Member Article Published in Centar Ardo

[Mnemosyne]

This may not be the right forum for this, but I trust the mods to move it if need be.

Those of you who know me on Livejournal might have been made aware that I was asked a little while back to write a a concise, accessible summary of the findings so far of the Warwickshire Hoard for Centar Ardo, the journal of the Arda Historical Society. I received permission from the journal to republish the essay online, so I thought it'd be worth sharing with you. It's been posted here, if you'd like to take a look.

I should add that if you're not a member of the Arda Historical Society, you should join it. It includes both amateurs and professionals--archaeologists, philologists, antiquarians--anyone and everyone who's interested in looking into the actual history of Arda, whether through the literary sources that have survived to us or the actual material leavings. If you can write up a decent grant proposal, there's the potential for good money in it, too--the Tolkien Estate will often provide funding to continue the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, the famous editor and translator of the Red Book texts, including more scientific analyses such as the ones referred to in the article.

I'd love to start up some discussion around this publication in particular, and the Warwickshire Hoard in general. Thanks!

[Galadriel55]

Great article, and well written! Makes me wonder why I haven't heard of any of this before.

Mnemo, can you tell me wha exactly is the Warwickshire Hoard? I don't really get that part.

[The Might]

That is a massive ammount of work and dedication! Congrats on a great article, had not read anything on M-e from a purely scientific point of view.

[Mnemosyne]

Galadriel55, the Warwickshire Hoard is an archaeological discovery made in Warwickshire on April 1, 2008 by a metal detecting enthusiast. Usually "hoards" like these are stashes of coins from the Roman period or later, buried in distress (say, from a Viking raid), but this particular discovery immediately appeared to date from much earlier, and was a metal box containing (as we now know) recipes from the years that the area was settled by hobbits. It has, of course, taken some time for the appropriate analyses to be made, and published, but there's just enough literature out there that they needed someone who is really good at translating Scientificese into layspeak so that the greater populus could be made aware of what we now think the hoard means.

The Might, if you're near an academic library, you might want to see if they have Middle-earth Archaeology in their holdings, or, if not, whether they have access to JSTOR. I think it's on a number of more scientific databases as well. Anyhow, that is the go-to place for the latest scientific research on the historical Middle-earth.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Mnemosyne

...made in Warwickshire on April 1

Very thematic. I just noticed that you started the thread on April 1st as well...

This April Fools thing... Just can't trust anyone... Don't know if to believe this or not.


But either way it sounded very believable to a Tolkien fanatic like me who is trying to prove that ME is our world.

I hope it isn't a joke. Seriously. Please tell me it's not, or I'm going to feel like the biggest fool there's ever been on April Fools.

[Bêthberry]

Tom Shippey has an interesting say about Middle-earth archeology here.