Sarlat, France

Sarlat Building

 I feel like the time that we spent in Sarlat was the heart of our trip.  Originally we planned to spend 2 nights in the town while visiting nearby palaeolithic sites at Rouffignac, Lascaux, and La Chapelle aux Saints, but we just couldn't leave.  We wound up staying 4 nights and even that was just scratching the surface.  The town itself was laid out like a cobble and sandstone maze and every street begged to be explored and every restaurant needed to be enjoyed.

Door knocker

 I really didn't know anything at all about Sarlat before we arrived there, other than it came highly recommended and that it was a medieval city.  A modern town has grown up around the old walled city at its core, but the pedestrian streets, homes, shops and churches in the middle of the town seem little changed since they were built centuries ago.  From what I've read, the first settlement in the area was a Benedictine Monastary founded in 720 A.D. and the city evolved and grew from that seed.

Grotto 

Behind St. Sacredos Cathedral

One of many restaurants

The food was incredible

Lamb

Profiteroles

Window display from our regular bakery

Gargoyles gaurding St. Mary's Church

Lanterne des Morts, behind St. Sacredos Cathedral

Window inside St. Sacredos Cathedral

Le Tourny Restaurant

I hope this man is still walking down the Rue Montaigne the next time I'm in Sarlat.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Spain and France Holiday Snaps

Happy Face in Sarlat, France

I'm home again.  Lori and I just returned from a spectacular two week trip to Europe.  This was pure vacation - we drank and ate our way through cities, towns, and countryside across northern Spain and southwestern France.  We traveled with our friends John and Elaine, who are also archaeologists, so we geeked out on palaeolithic cave art sites, medieval towns and bronze age dolmens.  We brought back books and art and I have over 3700 photos and movies on my camera alone.  I suspect that over the next few weeks several more photos and stories from this trip will show up here.

John strolling a country road alongside the vineyards in the Rioja region of Spain

 

Inside the aquarium in San Sebastien, Spain

San Sebastien, Spain

 

Sarlat, France

Lori relaxing in Bilbao, Spain

The Old Man from La Chapelle aux Saints (A reconstruction of the first complete Neandertal skeleton)

La Playa de la Concha in San Sebastien, Spain

Sarlat, France by moonlight.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Blue Sky on Baffin

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Pre-Dorset Endblade in situ

We spotted this little endblade poking out of the ground on Baffin Island, as if someone had stuck it there.  Thing is, we were probably the first people to see it in at least 3,000 years.

Maybe it was frost action that stood the small tool up, or maybe its been sticking up like that ever since it was lost.  The cobbles right beside it are part of a tent ring and the endblade is just inside the front entrance.

 

I like how high those side notches are to create a big box base.  When the point was in tact, a blade like this could have tipped a harpoon or a lance.

The tip was broken and had some retouch done on it. Perhaps it was a little scraper or they were setting it up to start removing burin spalls.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

Old Barn near Ensign, Alberta

Photo Credit: Tim Rast

Iceberg, Baffin Island, July 2011

Photo Credits: Tim Rast

L'Anse Amour Harpoon Head Reproduction

Ivory Harpoon Head Reproduction

I have a few photos from the archives to share while I'm away.  The L'Anse Amour burial is at least 7,500 years old and contained one of the oldest, perhaps even the oldest toggling harpoon head ever found in the New World.  The tip was cracked off of the original ivory artifact, but when I made this reproduction the client requested that the tip be restored.  The same is true of the other artifacts in the set, the bone point, for example was also missing its tip.

L'Anse Amour Ivory Toggle, Harpoon Head, Quartzite Biface (knife?), Antler Pendant, Bone Point (Elfshot Reproductions)

The Harpoon head didn't have a line hole, but it had a slight waist presumably to secure the toggling line.  The hole in the base for the foreshaft was round.

 Photo Credits: Tim Rast