95-year-old German high jumper honoured

95-year-old German high jumper honoured
On June 30th, 1936, the German high jumper Gretel Bergmann matched a German high jump record of 5ft 3in (1.60 metres). Two weeks later, however, her feat was erased from the record books and she was banned from the 1936 Berlin Olympics by the Nazis because she was Jewish. She emigrated to the US and changed her name to Margaret Lambert.
Yesterday, however, Germany’s track and field association restored her record. It has also requested that she be added to Germany’s sports hall of fame.
The Guardian reports.

The sale of Hitler’s limousine: the buyer is not Russian but a Cypriot
Dave Graham from Reuters reports on an interview with the German car dealer, Michael Fröhlich, who traced the vehicle.

Paul Delaroche’s painting of Charles I Insulted by Cromwell’s Soldiers, which was damaged by a German bomb during the Second World War, is due to go on display at National Gallery in February. In June, it was unrolled for the first time in 68 years. Ben Hoyle reports in The Times.

The Queen in Bermuda to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the island’s settlement by the British
Read the article on the Mail Online.

How the astronomical alignment of Greek temples reflects cultural and ethnic identities

by Kathryn Hadley

Historians and archaeologists have long sought to establish links between the positions of classical temples and cultural and religious practices. Many have speculated that classical temples may have been aligned with respect to sunrise and argued that temples could be dated from their astronomical alignment. There is no consensus, however.

Dr Alun Salt, from the School of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Leicester, explained the controversy:

‘There are quite a few temples in Greece which don't face sunrise. So a few
archaeologists have suggested that there is nothing significant about the number
that face east. The problem is that no one has ever said what a 'significant
number' would be.’

Salt has recently conducted a survey of archaic and classical Greek temples in Sicily and Greece. Through a comparison of the alignment patterns of temples in the two countries, he sought to determine the extent to which Greek culture differed in Sicily and Greece. His study was published last week, on November 19th, on the website PLoS ONE in the article ‘The Astronomical Orientation of Ancient Greek Temples’.

Do the alignments of Ancient Greek temples in Sicily and Greece reflect astronomical intentions? How do they reveal different pressures in the expressions of ethnic identity? How far are they evidence of a degree of cultural continuity across the Mediterranean?

Applying mathematical principles of probability to his survey, Salt discovered that many classical temples in Sicily were built to face the rising sun. Indeed, of a total of 41 temples surveyed in Sicily, only one faced west. He explained how in Greece, however, the situation is ‘quite complicated’.

‘It would be like spinning a roulette wheel and finding that half the time the
ball bounces out of the wheel. But when it does land, 90% of the time it'll be
on red. That looks odd to me.’

According to Dr Salt, the results may imply that there is an ‘astronomical fingerprint’ for Greek settlers in the Mediterranean. If all the temples founded by Greek settlers were built following similar alignment patters this may help to distinguish between the sites settled by people following the Greek religion and natives who adopted Greek style through trade, but kept their own culture.

There remain a number of unanswered questions, however. Salt explained:

‘What’s really interesting are the temples which don't fit. The temple of
Hekate, a lunar goddess, at Selinous faces west. If every other temple in Sicily
faces east, then what is special about that one?’

In Greek Archaeology from Schliemann to Surveys Graham Shipley considers how new archaeological discoveries and techniques are progressively refining our views of Classical Greece.

Update on the Staffordshire Hoard

by Kathryn Hadley

Yesterday, Paul Lay commented on the release of a small illustrated book on the Staffordshire Hoard written by Kevin Leahy and Roger Bland. The book is due to be published by the British Museum Press next week, on November 30th.

The British Museum is also hosting a series of lectures about the Staffordshire Hoard.
On Thursday November 26th, Dr Kevin Leahy, National Adviser for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, will give his first impressions of cataloguing the Staffordshire find.
On December 10th, co-author of the book and Head of Portable Antiquities and Treasure at the British Museum, Roger Bland, will tell the story of how the hoard was found, the work that has been carried out on the hoard so far, and what will happen to it next.

The missing pages of Darwin's notebooks

Turning the pages of Darwin’s notebooks
To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, today, November 24th, English Heritage have digitised and published online Charles Darwin’s notebooks which he wrote during his five-year voyage on board HMS Beagle. The notebooks contain nearly 116,000 words and 300 sketches and doodles and provide a fascinating insight into his day-to-day experiences and thoughts. The online archive also features highlights from a 1969 microfilm of Darwin’s Galapagos notebook.

The missing notebook
All that remains of the Galapagos notebook, however, are the extracts on the 1969 microfilm. The notebook has been missing from Darwin’s former home in Kent, Down House, since the early 1980s. English Heritage bought the house in 1996 and today launched an appeal for help to trace the Galapagos notebook.
The appeal is notably supported by Darwin's great-great grandson, Randal Keynes OBE. He described how:

‘[his] family always felt that the best Darwin material should be at Down House
so that the public could see it in his home. The Galapagos notebook is of
outstanding value for the history of science. If Darwin had not posed the
questions in that notebook, he might never have written On the Origin of
Species. The notebook was almost certainly stolen around the 1980s. But I am
hopeful that it is only a matter of time before it resurfaces and when it does,
it must be returned to English Heritage and Down House.’

Read the press release on the website of English Heritage.
In The Descent of Genius: Charles Darwin's Brilliant Career Roy Porter considers the origins of Charles Darwin’s particular species of genius.

A Russian investor’s hunt for Hitler’s limousine
Spiegel Online interviewed the German classic car dealer, Michael Fröhlich, who traced the vehicle. The armoured limousine is a bluish-black Mercedes 770A Kompressor, which is estimated to sell for up to €10 million euros. The car’s original log book states that the car was delivered to the ‘Führer and Reich Chancellor’ in 1935. The Russian buyer is also purchasing five other vehicles of the same model, four of which were owned by Nazi officials including von Ribbentrop.

Galileo's fingers and tooth rediscovered

Rediscovery of Galileo’s missing fingers and tooth
In 1737, two fingers and a tooth were allegedly removed from Galileo Galilei’s corpse by some of the astronomer’s fans whilst his body was being moved to Santa Croce basilica in Florence. They have recently been rediscovered and are due to go on display in the Museum of the History of Science in Florence next spring. Read the reports on the websites of The Telegraph, The Scotsman and the MailOnline.
Galileo designed a telescope which enabled him to observe the planets, but who first invented the telescope? Accoridng to Nick Pelling in Who Invented the Telescope? the credit should go not to the Netherlands but much further south to Catalonia.

John Lewis and the memory of Ireland’s Easter 1916 Rising
Plans to redevelop the area around Moore Street and the General Post Office in central Dublin have sparked protests by heritage campaigners in an attempt to preserve 16 Moore Street where the rebellion’s leaders eventually surrendered to the British army. Henry McDonald reports in The Observer.
In Cesca: A Young Nationalist in the Easter Rising Anthony Fletcher examines his great-aunt, Cesca Chenevix Trench’s, eyewitness account of the Easter Rising.
In 2003, witness statements from the men and women who took part in the uprising were made available to the public after decades in a government vault. Charles Townshend shares some of the accounts that he read in 'Soldiers Are We': Women in the Irish Rising.

Launch of online archive of Second World War aerial photographs
The Aerial Reconnaissance Archives (TARA) contain more than 10 million declassified documents including aerial photographs taken by secret RAF reconnaissance flights during the Second World War. A new online archive of some of the images was launched today, revealing wartime images of prison camps and air raids to the public for the first time.
The archive can be viewed on the website of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS). For further information, read the press release on the RCAHMS website and the article published in The Scotsman.
A slideshow of some of the photographs is also available on the BBC website.

How much is the Staffordshire hoard really worth?
The government’s treasure valuation committee is due to meet with individual experts this Wednesday, November 25th, to evaluate the treasure. Following further excavation work, another 300 more individual items were unearthed.
Richard Brooks reports in The Times.

Discovery of Churchill’s cigar, which he smoked as he planned D-Day
Ronald Williams, who served as Churchill’s butler at the Casablanca conference in 1943, gave the cigar to his grandson Christian Williams when he was a child over ten years ago. The cigar has now been valued at £800.
Read the report on the website of The Telegraph.
At the Casablanca conference the British persuaded the Americans to postpone a cross-Channel invasion. But could D-Day have happened earlier? John Grigg reports in The Liberation of Europe: A Bridgehead Too Late?

The fight to subdue the Scots and for children's rights

20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was signed in 1989 and has since been ratified by 193 countries. Only the United States and Somalia have yet to adhere to the convention.
The Convention was the first legally binding international convention to affirm human rights for all children. It spells out the basic human rights that children have everywhere in the world in 54 articles and 2 optional protocols including the right to survival, to develop to the fullest, to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation, and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life. The Convention adheres to four core principles: non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development, and respect for the views of the child.
An official commemorative ceremony will be held in New York today to mark the event.
In an article of the website of UNICEF Dan Seymour, Chief of the Gender and Rights Unit of UNICEF’s Policy and Practice Division, assesses the achievements of the Convention and the remaining challenges.
In Paris, a photographic exhibition entitled ‘Sale gosse!’ is on display at the headquarters of UNESCO (Salle Miro, 7 Place de Fontenoy) until December 10th. A slideshow of some of the photographs is available on the website of Le Figaro.

More Roman military camps in Scotland than in any other European country
There exist at least 225 Roman military camps in Scotland against an estimated 150 in England. The Scotsman reports on the announcement of a new comprehensive survey of Roman remains in Scotland to be carried out by archaeologists from Historic Scotland. It is believed that the survey will uncover previously undiscovered Roman sites boosting the total of officially recognised sites and giving them increased legal protection.

Restoration of Crux Vaticana
The Crux Vaticana was unveiled by the Vatican, yesterday, after a two-year restoration project. The jewel encrusted golden cross is a foot-high and contains what is revered as fragments of the cross on which Jesus was crucified. It was given to the people of Rome sometime between 565 and 578 by the Byzantine emperor Justin II. Nicole Winfield reports on the website of The Scotsman.

Photo:
By Francois Perri, from the exhibition 'sale gosse' held at UNESCO in Paris

L'affaire suisse: how US intelligence bought the French resistance

L’affaire Suisse: how the US intelligence service bought the French resistance
On the website of The Times Matthew Cobb reviews Robert Belot and Gilbert Karpman’s latest account of ‘l’affaire Suisse’. The financial scandal involved the resistance movement Combat led by Henry Frenay, which accepted millions of dollars from the US Office of Strategic Services in return for intelligence about the situation in occupied France. The money was channelled through Switzerland.
In The Resistance in France Roderick Kedward examines the activities and success of the Resistance movement in France from 1940 to 1944.

Wine drinking under Napoleon: Josephine’s expensive tastes in wine
The Telegraph reports on a new exhibition devoted to the Empress Josephine’s wine cellar, which opened yesterday at her former residence outside Paris at the château de Malmaison. The inventory of her wine cellar, handwritten in 1814, lists over 13,000 bottles including some of the finest wines and many grands crus from all over the world.

The sale of Cromwell’s boots
A pair of leather boots, which allegedly belonged to Oliver Cromwell, is due to be sold by Dreweatts auctioneers next Thursday, November 26th. The boots are expected to fetch up to £500. They are part of the collection of John Fane, a descendant of the 8th Earl of Westmorland, who fell into possession of the boots when he inherited Wormsley Park. There is no proof that the boots belonged to Cromwell, but a previous owner of the house, Colonel Adrian Scrope, was a member of the Parliamentarian Army during the Civil War and was a signatory on the death warrant to Charles I.
Read the article on The Times.