2015年2月28日 星期六

Henry II serves the first dish to the table to his son Henry after his coronation


Henry the Young King, who reigned alongside his father Henry II, was born ‪#‎onthisday‬ in 1155. In this print Henry II serves the first dish to the table to his son Henry after his coronationhttp://ow.ly/JJCeX

2015年2月26日 星期四

The remarkable archaeological underwater discovery that could open up a new chapter in the study of European and British prehistory


The remarkable archaeological underwater discovery that could open up a new chapter in the study of European and British prehistory

Scientific tests suggest that a major aspect of the Neolithic agricultural revolution may have reached Britain 2000 years earlier than previously thought

 
 
Remarkable new archaeological discoveries are likely to completely rewrite a key part of British prehistory.
Scientific tests suggest that a major aspect of the Neolithic agricultural revolution may have reached Britain 2000 years earlier than previously thought.
The research - carried out by scientists at the universities of Bradford, Birmingham and Warwick - reveal that wheat, probably already ground into flour, was being used at a Mesolithic Stone Age site in around 6000 BC.
The discovery - just published in the academic journal, Science - is likely to be viewed with some degree of consternation by many archaeologists  because it completely  changes accepted views of what happened in Britain (and indeed most of western Europe) in pre-Neolithic times.
The species of domesticated wheat - an early form, known as einkorn - was identified by scientists from the University of Warwick, using DNA analysis. Although no einkorn seeds as such were found,  a small discrete area  of intense einkorn DNA was detected when geneticists tested samples of sediment, recovered by archaeologists from an underwater Mesolithic site in the Solent, just off the coast of the Isle of Wight.
The area was dry land 6000 years ago - but within 30 or 40 years had been permanently inundated by the sea, as a result of melting Arctic and other glaciers following the end of the Ice Age.
This underwater discovery could be set to rewrite Britain's prehistoric past (The Maritime Archaeology Trust/Roland Brookes)This underwater discovery could be set to rewrite Britain's prehistoric past (The Maritime Archaeology Trust/Roland Brookes)
The einkorn DNA  - from a substantial quantity of the cereal, most likely in flour form - was recovered by archaeologists from the Maritime Archaeology Trust from a layer of sediment which had lain buried several metres below the seabed. Associated material (mainly fragments of wood) was dated by radio carbon 'Bayesian' dating techniques to between  6010 BC and 5960 BC.
The underwater location of the site is potentially very significant - because there are no other such indications of Neolithic influence in northwest Europe until around 5300 BC at the earliest. In Britain itself there are no aspects of Neolithic culture until around 4100 BC.
However thousands of square miles of Mesolithic land, on parts of Europe's and Britain's current continental shelves, were inundated by the sea between 6000 and 4000 BC - so the distinct possibility is emerging that cultural developments may have been occurring there, on those now- drowned coastal lowlands that did not take place further inland on what is still dry land.
For the archaeologists carrying out the research, a key puzzle is of course to work out how the einkorn got to the Isle of Wight. The nearest area known to have been producing einkorn by 6000 BC is southern Italy - and southern France and eastern Spain are thought to have been producing it by at least 5900 BC.
The big question therefore is whether the einkorn was brought by sea from one of those areas and then ground up  for use on the Isle of Wight - or whether it had been grown on or near the Isle of Wight, after predecessor seeds had been brought there from southern France, Spain or Italy and then planted.
Whichever scenario is correct, the discovery suggests a very unexpected degree of Mesolithic period maritime mobility (and Neolithic-originating cultural practice) that has not hitherto been apparent from the archaeological record.
If now-inundated coastal zones around continental Europe and Britain really were home to more technologically-developed and geographically-connected Mesolithic societies than those more inland Mesolithic cultures on what is still dry land, then there should be other differences at the Isle of Wight site, apart from just the einkorn evidence.
Garry Momber, Director of the Maritime Archaeology Trust says that it is Garry Momber, Director of the Maritime Archaeology Trust says that it is "one of the richest collections of pre-Neolithic worked timbers ever found in Britain or elsewhere in Europe" (The Maritime Archaeology Trust/Roland Brookes)
Remarkably, some such evidence has indeed emerged there.
The archaeologists, working there have found evidence of a wider range of flint tool styles - including some Neolithic-style  flint implements - and have also found around ten pieces of split timber, including three which had been split in a manner not seen elsewhere until the Neolithic.
The archaeologists say that the site may have been a Mesolithic boat-building encampment -perhaps the oldest such site yet discovered anywhere in the world. They have found evidence for woodworking, cooking and flint tool manufacturing. They also discovered pieces of Mesolithic string, the heel bone of a giant wild cow (aurochs) and DNA from dog (or wolf) and cattle (probably giant aurochs).
"The use of, or introduction of, cereal grains in Britain now appears to have been a much longer and more complex process than we had previously imagined," said archaeologist, Professor Vince Gaffney of the University of Bradford, co-author of the Science paper.
"Scientists' ability to analyse genetic material found deep in ancient buried marine sediments will open up a totally new chapter in the study of British and European prehistory.
"it is a unique method for exploring and understanding what was taking place in the huge swathes of prehistoric territory lost during sea level rise after the end of the last Ice age," said Professor Gaffney
Garry Momber, Director of the Maritime Archaeology Trust says that it is "one of the richest collections of pre-Neolithic worked timbers ever found in Britain or elsewhere in Europe"
"At present, we are only able to examine a tiny percentage of the constantly eroding underwater material - but hopefully, if we succeed in getting more funding, we will be able to recover and analyse much more of this unique site," he said.

2015年2月24日 星期二

The making of everything: St John's on the big screen


Congratulations to Eddie Redmayne (Trinity College, Cambridge, 2000) for winning an Oscar for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking(Trinity Hall, 1962) in the film Theory of Everything, filmed largely inSt John's College. Read more about the making of the film in this article:
The Theory of Everything, a biopic of physicist Stephen Hawking, is up for five Oscars this...
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The making of everything: St John's on the big screen

Film crew and extras shooting a scene in Second Court
Film crew and extras shooting a scene in Second Court
Eddie Redmayne, star of "The Theory of Everything" won Best Actor at the Oscars on Sunday. Many of the film’s key scenes were shot at St John’s College.
The Theory of Everything, a biopic of world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, was nominated for five Oscars at this year's Academy Awards, held on Sunday. Lead actor Eddie Redmayne, who plays Hawking in the film, picked up the award for Best Actor.
The movie is based on Travelling to Infinity, a memoir written by Hawking’s first wife, Jane, which begins as the young Stephen Hawking is just starting his PhD at Cambridge before he was diagnosed with the debilitating motor neurone disease that he has lived with ever since. 
While the cast are the stars of the show, the locations come a close second. Many of the film’s most eye-catching and iconic scenes were shot at St John’s College, from the May Ball on the Backs to Stephen and Jane’s kiss on Kitchen Bridge. Filming took place throughout the College over the summer of 2013, with a large crew and dozens of extras in period costume.
The film was always intended to be shot on location, as Cambridge is an integral part of Stephen Hawking’s life story. The director, James Marsh, had originally planned to film at Gonville and Caius College, where Hawking is a Fellow, but the grand architecture and beautiful grounds of St John’s made it the perfect location for the large and visually stunning set-pieces the film required.
Johnian Colin Burrows (BA 1981) worked on publicity for the film with his London-based company, Special Treats Productions. Colin described The Theory of Everything as “a love-letter to Cambridge”. He said: “The College definitely feels like a supporting character in the film, and complements the cast and filming wonderfully”.
Setting up for the May Ball scene outside New CourtColin said that coming back to St John’s to work on the film was a “profoundly weird” experience, especially seeing the set-up for the film’s lavish recreation of a 1960s May Ball. New Court and the Bridge of Sighs were lit with strings of fairy lights, lanterns were hung in the trees and champagne-drinking extras mingled in groups around the College to the sound of smooth swing music. There was even a carousel set up on the New Court lawns. Colin said:
“The director asked me if they had got the May Ball scene right. I told him that, in almost every possible detail, it was totally wrong, but it captured the spirit and feel of a St John’s May Ball better than anything else I have ever seen”.
The film-makers praised St John’s for its “fantastically efficient” organisation and producer Lisa Bruce said that “St John’s gave us amazing visuals. Cambridge is so beautiful, everywhere you look you go ‘Wow!’”
- See more at: http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/making-everything-st-johns-big-screen#sthash.zG8velOu.dpuf

Super-jails: the inhumane mark of ignorant politicians

"David Cameron has put Chris Grayling, a bombastic and ignorant man, even by the standards of the modern Conservative party, in charge of justice. Humane treatment for prisoners no more concerns him than the human rights of the rest of the population. If this sounds like the whingeing of a bleeding-heart liberal, consider that there will be people you meet, who will be robbed, beaten, raped and murdered as a result of Cameron’s neglect of public safety. Some will even vote for him because they think Conservatives are tough on crime."

Nick Cohen: Stuffing prisoners into gang-dominated ‘super-prisons’ is a...
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2015年2月23日 星期一

英國人少上教堂、畫廊


Is it possible we don't love art anything like as much as we pretend?
As both the National Gallery and Tate disclose falling attendances...
THEGUARDIAN.COM

How HMS Victory nearly never made it to the Battle of Trafalgar

How HMS Victory nearly never made it to the Battle of Trafalgar
Chatham dockyard 250th anniversary exhibition tells previously untold stories of Royal Navy vessel that became Admiral Lord Nelson’s flagship
HMS Victory now stands in dry dock at Portsmouth dockyard.
 HMS Victory now stands in dry dock at Portsmouth dockyard. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
On 21 October 1805, HMS Victory sailed into the history of British naval triumphs as the flagship of Admiral Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. However, if it hadn’t been for the sweaty nightmares of a Chatham carpenter, the ship could have joined the less glorious rollcall of great British cockups.
Victory was the pride of Chatham dockyard in Kent, the largest warship built for the Royal Navy. However, on 7 May 1765, shipwright Hartly Larkin realised, tossing in his bed in the small hours, with VIPs from the government and navy invited on board for a splendid ceremony later that day, there was a calamitous error: Victory was too wide to fit through the wooden gates of the dock to be launched into the Medway.
“At best, the gates would have gouged lumps out of the timbers – at worst, if she had stuck in the dock entrance, and sat there unsupported as the tide fell beneath her, the keel could have broken,” said naval historian Brian Lavery, who has been researching the episode as curator of the 250th anniversary exhibition, with exhibits at Chatham Historic Dockyard, including the bullet that killed Nelson, loaned by the Queen. “The cables were fixed to haul her out into river, but they would have had no means of dragging her back into the dock. She would have been destroyed, and the usable timbers recycled.”
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At first light, Larkin, the “foreman afloat” responsible for the launch, rushed to the dockyard, measured and confirmed his worst fears: the ship was a good 9.5 inches too wide to fit through the gates. He told his boss, master shipwright John Allin, the appalling news. Lavery says that Allin, who was already described as “suffering from violent and frequent attacks of a bilious disorder in his bowels”, panicked, said the launch would clearly have to be abandoned and asked his junior what to do. Larkin asked for every available shipwright, and they set to with their adzes – traditional woodcutting tools – chopping the frame holding the gates to pieces and just clearing enough room for the ship. The launch went ahead, with the guests unaware of the drama – even if some of the more sharp-eyed must have noticed the deplorably battered state of the gates.
Victory just missed the seven years’ war for which she was built, and sat for years at anchor in the Medway where Nelson, learning his navigation skills in its treacherous mudflats and tidal creeks, first saw her. When the ship was moved to Portsmouth, covered in barnacles and trailing seaweed, and rapidly outsailed her escort boats, it was realised just how good, manoeuvrable and fast she really was.
Victory’s inglorious launch might have been forgotten, since Allin soon retired on health grounds, except that the unsung hero Hartly Larkin wrote the story of “the dreadful consequence which must inevitably have happened to the ship”, and petitioned the navy for some reward, “he having a large family”. Lavery found his letter in the records with, scrawled across the corner in another hand, “No notice to be taken of this application”. Poor Larkin asked to retire on a small pension in 1779, and died in 1803, so never saw the day of glory of the ship he saved, still preserved as a museum at Portsmouth.

the new UK political party trying to legalise cannabis ; London mayor Boris Johnson to renounce US citizenship

In the 2010 general election the Tories won 36% of the vote, but only 16% among ethnic-minority voters. At the coming general election in May, 168 seats will have a population of ethnic-minority voters that is bigger than the incumbent MP’s majority. A senior Tory calls this a “demographic time-bomb” for his party—an ethnological threat to its future viability of the sort America’s Republicans are already facing http://econ.st/1CTe6WL

THE VVIP picture gallery at the Neasden mandir, one of the biggest outside India, provides a record of British general elections. Shortly before the 1997 one, John...
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The London mayor has dual nationality because he was born in New York – but has now ...


This is the new UK political party trying to legalise cannabis