MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

I’ve never heard of that either Stanley, this is what I’d found.
http://woolshed1.blogspot.com/2010/11/n ... lters.html

[chinatyke]

Laithe? There are farms named things like Bent Laithe but I've no idea what the word laithe means.

Laithe - I've looked it up and it just means barn.

I've never heard beald used.

[Wendyf]

We have two barns locally which have been converted to dwellings, Low Laithe and Out Laithe. I think our place could be described as a laithe or long house, where dwelling and barn are under one roof.

[Stanley]

That's a good article Gloria on the bield walls themselves.....
now. what shall we have for our next journey of discovery?

[Stanley]

This map was drawn by a linguist. What would he call the lines drawn on the map?

[chinatyke]

Lingo lines?

[Stanley]

Sorry Graham, no. Far more academic than that!

[Big Kev]

Isoglosses?

[Gloria]

Thematic lines?

[Stanley]

Well done Kev, that's it exactly. They are isoglosses.
Next one?

[Tizer]

What can you tell me about this scene?

[PanBiker]

It's a reconstruction or artists impression of an early dwelling house.

[Tizer]

You're right about it being a reconstruction of an early dwelling house. Can you tell me where it is and can you spot something unusual about it?

[Stanley]

Viking long house, beds/seats down each side. Never seen a hole to let smoke out in the gable end like that or so big. Usually in the centre of the ridge.

[Tizer]

Beds/seats, yes, but the house is much, much earlier than the Vikings. The people who built these houses didn't bother with chimneys, they let the smoke go out through the thatch (it probably helped preserve the thatch). You mentioned the `hole' in the gable end and that's why I was asking what is unusual about the house. Give it some thought!

[Stanley]

Is it an early window using thin skin or something similar?

[Tizer]

You are right about the `window using thin skin' but if you stretched thin animal skin over the gap it wouldn't let that much light through. This window benefits from a bit of Neolithic high technology - what is it?

[Cathy]

Is it an early form of insulation, used only in winter?

[Stanley]

Fish skin? or from a big sea mammal?
(I was thinking of isinglass but discarded that idea.)

[chinatyke]

Are the skins rolled up to each side? Undo the tie and they unfurl to act like curtains.Triangular roller blinds.

[Tizer]

It's not in itself an insulating material, Cathy, but it's presence would reduce drafts and help keep in the heat in winter. But the most interesting aspect is how they managed to get the skin to transmit so much sunlight into the house during daytime. China, the skin is fixed in place and cannot roll up.

Stanley, the skin used in the reconstruction is described as `thin rawhide' but there's more to it than that.

[Stanley]

I don't think it can be one skin, it's too big. So multiple skins, similar to parchment, goat or sheep and kept oil soaked to make them translucent.
(I am reminded of the old story about the Oxford candidate who was asked to define the meaning of three similar words. He wrote "The windows of this examination room were once transparent, they are now translucent and if not cleaned soon will become opaque.")

[Tizer]

There's no mention of multiple skins but you've got the answer with the oil treatment, in this case fish oil. The archaeologists who did the reconstruction used that because the technique was still in use by Shetlanders in recent times. Well done! By the way, the house is a new addition to the Butser Ancient Farm archaeology site: LINK

[Stanley]

Can I have a sustificate? Now we have to think of another one.



What is it?

[PanBiker]

Its a birthing chair, saw one on Bargain Hunt not long ago.