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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #275 Saturday, October 24, 2009 |
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| Climate | |
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| Ethiopia 27 million years ago had higher rainfall, warmer soil |
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· 10/22/2009 3:06:22 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 27 replies · · 358+ views · · Southern Methodist University · · October 22, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Thirty million years ago, before Ethiopia's mountainous highlands split and the Great Rift Valley formed, the tropical zone had warmer soil temperatures, higher rainfall and different atmospheric circulation patterns than it does today, according to new research of fossil soils found in the central African nation. Neil J. Tabor, associate professor of Earth Sciences at SMU and an expert in sedimentology and isotope geochemistry, calculated past climate using oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in minerals from fossil soils discovered in the highlands of northwest Ethiopia. The highlands represent the bulk of the mountains on the African continent. Tabor's research supplies a... |
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| Africa | |
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| Malawi could be the cradle of humankind |
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· 10/23/2009 10:27:38 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 14 replies · · 265+ views · · Reuters · · Oct 23, 2009 · · Mabvuto Banda · |
KARONGA, Malawi (Reuters) -- The latest discovery of pre-historic tools and remains of hominids in Malawi's remote northern district of Karonga provides further proof that the area could be the cradle of humankind, a leading German researcher said. Professor Friedemann Schrenk of the Goethe University in Frankfurt told Reuters that two students working on the excavation site last month had discovered prehistoric tools and a tooth of an hominid. |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| Earliest evidence of humans thriving on the savannah [carniverous 2 million yrs ago] |
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· 10/23/2009 8:58:12 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · 136+ views · · New Scientist · · Wednesday, October 21, 2009 · · Shanta Barley · |
Humans were living and thriving on open grassland in Africa as early as 2 million years ago, making stone tools and using them to butcher zebra and other animals... All of the other earlier hominins that have been found in the geological record -- such as Ardipithecus ramidus and Australopithecus afarensis -- known as Ardi and Lucy, respectively -- lived either in dense forest or in a mosaic of woodland, shrub and grasses, says Plummer... Plummer's team first started excavating Kanjera South in the 1990s, in search of primitive toolkits consisting of hammer stones, stone cores that were struck to... |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| Ancient 'Lucy' Species Ate A Different Diet Than Previously Thought |
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· 10/23/2009 9:30:08 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 5 replies · · 151+ views · · PhysOrg.com · · October 22nd, 2009 · · University of Arkansas · |
Research examining microscopic marks on the teeth of the "Lucy" species Australopithecus afarensis suggests that the ancient hominid ate a different diet than the tooth enamel, size and shape suggest, say a University of Arkansas researcher and his colleagues. Peter Ungar, professor of anthropology, will present their findings on Oct. 20 during a presentation at the Royal Society... "The Lucy species is among the first hominids to show thickened enamel and flattened teeth," an indication that hard, or abrasive foods such as nuts, seeds and tubers, might be on the menu, Ungar said. However, the microwear texture analysis indicates that... |
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| Egypt | |
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| King Tut Liked Red Wine |
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· 04/03/2005 8:32:09 AM PDT · · Posted by quantim · · 50 replies · · 1,537+ views · · sciencedaily.com · · 2005-04-03 · |
Ancient Egyptians believed in properly equipping a body for the afterlife, and not just through mummification. A new study reveals that King Tutankhamun eased his arduous journey with a stash of red wine.Spanish scientists have developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine used in ancient jars. They analyzed residues from a jar found in the tomb of King Tut and found that it contained wine made with red grapes.This is the only extensive chemical analysis that has been done on a jar from King Tut's tomb, and it is the first time scientists have provided evidence... |
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| Helix, Make Mine a Double | |
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| The First Men And Women From The Canary Islands Were Berbers |
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· 10/23/2009 8:30:30 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · 187+ views · · Science News · · Wednesday, October 21, 2009 · · FECYT via Eurekalert · |
A team of Spanish and Portuguese researchers has carried out molecular genetic analysis of the Y chromosome (transmitted only by males) of the aboriginal population of the Canary Islands to determine their origin and the extent to which they have survived in the current population. The results suggest a North African origin for these paternal lineages which, unlike maternal lineages, have declined to the point of being practically replaced today by European lineages... Although contribution is now mainly European, scientists state that North African and Sub-Saharan contribution was higher in the 17th and 18th centuries. The explanation as to why... |
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| Japan | |
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| Ancient tomb unveiled in Nara |
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· 10/23/2009 8:52:28 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · 132+ views · · Japan Times · · Friday, October 23, 2009 · · unattributed · |
KASHIHARA, Nara Pref. (Kyodo) Archaeologists showed to the media Thursday a stone chamber that was excavated at an ancient tomb near Nara and is believed to date back to the late third to early fourth centuries. The red-colored chamber measures 6.75 meters long, 1.2 meters wide and 1.7 meters high, and forms the core part of the Sakurai Chausu-yama burial mound in Sakurai, Nara Prefecture. The Nara Prefectural Kashihara Archaeological Institute restarted research on the chamber earlier this year to look into its structure. The tomb is believed to be that of a nobleman in the early years of the... |
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| Japan's Samurai art on show in New York |
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· 10/19/2009 7:40:22 PM PDT · · Posted by csvset · · 19 replies · · 395+ views · · France24 · · 20 October 2009 · · AFP · |
AFP -- The world's most comprehensive collection of armor, weaponry and art covering 700 years of Japan's fabled Samurai culture goes on exhibit this week at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Samurai: Japanese Arms and Armor, 1156-1868" will open Wednesday, showcasing "214 masterpieces, including 34 national treasures, 64 important cultural properties, and six important art objects," the museum said in a statement. Open until January 10, the exhibit includes "armor, swords, sword fittings and mountings, archery and equestrian equipment, banners, surcoats... as well as painted screens and scrolls," some of which have never left Japan. "This... |
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| Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis | |
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| Ñain An sculptures: New secrets revealed at ancient Chan Chan |
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· 10/23/2009 8:37:41 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 3 replies · · 123+ views · · Peru 'blog · · Tuesday, October 20, 2009 · · after Renzo Guerrero de Luna in El Comercio · |
The discovery of 17 wooden statues at Chan Chan are enough to change our understanding of the Chan Chan urban centre. Embedded in the walls of the later -- Ñain An complex, also known as Bandelier, the figures are thought to have bid farewell to the deceased leaders. |
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| I'm Not Talkin' 'Bout Bolivia & There's No Need... | |
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| Pyramid 'renovation' may cause collapse |
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· 10/20/2009 4:59:37 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 7 replies · · 261+ views · · AFP · · October 20, 2009 · · From correspondents in Bolivia · |
EAGER to attract more tourists, the town of Tiwanaku in the Bolivian Andes has spruced up the ancient Akapana pyramid with adobe instead of stone, in what some experts are calling a renovation fiasco. Now, the Akapana pyramid risks losing its designation as a UN World Heritage Site and there is concern the makeover could even cause its collapse. The pyramid is one of the biggest pre-Columbian constructions in South America and a building of great spiritual significance for the Tiwanaku civilisation, which spread throughout south-western Bolivia and parts of neighboring Peru, Argentina and Chile from around 1500 BC to... |
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| Rome and Italy | |
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| 'Dutch' Batavians more Roman than thought |
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· 10/23/2009 8:23:16 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · 162+ views · · AlphaGalileo · · October 22, 2009 · · Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research · |
The Batavians, who lived in the Netherlands at the start of the Christian era were far more Roman than was previously thought. After just a few decades of Roman occupation, the Batavians had become so integrated that they cooked, built and bathed in a Roman manner. Dutch researcher Stijn Heeren... studied excavated artefacts and traces of settlements and burial fields in the neighbourhood of Tiel. In Dutch history, the Batavians are often presented as a brave people who resisted a cruel oppressor. But Stijn Heeren has now demonstrated that these 'simple people' also adopted a lot of Roman customs. According... |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Ancient Anglo Saxon & Iron Age artefacts & human remains found between Rudston & Boynton E Yorkshire |
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· 10/23/2009 8:18:06 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 11 replies · · 136+ views · · Beverley Guardian · · Thursday, October 22, 2009 · · unattributed · |
Ancient human remains have been unearthed during an archaeological dig at the Caythorpe Gas Storage site between Rudston and Boynton. Five human burials... One set of remains dates to the late Iron Age and had been buried with a simple iron brooch. Another dates back probably to the Anglo-Saxon period and had been buried with an iron knife. Archaeologists have also found evidence of a settlement at the site, including an Iron Age round house and at least one Anglo-Saxon building. Other finds recovered include a Roman brooch, an Anglo-Saxon coin, large fragments of a millstone and numerous fragments of... |
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| Britain | |
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| Durham Cathedral divers discover gold and silver treasure trove in riverbed |
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· 10/23/2009 12:28:43 PM PDT · · Posted by Winniesboy · · 7 replies · · 660+ views · · The Guardian · · October 23rd 2009 · · Maev Kennedy · |
Amateur divers discover hoard of gold and silver / Cathedral baffled by items owned by former leader / After almost 30 years, the riverbed below Durham Cathedral has given up a bewildering secret: a hoard of ecclesiastical gold and silver, including medals, goblets, and crucifixes once owned by the Queen, the pope and other state and church leaders. A total of 32 objects given as gifts to the late Michael Ramsey -- a former archbishop of Canterbury who was bishop of Durham for four years in the 1950s and spent some of his retirement in the city -- have been recovered from... |
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| The Vikings | |
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| Dublin's Viking wall comes to life |
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· 10/23/2009 10:17:37 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 4 replies · · 20+ views · · dublinpeople.com · · Wednesday, October 21, 2009 · · unattributed · |
A section of Dublin's 900-year-old Viking city wall has been put on public view for the first time at the city council's civic offices on the Southside. When the Viking settlement site -- built in the 10th century AD near Christchurch Cathedral -- was first excavated over 30 years ago it caused huge controversy. The city wall at the time was earmarked for demolition and storage at another site but thousands of people demanded that the historically important area be preserved from a development that was designed to house the Dublin City civic offices. Measuring just under 20 metres in... |
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| Navigation | |
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| Did Chinese ships discover America? |
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· 10/21/2009 5:49:35 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 26 replies · · 643+ views · · The Province · · 18 Oct 2009 · · Susan Lazaruk · |
Researcher whose father found old maps posits 2000 BC voyage to west coast History books tell us that the first Chinese settlers to Canada arrived in Victoria about 150 years ago, but a U.S. researcher says she has solid evidence that they came earlier. Some 4,000 years earlier. That would be 3,500 years before 1492, when European explorer Christopher "Columbus sailed the ocean blue." Or 10,000 years after nomadic hunters from Eastern Siberia crossed the frozen Bering Strait during the Ice Age, a migration taken by modern scholars to account for North America's native population. Charlotte Harris Rees, a retired... |
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| Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles | |
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| Our Ancestors Did Not Suffer From Caries, But Took Drugs! |
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· 09/30/2002 1:47:07 PM PDT · · Posted by vannrox · · 21 replies · · 477+ views · · Informnauka Agency · · 9-26-02 · · N.I. Shishlina, Ph. D. (History), State Historic Museum, Moscow · |
When coming across ancient vessels the archaeologists first of all search for any remnants inside. As a rule, the vessels are crammed full with soil, the analysis of which can help to learn about the content of the vessel. In the course of excavation of burial mounds in Kalmykia Natalia Shishlina (State Historic Museum) collected a lot of soil samples from various vessels.... |
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| Central Asia | |
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| Archaeologist giving lecture at Dennos |
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· 10/20/2009 4:40:18 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 7 replies · · 141+ views · · Traverse City Record-Eagle · · October 20, 2009 · · from Staff Reports · |
A National Geographic archaeologist will present a program in Traverse City Oct. 28. Fredrik Hiebert is curator of a national touring exhibition, "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum: Kabul." The 7 p.m. lecture is free with museum admission of $6 adults, $4 children and $20 for families. Hiebert has traced ancient trade routes overland and across the seas for more than 20 years. He has led excavations at ancient Silk Road sites from Egypt to Mongolia. His discoveries in Turkmenistan at a 4,000-year-old city along the Silk Road made headlines in 2001. His talk is in conjunction with the... |
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| Prehistoric Europe | |
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| Train work uncovers Bronze Age bounty |
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· 10/20/2009 4:26:34 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 25 replies · · 489+ views · · The Local · · Tuesday, October 20, 2009 · · unattributed · |
A massive dig along 22 kilometres of a new high-speed train route in Saxony-Anhalt has revealed a spectacular discovery of 55,000 artefacts -- among them skeletons that date back to the Bronze Age. The eastern German state's office of archaeology announced this week that Deutsche Bahn's construction of a new Intercity-Express (ICE) train route between Erfurt and Leipzig has proven to be a bonanza for a team of 150 experts, who have been working since September 2008 to examine some 75 hectares across the Querfurt plate near Oechlitz. The fertile region between two valleys is known to have been settled... |
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| Agriculture and Animal Husbandry | |
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| MU research team establishes family tree for cattle, other ruminants |
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· 10/19/2009 3:55:39 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 30 replies · · 349+ views · · University of Missouri-Columbia · · Oct 19, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Information could be used to understand the evolution of biology and physiology of ruminants, develop healthier and more efficient cattle, find ancient relatives and understand human diseaseCOLUMBIA, Mo. ¨ -- Pairing a new approach to prepare ancient DNA with a new scientific technique developed specifically to genotype a cow, an MU animal scientist, along with a team of international researchers, created a very accurate and widespread "family tree" for cows and other ruminants, going back as far as 29 million years. This genetic information could allow scientists to understand the evolution of cattle, ruminants and other animals. This same technique also... |
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| Canary in a Coal Mine | |
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| Norwegian Wood For The Ages: 'Mummified' Pine Trees Found |
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· 10/19/2009 2:35:26 PM PDT · · Posted by Daffynition · · 29 replies · · 687+ views · · NTNU via ScienceDaily.com · · Oct. 18, 2009 · · staff reporter · |
ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2009) -- Norwegian scientists have found "mummified" pine trees, dead for nearly 500 years yet without decomposition. Norway's wet climate seems perfect for encouraging organic matter to rot -- particularly in Sogndal, located on Norway's southwestern coastline, in one of the most humid, mild areas of the country. In fact, with an average of 1541 millimetres of rain yearly and relatively mild winters, Sogndal should be an environment where decomposition happens fast. Not so. "We were gathering samples of dead trees to reconstruct summer temperatures in western Norway, when our dendrochronological dating showed the wood to be... |
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| Astronomy... | |
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| Cosmic Rays Help Trees Grow Big and Strong |
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· 10/21/2009 9:08:59 PM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 9 replies · · 238+ views · · Daily Tech · · October 21, 2009 1:26 PM · · Jason Mick (Blog) · |
Turns out a little radiation is good for you -- if you're a tree at least Scientists have discovered that tree growth appears to be spurred by increased amounts of Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs). (Source: Sigrid Dengel) Scientists often see the need to confirm what we already know. For example, every 11-year-old (or 41-year-old) comic book fan living with their parents knows radiation makes organisms grow bigger and stronger. However, for those who don't read comics or have hyperactive imaginations, that presumption turns out to be somewhat true -- for trees at least. A new study from the University of... |
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| ...and Catastrophism | |
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| Killer algae a key player in mass extinctions |
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· 10/19/2009 10:32:44 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 11 replies · · 288+ views · · Geological Society of America · · Oct 19, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Boulder, CO, USA -- Supervolcanoes and cosmic impacts get all the terrible glory for causing mass extinctions, but a new theory suggests lowly algae may be the killer behind the world's great species annihilations. Today, just about anywhere there is water, there can be toxic algae. The microscopic plants usually exist in small concentrations, but a sudden warming in the water or an injection of dust or sediment from land can trigger a bloom that kills thousands of fish, poisons shellfish, or even humans. James Castle and John Rodgers of Clemson University think the same thing happened during the five... |
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| The Civil War | |
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| Salve for the Slavery Wound |
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· 10/18/2009 12:51:18 PM PDT · · Posted by El Gringo · · 15 replies · · 403+ views · · Thinkwright Blog · · JWThinkwright · |
Salve for the slavery woundKnowledge, it has been said, will set you free. It is a true statement, and should not be dismissed out of hand. Knowledge will also go a long way toward bringing American blacks and whites together as fellow countrymen, having full appreciation for what they have in common . . . as brothers, if you will. "What can be the content of this knowledge that would bring about this miracle?" you might ask. Answer: A broad knowledge of two topics:1. worldwide history of Black slaves, and 2. the images and ideas that are gained from a... |
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| Early America | |
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| Don't Tread on Me |
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· 10/20/2009 5:14:44 PM PDT · · Posted by The Comedian · · 7 replies · · 255+ views · · Founding Fathers Inc. · · July 5, 2001 · · Chris Whitten · |
American unity Benjamin Franklin is famous for his sense of humor. In 1751, he wrote a satirical commentary in his Pennsylvania Gazette suggesting that as a way to thank the Brits for their policy of sending convicted felons to America, American colonists should send rattlesnakes to England. Three years later, in 1754, he used a snake to illustrate another point. This time not so humorous. Franklin sketched, carved, and published the first known political cartoon in an American newspaper. It was the image of a snake cut into eight sections. The sections represented the individual colonies and the curves of... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| A Voice From The Past |
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· 10/20/2009 9:50:51 AM PDT · · Posted by SWAMPSNIPER · · 20 replies · · 437+ views · · net · · October 20, 2009 · · swampsniper · |
N. Grigsby died Apr 16, 1890 aged 78 yrs, 6ms, 5ds. 2nd Lieut. Co. G, 10th ind. Cavy. -- Through this inscription I wish to enter my dying protest against what is called the Democratic party[.] I have watched it closely since the days of Jackson and know that all the misfortunes of our nation has come to it through this so called party therefore beware this party of treason." |
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| The Framers | |
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| U.S. Supreme Court: Gun control on culture war's front burner |
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· 10/19/2009 9:59:25 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 83 replies · · 1,924+ views · · United Press International · · Oct. 18, 2009 · · MICHAEL KIRKLAND · |
As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its stately way into the new term, a case over the horizon promises to hit the 20,000 gun control laws in this country with the impact of a 9mm round. The prep work came last year in District of Columbia vs. Heller. A narrow 5-4 majority struck down the gun control law in the nation's capital, and for the moment settled an argument over just what the Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, actually means. The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of... |
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| Let's Have Jerusalem | |
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| Bibi Burns Down UN with Speech, palestinian chick flees (Full Text ILLUSTRATED) |
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· 09/24/2009 8:33:32 PM PDT · · Posted by Cinnamon Girl · · 202 replies · · 8,622+ views · · PM office · · 9/24/09 · · Bibi Netanyahu · |
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland. I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people. The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on... |
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| What are 50-year-old Egyptian guns doing roadside in Israel? |
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· 10/19/2009 8:07:44 PM PDT · · Posted by rdl6989 · · 22 replies · · 1,070+ views · · Haaretz.com · · Oct 20, 2009 · |
Archaeologists carrying out excavations prior to road-widening near Hamovil junction in northern Israel discovered a weapons cache including submachine guns and ammunition on Monday. Four submachine guns, made in Egypt and stamped in Arabic "Port Said" and the number "17," were found inside a tire, wrapped in oiled cloth. With them were 50 submachine gun 9-millimeter bullets and a khaki shirt. At first the archaeologists thought the guns had been used by Arab soldiers in the battles of 1948. About a year ago outposts were found in digs in the area, believed to have been used by Arab gangs operating... |
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| The Rock | |
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| Bedrock of a holy city: the historical importance of Jerusalem's geology |
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· 10/19/2009 11:47:57 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 13 replies · · 476+ views · · Geological Society of America · · Oct 19, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Boulder, CO, USA -- Jerusalem's geology has been crucial in molding it into one of the most religiously important cities on the planet, according to a new study. It started in the year 1000 BCE, when the Jebusite city's water system proved to be its undoing. The Spring of Gihon sat just outside the city walls, a vital resource in the otherwise parched region. But King David, in tent on taking the city, sent an elite group of his soldiers into a karst limestone tunnel that fed the spring. His men climbed up through a cave system hollowed out by... |
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| Pages | |
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| Is Barnes & Noble's Nook a Kindle killer? |
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· 10/20/2009 2:03:38 PM PDT · · Posted by mgstarr · · 23 replies · · 650+ views · · CNET · · 8/20/09 · · David Carnoy · |
While information on Barnes & Noble's new e-book reader, the Nook, has been trickling out for several days, the company unveiled the new $259 device on its Web site Tuesday a few hours before the official launch event in New York. As previously reported, the Nook, billed as the first Android-powered e-book reader, features not only a 6-inch E-ink screen but a color touch screen that allows you to navigate content and also can turn into a virtual keyboard for searches. Like the Kindle, the Nook has a built-in 3G wireless connection (AT&T is the carrier). However, the Nook also... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| The quest to build a dinosaur |
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· 08/25/2009 6:22:10 PM PDT · · Posted by B-Chan · · 20 replies · · 829+ views · · Maclean's · · Aug 20, 2009 · · Kate Lunau · |
Jack Horner has a vision. A world-famous paleontologist who gives "an awful lot of lectures," Horner pictures himself strolling out on stage before a crowd, just as he's done countless times before. Instead of carrying the standard sheaf of notes or dusty slides, though, he has with him the ultimate prop: a real live dinosaur on a leash. "It's small, but bigger than a chicken," he writes in his new book, How to Build a Dinosaur. "Let's say the size of a turkey, one day maybe even the size of an emu." The emu-size dinosaur, he adds, "might have a... |
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| Dino Skin Preserved in Rare Fossil Find |
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· 11/22/2006 9:43:21 PM PST · · Posted by DaveLoneRanger · · 81 replies · · 3,186+ views · · Discovery News · · November 21, 2006 · · Jennifer Viegas · |
In the past, what we've learned about dinosaurs has been mostly based on bones. That might soon change with the recent discovery of an extremely well preserved, 67-million-year-old duckbilled dinosaur found with fossilized skin in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, according to a North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences press release. The near-complete remains may yield precious soft tissue, thanks to a technique that recovered structures resembling blood cells in a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton last year. "We've only been looking at one thing in the past, the dinosaur skeletal system, but we could learn so much more if we... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| Modern man a wimp says anthropologist |
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· 10/19/2009 7:14:17 AM PDT · · Posted by chessplayer · · 107 replies · · 1,914+ views · · Reuters · |
LONDON (Reuters) -- Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle. |
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| Are you a man? If so, you are the sorriest, weakest specimen in the history of the human species |
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· 10/19/2009 9:57:39 PM PDT · · Posted by Lorianne · · 23 replies · · 683+ views · · Daily Mail UK · · 20 October 2009 · · Michael Hanlon · |
As a scientist claims modern athletes are weaklings, evidence has been forward that our male ancestors were not only faster, stronger and fitter, even their womenfolk would have wiped the floor with today's emasculated men. That's the central claim of Manthropology, a new book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister. In the book, subtitled The Science Of The Inadequate Modern Male, McAllister presents evidence that pre-historic Australian Aborigines could easily have outsprinted even Usain Bolt, today's fastest man on Earth. The basis of his findings? A set of 20,000-year-old preserved human footprints discovered in the Outback. They belonged to a party... |
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| Neanderthal woman could whup Schwarzenegger -- Modern man is big wuss, claims anthropologist |
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· 10/20/2009 8:43:53 AM PDT · · Posted by Ernest_at_the_Beach · · 35 replies · · 890+ views · · The Register · · 19th October 2009 12:54 GMT · · Lester Haines · |
An anthropologist has described modern man as "the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet", with even Arnold Schwarzenegger at his muscular peak no match for a Neanderthal woman in the arm-wrestling stakes. According to Peter McAllister, in Manthropology: the Science of Inadequate Modern Man, so completely wussy have we become that were Usain "Lightning" Bolt to go head-to-head with an ancient Australian aboriginal, it'd be silver medal position for the Jamaican sprinter. The prologue of McAllister's book warns blokes just how much of a humiliation they're in for, opening with: "If you're reading this then... |
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| Oh So Mysteriouso | |
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| Russia's Ancient Nanostructures |
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· 10/19/2009 8:21:33 PM PDT · · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · · 21 replies · · 754+ views · · The Epoch Times · · October 15, 2009 · · Leonardo Vintiññi · |
An Oopart (Out Of Place ARTifact) is a term applied to dozens of prehistoric objects found in various places around the world that, given their level of technology, are completely at odds with their determined age based on physical, chemical, and/or geological evidence. Ooparts often are frustrating to conventional scientists and a delight to adventurous investigators and individuals interested in alternative scientific theories. In 1991, the appearance of extremely tiny, coil-shaped artifacts found near the banks of Russia's Kozhim, Narada, and Balbanyu rivers brought about a debate that has continued to this day. These mysterious and minuscule structures suggest that... |
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| Are serpent men from space living among us? |
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· 10/22/2009 10:36:09 AM PDT · · Posted by mainestategop · · 48 replies · · 1,120+ views · · Mainestategop · · Mainestategop · |
In the world wide web and in the publishing world, there are conspiracy theories going about concerning topics from the Kennedy assassination, aliens, 9/11 being an inside job, Chariot of the gods, a book claiming that extraterrestrials influenced the ancient world, and corporate control over government. While some present some truth, some are fantastic and even fictitious. One such theory involves ancient history and a belief that we have not been alone in the universe for sometime. British Author and Green activist David Icke has compiled a series of books claiming that since the dawn of time, Earth has been... |
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| end of digest #275 20091024 | |
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· Saturday, October 24, 2009 · 37 topics · 2369832 to 2365221 · 729 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 275th issue. Last week the header on the big digest message still read October 10 instead of 17. Please hand correct your copies by opening it in a different browser window or tab and using white-out. |
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| Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #276 Saturday, October 31, 2009 |
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| Catastrophism and Astronomy | |
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| Klondike Holds Clues to Ancient Environment |
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· 10/30/2009 6:35:59 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 17 replies · · 260+ views · · Live Science · · Oct 30, 2009 · · Aaron L. Gronstal · |
Credit: Froese et al. 2009. The Klondike region of the Canadian Arctic isn't often thought of as an oasis for life. Today, the area is best known for its vast frozen wilderness, its goldfields, and as the namesake of a popular chocolate-coated ice cream treat. However, new research shows that the Klondike goldfields of Canada's Yukon Territory hold key records of a past environment that was much different than the harsh climate experienced by today's explorers, ice truckers and miners. The Klondike is part of a wider geographic area dubbed "Beringia," which includes parts of Siberia, Alaska and the Canadian... |
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| Fossil Weather | |
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| Snail fossils suggest semiarid eastern Canary Islands were wetter 50,000 years ago |
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· 10/27/2009 2:07:02 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 4 replies · · 116+ views · · Southern Methodist University · · Oct 27, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Fossil land snail shells found in ancient soils on the subtropical eastern Canary Islands show that the Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa has become progressively drier over the past 50,000 years. Isotopic measurements performed on fossil land snail shells resulted in oxygen isotope ratios that suggest the relative humidity on the islands was higher 50,000 years ago, then experienced a long-term decrease to the time of maximum global cooling and glaciation about 15,000 to 20,000 years ago, according to new research by Yurena Yanes, a post-doctoral researcher, and Crayton J. Yapp, a geochemistry professor, both in the... |
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| Climate | |
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| North Carolina sea levels rising 3 times faster than in previous 500 years, Penn study says |
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· 10/28/2009 2:34:39 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 69 replies · · 1,014+ views · · University of Pennsylvania · · Oct 28, 2009 · · Unknown · |
PHILADELPHIA --- An international team of environmental scientists led by the University of Pennsylvania has shown that sea-level rise, at least in North Carolina, is accelerating. Researchers found 20th-century sea-level rise to be three times higher than the rate of sea-level rise during the last 500 years. In addition, this jump appears to occur between 1879 and 1915, a time of industrial change that may provide a direct link to human-induced climate change. The results appear in the current issue of the journal Geology. The rate of relative sea-level rise, or RSLR, during the 20th century was 3 to 3.3... |
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| Maunder Laundering | |
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| Sunspots: End of Cycle 23/24 solar minimum? |
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· 10/26/2009 3:15:43 PM PDT · · Posted by steveo · · 23 replies · · 854+ views · · examiner.com · · 10-25-09 · · Steve LaNore · |
No matter what conclusions one gravitates towards regarding climate change and potential solar impacts, the data is irrefutable: the sun is slowly becoming more active. The 10.7cm radio flux spiked in late September with its highest reading in 18 months; now, and this is very significant compared to the pattern since March 2008, it has spiked again, exceeding the late September number and reaching a Cycle 24 maximum of 76.9. This is still a very low value compared to the solar maximum flux numbers, which routinely exceed 200. However, it is an upward move from the "basement" numbers of the... |
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| Greece | |
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| Ancient Greeks introduced wine to France, Cambridge study reveals [Prof Paul Cartledge] |
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· 10/27/2009 5:04:14 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 39 replies · · 419+ views · · Telegraph · · Friday, October 23, 2009 · · Andrew Hough · |
The original makers of Côtes-du-Rhône are said to have descended from Greek explorers who settled in southern France about 2500 years ago... The study, by Prof Paul Cartledge, suggested the world's biggest wine industry might never have developed had it not been for a "band of pioneering Greek explorers" who settled in southern France around 600 BC. His study appears to dispel the theory that it was the Romans who were responsible for bringing viticulture to France. The study found that the Greeks founded Massalia, now known as Marseilles, which they then turned into a bustling trading site, where local... |
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| Diet and Cuisine | |
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| The spice of life |
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· 10/29/2009 8:44:59 AM PDT · · Posted by neverdem · · 15 replies · · 532+ views · · Chemistry World · · October 2009 · · Chemistry World · |
Many of the world's favourite ingredients have more to offer than just flavour, says Ned Stafford. Many also show health benefitsGarlicTo stink or not to stink, that's often the question when deciding how much garlic to pep up your dinner with. A few years ago, health-conscious cooks might also have wondered whether eating garlic would improve their health, or if such claims were just hype. Any such doubts have now been laid to rest by hundreds of scientific studies confirming garlic's powerful medicinal properties.'Garlic is one of the most researched medicinal plants ever - its health benefits are not anecdotal,... |
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| The Phoenicians | |
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| Phoenician remains found at Málaga airport |
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· 10/26/2009 7:34:38 PM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 11 replies · · 384+ views · · Typically Spanish · · Oct 24, 2009 · · h.b. · |
Drainage work in the construction of the second runway has been moved as a result. The oldest Phoenician remains yet to be found in Málaga have been unearthed at the airport as land was moved as part of the construction of the second runway. |
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| Navigation | |
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| The map that changed the world [Waldseemuller Map] |
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· 10/29/2009 9:31:34 PM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 9 replies · · 666+ views · · BBC · · 28 Oct 2009 · · BBC · |
Drawn half a millennium ago and then swiftly forgotten, one map made us see the world as we know it today... and helped name America. But, as Toby Lester has discovered, the most powerful nation on earth also owes its name to a pun. Almost exactly 500 years ago, in 1507, Martin Waldseemuller and Matthias Ringmann, two obscure Germanic scholars based in the mountains of eastern France, made one of the boldest leaps in the history of geographical thought - and indeed in the larger history of ideas. Near the end of an otherwise plodding treatise titled Introduction to Cosmography,... |
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| Biology and Cryptobiology | |
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| NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found |
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· 10/27/2009 1:45:18 PM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 13 replies · · 811+ views · · nationalgeographic · · October 22, 2009 · |
NEW SPECIES PICTURES: 850 Underground Creatures Found The newfound blind cave fish Milyeringa veritas, seen above, inhabits the same Cape Range aquifers as a blind cave eel found during the same survey of Australia's underground habitats. The only blind cave fish known in Australia, the 2-inch-long (5.1-centimeter-long) species is "remarkably versatile," living in freshwater or seawater in underground coastal regions during various stages of its life, researchers say." |
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| And a Pink Crustacean | |
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| Oldest lobster fossil uncovered in Mexico |
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· 05/04/2007 9:08:32 AM PDT · · Posted by DogByte6RER · · 34 replies · · 1,091+ views · · SignOnSanDiego.com · · May 4, 2007 · · REUTERS · |
Oldest lobster fossil uncovered in Mexico REUTERS May 4, 2007 MEXICO CITY -- Mexican scientists said they have identified the world's oldest lobster fossil, that of a creature alive when Africa was only just breaking apart from the Americas about 120 million years ago. The fossil is 4.7 inches long, and its shell and legs are immaculately preserved by the mud in the southern state of Chiapas, where it was found. It is dated as 120 million years old, about 20 million years older than previous lobster fossils. "This lobster that we found in Chiapas belongs to the genus that... |
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| Photo: Armadillo-like Crocodile Fossil Found in Brazil |
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· 07/10/2009 7:55:59 AM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 11 replies · · 738+ views · · nationalgeographic · · July 8, 2009 · · John Roach · |
An ancient fossil crocodile coated in armadillo-like body armor was unveiled yesterday at an environmental museum in Brazil. Dubbed Armadillosuchus arrudai, the newly described species of crocodile roamed the arid interior of Brazil about 90 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, scientists said. It was 6.6 feet (2 meters) long, weighed about 265 pounds (120 kilograms), and had a relatively wide head with a narrow, toothy snout. Body armor has never been "found in any other fossil or living crocodile species," Ismar de Souza Carvalho, a paleontologist at the Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, said via email.... |
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| Africa | |
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| Ancient Anthropoid Origins Discovered In Africa |
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· 10/14/2005 3:27:55 AM PDT · · Posted by PatrickHenry · · 127 replies · · 2,025+ views · · Duke University · · 13 October 2005 · · News office staff · |
New species firmly establish African roots for anthropoid line.The fossil teeth and jawbones of two new species of tiny monkey-like creatures that lived 37 million years ago have been sifted from ancient sediments in the Egyptian desert, researchers have reported. Related They said their findings firmly establish that the common ancestor of living anthropoids -- including monkeys, apes and humans -- arose in Africa and that the group had already begun branching into many species by that time. Also, they said, one of the creatures appears to have been nocturnal, the first example of a nocturnal early anthropoid. The researchers... |
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| Fossil Discovery Is Heralded |
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· 05/19/2009 7:17:53 AM PDT · · Posted by mnehring · · 89 replies · · 2,780+ views · · WSJ · |
In what could prove to be a landmark discovery, a leading paleontologist said scientists have dug up the 47 million-year-old fossil of an ancient primate whose features suggest it could be the common ancestor of all later monkeys, apes and humans. Anthropologists have long believed that humans evolved from ancient ape-like ancestors. Some 50 million years ago, two ape-like groups walked the Earth. One is known as the tarsidae, a precursor of the tarsier, a tiny, large-eyed creature that lives in Asia. Another group is known as the adapidae, a precursor of today's lemurs in Madagascar. Based on previously limited... |
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| 'Missing Link' Primate Fossil Debunked |
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· 10/21/2009 9:14:10 PM PDT · · Posted by guitarplayer1953 · · 4 replies · · 249+ views · · http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/10/21/ida-primate-fossil.html · · Oct. 21, 2009 · · Malcolm Ritter · |
'Missing Link' Primate Fossil Debunked Malcolm Ritter, Associated Press Oct. 21, 2009 -- Remember Ida, the fossil discovery announced last May with its own book and TV documentary? A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. And now a new analysis supports their reaction. In fact, Ida is as far removed from the monkey-ape-human ancestry as a primate could be, says Erik Seiffert of Stony Brook University in New York. He and his colleagues compared 360 specific anatomical... |
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| Primate fossil 'not an ancestor' |
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· 10/22/2009 6:04:42 AM PDT · · Posted by IronKros · · 10 replies · · 251+ views · · BBC News · |
The exceptionally well-preserved fossil primate known as "Ida" is not a missing link as some have claimed, according to an analysis in the journal Nature. The research is the first independent assessment of the claims made in a scientific paper and a television documentary earlier this year. Dr Erik Seiffert says that Ida belonged to a group more closely linked to lemurs than to monkeys, apes or us. His team's conclusions come from an analysis of another fossil primate. The newly described animal - known as Afradapis longicristatus - lived some 37 million years ago in northern Egypt, during the... |
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| .Primate fossil called only a distant relative |
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· 10/22/2009 7:10:31 AM PDT · · Posted by MGBGUN · · 20 replies · · 350+ views · · AP · · Wed Oct 21 · · MALCOLM RITTER · |
A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative. |
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| Prehistory and Origins | |
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| Modern man had sex with Neanderthals |
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· 10/26/2009 3:33:00 PM PDT · · Posted by Dysart · · 168 replies · · 3,053+ views · · Telegraph · · 10-25-09 · · Amy Willis · |
Modern man and Neanderthals had sex across the species barrier, according to leading geneticist Professor Svante Paabo. Professor Paabo, who is director of genetics at the renowned Max Planck Institution for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, made the claim at a conference in the Cold Springs Laboratory in New York. But Prof Paabo said he was unclear if the couplings had led to children, of if they were capable of producing offspring. "What I'm really interested in is, did we have children back then and did those children contribute to our variation today?" he said in an article in The Sunday Times.... |
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| Canary in a Coal Mine | |
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| No men OR women needed: Scientists create sperm and eggs from stem cells |
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· 10/28/2009 8:01:12 PM PDT · · Posted by thisisthetime · · 67 replies · · 1,215+ views · · Daily Mail via The Woodward Report · · October 28, 2009 · · Fiona Macrae · |
Human eggs and sperm have been grown in the laboratory in research which could change the face of parenthood. It paves the way for a cure for infertility and could help those left sterile by cancer treatment to have children who are biologically their own. But it raises a number of moral and ethical concerns. These include the possibility of children being born through entirely artificial means, and men and women being sidelined from the process of making babies. Opponents argue that it is wrong to meddle with the building blocks of life and warn that the advances taking place... |
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| Australia and the Pacific | |
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| Many -- matuto -- paintings found in Kaimana |
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· 10/26/2009 11:06:01 PM PDT · · Posted by Fred Nerks · · 15 replies · · 282+ views · · Jayapura (ANTARA News) · · Monday, October 26, 2009 · · U/A · |
Jayapura (ANTARA News) - Many "matuto" paintings, as a kind of scratches from the pre-historic rock arts, were found in a number of villages which belong to Kaimana District, Provinice of Papua Barat, a local official has said. Matuto is a shape of a half-man lizard and believed as the ancestor of heroes, Head of Jayapura Archaeology Center, Drs.M.Irfan Mahmud,M.Si said here Monday. From the research, according to Irfan, a lot of matuto paintings were found at niche surfaces made as canvas for the artists of the pre-historic time in several archaeological sites. Matuto motif belongs to an anthropomorphic group... |
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| Dinosaurs | |
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| Tiniest Dinosaur in North America Found |
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· 10/25/2009 5:09:26 PM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 60 replies · · 1,343+ views · · nationalgeographic · · October 21, 2009 · |
The tiniest dinosaur in North America weighed less than a teacup Chihuahua, a new study says. Seen above as an artist's reconstruction in front of a Tyrannosaurus rex skull at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in California, the agile Fruitadens haagarorum was just 28 inches (70 centimeters) long and weighed less than two pounds (one kilogram). The diminutive dinosaur likely darted among the legs of larger plant-eaters such as Brachiosaurus and predators such as Allosaurus about 150 million years ago, during the late Jurassic period. Parts of the skulls, vertebrae, arms, and legs from four F. haagarorum... |
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| Colossal 'sea monster' unearthed |
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· 10/26/2009 11:28:31 PM PDT · · Posted by JoeProBono · · 22 replies · · 1,253+ views · · bbc · · 27 October 2009 · · Rebecca Morelle · |
The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast. The ferocious predator, which is called a pliosaur, terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago. The skull is 2.4m long, and experts say it could belong to one of the largest pliosaurs ever found: measuring up 16m in length. The fossil, which was found by a local collector, has been purchased by Dorset County Council. It was bought with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and it will now be scientifically analysed, prepared and then put on public display at Dorset County Museum. Palaeontologist... |
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| Huge skull of ancient sea monster found |
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· 10/27/2009 10:38:04 AM PDT · · Posted by Frenchtown Dan · · 55 replies · · 1,563+ views · · The times · · 10/27/09 · · The times · |
Dinosaur experts in Dorset, England, are examining the fossilized skull of a sea monster so large they say it could have eaten a Tyrannosaurus rex for breakfast. |
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| Dinosaurs Diversified Over Time, Not Suddenly (Wouldn't ALL fossil fuel contain DNA?) |
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· 08/02/2008 11:40:34 PM PDT · · Posted by Libloather · · 102 replies · · 668+ views · · Discovery.com · · 7/23/08 · |
Dinosaurs Diversified Over Time, Not SuddenlyMany Species, Many, Many Years July 23, 2008 The belief that dinosaurs underwent explosive species diversification just before they were wiped out is an illusion, for the beasts' main evolutionary shifts took place millions of years before, a study says. The strange demise of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous era some 65 million years ago has given rise to a popular view that almost has the tinge of Greek tragedy. Just as the rulers of the Earth had reached their evolutionary zenith, a catastrophic event -- possibly a space rock that slammed... |
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| Pole-ish History | |
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| Fossil Arctic animal tracks point to climate risks (hippopotamus-like creature on an Arctic island) |
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· 04/25/2007 7:58:21 PM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 38 replies · · 956+ views · · Reuters on Yahoo · · 4/24/07 · · Alister Doyle · |
COAL MINE SEVEN, Svalbard, Norway (Reuters) - Fossils of a hippopotamus-like creature on an Arctic island show the climate was once like that of Florida, giving clues to risks from modern global warming, a scientist said. Fossil footprints of a pantodont, a plant-eating creature weighing about 400 kg (880 lb), add to evidence of sequoia-type trees and crocodile-like beasts in the Arctic millions of years ago when greenhouse gas concentrations in the air were high. "The climate here about 55 million years ago was more like that of Florida," Appy Sluijs, an expert in ancient ecology at Utrecht University in... |
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| Fossil DNA Proves Greenland Once Had Lush Forests; Ice Sheet Is Surprisingly Stable |
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· 07/05/2007 5:14:09 PM PDT · · Posted by blam · · 33 replies · · 909+ views · · Science Daily · · 7-5-2007 · · University Of Copenhagen · |
Source: University of Copenhagen Date: July 5, 2007 Fossil DNA Proves Greenland Once Had Lush Forests; Ice Sheet Is Surprisingly Stable Science Daily -- Ancient Greenland was green. New Danish research has shown that it was covered in conifer forest and, like southern Sweden today, had a relatively mild climate. Eske Willerslev, a professor at Copenhagen University, has analysed the world's oldest DNA, preserved under the kilometre-thick icecap. The DNA is likely close to half a million years old, and the research is painting a picture which is overturning all previous assumptions about biological life and the climate in Greenland.... |
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| Fossil Suggests Antarctica Much Warmer in Past |
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· 07/24/2008 9:04:50 PM PDT · · Posted by NormsRevenge · · 9 replies · · 103+ views · · LiveScience.com · · 7/22/08 · · Andrea Thompson · |
A college student's new discovery of fossils collected in the East Antarctic suggests that the frozen polar cap was once a much balmier place. The well-preserved fossils of ostracods, a type of small crustaceans, came from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains and date from about 14 million years ago. The fossils were a rare find, showing all of the ostracods' soft anatomy in 3-D. The fossils were discovered by Richard Thommasson during screening of the sediment in research team member Allan Ashworth's lab at North Dakota State University. Because ostracods couldn't survive in the current Antarctic climate,... |
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| Rome and Italy | |
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| Exhibition explores Vandal legacy |
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· 10/24/2009 8:09:40 AM PDT · · Posted by decimon · · 11 replies · · 340+ views · · The Local · · Oct 23, 2009 · · Unknown · |
Being billed as the most comprehensive exhibition about the Vandal civilisation ever, a new show about the notorious Germanic tribe opens on Friday at Baden's state museum in Karlsruhe.The word "vandal" these days is associated with acts of senseless violence and destruction. However, this new exhibition explores the history behind the actual Vandals, a Germanic civilisation that stretched across Eastern Europe to North Africa in the 5th century. "The Vandal Kingdom" hopes to offer visitors a new perspective on this unfamiliar culture and infamous word. > Despite the Vandals' terrible reputation, Wenzel said the violence they administered across much of... |
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| Southeast Asia | |
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| The Plain of Jars: Bombs & Mystery in Laos[Graphics Warning] |
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· 10/24/2009 11:03:38 AM PDT · · Posted by BGHater · · 27 replies · · 1,381+ views · · Dark Roasted Blend · · Feb 2008 · · Avi Abrams & Chris Mitchell · |
Built by mysterious ancient people for mysterious purposes (image credit: Chris Mitchell) Ancient Laos legends tell of the giants who drank water from these enormous mysterious "cups". Similar sites were also found in Thailand and in North India. Their locations are strung along a straight line, which suggests that they were built on some kind of a trade route. Chris Mitchell from Travel Happy sent us his travelogue about this ancient site: The Plain Of Jars is probably South East Asia's most enigmatic tourist attraction. Situated in the remote north east of Laos, the mountainous communist country which has only... |
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| Sumeria | |
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| At Ur, Ritual Deaths That Were Anything but Serene |
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· 10/27/2009 4:30:35 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 29 replies · · 924+ views · · NY Times · · October 27, 2009 · · JOHN NOBLE WILFORD · |
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and AnthropologyBURIAL PITA CT scan, left, of a female skull at a burial site at Ur. Women were buried with elaborate adornments, right, and warriors with their weapons. A new examination of skulls from the royal cemetery at Ur, discovered in Iraq almost a century ago, appears to support a more grisly interpretation than before of human sacrifices associated with elite burials in ancient Mesopotamia, archaeologists say. Palace attendants, as part of royal mortuary ritual, were not dosed with poison to meet a rather serene death. Instead, a sharp instrument, a pike perhaps,... |
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| Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran | |
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| Shushan, Iranian Biblical City of Purim Drama, a Garbage Dump |
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· 03/09/2009 5:20:42 PM PDT · · Posted by Nachum · · 8 replies · · 393+ views · · Arutz Sheva · · 3/9/09 · · Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu · |
(IsraelNN.com) Iranians have turned a huge excavation site in the city of Shush, site of "Susa," the ancient city of Shushan -- center of the events in the Purim story -- into a garbage dump. Culture heritage backers put a stop to construction of a hotel on the site, according to the Tehran News, which added that residents of the Shush municipality are now filling the huge, gaping 300-foot by 300-foot hole with rubbish. |
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| Middle Ages and Renaissance | |
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| Crusader friar of Habsburg Austria [Battle of Vienna, Sept. 11, 1683 |
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· 10/25/2009 9:29:10 PM PDT · · Posted by Salvation · · 30 replies · · 490+ views · · Oriensjournal.com · · 2003 · · James Bogle · |
Crusader friar of Habsburg Austria London barrister and historian James Bogle discusses here the life and times of a great Catholic: Blessed Mark of Aviano (Marco d'Aviano in the original Italian), who deserves to be much better known in the English-speaking world. On 27 April 2003, Pope John Paul II beatified Rev Fr Mark of Aviano OFMCap (1631-99). The ceremony occurred without any world-wide protest from Muslims, and certainly nothing of the sort that accompanied the considerably more innocuous recent commentary of Pope Benedict XVI at Regensburg.Mark of Aviano was a Capuchin friar, born Carlo Domenico, in Aviano in... |
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| Longer Perspectives | |
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| When Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns: Egypt contesting German possession of Nefertiti bust |
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· 10/27/2009 4:22:58 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 14 replies · · 251+ views · · New York Times · · October 23, 2009 · · Michael Kimmelman · |
Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, announced that his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany could prove that the 3,500-year-old bust of Akhenaten's wife wasn't spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago... Then he said he was sure the work had been stolen... Mr. Hawass also recently fired a shot at France, demanding the Louvre return five fresco fragments it purchased in 2000 and 2003 from a gallery and at auction. They belonged to a 3,200-year-old tomb near Luxor and had been in storage at the museum. Egypt had made the demand before, but this time... |
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| Egypt | |
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| Evidence Alexander the Great Wasn't First at Alexandria |
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· 10/27/2009 8:23:54 PM PDT · · Posted by SunkenCiv · · 8 replies · · 305+ views · · LiveScience via Yahoo · · Friday, October 23, 2009 · · Andrea Thompson · |
Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in 331 B.C. The city sits on the Mediterranean coast at the western edge of the Nile delta. Its location made it a major port city in ancient times; it was also famous for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World) and its library, the largest in the ancient world. But in the past few years, scientists have found fragments of ceramics and traces of lead in sediments in the area that predate Alexander's arrival by several hundred years, suggesting there was already a settlement in the area (though... |
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| Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy | |
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| Stonehenge Rebuilt |
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· 10/28/2009 8:32:27 AM PDT · · Posted by Stoutcat · · 27 replies · · 799+ views · · Grand Rants · · 10-28-09 · · Gerry Ashley · |
A retired construction worker from Flint, MI named Wally Wallington thinks he might know one way [Stonehenge may have been built]. He even goes so far as to demonstrate it by building a min-Stonehenge on his property all by himself. |
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| Early America | |
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| Restoration of Elizabeth church digs up Revolutionary-era past |
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· 10/27/2009 7:44:09 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 11 replies · · 546+ views · · The Star-Ledger (Newark) · · October 27, 2009, · · Carmen Juri · |
ELIZABETH -- Many of the headstones marking the graves in New Jersey's oldest cemetery are no longer readable, not only because they're worn, but because they're partially underground. While excavating around the headstones in the Old First Presbyterian Church cemetery in Elizabeth last week, archaeologist Seth Gartland found stones had sunk several feet, leaving only the top half exposed. When workers elevated the decaying stones, Gartland discovered inscriptions that had long been hidden. Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-LedgerRows and rows of markers in the cemetery of the First Presbyterian Church on Broad St. The cemetery is currently undergoing a project of preserving... |
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| The Revolution | |
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| In 1809, a bizarre burial for a 'mad' general |
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· 10/24/2009 9:08:53 AM PDT · · Posted by Saije · · 21 replies · · 1,039+ views · · Pittsburgh Post-Gazette · · 10/24/2009 · · Marylynne Pitz · |
As American colonists battled for independence, Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne captured a British fort in New York at midnight, earning a reputation as a brilliant strategist in the chaos of battle. George Washington rode on horseback to congratulate him in person. Soldiers who noticed his reckless bravery gave him his nickname. Later, the fiery leader trained a fearsome army outside of Pittsburgh in 1792, conquered the Indians and negotiated a treaty with them so the Northwest Territory could be settled.*** After he died at age 51 from an attack of gout, his body rested for 12 years in an oak... |
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| Thoroughly Modern Miscellany | |
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| ..Precious glass negatives provide intimate glimpse into the life of an Edwardian family |
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· 10/29/2009 8:41:46 AM PDT · · Posted by C19fan · · 27 replies · · 893+ views · · Daily Mail · · October 29,2009 · · By Staff · |
Paddling in the sea while smoking a pipe, dressed in a waistcoat, stiffly starched shirt and perky straw boater; out on a fishing trip with the family and gathering for an outdoor amateur production of Twelfth Night in an age before large screen TVs and games consoles. These beautiful pictures provide an intimate spyglass into the life and leisure time of an Edwardian family - and a valuable glimpse of a bygone era. |
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| The throne clones: How the Royal Family inherited more than just their titles |
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· 10/26/2009 4:39:48 AM PDT · · Posted by Daffynition · · 22 replies · · 1,138+ views · · Daily Mail · · 26th October 2009 · · Daily Mail Reporter · |
You may think that Princess Beatrice has her father's face and her mother's hair. But as the pictures below show, she also bears a striking resemblance to a young Queen Victoria.[snip] Style queen: Queen Victoria (1819-1901) and her great-great-greatgreat-granddaughter, Princess Beatrice, have similar faces and locks Many more images at the link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1222921/The-throne-clones-How-Royal-Family-inherited-just-titles.html#ixzz0V2a812P6 |
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| Britain | |
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| Centuries Later, Henry V's Greatest Victory Is Besieged by Academia |
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· 10/24/2009 10:38:13 AM PDT · · Posted by Saije · · 30 replies · · 828+ views · · Ny Times · · 10/24/2009 · · James Glanz · |
The heavy clay-laced mud behind the cattle pen on Antoine Renault's farm looks as treacherous as it must have been nearly 600 years ago, when King Henry V rode from a spot near here to lead a sodden and exhausted English Army against a French force that was said to outnumber his by as much as five to one. No one can ever take away the shocking victory by Henry and his "band of brothers," as Shakespeare would famously call them, on St. Crispin's Day, Oct. 25, 1415. They devastated a force of heavily armored French nobles who had gotten... |
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| Historians Reassess Battle of Agincourt |
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· 10/25/2009 4:20:42 AM PDT · · Posted by Pharmboy · · 33 replies · · 881+ views · · NY Times · · October 25, 2009 · · JAMES GLANZ · |
MAISONCELLE, France -- The heavy clay-laced mud behind the cattle pen on Antoine Renault's farm looks as treacherous as it must have been nearly 600 years ago, when King Henry V rode from a spot near here to lead a sodden and exhausted English Army against a French force that was said to outnumber his by as much as five to one. snip...They devastated a force of heavily armored French nobles who had gotten bogged down in the region's sucking mud, riddled by thousands of arrows from English longbowmen and outmaneuvered by common soldiers with much lighter gear. It would... |
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| DId Your Ancestor Serve During the Hundred Years' War? |
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· 10/26/2009 7:20:45 AM PDT · · Posted by BronzePencil · · 90 replies · · 1,661+ views · · The National Archives - UK · · 2009 · · ICMA Centre · |
Researchers at the University of Reading (UK) and the University of Southampton (UK) recently made available the roster of men who served during the Hundred Years' War. |
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| World War Eleven | |
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| Haunting Germans with the "Ghost Army" |
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· 10/24/2009 11:48:15 PM PDT · · Posted by Saije · · 3 replies · · 443+ views · · Cleveland Plain Dealer · · 10/25/2009 · · Brian Albrecht · |
A lot of colorful phrases are associated with World War II. Like, "Nuts!" -- one American commander's defiant response to German surrender demands. Or, "Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition," attributed to a U.S. Navy chaplain during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. But here's another one, appropriate for this season. Trick or treat! The trick was setting up phony, inflatable tanks, trucks and artillery under cover of darkness. Then generating some ersatz radio traffic between units and commanders. Igniting flash canisters mimicking the glare of cannons firing. Erecting loudspeakers and playing the pre-recorded sounds of troops and vehicles... |
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| Pages | |
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| 'Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar' - NEA Chairman (worship alert) |
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· 10/28/2009 6:45:38 AM PDT · · Posted by Scythian · · 120 replies · · 1,982+ views · · Drudge · |
I'm amazed the NEA Chairman can make such a statement since Obama is hiding everything he published. |
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| end of digest #276 20091031 | |
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