Borden System Words: Saskatchewan

The Borden System divides Canada up into chunks based on the lat/long system to provide a handy way of designating unique site names based on the site's location and the order in which it was found (just like the Stonecutters!). It was created by one Charles E. Borden in 1952, while teaching at UBC. Borden is known as the grandfather of BC archaeology. This is despite the mild handicaps of having been employed in the German Department (although he was made a lecturer in archaeology after his first 10 years there) and being an American citizen. See a good bio from the CAA here, also American Antiquity printed an obituary for him. His contributions to BC archaeology (and archaeology in general) were numerous. Among other things, he excavated many important sites, was instrumetal in the pressuring of provincial government to pass the 1960 Archaeological an Historic Sites Protection Act, and of course developed the Borden Grid System which all Canadian archaeologists know and enjoy today.

Let's look at how it works shall we? Say we have the site FfNm-1 (that's South Branch House).

"F" is the Major South-North locator. Each North-South block represents 2 degrees of Latitude going from "A" through "U" (no V through Z). While "f" is the Minor South-North locator (the minor blocks for "F" range from "a" through "l"). For both the North-South and East-West, each minor block within a major block represents 10 minutes of latitude or longitude respectively. from south to north (a-l). "N" is the Major East-West Locator. To the South of 62 degrees, each of these blocks represents 4 degrees of Longitude from east to west (A - W). However, North of 62 degrees each major block represents 8 degrees of longitude. FYI: Because the distance between lines of longitude get smaller with increasing latitude, the Borden System changes at 64 degrees north latitude, from a width of 4 degrees of longitude to a width of 8 degrees in order to keep the area within each designate roughly the same. Lastly, "m" is the Minor East-West Locator, each block represents 10 minutes of Longitude from east to west (a - x). North of 62 degrees each minor block represents 20 minutes of longitude. The full Borden designation, FfNm-1, represents a roughly 16km x 16km area and the 1st site found within that area. Upper Borden grid maps are downloadable at the Canadian Museum of Civilization here.

Now rumour has it that Charles Borden went to great lengths to prevent cussin' via archaeology in his system and hence omitted several key potential Borden designations. That sounded like a challenge to me....

So, Saskatchewan (see the upper Borden grid to the right, click to embiggen) includes these Borden letters:
North/South - D(g-l), E(a-l), F(a-l), G(a-l), H(a-l), I(a-l)
East/West - O(a-l), N(a-x), and M(k-x).

With quick use of a scrabble cheating device (here), I found that the following 51 words can be spelled using the Borden system in Saskatchewan:

dims, dine, ding, dink, dins, dint, diol, elms, fane, fang, fano, fans, fems, fend, fens, feod, find, fine, fink, fino, fins, floc, floe, flog, gamp, gams, gane, gang, gaol, gems, gene, gens, gent, genu, gimp, gink, gins, glob, hams, hand, hang, hank, hant, hemp, hems, hens, hent, hind, hins, hint, idol

I guess "dink" is kinda dirty and "gink" is a slang word for a person or fellow that is often used in a derogatory context. Also, a "gamp" is an umbrella. It's not dirty, I just didn't know that before. Anyway, as it stands Saskatchewan is clean as a bean. You win this round Charles! Nonetheless, I remain undaunted in my task and will continue to scour Canada province by province for giggle worthy words!

p.s. I wonder if french words count if they're in Quebec.

Animal Mummies

National Geographic has recently published an interactive article about Egyptian animal mummies. Interactive articles...they teach you while you learn! Hurray! Also, it has a lot of interesting tidbits like how the Egyptian Museum of Cairo's artifact ID numbers all begin with the letters CG. Did you know that hundreds of thousands on mummified cats were hauled from a mass grave near the village of Istabl Antar since their discovery in 1888. They were used as fertilizer in England. Much like the innumerable quantities of bison bones from mass kills here...but I digress. Besides that's all behind us now and current research is using these amazing specimens as windows into daily life in ancient Egypt, employing zooarchaeology (of course), experimental archaeology, and advanced imaging techniques to examine what species were present, their uses, and how the mummies were created (among other things). Cool beans!

The Egyptologist and zooarchaeologist featured in the National Geographic article is Dr. Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University at Cairo. In the following video from this article at Heritage Key, she explains some of her work.

Super fun Halloween bonus references (oooo scary!):
-Herodotus explains mummification
-The Apis bull and associated cult explained at the Virtual Egyptian Museum (see image to the right)

Educational sidebar: Polaris

While camping at St.Louis, I learned about how to find the north star using the Big Dipper. It's edu-tainment!

1. Locate the Big Dipper and the two stars that form the outer edge of the cup of the dipper.
2. Draw an imaginary line straight through the two stars of the dipper edge and follow this line to the handle of the Little Dipper.
3. The brightest star in the Little Dipper is at the end of its handle. This is the North Star.

Educational Sidebar: The Tilt-A-Whirl

aka. "tilted world" (according to Mom) is my Mom's favorite fair ride (also, a song by the Insane Clown Posse). The Tilt-A-Whirl was invented in 1926 by the Sellner Manufacturing Company, which continues to be the only source of new rides. A new Tilt-A-Whirl ride costs about $300,000 (depending on the options you get) and takes 4 people about 3 hours to set up (assuming they know what they're doing). It features seven cars that can seat 4-6 people per car meaning it can give rides to as many as 500 people in an hour.

The ride follows a chaotic orbit-like motion. The seven cars are each fixed to a pivot pin on a circular platform. These platforms follow a circuitous track with 3 hills and 3 valleys at a set speed of 6.5 rpm. This orbit causes variable centrifugal and gravitational forces to affect each car, which will rotate clockwise or counterclockwise on it's set pivot point at different speeds depending on multiple variables (e.g. where on the track the car was when the ride began, where it is on the track at a given moment, how much weight is in the car and where it is situated, the friction of the various contact points between the car and the track, etc.). Good times!

It has been calculated that when the platforms travel at very low speeds each car will complete one backward revolution as its platform goes over each hill. Whereas at high speeds each car will be stranded at its outer edge (like swinging a bucket of water around). But at intermediate speeds (say 6rpm?) the movement of the cars is so unpredictable it has even been used by mathematicians in chaos theory! However, as any Tilt-A-Whirl veteran knows the ride can be manipulated by strategic leaning or if the ride's operator decides to mess with you.

Simpsons Spoofs: Album Covers

It's time for super-fun Simpsons spoofs! Album cover edition. Hurray!
First, here is the spoof of The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album that was done for the cover of the Simpsons' "Yellow Album" (which featured the "Hail to Thee Kamp Krusty" song and a bunch of stuff not from the show). Besides this there are quite a few album cover spoofs kicking around that were done up as alternative magazine covers for the Rolling Stone. These included three of the most influential albums of all time: The Beatles' "Alley Road", Nirvana's "Nevermind", and Springstein's "Born in the USA".





























There was also the rejected Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" spoof










and David Bowie's "Aladdin Sane".










Educational Sidebar: Origins of the word 'spoof' from Dictionary.com
Dates back to the British comedian Arthur Roberts (1852-1933) who invented a game called Spoof, which involved trickery and nonsense. Later, the word spoof took on the general sense meaning of nonsense or trickery (first recorded in 1889). The verb spoof is first recorded in 1889 as well, in the sense "to deceive." These meanings have fallen out of use in favour of the noun form meaning "a light parody or satirical imitation," first recorded in 1958, and the verb sense "to satirize gently," first recorded in 1927.

A Chickens! Educational Sidebar: NOT 10,000BC

Terror birds (Family: Phorusrhacidae): Giant, flightless carnivorous birds, which stood up to 10 feet high, lived in the Americas (mostly South America) during the Cenozoic. Anything even close to resembling it in the old world died out millions of years ago. It had been previously thought to have existed as recently as 10,000BC in South America but the most recent fossil has been re-dated to around 2 million years ago.

Woolly Mammoths and Mastodons: Mastodons were native to both Eurasia and North America but died out in Eurasia approximately three million years ago and were browsers not grazers like the mammoths. The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius aka tundra mammoth) was found in North America, Northern Eurasia, and Siberia. They evolved from the steppe mammoth (M.trogontherii) which was 15ft at the shoulder and lived in Northern Eurasia but it was replaced by tundra mammoth about 250,000 years ago. Most mammoth species were no more than 10ft tall at the shoulder max (that's 2 ft taller than my ceiling) and had much smaller ears than modern elephants (closer to 30cm long compared to 6 feet). They began disappearing with the other Pleistocene megafauna about 12,000 years ago, with the last dwelling on islands in the Arctic until as late as 3,000 to 4,000 years ago. They did not (and could not) live in any warm locations such as Africa (besides the long fur, mammoths had a 8cm think layer of blubber beneath their thick skin), although there is some evidence that suggests that Egyptians may have known about them. Also, while the tradition of training elephants may go back some 4 000 years in the Hindu valley, there is no evidence to suggest the taming of elephants or the use of elephants for labour in any way before this time (let alone mammoths!).

Sabre-toothed cats: The most popular sabre-toothed cat was Smilodon (aka the sabre toothed tigre; no close relation to actual tigers). It stood about as tall as a modern lion (but was about twice as heavy, around 400kg) and lived in the Americas.
The lesser known Homotherium (aka scimitar cat) lived in Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas but only survived in the old world until about 30,000 years ago. It was the size of a modern lion and had relatively short upper canines compared to Smilodon. The giant sabre-toothed cat depicted in the movie was at least 2 to 3 times larger than anything that ever existed in real life. Just like this:

Animal Domestication - Horses: As early as 30,000 years ago we see depictions of horses and horse hunting in Paleolithic rock art. In 10,000BC horses were still being hunted for food and in the process of going extinct in the western hemisphere (though there is evidence to suggest that some of the North American horse species migrated to Siberia before this time). The horse may have been domesticated in central Asia as early as 4000BC (around the same time the wheel was invented. Yes, I know the "wheel" existed earlier than that but that was for pottery not transportation), but these may have been merely "tamed" wild horses; the earliest evidence of bit wear dates to around 3500-3000BC; chariots and other material evidence clearly indicate the horse was definitely fully domesticated by 2500 - 2000BC and in common employment throughout Eurasia. Anatomically modern horses (Equus caballus) are a product of selective breeding by humans.

Animal Domestication - Sheep: Sheep were one of the earliest agricultural animals to be domesticated (along with goats), perhaps as early as 9000 years ago (even as early as 10 to 11,000 according to some, soon after agriculture, but that is still only 9000BC at the earliest) in SW Asia. But woolly sheep weren't being selected for until several thousand years later.

Plant domestication: Occurred independently in several major centers around the world. It occurred in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East as early as 9000BC. Here we have grains and some legumes like wheat (einkorn and emmer), barley, pea, lentils. Around 8000BC, we see the domestication of Mesoamerican/South American plants like corn, squash, tomato, lima beans, white potato, sweet potato, chili peppers, peanuts, guava, and avocado. These species don't make their way to the old world until the 1500's. So, to sum up, while arguably a case could possibly be made for horticultural cultivation of some transitional domesticate crops in some regions of the Middle East as early as 10,000BC (though there really isn't any evidence for this), these crops would not have included New World domesticates like corn or chili peppers.

Metallurgy: While small amounts of soft natural metals like deposits of gold may have been cold hammered and/or used as decoration as early as the late Paleolithic period (40,000BC), the technology of metallurgy began around 3500 B.C. in the Bronze Age.

Monumental Architecture: The earliest Neolithic townsites date to around 8000BC, actual monumental architecture (except for megaliths) doesn't clearly show up for at least a few thousand years after that.

p.s. Visit some of the other blogs in my blogging community for more angry rantings about 10,000BC here and here.
p.p.s. Another rider to this. I guess the movie isn't so bad because my Mom didn't have to worry about anyone in it, everyone got theirs in the end. In my disapproval of the movie I failed to give extra points for its Mom-friendliness. Let that be a lesson to me. Also, in further defense of the movie, the only thing that actually didn't ever exist were the giant sabre-toothed tigers (of course even though the other things existed, they didn't exist in the same times or places and definitely not in the Old Wold in 10,000BC).

Educational Sidebar: Badgers

Badgers are Mustelids (members of the Weasel family) and are related to such smelly and/or angry animals as wolverines, ferrets, otters, fishers, martens, and minks. Yeah sure he looks cute but he'd kill ya soon as look at ya. They are the only carnivore in Canada that burrows after and eats other burrowing animals, so we like them here because they eat things like ground squirrels (and anything else they can get there claws on). The species of badger that occurs in North America is the North American badger (Taxidea taxus) which is somewhat related, but quite different from the European badger (Meles meles).

Badgers are very distinctive looking, especially their faces (a good way to tell between the Euro and north american badger is by snout length). Badgers have a noticeable white stripe that runs down the top of their head as well as black cheek patches (called “badges” which is how badgers get their name). They are about 60-90 cm (2-3 ft.) in length and generally weigh about 7-8 kg (15.4-17.6 lbs.) for adult females and 10-14 kg (22-30.8 lbs.) for adult males. Badgers have a sort of “flattened” appearance because their hair is short on their backs and long on their sides (also because they have stubby little legs). Their forefeet are actually much larger than their hindfeet (all the better for burrowing with grandma). Badgers are quite highly adapted for digging and can actually dig up to a metre deep in a minute! Now is that a probe or a test he's digging because I doubt that takes screening into account.

Now to the good stuff. The Taxidea taxus' (left below) dental formula is I 3/3; C 1/1; P 3/3; M 1/2. The P4 has a medial shelf and a hypocone. Transverse rows of cusps on the M1 are distinctive, yet exhibit some variation within the genus. The m1 has a well-developed trigonid and a talonid with a central hypoconid and entoconid.

This is in contrast to Meles meles (right) which has a much more flattened M1

(Pop Quiz: which one is more omnivorous?).

It has a relatively short rostrum, and robustjaws at the rostral end of the skull and at the base it has a triangular shaped occipital and enlarged tympanic bullae. The "wrap-around" jaw hinge means that lowerjaw cannot be removed from skull. Male badgers have a prominent sagittal crest which increases in size with age.

This is all because I saw this awsome badger in a den the other day. I love seeing wild badgers!

Also, badgers are better with the Simpsons:

A Chickens! Educational Sidebar: A Lesson in Chicken Terminology

It's time for everyone to benefit from my recent (and not so recent) learnings on chickens, chicken bones, and the like. Later I may discuss more advanced topics but, first, a lesson in chicken terminology. While all fowl of the species Gallus gallus are called chickens there are more specific names for specific types. All young chickens are called chicks (that's easy). A male chicken is a cock (or rooster) or a cockerel, depending on its age. Similarly, a female chicken is called a pullet or a hen. The age at which a pullet becomes a hen and a cockerel becomes a cock depends on what type of chicken is being raised. Purebred poultry producers have very age-specific definitions. A chicken is a cockerel or pullet if it is less than one year of age. After one year of age, the chicken is referred to as a hen or cock. In the commercial industry a female chicken is called a hen after it begins egg production (around five months of age). A sexually mature male chicken (again, around five months of age) is referred to as a rooster. A capon is a castrated male chicken - these are valued for their meat as the lack of testosterone and slower ageing giving more time for weight and fat gain makes for better flavour. Speaking of flavour, different types of chickens are called different names based on their market purpose. Broiler chickens are reared for meat rather than for eggs. The broiler industry began in the late 1950's when strains were selectively bred for meat production. Layers are reared for eggs. The most popular chicken breed for this (and in general) is the Leghorn (as in Foghorn Leghorn). This chicken breed (pictured to the right) originates from The Port of Leghorn in Italy (woohoo!) and arrived in Britain in the late 1800s in the white form followed by the brown, and was a favorite of settlers because of it's high egg yield and relatively good meat. Good stuff, I hope everyone will look forward to future posts about archaeology related avian identification and other issues.