Story

Updated:2007-05-19 07:50:39 Rock Piles Spark American Indian Mystery By Jason Szep Reuters NORTH SMITHFIELD, Rhode Island (May 18) - In a thick forest of maple, willow and oak trees where 17th century European settlers fought hundreds of American Indians, algae-covered stones are arranged in mysterious piles. Wilfred Greene, the 70-year-old chief of the Wampanoag Nation's Seaconke Indian tribe, says the stone mounds are part of a massive Indian burial ground, possibly one of the nation's largest, that went unnoticed until a few years ago. "When I came up here and looked at this, I was overwhelmed," said Greene, a wiry former boxer, standing next to one of at least 100 stone piles -- each about 3 feet high and 4 feet wide -- on private land in this northern Rhode Island town of about 10,600 people. "I know it has significance -- absolutely," he said. But Narragansett Improvement Co. disagrees, and says it will press on with plans to build a 122-lot housing project over 200 acres in the area near the Massachusetts border. The firm has hired an archeologist who studied the stones and concluded they were likely left in piles by early European settlers who built a network of stone walls in the area, said company president John Everson. "I don't believe any of these Indian artifacts are on my land," he said. "The whole area is very stony." The case illustrates sporadic tension between developers and Native Americans in rural New England, where land disputes fester nearly 400 years after British Puritans sailed into Massachusetts Bay and settled the area. Across state lines, the Mashpee Wampanoag Indians, who won federal recognition as a tribe on February 15, said this month they want ownership of a 22,000-acre military reservation in Massachusetts to create a free-trade zone. Historians, state officials, private developers and tribal leaders in Rhode Island agree that Nipsachuck woods, where Greene identified the stone mounds two years ago, is culturally and historically significant for local Indians. It was the scene of three battles in the King Philip's War -- a one-year fight between Indians and English settlers that killed an estimated 600 settlers and 3,000 Indians, said Frederick Meli, an anthropologist who has studied New England American Indian ceremonial sites for 20 years. The war, the bloodiest conflict of 17th century New England, broke down Indian resistance and led to the westward push by Europeans. "The war here decided who was going to run this country," said Greene, gesturing toward the Nipsachuck woods. Archeological Survey Meli, a former University of Rhode Island professor who works with the local Conservation Commission, estimates the area could contain a burial ground spanning at least 230 acres. Already, the Wampanoags call it their version of Arlington National Cemetery, where U.S. soldiers are buried. "There's lots of ceremonial stonework there," said Meli. The local Conservation Commission is applying for a grant to help pay for an archeological survey of two plots of land owned by a family that borders the area slated for development. They will meet town officials on Monday to propose a survey. They would dig the area, scan it for metal and possibly excavate it, said Meli. If the findings suggests a burial ground, the tribe would then use that as evidence for a case to try to block Narragansett Improvement's housing project, arguing their land could also contain ancient Indian remains. State authorities are watching the process. "What we do know is that it's an important area to a number of Indian tribes. Maybe the piles are related to that (tribal history). Maybe they aren't," said Paul Robinson, Rhode Island's state archeologist. William Simmons, chair of Brown University's anthropology department, said the stone mounds were mysterious but could just as easily have been arranged by European settlers. "Placing the rocks like that could have been a practical solution for farmers clearing fields or meadows or pastures or whatever they were clearing -- to get rocks out of the way by piling them atop one another," he said "If you were to dig and find human remains then you would know for sure," he said.

Related - Updated:2007-05-12 21:43:10 Boat Retraces Jamestown Trip for Anniversary By SONJA BARISIC AP JAMESTOWN, Va. (May 12) - A group of modern-day John Smiths rowed away Saturday in a small, open boat from the site of the first permanent English settlement in America, which Smith helped found 400 years ago this weekend. The replica of a boat like one Smith used to explore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries shoved off as the commemoration of Jamestown's anniversary entered a second day filled with concerts, cultural and artistic demonstrations and military drills. President Bush is to speak Sunday, the closing day of the festivities and the actual anniversary of the settlers' arrival at this swampy island on the James River on May 13, 1607. The boat's 121-day voyage over 1,500 miles will retrace much of Smith's journey and inaugurate the Capt. John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail, the country's first national historic water trail. "This is all just kind of overwhelming," the captain, Ian Bystrom, said before the boat left. "I'm used to just sailing boats and teaching kids and the next thing you know, we're here on the 400th anniversary." The boat departed from Historic Jamestowne, where the colonists built a triangular fort. Archaeologists found the fort's remains, long thought to have been washed away, in the mid-1990s. Since then, they've unearthed more than 1 million artifacts. On Saturday, dozens of visitors ringed the fort site to watch archaeologists sift through the soil and show off some of their recent finds, including a sword that was among armor and weapons buried in a well that became a trash pit. Several hundred cheering people lined the shore of the river as Bystrom, followed by his crew of 11, slowly stepped onto large rocks at the water's edge and into the 28-foot boat, called a shallop. "There they go," someone shouted as six crew members began rowing away from the island while Bystrom stood in the stern. The boat will stop at more than 20 spots in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Washington before returning to Jamestown on Sept. 8. The crew will attempt to complete the entire trip entirely by oar and sail. Workers with the nonprofit Sultana Projects Inc. of Chestertown, Md., crafted the boat using mostly tools like those in Smith's time. Smith's trip in 1608 yielded a comprehensive map that guided English settlers for nearly a century. Smith observed the bay's ecosystem along the way, and the new national trail will do the same with a system of "smart" buoys that will collect information about water and atmospheric conditions and transmit them wirelessly, said retired Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Smith's crew ran low on food and water two days into their trip and turned to the native Indians for help. Stephen Adkins, chief of the Chickahominy tribe in Virginia, said the modern boat's crew has an edge over Smith because they went to the Chickahominy Tribal Center to learn about the Indians of the early 17th century and of today. "We need to give these folks a hand for trying to get it right," Adkins said during a ceremony before the boat left. About 70 people demonstrated Saturday outside the visitors center at Historic Jamestowne, shouting "black power" and "red power" and "shame on Jamestown." Malik Shabazz, president of the group Black Lawyers for Justice, said Jamestown's founding marked the roots of black enslavement and Indian genocide. There is "no reason to celebrate the founding of Jamestown," Shabazz said. "The no-good, so-called Jamestown settlers ... have nothing but blood on their hands." Organizers have been careful to call the anniversary event a "commemoration" instead of a "celebration." With the arrival of the English, native Indian tribes eventually were pushed off their lands, and slavery in America is traced to Jamestown, where the first Africans in the country arrived in 1619. This year's anniversary is the first to focus on all three of those cultures.

So you'll be filling a hot water bladder with a can of stewed tomatos[/color=red], to replicate the resulting exit wound spray?

Unless it's just Dagon up to the usual... Meanwhile, blame "the Bloop". http://www.bloopwatch.org/thebloop.html

Sword, armor found buried inside remains of James Fort http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?...4313&ran=209568 By DIANE TENNANT, The Virginian-Pilot © May 9, 2007 | Last updated 1:49 PM May. 9 JAMESTOWN – A cache of armor from the early 1600s has been discovered by archaeologists excavating a trash pit inside the remains of James Fort. Queen Elizabeth II viewed the objects during her visit Friday, observing a broadsword with a basket hilt, an iron pole, the hilt from a rapier and armor pieces that would have protected the thigh. “It may be like the tip of an iceberg,” said William Kelso, director of archaeology for APVA Preservation Virginia, in a press release. “We’ll see as we uncover more of it in the next few days.” The armor was partly uncovered last week, about 3 feet below what would have been ground level in the early 1600s. The pit itself is 19 feet square. Because the layers slump toward the center, archaeologists think it may have been a well that went bad, and was then used for trash. Glass trade beads, baubles, chess pieces, iron objects and pottery shards have also been found in the pit. Indian artifacts found there include a grinding stone, a bone needle and shell beads. Animal remains include oysters, sturgeon, crab claws, fish, bird, turtle, deer and goat. Kelso speculated that it could be the first well dug by colonist John Smith in 1608-09. Archaeologists can date it by the artifacts, which include a coin dated 1613 found near the top, and by the fact that the pit is under the foundation of a building constructed in 1617. Furthermore, historical accounts mention that military equipment was buried in the fort in June 1610, when the colonists decided to abandon Jamestown after the “Starving Time” winter. The day after they left, they were forced to return by Lord De La Warre, whose supply fleet coming up the James River met the dispirited colonists coming down. Archaeologists also plan to work on a site this summer that they hope contains remnants of the first church built for the colony. Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson, left, and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt and blade, armor that protects the thigh and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne. Archaeologists Mary Anna Richardson, left, and Luke Pecoraro carefully begin excavating a potential cache of arms and armor that so far includes a broad sword with a basket hilt and blade, armor that protects the thigh and a rapier hilt, discovered recently at Historic Jamestowne. PHOTO BY MICHAEL LAVIN / APVA PRESERVATION VIRGINIA

Cthulhu...

1. A .62 caliber ball backed by 30 to 40 grains of FFG/FFFG, point blank against a skull? Yes, messy. 2. Tests are done today on ballistic gelatin. http://www.brassfetcher.com/ http://www.firearmsid.com/Gelatin/index.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistics_gel 3. Just because a weapon design is three centuries old, doesn't make it any less lethal.

A good pair of small left-and-right flintlocks will set you back about $250, then there's whatever work you (or someone you pay) will put in on top of that. Side-bolster double-barrels in 20 or 12 gauge can be had, mostly Belgian-made and stripped off of old shotguns, but you need patience to find them. Building a double-pistol requires alot of the skills found in this book http://store.scurlockpublishing.com/index....WPROD&ProdID=22

1. Most of the extant double pistols are based on Rifle Shoppe kits of a French original. I think the cheapest built-up one I've seen was in the neighborhood of $700. 2. No Indian-made copies to date, as sweating the two barrels togethor doesn't seem cost effective. 3. There was a Spanish firm about 30 years ago that offered duckfoots in boxlock flint, but they're few and far between now.

Beach hunt for lost Jacobite gold Archaeologists hope to find missing French gold sent to Scotland to help fund a Jacobite Rebellion buried under a remote Highland beach. A portion of the money was believed to have been hidden at Arisaig, near Mallaig, in the 1700s. Neil Oliver is leading the hunt for the gold for a new BBC Two series called History Detectives. The money did not arrive in Scotland until after the Jacobites' defeat at the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. It was intended to finance Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie - and his efforts against the British monarch, George II, and put his father James Stuart on the throne. Mr Oliver, an archaeologist and co-presenter of TV programmes Two Men in a Trench and Coast, said the original complete sum of money sent from France may be worth £5m today. What happened to the gold remains a mystery, however, a share of it could have been buried at Arisaig. Mr Oliver said the clues to its possible location were contained in a letter believed to have been written in October 1746. He said: "It appears to be a death bed confession from a Jacobite who took some of the money and hid it. "Apparently he was so tortured from having taken some of the money. "He says in his letter that he didn't know what it was when he took it then when he found out that it belonged to his rightful prince he made his confession to make sure it got back its rightful owner." Mr Oliver conceded the letter may be a fake, but forensic tests on the ink and paper will confirm its age. He added: "People have been fantasying about the gold since April 1746." History Detectives is to be screened later this year on BBC Two. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/scot...nds/6375219.stm Published: 2007/02/19 11:31:18 GMT

Glad you two liked that. If you scour Ebay, there's also a 1:144th scale Revell plastic model of a Chinese Pirate Junk that can usually be had for less than $10. I don't believe it's in production anymore, since I can't find it in any online catalogs. Search on the words I've bolded, you'll find a few. Be sure to check out this thread - http://pyracy.com/forums/index.php?showtop...=0entry248531

While later than the GAoP, this might interest some visitors to the Far East. 30/01/2007 12:00 AM (UAE) Chinese pirate junk being built into a luxury cruise hotel By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent Mumbai: The Red Dragon, one of the notorious and historic Chinese pirate junks, is being reconstructed at Ghodbunder, in neighbouring Thane district, into a luxury cruise hotel that will ply in the Caribbean and Mediterranean. The Red Dragon, built sometime during 1805-1834, is now being built by a local ship builder at Ghodbunder for German resident Alanzo Langecker. Alanzo I, the first in the Alanzo series of ships and the largest wooden ship of its kind, at 160 ft, will be used as a luxury cruise for those who can afford its opulence. The floating hotel has already partnered with Burj Al Arab in Dubai to offer cruise packages to its guests to the Caribbean and Mediterranean, said Shrikant Hathi of Hathi & Partners, the legal advisors for Langecker. Langecker has sought various experts - naval architects, ship builders, designers, suppliers and engineers - to accomplish his dream and to ensure that the ship fits all the modern and international specifications. Traditional method Other construction sites like Naigaon were rejected for Ghodbunder, once a port where horses were traded, because of convenience since cranes could be easily taken near the coastline. The Red Dragon Chinese junk or boat, also known as Junk of the Pirates, was originally a cargo vessel plying between North China and the Far East in Singapore. Many of these junks were destroyed by the prevailing ruler and therefore, Langecker had to do an intense research to garner all the details. Langecker said that a traditional building method was being used for constructing the fully air-conditioned wooden cruise hotel using Malaysian Sal timber treated with fire retardant chemicals. "The ship will be equipped with the latest electronic gadgets and navigation equipment on board while its hull is being built as per standards of the International Maritime Organisation with three masts and a large sail area powered by engine and sail with a speed of six knots per hour." The cruise ship will have nine suites of 600 sq ft each accommodating up to 30 guests. ** Note: piracy continues in that area, right up to today. Here's an account from the 1850s http://www.logoi.com/notes/chinese_pirates.html

Some period accounts of the Irish - Account of Edward MacLysaght: Kildare 1683 “Their wakes also over dead corpses, where they have a table spread and served with the best that can be had at such a time, and after a while attending (in expectation the departed soul will partake) they fall to eating and drinking, after to reveling as if one of the feasts of Backus” http://www.bcpl.net/~hutmanpr/wake.html I'd read once that the fine tradition of mourners telling the most disgusting and unflattering tales about the recently deceased (including outright slander) while drinking copious amounts of alcohol was to ease the emotions of the living. The Snyod of bishops on three occasions (1660,1668 and 1670) ordered that drinking at wakes should be abolished. On the third occasion , they forbade the distribution in wake-houses of whiskey or brandy; if this rule were disobeyed, they said, no priest would have any connection with either the wake or the funeral. Any priest who who was negligent in stopping this practice would be deprived of his parish. The abuse seems to have continued however, On October 8 1660 the Synod of bishops again forbade the drinking of alcohol at funerals. Synod of Tuam (1660) Statue 20 forbids excessive drinking and feasting at Catholic wakes. Money for wakes was to be diverted to the poor and to Masses for the souls of the dead. Synod of Clones 23/8/1679 Orders an end to drinking and to wakes. Diocese of Waterford and Lismore 1676- drinking at wakes should cease as it was an insult to God 1687- Drinking forbidden 1750- troubles with drinking at wakes reported.

Perhaps he returned to his proper place in Time. Via con Dios.

China‘s pirates boast colorful history Staff and agencies 14 February, 2007 By MIN LEE, AP Entertainment Writer Wed Feb 14, 3:03 PM ET HONG KONG - While Western pirates are a familiar feature of Hollywood movies, Disney is introducing a Chinese sea bandit in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World‘s End." Capt. Sao Feng — played by Chow Yun-fat — is a key figure in saving Jack Sparrow ( Johnny Depp ) from the world of the dead in the third installment of the megahit movie series, due out May 25. Sao Feng is fictional, of course. They wore bright silk costumes and ate the hearts of their enemies to strike fear in their subjects, historians say. In some parts of China, they overwhelmed the navy and served as a de facto government, regulating trade and collecting taxes. The city was such a pirate stronghold that navigational charts of that era referred to the Hong Kong group of islands as "Ladrones" — Portuguese for robbers. While Zhang is believed to have operated in Hong Kong waters, no evidence suggests he was ever based in Cheung Chau. But that hasn‘t stopped the legend from growing. Zhang‘s legend is enhanced by his colorful personal life. As a youngster, he was adopted by the pirate Zheng Yi and his wife Zheng Yisao and became his stepfather‘s boy lover. After Zheng Yi‘s death, Zhang married his stepmother and had a child with her. Rank-and-file pirates dressed in duller colors faded by sunlight and washing and stained with tar, blood and waterproofing tung oil, according to Davies. A 19th century scroll depicting the 1809 battle off Lantau island shows pirates wearing loose blue frocks and white pants with blue socks pulled up to knee level. Pirates from Zhang‘s era fought with swords, pole guns and pike heads. The junks carried fewer cannons than in the West because less-sophisticated Chinese ship building technology limited the vessels‘ ability to handle ammunition recoil. But battleships from the imperial government — often converted rice transport ships — were even smaller and more poorly armed. Zhang‘s fleet crushed the Chinese navy, more than halving its fleet from 165 ships to 72 in two battles in 1808 and 1809. -- -- -- --

How do you say "Yaaargh" in Cantonese? See also http://www.hobbyworldinc.com/woodship29.html

If you want to gently wade into doing your own pistols, I have a Japanese "LIBERTY" marked .69 caliber 9" barreled flintlock pistol, a copy of the Dragoon 18th century pistol. Reasonably good shape, although the lock seems 'wimpy' and I suspect the coil spring for the sear should be replaced with a leaf spring. Good winter project. $125 + shipping. Photos aplenty available, including inspirational ones of what someone did to properly reshape the stock on theirs. Also - G Gedney Godwin British 'battalion' cartridge box, as found on their webpage. http://www.gggodwin.com/126.htm Purchased in 2000 for "Battle Road", used a few times and stored since. $90 + shipping.

Updated:2007-01-22 20:23:27 British Scavenge From Stricken Vessel By ALAN COWELL The New York Times LONDON (Jan. 22) - Ignoring health warnings and threats of prosecution, hundreds of people foraged among containers washed from a stricken cargo vessel on the southern English coast on Monday, hauling off booty that included BMW motorcycles, shoes, diapers, beauty cream and carpets.

Theory for Mass Deaths Roils Mexico (AP) -- Mexicans have long been taught to blame diseases brought by the Spaniards for wiping out most of their Indian ancestors. But recent research suggests things may not be that simple. While the initial big die-offs are still blamed on the Conquistadors who started arriving in 1519, even more virulent epidemics in 1545 and 1576 may have been caused by a native blood-hemorrhaging fever spread by rats, Mexican researchers say. The idea has sparked heated debate in Mexican academic circles. One camp holds that the epidemics could have been spread by rats migrating during a drought cycle; others say newly arrived Spanish miners may have disturbed the habitat of virus-carrying rodents while searching for gold and silver. The revisionists draw support from one of the only authoritative firsthand accounts of the epidemics, a text lost for hundreds of years until it was found, misfiled, in a Spanish archive. Dr. Francisco Hernandez, a physician to the Spanish king who witnessed the epidemic of 1576 and conducted autopsies, describes a fever that caused heavy bleeding, similar to the hemorrhagic Ebola virus. It raced through the Indian population, killing four out of five people infected, often within a day or two. "Blood flowed from the ears and in many cases blood truly gushed from the nose," he wrote. "Of those with recurring disease, almost none was saved." Harvard-trained epidemiologist Dr. Rodolfo Acuna-Soto, a microbiology professor at Mexico's National Autonomous University, had Hernandez' work translated from the original Latin in 2000. He followed up with research into outbreaks in Mexico's isolated central highlands, where indigenous rats may have spread the disease through urine and droppings. Acuna-Soto's theory - which has been published in several scientific journals, including Emerging Infectious Diseases and the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - runs counter to the belief that most of Mexico's Indian population died of Spanish-imported diseases such as smallpox, to which their bodies had no immunity. "This wasn't smallpox," Acuna-Soto says. "The pathology just does not fit." He says some historians in Mexico are offended by his theory. "Much of the reason why these epidemics were left unstudied was that it was politically and institutionally easier to blame the Spaniards for all of the horrible things that might have happened," he said. "It was the official version of history." Certainly, imported diseases such as smallpox, measles and typhoid fever did cause huge numbers of deaths starting in 1521. But the epidemics of 1545 and 1576 struck survivors of the first die-offs and their children, who would presumably have developed some immunity. While there is no reliable figure on Mexico's population in the 1500s - estimates range from 6 million to 25 million - it is clear that by 1600 only around 2 million remained. The epidemic "was so big that it ruined and destroyed almost the entire land," wrote Fray Juan de Torquemada, a Franciscan historian who witnessed the epidemic of 1576, adding Mexico "was left almost empty." "Many were dead and others almost dead, and nobody had the health or strength to help the diseased or bury the dead." Other accounts speak of a rodent invasion, and Acuna-Soto teamed up with U.S. researchers to investigate whether an abnormally severe drought may have pushed rats into human settlements or vice versa. But another Mexican expert in the field insists the rodents mentioned in texts from the era probably came from Europe or Asia carrying the bubonic plague, which sometimes caused its victims to vomit blood. Elsa Malvido, a demographer, historian and an expert on ancient epidemics for the National Institute of Anthropology and History, says the plague could have caused the more severe hemorrhagic symptoms recorded by Hernandez, because it was attacking a population with no immunity whatsoever. But Dr. Carlos Viesca, director of medical history at Mexico's national university, says he is close to being convinced the epidemics were native. "The problem didn't start in Acapulco or Veracruz," the two main seaports where rats would have landed from overseas, he said. Instead, the disease appears to have started in the central highlands at a time when the Spaniards sent mining expeditions to unsettled parts of Mexico, raising the possibility that humans invaded rodent habitats, he said. Relatively few Spaniards were affected by the outbreak, possibly because in either eventuality they were protected: If the cause was bubonic plague or smallpox, their bodies had greater immunity to it; and if it was rodent-borne, they were less likely to come into contact with the animals.

Campaign to pardon the last witch, jailed as a threat to Britain at war http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,...1989403,00.html Salem experts support appeal to overturn 'ludicrous' conviction Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent Saturday January 13, 2007 The Guardian Some 50 years after Mrs Duncan's death, a fresh campaign has been launched to clear her name, with a petition calling on the home secretary, John Reid, to grant a posthumous pardon. Her conviction, said Mrs Martin, was simply "ludicrous". The appeal is winning international support from experts in perhaps the world's most infamous witch trial: the conviction and execution of 20 girls, men and women at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. "Helen Duncan was very much victimised by her times, and she too suffered," said Alison D'Amario, education director at the Salem Witch Museum. Mrs Duncan, a Scotswoman who travelled the country holding seances, was one of Britain's best-known mediums, reputedly numbering Winston Churchill and George VI among her clients, when she was arrested in January 1944 by two naval officers at a seance in Portsmouth. The military authorities, secretly preparing for the D-day landings and then in a heightened state of paranoia, were alarmed by reports that she had disclosed - allegedly via contacts with the spirit world - the sinking of two British battleships long before they became public. The most serious disclosure came when she told the parents of a missing sailor that his ship, HMS Barham, had sunk. It was true, but news of the tragedy had been suppressed to preserve morale. Desperate to silence the apparent leak of state secrets, the authorities charged Mrs Duncan with conspiracy, fraud, and with witchcraft under an act dating back to 1735 - the first such charge in over a century. At the trial, only the "black magic" allegations stuck, and she was jailed for nine months at Holloway women's prison in north London. Churchill, then prime minister, visited her in prison and denounced her conviction as "tomfoolery". In 1951, he repealed the 200-year-old act, but her conviction stood. The witchcraft laws Witch hunts reached their peak in the UK in the 17th century, when the church viewed witches as devil-worshipping heretics. In 1604 James I issued a statute against witchcraft. Numerous trials followed, including those instigated by Matthew Hopkins, self-appointed witchfinder general, from 1644 to 1647. Hopkins travelled the south-east seeking out witches, using torture to secure confessions and using methods such as swimming - throwing the accused into a river and judging them innocent if they sank - to determine guilt. He is thought to have executed 200-400 "witches". In Manningtree, Essex, alone, he accused 36 women, 19 of whom were executed; a further nine died in prison. The accused were overwhelmingly female, often widows with no family to protect them. Some were herbalists or healers, practices opposed by church teachings, and some probably did practise dark arts, though most were innocent. The last execution for witchcraft in England was in 1684, when Alice Molland was hanged in Exeter. James I's statute was repealed in 1736 by George II. In Scotland, the church outlawed witchcraft in 1563 and 1,500 people were executed, the last, Janet Horne, in 1722. Gerald Brousseau Gardner founded the modern Wicca movement in the 1940s, 11 years before the repeal of Britain's witchcraft laws. Followers revere nature, worship a goddess and practice ritual magic. In the 2001 census, 7,000 people listed Wicca as their religion. Katy Heslop

www.muzzleloadingforum.com

did pirates ride dinosaurs?

"On the 6th of July 1734, when off the south coast of Greenland, a sea-monster appeared to us, whose head, when raised, was on level with our main-top. Its snout was long and sharp, and it blew water almost like a whale; it has large broad paws; its body was covered with scales; its skin was rough and uneven; in other respects it was as a serpent; and when it dived, its tail, which was raised in the air, appeared to be a whole ship's length from its body." Full and Particular Relation of my Voyage to Greenland, as a Missionary, in the year 1734 More horrid creatures from the Deep at http://www.strangescience.net/stsea2.htm And there is the passage most sailors of the period would be familiar with: But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. Book of Jonah, 1:17

By SONJA BARISIC, Associated Press WriterTue Jan 9, 7:53 PM ET Seeds and plant remains preserved in a well at America's first permanent English settlement suggest the Jamestown colonists were not just gentlemen with few wilderness survival skills, as they are often portrayed, but tried to live off the land by gathering berries and nuts. At least one tobacco seed, possibly representing the earliest known evidence of the cultivation at Jamestown of the cash crop that helped the settlement survive financially, was also discovered among samples from the 17th-century well. Archaeobotanist Steve Archer will include results of his microscopic analysis of the plant matter in presentations at the Society of Historical Archaeology conference that begins Wednesday in Williamsburg. "This little, tiny sample indicates there was some experimenting going on with New World plants," Archer, of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the College of William and Mary, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. While more research needs to be done elsewhere at Jamestown, the lack of plant material from Europe in this well suggests the settlers adapted to the environment by using local food resources as they learned what was edible from their contact with Indians, Archer said. "It's not a mega-breakthrough into the history" of Jamestown, William Kelso, director of archaeology at the Historic Jamestowne site, said Tuesday. "But I think it does show the old story that they were gentlemen here who didn't have a clue how to survive in the wilderness ... that's not the whole story. It was a mix." Jamestown was founded as a business venture in May 1607, with settlers encountering harsh conditions including severe drought, famine and disease. An 18-month series of events commemorating the settlement's 400th anniversary is under way. Colonists built the 6-foot-square (0.56 sq. meters), 15-foot-deep (4.5-meter) well after 1610 in a corner of Jamestown's triangular fort. When it no longer was used for water, settlers filled the well with trash and then built an addition to the governor's house over it in 1617, sealing everything inside until archaeologists began excavating it in 2005. The seed study, funded by National Geographic, identified remains of more than 30 different plant species. Seeds from blueberries were the most commonly found. Other evidence of wild food colonists gathered included blackberries, huckleberries, persimmons, passion fruit, cherries, grapes, hickory nuts, beech nuts and walnuts. Tobacco seeds rarely are found at archaeological sites because of their size — smaller than a coarse grain of pepper — and dry burial conditions, Archer said, but the well's watery, oxygen-deprived environment preserved one tobacco seed in excellent condition. Two other seeds also could be tobacco but are charred, possibly from being smoked in a pipe, he said. Archer said DNA testing to try to identify the species of tobacco might answer questions about the timing of Jamestown's transition from the native tobacco species, Nicotiana rustica, which produced a harsh smoke, to the more desirable South American species, Nicotiana tabacum. Colonist John Rolfe, who arrived at Jamestown in 1610, successfully experimented with cultivating tobacco and somehow obtained seeds for the South American species although Spain had declared anyone selling the seeds to a non-Spaniard would be put to death. Rolfe's efforts made tobacco a thriving cash crop. ___ On the Net: Historic Jamestowne: http://www.historicjamestowne.org National Geographic: http://www.nationalgeographic.com

For better or worse, who's the cameraman documenting this adventure for youtube?