Roundup of Archaeology and History May 26-June 1

Here are some posts I enjoyed this week:

Amazing what a stalactite can tell you. Studying one from a cave near Pylos confirms the theory that drought contributed to the end of the Mycenaean era. But this study added some complexity. Before the destruction of the Mycenaean era palace at Pylos there was a twenty year span of drought, but the centralized palace bureaucracy and control stayed in place. But a much longer stretch of drought occurred after the destruction and this environmental crisis probably kept the centralized administration from recovering. Given that the palace centers of the Mycenaean period gathered in food stuffs and had centralized workshops for the major trades such as weaving, it makes sense that ever-dropping quantities food stuffs to store and products for the raw materials of the workshops would be unsustainable over a long stretch. History is the interplay of social, political and environmental processes. We forget this at our peril. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Drought Ended Mycenaean Era, Research Shows”

“I’m not a marine archaeologist, but…I know what a cannon looks like. So in that moment, I guess I was the only person in the world who knew we’d found the shipwreck,” he said. Thus spoke a research engineer with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute when, in the Caribbean Sea, he spotted the sunken remains of the “holy grail” of shipwrecks, the 310 year old Spanish galleon, San Jose. He was viewing through the camera of an underwater robot that can go far deeper than humans can. British warships sunk the San Jose during the War of Spanish Succession. It was loaded with 62 canons and a cargo of ceramics, silver, gold and emeralds. Spain and Columbia are fighting over whose cultural/treasure trove this is. The research engineer just thinks it’s cool and makes no claims. He’s the guy I want to meet. What underwater discovery you heard about still lingers in your memory as exciting? Click here for CBSNews.com “Robot submarine finds ‘holy grail of shipwrecks’ with up to $17 billion in treasure”

Pompeii keeps revealing her beauties even 270 years after the buried city was discovered. Newly revealed frescoes in a house, now called the House of Dolphins, show fish, birds such as peacocks, partridges and a parrot, deer and mythical beasts. Of the magical creatures sort, I spot a winged horse who might be bucking off his rider and a skinny sphinx—although I may have misidentified the latter. Of these photos I like the very evocative deer who has either been captured in a lasso or is pulling a cart, as near as I can make out. Ideas? I also find the partridge eating pears quite charming—who knew those two were connected as long ago as the Romans?  What associations does Pompeii bring up for you? Click here for Archaeology News Network “Spectacular Wall Frescoes Discovered At Pompeii”