[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #161 Saturday, August 18, 2007
Let's Have Jerusalem
Archeologists discover footprint made by sandal of Roman soldier
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 08/15/2007 2:46:56 PM EDT · 24 replies · 426+ views Haaretz | Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | Ofri Ilani Archeologists have discovered a footprint made by the sandal of a Roman soldier - one of the few such finds in the world - in a wall surrounding the Hellenistic-Roman city of Sussita, east of Lake Kinneret. The discovery of the print made by a hobnailed sandal, the kind used by the Roman legions during the time when Rome ruled the region, led to the presumption that legionnaires or former legionnaires participated in the construction of walls such as the one in which the footprint was found... Last year, the archeologists found an inscription written by two Sussita residents when...
Angkors Aweigh
REVEALED: Australia's raiders of the lost wat
	Posted by BlackVeil On News/Activism 08/13/2007 7:55:10 PM EDT · 8 replies · 306+ views Canberra Times | 14 August 2007 | Rosslyn Beeby Australian archaeologists using complex radar and satellite technology to map the medieval city of Angkor have discovered more than 70 new temples scattered across a vast area of farmland and forests in north-west Cambodia. University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans said, "It's huge. We've mapped a massive settlement stretching well beyond the main temples of the World Heritage tourist area in Siem Reap. "We've found the city was roughly five times bigger than previously thought." The newly discovered ruins of the ancient Khmer empire metropolis sprawl across 1000sqkm "about 20km in every direction" outside the United Nations listed World Heritage...
Sprawling Angkor Brought Down By Overpopulation, Study Suggests
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/13/2007 11:23:51 PM EDT · 19 replies · 351+ views National Geographic | 8-13-2007 | Susan Brown Sprawling Angkor Brought Down By Overpopulation, Study Suggests Susan Brown for National Geographic News August 13, 2007 Cambodia's long-lost temple complex of Angkor is the world's largest known preindustrial settlement, reveals a new radar study that found 74 new temples and more than a thousand manmade ponds at the site. But urban sprawl and its associated environmental devastation may have led to the collapse of the kingdom, which includes the renowned temple of Angkor Wat, the study suggests. Ever since the late 16th century, when Portuguese traders spied the towers of the monument poking through a dense canopy of trees,...
Map reveals ancient urban sprawl (bad enviro-policy blamed).
	Posted by Jedi Master Pikachu On News/Activism 08/14/2007 7:44:29 AM EDT · 16 replies · 484+ views BBC | August 14, 2007 The researchers disovered at least 74 new temples The great medieval temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia was once at the centre of a sprawling urban settlement, according to a new, detailed map of the area.Using Nasa satellites, an international team have discovered at least 74 new temples and complex irrigation systems. The map, published in the journal PNAS, extends the known settlement by 1000 sq km, about the size of Los Angeles. Analysis also lends weight to the theory that Angkor's residents were architects of the city's demise. "The large-scale city engineered its own downfall by disrupting its...
Radar reveals vast medieval Cambodian city: study
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 08/16/2007 1:04:41 PM EDT · 9 replies · 83+ views Yahoo news | 8-13-07 CHICAGO (AFP) - Archaeologists using radar imagery have shown that an ancient Cambodian settlement centered on the celebrated temple of Angkor Wat was far more extensive than previously thought, a study released Monday said. The medieval settlement surrounding Angkor, the one-time capital of the illustrious Khmer empire which flourished between the ninth and 14th centuries, covered a 3,000 square kilometer area (1,158 square miles). The urban complex was at least three times larger than archaeologists had previously suspected and easily the largest pre-industrial urban area of its kind, eclipsing comparable developments such as Tikal a Classic Maya "city" in Guatemala....
Catastrophism and Astronomy
NSF Press Release: Comet May Have Exploded Over North America 13,000 Years Ago
	Posted by baynut On News/Activism 08/15/2007 8:32:04 PM EDT · 40 replies · 837+ views National Science Foundation Press Release | August 14, 2007 | Cheryl Dybas, NSF A "black mat" of algal growth in Arizona marks the extinction of mammoths 12,900 years ago New scientific findings suggest that a large comet may have exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, explaining riddles that scientists have wrestled with for decades, including an abrupt cooling of much of the planet and the extinction of large mammals. The discovery was made by scientists from the University of California at Santa Barbara and their colleagues. James Kennett, a paleoceanographer at the university, said that the discovery may explain some of the highly debated geologic controversies of recent decades. The period in...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Ballard Chases History Again In The Black Sea
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/14/2007 4:32:33 PM EDT · 16 replies · 664+ views The Day | 8-14-2007 | Katie Warchut Ballard Chases History Again In The Black Sea Excavation of shipwreck part of 3-leg research trip By Katie Warchut Published on 8/14/2007 It's a painfully slow process, watching a robotic arm brush, inch-by-inch, the sediment off a 900-year-old shipwreck 400 feet underwater in the Black Sea. But when the dust settles, Robert Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Aquarium, and his team hope to have a better look into a time capsule of early human history. About 6 miles off the coast of Ukraine, Ballard watched from a NATO research vessel Monday on a high-definition plasma television screen....
Anatolia
Puzzle of Midas, tombs if Catalhoyuk and mosaics of Sanliurfa
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 08/15/2007 2:37:55 PM EDT · 2 replies · 4+ views New Anatolian | Wednesday, August 15, 2007 | unattributed Prof. Elizabeth Simpson from Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has combined the woodworks found in the tomb of the renowned Phrygian King Midas like a "puzzle" and after a careful study of 27 years, she brought to light 3 sacred tables belonging to the king. Simpson, who first found out that the drawings about the artifacts found in the tomb were incorrect, discovered afterwards that the two wooden pieces which were thought to be "thrones" were actually a "sacred ceremony table" and a "portable sanctuary". Carrying out her studies at the Anatolian Civilizations Museum of capital Ankara currently, Simpson...
Erythraean Sea
Ancient UAE Was Active Trading Hub
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/17/2007 7:55:21 PM EDT · 11 replies · 191+ views Xpress | 8-16-2007 | Derek Baldwin Ancient UAE Was Active Trading Hub · XPRESS/DANESH MOHIUDDIN · Archaeologists now claim that the Arabian Peninsula was home to developed settlements during the same period. Published: August 16, 2007, 12:13 By Derek Baldwin, Staff Reporter You might want to set aside those early school lessons that taught you the dawn of Western civilisation was confined to Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq). An expert panel of archaeologists from around the world now claim the Arabian Peninsula -- long thought to be a barren wasteland from around 5,000BC -- was home to developed settlements during the same period. In the August 3 edition of Science...
Faith and Philosophy
Claims Galore As Buddhist History Claims New Territory
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/14/2007 4:43:02 PM EDT · 8 replies · 205+ views The Hindu | 8-14-2007 | Parul Sharma Claims galore as Buddhist history claims new territory Parul Sharma "High time Orissa got its due as a prominent centre" Making a point: Professor James Freeman in New Delhi. Photo: V.V. Krishnan NEW DELHI: Even as there are claims and counter-claims about Lord Buddha being born in Kapileswar village near Bhubaneswar and not Lumbini in present-day Nepal as believed all along so far, an American anthropologist says it is time Orissa got its due as one of the most prominent centres of Buddhism in the world. "The numerous Buddhist sites in Orissa, the antiquities and sculptures found there reflect many...
Epigraphy and Language
Ancient Persian (Zoroastrian) influence on Hinduism
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 08/17/2007 9:04:01 PM EDT · 12 replies · 314+ views Cybernooon | 10/17/07 | Cybernoon Hinduism pertains to Hindus but the word Hindu itself is actually a Persian word coined by Cyrus the great in the 6th century B.C. to describe people who lived beyond the river Indus which was the eastern boundary of the ancient Persian empire. The Persians had a phonetic problem with the letter 'S' hence, Sindhu became Hindu just as Rigveda's Soma came from Zend Avesta's Hoama. Such fascinating phonetic affinities! Even the word Shudra in Hinduism's caste-system came from the Persian word Hatoksha. Originally, there were only three castes but the camp followers collected by Persians on their travels were...
Greece
ARCHAEOLOGIST MAY HAVE FOUND MYSTERIOUS LOST CITY OF APOLLO
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 08/16/2007 7:15:14 AM EDT · 13 replies · 245+ views Thisisexeter.co.uk | 8-09-07 A devon archaeologist believes he has found the Lost City of Apollo.Dennis Price, who shot to prominence after finding a missing altar stone from Stonehenge, is the man behind what could be an amazing discovery. Mr Price, a father-of-two who lives in Broadclyst, has undertaken years of research on the stone circle. With the help of language experts from Exeter University, Mr Price has translated the early works of the Greek mariner Pytheas of Massilia, who was one of the earliest visitors to Britain, in around 325BC, and who wrote of the City of Apollo. Now, after dedicated work, Mr...
Navigation
Neolithic Village Found In Orkney Sheds New Light On Stone Age Life
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/13/2007 7:32:54 PM EDT · 9 replies · 399+ views The Times | David Lister Neolithic village found in Orkney sheds new light on Stone Age life August 14, 2007 David Lister The remains of a Neolithic settlement discovered in Orkney were hailed yesterday as potentially as important as the Skara Brae village on the islands. The 2.5 hectare site is believed to date back nearly 5,000 years and to include a complex system of temples and dwellings spread over two fields. The find, at Ness of Brodgar, between the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, will add to the area's reputation as home to some of the most remarkable archaeological monuments in...
British Isles
How Bronze Age man Enjoyed His Pint
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/12/2007 7:39:08 PM EDT · 64 replies · 1,175+ views BBC | 8-12-2007 How Bronze Age man enjoyed his pint Declan Moore and Billy Quinn have an ancient beer theory Bronze Age Irishmen were as fond of their beer as their 21st century counterparts, it has been claimed. Two archaeologists have put forward a theory that one of the most common ancient monuments seen around Ireland may have been used for brewing ale. Fulacht fiadh - horseshoe shaped grass covered mounds - are conventionally thought of as ancient cooking spots. But the archaeologists from Galway believe they could have been the country's earliest breweries. To prove their theory that an extensive brewing tradition...
Sunken Civilizations
Fight on to save Stone Age Atlantis
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 08/11/2007 9:35:28 AM EDT · 7 replies · 118+ views BBC News | 8-8-07 | Eleanor Williams A race against time is under way to try to save a Stone Age settlement found buried at the bottom of the sea in the Solent. The village under the sea off the Isle of Wight was found by chance Eight thousand years ago the area would have been dry land, a valley and woodland criss-crossed by rivers. A swamped prehistoric forest was identified off the northern Isle of Wight coast in the 1980s, but Bouldnor Cliff's buried Stone Age village was only found - by chance - a few years ago. Divers taking part in a routine survey spotted...
Rome and Italy
Intact 2,000-Year Old Etruscan Tomb Discovered
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/13/2007 7:43:25 PM EDT · 30 replies · 804+ views Reuters | 8-13-2007 | Deepa Babington Intact 2,000-year old Etruscan tomb discovered Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:58PM BST By Deepa Babington ROME (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a more than 2,000-year-old Etruscan tomb perfectly preserved in the hills of Tuscany with a treasure trove of artefacts inside, including urns that hold the remains of about 30 people. The tomb, in the Tuscan town of Civitella Paganico, probably dates from between the 1st and 3rd centuries B.C., when Etruscan power was in decline, Andrea Marcocci, who led digging at the site, told Reuters. "It's quite rare to find a tomb intact like this," said Marcocci, who had...
Egypt
The Tale Of A City (Tharo - Egypt)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/12/2007 7:31:49 PM EDT · 5 replies · 203+ views Al-Ahram | 8-12-2007 | Nevine El-Aref The tale of a city The discovery of the eastern fortress of the New Kingdom military town of Tharo in North Sinai charts the military quarters used by the ancient Egyptian to protect Egypt's northeast border, says Nevine El-Aref From top: a worker brushing the sand off the newly discovered water channel; a bird view of the Tharo foundation; the inscription of king Seti I engraved on a wall of Karnak Temples photos courtesy of SCA The fortified city of Qantara East (Sharq) in North Sinai is often hailed by historians as Egypt's eastern gateway to the Nile Delta. Its...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
World's oldest telescope? [ Assyrian telescope? ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 08/11/2007 11:19:25 AM EDT · 30 replies · 337+ views BBC | Thursday, July 1, 1999 | Dr David Whitehouse According to Professor Giovanni Pettinato of the University of Rome, a rock crystal lens, currently on show in the British museum, could rewrite the history of science. He believes that it could explain why the ancient Assyrians knew so much about astronomy. It is a theory many scientists might be prepared to accept, but the idea that the rock crystal was part of a telescope is something else. To get from a lens to a telescope, they say, is an enormous leap. Professor Pettinato counters by asking for an explanation of how the ancient Assyrians regarded the planet Saturn as...
Agriculture
Trying To Fathom Farming's Origins
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/15/2007 1:42:04 PM EDT · 56 replies · 674+ views The Columbus Dispatch | 8-14-2007 | Bradley T Lepper Trying to fathom farming's origins Tuesday, August 14, 2007 3:22 AM By Bradley T. Lepper Tom Dillehay, an archaeologist with Vanderbilt University, and several colleagues announced last month in the journal Science that they had recovered remarkably early evidence for agriculture in South America. Working at several sites in the Nanchoc Valley of northern Peru, they found squash seeds that were more than 9,000 years old. This is nearly twice as old as previously reported farming evidence in the region. Dillehay and his co-authors point out that one of the most important aspects of this discovery is that "horticulture and...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Double-nosed dog not to be sniffed at
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 08/12/2007 5:00:11 PM EDT · 32 replies · 523+ views BBC News | 8-10-07 Explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell has had close encounters with vampire bats and angry bees, but his latest brush has been with a rather odd dog. He spotted a rare breed of Double-Nosed Andean tiger hound, which has two noses, on a recent trip to Bolivia. Xingu is said to be intelligent and fond of salty biscuits The chairman of the Scientific Exploration Society said the dog, named Xingu, was "not terribly handsome". He said: "This breed could be used for sniffing out mines or narcotics because they have an enhanced sense of smell." Colonel Blashford-Snell first encountered a Double-Nosed Andean...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Scientists Re-trace Evolution Via Ancient Protein
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/17/2007 7:44:48 PM EDT · 43 replies · 484+ views Newswise | 8-16-2007 | University Of Oregon Source: University of Oregon Released: Mon 13-Aug-2007, 15:00 ET Scientists Re-trace Evolution Via Ancient Protein Newswise -- Scientists have determined for the first time the atomic structure of an ancient protein, revealing in unprecedented detail how genes evolved their functions. "Never before have we seen so clearly, so far back in time," said project leader Joe Thornton, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oregon. "We were able to see the precise mechanisms by which evolution molded a tiny molecular machine at the atomic level, and to reconstruct the order of events by which history unfolded." The work involving the...
Longer Perspectives
Not Breeding Obvious In Splits Of Human Evolution
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/15/2007 5:51:14 PM EDT · 39 replies · 833+ views The Canberra Times | 8-15-2007 | Simon Grose Not breeding obvious in splits of human evolution Simon Grose 15 August 2007 ABOUT 353,000 babies will be born into the world today, about 700 of them in Australia. Same as yesterday and same as tomorrow. Many of their parents will worry about being able to properly feed them, or whether they may have contracted HIV in the womb. Whatever circumstances today's new children and their families face, every birth evokes a degree of hope. Firstly, that the baby is fit and well. Beyond that, a myriad of hopes can be evoked to lead their nation, to be rich, beautiful,...
South Beach Diet
Cannibal Tribe Apologises For Eating Methodists
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/16/2007 5:12:55 PM EDT · 118 replies · 2,243+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 8-16-2007 | Nick Squires Cannibal tribe apologises for eating Methodists By Nick Squires in Sydney Last Updated: 3:29pm BST 16/08/2007 A tribe in Papua New Guinea has apologised for killing and eating four 19th century missionaries under the command of a doughty British clergyman. Sorcery and witchcraft are still common in some Papuan tribes The four Fijian missionaries were on a proselytising mission on the island of New Britain when they were massacred by Tolai tribesmen in 1878. They were murdered on the orders of a local warrior chief, Taleli, and were then cooked and eaten. The Fijians - a minister and three teachers...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Medieval crucifix found in Austrian rubbish skip
	Posted by txroadkill On News/Activism 08/16/2007 6:07:08 PM EDT · 23 replies · 904+ views Reuters via Yahoooooo | 08/16/07 | Staff An 800-year-old, gold-plated crucifix that went missing after being seized by the Nazis has been found in a rubbish skip in Austria, police said. The crucifix, made of copper and enamel, was crafted in Limoges, France, and was part of a Polish art collection brought to Austria during Nazi rule, Josef Holzberger, police spokesman in Salzburg, said on Thursday. It was found in 2004 in the lakeside winter resort of Zell am See by a woman combing through a skip filled with the discarded possessions of a neighbor who had just died. "The lady had a soft spot for old...
Locals share tales about the homefront during World War II
	Posted by SandRat On General/Chat 08/16/2007 10:01:51 PM EDT · 3 replies · 44+ views Sierra Vista Herald/Review | Laura Ory SIERRA VISTA -- When soldiers threw nickels, dimes and canteens over the fence Joe Garcia and his brother knew what to do. After filling the empty canteens as quickly as they could from their family's drum of water, they threw them back before the soldiers were caught resting on their march. "Then they'd march off with full water canteens," he said. It's one of the memories Garcia has as a child in Sierra Vista during World War II and one of the stories from residents being collected for the Henry T. Hauser Museum's World War II Homefront exhibit. Local residents...
end of digest #161 20070818

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #161 20070818 · Saturday, August 18, 2007 · 29 topics · 1882867 to 1879711 · now 651 members ·
	Saturday August 18 2007 v 4 n 04 view this issue	Welcome to the 161st issue of the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list Digest. This has been another very good week, although we have some (mostly) non-pinged topics which were duplicative of past issues. Check them out, particularly if you're new. Last week's issue said August 4th, rather than 11th, in one spot, my apologies. There's a new header this week, "Erythraean Sea", and the topics are arranged in what I hope is the best order, although I usually stick with geographical order (west to east, east to west, whatever) to some extent. Your mind's eye will be busier than usual I think. Data Rescue II appeared to have worked when I ran it for hours last weekend. I believe I'll be reformatting the internal drive a week from now. Also, broadband may be coming to the lone prairie homestead by September, which will be nice, not least because I won't be paying for it. Make it a great week. Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #162 Saturday, August 25, 2007
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Handsome By Chance: Why Humans Look Different From Neanderthals
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/19/2007 8:45:36 PM EDT · 52 replies · 1,353+ views Science Daily | 8-16-2007 | U/C Davis Source: University of California, Davis Date: August 16, 2007 Handsome By Chance: Why Humans Look Different From Neanderthals Science Daily -- Chance, not natural selection, best explains why the modern human skull looks so different from that of its Neanderthal relative, according to a new study led by Tim Weaver, assistant professor of anthropology at UC Davis. Model of the Neanderthal man. Exhibited in the Dinosaur Park Munchehagen, Germany. (Credit: iStockphoto/Klaus Nilkens) "For 150 years, scientists have tried to decipher why Neanderthal skulls are different from those of modern humans," Weaver said. "Most accounts have emphasized natural selection and the...
South Beach Diet
Study: Men With 'Cavemen' Faces Most Attractive to Women
	Posted by jmcenanly On News/Activism 08/23/2007 5:32:03 PM EDT · 128 replies · 3,379+ views Fox News | Thursday, August 23, 2007 | Jeanna Bryner Guys with bulldog-like faces have been chick magnets throughout human evolutionary history. A recent study of the skulls of human ancestors and modern humans finds that women, and thereby evolution, selected for males with relatively short upper faces. The region between the brow and the upper-lip is scrunched proportionately to the overall size of their heads. Among the men who fit the bill: Will Smith and Brad Pitt. In a past study, researchers found a similar facial pattern in chimpanzees, with males having relatively shorter and broader faces compared with females, controlling for body size. Men with "mini mugs" might...
She's a Rainbow
Women really do prefer pink, researchers say
	Posted by Brujo On News/Activism 08/21/2007 2:32:12 PM EDT · 158 replies · 2,249+ views Reuters via Yahoo | 2007 Aug 20 | Reuters Boys like blue, girls like pink and there isn't much anybody can do about it, researchers said on Monday in one of the first studies to show scientifically that there are gender-based color preferences. Researchers said these differences may have a basis in evolution in which females developed a preference for reddish colors associated with riper fruit and healthier faces. ... "We speculate that this sex difference arose from sex-specific functional specialization in the evolutionary division of labor," she wrote in Current Biology. "There are biological reasons for liking reddish things." ... "Women have a very clear pattern. It's low...
Prehistory and Origins
Great ape find forces rethink on man's evolution
	Posted by DaveLoneRanger On News/Activism 08/23/2007 10:38:19 AM EDT · 267 replies · 3,720+ views The Guardian | August 23, 2007 | Ian Sample The discovery of a new species of great ape that roamed Africa 10m years ago has forced scientists to rethink the earliest steps of human evolution. Fossil hunters working along the Afar rift in central Ethiopia unearthed remnants of teeth they claim belonged to the primitive ape, a previously unknown species of gorilla they named Chororapithecus abyssinicus. The finding, if confirmed, will redraw the evolutionary tree of primates, suggesting that humans and chimpanzees must have split from their gorilla-like ancestors 3m years earlier than thought. Geneticists have previously put the date at which the human and chimpanzee lineage split from...
Multiregionalism
Did prehistoric man enter Europe through the Balkans?
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 08/23/2007 7:41:47 AM EDT · 13 replies · 127+ views SAWF.org | 8-22-07 Could the Balkans, rather than previously accepted areas such as the Strait of Gibralter, have been the entry point for the first men in Europe? ORESHETZ, Bulgaria (AFP) - A team of 20 Bulgarian and French archeologists are trying to prove this theory after 11 years of excavation and research in the Kozarnika cave in northwestern Bulgaria. The digging up at this mountainous site of traces of human activity dating back 1.4 to 1.6 million years throws into question theories about when and where man first set foot in Europe. According to current theories, the Europeans' prehistoric ancestors came into...
Africa
Egypt discovers what may be oldest human footprint
	Posted by fanfan On News/Activism 08/20/2007 7:06:14 PM EDT · 29 replies · 467+ views Yahoo | Mon Aug 20 | Yahoo news CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found what they said could be the oldest human footprint in history in the country's western desert, the Arab country's antiquities' chief said on Monday. "This could go back about two million years," said Zahi Hawass, the secretary general of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities. "It could be the most important discovery in Egypt," he told Reuters. Archaeologists found the footprint, imprinted on mud and then hardened into rock, while exploring a prehistoric site in Siwa, a desert oasis. Scientists are using carbon tests on plants found in the rock to determine its...
Ancient Europe
Lepenski Vir: a Mesolithic Paradise: The birth of town planning, the birth of sculpture
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 08/23/2007 1:46:59 PM EDT · 18 replies · 125+ views Smithsonian (via author's website) | 1975 | Robert Wernick Once the inhabitants had settled in, time seems to have stood still in Lepenski Vir. Study of the bones found there shows that there was no admixture of foreign population; the same people remained on the spot, intermarrying generation after generation, perhaps 120 generations in all - well over 2,500 years. During all that time they remained healthy. (Did they, like the ancient Greeks, toss aside the infants that did not live up to their sturdy standards?) There are no deformed or diseased bones here, and the women were so robust that it is hard to tell their skeletons from...
Agriculture
Today's White Rice Is Mutation Spread By Early Farmers
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/21/2007 7:28:54 PM EDT · 41 replies · 656+ views Science Daily | 8-21-2007 | CornellUniversity Source: Cornell University Date: August 21, 2007 Today's White Rice Is Mutation Spread By Early Farmers Science Daily ó Some 10,000 years ago white rice evolved from wild red rice and began spreading around the globe. But how did this happen? White and red grains of rice. (Credit: Courtesy of Susan McCouch) Researchers at Cornell and elsewhere have determined that 97.9 percent of all white rice is derived from a mutation (a deletion of DNA) in a single gene originating in the Japonica subspecies of rice. Their report, published online in the journal PloS (Public Library of Science) Genetics, suggests...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
CU-Boulder Team Discovers First Ancient Manioc Fields In Americas
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/21/2007 5:18:10 PM EDT · 25 replies · 471+ views Eureka Alert | 8-20-2007 | Payson Sheets-Colorado University Contact: Payson Sheets Payson.Sheets@colorado.edu 303-492-7302 University of Colorado at Boulder CU-Boulder team discovers first ancient manioc fields in Americas Prehistoric manioc plantation buried by volcanic ash about 600 A.D. may help explain how Maya supported dense populations CU-Boulder anthropology Professor Payson Sheets maps ancient household at site of Ceren in El Salvador. A University of Colorado at Boulder team excavating an ancient Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has discovered an ancient field of manioc, the first evidence for cultivation of the calorie-rich tuber in the New World. The manioc field was discovered...
Ancient Autopsies
Life Existed 9,000 Years Ago (Florida, 12,000 YO Artifacts)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/19/2007 8:35:45 PM EDT · 42 replies · 1,206+ views Sun Herald | 8-15-2007 Life existed more than 9,000 years ago Discovery made at Little Salt Spring Little Salt Spring ranks as one of the major archaeological sites in the western hemisphere. Even though only 5 percent of the spring has been explored, divers have found artifacts dating back 12,000 years ago. NORTH PORT -- After thousands of years underwater, a handful of North Port's history resurfaced in a Ziploc bag. "They don't call it hardwood for nothin'!" said Steve Koski to John Gifford after the two emerged from the Little Salt Spring with a radiocarbon sample last week. Koski, an archaeologist at Little...
Navigation
Were Seafarers Living Here 16,000 Years Ago? (Canada)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/21/2007 5:07:03 PM EDT · 30 replies · 749+ views Times Colonist | 8-21-2007 | Randy Boswell Were seafarers living here 16,000 years ago?Site off Queen Charlottes could revolutionize our understanding of New World colonization Randy Boswell, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 In a Canadian archeological project that could revolutionize understanding of when and how humans first reached the New World, federal researchers in B.C. have begun probing an underwater site off the Queen Charlotte Islands for traces of a possible prehistoric camp on the shores of an ancient lake long since submerged by the Pacific Ocean. The landmark investigation, led by Parks Canada scientist Daryl Fedje, is seeking evidence to support a contentious...
Vikings
Danes say sorry for Viking raids on Ireland
	Posted by Rb ver. 2.0 On News/Activism 08/16/2007 11:00:04 PM EDT · 172 replies · 2,254+ views http://www.guardian.co.uk | 8/17/07 | Owen Bowcott More than 1,200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. Yesterday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish culture minister, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to participate in celebrations marking the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship, but we are not proud of the damages to the people of Ireland that followed in the footsteps of the Vikings," Mr Mikkelson declared in his welcoming speech delivered on the dockside...
Stop The Apologizing Already - Danes Sorry For Looting And Pillaging (by the Vikings)
	Posted by DogByte6RER On General/Chat 08/19/2007 5:07:57 PM EDT · 7 replies · 79+ views RightWingNews.com | August 17, 2007 | RightWingNews.com Stop The Apologizing Already Apologies must be in this year, Danes sorry for looting and pillaging MORE than 1200 years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Viking raiders descended on Ireland, pillaging monasteries and massacring the inhabitants. On Wednesday, one of their more mild-mannered descendants stepped ashore to apologise. The Danish Minister for Culture, Brian Mikkelson, who was in Dublin to celebrate the arrival of a replica Norse longboat, apologised for the invasion and destruction inflicted. "In Denmark we are certainly proud of this ship but we are not proud of the damage to the people of Ireland that followed in the...
British Isles
Archaeologists Uncover County's 'First Capital (Cork, Ireland - 1200BC)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/21/2007 5:39:48 PM EDT · 10 replies · 380+ views Irish Examiner | 8-21-2007 | Sean O'Riordan Archaeologists uncover county's 'first capital' By Sean O'Riordan21 August 2007 ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have discovered what may have been Cork's ancient capital, built 3,200 years ago at a time when Rameses III was pharaoh of Egypt. A team of archaeologists from UCC, led by Professor William O'Brien, have carried out extensive research that sheds new light on what is the largest prehistoric monument in Co Cork and the oldest dated ringfort in the country. Their three-year project, funded by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Royal Irish Academy, shows that huge wooden defence walls once...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Seahenge Saga Comes Full Circle
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/23/2007 3:02:08 PM EDT · 19 replies · 749+ views EDP24 | 8-23-2007 Seahenge saga comes full circle 23 August 2007 The story of Seahenge has turned full circle, as the ancient timbers are returned to Norfolk. But as experts prepare them to go on display at King's Lynn Museum, CHRIS BISHOP finds an enigma that remains unsolved. Nearly 10 years after its controversial excavation, the mystery remains. While the upturned oak tree and its ring of timbers have taught us a few things we didn't know about our ancestors, we still don't know why they built it. Late in 1998, a long-forgotten landscape began re-emerging from beneath the sands of Holme Beach,...
Faith and Philosophy
Cameras Might Shed Light On City Crypt Mysteries (St Stevens Church)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/22/2007 6:20:05 PM EDT · 9 replies · 413+ views This Is Exeter | 8-22-2007 CAMERAS MIGHT SHED LIGHT ON CITY CRYPT MYSTERIES 11:40 - 22 August 2007 Thanks to modern technology some of the mysteries surrounding a crypt under the floor of St Stephen's Church in Exeter could soon by solved. Although the crypt has been there since the church was built in the 11th century it has no door, so architects and archaeologists are planning to use fibre optic cameras to see what is there. The church in Exeter High Street is undergoing a £1m restoration. The roof and tower are being repaired and the medieval sanctuary, which was above St Stephen's Bow,...
Egypt
Kingston Lacy Relics Offer Insight Into Ancient Egypt
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/22/2007 5:57:29 PM EDT · 3 replies · 125+ views 24 Hour Museum | 8-22-2007 KINGSTON LACY RELICS OFFER INSIGHT INTO ANCIENT EGYPT By 24 Hour Museum Staff 22/08/2007 In total, 212 ostraka have been discovered at Kingston Lacey, of which 175 bear identifiable texts. © NTPL A crate of ancient Egyptian relics discovered at a National Trust property has turned out to be a large collection of inscribed pottery sherds known as 'ostraka', used by scribes to write a variety of notes and messages. Among the pieces, found during work in the cellars of Kingston Lacy in Dorset are over one hundred tax receipts given by officials for poll tax, mortgages and income tax,...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Temple's location found, says Israeli archaeologist
	Posted by Traianus On News/Activism 08/19/2007 9:17:58 AM EDT · 67 replies · 2,242+ views WND | 08-18-07 | WND Using maps created in 1866 by a British explorer and passages from the Jewish Mishnah, an Israeli archaeologist and professor at Hebrew University says he has pinpointed the location of the sacred Jewish Temple, twice built and twice destroyed in ancient times.
Rome and Italy
Sardinia's Phoenician Settlement
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/19/2007 9:00:16 PM EDT · 9 replies · 256+ views Ansa | 8-17-2007 2007-08-17 19:38Sardinia's Phoenician settlement New digs on western coast may unearth ancient Othoca (ANSA) - Oristano, August 17 - An ancient Phoenician colony on the western coast of Sardinia may soon yield some of its long-buried secrets during new excavations. Othoca, founded by the Phoenicians some 2,600 years ago, partly evolved into the modern-day town of Santa Giusta but most remnants of the original settlement lie buried under a thick layer of mud at the bottom of a large lake. Experts believe the lake, separated from the sea by a narrow bridge of land, was once the port of Othoca,...
Asia
Inside The Emperor's Underground Palace (China)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/22/2007 5:46:36 PM EDT · 3 replies · 302+ views The Times (UK) | 8-22-2007 From The Times (UK) August 22, 2007 Inside the Emperor's underground palace Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent It covers an area the size of Cambridge but so far only a tiny proportion of the site of the First Emperor of China's underground palace for the afterlife has been excavated. Now Chinese archaeologists have used computerised imagery to complete a 3-D reconstruction of the giant tomb that lies 30 metres beneath a mound, with the Qinling mountains in the background. The dramatic imagery has been made available to The Times by the historian John Man, before he publishes pictures and a detailed description...
Sunken Civilizations
Experts Survey Seabed Off Gujarat For Dwarka Evidence (India)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 08/19/2007 5:12:19 PM EDT · 16 replies · 340+ views New Kerala.com | 8-17-2007 Experts survey seabed off Gujarat for Dwarka evidence New Delhi, Aug 17 : A group of archaeological experts and Indian Navy divers have conducted the first scientific survey off the Gujarat coast to establish whether or not the ruins on the seabed are of the mythological city of Dwarka, the capital of Hindu god Krishna. "The area off the Samudranaraya temple at (present day) Dwarka is known to contain structures which have been widely reported and interpreted by renowned scholars. However, no scientific study of the area had been conducted so far," Alok Tripathi of the Archaeological Survey of India...
Diet, Food, Recipes
World's oldest chewing gum found
	Posted by Daffynition On General/Chat 08/19/2007 10:02:15 PM EDT · 22 replies · 232+ views Metro UK | Sunday, August 19, 2007 | staff reporter Spitting out chewing gum on the street is a widely despised habit that can land you with a fine. But our tendency to discard the half-masticated blob appears to date back at least 5,000 years, it was revealed. The ancient equivalent of a Wrigley's Spearmint has been prised from the ground by a British archaeology student digging in Finland. The lump of birch bark tar dates back to Neolithic times and comes complete with Stone Age tooth prints. Sarah Pickin, 23, was among five British students volunteering at the Kierikki Stone Age Centre in Finland when she found the tiny,...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
PRC to Build Replica of Forbidden City in Anna Texas
	Posted by Vortex On News/Activism 08/20/2007 4:39:10 PM EDT · 54 replies · 1,137+ views ctig.cn Plans to build new "China Town" with replica of Forbidden City in Anna, Texas. Anna is approx 40 miles north of Dallas and the development is planned just West of the intersection of US 75 and FM 455. (Interestingly near where the Trans-corridor is currently proposed to be) Machine Translation ...The world's largest real estate project 250,000 acres China City The new special economic zones -- the United States after the completion of the largest city in Texas, is a reconstruction of Shenzhen, China. Two real estate developers to invest in new bright spot. Chinese immigrants in the United...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Rare Persian Leopard Triplets Born in Zoo
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 08/20/2007 7:20:52 PM EDT · 25 replies · 567+ views Livescience | 8/20/07 | Livescience BUDAPEST, Hungary - A set of rare Persian leopard triplets was presented Tuesday at the Budapest Zoo. The cubs -- a male and two females -- were born at the zoo on June 19 and were doing well, said zoo spokesman Zoltan Hanga. The Persian leopard -- Panthera pardus saxicolor -- is the largest of the leopard subspecies and is native to Western Asian countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Armenia. It is endangered; fewer than 2,000 are thought to survive in the wild. A further 74 live in zoos. The cubs born in Hungary -- sisters Bella and Bara and...
Oh So Mysterioso
Ringwood Manor just a bit spooky
	Posted by Coleus On General/Chat 08/20/2007 7:39:41 PM EDT · 6 replies · 106+ views northjersey.com | August 20, 2007 | CATHERINE MARTINEZ For Kathleen Tanis of West Milford, the mines and ghosts of the historic Ringwood Manor will always have special significance. Tanis grew up listening to stories of her great-grandfather's death by beheading after a mining accident at Peter's Mine located near the grounds of the 200-year-old estate. Her grandmother firmly believed that his ghost haunted the Manor. "My grandmother said that after that, he could never rest in peace," she said. "She said he haunted the upstairs bedroom, and she was glad he did!" Ringwood Manor is one of two historic estates in Ringwood State Park. (The other estate is...
Longer Perspectives
Was Thomas Jefferson an alarmist?
	Posted by Starman417 On News/Activism 08/21/2007 12:27:51 AM EDT · 14 replies · 434+ views The Reference Frame | 08-20-07 | Lumo James Hansen has released a new scientific paper The Real Deal: Usufruct & the Gorillareflecting the most rigorous kind of scientific "thinking" that this director of a NASA institute is capable or willing to perform. He explains that all global warming skeptics are controlled by big fish and that no errors in his work can ever matter. I suppose that everyone has already seen these "theories" and everyone could be bored if we responded again. But there is a brand new "argument" in Hansen's new "paper", after all: it turns out that Thomas Jefferson was an AGW alarmist! Who could...
Early America
100 Days That Shook the World
	Posted by Pharmboy On General/Chat 08/20/2007 9:11:20 AM EDT · 27 replies · 282+ views The Smithsonian | July, 2007 | John Ferling On March 15, 1781, American forces inflicted heavy losses on the British Army at Guilford Courthouse, North Carolina. The redcoats had seemed invincible only a few months before. Winter clouds scudded over New Windsor, New York, some 50 miles up the Hudson River from Manhattan, where Gen. George Washington was headquartered. With trees barren and snow on the ground that January 1781, it was a "dreary station," as Washington put it. The commander in chief's mood was as bleak as the landscape. Six long years into the War of Independence, his army, he admitted to Lt. Col. John Laurens,...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Irish Railroad Grave Mystery Solved
	Posted by scouse On News/Activism 08/22/2007 8:12:53 AM EDT · 40 replies · 1,241+ views BBC Online | 8-22-07 | Unknown Irish railroad grave mystery solved Scientists in Pennsylvania believe they have found a mass grave containing the bodies of 57 Irish immigrants who died 175 years ago. The men from Donegal, Tyrone and Londonderry had made the journey across the Atlantic in the summer of 1832 to work on the railroads, but their time in the US was tragically short. Mystery still surrounds the question of how they met their deaths just six weeks after getting off the boat - a cholera epidemic was blamed, but foul play has never been ruled out. At the time, a cholera epidemic was...
end of digest #162 20070825