love+archaeology+issue

8/13/2019 Love+Archaeology+Issue

1/58Love Archaeology Magazine 1


2/58

Meet the Team

Meet the Team...

Adrin Maldonado,General EditorOur resident early medievalist and

Pictish nerd, Adrin is as surprised as

you are that this magazine has come

together.

Terence ChristianCopy Editor/DesignTerences PhD is on WWII air wrecks.

Simultaneously, he has found the

boggiest and most remote places in

Scotland.

Rebecca YoungerCopy EditorBecca is a caffeine-addicted, henge-

obsessed PhD student at Glasgow

University.

Paul Edward MontgomeryCopy EditorPaul is interested in Vikings and public

archaeology. Oh, and bears.

Amanda CharlandCopy Editor/GearAmandas PhD is on Crusader castles.

She enjoys long walks on the beach

(i.e.her sites) & spotting A-listers in posh

Jerusalem hotels.

Jennifer NovotnyDesign and ProductionJen specialises in the Archaeology of

conflict and violence, which often leaves

her feeling conflicted and violent.

Ryan McNuttWeb/Copy EditorRyans PhD research focuses on

conflict archaeology, and is master of

Archaeology Berserkergang, specialising

in Bear-Fu.

Seumas BatesContent EditorSeumas is our Token Anthropologist,

currently researching the impact of

Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill on

the people of rural S. Lousiana.

Christy McNuttDesign and Production EditorChristy is a graphic Designer with a

love for bright, shiny things, and taking

pretty pictures of old stuff.

David WatsonDigital Design ManagerDave is an architect specialising in

building conservation and restoration.

He once dreamt that he was a building.

2 Love Archaeology Magazine


3/58

EditorialMaterial culture

for an immaterial worldWhere do we come from? Where are we going?Whats that coming over the hill?! Here at LoveArchaeology Magazine, we do not shy away fromthe big questions.

Issue 3 marks our third foray outside ourcomfortable academic bubbles and into the wildsbeyond. How long can we get away with this

colossal waste of time? Tune in to Issue 4 to ndout! That is, of course, if any of us survive theMayan Apocalypse. For any residents of The Futurewho are reading this, congratulations on not beingeaten by zombies/chosen for the rapture/engulfedby the CERN black hole/killed by the Bond villain evilplot that actually worked/consumed in the amesof the comet strike that totally happened eventhough we sent Bruce Willis to nuke it in the face.

As archaeologists, we are used to unearthingunspeakable ancient evils and endangeringhumanity by our overreaching quest for knowledge.

Therefore, we are uniquely well placed to study the

myths and monsters which are common to everyculture. In this issue, we do not intend to dwellon the inevitable end, but prepare you for yourinescapable role as lore-keeper/past-remembererin the post-comfortable period to come. This issuedeals with the ctions we invent to persuadeourselves that life has order and direction, andno, we dont mean history.

Unusually for archaeologists, this issue focuseson our immaterial culture. What do we modernpeople do now that we have the world at ourngertips? Pretend it doesnt exist and playSkyrim or go LARPing instead. What do myth-crafters Tolkien, Pratchett and Lovecraft havein common? A mastery for creating imaginaryrealms inspired by the detritus of antiquity. All thisplus the usual interviews, reviews and trenchsidetales. Join us once more and let us teach youhow to see the archaeology in everything. Andnot a single mention of Indiana Jones! Ah, shit.

Truly,

The Love Archaeology team

Now seeking content for Issue 4: The Sex Issue!Hit us with your best ideas [email protected]

Become a follower @LoveArchaeologyPut us on your wall at facebook.com/LoveArch

Daily archaeology action atlovearchmag.tumblr.com

mylittleCthulu

Love Archaeology Magazine 3


4/58

Contents

2 Meet the Team

3 Editorial

6 Watching Brief

7 Cabinet of Curiosities

8 Farewell to 2012

11 Scientic Sandbox

12 2012: Year of Early

Medieval Britain

18 Fashion Ramblings

22 Advice from theAncients

23 Viking Man: review ofthe Manx Museum

p8

p34

p30



5/58

24 Speculum Fantasia:Middle-Earth As MirrorFor Medieval Europe

28 Imagined Heritage

30 Lovecraft Archaeology

34 The Archaeology ofSkyrim

39 Living Fantasy

41 Let Other Pens Dwell

On Guilt And Misery 44 Neo-Neolithic:

the archaeology ofcontemporary henges

48 Restoring a ruin: Thegothic chapel

53 Careers in Ruins 56 The Backll

p41

p39

p24

p28



6/58

PORN CONFERENCEThe speakers have been announced for atitillating interdisciplinary conference at theUniversity of Warwick in April 10-12, 2013,entitled Erotica, Pornography and the Obscenein Europe. Presenters from a variety of researchareas will explore sex and sexuality in Europefrom 1600 to 1900. [See also Stuart Campbellsdiscussion of an erotic artefact on p.] You haveuntil March to register at their website. Kudos toattendees that manage to not giggle during theproceedings.

WHERE THE HOBBITSES ARE

When the Lord of the Rings lms were madeover a decade ago, the hobbit houses ofHobbiton were constructed with temporarymaterials at the request of the landowner uponwhich the scenery was located [See our articleon p28.]This time around, at the request ofthe landowner (who changed his mind), theyvecreated a permanent Hobbiton that fans will beable to visit. Plan your hobbit hols now!

QUALITY TIME-WASTINGGaming giant Bethesda are expanding theirhighly successful Elder Scrollsfranchise with theElder Scrolls Online, a new MMORPG, the releasedate for which is a tantalisingly vague 2013.

The game is set 1000 years before Skyrim, soget your mage on, while paying attention tothe changing material culture. As long as we allsurvive the Maya Apocalypse, obvs. [See ourarticle on the virtual material culture of Skyrimon p.34]

MONSTER MASHING

Medusas Gaze and Vampires Bite: The Scienceof Monsters(2012: Scribner) by science

journalist Matt Kaplan provides a scienticexplanation for everything from vampires to

zombies to dragons, and pulls back the curtainon Minotaurs maze and Merlins magic. Thisempirical approach is not always convincing, butis itself a great example of the timeless desire toexplain the world around us. [See our piece onTolkiens myth-craft on p.24]

FOOD ARCHAEOLOGY

Ever wondered what an extinct species wouldtaste like? Nows your last chance to eat thearchaeology without getting kicked out of themuseum. Hostess Brands, makers of American

pseudo-foods since 1930, have ofcially ceasedto be, and the last-ever shipment of Twinkies(cream lled cakes, in the loosest sense ofboth words) hit stores this month. [See ourblog]

Watching Brief

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/emforum/events/eroticahttp://www.hobbitontours.com/http://www.hobbitontours.com/http://elderscrollsonline.com/http://www.amazon.com/Medusas-Gaze-Vampires-Bite-Monsters/dp/1451667981http://www.amazon.com/Medusas-Gaze-Vampires-Bite-Monsters/dp/1451667981http://money.cnn.com/2012/12/12/news/companies/hostess-twinkies/http://lovearchmag.tumblr.com/post/38457601364/apocalypse-movies-and-the-materiality-of-america-byhttp://lovearchmag.tumblr.com/post/38457601364/apocalypse-movies-and-the-materiality-of-america-byhttp://lovearchmag.tumblr.com/post/38457601364/apocalypse-movies-and-the-materiality-of-america-byhttp://lovearchmag.tumblr.com/post/38457601364/apocalypse-movies-and-the-materiality-of-america-byhttp://money.cnn.com/2012/12/12/news/companies/hostess-twinkies/http://www.amazon.com/Medusas-Gaze-Vampires-Bite-Monsters/dp/1451667981http://www.amazon.com/Medusas-Gaze-Vampires-Bite-Monsters/dp/1451667981http://elderscrollsonline.com/http://www.hobbitontours.com/http://www.hobbitontours.com/http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/emforum/events/erotica


7/58

theme

title

7

Cabinet of CuriositiesStuart Campbell, Treasure Trove Unit, Edinburgh

One of the advantages in dealing

with chance nds is that

objects, and categories

of objects, can appear rather

unexpectedly. Recently the treasure

trove system has been swamped

in a tsunami of lth, its staff gazing

in horried fascination at obscene

objects of an increasingly depraved and

inventive nature. A notable example is this

pipe tamper of a man in a state of strenuous

arousal, clad solely in a top hat. The type of

hat, known as a beaver, dates the tamper to

1800-10. When we ask when and where such

objects would be acceptable (and conversely,

where they would offend) we can start toanswer questions about contemporary

society. Intriguingly, many of these objects

are snuff spoons and pipe tampers, evoking

a world of exclusively male sociability. There is

considerable evidence that obscene objects could

serve other functions beyond obvious ribaldry,

their limited social acceptability could exclude

those holding respectable opinions and create

social groups where controversial political and

social issues could be espoused in like-minded

company. Rather obviously, the gure is engaged

in the act of masturbation, popularly thought

to be both a moral evil and unhealthy by 18th

century medical standards. This debate had a

surprising social range from the sweaty palmed

hysteria of the journal Onaniasparking a public

debate between medical professionals pointing out

the absurdity and immorality of [the] doctrine in favour

of Onanism or masturbation,to the unfortunate Scottish

minister Daniel MacLauchlan being imprisoned for writing a

vile, abominable and obscene pamphlet, a debate ending

in the (metaphorical) waving of electrically charged

prosthetic phalluses, like dawn duellists become horriblyawry. It was easy to mock such mainstream views and

clubs such as the Beggars Benison used ceremonial

masturbation both to lampoon the formalities of

established clubs and to ridicule what they saw as the

narrowness of mainstream society.

Stuart Campbell is currently researching what other

people should be protected from and is presenting a

paper The Naked and the Seditious; a material culture

of Georgian erotic objects at the Erotica, Pornography

and the Obscene in Europe conference at WarwickUniversity April 10-12, 2013


8/58

Farewell to 2012


Why didnt the Mayan Apocalypse happen? Was it still a good thing for archaeology?

ARTHUR DEMARESTof Vanderbilt University sets the record straight.

The ancient Maya civilization has longcaptured the attention of both scholars

and the general public. It ts the most

romantic description of a lost civilization

with the deserted ruins of its sprawling cities

overgrown by jungle, its carved monuments

covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions in an

ancient tongue, and its temples with tombs

and treasures within them. Yet this enigmatic

civilization is also of great and serious scholarly

interest for many reasons. One of those is that

few highly complex societies have ever arisen

in a rainforest environment. Despite the thinsoils, few navigable rivers, and rich but fragile

environments of the subtropical forest, the Maya

civilization was able to achieve perhaps the

highest level of sociopolitical complexity of any

ancient Pre-Columbian society. At its apogee

between 400 B.C. and A.D. 900 the ancient

Maya states extended across a vast area of

Mexico and Central America. Yet by the end of

the rst millennium AD, these great cities were

abandoned to be covered in jungle and deserted

for centuries prior to their discovery.

A Palace at the Site of Palenque, Mexico.


9/58

While the Maya tropical forest adaptation and

their collapse have been the subject of much

recent archaeology, both scholars and the public

have also been intrigued with the evidence

in the ancient inscriptions and their ongoing

decipherment. The Classic period Maya created

a number of calendars based on their manycenturies of observations of the night sky. These

included detailed knowledge of the cycles of the

appearances of the sun, moon, Venus, Saturn,

and star congurations. They could even predict

eclipses of the sun, moon and Venus.

Perhaps most important of their time systems

was their count of days, the Long Count.

This was comparable to our own Gregorian

calendric dates which record the days, years,

decades, and millennia since the birth of Christ

as in November 10, 1952. The Maya, however,

counted time from a day of the present cycle

of creation which was the day expressed in

Above: Panel 3 of Cancuen Showing the Great Holy King,Taj chan Ahkand two sub-lords.

Below: Drawing of the Acropolis at the Site of PiedrasNegras, Guatemala.



10/5810 Love Archaeology Magazine

our calendar as August 13, 3114 B.C. Another

difference with the Maya calendar was that itrelied on their base twenty mathematics. Thus,

instead of counting in years, decades, and

centuries they counted short years (tuns of

360 days) in units of one (the tun), twenty

(the katun), and 400 (the baktun of 400 or

20x20 tunyears). Just like our own calendar

the Maya recorded dates since the beginning of

the current Great Cycle of time but using a

base twenty system, a much earlier start date,

and also appending to it identications of the

day in their other astronomically-based or ritual

calendar systems.

It is this Long Count of days since the start

date in 3114 B.C. which has led to the current

controversy about the supposed Maya prediction

of the end of the world on December 21 2012.

This date would have been an important

one since it marks the exact date of the end

of 13 of their 400 short year periods (13

baktuns). Undoubtedly the Maya would haveanticipated this date with anxiety and would

have then celebrated its arrival with great ritual,

ceremonies, and constructions. It represents

the culmination of years after 13, (a sacred

number), of its units of 400 years (20x20, the

other sacred number).

Nonetheless, it is a great misunderstanding to

think that the Maya would have believed that

this was the end of time and the apocalypse

ending history. Maya time was cyclical so whenthis Great Cycle of 13 baktunswould end, a new

one would begin. Furthermore, the Maya had

even greater cycles of time including a count of

20 baktuns, 20 of their 400 year periods. That

would not end until October 13, 4772 in our

calendar! Furthermore several Maya inscriptions

include prophecies about events thousands of

years into the future, obviously indicating that

they did not believe that the world would end

before those dates. Thus, the sensationalist

predictions of doom are baseless.

Nonetheless, the 2012 apocalypse predictions

have served a good purpose in drawing attention

to the study of the ancient Maya. Furthermore,

the leaders of the millions of modern Maya have

embraced in a positive way the concept of the

2012 end of the Great Cycle of 13 baktuns.

They believe that we should celebrate this date

not as an end, but as the beginning of a new

age, the opening of a better new cycle. This

new cycle, they propose, should be an era in

which the centuries of brutal oppression of the

modern indigenous Maya, descendants of the

great Classic Maya civilization. In that spirit on

this date we can all appreciate the greatness of

Maya culture, ancient and modern. We can also

be pleased that the archaeological study of the

ancient Maya has helped to bring attention, and

hopefully support, to the Maya peoples of today.

Further readingCoe, Michael D. 2011 The Maya. Thames and

Hudson.

Demarest, Arthur A 2004Ancient Maya:

The Rise and Fall of a Rainforest Civilization.

Cambridge University Press.

Van Stone, Mark 2010 2012: Science and

Prophecy of the Ancient Maya. Tlacaelel Press.

Carved Stelae of a Divine King of the Site of Copan,Honduras.


11/58

Scientific Sandboxby Dan Weiss



12/58

PhotoCam

bridgeArc

haeologicalUnit

2012: Year of Earl

Say goodbye to the Dark Ages: 2012 has seen an unprecedented amount of excavation on earlymedieval sites across Britain. Heres some exclusive, unpublished highlights of ongoing work.

TRUMPINGTON ANGLO-SAXON BED BURIAL Dr Sam Lucy, Cambridge Archaeological Unit

Developer-funded excavations at Trumpington Meadows, three miles south of Cambridge,revealed part of an Anglo-Saxon settlement (later 7th- to 9/10th-century) consisting ofsunken-featured buildings and one hall building, as well as a later phase of sub-rectangularenclosures. Associated with the earliest phase of settlement (later 7th century) was an alignedrow of four inhumation burials. These were all of sub-adults or young adults, and one wasa bed burial accompanied by a chatelaine and a gold and garnet pectoral cross. The bedconsisted of a wooden frame held together by metal brackets, with further pieces of loopedmetal xing the cross-slats to create a suspended bed base, similar to modern beds, but witha straw mattress. The discovery of the bed adds to the cluster of examples already knownin the Cambridge region, while the cross is the fth known from Britain (in addition to those

from Ixworth, Suffolk; Wilton Norfolk; Holderness and that found in St Cuthberts cofn). Theother known crosses are pendants designed to hang suspended on a necklace, whereas theTrumpington cross has a loop on the reverse of each arm, so that it could be stitched directlyonto either clothing or another material.



13/58

y Medieval Britain




LYMINGE ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT Dr Alexandra Knox (University of Reading)

Lyminge, Kent, is known as the location of anAnglo-Saxon double monastery establishedin the 7th century. Archaeologists from theUniversity of Reading, led by Dr Gabor Thomas,have been excavating within the villagesince 2008, locating the 8th and 9th-centurymonastic settlement. In 2010 we discoveredthe pre- Christian precursor settlement datingto the 6-7th centuries, represented by post-built structures and sunken-featured buildingscontaining a wealth of high-status materialculture, including the rst example of a plough

coulter from Early Anglo-Saxon England.

The project received funding from the AHRC in2012 to continue the campaign of excavationsfor a further three years; this work is targeting

Tayne Field, a large open site in the heart ofthe village occupying a low spur overlookinga fresh-water spring. Our inaugural campaignof excavation surpassed all expectations byrevealing the ground-plan of a massive timberassembly hall of a type found at CowderysDown, Yeavering and other early Anglo-Saxonroyal centres. We can provisionally date thehall to the late 6th-early 7th century as datableartefacts were found within its wall trenches, andradiocarbon dating will enable us to see if thisis might be one of the earliest Great Halls in

Anglo-Saxon England. This phase of the projectis delivered in collaboration with project partnersKent Archaeological Society and CanterburyArchaeological Trust. Find out more atwww.lymingearchaeology.org


15/58

HOLY ISLAND, LINDISFARNE David Petts (Durham University)

Despite its importance as a centre of earlymedieval Christianity in the Insular world, HolyIsland has seen very little recent archaeologicalwork. However, this autumn, thanks to fundingfrom National Geographic, archaeologists fromDurham University carried out the islands rstlarge-scale geophysical survey, covering around20ha in and around the village. The putativeboundary ditch for the monastery following theMarygate did not appear, but we have identiedan alternative boundary feature closer to thesite of the medieval priory that also aligns onelements of the surviving road system. We havealso identied a series of medieval enclosures,a possible prehistoric enclosure and mostspectacularly, a second cloister attached to themedieval priory. All this remains hypotheticaluntil we can ground-truth it through excavation,and we are currently looking for funds to do

this. In addition to the eldwork, we are also inthe process of pulling together all unpublishedarchaeological interventions on the island. Wevetracked down the archives from Brian Hope-Taylors little-known research on Lindisfarne(carried out 50 years to the day before we didour geophysics) and will be digitising his siteplans and sections. We are hoping to develop acampaign of new eldwork, so watch this space!

RHYNIE PICTISH STONEAND TIMBER HALL Dr Meggen Gondek

(University of Chester) andDr Gordon Noble

(University of Aberdeen)The Rhynie Environs Archaeological Project(REAP) has conducted two evaluativeexcavations (2011 and 2012) at the site ofthe Craw Stane, an in situ Pictish Class Isymbol stone. The project has revealed ahitherto unidentied high status complexdating to the 5th 6th centuries AD.

Features include an impressive timberpalisade enclosing the site alongside aseries of ditched enclosures. There is alsoevidence for elaborate timber entrancefeatures and pit structures associated withthe ditch terminals. Within the interior thereis evidence for at least one large timber halland other structures showing architecturaltechniques ranging from post-built, post andbeam, post and plan and plank-built. Many ofthe structures appear to have been destroyedin a catastrophic re. The nds from this

destruction layer are characteristic of earlymedieval high status sites and include sherdsof Late Roman amphorae, imported glass,and evidence of ne metalworking.

Photo David Petts

Photo REAP




TRUSTYS HILL PICTISH STONE AND HILLFORT Dr Chris Bowles, Scottish Border Council

Trustys Hill, near Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway, is best known for the Pictishsymbols carved into a natural rock outcrop at the forts entrance. However, in recent years,many historians have begun to doubt the authenticity of these carvings. The Galloway PictsProject, a recent collaboration between the local community, private sector and public sectororganisations and led by the Dumfriesshire and Galloway Natural History and AntiquarianSociety (DGNHAS), sought to nd out why there are Pictish Carvings here, so far from thePictish heartlands in the north-east of Scotland, and if the carvings are indeed genuine.

The re-excavation of Prof. Charles Thomas trenches from 1960 in May and June of this yeardiscovered exciting new evidence that the site was once a royal stronghold, including elitemetalworking, pins and brooches and a sherd of imported E-Ware pottery from the Loirevalley. The assemblage is in line with other hillforts ascribed a royal status such as Dunadd,Dumbarton Rock and Edinburgh Castle. The excavations also revealed the full sequence ofconstruction and destruction by vitrication of the ramparts, ending in the middle of the7th century. Finally, the feature called a guard hut by Thomas, located directly oppositethe Pictish symbols, proved to be a rock-cut basin with an arguably ritual signicance at theentrance to the fort. All of this led the excavators to conclude that Trustys Hill was a royalstronghold, perhaps the home of powerful kings of Rheged such as Urien and Owain. If this iscorrect, then a once obscure archaeological site can now be seen as being central to the earlymedieval history of Scotland.


17/58

MARYPORT ROMAN ALTARS AND LONG CISTS ProfIan Haynes, University of Newcastle and

Tony WilmottOur aim in 2012 was to review the full extent ofthe famous Maryport pits, rst uncovered in 1870.Discoveries in 2011 had made quite clear that the Romanaltars from these pits had not been interred in an act ofpiety, but as ballast for a timber structure. By the end of2012 we had identied 63 discrete pits, most disturbedby antiquarian investigations, but for one which had

been left untouched. It contained fragments of yet moreRoman altars, one dedicated by Titus Attius Tutor, prefectof cohors I Baestasiorum, a regiment known to have beenstationed at Maryport from the mid 160s to the early180s AD. But what was this structure?

An important breakthrough came when we uneartheda clutch of long cist burials in the NW end of the site.The graves do not encroach on the area occupiedby the timber structures, indicating that they werecontemporary. Two of these contained quartz pebbles,an indication of early Christian funerary rites. We eagerly

await the results of lab analysis of fragments of toothenamel, human bone, a mysterious wooden object, textileand a necklace which survived from these graves. Thissite was probably of particular importance to an earlyChristian community and, looking out across the Solwayon a clear day, one can perhaps see why this high pointwas chosen: it is intervisible with Whithorn, the cradle ofScottish Christianity.

DINAS POWYS HILLFORT

Dr Andy Seaman, University of CanterburyDinas Powys hillfort is the richest, bestpreserved and most fully excavated post-Roman secular settlement in Wales. Untilrecently the importance of the site wasunderstated due to the misdating andinterpretation of its defences, but re-evaluationof the nds and stratigraphy combinedwith radiocarbon dating has led to itsreinterpretation as a high-status socio-politicalcentre associated with the 5-7th centuryrulers of eastern Glamorgan. Nevertheless

considerable ambiguity surrounds therelationship between Dinas Powys hillfort andthe Tyn y Coed Earthworks or the SouthernBanks which lie 140m to the south. Thesewere surveyed in the early 1950s and trialtrenched by Leslie Alcock and Geoff Wainwrightin 1958, and have been variously interpretedas a prehistoric enclosure, a Norman siegework, a cattle corral, and an early medievalsettlement. The primary aims of the currentproject are to establish the date, form, andfunction of Tyn y Coed and ascertain their

relationship with Dinas Powys. Work so far hasfocused on survey and trial excavation, butlarger scale excavation is planned for 2013-14.

Photo Ian Haynes



18/58

Fashion Ramblings

Fashion

RamblingsEnd of the World EdionAmanda Charland



19/58

The temperature has dropped, the heating inthe Archaeology Department isnt working,and the subway is mobbed by people with

ridiculously oversized shopping bags. Yup, itsthat festive time of year again! The mood is onlyslightly interrupted by the seemingly endlesssupply of doomsday documentaries showing ushow to prepare for the next Armageddon/masseconomic breakdown/giant volcano explosion/

plague outbreak/zombie apocalypse. Ok, so theMayan Apocalypse was no big deal, but thereslessons to be learnt for archaeologists who haveto work in extreme conditions. Heres how to buildup your very own bug-out bag: the essentialsthat let you get the hell out of dodge and survive fora couple of days (if you cant outrun the zombiesfor this long, then youll just have to accept thatnatural selection has had its eye on you).

Disaster Plan

Before you set off you gotta have a plan. Youllneed a GPS unit. The Garmin Dakotais relativelyeasy to use. Make sure to splurge on the OS mapsfor your GPS (this isnt the time to go cheap) andmake sure to pack some extra lithium batteries.

Its also a good idea to buy a back up map. TheOS Explorer Active map is weather resistant.

A Backpack

Youre gonna need a pack big enough to keepeverything to quell your paranoia. Camelbaks

Vantage FT (Mens) and Vista FT (Womens)packs have great zipper access (top and side) soyou can grab anything you need without havingto unpack everything. The integrated AntidoteResevoir will handle some of your water needs.

Water

Eventually youll run out of zombie-free water.The Katadyn Hiker Procan connect directly toyour Camelbak hydration pack. It will filter up to1L/minute and remove bacteria, protozoa, cysts,algae, spores, sediments as well as reduce badtastes and odours. This system must be usedwith either the Katadyn Micropur Forte MF 1Tsilver ion and chlorine tablets or the AquamiraWater Treatment Dropsto ensure the removalof viruses. These tablets/drops are safe to ingestregularly, unlike iodine-based water treatments.



20/58

Stove

You never know how these finicky apocalypsesare gonna go, so you should get a multi-fuelstove. The Primus OmniFuel Stove will workwith LP gas, petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviationfuel (you know, should you come across anabandoned airplane, but cant fly it to safety).

A cheaper alternative is the MSR WhisperliteInternational 2012 Stove, which will run withgas, kerosene and unleaded fuel.

Cooking Pot/Utensils/Food

Nothing beats an old coffee can and a spork. Ofcourse, if youre not a coffee drinker, you can getan MSR Stowaway Pot. For food, stuff your bagwith trail mix and Snickers bars. For informationon tracking/killing/preparing food in the wildplease watch all series of Bear Gryllss BornSurvivor.

Fire:

Once youve distanced yourself from any potentialzombie onlookers itll be safe to build a fire. If youwant to go the traditional archaeological routeget yourself a flint and steel kit complete with

charcloth and hemp rope. (Heres a tip: includeanother smaller tin with a small hole piercing thelid inside your kit to make more charcloth asneeded). Or if youre lazy, you can use either afire pistonor a BIC lighter. As far as lighters go,nothing beats a BIC. Other high-end lighters orZippos may claim to be long lasting and windproofbut in hotter climates fuel evaporates quicklyand a flame created when its windy isnt anybetter than that made by a BIC. Avoid waterproofmatches: although the tips are waterproof andwill remain combustible, the tip will most likelybreak off of a wet stem.



21/58

Clothes:

Simple remains best even in extreme-conditions:always pack socks (Icebreaker and Smartwool arethe best) and long underwear; then layer up witht-shirts, a hoodie or fleece, and light trousers.My new favourites are Bear Gryllss BearSurvivor Full Stretch Trousers: they only

come in boy sizes but theyre really comfy, andsurvived me sliding down most of the Trotternishon my rumpits a long story. Staying dry andwarm separates the living from the zombie-food.For coats, always go synthetic rather than down:down is lighter and warmer, but as soon as youget it wet the heat will disappear (along with yourhopes and dreams of survival). Make sure to puta pair of extra socks into a waterproof bag, likethe Sea to Summit 35L Ultrasil Dry Sack.

Shelter and Sleeping:

Barring the occasional abandoned car orsecluded empty cabin, shelter may be hard tocome by. I lean toward the claustrophobic soIm all for a two/three person tent somethingroomy enough to store my gear in and havesome space to share. An affordable choice is the

Vango Mirage 300 Tent. For sleeping youllwant a close-fitting mummy bag that will suitlow temperatures (at least 0C). MountainHardwears Lamina 0 Reg is the warmest intheir range with a comfort lower limit of -12C.To make your stay comfier you can use a closedcell sleeping mat like Thermarests RidgeRestSOlite. You could use an inflatable mattress,but if it bursts your mood will surely be severelydeflated!

Other Useful Knick Knacks:

A head torch, in case you have to keep on the goat night; try the Petzl Tikka 2 Plus 2012.

Superglue: you can use it to close cuts until youfind medical help.

A towel. Because nothing says DONT PANICquite like your trusty towel.



22/58

Advice from the Ancients

ARE YOUR LYMPH NODES SWOLLEN?DO YOU EXPERIENCE SWEATING, ULCERS, SORES, OR FEVER?

YOU COULD BE

SUFFERING FROM

TALK TO YOUR

MONARCHABOUT TREATMENT

OPTIONS FOR THE

THE KINGS EVIL

DIRECTIONS FOR USE:WEAR THE TOUCHPIECE AROUND

YOUR NECK UNTIL ALL SYMPTOMS

HAVE COMPLETELY DISAPPEARED.

DO NOT REMOVE PRIOR TO

THE END OF THE COURSE OF

TREATMENT AND SPEND THE

TOUCHPIECE AS SOON AS YOU

LEAVE THE PALACE.

PRELIMINARY TEST RESULTS

SUGGEST THAT REGULARLY WASHING

IN ADDITION TO WEARING THE

TOUCHPIECE IS BENEFICIAL.

ONCE CURED, YOU MAY USE THE

TOUCHPIECE AS CURRENCY OR

CONTINUE TO USE IT FOREVER:

THE ROYAL TOUCH DOES NOT

EXPIRE.

At the first instance, contact your

local medical professional for

diagnosis. Due to an increase in cases

of fraudulent illness, you will be

asked to provide a certificate from

your village physician or local church

or government official.

Once you have your referral, head

directly to your monarch. Expect

lengthy delays as most often treatment

is limited to times before Easter or

Christmas. Your monarch will provide

you with prayers, scripture readings,

and a touchpiece* of precious metal.

CAUTION: SIDE EFFECTS MAY INCLUDE

INCREASED LEVELS OF SUPERSTITION ANDPRO-MONARCHISM.

*THIS OFFER IS LIMITED TO ONE T OUCHPIECE

PER SUBJECT.

THE KINGS EVILALSO KNOWN AS SCROFULA OR TUBERCULOUSCERVICAL LYMPHADENITIS.



Like many museums in distant areas, theManx Museum exists not only to showcasenatural and archaeological nds from the

region, but also to provide a narrative outliningthe communitys development into its presentform. It serves as the islands centre of displayfor history and ethnography and also acts as the

islands archive, National Trust, and headquartersof Manx National Heritage. Its located at the topof a hill overlooking the main part of the capitalof Douglas, so keep in mind that youll have towork for your museum gratication (quick tip:take the lift in the shopping centres car park toget you to walkways leading to the museum).

The museum follows the usual pattern ofprogression, addressing the islands geology andextinct ora and fauna before launching into a

chronological archaeology display. The prehistoricsection takes up a substantial area full of twistsand turns, with interesting explanations of howthe objects were made and how Manx prehistoryvaried from the period elsewhere. But the real starof the show is the Viking exhibit, which takes up agallery of its own. Despite the lack of known Viking

settlements on the Isle of Man, there are plenty ofsilver hoards, sculpture, burials and stray nds tokeep you amused with lots of bright, shiny things.For someone who studies the Vikings (like me, ifyou have not yet picked up on it), this is a chanceto see in person so many of the nds that appearin books on the subject. Among the highlightsfor me were a traders balance with animal-headed terminals, the skull of the sacricedslave girl from Ballateare and reconstructionsof a Viking man and the Pagan Lady of Peel.

After the magnicence of the Viking section, thefollowing medieval gallery pales in comparison. Itis quite small and only gives a brief look at somechurch art, which is somewhat disappointing afterthe attention given to the previous galleries. This isredeemed somewhat by the more modern galleries,including an endearing nook reconstructingpart of an old-fashioned schoolroom completewith excerpts from school masters records andrecollections of several Manx residents of theirown schooldays. Admission is free, but Im surethey wouldnt say no if you wanted to donate someof your Manx pounds before you leave the island.

For more info go to: www.gov.im/mnh/heritage/museums/manxmuseum.xml]

Elizabeth

Pierce

Viking Man: review of the Manx MuseumElizabeth Pierce

Elizabeth

Pierce

The closest thing to a horned helment on Man

Vikings: beard-conscious



SPECULUMFANTASIA:MIDDLE-

EARTH AS MIRROR FOR MEDIEVAL EU-

MIDDLE-EARTH AS MIRROR FOR MEDIEVAL EUROPESPECULUM FANTASIA:Mark Hall, Perth Museum



For Tolkien, writing in a time ofworld wars, the remains of thepast were a constant reminder of

moral decay in the bale betweengood and evil.

The Italians have a proverb: Se non e vero eban traveto, If it isnt true, it is a damn goodstory. All civilisations are inventions. Some

go on to be re-created as acts of archaeological andhistorical interpretation, but some do not achievematerial reality and remain ctive imaginings.To recognise this is to recognise that the roleof audiences is as crucial as that of authors andexperts, an audience that is actively involved increating and re-creating the worlds and historieswe read about. I suggest that the ctional world of

Middle-earth can be understood as the responseof one particularly keen audience member andstudent of history and mythology, and one who

sought to make his own set of meanings as anauthor. I am referring of course to J.R.R. Tolkien.This article hopes to follow both Tolkien, and oneof his great admirers and satirists Terry Pratchett,on their quests for meaning-making whileconfronting and critiquing our entangling past,both as audience and author to it.

J.R.R. Tolkiens Middle-earth (principally The Lordof the Rings, The Hobbit, the Silmarillionand theHistory of Middle-Earth series) is an active relicof popular culture, with millions of individualreaders and a mystied band of critics. It is a casestudy with particular relevance to the popularunderstanding of the medieval past.

Middle-earth distils Tolkiens fascination withlanguage, which for him dened reality. Indeedin a 1967 interview Tolkien remarks how theseed for Middle-earth was his childhood invention

of languages. This developed into a need toknow what the ancestral myths permeating the9th-century Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf wouldhave looked like. In many respects Tolkien wasconcerned with successive falls from successivegolden ages, with diminishment and passing.Inspired by his work as a scholar of ancientlanguages, he created a landscape scattered withruins and ancient material culture, especiallyswords, jewels and rings of power. Yet his concernwas more than just creating a new mythology,but countering his frustration at the fragmentarynature of the Anglo-Saxon past. For Tolkien,writing in a time of world wars, the remains of thepast were a constant reminder of moral decay inthe battle between good and evil.

Many of the words encountered in Middle-earthare not Tolkiens unique creations but stem fromhis exploration of medieval word origins duringhis time as a lexicographer for the Oxford EnglishDictionary. They include Arkenstone, Shelob,carrock, confusticate, dwimmerlaik, ent, haling,hobbit, Quickbeam, Smaug and Withywindle.The one I will single out here is mathom, a wordTolkien used to mean anything that hobbitshad no immediate use for, but were unwillingto throw away, as dened in the prologue ofthe Lord of the Rings. This word was commonin Old English and meant something valuable,an item of treasure, but its earliest form is 4th-century Germanic, where it referred to gifts or

something exchanged. A variant of it (mathum)is deployed in Beowulfto describe a dead kingsfuneral treasure. In Tolkiens Middle-earth theword is used by hobbits and the men of Rohan, thelatter most closely resembling elite Anglo-Saxonsociety, and is redolent with gift-giving and buried

treasure. It is a sign of Tolkiens inventivenessand his willingness not to be conned by theknown past that he changed the meaning of theword within its hobbit context to be somethingof no real worth but which you cannot quite partwith a humorous pointer to the anachronistic,unheroic, middle-class culture of the shire.

Tolkien also sought inspiration from historicalmaterial culture. In Middle-earth, swords arecenturies old and some follow a trajectory ofheirlooms (thus the shards of Narzil descend to

Aragorn and are reforged to become Anduril),while others are lost before their recovery in alater age. They are found in hoards of treasuresecreted in barrows and when recognised asold friends (or feared enemies) their names areimmediately recalled. This is not unlike what weknow of the trajectory of many early medievalswords. Swords were given personality throughtheir being named by their owners and evolvedthese personalities through their subsequentsocial trajectories, often over several generationswhen passed on as heirlooms, gifts or removedfrom burial chambers. Such realities of the lives

Tolkeins Rohan was modelled on Anglo-Saxon culture

NewLineCinema



of swords are reected in their mythopoesis,which of course adds narrative exaggeration, aswith King Arthurs sword Excalibur (with roots in

Bronze Age votive depositions) and the swordHrunting in Beowulf.

The book is given special signicance in Tolkiensconsideration of material culture and the structureor architecture of the Middle-earth narrative isheavily inuenced by this. The Lord of the Ringscycle is framed as history, based on stories fromthe ctional Red Bookof Westernesse and includingwithin its structure oral tales and songs. To a 13year-old boy reading Lord of the Rings for the rsttime this was one of its deepest and most beguiling

pleasures. I knew just enough about history atthat age for its texture and internal referencingof the Red Book to be entirely plausible and toprovide me with a sense of discovering somethingabout the past, though I never did nd the RedBookin bookshops or libraries.

But Tolkiens invented civilisation is also a productof its time, showing how narrative inventions stillreveal the biases and prejudices of their authors.Middle-earth is an androcentric world and it is anoft-repeated criticism of Tolkien that he createdinsignicant female characters. Certainly theJackson lms (with Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyensco-scripting) sought to soften this by foregroundingfemale characters in recognition that contemporarypolitics needed to be reected in their modern re-telling of the story. This is sometimes done witha sense of humour, for instance, by giving thedwarf Gimli dialogue in which he talks to Eowynwith sexual longing of female dwarfs and theirbeards. This is in acknowledgement of one ofTerry Pratchetts criticisms of Lord of the Rings,as in his invented civilisation of Discworld, allfemale dwarfs are bearded. Another long-held

criticism and uncomfortable truth of Lord ofthe Rings is its implicit racism, though perhapsEuro-centrism is a fairer criticism: we shouldremember that cross-ethnic pairings are crucialto Middle-earth, including Beren and Luthien and

Aragorn and Arwen and that the movement ofthe dark forces of the enemy from the east andsouth is an (admittedly unsubtle) reection of the

contemporary view of the 7th-century spread ofIslam into the fringes of Europe as a cataclysmicevent.

Finally in this abbreviated discussion of Tolkienwe should note that he saw his creation ofMiddle-earth as our own world, veiled in mythbut accessible through material culture for thosetuned to recognise it. Middle-earth was anotherterm he worked on for the OED and so was acutelyaware of its Old English meaning as the middle-region occupied by humans, between heaven

and hell, with a derivation as far back as the4th-century Germanic midjan-gards. He stressedseveral times in his writings that Middle-earth wasnot an imaginary place but a real place in whichhe set an imaginary story.

This is in contrast with another inventedcivilisation, Terry Pratchetts Discworld, which is aparallel world primarily concerned with exposingmyth, using a sharp-edged satirical wit. Differentbooks in the Discworldseries incorporate differentaspects of medieval material culture, myths andpolitics, including the Stone of Destiny (The FifthElephant) which forms the inspiration for TheStone of Scone an enormous rock-hard sconeupon which the Low King of the dwarves is alwayscrowed, which is stolen just prior to the coronation.Here, as already indicated above, the point is notto create a more satisfying history or mythology,but to tear down our own mythologizing of themedieval past. At the root of Pratchetts differentapproach is his adoption of a narrative contextof broad, satirical humour and Pratchett is onrecord as being inspired to write fantasy contraLord of the Rings. Pratchett adds a further level

of reexivity to this by weaving in post-medievalcultural categories of the medieval. Amongst thekey characters of The Wee Free Men,A Hatful ofSky and Wintersmith are the Nac Mac Feegle:tiny, blue, kilt-wearing, erce fairies or Pictsies,

WikimediaCommo

ns

Lord of the ringforts: Artists depiction of the ancient fortress on Amon Sul in the Eriador region of Middle Earth



a delightful pun on 18th- and 19th-centuryconcepts of the Picts. In terms of their genre andtheir exploration of the medieval they could notbe more different, but both authors display moralastuteness and a shrewd understanding of humanbehaviour.

Within fantasy, story comes rst and great

works of medieval-inspired ction includewhat purists would call anachronistic elements(Tolkiens hobbits for example drink tea) butmore importantly such anachronisms add tothe mirroring of our own world which amidst itsmodernity has its medieval roots exposed. Morethan this though, imagined realities have been anever-present part of the human drive to explainand adapt through narrative. Archaeological andhistorical explanations are driven by an honestlymeant desire to be objective, yet often prefera narrative form. The paradox has grown as aconsequence of the fantasy / truth split. On the

one hand invention and mythopoesis are partof the human condition and so help activate themute archaeological record. On the other hand, ina contemporary context we require an objectiveseparation between archaeological, scientic, fact-centred analysis of reality and narrative desires.It can be hard to separate fact from ction whenction is a fact of existence. Pratchetts fusion offact and ction is about the blend rather than theseparate entities it is not seeking to prove anancient reality nor to deceive us, but to remindus about the contemporary relevance of the past

and present and its abilities to expose the tricks ofpower and capitalist-fuelled consumerism.

Both Tolkien and Pratchetts mirroring of the pastattest to a popular desire for giving the past a

coherent narrative. The popularity of both hasbeen endorsed and extended by adaptations intoother media, including TV and radio adaptations,cartoons, and lms. Further blurring the boundarybetween fact and ction the lm adaptation ofLOTRhas also generated a blockbuster museumexhibition, showing a pervasive desire for mythsto be real. In the absence of a compelling narrativeof the medieval past, a part of the public prefersto experience the medieval as ltered throughthese authors visions of it.

Myths of course are as much about what wewant or would wish to have happened asaccommodating what actually happened. Historyand the earliest archaeology were concernedwith producing narratives of national and social

identity but today as academic disciplines havebroken away from an authoritative view of thepast. They are no longer tasked with creatingnarratives but pointing towards deeper truths andplural voices, as exemplied by Pratchetts post-modern Discworld vision of the medieval past. Asan academic and an author, Tolkien demonstratedthat one can pursue separately fact and ctionand that each can inform the other, but he alsoinvented to suit his story. As a consequence, Icannot be the only person who, in part at least,

ended up a medievalist or an archaeologist or anhistorian after reading Lord of the Ringsin onesyouth.

Perhaps archaeologists and historians shouldwrite more narrative constructions but shouldthese form part of their analysis of the past? Weneed to be aware of our own and our audiencesdesires to know all and to subvert the past to anideal reality but we should not produce myths inlieu of not knowing. On the other hand, we shouldnot feel threatened by the range of alternative

readings produced by writers and lm-makers orindeed the public, since a literary work can havemeanings far beyond an authors intention

Note and thanks

This paper is an amended and re-focussed versionof a paper originally published on the EAA blogat http://e-a-a.org/blog/?p=219, itself a slightlyamended version of the paper given at the EAA

Annual Meeting in Zadar, Croatia, September2007. It was read at the session on Invented

Civilisations organised by Cornelius Holtorf andMichael Jasmin. This new version has benefted

from several insights offered by Adrian Maldonado.

Pratches fusion of fact and ctionis about the blend rather than theseparate entities

WikimediaCommons

Tolkiens rings of power were inspired by Old Norsemythology and Viking artefacts



Perhaps the most striking thing about theoverlay of the fantastic world of The Lord ofthe Rings onto the landscape of New Zealand

is the lack of materiality.

Before I go any further, I should say that I am nota New Zealander, but I live with one and I spentabout 9 months in the country in 2010 enjoyingthe landscape, the heritage, and the hospitality of

his family members, several of whom appeared inthe lms. This was right in the middle of variousscandals concerning the making of The Hobbit:the rst director had quit and we decided that itwas as good a time as any to sit in the apartmentof an elf veteran of the Battle of Helms Deep andwatch the extended versions of all three lms.

Why werent you in the lms? I asked mypartner. Because I had a job, was his response.Fair enough. Not that it sounded like that muchfun; our elven companion told us that there wasa microphone in her bow and that their costumes

were so tight that they couldnt sit down, just lieprone on blankets between takes.

We had previously passed Helms Deep, or shouldI say Dry Creek Quarry outside of Wellington,

when we were out driving. The set is entirely goneand it is a working quarry again. We were on ourway to buy pyjamas: Helms Deep just happenedto be by the side of the road. It seems like muchof LOTRis on the way to pyjamas, the mechanics,or Burger Wisconsin.

We took things a few steps further after I founda book in the local library outlining where various

parts of the lm were shot. A decade had passedsince the rst lm came out and I was eagerto see what was left. We piled into a car (alongwith another elf veteran of Helms Deep), andwent to the lming locations that are reasonablyaccessible to Wellington. We had lunch at Isengard(Harcourt Park, Upper Hutt City). Although Sir IanMcKellen was reportedly in town that week, hewasnt there, nor was there anything left from thelm. The book instructed us to look for a particulartree which we arent sure we found. We did ndeverything we needed for a round of frisbee golf,

though, save the frisbee.

Rivendell (Kaitoke Regional Park) was a bit moreimpressive. The area was beautiful even if I didhave to walk across a terrifying cable bridge

Dr. Donna Yatesreects upon the (im)material legacy of The Lord of the Rings lms in New Zealandand how ephemeral locations from lms based on a work of ction are still on the real-world tourist trail.

IMAGINED HERITAGE

JanBrophy

The set of Hobbiton used for the original LOTR lms near Matamata, New Zealand



over the River Anduin (Upper Hutt River). All theactual sets from the lm are gone, of course, butthere is signage up with stills from the lm thatencouraged visitors to imagine Rivendell as stillbeing there. Yes, they were asking us to imaginea lm projection of an imagined literary invention.

Near Mt. Victoria, right in the heart of Wellington,

we found ourselves in the woods where Frodoand the gang were chased by a Nazgl on theway to Bree. The area is signed as Hobbit Trailand we are pretty sure we found the right tree tohuddle under. The archaeologist in me came outand I insisted that I could see the modicationcuts made during the lming of that scene, but Iwas making that up. I cant fully express how inthe middle of town those woods are; they feelso remote in the lm. However, in real life youcan see into the back gardens of all the studentats clustered in that area. It was within walkingdistance of the movie theatre in which all of the

LOTR lms premiered.

In a way, The Lord of the Rings came and wentleaving little in the way of material culturein its wake. The blockbuster museum exhibitmentioned in this paper ended, and Te Papa,New Zealands national museum, didnt acquireany of the items from it: that stuff is owned byPeter Jackson and Weta Studios. According tomy elf source, who also happens to be a historicpreservation expert, most of the sets and propsthat were made for the lm were formed out of

strange plastics that degrade over time and wouldhave been a nightmare to curate. Apparently theless ephemeral props (think real swords and realrings) were given to relevant cast members. Wordis that the new Hobbiton for the upcoming Hobbitlms has been made of more permanent materialand will stay up and in place, a nod to the tourismpotential of the lms.

But honestly, you dont really need the sets: NewZealand is just naturally a fantasy landscape forthose of us who are not from there. The running

joke as we looked out over the Karori Valley whilewe drank morning coffee was that if the ofcialHobbit lm fell through, we could just makeone ourselves. Grab a video camera, round upsome extras from the lm, and just stick themout there on a hillside. New Zealand looks like afantasy novel, it doesnt even have to try, whichis why everyone lms there: Willow (1988),The Chronicles of Narnia instalments The Lion,the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and PrinceCaspian(2008), and Bridge to Teribithia(2007),to name just a few.

In a way, the lack of materiality forces you backinto the serious business of imagining. For everysuper-fan who felt that the lms didnt do justiceto their own mental construction of Middle-earthmateriality, New Zealand sits as a convenientbackdrop onto which you can project your owninvented structures

DonnaY

ates

Heritage: its all in the mind



Lovecraft Archaeology

There is something Lovecraftian aboutarchaeology. Fumbling for some ancient andsecret truth. Searching in the dark. On the brink

of revealing something truly amazing about thehistory of humankind and our ancestors. In thezone between human and non-human, the livingand the dead. Powerful amulets and magicalobjects. Death, mystery, horror, the occasionalcurse. Large brown rats with human faces andlittle hands. Well, maybe not the last one, beinga description of the disturbing creature known asBrown Jenkin which haunted a student of Non-Euclidean calculus and quantum physics in HPLovecrafts 1933 tale The Dreams in the Witch-house. Dabbling with science digging (inboth senses of the word) where one should not ending badly is a trope of horror ction. ButLovecraft was especially adept at dredging up theancient and the disturbed (again, in both sensesof the word), and making old stuff seem weird andsinister. And as such, when Lovecraft did dwell onantiquities and archaeological sites, the outcomewas generally not good.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft was born in Providence,Rhode Island, in 18901. An unassuming character,he was a prolic writer of weird ction, a blend offantasy, horror, science ction and ghost stories,

with the most productive period of his career inthe 1920s and early 1930s. During his lifetime, hewas relatively unheralded, and as with so manyauthors, only became appreciated after his death.His highly distinctive prose style overblown yet

precise, colourful but creepy was displayed overa range of genres, and published as short stories,novellas or in serials in colourful magazines such

as Weird Tales. In many of his stories, Lovecraftdrew on a peculiar mythology that he himselfcreated, known as the Cthulthu Mythos, where heportrayed a world that had once been populated byancient, alien, elder beings, which had in some wayinterfered with (or engineered) humanity, and withthis came a recurring retinue of stock monsters,cult texts and sinister New England locations.(Lovecraft was an accidental founding father of

alien archaeology, later popularised by Erich vonDaniken2.) Lovecrafts world, often normal on thesurface, was beneath the faade a seething massof indescribable creatures with multiple tentaclesand unpronounceable names (Tsathoggua, Mi-Go the Fungi from Yuggoth). Secret informationwas imparted about thisMythos through a seriesof grimoires3, bizarre and dangerous books that

recur again and again in Lovecrafts writing,notably the Necronomicon, and the wonderfullynamed UnaussprechlichenKultenby Friedrich vonJunzt. Despite the schlocky nature of much ofwhat HPL wrote, populating cheap magazines and

Lovecrafs fiction is all about the past

and its secrets. Tough he was a deep

lover o antiquity, he was also araid

o it.

WikimediaCommons

LOVECRAFTKenneth Brophy delves into the mysterious worlds of H.P Lovecraft

ARCHAEOLOGY



science ction anthologies, his work has provedenduringly popular and inuential, inspiring thelikes of Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Robert EHoward, Brian Lumley and Neil Gaiman.

What does Lovecrafts ction have to do witharchaeology? Lovecraft rarely explicitly discussedarchaeology per se, one rare exception being a

bizarre serial adventure he ghost wrote for HarryHoudini in 1924 entitled Imprisoned with thePharaohs (aka Under the Pyramids). Yet traces ofthe past, in the form of material culture, ruins,rock-art and creatures are consistent themes ofLovecrafts stories, with an underlying antiquariansensibility. When such things crop up they arealmost always viewed as indicative of somethingsinister. Lovecrafts ction is all about the pastand its secrets. Though he was a deep lover ofantiquity, he was also afraid of it: in his stories,aberrant things lurk in dark attics and ancienttexts. Looking too closely into the past leads to

terror, madness and death4. Lovecrafts ction ininfused with a range of scientic interests that hehad, from astronomy to chemistry, and his writingdrew on the conventions of scientic reporting, astyle that when combined with the weird and evil isparticularly chilling. The nest example of this arereports delivered after a disastrous expedition to

Antarctica which form Lovecrafts nest work, Atthe Mountains of Madness(1936), which includesa tense alien autopsy in shocking detail. In thisvein Lovecraft drew on archaeological informationavailable to him at the time, which includedHoward Carters famous dig at Tutankhamunstomb in 1922 (and associated curse), todeveloping theories on hominid evolution, in theform for instance of Piltdown man (half human,half ape), discovered in 19085.

Lovecrafts work drips with (pre)history, sometimesancient and primordial, a deep history that iswritten into the fabric of buildings, memories andeven the bodies of individuals. This was not thepast of history books or archaeological excavations(archaeologists almost never appear in HPLs workto mediate the traces of the past for the reader),but mythologised histories, whispered reminisces,very often articulated through unease rather thannostalgia. Rather like the writings of archaeologists,

Lovecraft presented narratives of how the worldmight have been, displaced in time yet xed inreal places. Michael Houellebecq has written ofthe balanced role played by archaeology andfolklore in Lovecrafts ction6; often this is playedout in tension between stock educated characters(students, academics, scientists, artists) and the

Pah

ko-W

ikimediacommons

Above: Depiction of Shoggot, from LovecraftsAt the mountains of MadnessPrevious page: Portrait of Lovecraft



simple country folk of Massachusetts who knowmore than they are letting on. And this device inturn creates tension, fear, suspicion and a lot ofthis energy emanates from mysterious buildingsand ruins that make no sense to the educated

outsider; the singular angles described by themoss-grown rows of grey standing stones (Thedreams in the Witch-house), the ruined edicesat the bottom of the ocean (The Temple), the

ghoulish, decapitated steeple in Innsmouth (TheShadow over Innsmouth); a great black stonewith unknown hieroglyphics (The Whispererin Darkness) and so on. The past was a centralmeans by which Lovecraft generated what he

called cumulative horror7.

Perhaps the greatest example of Lovecraft pullingall of these themes together objective andcalm reporting (under terrifying circumstances),distance-learned archaeological titbits, ancientsymbols and structures, and the Cthulhu Mythosof pre-human manipulation is to be found inthe story The Rats in the Walls(rst published in1924). Unusually this tale is set in old, not New,England, at Exham Priory to be precise (based onHexham Abbey in Northumberland, which has a

remarkable and ancient crypt). The narrator of thestory has been restoring the Priory; the ancientpartially ruinous building has a dubious historyassociated with his family, and was built on thelocation of older structures, certainly Roman, and

probably a druidical temple where indescribablerites must once have taken place (which prettymuch sums up a lot of conclusions reached inNeolithic studies). The foundations and ruins ofthe Priory had been a source of local disquiet (thecountry folk hated it but antiquarians loved it) andthe narrator could not source any locals who wouldwork on the renovations. Roman inscriptions in

the cellar were a further source of dread. DIV OPSMAGNA MAT was one such inscription, apparentlyfecund with suggestions of Roman ceremonies,orgies and cult activity. Subsequently Anglo-Saxons expanded this temple until a weirdmonastic order had taken hold by AD1000. Thiswas a place with a dark history, associated withthe narrators bonkers ancestors, a ruin withfearful qualities, regarded with fear and suspicionby the local populace.

Needless to say things did not turn out well for thenew occupant of this pile, and soon the narratorwas down in the cellars, poking about in fantasticalRoman ruins with implements of excavation tryingto work out what was bothering his cat (whichhad a name which reects Lovecrafts racism,revealed in particular in his letter writing)8. Theinvestigation drew on the skills of a Dr Trask, ananthropologist, Sir William Brinton, some kind ofarchaeologist, and Capt. Norrys, a friend. Therefollows a journey through the bowels of thebuilding into a network of caverns and caves thatdrives most of them mad. Amidst the ruins wasfound a ghastly pile of bones, gnawed by rats;

Lovecraft did not display archaeological sensitivitywhen he described the skulls as denoting nothingshort of utter idiocy, cretinism, or primitive semi-apedom. A huge cavern was then found, whichcontained a confusing palimpsest of archaeologicalsites: a weird pattern of tumuli, a savage circle ofmonoliths, a low-domed Roman ruin, a sprawlingSaxon pile, and an early English edice of wood.More piles of bones were found, representingindividuals lower than the Piltdown man in thescale of evolution. A crude excavation of one ofthe tumuli revealed skulls slightly more human

than a gorillas. It all ends very badly.

This is a remarkable story, a relatively minorelement of the Lovecraft canon, and yet it capturesa sense that if we go digging about underground,or looking in dark corners, for answers then wemay not like what we nd. Lovecraft seems to besuggesting that when we excavate, we excavateourselves, and some things from the past containsecrets that we should not meddle with (suchsecrets are not good for mankind). Perhaps thisreects general reservations that Lovecraft hadabout the impact of science, concerns which heraised in his copious letter writing (it is estimatedhe wrote at least 100,000 letters during hislifetime)9. Yet Lovecraft clearly retained a respectand fascination for science and the conventions

Pant

her/H.P.Lovecra

f

Ian Miller cover of Panther Horror edition of At theMountains of Madness (1974)



of scientic analysis and reporting. The weirdestdiscoveries made by Lovecraft charactersremained within the scope of academia, viewedas too strong for public consumption. Papers andles associated with the events of his story TheCall of Cthulhuwere, so the narrator tells us, tobe published by the American Archaeological

Society. And perhaps also Lovecraft felt that acareer spent researching the past was dangerousand wrong-header. One key character inLovecrafts early writing was an antiquarian calledCharles Dexter Ward10. For HPL, Ward was a mancaught up in the past, fascinated with it, to hisown personal cost: With the years his devotionto ancient things increased; so that history,genealogy, and the study of colonial architecture,furniture, and craftsmanship at length crowdedeverything else from his sphere of interests (Thecase of Charles Dexter Ward). And Randolph

Carter, another recurring character in a numberof other stories, was also an antiquarian. Inthe story The Statement of Randolph Carter, aninvestigation into a crypt in an ancient cemeteryis undertaken; the place smelt of rotting stoneand excavations quickly allowed miasmal gasesto escape. Once again, this digging adventureended in death and madness. Lovecrafts horriblefascination with antiquarianism, and the placesand objects of the past, are reinforced by the factthat most authorities accept both Ward and Carterwere thinly veiled autobiographical characters11.

Ultimately, the pleasure of reading the worksof HP Lovecraft12 comes not from looking toodeeply for hidden meanings, or carrying out ourown excavations of his writings. Yet, even so,deep down, I cannot rid myself of the feeling thatthere is something hidden and unmentionable inhis sacred texts still waiting to be found. I feelqueerly drawn to carry out further investigations,even although just last night I was awoken frommy dreams in a frenzy of screaming. And whatarchaeologist has not thought, in secret momentsof weakness, stupendous and unheard-ofsplendours await me below, and I will seek themsoon13

References:

1. Houellebecq, M 2006 HP Lovecraft: against theworld, against life. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

2. See von Danikens pseudoarchaeological classic, The

chariots of the Gods (1969) for starters

3. See www.hplovecraft.com for a list of creatures,characters and texts from Lovecrafts writing

4. http://archaeopop.blogspot.co.uk/2009/06/archaeology-in-ction-hp-lovecraft.html

5. Russell, Miles (2003), Piltdown Man: The Secret Life ofCharles Dawson & the Worlds Greatest ArchaeologicalHoax, Stroud: Tempus

6. Houellebecq 2006, page 75

7. From August Derleths much reprinted foreword tomany HPL anthologies, H.P. Lovecrafts Novels.

8. Houellebecq 2006, 105-9

9. Dziemianowicz, S 2010 Terror eternal: theenduring popularity of HP Lovecraft. http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publ isher-news/art ic le/43793-terror-eternal-the-enduring-popularity-of-h-p-lovecraft.html

10. And see http://pages.vassar.edu/anth331/?tag=h-p-lovecraft

11. Joshi, ST & Schultz, DE 2001 An HP LovecraftEncyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing.

12. HarperCollins are the most recent publishing houseto release the complete works of Lovecraft in threevolumes: At the Mountains of Madness, Dagon andother Macabre Tales, and The Hunter in The dark. Thesecollections were initially compiled by HPLs colleagueand publisher, August Derleth

13. HP Lovecraft The shadow Over Innsmouth (rst

published in 1936)

Once again, this digging adventure

ended in death and madness

Lancer/H.P.Lovecra

f

Detail of Lancer edition of The Dunwich Horror (1971)


34/58

The Archaeology of SkyrimIs it crazy to look at the archaeology of a video game? Of course not! Is it an elaborate ploy to intel-lectualise and legitimise our Skyrimaddictions instead of tackling our actual research? Maybe! Twoof our massive nerdsJen Novotnyand Seumas Batestake a closer look at the material culture of

the immaterial world of Tamriel.

Skyrimis the highly successful newestinstallment to Bethesda Softwares long-

running Elder Scrollsfranchise. After Skyrimsrelease in November 2011, the gaming websiteVGChartz reported that 3.4 million retail (notcounting digital) copies of the game were soldin two days. If youve never played a sandboxstyle game like Skyrimbefore, you dontknow what youre missing. The game is set inSkyrim, the mountainous northern province ofthe mythical continent of Tamriel. The worldavailable to experience is larger than severalsovereign states, coming in at almost 40 squarekilometres, and the diversity of ora, fauna and

opportunities for social interaction is staggering.As a player, you have freedom to explore almost

every corner of this map at a time and pacethat suits you. The game doesnt force you into

action, instead it gives you the opportunity toact and the tools to make this happen.

The popularity of games and virtual worldsbegs investigation because they offer hoursof deeply immersive entertainment to an everincreasing number of players. Sociological andanthropological research has been conductedin virtual environments for over a decade,and Rice University will be offering the course

Scandinavian Fantasy Worlds: Old Norse Sagasand Skyrim this year. As virtual environments

get more visually and texturally realistic,archaeologists should take notice.

Your inventory is full: virtual material culture

Can we apply archaeological thinking to Skyrim,and more importantly, why? There is, in fact,archaeology actually occurring in Skyrim. Thereare 3 different excavations you can exploreas dungeons: Ansilvund, Nchuand-Zel, andSaarthal. At the latter, you meet a balding, robedresearcher who is in charge of the exploration

of this ancient ruin of the Nords (the indigenousethnic group of Skyrim think Vikings). Ofcourse, Skyrimmaintains archaeologys popculture reputation as treasure-hunting in thisinstance you are tasked with nding magicalartefacts in the form of enchanted rings and anamulet. Except in this world, you dont have torecord, clean, or conserve the artefacts; theyare simply yours to keep!

There has been a growing interest in virtualmaterial culture in the past ve years, once itbecame apparent that playersof online games would payreal-world money for virtualgoods. Play any free gameavailable on Facebook andyou will quickly notice thatwhether you have a virtualfarm, city, kingdom, house,or pet, the coolest, cutest,or newest items requirespecial game credits thatcant be earned, but have tobe purchased with real cash.

In fact, virtual economieshave become astoundinglylifelike. The rst attempts tostudy virtual material culturefocused on Second Life,

the virtual world created in 2003. Second Liferequires much more user input than Facebookgames; Second Lifers build their virtual worldsfrom the ground up. In this user-createdenvironment, the design of items like clothing,furniture, and household objects became a wayfor a player to earn real money for their virtual

creations, blurring the line between the virtualand real worlds.

In games like Skyrim, the ability for user-created content is much more limited,though modding on the PC is encouraged.But the folks at Bethesda have paid anastonishing amount of attention to theobjects in Skyrim. Nearly everything youencounter can be picked up, dropped,knocked over and kicked.Weapons, tools and clothing can

be equippedand used, andraw materials likeplants, leather andores can be craftedinto objects. Thereare hundreds of otheritems which arent evenparticularly useful orexciting; you can pick up,but not use, spoons, forks,dishes, brooms, buckets,irons, kettles, and any

number of other mundanethings. Certain items can beexamined in even furtherdetail: books can be readpage by page and special

2011Bet

hes

daGameStudios

2011 Bethesda Game Studios

curiousintellectuals



35/58

quest items can be rotated and zoomed in on fora closer look. Even the loading screens featureobjects. Instead of showing landscapes or artisticscenes like Skyrims predecessor, Oblivion,these placeholders highlight a randomly selected

item which you canrotate and zoomwhile you wait for

your dungeon toload. A shieldcan be rotated

all the way arounduntil you can see

how the handle isattached at the back,

you can zoom in to seethe carved patterns in astatue, or you can spina sword until the light

glints off the blade

With the release of theHearthfre downloadablecontent (DLC) inautumn 2012, an addedlevel of virtual materialengagement arrivedto Skyrim. The add-onallows you to build ahouse from the groundup, allowing for greater

customisation than theready-made housesfor purchase in normalgameplay. After a briefbut suitably heroic quest

in one of three provinces, the player is offeredan empty plot of land upon which to constructtheir dream home. While the core options are allthe same for each of the three locations, thereare place-specic quirks. For instance, the ploton the misty edge of a northern lake comes witha sh hatchery, whilst another in the agrarianheartland has a beehive that can be harvestedfor honey.

Building a house involves crafting nails, hinges,and locks from iron, quarrying stone andclay and purchasing lumber. You can quicklyconstruct a simple, one-room dwelling thatmeets all of your accommodation needs, butwho on earth would stop there? A much moresubstantial great hall can be added to the backof the original one-room house, which becomesmerely the entryway. Then the real fun begins

and the player may choose one of three optionsfor each of the remaining sides. Are you aghter, not a lover? Build yourself an armoury.Is that hanging cauldron inhibiting your culinaryaspirations? Build a separate kitchen wing withfunctioning oven.

Obviously, the first wing I constructedwas a library tower because I am anerd in both my real and virtual lives;

and besides, the view from the top isbreathtaking.

Health and safety nightmare




Once you choose between the many roomoptions, you can start customising thefurnishings. You can show off your huntingprowess with mounted antlers or taxidermiedanimals. Again, these are crafted from rawmaterials you gather and manipulate; my stuffedsnow bear required a pelt, claws and straw,

and the display base had to be constructedseparately of clay and stone.

Constructing objects in Skyrimadds to thealready high level of material engagement in thegame. Breaking a virtual object down into itsconstituent parts adds realism, but it also makesyou view objects in the game differently. I nownd that when I move throughout the world, Iinvoluntarily consider an objects components.That shrine to a strangely-named deity is madeup of malachite, a few silver ingots, panes of

glass, and a awless sapphire - and I can makeone for the cellar shrine at home.

Despite the fact that the stuff in Skyrimisvirtual, I would argue that our reaction to it cantell us a lot about how we interact with real-

world material culture. I became convinced ofthis as I watched my partner spend 20 minutesof game play obsessively manoeuvring objectsinto place on a shelf in his newly purchasedhouse (a spacious stone mansion built bydwarves; I went for a more modest two-storeywooden house, myself). Moving items aroundin Skyrimis a nicky, frustrating process. Itssimple enough to pick up or drop an item you just press a button. But to move an itemaround, you have to hold down a button until atelekinetic bond is established, then ddle withthe left and right sticks and triggers until theitem is levitated into place. The sheer annoyanceof telekinesis and my partners willingness toendure it says something about his dedication todoggedly trying to shift items into their properpositions.

As he arranged his virtual artefacts, he proudlytold me that he had earned each of the

unique items in the Thieves Guild questline(he promised me he would go straight oncehe established a comfortable nest egg, but Inow suspect that hes become an assassin)and wanted to display them all together ona shelf in his sitting room. I could mock him,but Im just as bad. Both of us collect rare orinteresting books that are scattered throughoutdungeons, simply to have them on our shelves.Some books offer skill boosts, but these are

just for show. Similarly, I will frequently changemy characters armour and clothing, not just

for practical reasons like bodily protection, butbecause I feel like I should wear a nice dresswhen I try to barter for goods, and I cant bearto un-equip the amulet given to me by theArchmage before he died.

Hmmm... library or armoury?




37/58

Its clearly not just us; numerous Skyrimwikistell you in minute detail where to nd all sortsof unique items and pieces of kit. I take this tomean that the emotional bonds that my partnerand I were forming with Skyrims immaterialmaterial culture are shared by lots of otherplayers. It doesnt matter if its real, it seemsthat we psychologically interact with virtual

material culture in much the same ways that wedo with actual material culture.

In this instance, an ersatz world makesus reflect upon the physical world inother words, fake things can be just asengaging as real ones.

Heart shaped axe: digital material culture and binary attraction

Let me describe my yesterday to you; I got up,went to the ofce, had dinner with a friend,came home, fought off a massive dragon thatwas attacking a small farm near where I live,went to bed. Thats right folks, I play Skyrim,and so should you, because experiences like thisare part of a hugely important shift in this thingwe call living in this place we call modernity. Ashift which is causing a persons self, communityand entire culture to become partially digitizedand exist online. A shift which has seen thevirtual world play an increasing and at timesdominant role in our experience of life, love,work and identity in daily life. A shift which (ifyoure reading this article on the internet) ishappening to you right now. Disagree with all ofthe above? Post a comment on Facebook sayingso. Ill even Like it.

But back to me. In battle I favour an aggressiveapproach. Nothing says fun to me like burstingin a door with lightning ying from one hand

and a serious-looking axe in the other, gleefullycarving a path of hedonistic destruction insearch of treasure and glory.

If my playing style were a guy, hed bethat douchebag at the party wearingsunglasses inside and trying to sleepwith your girlfriend.

(Obviously were talking about my virtualcombat style here; in real life, Im a timid,skinny nerd just as you suspected.)

After a few such bombastic battles atop someperilous battlements, the local lord decided toreward me for my service by granting me apersonal man-at-arms, someone to watch myback and carry my gear. Great, I thought, somegiant warrior with tattoos and a thousand-yardstare, some grim looking beast of a man whocan get stuck into some serious combat andcrack some skulls. In fact, she was about 18,and called Lydia. Lydia? What the hell? Thatsnot a heroic mans name! Wasnt she that dippyone from Pride & Prejudice? Whatever,lets just go with this and I can swapher for someone better later. Afterall, shes just a computer program,an object created to enhance mygaming experience. As it were.

Time went by. We fought side byside across many erce battles,and as I watched this slip ofa girl cut her way through

hordes of the undead orstand her ground while adragon bore down on us, Ibegan to form a grudgingrespect for her. She had apretty good sword arm,and was a fair shotwith the bow. Indeed,one might say she hadthe Moves Like Jagger,Girl Power, and all that.

Two things thenhappened. Firstly,she was killed. It justhappened so suddenly. Iturned around, and beforemy eyes she was cut downby a Frost Troll. Man, Iwas gutted. And I guess,technically so was she. Sowhat did I do? I reloaded mylast save, losing maybe an hourof gameplay just so I could

have another crack at thatbattle and have her surviveto ght another day. Thats

Wickham doesnt have a chance





correct, I wasted an hour of my real life time sothat a fake character in a made-up world couldcontinue to be my wing-man. Woman. Whatever.

Secondly, I began to get a little annoyed thatI was the only one getting recognition for ouradventures. Kill a dragon; well done me. Savea town; well done me. Put down the rebellionagainst the Empire; well done ME. What aboutwell done us? She was right there the wholedamn time. Its enough to turn an axe-wieldingmage-warrior into a feminist.

But why should anyone but my signicant othercare about this slightly creepy attachmentI seem to have formed with a group of 1sand 0s? In fact, a signicant and growingportion of the British population are havingsimilar experiences in this emerging artisticmedium. Chris Melissinos, guest curator atthe Smithsonian American Art Museum, hasdiscussed the uniqueness of video gaming asan art form because of its three perspectives:that of the games creator, the mechanics of thegame itself, and players response. However, it isthe interactive nature of gaming which is usuallycited by gamers themselves as the principaldraw which makes them choose this mediumover, say, lms or literature. These players get to

experience a taste of actually ghting a dragonrather then watching or reading about someoneelse doing it; the adventure is theirs in a verydeep and personal way.

The researcher is therefore presented with anemerging social norm whereby millions of peopleare connecting in a very real, phenomenological

way in extremely unreal environments. Skyrimis part of a much larger pattern (one whichincludes online gaming, Twitter, and Facebook)which sees social life and artistic engagementhappening in the hyper-modern locales of theinternet and digitally created worlds. Whatsmore, the areas of digital social networking andthe video game art form are fast convergingto occupy and increasingly shared space, asseen in immensely popular online games likeWorld of Warcraft. Anthropology, archaeologyand other disciplines need to be alive to thenew challenges and opportunities that engagingwith this new form of material culture presents,because in a world where I can genuinely careabout the fate of a computer program calledLydia, it seems the signicance of these virtual

worlds cannot be in doubt

Further readingBoellstorff, T. (2008). Coming of Age in SecondLife: An Anthropologist Explores the VirtuallyHuman. Princeton University Press.

Lehdonvirta, V. (2009). Virtual Consumption.Publications of the Turku School of Economics,A-11:2009.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8647.htmlhttp://info.tse.fi/julkaisut/vk/Ae11_2009.pdfhttp://info.tse.fi/julkaisut/vk/Ae11_2009.pdfhttp://press.princeton.edu/titles/8647.html



Living Fantasy:A Review of Leaving Mundania: Inside the Transformative World of Live Action Roleplaying Games,by Lizzie Stark. (2012). Chicago, Chicago Review Press. 10.59 RRP. ISBN 978-1-56976-605-7.

Ryan K McNutt

M

yth, as dened by the anthropologistBronislaw Malinowski, . . . is not merely

a story told but a reality lived. It is not ofthe nature of ction, such as we read today in anovel, but it is a living reality, believed to haveonce happened in primeval times, and continuingever since to inuence the world and humandestinies.1The texture and contexts of ourown modern myths may have changed, butsomething about myths and legends strikes achord that resonates profoundly with some deepintegral spark of our humanity, that encouragesus to explore, create and pass on stories. Withinmodern society, outputs for this activity can be

limited; perhaps then, this need for mythmakingexplains the popularity and participation inroleplaying games. More specically, theparticipation in that particular subgenre of liveaction roleplaying games, or Larping, seems tostrongly echo that mythic aspect of a realitylived in Malinowskis view of myth.

1 Malinowski, Bronislaw (1954). Myth in primitivepsychology, in Magic, Science and Religion, New York:Anchor. 93-148, at 100.

Yet, as a recreational past time, larping is theunfortunate victim of a host of stereotypes, and

exists as something that may appear to theoutsider as a tribe of Peter Pans and Wendys.Lizzie Starks Leaving Mundania: Inside theTransformative World of Live Action Role-PlayingGamesis an excellent work that delves deep,and delivers muchalong the way addressingmany of the stereotypes and misperceptions ofthe world of larpers. Her work is, in essen

love+archaeology+issue

Documents