Rotary Club of Maleny Bulletin for 5th March 2014

"THE RANGE"  Vol. 55 No. 15

Wednesday 5th March 2014

THIS WEEK'S MEETING

Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Allen Burrell on Mercy Ships.

APOLOGIES

Please tender apologies to Bernice McLennan by noon Tuesday.

DUTY ROSTERS
                                     5 Mar               19 Mar            2nd Apr             
             
Duty Officer                Sherryl G         Lionel T          Jim A                  
 
Registration                Andy S             Jeff C              Robin T

ADO & Scribe            Mike G             Angela G         Keith R
          
Fellowship                  John W            John McL         Bill H             
      
SAUSAGE SIZZLE ROSTER

15th March
Bill Hankinson (Leader)  Keith Rogers  Lloyd Larney

29th March
John McClennan (Leader)  Andy Shouteten  Robin Thorne

MINUTES OF MEETING OF 19TH FEBRUARY

President Ric, opening the meeting by saying how happy he was to see such a turnout. He welcomed the guest speaker Andy Fairburn, Partners and guests who included Celia Willing and a number of former members and their wives. Prior to the arrival of the meal, he asked for reports.

Lionel said that arrangements had been concluded for the visit to the Nambour Mail Centre on 26 February.  The bus will leave the RSL at 5:00pm and dinner will be at the Nambour RSL. 

Rick V reported that SC Regional Council is due to announce the consultant and contractor for the design and development of the Mary Cairncross Reserve.  There have been 17 bidders with a number from overseas.

Angela announced that the annual Rotary and USC Scholarship awards will be held on 21 May.  Sarah Garup, who was sponsored by the Club last year as a Peace Fellow, will be the Guest Speaker.  USC will meet her travel costs.

Chris, with his Youth hat on, reported that he had attended a TS Centaur meeting and that numbers were down.  He also said that:
- he had made 2 DIK trips with sewing machines and books.
- a request has been received from Maleny Cheese for assistance with car parking for their 10th anniversary celebration.

He then put on his Sergeant's hat and departed into the realms of fantasy.

Heads & tails was won by Pam Doyle.

Malcolm introduced our speaker Andy Fairburn who is a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at UQ.

His talk was about the excavation of the Boncuklu Höyük site in central Turkey. Andy said that he, together with Professor Baird of the University of Liverpool, were leading the project to study one of the earliest ever records of a key transformation in human history: the end of the nomadic lifestyle and the beginning of cropping. The village, which is 10,000 years old, is one of the earliest found just outside the key Fertile Crescent area of eastern Turkey, Syria and Jordan where it is thought farming first originated. 

Villagers lived in oval-shaped, mud brick houses, usually dug down into the ground, with mud brick walls.  They hunted, farmed and traded with other local communities on an area of wetlands which is now a dusty plain near the city of Konya. 

The excavation season lasts for two months annually and is carried out with the assistance of volunteers, mainly from Australia.  Because the mound is built up of successive mud brick buildings, each one being constructed on the demolished remains of the previous ones, often they find only the floor surfaces of buildings with very little in the way of upstanding walls.

One of the buildings is very well preserved (above) and has the remains of low mudbrick walls surviving around the sunken area. It also had a ground floor entrance or doorway. The space inside the building had a plaster floor divided into an upper clean area and a lower dirty area near the fireplace which contained many stakeholes, perhaps the remains of wooden frames used in cooking or other household activities. The clean area was sometimes painted with red ochre and often included a raised plaster platform.




In one building there are the remains of two cattle skulls which were attached to the wall and
covered in plaster.






Andy then spoke about the work that he had undertaken to ensure that the knowledge being acquired was being promulgated to the local community and further afield.  A small visitors' centre has been built with information sheets in both Turkish and English.  A website has been set up and educational booklets are being prepared.  Interestingly he has been able to have the latter two activities undertaken by residents from the Hinterland.

This project has been running for 5 years with current funding due to run out in 2 years time.  There is the chance of funding for a further five years.

Andy is an enthusiastic speaker with an obvious love of his subject.  There was a lengthy and answer question session at the end of his talk.  Keith gave the vote of thanks for a memorable talk.

The meeting closed at 8:45pm.

FUTURE MEETINGS & EVENTS

12th March
Board Meeting at the Masonic Hall.

19th March
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Janelle Rees on Climate Reality Project.

26th March
Masonic Hall at 7:00pm for Club Assembly with $10 meal.

28-30th March
District Conference at Maroochydore RSL Conference Centre.

2nd April
Maleny Hotel at 6:30 for 7:00pm with Guest Speaker Marcelle Holdaway on Community Development.

21st May
R&USC Scholarship Awards at USC.

BIRTHDAYS FOR MARCH

5th Judy Tilley  17th Lloyd Larney  26th Rick Vickers

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY FOR MARCH

6th John & Beth Wann

NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT

ANOTHER ARCHAEOLOGIAL TALE

 








After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, British scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 200 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone network more than 150 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the British, in the weeks that followed, an American archaeologist dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, a story was published in the New York Times: "American archaeologists, finding traces of 250-year-old copper wire, have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network 50 years earlier than the British".

One week later, Australia 's Northern Territory News reported the following: "After digging as deep as 3 feet in his backyard in Tennant Creek , Northern Territory , Knackers Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely bugger-all. Knackers has therefore concluded that 250 years ago, Australia had already gone wireless."

Makes you feel proud to be Australian.