Another Mysterious Find…..‘A Land’ by Jacquetta Hawkes….Pics. of Scotland…..
by Bernie Bell - 08:14 on 01 July 2023
Another Mysterious Find…
…at The Cairns. Katie Joss was there, and tells the tale……
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2023/06/29/the-cairns-dig-diary-day-fourteen/
Why cut the horns off? My mind immediately leapt to a mask/head-dress……
https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/08/29/masks-unmasked/
Mebbe ???
Since our visit to The Cairns earlier this week I’ve been mulling over various things – one being part of a conversation with Ole and a couple of the folk on the tour. We were picturing the Broch folk sitting round the hearth – talking. But what language did they speak? Did it sound harsh, or soft? It’s completely lost to us.
To paraphrase the school-days rhyme which begins ‘Latin is a dead language…’
'The Broch-folk spoke
A dead language
As dead
As dead can be
It didn’t just
Fall out of use
It simply ceased to be.'
As suggested by one lady on the tour – maybe a root of the Celtic languages – Scots, Irish and Welsh? Hard to have much idea, as there’s no trace of it – no writing which could be de-cyphered. Maybe that’s yet to be found – and recognized for what it is…
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/10/29/writing-symbols/
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‘A Land’ by Jacquetta Hawkes….
We have a copy of ‘A Land’ by Jacquetta Hawkes which we’ve had for so long that we have no memory of when or where we bought it. On the back page there’s a stamp which says ‘Stroud High School Library’ so presumably we bought it in a charity shop when we lived near Stroud, Gloucestershire, over 30 years ago.
It’s a nice hard-back edition with illustrations by Henry Moore – so why haven’t I been tempted to read it before now? No idea.
The Preface immediately caught my interest – and I quote…
“In this book I have used the findings of the two sciences of geology and archaeology for purposes altogether unscientific. I have tried to use them evocatively, and the image I have sought to evoke in of an entity, the land of Britain, in which past and present, nature, man and art appear all in one piece.”
I thought – this is a woman after my own heart, and so I stepped into Jacquetta Hawkes’ land.
Rather than go into details of what she writes, I’ll just thoroughly recommend this as a very good book to read for many reasons. Her subject matter - and her approach to it - are Universal.
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Pics. of Scotland…..
…23rd to 30th of June 2023….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-66033978
Including a new take on Snail Mail from Alison Lewis.
Kelly MacLean might like the Orkney jellyfish….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/09/08/jellyfish-on-evie-sands/
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Here’s one I made earlier…. https://theorkneynews.scot/2021/04/29/we-return-to-the-orphir-hills/
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