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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #433 Saturday, November 3, 2012 |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Tsunamis in the Alps? A killer wave slammed medieval Geneva, a new study says... [500 A.D.] |
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· 11/01/2012 7:36:44 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · · National Geographic · |
Nearly 1,500 years ago a massive flood in Geneva reportedly swept away everything in its path -- mills, houses, cattle, even entire churches. Now researchers believe they've found the unlikely sounding culprit: a tsunami-like killer wave in the Alps. The threat, they add, may still be very much alive. (Video: Tsunamis 101.) Spurred by a huge landslide, the medieval Lake Geneva "tsunami" (technically defined as a seismic ocean wave) swamped the city, which was already a trading hub, according to a new study. Far from any ocean, the massive wave was likely generated by a massive landslide into the Rhone... |
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| Middle Ages & Renaissance | |
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| Saxon find in Lyminge has historians partying like it's 599 [Remains of great hall] |
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· 10/31/2012 3:32:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · · Guardian · |
The foundations of a spectacular Anglo-Saxon feasting hall, a place where a king and his warriors would have gathered for days of drinking and eating -- as vividly described in the poem Beowulf -- have been found inches below the village green of Lyminge in Kent. There was one last celebration by the light of flickering flames at the site, 1,300 years after the hall was abandoned, as archaeologists marked the find by picking out the outline of the hall in candles, lighting up the end-of-excavation party. Heaps of animal bones buried in pits around the edge of the hall... |
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| The Vikings | |
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| Evidence of Viking Outpost Found in Canada |
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· 11/03/2012 12:07:50 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · National Geographic · |
While digging in the ruins of a centuries-old building on Baffin Island (map), far above the Arctic Circle, a team led by Sutherland, adjunct professor of archaeology at Memorial University in Newfoundland and a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, found some very intriguing whetstones. Wear grooves in the blade-sharpening tools bear traces of copper alloys such as bronze -- materials known to have been made by Viking metalsmiths but unknown among the Arctic's native inhabitants. Taken together with her earlier discoveries, Sutherland's new findings further strengthen the case for a Viking camp on Baffin Island. "While... |
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| Epigraphy & Language | |
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| "Vinland Map" Parchment Predates Columbus's Arrival In North America |
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· 07/30/2002 11:11:50 AM PDT · · Posted by sourcery · · 35 replies · · 228+ views · · ScienceDaily · |
Scientists from the University of Arizona, the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, and the Smithsonian Institution have used carbon-dating technology to determine the age of a controversial parchment that might be the first-ever map of North America. In a paper to be published in the July 2002 issue of the journal Radiocarbon, the scientists conclude that the so-called "Vinland Map" parchment dates to approximately 1434 A.D., or nearly 60 years before Christopher Columbus set foot in the West Indies. "Many scholars have agreed that if the Vinland Map is authentic, it is the first known cartographic representation of... |
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| The Phoenicians | |
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| Carthage: Ancient Phoenician City-State |
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· 10/29/2012 6:15:57 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · · LiveScience · |
The Phoenicians were originally based in a series of city-states that extended from southeast Turkey to modern-day Israel. They were great seafarers with a taste for exploration. Accounts survive of its navigators reaching places as far afield as Northern Europe and West Africa. They founded settlements throughout the Mediterranean during the first millennium B.C. Carthage, whose Phoenician name was Qart Hadasht (new city), was one of those new settlements. It sat astride trade routes going east to west, across the Mediterranean, and north to south, between Europe and Africa. The people spoke Punic, a form of the Phoenician language... The... |
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| Roman Empire | |
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| Caesar, the Orchid Chief |
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· 10/29/2012 2:02:37 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · · ScienceNOW · |
Turns out the early Romans were wild about orchids. A careful study of ancient artifacts in Italy has pushed back the earliest documented appearance of the showy and highly symbolic flowers in Western art from Renaissance to Roman times. In fact, the researchers say, the orchid's popularity in public art appeared to wilt with the arrival of Christianity, perhaps because of its associations with sexuality... A few years ago, botanist Giulia Caneva of the University of Rome (Roma Tre) set out to change that. Working with several graduate students, she began assembling a database of Italian artifacts, including paintings, textiles,... |
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| British Isles | |
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| Penis-Shaped Bone & Lover's Bust Among Trove of Roman Art |
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· 10/29/2012 1:11:46 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 20 replies · · LiveScience · |
Amateurs using metal detectors have discovered a trove of Roman artifacts, including a bust possibly depicting a male lover of a Roman emperor, a silver and gold brooch of a leaping dolphin and a penis-shaped animal bone. The wide array of art, found across Britain, dates back about 1,600 to 2,000 years, when the Romans ruled the island. This art is among almost 25,000 Roman artifacts (the bulk of them coins) reported in England and Wales in 2011. They were documented as part of the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and published recently in the journal Britannia. In the journal article,... |
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| Megaliths & Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Neolithic monument unearthed in Cornwall |
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· 11/02/2012 6:34:59 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · · Past Horizons · |
Archaeologists working at the site of the future Truro Eastern District Centre (TEDC) in Cornwall, southwest England, have discovered the fragmentary remains of a prehistoric enclosure built around 5,500 years ago... dating to the early Neolithic period (circa 3800 to 3600BCE)... ...Recent research in the British Isles indicate that causewayed enclosures were constructed within a relatively short time frame. The concept seems to have originated in mainland Europe spreading quickly through France, Germany, Scandinavia and into the UK. Using the latest in dating techniques along with statistical analysis of C14 results, it has been shown that causewayed enclosures in Ireland... |
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| Farty Shades of Green | |
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| Google Earth image finds ancient Irish settlement at Hill of Tara, 4,000 year old site... |
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· 11/02/2012 7:36:42 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · · IrishCentral · |
A Dublin lecturer has discovered an unknown prehistoric site at the Hill of Tara -- without even leaving his desk! Aidan O'Sullivan uncovered the 4,000 year old enclosure thanks to Google Earth. The University College Dublin lecturer was preparing a presentation for his first year students when he noticed the site the traditional seat of Ireland's ancient kings. O'Sullivan was intrigued by the unfamiliar dark, circular feature in a field photographed by Google Earth. The Sunday Times reports that the lecturer was able to verify that the soil mark was a large embanked enclosure, dating back 4,000 years. The reports... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Egyptian Deity Pendant, Herodian Structure Fragment Found in Jerusalem Dig |
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· 11/01/2012 7:18:24 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · Popular Archaeology · |
While deep within excavations of an ancient Byzantine tower structure in the Ophel area of Jerusalem, a team of archaeologists, students and volunteers recently unearthed two important finds representing ancient times that were centuries apart. The first, only about one inch in length, was a small white necklace pendant made from faience... Originally green, the pendant was a figurine depicting the ancient Egyptian god Bes, a deity worshipped as a fertility god and protector of families and households, and in particular, of mothers, children and childbirth. The find is rare in that it is the first and only artifact of... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| The ancient town where they sliced their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up |
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· 10/31/2012 11:26:08 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 29 replies · · Daily Mail (UK) · |
Residents of what is thought to be Europe's oldest town cut their dead in half and buried them from the pelvis up, according to archaeologists. The newly discovered ancient settlement, thought to date back to 4700BC, is near the Bulgarian town of Provadia, about 25 miles from the country's Black Sea coast. Archaeology professor Vassil Nikolov led the dig which focused on the town itself and its necropolis, where the strange and complex burial rituals were discovered.... |
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| Europe's Oldest Prehistoric Town Unearthed in Bulgaria |
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· 11/01/2012 9:42:52 AM PDT · · Posted by Red Badger · · 13 replies · · www.novinite.com · |
Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have uncovered the oldest prehistoric town found to date in Europe. The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production. Its discovery in north-east Bulgaria may explain the huge gold hoard found nearby 40 years ago. Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC. That is about 1,500 years before the start of ancient Greek civilisation. The residents boiled water from a local spring and used it to create salt bricks,... |
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| PreColumbian, Clovis & PreClovis | |
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| Burke archaeologist challenges Smithsonian over Kennewick Man |
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· 11/02/2012 3:13:21 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 15 replies · · Crosscut · |
The discovery of Kennewick Man, the name given to the 9,200 year-old skeleton unearthed in southern Washington nearly a decade ago, has unearthed plenty of questions among anthropologists and tribal members about what Kennewick Man's life might have been like. To Burke Museum anthropological archaeologist Peter Lape though, the biggest question at hand is whether peer review, a time-honored scientific practice, is being ignored by leading forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, whose team has been the only one allowed to study Kennewick Man's bones since they were discovered in the mid-90s. Lape, the curator of achaeology at the Burke Museum and... |
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| The Peaceful Savage | |
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| The DNA of Aztec conquest: Genetic evidence tracks missing inhabitants of Mexican city |
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· 11/03/2012 11:36:55 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · Nature · |
Mata-Míguez and his colleagues sampled mitochondrial DNA from 25 bodies recovered from patios outside excavated Xaltocan houses. The remains dated from between 1240 and 1521, and so acted as markers of the population before and after the occupation. It turned out that the DNA in the pre-conquest samples did not match those of the post-conquest ones, indicating that a new biological influence came with cultural overthrow. The team concedes that its sample is small and may not be entirely representative of the historical conquest. "We originally thought the question was simply a matter of whether the population was replaced or... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Europeans may not have been deadly as thought to Aztecs |
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· 10/15/2006 7:13:00 AM PDT · · Posted by SwinneySwitch · · 34 replies · · 1,663+ views · · San Antonio Express- News/ Houston Chronicle · |
MEXICO CITY -- Here's what history tells us about the Spanish conquest of this country: Armed with modern weapons and old world diseases, several hundred Spanish soldiers toppled the Aztec empire in 1521. And by the end of the century, the invaders' guns, steel and germs had wiped out 90 percent of the natives. It's a key piece of the "Black Legend," the tales of atrocities committed by the Spanish Inquisition and colonizers of the New World. But it may be just that -- legend, according to Rodolfo AcuÃ’a-Soto, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist. He argues that an unknown indigenous hemorrhagic fever... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Previously Unknown Population Explosion of Human Species 40,000 Years Ago |
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· 10/31/2012 1:10:13 AM PDT · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 23 replies · · Daily Galaxy · |
DNA sequencing of 36 complete Y chromosomes has uncovered a previously unknown population explosion that occurred 40 to 50 thousand years ago, between the first expansion of modern humans out of Africa 60 to 70 thousand years ago and the Neolithic expansions of people in several parts of the world starting 10 thousand years ago. This is the first time researchers have used the information from large-scale DNA sequencing to create an accurate family tree of the Y chromosome, from which the inferences about human population history could be made. "We have always considered the expansion of humans out of... |
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal | |
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| Neanderthals smart enough to copy humans [from the UK of course] |
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· 10/31/2012 4:29:30 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · · Nature (UK of course) · |
In 2010, Thomas Higham, an archaeologist at the University of Oxford, UK, and his colleagues used radiocarbon evidence to argue that the bones and tools were mixed together from higher and lower layers of the cave strata, representing different occupations of the site between 45,000 and 28,000 years ago. Some of the artefacts might have been created by modern humans but then settled down into the Neanderthal layers. Today, Jean-Jacques Hublin, an archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the fossils and... |
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| Genetic research confirms that non-Africans are part Neanderthal |
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· 07/18/2011 7:16:57 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 88 replies · · U of Montreal · |
Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution. "This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East. Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| OPINION: Is human longevity due to grandmothers or older fathers? |
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· 10/31/2012 2:08:41 AM PDT · · Posted by LibWhacker · · 13 replies · · UNSW · |
Why do humans tend to live such a long time? Our closest relatives, the chimpanzees, can last into their mid forties in the wild. Yet somewhere in the last six million years, human lifespans have lengthened dramatically, so that living into our seventies is no big surprise. The last few weeks have seen some exciting new developments in this area. First, a recent paper featured in The Conversation showed that at all ages, humans are less likely to die than chimps. Excitingly, however, modern health care, diets and the steady decline in violent deaths have slashed mortality rates of young... |
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| Prehistory & Origins | |
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| Early Human 'Lucy' Swung from the Trees |
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· 10/29/2012 2:12:45 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 28 replies · · LiveScience · |
Despite the ability to walk upright, early relatives of humanity represented by the famed "Lucy" fossil likely spent much of their time in trees, remaining very active climbers, researchers say. Humans are unique among living primates in that walking bipedally -- on two feet -- is humans' chief mode of locomotion. This upright posture freed their hands up for using tools, one of the key factors behind humans' domination of the planet. Among the earliest known relatives of humanity definitely known to walk upright was Australopithecus afarensis, the species including the famed 3.2-million-year-old "Lucy." Australopithecines are the leading candidates for... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Shark brains 'similar to those of humans' |
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· 10/30/2012 9:15:22 PM PDT · · Posted by null and void · · 15 replies · · The Telegraph · |
Shark brains have been found to share several features with those of humans -- University of Western Australia shark researcher Kara Yopak, who has dissected the brains of more than 150 species, said new studies of the great white shark's brain had revealed important similarities to human brains. "Great white sharks have quite large parts of the brain associated with their visual input, with implications for them being much more receptive to repellents targeting visual markers," Ms Yopak said of the research, published in a special edition of the journal Brain, Behaviour and Evolution. Most repellents now on... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Feathery Ostrich Mimics Enfluffle the Dinosaur Family Tree |
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· 10/28/2012 3:50:22 AM PDT · · Posted by Renfield · · 6 replies · · Smithsonian Magazine · |
Another week, another feathery dinosaur. Since the discovery of the fluffy Sinosauropteryx in 1996, paleontologists have discovered direct evidence of fuzz, feather-like bristles and complex plumage on over two dozen dinosaur genera. I love it, and I'm especially excited about a discovery announced today. In the latest issue of Science, University of Calgary paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky adds another enfluffled species to the dinosaurian ranks. Even better, the specimens raise hopes that many more dinosaurs might be preserved with their feathery coats intact. Zelenitsky's downy dinosaurs are not newly discovered species. Ornithomimus edmontonicus was initially described by famed bone hunter C.H.... |
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| Triassic Period | |
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| New flying fish fossils discovered in China |
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· 10/31/2012 3:55:36 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 26 replies · · BBC · |
Chinese researchers have tracked the "exceptionally well-preserved fossils" to the Middle Triassic of China (235-242 million years ago). The Triassic period saw the re-establishment of ecosystems after the Permian mass extinction. The fossils represent new evidence that marine ecosystems re-established more quickly than previously thought. The Permian mass extinction had a bigger impact on the earth's ecological systems than any other mass extinction, wiping out 90-95% of marine species. Previous studies have suggested that Triassic marine life developed more quickly than was once thought and that marine ecosystems were re-established more rapidly than terrestrial ecosystems... The fossils show an asymmetrical,... |
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| Early America | |
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| Frankenstorm: Skeleton found beneath storm-toppled tree in Connecticut |
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· 10/31/2012 1:20:04 PM PDT · · Posted by NYer · · 38 replies · · MainlineMedia · |
Photo courtesy New Haven Register A skeleton was found beneath storm-toppled tree outside New Haven, Conn. Hurricane turned Superstorm Sandy toppled a majestic old oak on the Upper Green (outside New Haven, CT) and intertwined in the dirt and roots was a human skeleton. |
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| Faith & Philosophy | |
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| Sistine Chapel at 500 Years: Threatened by Tourism |
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· 11/03/2012 5:01:19 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 22 replies · · Discovery News · |
Michelangelo's Sistine chapel frescoes are threatened by the effects of too many visitors, experts have warned on Wednesday, as the masterly painted ceiling celebrated its 500th anniversary... Many visitors just stare, tranfixed, at one of the most notable artwork ever created. Indeed, Pope Julius II and 17 cardinals reacted in the same way when the vaulted ceiling was revealed in all its blue glory on the Eve of All Saints, 31 October, 1512, during a vesper Mass. But others are "drunken tourist herds" disrespectful of the unique setting they are visiting, according to leading literary critic Pietro Citati. The "herds"... |
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| Pages | |
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| Navy Has Probably Found the Island of the Blue Dolphins Cave |
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· 11/02/2012 3:35:38 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · Curbed LA · |
Your pre-adolescent dreams have been dashed: some other person has found the supposed cave from Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins. To be fair, you were not quite as dedicated to the cause as Navy archaeologist Steve Schwartz, who scoured San Nicolas Island (one of the Channel Islands, controlled by the Navy) for more than 20 years for the cave that "was believed to be home to the island's most famous inhabitant, a Native American woman who survived on the island for 18 years, abandoned and alone," according to the LA Times (O'Dell based his story on her). Last... |
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| Prehistoric Art | |
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| CU profs being investigated for illegal fossil gathering in Utah |
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· 10/28/2012 12:12:59 PM PDT · · Posted by george76 · · 20 replies · · Boulder Camera · |
Two University of Colorado professors are being investigated by the Bureau of Land Management for taking fossils from a remote area of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah without a permit. The professors, who have not been named, and a group of students with them were breaking off slabs of rock containing fossils in a remote section of the monument in early October when a tour guide discovered them and informed them that what they were doing was illegal. The guide with Escape Goat Tours and Shuttle Service reported that the professors told him to mind his own business as... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Iraq's rich history tempts relic smugglers |
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· 11/03/2012 4:25:36 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · al-Arabiya · |
Iraqi police have confiscated scores of artifacts and arrested two smugglers in the southern Province of Dhiqar, al-Zaman news reported on Monday... The two smugglers in question have long been dealing in stolen relics. One police source was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity: "Interior Ministry forces in coordination with the Iraqi army seized 64 archaeological pieces as well as 114 bronze coins in a district of al-Fajir." The province of Dhiqar holds some of the most archaeologically precious excavation mounds in Iraq. Its historical treasures have turned it into a hub for smugglers and illegal diggers. Many of... |
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| end of digest #433 20121103 | |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #433 · v 9 · n 17 Saturday, November 3, 2012 |
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28 topics |
 28 topics, slow week, this is one day late, and I'm ill.· 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: Troll activity dropped to near-zero this week, and I'm happy about that. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #434 Saturday, November 10, 2012 |
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| Pages | |
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| Mugged by Ann Coulter |
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· 11/05/2012 4:24:56 PM PST · · Posted by UnapologeticConservative · · 19 replies · · On Line Opinion · · Tuesday, 6 November, 2012 · · Ben-Peter Terpstra · |
Thanks to Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama, Ann Coulter is now the author of nine consecutive New York Times bestsellers. And if that's not some kind of record, I don't know what is. Moreover, unlike the Clintons, the erudite author has written all of her books without a team of ghost-writers. In Mugged, we learn that Republicans fight racism and Democrats fight imaginary racism after the real battles have been won. For Coulter reminds us that: Republicans opposed slavery, Democrats protected slave owners; Republicans supported anti-lynching laws, Democrats protected lynching mobs, and so on. Or basically, key... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Obama and the Burden of History |
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· 11/07/2012 4:45:12 PM PST · · Posted by BfloGuy · · 10 replies · · City Journal · · 7 November 2012 · · Myron Magnet · |
Myron Magnet Obama and the Burden of History The president hastens -- and embodies -- American decline. 7 November 2012 "There is a great deal of ruin in a nation," Adam Smith calmly reassured a friend who despaired that the American defeat of General Burgoyne at Saratoga in the Revolutionary War meant that Britain was finished. A great deal of ruin, no doubt -- but not unlimited. Pondering President Obama's reelection, I can't help remembering that in the course of my adult life, the Britain I first knew half a century ago has run through its allotment of ruin and is now almost unrecognizably transformed from... |
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| Religion of Pieces | |
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| Muslims World Failures is not the West's Fault 'Islam Bigger Impact Than Imperlaism' |
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· 11/03/2012 4:46:21 PM PDT · · Posted by Lorianne · · 5 replies · · You Tube · · 26 October 2012 · · Niall Ferguson interviewed · |
video 8:11 |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Eisenhower Letters Hint at Affair With Aide |
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· 11/10/2012 6:27:40 AM PST · · Posted by Trapper6012 · · 5 replies · · New York Times · · June 06, 1991 · · By JOHN KIFNER · |
A previously unknown collection of wartime letters from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to his driver, Capt. Kay Summersby, appears likely to stir renewed debate over whether the two were lovers during the last year of World War II. Both General Eisenhower, who was married, and Captain Summersby initially denied the long-rumored romance. But in 1976, as she was dying of cancer, Miss Summersby published a second book of memoirs of the war years, "Past Forgetting: My Love Affair With Dwight D. Eisenhower," in which she described a passionate but frustrating affair with the Supreme Allied Commander. |
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| The Vikings | |
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| Should we keep the Vikings' stolen goods? |
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· 11/10/2012 7:20:49 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 2 replies · · Science Nordic · · Wednesday, November 7, 2012 · · Maj Bach Madsen · |
The National Museum of Denmark regularly receives objects that appear to be stolen goods from the Viking Age. Shouldn't these objects be returned to their original owners? Ranvaik's golden chest was made in Ireland or Scotland toward the end of the eighth century and originates from a church or a monastery. "Ranvaik owns this shrine" the inscription on the bottom reads, as a strong indication that it later came to belong to a noble Viking lady named Ranvaik. Archaeologists believe that the shrine, which can be admired at the Danish National Museum, is stolen property from the Viking Age. "Viking... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Ancient tomb of fifth dynasty princess discovered in Egypt |
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· 11/06/2012 4:19:19 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 18 replies · · One News Page · · Saturday, November 3, 2012 · · Stephanie Boyd · |
A 4,500-year-old tomb of an Egyptian princess has been discovered near Cairo, Egypt --- A princess's tomb dating from the fifth dynasty (around 2500 BC) has been discovered in the Abu Sir region near Cairo. Mohamed Ibrahim, Egypt's antiquities minister, announced the discovery on Friday. "We have discovered the antechamber to Princess Shert Nebti's tomb which contains four limestone pillars," he said. He described the pillars as having "hieroglyphic inscriptions giving the princess's name and her titles, which include 'the daughter of the king Men Salbo and his lover venerated before God the all-powerful'." The Czech Institute of Egyptology's... |
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| Tomb of Ancient Egyptian Princess Discovered in Unusual Spot |
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· 11/08/2012 11:09:40 AM PST · · Posted by Red Badger · · 16 replies · · www.livescience.com · · 11-08-2012 · · Staff · |
The tomb of an ancient Egyptian princess has been discovered south of Cairo hidden in bedrock and surrounded by a court of tombs belonging to four high officials. Dating to 2500 B.C., the structure was built in the second half of the Fifth Dynasty, though archaeologists are puzzled as to why this princess was buried in Abusir South among tombs of non-royal officials. Most members of the Fifth Dynasty's royal family were buried 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) to the north, in the central part of Abusir or farther south in Saqqara. (Saqqara holds a vast burial ground for the ancient... |
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| Greece | |
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| Is this the oldest d20 on Earth? |
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· 11/06/2012 5:10:07 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · · io9 · · Tuesday, November 6, 2012 · · Robert T. Gonzalez · |
Romans may have used 20-Sided die almost two millennia before D&D, but people in ancient Egypt were casting icosahedra even earlier. Pictured above is a twenty-faced die dating from somewhere between 304 and 30 B.C., a timespan also known as Egypt's Ptolemaic Period. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the gamepiece is held, the die was once held in the collection of one Reverend Chauncey Murch, who acquired it between 1883 and 1906 while conducting missionary work in Egypt. |
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| Thrace | |
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| Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Unique Gold Thracian Treasure |
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· 11/08/2012 5:26:22 PM PST · · Posted by Engraved-on-His-hands · · 12 replies · · Novinite [Sofia News Agency; Bulgaria] · · November 8, 2012 · · Staff · |
Bulgarian archaeologists have found a unique gold Thracian treasure in the famous Sveshtari tomb. The team, led by one of the most prominent Bulgarian experts on Thracian archaeology, Prof. Diana Gergova, from the National Archaeology Institute at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, BAS, made the discovery during excavations at the so-called Omurtag mount. The researchers found fragments of a wooden box, containing charred bones and ashes, along with a number of extremely well-preserved golden objects, dated from the end of the 4th and the beginning of the 3rd century B. C.. They include four spiral gold bracelets, and a number... |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| Ancient Supervolcano Affected the Ends of the Earth |
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· 11/08/2012 6:20:32 PM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 28 replies · · LiveScience · · November 5, 2012 · · Staff · |
About 74,000 years ago, the Toba volcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra erupted with catastrophic force. Estimated to be 5,000 times larger than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, it is believed to be the largest volcanic event on Earth in the last 2 million years. Toba spewed enough lava to build two Mount Everests, it produced huge clouds of ash that blocked sunlight for years, and it the left behind a crater 31 miles (50 kilometers) across. The volcano even sent enough sulphuric acid into the atmosphere to create acid rain downpours in the Earth's polar regions,... |
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| This Is the Way the World Ends? Volcanoes Could Darken World |
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· 06/06/2012 7:25:44 PM PDT · · Posted by presidio9 · · 59 replies · · ABC News · · June 6, 2012 · · LEE DYE · |
Are you worried about the end of life as we know it? Then don't just look to the sky for that catastrophic asteroid that could be heading our way. The end may come from right beneath your feet. Super-volcanoes have probably caused more extinctions than asteroids. But until now it has been thought that these giant volcanoes took thousands of years to form --- and would remain trapped beneath the earth's crust for thousands more years --- before having much effect on the planet. But new research indicates these catastrophic eruptions, possibly thousands of times more powerful than the 1980... |
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| Ancient Volcano's Devastating Effects Confirmed (Toba eruption and the following Ice Age) |
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· 12/04/2009 3:08:19 PM PST · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 30 replies · · LiveScience.com · · 12/4/09 · · LiveScience Staff · |
A massive volcanic eruption that occurred in the distant past killed off much of central India's forests and may have pushed humans to the brink of extinction, according to a new study that adds evidence to a controversial topic. The Toba eruption, which took place on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia about 73,000 years ago, released an estimated 800 cubic kilometers of ash into the atmosphere that blanketed the skies and blocked out sunlight for six years. In the aftermath, global temperatures dropped by as much as 16 degrees centigrade (28 degrees Fahrenheit) and life on Earth plunged deeper... |
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| Biology... | |
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| Previously unseen whale species washes up on New Zealand beach |
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· 11/06/2012 11:46:52 AM PST · · Posted by blueplum · · 30 replies · · LA Times · · 05 Nov 12 · · Jon Bardin · |
Not one but two specimens of the world's rarest known species of whale have been discovered on a New Zealand beach, according to a report published Monday in the journal Current Biology. The species, called the spade-toothed beaked whale, is so rare that before the find researchers weren't even sure if it still existed. The two whales washed up on Opape Beach in New Zealand's Bay of Plenty. At first scientists thought they were examples of a much more pedestrian species, the Gray's beaked whales, which are the most commonly beached whales in the region. But after undertaking a DNA... |
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| ... & Cryptobiology | |
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| Hikers Take Flight When What They Thought Was a Bear Resembles Bigfoot (Most Convincing Video Ever) |
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· 11/04/2012 8:49:53 PM PST · · Posted by lbryce · · 74 replies · · Grind TV · · November 4, 2012 · · Pete, Thomas · |
When the black bear you think you're looking at from a safe distance suddenly stands and begins to resemble bigfoot, and that creature stares directly at you, how do you react? The hikers who captured the accompanying footage recently in Utah's Provo Canyon seemed to act appropriately: They bolted through the woods, with the camera still running, to get as far away from the creature as possible. "We ran straight to the car after that, leaving our tent and everything behind. It's probably all still up there," states Beard Card, the YouTube user who posted the video. This is... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Ancient teeth show how big cats lived with bear dogs: Both species preyed on wild boar, horses |
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· 11/10/2012 5:48:07 AM PST · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · CBC News · · Wednesday, November 7, 2012 · · unattributed · |
New research has uncovered how saber-toothed cats and bear dogs managed to cohabitate peacefully more than nine million years ago. A team of paleontologists from the University of Michigan and the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Spain took tooth enamel samples from two species of sabre-toothed cats and one species of bear dog that had been unearthed at sites near Madrid. By analyzing the enamel and determining what the animals ate, the scientists were able to understand how they lived together in a woodland region... By analyzing what they ate, researchers surmised the leopard-sized cats and the bear dogs... |
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| end of digest #434 20121110 | |
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