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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #242
Saturday, March 7, 2009 |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem |
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Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull
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03/01/2009 5:44:01 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 37 replies · 691+ views
Biblical Archaeology Review 35:02 | Mar/Apr 2009 | Dan Levene
Only five skulls inscribed with Jewish Aramaic magic incantation texts have come to light, none from professional excavations. Like the others before it, this skull, acquired by collector Shlomo Moussaieff, raises more questions than it answers. Its relationship to the more common genre of incantation bowls and its use in a rite of magic seem clear enough. But until more information emerges, basic questions -- how this skull was used, for whom, by whom and for what reason -- remain unanswered. [Ardon Bar Hama] The Moussaieff incantation skull arrived in two earthenware bowls that form a container. The bowls...
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UK: Pensioner spends 30 years building amazing model of Herod's Temple (photos)
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02/27/2009 6:59:37 AM PST · Posted by yankeedame · 33 replies · 987+ views
DailyMail.uk | 26th February 2009 | staff writer
Pensioner spends 30 years building amazing model of Herod's Temple ... Brick by brick, tiny figure by tiny figure, Alec Garrard has...worked for 30 years on an astonishing recreation of Herod's Temple. ...the Biblical project which now measures 20ft by 12ft and is housed in a seperate building in his garden. His version is so impressive...top archaeologists and experts...have come to view it. Alec Garrard standing next to the mode...[snip] ...the Court of Prayer, enables one to see< the extraordinary attention to detail...This artist's impression of Herod's Temple...in 1886 by James Tissot [snip] ...Mr Garrard, 78, has dedicated 33,000 hours...
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Herod's Temple, in all its (tiny) grandeur (graphic intensive)
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03/02/2009 1:53:08 PM PST · Posted by NYer · 13 replies · 557+ views
Inside Catholic | March 2, 2009 | Brian Saint-Paul
Alec Garrard, a 78 year old British farmer, has spent the past 30 years building a 100:1 scale model of King Herod's Temple... and he isn't finished yet.The meticulously researched, painstakingly accurate model sits in a long house on Garrard's property. He created over 4,000 minature people to populate the model and hand-baked every clay brick. Amazing. See the entire magnificent thing here.
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| Faith and Philosophy |
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Sinai Monks in Historic Agreement with British Library
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04/23/2005 12:45:41 AM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 13 replies · 450+ views
The Art Newspaper | Saturday, 23 Avril 2005 | Martin Bai
Ownership dispute has been set aside for joint study and digitisation of the world's oldest bibleAn emotional reunion took place in the vaults of the British Library last month, when the archbishop responsible for St Catherine's Monastery on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt was shown the Codex Sinaiticus, the world's oldest Bible. The manuscript, which had almost certainly been at the desert monastery from the sixth century onwards and possibly from two centuries earlier, was taken to Russia in the 19th century in controversial circumstances. It is so precious that only four scholars have been allowed full access to the...
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Britain May Have to Give up Oldest Known Bible
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04/20/2005 12:03:16 AM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 18 replies · 965+ views
Times of London | April 12, 2005 | Dalya Alberge
THE British Library is facing the possible loss of one of its most important manuscripts, the world's oldest Bible, to a Middle Eastern monastery. The fear is raised weeks after the institution was told by a government advisory panel that a 12th-century manuscript in its collection was looted from a cathedral near Naples during the Second World War and must be returned. The backing last month by the Spoliation Advisory Panel of a 27-year campaign by the city of Benevento to be reunited with a jewel of Italy's heritage will have given renewed hope to St Catherine's, a desert monastery...
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| The Exodus |
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Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher
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03/04/2008 1:31:40 PM PST · Posted by Anti-Hillary · 98 replies · 497+ views
Breitbart | 3-4-08 | Breitbart
High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week. Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy. "As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an...
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Did G-d Speak at Sinai?
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05/28/2006 7:58:46 AM PDT · Posted by Zionist Conspirator · 16 replies · 355+ views
aish.com | Rabbi Nechemia Coopersmith and Rabbi Moshe Zeldman
What support is there for the claim that God spoke to all the Jewish people at the foot of Mount Sinai?Who did God give the Torah to at Mount Sinai? Most people reply, "God gave the Torah to Moses." And what were the Jewish people doing while Moses was receiving the Torah? "Worshipping the Golden Calf." Correct answers -- but NOT according to the Bible. The above answers come from Cecil B. DeMille's classic film, "The Ten Commandments." Amazing the impact one movie can have on the Jewish education of generations of Jews. It's a great film, but DeMille should...
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Bob Cornuke - Christian Indiana Jones - Real Mt Sinai
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12/05/2005 1:02:57 PM PST · Posted by bahblahbah · 3 replies · 406+ views
First Family Church
Click on the Wensday 30th video and skip to a little over half way through. If you see desert or rocky images, you've gone too far. Here are some articles from Gordon Franz that opposes the theory that Jebel El-Lawz is Mt Sinai. http://www.ldolphin.org/franz-ellawz.html http://www.ldolphin.org/franz-sinai.html Here is an open letter Franz sent out(I could only find it on archive.org) and Cornuke's response. http://web.archive.org/web/20021021081348/http://www.ldolphin.org/cornukeletter.html http://www.baseinstitute.org/franz.pdf Touches for a second about the Shroud of Turin and the Davinci Code too.
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| Sinai |
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Sinai's turquoise goddess
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03/01/2009 6:56:44 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 330+ views
Al-Ahram Weekly | 26 February - 4 March 2009 | Nevine El-Aref
From pre-dynastic times, early Egyptians made their way to the Sinai Peninsula over land or across the Red Sea in search of minerals. Their chief targets were turquoise and copper, which they mined and extracted in the Sinai mountains. Archaeologists examining evidence left 8,000 years ago have concluded that some of the very earliest known settlers in Sinai were miners. In about 3,500 BC these mineral hunters discovered the great turquoise veins of Serabit Al-Khadim. Some 500 years later the Egyptians had mastered Sinai and set up a large and systematic mining operation at Serabit Al-Khadim, where they carved out...
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| Sakkara / Saqqara |
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Wooden sarcophaguses found in Egypt tomb
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03/01/2009 12:55:54 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 14 replies · 312+ views
Reuters, via Yahoo! | Thursday, February 26, 2009 | Jonathan Wright, ed by Louise Ireland
Japanese archaeologists working in Egypt have found four wooden sarcophaguses and associated grave goods which could date back up to 3,300 years, the Egyptian government said on Thursday. The team from Waseda University in Tokyo discovered the anthropomorphic sarcophaguses in a tomb in the Sakkara necropolis, about 25 km (15 miles) south of Cairo, the Supreme Council for Antiquities said in a statement. Sakkara, the burial ground for the ancient city of Memphis, remains one of the richest sources of Egyptian antiquities. Archaeologists say much remains buried in the sands. The tomb also contained three wooden Canopic jars, in which...
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Mummies found hidden in Saqqara
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03/01/2009 6:50:30 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 312+ views
Al-Ahram Weekly | 19 - 25 February 2009 | Nevine El-Aref
Two weeks ago, during a routine excavation work at the mastaba of the Sixth-Dynasty lector-priest Sennedjem, archaeologists from the SCA stumbled upon what is believed to be a cache of mummies of the 26th Dynasty... inside an 11- metre deep burial shaft excavated inside the Sennedjem mastaba. Although the mastaba dates from a much earlier period, the shaft is intrusive... One of the newly-discovered, 2,600- year-old wooden coffins was still sealed... From the finely carved inscription on the coffin, Hawass was able to determine that the mummy belonged to a man named Padi-Heri, the son of Djehuty-Sesh-Nub and the grandson...
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| Giza |
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Ancient statue found buried at Egypt Giza pyramids
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03/02/2009 4:50:38 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 484+ views
Reuters | Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | Cynthia Johnston, ed by Tim Pearce
Maintenance workers at Egypt's Giza Pyramids have found an ancient quartzite statue of a seated man buried close to the surface of the desert, the culture ministry said on Tuesday. The statue, about life-size at 149 cm (five feet) tall, was found north of the smallest of Giza's three main pyramids, the tomb of the fourth dynasty Pharaoh Mycerinus, who ruled in the 26th century BC, the ministry said in a statement. The man was wearing a shoulder-length wig and was seated in a simple chair, his right hand clenched on his knee and holding an object. His left hand...
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'Royal granddaughter's tomb' found near Cairo
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03/05/2009 6:29:33 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 161+ views
Times of London | Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | AFP
Cairo Archaeologists have unearthed the 3,000-year-old tomb of an Egyptian noblewoman in the necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo. The Japanese team believes that the tomb belongs to Isisnofret, granddaughter of Ramses II, the 19th Dynasty pharaoh who reigned over Egypt from 1304BC to 1237BC. The tomb contained a broken limestone sarcophagus bearing the name of Isisnofret, three mummies and fragments of funerary objects. The archaeologists' team leader, Sakuji Yoshimura, said that the find was made near the tomb of Prince Khaemwaset, a son of Ramses II. "Prince Khaemwaset had a daughter named Isisnofret [and] because of the proximity of...
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| Thebes / Luxor / KV |
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Ancient tomb rediscovered under sands of Egypt
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03/01/2009 1:06:35 PM PST · Posted by Jet Jaguar · 13 replies · 404+ views
ap via Breitbart | Mar 1, 2009 | n/a
Belgian archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old pharaonic official's tomb that had disappeared under sand in southern Egypt after it was first discovered about 130 years ago. Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement Sunday that the Belgian team in Luxor uncovered the tomb of Amenhotep, the deputy seal-bearer for King Thutmose III who ruled Egypt in the 18th Dynasty. The tomb was first discovered in 1880 by Swedish Egyptologist Karl Piehl, but it was later buried under sand until the Belgian team found it again this year.
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Isisnofret [search for an unknown tomb in the Valley of the Kings]
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03/05/2009 6:40:06 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 131+ views
News from the Valley of the Kings ('blog) | Monday, January 26, 2009 | Kate Phizackerley
Weeks relates that in 1902 Howard Carter found an ostracon in debris somewhere near the entrance to KV5 which mentions several tombs:From tr(t)yt [Kate: willow tree] to the general in chief 30 cubits; (and to) the tomb of the Greatest of Seers, Meryatum, 25 cubits. From Tr(t)yt (and? to?) tomb of the oils to my Greatest of Seers, 40 cubits. Downstream on the northern path where the old tomb is, 30 cubits to the general-in-chief.And on the other side:(From?) tomb of Isisnofret to the tomb of my Greatest of Seers, Meryatum, 200 cubits. From the end of the Water of...
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| Eighteenth Dynasty |
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Iraq: Small statue of Egyptian pharaoh found
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03/06/2009 7:51:23 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 184+ views
AllNewsWeb.com | Monday, February 16, 2009 | Michael Cohen
Archaeologists have discovered a small ancient statue of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen in Kurdish Northern Iraq. The discovery was made by a team led by noted Iraqi archaeologist Mr Hassan Ahmad in an area known as Dohuq Valley in a place referred to by locals as 'Pharaoh's Palace'. Experts have estimated the age of the statue at around 3500 years old, dating from around 1400 BC. The statue confirms historical data that the ancient Egyptians, during the 'New Kingdom' period, enjoyed warm relations with the Hittite Mitanni Kingdom and often travelled into their territory many hundreds of miles from the...
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Amenhotep III statue rises again
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03/02/2009 4:45:32 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 243+ views
Times of London | Monday, March 2, 2009 | Norman Hammond
One of Egypt's most noted Pharaohs is once more standing tall and looking out across the Nile Valley, by the efforts of an international team and a little help from the British Museum. A colossal statue of Amenhotep III, grandfather of Tutankhamun and ruler of Egypt for more than 36 years, has been raised and given back his head. The red quartzite statue, one of a set that stood around the courtyard of his funerary temple at Kom el-Hettan, near Luxor, fell centuries ago. In the early 19th century the British collector Henry Salt acquired its head, together with a...
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| Epigraphy... |
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Fragments of Ancient Egyptian Papyrus Found [ Turin Kinglist ]
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03/01/2009 5:56:06 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 325+ views
Discovery News | Discovery News | Rossella Lorenzi
Found stored between two sheets of glass in the basement of the Museo Egizio in Turin, the fragments belong to a 3,000-year-old unique document, known as the Turin Kinglist. Like many ancient Egyptian documents, the Turin Kinglist is written on the stem of a papyrus plant. Believed to date from the long reign of Ramesses II, the papyrus contains an ancient list of Egyptian kings. Scholars from the British Museum were tipped off to the existence of the additional fragments after reviewing a 1959 analysis of the papyrus by a British archaeologist. In his work, the archaeologist, Alan Gardiner, mentions...
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| ...and Language |
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A handy little guide to small talk in the Stone Age
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03/04/2009 4:07:29 PM PST · Posted by billorites · 20 replies · 297+ views
Times online | February 26, 2009 | Mark Henderson
A "time traveller's phrasebook" that could allow basic communication between modern English speakers and Stone Age cavemen is being compiled by scientists studying the evolution of language. Research has identified a handful of modern words that have changed so little in tens of thousands of years that ancient hunter-gatherers would probably have been able to understand them. Anybody who was catapulted back in time to Ice Age Europe would stand a good chance of being intelligible to the locals by using words such as "I", "who" and "thou" and the numbers "two", "three" and "five", the work suggests. More nuanced...
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry |
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Horses tamed 1,000 years earlier than thought
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03/06/2009 8:03:54 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 8 replies · 183+ views
Times Online | 06 Mar 2009 | Mark Henderson
Horses were first tamed at least 5,500 years ago, by peoples who not only rode them but milked them as well. Archaeological research has shown that the domestication of horses began at least 1,000 years earlier than thought, among the Botai culture that thrived in what is now Kazakhstan between 3700BC and 3100BC. A British-led team of scientists has discovered three lines of evidence that point to an equestrian tradition among the Botai, who lived in a region where wild horses are known to have been abundant. The findings, published in the journal Science, also show that the animals were...
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Earliest domesticated horses dated 5,500 years ago
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03/06/2009 8:59:29 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 275+ views
AP via Yahoo! | Thursday, March 5, 2009 | Randolph E. Schmid
To Hell with AP.
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| Japan |
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DNA sheds light on mysterious Okhotsk people
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03/02/2009 4:31:26 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 322+ views
Asahi Shimbun | February 24, 2009 | Nobuyuki Watanabe
Scholars using DNA testing hope to unravel age-old mysteries surrounding the Okhotsk people, who suddenly disappeared around the 10th century in northern parts of Hokkaido. And their research could shatter theories on the evolution of the indigenous Ainu people. The Okhotsk culture is believed to have originated on Sakhalin and spread south to northern Hokkaido around the fifth century, when Japan was in the kofun period of tumulus mounds. The culture eventually spread to eastern Hokkaido and reached the Chishima archipelago, before disappearing in the 10th century... Some scholars believe the Okhotsk people were the northern race referred to as...
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double |
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A Curious Case of Genetic Resurrection
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03/06/2009 3:24:15 PM PST · Posted by neverdem · 2 replies · 84+ views
ScienceNOW Daily News | 6 March 2009 | Benjamin Lester
Curious evolution. Lemurs and other prosimians have a working copy of IRGM, but new data show that junk DNA then rendered it nonfunctional in monkeys. Two mutations and the insertion of a retrovirus restored its function in apes and humans. Credit: Adapted from Cemalettin Bekpen/Stockxpert.com Some genes just won't stay dead. Between 40 million and 50 million years ago, a slice of DNA called IRGM stopped functioning in the ancestors of modern-day monkeys. But 25 million years later, in the lineage that led to humans and great apes, three random events turned the gene back on. In mammals...
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| Neandertal / Neanderthal |
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First Draft of the Neandertal Genome Sequence Released
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03/04/2009 7:00:22 PM PST · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 50 replies · 585+ views
ICR | March 4, 2009 | Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.
First Draft of the Neandertal Genome Sequence Released by Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.* The highly anticipated initial draft assembly of the Neandertal genome was announced at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in the United States and at a European press conference.1 This genomic milestone involves approximately 3 billion bases of ancient human (Neandertal) DNA sequenced so far, which is the same amount of DNA contained in one set of human chromosomes or a single genome coverage. This is a major event in the booming scientific field referred to as "paleogenomics," a discipline that...
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| Catastrophism... |
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New Zealand & New Caledonia Geographically Connected: Ocean's Journey Towards the Center of Earth
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03/06/2009 12:42:30 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 184+ views
ScienceDaily | Thursday, March 5, 2009 | Monash University
A Monash geoscientist and a team of international researchers have discovered the existence of an ocean floor was destroyed 50 to 20 million years ago, proving that New Caledonia and New Zealand are geographically connected. Using new computer modelling programs Wouter Schellart and the team reconstructed the prehistoric cataclysm that took place when a tectonic plate between Australia and New Zealand was subducted 1100 kilometres into the Earth's interior and at the same time formed a long chain of volcanic islands at the surface. Mr Schellart conducted the research, published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, in collaboration...
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| ...and Astronomy |
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Kepler, SETI and Ancient Probes
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03/05/2009 6:03:25 PM PST · Posted by LibWhacker · 26 replies · 393+ views
Centauri Dreams | 3/5/09
We've already speculated here that if the Kepler mission finds few Earth-like planets in the course of its investigations, the belief that life is rare will grow. But let's be optimists and speculate on the reverse: What if Kepler pulls in dozens, even hundreds, of Earth-sized planets in the habitable zones of their respective stars? In that case, the effort to push on to study the atmospheres of such planets would receive a major boost, aiding the drive to launch a terrestrial planet hunter with serious spectroscopic capabilities some time in the next decade.Budget problems? Let's fold Darwin...
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| Moderate Islam |
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Endangered Site: Visoki Decani Monastery, Kosovo
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03/06/2009 10:25:16 AM PST · Posted by Doctor13 · 10 replies · 361+ views
The Smithsonian Magazine | March 2009 | Kathleen Burke
The fate of the 14th-century abbey, one of the best-preserved medieval churches in the Balkans, has been darkened by ethnic violence. Time stands still within the Visoki Decani Monastery, nestled among chestnut groves at the foot of the Prokletije Mountains in western Kosovo. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2004, Unesco cited the 14th-century abbey as an irreplaceable treasure, a place where "traditions of Romanesque architecture meet artistic patterns of the Byzantine world." The Serbian Orthodox monastery represents, according to art historian Bratislav Pantelic, author of a book on Decani's architecture, "the largest and best-preserved medieval church in the entire...
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| Central Asia / Religion of Peace |
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What Will Happen to Ancient Art in the Taliban's Swat?
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03/02/2009 4:38:57 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 16 replies · 262+ views
Archaeology | Friday, February 20, 2009 | Beyond Stone & Bone Archive
For centuries, the Swat River valley was a Buddhist haven. According to tradition, Buddha himself journeyed to Swat during his last reincarnation, and preached to the local villagers. And by the 6th-century A.D, Buddhist pilgrims from as far away as China flocked to the Swat valley, a beautiful lush land of orchards and rushing mountain streams. One early Chinese account describes as many as 1400 Buddhist monasteries perched along the valley walls in the 7th century. Devout Buddhist artists left an incredibly rich legacy in Swat. Since the valley lay along a major route of the Silk Road -- which...
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| Greece |
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Scientists Reconstruct An Ancient Greek Musical Instrument, The Epigonion
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03/06/2009 9:11:28 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 23 replies · 494+ views
ScienceDaily | Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | EGEE, AlphaGalileo
The ASTRA project, standing for Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application, has revived an instrument that hasn't been played or heard in centuries. Using the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE infrastructure for computing power, a team based in Salerno and Catania, Italy, has reconstructed the "epigonion," a harp-like, stringed instrument used in ancient Greece. With data from numerous sources, including pictures on urns, fragments from excavations and written descriptions, the team has been able to model what the instrument would have looked and sounded like. Their model has become sophisticated enough to be used by musicians of the Conservatories of Music of...
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Statues offer clues to Greek isle's past (Keros Island, Cycladine)
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01/01/2007 4:32:18 AM PST · Posted by TigerLikesRooster · 11 replies · 825+ views
AP | 12/31/06 | NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Unlike its larger, postcard-perfect neighbors in the Aegean Sea, Keros is a tiny rocky dump inhabited by a single goatherd. But the barren islet was of major importance to the mysterious Cycladic people, a sophisticated pre-Greek civilization with no written language that flourished 4,500 years ago and produced strikingly modern-looking artwork. A few miles from the resorts of Mykonos and Santorini, Keros is a repository of art from the seafaring culture whose flat-faced marble statues inspired the work...
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Brits cave: Elgin Marbles on way back to Greece
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08/03/2003 2:42:34 PM PDT · Posted by yankeedame · 24 replies · 224+ views
News.Com.AU | August 4, 2003 | Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Marbles back for Greek GamesBy Jon Ungoed-Thomas August 4, 2003THE British Museum has held undisclosed talks with the Greek Government over a proposal to return the Elgin Marbles to Athens for next year's Olympic Games. The museum has confirmed it had talked with the Greeks about lending the marbles, despite repeatedly stating they would remain in Britain. In Athens, work has started on a $74 million Acropolis Museum, which has been designed specifically to exhibit the marbles. Under the proposed deal, the exhibition space might formally be designated an annexe of the British Museum. British Museum director Neil MacGregor confirmed...
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| Rome and Italy |
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What the Romans learnt from Greek mathematics
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03/02/2009 4:35:10 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 268+ views
AlphaGalileo | Saturday, February 28, 2009 | University of Gothenburg
Greek mathematics is considered one of the great intellectual achievements of antiquity. It has been decisive to the academic and cultural development of Western civilisation. The three Roman authors Varro, Cicero and Vitruvius were all, in their own way, influenced by Greek knowledge and transferred it to Roman literature. In his dissertation, Erik Bohlin, at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, studied the traces of Greek influence on these authors with regard to the mathematical branch of geometry... According to some sources, the Roman author Varro is supposed to have written a book on the subject of geometry... Cicero's rhetorical and...
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| Malta |
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Underground passageways discovered in Valletta
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03/01/2009 6:37:10 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 356+ views
Times of Malta | Friday, 27th February 2009 | Kurt Sansone
Preliminary archaeological studies in St George's Square, Valletta have uncovered an undocumented network of underground passageways, which could possibly connect to the Palace... The passageways were discovered on Tuesday when government employees from the Works Division under architect Claude Borg dug through a wall in a small room on Archbishop Street. After clearing debris and other material, they discovered that the passageway leads to under the Main Guard portico, parallel to the Palace... Further excavation works revealed that the central passageway had a number of corridors that led to other directions. One such corridor, at right angles with the central...
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| The Phoenicians |
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Statue Find 'A Revelation' (Phoenician 'Baal Addir')
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08/07/2002 9:39:50 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 64 replies · 589+ views
Australian News.com | 8-7-2002
Statue find 'a revelation' From correspondents in Rome August 07, 2002 A HUMAN-size statue of Baal Addir, the Phoenician god of the dead, has been found in an ancient tomb in southern Sardinia. The statue was found in a burial site used by the ancient people of Carthage, who held the southern Mediterranean island after the Punic Wars against the Romans in the third century BC. Italy's national research centre today said the discovery of the red-and-black statue pointed to the large presence of Carthaginians on the island from 510 to 238 BC. They had apparently used the statue to...
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| Aram / Syria |
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Cuneiform tablet discovered in Homs dating back to 1700 B.C.
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03/01/2009 6:39:21 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 344+ views
Syrian Arab news agency | February 19, 2009 | H.Zain/ Idelbi
The Syrian National Expedition working at al-Mishrefa (Qatana) site in Homs governorate discovered Wednesday a cuneiform tablet dating back to1700 B.C. of the Bronze era. The tablet tells the story of Mrs. Khimar Ashkhara who buys a wall to separate between her house and the house of her neighbors Mr. Akhla Ashmieh and to fix the real-estate of her property in return for 25 grams of silver
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| Cyprus |
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2008 Excavation Results -- Pyrgos Mavroraki [Advanced Technology In Bronze Age Cyprus]
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03/01/2009 6:27:39 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 146+ views
Maria Rosaria Belgiorno Project | January 2009 | Antonio de Strobel (?)
A second building was discovered and brought to light in 2008 South to the industrial area. This is a unique construction, consisting of two rooms arranged in a triangular area. As the nearby building it was probably destroyed by the earthquake and abandoned in 1800 BC circa... The room is rectangular, tapered toward southeast to follow the triangular shape of the complex. It is divided into two areas: the north is covered, the south unroofed. The North keeps intact the lying of the collapse of structures at the time of the earthquake. The collapse, which was not removed, it gives...
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| Persian Gulf |
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Ancient seal dating back to Bronze Age discovered in Abu Dhabi
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03/02/2009 4:48:34 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 176+ views
Gulfnews | Sunday, March 01, 2009 | Staff
A team working for the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has found an ancient stone cylinder seal dating back to the beginning of the local Bronze Age, around 5,000 years ago. It is the first of its type found in Arabia and was found in the deserts of the Al Gharbia area (Western Region) of Abu Dhabi. The discovery was made by a team from GRM International that is currently undertaking the Abu Dhabi Emirate soil survey, which is managed by EAD. The seal was lying in an area where samples were being collected. The seal is in the...
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| Australia & the Pacific |
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Archaeologists Find Prehistoric Buildings [Bujang Valley Malaysia]
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03/05/2009 7:57:51 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 189+ views
Malaysian National News Agency | Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | unattributed
A group of archaeologists has unearthed two prehistoric buildings from the third century AD in the Bujang Valley recently... found a building and a smelting factory, following an excavation project in Sungai Batu, Semeling... "This latest finding at Sungai Batu I were of bricks believed to be from a house or office, and another at Sungai Batu II which functioned as a smelting factory," he said... Dr Mokhtar said coal samples found at the foundry were sent for Radiocarbon Dating tests at the Beta Analytic Inc, Florida, US, which confirmed that it dated back to the third or fourth century...
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| Europe |
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Archive Collapse Disaster for Historians [Cologne's Historical Archive]
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03/04/2009 8:09:43 AM PST · Posted by Mike Fieschko · 28 replies · 533+ views
Der Spiegel | 03/04/2009 | Andrew Curry
The collapse of the Historical Archive of Cologne on Tuesday buried more than a millenium's worth of documents under tons of rubble. Archivists and historians hope something can be salvaged, but the future of the city's past is grim. Disaster struck in Cologne on Tuesday, as the building housing the city's Historical Archive suddenly collapsed. According to city officials, two people are officially missing and believed dead. ... Cologne's archives are one of the only collections in Germany to have survived World War II completely intact. Because of Cologne's long history, much of its heritage was stored locally rather than...
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| Stone Age Art |
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World's Oldest Art Uncovered in Germany
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12/20/2003 10:06:34 AM PST · Posted by Lessismore · 14 replies · 213+ views
Deutsche Welle | 19.12.2003
Archeologists working on a dig in the southern German province of Swabia have unearthed what they claim to be the oldest statue in the history of art. The three little figurines carved from mammoth bone were discovered in a cave in Southern Germany, and are so intricate in their design that archeologists believe they could change our understanding of the imaginative power of early man's mind. The artifacts date back between 30,000 and 33,000 years, to a time when some of modern humans' earliest relatives populated the European continent. The incredible discovery was made during a dig headed by U.S....
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance |
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Sir John Hawkwood
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03/06/2009 9:06:28 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 164+ views
Paladins of Chivalry | 2006 | Martin Cazey
John Hawkwood came from obscurity in Essex to fight with distinction in the early part of the Hundred Years War when he was knighted. With the coming of peace in 1360 he went with other "unemployed" soldiers to Italy, where he became a famous mercenary captain. He was appointed Captain General of the armies of Florence and in old age was planning to return to England when he died... Hawkwood learned his trade as the English battled the French for twenty years. It was during this time that the tactics of the English with their men at arms supported ably...
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| Not So Ancient Autopsies |
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Skeleton of village 'witch' to be re-buried [ a good bit o' spin in the headline ]
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03/06/2009 9:34:23 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 35 replies · 390+ views
Kent Online | March 2009 | Keyan Milanian
The medieval remains of a teenage girl who may have been suspected of witchcraft are to be given a Christian burial and funeral. The skeleton, found by Faversham-based archaeologist Dr Paul Wilkinson, is thought to be from the 14th or 15th century. It was found in unconsecrated ground under a holly tree, next to Hoo St Werburgh parish church, near Rochester. The remains would normally be left in archives for future archaeological reference, but the vicar of Hoo, the Rev Andy Harding, has asked for the body to be returned so she can be re-buried in the church grounds. Dr...
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| But for Wales? |
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St George Found In Welsh Church
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06/27/2004 4:03:04 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 20 replies · 216+ views
BBC | 6-27-2004
St George found in Welsh church The life-size painting was discovered during renovation work A medieval wall painting has been uncovered during renovation work at a south Wales church. A life-size image of St George standing on a slain a dragon was uncovered at St Cadoc's church in Llangattock Lingoed, near Abergavenny. Discovered during recent renovations at the centuries old church, experts have described the painting as a "special find". The painting is thought to have been covered up during the Reformation. Ruth McNeilage who is a specialist in conserving wall paintings worked on the image. "It is quite high...
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| The Vikings |
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Inuit and viking contact in ancient times
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03/02/2009 3:04:03 PM PST · Posted by BGHater · 4 replies · 277+ views
The Arctic Sounder | 26 Feb 2009 | RONALD BROWER
Editor's note: This is the second of two parts. There are many stories of "Qalunaat," white-skinned strangers who were encountered in Inuit occupied lands in times of old. Much of the traditional life had changed by the 1840s when Hinrich Johannes Rink went to Greenland to study geology and later became the governor of Greenland. Johannes was soon drawn to a new interest in the Inuit language and folklore, which he viewed as national treasures. He published old stories collected in 1866 "Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo" in which he included some early contact stories with the Qalunaat. In...
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| Prehistory and Origins |
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Oldest Known Fossilized Brain Found in Kansas (cue the Helen Thomas jokes!
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03/03/2009 11:29:16 AM PST · Posted by Red in Blue PA · 59 replies · 885+ views
Fox | 3/3/2009 | Fox
WASHINGTON -- A 300-million-year-old fossilized brain has been discovered by researchers studying a type of fish that once lived in what is now Kansas and Oklahoma. "Fossilized brains are unusual, and this is by far the oldest known example," said John Maisey, curator in the division of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. "Soft tissue has fossilized in the past, but it is usually muscle and organs like kidneys," Maisey said in a statement.
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| PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis |
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Spanish Archaeologists Find Oldest Evidence of Man in Paraguay [ 5,000 years ]
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03/02/2009 4:28:26 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 148+ views
Latin American Herald Tribune | February 2009 | unattributed
Spanish experts have found in Paraguay the oldest evidence of the presence of man dating back more than 5,000 years. The find was made during the course of an investigation being conducted into the heritage of the Pai Tavytera Indians. The remnants of ancient man's presence - which were not specified - were found in a hill known as Jasuka Venda by a team from the Altamira Museum, which is responsible for looking after the same-named cave containing the famous Upper Paleolithic cave paintings. The museum will present details of the Paraguay find at the International Congress on Cave Art...
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Lost Pre-Inca Treasure Found In Spanish Lock-Up
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12/06/2007 8:05:58 AM PST · Posted by blam · 13 replies · 120+ views
The Guardian (UK) | 12-602997 | Dale Fuchs
Lost pre-Inca treasure found in Spanish lock-up Dale Fuchs in Madrid Thursday December 6, 2007 The Guardian(UK) Police have uncovered a hidden storage room in Spain holding 1,800 pieces of pre-Colombian art, including ceremonial masks, ceramics, jewellery and a suit of 37 plates of gold - artefacts from a collection last seen in public 10 years ago. Many of the metallic pieces, including four copper masks, four gold rattles and four gold nose pendants, derived from the ancient tomb of the Lord of Sipan, one of the most important vestiges of pre-Inca Moche culture in Peru. The treasure, "of incalculable...
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| Early America |
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Congress looking to acquire, preserve Revolutionary War battlefields
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03/03/2009 9:44:42 PM PST · Posted by Coleus · 15 replies · 225+ views
star ledger
Legislation to protect Revolutionary War battlefield sites, including some in New Jersey, is moving through Congress. Sponsored by New Jersey Democrat Rush Holt, the bill would establish a $50 million grant program to help acquire and preserve battlefields, barracks and other sites related to the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. New Jersey has nearly 300 sites with direct ties to events of the American Revolution. The bill would allow the National Park Service to collaborate with state and local governments and nonprofit organizations to preserve and protect sites threatened by housing sprawl and commercial development. It now awaits...
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| The Framers |
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the 8th Amendment
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03/02/2009 4:15:10 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 282+ views
Constitution of the United States, via Populist America et al | The Framers
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
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| The Civil War |
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In Douglass Tribute, Slave Folklore and Fact Collide
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01/23/2007 6:46:55 PM PST · Posted by neverdem · 21 replies · 837+ views
NY Times | January 23, 2007 | NOAM COHEN
At the northwest corner of Central Park, construction is under way on Frederick Douglass Circle, a $15.5 million project honoring the escaped slave who became a world-renowned orator and abolitionist. Beneath an eight-foot-tall sculpture of Douglass, the plans call for a huge quilt in granite, an array of squares, a symbol in each, supposedly part of a secret code sewn into family quilts and used along the Underground Railroad to aid slaves. Two plaques would explain this. The only problem: According to many prominent historians, the secret code -- the subject of a popular book that has been featured on...
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| Longer Perspectives |
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Desert Secret Cracked: Ancient Hunting Techniques Revealed
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03/02/2009 5:32:41 AM PST · Posted by SJackson · 40 replies · 2,148+ views
Arutz Sheva | 3-3-09 | Baruch Gordon
Desert Secret Cracked: Ancient Hunting Techniques Revealed Adar 6, 5769, 02 March 09 11:12by Baruch Gordon (IsraelNN.com) How did humans living in the third millennium BCE manage to find sufficient quantities of meat in the arid desert regions? A new study of the "desert kites" that are spread across the expanses of Israel's Negev and Arava desert region, carried out by researchers from the University of Haifa, unearths the answer to this riddle.Already in the early 20th century, British pilots flying over the Middle Eastern deserts identified strange forms spreading over hundreds of meters, sometimes even over a few kilometers....
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| Climate |
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Reversing Ecology Reveals Ancient Environments
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03/02/2009 4:56:58 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 144+ views
ScienceDaily | February 25, 2009 | Stanford University
Elhanan Borenstein is lead author of a paper that offers clues to the complex evolutionary interplay between organisms such as parasites and hosts. From hair color to the ancestral line of parasitic bacteria, scientists can glean a lot from genes. But imagine if genes also revealed where you lived or who you spent time with. It turns out they do, if you know where and how to look. Stanford researchers with collaborators at Tel-Aviv University have now laid the foundation for opening such a window to the past using a technique called "reverse ecology." The technique uses genomic data to...
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany |
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Science rewrites Northern legend [ The Hunt for the Mad Trapper ]
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03/06/2009 9:52:52 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 284+ views
Northern News Services | Monday, March 2, 2009 | Andrew Livingstone
A soon to be released documentary will prove Canadians hoping they inherited some rebel blood from the infamous Mad Trapper dead wrong. Airing in May, the Hunt for the Mad Trapper will prove the outlaw, otherwise known as Albert Johnson, is either American or Scandinavian, not Canadian as originally thought... "The oral histories and written history all fits," she said. "It tells us that people who spoke with him, when he did speak, said he had a Scandinavian accent. Others said he was Johnny Johnson from the Midwest U.S. It was interesting the science matched what information was there." Albert...
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| end of digest #242 20090307 |
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