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    11. Rare 200-year-old clay pipe depicting thylacine dubbed the 'holy grail' of Tasmanian archaeology

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      Key points: A clay pipe found in a bottle dump in Launceston appears to show one of the earliest recorded European depictions of a Tasmanian tiger It is believed to be at least 190 years old and...

      Key points:

      • A clay pipe found in a bottle dump in Launceston appears to show one of the earliest recorded European depictions of a Tasmanian tiger

      • It is believed to be at least 190 years old and handcrafted out of river clay by a local

      • Adding to the mystery of the pipe is the depiction of a kookaburra, which were were not introduced to Tasmania until 1902

      https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-08/rare-clay-pipe-depicts-tasmanian-tiger/12215284

      7 votes

    22. Today (29th April 2020) is the 250th anniversary of Captain Cook's landing at Botany Bay (Kamay)

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      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern...

      250 years ago, Captain James Cook and his ship the HMS Endeavour landed at Kamay (Botany Bay) on the eastern coast of Australia. He was in the middle of a months-long exploration of the eastern coast. His crew first spotted the Australian mainland on 11th April 1770, and they left Australian waters after taking possession of the continent in the name of King George III on 22nd August.

      This was not the first visitation of Australia by Europeans. That honour goes to Dutch sailor Willem Janszoon in his ship the Duyfken in 1606. Dutch & Portuguese sailors & traders continued to visit the north and west coasts for the next couple of centuries. They called the continent "New Holland".

      But Cook represented the first European power to assume possession of the continent. 18 years later, the English sent their First Fleet of convict ships to the land of New South Wales.

      250 years since Captain Cook arrived in Australia, his legacy remains fraught

      What Australians often get wrong about our most (in)famous explorer, Captain Cook

      For Indigenous people, Cook's voyage of 'discovery' was a ghostly visitation

      10 votes

    23. "Old King Cole was a merry old soul" - and possibly a real king in post-Roman Britain

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      I'm reading a book called 'British Kings & Queens', and there's a mention of a king called Coelius, who may have been the inspiration for the nursery rhyme 'Old King Cole'. I've done some research...

      I'm reading a book called 'British Kings & Queens', and there's a mention of a king called Coelius, who may have been the inspiration for the nursery rhyme 'Old King Cole'.

      I've done some research and found this local history about "Coel Hen (the Old) aka Coelius (of Ayrshire)" (sadly, the accompanying pictures seem to have disappeared).

      He seems to have been in power around the early 400s A.D. - about the time that the Romans exited Britain. His domain included Ayrshire in modern-day Scotland.

      7 votes