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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #368 Saturday, August 6, 2011 |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| What can the Ancient Greeks do for us? |
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· 08/04/2011 6:28:10 AM PDT · · Posted by COBOL2Java · · 12 replies · · guardian.co.uk · · 1 August 2011 · · Charlotte Higgins · |
The Greeks may have got the idea of coinage from their neighbours across the Aegean in Lydia, but the Greek world was the first society to use money in much the same way as we do -- state-issued currency as a universal and guaranteed form of exchange. Money was probably introduced in the early part of the 6th century BC -- and was a wild success. Its first mention, notes Richard Seaford in his book Money and the Early Greek Mind, comes in the laws written by the 6th-century Athenian reformer Solon, which, prosaically enough, lay down prices to... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Half of European men share King Tut's DNA |
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· 08/01/2011 10:50:56 PM PDT · · Posted by annie laurie · · 72 replies · · Reuters · · Mon Aug 1, 2011 · · Alice Baghdjian · |
Up to 70 percent of British men and half of all Western European men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, geneticists in Switzerland said. Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh, who ascended the throne at the age of nine, his father Akhenaten and grandfather Amenhotep III, based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel. The results showed that King Tut belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 percent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share... |
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| King Tut and half of European men share DNA |
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· 08/04/2011 7:57:05 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 56 replies · · medicalxpress · · 08-03-2011 · · Staff · |
According to a group of geneticists in Switzerland from iGENEA, the DNA genealogy center, as many as half of all European men and 70 percent of British men share the same DNA as the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, or King Tut. For a film created for the Discovery Channel, scientists worked to reconstruct the DNA of the young male King, his father Akhenaten and his grandfather Amenhotep III. They discovered that King Tut had a DNA profile that belongs to a group called haplogroup R1b1a2. This group can be found in over 50 percent of European men and shows the researchers... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Ancient Egypt was destroyed by drought, discover Scottish experts |
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· 08/04/2011 5:51:22 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 47 replies · · Scotsman, Tall and Handsome Built · · Tuesday, August 2, 2011 · · Lyndsay Buckland · |
...the fall of the great Egyptian Old Kingdom may have been helped along by a common problem which remains with us now -- drought... a severe period of drought around 4,200 years ago may have contributed to the demise of the civilisation. Using seismic investigations with sound waves, along with carbon dating of a 100-metre section of sediment from the bed of Lake Tana in Ethiopia, the team were able to look back many thousands of years. They were able to see how water levels in the lake had varied over the past 17,000 years, with the sediment signalling lush... |
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| Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales |
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· 11/13/2001 1:26:01 PM PST · · Posted by Darth Reagan · · 24 replies · · 178+ views · · Space.com · · November 13, 2001 · · Robert Roy Britt · |
Tuesday November 13 08:37 AM EST Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales By Robert Roy BrittSenior Science Writer, SPACE.com "...and the seven judges of hell ... raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup." -- An account of the Deluge from the Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2200 B.C. If you are fortunate enough to ... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Earliest Image of Egyptian Ruler Wearing 'White Crown' of Royalty Brought to Light |
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· 08/06/2011 5:34:24 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · Science News · · August 5, 2011 · · Yale University · |
...The site had been partially damaged in recent years, and the Yale-led team -- which also included Egyptologists from the University of Bologna, Italy and the Provinciale Hogeschool of Limburg, Belgium -- relied on Habachi's photos (now stored with the Epigraphic Survey in Luxor) and cutting-edge digital methodology to reconstruct and analyze the images and hieroglyphic text inscribed in several areas within the larger site. According to Maria Carmela Gatto, director of the project, the group of images and the short inscription represent the earliest depiction of a royal Jubilee, complete with all the identifying elements of the Early Dynastic... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Egypt's Lost Fleet -- It's Been Found |
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· 08/02/2011 8:07:48 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 29 replies · · Discovery magazine · · July 28, 2011 · · Andrew Curry · |
The scenes carved into a wall of the ancient Egyptian temple at Deir el-Bahri tell of a remarkable sea voyage. A fleet of cargo ships bearing exotic plants, animals, and precious incense navigates through high-crested waves on a journey from a mysterious land known as Punt or "the Land of God." The carvings were commissioned by Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's greatest female pharaoh, who controlled Egypt for more than two decades in the 15th century B.C. She ruled some 2 million people and oversaw one of most powerful empires of the ancient world. The exact meaning of the detailed carvings has... |
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| Climate | |
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| Six Million Years of African Savanna |
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· 08/04/2011 1:43:48 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 12 replies · · National Science Foundation · · August 3, 2011 · · Unknown · |
Scientists using chemical isotopes in ancient soil to measure prehistoric tree cover--in effect, shade--have found that grassy, tree-dotted savannas prevailed at most East African sites where human ancestors and their ape relatives evolved during the past six million years. "We've been able to quantify how much shade was available in the geological past," says University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of a paper titled "Woody cover and hominin environments in the past 6 million years" on the results in this week's issue of the journal Nature. "It shows there have been open habitats for the last six million... |
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| Africa | |
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| Water's edge ancestors: Human evolution's tide may have turned on lake and sea shores |
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· 08/02/2011 7:56:32 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · Science News · · August 13th, 2011 · · Bruce Bower · |
Marean proposes that it was there, where the Arizona State University archaeologist now conducts excavations, that humankind's mental tide turned sometime between 164,000 and 120,000 years ago. Seaside survivors learned to read the moon's phases in order to harvest heaps of shellfish -- brain food extraordinaire -- during a few precious days each month when ocean tides safely retreated. Tantalizing traces of complex thinking and behavior, including lunar literacy, have turned up at South Africa's Pinnacle Point, a cave-specked promontory that juts into the Indian Ocean. Chunks of dark red pigment and strikingly beautiful seashells found by Marean's team in... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Sewer repairs reveal early visitors to Sitka? [Paleolithic Alaska?] |
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· 08/02/2011 7:38:46 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · KCAW · · July 28, 2011 · · Robert Woolsey · |
An anthropologist has found what she believes are stone tools in a street excavation in downtown Sitka. The finds -- if they are confirmed -- could help shed light on Paleolithic humans who either lived in, or passed through, the region... "It's a simple tool where you have a certain kind of rock, and you drop that rock on another rock and a flake comes off. And if it's nice and sharp along there you'll use it for a while. You grip it like that -- use it as a skin scraper, or for whatever you're scraping. Then, when it... |
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| Peru & the Andes | |
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| Ancient Sacrificer Found With Blades in Peru Tomb? |
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· 08/01/2011 12:35:48 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 6 replies · · National Geographic News · · 7-28-2011 · · Ker Than · |
~~~snip~~~ The new tomb discovery was made during excavations of a section of Chotuna-Chornancap that was used to perform crop-fertility rituals, according to the team. The skeleton belonged to a male between 20 and 30 years old, and that the tomb was built sometime in the late 1200s or early 1300s A.D., toward the end of the Sic·n period, they say. The cause of death of the tomb's inhabitant is unknown, but based on the kind and quantity of artifacts buried with him -- including ceramic pots, a skirt made of copper disks, and ornate copper knives -- the team thinks he was a... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Ancient Graves Reveal When Elderly Gained Power |
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· 08/04/2011 7:49:45 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 10 replies · · Live Science · · August 4, 2011 · · Stephanie Pappas · |
It's not easy to study the elderly in a society where life was all too often cut short by disease, childbirth and injuries. But new research on people living in the Bronze Age suggests the elderly began to gain power over a 600-year period in Austria. The findings rely on skeletal aging and a comparison of objects placed in graves of individuals of different ages. As time passed in the small farming hamlets of lower Austria, researchers reported online July 15 in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, older men began to be buried with copper axes, a privilege not granted... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Unearthed, a great Tudor local [ Three Tuns tavern ] |
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· 08/06/2011 4:48:26 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · London Evening Standard · · Friday, August 5, 2011 · · Bo Wilson · |
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be one of London's oldest pubs. The 16th century tavern, The Three Tuns, was unearthed next to Holborn Viaduct, with parts in such good condition that it is possible to stand on the remains of the Tudor street and look through its window. David Saxby, a senior archaeologist at the Museum of London, uncovered a basement bar room, a serving hatch and an inscription "Lotte" -- possibly as part of the name Charlotte -- at the foot of the staircase. Other treasures include a bottle's glass medallion, which has the pub's logo of... |
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| Britain | |
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| Armada wreck discovered off Donegal |
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· 08/06/2011 5:45:50 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · Belfast Telegraph · · Friday, August 5, 2011 · · unattributed · |
The wreckage of a sunken vessel believed to be from the Spanish Armada has been discovered off the Donegal coast... in shallow waters in Rutland Harbour, near Burtonport. Evidence uncovered during a dive survey revealed the vessel was likely to be a 16th-century ship, possibly part of the 1588 Spanish Armada. Heritage minister Jimmy Deenihan... said the discovery was a major find of significance not only to Ireland but also to the international archaeological, historical and maritime communities. "If, in fact, it proves to be an Armada vessel, it could constitute one of the most intact of these wrecks discovered... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| What is war good for? Sparking civilization, suggest UCLA archaeology findings from Peru |
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· 07/25/2011 8:52:27 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 7 replies · · UCLA · · July 25, 2011 · · Unknown · |
Warfare, triggered by political conflict between the fifth century B.C. and the first century A.D., likely shaped the development of the first settlement that would classify as a civilization in the Titicaca basin of southern Peru, a new UCLA study suggests. Charles Stanish, director of UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and Abigail Levine, a UCLA graduate student in anthropology, used archaeological evidence from the basin, home to a number of thriving and complex early societies during the first millennium B.C., to trace the evolution of two larger, dominant states in the region: Taraco, along the Ramis River, and Pukara, in... |
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| Sign of Advancing Society? An Organized War Effort |
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· 08/04/2011 4:27:06 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 3 replies · · NY Times · · August 1, 2011 · · NICHOLAS WADE · |
Some archaeologists have painted primitive societies as relatively peaceful, implying that war is a reprehensible modern deviation. Others have seen war as the midwife of the first states that arose as human population increased and more complex social structures emerged to coordinate activities. A wave of new research is supporting this second view. Charles Stanish and Abigail Levine, archaeologists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have traced the rise of the pristine states that preceded the Inca empire. The first villages in the region were formed some 3,500 years ago. Over the next 1,000 years, some developed into larger... |
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| If Only It Would Come Out of its Shell | |
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| The last 3 million years at a snail's pace: a tiny trapdoor opens a new way to date the past |
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· 08/04/2011 1:24:23 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 7 replies · · University of York · · August 4, 2011 · · Unknown · |
Scientists at the University of York, using an 'amino acid time capsule', have led the largest ever programme to date the British Quaternary period, stretching back nearly three million years.It is the first widespread application of refinements of the 40-year-old technique of amino acid geochronology. The refined method, developed at York's BioArCh laboratories, measures the breakdown of a closed system of protein in fossil snail shells, and provides a method of dating archaeological and geological sites. Britain has an unparalleled studied record of fossil-rich terrestrial sediments from the Quaternary, a period that includes relatively long glacial episodes -- known as... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Full Dinosaur Skeleton Found in Alaska, Plus Photos of Rare Dinosaur Fossils |
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· 07/30/2011 7:44:38 AM PDT · · Posted by Daffynition · · 16 replies · · IBTimes San Francisco · · July 29, 2011 · · staff reporter · |
A 200 million year old reptilian fossil was discovered by Alaskan scientists along the shores of Tongass National Forest. It was the low tide that made the discovery possible as a rare marine creature called Thalattosaurs was submerged in water and rocks. The last Thalattosaurs to survive was after the Triassic period, roughly 200 million years ago. An almost complete skeleton was recovered along with an outline of the body embedded onto surrounding rocks. The creature is usually between 3 to 10 feet long with padded limbs and flat tails. The snout turns downward and contains both pointy teeth for... |
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| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
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| Ancient dog skull unearthed in Siberia |
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· 08/03/2011 9:53:08 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 29 replies · · BBC · · August 3, 2011 · · Hamish Pritchard · |
A very well-preserved 33,000 year old canine skull from a cave in the Siberian Altai mountains shows some of the earliest evidence of dog domestication ever found. But the specimen raises doubts about early man's loyalty to his new best friend as times got tough. The findings come from a Russian-led international team of archaeologists. The skull, from shortly before the peak of the last ice age, is unlike those of modern dogs or wolves. The study is published in the open access journal Plos One. Although the snout is similar in size to early, fully domesticated Greenland dogs from... |
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| Panspermia | |
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| Amino acid found in deep space |
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· 07/18/2002 10:17:50 AM PDT · · Posted by nuda_veritas · · 120 replies · · 848+ views · · New Scientist · · 10:57 18 July 02 · · Rachel Nowak · |
10:57 18 July 02 Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition An amino acid, one of the building blocks of life, has been spotted in deep space. If the find stands up to scrutiny, it means that the sorts of chemistry needed to create life are not unique to Earth verifying one of astrobiology's cherished theories.This would add weight to ideas that life exists on other planets, and even that molecules from outer space kick-started life on Earth.Over 130 molecules have been identified in interstellar space so far, including sugars and ethanol. But amino acids are a particularly important find... |
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| Early America | |
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| Second Piece of Historic Ship Discovered at WTC Site |
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· 08/06/2011 5:14:25 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 12 replies · · DNAinfo, Digital Network Associates · · August 4, 2011 · · Olivia Scheck · |
Archaeologists helping to excavate the World Trade Center site have uncovered a second piece of the more than 200-year-old ship that was discovered there last summer. The find, made last Friday, came as workers began digging up the east side of the construction area, which once housed the World Trade Center complex... Archaeologists first noticed remnants of the ship -- curved pieces of wood buried 25 feet below street level -- last July and spent two weeks excavating the artifact, which turned out to be a 32-foot-long section of the boat's hull. The piece that was found last Friday belongs... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Last Surviving Pilot of 1942's Astonishing 'Doolittle Raid' Col William Bower; History/Memorial |
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· 08/05/2011 2:46:23 AM PDT · · Posted by Reaganite Republican · · 7 replies · · Reaganite Republican · · August 5, 2011 · · Reaganite Republican · |
A great and genuine American hero The audacious US Army air attack upon the Japanese home islands in April of 1942 that came to be known as the Doolittle Raid was the very first American offensive inflicted upon the Japanese motherland in WWII. As intended, it came as a hideous shock to both the military regime and Japanese people... In the event, actual military and economic damage was unsubstantial -- but by exposing 'invincible' Japan as vulnerable, the heroic bombing run brought us a much-needed morale boost... Americans got their first taste of vengeance in the wake of the sneak-attack on Pearl Harbor just the previous year.... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Russians print new info linked to Raoul Wallenberg |
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· 07/31/2011 6:02:31 PM PDT · · Posted by Hunton Peck · · 3 replies · · Associated Press · · 7/31/2011 · · ARTHUR MAX · |
AMSTERDAM (AP) -- Russian archivists have published new material from a German officer imprisoned after World War II who shared a cell with Raoul Wallenberg, the missing Swedish diplomat credited with rescuing tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews. Publication of the statements from Willy Roedel came as a surprise since the Russians had previously denied they existed, say two independent scholars who have researched the Wallenberg mystery for decades, in a paper released Monday. That raises suspicions that Moscow may be withholding information which could help solve the 66-year-old puzzle of Wallenberg's arrest and disappearance in the gulag, the vast... |
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| end of digest #368 20110806 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #368 · v 8 · n 4 Saturday, August 6, 2011 |
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23 topics |
Welcome to issue #368 of the GGG Digest. · view this issue · A mere 23 topics -- but, oh, what topics! :') Seriously, a lot of good stuff here. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #369 Saturday, August 13, 2011 |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Artifacts breathe new life into the destruction of the Temple |
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· 08/12/2011 9:20:36 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs · · August 8, 2011 · · Israel Antiquities Authority · |
On the eve of Tisha B'Av, commemorating the anniversary of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, artifacts were exposed that breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem... During the course of work the Israel Antiquities Authority carried out in Jerusalem's ancient drainage channel, which begins in the Siloam Pool and runs from the City of David to the archaeological garden (near the Western Wall), impressive finds were recently discovered that breathe new life into the story of the destruction of the Second Temple... A 2,000 year old iron sword, still in... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Palestinians set fire to Joseph's Tomb |
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· 10/16/2003 10:48:12 AM PDT · · Posted by anotherview · · 138 replies · · 1,241+ views · · The Jerusalem Post · · 16 October 2003 · · Margot Dudkevitch · |
The IDF permitted hundreds of Jewish worshippers access to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus to pray at the shrine early Thursday. Later the worshippers left in buses accompanied by IDF forces who guarded them throughout the visit. Shortly after their departure a group of Palestinian youths arrived at the site and set fire to the shrine throwing burning tires inside the compound. The local Palestinian fire brigade arrived and extinguished the flames. It was the fourth time authorization was given to... |
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| Phi Tappa Keg | |
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| Pagans fight for divine rights of old Greek gods |
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· 09/24/2003 6:28:19 AM PDT · · Posted by NYer · · 50 replies · · 2,930+ views · · Scotsman · · September 21, 2003 · · Matthew Brunwasser · |
IN THE shadow of Mount Olympus the toga-clad worshippers sway to the beating of a drum as the bearded man leading the ceremony throws a pinch of grain into a torch, then circles his hand above the flames. While the group, dressed in yellow, red and blue robes, may appear to be taking part in some bewildering historical re-enactment, they are members a growing pagan movement dedicated to resurrecting the religion and way of life of ancient Greece. The pagans have gathered in a meadow near the sacred mountain where their ancestors believed the gods lived and held court to... |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Turkey Wants The Bones of St. Nicholas |
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· 01/04/2010 9:01:41 AM PST · · Posted by marshmallow · · 21 replies · · 886+ views · · What Does the Prayer Really Say · · 1/2/10 · · Fr. John Zuhlsdorf · |
AFP --Turkey will ask for the return of the bones of Saint Nicholas, who Father Christmas is modelled on, from their display in Italy, local media reported on Friday. (Of course, the bones of St. Nicholas are not "on display" in Bari; these were taken to Bari in order to be saved from desecration! CAP) Saint Nicholas, from the modern-day town of Demre on southern Turkey's Mediterranean coast, is, according to tradition, the ancestor of Father Christmas, but his remains were stolen by Italian pirates in the 11th... |
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| Hagia Sophia | |
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| Hagia Sophia's angel uncovered |
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· 07/24/2009 10:48:16 AM PDT · · Posted by iowamark · · 25 replies · · 1,295+ views · · TurkishNY.com · · 07/24/2009 · · unstated · |
Experts have uncovered one of the six angel mosaics within the world-famous Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul after it had been hidden for 160 years behind plaster and a metal mask. The mosaic, which measures 1.5 meters by 1 meter, was last seen by Swiss architect Gaspare Fossati, who headed restoration efforts at the museum between 1847 and 1849, and Ottoman Sultan Abd¸lmecid. Experts were surprised to see that the mosaic, believed to date from the 14th century, was so well preserved. Hagia Sophia, built by the Byzantine emperor Justinian between A.D. 532 and 537, was originally a basilica before... |
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| Holy Wisdom: Why the Pope should call for the return of the Hagia Sophia. |
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· 12/07/2006 10:26:19 AM PST · · Posted by ZeitgeistSurfer · · 91 replies · · 1,616+ views · · VDH's Private Papers · · 12/7/2006 · · Bruce S. Thornton · |
Many in the West are congratulating Pope Benedict XVI's recent trip to Turkey, where in the Blue Mosque he prayed facing Mecca and made other gestures meant to salve the wounds raised by his references to Islam's history of violence. Personally, I found the whole scene a depressing exhibit of the West's terminal failure of nerve, one particularly distressing given this Pope's documented understanding that what we call the "war on terror" is in fact the latest episode in the centuries-long struggle with a militant Islam. |
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| Quake-Proof Cement Mixed '1,300 Years Ago' |
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· 11/14/2002 3:07:10 PM PST · · Posted by blam · · 10 replies · · 336+ views · · IOL · · 11-13-2002 · |
London --The Sixth Century builders of Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine cathedral still standing in Istanbul, discovered cement with earthquake-resistant properties 1 300 years before anyone else, a research team revealed on Wednesday. Hagia Sophia, built as a church and subsequently turned into a mosque, still stands only because its creators discovered the cement. Many of the surrounding buildings have long since succumbed to the ravages of time, including earthquakes, according to a report in the New Scientist. The structure has withstood quakes of up to 7,5 on... |
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| Anatolia | |
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| Archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old lion adorning citadel gate complex in Turkey |
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· 08/09/2011 9:22:53 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 16 replies · · U of Toronto · · August 9, 2011 · · Unknown · |
TORONTO, ON --- Archaeologists leading the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey have unearthed the remains of a monumental gate complex adorned with stone sculptures, including a magnificently carved lion. The gate complex provided access to the citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 950-725 BCE), and is reminiscent of the citadel gate excavated by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 at the royal Hittite city of Carchemish. The Tayinat find provides valuable new insight into the innovative character and cultural sophistication of the diminutive Iron Age states that emerged in the... |
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| Archaeologists uncover 3,000-year-old lion adorning citadel gate complex in Turkey |
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· 08/09/2011 11:01:56 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 11 replies · · PhysOrg · · 08-09-2011 · · U of Toronto · |
Archaeologists leading the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey have unearthed the remains of a monumental gate complex adorned with stone sculptures, including a magnificently carved lion. The gate complex provided access to the citadel of Kunulua, capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 950-725 BCE), and is reminiscent of the citadel gate excavated by British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in 1911 at the royal Hittite city of Carchemish. The Tayinat find provides valuable new insight into the innovative character and cultural sophistication of the diminutive Iron Age states that emerged in the eastern Mediterranean following... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Ancient oracles offered guidance and allayed fears [ Oracle of Delphi ] |
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· 08/07/2011 11:09:34 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Ekathimerini · · Monday, January 3, 2011 · · John Leonard · |
...the rituals and divine utterances of Apollo's oracle at Delphi were subjects recorded and commented upon by numerous ancient writers through the centuries, including Pliny the Elder, Diodorus Siculus, Plato, Aeschylus, Cicero, Strabo and Plutarch, a Boeotian native who gained fame in late 1st century AD Rome for his essays and biographies, provides a firsthand account of the oracle at Delphi. As a senior priest who long served in the sanctuary, Plutarch recorded detailed observations of the Pythian priestess's trance-like, occasionally erratic behavior during sacred rituals... a multidisciplinary team of specialists in the late 20th century uncovered tangible proof that... |
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| Cyprus | |
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| Important finds at Late Bronze Age site |
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· 08/07/2011 10:46:05 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · · Cyprus Mail · · Friday, August 5, 2011 · · Natalie Hami · |
A large building dating as far back as 1200 BC and a female goddess figurine were only some of the fascinating finds following five-week long excavations at the Late Bronze harbour city of Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaca. Inside the 30 by 20m building were both living and working spaces containing spindle whorls and loom weights, which indicate the production of textiles, as well as a plethora of high-quality pottery imported mainly from the Mycenaean world. Jugs, bowls and jars were among the pottery uncovered... According to Fischer some of the findings were imported from Egypt... Another significant find was... |
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| Africa | |
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| Remains of Ancient Palace Discovered [ Meroe in Nubia ] |
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· 08/07/2011 7:31:25 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · LiveScience · · August 5, 2011 · · Owen Jarus · |
Hidden beneath an ancient palace in what is now central Sudan, archaeologists have discovered the oldest building in the city of Meroë, a structure that also may have housed royalty... flourished around 2,000 years ago, Meroë was centered on the Nile River... built palaces and small pyramids, and developed a writing system that scholars still can't fully translate today. Although Meroë has been excavated off and on for more than 150 years, archaeologists are not yet clear on how it came to be. The city seems to have emerged out of nowhere... the presence of such an ancient building at... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin goes in search for Russia's Atlantis |
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· 08/10/2011 8:55:05 PM PDT · · Posted by smokingfrog · · 11 replies · · Herald Sun · · 11 Aug 2011 · · NewsCore · |
HE has flown warplanes, shot at tigers and ridden bare-chested on horseback, but Russia's macho prime minister Vladimir Putin is now preparing for his next challenge --diving for Russia's version of Atlantis. Putin, 58, traveled to the Taman Peninsula in the southwest of the country to publicise archaeological work at the ancient Greek city of Phanagoria, Ria Novosti news agency reported. Putin was expected to put on diving gear and head to the bottom of Taman Bay, part of the Kerch Strait leading into the northern edge of the vast Black Sea. Phanagoria was a major Greek colony in... |
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| Rome & Italy | |
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| Lessons From The Fall Of An Empire |
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· 12/29/2002 4:54:52 PM PST · · Posted by Seti 1 · · 40 replies · · 1,148+ views · · Financial Times (via Drudge) · · Dec 29, 2002 · · Harold James · |
It is the time of year when people are casting about for good books to read to resolve the current perplexity. If you are sitting in Washington, there are few guides to the unique position of the US, whose military expenditure exceeds that of the next 14 countries combined. The most frequently cited historical parallels, Britain and its 19th-century pax Britannica, or 16th-century Spain, the first country to grasp New World prosperity to dominate the Old World, do not really fit modern America. Both were... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Iron Age people gave interiors of dwellings a decorative streak |
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· 08/12/2011 6:57:34 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · · The Local · · August 8, 2011 · · DPA/The Local/djw · |
Archaeologists in Saxony-Anhalt have discovered a 2,600-year-old wall painted in bright patterns. It reveals that Iron Age houses were not the drab constructions they were once thought to be. The State Museum for Prehistory in the eastern German city of Halle put part of the prehistoric clay wall on display on Monday. The wall was apparently part of a sprawling, Iron Age human settlement... The dominant colours are red, beige and white. For pigments, the prehistoric painters used substances such as iron oxide, which gives the reddish, ochre colour. The design shows typical ornamental patterns from the Iron Age such... |
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| Near East | |
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| U.S. Soldiers Help to Preserve Babylon Ruins |
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· 06/30/2009 5:49:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SandRat · · 9 replies · · 1,075+ views · · American Forces Press Service · · Capt. Stephen C. Short, USA · |
HILLAH, Iraq, June 30, 2009 --- Soldiers with the 172nd Infantry Brigade are helping documentarians, historians and preservationists as they work to ensure that ancient Iraqi history is preserved and documented in Babil province. Army 1st Lt. Bryan Kelso stands watch outside a deserted palace built under Saddam Hussein at the Babylon ruins, June 21, 2009. Saddam ordered the construction of the palace on a manmade hill overlooking the ancient city of Babylon, where many projects are under way to enhance tourism in the area. U.S. Army photo by Maj. Mike Feeney (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The brigade... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Michigan Copper in the Mediterranean |
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· 08/06/2011 4:11:06 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 84 replies · · Grahamhancock.com · · 8-2011 · · Jay Stuart Wakefield · |
The Shipping of Michigan Copper across the Atlantic in the Bronze Age (Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula, c. 2400BC-1200 BC) Summary Recent scientific literature has come to the conclusion that the major source of the copper that swept through the European Bronze Age after 2500 BC is unknown. However, these studies claim that the 10 tons of copper oxhide ingots recovered from the late Bronze Age (1300 BC) Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey was "extraordinarily pure" (more than 99.5% pure), and that it was not the product of smelting from ore. The oxhides are all brittle "blister copper",... |
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| Blame It On the Denisovans | |
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| Stone Age toe could redraw human family tree |
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· 08/12/2011 5:44:04 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 36 replies · · New Scientist · · Wednesday, August 10, 2011 · · Colin Barras · |
The Denisova cave had already yielded a fossil tooth and finger bone, in 2000 and 2008. Last year, Pääbo's DNA analysis suggested both belonged to a previously unknown group of hominins, the Denisovans. The new bone, an extremely rare find, looks likely to belong to the same group... The primitive morphology of the 30,000 to 50,000-year-old Denisovan finger bone and tooth indicates that Denisovans separated from the Neanderthals roughly 300,000 years ago. At the time of the analysis, Pääbo speculated that they came to occupy large parts of east Asia at a time when Europe and western Asia were dominated... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Ancient DNA reveals secrets of human history |
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· 08/09/2011 11:36:54 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 49 replies · · Nature News · · 9 August 2011 · · Ewen Callaway · |
Modern humans may have picked up key genes from extinct relatives. For a field that relies on fossils that have lain undisturbed for tens of thousands of years, ancient human genomics is moving at breakneck speed. Barely a year after the publication of the genomes of Neanderthals1 and of an extinct human population from Siberia2, scientists are racing to apply the work to answer questions about human evolution and history that would have been unfathomable just a few years ago. The past months have seen a swathe of discoveries, from details about when Neanderthals and humans interbred, to the important... |
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| Someday Her Prints Will Come | |
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| The Mystery of the Missing Fingerprints |
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· 08/07/2011 12:49:25 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 16 replies · · ScienceNow · · 4 August 2011 · · Natalie Villacorta · |
Enlarge Image Missing. Researchers have uncovered the mutation behind a rare disease that leaves people without fingerprints. Credit: Nousbeck et al., The American Journal of Human Genetics (2011) In 2007, a Swiss woman in her late 20s had an unusually hard time crossing the U.S. border. Customs agents could not confirm her identity. The woman's passport picture matched her face just fine, but when the agents scanned her hands, they discovered something shocking: she had no fingerprints. The woman, it turns out, had an extremely rare condition known as adermatoglyphia. Peter Itin, a dermatologist at the University Hospital Basel... |
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| Climate | |
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| Half of Earth's Heat from Radioactive Decay |
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· 08/07/2011 10:17:32 AM PDT · · Posted by Salman · · 22 replies · · Space Daily · · Aug 04, 2011 · · staff writers · |
Nearly half of the Earth's heat comes from the radioactive decay of materials inside, according to a large international research collaboration that includes a Kansas State University physicist. Studying the physical properties of Earth can help astrobiologists understand the mechanisms that caused our planet to become habitable. In turn, this information can then be used to determine where and how to search for habitable worlds throughout the Universe. ... |
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| Driftin', Driftin' | |
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| A Billion Year Old Piece of North America Traced Back to Antarctica |
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· 08/08/2011 7:58:48 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 12 replies · · Geological Society of America · · August 8, 2011 · · Unknown · |
Boulder, CO, USA --An international team of researchers has found the strongest evidence yet that parts of North America and Antarctica were connected 1.1 billion years ago, long before the supercontinent Pangaea formed. "I can go to the Franklin Mountains in West Texas and stand next to what was once part of Coats Land in Antarctica," said Staci Loewy, a geochemist at California State University, Bakersfield, who led the study. "That's so amazing." Loewy and her colleagues discovered that rocks collected from both locations have the exact same composition of lead isotopes. Earlier analyses showed the rocks to be... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Giant fossil shows huge birds lived among dinosaurs |
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· 08/10/2011 5:21:06 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 31 replies · · BBC News · · 8-10-2011 · |
An enormous jawbone found in Kazakhstan is further evidence that giant birds roamed --or flew above --the Earth at the same time as the dinosaurs. Writing in Biology Letters, researchers say the new species, Samrukia nessovi, had a skull some 30cm long. If flightless, the bird would have been 2-3m tall; if it flew, it may have had a wingspan of 4m. The find is only the second bird of such a size in the Cretaceous geologic period, and the first in Asia. The only other evidence of a bird of such a size during the period was... |
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| Look Back in Amber | |
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| Peru researchers make rare ancient insect find |
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· 08/09/2011 7:59:49 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 75 replies · · AFP · · 8-9-11 · · Anon · |
Detailed fossilized insect remains preserved in amber for over 23 million years (AFP/HO) Peru researchers make rare ancient insect find (AFP) --- 3 hours ago LIMA --- Researchers in Peru said Tuesday they have discovered the remains of ancient insects and sunflower seeds trapped inside amber dating from the Miocene epoch, some 23 million years ago. The rare find was made in the remote mountainous jungle region near Peru's northern border with Ecuador, paleontologist Klaus Honninger told AFP. "These new discoveries are very important, because the insects and sunflower seeds confirm the type of climate that existed during the Miocene... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Light Shed On South Pole Dinosaurs |
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· 08/12/2011 9:02:20 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · Science News · · August 5, 2011 · · Montana State U · |
Dog-sized dinosaurs that lived near the South Pole, sometimes in the dark for months at a time, had bone tissue very similar to dinosaurs that lived everywhere on the planet, according to a doctoral candidate at Montana State University. That surprising fact falsifies a 13-year-old study and may help explain why dinosaurs were able to dominate the planet for 160 million years, said Holly Woodward, MSU graduate student in the Department of Earth Sciences and co-author of a paper published Aug. 3 in the journal PLoS ONE. "If we were trying to find evidence of dinosaurs doing something much different... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Henry Morgan's 1671 ship hull and chests rediscovered |
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· 08/07/2011 10:14:01 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 50 replies · · 3 News (New Zealand) · · Friday, August 5, 2011 · · 3 News / Reuters · |
A group of US archaeologists may have uncovered a section of hull and coral-covered chests that privateer Henry Morgan lost during his 1671 raid of Panama. The team from Texas State University is led by underwater archaeologist Frederick Hanselmann. He led last year's discovery of cannons at the mouth of the Chagres River that may also have belonged to five ships Morgan is believed to have lost. The team have been working slowly to uncover the wreckage of the ship that has been buried in the sand. "When we get to an archaeological site, like a shipwreck that has a... |
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| Pages | |
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| Secret of who killed Nelson exposed in lost Dumas novel |
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· 03/31/2005 3:50:46 PM PST · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 19 replies · · 938+ views · · Middle East Times · · March 23, 2005 · · Hugh Schofield · |
PARIS --- The mystery of who killed Admiral Nelson is to be explained in a previously unknown novel by Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, discovered by a French researcher and going on sale in June, the book's publisher said on Tuesday. Le Chevalier de Sainte-Hermine (The knight of Saint-Hermine) is a classic Dumas adventure story about the start of the Napoleonic empire and includes a swashbuckling account of the battle of Trafalgar, according to Jean-Pierre Sicre of Phebus press. "The description of Trafalgar is indescribably brilliant. And in it we learn that it is the hero of the... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Politics As It Should Be |
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· 08/07/2011 8:40:40 AM PDT · · Posted by Kaslin · · 12 replies · · Townhall.com · · August 7, 2011 · · Salena Zito · |
The recent debt debate was not politics at its worst or most dysfunctional. It worked exactly as American politics was designed to work. "Our system is about posturing, fighting, dealing and eventually compromising," said Dr. Lara Brown, a Villanova University political scientist. "Overall, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell did what Henry Clay did ---they structured a compromise, which gave Democrats time and Republicans principle." Clay was at the center of the Nullification Crisis of 1833, rooted in two bills placing high tariffs on imports; it protected Northern manufacturers but left the South unable to sell... |
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| Underwater Archaeology | |
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| A Brief Dry Spell for the U.S.S. Monitor |
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· 08/10/2011 4:14:06 AM PDT · · Posted by fso301 · · 14 replies · · New York Times · · aug 12, 2011 · · John Tierney · |
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. --- Military secrecy was a bit lax during the Civil War, by today's standards, but contractor deadlines were a lot tighter.The technology that revolutionized naval warfare began with a five-sentence message delivered to The New York Times 150 years ago, on Aug. 9, 1861, and the information was not exactly classified. It was an advertisement placed by the Union Navy, to appear the following six days, under the heading "Iron-Clad Steam Vessels." |
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| The Civil War | |
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| TV appearance of Lincoln assassination witness |
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· 08/12/2011 9:55:41 AM PDT · · Posted by Lonesome in Massachussets · · 26 replies · · I've Got a Secret · · 1956 · · Samuel Seymour · |
See video at link. Wonderful |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Remembering The Berlin Wall, 50 Years On (August 13th, 1961) |
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· 08/12/2011 9:22:20 PM PDT · · Posted by Perdogg · · 19 replies · · NPR.org · · 08.12.11 · |
The Berlin Wall has now been torn down for nearly as long (22 years) as it stood (28 years). Yet it was such a powerful symbol of the Cold War that it still evokes a strong response today, a half-century after it was constructed in the summer of 1961. Germans will gather this weekend at the spot where the wall stood and reflect on how it shaped their lives and their society. While most of the wall is gone, a section still stands in the center of the city on a street called Bernauer Strasse. When the city was divided,... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Fearless matriarch of resistance (most decorated woman of World War II, dies aged 98 |
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· 08/08/2011 1:58:26 PM PDT · · Posted by naturalman1975 · · 15 replies · · The Australian · · 9th August 2011 · · Graeme Leech · |
THE most decorated woman of World War II, Nancy Wake had a five-million-franc price put on her head by the feared German secret police, the Gestapo, for helping the French Resistance. Branded the White Mouse by her hunters, she became the most wanted resistance fighter in France. ..... By 1940, Wake was running messages and smuggling food for the French resistance, the Maquis. She branched out into helping downed Allied airmen escape capture and returning them to Britain. It has been estimated that she helped more than 1000 airmen escape. ..... But in 1943, Gestapo agents were closing in. One... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Women in Science Work for Less Money |
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· 08/07/2011 6:46:59 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 37 replies · · ScienceInsider · · 4 August 2011 · · Jeffrey Mervis · |
Study hard, receive a science or engineering degree, and your reward will be a well-paying job in your chosen field. That's part of the sales pitch for those trying to attract more women into science. But according to a new U.S. government study, the "reward" includes earning 12% less than your male counterparts. The 11-page report(PDF), "Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation," is the first analysis of women working in technical fields (STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) by the Commerce Department's Economics and Statistics Administration (ESA). The study is based on data from the 2009... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Nazis tried to train dogs to talk, read and spell to win WW2 |
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· 05/24/2011 6:21:25 PM PDT · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 57 replies · · The Telegraph · · May 24, 2011 · |
The Germans viewed canines as being almost as intelligent as humans and attempted to build an army of fearsome 'speaking' dogs, extraordinary new research shows. Hitler hoped the clever creatures would learn to communicate with their SS masters --and he even had a special dog school set up to teach them to talk. The incredible findings show Nazi officials recruited so-called educated dogs from all over Germany and trained them to speak and tap out signals using their paws. One mutt was said to have uttered the words 'Mein Fuhrer' when asked who Adolf Hitler was. Another 'spoke' by... |
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| Stalin's mutant ape army (Yes, it's what you think) |
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· 12/19/2005 11:03:41 PM PST · · Posted by Stoat · · 77 replies · · 7,368+ views · · The Sun (U.K.) · · December 20, 2005 · · Jerome Starkey · |
Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered his scientists to cross humans with APES to create an invincible breed of Red Army soldiers, secret documents show. Archive papers say the Kremlin chief demanded his Planet of the Apes warriors be "resilient and resistant to hunger".He said they should be of "immense strength but with an underdeveloped brain". He also wanted them to work on railway construction.Labs and ape skeletons have been found in the Black Sea town of Suchumi in Georgia by workmen building a kids' playground. It... |
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| Stalin's half-man, half-ape super-warriors |
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· 12/20/2005 6:27:28 AM PST · · Posted by mak5 · · 15 replies · · 375+ views · · The Scotsman · · 12/20/2005 · · Chris Stephen & Allan Hall · |
THE Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered the creation of Planet of the Apes-style warriors by crossing humans with apes, according to recently uncovered secret documents. Moscow archives show that in the mid-1920s Russia's top animal breeding scientist, Ilya Ivanov, was ordered to turn his skills from horse and animal work to the quest for a super-warrior. |
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| end of digest #369 20110813 | |
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