Combe Hill is a causewayed enclosure, near Eastbourne in East Sussex, on
the northern edge of the South Downs. It consists of an inner circuit
of ditch and bank, incomplete where it meets a steep slope on its north
side, and the remains of an outer circuit. Causewayed enclosures were
built in England from shortly before 3700 BC until at least 3500 BC;
their purpose is not known. The enclosure has been excavated twice: in
1949, by Reginald Musson; and in 1962, by Veronica Seton-Williams, who
used it as a training opportunity for volunteers. Charcoal fragments
from Musson's dig were later dated to between 3500 and 3300 BC. Musson
also found a large quantity of Ebbsfleet ware pottery in one of the
ditches. Seton-Williams found three polished stone axes deposited in
another ditch, perhaps not long after it had been dug. The site is only
800 metres (870 yd) from Butts Brow, another Neolithic enclosure; both
sites may have seen Neolithic activity at the same time.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combe_Hill,_East_Sussex>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1787:
German-born British astronomer William Herschel discovered two
Uranian moons, later named Oberon and Titania by his son John.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_%28moon%29>
1863:
American Civil War: The Battle of Arkansas Post concluded with
the Union Army capturing a fort from Confederate forces near the mouth
of the Arkansas River.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arkansas_Post_%281863%29>
1923:
Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr to force the
Weimar Republic to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr>
2013:
French special forces failed in an attempted rescue of a DGSE
agent, who had been taken hostage in 2009 by al-Shabaab, in Bulo Marer,
Somalia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulo_Marer_hostage_rescue_attempt>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
animalcule:
1. (physiology, historical) A sperm cell or spermatozoon; also, the
embryo that was formerly thought to be contained inside a spermatozoon
in a fully developed state.
2. (zoology, archaic) A microscopic aquatic animal, including protozoa
and rotifers.
3. (obsolete) A small animal.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/animalcule>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
He whose soul is charged with awareness of God earns his inner
livelihood by a passionate desire to pour his life into the eternal
wells of love. … We do not live for our own sake. Life would be
preposterous if not for the love it confers. Faith implies no denial of
evil, no disregard of danger, no whitewashing of the abominable. He
whose heart is given to faith is mindful of the obstructive and awry, of
the sinister and pernicious. It is God's strange dominion over both good
and evil on which he relies. … Faith is not a mechanical insurance but
a dynamic, personal act, flowing between the heart of man and the love
of God.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel>