UC Davis study says logos make a group seem real

Organizations have logos, sports teams have mascots, countries have flags and national anthems. In marketing plans and political campaigns, a good logo is considered an essential tool for building brand identity.

New research at the University of California, Davis, shows that logos do far more -- creating the impression that a group is unified, effective and coordinated, even when the members of the group don't really seem that way on their own.

In a series of experiments, social psychologists Shannon Callahan and Alison Ledgerwood found that logos, flags and other group symbols make even disparate collections of individuals appear more tightly knit, effective, and even intimidating to outsiders. These effects held even for groups whose members seem to have little in common.

But there was a tradeoff: Groups that used logos to enhance their image as competent and cohesive were also perceived as less inclusive and less warm.

While flags and emblems have been used for centuries around the world, and logos are ubiquitous today, their psychological function has not been well understood, said Ledgerwood, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology. "Nobody's really asked this question: What do symbols do for a group?"

In a series of online experiments, Ledgerwood and Callahan, a psychology doctoral student, asked participants to rate a variety of different groups (sometimes imaginary, and sometimes real) on how unified, organized, competent, threatening and friendly they seemed.

Consistent with past research, groups whose members looked the most like each other on the surface were considered the most unified and grouplike (for example, alien cartoon characters that were all the same color). But even diverse groups were rated as more unified -- and more threatening -- if they had a symbol.

"Part of the reason that people tend to see a political group or a sports team as a real, unified entity, and also tend to see them as potentially threatening, may be because they have these group symbols," Ledgerwood said.

To account for stereotypes, the researchers asked undergraduate students to rate 35 real-world groups for perceived competence and warmth, then picked eight that varied along the middle range of both scales: atheists, blue-collar workers, conservatives, Jewish people, Native Americans, obese people, immigrants and the disabled. A larger group of students then rated their perceptions of how unified, skillful and friendly each group seemed. A symbol made all groups look more cohesive, more competent and less warm.

A second series of experiments suggested that people also have an intuitive sense about when and how to use group symbols to archive a desired impression -- study participants tended to choose to display a flag or logo with they wanted their country or team to look united and intimidating, while selecting courteous acts like bringing food or other gifts when focused on collaboration.

The research findings, published today (April 15) in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, could help guide organizations and other groups in deciding whether to adopt a symbol.

"It may depend on what their goals are," Ledgerwood said. "If they want to seem very competent and coordinated, like they get things done, they might want to have a logo. But if their goal is to seem inclusive and cooperative and open to outsiders, a logo might backfire."

The studies also illuminate the risks for symbols to polarize people, making groups seem more monolithic than they are and escalating us-versus-them conflicts, she said.

"When we think about groups as unified entities, we lose sight of the individuals and don't see each group in its diversity. That can really hinder cooperation," Ledgerwood said. "Each side sees the other side as unified and threatening, so they have to be unified and threatening back. If a nation wants to have a productive dialogue, for instance, that might be really difficult to do when we're all waving our symbols around."
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Reference:

EurekAlert. 2016. “UC Davis study says logos make a group seem real”. EurekAlert. Posted: April 15, 2016. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uoc--uds041516.php

Nepali textile find suggests Silk Road extended further south than previously thought

The first results of textile and dye analyses of cloth dated between 400-650 AD and recovered from Samdzong 5, in Upper Mustang, Nepal have today been released by Dr Margarita Gleba of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge.

Identification of degummed silk fibres and munjeet and Indian lac dyes in the textile finds suggests that imported materials from China and India were used in combination with those locally produced. Says Gleba: "There is no evidence for local silk production suggesting that Samdzong was inserted into the long-distance trade network of the Silk Road."

"The data reinforce the notion that instead of being isolated and remote, Upper Mustang was once a small, but important node of a much larger network of people and places. These textiles can further our understanding of the local textile materials and techniques, as well as the mechanisms through which various communities developed and adapted new textile technologies to fit local cultural and economical needs."

The cloth remains are of further significance as very few contemporary textile finds are known from Nepal. The dry climate and high altitude of the Samdzong tomb complex, at an elevation of 4000 m, favoured the exceptional preservation of the organic materials.

One of the cloth objects recovered is composed of wool fabrics to which copper, glass and cloth beads are attached. It was found near a coffin of an adult along with a spectacular gold/silver funerary mask. The mask has small pinholes around its edges, suggesting it had been sewn to a fabric, and probably constitutes the remains of a complex, decorative headwear.

Samdzong 5 is one of ten shaft tombs excavated by Mark Aldenderfer, (University of California Merced and Visiting Scholar of the McDonald Institute). The tombs were only exposed to view in 2009 following a seismic event that calved off the façade of the cliff, having been originally carved out in prehistory from the soft conglomerate rock of a massive cliff face.

The dye analyses were conducted by Ina Vanden Berghe at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage.
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Reference:

EurekAlert. 2016. “Nepali textile find suggests Silk Road extended further south than previously thought”. EurekAlert. Posted: April 1, 2016. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/uoc-ntf040116.php

Stone bracelet is oldest ever found in the world

Dating back 40,000 years to the Denisovan species of early humans, new pictures show beauty and craftsmanship of prehistoric jewellery.

It is intricately made with polished green stone and is thought to have adorned a very important woman or child on only special occasions. Yet this is no modern-day fashion accessory and is instead believed to be the oldest stone bracelet in the world, dating to as long ago as 40,000 years.

Unearthed in the Altai region of Siberia in 2008, after detailed analysis Russian experts now accept its remarkable age as correct. 

New pictures show this ancient piece of jewellery in its full glory with scientists concluding it was made by our prehistoric human ancestors, the Denisovans, and shows them to have been far more advanced than ever realised.

'The bracelet is stunning - in bright sunlight it reflects the sun rays, at night by the fire it casts a deep shade of green,' said Anatoly Derevyanko, Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk, part of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

'It is unlikely it was used as an everyday jewellery piece. I believe this beautiful and very fragile bracelet was worn only for some exceptional moments.'

The bracelet was found inside the famous Denisova Cave, in the Altai Mountains, which is renowned for its palaeontological finds dating back to the Denisovans, who were known as homo altaiensis, an extinct species of humans genetically distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans.

Made of chlorite, the bracelet was found in the same layer as the remains of some of the prehistoric people and is thought to belong to them.

What made the discovery especially striking was that the manufacturing technology is more common to a much later period, such as the Neolithic era. Indeed, it is not clear yet how the Denisovans could have made the bracelet with such skill. Writing in the Novosibirsk magazine, Science First Hand, Dr Derevyanko said: 'There were found two fragments of the bracelet of a width of 2.7cm and a thickness of 0.9 cm. The estimated diameter of the find was 7cm. Near one of the cracks was a drilled hole with a diameter of about 0.8 cm. Studying them, scientists found out that the speed of rotation of the drill was rather high, fluctuations minimal, and that was there was applied drilling with an implement - technology that is common for more recent times.

'The ancient master was skilled in techniques previously considered not characteristic for the Palaeolithic era, such as drilling with an implement, boring tool type rasp, grinding and polishing with a leather and skins of varying degrees of tanning.'

Chlorite was not found in the vicinity of the cave and is thought to have come from a distance of at least 200km, showing how valued the material was at the time.

Dr Derevyanko said the bracelet had suffered damage, including visible scratches and bumps although it looked as if some of the scratches had been sanded down. Experts also believe that the piece of jewellery had other adornments to make it more beautiful.

'Next to the hole on the outer surface of the bracelet can be seen clearly a limited polished zone of intensive contact with some soft organic material,' said Dr Derevyanko. 'Scientists have suggested that it was a leather strap with some charm, and this charm was rather heavy. The location of the polished section made it possible to identify the 'top' and 'bottom' of the bracelet and to establish that it was worn on the right hand.'

Located next to the Anuy River, about 150 km south of Barnaul, the Denisova Cave is a popular tourist attraction, such is its paleontological importance. Over the years a number of remains have been found there, including some of extinct animals such as the woolly mammoth. In total evidence of 66 different types of mammals have been discovered inside, and 50 bird species.

The most exciting discovery was the remains of the Denisovans, a species of early humans that dated back as early as 600,000 years ago and were different to both Neanderthals and modern man.

In 2000 a tooth from a young adult was found in the cave and in 2008, when the bracelet was found, archaeologists discovered the finger bone of a juvenile Denisovan hominin, whom they dubbed the 'X woman'. Further examination of the site found other artifacts dating as far back as 125,000 years.

The institute's deputy director Mikhail Shunkov suggested that the find indicates the Denisovans - though now extinct - were more advanced than Homo sapiens and Neanderthals.

'In the same layer, where we found a Denisovan bone, were found interesting things; until then it was believed these the hallmark of the emergence of Homo sapiens,' he said. 'First of all, there were symbolic items, such as jewellery - including the stone bracelet as well as a ring, carved out of marble.'

The full details of the ring are yet to be revealed. 

'These finds were made using technological methods - boring stone, drilling with an implement, grinding - that are traditionally considered typical for a later time, and nowhere in the world they were used so early, in the Paleolithic era. At first, we connected the finds with a progressive form of modern human, and now it turned out that this was fundamentally wrong. Obviously it was  Denisovans, who left these things.'

This indicated that 'the most progressive of the triad' (Homo sapiens, Homo Neanderthals and Denisovans) were Denisovans, who according to their genetic and morphological characters were much more archaic than Neanderthals and modern human.' 

But could this modern-looking bracelet have been buried with older remains?

The experts considered this possibility but rejected it, saying they believe the layers were uncontaminated by human interference from a later period. The soil around the bracelet was also dated using oxygen isotopic analysis.

The unique bracelet is now held in the Museum of History and Culture of the Peoples of Siberia and the Far East in Novosibirsk. Irina Salnikova, head the museum, said of the bracelet: 'I love this find. The skills of its creator were perfect. Initially we thought that it was made by Neanderthals or modern humans, but it turned out that the master was Denisovan, at least in our opinion.

'All jewellery had a magical meaning for ancient people and even for us, though we do not always notice this. Bracelets and neck adornments were to protect people from evil spirits, for instance. This item, given the complicated technology and 'imported' material, obviously belonged to some high ranked person of that society.'

While bracelets have been found pre-dating this discovery, Russian experts say this is the oldest known jewellery of its kind made of stone.
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Reference:

Liesowska, Anna. 2015. “Stone bracelet is oldest ever found in the world”. Siberian Times. Posted: May 7, 2015. Available online: http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0100-stone-bracelet-is-oldest-ever-found-in-the-world/

Everglades trail surveyed for cultural artifacts

Archaeologists are poking through the muck under a boardwalk in Everglades National Park, looking for evidence of a prehistoric culture.

National Park Service archaeologists are sampling sediment, sucking up mud and water about 10-feet (3-meters) deep with an aluminum tube and then dumping the contents over a screen. When the pond was dredged in 1968 after a record drought, a park ranger noticed hundreds of artifacts, including bone pieces sharpened into tools or weapons, atop a debris pile. The items were collected and the ranger's notes were catalogued, but the site never was excavated.

Archaeologists have returned because the park service wants to replace part of the wooden boardwalk along the Anhinga Trail. The boardwalk allows tourists to experience the landscape without wading through water or stumbling upon alligators.

More than four decades ago, the ranger also found stingray tails, shark teeth and scales from other marine life that would not be found in a freshwater pond, said Margo Schwadron, the park service archaeologist leading the survey. "It's unique in the sense that it's a submerged site. We don't have very many of those in Florida and in this area at all. That is why it's special," said Penny Del Bene, the park's chief of cultural resources.

Schwadron hopes the dredging 46 years ago didn't destroy a prehistoric cultural site. Based on what the ranger found in 1968, the artifacts hidden potentially thousands of years could be significant to understanding how people lived in the Everglades, she said.

"There's no written record. The only thing we can find is archaeological data and get that and preserve that," Schwadron said.

The work began Friday. As of Monday, archaeologists sifting through the sediment samples with their hands have found burnt pieces of wood, bone fragments and shells, but little else. The items were put into plastic bags filled with yellow-brown water to keep them from drying out before they can be examined in a lab for evidence of human alteration, like cuts or drilled holes. The painstaking work is made more difficult by the watery work site, which has no clear boundaries in an area well-trafficked by tourists and wildlife.

"We have no idea what we're hitting until we bring it up," Schwadron said.

The site is near a slough that has been a target for Everglades restoration efforts. State and federal officials consult with Florida's tribes on how to preserve artifacts or cultural sites affected by restoration projects in the park and on state lands. The location of those sites is often kept secret to prevent looting; anyone who finds an artifact is urged to report its location and leave it undisturbed.

Tourists are warned that anything dropped into the Everglades is more than likely gone for good, but the flowing waters and annual dry seasons sometimes reveal lost treasures. A hunter participating in the state-sanctioned python hunt last year found a half-melted gold pendant that may have belonged to someone aboard a commercial airliner that crashed in the swamps decades ago.
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Kay, Jennifer. 2014. “Everglades trail surveyed for cultural artifacts”. PhysOrg News. Posted: October 20, 2014. Available online: http://phys.org/news/2014-10-everglades-trail-surveyed-cultural-artifacts.html

The overlooked history of African technology

In the border region where Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa meet, indigenous hunters have for centuries made and used an impressive array of tools. There is the bow, made from giant raisin trees and called the "vurha" or "uta" in the languages of two ethnic groups in the area, the chiShona and the xiTshangana. Local craftsmen make arrows ("matlhari" or "miseve"), knives ("mukwanga" or "banga"), and axes ("xihloka" or "demo"). Until the advent of colonial rule, villagers also dug pits lined with poison-tipped stakes ("goji" or "hunza"), where animals as big as elephants were captured.

"The hunt was a transient or mobile workspace where work was done on the move," says Clapperton Chakanetsa Mavhunga, an associate professor in MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society. "Boys were schooled in the arts of tracking, shooting, trapping, making weaponry, and using trees as assets for making poisons, medicines, food, and other purposes. The hunt was a professoriate of indigenous knowledge."

These hunts were also incorporated within a highly spiritualized understanding of forests, animal life, and human behavior, Mavhunga emphasizes. For instance, hunters would never orphan an antelope fawn, and strict local taboos limited elephant hunting to basic needs for meat, skin, and ivory. Chiefs and spirit mediums enforced these rules.

Indeed, the maTshangana calendar is based, in part, on the life cycles of animals: "Mpala," or November, is when antelopes give birth; "Nkokoni," or December, is when wildebeest are born and elephants mate. No hunting was allowed during these months.

"Centuries of acquired and received knowledge were available on the annual rates of increase, out of which sustainable yields were calculated," Mavhunga writes in a new book about technology, society, and nature in southern Africa.

In exploring the hunt as a mobile space for work and education, Mavhunga's book — "Transient Workspaces: Technologies of Everyday Innovation in Zimbabwe," just published by MIT Press — is a call for a historical rethinking about the meaning, prevalence, and application of technological innovation in Africa.

"What I am challenging is the idea that technology can only come from outside Africa, from the laboratories and factories," Mavhunga says. "This general narrative of technology transfer — from the haves to the have-nots — is one I find troubling."

That isn't the only thing Mavhunga describes as troubling in his book. The colonial-era portioning of land into game reserves, as he makes clear, has forced indigenous people out of their native lands and criminalized traditional hunting — as "poaching" — while providing local residents no clear economic alternative. That policy has continued in the postcolonial era, to the continued detriment of locals, as Mavhunga emphasizes.

Ordinary people

Mavhunga grew up in rural Zimbabwe; his book involves archival and linguistic research, political analysis, and what he describes as "a wealth of childhood and adult experience" that included making some of the technologies he details.

The work also comes from the scholarly recognition that relatively few studies of African technology have been written from an African point of view. A more common perspective focuses on the Western technologies, such as guns and quinine, which helped enable colonial incursions on the continent.

"Western scholars talk about technology in the Roman Empire," Mavhunga says. "What if we were to do this for Africa? If we say that technology is something that comes prior to the colonial period, what does it do to the way we think about history?"

He adds: "What then happens to the idea and practice of technology when its itineraries are so thoroughly dominated by spirituality? What does it say about the meanings of technology within African societies, if one takes vaShona and maTshangana as an example?"

The deep experiential knowledge of the forests that Mavhunga explores in the book also applies to the tsetse fly, known for transmitting the African "sleeping sickness," or trypanosomiasis. The tsetse fly inhabits low-lying areas, so vaShona and maTshangana tended to develop agriculture in higher-altitude areas.

When the British forcibly occupied Zimbabwe starting in 1890, they had no technology to deal with the tsetse fly, and so deferred to local technological practices instead, such as concentrated human settlements and control of traffic to reduce the spread of trypanosomiasis; forest-clearance efforts that created buffer zones between infected and uninfected areas; and the elimination of wild animals in such areas.

To accomplish this last step, the British employed vaShona and msTshangana hunters, as Mavhunga's book explains. In so doing, Europe's colonizers were relying on the more effective technologies of the Africans, in contrast to the more widespread narrative of Western technological superiority.

"I've always been somebody who believes ordinary people have something up their sleeves," Mavhunga says. "They know things that we think they don't know."

Two critical debates

Ultimately, Mavhunga hopes to spur debate on both the trajectory of African technology and the basic policy questions surrounding game reserves. Postcolonial African governments, he believes, "need to initiate a serious discussion" about the realities of the game reserves and their consequences.

"A lot of people who fought for independence had been promised that they would reclaim these ancestral lands that were taken away from them by force of arms and arson," Mavhunga says. The essential issue, he adds, is "how to serve the people and save the animals" in these areas; understanding the traditional practices that let both thrive in the past is a necessary first step, in his view.

"Under colonialism, when the hunt was criminalized, all that knowledge was also criminalized," Mavhunga says. "And when you criminalize that practice, you destabilize the place where the knowledge existed."
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EurekAlert. 2014. “The overlooked history of African technology”. EurekAlert. . Posted: October 6, 2014. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-10/miot-toh100614.php

Mobile phone bling may be a personal, but also cultural thing

Choosing mobile phone cases and customizing phones with charms and decorations may reveal a lot about a person's culture, as well as increase attachment to the devices, according to researchers. In a study on culture and mobile phone customization, researchers found that people from Eastern cultures tend to be more motivated to change the look and sound of their mobile phones than people in Western countries, said S. Shyam Sundar, Distinguished Professor of Communications and co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory, Penn State.

"People who live in collectivist cultures are often more other-directed," said Sundar. "They want to know how others might look at them and also look to others as a way of influencing their own behaviors."

The researchers gave American and South Korean students surveys on how they customized their mobile phones and asked them how they perceived their social identity and efforts to self-promote. Mobile phone accessories, which are big business South Korea, Japan and other Eastern countries, include physical items, such as charms, cases, bags and stickers, as well as functional additions, such as ringtones and screen wallpaper.

The surveys revealed that Koreans were more focused on how to fit into social situations, according to Sundar, who worked with Seoyeon Lee, a mobile user-interface and user-experience researcher at LG Electronics in Seoul. They also were more likely to look at the actions of others to give them cues on behavior. Americans, on the other hand, valued self-expression more and were less worried about how others perceived them. This could be why Americans customize less, while Koreans accessorize their phones to a greater degree.

People see their phones not as a tool, but as part of themselves, according to the researchers, who present their findings in an upcoming issue of Media Psychology that is now available online.

"The more you customize your phone for aesthetic reasons the more it reflects who you are," said Sundar. "You see your phone as your self."

While people who live in Eastern cultures, which are typically more collectivist than Western cultures, tend to be more expressive with their mobile phone customization than Westerners, both cultures become more attached to the devices after they are customized.

Technology companies may want to provide more ways for a consumer to customize products to enhance this feeling of attachment.

"Tools for aesthetic customization can enhance people's attachment to a device, regardless of culture," said Sundar. "In this study we looked at phones, but it could also apply to other information technology products that people use in public, such as iPads."

Market research may help these companies to better match their accessories to consumers, according to the researchers.

"This may differ from one county to another," said Lee. Phone manufacturers sell different designs, colors and accessories in different countries, she added.

The study also reinforces previous research that showed how people are becoming more connected with their mobile phones, according to Sundar.

"If you ask people what objects they want to make sure they have with them when they leave their house, usually their phone is in the top three, along with keys and money," Sundar said.

A total of 400 American students from a U.S. university and 205 Korean students from various South Korean universities were asked to fill out a survey with 112 questions. Approximately 49 of the respondents did not have any customization.
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References:

EurekAlert. 2014. “Mobile phone bling may be a personal, but also cultural thing”. EurekAlert. Posted: July 10, 2014. Available online: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/ps-mpb071014.php

Cultural construction of nudes in Roman mosaics examined

The female nudes in Roman mosaics exalt beauty, the carnality and eroticism, while male bodies reflect determination, strength and power. This is one of the conclusions of research being carried out at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid (UC3M) that analyzed the cultural construction and ideological implications of these artistic representations in which female predominate as compared to those of males.

Other research on the representations that appear in Roman mosaics analyzed clothing as an iconographic element that was fundamental in identifying the characters and determining their status, but this new focus centers on the opposite theme: the absence of any type of clothing. "The construction of the bodies is neither natural nor casual, as we are sometimes led to believe, but rather it is the result of relationships based on power; they were well established in society and were promoted by those who wielded that power," explains UC3M Ancient History professor, Luz Neira.

The analysis of the representations of nudes goes beyond the study of the work of art, investigating the very significant ideological implications for the reconstruction of the history of the elite during the Roman Empire, and the level of its influence on posterity. This is what is being examined in the essays, written by approximately ten specialists, which are gathered in the recently published book "Desnudo y cultura: la construcción del cuerpo en los mosaicos romanos" (The Nude and Culture: the construction of the body in Roman Mosaics), coordinated and edited by Professor Luz Neira. "Judging from the nude images in the mosaics, what is generally exalted is the beauty, the carnality and the eroticism of the female figure, through a subtle combination of different representations of the bust and abdomen, or the back and buttocks, which reflect care for the body and its availability; in contrast, the nudes depicting male bodies, equally complete but muscular, show determination, strength and power," states the researcher from UC3M's Instituto de Cultura y Tecnología (Institute for Culture and Technology).

More female than male nudes

The deeply asymmetric treatment of male and female bodies is evident and, therefore, constitutes a reflection of relationships based on power, according to the researchers. "The female figures predominate in the mosaic scenes, although some male representations have also been documented," the professor comments. In this case, the main male figures tend to be gods, heroes and mythological beings, or else wrestlers and athletes.

Contrary to what one might expect, these images were not limited to the most private areas of the homes. In fact, they have been documented in different receiving rooms of dwellings and in bathing areas, both public and private, where the impact of these images, sometimes covered by water, must have been very evocative, the researchers comment. One very revealing example is a representation of Ariadne or the Nereid that shows a nude female figure lying on a marine animal, with one arm behind her head in a position and with a gesture that has been interpreted as "availability to the other."

"The nudes chosen to decorate the flooring of domestic spaces are the result of the choices made by the most privileged members of the elite and they reflect their mentality, which leads us to consider that looking at them might awaken a series of feelings, reactions and attitudes," notes Luz Neira. "As is pointed out in the book, the reflected image is a tool for evocation, a symbol of everything that we see without really seeing and, at the same time, what we would like to see but do not see. Because the reflected image is, excuse the repetition, a reflection of the brain, the subconscious, the language of emotions," she concludes.
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References:

Science Daily. 2014. “Cultural construction of nudes in Roman mosaics examined”. Science Daily. Posted: February 10, 2014. Available online: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140210083155.htm

First souvenirs: Enamelled vessels from Hadrians Wall

Three small enamelled metal Roman pans – the Rudge Cup, Amiens Patera and the Ilam Pan – thought to be the first souvenirs from Hadrian’s Wall are featured in a new book edited by Roman expert David Breeze.

The pans are about the size of wine glasses and are decorated with the names of forts along the western sector of Hadrian’s Wall from Bowness-on-Solway to Great Chesters. They were made in the decades following the building of Hadrian’s Wall in AD 122.

Tourist attractions across the Empire

Souvenir items for Roman tourists to buy have also been found at other famous places across the empire such as Athens, Ephesos and Alexandria.

David Breeze said: “Remarkably it seems that Hadrian’s Wall was a tourist attraction soon after it was built. None of the pans were found on the Wall, but in southern England and France.

“As souvenirs they may have had no other function, though it has been suggested that they might have been used for wine drinking by veterans of the Roman army.”

The contributors to the book are all experts in Roman archaeology – Lindsay Allason-Jones, Paul Holder, Fraser Hunter, Ralph Jackson, Ernst Kunzl, Noel Maheo and Sally Worrell.

They describe and discuss each of the vessels and related enamelled objects – from flasks to brooches – and their place of manufacture and use. All the items found to date are illustrated by colour photographs and there are reconstruction drawings.

The Ilam Pan decoration includes the name Draco, possibly the person who made it or owned it, and ‘vallum Aelium’ which appears to mean ‘the Wall of Hadrian’, Aelius being Hadrian’s family name.

The Rudge Cup and the Amiens Patera have a geometric pattern believed to respresent Hadrian’s Wall. The same design appears on another find, probably part of a flask, called the Hildburgh fragment and another pan found at Bath.

The stories of how the pans were found are also included. The Rudge Cup was found at Rudge Coppice, Wiltshire in 1725, the Amiens Patera was found at Amiens in 1949, and the Ilam Pan was found in Staffordshire 2003.

The pans are all in separate collections. The Rudge Cup is in the Duke of Northumberland’s museum at Alnwick Castle, the Amiens Patera is in the Museum of Picardy, Amiens and the Ilam Pan is jointly owned by the British Museum, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery, Carlisle and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent.

Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage

They were last brought together for a special exhibition at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery to celebrate the Hadrian’s Wall Pilgrimage in 2009. The pilgrimage is a special study tour of new archaeological work on Hadrian’s Wall which now takes place every 10 years. The first pilgrimage was organised in 1849.

Nigel Mills, director of world heritage and access for the Hadrian’s Wall Trust said: “This is a fascinating book and one of the many interesting things is that the experts don’t all agree on the date and interpretation for the pans.

“It is also fascinating that Hadrian’s Wall was a tourist attraction 2000 years ago. This highlights the significance of Hadrian’s Wall as an expression of the power and prestige of Rome, known across the Empire. Visitors continue to come from all over the world.

“Archaeology is very much a ‘live’ subject and new discoveries can overturn long-held theories quite dramatically. There’s still much more to be discovered about life on the Hadrian’s Wall frontier zone and that is of interest to visitors as much as to archaeologists – there are great stories to tell.”
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References:

Past Horizons. 2013. “First souvenirs: Enamelled vessels from Hadrians Wall”. Past Horizons. Posted: December 19, 2012. Available online: http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/12/2012/first-souvenirs-enamelled-vessells-from-hadrians-wall

Relic Wranglers: Join the Hunt for Lost Cultural Artifacts

We wrote about these and some of history’s other great, vanished media artifacts in “Lost: Wired’s Guide to Pop Culture’s Buried Treasure.” We had a lot of fun assembling the package for the September issue, but the magazine’s space constraints meant we couldn’t cover everything we wanted to cover.

For instance, did you know that the initial work print of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension included 10 minutes of extra footage? Or that Shakespeare co-wrote a play based on a work by Cervantes? And as soon as the issue hit newsstands, we started getting angry letters from readers about other lost artworks we had omitted. How could we overlook the spider-pit sequence from the original King Kong? Or “Fever,” the first-ever recording by the Beatles?

All the feedback spurred us to create a forum for everyone who’s as obsessed with these missing pieces of media as we are. Our new Relic Wranglers website is a place for people to pool information, get in touch with people who might know more about lost items, and maybe help some of these missing gems see the light of day.

Sound crazy? Tell that to the Trekkies who thought they’d never get to see the original, pre-William Shatner pilot of Star Trek. Or the music fans who clamored to hear Gary Numan’s 7-Up commercial. Or the gamers who never thought they’d get to play Bio Force Ape.

Sometimes a dedicated community of fans can make all the difference. Visit Wired’s Relic Wranglers site and join the hunt.
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References:

Baker, Chris. 2011. "Relic Wranglers: Join the Hunt for Lost Cultural Artifacts". Wired. Posted: October 26, 2011. Available online: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/10/introducing-relic-wranglers/