[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #83 Saturday, February 18, 2006
Ancient Learning
Artful Surgery
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/18/2006 1:35:16 AM PST · 2 replies · 2+ views Archaeology magazine, Archaeological Institute of America | Volume 59 Number 2 | March/April 2006 | Anagnostis P. Agelarakis The patient was among those sent north by Clazomenae, a Greek city in Ionia, to establish a colony at Abdera around 654 B.C. She was successfully treated--a difficult operation performed by a master surgeon saved her--and lived for another 20 years. Her remains, which were excavated at Abdera by Eudokia Skarlatidou of the Greek Archaeological Service and which I have had the privilege to study, provide incontrovertible evidence that two centuries before Hippocrates drew breath, surgical practices described in the treatise On Head Wounds were already in use.
Ancient Greece
Greek Hiker Finds 6,500-Year-Old Pendant
	Posted by NormsRevenge On General/Chat 02/16/2006 1:37:32 PM PST · 25 replies · 322+ views AP on Yahoo | 2/16/06 | Costas Kantouris - ap THESSALONIKI, Greece - A Greek hiker found a 6,500-year-old gold pendant in a field and handed it over to authorities, an archaeologist said Thursday. The flat, roughly ring-shaped prehistoric pendant probably had religious significance and would have been worn on a necklace by a prominent member of society. Only three such gold artifacts have been discovered during organized digs, archaeologist Georgia Karamitrou-Mendesidi, head of the Greek archaeological service in the northern region where the discovery was made, told The Associated Press. "It belongs to the Neolithic period, about which we know very little regarding the use of metals, particularly gold,"...
'Salonica, City of Ghosts': Edge City
	Posted by Destro On General/Chat 05/07/2005 11:19:27 PM PDT · 3 replies · 342+ views nytimes.com | May 8, 2005 | ROBERT D. KAPLAN May 8, 2005 'Salonica, City of Ghosts': Edge City By ROBERT D. KAPLAN IN the 1980's, with cold war divisions having cut Greece off from its Communist neighbors, the northern city of Salonika was a sterile panorama of apartment buildings with tacky Greek signage -- so thoroughly monolingual that when I went there I saw no reference to its multiethnic past. The Jewish cemetery, torn up under the Nazis in 1942, lay beneath the Aristoteleion University without a marker to venerate it. As for the Muslim Turks and Orthodox Christian Bulgarians who once had lived there, if I or any...
Macedonia
Greeks find largest Macedonian tomb of nobles
	Posted by Pharmboy On General/Chat 02/12/2006 9:55:49 AM PST · 7 replies · 81+ views Reuters via Yahoo | Sun Feb 12, 2006 | Deborah Kyvrikosaios Greek archaeologists said on Sunday they had discovered the largest underground tomb in Greek antiquity in the ancient city of Pella in northern Greece, birthplace of Alexander the Great. The eight-chamber tomb rich in painted sculpture dates to the Hellenistic period between the 3rd and 2nd century BC and offers scholars a rare glimpse into the life of nobles around the time of Alexander's death. "This is the largest, sculptured, multi-chambered tomb found in Greece, and is significant in that it is a new architectural style -- there are many chambers and a long entrance arcade," the chief archaeologist at...
Greek tomb find excites experts
	Posted by fanfan On General/Chat 02/12/2006 3:02:35 PM PST · 23 replies · 169+ views BBC | Sunday, 12 February 2006 | BBC Alexander the Great was ruler of Macedonia The tomb is thought to be from the time of Alexander the Great,Archaeologists in Greece say they are examining the largest underground tomb ever found in the country. They said a farmer had stumbled across the tomb carved into the rock near the ancient city of Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great. Archaeologists believe it dates to the period after Alexander's death, which was marked by mass power struggles. The tomb was probably used by a noble family about 2,300 years ago - some of whose names are still visible. Archaeologists said...
Archaeologists Find Massive Tomb in Greece
	Posted by wagglebee On General/Chat 02/12/2006 5:26:10 PM PST · 9 replies · 249+ views Breitbart.com | 2/12/06 | COSTAS KANTOURIS/AP Archaeologists have unearthed a massive tomb in the northern Greek town of Pella, capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia and birthplace of Alexander the Great. The eight-chambered tomb dates to the Hellenistic Age between the fourth and second century B.C., and is the largest of its kind ever found in Greece. The biggest multichambered tombs until now contained three chambers. The 678-square-foot tomb hewn out of rock was discovered by a farmer plowing his field on the eastern edge of the ancient cemetery of Pella, some 370 miles north of Athens, archaeologists said. "This is the largest and most...
Archaeologists unearth Alexander the Great era wall - ancient Macedonian city, Dion
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 02/17/2006 7:23:59 PM PST · 5 replies · 272+ views AFP on Yahoo | 2/17/06 | AFP ATHENS (AFP) - Greek archaeologists excavating an ancient Macedonian city in the foothills of Mount Olympus have uncovered a 2,600-metre defensive wall whose design was "inspired by the glories of Alexander the Great," the site supervisor said Thursday. Built into the wall were dozens of fragments from statues honouring ancient Greek gods, including Zeus, Hephaestus and possibly Dionysus, archaeologist Dimitrios Pantermalis told a conference in the northern port city of Salonika, according to the Athens News Agency. Early work on the fortification is believed to have begun under Cassander, the fourth-century BC king of Macedon who succeeded Alexander the Great....
Ancient Egypt
Enigmatic Discovery (Granite Nubian Head)
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/17/2006 10:22:17 AM PST · 17 replies · 435+ views Al-Ahram | 2-17-2006 Enigmatic discoveryThe discovery of a red granite head of a king with Nubian features in the precinct of Amenhotep III's temple on Luxor's West Bank has puzzled Egyptologists, writes Nevine El-Aref "This really is a very surprising discovery," Hourig Sourouzian, director of the German conservation project for the Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III's temple, told Al-Ahram Weekly. She explained that since excavation of the site began in 1998 the mission had consistently stumbled upon homogenous New Kingdom statuaries until last week, when a well-preserved red granite royal head with Kushite features -- full cheeks and bulging lips -- was...
Setting Ancient Nefertiti Bust on Bronze Nude Touches off a Tussle
	Posted by Kaslin On News/Activism 06/17/2003 11:25:16 AM PDT · 18 replies · 278+ views AP Breaking | Jun 17, 2003 | Donna Bryson Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - They were together only a few hours. But that brief union of a celebrated, 3,000-year-old bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti with a modern bronze nude body touched off a furor. Some Egyptians are calling the art project at Berlin's Egyptian Museum an insult to their culture and demanding the return of the ancient bust, charging it isn't safe in German hands. The museum director, Dietrich Wildung, answers that his museum's most famous piece was never at risk and defends the videotaping of Nefertiti's head on a nude torso as a legitimate artistic experiment. The tape...
Sailing To Punt
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/17/2006 10:11:15 AM PST · 2 replies · 44+ views Al-Ahram | 2-17-2006 Sailing to PuntWell-preserved wrecks of Pharaonic seafaring vessels unearthed last week on the Red Sea coast reveal that the Ancient Egyptians enjoyed advanced maritime technology, Nevine El-Aref reports The long-held belief that the Ancient Egyptians did not tend to travel long distances by sea because of poor naval technology proved fallacious last week when timbers, rigging and cedar planks were unearthed in the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometres south of Port Safaga. The remains of seafaring vessels were found in four large, hand-hewn caves which were probably used as storage or boat houses from the Middle...
Tutankhamen Liked His White Wine
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/16/2006 10:23:56 AM PST · 17 replies · 171+ views New Scientist | 2-16-2006 Tutankhamen liked his wine white 16 February 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition IT SEEMS that Tutankhamen, the teenage king of ancient Egypt, sloped off to the afterlife with a good supply of fine white wine. It's a surprising discovery, considering there is no record of white wine in Egypt until the 3rd century AD, 1600 years after the young pharaoh died. Rosa Lamuela-RaventÛs and her colleagues from the University of Barcelona, Spain, used liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to analyse the residue from six of the jars in Tutankhamen's tomb. All contained tartaric acid, a chemical characteristic of grapes,...
Climate
Ancient lakes of the Sahara
	Posted by Tyche On News/Activism 01/21/2006 4:14:03 AM PST · 44 replies · 1,005+ views Innovations Report | Jan 19, 2006 | University of Reading The Sahara has not always been the arid, inhospitable place that it is today -- it was once a savannah teeming with life, according to researchers at the Universities of Reading and Leicester. Eight years of studies in the Libyan desert area of Fazzan, now one of the harshest, most inaccessible spots on Earth, have revealed swings in its climate that have caused considerably wetter periods, lasting for thousands of years, when the desert turned to savannah and lakes provided water for people and animals. This, in turn, has given us vital clues about the history of humans in the...
Millions 'Wasted' Planting Trees That Reduce Water
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 07/28/2005 6:17:29 PM PDT · 34 replies · 761+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 7-29-2005 | Charles Clover Millions 'wasted' planting trees that reduce water By Charles Clover, Environment Editor (Filed: 29/07/2005) Millions of pounds in overseas aid are wasted every year planting trees in dry countries in the belief that they help attract rainfall and act as storage for water, scientists said yesterday. In fact, forests usually increase evaporation and help to reduce the amount of water available for human consumption or growing crops, according to a four-year study. Research on water catchments on three continents says it is "a myth" that trees always increase the availability of water. Even the cloud forests of tropical Costa Rica...
Last 100 years warmest since 9th century, say British researchers
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/10/2006 10:39:17 PM PST · 18 replies · 196+ views Monsters and Critics | Feb 10, 2006 | Deutsche Presse-Agentur Researchers at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in eastern Britain, measured changes in fossil shells, tree rings, ice cores and other past temperature records or 'proxies' to reach their findings, which were published in the journal Science Friday. They also looked at people's diaries from the last 750 years... The analysis confirmed periods of significant warmth in the northern hemisphere from about 890 to 1170 AD - the so-called Medieval Warm Period - and for much colder periods from about 1580 - 1850, known as the Little Ice Age.
Plants revealed as methane source
	Posted by f zero On News/Activism 01/17/2006 11:40:11 AM PST · 28 replies · 540+ views BBC News | Wednesday, 11 January 2006 | Tim Hirsch Scientists in Germany have discovered that ordinary plants produce significant amounts of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas which helps trap the sun's energy in the atmosphere. The findings, reported in the journal Nature, have been described as "startling", and may force a rethink of the role played by forests in holding back the pace of global warming. And the BBC News Website has learned that the research, based on observations in the laboratory, appears to be corroborated by unpublished observations of methane levels in the Brazilian Amazon. Until now, it had been thought that natural sources of methane were mainly...
Methane burps disproved? Gassy emissions no longer in suspect dock for melting the last ice age.
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 02/10/2006 10:14:04 PM PST · 35 replies · 578+ views news@nature.com | 9 February 2006 | Quirin Schiermeier Close window Published online: 9 February 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060206-9 Methane burps disproved? Gassy emissions no longer in suspect dock for melting the last ice age. Quirin Schiermeier Strange ice: no evidence that melting methane triggered global warming after the last ice age.© Punchstock Methane escaping from the sea floor to the atmosphere has been a popular suspect for causing rapid climate changes during and at the end of the last ice age. But new data derived from a Greenland ice core have delivered a killer blow to the idea. Methane (CH4) is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It...
Ancient Europe
European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/14/2006 3:31:25 PM PST · 59 replies · 1,002+ views National Geographic | 12-20-2005 | James Owens European Faces Reflect Stone Age Ancestry, Study Says James Owen for National Geographic News December 20, 2005Europeans inherit their looks from Stone Age hunters, new research suggests. Scientists studied ancient skeletons from Scandinavia to North Africa and Greece, comparing ancient and modern facial features. Their analysis suggests modern Europeans are closely related and descended from prehistoric indigenous peoples. Later Neolithic settlersónotably immigrants who introduced farming from the Near East some 7,500 years agoócontributed little to how Europeans look today, the researchers add. The scientists described their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Online Early Edition. The...
Stone Age artists are getting older
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/13/2006 10:11:37 PM PST · 23 replies · 198+ views The Times | February 13, 2006 | Norman Hammond Among the motifs is an "anthropomorph", a humanoid figure, according to Dr Alberto Broglio. It is full face, with two horns which "may be a mask" on its head; the arms are by its side and the legs are spread. "The right hand is holding something which is hanging downwards, probably a ritual object," Dr Broglio says. Another figure shows a four-legged animal seen from the side and "resembles the profile of a small statuette from Vogelherd". Radiocarbon dates from the Vogelherd caves, near Ulm on the upper Danube, also give dates between 36,000 and 30,000 years ago, Dr Nicholas...
Most cave art the work of teens, not shamans - A landmark study of Paleolithic art
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/15/2006 8:52:37 AM PST · 23 replies · 207+ views University of Alaska Fairbanks, Institute of Arctic Biology | 10 February 2006 | Dale Guthrie and Marie Gilbert This ancient art was made during the late Pleistocene, about 10,000 to 35,000 years ago, and has typically been the purview of art historians and anthropologists, many of whom view Paleolithic art as done by accomplished shaman-artists... Using new forensic techniques on fossil handprints of the artists and examining thousands of images, "I found that all ages and both sexes were making art, not just the senior male shamans," Guthrie said. These included hundreds of prints made as ocher, manganese, or clay negatives and a few positive prints made with pigments or mud applied to hands that were then placed...
British Isles
New View Of Mr Boudica
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/13/2006 10:49:35 AM PST · 14 replies · 448+ views EDP24 | 2-13-2006 | Rachel Buller New view of Mr Boudica RACHEL BULLER 13 February 2006 10:49 For centuries, he has remained in the shadow of his famous wife, the warrior Queen of East Anglia's Iceni tribe. But while Boudica outshines him in history, new research shows that Prasutagus was not quite the down-trodden husband previously suggested. For it was he, and not his wife, who graced the coinage of the period. Until now, Prasutagus has only existed in historical conjecture and myth as King of the Iceni, the tribe occupying East Anglia, which was ruled with Boudica under Roman authority. However, new studies on a...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Early California: A Killing Field -- Research Shatters Utopian Myth, Finds Indians Decimated Birds
	Posted by ConservativeMind On News/Activism 02/13/2006 7:31:14 AM PST · 60 replies · 1,546+ views ScienceDaily | February 13, 2006 | University of Utah "The wild geese and every species of water fowl darkened the surface of every bay ... in flocks of millions.... When disturbed, they arose to fly. The sound of their wings was like that of distant thunder." --George Yount, California pioneer, at San Francisco Bay in 1833 When explorers and pioneers visited California in the 1700s and early 1800s, they were astonished by the abundance of birds, elk, deer, marine mammals, and other wildlife they encountered. Since then, people assumed such faunal wealth represented California's natural condition -- a product of Native Americans' living in harmony with the wildlife and...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
1,400-year-old moccasin found in Canadian glacier
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/17/2006 8:26:47 AM PST · 11 replies · 163+ views Yahoo! | Thu Feb 16, 6:41 PM ET VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - Archeologists studying melting alpine ice for clues on early life in Canada's North have uncovered a 1,400-year-old moccasin, officials said on Thursday. Researchers at first thought the artifact found in the southwest Yukon in 2003 was a hunter's bag, but after cleaning and reassembling the hide they realized it was the oldest aboriginal moccasin ever found in Canada. The discovery is considered especially important because it far predates any European trade contact with the region, and it likely belonged to the early Athapaskan people who lived in the boreal forests. "It is a significant addition...
NASA, UNH Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins - From Space
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/15/2006 10:53:23 AM PST · 22 replies · 866+ views Newswise - UNH | 2-15-2006 | UNH Source: University of New Hampshire Released: Wed 15-Feb-2006, 09:15 ET NASA, UNH Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins -- from Space NASA and University of New Hampshire scientists are using space- and aircraft-based "remote-sensing" technology to uncover remains of the ancient Maya culture using the chemical signature of the civilization's ancient building materials. Newswise ó Remains of the ancient Maya culture, mysteriously destroyed at the height of its reign in the ninth century, have been hidden in the rainforests of Central America for more than 1,000 years. Now, NASA and University of New Hampshire scientists are using space- and aircraft-based "remote-sensing"...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Turquoise-like Stones Unearthed in Burnt City, Iran
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/11/2006 9:14:34 PM PST · 20 replies · 199+ views Persian Journal | February 10, 2006 Burnt City, located in Sistan va Balushistan province in southeast of Iran, is one of the prominent historical sites of Iran. It is a 5000-year-old ancient site with historical graveyards and buildings with unique architectural structures. The city was the habitat of a developed civilization with a rich culture and economy. Studies show that the site was once the center of international trade.
India
Ancient Sea Link Discovered By ASI (India)
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/12/2006 3:22:25 PM PST · 12 replies · 268+ views The Statesman | 2-12-2006 Ancient sea link discovered by ASI Press Trust of India CHANDIGARH, Feb. 12. ó Unraveling some facts buried in history, experts from Archaeological Survey of India said the possibility of a sea link between south India and the rest of Asia about 3,800 years ago could not be ruled out. Mr Arun Malik, an archaeologist with ASI, Chennai, while throwing light on Adichannallur civilisation, said here that the observation of human morphological types based on the cranial evidences point to the existence of more than one racial and ethnic group in that region during the period of the civilisationís long...
Prehistory and Origins
Digging Deep For A Clue To A Global Mystery (Peking Man)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/11/2006 10:58:19 AM PST · 21 replies · 608+ views Globe & Mail | 2-11-2006 | Geoffrey York Digging deep for a clue to a global mysteryThe search for the ancient skulls of Peking Man, missing since 1941, sits firmly on Beijing's agenda, GEOFFREY YORK writes GEOFFREY YORK ZHOUKOUDIAN, CHINA -- For more than two decades, Yang Shoukai had hoarded his secret, unsure what to do with a possible clue to one of China's most baffling mysteries. As construction supervisor on the site of an abandoned U.S. military barracks in Tianjin in 1982, he had discovered a strange cement box in the basement of the old wartime barracks. He tried to dig it up, but lacked the proper...
Early Human Ancestors Walked On The Wild Side
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 02/16/2006 10:14:54 AM PST · 14 replies · 259+ views Eureka Alert - ASU | 2-16-2006 | Garu Schwartz - Skip Derra Contact: Skip Derra skip.derra@asu.edu 480-965-4823 Arizona State University Early human ancestors walked on the wild side Tempe, Ariz. -- Arizona State University anthropologist and Institute of Human Origins researcher Gary Schwartz, along with fellow anthropologist Dan Gebo from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, have studied fossil anklebones of some early ancestors of modern humans and discovered that they walked on the wild side. It seems some of our earliest ancestors possessed a rather unsteady stride due to subtle anatomical differences. Schwartz and Gebo's findings will be published in the April 2006 edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, but the...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Water Found In Meteorite
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/25/2006 8:52:11 PM PST · 19 replies · 555+ views BBC | 8-27-1999 Water found in meteorite Tiny bubbles are caught in the water Scientists have made the first discovery of liquid water in a meteorite. The space rock was recovered by a group of boys in a small Texas town who saw it fall out of the sky in 1998. Specimens taken to Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston were subjected to tests by Michael Zolensky and his colleagues. When they cracked open the rock they found tiny, purple spots of halite - crystals of sodium chloride, or table salt - along with minute amounts of briny water. Others who have looked...
Iron meteorites may be solar system boomerangs
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/17/2006 9:06:57 AM PST · 7 replies · 45+ views New Scientist | 17 February 2006 | Maggie McKee Iron meteorites thought to have originated in the asteroid belt beyond Mars may actually have formed near Earth, a new study reports... Iron meteorites are made up of iron and nickel alloys and comprise about 6% of all catalogued space rocks on Earth... Studies show that the known iron meteorites come from about 80 different parent asteroids, while the thousands of known stony meteorites broke off from just 40 or so parent bodies. That suggests astronomers should see many "differentiated" asteroids in the asteroid belt today, says William Bottke of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, US. But observations...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Experts plan to exhume Shakespeare's body
	Posted by SpringheelJack On Bloggers & Personal 11/02/2005 7:30:05 PM PST · 58 replies · 1,056+ views icBirmingham | Nov 1, 2005 | Name not given Controversial plans to dig up William Shakespeare's grave, to find out whether he was murdered by his son-in-law, have been revealed by American scientists. The US experts, who are convinced the Bard's death was anything but natural, are hoping to be granted permission by his descendants to exhume his body. Shakespeare died on his birthday on April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later at Stratford-upon-Avon's Holy Trinity Church. His grave has remained untouched for more than 350 years, but now American pathologists want to disturb his resting place, in spite of warnings of a curse on Shakespeare's tomb...
Ben Jonson's encomium to William Shakespeare
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/12/2006 9:46:35 PM PST · 3 replies · 11+ views The First Folio | A.D. 1623 | Ben Jonson The First Folio To the memory of my beloved, The Author MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: and what he hath left us. [by Ben Jonson] ...Soule of the Age! The applause! delight! the wonder of our Stage! My Shakespeare, rise; I will not lodge thee by Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye A little further, to make thee a roome:Thou art a Moniment, without a tombe, And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give. That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses; I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses:...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
A History lesson: LAUS DEO
	Posted by SandRat On General/Chat 02/11/2006 2:18:44 PM PST · 11 replies · 106+ views email | Feb 11, 2006 | email Subject: A history lesson: LAUS DEO LAUS DEO: A little history lesson you may enjoy. I thought that you and others may like to see this. One detail that is not mentioned, in DC, is that there can never be a building of greater height than the Washington Monument. With all the uproar about removing the ten commandments, etc... This is worth a moment or two of your time. I was not aware of this historical information. On the aluminum cap, atop the Washington Monument in Washington, DC, are displayed two words: Laus Deo. No one can see these words....
The Civil War: Honoring Courageous Soldiers
	Posted by ZGuy On General/Chat 02/09/2006 7:48:42 AM PST · 6 replies · 62+ views Wallbuilders | February 2006 | David Barton Casual students of the Civil War often disagree about whether the War was fought over slavery, unjust economic policies, or ìstatesí rights.î Yet for millions of Americans in the 1860s, their reason for going to war can be found in the words of a famous 1830 speech made by Daniel Webster in the US Senate. At that time, South Carolina was threatening secession. On the floor of the Senate, Webster eloquently proved that there was no such right under the Constitution and that to secede would be an act of treason. (Numerous Founding Fathers -- including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,...
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[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #84 Saturday, February 25, 2006
Neandertal
Humans vs. Neanderthals: Game Over Earlier
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/23/2006 1:25:12 AM EST · 16 replies · 239+ views LiveScience | 22 February 2006 | Associated Press Humans and Neanderthals, thought to have coexisted for 10,000 years across the whole of Europe, are more likely to have lived at the same time for only 6,000 years, the new study suggests. Scientists believe the two species could have lived side by side at specific sites for periods of only about 2,000 years, but Mellars claims they would have lived in competition at each site for only 1,000 years... Two new studies of stratified radiocarbon in the Cariaco Basin, near Venezuela, and of radiocarbon on fossilized coral formations in the tropical Atlantic and Pacific have given scientists a better...
Modern humans took over Europe in just 5,000 years
	Posted by S0122017 On News/Activism 02/23/2006 7:20:40 AM EST · 13 replies · 460+ views www.nature.com/news | 22 February 2006 | Michael Hopkin Published online: 22 February 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060220-11 Better bone dates reveal bad news for Neanderthals Modern humans took over Europe in just 5,000 years. Michael Hopkin These drawings from the Chauvet cave were originally dated to around 31,000 years ago. But a new analysis pushes that back four or five thousand years. © Nature, with permission from the French Ministry of Culture and Communication. Advances in the science of radiocarbon dating - a common, but oft-maligned palaeontological tool - have narrowed down the overlap between Europe's earliest modern humans and the Neanderthals that preceded them. Refinements to the technique, which...
Modern humans 'blitzed Europe'(Radiocarbon Dating Development)
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 02/23/2006 1:22:51 PM EST · 21 replies · 671+ views The Telegraph (U.K.) | 23/02/2006 | Roger Highfield Our ancestors colonised Europe and wiped out their Neanderthal cousins even faster than we thought, says a study published today. Argument has raged for years about whether our ancestors from Africa outsurvived, killed or bred with the Neanderthals, who were stronger, bulkier and shorter but had equally large brains. Now developments in radiocarbon dating suggest that many of the dates published over the past 40 years are likely to underestimate the true ages of the samples. Prof Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, describes today in the journal Nature how better calibration of radiocarbon ages have led to revisions...
Prehistory and Origins
Predators 'Drove Human Evolution'
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/19/2006 3:18:49 PM EST · 112 replies · 1,196+ views BBC | 2-19-2006 | Paul Ricon Predators 'drove human evolution' By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter, St Louis The alternative view that man was the one hunted was suggested The popular view of our ancient ancestors as hunters who conquered all in their way is wrong, researchers have told a major US science conference. Instead, they say, early humans were on the menu for predatory beasts. This may have driven humans to evolve increased levels of co-operation, according to their theory. Despite humankind's considerable capacity for war and violence, we are highly sociable animals, according to anthropologists. James Rilling at Emory University in Atlanta, US,...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Molecular Clockwork And Related Theories
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/25/2006 5:40:40 PM EST · 12 replies · 293+ views Athena Review Molecular clockwork and related theories Testing the basis for "Mitochondrial Eve." Molecular clocks, a complex topic central to current debates on human evolution, first came into prominence in paleoanthropology in the 1960's. One well-known study by Vincent Sarich and Alan Wilson of the University of California (1967) measured the immunological reactions in primates and other animals to a control sample of the blood protein serum albumin. The differences, assumed due to a constant rate of evolution through mutations, were then plotted on a linear scale showing time elapsed since each species diverged from a common ancestor. On the same principle, DNA,...
New Analysis of Chinese Fossil Provides Clearer Picture of Pleistocene Humans
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/24/2006 12:33:10 PM EST · 9 replies · 173+ views Scientific American | February 21, 2006 | David Biello In 1984 researchers working at a site called Jinniushan, near the town of Yinkou in northeastern China, found the fossilized remains of a woman who lived roughly 260,000 years ago. Though the climate may have been milder then, she still lived near the edge of human existence in a time before fire... the lady from Jinniushan is the biggest woman yet found from the Pleistocene, weighing in at an estimated 173 pounds or so and standing some five feet tall. This led some researchers to classify her as a male specimen, but the shape of her pelvis suggests differently. "If...
Big Woman with a Distant Past: Stone Age gal embodies humanity's cold shifts
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 02/25/2006 2:39:26 PM EST · 18 replies · 773+ views Science News | Bruce Bower A 260,000-year-old partial skeleton excavated in northwestern China 22 years ago represents our largest known female ancestor, according to a new analysis of the individual's extensive remains. This ancient woman puts a modern twist on Stone Age human evolution, say Karen R. Rosenberg of the University of Delaware in Newark, L¸ ZunÈ of Peking University in Beijing, and Chris B. Ruff of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. The fossil individual's large size and the apparent adaptation of her body to cold conditions are "consistent with the idea that patterns of human anatomical variation that we see today...
Faith and Philosophy
Worship Of Phoenix May Have Started 7,400 Years Ago In Central China
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/23/2006 1:37:30 PM EST · 20 replies · 352+ views People's Daily - Xinhua | 2-22-2006 Worship of phoenix may start 7,400 years ago in central China New archaeological discoveries show that the worship of the phoenix by ancient Chinese can be dated back as early as 7,400 years ago in central China. A large amount of pottery, decorated with the patterns of beasts, the sun and birds have been excavated at the Gaomiao relics site in Hongjiang, Huaihua City of central China's Hunan Province, according to a report by the Guangming Daily. "The patterns of birds should be the phoenix worshipped by ancient Chinese," said He Gang, a researcher with the Hunan Institute of Archaeology....
Asia
8,000-Year-Old Drill To Make Fire Found In Zhejiang (China)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/21/2006 2:57:59 PM EST · 19 replies · 644+ views Xinhuanet - China View | 2-21-2006 8,000-year-old drill to make fire found in Zhejiang www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-21 17:54:57 BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese archaeologists said that parts of an instrument to make fire, dating back to 8,000 years ago, have been found in east China's Zhejiang Province. The relics, made of bones and wood, were discovered at the Kuahuqiao Relics Site in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang Province, according to Qianjiang Evening News. Liu Zhiqing, a retired professor from Zhejiang University, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the relics were part of an instrument to drill wood to get fire. Some relics in strange shapes were unearthed...
China
Excavation of tomb ruled out [Mausoleum of Qinshihuang]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/21/2006 10:34:55 PM EST · 8 replies · 96+ views China Daily | Updated: 2006-02-22 | Ma Lie With its tales of buried treasure and the elixir of youth, the recent movie "Myth" has heightened interest in the mystical Mausoleum of Qinshihuang (259-210 BC). Starring Hong Kong actor Jackie Chan as an archaeologist, the film focuses on what could be hidden within the tomb, which was built more than 2,000 years ago... "It is the best choice to keep the ancient tomb untouched, because of the complex conditions inside," said Duan Qingbo, archaeologist and researcher in the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeology Institute. Duan, who is also the head of the archaeological team working on the ancient mausoleum, told China...
The Terra-cotta soldiers of Qin Shihuang
	Posted by Dr. Marten On Bloggers & Personal 05/04/2005 3:16:49 AM EDT · 8 replies · 1,244+ views The Horses Mouth | 05.04.05 | Gordon The photos contained in this album are of the Terra-cotta warriors located in the Shaanxi province, just outside of Xi'an. The Terra-cotta army was constructed by order of Qin Shihuang,†who ruled as the†first emperor of China from 259 BC - 210 BC.The soldiers†were†first discovered by a peasant farmer in 1976 and were thought to be an insignificant discovery by the communist government. Later, a Chinese reporter caught wind of the discovery and†used his position to bring proper recognition to the matter and the farmer was later given a whopping 10元 as a reward for his find. If he's still alive...
Five more chambers of first emperor's tomb found
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 01/11/2003 7:32:12 PM EST · 38 replies · 1,151+ views STI | 1-12-3 | Editorial Staff JAN 10, 2003 Five more chambers of first emperor's tomb found Rooms are even bigger than pits that hold his terracotta armyBEIJING - Archaeologists say they have found five more chambers in the sprawling tomb complex of China's legendary first emperor - rooms even bigger than the pits that hold his famed terracotta army. Qin Shihuang is credited with creating the first Chinese empire in 220 BC after conquering neighbouring kingdoms. His tomb near the city of Xi'an has not been opened, but the thousands of life-size clay soldiers unearthed in the 1970s are a major tourist attraction. Archaeologists...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
First Americans May Have Been European
	Posted by anymouse On News/Activism 02/20/2006 12:08:52 AM EST · 132 replies · 2,316+ views LiveScience.com | 2/19/06 | Bjorn Carey ST. LOUISóThe first humans to spread across North America may have been seal hunters from France and Spain. This runs counter to the long-held belief that the first human entry into the Americas was a crossing of a land-ice bridge that spanned the Bering Strait about 13,500 years ago. The new thinking was outlined here Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The tools don"t match Recent studies have suggested that the glaciers that helped form the bridge connecting Siberia and Alaska began receding around 17,000 to 13,000 years ago, leaving very little...
Ancient People Followed 'Kelp Highway' To America, Researcher Says
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/20/2006 6:32:34 PM EST · 30 replies · 759+ views Live Science | 2-19-2006 | Bjorn Carey Ancient People Followed 'Kelp Highway' to America, Researcher Says Bjorn Carey LiveScience Staff Writer Sun Feb 19, 9:00 PM ET ST. LOUISóAncient humans from Asia may have entered the Americas following an ocean highway made of dense kelp. The new finding lends strength to the "coastal migration theory," whereby early maritime populations boated from one island to another, hunting the bountiful amounts of sea creatures that live in kelp forests. This research was presented here Sunday at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science by anthropologist Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon. Today, a nearly continuous "kelp...
Kennewick Man
Report: Kennewick Man Deliberately Buried
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 02/24/2006 10:06:28 AM EST · 28 replies · 692+ views Reuters via Yahoo | Fri Feb 24, 2006 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID Kennewick Man was laid to rest alongside a river more than 9,000 years ago, buried by other people, a leading forensic scientist said Thursday. The skeleton, one of the oldest and most complete ever found in North America, has been under close analysis since courts sided with researchers in a legal battle with Indian tribes in the Northwest who wanted the remains found near the Columbia River reburied without study. Douglas Owsley, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, discussed his findings in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday evening at a meeting of the American Academy of...
Pieces falling into place (Kennewick Man)
	Posted by Spunky On News/Activism 02/24/2006 8:51:38 AM EST · 260 replies · 2,689+ views Tri-City Herald | February 24th, 2006 | By Anna King, Herald staff writer SEATTLE -- Kennewick Man was buried by other humans. That finding, which scientists have pondered for nearly 10 years, was finally confirmed Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Scientists here. The scientists also have concluded the ancient skull appears different than those of Indian tribes who lived in the area. Scientists long had wondered whether Kennewick Man, whose 9,000-year-old skeleton was found 10 years ago in Columbia Park alongside the Columbia River, was naturally covered with silt or if others had laid him to rest. The answer is he was laid out on his back,...
Speaker: ancient skeleton led to new view of human settlement in America [ Kennewick and Chatters ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/22/2006 10:33:22 AM EST · 10 replies · 173+ views UConn Advance | February 6, 2006 | Cindy Weiss James C. Chatters, a forensic archaeologist and paleoecologist whose life and career changed 10 years ago when the 9,400-year-old "Kennewick Man" was discovered, warned anthropology students here last week that "you never know where your career will take you." ...He told them that the aftermath of the Kennewick Man discovery has been "a hard thing," with the press portraying him as a racist and an Indian tribe with which he once had a good relationship blacklisting him. One of the first findings about the skeleton was that it had Caucasian features... His research has also revised his opinion about how...
Scientists releasing Kennewick Man research
	Posted by Spunky On News/Activism 02/22/2006 4:25:48 PM EST · 68 replies · 1,352+ views Tri-City Herald | February 22, 2006 | Anna King, Herald staff writer Scientists plan to disclose their findings about Kennewick Man on Thursday in Seattle, nearly a decade after the discovery of the 9,000-year-old skeleton that attracted worldwide interest and sparked a lengthy legal fight. "Kennewick's story is finally going to get told," said Cleone Hawkinson, president of Friends of America's Past. Hawkinson has been working for years to ensure Kennewick Man's bones would be studied by the top scientists in the country. Kennewick Man's bones are significant to scientists because they are considered one of the most complete ancient skeletons ever found. Scientists have theorized he was about 45 years old...
Invasion of the Kennewick Men
	Posted by farmfriend On News/Activism 02/24/2004 2:16:05 AM EST · 43 replies · 246+ views Tech Central Station | 02/24/2004 | Jackson Kuhl Invasion of the Kennewick Men By Jackson Kuhl After almost eight years of labyrinthine litigation the case of Kennewick Man has ended with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and archaeological science is the winner -- for now. In a February 4 decision, the Ninth upheld the district court ruling stating that since no relationship could be established between modern American Indians and Kennewick Man -- physically, contextually, or otherwise -- he is not a Native American as defined under NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, thus NAGPRA isn't applicable. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) therefore...
9th Circuit Court of Appeals to have final say on disposition of Kennewick Man.
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 01/11/2003 5:18:04 PM EST · 11 replies · 178+ views Oregon Live | 01/09/03 | RICHARD L. HILL Tribes fail to halt study of ancient skeleton 01/09/03RICHARD L. HILL Four Northwest tribes lost another round in federal court Wednesday in their effort to halt a scientific study of the ancient skeleton called Kennewick Man. U.S. Magistrate John Jelderks in Portland rejected the tribes' request to delay the study until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can hear the legal dispute. In August, Jelderks ruled that eight anthropologists who sued the federal government could proceed to study the 9,300-year-old remains. The Nez Perce, Umatilla, Colville and Yakama tribes appealed his decision and later asked Jelderks to delay...
9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocks study of Kennewick Man bones! (they just won't let it go!)
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 02/24/2003 8:56:23 AM EST · 69 replies · 317+ views AP via SF Gate | Thursday, February 20, 2003 | AP Editorial Staff <p>Eight anthropologists who want to study an ancient skeleton must want until a federal court has heard an appeal of the case by four Northwest tribes that consider the bones sacred.</p> <p>The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' decision, made last week, prevents any study of the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man, which scientists have sought to examine since 1996.</p>
Kennewick Man Saga Lives On
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/17/2002 5:13:28 PM EDT · 30 replies · 293+ views Tri-City Herald | 6-17-2002 | Mike Lee Kennewick Man saga lives on This story was published 6/17/02 By Mike Lee Herald staff writer With the fate of the ancient bones found in Kennewick six years ago remaining in legal limbo, Peter Lampson has decided to take action. It's been a year, and the judge still hasn't issued a public pronouncement about the future of Kennewick Man. But the 17-year-old Lampson isn't waiting for the ruling to make his mark. In one of a handful of developments related to the once high-profile case, Lampson is erecting a sign in Columbia Park to commemorate Kennewick's world-famous former resident, who...
Climate
Global Warming Can Trigger Extreme Ocean, Climate Changes
	Posted by cogitator On General/Chat 01/18/2006 1:18:38 PM EST · 16 replies · 123+ views SpaceRef | 01/15/2006 | National Science Foundation Scientists use deep ocean historical records to find an abrupt ocean circulation reversalNewly published research results provide evidence that global climate change may have quickly disrupted ocean processes and lead to drastic shifts in environments around the world. Although the events described unfolded millions of years ago and spanned thousands of years, the researchers, affiliated with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, say they provide one of the few historical analogs for warming-induced changes in the large-scale sea circulation, and thus may help to illuminate the potential long-term impacts of today's climate warming. Writing in this week's issue of the journal...
Underwater Archaeology
Beneath the Seven Seas: Adventures with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/22/2006 11:30:02 AM EST · 8 replies · 98+ views LibraryJournal.com | February 14, 2006 | Joan W. Gartland The first person to fully excavate an ancient shipwreck on the seabed, and founder of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA), he brings together in this handsomely illustrated book accounts by many distinguished archaeologists associated with the INA. They tell of the discovery, excavation, and preservation of more than 40 shipwrecks -- and one sunken city -- the world over, from ancient times through the Byzantine, medieval, and Renaissance eras and on through World War II. The shipwrecks featured range from an ancient Sea of Galilee fishing boat to the Titanic and a D-day landing craft. The sunken city is...
India
Ruins of Harrappan city found in Haryana
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/21/2006 3:07:44 PM EST · 10 replies · 131+ views Business Standard (India) | February 21, 2006 | Press Trust Of India/New Delhi/Chandigarh A department spokesman termed the find, discovered at Farmana Khas, about 12 kilometers from Meham on Julana Road, as very significant. He said till now urban settlements of the civilisation -- Banawali, Bhirdana and Rakhigarhi -- had come to light in the state, but this was the first discovery of the ruins of a city. He said the site of the discovery, popularly known as Daksh Khera, was spread over 32 acres and the ruins were under a three-metre high hillock.
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Two Ancient Caves Discovered In Qasr-e-Shirin (Iran/Iraq)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/18/2006 2:32:33 PM EST · 19 replies · 513+ views Pendar/CHN | 2-17-2006 Two Ancient Caves Discovered in Qasr-e Shirin 2006-2-17 - 22:11 - CHN Archeological excavations in the city of Qasr-e Shirin led to the discovery of two caves belonging to the Neolithic and Middle Elamite periods. Tehran, 16 February 2006 (CHN) -- Archeological excavations in the city of Qasr-e Shirin resulted in the discovery of two caves belonging to the Neolithic epoch and the Middle Elamite period. "Two caves were discovered in the southern foothills of Bazidar Mountains, one of them dates back to some 9000 years ago that is Neolithic epoch, and the other belongs to the Middle Elamite period...
Mesopotamia
The tombs of Ur reveal treasures [ Houston and Univ of Pennsylvania ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/22/2006 1:58:29 PM EST · 5 replies · 50+ views Houston Chronicle | February 22, 2006 | Eileen McClelland Royal Tombs of Ur: Ancient Treasures From Modern Iraq is a timely, traveling sample of artifacts discovered in the 1920s and '30s at the Sumerian site of ancient Ur, the traditional home of the biblical prophet Abraham, which is now southern Iraq. The Ur exhibit is on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Friday-Aug. 13. Col. Matthew Bogdanos, U.S. Marines Corps, led a task force across the desert to track stolen antiquities from the Iraq Museum. The mission resulted in the recovery of more than 5,000 artifacts. Bogdanos...
Mediterranean
Cyrenaica Archaeological Project
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/20/2006 12:57:10 AM EST · 5 replies · 85+ views Cyrenaica Archaeological Project http://www.cyrenaica.org/ | 2004 | somebody et al One of the largest and best-preserved sanctuaries dedicated to Demeter and Persephone in the eastern Mediterranean, the hillside sanctuary is terraced on at least three levels supported by various retaining walls. The Upper Sanctuary area is still largely unexcavated. Its importance and the richness of finds are a testament to the prosperity of the city of Cyrene: in seven seasons of excavation, a great quantity of votive materials spanning the life of the sanctuary were unearthed: these include ca 4.500 terracotta figurines, ca 750 pieces of marble and limestone sculpture and reliefs, a large amount of high quality Attic Black...
TALK OF THE TOWN LEADS STRAIGHT TO DISCOVERY
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 02/07/2003 10:51:57 AM EST · 5 replies · 135+ views UC News | Date: 1/22/2003 | Marianne Kunnen-Jones † Date: 1/22/2003 Contact: Marianne Kunnen-Jones ; E-mail: Marianne.Kunnen-Jones@UC.Edu Phone: (513) 556-1826 Photos By: Robin Cobb TALK OF THE TOWN LEADS STRAIGHT TO DISCOVERY In a cafe in Cyprus, the University of Cincinnati scholar overheard conversations about an ancient tomb. Her interest piqued, she listened intently as the locals described an apparently undisturbed archaeological site. It might be only a tall tale or a local legend, Gisela Walberg thought, but what if...? That bit of eavesdropping in the town of Episkopi led Walberg to a Late Bronze-Age tomb yielding more than 200 artifacts. She'll discuss her findings in a...
Anatolia
Alinda ancient city awaits discovery
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/18/2006 11:34:39 PM EST · 5 replies · 46+ views Turkish Daily News | Saturday, February 18, 2006 Karpuzlu Mayor Hayretin Anmak announced that archeological excavations in the ancient city of Alinda are to be launched by Austria's Vienna University. The ancient city is located within the boundaries of today's town of Karpuzlu in the Aegean province of Aydƒ±n... Alinda was founded by the Carians on the slope of a mountain looking east over today's Karpuzlu town... Seven aqueduct arches -- called the "seven eyes" by the locals -- still grace the old site. Another of the city's important structures is its ancient theater, which is located in an olive-producing area. Additional buildings are expected to be identified...
Ancient Egypt
Out of Egypt [Saint Louis Art Museum, Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/18/2006 11:17:53 PM EST · 3 replies · 65+ views Riverfront Times | Feb 15, 2006 | Malcolm Gay Goneim dubbed the woman Ka-Nefer-Nefer: the Twice-Beautiful Ka. So taken was Goneim with Ka-Nefer-Nefer (pronounced caw nef-er nef-er) that he would publish photographs of the mask in three subsequent books about the excavation. But amid the excitement of the dig in 1952, her fate was obscured. She would disappear from public view for nearly 50 years. More precisely, until 1998, when the Saint Louis Art Museum purchased the mask for a half-million dollars from Phoenix Ancient Art, an antiquities dealership owned by the Lebanese brothers Hicham and Ali Aboutaam.
Ancient Rome
Scholars Unearth Mystery (Romans)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/19/2006 7:46:32 PM EST · 4 replies · 627+ views Rocky Mountain News | 2-13-2006 | Jim Erickson Scholars unearth mysteryVilla of Roman emperor raises new questions for researchers on dig in Italy Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius is depicted on a coin. Print By Jim Erickson Rocky Mountain News February 13, 2006 In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon portrays the pagan emperor Maxentius as a licentious youth and "a tyrant as contemptible as he was odious." Historians have long assumed that the reviled Roman emperor lived part-time at an 80-acre suburban villa complex until he was killed by his rival Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in A.D. 312....
Roman villa found in Sicily
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/23/2006 11:42:21 AM EST · 11 replies · 95+ views Gruppo Ansa | February 20 2006 A Roman villa dating back to the III Century AD has been found near Catania in Sicily... The villa, which is thought to cover about 2,500 square metres, may be the same one discovered by a famous Italian archaeologist, Paolo Orsi, at the beginning of the last century. Orsi found traces of a mosaic floor but no excavation followed his preliminary dig and the site is believed to have been covered up again by subsequent earth movements and vegetation.
Gladiators
Where's my copy of the Gladiator Rulebook?
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 02/23/2006 9:31:14 PM EST · 22 replies · 610+ views Reuters | 2/23/06 | Reuters LONDON (Reuters) - Gladiators may have fought and died to entertain others in the brutality of the Roman arena but they appear to have abided by a strict code of conduct which avoided savage violence, forensic scientists say. Tests on the remains of 67 gladiators found in tombs at Ephesus in Turkey, center of power for ancient Rome's eastern empire, show they stuck to well defined rules of combat and avoided gory free-for-alls. Injuries to the front of each skull suggested that each opponent used just one type of weapon per bout of face-to-face contact, two Austrian researchers report in...
Veni Vidi, Veggie...(Roman Gladiators)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 03/01/2004 9:03:18 PM EST · 21 replies · 265+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 2-3-2004 | Tom Leonard Veni, vidi, veggie... By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 02/03/2004) Roman gladiators were overweight vegetarians who lived on barley and beans, according to a scientific study of the largest gladiator graveyard discovered. Analysis of the bones of more than 70 gladiators recently found near Ephesus, the Roman capital of Asia Minor, puts paid to traditional Hollywood images of macho carnivores with the physique of boxers. The dietary findings of the scientists from the University of Vienna are detailed in a forthcoming documentary on Channel Five. They may give vegetarians a new, harder image. But the vegetarian stereotype is shattered by...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Possible wall of King David's Palace unearthed in Jersulam
	Posted by Liberty1970 On News/Activism 12/06/2005 9:02:09 PM EST · 40 replies · 928+ views Cleveland Jewish News Amazing discovery in heart of biblical Jerusalem By: DAVID HAZONY Special to the CJN Recent archaeological find, thought by some to be the biblical palace built by King David, stirs controversy over the right of the Jewish people to claim Jerusalem. In what many archaeologists hail as the potential find of the century, remains of a massive structure dating to the time of King David have been discovered in the heart of biblical Jerusalem. Eilat Mazar, the Israeli archaeologist leading the excavation, has suggested that it may, in fact, be the palace built by David as described in the Bible....
Harvard museum exhibit shows "The Houses of Ancient Israel"
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/23/2006 11:19:52 AM EST · 4 replies · 48+ views WorldNow and WFSB | February 2006 | AP The exhibit, "The Houses of Ancient Israel: Domestic, Royal, Divine," focuses on everyday life around the year 700 B.C. A cut-away model of an Iron Age home shows how the upper floor was used for eating and sleeping. The exhibit lays out a typical meal _ melon, figs, olives, cheese _ in anticipation of the family's return home from the harvest. The lower floor, used for keeping animals and storage, features a small sheep pen that gives a sense of how farm animals lived among people... The exhibit was inspired by the book, "Life in Biblical Israel," written by the...
Biblical Pool of Siloam uncovered in Jerusalem
	Posted by restornu On Religion 02/24/2006 10:45:58 AM EST · 41 replies · 358+ views Los Angeles Times | Tuesday, August 09, 2005 | By Thomas H. Maugh II Workers repairing a sewage pipe in the old city of Jerusalem have discovered the biblical Pool of Siloam, a freshwater reservoir that was a major gathering place for ancient Jews making religious pilgrimages to the city and the reputed site where Jesus cured a man blind from birth, according to the Gospel of John. The pool was fed by the now-famous Hezekiah's Tunnel and is "a much grander affair" than archaeologists previously believed, with three tiers of stone stairs allowing easy access to the water, according to Hershel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archeology Review, which reported the find yesterday. "Scholars...
King David's Palace Found in East Jerusalem?
	Posted by restornu On Religion 02/24/2006 12:09:21 PM EST · 5 replies · 111+ views taipeitimes | 2006 01 05 | By Robert Morley Does an amazing new discovery show that the Bible is supported by science? Many archeologists are calling the latest Israeli archeological discovery "the find of the century" (Canadian Jewish News, October 20). Eilat Mazar, an Israeli archeologist, is claiming to have unearthed, in East Jerusalem, the palace of biblical King David. King David was the 10th century b.c. poet-warrior and slayer of Goliath, whom the Bible says consolidated and expanded the ancient Israelite kingdom into a regional power. In approximately 1000 b.c., King David conquered Jerusalem from the Jebusites (Washington Post, December 2), and subsequently made it his capital....
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Carmarthenshire Cairn Reveals Link With Bronze Age Scotland
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/18/2006 2:23:12 PM EST · 8 replies · 217+ views 24hourmuseum | 2-17-2006 | Roz Yappenden CARMARTHENSHIRE CAIRN REVEALS LINKS WITH BRONZE AGE SCOTLAND by Roz Tappenden 17/02/2006 The excavation took place in 2004. © Cambria Archaeology New research on an excavated Bronze Age burial mound in south Wales has revealed links to funeral sites as far away as the Orkney Islands. The burial mound on the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire was unearthed by Cambria Archaeology in 2004 after it was feared that the weather and visitors to the area were causing permanent damage to the site. Fan Foel from Llanddeusant. © Cambria Archaeology Archaeologists discovered a large rectangular stone cist at the centre of the...
Ancient Refuge Found By Workmen (Ireland)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/25/2006 1:44:53 PM EST · 46 replies · 732+ views BBC | 2-25-2006 Ancient refuge found by workmen The stone-built tunnel leads into the hillside Workmen have unearthed 1,000 years of history on a County Down building site. They have come upon an underground stone-built tunnel in Raholp, where our ancestors might have hidden from the Vikings or from warring neighbours. Archaeologist Ken Neill said that with chambers off from the main tunnel it was a quite complicated souterrain, and probably built by better off farmers. The opening that led to the tunnel - which leads into the hillside - will be sealed and the passage left alone. "It was really somewhere for...
Neolithic site wins reprieve from diggers
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/21/2006 10:26:10 PM EST · 3 replies · 56+ views Guardian | Tuesday February 21, 2006 | Martin Wainwright It seems careless to overlook Britain's largest prehistoric site for the best part of 1,000 years - but that it what has happened in the case of the threat to the Thornborough Henges... And perhaps we will now take note of other ghostly palimpsests on the map of England such as the under-appreciated British Camp complex of the Malvern Hills and the mysterious drovers' highways that saw Serengeti-like movements of cattle in the prehistoric East Riding of Yorkshire and in Lincolnshire.
British Isles
Archangel Sculpture Rises From Lichfield Nave
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/20/2006 5:36:26 PM EST · 2 replies · 167+ views The Guardian (UK) | 2-20-2006 | Maev Kennedy Archangel sculpture rises from Lichfield nave Maev Kennedy Monday February 20, 2006 Simply red ... the carving of the Archangel Gabriel recently discovered under the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Photograph: Shelley Stratford The Archangel Gabriel, his wings still fiery with colour applied over 1200 years ago, has emerged from beneath the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. The Anglo-Saxon carved figure was found when builders, watched over by archaeologists, took up part of the floor of the nave to build a new rising platform for concerts and recitals. "None of us imagined that the project would provide a priceless gem, with the...
A Visigoth In Kent?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/21/2006 3:03:31 PM EST · 8 replies · 403+ views Wessex Archaeology | 2-21-2006- A Visigoth in Kent? The excavations at Springhead uncovered a large number of brooches. One in particular has turned out to be a very exciting discovery. X-ray photography showed that the 5th-6th century iron bow brooch was of Visigothic design, of a type known as Estagel. The Visigoths (West Goths) were one of the German tribes. Settled near the Black Sea in the 3rd century AD, by the 6th century they had migrated west and reached Spain and northern France. Kent was probably the most cosmopolitan region in the country at this time and Saxons and Jutes have left evidence...
A Visigoth in Kent?
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 02/21/2006 3:19:07 PM EST · 9 replies · 108+ views Wessex Archaeology | January 2006 | Roman Finds Group Newsletter Kent was probably the most cosmopolitan region in the country at this time and Saxons and Jutes have left evidence of their culture here. In the last 30 years or so, a number of objects of Visigothic design have come to light, mainly in south-east England. Now this brooch adds to the evidence for connections between the people of Kent and the small number of Visigothic groups known to have lived in northern France at the time.
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Villagers Claim Church Fresco Is Lost Michaelangelo
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/23/2006 1:46:13 PM EST · 34 replies · 666+ views The Guardian (UK) | 2-23-2006 | John Hooper Villagers claim church fresco is lost Michelangelo Parishioner's confession leads to discovery of monogram behind altar John Hooper in Rome Thursday February 23, 2006 The Guardian (UK) The fresco, attributed to Michelangelo, was discovered behind an altar in a village church in Chianti, Italy. Photography: Marco Bucco/EPA No one else knows what the pensioner told the priest about what he got up to when he was a naughty altar boy. But his confession holds out the tantalising possibility that there could be a lost Michelangelo on the wall of a village church in Chianti. For centuries the inhabitants of Marcialla...
Egypt Ruler Moved To Pull Down Cheops Pyramid For Noble Reasons
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/19/2006 7:27:58 PM EST · 36 replies · 783+ views Makfax | 2-19-2006 Egypt ruler moved to pull down Cheops Pyramid of noble motives Cairo, 13:30 An Albanian with Macedonian origin, Muhammad Ali Pasha, ruler of Egypt, Syria and Arabia in 19th century, had ordered his French engineer Linan to pull down the Cheops Pyramid. The Great Pyramid of Cheops had been rescued with two piastres, the then Egyptian currency. This information was documented in archive paperwork kept in Revolution Museum depots. Media in Egypt cited extracts of these documents. According to documents, the then Egypt ruler Muhammad Ali wanted to remove stone blocks from their pyramid in order to build a dam...
Lady Of Wells Reveals Her Secrets
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 02/19/2006 7:18:47 PM EST · 14 replies · 952+ views BBC | 2-19-2006 Lady of Wells reveals her secrets The current bishop wants to restore the throne room A mysterious medieval wall painting found beneath the floor of the Bishop of Bath and Well's bedroom has given up its secrets. The painting, which shows a partly-clad woman wearing a transparent dress, dates from between 1460 and 1470. It was part of the decoration of the throne room of Bishop Thomas Beckynton. Dr Mark Horton, of Bristol University, who researched the painting discovered it is most likely to be part of a scene representing a medieval paradise. "It was rather like something out of...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Google bringing search to historical manuscripts
	Posted by JerseyHighlander On News/Activism 02/18/2006 12:38:16 PM EST · 14 replies · 244+ views pcadvisor.co.uk | February 11, 2006 | Nancy Gohring Google bringing search to historical manuscripts Using shape-matching technology Nancy Gohring History buffs can search George Washington's manuscripts online today for terms such as 'revolution', but only thanks to the tireless workers who transcribed the hand-written documents into digital form. Soon, many other hand-written historical documents could be made available for the public to search - and through considerably less effort - if a research project funded by Google and being executed by three universities works out as planned. The project, announced by DCU (Dublin City University) yesterday, started on a whim. DCU professor Alan Smeaton has been working on...
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