A bit of a quick winge. In 1987 the Norwegian director Nils Gaup made a rather good film called Ofelas (also known as Pathfinder). It was the first film made Saami, the native language of the native groups of northern Sweden/Finland/Norway and Russia, who are often called Lapplanders. It was a powerful retelling of a …
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Archaeology News
Thanks to Liz Dean for flaggin up some archaeology in the news. First, there have been developments on the contraversial M3 motorway development in Ireland. This new motorway running through County Meath cuts extremely close to the internationally important archaeological landscape of Tara. This has caused massive controversy in Ireland, as many people have argued …
Ideas of Landscape
I’ve just been reading Matthew Johnson’s excellent new book Ideas of Landscape. In this exploration of the origin of the English approach to landscape archaeology Johnson’s places particular focus on the work of W.G. Hoskins, whose book The Making of the English Landscape played such a central part in the development of landscape history in …
Tallinn Day 3
It has definitely got much colder today. The temperature is around 0ºC and the water in puddles is frozen. I go back to the Department of Archaeology to do some more work and do some photocopying. I wrestle with the photocopier, but eventually manage to get it to work; I get half way through my …
Tallinn Day 2
After a breakfast I head back over to the Department of Archaeology. I take a different route and walk across the Toompea, the upper part of the Old Town, stopping to peer in the Orthodox cathedral. I spend most of the day working through loads of archaeological papers and journals building up my background knowledge …
Estonia Pictures 3
Someexamples of typical 15th/16th century merchants houses. The bottom example is known as the Three Sisters and is now an expensive hotel. These houses combined domestic accmodation with warehousing; similar buildings are found in many of the towns that once belonged to the Hanseatic League.
Estonia Pictures 2
The sixteenth century Great Sea Gate on the northern side of the old town of Tallinn. The massive tower visible on the left is called Paks Margareeta (Fat Margaret), because it was the biggest tower on the walls. In front of the gate lies a monument to the victims of the ferry Estonia, which sank …
Estonia pictures 1
The Russian orthodox church of St Simeon ad Anna which is just a few minutes walk from my hotel. It has its origins in the late 18th century, but fell out of use during the period of Soviet occupation in Estonia. Its now being restored.
Estonia Pictures 4
This building, now the Estonian Museum of Architecture, but was once a storage building for shed. It lies in the heart of the Roterman’s district close to the port of Tallinn. It is a reminder that although Tallinn’s trade was at its peak in the later medieval period, its docks remained a key factor in …
David’s Tallin Trip Day 1
After a stupidly early start (I didn’t know there was such a thing as 3.30am in the morning), I make it to the airport, which at that time in the morning was filled with tired, grumpy people. The flight takes me over Denmark and the southern coast of Sweden. We overfly a series of Baltic …
