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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #408 Saturday, May 12, 2012 |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| 3,000-year-old artifacts fuel Biblical archaeology debate | |
| · 05/08/2012 1:00:23 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 36 replies · · The Times of Israel · · May 8, 2012 · · MATTI FRIEDMAN · |
New finds presented Tuesday from an intriguing site in the Judean Hills are part of a scholarly argument about the accuracy of the Bible The excavation at Hirbet Qeiyafa is currently one of the most important in the world of Biblical archaeology (Courtesy of Hebrew University of Jerusalem)Two rare 3,000-year-old models of ancient shrines were among artifacts presented by an Israeli archaeologist on Tuesday as finds he said offered new support for the historical veracity of the Bible. The archaeologist, Yosef Garfinkel of Hebrew University, is excavating a site known as Hirbet Qeiyafa, located in the Judean hills not far... |
| Earliest Evidence of Biblical Cult Discovered (From time of King David) | |
| · 05/11/2012 8:30:03 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 8 replies · · LiveScience · · May 10, 2012 · · Wynne Parry · |
For the first time, archaeologists have uncovered shrines from the time of the early Biblical kings in the Holy Land, providing the earliest evidence of a cult, they say. Excavation within the remains of the roughly 3,000-year-old fortified city of Khirbet Qeiyafa, located about 19 miles (30 kilometers) southwest of Jerusalem, have revealed three large rooms used as shrines, along with artifacts, including tools, pottery and objects, such as alters associated with worship. |
| Archaeologists: Israeli artifacts support Solomon's Temple | |
| · 05/12/2012 10:53:21 AM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 4 replies · · Sun Herald · · 05/12/2012 · · MICHELE CHABIN - Religion News Service · |
JERUSALEM -- Archaeologists have unearthed a trove of artifacts dating back to the time of the biblical King David that they say closely correspond to the description of Solomon's Temple found in the Book of Kings. Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel said the find "is extraordinary" first because it marks the first time that shrines from the time of the early Israelite kings were found. In addition, two small, well-preserved models discovered in the excavations closely resemble elements described in the Bible. The multiyear excavations took place at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city about 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem, adjacent... |
| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Revealed: The scandalous history of Judaism's most precious book | |
| · 05/11/2012 7:51:31 PM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 3 replies · · Times of Israel · · 10 May 2012 · · Times of Israel · |
Theft, espionage, corruption and a cover-up lasting decades -- a new book by a Times of Israel reporter exposes the extraordinary saga of the uniquely revered, 1,100-year-old Aleppo Codex A new book by a Times of Israel reporter reveals dramatic new information about the fate of a manuscript many consider Judaism's most important book -- the 1,100-year-old Aleppo Codex.The manuscript -- or the part of it that did not go mysteriously missing in the mid-20th century -- is currently held alongside the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. It is revered as the authoritative version of the Hebrew... |
| Neandertals / Neanderthals | |
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| Neanderthals in Color | |
| · 05/06/2012 7:48:57 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 50 replies · · Archaeology, v65, n3 · · May/June 2012 · · Zach Zorich · |
In 1981, when Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University was beginning his archaeological career, he ran across some red stains in the grayish sediments on the floodplain of the Maas River where his team was excavating. The site, called Maastricht-Belvèdère, in The Netherlands, was occupied by Neanderthals at least 200,000 years ago. Roebroeks collected and stored samples of the red stains, and 30 years later he received funding to analyze them. It became apparent that he and his team had discovered the earliest evidence of hominins using the mineral iron oxide, also known as ocher. Until now, the use of... |
| Central Asia & Climate | |
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| Rethinking the Thundering Hordes | |
| · 05/06/2012 7:31:58 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Archaeology, v65 n3 · · May/June 2012 · · Andrew Lawler · |
Vast stretches of Central Asia feel eerily uninhabited. Fly at 30,000 feet over... Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan -- and there are long moments when no town or road or field is visible from your window. Wandering bands and tribes roamed this immense area for 5,000 years, herding goat, sheep, cattle, and horses across immense steppes, through narrow valleys, and over high snowy passes. They left occasional tombs that survived the ages, and on rare occasions settled down and built towns or even cities. But for the most part, these peoples left behind few physical traces of their origins, beliefs, or ways... |
| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Unknown Ancient Language Found on Clay Tablet | |
| · 05/12/2012 11:32:27 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · Sci-News · · Fri, May 11th, 2012 · · Enrico de Lazaro · |
The archaeologists working at Ziyaret Tepe, the probable site of the ancient Assyrian city of Tushan, believe that this language may have been spoken by deportees originally from the Zagros Mountains, on the border of modern-day Iran and Iraq. In keeping with a policy widely practiced across the Assyrian Empire, these people may have been forcibly moved from their homeland and resettled in what is now south-east Turkey, where they would have been set to work building the new frontier city and farming its hinterland. The evidence for the language they spoke comes from a single clay tablet, which was... |
| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Ancient Germany's Metal Traders | |
| · 05/06/2012 8:53:50 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · Archaeology, v65, n 3 · · May/June 2012 · · Andrew Curry · |
....May 11, 2011, Mario Küssner looked on as a bulldozer shaved a layer of soil a few inches deep from a roadside field near the eastern German village of Dermsdorf. Küssner, a staff archaeologist for the state of Thuringia, was brought in before the scheduled construction of a highway on-ramp would begin... the bulldozer uncovered something even more surprising -- a handful of dull green ax heads lying in the soil... careful work revealed a clay jar standing a foot-and-a-half tall packed with 100 bronze ax heads dating to the Bronze Age -- more than 3,000 years ago. The ax... |
| The Roman Empire | |
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| Trash Talk [ Monte Testaccio, imperial Roman landfill ] | |
| · 05/05/2012 8:34:47 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · · Archaeology, Volume 62 Number 2 · · March/April 2009 · · Jarrett A. Lobell · |
In the middle of Rome's trendiest neighborhood, surrounded by sushi restaurants and nightclubs with names like Rodeo Steakhouse and Love Story, sits the ancient world's biggest garbage dump--a 150-foot-tall mountain of discarded Roman amphorae, the shipping drums of the ancient world. It takes about 20 minutes to walk around Monte Testaccio, from the Latin testa and Italian cocci, both meaning "potsherd." But despite its size--almost a mile in circumference--it's easy to walk by and not really notice unless you are headed for some excellent pizza at Velavevodetto, a restaurant literally stuck into the mountain's side. Most local residents don't know... |
| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| The Battle of Brunanburh -- The Great Debate | |
| · 05/06/2012 8:18:14 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · · Wirral Learning Grid · · since 2004 · · Prof Stephen Harding · |
By 937 A.D. 35 years after the initial settlement, Wirral may have been the site of a huge battle between the Anglo Saxons coming from the South and Midlands and a combined army of Viking raiders coming from Dublin and their Scottish allies coming mainly from Strathclyde. No-one is quite sure where this battle took place, although the majority of experts favour Wirral. The main reason is that the contemporary record of the Battle -- the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes the battle having taking place (around Brunanburh) -- which happens to be the old name for Bromborough... The Chronicle also... |
| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Games Ancient People Played [ 3000 BC Mexico ] | |
| · 05/06/2012 7:18:30 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Archaeology, v65 n3 · · May/June 2012 · · Barbara Voorhies · |
The site of Tlacuachero in southern Mexico is an island in a mangrove swamp made up almost entirely of clamshells. Material recovered from the site shows that it was a place where people harvested shellfish and fish between 5,050 and 4,230 years ago -- long before the great civilizations of Mesoamerica would build their city-states. Over the years, the island grew as clams were harvested from the swamp and the shells were discarded there. While the shell mound was accumulating, the early people at Tlacuachero built several superimposed clay floors at the island center to create smooth surfaces that were... |
| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Nevermind the Apocalypse: Earliest Mayan Calendar Found | |
| · 05/10/2012 5:09:38 PM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 21 replies · · Live Science · · 05/10/2012 · · Stephanie Pappas · |
The oldest-known version of the ancient Maya calendar has been discovered adorning a lavishly painted wall in the ruins of a city deep in the Guatemalan rainforest. The hieroglyphs, painted in black and red, along with a colorful mural of a king and his mysterious attendants, seem to have been a sort of handy reference chart for court scribes in A.D. 800 -- the astronomers and mathematicians of their day. Contrary to popular myth, this calendar isn't a countdown to the end of the world in December 2012, the study researchers said. |
| Navigation | |
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| New evidence suggests Cabot may have known of New World before voyage | |
| · 05/07/2012 11:58:05 AM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 19 replies · · Ottawa Citizen · · 29 April 2012 · · Randy Boswell · |
An Italian historian has unveiled a previously unknown document that sheds fresh light on explorer John Cabot's discovery of Canada -- a brief entry in a 516-year-old accounting ledger that shows Cabot had financial backing from a Florence-based bank in England and, most intriguingly, may have had prior knowledge of the distant land his famous 1497 voyage would put on the world map. The Italian-born Cabot is known to have sailed from England in search of the New World three times between 1496 and 1498. He is believed to have reached Newfoundland aboard the Matthew in 1497, but Cabot disappears... |
| Early America | |
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| Ancient Map Gives Clue to Fate of 'Lost Colony' (Britain's Roanoke Island in the Late 16th Century) | |
| · 05/05/2012 1:51:27 PM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 6 replies · · The Telegraph · · 04 May 2012 · · The Telegraph · |
A new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalising clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from Britain's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century. Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings Thursday at a scholarly meeting on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their focus: the "Virginia Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866. "We believe that this evidence provides conclusive proof that... |
| The Revolution | |
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| 2 NY sites recall Benedict Arnold's early heroics | |
| · 05/10/2012 6:54:38 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 41 replies · · AP via boston.com · · 5-10-12 · · Chris Carola · |
This undated sketch portrait of Gen. Benedict Arnold by an unknown artist was provided by the Library of Congress. While most Americans know Arnold as the man who betrayed his nation by trying to turn over the American fortifications at West Point to the British, then joining the redcoats when the plot was uncovered, his heroic actions at the Revolutionary War's Battles of Saratoga are detailed in a new exhibit opening Thursday, May 10, 2012 at Saratoga National Historical Park. ALBANY, N.Y. -- Benedict Arnold is a hero again, at least temporarily, at two upstate New York historic sites where his... |
| The Framers | |
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| James Madison explains the uniqueness of the American Revolution | |
| · 05/06/2012 9:17:57 AM PDT · · Posted by ProgressingAmerica · · 5 replies · · PGA Weblog · |
In "Charters", James Madison wrote the following: In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example and France has followed it, of charters of power granted by liberty. This is what makes modern revolutionaries so backward. They are stuck on stupid in old-think - that is, that power grants liberty. If only government could get bigger, we could grant the rights to _________________ for whatever special interest group they have in mind at the moment. Like the "right" to healthcare. In the comment "America has set the example", he makes it clear that it's... |
| The Civil War | |
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| Civil War shipwreck creates hurdle for government's $653M plan | |
| · 05/05/2012 6:24:33 PM PDT · · Posted by JerseyanExile · · 19 replies · · Fox News · · May 5, 2012 · · AP · |
Before government engineers can deepen one of the nation's busiest seaports to accommodate future trade, they first need to remove a $14 million obstacle from the past -- a Confederate warship rotting on the Savannah River bottom for nearly 150 years. Confederate troops scuttled the ironclad CSS Georgia to prevent its capture by Gen. William T. Sherman when his Union troops took Savannah in December 1864. It's been on the river bottom ever since. Now, the Civil War shipwreck sits in the way of a government agency's $653 million plan to deepen the waterway that links the nation's fourth-busiest container... |
| Not-so-Ancient Autopsies | |
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| What Killed Lenin? Poison Called Possibility | |
| · 05/06/2012 8:59:15 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 24 replies · · Washington Times · · Sunday, May 6, 2012 · · Alex Dominguez · |
Stress, family medical history or possibly even poison led to the death of Vladimir Lenin, contradicting a popular theory that a sexually transmitted disease debilitated the Soviet Union's founder, a UCLA neurologist said. Dr. Harry Vinters and Russian historian Lev Lurie reviewed Lenin's records Friday for an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference that examines the deaths of famous figures. The conference is held yearly at the school, where researchers in the past have re-examined the diagnoses of figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus, Simon Bolivar and Abraham Lincoln. |
| Medical Sleuths Discuss the Forensics of Death (Lenin, Lincoln, Custer, etc.) | |
| · 05/07/2012 1:52:47 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 27 replies · · Washington Post · · May 6 · · Manuel Roig-Franzia · |
Death never dies here. It just keeps getting more interesting, more beguiling. More, well, alive. Alive in every cringe-worthy detail, in every clue about its causes, in every shard of evidence waiting to be spliced to another shard ... and another shard until a picture starts to form, an image assembled from nuggets of information collected decades or centuries ago. Death, at least for the doctors and history buffs who gather each year at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, is the coolest of puzzles, leading them to the coolest of theories. Could Abraham Lincoln have been saved? (Yes.)... |
| World War Eleven | |
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| WWII Fighter Plane Hailed the 'Aviation Equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb' Found Preserved (Sahara) | |
| · 05/10/2012 3:33:48 PM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 37 replies · · The Telegraph · · Richard Alleyne · |
WWII fighter plane hailed the 'aviation equivalent of Tutankhamun's Tomb' found preserved in the Sahara A Second World War aeroplane that crash landed in the Sahara Desert before the British pilot walked to his death has been found almost perfectly preserved 70 years later. Most of its cockpit instruments are intact and it still had it guns and ammunition before they were seized by the Egyptian military. There are also signs of the makeshift camp the pilot made alongside the fuselage. No human remains have been found but it is thought the pilot may lie within a 20 mile radius... |
| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Did the Prophet Muhammad Really Exist? This Is Robert Spencer's Shocking Answer | |
| · 05/07/2012 4:12:33 AM PDT · · Posted by lbryce · · 27 replies · · The Blaze · · May 5, 2012 · · Billy Hallowell · |
Did the Prophet Muhammad really exist? This question, which may seem bizarre on the surface, is at the root of a new book by Robert Spencer, a prominent author and the director of Jihad Watch. Spencer, a figure who is praised by his fans and loathed by his detractors, has written numerous books on Islam. Earlier this week, The Blaze spoke with the expert about his controversial, new book, "Did Muhammad Exist?" As can be derived from the title, the text delves into some uncomfortable subject matter, as Spencer examines the historical documentation surrounding the Muslim prophet. The book's official... |
| Religion of Pieces | |
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| NOI angry at ACT's research on Islamic slavery; Muhammad's massacre of Medina Innocent Jews | |
| · 05/08/2012 8:14:35 PM PDT · · Posted by PRePublic · · 15 replies · |
Some young Muslim, at Nation of Islam's " FinalCall,' just published a childish "reply" to a thorough research by B Gabrielle's ACT for America. It's so silly I am too lazy to copy/paste it here. I am glad he publicizes ACT further. For research on Muhammad's anger of Medina Native Jews because they refused to change their religion and take him as a "Prophet" one can also see: This is from 1912, before the modern PC language: The Jewish Encyclopedia, by I Singer, C. Adler, 1912, p. 423 .. He first summoned them to accept his religion, and... |
| Longer Perspectives | |
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| In Egypt Turmoil, Thieves Hunt Pharaonic Treasures | |
| · 05/12/2012 11:27:41 AM PDT · · Posted by ColdOne · · 2 replies · · abcnews.go.com · · 5/12/12 · · AP/ Hamza Hendawi · |
Taking advantage of Egypt's political upheaval, thieves have gone on a treasure hunt with a spree of illegal digging, preying on the country's ancient pharaonic heritage. Illegal digs near ancient temples and in isolated desert sites have swelled a staggering 100-fold over the past 16 months |
| Paleontology | |
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| Dinosaur gases 'warmed the Earth' | |
| · 05/07/2012 10:39:16 AM PDT · · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · · 30 replies · · BBC News · · May 7, 2012 · |
Giant dinosaurs could have warmed the planet with their flatulence, say researchers. British scientists have calculated the methane output of sauropods, including the species known as Brontosaurus. By scaling up the digestive wind of cows, they estimate that the population of dinosaurs - as a whole - produced 520 million tonnes of gas annually. They suggest the gas could have been a key factor in the warm climate 150 million years ago. David Wilkinson from Liverpool John Moore's University, and colleagues from the University of London and the University of Glasgow published their results in the journal Current Biology. Sauropods,... |
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| end of digest #408 20120512 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #408 · v 8 · n 44 Saturday, May 12, 2012 |
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27 topics |
It's the 27-topic issue #408, like last week's it's rife with modern or other non-ancient history topics, as well as some dredged up from the FRchives.· view this issue ·Stuff that doesn't necessarily make it to GGG here on FR sometimes gets shared here, that's my story and I'm sticking with it: Spring's turning to Summer, but just be there for all of us in November. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #409 Saturday, May 19, 2012 |
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| Cave Art | |
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| Earliest wall art is found in France |
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· 05/15/2012 12:04:21 AM PDT · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 11 replies · · Expatica · · May 14, 2012 · |
A massive block of limestone in France contains what scientists believe are the earliest known engravings of wall art dating back some 37,000 years, according to a study published Monday. The 1.5 metric ton ceiling piece was first discovered in 2007 at Abri Castanet, a well known archeological site in southwestern France which holds some of the earliest forms of artwork, beads and pierced shells. According to New York University anthropology professor Randall White, lead author of the paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the art was likely meant to adorn the interior of a shelter... |
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| The Top Four Candidates for Europe's Oldest Work of Art |
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· 05/19/2012 6:34:05 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · Smithsonian 'blogs · · May 16, 2012 · · Erin Wayman · |
In 1940, a group of teenagers discovered the paintings of bison, bulls and horses adorning the walls of France's Lascaux Cave. Roughly 17,000 years old, the paintings are Europe's most famous cave art, but hardly the oldest. This week archaeologists announced finding in another cave in France art dating to about 37,000 years ago, making it a candidate for Europe's most ancient artwork. Here's a look at the new discovery and the other top contenders for the title of Europe's oldest work of art. Nerja Caves (possibly about 43,000 years ago)... by Neanderthals, the [humans] that lived in this part... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Bronze Age 'Facebook' discovered by Cambridge experts |
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· 05/19/2012 6:28:45 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · Cambridge News · · May 2012 · · Leanne Ehren · |
Mark Sapwell believes he has discovered an 'archaic version' of social networking site Facebook. Mark Sapwell, who is a PhD archaeology student at St John's College, believes he has discovered an "archaic version" of the social networking site, where users share thoughts and emotions and give stamps of approval to other contributions --- similar to the Facebook "like". Images of animals and events were drawn on the rock faces in Russian and Northern Sweden to communicate with distant tribes and descendants during the Bronze Age. They form a timeline preserved in stone encompassing thousands of years. Mr Sapwell said: "Like... |
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| Diet & Cuisine | |
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| How the Cavemen Ate: Cookbook Reveals 77 Recipes Stretching Right Back to the Stone Age |
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· 05/12/2012 11:02:10 AM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 18 replies · · Daily Mail (UK) · · 4 May 2012 · · Eddie Wrenn · |
(and they taste surprisingly good!) Fancy something new for dinner tonight? Well if you don't fancy a Chinese or a Thai, researchers have pulled together 77 recipes which were eaten during the Stone Ages. And the surprise is how delicious the recipes, some of them 16,000 years old, sound - with your typical Neolithic families spicing up their meals and using plenty of fresh fruit and herbs along with the simmering main dishes of game. A Culinary Journey Through Time can join Jamie Oliver and... |
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| Mediterranean | |
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| The oldest farming village in the Mediterranean islands is discovered in Cyprus |
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· 05/15/2012 7:39:27 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · PhysOrg · · May 15, 2012 · · CNRS · |
Previously it was believed that, due to the island's geographic isolation, the first Neolithic farming societies did not reach Cyprus until a thousand years after the birth of agriculture in the Middle East... However, the discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates from nearly 9000 years before Christ, proves that early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats... The archaeologists have found a few votive offerings inside the building, including flint arrowheads and green stone beads. A great many remnants of... |
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| Neolithic farmers brought deer to Ireland |
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· 05/14/2012 3:13:40 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · Past Horizons Archaeology · · April 18, 2012 · · School of Biology and Env Sci · · U College Dublin · |
By comparing DNA from ancient bone specimens to DNA obtained from modern animals, the researchers discovered that the Kerry red deer are the direct descendants of deer present in Ireland 5000 years ago. Further analysis using DNA from European deer proves that Neolithic people from Britain first brought the species to Ireland. Although proving the red deer is not native to Ireland, researchers believe that the Kerry population is unique as it is directly related to the original herd and are worthy of special conservation status. Fossil bone samples from the National Museum of Ireland, some up to 30,000 years... |
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| Humanity's Best Friend: How Dogs May Have Helped Humans Beat the Neanderthals |
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· 05/15/2012 11:00:12 AM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 44 replies · · The Atlantic · · 14 May 2012 · · Megan Garber · |
Over 20,000 years ago, humans won the evolutionary battle against Neanderthals. They may have had some assistance in that from their best friends. One of the most compelling --- and enduring --- mysteries in archaeology concerns the rise of early humans and the decline of Neanderthals. For about 250,000 years, Neanderthals lived and evolved, quite successfully, in the area that is now Europe. Somewhere between 45,000 and 35,000 years ago, early humans came along.They proliferated in their new environment, their population increasing tenfold in the 10,000 years after they arrived; Neanderthals declined and finally died away. What happened? What went... |
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| Bigger and brainier: did dingoes kill thylacines? |
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· 05/15/2012 11:49:59 AM PDT · · Posted by presidio9 · · 23 replies · · Phys.org · · May 3, 2012 · |
A comparison of museum specimens has found that thylacines on mainland Australia were smaller than those that persisted into modern times in Tasmania, and significantly smaller than dingoes. The last known Tasmanian thylacine died in 1936. Measurements of the head size and thickness of limb bones of the semi-fossilised remains of thylacines and dingoes from caves in Western Australia have revealed that, on average, dingoes were larger than thylacines. "In particular, dingoes were almost twice as large as female thylacines, which were not much bigger than a fox," says ecologist Dr Mike Letnic, an ARC Future Fellow in the UNSW... |
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| Australia & the Pacific | |
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| Remains may be ancient [Australia] |
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· 05/17/2012 11:44:04 PM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 14 replies · · The Area News · · 16 May 2012 · · Emily Tinker · |
ARCHAEOLOGISTS are on the cusp of unravelling the mystery behind a set of "hugely significant" ancient Aboriginal remains discovered in the region last year. Former local man Robert Harris Jnr found the remains near an old water course late last February while working on a property outside Lake Cargelligo. The remains -- confirmed to be tens of thousands of years old -- have been hailed as the greatest discovery in more than half a century. "They're more significant than first thought," local Aboriginal site recorder and brother of Robert, Max Harris said. "They are as old, or even older than Mungo... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Bodies of Easter Island's famous heads revealed |
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· 05/14/2012 12:31:31 AM PDT · · Posted by bkopto · · 73 replies · · AllTop · · 5/12/2012 · · staff · |
The head statuary of Easter Island is instantly recognizable to people all over the world, but who would have guessed that, lurking beneath the soil, these famous mugs also had bodies? The Easter Island Statue Project Conservation Initiative, which is funded by the Archaeological Institute of America, has been excavating two of the enormous figures for the last several years, and have found unique petroglyphs carved on their backs that had been conserved in the soil. Their research has also yielded evidence of how the carvers were paid with food such as tuna and lobster, as well as clues to... |
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| Navigation | |
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| Modern Man Tries to Build a 3,500 Year Old Boat from the Bronze Age and Fails |
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· 05/15/2012 7:13:08 PM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 55 replies · · IO9 · · May 14, 2012 · · Casey Chan · |
A team of people from 2012 tried to re-create and build a boat from 1550 BC, the Bronze Age, but failed spectacularly. When the ship was lowered into the ocean, it immediately filled with water and started sinking. Yikes, we suck. The team was made up of British archaeologists and craftsmen who have been hammering away and building the boat with Bronze Age tools and methods for the past three months. The boat it was based on, used oak planks sewn together with yew... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Scientists illuminate the ancient history of circumarctic peoples |
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· 05/19/2012 6:17:52 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · PhysOrg · · May 17, 2012 · · unattributed · |
...The team's results indicate several new genetic markers that define previously unknown branches of the family tree of circumarctic groups. One marker, found in the Inuvialuit but not the other two groups, suggests that this group arose from an Arctic migration event somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000 years ago, separate from the migration that gave rise to many of the speakers of the Na-Dene language group. "If we're correct, [this lineage] was present across the entire Arctic and in Beringia," Schurr said. "This means it traces a separate expansion of Eskimo-Aleut-speaking peoples across this region." ... "Perhaps the most extraordinary... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Maya Artwork Uncovered In A Guatemalan Forest |
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· 05/13/2012 8:34:28 AM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 18 replies · · NPR · · 13 May 2012 · · Christopher Joyce · |
Conservator Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Mayan house that dates to the ninth century. The figure of a man who may have been the town scribe appears on the wall to her left. Archaeologists working in one of the most impenetrable rain forests in Guatemala have stumbled on a remarkable discovery: a room full of wall paintings and numerical calculations. The buried room apparently was a workshop used by scribes or astronomers working for a Mayan king. The paintings depict the king and members of his court. The numbers mark important periods in... |
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| China | |
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| New Paleolithic remains found near the Liuhuaishan site in Bose Basin, Guangxi |
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· 05/19/2012 6:23:31 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · PhysOrg · · May 17, 2012 · · Acta Anthropologica Sinica · |
The Liuhuaishan site is an important early Paleolithic site found in the Bose Basin. In December 2008, Scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Youjiang Museum for Nationalities, Bose, carried out a short survey around this site and found three new Paleolithic localities with a collection of 37 stone artifacts. This new finds will help better understand the human behavior at open-air sites in south China, researchers reported in the latest issue of Acta Anthropologica Sinica 2012 (2). The stone artifact assemblage included cores, flakes, chunks, choppers and chopping tools, and picks,... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| 6,000-year-old settlement poses tsunami mystery |
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· 05/13/2012 6:22:14 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · Irish Examiner · · Wednesday, May 09, 2012 · · Andrew Hamilton · |
Archeologists have uncovered evidence of pre-farming people living in the Burren more than 6,000 years ago --- one of the oldest habitations ever unearthed in Ireland. Radiocarbon dating of a shellfish midden on Fanore Beach in north Clare have revealed it to be at least 6,000 years old --- hundreds of years older than the nearby Poulnabrone dolmen. The midden --- a cooking area where nomad hunter-gatherers boiled or roasted shellfish --- contained Stone Age implements, including two axes and a number of smaller stone tools... The midden was discovered by local woman Elaine O'Malley in 2009 and a major... |
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| Greece | |
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| Warning signs from ancient Greek tsunami |
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· 05/14/2012 3:27:05 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · EurekAlert! · · April 19, 2012 · · Nan Broadbent · |
In the winter of 479 B.C., a tsunami was the savior of Potidaea, drowning hundreds of Persian invaders as they lay siege to the ancient Greek village. New geological evidence suggests that the region may still be vulnerable to tsunami events, according to Klaus Reicherter of Aachen University in Germany and his colleagues. The Greek historian Herodotus described the strange retreat of the tide and massive waves at Potidaea, making his account the first description of a historical tsunami. Reicherter and colleagues have added to the story by sampling sediments on the Possidi peninsula in northern Greece where Potidaea (and... |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| Students find rare Roman temple on practice dig [Poppelsdorf, Germany] |
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· 05/15/2012 9:33:56 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 12 replies · · The Local · · Friday, May 4, 2012 · · jcw · |
Lecturers at Bonn University had set up a mock archaeological dig at a building site on campus to teach hopeful historians digging techniques. What they did not expect to find were the 2,000-year-old foundations of a building, nestled into the dense, clayish mud. While the initial discovery was made in March, it was only in the past fortnight that the team realised the foundations were from a temple from the Roman era, the floor of which was scattered with broken pottery dating as far back as 800 BC. The building, which could have been part of a wealthy country estate,... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Artifacts from King David's Time Confirm Bible |
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· 05/11/2012 8:54:41 AM PDT · · Posted by robowombat · · 27 replies · · CBN News · · Friday, May 11, 2012 · · Julie Stahl · |
Artifacts from King David's Time Confirm Bible By Julie Stahl CBN News Mideast Correspondent Friday, May 11, 2012 JERUSALEM, Israel --- Was the Bible's King David man or myth? That's the question Israeli archeologists are answering with new archeological finds. Their discoveries also shed light on how the first Jewish temple was built. Khirbet Qeiyafa is in the Elah Valley. Not far from here the Bible says David killed the giant, Goliath. "We don't know much about the history, the politics really and about urbanization in the time of David," archaeologist Prof. Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology at... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Stone carvers defy Taliban to return to the Bamiyan valley |
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· 05/16/2012 1:13:00 PM PDT · · Posted by huldah1776 · · 15 replies · · The Guardian · · 16 May 2012 · · Emma Graham-Harrison · |
"Afghan students learn the centuries-old skills that carved out the giant buddhas blown up by extremists. ... The cave-hall was part of a complex built around two giant buddhas that loomed serenely over Bamiyan for about 15 centuries -- until the Taliban government condemned them as un-Islamic in early 2001 and blew them up. "I was interested in this course because I want to restore our culture," said Ismael Wahidi, a 22-year-old student of archeology at Bamiyan University, who set aside more conventional studies for a week to learn how to turn a lump of stone into a sculpture. "If... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Photos: "Body Jars," Cliff Coffins Are Clues to Unknown Tribe [ Cambodia ] |
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· 05/19/2012 6:06:43 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · · National Geographic News · · May 15, 2012 · · John Miksic · |
Skulls and other human bones poke from large ceramic jars at Khnorng Sroal, one of the newly dated mountainside burials in southwestern Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains. The bones were placed in the 20-inch-tall (50-centimeter-tall) body jars only after the bodies had decomposed or had been picked clean by scavenging animals, according to the study, which is published in the latest issue of the journal Radiocarbon. "The Cardamom highlanders may have used some form of exposure of the body to de-flesh the bones, like the 'sky burials' known in other cultures," study leader Beavan said. Placing the sky-high burials couldn't have been... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Jurassic Pain: Giant Flea-like Insects Plagued Dinosaurs 165 Million Years Ago |
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· 05/16/2012 7:37:47 PM PDT · · Posted by null and void · · 23 replies · · Scientific Computing · · 5/15/2012 · |
This ancient "flea-like" insect, Pseudopulex jurassicus, lived 165 million years ago. It used a long proboscis to feed on the blood of dinosaurs, with a bite that would have been unusually painful. Illustration by Wang Cheng, courtesy of Oregon State University It takes a gutsy insect to sneak up on a huge dinosaur while it sleeps, crawl onto its soft underbelly and give it a bite that might have felt like a needle going in --- but giant "flea-like" animals, possibly the oldest of their type ever discovered, probably did just that. And a few actually lived through the experience,... |
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| Underwater Archaeology | |
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| Scientists discover 200-year-old shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico |
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· 05/17/2012 8:04:20 PM PDT · · Posted by Dysart · · 7 replies · · Daily Mail · · 5-17-12 · · Nina Golgowski · |
A 19th century shipwreck in the Gulf of Mexico has been discovered by scientists and online viewers on land using an underwater robot and camera, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports. The wooden ship that has nearly all except its copper-sheathed hull disintegrated is approximated to have sunk 200 years ago leaving behind ceramic plates, glass bottles and boxes of muskets across the ocean floor. Artefacts in and around the wreck and the hull's copper sheathing may date the vessel to the early to mid-19th century,' Dr Jack Irion, a maritime archaeologist with the Department of Interior's Bureau of... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| Washington's Iconic Letter To Be Displayed |
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· 05/14/2012 5:03:56 PM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 10 replies · · The Jewish Daily Forward · · May 09, 2012 · · Paul Berger · |
After Decade, Message of Tolerance Comes to Jewish Museum -- After a decade hidden from view, one of the most important documents in American history is set to burst back onto public display, the Forward has learned. George Washington's 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, in which the first president vowed that America would give "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance," will form the centerpiece of a special show at the National Museum of American Jewish History, opening on June 29. Ivy Barsky, the NMAJH's director and chief operating officer, said she was "absolutely thrilled"... |
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| end of digest #409 20120519 | |
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