[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #143 Saturday, April 14, 2007
Climate
Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high
	Posted by George W. Bush On News/Activism 04/10/2007 10:30:56 AM EDT · 270 replies · 4,435+ views BBC News | Tuesday, 6 July, 2004 | Dr David Whitehouse Sunspots reaching 1,000-year high By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Sunspots are plentiful nowadays A new analysis shows that the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years. Scientists based at the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich used ice cores from Greenland to construct a picture of our star's activity in the past. They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer. This trend is being amplified by gases from fossil fuel burning, they...
Agriculture
FSU Anthropologist Finds Earliest Evidence Of Maize Farming In Mexico (7,300 YA)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/10/2007 1:37:52 PM EDT · 22 replies · 296+ views Eureka Alert/FSU | 4-9-2007 | Mary Pohl/FSU Contact: Mary Pohl mpohl@mailer.fsu.edu 850-644-8153 Florida State University FSU anthropologist finds earliest evidence of maize farming in Mexico TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--A Florida State University anthropologist has new evidence that ancient farmers in Mexico were cultivating an early form of maize, the forerunner of modern corn, about 7,300 years ago - 1,200 years earlier than scholars previously thought. Professor Mary Pohl conducted an analysis of sediments in the Gulf Coast of Tabasco, Mexico, and concluded that people were planting crops in the "New World" of the Americas around 5,300 B.C. The analysis extends Pohl's previous work in this area and validates principles...
Precolumbian, Clovis, And Preclovis
Archaeologists Find 3 Prehistoric Bodies In SE Mexico (Tulum - 10-14.5k YO)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/11/2007 6:40:41 PM EDT · 49 replies · 742+ views Xinhuanet | 4-11-2007 | China View Archaeologists find 3 prehistoric bodies in SE Mexico www.chinaview.cn 2007-04-11 11:39:34 MEXICO CITY, April 10 (Xinhua) -- Mexican archaeologists found remains of two women and a man that can be traced to more than 10,000 years ago in the Mayan area of Tulum, Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute said in a statement on Tuesday. The remains were being examined by laboratories in Britain, the United States and Mexico, all of which had said the remains were people between 10,000 and 14,500 years ago, said Carmen Rojas, an archaeologist quoted in the statement. "This makes southeastern Mexico one of the...
Human Sacrifice
Ancient Mexicans took sacrifice victims from afar
	Posted by ruination On News/Activism 04/12/2007 2:45:32 PM EDT · 45 replies · 795+ views Reuters | Apr 11, 2007 | unattributed MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Ancient Mexicans brought human sacrifice victims from hundreds of miles (km) away over centuries to sanctify a pyramid in the oldest city in North America, an archeologist said on Wednesday. DNA tests on the skeletons of more than 50 victims discovered in 2004 in the Pyramid of the Moon at the Teotihuacan ruins revealed they were from far away Mayan, Pacific or Atlantic coastal cultures. The bodies, many of which were decapitated, dated from between 50 AD and 500 AD and were killed at different times to dedicate new stages of construction of the pyramid just...
Mexican sacrifice victims came from afar
	Posted by SwinneySwitch On News/Activism 04/12/2007 5:23:37 PM EDT · 25 replies · 423+ views UKTV | April 12, 2007 Archaeologists have discovered new evidence to suggest ancient Mexicans brought human sacrifice victims from locations hundreds of miles away. New evidence has been found to suggest ancient Mexicans could have brought people hundreds of miles for use as human sacrifices. Archaeologists examined the DNA of the skeletons of 50 sacrificial victims found at the Pyramid of the Moon at the Teotihuacan ruins in Mexico, finding that they may have originated from Mayan, Pacific or Atlantic areas hundreds of miles away. Experts believe that the bodies could have been decapitated between 50 and 500 AD, while the pyramid was being built....
Rome and Italy
2,200 Year Old Amphoras Contained Wine (Illyrian)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/10/2007 1:49:45 PM EDT · 17 replies · 482+ views Science Daily | 4-10-2007 2,200-year old amphoras contained wine SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina, April 9 (UPI) -- Parts of amphoras believed to be 2,200 years old uncovered in a Bosnia-Herzegovina swamp are suspected to have carried wine, experts said Monday. Snjezana Vasilj, head of a Bosnian team of archaeologists, said a preliminary analysis showed amphoras, found at what are believed remains of the first-ever discovered Illyrian ships, were used for transporting wine, the Bosnian news agency FENA reported. Late in March, Vasilj and her team found what they believed were the Illyrian ships in the Desilo location, more than 20 feet under the water level of...
Africa
Roman Africa [economic, political lines between Carthage and Numidia separate Tunisia and Algeria]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/11/2007 1:14:56 PM EDT · 34 replies · 208+ views Atlantic Monthly | June 2001 | Robert D. Kaplan From the parapets of Le Kef, on a rocky spur in northwestern Tunisia, one can see deep into the mountains of Algeria, whose border is a short distance away. A fort of some kind has existed here since Carthaginian times, 2,500 years ago, and the ocher ruins of ancient cities are all around. Dominating the view to the southwest is Jugurtha's Table, a massive mesa atop which the Numidian King Jugurtha held out against a Roman army from 112 to 105 B.C... Since the days of ancient Carthage the area that makes up present-day Tunisia has been like this: an...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Tehran's Standoff With West See Tourists Snub Persian Treasures
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/12/2007 11:38:19 AM EDT · 32 replies · 598+ views The Guardian (UK) | 4-12-2007 | Robert Tait Tehran's standoff with west sees tourists snub Persian treasuresIndustry faces collapse as tension grows over nuclear issue and sailors' detention Robert Tait in Tehran, The Guardian Thursday April 12 2007 Siosepol Bridge in the ancient city of Isfahan. Iran's tourist trade has been badly damaged by recent events. Photograph: Alamy With its enduring relics of a glorious imperial past, spectacular glittering mosques and breathtaking landscapes, Iran lays claim to some of the finest cultural jewels in the Middle East. But a potentially catastrophic collapse in the country's tourist trade is threatening to leave this dazzling array of attractions largely unseen...
India
Distributing Water (Ancient Indus Valley)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/13/2007 2:03:16 PM EDT · 21 replies · 499+ views The Hindu | 4-13-2007 | Dr T V Padma Distributing water DR. T. V. PADMA How did the people of the Indus manage to water their cities? In Indus cities, each house or group of houses had a private well, made with wedge-shaped bricks that slotted together in a cylindrical shape strong enough to withstand the weight of water when the well was full. This is not a simple matter, and required calculation ó otherwise a well could collapse once it was full of water. How did the Indus people keep wells and bathing facilities watertight? First, they used bricks that fitted together tightly. Second, they coated the outer...
Japan
Early Humans 'Mined' Tochigi Mountain To Produce Stone Tools (Japan - 35,000+ YA)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/13/2007 1:51:01 PM EDT · 11 replies · 263+ views Asahi | 4-13-2007 | Nobuyuki Watanabe 04/13/2007 BY NOBUYUKI WATANABE, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Humans may have trekked up a mountain 35,000 years ago in what is now Tochigi Prefecture to dig up raw obsidian ore to process into stone tools, archaeologists say. Trapezoid stone tools unearthed on Mount Takaharayama in the prefecture will shed light on early human history in Japan, they added. The tools indicate human beings at the start of the Upper Paleolithic Era (roughly 35,000 years ago) were already "mining" raw stones to produce tools, not just picking them up off the ground, the researchers said. Previous finds had led experts to believe...
Asia
Archaeologists Excavate Past Glories From Tombs (China)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/09/2007 5:27:20 PM EDT · 2 replies · 174+ views Xinhuanet | 4-9-2007 | China View - Chen Yongzhi Archaeologists excavate past glories from tombs www.chinaview.cn 2007-04-09 16:16:05 HOHHOT, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists have unearthed more than 5,000 items dating back 2,000 years from a complex of 385 tombs uncovered at a construction site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The local cultural relics and archaeology authorities estimate the tombs cover an area of 50,000 sq m and must have been constructed sometime from the Warring States period (475 to 221 B.C.) to the Yuan Dynasty (1271 to 1368). They believe 285 of the tombs belong to the Warring States period, 43 belong to dynasties of the...
Silk Route
Roman-Style Column Bolsters Han Dynasty Tomb
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/08/2007 9:41:47 PM EDT · 35 replies · 801+ views Peoples Daily | 4-9-2007 Roman-style column bolsters Han Dynasty tomb Archeologists excavate near a Roman-style column in a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto) Nearby villagers look on at the stone entrance of a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto) An archeologists cleans carved stones in a newly found Han Dynasty tomb (202 BC - 220 AD) in Xiao County, east China's Anhui Province, April 3, 2007. (newsphoto)
Let's Have Jerusalem
Jews Assists Ancient Chinese to Make Earliest Paper Money: Expert
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/09/2007 2:09:14 PM EDT · 22 replies · 240+ views People's Daily Online | Friday, December 15, 2000 | unattributed It is well known that "jiaozi," world's earliest paper money, originated in China some 800 years ago. But latest research indicate that Jews used to assist ancient China in doing this might surprise most people. "Jiaozi," also named "jiaochao," appeared in China in 1154 during the reign of the Jin regime (1115-1234). It was believed in the past that Jin regime hired coining workers of Song (960-1279), Jin's preceding dynasty, to make the paper notes. But Qiu Shiyu, researcher of the Harbin Academy of Sciences and expert of Jin history, concluded that Jews used to take part in the work...
Russia
Anomalous Zones Of Russia: Arkaim Town
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/12/2007 6:48:37 PM EDT · 28 replies · 415+ views Russia - IC | 4-12-2007 Anomalous zones of Russia: Arkaim town Four thousand years ago the local dwellers suddenly left the town Arkaim located in the south of the present Chelyabinsk Region and burnt the empty settlement. The town had a circular structure coordinated with the stars order. Many believe in mystical characteristics of the area and link it with the legends of ancient Siberia and the Urals. Specialists of the monitoring station of anomalies` research in the Urals claim that the specialized national park-museum Arkaim is a vast anomalous zone. Arkaim was found by an archaeological expedition of the State University of Chelyabinsk in...
Malta
Emergence Of A New Picture Of The Maltese Holocene Environment
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/07/2007 7:03:52 PM EDT · 10 replies · 355+ views The Malta Independent | 4-06-2007 Emergence of a new picture of the Maltese holocene environment A new picture of the Maltese holocene environment is emerging through Katrin Fenechís recent Ph.D. thesis entitled "Human-induced changes in the environment and landscape of the Maltese Islands from the Neolithic to the 15th century AD, as inferred from a scientific study of sediments from Marsa, Malta". The thesis investigates current theories through scientific analyses of sediment. For this purpose, an 11.2m long sediment core was retrieved from the Marsa Sports Ground, with the help of a mechanical corer, in June 2002, financed by Linda Eneix of the OTS Foundation....
Ancient Europe
Mystery Of The Fat Venus (Porn?)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/09/2007 5:38:27 PM EDT · 69 replies · 2,292+ views Stuff.com.nz | 4-9-2007 | Bob Brockie Mystery of the fat Venus The Dominion Post | Monday, 9 April 2007 WORLD OF SCIENCE - BOB BROCKIE We all know about those hand-sized Ice Age women carved in stone -- those plump ladies with huge breasts and behinds, tiny heads, artful hairdos and no faces. They're known as Palaeolithic Venuses and they raise a lot of puzzling questions: How come these almost identical figurines were found all the way from France to Siberia? How come this stylised carving tradition was practised and passed down over 20,000 years? What purpose did they serve? There are as many answers to...
Prehistory and Origins
Cavemen Chose Caves On Five Criteria
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/09/2007 5:16:57 PM EDT · 82 replies · 1,815+ views Discovery | 4-9-2007 | Jennifer Viegas Cavemen Chose Caves on Five Criteria Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsLocation, Location, LocationCave With A View April 9, 2007 ó House buyers today usually peruse properties with a checklist of desired features in mind. This aspect of human behavior has apparently not changed much over the millennia, according to a new study that found prehistoric cave dwellers in Britain did exactly the same thing when choosing their homes. The recently released three-year-long survey of approximately 230 caves in the Yorkshire Dales and 190 caves in the northern England Peak District determined that people there from 4,000 to 2,000 B.C. selected caves...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Stonehenge Amulets Worn By Elite
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/07/2007 7:11:50 PM EDT · 11 replies · 449+ views Discovery | 4-7-2007 | Jennifer Viegas Stonehenge Amulets Worn by Elite Jennifer Viegas, Discovery NewsSupernatural StoneStrking GoldApril 6, 2007 ó Forget dressing for success: Clothing ornaments thought to confer supernatural power were all the rage among chiefs and other important people in England 4,000 years ago, say scholars. A recent find indicates some of these fashion trends might have originally been designed by Stonehenge leaders. While working two months ago in South Lowestoft, Suffolk, British archaeologist Clare Good excavated a four-sided object made of the mineral jet. It closely matches a geometrically designed gold object found far away at a burial site called Bush Barrow near...
British Isles
7th Century Saxon Pendant Unearthed
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/10/2007 1:55:45 PM EDT · 28 replies · 1,107+ views icLoughborough | 4-10-2007 7th Century Saxon pendant unearthedApr 10 2007 A TREASURE seeker from Shepshed has discovered a 7th Century pendant near his home. Stacey Spiby, 36, found the rare and valuable Anglo Saxon piece of jewellery while combing a nearby field with a metal detector. The oval pendant, which is about 2.5cm long and 1.8cm wide still needs to be valued, but according to Peter Liddle, Leicestershire County Councilís keeper of archaeology, it may be worth "in the region of a few thousand pounds." Mr Liddle told the Echo: "This find is very unusual - it is very much like the items...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Have Scottish Archaeologists Found Rob Roy's Home?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/11/2007 7:09:01 PM EDT · 27 replies · 723+ views 24 Hour Museum | 4-10-2007 | Graham Spicer HAVE SCOTTISH ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOUND ROB ROY'S HOME? By Graham Spicer 10/04/2007 The large boulders may be part of the foundations for a 18th century turf-built longhouse. Photo NTS Archaeologists are excavating a house they think may have belonged to legendary Scottish outlaw Rob Roy. The National Trust for Scotland (NTS) dig is examining the lower slopes of Ben Lomond at Ardess, where Rob Roy is known to have lived in early 18th century. "Documentary evidence records that Rob Roy owned land at Ardess in 1710-11 and the Duke of Montrose became his feudal superior," said Derek Alexander, NTS archaeologist. "However,...
Faith and Philosophy
The 'Grave Slab Code' Baffles Experts
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/12/2007 6:08:53 PM EDT · 10 replies · 875+ views IC Newcastle | 4-12-2007 | Tony Henderson The 'grave slab code' baffles expertsApr 12 2007 By Tony Henderson Environment Editor, The Journal What could be a 900-year-old code is baffling archaeologist Peter Ryder. Over the last 30 years Northumberland-based Peter has recorded 700 ancient grave slab covers in the county, plus another 500 each in County Durham and Cumbria. But the carvings found on one 12th-Century slab, which had been recycled and used 300 years later in a church tower, have set Peter a puzzle. Three 12th-Century grave slabs were incorporated into the tower of St Michael and All Angels Church in Newburn, Newcastle. They have been...
Phony Stony Bony
Jesus Tomb Film Scholars Backtrack (Discovery's "Lost Tomb of Jesus")
	Posted by Reaganesque On News/Activism 04/11/2007 11:56:08 PM EDT · 30 replies · 904+ views The Jerusalem Post | 4/11/07 | Etgar Lefkovits Several prominent scholars who were interviewed in a bitterly contested documentary that suggests that Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript ancient Jerusalem burial cave have now revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth, a new study on the fallout from the popular documentary shows. The dramatic clarifications, compiled by epigrapher Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem in a paper titled "Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story...
Art
The Cigar Box Guitar
	Posted by martin_fierro On General/Chat 04/13/2007 6:32:59 PM EDT · 16 replies · 192+ views blogcritics.org | April 13 2007 | Jennifer Jordan The Cigar Box Guitar Written by JJ Published April 13, 2007 Music and cigars arenít something I usually equate with each other. In fact, cigars are almost the last type of smoke I think of when I turn the dial of the radio. If I hear Ryan Adams, I imagine him on stage surrounded by a grayish cloud, a cigarette dangling from his mouth. If I hear Bing Crosby, I imagine that his "White Christmas" also involves a black pipe. And, if I hear Willie Nelson, I think of a type of smoke sure to make him hungry for some...
Navigation
Hunt on for HMS Sussex and world's richest underwater treasure
	Posted by Dacb On General/Chat 04/07/2007 2:22:22 AM EDT · 16 replies · 707+ views CYBER DIVER News Network | 03 April 2007 | SINIKKA TARVAINEN MADRID, Spain (3 Apr 2007) -- In February 1694, British admiral Francis Wheeler set sail from the Bay of Gibraltar with an important mission. He was to bring a large sum of money to the Duke of Savoy in order to buy his loyalty and to ensure victory in Britain's ongoing war against France's Sun King Louis XIV. But when the HMS Sussex arrived in the Strait of Gibraltar, it was hit by a violent storm, and Wheeler struggled in vain to save it. The 50-metre warship went down with more than 500 men, 80 cannons and an estimated 10...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Holocaust Avoidance. British schools are jettisoning lessons to keep Muslims happy. [John Leo]
	Posted by aculeus On News/Activism 04/04/2007 1:35:48 PM EDT · 26 replies · 484+ views City Journal | April 4, 2007 | by John Leo Some British schools are dropping lessons on the Holocaust and the Crusades, seeking to avoid antagonizing Muslim students. A Historical Association report, funded by the department for education and skills, said teachers feared confronting "anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils." Some teachers also "deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades" because "a balanced school treatment would have challenged teaching in some local mosques." Give the study credit for raising the point that almost any history lesson could put some noses out of joint. Teaching about the slave trade, for instance, could leave both white and black children feeling alienated....
end of digest #143 20070414

[SunkenCiv]

Everyone will be overjoyed to learn that I got my income tax returns filed, apart from the City of Grand Rapids, to which I owe $6. There's a/an historical relevance, to the Civil War, because April 15th is a Sunday, and April 16th is Emancipation Day in Washington DC, delaying the filing deadline to April 17th.

After punching out at midnight, I stayed at work (copiers, printers, internet connection; I supplied my own calculator) just to do this, and wound up getting home after 4 AM. While working on it I slipped in a CD of favorite tunes, snacked a bit, chatted with the third shift skeleton crew, and generally took my time. Results look good. Mailed 'em this morning.

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #143 20070414

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

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Topics 1817018 to 1813501.

[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #144 Saturday, April 21, 2007
Prehistory and Origins
Israeli researchers: 'Lucy' is not direct ancestor of humans
	Posted by bedolido On General/Chat 04/16/2007 11:51:39 AM EDT · 46 replies · 485+ views jpost.com | 4-16-2007 | JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH Tel Aviv University anthropologists say they have disproven the theory that "Lucy" - the world-famous 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found in Ethiopia 33 years ago - is the last ancestor common to humans and another branch of the great apes family known as the "Robust hominids." The jaw bone of Lucy and the jaw bone of Australopithecus afarensis.
Chimps knocked off top of the IQ tree
	Posted by bruinbirdman On News/Activism 04/15/2007 9:26:26 PM EDT · 91 replies · 1,710+ views The Times | 4/15/2007 | Jonathan Leake and Roger Dobson ORANG-UTANS have been named as the worldís most intelligent animal in a study that places them above chimpanzees and gorillas, the species traditionally considered closest to humans. The study found that out of 25 species of primate, orang-utans had developed the greatest power to learn and to solve problems. The controversial findings challenge the widespread belief that chimpanzees are the closest to humans in brainpower. They also suggest that the ancestry of orang-utans and humans may be more closely entwined than had been thought. ìIt appears the orang-utan may possess a privileged status among human kindred,î said James Lee, the...
Hobbits
Hobbit Hominids Lived The Island Life
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/18/2007 2:19:12 PM EDT · 20 replies · 482+ views Yahoo News | 4-18-2007 Hobbit hominids lived the island life Wed Apr 18, 6:43 AM ET PARIS (AFP) - A tantalising piece of evidence has been added to the puzzle over so-called "hobbit" hominids found in a cave in a remote Indonesian island, whose discovery has ignited one of the fiercest rows in anthropology. Explorers of the human odyssey have been squabbling bitterly since the fossilised skeletons of tiny hominids, dubbed after the diminutive hobbits in J.R.R. Tolkien's tale, were found on the island of Flores in 2003. Measuring just a metre (3.25 feet) tall and with a skull the size of a grapefruit,...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Why (Super-Volcano) Toba Matters
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/18/2007 6:15:14 PM EDT · 24 replies · 728+ views Nova | Nova Why Toba Matters What can a volcanic eruption that occurred almost 75,000 years ago teach us about today's world of air pollution, global warming, and climate change? Heaps, says Dr. Drew Shindell, a climatologist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. For starters, knowing what the massive upheaval of Indonesia's Toba supervolcano did to the planet's climate (it might have cooled global temperatures enough to kill vegetation for years on end and perhaps hasten an ice age) offers sobering insight into what pumping billions of tons of chemicals into the atmosphere as we're now doing could result...
Climate
Map Reveals Secret Of Awesome Mavericks Waves
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 04/19/2007 10:42:14 PM EDT · 10 replies · 809+ views New Scientist | 4-19-2007 | Phil McKeena Map reveals secret of awesome Mavericks waves 17:27 19 April 2007 NewScientist.com news service Phil McKenna Seafloor map showing a long narrow ramp leading up to the Mavericks break (in black box) off Half Moon Bay in Central California. Blue = deep water, Red = shallow water, White = break zone (Image: Seafloor Mapping Lab, California State University, Monterey Bay)Rikk Kvitek, director of the Seafloor Mapping Lab at California State University-Monterey Bay Center for Habitat Studies at Moss Landing Marine Labs California Coast State Waters Mapping Project Images of the seafloor at Mavericks The magnificent waves in Half Moon Bay...
Ancient Autopsies
4600-Year-Old Skulls From Iraq To Get CT Scan
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/14/2007 11:30:28 AM EDT · 18 replies · 396+ views Philadelphia Daily News | 4-14-2007 | Ron Todt Posted on Fri, Apr. 13, 2007 4600-year-old skulls from Iraq to get CT scanRon Todt The Associated Press PHILADELPHIA - A pair of 4,600-year-old skulls from Iraq will be given a CT scan that promises to reveal the faces of two of the dozens of sacrificial victims found decades ago in the remains of an ancient Sumerian city. The procedure will be done Sunday at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on the skulls of a young woman adorned with gold ornaments and a man wearing a copper helmet, both found in the southern Iraq city of Ur in...
Death and the Maidens
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/17/2007 6:30:07 PM EDT · 27 replies · 655+ views Philly.com | 4-16-2007 | Tom Avril Posted on Mon, Apr. 16, 2007Death and the maidensPenn researchers tackle Mesopotamian mystery. By Tom Avril Inquirer Staff Writer Aubrey Baadsgaard says the ancient victims may not have walked into the Mesopotamian tomb and sacrificed and drank poison. She hopes CAT scans of two skulls yesterday will back up her doubts. JONATHAN WILSON / Inquirer Staff Photographer Dozens of maidens, wearing headdresses of gold and lapis lazuli, walked down into a tomb in Mesopotamia 4,600 years ago. Each raised a cup to her lips, drank some poison, and lay down to die, hoping to join a king or other royal...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Traces of Cyrus the Great Found in Borazjan Palace
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/16/2007 9:55:27 AM EDT · 4 replies · 40+ views Cultural Heritage News | April 14, 2007 | Soudabeh Sadigh Archeological excavations in vicinity of Borazjan Palace, Boushehr province, revealed that the construction of this half-constructed palace was started by order of Cyrus the Great, founder of Achaemenid dynasty (550-330 BC), and architectural evidence identified in the area are very similar to those implemented in Pasargadae palace.... The palace cover a 50x50 meters area and archeological evidence show that the huge stones used in its construction were brought from Tangjir quarry.
Iran dam said to threaten ancient sites
	Posted by NormsRevenge On News/Activism 04/19/2007 11:02:43 PM EDT · 10 replies · 185+ views AP on Yahoo | 4/19/07 | Ali Akbar Dareini - ap TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis. At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms. Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line...
Iran dam said to threaten ancient Persian sites
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 04/20/2007 4:44:56 AM EDT · 6 replies · 175+ views Yahoo | 4/20/07 | Yahoo TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian engineers began filling a new dam Thursday as archaeologists warned that its reservoir will flood newly discovered antiquities and could damage Iran's grandest site, the ancient Persian capital of Persepolis. At the inauguration ceremony, attended by Energy Ministry officials, pipes were opened for water to start flowing into an artificial lake created by the dam spanning the Sivand River, 520 miles south of the capital, Tehran. The lake's waters will be used to irrigate the area's farms. Iranian state-run television said the dam was opened "on the order of the President" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but the hard-line...
Greece
Ancient Thessaloniki emerges, thanks to digging for metro
	Posted by siunevada On News/Activism 04/17/2007 11:19:06 PM EDT · 9 replies · 324+ views Kathimerini | Iota Myrtsioti Tunnels will go deeper to spare antiquities Preliminary work on the metro is slowly bringing to light the story of Thessaloniki. The first architectural remains and portable finds discovered in the cityís historic center are just a sample of what the metro tunneling machine will turn up once it starts digging deeper. Though the exploratory digs at 350 points along the 9.6-kilometer metro line that were begun last August have so far uncovered only a handful of portable finds, a museum has already been found to house them. It is the Alkazar (formerly Hamza Bey mosque). Refurbishment is under way,...
Rome and Italy
Roman camp's occupiers may have built the Antonine Wall
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/16/2007 1:46:39 AM EDT · 2 replies · 1+ view Scotsman | Friday the 13th, April 2007 | unattributed Archaeologists have found a camp thought to have been built to accommodate Roman construction workers who constructed the Antonine Wall. It was discovered in a dig following the demolition of the former OKI factory at Tollpark, near Castlecary, North Lanarkshire. Ross White of CFA Archaeology said the rectangular camp's outline was first identified in cropmarks on aerial photographs taken in the late 1940s, before the development of the area. The camp was situated about 400 metres south of the Antonine Wall and midway between the Roman forts at Westerwood and Castlecary... Construction of the Antonine Wall began in 142, during...
British Isles
Digger blunder at site of Roman fort [ Caister, near Yarmouth, UK ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/16/2007 10:09:32 AM EDT · 10 replies · 148+ views EDP24 / Archant Regional | April 13, 2007 | Shaun Lowthorpe Norfolk Archaeology Unit (NAU) was commissioned to carry out a dig last year ahead of plans to build houses on a garden bordering the north-east corner of the fort at Uplands Avenue. A nationally important site, the fort was one of 12 built by the Romans stetching to the south coast, with the others in Norfolk being at Burgh Castle and Brancaster. The area in question was covered by a thin layer of tarmac, yet beneath that it was straight down into undisturbed Roman deposits allowing a fresh picture to be built up of an area stretching from the fort's...
Africa
[local] Artefact thieves ravage Nok culture [Nigeria]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/16/2007 10:03:39 AM EDT · 5 replies · 34+ views The Tide | Sunday, April 15, 2007 | unattributed The highly revered historical sites of the Nok culture have been reduced to a shadow of the past as looters have invaded the fields... Frankfurt University, Prof. Peter Breunig... said the Nok terracotta and its cultural links was still among the greatest discoveries of archeology and would continue to command global attention... Breunig said the museum at the Nok village does not meet acceptable standards ''as it is only a table with bits of artifacts"... Speaking at the same session, the Director General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Dr Joseph Eboreime, said the government had adopted a...
India
Archaeology - 5th Century Gupta Era Relic Found
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/20/2007 1:51:57 PM EDT · 4 replies · 168+ views News From Bangladesh | 4-20-2007 | Hasibur Rahman Bilu Archaeology -5th century Gupta era relic found -- This photo shows terracotta plaques with Brahmi letters, ancient forms of Bangla letters. The relics were recently found at Bhair Dhap dig site in Shibganj upazila of Bogra. PHOTO: STAR The Brahmi inscriptions show ancient formation of some Bangla letters Friday April 20 2007 12:30:03 PM BDT Hasibur Rahman Bilu, Bogra The archaeology department recently found cement-like ancient building material, known as "vajralepa", dating back to the Gupta era, during an excavation at Bhair Dhap site in Shibganj upazila of Bogra.( The Daily Star ) Rajshahi region Director of the department Abdul Khalaque said...
Australia and the Pacific
Wollemi Find An Aboriginal Seat Of The Gods
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/20/2007 2:02:59 PM EDT · 3 replies · 178+ views The Sydney Morning Herald | 4-21-1007 | James Woodford Wollemi find an Aboriginal seat of the gods James Woodford April 21, 2007 A ROCK platform in the heart of the Wollemi wilderness may be the closest thing Australia has to Mount Olympus, the seat of the gods in Greek mythology. Last spring archaeologists discovered an enormous slab of sandstone, 100 metres long and 50 metres wide, in the 500,000-hectare Wollemi National Park. It was covered in ancient art. The gallery depicted an unprecedented collection of powerful ancestral beings from Aboriginal mythology. Last week the archaeologists who found the platform, Dr Matthew Kelleher and Michael Jackson, returned with a rock...
Precolumbian, Clovis, And Preclovis
Mexico finds bones suggesting Toltec child sacrifice
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 04/17/2007 12:03:18 PM EDT · 18 replies · 196+ views Washington Post | Tuesday, April 17, 2007 | Monica Medel (Reuters) The grisly find of the buried bones of 24 pre-Hispanic Mexican children may be the first evidence that the ancient Toltec civilization sacrificed children, an archeologist studying the remains said on Monday. The bones, dating from 950 AD to 1150 AD and dug up at the Toltecs' former capital Tula, north of present day Mexico City, indicated the children had been decapitated in a group. The way the children, aged between 5 and 15, were placed in the grave, and the fact they were buried with a figurine of Tlaloc, the God of rain, also pointed to a group sacrifice,...
Pre-Incan Mettalurgy Discovered
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/19/2007 7:43:37 PM EDT · 16 replies · 320+ views Yahoo News/Live Science | 4-19-2007 | Charles Q. Choi Pre-Incan Metallurgy Discovered Charles Q. Choi Special to LiveScience Thu Apr 19, 9:50 AM ET Metals found in lake mud in the central Peruvian Andes have revealed the first evidence for pre-Colonial metalsmithing there. These findings illustrate a way that archaeologists can recreate the past even when looters have destroyed the valuable artifacts that would ordinarily be relied upon to reveal historical secrets. For instance, the new research hints at a tax imposed on local villages by ancient Inca rulers to force a switch from production of copper to silver. Pre-Colonial bronze artifacts have previously been found in the central...
Archaeologists Explore Ocean Floor For Clues To Early Coastal Settlements
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 04/20/2007 1:37:02 PM EDT · 11 replies · 255+ views University Of Connecuit | 4-23-2007 | Cindy Weiss Archaeologists explore ocean floor for clues to early coastal settlement by Cindy Weiss - April 23, 2007 Anthropologists in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are identifying new sites to study archaeology that are fathoms, not feet, under the surface. Anthropology professor Kevin McBride and doctoral candidate David Robinson are scoping out early coastal human settlement sites, now under water, that could reveal clues to how the Americas were settled. McBride says early submerged sites may yield evidence of how the earliest coastal residents lived and how they got here. McBride, who is also director of research at the...
Navigation
Mystery Surrounds Possible Oldest Church in North America
	Posted by NYer On Religion 04/17/2007 5:12:55 PM EDT · 25 replies · 429+ views Yahoo News | April 16, 2007 | Heather Whipps North America's oldest church may lie beneath a small town in Newfoundland, according to information cobbled together from the research of a historian who recently died before publishing her seminal work. "To describe Alwyn Ruddock's claims as revolutionary would not be an exaggeration," Jones said. "If Ruddock is right, it means that the remains of the only medieval church in North America may still lie buried under the modern town of Carbonear."Ruddock, a historian with the University of London, was one of the world's foremost experts on Cabot's voyages until her death in late 2005. In keeping with her will,...
Early America
Israel Bissell outrode Paul Revere, yet didn't get a poem
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 04/14/2007 7:23:19 PM EDT · 45 replies · 687+ views Associated Press WHDH | 4-14-07 | Anon BOSTON -- Paul Revere gets all the glory for his midnight ride. After all, it was a stirring tale of patriotism told by a great storyteller. But one young messenger who called the colonists to arms during a remarkable five-day dash across five states is a mere footnote -- a man mentioned in historical documents that didn't even get his first name right. They called him Trail. His name was Israel Bissell, and he is one of the Revolutionary War's most unheralded heroes. Bissell, a 23-year-old postal rider when the war broke out on April 19, 1775, rode day and...
Dey Mansion serves as headquarters
	Posted by Coleus On General/Chat 04/15/2007 12:29:35 AM EDT · 5 replies · 40+ views NorthJersey.com | 04.14.07 † Visitors to the Dey Mansion in Wayne are being transported back in time this weekend with 18th-century crafts, merchants and musket drills. General George Washington used the eastern side of the Georgian mansion in 1780 as his headquarters during the American Revolution. The home was built around 1740 by Dirck Dey and inherited by his son Theunis, a colonel who commanded the Bergen County Militia. The Spring Encampment continues on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Oh So Mysteriouso
The Last Confessions of E Howard Hunt
	Posted by meg88 OnNews/Activism 03/28/2007 2:29:12 PM EDT · 118 replies · 487+ views Rolling Stone Magazine | April 2nd 2007 | Erik Hedegaard Once, when the old spymaster thought he was dying, his eldest son came to visit him at his home in Miami. The scourges recently had been constant and terrible: lupus, pneumonia, cancers of the jaw and prostate, gangrene, the amputation of his left leg. Long past were his years of heroic service to the country. In the CIA, he'd helped mastermind the violent removal of a duly elected leftist president in Guatemala and assisted in subterfuges that led to the murder of Che Guevara. But no longer could you see in him the suave, pipe-smoking, cocktail-party-loving clandestine operative whose Cold...
The secrets and lies that a Cold-War warrior took to his grave
	Posted by Condor 63 OnGeneral/Chat 04/20/2007 4:47:35 PM EDT · 9 replies · 190+ views The Sunday Times | April 15, 2007 | Erik Hedegaard When the old spymaster thought he was dying, his eldest son came to visit him at his home in Miami. The scourges had been constant and terrible recently: lupus, pneumonia, cancers of the jaw and prostate, gangrene, the amputation of his left leg. Long past were his years of heroic service to his country. In the CIA, he had helped to mastermind the violent removal of a duly elected leftist president in Guatemala and assisted in subterfuges that led to the murder of Che Guevara. But no longer could you see in him the suave, pipe-smoking, cocktail-party-loving clandestine operative whose...
Anatolia
Rare footage of WWI Gallipoli battle unearthed
	Posted by george76 On News/Activism 04/19/2007 1:35:57 AM EDT · 28 replies · 1,194+ views Reuters | Apr 18, 2007 | Stephanie Boyle The Australian War Memorial has unearthed what it believes is the only footage of Anzac Cove during the Gallipoli battle of World War One, an iconic event in Australian history which is commemorated each year on Anzac Day. The one-minute grainy black and white film, which shows the shoreline at Anzac Cove and British soldiers massing at Suvla Bay, was shot in 1915 during the pioneering era of film. The footage pans across Anzac Cove from a position on the southern headland, showing a clutter of jetties and stores being unloaded. "Because we have so little authentic footage, everything we...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Irish village gets its harlot back
	Posted by bedolido On General/Chat 04/16/2007 10:55:19 AM EDT · 50 replies · 476+ views ABCNews | 4-16-2007 | staff writer A village in south-west Ireland has won a fresh round in a battle to change its name in the Irish language back to Fort of the Harlot. For centuries, the village known as Doon in English had been known in Irish as Dun Bleisce, or Fort of the Harlot, but the name was changed in 2003 when the Government ordered a simpler An Dun, or The Fort. The unpopular move led to 1,000 locals signing a petition to have 'harlot' added back to the name. They were backed by local politicians and a Limerick County Council motion of support.
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