HELP US BRING IN NEW MEMBERS
Our recent publicity campaigns in the press and through the libraries have been very successful in attracting new members. But we always want more – and you can help.
Enclosed with this issue of the Newsletter are two copies of our poster. All we’d like you to do is ask your local newsagent or corner store to display one in their window.
And if anyone needs more copies, or has any new ideas for spreading the word, please contact our publicity officer, Tim Wilkins.
HADAS HAS ITS VERY OWN WEBSITE
Andrew Selkirk, our Chairman, has set up a website for us at hadas.org.uk If anyone has any contributions, please e-mail Andrew at our new website.
TED SAMMES EVENING – APRIL 11
Ted was a founder member of HADAS, very knowledgeable and helpful, and if he didn’t know the answer to a question, he would do his best to find it. Regrettably Ted died in November 1998, leaving our Society a substantial bequest in his will.
Will any HADAS member or local society who has photographs, slides, articles or reminiscences about Ted, please contact Dorothy or June as soon as possible. Anything archaeological, personal or amusing is acceptable.
Members of other Societies are welcome to come to the Evening, but they should please phone –
HADAS DIARY
Tuesday March 14 Lecture: GOLD DIADEMS FROM PERU by COLIN McEWEN Colin McEwen is Assistant Keeper and Curator of the Central and South American collections at the British Museum. He has excavated in Latin America and has published on Inca state rituals and on Northern Andean archaeology and iconography. He is the author of Ancient Mexico in the British Museum (1994) and a co-editor of Patagonia: Natural History, Prehistory and Ethnography at the Uttermost End of the Earth (1997).
Tuesday April 11 TED SAMMES Evening
Tuesday May 9 HADAS AGM followed by TALK and SLIDES on the year’s activities.
All the above meetings will be in the STEPHENS ROOM upstairs Avenue House, starting at 8.00 pm., followed by coffee and biscuits and chat.
SECRETARY’S CORNER
A meeting of the Committee was held on 4 February 2000. The following items were among those discussed:
1 Terms for a new lease at Avenue House have been agreed.
2 The Society now has its own Website at www.hadas.org.uk
3 Consideration is being given to the investment and use of the Sammes bequest. The Sammes evening will be on 11 April.
4 It is expected that the Society’s book on Commemorative Plaques in our area will be published later in the year.
5 The annual Programme was issued recently and shows a full series of lectures and outings for the year.
6 The AGM will take place on Tuesday, 9 May 2000.
MEMBER’S NEWS
Dorothy has had several requests for Marjorie Errington’s address – now she is in a care home. She would love to hear from old friends in the Society. Here it is:
Greenhill Residential Care Home. Waggon Road, Potters Bar, Herts. EN4 OPH.
Personal Phone 449 8823 preferably after 8.00pm.
PLANNING APPLICATIONS
Application for planning permission has been received for the demolition of the remaining government offices west of Brockley Hill, for the development of 12 acres to build 96 houses. The land borders the present Watling Street, north of the housing development where previous excavations have discovered parts of the original Roman road.
On the opposite side of the road, no. 3 Brockley Hill. Stanmore has applied to build a rear conservatory extension.
In Hendon, the Daniel Almshouses in Church Road, application to build rear extensions has been received.
MORE ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE WEB by ANDY SIMPSON
Since last month’s resume, more archaeological web sites have come to my attention. Perhaps some kind reader would care to check some out and write a review or two?
That popular BBC2 series Meet the Ancestors, presented by Julian Richards, have their site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/ancestors/series3.shtml
(although by the time you read this the current series will have finished)
Those wishing to add to their personal library can see if Heritage Archaeological Books can help out; this company deal in out-of-print, remaindered, new and antiquarian books and have something called a secure line for direct payment at www.heritageweb.com; a free bi-monthly catalogue is available.
I shudder to mention the Millenium, but an interesting London based project is The London String of Pearls Millenium Festival’ based on attractions along the River Thames. This features additional access to some 60 institutions for this year only – privileged access, exhibitions, special tours, concerts, parades and new works from Greenwich to Kew, at such places as Lambeth Palace, Royal Courts of Justice, Southwark Cathedral, Ministry of Defence, Public Record Office Horse Guards, and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Details at wwiv.stringofpearls.org.uk
Those with an interest in Midlands’s archaeology can see what is being reported by the University of Birmingham Field Archaeology Unit at http://wwvv.bufau.bham.ac.uk including details of the virtual reality Wroxeter Roman fortress recently created by a team including former HADAS member Roger White who spoke to us last year.
The Birmingham & Warwickshire Archaeological Society have their site at www.bwas.swinternet.co.uk
ARMAGEDDON AND MEGIDDO AUDREE PRICE-DAV1ES
The February Lecture
Mr Sam Moorehead of the British Museum gave a comprehensive review of the history and archaeology of Megiddo. Presumably this is the site of Armageddon or Har-Magedon – translated as the ‘mount of Megiddo’, which was the site of the final battle of good and evil as related in the Bible, Revelations Chapter 16.
“And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying It is done. And there were voices, and thunders and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.”
Megiddo is sited in a wadi in Israel at the junction of the route north-south, from Jerusalem to Damascus and east-west from the sea inland. Such a site was frequently fought over and successively occupied. Artefacts discovered in the excavations include flints from 8000 BC., carvings in stone from 4000 BC. and a circular altar place associated with Baal in the Bronze Age.
The site was occupied by Egypt and the site pre-dated Mycenae, but the postern gate is comparable with that at Tiryns and there is a vaulted stone roof – a tholes. A scarab brooch also s hows links with Mycenae.
In 1550 BC. there was renewed Egyptian interest. Tutmosis lll fought there in 1468 BC. and captured 924 chariots and recorded his victory on the walls of the great temple at Karnak. It became the pivotal point for the Egyptians who ruled from there.
In the 10th and 9th centuries the Israelites ruled there, and in the Iron Age a vast water system was created. In 627 BC. the Assyrians made Megiddo their centre and created a grain silo, but there was trouble with the Babylonians. In 110 BC. Josiah, an Israelite king, was killed at Megiddo and this was probably the Armageddon of the Bible.
The site was forgotten until the time of St. Jerome. It was identified in the fourteenth century. In 1890 Flinders Petrie excavated to the south in the Levant. Mud brick houses were built on top and this created a mound. In 1903 -1905 Schumacher investigated and in 1925-39 the University of Chicago conducted an excavation but did not record the contents of the spoil heap. In 1992-96 the British Museum has been involved and the report is expected out this year.
In more recent times, Megiddo was the scene of a battle in the First World War when General Allenby led an attack on the Turks and had on his right flank the native troops with Lawrence at their head. Allenby took the title of Lord Allenby of Megiddo after this.
There is continuing excavation on a site which still has much to reveal, and the enthusiasm, knowledge and experience of the lecturer brought this subject to life.
CAAC – CONSERVATION AREA ADVISORY COMMITTEE from DAWN ORR
(HAMPSTEAD GARDEN SUBURB)
Conservation Areas were set up by legislation in 1968, with advisory committees appointed by Local Authorities to advise planning officers on applications and other planning matters. The ten members, who meet by turns every three weeks, are all voluntary professionals such as architects and surveyors, or ‘lay’ people with specialist knowledge and/or interest in the area, not necessarily residents.
HADAS’s first representative was the late Mrs Brigid Grafton Green, whom I followed in 1983. Long service reflects the interest of the work – the present Chairman, Mr Norman Wheatley, since 1978, several others more than 10 years.
CAAC have not yet seen archaeological remains, but modern extensions require deep foundations
and the West Heath dig is very close—– ‘
ENGLAND’S CATHEDRALS: WATERCOLOURS by PETER HUME
EXHIBITION AT CHURCH FARMHOUSE MUSEUM 4 MARCH – 21 MAY 2000
Mill Hill artist – and former architect – Peter Hume’s project to paint all the medieval English Cathedrals bore fruit in a book published in 1999. The Exhibition displays the original watercolours, as well as photographs of the interiors and details of nearby Cathedrals such as Southwark and St Albans; late 19th Century models of Cathedral buildings, and background historical material. Peter Hume’s splendid pictures make us look afresh at what are arguably the most important surviving buildings of the last Millennium.
OTHER SOCIETIES’ EVENTS
LONDON CANAL MUSEUM talk 2 March 7.30 pm. Working and Living on the Cut – Nigel Hamilton – New Wharf Rd.. Kings Cross NI £2.50/£1.25 concession.
HEATH AND HAMPSTEAD SOCIETY Walk 5 March 2.30 pm. The Heath – Past and Present Michael Harnmerson, Highgate archaeologist – Burgh House, New End Square, NW3
PINNER LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY talk 9 March 8prn.Pinner Events A.D. 1000-20(X) – Research Group – Pinner Village Hall, Chapel Lane car park. £1.
BARNET LOCAL HISTORY SOCIETY talk 13 March 3.00pm. Kenwood – Stefan Dreja – Wesley Hall, Stapylton Road, Barnet.
FRIENDS OF BARNET BOROUGH LIBRARIES 20 March 8.15prn My Lord Mayor illustrated talk on some aspects of the City of London – Cyril Dombey, City of London Guide – Church End Library, Hendon Lane. N3
CAMDEN HISTORY SOCIETY talk 23 March 7.30pm. Greenwich Marsh before the Dome – Mary Hills – Burgh House, New End Square NW3
FINCHLEY SOCIETY talk 30 March 8pm. Magistrates in the Community Mike Herlihy – Drawing Room, Avenue House, N3.
BIRKBECK HISTORY SUMMER SCHOOL, 12–16 June: From Rome to Dome – 20(K) Years of London Life, Culture and Development. Whole week £150. per day £35. Apply to Carol Watts, Faculty of Continuing Education, 26 Russell Square, WC1B 5DQ. 020 7631 6652.
BIRKBECK COLLEGE,
6 – 10 March An Introduction to Archaeological Field Surveying.
Sat. 1- Sun. 2 April. An Introduction to Archaeological Fieldwork Techniques. 020 7631 6627 course details.
