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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #326 Saturday, October 16, 2010 |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Rotten Experiments Help to Create Picture of Our Early Ancestors |
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· 10/16/2010 4:57:16 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 4 replies · · Science Daily · · October 12, 2010 · · Unknown · |
An innovative experiment at the University of Leicester that involved studying rotting fish has helped to create a clearer picture of what our early ancestors would have looked like. The scientists wanted to examine the decaying process in order to understand the decomposition of soft-body parts in fish. This in turn will help them reconstruct an image of creatures that existed 500 million years ago. Their findings have been published Oct. 13 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The work was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The researchers, from the Department of Geology at... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Ancient Virus Found Hiding Out in Finch Genome |
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· 10/02/2010 11:21:25 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 25 replies · · ScienceNOW · · 28 September 2010 · · Cassandra Willyard · |
Enlarge Image Buried gem. Researchers have uncovered "fossil virus" inside the zebra finch genome. Credit: Peripitus/Wikimedia The hepatitis B virus and its ilk have been around for a long, long time. A newly uncovered "viral fossil" buried deep in the genome of the zebra finch indicates that the hepatitis B family of viruses -- known as hepadnaviruses -- originated at least 19 million years ago. Together with recent findings on other viruses, the work suggests that all viruses may be much older than thought. No one knows exactly where or when viruses originated. They don't leave fossils, so scientists have begun scouring the... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Scientists After Finding Almost No Trace Of Disease In Egyptian Mummies |
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· 10/15/2010 5:08:41 AM PDT · · Posted by facedodge · · 70 replies · · dailymail.co.uk · · 15th October 2010 · · Fiona Macrae · |
Cancer is a man-made disease fuelled by the excesses of modern life, a study of ancient remains has found. Tumours were rare until recent times when pollution and poor diet became issues, the review of mummies, fossils and classical literature found. A greater understanding of its origins could lead to treatments for the disease, which claims more than 150,000 lives a year in the UK. Michael Zimmerman, a visiting professor at Manchester University, said: 'In an ancient society lacking surgical intervention, evidence of cancer should remain in all cases. 'The virtual absence of malignancies in mummies must be interpreted as... |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| How Middle Eastern Milk Drinkers Conquered Europe |
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· 10/15/2010 7:56:47 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 26 replies · · Spiegel · · 15 Oct 2010 · · Matthias Schulz · |
New research has revealed that agriculture came to Europe amid a wave of immigration from the Middle East during the Neolithic period. The newcomers won out over the locals because of their sophisticated culture, mastery of agriculture -- and their miracle food, milk. Wedged in between dump trucks and excavators, archeologist Birgit Srock is drawing the outline of a 7,200-year-old posthole. A concrete mixing plant is visible on the horizon. She is here because, during the construction of a high-speed rail line between the German cities of Nuremberg and Berlin, workers happened upon a large Neolithic settlement in the Upper... |
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| Farty Shades of Green | |
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| Maghera tomb: 5,000-year-old burial site to give up secrets |
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· 10/15/2010 10:09:36 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · · Belfast Telegraph · · Friday, 15 October 2010 · · Linda Stewart · |
Normally portal tombs, which are among the oldest built structures still standing in Northern Ireland, are off limits to excavators and must be preserved. But after the massive capstone of this portal tomb fell to the ground earlier this year, archaeologists will be able to uncover the secrets it has held for millennia before repairs are carried out. Tirnony Dolmen is between 5,000 and 6,000 years old, according to Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIIEA) archaeologist Paul Logue. "After standing in Northern Ireland weather for over 5,000 years some of the tomb's structural stones have begun to crack, causing the capstone... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Stonehenge's newly discovered second henge |
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· 07/23/2010 3:44:19 AM PDT · · Posted by Islander7 · · 22 replies · 1+ views · · BBC · · July 22, 2010 · · David Gregory · |
The team was very excited when I was there by this black and white image. It's a scan of an existing barrow and in this image the archaeological team see a segmented ditch and 24 deep pits which they say would probably have been dug for timbers and a wooden structure. A wooden henge. The diagram on the right shows this more clearly. |
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| British Isles | |
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| White Horse of Uffington is a dog, claims vet |
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· 10/15/2010 8:56:35 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 44 replies · · Guardian · · Tuesday 12 October 2010 · · James Meikle · |
Challenging the traditional description of the Oxfordshire landmark, retired vet Olaf Swarbrick asks whether the "beautiful, stylised" figure might instead be a dog such as a greyhound or wolfhound. In a letter to the Veterinary Record, his profession's journal, the former cattle and poultry specialist suggests a canine origin for the 110-metre by 38.5-metre animal, which was carefully dug into the downland. He invites alternative theories, too.... "Looking at it again, it seems that it is not a horse at all: the tail and head are wrong for a horse and more suggestive of a dog. It appears more like... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Ancient Roman helmet sells for $3.7m |
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· 10/10/2010 7:40:51 AM PDT · · Posted by Flavius · · 31 replies · · news.com.au · · October 08, 2010 · · afp · |
AN ancient Roman helmet found in a British field by a treasure hunter with a metal detector has sold for 2.3 million pounds ($3.7 million), auctioneers Christie's say. The "exceptional" bronze cavalry parade helmet dates from the late first century or early second century, and features a well-preserved face mask, locks of curly hair and a griffin atop the cap. |
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| The Bloody Games | |
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| Colosseum opens gladiator pits - Third storey also unveiled as Rome icon boosts allure |
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· 10/16/2010 7:56:16 AM PDT · · Posted by GonzoII · · 10 replies · · ANSA · · 15 October 10 · |
(ANSA) - Rome, October 15 - The Colosseum has added to its allure by opening the undergrounds pits where gladiators and wild beasts waited before being winched from darkness into the light of the killing ground. As well as revealing the bowels of the one-time blood-and-guts arena, the famed monument is also reopening its third storey, closed since the 1970s, affording a breathtaking view of Rome. The two new attractions, presented here Friday, aim to boost visitor numbers at the site, which is already Italy's single most visited monument at some 19,000 people a day. Crowds were already flocking to... |
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| Mini Collosseum or Amphitheathre Discovered Under Rome's Airport |
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· 02/27/2010 2:51:06 PM PST · · Posted by wildbill · · 18 replies · 630+ views · · Discovery News · · Oct. 2, 2009 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
Beneath Rome's Fiumicino airport lies a "mini-Colosseum" that may have played host to Roman emperors, according to British archaeologists. The foundations of the amphitheater, which are oval-shaped like the much larger arena in the heart of Rome, have been unearthed at the site of Portus, a 2nd century A.D. harbor near Ostia's port on the Tiber River. A monumental seaport that saved imperial Rome from starvation, Portus is now reduced to a large hexagonal pond on a marshy land owned by a noble family, the Duke Sforza Cesarinis. The two-square-mile site has been known since around the 16th century, but... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| Pompeii 'a symbol of Italy's sloppiness' |
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· 10/16/2010 1:01:17 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Telegraph · · Sunday, October 10, 2010 · · Nick Squires · |
For visitors to Pompeii, they are a guaranteed crowd pleaser: erotic frescoes, including one of Priapus, the god of fertility, adorning the walls of a 2,000 year old Roman villa. Or rather they were until two years ago, when the House of the Vettii closed for a restoration project which was supposed to last a year but which still grinds on, the villa encased in scaffolding and a sign outside offering no indication of when it might reopen... critics say years of neglect and indifference have turned [Pompeii] into an international embarrassment and an emblem of the dysfunction which plagues... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Unraveling the Etruscan Enigma |
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· 10/15/2010 10:02:40 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · · Archaeology mag · · November/December 2010 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
They taught the French to make wine and the Romans to build roads, and they introduced writing to Europe, but the Etruscans have long been considered one of antiquity's great enigmas. No one knew exactly where they came from. Their language was alien to their neighbors. Their religion included the practice of divination, performed by priests who examined animals' entrails to predict the future. Much of our knowledge about Etruscan civilization comes from ancient literary sources and from tomb excavations, many of which were carried out decades ago. But all across Italy, archaeologists are now creating a much richer picture... |
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| Anatolia | |
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| Shoe of discord: Archeologists and officials divided over care of ancient artifact |
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· 10/16/2010 1:21:53 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · ArmeniaNow · · Tuesday, October 12, 2010 · · Gayane Mkrtchyan · |
Boris Gasparyan, of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography at the RA National Academy of Sciences, head of the Armenian archeological expedition, is extremely concerned about the further examination of the ancient shoe and says he himself had time enough only to estimate the age of the shoe and learn a little bit about how it was made, before it was taken custody by the state history museum... According to the order by which archeological excavations are held, artifacts must be delivered to the State two years after the excavations. Gasparyan says that the legislation regulating archeology is imperfect; there... |
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| Near East | |
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| Oath On The Platform: 2,700 Year Old Temple At Tayinat Had Royal Loyalty Oath Prominently Displayed |
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· 10/15/2010 9:47:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Heritage Key · · Thursday, October 14, 2010 · · Owen Jarus · |
A team of researchers -- excavating a 2,700 year old temple at the ancient city of Tayinat in southeastern Turkey -- have discovered evidence that its inhabitants prominently displayed a tablet which bore a pledge of loyalty to the heir of an Assyrian king... Professor Tim Harrison of the University of Toronto... leads the Tayinat excavations. The city itself was built on the Amuq plain, on the Orontes River near the modern day Syrian border... a sort of crossroads that connected Anatolia, Mesopotamia and the Levant -- allowing Tayinat to flourish. The Assyrian Empire conquered it in 738 BC, with... |
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| Central Asia | |
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| New Bronze Age civilization discovered in Russia |
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· 10/11/2010 12:17:16 PM PDT · · Posted by Islander7 · · 13 replies · · Yahoo · · Oct 11, 2010 · · AFP · |
MOSCOW (AFP) -- Traces of a previously unknown Bronze Age civilization have been discovered in the peaks of Russia's Caucasus Mountains thanks to aerial photographs taken 40 years ago, researchers said Monday. "We have discovered a civilization dating from the 16th to the 14th centuries BC, high in the mountains south of Kislovodsk," in Russia's North Caucasus region, Andrei Belinsky, the head of a joint Russian-German expedition that has been investigating the region for five years, told AFP. |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| 400,000 year old spears found in an German coal mine! |
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· 10/11/2010 6:38:35 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 58 replies · · reinep.wordpress.com · · 07-04-2010 · · Staff · |
Researchers in Germany have unearthed 400,000 year old wooden spears from what appears to be an ancient lake shore hunting ground stunning evidence that human ancestors systematically hunted big game much earlier than believed. The three spears, each carved from the trunk of a spruce tree, are 6 feet to more than 7 feet long. They were found with more than 10,000 animal bones, mostly from horses, including many obviously butchered. That indicates the ancient hunters were organized enough to trap horses and strong enough to kill them by throwing spears, perhaps ambushing herds that showed up for water. "There's... |
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| Peru & the Andes | |
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| Italian scientist claims find of geoglyphs near Lake Titicaca, Peru |
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· 10/14/2010 1:40:57 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 21 replies · · LIP · · 13 Oct 2010 · · Mario Sandoval · |
According to an Italian scientist, a huge network of earthworks, or geoglyphs, is visible in satellite imagery of a large area, over 463 square miles, in the surroundings of the Titicaca Lake, Peru. Amelia Carolina Sparavigna, professor at Italy's Politecnico di Torino, claims the patterns she discovered while studying satellite pictures near the Titicaca Lake. She says the shapes are the result of an almost unimaginable agricultural effort of Andean communities centuries ago. "People created a system of terraced hills and raised fields, which were large elevated planting platforms, with the corresponding drainage canals, to improve soil, temperature and moisture... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| A 'Mike' found in Buffalo? (Michelangelo painting) |
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· 10/11/2010 10:18:32 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 30 replies · · New York Post · · 11:06 AM, October 11, 2010 · · By Melissa Klein · |
This unfinished painting of Jesus and Mary could be a lost Michelangelo, potentially the art find of the century. But to the upstate family on whose living-room wall it hung for years, it was just "The Mike." When the kids knocked the painting off its perch with an errant tennis ball sometime in the mid-1970s, the Kober clan wrapped it up and tucked it away behind the sofa. There it remained for 27 years, until Air Force Lt. Col. Martin Kober retired in 2003 and had some time on his hands. His father gave him a task -- research the... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| The Battle of Tours |
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· 10/10/2010 7:17:08 AM PDT · · Posted by Mmogamer · · 15 replies · · Allexperts · · 10/10/10 · · Allexperts · |
The Battle of Tours (October 10, 732), often called Battle of Poitiers and also called in Arabi... (Balaat Alshuhada'a) The Court of Martyrs was fought near the city of Tours, France, by Frankish forces under Austrasian Mayor of the Palace Charles Martel and a massive invading Muslim army led by Emir Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, Governor-general of Al-Andalus. The Franks defeated the Islamic army and Emir Abd er Rahman was killed. Charles earned the nickname Martel ("The Hammer") for the merciless way he hammered his opponents during this victory, and went on to repulse later Muslim invasions, driving Muslim forces back to the port of Narbonne. Edward Gibbon said of the Muslim invasions and Charles Martel "in the public danger, he was summoned by the voice of his country." |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Working Replica of Noah's Ark Opens In Schagen, Netherlands |
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· 10/14/2010 9:54:48 AM PDT · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 21 replies · · News Blaze · · September 19, 2008 · |
This is truly amazing! Cannot even imagine the work time and money that went into this venture. It's also amazing to see how large this is - and that the fact it is to scale of biblical times. Enjoy. *** The massive central door in the side of Noah's Ark was thrown open Saturday for the first crowd of curious Pilgrims and townsfolk to behold the wonder. Of course, it's only a replica of the biblical Ark, built by Dutch Creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible. The ark is 150... |
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| Early America | |
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| Historian To Speak On Witchcraft In Early Connecticut |
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· 10/11/2010 11:47:25 AM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 5 replies · · Hartford Courant · · October 11, 2010 · |
Connecticut State Historian Walter Woodward will lecture on alchemy and witchcraft during the early years of the Connecticut colony in a presentation before the Windsor Historical Society at 7 p.m., Oct. 19. Woodward's talk will draw from his new book, "Prospero's America: John Winthrop Jr., Alchemy And The Creation of Early New England Culture." The work examines colonial Gov. Winthrop's interest in alchemy and the occult and his efforts to curb the Hartford witch trials, which resulted in seven executions, including two Windsor women. Tickets are $6 for adults; $5 for seniors and students and $4 for society members. Call... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Liberals attempt to rewrite history on the Boston Tea Party |
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· 10/09/2010 11:42:31 AM PDT · · Posted by mainestategop · · 23 replies · · MainestateGOP · · mainestategop · |
In yet another attempt to assault the tea party movement, the left has a new weapon up its sleeve. A weapon its predecessors in totalitarian countries such as liberal Germany and liberal China have used frequently. Revisionist history. In this case it concerns an event in American history. the Boston Tea party. A revolt by colonists where a merchant ship carrying tea from the British East India company was seized and its cargo dumped overboard. This was all due to unjust taxation by British Parliament thousands of miles away. Taxation without representation as our founders put it which was considered... |
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| Today In History, October 14,1774, Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress |
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· 10/14/2010 3:42:55 PM PDT · · Posted by mdittmar · · 5 replies · · various · · October 14, 2010 · · First Continental Congress · |
Whereas, since the close of the last war, the British parliament, claiming a power, of right, to bind the people of America by statutes in all cases whatsoever, hath, in some acts, expressly imposed taxes on them, and in others, under various presences, but in fact for the purpose of raising a revenue, hath imposed rates and duties payable in these colonies, established a board of commissioners, with unconstitutional powers, and extended the jurisdiction of courts of admiralty, not only for collecting the said duties, but for the trial of causes merely arising within the body of a county: And... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| 140th anniversary of the death of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee |
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· 10/11/2010 4:26:35 PM PDT · · Posted by BigReb555 · · 44 replies · · The Telegraph · · October 10, 2010 · · Calvin E. Johnson, Jr. · |
General Lee died at his home at Lexington, Virginia at 9:30 AM on Wednesday, October 12, 1870. |
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| end of digest #326 20101016 | |
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· Saturday, October 16, 2010 · 24 topics · 2608857 to 2604566 · 754 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 326th issue. A tiny but potent 24 topics. We've reached 754 members. Stuff that doesn't necessarily make it to GGG here on FR still gets shared: |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #327 Saturday, October 22, 2010 |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Glenn Beck: What if God made us from monkeys? |
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· 10/20/2010 9:45:29 PM PDT · · Posted by RobinMasters · · 67 replies · · WND · · October 19, 2010 · · Joe Kovacs · |
Were human beings created by God in an instant, or over millions of years through evolution? Glenn Beck addressed the question on his radio show today as he came to the defense of Christine O'Donnell, the Republican U.S. Senate candidate from Delaware under fire for challenging evolution. "Did evolution just stop?" Beck asked rhetorically. "I haven't seen the half-monkey/half-person yet. ... There's no other species that's developing into half-people." "I don't know how God creates. I don't know how we got here," he continued, wondering what God might tell him after he dies. "If God's like, 'Yup, you were a... |
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| Three R's | |
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| Abacus: Mystery Of The Bead -- The Bead Unbaffled |
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· 10/21/2010 5:58:39 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · webhome.idirect.com · · prior to 2010 · · Totton Heffelfinger & Gary Flom · |
Abacus is a Latin word meaning sand tray. The word originates with the Arabic "abq", which means dust or fine sand. In Greek this would become abax or abakon which means table or tablet... Probably, the first device was the counting board. This appeared at various times in several places around the world. The earliest counting boards consisted of a tray made of sun dried clay or wood. A thin layer of sand would be spread evenly on the surface, and symbols would be drawn in the sand with a stick or ones finger. To start anew, one would simply... |
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry | |
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| Bread was around 30,000 years ago -study |
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· 10/18/2010 5:01:00 PM PDT · · Posted by rdl6989 · · 53 replies · · Reuters/yahoo · · October 18, 2010 · |
LONDON (Reuters Life!) -- Starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric man may have dined on an early form of flat bread, contrary to his popular image as primarily a meat-eater. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal on Monday, indicate that Palaeolithic Europeans ground down plant roots similar to potatoes to make flour, which was later whisked into dough. "It's like a flat bread, like a pancake with just water and flour," said Laura Longo, a researcher on the team from the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Early History. |
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| Stone Age flour found across Europe |
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· 10/19/2010 4:03:37 PM PDT · · Posted by Islander7 · · 28 replies · · NatureNews · · Oct 18, 2010 · · Ewen Callaway · |
Once thought of as near total carnivores, early humans ate ground flour 20,000 years before the dawn of agriculture. Flour residues recovered from 30,000-year-old grinding stones found in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic point to widespread processing and consumption of plant grain, according to a paper published online this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. "It's another nail in the coffin of the idea that hunter-gatherers didn't use plants for food," says Ofer Bar-Yosef, an archaeologist at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. Work in recent years has also... |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| Red Meat Molecule'May Cause Health Problems' |
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· 09/29/2003 3:20:49 PM PDT · · Posted by blam · · 33 replies · 480+ views · · Ananova · · 9-29-2003 · |
Eating red meat introduces a potentially dangerous non-human molecule into the body tissues, new research has showed. A study found that the molecule, a sugar only found in non-human mammals, is absorbed into tissues such as blood vessels and secretory cells. Tests showed that it can generate an immune response which might induce harmful inflammation. The scientists have not ruled out a link with cancer and heart disease - although they acknowledge that at present this is speculation. To date, research has focused on the role of red meat saturated fats and chemical... |
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| Climate | |
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| Weathering climate change in the Near East: dating and Neolithic adaptations 8200 years ago |
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· 10/19/2010 6:07:02 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Antiquity · · September 2010 · · P.M.M.G. Akkermans, J. van der Plicht, O.P. Nieuwenhuyse, A. Russell, A. Kaneda & H. Buitenhuis · |
Tell Sabi Abyad (northern Syria), a key-site for the Late Neolithic in Upper Mesopotamia (Figures 1 & 2), was continuously inhabited during the seventh millennium, spanning the 8.2ka event. Many cultural and economic transitions are seen in the archaeological record around 6200 BC. The site as a whole remains occupied, but the village shifts from west to east. The village layout shows new architectural forms (Figure 3). Key changes in animal husbandry occurred, such as the exploitation of sheep and goats for milk and fibre production and the abandonment of pig husbandry in favour of cattle. The number of spindle... |
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| Humans' 10,000-Year Warming Habit |
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· 12/10/2003 10:03:37 AM PST · · Posted by blam · · 58 replies · 421+ views · · BBC · · 12-10-2003 · · Richard Black · |
Human influence on climate is hotly debated Humans have been warming the Earth's climate for the last 10,000 years, US scientist William Ruddiman claims. The University of Virginia professor says agriculture has put greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, pushing up temperatures by about one Celsius. This, he claims, has broadly balanced the cooling that should have come from a natural reduction in the Sun's heat reaching Earth over the same period. The professor has presented his ideas to the American Geophysical Union. The AGU is holding its... |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| The fall of Phaethon: a Greco-Roman geomyth preserves the memory of a meteorite impact in Bavaria |
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· 10/19/2010 3:53:11 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · Antiquity · · v84 n324 · · Rappengluck et al · |
Arguing from a critical reading of the text, and scientific evidence on the ground, the authors show that the myth of Phaethon -- the delinquent celestial charioteer -- remembers the impact of a massive meteorite that hit the Chiemgau region in Bavaria between 2000 and 428 BC. Keywords: Bronze Age, Phaethon, Ovid, meteorite, Celts, myth Access this article (PDF File). |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Ancient Shipwreck Points to Site of Major Roman Battle |
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· 10/19/2010 8:17:39 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 13 replies · · Live Science · · October 18, 2010 · · Clara Moskowitz · |
The remains of a sunken warship recently found in the Mediterranean Sea may confirm the site of a major ancient battle in which Rome trounced Carthage. The year was 241 B.C. and the players were the ascending Roman republic and the declining Carthaginian Empire, which was centered on the northernmost tip of Africa. The two powers were fighting for dominance in the Mediterranean in a series of conflicts called the Punic Wars. Archaeologists think the newly discovered remnants of the warship date from the final battle of the first Punic War, which allowed Rome to expand farther into the Western... |
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| Roman Statues Found in Blue Grotto Cave |
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· 09/28/2009 3:45:34 PM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 23 replies · 1,574+ views · · Discovery.com · · 9/28/09 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
Sept. 28, 2009 -- A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave. Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods. "A preliminary underwater investigation has revealed several statue bases which might possibly hint to sculptures lying nearby," Rosalba Giugni, president of the environmentalist association, Marevivo, told Discovery News. Carried out in... |
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| Italy: Emperor Augustus house reopened after restoration |
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· 12/24/2007 2:33:06 AM PST · · Posted by FreedomCalls · · 4 replies · 241+ views · · adn Kronos International · · Dec 11, 2007 · · AKI · |
Rome, 11 Dec. (AKI) - After decades of restorations, a series of well preserved frescoed rooms dating to the year 30 BC in the Roman Emperor Augustus's house are set to go on display next year in the Italian capital. The rooms are on Rome's Palatine hill, which is one of Rome's original seven hills and from which the word 'palace' is derived. Legend has it that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the Palatine and its where many Roman emperors had their palaces built. Augustus's rooms were discovered in the late 1970s and were painted in... |
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| British Isles | |
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| Hackney gardeners dig up hoard of American gold coins[UK] |
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· 10/18/2010 11:40:41 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 11 replies · · London Today · · 18 Oct 2010 · · Dalya Alberge · |
A valuable hoard of American gold coins has been unearthed in an east London garden -- one of Britain's most curious treasure finds. Buried hoards are discovered every so often, but their Anglo-Saxon, Viking or Roman owners were themselves interred long ago. Whoever hid the 80 coins from the 19th and early 20th centuries may be alive. Why they chose the garden of a residential block in Hackney is a mystery. Archaeologists more used to deciphering which Roman emperor is depicted on a coin have been taken aback by the find -- gold $20 "Double Eagle" pieces dating from 1854... |
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| China | |
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| Could a rusty coin re-write Chinese-African history? |
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· 10/18/2010 11:30:24 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 45 replies · · BBC · · 18 Oct 2010 · · Peter Greste · |
It is not much to look at - a small pitted brass coin with a square hole in the centre-but this relatively innocuous piece of metal is revolutionising our understanding of early East African history, and recasting China's more contemporary role in the region. A joint team of Kenyan and Chinese archaeologists found the 15th Century Chinese coin in Mambrui-a tiny, nondescript village just north of Malindi on Kenya's north coast. In barely distinguishable relief, the team leader Professor Qin Dashu from Peking University's archaeology department, read out the inscription: "Yongle Tongbao" - the name of the reign that minted... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Dead Sea scrolls going digital on Internet |
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· 10/19/2010 8:44:34 AM PDT · · Posted by GonzoII · · 14 replies · · Reuters · · Tue Oct 19, 2010 · · Jeffrey Heller · |
(Reuters) - Scholars and anyone with an Internet connection will be able to take a new look into the Biblical past through an online archive of high-resolution images of the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls. Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the custodian of the scrolls that shed light on the life of Jews and early Christians at the time of Jesus, said on Tuesday it was collaborating with Google's research and development center in Israel to upload digitized images of the entire collection. Advanced imaging technology will be installed in the IAA's laboratories early next year and high-resolution images of each of... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Arabs decide Jericho is 10,000 years old, throw it a birthday party -- and nobody bothers to show |
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· 10/19/2010 7:23:09 PM PDT · · Posted by Immerito · · 20 replies · · Jerusalem World Review · · 10/19/2010 · · Edmund Sanders · |
Jericho -- (MCT) Imagine you turned 10,000 years old -- and nobody showed up at your birthday party. That's a bit how they're feeling in the ancient West Bank city of Jericho, believed to be one of the world's oldest continually inhabited settlements. Three years ago, Palestinians made big plans for Jericho's historic birthday. Nobody really knows the exact anniversary, but Palestinians thought 10-10-10 had a good ring to it. The idea was to host an international blowout to rival the 2000 millennium, including fireworks, laser shows, half a million guests and a who's who of international dignitaries. They dreamed... |
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| Christian Massacre Tugs at Islamili's (Muslim sect) hearts in Saudia Arabia |
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· 10/21/2010 12:35:32 AM PDT · · Posted by Cronos · · 21 replies · · New York Times · · 20-Oct-2010 · · Robert F Worth · |
Among the ruins on the edge of this ancient oasis city are deep trenches littered with bones. That, local people say, is all that remains of one of the great atrocities of antiquity, when thousands of Christians were herded into pits here and burned to death by a Jewish tyrant after they refused to renounce their faith. The massacre, which took place in about A.D. 523, is partly shadowed by myth and largely unknown to the outside world. But it has become central to the identity of the people now living here, who mostly belong to the minority Ismaili sect... |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| 1,800-yr-old Buddha statue excavated |
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· 10/21/2010 8:06:40 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · Deccan Chronicle · · October 8th, 2010 · · unattributed · |
The state archaeology department has found a limestone statue of Gautam Buddha that dates back to at least 1,800 years. "It was a chance discovery," said the director of archaeology and museums, Prof. P. Chenna Reddy. The limestone statue from the second century CE was discovered at Chada village in the Atmakur mandal of Nalgonda district when labourers were tilling the fields. In addition to the idol, Buddhist sculptural panels and a few large bricks were also unearthed. "The finds reveal the existence of a new Buddhist site in the Telangana region. This evidence adds to the cluster of Buddhist... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Bacteria "R' Us |
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· 10/19/2010 10:22:18 PM PDT · · Posted by grey_whiskers · · 16 replies · · Miller-McCune · · 10-18-2010 · · Valerie Brown · |
A few scientists noticed in the late 1960s that the marine bacteria Vibrio fischeri appeared to coordinate among themselves the production of chemicals that produced bioluminescence, waiting until a certain number of them were in the neighborhood before firing up their light-making machinery. This behavior was eventually dubbed "quorum sensing." It was one of the first in what has turned out to be a long list of ways in which bacteria talk to each other and to other organisms. |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Cause of the big plague epidemic of Middle Ages identified |
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· 10/20/2010 12:55:40 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 49 replies · · PhysOrg.com · · October 11, 2010 · · NA · |
Geographical position of the five archaeological sites investigated. Green dots indicate the sites. Also indicated are two likely independent infection routes (black and red dotted arrows) for the spread of the Black Death (1347-1353) after Benedictow. -- The 'Black Death' was caused by at least two previously unknown types of Yersinia pestis bacteria. The latest tests conducted by anthropologists at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have proven that the bacteria Yersinia pestis was indeed the causative agent behind the "Black Death" that raged across Europe in the Middle Ages. The cause of the epidemic has always remained... |
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| Scotland Yet | |
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| 'Bronze Age' cremation urn at Fortrose housing site [Scotland] |
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· 10/21/2010 8:25:09 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · BBC · · Wednesday, October 13, 2010 · · unattributed · |
An ancient cremation urn has been found by archaeologists surveying a site earmarked for a housing project. The team from Headland Archaeology believe the object uncovered at Fortrose dates from the Bronze Age. Developer Tulloch Homes, which has planning consent to build 156 properties on the land, commissioned the survey. Further excavations will be done under the supervision of Highland Council's archaeology officer. A spokesman for Tulloch Homes said: "It is the most significant find in their initial dig and the urn has been removed from the site for more detailed examination. "Further archaeological excavation at the Fortrose site will... |
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| Bronze Age burials at Inverness Asda site [ Scotland ] |
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· 10/21/2010 8:28:48 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · · BBC · · September 15, 2010 · · unattributed · |
A Bronze Age burial site has been uncovered at the planned location of the Highlands' first Asda supermarket. Archaeologists found an area of cremation pits surrounded by a ring ditch at Slackbuie, in Inverness. Almost 2,000 flints were also recovered from the field on the city's distributor road. Pieces of Neolithic pottery known as Unstan Ware were also discovered during digs led by Edinburgh-based NG Archaeology Services. The details are contained in an interim report following excavations made last November through to May this year as part of the store's planning process. A full report will be published later. The... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Bulgarian Archaeologist Comes Across Ancient Rock Stove |
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· 10/21/2010 8:19:26 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · · Novinite · · Tuesday, October 5, 2010 · · unattributed · |
Leading Bulgarian archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov has completed his four-month summer excavations at the Ancient Thracian city of Perperikon. On Tuesday, Ovcharov presented his latest intriguing discovery an ancient cooking stove cut right into the stones of the rock city dated back to 3rd-4th century. The stove consists of a lower part, a hearth, whose ceiling has two holes that let through some fire; the ceramic cooking vessels would be placed on top of the holes. "We can easily call this discovery a prototype of the contemporary cooking stoves," Ovcharov said. The archaeologist made a recapitulation of his four months of... |
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| She Wrote Upon It | |
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| X-ray scanning reveals return address of 3500 year old letters |
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· 10/22/2010 5:16:07 PM PDT · · Posted by SonOfDarkSkies · · 7 replies · · io9.com · · uncertain · |
Even thousands of years ago, written messages were sent over long distances. Unfortunately, the concept of including your return address hadn't been invented yet, so we don't know where ancient letters came from (and which cultures were talking)...until now. Professor Yuval Goren, an archaeologist at Israel's Tel Aviv University, has modified a standard portable X-ray scanner to determine the secret origins of ancient letters. At its most basic, the scanner can determine the soil and clay composition of any artifact. Since different regions at different times have different mixes of soil and clay, this allows Professor Goren to place the... |
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| Mayans | |
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| Resurrecting the Maize King [ Mayan funeral ] |
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· 10/21/2010 8:11:19 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Archaeology · · September/October 2010 · · David Freidel, Michelle Rich, and F. Kent Reilly III · |
For two weeks we had been tunnelling beneath the surface of the acropolis hill at the ancient Maya city of Wak· in Guatemala's Petén rainforest. It was the spring of 2006, and we knew that under the surface of the acropolis was a virtual layer cake of earlier structures. The acropolis had been one of the city's enduring spiritual centers before it was abandoned around A.D. 820. A large pyramid and several buildings still stand there today.We were at the bottom of a shaft we had dug the previous spring, working our way up the stairs of a buried building... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| 1000-year-old mummies found in Peru |
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· 10/22/2010 6:40:36 PM PDT · · Posted by Islander7 · · 7 replies · · NDTV · · Oct 22, 2010 · · AP · |
Lima, Peru: Peruvian archaeologists have unearthed four perfectly preserved mummies at an ancient burial site in the capital city, Lima. The mummies are more than 1000 years old and were found at the Huaca Pucllana - a pre Inca temple. |
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| Peru & the Andes | |
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| Anthropology: Cracking the Khipu Code |
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· 06/12/2003 6:09:19 PM PDT · · Posted by Lessismore · · 14 replies · 6,326+ views · · Science Magazine · · 2003-06-13 · · Charles C. Mann · |
Researchers take a fresh look at Incan knotted strings and suggest that they may have been a written language, one that used a binary code to store information In the late 16th century, Spanish travelers in central Peru ran into an old Indian man, probably a former official of the Incan empire, which Francisco Pizarro had conquered in 1532. The Spaniards saw the Indian try to hide something he was carrying, according to the account of one traveler, Diego Avalos y Figueroa, so they searched him and found several bunches of the cryptic knotted strings known as khipu. Many khipu... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| Scientists find sign cave dwellers took care of elderly |
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· 10/21/2010 8:42:01 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 31 replies · · Google News · · Tuesday, October 12, 2010 · · AFP · |
Scientists said Monday they had uncovered evidence suggesting cave dwellers who lived in northern Spain some 500,000 years ago took care of their elderly and infirm. University of Madrid palaeontologists discovered the partial skeleton of a male of a European species ancestral to the Neanderthals who suffered from a stoop and possibly needed a stick to remain upright, they said in a statement. "This individual would be probably impaired for hunting, among other activities. His survival during a considerable period with these impairments allows us to hypothesize that the nomadic group of which this individual was part would provide special... |
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| India | |
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| Colgate Accused of Stealing Thousand-Year-Old Toothpaste |
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· 10/21/2010 10:47:10 AM PDT · · Posted by Texas Fossil · · 22 replies · · Fox News (Orlando) · · Updated: Thursday, 21 Oct 2010 · · (NewsCore) · |
(NewsCore) - A legal dispute between the U.S. and India over a herbal toothpaste was leaving a bitter aftertaste between the two countries Thursday, with Colgate Palmolive accused of filing a bogus patent. Colgate, the world's largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm. However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients -- including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint -- have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, "if not thousands," of years on the subcontinent. |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Swiss archaeologists find 5,000-year-old door |
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· 10/20/2010 3:13:36 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 47 replies · · Associated Press · · October 20, 2010 · · Frank Jordans · |
GENEVA -- Archaeologists in the Swiss city of Zurich have unearthed a 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe. The ancient poplar wood door is "solid and elegant" with well-preserved hinges and a "remarkable" design for holding the boards together, chief archaeologist Niels Bleicher said Wednesday. Using tree rings to determine its age, Bleicher believes the door could have been made in the year 3,063 B.C. -- around the time that construction on Britain's world famous Stonehenge monument began. |
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| Swiss unearth 5,000-year-old door |
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· 10/22/2010 7:10:25 PM PDT · · Posted by Islander7 · · 8 replies · · Guardian UK · · Oct 20, 2010 · · AP · |
Archaeologists in Zurich have unearthed a 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe. The ancient poplar wood door is "solid and elegant" with well-preserved hinges and a "remarkable" design for holding the boards together, archaeologist Niels Bleicher said today. |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Malarial mosquitoes helped defeat British in battle that ended Revolutionary War |
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· 10/19/2010 2:08:48 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 23 replies · · Washington Post · · 18 Oct 2010 · · J.R. McNeill · |
Major combat operations in the American Revolution ended 229 years ago on Oct. 19, at Yorktown. For that we can thank the fortitude of American forces under George Washington, the siegecraft of French troops of Gen. Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, the count of Rochambeau - and the relentless bloodthirstiness of female Anopheles quadrimaculatus mosquitoes. Those tiny amazons conducted covert biological warfare against the British army.Female mosquitoes seek mammalian blood to provide the proteins they need to make eggs. No blood meal,no reproduction. It makes them bold and determined to bite. Some anopheles mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite, which they can... |
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| The Framers | |
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| If Men Were Angels |
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· 10/17/2010 2:46:47 PM PDT · · Posted by citizenredstater9271 · · 28 replies · · mises.org · · Robert Higgs · |
In The Federalist No. 51, arguably the most important one of all, James Madison wrote in defense of a proposed national constitution that would establish a structure of "checks and balances between the different departments" of the government and, as a result, constrain the government's oppression of the public. In making his argument, Madison penned the following paragraph, which comes close to being a short course in political science: The great security against a gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department, consists in giving to those who administer each department the necessary constitutional means and personal motives... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| Virginia 4th-grade textbook criticized over claims on black Confederate soldiers |
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· 10/20/2010 8:19:20 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 132 replies · · Washington Post · · 20 Oct 2010 · · Kevin Sieff · |
A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict. The passage appears in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," which was distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work... |
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| Five Union Soldiers Find Peace |
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· 10/19/2010 9:15:22 AM PDT · · Posted by Bodleian_Girl · · 104 replies · · Southern Pines Pilot · · 10/17/10 · · Jim Dodson · |
Shortly after 10 o'clock on a crisp Saturday morning two weeks ago, 75 folks solemnly clutching small American flags and digital cameras assembled in a grove of young pines at a modest farm in the Zion community, tucked into in the soft hills west of downtown Rockingham. Their objective was to honor five forgotten Union soldiers who died in a skirmish only days before the end of the Civil War. Until now, the solders' remains have lain in hand-dug graves marked only by small piles of white stones for 145 years, their identities unknown. The event, sponsored by the Richmond... |
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| This Day in Civil War History October 16th, 1859 John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry |
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· 10/16/2010 4:28:16 AM PDT · · Posted by mainepatsfan · · 109 replies · · History.com · |
Civil War Oct 16, 1859: John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry Abolitionist John Brown leads a small group on a raid against an arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in an attempt to incite an insurrection and destroy the institution of slavery. Born in Connecticut in 1800 and raised in Ohio, Brown came from a staunchly Calvinist and antislavery family. He spent much of his life failing at a variety of businesses--he declared bankruptcy at age 42 and had more than 20 lawsuits filed against him. In 1837, his life changed irrevocably when he attended an abolition meeting in Cleveland, during... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Dead 100 Years, Mark Twain Lets Loose |
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· 10/19/2010 10:14:57 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 35 replies · · CBS News · · October 17, 2010 · · Jeff Glor · |
It's been 100 years since Mark Twain died, after declaring, "If I cannot swear in heaven I shall not stay there." Wherever he is, a century later, the words and stories he left behind live on... President Theodore Roosevelt is "one of the most impulsive men in existence" . . . the American soldiers Roosevelt sent to the Philippines Twain called "uniformed assassins" . . . and then there's his Italian landlady, who's "excitable, malicious, malignant, vengeful, unforgiving, selfish, stingy, avaricious, coarse, vulgar, profane, and obscene" . . . and that's just for starters...our... |
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| Three Words? You Lose | |
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| Can You Name the Greatest President of the Past 100 Years? (Cato Inst. says it's Calvin Coolidge) |
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· 10/19/2010 7:07:22 AM PDT · · Posted by WebFocus · · 73 replies · · Cato Institute · · 10/19/2010 · · Daniel Mitchell · |
It's tempting to say that Ronald Reagan was the best U.S. president of the past century, and I've certainly demonstrated my man-crush on the Gipper. But there is some real competition. I had the pleasure yesterday of hearing Amity Shlaes of the Council on Foreign Relations make the case for Calvin Coolidge at the Mont Pelerin Society Meeting in Australia. I dug around online and found an article Amity wrote for Forbes that highlights some of the attributes of "Silent Cal" that she mentioned in her speech. As you can see, she makes a persuasive case ...the Coolidge style... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| NYC man, 95, gets medal for WWII rescue [largest air rescue of Americans] |
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· 10/18/2010 3:24:58 AM PDT · · Posted by Daffynition · · 16 replies · · AP via MSNBC · · 10/17/2010 · · Verena Dobnik · |
New York -- The U.S. government has recognized the World War II architect of a mission to rescue more than 500 U.S. bomber fliers shot down over Nazi-occupied Serbia -- the largest air rescue of Americans behind enemy lines in any war. George Vujnovich, a 95-year-old New Yorker, is credited with leading the so-called Halyard Mission in what was then Yugoslavia. The 95-year-old New York City man was awarded the Bronze Star in a ceremony Sunday at Manhattan's St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. He received a standing ovation from a crowd of several hundred. |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Obama To Appear On Episode Of 'Mythbusters' |
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· 10/18/2010 4:53:28 AM PDT · · Posted by rightwingintelligentsia · · 62 replies · · WPXI · · October 18, 2010 · |
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama will appear on an episode of "Mythbusters," a television show that uses science to determine the truth behind urban legends. The White House says the episode will air Dec. 8 on the Discovery Channel. Discovery says the episode considers this question: Did Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun? |
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| Obama to Appear on "Mythbusters" |
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· 10/18/2010 10:34:04 AM PDT · · Posted by mandaladon · · 64 replies · · New York Times · |
For a president under siege, maybe this could help. In an episode of "Mythbusters" on the Discovery Channel to be shown on Dec. 8, President Obama will help determine whether the Greek scientist Archimedes really set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun. Legend has it that during the Siege of Syracuse, circa 214 B.C., Archimedes destroyed the enemy ships with fire, the result of a "heat ray" involving a series of mirrors set up on the coast. But the question has long remained: Did it really happen that way? "Mythbusters"... |
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| Obama to Appear on Mythbusters, Bolster America's Giant-Mirror Capability |
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· 10/18/2010 1:31:20 PM PDT · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 27 replies · · Time Magazine's Tuned In Blog · · October 18, 2010 · · James Poniewozik, TV Critic · |
President Obama and Discovery Channel announced today that the chief executive will appear on the Dec. 8 episode of Mythbusters. And surprisingly, the myth being busted has nothing to do with either Islam or Kenyan birth certificates. On the episode, Obama will ask Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman to test whether it was possible for the Greek scientist Archimedes, as told in story, to have set fire to an invading fleet using a giant mirror and the reflected rays of the sun. Which forces me to ask: What the hell is the government secretly planning to do with a giant... |
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| end of digest #327 20101022 | |
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