THE BATTLE OF RUSPINA, J. CAESAR VERSUS T. LABIENUS

It's been an unusually cold winter in Barcelona, ​​so much so that I don't feel like going out to enjoy the city.

The forecast for this week is for more cold and rain and The Grandma has decided to light the fireplace and sit on the sofa doing nothing and resting while reading about the Battle of Ruspina, a historical event that happened on a day like today in the year 46 BC.

The Battle of Ruspina was fought on 4 January 46 BC in the Roman province of Africa, between the Republican forces of the Optimates and forces loyal to Julius Caesar. The Republican army was commanded by Titus Labienus, Caesar's former lieutenant during the Gallic Wars who had defected to the Republican side at the beginning of the civil war.

Julius Caesar entered Lilybaeum in Sicily on 17 December 47 BC and assembled an army there to defeat the Optimates in Africa. He set sail on 25 December, but his limited intelligence about a proper landing site and winds scattered his fleet. He had six legions and 2,000 cavalry but only the bare necessity of supplies due to a lack of shipping.

Caesar landed near Hadrumentum with 3,500 legionaries and 150 cavalry. The city's garrison refused to surrender and Caesar set up camp at Ruspina. On 1 January 46 BC, he arrived at Leptis where he was reinforced by some of his scattered troops (elements of fifth and the tenth legions). The next day several more reinforcements arrived at Ruspina. He left six cohorts to hold Leptis and marched back to Ruspina. 

On 4 January, Caesar went off on a foraging mission, initially with thirty cohorts. The Optimates were near and Caesar sent for his 400 cavalry and 150 archers as well. He then conducted a reconnaissance.

Titus Labienus commanded the Optimate force, which included many infantrymen, 8,000 Numidian cavalry and 1,600 Gallic and Germanic cavalry. Caesar deployed his army in one line to prevent envelopment, with his archers up front and the cavalry on the wings. Labienus's cavalry pushed back Caesar's cavalry and surrounded the Caesarian army. In the center, the Numidian light infantry launched projectiles at the Caesarian legionaries, staying out of the Caesarians's reach.

Caesar's legions redeployed into a circle to face attacks from all sides. The Numidian light infantry bombarded the legionaries with missiles. Caesar's legionaries threw their pila at the enemy in return, but were ineffective.

Titus Labienus rode up to the front rank of Caesar's troops, coming very near in order to taunt the enemy troops. A veteran of the Tenth Legion approached Labienus, who recognized him. The veteran threw his pilum at Labienus's horse, wounding it. That'll teach you Labienus, that a soldier of the Tenth is attacking you, the veteran growled, shaming Labienus in front of his own men. Some men however began to panic. An aquilifer attempted to flee but Caesar grabbed the man, spun him around and shouted the enemy are over there!

Caesar broadened the length of his line and made every other cohort turn around, so the standards would be facing the Numidian cavalry in the Romans' rear and the other cohorts the Numidian light infantry to the front. The legionaries charged and threw their pila, scattering the Optimates infantry and cavalry. They pursued their enemy for a short distance, and then began to march back to camp. However Marcus Petreius and Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso appeared with 1,600 Numidian cavalry and a large number of light infantry who harassed Caesar's legionaries as they retreated. Caesar readied his army for combat and drove the Optimates forces back. Petreius was wounded at this point. Exhausted, Caesar moved back to camp.

Caesar had failed in his initial goal of gaining supplies for his army. However, his army remained intact; Caesar fortified his camp at Ruspina and made light infantrymen out of his sailors. His craftsmen produced projectiles and Caesar sent messages to bring up grain and other supplies. Metellus Scipio joined forces with Labienus and Petreius and they set up camp three miles from Caesar's.

More information: INISEG

Fortune, which has a great deal of power 
in other matters but especially in war, 
can bring about great changes in a situation 
through very slight forces.

Julius Caesar

'LAELIUS DE AMICITIA', MARCUS T. CICERO'S MASTERPIECE

The world is going downhill and we are passive spectators of this daily loss of humanity, ethics and good nature.

Anything goes to satisfy the desires and whims of a very small percentage of society that is voracious, selfish and greedy and uses all the power it has to repress and stifle what it does not like.

These are not good times for critical thinking, or even for thinking itself. Karl Popper's paradox becomes more evident every day: if a society is infinitely tolerant, its capacity to be tolerant will eventually be reduced or destroyed by the intolerant, therefore, paradoxically as it may seem, to maintain a tolerant society, society must be intolerant of intolerance. 

Intolerance is ignorance and in times when we have more technology at our disposal than ever, there are more communication problems; in a time when we can access more information than ever, we are more uninformed because we cannot give veracity to anything that comes to us through media that are totally servile to the power that subsidizes them.

We do not know what this new year will bring us, but nothing seems to think that we are in a position to be able to end the armed conflicts that plague the planet, among other things, because it is important that they exist and that they increase since they are the business of a few that costs the lives of many of us.

The history of humanity has always had turbulent times and now we are in a very uncertain and disappointing time, but humanity itself, when it has found itself in this dead end, has looked back many times and has sought inspiration and answers in the classics.

On a day like today in 106 BC, Marcus Tullius Cicero was born, Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher and Academic Skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the establishment of the Roman Empire, one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists who wrote a masterpiece called Laelius De Amicitia, a treatise on friendship that is always required reading.

The Grandma is a lover of Latin culture and language ​​and this is one of her favourite works.

Laelius de Amicitia (or simply De Amicitia) is a treatise on friendship (amicitia) by the Roman statesman and author Marcus Tullius Cicero, written in 44 BC.

The work is written as a dialogue between prominent figures of the Middle Roman Republic and is set after the death of the younger Scipio Africanus (otherwise known as Scipio Aemilianus, Scipio Africanus Minor or Scipio the Younger) in 129 BC. The interlocutors of the dialogue chosen by Cicero are Gaius Laelius, a close friend of the late statesman, and Laelius's two sons-in-law, Gaius Fannius, and Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Cicero in his youth knew Scaevola and states that Scaevola described to him the substance of the conversation on Friendship which he and Fannius had held with Laelius a few days after the death of Scipio.

De Amicitia is addressed to Atticus, who, as Cicero tells him in his dedication, could not fail to discover his own portrait in the study of a perfect friend.

In the dialogue Fannius, the historian, and Mucius Scaevola, the Augur, both sons-in-law of Laelius, pay him a visit immediately after the sudden and suspicious death of Scipio Africanus.

The loss which Laelius had thus sustained leads to a eulogy on the virtues of the departed hero, and to a discussion on the nature of their friendship.

Many of the sentiments which Laelius utters are declared by Scaevola to have originally flowed from Scipio, with whom the nature and laws of friendship formed a favourite topic of discourse.

But I must at the very beginning lay down this principle -friendship can only exist between good men. We mean then by the "good" those whose actions and lives leave no question as to their honour, purity, equity, and liberality; who are free from greed, lust, and violence; and who have the courage of their convictions.

More information: Medium

The rule of friendship means there should be 
mutual sympathy between them, 
each supplying what the other lacks 
and trying to benefit the other, 
always using friendly and sincere words.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

MAIS QUAND ON VIT TROP BEAU, TROP FORT...

Une photo, une date
C'est à n'y pas croire
C'était pourtant hier, mentirait ma mémoire
Et ces visages d'enfants, et le mien dans ce miroir

Oh, c'est pas pour me plaindre, ça vous n'avez rien à craindre
La vie m'a tellement gâtée, j'ai plutôt du mal à l'éteindre
Ô mon Dieu, j'ai eu ma part
Et bien plus à tant d'égards

Mais quand on vit trop beau, trop fort, on en oublie le temps qui passe
Comme on perd un peu le nord au milieu de trop vastes espaces
À peine le temps de s'y faire, à peine on doit laisser la place
Ô si je pouvais

Encore un soir, encore une heure
Encore une larme de bonheur
Une faveur comme une fleur
Un souffle, une erreur
Un peu de nous, un rien de tout
Pour tout se dire encore ou bien se taire
En regards, juste un report
À peine encore, même s'il est tard

J'ai jamais rien demandé, ça c'est pas la mer à boire
Allez, face à l'éternité, ça va même pas se voir
Ça restera entre nous, ô juste un léger retard

Y'en a tant qui tuent le temps
Tant et tant qui le perdent ou le passent
Tant qui se mentent inventent en les rêvant
Des instants de grâce
Ô je donne ma place au paradis
Si l'on m'oublie sur Terre
Encore hier

Encore un soir, encore une heure
Encore une larme de bonheur
Une faveur comme une fleur
Un souffle, une erreur
Un peu de nous, un rien de tout
Pour tout se dire encore ou bien se taire
En regards, juste un report
À peine encore, je sais, il est tard

C'est pas grand-chose, rien qu'une pause
Que le temps, les horloges se reposent
Et caresser juste un baiser, un baiser

Encore un soir, encore une heure
Un peu de nous, un rien de tout
Un soir

A photo, a date
It's unbelievable
Yet it was yesterday, my memory would lie
And those children's faces, and mine in that mirror

Oh, I'm not complaining, you have nothing to fear
Life has spoiled me so much, I find it hard to let go
Oh my God, I've had my share
And so much more in so many ways

But when life is too beautiful, too intense, you forget the passing of time
Like losing your bearings in the middle of vast spaces
Barely time to adjust, barely having to make way
Oh, if only I could

One more evening, one more hour
One more tear of happiness
A favor like a flower
A breath, a mistake
A little bit of us, a tiny bit of everything
To say everything again or to remain silent
In glances, just a postponement
Barely more, even if it's late

I never asked for anything, it's not the end of the world
Come on, faced with eternity, it won't even be noticeable
It'll stay between us, oh, just a slight delay

So many kill time
So many lose it or pass it by
So many lie to themselves, inventing them while dreaming
Moments of grace
Oh, I give my place to paradise
If I'm forgotten on Earth
Just yesterday

One more evening, one more hour
One more tear of happiness
A favor like a flower
A breath, a mistake
A little bit of us, a tiny bit of everything
To say everything again or to remain silent
In glances, just a postponement
Barely again, I know, it's late

It's not much, just a pause
Let time, the clocks rest
And caress just a kiss, a kiss

One more evening, one more hour
A little bit of us, a tiny bit of everything
One evening

 

C'est pas grand-chose, rien qu'une pause
Que le temps, les horloges se reposent
Et caresser juste un baiser, un baiser.

It's not much, just a pause
Let time, the clocks rest
And caress just a kiss, a kiss.

Céline Dion  

FIRST SWIM OF THE YEAR IN BARCELONETA WITH CNAB

The Grandma is a woman of traditions and today is January 1st. What can you do on a day like today year after year? 

 

You can listen to the Neujahrskonzert der Wiener Philharmoniker, watch the Garmisch-Partenkirchen ski jumping competition or swim on Sant Sebastià beach in Barcelona thanks to the Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta. This is the activity chosen by her. She put on her swimsuit, took the bus and headed to Barceloneta ready to spend a morning swimming in a temperature in the city that was around 10ºC, a much lower temperature in the water. But popular traditions were born for this, to be practiced year after year by different generations.

Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta (CNAB) is a Catalan professional water polo club from Barcelona, established in 1913.

The club is the result of the merge of Club Natació Atlètic, founded in 1913, and Barceloneta Amateur Club, founded in 1929 and renamed later on as Club Natació Atlètic-Barceloneta (CNAB). The club is located in the coastline neighbourhood of Barceloneta.

Atlètic-Barceloneta is one of the most successful water polo clubs in Europe, having won 23 league titles, 19 national cups and 15 national super cups. The team has also won the LEN Champions League in 2014.

La Barceloneta is a neighbourhood in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona, Catalonia. The neighborhood was built in the 18th century for the residents of the Ribera neighbourhood who had been displaced by the construction of the Ciutadella of Barcelona. The neighbourhood has a triangular shape, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the Moll d'Espanya of Port Vell, and the El Born neighbourhood. This neighbourhood has its own flag and metro stop on the Barcelona Metro line 4. 

The neighbourhood can also be explored by taking Las Gorondrinas, which depart from the front port of the Columbus monument. This way, one can see the coastal strip, but the real charm of this neighbourhood lies in wandering through its narrow streets and alleys. Torre Sant Sebastià is the terminus of the Port Vell Aerial Tramway; opened in 1931, it connects La Barceloneta with Montjuïc across Port Vell.

La Barceloneta is known for its sandy beaches and its many restaurants and nightclubs along the boardwalk. Over the past several years, the quality of the sand on the beach has been a source of ongoing controversy. 

With its modernity, La Barceloneta still retains the scent of salt and marine life. For many, this is considered a luxury. La Barceloneta also attracts many cruise ships to dock. Among the attractions on Barceloneta's beach are German artist Rebecca Horn's Homenatge a la Barceloneta monument, and, where the beach meets the Port Olímpic, Frank Gehry's contemporary Peix d’Or sculpture.

In the centre of the neighbourhood, there is a small museum called Casa de la Barceloneta, housed in a preserved building dating back to 1761. Admission to the museum provides an insight into the evolution of the neighbourhood and its history. The house has a stone façade with letters and numbers engraved on it, indicating the plots used in construction.

La Barceloneta was mostly underwater until the 1600s. During the construction of Port Vell, a dike was built to connect the small island of Maians to the city, and landfill created the land on which the neighbourhood was later built.

La Barceloneta was virtually uninhabited until the mid 18th century. Fishermen were the first to visit this part of Barcelona despite the risky sea conditions. In 1754, construction of the first houses began, and the neighbourhood started to fill with residents who participated in activities of the port.

The neighbourhood of La Barceloneta was designed by an engineer named Juan Martín Cermeño. The famous markets in La Barceloneta were designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Rovira i Trias in 1873. He had an urban plan for the future of Barcelona architecture, which won the 1859 municipal contest by city council's decree. However, the central government in Madrid preferred the plan of Ildefons Cerdà. Rovira and his work were soon forgotten and lost in history until a book was published about his style of urban planning and the other works he was in charge of, such as the numerous markets in La Barceloneta.

In the present day, in the building of Palau de Mar, there is the History Museum of Catalonia. This museum has a permanent exhibit about the history of Catalonia from its industrialization, through the era of dictatorship, to the present day democracy. Additionally, the terrace of their cafeteria offers a great view of the neighbourhood and the port.

This neighbourhood is not lacking in ancient history with its churches, such as the Sant Miquel del Port located in the Plaça de la Barceloneta.

La Torre del Rellotge (clock tower) was built in 1772 within the Fishermen's Wharf and served as the lighthouse port until the mid 19th century. When the port was modernized, the use of the lighthouse became obsolete. To preserve its base, the tower was converted into a clock in the mid 19th century. This clock tower was one of the materials used by scientist Pierre Méchain as he measured the length of the meridian arc between Barcelona and Dunkirk in 1791, which led to the creation of the decimal metric system.

La Llotja, another building in La Barceloneta neighbourhood, is a neoclassical building with a Gothic interior built in the 14th century. Inside the two-story building are examples of medieval works and neoclassical sculptures. In 1775, la Llotja became affiliated with the Real Academia, a school related to the industrial arts and other visual arts. At that time, the school was called la Escuela Gratuita de Diseño and was located on the top floor of la Llotja. It was not until 1928 that it changed its name to Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Jorge, and in 1989 adopted its name in Catalan: Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi.

The Carmen Amaya Fountain is another historical landmark in La Barceloneta, built in 1959. It is located where Carrer Sant Carles meets the beach. It was made as a tribute to the most famous flamenco dancer in history, Carmen Amaya, who was born in a Gypsy settlement in La Barceloneta in 1913. The fountain depicts two guitarists and three flamenco dancers in the nude. It reflects the difficult past that La Barceloneta faced when it was inhabited by Gypsies, fishermen, and shacks. In the 1970s, the shacks were removed, but the memories remained. It was almost forgotten after the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona.

More information: CNAB

Tradition is the illusion of permanence.

Woody Allen

'CALVIN & HOBBES', THE LAST GREAT NEWSPAPER COMIC

Another year that ends and another that will begin with many resolutions and hopes, but also with more uncertainty than ever.

Every year is hard because you always have to mourn the loss of loved ones, but they are also 365 more days of learning and experiences that will always be with you and that will shape your personality, your character and your way of facing life.

Like every December 31, The Grandma will congratulate Mallorcan family and friends who are celebrating the Festa de l'Estendard, Mallorca's National Day, today and will climb her most beloved peak to celebrate this passage of the year as close to the stars as possible. And once they arrive at the refuge, there will be no shortage of a good meal for dinner, a guitar, a harmonica and a violin to play and a good book to read.

Before preparing this mountain kit, The Grandma has decided to read one of the most extraordinary comics ever created, Calvin and Hobbes, a true philosophical masterpiece created by Bill Watterson that stopped being published on a day like today in 1995.

More information: Go Comics

Calvin and Hobbes is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995.

Commonly described as the last great newspaper comic, Calvin and Hobbes has enjoyed enduring popularity and influence while also attracting significant academic and philosophical interest.

Calvin and Hobbes follows the humorous antics of the title characters: Calvin, a mischievous and adventurous six-year-old boy; and his friend Hobbes, a stuffed tiger. Set in the suburban United States of the 1980s and 1990s, the strip depicts Calvin's frequent flights of fancy and friendship with Hobbes. It also examines Calvin's relationships with his long-suffering parents and with his classmates, especially his neighbor Susie Derkins. Hobbes's dual nature is a defining motif for the strip: to Calvin, Hobbes is a living anthropomorphic tiger, while all the other characters seem to see Hobbes as an inanimate stuffed toy, though Watterson has not clarified exactly how Hobbes is perceived by others, or whether he is real or an imaginary friend. Though the series does not frequently mention specific political figures or ongoing events, it does explore broad issues like environmentalism, public education, and philosophical quandaries.

At the height of its popularity, Calvin and Hobbes was featured in over 2,400 newspapers worldwide. As of 2010, reruns of the strip appeared in more than 50 countries, and nearly 45 million copies of the Calvin and Hobbes books had been sold worldwide.

the first Calvin and Hobbes strip was published on November 18, 1985 in 35 newspapers. The strip quickly became popular. Within a year of syndication, the strip was published in roughly 250 newspapers and proved to have international appeal with translation and wide circulation outside the United States.

Calvin and Hobbes had almost no official product merchandising. Watterson held that comic strips should stand on their own as an art form and although he did not start out completely opposed to merchandising in all forms (or even for all comic strips), he did reject an early syndication deal that involved incorporating a more marketable, licensed character into his strip. In spite of being an unproven cartoonist, and having been flown all the way to New York to discuss the proposal, Watterson reflexively resented the idea of cartooning by committee and turned it down.

Watterson has expressed admiration for animation as an artform. In a 1989 interview in The Comics Journal he described the appeal of being able to do things with a moving image that cannot be done by a simple drawing: the distortion, the exaggeration and the control over the length of time an event is viewed. However, although the visual possibilities of animation appealed to Watterson, the idea of finding a voice for Calvin made him uncomfortable, as did the idea of working with a team of animators. Ultimately, Calvin and Hobbes was never made into an animated series.

The strip borrows several elements and themes from three major influences: Walt Kelly's Pogo, George Herriman's Krazy Kat and Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts. Schulz and Kelly particularly influenced Watterson's outlook on comics during his formative years.

Watterson's technique started with minimalist pencil sketches drawn with a light pencil (though the larger Sunday strips often required more elaborate work) on a piece of Bristol board, with his brand of choice being Strathmore because he felt it held the drawings better on the page as opposed to the cheaper brands (Watterson said he initially used any cheap pad of Bristol board his local supply store had but switched to Strathmore after he found himself growing more and more displeased with the results).

He would then use a small sable brush and India ink to fill in the rest of the drawing, saying that he did not want to simply trace over his penciling and thus make the inking more spontaneous. He lettered dialogue with a Rapidograph fountain pen, and he used a crowquill pen for odds and ends. Mistakes were covered with various forms of correction fluid, including the type used on typewriters.

Watterson was careful in his use of colour, often spending a great deal of time in choosing the right colors to employ for the weekly Sunday strip; his technique was to cut the colour tabs the syndicate sent him into individual squares, lay out the colors, and then paint a watercolor approximation of the strip on tracing paper over the Bristol board and then mark the strip accordingly before sending it on. When Calvin and Hobbes began there were 64 colours available for the Sunday strips. For the later Sunday strips Watterson had 125 colours as well as the ability to fade the colours into each other.

Reviewing Calvin and Hobbes in 1990, Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker gave the strip an A+ rating, writing Watterson summons up the pain and confusion of childhood as much as he does its innocence and fun.

More information: The Mitchigan Daily

If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, 
I'll bet they'd live a lot differently.

Bill Watterson

HELGE M. INGSTAD & THE VIKINGS IN NORTH AMERICA

After a few days of endless rain that seemed to fulfill the prophecy of the Sibyl, the sun has risen in Barcelona and it seems that we will return to our mild winters.

The Grandma is lazy after so much water and continues to enjoy one of her passions: reading.

Today, she has been reading about Helge Marcus Ingstad, the Norwegian explorer, who proved (with her wife Anne Stine Ingstad) that the Vikings settled in North America long before the arrivals of Christopher Columbus and John Cabot, and who was born on a day like today in 1899.

Helge Marcus Ingstad (30 December 1899-29 March 2001) was a Norwegian explorer. In 1960, after mapping some Norse settlements, Ingstad and his wife archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad found remnants of a Viking settlement in L'Anse aux Meadows in the province of Newfoundland in Canada.

They were thus the first to prove conclusively that the Icelandic/Greenlandic Norsemen such as Leif Erickson had found a way across the Atlantic Ocean to North America, roughly 500 years before Christopher Columbus and John Cabot. He also thought that the mysterious disappearance of the Greenland Norse Settlements in the 14th and 15th centuries could be explained by their emigration to North America.

Helge Ingstad died at Diakonhjemmet Hospital in Oslo at the age of 101.

Helge Ingstad was the son of Olav Ingstad (1867-1958) and Olga Marie Qvam (1869-1946) in Meråker Municipality in Nordre Trondheim county.

Helge Ingstad was originally a lawyer by profession, but, ever an outdoorsman, he sold his successful law practice in Levanger and went to Canada's Northwest Territories as a trapper in 1926. For the next three years, the Norwegian travelled with the local Indian tribe known as the Caribou Eaters. After returning to Norway, he wrote the bestselling Pelsjegerliv about his time in Canada, published in English as The Land of Feast and Famine (1933).

Ingstad was the governor (Sysselmann) of Erik the Red's Land in 1932-1933, when Norway annexed that eastern part of Greenland. The Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague decided that the lands belonged to Denmark, and so the official Norwegian presence had to end. Following the verdict, Ingstad was summoned by the government to the job as governor of Svalbard (Spitsbergen and the surrounding islands) -a position suiting him uniquely, considering his profession of law and his experience in Arctic living.

In 1960, he discovered the remains of what later proved to be a Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland in Canada.

It is the only known site of a Norse or Viking village in Canada, and in North America outside of Greenland. Dating to around the year 1000, L'Anse aux Meadows remains the only widely accepted instance of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact and is notable for its possible connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Ericson around the same time period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas.

Archaeological excavation at the site was conducted in the 1960s by an international team led by archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad (Helge Ingstad's wife) and under the direction of Parks Canada of the Government of Canada in the 1970s. Following each period of excavation, the site was reburied to protect and conserve the cultural resources.

The settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows has been dated to approximately 1,000 years ago, an assessment that tallies with the relative dating of artifact and structure types. The remains of eight buildings were located. They are believed to have been constructed of sod placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were variously identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling measured 28.8 by 15.6 m and consisted of several rooms. Workshops were identified as an iron smithy containing a forge and iron slag, a carpentry workshop, which generated wood debris, and a specialized boat repair area containing worn rivets.

Besides those related to iron working, carpentry, and boat repair, other artifacts found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, including a stone oil lamp, a whetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone knitting needle, and part of a spindle. The presence of the spindle and needle suggests that women were present as well as men. Food remains included butternuts, which are significant because they do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick, and their presence probably indicates the Norse inhabitants travelled farther south to obtain them. Archaeologists concluded that the site was inhabited by the Norse for a relatively short period of time.

Helge Ingstad was an honorary member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. He also held honorary doctorates at the University of Oslo, Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, and at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav (in 1991; previously Knight 1st class in 1965, and Commander in 1970), Knight of the Order of Vasa, and he was presented with the Norwegian Red Cross Badge of Honour for his efforts in Finnmark during World War II. He received a lifetime government grant from the Norwegian government from 1970. He was the subject of a 1981 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) documentary The Man Who Discovered America, and subsequently appeared along with his wife in the 1984 NFB film, The Vinland Mystery.

In 1986, he was presented Arts Council Norway's honor award. HNoMS Helge Ingstad (F313), the fourth of the five Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates of the Royal Norwegian Navy was named after Helge Ingstad.

The inner main-belt asteroid 8993 Ingstad, discovered by Danish astronomer Richard Martin West at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile in 1980, was named in his memory.

The Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad Building on the St. John's Campus of Memorial University is named after him and his wife. It houses the University's Print and Mail Services.

More information: Fred Olsen Cruises

It was very clear that this was a very, very old site. 
There were remains of sod walls. 
Fishermen assumed it was an old Indian site. 
But Indians didn't use that kind of buildings and houses.

Helge Ingstad

M'ARRIBA UN MOCADOR ENLLAGRIMAT D'ABSÈNCIES...

Ara m'escrius molt més sovint
i és sempre trist el missatge
sent allunyar-se aquells matins
que em duien les teves cartes.

Si vols escriure un cant d'ocells,
entre les teves lletres,
a mi m'arriba un mocador
enllagrimat d'absències.

Anem a escriure't tot el món
posarem flors al sobre:
un poc d'espígol, de fonoll,
tres margarides blanques,
un glop de mar i un tros de cel,
un tremolor dels arbres,
una misèria, uns records:
tots els que tu em deixares.

Un glop de mar i un tros de cel,
un tremolor dels arbres,
una misèria, ja ho sabem,
el que podem donar-te.

Nu schrijf je me veel vaker
en de boodschap is altijd droevig
het gevoel dat die ochtenden
die me jouw brieven brachten, langzaam verdwijnen.

Als je een vogelzang wilt schrijven,
bereikt tussen je brieven
een zakdoek
met tranen van gemis mij.

Laten we jullie over de hele wereld schrijven
we doen bloemen in de envelop:
een beetje lavendel, venkel,
drie witte madeliefjes,
een slokje zee en een stukje hemel,
een trilling van de bomen,
een treurigheid, wat herinneringen:
al die je me hebt nagelaten.

Een slokje zee en een stukje hemel,
een trilling van de bomen,
een treurigheid, we weten,
wat we je kunnen geven.

Now you write to me much more often
and the message is always sad
feeling those mornings
that brought me your letters are fading away.

If you want to write a bird song,
among your letters,
a handkerchief
with tears of absences reaches me.

Let's write to you all over the world
we'll put flowers in the envelope:
a little lavender, fennel,
three white daisies,
a sip of the sea and a piece of sky,
a tremor of the trees,
a misery, some memories:
all the ones you left me.

A sip of the sea and a piece of sky,
a tremor of the trees,
a misery, we know,
what we can give you.

 

 Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. 
Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, 
his friends are everything.

Willa Cather