[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #81 Saturday, February 4, 2006
Ancient Greece
Greek Shipwreck from 350 BC Revealed
	Posted by NormsRevenge On General/Chat 02/02/2006 3:53:32 PM PST · 18 replies · 183+ views LiveScience.com on yahoo | 2/2/06 | Ker Than The remains of an ancient Greek cargo ship that sank more than 2,300 years ago have been uncovered with a deep-sea robot, archaeologists announced today. The ship was carrying hundreds of ceramic jars of wine and olive oil and went down off Chios and the Oinoussai islands in the eastern Aegean Sea sometime around 350 B.C. Archeologists speculate that a fire or rough weather may have sunk the ship. The wreckage was found submerged beneath 200 feet (60 meters) of water. The researchers hope that the shipwreck will provide clues about the trade network that existed between the ancient Greek...
Deep-Sea Robot Photographs Ancient Greek Shipwreck
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/03/2006 2:51:12 PM PST · 14 replies · 717+ views MIT | 2-3-2006 | MIT Deep-sea robot photographs ancient Greek shipwreck Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent February 2, 2006Image © / Chios 2005 Shipwreck Survey -- WHOI, Hellenic Ministry of Culture: Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Hellenic Center for Marine ResearchThis image shows a sample of the data collected by the SeaBed autonomous underwater vehicle as it swam over the Chios shipwreck in July 2005. The 3-D color mesh represents a topographic map of the sea floor, created using data collected by multibeam sonar. The brown strip shows the area captured in digital images, which were used to create the photomosaic of the wreck. Sometime in...
Ancient Navigation
Syracusia [Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/28/2006 8:46:55 PM PST · 9 replies · 142+ views Ships of the World: An Historical Encyclopedia | prior to 2006 | Houghton Mifflin One of the most complete descriptions of a ship from antiquity is that described by the Greek writer Athenaeus. Writing in the second century ce, but basing his account on more contemporary descriptions (now lost), he described a huge grain ship built by Hieron II, king of Syracuse from 269 to 215 bce. Lionel Casson considers this to be the largest ship built in antiquity... There were cabins for 142 first-class passengers on the second deck in addition to accommodations for steerage, the lower deck being reserved for cargo and the upper deck for soldiers, said to number 400. The...
Underwater Archaeology
A Sunken Warship Sets Off a New Mediterranean Battle
	Posted by aculeus On News/Activism 01/28/2006 2:16:25 PM PST · 12 replies · 778+ views The New York Times | January 28, 2006 | By WILLIAM J. BROAD What is probably the world's richest sunken treasure -- the Sussex, a British warship that went to the bottom of the Mediterranean in 1694 with a cargo of coins now worth up to $4 billion -- has become embroiled in a bitter diplomatic dispute that pits Spain against Britain, the United States and an American company that wants to salvage the wreck. The conflict turns on arcane and often disputed aspects of international law that govern sovereign waters and the rights of shipwreck owners and finders. Spain claims the waters, off the coast of Gibraltar. Britain claims the ship, says...
Epigraphy and Language
New Mexico's Mystery Stone
	Posted by Muleteam1 On News/Activism 01/09/2006 6:45:23 PM PST · 108 replies · 3,282+ views New Mexico State Land Office website | Unknown | New Mexico State Land Office It is a mystery in the desert hills near Los Lunas, New Mexico. It has puzzled experts for more than 50 years. It has been referred to by many different names -- Ten Commandments Rock, Mystery Rock, The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone. It is most commonly known as the Mystery Stone. Mystery Stone is located at the base of Hidden Mountain, on New Mexico state trust land, about 16 miles west of Los Lunas. It is a boulder weighing an estimated 80 to 100 tons and is about eight meters in length. Nine rows of 216 characters were chiseled at...
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian royal head puzzles archaeologists
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/30/2006 11:36:54 PM PST · 2 replies · 34+ views Mail&Guardian online | 30 January 2006 | Sapa-dpa The Sakhmet statues, which date to the New Kingdom's 18th dynasty (circa 1533 to 1292 BC), hail from the same period as most of the finds in the area. The head, believed to date to the 25th dynasty (circa 760 to 656 BC) that is characterised by its Nubian features, seems out of place, however.
The Sarcophagus Of Mycerinus
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/29/2006 8:18:20 PM PST · 9 replies · 111+ views Skoob Occult Review #2 | 1990 | Frater Choronzon From lengthy searches in the Lloyd's marine loss books for the period it seems most likely that the sarcophagus was loaded on board 'The Beatrice', a relatively small vessel, at Alexandria, bound for London via Malta. She got to Malta OK, but after departing from there on 14th October 1838 she was "never heard of again", as Lloyd's List so succinctly puts it. This may not be true. There is a barely legible pencil margin note in a surviving copy of Vyse's account (not the one in the British Library) which records fishermen reporting that wreckage identifying the vessel had...
Tutankhamen Died of Gangrene
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/12/2005 12:25:42 AM PDT · 14 replies · 585+ views Middle East Times | May 11, 2005 CAIRO -- Egyptian scientists claim that they have finally lifted the veil of mystery surrounding famed Pharaoh Tutankhamen's death, saying that he died of a swift attack of gangrene after breaking his leg. "After consultations with Italian and Swiss experts Egyptian scientists ... have found that a fracture in the boy king's left leg a day before his death was infected with gangrene and led to his passing," Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said. "The fracture was not sustained during the mummification process or as a result of some damage to the mummy as claimed by [British archaeologist Howard] Carter,"...
Demonstrators say King Tut exhibit depicts wrong skin color
	Posted by Rebelbase On News/Activism 12/18/2005 12:08:30 PM PST · 133 replies · 2,634+ views centredaily.com | Dec. 17, 2005 | MACOLLVIE JEAN-FRANCOIS FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - A "King Tut is back and he's still black" placard drew the gaze of visitors making their way to view the acclaimed exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale Saturday. Across from the entrance, about 25 demonstrators donning T-shirts marked with various pro-black slogans held up the placards. Waving the red, black and green African flag, at times moving to the beat of djembe drums on the sidewalk, they asked drivers in passing cars to honk in support of their goal: reminding people not to take the lighter-skinned portrait of King Tutankhamun on display...
King Tut slain by sword in the knee
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/04/2006 8:27:21 AM PST · 2 replies · 9+ views Gruppo Ansa | February 4, 2006 The group found traces of gold leaf bearing animal symbols in the late pharaoah's right kneecap, leading them to surmise that it had fallen off Tutankhamun's raiments and lodged in a hole during mummification. The hole in question appears to have been caused by a sword, they say.
Anatolia
Anatolian tree-ring studies are untrustworthy
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/03/2006 8:59:13 AM PST · 16 replies · 165+ views The Limehouse Cut | 30 October 2005 | Douglas J. Keenan The approach that was adopted for Anatolia, however, was to rely largely on what is called a "D-score". The D-score does not exist in statistics. It has been used solely with tree rings. D-scores do not have a mathematical derivation -- unlike t-scores, g-scores, and times series. In fact, D-scores were more or less just made up (in an unpublished 1987 thesis), and using them to evaluate a tree-ring match turns out to be little better than rolling dice... The most important of those dates was perhaps for wood from a shipwreck, which was claimed to resolve some of the...
Ancient Europe
Neanderthals: Top-Notch Hunters
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/02/2006 11:47:20 AM PST · 44 replies · 920+ views Discovery News | 2-1-2006 | Rossella Lorenzi Neanderthals: Top-Notch Hunters By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsNeanderthal And Modern Humans Feb. 1, 2006 -- Neanderthals did not disappear because modern humans were better hunters and thus out-competed them for resources, according to U.S. and Israeli anthropologists. On the contrary, they were top predators who knew how to hunt the biggest and fastest of the animals. Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years. The reason for their demise has been long debated and frequently attributed to modern humans' greater intelligence and consequently greater hunting skills. However, evidence from animal...
Asia
7000 Year-Old Sacrificial Altar Found In Hunan
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/29/2006 2:23:12 PM PST · 36 replies · 734+ views Xinhuanet/China View | 1-29-2006 7000 year-old sacrificial altar found in Hunan www.chinaview.cn 2006-01-29 11:23:54 BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- A sacrificial altar, dating back about 7,000 years, has been discovered in central China's Hunan Province, according to Chinese archaeologists. The altar is the earliest sacrificial site so far found in China, said He Gang, a researcher with the Hunan Institute of Archaeology. "Ancients prayed to the gods of nature, such as the gods of the earth, river and heaven," said He at a archaeological forum held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently in Beijing. Archaeologists have found China's oldest white pottery specimens...
Origins Of The Ainu
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/02/2006 4:16:59 PM PST · 54 replies · 1,049+ views Nova/PBS | 2-2-2006 | Gary Crawford A map of Japan showing the fateful site of Sakushukotoni-gawa on Hokkaido. Origins of the Ainu by Gary Crawford The ringing telephone broke the evening silence. It was the fall of 1983, and my research partner, Professor Masakazu Yoshizaki, was calling from Japan. "Gary, I have some news," Yoshi said. "We have a few grains of barley from a site on the Hokkaido University campus. I think you should come and look at them." The Japanese language is notorious for its ambiguity, so I wasn't quite sure of the full meaning of what I had just heard. But I didn't...
China map lays claim to Americas
	Posted by West Coast Conservative On News/Activism 01/13/2006 10:31:34 AM PST · 115 replies · 2,139+ views BBC News | January 13, 2006 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 written beside the map say it was drawn by Mo Yi Tong and copied...
Australia and the Pacific
Ancient Find (30K Year-Old Village, Australia)
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/01/2006 10:48:50 AM PST · 13 replies · 208+ views The Standard | 2-1-2006 | Liz McKinnon ANCIENT FIND By LIZ McKINNON February 1, 2006 Damein Bell stands in the remains of an ancient stone house uncovered by a bushfire at Tyrendarra. Picture: LEANNE PICKETT THE bushfire at Tyrendarra last month has unearthed some of the biggest Aboriginal stone houses ever seen in Gunditjmara land. Undocumented sites have been uncovered including a village thought to be 30,000 years old. The Winda-Mara Aboriginal Co-operative made the discovery yesterday during an analysis of its Tyrendarra Indigenous Protected Area. On January 22 fire burnt 240 hectares, blackening 90 per cent of the property's rocky outcrop on the Mt Eccles lava...
Ancient Rome
Roman-Era Benefactors' Tomb Unearthed
	Posted by NormsRevenge On General/Chat 02/01/2006 6:33:25 PM PST · 15 replies · 111+ views AP on Yahoo | 2/1/06 | Nicholas Paphitis - ap ATHENS, Greece - A well-preserved underground tomb belonging to a prominent Roman-era family has been unearthed on the island of Crete, archaeologists said Wednesday. The large first or second century A.D. structure beside one of the main gates to the walled city of Aptera was looted during Christian times, archaeologist Vanna Niniou-Kindeli said. It still yielded a wealth of finds, including 10-inch pottery statuettes of the ancient Greek love deity Eros, glass and pottery vases and lamps. Built of large stone blocks, the grave is reached by a flight of steps. It has an antechamber and a main room measuring...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Buried Warrior, Warrior Found Buried In Attack Position
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/29/2006 9:54:37 PM PST · 11 replies · 229+ views Discovery News | Jan. 27, 2006 | Jennifer Viegas Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old skeleton of a man who appears to be clutching a dagger and is posed as though he were about to thrust the weapon into something, or someone, according to a Cultural Heritage News report from Iran... Gohar Tepe is located in northeastern Iran near the town of Behshahr and the Caspian Sea. "Beside the skeleton, a number of dishes have also been found which seem to have been presented to the warrior," Mahforuzi said. "One of the dishes has some holes in it containing the remains of coal. "Archaeologists had discovered such dishes before, but...
Mediterranean
Charting The Past: Surveys Map Two Lost Harbors Of Phoenicia
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 01/31/2006 12:01:24 PM PST · 5 replies · 83+ views Science News Online | 1-28-2006 | Sid Perkins Charting the Past: Surveys map two lost harbors of Phoenicia Sid Perkins By analyzing long tubes of sediment drilled from locations in and around the Mediterranean ports of Tyre and Sidon, scientists have discovered the locations of the harbors from which legions of ancient Phoenician mariners set sail. Tyre and Sidon, located in what is now Lebanon, were the two most important city-states of Phoenicia, a trading empire founded more than 3,000 years ago. Although archaeologists knew much about the two cities and Phoenician civilization, they have long debated the sizes and locations of the ancient harbors, says Christophe Morhange,...
India
Questions on Ancient India, Gupta Civilization (Vanity)
	Posted by DeuceTraveler On General/Chat 02/01/2006 4:22:13 AM PST · 43 replies · 302+ views I just thought I'd throw this question out for the history fans to see what they think. I've been asked to research the military and cultural aspects of India's ancient Gupta civilization. I have to publish an article for a magazine on the subject, but am living in Germany and my personal library consists of American, European and Japanese historical works. I have hardly anything on India and have been searching the internet for factual information. Besides an English translation of the Siva-Dhanur-Veda, I have not found anything of historical quality. Most of what I've seen focuses on some post-Modernist...
India Cultivated Homegrown Farmers
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/31/2006 11:42:30 AM PST · 10 replies · 195+ views Science News Online | 1-28-2006 | Bruce Bower India cultivated homegrown farmers Bruce Bower Approximately 10,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers living in what's now India adapted agricultural practices for their own purposes rather than giving way to an influx of foreign farmers, a new genetic study suggests. Y SPREAD. Maps of India and surrounding regions denote where a Y chromosome marker occurs more frequently (dark green) and less frequently (light green) in caste populations (larger map) and tribal groups (inset). Kashyap/PNAS Comparisons of men's Y chromosomes show that nearly all Indian men today, regardless of their tribe or caste, are descendants of populations that inhabited South Asia before agriculture's...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Boys discover intact Second Temple burial cave
	Posted by SmithL On General/Chat 01/30/2006 8:02:48 AM PST · 14 replies · 269+ views Jerusalem Post | 1/30/6 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS In a scene out of the Hollywood blockbuster 'Indiana Jones,' three Israeli children stumbled upon an ancient Second Temple cave in the Beit Shemesh area filled with skeletons and ossuaries inside, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Monday. The boys, aged 11-13, who discovered the heretofore unknown cave during a hike were awarded a certificate of recognition for reporting their find to the Antiquities Authority. The cave was subsequently sealed by Antiquities Authority inspectors.
2,000-Year-Old Judean Date Seed Growing Successfully
	Posted by SJackson On News/Activism 01/30/2006 5:46:16 PM PST · 38 replies · 941+ views Arutz Sheva | 1-30-06 | Ezra HaLevi A 2,000 year old date seed planted last Tu BíShvat has sprouted and is over a foot tall. Being grown at Kibbutz Ketura in the Negev, it is the oldest seed to ever produce a viable young sapling. The Judean date seed was found, together with a large number of other seeds, during archaeological excavations carried out close to Massada near the southern end of the Dead Sea, the last Jewish stronghold following the Roman destruction of the Holy Temple. The age of the seeds was determined using carbon dating, but has a margin of error of 50 years --...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
The City Of The White Men (Who Built Tiahuanaco)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/01/2006 4:27:40 PM PST · 80 replies · 1,352+ views UNMuseum | unknown The City of the White MenThere isn't much left of the city of Tiahuanaco in Bolivia, South America. In the 1500's, the Spanish systematically destroyed the buildings. Later, many of the stone blocks were looted for houses in a nearby village. Most recently more stone was taken to lay a railroad right-of-way. Despite this, what is left is still a sight to see. Tiahuanaco is old. It was already in ruins when the Incas took over the area in 1200 A.D.. It is situated on a mountain at an altitude of 12,500 feet and boasts a pyramid 700 feet long,...
Human bones raise dispute between museum and Alaska Natives
	Posted by Tyche On News/Activism 01/29/2006 8:30:05 PM PST · 12 replies · 275+ views Kenai Peninsula Online | 29 Jan 2006 | AP ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Inupiats in Barrow want the Smithsonian Institution to return dozens of human skeletal remains unearthed in northern Alaska. The American Museum of Natural History refuses to give up the remains of 85 individuals, saying they came from a group of Arctic people who predated the ancestors of the modern-day Inupiat. The Washington D.C.-based institution believes those remains, excavated in the early 20th century, belong to the ancient Birnirk culture, whose descendants apparently left Alaska to resettle in Greenland and Canada around 1,000 A.D. The Smithsonian said the remains, excavated from four sites, are more likely related to...
Who came first, Chinese or Columbus?
	Posted by SteveH On News/Activism 05/16/2005 3:26:15 AM PDT · 29 replies · 682+ views Herald Today | May 14, 2005 | Dana Sanchez Who came first, Chinese or Columbus? DANA SANCHEZ Herald Staff Writer SARASOTA - A local company could help rewrite history if it can prove, using DNA testing, that Chinese explorers landed in the New World about 70 years before Columbus. But it's going to take money - up to $2 million in research funding - to test a hypothesis that hasn't been popular. Sarasota-based DNAPrint genomics plans to make a presentation Monday at the U.S. Library of Congress Symposium in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 600th anniversary of Chinese Admiral Zheng He's first voyage. Zheng He was a Ming Dynasty explorer...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Sons I gave birth to are 'unrelated' to me
	Posted by NYer On News/Activism 11/17/2003 10:20:10 AM PST · 171 replies · 1,215+ views The Telegraph | November 13, 2003 | Roger Highfield One human chimera came to light when a 52-year-old woman demanded an explanation from doctors after tests showed that two of her three grown-up sons were biologically unrelated to her.Although the woman, "Jane", conceived them naturally with her husband, tests to see if she could donate a kidney suggested that somehow she had given birth to somebody else's children.A study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr Margot Kruskall, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that Jane is a chimera, a mixture of two individuals - non-identical twin sisters - whose cells intermingled...
A Real-Life Jurassic Park
	Posted by Calpernia On General/Chat 01/31/2006 8:22:33 AM PST · 25 replies · 189+ views MSNBC | Jan. 30, 2006 | Mac Margolis (snip) Most scholars now agree that hunters -- more than climate change or a mystery epidemic -- are what doomed the mammoths. Whatever the cause, by 11,000 years ago the king of the Pleistocene was a goner. (snip) If a group of devotees has its way, this shaggy ice-age mascot -- and a host of other bygone megafauna besides -- may yet walk again. (snip) The scientists, in other words, had managed to assemble half the woolly-mammoth genome; they claimed that in three years they could finish the job. That would put scientists within striking distance of an even greater feat: repopulating the earth with creatures that vanished...
Only 40 Genes Separate Your Pet Dog From A Wolf
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 11/21/2005 6:18:45 PM PST · 76 replies · 1,088+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 11-22-2005 | Roger Highfield Only 40 genes separate your pet dog from a wolf By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 22/11/2005) The difference between an obedient, friendly dog and a big bad wolf could be down to as few as 40 genes, according to a study into tameness. The research also found that to adapt to a life on the farm or in the home takes many more changes in gene activity than that required to love humans. A Swedish team compared two groups of farm-raised silver foxes in Siberia, one where for 40 generations the foxes have been selected for their friendly nature,...
Researchers Decode Dog Genome
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 12/07/2005 5:14:45 PM PST · 58 replies · 753+ views NY Times | December 7, 2005 | NICHOLAS WADE Researchers have decoded the dog genome to a high degree of accuracy, allowing deep insights into the evolutionary history not only of Canis familiaris but also of its devoted companion species, Homo sapiens. The dog whose genome has been sequenced is Tasha, a female boxer whose owners wish to remain anonymous, said Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a biologist at the Broad Institute in Cambridge who led a large group of colleagues in the DNA sequencing effort. Their findings are being reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature. The world's dog population numbers some 400 million, divided into about 400 breeds. The...
Man's best friend stands test of time, study says
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/31/2006 9:09:16 AM PST · 42 replies · 343+ views Lawrence Journal-World | Saturday, January 28, 2006 | Sophia Maines The man was buried in Sweden with a dog laid out across his legs. It could have been yesterday, but that burial site actually dates back 7,000 years to the Mesolithic period... "Nothing," he wrote in his paper, "signifies the social importance that people have attached to dogs more conspicuously than their deliberate interment upon death." There are burial sites on every continent, except Antarctica, where the ground surface makes burial practically impossible. Morey's map of dog burial sites includes spots in current-day Greenland, Sweden, Sudan, Siberia, Japan and the United States, including Alaska. Some date back 14,000 years... In...
Prehistory and Origins
Scientists Find Gene That Controls Type of Earwax in People
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 01/30/2006 3:02:26 AM PST · 66 replies · 1,108+ views NY Times | January 30, 2006 | NICHOLAS WADE Earwax may not play a prominent part in human history but at least a small role for it has now been found by a team of Japanese researchers. Earwax comes in two types, wet and dry. The wet form predominates in Africa and Europe, where 97 percent or more of people have it, and the dry form among East Asians. The populations of South and Central Asia are roughly half and half. By comparing the DNA of Japanese with each type, the researchers were able to identify the gene that controls which type a person has, they report in today's...
DNA Testing: In Our Blood (Genetic Genealogy)
	Posted by martin_fierro On General/Chat 01/30/2006 6:26:16 AM PST · 15 replies · 129+ views Newsweak | Week of 2/6/06 | Claudia Kalb DNA Testing: In Our Blood It is connecting lost cousins and giving families surprising glimpses into their pasts. Now scientists are using it to answer the oldest question of all: where did we come from? By Claudia Kalb Newsweek Feb. 6, 2006 issue - Brian Hamman had always wondered: what was up with his great-grandfather Lester? Hamman, an avid genealogist, could trace his patrilineal line back to 19th-century rural Indiana, but there was a glitch in the family records. Great-Grandpa Lester, the documents showed, was born before his parents were married. So was Lester really a Hamman? Was Brian? Three...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Tall Tales / Medieval people weren't shorter
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 01/31/2006 10:35:59 PM PST · 10 replies · 188+ views Discover | October 28, 2005 | Eric Slyter Low doorways and laughably small suits of armor led to conventional thinking that people in the middle ages were significantly shorter than we are. After an exhaustive study of hundreds of churchyard skeletons, British archaeologists Charlotte Roberts and Margaret Cox say that height discrepancy is little more than a tall tale. Although medieval children were in fact shorter -- 10-year-olds then were around 8 inches shorter than 10-year-olds now -- most likely due to poorer nutrition and slow growth, adult European heights really haven't changed much over the past few centuries. Adult heights of men and women have remained constant...
Historic vases smashed in stumble
	Posted by untenured On General/Chat 01/30/2006 12:54:01 PM PST · 24 replies · 306+ views BBC | 1/30/06 | Anon. A stumbling visitor to a top museum has destroyed a set of priceless vases which stood on a shelf for 40 years. The 300-year-old Qing vases were among the best known artefacts at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge. The visitor is said to have slipped on a loose shoelace and fallen down a staircase bringing the vases crashing down as he tried to steady himself. The vases, donated in 1948, were said to hold a "significant value" and were among the best known pieces on display. The museum declined to identify the man who had tripped. The accident happened last...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
At Burial Site, Teeth Tell Tale of Slavery
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 01/31/2006 3:29:26 AM PST · 43 replies · 1,234+ views NY Times | January 31, 2006 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD American Journal of Physical AnthropologyHINTS OF DIASPORA Archaeologists found the remains of at least 180 people -- European, Indian and African -- near the ruins of a colonial church in Campeche, Mexico. While remodeling the central plaza in Campeche, a Mexican port city that dates back to colonial times, a construction crew stumbled on the ruins of an old church and its burial grounds. Researchers who were called in discovered the skeletal remains of at least 180 people, and four of those studied so far bear telling chemical traces that are in effect birth certificates. The particular mix of...
Archaeologists find evidence of earliest African slaves brought to new world
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/01/2006 8:48:12 AM PST · 12 replies · 102+ views University of Wisconsin-Madison via EurekAlert | 31-Jan-2006 | T. Douglas Price The African origin of the slaves was determined through the reading of telltale signatures locked at birth into the tooth enamel of individuals by strontium isotopes, a chemical which enters the body through the food chain as nutrients pass from bedrock through soil and water to plants and animals. The isotopes found in the teeth are an indelible signature of birthplace, as they can be directly linked to the bedrock of specific locales, giving archaeologists a powerful tool to trace the migration of individuals on the landscape.
Research: Genes Made Abe Lincoln 'Clumsy'
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 01/27/2006 6:59:00 AM PST · 39 replies · 545+ views NewsMax | 1/27/06 | AP Abraham Lincoln's appearance and historical documents that note his especially clumsy gait have long caused researchers to puzzle over whether he may have had a genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. Now, members of the beloved president's family tree are wondering if Lincoln had a different, incurable hereditary disease called ataxia that affects the coordination it takes to walk, write, speak and swallow. Researchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered a gene mutation in 11 generations of relatives who descended from Lincoln's grandparents. There's a 25 percent chance that Lincoln also inherited the gene, said Laura Ranum, a genetics professor...
The View From Suribachi
	Posted by gunnyg On Bloggers & Personal 01/21/2006 5:23:44 AM PST · 16 replies · 177+ views Sgt Grit's Marine Forums | Jan 20, 2006 | Ray Jacobs "D + 4 on Iwo Jima was Friday,February 23,1945.At about 10:30 hours I was standing on the broad rim of the crater on top of Suribachi looking up at our colors snapping in the breeze. Suddenly something extraordinary happened.We could clearly hear cheering from the Marines in combat on the plain of Iwo below us.They had spotted the flag and as the word spread more Marines joined in cheering our flag crowning Suribachi some 500 feet above.Soon the boats along the landing beaches and the ships at sea joined in blowing horns and whistles.It was a remarkable moment in Marine...
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #82 Saturday, February 11, 2006
Ancient Egypt
US dig uncovers King Tut's neighbours
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/08/2006 10:48:04 AM PST · 11 replies · 194+ views The Age | February 9, 2006 - 2:26AM AN American archaeological mission discovered a tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings next to the burial place of King Tut, Egyptian antiquities authorities have announced. An excavation team from the University of Memphis made the find five metres from Tutankhamun's tomb, while the mission was doing routine excavation work, said Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Some three metres beneath the ground, the tomb contained five human mummies with coloured funerary masks enclosed in sarcophagi and several large storage jars. The mummies date to the 18th dynasty (circa 1539-1292 BC).
Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings
	Posted by AdmSmith On News/Activism 02/09/2006 7:32:55 AM PST · 59 replies · 1,483+ views reuters | February 9, 2006 | staff CAIRO (Reuters) - An American team has found what appears to be an intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first found in the valley since that of Tutankhamun in 1922, one of the archaeologists said on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT The tomb contains five or six mummies in intact sarcophagi from the late 18th dynasty, about the same period as Tutankhamun, but the archaeologists have not yet had the time or the access to identify them, the archaeologist added. The 18th dynasty ruled Egypt from 1567 BC to 1320 BC, a period during which the country's power reached a...
Tomb Found in Egypt's Valley of Kings
	Posted by Founding Father On News/Activism 02/10/2006 7:21:28 AM PST · 9 replies · 448+ views The Houston Chronicle | February 10, 2006 | TANALEE SMITH LUXOR, Egypt -- Through a partially opened underground door, Egyptian authorities gave a peek Friday into the first new tomb uncovered in the Valley of the Kings since that of King Tutankhamun in 1922. U.S. archaeologists said they discovered the tomb by accident while working on a nearby site. The tomb, which has five wooden sarcophagi with painted funeral masks, probably contains members of an 18th Dynasty pharaoh's court, Edwin Brock, co-director of the University of Memphis excavating team, told The Associated Press. So far, archaeologists have not entered the tomb, having only opened part of its four-foot-high door last...
Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt [Possibly Nefertiti ... find by American archaeologists]
	Posted by aculeus On News/Activism 02/10/2006 3:57:33 PM PST · 35 replies · 982+ views BBC News on line | February 10, 2006 | Unsigned Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first since King Tutankhamun's was found in 1922. A University of Memphis-led team found the previously unknown tomb complete with sarcophagi and five mummies. The archaeologists have not yet been able to identify them. But Egypt's chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass says they "might be royals or nobles" moved from "original graves to protect them from grave robbers". "We don't really know what kind of people are inside but I do believe they look royal. Maybe they are kings or queens or nobles," he told Reuters...
Part of colossus found near Luxor ( Amenhotep III statue )
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/07/2006 10:27:48 PM PST · 17 replies · 214+ views Egypt Online | Tuesday, February 07, 2006 | some online Egyptian A German expedition has unearthed part of a colossal statue of an XVIII dynasty pharaoh. Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said that "the red granite head and shoulders of Amenihotep III (1390-1352 BC) were unearthed in the pharaoh's temple area at Kom el-Hetan on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor." Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass said that "The one-metre, high bust is in good condition' except for a slight crack on the right side." For her part, the leader of the German team described the bust as "the best portrait of King...
Ancient Rome
Archaeologists Unearth Headless Sphinx (in Italy)
	Posted by NYer On General/Chat 02/08/2006 5:49:57 AM PST · 22 replies · 603+ views Breitbart | February 7, 2006 Archaeologists who have been digging for more than a year at the villa of Roman Emperor Hadrian in Tivoli have unearthed a monumental staircase, a statue of an athlete and what appears to be a headless sphinx. The findings were presented Tuesday by government officials who described the discoveries as extremely important for understanding the layout of the ruins. The staircase is believed to be the original entrance to the villa, which was built for Hadrian in the 2nd century A.D. So far, 15 steps, each 27 feet wide, have been identified and archaeologists did not rule out uncovering more....
Ancient ashes found buried in Rome
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 02/08/2006 4:54:26 PM PST · 17 replies · 445+ views UPI | 2/8/06 | UPI ROME, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Archeologists have reportedly found the ashes of an ancient chief or priest who lived three centuries before the legendary founding of Rome. The remains, dating to about 1,000 B.C., were discovered last month in a funerary urn at the bottom of a deep pit, along with several bowls and jars -- all encased in a hutlike box near the center of modern Rome, National Geographic News reported. A team of archaeologists, led by Alessandro Delfino of Rome's Department of Cultural Heritage, discovered the prehistoric tomb while excavating the floor of Caesar's Forum, the remains of...
Carausius
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/05/2006 6:21:30 PM PST · 6 replies · 53+ views De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors | Updated: 28 October 1996 | Michael DiMaio, Jr. This one has to be reproduced in entire, and it won't fit here, so it will be below. This Carausius topic came to mind as an idea due to Blam's topic on 15,000 wrecks in Irish waters (even though Carausius probably didn't operate there; he may have, but I've seen nothing). Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks. Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the Gods, Graves, Glyphs PING list or GGG weekly digest...
Archeologists: Caligula was 'maniac'
	Posted by LibWhacker On News/Activism 08/11/2003 12:44:41 PM PDT · 25 replies · 135+ views MSNBC | 8/11/03 ROME, Aug. 11 -- For centuries scholars have debated whether Caligula, the Roman empire's eccentric third ruler, was a megalomaniac who dared to defy the gods or a maligned emperor whose caprices were exaggerated after his death. NOW A GROUP of archaeologists digging up Caligula's ancient palace say they have finally found concrete evidence that he was indeed a 'maniacî who turned one of Rome's most revered temples into the front porch of his residence. 'Everyone knows this guy was a little crazy. But now we have proof that he was completely off his rocker, that he thought he was...
Fragments of Ancient Empire
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 04/06/2005 1:41:43 AM PDT · 2 replies · 351+ views The archaeological season has begun at the Roman site of Vindolanda, bringing in volunteers from all over the world. Jamie Diffley went along to ask why they dig it. Pressed down in the clay, almost completely covered by the dirt, lies an object. Could be a piece of Roman pottery, perhaps some glass. To the untrained eye it could just be a piece of ordinary rubble. "It is ordinary rubble," says archaeologist Andrew Birley, loading it into a wheelbarrow, which will then be dumped by the side. Unlike me Andrew does have a trained eye. Indeed he has two. They're trained...
British Isles
Britain is likely to lose magnificent Roman tombstone
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/09/2006 10:59:33 PM PST · 3 replies · 11+ views The Times | February 09, 2006 | Dalya Alberge Archaeologists said yesterday that the gravestone, which depicts with great clarity a mounted trooper holding a sword and the head of a man he has just killed, was a unique find. The stone has yet to be dried, conserved and studied, but its owner -- the developer on whose land it has been found -- has already sought valuation advice from Sotheby's. Christopher Tudor-Whelan, director of Tudor-Whelan Property Holdings, which specialises in commercial investment properties, hopes to sell it in New York. He confirmed yesterday that he has been told that he can expect to sell it for "up to...
BBC History Team Solves Riddle Of Llywelyn
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/05/2006 3:21:23 PM PST · 35 replies · 1,315+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 1-31-2006 | Ben Fenton BBC history team solves riddle of Llywelyn By Ben Fenton (Filed: 31/01/2006) One of the last great mysteries of the history of the independent Welsh nation was apparently solved yesterday by a group of English historians working for the BBC. For centuries, people living in and around the chicken farm called Pen y Bryn on top of a hill overlooking the Menai Straits in Caernarvonshire have been convinced that it is a royal place. More than that, they all firmly believed that the 36-acre farm was the last remnant of the palace of Llywelyn, the first and last prince of...
Bronze Age man's burial site unearthed
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/04/2006 2:27:25 PM PST · 9 replies · 160+ views BBC | Last Updated: Thursday, 2 February 2006 Human remains dating back almost 4,000 years have been uncovered on Rathlin Island off the County Antrim coast... The skeleton was found in a crouched foetal-like position, which would indicate a cist burial in about 2000 BC. The body was accompanied by a food vessel. The remains were uncovered on Monday on the north coast, close to Rathlin Island's only pub, during work... Other recent archaeological discoveries indicate the island may have been settled as early as 7000 BC, placing it among the oldest such sites in all of Ireland. A Neolithic stone axe factory uncovered on the pistol-shaped island's...
Ancient Europe
Infertility link in iceman's DNA
	Posted by Red Badger On News/Activism 02/03/2006 12:16:35 PM PST · 49 replies · 946+ views BBC | 2/3/2006 | By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Oetzi, the prehistoric man frozen in a glacier for 5,300 years, could have been infertile, a new study suggests. Genetic research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, also confirms that his roots probably lie in Central Europe. Oetzi's body was found in the melting ice of the Schnalstal glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991. Examination of his remains has already revealed the Copper Age man almost certainly died as a result of a fight. The assessment is based on the presence of an arrowhead that is lodged in his back and extensive cuts to his hands. The...
Italy's Frozen Mummy May Have Been Sterile
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 02/05/2006 10:53:53 AM PST · 10 replies · 141+ views Yahoo | Sat Feb 4 ROME - New DNA analysis indicates that a 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps may have been sterile -- a hypothesis that would support the theory that he may have been a social outcast, officials said Friday. Franco Rollo, an anthropologist and ancient DNA specialist, also determined that the man's genetic makeup belonged to one of the eight basic groups of DNA occurring in Europe, although his particular DNA belonged to a subgroup that has been identified for the first time, officials said. The South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Italy's northern Alto Adige region, where the remains are...
Science Shows Cave Art Developed Early
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 10/03/2001 12:16:47 PM PDT · 117 replies · 1,212+ views BBC | 10-3-2001 Wednesday, 3 October, 2001, 18:00 GMT 19:00 UK Science shows cave art developed early Chauvet cave paintings depict horses and other animals By BBC News Online science editor Dr David Whitehouse A new dating of spectacular prehistoric cave paintings reveals them to be much older than previously thought. Carbon isotope analysis of charcoal used in pictures of horses at Chauvet, south-central France, show that they are 30,000 years old, a discovery that should prompt a rethink about the development of art. The remarkable Chauvet drawings were discovered in 1994 when potholers stumbled upon a narrow entrance to several underground chambers ...
Earliest Star Chart Found (More)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/01/2003 3:27:16 PM PST · 9 replies · 106+ views Discovery News | 2-1-2003 | Rossella Lorenzi Earliest Star Chart Found By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Left: Man-Being on Ivory Jan. 29 -- A 32,000-year-old ivory table has revealed what might be the oldest image of a star chart, according to new research to be published by the European Society for Astronomy in Culture. Found in 1979 in a cave in the Alb-Danube region of Germany, the small rectangular mammoth ivory plate shows an anthropoid figure, and a row of 86 mysterious notches is carved on its sides and on its back. "On the front side it shows a man-like being with his leg apart and arms...
Cave Drawings Reportedly 25,000 Years Old
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 02/05/2006 7:34:22 PM PST · 86 replies · 1,593+ views Associated Press | February 5, 2006 | Anon PARIS -- Cave drawings thought to be older than those in the famed caves of Lascaux have been discovered in a grotto in western France, officials from the Charente region said Sunday. A first analysis by officials from the office of cultural affairs suggests the drawings were made some 25,000 years ago, Henri de Marcellus, mayor of the town of Vilhonneur where the cave is located, told France-Info radio. He said, however, that the date could only be confirmed by further investigations. Cavers exploring a part of a grotto in the Vilhonneur forest made the discovery in December, the local...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Meteor Clue To End Of Middle East Civilisations
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/08/2003 7:17:12 PM PDT · 69 replies · 404+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 4-11-2001 | Robert Matthews Meteor clue to end of Middle East civilisations By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 04/11/2001) SCIENTISTS have found the first evidence that a devastating meteor impact in the Middle East might have triggered the mysterious collapse of civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide impact crater caused by a meteor Studies of satellite images of southern Iraq have revealed a two-mile-wide circular depression which scientists say bears all the hallmarks of an impact crater. If confirmed, it would point to the Middle East being struck by a meteor with the violence equivalent...
Mesopotamia
IRAQ: Gilgamesh tomb believed found
	Posted by Constitution Day On News/Activism 04/29/2003 6:13:45 AM PDT · 57 replies · 758+ views BBC News Online | Tuesday, 29 April, 2003 | BBC staff Gilgamesh tomb believed found Archaeologists in Iraq believe they may have found the lost tomb of King Gilgamesh - the subject of the oldest book in history. The Epic Of Gilgamesh - written by a Middle Eastern scholar 2,500 years before the birth of Christ - commemorated the life of the ruler of the city of Uruk, from which Iraq gets its name. Now a German-led expedition has discovered what is thought to be the entire city of Uruk - including, where the Euphrates once flowed, the last resting place of its famous King. "I don't want to say...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Archaeologists discover 6000-year-old burial ground near Kiryat Gat
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/07/2006 11:42:05 AM PST · 2 replies · 62+ views Haaretz | February 7 2006 | Itim Archeologists uncovered dozens of ancient tombs at the Highway 6 construction site near Kiryat Gat, the Itim news agency reported Tuesday. The find yielded a trove of artifacts, including mint-condition pottery, statues, jewelry and the remains of sacrifices offered to the religious deities the inhabitants believed in. Peter Fabian, who is conducting the dig at the behest of the company building the highway, said they discovered cave drawings depicting deer that used to roam free in the Negev desert region. He added that the find was the biggest of its kind and was invaluable for historians to deepen their understanding...
Ancient Synagogue Discovered in Ramallah Area
	Posted by SJackson On News/Activism 02/07/2006 5:15:26 AM PST · 20 replies · 683+ views Arutz Sheva | Feb 07, '06 | Scott Shiloh Three weeks ago, Israeli police found a mosaic floor in an Arab car. The Antiquities Authority has confirmed that the floor be belongs to a previously undiscovered synagogue in the Ramallah area. Researchers from the Israeli Antiquities Authority believe that the mosaic formed part of an ancient synagogue floor because it contained depictions of Jewish symbols, such as the base of a menorah (a seven branched candelabrum), a lulav (palm branch), and dates. Another, no less interesting feature of the mosaic, are the words 'Shalom (peace) on Israel' which are inscribed on it. At first, researchers thought the thieves had...
After 2000 years, A Seed from Ancient Judea Sprouts
	Posted by wildbill On News/Activism 06/12/2005 7:39:01 AM PDT · 22 replies · 826+ views nytimes | 6/12/2005 | Steve Erlanger Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old. The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders
2,000-Year-Old Judean Date Seed Growing Successfully
	Posted by Fred Nerks On News/Activism 02/07/2006 3:18:12 PM PST · 14 replies · 416+ views Arutz Sheva | 11:03 Feb 06, '06 / 8 Shevat 5766 | By Ezra HaLevi A 2,000-year-old date seed planted last Tu BíShvat has sprouted and is over a foot tall. Being grown at Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava, it is the oldest seed to ever produce a viable young sapling. The Judean date seed was found, together with a large number of other seeds, during archaeological excavations carried out close to Massada near the southern end of the Dead Sea. Massada was the last Jewish stronghold following the Roman destruction of the Holy Temple over 1,930 years ago. The age of the seeds was determined using carbon dating, but has a margin of error...
Epigraphy and Language
Near-Extinct 'Whistling Language' Returns (sample audio clip - very cool!)
	Posted by AM2000 On News/Activism 11/16/2003 6:33:41 PM PST · 40 replies · 190+ views Yahoo! News | Sun Nov 16 2003, 1:22 PM ET | SARAH ANDREWS, Associated Press Writer SAN SEBASTIAN, Canary Islands - Juan Cabello takes pride in not using a cell phone or the Internet to communicate. Instead, he puckers up and whistles. Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather before him, Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than two miles away. This chirpy brand of chatter is thought to have come over with early African settlers 2,500 years ago. Now, educators are working hard to save...
Ancient Greece
Papyrus Reveals Ancient Stories (Artemidorus "Geography" "Ta geographumena")
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/09/2006 11:16:44 PM PST · 6 replies · 116+ views Discovery News | February 8, 2006 | Rossella Lorenzi Born in Ephesus around 100 B.C., Artemidorus wrote 11 books on his Mediterranean travels, which are now lost in their entirety. Indeed, his "Ta geographumena" (Geography) treatise has been known only through 1st century B.C. Greek geographer, historian, and philosopher Strabo, who mentioned it in his books. Featuring a detailed description of Spain, the papyrus is believed to be the most extensive remaining portion of Artemodorus' monumental work. "Three historical sources quote the exact text found in the papyrus as by Artemidorus... . We concluded that the roll featured the transcription of the second book of Artemidorus' lost 'Geography,'" Gallazzi...
India
Stone Age Tribe Kills Fishermen Who Strayed On To Island
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/07/2006 5:58:05 PM PST · 130 replies · 3,332+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 2-8-2006 | Peter Foster Stone Age tribe kills fishermen who strayed on to island By Peter Foster in New Delhi (Filed: 08/02/2006) One of the world's last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean. The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who comes within range. Sentinelese tribesmen prepare to fire arrows at the coastguard helicopter after the fishermen's murder They are believed to be the last pre-Neolithic tribe in the world to remain isolated and...
Asia
Ancient village found in China
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/08/2006 8:34:03 AM PST · 4 replies · 46+ views ZeeNews | Feb 07 2006 | Bureau Report Four well-preserved residences in an ancient village, probably submerged by a flood, have been unearthed in central China, providing an insight into rural life about 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said. The village in Neihuang county, Henan province, belongs to the late western Han dynasty (206 BC - AD25), director of the Henan provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, Sun Xinmin said. "With the excavation, archaeologists are able to map out the layout of the ancient village and the architecture of village residences in the western Han dynasty for the first time," Sun said. Every residence, surrounded by farmland, has...
The Secret In The Steppes Thought Safe For All Time (Genghis Khan)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/09/2006 11:00:19 AM PST · 22 replies · 1,117+ views Washington Post | 2-9-2006 | Edward Cody The Secret in the Steppes Thought Safe for All TimeDespite Misgivings in Mongolia, Explorers Hope to Find Site of Genghis Khan's 800-Year-Old Tomb By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, February 9, 2006; Page A20 ULAN BATOR, Mongolia -- On the vast flatlands of eastern Mongolia, enclosed by a two-mile wall in the form of an oval, diggers have uncovered tantalizing clues to the solution of one of history's enduring mysteries: the site of Genghis Khan's secret grave. Finding the spot where the great Mongolian conqueror was laid to rest in 1227 by his famed horseback warriors would fill...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Researcher Seeks Secrets Of Kennewick Man
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/06/2006 10:55:05 AM PST · 22 replies · 339+ views The State | 2-6-2006 | Susanne Rust Posted on Mon, Feb. 06, 2006Researcher seeks secrets of Kennewick ManBY SUSANNE RUSTMilwaukee Journal Sentinel MILWAUKEE - Ground to the bone, the teeth of the famous fossil skeleton, Kennewick Man, look as if they've spent a lifetime gnashing rocks. But it's from these worn choppers that Thomas Stafford Jr., a research fellow in the department of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and president of Stafford Research Laboratories in Boulder, Colo., plans to learn about the origins, movement and lifestyle of this highly controversial, 9,000-year-old North American. In 1996, Kennewick Man was discovered on the banks of the Columbia River...
Austria, Mexico battle over 'symbol of power'
	Posted by Willie Green On News/Activism 02/05/2006 9:37:39 AM PST · 58 replies · 896+ views Houston Chronicle | Feb. 5, 2006 | MARION LLOYD At stake is the revered headdress called the 'crown of Moctezuma' MEXICO CITY - For nearly 500 years, the jewel-encrusted, plumed headdress Mexicans revere as the "crown of Moctezuma" has been hidden away in the private collections of European royalty or behind bulletproof glass in a museum in Austria. Now Mexico wants it back. And Mexican officials said last month that they would formally petition Austria for the return of the relic, on display in the Ethnological Museum of Vienna. Many scholars think the headdress once belonged to the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II, who was defeated by the Spanish in...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Trove Of Teutonic Weapons Uncovered In Krusne Hory Region
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/10/2006 11:30:11 AM PST · 11 replies · 770+ views Radio CZ | 2-9-2006 | Jan Velinger - Martina Scheibergova Trove of Teutonic weapons uncovered in Krusne Hory region [09-02-2006] By Jan Velinger, Martina Schneibergova Listen 16kb/s ~ 32kb/s It's not unusual in this country to come across weapons caches dating back to the Second World War. But, finding a pile of javelin tips, parts of shields and a sword dating back to the 2nd century A.D., doesn't happen every day. -- Lenka Onderkova -- According to museum officials in the north Bohemian town of Chomutov it was a find that almost "never happened": a trove of twenty-two Teutonic items, weapons or parts of shields, dating back 1,800 years, that one finder almost failed...
Anglo-Saxon Gold Coin Leaves British Museum Out Of Pocket
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/09/2006 4:47:45 PM PST · 20 replies · 603+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 2-9-2006 | Nigel Reynolds Anglo-Saxon gold coin leaves British Museum out of pocket By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent (Filed: 09/02/2006) A gold coin lost 1,200 years ago on a river bank in Bedfordshire became the most expensive British coin when it was bought by the British Museum for £357,832 yesterday. A little smaller than a pound coin in diameter and much thinner, the glittering mancus, the value of 30 days' wages for a skilled Anglo-Saxon worker, now ranks among the museum's most valuable artefacts. Anglo-Saxon coin depicting Coenwulf, King of Mercia Experts described the coin as "the find of the last 100 years". But...
Lucky Coin Found In Medieval Ship
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/07/2006 10:57:53 AM PST · 16 replies · 277+ views BBC | 2-7-2006 Lucky coin found in medieval ship The coin is inscribed in Latin and has a cross on one face A French silver coin has been found embedded in the keel of a medieval ship uncovered on the banks of the river Usk in Newport three years ago. The discovery of the 15th Century coin is being interpreted as a sign that the ship came originally from France. Experts believe the coin was new and was intended to be a good luck charm. Project leader Kate Hunter said a colleague was shaking when she found the coin. She said: "We all...
Grace O'Malley: Pirate Queen of Connacht (1530-1603)
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/07/2006 11:54:20 AM PST · 7 replies · 116+ views Irish Clans | May 2000 | Brian Workman Grace and her small army were captured again in 1586 by the forces of the new Governor of the area, Sir Richard Bingham. Sir Richard promptly repossessed all of the property of the captives and quickly built a gallows to hang and forever rid the area of the Pirates. In a move that saved her life, Grace's son-in-law took her place as captive. Impoverished, Grace returned to her lifestyle as a raider and pirate.
Underwater Archaeology
15,000 Wrecks Lie Buried On Irish Seabed
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/05/2006 3:12:21 PM PST · 56 replies · 1,396+ views The Times (UK) | 2-5-2006 | Andrew Bushe 15,000 wrecks lie buried on Irish seabed Andrew Bushe LUSITANIA, the Cunard Line steamer sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Cork in 1915 drowning all 1,200 on board, is one of the most famous shipwrecks in Irish waters. But a new study has discovered that the seas surrounding Ireland are littered with evidence of thousands of other maritime tragedies, with as many as 15,000 wrecks resting on the seabed. Following one of the most extensive research programmes ever carried out by underwater archeologists, the number of wrecks discovered has soared from an initial examination six years ago...
Biology and Cryptobiology
DNA Kits Aim to Link You to the Here and Then (Genetic Genealogy)
	Posted by martin_fierro On General/Chat 02/05/2006 10:23:49 AM PST · 8 replies · 89+ views NYT | 2/5/06 | Jennifer Alsever DNA Kits Aim to Link You to the Here and Then By JENNIFER ALSEVER Published: February 5, 2006 THE past comes at a price for Georgia Kinney Bopp. Retired and living in Kailua, Hawaii, Ms. Bopp has spent about $800 on tests to trace her ancestry, using samples of DNA from inside her cheek and from possible relatives. She and her husband, Thomas, even plan vacations around genealogy research, seeking DNA samples from distant cousins. "If we travel, we keep a DNA kit with us, just in case we meet someone who might help identify an ancient ancestor," Ms. Bopp...
Can Genes Unravel A Viking Mystery
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/10/2006 11:15:24 AM PST · 15 replies · 630+ views MSNBC | 2-9-2006 Can genes unravel a Viking mystery?DNA tests could shed new light on remains found in longboat Scanpix / Reuters A1904 image shows the Oseberg Viking ship after its recovery in southern Norway. Scientists say DNA tests could yield new information about a queen and another woman whose remains were found in the ship. OSLO, Norway - The grave of a mysterious Viking queen may hold the key to a 1,200-year-old case of suspected ritual killing, and scientists are planning to unearth her bones to find out. She is one of two women whose fate has been a riddle ever since...
Prehistory and Origins
New analysis shows three human migrations out of Africa, Replacement theory 'demolished'
	Posted by PatrickHenry On News/Activism 02/10/2006 2:54:05 AM PST · 113 replies · 2,054+ views Washington University in St. Louis | 02 February 2006 | Tony Fitzpatrick A new, more robust analysis of recently derived human gene trees by Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D, of Washington University in St Louis, shows three distinct major waves of human migration out of Africa instead of just two, and statistically refutes -- strongly -- the 'Out of Africa' replacement theory. That theory holds that populations of Homo sapiens left Africa 100,000 years ago and wiped out existing populations of humans. Templeton has shown that the African populations interbred with the Eurasian populations -- thus, making love, not war. "The 'Out of Africa' replacement theory has always been a big controversy," Templeton...
Origins of Domestic Horse Revealed
	Posted by jimtorr On General/Chat 07/16/2002 7:03:04 PM PDT · 11 replies · 135+ views BBC News | 16 July 2002 | Helen Briggs The story of how wild horses were tamed by ancient people has been pieced together by gene hunters. DNA evidence shows modern horses are descended from not one but several wild populations. It suggests horses were domesticated - for meat, milk or to carry loads - in more than one place. As few as 77 wild mares passed on their genes to today's modern horse breeds, from the American mustang to the Shetland pony. "We see traces of original wild populations of horses that have been incorporated into the domestic horses of today," says co-researcher Dr Peter Forster of the...
Humankind's family tree reshaped
	Posted by whattajoke On News/Activism 02/21/2003 9:50:34 AM PST · 105 replies · 175+ views msnbc.com | 2/21/03 | whattajoke WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 -- A 1.8-million-year-old jawbone and other fossils uncovered in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge have reignited a longstanding controversy about the family tree of humankind's earliest ancestors. At the same time, the finds offer a new look at how and where early humans lived, according to a study in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Oldest human footprints found on volcano
	Posted by CobaltBlue On News/Activism 03/12/2003 12:47:19 PM PST · 38 replies · 369+ views New Scientist | March 12 2003 | Hazel Muir Oldest human footprints found on volcano -- 19:00 12 March 03 -- NewScientist.com news service -- The trails of footprints (A and B) have as many as 27 steps (Image: Paolo Mietto and Marco Avanzini) -- Three primitive humans who scrambled down a volcano's slopes more than 325,000 years ago left their footprints fossilised in volcanic ash. If the ages of the trails are confirmed, they could be the earliest known footprints of our Homo ancestors. Paolo Mietto of Padua University and his colleagues examined three tracks of footprints on the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy, known to locals as...
Oldest Human Skulls Found
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/11/2003 8:03:26 AM PDT · 375 replies · 624+ views BBC | 6-11-2003 | Jonathan Amos Oldest human skulls found By Jonathan Amos BBC News Online science staff Three fossilised skulls unearthed in Ethiopia are said by scientists to be among the most important discoveries ever made in the search for the origin of humans. Herto skull: Dated at between 160,000 and 154,000 years old (Image copyright: David L. Brill) The crania of two adults and a child, all dated to be around 160,000 years old, were pulled out of sediments near a village called Herto in the Afar region in the east of the country. They are described as the oldest known fossils of modern...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Human skeletons found at falls
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/08/2006 7:37:27 AM PST · 2 replies · 15+ views Bay of Plenty Times | February 8 2006 | Rachel Tiffen In TV2 show Sensing Murder, three psychics independently identified a spot at the falls as the burial site of Williams. The Tauranga woman disappeared without trace from her Gate Pa home on June 5, 1986. Her body has never been found. A man phoned police the day after the show screened, saying he knew of a skull at the falls. But his discovery was kilometres away from the spot the pyschics were drawn to - at the top lake end of McLaren Falls... Historic Places Trust archaeologists were able to determine that the bones were ancient, likely "pre-European" by marks...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Chatty Host Who Makes Archaeology Glamorous
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/07/2006 10:28:30 AM PST · 32 replies · 213+ views New York Times from New York City, New York County, and New York State | February 6, 2006 | Felicia R. Lee "The History Channel had put the word out that they wanted someone who was hands-on and who could travel around the world," Mr. Bernstein said of his decision to try out for the show. "It's been an exhilarating ride because it's who I am. I do get a lot of people reaching out now that we've done the first season. They say they learn a lot, and it makes them feel like they don't need a Ph.D. to appreciate it. Some people say it's the only family show they watch all together."
What kind of thinker are you?
	Posted by swilhelm73 On News/Activism 06/04/2004 10:30:24 PM PDT · 324 replies · 2,458+ views BBC | N/A | N/A
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