The Enigmacursor has only been at the museum for a few months now. On the small size, it was probably about the size of a Yorkshire terrier dog. It’s a little away from the beat and track of the museum footfall, above the east exit on the stairwell. So if you are visiting have a look out for this new specimen
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/enigmacursor.html
I got myself a ticket on the Eventbrite app to go Mudlarking on the Thames which is run through the Thames Explorer Trust.
The day started off very cold, but got very nice rather quickly and a sunny day it was. I took the train down to Blackfriars and walked along to Millennium Bridge waiting there a bit, met a few people and we started off with a talk on history and what we can find and off we went.
Down diretly under the bridge we went onto the foreshore. I walked up and down the area to have an explore around and there was a hell of a lot of building debris around from different types of bricks to roof tiles. In amongst all that were loads of different types of shards of pots. A lot of animal bones scattered around, (at least I hope it was all animal!). Various different bits of glass, many washed to rounded edges from the tide. I had an interesting time. But the jig is, you can’t take anything home.
I will have to apply for a permit myself. However this is what I found.
I rather liked the London gin bottle with London written on it. (I assumed it was suppose to be London considering it’s the city I found it in!) A few bits of pottery and the old bottle top which looks rather like one a codd-neck which would have had a marble in.
Alas I had to leave it all on the shore to wash away. Guess I will have to get a permit for a year so I can take some finds home.
All in all, an interesting few hours on a nice sunny day.
This is a little hidden gem in the Bank area of central London. When they built the new Bloomberg building they moved the Roman Mithraeum temple out and then put the ruins back to where they originally found them. You can now go online and book a free visit if you have a spare half an hour to visit it in your day.
Entering you are treated with an ever changing art space, then next to it is a wall of finds which you can browse before descending down the stairs to the temple. There is a brief bit of information in a waiting area and when let through you are treated to a very mystical setting, low lights, barely visible and it is a treat to watch and listen to the story.
After that’s finished you can have a walk around when it lit up better, take some photo’s, ask those questions before leaving. Well worth a visit in my opinion.
Recently added to Netflix this show takes around the globe to analyse events in history and connect them together. However, this is deep history and that has problems. It’s very hard to analyse these events and carbon dating isn’t quite as accurate as a lot of TV makes out.
Graham Hancock points out his Wikipedia page straight away at the beginning, it really seems to be a dig at the website. It’s not Wikipedia, it’s the more grounded historical societies and historians which are calling him a fruit.
Hancock is running around half-cocked! He takes us to nice interesting places to explore and shows up some interesting historical sites. But that appears to be where it ends. It’s then all guess work with flashy computer animation. There is nothing scientific about this program, I might as well have watched Ancient Aliens and have the same problems. Half-cocked mumbo-jumbo!
Hancock seems to push his apocalypse theorem at over 10,000 years ago and talks about an ancient civilisation, but nothing is confirmed. In truth, it’s very hard to piece together the ancient world at this level, as part of what he said is right, there were lots of earth-shattering moments which destroyed the world, but there are multiple times this has happened. Volcanoes, earthquakes at different periods in different areas of the planet have this effect also. But he hasn’t addressed these other problems that can cause these disasters. Hancock seems to stick to one large event and doesn’t appear to look at the picture the same as others. This view is fracturing and I can understand why there is so much scepticism.
I give him credit for trying to establish a theory, but this is just his theory. It’s so much easier to focus on a singular issue. But overall, this is too grandiose and that throws a lot of people off, including me.
Way back in 1995 two students (John Vechey and Brian Fiete) created a computer game they called Attack Retrieve Capture which they then hosted on a network called Hoopy Entertainment.
This game was effectively a multiplayer game where people around the world with an internet connection could join teams and fight against each other with little flying saucer ships. Before the likes of Modern Warfare and other online games in which eSports has evolved into today. The community then on this game started their own leagues in order to capture the flag and crown the top clan.
Effectively this might have been one of the first ever games to host large numbers of players fighting this style of game. A standard game normally consists of eight players in a 4v4 match. There were other maps that could host 32 players against each other and there were one or two maps that could house 64 players against each other. That’s a lot of players attacking each other in their little ships and maybe this is the historical aspect which has been over-looked by the current industry of techno wizards.
At its height in the 1990s the game had a user base of a few thousand, not a lot but it could have done better if it wasn’t so miss-managed by the companies that brought the game and then swallowed it up into the downfall of Sierra Entertainment.
Sadly, the game is no longer with us, but there are other forms of it out there and the community has passed on. However, it could be said because of the games unique ability for multiplayer it could have been the first to have such high player numbers facing off against each other. Only history will know.
A snippet of ARC I uploaded years ago to YouTube, looks a bit laggy, joggy, but the game played smoothly.
13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London, WC2A 3BP
How many people have heard of Sir John Soane or know who he is? An architect born in the 16th century the son of a brick layer established himself as one of the greats of British architecture. He went on to collect many paintings, various pieces of architecture, different types of curious objects and even managed to acquire the sarcophagus of Seti I when the British Museum couldn’t afford it.
The museum is his old London home next to a nice little park in Holburn. It’s free to visit and I would recommend it is well worth it.
Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN
In the heart of London is another museum you can walk in for free like the British Museum or the National Gallery, but unless you have a tourist book you might not even know it exists.
Once you walk around Manchester Square you might not notice on first glance as there doesn’t look like much activity next to the hustle and bustle of Oxford Street. But you will see the banner behind the open cast iron gates to see the collection. You can join the free tour or view the house in your own time.
Once inside you will see treasures the biggest galleries in the world would love to get hold of.
This collection acquired over the years by the Marquesses of Hertford then additions added to the collection from Sir Richard Wallace the son of the 4th Marquess. In 1897 his wife Lady Wallace with no heir bequeathed the collection to the British nation.
Unlike a National Trust property the house doesn’t look lived in as there are no bedrooms, sitting room of any type. Instead you will see that it’s one big museum gallery with a weapons room, display rooms and an art collection with rooms that rivals the National Gallery.
In you go on the tour you will learn more about parts of the collection and see painting done by masters such as Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Titian, Rembrandt, Velázquez and others.
I was highly impressed with the collection and recommend everyone who have an interest in history, art or ancient weapons to have a look.
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