Break out the winter woolies .......
- Thread starter Woody
- Start date
(In best four Yorkshireman accent)
That's nothing! My house is older than Chicago - and the USA for that matter
Is the USA old enough to have museums?
LOL. Ironically the hard part is to actually date the US. Where do you count from?
- The revolutionary war? 237 years (pretty young)
- Columbus' discovery? 521 years (you sure about your house now BR?)
- First inhabitants building permanent stone structures? Earlier than the Roman Empire
The most recent iteration of Chicago (after the Chicago Fire) is since 1871 so not really that hard. On the other hand, the Indians have had a settlement there for over a millennia.
It wasn't the USA pre revolutionary war surely? Pre that it was a a part of the North American Colonies (along with Canada etc.)
Of course, the USA is as old as the rest of the planet, geologically speaking. But it is always fun to have a gentle poke at the neighbours
The village I live in was evangelised by St Mungo's folks in the 6th century.....they took over a much older pagan site to do so. The Romans camped about a mile outside the village before then.
My Austalian sister in law laughed when I commented that this was the new road, built when the old one had been moved in the 1700's.
There are cinerary urns in the local museum that date back at least four and a half thousand years.
There's nothing unusual in any of that in the UK
Varves and pollen analysis tells us a great deal about the weather of the past. Lands that are now sub marginal were actively worked as arable when the Romans came to the UK. It would only need a temperature rise of a couple of deg C to totally change the flora in some areas.
I know we all look forward to a really cold Winter, but the records show much more of the not frozen cold but wet type
cheers,
Toddy
My Austalian sister in law laughed when I commented that this was the new road, built when the old one had been moved in the 1700's.
There are cinerary urns in the local museum that date back at least four and a half thousand years.
There's nothing unusual in any of that in the UK
Varves and pollen analysis tells us a great deal about the weather of the past. Lands that are now sub marginal were actively worked as arable when the Romans came to the UK. It would only need a temperature rise of a couple of deg C to totally change the flora in some areas.
I know we all look forward to a really cold Winter, but the records show much more of the not frozen cold but wet type
cheers,
Toddy
My Austalian sister in law laughed when I commented that this was the new road, built when the old one had been moved in the 1700's.
There's nothing unusual in any of that in the UK
Toddy
Indeed the footpath that ran past our Barn in Cheshire has been there a good 5000 years - it formed part of the old Bronze Age salt road
I really wasn't having a dig Santaman - I love the US - its just a young country - nothing wrong with that! I recall taking an American buddy for a walk round the Downs - we took in some barrows and walked back via a lovely church, which (before we got there) I told him was built "before the invasion"
"Normandy"? he asked
"Close" I replied "Norman"
I think its just a different perspective of what "old" is really
Thing is though, there have been people in America for at least as long as they've been here since the ice ended last, so it's really a cultural thing.
M
M
I agree, but it's very much overlooked and forgotten at times. Bit like the Australian's I suppose or the northern invaders/conquerors in India or the Ainu in Japan.
M
M
Much history is ignored - or misunderstood. I recall once explaining to someone that the Normans weren't French but rather "land Vikings" - the person couldn't get their head around the fact that viking was a verb and that "Vikings" travelled through Europe - not just to places where they could wear horned helmets in long ships
I say bring it on! Oops, I live in Canada, this is standard winter weather for us...
Alex
freezing by the campfire...
Cheers
Alex
freezing by the campfire...Cheers
We don't understand that weather Alex!
I recall a buddy of mine over there whose roof collapsed under weight of ice - that seems bizarre to me - even after he explained how much many inches of ice weighs - just not something we are used to I guess
I recall a buddy of mine over there whose roof collapsed under weight of ice - that seems bizarre to me - even after he explained how much many inches of ice weighs - just not something we are used to I guess
Red, we don't understand it either, but muddle through somehow. It is awesome though, that when you're ice fishing with your buddy up north, and he asks you to pass him a beer(yah, were bad for constantly drinking our beer ) and after opening it for him, it's frozen solid by the time I get it to him 15 feet away! Or forgetting not to step off the road in the bush where you've parked your car, and sinking up to you armpits in snow and can't move, and having to wait for your friends to pull you out after they've peed themselves laughing...
By about late February, the UK's starting to look pretty good!
Cheers
Alex
It is awesome though, that when you're ice fishing with your buddy up north, and he asks you to pass him a beer(yah, were bad for constantly drinking our beer ) and after opening it for him, it's frozen solid by the time I get it to him 15 feet away! Or forgetting not to step off the road in the bush where you've parked your car, and sinking up to you armpits in snow and can't move, and having to wait for your friends to pull you out after they've peed themselves laughing...By about late February, the UK's starting to look pretty good!
Cheers
Alex
Harvestman and Red, I knew you weren't digging and that it was mainly in jest. As I've said before, I lved in the UK for four years while on active duty. Loved it there and saw much of the old architecture. It was amazing! I particularly remember the Church in Fairford that had been built in 1498 IIRC. But more interestingly to me was the pub; it had been built by the stone masons to live in while they built the Church. And since then had been a coaching inn, then later a brothel, and who knows what else before becoming a pub.
But I suppose my point was that as Mary has said, US history didn't begin with the arrival of Eropeans (a fact that's often overlooked over here as well) That history is even more confusing because as you pointed out, the US wasn't the nation it is today before then (nor were Canada or Mexico) Rather the indigenous peoples had quite different (thus confusing) borders than we are used to today. And some of their architecture rivals that of ancient Europe (the pyramids of Mexico and the Pueblos in the southwest come to mind, as do the Incan cities in South America) and they did it all with only stone age tools, no wheel, and no written language.
But I suppose my point was that as Mary has said, US history didn't begin with the arrival of Eropeans (a fact that's often overlooked over here as well) That history is even more confusing because as you pointed out, the US wasn't the nation it is today before then (nor were Canada or Mexico) Rather the indigenous peoples had quite different (thus confusing) borders than we are used to today. And some of their architecture rivals that of ancient Europe (the pyramids of Mexico and the Pueblos in the southwest come to mind, as do the Incan cities in South America) and they did it all with only stone age tools, no wheel, and no written language.
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Some of the Mayan and Inca stuff is incredible. I wonder sometimes though looking at our own landscape which are the most laudable - those like William the Bast....err lets be nice and say William of Normandy...who change a landscape and country with stone buildings and enclosures - or those like some of the First Nations who tread so lightly on the earth that they leave almost nothing behind? Certainly some are more remembered - or at least marked - but it calls to mind Ozymandias somehow.
