From My Fantasy Writing Desk
If you enjoy reading historical mysteries, click through for some free books. I particularly recommend as outstanding reads Anna Castle’s Murder By Misrule (a Francis Bacon mystery) and M. Louisa Locke’s Maids of Misfortune (a Victorian San Francisco mystery).
Archaeology I Enjoyed
The Rarest of Mosaics
An Italian-Turkish team of archaeologists unearthed the world’s oldest-known polychrome mosaic floor at Usakli Hoyuk, a Hittite settlement in central Turkey. The partially preserved mosaic measures 23 feet by 10 feet and once adorned an open courtyard belonging to a building that archaeologists believe was a second-millennium B.C. temple.
The mosaic has 30,000 pieces in white, red and black. The archaeologists note that similar colored designs in stone flooring haven’t been found at other Hittite sites. The absence of something in archaeological finds doesn’t mean it didn’t exist, only that it didn’t survive where we have looked.
In any case, the Hittite palaces in my books have beautiful colored stone floors. Perhaps in reality they were plain old stone without color, maybe they were dirt (dread thought), but neither of those possibilities stirs any excitement. I’m glad this lone mosaic has shown up to support my borrowing from surrounding cultures where mosaic floors are common.
I have to say I never seriously considered drab floors for Tesha’s royal home. An excerpt taken from Sorcery in Alpara on her first morning in her new home: “Tesha did find it cheering to see all around her bed the newly glistening squares of polished stone in alternating colors of tan, red and green. It reminded her of the Sphinx and Griffin board.” Mind you, I made up the game of Sphinx and Griffin also, using models from surrounding cultures. I guess I’m a comparative culture thief. Click here for Archaeology “Polychrome Patchwork”
Keeping Connected in the Ancient Near East
The lowly donkey was a giant of technological innovation back in the Early Bronze Age. We’re all dependent these days on the international interconnections brought to us online, but go back a few millennia and the big breakthrough was a beast of burden. This article in Ancient Near East Today examines all the DNA and figurine evidence for when and where donkeys “burst” onto the scene. (When: 3rd millennium, i.e. end of Calcolithic, beginning of Early Bronze Age. Where: NE Africa, Southern Levant).
I knew that donkey caravans were the most common method of transporting goods in the Hittite world and had just mentioned one such caravan in the chapter I wrote yesterday, but I did not realize how significant the domestication of this critter was to the development of the cultures of the ancient Near East.
I particularly enjoyed the article’s concluding paragraphs:
“The changing economic and social role of the donkey marks the transition from subsistence agro-pastoralism in the Chalcolithic, to an international economy in the EBA II-III, engaged in long distance trade. This was facilitated by the appearance of the domesticated donkey. An adult donkey can carry a load up to 20 percent of its body weight, which is proportionately greater and for a longer period of time, than a horse or cow. They require less food and water and can be sustained on much coarser food. Donkeys have the additional advantage of being able to navigate over a wide range of topographies, soil types and obstacles without the need for built infrastructure such as paths or roads. In short, they are perfectly adapted for long distance trade and heavy labor.
These unique qualities made the donkey a critical element enabling this economic shift by facilitating large-scale transportation and circulation of commodities, including new and exotic items, throughout the Southern Levant and beyond. The exploitation of the donkey as an agricultural beast of burden extended access to fields that were further afield than walking distance and facilitated ploughing of larger areas. In turn, this contributed to the creation of surplus food stocks, which could be traded.
The donkey may also have been the most significant factor in changing the geo-political relations with other regions, such as Egypt, since caravans permitted transportation of raw materials, products and containers to distant regions. Transportation became a new branch of the economy of Early Bronze societies and donkeys, coinciding with the rise of the first urban entities in the Southern Levant.
Technological changes lead to social changes. All in all, the domestication of the donkey served a multiplicity of essential tasks related to exchange and influenced the development of craft specialization and trade.”
Click here for Ancient Near East Today “Donkeys, Domestication and Early Bronze Age Society”