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domingo, 4 de janeiro de 2015

Buckinghamshire ancient coin hoard find 'unprecedented'

More than 5,000 ancient coins found in a Buckinghamshire field are an "unprecedented" find, the county's keeper of archaeology has said.





fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-30658285


A member of the Weekend Wanderers Metal Detecting Club discovered the 11th Century coins buried in a field near Aylesbury four days before Christmas.

Brett Thorn from Bucks County Museum said it was the largest hoard of Saxon coins ever found in the county and the second largest in the UK.

"It just doesn't happen," he said.

Paul Coleman, from Southampton, was taking part in a dig in the Padbury area on 21 December when he found the coins from the late Anglo Saxon, early Norman period, depicting the heads of kings Ethelred the Unready and Canute.
The 11th Century coins had been left in a "sealed" lead container
Paul Coleman said he saw the disc "reflecting the sky"
The heads of Ethelred the Unready and Canute can be seen on the coins

"I saw one shiny disk," he told BBC News.

"It was reflecting in the sky and I immediately knew it was a coin, you just know. So I bent down to pick the coin up and as I could focus down in the hole I could see lots of circular shapes behind it."

Club spokesman Peter Welch said the coins, which were buried in a lead bucket, had "looked almost uncirculated, like they were straight from a mint".

Mr Thorn said the find was "massive" and the largest find of Saxon coins since 1840 when about 7,000 were unearthed in Cuerdale, near Preston in Lancashire. 'Very significant'

"I was absolutely astounded," he said.

"To give an idea of scale, people normally find between five and 20 [Saxon] coins.

"We have about 4,000 Roman coins in the Bucks County Museum and only 30 Saxon ones, so it is very significant both nationally and for the county, it is just unprecedented."
Club members gathered in excitement at the first signs of the hoard in the ground
A coroner will now decide if the hoard is "treasure"

The coins, which feature at least two kings, will be cleaned and examined by the British Museum to establish which mint they came from.

"Until they are cleaned and dated [to find the oldest] we can't begin to find out why they were collected or why they were carefully wrapped and very definitely hidden," said Mr Thorn.

A coroner must rule if they are "treasure" under the Treasure Act.

Mr Thorn could not comment on their estimated value but said if the museum decided, in conjunction with the British Museum, to acquire them "it would be a major fundraising effort".

The largest UK hoard of Anglo Saxon treasure was about 1,600 items, including helmet parts and processional crosses.

It was found in a Staffordshire field in July 2009 and valued at £3.285m.
The hoard has been taken to the British Museum

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fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti
by on January 2, 2015 · 27 comments

How archaeologists recreate ancient booze.


Resurrecting ancient beers and wines is a subtle alchemy, but Patrick McGovern knows all the tricks. He directs the Biomolecular Archaeology Project for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Many of his ancient brews are sold by Dogfish Head brewery in Delaware.

 
Phrygians were brewing with barley before it was cool.


Photo by grekoff/Thinkstock


This article originally appeared in New Scientist.






How did you start making ancient drinks?
One of the first we made was the Midas beverage, based on residues in bronze vessels recovered from the Midas tomb in Turkey, which dates from 700 B.C. These pointed to an unusual drink combining wine, barley beer, and mead. There were also food remains in the tomb that suggested a barbecued lamb or goat stew with lentils and spices. We tried to recreate the funerary feast as a way of bringing the past to life.


How do you go about recreating a drink?
People give me either samples of pottery or residues from ancient vessels possibly used for making, storing, or drinking a fermented beverage. I identify the markers of specific natural products: Tartaric acid is a fingerprint compound for grapes in the Middle East, for example, while calcium oxalate points to the presence of barley beer.


What did the Midas beverage taste like?
We knew the three basic components—grapes, barley, and honey—but we didn’t know what the bittering agent was. It couldn’t be hops, as they only became available in Europe around 700, so we looked at the eastern Mediterranean spices that would have been available: saffron, cardamom, bitter vetch, cumin. In a competition among microbreweries to recreate the beverage, Delaware-based Dogfish Head used the best-quality saffron as their bittering agent, as well as Greek honey made from thyme blossom. Their winning beverage was on the sweet side, but the saffron gave it aromatic properties.


How does ancient booze compare with the modern stuff?
Ancient beverages tended to be much more multidimensional. People didn’t necessarily specialize in one beverage; the wine industry was inseparable from the beer and mead industry in the earliest periods. Also, they wanted to be sure they had enough sugar to get the fermentation going, so they took whatever they had that contained sugar and mixed them together.


Which of your recreations would you pair with a traditional turkey roast?
The turkey is an American bird, so I’d propose having your English Christmas dinner with our American ancient ale, Theobroma, which was recreated by chemical analysis of pottery fragments from Honduras, dated to 1400 B.C. Its cacao aroma will go nicely with the bird, a bit like a chocolate mole over chicken, a Mexican favorite.

 
Dogfish Head’s Theobroma, Midas Touch, and Etrusca.

Photo illustration by Slate. Product photos via the manufacturer.


What about for a beach barbecue?
If you were barbecuing fish or shrimp, I’d go for Midas Touch. It’s a little like white wine, and it has delicious, piquant qualities which I think would go well with fish. For barbecued steak, I’d go for our early Etruscan ale, Etrusca, whose recreation is based on evidence from 2,800-year-old tombs in central Italy. Its backbone is malted heirloom barley and wheat, but it also has hazelnut flour and pomegranate, which would be a good match for the beef. It even contains myrrh, for an added Christma
s motif.



 
fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2015/01/archaeology_of_alcohol_ancient_beer_wine_mead_some_made_at_dogfish_head.html

Clerques: un Licquois ouvre un musée rempli de ses vieux outils en bois

 
Tout un pan de notre histoire ressuscitera le lundi de Pâques, cette année. Alfred Lorgnier a choisi cette date symbolique pour ouvrir au public le musée qu’il vient d’aménager pour exposer les outils en bois du temps jadis qu’il bichonne depuis des années. Les plus impatients peuvent déjà aller le visiter. 



Les rêves d’enfant ne meurent jamais. Alfred Lorgnier a attendu l’arrivée de ses 72 printemps avant de réaliser le sien. Son musée du matériel agricole. Un lieu conçu comme une salle de jeux pour redécouvrir le temps jadis, dans l’ancienne salle commune du gîte rural d’Audenfort dont il est le propriétaire.

« Pendant quarante ans, j’ai collectionné et remis en état tous ces anciens outils », raconte le fondateur des établissements Lorgnier de Licques, spécialisés dans la vente et la réparation de machines agricoles, aujourd’hui tenus par son fils. Des machines à laver en bois, une braye pour dénuder les fibres de chanvre, des barattes, battoirs, charrues et une quantité d’objets du quotidien que le monde moderne a érigé en pièces rares.


« Tout est en bois »

« Tout est en bois car, avant, l’acier était rare et cher, narre Alfred Lorgnier. Or tout le monde avait un chêne ou un frêne dans son jardin à l’époque. » Et chaque village hébergeait alors un artisan chargé de débiter les grumes et un forgeron occupé à marteler les parties en fer liées aux futurs outils.

Un petit écriteau accompagne chaque objet pour indiquer son nom et sa fonction. Bien utile pour différencier une simple brouette du car à fesses exposé qui, outre ses missions de transport de marchandise, était chargé de rapatrier le patron à bon port quand celui-ci avait levé le coude avec un peu trop d’ardeur.


Un four à pain

Alfred Lorgnier sera présent chaque dimanche après-midi pour guider les visiteurs et conter ses anecdotes. D’ici l’ouverture, prévue pour le lundi du Pâques, il espère avoir reconstitué une cuisine d’époque et bâti le four à pain en complément de la reconstitution du moulin de Zegerscappel. Ce rêve accompli, il pourra se consacrer à celui de mettre en place un petit marché du terroir autour de son espace.

La campagne en 1900 avec les collections d’Alfred, 54 rue d’Audenfort à Clerques. Visite chaque dimanche après-midi à partir du 6 avril ou dès maintenant sur rendez-vous au 03 21 85 07 23 ou 06 03 92 12 01.

Qu’est-ce que c’est que ça ?

Savez-vous à quoi sert cet objet exposé dans le musée d’Alfred Lorgnier ? Cette curiosité mesure environ 1,50 mètre sur 50centimètres de hauteur. Le carcan en bois glisse sur toute la longueur.

Premier indice : ce n’est ni un outil agricole, ni un engin de torture. Deuxième indice : il sert aux jeunes enfants. Troisième et dernier indice : cet objet est un « alloir ».



Eh oui, cet appareil servait à apprendre à marcher aux enfants. On les coinçait dans le carcan, et ils pouvaient juste avancer ou reculer. On glissait sans doute de quoi attirer leur curiosité dans la fente (à droite sur la photo) pour les inciter à marcher.

Un moulin reconstitué pour faire du pain

Dans le musée d’Alfred Lorgnier, on pourra apprendre à faire du pain. Le collectionneur a récupéré la machinerie du moulin de Zegerscappel. Un énorme moteur en fonte de cinq tonnes qui tourne sous les yeux des visiteurs, et qui actionne le mécanisme de la meule qui broie le blé. Juste avant, les meilleurs grains ont été triés dans une « queue-de-rat » qui, elle, fonctionne à l’huile de coude.

« On passe ensuite la mouture au tamis pour obtenir une farine complète ou bien blanche en fonction des besoins », présente Alfred Lorgnier. Pour aller jusqu’au bout de sa démarche, il s’attelle à la construction d’un four un pain qui cuira sur place le pain issu de la démonstration. « Je me suis mis en lien avec le boulanger de Licques qui viendra ici, le dimanche, pour faire le pain », salive d’avance le septuagénaire qui rêve déjà d’y adjoindre un marché du terroir, histoire d’étaler du beurre salé et de la confiture sur ses tartines.


Fomte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://www.lavoixdunord.fr/region/clerques-un-licquois-ouvre-un-musee-rempli-de-ses-vieux-ia37b0n2580397
 
 
 

Berlim abre museu do cadáver




Após meses de discussão, o Tribunal Administrativo de Berlim aprovou a abertura do polêmico museu de cadáveres do médico alemão Gunther von Hagens, que desenvolveu uma técnica de conservação conhecida como “plastinação”. O anatomista alemão ficou conhecido no mundo inteiro por meio de sua exposição de corpos “plastinados” Körperwelten (Mundos dos corpos).

A prefeitura regional do bairro de Mitte, onde o museu deverá ser instalado, na Alexanderplatz, havia proibido a abertura com base na lei funerária berlinense, que proíbe a exibição pública de cadáveres. A decisão do tribunal administrativo, no entanto, é favorável à argumentação do operador do museu.

Segundo o tribunal, a legislação funerária berlinense de fato proíbe a exibição pública de cadáveres, mas não abrange os corpos que teriam sido preparados para esse fim. O tribunal explicitou que a legislação teria como objetivo o rápido enterro do falecido, e que corpos “plastinados” nem mesmo são destinados ao sepultamento, pois não apodrecem.

A curadora do museu, Angelina Whalley, esposa de Hagens, disse que a decisão é uma boa notícia para a liberdade científica. O museu deverá abrir ainda em janeiro. A mostra permanente contará com 20 cadáveres preparados e mais 200 objetos de exposição.

Cadáveres ou não?

Em entrevista à emissora rbb-Inforadio, Christian Hanke, subprefeito de Berlim-Mitte, disse, no entanto, que o veredicto escrito será “avaliado rigorosamente” e que a justificativa, por ora apresentada só oralmente pelo tribunal, “não teria sido convincente”.

“O que foi proferido é que os corpos a serem expostos não seriam cadáveres porque não se pode enterrá-los e porque eles não apodrecem”, disse o político social-democrata.

Hanke classificou de bizarra a argumentação do tribunal. “Examinamos muitas decisões da Justiça – inclusive veredictos semelhantes do Tribunal Administrativo Superior – e todas indicam que ‘plastinados’ também são cadáveres.”

Representantes eclesiásticos, políticos e urbanistas também protestam há meses contra os planos de abertura do museu. Segundo Bertold Höcker, diretor do círculo eclesiástico do bairro de Berlim-Mitte, a exposição pública de mortos contradiz o direito à dignidade humana, dentro da visão cristã.

Cordula Machoni, pastora de uma igreja vizinha ao planejado museu, disse que, “apesar do veredicto, corpos ‘plastinados’ continuam a ser pessoas mortas. E mortos não são objetos de exposição”.

fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti http://tribunadonorte.com.br/noticia/berlim-abre-museu-do-cada-ver/302451

Três lições da arquitetura finlandesa



A promoção da arquitetura em nível nacional através de organizações e instituições. Chamou-me a atenção a quantidade de organizações envolvidas com arquitetura, construção e urbanismo que lutam para tornar esses assuntos presentes na consciência da população. Essas organizações trabalham de maneira autônoma e também em conjunto, gerando atividades e oportunidades para conhecer a cultura e história dessas disciplinas. A viagem da qual participei foi promovida por um programa de difusão organizado por instituições como o Museu de Arquitetura da Finlândia, a Fundação Alvar Aalto, o Architecture Information Centre Finland e a SAFA (Associação Finlandesa de Arquitetos). Essas organizações também organizaram o prêmio nacional de arquitetura finlandesa, evento que tivemos a o prazer de prestigiar.

O que mais me chamou a atenção foi o fato de que o projeto vencedor (Museu da História dos Judeus Poloneses) foi escolhido por Sixten Korkman - um economista e não um arquiteto - por seguir critérios que não têm a ver com a técnica ou o olhar do arquiteto, mas com o ponto de vista do usuário, alguém alheio à prática. Acredito que essa escolha foi acertada, a obra vencedora realmente reflete grandes qualidades em termos arquitetônicos, seja em questões formais, funcionais, relação com o espaço público ou experiência do usuário.

Incluir nessas decisões pessoas que se relacionam mais com o uso dos edifícios e não apenas com seus aspectos técnicos é, definitivamente, um aspecto que podemos importar no momento de avaliar obras de arquitetura em nosso continente. 
  Museu dos Judeus Poloneses – Lahdelma & Mahlamäki + Kuryłowicz & Associates. Imagem © Pawel Paniczko

Sem dúvida foi uma grande experiência poder ver essas referências de perto e, assim, tomar uma série de lições que devemos aprender.

Tal como apontou Sixten Korkman, "os usuários aceitam e não exigem". Dificilmente nossos cidadãos poderão exigir melhorias na qualidade do espaço público e do ambiente construído se não existe a consciência de sua importância em nosso dia a dia.

*Fernanda Castro é arquiteta pela Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Atualmente é Editora de Projetos do ArchDaily e do Plataforma Arquitectura.
Cita:Castro, Fernanda. "Três lições da arquitetura finlandesa" [Tres lecciones que nos deja la arquitectura Finlandesa ] 04 Jan 2015. ArchDaily Brasil. (Trad. Romullo Baratto) Acessado 4 Jan 2015. @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti fonte: