Because if you have, get out in the fields, you never know.

http://historymedren.about.com/b/2009/09/26/anglo-saxon-hoard-of-gold-and-silver-the-biggest-ever-discovered.htm

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I read about that in The Daily Record the other day, lucky bastards!


Amazing.


CC

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I saw this on the news the other day. What a great find. Those guys are set.

This is fascinating, did you get any of those experts around to take a look and have you got any pics you can show us.
Sounds great.

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Hi Rhumba: in another corner of my life this stuff happens to be one of my things.

The latest find was eye-catching because it was so big in monetary terms - supposedly valued in millions. However, it wasn't as archaeologically interesting as the news items made it sound, because none of the objects are unusual, and there is no physical context for them. Just a hoard in a hole in the ground.

But do you remember the "Prittlewell Prince" discovery back in 2003? They're still working on that one so it hasn't all been published yet. But one item they found was a wooden lyre, the third such discovered in this country:



Instruments seldom survive in the archaeological record, so these are very rare. That's a reconstruction of the one from Sutton Hoo, now in the BM. Hollow with a maple soundboard and six strings. That's what guitars looked like 1400 years ago, folks!

More here (buttons on the left):

http://www.molas.org.uk/pages/siteRepor ... on=preface

Cheers - C

Nice score. I wonder if they have to pay taxes on that. I would believe someone makes themselves a partner.

How do you suppose the young folks modded these? John.E

Hi John: you are not going to believe this, but I do actually know a genuine answer to that question...!

The one in the picture above (from an early 7th century ship burial at Sutton Hoo in the East of England) has been reconstructed using a bone bridge. But amongst the few others from around Northern Europe some also have bronze bridges and some amber. So that's one possible user mod.

Also, the one above had five willow tuning pegs and one of alder. Some modding has taken place there.

And players could choose between (horse or cow) gut strings or horse tail hair ones. We don't know what gauges were available...

Here's a picture from an 8th century manuscript called the Durham Cassiodorus showing King David playing just such a lyre. Rumour has it he sometimes played it behind his back or with his teeth, as a stage stunt:



There ya go! Ask a jokey question and get a (vaguely) serious answer!

- C

[img][img]http://i469.photobucket.com/albums/rr57/Rhumba_photo/31_hebden_bridge6.jpg[/img][/img]

The Roman Road at Blackstone Edge, Littleborough, Rochdale.

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Ok, I've posted the picture first this time.
Well, I'm proper livid I've just spent an hour writing a marvelous discourse on archaeology and then gone and lost the damn thing.

Great stuff Ceri, kinda makes you wonder what gigs sounded like back in those days eh?
To be honest I only have a casual interest in archaeology but I do get a regular newsletter, which is in my first post there.
I don't recall reading of the ' Prittlewell Prince ' but it must have been covered in my newsletter, looks fascinating.
We are so lucky in the UK that we have such a rich history, going back to the Romans and beyond and it's all around us.
Very close to where I live is Blackstone Edge Moor and up there is a Roman road, I've been up there a number of times and part of it is well preserved. I've posted a pic above.
Some argue that it is not Roman because there are no records of it's excistence prior to the 12th century.
Anyway, I'm a romantic, so I say it's Roman.

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Hi Rhumba: bloody Romans, what did they ever do for us?

One Christmas day found me and the Missus standing on Hadrian's Wall in a wind that was so cold our noses nearly fell off and watching as a weak sickly sun crawled along the horizon somewhere round two in the afternoon.

I couldn't help thinking with a chuckle of some benighted Roman legionary freshly arrived from Gaul or Egyptus or Palastina or wherever, gazing out at the same scene from the same spot 18 centuries ago, hugging his cloak around his thin little knee britches and wondering what the heck had gone wrong with the universe!

- C

Hi Ceri, well the romans actually told us what it was like, writing home asking for stuff to be sent over. Like thick socks.
I know you've heard of Vindolanda.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/vindolanda_01.shtml

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Ha! I do know it - Vindolanda was the very spot we were standing on!

And frankly to that grumpy soldier who's complaints that page quoted we say: if you don't like it - Romani ite domum!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaRcwpns ... re=related



(Though I did sympathise with the cavalry decurion a couple of pages later in your link pleading, "send more beer!" I expect that Roman was called Russianus Racehorsus...)

Cheers - C

lol.

Yup, nothing to be worried about. You should have made guitar hardware from it.

CC

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Fender Stratocaster (parts build)
Fender Telecaster 72 Custom RI
Fender Telecoustic Deluxe
Gretsch Electromatic Pro-Jet
Gibson Les Paul Standard Plus
Gibson ES-135
Zenith Type-17
Marshall 70's JMP Superbass 100w
Blackstar HT-5

Ceri,
Just proves the old addage about how the more things change, the more things stay the same. Thank you for the informative reply. John.E