Sewer Pirouette6d ago

David Miles - The Tale of the Axe How the Neolithic Revolution Transformed Britain

"I tried to produce an approachable account for an interested General reader” writes David Miles in his afterword. For me, he has succeeded.

The book tells the story of the progress of agriculture from one of its starting points in the Levant (agriculture has arisen independently in a dozen places around the world) towards Britain. This Neolithic Revolution also brought about the megalithic monuments from Göbekli Tepe to Stonehenge.

It is based on the latest (in 2015) archeological insights and combines an approach over a long time and a wide geographical range into a synthesis that is amazingly easy to read. Sometimes Miles is downright funny, I literally lol’ed a couple of times while reading. A rare phenomenon while reading an archeology book.

I caught a few editorial oversights, e.g.:
• On p. 293 'were late arrivals in the evolving cycles of stone shifting and earth moving' is used twice in a paragraph.
• On p.322 Maeshowe & Newgrange are aligned on midwinter sunset, while on p. 371 Newgrange aligned on midwinter sunrise.
And I disagree with some wording in his epilogue. But that is nitpicking, I really enjoyed this book!

#WatWouterLas26 #LezenIsLeuk #Archeology #Neolithic #Reading #Bookstodon

Show threadSewer Pirouette5d ago

Iain M Banks - Feersum Endjinn

Not his best.

Iain M. Banks has a fantasy that now and the spirals almost out of control right into the trippy levels of scifi. When that is DMT-ish (short and very weird) I love it. Unfortunately Feersum Endjinn is more like taking just too little LSD - it works very long, but the weirdness stays just above 'base reality' ;-)

If you want scifi about people uploading themselves, try Greg Egan - Diaspora. If you want Banks' scifi (re)read the Culture novels. I know I will.

#WatWouterLas26 #LezenIsLeuk #Audiobook #ScienceFiction #Reading #Bookstodon #Boekstadon

Show threadSewer Pirouette2d ago

Albert Camus - De Vreemdeling

De vacuümcatastrofe is het verschil tussen het empirisch vastgestelde en het theoretisch berekende niveau van de vacuümenergie, de energie van de lege ruimte.

Hier moet ik aan denken bij het lezen van ‘de vreemdeling’.

Een studie van leegte waarin op één moment een gruwelijke, catastrofale daad plaatsvindt. Zonder beweegredenen, zonder oorzaak. Ervoor en erna strekt het niets zich uit. Camus beschrijft het op een manier waar ik erg van houd. De afgemeten zinnen doen me aan Bordewijk denken. Dat is altijd fijn.

In ‘The Meursault investigation’ wekt Kamel Daoud het slachtoffer ‘de Arabier’ tot leven. ik kijk ernaar uit het te lezen in het kader van de literair kannibalisme challenge.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/reading_challenges/e95eb2e7-fb9e-4aa3-8eb5-597d9903dc4e

#WatWouterLas26 #LezenIsLeuk #Klassieker #Kolonialisme #Reading #Bookstodon #Boekstadon

Show threadSewer Pirouette

Merryn Dineley - Barley, Malt and Ale in the Neolithic

In the six chapters of this thesis Dineley argues convincingly that:
• It is possible to brew a decent ale that holds good for months with techniques available in the Neolithic
• The material culture pattern for brewing activity can be established in prehistory from the fertile Crescent to Orkney
• Women were the very first grain cultivators and processors and with their knowledge of ritualized skills held positions of status and significance.
• Neolithic ‘rectangular wooden buildings’ can be reinterpretated as the places where grains were processed into malt and ale. That these burn down every now and then is also explained without need of the -imho ludicrous- hypotheses of ritual burning of so many buildings.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this thesis, it is well written and balanced.

This podcast let me to her work and it is really a joy to listen to her and her husband Graham

https://prehistoryguys.podbean.com/e/podcast-22-beer-in-the-neolithic-merryn-graham-dineley/

Direct link to the mp3: https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/s8y1hb/p_open_s_600aebff0af9155b5c6af4dc_e_sws_podbean_com_2F215b6ab0-364f-530f-a21e-d0bfbe0cd6c8_media.mp3

Merryn seems to be a bit less active on her blog nowadays, but still very interesting: http://merryn.dineley.com/?m=1

#WatWouterLas26 #LezenIsLeuk #Archeology #Neolithic #Reading #Bookstodon #Boekstadon

4:53pmWeb
Show threadcan everything be outside now?15h ago
@Wouter_Pieterse ooh this is perfectly in my range of interests, thanks for sharing!
Show threadSewer Pirouette15h ago

@thesquirrelfish 🥳

I recommend listening to the podcast before reading, because then her enthousiastic voice will be so present while reading, which I loved