Articles I enjoyed this week around the web:
A.
A list of 10 forgotten civilizations. I found the article’s #3, Tuwana, especially interesting. This civilization arose during 9th and 8th C BCE from the ashes of the Hittite Empire. This article speculates that Tuwana’s use of both Luwian hieroglyphics and Phoenician alphabetical script may have contributed to the development of the Greek alphabet. Archaeologists found the main city of Tuwana in 2012 and have only now begun to uncover this civilization. Kind of like the whole Hittite empire until the 20th century. Love it when archaeology fills in such giant gaps! (The stele in the photo shows what Luwian hieroglyphics look like, but it is not from a Tuwana site. It’s one of many treasures in one of my favorite museums—The Museum of Anatolian Cultures in Ankara, Turkey) Link here
B.
6,000 yr old wine discovered in eastern Macedonia, Greece.
The oldest samples of wine ever recorded in Europe, dating to 4200 BC, found in prehistoric site of Dikili Tash, located south east of Drama in Eastern Macedonia, Greece. Dimitra Malamidou, co-director of the excavations at Dikili Tash, said, “During the excavations that took place in a house on the archaeological site, called House 1, quantities of carbonized grape berries that had been pressed were discovered in pots, a fact which proves the extraction of juice from grapes.” “So far, we knew that people drank wine in the Bronze Age (from the 12th century B.C. henceforth), but now we learn that the wine-making process was known long before that Age, since 4200 BC,” Malamidou stated. This adds to the growing number of recent changes in our understanding of life in the Neolithic period. Link here
C.
On the Castle blog hop, Nancy Bilyeau tells the exciting history of Stafford Castle—heroic ladies defending it against the Parliamentarians, dukes beheaded by a jealous Henry VIII, and other dramatic episodes.
If you have not read her books, The Crown and The Chalice, click through to the post and leave a comment to win a copy. They are not to be missed. Link here
D.
“Underneath, well below that fabled bottom line that every entrepreneur has been taught to reverence, what are we really worth? … Because overlooked is not the same as worthless.” Another straight-to-the-heart piece by Bonnie Pike about raising children with disabilities and becoming a plant hero. (Read it to find out what that is!) Link here
E.
I don’t know about you, but I never could get the Guelf-Ghibelline conflict sorted out. But now Tinney Heath has done it for us (at least a part of it). Link here
F.
Alice Oswald’s book of poetry, “Memorial,” reimaging Homer’s Iliad has won the Warwick Prize. The award was established in 2009 to explore “what literature is, and what new shapes and forms it might be taking.” It is handed out every two years by England’s University of Warwick. This is a fitting description of Oswald’s unusual work, which focuses on the dead soldiers mentioned in Homer’s epic. The prize is an impressive 25,0000 pounds ($40,000). Well deserved congratulations. Link here
G.
How to write a captivating blog title. Insightful post by Marcy Kennedy on Writers in the Storm blog. Link here
H.
Mysterious temple on Cyprus founded in 1200 BCE. Excavations find ritual pits, standing stone, grottoes, channels indicating rites using water. But to what god and purpose? Link here