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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #263 Saturday, August 1, 2009 |
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| The Vikings | |
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| 51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit? |
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· 07/28/2009 1:34:43 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 71 replies · 1,461+ views · · National Geographic News · · July 28, 2009 · · James Owen in London · |
Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young men -- their heads stacked neatly to the side -- have been found in a thousand-year-old pit in southern England, according to carbon-dating results released earlier this month. The mass burial took place at a time when the English were battling Viking invaders, say archaeologists who are now trying to verify the identity of the slain. The dead are thought to have been war captives, possibly Vikings, whose heads were hacked off with swords or axes... Many of the skeletons have deep cut marks to the skull and jaw as well... |
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| 51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit? |
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· 07/28/2009 7:38:47 PM PDT · · Posted by pissant · · 41 replies · 1,221+ views · · National Geographic · · 7/28/09 · · James Owen · |
Naked, beheaded, and tangled, the bodies of 51 young men -- their heads stacked neatly to the side -- have been found in a thousand-year-old pit in southern England, according to carbon-dating results released earlier this month. The mass burial took place at a time when the English were battling Viking invaders, say archaeologists who are now trying to verify the identity of the slain. The dead are thought to have been war captives, possibly Vikings, whose heads were hacked off with swords or axes, according to excavation leader David Score of Oxford Archaeology, an archaeological-services company. Announced in June, the pit discovery took... |
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| British Isles | |
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| Sutton Hoo, Suffolk: On the trail of the Anglo-Saxons |
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· 07/28/2009 7:05:17 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 13 replies · 312+ views · · Telegraph · · JUL 28, 2009 · · Sophie Campbell · |
'When I visit, the surrounding meadow is shimmering with heat, as it would have been in that long hot summer before the war' Photo: JOHN ROBERTSON The sherry party that Mrs Edith Pretty threw at her home above the River Deben in Suffolk on July 25 1939 was one of those occasions that everyone remembers for the wrong reasons. The invitation, dispatched to the great and good of the locality -- including the curator of the Ipswich Museum and the Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk -- was to celebrate the discovery of a "Viking ship" buried on her land. Along with... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| Ancient Britain Had Apartheid-Like Society, Study Suggests |
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· 07/28/2009 1:25:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 54 replies · 861+ views · · National Geographic News · · July 21, 2006 · · Kate Ravilious · |
When Anglo-Saxons first arrived in Britain 1,600 years ago, they created an apartheid-like society that oppressed the native Britons and wiped out almost all of the British gene pool, according to a new study. By treating Britons like slaves and imposing strict rules, the small band of Anglo-Saxons -- who had come from what is now Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands -- quickly dominated the country, leaving a legacy of Germanic genes and the English language, both of which still dominate Britain today. The new theory helps explain historical, archaeological, and genetic evidence that until now had seemed contradictory, including... |
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| Africa | |
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| African Slavery Historical Perspective |
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· 07/26/2009 4:48:45 PM PDT · · Posted by sushiman · · 13 replies · 68+ views · · ATLAH · · 7/26/09 · · James D. Manning · |
Dr. James David Manning ponders the question of whether or not blacks feel guilty about the slave trade |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| J'lem: Rare 2nd Temple inscription found |
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· 07/29/2009 10:03:15 AM PDT · · Posted by Nachum · · 18 replies · 642+ views · · Jerusalem Post · · 7/29/09 · · staff · |
A unique ten-line Aramaic inscription on the side of a stone cup commonly used for ritual purity during Second Temple times was recently uncovered during archaeological excavations on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, The Jerusalem Post learned on Wednesday. Inscriptions of this kind are extremely rare and only a handful have been found in scientific excavations made within the city. |
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| Stone Vessel with 'Priestly Inscription' Uncovered In Jerusalem |
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· 07/31/2009 8:47:34 AM PDT · · Posted by NYer · · 8 replies · 414+ views · · Arutz Sheva · · July 31, 2009 · · Hana Levi Julian and Gil Ronen · |
A rare 2,000-year-old ritual vessel made of limestone and inscribed with 10 lines of text has been discovered in an excavation near the Zion Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is an unprecedented find, according to Dr. Shimon Gibson, the archaeologist who heads the University of North Carolina team conducting the dig. "Such stone vessels were used in connection with maintaining ritual purity related to Temple worship, and they are found in abundance in areas where the priests lived," Gibson reported. "We have found a dozen or more on our site over the past three years. However, to have ten... |
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| Navigation | |
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| Business Models in Antiquity |
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· 07/27/2009 9:47:42 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 19 replies · 290+ views · · The Globalist · · Tuesday, July 21, 2009 · · Karl Moore and David C. Lewis · |
The Phoenicians were not the first ancient people to sponsor long-distance seaborne trade, but they and their Carthaginian children were the first to perfect it. They are the real pioneers of what we will call maritime capitalism. How did they do it? By taking advantage of a unique window of opportunity. During the Middle Bronze Age (traditionally dated to the first half of the second millennium BCE), first Babylon and then Egypt dominated the Middle East. As their power faded, no single power dominated. In this climate of peace and stability, trade took the place of war. Babylonia tried to... |
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| Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran | |
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| Tales of Persia's Wondrous Past [The "Shahnameh' mourns the loss of Iran's pre-Islamic...] |
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· 07/25/2009 7:51:02 PM PDT · · Posted by sionnsar · · 27 replies · 114+ views · · Wall Street Journal: Leisure & Arts · · 7/25/2009 · · EMILY ESFAHANI SMITH · |
Before the Islamic Revolution dimmed the Iranian literary imagination in 1979, and before an expanding Islam swept Iran into its Arab empire in the seventh century, there existed the rich and colorful Iran recounted in Ferdowsi's "Shahnameh," or the Book of Kings. Nearly four centuries after the Arab conquest, the "Shahnameh" tells the story of pre-Islamic Iran -- when Persian civilization was at its zenith. The epic proceeds through the reign of many monarchs, chronicling the at times legendary, at times mythological, and at times quasihistorical stories of each reign. Then, with the Arab conquest, the chronicle comes to an end. This... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Genes show Welsh are the true Britons |
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· 07/10/2002 8:43:22 AM PDT · · Posted by Korth · · 30 replies · 464+ views · · Telegraph.co.uk · · 01/07/2002 · · Unknown · |
Scientists say they have discovered big genetic differences between the English and Welsh, reinforcing the idea that the "true" Britons were pushed to the fringes by a large-scale Anglo-Saxon invasion. Researchers at University College London found the genes of a sample of English men were almost identical to those of people in an area of the Netherlands where the Anglo-Saxons are thought to have originated. But there were clear differences between the genetic make-up of English and Welsh subjects studied. The researchers concluded that the most likely explanation for this was a large-scale Anglo-Saxon invasion, which wiped out most of... |
| DNA confirms coastal trek to Australia |
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· 07/29/2009 8:11:52 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 4 replies · 221+ views · · ABC · · 24 July 2009 · · Nicky Phillips · |
DNA evidence linking Indian tribes to Australian Aboriginal people supports the theory humans arrived in Australia from Africa via a southern coastal route through India, say researchers.The research, lead by Dr Raghavendra Rao from the Anthropological Survey of India, is published in the current edition of BMC Evolutionary Biology.One theory is that modern humans arrived in Australia via an inland route through central Asia but Rao says most scientists believe modern humans arrived via the coast of South Asia.But he says there has never been any evidence to confirm a stop-off in India until now.Rao and colleagues sequenced the mitochondrial... |
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| Australia & the Pacific | |
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| Taiwan digs up its oldest civilization |
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· 07/27/2009 9:02:05 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · 161+ views · · Reuters · · Friday, July 24, 2009 · · Ralph Jennings, editing by David Fox · |
Researchers in Taiwan have discovered what the believe is the island's oldest civilization, dating back about 20,000 years and belonging to a pygmy-like people that came from China, Southeast Asia or beyond, the team leader said on Friday. Taiwan's government-run Academia Sinica, which found more than 200 stone tools at the Ba Hsien Cave excavation site on the island's east coast, will return next year to seek clues on who was living there, leader Tsang Chen-hua said. The civilization was probably a dark-skinned people similar to Negritos, a term that covers several ethnic groups of short stature in isolated parts... |
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| Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis | |
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| Ancient humans left evidence from the party that ended 4,000 years ago |
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· 07/26/2009 7:14:53 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · 50+ views · · University of Missouri-Columbia, via Eurekalert · · Monday, July 21, 2009 · · Kelsey Jackson · |
The party was over more than 4,000 years ago, but the remnants still remain in the gourds and squashes that served as dishware. For the first time, University of Missouri researchers have studied the residues from gourds and squash artifacts that date back to 2200 B.C. and recovered starch grains from manioc, potato, chili pepper, arrowroot and algarrobo. The starches provide clues about the foods consumed at feasts and document the earliest evidence of the consumption of algarrobo and arrowroot in Peru... In the study, researchers recovered starch grains from squash and gourd artifacts by a method that currently is... |
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| Climate | |
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| When Did Humans Return After Last Ice Age? (UK) |
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· 07/27/2009 12:18:42 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 16 replies · 418+ views · · ScienceDaily · · July 27, 2009 · · Unknown · |
The Cheddar Gorge in Somerset was one of the first sites to be inhabited by humans when they returned to Britain near the end of the last Ice Age. According to new radio carbon dating by Oxford University researchers, outlined in the latest issue of Quaternary Science Review, humans were living in Gough's Cave 14,700 years ago. |
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| Catastrophism & Astronomy | |
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| The Earth-Moon system during the Late Heavy Bombardment period |
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· 07/24/2009 5:03:03 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 23 replies · 313+ views · · arXiv · · Jul 23, 2009 · · un · |
The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB) period is the narrow time interval between 3.8 and 3.9 Gyr ago, where the bulk of the craters we see on the Moon formed. Even more craters formed on the Earth. During a field expedition to the 3.8 Gyr old Isua greenstone belt in Greenland, we sampled three types of metasedimentary rocks, that contain direct traces of the LHB impactors by a seven times enrichment (150 ppt) in iridium compared to present day ocean crust (20 ppt). We show that this enrichment is in agreement with the lunar cratering rate, providing the impactors were comets,... |
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| Permian-Triassic | |
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| Weather Of Mass Destruction |
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· 09/03/2003 5:58:25 PM PDT · · Posted by Mike Darancette · · 14 replies · 271+ views Australian · · 28 August 2003 · · Australian · |
As It Happened: The Day the Earth Nearly Died 8pm, SBS (2.30am, Perth) THINK of the wonderful profusion of life on Earth today. Then imagine 95 per cent of it dying in a terrible cataclysm. As this program from the BBC's Horizon series tells us, it's not a fantasy, it happened 250 million years ago, bringing the Permian period, with its myriad strange life-forms, crashing to an end and sending evolution into an abrupt reverse. The Permian mass extinction dwarfed the demise of the dinosaurs, caused by an asteroid strike 65 million years ago, when 60 per cent of species... |
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| Holocene | |
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| Carolina bays gouged into the ground at a magnetic reversal |
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· 07/29/2009 8:28:13 PM PDT · · Posted by Fred Nerks · · 60 replies · 1,162+ views · · Magnetic Reversals · · 28 Jul 09 · · Robert W Felix · |
Is it just a coincidence that more than two million huge holes were gouged into the ground - all at the same time - about 12,000 years ago at a magnetic reversal? Usually not more than 20 feet deep - which means that they were probably not formed by meteoric impacts - the holes range in size from one acre to several thousand acres, and measure up seven miles across. Scientists estimate that there could be more than two million Carolina bays (sometimes under different names) spread across the United States from Florida to New Jersey to Texas. I sure... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Can Hydrocarbons Form in the Mantle Without Organic Matter? |
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· 07/28/2009 9:20:47 PM PDT · · Posted by JmyBryan · · 33 replies · 622+ views · · Geology.com · · July 2009 · · Carnegie Institution · |
Could Deep Source Hydrocarbons Migrate Up Into Oil and Gas Reservoirs? The oil and gas that fuels our homes and cars started out as living organisms that died, were compressed, and heated under heavy layers of sediments in the Earth's crust. Scientists have debated for years whether some of these hydrocarbons could also have been created deeper in the Earth and formed without organic matter. Now for the first time, scientists have found that ethane and heavier hydrocarbons can be synthesized under the pressure-temperature conditions of the upper mantle -- the layer of Earth under the crust and on top of... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Reexamination of T. rex verifies disputed biochemical remains |
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· 07/29/2009 4:04:57 PM PDT · · Posted by Mmogamer · · 12 replies · 313+ views · · American Chemical Society · · 29-Jul-2009 · · Michael Woods · |
Reexamination of T. rex verifies disputed biochemical remains A new analysis of the remains of a Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) that roamed Earth 68 million years ago has confirmed traces of protein from blood and bone, tendons, or cartilage. The findings, scheduled for publication in the Sept. 4 issue of ACS' monthly Journal of Proteome Research, is the latest addition to an ongoing controversy over which biochemical remnants can be detected in the dino. |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| When and wear: the prehistory of clothing |
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· 07/27/2009 9:30:16 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 23 replies · 379+ views · · ScienceAlert (Australia) · · Monday, September 1, 2008 · · Simon Couper · |
The doctoral researcher from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at ANU is simply making it clear that he's not concerned with the vicissitudes of fashion... Instead, he's fascinated by how humans came to develop clothing, and how that innovation might have in turn given our species an evolutionary edge over other hominids... He has credentials in medicine, psychology, prehistoric archaeology, and is completing a thesis in biological anthropology. This complicated curriculum vitae makes sense in light of Gilligan's project: his drive to understand the physiological, psychological and prehistoric aspects of clothing... "Modern humans have been around 200,000 years, and... |
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| Asia | |
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| Ancient Silla armor comes to light[Korea] |
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· 07/28/2009 8:19:08 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 7 replies · 448+ views · · JoongAng Daily · · 22 July 2009 · · Lee Kyong-hee · |
The recent discovery of the armor of Silla Dynasty cavalrymen has provided proof of the existence of these mythical men. GYEONGJU - The warrior's body and bones are long gone, decayed into the soil. But the armor that once protected him from enemy swords and arrows has survived the passage of time and has been revealed for the first time in 1,600 years. The armor of the heavily protected cavalrymen of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C. - A.D. 935) - proof of which has previously existed only in paintings - was discovered in the ancient tombs of the Jjoksaem District... |
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| Anatolia | |
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| Dock 1 made from ancient ruins? [ Mausoleum of Halicarnassus? one of the 7 Wonders ] |
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· 07/27/2009 8:45:10 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 17 replies · 222+ views · · Times of Malta · · Sunday, 26th July 2009 · · Cynthia Busuttil · |
The murky water in Dock No.1 in Cospicua has witnessed much history over the years. Nobody ever imagined, however, that lying underneath could be the remains of an ancient Turkish wonder - the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. No one, that is, but oncologist Stephen Brincat, who came across this precious piece of information while reading an article about the excavations of the site by the British in the 19th century in the Turkish magazine Cornucopia. "There was one sentence which said that the wall of the mausoleum was dismantled to build a dock in Malta," Dr Brincat said. Blocks of marble... |
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| The Phoenicians | |
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| Berlusconi escort tape may spark antiquities probe [ Phoenician tombs? ] |
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· 07/28/2009 1:51:59 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 13 replies · 318+ views · · Myanmar Star · · Friday July 24, 2009 · · Philip Pullella · |
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's private conversations with an escort, which have riveted Italians all week, may wind up getting him into trouble with Italy's archaeological authorities... In one of the transcripts of his purported conversations with Patrizia D'Addario posted on an Italian website, Berlusconi boasts to her about his sprawling villa in Sardinia -- complete with an ice cream parlour and artificial lakes. "Here we found 30 Phoenician tombs from (around) 300 BC," the voice is heard to say. |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| Can a Single Neuron Tell Halle Berry From Grandma Esther? [ Grandmother Cells? ] |
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· 07/28/2009 1:39:51 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 9 replies · 400+ views · · Discover magazine, June 2009 issue · · online May 15, 2009 · · Carl Zimmer · |
Four decades ago, an MIT neuroscientist named Jerry Lettvin had a sudden inspiration about how our brains make sense of the world. What if each of us had a special set of neurons in our head whose only job was to recognize a particular person, place, or thing? It was a strange idea, but given what Lettvin knew about the brain, it was plausible. To describe his idea to his students, he made up a story [pdf]. The story was about Alexander Portnoy, the protagonist of Philip Roth's novel Portnoy's Complaint, which had just been published. The novel is a... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Italian archaeologists find lost Roman city of Altinum near Venice |
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· 07/30/2009 8:37:00 PM PDT · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 17 replies · 756+ views · · The Times · · 7/31/2009 · · Hannah Devlin · |
The bustling harbour of Altinum near Venice was one of the richest cities of the Roman empire. But terrified by the impending invasion of the fearsome Germanic Emperor Attila the Hun, its inhabitants cut their losses and fled in AD452, leaving behind a ghost town of theatres, temples and basilicas. Altinum was never reoccupied and gradually sunk into the ground. The city lived on in Venetian folk tales and historical artefacts but its exact position, size and wealth gradually faded into obscurity. Now, using aerial photography of the region, Italian archaeologists have not only located the city, but have produced... |
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| Pages | |
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| Google, Sony Now Offer 1 Million Free Books |
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· 07/31/2009 9:41:46 AM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 8 replies · 372+ views · · Daily Tech · · July 30, 2009 3:54 AM · · Michael Barkoviak · |
Sony's e-book store now has more than 1 million titles Sony today announced that there are more than 1 million public domain books available through the Google Books project, as Sony continues to battle with Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble. "We are committed to ensuring our customers have the freedom to discover and read content from the widest possible range of sources," Sony eBook Store Director Chris Smythe said in a statement. "We're proud to offer access to the broadest range of eBooks today -- from hot new releases, to New York Times Best Sellers, to classics and hard to... |
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| Rome and Italy | |
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| Ancient warrior's skeleton found near Rome |
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· 07/31/2009 10:41:07 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 9 replies · 503+ views · · Associated Press · · Jul 31, 2009 · · Marta Falconi · |
ROME - Archaeologists have found the skeleton of a warrior from up to 5,000 years ago floating in a tomb filled with sea water on a beach near Rome, Italy's art squad said Friday. The bones -- believed to date from the 3rd millennium B.C. -- were discovered in May as art hunters were carrying out routine checks of the region's archaeological areas, Carabinieri art squad official Raffaele Mancino said. |
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| The Framers | |
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| the 24th Amendment |
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· 07/26/2009 6:14:03 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 6 replies · 14+ views · · Constitution of the United States, via FindLaw et al · · proposed August 27, 1962 · · ratified January 23, 1964 · · The Framers et al · |
Section 1. : The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. Section 2. : The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Mediterranean Reflections on What Went Wrong [Victor Davis Hanson] |
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· 07/30/2009 7:45:43 AM PDT · · Posted by Tolik · · 29 replies · 908+ views · · pajamasmedia.com · · July 30, 2009 · · Victor Davis Hanson · |
I have been traveling as a lecturer on a Hillsdale College Byzantium Cruise (from Venice to Athens, with several stops in the Adriatic, Mediterranean, and Aegean) for the last few days, and here are some eccentric reflections on civilizations of the past. I spent yesterday in Venice -- hot, humid, and crowded, as I had never quite seen it before. So much for the global recession that has supposedly curtailed world tourism.Venice was not a classical city, and one can see why. It was malarial, without natural harbors or any readily identifiable deep ports or surrounding cliffs. It is instead a conglomeration of... |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| New book says wrong clothing, not winter led to Hitler's 1941 defeat in Russia |
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· 07/26/2009 5:55:44 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 81 replies · 76+ views · · ANI · · Jul 26, 2009 · · Unknown · |
British historian Andrew Roberts has claimed in a new book -- The Storm of War -- that wrong clothing and not ghastly wintry conditions led to Germany's defeat in Russia in 1941. In an extract from his new book, Roberts claims that Hitler's troops were fatally ill equipped for the 1941 invasion of Russia. He also blames dictator Adolf Hitler for that defeat, saying the Nazi leader failed to take care of his troops' needs and was more proud of his hardiness in the cold, boasting how "having to change into long trousers was always a misery to me." Prior... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| 'Stalin victims' found in Belarus |
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· 07/26/2009 6:25:11 PM PDT · · Posted by BlackVeil · · 12 replies · 28+ views · · BBC · · 24 July 2009 · · anon · |
The remains of more than 20 suspected victims of Joseph Stalin's secret police have been found in the basement of a church in northern Belarus. Soviet bullets were found with the remains at Glubokoye, a village which had been in Poland but fell into Soviet hands in 1939. A youth group discovered the remains earlier this week, reports say. Local historians said the victims had most probably been shot by the NKVD secret police between 1939 and 1941. "I think we can all but rule out any suggestion that these people were shot by the Germans during the occupation," historian... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Muzzie | |
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| Obama 'like Romans who destroyed Jewish Temples' (Jews read Lamentations at U.S. consulate) |
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· 07/29/2009 3:22:50 PM PDT · · Posted by Nachum · · 14 replies · 303+ views · · WND · · 7/29/09 · · Aaron Klien · |
JERUSALEM -- Marking the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, about a thousand Jewish protesters today read the biblical book of Lamentations in front of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem to protest against the Obama administration's demand to freeze Jewish construction in eastern sections of the city. Tonight marks the fasting day of Tisha B'Av, or the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It commemorates a series of tragedies that befell the Jewish people all on the same day, most significantly the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, which occurred about 656 years apart on... |
| end of digest #263 20090801 | |
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· Saturday, August 1, 2009 · 32 topics · 2305361 to 2301306 · 719 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 262nd issue, which consists of a very manageable number of topics -- and yet is another of the recent run of excellent selection.Sign the "Free Our Healthcare Now"! Petition (Approaching 1,000,000 signatures!) at this link. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #264 Saturday, August 8, 2009 |
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| Billy Jean Was Not My Pharaoh | |
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| Michael Jackson's Face In An Ancient Egyptian Bust? |
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· 08/06/2009 1:46:05 PM PDT · · Posted by TaraP · · 22 replies · 683+ views · · NPR's Breaking News, Analysis Blog · · August 5th, 2009 · |
If you keep in mind that Chicago is the place where people once saw the Virgin Mary in a salt stain on the wall of a roadway underpass it should make sense that it's now the place where some are seeing the face of the late Michael Jackson in an ancient Egyptian sculpture. The resemblance has caused a big buzz in the blogosphere, which led the Chicago Sun-Times to put a photo of the 3000-year old bust of an Egyptian woman on its front page yesterday and for its columnist Michael Sneed to write about it. Anyway, it's hard to... |
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| Ancient Egyptian statue thrills Jackson fans in Chicago (3000 Yr Old Statue of MJ) |
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· 08/07/2009 7:38:10 PM PDT · · Posted by nickcarraway · · 13 replies · 448+ views · · Times of India · · 8 August 2009 · |
Was Michael Jackson secretly trying to be "The Pharaoh of Pop?" An ancient Egyptian bust on display at the Field Museum in Chicago has been the focus of interest since the star's death as visitors double-take at the eerie similarities between the 3,000-year-old statue and the singer. The limestone statue -- which depicts an unidentified woman -- went on display at the museum in 1988 and was carved during the New Kingdom Period, dating from between 1550 BC to 1050 BC. Like Jackson's surgically-altered face, the carving has a distinct, upturned nose and rounded eyes. And like Jackson -- if... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Carbon 14 -- The Solution to Dating David and Solomon? |
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· 08/01/2009 6:58:42 AM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · 425+ views · · Biblical Archaeology Review · · May/Jun 2009 BAR 35:03 · · Lily Singer-Avitz · |
According to the so-called high chronology, the transition occurred around 1000 or 980 B.C.E. It is generally recognized that David conquered Jerusalem in about 1000 B.C.E. According to the low chronology, the transition to Iron Age IIa occurred around 920-900 B.C.E. Other opinions place the transition somewhere between the two -- in about 950 B.C. The date is important because the date you choose will determine whether David and Solomon reigned in the archaeologically poor and archaeologically poorly documented Iron I or in the comparatively rich and richly documented Iron IIa. However, the differences in data between the various schools... |
| Experts dig up dirt on David and Goliath |
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· 08/08/2009 8:21:36 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 28 replies · 651+ views · · ABC News · · 03 Aug 2009 · · Anne Barker · |
Archaeologists are putting some flesh on the bones of the David and Goliath myth by shifting through layers of earth at the site in the Holy Land. While little physical evidence has ever been found to support the 3,000-year-old biblical story of David and Goliath, a team from Israel and Australia has been excavating 50 kilometres from Jerusalem in the city of Tell es-Safi, where Goliath was supposedly born. According to the bible, Goliath stood around three metres tall and lived in the 10th century BC in the ancient city of Gath, which is now modern day Tell es-Safi. It... |
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| Rome and Italy | |
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| Finding King Herod's Tomb |
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· 08/02/2009 6:17:08 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 9 replies · 588+ views · · Smithsonian Magazine · · July 2009 · · Barbara Kreiger · |
After a 35-year search, an Israeli archaeologist is certain he has solved the mystery of the biblical figure's final resting place Shielding my eyes from the glare of the morning sun, I look toward the horizon and the small mountain that is my destination: Herodium, site of the fortified palace of King Herod the Great. I'm about seven miles south of Jerusalem, not far from the birthplace of the biblical prophet Amos, who declared: "Let justice stream forth like water." Herod's reign over Judea from 37 to 4 B.C. is not remembered for justice but for its indiscriminate cruelty. His... |
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| Faith and Philosophy | |
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| Turkish Government Denies Request for Church in Tarsus |
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· 08/06/2009 1:24:52 PM PDT · · Posted by marshmallow · · 23 replies · 321+ views · · American Catholic · · 8/5/09 · |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Despite a personal request from Pope Benedict XVI and repeated requests by Christian leaders in Turkey, the Turkish government has decided that the only church in Tarsus, the city of St. Paul's birth, will remain a government museum. The Church of St. Paul, built as a Catholic church in the 1800s and confiscated by the government in 1943, was used throughout the 2008-2009 year of St. Paul for prayer services by Christian pilgrims. After the end of the yearlong celebration commemorating the 2,000th anniversary of St. Paul's birth, the Turkish government decided the building could not be used... |
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| Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis | |
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| Alabama city destroying ancient Indian mound for Sam's Club |
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· 08/04/2009 11:04:42 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 25 replies · 869+ views · · ISS · · 04 Aug 2009 · · Sue Sturgis · |
City leaders in Oxford, Ala. have approved the destruction of a 1,500-year-old Native American ceremonial mound and are using the dirt as fill for a new Sam's Club, a retail warehouse store operated by Wal-Mart. A University of Alabama archaeology report commissioned by the city found that the site was historically significant as the largest of several ancient stone and earthen mounds throughout the Choccolocco Valley. But Oxford Mayor Leon Smith -- whose campaign has financial connections to firms involved in the $2.6 million no-bid project -- insists the mound is not man-made and was used only to "send smoke... |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| No Sweet Tooth for Europe |
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· 07/31/2009 10:28:27 PM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 27 replies · 639+ views · · ScienceNOW Daily News · · 31 July 2009 · · Constance Holden · |
Enlarge ImageTrick or treat? This confection may be more pleasing to some taste buds than it is to others. Credit: Photos.com If you take your coffee without sugar or your pancakes without syrup, chances are you've got some European ancestry in your blood. New research reveals that people whose early relatives lived in Europe are more sensitive to sweet tastes than those whose ancestors came from other parts of the world. Scientists led by Alexey Fushan of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders in Bethesda, Maryland, asked 144 people from various ethnic backgrounds to rank the... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Delighted antiques dealer discovers 1,300-year-old Knights Templar relic at car boot sale |
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· 08/03/2009 9:38:22 PM PDT · · Posted by BlackVeil · · 52 replies · 1,213+ views · · Daily Mail · · 4th August 2009 · · By Daily Mail Reporter · |
An antiques dealer has picked up what could be a priceless church relic dating back 1,300 years at a car boot sale. The small piece of painted wood is believed to have come from a box which the Knights Templar used to protect religious items as they moved across Europe during the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Quite how this ornate piece of wood found its way to a car boot sale in Yorkshire is anyone's guess. But it could bring Leeds antiques dealer Martin Roberts a big windfall at the next stop on its unlikely journey - an auction... |
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| Scotland Yet | |
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| Haggis was invented by the English, not the Scottish, says historian |
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· 08/02/2009 2:02:52 PM PDT · · Posted by bruinbirdman · · 62 replies · 1,023+ views · · The Telegraph · · 8/2/2009 · · Simon Johnson · |
Before being hijacked by Scottish nationalists Catherine Brown has discovered references to the dish in a recipe book dated 1615, The English Hus-wife by Gervase Markham. This was published at least 171 years before Robert Burns penned his poem Address to a Haggis, which made the delicacy famous. The first mention she could find of Scottish haggis was in 1747, indicating that the dish originated south of the Border and was later copied from English books. Ms Brown, whose findings feature in a TV documentary broadcast this week, said: "It was originally an English dish. In 1615, Gervase Markham says... |
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| Early America | |
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| North Carolina says "No Thanks" to Constitution 4 August 1788 (Vanity) |
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· 08/04/2009 3:07:39 AM PDT · · Posted by Jacquerie · · 2 replies · 224+ views · · North Carolina History Project · · unknown · · unknown · |
These men distrusted the central government and believed states' rights best protected individual liberties. After debating for eleven days, it became clear that the Constitution would not be ratified in North Carolina. |
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| The Framers | |
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| the 25th Amendment |
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· 08/03/2009 7:27:17 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 10 replies · 270+ views · · Constitution of the United States, via FindLaw et al · · proposed July 6, 1965 · · ratified February 10, 1967 · · The Framers et al · |
Section 1. : In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President. Section 2. : Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress. Section 3. : Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| This Day In Civil War History August 2, 1865 CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over |
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· 08/02/2009 8:47:18 AM PDT · · Posted by mainepatsfan · · 7 replies · 420+ views · · History Channel · |
August 2, 1865 CSS Shenandoah learns the war is over The captain and crew of the C.S.S. Shenandoah, still prowling the waters of the Pacific in search of Yankee whaling ships, is finally informed by a British vessel that the South has lost the war. The Shenandoah was the last major Confederate cruiser to set sail. Launched as a British vessel in September 1863, it was purchased by the Confederates and commissioned in October 1864. The 230-foot-long craft was armed with eight large guns and a crew of 73 sailors. Commanded by Captain James I. Waddell, the Shenandoah steered toward... |
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| Epigraphy and Language | |
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| Computers unlock more secrets of the mysterious Indus Valley script |
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· 08/03/2009 2:59:07 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 14 replies · 547+ views · · University of Washington · · Aug. 3, 2009 · · Hannah Hickey · |
Four-thousand years ago, an urban civilization lived and traded on what is now the border between Pakistan and India. During the past century, thousands of artifacts bearing hieroglyphics left by this prehistoric people have been discovered. Today, a team of Indian and American researchers are using mathematics and computer science to try to piece together information about the still-unknown script. The team led by a University of Washington researcher has used computers to extract patterns in ancient Indus symbols. The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows distinct patterns in the symbols'... |
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| Ancient Autopsies | |
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| 4,500-Year-Old Skeleton Found on Italian Beach |
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· 08/02/2009 9:05:41 AM PDT · · Posted by Doogle · · 38 replies · 1,036+ views · · FOX NEWS · · 08/02/09 · · FOX · |
A well-preserved 4,500-year-old skeleton of a man was found on a beach south of Rome, Italian police told Reuters. The man is believed to be a warrior killed by an arrow in the chest, Reuters reported. Six small vases were also found buried near the man. |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| World's oldest map: Spanish cave has landscape from 14,000 years ago |
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· 08/06/2009 5:51:58 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 51 replies · 856+ views · · Telegraph · · Aug. 6, 2009 · · Fiona Govan · |
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe is man's earliest map, dating from almost 14,000 years ago Photo: EPA A stone tablet found in a cave in Abauntz in the Navarra region of northern Spain is believed to contain the earliest known representation of a landscape. Engravings on the stone, which measures less than seven inches by five inches, and is less than an inch thick, appear to depict mountains, meandering rivers and areas of good foraging and hunting. |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| Dog domestication likely started in N. Africa |
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· 08/03/2009 6:19:19 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 15 replies · 284+ views · · Discovery · · Aug 3, 2009 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
A Basenji is a dog breed indigenous to sub-Saharan Africa. Humans might have first domesticated dogs from wolves in Africa, with Egypt being one possibility, since wolves are native to that region. Modern humans originated in Africa, and now it looks like man's best friend first emerged there too. An extensive genetic study on the ancestry of African village dogs points to a Eurasian -- possibly North African -- origin for the domestication of dogs. Prior research concluded that dogs likely originated in East Asia. However, this latest study, the most thorough investigation ever on the ancestry of African village... |
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| Getting to be Hobbit | |
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| Humans, Flores 'hobbits' existed together: study |
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· 08/03/2009 6:38:16 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 11 replies · 472+ views · · ABC News · · 02 Aug 2009 · · David Mark · |
They were just one metre tall with very long arms, no chins, wrist bones like gorillas and extremely long feet. In 2003, archaeologists excavating in a cave on the Indonesian island of Flores made a discovery that forced scientists to completely rethink conventional theories of human evolution. They reported the discovery of a new species of human, one that lived as recently as 12,000 years ago, at the same time as modern humans. But others disagreed, arguing the one-metre-high skeleton was a modern human that suffered from a deformity known as microcephaly. The debate has raged ever since. But Debbie... |
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| Morphology | |
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| Fossil is 'earliest tree-dweller' [ Suminia getmanovi ] |
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· 08/04/2009 1:40:23 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · 213+ views · · BBC · · Wednesday, July 29, 2009 · · Victoria Gill · |
A 260-million-year-old fossil is the oldest known tree-dwelling creature, according to researchers. Scientists described the finding as the earliest evidence in the fossil record of an "opposable thumb"... they described how the animal's elongated hands and fingers would have helped it to grip and climb... The fossilised creature, named Suminia getmanovi, has been dated to late Permian period, 100 million years earlier than the first known tree-dwelling mammal. It was first discovered in Russia in 1994. But for lead author Jorg Frobisch, from the Field Museum in Chicago, US, said this study was the first opportunity to examine its whole... |
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| Paleontology | |
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| Pterosaur features defy comparison |
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· 08/05/2009 5:22:00 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 16 replies · 455+ views · · Discovery News · · Aug. 5, 2009 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
A well-preserved pterosaur with soft tissues reveals this flying reptile had hair, claws and wings that were unlike anything seen on today's living animals, suggests a new paper. Analysis of the remains, which date to around 140 to 130 million years ago, indicate pterosaurs were warm-blooded insect eaters that may have lived in trees and possessed sophisticated flying skills. "Pterosaurs are unique in their bone construction and our study also shows that some of the soft tissues of these creatures differ from anything known today," says study author Dr Alexander Kellner. |
| Was T. rex a chicken and baby killer? |
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· 08/07/2009 4:31:02 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 13 replies · 234+ views · · Live Science · · Aug. 7, 2009 · · Charles Q. Choi · |
Although past research has suggested Tyrannosaurus rex was related to chickens, now findings hint this giant predator might have acted chicken too. Instead of picking on dinosaurs its own size, researchers now suggest T. rex was a baby killer that liked to swallow defenseless prey whole. Fossil evidence of attacks of tyrannosaurs or similar gargantuan "theropods" on triceratops and duck-billed dinosaurs has been uncovered before, conjuring images of titanic clashes. |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Amelia Earhart Mystery Solved? 'Investigation Junkies' to Launch New Expedition |
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· 07/30/2009 10:33:38 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 12 replies · 1,013+ views · · ABC · · 27 June 2009 · · CHRISTINA CARON · |
DNA Evidence on a Remote Island May Reveal the Truth About Earhart's Disappearance It has been 72 years since famed aviator Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan disappeared while attempting to fly around the world. But the mystery remains unsolved: Nobody knows exactly what happened to Earhart or her plane. Now researchers at the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or Tighar, say they are on the verge of recovering DNA evidence that would demonstrate Earhart had been stranded on Nikumaroro Island (formerly known as Gardner Island) before finally perishing there. During May and June of next year, Tighar will... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| Reassessing The Causes [Gulf of Tonkin incident not the real start] |
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· 08/02/2009 7:06:37 AM PDT · · Posted by verity · · 2 replies · 272+ views · · The Washington Times · · August 2, 2009 · · Robert F. Turner · |
Today marks the 45th anniversary of a 1964 attack by North Vietnamese P-4 torpedo boats upon the American destroyer USS Maddox in international waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. The incident remains shrouded by confusion and misinformation and continues to be misperceived by many as the reason America went to war in Vietnam. Today may be a useful time to set the record straight. First, contrary to popular belief, the Aug. 2 attack definitely did occur. No less an authority than Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap -- North Vietnam's defense minister at the time -- admitted so in a 1995 meeting... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| Iraq Invades Kuwait 19 Years Ago Today - Video 8/2/1990 |
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· 08/02/2009 5:24:15 AM PDT · · Posted by Federalist Patriot · · 5 replies · 218+ views · · Freedom's Lighthouse · · August 2, 2009 · · BrianinMO · |
Here is a brief video report on the August 2, 1990 Iraq invasion of neighboring Kuwait, 19 years ago today. Iraq invaded using over 100,000 troops and 700 tanks. The invasion led to the First Gulf War in which a coalition of nations - led by the United States - drove Iraq out of Kuwait. Below is part of a speech by President George H.W. Bush to a Joint Session of Congress on September 11, 1990, in which he demanded that Iraq withdraw immediately and unconditionally from Kuwait. . . . . . |
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| Pages | |
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| What Are You Reading Now? - My (Belated) Quarterly Survey |
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· 07/29/2009 7:23:00 AM PDT · · Posted by MplsSteve · · 166 replies · 1,423+ views · · 7/29/09 · |
Well, it's time again for my quarterly "What Are You Reading Now?" thread. I do this thread to gauge what other Freepers are reading. As all of you know, Freepers are probably some of the more well-read individuals on the Internet and I'm always curious as to what we're reading. It can be anything, a classic work of fiction, a NY Times bestseller, a technical journal, a trashy pulp novel...in short anything. Please do not ruin this thread by replying "I'm reading this thread". It become un-funny a long time ago. I'll start. I'm about halfway thru "The Horrid Pit:... |
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| Kindling | |
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| Free Book Downloads For Constitutional Originalists - Emmerich de Vattel |
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· 08/05/2009 10:18:45 AM PDT · · Posted by RegulatorCountry · · 4 replies · 149+ views · · archive.org · · Various, 1758 - Present · · Emmerich de Vattel · Joeseph Chitty · Edward Duncan Ingraham · Sam C. Miller · |
Notes of a Course of Lectures on Vattel's Law of Nations (1891)The law of nations; or, Principles of the law of nature, applied to the conduct and affairs of nations and sovereigns. From the French of Monsieur de Vattel ... From the new ed. (1855) Author: Vattel, Emer de, 1714-1767; Chitty, Joseph, 1776-1841, ed; Ingraham, Edward D. (Edward Duncan), 1793-1854, ed Subject: International law; War (International law) Publisher:... |
| Free Book Downloads For Constitutional Originalists - Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz |
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· 08/05/2009 10:39:41 AM PDT · · Posted by RegulatorCountry · · 12 replies · 205+ views · · archive.org · · 1717 · · Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz & Samuel Clarke · |
A Collection of Papers, which Passed Between the Late Learned Mr. Leibnitz ... (1717) Author: Samuel Clarke , Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Publisher: printed for James Knapton Year: 1717 Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT Language: English Digitizing sponsor: Google Book contributor: Oxford University Collection: europeanlibraries Notes: A gentleman of the University of Cambridge = John Bulkeley |
| Free Book Downloads For Constitutional Originalists - William Blackstone |
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· 08/05/2009 10:57:53 AM PDT · · Posted by RegulatorCountry · · 4 replies · 209+ views · · archive.org · · Various · · William Blackstone · · William Cyrus Sprague · · Robert Malcolm Kerr · |
Blackstone's Commentaries Author: William Blackstone, William Cyrus Sprague: Abridgment of Blackstone's Commentaries (1893); An interesting appendix to Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries on the laws of England (MDCCLXXIII [1773]) Author: Blackstone, William, Sir, 1723-1780; Blackstone, William, Sir, 1723-1780; Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804; Blackstone, William, Sir, 1723-1780; Priestley,... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Canyonitis: Seeing evidence of ancient Egypt in the Grand Canyon |
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· 08/04/2009 5:39:04 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 37 replies · 767+ views · · Philip Coppens · · 04 Aug 2009 · · Philip Coppens · |
Is there, within the Grand Canyon, an enigmatic system of tunnels that is evidence of an ancient Egyptian voyage to America? Is it all bogus? Or is the truth most likely somewhere in between? On April 5, 1909, a front page story in the Arizona Gazette reported on an archaeological expedition in the heart of the Grand Canyon funded by the Smithsonian Institute, which had resulted in the discovery of Egyptian artefacts. April 5 is close to April 1 -- but then not quite -- so perhaps the story could be true? Nothing since has been heard of this discovery. Today,... |
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| end of digest #264 20090808 | |
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