Archaeology boner.
4 June 2011 01:01![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chairman_wowI went to the health centre today to get a new pill prescription, and I took a short-cut (or at least a nicer route) through Russia Dock Woodland. And I found this awesome thing, which made my geeky heart sing:
[Image description: a large metal compass rose is embedded into a concrete square in the middle of a path. It is divided into 16 sections labelled with the cardinal directions (N, NNE, NE, ENE, and so on). In the centre is an engraving of a bird, possibly a sparrow, but I don't know anything about birds. Overlaying the rest are a number of lines radiating out from the centre, each labelled with a location, the distance to it, and a list of commodities. The subsequent images show smaller sections of the compass.]
It shows destinations, distances, and the cargoes that were traded from them.
[Section from NNE to ENE. Only the ends of the lines are shown. They read: "Finalnd 1118 miles timber paper woodpulp", "-sea USSR 1203 miles softwood timber", "Poland 791 miles tar oil tallow", "412 miles general cargoes"]
[Section from SEE to SE, radial lines read: "Calcutta India via Suez 7965 miles tea juta cotton spices" and "Calabar Africa 4435 miles hardwood timber (cut off by edge of image)"]
[Section from SWW to SW. Radial lines: "New Orleans United States of America 4810 miles dairy produce grain", "St John New Brunswick Canada 2910 miles softwood timber", "Montreal Canada 3135 miles wheat dairy produce"]
I've just started working on my master's dissertation, which is on medieval and Bronze Age trade, focussing on a few commodities. Trade and economics are some of my absolute favourite archaeological topics. I know I live by a former commercial dock and am surrounded by evidence of them all of the time, but this particular specific record of it was a really cool find.
It's got my home on it, too. ♥
[Close to center of compass, only beginning of radial lines is shown. Just above the tips of my shoes the line reads: "Hamburg West Germany 412 miles" Above it the partial lines: "GDansk Baltic Sea Poland 791", and "Leningrad Baltic"]
Wikipedia tells me Russia Dock was closed in the 1970s, and it mentions the USSR and West Germany, so that means unless this was some kind of commemorative thing after its closure, it must've been made sometime between the 1950s and 1970s. Which was a neat thing to realise, because I hadn't bothered to really look into it and in my head I associate the docks with a 19th century, British Empire kind of vibe. [EDIT] I actually just realised it's labelled Russia Dock Woodland, so I guess it is commemorative. It could be set more nicely into the path, really.
I wonder how accurate the directions and distances are.
[Image of the bird in the centre of the compass.]
I also wonder what the symbolism of this bird is.
[Image description: a large metal compass rose is embedded into a concrete square in the middle of a path. It is divided into 16 sections labelled with the cardinal directions (N, NNE, NE, ENE, and so on). In the centre is an engraving of a bird, possibly a sparrow, but I don't know anything about birds. Overlaying the rest are a number of lines radiating out from the centre, each labelled with a location, the distance to it, and a list of commodities. The subsequent images show smaller sections of the compass.]
It shows destinations, distances, and the cargoes that were traded from them.
[Section from NNE to ENE. Only the ends of the lines are shown. They read: "Finalnd 1118 miles timber paper woodpulp", "-sea USSR 1203 miles softwood timber", "Poland 791 miles tar oil tallow", "412 miles general cargoes"]
[Section from SEE to SE, radial lines read: "Calcutta India via Suez 7965 miles tea juta cotton spices" and "Calabar Africa 4435 miles hardwood timber (cut off by edge of image)"]
[Section from SWW to SW. Radial lines: "New Orleans United States of America 4810 miles dairy produce grain", "St John New Brunswick Canada 2910 miles softwood timber", "Montreal Canada 3135 miles wheat dairy produce"]
I've just started working on my master's dissertation, which is on medieval and Bronze Age trade, focussing on a few commodities. Trade and economics are some of my absolute favourite archaeological topics. I know I live by a former commercial dock and am surrounded by evidence of them all of the time, but this particular specific record of it was a really cool find.
It's got my home on it, too. ♥
[Close to center of compass, only beginning of radial lines is shown. Just above the tips of my shoes the line reads: "Hamburg West Germany 412 miles" Above it the partial lines: "GDansk Baltic Sea Poland 791", and "Leningrad Baltic"]
Wikipedia tells me Russia Dock was closed in the 1970s, and it mentions the USSR and West Germany, so that means unless this was some kind of commemorative thing after its closure, it must've been made sometime between the 1950s and 1970s. Which was a neat thing to realise, because I hadn't bothered to really look into it and in my head I associate the docks with a 19th century, British Empire kind of vibe. [EDIT] I actually just realised it's labelled Russia Dock Woodland, so I guess it is commemorative. It could be set more nicely into the path, really.
I wonder how accurate the directions and distances are.
[Image of the bird in the centre of the compass.]
I also wonder what the symbolism of this bird is.