#author: Graeme Thomson

[scotianostra]

On November *22nd 1888 the Sword, reputed to be that of Sir William Wallace was taken to The National Wallace Monument.

*And yet another with differing dates 

The sword’s history is as significant as that of the Stone of Destiny. It is said that after the capture of Wallace, the sword was taken to Dumbarton Castle and kept for almost 600 years. Despite protests from the people of Dumbarton, in 1888 the sword was installed in the monument with great pomp and ceremony.

The people of Dumbarton let it be known……

“The Dumbarton Town Council feel aggrieved at the removal of Wallace’s sword from the castle to the Wallace Tower on Abbey Craig, and have resolved to remonstrate with the War Office authorities, and ask that the historic weapon be returned to the place where it has lain for between five and six hundred years.”

In 1912 the case containing the sword was broken by a suffragette called Ethel Moorhead to highlight the struggle to obtain votes for women, and it was stolen in 1936 and again in 1972 but on each occasion it was safely recovered and returned.

The  history of the sword itself has been questioned, most recently in 2020 Dr David Caldwell,  former president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, said that it had “nothing to do” the leader of the First War of Independence, who lived from 1270 to 1305.He described the sword as a “not very good example of a two-handed 16th Century sword” which was acquired in “desperation” to link the monument to Wallace.

To me it is secondary, just like the aforementioned  Stone of Destiny’s history is disputed, the Wallace sword is more of a symbolic symbol for Scots. 

Information promoted by the National Wallace Monument said that “it is believed” that the Wallace Sword was left at Dumbarton Castle from 1305 after Wallace was imprisoned there. A mention of ‘Wallace’s sword’ later appears in accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland in 1505;

......at the command of James IV., the sum of twenty-six shillings, equal to about thirty pounds at our present money, was paid to an armorer for binding a riding sword and a rapier; also for the “binding of Wallas sword with cords of silk”, and providing it with “ane new hilt and plomet” also with a “new scabbard and a new belt.” 

While the rapier and the riding sword are named as being simply repaired, the Wallace sword is described as adorned with trappings of silk; also as having been furnished with the specified additions of a new hilt and pommel, a new scabbard and a new belt.

Ken Thomson , of Stirling District Tourism, which runs the National Wallace Monument, said the sword was “held in high respect” during the 1800s when Scotland experienced a surge in patriotism.

When it was brought to Stirling in 1888, Provost Yellowlees said: “…no true Scotsman could look upon this sword without having anew a feeling of gratitude to the patriot who wielded it, and who bled and died to secure for his country that liberty which to him was dearer than life”.

The quote in the first pic is by Sir Walter Scott, which surely means he believed in the swords history?  The sword measures 1.68m and weighs approximately 3kg.

The last pic is of interest, the information tagged to it reads “Swords of Scottish Heroes Exhibited at the Laying of the Foundation Stone of the Wallace Monument at Stirling 1. Sir William Wallace's 2. King Robert Bruce's 3. Sir John De Graeme's 4. Sir Richard Lundin's 5. The Black Douglas's” 

I’ve posted about all these before except Sir Richard Lundin, the sword is said to be of the same era as The Wallace sword, and that he carried it into battle at The Battle of Stirling Brig, however he was one of those that chopped and changed sides and was in King Edwards Army. 

He advised Sir Hugh Cressingham, Edward I’s appointed Lord Treasurer of Scotland, that to cross Stirling bridge itself would result in certain loss. He has been attributed with the following speech.

“My Lords if we go on to the bridge we are dead men; for we cannot cross it except two by two, and if the enemy are on our flank, and can come down on us as they will, all in one front. But there is a ford not far from here, where we can cross sixty at a time. Let me therefore have five hundred Knights and a small body of infantry, and we will get round the enemy on the rear and crush them”

Cressingham ignored the advice of the skilful soldier Sir Richard, and the battle was lost. After this Sir Richard fought with Wallace and is believed to have become a good friend. Sir Richard is listed as one of the Nobles of Scotland who appointed Sir William Wallace to the position of Governor of the Kingdom. They fought together at Falkirk. The sword of Sir Richard de Lundie, laird of Lundin, friend of Wallace, was taken to the ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Wallace Monument.

This sword is now at Drummond castle, ancestral home of the Earls of Perth, at one time descendants of Lundin of that ilk.

Such is the unsure history of this era it is interesting to note that “Lundie” is described in Blind Harry’s depiction of the battle of Stirling bridge as being on the side of the Scots.

The hardy Scots with heavy strokes and sore, Attack the twenty thousand that came o'er. Wallace and Ramsay, Lundie, Boyd, and Graham, With dreadful strokes made them retire - Fy, shame!

I have tried to find a real photo of the Lundie sword, but to no avail, Drummond Castle being a privately owned and only the gardens are open to the public.

[longtrade]

Thin lizzy cowboy song

From 1970 to 1983, they opened for and toured with dozens of bands including the Faces, Journey, Rainbow, David Bowe, Queen, Graham Parker, Blue Öyster Cult, Canned Heat, Uriah Heep, Bachman Turner Overdrive, and Bob Seger. Cowboy Song is the story of Lynott, but also of the band, who would become Ireland’s first, great musical export. Through five years of research, Thomson not only culled past works, but interviewed all the studio personnel, every member of Thin Lizzy, and a rich set of people who were available to give perspective on every aspect of Lynott’s life in Ireland, England, and elsewhere. This is a fan’s biography - almost 400 pages of the best liner notes you’ve ever seen, but written objectively and with the highest level of journalistic integrity. Much has been written about Thin Lizzy and Lynott since his drug-related death in 1986, but as journalist Graeme Thomson puts it, “Very few artists, particularly those who never quite made it to the top of the ladder or, conversely, are not endowed with the enduring cool of cult status, have enjoyed such a potent afterlife.”Ĭowboy Song: The Authorized Biography of Thin Lizzy’s Philip Lynott is not, of course, the first biography of Thin Lizzy and/or Lynott, but like Thomson’s gorgeous 2010 work on Kate Bush ( Under the Ivy), it is profoundly well-researched. Over 30 years since Lynott’s demise, Thin Lizzy’s influence is felt all over music, and even by artists who don’t even realize they are wading in his shadow. But I am convinced that the most influential of the underrated artists is still Thin Lizzy, and their signature sound was from an unlikely instrument - their lead singer and bassist, Philip Lynott. Every discussion of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame omissions should reference artists like William Bell, Delaney and Bonnie, Harry Nilsson, the Cars, Badfinger, Warren Zevon, Iron Maiden, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. There are so many musical artists to whom we give the moniker “underrated”. And lastly, I loved the soundtrack to the 1999 film Detroit Rock City, which included an unlikely cover of “The Boys Are Back in Town” by Everclear, as well as Thin Lizzy’’s original version of “Jailbreak”. Then there was Metallica’s cover of “Whiskey in the Jar”, off 1998’s Garage, Inc., which I am sure was the gateway to Thin Lizzy for millions of other people too. I fell in love with their version and even after I heard the original, I still found myself going back to the Pumpkins’ treatment. Sometime around 1997, I heard the Smashing Pumpkins’ cover of Lizzy’s “Dancing in the Moonlight” as a B-side to “Disarm”. Like most Generation-X rockphiles who discovered the ‘70s while in college in the ‘90s, my first exposure to Thin Lizzy came by way of several awesome covers. I am convinced that the most influential of the underrated artists is still Thin Lizzy, and their signature sound was from an unlikely instrument - their lead singer and bassist, Philip Lynott.

[speech-of-flowers]

{ photo scanned from George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door, from left to right: Peter, Lou, George and Harry Harrison }

“He was very secure within himself, and you only really get that security from a very tight and loving family as a child” - Graeme Thomson

[ljblueteak]

Part two of this review of Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In suggests that Lewisohn could have done more to explain why Paul and George formed a connection to one another: 

“Close school pal Ian James says he couldn’t understand what (aside from music) drew Paul to George, who was younger and decidedly more abrasive than Macca. Lewisohn doesn’t really explore or try to explain that. Indeed, while John and George had quite similar temperaments and world views, Paul was different in many ways, and I’d have liked the book to dig a little deeper into what attracted – and ultimately bound – them to each other.”

I’ve just picked up Graeme Thomson’s George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door and though he mainly talks about Paul and George’s early bond being about music and “being grammar school boys stuck on the outskirts of town,” he also maybe offers a bit of a clue to what drew them together in his early descriptions of George: “In certain company, [George] could be loud, extrovert, aggressive and confrontational. Paul McCartney’s earliest impressions were of ‘a cocky little guy with a good sense of himself; he wasn’t cowed by anything.’ At other times he would be thoughtful, with a shyness that could be both soulful and surly.” (23, 15). Thomson then goes on to say that “[George] never quite aligned himself to the notion of being told what to do” (15). 

Though Thomson suggests that Paul “Was shaping up to be one of nature’s diplomats, pouring oil on troubled waters” while “Harrison was less inclined to play nice when his mood dictated otherwise,”(14) it is the case that Paul *also* really disliked being told what to do, as he explains here: “I never much liked authority. I didn’t like school teachers or critics telling me what I should do. Or myself telling me.”

I wonder if, in addition to shared humor, an interest in music, and a long commute their mutual dislike of authority/being told what to do bonded them--though the way they handled this dislike of authority manifested itself in different ways. It’s also interesting to me that Thomson’s bio of George and Chris Salewicz’s bio of Paul indicate that they could both be outgoing as well as shy/sensitive--though again, their ways of being outgoing and shy/sensitive looked different.

[george-harrison-marwa-blues]

The Beatles with Fats Domino in New Orleans in September of 1964

“At first we played the music of our heroes. Little Richard, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, The Everly Brothers, Ray Charles, Carl Perkins -- anything we’d ever liked. But we still needed more to fill those 8 hour sets. Eventually we had to stretch and play a lot of stuff we didn’t know particularly well. Suddenly, we were even playing movie themes, such as ‘A Taste Of Honey’ or ‘Moonglow’, learning new chords, jazz voicings, the whole bit. Eventually it all combined as something new and we found our voice as a band..”- George Harrison, excerpted from  “George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door” by author, Graeme Thomson

“An Elvis Presley and Fats Domino fan, he {George Harrison} bought his first guitar at 13 from a schoolmate and began jamming with McCartney after they met commuting to and from their high school, the Liverpool Institute.” - Excerpt from “When He Was Fab, PEOPLE Magazine,  17 December 2001

"I'm In Love Again" was the first "rock 'n' roll" song that George Harrison heard.”- Seven Decades Of Fats Domino

RIP Fats Domino thank you for all the incredible music you have left us with and for being a hero and a pioneer to so many.

[sciencespies]

Did Neanderthals bury their dead with flowers? Iraq cave yields new clues

https://sciencespies.com/news/did-neanderthals-bury-their-dead-with-flowers-iraq-cave-yields-new-clues/

Did Neanderthals bury their dead with flowers? Iraq cave yields new clues

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Neanderthal skeleton unearthed in an Iraqi cave already famous for fossils of these extinct cousins of our species is providing fresh evidence that they buried their dead – and intriguing clues that flowers may have been used in such rituals.

A view of the entrance to Shanidar Cave in the foothills of the Baradost Mountains in Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, the site where fossils of 10 Neanderthals have been unearthed is seen in an undated photo. Courtesy of Graeme Barker/Handout via REUTERS.

Scientists said on Tuesday they had discovered in Shanidar Cave in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region of northern Iraq the well-preserved upper body skeleton of an adult Neanderthal who lived about 70,000 years ago. The individual – dubbed Shanidar Z – was perhaps in his or her 40s or 50s. The sex was undetermined.

The cave was a pivotal site for mid-20th century archaeology. Remains of 10 Neanderthals – seven adults and three infants – were dug up there six decades ago, offering insight into the physical characteristics, behavior and diet of this species.

Clusters of flower pollen were found at that time in soil samples associated with one of the skeletons, a discovery that prompted scientists involved in that research to propose that Neanderthals buried their dead and conducted funerary rites with flowers.

That hypothesis helped change the prevailing popular view at the time of Neanderthals as dimwitted and brutish, a notion increasingly discredited by new discoveries. Critics cast doubt, however, on the “flower burial,” arguing the pollen could have been modern contamination from people working and living in the cave or from burrowing rodents or insects.

But Shanidar Z’s bones, which appear to be the top half of a partial skeleton unearthed in 1960, were found in sediment containing ancient pollen and other mineralized plant remains, reviving the possibility of flower burials. The material is being examined to determine its age and the plants represented.

“So from initially being a skeptic based on many of the other published critiques of the flower-burial evidence, I am coming round to think this scenario is much more plausible and I am excited to see the full results of our new analyses,” said University of Cambridge osteologist and paleoanthropologist Emma Pomeroy, lead author of the research published in the journal Antiquity.

COGNITIVE SOPHISTICATION

Scholars have argued for years about whether Neanderthals buried their dead with mortuary rituals much as our species does, part of the larger debate over their levels of cognitive sophistication.

“What is key here is the intentionality behind the burial. You might bury a body for purely practical reasons, in order to avoid attracting dangerous scavengers and/or to reduce the smell. But when this goes beyond practical elements it is important because that indicates more complex, symbolic and abstract thinking, compassion and care for the dead, and perhaps feelings of mourning and loss,” Pomeroy said.

Shanidar Z appears to have been deliberately placed in an intentionally dug depression cut into the subsoil and part of a cluster of four individuals.

“Whether the Neanderthal group of dead placed around 70,000 years ago in the cave were a few years, a few decades or centuries – or even millennia – apart, it seems clear that Shanidar was a special place, with bodies being placed just in one part of a large cave,” said University of Cambridge archeologist and study co-author Graeme Barker.

Neanderthals – more robustly built than Homo sapiens and with larger brows – inhabited Eurasia from the Atlantic coast to the Ural Mountains from about 400,000 years ago until a bit after 40,000 years ago, disappearing after our species established itself in the region.

The two species interbred, with modern non-African human populations bearing residual Neanderthal DNA.

Shanidar Z was found to be reclining on his or her back, with the left arm tucked under the head and the right arm bent and sticking out to the side.

Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Peter Cooney

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

#News

[hudsonespie]

Maritime Blockchain Labs Introduces New Consortium To Improve Crew Management And Streamline Documentation

Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL), founded by blockchain technology and governance experts BLOC and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation,  announced the establishment of a consortium that will pilot a blockchain-based seafarer certification system.

Image Credits: CANARAN/shutterstock.com

The project aims to streamline and expedite processes that can be marred by a lack of verification for safety documentation, paper-based certificate management and a lack of access to validated safety and training certifications of seafarers. These factors can lead to significant issues for crew management agencies, ship operators, regulatory and port authorities for securing and insuring crew.

The second of three demonstrator projects funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), this consortium brings together multiple stakeholders who either rely on, or support crew certification. These include shipping companies for whom crewing is an essential concern, including the world’s largest shipping logistics company, Maersk, leading commercial tanker operator Heidmar, aiming to show the importance of crew in the smooth commercial operations of vessels, and PTC Holdings Corp., who represent crew management and training associations. Also included are technology enablers with expertise in fleet management and certification such as provider of cloud-based fleet management solutions Hanseaticsoft, maritime platforms providers Navozyme and C-LOG, as well as international seafarer welfare charity The Mission to Seafarers.

The demonstrator scope will focus on an end-to-end demonstration of a digital certification and endorsement process utilising a digital repository for verified crew documentation, training logs and approval system. Specifically, the focus will be upon the STCW certificate issuance and relevant supporting documentation from engineering officers located in multiple jurisdictions and the endorsement of recognition from a maritime authority for vessel embarkation and disembarkation.

Upon validation and scaling, the final solution would enable individual seafarers to manage their certificate repository from original issuance, for maritime administrations to manage the renewal and endorsement across jurisdictions, for crew management organizations to manage seafarers for crewing of vessels and for vessel owners to receive an overview of their crew, certificates and endoirsements.

Deanna MacDonald, CEO of BLOC, commented:

“Blockchain is essentially a collaborative technology, and so we need to build with industry rather than adopting a top-down approach, and therefore an essential ingredient to this project is to start by building a consortium that represents everyone in the value chain, from vessel owners to the seafarers themselves.

“The properties of blockchain make it uniquely positioned to deliver on these value propositions. Taken together, the distributed digital ledger, tamperproof timestamping (and hashing) of information and documentation, and the peer-to-peer verification network enable a globally available and locally accessible respiratory of verified and validated documentation.”

Gary Pogson from Lloyd’s Register Foundation said:

“In such an international and distributed industry, it can be challenging to achieve robust mechanisms for providing a single, accurate record of crew education, training and experience and this has the potential to impact on safety. A way to address this is to bring together the multiple parties involved in the processes and build a system that works for them, establishing trust throughout the network.”

Graeme Thomson, Head of Northern Europe Manning Office from Maersk commented:

“Blockchain has the potential to significantly improve the transparency, authenticity and ease of working with crew certification; both for the ship owner/operator and most importantly for the crew themselves. Building and maintaining an intuitive and user-friendly platform for the management of crew certification will bring hugely significant benefits to all stakeholders. We are looking forward to developing and building the solutions with the consortium.”

Press Release

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[maritimemanual]

Maritime Blockchain Labs Introduces New Consortium To Improve Crew Management And Streamline Documentation

Maritime Blockchain Labs (MBL), founded by blockchain technology and governance experts BLOC and the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, announced the establishment of a consortium that will pilot a blockchain-based seafarer certification system.

The project aims to streamline and expedite processes that can be marred by a lack of verification for safety documentation, paper-based certificate management and a lack of access to validated safety and training certifications of seafarers. These factors can lead to significant issues for crew management agencies, ship operators, regulatory and port authorities for securing and insuring crew.

The second of three demonstrator projects funded by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation (LRF), this consortium brings together multiple stakeholders who either rely on, or support crew certification. These include shipping companies for whom crewing is an essential concern, including the world’s largest shipping logistics company, Maersk, leading commercial tanker operator Heidmar, aiming to show the importance of crew in the smooth commercial operations of vessels, and PTC Holdings Corp., who represent crew management and training associations. Also included are technology enablers with expertise in fleet management and certification such as provider of cloud-based fleet management solutions Hanseaticsoft, maritime platforms providers Navozyme and C-LOG, as well as international seafarer welfare charity The Mission to Seafarers.

The demonstrator scope will focus on an end-to-end demonstration of a digital certification and endorsement process utilising a digital repository for verified crew documentation, training logs and approval system. Specifically, the focus will be upon the STCW certificate issuance and relevant supporting documentation from engineering officers located in multiple jurisdictions and the endorsement of recognition from a maritime authority for vessel embarkation and disembarkation.

Upon validation and scaling, the final solution would enable individual seafarers to manage their certificate repository from original issuance, for maritime administrations to manage the renewal and endorsement across jurisdictions, for crew management organizations to manage seafarers for crewing of vessels and for vessel owners to receive an overview of their crew, certificates and endoirsements.

Deanna MacDonald, CEO of BLOC, commented:

“Blockchain is essentially a collaborative technology, and so we need to build with industry rather than adopting a top-down approach, and therefore an essential ingredient to this project is to start by building a consortium that represents everyone in the value chain, from vessel owners to the seafarers themselves.

“The properties of blockchain make it uniquely positioned to deliver on these value propositions. Taken together, the distributed digital ledger, tamperproof timestamping (and hashing) of information and documentation, and the peer-to-peer verification network enable a globally available and locally accessible respiratory of verified and validated documentation.”

Gary Pogson from Lloyd’s Register Foundation said:

“In such an international and distributed industry, it can be challenging to achieve robust mechanisms for providing a single, accurate record of crew education, training and experience and this has the potential to impact on safety. A way to address this is to bring together the multiple parties involved in the processes and build a system that works for them, establishing trust throughout the network.”

Graeme Thomson, Head of Northern Europe Manning Office from Maersk commented:

“Blockchain has the potential to significantly improve the transparency, authenticity and ease of working with crew certification; both for the ship owner/operator and most importantly for the crew themselves. Building and maintaining an intuitive and user-friendly platform for the management of crew certification will bring hugely significant benefits to all stakeholders. We are looking forward to developing and building the solutions with the consortium.”

Press Releases: Maritime Blockchain Labs

Photo Courtesy: Maritime Blockchain Labs

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