News

Dear BAR,

It is obvious from your article on the Gnostic Gospel known as Secret Mark (BAR Nov/Dec 2009) that the less a non-archaeologist knows about an ancient artifact the more certain he is that his particular theory about it is correct. This is why I am absolutely positive my interpretation of the mysterious ancient coin (BAR Mar/Apr 2010 pg. 33) is accurate.
The reverse side of the coin is seen (the other side is called the ‘forward’) and the upper inscription (the one above the lower one) begins with a backward sigma. It is obvious that the engraver forgot you’re supposed to carve the die backwards to make the letter come out forwards when the coin is stamped. But, since he was an ancient government employee (paid by the hour and not by the job), he just started over with a crude romanized S that resembles a 5. This letter proves he was a Graeco-Roman, from the time when flamingo dancing was invented by a Tarshishian named Jose Graeco, and they had that wussy style of wrestling where you roll around on a comfy mattress (totally unlike the rad cage matches in the modern WWE.) The engraver undoubtedly expected this romanized S to explain why he messed up the Greek sigma. He obviously wrote Romano-Graecan better than he wrote Graeco-Roman.
Next come a Greek upsilon and a correctly-done sigma. Everything on ancient coins was abbreviated; I mean, if they had let those Cast Iron Age III kings ramble on, the coins would have been as big as a millstone (BAR May 2003) These letters form the abbreviation sus which is short for the Latin phrase sustulī ancoram which means ‘weigh.’ The romanized alpha and rho form the abbreviation AR for argentum (silver) and the next figure is clearly a ‘5.’ (If the engraver used a character that looked like a 5 for an S, it’s quite appropriate that he would use a character that looked like an S for a 5. This is the earliest known use of an Arabic numeral, and I should clearly get a big international prize of some kind for identifying it.) Sus AR 5 therefore means ‘it weighs 5 in silver.’
The mysterious icon in the center of the coin is quite clearly a steaming ox-dropping, meaning that this coin is worth the same in silver as a Phoenecian ‘ox of copper’ (a copper ingot, shaped like an ox-hide, used as a coin. Coin-operated beverage machines would never have been invented if the Phoenician ox-hide-shaped coins had caught on with the ancient public.)
The romanized beta, alpha and rho form the abbreviation BAR, which is short for Bar Kazbah, a Graeco-Roman tavern in what is modern Morocco, where such coins could be won in a non-Phoenician-coin-operated Graeco-Roman skill game called Whack-A-Mōlēs, meaning 'whack a whole population,' which the Romans were good at.
(And by the way, my further investigation reveals that the term 'Secret Mark' actually refers to the half-moon symbol carved by cognoscenti in doors to their Secret Johns because they didn’t want commoners knowing what the little buildings were, and using them. Just thought you’d like to know.)
Non-Archaeologically Yours,
Richard Alan Young
Reeds Spring, Missouri

Richard’s Peruvian grandson Gabriel Dela Torre leads the Carnaval parade from 19th Century Alta Perú in which outlandish costumes suggest that the ruling military junta soldiers are evil clowns (Bozo-style wigs) and possibly burning in Hell (orange metal flames on the hats of the officers in orange metal capes.)

RICHARD”S PERUVIAN GRANDKIDS ARE BACK IN THE U.S.!

You may recall that last year Richard met and worked with twenty-one Peruvian folkdancers from the group Jallmay, out of Lima, Peru, during Silver Dollar City’s WorldFest. Most of the incredibly cute and talented kids were between the ages of 14 (Flavio) and 20 (Miguel.) Richard gets lots of e-mail from his nietos y nietas (grandsons and –daughters) and he has good news for those of you who live within a hundred-mile radius of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Jallmay will be performing at Dollywood during the last week in March and most of April! Unfortunately, Richard can’t get off work at Silver Dollar City, so he can’t visit them. But if you want to be amazed and amused, go to Dollywood during their Festival of Nations (http://www.dollywood.com/festival-q1-Festival_of_Nations_.aspx.

Dates March 27 - April 26.)

Here’s how the act is described on the Dollywood website: “Jallmay showcases Peru's South American rhythms, from ancient mountain civilizations to modern street beats, created by 28 dancers and musicians.” Catch the Jallmay show! And (if you speak Spanish) tell ‘em “Tiny sent you!”

MARCH IS A GREAT MONTH FOR A GREAT FAMILY

Two great friends and humanitarians are celebrating in March. Jon Provost, star of the TV show “Lassie,” had his birthday March 12th, and he and his wife, famous Hollywood historian and writer Laurie Jacobson, celebrate their anniversary March 28. If you’ve never read their co-written autobiography of Jon, called “Timmy’s In The Well,” be sure to get a copy. It’s a fascinating read, and Jon doesn’t hold anything back!

Richard had the priviledge of working with Mr. Provost at Silver Dollar City in fall of 2008, and appreciated getting the Christmas card from two folks he admires.

Our friend Waroo prepares to perform on his didgeridoo with members of the Homestead Pickers at Silver Dollar City. This shows his face paint and body paint, without which he will not sing or dance his traditional art. Even his hands are painted in a design that never varies. We assume that the designs represent the history of his tribal group, and that their meaning is secret, as this has been said by other Aboriginals we have met.

AN INSULT TO OUR FRIENDS

As storytellers, we are very careful to respect the cultures from which our stories come. We will not tell, for example, any American Indian story we’ve heard if it is a sacred story (which we would not have the right to tell) or if we do not have the permission of the teller from whom we heard the story. Sensitivity to and respect for other cultures is a requirement in the performing arts. Our sensitivity was offended by a pair of Russian ice dancers.

We watched with interest the Vancouver Olympics, where at this year’s ice dancing competition the theme was world folk dance. We were insulted when we watched the Russian ice dancing team of Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin perform a crude, stereotyped, and totally wrong-minded interpretation of an imagined (certainly not an authentic) Australian Aboriginal folk dance.

We are honored to know Australian Aboriginal dancers personally. Two of our international friends are Ngilan, a native English-speaking Aboriginal who dances to honor and teach his culture in the city, and Waroo, a native Aboriginal-speaker who dances as part of his religious traditions*. Both have often toured the U. S. with Aubrey and Martin Beggs, “The Beggs Brothers, Australia’s Good-Time Band,” [see http://www.lynnejames.com.au and click on “Aubrey & Martin”] performing their native dance for school students in the Midwest over a period of many years. We have seen and respectfully enjoyed dances done by our friends.

Although there are comic dance moves done in some Aboriginal dances, most dances are solemn and deeply meaningful, illustrating the emu hunt and other esentially spiritual activities. Audiences at Silver Dollar City, who whooped, clapped and cheered during comic and athletic Russian folk dances, always grew dead quiet as Waroo or Ngilan danced, drawn into the spiritualism of the dance. The Russian Olympic ice-dance routine in Vancouver bore no resemblance to any Aboriginal dance we’ve ever seen.

The Domnina/Shabalin routine, upon which they say they did research, was first performed in January at the European Championships and drew criticism at the time. The pair toned down their outlandish costumes (designed in part to represent body paint) and did away with their blackface! for Vancouver. But, according to the Olympic commentators, the dance moves we saw had remained unchanged.

The dance was a hodge-podge of offensive stereotyped images including Shabalin pulling Domnina around by the hair (as imagined by 1920’s silent-movie makers as a cave man behavior that would offend even the Geico ad cavemen), making wild facial expressions (perhaps from the Pacific Islander war dance tradition, but not from Aboriginal dance), flapping the closed hand over the mouth (as in 1920’s movie-maker tradition of fake American Indian war dance chanting…and besides, the wavering modern ‘pow-wow** call’ heard at Oklahoma pan-tribal pow-wows is made with the tongue and glottis, not with the hand over the mouth), and a ludicrous nose-rubbing kiss at the end (as imagined by 1920’s fictional movie-makers after the unexpected success of the accurate documentary film “Nanook of the North.”)

Mostly, the dance implied that Aboriginal Australians were a crude, uncultured, violent and unartistic people, non of which is true. Apparently the only research the Russian pair did was to watch racially-offensive old silent movies!

The immediate reaction to the routine was a marked lack of applause from the audience. (The next reaction I observed was Judy yelling at the TV screen.) The next reaction was the pair dropping from first to third place. This last fact alone should be enough to show that the routine was very ill-advised and crudely realized.

Our dear friend Martin Beggs wrote: “some of our Aboriginal friends thought the dancers were poking fun at them. The elders, on the other hand, who are more sensitive to their culture, were (‘upset’ is maybe too strong a word) put out that this was supposed to be a representation of Native Australian Culture. It is hard enough to educate the general world public about 40,000 years or more of [Aboriginal People’s] unbroken association with this country [Australia], but then this comes along…” But then he added, good-naturedly, “…the rubbing of the noses at the end gave us all a big laugh. (I guess they got their Aussie, Kiwi and Eskimo customs mixed up a bit!)” [The parentheses are Martin’s; I added the bracketted words.] Martin ended with: “We are a pretty laid back mob, so we didn’t take it too seriously.”

NOTES: *We respect our friends’ privacy, and mention here only their traditional names.
**pow-wow: a pau-wau is a healing [Algonquin] or decision-making [Massachusset] ceremony of Northeastern American Indian tribes, and many tribes take offense at its generalized use to mean any Indian dance. We agree with them. However, since World War II, Oklahoma has hosted pan-tribal ceremonials which represent many cultures (not just one nation, as a true pau-wau would,) and the 63 (yes, 63!) Indian tribes living in Oklahoma have settled on the now-English word “pow-wow” to describe their pan-tribal gatherings. As descendants of Oklahoma Indians (Judy is Chickasaw, Richard is Seneca of Sandusky) we use this term only as a modern post-WWII English word and only to represent the pan-Indian pow-wow movement of Oklahoma.

FURTHERMORE: Aubrey and Martin Beggs will be in the United States again April 2 until May 16, touring schools in the Midwest. We hope that you, Dear Reader, are fortunate enough to have kids in school who get to see their educational and entertaining performances.

AND: Internationally, the best known and most respected Aboriginal dancer is David Gulpilil (who was originally known as David Gumpilil, a mishearing of his name) who out-danced his own father as a teenager to become the head ceremonial dancer of his People in Arnhem’s Land, Australia, back in the late 1960’s. See http://www.gulpilil.com He danced and starred in the film “Walkabout” when he was only 15 and rocketted to international fame. Rent the movie to see him dance as a teenager. Check its rating before you show it at home, it was originally rated M.

BASS REEVES WILL RIDE AGAIN!

Since 1989, Judy and Richard have been researching the life of amazing African-American U.S. Deputy Marshal Bass Reeves. (This is long before most researchers entered the field.) We’ve been telling stories about Bass (and have even had to stop telling one that turned out to be trumped-up legend, apparently devised by an other-wise respectable researcher for an article in a western magazine) for over 21 years. We’re pleased to note that a statue of Bass, riding the trail with his loyal tracking dog, is scheduled to be erected in 2011 (assuming funds are raised and bronze casting is successful.)

January of 2010 was the 100th anniversary of Bass’s death, and there is renewed interest in his role in Fort Smith’s (and America’s) history. The Bass Reeves Legacy Monument will be erected in Ross Pendergraft Park near the corner of Garrison Avenue (the old main street of historic Fort Smith, named for the fort’s garrison) and Third Street. The statue is commissioned to Harold T. Holden, noted Western sculptor from Oklahoma. While we personally don’t think the model of the statue looks like Bass (the statue has a Mexican-style mustachio that sticks out at the sides like a character in Lonesome Dove; Bass’s moustache was very close to his face. There are three known photos of Bass and none have the mustachio seen in the sketch and on the model), we are pleased that any honor is being bestowed upon his memory.

If you would like to donate to the statue project, or order prints of the sketch or marquettes of the statue model, write to The Bass Reeves Legacy Initiative, 4300 Rogers Ave., Suite 20, #208, Fort Smith, AR 72903. We quote, and agree with, the Legacy’s brochure when it states, “Many scholars consider Reeves to be the most outstanding frontier hero in Unites States history.”

CHERRY CHALLENGERS FALL
IN OLD-LIMPIC TASTE TESTS!

That’s right, the old limping guy continues to refine the search for the best cherry beverage in the world. To honor the Vancouver Olympics, Richard taste-tested side-by-side three old-limping metal (can) contenders. He drank them very cold and very fast, simulating Olympic conditions.

FLAVH20: I have no idea how to pronounce the name of this flavored water; according to their website, the Flav part rhymes with ‘save.’ The rest? Your guess is as good as mine. It’s fairly new on the market from Najaro Inc, Walnut, CA 91789 and www.flavh2o.com. The way-cool-looking but dumbly-named “cottle” (that’s what they call their “plastic can”) says “Aerated Flavored Water Wild Cherry Flavh2o Refreshing Water with a Fruity Splash!” We found one lonely cottle in a Shell station in McAlester, Oklahoma. (We boycott Shell’s all-Arabian gasoline, but like the convenience items at the store in question.) I still rate it low, number 5 all-time.

BLUE SKY Certified Organic Soda BLACK CHERRY CHERISH from Santa Fe, New Mexico (www.blueskysoda.com) is excellent. It has a pale color, but comes in a can so you don’t normally see that fact. It has all-natural flavors, no artificial colors, no preservatives, no caffeine, very low sodium, it’s GMO free, and has no High Fructose Corn Syrup or HFCS. It is sweetened with organic cane sugar. I rate it a new number 4. I bought it at Ozark Natural foods in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

I tested the cherry creme soda with the bearded guy on the label again (got it at Tiger Mart in Burleson, Texas)…tastes OK but why dilute cherry with creme soda? The three top drinks in my rating system are still:
NUMBER 3 Deerfield Trading Company Black Cherry Soda from Walgreen’s,
NUMBER 2 Hank’s Wishniak Black Cherry Soda found only up North, and…

NUMBER ONE is still LAUTENBACH’S Orchard Country of Door County SWEET CHERRY SPUMANTE, a sparkling non-alcoholic juice drink (the sparkling makes it by definition a soda, purists!), from Lautenbach’s Orchard Country, Inc., 9197 Hwy 42, Fish Creek WI 54212; e-mail to orchardcountry@dcwis.com