Time Sifters Archaeology Society Newsletter May 2022

MAY-2022 PRESERVATION  EDUCATION  RESEARCH  INSPIRE Dear Member: We the Board of Time Sifters enjoy bringing you the fabulous speakers and interesting stories in the newsletter each month. May is the last lecture till September and boy do we have something special. David Jacques from the University of Buckingham, England is going to tell us about his work at Blick Mead. Over the summer we will be putting together the 2022/2023 Calendar, enjoying traveling to cool places and time with our friends. See you in the fall. Thank you for being a Time Sifters member. Darwin “Smitty” Smith, President hmsbeagle22@gmail.com May 18 - at 6:00 PM – ZOOM. Blick Mead: Exploring the First Place In the Stonehenge Landscape David Jacques FSA Professorial Research Fellow in Archaeology, School of Humanities The University of Buckingham Drawing on recently found Since 2005 he has been the Photo David Jacques/Tom Lyons evidence for there being a Project Director of an substantial and long-lasting internationally significant of the importance of these Mesolithic presence in the Mesolithic (hunter gatherer) ar- discoveries. pre-Stonehenge landscape, we chaeological site, almost two will explore the evolving uses miles from Stonehenge. His His project at Stonehenge of this landscape through the team has discovered the oldest won the “Research Project of Mesolithic period and examine occupation site in the Stonehenge the Year 2018” award by the relationship between them area, the likely place where Current Archaeology Magazine, and the later establishment of the communities who built the and was runner-up in 2013. the Stonehenge ritual landscape. Is first monuments at Stonehenge Under David Jacques’s direction, this presence the reason why lived. These discoveries have the team’s work has also featured Stonehenge is where it is - its contributed significantly to a extensively in national and discovery the discovery of the new understanding of the initial international media, most recently cradle of Stonehenge? settlement patterns and practices on National Geographic (2020). in the Stonehenge landscape. David Jacques’ field of research explores the use of the Stonehenge In 2013 he was elected a landscape in the Mesolithic Fellow of the Society of the period (8500 BCE-4000 BCE). Antiquaries (FSA) in recognition Instructions for real time viewing: Register in advance for this meeting: Go to the Time Sifters website, www.timesifters.org and click on the registration url. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Notes from a Time Sifter Disaster Archaeology By Evelyn Mangie, Time Sifters Board Member Disaster archaeology is a Photos: cbsnews; troyexcavations; Photo: Wikipedia new effort to understand old researchgate; prweb. events. We have always been the volcano at Thera (modern curious about our past. The a tsunami, or an explo- Santorini) in the Aegean Sea New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1070 sion. They learn from during the Middle Bronze Age BCE) pharaohs excavated the modern events to under- (1500-1200 BCE). Ash from Sphinx that was at that time at stand how survivors of least 1,000 years old, and “mass-fatality” events the eruption is Nabonidus, the last king of adapted to their new preserved in the ice Babylon (555-539 BCE) unearthed realities, and then compare as far away as and analyzed the foundation of that to ancient societies Greenland, and thick a temple that had been built at that experienced similar layers of ash have least 1500 years earlier (ca. 2250 catastrophes. For example, we BCE). Excavations were done know that the tsunami that hit been by Renaissance scholars in 16 countries around the shores found at the14th-16th centuries CE in of the Indian Ocean in 2004 the an effort to revive classical wisdom, caused a long-term collapse in bottoms treasure hunters excavated their economies and displaced of the Pompeii and Herculaneum in hundreds of thousands of Nile River 1738 CE, and collectors like people. That can be compared and the Lord Elgin sent ancient to disasters that happened in Black Sea. Greek marble pediments to be the distant past but left little Scientists preserved at the British Museum written evidence. One of the believe (1802-1812). most interesting events that that this is being studied by disaster explosion The love of classical mythology archaeologists is the eruption of was equal to drove adventurers like millions of Heinrich Schliemann (Troy atomic in 1871 -1873) and Arthur bombs. Evans (Knossos in 1899) to dig That amount random holes in the earth to of energy prove the historicity of the old must have stories. From that somewhat caused haphazard beginning, archaeology earthquakes has developed into a huge and massive tsunamis all along scientific discipline that includes the eastern Mediterranean many branches such as urban coasts, but there is no written archaeology, industrial evidence of that, even though archaeology, underwater it must have had a major in- archaeology, biblical archaeology, fluence on life in the eastern historical archaeology, frozen Mediterranean for centuries archaeology, and the latest, afterward. Scholars think the disaster archaeology. disaster is remembered in stories like Plato’s allegory of Atlantis Disaster archaeology was and the biblical Ten Plagues in established in 2005 as an Egypt, but no other evidence autonomous scientific field at supports that. We can see the the Center for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Continued on page 4 ... Planning at the National Technical University of Athens in Greece. This new discipline trains specialists to identify artifacts that are meshed together as a result of a sudden chaotic event, like an earthquake,

UNESCO World Heritage Sites #1439 - Namhansanseong (South Korea) By Smitty, Time Sifters Board Member. Sources: Wikipedia and World Heritage Site Namhansanseong (literally notably in the early 17th century The fortress has always been \"South Han Mountain Fortress\") in anticipation of an attack occupied and was the provincial was designed as an emergency from the Sino-Manchu Qing capital over a long period, it capital for the Joson dynasty dynasty. contains evidence of a variety (1392–1910). It is located15.5 of military, civil and religious miles southeast of Seoul, at an The city embodies a synthesis of buildings and has become a elevation of 1,574 feet above the defensive military symbol of Korean sovereignty. sea level and is aligned with engineering concepts of the the ridges of the mountain for period, based on Chinese and maximum defensibility. Japanese influences, and changes in the art of fortification Built and defended by following the introduction Buddhist monk-soldiers, it has from the West of weapons been systematically managed using gunpowder. and operated for over 300 years since its construction in 1624. It could accommodate 4,000 people and fulfilled important administrative, and military functions. It also has a number of temples in the compound. Its earliest remains date from the 7th century, but it was rebuilt several times, Photos: World Heritage & Wikipedia.

Continued from page 2 ... such a catastrophe would Philistia, to develop. Social have led to major changes like impacts like these would explain … Disaster those that happened in the the massive migrations (the Sea centuries following the eruption Peoples ca 1250 BCE). The Santorini caldera and the such as disruption of trade, disaster archaeologists believe remains of Akrotiri, the Minoan and a loss of power for the that the evidence from Çeşme- city that was buried under the leaders. Bağlararası combined with ash, but evidence tying the what we know of modern disasters volcanic eruption with social Photos: Wikipedia; swartzentrover; geocities is evidence that ties the results of reaction many miles from the Thera eruption to the social Santorini had eluded us until We know that the disruptions of the later destruction archaeologists be- Minoans were taken centuries even though there is gan working on a site on the over by the mainland a long gap between the eruption Aegean coast of Turkey at Mycenaeans in ca. and the migrations. Çeşme-Bağlararası. They have uncovered mats of shell- Disaster archaeologists fish carried in from the ocean continue to search for evidence found wedged against col- that helps historians under- lapsed walls of buildings, the stand how post disaster effects results of one of four massive impact human societies both tsunami waves that washed past and present. Surprisingly, ashore ca.1600 BCE. They disasters happen frequently. believe that this is evidence of In 1985 alone, there was a the force that was triggered by devastating earthquake in the volcanic activity at Santorini Mexico, a lethal cyclone in Bangladesh, a volcano eruption in and earthquakes associated 1450 BCE, the Hittite Empire Colombia, a flood in China with it. Destruction archaeologists splintered into smaller states and a deadly fire in Egypt. have identified at least 47 similar ca. 1180 BCE, and the Disaster archaeologists believe sites in Turkey, the Levant, Egyptians reduced their using their knowledge of and Cyprus indicating the extent holdings in the Levant leaving ancient societies and adding of the damage. The flooding a vacuum that allowed small modern environmental data, and volcanic ash from such an independent kingdoms such as risk management, and explosion would have destroyed Israel, Judah, Phoenicia, and prevention strategies, will cities and ruined large areas of mitigate social disruption and productive land diminishing avoid chaos after a disaster. harvests for years. The reaction to Board of Officers: Lifetime: $350 Pay online at: Directors Darwin \"Smitty\" Smith, President Individual: $25 WWW.TimeSifters.org Sherry Svekis, Vice President Family: $35 Or mail checks to: Mary S. Maisel, Secretary Student: $10 Time Sifters, Inc. Laura Harrison, Treasurer Supporting $50 PO Box 5283 Karen Jensen, Membership Sarasota, FL. 34277 Marion Almy Jean Louise Lammie Evelyn Mangie Copyright © 2022 Time SiftersArchaeology Society,Inc., All rights reserved.