Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #125
Saturday, December 9, 2006
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Let's Have Jerusalem
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Destroying Jerusalem ["Too many Jews in Jewish Quarter"]
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Posted by Alouette
On News/Activism 12/06/2006 7:36:05 AM EST · 14 replies · 470+ views
YNet | Dec. 6, 2006 | Nurit Pletter
Wave of illegal building threatens Jewish Quarter of Old City. Jewish residents of Old City are part of biggest danger to identity of Israel's historic capital. Interior Ministry: Expanding houses and building awnings damages remains of 2000 years of Jewish existence in quarter. Antiquities Authority: Difficulty enforcing law within buildings Nurit Pletter Published: 12.06.06, 14:06 Changes in the Jewish Quarter's population makeup are threatening historical buildings and rare archeological remains, which are testimony to the thousands of years of Jewish presences in the holy city. The Jewish Quarter is the only place in the world in which some private houses...
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Ancient Jewish-Christian settlement found in Mishmar David
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Posted by SJackson
On News/Activism 12/03/2006 5:15:51 PM EST · 21 replies · 470+ views
Jerusalem Post | 12-3-06 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS
The remains of an ancient Jewish and Christian settlement, which later became Muslim, dating back to the Early Islamic period and the Crusader Period have been uncovered between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday. The large six-dunam settlement, which was found in Mishmar David, located between Rehovot and Latrun, was discovered during an archeological salvage excavation in the area ahead of planned construction work at the site. The archeologists digging at the site discovered the remnants of residential buildings, villas, public buildings, streets and alleys, as well as an industrial zone, which housed agricultural installations. Two...
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Hungarian archaeologist discovers tablet mentioning Masada's destroyer
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 1:14:32 AM EST · 12 replies · 284+ views
Haaretz | November 5, 2006 | Nadav Shragai
In 73 CE, the Roman governor of Judea, Flavius Silva, laid siege to Masada with Legion X Fretensis. When the walls were broken down by a battering ram, the Romans found the fortress' defenders had set fire to all the structures and preferred mass suicide to captivity or defeat. Masada has since become part of Jewish mythology, as has the name Silva, who Josephus Flavius mentions in his writings. It is therefore no great surprise that Hungarian archaeologist Dr. Tibor Grull, studying in Israel three years ago, was excited to discover a stone tablet during a visit to the Temple...
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Shrouded bones could be crucifixion witness
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/07/2006 1:28:27 AM EST · 3 replies · 144+ views
Ananova | Friday 29th March 2002 | unattributed, probably Ann N. Nova
Archeologists believe a 2,000-year-old shrouded body found in a tomb near Jerusalem may have been a witness to Christ's crucifixion. The bones, and a well-preserved clump of hair, were wrapped in the only shroud from Christ's time to have been found in Israel. They were discovered by a British archaeologist as he showed students around 1st-century tombs in the Hinnom Valley. The shroud has been carbon dated to the first 50 years of the 1st century AD. DNA tests on the remains indicate the body was that of a male who died of acute tuberculosis... The area is believed to...
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Ancient Art
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Thieves Vandalize Ancient Fresco at Israel's Masada
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Posted by presidio9
On News/Activism 12/22/2003 10:10:39 AM EST · 6 replies · 114+ views
Reuters | Sun Dec 21, 2003
Souvenir-hunting thieves have stolen part of an ancient fresco from the Israeli archaeological site of Masada, Israeli officials said on Sunday. The thieves removed a 15 cm (6 inch) square section of a fresco that decorated the ancient Roman headquarters at Masada, located on a barren mountain overlooking the Dead Sea, the National Parks Authority said in a statement. Masada was originally a palace built by the Jewish King Herod on a desert mountain whose sheer sides served as a natural fortress. After the Romans conquered Jerusalem and destroyed the Jewish Temple in AD 70, Jewish fighters took refuge there....
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Faith and Philosophy
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Jews revive ancient synagogue
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Posted by Alouette
On News/Activism 05/24/2004 7:07:22 PM EDT · 64 replies · 209+ views
The Australian | May 25, 2004
A GROUP of ultra-Orthodox Jews brought a Torah scroll to the mountain-top fortress of Masada today to rededicate one of the oldest synagogues in the world, which has been unused since the Romans destroyed it nearly 2000 years ago. Almost 1000 religious Jews gathered at the foot of the fortress overnight before hiking up the steep path which leads to the top of the mountain that overlooks the Dead Sea. The foreign-donated scroll was placed in a room of the partially renovated synagogue on the edge of the site which the Romans attacked from a sloping ramp in 73 AD...
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Byzantine arch found at site of renovated Jerusalem synagogue [ Hurva Synagogue ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 1:25:23 AM EST · 5 replies · 108+ views
Haaretz | Tuesday, November 28, 2006 | Nadav Shragai
A high arch which had been part of the skyline of the Jewish Quarter in the Old City in Jerusalem since the Six Day War has recently disappeared. It belonged to the Hurva Synagogue, Israel's grandest, most important synagogue until the War of Independence. The arch, a remnant of the synagogue bombed by the Jordanians in 1948, was removed due to the renovation and reconstruction of the synagogue now in progress. Excavations at the site, directed by archaeologists Hillel Geva and Oren Gutfeld, have exposed findings from various periods of the synagogue's history. The most significant is an entire arch...
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'Church of the Ark' found on West Bank (Israel)
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Posted by NYer
On News/Activism 12/04/2006 9:07:52 AM EST · 85 replies · 2,430+ views
Telegraph | December 4, 2006 | Harry de Quetteville
Archaeologists claimed yesterday to have uncovered one of the world's first churches, built on a site believed to have once housed the Ark of the Covenant.The site, emerging from the soil in a few acres in the hills of the Israeli occupied West Bank, is richly decorated with brightly coloured mosaics and inscriptions referring to Jesus Christ. † Archaeologists look over a mosaic discovered at Shiloh According to the team, led by Yitzhak Magen and Yevgeny Aharonovitch, the church dates to the late 4th century, making it one of Christianity's first formal places of worship."I can't say for sure at...
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Vatican City
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Vatican archaeologists unearth St. Paul's tomb
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Posted by NYer
On Religion 12/06/2006 9:18:21 AM EST · 498 replies · 5,224+ views
Pravda | December 6, 2006
Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome's second largest basilica. The sarcophagus, which dates back to at least 390 A.D., has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week. "Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who headed the project at St. Paul Outside the Walls basilica....
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Remains of Apostle Paul May Have Been Found
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Posted by HAL9000
On News/Activism 12/06/2006 7:29:58 PM EST · 371 replies · 6,766+ views
Associated Press (excerpt) | December 6, 2006
Excerpt - ROME (AP) - Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome's second largest basilica. The sarcophagus, which dates back to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week. ~ snip ~
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Remains of St. Paul may have been found
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Posted by TaraP
On Religion 12/07/2006 2:08:06 PM EST · 28 replies · 410+ views
Religion News | Dec 6th, 2006
ROME -- Vatican archaeologists have unearthed a sarcophagus believed to contain the remains of the Apostle Paul that had been buried beneath Rome's second largest basilica. The sarcophagus, which dates back to at least A.D. 390, has been the subject of an extended excavation that began in 2002 and was completed last month, the project's head said this week. "Our objective was to bring the remains of the tomb back to light for devotional reasons, so that it could be venerated and be visible," said Giorgio Filippi, the Vatican archaeologist who headed the project at St. Paul Outside the Walls...
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Rome and Italy
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Emperor Maxentius insignia found in Rome
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Posted by NormsRevenge
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 2:57:26 PM EST · 12 replies · 201+ views
AP on Yahoo | 12/3/06 | Marta Falconi - ap
ROME - Archaeologists have unearthed what they say are the only existing imperial insignia belonging to Emperor Maxentius -- precious objects that were buried to preserve them and keep them from enemies when he was defeated by his rival Constantine. Excavation under Rome's Palatine Hill near the Colosseum turned up items including three lances and four javelins that experts said are striking for their completeness -- digs usually turn up only fragments -- and the fact that they are the only known artifacts of their kind. Clementina Panella, the archaeologist who made the discovery, said the insignia were likely hidden...
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Epigraphy and Language
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Experts reconstruct Leonardo fingerprint
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/02/2006 11:59:39 PM EST · 6 replies · 101+ views
Yahoo! AP | Fri Dec 1, 2006 | Marta Falconi
The research was based on a first core of photographs of about 200 fingerprints -- most of them partial -- taken from about 52 papers handled by Leonardo in his life... The artist often ate while working, and Capasso and other experts said his fingerprints could include traces of saliva, blood or the food he ate the night before. It is information that could help clear up questions about his origins... "The one we found in this finger tip applies to 60 percent of the Arabic population, which suggests the possibility that his mother was of Middle Eastern origin," Capasso...
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British Isles
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University of Leicester archaeologists unearth ancient curse [ Maglus ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 12:23:59 AM EST · 10 replies · 90+ views
EurekAlert | November 30, 2006 | University of Leicester
One of the most interesting finds from a site on Vine Street was a 'curse' tablet -- a sheet of lead inscribed in the second or third century AD and intended to invoke the assistance of a chosen god. It has been translated by a specialist at Oxford University, and reads: 'To the god Maglus, I give the wrongdoer who stole the cloak of Servandus. Silvester, Riomandus (etc.) ... that he destroy him before the ninth day, the person who stole the cloak of ServandusÖ' Then follows a list of the names of 18 or 19 suspects. What happened to...
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Scotland Yet
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Barra bone find dates back to Bronze Age [ Scotland ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 12:35:36 AM EST · 6 replies · 78+ views
Stornoway Today | December 1, 2006 | unattributed
After many months of investigation by Historic Scotland, the AOC Archaeology Group and local archaeologists, the final data has been compiled which concludes that the bones all date between 1880 and 1490 BC... [T]he bones were exposed near Allasdale on the west side of the island, a site which has long been considered of archaeological interest... Describing the final conclusions of the project, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar archaeologist Mary Macleod, who initiated the investigation said: "The team excavated four small, stone lined graves, which contained the remains of 13 individuals, of all ages from new born babies up. It may...
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Ancient Greece
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Rare Greek antiquities go on display
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Posted by NormsRevenge
On General/Chat 12/05/2006 7:33:38 PM EST · 8 replies · 93+ views
AP on Yahoo | 12/5/06 | David Minthorn - ap
NEW YORK - Warned that the barrage of Persian arrows would hide the sun at Thermopylae, the Spartan hero Dienekes replied with cool bravado, It will be pleasant to fight in the shade. Known for their terse, unflinching way of speaking, these consummate warriors from the Lakonia region of Greece were known as laconic, or sparing of words. The term also applies to their art. "Athens-Sparta," opening Wednesday at the Onassis Cultural Center, presents 289 archaeological artifacts from the paramount city states of ancient Greece to illustrate their very different social and artistic legacies. Athens lavishly encouraged artistic creativity, which...
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Longer Perspectives
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Jay Ambrose: Thank The Ancient Greeks For Civilization As We Know It
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Posted by steve-b
On News/Activism 08/09/2006 9:58:13 AM EDT · 35 replies · 869+ views
DC Examiner | 8/9/06 | Jay Ambrose
True or false? Eight hundred years ago, a monk did his best to erase a copy of some of Archimedes' most important work, putting some prayers on the parchment instead, and the words of the great Greek mathematician were then gone forever. False. At Stanford University in California, some scientists are using X-ray technology to make the older ink shine through the later scribbling, thereby recovering a remarkable piece of history and doing something else to boot. They are giving us an illustration among many of how a civilization made great in part by the Greeks of antiquity remains great...
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A New Picture Of Ancient Ethnic Diversity (Egypt)
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/08/2006 8:21:36 PM EST · 31 replies · 822+ views
The State | 12-8-2006 | Tom Avril
Posted on Fri, Dec. 08, 2006A new picture of ancient ethnic diversity By Tom Avril The Philadelphia Inquirer (MCT) PHILADELPHIA - Scholars have long believed that ancient Egypt was a genetic stew of ethnicity, as the fabled kingdom was both a center of international trade and often the victim of foreign invasions. Now, new evidence suggests that may have been true even in the upper echelons of society, according to researchers who have used a blend of art and science to re-create what the ancients looked like in real life. They have used CAT scans to model the skulls of...
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Ancient Egypt
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Egypt Farmer Digs up Ancient Temple
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/08/2006 1:28:01 AM EST · 8 replies · 147+ views
Prensa Latina | December 4, 2006 | unattributed (possibly "sus ymr jcd mf")
An Egyptian farmer found under his residence an over 3,000-year old temple with important inscriptions and drawings from that time, belonging to the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC). The site, in the locality of Sohag, 500 kilometers south of Cairo, was found six meters deep in a place where it is thought that there are other temples of pharaohs of the 18th and 19th centuries. According to local Al Ahram daily, on the walls are written names of kings, inscriptions and drawings. Archeologists continue with excavations to find new buildings devoted to divinities Anoris and Miht of the New Kingdom.
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Egypt finds 4,000-year-old doctor's mummy
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/06/2006 1:32:09 AM EST · 16 replies · 156+ views
Ya-hooooo! | Tue Dec 5, 11:59 AM ET | Reuters
The upper part of the tomb was discovered in 2000 at Saqqara, 20 km (12 miles) south of Cairo, and the sarcophagus came to light in the burial pit during cleaning work, state news agency MENA said on Tuesday, quoting Egyptian government antiquities chief Zahi Hawass. The doctor, whose name was Qar, lived under the 6th dynasty and built his tomb near Egypt's first pyramid. The 6th dynasty ruled from about 2350 to 2180 BC. Hawass said the lid of the wooden sarcophagus had excellent and well-preserved decoration and the mummy itself was in ideal condition. "The linen wrappings and...
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Egypt to dig up pharaonic tombs
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 12:29:17 AM EST · 3 replies · 66+ views
BBC News | Saturday, 2 December 2006 | Heba Saleh
Bulldozers have moved in to demolish houses in the Egyptian village of Qurna which sits on top of dozens of pharaonic tombs in Luxor. The Egyptian government is determined to move the 3,200 families of the village to an alternative settlement it has built a few kilometres away. Officials say emptying out the village will enable them to explore the tombs and to protect them from water damage. An official ceremony was held and the bulldozers moved in. They demolished four uninhabited mud brick houses in the village of Qurna, very near the Valley of the Kings in Luxor. Many...
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Amarna period
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Study: King Tut Wasn't Bludgeoned to Death
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Posted by aculeus
On News/Activism 12/02/2006 12:01:58 PM EST · 30 replies · 603+ views
Live Science.com | November 27, 2006 | By E.J. Mundell, Health Day Reporter
Dead men don't tell tales, but dead pharaohs might. CT scans of King Tutankhamun's mummy may put the world's oldest "cold case" to rest, refuting the notion that the ruler's enemies bludgeoned him to death. Instead, a festering leg wound may have led to the boy-king's early demise at 19, more than 3,300 years ago, researchers say. The scans, the first ever performed on an identified royal Egyptian mummy, "finally lay to rest this rather loosely based conjecture about a murder plot. I don't think that anyone who reads the findings as they are written can believe that any longer,"...
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King Tut Died From Broken Leg, Not Murder, Scientists Conclude
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/04/2006 9:31:46 PM EST · 34 replies · 919+ views
National Geographic Society | 12-1-2006 | Stefan Lovgren
King Tut Died From Broken Leg, Not Murder, Scientists Conclude Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News December 1, 2006 King Tut probably died from a broken leg, scientists say, possibly closing one of history's most famous cold cases. A CT scan of King Tutankhamun's mummy has disproved a popular theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was murdered by a blow to the head more than 3,300 years ago. Instead the most likely explanation for the boy king's death at 19 is a thigh fracture that became infected and ultimately fatal, according to an international team of scientists. The team presented its...
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Anatolia
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Bodrum's restored ancient theater to promote cultural tourism [ Halicarnassus ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/06/2006 1:49:50 AM EST · 2 replies · 23+ views
Turkish Daily News | Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | unattributed
The restoration of backstage rooms and tunnels discovered three years ago underneath the 2,500-year-old theater in the ancient city of Halicarnassus (modern-day Bodrum) has been completed, with the opening of the rooms to visitors planned for the coming tourism season... Three huge backstage rooms as well as two long tunnels -- one measures 30 meters and the other 150 -- used by spectators and artists to pass underneath the theater were restored... There are three nearly 40-square-meter backstage rooms carved out of the rock in the area, and archeologists estimate that there are at least 10 more backstage rooms underneath...
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Elam, Persian, Parthia, Iran
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Lorestan's Excavations Delayed, Illegal Diggers Smash Artifacts
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 1:03:46 AM EST · 1 reply · 45+ views
Cultural Heritage News Agency | 30 November 2006 | Maryam Tabeshian
Heavy rainfall forced archeologists abandon Lorestan's ancient cemetery of Babajilan while illegal diggers continue to destroy the region's invaluable bronze relics... [A]fter only 18 days during which archeologists were busy collecting the broken pieces of bronze artifacts dug out by illegal diggers, they had to return since heavy blizzard made continuation of their work almost impossible. The Iron Age cemetery of Babajilan has many times been plundered by illegal diggers and, according to Ata Hassanpour, archeologist of Lorestan's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department, the cemetery is now full of ancient artifacts destroyed as a result of illegal activities... [M]any of...
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India
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'Farming in India began much earlier'
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/06/2006 1:59:05 AM EST · 13 replies · 86+ views
Hindustan Times | December 3, 2006 | HT Correspondent
Professor VD Mishra said that new researches have revealed that agricultural practices in India started in Mesolithic period (6-7,000 BC), much before the Neolithic period (4000 BC) as is generally believed. This discovery has proved that agriculture in India started simultaneously with other parts of the world. He said that Sativa rice, discovered from excavations at Chopni in Belan valley, has proved that India did not lag behind in agriculture... Joshi said that encroachments around historical monuments should be stopped because it harms our heritage. Citing an example, he said that Gwalior Fort could not be declared World Heritage due...
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Climate
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Scientists Study Ancient Gulf Stream
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/05/2006 6:11:40 PM EST · 19 replies · 438+ views
UPI | 12-4-2006
Scientists study ancient Gulf Stream PASADENA, Calif., Dec. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say they've determined the Gulf Stream was weaker during the Little Ice Age -- a time of unusually cold conditions in the North Atlantic. That finding by David Lund and colleagues at the California Institute of Technology suggests changes in Atlantic Ocean circulation might have had a significant impact on climate during historical times. The researchers analyzed sediment cores from the Florida Straits -- the region where the Gulf Stream enters the North Atlantic Ocean. They discovered the Gulf Stream was about 10 percent weaker during the...
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Agriculture
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Why Altruism Paid Off For Our Ancestors
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/07/2006 5:24:36 PM EST · 22 replies · 501+ views
New Scientist | 12-7-2006 | Richard Fisher
Why altruism paid off for our ancestors 19:00 07 December 2006 NewScientist.com news service Richard Fisher Humans may have evolved altruistic traits as a result of a cultural "tax" we paid to each other early in our evolution, a new study suggests. The research also changes what we knew about the genetic makeup of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The origin of human altruism has puzzled evolutionary biologists for many years (see Survival of the nicest). In every society, humans make personal sacrifices for others with no expectation that it will be reciprocated. For example, we donate to charity, or care for...
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Prehistory and Origins
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Stone Age Revolution: Modern Humans May Have Divided Labor To Conquer
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/04/2006 3:38:58 PM EST · 40 replies · 814+ views
Science News | 11-4-2006 | Bruce Bower
Stone Age Role Revolution: Modern humans may have divided labor to conquer Bruce Bower Chalk up modern humanity's rise and the extinction of Neandertals to a geographic accident. That's the implication of a new analysis of material from previously excavated Stone Age sites. Homo sapiens evolved in Africa's resource-rich tropics. As a result, a division of labor arose beginning around 40,000 years ago that roughly corresponds to the arrangement found in most foraging societies today, say Steven L. Kuhn and Mary C. Stiner, both archaeologists at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Men in these societies hunt small and large...
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Neandertal / Neanderthal
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Did Starving Neanderthals Eat Each Other?
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/04/2006 8:01:47 PM EST · 46 replies · 1,012+ views
New Scientist | 12-4-2006 | Rowan Hooper
Did starving Neanderthals eat each other? 22:00 04 December 2006 NewScientist.com news service Rowan Hooper Neanderthals lived a desperately tough life, sometimes so close to starvation that when one of them died their compatriots would fall upon the body and devour it, according to new research. Scorned as clumsy, idiotic brutes with little in the way of developed culture, our pitiless modern view of Neanderthals may be tempered by new findings that provide insight into the terrible life our evolutionary cousins faced. Antonio Rosas, of the National Museum for Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues studied 43,000-year-old Neanderthal remains...
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...or by opposing, thumb them?
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Ancient ape ruled out of man's ancestral line [ Sterkfontein "Little Foot" ]
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/08/2006 2:08:09 PM EST · 4 replies · 66+ views
PhsyOrg | Thursday, December 7, 2006 | University of Leeds
Ancient remains, once thought to be a key link in the evolution of mankind, have now been shown to be 400,000 years too young to be a part of man's family tree. The remains of the apeman, dubbed Little Foot, were discovered in a cave complex at Sterkfontein by a local South African team in 1997. Its bones preserved in sediment layers, it is the most complete hominid fossil skeleton ever found. Little Foot is of the genus Australopithecus, thought by some to be part of the ancestral line which led directly to man. But research by Dr Jo Walker...
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Lucy's ancient bones to tour US
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Posted by annie laurie
On General/Chat 10/25/2006 10:01:56 PM EDT · 23 replies · 200+ views
BBC | 25 October 2006 | Unattributed
The skeleton of the fossilised, 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor known as Lucy, will go on display in the US, Ethiopian officials say. After four years of negotiations with the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Texas, Ethiopia agreed to lend the bones for scientific study until 2013. It is hoped Lucy's 11-leg tour will boost tourism and increase Ethiopia's profile as the "home of all humanity". She will leave her country of origin - and the origin of mankind - in June. As well as Lucy, the travelling exhibition will also include about 190 other Ethiopian artefacts including humankind's earliest...
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Closer to man than ape
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Posted by Ma3lst0rm
On News/Activism 01/24/2006 12:02:50 AM EST · 43 replies · 731+ views
The Guardian | Tuesday January 24, 2006 | Ian Sample
They already use basic tools, have rudimentary language and star in TV commercials, but now scientists have proof that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than other great apes. Genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans reveal striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolve that set them apart from the others. The finding adds weight to a controversial proposal to scrap the long-used chimp genus "Pan" and reclassify the animals as members of the human family. The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of...
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Small changes separate man from ape
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Posted by Ma3lst0rm
On News/Activism 01/22/2006 12:24:06 PM EST · 61 replies · 844+ views
Aljazeera.net | Wednesday 26 May 2004 | Reuters
Genetic code They looked for differences that would help separate the human sequence from the chimp sequence. Fujiyama's team found just 1.44% of the DNA was different at the level of single letters of genetic code. These letters, A, C, T and G, stand for the nucleotides that make up the DNA of all living creatures. The nucleotides match up to make amino acids, which in turn string together into genes that control the proteins made by cells. There are vast stretches of DNA that do not make up genes and scientists are struggling to understand their importance. Fujiyama's team...
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Giant Asian Ape and Humans Coexisted, Might Have Interacted
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Posted by Red Badger
On News/Activism 12/09/2005 2:40:31 PM EST · 42 replies · 954+ views
National Geographic | 12/8/2005 | Ben Harder (than what, I don't know)
Stalking through the forest, an early human hunter might have glimpsed an oversize ape through a thicket of bamboo. We may never know the outcome of such a prehistoric encounter -- or even if a meeting occurred. The mysterious ape, called Gigantopithecus blacki, has long since vanished from the Earth, and so has the early human species. But researchers have determined that the giant ape -- which might have been the closest thing to a real King Kong -- did in fact live at the same time and in roughly the same place as early humans. In China 300,000 years ago the two species might well...
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Giant ape lived along-side humans
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Posted by Brilliant
On News/Activism 11/14/2005 8:54:54 AM EST · 33 replies · 1,351+ views
McMaster University | Nov. 7, 2005 | McMaster University
Hamilton, ON - A gigantic ape, measuring about 10 feet tall and weighing up to 1,200 pounds, co-existed alongside humans, a geochronologist at McMaster University has discovered. Using a high-precision absolute-dating method (techniques involving electron spin resonance and uranium series), Jack Rink, associate professor of geography and earth sciences at McMaster, has determined that Gigantopithecus blackii, the largest primate that ever lived, roamed southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago. This was known as the Pleistocene period, by which time humans had already existed for a million years. "A missing piece of...
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Origin Of Bipedalism Closely Tied To Environmental Changes
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Posted by Salman
On News/Activism 05/29/2002 5:11:46 PM EDT · 104 replies · 1,823+ views
Space Daily | 05-01-2002 | staff writer at Space Daily
Origin Of Bipedalism Closely Tied To Environmental Changes Champaign - May 01, 2002 During the past 100 years, scientists have tossed around a great many hypotheses about the evolutionary route to bipedalism, to what inspired our prehuman ancestors to stand up straight and amble off on two feet. Now, after an extensive study of evolutionary, anatomical and fossil evidence, a team of paleoanthropologists has narrowed down the number of tenable hypotheses to explain bipedalism and our prehuman ancestors' method of navigating their world before they began walking upright. The hypothesis they found the most support for regarding the origin of...
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Astronomy and Catastrophism
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Ancient Crash, Epic Wave
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Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 11/14/2006 7:07:33 AM EST · 64 replies · 2,211+ views
NY Times | November 14, 2006 | SANDRA BLAKESLEE
Dallas Abbott The Fenambosy chevron, one of four near the tip of Madagascar, is 600 feet high and three miles from the ocean. At the southern end of Madagascar lie four enormous wedge-shaped sediment deposits, called chevrons, that are composed of material from the ocean floor. Each covers twice the area of Manhattan with sediment as deep as the Chrysler Building is high. On close inspection, the chevron deposits contain deep ocean microfossils that are fused with a medley of metals typically formed by cosmic impacts. snip... The explanation is obvious to some scientists. A large asteroid or comet,...
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Meteorite yields life origin clue
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Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 12/03/2006 12:09:57 AM EST · 12 replies · 251+ views
BBC | Friday, 1 December 2006 | unattributed
Hollow spheres found in a primordial meteorite could yield clues to the origin of life on Earth. Scientists say that "bubbles" like those in the Tagish Lake meteorite may have helped along chemical processes important for the emergence of life. The globules could also be older than our Solar System - their chemistry suggests they formed at about -260C, near "absolute zero"... Analysis of the bubbles shows they arrived on Earth in the meteorite and are not terrestrial contaminants... Dr Lindsay Keller of Nasa's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas, told BBC News that some scientists believed such structures...
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Meteorite's Organic Matter Older Than The Sun, Study Says
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Posted by blam
On News/Activism 12/07/2006 5:46:55 PM EST · 17 replies · 511+ views
National Geographic Society | 11-30-2006 | Brian Henwerk
Meteorite's Organic Matter Older Than the Sun, Study Says Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News November 30, 2006Organic globules found in a meteorite that slammed into Canada's Tagish Lake may be older than our sun, a new study says. The ancient materials could offer a glimpse into the solar system's planet-building past and may even provide clues to how life on Earth first arose. "We don't really look at this research as telling us something about [the meteorite itself] as much as telling us something about the origins of the solar system," said Scott Messenger of the NASA Johnson Space...
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Biology and Cryptobiology
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Mammoth bones found, reburied
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Posted by Dysart
On General/Chat 12/08/2006 11:15:53 PM EST · 4 replies · 66+ views
Star-Telgram | 12-8-06 | BILL TEETER
GRAPEVINE -- These bones won't talk -- at least not until they're unearthed again. Still smarting over the theft of dinosaur footprints this spring, the Army Corps of Engineers and the city of Grapevine have reburied parts of a Columbian mammoth that were found along the receding shore line. Visitors came across a jawbone and part of a tusk, and there may be more bones in the area, but there are no plans to study the location that is somewhere on 1,200 acres of Corps property under lease to the city, said Dale King, a conservation specialist with the corps. The find...
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S.Korea scientist says [he] paid Russia mafia for mammoth
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Posted by yankeedame
On News/Activism 10/24/2006 10:18:24 AM EDT · 6 replies · 237+ views
Reuters | 24 October 2006 | staff writer
S.Korea scientist says paid Russia mafia for mammoth 24 Oct 2006 09:26:03 GMT Source: Reuters | Email this article | RSS [] [] SEOUL, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Disgraced South Korean stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk said on Tuesday he spent part of private donations for research to pay the Russian mafia for mammoth tissues to clone extinct elephant species. Hwang, once celebrated as a national hero, was indicted in May on charges of fraud and embezzlement after prosecutors said he was the mastermind of a scheme to make it look like his team had produced stem cells through...
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Middle Ages and Renaissance
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Today's Birthday girl: Mary, Queen of Scots [12/08/1542]
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Posted by yankeedame
On General/Chat 12/08/2006 7:24:18 AM EST · 2 replies · 48+ views
Answers.com
Mary Stuart, aka Mary Queen of Scots, was born on this date in 1542. She was only 6 days old when her father, James V, died and she became Queen of Scotland. Mary, a Catholic, was accused of scheming to murder her husband and was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle in 1567. A year later, she escaped and fled to England. Elizabeth I initially provided refuge and then had Mary imprisoned when she was implicated in additional plotting, including a scheme to murder Elizabeth. Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1587. When Elizabeth died, she was succeeded by...
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Oh So Mysteriouso
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Revenge of the killer fairies[500 Year-old Death Records][UK]
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Posted by FLOutdoorsman
On News/Activism 12/04/2006 3:22:50 PM EST · 135 replies · 2,411+ views
Metro | Nov 29, 2006 | SARAH GETTY
The 500-year-old death records from Lamplugh which revealed some peculiar demises. Forget knife-carrying hoodies, people in the mid-17th century had far more dangerous opponents to worry about... such as spirits and fairies. Also, pitchforks, stools or even a trusty frying pan were the weapons of choice when it came to street fights, a newly unearthed burial register has shown. The document reveals the deeply superstitious -- and often brutal -- side of life in Oliver Cromwell's England. Covering deaths from 1656 to 1663 -- the manuscript reveals no less than four people were 'Frighted to Death by faries' while another...
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Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
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The Real Lost World Dec TV Primere Documentary
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Posted by restornu
On News/Activism 12/03/2006 4:25:43 AM EST · 24 replies · 750+ views
gryphonproductions.com
My dear friends I think ART BELL has out did himself this time this is really fascinating THE REAL LOST WORLD! Soon to premiere on Animal Planet; Discovery HD and also in Canadian Premiere look at bottem page to see air dates! CLICK ON PHOTO
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end of digest #125 20061209
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