Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #146
Saturday, May 5, 2007
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Climate
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Civilization Depends On A Stable Climate
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/28/2007 6:01:17 PM EDT · 43 replies · 719+ views
Knox News | John Krist
Civilization depends on a stable climate By JOHN KRIST April 26, 2007 If you were to able to travel back in time 50,000 years, abduct a paleolithic hunter from a river valley in southern France and haul him back to 21st century America, would he stand out in a crowd? Depends on the crowd. He probably wouldn't blend in very well at the New York Stock Exchange. But dress him in shorts and flip-flops, hand him a backpack and he could probably stroll across any college campus in the country without attracting attention. Human beings who lived 500 centuries ago...
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Spanish Scientists Point At Climate Changes As The Cause Of The Neanderthal Extinction . . .
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/30/2007 6:04:45 PM EDT · 47 replies · 692+ views
Alpha Galileo | 4-30-2007
Spanish scientists point at climate changes as the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula30 April 2007 Climate -- and not modern humans -- was the cause of the Neanderthal extinction in the Iberian Peninsula. Such is the conclusion of the University of Granada research group RNM 179 - Mineralogy and Geochemistry of sedimentary and metamorphic environments, headed by professor Miguel Ortega Huertas and whose members Francisco JosÈ Jimenez Espejo, Francisca Martinez Ruiz and David Gallego Torres work jointly at the department of Mineralogy and Petrology of the University of Granada (Universidad de Granada [http://www.ugr.es]) and the Andalusian...
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Helix? Make Mine a Double
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Study: Prehistoric Man Had Sex for Fun
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Posted by cougar_mccxxi
On General/Chat 04/29/2007 6:54:15 PM EDT · 87 replies · 1,449+ views
Fox News | Sunday, April 29, 2007 | Unknown
He may have come down from the trees, but prehistoric man did not stop swinging. New research into Stone Age humans has argued that, far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun. Practices ranging from bondage to group sex, transvestism and the use of sex toys were widespread in primitive societies as a way of building up cultural ties.
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I Married a Neanderthal
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Posted by Diana in Wisconsin
On General/Chat 05/01/2007 9:30:29 PM EDT · 51 replies · 609+ views
JSOnline vis WAPO | April 30, 2007 | Marc Kaufman
(Scientist says modern humans, earlier species found camaraderie, and sometimes a mate, in each other) Researchers have long debated what happened when the indigenous Neanderthals of Europe met "modern humans" arriving from Africa starting some 40,000 years ago. The result was the disappearance of the Neanderthals, but what happened during the roughly 10,000 years that the two human species shared a land? A new review of the fossil record from that period has come up with a provocative conclusion: The two groups saw each other as kindred spirits and, when conditions were right, they mated.How often this happened will never...
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Prehistory and Origins
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Early Humans Dug for Food, Study Suggests
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/04/2007 12:08:43 PM EDT · 9 replies · 96+ views
LiveScience | May 1, 2007 | Ker Than
A 1999 analysis of teeth belonging to two species of hominids, Australopithecus aferensis and Paranthropus robustus, living 2 million years ago found chemical evidence that one-third of their diet consisted of grasses and sedges, or the meat of animals that ate such plants. The finding puzzled some scientists because the hominids had flat, thickly enameled molars best suited for chewing hard, brittle foods, not tough items like grass or meat. This discrepancy became known as the "C4 connundrum," named after the type of photosynthesis grasses and sedges use to create the unique chemical signature... Now researchers led by Nathanial Dominy...
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Ancient Europe
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How Europeans Got To Europe
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/04/2007 12:29:03 AM EDT · 27 replies · 564+ views
Discover Magazine | 4-23-2007 | Nicholas Bakalar
How Europeans Got to Europe 45,000-year-old carvings found in Russia by Nicholas Bakalar Carved bone and ivory tools, excavated in Russia, made by early humans more than 40,000 years ago. (Courtesy of A.A. Sinitsyn) It has been widely assumed that modern humans -- Homo sapiens -- first traveled out of Africa and settled in central and Western Europe before heading to Eastern Europe. That may not be the case. Recent finds from a site in Russia about 250 miles south of Moscow suggest that the first humans in Europe were Eastern European.The discoveries include bone and carved ivory artifacts. Researchers calculated the date they were...
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Asia
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Stone Age Site Yields Evidence Of Advanced Culture (China - 36-44,000 YA)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/04/2007 2:24:03 PM EDT · 28 replies · 670+ views
China Daily | 5-4-2007 | Xinhua
Stone Age site yields evidence of advanced culture (Xinhua) Updated: 2007-05-04 20:48 Chinese archaeologists say they have uncovered strong evidence that Stone Age people in southern East Asia were at least as technologically advanced as their European cousins -- challenging the long-standing theory of "two cultures". Excavations at the Dahe Stone Age site, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, had revealed elaborate stone tools and instruments that rivaled those of the Mousterian culture that existed at that time in Europe, said Ji Xueping, chief archaeologist at the site. Dated as 36,000 to 44,000 years old, the Dahe site has since 1998...
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Ancient Autopsies
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2500-year-old tomb uncovered
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/01/2007 11:50:37 AM EDT · 6 replies · 103+ views
PerthNow | April 30, 2007 | AFP correspondents in Beijing
The tomb in Lijia village in Jing'an county is believed to date back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 to 221 BC)... The discovery would provide valuable clues to the study of social customs, funeral rites and lifestyle in the area, Xinhua quoted archaeologists as saying... Archaeologists began protectively excavating the site in January to thwart grave robbers who had attempted to open the rare coffins. The coffins were not damaged but some cultural relics were removed from the site, according to local police. Some were later recovered, including bronze woodworking tools, lacquered spoons and wooden combs.
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Mesopotamia
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Epic Hero (Gilgamesh Saga)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/01/2007 7:20:40 PM EDT · 24 replies · 695+ views
Smithsonian Magazine | 5-1-2007 | Daqvid Damrosch
Epic HeroHow a self-taught British genius rediscovered the Mesopotamian saga of Gilgamesh -- after 2,500 years By David Damrosch In November 1872, George Smith was working at the British Museum in a second-floor room overlooking the bare plane trees in Russell Square. On a long table were pieces of clay tablets, among the hundreds of thousands that archaeologists had shipped back to London from Nineveh, in present-day Iraq, a quarter-century before. Many of the fragments bore cuneiform hieroglyphs, and over the years scholars had managed to reassemble parts of some tablets, deciphering for the first time these records of daily life in...
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Giza
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Pyramids of Giza in peril
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/04/2007 12:47:05 PM EDT · 10 replies · 72+ views
Toronto Star | Apr 30, 2007 04:30 AM | Oakland Ross
...the legendary Pyramids of Giza are endangered now -- and the agent of their peril is a gloomy Egyptian stable-owner by the name of Hesham el-Ghabri... "They forbid us to ride around the pyramids," grouses the owner of the TWA Stable ("Camel and Horse Riding")... "They accuse of us being terrorists. They say we are going to bomb the pyramids." "They" are high officials at Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities -- the government body responsible for administering the Pyramids of Giza along with the rest of this country's innumerable ancient monuments -- and they have not actually accused el-Ghabri and...
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Rome and Italy
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Ancient Roman Town Ruins Found In Bulgaria
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/01/2007 7:09:07 PM EDT · 14 replies · 394+ views
Novinite | 5-1-2007
Ancient Roman Town Ruins Found in Bulgaria 1 May 2007, Tuesday Archaeologists had to dig only 30 centimeters deep to uncover the stone foundations of the houses. photo by Bulgarian National Television. Bulgarian archaeologists have unearthed the remains of an early Roman town near the village of Gorsko Ablanovo, 30 kilometers south of Russe, Bulgaria's national television reported on Tuesday. Initial artefact finds include a bronze duck figurine of a previously unfamiliar design and a silver fibula, only the fifth documented find of its kind in Bulgaria. The stone foundations of the houses have been preserved well despite intensive agricultural...
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Bread, Circus, Gallon of Milk
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Ancient mosaic of the real Gladiator found
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 04/30/2007 12:24:30 AM EDT · 8 replies · 228+ views
Telegraph | Sunday, April 29, 2007 | Nick Pisa
A chance discovery by archaeologists has brought to light a mosaic nearly 2,000 years old depicting what may have been a real-life version of the Roman combatant played by Russell Crowe in the film Gladiator. The mosaic was found as Italian researchers carried out work on the spectacular Villa dei Quintili, south of Rome and home to the sports-loving Emperor Commodus. Commodus, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the film, was known to enjoy gladiatorial combat and had a small amphitheatre in which fighters would train, near the villa, which Commodus had seized after having its owners executed on a trumped-up...
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Gladiators' Graveyard Discovered
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/02/2007 8:55:16 PM EDT · 20 replies · 902+ views
BBC | 5-2-2007 | Monika Kupper - Huw Jones
Gladiators' graveyard discovered By Monika Kupper and Huw Jones BBC Timewatch Gravestones helped identify the site as a gladiator graveyard Scientists believe they have for the first time identified an ancient graveyard for gladiators. Analysis of their bones and injuries has given new insight into how they lived, fought and died. The remains were found at Ephesus in Turkey, a major city of the Roman world, BBC Timewatch reports. Gladiators were the sporting heroes of the ancient world. Archaeological records show them celebrated in everything from mosaics to graffiti. Motifs of gladiators are found on nearly a third of all...
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Greece
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The Parthenon Frieze
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 04/29/2007 1:18:11 AM EDT · 6 replies · 111+ views
Reed Library | 1996 | David L. Silverman
Joan B. Connelly's re-interpretation of the Parthenon frieze appears in the American Journal of Archaeology, AJA 100 [1996] 53-80. Here is an uncritical summary of her arguments, followed by a few questions... C's solution begins with the "peplos" panel on the east frieze. She holds that it represents the mythical king Erechtheus, together with his wife Praxithea and their three daughters. Our main Athenian source for this myth consists of the fragments of Euripides' play Erechtheus. One large fragment is preserved by the orator Lycurgus (Against Leocrates, 101) and another is preserved on papyrus (Sorbonne 2328 = Recherches de Papyr....
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Classical Treasures, Bathed in a New Light [ Met Museum, NYC, Roman and Greek classics ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/02/2007 1:13:52 PM EDT · 8 replies · 112+ views
New York Times | April 20, 2007 | Michael Kimmelman
The other day, apropos of the Metropolitan Museum's fine, new light-washed galleries for Greek and Roman art, a friend e-mailed to me a passage by Virgil. In it Aeneas, fleeing the Trojan War, arrives in Carthage and finds a temple for Juno under construction. He pushes open the temple's big bronze doors ("which made the hinges groan," Virgil reports) and "for the first time he dared to hope for life." He's astounded by the skill of the craftsmen and by the nobility and precision of a painting of the war. He starts to cry. "It was only a picture, but,...
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Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
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Lessons Of 'The 300'
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Posted by RDTF
On News/Activism 03/26/2007 9:36:58 AM EDT · 202 replies · 2,771+ views
Post-Gazette.com | March 25, 2007 | Jack kelly
A society that does not value its warriors will be destroyed by one that does. A low-budget movie with no recognized stars that presents a cartoonish version of an event that happened long ago and far away is a surprising box office hit. The movie is "The 300," about the battle in 480 B.C. at Thermopylae between Greeks and Persians. Its opening grossed more than $70 million, more than the next 10 highest grossing movies playing that weekend combined. "The 300" has been denounced by the government of Iran, and the battle it describes was cited by former Vice President...
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Epigraphy and Language
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Mycenaean and Hittite Diplomatic Correspondence: Fact and Fiction [ PDF file ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/03/2007 1:59:47 PM EDT · 7 replies · 123+ views
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | circa 2004 | H. Craig Melchert
I now regard as established that Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts refers to a Mycenaean Greek kingdom not located in Asia Minor. Those who wish to wait for the proverbial "smoking gun" may do so, but the circumstantial evidence is now overwhelming. The alternative hypothesis of Hajnal (2003: 40-42) of Ahhiyawa as a small city state of Cilicia is not credible. Hittite references show that Ahhiyawa was a formidable power influential in far western Asia Minor. I leave to others the problem of determining just which Mycenaean kingdom (or kingdoms) should be identified with the Ahhiyawa of the Hittite texts......
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Catastrophism and Astronomy
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Comets And Disaster In The Bronze Age
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/30/2007 7:38:09 PM EDT · 62 replies · 1,067+ views
British Archaeology | December 1997 | Benny Peiser
Comets and disaster in the Bronze Age Cosmic impact is gaining ground as an explanation of the collapse of civilisations, writes Benny Peiser At some time around 2300BC, give or take a century or two, a large number of the major civilisations of the world collapsed. The Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Early Bronze Age societies in Israel, Anatolia and Greece, as well as the Indus Valley civilisation in India, the Hilmand civilisation in Afghanistan and the Hongshan Culture in China - the first urban civilisations in the world - all fell into ruin at more...
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Whole Lotta Shakin'
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Bones Throw Light on 1755 Lisbon Quake
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 04/30/2007 12:19:29 AM EDT · 7 replies · 132+ views
Examiner | April 28, 2007 | Barry Hatton
It was a chilling discovery: a mass grave of human bones - skulls smashed and scorched by fire, dog bites on a child's thigh bone, a forehead with an apparent bullet hole... [T]he estimated 3,000 dead in the grave were victims of the earthquake that devastated Lisbon in 1755, and that this is the first mass grave of its kind ever found in the Portuguese capital... The quake, which included a tsunami and a fire that raged for six days, was one of the deadliest catastrophes ever to hit western Europe. It is thought to have killed up to 60,000...
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Splish Splash
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Was Bristol Hit By A Tsunami? (1607)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/30/2007 7:14:31 PM EDT · 15 replies · 495+ views
Science Daily | 4-30-2007 | University Of Chicago
Source: University of Chicago Press Journals Date: April 30, 2007 Was Bristol Channel Hit By A Tsunami? Science Daily -- On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of Britain's largest natural disaster, the author of Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard, reveals strong new evidence that the Bristol Channel was devastated by a tsunami on January 30, 1607. On that day, historical accounts describe a storm in the Bristol Channel, flooding more then 500 km2 of lowland and killing 2,000 people. "Despite the recent Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, tsunamis along most coastlines are currently viewed as an underrated hazard," write Edward...
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Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
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Chankillo Observatory, Peru
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/01/2007 11:44:35 AM EDT · 13 replies · 114+ views
Earth Observatory | April 2007 | Responsible NASA Official: Dr. Michael D. King
The Thirteen Towers were the key to the scientists conclusion that the site was a solar observatory. These regularly spaced towers line up along a hill, separated by about 5 meters (16 feet). The towers are easily seen from Chankillo's central complex, but the views of these towers from the eastern and western observing points are especially illuminating. These viewpoints are situated so that, on the winter and summer solstices, the sunrises and sunsets line up with the towers at either end of the line. Other solar events, such as the rising and setting of the Sun at the mid-points...
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PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
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Rare Skeleton, Jewels Found In Bolivia Pyramid (Tiwanaku)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/02/2007 8:38:33 PM EDT · 38 replies · 712+ views
Reuters | 5-2-2007
Rare skeleton, jewels found in Bolivia pyramid Wed May 2, 2007 9:46PM BST TIWANAKU, Bolivia (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered the 1,300-year-old skeleton of a ruler or priest of the ancient Tiwanaku civilization together with precious jewels inside a much-looted pyramid in western Bolivia. The bones are "in very good condition" and belong to either "a ruler or a priest," Roger Angel Cossio, the Bolivian archeologist who made the discovery, told Reuters on Wednesday. He said the tomb -- containing a diadem and fist-sized carved pendant of solid gold -- survived centuries of looting by Spanish invaders and unscrupulous raiders...
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Biology and Cryptobiology
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Ancient camel bones found in Arizona
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Posted by nypokerface
On News/Activism 04/28/2007 10:23:58 AM EDT · 40 replies · 869+ views
AP | 04/28/07
PHOENIX - Workers digging at the future site of a Wal-Mart store in suburban Mesa have unearthed the bones of a prehistoric camel that's estimated to be about 10,000 years old. Arizona State University geology museum curator Brad Archer hurried out to the site Friday when he got the news that the owner of a nursery was carefully excavating bones found at the bottom of a hole being dug for a new ornamental citrus tree. "There's no question that this is a camel; these creatures walked the land here until about 8,000 years ago, when the same event that wiped...
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Let's Have Jerusalem
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Unrecognized: The World's Oldest Monument (Jericho - Sultan's Hill)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/28/2007 6:22:13 PM EDT · 9 replies · 355+ views
Aawsat | 4-27-2007 | Osama al Eissa
Unrecognized: The World's Oldest Monument 27/04/2007 By Osama al Eissa Jerusalem, Asharq Al-Awsat- Approximately two kilometers away from Jericho's city center lies Tel es-Sultan (Sultan's Hill), the oval-shaped mound that the oasis of Jericho, the oldest city in the world, is famous for. The world's earliest settlement was located at Tel es-Sultan, which stands in the form of several layers of habitation that make up today's mound. And yet despite its importance and its ability to attract the world's greatest researchers, it is not included on the World Heritage List, which is precisely what the Palestinian Authority's Department of Antiquities...
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Middle Ages and Renaissance
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Armenia's Artistic Bridge From East To West
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/28/2007 6:11:50 PM EDT · 2 replies · 128+ views
IHT | 4-27-2007 | Souren Melikian
Armenia's artistic bridge from East to West By Souren Melikian Published: April 27, 2007A fragment of a capital from Dvin, 5th or 6th century. PARIS: It is not easy to display the art of a major culture left in tatters by organized physical destruction over centuries that reduced its territory to a tiny fraction of its historical dimension. What mostly survives is the art of religion, the hard-core to which the persecuted cling and carry away if portable. Otherwise it is fragments collected from ruins. Hence the title of the Armenian art show on view at the Louvre until May...
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Faith and Philosophy
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A Gospel Hoax? The Secret Gospel of Mark
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 04/30/2007 12:31:30 AM EDT · 8 replies · 398+ views
Biblical Archaeology Review | early 2007 | Scott Brown
Built into the side of a canyon in the middle of the Judean wilderness 12 miles south of Jerusalem, the Mar Saba Greek Orthodox monastery was founded in 439 A.D. In the accompanying article, author Scott Brown relates how Morton Smith, a Columbia University professor, found a late copy of a letter by the second-century Church Father Clement of Alexandria that quotes a longer version of the Gospel of Mark known as the Secret Gospel of Mark. The Secret Gospel was quickly questioned as a possible forgery, and some scholars demanded that Smith produce the manuscript for testimony. Smith, now...
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Oh So Mysteriouso
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Music Mystery Of Da Vinci Code Chapel Cracked (Rosslyn)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/30/2007 9:43:09 PM EDT · 69 replies · 1,544+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 5-1-2007 | Richard Alleyne
Music mystery of Da Vinci Code chapel cracked By Richard Alleyne Last Updated: 2:05am BST 01/05/2007 A Scottish church featured in The Da Vinci Code is embroiled in a fresh mystery of secret codes and heretical knowledge - but this one could be more than mere fiction. An ex-RAF codebreaker and his composer son say they have deciphered a musical score hidden for nearly 600 years in the elaborate carvings on the walls of Rosslyn Chapel. Rosslyn Chapel, theories connect it with the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant and the head of Christ The pair believe the tune...
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Musicians unlock mystery melody in chapel (Scottish Church featured in DaVinci Code)
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Posted by NYer
On News/Activism 05/02/2007 9:28:52 AM EDT · 35 replies · 815+ views
Yahoo News | May 1, 2007
A Scottish church which featured in the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" has revealed another mystery hidden in secret code for almost 600 years.A father and son who became fascinated by symbols carved into the chapel's arches say they have deciphered a musical score encrypted in them.Thomas Mitchell, a 75-year-old musician and ex-Royal Air Force code breaker, and his composer and pianist son Stuart, described the piece as "frozen music." "The music has been frozen in time by symbolism," Mitchell said on his Web site (www.tjmitchell.com/stuart/rosslyn.html) which details the 27-year project to crack the chapel's code."It was only a matter...
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Early America
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Remnants of Washington's house found near Liberty Bell
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Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 05/04/2007 12:38:05 PM EDT · 30 replies · 893+ views
PA Central Daily | May. 02, 2007 | Anon.
Archeologists digging at a site where George Washington and his slaves once lived have unearthed portions of the president's house, a "long-shot" discovery that is already changing ideas about how the house was built. Officials from Independence National Historical Park and the city announced Wednesday that a section of the kitchen wall as well the foundation walls from the main house had been unearthed at the site, about a block from Independence Mall. Documentation about the house had led archaeologists to believe it had a one-story kitchen, but this week's find shows that a basement lay below the kitchen, possibly...
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end of digest #146 20070505
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