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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #227
Saturday, November 22, 2008


Neandertal / Neanderthal
Were Neanderthals stoned to death by modern humans?
  11/20/2008 6:21:58 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 66 replies · 816+ views
New Scientist | Thursday, November 20, 2008 | Ewen Callaway
Human aerial bombardments might have pushed Neanderthals to extinction, suggests new research. Changes in bone shape left by a life of overhand throwing hint that Stone Age humans regularly threw heavy objects, such as stones or spears, while Neanderthals did not... Jill Rhodes, a biological anthropologist at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania... and a colleague studied changes to the arm bone that connects the shoulder to the elbow -- the humerus -- to determine when humans may have begun using projectile weapons... Studies of elite handball and baseball players suggest that frequent overhand throwing from an early age permanently rotates...
 

Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Archaeologists Try To Date The Brodgar Megaliths On Orkney
  11/15/2008 10:16:50 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 12 replies · 335+ views
24 Hour Museum | 11 Nov 2008 | Janis Mitchell
Archaeological excavations have continued this summer within 'The Heart of Neolithic Orkney' World Heritage Site. The Ring of Brodgar, the third largest standing stone circle in Britain and the Ness of Brodgar, its accompanying settlement site, have been the focus of an investigation funded by Historic Scotland and Orkney Island Council under the direction of Dr Jane Downes (Orkney College UHI) and Dr Colin Richards (Manchester University). This season saw the anticipated re-opening of Professor Colin Renfrew's 1973 trenches at the Ring of Brodgar, the impressive monument which is thought to be 4 to 4,500 years old although the date...
 

Antequera burial dolmen is 1,000 years older than previously thought
  11/18/2008 7:29:30 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 145+ views
Typically Spanish | October 20, 2008 | h.b.
The site has been carbon dated to be from 3900 B.C. by latest research. Carbon dating carried out on material at the entrance of the Menga dolmen in Antequera, Malaga in June 2006 has made the burial monument 1,000 years older than previously thought. The latest analysis dates the site at 3790 B.C. in Neolithic times and not dating from the Copper age as previously thought. Now Granada University professor, Francisco Carriû n, has confirmed second analysis carried out by Swiss investigators which confirms the date with two samples at 3790 and 3730 B.C. It places the Menga dolmen as unique...
 

Farty Shades of Green
Secrets from the grave
  11/17/2008 7:17:29 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 283+ views
Irish Times | Saturday, November 15, 2008 | Claire O'Connell
One of the quirkier discoveries at the megalithic site in Knowth is a series of inscriptions on stones that line the underground passages and chambers. A curious mixture of ogham scratchings and more modern "alphabetic" script, they seem to have been doodled around the eight century... "They are in fact vandalism or graffiti," says Francis J Byrne, professor emeritus of early Irish history at University College Dublin, who has studied the inscriptions in depth. "They date from a period when Knowth was in occupation as a royal site by early Irish kings of the Brega kingdom from around AD700 onwards."...
 

Anatolia
Ancient Group Believed Departed Souls Lived in Stone Monuments
  11/18/2008 7:04:41 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 195+ views
Newswise | Friday, November 14, 2008 | Source: University of Chicago
The inscription reads in part: "I, Kuttamuwa, servant of Panamuwa, am the one who oversaw the production of this stele for myself while still living. I placed it in an eternal chamber(?) and established a feast at this chamber(?): a bull for [the storm-god] Hadad, ... a ram for [the sun-god] Shamash, ... and a ram for my soul that is in this stele." It was written in a script derived from the Phoenician alphabet and in a local West Semitic dialect similar to Aramaic and Hebrew. It is of keen interest to linguists as well as biblical scholars...
 

Gobelki Tepe
Stone Age Temple May Be Birthplace of Civilization
  11/14/2008 7:46:29 PM PST · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 41 replies · 814+ views
foxnews.com | November 14, 2008
It's more than twice as old as the Pyramids, or even the written word. When it was built, saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths still roamed, and the Ice Age had just ended. The elaborate temple at Gobelki Tepe in southeastern Turkey, near the Syrian border, is staggeringly ancient: 11,500 years old, from a time just before humans learned to farm grains and domesticate animals. According to the German archaeologist in charge of excavations at the site, it might be the birthplace of agriculture, of organized religion -- of civilization itself.
 

Thrace
Bulgarian archaeologists unearth ancient chariot ( Swing Low Sweet...!)
  11/21/2008 11:16:25 AM PST · Posted by Candor7 · 10 replies · 316+ views
The Miami Herald | Nov 21, 12:32 PM EST | VESELIN TOSHKOV
Archaeologists have unearthed an elaborately decorated 1,800-year-old chariot sheathed in bronze at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Friday. "The lavishly ornamented four-wheel chariot dates back to the end of the second century A.D.," Veselin Ignatov told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from the site, near the southeastern village of Karanovo. But he said archaeologists were struggling to keep up with looters, who often ransack ancient sites before the experts can get to them. SNIP
 

Ancient Art
Colossus of Rhodes to be rebuilt as giant light sculpture
  11/18/2008 5:59:37 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 255+ views
The Guardian | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Helena Smith in Athens
It may not straddle the port as its predecessor once did, but in terms of sheer luminosity and eye-catching height the new Colossus of Rhodes will not disappoint. Nor will it fall short of the symbolism that once imbued the ancient monument. Twenty-three centuries after craftsmen carved the legendary statue that has inspired legions of painters, poets, playwrights and politicians, a new world wonder, built in the spirit of the original Colossus, is about to be born on the Aegean island. After decades of dashed hopes, the people of Rhodes will fulfil a long-held dream to revive one of the...
 

Greeks
Huge necropolis unearthed in Sicily [ Himera , 6th-5th c BC ]
  11/15/2008 5:04:05 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 380+ views
ANSA.it | November 11, 2008 | unattributed
Archaeologists working at the ancient Greek city of Himera in northern Sicily have uncovered what they now believe to be the largest Greek necropolis on the island... Hundreds of graves have already been uncovered but archaeologists believe there are thousands more waiting to be found in the burial ground of the city, which rose to prominence more than 2,500 years ago. "The necropolis is of an extraordinary beauty and notable dimensions," Sicily's regional councillor for culture, Antonello Antinoro, said Tuesday. "Preliminary estimates indicate the presence of around 10,000 tombs, which gives the site a good claim to being one...
 

It's a Dog Eat Horse World
Cynisca of Sparta
  11/17/2008 8:54:43 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 309+ views
American Chronicle | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Paul Cartledge
Apart from the running events and the combat events, which took place on or around the main stadium at Olympia, there were also equestrian events which were held in a separate hippodrome (literally, a course for horses, its location recently identified by infrared photography). The chief of these was the superelite four-horse chariot race. In these events alone could women enter -- though by proxy only, as owners of the chariots and teams of horses, not as the drivers (who were always men or boys). And so in 396 Cynisca entered her four-horse chariot-team -- and won. And she did...
 

China
Real life large bronze horse unearthed in Hubei [ Han Dynasty ]
  11/20/2008 7:53:30 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 349+ views
CCTV Live | Wednesday, November 19, 2008 | Editor: Liu Fang
An excavation of a tomb has unearthed the largest bronze horse ever discovered in an ancient ruin. The discovery was made in Xiangfan, in Central China's Hubei province. The bronze horse was found recently in a tomb from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. The dynasty dates back around 16-hundred years. The life-sized horse wears a spirited expression. Experts say the piece is beautifully cast. It is a work of primitive simplicity, characterizing the style of the Han dynasty. Although the hind quarters of the statue have been damaged, the work is expected to make an important contribution to the study of...
 

Asia
Mummies stir political row in China [Caucasian Mummies?]
  11/19/2008 2:13:56 PM PST · Posted by MyTwoCopperCoins · 16 replies · 935+ views
The Times of India | 20 Nov 2008, 0001 hrs IST | The Times of India
An exhibit in the museum in Urumqui gives the government's unambiguous take on the history of this border region: "Xinjiang has been an inalienable part of the territory of China," says one prominent sign. But walk upstairs and the ancient corpses on display seem to tell a different story. One called the Loulan Beauty lies on her back with her shoulder-length hair matted down her high cheekbones and long nose the most obvious signs that she is not what one thinks of as Chinese. The Loulan Beauty is one of more than 200 remarkably well-preserved mummies discovered in...
 

The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn't Care to Listen To
  11/19/2008 10:11:22 PM PST · Posted by fishhound · 15 replies · 621+ views
NYT | 11/18/2008 | Edward Wong
An exhibit on the first floor of the museum here gives the government's unambiguous take on the history of this border region: "Xinjiang has been an inalienable part of the territory of China," says one prominent sign. But walk upstairs to the second floor, and the ancient corpses on display seem to tell a different story. One called the Loulan Beauty lies on her back with her shoulder-length hair matted down, her lips pursed in death, her high cheekbones and long nose the most obvious signs that she is not what one thinks of as Chinese. The...
 

India
5 walled cities from 300 BC unearthed [ India ]
  11/15/2008 6:10:35 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 290+ views
India Express Buzz | Saturday, November 15, 2008 | PS Dileep
Andhras flourished during the time of Chandragupta Maurya much before the advent of the Satavahanas, and were said to be as powerful as Mauryans. They had 30 fortified walled cities way back in 300 BC, wrote the Greek traveller Megasthenes in his Indika. In what could be an exciting discovery, the State Department of Archaeology and Museums has identified five of those 30 walled cities. The Department has found physical evidence proving Megasthenes right and by the same token throwing light on the existence of Andhras and Telugu language before the Satavahana period. The study is part of a...
 

Faith and Philosophy
Modern attempts to revive the Use of Sarum (Suggestions for Catholic liturgical renovation)
  07/17/2006 11:14:29 AM PDT · Posted by pravknight · 14 replies · 607+ views
Civitas Dei | Fr. Anthony Chadwick
Most of my readers may be familiar with the fact that pre-reformation England had a number of diocesan uses and variations in the liturgy. It was the same in most European countries. The Use of Sarum became increasingly standardised in the early sixteenth century, and the Convocation of Canterbury imposed its use to replace the other uses in 1544. It was replaced by Cranmer's first Prayer Book in 1549. The Use of Sarum had a great deal in common with the Norman rites, such as those of Rouen and Bayeux, though Sarum kept some of the old Gallican and Celtic...
 

Herod the Great, et al
Israeli archaeologists unearth Herod family tombs
  11/19/2008 4:43:06 PM PST · Posted by decimon · 16 replies · 383+ views
Reuters | Nov. 19, 2008 | Allyn Fisher-Ilan
An Israeli archaeologist said on Wednesday he had unearthed what he believed were the 2,000-year-old remains of two tombs which had held a wife and daughter-in-law of the biblical King Herod. Other findings announced by Ehud Netzer of Jerusalem's Hebrew University provided new evidence of the lavish lifestyle of the Roman-era monarch also known as the "King of the Jews." Herod, a Roman-anointed king who ruled Judea from 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, has a special place in biblical history. Herod rebuilt the Jewish temple in Jerusalem, making him a focus...
 

King Herod Revealed: The Holy Land's visionary builder
  11/19/2008 4:55:19 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 320+ views
National Geographic | December 2008 | Tom Meuller
Herod was born in 73 B.C. and grew up in Judaea, a kingdom in the heart of ancient Palestine that was torn by civil war and caught between powerful enemies. The Hasmonaean monarchy that had ruled Judaea for 70 years was split by a vicious fight for the throne between two princely brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II. The kingdom was in turn caught in a larger geopolitical struggle between the Roman legions to the north and west, and the Parthians, historic enemies of Rome, to the east. Herod's father, the chief adviser to Hyrcanus and a gifted general, threw...
 

Southern Wall Of Jerusalem That Dates To Time Of Hasmonean Dynasty Discovered On Mount Zion
  11/17/2008 9:15:46 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 291+ views
ScienceDaily | November 11, 2008 | Israel Antiquities Authority
An exciting discovery in Jerusalem constituting extraordinary remains of the wall of the city from the time of the Second Temple (second century BCE-70 CE) that was built by the Hasmonean kings and was destroyed during the Great Revolt, and also the remains of a city wall from the Byzantine period (324-640 CE) which was built on top of it, were uncovered in an extensive excavation that is currently underway on Mount Zion. The lines of these fortifications delineated Jerusalem from the south in periods when the ancient city had reached its largest size... The lines of the wall that...
 

Judah and Samaria
The Stolen Past (West Bank Looting)
  11/19/2008 4:33:22 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 139+ views
National Geographic Staff | December 2008 | Karen Lange
The West Bank is a cradle of civilization, of farming and settled towns. It is also a crossroads of empires. Down its spine of low, stony hills marched the armies of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome. And for billions of Jews, Christians, and Muslims, it is sacred ground: the land Abraham sojourned in, Moses pressed toward, Joshua claimed, and David and Solomon ruled in glory; the place where God became flesh; the holy center to which the Prophet Muhammad took his mystical nighttime journey. Yet this priceless legacy is swiftly being lost. "Years from now, I don't...
 

Temple Mount
Was the Aksa Mosque built over the remains of a Byzantine church?
  11/16/2008 8:33:32 PM PST · Posted by Jet Jaguar · 18 replies · 490+ views
the Jerusalem Post | Nov 16, 2008 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The photo archives of a British archeologist who carried out the only archeological excavation ever undertaken at the Temple Mount's Aksa Mosque show a Byzantine mosaic floor underneath the mosque that was likely the remains of a church or a monastery, an Israeli archeologist said on Sunday. The excavation was carried out in the 1930s by R.W. Hamilton, director of the British Mandate Antiquities Department, in coordination with the Wakf Islamic Trust that administers the compound, following earthquakes that badly damaged the mosque in 1927 and 1937. In conjunction with the Wakf's construction and repair work carried out between 1938...
 

Let's Have Jerusalem
New evidence surfaces of David's kingdom
  11/17/2008 6:59:46 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 473+ views
SF Chronicle | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Matthew Kalman
On Tuesday, Hebrew University archaeology Professor Yosef Garfinkel will present compelling evidence to scholars at Harvard University that he has found the 10th century biblical city of Sha'arayim, Hebrew for "Two Gates." Garfinkel, who made his startling discovery at the beginning of this month, will also discuss his findings at the American Schools of Oriental Research conference hosted by Boston University on Thursday. Garfinkel believes the city provides evidence that King David ruled a kingdom from his capital of Jerusalem. Some modern scholars have questioned the biblical account of David's kingdom and even whether he existed. Although it is not...
 

Oldest Hebrew Text Discovered at King David's Border Fortress
  10/31/2008 9:37:34 AM PDT · Posted by Nachum · 8 replies · 524+ views
arutz 7 | 10-31-08 | Gil Ronen
Archaeologists have discovered what they say is the oldest Hebrew text ever found, at a site they believe was King David's front line fortress in the war against the people of Pleshet, also known as the Philistines. The site overlooks the Elah Valley, where the young David slew Goliath, the Philistine giant, with a well-aimed shot from a sling. The text is written in ink on a pottery shard. It is made up of five lines of text in Proto-Canaanite characters separated by lines. The discovery, by archaeologists Prof. Yossi Garfinkel and Sa'ar Ganor of Hebrew University, is being...
 

Epigraphy and Language
Exposing the 'Jesus' Brother' Fraud
  10/16/2008 8:58:00 AM PDT · Posted by presidio9 · 26 replies · 793+ views
Time | 10/16/08 | TIM MCGIRK
For as long as man has worshipped a god, there have been forgers, crafty hucksters who seize on a believer's desire to possess material proof of the divine. In Jerusalem, it is a bountiful trade. The old adage is that if all the splinters of the True Cross were gathered from across Christendom, it would yield a wooden crucifix the size of a Manhattan skyscraper. Even back in the Middle Ages, pilgrims visiting Jerusalem told of hawkers who sold counterfeit bones and relics of saints. But indisputable historical evidence that Jesus Christ, or any of the other Biblical prophets, truly...
 

Exposing the 'Jesus' Brother' Fraud [James Ossuary inscription]
  10/21/2008 5:09:28 AM PDT · Posted by Mike Fieschko · 6 replies · 220+ views
Time magazine book review of Unholy Business: A True Tale of Faith, Greed and Forgery in the Holy La | October 16, 2008 | Tim McGirk
The bone box, or ossuary, reportedly bearing the Aramaic inscription "Yaakov bar Yosef akhui di Yeshua" ("James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus") AFP / Getty [snip] After a two-year investigation, police in December 2004 charged the antiquities collector [Oded Golan] and four others of forgery, alleging that the James ossuary was a clever fake and that Golan had masterminded an international ring of thieves that over the past 20 years had duped major museums and collectors out of millions. Put on trial, Golan denied the charges .... [snip] The extraordinary story of how Israeli detectives built a case against...
 

Ancient Autopsies
How white were the Israelites? Facial reconstruction may be surprising
  11/17/2008 8:38:12 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 32 replies · 1,564+ views
Haaretz | November 15, 2008 | Ofri Ilani
The research, conducted with scientists from the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Investigation, was published in the German journal Anthropoligischer Anzeiger. Ben Yair used the skull of a male from the Hellenistic Period and a female from the Roman Period that had been discovered in the Dead Sea region. The researchers reconstructed gaps in the skulls and inserted false teeth. They measured the skulls and reconstructed the soft tissue based on earlier research. Using cutting-edge technology, they created two statues they say are quite accurate representations of early Hebrew man and woman. Not surprisingly, the appearance of the man is very...
 

Africa
Long-isolated Libya plans new archaeology drive
  11/19/2008 4:59:47 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 129+ views
Reuters | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | Tom Pfeiffer
Libya plans to invite the world's top archaeologists to unearth its ancient past as it tries to lure more tourists after decades in isolation, the head of the government's archaeology department said. With a central role in early human migration, the desert country on the Mediterranean is home to a multitude of ancient and prehistoric sites. Many are thought to remain undiscovered. But years of western sanctions tarnished Libya's image and only a few hundred thousand people visit the north African country each year, compared to over 8 million for neighbouring Egypt. "We will open our arms to the best...
 

Moderate Islam / ROP Alert
Rihab church sites closed; ministry says for 'preservation'
  11/15/2008 5:12:01 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 122+ views
Jordan Times | Sunday, November 16th, 2008 | Rula Samain
The government on Wednesday rejected as baseless rumours it intends to permanently close down two key Christian sites in the eastern town of Rihab. Community leaders in the town have been threatening to step up a protest they started after the archaeologist who discovered what is said to be the oldest cave church in the world was removed from his post as director of the former Rihab Archaeological and Research Centre, which is now called the Rihab Archaeological Project... The cave church lies under a 3rd century church and is said to have been a hidden worshipping place for early...
 

Ancient Christian Shrine Possibly Found in Jordan
  06/10/2008 3:03:34 PM PDT · Posted by AngieGal · 17 replies · 46+ views
Fox News | June 10, 2008 | Associated Press
Archaeologists in Jordan say they have discovered a catacomb underneath one of the world's oldest churches that may be an even more ancient site of Christian worship. Archaeologist Abdel-Qader Hussein, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, says the catacombs were unearthed in the northern Jordanian city of Rihab after three months of excavation and show evidence of early Christian rituals. Shortly after the death of Jesus Christ, disciples founded churches in the area, many of them underground to escape persecution.
 

Myth of Mohammed?
Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt (claims Muhammad never existed)
  11/15/2008 6:15:53 AM PST · Posted by reaganaut1 · 38 replies · 1,181+ views
Wall Street Journal | November 15, 2008 | Andrew Higgins
Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany's first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn't like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life. So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed. Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn't portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told...
 

Excerpt: Muslim Academic Questions Muhammad's Existence
  11/15/2008 6:19:35 AM PST · Posted by reaganaut1 · 10 replies · 360+ views
Wall Street Journal | November 14, 2008 | Muhammad Kalisch
Up to some time ago I was convinced that Muhammad was a historical figure. Although I always based my thinking on the assumption that the Islamic historical narrative regarding Muhammad was very unreliable, I had no doubts that at least the basic lines of his biography were historically correct. I have now moved away from this position and will soon publish a book in which I will, among other things, comment on this question and explain my arguments in more detail. This essay is only a short summary of my most important arguments. It also deals with the question of...
 

Germany's First Professor of Islamic Theology -- Muslim Convert: "Prophet" Mohammed Never Existed....
  11/15/2008 5:26:58 PM PST · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 31 replies · 671+ views
weaselzippers.net | November 15, 2008 | Zip
What's the over/under on this guy's life span? -- Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany's first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn't like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life. So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed. Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn't portray the Prophet as fictional. German...
 

Diet and Cuisine
Whale poo is 'scientific gold'
  11/16/2008 9:51:10 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 20 replies · 411+ views
Monday Metro | 11/16/08
Whale sharks are elusive creatures hidden in our vast oceans, so you can imagine how excited a scientist was when he saw one doing a poo. Catching the excrement of the world's biggest fish was 'scientific gold', said Dr Mark Meekan, because it holds many clues to its feeding habits. The messy moment, caught on camera for the first time, has already revealed the filter-feeders visit Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean to feast on its brief but vast red crab migration. But little else is known about them, hence Dr Meekan's year-long quest to find out more. As well...
 

Tortoise, or Not Tortoise...
"Missing link' turtle was swimming with dinosaurs (Fossil find shows when reptile took to the water)
  11/18/2008 2:53:35 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 8 replies · 266+ views
The Times (London) | November 19, 2008 | Lewis Smith
Turtles first took to the water 164 million years ago when they started swimming in lakes and lagoons on the Isle of Skye, fossil finds have indicated. Excavations on the island have yielded the remains of at least six primitive turtles that learnt to swim during the age of the dinosaurs. For more than 50 million years primitive turtles had been land animals but 164 million years ago they evolved to become aquatic. The discovery of Eileanchelys waldmani, a previously unknown species of primitive turtle, represents a missing link in the evolution of turtles that palaeontologists have long sought. Its...
 

Paleontology
Marine plankton found in amber
  11/15/2008 10:24:14 AM PST · Posted by LibWhacker · 57 replies · 459+ views
PhysOrg | 11/13/08
Marine microorganisms have been found in amber dating from the middle of the Cretaceous period. The fossils were collected in Charente, in France. This completely unexpected discovery will deepen our understanding of these lost marine species as well as providing precious data about the coastal environment of Western France during the Cretaceous.This work was carried out by researchers at the Géosciences Rennes laboratory (CNRS/Université de Rennes 1), together with researchers from the Paléobiodiversité et Paléoenvironnement laboratory in Paris (CNRS/Muséum national d'histoire naturelle/Université Pierre et Marie Curie) and the Centre de Géochimie de la Surface in Strasbourg (CNRS/Université de...
 

Biology and Cryptobiology
Fossils Point to Oldest Life on Earth
  06/07/2006 1:35:56 PM PDT · Posted by areafiftyone · 567 replies · 6,848+ views
Las Vegas Sun | 6/7/06
The best evidence yet for the oldest life on Earth is found in odd-shaped, rock-like mounds in Australia that are actually fossils created by microbes 3.4 billion years ago, researchers report. "It's an ancestor of life. If you think that all life arose on this one planet, perhaps this is where it started," said Abigail Allwood, a researcher at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology and lead author of the new study. It appears Thursday in the journal Nature. The strange geologic structures -- which range from smaller than a fingernail to taller than a man -- are...
 

Climate
Invasive Plants in Galapagos May Really Be Native
  11/21/2008 9:48:04 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 6 replies · 115+ views
NY Times | 20 Nov 2008 | Henry Fountain
For years, conservationists have been concerned about the impact of invasive plant species in the Galapagos Islands. Hundreds of species have been identified as being nonnative, introduced through human contact. The idea is to remove these plants to help keep the archipelago ecologically pristine. That's a worthy goal. But there's just one problem, according to a study in Science: some of these pariah plants turn out to be native after all. They predate humans in the Galapagos by thousands of years. The evidence for this is in the form of fossilized pollen grains found in sediment cores from bogs on...
 

Helix, Make Mine a Double
Kangaroos 'are closely related to humans'
  11/18/2008 6:42:33 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 43 replies · 436+ views
Daily Mail | Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 | unattributed
Humans and kangaroos are close cousins on the evolutionary tree sharing a common ancestor 150 million years ago, according to Australian researchers. Scientists have mapped the genetic code of the Australian marsupials for the first time and found large chunks of DNA are the same. 'There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order,'  said Jenny Graves, director of the Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics. 'We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not....
 

Shaggy Beast Story
Scientists Sequence Half the Woolly Mammoth's Genome
  11/19/2008 11:01:29 AM PST · Posted by Abathar · 30 replies · 331+ views
Scientific American | 11/19/08 | Kate Wong
Thousands of years after the last woolly mammoth lumbered across the tundra, scientists have sequenced a whopping 50 percent of the beast's nuclear genome, they report in a new study. Earlier attempts to sequence the DNA of these icons of the Ice Age produced only tiny quantities of code. The new work marks the first time that so much of the genetic material of an extinct creature has been retrieved. Not only has the feat provided insight into the evolutionary history of mammoths, but it is a step toward realizing the science-fiction dream of being able to resurrect a long-gone...
 

PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Indian hunt-and-kill site a rare find
  11/15/2008 6:05:05 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 276+ views
WZTV | November 15, 2008 | Kentucky Enquirer http://www.enquirer.com
An archaeological dig in northern Kentucky has uncovered Native American tools and bison bones from a hunt that took place hundreds of years ago. Evidence at the site in Big Bone Creek shows that the hunters killed, and butchered the animals with stone tools, leaving the bones and tools behind.
 

Diggers find proof of old bison hunt-Hundreds of bones unearthed at site in Kentucky riverbed
  11/16/2008 9:33:01 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 24 replies · 305+ views
AP | 16 Nov 2008 | AP
Archaeologists have dug up and will display evidence of an American Indian bison hunt that happened hundreds of years ago in northern Kentucky. Evidence at the site shows hunters killed and butchered the animals with stone tools,leaving the bones and tools behind. The bones were discovered in Big Bone Creek several years ago but left there. Staff members from the Cincinnati Museum Center and volunteers spent a week in August digging up the artifacts. Glenn Storrs, head curator for vertebrate paleontology at the center, got permission from the state to dig while the creek's water was low.Though...
 

A 7,000-year-old find awaits detailed analysis
  11/17/2008 3:10:58 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 7 replies · 493+ views
West Central Tribune | 11/17/2008 | Tom Cherveny
Too often, Janet and LeRoy Peterson have heard the tell-tale sounds of screeching tires and, soon after, a rap on their door. Another motorist has just discovered that the natural terrain around their river valley home makes a natural funnel for deer, the Petersons told members of the Indian History Hunters at a Nov. 4 meeting in Willmar. Some 20 years ago, the Petersons discovered that Minnesota's first inhabitants had this all figured out at least 7,000 years before the first car-deer crash. Except it wasn't 100- to 200-pound whitetail deer that brought Minnesota's first people to the Peterson's three-acre...
 

A 7,000-year-old find awaits detailed analysis [ Minnesota bison kill site ]
  11/20/2008 5:34:36 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 261+ views
West Central Tribune | Monday, November 17, 2008 | Tom Cherveny
Too often, Janet and LeRoy Peterson have heard the tell-tale sounds of screeching tires and, soon after, a rap on their door. Another motorist has just discovered that the natural terrain around their river valley home makes a natural funnel for deer, the Petersons told members of the Indian History Hunters at a Nov. 4 meeting in Willmar. Some 20 years ago, the Petersons discovered that Minnesota's first inhabitants had this all figured out at least 7,000 years before the first car-deer crash. Except it wasn't 100- to 200-pound whitetail deer that brought Minnesota's first people to the Peterson's three-acre...
 

Center of the Universe
Scientists say Copernicus' remains found
  11/20/2008 7:44:58 AM PST · Posted by Pyro7480 · 37 replies · 873+ views
Yahoo! News (AP) | 11/20/2008 | n/a
Researchers believe they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton they have found with that of hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. Jerzy Gassowski, an academic at an archaeology school in Poland, also says facial reconstruction of the skull his team found buried in a cathedral in Poland closely resembles existing portraits of Copernicus...
 

Cue John P. Sousa's 'Liberty Bell'
Dead Parrot sketch is 1,600 years old
  11/15/2008 7:27:16 AM PST · Posted by sionnsar · 46 replies · 1,622+ views
Telegraph.co.uk | 11/14/2008 | Stephen Adams
It's long been held that the old jokes are the best jokes -- and Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch is no different. A classic scholar has proved the point, by unearthing a Greek version of the world-famous piece that is some 1,600 years old. A comedy duo called Hierocles and Philagrius told the original version, only rather than a parrot they used a slave. It concerns a man who complains to his friend that he was sold a slave who dies in his service. His companion replies: "When he was with me, he never did any such thing!" The joke...
 

Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch
  11/18/2008 1:12:29 PM PST · Posted by grjr21 · 18 replies · 313+ views
Reuters | Fri Nov 14, 2008 | Daniel Flynn
"I'll tell you what's wrong with it. It's dead, that's what's wrong with it." For those who believe the ancient Greeks thought of everything first, proof has been found in a 4th century AD joke book featuring an ancestor of Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch where a man returns a parrot to a shop, complaining it is dead. The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said on Friday.
 

Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Kadisiyah And The Cost Of Conquest
  03/29/2005 11:52:07 AM PST · Posted by robowombat · 1 replies · 319+ views
The Battles That Changed History | 1950 | Fletcher Pratt
The trouble with the second Persian Empire was that it was not an empire. Its rulers bore the Achaemenid title of "king of kings", but the kings to whom the titular ruler acted as chairman of committee were so numerous and had so much individual authority that the head of state hardly dared to promote for ability unless it appeared in one of the lordly houses. There were not only the great feudatories known as "lords of the marches", but also the lesser "lords of the villages" and "knights", who had authority over...
 

Rome and Italy
Who's pulled the plug on the Roman Baths?
  11/18/2008 6:20:13 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 453+ views
Daily Mail | Wednesday, November 19, 2008 | Cher Thornhill
They are one of Britain's foremost ancient monuments and attract as many people as Stone Henge. But visitors who choose to drop in to Bath's Roman Baths today will find them empty. The Great Bath at the city's Roman Baths is being drained of natural thermae spa water for its quarterly clean-up... Modern-day items recovered in previous cleans include umbrellas, traffic cones and even a moped. Once the Roman sluice-gates were re-opened, the Great Bath refilled from the spring at the rate of 13 litres per second. The plug was pulled on the Great Bath at 11am yesterday morning and...
 

Chariot racing could return to Rome
  07/15/2008 5:46:59 PM PDT · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 29 replies · 165+ views
ansa.it | July 15, 2008
The ancients' version of Formula 1 could once again enliven the Italian capital, with a series of high-speed chariot races. The historical society Vadis Al Maximo hopes to stage a major event next year, which would reproduce the thrills and spills of competitive charioteering, beloved of both the Romans and Greeks. ''The event would last three days, starting on October 17, at the same period when the race took place in Roman times,'' explained Vadis Al Maximo head, Franco Calo. ''If possible, we hope to involve charioteers from all over the world''. The initiative...
 

Ancient Buried Treasure
Roman treasure found on Clifton farmland[UK]
  11/21/2008 9:33:45 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 11 replies · 347+ views
This is Nottingham | 21 Nov 2008 | This is Nottingham
A 72-year-old woman found a piece of Roman treasure on farmland near Clifton. Alice Wright found the small gold leaf while using her metal detector in the Clifton area on March 23. The leaf was declared as treasure trove, meaning she may receive a reward for her find, at an inquest in Nottingham. Mrs Wright, from Littleover in Derby, has sent the object to the British Museum, and another museum is interested in acquiring it. The Roman votive leaf is believed to date back to sometime between the first and fourth century. Coroner Dr Nigel Chapman said: "The object was...
 

The Celts
Pictured: The £350,000 Iron Age neckband discovered by one man and his metal detector[UK]
  11/20/2008 5:29:44 PM PST · Posted by BGHater · 19 replies · 804+ views
Daily Mail | 19 Nov 2008 | James Tozer
For 40 years, Maurice Richardson has been braving all weathers to scour the countryside with his trusty metal detector, dreaming of buried treasure. But he almost ignored an unpromising-sounding beep as he searched for debris from a wartime air crash while being pelted with rain. However the 59-year-old is glad his curiosity got the better of him after his persistence in digging through more than two feet of Nottinghamshire mud yielded a stunning 2,000-year-old gold treasure. Metal detector enthusiast Maurice Richardson discovered this 2,000-year-old gold torc while digging through two feet of Nottinghamshire mud Now the artefact, an Iron Age...
 

Prehistoric Europe
Buried in each other's arms: Scientists discover remains of world's most ancient nuclear family
  11/17/2008 9:03:13 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 25 replies · 745+ views
Daily Mail | 17 Nov 2008 | Daily Mail
Scientists have uncovered the earliest evidence that Stone Age man lived in nuclear families. An international team of researchers, including experts from the University of Bristol, used DNA testing to date the remains from four burial sites discovered in Germany in 2005. The 4,600-year-old graves contained groups of adults and children buried facing each other, which was an unusual practice in Neolithic culture. A group burial of a 4,600-year-old nuclear family, was discovered in Germany One of the graves contained a female, a male and two children and the analysis revealed the researchers were a mother, father and their two...
 

Navigation
16th-Century Mapmaker's Intriguing Knowledge['America']
  11/21/2008 8:29:58 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 21 replies · 822+ views
The Washington Post | 17 Nov 2008 | David Brown
How was it that a German priest writing in Latin and living in a French city far from the coast became the first person to tell the world that a vast ocean lay to the west of the American continents? That is one of the bigger mysteries in the history of the Renaissance. But it is not the only one involving Martin Waldseemueller, a map-making cleric whose own story is sufficiently obscure that his birth and death dates aren't known for certain. Waldseemueller appears to have also known something about the contours of South America's west coast years before Vasco...
 

Underwater Archaeology
Squabble over underwater treasure trove (Lost works by Rembrandt, van Goyen aboard)
  11/19/2008 10:55:41 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 9 replies · 423+ views
Russia Today | November 19, 2008
A priceless lost treasure is due to be lifted from the bottom of the sea. Having spent over two centuries underwater off the shores of Finland, the ship "Frau Maria" along with its priceless cargo is due to be lifted from its resting place on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The Russian imperial riches are said to be the most important underwater discovery ever, presenting unprecedented historical and monetary value. Now the question stands of who will reap the benefits. Russia, Finland and The Netherlands all claim that the bounty should be theirs. Its history is like an adventure...
 

Age of Sail
Mary Rose sunk by French cannonball
  11/15/2008 8:50:59 PM PST · Posted by bruinbirdman · 21 replies · 897+ views
The Times | 11/15/2008 | Jasper Copping
For almost 500 years, the sinking of the Mary Rose has been blamed on poor seamanship and the fateful intervention of a freak gust of wind which combined to topple her over. Now, academics believe the vessel, the pride of Henry VIII's fleet, was actually sunk by a French warship -- a fact covered up by the Tudors to save face. Academics have found that the Mary Rose may have been sunk by a French warship The Mary Rose, which was raised from the seabed in 1982 and remains on public display in Portsmouth, was sunk in 1545, as Henry...
 

Engarde!
Musketeer D'Artagnan's grave in Netherlands, historian says
  11/16/2008 8:57:19 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 31 replies · 629+ views
The Ottawa Citizen | 15 Nov 2008 | Adam Sage
A five-year quest to locate the tomb of d'Artagnan -- the inspiration for Alexandre Dumas's novel The Three Musketeers -- has led to a small Dutch church where new research suggests the swashbuckling hero is buried. Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan died during the Siege of Maastricht on June 25, 1673, and, according to a leading French historian, was laid to rest only few kilometres away at Saint Peter and Paul Church in Wolder. "The trail is very precise," said Odile Bordaz, the author of several works on the musketeer. Ms. Bordaz discounted theories that d'Artagnan's body...
 

Middle Ages and Renaissance
Did Michelangelo Have a Hidden Agenda?
  11/17/2008 7:06:50 PM PST · Posted by Lorianne · 36 replies · 1,524+ views
Wall Street Journal | NOVEMBER 14, 2008 | Cathryn Drake
Never mind the Da Vinci Code -- what about Michelangelo's secret messages? On the 500th anniversary of the artist's first climb up the ladder in 1508 to paint the Sistine Chapel ceiling, a new book claims he embedded subversive messages in his spectacular frescoes -- not only Jewish, Kabbalistic and pagan symbols but also insults directed at Pope Julius II, who commissioned the work, and references to his own sexuality. First published in an English version in May by Harper One, "The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican," coauthored by Vatican docent Roy Doliner and...
 

British Isles
Dead People in 1700s Were the First Celebrities
  11/16/2008 9:30:30 AM PST · Posted by forkinsocket · 13 replies · 454+ views
LiveScience | 06 November 2008 | Robin Lloyd
The modern obsession with celebrity started in 18th-century Britain with obituaries of unusual people published in what served as the gossip sheets of the era, an English literature scholar says. Some researchers think the phenomenon of celebrity was born with the 19th-century Romantic movement in art, music and literature (think of works by Chopin, J.M.W. Turner and Edgar Allen Poe). Instead, Elizabeth Barry of the University of Warwick in England claims the modern public fascination with celebrities can be traced back to the rise of newspapers and magazines and the popularity of the obituaries in the 18th century. "Different kinds...
 

Early America
Doomed British infantry officer describes siege of Charleston: Captain's letter
  11/17/2008 11:23:00 AM PST · Posted by Pharmboy · 27 replies · 716+ views
The Post and Courier | November 17, 2008 | Brian Hicks
Melissa Haneline/The Post and CourierJai Cassidy-Shaman handles two Revolutionary War letters Tuesday bought at auction by the South Carolina Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum in Columbia. Like so many first-time visitors to the Lowcountry, Charles Campbell was enchanted. In a letter to his father back home in Britain, Campbell gushed about the natural beauty of the Holy City in spring. Captain's letter "Charlestown is a handsome and well built town situated on the extremity of a tongue of land formed by two large & navigable rivers, Cooper and Ashley;" he wrote, "it lays open to the sea, and...
 

An "Eternal Flame" Relit Over Brooklyn [RevWar Prison Ships' Martyr's Monument]
  11/17/2008 8:29:30 AM PST · Posted by Pharmboy · 31 replies · 512+ views
Brroklyn Heights Blog | Nov 17, 2008 | Anon
Yesterday evening, despite heavy rain during the day and still threatening skies, 200 or so people gathered in Fort Greene Park to attend the rededication of the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument, which honors the approximately 11,500 Revolutionary War combatants captured by the British who died aboard old warships anchored in Wallabout Bay (adjacent to the present Brooklyn Navy Yard site) and used to house prisoners of war. Conditions aboard these ships were so horrendous that almost one third of those imprisoned did not survive. The monument, a Doric column designed by the eminent architect Stanford White, was dedicated exactly 100...
 

NEW! The Real George Washington on Nat Geo TV 9PM EST Tonight
  11/19/2008 7:05:03 AM PST · Posted by Pharmboy · 51 replies · 477+ views
National Geographic | Nov 19, 2008 | Me
9 PM National Geographic channel--available in HD....The Real George Washington DO NOT MISS!! Ride to tell the neighbours...tell the kids! Your Obdt. Svt. P_____y
 

Pages
From a Wilderness: The Building of America
  11/18/2008 9:41:12 PM PST · Posted by Lorianne · 2 replies · 92+ views
Florida Weekly | 18 November 2008 | author: James D. Cary reviewer: Prudy Taylor Board
Boynton Beach author James D. Cary has written a noble book, almost a love letter to the United States. His latest novel, "From a Wilderness: The Building of America," is actually four novels in one, each tracing a different era in our nation's history. The first is titled, In the "Beginning Jamestown;" the second is "And Then Came the Puritan;" the third is "The Fires of Mammon" (covering the American Revolution: and finally, the fourth is "Empire." "Jamestown" begins when one of the characters, Jonathan Strong, witnesses a young Pocahontas playing with children of the settlers. The second book, "And...
 

Longer Perspectives
Science in Obama's Administration
  11/14/2008 11:02:41 PM PST · Posted by hocndoc · 10 replies · 306+ views
LifeEthics | November 15, 2008 | Beverly B. Nuckols, MD, MA (Bioethics)
After lots of 'Net speculation on science and medicine advisory councils and committees in addition to mine of this morning, we find out that the Obama leader for the transition team on the President's Council on Bioethics Review Team will be Jonathan Moreno the associate at the bioethics arms of the Center for American Progress, founded by co-chair of the Obama "office of the President-Elect" transitionist John Podesta. And Moreno and Podesta are not the only "Progressives" on the transition team. Note the names Tom Perez (that's a Word document), Anthony Brown, Pam Gilbert ( a .pdf from the Center...
 

World War Eleven
Ex-Hitler youth's warning to America
  11/13/2008 12:17:20 AM PST · Posted by Boucheau · 97 replies · 1,680+ views
WorldNetDaily.com | November 13, 2008 | WorldNetDaily
'Every day brings this nation closer to Nazi-style totalitarian abyss' -- Because it has abandoned moral absolutes and its historic Christian faith, the U.S. is moving closer to a Nazi-style totalitarianism, warns a former German member of the Hitler Youth in a new book.
 

The Holocaust
'The Boy in the Striped Pajamas': A Haunting Look at the Holocaust
  11/13/2008 9:13:25 AM PST · Posted by Owl_Eagle · 26 replies · 839+ views
beliefnet.com | 11/13/2008 | Kris Rasmussen
Certainly with the many movies made about the tragedy of the Holocaust--several which have been done brilliantly--it could be easy to steer clear of yet another bleak look at the horror of that time in history. Yet if there was any "little indie movie that could" out there in the cineplex right now, it has to be the gut-wrenching, amazing film "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas." It is getting some buzz-- especially from critics in religious circles--and it is even receiving some celebrity endorsements from folks like Amy Grant. So while the movie is in very limited release, I...
 

The A/V Club
10 Fascinating Last Pictures Taken
  11/16/2008 3:45:55 AM PST · Posted by Daffynition · 34 replies · 2,118+ views
ListVerse.com | November 13, 2008 | unknown
The words "Last picture taken" before his or her death conjure up many emotions, whether in front of the camera or behind it. This list consists of 10 last time stamps in history taken of and by some fascinating individuals. If anyone has new or conflicting information concerning the photos or information in this list I hope you will share it in your comments. [sic]
 

Korean War
Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War is Identified Cpl. Librado Luna, U.S. Army
  11/18/2008 4:45:01 PM PST · Posted by Dubya · 14 replies · 368+ views
DOD | DOD
Soldier Missing in Action from Korean War is Identified The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office announced today that the remains of a U.S. serviceman, missing in action from the Korean War, have been identified and will be returned to his family for burial with full military honors. He is Cpl. Librado Luna, U.S. Army, of Taylor, Texas. He will be buried on Nov. 25 in Taylor. Representatives from the Army's Mortuary Office met with Luna's next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. In...
 

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Saving Buffalo's Untold Beauty
  11/15/2008 8:32:27 PM PST · Posted by Peelod · 11 replies · 372+ views
NYT | November 14, 2008 | NICOLAI OUROUSSOFF
One of the most cynical clichés in architecture is that poverty is good for preservation. The poor don't bulldoze historic neighborhoods to make way for fancy new high-rises. That assumption came to mind when I stepped off a plane here recently. Buffalo is home to some of the greatest American architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with major architects like Henry Hobson Richardson, Frederick Law Olmsted, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright building marvels here. Together they shaped one of the grandest early visions of the democratic American city. Yet Buffalo is more commonly identified with the...
 

Stands Athwart History, Yelling Stop!
  11/19/2008 7:18:27 AM PST · Posted by Servant of the Cross · 4 replies · 101+ views
National Review | 11/19/1955 | William F. Buckley, Jr.
"Let's face it: Unlike Vienna, it seems altogether possible that did NATIONAL REVIEW not exist, no one would have invented it. The launching of a conservative weekly journal of opinion in a country widely assumed to be a bastion of conservatism at first glance looks like a work of supererogation, rather like publishing a royalist weekly within the walls of Buckingham Palace. It is not that, of course; if NATIONAL REVIEW is superfluous, it is so for very different reasons: It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have...
 

Oh So Mysteriouso
Oswald co-worker no longer silent about JFK assassination role (Buell Frazier)
  11/16/2008 6:56:53 AM PST · Posted by MeekOneGOP · 381 replies · 9,478+ views
The Dallas Morning News | November 16, 2008 | By HUGH AYNESWORTH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
Oswald co-worker no longer silent about JFK assassination role01:56 AM CST on Sunday, November 16, 2008By HUGH AYNESWORTH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News LEWISVILLE -- Buell Frazier wants to tell it like it is -- or was -- on a very important day in U.S. history 45 years ago in Dallas. The quiet, thoughtful man of 64 is not as well-known as some of the others who skyrocketed to fame or infamy in November 1963. But Mr. Frazier played a defining, if unintentional, role in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He drove Lee Harvey Oswald...
 

Skepticultists
Great find in West Virginia nothing more than a fraud [ 1838 Grave Creek stone ]
  11/17/2008 7:26:34 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 465+ views
Columbus Post-Dispatch | Tuesday, November 11, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper
Last month, at the annual meeting of the West Virginia Archeological Society, anthropologist David Oestreicher offered evidence to suggest that the Grave Creek stone can be dismissed as a fraud. His arguments were summarized by Rick Steelhammer in The Charleston Gazette on Oct. 13. Oestreicher found the source for the stone's confusing mixture of ancient alphabets in an 18th-century book on the "unknown letters that are found in the most ancient coins and monuments of Spain." According to Oestreicher, "everything on the stone," including "impossible sequences of characters with the same mistakes," can be found in this book. Oestreicher thinks...
 

end of digest #227 20081122

819 posted on 11/21/2008 7:50:40 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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To: 75thOVI; Adder; albertp; Androcles; asgardshill; At the Window; bitt; blu; BradyLS; cajungirl; ...

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #227 20081122
· Saturday, November 22, 2008 · 71 topics · 2136009 to 2132700 · 690 members ·

 
Saturday
Nov 22
2008
v 5
n 18

view
this
issue
Welcome to the 227th issue. Apparently there are 71 topics for this week's digest. Quite a number are probably archival topics, never pinged, merely added to the catalog keyword. Writing this paragraph late in the day on the 21st, I'm sure I don't want to paste up such a large issue before bedtime, but I have things to do in the morning. We lost one member, having been holding steady for a few weeks. The combined lists (individual and digest) total just under 700.

It has been a while since I'd mentioned it, but I need a new job. People continue to be unexpectedly and precipitously fired, or some other turmoil is going on all the time. Despite the (few) positive changes, and the fact that, thanks to working every holiday and a trickle of overtime, my YTD gross is about the same as all of 2007, I really would prefer to find new work.

Christmas is four weeks, five days from today. I did a little bit of Christmas shopping today, in this case, a live plant, a sort of rosemary topiary thing for my sister.
Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
 

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·


820 posted on 11/21/2008 7:52:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #228
Saturday, November 29, 2008


Epigraphy and Language
Finds that made Basques proud are fake, say experts
  11/28/2008 9:06:04 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 255+ views
Guardian UK | Monday November 24, 2008 | Giles Tremlett
For traditional Basques the pictures, symbols and words found scraped onto pieces of third century pottery dug up near the town of Nanclares, in northern Spain, included miraculous evidence that their unique language of Euskara was far older than ever thought. Eighteen months ago the dig's director, Eliseo Gil, claimed that some finds at the Roman town known as Veleia were on par with those at Pompeii or Rome itself. Basque nationalists bristled with pride... Now a committee of experts has revealed those jewels to be fakes... The hunt is on for an archeological fraudster who defaced fragments of third...
 

The stone-age Basque language remains mystery to scientists
  06/01/2006 11:51:18 PM PDT · Posted by Marius3188 · 80 replies · 2,332+ views
Deutsche Presse-Agentur | 01 June 2006 | Sinikka Tarvainen
San Sebastian, Spain - No frontier marks the entrance to Spain's Basque region, but the traveller passing by quaint villages on green hillsides has a clear sense of entering a distinct territory. It is not just the Basque flags here and there. It is, above all, the signs in a strange language unlike any other in the world. A travel bureau, for instance, is marked 'bidaiak.' An ice-cream shop has a sign saying 'izozkiak.' A police station is marked 'ertzainza', and an office of the Basque regional government is called 'eusko jaurlaritza.' Scientists remain puzzled by the Basque people of...
 

Helix, Make Mine a Double
Baby boys may show spatial supremacy - Male superiority on mental rotation tasks may develop...
  11/27/2008 7:53:13 PM PST · Posted by neverdem · 66 replies · 714+ views
Science News | November 25th, 2008 | Bruce Bower
Male superiority on mental rotation tasks may develop within a few months after birth The gender gap in spatial abilities -- charted for more than 30 years -- emerges within the first few months of life, years earlier than previously thought, psychologists report. Males typically outperform females on spatial-ability tests by age 4, especially on tasks that require mental rotation of objects perceived as three-dimensional. Yet, two studies of 3- to 5-month-olds, both published in the November Psychological Science, conclude that a substantially greater proportion of boys than girls distinguish a block arrangement from its mirror image, after having first...
 

Underwater Archaeology
Archaeology professor scrutinizes age-old mystery [ Uluburun wreck excavation]
  11/24/2008 3:39:34 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 485+ views
University of Tennessee, Knoxville | Saturday, November 22, 2008 | Kayla Kitts
In 1983 a sponge diver found funny metal biscuits with ears at the ocean floor. That is how the excavation got started, Hirschfeld said. The ship carried ten tons of copper ingots, which after being analyzed, were determined to be from Cyprus. Each ingot weighs approximately 60 pounds, she said. She and her team also excavated glass ingots, tons of tin, and three Italian swords that were not part of the cargo of the ship. Among the 130 Canaanite jars they found, there were traces of wine in the jars and one was full of glass beads. The team also...
 

British Isles
Massive Prehistoric Fort Emerges From Welsh Woods
  11/23/2008 7:52:42 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 17 replies · 662+ views
National Geographic News | Friday, November 21, 2008 | James Owen
Cloaked by time's leafy shroud, the prehistoric settlement of Gaer Fawr lies all but invisible beneath a forest in the lush Welsh countryside. Commanded by warrior chiefs who loomed over the everyday lives of their people, the massive Iron Age fortress once dominated the landscape. Now the 2,900-year-old structure lives again, thanks to a digital recreation following a painstaking survey by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales... The study involved thousands of measurements taken in 2007, which were used build a digital terrain model of the 21-acre (5.8-hectare) site. Measurements were made manually using lasers...
 

Rome and Italy
Hadrian's wall boosted economy for ancient Britons, archaeologists discover
  11/24/2008 3:51:39 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 245+ views
Telegraph | Saturday, November 22, 2008 | Patrick Sawer
The 73-mile long Roman wall, built in AD 122 to defend the Roman Empire from hostile Celtic tribes, created a thriving economy to serve the occupying army, according to aerial surveys. Farmers, traders, craftsmen, labourers and prostitutes seized the occasion to make money from the presence of hundreds of Roman troops... The research carried out by English Heritage has revealed over 2,700 previously unrecorded historic features, including prehistoric burial mounds and first century farmsteads, medieval sheep farms, 19th century lead mines and even a WWII gun battery, sited along the 15 foot high wall which stretched from Wallsend on the...
 

Asia
Red color said to rule fashion world 15,000 years ago
  11/28/2008 9:15:55 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 170+ views
Xinhua | November 26, 2008 | Editor: Du Guodong
The color red, which represents luck, happiness and passion in China, could have been used in clothing 15,000 years ago... The Xuchang ruins made headlines in foreign media in January when State Administration of Cultural Heritage announced that Chinese archaeologists had found a human skull dating back at least 80,000 years in the ruins last December... [T]his month, their excavation team found from the soil strata dating back 15,000 years, or the late Paleolithic Era, at the Xuchang ruins more than 20 pieces of hematite, one of iron oxides commonly used as a dyestuff, alongside three dozen thin instruments made...
 

Vietnam
Ancient road found in cave
  11/27/2008 7:59:13 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 20 replies · 567+ views
Vietnam News | Thursday, November 27, 2008 | unattributed
Traces of a road used by ancient people 21,000 years ago have just been discovered at the Xom Trai Cave in the northwestern province of Hoa Binh's Lac Son District... The Xom Trai Cave represents a typical residence of the Hoa Binh civilisation (from 34,100 years ago until 2,000 BC) in the ancient Muong Vang region, which is today's Tan Lap Commune, Lac Son District in Hoa Binh Province. The cave was discovered in 1974 ... Since then, researchers have discovered traces of approximately six metres of a road at the south end of the cave's mouth. The ancient pathway...
 

Biology and Cryptobiology
Huge Cave Bears: When and Why They Disappeared
  11/26/2008 6:08:33 PM PST · Posted by decimon · 23 replies · 616+ views
Live Science | Nov. 25, 2008 | LiveScience Staff
Enormous cave bears that once inhabited Europe were the first of the mega-mammals to die out, going extinct around 13 millennia earlier than was previously thought, according to a new estimate. Why'd they go? In part because they were vegetarians. > Cave bears were huge, with males growing up to around 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg). The maximum recorded weight of both Kodiak bears and polar bears - the largest bears living today - is 1,760 pounds (800 kg), with averages of around 1,100 pounds (500 kg). > Some researchers think humans hunted the mega-mammals to extinction, but researcher Martina Pacher...
 

Catastrophism and Astronomy
Apocalypse how? Revealing the next catastrophic threat to our world
  11/27/2008 9:16:01 PM PST · Posted by AZLiberty · 16 replies · 522+ views
Daily Mail | November 23, 2008 | None
The article is about a Channel 4 (UK) documentary series called Catastrophe. I found the following excerpt particularly interesting. I don't remember ever hearing about the 1783 toxic cloud over Britain, and now wonder whether this had any influence on early British-American relations, or any long-lasting historical impact. Toxic Cloud Over Britain In 1783 in Laki, Iceland, a volcanic eruption occurred, spewing out gas and lava for eight months and covering an area of 200sq miles in molten rock. The Laki eruption produced huge quantities of sulphur dioxide, burning people's eyeballs, scorching the skin off livestock and killing plants. The...
 

Egypt
"Screaming Mummy" Is Murderous Son of Ramses III?
  11/23/2008 7:21:36 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 578+ views
National Geographic News | Friday, November 21, 2008 | Andrew Bossone
found in 1886 and now located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo... [c]alled both "Unknown Man E" and the "Screaming Mummy" because of his open jaw and agonized expression, the mummy has baffled researchers since it was first uncovered. Several archaeologists have proposed theories about the mummy's cause of death, saying he might have been buried alive or poisoned, or that he was a murdered Hittite prince during the reign of Tutankhamen. Archaeologists now agree, however, that mummies are commonly found with their jaws open as a result of their heads falling back after death... The theory about poison, on...
 

Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Study of ancient and modern plagues finds common features
  11/21/2008 9:01:03 PM PST · Posted by neverdem · 24 replies · 935+ views
biologynews.net | November 21, 2008 | NA
In 430 B.C., a new and deadly disease -- its cause remains a mystery -- swept into Athens. The walled Greek city-state was teeming with citizens, soldiers and refugees of the war then raging between Athens and Sparta. As streets filled with corpses, social order broke down. Over the next three years, the illness returned twice and Athens lost a third of its population. It lost the war too. The Plague of Athens marked the beginning of the end of the Golden Age of Greece. The Plague of Athens is one of 10 historically notable outbreaks described in an article in The Lancet Infectious...
 

Climate
The enigma of Lake Ontario's 11,000-year-old footprints
  11/23/2008 6:59:11 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 651+ views
Toronto Star | Sunday, November 23, 2008 | Leslie Scrivener
In the fall of 1908, while building a waterworks tunnel east of Hanlan's Point in Toronto Bay, a work crew came across 100 footprints in a layer of blue clay. The prints appeared to have been left by people wearing moccasins -- 11,000 years ago. It was an astounding discovery, perhaps the first evidence of human habitation on Lake Ontario, but few recognized its significance. "It looked like a trail ...," city inspector W. H. Cross told the Toronto Evening Telegram about what he saw that November day. "You could follow one man the whole way. Some footprints were on...
 

PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
War, What Is It Good For? [Precolumbian massacres]
  11/28/2008 8:54:19 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 37 replies · 442+ views
Archaeology mag, Beyond Stone & Bone 'blog | November 14, 2008 | Heather Pringle
For decades, researchers working in the Americas were in a state of denial about the prevalence of ancient warfare. They viewed the Maya largely as peaceful astronomer-priests, the prehistoric Pueblo people as tranquility-loving architects, and Great Plains bison-hunters as harmonious societies who only engaged in warfare after the arrival of the Europeans. I think many archaeologists were reacting at the time -- consciously or unconsciously -- to the old stereotypes of Native Americans as bloodthirsty savages. By the 1990s, however, the evidence of prehistoric warfare across the Americas was simply too great to ignore -- from the slaughter at the...
 

Peru, the Andes
Remains of 5,500-year-old Human Settlement Found in Peru
  11/28/2008 8:58:53 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 157+ views
Latin American Herald Tribune | Friday, November 28,2008 | unattributed (EFE?)
A team of Peruvian and German archaeologists has discovered the remains of a human settlement 5,500 years old near the southern town of Nazca, south of Lima, the capital daily El Comercio reported Sunday. The archaeologists, who are members of the Nazca-Palpa project, said that the discovery was made in a sector known as Pernil Alto, some 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Palpa... [T]he find is the first discovery in southern Peru of an inhabited site corresponding to the late portion of the archaic period some 3,500 years before Christ. One of the project researchers said that the excavations made...
 

Middle Ages and Renaissance
Town Mayor Fires 400-year-old Gun Firing Tradition (Might Scare Children...)
  11/28/2008 6:18:26 AM PST · Posted by Diana in Wisconsin · 38 replies · 726+ views
Telegraph | November 28, 2008 | Richard Savill
Wimborne council in Dorset has banned a 400-year-old Christmas custom of firing muskets into the sky because of fears it will scare children Wimborne's militia will no longer be able to re-enact the traditionof firing over the Christmas tree Photo: BNPS Wimborne council in Dorset has told the town's Militia, which re-enacts traditions dating back to the 17th century, that it can no longer fire muskets over the Christmas tree. The council said the noise of the blank shots would be too loud for children and would keep families away from the annual event to mark the switching on of...
 

Reformation
Historic Anabaptist writings to be available online
  11/26/2008 7:56:18 AM PST · Posted by Alex Murphy · 7 replies · 136+ views
Associated Baptist Press | 25 November 2008 | Bob Allen
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (ABP) -- Writings of Balthasar Hubmaier, one of the most well known and respected Anabaptist theologians of the Reformation, will soon be available for online research, thanks to a project of European Baptist scholars. The Institute of Baptist and Anabaptist Studies at International Baptist Theological Seminary in Prague, Czech Republic, and the German Baptist Seminary in Berlin recently announced that photographic reproductions of all of Hubmaier's surviving works would be scanned into digital images and made available on the Internet. IBTS Rector Keith Jones called it a long-term project likely to take six months to a year...
 

Faith and Philosophy
Unearthing an ancient treasure trove [ United Arab Emirates, Nestorians ]
  11/24/2008 4:04:25 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 24 replies · 412+ views
The National, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates | November 24. 2008 | Tahira Yaqoob
To the untrained eye they may look like rubble. But the ruins of a monastery and church discovered in Abu Dhabi tell a fascinating tale about a little-known period in the region's history. When the foundations were built, the Roman empire had just come to an end, Christianity was sweeping the world and Islam had not yet been born... The monastery and church, survivors of a Nestorian Christian period, are just two of 36 archaeological troves on the island. Others include the remains of villas with stucco decorations, pottery and basic furnishings, providing a glimpse into life in pre-Islam times....
 

Greeks
Defending Byzantium
  11/24/2008 3:55:54 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 392+ views
Al-Ahram | 20 - 26 November 2008, Issue No. 923 | David Tresilian
Lasting some 11 centuries from the foundation of the city of Constantinople, today's Istanbul, on the site of the Greek city of Byzantium by the Roman emperor Constantine in 330 CE to its final defeat at the hands of the Ottomans in 1453, at its height the Byzantine Empire took in the whole of the eastern Mediterranean and stretched from Anatolia and the Balkans to Egypt and north Africa. It always styled itself the heir of the Roman Empire and of classical civilisation as a whole. Examples of Byzantine architecture can still be seen in Istanbul in the shape of...
 

Moderate Islam / ROP Alert
Islamic Library Burned to the Ground [Fisk ALERT]
  04/14/2003 2:40:24 PM PDT · Posted by Oldeconomybuyer · 59 replies · 3,828+ views
ArabNews - Saudi Arabia | 4-15-03 | Robert Fisk
BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 -- So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then came the arsonists. It was the final chapter in the sack of Baghdad. The National Library and Archives -- a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents including the old royal archives of Iraq -- were turned to ashes in 3,000 degrees of heat. Then the Islamic Library of Qur'ans at the Ministry of Religious Endowment was set ablaze. I saw the looters. One of them cursed me when I tried to reclaim a book of Islamic law from a boy who could have...
 

Pages
[Vanity] [Book] The Wars of the Barbary Pirates
  11/23/2008 6:32:49 AM PST · Posted by CE2949BB · 15 replies · 328+ views
Osprey Publishing | 11/23/08 | CE2949BB
The Wars of the Barbary PiratesEssential Histories #66Osprey Introduction Most Americans are unaware that, as a young republic, their nation fought a war with the Barbary pirates, the North African corsairs who plied the waters of the Mediterranean at the turn of the 19th century in search of ships to loot and men to enslave. This is perhaps not surprising, for the wars were conducted on a small scale, over a short period of time, and at a considerable distance from American shores. They were, moreover, the product of one of the most inglorious ñ even degrading ñ episodes in...
 

Early America
Great Pond yields clues to city's past [Dorchester Massachusetts]
  11/28/2008 9:11:26 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 254+ views
Boston Globe | November 23, 2008 | Andrew Clark
It was once one of the largest bodies of water in the now-extinct Dorchester Commons... Allen Gontz, a professor of environmental, earth, and ocean sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, and Ellen Berkland, the city's archeologist, began a search for Great Pond in 2007 as a project for Massachusetts Archaeology Month. Currently, they are working at a site in front of the Blake House - the oldest home (circa 1648) in Boston - on Columbia Road, where they believe the pond once sat before it was filled. Work on the site recently stopped for the winter and it...
 

Age of Sail
Researchers find historic slave ship wreck
  11/25/2008 4:22:25 PM PST · Posted by Squawk 8888 · 23 replies · 630+ views
AP via Canoe | November 25, 2008 | Randolph Schmid
WASHINGTON - Marine archeologists have found the remains of a slave ship wrecked off the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1841, an accident that set free the ancestors of many current residents of those islands. Some 192 Africans survived the sinking of the Spanish ship Trouvadore off the British-ruled islands, where the slave trade was banned. Over the years the ship had been forgotten, said researcher Don Keith, so when the discovery connected the ship to current residents the first response "was a kind of shock, a lack of comprehension," he explained in a briefing organized by the U.S. National...
 

Longer Perspectives
Purging history of Stalin's terror
  11/27/2008 1:54:44 AM PST · Posted by BlackVeil · 5 replies · 270+ views
International Herald Tribune | November 26, 2008 | Clifford J. Levy
TOMSK, Russia: For years, the earth in this Siberian city had been giving up clues: a scrap of clothing, a fragment of bone, a skull with a bullet hole. And so a historian named Boris Trenin made a plea to officials. Would they let him examine secret archives to confirm that there was a mass grave here from Stalin's purges? Would they help him tell the story of the thousands of innocent people who were said to have been carted from a prison to a ravine, shot in the head and tossed over? The answer was no, and Trenin understood...
 

World War Eleven
Researchers: WWII Marines entombed on atoll
  11/26/2008 7:08:54 PM PST · Posted by Dubya · 27 replies · 1,899+ views
Associated Press | A P
Expedition could lead to largest identification of war dead in U.S. history
 

Frozen in time: Shelters reveal WWII nightmare
  11/27/2008 10:08:11 AM PST · Posted by SmithL · 4 replies · 558+ views
AP via SFGate | 11/27/8 | JOHN LEICESTER, Associated Press Writer
The memories are 64 years old but retold with the clarity of yesterday: a young boy lowered by rope into a deep dark cave, watching the sky above shrink to a small and distant patch of blue. That hole was home for a month for Gerard Mangnan, his family and dozens of others. And it likely saved their lives. While they huddled underground, Allied and Nazi troops above were waging one of the toughest battles of the D-Day invasion. Now, generations later, the story of how caves and quarries became bomb shelters during the 1944 battle...
 

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
US has Sun King's stolen gem, say French experts [ Hope Diamond ]
  11/23/2008 3:03:45 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 24 replies · 797+ views
Yahoo/AFP | Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | Richard Ingham and Marie-Pierre Ferey
New evidence unearthed in France's National Museum of Natural History shows beyond reasonable doubt that the Hope Diamond is the same steely-blue stone once sported by the Sun King, they said. Mineralogist Francois Farges, heading an investigation published in a peer-reviewed French journal, told AFP he was now "99 percent sure" that the Hope and the mythical Blue Diamond of the Crown were one and the same. "The evidence corroborates a scenario under which the diamond, after being stolen in Paris in 1792, was swiftly smuggled to London, where it was recut," he said. The Blue Diamond came from a...
 

end of digest #228 20081129

821 posted on 11/28/2008 4:45:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile finally updated Saturday, October 11, 2008 !!!)
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