Stilte voor de storm

Adapted from the Harry Potter books:

"The University Library is a stronghold of ancient magic."

—Albus Dumbledore to Harry Potter

The University Library is a large, 157-feet high building supported by magic, with many towers and turrets and very deep dungeons, built in the early-20th century by a wizard architect. The library books have various spells on them to prevent students from defacing or stealing them. Chocolate and (presumably) other food is forbidden in the library. A student once showed signs of breaking the security of the library in her first year, when she entered the Restricted Section without her Invisibility Cloack while carrying her Magic Photocopying Camera. There are study tables nestled throughout red-carpeted rooms criss-crossed and walled with full bookshelves, many of which are actually secret passages that Librarians use to travel between rooms quickly, leaving students lost and bewildered. It is forbidden to bring any personal items into the library and checking out books is only possible through a system of complicated Medieval magic. 

I have decided that I shall complete my MPhil without making use of the main library, thank you. It is like Hogwarts, except Evil.

Ik ben echt geniaal jongens: ik heb dus steeds niet zo veel te doen. Nog geen opstel titels. Geen leeslijsten. Geen opdrachten. Geen presentaties. Enzovoort. Alleen één oefening voor Akkadisch elke week. Vorige week had ik die met een halfuurtje af. Dus ik dacht gisteravond om 9 uur: doen we ff. 5 uur later: het is twee uur 's ochtends, ik snap er geen flikker van, ik val in slaap. Dus kon ik vanochtend om 11 uur aan m'n docent (die Teach yourself Babylonian heeft geschreven) uitleggen dat ik mijn ene huiswerk opdrachtje, van de hele week, niet af had. Hij was niet onder de indruk.

Moraal van het verhaal: volgens mij gaat deze week de huiswerkbom ontploffen. Niets meer uitstellen. Niet meer uitslapen. Al dat werk waar ze me maar steeds niks over vertellen: daar komt 'ie. De eerste week van november kan je me opdwijlen.

Katia's verjaardagsbijeenkomst : )

... gevolgd door een groot feest met Eve en Petar op zaterdag.

One of the things on my Cambridge wishlist was watching one of the presidential debates. I thought, if there is any place where people care about politics, and are willing to stay up for it until 4am, it has to be Cambridge. I was right! 

I am not an expert when it comes to American politics, so I am afraid I cannot claim to make any sensible comments. But my thoughts in brief: politics has become so unreal. And I mean that in the literal sense of the word. Politicians have to use the 'language of the people'. They have to wear the right kind of tie (yes that especially refers to Dutch politicians as well). There have to be big television debates which remind of Eurovision. 

I think when it comes to the US, all this is taken to the extreme. At least in Holland we have 6-12 parties debating. There it is just 2. Or not even 2 parties, but specifically 2 men. They talked about the Middle East as if the whole world is their problem to solve. Romney kept referring to the entire area and population as 'the Muslim world', which is of course not at all an offensive generalisation. Oh and they will help out women. Thanks, I guess? Especially Romney seemed, to me, so detached from the real world. "America is the hope of the earth?" Honestly? Imagine a Dutch politician making any of these statements.

 I started going to Turkish lessons on Monday.
Come on, you knew I wasn't going to stick to 1 language.

The awesome thing about doing an MPhil in Assyriology? Lecturer makes up for 9am lecture by bringing baklava fresh from Baghdad. When I saw her enter the classroom with a suspiciously Arab looking tin I already squeeled to my classmate 'It's Arab sweets! I bet it's Arab sweets! Do you think we'll get some?! I hope we'll get some!'. 

P.S. Kleine fiets-update naturlijk: volgens mij is m'n achterband bijna lek en volgens de fietsenmannen op de markt moet ik een nieuwe ketting (kosten: 35 pond). Heeft Sinterklaas wel eens een fietsketting op een verlanglijstje zien staan denk je? 

Oh en ik ben een band aan het opbouwen met de gast die elke maandagochtend om 9:55 de straat oversteekt voor het archaeologiegebouw. Ik volg dan het groene voetgangerslicht om over te steken, terwijl hij van mening is dat ik op het rode autostoplicht moet wachten. Zou hij al eens hebben overwogen dat ik word aangereden door een auto als ik oversteek terwijl de auto's doorrijden? Misschien wel...

Filter it through your moustache

(Zing op de melodie van 'Zwarte Piet ging uit fietsen'.)

Een student ging uit fietsen

maar er was geen pad.

Ze kwam bij een stoplicht

dat slechts voor auto's was.

Dapper fietste ze door

aan de linkerkant,

terwijl zelfs de fietsenstalling

geen beveiliging had.

Matriculation in Cambridge doen ze niet in een Kathedraal, maar het was in ieder geval wel gezellig. Ik had een totaal verkeerd Harry Potter manteltje aan geloof ik, maar ik ben gelukkig niet aangehouden of van de universiteit afgegooid. Het is dus de bedoeling dat ik hier een manteltje koop dat aangeeft dat ik een MA status heb, dat mijn BA van een andere universiteit (niet Cambridge) komt, en dat ik jonger ben dan 24. Daar moet je 55 pond voor betalen (tweedehands), dus ik dacht, bekijk het. 

Het gebouw (The Grove) waar onze MCR in zit is het oude huis van de vrouw van Darwin (of als je tegen iemand wilt opscheppen, afgekort: het huis van Darwin). We hadden zo een mazzel dat de zon een keertje scheen, voor de foto! 

 

Dit werd gevolgd door een geweldig Formal diner. Het gebouw van Fitzwilliam is misschien ietsje jonger dan Mary's, maar ze weten hier wel hoe je traditie moet aanpakken. Het gebed werd gezongen door een koor en alles had het College logo er op: de naamkaartjes, de servetjes, de chocolaatjes. Er lag een mes meer dan ik gewend was en ik geloof dat er glazen stonden die specifiek voor port waren bedoeld (dat mag je trouwens alleen naar links doorgeven - ofzo). Vier gangen, inclusief kaasplankje en koffie.

(Standbeeld van Churchill in Churchill College.)

Ik begin ook eindlijk een beetje huiswerk te krijgen. Met een beetje bedoel ik wel en heel klein beetje. Ik maak mij hoe langer hoe meer zorgen hoe hard de klap gaat aankomen als Cambridge echt los gaat, want tot nu toe is het helemaal niet zo hardcore. Ik moest deze week 1 opdracht voor Akkadisch maken (in een half uurtje klaar) en 2 artikelen lezen (waarvan ik er één vorige week al uit interesse had gelezen).

Oh by the way - I decided to take a module on Mesopotamian Culture, which is basically about Babylonian Mathemathics. I barely understand any of it so far and it is going to be a serious challenge (not to mention my dislike of math), but it is one of those things in life I just have to do? I completed 6 years of Advanced Math and never once understood the purpose of it. I think it is the coolest thing ever that it might now be able to help me understand Mesopotamian culture. When we see how formulas developed and what sort of mistakes scribes made, we can learn a lot about scribal culture, social background, technological development. The purpose of Math. The meaning of life, the universe, and everything. It is clearly Mesopotamian Archaeology. I wish I had known this all along.

Also, I think I may have a (temporary) dissertation topic: comparative palaeography, specifically focussing on Nuzi in comparison with Nippur and Assur in the 14th-13th centuries BCE, in order to investigate how script is responsive to social backgrounds. Cool, right?

Oh ja, als je dan toch in Cambridge bent, loopt er nog wel eens een prinses rond. Vorige week was ik naar een lezing in de Union Society* over ontwikkelingen in Saudi-Arabië. Of in ieder geval, daar hoorde het over te gaan. Er werd heel veel 'youth' en 'leadership' ingegooid en heel weinig 'schending van mensenrechten' en 'onderdrukking van vrouwen'. Maar goed. De lezing werd gegeven door Prinses Basma bint Saud, één van de 115 kinderen van Koning Abdullah. 

* De Union Society "Promoting Free Speech and the Art of Debating since 1815". Dat "Free" moet je niet te letterlijk nemen, want het kost dus 75 pond per jaar. Zucht, dacht het niet dus. Oh Cambridge.

Het hoogtepunt van mijn week was natuurlijk het bezoek uit Wolverhampton. Anoek mocht meteen al mijn spannende activiteiten ervaren: receptie in Archaeologie, Kung Fu uitproberen, mee naar m'n boekenclubje (Ancient Lit Soc). Uiteraard hebben we verder ook een rondje Cambridge en King's College gedaan en een paar klassieke Engelse regenbuien meegemaakt.

Will had zondagochtend brunch met het hele huis georganiseerd, dus Anoek heeft als een pro wentelteefjes staan bakken. (Blijkbaar komt het Nederlandse woord van de uitdrukking 'eventjes wentelen'?)

Net een echte Cambridge student: vrijdagavond nog even studeren.

 

Zie hierboven Selwyn College, waar de Ancient Literature Society bijeenkomt. Met Grieks op de voorgevel! Ja, de Classics Society hier voelde ik niet helemaal een klik mee (lees: zelfs het welkomstfeestje kostte 5 pond) en ik moest toch iets ondernemen...

We lezen op dit moment de IJslandse Volsungssaga. Ik geloof dat m'n halve klas van Archaeologie er bij zit en dan hier en daar een paar studenten Engelse literatuur. Ze zijn allemaal net ietsje té enthousiast, wat natuurlijk wel lachen is. "Dit is het grappigste dat ik oooooit heb gelezen." Overdrijven is ook een kunst. Ok goed ze hebben wel een beetje een punt, want IJslandse saga's zijn ook wel leuk. Mijn favoriete zin deze week:

"There is poison in this drink." Sigmund answered: "Filter it through your moustache, son." The King was quite drunk, and therefore he talked in this way.

This is NOT a bicycle road, Cambridge. Because, there is a CAR on it. Epic traffic safety fail.

So lets' talk about cycling some more. I no longer feel like I might die each time I am on the road, but I do worry for the health of my bicycle now: on the pavement, off the pavement, cracks in the road - will this be my first ever punctured tire? On that note - there is absolutely no roofs to shelter bicycles in the rain, there is no CCTV, no guards, not any form of security. Will this be the first time in my life that, dare I write the dreaded words, my bicycle will get stolen?!

I continue to make detours, when I cannot figure out how to cross a road. There are barely any proper cycling paths, and there are no traffic lights dedicated to cyclists. There are hardly any traffic signs for cyclists, even. I am fairly sure by now that the road in front of Sainsbury's is a one-way road for cars, but I cannot work out whether this applies to cyclists as well. Who has ever heard of a one way road for cyclists anyway?!

Culture shock.

Aan de andere kant, in Nederland bedachten ze vorige week dit. Zouden ze hier ook eens moeten proberen. Zodra ze überhaput stoplichten voor fietsers introduceren. 

Treasure: the Philosophy of Funding in Relation to Flag Fen

Our first 'Research Skills' seminar was a field-trip to Flag Fen. I am entirely unsure which 'Research Skills' I obtained by the end of the day, but I would love to write a few paragraphs about crowd-sourcing in Archaeology.

Ever since studying Flag Fen in Arch Theory last year I have been a little annoyed with it - so getting the opportunity to actually visit the site to balance my prejudice was great. Some background info:

Essentially, Flag Fen is your typical Field. As an archaeologist you stare at all the interesting elevations and use your imagination. As general public, you observe how nice it is that the sun is shining, for once, and you notice the field is inhabited by sheep. Or if you are me, both - because this is about as far removed from interesting Near Eastern stuff as it gets.

Field + Field with a bridge over it.

Although Flag Fen includes, among other things, a very interesting, barely visible, Roman road, the main emphasis of the site is The Bronze Age. (A rather unspecific term to use, if you ask me.) A lot of wood has been found, which allows dendrochronology dating between the 14th and the 10th centuries BCE. With a lot of wood, I mean about 1km of it - this site is massive. It tells us a lot about the way people in this period lived and fished - and there is of course some debate about their religion as well. If you are interested - google it. I wil leave it at this because I am technically meant to be writing an essay on Babylonian Mathemathics and I do not reckon the details of Flag Fen are going to feature in it.

So why is Flag Fen such a thing around here? It is a Field with Bronze Age Stuff. Why is it about as well-known among English Archaeologists as Tell Brak to Assyriologists? It is because of three things in my opinion. 1. The size and importance of the site as described. But 2. Experimental Museology (as I am going to call it) and 3. Crowd-sourced Archaeology.

When we arrived at Flag Fen we received a very informative and entertaining talk from Dr Francis Pryor. He is an archaeologist with a Beard. He has been on Time Team. It was great. He was especially excited to tell us about the engineering of the buildings on the site. The team worked very hard to preserve the archaeological record, not ruining it with massive museums and visitor centres. One of their buildings partially floats on the site. They have an artificial lake. These are really ground-breaking advancements in archaeology.

However - I am a little curious why Flag Fen, of all sites, received such a massive amount of funding to create floating buildings? Why was it necessary especially there? Why Flag Fen and not other sites? How will other sites ever be able to afford to build such buildings too? I do not have the answers. I can guess at a few of course: Flag Fen is mainly a wet site (as opposed to a dry site), and Flag Fen is located in a wealthy European country. I did not get a chance to ask Dr Pryor these questions, but I do not mean to be overly critical  and I am definitely open to explanations!

So on to my final point of discussion: crowd-sourcing. I love the concept. It gives small projects a chance to live. For instance, indie companies in the gaming industry. Or archaeological sites.

"The not-for-profit Digventures team raised £27,000 from members of the public who then joined in an expert-led dig to excavate parts of the site."


However - how much of our 'soul' should we be willing to sell?

Not a great site-museum...

Obviously first and foremost crowd-funding is a precious source of income for archaeological excavations. The major added benefit is that is involves the crowd too! Archaeology is always a little difficult to 'sell' to the public; not many people care, most people do not understand, and cancer research can be argued to be fundamentally more important to invest in. However, we are still human. Most of us have an inexplicable interest in our past. Or alternatively, in Treasure. For anyone who has this spark of an interest, being able to invest in a site and learn more about it is a great way to get involved. Crowd-funding draws the crowd in. This is such an important part of being an archaeologist - to educate people about the past.

Yet - should we really draw people in with the promise of Treasure? I did the same this summer - I told my students we would find Viking Treasure on Gotland. Two things: 1. This is certainly not true for all archaeology; for instance, at Flag Fen the chances of finding a Viking silver hoard are pretty slim. 2. Even when it is true, such as for Gotland, archaeology is not about Treasure. Finding a surviving post in a post-hole, that was our most important find; not the silver earring. I will not advertise anything with 'Treasure' again, simply out of principal. It is a magic word. It draws people in. But it is a false concept.

From http://digventures.com/flag-fen/

We cannot go around quoting Indiana Jones in a serious fashion. Yes I use the theme-song as my ringtone, but Indiana Jones is destructive! I know this is Popular Culture, and that it is what appeals to people - but I also wish it would change! Prometheus (2012): apparently archaeologists can also simultaneously be astronauts and fight alien creatures. (By the way, if that was a career option, I would be on it!) Can Popular Culture please start to introduce some accuracy? Just mention the astro-archaeolonaunts (?) have a double PhD in archaeological engineering (or something), instead of making it seem like archaeology is a really cool adventurous hobby.

So crowd-sourcing. Yes I love it - but the way Flag Fen goes about it is false as well. I understand why they do it. But it has to be done differently. If we want to educate people about the past, we cannot advertise excavations by giving people the wrong idea. We need to explain why surviving posts, like the ones they have at Flag Fen, are Treasure. How amazing it is to touch 2000 year old wood. What we can learn from that! Yes it looks boring and mostly smells terrible. But that is Treasure.

How do you choose between funding for your project and having your project being taken seriously?