Learned a new English word today...

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Spent a few hours today reading about Anglo-Saxon history and Offa of Mercia.

Offa's dyke isn't always the most obvious of landmarks, it isn't like Hadrian's wall. I grew up nr Kington and people often used to ask where is it? There are some bits between Kington and Knighton, that are <"slightly more impressive">.

cheers Darrel

 

[John q]

Offa's dyke isn't always the most obvious of landmarks

Haha, yes looking at a small unexciting mound of earth requires a lot of imagination to guess how it might have looked. Thankfully we have artists impressions to inspire.

 

[zozo]

Hi all,

Offa's dyke isn't always the most obvious of landmarks, it isn't like Hadrian's wall. I grew up nr Kington and people often used to ask where is it? There are some bits between Kington and Knighton, that are <"slightly more impressive">.

cheers Darrel

These subtle features in the landscape are what add to the mystery, intrigue and imagination... This also goes for that dike near my place of which only smaller parts exist today. And I remember walking there as a child before it was known to the public what it really is and seemingly just an eroded sunken path downhill in the woods. What els would it be?

Such as those in the forest next door that I know all my life are still pretty much connected today over a few miles...

Back then I never gave it any thought and now I know the story they are ancient remnants, dug out ages ago with a purpose and blood sweat and tears by our ancestors dressed in bearskins. It kinda gives me a special feeling, that it's still there and it heightens my senses walking there in awe trying to see more than it shows. Who knows what happened all there?

 

[Tim Harrison]

The UK landscape is littered with ancient structures, standing stones etc, some in plain sight but it’s not always obvious what they are.

It’s also crisscrossed with ancient tracks. Some of the most impressive were wooden walkways through wetlands like Sweet Track Somerset. It was nearly 2km long and believed to have been built 3807 BC to link an island at Westhay to high ground.

Sweet Track - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Robert Macfarlane is an author who has written on landscape, nature, place, people and language. Perhaps his most well known book is The Old Ways. It’s a great read.

Amazon product ASIN 0141030585
Another author who writes on a related subject is Oliver Rackham. The History of the Countryside is a seminal work and definitely worth a read.

Amazon product ASIN 1474614027

 

[zozo]

Another author who writes

Actually, no idea if you can read German. A while ago I found this book from a German author but it has no ISBN and I can't find any translations. So it probably never is published other than this digital version. The title is "A Tribute - Once we were Indians Too" and it's a collective work about ancient Germanic and Keltic mythologies, traditions, rites etc. Also about their use of herbs that were very significant and sacred to them such as the Holly and the Elder Tree. The Holly was the tree of the pagan underworld/war goddess Hel(la)-(Hulda) and had some magical significance in the Keltic and Germanic shamanistic rites. With the Christian suppression, the plant's name was adapted to Holly and merged with Holy Christian traditions. The later Brothers Grimm fairytale figure Mother Hulda still has connections to these ancient sources but is also Christianized as a kind of evil witch and not as a goddess. In my language and in German the common name of this plant is still Hults/Hulze.

danksagung auch wir waren einmal indianer - Stefan Wiesner

danksagung auch wir waren einmal indianer - Stefan Lies mehr über Kelten, Keltischen, Pflanze, Baum, Keltische und Menschen.

www.yumpu.com

Even if you don't read German, At the end the book contains an extensive bibliography of the used sources and references containing a lot of titles from British authors for example from the Oxford Library. Digging through this bibliography list you might find some very interesting British titles about the subject.

 

[zozo]

Actinoˊbolism!

A Term given by Philosophers to the Diradiation, Diffusion, or Spreading abroad of (Rays of )Light

Actinoˊbolism (Bailey's Dictionary)

 

[zozo]

Pareidolia
It comes from 'Para' - "Side" and 'Eidolon' - "Shape, Image, Form" Thus a side form in which something appears to be but ain't.

We all know it and have seen it at one time or another, some with some imagination and some are really obvious, even in our tanks in the Rocks or Driftwood. I remember the Troll in the DW from a @Tim Harrison scape.

Pokemon Orchid?

The Dove Orchid

Daffy Duck Orchid

ET!

 

[PARAGUAY]

These subtle features in the landscape are what add to the mystery, intrigue and imagination... This also goes for that dike near my place of which only smaller parts exist today. And I remember walking there as a child before it was known to the public what it really is and seemingly just an eroded sunken path downhill in the woods. What els would it be?

Such as those in the forest next door that I know all my life are still pretty much connected today over a few miles...
View attachment 204034

View attachment 204035

View attachment 204036

Back then I never gave it any thought and now I know the story they are ancient remnants, dug out ages ago with a purpose and blood sweat and tears by our ancestors dressed in bearskins. It kinda gives me a special feeling, that it's still there and it heightens my senses walking there in awe trying to see more than it shows. Who knows what happened all there?

I think historians are finding out more from technology ,using it to view landscape from the air, A example Hadrian's Wall built by Romans, the romantic view these isolated soldiers built it with masons in very bleak conditions Now it's believed the wall had villages ,townships,farms all along with the latest of the time luxury, toilets, food a plenty and all manner of local labor

 

[zozo]

I think historians are finding out more from technology ,using it to view landscape from the air

Indeed, that relatively new LIDAR technology was a true breakthrough in this field. It seems with this they discovered that the Amazone jungle once was inhabited by cultures building huge megacities, some having the size of London. Some scientists claimed by looking at the fruit tree species growing there in a majority that the amazone jungle wasn't always a jungle but is a remnant of ancient fruit tree cultivation. And after the civilizations living there collapsed and scattered, what they cultivated naturally took over and grew into a jungle. A mind-boggling idea...

 

[Tim Harrison]

Pareidolia
It comes from 'Para' - "Side" and 'Eidolon' - "Shape, Image, Form" Thus a side form in which something appears to be but ain't.

We all know it and have seen it at one time or another, some with some imagination and some are really obvious, even in our tanks in the Rocks or Driftwood. I remember the Troll in the DW from a @Tim Harrison scape.

Pokemon Orchid?
View attachment 205505

The Dove Orchid
View attachment 205506

Daffy Duck Orchid
View attachment 205507

View attachment 205508

ET!
View attachment 205509

The Martian face, real or pareidolia ?

Indeed, that relatively new LIDAR technology was a true breakthrough in this field.

Myth of pristine Amazon rainforest busted as old cities reappear

Amazonian wilderness buzzed with human activity until 500 years ago, when Europeans turned up with weapons and diseases, says radical rethink of rainforest history

www.newscientist.com

 

[zozo]

The Martian face, real or pareidolia ?

Real pareidolia?

I guess seeing so-called undeniable evidence for ancient advanced high technology machine marks on ancient structures is also pareidolia.
It's more like undeniable evidence for involution of the evolution of craftsmen's skills with simple tools and a lot of time and blood sweat and beer.
The best example is we know for a fact high technology machinery didn't exist in the 1800 century. Then hop into the Cappella Sansevero in Naples and look at the exhibited marble statues. And today there isn't one modern sculptor on this planet able to replicate or explain how it is done. And this out of 1 solid piece of marble with 0 error margin, in 1 take without the slightest error into perfection.

This one called 'Il Disinganno' was made around 1750 and in comparison with Egypt for example, this was like yesterday.

It even is carved to perfection in the nooks and crannies that are unreachable by any of the modern sculptor's tools available today. Nobody knows how and with what he did it, but he did, its in front of your eyes. It's such a mind-boggling sculpture that some professionals said 'I could only do this with a Geopolymer technique that yet does not exist today'. So it must be magically made by an alchemist who knew how to soften stone and draped it over the statue like a blanket? But it still is made out of 1 piece of marble. That only can be innovation and dedication, since this seemingly is something lost in the evolution of the human brain the only self-righteous excuse not to rewrite history they can come up with is a fairytale.

 

[Tim Harrison]

I guess seeing so-called undeniable evidence for ancient advanced high technology machine marks on ancient structures is also pareidolia.

 

[zozo]

With theorizing till the end of time they will never find out... It might take a down-to-earth multi-billionaire willing to invest to gather enough people and try to rebuild one without the use of modern technology. Just start with something smaller and put it into practice the same as the ancient ones did and the needed innovations will follow naturally with trial and error. Then go bigger and bigger. It's simple, there must be a way because the evidence is there, they did it. What you see is what you get.

As all craftsmen will say if you want to learn, stop talking and start doing. Answers will come along the way... Talking leads to questions which only will lead to more questions with building only imaginary cloud castles. Starting and encountering the problem physically along the way usually is more evidently and self-explanatory.

With talking for centuries they only can come up with dragging and as we hear above with modern talking ends with they are humming and chanting blocks into place? 🤔 Well humming and chanting might get your brain into a trance to come up with better ideas would be more plausible. But alas...

Scientists asked the Rapa Nui descendants what they think about how the Moai statues were transported. And they laughed and answered according to our legends the statues walked to the place they are in. And some clever scientists got the simplest idea 'Gravity and Ballance" and tried and hence they walked a Moai around on the island. It took only one question, a legend and a tryout to get it done and they did. If never tried they only would have laughed. And who's laughing now? The Rapa Nui.


Unfortunately, down-to-earth, multi-billionaires don't exist they are all with their heads in the clouds thinking about getting to Mars and beyond with the hope of being the sixth extinction event a step ahead.

 

[zozo]

Stankhen

Has nothing to do with the Hen that stank... It's an older but still used name for the 'Moorhen' it seems.

From what I've learned 'Stank' is an old Middle English word actually Meaning "Pond" (A puddle of stagnant water). And a field with a pond in it would be a 'Stank meadow' It seems for the Scottish dialects this still is a common word...

When you next time read this in your thread in our pond section

"I've been enjoying your Stank very much." "Thank you!"

You don't need to get upset... Then it's probably a sincere compliment from a Scot loving your pond
(Or from me.)

 

[zozo]

I smelled something curious about this word and thought let's find out where all this Stank actually originated from because all Germanic, Frankish and Latin languages know it in about the same context. And actually, I'm rather surprised at what it all cognates to, particularly concerning our hobby. (Pond/Stank 'French - Étang, Spanish - Estanque, the Dutch and German know it only for its unpleasant smell)

This "Stank" was brought to Western Europe by the Romans and it derives from the Roman Vulgar Latin "*stancāre" which means "to stand" which again cognates to the Latin word "stagnō" which means "Stagnant" (Not Moving thus Standing).

Back then pond filters and pumps were out of the question it was naturally a stagnant puddle and obviously with the necessary rotting vegetation on its bottom not all of them smelled equally good 'What a Stench' hence it is a Stank. The same actually goes for a not-well-maintained tub full of stagnant water.

Lo and behold we have "The Stagnant "Tank" That Stank with Stench".

Standing, Stagnant, Staunch, Stench, Stank and Tank are all cognates from a smelly past and to our Pond hobby in one way or another.

I thought in a way it is funny to know that our tank actually is called a tank because of the smell of it. You still can pick it up today, especially during a water change. Despite the non-stagnant 10 x turnover nowadays!?

 

[zozo]

roriferous​

Covered with Dew...

rorifluent​

Flowing with Dew...

 

[G H Nelson]

roriferous​

Covered with Dew...

rorifluent​

Flowing with Dew...
View attachment 210275

Me also!

 

[Tim Harrison]

roriferous​

Covered with Dew...

rorifluent​

Flowing with Dew...
View attachment 210275

What's the etymology of that Marcel?

 

[zozo]

What's the etymology of that Marcel?

From Latin "Rōs"
Rōrifer, from rōris ("dew") + ferō (“carry, bear”), +‎ -ous.

Rōris (“dew”) + fluens, present participle of fluere (“to flow”) Fluent.
roriferous - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

It says Etymology but since it's Latin it's more like a translation. Latin is a dead language that originated from Ancient Greek.

Dew = δρόσος • (drósos)

Its true etymology probably goes way back from Pre-Greek to Proto-Indo-European back to Sanskrit. But we don't really know...

दानु - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

en.wiktionary.org

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Its true etymology probably goes way back from Pre-Greek to Proto-Indo-European back to Sanskrit.

Not words I've ever heard, but I'm not surprised that they have ancient roots.

The presence of dew would have been quite important when people were cutting cereal crops (or hay) with a scythe (or sickle), it makes it a lot easier <"Scything the Meadow | Whatley Manor Hotel & Spa">.

cheers Darrel