Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News

~ John W. Howell
credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

A team of student archaeologists in France was surprised while working on a site dating to Gaulic times.

The excavations, carried out under the direction of Guillaume Blondel, director of the municipal archaeological service of the city of Eu, delivered, among other things, a moving and very special testimony from the past.

Located in a previously investigated section of the site, a message was discovered in a small glass bottle from the 19th century accompanied by two coins: a “time capsule” buried almost 200 years ago, a statement from the service read.

“P. J. Féret, a native of Dieppe and member of various intellectual societies, excavated here in January 1825. He continues his investigations in this vast area known as the Cité de Limes or Caesar’s Camp.”

The message in a bottle had been carefully placed in a ceramic pot dating to a much earlier century so that future archaeologists would be sure to find it.

“It was an absolutely magic moment,” Mr. Blondel told the BBC. “We knew there had been excavations here in the past, but to find this message from 200 years ago… it was a total surprise.”

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

“Sometimes you see these time capsules left behind by carpenters when they build houses. But it’s infrequent in archaeology. Most archaeologists prefer to think that there won’t be anyone coming after them because they’ve done all the work!”

Local archives indeed record P. J. Féret in the area as a historical excavator when the letter was dated.

credit – Guillaume Blondel, Archaeological Service of the City of Eu

The work was funded and carried out in partnership with the Regional Archaeology Service to preserve archaeological sites endangered by the coastline’s decline. Already a part of the ‘oppidum’ or fortified Gaulic camp, has fallen away with the crumbling of the coastal hillside on which it was perched.

The Gauls were a series of interconnected feudal (at best) and tribal (at worst) societies that shared societal, cultural, and warrior practices and who inhabited most of central and western Europe during the time of the Roman Republic.

Gaius Julius Caesar waged a campaign to pacify Gaul, hence the name “Caesar’s Camp,” which brought Spain, France, and Belgium under Roman control.

The good news in this story is that the past has been preserved to be studied today. Today’s JohnKu talks about history. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

History by John W. Howell © 2024

The past can teach us,

Many lessons about now . . .

If we want to learn.

68 thoughts on “Friday JohnKu – AKA – TGIF – Fri-Yay/Good News”

  3. I have a book, “Testimony of the Spade”, that almost changed my mind about my history research direction. It shows just how long man has looked back to find his history.

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  6. That’s fascinating, that a time capsule was left by an archeologist that long ago. Yes, studying history can bring out lessons that can be applied to the present time, if one listens to the lessons.

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  14. What pretty handwriting on that note! Sad to say, handwriting is becoming a long-lost art (my nuns would be appalled and so am I!). What a find, too! There’s something awfully special about leaving a remnant behind us … and in somebody finding that!

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  16. That is a pretty interesting discovery. On a related note, I just bought two comic books in Sweden featuring Gaulic warriors during the Julius Ceasars campaign in Gaul. The comic book series is named Asterix (Asterix and Obelix). Have you heard of this comic book series?

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      1. I have to admit I still read comic books at my advanced age. However, that is because I read the French Belgian comic books (Bande-Dessiné), and those are great for both kids and adults. They are the most popular comic books in the world (Asterix alone sold 400 million copies) and Asterix has also been translated into more than a 100 languages including Swedish. You never know, you might like the Bande Dessiné style (Asterix, Tintin, Spirou, etc) of comics even if you don’t like Marvel stuff.

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        2. Some of them like the Asterix series are educational. Many people in Europe claim that they learned all the Roman, Gaulish and Celtic history they know from Asterix. Those people may not know a lot of history but I think Asterix may help spark an interest in history.

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  17. I always love your Friday posts, John, because they are so hopeful and show the best in humanity. Thank you for sharing — and adding your perfect JohnKu.

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  22. A very neat report, John.

    A message in a bottle, love it!

    Not enough people enjoy history, so they don’t learn what. not to repeat. Many young have only a fuzzy at best knowledge of WWII.

    Well, your JohnKu says it. Thank you!

    🐖 🐂 🐖 🐂

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