[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

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #210 20080726 · Saturday, July 26, 2008 · 32 topics · 2051572 to 2047921 · 696 members ·
	Saturday Jul 26 2008 v 4 n 52 view this issue	Welcome to the 210th issue and the last of volume 4. 32 topics this week, 38 last week. Membership steady. This concludes the fourth year of the GGG Digest, and next week begins the fifth year. I'm at least as amazed as anyone. I had to go to a staff meeting and in-service training today. On the way out, three of us were discussing job openings elsewhere. IOW, I'm not the only one who needs a new job. Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #211 Saturday, August 2, 2008
Let's Have Jerusalem
Seal of King Zedekiah's minister found in J'lem dig
	08/01/2008 1:50:13 PM PDT · Posted by Alouette · 26 replies · 387+ views Jerusalem Post | Aug. 1, 2008 | Etgar Lefkowitz A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday. The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the...
Epigraphy and Language
Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar
	07/30/2008 10:56:36 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 30 replies · 597+ views The Times of London | July 12, 2008 | Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent Jerome Eisenberg, a specialist in faked ancient art, is claiming that the disc and its indecipherable text is not a relic dating from 1,700BC, but a forgery that has duped scholars since Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, "discovered" it in 1908 in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on Crete. Pernier was desperate to impress his colleagues with a find of his own, according to Dr Eisenberg, and needed to unearth something that could outdo the discoveries made by Sir Arthur Evans, the renowned English archaeologist, and Federico Halbherr, a fellow Italian... Dr Eisenberg, who has conducted appraisals for the US...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Flint hints at existence of Palaeolithic man in Ireland
	07/28/2008 7:24:09 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 204+ views Times Online | Sunday, July 27, 2008 | Norman Hammond The possibility of a Palaeolithic human presence in Ireland has once again presented itself. A flaked flint dating to about 200,000 years ago found in Co Down is certainly of human workmanship, but its ultimate origin remains uncertain. Discovered at Ballycullen, ten miles east of Belfast, the flake is 68mm long and wide and 31mm thick. Its originally dark surface is heavily patinated to a yellowish shade, and the lack of sharpness in its edges suggests that it has been rolled around by water or ice, Jon Stirland reports in Archaeology Ireland. Dr Farina Sternke has identified it as a...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
The Surprising History of America's Wild Horses
	07/26/2008 5:19:59 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 40 replies · 618+ views Natural History Magazine | 7/26/2008 | Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably by crossing the Bering land bridge) 2 to 3 million years ago. Following that original emigration, there were additional westward migrations to Asia and return migrations back to North America, as well as several extinctions of Equus species in North America.
Paleontology
Soft tissue in fossils still mysterious: Purported dinosaur soft tissue may be modern biofilms
	08/01/2008 9:48:00 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 332+ views Science News | July 29th, 2008 | Sid Perkins Three years ago, a team of scientists rocked the paleontology world by reporting that they'd recovered flexible tissue resembling blood vessels from a 68-million-year-old dinosaur fossil... Subsequent analyses by many of the same scientists -- including Mary H. Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh -- indicated that the fossil contained small bits of collagen, a fiber-forming protein that's the largest non-mineral component of bone... Schweitzer and her colleagues, of course, take issue with the new findings. "There really isn't a lot new here, although I really welcome that someone is attempting to look at and repeat...
Ancient Autopsies
First indication for embalming in Roman Greece
	07/31/2008 8:42:55 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 120+ views AlphaGalileo | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | unattributed A Swiss-Greek research team co-lead by Dr. Frank Rahli from the Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, found indication for embalming in Roman Greek times. By means of physico-chemical and histological methods, it was possible to show that various resins, oils and spices were used during embalming of a ca. 55 year old female in Northern Greece. This is the first ever multidisciplinary-based indication for artificial mummification in Greece at 300 AD. The remains of a ca. 55-year old female (ca. 300 AD, most likely of high-social status; actual location: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece) shows the preservation of various...
Climate
Archaeologists find 9,000-year-old rhino remains in Urals
	07/28/2008 8:08:14 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 28 replies · 381+ views RIA Novosti | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed Archaeologists in the Sverdlovsk Region in Russia's Urals have discovered the 9,000-year-old bones of a rhinoceros, a local museum worker said on Monday. The excavations during which the bones were discovered were carried out at a site on the bank of the Lobva River, said Nikolai Yerokhin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plant And Animal Ecology department. It was generally assumed that rhinoceros last wandered the Urals some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. However, the latest findings seem to prove that they existed in the area a lot more recently.
Vikings
Ruins may be Viking hunting outpost in Greenland
	07/31/2008 8:48:40 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 25 replies · 471+ views Reuters | July 28, 2008 | Alister Doyle Knut Espen Solberg, leader of 'The Melting Arctic' project mapping changes in the north, said the remains uncovered in past weeks in west Greenland may also be new evidence that the climate was less chilly about 1,000 years ago than it is today. 'We found something that most likely was a dock, made of rocks, for big ships up to 20-30 metres (60-90 ft) long,' he told Reuters by satellite phone from a yacht off Greenland. He said further study and carbon dating were needed to pinpoint the site's age... Viking accounts speak of hunting stations for walrus, seals and...
Britain
VIDEO: 2,000-year-old Roman body found in West Sussex
	07/27/2008 10:45:30 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 509+ views LittleHampton Gazette | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | unattributed The skeleton is believed to have been a warrior who died around the time of the Roman invasion of England in AD43. He is likely to have been a prince or rich person of some status because of the quantity and quality of goods found with his remains... "There is no comparision for this metalwork that we know of," said Dr Fox. "It might well be unique. It's a very intricate piece of work for its time. "Professor Barry Cunliffe, the professor of European archaelogy at Oxford University, visited the site when he was in Chichester and said he knew...
Ancient grave found on Bognor new homes site[UK]
	07/28/2008 9:00:54 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 9 replies · 518+ views The Argos | 28 July 2008 | Sam Underwood Land soon to become a new housing estate has yielded an unexpected treasure -- a 2,000- year-old skeleton, believed to be that of a prince, a warrior or a priest. Planning permission has been granted for more than 600 houses in open fields at North Bersted near Bognor. But before the work could go ahead, an archaeological survey had to be carried out on the site to check if there was anything of historical interest under the topsoil. What the team from the Thames Valley Archaeological Services found was beyond their wildest dreams. After digging tirelessly for several months they...
Neolithic Art
Over 100 Neolithic Stone Carvings Found In Northumberland[UK]
	07/31/2008 10:46:50 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 35 replies · 661+ views 24 Hour Museum | 31 July 2008 | 24 Hour Museum Staff Volunteers working in Northumberland and Durham have unearthed a remarkable collection of intricate rock art formations dating back 5,000 years. Over 100 of the extraordinary Neolithic carvings of concentric circles, interlocking rings and hollowed cups were uncovered in the region by a team of specially trained volunteers working on a four-year English Heritage backed project called the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP). Their findings have now been recorded and published online via a website called England's Rock Art (ERA), which was launched today, Thursday July 3 2008, athttp://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era. © English Heritage (Above) Barningham Moor County Durham: Photographer R....
Older Than The Pyramids, Buried For Centuries - Found By An Orkney Plumber
	03/17/2008 8:45:12 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 20 replies · 1,644+ views The Scotsman | 3-14-2008 | Tristan Stewart-Robinson A rare piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week. Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece. Archeologists last night heralded the discovery as a "once-in- 50-years event". But they warned...
Rock 'Face' Mystery Baffles Experts
	06/17/2004 4:00:51 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 29 replies · 224+ views Innovations Report | 6-17-2004 Archaeologists have found a trio of extraordinary stone carvings while charting the phenomenon of prehistoric rock markings in Northumberland, close to the Scottish border in the United Kingdom. Records and examples of over 950 prehistoric rock art panels exist in Northumberland, which are of the traditional 'cup and ring' variety, with a typical specimen featuring a series of cups and concentric circles pecked into sandstone outcrops and boulders. However, archaeologists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who are studying prehistoric rock carvings,...
Asia
Eclipses in Ancient China Spurred Science, Beheadings?
	07/31/2008 8:51:11 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 229+ views National Geographic News | July 29, 2008 | Brian Handwerk Ciyuan Liu and Liping Ma, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Xueshun Liu, of the University of British Columbia, studied early eclipse records and wrote of the total eclipse's special political position in ancient Chinese culture. "It was a warning to the Emperor -- for the Sun was the symbol of the Emperor according to traditional astrological theories," Liu said in email, quoting his 2003 paper published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage "When an eclipse occurred, the Emperor would normally eat vegetarian meals, avoid the main palace, perform rituals to rescue the Sun and, sometimes, issue...
Open Wide for Chungke
Ancient Ohioans' ball game mix of sport, religious ritual [ chungke or chunkey ]
	07/28/2008 8:44:25 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 195+ views Columbus Dispatch | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper As I've watched the Olympic trials on television, I've thought about the role athletic competitions might have played in ancient Ohio... In 1775, English trader James Adair described a game called chungke or chunkey that he saw being played in the South. Warriors took turns hurling a wheel-shape stone across a square plaza while others threw spears at the place where they anticipated the stone would come to rest. Adair writes that the chunkey stones were "kept with the strictest religious care" and belonged to the "town where they are used." Chunkey stones are a hallmark of the Mississippian period,...
Navigation
How Did People Reach the Americas?
	07/27/2008 10:12:03 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 33 replies · 429+ views US News | July 24, 2008 | Andrew Curry [isn't this Gannett?]
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Unknown Writing System Uncovered On Ancient Olmec Tablet
	07/30/2008 6:58:45 PM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 48 replies · 650+ views scienceagogo | 15 September 2006 | by Kate Melville Science magazine this week details the discovery of a stone block in Veracruz, Mexico, that contains a previously unknown system of writing; believed by archeologists to be the earliest in the Americas. The slab - named the Cascajal block - dates to the early first millennium BCE and has features that indicate it comes from the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. One of the archaeologists behind the discovery, Brown University's Stephen D. Houston, said that the block and its ancient script "link the Olmec civilization to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system, and reveal a new complexity to this civilization." "It's...
Cave Art
Many hands painted Lascaux caves
	07/31/2008 8:26:14 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 16 replies · 310+ views Times of London | July 29, 2008 | Norman Hammond The painted caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France are one of the most famed monuments of Ice Age art. Dating back about 17,000 years, the great Hall of the Bulls and its adjacent chambers proved so popular with visitors that a generation ago the cave had to be closed to save the paintings from encroaching mould. A replica, Lascaux II, was built nearby and has proved equally popular. One thing that strikes the visitor is the exuberance of the compositions, with hundreds of animals, including bison, horses and deer, parading along the walls and ceilings, often overlapping....
Australia and the Pacific
'Chicken and Chips' Theory of Pacific Migration
	07/31/2008 12:33:31 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 200+ views Newswise | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | University of Adelaide The study questions recent claims that chickens were first introduced into South America by Polynesians, before the arrival of Spanish chickens in the 15th century following Christopher Columbus. ...the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) Director Professor Alan Cooper says there has been considerable debate about the existence and degree of contact between Polynesians and South Americans, with the presence of the sweet potato throughout the Pacific often used as evidence of early trading contacts... A recent study claimed to have found the first direct evidence of a genetic link between ancient Polynesian and apparently pre-Columbian chickens...
Greece
Ancient Greek ship fished from sea
	07/28/2008 7:14:39 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 470+ views ANSA.it | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed An ancient Greek trading ship that had lain on the seabed off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily for 2,500 years was brought to the surface for the first time on Monday. The ancient Greek vessel is 21 metres long and 6.5 metres wide, making it by far the biggest of its kind ever discovered. Four Greek vessels found off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and France are at most 15 metres long. The one in Gela is also of particular value for scholars who will be able to delve into Greek naval construction techniques thanks to the amazing...
Egypt
Ancient Egyptian boat to be excavated, reassembled
	07/28/2008 10:43:47 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 269+ views Middle East Online | July 19, 2008 | Jason Keyser The 4,500-year-old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954 and painstakingly reconstructed. Experts believe the boats were meant to ferry the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid in the afterlife. Starting Saturday, tourists were allowed to view images of the inside of the second boat pit from a camera inserted through a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling. The video image, transmitted onto a small TV monitor at the site, showed layers of crisscrossing beams and planks on the floor of the dark pit... Experts will begin removing around 600...
Africa
Two Egyptians rewarded for turning in antiquities [ Ahmose ]
	07/31/2008 12:29:13 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 182+ views EarthTimes | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | DPA Egypt's top archaeologist said Tuesday that two Egyptian citizens were rewarded for turning in two pieces of antiquities they found while each was redecorating his house in the northern Menoufiya governorate. "The Egyptian Ministry of Culture decided to give each citizen five thousand Egyptian pounds (970 US dollars)," said Zahi Hawass, Head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Hawass stated that the two pieces belong to Ancient Egyptian King Ahmose of the 26th dynasty. After asserting the authenticity of the pieces, the SCA took the pieces to start their restoration process. Hawass added that both pieces are made of...
Strings Attached
Harrari Harps Recreates Biblical Instruments
	07/28/2008 8:51:11 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 242+ views IsraelNN.com | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | interview by Ben Bresky The harp of Israel goes back to the Tanach. It is written that the first person to play was a man called Yuval who played on a kinor. The next person was King David, who was the one who brought it to a very high level of awareness. He used it as a spiritual instrument to connect to Hashem. Then it went right into the Beit Hamikdash where there were 4,000 Leviim who played the harp. The tribe of Levi taught their children at age three to play on the nevel, the kinor, the shofar, and the silver trumpet. They...
Sex in the City
FOXSexpert: Kiss and Mind-Blowing Make-Up Sex
	07/25/2008 5:33:33 AM PDT · Posted by Pistolshot · 33 replies · 1,051+ views Fox News | Thursday, July 24, 2008 | Fox News It's a common way for couples to reconcile. Animalistic, uninhibited and aggressive, many couples are enthralled by make-up sex. Some couples actually thrive on it. So why is anger such a powerful stimulant? And what are the rules of engagement for resolving conflict in this way? While fighting as a form of foreplay doesn't make much sense, on second thought, it's not such an inconceivable aphrodisiac. Physiologically speaking, anger and arousal have quite a bit in common in revving up the body. When angry or sexually aroused, a person's body reacts in much the same way -- to the point...
Why Women Have Sex On The Brain
	09/09/2001 7:56:10 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 170 replies · 1,780+ views TheTimes.com.uk | 9-8-2001 | Nigel Hawkes Scientific study has answered the question of why we fall in love in the most unromantic way possible THE question that has perhaps most obsessed and mystified the poets, philosophers and thinkers -- why do we fall in love? -- has been answered in the most unromantic way possible: by the scientific study of the humble prairie vole. Music was the food of love in Shakespeare's book, but the truth, according to Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh, lies in a "love potion" ...
600 Year Old Easy Pieces
Archaeologists find 600-year-old chess piece in northwest Russia
	07/28/2008 9:31:27 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 436+ views RIA Novosti | July 18, 2008 | unattributed Archaeologists in northwest Russia have discovered a chess piece dating back to the late 14th century, a spokesman for local archaeologists said on Friday. "The king, around several centimeters tall, is made of solid wood, possibly of juniper," the spokesman said. The excavations are being carried out at the site of the Palace of Facets, in the Novgorod Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod. The palace is believed to be the oldest in Russia. According to the city chronicles, chess as a competitive game emerged in Veliky Novgorod, the foremost historic city in northwest Russia, in the 13th century, but was banned...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Roman dog skeleton is 'donated'
	07/28/2008 12:17:31 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 23 replies · 357+ views BBC | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | "posted" by "unattributed" A Lincolnshire charity has had what could be a 2,000-year-old dog skeleton donated to one of its stores. A note with the bones said they were Roman, excavated from a 1st Century AD pit at the Lawn in Lincoln in 1986... Nicknamed Caesar, the dog bones will be handed over to The Collection museum in Lincoln, she said... "It's not a big dog, probably like a small whippet or greyhound. There are lots of bones, though perhaps not all, but its like a big jigsaw puzzle," she added. A note from the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology which was...
Rome and Italy
Water To Run Down From Antonine Nymphaeum After 1300 Years
	07/28/2008 6:36:52 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 16 replies · 382+ views Turkish Press | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed Water will run down from the Antonine Nymphaeum, a monumental fountain located on the north of the ancient city of Sagalassos near Aglasun town of the southwestern Turkish province of Burdur, after some 1300 years. In an exclusive interview with the A.A, Semih Ercan said on Friday that restoration works on the fountain dated to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) were expected to finish in 2010. Ercan, who heads the restoration works, said, "the fountain with a height of 10 meters and width of 30 meters, is one of the most splendid structures in the ancient city. It...
Underwater Archaeology
Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.
	07/31/2008 8:35:20 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 29 replies · 707+ views New York Times | Thursday, July 31, 2008 | John Noble Wilford The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C. Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument's back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar. In the...
Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed
	07/31/2008 8:14:49 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 9 replies · 831+ views The Times | 7/30/2008 The secrets of the worlds oldest calculating machine are revealed today, showing that it had dials to mark the timing of eclipses and the Olympic games. Ever since the spectacular bronze device was salvaged from a shipwreck after its discovery in 1900 many have speculated about the uses of the mechanical calculator which was constructed long before the birth of Christ and was one of the wonders of the ancient world. The dictionary sized crumbly lump containing corroded fragments of what is now known to be a marvellous hand cranked machine is known as the 'Antikythera Mechanism' because it was...
Under the Boardwalk
Past Climate Change: Continental Stretching Preceding Opening Of The Drake Passage
	07/27/2008 10:18:40 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 298+ views ScienceDaily | Friday, July 25, 2008 | (Geological Society of America) ...age estimates for the onset of a seaway through the Drake Passage range from middle Eocene to early Miocene, complicating interpretations of the relationship between ocean circulation and global cooling. Studying the southeast tip of Tierra del Fuego, a region that was once attached to the Antarctic Peninsula, Ghiglione et al. discovered evidence for the opening of widespread early Eocene extensional depocenters. The succession of events described in their study show that the opening of a seaway through the Drake Passage was early enough to contribute to global cooling through lowering levels of atmospheric CO2. Their data bolster interpretations of...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Volunteers uncovers 58th Mammoth at the Mammoth Site (Hot Springs, SD)
	07/29/2008 1:28:53 AM PDT · Posted by ApplegateRanch · 16 replies · 387+ views RapidCityJournal | Friday, July 25, 2008 | Mary Garrigan Joanne Bugel is happy to be the Earthwatch volunteer who uncovered the 115th tusk at the Mammoth Site and moved the popular Hot Springs tourist site's mammoth tally to 58. [snip] This group has been a particularly productive bunch, said crew chief Don Morris. [snip] Bones unearthed by 2008 Earthwatch volunteers include: three tusks, a tooth, a patella, six ribs, a fibula, four vertebra and assorted other bones. Neteal Graves, 18, of Kaycee, Wyo., also unearthed some coprolite -- [snip] Graves has the Mammoth Site in her bloodline. In 1974, her mother, Cheri Graves, was a college...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Mystery hairs 'may have come from a Yeti'
	07/28/2008 6:56:50 AM PDT · Posted by Daffynition · 17 replies · 522+ views The Daily Telegraph | 28 Jul 2008 | staff reporter The hunt for the elusive creature - said to be 10ft tall, part man, part ape and otherwise known as the Abominable Snowman - has frustrated scientists for decades. Now tests at Oxford Brookes University on hairs said to be from a Yeti in India have failed to link the strands with any known species. Ape expert Ian Redmond, who is leading the research, said: "The hairs are the most positive evidence yet that a Yeti might possibly exist. "It may be that the region this animal is inhabiting is remote enough for it to remain undiscovered so far." The...
Meet the Flintstones
Rock solid proof?
	07/28/2008 2:17:21 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 148 replies · 2,095+ views The Weatherford Democrat | David May The limestone contains two distinct prints -- one of a human footprint and one belonging to a dinosaur. The significance of the cement-hard fossil is it shows the dinosaur print partially over and intersecting the human print. In other words, the stone's impressions indicate the human stepped first, the dinosaur second.
Campfire Song and Dance
Tanzania: Prehistoric Footprints Stir Fresh Controversy
	07/27/2008 10:38:06 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 278+ views The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) | Monday, July 21, 2008 | Zephania Ubwani Archaeological experts are divided on a plan to exhume the hominid footprints at Laetoli for public display, some arguing that this could lead to erosion of the rare imprints. The 3.6 million- year old footprints, discovered in 1978, have since the 1990s been reburied for protection while a replica of the original cast is on display at the site. Government authorities recently intended to exhume the oldest known footprints of human ancestors for public view in order to attract more tourists and researchers... With the assistance of scientists from Getty Conservation Institute of Los Angeles in the US, the track-way...
Swans in the Evening
Voyage to the bottom of the world's deepest lake
	07/28/2008 6:47:03 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 47 replies · 966+ views Russia Today | July 27, 2008 | unattributed The two Russian submersibles which dived to the sea-bed beneath the North Pole last year are now attempting to reach the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia. Mir One and Mir Two will try to measure the maximum depth of the world's deepest lake. A preliminary dive to test the equipment under water was postponed on Saturday because of bad weather. Research work on the bottom of the lake is scheduled to begin on July 29. Scientists intend to go as deep as 1,700 metres to study the tectonics of Lake Baikal and to inspect archaeological artefacts. The operation, which...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Woodwork discovery means summertime dig ends on a high: Peat-rich soil has preserved carpenter's...
	07/28/2008 9:51:09 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 291+ views Aberdeen Press and Journal | July 2008 | Alistair Beaton The latest summer season at one of the longest-running and most important archaeological excavations in the north-east has ended on a high note, with the uncovering of mediaeval woodwork. Peat-rich soil around the site of a lost bishop's palace, just outside Kemnay, has preserved sections of centuries-old carpentry in remarkable condition. Saw marks are visible on one piece and another has been turned and decorated on a primitive lathe by a skilled craftsman... The finds have been preserved in water and will go for microcarbon dating that could pinpoint when the timber was felled... Also found over recent weeks was...
Early America
Cathedral yields more surprises: Crews unearth Presidio chapel remnants
	07/30/2008 6:51:18 AM PDT · Posted by NYer · 8 replies · 242+ views Monterey Herald | July 30, 2008 The wall footings, foundation and floor of the oldest Christian house of worship in California were found during grading work on Monterey's San Carlos Cathedral on Monday. The "third chapel" of the Royal Presidio of Monterey was a rectangular adobe building located directly in front of the present stone church, according to archaeologist Ruben Mendoza of CSU-Monterey Bay. The chapel was built in 1772 after the first two chapels -- a lean-to made of brush and a later log pole structure with a thatched roof -- burned down. Historian Gary Breschini, writing on the Monterey County Historical Society Web site,...
Longer Perspectives
The world's oldest jokes revealed by university research
	07/31/2008 7:55:23 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 74 replies · 1,569+ views The Telegraph | 8/1/2008 | Stephen Adams Academics have unearthed what they believe to be Britain's oldest joke, a 1,000-year-old double-entendre about men's sexual desire. They found the wry observation in the Codex Exoniensis, a 10th century book of Anglo-Saxon poetry held at Exeter Cathedral. It reads: "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?' Answer: A key." Scouring ancient texts, researchers from found the jokes laid down in delicate manuscripts and carved into stone tablets up to three thousand years old. Dr Paul MacDonald said ancient civilizations laughed about much the same things as we do today....
Oh So Mysteriouso
Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci
	07/28/2008 6:04:40 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 33 replies · 702+ views Reuters | Jul 28, 2008 | Tim Castle Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines are uncannily similar to Chinese originals and were undoubtedly derived from them, a British amateur historian says in a newly-published book. Gavin Menzies sparked headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus. Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology undiscovered by the West to Italy in 1434, laying the foundation for the engineering marvels such as flying machines later drawn by Italian polymath Leonardo.
Bobbleheads Up Their...
Historical Society Bobbleheads Criticized As Offensive
	07/28/2008 8:44:40 PM PDT · Posted by LibFreeOrDie · 20 replies · 476+ views WMUR.com | POSTED: 10:39 am EDT July 28, 2008 | WMUR.com AP story. Headline and link only. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Anatolia
Turks Revere an Ancestor: Ol' St. Nick
	12/20/2001 4:04:25 PM PST · Posted by a_Turk · 38 replies · 1,193+ views International Herald Tribune | 12/20/2001 | John Ward Anderson For those who think Santa Claus is just a fantasy - brace yourselves. If the legends of that jolly old elf are traced back far enough, many lead to this down-on-its-luck farming community on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, where in the 4th century a kindly bishop named Nicholas performed so many good deeds that he later was named a saint and eventually earned worldwide renown as Father Christmas, or Noel Baba, as his predominantly Muslim countrymen call him. The North Pole it's not. In fact, to the Western eye, ...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Spanish Moor-killing saint is given the chop (Might offend muslims)
	05/02/2004 3:35:38 PM PDT · Posted by Eurotwit · 115 replies · 813+ views The Times | 3 May, 2004 | From David Sharrock in Madrid Santiago cathedral is to lose its politically incorrect sculpture -- A statue of Spain's patron saint, Saint James "the Moorslayer", is to be removed from one of the country's most famous cathedrals and pilgrimage centres in case it offends Muslims. The decision, announced by Santiago Cathedral's church authorities, has outraged traditional Catholics, many of whom still light candles and pray to the 18th-century statue in the tiny chapel inside one of Christendom's three greatest pilgrim places of worship. Although the cathedral's spokesman insisted the decision was taken four months ago to remove the Moorslayer sculpture -- which depicts the sword-wielding apostle...
Church to remove Moor-slayer saint
	05/03/2004 2:52:51 PM PDT · Posted by swilhelm73 · 29 replies · 541+ views BBC | 3 May, 2004, | N/A A statue in a Spanish cathedral showing St James slicing the heads off Moorish invaders is to be removed to avoid causing offence to Muslims. Cathedral authorities in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, on Spain's north west coast, plan to move the statue to the museum. Among the reasons for the move is to avoid upsetting the "sensitivities of other ethnic groups". The statue of St James "the Moor-slayer" is expected to be replaced by one depicting the calmer image of St James "the Pilgrim", by the same 18th century artist, Jose Gambino. The Saracen-slaying image of St...
Spain Former PM: "The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us"
	09/26/2006 4:13:39 PM PDT · Posted by excludethis · 29 replies · 1,006+ views gulfnews.com | Published: 09/25/2006 12:00 AM (UAE) Madrid: Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish prime minister, defended Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam, saying on Friday the pontiff had no need to apologise and asking why Muslims never did. the Spanish media said yesterday. "Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?" Aznar told a conference in Washington on "global threats" on Friday. On Saturday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted as saying that more European leaders should have spoken out in support of the Pope after he made his disputed comments on Islam. "I was disappointed there were not more European...
Moderate Islam
Islamists Damage Giant Rock Buddha
	10/10/2007 6:30:46 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 27 replies · 749+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 10-11-2007 | Ben Quinn Islamist radicals in Pakistan have attempted to destroy an ancient carving of Buddha by drilling holes in the rock and filling them with dynamite.The Buddha is thought to date from the seventh century AD The 23ft high image was damaged during the attack, which brought back memories of the Taliban's destruction six years ago of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan, in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Buddha, in the Swat district of north-west Pakistan, is thought to date from the seventh century AD and was considered the largest in...
Another Attack On The Giant Buddha Of Swat (Islamofascists Compelled By "The Religion Of Peace")
	11/10/2007 11:14:14 AM PST · Posted by DogByte6RER · 35 replies · 137+ views AsiaNews.it | 11/09/2007 | AsiaNews.it Another attack on the giant Buddha of Swat In the valley of Swat, north western Pakistan, Islamic militants have launched a second attack in less than a month on the gigantic sacred statue. The head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed while the militants threaten a third and final attack. Islamabad (AsiaNews) -- A group of Islamic militants have attacked for the second time in less than a month the giant Buddha carved in the rocks of Swat Valley, in north western Pakistan. Despite the many requests for greater protection, the government has failed to intervene in any...
There as a Czar, he could only receive
Peter the not so Great, Tsar of Russia
	07/26/2008 8:33:55 PM PDT · Posted by WesternCulture · 39 replies · 824+ views 07/26/2008 | WesternCulture There are, indeed, many reasons why people of Russian ancestry ought to keep their heads high. But just perhaps, the nation which my country - Sweden -nowaday manages to outdo in hockey rinks, although not in football/soccer fields (it was the other way around some decades ago) needs to rethink its self image. Russia of today is a giant, but sadly backward nation, presently going through a phase reminiscent of what took place in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s; she firmly believes in proudly waving a national banner and claiming territory, but her understanding of the very concept of...
Pages
Any Great Books?
	07/25/2008 3:01:11 PM PDT · Posted by Stephanie32 · 382 replies · 2,316+ views July 25, 2008 | Stephanie32 (My first thread, hope I'm doing this right!)
end of digest #211 20080802