[Sca-cooks] Circles (was Period gifts in jars + question)

[Finne Boonen]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 07:55:08 EST, bronwynmgn at aol.com <bronwynmgn at aol.com> wrote:
> In a message dated 11/28/2004 1:23:44 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> mdiehl at nac.net writes:
> 
> <<> I think that if we were to take a little trip back to
> > Neolithic times, we'd find these folks toiling away well
> > into the evening,
> 
> Without efficient lighting ... how?  Was that possible in
> the Middle ages?>>
> 
> Never been to England, especially Northern England, in the summer, have you?
> They are a LOT closer to the Arctic Circle than most of the northern USA, and
> it stays quite light outside until well after 10 at night around the time of
> the summer solstice, and gets light very early in the morning.  A 12 or more
> hour workday would be quite possible just with natural light in the summer. In
> the winter, of course, you'd have a MUCH shorter period of good working light
> - possibly as little as 6 hours.  I've nver been there in the winter to
> experience it.

indeed, here in Belgium (wich is still a lot more south then the
uk-sites), in summer expect light from about 5/6am till 9/10pm, and on
a farm you're working most of that time :), so my guess is that our
forefathers would work those hours :)

and as to the complaining aobut 8hour shift, that's all it is
complaining, people have gotten used to not working a lot. If you look
back only a 150y ago, people worked 10-12h shifts if not more.

Finne