Of Markets and weaving and other crafts

One of the pleasures in touring with Exodus  is that you also get to experience some of the local culture as well as visiting the  archaeological sites.

One morning on our way to Mitla we stopped to sample a local market

This is a daily event here. The villagers have a tradition of just shopping for what they need that day and it's all over by lunchtime.





 
Very much a social event as well as the chance to buy just about anything you could really want from fresh vegetables and meat to nail varnish and deep fried grasshoppers.

The traditional dress is still very much the normal thing to wear. This is not for the benefit of the tourists though - it is their way of life.

We bought bread and cakes to try and some grasshoppers to bring home.









Our next stop was at a local weavers - yes obviously the idea was that we bought something but we were invited into the family home and given a traditional welcome in their altar room.  Like most of their neighbours they were staunch Catholics and we were ritually greeted and blessed. I did try not to smile when we learned that the youngest daughter was  named Ixchel ( the Mayan Goddess of the moon and patroness of weaving)

The daughter in law of the  house made wax candles for the church. Traditionally these are bought by the bridegroom for this bride. Despite costing the best part of a year's income they are lit at the wedding.

The detail is quite amazing. You can certainly see why they cost so much.








The main reason for our visit though was to see the old Mayan style of dyeing and weaving. 

The colours used are all natural dyes found and prepared locally. Some were familiar to me like lichens and marigold but others were new.

OF particular interest was the red - cochineal from the cochineal scale insect (Dactylopius coccus) The family farm them on cactus and once they have completed the life cycle they are collected. The dye is carminic acid and it is released by crushing. 


The intensity of the colour produced  from the dried grey insects was quite amazing.

Our host was a very skilled weaver indeed.

He is producing carpets and rugs of his own design and also based on some of the ancient Mayan artwork from Mitla which is close by.

The area also has a wealth of cave paintings which predate the Mayan empire. This rug is a  woven reproduction of a typical design.

I'd have happily bought any number of rugs if there had been anyway of transporting them home. At present they are sent to a wholesaler and sold that way. I suspect for a very great deal more than the weaver was asking for. I had to content myself with a bag.

Inside Stonehenge

I know I've been here before. OK and more than once maybe as well!

But this is different. I've never been able to go inside the circle before but last Monday English Heritage had a special members only event which allowed us early morning access to the stones themselves. This was a chance I wasn't going to miss so even I was prepared to get up early for once for the hour or so drive.

It is a bit surreal there now. They are in the process of closing the old road to the stones so we had to pass a manned roadblock  by the new visitors centre ( not yet open) and display a laminated permit giving us permission to drive down to the old car park and visitor centre.

Although we were there on time it seemed ages until we were allowed down to the stones with two guides and a couple of security men.







It was strange also to see Stonehenge empty except for our party. normally of course it is surrounded by visitors, all being kept a respectful distance from the stones themselves of course.

First close up view into the circle from just outside. We were told we could wander around but not to touch the stones themselves. They are covered with rare lichens which they want to protect. How they survive the crowds at the summer solstice then, goodness only knows.

However we were good....

It was well past dawn by now but it's getting late in the year and the sun is still low in the sky.

Once inside the circle you become aware of just how massive these stones are. They are huge. You don't get anything like the effect of them from the path.

I was very amused to see the jackdaws living in the gaps on top of the uprights. Even more so when they started to steal the twigs from each other that they'd collected!

The tallest upright with the altar stone in the foreground.

and finally - not quite from the inside but the approach up the avenue now looks quite different since they removed that section of road and grassed it over.  Our hour was up by now so we had to leave before the general public arrived and it didn't take long for it to be business as usual.


It was a fabulous experience to be able to go into the circle. I have  sympathy for the Free Stonehenge movement which is campaigning for open access but with close on 1m visitors last year, there is no realistic way that number can be accommodated in the circle without them being damaged.

Now to book to do it again!

Monte Albán

One thing we discovered about Mexico was that each site seemed even better than the last and this feeling persisted throughout the trip. If we thought Cholula was impressive, Monte Albán outclassed it. Inhabited over a period of 1,500 years by a succession of peoples – Olmecs, Zapotecs and Mixtec it has been extensively excavated.

It started off rather low key; these are the remains of some of the housing of the non elite.  So far interesting but not that impressive.

Many tombs have been discovered here - it was also common practice to bury the deceased under the floor of the houses above. This was taken in pitch dark with the flash and bent double so isn't very straight!

Then we got into the main plaza and some very big constructions indeed.

The monumental centre of Monte Albán is the Main Plaza, which measures approximately 300 metres by 200. A series of platforms housed the main ceremonial, civic and high status housing.

Neatly arranged along the wall we found a series of carved stone monuments in the Olmec style.







 
Originally they were considered to be Danzantes or "dancers" but this is now discredited. These are reproductions with the originals being safely preserved in the on-site museum.

Here's one of them. The latest interpretation is that they are in fact early medical textbooks intended to record and teach. Some of the tablets show the process of birth and even an early cesarean section - whether the mother would have survived the process seems remote.

This was taken looking down on to the plaza from the highest platform. You also get a sense of how high up in the hills the whole site is.

The importance of some of the residents here was underlined by this private altar; normally these would have been in public areas but at Monte Alban there were both.

Looking at the site everything looks very neat and tidy ( there were workman manicuring the grass as we visited) but a few of the platforms have not had the same restoration - this one gives a good idea of what they would have looked like before being cleared and cleaned up.

Cholula with Grasshoppers for lunch

I wasn't sorry to leave Mexico City. The traffic was beyond belief.

 The teachers were on strike and the main square was closed off so we were unable to see the Palace or the Museum of Fine Arts. and I really don't see myself going again. Mexico - yes definitely but I can happily pass on the capital.

So it was on to Cholula and the largest pyramid in the world ( by volume at least). It was a reasonably long drive but the scenery was amazing.

 This is  Iztaccíhuatl   - or the White Woman.as the four peaks form the impression of a sleeping woman. Not that much snow on it at this time of the year.

The legend goes that she was a princess who fell in love with one of her father's warriors, Popocatépetl.  The emperor sent Popocatépetl to war in Oaxaca   promising him her as his wife when he returned.  Reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, Iztaccíhuatl was told he had been killed in battle and died of grief.  Popocatépetl returns safely to find her dead. He carries her body to a place near Tenochtitlan where the gods covered them in snow and transformed them both into mountains.

In his anger and grief Popocatépetl became a volcano spewing out fire on the earth .







So on to Cholula itself.

The site is approached through a tunnel dug through the pyramid itself. Not old at all but made by the archaeologists so they could see what was inside ( not a lot. It's a solid fill). It's a nice way though to leave the town behind and go back in time.

The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BCE  through the 9th century CE, and was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl. It has a base of 1,480 by 1,480 ft  and a height of 217 ft). This gives it a volume larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza although it is not as high.

The invading Spaniards sought to re-purpose the pry amid and the church on top is dedicated to  "Our Lady of Remedies"

One of the altars. These were normally outside the temple so that the people could participate. Only nobility and priests were allowed in the temple buildings on top of the giant pyramids. 

Unlike the Egyptians who built a new edifice for each pharaoh , the common practice amongst the meso-americans was to simply build over the existing pyramid to make to broader and taller. This would be repeated many times and has meant that a lot of the older archaeology has been preserved.

This is some of the earlier building now uncovered.








and the grasshoppers?

 A local delicacy. Here being sold by a street vendor on the site. These were seasoned with chili. Yes I did try one but I had to close my eyes to do it. Crunchy on the outside but rather soft and squishy in the middle. An acquired taste I think.

Hola!!

Something a bit different  now - come with me on a trip round some of Central America's ancient sites.

This was a complete eye opener for me - Mexico and the Mexican people were very different from what I'd been expecting and I am looking forward very much to a return visit one day. It's long been an ambition to visit the old Mayan civilisation so where better to start than somewhere that is not Mayan at all.

Not even Aztec but claimed by the Totonac people, Teotihuacan ('the place where the Gods were created') is some 30 miles from Mexico City. It has been heavily reconstructed, particularly the royal palaces and the Temple of Quetzalcoatl but the pyramids are most impressive.

It was still early in the season so not very busy although visiting it late morning meant that it was very hot indeed. This was our first site so we were not quite sure what to expect.

The Temple of the Moon. This is the smaller of the two great structures but climbing it gave us a good idea that the next two weeks were going to be fairly physically demanding if we were planning on climbing many of these structures.



The steps are very steep and not very deep and my legs were complaining long before we reached the top.

The view though down the Avenue of the Dead towards the Temple of the Sun ( large structure on the right) was well worth the effort.







Originally it was believed that the smaller structures were tombs but it now believed that they were ceremonial buildings or temples.

Some of the artwork is still extremely well preserved including this wall painting of a Jaguar, sacred to many of the Central American peoples. The primary deity here is believed to be The Great Goddess and unique to this city.

The view from the top of the Temple of the Sun, looking down on to the Temple of the Moon.






This is a massive structure with  a 350 m² platform at the top, measuring  225 x 222 metres at the base, and at 75 meters high, has a total volume of 1 million m³!

And in another direction.

In the footsteps of Giants

Our trip to Cornwall continued  with a visit to  the Boscawen -Un stone circle.

Now this was a fascinating place and quite surreal. Much less visited than the better known and more accessible "Nine Maidens" down the road we had it to ourselves - well at least initially!

If you look hard you'll see it! It was a short walk down in waist deep bracken before the circle itself came into view.

A Bronze age circle with 19 upright stones set in an ellipse.  In 1928 the first Gorsedd  Kernow was held here as an old Welsh triad mention "Beisgawen in Dumnonia" as one of the principal gorseddau  ( gatherings of the Druids) of Britain.

Unusually the circle has a stone in the centre - this rather phallic standing ( leaning!) stone. At this point the visit became somewhat surreal.

The circle was invaded by a tour group, complete with camera man, presenter, and a modern day druid who proceeded to change into his robes and did a piece to camera on the "fertility circle". Whilst he was doing this, the rest of the group were busy dowsing the stones and in particular the one that was conspicuously different being mostly quartz.

They left almost as precipitously as they arrived! I would love to know what they were filming for - if anyone knows please tell me.

Heading back to the car we detoured slightly from the path to take a look at the Creeg Tol or the Giant's Footprints.

Various neo pagan offerings had been left in the "bowls".

A number of visitors have described this site as feeling really malevolent or spooky. I can't say that I did.

Carn Euny

Back again to Cornwall and an ancient village of Carn Euny.

 This is the remains of an Iron age village that was occupied until late in the Roman Era.

Originally the huts were timber but were replaced by stone and these remain until today. The houses have courtyards with rooms leading off them and then a big main room. Whether these were "bedrooms" or used for animals is uncertain.

A fascinating place - under here is the fogue.

Whats a fogue?

It's a stone roofed passage! A fogue  is an underground, dry-stone structure found on Iron age settlement sites in Cornwall. Similar to the souterrains of Orkney it is not believed they were used for storage but that they had a ritual purpose.


The fogou of Carn Euny is in remarkably good condition and consists of a 20 m long corridor, with a side passage that leads to a round stone chamber with a collapsed roof, and a small tunnel.


It is also home to some moss that glows in light - really weird. It is virtually unnoticeable until you shine a light on it - then this happens!

Walking on past the settlement we found the first of two "holy" wells.


 One is mentioned in The Legendary Lore of the Holy Wells of England  of 1893 where William Borlase  stated   in the 1750s:

"I happened luckily to be at this well upon the last day of the year, on which, according to vulgar opinion, it exerts its principal and most salutary powers. Two women were here, who came from a neighbouring parish, and were busily employed in bathing a child. They both assured me that people who had a mind to receive any benefit from St. Euny's Well must come and wash upon the three first Wednesdays in May. Children suffering from mesenteric disease should be dipped three times in Chapel Uny widderschynnes, and widderschynnes dragged three times round the well."

OR did he mean this one? It isn't clear from the writings.