[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #209 Saturday, July 19, 2008
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years
	07/16/2008 7:59:20 AM PDT · Posted by martin_fierro · 39 replies · 683+ views timesonline.co.uk | 7/15/08 Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years Uwe Lange meets a recreation of one of his Bronze Age ancestors Roger Boyes in Berlin The good news for two villagers in the Sˆse valley of Germany yesterday was that they have discovered their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents -- give or take a generation or two. The bad news is that their long-lost ancestors may have grilled and eaten other members of their clan. Every family has its skeletons in the cave, though, so Manfred Hucht-hausen, 58, a teacher, and 48-year-old surveyor Uwe Lange remained in celebratory mood. Thanks to...
Prehistory and Origins
Cro-Magnon 28,000 Years Old Had DNA Like Modern Humans
	07/16/2008 1:27:14 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 79 replies · 988+ views Science Daily | July 16, 2008 Some 40,000 years ago, Cro-Magnons -- the first people who had a skeleton that looked anatomically modern -- entered Europe, coming from Africa. A group of geneticists, coordinated by Guido Barbujani and David Caramelli of the Universities of Ferrara and Florence, shows that a Cro-Magnoid individual who lived in Southern Italy 28,000 years ago was a modern European, genetically as well as anatomically.
Southeast Asia
Cambodian Official: Thai Troops Cross Border in Temple Dispute
	07/15/2008 8:35:21 PM PDT · Posted by skully · 6 replies · 282+ views VOICE OF AMERICA | 15 July 2008 | VOA News A Cambodian official says 40 troops from Thailand entered Cambodia Tuesday in the latest flare-up of a territorial dispute over an 11th century Hindu temple. Hang Soth, the Cambodian official who manages the Preah Vihear temple, said the troops crossed the border hours after three Thai activists were arrested for illegally entering Cambodia to reach the ruins. The activists have since been released to Thai authorities. Thai military officials deny their troops crossed the border into Cambodia. They say their troops have been deployed to the nearby area.
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Canal fossils give clue to formation of Americas
	07/18/2008 10:57:47 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 207+ views Reuters | Thursday, July 17, 2008 | Andrew Beatty, ed by John O'Callaghan Geologists from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution, which has a permanent base in Panama, say engineers digging to widen the Panama Canal have uncovered more than 500 fossils including teeth and bones of rodents, horses, crocodiles and turtles that lived before a land bridge linked North and South America... Scientists believe the South American and Caribbean tectonic plates collided around 15 million years ago, causing volcanic activity that eventually formed a thin strip of land linking the Americas and separating the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The bridge was probably fully formed, in a way that mammals could walk over it, some...
Scotland Yet
Exploration of underwater forest [Loch Tay]
	07/16/2008 10:42:43 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 314+ views BBC | Tuesday, July 15, 2008 | unattributed Underwater archaeologists are taking to Loch Tay to try to uncover more about a submerged prehistoric woodland. The stumps of about 50 trees were discovered in 2005 - some of them are thought to be about 6,000 years old. The experts are now aiming to find their root system and establish the depth to which the trees are buried. Meanwhile, a campaign has been launched to help restore the reconstructed crannog, an ancient loch dwelling, which attracts thousands of visitors. The Scottish Trust for Underwater Archaeology will spend the next two weeks inspecting the drowned forest. They will be focusing...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Cyrus cylinder's ancient bill of rights 'is just propaganda'
	07/16/2008 9:48:25 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 12 replies · 656+ views The Telegraph | 7/16/2008 | Harry de Quetteville A 2500 year old Persian treasure dubbed the world's 'first bill of human rights' has been branded a piece of shameless 'propaganda' by German historians. The Cyrus cylinder, which is held by the British Museum, is a legacy of Cyrus the Great - the Persian emperor famed for freeing the Jews of ancient Babylon after conquering the city in 539 BC. A copy of the cylinder, which is covered in cuneiform script supposed to detail the ancient charter of rights, also hangs next to the Security Council Chamber in the United Nations headquarters in New York, where it is held...
Greece
Man arrested for tunnelling [Megara, west of Athens]
	07/16/2008 11:45:01 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 198+ views iAfrica | Monday, July 14, 2008 | unattributed A Greek man was arrested for digging tunnels from his home to protected archaeology sites in Megara, west of Athens, in a suspected case of antiquities trafficking, officials said on Saturday. The 44-year-old man allegedly dug a well nearly four metres deep, as well as a tunnel seven metres long leading to three smaller tunnels in an archaeological zone, Athens police said in a statement. The suspect was arrested on Friday and was to stand before an Athens court on Saturday for infringing laws protecting antiquities and national heritage. The man is said to have destroyed some antiquities during his...
The Olympics
Horse racecourse in ancient Olympia discovered after 1600 years
	07/16/2008 11:07:22 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 201+ views AlphaGalileo | July 14, 2008 | Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz Pausanias, a travel writer of the ancient world, described this course for horse races, its starting mechanisms, turning points and altars in much detail in the 2nd century AD... Another - previously unheeded - written source from the 11th century AD goes so far as to state the size and dimensions of the enclosure: "The olympiad has a course for horse races that [has a length of] 8 stadia. Each of the long sides is 3 stadia and 1 plethron long, while the width to the starting gates measures 1 stadion and 4 plethra, [a total of] 4800 feet. Near...
Faith and Philosophy
Sex curse found at ancient Cyprus site: report
	07/16/2008 10:50:34 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 24 replies · 496+ views Google News | July 12, 2008 | AFP An unexpected sexual curse has been uncovered by archaeologists at Cyprus's old city kingdom of Amathus, on the island's south coast near Limassol, according to a newspaper on Friday. "A curse is inscribed in Greek on a lead tablet and part of it reads: 'May your penis hurt when you make love'," Pierre Aubert, head of Athens Archaeological School in Greece told the English language Cyprus Weekly. He said the tablet showed a man standing holding something in his right hand that looks like an hour glass. The inscription dates back to the 7th century AD when Christianity was well...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Israeli Diver Discovers Ancient Amulet at Yavne
	07/14/2008 3:46:24 PM PDT · Posted by Nachum · 9 replies · 506+ views Arutz 7 | 7-14-08 | Hana Levi Julian (IsraelNN.com) A lifeguard diving at the Yavne-Yam antiquities site next to Palmachim beach, south of Tel-Aviv, unearthed a rare marble discus that was used 2,500 years ago to protect sea-going vessels from the evil eye. To date, only four such items have been found in the world -- two of them here in Israel, one recovered from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast at Carmel in addition to the one at Yavne-Yam. The ancient white marble discus, which dates back to 400-500 BCE, was discovered by David Shalom, who handed it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Dror Planer, of...
Ancient Cave Linked to Early Christians
	07/16/2008 2:36:32 PM PDT · Posted by Beowulf9 · 30 replies · 370+ views The Nation | July 17 2008 | unknown Rihab, Jordan - Excavations are continuing on a hilltop in the rural Jordanian town of Rihab to find additional evidence that supports a recent history-making discovery of what renowned archaeologists believe could be the first church on earth. We believe this is the world's first church, where early Christians took refuge after they escaped Roman persecution in Jerusalem and came here to perform their rituals in secrecy," archaeologist Abdul Qader al-Hosan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. Al-Hosan is head of the state-run Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies and doubles as a professor of archaeology at Hashemiyah University. "The evidence we have...
Navigation
Seas Striped With Newfound Currents
	07/14/2008 2:20:53 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 23 replies · 550+ views Natural History Magazine | Jul 14, 2008 | Brendan Borrell Sailors and scientists have been mapping ocean currents for centuries, but it turns out they've missed something big. How big? The entire ocean is striped with 100-mile-wide bands of slow-moving water that extend right down to the seafloor, according to a recent study.
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Y chromosome study sheds light on Athapaskan migration to southwest US
	07/16/2008 7:53:54 AM PDT · Posted by martin_fierro · 13 replies · 255+ views eurekalert.org | 7/15/08 Y chromosome study sheds light on Athapaskan migration to southwest US A large-scale genetic study of native North Americans offers new insights into the migration of a small group of Athapaskan natives from their subarctic home in northwest North America to the southwestern United States. The migration, which left no known archaeological trace, is believed to have occurred about 500 years ago. The study, led by researchers at the University of Illinois, is detailed this month in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. It relied on a genetic analysis of the Y chromosome and so offers a window on the...
Underwater Archaeology
Search for first Americans to plunge underwater
	07/15/2008 10:17:38 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 253+ views Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Tuesday, July 15, 2008 | Allison M. Heinrichs Before heading inland, paleo-Indians probably hugged the American coastline, congregating around freshwater rivers, Adovasio said. At the time, much of the world's water was locked up in glaciers, causing ocean levels to be lower and exposing more of the continental shelf. As the earth warmed and water levels rose, evidence of such settlements fell deeper and deeper below water... Dredging and storms have turned up tantalizing clues -- spearheads, bone tools -- that such sites are just waiting to be found in the Gulf of Mexico, said C. Andrew Hemmings, a University of Texas at Austin archaeologist who is leading...
Climate
First Humans To Settle Americas Came From Europe, Not From Asia Over Bering Strait -
	07/16/2008 8:02:06 PM PDT · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 32 replies · 762+ views ScienceDaily | July 17, 2008 Land-ice Bridge, New Research Suggests -- Research by a Valparaiso University geography professor and his students on the creation of Kankakee Sand Islands of Northwest Indiana is lending support to evidence that the first humans to settle the Americas came from Europe, a discovery that overturns decades of classroom lessons that nomadic tribes from Asia crossed a Bering Strait land-ice bridge. Valparaiso is a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research. Dr. Ron Janke began studying the origins of the Kankakee Sand Islands -- a series of hundreds of small, moon-shaped dunes that stretch from the southern tips of Lake...
Ancient Autopsies
Ulcers Discovered in Mummies
	07/16/2008 11:01:45 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 151+ views LiveScience | July 14, 2008 | Staff Two Mexican mummies had ulcers when they were alive. Remnants of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori were discovered in gastric tissue from the mummies, human remains believed to predate Columbus' discovery of the New World... "Our results show that H. pylori infections occurred around 1350 A.D. in the area we now know as Mexico," Lopez-Vidal said. Her research team included colleagues at the National Autonomous University of Mexico... The mummies for this research were recovered in a funeral cave of La Ventana, in the Chihuahua State desert, and in a cave in the state of Durango.
Oh So Mysteriouso
English Civil War 'ghost' captured on film by paranormal enthusiasts
	07/14/2008 8:07:22 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 28 replies · 1,378+ views The Telegraph | 7/13/2008 A ghostly figure, supposedly the spirit of a dead soldier from a key battle in the English Civil War, has been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts. The spirit of a dead soldier from the Battle of Naseby has supposedly been captured on film by a group of paranormal enthusiasts The Northampton Paranormal Group caught the figure on camera during a visit to the site of the Battle of Naseby, a field between the villages of Clipston and Naseby in Northamptonshire, last month. The visit coincided with the 363rd Anniversary of the Battle of Naseby. Members said...
Anastasia Screamed In Vain
DoD Lab Helps to Resolve Century-Old Russian Mystery [Tsar Survivors]
	07/15/2008 12:59:18 PM PDT · Posted by PurpleMan · 44 replies · 990+ views DefenseLink (DoD News) | July 15, 2008 | Fred Baker "A Defense Department DNA identification lab has helped bring to a close a near-century-old mystery, laying to rest a search for the remains of two children executed alongside the rest of the family of Russia's last czar." "Now, the lab has again helped the Russian government by identifying the remains of those two children, found last year in a shallow grave about 70 feet from the larger gravesite."
Massacre of the Russian royals: Horrific last hours of a dynasty
	07/18/2008 6:29:16 PM PDT · Posted by PotatoHeadMick · 64 replies · 1,593+ views Daily Mail (UK) | 19th July 2008 | Zoe Brennan Bayonetted and shot by drunken assassins, the slaughter of the Russian royal family shook the world. Now a new book reveals in compelling detail the horrifying final days of the Romanovs. As the light faded, a train halted in the siding near the remote railway station of Lyubinskaya on the Trans-Siberian railway line.
Early America
New York's Birth Date: Don't Go by City's Seal
	07/14/2008 3:49:35 AM PDT · Posted by Pharmboy · 20 replies · 377+ views NY Times | July 14, 2008 | SAM ROBERTS For decades, the proud seal of New York City, with its depiction of a sailor and a Manhattan Indian, of beavers and flour barrels and the sails of a windmill, has celebrated 1625 as the year the city was founded. There's just one problem: Most historians say the year has hardly any historical significance. The first settlers arrived in what would become part of New York City on a Dutch ship as early as 1623; some say 1624. The Dutch "purchased" Manhattan in 1626. The first charter was granted in 1653. And the most notable event of 1625? Dutch settlers...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Archeologists [sic] Frustrated Over FBI Investigation [Escalante Man]
	07/16/2008 11:04:12 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 433+ views KUTV | July 13, 2008 | Dan Rascon The skeleton, dubbed "Escalante Man" in Bureau of Land Management documents, was found last winter off Highway 12 near Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The bones were likely from an American Indian man in his 50s or 60s. The bones were found with a musket, ammunition and a bucket. Researchers said evidence indicates the man died during the mid- to late-19th century... FBI spokesman Juan Becerra said he couldn't comment on the case because it's part of an ongoing investigation... The BLM's Jeanette Matovich, who is trained in bioanthropology, participated in the dig. "The skeleton was completely collapsed in on itself,...
end of digest #209 20080719

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #209, v 4 n 51

- Saturday, July 19, 2008 - 38 topics - 2047823 to 2045087 - 696 members -

Welcome to the 209th issue. 21 topics this week, 38 last week. Membership steady.

I’m not seeing the headers in the digest posting. Let me know if that’s also a problem for you. I have no idea why this should suddenly be the case, but if it continues, the digest will not be particularly difficult to do — I’ll just post it out of the page source and be done with it.

Oh, okay, now I’m not seeing the standard coloring and stuff in the digest ping message. Obviously, something in the server code has changed, because my browser hasn’t. Seems to have started in the past half hour or so. So, it’s not pretty, but this is the best I can do.

Here’s the link to the factory-second digest posting. I won’t be including any other links in the digest until this gets fixed (if ever).

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1173106/posts?page=771#771

I need a new job.

[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #210 Saturday, July 26, 2008
Campfire Song and Dance
Meditate on It: Could ancient campfire rituals have separated us from Neanderthals?
	07/25/2008 7:52:16 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 128+ views Smithsonian.com | February 01, 2007 | Eric Jaffe A couple hundred-thousand years ago -- sometime after our hominid ancestors had controlled fire, but long before they were telling ghost stories -- early humans huddled around campfires to meditate and partake in shamanistic rituals. Today, when we slow down for a yellow light, recognize a dollar sign or do anything, really, that involves working memory, we have these ancient brainstorming sessions to thank. That's the somewhat controversial connection psychologist Matt J. Rossano is making. Ritualistic gatherings sharpened mental focus, he argues. Over time, this focus strengthened the mind's ability to connect symbols and meanings, eventually causing gene mutations that...
'Perception' gene tracked humanity's evolution, scientists say
	11/15/2005 8:25:44 AM PST · Posted by balrog666 · 143 replies · 1,886+ views Eurekalert | 14-Nov-2005 | David Bricker A gene thought to influence perception and susceptibility to drug dependence is expressed more readily in human beings than in other primates, and this difference coincides with the evolution of our species, say scientists at Indiana University Bloomington and three other academic institutions. Their report appears in the December issue of Public Library of Science Biology. The gene encodes prodynorphin, an opium-like protein implicated in the anticipation and experience of pain, social attachment and bonding, as well as learning and memory. "Humans have the ability to turn on this gene more easily and...
'Perception' gene tracked humanity's evolution, scientists say
	11/15/2005 8:35:27 AM PST · Posted by PatrickHenry · 16 replies · 702+ views EurekAlert (AAAS) | 14 November 2005 | David Bricker and Matthew Hahn A gene thought to influence perception and susceptibility to drug dependence is expressed more readily in human beings than in other primates, and this difference coincides with the evolution of our species, say scientists at Indiana University Bloomington and three other academic institutions. Their report appears in the December issue of Public Library of Science Biology. The gene encodes prodynorphin, an opium-like protein implicated in the anticipation and experience of pain, social attachment and bonding, as well as learning and memory. "Humans have the ability to turn on this gene more easily and more intensely than other primates," said IU...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Why Men Can't Remember Anniversaries?
	07/20/2008 9:30:34 AM PDT · Posted by Coffee200am · 48 replies · 797+ views Web India 123 | 07.20.2008 | UNI Oops ! He forgot your birthday again. Well do not blame his memory for this innocent forgetfulness as the the reason behind it is down in the genes. While men may fail to match a woman's ability to remember the date of an anniversary, they are better at storing a seemingly endless cache of facts and figures and all this is because of genetic differences. Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, have found that males use different genes from females when making the new connections in the brain that are needed to create long-term memories. They believe...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Archaeologists Trace Early Irrigation Farming In Ancient Yemen
	07/22/2008 11:10:49 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 118+ views Science Daily | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 | adapted from materials by University of Toronto In the remote desert highlands of southern Yemen, a team of archaeologists have discovered new evidence of ancient transitions from hunting and herding to irrigation agriculture 5,200 years ago. As part of a larger program of archaeological research, Michael Harrower from the University of Toronto and The Roots of Agriculture in Southern Arabia (RASA) team explored the Wadi Sana watershed documenting 174 ancient irrigation structures, modeled topography and hydrology, and interviewed contemporary camel and goat herders and irrigation farmers. "Agriculture in Yemen appeared relatively late in comparison with other areas of the Middle East, where farming first developed near the...
Diet and Cuisine
Study explores plausibility of bulbs and tubers in the diet of early human ancestors
	07/25/2008 8:15:37 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 70+ views PhysOrg | Friday, July 25, 2008 | UC Santa Cruz Anthropologist Nathaniel J. Dominy of the University of California, Santa Cruz, has advanced the investigation of the diet of early human ancestors by painstakingly measuring the mechanical properties of the underground parts of nearly 100 plant species across sub-Saharan Africa... in Dominy's exploration of the hypothesis that our earliest ancestors may have eaten a diet rich in plants, specifically their carbohydrate-rich underground storage organs... Dominy's new study, published in the journal Evolutionary Biology, also adds unexpected insights, because his analysis suggests that different hominin species relied to varying degrees on USOs... humans are uniquely adapted to digest starch... USOs leave...
Food for Thought Dietary change was a driving force in human evolution
	11/19/2002 12:54:45 PM PST · Posted by PatrickHenry · 38 replies · 780+ views Scientific American | December 2002 | William R. Leonard We humans are strange primates. We walk on two legs, carry around enormous brains and have colonized every corner of the globe. Anthropologists and biologists have long sought to understand how our lineage came to differ so profoundly from the primate norm in these ways, and over the years all manner of hypotheses aimed at explaining each of these oddities have been put forth. But a growing body of evidence indicates that these miscellaneous quirks of humanity in fact have a common thread: they are largely the result of natural selection acting to maximize dietary quality and foraging efficiency. Changes...
Asia
Poles point to Yunnan Neolithic age site
	07/24/2008 12:23:55 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 176+ views China Daily | July 22, 2008 | unattributed More than 2,000 wooden poles recently unearthed at a site in Jianchuan county, have been found to be more than 3,000 years old. The poles, still standing, were dug 4.5 m into the ground. Archaeologists said carbon tests showed the poles were from the Neolithic age, and were probably the foundations for a structure built by a community that existed at the time in southwest China... Excavation of the site is still going on. A total of 28 excavations have been made so far of an area that covers 1,350 sq m. Min Rui, a researcher at the Yunnan Archaeological...
Ancient Autopsies
Unique Archeological Find Unearthed in Suzdal
	07/23/2008 11:39:46 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 157+ views Russia-IC | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | Source: tatar-inform.ru Archeologists have uncovered a unique funerary monument of the first millennium AD on the territory of Opolye, Suzdal. The discovery of this Finno-Ugric burial ground is a real event for archeologists. In the excavation around 300 square meters large there have been unearthed 11 tombs that make it possible to reveal the earlier unknown facts of ancient history. The monument dating back to the 3rd-4th centuries has kept Finnish jewelry and is evidence of a rich militarized society, where cattle breeding played an important role. All entombments are located in a row. Judging by their size at least four of...
Epigraphy and Language
New life given to ancient Egyptian texts stored at Stanford for decades
	07/24/2008 8:09:38 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 230+ views Stanford University | July 23, 2008 | Adam Gorlick At first glance, the ancient Egyptian texts look like scraps of garbage. And more than 2,000 years ago, that's exactly what they were -- discarded documents, useless contracts and unwanted letters that were recycled into material needed to plaster over mummies, like some precursor to papier-mache... The texts, collectively called papyri, were donated to Stanford in the 1920s by an alumnus who bought them from an antiquities dealer in London. They've been overlooked by generations of faculty who haven't focused on papyrology, said Joe Manning, an associate professor of classics... About 70 texts in Stanford's collection of several hundred papyri...
Anatolia
Excavations lead to new discoveries in Sardis
	07/24/2008 8:32:46 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 163+ views Today's Zaman | Saturday, July 19, 2008 | Turkish Press Review Excavation first began here in 1854 and was conducted by Spiegelthal. Operations continued systematically until the breakout of World War I and resumed after 1958. Studies carried out between 1910 and 1914 by Harold Butler of Princeton University produced more than 1,230 tombs in the Artemis Temple. Upon Butler's death in 1921, a joint initiative by Harvard University and Cornell University, headed by Professor George M. A. Hanfman and subsequently by Professor Crawford H. Greenewalt, Jr., continued his work. The excavations have also led to the discovery of the Artemis Temple, the biggest known ancient synagogue of the world, one...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Deniers of Ancient Israelite History Exposed
	07/19/2008 12:38:15 AM PDT · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · 36 replies · 788+ views American Chronicle | July 11, 2008 | Rachel Neuwirth I was privileged this week to preview, before its release to the public, what may well prove to be a masterpiece of the documentary film-making art -- a new look at the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt in the light of contemporary archeology and politics in the Middle East. Filmmaker Tim Mahoney's "The Exodus Conspiracy",[1] due to be released within a few months, seeks to demonstrate the historical accuracy of the Biblical narrative of the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt on the basis of recent archaeological discoveries and geographic explorations. A secondary thesis of the film is...
Archaeology and the Book of Exodus: Exit From Egypt
	07/19/2008 4:45:07 PM PDT · Posted by DouglasKC · 26 replies · 505+ views Good News Magazine | Spring 1998 | Mario Seigle Archaeologists have made many significant discoveries that make the book of Exodus and the Israelistes' time in Egypt come alive. by Mario Seiglie In earlier issues, The Good News examined several archaeological finds that illuminate portions of the book of Genesis. In this issue we continue our exploration of discoveries that illuminate the biblical accounts, focusing on Exodus, the second book of the Bible.Exodus in English derives from the Latin and means simply "to exit." The book of Exodus describes the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, an event distinguished by...
Holy Moses! PBS documentary suggests Exodus not real
	07/22/2008 2:37:05 AM PDT · Posted by Man50D · 117 replies · 2,013+ views OrlandoSentinel.com | July 21, 2008 | Hal Boedeker Abraham didn't exist? The Exodus didn't happen? The Bible's Buried Secrets, a new PBS documentary, is likely to cause a furor. "It challenges the Bible's stories if you want to read them literally, and that will disturb many people," says archaeologist William Dever, who specializes in Israel's history. "But it explains how and why these stories ever came to be told in the first place, and how and why they were written down." The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association. The program says...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
800-year-old footprint unearthed in Canada
	07/24/2008 8:53:22 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 288+ views Xinhua | July 23, 2008 | Mu Xuequan (editor) A footprint of 800 years old has been unearthed at one of Canada's top archaeological sites in the western Manitoba Province, scientists announced Tuesday. The footprint was discovered when archaeologists dug at the site located in the central area of provincial capital Winnipeg. The area has a rich history that includes aboriginal camping, the fur trade, the construction of the railway, waves of immigration and the Industrial Age. The place has been determined as the future site of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and archaeologists have been scraping away at the site for the basement of the building. Thousands...
Biology and Cryptobiology
'Yeti hair' to get DNA analysis
	07/25/2008 6:22:30 AM PDT · Posted by Perdogg · 7 replies · 238+ views BBC | Page last updated at 11:19 GMT, Friday, 25 July 2008 12:19 UK | By Alastair Lawson Scientists in the UK who have examined hairs claimed to belong to a yeti in India say that an initial series of tests have proved inconclusive. Ape expert Ian Redmond says the hairs bear a "startling resemblance" to similar hairs collected by Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary. He told the BBC the Indian hairs are "potentially very exciting". After extensive microscope examinations, the hairs will now be sent to separate labs for DNA analysis.
Oh So Mysteriouso
Archaeologists find grave of suspected vampire
	07/14/2008 11:20:59 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 71 replies · 2,082+ views Czech News Agency (ČTK) | 14 July 2008 | Czech News Agency (ČTK) Archaeologists have uncovered a 4000-year-old grave in Mikulovice, east Bohemia, with remains of what might have been considered a vampire at the time, Nova TV has reported. The experts made the terrifying find within their research of a burial site from the Early Bronze Age. One of the graves was situated somewhat aside. The skeleton in it bears traces of unusual treatment. When buried, the dead man was weighed down with two big stones, one on his chest and the other on his head. "Remains treated in this way are now considered as...
Rome and Italy
Are you Roman tonight? Statue of 'Elvis' chiselled 1800 years before his birth.
	07/22/2008 7:11:53 PM PDT · Posted by PotatoHeadMick · 69 replies · 2,360+ views Daily Mail (UK) | 22nd July 2008 | Niall Firth With his dashing chiselled features, swept back hair and perky bouffant the resemblance is unmistakable. But incredibly this carving of Elvis Presley was created around 1800 years before the King of Rock and Roll first warbled his first note. The amazing likeness has come to light as part of a sale of ancient antiques by the auction house Bonhams.
'Hunka' Stone; Roman Artifact An Elvis-alike
	07/25/2008 7:09:35 AM PDT · Posted by Daffynition · 11 replies · 589+ views NYP | July 25, 2008 | Hasani Gittens It appears Elvis was always the King of Rock. A 1,800-year old Roman bust that looks strikingly like Elvis Presley is set to go on the auction block in London. The hunka hunka chiseled stone is a marble acroterion - a carved head from a sarcophagus corner - and will be part of a $2 million collection of more than 150 ancient works up for grabs Oct. 15. Australian art collector Graham Geddes, who owns the lot, even calls the carving "Elvis." The resemblance is so uncanny that one can almost see the country crooner's famous lip snarl and hear...
Greece
Obama at Temple of Hercules, McCain team slams media 'love affair'
	07/22/2008 3:58:00 PM PDT · Posted by Shermy · 20 replies · 642+ views Agence France Press | July 22, 2008 Barack Obama strode onto the world stage on Tuesday with trademark audacity, or as his political enemies would have it, a dearth of humility, in the symbolic shadow of Jordan's Temple of Hercules. As he tries to convince Americans he will keep them safe, the White House hopeful held his first major press conference abroad as presumptive Democratic nominee near ancient Roman ruins and a shrine to the mighty Greek mythic hero. Overlooking sun-bleached homes and minarets of the Jordanian capital, Obama spoke about his stealth mission to Iraq, against a backdrop seemingly chosen to suggest a...
Longer Perspectives
Google Earth and the Campaign to Wipe Israel off the Map
	06/26/2008 2:36:11 AM PDT · Posted by jerusalemjudy · 22 replies · 1,102+ views Jerusalem Center | June 25, 2008 | Andre Oboler The influence of the Internet on our lives is increasing. Israel's security is especially vulnerable to the manipulation of geography. The online world allows the creation of a virtual reality that at times bears only passing resemblance to facts on the ground. The gap between reality and virtual reality is further exploited by political activists promoting what we term "replacement geography," a means of controlling the virtual representation of land in place of controlling the land itself. In an information age, control on the common map may be worth more in negotiations than control on the ground.
Near East
So Much for the 'Looted Sites' [Iraq]
	07/14/2008 9:52:55 PM PDT · Posted by Uncle Ralph · 22 replies · 1,264+ views WSJ.com | July 15, 2008 | Melik Kaylan A recent mission to Iraq headed by top archaeologists ... found that, contrary to received wisdom, southern Iraq's most important historic sites ... had neither been seriously damaged nor looted after the American invasion. This, according to a report by staff writer Martin Bailey in the July issue of the Art Newspaper. The article has caused confusion, not to say consternation, among archaeologists and has been largely ignored by the mainstream press. Not surprising perhaps, since reports by experts blaming the U.S. for the postinvasion destruction of Iraq's heritage have been regular fixtures of the news. Up to now ......
Britain
Treasure hunter finds Roman ring [UK]
	07/24/2008 8:18:06 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 13 replies · 745+ views The Press | 24 July 2008 | Jeremy Small A Roman ring that was discovered in a field near York has been classified as an item of treasure, an inquest heard. The silver ring which could date as far back as first century AD, was discovered by Peter Spencer, while he was searching a field in Dunnington using a metal detector. The jewel, whose value will be determined by the treasure valuation committee, was despatched to the British Museum, where it was examined, and a report on it completed. The report, by Ralph Jackson, at the museum's department of pre-history and Europe, described the find as a small, Roman...
Climate
Gold Ring from Middle Ages Found in East Iceland
	07/23/2008 11:46:26 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 346+ views Iceland Review | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | unattributed Archeologists discovered a gold ring in a grave in Skriduklaustur in east Iceland where there used to be a monastery. The discovery is considered significant because very few gold rings have been found in archeological excavations in Iceland. "It looks like a normal wedding ring, but it has been decorated a little," archeologist Steinunn Kristjansdottir, who is responsible for the current excavation project in Skriduklaustur, told Morgunbladid. The ring is engraved with a leafy pattern and Kristjansdottir believes that indicates that the ring was made in the 16th or 17th century. The monastery church in Skriduklaustur was used after Iceland...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Academics ponder riddle of church's ancient stone [ Vikings ]
	07/25/2008 9:22:22 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 5+ views Liverpool Daily Post | July 19 2008 | Liam Murphy An ancient Viking burial stone kept in a south Wirral church... the Church of St Mary and St Helen, in Neston town centre... has been broken over time prior to its discovery, clearly depicts a man and a woman with an angel flying overhead... The stone depicts a warrior and a woman who -- say orthodox archaeological interpretations -- are a couple, with the stone possibly marking their joint burial site. But Mr Olly insists the woman depicted on the ornately carved stone is actually a Valkyrie, which would make this already unique artefact even more intriguing... Wirral Viking specialist...
Ireland
Conference celebrates the 800th anniversary of Kilkenny's charter
	07/24/2008 8:14:05 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 105+ views Kilkenny People | Friday, July 25, 2008 (last updated on the 22nd) | Staff Reporter A major conference is being held in Kilkenny this weekend to celebrate the 800th anniversary of William Marshal's charter to the city. William Marshal's (c.1146-1219) deeds in medieval war, jousting, politics, kingship and commerce are legendary. He rose from relative obscurity to become one of the most powerful and famous men in Europe and from 1207-1213 Kilkenny was at the centre of his extensive Irish lordship. From the city he embarked on a massive campaign of town development and administrative re-organisation which transformed the south-east of Ireland. This conference celebrates Marshal's life and achievements and marks the 800th anniversary of...
Early America
Mexico remains 'are US soldiers'
	07/22/2008 10:45:40 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 471+ views BBC | Friday, July 18, 2008 | unattributed The remains of what appear to be four US soldiers who died in 1846 during the Mexican-American war have been found, Mexican officials have said. The skeletons were found at the site of the Battle of Monterrey in northern Mexico alongside relics indicating the bodies were US soldiers... Mexico's state archaeological agency said the bodies were found in several digs between 1996 and 2008 but it took a long time to identify the remains because it was believed only Mexicans were buried at the battle site.
Africa
King Dingane artefacts discovered
	07/24/2008 12:01:38 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 150+ views Sowetan | July 16, 2008 | unattributed Historical artefacts dating back to the mid-19th century during King Dingane's reign have been unearthed at his former uMgungundlovu home in KwaZulu-Natal. The archeological find includes an iron spearhead and coloured glass beads. The dig was undertaken in an area where Dingane inspected his army and cattle. "It was here on February 4,1838 that King Dingane ordered the slaying of trekker leader Piet Retief and his party," read a statement from Amafa Heritage KZN chief executive Barry Marshall. The find will be displayed once the construction of Amafa's R25 million multi-media centre has been completed. Dingane (also spelt as Dingaan)...
Underwater Archaeology
Riddle of Lusitania sinking may finally be solved
	07/23/2008 1:00:22 PM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 210 replies · 3,261+ views The Times (London) American entrepreneur Gregg Bemis finally gets courts go-ahead to explore the wreck off IrelandIt is the best known shipwreck lying on the Irish seabed, but it is only today that the owner of the Lusitania will finally begin the first extensive visual documentation of the luxury liner that sank 93 years ago. Gregg Bemis, who bought the remains of the vessel for £1,000 from former partners in a diving business in 1968, has been granted an imaging licence by the Department of the Environment. This allows him to photograph and film the entire structure, and should allow him to produce...
World War Eleven
Bringing music from WWII Nazi death camps to life (Music by Captives)
	07/23/2008 12:08:14 PM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 10 replies · 218+ views China Post | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | Francoise Michel Collecting music written in internment camps before and during World War II may n ot occur to everyone but that has been Francesco Lotoro's quest since 1991. "To allow the musicians to continue to work was also a way to control them better," said the 44-year-old Italian Jew. "At Auschwitz, there were seven orchestras." Lotoro has amassed some 4,000 pieces, all composed between March 1933, when the Nazis' Dachau death camp was opened soon after Hitler won absolute power, and the end of World War II in 1945. But while much is from Nazi camps, Lotoro's collection...
Hitler the Comedian: The Nazi Leader's Bodyguard Reveals a Different Side to the Dictator
	06/24/2008 5:19:53 AM PDT · Posted by Coffee200am · 58 replies · 1,645+ views Mail Online | 06.23.2008 | Allan Hall Adolf Hitler found time amid the bloodiest war in history to crack jokes with his cronies. Hitler the comedian is one side of the Fuhrer painted in a new memoir called "The Last Witness" by one of the Nazi leader's bodyguards. Comedian: Hitler often cracked jokes according to his bodyguard Hitler, the mass killer, "had a small fund of jokes," recalled Misch, who is now 90. "The boss was said to be particularly fond of a couple jokes and told the best ones over and over," he said. While Misch did not divulge Hitler's favourite jokes ahead of the book's...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
58 years later, records unsealed in Rosenberg spy case
	07/23/2008 12:52:25 PM PDT · Posted by K-oneTexas · 32 replies · 1,411+ views CNN | July 22, 2008 | Ronni Berke 58 years later, records unsealed in Rosenberg spy case After 58 years, historians and journalists will have a chance to examine the secret grand jury testimony of witnesses in the espionage case against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The couple was investigated in 1950, tried in 1951 for conspiracy to commit espionage and convicted and sentenced to death in 1953. Cold War scholars are hoping the grand jury transcripts will shed light on some nagging questions about the case -- primarily, just how strong the case was against Ethel Rosenberg. The National Security Archive, the American Historical Association, the Georgetown University...
end of digest #210 20080726