Behold! Another woman!

Seax

Seax

I found myself grinning wickedly when I discovered another archaeology article this morning. This one is about an Etruscan grave. When it was opened for the first time, it contained the remains of two people, a lance, a vase and some jewelry.

Yes, they thought. Classic. An Etruscan prince on his own, wide slab with the lance, and his wife on the second, narrower slab. How romatic to have the two of them in a single grave, with all the goods in place. And news of a great Etruscan Prince made the rounds.

Exept it wasn’t. Continue reading

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Behold, they were women!

hand print

Hand print

Imagine the Stone Age. What do you see? Well, the usual picture is men as hunters, inventors, protectors and artists. Because most of the scenes in the cave paintings show animals and hunting, it was thought that the artists were men, as well.

Of course.

And all those handprints found on the walls were made by men, too. And the small ones among them must have belonged to boys being introduced to the art. Makes sense, right? You can probably even see them in your imagination, sitting or standing in the flickering torch light, mixing paint, drawing those animals, being creative. Male heads, shaggy beards, possibly even chanting hunting magic in low, deep voices.

Guess what? Wrong image. Continue reading

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The 52-hertz-whale

Signal of the 52-hertz whale

Signal of the 52-hertz whale

I’m quite excited about finding an article about this whale on Wikipedia. Because this fellow is the inspiration for Pu’ukani’s Song. I don’t remember where I first read about him.

Basically, they call him the loneliest whale in the world. That’s because he sings at a frequency that no other whale uses. He’s unique. And possibly lonely. And still alive, they have found his song under the sea every year.

He lives in the Pacific, travelling as far north as Alaska. And that’s about all we know about him. He might be a fin whale – blue whale hybrid, or  have a malformation. Even so, he has grown and matured, and the voice has lowered slightly. So much for the science.

For me, just the idea of such a giant singing every year, possibly hoping to attract a mate or maybe at least some company is quite inspiring. Letting my mind wander, it goes into imagining a culture of whales, a society with rules, traditions, good people and possibly bad people. All of it under water, dominated by the environment, floating, with sounds that echo through the vast blue.

That’s what reading Wikipedia can do for me. What inspiration did you find on Wikipedia?

Image Source: Wikipedia, owner: NOAA

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Did Wild Horses Survive in America, after all? Probably not.

Horse Skeleton

Skeleton of an Arabian Horse *

Horses can make headlines. Even dead ones!

Today, I found an article that is a few months old. It’s about the discovery of the skeletons of two horses and one donkey in California, obviously in ritual burial. Radio carbon dating puts the death of the horses sometime between 1625 and 1705 which is about 50 years before Spaniards created the first missions in California.

And of course, now people are speculating that wild horses never went extinct in the Americas, after all. What if they survived in small pockets? Continue reading

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Winter Baby

Winter Baby

Winter Baby

Here I give you my new flash fiction tale, Winter Baby. Never mind the cryptic list at the top, that’s for the anthology we’re building. In fact, you can follow the link at the bottom to read more of the stories.

Genre: Fantasy
Author: Hannah Steenbock (which is a pen name)
eBook: Yes
Dedication: To all those school horses that have born me in my lessons Continue reading

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Whales and Poison

Blue whales

Blue whales on a Faroer Stamp

Okay, this story is a little gross. Or maybe a lot. But because it’s about whales, I really have to share it here.

It’s also about earwax. In the ear tubes of blue whales. Ugh.

But you see, that ear plug, as the scientists call it, is deposited throughout a whale’s life. And it faithfully reflects the hormones, nutrients and poisons such a whale has coursing through its body throughout its entire life. And that’s quite a record, after all, those giants can live for decades.

And now, they have analysed the ear plug of a fairly young whale that was washed ashore after being killed by a ship stike (Luahine, anyone?). And what they found was … well, is a little shocking for me. Continue reading

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Call for Antagonists

Dragon Coat of Arms

Dragon Coat of Arms *

I readily admit it: I have a hard time scheming. I am not a girl for intrigue. I could never hurt someone intentionally. And that makes it a bit more difficult for me to develop a credible antagonist.

Yet the antagonist carries the story for a large part. He or she (or even it!) creates the obstacles for our heroes, the challenges they need to grow into their heroism. We need antagonists in our stories, badly. Continue reading

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Medieval Life … Includes Roundworm

Richard III

Richard III

As you all know, I write predominately fantasy. What you may not know is that I actually studied archaeology for a couple of years. So I have a good idea of how life really was back in those middle ages or earlier. And let me tell you – I’m quite happy I’m living in the 21st century.

Here’s one reason why:

New Research Shows That Richard III Suffered from Roundworm Infection

Continue reading

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Archaeology Tidbit – Ancient Meterorite Beads

The other day, I found some fun news on Science Daily, about beads created in Ancient Egypt. They were made from iron, and now scientists proved that they were actually hammered out and then rolled from meteorite material.

How cool is that?

Even more interesting is the fact that someone did this *before* smithing had even been invented – people were not using Earthen iron ore until millenia later. Who figured out how to do that? Who discovered that this strange stuff that fell from the sky could be hammered into shape? Continue reading

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Back after a Long Break

Pu'ukani's Song

Pu’ukani’s Song

I’ve been away from this blog for a long time. That’s because I have been focusing on my other life as coach and therapist and putting in a lot of work in my website and offers. It’s fun to open up internationally and creating wonderful programs for people who want to change their lives.

But it meant that I didn’t have time, nor the space in my head to keep writing blogposts here. And I apologize for every time you went to take a look and didn’t find anything new. Of course, I also moved the blog to my own domain …hopefully, you’ll find me here. I’ll drop hints on my old blog location, as well. Continue reading

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