¦. EAST LOTHIAN, SCOTLANDāAnalysis of a 900-year-old skeleton of a young man buried at the site of the modern Scottish Seabird Centre shows he was stabbed multiple times in the back, left shoulder, and ribs. The BBC reports that after analyzing the murder victim's injuries, archaeologists say he was likely killed with a lozenge-shaped dagger almost three inches long, a type which was commonly carried by soldiers of the time. The accuracy of the wounds suggests the murder was not spur of the moment, but was planned and carried out with some professionalism. Wear on the shoulder of the man suggests he may have been an archer.
On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today,
Our look at Scotland today is Skara Brae ..the stone-built Neolithic settlement, located on the Bay of Skaill on the west coast of Mainland, the largest island in the Orkney archipelago of Scotland.
A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Friday 2nd February 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the airā¦and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 amā¦on the streets of Esteponaā¦
All good stuff....But remember itās a dangerous world we live in
Be safe out thereā¦
Robert McAngus
