Medieval Knight Found Under Parking Lot in Scotland

[Jock Scot]

Well, possibly Jock. On the other hand I strongly suspect that even in London, the population can go through a whole day without seeing a single building that pre-dates American Independence. Even if they do, they probably don't realise how old they are. As I said, the White House pre-dates Buckingham Palace.

That it does, but I think you can agree that we in Europe are surrounded with aged man made this and thats, large and small, impressive and mundane, ranging from thousands to just a hundred years old. Whether we consciously notice them is another matter entirely!

[tripleblessed]

Having been fortunate enough to visit some of those castles, and stand in some of those cathedrals, I absolutely understand (well, hopefully) and agree on that aspect. Not much on this side standing that would fit in the same conversation.

Though folk were here, a different attitude and culture led to different construction not so durable. Near Harold
Cannon, folk were living 10 or 11 thousand years ago, but not much left. Folk living in Upper Peninsula Michigan
were selling copper to the Egyptians long enough ago that is was found in pyramids sealed up 5,000 or so years ago.
The pyramids still stand, but nothing here to show for it.

For further perspective, I know a man, son of an Inuit shaman, psychologist, and practitioner of the ancient healing arts,
who speaks of periodically visiting with an elder in Greenland who lives in a stone house continuously occupied for
12,000 years. Haven't been yet invited to go with.

Most don't know, nor would they care. For most, Jock, your point is very well taken.

[sailortats]

[QUOTE=tripleblessed;1156389]Folk living in Upper Peninsula Michigan
were selling copper to the Egyptians long enough ago that is was found in pyramids sealed up 5,000 or so years ago.

QUOTE]

Where did you ever hear this? I have studied Ancient Egypt for many years and have never heard anything like this.

[TheOfficialBren]

Folk living in Upper Peninsula Michigan
were selling copper to the Egyptians long enough ago that is was found in pyramids sealed up 5,000 or so years ago.
The pyramids still stand, but nothing here to show for it.

For further perspective, I know a man, son of an Inuit shaman, psychologist, and practitioner of the ancient healing arts,
who speaks of periodically visiting with an elder in Greenland who lives in a stone house continuously occupied for
12,000 years. Haven't been yet invited to go with.

- Sounds like dubious History Channel pseudo-intellectual clap-trap right up there with Bigfoot and Nessie. No credible archaeologist would agree with this long-discredited supposition.

- As for the 12,000-year-old hut, that would be a bit of a stretch to assume that it has been continuously inhabited. Not likely but not impossible. I can't think of any other neolithic structures that are still used on a continual basis in the modern world.
We are talking about a structure that was supposed to have been built 7,000 years BREFORE the invention of the written word (which never really caught on among the Northern First Nations peoples). Sounds like a romantic notion no different than the belief in King Arthur or any other cultural myth. Every culture has them...even the Native American peoples (I say that as a man who is partly descended from First Nations peoples in additin to my British heritage).

We must always be critical of romantic notions. Yhey "feel good" but cloud our understanding.

Case-in-point (Scots, please forgive me): William Wallace...brigand or hero? Murderer or martyr? Leader or puppet? Man or myth? Myths inspire people but they can be detrimental, too.

My apologies if I stepped on any toes. I said all of that with all due courtesy intended.




DK: Australia is HUGE!!! It is one massive, gorgeous country. Parts of it remind me of the US but it certainly is its own place.

[Downunder Kilt]

No "task" taken.

I will try to avoid the "Scottish" ancestry slant that you talk about other than to say that is not the direction that I was coming from in my post here. I had thought that I had made that clear and I am sorry if I did not do so.

It was the physical aspects that I had in mind such as "artifacts", buildings, and everyday items that we are surrounded with and take little notice of because we are so familiar with them. I give you examples, Stonehenge is a world renowned ancient monument and there are several other henges dotted about the UK so the residents are not unused to things of several thousand years of age. Iron age forts are not unusual, Cathedrals at around a 1000 years old are common, Scotland has, I think over 3000 castles, most go back more than several centuries. Some of our tartan and tweed that we here enthuse about here is made on looms that are over 100 years old, I eat my meals with cutlery that was made just after Napoleon was defeated, and all this is not just a UK thing. So "OLD" to the "old world" is just not the issue that the "new world" make of it.

Jock, I understand exactly where you are comming from. I often think of my sabbatical to the mother country in the 1990's and how amazed I was to be standing in places that were erected centuries before Australia was colonised by europeans. In many ways Australia is still the new boy on the block.

[creagdhubh]

Interesting stuff, for sure. It may help to explain to those in the New World, why we in the Old World don't think 100 years is a long time and 500 years is really not that long ago at all. And before any one takes me to task. Yes I know full well that there are artifacts, etc, in the New World that go back to distant time, but I have noted the visitors here who seem to get so excited over things here that are not even 100 years old, that some of us here, still happily use!

Great points, Jock.