Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #21
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Ancient Egypt
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Excavators Discover 20 Mummies in Egypt
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Posted by FairOpinion
On News/Activism 12/08/2004 10:46:36 PM PST · 21 replies · 467+ views
Yahoo News ^ | Dec. 7, 2004 | AP
CAIRO, Egypt - Excavators discovered 20 gilded mummies in the Bahariya oasis in western Egypt, the government's council of antiquities said Tuesday. The find brings the total number of gilded mummies recovered in the 2,000-year-old cemetery to 234. The site, known as the Valley of the Golden Mummies, was discovered in 1996. Zahi Hawass, head of antiquities council, said excavators also discovered the tomb of Badiherkhib, the grandson of former Bahariya Gov. Jed-Khunsu. Jed-Khunsu's tomb already has been found. Fifty bronze coins were found with the mummies, the statement said. Survivors were believed to leave the money for the deceased...
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King Tut Exhibit Could Prove to Be Gold Mine
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2004 11:09:30 PM PST · 33 replies · 168+ views
Reuters ^ | Fri, Dec 03, 2004 | Jill Serjeant
The exhibit is twice the size of the late-1970s King Tut global tour which launched an era of "blockbuster" museum exhibitions. This year's version will charge up to $30 per ticket and give corporate backers a share in the profits, heralding a new trend in partnerships between private companies, museums and the antiquities' home countries.
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King Tut, Part 2
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Posted by Tumbleweed_Connection
On News/Activism 12/06/2004 7:26:13 PM PST · 10 replies · 230+ views
NY Times ^ | Dec 7, 2004
Do you remember the first time around? Tutankhamun and his hoard came to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1978 and forever changed the way museums did business, not necessarily for the better. There had been major special exhibitions before, but the frenzy over Tut was something extraordinary. Sold-out tickets, long lines, overcrowded galleries - if the objects on display had been any less luminous, any less golden, than they were, they would have been invisible. For the Met, Tutankhamun meant new demographics, new revenues and, in some sense, a new idea of itself. Suddenly it seemed possible to capture...
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The Lake's Progress (Greeks, Roman, Persians And Arabs)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/10/2004 1:34:11 PM PST · 6 replies · 147+ views
Al-Ahram ^ | 12-10-2004
The lake's progress In ancient times Lake Mareotis was a pleasure resort and watering spot surrounded by market gardens. Jenny Jobbins considers the fertile past of an area that is now desert Western Alexandria was once heavily populated in the Greek and Roman eras. Leucaspis, a residential seaport, is among the few surviving remains. Note Lake Mareotis in the background. When the Greek colonisers and Roman cohorts -- and, later, the Persians and Arabs -- marched to and from Cyrenaica along Egypt's northern coast they all had one aim in mind -- to hold and control North Africa. The...
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Ancient Greece
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Cretan Excavation Sheds New Light On Dark Ages Of Greek History
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/07/2004 1:44:53 PM PST · 8 replies · 471+ views
Kathimerini (English Edition) ^ | 12-7-2004 | Nicholas Paphitis
Cretan excavation sheds light on Dark Ages of Greek historyFinds from ancient Eleutherna at Cycladic Museum A marble statue of Aphrodite, from a second- to first-century-BC bathhouse in Eleutherna. By Nicholas Paphitis - Kathimerini English Edition On a narrow spur under the shadow of Mount Ida in central Crete, archaeologists for the past 20 years have been excavating a town that flourished from the Dark Ages of Greece's early history until Medieval times. The Eleutherna project, a systematic dig carried out by a three-pronged team of top archaeologists from the University of Crete, is in itself unusual in a country...
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'Cyclops' - Like Remains Found On Crete
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 02/01/2003 4:13:57 PM PST · 5 replies · 83+ views
CNN.Com ^ | 2-1-2003
<p>Skull of an elephant. The animal's European ancestors had similar anatomies.</p> <p>IRAKLIO, Greece (AP) -- Researchers on the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a Deinotherium Gigantisimum, a fearsome elephant-like creature that might have given rise to ancient legends of one-eyed cyclops monsters.</p>
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Cyclops Myth Spurred by One-Eyed Fossils?
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Posted by TigerLikesRooster
On News/Activism 02/08/2003 8:01:23 PM PST · 16 replies · 98+ views
National Geographic NEWS ^ | 02/05/03 | Hillary Mayell
Cyclops Myth Spurred by One-Eyed Fossils? Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News February 5, 2003 Ever wonder where our worst nightmares come from? For the ancient Greeks, it may have been the fossils of giant prehistoric animals. The tusk, several teeth, and some bones of a Deinotherium giganteum, which, loosely translated means really huge terrible beast, have been found on the Greek island Crete. A distant relative to today's elephants, the giant mammal stood 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall at the shoulder, and had tusks that were 4.5 feet (1.3 meters) long. It was one of the largest mammals ever...
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Greek Farmer Finds 2,000-Year-Old Monument
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/11/2004 10:21:21 PM PST · 2 replies · 104+ views
Associated Press ^ | 9 December 2004 | Derek Gatopoulos
"Sulla's forces of 15,000 -- I think it is not an exaggeration -- faced the massive armies of the King of Pontus Mithridates, whose forces exceeded 100,000," Aravantinos said. "It's one of these rare times when the ancient texts meet archaeology. For Rome, this battle meant salvation, and for Greece the effect was great because Sulla brutally punished the Greek towns that sided with his enemy."
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Ancient Rome and Italy
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Cat's gravestone fetches £200,000 at Sotheby's
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Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 12/12/2004 1:33:43 PM PST · 28 replies · 567+ views
UK Telegraph ^ | 12/12/04 | Will Bennett
A stone marking a pet cat's grave fetched more than £200,000 at Sotheby's yesterday after experts said it was a 1,100-year-old Anglo-Saxon carving. The relief depicting St Peter was found in a salvage yard 20 years ago by a stonemason, Johnny Beeston, who took it back to his home in Dowlish Wake, Somerset, where he and his wife Ruth decided it would make a headstone for their cat Winkle. After Chris Brewchorne, an amateur archaeologist from the town, realised its significance as he walked past, experts identified it as probably part of a Christian cross from 900AD. Yesterday an anonymous...
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What Is a Dead Language Doing in the 21st Century?
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Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 12/05/2004 7:12:01 PM PST · 207 replies · 3,232+ views
e3mil.com ^ | 12/04/2004 | Sue Reilly
Across the nation, schools are re-introducing Latin into their curricula. While Latin's visibility is highest in private and homeschool settings, it is mounting a comeback in the public school system as well. This remarkable phenomenon brings to mind our often-ignored connection to the Roman and Greek civilizations of the ancient world. What Is Old Is New Again Latin's stability makes it unique among languages still in use. Although centuries ago its grammar and vocabulary became essentially frozen (thus earning the designation 'dead'), this language of the Roman Empire did not disappear ó thanks largely to its status as the Roman...
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Ancient Warfare
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Bees, snakes, germs - any weapon in a pinch
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Posted by TrebleRebel
On News/Activism 11/30/2003 7:12:18 AM PST · 22 replies · 56+ views
The Vancouver Sun | 11/29/2003 | Jay Currie
If you are under Roman siege in the middle of a desert, a scorpion bomb seems like a very good idea. Collect a bunch of lethal scorpions and, very carefully, seal them in clay pots. Hurl the pots at the attackers as needed. That's exactly what the defenders of Hatra, just south of Mosul in today's Iraq, did in 198 AD. The siege was lifted in 20 days. As Adrienne Mayor writes in her intriguing book Greek Fire, Poison Arrows and Scorpion Bombs, scorpions weren't the only stinging animals pressed into service in the ancient world. A clay pot full...
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Bio Warfare Rears Its Head- The Ancient world USED IT!!!(MUST READ!)
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Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 01/30/2004 7:18:50 AM PST · 20 replies · 70+ views
Newsday ^ | January 13, 2004 | By Bryn Nelson
The following ARE exerpts... "...From Hercules' poisoned arrows to early germ warfare and attacks with scorpion bombs and red-hot sand, she contends, cultures around the world have grappled with the revulsion and justification of using these unconventional weapons ever since they began creating their own myths and recording their histories. Mayor has compiled a slew of examples in her new book, "Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World" (Overlook Press)..." "...The early dilemmas posed in mythic form would be recorded eventually in the annals of historians as combatants put their growing knowledge...
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Asia
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China Was Drinking Wine 9,000 Years Ago
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/06/2004 5:20:45 PM PST · 46 replies · 565+ views
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12-7-2004 | Roger Highfield
China was drinking wine 9,000 years ago By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 07/12/2004) A mixed fermented wine of rice, honey and fruit was being drunk in northern China 9,000 years ago, more than a thousand years before the previously oldest known fermented drinks, brewed in the Middle East. In the past scientists relied on the stylistic similarities of early pottery and bronze vessels to argue for the existence of a prehistoric fermented beverage in China. Today's findings provide the first direct chemical evidence from ancient China for such beverages, which were of cultural, religious, and medical significance. Dr Patrick...
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Find Stirs Sleeping Buddha Talk
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/04/2004 11:41:00 AM PST · 12 replies · 286+ views
Washington Times ^ | 12-4-2004 | Maseeh Rahman
Find stirs Sleeping Buddha talk By Maseeh Rahman THE WASHINGTON TIMES BAMIYAN, Afghanistan ó French archeologists searching for the colossal Sleeping Buddha in Bamiyan province have uncovered what could be the long-missing statue's foot, raising hopes of a major new discovery from Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist past. Ever since the fundamentalist Taliban destroyed Bamiyan's 1,500-year-old Standing Buddhas in 2001 because they were "un-Islamic," attention has been focused on the hunt for the much larger Sleeping Buddha, described in the travel diary of the seventh-century Chinese monk Xuan Zang and depicted in cave paintings at the historic site in the Hindu Kush...
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History Haunts The Plain Of Jars
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/09/2004 3:10:21 PM PST · 20 replies · 451+ views
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12-9-2004 | Sebastien Berger
History haunts the Plain of Jars By Sebastien Berger in Laos (Filed: 09/12/2004) Deep in the mountains of northern Laos is one of the most dangerous archaeological sites ever. The last remnants of an ancient civilisation are next to 30-year-old craters and unexploded US ordnance left by the greatest aerial bombardment of all time. Little is known of the people who carved the huge sandstone containers that give the Plain of Jars its name. The purpose of the artefacts is not known though they are believed to be connected to burial rituals. Archaeologists are mystified by the ancient stoneware containers...
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British Isles
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Saxon Find Brings Clues To History
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/11/2004 4:17:08 PM PST · 10 replies · 471+ views
Evening Star ^ | 12-11-2004
Saxon find brings clues to history December 11, 2004 00:01 A NUMBER of ancient artefacts discovered by a metal detecting enthusiast have given vital clues to Suffolk's history. Six gold and silver fragments discovered in a Witnesham field have given historians the chance to confirm details about life in Suffolk around 1,500 years ago. At a treasure trove inquest on Wednesday, Great Suffolk Coronor Dr Peter Dean confirmed the artefacts met the criteria for treasure. A treasure trove inquest is held when an object of at least 300 years old containing a substantial amount of silver or gold is found...
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Let's Have Jerusalem
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British archaeologist discovers 'John the Baptist' cave near Jerusalem
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Posted by F15Eagle
On News/Activism 12/06/2004 8:37:42 AM PST · 72 replies · 1,954+ views
Yahoo! News Science - AFP ^ | Mon, Dec 06, 2004 | AFP
KIBBUTZ TSUBA, Israel (AFP) - A British archaeologist has uncovered a cave in the mountains near Jerusalem which he believes conclusively proves that the Biblical figure of John the Baptist existed. "The first concrete evidence of the existence of John the Baptist has been found on site," 46-year-old Shimon Gibson told AFP. Gibson, who holds a degree from University College London and has written several works on Biblical archaeology, believes the discovery to be "the first archaeological proof of the historical veracity of the Gospels". Other archaeologists, however, believe Gibson's conclusions go too far, and that the discovery of an...
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FOLLOWING THE WISE MEN
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Posted by presidio9
On News/Activism 12/24/2003 7:16:30 AM PST · 2 replies · 21+ views
NY Post ^ | December 23, 2003 | JOHN J. MILLER
<p>FOR a few minutes on Christmas, children may set down their new toys from the man in the red suit and listen to transmissions from a machine on the red planet. On Thursday, the European Space Agency is scheduled to guide a British probe called the Beagle II onto the surface of Mars in what should become the first successful landing there since NASA's Mars Pathfinder in 1997. But while Mars grabs all the extraterrestrial attention this holiday ("The Beagle has landed!"), normally Christmas is the season of Jupiter, because there's a very good chance that the biggest planet in our solar system was the Star of Bethlehem.</p>
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The Mother Of All Palestinian Modern-Day Curses (Archaeology)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/12/2004 11:45:13 AM PST · 29 replies · 757+ views
Haaretz ^ | 12-12-2004 | Yoav Stern
The mother of all Palestinian modern-day curses By Yoav SternThe parchment on which the curse was written and the package in which it was found." During a Dead Sea-area dig in 2002, Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld discovered two small packages wrapped in cloth. The contents of one of them, just recently made public, was a scathing curse aimed at Israeli leaders. "Oh God almighty, I beg you God to destroy Ariel Sharon, son of Devorah, son of Eve." Thus opens a unique text, written in eloquent Arabic, on parchment found more than two years ago at the bottom of the Dead...
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Persia, Elam, etc
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Bones Suggest Women Went to War in Ancient Iran
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Posted by freedom44
On News/Activism 12/04/2004 10:57:12 AM PST · 21 replies · 418+ views
ABC ^ | 12/04/04 | ABC
Dec 4, 2004 ó TEHRAN (Reuters) - These days Iranian women are not even allowed to watch men compete on the football field, but 2,000 years ago they could have been carving the boys to pieces on the battlefield. DNA tests on the 2,000-year-old bones of a sword-wielding Iranian warrior have revealed the broad-framed skeleton belonged to woman, an archaeologist working in the northwestern city of Tabriz said on Saturday. "Despite earlier comments that the warrior was a man because of the metal sword, DNA tests showed the skeleton inside the tomb belonged to a female warrior," Alireza Hojabri-Nobari told...
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Jewelry From 3rd Millennium BC Discovered In Southwest Iran
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/06/2004 4:37:16 PM PST · 20 replies · 404+ views
Tehran Times ^ | 12-6-2004
Jewelry from 3rd millennium B.C. discovered in southwest Iran Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN (MNA) ñ- Ancient Iranians were fond of jewelry almost 4300 years ago and were highly skilled in producing jewelry and ornaments, Iranian archaeologists have concluded based on discoveries they made during their recent excavations at the ancient site of Shahdad in Kerman Province. According to the head of the archaeological team, Mir-Abedin Kaboli, archaeologists discovered the ruins of a developed city with industrial and residential areas and a graveyard after fourteen stages of excavations. 'Many artifacts including rare stones, jewelry, engraved stones, and jeweler's tools were...
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Phoenicians
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Sacred Precincts: A Tartessian Sanctuary in Ancient Spain
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/11/2004 9:20:39 PM PST · 6 replies · 62+ views
Archaeology Odyssey (via Web Archive) ^ | December 2003 | by Sebasti·n Celestino and Carolina LÛpez-Ruiz
When the Phoenicians arrived on the Iberian peninsula, probably at the end of the ninth century B.C., they came into contact with an indigenous people called the Tartessians... The structure at Cancho Roano... was not a palace at all; it was simply a Tartessian sanctuary, which over time became influenced by Phoenician culture. Scholars have only recently begun to separate Tartessian history from myth. When the Greeks reached the Iberian peninsula a few centuries after the Phoenicians, they called the land Tartessos... According to the fifth-century B.C. historian Herodotus, Tartessian civilization was discovered accidentally by a Greek named Kolaios, who...
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PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis
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Ancient Gold Mask to Be Returned to Peru
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Posted by FairOpinion
On News/Activism 12/11/2004 10:12:06 PM PST · 17 replies · 369+ views
Reuters ^ | Dec. 10, 2004 | Reuters
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - A gold mask dating back more than 1,000 years to a pre-Inca civilization in northern Peru will be returned home next year after being turned in to police by a collector in Italy, a museum official said on Friday. The well-preserved mask, measuring 14 inches (35 cm) long by 8.7 inches (22 cm) wide, represents the sea god Naylamp from the Sican culture, Carlos Elera, director of the National Sican Museum in Peru told Reuters by telephone. "It's authentic. It's classic Sican, gold with deep red mercury sulfide which had religious importance in the beliefs of...
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Following The Trail Of Ancient Louisianians
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/10/2004 1:00:11 PM PST · 12 replies · 388+ views
Archaeology Magazine ^ | 12-9-2004 | Amelie A Walker
Following the Trail of Ancient Louisianians December 9, 2004 by Amelie A. Walker A mound at Marksville, one of the state-owned sites on the Louisiana Ancient Mounds Trail. (Mark J. Sindler/LA Office of Tourism) Known for Mardi Gras, jazz, and Cajun culture, Louisiana also has a wealth of Native American sites dating to as early as 4000 B.C. The most obvious remains of ancient peoples are the many mounds that can be seen throughout the state, in cotton and soybean fields, hidden in woods, or even under houses. In all, there are more than 700 mound complexes or individual mounds...
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Science Is Eating His Dust(Adventurer exploring Chachapoya civilization of Peru)
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Posted by FairOpinion
On News/Activism 12/08/2004 10:31:09 PM PST · 33 replies · 506+ views
LA Times via Yahoo News ^ | Dec. 7, 2004 | Thomas H. Maugh
Gene Savoy plunged into the Peruvian jungle half a century ago in search of the fabled El Dorado, a lost Incan city so wealthy that its king reputedly walked coated in gold dust. Now semiretired, Savoy never found El Dorado. But along the way, he became the world's foremost chronicler of a forgotten civilization known as the Chachapoya ó and a blight to traditional archeologists. Savoy, 79, is among the last of a dying breed ó the swashbuckling adventurer whose expeditions plow through the world's rain forests in search of lost history. The tension between Savoy and the archeological establishment...
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Threads of old
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/09/2004 7:11:09 AM PST · 9 replies · 136+ views
San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | Leigh Fenly
Fabric remains are exceedingly rare in archaeological sites, but here was a young woman beautifully preserved in finely sewn clothes. The ice maiden's thigh-high riding boots were still supple. Her dress, woven 2,400 years ago of sheep's wool and camel hair, was held at the waist by a braided cord banded in colors and hung with tassels. She wore a 3-foot black felt headdress adorned with griffins and birds.
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Origins and Prehistory
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Human ancestors started eating meat, evolution served up a healthy bonus.< eata this Peta >
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Posted by Helms
On News/Activism 12/09/2004 10:44:58 AM PST · 83 replies · 1,269+ views
Medical News Today ^ | 03-22-2004, 07:40 PM | By Gilien Silsby and Gia Scafidi
- 03-22-2004, 07:40 PM By Gilien Silsby and Gia Scafidi When our human ancestors started eating meat, evolution served up a healthy bonus - the development of genes that offset high cholesterol and chronic diseases associated with a meat-rich diet, according to a new USC study. Those ancestors also started living longer than ever before - an unexpected evolutionary twist. The research by USC professors Caleb Finch and Craig Stanford appeared in the Quarterly Review of Biology. "At some point - probably about 2 1/2 million years ago - meat eating became important to humans," said Stanford, chair of the...
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Ice-Age Ivory Flute Found in German Cave (35K years old]
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Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 12/10/2004 12:57:32 PM PST · 55 replies · 1,234+ views
Reuters Science ^ | Dec. 10, 2004 | Anon EuroWeenie
BERLIN (Reuters) - A 35,000-year-old flute made from a woolly mammoth's ivory tusk has been unearthed in a German cave by archaeologists, the University of Tuebingen said on Friday. The flute, one of the oldest musical instruments discovered, was pieced together from 31 fragments found in a cave in the Swabian mountains in southwestern Germany, the university said. The mountains have yielded rich pickings in recent years, including ivory figurines, ornaments and other musical instruments. Archaeologists believe humans camped in the area in winter and spring. Mammoths, now extinct, were large elephant-like creatures with hairy coats and long, upcurved tusks....
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Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
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American troops launch 'Exorcist' tour at ancient temple
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Posted by Pokey78
On News/Activism 01/03/2004 3:12:38 PM PST · 8 replies · 57+ views
The Sunday Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | 01/04/04 | Colin Freeman
For a country recently purged of its chief tormentor, it is perhaps a grimly appropriate theme for its first new tourist attraction. American troops in Iraq have launched what has been dubbed "The Exorcist Experience", after discovering that the ancient ruins they were guarding provided the location for the 1973 horror classic's opening sequence. They now plan to help locals put the 2,000-year-old city of Hatra back on the international tourist map by marketing it as a future holiday destination to fans of the cult film. Using a modest $5,000 (£2,800) grant, the soldiers have recruited local guides and guards...
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The Peoples Of The Red Book (Anthropology)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/12/2004 4:45:07 PM PST · 2 replies · 94+ views
Internet ^ | 9-30-1993 | Ants Viires Ph.D
INTRODUCTION In the cliche-ridden propaganda of the Soviet era tsarist Russia was frequently dubbed the 'prison of nations'. When the Soviets came into power this 'prison', by virtue of new national policies, transformed into a family of friendly and brotherly nations in whose bosom all the national cultures flourished. To boast of the achievements under the Communist Party leadership, grandiose cultural festivals were arranged in the Soviet republics, folkloristic dance, song and instrumental groups were established and the revival of old peasant culture was encouraged. The slogan 'socialist in content, nationalist in form' came to be applied to the new...
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The Real Esselen (Archaeology)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/09/2004 1:59:11 PM PST · 13 replies · 241+ views
Monterrey County Weekly ^ | 12-9-2004 | Ryan Masters
The Real EsselenA new book delivers the overlooked story of Big Sur's early inhabitants. Dec 09, 2004 By Ryan Masters Life Work: Gary Breshchini and Trudy Haversat correct errors and misconceptions as they shed new light on the Esselen Nation. Four different expedition logs from the late 18th century recount an Esselen 'hunting technique' involving the hunters' custom of donning deer hides, heads and antlers to sneak up on their prey. Only the fourth log, that of English captain George Vancouver, points out that this was actually more of a 'floor show' to entertain the padre and his guests after dinner...
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end of digest #21 20041211
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