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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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #194
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Greece
DNA Sheds Light On Minoans
Crete's fabled Minoan civilization was built by people from Anatolia, according to a new study by Greek and foreign scientists that disputes an earlier theory that said the Minoans' forefathers had come from Africa. The new study -- a collaboration by experts in Greece, the USA, Canada, Russia and Turkey -- drew its conclusions from the DNA analysis of 193 men from Crete and another 171 from former neolithic colonies in central and northern Greece. The results show that the country's neolithic population came to Greece by sea from Anatolia -- modern-day Iran, Iraq and...
Jacob's Ladder
Scientists Reshape Y Chromosome Haplogroup Tree Gaining New Insights Into Human Ancestry
The Y chromosome retains a remarkable record of human ancestry, since it is passed directly from father to son. In an article published in Genome Research scientists have utilized recently described genetic variations on the part of the Y chromosome that does not undergo recombination to significantly update and refine the Y chromosome haplogroup tree. Human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes: 22 pairs of autosomes, and one pair of sex chromosomes. Females carry a pair of X chromosomes that can swap, or...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Sweeps of human DNA yield discoveries
San Luis Obispo Tribune | Mar. 31, 2008 | MALCOLM RITTER
Scientists are scanning human DNA with a precision and scope once unthinkable and rapidly finding genes linked to cancer, arthritis, diabetes and other diseases. It's a payoff from a landmark achievement completed five years ago - the identification of all the building blocks in the human DNA. Follow-up research and leaps in DNA-scanning technology have opened the door to a flood of new reports about genetic links to disease. On a single day in February, for example, three separate research groups reported finding several genetic variants tied to the risk of getting prostate cancer. And over the past year or...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Clay tablet holds clue to asteroid mystery
British scientists have deciphered a mysterious ancient clay tablet and believe they have solved a riddle over a giant asteroid impact more than 5,000 years ago. Geologists have long puzzled over the shape of the land close to the town of Kofels in the Austrian Alps, but were unable to prove it had been caused by an asteroid. Now researchers say their translation of symbols on a star map from an ancient civilisation includes notes on a mile-wide asteroid that later hit Earth - which could have caused tens of thousands of deaths. The circular clay tablet was discovered 150...
Researchers: Asteroid Destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah
A clay tablet that has baffled scientists for 150 years has been identified as a witness's account of the asteroid suspected of being behind the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Researchers who cracked the cuneiform symbols on the Planisphere tablet believe that recorded an asteroid thought to have been more than half a mile across. The tablet, found by Henry Layard in the remains of the library in the royal place at Nineveh in the mid-19th century, is thought to be a 700 B.C. copy of notes made by a Sumerian astronomer watching the night sky. He referred to the...
Cuneiform clay tablet translated for the first time
A cuneiform clay tablet that has puzzled scholars for over 150 years has been translated for the first time. The tablet is now known to be a contemporary Sumerian observation of an asteroid impact at Kofels, Austria and is published in a new book, 'A Sumerian Observation of the Kofels' Impact Event.' The giant landslide centred at Kofels in Austria is 500m thick and five kilometres in diameter and has long been a mystery since geologists first looked at it in the 19th century. The conclusion drawn by research in the middle 20th century was that it must be...
Epidemic, Pandemic, Plague, the Sniffles
The Chances Of Surviving The Black Death
Why did some people survive the Black Death, and others succumb? At the time of the plague -- which ravaged Europe from 1347 to 1351, carrying off 50 million people, perhaps half the population -- various prophylactics were tried, from the killing of birds, cats and rats to the wearing of leather breeches (protecting the legs from flea bites) and the burning of aromatic spices and herbs. Now it seems that the best way of avoiding death from the disease was to be fit and healthy. Sharon DeWitte and James Wood of the...
Ancient Autopsies
Scientists Tantalize With 'Iceman' Findings (Canada)
The Vancouver Sun | 4-4-2008 | Darah Hansen
Scientists from around the world who have been studying the centuries-old human remains that melted out of a glacier in northwestern British Columbia in 1999 will gather for the first time in Victoria later this month to talk about what they've learned from the unnamed "iceman." The Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi Symposium will be held April 24-27 at the University of Victoria. It is being held in conjunction with the Northwest Anthropology Conference. The conference brings together more than 30 researchers from fields as diverse as archeology,...
Asia
Whaling scene found in 3,000-year-old picture[Russian Arctic]
Nature News | 31 Mar 2008 | Alexandra Witze
Arctic carving shows complexity of ancient hunting groups. Northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory. Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed carving of groups of hunters engaged in whaling -- sticking harpoons into the great mammals. The same site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some mighty impact, and remains from a number of dead whales. All of this adds up to the probability that the site, called Un'en'en, holds the earliest straightforward evidence of the practice...
3,000-Year-Old Ivory Carving Depicts Whaling Scene
Archaeologists working in the Russian Arctic have unearthed a remarkably detailed 3,000-year-old ivory carving that depicts groups of hunters engaged in whaling, which pushes back direct evidence for whaling by about 1,000 years. According to a report in Nature News, the ancient picture implies that northern hunters may have been killing whales 3,000 years ago and commemorating their bravery with pictures carved in ivory. Among the picture which depicts hunters sticking harpoons into whales, the site also yielded heavy stone blades that had been broken as if by some...
Cave Art
Rock Art From 5,000 Years Ago (Finland)
The Astuvansalmi rock paintings are located on a steep outcrop, resembling a human head, on the shore of lake Yovesi. The site may have been used for ceremonial purposes. Rock paintings created during the Stone Age can still be seen today in dozens of sites around Finland. These awe-inspiring artworks are like windows into the ancient past, revealing tantalising glimpses of long lost cultures. FINLAND'S rock paintings mainly consist of brownish-red figures and markings painted onto steep granite walls, often overlooking waterways. Scenes feature people, boats, elk, fish and mysterious partly human figures that may...
Number 9, Number 9, Number 9
AB Negative Blood Types In Northern Ireland.
I have been talking to my Mother, Thanks Blam, about getting a DNA test to deturmine heritige. AB Negitive is a rare blood type in Ireland, less than 1%. I have been wondering about the distribution of this Blood Type among people descended from those who emmigrated from Northern Ireland. My Mother is Black Irish, Not Protestant, Black Hair, Dark Brown Eyes, Olive Skin, not your normal Harp. My Nana said it was the milk man, not likely!
China
Archaeologists Find Evidence Of Origin Of Pacific Islanders
The origin of Pacific Islanders has been a mystery for years. Now archaeologists believe they have the answer. As Heidi Chang reports, they found it in China. The excavation of the Zishan site (Zhejiang Province) in 1996, where many artifacts from the Hemudu culture have been found China had a sea-faring civilization as long as 7000 years ago. Archaeologist Tianlong Jiao says, one day, these mariners sailed their canoes into the vastness of the Pacific Ocean, and stayed. He points out, "Most scientists, archaeologists,...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Archaeologist Begin Historic Stonehenge Dig
Archaeologists began a historic dig on Monday which they hope will unlock the ancient secrets of Stonehenge once and for all. The researchers started digging a trench to examine the first stones erected at the site -- the first excavation at the monument to be given the go-ahead for 44 years. Professors Geoffrey Wainwright (right) and Tim Darvill hope to unlock ancient secrets Samples recovered from the pit will provide material that could allow the team to date the start of work on the landmark...
Archaeologists start Stonehenge dig
Some of England's most sacred soil was disturbed Monday for the first time in more than four decades as archaeologists worked to solve the enduring riddle of Stonehenge: When and why was the prehistoric monument built? The excavation project, set to last until April 11, is designed to unearth materials that can be used to establish a firm date for when the first mysterious set of bluestones was put in place at Stonehenge, one of Britain's best known and least understood landmarks. The World Heritage site, a favorite with visitors the world over, has become popular with Druids,...
Roman Britain
Bones find may be Roman
Oxford Mail | 1st April 2008
Archaeologists working in Oxford city centre have unearthed bones that could be more than 2,000 years old. A team of archaeologists has been excavating a site between St Giles and Blackhall Road since mid January - and last week the diggers struck bone, uncovering what could be a mass grave. Seven bodies, believed to date to the Roman or Saxon period, have been found at the site. Sean Wallis, project officer for Reading-based Thames Valley Archaeological Services, said "The whole of the site has been quite dense with archaeology but the area that the bodies turned up we only started...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Were Assyrian rulers the forefathers of today's CEOs?
Dr. Oded Lipschits, from Tel Aviv University's Department of Archaeology, directs Ramat Rachel, an archaeological dig two miles from the Old City of Jerusalem. Until now archaeologists believed the site was a palace of an ancient Judean king, probably King Hezekiah, who built it around 700 BCE. But evidence points to foreign rule, says Dr. Lipschits, who believes the site was likely an ancient local administrative center -- a branch office -- of Assyrian rulers. "They were wise rulers," he says, "using a good strategy for keeping control, stability and order in the region." As today's corporations know well, the...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Gold necklace found is 'oldest in Americas'
This elegant gold necklace looks as if it was only made yesterday. In fact the nine inch necklace is four thousand years old and marks the oldest known worked gold artifact ever uncovered in the Americas, also representing the earliest evidence of an elite emerging among the simple people who lived there. Is this gold necklace the first evidence of elite society in the Americas In short, it marks the very early steps towards the appearance of royalty in the region, along with politics and luxury. The nine bead necklace, found near Lake Titicaca in southern Peru, is described by...
Prehistory and Origins
Fossilized feces found in Oregon suggest earliest human presence in North America
Hold the potty humor, please, but archaeologists digging in a dusty cave in Oregon have unearthed fossilized feces that appear to be oldest biological evidence of humans in North America. The ancient poop dates back 14,300 years. If the results hold up, that means the continent was populated more than 1,000 years before the so-called Clovis culture, long believed to be the first Americans. "This adds to a growing body of evidence that the human presence in the Americas predates Clovis," said Michael Waters, an anthropologist at Texas A&M University who was not involved in the project. DNA analysis of...
Navigation
Medieval Calculator Up For Grabs
The British Museum needs £350,000 to secure this astrolabe. The fate of a fourteenth-century pocket calculator is hanging in the balance between museum ownership and private sale. The device is a brass astrolabe quadrant that opens a new window on the mathematical and astronomical literacy of the Middle Ages, experts say. It can tell the time from the position of the Sun, calculate the heights of tall objects, and work out the date of Easter. Found in 2005, the instrument has captivated...
Epigraphy and Language
Aztec Math Decoded, Reveals Woes Of Ancient Tax Time
Today's tax codes are complicated, but the ancient Aztecs likely shared your pain. To measure tracts of taxable land, Aztec mathematicians had to develop their own specialized arithmetic, which has only now been decoded. By reading Aztec records from the city-state of Tepetlaoztoc, a pair of scientists recently figured out the complicated equations and fractions that officials once used to determine the size of land on which tributes were paid. Two ancient codices, written from A.D. 1540 to 1544, survive from Tepetlaoztoc. They...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Swedes Find Viking-Era Arab Coins
The Arab coins reveal where they were minted and the date Swedish archaeologists have discovered a rare hoard of Viking-age silver Arab coins near Stockholm's Arlanda airport. About 470 coins were found on 1 April at an early Iron Age burial site. They date from the 7th to 9th Century, when Viking traders travelled widely. There has been no similar find in that part of Sweden since the 1880s. Most of the coins were minted in Baghdad and Damascus, but some came from Persia and North Africa, said archaeologist Karin Beckman-Thoor. The team from the Swedish...
Bloody Vikings!
From bones to berserkers -- Vikings under the spotlight
Viking experts will be gathering at The University of Nottingham to discuss the findings of latest research into the Norsemen. Taking in the way the Vikings fought, lived, and left their mark on Europe, some of the country's leading experts in the field will be getting together at the Midlands Viking Symposium (MVS) on April 26. The MVS is aimed at anyone with an interest in the history and culture of the Vikings, with talks from specialists from a variety of disciplines whose work contributes to research in Scandinavia, the British Isles, and further afield. This research covers topics including...
Paleontology
Scientists Discover 356 Animal Inclusions Trapped In Opaque Amber 100 Million Years Old
Scientists Discover 356 Animal Inclusions Trapped In Opaque Amber 100 Million Years OldExamples of virtual 3D extraction of organisms embedded in opaque amber: a) Gastropod Ellobiidae; b) Myriapod Polyxenidae; c) Arachnid; d) Conifer branch (Glenrosa); e) Isopod crustacean Ligia; f) Insect hymenopteran Falciformicidae. (Credit: M. Lak, P. Tafforeau, D. Neraudeau (ESRF Grenoble and UMR CNRS 6118 Rennes)) ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2008) -- Paleontologists from the University of Rennes (France) and the ESRF have found the presence of 356 animal inclusions in completely opaque amber from mid-Cretaceous sites of Charentes (France). The team used the X-rays of the European light source...
Really Old Bus Schedule
Mystery Bone Found on Peruvian Bus
A suspicious package found on a bus in Peru turned out to contain a mysterious and massive animal jawbone, officials announced on Tuesday. Police who investigated the bus's cargo hold said they noticed the package because it had no identifying marks and was oddly heavy. "They were worried about its weight, opened it, and found the fossil," Kleber Jimenez, a local police officer, told the Reuters news service. Pablo de la Vera Cruz, an archaeologist at the Universidad Nacional de San AgustÃŒn de Arequipa, initially identified the 19-pound (8.6-kilogram) jawbone via police photos as perhaps belonging to a Triceratops, according...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Climate Change And Human Hunting Combine To Drive The Woolly Mammoth Extinct
Woolly mammoths were driven to extinction by climate change and human impacts. (Credit: Mauricio Anton) ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2008) -- Does the human species have mammoth blood on its hands" Scientists have long debated the relative importance of hunting by our ancestors and change in global climate in consigning the mammoth to the history books. A new paper uses climate models and fossil distribution to establish that the woolly mammoth went extinct primarily because of loss of habitat due to changes in temperature, while human hunting acted as the...
Study: Humans Drove Final Nail into Mammoth Coffin
Humans may have struck the final blow that killed the woolly-mammoth, but climate change seems to have played a major part in setting up the end-game, according to a new study. Though mammoth populations declined severely around 12,000 years ago, they didn't completely disappear until around 3,600 years ago. Scientists have long debated what finally drove the furry beasts over the edge. Researchers led by David Nogues-Bravo of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Spain used models of the climate,...
Climate
Melting Ice Caps May Trigger More Volcanic Eruptions
Catherine Brahic Vatnajokull in the south-east is the largest ice cap in Iceland and conceals several volcanoes (Image: NASA) A warmer world could be a more explosive one. Global warming is having a much more profound effect than just melting ice caps -- it is melting magma too. Vatnajokull is the largest ice cap in Iceland, and is disappearing at a rate of 5 cubic kilometres per year. Carolina Pagli of the University of Leeds, UK, and Freysteinn Sigmundsson of the University of Iceland have...
Australia and the Pacific
Natural Selection Protected Some East Asian Populations From Alcoholism, Study Suggests
Some change in the environment in many East Asian communities during the past few thousand years may have protected residents from becoming alcoholics, a new genetic analysis conducted by Yale School of Medicine researchers suggests. Scientists have long known that many Asians carry variants of genes that help regulate alcohol metabolism. Some of those genetic variants can make people feel uncomfortable, sometimes even ill, when drinking small amounts of alcohol. As a result of the prevalence of this gene, many, but not all, communities...
Location, Location, Location
Attention Freeper Braintrust -- Help Needed
These are photos of inscriptions which are over two of the doorways of the house we recently bought. The question - Are these just artistic decorations or do they actually say something in some language? If you don't know, but work at a university, etc. that has someone who knows middle eastern languages, I would REALLY appreciate you forwarding this to them so we can figure this out.
Early America
Silver Cross Reveals A Piece Of Acadian History
The Vancouver Sun | 3-29-2008 | Jill St. Marseille
Experts hope a small piece of Acadian history that offers a rare glimpse into pre-deportation Canada may open a wider window on that sore point in the country's past. The three-centimetre silver cross was discovered in Grand Pre, N.S., during an archeological dig by Saint Mary's University in 2006. Its physical properties and 250-year-old grave mark it as part of an important historical era - the deportation of thousands of Acadians in 1755. The tiny cross may even have links to...
Antarctic Folly
Flying penguins found by BBC programme
The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. Camera crews discovered a colony of Adelie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands. The programme is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: "We'd been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come.
Flying Penguins Found By BBC Programme (Amazing Photos)
The BBC will today screen remarkable footage of penguins flying as part of its new natural history series, Miracles of Evolution. Camera crews discovered a colony of Adelie penguins while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands. The programme is being presented by ex-Monty Python star Terry Jones, who said: "We'd been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come. "But then the weather took a turn for...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Shakespeare came from Wales
William Shakespeare's plays were penned by a little known Welsh law clerk, Dyfed ap Davis, it was revealed today. Because Welshmen were out of favour at the court of Queen Elizabeth 1, Monmouth-born ap Davis bribed the actor William Shakespeare to put his name to what are fallaciously known as the works of the great Bard of Stratford-upon-Avon. They shared the royalties and were often seen drunk together in Covent Garden and Cardiff Bay. Many of the plays were originally set in Wales but, because of the Queen's preferences, had to be transferred to more exotic climes. The character Hamlet...
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