Geology and Archeology

My Celtic Ancestors?

23 July 2017

            The Celts, my peeps, were the first herders to enter the Middelland, the great plateau between the Jura and the Alpes. These were herders of milk cattle, so I suppose they are the beginnings of Swiss cheese making. (This must explain my inordinate fondness for Gruyere.)

            They thought of moving on to Southern France, (Who doesn’t?) but were stopped by the Romans. I visited Lausanne’s Cantonal Museums yesterday afternoon, after obtaining some more Caramelized Gruyere from the blue-eyed cheese seller. The geology and archeology sections, my main interests, were a bit dry. Like an Egyptian archeology museum, showing plenty of examples and labels, with no narrative or context.

In the geology section, an exception was a huge three-dimensional slice of the strata of the mountain up thrust, accompanied by an interactive video explaining tectonic plate collision. I’ll admit that it makes me feel old to think that tectonic plate collision as an accepted theory began in my adult life. (But young when I consider the age of the mountains.)

In the archeology section, the floor is glass, spanning a mock-up of an ongoing dig. Pretty cool, except that it activated by fear of heights, and I had to step across it on the connecting beams like a tight ropewalker. Worth it for the jewelry:

 

Consider the love of symmetry.