The extinct silphium plant

Several months ago a small (15mm) Greek bronze coin came my way that has resisted identification until now (thanks to Dane Kurth). It turns out is a coin from Cyrene in Cyrenaica with the helmeted head of Athena on one side while on the other are two stalks of the silphium plant emerging from a single base (BMC Cyrene 202-3).

It is, for me, the silphium plant that is of interest. The exact identity of silphium is unclear. It is commonly believed to be a now-extinct plant of the genus Ferula, perhaps a variety of giant fennel. It was used in classical antiquity as a rich seasoning and also as a medicine. It was the essential item of trade from the ancient North African city of Cyrene, and was so critical to the Cyrenian economy that most of their coins bore a picture of the plant. The valuable product was the plant's resin.

Many medical uses were ascribed to the plant. It was said that it could be used to treat cough, sore throat, fever, indigestion, aches and pains, warts, and all kinds of maladies. It has been speculated that the plant may also have functioned as a contraceptive, based partly on Pliny's statement that it could be used "to promote the menstrual discharge". Many species in the parsley family have estrogenic properties, and some, such as wild carrot, have been found to work as abortifacients (chemicals that terminate a pregnancy). Given this, it is quite possible that the plant was pharmacologically active in the prevention or termination of pregnancy.

The cause of silphium's extinction is not entirely known. Overgrazing combined with overharvesting may have led to its extinction. It may be that when Roman provincial governors took over power from Greek colonists they over-farmed silphium and rendered the soil unable to yield the type that was said to be of such medicinal value. Theophrastus reports that the type of ferula specifically referred to as "silphium" was odd in that it grew only in the wild and could not be successfully grown as a crop in tilled soil. Pliny reported that the last known stalk of silphium found in Cyrenaica was given to the Emperor Nero "as a curiosity".

Lordenshaws hill fort, Northumberland

Lordenshaws fort from the air

A couple of weeks back Val and I went to Northumberland with friends. Whilst there my friend, Rich, and I ascended Lordenshaws, a hill outside Rothbury in Coquetdale, to the Iron Age hill fort.

Rich on the banking with the western entrance

Google Earth clearly shows the plan of the fort with the successive banks and ditches. The outermost defensive ditch has a diameter of around 140m and is one of the best preserved features of the site. In the South and South East this ditch has been disturbed by later development but to the North the ditch has a very steep V shaped profile and is up to 2.5m deep and up to 9m wide.

 Looking out from the eastern entrance marked by the large stones

There are two gates or entrances aligned east and west. The western entranceway is the least well preserved though there are still several larger boulders marking it. The Eastern entrance is 3m wide and there are some facing stones visible. Where this entrance cuts through the second defensive mound there are some prominent stones still standing 0.8m high.

 

 Stone lined hut depression outlined by heather

Inside the fort there are a series of stone lined depressions which although rather small are the remains of dwellings.

 Neolithic cup and ring marked stone

Outside the west gate and a short distance away is a rock outcrop covered with cup and ring markings. They are significantly older than the fort and date to the Neolithic period. Sadly the meaning of such engravings has long been lost.

 Hut depression adjacent the cup and ring stone with a track heading to the western entrance

Yet again, adjacent to the cup and ring stone, are the remains of two dwelling depressions that again probably date from the Iron Age.

Ezekiel Spanheim

Last December I acquired at auction the last and greatest edition of Spanheim’s Disputationes de usu et præstantia numismatum antiquorum (London and Amsterdam, 1706-17) not realising that the copy I had bought was an extremely large paper printing of the work. As a consequence the two volumes remained on the living room floor until recently as there was just nowhere to put them.

The two books are comprised of thirteen discourses addressed to his friend Ottavio Falconieri, a Roman antiquary, represent the seventeenth century peak of classical numismatics. 

Spanheim meticulously (and not without digressions) records every image and inscription shown on

ancient coins that could be made out.

Each of the volumes is prefaced with a fine engraving of a portrait; one is Spanheim himself, the other is Prince George, later King George I of the United Kingdom but who was then ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire.

Ezekiel Spanheim was born at Geneva, the eldest son of Friedrich Spanheim the Elder. After 1642 he studied philology and theology at the University of Leyden, and in 1650 returned to Geneva to be Professor of Rhetoric at Geneva.

In 1656 Spanheim became tutor to the son of Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine. Political theory led him into a diplomatic career. The Elector sent him in 1661 to Rome to investigate intrigues of the Roman Catholic Electors. After his return in 1665 the Elector employed him as ambassador at various courts, finally in England where after 1679 he was charged also with the affairs of the Elector of Brandenburg. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1679. [1]

In 1680 he entered the service of electoral Brandenburg as minister of state. As ambassador of the Great Elector he spent nine years at the court of Paris, and subsequently devoted some years to studies in Berlin; but after the Peace of Ryswyk in 1697 he returned as ambassador to France where he remained until 1702.

In 1702 he went on his final diplomatic mission as the first Prussian ambassador to England. He died in London on November 7^th, 1710 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

The Totley Tunnel

 

 The other day I found myself on a train from Sheffield to Grindleford in the Peak District to meet a work colleague for a site visit. The journey is only short, however, after leaving Totley and Dore station the journey is in complete darkness due to passing through the Totley tunnel, 3 miles and 950 yards long. You emerge from the tunnel at Grindleford station.

The tunnel opened officially on 10 August 1893 and it is believed that when it was constructed the two ends of workers were only 4½ inches apart laterally with only 2¼ inches difference in level!

The geological make up of the ground under the route of the tunnel made the boring extremely difficult indeed. A the worst point, 2,250,000 gallons of water A DAY were seeping into the tunnel from the bedrock, forcing the workings to be inspected by boat.

Many labourers were brought in to help with the work. They arrived with their wives and families. Accommodation was provided in huts built around the shafts and many lodged in houses in the area. It was quite common for dozens of people to share a house and living conditions were generally disgusting. Many homes were without water, and raw sewage ran into the gardens.

At Totley the incomers actually outnumbered the local residents. The navvies’ fondness for drink, poaching and gambling - prize-fights and horse races were laid on at Owler Bar - boosted the local crime rate alarmingly, keeping the police and courts very busy. In their defence, it was acknowledged that working conditions were appalling, accidents were a common occurrence and it was difficult to keep enough labourers on the payroll. A working day was one of three 8- hour shifts and in mid-1889 the pay was 3s 2d per week.

Searching the internet there are stories of a large chamber in the tunnel, the purpose of which is unknown. You can tell when you pass it on the train due to the pressure change, it makes you believe you are leaving the tunnel but you are not. It may have been for storage during the construction, although there are more fanciful stories of wartime storage and it even housing a signal box (although that would have been no use whatsoever).

Mauseus sales on the internet

I list coins and antiquities (plus very occasionally books on the subject) for sale on eBAY under the name "mauseus", both as "Buy it Now" and auction format. The link to my eBAY sales is:

eBAY sales

The Heysham hog back stone

Digging into the hog back stone I uncovered this interpretation of the various images of the side that I photographed.

The overall form is as a house with a tiled roof supported by four figures, visible only on the hidden side.

On the side you can see we are on the side of light and life. The central figure is Sigurd in his human shape. There are the “Signs of Sigurd,” a tree with nine branches. “Yggdrasil” and birds two resting below it and two flying towards it. In addition to these birds there are three other animals and a fish. One of the animals is a horse in motion and has a very arched neck, looking rather like an Indian humped ox. It is a saddled horse, Grani, the horse belonging to Sigurd, who bowed his head to his master, as depicted here.

Sigurd was famed for his extreme bravery as a consequence of which he had an enormous task to perform. He had to slay the dragon Fafnir , a terrible, awesome scourge. It was only possible to do this at the dragon’s drinking place and in preparation for the deed, Sigurd had to dig a pit in which to hide so that he could thrust his sword into Fafnir as he passed over the top of the pit. The fearsome creature, however, was so huge that one pit would not be sufficient to contain the dragon’s blood and Sigurd would surely be drowned as it submerged him. To avoid this fate he had to dig a series of pits connected by ditches so that the blood could flow away without harming him.

Heysham, Lancashire

Took a couple of days off at the end of last week and on our travels we ended up at a favourite place of mine, Heysham on the Lancashire coast.

The part of Heysham I particularly like is St Patrick’s Chapel, the remains of an early 8^th century church built on a site occupied since the 6^th century.

At the site are a series of rock cut graves with sockets for a grave marker, probably just a simple wooden cross. I also learned something new – the graves feature on the cover of a Black Sabbath album, their Greatest Hits from 2000.

Near to the chapel is the parish church, St Peters, also dating back to Saxon times, there remains the re-errected stump of a Saxon cross in the grounds.

The church itself is home to a number of locally found artefacts. A small fragmentary early mediaeval chalice is mounted in a wall niche.

The church also displays a large Viking hog back stone, a grave cover that has a series of images that depict both the light and dark sides of life.