Oxford. My what delightful memories. Not at all the stuffy academic town you might think, it is a pleasant place to visit. My memories include the river with the pretty thatched building beside it, the old sheep shop (of Alice in Wonderland fame!) and of course, the remains of castles (three of them) scattered about the city. I never knew about the weapons museum, the "Pit Rivers Museum". The museum was founded in 1884 when General Pitt Rivers gave a collection of more than 18,000 artefacts to the University of Oxford.
Its collections include 150 objects collected on Captain Cook's second voyage to the South Pacific. The battle shield above is from Papua New Guinea.
(It caught my eye because of the mask in the centre of the shield....it is a spitting image of the comic book character "Ghost Who Walks" from my childhood. Anybody remember the comic? It was one of my favorites since the lead character did not have super powers, but, like the Batman, did it all on his own. But I digress....)
That shield is remenicent of the Roman Scutum in shape, but is actually a fairly light framework of willow wood, with cowhide stretched over it. I doubt it would stop many missiles, but might be useful enough against rocks and sticks, sort of like a modern riot guard's shield. I have seen a mannequin wearing Papaua armour....it is wicker armour, with a high collar to prevent rocks flung from your own side (from behind you) from braining you! Must have been an interesting time!
So, that gives me yet another reason to visit the auld city of Oxford.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/4888944.stm
3 comments:
COOL! I never knew there were artifacts from Captain Cook's ship on display anywhere.
Incidentally, Batman has always been my favorite superhero because - aside from living in a cave, of course - he did everything on his own.
Oh, and here is the link to the site of the Pitt Rivers Museum.
http://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/
The Phantom? Of course I remember the Phantom. Skull-ring scars on the bad guys. Great character -- the only problem was that he came paired with Mandrake the Magician in syndication, so if you wanted one of them in your daily you had to put up with the other. Never did like Mandrake....
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