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Of Prancing and Ponies - Ep 19
228 Plays7 months ago
In episode nineteen, Tilly and Ash accidentally volunteer to help out the Butterbur Bree Historical Society with recording their most famous inn, the Prancing Pony. Armed with a measuring tape and a frosty pint, they go about discussing the biggest trope in all fantasy: the Tavern!
Links
- Hall, T. (2018) Tropes and taverns, oh my!, BOOK RIOT
- Survey and recording at Historic Environment Scotland
- Hedge, R. and Robson-Glyde, S. (2015) A Guide to the Archaeological Field Recording of Historic Buildings A Guide to the Archaeological Field Recording of Historic Buildings 2.
Contact
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @and.my.trowel
Transcripts
- For rough transcripts of this episode, go to: https://www.archpodnet.com/trowel/19
ArchPodNet
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Transcript
Introduction with Fantasy Flair
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. You have my sword. And you have my boat. And my trowel.
Episode 19 Overview: Archaeology & Fantasy Taverns
00:00:12
Speaker
Hi, you're listening to episode 19 of And My Trial, where we look at the fantastic side of archaeology and the archaeological side of fantasy. I'm Ash. And I'm Tilly. And today, we're going to be looking at the most important building in all fantasy, where the worlds are built and collide, where our heroes often enjoy a thirst crunching end of quest mug of mead, the tavern.
Vampire Adventure & Tavern Archaeology
00:00:35
Speaker
Wait, hang on. Are you telling me our quest this week actually starts within a tavern?
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, remember after the vampire burial we did and we kind of fancied ourselves a pint? Yeah. And you know how we sort of crashed the Butterburberry Historical Society karaoke night at the Prancing Pony? How can I forget? I've never heard an orc hit such a high note before. OK, well, when you and Jess were singing Misty Mountains and all that, I might have drunkenly volunteered us to help the barkeep with a little archaeological problem.
00:01:10
Speaker
Oh, Ash, why? We've already got a magic mirror to figure out, a curse to break, those angry wizards portalling us, cease and desistinosis notices every hour. We don't have time for a historic building survey. I like I know, I know, I know. Right. But just hear me out. OK, so the Butterberry's historical society, they've been fighting for an age, an actual age to get this tavern historically listed, and we could help them. OK, just think of the history, the archaeology, the cool frosty pints after work.
00:01:40
Speaker
Oh, fine. As long as they serve tea as well.
Cultural Significance of Fantasy Taverns
00:01:44
Speaker
So what do we have to do then? Okay, well, I really didn't think that far. But they did send me a brief. So they asked us for a detailed record to display the historical and archaeological importance of the site. So basically, they want some concrete evidence half book.
00:02:05
Speaker
to take to the town council in order to grant a listed building consent and permission. So we're really into thinking about how we're going to go about this. But first, Teddy, I want to know, what do you know of taverns?
00:02:21
Speaker
Well, I mean, I guess a tavern to me, it's sort of the oldie worldie name for a pub, basically, which I feel is also a very British thing.
British Pub Culture & Anecdotes
00:02:33
Speaker
Like, I, it's a very, I really, I only realised this kind of wind.
00:02:38
Speaker
I moved around in lots of other places, and then you sort of think, actually, yeah, pub culture, and not even just the drinking, but like, you go to the pub for your lunch, or, you know, you go to the pub for quiz night, or you go for the pub for the karaoke night, like we did the other night with the hawks. And it's sort of, I don't know, it's just such a stable part. People also always tell me, they're like, oh, British food is so awful. And I'm like, don't say that until you've gone to a pub. Yeah, you have to go to a pub. And I had pub food, like pub food is this.
00:03:06
Speaker
chef's kiss. Those big chunky chips. And the pies. What's your favourite pub food? Oh gosh.
00:03:17
Speaker
Yeah, it has to be, when I could eat gluten, probably a good pie, like a mince pie, some chips, and like peas on the side. Oh, fair enough. Yeah. Although for me it was roast, Sunday roast, roast beef Yorkshire pudding with like thick gravy and roast potatoes and carrots and peas, followed down by a sticky toffee pudding. Oh my God, I love sticky toffee pudding.
00:03:43
Speaker
funny, I have a, this is a total aside, but I think it's an absolutely hilarious story. My partner one Christmas was really, really drunk and his sister makes lots of sticky toffee, but she's bigger. And she gave them a sticky toffee pudding without the toffee. And then he picked up a jar, which he thought was toffee and put it on and ate the whole thing. And then she was like, oh, I forgot to bring the sticky toffee pudding, like the toffee out. And he was like, what was that?
00:04:08
Speaker
And we realized it was creepy. And he did all the creams. He was like, it still tasted good. I didn't think it tasted a bit weird. But that's like that episode. Have you seen that episode of Friends where Rachel makes the trifle or something? But then the page is the recipe book of Stuck Together. So she makes half trifle and half shepherd's pie. So it's like, well, this is the cream. This is the fruit. This is the mids and mashed potatoes.
00:04:37
Speaker
Yeah, and Joey's there going, what's not to like? Cake, good. Meat, good. Yeah, it's good. But that's what he said. He was like, it was like, it was all going to go to the same place. Doesn't matter. It was really nice. So it's like, fine, we're at it. But yeah, everyone was like, oh my God.
00:04:56
Speaker
Well, so anyway, we were going back. You've actually stumbled onto a bit of a debate.
Historical Context: Taverns, Inns, & Pubs
00:05:02
Speaker
Okay. You said, you said pub. Okay. All right. So there's the tavern versus in versus pub debate. Oh, okay. So general rule.
00:05:12
Speaker
Okay? Pubs only for drinks. Oh! Right? This is in the medieval period as well, right? Okay. Pub only for drinks, a tavern is for drinks and food, and an inn is for drinks, food, and accommodation.
00:05:28
Speaker
I see. Medieval taverns, especially in the 14th and 15th centuries, and mostly in England and Scotland, and I am talking about the UK, unfortunately. I think also in Paris, they have this kind of tavern tradition too. And Germany, obviously. Yes, true. They had a lot of taverns in Germany.
00:05:47
Speaker
Yes, so some parts of Europe have this tradition where you'd likely find in a tavern it would be less wholesome pastimes. So you'd go there specifically for like ale drinking, gambling, singing, revelry in a bit of debauchery on the side. Lovely, lovely.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, some of them are even associated with wine smuggling. So it's funny because in fantasy you think about taverns, you think of like ale, right? Yeah. And you think of mead. Well, actually a lot of taverns started to do wine and were predominantly wine, especially in Paris because there was such high taxes in the 16th century that they started to try and like smuggle wine in.
00:06:28
Speaker
And so they kind of got around the whole tax situation through through taverns. But they've also served as restaurants. And you see that in 18th century Paris and then the restaurant becomes a thing. Oh, wow. So the fine French Parisian restaurants actually emerged from ale drinking, gambling, a bit of debauchery.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah, kind of. But then you have inns as well, right? Which you would go for a more finer establishment. So I read a little Tudor source that said basically no self-respecting man would find himself in a tavern. He would go to an inn. Otherwise his reputation would be in tatters.
00:07:08
Speaker
Were they still called, because you have all the great, you know, the classic pub names or tavern names or inn names or whatever. So I mean, would they have differentiated? Would you be able to tell from the outside whether it was a pub or a tavern or an inn? That's a really good point. I think the name tells you because... It would say which it was, yeah.
00:07:29
Speaker
So for us, we're looking at the prancing pony, right? And when I was looking at, I went through loads of rings and I had a little look at all the stuff that it's obviously an inn, because it says the prancing pony inn. Yes, yes. And they have accommodation. Yeah, they have accommodation, you can sleep there, but it's finer. So the food's really nice. So basically, they thought that taverns would have really subpar food.
00:07:53
Speaker
I see. So you can kind of tell from where it is. Right. And who's going in and out. Got it. Yeah. So you can watch a little while. So actually, now, if I'm suggesting to people when they say to me, oh, British food is awful, I shouldn't say, oh, go to a pub because that's just drinks. I should say, you should go to an inn as that is. Well, really, a little bit more to it than that. So basically, yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker
I went into a big, deep dive about pubs as well. So if you had an inn, it would be kind of the urban elite community. And that would be like, if you had an inn in your town, your town was booming. That seems to be the idea. But then that tends to change. So taverns then obtain licenses for accommodation and people generally start to stay there either because they've drank too much.
00:08:47
Speaker
Right. But then, or they decide, actually, this is probably a good revenue and it's a good idea that we can try and get a license for accommodation. So you have the rooms above, so they start to do board. But then you kind of get this overlap in the medieval period where they all start to amalgamate into public houses. And that's where you get pubs from. That's what pubs are. I see.
00:09:15
Speaker
Oh, and so that's why I mean, it is a shame, right? It would be much more fun to say after a hard day of work. Oh, well, so tavern. Yeah, let's go. Exactly. But what do you think about in like fantasy?
Taverns in Fantasy Literature
00:09:30
Speaker
So can you think of any fantasy taverns and what they kind of like look like?
00:09:34
Speaker
I mean, it's the classic, well, you mentioned the Prancing Pony already, I guess, even though, as you say, it's an inn, but it's sort of, I guess it's always the place where you kind of rest up after a long quest or, or it's the place where you go to find information. So like, if you need to kind of gain interesting, yeah, I don't know.
00:09:58
Speaker
Yeah, gain insight or all of these sort of things. You'll usually go to the tavern and sort of the barman or the innkeeper or the tavern keeper or pub owner or whatever you want to call them, landlord, is probably the most knowledgeable person in town, I guess, about all of the people living in town. So yeah, that's what I would say would be the kind of classic tavern.
00:10:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think you've got it right. That's exactly it. So if you think about like fantasy, fantasy is often in an ancient or medieval setting, right? You don't have necessarily, unless it's like sci-fi fantasy, but we're thinking like hardcore high fantasy. It's either they're traveling on foot and they're on an adventure, right? So they're on foot, horseback, sometimes even like dragon back. And so that means that taverns fit really well into the story. So they need to stay or rest somewhere. So it would be an inn or they go for an ale or they go to a tavern and they stop
00:10:49
Speaker
And so, taverns offer space for people in our world, and also in the fantasy world, where it's a perfect setting for a few mysterious developments, an introduction of a different character like Strider, you know, he's in the tavern, sitting out of his big pipe, and then plot twists as well.
00:11:10
Speaker
True. Yeah. And it kind of evokes that sense. So like they're dimly lit, they're cosy, they've got a roar and fire. They're really perfect for that cloaked kind of stranger coming in and staring things up a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I guess they can either be like cosy or like ominous. It's sort of the, depending on which kind of fantasy, because sometimes, you know, it's like the stranger comes in and everyone looks at him, you know, or something. And it's walking into somewhere as a stranger or you're walking in and you know, you'll be welcomed. I guess it's the kind of two.
00:11:38
Speaker
And that's interesting because like with the prancing pony when you're reading Tolkien, you can see it's actually quite a nice place because of the way that people interact with each other. So yeah, there's some descriptions about how it's got a people of voices and clouds of smoke and stuff. But all the time, they're singing merry songs and they're cheerfully talking to each other. And I think when Frodo walks in, there's some other people who go, oh, well, my last name is Underhill because that is, you know,
00:12:06
Speaker
disguise and they're like oh you're like a distant cousin yay so that kind of like you can imagine them sing song along with big tankards and stuff and then you've kind of got this scary bit well so scary mysterious bit where you've got Strider in the corner and he can be cloaked and even though it's really warm in there and he's got his big hood up and stuff so they're kind of both aren't they?
00:12:26
Speaker
And I guess, yeah, like in The Witcher as well, you always, isn't that the opening scene of the first Witcher book, you have him going into a tavern pub? Tavern pub? Yeah. Or tavern. And it's sort of, they're all looking at him and then they all, you know, the three burly men come up behind him and say, oh, we don't like your type here, you know, or whatever. And it's the kind of brilliant accent. Who knew The Witcher was based in Somerset?
00:12:56
Speaker
Sorry, that's the first one I could think of. But you know, it's that kind of... But even that voice fits with the kind of innkeeper character as well, right? Yeah. Because if you think of an innkeeper, he's probably wearing an apron, he's probably a bit sweaty, a bit red in the face, he's probably balding, running around doing all the things that he needs to do. So yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
00:13:17
Speaker
But there's also a few other taverns that I thought I'd give some mentions to. So there's a Waystone Inn, which is the name of the wind, by Patrick Rothfuss. There's the Elfsong Tavern and the D&D games, Dungeons and Dragons. Wheel of Time has an unreal amount of taverns.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah, actually my partner gave me one and I totally didn't think of this one. Shrek, the poison apple. The poison apple? Oh my god, that's such a good one. We've got to go play the piano. Yeah, and it's got like the bartender and everything. Oh, it's so white. No, who is it? The ugly stepsister. Yeah, the ugly stepsister. Which I think in the UK is voiced by Jonathan Ross or one of the brothers or something like that. Oh my gosh, is it? I can't remember.
00:14:00
Speaker
So yeah, and then interestingly, which I just thought I'd put a little fact in, is that the new game Baldur's Gate 3, your custom character that you click on comes with the name TAV as a nod to taverns. Very nice. You know, where else there are taverns in one other fantasy? Oh, yes. Was we into that?
00:14:22
Speaker
Of course I'm going to mention it. But actually it is. It's one of, I think, the best in the series. It's called Monsterous Regiment. And the whole point of it is because this girl Polly wants to save her inn, which is called the Duchess. And so she goes off and pretends to be a boy and joins the army.
00:14:37
Speaker
Oh, classic story. Yeah, fight and save the inn. So yeah, and it's all about indeed, sort of the culture of inn keeping and yeah, how that goes, that's sort of the introduction to it. So I would recommend it, it's very good. Yeah, that sounds
Quest: Prancing Pony's Historical Significance
00:14:52
Speaker
cool. I was also going to mention, well, I thought about legends and lattes, but then I was like, that's a coffee shop. But in the prequel, I guess, the bookshops and bone dust, that one does have it.
00:15:04
Speaker
there you go so you kind of have to have it it's part of it so but all this tavern talk is making me hungry could you go for second breakfast Tilly? Absolutely I think they might even have a kind of roast beef special on the menu which you know you can sort of have roast beef sandwich there you go that's a good one that's a good one okay okay we're gonna take a break here and return once our bellies are all full
00:15:30
Speaker
Welcome back. Who knew that the Prancing Pony had a gluten-free menu? Anyway, I'm ready to look into the practicalities of our quest. How do we do that? Because I don't really know. But just to give you a quick recap of our brief, the Butterbird Bree Historical Society have asked us to help preserve and make a detailed record of the Prancing Pony Inn.
00:15:56
Speaker
and they know the historical and archaeological importance of the site so they can persuade the Brie Town Council to give them a listing building status. Listed building status. I couldn't see that there.
00:16:14
Speaker
which is apparently something that hasn't actually really been done in Middle-earth before, so especially not for Taven or In, so it's really important that we do this.
Challenges in Historical Building Surveys
00:16:22
Speaker
So for this quest I think that we have to dig in and become a little bit more practical when we're thinking about archaeology because we will need to record this building. How do you think we can do that though?
00:16:34
Speaker
Well, full disclosure, I have never, I think, done anything to do with archaeology of buildings. I know that's a massive part of archaeology. So many people have always found it really fascinating. I really love looking at buildings that have clearly been
00:16:51
Speaker
What's the word? What's the word? When you... What's the word, Ash? Go on. I genuinely like, I'm not too sure, like repurposed? Sort of, yeah, repurposed, but like fixed, renovated. Or restored. Restored, exactly, yeah. That was hard to get to. When you weren't far off, actually.
00:17:14
Speaker
If you can't read my mind, I'll do it. Oh wait, sorry. Just turn that back on, that function. Check the settings. Yeah, so because I really like when you see, you know, those ones where like you have the boarded up window, the bricked up windows, or you have a different style of bricks in one part.
00:17:35
Speaker
or like old churches and things, you know, where you can then see, oh, so this was where there was an extended bit here. And then you always learn a little bit about my, oh, my favorite story is in Leiden, where I lived for a while and where I studied and did my masters. And I used to do the boat tours through the canals whenever I had a friend come to visit. And I did them so many times that I knew most of the stories about, like that they told, you know, it was like a historic tour because they didn't always have time to tell all the stories. If they missed any, I'd be like whispering to my friend.
00:18:02
Speaker
Like, by the way, I just saw something. I really enjoyed that. The toilet was a really good tour. But there was one, they used to have like these tall houses. I mean, you can picture like the Dutch houses, right? The sort of tall, all right next to each other alongside the canal. And so you can see a little bit of the front of the roof, but the majority of the roof you can't see from the front street. So they'd use the most expensive tiles, which were black, I believe. I can't remember now which way round it was. Basically, it was either the expensive tiles were black and the cheap ones were red or vice versa.
00:18:31
Speaker
And so they'd use the expensive ones on the front, but then all the rest of the tiles would be the other like color, which you could see if you were higher up. So yeah, I thought that that was quite funny. Anyway, that's not really, that is funny though. Cause you'd put, you put the best facade first, wouldn't you? You want everyone to see that and be like, look how rich they are. And then the rest of my paper. Yeah.
00:18:53
Speaker
It's just cardboard. It's like those fake houses down in London, isn't it? Yeah, it's like those houses in London, the Leinster Gardens. Oh, okay. And they're just basically like, some of them don't even exist, there's just nothing behind them. There's just the facade. I think I heard about them actually. I think I heard about them in the, I think they're mentioned in the Rivers of London book, or one of that series.
00:19:21
Speaker
there as well. Yeah, they're just like, because there's a whole, there's a tram line, there's other tube goes behind them. Yes. Yeah, that's it. Yeah. And they just wanted to keep the facades to match like the neighbourhood. So there's just like, no one lives there. They're just like currently in column fancy houses. Which is always funny. Well, there's the classic right of if there was window tacks at some point, so that's why they bricked up all the windows at some point. Yeah, I love that one.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, you're right about the stones though and I think that's still part of conservation is that they'll use a similar but different stone so you can tell which is different and what's different time periods and what's a restoration and what's not. I like that actually, I was going to want to ask your opinion on that because I remember, I think it's
00:20:05
Speaker
something like the Colosseum or something, like a really big, important historic building. And they've restored part of it. And they used very obviously modern blocks to do it. And a lot of people were like, Oh, my goodness, you know, how could you do that to this historical building? But I actually really like that. Because like you say, it shows the difference. And I mean, now we might be like, Oh, God, this is horrendous. It's a horrible, modern block of stone, but actually in
00:20:30
Speaker
100, 200,000 years or whatever. It'll be a really nice way for future archaeologists to be able to date when things happen. It's our job easier. Yeah, right. Definitely. I quite like having that. I think it also blends the present with the past and stuff. And a lot of these buildings, not necessarily the Coliseum.
00:20:53
Speaker
But a lot of these buildings would not be there if it wasn't for someone taking them on and renovating them and living in them and stuff. So yeah, I think why not? But it does sound like maybe we have an idea of what we need to do here.
00:21:10
Speaker
So, I guess some kind of historic building survey, but what, I mean, how would we even go about doing a historic building survey? What is it? Well, can I have a definition?
Historic Building Survey Explained
00:21:22
Speaker
Oh, I'm convenient. I'm convenient. You just picked it out of my archeology brain.
00:21:27
Speaker
Yeah, so a historic building survey is undertaken as part of a planning process actually. So we don't have a planning process yet for the Prancing Pony, but it is in order to preserve a record of the layout, the chronology and the surroundings of the building and to inform any strategy for conservation, alteration, demolition of the structure and its setting. Okay, so like we were just saying, see how it has developed over time, any additions that might have been made to it or anything like that.
00:21:56
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And you can do different types or different, I was going to say strengths, but that's different levels of record. Yeah. I want to grade. Well, they are called grades, right? Like they can be listed or whatever. Yeah.
00:22:13
Speaker
They are. So you can do it up to different types of recording that you want. So it depends on the importance and what you think the importance is of the building. And so basically it's like kind of, you know, you're drawing, you're measuring your plan, your profiles, your elevation. And I was thinking about this, I was like, can we take photographs in the middle of it? Is that a way to be able to do that? I mean,
00:22:38
Speaker
Otherwise, what would we do? Otherwise, we'd have to get some, we'd have to commission a portrait, like a painting. Which, yeah, we definitely, well, we'd still have like our, you know, our own plans and profiles and elevations of each side of the building. Yeah. But yeah, we'd have to, we'd have to get someone to come with us to draw general views and stuff. Yeah. Which I mean, there's some beautiful drawings of architecture in Middle Earth. So we can probably find the artists who created
00:23:07
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know how big the budget is for the Prancing Club. I mean, I'm sure they'd be happy to come and just do it, you know. For free. For the good of the public. Good, you know. It's worth asking. You never know. Definitely worth it. I think so. Why not? Alan, what's his name? Alan Lee. I can't remember now the name of the artist I'm going to call you. Oh, yeah. Alan Lee. Well, get Alan Lee. Yeah. He'll come. He'll come. And he'll do it for us.
00:23:37
Speaker
Thanks, Ellen. If you're listening. And I mean, also, if we're talking about like modern our world versus fantasy world, because you mentioned that the fact this is quite often done
00:23:53
Speaker
in order to kind of preserve something in case, and that's the whole point, right? The Butterbur, I keep wanting to say Butterbeer, Butterburberry Historical Society, trying to display the sort of historical and archaeological importance in order to persuade the council. So we also need to make sure that anything that we do highlights all of those
00:24:13
Speaker
aspects, which is always a bit of an interesting, I always wonder how much like, what if you are recording a building? And then you think, Oh, gosh, no, this isn't actually that interesting. Like, you know what I mean? Like, this isn't? What if the results come up? Do you I mean, obviously, you don't fake anything. But do you kind of highlight certain things more than others? I mean, I feel like you would write you would you would be a little biased in that respect.
00:24:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the only time I've ever done a building survey was a farm and it was getting demolished. OK. For housing. So it was kind of like it wasn't going to be saved. Right. It wasn't it wasn't for listed building consent. It wasn't for anything. It was a listed building and that's why we were there. But it was such a level that it was just because it was an old 18th century farmhouse that they were kind of like, we don't need this bit.
00:25:08
Speaker
So we did the cowsheds and stuff like that. And that wasn't like, you know, the most important building ever, but it still deserved to be recorded. So I think it depends, like, it's still going to be recorded, but to what level it needs to be recorded. I think that's the thing. So something like the Prancing Pony, if it had anything that was like,
00:25:29
Speaker
kind of wood that has been there for centuries or ages, you know, that's carved anything that's really internal rooms that are, you know, of importance who stayed there. You know, if you think about it, we've had Aragorn the second stay there. True.
Monument Status for Prancing Pony
00:25:45
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And the ring bearer, I feel like has also been there. Yes. And wreath.
00:25:53
Speaker
race i mean it's pretty central it is it's culturally yeah culturally and historically a landmark yeah exactly so really we should do a very detailed analytical account and maybe we should even talk to the patrons
00:26:10
Speaker
Because some of these patrons will have long lifespans. True. So some of them might have even been there. Yeah. Yeah. Because according to Tolkien, people at the Prancing Pony, they're like dwarves and travellers that have moved up and down the road. So there's lots of people coming and going, not just men, hobbits and everything. I could do like an ethnographic study as well. Yeah.
00:26:33
Speaker
definitely like as part of it because that's part of the the building one could yeah and they I mean all of those different races of people have been impacted yeah by by the events that happened at the prancing pony if if strider sorry well arrogant strider it's definitely strider at that point I feel like strider didn't meet Frodo
00:26:57
Speaker
If Gandalf wasn't late in The Hobbit on every single book... You know at some point if Gandalf says he's gonna beat you there, you're just gonna be like, yeah, alright Gandalf. Sure, you'll be there. Doesn't he get mad at the bartender for not sending a letter or something? You're like, well maybe just don't relieve a really important letter to some random guy. Gandalf.
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, it would have been a very different story, huh? Yeah, very different story. So it wouldn't have happened. Maybe, yeah, we don't know what would have happened. But the Ringwraiths got Frodo. And Strider wasn't there.
00:27:38
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it would have been a very short book, I feel. I feel like it probably wouldn't have been a short book, but it would have been a shorter book. But we could also do stuff like 3D projections of the rooms as well. We could do some photogrammetry and things like that.
00:27:55
Speaker
That'll be very cool. Yeah, especially if they've got nice carvings and things. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And then we could even, you know, when they send it to everything, all the information, they could start to look at these processes and maybe base some sort of policy on their heritage. I mean, we've already looked at the Battle of the Ents and things like that. So the battlegrounds, maybe they could have some sort of heritage. Look, Tilly, we're changing Middle East. We're just, oh, we're trailblazing.
00:28:25
Speaker
This is what Middle Earth needed. This is what the Lord of the Rings books needed. They needed two archaeologists coming in and saying, but what about the policy? You can't use that sword. Don't you realise how old this is? It's in three bits. What are you doing?
00:28:44
Speaker
we can't restore it. Can you imagine? Oh, that should be we should definitely do a future episode on that. About conservation. We should get Oh, we should get Jess in again to talk about the conservation of objects and talk about NASA, the place of NASA on whether it was right to restore it to its original form or whether you should left out as it was. Absolutely.
00:29:02
Speaker
That's a really good idea. I'm going to message her now. I'll message her afterwards. We're in the middle of a job here, Tilly. You can't just be messaging people out of world. We need to make sure we have, you know, future jobs as well. Yeah. You know, we can build on this. We can look at, you know, when we were helping the kayak and stuff like that, we could even look at the environment around it. We could look at how people congregate around taverns, the social aspect, community building.
00:29:31
Speaker
Phenomenal, illogical, we can't even see that ever approach. I think that everyone says it as phenomenal, illogical, illogical, illogical. Yeah, I mean the archaeological archaeology of space and place and location is such a big concept and not just in terms of this is our place, but yeah, like you were saying earlier, in terms of the people who interact with it, how it has developed over time, the historical and cultural importance of it. So, oh gosh, there's so many.
00:29:58
Speaker
There's so much. I think we know what to do then. It's going to be a big job, huh? Yeah, well, I think the thing is, it'll be a good job. And, you know, that's it, right? So say we've done it. Yeah, we've done it.
00:30:12
Speaker
We present our report to the Butterbird Bree Historical Society and they're thrilled with the work that we've done, obviously. I can taste the thrillness already. Every drawing that Alan's done, every record, every level that we've taken his hand over to Bree Town Council and soon enough, they'll probably grant the Prancing Pony monument status. Oh, lovely.
00:30:36
Speaker
So the Historical Society and the Barkeep inform us that they've already drawn up plans for a heritage plaque, which would read TA 3018, the site of the Shire Reckoning, and the infamous Ringwraith Break-in, where Aragon II and the bearer of the One Ring meant. That sounds good, I can see it now. So one of those little blue plaques, you know? Yeah, right, the little...
00:31:00
Speaker
So they soon hope the site will be recognised not only in the town of Brie, but in all of Middle-earth too. Oh, here's hoping. OK, well, it's going to be a long task, but yes, I'm looking forward to that happening. Yeah, I think so. Well, that's about it for this episode of And My Trial. We hope you enjoyed this quest. As always, if you have any suggestions for future episodes, do get in contact via email or social media, all contact info, as well as references and further reading for all the points mentioned.
00:31:29
Speaker
can be found in our show notes. Hey Tilly, I've been meaning to ask, you mentioned something about the magic mirror earlier on in the episode. What's that all about? I don't even remember having a magic mirror. Oh, did I not mention it to you? No, you didn't. Oh, okay. Let's just have one last round and then I'll fill you in. Cheers. Cheers.
00:31:57
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Cultural Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.