|
|
|
| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #359 Saturday, June 4, 2011 |
|
|
|
|
| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
|
|
|
| Early Human Dads Stayed at Home While Females Roamed |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 4:39:07 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Discovery News · |
THE GIST
|
|
|
|
| Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
|
|
|
| Ancient DNA reveals male diffusion through the Neolithic Mediterranean route |
|
|
· 06/02/2011 5:26:34 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 21 replies · · PNAS · |
The Neolithic is a key period in the history of the European settlement. Although archaeological and present-day genetic data suggest several hypotheses regarding the human migration patterns at this period, validation of these hypotheses with the use of ancient genetic data has been limited. In this context, we studied DNA extracted from 53 individuals buried in a necropolis used by a French local community 5,000 y ago. The relatively good DNA preservation of the samples allowed us to obtain autosomal, Y-chromosomal, and/or mtDNA data for 29 of the 53 samples studied. From these datasets, we established close parental relationships within... |
|
|
|
| Prehistory & Origins | |
|
|
|
| Unique Canine Tooth from 'Peking Man' Found in Swedish Museum Collection |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 2:50:29 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · ScienceDaily · |
Swedish paleontologists were the first scientists to go to China in the early 20th century, and they carried out a series of expeditions in collaboration with Chinese colleagues. They found large numbers of fossils of dinosaurs and other vertebrates. The material was sent to Sweden and the well-known paleontologist Carl Wiman, who identified and described the fossils. But when the direction of research changed after Wiman's death, 40 cartons were left unopened and forgotten -- until know. In recent weeks, they have been opened by Per Ahlberg, his colleague Martin Kundr·t, and Museum Director Jan Ove Ebbestad, who had drawn... |
|
|
|
| Paleontology | |
|
|
|
| Fair Chase |
|
|
· 05/31/2011 1:02:08 PM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 23 replies · · Outside Magazine · |
On the plains of New Mexico, a band of elite marathoners tests a controversial theory of evolution: that humans can outrun the fastest animals on earth. THROUGH THE BINOCULARS I see them: nine tiny men in bright jerseys running in formation across the vast short-grass prairie of eastern New Mexico. They're chasing a tawny pronghorn antelope through the crackling stalks of late summer's fading wild sunflowers. The buck weighs about 130 pounds, like the men racing after it, but that's about the only thing they have in common. The pronghorn is the second-fastest animal on earth, while the men are... |
|
|
|
| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
|
|
|
| Egyptian Mummies Hold Clues of Ancient Air Pollution |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 6:03:14 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · LiveScience · |
Ancient Egyptians may have been exposed to air pollution way back when, according to new evidence of particulates in the lungs of 15 mummies, including noblemen and priests. Particulates, tiny microscopic particles that irritate the lungs, have been linked to a wide array of modern-day illnesses, including heart disease, lung ailments and cancer. The particulates are typically linked to post-industrial activities, such as fossil-fuel burning. But after hearing of reports of such particulates being found in mummy tissue, Roger Montgomerie, a doctoral student at the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester, decided to take a closer... |
|
|
|
| Egypt | |
|
|
|
| Getting on with a colossal task [18th dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III] |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 2:51:20 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · Al-Ahram Weekly · |
...the mortuary temple of the 18th-Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III was the largest temple complex in the Theban area. It stretched over a 350,000-square- metre space, guarded at the main gateway by a pair of gigantic statues of Amenhotep popularly known as the Colossi of Memnon, with smaller statues of Queen Tiye and Queen Mutemwiya at their feet. Regrettably, these two colossi are almost all that remains of this huge temple complex, since much of the rest of the temple collapsed during a massive earthquake that hit the area in antiquity, while the parts that survived this catastrophe decayed as a... |
|
|
|
| Pyramania | |
|
|
|
| 'Pyramids were built by leadership skills, not slavery' |
|
|
· 05/28/2011 12:36:29 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 64 replies · · Press Trust of India · |
It was the leadership skills of the rulers and not the bondage of slavery that motivated the labourers to toil hard in building the ancient Egyptian pyramids, claims a top leadership guru. Indonesia-based Arthur Carmazzi will soon come out with a book arguing how the leadership skills of the rulers of Egypt were responsible for building the giant structures regarded as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. "Various researches have already shown that the labourers were not slaves. It was more about getting work done through leadership skills, rather than by slavery and exploitation. Even today we look... |
|
|
|
| India | |
|
|
|
| Ancient temple guarded by ugly statuettes. |
|
|
· 11/12/2001 9:38:13 AM PST · · Posted by janus · · 37 replies · · 283+ views · · Times of India · |
Man falls into ancient cellar AMIT MUKHERJEE TIMES NEWS NETWORK HMEDABAD: All Praveen Mehta, a retired bank employee of Ahmedabad, can think of these days is a dark underground chamber, guarded by three disfigured statues of dancing girls. The chamber, with six hidden air ducts, was discovered after the January 26 earthquake of Gujarat. Believed to be a secret cellar of a bygone era, the chamber could have been used for performing secret yagnas. It could even be the outer chamber of a secret treasure trove. The house, which was purchased by Mehta's grandfather Giridharilal in 1898, suffered considerable ... |
|
|
|
| Sunken Civilizations | |
|
|
|
| Photos: 8000-year-old advanced civilisation in Konkan Coast? |
|
|
· 06/02/2011 6:44:27 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · · DNA · |
Researchers have found a wall-like structure that is 24 kilometres long, 2.7 metres tall, and around 2.5 metres wide. The structure shows uniformity in its construction. "The structure is not continuous throughout the 225 kilometres from Shrivardhan to Raigad, but it is uniform," said Dr Ashok Marathe, professor, department of archaeology, Postgraduate and Research Institute, Deccan College, Pune. "It has been found three metres below the present sea level. It has been constructed on the ancient sand beach, which was taken as the base for the construction. Considering the uniformity of the structure, it was obvious that the structure is... |
|
|
|
| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
|
|
|
| Has a University of Hartford Professor Found the Lost City of Atlantis?[Spain] |
|
|
· 03/08/2011 5:59:42 PM PST · · Posted by Palter · · 21 replies · · WesthartFord Patch · |
Dr. Richard Freund to be featured in a National Geographic Channel film; public invited to preview on Wednesday. Spend a little time with Dr. Richard Freund of the University of Hartford, and you might be convinced that the lost city of Atlantis is buried deep within a swamp in southern Spain. Freund, who directs the university's Greenberg Center for Judaic Studies, worked with a team of Spanish, American and Canadian scientists to examine a muddy swamp in Spain that was first noted as a possible location for Atlantis by a German scientist looking at satellite photos in 2003. Freund's 2009... |
|
|
|
| The Mediterranean | |
|
|
|
| Sicilian Peoples: The Sicanians |
|
|
· 05/29/2011 10:12:53 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 28 replies · · Best of Sicily · |
Little is known of the Sicans' literature or mythology. Developed some time before 1200 BC, the Phoenician alphabet was used in some form in early Etruscan and Greek, and also influenced the writing systems of Hebrew and Aramaic. The only known alphabet of the Sicanians was essentially Phoenician. It would not be inappropriate to postulate that an identifiably "Sicanian" culture existed in many parts of Sicily by 1600 BC; it certainly existed before the presumed date of arrival of the Elymians and Sicels a few centuries later... It is difficult to overlook the frequency with which Greek and Roman... |
|
|
|
| Religion of Pieces | |
|
|
|
| Jews have no right to Western Wall, PA 'study' says |
|
|
· 11/22/2010 12:20:04 PM PST · · Posted by wmfights · · 36 replies · · The Jerusalem Post · |
The Western Wall belongs to Muslims and is an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Haram al-Sharif [the Noble Sanctuary], according to an official paper published on Monday by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Information in Ramallah. The paper, which has been presented as a "study," was prepared by Al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry of Information to "refute" Jews' claim to the Western Wall. In the past, PA leaders and officials had also denied Jews' right to the Kotel, insisting that the Temple Mount had never stood in the area. The new paper claims... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Claim: Israel covering up Temple Mount destruction- Jewish Temples "never existed" |
|
|
· 10/22/2007 5:17:30 PM PDT · · Posted by yankeesdoodle · · 31 replies · · 69+ views · · Wolrd Net Daily · |
Speaking to WND in a recent interview, Waqf official and chief Palestinian Justice Taysir Tamimi claimed the Jewish Temples "never existed." "About these so-called two Temples, they never existed, certainly not at the Haram Al- Sharif (Temple Mount)," said Tamimi, who is considered the second most important Palestinian cleric after Muhammad Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. "Israel started since 1967 making archaeological digs to show Jewish signs to prove the relationship between Judaism and the city, and they found nothing. There is no Jewish connection to Israel before the Jews invaded in the 1880s," said Tamimi. The Palestinian cleric... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Olmert 'caved to Muslims' on Temple Mount |
|
|
· 02/16/2007 7:52:46 AM PST · · Posted by standingfirm · · 11 replies · · 301+ views · · World Net Daily · |
JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to allow Muslims to construct a massive minaret on the Temple Mount will embolden the enemies of the Jewish state and signal that violence and terrorism are working, according to a group of prominent rabbinic leaders in Israel. The Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of more than 300 Israeli rabbinic leaders and pulpit rabbis, said in a statement today Olmert "does not have the moral or historic right to hand over even one inch of Israeli territory to foreigners." "The mere fact of giving up sovereignty of the Temple Mount --... |
|
|
|
| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
|
|
|
| Beneath Jerusalem, an underground city takes shape |
|
|
· 05/30/2011 1:45:33 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 8 replies · · Associated Press · |
JERUSALEM -- Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above. At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab. Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Beneath Jerusalem, An Underground City Takes Shape |
|
|
· 05/30/2011 4:57:48 PM PDT · · Posted by marshmallow · · 10 replies · · AP · |
JERUSALEM -- Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above. At street level, the walled Old City is an energetic and fractious enclave with a physical landscape that is predominantly Islamic and a population that is mainly Arab. Underground Jerusalem is different: Here the noise recedes, the fierce Middle Eastern sun disappears, and light comes from fluorescent bulbs. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls... |
|
|
|
| Faith & Philosophy | |
|
|
|
| Archaeologists Return to 'King Solomon's Mines' of Biblical Edom |
|
|
· 05/31/2011 8:53:36 AM PDT · · Posted by Palter · · 23 replies · · Popular Archaeology · |
A team of archaeologists and others will return to a site southeast of the Dead Sea in late September, 2011 to continue investigations of what is now considered to be one of the largest copper mines of the ancient Middle East. Among other things, scientists hope to be able to identify the ethnicity or nationality of the people who actually controlled the mining and smelting operation during the 10th century B.C.E., the time period when, based on the Biblical accounts, scholars have traditionally dated the kingdom of Edom, as well as that of David and Solomon of ancient Israel. The... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| More on The King of Salomon [sic] Stone Tablet |
|
|
· 08/21/2003 7:45:37 PM PDT · · Posted by restornu · · 4 replies · · 240+ views · · 2003 · |
Three days ago we published "Temple of Salomon [sic] Re-Confirmed" Prof. Nadav Neeman, is a historian who recently wrote a book that is based on the assumption, that the book of Kings was written many years after the events described in it, and that the author of the book was forced to rely on sources predating the period in which he lived, in order to be able to reconstruct events that took place before his time. He commented to us that the Jehoash inscription is written in ancient Phoenician script on a black... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Message From Yoash, King Of Judah |
|
|
· 01/13/2003 10:29:01 AM PST · · Posted by Nachum · · 4 replies · · 476+ views · · Arutz 7 · |
An inscribed stone tablet from the time of Yehoash, King of Judah, has apparently been discovered on the Temple Mount. The black stone tablet, containing ten lines of Phoenician script, describes activities carried out by King Yehoash in the First Temple some 2,700 years ago. The inscription corresponds to the biblical account as recorded in Kings II 12, including King Yehoash's call to the Cohanim (priests) to collect money from the public for the purpose of renovating the Temple. The inscription details the purchase of wood and "quarried stones," and includes part of a Biblical passage recounting the event. Nadav... |
|
|
|
| Climate | |
|
|
|
| Climate played big role in Vikings' disappearance from Greenland |
|
|
· 05/30/2011 1:12:10 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 55 replies · · Brown University · |
Greenland's early Viking settlers were subjected to rapidly changing climate. Temperatures plunged several degrees in a span of decades, according to research from Brown University. A reconstruction of 5,600 years of climate history from lakes near the Norse settlement in western Greenland also shows how climate affected the Dorset and Saqqaq cultures. Results appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- The end of the Norse settlements on Greenland likely will remain shrouded in mystery. While there is scant written evidence of the colony's demise in the 14th and early 15th centuries, archaeological remains can... |
|
|
|
| The Vikings | |
|
|
|
| Runestone hits the road with U-Haul (MN) |
|
|
· 05/28/2011 11:35:08 PM PDT · · Posted by ButThreeLeftsDo · · 18 replies · · StarTribune.com · |
A controversial Minnesota artifact is making a name for itself across the country in its next biggest publicity move. The Kensington Runestone, which was unearthed in Minnesota but has been long disputed as a hoax, will now be featured on 2,300 20-foot moving trucks across the country. U-Haul unveiled the image Saturday morning at the Alexandria museum that houses the stone during the city's "Awake the Lakes" celebration. About 1,000 people celebrated the announcement at the Runestone Museum with T-shirts and a truck depicting the stone behind a large Vikings ship -- the fourth image representing Minnesota on the company's... |
|
|
|
| Epigraphy & Language | |
|
|
|
| Conquistador Silver May Not Have Sunk Spain's Currency |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 8:10:13 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · · ScienceNOW · |
Between 1520 and 1650, Spain's economy suffered crippling and unrelenting inflation in the so-called Price Revolution. Most historians have attributed that inflation, in part, to the importation, starting in 1550, of silver from the Americas, which supposedly put much more currency into circulation in Spain. But in a report out this week, a team of researchers argues that for more than a century the Spanish did not use this imported silver to make coins, suggesting that the amount of money circulating in Spain did not increase and could not have triggered the inflation... archaeometrist Anne-Marie DeSaulty and colleagues at the... |
|
|
|
| Not-so-ancient Autopsies | |
|
|
|
| Maybe Mona Lisa? Buried Skeleton Found |
|
|
· 05/29/2011 6:39:44 AM PDT · · Posted by Daffynition · · 33 replies · · LiveScience · |
Archaeologists searching for the remains of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa have uncovered a skeleton that may belong to the mysterious woman. The skeleton was unearthed in a Florence convent where researchers are searching for the remains of Lisa Gherardini Del Giocondo, the women believed to be the model for da Vinci's famous painting. Based on an early look at the cranium and pelvis, the skeleton appears to be female, Bologna University anthropologist Giorgio Gruppioni told news agencies Friday (May 27). |
|
|
|
| Two Tones | |
|
|
|
| How Medieval Knights remade Poland's ecosystems |
|
|
· 06/01/2011 6:47:16 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 28 replies · · Conservation Magazine · |
In 1280, victorious Teutonic Crusaders began building the world's largest castle on a hill overlooking the River Nogat in what is now northern Poland. Malbork Castle became the hub of a powerful Teutonic state that crushed its pagan enemies and helped remake Medieval Europe. Now, ancient pollen samples show that in addition to converting heathens to Christians, the Crusaders also converted vast swathes of Medieval forests to farmlands. In the early-13th century, Prussian tribes living in the south-eastern Baltic became a thorn in the side of the Monastic State of Teutonic Knights, which was formed in 1224 in what is... |
|
|
|
| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
|
|
|
| Runcorn dig uncovers medieval lion head: The head will be housed at Norton Priory Museum |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 9:28:21 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 21 replies · · BBC · |
A bronze lion head dating from the 15th century has been found in Cheshire. The artefact, believed to have been a hat badge, is among 80 items discovered by archaeologists at a building site near Runcorn. Pottery dating back to the 13th century and footings of timber-framed houses have also been discovered at a site near Lodge Farm. Archaeologists believe the items would have been owned by people living in the medieval village of Norton. Jamie Quartermaine, from Oxford Archaeology North, who is leading the project, said: "This is almost the last surviving remains of the old medieval village... |
|
|
|
| Sweet Swan of Avon | |
|
|
|
| William Shakespeare Was Probably a Catholic, Says Archbishop of Canterbury |
|
|
· 05/29/2011 10:41:42 AM PDT · · Posted by marshmallow · · 22 replies · · The Daily Telegraph (UK) · |
William Shakespeare was probably a Catholic, according to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who discussed spirituality and secularism in the Bard's plays with the actor Simon Russell Beale.Little is known of Shakespeare's life and there is no direct evidence of his religious affiliation, but Dr Rowan Williams said he believed him to be a Catholic. "I don't think it tells us a great deal, to settle whether he was a Catholic or a Protestant, but for what it's worth I think he probably had a Catholic background and a lot of Catholic friends and associates. "How much he believed in it,... |
|
|
|
| British Isles | |
|
|
|
| Mapledurham: the Catholic Country House That's Still Yielding Up Its Secrets |
|
|
· 06/01/2011 8:09:13 PM PDT · · Posted by marshmallow · · 12 replies · · The Daily Telegraph (UK) · |
Mapledurham House, an imposing Elizabethan mansion in south Oxfordshire, is one of Catholic England's best-kept secrets. Which is appropriate, in a way -- for it went to enormous trouble to keep its Catholic allegiance secret during times of persecution, when it was a safe house for fugitive priests. That said, I think it's high time that Mapledurham was better known: by rights it ought to attract thousands more visitors than it does. We live in an age when fans of The Da Vinci Code and other thrillers rush to historic locations to stare at "clues" to bogus mysteries. In contrast,... |
|
|
|
| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
|
|
|
| Marlborough Mound: 'Merlin's burial place' built in 2400 BC |
|
|
· 06/01/2011 12:32:30 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 39 replies · · BBC · |
A Wiltshire mound where the legendary wizard Merlin was purported to be buried has been found to date back to 2400 BC.Radiocarbon dating tests were carried out on charcoal samples taken from Marlborough Mound, which lies in Marlborough College's grounds. The 19m (62ft) high mound had previously mystified historians. Some believed it dated back to about 600 AD. English Heritage said: "This is a very exciting time for British prehistory." Dig leader Jim Leary said: "This is an astonishing discovery. "The Marlborough Mound has been one of the biggest mysteries in the Wessex landscape. "For centuries people have wondered whether... |
|
|
|
| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
|
|
|
| Did Whale Have Odd Deer-Like Ancestor? |
|
|
· 12/20/2007 6:50:22 AM PST · · Posted by Red Badger · · 51 replies · · 99+ views · · www.physorg.com · |
This undated handout artist rendering provided by Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy (NEOUCOM) shows The 48 million year old ungulate Indohyus from India. Indohyus is a close relative of whales, and the structure of its bones and chemistry of its teeth indicate that it spent much time in water. In this reconstruction, it is seen diving in a stream, much like the modern African Mousedeer does when in danger. (AP Photo/NEOUCOM) (AP) -- The gigantic ocean-dwelling whale may have evolved from a land animal the size of a small raccoon, new research suggests. What might be... |
|
|
|
| Mammoth Told Me There'd Be Days Like This | |
|
|
|
| Researchers solve mammoth evolutionary puzzle: The woollies weren't picky, happy to interbreed |
|
|
· 05/30/2011 5:45:00 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 40 replies · · McMaster University · |
A DNA-based study sheds new light on the complex evolutionary history of the woolly mammoth, suggesting it mated with a completely different and much larger species. The research, which appears in the BioMed Central's open access journal Genome Biology, found the woolly mammoth, which lived in the cold climate of the Arctic tundra, interbred with the Columbian mammoth, which preferred the more temperate regions of North America and was some 25 per cent larger. "There is a real fascination with the history of mammoths, and this analysis helps to contextualize its evolution, migration and ecology" says Hendrik Poinar, associate professor... |
|
|
|
| Navigation | |
|
|
|
| Roman ship had on-board fish tank: Hand-operated pump would have kept catch alive during long trips |
|
|
· 06/02/2011 5:41:41 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 24 replies · · Nature · |
A Roman ship found with a lead pipe piercing its hull has mystified archaeologists. Italian researchers now suggest that the pipe was part of an ingenious pumping system, designed to feed on-board fish tanks with a continuous supply of oxygenated water. Their analysis has been published online in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. Historians have assumed that in ancient times fresh fish were eaten close to where they were caught, because without refrigeration they would have rotted during transportation. But if the latest theory is correct, Roman ships could have carried live fish to buyers across the Mediterranean Sea.... |
|
|
|
| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
|
|
|
| Tunnel found under temple in Mexico |
|
|
· 05/31/2011 11:38:37 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 37 replies · · www.physorg.com · |
Researchers found a tunnel under the Temple of the Snake in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, about 28 miles northeast of Mexico City. The tunnel had apparently been sealed off around 1,800 years ago. Researchers of Mexico's National University made the finding with a radar device. Closer study revealed a "representation of the underworld," in the words of archaeologist Sergio Gomez Chavez, of Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History. Experts found "a route of symbols, whose conclusion appears to lie in the funeral chambers at the end of the tunnel." The structure is 15 yards beneath the ground, and... |
|
|
|
| Peru & the Andes | |
|
|
|
| MU Archeologist Finds Oldest 3-D Statue In Western Hemisphere |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 5:53:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · · University of Missouri · |
Robert Benfer, a professor emeritus of anthropology, said the mud plaster bust -- a bust of a figure blowing a trumpet and another mask-like image flanked by foxes -- was found at the "Buena Vista" site in the Andes... ..."Even today, the Andean people still tell stories about the fox as they explain the gift of the first cultivated foods. The Andean legend says the fox found a rope that led to heaven where it found an abundance of new foods. When the fox fell from heaven, it split open, providing a variety of new foods for the Andean people."... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Penn Museum Begins Ground-breaking Project to Create Underground Image of Pre-Inca City |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 8:18:50 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · University of Pennsylvania · |
University of Pennsylvania Museum archaeologists working at the renowned ancient site of Tiwanaku in Bolivia site sometimes called the "American Stonehenge" have joined forces with a team of engineers, mathematicians, computer scientists and anthropologists from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Computer and Information Science, School of Engineering, the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, University of Arkansas, and the Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, to begin a large-scale, subsurface surveying project using equipment and techniques that may one day serve as a model for future archaeological efforts worldwide. Their three-year, collaborative pilot project, made possible through a 1.05 million... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Ancient War Revealed in Discovery of Incan Fortresses |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 7:53:26 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · LiveScience · |
Incan fortresses built some 500 years ago have been discovered along an extinct volcano in northern Ecuador, revealing evidence of a war fought by the Inca just before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Andes. "We're seeing evidence for a pre-Columbian frontier, or borderline, that we think existed between Inca fortresses and Ecuadorian people's fortresses," project director Samuel Connell, of Foothill College in California, told LiveScience. The team has identified what they think are 20 fortresses built by the Inca and two forts that were built by a people from Ecuador known as the Cayambe. The volcano is called Pambamarca...... |
|
|
|
| The Revolution | |
|
|
|
| Governor Palin Gives the Media a History Lesson on Paul Revere's Midnight Ride |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 3:41:59 PM PDT · · Posted by Virginia Ridgerunner · · 81 replies · · Conservatives4Palin · |
The mark of any successful political venture by Governor Palin often results a misrepresentation of her words that only leaves the media with egg on their faces. Governor Palin's bus tour has been successful in allowing her to highlight the greatness of the history of America, meet everyday Americans and fellow politicians, and share her policy stances on everything from fishing regulations in New Hampshire to ethanol subsidies to the debt ceiling. Such successes leaves the media grasping at proverbial bendy straws. Today's news is no different. Poised with the opportunity to more appropriately address political stories essentially pre-written for... |
|
|
|
| ...to the Shores of Tripoli... | |
|
|
|
| House moves to bring home remains of "earliest Navy SEALs' |
|
|
· 05/29/2011 11:34:53 AM PDT · · Posted by jazusamo · · 20 replies · · The Washington Times · |
More than two centuries after they died off the coast of present-day Libya, the remains of the first 13 Navy commandos in U.S. history -- in the words of one supporter, the "earliest Navy SEALs" -- are one step closer to coming home after the U.S. House voted last week to insist the Pentagon get them back. Brushing off prior opposition from the Pentagon, House lawmakers attached the directive to the annual defense policy bill that cleared the chamber on Thursday, with backers saying it was time to honor the daring men as fallen heroes. "The United States has an... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Remembering The 1st American Military Warriors Who Fought Against Islamic Terrorists From 1801-1805 |
|
|
· 05/31/2011 2:59:58 PM PDT · · Posted by BillKneer · · 16 replies · · The Patriot Statesman · |
"From the Halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, we fight our country's battles, in the air, on land, and sea."- Official Hymn of the U.S. Marine Corps. Have you ever wondered what is Tripoli doing in our Marines' official hymn? On this memorial day, let us remember those who gave their lives that we might be free from muslim terror! Ambassador Thomas Jefferson had a wake up call the day he met with muslim leaders. Thomas Jefferson asked why are muslims attacking American ships when we are doing nothing to incite any form of violence. To his shock,... |
|
|
|
| The Mexican War | |
|
|
|
| Mexico finds possible US remains from 1846-48 war |
|
|
· 06/02/2011 11:51:08 PM PDT · · Posted by blueplum · · 15 replies · · San Jose Mercury News · |
MEXICO CITY -- Archaeologists said Thursday they have found 10 sets of skeletal remains that may belong to U.S. soldiers who died during a battle in the 1846-48 Mexican-American war. The government experts said the shape of the skulls and bone measurements suggest the skeletons belonged to Americans who were killed in the battle of Monterrey on Sept. 21-23, 1846. Archaeologist Araceli Rivera said the height of the skeletons -- between 5 feet, 7 inches (175 centimeters) and 5 feet, 9 inches -- and "Caucasian" skull features indicated they were Americans. |
|
|
|
| World War Eleven | |
|
|
|
| One Marine, One Ship |
|
|
· 11/21/2001 11:08:32 AM PST · · Posted by Britton J Wingfield · · 50 replies · · 1,493+ views · · tysknews.com · |
Oct. 26 falls on a Thursday this year. Ask the significance of the date, and you're likely to draw some puzzled looks -- five more days to stock up for Halloween? It's a measure of men like Col. Mitchell Paige and Rear Adm. Willis A. "Ching Chong China" Lee that they wouldn't have had it any other way. What they did 58 years ago, they did precisely so their grandchildren could live in a land of peace and plenty. Whether we've properly safeguarded the freedoms they fought to leave us, ... |
|
|
|
| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
|
|
|
| Iowa State physicists explain the long, useful lifetime of carbon-14 |
|
|
· 06/02/2011 6:57:54 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · ISU News Service · |
The long, slow decay of carbon-14 allows archaeologists to accurately date the relics of history back to 60,000 years. And while the carbon dating technique is well known and understood (the ratio of carbon-14 to other carbon isotopes is measured to determine the age of objects containing the remnants of any living thing), the reason for carbon-14's slow decay has not been understood. Why, exactly, does carbon-14 have a half-life of nearly 6,000 years while other light atomic nuclei have half-lives of minutes or seconds? (Half-life is the time it takes for the nuclei in a sample to decay to... |
|
|
|
| end of digest #359 20110604 | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #360 Saturday, June 4, 2011 |
|
|
|
|
| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
|
|
|
| 2nd Jewish Temple just 'waiting to be unearthed' |
|
|
· 06/07/2011 3:55:22 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · WorldNetDaily · |
One of the most prominent Israeli archaeologists declared today that remains from the First and Second Jewish Temple period -- including the Second Temple itself -- lie underneath the Temple Mount surface, just waiting to be excavated... Mazar said she is "absolutely sure" remains from the First and Second Temple periods, including "the Second Temple itself," as well as later remains from the Byzantine and early Islamic periods, are just under the surface of the Temple Mount... Mazar has led digs that discovered multiple Temple-era remains, including a tunnel used by the Israelites to conquer Jerusalem, as well as the... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Archaeologist thinks structure beneath Jerusalem is 2nd Jewish Temple |
|
|
· 06/09/2011 8:51:29 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 12 replies · · Huliq.com · |
Dr. Eilat Mazar of Hebrew University, one of the most prominent Israeli archaeologists, believes that remains from the First and Second Jewish Temple periods are currently below the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Mazar believes that the remains do include the Second Temple itself, in fact, and that with the technology available today, archaeologists can, at minimum, ensure that artifacts are not disturbed until a future excavation can be safely conducted. "I am absolutely sure," said Mazar in an interview with "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on New York's ABC Radio, "in light of my very rich experience excavating Jerusalem for 30... |
|
|
|
| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
|
|
|
| The story behind the world's oldest museum, built by a Babylonian princess 2,500 years ago |
|
|
· 06/07/2011 4:07:02 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · io9 Book Club · |
...What were we to think? Here were half a dozen diverse objects found lying on an unbroken brick pavement of the sixth century BC, yet the newest of them was seven hundred years older than the pavement and the earliest perhaps sixteen hundred. In this single room, Woolley had discovered at least 1,500 years of history all jumbled together, a bit like if you randomly found a Roman statue and a piece of medieval masonry while cleaning out your closet. Left to their own devices, these objects would never be found together like this. Somebody had messed around with these... |
|
|
|
| Prehistory & Origins | |
|
|
|
| New finds in Caucasus suggest non-African origin for ancient Homo species |
|
|
· 06/07/2011 5:39:10 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 55 replies · · Science News · |
Early members of the genus Homo, possibly direct ancestors of people today, may have evolved in Asia and then gone to Africa, not vice versa... new evidence shows the species occupied a West Asian site called Dmanisi from 1.85 million to 1.77 million years ago, at the same time or slightly before the earliest evidence of this humanlike species in Africa, say geologist Reid Ferring of the University of North Texas in Denton and his colleagues... Evidence remains meager for the geographic origins of the Homo genus, says anthropologist Bernard Wood of George Washington University... and it's possible that humankind's... |
|
|
|
| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
|
|
|
| Autism May Have Had Advantages in Humans' Hunter-Gatherer Past, Researcher Believes |
|
|
· 06/10/2011 3:13:11 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 76 replies · · ScienceDaily · |
Though people with autism face many challenges because of their condition, they may have been capable hunter-gatherers in prehistoric times, according to a paper published in the journal Evolutionary Psychology in May. The autism spectrum may represent not disease, but an ancient way of life for a minority of ancestral humans, said Jared Reser, a brain science researcher and doctoral candidate in the USC Psychology Department. Some of the genes that contribute to autism may have been selected and maintained because they created beneficial behaviors in a solitary environment, amounting to an autism advantage, Reser said. The "autism advantage," a... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Autism linked to hundreds of spontaneous genetic mutations |
|
|
· 06/09/2011 9:15:06 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 37 replies · · Nature News · |
Analysis suggests that girls are partially shielded from effects of the changes. The most comprehensive search yet for spontaneous genetic mutations associated with autism spectrum disorders suggests that hundreds of regions in the genome may have a hand in causing such conditions. Analyses reported in three papers published this week in Neuron1,2,3 dramatically expand the list of known genetic culprits. Two of the studies also shed light on a long-standing mystery: why are boys four times more likely to have autism than girls1,2? The researchers found that girls with autism tend to have many more mutated genes than boys with... |
|
|
|
| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
|
|
|
| Ancient Hominid Males Stayed Home While Females Roamed, Study Finds |
|
|
· 06/08/2011 10:19:59 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 32 replies · · Science Daily · |
The males of two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. The team, which studied teeth from a group of extinct Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus individuals from two adjacent cave systems in South Africa, found more than half of the female teeth were from outside the local area, said CU-Boulder adjunct professor and lead study author Sandi Copeland. In contrast, only about 10 percent of the male hominid... |
|
|
|
| Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
|
|
|
| First-of-its-Kind Fluorescence Map Offers a New View of the World |
|
|
· 06/09/2011 9:13:41 AM PDT · · Posted by null and void · · 12 replies · · Scientific Computing · |
A first-of-a-kind global map of land plant fluorescence shows stronger photosynthetic activity in the Northern Hemisphere in July when light and temperature conditions were most conducive to plant growth, and the reverse in December. The maps are based on data from a spectrometer aboard the Japanese satellite GOSAT. Courtesy of NASA's Earth Observatory Scientists from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., have produced groundbreaking global maps of land plant fluorescence, a difficult-to-detect reddish glow that leaves emit as a byproduct of photosynthesis. While researchers have previously mapped how ocean-dwelling phytoplankton fluoresce, the new maps are the first to... |
|
|
|
| Australia & the Pacific | |
|
|
|
| Early Americans helped colonise Easter Island |
|
|
· 06/09/2011 8:46:24 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 13 replies · · New Scientist · |
South Americans helped colonise Easter Island centuries before Europeans reached it. Clear genetic evidence has, for the first time, given support to elements of this controversial theory showing that while the remote island was mostly colonised from the west, there was also some influx of people from the Americas. ~~~snip~~~ Now Erik Thorsby of the University of Oslo in Norway has found clear evidence to support elements of Heyerdahl's hypothesis. In 1971 and 2008 he collected blood samples from Easter Islanders whose ancestors had not interbred with Europeans and other visitors to the island. Thorsby looked at the HLA genes,... |
|
|
|
| Navigation | |
|
|
|
| Ancient DNA points to Maori feather trade |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 9:04:46 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · Nature · |
When New Zealand's Maori tribes went into battle, combatants enveloped in kiwi feather cloaks were spared from harm by their foes. The laboriously crafted cloaks, known as Kahu kiwi, were so revered that some were given names -- one, called Karamaene, was traded with the Auckland Museum in exchange for a giant wooden war canoe. Now, kiwi DNA preserved in such cloaks -- some dating back to the nineteenth century -- has revealed clues to the origin and construction of Kahu kiwi, and hinted at a previously unknown trans-island feather trade1. David Lambert, an evolutionary geneticist at Griffith University in... |
|
|
|
| Egypt | |
|
|
|
| Pyramid Hieroglyphs Likely Engineering Numbers |
|
|
· 06/08/2011 9:01:17 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 31 replies · · Discovery News · |
Markings in red paint found within the Great Pyramid by a camera-toting robot are likely numerals used by builders. THE GIST Hieroglyphs written in red paint on the floor of a hidden chamber in Egypt's Great Pyramid are numerical signs.The builders of the pyramid simply recorded the total length of the southern shaft from the Queen's Chamber: 121 cubits.Multiples of 7, 9 and 11 cubits occur frequently in the design of the Great pyramid. |
|
|
|
| British Isles | |
|
|
|
| Archaeology dating technique uncovers 'property boom' of 3700 BC |
|
|
· 06/07/2011 8:31:41 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 31 replies · · Guardian UK · |
A new scientific dating technique has revealed there was a building spree more than 5,500 years ago, when many of the most spectacular monuments in the English landscape, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset and Windmill Hill in Wiltshire, were built, used and abandoned in a single lifetime. The fashion for the monuments, hilltops enclosed by rings of ditches, known to archaeologists as causewayed enclosures, instead of being the ritual work of generations as had been believed, began on the continent centuries earlier but spread from Kent to Cornwall within 50 years in about 3700 BC. Alex Bayliss, an archaeologist... |
|
|
|
| Roman Empire | |
|
|
|
| What the Romans didn't do for us |
|
|
· 06/10/2011 8:23:09 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 38 replies · · Guardian UK · |
The route had long been known as a lost Roman road... dig director Tim Malim noticed that the road had twice been rebuilt, and knew its history could be dated using a technique that tells you when buried mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight. The unexpected result was a more than 80% chance that the last surface had been laid before the Roman invasion in AD43. Wood in the foundation was radiocarbon-dated to the second century BC, sealing the road's pre-Roman origin. And Malim thinks a huge post that stood in 1500BC close to the crest of the hill... |
|
|
|
| The Great War | |
|
|
|
| WWI underground: Unearthing the hidden tunnel war (...killed an estimated 10,000 Germans.) |
|
|
· 06/10/2011 10:09:12 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 61 replies · · BBC · |
Archaeologists are beginning the most detailed ever study of a Western Front battlefield, an untouched site where 28 British tunnellers lie entombed after dying during brutal underground warfare. For WWI historians, it's the "holy grail".When military historian Jeremy Banning stepped on to a patch of rough scrubland in northern France four months ago, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. The privately-owned land in the sleepy rural village of La Boisselle had been practically untouched since fighting ceased in 1918, remaining one of the most poignant sites of the Battle of the Somme. In his hand was... |
|
|
|
| Climate | |
|
|
|
| What the Margins of Spain's Ebro River Basin Looked Like 6 Million Years Ago |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 5:55:04 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · ScienceDaily · |
A Spanish research team, using 3-D reflection seismology, has for the first time mapped the geomorphological features of the Ebro river basin 5 to 6 million years ago. The images obtained show that the surface analysed is today 2.5 or 3 kilometres below the sea bed. "The results shed light on the way in which the sea level fell during the Messinian (between 5.33 and 6 million years ago), and imply that the subsequent inundation of the river margins happened extremely quickly," says Roger Urgeles, lead author of the study and a researcher at the Department of Marine Geology of... |
|
|
|
| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
|
|
|
| Extinct sea cow fossil found in Philippines |
|
|
· 06/06/2011 10:28:43 AM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 9 replies · · Yahoo · |
MANILA (AFP) -- The bones of an extinct sea cow species that lived about 20 million years ago have been discovered in a cave in the Philippines by a team of Italian scientists, the expedition head said Monday. Several ribs and spine parts of the aquatic mammal were found in February and March in limestone rock above the waters of an underground river on the island of Palawan, said University of Florence geologist Leonardo Piccini. "The fossil is in the rock, in the cave. We cannot remove it and we don't want to extract it. We would like to wait... |
|
|
|
| Pages | |
|
|
|
| Over 4000 books of the National Academies Press are available as free PDFs |
|
|
· 06/04/2011 1:19:03 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 43 replies · · Next Big Future · |
As of June 2, 2011, all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press (NAP) will be downloadable to anyone free of charge. |
|
|
|
| Epigraphy & Language | |
|
|
|
| Ancient world dictionary finished -- after 90 years |
|
|
· 06/04/2011 7:47:12 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 25 replies · · As · |
CHICAGO -- It was a monumental project with modest beginnings: a small group of scholars and some index cards. The plan was to explore a long-dead language that would reveal an ancient world of chariots and concubines, royal decrees and diaries -- and omens that came from the heavens and sheep livers. The year: 1921. The place: The University of Chicago. The project: Assembling an Assyrian dictionary based on words recorded on clay or stone tablets unearthed from ruins in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, written in a language that hadn't been uttered for more than 2,000 years. The scholars... |
|
|
|
| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
|
|
|
| Researchers replicate rare cuneiform tablets using 3-D scanning and printing |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 8:09:03 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Cornell Chronicle · |
Today's Assyriology scholars study Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform tablets with the help of digital photographs or handwritten copies of the texts, but ideally, they visit collections to see the tablets firsthand. Technology could introduce a new way to connect researchers to these precious, unique artifacts by creating exact replicas. Such an effort is under way at Cornell in the lab of Hod Lipson, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, who specializes in the burgeoning field of 3-D scanning and printing of everyday objects. Natasha Gangjee '12, a student in Lipson's lab, worked with six cuneiform tablets to try and... |
|
|
|
| Early America | |
|
|
|
| Blackbeard's anchor recovered off NC coast |
|
|
· 05/29/2011 7:35:53 PM PDT · · Posted by DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis · · 41 replies · · AP · |
MOREHEAD CITY, N.C. -- An anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship has been raised from the ocean floor off the North Carolina coast. Archaeologists believe the anchor recovered Friday is from the Queen Anne's Revenge, which sank in 1718. That was five months before Blackbeard was killed in a battle. The artifact is the third-largest item at the shipwreck, outsized only by two other anchors. Researchers retrieved the anchor from the shipwreck about 20 feet under water... The anchor is about 11 feet long. |
|
|
|
| The Framers | |
|
|
|
| Journal of the Federal Convention June 10th 1787 |
|
|
· 06/10/2011 2:49:09 AM PDT · · Posted by Jacquerie · · 5 replies · · Avalon Project · |
Today being Sunday, the Convention did not meet. This is not to say important work was not done. Roger Sherman and some Small State delegates probably met to discuss a compromise, a proportionally based House and equal State representation in the Senate, which will be discussed tomorrow. Despite authoring and nurturing the compromise that saved the Convention and most likely his country, Roger Sherman is one of the most neglected Framers. I call him the Principled Pragmatist. He either signed/attended or helped write the 1774 Declaration of Resolves, the First and Second Congresses, the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation,... |
|
|
|
| The Revolution | |
|
|
|
| MEDIA CAUGHT IN ANOTHER SMEAR -- Palin Did Not Misspeak on Paul Revere |
|
|
· 06/03/2011 8:57:06 PM PDT · · Posted by smoothsailing · · 67 replies · · RightNetwork/GatewayPundit · |
The state-run media is having fun today smearing Sarah Palin on her historical knowlege. Yesterday she told reporters Revere warned the British that the colonial militias were waiting for them. Sarah Palin was right.Paul Revere did in fact tell the British that the colonial militias, who had been alerted, were waiting for them... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sarah Palin defends her take on Paul Revere's ride |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 7:56:36 AM PDT · · Posted by GonzoII · · 74 replies · |
[Link only] Sarah Palin defends her take on Paul Revere's ride |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Only AP Article on Palin Fox News Sunday Interview: Palin: I didn't mess up Paul Revere history |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 8:06:14 AM PDT · · Posted by kristinn · · 197 replies · · Associated Press · |
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sarah Palin says she didn't mess up her history on Paul Revere. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sorry Libs -- Sarah Palin Stands By Her Correct Version of Paul Revere's Ride (Video) |
|
|
· 06/05/2011 5:47:15 PM PDT · · Posted by Hojczyk · · 8 replies · · Gateway Pundit ,Rightnetwork · |
Sorry libs. Sarah Palin stood by her correct narrative of Paul Revere's ride(s) today on FOX News Sunday. For those of you maybe aren't familiar with the story, Paul Revere warned the American militias and the British troops during his infamous rides. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Historians agree: Palin was right about Paul Revere |
|
|
· 06/06/2011 6:55:15 AM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 68 replies · · American Thinker · |
One if by land, and two if by sea, and then what? According to historians interviewed by the Boston Herald, Paul Revere then warned the British not to challenge a roused and armed populace. That came as news to many observers who had rushed to criticize Sarah Palin for her response to a gotcha question at the Old North Church: Sarah Palin yesterday insisted her claim at the Old North Church last week that Paul Revere "warned the British" during his famed 1775 ride -- remarks that Democrats and the media roundly ridiculed -- is actually historically accurate. And... |
|
|
|
| end of digest #360 20110611 | |
|
|
|
