"Three Great Wars"

AM returning from a trip to Bavaria, where I stayed at the mountain town of Bischofsgrün.

It is a ski resort in winter, and the focus of several well-waymarked hiking trails especially popular in summer.

One trail, the Bischofsgrün Panormaweg, is rather disappointing as panoramwegs go - it never gains enough height to give extensive views of the surrounding countryside.

But it passes a site of military and historic interest - a former sanatorium that was turned into a military hospital from 1914-20.

Entrance to the part of the grounds used as a cemetery

Memorial near the entrance, which bears the inscription (roughly translated): From 1914-20 the sanatorium was a military hospital. Of the soldiers who died there, 21 were buried in the grounds. The small cemetery was redesigned in 1954 and expanded as a soldiers' memorial by Paul Dürrbeck. Since then it has been a discreet place of pilgrimage to dead soldiers.

A search on the internet reveals Dürrbeck was the chief physician of the sanatorium, and that in 1954 he had a bell-tower memorial erected for the dead of "the three great wars since 1870," ie the Franco-Prussian War, WW1 and WW2.

Bell-tower memorial

The roundel at the bottom of the bell tower appears to list the number of soldiers from the town killed in each of those three wars

A specifically WW2 memorial

"The stone tent of the dead soldiers" (a literal translation that probably does not capture the true spirit of the wording)

Inside the "stone tent" - perhaps "tabernacle" is a less literal but better translation

Visitors, at least those from Germany, are presumably expected to know the identity of "the three great wars since 1870."

It made me wonder what wars would be thought of by other nationalities, given the same wording.

The two world conflicts would be cited by Brits, I am sure, but which would be the third?

Older people would probably name the Korean War, but younger ones might well instead say the Falklands War.

Americans would certainly include WW2, but perhaps the Korean and Vietnam Wars would squeeze out WW1.

Paint Job

GOING through a box of my old things at my parents', I came across the following partially painted figures.

They appear to be 25mm Romans, perhaps from Miniature Figurines.

I probably should not say this, but my painting skills some 40 years ago rather impress me!

Living In A Mountain

IN east Sardinia is the distinctive mountain of Tiscali, whose name was chosen for the Italian telecoms and internet company Tiscali Italia.

The mountain, 518 metres (1700ft) above sea level, is a doline, ie most of the top of the mountain has collapsed, leaving a great depression and a partial roof.

Tiscali, in the central distance, looks like a regular mountain from afar

Its hollowed-out interior was inhabited from 1400-700 BC, and again from the 2nd century BC, possibly for another 1,200 years.

Some Nuragic people are thought to have lived there as a way of escaping Roman colonisers, who took the island from Carthage in 238 BC.

A hole in the wall makes a natural viewing point from which approaching legionaries could have been spotted

All is not as clear as it might be, however, as archaeologists reckon the building techniques used inside the mountain differ from Nuragic settlements elsewhere on the island.

Possibly the site was used in pre-Nuragic times, but whatever the circumstances it must have been a precarious place to live as apparently the only available water was from rain.

Nuragic dwellings are being painstakingly reconstructed, with much still to be done

Nuragic Villages

THE Nuragic people were illiterate, but skilled at dry-stone building techniques.

Entrance to a Nuragic arena

Archaeologists believe seating on the internal sides of the walls of this building suggests it was a meeting place for elders

Giants' Tombs

Giants' Tombs are a distinctive Bronze Age feature of the Italian island of Sardinia.

Giants' Tomb near the town of Dorgali

The example pictured above, which I visited yesterday on a walking holiday, is one of about 800 on the island.

They were erected by the Nuragic civilisation, which flourished from at least 1700 BC - some sources say 2300 BC - and in parts of Sardinia may have outlasted Roman colonisation.

The Dorgali Giants' Tomb is a relatively sophisticated version in that the central stone or stele, made of granite and weighing more than seven tons, has been carved to give it a rounded top and central crossbar.

Behind the stele is a burial chamber measuring about 11 metres long.

The length of the burial chamber gave rise to the idea that these were graves for exceptionally tall people

In reality they were collective graves where locals were interred over generations.

Reconstruction by graphic artist Daniel Ventura

Mixed Auxilia

TWO more 10mm units of Hebrew auxilia.

Figures are mostly Newline Designs, but with some Magister Militum

Hebrew Javelins

Two units of javelins for my 10mm early Hebrew army - figures by Newline Designs

More Hebrews

THESE Hebrew auxiliaries are 10mm models from Newline Designs.

They are based to form a unit for Neil Thomas's ancient rules as part of my biblical project