Tybring Vig

Antler flaker, and tool used to make stone tools

Tybring Vig is an archaeological site in eastern Denmark. During the Mesolithic Era, around 6,000 years ago, it was on land, but it is now under about 10 feet (3m) of Baltic Sea water. It did not end up under water because of sea level rise in general, but because of the complex geology of Scandinvia; basically, the great weight of the ice sheet caused much northern Europe to sink, and after the ice melted things tilted in crazy ways. Tybring Vig tilted down and end up in shallow water under a bed of eelgrass that did much to preserve it.

A potsherd with preserved, burned residue that included misteltoe, which tastes terrible and so is an interesting thing to put in a stew.

The site was discoverted in 1975 and excavated between 1978 and 1988. It was occupied between about 5300 and 4200 BC. The actual habitation site seems to have been washed away; what was found was a trash dump, along with the grave of a 14-year-old mother and her baby.

What makes the site exciting is the preservation of stuff that rarely survived on land. Above is a largely intact paddle; the scale is 50 cm long.

And a fragmentary paddle with carved decoration; upper left is the original, lower right a reconstruction.

Canoes, which look exactly like all other canoes from Mesolithic Europe. The longer one measures 9.5 m long, or 31 feet.

Fabrics. One of these techniques is now known to recreators of Mesolithic weaving as the Tybrind Vig Stitch.

Antler ax.

Bow made of elm wood.

Part of a woven fish trap. It is humbling to ponder these artifacts and realize that 95% of ancient technology disappears from dry land sites.

Detailed description of the excavation methods at Tybrind Vig here.

Lynchburg, Virginia

My work in Danville wrapped up a few hours early, and I was due in Charlottesville (2.5 hours away) at dinnertime and saw no point in arriving early. So I decided to stop in Lynchburg, Virginia, a place I had never been, and see what was there. I liked this Art Deco office building.

General views of downtown.

My favorite thing was this stairway, which serves at the city's war memorial. Climbed the whole thing, so I guess my heart is really mending.

Confederate monument at the top.

Other wars.

Glad I stopped.

A Trip to Danville Part I

Got back early this morning from a three-day trip down to Danville. The main purpose was to attend public meetings about my project down there, but I also went into the field to check on the status of some sites we want to work on. My schedule was not tight, so I also had time for some exploration. It was the peak of Fall color and all three days were glorious, plus the meetings went well, so it was a great trip.

Plantation house ruin.

This crumbling factory must have been hidden by trees before, because it is on the road we drive from our hotel to the work site, and I never noticed it until Tuesday morning.

The hotel cat, which tried to come into my room when I opened the door one morning.

A cool graveyard just a few miles from our work site, which I explored for the first time.

Corner of an old house foundation.

A tenant house I suspect was built in the 1910s.

Two old barns. Finding this stuff in the middle of 3500 acres of woods was a great thrill. Even now that I know they are there, I still get a charge out of hiking a mile through the site and seeing them emerge from the vegetation in front of me.

Slawomir Debski on the Ukraine Peace Talks

On Twitter/X:

The fundamental obstacle to ending this war is that neither belligerent currently sees an available peace settlement that would secure its essential interests at a lower cost than continuing to fight. Negotiations can arrange prisoner exchanges and address other practical questions. But they cannot manufacture a political basis for peace where none yet exists.

For Putin, ending the war with a “victory” reduced to conquering the Donbas would create an enormous problem of historical judgment. Around 1.5 million Russian casualties, killed and wounded, to acquire another devastated stretch of Ukraine? Future generations of Russians might remember Putin as the opposite of a strategic genius: the ruler who squandered his country’s people, resources and international position for gains grotesquely disproportionate to their cost.

This helps explain Moscow’s determination to turn negotiations about its war against Ukraine into negotiations about a “new European security architecture.” Russia needs a prize larger than the Donbas. Weakening NATO, pushing the Americans out of Europe and acquiring a veto over its neighbours’ sovereign choices would provide one.

The historical precedent is clear. At the Berlin Conference in February 1954, Molotov proposed a European collective security system that would have displaced the Western alliances and relegated the United States to “observer” status. Today’s vocabulary is different; the strategic ambition is familiar. If war against Ukraine could deliver the displacement of American power from Europe, the Kremlin could present it as a historic success and draw dangerous conclusions about what further wars might achieve.

For Ukraine, the calculation runs in the opposite direction. However appalling the costs of resistance, capitulation could still cost more. What is at stake is the survival of an independent state and the continued existence of Ukrainians as a distinct political nation.

Putin’s account of Ukrainian history treats a separate Ukrainian identity as something cultivated by Russia’s enemies, including Polish elites and Austrian authorities. The dangerous implication is that what was supposedly constructed can be dismantled. Deportation, killing and forced Russification become instruments for undoing a nation whose independent existence the aggressor refuses to accept. From Kyiv’s perspective, surrender would therefore offer no reliable escape from violence. It could simply remove the means of resisting it.

Europe already has a security order worth defending. Its principles include sovereignty, territorial integrity and the freedom to choose alliances. Russia’s violation of those principles is a reason to enforce them, not to replace them with arrangements requiring Russian permission. . . .

That is the underlying impasse. Moscow wants a peace that converts aggression into a wider strategic victory. Ukraine needs a peace that preserves its ability to survive. Europe cannot accept Russian control over European security, and America has no sound strategic reason to facilitate it.

Little Moreton Hall

Little Moreton Hall is a charming house near Congleton in Cheshire, England.

The earliest parts of the house were built for the prosperous Cheshire landowner William Moreton beginning in 1504, and the rest was built by successive generations of the family until about 1610.

The Moretons seem to have been a rich family that got even richer by buying up a lot of land following the Black Death. That's what everybody says, anyway, but nobody cites any real sources. But, I mean, the Moretons were still there in 1504, which means they survived when many families did not, so there should have been land for sale. So, let's go with it.

According to the National Trust, 

The Civil War saw a dramatic change in the family’s fortunes. They were associated with the Royalist cause in a region that was dominated by Parliamentarians. As a result, William Moreton III and his son Edward were imprisoned in the early stages of the war and not allowed to return to his estate upon his release. The running of the household was left to his two daughters Anne and Jane. The Hall was confiscated by the government and the two women rented it back at an extortionate rate. They even had to contribute towards the costs of Parliamentarian soldiers and their horses. By the time William returned to the Hall, he had no hope of paying back his debts.

So the Moreton family was forced to rent out their main house and live in a smaller one. Like most rental properties, the house then began a long decline.

But then the property was inherited by Elizabeth Moreton (1821-1912), who had married well and had the money to begin the restoration of the house. She made important improvements, so it was in decent shape when it was acquired by the National Trust in 1937. 

One or more of the owners must have been worried about demons or witches, because it includes several of these hex signs, all in obscure places.

The most interesting thing about this is the house itself, which was built in a crazy by a series of craftsmen, with no overall architect, and the result has a charm that more coherent designs lack.

Early November

Above, wonderful days in the woods; below, in and around my yard.