Mottephobia….. The Cairns Dig Dairy…..
by Bernie Bell - 07:14 on 20 June 2025
Mottephobia…..
Admittedly, the following is a prize bit of Bernie jibber-jabber but, hopefully, of interest.
Friend Julian has written two books about the Norman Conquest…..The Normans…Motte & Bailey Castles and all that.
Julian actually is called de la Motte, after his ancestress the Countess De La Motte, who fled the French Revolution.
I read of someone describing herself as having Mottephobia - so I Googled it ......it's the fear of moths, not writers of Historical Fiction!
I messaged Julian with this snippet of Motte-related info, and he responded with his usual quick wit….
“It is also a fear of low raised artificial earthen mounds, a common enough concern.”
And then…. I had a vague memory that The Mound in the campus of Lampeter University, Wales (our Alma Mater) was said to be all that remains of a Motte & Bailey Castle - so I Googled again……
This has more information…
https://www.britainexpress.com/wales/ceredigion/lampeter-castle.htm
….but this has a better picture…
https://www.castlewales.com/lampeter.html
Julian’s latest book has been published recently. It’s about The Crusaders – another bunch of nasty bastards…but even when Julian writes of nasty bastards, he does so with knowledge…and wit.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-will-of-god-julian-de-la-motte/22610184
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The Cairns Dig Dairy…..
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/06/17/cairns-d7-2025/
More Iron Age wood! Not a bowl – but every fragment tells them as knows, something about life in those times…
http://www.spanglefish.com/berniesblog/blog.asp?blogid=15972
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/09/orkneys-superb-2000-year-old-wooden-bowl/
The exchange in the ‘comments’ is of interest….
And then…..
https://archaeologyorkney.com/2025/06/18/cairns-d8-2025/
The scallop shell has me wondering if it was brought to the Broch for folk to eat its contents – yummy scallops – then was used for/seen as something else? They can be useful things – for scooping things, holding things, making music - I’ve known folk turn them round and rub the corrugated sides together – something like the sound of castanets. Or, purely decorative, we have them stuck on the walls in our house, and placed in the garden.
Also – there’s the pilgrim symbolism, tho’ I don’t know if that goes back that far?
So much to wonder about – so little time to discover in.
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