I’m late getting this weekly post up. I had a very busy Friday through Saturday with a table of local authors at a benefit for the Phoenix Art Museum most of Friday, a superb workshop on plotting novels by Charles Finch Saturday morning and for 5 hours on Saturday afternoon and evening a hands on activity on cuneiform that I ran for the archaeologists at ASU as part of the university’s community outreach, Night of the Open Door. I was really ready for a lazy Sunday! So with the second load of laundry in and a now-rested brain, here are my favorite posts from around the web this week (a bit short of a list–I’ve had my head deep in editing my manuscript, a process I greatly enjoy)
At ASU West Campus, Kiva Lecture Hall, 6 pm March 5
Strange & weird divination practices uncovered at a Late Bronze Age site (ca. 1500–1250 B.C.E.) on the Tsaghkahovit Plain in central Armenia: Altered states of mind, tossing cattle knucklebones, cooking special breads stamped with signs and then using them to predict the future, and smooth, colored stones used in a basin in some unknown way. Some of this corresponds to what we think we know about Hittite divination and, of course, geographically this isn’t far away. The fortress kingdom apparently didn’t get useful news from their divinations. These finds are part of a massive destruction layer. Wanting to know what is coming and hoping thereby to alter any unwanted events is an intriguingly persistent impulse in human history. This dig supervised by my alma mater, Cornell. I’ll have to see what they find in future seasons. Quite an intriguing array. Click here for Live Science “Ancient Shrines Used for Predicting the Future Discovered”
While everyone is watching Wolf Hall, you’ll enjoy reading this post by Nancy Bilyeau “Thomas Cromwell, Thomas Moore and the Most Hated Man in America” about the portraits in the Frick in NY. It’s amusing that these two old enemies are side by side in NY. Click here for Nancy Bilyeau “Thomas Cromwell Thomas More and the Most Hated Man in America”
Birth control in 17thC England . I found this post by Sheila Dalton fascinating. A topic it is hard to get info about as you move through history. Sheila’s done an interesting job teasing out what can be learned. Click here for Sheila Dalton “Contraception in Early Modern England”
As always, your blog is extremely informative. Loved the link to 17th century contraception. Information like that takes “digging.”
LaDonna Ockinga
Author of Surviving Love
Presently Seeking Representation
I agree. I loved her work on 17th Century contraception. Now if someone would do the same for the Late Bronze Age!
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