stv.tv/bingo - Odysseus Unbound

www.edinburghnews.com
26 THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2007
EVENING NEWS
Indian Cavalry City official on verge of unlocking secret to whereabouts
Club ready to
charge ahead
THE Indian Cavalry Club is to
open the doors of its new restaurant next month after being granted a liquor licence.
The curry restaurant plans to
launch its new premises on April
15, despite the concerns of local
residents.
It moved into the new building
on Coates Crescent in Edinburgh
after owners were told the lease at
their Atholl Place premises, directly opposite, was set to expire.
There had been concerns from
objectors that the new restaurant
would lead to noise problems and
drunken customers, but these
were denied by the restaurant.
A representative of owner
Shahid Chowdhury said: “This is a
very well-established, award-winning restaurant that first opened
its doors 20 years ago.
“The lease at Atholl Place
expires next month and the
restaurant was very lucky to find a
building so close to its current
location.”
Phil Attridge, chairman of the
licensing board, said: “I cannot
understand the concerns of the
objectors.
“There appears to be no trouble
where the restaurant is now, so I
cannot see there being significant
problems when it moves across
the road.”
Referee’s epic
quest to solve
ancient riddle
SANDRA DICK
E
ASTER ROAD erupted as
the man in black reached
into his pocket to deliver his
red card, sending Hearts’ Edgar
Jankauskas to the dressing room
and paving the way for a famous
Hibs victory.
For SPL veteran referee John
Underhill it was another fiery
weekend at the centre of the football action, a chance to enjoy his
sporting hobby in the red hot caul-
dron of an ill-tempered Edinburgh derby.
It was October 2005, and it
couldn’t have been further
removed from the gentle sound of
waves lapping against the
unspoiled shore of a baked Ionian
peninsula.
Yet the referee’s role in the game
at Easter Road was nothing compared to the dramatic impact he is
about to have on this sleepy Greek
outcrop.
And few – if indeed any – of
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those derby match football fans
could possibly imagine that the
man brandishing the red card at
the Hearts favourite might really
be some kind of modern day Indiana Jones, hunting for clues to
ancient civilisation, unravelling
centuries’ old riddles.
Today John is edging to within
touching distance of solving a perplexing Greek mystery that has
confounded scholars and sent
archaeologists on a wild goose
chase for two millennia. If the
theory he is working on proves to
be correct, the whistler and his two
colleagues will be feted the world
over for having made the greatest
classical find since the discovery of
the site of Troy 130 years ago.
And Paliki, that sleepy penin-
“In terms of classical
Greek scholarship and
Western literature,
Ithaca is the Holy Grail”
JOHN UNDERHILL
ITHACA OR BUST: Geologist John Underhill, who is also an SPL
sula jutting westwards from
Cephalonia – the island made
famous by Captain Correlli’s Mandolin – could suddenly find itself
at the heart of a real life major
Greek saga.
Today John is in his office at
Edinburgh University’s School of
Geoscience, looking back on a refereeing career that has placed him
at the top of the Scottish game.
“I’ve been lucky,” he says. “I’ve got
two hobbies, football and geology,
that I’ve been able to enjoy at a
high level. And they complement
each other perfectly.”
Now 46, he is looking towards
ending his refereeing career in the
next 12 months; winding down
from the world of whistle-blowing
just as the spotlight turns towards
his geological role as historical
detective and his work analysing
rock formations and land masses
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MARCHING ORDERS: John sends off Edgar Jankauskas
in a bid to track down a key site
mentioned in one of the world’s
greatest literary epics – Homer’s
The Odyssey.
Ithaca, wrote Homer, was the
home of the hero of Troy,
Odysseus, the Greek general who
cunningly tricked the Trojans
with a wooden horse. The poet
described it specifically: “Ithaca
itself lies low, furthest to the sea
towards dusk; the rest, apart, face
dawn and sun.” But while other
islands and locations mentioned
have been identified, mystery
always surrounded the exact location of the island and the site of
Odysseus’ palatial home.
Yet within 18 months John,
along with amateur historical
sleuth Robert Bittlestone and
Cambridge University professor
of Greek and Latin, James Diggle,
hope to unveil proof that Paliki is
the real ancient Ithaca, using
modern geological methods to
show it was once an island.
Just why the location of a place
which may or may not have existed in 1200 BC is of such interest
might well baffle some. But as
John explains, finding Ithaca has
been one of the biggest challenges
for scholars and historians down
the ages. “In terms of classical
Greek scholarship and Western
literature, Ithaca is the Holy
Grail,” he says.
John’s involvement in the
search for Odysseus’ homeland
EVENING NEWS
www.edinburghnews.com
THURSDAY, MARCH 29, 2007 27
of Ithaca – the home of mythical Greek hero Odysseus
Kefalonia
Corfu
GREECE
Ionian
Sea
Kefalonia
Zante
referee, hopes to prove Paliki was once the home of Greek general Odysseus.
came about by the most modern of
means.
“I had worked on the geology of
Cephalonia a while ago,” he says.
“The others had this theory and
wanted to work on it. They typed
Cephalonia and geology into
Google and my name came up.
“James had re-translated
ancient Greek text of The Odyssey
and looked specifically at geography references – all because of
what Robert had suggested as a
possible explanation for this
2000-year-old conundrum.”
Their theory – published last
year in their book, Odysseus
Unbound: The search for Homer’s
Ithaca – argues that the Paliki
peninsula was once an island separated from Cephalonia by a narrow strait of water. Using John’s
geological expertise, they have
analysed the argument that major
landslides and earthquakes had
combined to seal the strait, linking
what was once the separate island
of Ithaca to the main island.
“The more I looked into it –
including drilling a borehole at the
end of last year – it became more
possible,” says John. “The results
of that borehole in particular are
very supportive that the western
peninsula was once an island.”
His geological survey of the area
revealed the connecting strip of
land is composed of loose rockfall
and landslide material – supporting the idea it was once a waterway
Picture: KATE CHANDLER
THE HERO RETURNS HOME
THE year is 1200 BC, the
Trojans have been vanquished
thanks to a heroic Greek
general called Odysseus and
his ingenious wooden horse
plan.
Homer’s first epic poem,
The Iliad, has already set the
scene – now The Odyssey
charts his return to his palace
on the island of Ithaca and his
battle to regain his crown and
be reunited with his patient
wife, Penelope.
But first he must negotiate
Circe, a goddess who turns
men into pigs and Calypso,
who is so besotted that she
offers him the gift of
immortality if he will be her
eternal lover.
Eventually, only a message
from Zeus sets him free and
returns him to his homeland.
Written sometime between
800 to 600 BC by the blind
poet, The Odyssey and The
Iliad form two of the world’s
oldest surviving texts.
While some locations in each
book have stood the test of
time, others, such as Ithaca,
Odysseus’ homeland, have
remained a mystery.
filled in as the result of rockfalls
triggered by an earthquake.
A further marine survey of the
bays at each end found an offshore
marine valley which lines up with
where the ancient waterway
would have run.
But the biggest boost to the
theory emerged this week, when a
major geoscience specialist company, Fugro, joined the search,
bringing the latest geological
technical equipment and massive
resources to the hunt for Ithaca.
The Edinburgh link was
strengthened when the company
agreed to sponsor an Edinburgh
University PhD student, Kirsten
Hunter, to work full time on the
project. Soon it’s hoped industryscale geophysical techniques will
be brought to the site, enabling a
“full body scan” of the six-kilometre long isthmus.
“The next 18 months are crucial,” says Portsmouth-born John,
who now lives in Newington with
his wife, Rosemary, a teacher at
Hope Cottage Nursery School,
and his children Laura, 13 and
Matthew, 11.
“This is a conundrum that has
taxed people for 2000 years and
now the technology is there to help
solve it.”
sdick@edinburghnews.com
Aegean
Sea
Athens
Baltic ball set
to celebrate
two cultures
A “BALTIC ball” will take place in
the city tomorrow to celebrate
Scottish and Polish culture.
The Scottish Traditions of
Dance Trust has organised the
event as part of this year’s Ceilidh
Culture celebrations.
Director Angela Dreyer-Larsen
said: “My dad was Polish and was
brought up dancing from an early
age, Poles love dancing, especially
the men.
“Given the influx of Poles over
recent times, I felt the traditional
ceilidh we held as part of the
Edinburgh celebrations was a
wonderful opportunity to
embrace the two cultures and
bring them together to share a
common love – dancing.”
The band for the evening will be
Ceilidh Minogue, accompanied by
Dominic Lech, who will play traditional Polish dance music.
Scottish and Polish snacks will
be available to sample, and
whisky, vodka and Polish beer will
be on sale. The ball will take place
at the Southside Community Centre, Nicolson Street, Edinburgh,
tomorrow.