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  • Daily History Picture: Goodbye! March 7, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Goodbye!

    Naval sweethearts say goodbye. Love the bags…

    Are Weasels Poisonous? March 6, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Medieval, Modern
    Are Weasels Poisonous?

    A few weeks ago Beach offered a description of fairy traditions from Marrie Walsh’s An Irish country Childhood (1996). While reading he was also struck by this tradition about weasels. What is fascinating here is that the weasel is given (in a country where snakes are in short supply) the role normally given in European […]

    Daily History Picture: Socrates Criminal March 6, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Socrates Criminal

    Sorry… Nathaniel, an old friend of this blog, 30 Mar 2017, sends this in. We clearly have a genre. I (Beach) prefer the Christ one.

    New History Books: Stejskal, Special Forces Berlin March 5, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : New History Books
    New History Books: Stejskal, Special Forces Berlin

    James Stejskal, Special Forces Berlin One of the two books I’m most looking forward to this month (if as advertised!)

    New History Books: Nolan, The Allure of Battle March 4, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : New History Books
    New History Books: Nolan, The Allure of Battle

    Cathal J. Nolan, The Allure of Battle, A History of How Wars Have Been Won and Lost. The rules of war (not strategy) fascinate me…

    Earliest Ordeal: Drowning March 4, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient
    Earliest Ordeal: Drowning

    What is the earliest ordeal in history? Well, there were probably games involving Paleolithic ne’er-do-wells and mammoths, but the earliest recorded ordeal in history? There are some hypotheses about drinking ancient poisons (drugs?), in the near east: though to Beach this sounds more like an execution and it is, in any case, a hypothesis. However, […]

    The Problem with Shamanism March 3, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Actualite, Ancient
    The Problem with Shamanism

    ***dedicated to a misguided friend in Estonia*** All academic disciplines have terminological issues. Medievalists get excited about ‘feudalism’; archaeologists head-butt each other over ‘Celtic’; there are even some linguists who get upset about ‘Indo-European’. These words have been energized and arguments over them are about more than just semantics: disputes are bitter, useful and productive. However, […]

    Daily History Picture: Rabbit Hell March 3, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: Rabbit Hell

    Another picture of rabbit murderers from the Middle Ages…

    Phoenician Sun God in Eighteenth-Century Ireland? March 2, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Ancient, Modern
    Phoenician Sun God in Eighteenth-Century Ireland?

    It is the most extraordinary inscription. This mill-stone rock, which once stood on the top of Tory Hill in County Kilkenny in Ireland, has been taken as proof of Carthaginian contact and settlement or at least trade with Ireland in antiquity. The words clearly read (give or take some distorted letters) Beli Dinose, a reference to […]

    Daily History Picture: History is Fiction March 2, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Historical Pictures
    Daily History Picture: History is Fiction

    Sorry…

    Beachcombed 81 March 1, 2017

    Author: Beach Combing | in : Beachcombed
    Beachcombed 81

    Dear Reader, New university continues to be testing. Much more important has been a bust up with the Nanny’s bipolar boyfriend: Nanny has now moved into the Beach mansion to escape his anger, though she accidentally left her keys to our house with said boyfriend. She may (or may not) bring her 60 kilo dog […]