Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #80
Saturday, January 28, 2006
|
Ancient Navigation
|
Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains (cargo carriers between Pharaonic Egypt and Punt)
|
| |
Posted by NormsRevenge
On General/Chat 01/27/2006 6:14:52 PM PST · 14 replies · 88+ views
AP on Yahoo | 1/27/06 | AP
CAIRO, Egypt - An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the remains of 4,000-year-old ships that used to carry cargo between Pharaonic Egypt and the mysterious, exotic land of Punt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced. The ships' remains were found during a five-year excavation of five caves south of the Red Sea port of Safaga, about 300 miles southeast of Cairo, the chairman of the supreme council, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement late Thursday. The archaeologists, who came from Boston and East Naples universities, found Pharaonic seals from the era of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III, one of seven...
|
|
Ancient Egypt
|
Rare Egyptian sculpture [record price set for ancient sculpture]
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/22/2006 6:41:18 PM PST · 9 replies · 50+ views
Christian Science Monitor | January 18, 2006 | Christopher Andreae
The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, set a world record when it bought this ancient Egyptian limestone sculpture at auction Dec. 9. Extraordinarily, earlier in the same sale, another statue, a granite figure, also set a record for an Egyptian antiquity, when it sold for $2,256,000. But the granite figure didn't hold that record for long. It was spectacularly overtaken by this "Group Statue of Ka-nefer and His Family," which sold for $2,816,000. According to inscriptions, this tomb sculpture represents the "Overseer of Craftsmen, Priest of Ptah," "His wife, the Royal Confidant, Tjen-tety," and "His son, the Overseer...
|
|
|
Team Unearths Statue of Egypt's Queen Ti
|
| |
Posted by NormsRevenge
On News/Activism 01/23/2006 8:00:39 PM PST · 50 replies · 841+ views
AP on Yahoo | 1/23/06 | AP
LUXOR, Egypt - A Johns Hopkins University archaeological team has unearthed a statue of Queen Ti, one of the most important women in ancient Egypt and wife of Pharaoh Amenhotep III, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities announced Monday. The statue, mostly intact, was found under a statue of Amenhotep III in the sprawling Karnak Temple in Luxor, which was a royal city in ancient Egypt. Ti was the first queen of Egypt to have her name appear on official acts alongside that of her husband. She was known for her influence in state affairs in the reigns of both her...
|
|
Near East
|
Largest Ever Ancient Temple Discovered In Shabwa (Yemen)
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/21/2006 11:02:05 AM PST · 12 replies · 388+ views
The Yemen Observer | 1-21-2006
Largest Ever Ancient Temple Discovered in Shabwa By Observer Staff Jan 21, 2006 - Vol.IX Issue 02 SANAíA- Archeologists in Shabwa governorate have discovered what is said to be the biggest temple ever discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, dating back to the 5th Century BC. The Italian archeological expedition, who have been digging in the ancient Royal Palace in Tamnaía city, say it is one of the oldest and most extensive temples ever discovered in the region. They found the temple on their recent dig, which lasted for 25 days. Khyran Mohsen Al-Zubairi, the Director of Archeology in Shabwa, told...
|
|
|
Oh, those Babylonians!
|
| |
Posted by kiriath_jearim
On General/Chat 01/21/2006 1:56:58 PM PST · 17 replies · 234+ views
Fordham University | 5th Century B.C. | Herodotus
From Book I of Herodotus' "History": "The Babylonians have one most shameful custom. Every woman born in the country must once in her life go and sit down in the precinct of Venus, and there consort with a stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are too proud to mix with the others, drive in covered carriages to the precinct, followed by a goodly train of attendants, and there take their station. But the larger number seat themselves within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string about their heads-and here there is always a great crowd, some coming and others...
|
|
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
|
An Ancient Catacomb Discovered In Gilan
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/26/2006 10:26:32 AM PST · 10 replies · 384+ views
Persian Journal | 1-25-2006
An Ancient Catacomb Discovered in Gilan Jan 25, 2006 The first catacomb belonging to the infamous Islamic era, which was used as a safekeeping place for the dead, was discovered in Manjil during the excavations in the east bank of Sefidrud River in Gilan province. Most probably this catacomb dates back to the Ilkhanid era. Since the Parthian era, catacombs were built most often on the ways of caravans in Iran. These catacombs were used as a place for temporarily keeping of the dead. Whenever one of the members of a caravan died during the trip, his or her body...
|
|
Epigraphy and Language
|
New Discoveries in Jiroft May Change History of Civilization
|
| |
Posted by robowombat
On News/Activism 01/26/2006 11:19:36 AM PST · 17 replies · 611+ views
Persian Journal | Jan 26, 2006
New Discoveries in Jiroft May Change History of Civilization Jan 26, 2006 Latest archeological excavations in Jiroft, known as the hidden paradise of world archeologists, resulted in the discovery of a bronze statue depicting the head of goat which dates back to the third millennium BC. This statue was found in the historical cemetery of Jirof where recent excavations in the lower layers of this cemetery revealed that the history of the Halil Rud region dates back to the fourth millennium BC, a time that goes well beyond the age of civilization in Mesopotamia "One of the reasons the archeologists...
|
|
Anatolia
|
German Paper Reports World's Oldest Temple Is In Sanliurfa (Turkey- 10,000BC)
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/21/2006 10:34:38 AM PST · 22 replies · 423+ views
Turkish Daily News | 1-21-2006
German paper reports worldís oldest temple is in fianl´´urfa Saturday, January 21, 2006 ANKARA - Turkish Daily News One of Germany's leading newspapers, Die Welt, reported this week that the world's oldest temple, dating back around 12,000 years, is located on Gˆbekli Hill in Turkey's province of fianl´´urfa, said the Anatolia news agency. According to an article titled ìHoly Hill of the Hunters,î the temple was discovered by German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt, standing around 15 meters in height and located on a hill upon which a single tree stands. Defining the area as the ìcradle of civilization,î the paper said...
|
|
Mediterranean
|
Ancient Furnace Sparks Archaeological Interest
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/22/2006 3:32:36 PM PST · 5 replies · 403+ views
Cypress Weekly | 1-22-2006
Ancient furnace sparks archaeological interest A UNIQUE site in the whole of the Eastern Mediterranean and expected to shed more light on ancient copper mining has been uncovered in the Mathiatis area, about 20km south of Nicosia. It consists of the base of a copper smelting furnace with its last charge of slag still in place. The discovery was made by students participating in an educational research programme in cooperation with Inter Community School Cyprus Project 2005, under the direction of Dr Walter Fasnacht. The participants from the staff of the Department of Antiquities were G. Georgiou, archaeologist, and E...
|
|
Ancient Greece
|
A Minoan Settlement After Destruction By Earthquakes
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/22/2006 10:36:49 AM PST · 13 replies · 281+ views
Kathimerini | 1-21-2006 | Iota Sykka
A Minoan settlement after destruction by earthquakesDig at Fournoi Afiatis on Karpathos uncovers ancient buildings A view of the flat area with the roof knocked down by the earthquake, along with part of the supporting wall and the adjoining wall. By Iota Sykka - Kathimerini Earthquakes were responsible for the destruction of a Minoan settlement on the island of Karpathos. That was the conclusion drawn following excavations conducted last year at Fournoi Afiatis on Karpathos under the direction of Manolis Melas, a professor of archaeology. The dig was part of a research program by the Dimokritio University of Thrace. The...
|
|
|
Secret Of Ancient Athens Plague Is Being Unraveled
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/21/2006 10:26:35 AM PST · 28 replies · 675+ views
Kathimerini | 1-21-2006
Secret of ancient Athens plague is being unraveled Kerameikos, Athensís ancient cemetery, has yielded conclusive evidence as to the nature of the plague that decimated a third of the population of the ancient city and influenced the outcome of the Peloponnesian Wars. Scientists at Athens Universityís School of Dentistry have used molecular biology to help solve the riddle of one of historyís biggest mysteries.Greek scientists find typhoid after excavating graves By Dr Manolis Papagrigorakis (1) Recent findings from a mass grave in the Ancient Cemetery of Kerameikos in central Athens show typhoid fever may have caused the plague of Athens,...
|
|
Ancient Rome
|
Rescuing a Roman Mosaic
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/22/2006 7:40:39 PM PST · 11 replies · 55+ views
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Tuesday, March 1, 2005 - Wednesday, March 15, 2006 | mfa staff
The mosaic was acquired by the MFA in 2002 from Dumbarton Oaks Research Center in Washington, DC, where it had been stored, unseen, for more than sixty years. Since its acquisition, the fragile mosaic surface has been stabilized, and crumbling concrete and rusting iron backings replaced with new supports. Our conservators are now meticulously cleaning the surface of the mosaic and reconstructing its patterned outer borderówork that is taking place on view to the public through early 2006.
|
|
Asia
|
Fossil of "Sphinx" discovered in NE China
|
| |
Posted by Tyche
On News/Activism 01/24/2006 5:42:09 PM PST · 47 replies · 1,350+ views
People's Daily Online | 24 Jan 2006 | People's Daily Online
The legendary "Sphinx" eventually found its counterpart version in archeological fossil. Chinese and American paleontologists found two distinct kinds of bone characteristics in the fossil of a sharp-mouthed mammal excavated in China's Liaoning province. The mammal's upper part makes people believe it was viviparous while its lower part looks like oviparous, reports Wen Hui Daily. The latest issue of the British magazine Nature reports the unprecedented discovery. The magazine editor as well as paleontologists marveled at the discovery and believed it might change the traditional theory on mammals evolution. Li Gang, one of the coauthors of the paper, said the...
|
|
|
Fossil of "Sphinx" discovered in Liaoning
|
| |
Posted by K4Harty
On News/Activism 01/25/2006 2:44:36 PM PST · 5 replies · 432+ views
China View | 01/24/06 | Unk.
BEIJING, Jan. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Photo of the fossil (Source: CRIENGLISH.com) The legendary "Sphinx" eventually found its counterpart version in archeological fossil. Chinese and American paleontologists found two distinct kinds of bone characteristics in the fossil of a sharp-mouthed mammal excavated in China's Liaoning province. The mammal's upper part makes people believe it was viviparous while its lower part looks like oviparous, reports Wen Hui Daily. continued...
|
|
Biology and Cryptobiology
|
DNA Offers New Insight Concerning Cat Evolution
|
| |
Posted by MRMEAN
On News/Activism 01/05/2006 8:39:51 PM PST · 77 replies · 1,309+ views
The New York Times | January 6, 2006 | By NICHOLAS WADE
Researchers have gained a major insight into the evolution of cats by showing how they migrated to new continents and developed new species as sea levels rose and fell. About nine million years ago - two million years after the cat family first appeared in Asia - these successful predators invaded North America by crossing the Beringian land bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska, a team of geneticists ... Later, several American cat lineages returned to Asia. With each migration, evolutionary forces morphed the pantherlike patriarch of all cats into a rainbow of species, from ocelots and lynxes to leopards, lions...
|
|
|
Hardwired To Seek Beauty
|
| |
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 01/21/2006 5:59:01 PM PST · 28 replies · 335+ views
The Australian | 1-13-2006 | Denis Dutton
Same source: Persistent themes in art suggest an evolutionary adaptation. We, as well as the ancient Greeks, admire the Hermes of Praxiteles, above Hardwired to seek beauty Denis Dutton January 13, 2006 THROUGHOUT history and across cultures, the arts of homo sapiens have demonstrated universal features. These aesthetic inclinations and patterns have evolved as part of our hardwired psychological nature, ingrained in the human species over the 80,000 generations lived out by our ancestors in the 1.6 million years of the Pleistocene. The existence of a universal aesthetic psychology has been suggested, not only experimentally, but by the fact that...
|
|
|
Archeologists Unearth 1,300 Skeletons
|
| |
Posted by nuconvert
On General/Chat 01/24/2006 2:24:18 PM PST · 34 replies · 490+ views
yahoo news/AP | Jan 24, 2006
Archeologists Unearth 1,300 Skeletons Jan 24, 2006 A large medieval cemetery containing around 1,300 skeletons has been discovered in the central English city of Leicester, archaeologists said Tuesday. The bones were found during a dig before the site is developed as part of a 350 million-pound ($630 million) shopping mall. University of Leicester archaeologists say the find promises to shed new light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages. "We think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest parish graveyards ever excavated," said Richard Buckley, director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services. "Archaeology...
|
|
Ancient Europe
|
Neolithic Europeans Made Cheese, Yogurt
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/25/2006 10:09:11 AM PST · 24 replies · 131+ views
Discovery News | January 25, 2006 | Jennifer Viegas
Dirty cooking pots dating to nearly 8,000 years ago reveal that some of Europe's earliest farming communities produced dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt. Two separate studies indicate that Neolithic dairying took place in what are now Romania, Hungary and Switzerland... Craig and his team studied fatty residues stuck on ceramic cooking vessels found at the left bank of the Danube near Romania and at the Great Hungarian Plain. The dirty pots date from 5,950-5500 B.C. Analysis of the fats suggests they belonged to goat or sheep milk... In another paper published in the current Journal of Archaeological Science,...
|
|
|
Italians Unveil Secret Of Bulgaria's Precious Head
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/23/2006 2:34:02 PM PST · 14 replies · 537+ views
Novinite | 1-22-2006
Italians Unveil Secret of Bulgaria's Precious Thracian Head Lifestyle: 22 January 2006, Sunday. Italy's restorers have unveiled the secret hidden in the eyes of King Sevt III's unique bronze mask discovered in Bulgaria, archeologist Georgi Kitov has said. The sculptors who have worked on the mask probably knew a lot about chemistry too, Kitov was quoted as saying by actualno.com. Italian restorer Edilberto Formili has discovered that the eyes of the unique Thracian mask were made from a glass paste mixed with alabaster and iron, which produced the brownish tint in Sevt III's look. The bottoms of the eyeballs were...
|
|
|
Swedish bog man murdered - 700 years ago
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/25/2006 10:57:53 AM PST · 12 replies · 225+ views
The Local | 24th January 2006 | Sweden's News in English editor
Seven hundred years after he lived, the cause of death of Sweden's oldest human skeleton has been solved. He was murdered - with three blows to the head... "The last blow split the skull," said Claus Lauritzen... The model was constructed with the help of computer tomography. During the operation the lower jaw and the skull damage were reconstructed. The face was widened slightly, since the original was thought to have been pressed together after hundreds of years in the bog. Eventually model maker Oscar Nilsson will give the Bocksten Man a 'real' face. The final result will be displayed...
|
|
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
|
Oregon State University Archaeologists Uncover 10,000 Year Old Coastal Site (Bandon, Oregon)
|
| |
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 01/27/2006 1:05:10 PM PST · 7 replies · 168+ views
Apple Gate | 1-26-2006 | Mark Floyd
7:27 am PT, Thursday, Jan 26, 2006 Using New Methods, Oregon State University Archaeologists Uncover 10,000-Year-Old Coastal Site By Mark Floyd, 541-737-0788/OSU CORVALLIS, Oregon - Researchers from Oregon State University have analyzed a second archaeological site on the southern Oregon coast that appears to be about 10,000 years old, and they are hopeful that their newly fine-tuned methodology will lead to the discovery of more and older sites. Results of their study were just published in the journal Radiocarbon. The site, located on a bluff just south of Bandon, Ore., included a large number of stone flakes, charcoal pieces and...
|
|
|
Mexican Painting Has Both Christian, Aztec Influences
|
| |
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/22/2006 3:24:22 PM PST · 16 replies · 369+ views
Lansing State Journal | 1-22-2006 | Mark Stevenson
Published January 22, 2006 [ From the Lansing State Journal ] Mexican painting has both Christian, Aztec influencesUnearthed mural shows melding of cultures(Photo by Associated Press) Flying into view: This image of a bird is part of the 16-yard-long mural at an excavation in Mexico City. By Mark Stevenson Associated Press Salvador Guilliem dangles on a narrow beam over the sunken remains of a mural painted by Indians shortly after the Spanish conquest. Guilliem, an archaeologist, points out the newly excavated red, green and ochre flourishes in one of the earliest paintings to show the mixing of the two cultures....
|
|
Prehistory and Origins
|
We are all related to man who lived in Asia in 1,415BC
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/25/2006 12:00:47 AM PST · 15 replies · 159+ views
Telegraph | David Derbyshire
Using a computer model, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempted to trace back the most recent common ancestor using estimated patterns of migration throughout history. They calculated that the ancestor's location in eastern Asia allowed his or her descendants to spread to Europe, Asia, remote Pacific Islands and the Americas. Going back a few thousand years more, the researchers found a time when a large fraction of people in the world were the common ancestors of everybody alive today - while the rest were ancestors of no one alive. That date was 5,353BC, the team reports in Nature.
|
|
|
DNA helps unscramble the puzzles of ancestry
|
| |
Posted by farmfriend
On News/Activism 08/03/2003 5:43:41 PM PDT · 34 replies · 338+ views
Sacramento Bee | August 3, 2003 | Stephen Magagnini
<p>Almost from the time he was old enough to read the "whites only" signs on department stores in Montgomery, Ala., Ulysses Moore has been on a quest. Where did I come from? he wondered.</p> <p>He knew he was more than just a "colored" child of the segregated South, that his legacy extended beyond the slave ships that brought 12 million Africans across the Atlantic. Was he descended from Shaka Zulu or the great Mandinka warriors, or the builders of the ancient world's greatest library in Egypt?</p>
|
|
|
"Love You, K2a2a, Whoever You Are"
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/22/2006 7:41:14 AM PST · 39 replies · 449+ views
New York Times | January 22, 2006 | Amy Harmon
The trauma some experience when their tests conflict with what they have always believed to be true has prompted some researchers to call for counseling to accompany the results. ... The adoption of new ancestral identities does not come so easy to everyone. Given her previous research, Lisa B. Lee, a black systems administrator in Oakland, Calif., was sure she would find a link to Africa when she submitted her father's DNA for testing. Family lore had it that his people were from Madagascar. But after tests at three companies, the results stubbornly reported that he shared genetic ancestry with...
|
|
Middle Ages and Renaissance
|
Study: Viking Teeth Were Groovy
|
| |
Posted by GreenFreeper
On General/Chat 01/24/2006 1:05:27 PM PST · 10 replies · 445+ views
Discovery News | Jan. 23, 2006 | Rossella Lorenzi
Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they likely had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden. Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board analyzed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from between 800 and 1050 A.D. They discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth. "The marks are traces of deliberate dental modifications ... they are so well-made that most likely they were filed by a person of great skill," Arcini wrote in the current issue of...
|
|
|
Norwegian job ad seeks friendly Vikings
|
| |
Posted by RedBloodedAmerican
On News/Activism 04/05/2005 7:38:55 AM PDT · 113 replies · 1,689+ views
NJOnline | 4.05.05 | ap
Norwegian job ad seeks friendly VikingsOSLO, Norway (AP) -- Help wanted: Vikings. Must be friendly, tourist-oriented and interested in ancient Norse traditions. Crazed, bloodthirsty pillagers need not apply.In a rare employment opportunity for Vikings, whose job market peaked about 1,000 years ago when they terrorized Europe in their longboats, southern Norway's Vestfold county wants to fill slots at its local historical park.The ad, to appear in local media Saturday, will be simple: "Jobs available. Vikings in Vestfold," with a link to the center's Internet home page, said Lars Kobro, self-described chieftain of the Midgard Historical Center."More and more we see...
|
|
British Isles
|
Henry VII's chapel found at Greenwich (England)
|
| |
Posted by NYer
On News/Activism 01/25/2006 10:12:32 AM PST · 59 replies · 1,436+ views
Telegraph | January 25, 2006 | Nigel Reynolds
As muddy holes go, they don't get much more romantic. Beneath four feet of heavy south London clay, archaeologists have uncovered the remains of Henry VII's lost chapel at Greenwich. The site is where he and a host of his Tudor successors - Henry VIII, Mary Tudor and Elizabeth I - worshipped. † Click to enlarge The existence of the chapel, part of the Royal Palace of Placentia, a Tudor favourite but pulled down in the 17th century to be replaced by Greenwich Hospital - now the Old Naval College - has long been known from paintings and records.But until...
|
|
Australia and the Pacific
|
Foreign Contact With Hawai'i Before Captain Cook
|
| |
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 01/25/2006 11:22:29 AM PST · 7 replies · 133+ views
European Influences in Ancient Hawaii | 2001 or before (the date of the saved file) | Captain Rick
[Captain Cooke] continued by stating that the people he met on Kauai were not "aquainted with our commodities, Except iron; which however, it was plain, they had....in some quantity, brought to them at some distant period.... They asked for it by the name of Hamaite." It is interesting to note that a Spanish word for iron is "Hematitas"... No Spanish map has yet been found which shows the location of a shipwreck in the mid-Pacific., However, many maps show these islands. In fact most charts of the Pacific printed in Europe after 1570 show a group of Islands in this...
|
|
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
|
Digging for a Subway, but Hitting a Wall, Again
|
| |
Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 01/23/2006 3:51:20 AM PST · 78 replies · 1,600+ views
NY Times | January 23, 2006 | PATRICK McGEEHAN
Workers digging up Battery Park for a 21st-century subway station keep bumping into the 18th century at every turn. For the second time in a few months, workers have uncovered a stone wall that archaeologists believe has stood near the southern tip of Manhattan since New York was a British colony. Like the one found in November, this wall stands in the way of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's plan to replace the South Ferry station, where the No. 1 train turns around to head back uptown. City officials said they did not yet have a clear idea of when the...
|
|
end of digest #80 20060128
|