Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #75
Saturday, December 24, 2005
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Australia and the Pacific
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Revealed: The Runners Of 20,000BC
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/21/2005 10:49:12 AM PST · 23 replies · 658+ views
SMH | 12-22-2005 | Deborah Smith
Revealed: the runners of 20,000BC Email Print Normal font Large font By Deborah Smith Science Editor December 22, 2005 Steps back in time Ö the prints in Mungo National Park. Photo: Michael Amendolia, with traditional landowners' permission HUNDREDS of human footprints dating back to about 20,000BC - the oldest in Australia and the largest collection of its kind in the world - have been discovered in Mungo National Park in western NSW. They were left by children, adolescents and adults at the height of the last ice age as they ran and walked across a moist clay area near the...
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Ice Age Footprints Said Found in Outback
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Posted by wallcrawlr
On General/Chat 12/21/2005 6:48:42 PM PST · 7 replies · 96+ views
AP | 10.21.05
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - Hundreds of human footprints dating back to the last Ice Age have been found in the remote Australian Outback, an official and media reported Thursday. The 457 footprints found in Mungo National Park in western New South Wales state is the largest collection of its kind in the world and the oldest in Australia, The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported. The prints were made in moist clay near the Willandra Lakes 19,000 to 23,000 years ago, the newspaper reported ahead of archeologists' report on the find to be published in the Journal of Human Evolution. State...
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PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
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Americas Settled by Two Groups of Early Humans, Study Says (Ward Churchill Deeply Saddened)
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Posted by add925
On News/Activism 12/19/2005 8:36:37 AM PST · 10 replies · 742+ views
National Geographic | 12/12/05 | Brian Handwerk
At least two distinct groups of early humans colonized the Americas, a new study says, reviving the debate about who the first Americans were and when they arrived. Anthropologists Walter Neves and Mark Hubbe studied 81 skulls of early humans from South America and found them to be different from both modern and ancient Native Americans. The 7,500- to 11,000-year-old remains suggest that the oldest settlers of the Americas came from different genetic stock than more recent Native Americans. Modern Native Americans share traits with Mongoloid peoples of Mongolia, China, and Siberia, the researchers say. But Neves and Hubbe found...
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An Asian origin for a 10,000-year-old domesticated plant in the Americas
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Posted by Lessismore
On News/Activism 12/17/2005 7:56:15 AM PST · 13 replies · 275+ views
PNAS | 2005-12-13 | David L. Erickson , Bruce D. Smith , Andrew C. Clarke, Daniel H. Sandweiss, and Noreen Tuross
New genetic and archaeological approaches have substantially improved our understanding of the transition to agriculture, a major turning point in human history that began 10,000-5,000 years ago with the independent domestication of plants and animals in eight world regions. In the Americas, however, understanding the initial domestication of New World species has long been complicated by the early presence of an African enigma, the bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria). Indigenous to Africa, it reached East Asia by 9,000-8,000 before present (B.P.) and had a broad New World distribution by 8,000 B.P. Here we integrate genetic and archaeological approaches to address a...
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Mexican Indians Preserve Epic Endurance Race
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/17/2005 12:12:25 PM PST · 14 replies · 262+ views
Boston Globe | 12-15-2005 | Tim Gaynor
Mexican Indians preserve epic endurance race By Tim Gaynor | December 15, 2005 CEROCAHUI, Mexico (Reuters) - Mexico's Tarahumara Indians are struggling to preserve one of the world's toughest endurance contests: a race of up to 100 miles over flinty mountain tracks while kicking a ball. The tribe calls itself the "Raramuri," which in its language means "foot runner," and its men take to the trails of northwest Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains every few weeks in flimsy sandals for a 24-hour-long foot race that would make marathon runners shiver. Their bizarre long-distance game, dubbed the "carrera de bola" or "ball...
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Prehistory and Origins
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Civilisation Has Left Its Mark On Our Genes
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/19/2005 2:52:15 PM PST · 50 replies · 672+ views
New Scientist | 12-19-2005 | Bob Holmes
Civilisation has left its mark on our genes 22:00 19 December 2005 From New Scientist Print Edition Bob Holmes Darwin's fingerprints can be found all over the human genome. A detailed look at human DNA has shown that a significant percentage of our genes have been shaped by natural selection in the past 50,000 years, probably in response to aspects of modern human culture such as the emergence of agriculture and the shift towards living in densely populated settlements. One way to look for genes that have recently been changed by natural selection is to study mutations called single-nucleotide polymorphisms...
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Study Traces Egyptians' Stone-Age Roots
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/20/2005 10:27:54 AM PST · 30 replies · 515+ views
World Science | 12-17-2005
Study traces Egyptians' stone-age roots Dec. 17, 2005 Special to World Science Some 64 centuries ago, a prehistoric people of obscure origins farmed an area along Egypt's Nile River. Barely out of the Stone Age, they produced simple but well-made pottery, jewelry and stone tools, and carefully buried their dead with ritual objects in apparent preparation for an afterlife. These items often included doll-like female figurines with exaggerated sexual features, thought to possibly symbolize rebirth. Details from a tomb painting from Hierakonpolis, from prehistoric Egypt's Naqada culture. A new study suggests the Naqada people, the earlier Badarians and the later...
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Ancient Egypt
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A Mystery, Locked in Timeless Embrace
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Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 12/20/2005 3:29:30 AM PST · 56 replies · 1,510+ views
NY Times | December 20, 2005 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
When Egyptologists entered the tomb for the first time more than four decades ago, they expected to be surprised. Explorers of newly exposed tombs always expect that, and this time they were not disappointed - they were confounded. snip.... There, carved in stone, were the images of two men embracing. Their names were inscribed above: Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. Though not of the nobility, they were highly esteemed in the palace as the chief manicurists of the king, sometime from 2380 to 2320 B.C., in the time known as the fifth dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Grooming the king was an...
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Ancient Europe
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New Studies Show Fourth Salt Man Is 2000 Years Old
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/23/2005 10:31:43 AM PST · 10 replies · 606+ views
Mehr News | 12-23-2005
New studies show Fourth Salt Man is 2000 years old TEHRAN, Dec. 23 (MNA) -- The most recent studies on the Fourth Salt Man indicate that the body is 2000 years old, the director of the Chehrabad Studies Center announced on Friday. Recent radiography and CAT scans of the body indicate that the Fourth Salt Man was 15 or 16 years old at the time of death, Abolfazl Ali added. Discovered in the Hamzehlu Salt Mine in early March 2005, the Fourth Salt Man is the most intact of the ìsalt menî discovered in the mine, which is located near...
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Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
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Germany To Reopen 6,800-Year-Old Mystery Circle
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/21/2005 11:02:02 AM PST · 33 replies · 878+ views
Expatica | 12-20-2005
Germany to reopen 6,800-year-old mystery circle 20 December 2005 BERLIN - At the winter solstice this week, Germany is to open a replica of a mysterious wooden circle that is believed to be a temple of the sun built by a lost culture 6,800 years ago. The circle of posts, in a flat river plain at Goseck south of Berlin, has mystified scientists since its discovery in 1991 by an archaeologist studying the landscape from the air. An excavation found post holes and what may be the remains of ritual fires. Goseck has been dubbed the German Stonehenge, though it...
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Maeshowe Winter Solstice As Viewed By Neolithic Man (Scotland)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/17/2005 11:52:34 AM PST · 18 replies · 425+ views
The Scotsman | 12-15-2005 | Caroline Wickham-Jones
Maeshowe winter solstice as viewed by Neolithic man CAROLINE WICKHAM-JONESMaeshowe winter solstice as viewed by Neolithic manMaeshowe is managed by Historic Scotland. Picture: Charles Tait Photographic THE GREAT mound of Maeshowe has dominated the skyline of Orkney for almost 5,000 years. It is a spectacular sight and a visit to the chambered tomb provides one of the highlights for visitors to the Orkney islands. Today, as we stoop to enter and walk down the low 11 metre passage to the chamber with its massive stonework, we are reminded of the ingenuity of those original builders. Its apparent uniformity masks a...
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Ancient Rome and Italy
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Romans May Have Learned From Chinese Great Wall: Archaeologists
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/20/2005 9:59:10 AM PST · 33 replies · 819+ views
People's Daily Online/Xinhua | 12-20-2005
Romans may have learned from Chinese Great Wall: archaeologists The construction of the Roman Limes was quite possibly influenced by the concept of the Great Wall in China, though the two great buildings of the world are far away from each other, said archaeologists and historians. Although there is no evidence that the two constructions had any direct connections, indirect influence from the Great Wall on the Roman Limes is certain, said Visy Zsolt, a professor with the Department of Ancient History and Archaeology of the University of Pecs in Hungary. Visy made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua...
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Asia
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Stones indicate earlier Christian link? (Possible Christians in China in 1st Century AD)
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Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 12/22/2005 6:01:19 PM PST · 52 replies · 1,025+ views
China Daily | 12/22/05 | Wang Shanshan
One day in a spring, an elderly man walked alone on a stone road lined by young willows in Xuzhou in East China's Jiangsu Province. At the end of the road was a museum that few people have heard of. A Chinese theology professor says the first Christmas is depicted in the stone relief from the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25-220). In the picture above a woman and a man are sitting around what looks like a manger, with allegedly "the three wise men" approaching from the left side, holding gifts, "the shepherd" following them, and "the assassins" queued...
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2,800 Year Old Treasures Brought To Light (Zhou Dynasty)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/19/2005 11:37:37 AM PST · 3 replies · 58+ views
Peoples Daily Online | 12-18-2005
2,800-year-old treasures brought to light Great archaeological progress has been made in the excavation of the large-scale ruins and the tombs of noble lords of the Zhou Dynasty (771-221 BC) in Liangdai Village of Hancheng, Shaanxi Province as learned from the Shaanxi Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Sunday in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province, reports the overseas edition of People's Daily on December 19. Great quantities of various treasures with a history of more than 2,800 years have been discovered through the initial excavation of the three large graves and one chariot and horse pit. They include...
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Biology and Cryptobiology
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New study expands understanding of the role of RNA editing in gene control
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/23/2005 10:10:38 AM PST · 2 replies · 7+ views
Wistar Institute via EurekAlert | 23-Dec-2005 | Marion Wyce
For many years, scientists thought gene activity was relatively straightforward: Genes were transcribed into messenger RNA, which was processed and translated into the proteins of the body... [A] more nuanced understanding of the total genetic system has steadily accumulated... Most recently, scientists have discovered an extensive family of small molecules called microRNAs, or miRNAs, that appear to target and inactivate particular messenger RNAs. This targeted gene silencing is now seen as one of the body's primary strategies for regulating its genome.
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Extinct mammoth DNA decoded
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Posted by planetesimal
On News/Activism 12/18/2005 9:21:33 PM PST · 48 replies · 811+ views
BBC News | Sunday, 18 December 2005 | Helen Briggs
Scientists have pieced together part of the genetic recipe of the extinct woolly mammoth. The 5,000 DNA letters spell out the genetic code of its mitochondria, the structures in the cell that generate energy. The research, published in the online edition of Nature, gives an insight into the elephant family tree. It shows that the mammoth was most closely related to the Asian rather than the African elephant. The three groups split from a common ancestor about six million years ago, with Asian elephants and mammoths diverging about half a million years later. "We have finally resolved the phylogeny of...
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Decoding of Mammoth Genome Might Lead to Resurrection
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/19/2005 12:02:45 PM PST · 19 replies · 172+ views
LiveScience | 19 December 2005 | Robert Roy Britt
A team led by Hendrik Poinar at McMaster University unlocked secrets of the creature's nuclear DNA by working with a well-preserved 27,000-year-old specimen from Siberia. Colleagues at Penn State sequenced 1 percent of the genome in a few hours and say they expect to finish the whole genome in about a year if funding is provided... "While we can now retrieve the entire genome of the woolly mammoth, that does not mean we can put together the genome into organized chromosomes in a nuclear membrane with all the functional apparatus needed for life," said Ross MacPhee, a researcher at the...
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Scientists Find Cache of Dodo Bird Bones
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Posted by NormsRevenge
On General/Chat 12/23/2005 5:46:51 PM PST · 6 replies · 66+ views
AP on Yahoo | 12/23/05 | Toby Sterling - ap
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Scientists said Friday they found a major cache of bones and likely complete skeletons of the long-extinct Dodo bird, which could help them learn more about the lost creature's physique and habits. The find is significant because no complete skeleton of a single Dodo bird has ever been retrieved from a controlled archaeological site in Mauritius. The last known stuffed bird was destroyed in a 1755 fire at a museum in Oxford, England, leaving only partial skeletons and drawings of the bird to go on. The bird was native to Mauritius when no humans lived there but...
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British Isles
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Devon Treasure Hunters Strike Rich Seam (Viking Gold)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/19/2005 11:27:36 AM PST · 24 replies · 1,083+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 12-17-2005 | Western Daily Press
Devon treasure hunters strike a rich seam 12/17/2005 12:33:49 AM EST WESTERN DAILY PRESS This is the hoard of treasure dug up around Devon - and it's set to earn a windfall for the metal detector enthusiasts who found it. The Viking gold ingot, silver gilt dress hook, silver huntsman's whistle and medieval gold and sapphire ring have all been officially declared treasure and have become the property of the Crown. The finders will now be rewarded for handing over the items at 'market value', which has yet to be decided. The Viking cast gold ingot, found in Wembury, was...
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Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
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Discovery Of Ancient Stucco Decorations In Khuzestan
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/18/2005 11:24:15 AM PST · 11 replies · 170+ views
CHN | 12-18-2005
Discovery of Ancient Stucco Decorations in Khuzestan The latest archaeological excavations in the historical city of Shooshtar led to the discovery of the first stucco decoration in the ancient times. Tehran, 18 December 2005 (CHN) -- Archaeological excavations resulted in the discovery of 2000-year-old stucco decoration on a wall belonging to the end of the Parthian and beginning of the Sassanid era in the historical city of Shooshtar in Khuzestan province. Archaeologists believe that the moldings should have belonged to the aristocrats of Dastva city. A part of a stucco decorated window belonging to 2000 years ago had also been...
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Mesopotamia
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Artifacts found at ancient city ("This was 'Shock and Awe' in the Fourth Millennium BC.")
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Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 12/21/2005 9:41:34 PM PST · 10 replies · 424+ views
Middle East Times | December 17, 2005
CHICAGO, IL, USA -- US and Syrian researchers say that a battle destroyed one of the world's earliest cities in Mesopotamia, at around 3500 BC but artifacts are left behind. The University of Chicago and Syria's Department of Antiquities say that the discovery provides the earliest evidence for large-scale organized warfare in the Mesopotamian world. "The whole area of our most recent excavation was a war zone," said Clemens Reichel, of the University of Chicago. Reichel was the co-director of the Syrian-American Archaeological Expedition to Hamoukar, an ancient site in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, in October and November....
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Let's Have Jerusalem
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Ancient Marib Discoveries Marvel Of World (Yemen)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/18/2005 10:56:55 AM PST · 26 replies · 525+ views
Yemen Observer | 12-17-2005 | Zaid Al-Alaya's
Ancient Marib Discoveries Marvel of the World By Zaid Al-Alaya'a Dec 17, 2005 - Vol. VIII Issue 49 SANA'A- An ancient inscription shedding light on battles over 2300 years ago has been unearthed by a German archeological expedition at the temple of Al-Maqa in Surwah, Marib Governorate. The important archeological discovery reveals new information on the era of the King of Sheba, Yas'a Imar Watar bin Yakreb, and the military expedition he undertook. The inscription shows that King Yas'a, who ruled Yemen in the 4th century BC, made several military expeditions, just as his predecessor King Kurb Ail Watur bin...
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Iraq: Irbil's Kurds live on a hill of undiscovered treasures
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Posted by robowombat
On News/Activism 12/16/2005 10:21:54 AM PST · 5 replies · 373+ views
Radio Free Europe | 12-13-05
Iraq: Irbil's Kurds live on a hill of undiscovered treasures Source: Radio Free Europe (12-13-05) The kidnapping of a German archeologist in late November highlighted both the historical wealth of Iraq and the perils of exploring that history. In much of the country, archeologists have all but abandoned their work because of security concerns. But officials in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq say the region is secure enough for excavations. The region is rich in potential sites, and only a fraction of them have been researched. One of the most dramatic is in the heart of Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish...
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Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
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Secret 16th century synagogue found
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Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 12/22/2005 6:08:34 PM PST · 27 replies · 1,073+ views
Jerusalem Post | 12/21/05 | AP
Few people ever knew, but the murky medieval alleyways of this Atlantic port city once provided cover for a persecuted minority that risked being burnt at the stake. In the 16th century, an unremarkable thick-walled granite house that still stands in a row of narrow, small-roomed buildings along a cobbled street held a dangerous secret. At the back of the house, steep steps lead down to a warren of alleys ideal for conspiratorial comings and goings that helped keep an outlawed religious ceremony hidden. Four centuries later, the secret of the clandestine synagogue is out. The mystery began unraveling...
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Scientist's quest to solve Ripper case (Jack the Ripper)
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Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 12/17/2005 12:33:45 PM PST · 58 replies · 1,043+ views
icLanarkshire | 12/15/05 | Emily Henderson
A SCIENTIST from Blantyre is playing a key part in solving one of the world's most famous mysteries ... the identity of serial killer Jack the Ripper. Last week, Professor Ian Findlay (39), who grew up in Station Road, and now works in Australia, was in London to test traces of saliva on stamps attached to letters sent to police at the time they were trying to catch the notorious murderer. Ian has developed DNA identification technology called Cell-Track ID at Brisbane forensic laboratory, Gribbles Molecular Science, which can extract and compile a DNA fingerprint from a single cell or...
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Archaeology Odyssey To Become Part of Biblical Archaeology Review -- Suspends Separate Publication
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/20/2005 10:16:14 PM PST · 1 reply
Biblical Archaeology Society | Susan Laden, President, and Hershel Shanks, Editor
...since the launching of Archaeology Odyssey, the magazine industry has changed. It will no longer support separate magazines for such closely related subjects. The Biblical Archaeology Society is a charitable organization forever trying to make ends meet. People are now getting more and more information on the internet, rather than from pieces of paper like magazines and newspapers. Advertisers know this, so advertising in print media is way down. And postage is way upówith a very substantial increase promised for next year. Every other expense you can think of has also increased, sometimes dramatically.... All Archaeology Odyssey subscribers will now...
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end of digest #75 20051224
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