Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #192
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Ancient Autopsies
Skull Changes Show Time Of Human-Neandertal Split
Gradual changes in human skull size and shape suggest a split between humans and Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals) about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, according to a new study. The work provides the first estimate a divergence date for modern humans and Neandertals based on the rate of change of physical characteristics. Genetic Drift Just as DNA changes accumulate over time and provide a kind of "molecular clock" by which the separation of closely related species can be dated, evolved differences in physical form can...
Skulls Of Modern Humans And Ancient Neanderthals... Not Natural Selection
The approximate locations of the cranial measurements used in the analyses are superimposed as red lines on lateral (A), anterior (B), and inferior (C) views of a human cranium. (Credit: National Academy of Sciences, PNAS (Copyright 2008)) ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2008) -- New research led by UC Davis anthropologist Tim Weaver adds to the evidence that chance, rather than natural selection, best explains why the skulls of modern humans and ancient Neanderthals evolved differently. The findings may alter how anthropologists think about human evolution. Weaver's study...
Prehistory and Origins
Upright Walking Began 6 Million Years Ago
A shape comparison of the most complete fossil femur (thigh bone) of one of the earliest known pre-humans, or hominins, with the femora of living apes, modern humans and other fossils, indicates the earliest form of bipedalism occurred at least six million years ago and persisted for at least four million years. William Jungers, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, and Brian Richmond, Ph.D., of George Washington University, say their finding indicates that the fossil belongs to very early human ancestors, and that upright walking is one of the first human characteristics...
Africa
Out of Africa, Not Once But Twice
Modern humans are known to have left Africa in a wave of migration around 50,000 years ago, but another, smaller group -- possibly a different subspecies -- left the continent 50,000 years earlier, suggests a new study. While all humans today are related to the second "out of Africa" group, it's likely that some populations native to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia retain genetic vestiges of the earlier migrants, according to the paper's author, Michael Schillaci. Schillaci, an...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Study unlocks Latin American past
European colonisation of South America resulted in a dramatic shift from a native American population to a largely mixed one, a genetic study has shown. It suggests male European settlers mated with native and African women, and slaughtered the men. But it adds that areas like Mexico City "still preserve the genetic heritage" because these areas had a high number of natives at the time of colonisation. The findings appear in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics. The international team of researchers wrote: "The history of Latin America has entailed a complex process of population mixture between natives and...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Clovis Overkill Didn't Wipe Out California's Sea Duck
Clovis-age natives, often noted for overhunting during their brief dominance in a primitive North America, deserve clemency in the case of California's flightless sea duck. New evidence says it took thousands of years for the duck to die out. A team of six scientists, including Jon M. Erlandson of the University of Oregon, pronounced their verdict in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (online, March 13) after holding court on thousands of years of archaeological testimony taken from bones of the extinct sea duck uncovered from 14 sites...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Cultivated Rice Kernel 12,000 Years Ago Discovered In Hunan
The rice kernel discovered in the Yuchanyan cultural relics in Central China's Hunan Province may be the earliest cultivated rice specimen yet discovered, said archaeologists. During the excavation at the Yuchanyan cultural relics in Daoxian County at the end of 2004, six rice kernels were discovered. The age of one was confirmed at 12,000 years ago, a transitional period from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age (10,000 years ago), or even earlier, said Yuan Jiarong, director of the provincial archaeological research institute. The ages of other five grains, which were...
Climate
Is Jawbone The Ancient Souvenir Ancestor Of The Humble Snow Globe
It is the 14,000-year-old version of a snow dome. Travellers during the late Ice Age would pick up an etched horse jawbone as a souvenir of their time in Europe. Arriving in Wales they would then display the trinket in their cave as a memento of their time abroad. And now experts believe this 11,500BC example is the "oldest ever piece of Welsh artwork". With an intricate zig-zag pattern the keepsake could also signal an important evolutionary step in communication, they...
British Isles
Gold Cup Find Led To (Anglo-Saxon) Graves Discovery
An important archaeological find by Broadstairs man Cliff Bradshaw prompted further excavations which uncovered centuries- old Anglo-Saxon graves. These later finds, thought to be the graves of women from the fifth and sixth centuries, were the subject of an inquest held last week by coroner Rebecca Cobb to decide if the finds should be declared treasure. She heard the excavations followed the discovery in 2001 by Cliff Bradshaw of what has since become known as the Ringlemere Cup, which was later declared a national treasure and is on show in...
Celts
Bronze Age Burial 'With Beer Mug'
The skeleton was "crouched" which was typical of the time -- A 4,000-year-old Bronze Age skeleton has been unearthed by archaeologists working on a site in east Kent. Canterbury Archaeological Trust said the curled-up skeleton was an example of a "Beaker" burial because of the pottery vessel placed at its feet. Education officer Marion Green said the "beautifully decorated" pot could have been "a type of beer mug". She said tests on beakers from other sites suggested Bronze Age man was brewing a type of beer from grain. The body was in a "crouched" position...
Central Asia
New Tomb For 'Altai Princess' To Be Built In Siberia Novosti | 3-20-2008
A tomb to house the remains of a woman found after being preserved in ice for 2,500 years will be built in Siberia's Altai Republic, the director of a local museum said on Thursday. The well-preserved remains of the woman dubbed the Altai Princess were discovered in the region by a team led by a Novosibirsk archeologist in 1993 near the Mongolian border, and have been studied at the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute in Novosibirsk. Residents of Altai, where...
Epigraphy and Language
Priceless Gold Coins Found[UK][Roman]
Rare Roman gold coins regarded as "priceless" by experts have been unearthed in Derbyshire. The coins, which date back to AD 286, were discovered by Derrick Fretwell while he was out digging near Ashbourne. After an internet search failed to shed any light on his discovery, he turned to Derby Museum who, in turn, sought help from experts at the British Museum in London. Their studies have revealed that one of the coins has never been classified before and the other is the first example to be found since 1975. The museum's Sam Moorhead, an expert in Roman antiquities, said:...
Rome and Italy
Ancient Rome's Earliest Temple Reconstructed
Experts have digitally reconstructed Rome's earliest major temple, the Temple of Apollo, built by the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The temple dates to 28 B.C., and its ruins stand adjacent to the emperor's imperial palaces on the city's famous Palatine Hill. Until now the original design of the temple had not been well understood, partly due to the ruins' poor state of preservation. Also, previous efforts to model the temple had been based on outdated historical assessments rather than on the ruins themselves. Stephan Zink, a graduate...
India
Wari-Bateshwar One Of Earliest Kingdoms The Daily Star | 3-19-2008 | Emran Hossain
Suggests find of pre-Mauryan silver coins in the area -- The coin hoard, unearthed by excavators from Wari-Bateshwar, containing silver punch-marked coin of Pre-Mauryan (right) and Mauryan (left) periods reveals that Wari-Batehswar was one of the Mahajanapadas in the Indian sub-continent. The discovery of silver punch-marked coins of the pre-Mauryan period dating back to 600 BC to 400 BC in Wari-Bateshwar reveals that the place was a Mahajanapada, one of the earliest kingdoms or states in the Indian subcontinent. The silver coins and artefacts unearthed and collected so far and geographical positioning...
Near East
Middle East Map of War Mapsofwar.com | 3/18/08 | Maps of War
I found this really cool map/flash movie. It has a moving timeline that corresponds with the changing map. Click on the link.Maps of War
Let's Have Jerusalem
Silver Coin Used To Pay Half Shekel Head-Temple Tax Found In Main Drainage Channel Of Jerusalem
A Silver Coin That Was Used To Pay The Half Shekel Head-Tax To The Temple Was Found In The Main Drainage Channel Of Jerusalem From The Second Temple Period "A reminder of the half shekel" is also paid today as a donation to the poor, before reading the Scroll of Esther at Purim This coming Thursday, before reading the Scroll of Esther, all devote Jews will contribute a sum of money - "a reminder of...
Flood, Here Comes the Flood
Forecasting Tsunami Threats Through Layers of Sand and Time
The catastrophic Indian Ocean event in December 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries -- including 15,000 in India -- was hardly a one freak occurrence. It could happen again. Newswise -- Azhii peralai: from the deep - large waves. This is the expression for "tsunami' in Tamil, the oldest language in southern India. For an ancient dialect to have its own phrase for destructive waves triggered by earthquakes, the people of Tamil Nadu likely experienced tsunamis periodically through the centuries, says Halifax...
Did A Comet Cause The Great Flood?
The Fenambosy chevrons at the tip of Madagascar. Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott The serpent's tails coil together menacingly. A horn juts sharply from its head. The creature looks as if it might be swimming through a sea of stars. Or is it making its way up a sheer basalt cliff? For Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, there is no confusion as he looks at this ancient petroglyph, scratched into a rock by a...
Did an Asteroid Impact Cause an Ancient Tsunami?
At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction -- toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface. The explanation is obvious to...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Web surfer spots mysterious crater
A Pembroke man was playing with Google Earth - an online digital map of the planet - when he came across something that seemed out of this world: an apparent meteorite crater in Pawtuckaway State Park in Nottingham. "I was just searching around on Google, looking at lakes, because I'm a sailor," said Stephen Dupuis, 52. "As I was panning down through the landscape, it kind of caught my eye." Dupuis, a multimedia artist, has been fascinated with astronomy and outer space since his father, a former engineer, built the heat shields used for the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s....
Crater to Grave
Ancient Global Dimming Linked to Volcanic Eruption (The Dark Ages)
A "dry fog" that muted the sun's rays in A.D. 536 and plunged half the world into a famine-inducing chill was triggered by the eruption of a supervolcano, a new study says. The cause of the sixth-century global dimming has long been a matter of debate, but a team of international researchers recently discovered acidic sulphate molecules, which are signs of an eruption, in Greenland ice. This is the first physical evidence for the A.D. 536 event, which according to ancient texts from Mesoamerica, Europe,...
Draining the Lizard
Gas-belching volcanoes may have killed dinosaurs
Gas-belching volcanoes may be to blame for a series of mass extinctions over the last 545 million years, including that of the dinosaurs, new evidence suggested on Thursday. A series of eruptions that formed the Deccan Traps in what is now India pumped huge amounts of sulfur into the atmosphere 65 million years ago, with likely devastating repercussions for the Earth's climate, scientists said. Gigantic eruptions, forming so-called "flood basalts," are one of two leading explanations for a series of mass extinctions that have killed off species periodically throughout history. The other theory involves asteroid impacts --...
Shirts and Skins
Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur
Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish- black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all. Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65- million-year-old rock tomb. "This is the closest many people will...
Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur (skin and all)
Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all. Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb. "This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large...
Paleontology
Early life on Earth - no predators, plenty of sex
Sexual reproduction may be nearly as old as animal life itself, according to researchers who discovered a new species of organism that lived 540 million years ago. The tube-like creatures called Funisia dorothea anchored themselves in abundant flocks onto the shallow, sandy seabed of what is now the Australian outback. Nothing appears to have evolved yet to eat them, so they lived peaceful lives, reproducing sexually at times and by asexual methods such as budding at other times, Mary Droser of the University of California Riverside and colleagues reported in the journal Science. They behaved very much...
Windmill Tilting
The last charge (Knights Templar are back...)
Almost 700 years after the Pope burned their leader at the stake, the Knights Templar are back. Or are they? Patrick Barkham tries to find out why the long-vanished order of Crusaders might suddenly be in the press.... ~~~snip~~~ Apart from the odd misplaced apostrophe and various arcane references to "annulling the bull", the advert gravely announced that the Knights Templar would petition the Pope to "restore the Order with the duties, rights and privileges appropriate to the 21st century and beyond". It called on all Templar groups and "brothers in arms" around the world to get in touch,...
Oh So Mysterioso
Archaeologists Uncover Unique Cremation Graves (Moravia)
Czech archaeologists have uncovered unique cremation graves in Prostejov that date back to the Neolithic period of the Linear Pottery culture and that indicate that people believed in human soul's existence 7,000 years ago already, daily Mlada fronta Dnes wrote Wednesday. The graves were uncovered during construction of a new industrial zone on the eastern edge of the town. "This is the first cremation burial site of the Linear-Pottery-culture to be uncovered on Czech soil. Below it there are skeleton graves...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Russian Archaeologists Find 15th Century Griffin Jug Piece
Archaeologists near the city of Veliky Novgorod in northwest Russia have discovered part of a centuries-old ceramic jug decorated with a mysterious griffin symbol. 'On the fragment of ceramic, most likely part of a broken jug, we saw an image of an animal with open jaws and wings, like a griffin,' the head of the archaeology team, Oleg Oleynikov, said. The griffin, portrayed as a gigantic bird with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, first appeared...
Early America
George Washington stopped coup d' etat
One of the most important dates in American history passed unnoticed last weekend. It was the 225th anniversary of the day we didn't become a banana republic. It ought to be a national holiday, right up there with July Fourth. But hardly anybody remembers it any more. The date was March 15, 1783. The Revolutionary War had just been won. Trouble was, the army hadn't been paid during the war. They were promised that they'd get their money when the war was over; but now that the time had come, Congress was reneging on that pledge. Resentment rippled through the...
A rare opening for Mount Vernon's cellar NorthJersey.com | Sunday, January 27, 2008 | TRACY GRANT
Getting there: Route 95 south to Washington, D.C., cross the Potomac River on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, move to the far right lane. After crossing the bridge, take the exit for Route 1 north, marked Alexandria. Once on Route 1, make the first right turn, onto Franklin Street. Turn right again at Washington Street, which is marked for Mount Vernon. Washington Street becomes the George Washington Parkway as you leave Alexandria, and Mount Vernon is 8 miles south, at the large traffic circle at the end of the parkway. Info: 703-780-2000 or mountvernon.org. Hours: Basement is open weekends from 9...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
BARBARIC SCENE ACCURATE ["John Adams" miniseries]
HBO miniseries on "John Adams" demonstrates early form of vaccination for smallpox For many who watched Sunday night's airing of "John Adams," the new HBO series, one scene seemed almost barbaric: A doctor makes incisions with a lancet in the arms of Abigail Adams and her children and places smallpox material directly into the wounds. Abigail Adams believed that you could protect healthy people by injecting them with a deadly disease. Wouldn't that be just as dangerous as hanging around with the infected soldiers shown in the movie? No, Abigail knew what she was doing when she insisted that her...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Investigator: Antiquities fund Iraqi extremists AP | 18 Mar 2008 | ELENA BECATOROS
The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq's rich cultural heritage is helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, says the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad's National Museum. Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the trafficking. Bogdanos, a New York assistant district attorney, noted that kidnappings and extortion remain the insurgents' main source of funds. But he said the link between extremist groups and antiquities smuggling in Iraq was "undeniable." "The Taliban are using opium to finance their activities in Afghanistan,"...
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Welcome to the 192nd issue. Welcome to the ping list to all new members. I have little say today, that's another break for you. Coins, purported origins, Central Asia, the Americas, some catastrophism, and some fringe stuff. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #193
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Australia and the Pacific
Floating A Big Idea: Ancient Use Of Rafts To Transport Goods Demonstrated
MIT students built a small-scale replica of an ancient oceangoing sailing raft to study its seaworthiness and handling. (Credit: Donna Coveney/MIT) Oceangoing sailing rafts plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried tradegoods for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Details of how the ancient trading system worked more than 1,000 years ago were reconstructed...
Africa
Sailor to recreate Phoenicians' epic African voyage
Stone Pages | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | The Independent
On the ancient Syrian island of Arwad, which was settled by the Phoenicians in about 2000 BCE, men are hard at work hammering wooden pegs into the hull of a ship. But this vessel will not be taking fishermen on their daily trip up and down the coast. It is destined for a greater adventure -- one that could solve a mystery which has baffled archaeologists for centuries. The adventure begins not in Arwad but in Dorset, where an Englishman has taken it upon himself to try to prove that the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa thousands of years before any Europeans...
Epigraphy and Language
Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First
A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms. The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the Americas were first settled, according to Edward Vajda, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Since at least 1923 researchers have suggested a connection exists between Asian and North American languages -- but this is the first time a link has been demonstrated...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Corn's Roots Dig Deeper Into South America
Eureka Alert | 3-24-2008 | University of Calgary
Earliest signs of maize as staple food found after spreading south from Mexican homeland -- Corn has long been known as the primary food crop in prehistoric North and Central America. Now it appears it may have been an important part of the South American diet for much longer than previously thought, according to new research by University of Calgary archaeologists who are cobbling together the ancient history of plant domestication in the New World. In a paper published in the March 24 advanced online edition of...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
The Lowly Sweet Potato May Unlock America's Past
How the root vegetable found it's way across the Pacific One of the enduring mysteries of world history is whether the Americas had any contact with the Old World before Columbus, apart from the brief Viking settlement in Newfoundland. Many aspects of higher civilisation in the New World, from the invention of pottery to the building of pyramids, have been ascribed to European, Asian or African voyagers, but none has stood up to scrutiny. The one convincing piece of evidence for pre-Hispanic contact...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Bison Bones Bolster Idea Ice Age Seafarers First To Americas
Head of a bison, part of a series of ancient bison bones found on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state. A series of discoveries of ancient bison bones on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state is fuelling excitement among researchers that the Pacific coast offered a food-rich ecosystem for Ice Age hunters some 14,000 years ago -- much earlier than the prevailing scientific theory pegs the arrival of humans to the New World. Fourteen...
British Isles
A Strapping Guy, But You Wouldn't Want to Kiss Him
He's tall, well-preserved, and enjoys archery and gritty food. And despite his bad teeth, a slight stoop and an unfortunate growth on his face, he may be looking for a (very) mature woman. If this description sounds all too familiar, then you may have found a direct descendant of Thanet's Bronze Age man. Experts examining a skeleton found on the Isle last week have painted a vivid picture of how the 4,000-year-old stranger might have looked -- and he definitely wasn't pretty. The beautifully preserved remains were found during a routine archaeological dig on development site near Monkton on which...
Age of Rama
Ancient Weapons Dug Up In India (15-20,000 Year Old)
Stone age weapons are not usually found in such an old soil layer Archaeologists in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal have discovered small weapons made of stone which are around 15,000-20,000 years old. The artefacts - dating to the Stone Age - were found during excavations in Murshidabad district, near Bangladesh. Archaeologists say the find is potentially significant as it suggests man's presence in the area dates back much earlier than previously believed. Finds such as this on the floodplains of the River Ganges are very...
India
Structure with artefacts found below Paharpur site temple
Daily Star | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | Hasibur Rahman Bilu
Archaeologists have found another ancient brick-built structure with floor and artefacts under the basement of the main temple at world heritage site Paharpur. Earlier, two brick-built structures of Gupta dynasty were found during an excavation, according to archaeologists of the Department of Archaeology. Dr Md Shafiqul Alam, director, Department of Archaeology, said the recently excavated structures were built in pre-Pal period. "Most probably the structure of temple was built by followers of Jain religion," Alam added. Nahid Sultana, custodian, Rabindra Kacharibari, Sirajganj and member of the excavation team, said the 2.1-metre width brick-built structure crossed the basement of the main...
Kushans / Yuen-Shi / Tocharians
Archeological sites found, forgotten [Kushan-era, terracotta]
Greater Kashmir | March 21, 2008 | Faheem Aslam
Discovery of Kushan Era terracotta tile pavements in Kutbal village of Islamabad district was hailed by the authorities as a "path breaking discovery." According to Iqbal Ahmad, an archeologist, the tiles depicted the taste and living standards of the people of First Century AD. The art on the excavated tiles shows the Greek influence, he said. And because of its archeological importance, the Kutbal site has been called as Mohenjodaro of Kashmir... In Lethpora area of Pulwama district, the 8th century terracotta heads and a female terracotta figurine were found. The site is yet to be declared as state protected,...
Central Asia
Mystery Tribe Comes To Light In Shaanxi
CCTV.com | 3-25-2008 | Liu Fang
There is something amazing, standing at a museum observing exhibits hundreds and even thousands of years old. But how does one top the mystery of a lost civilization? Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. The findings come from an excavation in northwest China's Shaanxi province. The site of what's believed to have been a major settlement is in Qishan county, Baoji city. There...
China
Largest Ancient Tombs In China
Zee News | 3-25-2008
Archaeologists have unearthed 604 tombs belonging to Qin Dynasty in Qujia Village, near Xi'an in China, which are believed to be the largest discovered in the country till date. Excavations were undertaken ahead of a railway improvement project in Shaanxi Province. "I was astounded by the sheer number of tombs," said Sun Weigang, a researcher with the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeological Research. "We know Shaanxi is rich in cultural relics, with over a thousand tombs unearthed every year. But we have never found so many in such a small area," he...
Egypt
Big statue of Amenhotep III discovered in Luxor
Egypt State Information Service | Saturday, March 22, 2008 | unattributed
A big statue of King Amenhotep III has been discovered by an Egyptian-German archeological mission in Luxor, said an Egyptian official on Friday 21/2/2008. The mission succeeded in collecting 100 pieces of another statue of Amenhotep III, Luxor Antiquities Director Mansour Borayek said. Led by Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian, the mission unearthed two heads of Sphinx in addition to seven statues of goddess Sekhmet on the western bank in Luxor, he added. In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness. Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. He...
Statue of Pharaonic queen discovered in south Egypt (Queen Tiy, wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III)
Egyptian and European archeologists on Saturday announced they had discovered a giant statue of an ancient pharaonic queen on the spectacular south Egypt site of the Colossi of Memnon. The statue represents Queen Tiy, the wife of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and stands 3.62 metres high (almost 12 feet). It was discovered around the site of the massive Colossi of Memnon twin statues that command the road to Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings. Two sphinx representing Tiy and Amenhotep III as well as 10 statues in black granite of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, who...
Amarna
Study Shows Life Was Tough For Ancient Egyptians
Photo: The Giza pyramids in a file photo. New evidence of a sick, deprived population working... CAIRO (Reuters) - New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the art records of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found. Tell el-Amarna was briefly the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favor of the Aten sun disk...
Greece
How The Greek Agora Changed The World
It was the heart of the city -- where ordinary citizens bought and sold goods, politics were discussed and ideas were passed among great minds like Aristotle and Plato. Who knows where we'd be without the "agoras" of ancient Greece. Lacking the concept of democracy, perhaps, or the formula for the length of the sides of a triangle (young math students, rejoice!). Modern doctors might not have anything to mutter as an oath. What went on at the agora went beyond...
Roman Britain
Gold Coins Of Rebel British Emperor Uncovered
Two rare gold coins of the rebel Roman emperor Carausius have been discovered on a construction site in the Midlands. Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare. Only 23 are known, and the last was found as long ago as 1975 in Hampshire. Carausius was a Menapian (an ancient Belgian) who commanded the British Fleet (Classis Britannica) operating in the English Channel and the North Sea in the AD 280s. Carausius fell out with reigning emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Hostile sources have it that he was lining his own pocket with plunder recovered...
Rome and Italy
Rome to 'paint' Trajan's Column with light
Archaeologists want to use light to recreate the brilliant colors once seen on Trajan's Column in Rome. The chaste white of Roman temples and monuments is a product of centuries of wear that has removed the original paint. The archaeology department in Rome is discussing the technical details of creating a light beam that would temporarily repaint the column, with the power company Acea and researchers at Rome University, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. Under the plan, the column would be illuminated on weekends for a few minutes every hour. "Nothing acts like light to deepen our understanding, activating...
Let's Have Jerusalem
At Jerusalem dig, archaeologists get a peek at palatial gardens
Ancient kings, armies, prophets and pilgrims have made their mark on the ancient hills of Jerusalem and have left behind some of the world's most important archaeological finds. But with every stone overturned, puzzling questions about the history of modern Western civilization come to light. This is especially true at the Tel Aviv University-owned site of Ramat Rachel, an archaeological site from biblical times. For that reason, Jewish and Christian archaeologists, theologians and volunteers come to dig there year after year. Clues revealed by last year's dig, such as elaborate underground water tunnels, pools, pipes and gutters,...
Climate
Megaherbs Flourished In Antarctica
This daisy-like 'megaherb' may have once grown in Antarctica 2 million years ago before spreading north when the last ice age started (Source: David Norton) Giant flowers found on Australia and New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands are probably survivors of lush forests that covered Antarctica before the beginning of the last ice age nearly 2 million years ago, scientists say. The flowers, known to researchers as megaherbs, grow abundantly on the tiny windswept islands such as the Snares, Auckland and Campbell island groups. Dr Steve Wagstaff from Landcare Research in...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Third source of oceanic iron is found
U.S. scientists are challenging a theory that assumes most iron needed to fertilize plankton blooms comes nearly entirely from wind-blown dust. Phoebe Lam of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and James Bishop of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown the key source of iron in the Western North Pacific is not dust, but the volcanic continental margins of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. Understanding the origins, transport mechanisms and fate of naturally occurring iron in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll surface waters is important in calculating...
Prehistory and Origins
Neanderthals Wore Make-Up And Liked To Chat
Could Neanderthals speak? The answer may depend on whether they used make-up. Francesco d'Errico, an archaeologist from the University of Bordeaux, France, has found crafted lumps of pigment -- essentially crayons -- left behind by Neanderthals across Europe. He says that Neanderthals, who most likely had pale skin, used these dark pigments to mark their own as well as animal skins. And, since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could speak, d'Errico says. Working with Marie Soressi of...
Ancient Autopsies
Human Ancestor Fossil Found in Europe (Spain)
A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say. The researchers said the fossil found last year at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with stone tools and animal bones, is up to 1.3 million years old. That would be 500,000 years older than remains from a 1997 find that prompted the naming of a new species: Homo antecessor, or Pioneer Man, possibly a common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Crusaders 'Left Genetic Legacy'
The genetic signature can be traced to Europe -- Scientists have detected the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East. The team says it found a particular DNA signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades. The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA. Details of the research have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The researchers found that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe. The scientists also found that...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Viking Treasure Found On Silloth Beach (UK)
TREASURE has been unearthed on a Silloth beach by a man out with a metal detector. Rare find: The silver Viking handle found at SillothCarlisle Coroners' Court heard that a silver Viking jug handle discovered at Beckfoot could be over 2,000 years old. The court heard the handle, dating back from between the first and fourth centuries by the British Museum, is made mainly from silver and is in the form of a stylised snake's head. North and West Cumbria Coroner, John Taylor, ruled yesterday...
Restore the Roar
Barbary lions were part of medieval Tower of London zoo
Two medieval skulls found in the Tower of London belonged to a kind of lion that boasted a giant dark mane, according to a genetic study that sheds new light on one of the world's oldest zoos. A Barbary lion skull that was part of the study Infamous as a place of torture and executions, and home to the Crown Jewels, the Tower was also home to lions, which were charismatic symbols of monarchy. Now researchers have used DNA evidence...
Paleontology
Dinosaur Fossil Found on Bus in Peru
Officials found the fossil of a giant dinosaur jawbone while investigating a suspicious package on a bus in the mountains of Peru on Tuesday. The fossil, weighing some 19 pounds, was found in the cargo hold of the bus, which was headed for the capital of Lima, and had been sent on the bus company's package service. "They began to check the package because it didn't have anything to indicate what was inside. They were worried about its weight, opened it and found the fossil," said Kleber Jimenez, a local police officer. Peru has struggled...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Man allegedly breaks ear off Easter Island icon
A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island. Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. A native Rapanui woman told authorities she witnessed the theft Sunday at Anakena beach and saw Kulju fleeing from the scene with a piece of the statue in his hand....
Easter Island Statue 'Vandalized'
A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island. Chilean Investigative Police released this photo showing the damage to the right earlobe. Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. A native Rapanui woman told authorities she witnessed the theft Sunday at...
Celts
Ancient Seahenge 'returns home'
BBC | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | unattributed
A timber circle dating back 4,000 years which was found in the sea off the Norfolk coast is to return to the county in a permanent display. Seahenge, with 55 oak posts and a central upturned stump dating from the Bronze Age, was found emerging from a beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1998... Next month Seahenge will go on display at the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn. After Seahenge was excavated, 3D laser scanning revealed the earliest metal tool marks on wood ever discovered in Britain... The site's excavation was initially halted by protests by a group of about 12 Druids...
Longer Perspectives
Trade in mammoth ivory, helped by global thaw, flourishes in Russia
As Viktor Seliverstov works in his makeshift studio in this hardscrabble Siberian town he is enveloped in a cloud of ivory dust. His electric carving tool whirrs over the milky surface of teeth and tusks, as he whittles them into key fobs, knife handles and scrimshaw figurines. But these are not whale bones or walrus tusks he is working on. The ivory in this part of the world comes from the remains of extinct woolly mammoths, as they emerge from the tundra where they have been frozen for thousands of years. It is a traditional Russian business...
Early America
History hidden under the soil of Annapolis
The American fight for liberty was not only the domain of John Adams and his fellow Boston patriots -- although HBO's miniseries might lead us to believe that. The fight also took place much closer to home in places like Annapolis, where a recently opened archaeological exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum shows how an 18th-century printmaker protested the British Stamp Act tax and how mid-19th-century freed slaves fought discrimination by purchasing brand-name canned goods and bottled libations. "They preferred national brands because of the predictability of price and guarantee of quality," says Mark Leone, founder and director of Archaeology in...
At Least It's Not ABBA
The World's Oldest Voice Recording Goes Online
It's no-one's idea of great music -- to some, it may sound like a dolphin with tonsilitis -- but the ghostly warbling of a French folk song nearly 148 years ago comprises the oldest recording of the human voice, France's Academy of Sciences says. The 10-second recording was made by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on April 9 1860, when Emperor Napoleon III, the last monarch of France, was on the throne. It was made a whole 17 years before Thomas Edison made his historic message, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on...
World War Eleven
Germany's tribute to its 'black disgrace'
UNLIKE the Jewish victims of Hitler's Third Reich, there is no permanent memorial to mark their terrible fate. While hundreds were murdered in the Nazi death camps because of the colour of their skin, their story has been largely forgotten. Now, however, a controversial new exhibition is forcing Germans to confront the disturbing truth of what happened to the thousands of black people living in their country during the F¸hrer's rise to power. The Nazi Documentation Centre in Cologne is showing the first exhibition on the subject. Called Distinguishing Feature: Negro - Blacks in National Socialist Times, it documents the...
Obituary
Robert Fagles, translator of ancient classics, dies at 74
Associated Press | March 28, 2008
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
FBI: Tattered parachute found in north Clark County may have been D.B. Cooper's (WA)
FBI agents in Seattle are examining a tattered parachute found recently in north Clark County, looking for evidence that it might have been used by legendary skyjacker D.B. Cooper. The 'chute was found by children living near the center of the jump zone where the skyjacker bailed out of the 727 jetliner with $200,000 in cash in 1971, never to be heard from again. Larry Carr, a special agent in the FBI's Seattle office, said the property owner was putting in a road on the site and his tractor blade uncovered some cloth. The children pulled out the canopy until...
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