[Artemisia] worst farm jobs

[Brian Johnson]

Kim Rule <kimrule at cableone.net> wrote:     Brynki said:
Very true. I've actually always thought it would be kind of kuhl to
have a "truly" period encampment on a site with permanent structures. I
have seen pictures from some living history groups that have done that
and then go through the whole process of slaughter to table with a pig

yumitori said:
On another list perhaps.

Time to move on to more on-topic subjects, I think.

-- 
Ron/yumitori


In order to make this related to medieval topics...it seems to me that I
read somewhere about how in a certain Nordic country people were fond of
building 2 story houses. The farm animals lived in the bottom half,
while the people lived in the top. Seems to me that was a way to take
advantage of the warming effects of methane gas! Not sure where I read
it, but it does make sense, especially in very cold climates. Having
lived in an apartment attached to a horse barn, I can attest the warmth
of said gasses!!! Also the stench of such! Must have been very
aromatic housing...

Una
  Not so sure that it was the methane that they used as much as it was that they learned that warm air rises and the heat from the animals would drift upwards inside the building and provide heat.  I know that they did something on Greenland and possibly Iceland that I find rather amazing.  Both areas had "hot pots" or natural hot springs.  They either built near or piped hot water into their dwellings to provide heat for their homes.  I doubt that it was as elaborate as the under-floor heating that we can find in modern dwellings but, to me, it is just further proof that perhaps some of the things that we wonder about may have been just as simple or a little higher tech than what we give them credit for.  I have read in numerous books that there were a lot of arts that the Vikings and other cultures had that we don't understand to this day.
   
  As an example, the torcs of twisted gold wire that have been found in the grave finds.  After measuring the wires that incorporate these works of art, it was found that every wire was so near in diameter to every other wire that it was amazing.  Yes, I know that they drew wire through a hole made in metal but, if you think about it, each time you draw wire through, a residue of the material you are using is left inside the draw holes.  This would make the wire begin to thin, especially with a soft metal like gold.  This wasn't found so much with the wires in the torcs.  They were found to be very uniform in size and diameter.  To this day, with their tools, we can not reproduce one of those torcs.
   
  As a second example, what we now call damascus.  To this day, we don't understand how they did it with the technology that they had.  Also, we don't understand how they did some of the things that they did that we still can't reproduce even to this day.
   
  Brynki