On holiday, we visited the Eceni reconstructed Celtic village, based on elements of archeological sites around Norfolk. It’s all voluntary, so piece by piece they are building up a settlement, with a few houses, a temple, a bakehouse and a pub. We were shown around by a guide, whose enthusiasm and imagination were inspiring and contagious; Bernard interrupted her explanations with many remarks and reinterpretations, giving us some insight of what he must be like at school.
He had a go at grinding corn into flower, felt the weight of a shield and a sword, and speculated about where people cooked their tea when they had no cookers. He was even allowed to stand on a rampart and fling pointy sticks over the fence, which was pretty terrifying.
The guide did say that it was impossible to know how people with no written tradition would have lived, when all they have to go on is what they find in the ground: post holes and bits of broken pot. So I was very interested by her reconstruction of a wicker moses basket. Remember this is conjecture [1] about a culture from more than 2,000 years ago. That’s where the baby would sleep, she said.
- I do really like this word, but also I’ve just finished reading Fermat’s Last Theorem, and there was a lot of conjecturing in that. [↩]
