Have you ever wondered about the logistics of those burnt sacrifices in Classical and ancient Greece and Rome, or even in the Old Testament? Chas, hunter, professor, Pagan, and blogger, has…
Month: August 2005
On Falconry
My introduction to Steve’s writing was from the falconry side of it, a popular article in Smithsonian, sometime in the mid-80s. I was surprised to know anyone wrote so well about the sport, then surprised again to discover he writes well about a lot of things. I’m sure various pigeon fanciers, gourmands, world travellers, writers, …
The Pack
I mentioned the hounds in the last post but readers are asking how they are. During the summer the heat is bad for the muscular, greyhound-derived lurcher—tests by John Burchard have found that after a run in an outdoor temperature of 60 degrees F., the internal temperatures of greyhounds are in the dangerous range, as …
The Beauty of Weapons 1
Fall is in the air in the New Mexico highlands, and my hounds and hawk are restless, whining at the front door, or rowing wings in the quickening wind. You will be hearing more about them, I promise. But a natural transition from the fluted points of prehistory is the beauty humans– all right, mostly …
Yosemite Lawsuit
According to a story in the LA Times, a ten million dollar lawsuit by the parents of a climber killed in a rockslide may result in closing the park to all climbing. “In its first century as a national park, Yosemite has seen 15 people killed by rock falls. Given the more than 3 million …
Pygmy Mammoths
A little known but interesting aspect of Pleistocene megafauna was the species of pygmy mammoth (Mammuthus exilis) that inhabited the Northern Channel Islands of the California Coast. During the late Pleistocene when sea level was much lower than it is now, the four present northern islands (San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, and Anacapa) were …
Some Pleistocene Links
For those interested, here is Larry Agenbroad’s essay on how easy it would be to clone a mammoth, and why we should. And here is a serious paper (fee required for more than an abstract) called “The catastrophic extinction of North American mammoths and mastodonts” by Gary Haynes, which will explain in detail why it …
Stirling
As I think about “Reviving the Pleistocene” and such notions it occurs that one source of images of such a world is in the novel Conquistador by S. M. Stirling. Mr. Stirling is a creator of alternate worlds, parrallel timelines and such, often done with just one step away from the world we know, all …
Pleistocene Revival: Update 1
There are a lot of stories about, and a lot of predictably silly reactions to, yesterday’s proposal for “Re- Wilding” America. Here is a relatively sober one from New Scientist. One from CNN yesterday– no longer available– contained some remarkable statements. The outrage from the stockman’s association was predictable but sad– I actually support public …
Very Old Rock Art Blogging
In light of Steve’s post on Pleistocene Park and his suggestion that it start in Utah, I wanted to share this petroglyph of a mammoth from….Utah. This is the only North American rock art that I am familiar with that depicts extinct megafauna. The rock face where this image lies is in the Moab area. …