Archaeological News

Fantasy Bob has long admired the work of the archaeological profession.  At a moment's notice they will jump enthusiastically into muddy holes with a trowel or a paintbrush and, based on the evidence of small fragments of bone, advise the world of the number of runs scored in a day on that site.  They have a prodigious ability to grow beards and argue incessantly about the true meaning of the smallest shard of pottery.   But FB would always welcome an archaeologist into any side he was skippering; the ability to read runes has frequently been a match saver when the rest of the side had no idea what the marks in the scorebook made by the juniors might actually mean.  So it is with interest that FB has noticed progress in three possibly related archaeological enterprises.

Mt Ararat
 Noah's ark may have landed once

A team of Tibetan and Chinese archaeologists searching Mount Ararat in Turkey have reported finding wooden fragments which they consider to confirm the Book of Genesis' account of the landing place of Noah's Ark on that mountain when the floodwaters receded.  The fragments date to about 2800 years Before Cricket.

A team of underwater archaeologists from St Andrews, Dundee and Aberdeen Universities have discovered further evidence of Doggerland, once a fertile land bridge between modern mainland Europe and Britain which disappeared under water as the last ice age melted. Ancient tree stumps, flint used by humans and the fossilised remains of a mammoth have helped form a picture of how the landscape may have looked before the waters came around 8000 years Before Cricket.

Doggerland
mammoths may have roamed once

A crack team from the underwater investigations unit at the world famous go ahead Carlton Research Institute have been investigating a site at Grange Loan and have discovered artefacts and markings on the floor of what was recently a lake.  Most experts agree that this is evidence of a hunter gatherer community of some sophistication.  Some contend that this is definitive confirmation that cricket was played on this site before it was inundated.  Others disagree, saying that the artefacts are no different from primitive sites of ritual sacrifice and that cricket would have been impossible in such an inhospitable environment.

Grange Loan
cricket may have been played once

FB will keep his readers informed of further progress at these exciting investigations.