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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #411 · v 8 · n 46 Saturday, June 2, 2012 |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #411 Saturday, June 2, 2012 |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Earliest music instruments found (42,000 year-old flutes) |
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· 05/25/2012 6:43:09 AM PDT · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 30 replies · · BBC · · 5/25/12 · |
Researchers have identified what they say are the oldest-known musical instruments in the world.The flutes, made from bird bone and mammoth ivory, come from a cave in southern Germany which contains early evidence for the occupation of Europe by modern humans - Homo sapiens. Scientists used carbon dating to show that the flutes were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old. The findings are described in the Journal of Human Evolution. A team led by Prof Tom Higham at Oxford University dated animal bones in the same ground layers as the flutes at Geissenkloesterle Cave in Germany's Swabian Jura. Prof Nick... |
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| Cave Art | |
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| Decoding the Ancient Secrets of White Shaman |
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· 06/01/2012 5:35:27 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · Discover magazine · · May 2012 · · Will Hunt · |
Rock paintings near the Rio Grande contain hidden messages about a mysterious 4,000-year-old religion. Now one archaeologist has learned to read them. The figures at the White Shaman rock shelter seem to depict a journey through the spirit world... The region known as the Lower Pecos is an arid 21,000-square-mile expanse of southwest Texas and northern Mexico surrounding the confluence of the Pecos River and the Rio Grande. The land is barbed with cacti, teeming with rattlesnakes, and riven with impassable canyons. But more than 4,000 years ago, these barrens were home to a flourishing culture of hunter-gatherers, creators of... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Inequality Dates Back to Stone Age |
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· 05/30/2012 4:40:43 AM PDT · · Posted by Makana · · 20 replies · · Science · · May 28, 2012 · · Professor Alex Bentley · |
Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without. |
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| Climate | |
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| Huge Ancient Civilization's Collapse Explained |
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· 05/29/2012 5:32:20 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 42 replies · · LiveScience · · 5-28-2012 · · Charles Choi · |
The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit -- ancient climate change, researchers say. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Seato the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Bible-era earthquake reveals year of Jesus' crucifixion |
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· 05/25/2012 8:42:58 PM PDT · · Posted by NYFreeper · · 47 replies · · Discovery News · · May 24, 2012 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
Jesus, as described in the New Testament, was most likely crucified on Friday April 3, 33 A.D. The latest investigation, reported in the journal International Geology Review, focused on earthquake activity at the Dead Sea, located 13 miles from Jerusalem. The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 27, mentions that an earthquake coincided with the crucifixion. |
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| Archeologist Says New Finds Support Bible's Accuracy |
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· 05/28/2012 11:45:52 AM PDT · · Posted by GiovannaNicoletta · · 4 replies · · Israel Today Magazine · · May 15, 2012 · · Ryan Jones · |
A Hebrew University archeologist says finds at a new dig site near Jerusalem are backing up the biblical narrative of an Israelite kingdom centered on Jerusalem in 1000 BC, around the time of King David and his son, King Solomon. Professor Yosef Garfinkel has been digging at Khirbet Qeiyafa near the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Shemesh since 2007. Carbon dating of unearthed olive pits has put the period of activity at Khirbet Qeiyafa at 1020 BC - 980 BC, almost exactly the period of time the Bible says David and Solomon were active in the region. The dating, together with... |
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| What's the Oldest Hebrew Inscription? |
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· 05/28/2012 9:24:09 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · May/Jun 2012 · · Christopher A. Rollston · |
Four contenders vie for the honor of the oldest Hebrew inscription. To decide we must determine (1) whether they are in Hebrew script and/or language and (2) when they date. Not easy! The first contender, the already famous Qeiyafa Ostracon, was discovered only in 2008 at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a site in the borderland of ancient Judah and Philistia.a The five-line ostracon (an ink inscription on a piece of broken pottery) is not well preserved and is subject to varying readings. As the Qeiyafa Ostracon is a recent find, so the Gezer Calendar is an old one. It was discovered exactly... |
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| Century-old Archaeological Find [Gabriel's Revelation tablet] |
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· 03/22/2012 7:09:22 AM PDT · · Posted by marshmallow · · 8 replies · · La Stampa-Vatican Insider · · 3/15/12 · · Giacomo Galeazzi · |
[Full title: Century-old Archaeological Find Could Prove Authenticity of Jesus' Prophesy of the Resurrection] Gabriel's Revelation tablet (on show in the "Verbum Domini" exhibition in the Vatican) has been said to be an important piece of evidence for the authenticity of Jesus' prophesies on the resurrection -- Vatican Insider spoke to Biblicist and writer, Professor Simone Venturini on the subject. Professor Venturini works in the Vatican Secret Archives and teaches Biblical Science at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He is also the author of a number of works, including Il libro di Gesu Segreto (The secret book of Jesus) published by Newton Compton. Professor, what is the Gabriel's Revelation stela on show in the... |
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| More Observations on the Stone Dead Sea Scroll Text |
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· 07/16/2008 1:19:17 AM PDT · · Posted by Oyarsa · · 13 replies · · 179+ views · · Bock's Blog · · 7/08/2008 · · Darrell L. Bock · |
(from Taiwan) ... am writing from Taiwan, but I am not immune to the news about the new Stone "Dead Sea Scroll". I have made available by link in the News We Are Watching window Time's latest article on this. Thanks to Craig Blomberg for noting where access to the text can be found. The BAR site also in the News We Are Watching window gives access to both English and to the Hebrew text. Now you do not have to... |
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| Facts In the Ground | |
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| "Castle of the Slave" -- Mystery Solved [ Jordan ] |
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· 05/28/2012 8:45:07 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · May/Jun 2012 · · Stephen Rosenberg · |
One of the most dramatic archaeological monuments in Jordan -- an admittedly Jewish one -- has been repeatedly misidentified. French historian Ernest Will called it the "Finest Hellenistic monument in the Near East" and considered it a chateau. The structure is known locally as Qasr al-Abd, or "Castle of the Slave (or Servant)." It is part of a 75-acre estate called Airaq al-Amir (also spelled 'Iraq el-Emir), lying 12 miles southwest of the Jordanian capital, Amman. The site was entered via a monumental gateway, much of which remains in a ruined state and hidden by undergrowth. The glory of the... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| Oldest Jewish archaeological evidence on the Iberian Peninsula |
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· 05/27/2012 8:31:50 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · · Eurekalert · · Friday, May 25, 2012 · · Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena · |
On a marble plate, measuring 40 by 60 centimetres, the name "Yehiel" can be read, followed by further letters which have not yet been deciphered... the new discovery might be a tomb slab... "The organic material of the antlers could be dated by radiocarbon analysis with certainty to about 390 AD," excavation leader Dr. Dennis Graen of the Jena University explains... ...Not only is the early date exceptional in this case, but also the place of the discovery: Never before have Jewish discoveries been made in a Roman villa, the Jena Archaelogist explains. In the Roman Empire at that time... |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Babylonian Talmud Translated into Arabic |
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· 05/28/2012 9:46:19 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · · Bible History Daily (BAR website) · · Thursday, May 17, 2012 · · Staff · |
After a controversial six-year-long translation project, a Jordanian think tank based in Amman published an Arabic translation of the Babylonian Talmud. After gaining enthusiastic responses to the project from the Arab League, 96 scholars began work on the translation. The editors are happy with the project, stating that the lack of an Arabic Talmud "has always been an obstacle to understanding Judaism." Despite some polarized and politicized responses, most have adopted a positive impression of the massive scholarly work. Dr. Raquel Ukeles of the Israeli National Library states that the project stemmed from scientific curiosity, and the introduction discusses the... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Indiana Jones meets the Da Vinci Code |
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· 01/14/2008 12:56:52 PM PST · · Posted by rellimpank · · 33 replies · · 40+ views · · Asia times · · 14 jan 08 · · Spengler · |
Islam watchers blogged all weekend about news that a secret archive of ancient Islamic texts had surfaced after 60 years of suppression. Andrew Higgins' Wall Street Journal report that the photographic record of Koranic manuscripts, supposedly destroyed during World War II but occulted by a scholar of alleged Nazi sympathies, reads like a conflation of the Da Vinci Code with Indiana Jones and the Holy Grail. The Da Vinci Code offered a silly fantasy in which Opus Dei, homicidal monks and twisted billionaires chased after proof that Christianity is a hoax. But the story of the photographic archive... |
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| Coast-to-coast AM 01.18.08.(2am EST) Glenn Kimball will discuss history of the Koran |
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· 01/19/2008 10:41:22 PM PST · · Posted by Perdogg · · 9 replies · · 212+ views · · C2C AM · · 01.19.08 · |
Expert in ancient manuscripts, Glenn Kimball will discuss new information on the history and origins of the Koran and ancient libraries. |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| Lead poisoning in Rome: The skeletal evidence |
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· 05/31/2012 5:10:10 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 14 replies · · Past Horizons · · 2-24-2012 · · http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/ · |
A recent article in the online publication io9, "The First Artificial Sweetener Poisoned Lots of Romans" provided a (very) brief look at some of the uses of lead (Pb) in the Roman world, including the tired old hypothesis that it was rampant lead poisoning that led to the downfall of Rome - along with gonorrhoea, Christianity, slavery, and the kitchen sink. The fact the Romans loved their lead is not in question, with plenty of textual and archaeological sources that inform us of the uses of lead -- as cosmetics, ballistics, sarcophagi, pipes, jewellery, curse tablets, utensils and cooking pots,... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Uncovering the Great Theater of Apamea |
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· 06/02/2012 7:48:25 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · Popular Archaeology · · Thursday, May 31, 2012 · · Cynthia Finlayson · |
The Great Theater at Apamea in northern Syria vies with the Large Theater at Ephesus, Turkey for the honor of being the largest extant Roman edifice of its type to have survived the ravages of time. Both buildings are estimated to have held audiences of over 20,000 persons, and both may have had their origins in an earlier Greek Hellenistic structure that was overbuilt in the Roman Era. Only one other theater, the Theater of Pompey in Rome, is known to have been larger. However, Pompey's lavish building is buried under the modern streets of the city, and its surviving... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Mexican archaeologists find 2,500-year-old altar |
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· 05/28/2012 7:23:38 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · Fox News Latino · · May 25, 2012 · · EFE · |
An altar and a stela estimated to date from as early as 800 B.C. were found at the Chalcatzingo archaeological site in the central state of Morelos, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, said. The altar is rectangular and covered with engravings representing rain. A few meters (yards) away from the altar was an unfinished stela standing 1.7 meters (5 feet 6 inches) tall. The pieces are thought to have been made between 800 and 500 B.C., about the same age as another altar and a relief depicting three cats that archaeologists from INAH's Morelos Center found... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| DNA study seeks origin of Appalachia's Melungeons |
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· 05/27/2012 4:49:30 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 64 replies · · MSNBC · · 5-25-2012 · · Travis Loller · |
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For years, varied and sometimes wild claims have been made about the origins of a group of dark-skinned Appalachian residents once known derisively as the Melungeons. Some speculated they were descended from Portuguese explorers, or perhaps from Turkish slaves or Gypsies. Now a new DNA study in the Journal of Genetic Genealogy attempts to separate truth from oral tradition and wishful thinking. The study found the truth to be somewhat less exotic: Genetic evidence shows that the families historically called Melungeons are the offspring of sub-Saharan African men and white women of northern or central European origin..... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Ancient Mummy Child Had Hepatitis B |
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· 06/02/2012 7:34:31 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · · LiveScience · · Tuesday, May 29, 2012 · · Staff · |
A mummified child in Korea whose organs were relatively well preserved has produced the oldest full viral genome description. A liver biopsy of the mummy revealed a unique hepatitis B virus (HBV) known as a genotype C2 sequence, which is said to be common in Southeast Asia. The first discovery of hepatitis in a Korean mummy came in 2007. The new work provided more detailed analysis... Carbon 14 tests of the clothing of the mummy suggests that the boy lived around the 16th century during the Korean Joseon Dynasty. The viral DNA sequences recovered from the liver biopsy enabled the... |
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| Not-so-Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Skeletal Trauma from Medieval Oslo |
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· 05/31/2012 5:21:03 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 11 replies · · Bones Don't Lie · · 5-1-2012 · · Katy Meyers · |
The Medieval period is one characterized throughout the Western world as one of violence. Artwork from this era shows not only violence done towards other cultural groups, but dangers and suffering from daily life. Historical texts document the violence of heroes and villains, their phrases often loaded with drama. Scholars have argued that this violence was part of the social environment and to some extent was institutionalized. However, judgements from text and art alone are limited by individual perception and bias. Human remains have been vital in understanding the extent and manner of violence in the Medieval period. While they... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Burial site revealing ancient Egyptian funerary rites uncovered [ Middle Kdm Egypt ] |
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· 06/02/2012 7:17:37 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · · Al-Ahram · · Wednesday, May 30, 2012 · · Nevine El-Aref · |
The well preserved coffin of an unidentified Middle Kingdom provincial governor was found in the Deir Al-Barsha necropolis near the upper Egyptian city of Minya In the course of routine excavation work at the tomb of the first Middle Kingdom governor of the Hare Nome or province, the nomarch Ahanakht I at the Deir Al-Barsha site in Minya, Belgian archaeologists from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven stumbled on what is believed to be an important burial going back to the beginning of the Middle Kingdom... Harco Willems, field director of the Belgian mission, told Ahram Online that the coffin remains discovered... |
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| Underwater Archaeology | |
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| Deepest Roman shipwrecks found near Greece |
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· 05/30/2012 6:18:13 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 18 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · May 30, 2012 · · Rob Waugh · |
Two Roman-era shipwrecks have been found in deep water off a western Greek island, challenging the idea that ancient shipmasters stuck to coastal routes. The merchant ships were sunk nearly a mile deep between Corfu and Italy - proving that ancient traders didn't 'hug the shore'. Greece's culture ministry said the two third-century wrecks were discovered earlier this month during a survey of an area where a Greek-Italian gas pipeline is to be sunk. |
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| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
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| Discovered: The 128million-year-old grandfather of the modern squid.. |
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· 06/01/2012 6:42:36 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 16 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · June 1, 2012 · · Eddie Wrenn · |
Scientists have managed to re-create the appearance of a previously unknown fossil - a spiky creature thought to be the ultimate ancestor of the modern-day squid and octopus. The Austria National History Museum team used 3D scanning technology to unearth the fossil of 'Dissimilites intermedius' a layer at a time, and then created a video of how the creature lived and moved. The ammonite was discovered in sediment which formed at the bottom of the ocean during the Cretaceous period - on a surface which, 128 million years, later would lie at the top of the Dolomite mountains in the... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| It Took Earth Ten Million Years to Recover from Greatest Mass Extinction |
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· 05/28/2012 7:25:47 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 42 replies · · ScienceDaily · · May 27, 2012 · · U of Bristol · |
It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed. Life was nearly wiped out 250 million years ago, with only 10 per cent of plants and animals surviving. It is currently much debated how life recovered from this cataclysm, whether quickly or slowly. Recent evidence for a rapid bounce-back is evaluated in a new review article by Dr Zhong-Qiang Chen, from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, and Professor Michael Benton from the University of Bristol. They find that recovery from the crisis lasted some 10... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Israeli researchers find American Indians with Jewish genetic markers |
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· 05/30/2012 5:51:03 PM PDT · · Posted by SJackson · · 143 replies · · Xinhuanet · · 5-30-12 · |
JERUSALEM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Geneticists at an Israeli hospital said they have found a unique Jewish genetic mutation among an American Indian tribe, indicating that they are descendants of Jews expelled from Spain 600 years ago, local Haaretz daily reported on Wednesday. The findings of the study, conducted at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, show that a group of Indians from the State of Colorado bear the so-called "Ashkenazi mutation," on the BRCA1 gene - a marker unique to European Jews. While such so-called "secret Jews," or "Anusim" in Hebrew, whose families assimilated into various north and... |
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| Early America | |
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| Our Forgotten Fallen, from an earlier war. |
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· 05/28/2012 12:01:06 PM PDT · · Posted by SES1066 · · 8 replies · · 05/28/2012 · · Self · |
Today is Memorial Day, once also known as Decoration Day, hallowed to honor our military dead. Started to honor our Civil War dead, it has been expanded to honor all of our military dead of the United States from the Revolutionary War on (1775 to present). Yet in doing so, we still leave some out unless we become more expansive yet and include the 10,000+[1] of an even earlier conflict. I request those who read this, cast their minds back to a war that too many have forgotten but that forged an unbreakable mold upon our continent, "The French and... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| The Lesson of Alexander Hamilton |
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· 05/28/2012 3:36:36 AM PDT · · Posted by afraidfortherepublic · · 141 replies · · The American Thinker · · 5-28-12 · · Jeremy Meister · |
How many things are in a person's pocket that they don't even know about? We take money for granted -- most people can't tell us which way George Washington is facing on the quarter. They can tell us that Ben Franklin is on the front of the hundred, but they can't tell us that Independence Hall (where he helped draft the Constitution) is on the back. One might think that as denominations get smaller and more common, the pictures on them would become more famous and well-known. The ten-dollar bill features Alexander Hamilton on the front. Since he was never... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| America's 21st-Century Population Edge (The 21st century will still be the American Century) |
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· 05/27/2012 6:05:58 AM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 35 replies · · WSJ · · 05/24/2012 · · Ben Wattenberg · |
Look around you. For most nations of the world, birth and fertility rates have never fallen so far, so fast, so long, so surprisingly, all across the globe. Except for America. Seen globally, the population explosion -- or what Stanford's Paul Ehrlich called "the population bomb" in the 1960s -- is now stone-cold dead. The ramifications are enormous economically, geopolitically, culturally and personally. For one, the United States will become stronger than ever in the games nations play. Every other major modern nation and every developing country has low or falling birth rates. Japan and Poland see 1.3 children per woman, Brazil and China... |
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| end of digest #411 20120602 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #411 · v 8 · n 46 Saturday, June 2, 2012 |
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39 topics |
Welcome to the recent newbies. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #412 Saturday, June 9, 2012 |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Mysterious radiation burst recorded in tree rings |
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· 06/04/2012 10:58:45 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 46 replies · · Nature · · Sunday, June 3, 2012 · · Richard A. Lovett · |
Just over 1,200 years ago, the planet was hit by an extremely intense burst of high-energy radiation of unknown cause, scientists studying tree-ring data have found. The radiation burst, which seems to have hit between AD 774 and AD 775, was detected by looking at the amounts of the radioactive isotope carbon-14 in tree rings that formed during the AD 775 growing season in the Northern Hemisphere. The increase in 14C levels is so clear that the scientists, led by Fusa Miyake, a cosmic-ray physicist from Nagoya University in Japan, conclude that the atmospheric level of 14C must have jumped... |
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| Biology & Cryptobiology | |
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| The Cosmic Story of Carbon-14 |
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· 06/05/2012 12:48:06 AM PDT · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 16 replies · · Starts with a Bang · · 6/4/12 · · Ethan Siegel · |
"Life exists in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties." --James Jeans Here on Earth, every living thing is based around four fundamental, elemental building blocks of life: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and, perhaps most importantly, carbon.Image Credit: Robert Johnson / University of Pennsylvania. From diamonds to nanotubes to DNA, carbon is indispensable for constructing practically all of the most intricate structures we know of. Most of the carbon in our world comes from long-dead stars, in the form of Carbon-12: carbon atoms containing six neutrons in their nucleus. About 1.1% of all carbon is Carbon-13, with one... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Fossil Discovery: More Evidence for Asia, Not Africa, as the Source of Earliest Anthropoid Primates |
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· 06/07/2012 2:49:58 PM PDT · · Posted by SeekAndFind · · 28 replies · · Science Daily · · 06/07/2012 · |
An international team of researchers has announced the discovery of Afrasia djijidae, a new fossil primate from Myanmar that illuminates a critical step in the evolution of early anthropoids -- the group that includes humans, apes, and monkeys. The 37-million-year-old Afrasia closely resembles another early anthropoid, Afrotarsius libycus, recently discovered at a site of similar age in the Sahara Desert of Libya. The close similarity between Afrasia and Afrotarsius indicates that early anthropoids colonized Africa only shortly before the time when these animals lived. The colonization of Africa by early anthropoids was a pivotal step in primate and human evolution,... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Old Vero Man Site History |
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· 06/04/2012 6:29:20 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · Old Vero Ice Age Sites Committee · · obtained Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 · · unattributed · |
In 1913 the Indian River Farms Company was dredging the Main Relief Canal in Vero Florida, in preparation to handle an expanding population. (It was not called Vero Beach until 1925.) The workers on this project kept seeing fossilized bones in the walls or banks of the freshly dredged canal. Some of these bones were presented to the state geologist, Dr E.H. Sellards. Dr. Sellards suggested that they also look for human bones during a visit to the site. In 1916 Dr Sellards, working with Frank Ayers, Isaac Wells, and others found more human bones in the strata known as... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| There IS a link between genius and madness - but we don't know why we evolved this 'gift' |
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· 06/04/2012 6:33:40 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 60 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · June 4, 2012 · · Rob Waugh · |
There IS a link between creative genius and madness - with both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder frequent in highly creative and intelligent people. The idea was investigated by a panel of scientists who had all suffered some form of mental disorder. Kay Redfield Jamison of John Hopkins school of Medicine, who suffers from bipolar disorder, said that intelligence tests on Swedish 16-year-olds had shown that highly intelligent children were most likely to go on to develop the disorder. |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| New discovery at early Islamic site in Jordan: Uncovered inscription reveals name of Umayyad prince |
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· 06/07/2012 5:23:36 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · Art Daily · · Thursday, June 7, 2012 · · Art, or someone who knows him · |
The site is a small building dating to the Umayyad period and is known for its mural paintings. Gazelle and wild donkey hunts, dances, musicians, court scenes and allegories, and zodiac symbols are all painted on interior surfaces. The inscription, which previously could not be read due to accumulated dirt and previous unsuccessful cleaning attempts, is an invocation to Allah beginning with the formula "Allahumma aslih al-Walid ibn YazÓd" ("Oh God! Make al-WalÓd ibn YazÓd virtuous"). This inscription was painted in white above a window in old Kufic alphabet without any diacritical dots. Sections of the three-line inscription are... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Vandals cause 'irreparable damage' to 1,600-year-old mosaics in Tiberias synagogue |
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· 06/05/2012 6:35:04 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · · Times of Israel · · Tuesday, May 29, 2012 · · Michal Shmulovich · |
An ancient Tiberias synagogue was extensively vandalized overnight Tuesday, causing irreversible damage and potentially necessitating millions of dollars in rehabilitation costs. Police opened an investigation, and officials said they suspected ultra-Orthodox Jewish extremists who oppose archaeological excavations of ancient tombs were to blame. "The damage is widespread. Some of the damage is irreversible," said Shaul Goldstein, executive director of the Nature and Parks Authority. The Hammat Tiberias site, which also serves as an archaeological park, boasts 1,600-year-old mosaics. The site's two synagogues date from 286 and 337 CE, when Tiberias was the seat of the Sanhedrin rabbinical court. Among the... |
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| The Roman Empire | |
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| Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Late Antiquity Church on Black Sea Coast |
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· 06/05/2012 4:02:17 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 1 replies · · Novinite · · Monday, May 28, 2012 · · unattributed · |
Bulgarian archaeologists have found a church dating back to the late Antiquity period, which is located near the village of Sarafovo, on the Black Sea coast. The site, which is close to the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas, has been excavated by the team of Prof. Dr. Lyudmil Vagalinski, who is the Director of the National Archaeology Institute and Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, since the start of May 2012. The excavations at Sarafovo (a village also known for hosting a military airfield) began after over the winter the sea waves uncovered parts of a Roman structures... |
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| Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
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| Continuity down through the ages: Proof of a thousand years' use of a Sicilian farmland estate |
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· 06/05/2012 4:15:08 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · PhysOrg · · Tuesday, May 29, 2012 · · Australian Science Fund · |
Archaeological excavations have provided the first substantiation that a farmland estate in Sicily boasts a history which reaches back over a thousand years. Numerous finds demonstrate the continuous use of the land complex as a nexus of settlement and economic and religious life between the 5th and 16th century. The findings are the result of two projects of the Austrian Science Fund FWF which comprise the first in-depth archaeological exploration of Sicily's Byzantine period... While the ancient era saw the island dominated first by the Greeks and later the Roman Empire, in the High Middle Ages it was the centre... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| The True Story Of Dracula (Interesting read) |
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· 08/05/2005 9:06:30 AM PDT · · Posted by robowombat · · 47 replies · · 4,142+ views · · Useless-knowledge.com · · October 18 , 2004 · · Mark Gelbart · |
Halloween is a time when friendly neighbors pretend to be tricked by children dressed up as ghosts, goblins, superheroes, clowns, fairies, and Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles. And in return the adults--feigning surprise--pass out sugary treats; a tradition that has helped those in the dental profession for many generations. Unlike most of the characters that make an annual appearance on our door steps, Dracula is based on a real person. Most people are familiar with the fictional version of Dracula created by Bram Stoker, but they are only vaguely aware... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Ancient 'Vampire' Corpses Unearthed by Bulgarian Archaeologists |
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· 06/06/2012 3:52:39 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 25 replies · · Medical Daily · · 5-5-2012 · · Christine Hsu · |
More than 100 "vampire" corpses have been dug out from graves across Bulgaria during historic excavations, according to the country's archaeologists. Bozhidar Dimitrov, head of the National History Museum in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, said on Tuesday that Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Middle Ages pierced through the chest with iron rods to keep them from turning into the undead. Dimitrov said that the two "vampire" remains were found last weekend near the Black Sea town of Sozopol. The tradition of hammering an iron rod through the chest bones and heart of 'evil' people to prevent them... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Muslims demand Hagia Sophia be converted into a mosque on anniversary of the fall of Constantinope |
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· 05/29/2012 3:56:54 PM PDT · · Posted by Gillibrand · · 4 replies · · Catholic Church Conservation · · 29 May 2012 · · Cathcon · |
Includes video of the 2012 annual celebrations of the fall of Constantinople which take place in Turkey |
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| Muslims demand Hagia Sophia be converted into a mosque on anniversary of the fall of Constantinope |
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· 05/29/2012 3:56:58 PM PDT · · Posted by Gillibrand · · 58 replies · · Catholic Church Conservation · · 29 May 2012 · · Cathcon · |
Includes video of the 2012 annual celebrations of the fall of Constantinople which take place in Turkey |
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| Underwater Archaeology | |
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| Chariots in Red Sea: 'Irrefutable evidence' |
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· 06/07/2012 6:56:12 PM PDT · · Posted by ReformationFan · · 79 replies · · World Net Daily · · June 7th, 2012 · · Joe Kovacs · |
A news report that stunned the world nine years ago about the discovery of possible ancient chariot wheels at the bottom of the Red Sea is suddenly gaining fresh attention with new video claiming "irrefutable evidence" that corroborates the find. In June 2003, WND interviewed Bible enthusiasts who dove the waters of the Red Sea, alleging they found and photographed parts of chariots that may be the actual remains of the catastrophe brought upon the Egyptian army which pursued the Israelites, according to the Book of Exodus in the Bible. "I am 99.9 percent sure I picked up a chariot... |
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| Pages | |
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| Freeman Dyson: Science on the Rampage |
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· 05/09/2012 10:28:59 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 34 replies · · New York Review of Books · · April 5, 2012 · · Freeman Dyson · |
Physics on the Fringe: Smoke Rings, Circlons, and Alternative Theories of Everything by Margaret Wertheim Walker, 323 pp., $27.00, Pierpont Morgan Library/Art Resource: An engraving by William Blake from The Song of Los, 1795 -- Physics on the Fringe describes work done by amateurs, people rejected by the academic establishment and rejecting orthodox academic beliefs. They are often self-taught and ignorant of higher mathematics. Mathematics is the language spoken by the professionals. The amateurs offer an... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Primeval Giant Among Giants (African Scientist find skull of 18,000 pound Dinosaur eating Crocodile) |
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· 10/29/2001 11:47:01 AM PST · · Posted by umbra · · 60 replies · · 1,051+ views · · Int'l Herald Tribune · · October 27, 2001 · · Guy Gugliotta · |
The crocodile was a silent stalker, as long as a school bus and weighing almost 18,000 pounds. It cruised the primordial rivers of what is now Saharan Africa, looking for unwary dinosaurs to eat."It was absolutely enormous, said a University of Chicago paleontologist, Paul Sereno, of the 8,165 kilogram creature. "There is nothing that would be able to handle that animal. It's like a torpedo of muscle five feet in diameter. (with body armour) The skull of the world's largest living crocdile looks like an hors d'oeuvre by comparison." In an age of giants 110 million years ago Sarcosuchus imperator ... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Dinosaurs were lighter than previously thought, new study shows |
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· 06/05/2012 7:39:30 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · · PhysOrg · · Tuesday, June 5, 2012 · · U of Manchester · |
...University of Manchester biologists used lasers to measure the minimum amount of skin required to wrap around the skeletons of modern-day mammals, including reindeer, polar bears, giraffes and elephants. They discovered that the animals had almost exactly 21% more body mass than the minimum skeletal 'skin and bone' wrap volume, and applied this to a giant Brachiosaur skeleton in Berlin's Museum f¸r Naturkunde. Previous estimates of this Brachiosaur's weight have varied, with estimates as high as 80 tonnes, but the Manchester team's calculations -- published in the journal Biology Letters -- reduced that figure to just 23 tonnes. The team... |
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| Dinosaurs Skinnier Than Previously Thought |
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· 06/06/2012 3:57:55 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 13 replies · · Discovery News · · 6-5-2012 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
Dinosaurs were often hefty, but not as plump as previously thought. A new study describes a new technique used to measure the weight and size of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. It could forever change museum exhibits, book illustrations, and other recreations of these now-extinct species. The study appears in the latest issue of Biology Letters "This is a huge help for any sort of reconstruction," lead author William Sellers told Discovery News. "We now have a number that suggests how much flesh to add to the bones and that should help people produce animals that are the right balance... |
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| Ye olde vampire slaying kit: Victorian oak box complete with wooden stakes |
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· 06/07/2012 8:07:49 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 13 replies · · UK Daily Mail · · June 7, 2012 · · Tom Gardner · |
They say you can never be too prepared... but even for the most superstitious person this may be overkill. A 19th century Vampire slaying kit, which includes a wooden mallet and four oak stakes, glass vials of holy water and garlic paste is expected to fetch up £2,000 when auctioned later this month. The macabre artefact also has a percussion cap pistol - invented in the 1830 - and a steel bullet mold, all carefully crafted to offer the best protection against any creatures of the night. |
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| The Revolution | |
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| George Washington, Circular Letter to the States |
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· 06/08/2012 2:13:48 PM PDT · · Posted by Jacquerie · · 18 replies · · The Founders' Constitution · · June 8th, 1783 · · George Washington · |
When word that peace with Great Britain was assured, General Washington issued a blistering condemnation of Congress. In addition to demands for soldier's back pay, he called for reforms to the Articles of Confederation. His admonitions would culminate in 1788 with ratification of the Constitution. George Washington: When we consider the magnitude of the prize we contended for, the doubtful nature of the contest, and the favorable manner in which it has terminated, we shall find the greatest possible reason for gratitude and rejoicing; this is a theme that will afford infinite delight to every benevolent and liberal mind, whether... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| Dr Charles Leale's long-lost medical report details his treatment after Lincoln was shot |
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· 06/05/2012 9:07:29 PM PDT · · Posted by smokingfrog · · 16 replies · · dailymail.co.uk · · 5 June 2012 · · Beth Stebner · |
They were filed away and for nearly 150 years, but now researchers have found the report of the young army surgeon who was first to reach Abraham Lincoln after he was shot in the head in Ford Theatre. The 21-page report, written by Dr Charles Leale, a 23-year-old doctor just six weeks into his medical practice who happened to be 40 feet from Lincoln, details his original perceptions of the president's fatal injuries. The historians who discovered the report in the National Archives in Washington believe it was filed, packed in a box, stored at the archives and not seen... |
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| end of digest #412 20120609 | |
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