From my fantasy writing desk:
I’ve spent this week working in a major revision into my current manuscript in progress (the second in my Tesha series). Since draft one, there’s been some further dark magic, a curse that won’t go away and I’ve been reworking scenes where its influence ought to be present. Very tricky writing, this. How much is the accursed aware of this infiltration? How much and when do others see the problem? What’s real and what’s delusional? How does this magical crisis work with the inner psychology of the character? I’ve spent the week feeling like an aerial artist trying to keep my balance.
Archaeology posts I enjoyed:
Hiding treasure from marauding Crusaders
Archaeologists found a cache of rare gold coins and an earring in the Israeli city of Caesarea. The stash, found stuck between stones in a well wall, appears to have been hidden for later retrieval. But these 900-year-old coins stayed put, most likely because Baldwin I, leading a Crusader army, massacred the residents ofCaesarea in 1101 CE. How’s that for a romantic archaeological find with a grim backstory? Click here for BBC “Rare Gold Coins found in Israeli city of Caesaria”
Do we know what destroyed Sodom?
A group of archaeologists posit: A massive “cosmic airburst,” i.e. an exploding meteor, destroyed the Middle Bronze Age civilization near the Dead Sea and left the area barren with salt deposits for 700 years and suggest this may be the Biblical Sodom. Presenting a paper at the ASOR conference, they discussed evidence from the dig at Tall el-Hammam in modern Jordan to explain the sudden obliteration of settlements with 100 ft thick perimeter walls and other extensive habitation signs. They suggest Tall el-Hammam might be the site of Sodom. This article discusses the evidence (zircon crystals, milliseconds of incredible temperatures, etc) and there’s a link to the academic paper if you want more detail. Other archaeologists listening to the paper remain unpersuaded, so don’t leap too firmly onto this bandwagon. Nonetheless, I love finding points where history and mythology may be intertangling, the blending of what may have really happened and storytelling over centuries. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Exploding meteor may have wiped out communities near Dead Sea 3,700 years ago”