Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #78
Saturday, January 14, 2006
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Biology and Cryptobiology
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'Four Mothers' For Europe's Jews
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/14/2006 7:10:07 AM PST · 13 replies · 377+ views
BBC | 1-14-2006
'Four mothers' for Europe's Jews There are now some 8m people of Ashkenazi origin around the world Almost half of Europe's Jews are descended from just four women who lived 1,000 years ago, a study says. Scientists studied the mitochondrial DNA - passed from mother to daughter - of 11,000 women of Ashkenazi Jewish origin living in 67 countries. The Ashkenazis moved from the Mid-East to Italy and then to Eastern Europe, where their population exploded in the 13th Century, the scientists say. One of the authors said the study shows the importance of Jewish mothers. "This I could tell...
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Study finds why Jewish mothers are so important
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Posted by Brilliant
On News/Activism 01/14/2006 6:42:33 PM PST · 27 replies · 637+ views
Reuters via Yahoo! | 1/14/2006 | Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four Jewish mothers who lived 1,000 years ago in Europe are the ancestors of 40 percent of all Ashkenazi Jews alive today, an international team of researchers reported on Friday. The genetic study of DNA paints a vivid picture of human evolution and survival, and correlates with the well-established written and oral histories of Jewish migrations, said Dr. Doron Behar of the Technion- Israel Institute of Technology, who worked on the study. The study, published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, suggests that some 3.5 million Jews alive today all descended from four women. For their...
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Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorrhagic Fever)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/11/2006 1:33:43 PM PST · 49 replies · 937+ views
CDC | March 28, 2002 | R. Acuna-Soto, D. Stahle, M. Cleaveland and M. Therrell
Megadrought and Megadeath in 16th Century Mexico Rodolfo Acuna-Soto,* David W. Stahle, Malcolm K. Cleaveland, and Matthew D. Therrell *Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA The native population collapse in 16th century Mexico was a demographic catastrophe with one of the highest death rates in history. Recently developed tree-ring evidence has allowed the levels of precipitation to be reconstructed for north central Mexico, adding to the growing body of epidemiologic evidence and indicating that the 1545 and 1576 epidemics of cocoliztli (Nahuatl for "pest') were indigenous hemorrhagic fevers transmitted by...
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The Vikings
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What A Viking's Smile Revealed
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/08/2006 2:12:41 PM PST · 57 replies · 1,276+ views
New Scientist | 1-7-2006
What a Viking's smile revealed 07 January 2006 VIKING warriors may have filed deep grooves into their teeth to indicate class or military rank. Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board analysed 557 skeletons from four major Viking-age Swedish cemeteries and discovered that around 10 per cent of men, but none of the women, bore horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth. The marks, which were cut deep into the enamel, are often found in pairs or triplets and appear precisely made. They might have marked certain men as members of a group of tradesmen or warriors, or signified their...
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Tooth marks link Vikings, Indians
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Posted by Tyche
On News/Activism 01/14/2006 8:32:48 PM PST · 9 replies · 262+ views
CanWest News Service | Jan 13, 2006 | Randy Boswell
A scientist who found deep grooves chiselled into the teeth of dozens of 1,000-year-old Viking skeletons unearthed in Sweden believes the strange custom might have been learned from aboriginal tribes during ancient Norse voyages to North America -- a finding that would represent an unprecedented case of transatlantic, cross-cultural exchange during the age of Leif Ericsson. The marks are believed to be decorations meant to enhance a man's appearance, or badges of honour for a group of great warriors or successful tradesmen. They are the first historical examples of ceremonial dental modification ever found in Europe, and although similar customs...
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PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
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90 years later, Peru battles Yale over Incan artifacts
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Posted by Republicanprofessor
On News/Activism 01/10/2006 4:59:41 AM PST · 54 replies · 480+ views
The Christian Science Monitor | 1/10/06 | Danna Harman
MACHU PICCHU, PERU -- The Incas built this mysterious city here, it is told, to be closer to the gods. It was placed so high in the clouds, at 7,700 feet, that the empire- raiding Spaniards never found, or destroyed, it. Today, visitors to Machu Picchu see well-preserved ruins hidden among the majestic Andes: complete with palaces, baths, temples, tombs, sundials, and agricultural terraces, and also llamas roaming among hundreds of gray granite houses. But they won't find too many bowls, tools, ritual objects, or other artifacts used by the Incas of the late 1400s. To see those, they have...
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China map lays claim to Americas ( China Won't Stop at Taiwan?)
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Posted by Candor7
On News/Activism 01/14/2006 7:34:00 AM PST · 77 replies · 1,121+ views
BBC NEWS | Friday, 13 January 2006, 13:23 GMT | BBC NEWS (general staff)
China map lays claim to Americas The map clearly shows the Americas and Africa A map due to be unveiled in Beijing and London next week may lend weight to a theory a Chinese admiral discovered America before Christopher Columbus. The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418. If true, it could imply Chinese mariners discovered and mapped America decades before Columbus' 1492 arrival. The map, which is being dated to check it was made in 1763, faces a lot of scepticism from experts. Chinese characters...
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Australia and the Pacific
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Stone Age Footwork: Ancient Human Prints Turn Up Down Under
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/07/2006 2:22:53 PM PST · 25 replies · 446+ views
Science News | 1-7-2006 | Bruce Bower
Stone Age Footwork: Ancient human prints turn up down under Bruce Bower Researchers working near the shore of a dried-up lake basin in southeastern Australia have taken a giant leap backward in time. They've uncovered the largest known collection of Stone Age human footprints. SOLE SURVIVAL. Footprints attributed to a Stone Age person disappear under an Australian dune (top). In an impression of an adult's right foot (inset), the toes stand out. Cupper The 124-or-more human-foot impressions, as well as a few prints left by kangaroos and other animals, originated between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago in a then-muddy layer...
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Asia
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New Archaeological Discovery Rewrites Hong Kong's History Of Human Activity
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/12/2006 11:26:08 AM PST · 3 replies · 204+ views
Peoples Daily - Xinhua | 1-12-2006 | Xinhua
New archaeological discovery rewrites Hong Kong's history of human activity Archaeologists have discovered a new site of human activity in remote antiquity in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Zhang Shenshui, researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, told Xinhua here Wednesday that the important archaeological discovery not only rewrites the history when Hong Kong began having human activity, but also puts forward new topics of research for archaeologists. More than 6,000 artifacts have been unearthed at the site, which is located at the Wong Tei Tung of Sai Kung, covering 8,000 square meters. The site was a field for stone artifacts...
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Over 4,200 Cliff Tombs Found In W. China City
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/09/2006 10:37:28 AM PST · 5 replies · 290+ views
CRI - China Broadcast/Xinhua | 1-10-2006
Over 4,200 Cliff Tombs Found in W. China City 2006-1-10 1:06:53 CRIENGLISH.com More than 4,220 cliff tombs have been spotted at 680 sites in Shangluo, a city in western China's Shaanxi Province, local archaeologists said Monday. The cliff tombs have large spaces and various conformations and are scattered at a 160-km-long belt joining DanJiang Valley in the east and the Qianyou River in the west, said scientists with the provincial archeological research institute. According to Yang Yachang, a researcher with the institute, most of the single-room tombs are erect stone caves in rectangle shapes and are three meters deep, while...
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Central Asia
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Tashkent's Hidden Islamic Relic (Oldest Koran)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/08/2006 2:32:15 PM PST · 17 replies · 429+ views
BBC | 1-8-2006 | Ian McWilliam
Tashkent's hidden Islamic relic By Ian MacWilliam BBC News, in Tashkent The Othman Koran is the oldest in the world In an obscure corner of the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, lies one of Islam's most sacred relics - the world's oldest Koran. It is a reminder of the role which Central Asia once played in Muslim history - a fact often overlooked after seven decades of Soviet-imposed atheism. The library where the Koran is kept is in an area of old Tashkent known as Hast-Imam, well off the beaten track for most visitors to this city. It lies down a series...
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Epigraphy and Language
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India Acquired Language, Not Genes, From West, Study Says
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Posted by dennisw
On News/Activism 01/12/2006 7:06:13 PM PST · 33 replies · 679+ views
national geographic | January 10, 2006 | Brian Handwerk
Most modern Indians descended from South Asians, not invading Central Asian steppe dwellers, a new genetic study reports. The Indian subcontinent may have acquired agricultural techniques and languagesóbut it absorbed few genesófrom the west, said Vijendra Kashyap, director of India's National Institute of Biologicals in Noida. The finding disputes a long-held theory that a large invasion of central Asians, traveling through a northwest Indian corridor, shaped the language, culture, and gene pool of many modern Indians within the past 10,000 years. That theory is bolstered by the presence of Indo-European languages in India, the archaeological record, and historic sources such...
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"Jiroft Inscription", Oldest Evidence of Written Language
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/13/2006 10:24:48 AM PST · 19 replies · 192+ views
Persian Journal | Jan 12, 2006
"Five Elamit professional linguists from different countries have studied the brick inscription discovered in Jiroft. According to the studies, they have concluded that this discovered inscription is 300 years older than that found in Susa; and most probably the written language went to Susa from this region. However, more studies are still needed to give a final approval to this thesis," said Yousof Majid Zadeh, head of archeological excavation team in Jiroft... Elamit language is only partly understood by scholars. It had no relationship to Sumerian, Semitic or Indo-European languages, and there are no modern descendants of it. After 3000...
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Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
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Lurestan's Sangtarashan New Discoveries
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/09/2006 11:10:16 AM PST · 5 replies · 179+ views
Persian Journal | 1-8-2006
Lurestan's Sangtarashan New Discoveries Jan 8, 2006 Some delicate and beautiful bronze articles and two iron swords have been discovered during the archeological excavations in historical site of Sangtarashan in Lurestan province, without any evidence of a grave or an architectural structure nearby. The issue has puzzled archeologists about the usage of Sangtarashan area during the first millennium BC. Sangtarashan historical site in Lurestan province had been known to be a cemetery belonging to the third Iron Age (800 to 550 BC). However, no remains of human skeletons have been discovered so far during the archeological excavations. Furthermore, there are...
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The Phoenicians
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Long-lost Phoenician ports found: Old Mediterranean harbours discovered buried under modern cities
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Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 01/07/2006 4:28:42 PM PST · 7 replies · 506+ views
Nature.com | 1/6/06 | Philip Ball
Thanks to political tensions easing in Lebanon, archaeologists have finally managed to locate the sites of ancient Phoenician harbours in the seaports that dominated Mediterranean trade thousands of years ago. By drilling out cores of sediment from the modern urban centres of these cities, geologists have mapped out the former coastlines that the sediments have long since buried. From this they have pinpointed the likely sites of the old harbours, and have marked out locations that, they say, are in dire need of exploration and conservation. The modern cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Lebanese coast were once the...
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Ancient Rome
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Ancient Harbors Rise Again
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Posted by flevit
On News/Activism 01/12/2006 4:56:19 AM PST · 11 replies · 420+ views
ScienceNOW Daily News | 9 January 2006 | By Michael Balter
From about 3000 B.C.E., boats anchored in natural coves and bays. At Sidon, for example, the team found crustaceans typical of brackish lagoons in the cores, indicating that the bays were fairly sheltered. By about 1200 B.C.E., the Phoenicians began building artificial harbors, a period which corresponds to other archaeological evidence that ship traffic was increasing at that time. After the invention of concrete by the Romans around 300 B.C.E., sophisticated harbor engineering became possible, and the ports were at their height during the subsequent Greco-Roman and Byzantine periods, from 332 B.C.E. to about 1000 C.E. After that time, Tyre...
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Underwater Archaeology
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Fears For Ancient Remains Below Waves
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/12/2006 11:42:35 AM PST · 23 replies · 873+ views
Isle Of Wight County Press | 1-12-2006 | Martin Neville
FEARS FOR ANCIENT REMAINS BELOW WAVESBy Martin Neville DIVERS face a desperate race against time to recover 8,000-year-old artefacts from the bottom of The Solent before they are lost forever. The underwater site, off Bouldnor, is the only one yet discovered in Britain and dates from when the sea level was 12 metres lower than today, when the IW would have been much larger and The Solent was a dry coastal valley. It remains because it was covered in silt and protected from erosion as the sea rose above it. Most Stone Age sites on land have lost all associated...
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Ancient Navigation
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A Talk With Colin Renfrew [The Third Culture, The Three Dimensions of Human History]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/11/2006 10:28:06 PM PST · 6 replies · 44+ views
The Edge | August 25 1997 | John Brockman
It shows, for instance, that at the beginning of the Neolithic period, the beginning of farming in the Near East, just about everywhere was in contact with everywhere else. There is no early farming village in the Near East that doesn't get obsidian, even though the obsidian sources are hundreds of kilometers to the north. Obsidian from Melos, which is an island in the Aegean, is found way back before farming, 10, 12, 13 thousand years ago, so this meant that the Paleolithic hunter-gatherers must have been traveling in boats. Similar evidence for early seafaring has now been found in...
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Prehistory and Origins
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New reconstruction of Krapina 5, a male Neandertal cranial vault from Krapina, Croatia
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/09/2006 9:20:13 AM PST · 22 replies · 166+ views
Wiley InterScience / American Journal of Physical Anthropology | Jan 4 2006 | Rachel Caspari, Jakov Radovi
The Neandertals from Krapina, Croatia represent some of the geologically oldest Neandertals known, and they comprise the largest Neandertal collection from a single site in the world. However, comparisons of the Krapina material with other, later Neandertals have been limited both because of their fragmentary condition and because the sample has a disproportionate number of females and/or young individuals. This paper presents a preliminary description of our new reconstruction of Krapina 5, an adult male, and provides comparisons with females from Krapina and with later Neandertal males from Western Europe. Like other hominid sites with large samples, there is considerable...
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European Face-Off For Early Farmers
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/09/2006 4:10:54 PM PST · 7 replies · 190+ views
Science News | 1-7-2006 | Bruce Bower
European face-off for early farmers Bruce Bower A new analysis of modern and ancient human skulls supports the idea that early farmers in the Middle East spread into Europe between 11,000 and 6,500 years ago, intermarried with people there, and passed on their agricultural way of life to the native Europeans. C. Loring Brace of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his colleagues compared 24 measurements for each of 1,282 skulls from current and prehistoric populations in Europe, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa. The sample included 201 skulls from early farmers and 219 skulls from Bronze Age...
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Scientists show we've been losing face for 10,000 years (Your face is shrinking)
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Posted by Lorianne
On News/Activism 01/10/2006 6:50:04 PM PST · 41 replies · 556+ views
The Sunday Times (UK) | November 20, 2005 | Jonathan Leake
THE human face is shrinking. Research into people's appearance over the past 10,000 years has found that our ancestors' heads and faces were up to 30% larger than now. Changes in diet are thought to be the main cause. The switch to softer, farmed foods means that jawbones, teeth, skulls and muscles do not need to be as strong as in the past. The shrinkage has been blamed for a surge in dental problems caused by crooked or overlapping teeth. 'Over the past 10,000 years there has been a trend toward rounder skulls with smaller faces and jaws,' said Clark...
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Anatolia
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Trojan Treasure - 500th Anniversary Looms Over Laocoon
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Posted by NYer
On Religion 01/12/2006 5:34:43 PM PST · 6 replies · 132+ views
Zenit News Agency | January 12, 2006 | Elizabeth Lev
ROME, JAN. 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The year 2006 represents a great Jubilee of sorts for art historians. This Saturday marks the 500th anniversary of the rediscovery of the Laocoon group, one of the most renowned sculptures of the ancient world. Virgil immortalized Laocoon in the "Aeneid." The Trojan priest of Neptune, Laocoon, when faced with the great wooden horse left by the Greeks outside the walls of Troy, issued one of the most famous warnings in the history of literature. "Men of Troy, trust not the horse! Whatever it be, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts," later shortened...
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Ancient Greece
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Researchers Discover Greek Temple In Albania Dating Back To 6th Century BC
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/07/2006 3:36:42 PM PST · 8 replies · 355+ views
University Of Cincinnati | 1-6-2006
Source: University of Cincinnati Date: 2006-01-06 Researchers Discover Greek Temple In Albania Dating Back To 6th Century B.C. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati's Classics faculty are preparing to make their first public presentation of details surrounding their find of one of the earliest Greek temples in the Adriatic region north of Greece. A fragment of a tablet recovered from the Albanian site. (Image courtesy of University of Cincinnati) The UC researchers, along with colleagues from the International Centre for Albanian Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana, will be presenting on their new work on Friday, Jan. 6, 2006,...
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Ancient Europe
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Sardinia's prehistoric towers
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/09/2006 10:13:36 PM PST · 23 replies · 195+ views
Science Frontiers | No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 | William R. Corliss
Sardina is home to an immense population of mysterious prehistoric stone towers called "nuraghi." (Singular form is "nuraghe.") Over 7,000 of these remarkable dry-stone edifices exist -- a concentration of monumental stone architecture unparalleled in Europe... Over 3,000 years old, the nuraghi have withstood the depredations of weather and later humans by virtue of their excellent design and construction.
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Iron Age 'Bog Bodies' Unveiled
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/07/2006 3:02:22 PM PST · 24 replies · 1,534+ views
BBC | 1-7-2006
Iron Age 'bog bodies' unveiled Bog bodies have been found throughout north-west Europe Archaeologists have unveiled two Iron Age "bog bodies" which were found in the Republic of Ireland. The bodies, which are both male and have been dated to more than 2,000 years ago, probably belong to the victims of a ritual sacrifice. In common with other bog bodies, they show signs of having been tortured before their deaths. Details of the finds are outlined in a BBC Timewatch documentary to be screened on 20 January. "My belief is that these burials are offerings to the gods of fertility...
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Climate
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Broken Ice Dam Blamed For 300-Year Chill
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/10/2006 2:47:01 PM PST · 93 replies · 2,035+ views
New Scientist | 1-10-2006 | Kurt Kleiner
Broken ice dam blamed for 300-year chill 14:21 10 January 2006 NewScientist.com news service Kurt Kleiner A three-century-long cold spell that chilled Europe 8200 years ago was probably caused by the bursting of a Canadian ice dam, which released a colossal flood of glacial meltwater into the Atlantic Ocean. Two new papers, using different computer models, show that the massive freshwater flood accounts for evidence of the sudden climate change, which cooled Greenland by an average of 7.4?C, and Europe by about 1?C. It was the most abrupt and widespread cool spell in the last 10,000 years. Evidence for the...
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Cyclical Ice age gets hold of the earth -- how severe will it be by 2012?
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Posted by Lorianne
On News/Activism 01/10/2006 10:42:52 AM PST · 169 replies · 2,813+ views
India Daily | Dec. 29, 2005
Ice ages come every 11,000 years. A mega ice age comes every 105,000 years. Both are due between now and 2012. The 11,000 year cycle happens because of increase and decrease of cyclical underwater volcanic eruption. The 105,000 mega ice age happens because of the changing shape of the orbit of the earth around the sun -- circular to elliptical and then back to circular every 105,000 years. Both the cycles are overdue. They have actually started. Europe right now is in deep freeze. Japan and South Korea are experiencing the worst snowfall ever. Even New Delhi is experiencing the...
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Catastrophism and Astronomy
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1006 AD Supernova (Vanity)
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Posted by Ptarmigan
On General/Chat 01/13/2006 7:51:03 PM PST · 2 replies · 21+ views
A bright star suddenly appears on April 30, 1006 near the star Beta Lupi in the constellation Lupus. This bright star is yellowish-white in color. The star gets brighter, bright to a point, it is brighter than Venus and half Moon. It has a magnitude of -9 at its peak. The star was visible for a year and it disappeared afterwards. The bright star was a supernova. Supernovas are when a star explodes. The Supernova is recorded in Korea, China, Japan, Mesopotamia, and Europe, often by astrologers. The supernova was seen as an omen. The remnants of the 1006 Supernova...
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Solar Storm 'Could Spark Catastrophe'
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/27/2003 2:49:22 PM PST · 69 replies · 141+ views
Ananova | 10-27-2003
Solar storm 'could spark catastrophe' Scientists are warning a "perfect space storm" that occurred 144 years ago could happen again at any time with catastrophic consequences. Newly uncovered scientific data has shown the true extent of history's most massive electromagnetic storm which blew up on the first two days of September 1859. Like "the perfect storm" at sea which inspired a blockbuster movie, it was the result of a number of titanic events coming together. But in this case the centre of the storm was the sun, not the ocean. A combination of sunspots and solar flares produced an explosive...
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Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
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Celestial And Mathematical Precision In Ancient Architecture
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/07/2006 3:22:04 PM PST · 36 replies · 840+ views
Manitoban | 1-7-2006 | Melissa hIEBERT
CELESTIAL AND MATHEMATICAL PRECISION IN ANCIENT ARCHITECTUREAnd we think we're advanced MELISSA HIEBERT STAFF Many ancient ruins demonstrate that the people who constructed them had not only a special regard for celestial bodies and mathematics, but also a spot-on accuracy. From Egypt to Mexico, there is no doubt that past civilizations were involved in incredibly complex space calculations, mathematics and architectural endeavours. Although many historians and archaeologists debate exactly what these civilizations did intentionally and what they did by mere chance, here are a few examples of how ancient architecture was created with mathematics and the cosmos in mind. iza...
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Oh So Mysteriouso
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Oldest Hominid Skull In Australia Found Near Bega (7 Million Years Old)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/13/2006 4:46:20 PM PST · 71 replies · 854+ views
Bega District News | 1-13-2006
Oldest hominid skull in Australia found near Bega Friday, 13 January 2006 THE endocast of a primitive hominid-like skull was recovered from among the rubble of a volcanic plug in the Bega district in May 2005 The find could suggest that a race of ancestral hominids had evolved in Australia from tree-dwelling primate ancestors by seven million years ago. This is well before our primate ancestors supposedly left the trees for a terrestrial existence in Africa around six million years ago! The fossil was discovered by noted prehistory researcher Rex Gilroy of Katoomba NSW, where he operates the 'Australian-Pacific Archaeological...
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British Isles
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Braveheart Killing 'Topped Bill At Fair'
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/08/2006 2:22:49 PM PST · 33 replies · 1,247+ views
Scotsman | 1-8-2006 | George Mair
Braveheart killing 'topped bill at fair' GEORGE MAIR WILLIAM Wallace's execution was the opening attraction of a giant medieval carnival, according to research which sheds new light on the freedom fighter's death in August 1305. The killing of 'Braveheart' Wallace, during which he was hanged, drawn and quartered, is now believed to have marked the opening of Bartholomew Fair - the largest medieval market in England, held annually for centuries to commemorate St Bartholomew's Day on August 24. Tens of thousands flocked to Smithfield - the site of his execution - for the fortnight-long celebration, which featured vast cloth and...
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end of digest #78 20060114
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