The Uffington White Horse

I like to go “flying” occasionally with Google Earth; it is how my husband and I discovered the Scilly Isles (I’ll tell you more about that sometime), and how I’ve found several hill figures across the UK; here’s one of my favourites:

Dating from the late Bronze Age (1000–700 BC), the Uffington White Horse (in Oxfordshire, nearest the town of Uffington) is a stylized hill figure of 110 metres long, created by deep trenches filled with crushed white chalk. It is protected and maintained by the National Trust as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (if it is not cleaned regularly it would disappear rapidly, the chalk being washed away by rain or the trenches filling in with local vegetation).

These coins pictured are Iron Age Celtic coins (the currency of the pre-Roman population), and the designs are comparable to the White Horse, supporting the early dating (it was thought for some time that the figure could have been constructed as late as the Iron Age, 800 BC–AD 100, but samples from silt of the figure supported the earlier date).  The White Horse is by far the oldest such figure in Britain, but certainly not the only one; ancient figures are scattered throughout the British Isles, though Wiltshire alone has at least eight.  When you have a few minutes to spare, take a Google Earth flight over the UK, and see if you can spot any other figures!

 

OOPArts

OOPArts are out-of-place artefacts, though other objects of historical, archaeological, or palaeontological interest are included.  The term was coined by the naturalist and cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson.  It isn’t a term used by mainstream scientists as it may be considered tainted with unprofessionalism; it is largely used by those who study the pseudo-scientific topics such as paranormal activities, fringe theories such as ancient astronauts, or the topic of creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

Having said all that, I find it interesting to read about various objects that have been labelled as OOPArt.  Here are a few:

The Abydos Helicopter

The Wolfsegg Iron

The Klerksdorp spheres

The  Iron pillar of Delhi

The Baghdad Battery

The Abydos helicopter

The Iron Man (Eiserner Mann)

The Quimbaya airplanes

The Dendera Lamps

The Cambodian Stegosaurus

The Cambodian Stegosaurus

While some may be explained with scientific methods, other official “scientific” explanations seem to me, frankly, far-fetched.  Judge for yourself, and enjoy the curiosities of our planet’s history!

 

A Time Capsule of History in One Family

I missed posting this past weekend as I’ve been knee-deep in editing another novel’s manuscript.  When I’m in editing- (and not research-) mode, I don’t tend to come across historical articles or topics of interest for this particular blog.  However, I saw an article on a topic that has fascinated me since I first read about the Lykov family of Russia several years ago, and knew I had to share it!  The Lykov family lived in the wilds of Siberia from 1936 to 1978 without a single contact from a human being outside of their family; that’s not hard to imagine when you realize that the vast forested area in which they lived, the Taiga, is 5 million square miles of nothing but wilderness, wildlife, and roughly a human population of 1,000… that’s 5,000 square miles per person.  They were completely self-sufficient, had no idea that World War 2 had even occurred, and the younger children spoke an isolated language of their own.  To read the fascinating history of the Lykov family, click on the image below.

The (Tongue in Cheek) Truth about Stonehenge

If you think that ancient druids built Stonehenge, you’d be wrong… off by a couple thousand years, actually.  Here’s a quirky, tongue-in-cheek historical low-down on the famous standing stones:  Just click on the image below!