Bread and Circuses

Roman Military Equipment on the Harzhorn

A story that has had a great deal of coverage in the German press over the past few days - on the battle that took place around AD235 between the Romans under Maximinus Thrax and the Germans on the Harzhorn, near Kalefeld.

On Friday, Roman artillery equipment that would have been used there was reconstructed and tested. This from the press release:

Am heutigen Freitag (23. November) wurde eine historische Schlacht in der Nähe von Kalefeld (Landkreis Northeim) nachempfunden. Sechs Torsionsgeschütze, deren historische Vorbilder in der Zeit von 200 v. Chr. bis 400 n. Chr. auf den Schlachtfeldern eingesetzt wurden, feuerten ihre Salven in 100 Meter entfernte Ziele. Die Feldgeschütze wurden von Studierenden der Universitäten Trier, Osnabrück und der Helmut Schmidt Universität Hamburg rekonstruiert. Gleichzeitig baute das Gymnasium Ising (Bayern) ein historisches Geschütz. Dafür wurden Originalfunde aus Spanien und Italien analysiert, Stücke aus Rumänien sogar neu vermessen. Gespannt verfolgten die Zuschauer am Harzhorn das Klacken der Abzüge der antiken Feldgeschütze und die Einschläge der Bolzen. »Hier bekommen wir einen Eindruck, wie im Gefecht um das Harzhorn solche Waffen eingesetzt wurden«, so Prof. Dr. Moosbauer, Archäologe an der Universität Osnabrück.

NDR.de has a great video of the experiment and there is also coverage at the Hamburger Abendblatt and Die Welt. There is even an article in the Chilean newspaper Publimetro.

Update 27/11. A couple of new links. The Augsburger Allgemeine with some good pix, and PC Games.

How Kalkriese Has Changed Over 25 Years

The Osnabrücker Zeitung continues its occasional series on the site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest with a piece on how the discovery of the battle 25 years ago has changed the area:

„Mittlerweile wurde hier sicher ein zweistelliger Millionenbetrag investiert“, so der Ortsbürgermeister. Hochmoderne Museumsgebäude sind entstanden. Obwohl für den Laien äußerlich nicht viel zu sehen ist, gelingt es in der Ausstellung, das dramatische Geschehen vor über 2000 Jahren erlebbar zu machen. Der Erfolg bestätigt das Konzept. „Wir nähern uns mit der Gesamtzahl der Besucher der Zwei-Millionen-Grenze“, sagt Museumsgeschäftsführer Dr. Joseph Rottmann.

Full article here.

How to Raise the Profile of the Antonine Wall

A piece in the STV magazine about plans to raise the profile of the Antonine Wall. A series of five public consultations are being held over the next couple of weeks. Dates and details are on the Historic Scotland website.

Hadrian’s Wall is considered by many to be the definitive barrier which was built by the Romans to keep us pesky Scots out of their empire. We were too much trouble, it seems.

But a lesser known wall around 100 miles north of Hadrian’s, stretching 40 miles across central Scotland from Old Kilpatrick in the west to Bo’ness in the east, was also part of the Roman frontier for around 20 years. It is now the subject of a public appeal to help raise its profile and celebrate its role in the history of Roman Britain.

The Antonine Wall was built in 142AD, around 15 years after Hadrian’s Wall, to help encourage trade and diplomacy between those in Scotland and Roman England.

It only lasted for around 20 years before the Romans retreated back to Hadrian’s. Why? Academics are not sure. One suggestion is the Roman army felt they were becoming too stretched.

“In around 142 AD, the Roman emperor Antoninus Pius decided that he wanted to expand the frontier into Scotland,” said Patricia Weeks, the Antonine Wall coordinator who is in charge of a new public consultation into the future of the world heritage site.

Full story here.

Arminius and the Dark Charisma of Hitler

For those in the UK or with access to iPlayer, the first episode of The Dark Charisma of Hitler is worth a look. After 12.24 there is a good discussion of the importance of Arminius to Hitler and the way that they both were perceived (and marketed) in the 1930s as heroes along with some splendid b-roll of the Hermannsdenkmal. This is significant because it is an aspect of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest which is still pushed under the carpet, perhaps understandably in Germany.

Scotland Museum Budgets Cut for 2013

This morning, an article in the Scotsman ledes with: "Culture Secretary Pledges to Safeguard Arts Spending in Independent Scotland".

Erm. Not really. In the fifth par of a second story on the same speech that culture secretary Fiona Hyslop gave yesterday at the Museum Association conference (the story is blandly headlined: "Museums and Galleries to Receive GBP50m in Funding") it is revealed that:

The NMS funding is down around 2 per cent on the total it received in the current financial year. The National Galleries of Scotland 2013-14 pot is down 3.9 per cent from the £15.04m received for 2012-13.

This is not good news. Nor does it convince that budgets for Scottish museums are in "rude health" as the culture secretary suggests. See my post on cuts on Scottish museum acquisition funding a couple of weeks ago or the cuts to a third of the funding for Historic Scotland (see Bread and Circuses passim). Today's Herald article on Scotland's "crisis hit arts funding body" is also worth a read.

But there is light relief. In the Q&A session after her speech Hyslop was asked what impact a "yes" vote for independence would have on museums in Scotland:

Hyslop said that cross-border work already happening in museums across the country would continue post 2014, but there would be more work on an international basis and with Europe. The UK government, she added, was too inward-looking and anti-Europe.

I am sure that Neil MacGregor, Nicholas Serota and Nicholas Penny will be chuckling into their cornflakes at the suggestion that they are too insular.

Gregorius: An Incestuous Saint in Medieval Europe

A must read! A shameless plug for my father's new book - Gregorius: An Incestuous Saint in Medieval Europe and Beyond.

The striking (and shocking) story of Gregorius, a child born of incest who later marries his mother, undertakes a massive penance, and eventually becomes both pope and saint, is a European theme. The apocryphal story probably came from medieval England or France, but is found in most European languages in all kinds of forms, from major literary works down to short folktales. In modern times the best known (but not the only) version is that by Thomas Mann, The Holy Sinner. It is emphatically not a variation on the Oedipus-legend; instead it uses the strange and paradoxical tale of the good sinner to demonstrate the effects of original sin, and to show how the human propensity to sin in general can be coped with, just as long as the sinner does not despair. This book traces the story in its variations from Iceland to Egypt and from the twelfth to the twenty-first century.

More details on the OUP website. It is very good indeed.

Tony Clunn - the Man Who Discovered the Battle of Teutoburg Forest

As part of the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of the discovery of site of the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in AD9 (previous posts here), the Ösnabrücker Zeitung has an article that profiles Tony Clunn, the British army officer, who found the battlefield:

Dem Glück und Geschick eines britischen Soldaten und Hobbyarchäologen und der Bereitschaft eines Profis, auf einen Amateur zu hören und mit ihm zusammenzuarbeiten, verdankt das Osnabrücker Land eine Attraktion und die Legende der Varusschlacht eine neue, belegbare Heimstätte.

All das hätte Tony Clunn nicht ansatzweise zu hoffen gewagt, als er im Sommer 1987, direkt nach seiner Versetzung nach Osnabrück, einen kleinen Münzschatz und später drei zunächst undefinierbare Gegenstände aus einem Kalkrieser Acker in der Niewedder Senke ans Tageslicht beförderte.

Full story here.