On Easter Day in April 1014 A.D., Brian Boru, Ard Rig, or High King of Ireland, stood on the field of Clontarf to do battle with the forces of Sygtrigg, Norse king of Dublin; Sigurd, Earl of Orkney; and their Irish allies. It was a pivotal moment in Irish history, the beginning of the end of Scandinavian domination of Ireland. Viking raids on Ireland’s south and east coasts began around 795 A.D. Norse and Danes settled near harbors and built Ireland’s first towns, including what are now Dublin, Cork, Limerick, and Waterford. Raids deep into the countryside reduced many Irish to slavery and resulted in extensive intermarriage between the Viking newcomers and the native Celts. Especially targeted were the great monasteries. Sources of learning and faith, the monasteries were vital to the development of Irish culture during the centuries when the island was known as “the land of saints and scholars.” The sons of kings and nobles were educated at the monasteries. Their monks produced artistic marvels such as the Book of Kells and went out to the pagan lands of Europe to spread Celtic Christianity. (Thomas Cahill’s book How the Irish Saved Civilization is highly recommended.) To the Viking invaders, the monasteries were sources of wealth to be plundered and burnt. In time, however, the raiders became colonizers. The Norse and Danes wanted land to farm and kingdoms to rule. With little political and military unity, there was not much the Irish could do to stop them. The newcomers also needed women. Some wives were brought from Scandinavia, but most were Irish. The resultant intermarriage brought a degree of cultural blending. As one historian wrote, many of the Norse and Danes, the Finn Gael and the Dubh Gael, eventually became more Irish than the Irish.
By the early 11th century, a Scandinavian hegemony had been established over much of northern Europe. The Viking invasion of England, led by Sven Forkbeard, had placed his son Knut (Canute the Great) on the thrones of England and Denmark. Vikings had also colonized Caithness, in the north of Scotland, and the Orkney,
Shetland, and Hebrides islands. The battle of Clontarf resulted in victory for Brian Boru and ended Scandinavian political domination of Ireland. The High King did not live to expand his rule. During the battle, a Viking chieftain by the name of Brodir managed to reach Brian’s tent and killed him. It was written that the king died while at his Easter prayers. It has been suggested, however, that this was a Church embellishment of the facts.
Norse control of the northern and western isles lasted until the 14th century. One of the best-known artifactal representations of the Norse colonization was discovered in the 19th century. At some point before 1831,
the Lewis chessmen (shown at top)were found buried on a beach on Uig, on the west side of the Hebrides island of Lewis. Since then, they have puzzled historians and irritated Scottish nationalists. Carved from polished walrus ivory and whale teeth by Norse artisans
“Do you really understand all of this?” The man asking me the question was a British engineer who had been sent to survey the site for construction of storage bunkers. Without a background in Roman military history and archeology, he viewed the excavated remains of Housesteads (aerial view below) as an incomprehensible jumble of stones. I responded by quickly pointing out the “playing card” design of the fort, indicating the defensive walls and the obvious structures – the
principia (headquarters building), the
praetorium (commandant’s house), the
valetudinarium (hospital), the
horrea (granary), and the buildings believed to be barracks and workshops. After a bit more conversation, the engineer thanked me and moved away. The almost continuous high wind and frequently driving rain made standing in one place for very long undesirable. On a previous occasion, I had been so chilled that I jumped into the shell of an excavated barracks and huddled behind a wall for a few minutes. Fear of being laughed at by an excavator or by a nearby National Trust officer quickly drove me above ground.
Housesteads, called
Vercovicium by its Roman garrison, is the most spectacular archeological site on Hadrian’s Wall, the 73-mile-long military complex built across northern England by order of the Emperor Hadrian, who visited the area in 122 A.D. Consisting of forts, mile castles, signal towers, a military road, outpost forts, and a great
vallum, or ditch, to its south, the Wall has fascinated scholars since excavations began in the early 19th century. Many have spent their lives studying the Wall and its many mysteries. Whenever in the area, I tried to get a bit of time to
visit Housesteads and the neighboring
Vindolanda, the permanent research and excavation center owned by the remarkable Birley family.
Visiting Housesteads requires one to be in reasonably good physical condition. Built on the Whin Sill ridge, a crop of volcanic rock that crosses Northumberland, the fort is reached by a hard climb up a steep, winding path dotted by clusters of sheep. Most often, the climb must be made in the face of the wind and rain already mentioned. Once on the ridge, however, the view of the surrounding countryside is spectacular. Consolidation of excavation has resulted in the fort being seen as it was in the third century. The garrison at that time was the First Cohort of Tungrians, an auxiliary unit originally recruited in Belgium. It was a
cohors equitata millaria, meaning a unit of 1,000 men (more likely 800), two-thirds infantry and one-third cavalry. While the troops were barracked inside the fort, sprawling
vicus, or civilian settlement, lay outside the walls, as did the bathhouse. Roman troops were very keen on sanitation.
As I have mentioned, the Wall is full of mysteries and Housesteads is no exception. One of the things that has long intrigued me has been the possibility of a Roman military presence before the building of the Wall. The strategic advantage of the site cannot have been overlooked by the Romans until the second century. Finding evidence to prove this is another matter. The only thing I have ever had to go on is a discovery made by Eric Birley in 1933 of the remains of a revetted roadway. Birley compared it to the type of road used as a
vallum crossing and wrote that “the existence of such a crossing at Housesteads shows that there must have been a
vallum fort there, but no traces of such a fort have yet been found: it was probably much smaller than the present structure (5 acres), with an earth and timber rampart and wooden buildings.” Interesting, but no cigar.
The more popular mystery of Housesteads is, of course, the murder house. In the civilian settlement was a house that was the scene of a Roman crime. Built around 300 A.D. and abandoned around 367 A.D., the house was rectangular and fronted on the main street of the settlement. It was divided into two rooms. The front room was a shop and the rear was a large living room. And here the murder took place. The victims were a middle-aged man and woman. Their skeletons were discovered beneath a new clay floor when the house was excavated in 1932. The man had a broken sword embedded in his ribs. Since burial within a settlement was forbidden by Roman law, the burial must have taken place secretly and the double grave carefully hidden. Whoever the killers were, they escaped punishment for their crime. Don’t worry, though. I doubt they are still at large.
Finally, what happened to Housesteads? How did its long history as a military base end? The historical artist
Ronald Embleton, whose superb work I have always admired, painted a lurid scene called “The Destruction of Housesteads.” It shows the troops fighting to the death against attackers with a background of leaping flames and ruined buildings.
Not everyone agrees with Embleton’s dramatic depiction, however. It is more likely that as the Western Roman Empire declined and its troops were gradually withdrawn from Britain, Housestead’s
vicus disappeared. The civilian dependents were brought into the fort, in which buildings had been redesigned to house them. Behind the defensive walls remained a reduced garrison of perhaps 300 men and their families. When the military pay no longer came, the soldiers would have become
subsistence farmers. Eventually, the area would have become too dangerous for any but the hardiest of small farmers.
In response to a question from a fellow New Yorker, I once gave a brief description of Housesteads. After listening quietly, the man replied, “Well, if I’m ever in the neighborhood…”
For more information, read J. Collingwood Bruce’s
Handbook to the Roman Wall, Fourteenth Edition.
In May 2009,
David Hutchings pleaded guilty to five counts of fraud and was sent to prison for six months. A British metal detectorist, Hutchings had become famous for his success in finding valuable antiquities during years of archeological searches across the English countryside. However, many of the “antiquities” he sold to unsuspecting buyers were fakes. At the time of his arrest, he was attempting to sell to an Essex dealer coins that Hutchings said dated from the 1st to the 8th centuries. They were modern forgeries based upon genuine coins that Hutchings was using as models.
Other metal detectorists had been suspicious of Hutchings and his claims to have found antiquities many miles from where they would normally be found. However, he also used legitimate excavations to plant and “discover” fake antiquities, which he would then pass off as the real thing. He told some of his customers that the items he was offering had been verified by the British Museum. At the time of his arrest, the coins Hutchings was attempting to sell were examined by experts who determined that they had either been manufactured by casting in a mould or struck using forged dies.
There is nothing unusual about what Hutchings was doing. The counterfeiting of antiquities has been a cottage industry in artifact-rich countries for centuries. Some of the fakes are quite good and can be told from the genuine article only by an expert and even some of them can be fooled. Many non-specialists would not even consider the possibility that an object might not be genuine. Also, the manufacture of fakes is a great deal less labor intensive and expensive than is the looting, transportation across international borders, and illicit sale of genuine antiquities. However, it is the advent of the Internet that has turned the sale of counterfeit antiquities into a mass market in which producers and customers are brought together more easily than ever before. Consider
eBay.
Around the year 2000, a shift began from looting to counterfeiting. The ease of selling fakes on eBay has resulted in the mass production and sale of all kinds of “antiquities,” some well made and some not. People who used to make a few dollars selling looted artifacts to a middle man or fakes to tourists can now go to a person who has an eBay vendor account and receive the same amount of money they would for the real thing. In some places, workshops have been set up for the manufacture of fakes. By using local materials and a little cultural knowledge, some manufacturers can produce accurate reproductions of genuine artifacts. In some cases, the fakes are not reproductions, but are modified versions that look quite good. Since eBay has reduced overhead by eliminating middlemen, shops, and other costs, counterfeiters can sell their wares cheaply, attracting customers who would not ordinarily be involved in the antiquities trade. A collection of Greek and Roman coins for only $350 plus shipping is a real bargain. The fact that they are valueless fakes and not the precious collection of Roman gold aureii housed in the
Museum of the City of London would not be apparent to most ordinary shoppers.
Importing forgeries bought on eBay carries no risk of arrest even if the buyer thought he was importing an illicit antiquity. Even the seller does not have that much to worry about. David Hutchings was sentenced to only six months and he was selling his forgeries for significantly higher prices than are usually found on eBay.
Even wealthier collectors who have no interest in eBay can be victimized by forgers. Really well-made fakes are difficult to detect even by an expert unless
carbon analysis and the other forms of laboratory testing are carried out. American and European museums have been embarrassed by revelations that some of their high profile exhibits contain forgeries. For the forger, the profits are higher than would be gained from the sale of genuine antiquities.
It is hoped, therefore, that the growing trade in counterfeit antiquities will diminish the looting and illicit sale of genuine artifacts. It has been claimed that the international trade in illicit antiquities generates more revenue than does the international trade in heroin.
We have all been made aware of the present and future changes to our environment resulting from global warming. Less well known, however, is the impact upon our archeological heritage. A United Nations panel of 1000 experts on climate science recently estimated that the world’s temperature has risen approximately two degrees in the past century. The main cause has been an increase in carbon dioxide that traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Among the observable results has been a rise in the world’s oceans of four inches. Also, weather patterns have become less predictable and more extreme. The UN experts predict that ocean levels will rise another four inches over the next one hundred years. A worst-case scenario involves an increase of ten degrees in global temperatures. This would cause ice caps to melt even more rapidly than they are at present and sea levels to rise more than three feet.
Around the world, archeologists are operating on the premise that global warming will not be reversed, or stopped. Their concern is with the protection of archeological sites, both excavated and unexcavated.
In Kazakhstan, Scythian burials have remained frozen for thousands of years. Hotter summers are causing the human remains they contain to decay, in some cases faster than archeologists can get to them to study and preserve. Three thousand years ago, Scythian nomads ruled the Eurasian steppes from the edges of the Black Sea (photo above) in the west to China in the east. They buried their dead in huge grave mounds called kurgans. These have been important sources of information for archeologists studying how this nomadic culture spread, thrived, and faded away around 200 B.C. Kurgans are found from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. The best preserved are those in the Altai Mountains (photo below) on the edge of the vast Siberian permafrost region. Many of these graves have been frozen for millennia. Archeologists have found well-preserved mummies in the kurgans, often with their clothing, burial goods, and horses intact. The material culture of the Scythians is thus revealed.
The Altai Mountains, however, are not as cold as they once were. The glaciers that covered the Altai slopes are receding and even disappearing. For the first time in 3,000 years, the Scythian corpses in the kurgans are in danger of thawing and decaying. An international effort to save the frozen tombs has included the use of satellite photos and ground surveys to map and list the region’s kurgans. A priority is identifying the kurgans that may still have permafrost underneath them. The next step will be to determine how to keep the grave mound cool in order to preserve them for future researchers. Proposals range from reflecting sunlight away from the tombs by painting them white to stabilizing the underground temperature by installing thermo-pumps.
Peru is known as the home of the Inca and other civilizations. It is also a place strongly affected by El Niño. Every seven to ten years, Pacific Ocean currents shift, changing weather patterns from Australia to California. In Peru, El Niño brings warmer water and heavy rainfall along the coast. Peru’s deserts ordinarily receive just over an inch of rain per year. In 1998, the last severe El Niño season, the region received 120 inches, which caused severe flooding. Water damages exposed archeological sites, especially those located on rivers or on easily eroded slopes.
Chan Chan (photo above) is an eight-miles-square city that dates back 1000 years. Made of mud brick, its pyramids and palaces have been threatened by erosion. In the past twenty years, the site has deteriorated steadily. If, as researchers believe, global warming will make El Niño effects more frequent, the resultant increased rainfall will increase the potential for the ancient city’s destruction.
In normal summers, Greenland’s northern and eastern coasts should be ringed by an ice belt thirty to forty miles wide. The drifting ice acts like a shock absorber, lessening the impact of the North Atlantic. In the past five years, the sea ice has all but disappeared (photo above). This leaves Greenland’s coast open to the impact of storm surges originating hundreds of miles away. The effect on the island’s archeological heritage has been severe. Hardest hit have been sites associated with the
Thule culture, people closely related to the Inuit of northern Canada who first migrated to Greenland around 2,000 years ago. The Thule were skilled hunters and whalers whose villages were built near the shore. Today, Thule houses, made of stone and turf with whale-bone rafters, are disappearing quickly, along with buried tools and artifacts. Older sites along the coast are also in danger. As the Arctic warms, archeologists fear the frozen turf that covers Qeqertasussak, a 4,500-year-old settlement where evidence of the earliest habitation of Greenland was found, may be melting. The knowledge the site contains will be lost with the ice.
Global warming threatens archeological investigation all over the world. If knowledge of the past is necessary to better understand the present and to anticipate the future, the consequences of this loss will be significant.
Do you know the difference between a
tweaker and a
twigger? Allow me to introduce you to a particular corner of the shadowy world of the illicit trade in antiquities, a lucrative global business which generates more revenue than the international trade in heroin. Although there are many venues in which antiquities are bought and sold legally—the regular auctions at Christies and Sotheby’s, for example, galleries such as the
Athena in New York, and reputable dealers around the world—there are many who prefer to acquire and sell antiquities illegally (without provenance or recorded history of origin and ownership), either for the purpose of acquiring items that would not be available legally or in order to reap greater monetary rewards. The recent legal battle between New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Italian government over the
Euphronios krater, for which the museum paid $1 million to a dealer in illicit items, and other objects removed illegally from Italy, was a prominent event in the upmarket end of the trade. There are, however, less public and far seamier levels of criminal activity involving antiquities. One of them operates in the
American Southwest, with its rich Native American cultural heritage and abundance of archeological sites.
Tweakers are
methamphetamine addicts who loot archeological sites for artifacts that they can sell or trade for more drugs. In April 2004, a
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) case agent for archeological crime in New Mexico recovered from a meth dealer a rare pair of
Anasazi leggings made of human hair. (Permanent Anasazi communities in the Southwest date to around 100 A.D. Skilled farmers and craftspeople, they abandoned their cities around 1200 A.D. Scholars believe that they became the ancestors of the various groups of Native
Americans living in the Southwest today.) The BLM agent reported that most of the people he had been arresting were tweakers, rather than the old-fashioned history buffs and treasure hunters. In the trailer home of the meth dealer were found one and one half pounds of meth with a street value of approximately $500,000, 16 pounds of marijuana, and five loaded firearms. Also present were 30 to 40 intact prehistoric Anasazi pots. This find was regarded as an example of how the drug trade has overlapped with the illegal artifact trade. In the Southwest, artifacts can be looted from remote public lands near impoverished communities with severe drug problems. There is in the region a network of galleries and trading posts that operate on the fringe of illegality. They can launder artifacts for sale to shady private collectors and dealers. With so many archeological sites to victimize, some of the addicts dig for artifacts. They are called
twiggers.
An undercover operation in the late 1990s and early 2000s revealed a network of twiggers linked by a single meth dealer. Twiggers are changing the way sites are looted. Their addiction makes them obsessive, erratic, and often violent. Rather than loot selectively, the way professional artifact thieves will do, selecting the items which will bring the best price, twiggers will strip a site, thus increasing the damage to our cultural legacy and obscuring the archeological record the site might have yielded. Online auction sites provide a market for bits and pieces of artifactal material. Twiggers loot with no knowledge or regard for the objects being taken.
While convictions for drug dealing are common, they are difficult to obtain for artifact theft. Federal agents are thinly spread across the Southwest and proving that an artifact was illegally taken from federally owned land is difficult. Prosecutors will plead out or drop looting charges if they can get a drug conviction. Therefore, there is little additional risk to a narcotics dealer who diversifies into the antiquities trade. Another problem is the difficulty of quantifying or assessing the extent of artifact theft. Some law enforcement personnel see looting as a victimless crime.
The
meth-antiquities connection is currently distinctive to the American Southwest. The looting of archeological sites and the illicit trade in antiquities, however, is a global problem, often involving large criminal organizations which generate millions of dollars of revenue. For additional reading, I recommend
The Medici Conspiracy by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini, published by Public Affairs, 2006.
In the summer of 43 A.D., 40,000 Roman troops were encamped on the coast of Gaul (France), poised to cross the Fretis Gallicum (English Channel) in order to invade the island they called Britannia. The regular legions and auxiliary cohorts were under the command of Aulus Plautius, a skilled and experienced general. The invasion order had been given by the emperor, Claudius, who had never served in the legions, but needed a military conquest to win support for his rule. Claudius was unpopular with many powerful senators because of his physical infirmities and his habit of giving power to Greek secretaries, some of them freedmen, or former slaves.
Many historians regard 43 A.D. as one of the most important dates in British history. It marked significant changes in the way many Britons lived—new architectural forms, roads, bridg
es, aqueducts, styles of dress, language, etc. Yet the invasion almost did not happen. The troops camped on the northern coast of Gaul looked at the rough waters of the Channel and the transport ships they were to board and decided they did not wish to go. Nor could General Plautius or his tribunes persuade them. The mood of the men turned ugly and mutiny threatened.
The armies of the Empire needed to have confidence in the abilities of their generals and of their emperor. One way of instilling confidence was through oratory. Aulus Plautius’s speech fell on deaf ears. And the emperor was not present. Even if he had been there, he had a bad habit of stammering at the wrong moment. To deal with the situation, Claudius sent Narcissus, his most trusted and skilled secretary. When the freedman mounted the tribunal to address the troops, the mood of the soldiers shifted. They began to laugh and raise the cry Io Saturnalia! Narcissus made his speech. The near-mutiny ended and the troops boarded the transports and sailed for Britain.
What changed history was the invocation of the Roman feast of Saturnalia, which began each year on December 17 and continued for seven days until December 23. It was during this time that all sorts of interesting things happened. The most remarkable was the removal of all restrictions on the behavior of slaves. Slaves could insult their masters, sit down at the dining table with them, become intoxicated, or do anything else they wished without fear of beatings, imprisonment, or death, all things which might occur if the slaves engaged in such activities at any other time. Some masters actually changed places with their slaves, serving them food and drink. During the Saturnalia, each household became an imitation republic in which the high offices of state were held by slaves who acted as if they had the powers of consuls, praetors, and tribunes.
The festival was intended to commemorate the rule of Saturn, the god of sowing and livestock raising. It was believed that Saturn had been a long ago king of Italy whose rule was righteous and beneficial. Saturn was credited with teaching early Romans to farm and make laws. His reign was a Golden Age, untouched by war, slavery, or the holding of private property. All things were held in common by happy, healthy, peaceful people. The great king vanished suddenly and the world changed. Feasting and the public pursuit of pleasure for seven days celebrated Saturn’s rule. The liberty given to slaves at this time was intended to be an imitation of the state of society in Saturn’s time. Saturn was sometimes represented by a mock king who presided over the revels.
At the end of the third century, Roman troops stationed on the Danube celebrated the Saturnalia in an interesting way. Thirty days before the festival, a young and handsome soldier was selected by lot to represent Saturn. He was dressed in rich clothes and he was allowed to publically indulge every pleasure. When the thirty days had concluded and the Saturnalia had begun, the soldier was expected to cut his own throat on the alter of the god.
In 303 A.D., the lot fell to a Christian soldier named Dasius. He refused to play the part of the pagan god, even when ordered to do so by his commanding officer. As a result, Dasius was beheaded and came to be regarded as a Christian martyr. This placed the Saturnalia in a grimmer light and raised the possibility that the origins of the festival involved blood sacrifices. This aspect of the Saturnalia became muted as Roman civilization became more urbanized. In the more rural areas, however, such as a military fortification on the Danube, the ancient rites were continued.
The Saturnalia is regarded by some historians as the origin of the carnivals held in modern Italy and other Latin countries. A friend working on an excavation of a Roman fort once sent me Christmas greetings by writing “Io Saturnalia.” The ancient festival and its modern versions are one of the things which link the present with antiquity as the year ends and another begins.
Of all the epic moments in life, college graduation has got to rank in anyone’s top ten. Candy is interviewing and making decisions about where she’ll work. The choices now will either be in China or Thailand. It’s an exciting time. Like this morning I found out that she’s interviewing with a school in a city called Xi’an, the Eternal City. Seems like a perfect fit for an archeologist, the Qin Terra-cotta Warriors and Horses still being unearthed. Her last paper is being turned in today. There is nothing more magical than beginnings. She is surely on her way to an exciting one.
When I was busy raising a family, I turned to them one day and told them that if they woke up and I wasn’t here I’d be on a road trip to Mount Rushmore. I never went. It became a sort of joke for us when I was stressed about something. Mom’s on her way to Mount Rushmore. Well, Candy asked if we might want to take a trip there together this summer and make the trip a reality. We are planning it now. I have a few books we’ve been looking through. Excellent road trip planning books. One is James Dean Died Here: Locations of America's Pop Culture Landmarks, the other is MTV Roadtrips U.S.A [awesome because it includes playlists for your Road Trip]. Only when we search through those books, there really isn’t one that includes Mount Rushmore. Hmmm. Guess it’s not a particularly musical place, not a real MTV venue. And not even kooky enough to be included in the James Dean book. Which leads me to today’s Walk Through History…
Today, in 1804, Lewis and Clark set out from St. Louis on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I looked at their map. Their route will get us from Mount Rushmore onto the Mississipi. So I think our road trip route will be a hybrid of research for my next novel which will lead me to a place I’ve always wanted to see then take us on the historic route of Lewis and Clark.
Some other pretty cool things happened today in history:
Skylab, the first US space station was launched into orbit in 1973. I so wanted to be an astronaut.
And Frank Sinatra died today, in 1998.
Isn't history so much cooler when you have a little of your own behind you? I don't know. Wasn't a real history buff. But I find I like it more and more as I get older.
This is for my little girl Mx who just rowed by the boat house a few days ago and is finishing her first year of college in the Big Apple, and a big Frank Sinatra fan. And, it begins with the cutest squirrels--shake that busy tail!]
Thanksgiving is coming up soon, so I looked around for some appropriate poems for the occasion. I gathered a collection of titles for a quick list and two poems that represent two distinct perspectives on being thankful. Enjoy!
All in a Word
by Aileen Fisher
T for time to be together, turkey, talk, and tangy weather.
H for harvest stored away, home, hearth, and holiday.
A for autumn’s frosty art, and abundance in the heart.
N for neighbors and November, nice things, new things to remember.
K for kitchen, kettles’ croon, kith and kin expected soon.
S for sizzles, sights, and sounds, and something special that abounds.
That spells THANKS-- for joy in living and a jolly good Thanksgiving.
Fisher, Aileen. “All in a Word.” in Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Side by Side Poems to Read Together. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988. (Thank you for your poetry collections, Lee!)
and
Our Daily Bread
by Janet Wong
Nine p.m. we close the store,
wash the counter, mop the floor.
Ten p.m. we finally eat.
Father pulls a milk crate seat
to the table and we pray.
Thank you for this crazy day.
Wong, Janet. A Suitcase of Seaweed, and Other Poems. New York: Margaret K. McElderry, 1996. (Thank you for your poetry, Janet!)
More poetry about giving thanks and Thanksgiving:
Bruchac, Joseph. 1996. The Circle of Thanks. Mahwah, NJ: BridgeWater Books.
Carlstrom, Nancy White. 2002. Thanksgiving Day at Our House: Thanksgiving Poems for the Very Young. New York: Aladdin.
Grimes, Nikki. 2006. Thanks a Million. New York: Amistad.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. 2005. Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts, and More. New York: Greenwillow.
Livingston, Myra Cohn, comp. 1985. Thanksgiving Poems. New York: Holiday House.
Prelutsky, Jack. 1982. It’s Thanksgiving. New York: Greenwillow.
Rosen, Michael, J., ed. 1996. Food Fight: Poets Join the Fight Against Hunger with Poems about Their Favorite Foods. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace.
Swamp, Chief Jake. 1995. Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message. New York: Lee & Low Books.
Wing, Natasha. 2001. The Night Before Thanksgiving. New York: Grosset and Dunlap.
Young, Ed. 1997. Voices of the Heart. New York: Scholastic.
Picture credit: www.lakejunaluska.com
The Hidden Chamber in the Great Sphinx is the first in a series featuring the adventures of American archeologist, Dr. Cliff Post.
Thanks.
Looks good.
I'll check it out.
another Atlanta tutophile
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