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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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #195
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Epigraphy and Language
Lost in Translation (Chinese and English speaking dyslexics have differences in brain anatomy.)
All dyslexics are not alike. According to new research, Chinese- and English-speaking people with the disorder have impairments in different regions of their brains. The findings shed light on the neurological basis of dyslexia and reveal fundamental differences in how brains process the two languages. Dyslexics, about 5% to 10% of the population in both the United States and China, have trouble making the connection between the sight and sound of a word. In English, this results in word distortions or transpositions of letters. "Dyslexia," for example, might be read as "Lysdexia." In Chinese, the problem can affect how a...
Ancient Autopsies
Skull Returns To Final Rest Place BBC | 4-11-2008
The skull is believed to be that of a woman in her 50s A rare 2,000-year-old Roman skull has been returned to the cave beneath the Yorkshire Dales where it was discovered by divers in 1996. Archaeologists were called in after cave divers unearthed human bones in what is believed to be one of the most important cave discoveries ever made. The skull dates to the 2nd Century and is that of a local woman in her 50s. It was stored at Sheffield University for carbon-dating and recently returned to the cave, which has...
British Isles
Bejeweled Anglo-Saxon Burial Suggests Cult
In seventh century England, a woman's jewelry-draped body was laid out on a specially constructed bed and buried in a grave that formed the center of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery, according to British archaeologists who recently excavated the site in Yorkshire. Her jewelry, which included a large shield-shaped pendant, the layout and location of the cemetery as well as excavated weaponry, such as knives and a fine langseax (a single-edged Anglo-Saxon sword), lead the scientists to believe she might have been a member of royalty who led a...
Roman Britain
Roman soldier's gift found[UK]
HE was many miles from home - a Roman soldier posted to Manchester, perhaps feeling cold and lonely, longing for loved ones left behind. He was called Aelius Victor. And now after 2,000 years an altar he built to keep a promise to the goddesses he prayed to has been unearthed in the middle of the city. The altar - described by experts as being in 'fantastic' condition - was discovered during an archaeological dig at a site on Greater Jackson Street earmarked for development. Aelius Victor had dedicated it to two minor goddesses. A Latin inscription on the altar...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
"Tower Lions" May Help Resurrect Extinct African Breed?
An extinct breed of lion from North Africa was held at the Tower of London in medieval times, a new study shows. A pair of skulls unearthed from the tower's moat in the 1930s belonged to Barbary lions, a subspecies that has since died out in the wild. The discovery raises the possibility that descendants of Barbary lions may still survive in captivity, which could help efforts to resurrect the dark-maned breed, researchers say. The lions' North African roots were revealed by analysis of...
Australia and the Pacific
Ancient tools unearthed in Australia
Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have been unearthed in a rock shelter in Australia's remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country, archaeologists said Monday. The tools include a piece of flint the size of a small cell phone and hundreds of tiny sharp stones that were used as knives. One local Aboriginal elder saw it as vindication of what his people have said all along -- that they have inhabited this land for tens of thousands of years. "I'm ecstatic, I'm over the moon, because it's...
Navigation
Russian-American Research Team Examines Origins Of Whaling Culture University Of Alaska - Fairbanks | 4-2-2008 | Kerynn Fisher
Un'en'en archaeological site on the Chutkotka Peninsula.(Photos by Sarah Meitl)Detail on the ivory carving excavated during the summer 2007 field season. Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known. University of Alaska Museum of the North archaeology curator Daniel Odess presented the team's findings at the Society for American Archaeology annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia last week. "The importance of whaling in arctic prehistory is clear....
India
Artefacts Reveal Rich History Of Craftsmanship (Wari-Bateshwar, India) The Daily Star | 4-7-2008 | Emran Hossain
A few semi-precious stone beads with motifs found at the Wari-Bateshwar archaeological site recently. The findings indicate the spot was a rich trade centre. Photo: STAR Archaeological studies on semi-precious stone beads and other artefacts found in Wari-Bateshwar indicate people of this land have a rich history of craftsmanship as old as around 2,500 years. Plenty of semi-precious stone beads are found and unearthed from Wari-Bateshwar and some of those are even identical to the artefacts found in Southeast Asia and other parts in the Indian subcontinent. This suggests...
Nubia / Kush
In The Reign Of The Black Pharaohs
Which country has the largest collection of pyramids? Think again, for it is not Egypt, but Sudan. Join Mohamed El-Hebeishy as he visits north Sudan in search of answers The Northern Cemetery in Meroe, where more than 30 pyramids are in site Our great grandfathers called it Ta-Seti, Land of the Bow. They were referring to the area south of the First Cataract at Aswan, and the reason behind the name was the unparalleled skill its inhabitants demonstrated when using the bow as a method of arm. Those excellent bowmen were actually the Kushites....
Egypt
The Tassili n'Ajjer [Algeria] : birthplace of ancient Egypt ? Journal 3 | 04-05-08 | Phillip Coppens
The Tassili n'Ajjer of Southern Algiers is described as the "largest storehouse of rock paintings in the world". But could it also be the origins of the ancient Egypt culture ? In January 2003, I made enquiries to visit the Hoggar Mountains and the Tassili n'Ajjer, one of the most enchanting mountain ranges on this planet. The two geographically close but nevertheless quite separate landscapes are located in the Sahara desert in southeast Algeria. I was told that if I could pack my bags immediately (literally), I could join the three weeks' trip. Unfortunately, I could not, but planned to...
Panspermia
Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life
Flash back three or four billion years -- Earth is a hot, dry and lifeless place. All is still. Without warning, a meteor slams into the desert plains at over ten thousand miles per hour. With it, this violent collision may have planted the chemical seeds of life on Earth. Scientists presented evidence today that desert heat, a little water, and meteorite impacts may have been enough to cook up one of the first prerequisites for life: The dominance of "left-handed" amino acids, the building blocks of life on this planet. In a report at the...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Ancient DNA: Reconstruction Of The Biological History Of Aldaieta Necropolis (Basque)
A research team from the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), and led by Ms Concepci√›n de la R˙a, has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains. Knowing the history of past populations and answering unresolved questions about them is highly interesting, more so when the information is obtained from the extraction of genetic material from...
Prehistory and Origins
Scientists Find Fingerprint Of Evolution Across The Human Genome
The Human Genome Project revealed that only a small fraction of the 3 billion "letter" DNA code actually instructs cells to manufacture proteins, the workhorses of most life processes. This has raised the question of what the remaining part of the human genome does. How much of the rest performs other biological functions, and how much is merely residue of prior genetic events? Scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and the University of Chicago now report that one of the steps in turning genetic information into proteins leaves genetic...
Longer Perspectives
Vanished: A Pueblo Mystery[Anasazi]
Perched on a lonesome bluff above the dusty San Pedro River, about 30 miles east of Tucson, the ancient stone ruin archaeologists call the Davis Ranch Site doesn't seem to fit in. Staring back from the opposite bank, the tumbled walls of Reeve Ruin are just as surprising. Some 700 years ago, as part of a vast migration, a people called the Anasazi, driven by God knows what, wandered from the north to form settlements like these, stamping the land with their own unique style. "Salado polychrome," says a visiting archaeologist turning over a shard of broken pottery. Reddish on...
River Runs Through It
Much Still To Be Learned About Cahokia Mounds
It's so much a part of the landscape that metro-east residents often don't even notice it, except when a visiting relative notices: "Look, there's the mound." Rising from what once was an endless grass sea parted by the Mississippi River, Monks Mound isn't even named after the Native American Indians who built it centuries ago, but the Trappist monks who lived there for only five years in the 19th century. No one knows what the long-vanished people who built the mounds called themselves,...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Earliest Mixtec Cremations Found: Show Elite Ate Dog
An ancient burial site in Mexico contains evidence that Mixtec Indians conducted funerary rituals involving cremation as far back as 3,000 years ago. The find represents the earliest known hints that Mixtecs used this burial practice, which was later reserved for Mixtec kings and Aztec emperors, according to researchers who excavated the site. Evidence from the site also suggests that a class of elite leaders emerged among the Mixtecs as early as 1100 B.C. In addition, the burials hold clues that dogs were an...
Mayans
"Cracking the Maya Code"
When the Spanish conquered the Maya empire in the 16th century, they forced their new subjects to convert to Christianity and speak and write in Spanish. But long before the Maya used the Roman alphabet, they had created their own rich and elegant script, featuring more than 800 hieroglyphs. Sadly, the glyphs' meanings were lost in the decades following the Conquest. Ever since, scholars have struggled to decode these symbols, pronounce the words they form, and understand the stories they tell. In this time line, follow the centuries-long decipherment, which has only recently reached the point...
Gene, Gene, the Genest Grass
'Ruthlessness gene' discovered - Dictatorial behaviour may be partly genetic, study suggests.
Could a gene be partly responsible for the behaviour of some of the worlds most infamous dictators? Selfish dictators may owe their behaviour partly to their genes, according to a study that claims to have found a genetic link to ruthlessness. The study might help to explain the money-grabbing tendencies of those with a Machiavellian streak -- from national dictators down to 'little Hitlers' found in workplaces the world over. Researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem found a link between a gene called AVPR1a and ruthless behaviour in an economic exercise called the 'Dictator Game'. The exercise allows players...
Upchuck Darwin
Genes Trigger Phobias In Kids And Teens
Our response to the things that scare us, from threatening men on dark streets to hairy spiders in the bath, is programmed to become active at different times in our lives, suggest two studies on the genetics of fear. Scientists already know that fears and phobias are shaped in part by genes. Identical twins, for example, are more likely to develop phobias for the same objects, such as snakes or rats, than non-identical twins. But less is known about when the genes involved act...
Empty DNA
Mitochondrial Mutations Make Tumors Spread
Cancer often strikes its final, fatal blow when a tumor spreads to other organs. A new study published online today in Science sheds light on this poorly understood process, called metastasis. The researchers report that mutations in mitochondrial DNA can spur metastasis and that it can be reversed with drugs, at least in mice. Mitochondria are the tiny organelles inherited from your mom that serve as the cell's powerhouses. They have their own DNA, called mtDNA. Ten years ago, cancer researchers noticed that mtDNA in tumor cells tends to be riddled with mutations--far more than in normal tissues. (This is...
Epidemic, Pandemic, Plague, the Sniffles
Plague Victims Discovered After 1500 Years (Justinian)
The remains of hundreds of victims, believed to have been killed in a plague that swept Italy 1500 years ago, have been found south of Rome. The bodies of men, women and children were found in Castro dei Volsci, in the region of Lazio, during excavations carried out by Lazio archaeological office. News of the extraordinary discovery was reported in the magazine, "Archeologia Viva". The victims are believed to have been victims of the Justinian Plague, a pandemic that killed as many as 100 million people around the...
Africa
Ethiopia: Dreamer helps unearth ancient church (Muslim guided by Blessed Mother)
Almost a year ago, a buried church was unearthed in Ethiopia. The church has invaluable historical and cultural value. Striking is that the unearthing is initiated by a man with a dream, as Africanews reporter Tedla Desta found out. However, he had to persue his mission and walk from the upper to the lower official chest of drawers but to no avail until finally he went to journalists (the 4th estate). It was then that he realized that media has actually the power to bring about change. From this time onwards the ears and eyes of the executives, congregates and the...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Uncovering Ancient Jerusalem
While politicians draw up plans to divide Israel's capital city, archaeologists are busily digging up Jerusalem's celebrated past. Given the media exposure Jerusalem archaeology is beginning to receive, it is possible that this city's past could spark more than just archaeological fervor. In the Arab village of Silwan, archaeologists are hard at work excavating the original Jerusalem -- the City of David. An Associated Press story on February 10 outlined how Silwan is "hard-wired into the politics of modern-day Arab-Israeli strife" and that new digs are cutting to the heart of who owns the Holy City today. "Palestinians and Israelis are trying...
Biology and Cryptobiology
"Lyuba" Gives Scientists Glimpse Of Mammoth Insides
Reuters Photo: The carcass of the 4-month-old mammoth, known to researchers as Lyuba, is seen on an... MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian scientists say they have obtained the most detailed pictures so far of the insides of a prehistoric animal, with the help of a baby mammoth called Lyuba found immaculately preserved in the Russian Arctic. The mammoth is named after the wife of the hunter who found her last year. The body was shipped back to Russia in February from Japan, where it was studied...
Paleontology
Ancient serpent shows its leg (hindlimbed snake fossil)
What was lost tens of millions of years ago is now found.A fossil animal locked in Lebanese limestone has been shown to be an extremely precious discovery - a snake with two legs. Scientists have only a handful of specimens that illustrate the evolutionary narrative that goes from ancient lizard to limbless modern serpent. Researchers at the European Light Source (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, used intense X-rays to confirm that a creature imprinted on a rock, and with one visible leg, had another appendage buried just under...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
"Dino Killer" Asteroid Was Half the Size Predicted?
The meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs might have been less than half the size of what previous models predicted. That's the finding of a new technique being developed to estimate the size of ancient impactors that left little or no remaining physical evidence of themselves after they collided with Earth. Scientists working on the technique used chemical signatures in seawater and ocean sediments to study the dino-killing impact that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 65 million years ago. They...
Climate
Ancient Imbalances Sent Earth's Continents "Wandering"
A new study lends weight to the controversial theory that Earth became massively imbalanced in the distant past, sending its tectonic plates on a mad dash to even things out. Bernhard Steinberger and Trond Torsvik, of the Geological Survey of Norway, analyzed rock samples dating back 320 million years to hunt for clues in Earth's magnetic field about the history of plate motions. The researchers found evidence of a steady northward continental motion and, during certain time intervals, clockwise and counterclockwise rotations. That pattern matches the...
Goring of Gore
The temperature of the planet is dropping like a stone...(They should have checked with Al first)
All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASAGISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously. A compiled list of all the sources can be seen...The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out most of the warming recorded over the past 100 years.
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Rochdale's Stonehenge? Manchester Evening News | April 9, 2008 | Alice McKeegan and David Ottewell
Archaeologists have unearthed a "mini-Stonehenge"... on the moors of Rochdale. The two nearby sites - an oval made up of collapsed slabs, and a 30-metre circle of rounded stones - are believed to be ancient burial sites dating back as far as 5,000 years... The two sites have been visited by Peter Iles, a leading archaeological expert from Lancashire County Council. They have also been inspected by English Heritage and entered on the official Greater Manchester archaeology database. English Heritage described both as "fairly well preserved" and claim both are "possible of Bronze age date" - meaning they could date...
Stonehenge
'Breakthrough' At Stonehenge Dig
Professor Darvill explains what is happening at the Stonehenge dig Archaeologists carrying out an excavation at Stonehenge say they have broken through to a layer that may finally explain why the site was built. The team has reached sockets that once held bluestones - smaller stones, most now missing or uprooted, which formed the site's original structure. The researchers believe that the bluestones could reveal that Stonehenge was once a place of healing. The dig is the first to take place...
Early America
67 Bodies Secretly Exhumed From NM Grave
Working in secret, federal archaeologists have dug up the remains of dozens of soldiers and children near a Civil War-era fort after an informant tipped them off about widespread grave-looting. The exhumations, conducted from August to October, removed 67 skeletons from the parched desert soil around Fort Craig -- 39 men, two women and 26 infants and children, according to two federal archaeologists who helped with the dig. They also found scores of empty graves and determined 20 had been looted. The government kept its exhumation of the unmarked cemetery near the historic New Mexico fort...
World War Eleven
Franco 'Collaborated With Nazis' To Prove Canary Islands Were Home To Aryan Race The Telegraph (UK) | 4-11-2008 | Fiona Govan
Spanish archaeologists collaborated with the Nazis in their attempts to prove the theory of Aryan supremacy and justify their claims of racial superiority over the Jews, according to a new book. Spain wanted to promote the idea that the Aryan race could be traced to the Canary Islands, amid claims they were all that remained of the lost continent of Atlantis. Archaeologists appointed by Franco were asked to look into claims the Canary Islands were the remains...
China
Need recommendation for edition of "Art of War"
I would like to buy my son a copy of The Art of War, but I've noticed that there are several editons, each with a different co-author. Would someone please recommened a particular edition/co-author? Thank you in advance.
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Sat nav drivers 'damaging ancient buildings' Telegraph.co.uk | 4-10-2008 | Aislinn Simpson
Britain's historic bridges, buildings and roads are under threat from drivers blithely following satellite navigation directions, a conservation society warned yesterday. Among those which have been damaged by traffic driving down unsuitable roads is a 200-year-old bridge in Oxfordshire, a 300-year-old cottage in Greater Manchester and Pevensey Castle in East Sussex, according to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Phillip Venning, the society's secretary, said the cost of repairing some of the damage to the buildings had run into thousands of pounds. "Blind reliance on satellite navigation is fast becoming a serious issue for old buildings as motorists...
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