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UNESCO has added two more Japanese traditions to its Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
The two new registrations are Mibu no Hana Taue, the ritual of transplanting rice in Hiroshima Prefecture, and the Sada Shin Noh sacred dance performed at a shrine in Shimane Prefecture.
Mibu no Hana Taue is an annual event held in Kitahiroshima Town. It is dedicated to the god of rice paddies and calls for a good harvest. In the ritual, villagers use colourfully decorated cattle to plough paddies. Sada Shin Noh is a dance performance at Sada Shrine in Matsue City that dates back nearly 400 years. The inclusion of the two brings the number of Japanese traditional events on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list to 20. UNESCO defines intangible cultural assets as traditions handed down over the generations that are in need of urgent safeguarding.
Video and more on the news here.

Today, Saturday 26 November 2011 – the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford opens six new galleries for the collections of Ancient Egypt and Nubia (present day Sudan). Building on the success of the Museum’s extension, which opened in 2009, this second phase of major redevelopment redisplays the world-renowned Egyptian collections to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of mummies and coffins on display. The galleries will take visitors on a chronological journey covering more than 5000 years of human occupation of the Nile Valley.
The £5 million project has received lead support from Lord Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation and other trusts, foundations and individuals. Rick Mather Architects have led the redesign and redisplay of the pre-existing Egypt galleries and the extension into the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the Museum Shop. The contractor Beard has completed the construction work in the historic building. New openings link the rooms, presenting the collections under the broad themes of Egypt at its Origins; Dynastic Egypt and Nubia; Life after Death in Ancient Egypt; The Amarna ‘Revolution’; Egypt in the Age of Empires; and Egypt meets Greece and Rome.
See also our Conservation, Preservation and Restoration: Avebury’s restoration and the Stukeley Line.
Bonnie Greer, the deputy chair of the British Museum Trustees, introduces the new World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre at the Museum.
There can be few institutions in the world that have had a greater impact on our understanding of cultural development than the British Museum. The provision of the World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre will enable that understanding to progress into the 21st Century – this facility is a vital addition.
David Attenborough.
Mastering the Art of the Kimono. Producer: Ruth Evans. A Ruth Evans production for BBC Radio 4.
Stonehenge and the perimeter fence along part of the A344
Writing in the Salisbury Journal yesterday, Hannah White reports that –
A PLANNING inspector has ruled that byways surrounding Stonehenge will remain open. The decision follows inquiries into proposals to close the byways as well as parts of the A344 and the inspector has decided that although the road will close, the byways should remain open. English Heritage plans to return the area to grass as part of plans for a new visitors’ centre at Airman’s Corner. Planning inspector Alan Boyland said: “I accept that Wiltshire has a considerably greater length of byways than any other county. This is not however, in itself, a reason for allowing a further loss for recreational motor vehicle users. “In this case, the loss of a further 7km, particularly given the strategic importance of those routes, and without similar alternative routes being available, would in my view be significantly detrimental to the current users.”
More here.
To quote from the Batlow website –
Bartlow Hills is a scheduled ancient monument, owned by the Trustees of the Bartlow Estate and in the guardianship of Cambridgeshire County Council. The hills were originally the largest group of Roman Barrows in northern Europe and include the highest burial mound in Britain.
The seven mounds covered extraordinarily rich burials containing a wonderful collection of artistic objects, the best found in Britain. Mound IV, the largest, is 45’ high and 144’ in diameter. Mound II is still visible as a low rise, I is just discernible, and III is totally destroyed. Their steep conical shape, originally surrounded by a ditch, is typical of Roman burial mounds.
Large wooden chests with iron fittings were found in five mounds and there was a brick cist in another. Cremated burials, with food and drink in exotic vessels and decorated bronze, glass and pottery and other sacrificial offerings had been deposited in the chests, which were buried with lamps still burning in them. Items found included an iron folding chair and the remains of flowers, box leaves, a sponge, incense and liquids including blood, milk and wine mixed with honey.
Burial Mounds of this type were built in the late first and early second centuries AD in eastern England and Belgium. Most artefacts in them show the high status of the owner; they were usually imported from the Rhineland and northern Gaul, and are concerned with feasting and sacrificial offerings, rather than personal belongings which would be used in the afterlife.
In 1815 Busick Harwood excavated IV to provide work for the unemployed.They began at the apex and digging down at great labour to the cist despoiled it of its contents, which were distributed and no account of them taken”. However, some of the humbler items went to the Saffron Walden Museum where they survive. John Gage carried out better recorded excavations between 1832 and 1840. Eminent scientists, including Faraday, pioneer of electricity, analysed the contents of vessels and other organic remains. Gage’s reports are the only evidence we now have, for all the objects were taken to Easton Lodge, Dunmow, where they were destroyed by fire in 1847.
The surviving mounds became overgrown before they were taken into guardianship by Essex County Council in 1978. The scrub was cleared and fences built for protection. The hills passed to the Cambridgeshire County Council in 1990 after a change in the County boundary.
Built of chalk and unusable for agriculture, the surviving mounds are a refuge for the distinctive plants and insects of chalk grassland; the Pasque flower grew here until early this century. Regular mowing in late summer will prevent the scrub from spreading.
Cambridgeshire is rich is historical sites, many of which are open to the public. More information on these can be obtained from Cambridgeshire County Council. There is a display on Bartlow hills at Saffron Walden Museum and many other artefacts can be seen there and in museums in Cambridgeshire and Colchester. Other Roman barrows can be seen at the 6 Hills, Stevenage and Great Stukeley, Cambridgeshire.
The above is reproduced from a board at the site and was written and provided by Cambridgeshire County Council in 1991.
Administrative authority: Owned by the Trustees of the Bartlow Estate and under the guardianship of Cambridge County Council.
The Heritage Trust Cared for Rating * (out of 5).
Suggested improvements: Clear signs from the road showing visitors the way to the monuments. A vigorous program of maintenance to include the eradication of overgrowth. One or two benches where people could pause and reflect on the monuments and their setting.