Given Up but Going for Gold anyway

No not blogging! But trying to go walking in this weather. Spent a very nice afternoon in Bath though listening to Prof. Hutton give a talk on the Ancient Mysteries. Much better than trying to tramp through the mud at the moment.


These are a few pictures from the new Dvizes Museum's Stonehenge exhibition showing the treasures excavated around the monument.

It's a new £750K state of the art gallery which means lots of space around the artifacts and lots of pretty graphics. Personally I prefer the older style displays with more content than style but then I'm a bit of a luddite I guess.

Still on with the pictures:

Firstly a reconstruction of the Bush Barrow burial

Many of the artifacts on display were found here including the two gold lozenges. A very high status burial indeed.

This large lozenge was found on his breast

And the small one to his side. It is somewhat overpowered by the display!

Another small gold disc. This is a gold fitting for a dagger sheath.

Some gold jewellery as well  - a gold cylindrical bead bracelet or necklace

Finally more body adornments- these were labelled as belonging to the Shamen.













It was lovely to be able to see some of the finds from Stonehenge and the surrounding area and fitting that they are now displayed at Devizes rather than in a remote museum in London.

Turkish Delight - one of the 7 wonders of the world. The Artemision

As you may have gathered from the previous instalment, Ephesus was far from my favourite site this trip.

However leaving Ephesus we stopped at the Artemision. This temple, dedicated to Artemis, was one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was also much less busy, Most of the cruises don't seem to bother with it. They have no idea what they are missing!

 The site is right on the outskirts of Selcuk and easily accessible. I wasn't complaining about the lack of crowds though!

The site is mostly rubble now but there are tantalising hints of what it must once have been like. This model in the Selcuk museum gives an idea of the sheer scale of the place. 

The original temple here dates back to the Bronze age and was destroyed by flood.

The temple had a tempestuous life, destroyed by arson. rebuilt, destroyed again....

Like many of the sites in Turkey, the columns seem to have been randomly reconstructed with odds and ends of masonry. I suppose this travesty does give an idea of the height of the original column but still.....

Much of the site slumbers buried under the scrub grassland, deserted apart from a few tortoises exploring the boulder strewn ground. 

The heart of the temple is now quite swampy so it looks a lot greener.

This gives an indication of the location of the columns.

Most of the contents or the temple are now in the British Museum but the local one in Selcuk has the two main temple statues. This one is known as the beautiful one and it is not misnamed.

The quality of the carving is breathtaking and the whole piece just radiates beauty and serenity. Even better, it is not fenced off so you can get close enough to appreciate the quality of the workmanship that went into this statue.

 

A close up of the detail down the side panels of the skirt - bees yes but the Tudor Rose? Some symbols recur in the most unlikely places....

The Ephesus Artemis is distinctly different from the Greek goddess and her cult shares more similarities with that of Cybele, the mother goddess of the region.

  

Chedworth Roman Villa

Just down the road from last week is Chedworth Roman villa, one of the largest Roman villas in Britain.

 

This one is in the care of the National Trust who have applied their usual heavy hand to it and as a consequence it has lost a lot of its ambience. Still it is neatly kept with concrete paths and trimmed grass and some nicely dumbed down signs....


Much of the site is currently closed for "redevelopment" and "improvement", these pictures are from a previous trip last year. According to their website they do seem to have now added a "Roman Retail Experience" whatever that means - I guess a shop selling souvenirs!

There are still some interesting areas - such as this domestic water shrine fed by a spring that never dries up. A small altar once stood at the far end and offerings to the guardians of the spring were made ( and still are judging by the number of coins in the pool)

Another interesting feature are the original Roman latrines. The NT couldn't resist adding a large coloured sign to interpret what they might have looked at in use. I've spared you that!

Leaving the rather sterile exterior, there is an on site museum which is much more interesting. Here are the statues and plaques of the household and other deities. Some are clearly carved and can be identified.  Others are fainter and have yet to be attributed. Some may be local God/esses whose names have been lost.

These alone make the trip worthwhile along with the reconstructive models showing the lay out of the villa and what it may have looked like.