Month: September 2020

First Phoenician wine press found in Lebanon

Ancient

University of Tübingen archaeologists have discovered the first Phoenician wine press at Tell el-Burak in Lebanon. In the first millennium B.C., Phoenician trade was instrumental in the spread of wine around the Mediterranean, but the archaeological evidence from this period has come almost entirely from the consumption side — amphorae used to transport it to buyers, drinking sets, how different vessels were adapted for mixing, sharing and imbibing. Archaeological remains of wine production in Phoenicia itself, however, has never been discovered before.

The settlement of Tell el-Burak is six miles south of Sidon on the Mediterranean coast. It was founded by Sidon in the last quarter of the 8th century B.C. and was occupied until the middle of the 4th. Recent excavations discovered the remains of four houses dating to the Iron Age. Inside one of them was a courtyard with a plastered basin beneath the floor. This is the treading basin of the wine press. Archaebotanical remains indicate the settlement was agriculturally active, and most of the, 41.7%, consist of grape vine seeds.

The winemaking installation was constructed during the late 8th century B.C. and was in use into the 6th century B.C. Two other plastered structures in the Iron Age home may also have been connected to the wine production, but archaeologists are uncertain what function they performed.  A large number of transport amphorae found in earlier excavations add to the evidence that this was an extensive wine production facility active for centuries.

The discovery also lends new insight into Phoenician construction methods and materials.

Analyses carried out at the Tübingen CCA-BW within the framework of the ResourceCultures collaborative research center (1070) have now provided new data on the composition and technology of the Iron Age plaster of which the wine press was made. “A good-quality lime plaster could be difficult to produce,” say the authors, “The Phoenicians refined the process by using recycled ceramic shards. This made it possible to build better and at the same time more stable buildings.” A local and innovative tradition of lime plaster had developed in southern Phoenicia, they add, “The finished plaster was water-resistant and hardwearing. The Romans adopted this technique for making their buildings.” An ongoing organic residue analysis at the University of Tübingen may determine whether all three plastered structures at Tell el-Burak were connected to wine production.

The study has been published in the journal Antiquity and can be read here.

Rails from 1906 trolley dug up in Walla Walla

Modern(ish)

About 450 feet of 114-year-old trolley tracks were removed last week from downtown Walla Walla, Washington. They were pulled to make way for new utility work.

Significant stretches of the tracks remained embedded in the city’s roads. They were left undisturbed until 2011 when city water main improvement projects that would necessitate the removal of sections of track spurred an archaeological survey of the site. Using metal detectors, magnetometers and good old-fashioned shoe leather, archaeologists traced the trolley rails and recorded where they were visible and where they might be present under smooth asphalt.

Walla Walla’s first street car system began in 1889 and was horse-drawn. The cars ran on a standard gauge track with most of the rails installed in a cement base eight inches thick. It lasted a decade before plans to upgrade to an electrified system fell through and the horse-drawn street cars ceased operations in 1899.

Come the opening of the Walla Walla River hydroelectric plant in 1905, electrical power became more easily available in the city, in 1906, the Walla Walla Valley Traction Company built the first electric trolley system. At first it was just one line between the railway depot to the city park. By 1918, there were an estimated 14 miles of trolley tracks in the city, plus dozens more in extensions to the suburbs, neighboring cities ( Milton and Freewater, 14 miles away across the state line into Oregon) and spur lines to national train lines and shipping on the Columbia River.

The urban trolley system was a major economic boon to workers and to businesses, providing inexpensive, quick and reliable transportation to people and freight. It was a short-lived boon. The advent of the car killed the trolleys but good and Walla Walla’s city trolley system was shut down for good on December 31st, 1926. The service to Oregon, ceased in 1931.

In 1926, the city determined that only the tracks on brick or unpaved areas needed to be removed. The ones on paved streets would simply be abandoned. As roads were asphalted, the rails would be covered up with nobody the wiser. The sections of track visible today were exposed by erosion of the asphalt layer which, as it happens, does not bond well to iron rails.

The 2011 survey concluded that much of the  Walla Walla Valley Railway Company’s rails were still in place under the surface and exposed in discreet areas. Intersections and areas with recent infrastructure work did have the old tracks removed. The section beneath Whitman Street had 4000 feet of railway. Archaeologists determined that this section was not contiguous and having been buried for decades, they were unlikely to shed new light on the history of public transportation in Walla Walla. They recommended the utility work continue and that the rails be fully documented upon removal. Archaeologists kept only one section of the rail which was stamped with a date and manufacturer name. It is now at the Fort Walla Walla Museum.

The same principal was applied a week ago, when workers pulled 450 feet of the rails under Whitman to proceed with plans to repair and replace water, sewer and road infrastructure.

The Blue Boy is back and bluer than ever

Modern(ish), Museums

After three years of restoration (plus a little pandemic thrown in there) Thomas Gainsborough’s most iconic masterpiece, The Blue Boy, has been reinstalled in the Thornton Portrait Gallery at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, and he is looking bluer than ever.

A Portrait of a Young Gentleman was first removed from public view in August 2017 for a thorough technical analysis and conservation program to treat long-standing structural problems, discolored varnishes, bad overpaint and flaking. A full year of that painstaking work, from September 2018 through September 2019, was undertaken in public so visitors to The Huntington could see The Blue Boy unframed as conservators cured what ailed him.

I swear the above phrasing was not intentional, but I’m keeping it in because one of the cool discoveries made during the analysis of the lining was that the adhesive Gainsborough used was a paste made of rye flour and ale. The conservation team brought in a food historian to recreate the historic recipe using modern ingredients so they could utilize it in a mock-up and study the interaction between adhesive and lining.

Christina O’Connell, The Huntington’s Mary Ann and John Sturgeon Senior Paintings Conservator and leader of the project, removed several uneven layers of dirt and discolored varnish with small cotton swabs to reveal Gainsborough’s original brilliant blues and other pigments. Then, with tiny brushes, she reconnected the artist’s brushstrokes across the voids of past damage as part of the inpainting process. As O’Connell worked on the painting, she became intimately aware of Gainsborough’s every brushstroke. “It’s been an incredibly deep professional experience,” she said. “Conservation work is very much a process of discovery. I’ve not only had a view of the painting at the microscopic level, but I was also able to observe each stroke as the true colors of Gainsborough’s palette were revealed from underneath many layers of dirt and discolored varnish.”

During the process, O’Connell discovered that although Gainsborough painted The Blue Boy on a recycled canvas (as revealed in earlier X-rays), he made considerable use of a complex network of paint layers and pigments to create a painting that truly showed off his skills.

Gainsborough did not paint The Blue Boy on commission. He created it for the Royal Academy exhibition of 1770 to showcase his abilities in Van Dyck-style portraiture, hence the 17th century style of the boy’s striking clothing. Gainsborough’s aim was to take on the sine qua non of court portrait painters and to beat the revered Van Dyck at his own game. He succeeded. The Blue Boy was an immediate hit at the exhibition and Thomas Gainsborough, son of working class parents, vaulted up the social ranks from making portraits of merchants to painting nobles and aristocrats.

The Blue Boy was supposed to be reinstalled in March, but then the thing that happened happened, so his return was pushed back. Phased reopening has begun. For now, only the botanical gardens are open to visitors, but when the galleries reopen, he will be waiting for them with a whole new glow.

Silver seal of medieval woman found

Medieval

The seal matrix of a woman from an important medieval family discovered in the village of Hambleden, Buckinghamshire, has been declared treasure at a coroner’s inquest. That was the expected verdict as it fits the criteria of the Treasure Act of 1996 on two grounds — it is made exclusively of precious metal (silver) and is more than 300 years old — but as a historical artifact, it is a treasure beyond price.

Discovered by a metal detectorist in April 2019 on the grounds of the Henley Business School, the seal matrix dates to the late 13th or early 14th century but is in pristine condition. It is a pointed oval shape 1.3 inches long with a loop on the back. Around the edge of the front of the matrix is an inscription that reads “SIGILLUM.MAR.GERIE.PEVREL” meaning the “Seal of Margerie Pevrel.” In the center is the Peverel (variously spelled Pevrel, Peverell, Peveril) family crest of three garbs (a bundle of grain bound around the stalks) embedded in an urn with scrolls and florals on the sides and top.

Seal matrixes are not uncommon finds, but ones inscribed with specific names on them are more rare. Ones that name a woman are vanishingly rare. Ones found in a context directly connected to the woman who owned them can be counted on the finger of one finger. What is today the Henley Business School was the estate of Yewden Manor in the 14th century. The Peverel family owned Yewden Manor from 1248 until the mid-14th century.

There are two likeliest candidates for the Margerie Peverel who owned this seal. One is Margaret of Cornwall, wife of James Peverel and mother of Sir Hugh Peverel IV. She died in 1349. The other is Hugh IV’s daughter Margaret who was born in 1321. Both lived at Yewden Manor and one of them lost her seal while out and about on her estate.

Now that it has been declared treasure, it will be assessed for fair market value and offered to a local museum in exchange for a fee in that amount offered to the finder. The River and Rowing Museum at Henley-on-Thames is hoping to add it to its collection.

Massive lion sculpture found in Cambodia

Modern(ish)

Workers digging at the site of a new water pumping station in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, have discovered a massive stone lion. A crew from the Cambodian Mine Action Center (CMAC) was digging near the Wat Phnom temple when they came across the ancient statue lying on its back 13 feet below street level. It measures more than eight feet in height and was found broken in two parts.

The lion appears similar in design to the massive statues that guard the main pagoda and main stupa of the Wat Phnom temple. The temple lions are not as massive as this one, however. Hab Touch, director-general for tangible heritage at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, speculates that the newly discovered lion was part of a different structure at the site, something large like a bridge. It could also have originated elsewhere and been moved to the location later.

National Museum director Chhay Visoth told The Post that he cannot make any assumptions about which era the stone lion was made in because experts needed time to check the composition of the ancient stone.

“We cannot make assumptions of the lion that we found during mine clearance for the reservoir plan because we don’t have any connections regarding this statue.

“Normally, we can know the date of an artefact by identifying other things around it,” he said.

Viosth said it’s suspected that the lion was created at the same time as Wat Phnom or sometime after Cambodia was a French protectorate.

That’s a rather elastic range. Wat Phnom was built in 1372. Cambodia became a French protectorate in 1863. The sculpture is now being studied by experts at the Ministry of Culture. They might be able to determine its possible age with a tad more precision, but with no contextual clues from an archaeological excavation, it will be difficult to confirm.