Posted on 07/16/2004 11:27:10 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
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· Saturday, February 16, 2008 · 25 topics · 1971126 to 1967865 · now 674 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 187th issue. My apologies for my having been in such a hurry that I forgot to include two of the topics in my first run at issue 186; the corrected version is also available. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #188
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Biology and Cryptobiology
Man descended from early aardvark Posted by CobaltBlue
On News/Activism 01/21/2003 3:23:43 PM EST · 61 replies · 498+ views
UK Times online | January 21, 2003 | Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent
EVERY mammal, including Man, is descended from a creature that was genetically similar to the modern aardvark, scientists have found. The last common ancestor of the placental mammals lived about 100 million years ago and had a genetic profile that is closer to that of the African anteater than to any other species that survives today, according to new research. Detailed analysis of the chromosomes of several representative species -- including aardvarks, African and Asian elephants and human beings -- has revealed that the aardvark has the greatest number of features in common with other mammals. That suggests that it...
Up to the Gills in Fish Stories
Blame 'inner fish' for bad body Posted by Borges
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 5:23:25 PM EST · 91 replies
Chicago Tribune | 02/18/08 | William Mullen
Even before they are born, all people carry genetic baggage, genes that were useful to distant, non-human ancestors but are hopelessly outdated, even harmful, to humans as they live today. Chicago scientist Neil Shubin calls this inheritance our "inner fish." People hiccup, he explains, because of a design malfunction in a nervous system and breathing apparatus passed down from fish and tadpoles. Human males are vulnerable to hernias because of their awkward setup for toting around sperm-producing gonads, which developed in fish. "In a perfectly designed world -- one with no history -- we would not have to suffer everything...
You're All Worthless and Weak
Ancient 'Out Of Africa' Migration Left Stamp On European Genetic Diversity Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 2:13:14 PM EST · 15 replies
Science Daily | 2-22-2008 | Cornell University
Scientists compared more than 10,000 sequenced genes from 15 African-Americans and 20 European-Americans. The results suggest that European populations have proportionately more harmful variations, though it is unclear what effects these variations actually may have on the overall health of Europeans. (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Feb. 22, 2008) -- Human migration from Africa to Europe more than 30,000 years ago appears to have left a mark on the genes of Europeans today. A Cornell-led study, reported in the Feb. 21 issue of the journal Nature, compared more than 10,000 sequenced genes...
White Genetically Weaker Than Blacks, Study Finds
Posted by Sopater
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 2:13:54 PM EST · 133 replies
Fox News | Friday, February 22, 2008
White Americans are both genetically weaker and less diverse than their black compatriots, a Cornell University-led study finds. Researchers analyzed the genetic makeup of 20 Americans of European ancestry and 15 African-Americans. The Europeans showed much less variation among 10,000 tested genes than did the Africans, which was expected, but also that Europeans had many more possibly harmful mutations than did African, which was not.
Neandertal / Neanderthal
21st Century New York Meets Neanderthal Male Posted by Junior
On General/Chat 01/20/2003 2:04:12 PM EST · 2 replies · 305+ views
Science - Reuters | 1-20-2003 | Grant McCool
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Comfortable, coddled 21st century humans, meet Ice Age Neanderthal. The first complete skeleton of a Neanderthal, the prehistoric people who became extinct about 30,000 years ago, graces an American Museum of Natural History exhibition in New York on the mysteries of human origins. It features fossils and artifacts up to a million years old dug up in caves at two sites in northern Spain. "This really blew me away, I have to say," said Ian Tattersall, co-curator of "The First Europeans: Treasures from the Hills of Atapuerca" exhibition which opened last week and runs through April...
Study: Neanderthals Grew Up Much Faster Posted by El Conservador
On News/Activism 04/28/2004 5:11:51 PM EDT · 9 replies · 132+ views
Yahoo! News | April 28, 2004 | CHRIS KAHN
If you think your kids grow up fast, consider this: A new study suggests that Neanderthal children blazed through adolescence and on average reached adulthood at age 15. The finding bolsters the view that Neanderthals were a unique species separate from modern humans, since the time for humans to mature to adulthood grew longer over the course of their evolution, said paleontologist Fernando V. Ramirez Rozzi, who led the study. Rozzi, with the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris, based his study on analysis of Neanderthal teeth. It will be published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. If...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Gene Studies Confirm "Out Of Africa" Theories Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 5:42:03 PM EST · 22 replies
Yahoo News | 2-20-2008 | Maggie Fox
Two big genetic studies confirm theories that modern humans evolved in Africa and then migrated through Europe and Asia to reach the Pacific and Americas. The two studies also show that Africans have the most diverse DNA, and the fewest potentially harmful genetic mutations. One of the studies shows European-Americans have more small mutations, while the others show Native Americans, Polynesians and others who populated Australia and Oceania have more big genetic changes. The studies, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, paint...
Most Detailed Global Study Of (Human) Genetic Variation Completed Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/21/2008 4:50:58 PM EST · 37 replies
Science Daily | 2-12-2008 | University of Michigan.
A schematic of worldwide human genetic variation, with colors representing different genetic types. The figure illustrates the great amout of genetic variation in Africa. (Credit: Illustration by Martin Soave/University of Michigan) ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2008) -- University of Michigan scientists and their colleagues at the National Institute on Aging have produced the largest and most detailed worldwide study of human genetic variation, a treasure trove offering new insights into early migrations out of Africa and across the globe. Like astronomers who build ever-larger telescopes to peer deeper into space, population geneticists like U-M's...
Africa
Deconstructing Olduvai Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 02/21/2008 6:28:27 PM EST · 4 replies
AlphaGalileo | Thursday, February 14, 2008 | unattributed
The Olduvai Paleoanthropological and Paleoecological Project (TOPPP) in which the the Universidad Complutense de Madrid participated aims to expose the false presumptions made by previous studies which concluded that the first humans were scavengers... Dominguez-Rodrigo and his team have proved that what the other researchers interpreted as teeth marks made by carnivores on the fossils, are in reality biochemical marks with a very different origin, such as fungus and bacteria that were brought in to contact with the bones by the roots of plants that grew in the sediment in which they were buried... The new data also shows that...
Epigraphy and Language
MIT: No easy answers in evolution of human language Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 02/17/2008 10:01:56 AM EST · 127 replies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | David Chandler, MIT News Office
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The evolution of human speech was far more complex than is implied by some recent attempts to link it to a specific gene, says Robert Berwick, professor of computational linguistics at MIT. Berwick will describe his ideas about language in a session at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Sunday, Feb. 17. The session is called "Mind of a Toolmaker," and explores the use of evolutionary research in understanding human abilities. Some researchers in recent years have speculated that mutations in a gene called Foxp2 might have played a fundamental...
Clovis First and Only
Genetic Study Ties Siberians To People In Americas Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 9:51:51 AM EST · 35 replies
Yahoo News | 2-22-2008 | Will Dunham - Maggie Fox
People indigenous to Siberia have strong genetic links to native peoples in the Americas, according to a study further supporting the theory that humans first entered the Americas over a land bridge across the Bering Strait. Scientists at Stanford University in California combed through the genes of 938 people from 51 places, looking at 650,000 DNA locations in each person. The study, in the journal Science on Thursday, revealed similarities and differences among various populations. "This is the highest resolution...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
American Indians altered land long before Europeans Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 02/21/2008 4:36:35 PM EST · 20 replies
Columbus Dispatch | Tuesday, February 19, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper
University of Tennessee ecologists Paul and Hazel Delcourt argue in their new book, Prehistoric Native Americans and Ecological Change, that we have underestimated the varied impacts American Indians have had on the natural environment the past 15,000 years. Eastern North America, for example, was not a "virgin" forest when Europeans arrived 500 years ago. Native Americans altered and even managed the environment in many ways. The evidence comes from the testimony of early European pioneers as well as archaeological and paleoecological studies... The Delcourts' analysis of charcoal particles and pollen grains from the sediments from Cliff Palace Pond in...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Unseen World Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/21/2008 7:58:17 PM EST · 12 replies
The News-Enterprise | 2-20-2008 | Rachel Tolliver
George Crothers, director of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Office of State Archaeology, finishes collecting ash from torch remains for radiocarbon dating during a February trip into the cave in Hardin County. Local cave enthusiasts chart discovery of pristine formations, prehistoric Indians HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY -- Mankind has always dreamed of discovering the unknown -- being the first to do something or arrive somewhere -- and from those quests leave a legacy that those who follow will envy. Such finds are rare....
Mayans
Satellites Spot Lost Guatamala Mayan Temples Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 10:28:52 PM EST · 24 replies
Reuters | 2-20-2008 | Mica Rosenberg - Catherine Bremer - David Wiessler
Ancient Mayan astronomers aligned their soaring temples with the stars and now modern archeologists have found the ruins of hidden cities in the Guatemalan jungle by peering down from space. Archeologists and NASA scientists began teaming up five years ago to search for clues about the mysterious collapse of the Mayan civilization that flourished in Central America and southern Mexico for 1,000 years. The work is paying off, says archeologist William Saturno, who recently discovered five sprawling sites with hundreds of buildings using a...
Aztecs
Hernan Cortez - Conquerer of Mexico (Sunday History Read) Posted by Hacksaw
On General/Chat 10/06/2002 12:01:39 PM EDT · 21 replies · 6,644+ views
www.hyperhistory.com | 10/06/02 | Not Listed
1485-1547 Cortez was the Spanish conquistador who conquered Mexico. Cortez was born in Spain. At the age of 19 he sailed for Hispaniola. With Diego Velazquez he conquered Cuba and settled there until 1518 when Velazquez appointed him to lead an expedition to Mexico. With his force of 700 men he landed on the coast of Mexico and founded the settlement of Veracruz. Cortez burned his ships behind him, thereby committing his entire force to survival through conquest. Cortez moved to Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), the capital of the powerful Aztec Indians. The Aztecs had conquered most of the surrounding tribes....
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Lava Left It's Mark On Grand Canyon Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 7:08:37 PM EST · 61 replies
ABC - Discovery News | 2-15-2008 | Larry O'Hanlon
Volcanic lava flows onced dammed the river that ran through the Grand Canyon (Source: iStockphoto) The Grand Canyon was not just carved by water. It has also been the scene of periodic wars between the Colorado River and volcanic eruptions that dammed the river, then burst. New airborne elevation survey data and radioisotope dating of Grand Canyon lava flows sheds new light on the battle between water and molten rocks there over the past 725,000 years. Over that time there have been no fewer than...
Rock Around the Clock
Scientists solve mystery of origins of Burgess Shale Posted by Renfield
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 5:27:37 PM EST · 21 replies
Vancouver Sun | 2-21-08 | Randy Boswell
It's been called the world's single greatest assemblage of primeval fossils - an accidental Canadian treasure that scientists literally stumbled upon 100 years ago in B.C.'s Rocky Mountains. The Burgess Shale fossil site in present-day Yoho National Park is a one-of-a-kind, 530-million-year-old time capsule containing the stunningly well-preserved remains of an entire undersea ecosystem from a crucial phase in the history of life - a lost world filled with dozens of bizarre creatures destined to become evolution's losers, but also with a primitive ancestor of the human race itself. Now, a team of British and Canadian scientists has solved the...
Climate
Polar creatures squeaked through last ice age ( Invasion of the killer crabs ) Posted by george76
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 11:59:01 PM EST · 26 replies
Nature | 18 February 2008 | Alexandra Witze
The creatures living in Antarctic oceans are accustomed to being cold. But even they barely survived the extra-frigid temperatures of the last ice age... At the peak of the last ice age, around 18,000 years ago, seals, birds and other polar animals would have had to eke out an existence around a few clearings -- called polynyas -- in the sea ice... The small openings would have served as year-round oases for algae to grow and form the basis of a food chain supporting fish, birds, seals and whales. At that time, the permanent sea ice that rings Antarctica would...
Mysterious Creatures Found in Antarctica Posted by Squidpup
On News/Activism 02/19/2008 7:17:01 PM EST · 50 replies
Brietbart.com | February 19, 2008 | AP
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - Scientists investigating the icy waters of Antarctica said Tuesday they have collected mysterious creatures including giant sea spiders and huge worms in the murky depths. Australian experts taking part in an international program to take a census of marine life in the ocean at the far south of the world collected specimens from up to 6,500 feet beneath the surface, and said many may never have been seen before. Some of the animals far under the sea grow to unusually large sizes, a phenomenon called gigantism that scientists still do not fully understand. "Gigantism is very...
Navigation
How Ancient Trade Changed The World Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/19/2008 6:20:32 PM EST · 19 replies
Live Science | 2-19-2008 | Heather Whipps
You've got the gold I need for my necklace and I've got the silk you need for your robe. What to do? Nowadays, if you need something, you go to the closest mall, shell out a few bucks and head home. Thousands of years ago, the process wasn't nearly as simple. If you or someone in your town didn't grow it, herd it or make it, you needed to abandon that desire or else travel for it, sometimes over great distances. For...
Egypt
Tamil Brahmi script in Egypt Posted by BGHater
On News/Activism 12/03/2007 10:47:12 AM EST · 11 replies
Hindu.com | 21 Nov 2007 | Hindu.com
CHENNAI: A broken storage jar with inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi script has been excavated at Quseir-al-Qadim, an ancient port with a Roman settlement on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. This Tamil Brahmi script has been dated to first century B.C. One expert described this as an "exciting discovery." The same inscription is incised twice on the opposite sides of the jar. The inscription reads paanai oRi, that is, pot (suspended) in a rope net. An archaeological team belonging to the University of Southampton in the U.K., comprising Prof. D. Peacock and Dr. L. Blue, who recently re-opened excavations at...
Tamil Brahmi Script In Egypt Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/03/2007 5:33:18 PM EST · 6 replies
The Hindu
Photo: Dr. Roberta Tomber, British Museum significant pointer: Potsherd with Tamil Brahmi inscription, circa first century B.C., found in Egypt. CHENNAI: A broken storage jar with inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi script has been excavated at Quseir-al-Qadim, an ancient port with a Roman settlement on the Red Sea coast of Egypt. This Tamil Brahmi script has been dated to first century B.C. One expert described this as an "exciting discovery." The same inscription is incised twice on the opposite sides of the jar. The inscription reads...
Asia
Saving Ancient Angkor From Modern Doomsday Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 7:15:25 PM EST · 7 replies
SFGate
Siem Reap, Cambodia -- By destroying vast tracts of forest to enlarge their farm land, inhabitants of the wondrous city of Angkor lit the fuse to an ecological time bomb that spelled doom for what was once the world's largest urban area. So believe archaeologists engaged in groundbreaking research into the ancient civilization of Angkor. And they are warning that history could repeat itself through reckless, headlong pursuit of dollars from tourists flocking to see Angkor's...
Japan
Researchers Enter Imperial Tomb (Japan) Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 5:04:21 PM EST · 9 replies
Daily Yomiuri Online | 2-23-2008 | Yomiuri Shimbun
The Japanese Archaeological Association and 15 other academic bodies inspected Gosashi tomb, the burial place of Empress Jingu, in Nara for the first time on Friday. The inspection came after the Imperial Household Agency granted a request by the academic bodies dating back to 1976 to inspect the tombs of emperors and other Imperial family members. Experts hope the move will lead to a full-scale investigation of Imperial tombs and the opening of the burial chambers to the public. The Empress Jingu's tomb has a 270-meter keyhole-shaped tomb mound, built between the late...
Stone Age Fancies
Jewelry And Makeup In Ancient Persia Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 7:01:10 PM EST · 10 replies
Press TV | 2-17-2008 | Hedieh Ghavidel
Archaeological finds in Iran show that women and men applied makeup and arrayed themselves with ornaments approximately 10,000 years ago, a trend which began from religious convictions rather than mere beautification motivations. Archaeologists have discovered various instruments of make-up and ornamental items in the Burnt City, which date back to the third millennium BCE. The caves of the Bakhtiari region, where the first hunter-gatherers settled at the end of the ice age, have yielded not only stone tools, daggers and grindstones but also...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Excavations In Iran Unravel Mystery Of 'Red Snake' Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/19/2008 6:02:57 PM EST · 34 replies
Science Daily | 2-19-2008 | University of Edinburgh.
New discoveries unearthed at an ancient frontier wall in Iran provide compelling evidence that the Persians matched the Romans for military might and engineering prowess. The 'Great Wall of Gorgan'in north-eastern Iran, a barrier of awesome scale and sophistication, including over 30 military forts, an aqueduct, and water channels along its route, is being explored by an international team of archaeologists from Iran and the Universities of Edinburgh and Durham. This vast Wall-also known as the 'Red Snake'-is more than 1000 years older than the Great Wall...
India
Pre-Mauryan Lion Head Discovered Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 5:22:43 PM EST · 19 replies
The Times Of India | 2-19-2008 | Pranava K Chaudhary
PATNA: Archaeologists are baffled by the discovery of a pre-Mauryan period lion head made of stone from the dry bed of the Ganga at Collectorate Ghat here on Monday evening. This was made possible as the river has changed its course in recent years exposing its dry bed. According to an expert, the one-and-half-foot stone artefact is similar to those of Greek sculpture. Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) superintending archaeologist (Patna Circle) P K Mishra admitted that the lion head, in all likelihood, could symbolize the Mauryan royal...
Ancient city discovered in India Posted by BGHater
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 2:35:47 PM EST · 19 replies
BBC | 18 Feb 2008 | Sandeep Sahu
Eighteen stone pillars have been excavated (Pics: Sanjib Mukherjee) Indian archaeologists say they have found remains which point to the existence of a city which flourished 2,500 years ago in eastern India.The remains have been discovered at Sisupalgarh near Bhubaneswar, capital of the eastern state of Orissa. Researchers say the items found during the excavation point to a highly developed urban settlement. The population of the city could have been in the region of 20,000 to 25,000, the archaeologists claim. The excavations include 18 stone pillars, pottery, terracotta ornaments and bangles, finger rings, ear spools and pendants made of...
Greece
Ancient Town 'Sevtopolis', Submerged On A Lake Bottom To Be Reconstructed Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 2:01:52 PM EST · 24 replies
News.bg | 2-18-2008 | Kristalina Ilieva
Association "Preserve the Bulgarian' starts action for the realizing of "Sevtopolis' project. At first the organizators will collect subscription list throughout the whole country, the projects author and major architect Jeko Tilev announced. Sevtopolis or the City of Tracian King Sevt III is capital of the Odyisian state in the end of IV - beginning of III century before Christ. It was found and observed in 1948 - 1954 by the construction works of Koprinka dam like and...
Rome and Italy
Unique Roman Amphitheatre Slumbers Beneath Sofia Downtown Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 5:36:35 PM EST · 6 replies
International News BG | 2-19-2008
Serdica - an ancient names of Sofia, was a military, economic and culture centre in the Roman Empire. And while local culture tourism is redirected to Perperikon and other spots dispersed all over this country, a mystic town slumbers beneath Sofia downtown, told from Standart. The excavations under the medieval St. Sofia church started in the 1940s. There is a huge Roman necropolis under the church with dozens of tombs stretching under the building of the National Assembly. Archaeologists and historians reckon the remnants from...
Alemanni Left
Exhibition: How Barbarian Loot Wound Up In The Rhine (German) Posted by pierrem15
On News/Activism 02/17/2008 10:55:29 PM EST · 34 replies
Die WElt | 02/15/2008 | Peter Ditmar
Exihibition in Bonn concerning loot plundered from Gaul by the Alemanni found in the Rhine (more than 1000 objects). This event is dated fairly exactly to the mid-third century by Roman records of a great defeat of Germans trying to get back to Germany after plundering Gaul. Apparently the Roman Army caught them in mid-stream, burdened with plunder. Bet it sucked to be them that day.Story in German.
Numismatism
Metal detecting pensioner finds Wales' oldest coin Posted by DeaconBenjamin
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 6:46:01 PM EST · 27 replies
Evening Leader | 20 February 2008 8:49 AM
A METAL detecting enthusiast has unearthed a Roman coin thought to be one of the oldest ever found in Wales. Retired butcher Roy Page, 69, of Coedpoeth, found the detailed 2,000-year-old coin on a farm near St Asaph when he went on a search there with the Mold-based Historical Search Society. Roy handed the tiny silver coin to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who identified it as dating from the second century BC. It is believed to have been brought over some time after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, or during earlier visits in the first century BC....
Scotland Yet
Ancient Burials Reveal Foreign Links In Prehistoric Scotland Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/20/2008 10:43:25 PM EST · 8 replies
24 Hour Museum | 2-19-2008 | Richard Moss
Site plan, showing in red the features excavated in 2005. © AOC Archaeology Group Recent analysis of 4,000-year-old pots recovered during an excavation of two graves at Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute, has provided exciting evidence linking prehistoric Scotland with the Netherlands. Analysis of the pots by Alison Sheridan, of National Museums Scotland, has revealed early international-style Beakers of the type found around the lower Rhine, which is the modern-day Netherlands and a strange hybrid of styles that suggest Irish and Yorkshire influences. "These finds...
British Isles
Mary Queen of Scots death warrant bought Posted by BlackVeil
On General/Chat 02/20/2008 7:37:02 PM EST · 15 replies
Catholic News | February 21, 2008 | anon
The warrant which authorised the execution of Mary Queen of Scots has been bought by the Church of England for $150,00. Mary, the Catholic queen, who claimed both the Scottish and English crowns, was executed in 1587 on the order of her Protestant cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Dressed in scarlet, a Catholic colour of martyrdom, with her pet dog hidden among her skirts, legend has it that it took two blows of the executioner's axe to kill her. Reuters reports the warrant, a copy of the lost original, was purchased from a California auction house by the Lambeth Palace Library....
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Ireland's Blarney Stone may be baloney: study [surprised?] Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 02/21/2008 4:48:58 PM EST · 19 replies
Yahoo! | Wednesday, February 20, 2008 | AFP
The authenticity of the Blarney Stone, kissed by about 400,000 tourists a year, has been questioned by Mark Samuel, an archaeologist and architectural historian, and Kate Hamlyn in a new book... the authors say the present stone only came into use in 1888 -- for health and safety reasons. Up until then, those wishing to place their lips on the stone had to be dangled from the castle by two people holding their ankles. Today those wishing to ensure they will never be tongue tied lie on their back and, holding on to an iron railing, lean backwards from the...
Doubts Over Blarney Stone Talked Down Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/21/2008 9:01:19 PM EST · 15 replies
The Telegraph (UK) | 2-21-2008 | Tom Peterkin
The custodians of the Blarney Stone yesterday disputed claims that pilgrims have been romancing the wrong stone. Kissing the Blarney stone For centuries, travellers including Winston Churchill and Sir Walter Scott, have gone to Blarney Castle, Co Cork, in the hope that the supposed magical properties of the ancient stone will bestow on them the gift of the gab. But a book launched last night raised questions about the authenticity of the lump of bluestone built into the castle battlements, which attracts 400,000 tourists...
God Save the Queen
Abbey Body Identified As Gay Lover Of Edward II Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/17/2008 9:44:21 PM EST · 122 replies
The Telegraph (UK) | 2-18-2008 | Laura Clout
A mutilated body found in an abbey graveyard has been identified as that of a notorious medieval villain rumoured to have been the gay lover of Edward II. The remains, which bear the hallmarks of having been hanged, drawn and quartered, are thought to be those of Sir Hugh Despenser the Younger, who was executed as a traitor in 1326. Sir Hugh was executed after Edward II [above] was deposed from the throne in 1326 Sir Hugh had been favourite of Edward II...
Early America
George Washington Finished First Posted by posterchild
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 6:16:14 PM EST · 55 replies
Investor's Business Daily | Feb 15th, 2008 | Cord Cooper
It was August 1781, and George Washington learned British Gen. Charles Cornwallis had occupied Yorktown, Va., with 9,500 troops. Cornwallis' soldiers were exhausted and in a defensive stance. For more than six years, the British had mostly been on the offensive in the Revolutionary War. Their sudden defensive posture showed they were starting to weaken. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington saw potential for victory. His plan: surround Cornwallis' troops on land and prevent their escape by sea with the help of the French navy. The surprise attack would be the greatest risk of Washington's military career. If he...
World War Eleven
Battle of the Bulge Memories, Emotions Live On Posted by SandRat
On VetsCoR 12/21/2007 6:20:49 PM EST · 6 replies
American Forces Press Service | Ray Johnson
BASTOGNE, Belgium, Dec. 21, 2007 -- Standing next to the killing field where he once found himself face-down in the snow surrounded by the dead and dying, Ted Paluch said his return wasn't as emotional as it once was, especially having visited three other times. Emotions begin to overcome Malmedy massacre survivor Ted Paluch after he presented a wreath to remember 84 U.S. soldiers executed in World War II. To Paluch's right is Fabien Steffese, curator of the Baugneze 44 Historical Center, which recounts the tragedy. Photo by Ray Johnson††(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. His resiliency and...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Scientists reactivate immune Posted by Red Badger
On General/Chat 02/22/2008 9:50:51 AM EST · 5 replies
www.physorg.com | 02/21/2008 | Staff
Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have found that therapy can be used to stimulate the production of vital immune cells, called "T- cells," in adults with HIV infection. HIV disease destroys T-cells, leading to collapse of the immune system and severe infection. The thymus gland, which produces T-cells, gradually loses function over time (a process called "involution") and becomes mostly inactive during adulthood. Because the thymus gland does not function well in adults, it is difficult for HIV-infected adults to make new T-cells. Thus, therapies that stimulate...
Faith and Philosophy
Noah's Ark nestled on Mount Ararat Posted by 2ndDivisionVet
On News/Activism 02/17/2008 8:05:48 PM EST · 279 replies
The Peninsula | January 19, 2008 | Satish Kanady
Dogubayazit (Turkey's Iran-Armenian Border) ï For the first time in the seven decade-long history of the search for the legendary Noah's Ark, a Turkish-Hong Kong exploration team on Tuesday came out with "material evidence", to prove that the Ark was nestled on Mount Ararat, Turkey's highest mountain peak bordering Iran and Armenia. A panel of experts, comprising Turkish authorities, veteran mountaineers, archaeologists, geologists and members of Hong Kong-based Noah's Ark Ministries International, also displayed an almost one-metre-long peice of petrified wood before the media and specially invited international experts. The experts claimed it to be a part of a long...
Oh So Mysterioso
A Lead On The Ark Of The Covenant Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/22/2008 5:35:00 PM EST · 56 replies
Time Magazine | 2-21-2008 | DAVID VAN BIEMA
The Ark of the Covenant is carried into the Temple When last we saw the lost Ark of the Covenant in action, it had been dug up by Indiana Jones in Egypt and ark-napped by Nazis, whom the Ark proceeded to incinerate amidst a tempest of terrifying apparitions. But according to Tudor Parfitt, a real life scholar-adventurer, Raiders of the Lost Ark had it wrong, and the Ark is actually nowhere near Egypt. In fact, Parfitt claims he has traced it (or a replacement container...
Australia and the Pacific
Human Culture Subject To Natural Selection, Stanford Study Shows Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/19/2008 4:00:23 PM EST · 29 replies
Eureka Alert | 2-19-2008 | Deborah S. Rogers - Stanford
The process of natural selection can act on human culture as well as on genes, a new study finds. Scientists at Stanford University have shown for the first time that cultural traits affecting survival and reproduction evolve at a different rate than other cultural attributes. Speeded or slowed rates of evolution typically indicate the action of natural selection in analyses of the human genome. This study of cultural evolution, which compares the rates of change for structural and decorative Polynesian canoe-design traits, is...
Ancient Autopsies
Giant prehistoric Frog Hints At Ancient Land Link Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 7:36:49 PM EST · 18 replies
New Scientist | 2-18-2008 | Rowan Hooper
An artist's impression of Beelzebufo shows it facing a modern-day Mantidactylus guttulatus, the largest living Malagasy frog (Image: Luci Betti-Nash) The discovery of a giant frog fossil has opened a rift among researchers over when an ancient land bridge closed. Discovery of the fossil in Madagascar supports the controversial view that South America and Madagascar were linked until 80 million years ago - far more recently than previously thought. The frog, dubbed Beelzebufo, resembles the family of horned toads that are now unique...
Paleontology
Missing Link Feather Fossils Found In France Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/21/2008 9:17:58 PM EST · 37 replies
The Telegraph (UK) | 2-20-2008 | Roger Highfield
Primitive feathers that represent a key missing link in their evolution have been found, fossilised in 100-million-year-old amber from France. The fossils mark a step towards the shape of modern feathers As long as scientists have studied birds, they have puzzled over that most intricate of avian features - the feather. Because it is a marvellous feat of biological engineering, it has been siezed on by creationists trying to find evidence of designs that lie beyond the abilities of evolution. Scientists themselves have...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Sneak peek at Darwin's crab haul Posted by decimon
On General/Chat 02/22/2008 9:32:51 AM EST · 6 replies
BBC | February 22, 2008 | Unknown
A rarely-seen collection of crabs from Charles Darwin's voyage aboard HMS Beagle has been given a new lease of life on the web. The University of Oxford has released images of specimens held in its museum collections that have been digitised for an online Darwin database. The crustaceans changed hands several times after Darwin's return to Britain, before fading into obscurity. They were then rescued by Oxford University's Museum of Natural History. Charles Darwin developed an interest in natural history while studying divinity at the University of Cambridge and was subsequently accepted as the naturalist on an expedition aboard the...
end of digest #188 20080223
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #189
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Let's Have Jerusalem
1st Temple seal found in City of David
Posted by SJackson
On News/Activism 02/29/2008 8:07:44 AM EST · 60 replies
Jerusalem Post | 2-29-08 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS
An ancient seal bearing an archaic Hebrew inscription dating back to the 8th century BCE has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Thursday. The seal excavated in the City of David bears the name of a public official from the 8th century BCE. Photo: Shalem Center / Carla Amit The find reveals that by 2,700 years ago, clerks and merchants had already begun to add their names to the seals instead of the symbols that were used in earlier centuries. The state-run archeological body said the seal, which was discovered...
Egypt
Cleopatra's Cosmetics And Hammurabi's Heineken: Name Brands Far Predating Modern Capitalism
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/23/2008 9:38:35 PM EST · 12 replies
Science Daily | 2-19-2008 | University of Chicago Press Journals
Egyptian perfume bottle. Could product branding have begun in ancient Egypt? (Credit: iStockphoto) ScienceDaily (Feb. 19, 2008) -- From at least Bass Ale's red triangle--advertised as "the first registered trademark"--commodity brands have exerted a powerful hold over modern Western society. Marketers and critics alike have assumed that branding began in the West with the Industrial Revolution. But a pioneering new study in the February 2008 issue of Current Anthropology finds that attachment to brands far predates modern capitalism, and indeed modern Western society. In "Prehistories of Commodity Branding," author David...
Numismatism
Gaulish coin hoard is France's biggest ever
Posted by DeaconBenjamin
On News/Activism 02/25/2008 8:38:08 AM EST · 56 replies
French News | Monday, 18 February 2008 | David Boggis
France's biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the Cotes d'Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the departement. The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. "Stater' is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth's surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved. Inrap,...
Farty Shades of Green
Archaeological Treasures Found In Roscrea (Ireland)
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 02/26/2008 5:52:29 PM EST · 10 replies
The Nenagh Guardian | 2-22-2008 | Peter Gleeson
A 'beautiful' Bronze Age axe and a number of ancient burial grounds have been unearthed near Roscrea during the construction of the new Dublin-Limerick motorway in the area. The bronze axe was found in Camblin, south of Roscrea. Archaeologists say the find dates to the later Bronze Age and appears to have been hidden in a shallow pit and never recovered by the person who concealed it. On a second site in Camblin a medieval iron 'bearded' axe was discovered while two Bronze Age enclosed settlements with two...
British Isles
Archaeologists To Drill In Bexley (UK) For Evidence Of Ancient Occupation
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/29/2008 4:16:47 PM EST · 11 replies
24 Hour Museum | 2-29-2008
An illustration of Homo neanderthalensis at Swanscombe, Kent, one of the sites investigated in the AHOB project. © Natural History Museum Archaeologists from Durham University will be returning to a London borough site where a 19th century historian once found flint tools and animal bones. This time, however, the latest sonic drilling equipment will be used to take samples from the earth, for the ongoing Ancient Human Occupation of Britain II project (AHOB). Initial drillings were carried out at Holmscroft Open Space in September...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Cannibalism May Have Wiped Out Neanderthals
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/28/2008 9:52:33 PM EST · 113 replies
Discovery News | 2-27-2008 | Jennifer Viegas
A Neanderthal-eat-Neanderthal world may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations of the large Eurasian human, thereby contributing to its extinction, according to a new theory based on cannibalism that took place in more recent history. Aside from illustrating that consumption of one's own species isn't exactly a healthy way to eat, the new theoretical model could resolve the longstanding mystery as to what caused Neanderthals, which emerged around 250,000 years ago, to disappear off the face of the Earth...
Africa
Oldest hominid discovered is 7 million years old: study
Posted by Renfield
On News/Activism 02/28/2008 7:21:27 AM EST · 33 replies
Yahoo News | 2-27-08
CHICAGO (AFP) - French fossil hunters have pinned down the age of Toumai, which they contend is the remains of the earliest human ever found, at between 6.8 and 7.2 million years old. The fossil was discovered in the Chadian desert in 2001 and an intense debate ensued over whether the nearly complete cranium, pieces of jawbone and teeth belonged to one of our earliest ancestors. Critics said that Toumai's cranium was too squashed to be that of a hominid -- it did not have the brain capacity that gives humans primacy -- and its small size indicated a creature...
Oldest hominid discovered is 7 million years old: study
Posted by Red Badger
On News/Activism 02/28/2008 10:02:18 AM EST · 29 replies
www.physorg.com | 02/28/2008 | Staff
Undated handout photo shows the skull of Toumai, a seven-million-year-old fossil believed to be the remains of the earliest human ever found, found in 2001. New fossil remains as well as the 3D reconstruction of the skull confirm that the creature is the oldest species of the human branch, a common ancester of the chimpanzee and of homo sapiens French fossil hunters have pinned down the age of Toumai, which they contend is the remains of the earliest human ever found, at between 6.8 and 7.2 million years old. The fossil was discovered in the Chadian desert in 2001...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Feel Short? Blame Your Ancestors
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 02/24/2008 11:47:46 AM EST · 20 replies
Discovery News | February 20, 2008 | Jennifer Viegas
The scientists collected data on 32 such groups, paying attention to the ecology, population density and female adult body size for each named society... "We focused on female adult body mass because we wanted to relate the variation back to female reproduction," Walker said, adding that earlier first periods relate to earlier first births. The researchers determined that across all hunter-gatherer groups, body size directly relates to population density. The bigger the population, especially within island or island-like communities, the smaller the people will be. One example of an island-like community would be a tropical rainforest group that is clustered...
Asia
Confucius, He Has Many Descendants
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/18/2008 10:01:57 PM EST · 24 replies
The Telegraph (UK) | 2-18-2008 | Richard Spencer
More than a million people around the world have responded to an appeal for people who think that they are descendants of the Chinese sage Confucius. The appeal was made by Kong Deyong, a 77th generation descendant of Confucius who founded the Confucius Genealogy Compilation Committee and is based in the family's home town of Qufu, eastern China. Confucious: founding father of Chinese political and ethical thought Mr Kong, a senior member of the Confucius clan, fled to Hong Kong after the Cultural Revolution, when...
Epigraphy and Language
Indecipherable Ancient Books Found In Chongqing
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 02/26/2008 5:33:44 PM EST · 34 replies
Epoch Times | 2-24-2008
Mysterious ancient books found in Chongqing. For the past two years no one has been able to read them. (Epoch Times screen shot taken from 21 cn.com) The Tujia have been known as an ethnic minority with its own spoken language but without a written language. Yet a succession of ancient books in the same written language have been found in the Youyang Tujia habitation straddling the borders of Hunan, Hubei, Guizhou Province, and Chongqing City. For the past two years none have been able to read the...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
How it happened: The catastrophic flood that cooled the Earth
Posted by 2ndDivisionVet
On News/Activism 02/25/2008 5:36:06 AM EST · 61 replies
Breitbart | February 24, 2008
Canadian geologists say they can shed light on how a vast lake, trapped under the ice sheet that once smothered much of North America, drained into the sea, an event that cooled Earth's climate for hundreds of years. During the last ice age, the Laurentide Ice Sheet once covered most of Canada and parts of the northern United States with a frozen crust that in some places was three kilometres (two miles) thick. As the temperature gradually rose some 10,000 years ago, the ice receded, gouging out the hollows that would be called the Great Lakes. Beneath the ice's thinning...
Climate
Drained Lake Holds Record Of Ancient (Warmer) Alaska
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/28/2008 10:02:41 PM EST · 35 replies
Sit News | Ned Rozell
Not too long ago, a lake sprung a leak in the high country of the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains. The lake drained away, as glacier-dammed lakes often do, but this lake was a bit different, and seems to be telling a story about a warmer Alaska. The lake, known as Iceberg Lake to people in McCarthy, about 50 airmails to the north, had been part of the landscape for as long as people could remember. Pinched by glacial ice, the three-mile-long, one-mile-wide lake on the northern boundary of the...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Royals weren't only builders of Maya temples, archaeologist finds
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 02/25/2008 6:47:59 PM EST · 11 replies
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign | February 25, 2008 | Andrea Lynn
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- An intrepid archaeologist is well on her way to dislodging the prevailing assumptions of scholars about the people who built and used Maya temples. From the grueling work of analyzing the "attributes," the nitty-gritty physical details of six temples in Yalbac, a Maya center in the jungle of central Belize -- and a popular target for antiquities looters -- primary investigator Lisa Lucero is building her own theories about the politics of temple construction that began nearly two millennia ago. Her findings from the fill, the mortar and other remnants of jungle-wrapped structures lead her to believe...
Mayans
Centuries-old Maya Blue mystery finally solved
Posted by Jedi Master Pikachu
On General/Chat 02/26/2008 5:17:19 PM EST · 21 replies
physorg.com | February 26, 2008.
Anthropologists from Wheaton College (Illinois) and The Field Museum have discovered how the ancient Maya produced an unusual and widely studied blue pigment that was used in offerings, pottery, murals and other contexts across Mesoamerica from about A.D. 300 to 1500. First identified in 1931, this blue pigment (known as Maya Blue) has puzzled archaeologists, chemists and material scientists for years because of its unusual chemical stability, composition and persistent color in one of the world's harshest climates. The anthropologists solved another old mystery, namely the presence of a 14-foot layer of blue precipitate found at the bottom of the...
Ancient Aliens
WSU Researchers Study Fate of an Ancient American Southwest Civilization
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/29/2008 9:33:25 AM EST · 22 replies
Salem-News.com | 2-19-2008 | WSU
Evidence suggests that the Anasazi fled the region and joined related groups to the south and east. While the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde are easily the best known of these settlements, the region is dotted with some 4,000 known archaeological sites, including communities which supported as many as several hundred families. (PULLMAN, Wash.) - Using computer simulations to synthesize both new and earlier research, a team of scientists led by a Washington State University anthropology professor has given new perspective to the long-standing question of what happened more...
Peru
Ancient ceremonial plaza found in Peru
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 02/26/2008 6:30:52 PM EST · 35 replies
Associated Press | February 26, 2008 | ANDREW WHALEN
LIMA, Peru - A team of German and Peruvian archaeologists say they have discovered the oldest known monument in Peru: a 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza near Peru's north-central coast. Carbon dating of material from the site revealed it was built between 3500 B.C. and 3000 B.C., Peter Fuchs, a German archaeologist who headed the excavation team, told The Associated Press by telephone Monday. The discovery is further evidence that civilization thrived in Peru at the same time as it did in what is now the Middle East and South Asia, said Ruth Shady, a prominent Peruvian archaeologist who led the team...
Oldest Urban Site in the Americas Found, Experts Claim
Posted by Renfield
On News/Activism 02/27/2008 8:04:57 AM EST · 6 replies
National Geographic News | 02-26-08 | Kelly Hearn
A circular plaza found under an existing archaeological site in Peru could be the oldest known human-made complex in the New World, experts report. Initial analysis dates the ceremonial structure to around 3500 B.C. -- 500 years older than the current record holder, an ancient city named Caral, also in Peru. Although the age has yet to be confirmed, reports of the newfound plaza surfaced in Peruvian media on Sunday. Peter R. Fuchs, a German archaeologist who worked at the site, told the Peruvian newspaper El Commercial that the excavation contained "construction from 5,500 years ago." Cesar Perez, an archaeologist at Peru's...
Rock Around the Clock
Peru's "Lost City" Is a Natural Formation, Experts Rule
Posted by Renfield
On News/Activism 02/27/2008 8:08:52 AM EST · 25 replies
National Geographic News | 2-25-08 | Kelly Hearn
Stone structures in Peru recently suggested to be the ruins of an ancient "lost city" were actually shaped by natural forces, not Inca stone workers, officials say. The announcement comes from archaeologists with Peru's culture ministry, clouding the prospects of one local politician to turn the site into a tourist attraction. On January 10, Peruvian state media reported that a stone fortress had been discovered on the heavily forested eastern slopes of the Andes Mountains (see map). . The story quoted the local mayor as saying the structures were discovered under heavy vegetation by villagers, who dubbed the site Manco...
Oh So Mysterioso
Discovery Of Vast Prehistoric Works Built By Giants?
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 02/28/2008 7:25:52 PM EST · 75 replies
Raider News Network | 2-24-2008 | David E. Flynn
The size and scope of David Flynn's Teohuanaco discovery simply surpasses comprehension. Mammoth traces of intelligence carved in stone and covering hundreds of square miles. For those who understand what they are seeing here for the first time, this could indeed be the strongest evidence ever found of prehistoric engineering by those who were known and feared throughout the ancient world as gods. ~ Thomas Horn This satellite image (above) is a portion of the Andean foothills...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Largest yet survey of human genetic diversity
Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 02/25/2008 1:07:03 AM EST · 18 replies
Nature News | 21 February 2008 | Erika Check Hayden
DNA analyses highlight human differences -- and similarities. Scientists have taken an unprecedented look at worldwide genetic diversity to illuminate the history of the world's populations. In two papers -- one published today in Science 1, the other published yesterday in Nature 2 -- two teams performed the most thorough genetic analysis yet on samples from the Human Genome Diversity Project, which covers more than 50 geographic groups from all over the globe. The group publishing in Nature looked at 29 different populations; the group publishing in Science examined 51. Both analyzed variations in single letters of DNA, called single...
Biology and Cryptobiology
'Monster' fossil find in Arctic (First complete pliosaur and ichthyosaur skeletons ever found)
Posted by DaveLoneRanger
On News/Activism 10/05/2006 11:03:56 AM EDT · 34 replies · 1,268+ views
BBC | October 5, 2006 | Paul Rincon
Norwegian scientists have discovered a "treasure trove" of fossils belonging to giant sea reptiles that roamed the seas at the time of the dinosaurs. The 150 million-year-old fossils were uncovered on the Arctic island chain of Svalbard - about halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. The finds belong to two groups of extinct marine reptiles - the plesiosaurs and the ichthyosaurs. One skeleton has been nicknamed The Monster because of its enormous size. These animals were the top predators living in what was then a relatively cool, deep sea. Palaeontologists from the University of Oslo's Natural History...
Remains of Ancient Reptile Are Found [size of a bus]
Posted by null and void
On News/Activism 10/05/2006 11:36:14 AM EDT · 22 replies · 867+ views
MyWay via Drudge | Oct 5, 7:59 AM (ET | Not attributed
OSLO, Norway (AP) - Researchers on Thursday announced the discovery of the remains of a short-necked plesiosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile the size of a bus, that they believe is the first complete skeleton ever found. The 150 million year old remains of the 33-foot ocean going predator were found in August on the remote Svalbard Islands of the Arctic, the University of Oslo announced. Fragments of plesiosaur have been found elsewhere, including in England, Russia, and Argentina, but researcher Joern Harald Hurum said the partially fossilized Svalbard find appeared to be the first whole example. "We are quite sure...
BBC: Sea reptile is biggest on record ( measured 15m (50ft) from nose to tail - alligator jaws)
Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach
On News/Activism 02/27/2008 12:26:47 PM EST · 29 replies
BBC | Wednesday, 27 February 2008, 00:54 GMT | Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News
A fossilised "sea monster" unearthed on an Arctic island is the largest marine reptile known to science, Norwegian scientists have announced.The 150 million-year-old specimen was found on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard, in 2006. The Jurassic-era leviathan is one of 40 sea reptiles from a fossil "treasure trove" uncovered on the island. Nicknamed "The Monster", the immense creature would have measured 15m (50ft) from nose to tail. A large pliosaur was big enough to pick up a small car in its jaws and bite it in half Richard Forrest,...
Navigation
Vikings Did Not Dress The Way We Thought
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 02/26/2008 9:28:06 AM EST · 113 replies
Physorg | 2-26-2008 | Uppsala University
Vikings did not dress the way we thought Swedish viking men's fashions were modeled on styles in Russia to the east. Archeological finds from the 900s uncovered in Lake Malaren Valley accord with contemporary depictions of clothing the Vikings wore on their travels along eastern trade routes to the Silk Road. The outfit in the picture is on display at Museum Gustavianum, Uppsala University. Photo: Annika Larsson Vivid colors, flowing silk ribbons, and glittering bits of mirrors - the Vikings dressed with considerably more panache than we previously thought. The men were especially vain, and the women dressed provocatively, but...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
'Da Vinci link' to chess drawings
Posted by Daffynition
On General/Chat 02/27/2008 9:37:39 AM EST · 1 reply
BBC News, Rome | February 27, 2007 | Christian Fraser
Researchers believe early illustrations of how to play the game of chess, found in a long-lost Italian manuscript, may have been drawn by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci was a close friend of Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar Luca Pacioli, who wrote the manuscript. Pacioli wrote the book - a collection of puzzles called "De ludo scacchorum" found in a private library last year - around the year 1500, experts say. The puzzles are very similar to those found in daily newspapers today. So far, three pages of the manuscript have been published, showing carefully drawn diagrams, each representing a...
Early America
'John Adams' doesn't go Hollywood (Looks like an excellent HBO series next month)
Posted by dickmc
On General/Chat 02/24/2008 2:48:31 PM EST · 72 replies
Pittsburgh Tribune Review | Feb 24, 2008 | Bill Steigerwald, David McCullough
When Hollywood's movie-makers and docu-dramatists get their hands on American history, accuracy, reality and truth often are tortured beyond recognition. But starting at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 16, HBO Films will be delivering the seven-part, nine-hour mini-series "John Adams." ... it is by all accounts a high-quality, historically accurate and meticulously faithful adaptation of super-historian David McCullough's blockbuster 2001 book of the same name. I talked to McCullough about the making of the HBO series Tuesday by phone from his home in West Tisbury, Mass.
World War Eleven
Former Classmate Puts a Face on Anne Frank's Lost Love (Love interest 1st photo)
Posted by barackyroad
On News/Activism 02/26/2008 11:49:45 AM EST · 45 replies
ABC News | 2-25-08 | MAEVA BAMBUCK
On Jan. 6, 1944, Anne Frank wrote in her diary that her image of him was so vivid she didn't need a photograph to remember him. Indeed, more than 60 years later, no photograph had been found of Anne Frank's childhood sweetheart, leaving hundreds of readers around the world curious for a glimpse. But now, 81-year-old Earnst Michaelis has identified his dearest childhood friend, Peter Schiff, as the "Petel" or "Peter" from the diary -- the mysterious boy who stole Anne Frank's heart. Despite "Anne Frank's Diary" becoming one of the world's most-read journals, selling an estimated 35 million copies,...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Antarctic May Hold Future Of Archaeology
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/25/2008 1:07:04 PM EST · 41 replies
London Times | 2-25-2008 | Normaan Hammond
Antarctic may hold the future of archaeology Norman Hammond, Archaeology Correspondent It is a truism that archaeology begins yesterday, and now with only the archaeology of the future to plan for, the discipline has been expanding into areas of the globe where material culture has hitherto played little part. Antarctica is one of these new areas: more than two centuries of human occupation have left plentiful traces. At least five successive and partly overlapping phases of activity can be defined: sealing, whaling, polar exploration, scientific investigation and tourism. Sealing began in the late 18th century, when Captain James Cook's account...
end of digest #189 20080301
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· Saturday, March 1, 2008 · 29 topics · 1978453 to 1972572 · still 675 members · |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #190
Saturday, March 8, 2008
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Remote Ontario Lake Reveals Mysterious Ancient Structure
While divers were conducting a unique submarine project in MacDonald Lake at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve, they encountered an ancient stone structure revealing proof of life from Central Ontario ancestors. The history of Eastern Canada is generally viewed in two stages: 1st - recent history, measured in decades and centuries, involving...
Peru
Mysterious Pyramid Complex Discovered In Peru
The remnants of at least ten pyramids have been discovered on the coast of Peru, marking what could be a vast ceremonial site of an ancient, little-known culture, archaeologists say. In January construction crews working in the province of Piura discovered several truncated pyramids and a large adobe platform (see map). Last week they announced that the complex, which is 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) long and 1 mile (1.6 kilometers) wide, belonged to the ancient Vicus culture and was likely either a...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Skeleton Could Hold Secret To Stonehenge
The skeleton discovered at Stonehenge in 1978, which has been on display in Salisbury Museum. A SKELETON, which has been on prominent display in Salisbury Museum for nearly a decade, could hold the secret to Stonehenge's mysterious past and show the site to be an arena of gladiatorial combat, an archaeological expert has claimed. The skeleton, that of a man who had been killed by arrows in 2,300 BC, was discovered in the ditch surrounding the stones during excavation work, carried out by Professor Richard Atkinson and J.G Evans in 1978. After being analysed,...
The Final Insult (Stonehenge)
The winter light is kind to the stones. Its mild greyness reveals the beauty of the blue lichen that has grown for thousands of years over their surfaces and even, from the right point on the path, lets you see the sinister shape of a bronze-age dagger carved into bleak rock. I'd love to be able to say it's an encounter that leads me far from the modern world into eerie reveries - but that would be a lie.
British Isles
Dig Uncovers Iron Age Waterhole (UK) BBC | 3-7-2008
Archaeologists have found what they describe as a remarkable Iron Age waterhole on the site of an extension to York University. The waterhole complete with a preserved wickerwork lining was revealed during excavations in Heslington village. The structure also contains fragments of wood giving clues to the landscape of the time, about 2,500 years ago. The university's archaeology department plans more digs at the site, which also contains an important Roman building. The university plans to open the site to local archaeological community groups as well as allowing students access to a live dig. 'Fantastic...
Rome and Italy
Roman Shops Unearthed Under Corn Hall (UK)
Workers unearthed the remains during renovation work THE remains of an ancient Roman shopping parade, hidden for centuries under the floorboards of Cirencester's historic Corn Hall have been unearthed this week. Workers came across the remains of what archaeologists claim is the most significant Roman discovery in the town in the last 50 years while carrying out refurbishment work. A series of walls were discovered 10 feet below the level of the floorboards in the main room of the 19th Century building along with evidence the site used to house shops...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Archaeologists unveil finds in Rome digs
ROME - A sixth-century copper factory, medieval kitchens still stocked with pots and pans, and remains of Renaissance palaces are among the finds unveiled Friday by archaeologists digging up Rome in preparation for a new subway line. Archaeologists have been probing the depths of the Eternal City at 38 digs, many of which are near famous monuments or on key thoroughfares. Over the last nine months, remains -- including Roman taverns and 16th-century palace foundations -- have turned up at the central Piazza Venezia and near the ancient Forum where works are paving the way for one of the 30...
Greece
Macedonia
Recent Finds At Macedonian Site Of Pella Reveal A City Beneath City
The archaeological site of Pella. To the right of the asphalt road is the agora of the ancient city. Also visible are the old museum at the crossroads, the workshops and storerooms of the site. By Iota Myrtsioti - KathimeriniPrehistoric cemetery yields evidence of an Early Bronze Age Exciting new finds at the archaeological site of Pella have opened a new chapter in Macedonian history. Beneath the ruins of the ancient capital of the Macedonian kingdom is a large prehistoric burial ground that has yielded the first...
Minoans
Ancient Minoan Culture Comes To Life At The Onassis Cultural Center
On March 13, 2008, more than 280 artifacts from the ancient land of Crete, most of which have never been shown outside of Greece, will be on view at the Onassis Cultural Center... through September 13, 2008... The exhibition will chronologically map in 11 thematic sections covering the establishment and great achievements of the Minoan culture... Information gathered from studies of the Early, Middle, and Late Minoan periods -- also referred to as the Prepalatial, Protopalatial, Neopalatial and Postpalatial periods -- is derived mostly from objects excavated from the island's burial grounds and settlements... gold jewelry... inscribed clay tablets... ceremonial...
Mycenaeans
Ancient Tomb Found On Greek Island
A partly demolished, 3,000-year-old tomb recently discovered on the western Greek island of Lefkada is seen in this undated hand out photo released by Greek Culture Ministry on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Archaeologists said the beehive-shaped tomb, which contained several human skeletons and grave offerings, was the first major Mycenaean-era monument to be found on the island.ATHENS, Greece --Road construction on the western Greek island of Lefkada has uncovered and partially destroyed an important tomb with artifacts dating back more than 3,000 years, officials said on Wednesday. The find...
Hobbits
'Hobbits' Were Stunted Cave-Dwellers
Anthropologists have fired another salvo in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilized remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago.</p> <p>Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy.</p>
Hobbit hominids were 'dwarf cretins'
Australian scientists are causing controversy in the usually placid world of anthropology, becoming embroiled in a feud about diminutive "hobbit" people whose fossilised remains were found in a cave on a remote Indonesian island four years ago. Combatting a bid to have the hobbits enshrined as a separate branch of the human family tree, they argue the tiny cave-dwellers were simply Homo sapiens who became stunted and retarded as a result of iodine deficiency in pregnancy. Dubbed after the wee folk in...
Eroding evolution's believability
Once again, evolutionists strike when the iron is hot in an attempt to affirm the same bogus evolutionary dogma they have crammed down our throats for 150 years. Once again, they've got it wrong. The recent discovery of a dwarf skeleton on the remote Indonesian island of Flores has scientists anxious to create another sub-class of humans. This one is called Homo floresiensis, which implies that they belong to a different species of people than those living today, we Homo sapiens.
Hobbits? We've got a cave full
Chief Epiradus Dhoi Lewa has a strange tale to tell. Sitting in his bamboo and wooden home at the foot of an active volcano on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, he recalls how people from his village were able to capture a tiny woman with long, pendulous breasts three weeks ago. "They said she was very little and very pretty," he says, holding his hand at waist height. "Some people saw her very close up." The villagers of Boawae believe the strange woman came down from a cave on the steaming mountain where short, hairy people they call Ebu...
'Hobbit' Brain Supports Species Theory
Scientists working with powerful imaging computers say the spectacular "Hobbit" fossil recently discovered in Indonesia had distinctive brain features that could justify its classification as a separate -- and tiny -- human ancestor. The new report, published Thursday in the online journal Science Express, seems to support the idea of a human dwarf species marooned for eons while modern man spread across the planet. Detractors of the theory, however, said the computer models were unconvincing. The new research produced a computer-generated model that compared surface impressions on the inside of the fossil skull with brain casts of modern and ancient...
Australian Scientist Disputes 'Hobbit' Findings (Stop evolution lies - petition)
An Australian academic who has examined the skeletal remains of a three-foot hominid discovered in an Indonesian cave and nicknamed a "hobbit" disputed Friday a report that they represent a new species of human. Professor Maciej Henneberg, head of anatomy at Adelaide University, said he thought the bones found in 2003 on Indonesia's Flores island were simply those of a normal human stunted by a viral disease, microcephaly -- a conclusion rejected in the earlier report by another team of scientists. That team analyzed the find and said the partial skeleton was evidence of a new, dwarf species of human....
Did Bilbo Really Exist?
Remains of at least nine "hobbits" have been discovered, making it almost certain the 3ft-tall creatures really are a new species of human. A year ago the world of science was stunned by the announcement that a hitherto unknown type of miniature human had been found on the Indonesian island of Flores. The original fossils consisted of a single partial skeleton, including the skull, of a female who lived 18,000 years ago. Stone tools, evidence of fire-making, and the bones of a dwarf elephant apparently hunted by the creature were also found. The hominid, nicknamed "The...
Hobbits don't exist; ancient skeleton not a pygmy human species
The skeletal remains found in a cave on the island of Flores, Indonesia, reported in 2004, do not represent a new species as then claimed, but some of the ancestors of modern human pygmies who live on the island today, according to an international scientific team. The researchers also demonstrate that the fairly complete skeleton designated LB1 is microcephalic, while other remains excavated from the site share LB1's small stature but show no evidence of microcephaly, since no other brain cases are known. Microcephaly is a condition in which the head and brain are much smaller than average for the...
Hobbits Mastered Use Of Stone Tools
Hobbits may have had long arms and tiny brains but our new-found cousins were agile and smart enough to make stone tools used to fashion other tools, probably for hunting and butchering animals. What's more, they did so at least 40,000 years before modern humans arrived on their home island of Flores in Indonesia. The discovery comes from Queensland scientists who have studied wear patterns and residue on about 100 stone tools found with the remains of hobbits (Homo floresiensis) in Liang Bua cave by Australian and...
"Hobbits" May Have Been Genetic Mutants
A rare disease characterized by small brain and body size but near normal intelligence is caused by mutations in a gene coding for the protein pericentrin, researchers have found. The scientists speculate that the condition may explain the tiny, hobbitlike people that occupied a remote, Indonesian island about 18,000 years ago -- adding fuel to the debate over whether the unusual creatures were a new species or just diseased modern humans. Pericentrin helps separate chromosomes during cell division, which is needed for growth. "The whole body loses its capacity to grow, because cell division is so difficult for people with this defect,"...
Egypt
False Doors For The Dead Among New Egypt Tomb Finds National Geographic News | 2-25-2008 | Steven Stanek
Three false doors that served as portals for communicating with the dead are among ancient burial remains recently unearthed in a vast Egyptian necropolis, an archaeological team announced. The discoveries date back to Egypt's turbulent First Intermediate Period, which ran roughly between 2160 and 2055 B.C. The period is traditionally thought to have been a chaotic era of bloodshed and power struggles, but little is known based on archaeological evidence. In addition to the false doors, the Spanish team...
Scotland Yet
Medieval Belt Buckle Discovered (Perth)
The medieval belt buckle Archaeologists unearthed a medieval belt buckle in Perth following work to repair a collapsed sewer. The group were allowed to examine the area in the Kirkgate as Scottish Water repaired the network. The copper alloy buckle is believed to date back to the 12th Century and was found along with animal bones, shells and pottery. A panel of experts will decide where the buckle should be housed, but it is hoped it will end up in Perth Museum. Catherine Smith from SUAT archaeological consultants told the BBC Scotland news website how they...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Evidence Of Commerce Between Ancient Israel And China
Throughout the 12th and 13th centuries - during the time of the Crusades -- ceramic vessels reached Acre from: Mediterranean regions, the Levant, Europe, North Africa, and even China -- reveals new research, which examined trade of ceramic vessels, conducted at the University of Haifa. This research, conducted by Dr. Edna Stern under the direction of Prof. Michal Artzy and Dr. Adrian Boasz, examined pottery found during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority of Crusader period Acre and pottery found in shipwrecks around the...
Asia
Innovative archaeological survey reveals unknown aspects of China's past Eurekalert | Monday, March 3, 2008 | Greg Borzo, Field Museum
Although still relatively unknown to the general public, an archaeological method that is being practiced at several locations around the world helps scientists overcome such bias toward large, readily noticeable sites. The method is called a regional settlement pattern survey. It involves walking systematically over a large landscape to find traces of archaeological sites on the surface of the ground. This field procedure can yield a holistic, integrated view of how settlement has shifted in a region over the course of history.
Climate
"Global Warming Is Real" - Dispatches from the International Conference on Climate Change
Editor's Note: reason Science Correspondent Ronald Bailey will be filing a series of regular dispatches from the Heartland Institute's controversial International Conference on Climate Change. Below is the first in that series.New York, March 2 -- The Heartland Institute's International Conference on Climate Change kicked off this evening at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Manhattan. Joseph Bast, president of the Institute, began by announcing that the meeting of 500 participants had attracted more than 200 scientists, economists, and other policy analysts to address questions that he thinks have been insufficiently scrutinized by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). According to...
Early America
This day in History - The Boston Massacre
On the cold, snowy night of March 5, 1770, a mob of angry colonists gathers at the Customs House in Boston and begins tossing snowballs and rocks at the lone British soldier guarding the building. The protesters opposed the occupation of their city by British troops, who were sent to Boston in 1768 to enforce unpopular taxation measures passed by a British parliament without direct American representation. The previous Friday, British soldiers looking for part-time work and local Bostonian laborers had brawled at John Hancock's wharf. After the brouhaha...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Mummified nuns found in convent walls
The mummified remains of two nuns, the head of one lying on the shoulder of the other, have been found in the walls of a Sao Paulo convent in Brazil, media reported. The bodies were discovered in one of six burial niches bricked over in the 234-year-old Mosteiro da Luz, that continues to be the home of the reclusive Order of the Conceptionist Sisters as well as a museum of sacred art. An official at the University of Sao Paulo's archaeology department, Sergio Monteiro da Silva, said it appeared the nuns had been put in the niche sometime between 1774...
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· Saturday, March 8, 2008 · 27 topics · 1982163 to 1978784 · 676 members · |
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Welcome to the 190th issue. The FR software has been tweaked for interface, meaning these digests are just a bit easier to do. The "browse" link has been wiped right out, so I don't have to search and replace that particular gizmo to add a TARGET tag, plus some other stuff. The biggest news is the cool new feature (new to me, at least) allowing FR members to add keywords (rather that just topics) to Subscriptions. The way to do that for "godsgravesglyphs" is to click here:SubscriptionsWhile you're at it, save JimRob some bandwidth by reducing the number of displayed topics in each category to four or five, which should be the most current. Navigation is IMHO pretty easy once you know the ropes (which shouldn't take long, you're all conservative and smart). The Subscriptions feature has been available for years AFAIK, but this is a great new addition. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #191
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Let's Have Jerusalem
First-Ever: First-Temple Building Remains Found Near Temple Mt. Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews | 3/13/8 | Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Antiquities Authority announces the first time in the history of the archaeological research of Jerusalem that building remains from the First Temple period have been exposed so close to the Temple Mount -- on the eastern slopes of the Upper City. A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries B.C.E.) has been discovered in archaeological rescue excavations near the Western Wall plaza.†The dig is being carried out in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza, near the staircase leading up towards the Jaffa Gate. The Israel Antiquties...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Ancient Architectural Acoustic Resonance Patterns and Regional Brain Activity
Abstract: Previous archaeoacoustic investigations of prehistoric, megalithic structures have identified acoustic resonances at frequencies of 95-120 Hz, particularly near 110-12 Hz, all representing pitches in the human vocal range. These chambers may have served as centers for social or spiritual events, and the resonances of the chamber cavities might have been intended to support human ritual chanting. We evaluated the possibility that tones at these frequencies might...
Scotland Yet
AD 200 - Valtos: Brochs And Wheelhouses Current Archaeology | 3-14-2008
AD 200 - Valtos: brochs and wheelhouses While the Romans were civilising England, life was very different story in Northern Scotland, and particularly in the outer isles, Orkney and the Hebrides. Here we are faced with something entirely different, with a completely new vocabulary of brochs and duns and wheelhouses. The most exotic are the brochs - tall, defensive towers built of stone - very different to the hillforts of southern Britain. These huge circular towers are one of the greatest monuments of British archaeology, but in the Western Isles they have been little studied in modern times. What was...
British Isles
Irish And Dutch Vessels Found In Scottish Graves (2500-2280BC)
Evidence that some of our prehistoric ancestors travelled considerable distances has come from two graves in Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute. One grave contained three distinctive beakers which Alison Sheridan, of the National Museums Scotland, describes as belonging to an early, international style, best paralleled by finds from the lower Rhine region of the modern-day Netherlands. Radiocarbon dates of 2500-2280 BC from hazel charcoal from within the grave confirms an early Bronze Age date. Though no bone was found because of the acidic nature of the local soils, the...
I Seen Ye
Silver Of The Iceni
The traditional image is of backward, hostile, bluepainted hordes led by a red-haired fury. Unlike the Celtic sophisticates of the South East, with their wheel-thrown tablewares and imported wines, the Norfolk Iceni were rural primitives. Or were they? Megan Dennis, specialist min Late Iron Age metalwork, pays tribute to the high culture of Boudica's people. The Iceni are famous forn two things -- Boudica and gold. Little else is known of this society that existed in the shadow-lands between the Iron Age and the Roman periods in Norfolk, Suffolk, and north-east Cambridgeshire. Archaeological evidence seems to...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Ancient (Anglo-Saxon) Grave Markers Found At The Cathedral Peterborough Today | 3-5-2008 | Jackie Hall
Archaeologist Dr Jackie Hall with a rare find of Anglo-Saxon grave markers discovered during repairs to a wall in the cathedral precincts. Picture: PAUL FRANKS EIGHT Anglo-Saxon grave markers belonging to ordinary folk have been uncovered in Peterborough Cathedral's grounds during restoration work. Workers at the site, who are repairing ancient stone walls in the precincts, alerted the cathedral's archaeologist to the find, which was discovered in the same wall as a medieval fireplace. Archaeologist Dr Jackie Hall analysed the pieces, and discovered they were 11th century grave markings which are believed to...
Prehistory and Origins
Paleolithic Handaxes From The North Sea (Neanderthals)
What are handaxes? Handaxes are stone tools that were used in the Ice Age. They were multi purpose tools, a bit like a modern Swiss army knife. Twenty-eight handaxes and some smaller pieces of flint (known as flakes) were found. The remains of mammoth, including tusk fragments and teeth, and fragments of deer antler were discovered at the same time. The discovery of the handaxes was reported through a scheme set up to report archaeological finds from the sea; the BMAPA Protocol. How old are they? We know that handaxes date to the Ice...
Climate
Beetles, Lentils and Anchovies
No, not some new dieting fad - what beetles, lentils and anchovies have in common is their value as indicators of ancient climate change. In a special issue of the journal Fisheries Research (Volume 87, November 2007), an international group of ecologists and historians have drawn upon archaeological material, tax accounts, church registers and monastic account books to present a picture of marine life in the North Sea from 7000 BC to the present. They found that warm-water species, including anchovy and black sea bream, once thrived around Britain's shores -- notably during the warm Atlantic...
Flood, Here Comes the Flood
Making Waves Over Noah's Flood.
Scientists are seriously challenging a recent, fascinating proposal that Noah's epic story - setting sail with an ark jam-full of animal couples - was based on an actual catastrophic flood that suddenly filled the Black Sea 7,500 years ago, forcing people to flee. In a detailed new look at the rocks, sediments, currents and seashells in and around the Black Sea, an international research team pooh-poohs the Noah flood idea, arguing that all the geologic, hydrologic and biologic signs are wrong. Little that the earth can tell us seems to fit the Noah story, they say.
Wave of the Antefuture
Tsunami that devastated the ancient world could return
PARIS (AFP) - "The sea was driven back, and its waters flowed away to such an extent that the deep sea bed was laid bare and many kinds of sea creatures could be seen," wrote Roman historian Ammianus Marcellus, awed at a tsunami that struck the then-thriving port of Alexandria in 365 AD. "Huge masses of water flowed back when least expected, and now overwhelmed and killed many thousands of people... Some great ships were hurled by the fury of the waves onto the rooftops, and others were thrown up to two miles (three kilometres) from the shore." Ancient documents...
It's Not My Fault
Earthquake Activity Is Frozen By Ice Sheets
Can you put a freeze on earthquakes? It seems so, according to a computer model showing that earthquakes happen less often in areas covered by ice caps. Trouble is, quakes come back with a vengeance when the ice melts. Andrea Hampel at Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, and colleagues wondered why Scandinavia experienced a surge in tectonic activity around 9000 years ago, whereas few earthquakes occur there today. They realised that the earthquake flurry coincided with the melting of the Fennoscandian ice sheet, which blanketed the area...
Mammoth Told Me
The Mystery Of Mammoth Tusks With Iron Fillings
The mystery of mammoth tusks with iron fillings By By Ned RozellMarch 5, 2008 A giant meteor may have exploded over Alaska thousands of years ago, shooting out metal fragments like buckshot, some of which embedded in the tusks of woolly mammoths and the horns of bison. Simultaneously, a large chunk of the meteor hit Alaska south of Allakaket, sending up a dust cloud that blacked out the sun over the entire state and surrounding areas, killing most of the life in the area. Embedded iron particles surrounded by carbonized rings in the outer layer of a mammoth tusk from...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
How The Peruvian Meteorite Made It To Earth
The Carancas Fireball. Planetary geologists had thought that stony meteorites would be destroyed when they passed through Earth's atmosphere. This one struck ground near Carancas, Peru, at about 15,000 miles per hour. Brown University geologists have advanced a new theory that would upend current thinking about stony meteorites. (Credit: Peter Schultz, Brown University) ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2008) -- It made news around the world: On Sept. 15, 2007, an object hurtled through the sky and crashed into the Peruvian countryside. Scientists dispatched to the site near the village of Carancas found a gaping...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Indian DNA Links To 6 'Founding Mothers'
NEW YORK - Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA study suggests. Those women left a particular DNA legacy that persists to today in about 95 percent of Native Americans, researchers said. The finding does not mean that only these six women gave rise to the migrants who crossed into North America from Asia in the initial populating of the continent, said study co-author...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Americas Settled 15,000 Years Ago, Study Says
A consensus is emerging in the highly contentious debate over the colonization of the Americas, according to a study that says the bulk of the region wasn't settled until as late as 15,000 years ago. Researchers analyzed both archaeological and genetic evidence from several dozen sites throughout the Americas and eastern Asia for the paper. "In the past archaeologists haven't paid too much attention to molecular genetic evidence," said lead author Ted Goebel, an archaeologist at Texas A&M University in College Station. "We have brought...
Peru
Pre Inca Temple Discovered in Peru News Vine
LIMA -- Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an ancient temple, roadway and irrigation systems at a famed fortress overlooking the Inca capital of Cuzco, according to officials involved with the dig. The temple on the periphery of the Sacsayhuaman fortress casts added light on pre-Inca cultures of Peru, showing that the site had religious as well as military aims, according to researchers. It includes 11 rooms thought to have held mummies and idols, lead archaeologist Oscar Rodriguez told The Associated Press. The team of archaeologists that made the discoveries believes the structures predated the Inca empire but were then...
Hobbits
Ancient Bones Of Small Humans Discovered In Palau (Not 'Hobbits')
Thousands of human bones belonging to numerous individuals have been discovered in the Pacific island nation of Palau. Some of the bones are ancient and indicate inhabitants of particularly small size, scientists announced today. The remains are between 900 and 2,900 years old and align with Homo sapiens, according to a paper on the discovery. However, the older bones are tiny and exhibit several traits considered primitive, or archaic, for the human lineage. "They weren't very typical, very small in fact," said Lee Berger,...
Asia
Rare Cave Inscriptions
A cave with rare ancient inscriptions dating back to more than 10000 years has reportedly been discovered at Badungala in the PS division of Yakkalamulla in Galle. Archaeology officials say that the inscriptions date back to the Endera yugaya or the era when animals were domesticated. They say similar cave inscriptions had been so far discovered in Alauwa, Ambilikanda and Mawanella. This is the first time that such a find has been reported from the South.
Epigraphy and Language
Iran makes cuneiform writing software
An original new software that enables users to type in Persian cuneiform writing is to be released into Iran's market in the near future. Cuneiform is a pictographic writing system used by many languages over several empires in ancient Mesopotamia and Persia and inspired the old Persian national alphabet. With this unique software enthusiasts will be able to write inscriptions in cuneiform and see their phonetic equivalents. The cuneiform script is the earliest known form of written expression, created by the Sumerians in 3000 BC. Cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. Over time, the pictorial representations became simplified...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
A masterpiece told in a language that is lush, sensual and highly inventive [Persian Literature] Iranian.com | 20 Feb 2008 | Anon
Vis & Ramin by Fakhraddin Gorgani Translated by Dick Davis 2008, Mage Publishers About the book, the author, and the translator Vis & Ramin is one of the world's great love stories. It was the first major Persian romance, written between 1050 and 1055 in rhyming couplets. This remarkable work has now been superbly translated into heroic couplets (the closest metrical equivalent of the Persian) by the poet and scholar Dick Davis and published by Mage Publishers. Vis and Ramin had immense influence on later Persian poetry and is very probably also the source for the tale of Tristan and...
Greece
Ancient graves found in Greece (Thessaloniki)
ATHENS, Greece - Greek workers discovered around 1,000 graves, some filled with ancient treasures, while excavating for a subway system in the historic city of Thessaloniki, the state archaeological authority said Monday. Some of the graves, which dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., contained jewelry, coins and various pieces of art, the Greek archaeological service said in a statement. Thessaloniki was founded around 315 B.C. and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine eras. Today it is the Mediterranean country's second largest city. Most of the graves -- 886 -- were just east of the city...
Ancient graves found in Greece
Greek workers discovered around 1,000 graves, some filled with ancient treasures, while excavating for a subway system in the historic city of Thessaloniki, the state archaeological authority said Monday. Some of the graves, which dated from the first century B.C. to the 5th century A.D., contained jewelry, coins and various pieces of art, the Greek archaeological service said in a statement. Thessaloniki was founded around 315 B.C. and flourished during the Roman and Byzantine eras. Today it is the Mediterranean country's second largest city. Most of the graves -- 886 -- were just east of the city center in what...
Mycenaeans
FSU classics professor exploring a 'lost' city of the Mycenaeans Florida State University | March 11, 2008 | Unknown
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, "lost" harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago. "This is really a remarkable find," said Professor Daniel J. Pullen, chairman of FSU's Department of Classics. "It is rare indeed to locate an entire town built during the Late Bronze Age that shows this level of preservation." Pullen and a colleague, Assistant Professor of Classical Studies Thomas F. Tartaron of the University of Pennsylvania, led students...
Back-Alley Trepanning
Skeleton May Show Ancient Brain Surgery
The skeleton of a young woman from a 3rd century A.D. grave in Veria, northern Greece, is seen in this undated handout photo provided by the Greek Culture Ministry on Tuesday, March 11, 2008. Archaeologists believe a large hole on the front of the skull, above the eyes, was caused by -- apparently failed -- brain surgery nearly 1,800 years ago. Although references to such delicate operations abound in ancient writings, discoveries of surgically perforated skulls are uncommon in Greece. (AP Photo/Greek Culture Ministry) (AP) -- Greek archaeologists said Tuesday they have unearthed rare...
Rome and Italy
House of Augustus opens to public BBC | Sunday, March 9, 2008 | Christian Fraser
Almost 50 years ago, archaeologists searching for the ruined house of Augustus found a... single fragment of painted plaster, discovered in masonry-filled rooms... On Sunday following decades of painstaking restoration, the frescoes in vivid shades of blue, red and ochre went on public show for the first time since they were painted in about 30BC. One large room boasts a theatrical theme, its walls painted to resemble a stage with narrow side-doors. High on the wall a comic mask peers through a small window. Other trompe l'oeil designs include an elegant garden vista, yellow columns and even a meticulously sketched...
Ancient Art
Statue of Egypt pharaoh rolls to new home
CAIRO (Reuters) - A massive statue of one of Egypt's greatest pharaohs, Ramses II, rolled through the streets of Cairo to a new home near the Pyramids on Friday to escape the corrosive pollution of its former spot in a crowded transit hub. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to bid farewell to the 3,200-year-old red granite statue, which weighs 83 tons and was wrapped in plastic and thick padding for the painstakingly slow 35 km (21 mile) journey, which took 10 hours. Only the face was visible. "We are going to miss you. Cairo will never be...
Ancient Autopsies
Egyptian Mummy Exhibit Is Son Of Ramesses II The Telegraph (UK) | 3-15-2008 | Lucy Cockcroft
An Egyptian mummy kept on display in a provincial museum for nearly 80 years has been identified as a son of the powerful pharaoh Ramesses II. The 3,000-year-old relic was thought to have been a female temple dancer, but a hospital CT scan showed features so reminiscent of the Egyptian royal family that experts are 90 per cent sure it is one of the 110 children Ramesses is thought to have fathered. The Bolton Museum mummy was thought for many years to have been...
Buried with a Donkey
Tutankhamun was not black: Egypt antiquities chief
Egyptian antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass insisted Tuesday that Tutankhamun was not black despite calls by US black activists to recognise the boy king's dark skin colour. "Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it," Hawass told reporters. "Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa," he said, quoted by the official MENA news agency. Hawass said he was responding to several demonstrations in Philadelphia after a lecture he gave there on September 6 where he defended his theory. Protestors also...
Egypt
How Wild Asses Became Donkeys Of The Pharaohs
The ancient Egyptian state was built on the backs of tamed wild asses. Ten skeletons excavated from burial sites of the first Egyptian kings are the best evidence yet that modern-day donkeys emerged through domestication of African wild asses. The 5000-year-old bones also provide the earliest indications that asses were used for transport. The skeletons suggest that the smaller frames of today's donkeys hadn't yet evolved. Instead, the bones resemble those of modern-day Nubian and Somali wild asses, which are much larger than...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Domestication Of The Donkey May Have Taken A Long Time
An international group of researchers has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andrea Laurita) ScienceDaily (Mar. 13, 2008) -- An international group of researchers has found evidence for the earliest transport use of the donkey and the early phases of donkey domestication, suggesting the process of domestication may have been slower and less linear than previously thought. Based on a study of 10 donkey...
Puss and Roots
Cat Joins Exclusive Genome Club (Abyssinian Cat Cinnamon Has DNA Decoded Alert)
A pedigree cat called Cinnamon has made scientific history by becoming the first feline to have its DNA decoded. The domestic cat now joins the select club of mammals whose genome has been deciphered - including dogs, chimps, rats, mice, cows and people. The genome map is expected to shed light on both feline and human disease. Cats get hundreds of illnesses similar to human ones, including a feline version of HIV, known as FIV, and a hereditary form of blindness. Cinnamon, a four-year-old Abyssinian cat, is descended from lab cats bred to develop retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease,...
Paleontology
Ancient Flying Reptiles Likely Had Sex As Youths
Pterosaurs, like their dinosaur relatives, didn't wait until they were fully grown to have sex, a new study suggests. Researchers examined microscopic tree ring-like growth markings in hundreds of bones from a species of the extinct flying reptiles discovered in central Argentina in the 1990s. The Pterodaustro guioazui bones came from multiple individuals, including an embryo inside an egg and adults with wingspans between 1 to 8 feet (0.3 to 2.5 meters). P. guiÃ’azui lived during the mid-Cretaceous, about a hundred million years ago. "It is quite amazing that even after millions of years, the microscopic structure of the bone...
Toil and Trouble
Mysterious Pits Shed Light On Forgotten Witches Of The West
Evidence of pagan rituals involving swans and other birds in the Cornish countryside in the 17th century has been uncovered by archaeologists. Since 2003, 35 pits at the site in a valley near Truro have been excavated containing swan pelts, dead magpies, unhatched eggs, quartz pebbles, human hair, fingernails and part of an iron cauldron. The finds have been dated to the 1640s, a period of turmoil in England when Cromwellian Puritans destroyed any links to pre-Christian pagan England. It was also a period when witchcraft attracted...
Oh So Mysterioso
Rennes le-Chateau researcher dies The Daily Grail | 13 March 2008 | n/c
The world of Rennes-Le-Chateau has lost a great friend; it has lost Jean-Luc Robin. Jean-Luc was my friend and gave me my first tour of Rennes-Le-Chateau. His knowledge was broad and deep, and his conclusions sensible, sceptical and measured. He lived and breathed Rennes-le-Chateau, having once served as caretaker of the Villa Bethania. In recent years he managed a restaurant in the Villa's garden where he sponsored summer lectures that drew crowds from all over France. Jean-Luc created an organization for the preservation of Rennes-Le-Chateau and his passion for the integrity of the village -- and the mystery - was...
Early America
'John Adams' (HBO Sunday Hight Reminder)
When Hollywood's movie-makers and docu-dramatists get their hands on American history, accuracy, reality and truth often are tortured beyond recognition. But starting at 8 p.m. Sunday, March 16, HBO Films will be delivering the seven-part, nine-hour mini-series "John Adams."
World War Eleven
His Cup Runneth Over: a Warrior's Thanks
BIALLA, Papua New Guinea (AP) - The Japanese fighter caught the American pilot from behind, riddling his plane with machine-gun rounds. The left engine burst into flames. It was time to bail out. He yanked on the release lever but the cockpit canopy only half- opened. He unbuckled his seat belt, rose to shake the canopy loose and was instantly sucked out. Swinging beneath his opened parachute, he plunged toward a Pacific island jungle of thick, towering eucalyptus trees, of crocodile rivers and headhunters, into enemy territory, and into an unimagined future as a hero, "Suara Auru," Chief Warrior, to...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Da Vinci's works on exhibit in Saxony PressTV Iran | Monday, March 10, 2008 | unattributed
A Leonardo Da Vinci exhibition focusing on his fascination with machines opens in the Museum of Industry in the German city of Saxony. The exhibition which opened on Sunday includes more than 40 wooden models of his inventions, including Archimedes screws, lifting devices, pulleys and flywheels. The exhibition will be open until June 15. One of the advantages of this particular exhibition is that the visitors are permitted to touch many of the exhibits and try them out for themselves, DPA reported. Da Vinci was a superb painter as well as designer of buildings and machinery and produced studies on...
end of digest #191 20080315
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· Saturday, March 15, 2008 · 37 topics · 1986005 to 1980528 · 677 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 191st issue. Welcome to the ping list to all new members. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #192
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Ancient Autopsies
Skull Changes Show Time Of Human-Neandertal Split
Gradual changes in human skull size and shape suggest a split between humans and Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals) about 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, according to a new study. The work provides the first estimate a divergence date for modern humans and Neandertals based on the rate of change of physical characteristics. Genetic Drift Just as DNA changes accumulate over time and provide a kind of "molecular clock" by which the separation of closely related species can be dated, evolved differences in physical form can...
Skulls Of Modern Humans And Ancient Neanderthals... Not Natural Selection
The approximate locations of the cranial measurements used in the analyses are superimposed as red lines on lateral (A), anterior (B), and inferior (C) views of a human cranium. (Credit: National Academy of Sciences, PNAS (Copyright 2008)) ScienceDaily (Mar. 20, 2008) -- New research led by UC Davis anthropologist Tim Weaver adds to the evidence that chance, rather than natural selection, best explains why the skulls of modern humans and ancient Neanderthals evolved differently. The findings may alter how anthropologists think about human evolution. Weaver's study...
Prehistory and Origins
Upright Walking Began 6 Million Years Ago
A shape comparison of the most complete fossil femur (thigh bone) of one of the earliest known pre-humans, or hominins, with the femora of living apes, modern humans and other fossils, indicates the earliest form of bipedalism occurred at least six million years ago and persisted for at least four million years. William Jungers, Ph.D., of Stony Brook University, and Brian Richmond, Ph.D., of George Washington University, say their finding indicates that the fossil belongs to very early human ancestors, and that upright walking is one of the first human characteristics...
Africa
Out of Africa, Not Once But Twice
Modern humans are known to have left Africa in a wave of migration around 50,000 years ago, but another, smaller group -- possibly a different subspecies -- left the continent 50,000 years earlier, suggests a new study. While all humans today are related to the second "out of Africa" group, it's likely that some populations native to Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia retain genetic vestiges of the earlier migrants, according to the paper's author, Michael Schillaci. Schillaci, an...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Study unlocks Latin American past
European colonisation of South America resulted in a dramatic shift from a native American population to a largely mixed one, a genetic study has shown. It suggests male European settlers mated with native and African women, and slaughtered the men. But it adds that areas like Mexico City "still preserve the genetic heritage" because these areas had a high number of natives at the time of colonisation. The findings appear in the journal Public Library of Science Genetics. The international team of researchers wrote: "The history of Latin America has entailed a complex process of population mixture between natives and...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Clovis Overkill Didn't Wipe Out California's Sea Duck
Clovis-age natives, often noted for overhunting during their brief dominance in a primitive North America, deserve clemency in the case of California's flightless sea duck. New evidence says it took thousands of years for the duck to die out. A team of six scientists, including Jon M. Erlandson of the University of Oregon, pronounced their verdict in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (online, March 13) after holding court on thousands of years of archaeological testimony taken from bones of the extinct sea duck uncovered from 14 sites...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Cultivated Rice Kernel 12,000 Years Ago Discovered In Hunan
The rice kernel discovered in the Yuchanyan cultural relics in Central China's Hunan Province may be the earliest cultivated rice specimen yet discovered, said archaeologists. During the excavation at the Yuchanyan cultural relics in Daoxian County at the end of 2004, six rice kernels were discovered. The age of one was confirmed at 12,000 years ago, a transitional period from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age (10,000 years ago), or even earlier, said Yuan Jiarong, director of the provincial archaeological research institute. The ages of other five grains, which were...
Climate
Is Jawbone The Ancient Souvenir Ancestor Of The Humble Snow Globe
It is the 14,000-year-old version of a snow dome. Travellers during the late Ice Age would pick up an etched horse jawbone as a souvenir of their time in Europe. Arriving in Wales they would then display the trinket in their cave as a memento of their time abroad. And now experts believe this 11,500BC example is the "oldest ever piece of Welsh artwork". With an intricate zig-zag pattern the keepsake could also signal an important evolutionary step in communication, they...
British Isles
Gold Cup Find Led To (Anglo-Saxon) Graves Discovery
An important archaeological find by Broadstairs man Cliff Bradshaw prompted further excavations which uncovered centuries- old Anglo-Saxon graves. These later finds, thought to be the graves of women from the fifth and sixth centuries, were the subject of an inquest held last week by coroner Rebecca Cobb to decide if the finds should be declared treasure. She heard the excavations followed the discovery in 2001 by Cliff Bradshaw of what has since become known as the Ringlemere Cup, which was later declared a national treasure and is on show in...
Celts
Bronze Age Burial 'With Beer Mug'
The skeleton was "crouched" which was typical of the time -- A 4,000-year-old Bronze Age skeleton has been unearthed by archaeologists working on a site in east Kent. Canterbury Archaeological Trust said the curled-up skeleton was an example of a "Beaker" burial because of the pottery vessel placed at its feet. Education officer Marion Green said the "beautifully decorated" pot could have been "a type of beer mug". She said tests on beakers from other sites suggested Bronze Age man was brewing a type of beer from grain. The body was in a "crouched" position...
Central Asia
New Tomb For 'Altai Princess' To Be Built In Siberia Novosti | 3-20-2008
A tomb to house the remains of a woman found after being preserved in ice for 2,500 years will be built in Siberia's Altai Republic, the director of a local museum said on Thursday. The well-preserved remains of the woman dubbed the Altai Princess were discovered in the region by a team led by a Novosibirsk archeologist in 1993 near the Mongolian border, and have been studied at the Archaeology and Ethnography Institute in Novosibirsk. Residents of Altai, where...
Epigraphy and Language
Priceless Gold Coins Found[UK][Roman]
Rare Roman gold coins regarded as "priceless" by experts have been unearthed in Derbyshire. The coins, which date back to AD 286, were discovered by Derrick Fretwell while he was out digging near Ashbourne. After an internet search failed to shed any light on his discovery, he turned to Derby Museum who, in turn, sought help from experts at the British Museum in London. Their studies have revealed that one of the coins has never been classified before and the other is the first example to be found since 1975. The museum's Sam Moorhead, an expert in Roman antiquities, said:...
Rome and Italy
Ancient Rome's Earliest Temple Reconstructed
Experts have digitally reconstructed Rome's earliest major temple, the Temple of Apollo, built by the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The temple dates to 28 B.C., and its ruins stand adjacent to the emperor's imperial palaces on the city's famous Palatine Hill. Until now the original design of the temple had not been well understood, partly due to the ruins' poor state of preservation. Also, previous efforts to model the temple had been based on outdated historical assessments rather than on the ruins themselves. Stephan Zink, a graduate...
India
Wari-Bateshwar One Of Earliest Kingdoms The Daily Star | 3-19-2008 | Emran Hossain
Suggests find of pre-Mauryan silver coins in the area -- The coin hoard, unearthed by excavators from Wari-Bateshwar, containing silver punch-marked coin of Pre-Mauryan (right) and Mauryan (left) periods reveals that Wari-Batehswar was one of the Mahajanapadas in the Indian sub-continent. The discovery of silver punch-marked coins of the pre-Mauryan period dating back to 600 BC to 400 BC in Wari-Bateshwar reveals that the place was a Mahajanapada, one of the earliest kingdoms or states in the Indian subcontinent. The silver coins and artefacts unearthed and collected so far and geographical positioning...
Near East
Middle East Map of War Mapsofwar.com | 3/18/08 | Maps of War
I found this really cool map/flash movie. It has a moving timeline that corresponds with the changing map. Click on the link.Maps of War
Let's Have Jerusalem
Silver Coin Used To Pay Half Shekel Head-Temple Tax Found In Main Drainage Channel Of Jerusalem
A Silver Coin That Was Used To Pay The Half Shekel Head-Tax To The Temple Was Found In The Main Drainage Channel Of Jerusalem From The Second Temple Period "A reminder of the half shekel" is also paid today as a donation to the poor, before reading the Scroll of Esther at Purim This coming Thursday, before reading the Scroll of Esther, all devote Jews will contribute a sum of money - "a reminder of...
Flood, Here Comes the Flood
Forecasting Tsunami Threats Through Layers of Sand and Time
The catastrophic Indian Ocean event in December 2004 that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries -- including 15,000 in India -- was hardly a one freak occurrence. It could happen again. Newswise -- Azhii peralai: from the deep - large waves. This is the expression for "tsunami' in Tamil, the oldest language in southern India. For an ancient dialect to have its own phrase for destructive waves triggered by earthquakes, the people of Tamil Nadu likely experienced tsunamis periodically through the centuries, says Halifax...
Did A Comet Cause The Great Flood?
The Fenambosy chevrons at the tip of Madagascar. Image courtesy of Dallas Abbott The serpent's tails coil together menacingly. A horn juts sharply from its head. The creature looks as if it might be swimming through a sea of stars. Or is it making its way up a sheer basalt cliff? For Bruce Masse, an environmental archaeologist at Los Alamos National Laboratory, there is no confusion as he looks at this ancient petroglyph, scratched into a rock by a...
Did an Asteroid Impact Cause an Ancient Tsunami?
At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. And all of them point in the same direction -- toward the middle of the Indian Ocean where a newly discovered crater, 18 miles in diameter, lies 12,500 feet below the surface. The explanation is obvious to...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Web surfer spots mysterious crater
A Pembroke man was playing with Google Earth - an online digital map of the planet - when he came across something that seemed out of this world: an apparent meteorite crater in Pawtuckaway State Park in Nottingham. "I was just searching around on Google, looking at lakes, because I'm a sailor," said Stephen Dupuis, 52. "As I was panning down through the landscape, it kind of caught my eye." Dupuis, a multimedia artist, has been fascinated with astronomy and outer space since his father, a former engineer, built the heat shields used for the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s....
Crater to Grave
Ancient Global Dimming Linked to Volcanic Eruption (The Dark Ages)
A "dry fog" that muted the sun's rays in A.D. 536 and plunged half the world into a famine-inducing chill was triggered by the eruption of a supervolcano, a new study says. The cause of the sixth-century global dimming has long been a matter of debate, but a team of international researchers recently discovered acidic sulphate molecules, which are signs of an eruption, in Greenland ice. This is the first physical evidence for the A.D. 536 event, which according to ancient texts from Mesoamerica, Europe,...
Draining the Lizard
Gas-belching volcanoes may have killed dinosaurs
Gas-belching volcanoes may be to blame for a series of mass extinctions over the last 545 million years, including that of the dinosaurs, new evidence suggested on Thursday. A series of eruptions that formed the Deccan Traps in what is now India pumped huge amounts of sulfur into the atmosphere 65 million years ago, with likely devastating repercussions for the Earth's climate, scientists said. Gigantic eruptions, forming so-called "flood basalts," are one of two leading explanations for a series of mass extinctions that have killed off species periodically throughout history. The other theory involves asteroid impacts --...
Shirts and Skins
Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur
Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish- black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all. Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65- million-year-old rock tomb. "This is the closest many people will...
Workers Uncovering Mummified Dinosaur (skin and all)
Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all. Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb. "This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large...
Paleontology
Early life on Earth - no predators, plenty of sex
Sexual reproduction may be nearly as old as animal life itself, according to researchers who discovered a new species of organism that lived 540 million years ago. The tube-like creatures called Funisia dorothea anchored themselves in abundant flocks onto the shallow, sandy seabed of what is now the Australian outback. Nothing appears to have evolved yet to eat them, so they lived peaceful lives, reproducing sexually at times and by asexual methods such as budding at other times, Mary Droser of the University of California Riverside and colleagues reported in the journal Science. They behaved very much...
Windmill Tilting
The last charge (Knights Templar are back...)
Almost 700 years after the Pope burned their leader at the stake, the Knights Templar are back. Or are they? Patrick Barkham tries to find out why the long-vanished order of Crusaders might suddenly be in the press.... ~~~snip~~~ Apart from the odd misplaced apostrophe and various arcane references to "annulling the bull", the advert gravely announced that the Knights Templar would petition the Pope to "restore the Order with the duties, rights and privileges appropriate to the 21st century and beyond". It called on all Templar groups and "brothers in arms" around the world to get in touch,...
Oh So Mysterioso
Archaeologists Uncover Unique Cremation Graves (Moravia)
Czech archaeologists have uncovered unique cremation graves in Prostejov that date back to the Neolithic period of the Linear Pottery culture and that indicate that people believed in human soul's existence 7,000 years ago already, daily Mlada fronta Dnes wrote Wednesday. The graves were uncovered during construction of a new industrial zone on the eastern edge of the town. "This is the first cremation burial site of the Linear-Pottery-culture to be uncovered on Czech soil. Below it there are skeleton graves...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Russian Archaeologists Find 15th Century Griffin Jug Piece
Archaeologists near the city of Veliky Novgorod in northwest Russia have discovered part of a centuries-old ceramic jug decorated with a mysterious griffin symbol. 'On the fragment of ceramic, most likely part of a broken jug, we saw an image of an animal with open jaws and wings, like a griffin,' the head of the archaeology team, Oleg Oleynikov, said. The griffin, portrayed as a gigantic bird with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, first appeared...
Early America
George Washington stopped coup d' etat
One of the most important dates in American history passed unnoticed last weekend. It was the 225th anniversary of the day we didn't become a banana republic. It ought to be a national holiday, right up there with July Fourth. But hardly anybody remembers it any more. The date was March 15, 1783. The Revolutionary War had just been won. Trouble was, the army hadn't been paid during the war. They were promised that they'd get their money when the war was over; but now that the time had come, Congress was reneging on that pledge. Resentment rippled through the...
A rare opening for Mount Vernon's cellar NorthJersey.com | Sunday, January 27, 2008 | TRACY GRANT
Getting there: Route 95 south to Washington, D.C., cross the Potomac River on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, move to the far right lane. After crossing the bridge, take the exit for Route 1 north, marked Alexandria. Once on Route 1, make the first right turn, onto Franklin Street. Turn right again at Washington Street, which is marked for Mount Vernon. Washington Street becomes the George Washington Parkway as you leave Alexandria, and Mount Vernon is 8 miles south, at the large traffic circle at the end of the parkway. Info: 703-780-2000 or mountvernon.org. Hours: Basement is open weekends from 9...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
BARBARIC SCENE ACCURATE ["John Adams" miniseries]
HBO miniseries on "John Adams" demonstrates early form of vaccination for smallpox For many who watched Sunday night's airing of "John Adams," the new HBO series, one scene seemed almost barbaric: A doctor makes incisions with a lancet in the arms of Abigail Adams and her children and places smallpox material directly into the wounds. Abigail Adams believed that you could protect healthy people by injecting them with a deadly disease. Wouldn't that be just as dangerous as hanging around with the infected soldiers shown in the movie? No, Abigail knew what she was doing when she insisted that her...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Investigator: Antiquities fund Iraqi extremists AP | 18 Mar 2008 | ELENA BECATOROS
The smuggling of stolen antiquities from Iraq's rich cultural heritage is helping finance Iraqi extremist groups, says the U.S. investigator who led the initial probe into the looting of Baghdad's National Museum. Marine Reserve Col. Matthew Bogdanos claimed both Sunni insurgents such as al-Qaida in Iraq and Shiite militias are receiving funding from the trafficking. Bogdanos, a New York assistant district attorney, noted that kidnappings and extortion remain the insurgents' main source of funds. But he said the link between extremist groups and antiquities smuggling in Iraq was "undeniable." "The Taliban are using opium to finance their activities in Afghanistan,"...
end of digest #192 20080322
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· Saturday, March 22, 2008 · 32 topics · 1989634 to 1987021 · 679 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 192nd issue. Welcome to the ping list to all new members. I have little say today, that's another break for you. Coins, purported origins, Central Asia, the Americas, some catastrophism, and some fringe stuff. |
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At WalMart tonight I picked up a special collector’s issue (it sez here) from the editors of “Military History” magazine; it’s “Bronze Brains & Blood” subtitled “The Battles, Weapons, Conquerors, Strategies, & Heroes in Ancient Greece and Rome that gave us Civilization”. The website turned up bupkis. Here’s the search link.
http://www.historynet.com/search?searchKeywords=bronze+brains+blood
Anyway, it’s kinda thin, and costs a hair-raising $5.99 (plus tax? Dunno, I also got a couple boxes of Whoppers), no idea really if it was a total waste of money. :’)
Thanks Civ, will check it out.
My favorite in this category is Gods With Bronze Swords by Costa de Loverdo. Way out of print I’m sure, but a gem. It tries to reconstruct ancient history from the myths. Lots of speculation to chew on, especially regarding the pre-Mycenean era and the colonies in the Western Mediterranean.
Thanks!
I found a copy some years back at a library reject sale. (Amazing what they consider unworthy!)
I don’t recommend many, and it’s definitely worth hunting down. Ask your local librarian to do an inter-library loan search. Whatever it takes! :)
Excellent idea... I’d never tried that until the other day, got a sci-fi book (first I’ve read in entire in years) from out of state.
Thanks! I got nothing when I tried it, and the publisher website also produced no hit. Thanks again!
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #193
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Australia and the Pacific
Floating A Big Idea: Ancient Use Of Rafts To Transport Goods Demonstrated
MIT students built a small-scale replica of an ancient oceangoing sailing raft to study its seaworthiness and handling. (Credit: Donna Coveney/MIT) Oceangoing sailing rafts plied the waters of the equatorial Pacific long before Europeans arrived in the Americas, and carried tradegoods for thousands of miles all the way from modern-day Chile to western Mexico, according to new findings by MIT researchers in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Details of how the ancient trading system worked more than 1,000 years ago were reconstructed...
Africa
Sailor to recreate Phoenicians' epic African voyage
Stone Pages | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | The Independent
On the ancient Syrian island of Arwad, which was settled by the Phoenicians in about 2000 BCE, men are hard at work hammering wooden pegs into the hull of a ship. But this vessel will not be taking fishermen on their daily trip up and down the coast. It is destined for a greater adventure -- one that could solve a mystery which has baffled archaeologists for centuries. The adventure begins not in Arwad but in Dorset, where an Englishman has taken it upon himself to try to prove that the Phoenicians circumnavigated Africa thousands of years before any Europeans...
Epigraphy and Language
Siberian, Native American Languages Linked -- A First
A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms. The finding may allow linguists to weigh in on how the Americas were first settled, according to Edward Vajda, director of the Center for East Asian Studies at Western Washington University in Bellingham. Since at least 1923 researchers have suggested a connection exists between Asian and North American languages -- but this is the first time a link has been demonstrated...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Corn's Roots Dig Deeper Into South America
Eureka Alert | 3-24-2008 | University of Calgary
Earliest signs of maize as staple food found after spreading south from Mexican homeland -- Corn has long been known as the primary food crop in prehistoric North and Central America. Now it appears it may have been an important part of the South American diet for much longer than previously thought, according to new research by University of Calgary archaeologists who are cobbling together the ancient history of plant domestication in the New World. In a paper published in the March 24 advanced online edition of...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
The Lowly Sweet Potato May Unlock America's Past
How the root vegetable found it's way across the Pacific One of the enduring mysteries of world history is whether the Americas had any contact with the Old World before Columbus, apart from the brief Viking settlement in Newfoundland. Many aspects of higher civilisation in the New World, from the invention of pottery to the building of pyramids, have been ascribed to European, Asian or African voyagers, but none has stood up to scrutiny. The one convincing piece of evidence for pre-Hispanic contact...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Bison Bones Bolster Idea Ice Age Seafarers First To Americas
Head of a bison, part of a series of ancient bison bones found on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state. A series of discoveries of ancient bison bones on Vancouver Island and nearby Orcas Island in Washington state is fuelling excitement among researchers that the Pacific coast offered a food-rich ecosystem for Ice Age hunters some 14,000 years ago -- much earlier than the prevailing scientific theory pegs the arrival of humans to the New World. Fourteen...
British Isles
A Strapping Guy, But You Wouldn't Want to Kiss Him
He's tall, well-preserved, and enjoys archery and gritty food. And despite his bad teeth, a slight stoop and an unfortunate growth on his face, he may be looking for a (very) mature woman. If this description sounds all too familiar, then you may have found a direct descendant of Thanet's Bronze Age man. Experts examining a skeleton found on the Isle last week have painted a vivid picture of how the 4,000-year-old stranger might have looked -- and he definitely wasn't pretty. The beautifully preserved remains were found during a routine archaeological dig on development site near Monkton on which...
Age of Rama
Ancient Weapons Dug Up In India (15-20,000 Year Old)
Stone age weapons are not usually found in such an old soil layer Archaeologists in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal have discovered small weapons made of stone which are around 15,000-20,000 years old. The artefacts - dating to the Stone Age - were found during excavations in Murshidabad district, near Bangladesh. Archaeologists say the find is potentially significant as it suggests man's presence in the area dates back much earlier than previously believed. Finds such as this on the floodplains of the River Ganges are very...
India
Structure with artefacts found below Paharpur site temple
Daily Star | Sunday, March 23, 2008 | Hasibur Rahman Bilu
Archaeologists have found another ancient brick-built structure with floor and artefacts under the basement of the main temple at world heritage site Paharpur. Earlier, two brick-built structures of Gupta dynasty were found during an excavation, according to archaeologists of the Department of Archaeology. Dr Md Shafiqul Alam, director, Department of Archaeology, said the recently excavated structures were built in pre-Pal period. "Most probably the structure of temple was built by followers of Jain religion," Alam added. Nahid Sultana, custodian, Rabindra Kacharibari, Sirajganj and member of the excavation team, said the 2.1-metre width brick-built structure crossed the basement of the main...
Kushans / Yuen-Shi / Tocharians
Archeological sites found, forgotten [Kushan-era, terracotta]
Greater Kashmir | March 21, 2008 | Faheem Aslam
Discovery of Kushan Era terracotta tile pavements in Kutbal village of Islamabad district was hailed by the authorities as a "path breaking discovery." According to Iqbal Ahmad, an archeologist, the tiles depicted the taste and living standards of the people of First Century AD. The art on the excavated tiles shows the Greek influence, he said. And because of its archeological importance, the Kutbal site has been called as Mohenjodaro of Kashmir... In Lethpora area of Pulwama district, the 8th century terracotta heads and a female terracotta figurine were found. The site is yet to be declared as state protected,...
Central Asia
Mystery Tribe Comes To Light In Shaanxi
CCTV.com | 3-25-2008 | Liu Fang
There is something amazing, standing at a museum observing exhibits hundreds and even thousands of years old. But how does one top the mystery of a lost civilization? Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. Archaeologists believe they may have discovered evidence of a lost tribe, never before known in Chinese history. The findings come from an excavation in northwest China's Shaanxi province. The site of what's believed to have been a major settlement is in Qishan county, Baoji city. There...
China
Largest Ancient Tombs In China
Zee News | 3-25-2008
Archaeologists have unearthed 604 tombs belonging to Qin Dynasty in Qujia Village, near Xi'an in China, which are believed to be the largest discovered in the country till date. Excavations were undertaken ahead of a railway improvement project in Shaanxi Province. "I was astounded by the sheer number of tombs," said Sun Weigang, a researcher with the Shaanxi Institute of Archaeological Research. "We know Shaanxi is rich in cultural relics, with over a thousand tombs unearthed every year. But we have never found so many in such a small area," he...
Egypt
Big statue of Amenhotep III discovered in Luxor
Egypt State Information Service | Saturday, March 22, 2008 | unattributed
A big statue of King Amenhotep III has been discovered by an Egyptian-German archeological mission in Luxor, said an Egyptian official on Friday 21/2/2008. The mission succeeded in collecting 100 pieces of another statue of Amenhotep III, Luxor Antiquities Director Mansour Borayek said. Led by Egyptologist Horig Sourouzian, the mission unearthed two heads of Sphinx in addition to seven statues of goddess Sekhmet on the western bank in Luxor, he added. In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness. Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty. He...
Statue of Pharaonic queen discovered in south Egypt (Queen Tiy, wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III)
Egyptian and European archeologists on Saturday announced they had discovered a giant statue of an ancient pharaonic queen on the spectacular south Egypt site of the Colossi of Memnon. The statue represents Queen Tiy, the wife of 18th dynasty Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and stands 3.62 metres high (almost 12 feet). It was discovered around the site of the massive Colossi of Memnon twin statues that command the road to Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings. Two sphinx representing Tiy and Amenhotep III as well as 10 statues in black granite of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, who...
Amarna
Study Shows Life Was Tough For Ancient Egyptians
Photo: The Giza pyramids in a file photo. New evidence of a sick, deprived population working... CAIRO (Reuters) - New evidence of a sick, deprived population working under harsh conditions contradicts earlier images of wealth and abundance from the art records of the ancient Egyptian city of Tell el-Amarna, a study has found. Tell el-Amarna was briefly the capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten, who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favor of the Aten sun disk...
Greece
How The Greek Agora Changed The World
It was the heart of the city -- where ordinary citizens bought and sold goods, politics were discussed and ideas were passed among great minds like Aristotle and Plato. Who knows where we'd be without the "agoras" of ancient Greece. Lacking the concept of democracy, perhaps, or the formula for the length of the sides of a triangle (young math students, rejoice!). Modern doctors might not have anything to mutter as an oath. What went on at the agora went beyond...
Roman Britain
Gold Coins Of Rebel British Emperor Uncovered
Two rare gold coins of the rebel Roman emperor Carausius have been discovered on a construction site in the Midlands. Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare. Only 23 are known, and the last was found as long ago as 1975 in Hampshire. Carausius was a Menapian (an ancient Belgian) who commanded the British Fleet (Classis Britannica) operating in the English Channel and the North Sea in the AD 280s. Carausius fell out with reigning emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Hostile sources have it that he was lining his own pocket with plunder recovered...
Rome and Italy
Rome to 'paint' Trajan's Column with light
Archaeologists want to use light to recreate the brilliant colors once seen on Trajan's Column in Rome. The chaste white of Roman temples and monuments is a product of centuries of wear that has removed the original paint. The archaeology department in Rome is discussing the technical details of creating a light beam that would temporarily repaint the column, with the power company Acea and researchers at Rome University, the Italian news agency Ansa reported. Under the plan, the column would be illuminated on weekends for a few minutes every hour. "Nothing acts like light to deepen our understanding, activating...
Let's Have Jerusalem
At Jerusalem dig, archaeologists get a peek at palatial gardens
Ancient kings, armies, prophets and pilgrims have made their mark on the ancient hills of Jerusalem and have left behind some of the world's most important archaeological finds. But with every stone overturned, puzzling questions about the history of modern Western civilization come to light. This is especially true at the Tel Aviv University-owned site of Ramat Rachel, an archaeological site from biblical times. For that reason, Jewish and Christian archaeologists, theologians and volunteers come to dig there year after year. Clues revealed by last year's dig, such as elaborate underground water tunnels, pools, pipes and gutters,...
Climate
Megaherbs Flourished In Antarctica
This daisy-like 'megaherb' may have once grown in Antarctica 2 million years ago before spreading north when the last ice age started (Source: David Norton) Giant flowers found on Australia and New Zealand's sub-Antarctic islands are probably survivors of lush forests that covered Antarctica before the beginning of the last ice age nearly 2 million years ago, scientists say. The flowers, known to researchers as megaherbs, grow abundantly on the tiny windswept islands such as the Snares, Auckland and Campbell island groups. Dr Steve Wagstaff from Landcare Research in...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Third source of oceanic iron is found
U.S. scientists are challenging a theory that assumes most iron needed to fertilize plankton blooms comes nearly entirely from wind-blown dust. Phoebe Lam of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and James Bishop of the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have shown the key source of iron in the Western North Pacific is not dust, but the volcanic continental margins of the Kamchatka Peninsula and the Kuril Islands. Understanding the origins, transport mechanisms and fate of naturally occurring iron in high-nutrient, low-chlorophyll surface waters is important in calculating...
Prehistory and Origins
Neanderthals Wore Make-Up And Liked To Chat
Could Neanderthals speak? The answer may depend on whether they used make-up. Francesco d'Errico, an archaeologist from the University of Bordeaux, France, has found crafted lumps of pigment -- essentially crayons -- left behind by Neanderthals across Europe. He says that Neanderthals, who most likely had pale skin, used these dark pigments to mark their own as well as animal skins. And, since body art is a form of communication, this implies that the Neanderthals could speak, d'Errico says. Working with Marie Soressi of...
Ancient Autopsies
Human Ancestor Fossil Found in Europe (Spain)
A small piece of jawbone unearthed in a cave in Spain is the oldest known fossil of a human ancestor in Europe and suggests that people lived on the continent much earlier than previously believed, scientists say. The researchers said the fossil found last year at Atapuerca in northern Spain, along with stone tools and animal bones, is up to 1.3 million years old. That would be 500,000 years older than remains from a 1997 find that prompted the naming of a new species: Homo antecessor, or Pioneer Man, possibly a common ancestor to Neanderthals and modern...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Crusaders 'Left Genetic Legacy'
The genetic signature can be traced to Europe -- Scientists have detected the faint genetic traces left by medieval crusaders in the Middle East. The team says it found a particular DNA signature which recently appeared in Lebanon and is probably linked to the crusades. The finding comes from the Genographic Project, a major effort to track human migrations through DNA. Details of the research have been published in the American Journal of Human Genetics. The researchers found that some Christian men in Lebanon carry a DNA signature hailing from Western Europe. The scientists also found that...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Viking Treasure Found On Silloth Beach (UK)
TREASURE has been unearthed on a Silloth beach by a man out with a metal detector. Rare find: The silver Viking handle found at SillothCarlisle Coroners' Court heard that a silver Viking jug handle discovered at Beckfoot could be over 2,000 years old. The court heard the handle, dating back from between the first and fourth centuries by the British Museum, is made mainly from silver and is in the form of a stylised snake's head. North and West Cumbria Coroner, John Taylor, ruled yesterday...
Restore the Roar
Barbary lions were part of medieval Tower of London zoo
Two medieval skulls found in the Tower of London belonged to a kind of lion that boasted a giant dark mane, according to a genetic study that sheds new light on one of the world's oldest zoos. A Barbary lion skull that was part of the study Infamous as a place of torture and executions, and home to the Crown Jewels, the Tower was also home to lions, which were charismatic symbols of monarchy. Now researchers have used DNA evidence...
Paleontology
Dinosaur Fossil Found on Bus in Peru
Officials found the fossil of a giant dinosaur jawbone while investigating a suspicious package on a bus in the mountains of Peru on Tuesday. The fossil, weighing some 19 pounds, was found in the cargo hold of the bus, which was headed for the capital of Lima, and had been sent on the bus company's package service. "They began to check the package because it didn't have anything to indicate what was inside. They were worried about its weight, opened it and found the fossil," said Kleber Jimenez, a local police officer. Peru has struggled...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Man allegedly breaks ear off Easter Island icon
A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island. Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. A native Rapanui woman told authorities she witnessed the theft Sunday at Anakena beach and saw Kulju fleeing from the scene with a piece of the statue in his hand....
Easter Island Statue 'Vandalized'
A Finnish tourist was detained after allegedly stealing a piece of volcanic rock from one of the massive Moai statues on Easter Island. Chilean Investigative Police released this photo showing the damage to the right earlobe. Marko Kulju, 26, faces seven years in prison and a fine of $19,100 if convicted of stealing pieces of the right earlobe from a Moai, one of numerous statues carved out of volcanic rock between 400 and 1,000 years ago to represent deceased ancestors. A native Rapanui woman told authorities she witnessed the theft Sunday at...
Celts
Ancient Seahenge 'returns home'
BBC | Tuesday, March 25, 2008 | unattributed
A timber circle dating back 4,000 years which was found in the sea off the Norfolk coast is to return to the county in a permanent display. Seahenge, with 55 oak posts and a central upturned stump dating from the Bronze Age, was found emerging from a beach at Holme-next-the-Sea in 1998... Next month Seahenge will go on display at the Lynn Museum in King's Lynn. After Seahenge was excavated, 3D laser scanning revealed the earliest metal tool marks on wood ever discovered in Britain... The site's excavation was initially halted by protests by a group of about 12 Druids...
Longer Perspectives
Trade in mammoth ivory, helped by global thaw, flourishes in Russia
As Viktor Seliverstov works in his makeshift studio in this hardscrabble Siberian town he is enveloped in a cloud of ivory dust. His electric carving tool whirrs over the milky surface of teeth and tusks, as he whittles them into key fobs, knife handles and scrimshaw figurines. But these are not whale bones or walrus tusks he is working on. The ivory in this part of the world comes from the remains of extinct woolly mammoths, as they emerge from the tundra where they have been frozen for thousands of years. It is a traditional Russian business...
Early America
History hidden under the soil of Annapolis
The American fight for liberty was not only the domain of John Adams and his fellow Boston patriots -- although HBO's miniseries might lead us to believe that. The fight also took place much closer to home in places like Annapolis, where a recently opened archaeological exhibit at the Banneker-Douglass Museum shows how an 18th-century printmaker protested the British Stamp Act tax and how mid-19th-century freed slaves fought discrimination by purchasing brand-name canned goods and bottled libations. "They preferred national brands because of the predictability of price and guarantee of quality," says Mark Leone, founder and director of Archaeology in...
At Least It's Not ABBA
The World's Oldest Voice Recording Goes Online
It's no-one's idea of great music -- to some, it may sound like a dolphin with tonsilitis -- but the ghostly warbling of a French folk song nearly 148 years ago comprises the oldest recording of the human voice, France's Academy of Sciences says. The 10-second recording was made by a Parisian inventor, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville on April 9 1860, when Emperor Napoleon III, the last monarch of France, was on the throne. It was made a whole 17 years before Thomas Edison made his historic message, "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on...
World War Eleven
Germany's tribute to its 'black disgrace'
UNLIKE the Jewish victims of Hitler's Third Reich, there is no permanent memorial to mark their terrible fate. While hundreds were murdered in the Nazi death camps because of the colour of their skin, their story has been largely forgotten. Now, however, a controversial new exhibition is forcing Germans to confront the disturbing truth of what happened to the thousands of black people living in their country during the F¸hrer's rise to power. The Nazi Documentation Centre in Cologne is showing the first exhibition on the subject. Called Distinguishing Feature: Negro - Blacks in National Socialist Times, it documents the...
Obituary
Robert Fagles, translator of ancient classics, dies at 74
Associated Press | March 28, 2008
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
FBI: Tattered parachute found in north Clark County may have been D.B. Cooper's (WA)
FBI agents in Seattle are examining a tattered parachute found recently in north Clark County, looking for evidence that it might have been used by legendary skyjacker D.B. Cooper. The 'chute was found by children living near the center of the jump zone where the skyjacker bailed out of the 727 jetliner with $200,000 in cash in 1971, never to be heard from again. Larry Carr, a special agent in the FBI's Seattle office, said the property owner was putting in a road on the site and his tractor blade uncovered some cloth. The children pulled out the canopy until...
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