Archaeology reveals the best way to drink: from a human skull

by Sean McLachlan on


Archaeologists in England have discovered three prehistoric skulls that were used as cups, the BBC reports.

The skulls were carefully worked into the shape of bowls. They were found in Gough’s Cave, Somerset, and are 14,700 years old. These make them the oldest skull cups discovered. Investigators found other human remains in the cave that suggest people split the bones to get at the marrow. As any dedicated carnivore knows, the marrow is one of the richest and most nutritious parts of any animal, humans included.

Skull cups were used by many cultures for many reasons. Some were involved in rituals to remind one of death, like this carved Chinese example photographed by user Shizhao and posted to Wikimedia Commons. Other cultures, like the Vikings and Scythians, drank from the skulls of their enemies to brag about their victory or get the power of the slain warrior for themselves. The archaeologists studying the Somerset skulls have published an interesting article about skull cups. The BBC also interviewed one of the researchers and their video of the skull cups is below.

So next time you’re in a museum, keep a sharp eye out for skull cups. The Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena has one, as does the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. London’s Natural History Museum sponsored the research and is making a reconstructed skull cup that will go on display in March.

Have you seen skull cups in other museums? Tell us about it in the comments section!

London 2012 Olympics schedule and ticket prices released

by Sean McLachlan on

If you’re thinking of going to the London 2012 Olympics, now is the time to start planning.

The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games has just released the competition schedule and ticket prices. The race is on for tickets, hotel reservations, and flights. Personally I’m avoiding the whole thing. London’s transport system is chaotic at the best of times, and an influx of hordes of sports fans isn’t going to do it any good. My family and I spend every summer in Oxford but we’re headed elsewhere in 2012. Being only an hour from London, rental prices in Oxford are sure to hit the stratosphere.

While the Olympics will be a royal pain in the ass for the English, it promises to be a memorable event for everyone else. The organizers boast there will be “19 days of sporting competition. . .over 640 sessions, across more than 300 events, 39 disciplines, and 26 sports.” If you love seeing the best athletes in the world competing live, this is the place to be.

For those of you planning to brave London in 2012, tickets go on sale March 15 and are sure to be snapped up quickly. You can register on the site to make purchasing quicker once tickets do go on sale. This is especially important if you’re outside the UK and Europe because you’ll have to apply for tickets via your local National Olympic Committee (NOC) starting March 15. For the Paralympics you need to get tickets from your National Paralympic Committee (NPC) starting September 9. Some NOCs and NPCs may appoint an Authorised Ticket Reseller (ATR) to sell tickets. If you register with the site via the above link, they’ll send you information about how to get tickets from an acronym near you.

And don’t forget to reserve a hotel or flat early, early, early. You might want to consider staying outside of London to avoid the crowds. Oxford, St. Albans, and Hertford are three pleasant towns all about an hour away by rail or bus and all have local attractions worth seeing.

My Valentine: 500 year-old letter is first Valentine’s Day card

by Sean McLachlan on

People often think Valentine’s Day is a modern invention, a diabolical conspiracy of florists and greeting card companies to suck money out of poor chumps who should be able to show their love without spending a dime. Actually, sending Valentines is older than modern commercialism.

The BBC reports that the first use of “Valentine” in the English language was in a letter dated 1477 from Margery Brews to her suitor John Paston.

Opening her letter to John with “Me ryght welebeloued Voluntyne”, the 17 year-old Margery shows some old-school teen angst by asking why he hasn’t written her recently. John, who was 33, had asked for her hand in marriage but didn’t get the dowry he wanted. The relationship between Margery’s father and John deteriorated and it looked like the marriage would never happen until the pair’s mothers intervened and saved the day. Love triumphed, something that didn’t happen as much as it should have in the 15th century.

To hear the whole letter read in Middle English, check out this link. It’s amazing just how much you can figure out.

The love note comes from a collection called the Paston letters. More than a thousand letters from this wealthy family dating from 1422 to 1509 survive and give an amazing insight into the life of the gentry in the decades before Henry VIII. They’re housed in the British Library in London. Watch the video below for a quick tour courtesy of Rick Steves.

[Painting of Saint Valentine by Jacopo Bassano, 1575, courtesy Wikimedia Commons]

Budget-friendly London Valentine’s Day ideas

by Alex Robertson Textor on

With Valentine’s Day coming up shortly, it’s time to catalogue some romantic Big Smoke activities. Here are five budget-friendly London Valentine’s Day ideas.

1. Flower hunting at Columbia Road Shops & Flower Market. East London’s Sunday flower market is jam-packed with shoppers and aimless strollers alike. The streets are full of stands selling flowers, with salesmen barking prices in hardcore Cockney tones. Columbia Road shops are also delightful, with cafes, furniture stores, and curio shops sharing retail space. Columbia Road Market is open on Sundays between 8 am and 3 pm. Arrive early to avoid the crowds and to pick up the best possible selection of Valentine’s Day flowers for your loved ones.

2. Valentine’s Day at Tower Bridge. For £15 ($24) per person, participants can ascend to the bridge’s walkways, eat chocolates, drink a glass of bubbly (pink Champagne, no less!) and enjoy views over London. Organizers promise “scented flowers, seductive lighting and live mood music” in the background. Wow. In other words: one part cheesy spectacle, one part make-no-bones-about-it goosebump fest. This activity is scheduled on the evening of February 14 in four one-hour admission shifts, at 6:30 pm, 7:30 pm, 8:30 pm, and 9:30 pm. 18 and older only.

3. Romantic candies. Pick up some Valentine’s Day sweets at Hope & Greenwood. The very British confectionary shop has two branches, one at 20 North Cross Road in Dulwich and the other at 1 Russell Street in Covent Garden. They’re hawking a line of special Valentines candies right now; these include an organic spotted dick chocolate bar, love hearts, and champagne truffles.

4. Makeshift river cruise. Bypass the terribly pricey Thames dinner cruises and cobble together a romantic river journey of your own. On Valentine’s Day afternoon, take a River Cruise eastward from Westminster to Greenwich or westward from Greenwich to Westminster. A cruise leaving Greenwich at 4:50 pm arrives at Westminster at 6:10 pm, affording almost a full hour of post-sunset views of the city. A one-way journey for adults costs £9.50 ($15.30) and a roundtrip runs £12.50 ($20.10).

5. Primrose Hill views. Few neighborhoods in London are quite as picturesque as Primrose Hill. The hill itself perches on the northern flank of Regent’s Park, and affords beautiful, sloping views of central London. Primrose Hill is also home to ungodly numbers of British celebrities. Will they be out on Valentine’s Day evening, enjoying the view? Unlikely, but you never know.

Searching for the perfect romantic bolthole for Valentine’s Day? Of course you are. Check out our list of five romantic properties in Boston, California, Mexico, Quebec, and St. Lucia.

[Image: Flickr | siddhu2020]

Five ways London will drive American business travelers nuts

by Tom Johansmeyer on

On my recent trip to London, I was asked frequently if it was my first time I didn’t quite know how to answer, as I’d spent a day wandering the city in 2008 before schlepping out to East Anglia. Instead of yes-with-a-but or no-with-an-except, I settled on kinda and used that as bait to give an explanation nobody really cared about.

Why is this important?

Subtlety matters in London, and for business travelers, time is of the essence. Fail to handle the former properly, and you will lose on the latter. Had I said I’d been to London while asking for directions, for example, the outcome would have been much different (I’d not have gotten sufficient detail). But, I remembered just enough to be dangerous.

London can be a tricky city for the white collar travel set, largely because it’s more different from what you see in the United States, given the shared language and history. Going to London on business? Here are five things that will tangle with your corporate yankee sensibilities:

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1. They drive on the other side of the road: I know; I know – this is perfectly obvious, and you should know about it already. Here’s the problem, though: I’ve spent the last three decades looking or traffic on the right side of the road. Old habits die hard. Combine this with jaywalking (a New York necessity), and the results can be unpleasant. I’m not saying this is right or wrong, but after several close calls, it becomes annoying.

2. Cold toilet seats: no explanation needed.

3. Hopstop FAIL: I love Hoptstop in New York, but it just doesn’t measure up in London. Too many streets are missing. Usually, getting “close enough” is fine, except when close enough points you in the wrong direction … when you’re on your way to a business meeting. I quickly gave up on Hopstop and started carrying a paper map.

4. Late-night dining FAIL: It seems like London hates to eat after 10 PM. I worked late several nights on my last trip and found myself needing dinner after 11 PM. There just wasn’t much. If you’re in London on business, feed yourself and your team early if you have an all-nighter forming … and stock up for the early hours of the morning.

5. Nobody knows where anything is: I grew up in the Boston area, so I’ve been through this before: these tiny, crazy little streets are difficult to navigate, and the comfort of the Manhattan grid is nowhere to be found. Everything makes sense if you know where to look. But, it takes targeted knowledge to help a lost American businessman, and I mostly encountered only friendliness and willingness. Give yourself plenty of time to get to that next meeting …