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Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #414 Saturday, June 23, 2012 |
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Multiregionalism | |
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Re-Examining the "Out of Africa" Theory and the Origin of Europeoids in Light of DNA Genealogy |
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· 06/20/2012 2:19:55 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 36 replies · · scirp.org · · May 2012 · · Anatole A. Klyosov, Igor L. Rozhanskii · |
Seven thousand five hundred fifty-six (7556) haplotypes of 46 subclades in 17 major haplogroups were considered in terms of their base (ancestral) haplotypes and timespans to their common ancestors, for the purposes of designing of time-balanced haplogroup tree. It was found that African haplogroup A (originated 132,000 ± 12,000 years before present) is very remote time-wise from all other haplogroups, which have a separate common ancestor, named β-haplogroup, and originated 64,000 ± 6000 ybp. It includes a family of Europeoid (Caucasoid) haplogroups from F through T that originated 58,000 ± 5000 ybp. A downstream common ancestor for haplogroup A and β-haplogroup, coined the α-haplogroup emerged 160,000 ± 12,000 ybp. A territorial origin of haplogroups α- and β-remains unknown; however, the most likely origin for each of them is a vast triangle stretched from Central Europe in the west through the Russian Plain to the east and to Levant to the south. Haplogroup B is descended from β-haplogroup (and not from haplogroup A, from which it is very distant, and separated by as much as 123,000 years of "lat- eral" mutational evolution) likely migrated to Africa after 46,000 ybp. The finding that the Europeoid haplogroups did not descend from "African" haplogroups A or B is supported by the fact that bearers of the Europeoid haplogroups, as well as all non-African haplogroups do not carry either SNPs M91, P97, M31, P82, M23, M114, P262, M32, M59, P289, P291, P102, M13, M171, M118 (haplogroup A and its subclades SNPs) or M60, M181, P90 (haplogroup B), as it was shown recently in "Walk through Y" FTDNA Project (the reference is incorporated therein) on several hundred people from various haplogroups. |
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British Isles | |
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Welsh people could be most ancient in UK, DNA suggests |
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· 06/20/2012 5:01:13 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 54 replies · · BBC · · Tuesday, June 19, 2012 · · unattributed · |
Professor Peter Donnelly, of Oxford University, said the Welsh carry DNA which could be traced back to the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago. The project surveyed 2,000 people in rural areas across Britain. Participants, as well as their parents and grandparents, had to be born in those areas to be included in the study. Prof Donnelly, a professor of statistical science at Oxford University and director of the Wellcome Trust centre for human genetics, said DNA samples were analysed at about 500,000 different points. After comparing statistics, a map was compiled which showed Wales and Cornwall stood out. Prof... |
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Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
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Ancient North Africans got milk: Herders began dairying around 7,000 years ago |
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· 06/22/2012 3:53:25 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · Science News · · Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 · · Bruce Bower · |
Animal herders living in what was a grassy part of North Africa's Sahara Desert around 7,000 years ago had a taste for cattle milk, or perhaps milk products such as butter. Researchers have identified a chemical signature of dairy fats on the inside surfaces of pottery from that time. Dairy products played a big part in the diets of these ancient Africans, even though they did not live in farming villages as the earliest European milk users did, reports a team led by biogeochemists Julie Dunne and Richard Evershed, both of the University of Bristol in England. Dairying may have... |
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Diet & Cuisine | |
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How the Chicken Conquered the World: The epic begins 10,000 years ago in an Asian jungle... |
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· 06/18/2012 7:06:22 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 42 replies · · Smithsonian magazine · · June 2012 · · Jerry Adler and Andrew Lawler · |
The chickens that saved Western civilization were discovered, according to legend, by the side of a road in Greece in the first decade of the fifth century B.C. The Athenian general Themistocles, on his way to confront the invading Persian forces, stopped to watch two cocks fighting and summoned his troops, saying: "Behold, these do not fight for their household gods, for the monuments of their ancestors, for glory, for liberty or the safety of their children, but only because one will not give way to the other." The tale does not describe what happened to the loser, nor explain... |
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Prehistory & Origins | |
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Massive Gold Trove Sparks Archeological Dispute |
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· 06/21/2012 5:36:03 PM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 8 replies · · Spiegel Online · · 21 June 2012 · · Matthias Schulz · |
A 3,300-year-old treasure trove of gold found in northern Germany has stumped German archeologists. One theory suggests that traders transported it thousands of miles from a mine in Central Asia, but other experts are skeptical. Archeologists in Germany have an unlikely new hero: former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. They have nothing but praise for the cigar-smoking veteran Social Democratic politician. Why? Because it was Schröder who, together with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet)... |
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Archaeological Dispute Erupts over Gold Trove |
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· 06/22/2012 3:50:22 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · Spiegel · · Solstice Day, June 21, 2012 · · Matthias Schulz, DPA · |
...former Chancellor Gerhard SchrËder... pushed through a plan to pump Russian natural gas to Western Europe. For that purpose, an embankment 440 kilometers (275 miles) long and up to 30 meters (100 feet) wide had to be created from Lubmin, a coastal resort town in northeastern Germany, to Rehden in Lower Saxony near the northwestern city of Bremen. The result has been a veritable cornucopia of ancient discoveries. The most beautiful find was made in the Gessel district of Lower Saxony, where 117 pieces of gold were found stacked tightly together in a rotten linen cloth. The hidden treasure is... |
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Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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Research finds Stonehenge was monument marking unification of Britain |
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· 06/22/2012 3:40:45 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · U of Sheffield · · Friday, June 22, 2012 · · Amy Stone · |
The teams, from the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Southampton, Bournemouth and University College London, all working on the Stonehenge Riverside Project (SRP), explored not just Stonehenge and its landscape but also the wider social and economic context of the monument's main stages of construction around 3,000 BC and 2,500 BC... Previous theories have suggested the great stone circle was used as a prehistoric observatory, a sun temple, a place of healing, and a temple of the ancient druids. The Stonehenge Riverside Project's researchers have rejected all these possibilities after the largest programme of archaeological research ever mounted on this iconic... |
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Australia & the Pacific | |
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How Easter Island's statues walked |
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· 06/21/2012 3:47:03 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · · Cosmic Log · · Wednesday, June 20, 2012 · · Alan Boyle · |
Did Easter Island's famous statues rock, or roll? After doing a little rocking out themselves, researchers say they're sure the natives raised the monumental figures upright, and then rocked them back and forth to "walk" them to their positions. Their findings mesh with a scenario that casts the Polynesian island's natives in the roles of resourceful engineers working with the little that they had on hand, rather than the victims of a self-inflicted environmental catastrophe. "A lot of what people think they know about the island turns out to be not true," Carl Lipo, an archaeologist at California State University... |
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Biology & Cryptobiology | |
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Australians Find Huge Mega-Wombat Graveyard |
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· 06/21/2012 7:34:41 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 46 replies · · Gulf Times · · 6/22/2012 · |
Australian scientists yesterday unveiled the biggest-ever graveyard of an ancient rhino-sized mega-wombat called diprotodon, with the site potentially holding valuable clues on the species' extinction. The remote fossil deposit in outback Queensland state is thought to contain up to 50 diprotodon skeletons including a huge specimen named Kenny, whose jawbone alone is 70cm long. Lead scientist on the dig, Scott Hocknull from the Queensland Museum in Brisbane, said Kenny was one of the largest diprotodons he had ever seen and one of the best preserved specimens. Pigeon-toed and with a backward-facing pouch large enough to carry an adult human, Hocknull... |
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Geography is Destiny | |
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How geography shapes cultural diversity |
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· 06/11/2012 5:43:13 PM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 10 replies · · Nature · · 11 June 2012 · · Zoà Corbyn · |
Study offers evidence that long countries give better protection to languages than those that are wide. One reason that Eurasian civilizations dominated the globe is because they came from a continent that was broader in an east-west direction than north-south, claimed geographer Jared Diamond in his famous 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel. Now, a modelling study has found evidence to support this 'continental axis theory'.Continents that span narrower bands of latitude have less variation in climate, which means a set of plants and animals that are adapted to more similar conditions. That is an advantage, says Diamond, because it means... |
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Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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Deadly bubonic plague found in Oregon: Back to the Middle Ages? |
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· 06/17/2012 12:29:52 AM PDT · · Posted by Olog-hai · · 19 replies · · New Jersey Newsroom · · Saturday, 16 June 2012 11:00 · · Bob Holt · |
A man has been hospitalized in Oregon who is believed to be suffering from the black plague, a disease that killed about one-third of the population of Europe during the Middle Ages. The unidentified man in his 50s became ill several days after being bitten when he tried to get a mouse out of the mouth of a stray cat, according to OregonLive.com. The man was listed in critical condition in a Bend hospital on Tuesday. NZ Herald News reported that the man showed classic symptoms of the plague -- swollen lymph nodes in the groin and armpits. But doctors said he... |
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Epigraphy & Language | |
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New Indo-European Language Discovered |
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· 06/21/2012 5:14:04 PM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 12 replies · · Sci-News.com · · 6-19-2012 · · John Shanks · |
A linguistics researcher at the Macquarie University in Australia has discovered that the language, known as Burushaski, which is spoken by about 90,000 people who reside in a remote area of Pakistan, is Indo-European in origin. Prof Ilija Casule's discovery, which has now been verified by a number of the world's top linguists, has excited linguistics experts around the world. An entire issue of the eminent international linguistics journal the Journal of Indo-European Studies is devoted to a discussion of his findings later this month. More than fifty eminent linguists have tried over many years to determine the genetic relationship... |
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Navigation | |
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Roman jewellery found in ancient Japan tomb |
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· 06/22/2012 3:03:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · Nineman.com.au · · Friday, June 22, 2012 · · AFP · |
Glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb in Japan, researchers said Friday, in a sign the empire's influence may have reached the edge of Asia. Tests have revealed three glass beads discovered in the Fifth Century "Utsukushi" burial mound in Nagaoka, near Kyoto, were probably made some time between the first and the fourth century, the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties said. The government-backed institute has recently finished analysing components of the glass beads, measuring five millimetres (0.2 inches) in diametre, with tiny fragments of gilt attached. It... |
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The Roman Empire | |
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So what have the Romans ever done for us? Ireland's links with the Roman empire are being investigated in a new archaeological project in which science plays a large part |
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· 06/20/2012 6:42:38 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 40 replies · · Irish Times · · Thursday, February 16, 2012 · · Anthony King · |
Roman artifacts including coins, glass beads and brooches turn up in many Irish counties, especially in the east. Cahill Wilson investigated human remains... using strontium and isotope analysis and carbon dating. Remarkably, this allowed her say where they most likely spent their childhood. One burial site on a low ridge overlooking the sea in Bettystown, Co Meath, was dated to the 5th/6th century AD using radiocarbon dating. Most of the people were newcomers to the area, Cahill Wilson concluded. The clue was in their teeth. Enamel, one of the toughest substances in our body, completely mineralises around the age of... |
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Farty Shades of Green | |
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Did St. Patrick sell slaves to the Irish? |
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· 03/17/2012 3:03:31 PM PDT · · Posted by caldera599 · · 35 replies · · 1+ views · · MSNBC · · 3/16/2012 · · MSNBC Staff · |
LONDON -- St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, may well have been a tax collector for the Romans who fled to Ireland where he could have traded slaves to pay his way, according to new research by a University of Cambridge academic published on Saturday. The generally accepted account of the saint's life, albeit based on scant evidence, says Patrick was abducted from western Britain as a teenager and forced into slavery in Ireland for six years during which time he developed a strong Christian faith. Afterwards, the account continues, he escaped his captors and went back to Britain before... |
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Ancient Autopsies | |
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Bones of John The Baptist Possibly Discovered |
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· 06/16/2012 6:14:34 PM PDT · · Posted by Aliska · · 36 replies · · ABC News Online · · June 16, 2012 · · Russell Goldman · |
A team of researchers believe a knuckle bone found buried beneath a Bulgarian church may belong to John the Baptist, the New Testament prophet who heralded the ministry of Jesus. (Photo Included in article) |
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Religion of Pieces | |
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The Moslem Conquest (of India) |
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· 02/14/2004 6:33:32 PM PST · · Posted by ml/nj · · 82 replies · · 8,838+ views · · Our Oriental Heritage · · 1936 · · Will Durant · |
The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within. The Hindus ... had failed to organize their forces for the protection of their frontiers and their capitals, their wealth and their freedom, from the hordes of Scythians, Huns, Afghans, and Turks hovering about India's boundaries and waiting for national weakness to let them in. For four hundred... |
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Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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Meet Your Cousin, the First Lady: DNA gives new insights into Michelle Obama's roots |
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· 06/17/2012 6:14:05 AM PDT · · Posted by Cronos · · 44 replies · · The New York Times · · 17 Jun 2012 · · Rachel L Swarns · |
Joan Tribble held tightly to her cane as she ventured into the overgrown cemetery where her people were buried. There lay the pioneers who once populated north Georgia's rugged frontier, where striving white men planted corn and cotton, fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves The settlers interred here were mostly forgotten over the decades as their progeny scattered across the South, embracing unassuming lives. But one line of her family took another path, heading north on a tumultuous, winding journey that ultimately led to the White House The white men and women buried here are the forebears of Mrs.... |
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Meet Your Cousin, the First Lady: A Family Story, Long Hidden [Her White Forbears] |
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· 06/17/2012 10:28:28 AM PDT · · Posted by Steelfish · · 29 replies · · NY Times · · June 16, 2012 · · Rachel L. Swarns · |
Joan Tribble at the grave of her great-great-grandfather, Henry W. Shields, a Georgia slave owner who is also an ancestor of Michelle Obama. -- Joan Tribble held tightly to her cane as she ventured into the overgrown cemetery where her people were buried. There lay the pioneers who once populated north Georgia's rugged frontier, where striving white men planted corn and cotton, fought for the Confederacy and owned slaves. The settlers interred here were mostly forgotten over... |
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Michelle Obama's ancestors traced to Ulster slave owner |
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· 06/18/2012 2:16:58 AM PDT · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 43 replies · · The Belfast Telegraph · · June 18, 2012 · · Paul Melia · |
US First Lady Michelle Obama's ancestry can be traced to a slave owner from what is now Northern Ireland, who emigrated to America in the 1700s. A new book claims that Andrew Shields, who fought against the British in the American War of Independence, was Mrs Obama's great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather and his family were slave owners. Her great-great-great-grandmother Melvinia was a slave who had children by Charles Shields, grandson of Andrew Shields. One of those children, Dolphus Shields, born in 1859, was Michelle Obama's direct ancestor. The claims are made in American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors... |
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Early America | |
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Archives burst at seams with Maryland history |
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· 06/18/2012 4:40:04 AM PDT · · Posted by Tolerance Sucks Rocks · · 14 replies · · The Washington Times · · June 17, 2012 · · David Hill · |
Annapolis -- The Maryland State Archives collection is among the largest in the country with nearly 400 years of history, including Colonial-era paintings, keepsakes of the state's governors, and thousands of land, court and genealogy records. With all that history, the Archives has run out of space. The agency first filled its Annapolis headquarters to capacity in 2000, then leased and filled a warehouse. It leased a second warehouse and a third before brokering a deal to store some of its property at the Baltimore City Archives. All of the facilities are now full, and state archivists have been pushing... |
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The Revolution | |
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Washingtonianism -- The Father of his Country's vision for the American Founding |
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· 06/19/2012 2:54:22 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 14 replies · · City Journal · · Spring 2012 · · Myron Magnet · |
For we who believe that great men, not impersonal forces, make history, George Washington is Exhibit A. As the Revolution's commander in chief, president of the Constitutional Convention, and first president of the United States, he was luminously the Founding's indispensable man, in biographer James Flexner's pitch-perfect phrase. A pragmatic visionary -- that familiar American combination -- he conceived from his hard-won experience in the French and Indian War the central Founding ideas of an American union under a strong executive three decades before the Constitutional Convention, and his hardships in the Revolution led him to forge that vision into a plan. An ambitious... |
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The General | |
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James Madison Letter to General Washington |
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· 06/16/2012 12:52:03 PM PDT · · Posted by Jacquerie · · 32 replies · · The Constitution Society · · April 16th 1787 · · James Madison · |
Two hundred and twenty five years ago, and one month before the Philadelphia Convention, aka the Constitutional Convention, Congressional delegate James Madison responded to a letter from George Washington. He offered thoughts on his new plan of government, the Virginia Plan. Compared to the Articles of Confederation it was radical, yet it was structurally close enough to the mixed governments of the States to be familiar as well. It would emerge in modified form five months later as The Constitution of the United States of America.To George Washington New York, April 16 1787 Dear Sir, I have been honoured with... |
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The Framers | |
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George Washington's U.S. Constitution up for auction [today at New York City's Christie's] |
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· 06/22/2012 6:02:22 AM PDT · · Posted by ETL · · 27 replies · · Reuters · · June 13, 2012 · · Chris Michaud · |
(Reuters) -- A gold-embossed piece of U.S. history will go up for sale this month, when Christie's auctions off George Washington's personal copy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. The documents, which date to 1789 and are signed and annotated by the first U.S. president, are poised to fetch from $2 million to $3 million when they hit the block on June 22, the auction house said on Wednesday. The bound papers constitute Washington's personal copy of the Acts of Congress. These include the Constitution, whose preamble promises to "secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our... |
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Longer Perspectives | |
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Reagan Remembers Dr. Joseph Warren, hero at Bunker Hill (June 17,1775) |
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· 06/17/2012 6:10:01 PM PDT · · Posted by gusopol3 · · 18 replies · · revolutionarywaranimated.com · |
"On the eve of our struggle for independence a man who might have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, President of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans, 'Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of.... On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important questions upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves.'" Map animation of the battle fought today, 237 years ago. |
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The Second Amendment | |
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Arms and the Greeks |
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· 06/14/2012 9:13:24 AM PDT · · Posted by marktwain · · 17 replies · · davekopel.org · · August, 1999 · · David Kopel · |
The founders didn't conjure up the right to bear arms out of thin air. They learned its value from the founders of Western civilization. The creators of America's republican form of government did not make everything up as they went along. American political philosophy -- including the right to keep and bear arms -- was firmly grounded in historical experience and in the great works of philosophy from ancient Greece through 18th-century Britain. The Declaration of Independence was derived from what Thomas Jefferson called, "the elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Sidney, etc." What did Aristotle -- ... |
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Wild Wild West | |
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How the Wild West REALLY looked: Gorgeous sepia-tinted pictures ... |
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· 06/13/2012 12:22:33 AM PDT · · Posted by brityank · · 48 replies · · Daily Mail · · 25 May 2012 · · Rob Cooper · |
Gorgeous sepia-tinted pictures show the landscape as it was charted for the very first time. These remarkable 19th century sepia-tinted pictures show the American West as you have never seen it before -- as it was charted for the first time. The photos, by Timothy O'Sullivan, are the first ever taken of the rocky and barren landscape. At the time federal government officials were travelling across Arizona, Nevada, Utah and the rest of the west as they sought... |
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World War Eleven | |
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Germans recover Stuka bomber wreck from Baltic Sea |
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· 06/11/2012 1:43:47 PM PDT · · Posted by greatdefender · · 45 replies · · AP-Yahoo! · · June 11, 2012 · · David Rising · |
Berlin (AP) -- German military divers are working to hoist the wreck of a Stuka dive bomber from the floor of the Baltic Sea, a rare example of the plane that once wreaked havoc over Europe as part of the Nazis' war machine. The single-engine monoplane carried sirens that produced a distinctive and terrifying screaming sound as it dove vertically to release its bombs or strafe targets with its machine guns. There are only two complete Stukas still around. The Stuka wreck, first discovered in the 1990s when a fisherman's nets snagged on it, lies about 10 kilometers (6 miles)... |
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Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla |
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· 07/06/2006 7:02:41 PM PDT · · Posted by eleni121 · · 168 replies · · 2,380+ views · · NikolaTesla Memorial Society · · July 6, 2006 · · Me · |
The Nikola Tesla Monument within Queen Victoria Park, Niagara Falls (Canadian Side) will be unveiled on July 9, 2006 at 12 noon celebrating the 150th birthday of Nikola Tesla. |
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end of digest #414 20120623 | |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #414 · v 8 · n 49 Saturday, June 23, 2012 |
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29 topics |
Digest #414 is a prime one, with its 29 topics -- and we have but three more to go in the eighth year of the Digest. Lots of early America and modern or nearly-modern topics this week, some from the FRchives. You realize of course that the 4th of July is motoring up right now, right? That isn't about shootin' off fireworks.· 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: Remember in November.Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static, our hopesare in vain; if kinetic -- and this we know it is, for certain -- then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of Nature. -- Nikola Tesla [Experiments with alternate currents of high potential and high frequency, February 1892] |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #415 Saturday, June 30, 2012 |
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The Revolution | |
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MI: Washington honored soldier he sent to spy on British |
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· 06/24/2012 6:42:26 PM PDT · · Posted by SandRat · · 7 replies · · Sierra Vista Herald/Review · · Bill Hess · |
WASHINGTON HEADQUARTERS, NEWBURGH, N.Y. -- On Aug. 7, 1782, General George Washington issued an order for the establishment of The Badge of Military Merit. Part of his order for the badge's creation was it would be in the shape of a heart and made of purple cloth on which the word merit would be embroidered. It was to be worn on the left breast of the recipient. Only three are known to have been awarded by Washington, all in 1783 at his Newburgh headquarters with one on display at the New Windsor Cantonment. All involved bravery. Two were awarded for what... |
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Book containing George Washington's copy of Constitution fetches nearly $10M |
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· 06/23/2012 7:34:03 AM PDT · · Posted by ETL · · 24 replies · · FoxNews.com · · June 22, 2012 · · Maegan Vazquez · |
A book owned by George Washington and containing his own annotated copy of the Constitution sold for almost $10 million at Christie's, more than three times what it was expected to draw. A fierce bidding war between two unidentified parties forced the price up, and applause erupted in the venerable auction house when the hammer came down and the 223-year-old book sold for $9,826,500 to the Mount Vernon Ladies Association.The Acts of Congress volume includes a copy of the Constitution, a draft of the Bill of Rights, and acts creating the executive, State and Treasury department. The book was printed... |
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Early America | |
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Archaeologists Unearth Rare 17th Century Find at Jamestown Excavations |
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· 06/26/2012 9:44:52 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 18 replies · · Popular Archaeology · · Thu, Jun 21, 2012 · · Anon. · |
The pocket-sized ivory sundial likely belonged to one of the early English gentlemen colonists. It was discovered while archaeologists were carefully digging fill soil above a cellar dated to the early James Fort period (1607-1610) at Jamestown, Virginia, the site of North America's first successful English colony. The artifact was the lower leaf of an ivory pocket sundial known in the 17th century as a diptych dial. It clearly bore the name of its maker, Hans Miller, who was a 17th century craftsman known to have made sundials in Nuremberg, Germany. Like many objects found at the Jamestown excavations, it... |
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The Civil War | |
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Sallie, Mascot of the 11th Pennsylvania Volunteers |
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· 06/23/2012 5:18:40 PM PDT · · Posted by PaulZe · · 21 replies · · nycivilwar.us · |
It was during the first month of training in 1861 for the new 11th PA Volunteer Infantry Regiment when a stranger from town brought to the captain a puppy, barely four to five weeks old, and presented it to the regiment. She was a pug-nosed brindle bull terrier that soon won the admiration of all the men in the unit. She was cute, and the men named her after one of the local beauties in West Chester, PA, the site of training. In the weeks and months that followed, Sallie could count on the hundreds of uniformed men to play... |
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British Isles | |
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King's Lynn: Bronze Age burial pot find excites experts |
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· 06/27/2012 3:00:46 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · Lynn News (UK) · · Friday, June 22, 2012 · · unattributed · |
An exciting find of an intact Bronze Age burial urn has been made by a team of archaeological experts working on the site of a new link road under construction at Lynn. The team had already unearthed Iron Age timber posts beside the route of the road which will take traffic from the A149 Queen Elizabeth Way to Scania Way on the Hardwick Industrial Estate, where the new Sainsbury's superstore is being built. Ken Hamilton, Norfolk County Council's senior historic environment officer, said now a collared urn, believed to contain cremated human remains from about 2,500 years ago, had been... |
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Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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Rome Icon Actually Younger Than the City |
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· 06/25/2012 7:49:47 PM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 10 replies · · Discovery News · · Mon Jun 25, 2012 · · Rossella Lorenzi · |
The icon of Rome's foundation, a life-size bronze statue of a she-wolf with two human infants suckling her, is about 1,700 years younger than its city, Rome's officials admitted on Saturday. The official announcement, made at the Capitoline Museums, where the 30 inch-high bronze is the centerpiece of a dedicated room, quashes the belief that the sculpture was adopted by the earliest Romans as a symbol for their city. "The new dating ranges between 1021 e il 1153," said Lucio Calcagnile, who carried radiocarbon tests at the University of Salento's Center for Dating... |
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The Roman Empire | |
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The Ivy League of Ancient Roman Gladiator Schools |
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· 06/27/2012 11:17:49 AM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 6 replies · · IO9 · · Jun 22, 2012 · · Keith Veronese · |
The Ivy League of Ancient Roman Gladiator Schools If you got sent back in time 2,000 years to ancient Rome, you probably wouldn't want to choose a career as a gladiator. After all, it was a messy existence, with a fairly low life expectancy. But if you were up to your eyeballs in debt, or wanted a chance at fortune or fame, you could break in at the top, by going to gladiator school. And four different Roman gladiator academies rose above the nearly 100 others, to become the best of the best. At these schools, you'd learn specific fighting... |
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Faith & Philosophy | |
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Yeshiva University Team Discovers the Arch of Titus Menorah's Original Golden Color |
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· 06/25/2012 4:50:54 PM PDT · · Posted by SJackson · · 9 replies · · Yeshiva University · · June 22, 2012. · |
From June 5 to 7, 2012 an international team of scholars led by the Yeshiva University Center for Israel Studies in partnership with the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma undertook a pilot study of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, the ancient civic center of Rome, Italy. The focus of attention was the Menorah panel and the relief showing the deification of Titus at the apex of the arch. The arch was originally dedicated after the Emperor Titus' death in 81 CE and celebrates his victory in the Jewish War of 66-74 CE, which climaxed... |
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Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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DNA clues to Queen of Sheba tale |
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· 06/23/2012 9:34:37 PM PDT · · Posted by Theoria · · 17 replies · · BBC · · 21 June 2012 · · Helen Briggs · |
Clues to the origins of the Queen of Sheba legend are written in the DNA of some Africans, according to scientists.Genetic research suggests Ethiopians mixed with Egyptian, Israeli or Syrian populations about 3,000 years ago. This is the time the queen, mentioned in great religious works, is said to have ruled the kingdom of Sheba. The research, published in The American Journal of Human Genetics, also sheds light on human migration out of Africa 60,000 years ago.According to fossil evidence, human history goes back longer in Ethiopia than anywhere else in the world. But little has been known until now... |
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Egypt | |
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Egyptian Islamists Target Bikinis, Pyramids |
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· 09/02/2011 8:57:43 AM PDT · · Posted by bayouranger · · 35 replies · · investigativeproject.org · · Sept 01, 2011 · · IPT news · |
With the Egyptian economy already worsening since the revolution began in January, Muslim Brotherhood operatives are demanding stricter regulations on behavior and dress that could damage the country's tourism industry. The Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), which functions as the Brotherhood's political wing, wants to ban alcohol consumption on Egyptian streets and ban bikinis on the beach. "Beach tourism must take the values and norms of our societies into account," FJP Secretary-General Muhammad Saad al-Katatny told Egyptian tourism officials Monday. "We must place regulations on tourists wishing to visit Egypt, which we will announce in advance." For their part, Egyptian... |
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Religion of Pieces | |
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Iraq cuts US archaeology cooperation over Jewish archives |
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· 06/27/2012 3:46:20 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 16 replies · · Middle East Online · · Tuesday, June 26, 2012 · · Mohamad Ali Harissi · |
Iraq has cut cooperation with the United States on archaeological exploration because Washington has not returned Iraq's Jewish archives, Tourism and Archaeology Minister Liwaa Smaisim has said. The fate of the archives, which were removed from Iraq following the 2003 US-led invasion, is a long-running point of contention between Washington and Baghdad, which has for years sought their return. Smaisim, a member of powerful anti-US Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's movement, said in an interview with AFP that Iraq will use "all the means" to pursue the return of the archives. "One of the means of pressure that I used against... |
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Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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UNESCO designates Church of the Nativity as endangered site (bad news) |
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· 06/30/2012 12:43:13 AM PDT · · Posted by Olog-hai · · 7 replies · · AP via Christian Science Monitor · · June 29, 2012 · · Dalia Nammari & Karin Laub, AP · |
The Palestinians on Friday persuaded the U.N. cultural agency to list the Church of the Nativity -- the place where Christians believe Jesus was born -- as an endangered World Heritage site despite misgivings by churches in charge of the basilica.The Palestinians hailed the nod by UNESCO as a step forward in their quest for global recognition of an independent Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in 1967. The centuries-old basilica is located in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank where the Palestinians have self-rule. UNESCO's decision was seen by them as validation of their rights to... |
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Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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Syria's stonehenge': Mysterious ruins in desert could be 10,000 years old |
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· 06/25/2012 12:56:29 PM PDT · · Posted by Fractal Trader · · 30 replies · · Daily Mail Online · · 25 June 2012 · · Rob Waugh · |
A mysterious ancient building in Syria, described as a 'landscape for the dead' could be as old as 10,000 years ago - far older than the Great Pyramid. But scientists have been unable to explore the ruins, unearthed in 2009, because of the conflict in the region. The strange stone formations were uncovered in 2009, by archaeologist Robert Mason of the Royal Ontario Museum, who came across stone lines, circles, and tombs in a near-lifeless area of desert. The strange stone formations were uncovered in 2009, by archaeologist Robert Mason of the Royal Ontario Museum, who came across stone lines,... |
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Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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ScienceCasts: The Surprising Power of a Solar Storm |
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· 06/29/2012 3:14:56 PM PDT · · Posted by tired&retired · · 8 replies · · NASA Science · · March 22, 2012 · · NASA Science · |
A flurry of solar activity in early March dumped enough heat in Earth's upper atmosphere to power every residence in New York City for two years. The heat has since dissipated, but there's more to come as the solar cycle intensifies. At 2:16 minutes into the video it very clearly says that the CO2 is one of the most efficient coolants in the atmosphere and that it reflected 95% of the radiation back into outer space. This entire series of videos is excellent. |
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Climate | |
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The Intriguing Problem Of The Younger Dryas -- What Does It Mean And What Caused It? |
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· 06/21/2012 10:11:38 AM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 40 replies · · watts Up With That? · · June 19, 2012 · · Guest post by Don J. Easterbrook · |
This is a follow up posting to Younger Dryas --The Rest of the Story!Guest post by Don J. Easterbrook Dept. of Geology, Western Washington University.The Younger Dryas was a period of rapid cooling in the late Pleistocene 12,800 to 11,500 calendar years ago. It followed closely on the heels of a dramatically abrupt warming that brought the last Ice Age to a close (17,500 calendar years ago), lasted for about 1,300 years, then ended as abruptly as it started. The cause of these remarkably sudden climate changes has puzzled geologists and climatologists for decades and despite much effort to find... |
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Epigraphy & Language | |
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Creative Individuals Travelled to the South Swedish Inland 9,000 Years Ago |
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· 06/26/2012 8:11:51 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · Science News · · Monday, June 25, 2012 · · U of Gothenburg, via AlphaGalileo · |
Despite its good ecologic status, there were no permanent settlements in the south Swedish inland 9,000 years ago. Yet the area was visited by people who wanted to express their individuality and creativity and thereby gain status... Carl Persson's doctoral thesis in Archaeology is based on archaeological material discovered in connection with the construction of the E4 highway by Markaryd, Sweden. The finds consisted of a few very small pieces of flint that had been left behind in connection with visits to what used to be a small island in the outlet of a long-gone lake. The wear marks on... |
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Prehistory & Origins | |
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La Draga Neolithic site in Banyoles yields the oldest Neolithic bow discovered in Europe |
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· 06/29/2012 2:01:29 PM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 17 replies · · Phys.org · · June 29, 2012 · · Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona · |
Archaeological research carried out at the Neolithic site of La Draga, near the lake of Banyoles, has yielded the discovery of an item which is unique in the western Mediterranean and Europe. The item is a bow which appeared in a context dating from the period between 5400-5200 BCE, corresponding to the earliest period of settlement. It is a unique item given that it is the first bow to be found in tact at the site. According to its date, it can be considered chronologically the most ancient bow of the Neolithic period found in Europe. The study will permit... |
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Complex Thinking Behind the Bow and Arrow |
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· 06/26/2012 8:18:46 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 32 replies · · Science News · · Monday, June 25, 2012 · · Universitaet Tubingen, via AlphaGalileo · |
Using archaeological finds and ethnological parallels, the two researchers reconstructed the steps needed to make a bow and arrows. These are complimentary tools -- separate, but developed interdependently. The bow is the controlling element, while the arrows can be used more flexibly and are interchangeable. About 2.5 million years ago, humans first used tools to make other tools then to make tools assembled from different parts to make a unit with particular qualities, such as wooden spears with stone spearheads (ca. 200,000-300,000 years ago.) The bow and arrow and other complementary tool sets made it possible for prehistoric humans to... |
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Agriculture & Animal Husbandry | |
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Oldest Pearl in Human History Found in UAE -- From a Grave |
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· 06/28/2012 4:30:02 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 10 replies · · Emirates 24/7 · · Thursday, June 28, 2012 · |
Researchers have discovered the world's oldest natural pearl in Umm Al Quwain, UAE, which is believed to be originated between 5547 and 5235 BC, Discovery News said in a report. The report said that the pearl was discovered not from the sea but grave. Researchers said that findings at local necropolis revealed that pearls were often placed on the deceased's face, often above the upper lip. The research was carried out by French researchers. The discovery suggests that pearl oyster fishing first started in Gulf Arab peninsula not in Japan - as previously believed by researchers. In 5,000 BC, half-drilled... |
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PreColumbian, Clovis, & PreClovis | |
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Ancient Text Confirms Mayan Calendar End Date |
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· 06/28/2012 4:34:15 PM PDT · · Posted by Perdogg · · 25 replies · · yahoo · |
A newly discovered Mayan text reveals the "end date" for the Mayan calendar, becoming only the second known document to do so. But unlike some modern people, ancient Maya did not expect the world to end on that date, researchers said. "This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," Marcello Canuto, the director of Tulane University Middle America Research Institute, said in a statement. "This new evidence suggests that the 13 bak'tun date was an important calendrical event that would have been celebrated by the ancient Maya; however, they make no apocalyptic prophecies whatsoever regarding the date." |
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Maya archaeologists unearth new 2012 monument |
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· 06/29/2012 7:28:41 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 13 replies · · PHYS.ORG · · JUNE 28, 2012 · · Tulane University · |
Archaeologists working at the site of La Corona in Guatemala have discovered a 1,300 year-old year-old Maya text that provides only the second known reference to the so-called "end date" for the Maya calendar on December 21, 2012. The discovery, one of the most significant hieroglyphic find in decades, was announced today at the National Palace in Guatemala. "This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy," says Marcello A. Canuto, Director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute and co-director of the excavations at the Maya ruins of La Corona. "This new evidence suggests that the 13 Bak'tun date... |
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China | |
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Pottery 20,000 years old found in a Chinese cave |
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· 06/28/2012 4:37:18 PM PDT · · Posted by Dysart · · 17 replies · · Newsvine.com · · 6-27-12 · |
Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, archaeologists say. The findings, which will appear in the journal Science on Friday, add to recent efforts that have dated pottery piles in east Asia to more than 15,000 years ago, refuting conventional theories that the invention of pottery correlates to the period about 10,000 years ago when humans moved from being hunter-gathers to farmers. The research by a team of Chinese and American scientists also pushes the emergence of pottery back to the last... |
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end of digest #415 20120630 | |
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