Local archeology

The Summer Season is coming to a close on the Medieval Ifach dig, but they have made great progress. If you are interested, visit the blog kept by one of the diggers, and if you don't understand Spanish, may I suggest that you Google the search term http://proyectoifac.obolog.com/, and then click on translate this page that appears at the side of the first entry? You can then read a translated version, that although not perfect, will give anyone with an interest enough information to explain what they are seeing in the photographs. Don't forget to look at the older posts as well, as there have been plenty of interesting finds; enough that the Provincial Archeological Museum, the MARQ, is preparing a special exhibition for later in the year. This is a super museum, in a building that was until a few years ago the Alicante National Hospital. The exhibition set that they designed for the present British Museum Exhibition La Belleza del Cuerpo, so impressed the BM that they have requested that they be allowed to purchase it and ship it along with the exhibits as it continues its tour of Europe.

There is a video on YouTube about the BM exhibit, that starts with a plan of the hospital as it was, with pavilions off a central corridor, each pavilion being devoted to a different speciality. (My younger daughter no doubt has pleasant memories of visits to the Orthodontic department while recovering from a broken jaw) Each of these pavilions is devoted to a different epoch, in chronological order as you work your way around in clockwise direction, and the last ones are devoted to whatever is the special exhibition at the time.

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

Wednesday Water

A Vulture Saved from the Sea...

...was the heading on the first of my daily emails from the Town Hall this morning. Viktor Ferrando, a local artist, was out with some friends in a boat off the coast of Calpe on Friday evening, when they came across a very large, exhausted bird floating in the sea. Because it seemed so weak, they decided to get it on board, and took it back to the local Club Nautico, who called the Calpe Animal Protection Unit. They recognised this metre high bird as a young Griffin Vulture and arranged its transfer to the Santa Faz Recuperation Unit in Alicante, where it was put on a drip to re-hydrate it. It is hoped that it will have recovered enough to be released again in a few days.

The Town Hall informs me that it is thought this vulture is one of this year's youngsters from the colony being reintroduced into Barranc del Sinc in the Sierra de Mariola who took advantage of a thermal when learning to fly and was dumped in the sea when the thermal petered out.

Precis from the Griffon link above.

There used to be a large population of vultures in Europe, because farmers were in the habit of leaving their dead sheep, goats and cows lying around for them to dispose of, but EU legislation put an end to that, and there was no longer the wild carrion to keep up the numbers. In some areas, local conservationists have erected muleros; platforms where the carcases of horses and donkeys are left for them to feed on, as these do not carry the same BSJ risk, and at the same time, they are trying to get the EU law amended to allow controlled use of other domestic carcases where they are trying to establish colonies.

Wednesday Water