[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #94 Saturday, May 6, 2006
Australia and the Pacific
Archaeologist Says Johor "Lost City" Does Not Exist
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 1:55:07 AM EDT · 1 reply · 29+ views Bernama | April 28, 2006 18:24 PM | "oh yes, we have no Bernamas" The "lost city" of Gelanggi or Linggiu, claimed to have been hidden in the jungles of Johor for more than a thousand years, does not exist, said an archaeologist in the National Heritage Department... The search was launched following a claim made by an independent researcher Raimy Che Ros that he had found evidence of the "lost city" after 12 years of research. The claim, published in a newspaper in February last year, created public excitement because Linggiu was said to be older than the Borobudur Buddhist temple in Indonesia built between 750 and 842 A.D. and Cambodia's Angkor Wat...
Asia
Kashmir bronzes in focus: four ninth century idols unearthed
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/01/2006 1:20:58 PM EDT · 8 replies · 125+ views The Hindu | April 28, 2006 | unattributed They depict Vishnu and Vaishnavi and were found at Zurhama... the first of its kind in Kupwara and bore testimony to the distinctive bronze art history of Kashmir, the earliest evidence of which was found in the southern Kashmir districts of Anantnag and Pulwama. The biggest of the sculptures, measuring 27 cm x 15 cm, was of Vaishnavi, seated cross-legged on a pedestal designed as a lotus. A second one, measuring 23 cm x 13 cm, was of Vishnu riding the Garuda. In addition, pottery pieces were found during a trial dig at the site. The finds are considered very...
India
Indus cities dried up with monsoon
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 10:20:20 AM EDT · 7 replies · 80+ views India Telegraph | Sunday, April 30, 2006 | G.S. Mudur The earliest settlement in the subcontinent with evidence of agriculture and domestication at Mehrgarh -- now in Pakistan -- is about 9,000 years old. This coincides with the peak intensification of the monsoon, the study said... The Arabian Sea sediments and other geological studies show that the monsoon began to weaken about 5,000 years ago. The dry spell, lasting several hundred years, might have led people to abandon the Indus cities and move eastward into the Gangetic plain, which has been an area of higher rainfall than the northwestern part of the subcontinent... About 1,700 years ago, the monsoon began...
Massive hunt for ancient manuscripts in Tamil Nadu [original was "TN"]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 10:26:20 AM EDT · 3 replies · 29+ views Zee News | Monday, May 01, 2006 | Bureau Report In ancient India, scholars used to pass on traditional knowledge orally down the generations. Later on, a written tradition also existed using a variety of writing media from granite slabs to copper plates, tree barks and most importantly palm leaves. The manuscripts chiefly written in three different scripts called the Tamil Brahmi, Vatteluttu and Drantha scripts are treasure troves holding answers to the age-old era. The National Mission for Manuscripts, the federal Ministry of Culture department together with the state's Development, Culture and Religious Endowment department have started a survey aimed at locating and documenting such historical manuscripts possessing literary,...
Epigraphy and Language
Significance of Mayiladuthurai find -- Links between Harappa and Neolithic Tamil Nadu
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/30/2006 6:01:01 PM EDT · 9 replies · 72+ views The Hindu | May 01, 2006 | T.S. Subramanian The discovery of a Neolithic stone celt, a hand-held axe, with the Indus script on it at Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu is, according to Iravatham Mahadevan, "a major discovery because for the first time a text in the Indus script has been found in the State on a datable artefact, which is a polished neolithic celt." He added: "This confirms that the Neolithic people of Tamil Nadu shared the same language family of the Harappan group, which can only be Dravidian. The discovery provides the first evidence that the Neolithic people of the Tamil country spoke a Dravidian language." Mr....
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Discovery Of A Cemetary To Unveil People's Migration Path (Iran)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/29/2006 3:35:18 PM EDT · 4 replies · 113+ views CHN | 4-28-2006 4/28/2006 2:30:00 PM Discovery of a Cemetery to Unveil Peopleís Migration Path Discovery of an ancient cemetery in Mazandaran Province connects the lives of its dead to those buried in Kharand cemetery in the nearby city of Semnan. Tehran, 28 April 2006 (CHN) -- Discovery of a 3200-year-old cemetery in Zarin Abad near Sari in Mazandaran province, revealed the migration path of those who were buried in Kharand historical cemetery in the nearby city of Semnan. Prior to this discovery, it was believed that cultural domain of the Kharand nomads only covered an area between Semnan plain and low heights...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Judas Saves; Why the lost gospel makes sense (Christopher Hitchens)
	Posted by churchillbuff On News/Activism 05/04/2006 1:20:30 PM EDT · 146 replies · 2,518+ views slate | Ap 13 06 | Christopher Hitchens the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? ...[snip] Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," . ...[snip] The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new light -- as the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was...
Dead Sea Scrolls photographer John Trever dies
	Posted by Borges On News/Activism 05/01/2006 9:42:52 PM EDT · 3 replies · 193+ views Daily Comet - AP | 5/1/06 John C. Trever, the American scholar who photographed the Dead Sea Scrolls in Jerusalem in 1948, has died, his family reported. He was 90. Trever died Saturday at his home in Lake Forest in Orange County, said his son, Albuquerque Journal political cartoonist John Trever. The younger Trever said it was by chance that his father happened to be in Jerusalem doing unrelated research when Father Boutros Sowmy brought several scrolls to the American School of Oriental Research in February 1948 that were said to have been found in a cave the year before by a Bedouin shepherd. Although he...
Prehistory and Origins
The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews
	Posted by white trash redneck On News/Activism 05/04/2006 10:03:48 AM EDT · 39 replies · 736+ views Barzan (Kurdish Newspaper) | 4 may 06 | kevin brook "The Genetic Bonds Between Kurds and Jews"by Kevin Alan BrookKurds are the Closest Relatives of JewsIn 2001, a team of Israeli, German, and Indian scientists discovered that the majority of Jews around the world are closely related to the Kurdish people -- more closely than they are to the Semitic-speaking Arabs or any other population that was tested. The researchers sampled a total of 526 Y-chromosomes from 6 populations (Kurdish Jews, Kurdish Muslims, Palestinian Arabs, Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, and Bedouin from southern Israel) and added extra data on 1321 persons from 12 populations (including Russians, Belarusians, Poles, Berbers, Portuguese,...
Ancient Egypt
King Tut, Totally Intact -- King Tut's Penis Rediscovered
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/04/2006 2:10:56 AM EDT · 49 replies · 665+ views Discovery News | May 3, 2006 | Rossella Lorenzi King Tutankhamun's rediscovered penis could make the pharaoh stand out in the shrunken world of male mummies, according to a close look into old pictures of the 3,300-year-old mummified king... Photographed intact by Harry Burton (1879-1940) during Howard Carter's excavation of Tut's tomb in 1922, the royal penis was reported missing in 1968, when British scientist Ronald Harrison took a series of X-rays of the mummy. Speculation abounded that the penis had been stolen and sold. "Instead, it has always been there. I found it during the CT scan last year, when the mummy was lifted. It lay loose in...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Ancient Volcano, Seeds And Treerings, Suggest Rewriting Late Bronze Age Mediterranean History (More)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/29/2006 3:24:20 PM EDT · 12 replies · 288+ views Cornell University | 4-28-2006 | Alex Kwan April 28, 2006Cornell study of ancient volcano, seeds and tree rings, suggests rewriting Late Bronze Age Mediterranean history By Alex Kwan Separated in history by 100 years, the seafaring Minoans of Crete and the mercantile Canaanites of northern Egypt and the Levant (a large area of the Middle East) at the eastern end of the Mediterranean were never considered trading partners at the start of the Late Bronze Age. Until now. Trenchmaster Vronwy Hankey and foreman Antonis Zidianakis excavate storage jars from the Minoan settlement Myrtos-Pyrgos. The jars were analyzed in the Cornell study using radiocarbon analyses. Cultural links between...
Ancient Greece
The Antikythera Mechanism (Computer - 56BC)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/30/2006 10:21:04 PM EDT · 32 replies · 1,012+ views Economist | 9-19-2002 The Antikythera mechanism The clockwork computer Sep 19th 2002 From The Economist print edition An ancient piece of clockwork shows the deep roots of modern technology WHEN a Greek sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck of a cargo ship off the tiny island of Antikythera in 1900, it was the statues lying on the seabed that made the greatest impression on him. He returned to the surface, removed his helmet, and gabbled that he had found a heap of dead, naked women. The ship's cargo of luxury goods also included jewellery, pottery, fine furniture, wine and bronzes dating...
Treasure (Archaeology) Dig Threatens Bosphorus Rail Link
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/02/2006 2:44:06 PM EDT · 11 replies · 418+ views BBC | 5-2-2006 | Sarah Rainsford Treasure dig threatens Bosphorus rail link By Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Istanbul The port has been uncovered at the site designated for a railway hub It's been called the project of the century: a mission to connect two continents with a $2.6bn rail-tunnel running deep beneath the Bosphorus Straits. The idea of linking the two sides of Istanbul underwater was first dreamt of by Sultan Abdul Mecit 150 years ago. See how the tunnel will cross the Bosphorus Now that Ottoman dream is finally being realised. But the modern version of that vision has hit a historical stumbling block. Istanbul...
Ancient Rome
Archaeologists discover unusual network of burial chambers in Rome
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/03/2006 1:16:28 AM EDT · 17 replies · 244+ views Catholic News Service | May 2, 2006 | John Thavis Archaeologists repairing a Roman catacomb have discovered an unusual network of underground burial chambers containing the elegantly dressed corpses of more than 1,000 people... The rooms appear to date back to the second century and are thought to be a place of early Christian burial. Because of the large number of bodies deposited over a relatively short period, experts believe a natural disaster or epidemic may have occurred at the time. The corpses, dressed in fine clothes embroidered with gold thread, were carefully wrapped in sheets and covered in lime. Balsamic fragrances were also applied, according to Raffaella Giuliani, chief...
Spain destroys lost Roman city for a car park
	Posted by gd124 On News/Activism 04/30/2006 7:38:05 PM EDT · 69 replies · 1,466+ views The Sunday Times | April 30, 2006 | Jon Clarke THE archeologists could barely hide their excitement. Beneath the main square of Ecija, a small town in southern Spain, they had unearthed an astounding treasure trove of Roman history. They discovered a well-preserved Roman forum, bath house, gymnasium and temple as well as dozens of private homes and hundreds of mosaics and statues -- one of them considered to be among the finest found. But now the bulldozers have moved in. The last vestiges of the lost city known as Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi -- one of the great cities of the Roman world -- have been destroyed to build...
Ancient Europe
A Preface to Paris: New Clues to the Roman Legacy
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 04/30/2006 5:58:25 AM EDT · 16 replies · 482+ views NY Times | April 30, 2006 | ALAN RIDING Charles Platiau/ReutersArchaeological work at a 2,000-year-old site in Sainte-GeneviËve must stop in June when construction begins on a university research building. PARIS, April 29 -- snip... This week, they were reminded of a far earlier Paris, one that was still called Lutetia. On a Left Bank hillside, which carries the name of Sainte-GeneviËve, the patron saint of Paris, French archaeologists have found remnants of a road and several houses dating back some 2,000 years to when Rome ruled Gaul. The New York Times On the Left Bank, scholars are studying a Roman road and ruins. snip... The significance of...
Ancient Navigation
Norwegian Team Embarks on 'Kon-Tiki' Trip - Tangaroa
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 04/29/2006 12:00:50 AM EDT · 22 replies · 366+ views ap on Yahoo | 4/28/06 | ap A Norwegian team that includes the Thor Heyerdahl's grandson paddled Friday into the Pacific Ocean to repeat the famed adventurer's journey aboard the balsa raft Kon-Tiki. "My personal motivation is to have a great adventure," 28-year-old Olav Heyerdahl told The Associated Press before he and five shipmates embarked for the trip across the Pacific on the balsa raft Tangaroa _ named for the Polynesian god of the ocean. In 1947, Thor Heyerdahl and his team sailed their primitive raft 5,000 miles from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days to support Heyerdahl's theory that the South Sea Islands were settled by...
Kon-Tiki tour draws to a close (Thor Heyerdahl just about dead)
	Posted by dead On News/Activism 04/17/2002 12:32:14 PM EDT · 23 replies · 329+ views Sydney Morning Herald | April 18 2002 One of the greatest adventure stories of all time is about to end with the death of a controversial Norwegian explorer. Thor Heyerdahl, skipper of the famous raft Kon-Tiki. Thor Heyerdahl, 87, who won worldwide acclaim in 1947 for his daring Kon-Tiki expedition, is greeting his demise with all the eccentricity with which he lived his life. Heyerdahl lapsed into a coma on Tuesday, a week after he started refusing food, water and medical treatment. The scientist and adventurer had been taken to the Santa Conora hospital on the Italian Riviera over Easter after becoming ill during a family gathering...
Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl Dies
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 04/18/2002 3:31:21 PM EDT · 13 replies · 127+ views Ananova | 4-18-2002 Adventurer Thor Heyerdahl dies Norweigian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl has died in his sleep in Italy, aged 87. He became famous for crossing the Pacific ocean from Peru to Polynesia on a balsa log raft in 1947. His book "Kon-Tiki" about the harrowing, 101-day feat made him world famous. Mr Heyerdahl stopped taking food, water or medication in early April after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour at a hospital near his family retreat in Italy. He spent his final days surrounded by family at Colla Michari, a Roman-era Italian village he bought and restored in the 1950s. His permanent...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Old Bones Are Telling New Tales (Son Of Kennewick Man)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/05/2006 3:01:01 PM EDT · 22 replies · 671+ views The State | 5-5-2006 | Sandi Doughton Old bones are telling new tales BY SANDI DOUGHTONMay 5, 2006 The Seattle Times ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Behind two locked doors at Central Washington University, what might be called Son of Kennewick Man sits inside a cardboard box. The faceless skull dates back 9,000 years - just 400 years younger than the superstar skeleton unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River. While Kennewick Man ignited a legal battle over the control of ancient bones, the skull at CWU has barely raised a ripple. "It just misses the mark in terms of people's interest," said CWU anthropology professor Steven Hackenberger....
Second Royal Tomb Discovered at Waka' (Site Q)
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 2:10:06 AM EDT · 2 replies · 73+ views Southern Methodist University | May 2006 | unattributed, Waka Homepage A major royal tomb has been unearthed beneath the principal pyramid in the western center of Waka'. The discovery was made by Dr. HÈctor Escobedo of Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, co-director of the Waka' Project, and his student, Juan Carlos Melendez. This marks the second royal tomb discovered at Waka'. In the spring of 2004, SMU archaeologist David Freidel and his students discovered a queen's tomb more than 1,200 years old and dating to the Late Classic period of Maya civilization. The new tomb was discovered in a different pyramid and dates to the Early Classic period between...
Oldest Maya Mural Uncovered in Guatemala
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 12/13/2005 3:05:10 PM EST · 47 replies · 1,058+ views AP on Yahoo | 12/13/05 | Randolph E. Schmid - ap WASHINGTON - Archaeologist William Saturno said Tuesday he was awe-struck when he uncovered a Maya mural not seen for nearly two millennia. Discovered at the San Bartolo site in Guatemala, the mural covers the west wall of a room attached to a pyramid, Saturno said at a briefing. In brilliant color, the mural tells the Maya story of creation, he said. It was painted about 100 B.C., but later covered when the room was filled in. "It could have been painted yesterday," Saturno said in a briefing organized by the National Geographic Society, which supported his work and will detail...
Archeologists discover Maya tomb, defy looters - El Peru Waka king
	Posted by NormsRevenge On General/Chat 05/03/2006 7:37:36 PM EDT · 7 replies · 43+ views Reuters on Yahoo | 5/3/06 | Mica Rosenberg EL PERU WAKA, Guatemala (Reuters) - Archeologists outsmarted tomb raiders to unearth a major Maya Indian royal burial site in the Guatemalan jungle, discovering jade jewelry and a jaguar pelt from more than 1,500 years ago. The tomb, found by archeologist Hector Escobedo last week, contains a king of the El Peru Waka city, now in ruins and covered in thick rainforest teeming with spider monkeys. He may have been the dynastic founder of the city, on major Mayan trade routes that could have stretched from the city of Tikal in Guatemala up through Mexico. "If this is indeed the...
Area Professor Breaks New Ground On Maya
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/28/2003 8:04:31 PM EDT · 28 replies · 265+ views San Antonio Express | 9-28-2003 | Roger Croteau Area professor breaks new ground on Maya By Roger Croteau San Antonio Express-News Web Posted : 09/28/2003 12:00 AM Findings by a Texas State University-San Marcos professor at an archaeological site in Belize have pushed back the date for the rise of the Maya civilization to 300 years earlier than previously believed. Anthropology professor James J. Garber has worked at the site, known as Blackman Eddy, each summer since 1990. Although smaller than many other Maya ruins, it was a major cultural center in the Upper Belize Valley. "I would say it's a very important finding," said Sandra Noble, executive...
A Mother Lode Of Jade Solves Maya Mystery
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/24/2002 10:14:54 AM EDT · 44 replies · 480+ views Seattle PI | 5-22-2002 | William J. Broad A mother lode of jade solves Maya mystery Hurricane exposes ancient mines Wednesday, May 22, 2002 By WILLIAM J. BROAD THE NEW YORK TIMES For half a century, scholars have searched for the source of the jade that the early civilizations of the Americas prized above all else and fashioned into precious objects of worship, trade and adornment. The searchers found some clues to the source of jadeite, as the precious rock is known, for the Olmecs and Mayas. But no lost mines came to light. Now, scientists exploring the wilds of Guatemala say they have found the mother lode...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
2 men discover what may be hemisphere's oldest seasonal calendar
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 12:15:49 PM EDT · 3 replies · 135+ views Orange County Register via Duluth News Tribune | Tuesday, May 2, 2006 | Tom Berg [S]omewhere between the lost Incan city of Machu Picchu and mountaintop observatories of Cerro Tololo, Chile, retiree Larry Adkins opened a mysterious e-mail from an old childhood pal. And suddenly, Adkins, 66, of Tustin was solving a 4,000-year-old riddle, wrapped around pyramids, buried temples, mummies and a dark-cloud constellation known as The Fox. The temple just may be the Western Hemisphere's equivalent of Stonehenge, an ancient calendrical device intended to mark the seasons by pinpointing the summer solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset. If Adkins and his friend's discovery stands up to academic scrutiny, "It would be the oldest...
Climate
Ice Ages Blamed On Tilted Earth
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/30/2006 7:35:48 PM EDT · 72 replies · 1,299+ views Live Science | 3-30-2005 Ice Ages Blamed on Tilted Earth By Michael Schirber LiveScience Staff Writer posted: 30 March 2005 In the past million years, the Earth experienced a major ice age about every 100,000 years. Scientists have several theories to explain this glacial cycle, but new research suggests the primary driving force is all in how the planet leans. The Earthís rotation axis is not perpendicular to the plane in which it orbits the Sun. It's offset by 23.5 degrees. This tilt, or obliquity, explains why we have seasons and why places above the Arctic Circle have 24-hour darkness in winter and constant...
Biology and Cryptobiology
This Could Be Your Oldest Relative . . .
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/30/2006 6:50:09 PM EDT · 47 replies · 1,057+ views Sunday Tribune | 4-29-2006 | Anna Cox This could be your oldest relative . . . April 29, 2006 By Anna Cox They lived more than two million years ago and almost 700 000 years apart. They belonged to the same species and they have finally been reunited at Maropeng at the Cradle of Humankind. In what has been described as an historic and important event by academics, the skull of Mrs, Mr or Ms Ples (the gender has not been agreed on) and the bones of the Taung child - a fossilised child's skull found in a quarry at Taung, in the North Western province -...
Multiregionalism / Replacement
Semi-News: Neanderthals Lived in Iranian Cave
	Posted by John Semmens On Bloggers & Personal 05/04/2006 3:45:18 PM EDT · 13 replies · 98+ views AZCONSERVATIVE | 28 Apr 2006 | John Semmens The latest excavations by an Iranian and French joint team at prehistoric caves of Kermanshah, west of Iran, revealed them to have been early settlements of Neanderthals who used to live there about 85,000 to 40,000 years ago. Current whereabouts any remaining Neanderthals are a matter of speculation. Nevertheless, many are convinced that they are now running the Iranian government.
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Archaeologists Debate Whether to Ignore the Pasts of Relics
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/02/2006 2:01:22 AM EDT · 3 replies · 54+ views New York Times | May 2, 2006 | Hugh Eakin As scholars grapple with the reality that a growing number of important works -- like the Ur-Nammu tablet and the recently unveiled Gospel of Judas -- lack a clear provenance, those ethics policies are the focus of heated debate. On one side are archaeologists and other experts who say that most objects without a clear record of ownership or site of origin were looted, and that the publication of such material aggrandizes collectors and encourages the illicit trade. On the other side are those who argue that ignoring such works may be even more damaging to scholarship than the destruction...
Jihad in the Days of Jefferson
	Posted by Super-Gung-Ho On General/Chat 05/04/2006 12:08:13 AM EDT · 16 replies · 401+ views The Jerusalem Post | Apr. 26, 2006 11:45 | Updated May. 1, 2006 7:19 | ERIK SCHECHTER Jihad in the days of Jefferson By Erik Schechter, The Jerusalem Post Apr. 26, 2006 Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation By Joshua E. London John Wiley & Sons 276pp., $24.95 A fledgling republic without a navy, the United States seemed ripe for the picking. In 1783, Muslim pirates - the sea-faring terrorists of their day - began attacking American merchant vessels in the Mediterranean, and the following year, the Moroccans captured a brig called Betsey and enslaved its crew. Soon afterwards, the ruler of Algiers declared war...
end of digest #94 20060506

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #94 20060506

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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #95 Saturday, May 13, 2006
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/11/2006 8:09:23 PM EDT · 85 replies · 1,648+ views ABC News.com | 11-27-2000 Ancient American Skeleton Has European DNA Link[Original headline: Sinkhole Skeleton Skeletonís DNA Could Shed Light on American Migrations] Vanlue, Ohio [AP] -- The discovery of prehistoric tools from an Ohio cave is one of several finds that has scientists questioning the identity of settlers thought to have moved in 11,000 years ago. A just completed excavation of Sheriden Cave in Wyandot County, 100 miles southwest of Cleveland, revealed tools made from flaked stone and bone. The items are scheduled to go on display next year at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Kent State University archaeologist Kenneth Tankersley, who led...
Old bones are telling new tales (Son Of Kennewick Man)
	Posted by Spunky On News/Activism 05/09/2006 11:16:39 PM EDT · 8 replies · 248+ views The Seattle Times | May 8th 2006 | Sandi Doughton ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Behind two locked doors at Central Washington University, what might be called Son of Kennewick Man sits inside a cardboard box. The faceless skull dates back 9,000 years - just 400 years younger than the superstar skeleton unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River. While Kennewick Man ignited a legal battle over the control of ancient bones, the skull at CWU has barely raised a ripple. "It just misses the mark in terms of people's interest," said CWU anthropology professor Steven Hackenberger. Nicknamed "Stickman" for the mythical beings some tribes believe once inhabited the Columbia plateau,...
Ancient Navigation
Archaeologist says Va. bolsters claim on how people got to America [ Solutrean ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/11/2006 1:09:18 AM EDT · 26 replies · 223+ views Richmond Times-Dispatch | May 11, 2006 | A.J. Hostetler The Smithsonian archaeologist pursuing the contentious claim that ancient Europeans fleeing the Ice Age settled in America says artifacts unearthed in the Chesapeake Bay region support his theory. Smithsonian Institution curator of archaeology Dennis Stanford argues that about 18,000 years ago, Solutrean hunters from the coasts of France, Spain and Portugal followed seals and other marine mammals for their fur, food and fuel across a partially frozen north Atlantic Ocean to the New World... "Pre-Clovis is a fact in North and South America," archaeologist Michael Collins of the University of Texas at Austin said this year at a symposium on...
Letter From Newfoundland: Homing In On The Red Paint People
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/09/2006 8:10:45 PM EDT · 45 replies · 645+ views Archaeology Magazine | 6-2000 | Angela M.H. Schuster Letter from Newfoundland: Homing in on the Red Paint People Volume 53 Number 3, May/June 2000 by Angela M.H. Schuster (Lynda D'Amico) Port au Choix, Newfoundland-- More than 5,000 years ago, this barren, sea-lashed coast was home to the Maritime Archaic Indians (MAI), who hunted and fished the coasts of Labrador and Newfoundland for more than 2,000 years. The first evidence of the Maritime Archaic culture was discovered more than 30 years ago when James A. Tuck of Memorial University of Newfoundland excavated 56 elaborate burials exposed during housing construction on a small promontory at Port au Choix, on the...
Epigraphy and Language
Mexico monolith may cast new light on Mesoamerica
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/09/2006 11:58:51 AM EDT · 35 replies · 275+ views Yahoo | Monday, May 8, 2006 | Reuters Findings at the newly excavated Tamtoc archeological site in the north-central state of San Luis Potosi may prompt scholars to rethink a view of Mesoamerican history which holds that its earliest peoples were based in the south of Mexico... Tamtoc, located about 550 miles northeast of Mexico City, will open to the public this week, while experts including linguists, historians, ethnographers and others study findings from the site to confirm their origins. The Olmecs are considered the mother culture of pre-Hispanic Mexico. Ruins of Olmec centers believed to have flourished as early as 1200 B.C. have been found in the...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Discovery Of Oldest Known Art And Agriculture Calendar In New World
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/11/2006 5:17:48 PM EDT · 10 replies · 371+ views Newswise | 5-11-2006 Discovery of Oldest Known Art and Agriculture Calendar in New World MU Researcher Unearths Earliest Known Western Sculptures and Astronomical Alignments in Peru's Temple of the Fox. Andeans Used Myth and Astronomical Markers to Determine Agricultural Calendar. Project Buena Vista unearths a personified disk flanked by foxes at the Temple of the Fox in Peru. Newswise -- In one of the most significant archaeological and anthropological finds in recent history, Robert Benfer, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has discovered the earliest astronomical alignments and sculptures in the round, which is a sculpture designed to be viewed...
Multiregionalism / Replacement
New Scientist : Many human genes evolved recently ( As recent as 15,000 years ago )
	Posted by SirLinksalot On News/Activism 05/08/2006 5:59:09 PM EDT · 82 replies · 1,008+ views New Scientist | 03/07/2006 | Melissa Lee Phillips Many human genes evolved recently 01:00 07 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Melissa Lee Phillips Human genes involved in metabolism, skin pigmentation, brain function and reproduction have evolved in response to recent environmental changes, according to a new study of natural selection in the human genome. Researchers at the University of Chicago, US, developed a statistical test to find genomic regions that evolution has favoured over the last 15,000 years or so -- when modern humans dealt with the end of the last ice age, the beginning of agriculture, and increased population densities. Many of the 700 genes the researchers...
Neanderthals And Humans: Perhaps They Never Met
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/08/2006 2:29:20 PM EDT · 34 replies · 1,204+ views Live Science | 5-8-2006 | Robin Lloyd Neanderthals and Humans: Perhaps They Never Met By Robin Lloyd Special to LiveScience posted: 08 May 2006 The number of years that modern humans are thought to have overlapped with Neanderthals in Europe is shrinking fast, and some scientists now say that figure could drop to zero. Neanderthals lived in Europe and western Asia from 230,000 to 29,000 years ago, petering out soon after the arrival of modern humans from Africa. There is much debate on exactly how Neanderthals went extinct. Theories include climate change and inferior tools compared to those made by modern humans. Anthropologists also disagree on whether...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Exploring The Wolves In Dogs' Clothing
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/10/2006 8:13:18 PM EDT · 64 replies · 909+ views BBC | 5-9-2006 | Helen Briggs Exploring the wolves in dogs' clothing By Helen Briggs BBC News science reporter Fox terrier (Canis familiaris) A boggle-eyed pooch tucked into a Balenciaga handbag; an elite greyhound tearing around the track in a flash of fur and claws; a sniffer dog on the trail of illicit drugs. Given that dogs come in every shape, size and colour, it is strange to think they are all wolves under the skin. According to DNA studies, domestic dogs owe their origins to a wolf cub that probably fell into the hands of humans some 40,000 years ago somewhere in Southeast Asia. Over...
Ancient Egypt
Cleopatra's gems rise from the deep
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 05/11/2006 9:14:37 PM EDT · 28 replies · 909+ views London Times | 5/11/06 | Roger Boyes Franck Goddio shows off one of the sculptures he found (Markus Schreiber/AP) Cleopatra's gems rise from the deepBy Roger Boyes Hundreds of priceless finds will shed light on 1,500 years of Ancient Egyptian history THE lost world of Cleopatraís palaces has been dug out of the muddy Mediterranean sea bed by a man dubbed the Underwater Indiana Jones. The results of Franck Goddioís excavations, comprising 500 priceless finds that shed light on 1,500 years of ancient history, will be put on public view today for the first time. President Mubarak of Egypt will open the exhibition in Berlin, and...
Ancient Greece
DIGGING TO BYZANTIUM: Turkish Tunnel Project Unearths an Ancient Harbor
	Posted by a_Turk On News/Activism 05/10/2006 12:17:53 PM EDT · 28 replies · 723+ views Der Spiegel | 5/10/2006 | N/A Workers digging a railway tunnel under the Bosporus Strait have uncovered the remains of a major Byzantine harbor that archaeologists say is a trove of relics dating back to Roman Emperor Constantine the Great. The deepest underwater rail tunnel in the world will link Istanbul's Asian and European halves and ease bridge traffic across the Bosporus Strait. It may also be delayed by excited archaeologists. The tunnel, when it's finished, will end in a shining new railway station, the largest in Turkey -- a train and subway link surrounded by a 21st-century shopping center. Modern Turkish planners, though, weren't the...
Fisherman Nets Ancient Statue in Greece
	Posted by NormsRevenge On General/Chat 05/08/2006 9:04:28 PM EDT · 11 replies · 171+ views AP on Yahoo | 5/8/06 | AP ATHENS, Greece - A Greek fisherman has handed over to authorities a large section of an ancient bronze statue brought up in his nets in the Aegean Sea, officials said on Monday. The male torso was located last week near the eastern Aegean island of Kalymnos, the Culture Ministry said in an announcement. The one-meter (3-foot) high find belonged to a statue of a horseback soldier, and would have been part of the cargo of an ancient ship that sank in the area. It was taken to Athens to be cleaned and dated. Together with the torso, the fisherman brought...
Ancient Rome
Sabine Chariot Rewrites History
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/12/2006 7:17:08 PM EDT · 10 replies · 279+ views Ansa | 5-12-2006 Sabine chariot rewrites history'Exceptional' find proves independence of ancient city (ANSA) - Rome, May 12 - An ancient king's war chariot found in a tomb near Rome has helped rewrite the history of the Romans and their Sabine rivals . "This chariot is an exceptional find," said archaeologist Paola Santoro. "It shows that the city of Ereteum remained independent long after the Sixth Century BC." "In other Sabine cities like Custumerium, conquered by the Romans, the custom of putting regal objects in king's tombs had died out by that time". "We can say that Eretum kept its independence until the...
Parking lot replaces historic Roman city [ Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi in Spain ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/08/2006 9:28:28 AM EDT · 11 replies · 81+ views United Press International | April 30, 2006 | unattributed Archeologists say the site contained a well-preserved Roman forum, bath house, gymnasium and temple -- as well as dozens of private homes and hundreds of mosaics and statues... The socialist local council says the remains never would have been found had the town not dug up the main square, Plaza de Espana, to build the car park in 1998, the newspaper said. Mayor Juan Wic said the parking lot is "essential for the commercial future of the square and city."
Asia
China Reports Discovery of Ancient City
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/10/2006 1:53:07 AM EDT · 12 replies · 128+ views Yahoo | May 9, 2006 | Associated Press The report said the ruins, near the present-day city of Ji'an, are believed to date to China's Han Dynasty in 202 B.C.-220 A.D. But Korea's Koguryo kingdom ruled the area at that time, and Xinhua said the city included tombs of Koguryo design. Another burial area found some 12 miles away on the reservoir floor has 2,360 tombs also believed to date from Koguryo, Xinhua said. The Koguryo kings reigned from 37 B.C. to A.D 668 over the Korean Peninsula and northeastern China. The era is regarded as one of the high points of Korean cultural and political power... The...
(Imperial-era) Tombs Found at China Olympic Site
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 05/08/2006 6:41:14 PM EDT · 5 replies · 186+ views AP on Yahoo | 5/8/06 | Christopher Bodeen - ap BEIJING - Work on a shooting range for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been suspended after the discovery of imperial-era tombs on the site, newspapers and an antiquities official said Monday. The tombs, found in mid-April, are believed to date back five to six centuries to the Ming dynasty, and may be those of eunuchs serving at the imperial court, the Beijing Morning Post said. Beijing has been the site of imperial and other capitals for more than 1,000 years, and many major building projects unearth gravesites or relics. Most are removed or destroyed before experts can examine them. A...
Buried relics uncovered at Angkor Wat.
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 07/21/2002 4:43:44 PM EDT · 12 replies · 250+ views Pacnews, Agence France-Presse (AFP) | 14:12:10 AEST | Editorial Staff Buried relics uncovered at Angkor Wat. Japanese archaeologists have made a rare underground find of relics at the temples of the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia. The archaeology team comes from from Sophia University, a Jesuit school in Tokyo. It dug up 103 pieces of Buddhist statues in mid-March, at Banteay Kdei temple, one of the dozens of temples built near the northern Cambodian town of Siem Reap between the 9th and 14th centuries. The pieces likely date back to the Angkorian period from the reign of Jayavarman VII, who ruled at the end of the 12th century. Cambodian...
India
Remains Of Past Emerge From The Dark - Ancient Buddhist Stupas Discovered In Bihar
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/08/2006 5:50:38 PM EDT · 8 replies · 288+ views Telegraph India | 5-7-2006 | Santosh Singh Remains of past emerge from the dark - Ancient buddhist stupas discovered in bihar districts SANTOSH SINGH A mound discovered recently at Turki in Biharís Vaishali district. Telegraph picture Patna, May 7: A forgotten chapter of ancient history is emerging, slowly and silently, in Bihar with Patnaís KP Jaiswal Research Institute identifying as many as 70 Buddhist stupas, 50 of which remain buried underground. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) approved project plans to document all the stupas by September this year, said director of the institute Vijay Chaudhary. Buddhist texts indicate that when the Buddha died, he was cremated...
Prehistory and Origins
Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly Modern Spine Supported Human Ancestor
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/07/2006 11:48:57 AM EDT · 23 replies · 406+ views Science News | 5-7-2006 | Bruce Bower Evolutionary Back Story: Thoroughly modern spine supported human ancestor Bruce Bower Bones from a spinal column discovered at a nearly 1.8-million-year-old site in central Asia support the controversial possibility that ancient human ancestors spoke to one another. WIDE OPEN. A recently discovered Homo erectus vertebra from central Asia (left) displays a larger spinal cord canal than does a corresponding bone (right) from a skeleton that had been found in Kenya. Meyer Excavations in 2005 at Dmanisi, Georgia, yielded five vertebrae from a Homo erectus individual, says anthropologist Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. The finds occurred...
Prehistoric site found in Jerusalem
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/10/2006 1:59:32 AM EDT · 12 replies · 145+ views Jerusalem Post | May 9, 2006 | Etgar Lefkovits Israeli archaeologists have uncovered a large concentration of stone utensils on the southeastern rim of the city which were used by prehistoric man hundreds of thousands of years ago... The reason for the stone-age settlement at the site was apparently its proximity to exposed rock from which the men made their tools, according to Omri Barzilai and Michal Birkenfeld, the two archaeologists heading the dig... Although history-rich Jerusalem is immersed in archaeology from the Biblical period onwards, archaeologists have previously found only two other sites in the city - near Mount Scopus and on Emek Refaim Street - that date...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Jordan site may be Biblical city of Sodom
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/11/2006 1:25:28 AM EDT · 16 replies · 199+ views El Defensor Chieftain Reporter | Wednesday, May 10, 2006 | Argen Duncan He is having a number of people, including New Mexico Tech scientists, examine the potsherd to determine what the glaze is. Material engineers at the site said it looks like Trinitite, the substance materials such as sand turn into when subjected to a nuclear blast. However, Collins said he isn't suggesting a nuclear blast hit the site. He doesn't know the cause, but suspects a comet strike or electrical event.
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (The Leper King)
	Posted by Hacksaw On News/Activism 05/08/2006 6:51:05 AM EDT · 8 replies · 411+ views Answers.com | undated | Answers.com Baldwin IV (Baldwin the Leper), c.1161¬ñ1185, Latin king of Jerusalem (1174¬ñ85), son and successor of Amalric I. Raymond, count of Tripoli, was regent from 1174 to 1176. Baldwin was constantly engaged, except for a truce (1180¬ñ82), in defending his kingdom against Saladin. In 1183 his leprosy began to spread very rapidly; he appointed Guy of Lusignan as his regent, but in the same year he withdrew the commission and had his five-year-old nephew crowned king as Baldwin V (d. 1186). Raymond was regent for Baldwin V, who was succeeded as king by Guy of Lusignan. Minority Baldwin spent his youth...
Ancient Europe
Fungus threatens famous prehistoric caves [ Lascaux cave paintings ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 05/12/2006 9:41:50 AM EDT · 6 replies · 55+ views Monsters and Critics | 10 May 2006 | UPI A white fungus is reportedly threatening the caves of Lascaux in France, in which the rock art has been called the 'Sistine Chapel of prehistory.' The fungus is believed to have been introduced in 2001 when contractors installed an air conditioning system to preserve the 17,000-year-old cave paintings from heat and humidity generated by visitors, The Independent reported Wednesday. Researchers told the newspaper the historical importance of the Paleolithic caves is immeasurable, since the cave`s paintings are an evolutionary icon for the development of human art and consciousness... Scientists are removing, by hand, visible filaments of the fungus -- a...
British Isles
Muggings Were Rife In New Stone Age
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/11/2006 2:50:02 PM EDT · 59 replies · 1,134+ views New Scientist | 5-11-2006 | Emma Young Muggings were rife in New Stone Age 11 May 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition. Emma Young IF YOU are worried about being attacked or killed by a violent criminal, just be glad you are not living in Neolithic Britain. From 4000 to 3200 BC, Britons had a 1 in 14 chance of being bashed on the head, and a 1 in 50 chance of dying from their injuries. Grisly figures from the first systematic survey of early Neolithic British skulls reveal that life then was no rural idyll. "It's certainly more violent than we'd considered," says Rick Schulting of...
Brutal lives of Stone Age Britons
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 05/12/2006 5:24:42 PM EDT · 31 replies · 734+ views BBC News | 5/11/06 | Paul Rincon A survey of British skulls from the early part of the New Stone Age, or Neolithic, shows societies then were more violent than was supposed. Early Neolithic Britons had a one in 20 chance of suffering a skull fracture at the hands of someone else and a one in 50 chance of dying from their injuries. Details were presented at a meeting of the Society for American Archaeology and reported in New Scientist magazine. Blunt instruments such as clubs were responsible for most of the traumas. This is not the first time human-induced injuries have been identified in Neolithic...
Roman Graveyard Found In Quarry (UK)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/11/2006 5:29:30 PM EDT · 12 replies · 505+ views BBC | 5-11-2006 Roman graveyard found in quarry The cemetery contains the remains of more than 100 people Archaeologists have unearthed a large Roman cemetery in a Gloucestershire gravel quarry. More than 100 people are believed to have been buried at the site, near Fairford, which dates back 1,600 years. It is thought the dead were interred according to their age, as children's bodies have been found in one area with adults in another section. Experts said the find is unusual because no big settlements are known to have existed nearby in the Roman era. Dr Alex Smith, Oxford Archaeology's project manager said:...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Big Breakup: That's The Way The Comet Crumbles
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/07/2006 12:14:17 PM EDT · 32 replies · 670+ views Science News | 5-7-2006 | Ron Cowen Big Breakup: That's the way the comet crumbles Ron Cowen Scores of telescopes are watching a comet fall apart, and the main show may be only beginning. The comet has already fragmented into at least 59 pieces and may continue to break up as it reaches its position closest to the sun on June 6. In mid-May, the chunks will venture within 11.7 million kilometers of Earthóthe closest any comet has come to our planet in 20 yearsóand the largest fragments should be visible with binoculars. Called Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, this body passes near the sun every 5.4 years and...
Relic of ancient asteroid found ..punched 160km-wide (100 miles) hole in the Earth's surface
	Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach On News/Activism 05/11/2006 1:42:29 AM EDT · 36 replies · 881+ views BBC | Wednesday, 10 May 2006, 17:10 GMT 18:10 UK | Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter A large fragment of an asteroid that punched 160km-wide (100 miles) hole in the Earth's surface has been found. The beachball-sized fossil meteorite was dug out of the 145-million-year-old Morokweng crater in South Africa. It is a unique discovery because large objects are widely believed to completely melt or vaporise as they collide with the planet. Writing in the journal Nature, an international team says the find will further knowledge on asteroid impacts. The Morokweng crater is one of the largest on Earth, and was formed at the boundary of the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Created by an asteroid...
Climate
Ancient die-off blamed on climate, not humans
	Posted by holymoly On News/Activism 05/10/2006 3:16:27 PM EDT · 28 replies · 467+ views MSNBC | May 10, 2006 | Bjorn Carey Failure to adapt to a drastically changing climate, and not overkill by humans or disease, most likely lead to the extinction of mammoths, wild horses, and other large mammals after the last Ice Age, a new study suggests. But this fresh take on an old argument might not be the final word. Dale Guthrie of the University of Alaska has added 600 radiocarbon-dated fossils to the established collection, and his examination reveals that mammoths and wild horses were in serious decline before humans arrived on the scene in Alaska and the Yukon Territory.
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
1918 Letter Claims Geronimo's Bones Found
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 05/08/2006 9:50:13 PM EDT · 44 replies · 784+ views AP on Yahoo | 5/8/06 | Stephen Singer - ap HARTFORD, Conn. - A Yale University historian discovered a 1918 letter that raises anew questions about a secretive Yale student society and the remains of the American Indian leader Geronimo. The letter, written by a member of Skull and Bones to another member of the society, purports that some of the Indian leader's remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club's headquarters. A portion of the letter and an accompanying story were posted Monday on the Yale Alumni Magazine's Web site. At one of the...
Yale Historian Finds Geronimo Clue
	Posted by Pontiac On News/Activism 05/09/2006 11:35:19 AM EDT · 24 replies · 754+ views AP via Breitbart.com | 5/9/06 | STEPHEN SINGER A Yale University historian has uncovered a 1918 letter that seems to lend validity to the lore that Yale University's ultra-secret Skull and Bones society swiped the skull of American Indian leader Geronimo. The letter, written by one member of Skull and Bones to another, purports that the skull and some of the Indian leader's remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club's headquarters. According to Skull and Bones legend, members _ including President Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush _ dug up Geronimo's grave when a...
Researcher Finds Letter Linking Geronimo, Secret Yale Society
	Posted by Warthogtjm On News/Activism 05/09/2006 1:16:27 PM EDT · 41 replies · 1,084+ views AP via FoxNews HARTFORD, Conn. -- A Yale University historian has uncovered a 1918 letter that seems to lend validity to the lore that Yale University's ultra-secret Skull and Bones society swiped the skull of American Indian leader Geronimo. The letter, written by one member of Skull and Bones to another, purports that the skull and some of the Indian leader's remains were spirited from his burial plot in Fort Sill, Okla., to a stone tomb in New Haven that serves as the club's headquarters. According to Skull and Bones legend, members -- including President Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush -- dug up Geronimo's...
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