Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #163
Saturday, September 1, 2007
Helix, Make Mine a Double
The Need for Speed
Posted by Maelstorm
On News/Activism 08/27/2007 9:19:11 PM EDT · 8 replies · 243+ views
The Sanger Institute | 12th July 2007 | The Human Epigenome Project (HEP)
A difference of only a few percent in DNA sequence is thought to separate the human and chimp genomes. New research published in Genome Biology identifies the subset of sequences that may have driven the evolution of our two species.The researchers propose that the key changes lie in regions of our genome that control the activity of genes. It is managers of the genome, rather than the workforce, that have been most responsible for differences between chimps and humans.A team led by scientists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute looked at DNA elements called conserved non-coding regions (CNCs) in human,...
Africa
Migration of Early Humans From Africa Aided By Wet Weather
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 1:15:20 PM EDT · 29 replies · 396+ views
Science Daily | 8-30-2007 | Geological Society of America
Source: Geological Society of America Date: August 30, 2007 Migration of Early Humans From Africa Aided By Wet Weather Science Daily - The African origin of early modern humans 200,000--150,000 years ago is now well documented, with archaeological data suggesting that a major migration from tropical east Africa to the Levant took place between 130,000 and 100,000 years ago via the presently hyper-arid Saharan-Arabian desert. This migration was dependent on the occurrence of wetter climate in the region. Whereas there is good evidence that the southern and central Saharan-Arabian desert experienced increased monsoon precipitation during this period, no unequivocal evidence...
Longer Perspectives
Mystery of the medieval skulls still has archaeologists scratching their heads
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 08/29/2007 8:24:41 AM EDT · 22 replies · 427+ views
Times (UK) | 8-25-07
A study into the mysterious changing skull shape of medieval man casts serious doubt on current theories. The peculiar shift from long narrow heads to those of a rounder shape, and back again, which took place between the 11th and 13th centuries, has been noted at sites throughout western Europe. But a study of skulls found at the deserted village of Wharram Percy, near Malton, North Yorkshire, suggests that the anatomical blip was not down to an influx of Norman immigrants, or climate change, English Heritage has said. It examined nearly 700 skeletons recovered from the village. Unlike other...
Mayor unearths two churches' hidden pasts
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 08/30/2007 6:39:12 AM EDT · 4 replies · 188+ views
Independent (NJ) | 8-29-07 | Karen Bowes
MIDDLETOWN - Christians go to church. Mayor Gerard Scharfenberger goes under them. He finds things one might not expect, a perfectly good dead cat, for instance, a 17thcentury witch's caldron, bullets and whiskey bottles - lots and lots of whiskey bottles. On Aug. 22, Scharfenberger, an adjunct professor at Monmouth University and senior archaeologist for Richard Grubb & Associates, Cranbury, appeared at Croydon Hall to present a slideshow highlighting some of his more unusual finds. The dead cat, for example, was found with a gunshot wound to the eye......
Let's Have Jerusalem
At Galilee Site, Solving A Mystery From The Time Of Solomon
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/28/2007 2:45:16 PM EDT · 12 replies · 897+ views
Haaretz | 8-28-2007 | Jack Khoury
Last update - 09:58 28/08/2007 At Galilee site, solving a mystery from the time of Solomon By Jack Khoury A wooden sign stands at the entrance to the dirt road leading to the Segev Forest in the Western Galilee, inscribed with the symbol of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Beneath it in fading green letters is the name "Rosh Zayit Ruin." Without perusing the entrance to the dirt road carefully, you might not see the weed-covered sign, and not realize that this is the entrance to a very special archaeological site. Only an all-terrain vehicle can reach the place because...
Possible remains of second temple found in Jerusalem: TV
Posted by West Coast Conservative
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 4:36:53 PM EDT · 39 replies · 1,225+ views
AFP | August 30, 2007
Remains of the Jewish second temple may have been found during work to lay pipes at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, Israeli television reported Thursday. Israeli television broadcast footage of a mechanical digger at the site which Israeli archaeologists visited on Thursday. Gaby Barkai, an archaeologist from Bar Ilan University, urged the Israeli government to stop the pipework after the discovery of what he said is "a massive seven metre-long wall." Television said the pipework carried out by the office of Muslim religious affairs, or Waqf, is about 1.5 metres deep and about 100 metres long. The compound,...
Archaeologists Issue Urgent Warnings Against Temple Mount Dig
Posted by Nachum
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 3:52:22 PM EDT · 18 replies · 739+ views
Arutz 7 | Aug 30, 2007 | Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Top Israeli archaeologists held an emergency press conference on Thursday, warning that a Second Temple courtyard wall is in danger of being destroyed by the Arab excavations there. Members of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities warned that other artifacts could also be endangered by the unsupervised dig. (IsraelNN.com) Top Israeli archaeologists held an emergency press conference on Thursday, warning that a Second Temple courtyard wall is in danger of being destroyed by the Arab excavations there. Members of the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities warned that other artifacts could also...
Prehistory and Origins
Mesopotamian City Grew Regardless Of Kingly Rule
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 6:39:12 PM EDT · 13 replies · 173+ views
New Scientist | 8-30-2007 | Roxanne Khamsi
Mesopotamian city grew regardless of kingly rule 19:00 30 August 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Changes in pottery over the years allowed researchers to develop a timeline for the Tell Brak's expansion Contrary to the assumption that ancient cities always grew outwards from a central point, the urban site of Tell Brak in north-eastern Syria appears to have emerged as several nearby settlements melded together, according to researchers' analysis of archaeological evidence. Experts say that the findings lend support to the theory that early Mesopotamian cities developed as a result of grassroots organisation, rather than a mandate from a...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Paleolithic Residency Traced in Bushehr Province
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/26/2007 12:14:05 AM EDT · 9 replies · 175+ views
CHN Press | 8-26-2007
Paleolithic Residency Traced in Bushehr Province Parts of mountaneous region of Jam city in bushehr province Iranian archeologists have succeeded in tracing 40,000-year-old evidence of human beings residency in Jam-o Riz city in Bushehr province. Tehran, 25 August 2007 (CHN Foreign Desk) - For the first time, during excavating operations in city of Jam-o Riz in Bushehr province, Iranian archeologists have succeeded in tracing evidence of human beings settlement dating back to Paleolithic epoch to Middle Stone Age (40,000-10,000 years ago) in this region. Prior to this, some excavations were conducted by British archeologists in different parts of Bushehr province....
Agriculture
Section Of Ancient Canal Discovered In Northern Iran
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/27/2007 6:18:08 PM EDT · 5 replies · 233+ views
Mehr News | 8-25-2007
Section of ancient canal discovered northern Iran TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (MNA) -- A team of Iranian and British archaeologists have recently discovered a 50 kilometer section of an ancient canal near the Gorgan Great Wall in northern IranÃs Golestan Province. "The canal was used to transfer water from the Gorganrud River to the people who once lived in the vicinity of the wall, moats, castles, and brick kilns," the teamÃs Iranian director Hamid Omrani told the Persian service of CHN on Friday. This section of canal was still in use, but for a different purpose, up until the 1979 Islamic...
Faith and Philosophy
Zoroastrian fires and temples
Posted by freedom44
On News/Activism 08/25/2007 8:36:51 PM EDT · 49 replies · 842+ views
Press TV | 8/18/07 | Press TV
Fire, the source of heat and light is not only revered in ancient Indo-Iranian rituals but also in modern day Zoroastrianism and Hinduism. Zoroastrianism, which dominated the Sassanid Empire, is the religion ascribed to the ancient Persian prophet, Zarathushtra (Zoroaster), who lived 3500 years ago. Fire (Atar), together with clean water (Aban), are considered agents of ritual purity in the Zoroastrian religion. Despite the Zoroastrian respect for any form of fire, they do not worship it, rather it is used as a medium to communicate with God, whom they call Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, the source of order...
Egypt
Paging Mr. Indiana Jones [Curse of the Mummy!]
Posted by BlackVeil
On General/Chat 08/26/2007 6:08:47 AM EDT · 3 replies · 57+ views
Yahoo News Page | Aug 22, 2007 | n/c
CAIRO (Reuters) - A German has handed in a package containing part of a Pharaonic carving to Egypt's embassy in Berlin, with a note saying his stepfather had suffered a "curse of the Pharaohs" for stealing it, Egypt said Wednesday. The note said the man felt obliged to return the carving to make amends for his late stepfather and enable his soul to rest in peace, Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said. The stepfather had stolen the piece while on a visit to Egypt in 2004 and on his return to Germany suffered paralysis, nausea, unexplained fevers and cancer before...
Oh So Mysterioso
There could have been two sphinxes, argues one researcher
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 08/29/2007 3:34:54 PM EDT · 25 replies · 375+ views
Daily Star News | August 28, 2007 | Ahmed Maged
Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa believes that the famed half-lion, half-man statue was an Egyptian deity that was erected next to another sphinx, which has since vanished without a trace. This contradicts what many have believed for centuries -- that a single colossal statue functioned as a guard to the Pyramids. The idea of two sphinxes is more in line with ancient Egyptian beliefs, which were mainly based on duality, the researcher said. He cited Ancient Egyptian records and mythology saying that lightening had destroyed part of the Sphinx. This may have been a reference to the second sphinx which was...
Greece
Prehistoric Greek Water Works Found [ Mycenaean citadel of Midea ]
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 08/26/2007 3:18:53 PM EDT · 10 replies · 89+ views
PhysOrg / AP | August 25, 2007 | Nicholas Paphitis
Dating to the mid-13th century B.C., the stone passage passed under the massive walls of the Mycenaean citadel of Midea and probably led to a nearby water source, authorities said Friday. The passage would allow the people of Midea, about 93 miles south of Athens, safe access to drinkable water even in times of enemy attack... Only three such networks - major engineering feats requiring intensive labor - from Mycenaean times have been found so far. Excavations in late June and July at Midea revealed cut rock steps leading to the triangular passage, whose entrance was covered with a large...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Greece Is The Word For Volcanoes (Thera)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/25/2007 12:46:54 PM EDT · 37 replies · 470+ views
Star Bulletin | 8-25-2007 | Helen Altonn
Greece is the word for volcanoesA local professor is studying the ancient eruption of Thera By Helen Altonn haltonn@starbulletin.com Floyd McCoy, Windward Community College professor of geology and oceanography, hopes during a year and a half in Greece to resolve the "hugely controversial" question of when the Thera volcano erupted. He will investigate the Mediterranean's largest volcanic eruption in history as a Fulbright scholar. McCoy has spent the past 20 years studying geological evidence of the Late Bronze Age eruption of Thera volcano that led to the end of the Minoan culture on the island of Santorini. Geophysicists say the...
Sunken Civilizations
'Asian Atlantis' discovered[Japan]
Posted by BGHater
On News/Activism 08/28/2007 5:18:21 PM EDT · 41 replies · 1,069+ views
Reuters | 28 Aug 2007 | Reuters
A researcher investigating underwater rock formations off the coast of Japan believes they are the remnants of an Asian equivalent of Atlantis - an ancient civilisation swallowed up by the ocean. Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura says he has identified the ruins of a city off the coast of Yonaguni Island on the southwestern tip of Japan. He has worked for decades to prove the rocks found by scuba diving tourists in 1985 are from an ancient city, which he says may have sparked the fable of Mu - a Pacific equivalent of the tale of the lost city of Atlantis....
Biology and Cryptobiology
Diplomats destroy Egypt whale fossil
Posted by Brujo
On General/Chat 08/27/2007 9:10:26 AM EDT · 31 replies · 361+ views
AFP via Yahoo | 2007 Aug 26 | AFP
European diplomats in four-wheel drive cars have caused millions of dollars worth of damage to a fossilised whale lying for millions of years in the Egyptian desert, a security source said on Sunday. "Whale Valley officials have informed the authorities that people from two diplomatic corps vehicles destroyed the fossil," the source told AFP after the destruction was discovered around 150 kilometres (95 miles) south of Cairo. Two cars drove into the protected area on Friday and then refused to stop when asked to do so by wardens who nevertheless got the vehicles' registration numbers which the source said were...
Epigraphy and Language
A Minnesota Mystery: The Kensington Runestone
Posted by BGHater
On News/Activism 08/25/2007 3:21:22 PM EDT · 77 replies · 1,822+ views
WCCO.com | 18 Aug 2007 | Ben Tracy
It's one of Minnesota's greatest mysteries. It's something that puts settlers in America well before Columbus. A Minnesota geologist thinks the controversial Kensington Runestone is the real thing and there is evidence that he says backs up the theory. The Kensington Runestone is a rock found near Alexandria a century ago. It's inscription speaking of Norwegians here in 1362. It begs the question. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is it just an elaborate hoax? New research shows that the stone is genuine and there's hidden code that may prove it. It contains carved...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Why the skeleton found in the La Brea Tar Pits feels so familiar [ La Brea Woman ]
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 08/27/2007 2:31:04 PM EDT · 44 replies · 523+ views
L.A. Times | August 20, 2006 | Amy Wilentz
Female bones excavated from the bubbling asphalt in 1914 used to be mounted in the museum, alongside a life-sized dummy purporting to resemble the woman to whom the bones had belonged. The exhibit was called La Brea Woman. La Brea means "the tar" in Spanish. La Brea Woman probably died from injuries inflicted by a blunt instrument: a piece of bone is missing from the top of her skull... Scientists believe that La Brea Woman died with her dog by her side, since canine bones were found near her remains. La Brea Woman is 9,000 years old, has a hole...
Navigation
Constructing The Solutrean Solution
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/28/2007 2:34:31 PM EDT · 20 replies · 430+ views
Clovis In The Southeast.Net (Smithsonian) | 8-28-2007 | Dennis Stanford - Bruce Bradley
Constructing the Solutrean Solution Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley Smithsonian Institution University of Exeter At the 1999 Clovis and Beyond Conference held in Santa Fe, we presented a hypothesis, now known as the "Solutrean Solution", to explain the origin of Clovis technology. The hypothesis is based on the fact that there is little commonality between Clovis and Northeast Asian technologies on the one hand, while on the other, there are many technological traits shared between Clovis and the Solutrean culture of Paleolithic Europe. In the past, scholars have rejected the idea of a historical connection between the two cultures because...
Ancient Autopsies
Researcher's Say Italy's 5,000-Year-Old Iceman Died From Head Trauma, Not Arrow (Oetzi)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/29/2007 12:26:19 PM EDT · 90 replies · 1,421+ views
IHT | 8-28-2007
Researchers say Italy's 5,000-year-old Iceman died from head trauma, not arrow The Associated PressPublished: August 28, 2007 ROME, Italy: Researchers studying Iceman, the 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps, have come up with a new theory for how he died, saying he died from head trauma, not by bleeding to death from an arrow. Just two months ago, researchers in Switzerland published an article in the Journal of Archaeological Science saying the mummy - also known as Oetzi - had died after the arrow tore a hole in an artery beneath his left collarbone, leading to massive loss...
Ancient Europe
Peoples Of Britain
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/29/2007 12:02:50 AM EDT · 24 replies · 479+ views
BBC | Dr Simon James
Peoples of Britain By Dr Simon James Did the Celts exist? Simon James asks just who were the Britons - and did the Celts ever really exist? Uncover the fascinating ethnic and cultural history of the peoples of Briton, and assess the impact of the many invaders of Britain's shores. Introduction The story of early Britain has traditionally been told in terms of waves of invaders displacing or annihilating their predecessors. Archaeology suggests that this picture is fundamentally wrong. For over 10,000 years people have been moving into - and out of - Britain, sometimes in substantial numbers, yet there...
British Isles
New Book Claims Merlin Had Scottish Roots
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/27/2007 9:40:48 PM EDT · 45 replies · 732+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 8-28-2007 | David Sapsted
New book claims Merlin had Scottish roots By David Sapsted Last Updated: 1:52am BST 28/08/2007 Merlin the magician - hirsute confidant of King Arthur and the architect of Camelot - was, in fact, Scottish, according to a new book. The English, Welsh and French have laid claim to Merlin the magician Not only Scottish but, to be precise, hailing from Ardery Street, just off the Dumbarton Road, in the Partick area of Glasgow. While the English, Welsh and even the French have laid claim to the wizard with the peaked hat for centuries, this is the first time that anyone...
Asia
Graves Of Ancient Russian Rulers Discovered At Altai
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 1:04:09 PM EDT · 17 replies · 450+ views
Russia IC | 8-30-2007
Graves of Ancient Russian Rulers Discovered at Altai 30.08.2007 Rurik, legendary Russian rulerArcheologsts have recently discovered graves of ancient Russian family of Ruriks ("Rurik" means "famous ruler") in the town of Zmeinogorsk, reports famous Russian historian. The discovery was totally unexpected - fellows of local historical centre have taken children from historical society to perform diggings on the cityÃs cemetery, and among other pre-revolutionary burials they found graves of Ruriks. Now scientists start enormous research - they are going to identify the graves and bodies in them.
Numismatism
1.5 Tons Of Ancient Coins Discovered In North China
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 1:11:43 PM EDT · 35 replies · 1,434+ views
People's Daily | 8-30-2007 | Xinhua
1.5 tons of ancient coins discovered in north China + - 21:20, August 30, 2007 A cellar containing 1.5 tons of ancient coins, including some 2,000-year-old ones, have been discovered by a villager in Changzi County, north China's Shanxi Province. The man in Qianwanhu village discovered the cellar with some 10,000 coins, ranging from 3 cm to 1 cm in diameter, on Aug. 23 when he was digging a channel to place pipes for tap water, said Li Lin, an official of the Changzi Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism. The "money cellar" was 1.5 meters under the earth, with...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
NOAA vessel to explore undersea unknown
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 08/25/2007 8:26:41 AM EDT · 15 replies · 536+ views
Associated Press | Aug. 24, 2007 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
WASHINGTON - Undersea explorer Robert Ballard leans back and smiles at the screens arrayed above his desk. One displays a view of a remote operating vessel, another scans along a seafloor never before viewed by humans. It's the Black Sea, not far from Ukraine, a region long closed to outsiders and now yielding a treasure trove of Byzantine vessels that met their ends 1,000 or more years ago. For Ballard the archaeologist, those vessels and their contents are a delight. For Ballard the explorer, the modern technology he's testing for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is pretty exciting, too....
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues
Mass Plague Graves Found On Venice "Quarantine" Island
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 1:22:50 PM EDT · 14 replies · 622+ views
National Geographic | 8-29-2007 | Maria Cristina Valsecchi
Mass Plague Graves Found on Venice "Quarantine" Island Maria Cristina Valsecchi for National Geographic News August 29, 2007 Ancient mass graves containing more than 1,500 victims of the bubonic plague have been discovered on a small island in Italy's Venetian Lagoon. Workers came across the skeletons while digging the foundation for a new museum on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a small island in the lagoon's south, located a couple of miles from Venice's famed Piazza San Marco (see a map of the Venetian Lagoon). The island is believed to be the world's first lazaret-a quarantine colony intended to help prevent the spread...
Venturing Into the Mines of Uganda, in Search of the Marburg Virus
Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 08/29/2007 1:42:34 AM EDT · 35 replies · 523+ views
NY Times | August 28, 2007 | NICHOLAS BAKALAR
Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the Marburg virus in a nonprimate species - bats. Now, they have turned their attention to a bat-infested lead and gold mine in western Uganda, in an attempt to determine if bats harbor the disease between periodic outbreaks in southern Africa. One miner working in the mine died of Marburg disease on July 14, and several others apparently recovered from it. "WeÃre trying to see where this goes," Jonathan Towner, the lead author of the report, published Aug. 22 in the online journal PloS ONE, said in a...
Diet, Food, Recipes
17th Century Baldness Cure Is Chicken Dung Says Ye Olde Men's Goode Health
Posted by DogByte6RER
On News/Activism 08/30/2007 9:52:41 AM EDT · 22 replies · 368+ views
Daily Mail | 30th August 2007 | OLINKA KOSTER
17th century baldness cure is chicken dung says Ye Olde Men's Goode Health By OLINKA KOSTER 30th August 2007 In our age of gyms and jogging, dental floss and deodorants, mouthwash and moisturisers, a chap can waft along with ease every day feeling fit and fragrant. But back in 1654, with Oliver Cromwell ruling England, good health and grooming for men was somewhat more basic. Then, no self-respecting male's medicine chest was apparently complete without liberal supplies of cat's dung, snail's blood and chicken droppings - not to mention arsenic and brimstone. Gruesome as they may sound, they were recommended...
World War I
First World War Tunnels To Yield Their Secrets
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/26/2007 4:21:27 PM EDT · 35 replies · 1,372+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 8-26-2007 | Jasper Copping
First World War tunnels to yield their secrets By Jasper Copping, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:42am BST 26/08/2007 As battle raged across the fields of Flanders, British soldiers found brief respite from the horrors of the First World War in "underground towns" far below the mud and gore. Now, more than 90 years after the armies left and the extraordinary networks of tunnels were flooded, the task of finally revealing their secrets has begun. The Tunnels The prize, archaeologists and historians believe, is an unprecedented insight into the lives of British troops on the Western Front. They believe that, because...
Early America
Lafayette celebrates birthday of namesake [250th anniversary of birth]
Posted by Pharmboy
On General/Chat 08/27/2007 8:27:26 AM EDT · 7 replies · 67+ views
Purdue Exponent | 8-27-07 | Jenna Case
Adam Leonberger | Senior Photographer People in period dress are present during the announcement of events in Lafayette that will commemorate Marquis de Lafayette's birthday. The Greater Lafayette community is coming together this fall to celebrate the 250th birthday of the Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette was a French statesman who inspired the names of Lafayette and West Lafayette. The community is arranging 24 events throughout the fall to commemorate his birthday. The Marquis de Lafayette Celebration Committee Chair Ramona Lawson said the birthday is an important milestone in the Lafayette community. "It's another opportunity for our community to come...
Coda
Expert: Beethoven inadvertently poisoned by doctor
Posted by RDTF
On News/Activism 08/28/2007 7:27:40 PM EDT · 10 replies · 353+ views
Cnn.com | August 28, 2007 | AP
VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Did someone kill Beethoven? A Viennese pathologist claims the composer's physician did -- inadvertently overdosing him with lead in a case of a cure that went wrong. Other researchers are not convinced, but there is no controversy about one fact: The master had been a very sick man years before his death in 1827. Previous research determined that Beethoven had suffered from lead poisoning, first detecting toxic levels of the metal in his hair and then, two years ago, in bone fragments. Those findings strengthened the belief that lead poisoning may have contributed -- and ultimately...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Key that could have saved the Titanic
Posted by wagglebee
On General/Chat 08/29/2007 8:18:09 PM EDT · 21 replies · 306+ views
UK Telegraph | 8/29/07 | Graham Tibbetts
It looks for all the world like an ordinary key but this unremarkable piece of metal could have saved the Titanic from disaster. It is thought to have fitted the locker that contained the crow's nest binoculars, vital in detecting threats to the liner lurking in the sea in the pre-sonar days of 1912. Catastrophically for the Titanic and the 1,522 lives lost with her, the key's owner, Second Officer David Blair, was removed from the crew at the last minute and in his haste forgot to hand it to his replacement. Without access to the glasses, the lookouts...
Napeoleon's 'death mask' could be his butler's
Posted by bruinbirdman
On News/Activism 08/19/2007 5:25:34 AM EDT · 12 replies · 478+ views
breitbart.com | 8/18/2007
The purported death mask of Napoleon on show in a Paris museum is not that of the emperor, a historian alleged Saturday, with some reports suggesting it is really that of his butler. Bruno Rey-Henry said the real death mask had been auctioned in 2004 to an unidentified individual after being on display in London's Royal United Services Institute museum for some 25 years. Rey-Henry said the mask in Paris's military museum, close to Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides, does not display a scar on the left cheek which figures in a portrait of the emperor after his surrender in...
end of digest #163 20070901
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Welcome to the 163rd issue of the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list Digest. This week's little bump in the road was having my 8 1/2 year old rev B iMac up and die. It has been on pretty nearly continuously since February 1999. |
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Issue 156 of the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list Digest inaugurated a different ping message format, and this is the first prototype of the ordinary ping message. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #164
Saturday, September 9, 2007
Ancient Autopsies
The Mysterious Mummies of Mammoth Cave
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/02/2007 9:48:53 PM EDT · 14 replies · 414+ views
Unexplainable.Net | Friday, August 31, 2007 | Wm. Douglas Mefford
The Lost John mummy... [f]ound in 1935... a male approximately 45 years old and about 5' 3"... about the fourth century B.C.E... Little Alice has waited about 4,000 years to be seen. The Little Alice mummy is something of an enigma for more than just her place in time. She is small, barely three and a half feet tall when alive... later study indicated that it may have been a boy child of about nine... found over 9,000 feet below the earth and the artifacts found with the body, while unidentified by culture, showed the craft and workmanship of an...
Sunken Civilizations
Underwater Archaeologists Find Possible Mastodon Carving On Lake Michigan Rock
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/05/2007 1:26:08 PM EDT · 81 replies · 1,656+ views
AHN | 9-4-2007 | Nidhi Sharma
Underwater Archaeologists Find Possible Mastodon Carving On Lake Michigan Rock September 4, 2007 11:51 p.m. EST Nidhi Sharma - AHN News Writer Traverse City, MI (AHN) - Underwater archaeologists in Lake Michigan's Grand Traverse Bay are speculating a boulder they found in a June ship wreck to be engraved with a prehistoric carvings. Mark Holley, a scientist with the Grand Traverse Bay Underwater Preserve Council, believes that the granite rock, which was found hidden at a depth of about 12 metres, has markings that resemble a mastodon. A mastodon is an elephant-like creature that once inhabited parts of North America....
Diet, Food, Recipes
A serving of Philistine culture: Boar, dog and fine wine
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/03/2007 11:38:36 PM EDT · 15 replies · 174+ views
Ha'aretz | Monday, September 3, 2007 | Ofri Ilani
Research into the dispersal of Philistine cooking methods among various populations in Israel shows that the Philistines spread their culture beyond the areas under their control... Unlike most of the peoples living in the region in the biblical era, the Philistines were not Semites... They prepared meals in a characteristic sealed pottery vessel suited to long cooking times at low heat, while most inhabitants of Canaan at the time used open pots and faster cooking methods. The bones found at the Philistine cities showed that... the Philistines ate mainly pork, with an occasional meal of dog meat. The Philistines' wine...
Philistines, But Less And Less Philistine
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 03/13/2007 6:48:08 PM EDT · 12 replies · 441+ views
NYT | 3-12-2007 | John Noble Wilford
Philistines, but Less and Less Philistine Painted inscriptions on ceramic pieces unearthed at the ruins of a Philistine seaport are thought to represent a form of writing. By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Published: March 13, 2007 Archaeologists have applied more polish to the long-tarnished reputation of the Philistines. Leon Levy Expedition Recent excavations have raised the estimation of Philistines. In recent years, excavations in Israel established that the Philistines had fine pottery, handsome architecture and cosmopolitan tastes. If anything, they were more refined than the shepherds and farmers in the nearby hills, the Israelites, who slandered them in biblical chapter and...
Near East
Burial Clue To Early Urban Strife
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/31/2007 6:25:13 PM EDT · 15 replies · 376+ views
BBC | 8-31-2007
Burial clue to early urban strife Only a fraction of the burial pit has been excavated Archaeologists working in Syria have unearthed the remains of dozens of youths thought to have been killed in a fierce confrontation 6,000 years ago. According to Science magazine, the celebrating victors may even have feasted on beef in the aftermath. The findings come from northeastern Syria, near Tell Brak, one of the world's oldest known cities. More than 30 years of continuous excavation have revealed the site's remarkable sophistication. Studies by British and American archaeologists published in the journals Antiquity and Science suggest Tell...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Archaeologists: Muslim dig damaged Temple wall
Posted by West Coast Conservative
On News/Activism 08/31/2007 1:09:11 PM EDT · 18 replies · 625+ views
Jerusalem Post | August 31, 2007 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS
A month-old Islamic dig on Jerusalem's Temple Mount to replace faulty electrical cables has damaged an ancient wall that is likely a remnant of the Second Temple, Israeli archaeologists said Thursday. The work, which is being carried out with the approval of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the state-run Antiquities Authority, has been repeatedly condemned by independent Israeli archaeologists, who are calling for its immediate halt. "The Israeli Government is lending a hand to the destruction of one of the most important archaeological sites in the world," said Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dr. Gabriel Barkai at a Jerusalem press conference. Barkai...
Muslims caught red-handed destroying Temple artifacts
Posted by Nachum
On News/Activism 09/03/2007 11:31:26 AM EDT · 29 replies · 1,346+ views
WND | September 2, 200 | Aaron Klein
JERUSALEM -- Islamic authorities using heavy machinery to dig on the Temple Mount -- Judaism's holiest site -- have been caught red-handed destroying Temple-era antiquities and what's believed to be a section of an outer wall of the Second Jewish Temple.
Agriculture
Hebrew University Excavations Reveal First Beehives In Ancient Near East In 'Land Of Milk And Honey'
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/03/2007 6:26:42 PM EDT · 14 replies · 499+ views
Alpha Galileo | 9-3-2007
03 September 2007 Hebrew University excavations reveal first beehives in ancient near east in 'Land of milk and honey' Archaeological proof of the Biblical description of Israel really as "the land of milk and honey" (or at least the latter) has been uncovered by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Archaeology. Amihai Mazar, Eleazar L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, revealed that the first apiary (beehive colony) dating from the Biblical period has been found in excavations he directed this summer at Tel Rehov in Israel's Beth Shean Valley. This is the earliest apiary...
Faith and Philosophy
'Decoding' the Bible (Movie: Exodus Decoded)
Posted by Between the Lines
On Religion 07/13/2006 10:10:31 AM EDT · 4 replies · 583+ views
Jerusalam Post | July 12, 2006 | Gershom Gale
There is a saying that when it comes to the Bible, "for those who believe, no explanation is necessary, while for those who don't believe, no explanation is possible." But what of the many people who fall somewhere between these two certainties? Such people owe it to themselves to see The Exodus Decoded, a 90-minute documentary by Canadians James Cameron (the director of Titanic, Aliens and The Terminator) and investigative journalist and producer Simcha Jacobovici. The film will be screened at 6 p.m. this evening as part of the Jerusalem Film Festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque. The Exodus Decoded claims...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
In Iran, ancient rite links God and wrestling
Posted by freedom44
On General/Chat 09/06/2007 12:38:57 AM EDT · 22 replies · 535+ views
Yahoo News & Reuters | September 4, 2007 | Reuters
TEHRAN (Reuters) - For the men who practice it, it's about not just fitness but a connection with God. Zurkhaneh, an ancient Persian sporting ritual whose name means "House of Strength," is a historic breeding ground for wrestlers in Iran, and now enjoying something of a comeback. It looks to a Western eye like an exotic mixture of body-building and aerobics. But for the men whirling like dervishes to frenetic drumbeats, juggling heavy wooden clubs and doing push-ups in the pit of a "House of Strength" in northern Tehran, the ritual is about much more. "It is a holy thing,"...
Rome and Italy
Omens and Superstitions (Romans and Etruscans)
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 09/06/2007 9:18:31 AM EDT · 10 replies · 150+ views
Roman-Empire.net
A superstitious Society Compare to modern society, the Romans seem extremely superstitious. But then today's major religions have all throughout their past discouraged, even combatted, superstitions. Also our sciences and our technological world allows little room for superstition. The Romans lived in an era previous to this. Their world was full of unexplained phenomena, darkness and fear. To Romans these superstitions were a perfectly natural part in the relationship between gods and men. The Roman habit of interpreting natural phenomena as signs from the beyond stemmed from the Etruscans. The Etruscans, who developed reading omens and auspices into a form...
Ancient Europe
Revealedix: The Gaul Of Asterix Was No Joke
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/01/2007 10:55:57 PM EDT · 34 replies · 1,046+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 9-2-2007 | Justin Stares
Revealedix: the Gaul of Asterix was no joke By Justin Stares in Brussels, Sunday Telegraph> Last Updated: 12:17am BST 02/09/2007 Fighting with his bare fists, and massively outnumbered, France's cockiest Gaul, Asterix, led a brave rebellion against the Roman occupier. Not only was his little village encircled by Julius Caesar's troops, it was up against an expanding empire - unequalled in the art of warfare and determined to civilise a backward people who worshipped druids and believed in magic potions. Or so it was thought until now. But a discovery in central France has led to a significant reassessment of...
Art and Dawn Live Nextdoor
The Dawn of Art
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/02/2007 1:26:56 AM EDT · 9 replies · 107+ views
Archaeology | Volume 60 Number 5, September/October 2007 | Andrew Curry
American archaeologist Nicholas Conard is convinced Swabia's tradition of innovation goes back a long way: 40,000 years, give or take a few thousand. Excavating in caves east of Tubingen, a medieval town 20 miles south of Stuttgart, Conard has unearthed expertly carved figurines and the oldest musical instruments in the world... claims his finds are evidence of an intense flowering of art and culture that began in southwestern Germany more than 35,000 years ago... the figurines and instruments in Conard's caves are symbolic representations that reflect a state of mind with which modern humans can easily identify... Conard's conclusions have...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Did Prehistoric Man Come From Haifa
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/06/2007 5:26:33 PM EDT · 9 replies · 271+ views
Haaretz | 9-6-2007
Did prehistoric man come from Haifa?Last update - 23:34 06/09/2007 By Fadi Eyadat The audience, the stage and the set are ready. Only the guest of honor is missing - "and everyone is waiting for him," says Prof. Mina Evron, a researcher in the Archaeology Department of the University of Haifa and the codirector of excavations at Misliya Cave, southwest of Mt. Carmel. The 'guest' that she and a team of researchers are seeking in the cave area is a skeleton that could represent early humans. "We have found everything here: large quantities of the tools they used, hand-held stone...
Prehistory and Origins
It turns out we may not be 'big-brained apes' after all (Darwin shown to be wrong)
Posted by DaveLoneRanger
On News/Activism 09/01/2007 12:02:38 PM EDT · 316 replies · 4,260+ views
The Indianapolis Star | August 26, 2007 | Emily Brown
Link Only: It turns out we may not be 'big-brained apes' after all - Researcher says Darwin's theory overstated the similarities between human, animal brains
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Argentina museum displays Incan mummy
Posted by BenLurkin
On News/Activism 09/07/2007 5:23:51 PM EDT · 16 replies · 351+ views
Associated Press | Thu Sep 6, 6:44 PM ET | FEDERICO ESCHER,
SALTA, Argentina - Museumgoers gasped Thursday at the well-preserved mummy of an Inca maiden which is on display for the first time, a serene gaze etched on her face hundreds of years ago when she froze to death in the Andes. Hundreds of people packed a museum in Salta, Argentina, to see "la Doncella" -- Spanish for "the Maiden" -- a 15-year-old girl whose remains were found in 1999 in an icy pit on Llullaillaco volcano, along with a 6-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy. Scientists believe the so-called Children of Llullaillaco were sacrificed more than 500 years ago in...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Ancient yucca chaws yield ancient DNA
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 09/01/2007 12:01:21 PM EDT · 19 replies · 161+ views
physorg.com | 8-31-07
Prehistoric quid (wads of crumpled, masticated, shredded leaves) from dry caves in the American Southwest. Photo by Steven LeBlanc In a groundbreaking study, two Harvard scientists have for the first time extracted human DNA from ancient artifacts. The work potentially opens up a new universe of sources for ancient genetic material, which is used to map human migrations in prehistoric times. Before this, archaeologists could only get ancient DNA from relics of the human body itself, including prehistoric teeth, bones, fossilized feces, or -- rarely -- preserved flesh. Such sources of DNA are hard to find, poorly preserved, or unavailable...
Climate
North-West Passage is now plain sailing
Posted by Daffynition
On General/Chat 08/28/2007 8:58:22 PM EDT · 17 replies · 306+ views
Guardian Unlimited | August 28 2007 | Gwladys FouchÈ
The North-West Passage -- the sea route running along the Arctic coastline of North America, normally perilously clogged with thick ice -- is nearly ice-free for the first time since records began. "Since August 21 the North-West Passage is open to navigation. This is the first time that it happens," Nalan Koc, head of the Norwegian Polar Institute's climate change programme, told reporters in Longyearbyen, a town in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. "The Arctic ice sheet currently extends on 4.9m square kilometres. In September 2005 it measured 5.3m square kilometers."
Navigation
A New Paleolithic Revolution
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/06/2007 5:17:33 PM EDT · 14 replies · 299+ views
Minerva | 9-6-2007
A New Paleolithic Revolution Image Caption: The 'Rangki Papa' ('Father of all Rafts') built using Palaeolithic technology and approaching the coast of Komodo, Bali, having succeeded in crossing from Sumbawa, 7 October 2004. The vessel travelled 36.4km in 9 hours 22 minutes Jerome M. Eisenberg, Ph.D. and Dr Sean KingsleyJuly/August 2007 For decades archaeologists have rightly respected the Neolithic period c. 8500 BC as a revolutionary era of the most profound change, when the wiring of mankind's brain shifted from transient hunter-gathering to permanent settlement in farming communities. Hearths, temples, articulated burials, whistling 'wheat' fields and security replaced the...
Australia and the Pacific
Captain Cook's claim questioned by coin find
Posted by DancesWithCats
On General/Chat 08/31/2007 12:05:16 PM EDT · 31 replies · 417+ views
London Daily Telegraph | august 31st, 2007 | DancesWithCats
An archeologist claims to have found a 16th century European coin in a swamp on Australia's east coast, raising new questions about whether Captain James Cook was beaten to the continent by the Spanish or Portuguese. The silver coin, which is inscribed with the date 1597, was discovered by a group led by amateur archeologist Greg Jefferys. A colleague was digging in the sand with a machete when he found the badly corroded coin on Sunday.It was buried a few inches below the ground in the middle of snake-infested Eighteen Mile Swamp on North Stradbroke Island, Queensland. If proved to...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Madagascar aye-aye color vision studied
Posted by Clint N. Suhks
On General/Chat 09/05/2007 3:53:29 PM EDT · 12 replies · 154+ views
UPI | Sept. 5, 2007
PHOENIX, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists studying one of the world's most rare primates have found the animal's genes involved in color vision haven't degraded as expected. The study involving the Madagascar aye-aye is part of a quest by Biodesign Institute researcher Brian Verrelli and colleagues at Arizona State University to gain a more complete understanding of color vision evolution. They have performed the first complete study of color vision in the aye-aye -- a completely nocturnal primate with a unique combination of physical features, including extremely large eyes. Verrelli, George Perry and Robert Martin analyzed genetic samples of...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Building Stonehenge: This man can move anything [Michigan man solves mystery?]
Posted by wolfinator
On General/Chat 09/06/2007 10:27:18 AM EDT · 36 replies · 655+ views
Youtube
I found this really interesting. This guy is building his own Stonehenge with simple handmade tools. http://youtube.com
Early America
America and the Barbary Pirates: An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe
Posted by Brainhose
On General/Chat 09/06/2007 11:54:32 AM EDT · 18 replies · 200+ views
Library Of Congress | Today | Brainhose
Ruthless, unconventional foes are not new to the United States of America. More than two hundred years ago the newly established United States made its first attempt to fight an overseas battle to protect its private citizens by building an international coalition against an unconventional enemy. Then the enemies were pirates and piracy. The focus of the United States and a proposed international coalition was the Barbary Pirates of North Africa. Pirate ships and crews from the North African states of Tripoli, Tunis, Morocco, and Algiers (the Barbary Coast) were the scourge of the Mediterranean. Capturing merchant ships and holding...
History to come alive at Boron event
Posted by BenLurkin
On General/Chat 09/07/2007 12:34:11 AM EDT · 3 replies · 50+ views
Valley Press on | Wednesday, September 5, 2007. | BONNIE D. STONE
MOJAVE - More than a century ago, 20-mule teams labored out of Death Valley hauling borax over the steep Panamint Mountains to Mojave, the nearest railroad terminal, which was 165 miles away. Many older Americans remember "Death Valley Days," a weekly television show that ran from 1952 to 1970 with hosts such as Ronald Reagan, who went on to be governor of California, then president of the United States, as well as entertainers Robert Taylor, Dale Robertson and Merle Haggard. The show perpetuated the folklore of the 20-mule teams. A bit of history will come alive Saturday, Oct. 6 as...
Longer Perspectives
Museum Watchdog
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/02/2007 4:37:56 AM EDT · 5 replies · 82+ views
Archaeology | August 14, 2007 | interview of David Gill
David Gill, a professor of archaeology at the University of Wales Swansea, is the author of a number of studies on the antiquities market. With his colleague Christopher Chippendale, Gill has conducted detailed surveys on the origins of thousands of artifacts in private and public collections. His blog: www.lootingmatters.blogspot.com, explores the murky relationship between the museum world and illicit antiquities... "I was talking to Colin Renfrew about the Cretan collection at Cambridge, which was given to the university as a share of excavations. And he pointed out that Cambridge undergraduates have gone through these galleries for decades and been motivated...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Tomb raiders strip Bulgaria of its treasures
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/02/2007 10:02:17 PM EDT · 9 replies · 202+ views
Telegraph | Monday, September 3, 2007 | Malcolm Moore
Among the paperclips in the bottom drawer of a desk in Bulgaria's National History Museum is a small cardboard box packed with 5,000-year-old gold rings. "We found 25,000 of them when we went into a grocery shop a couple of months ago," said Svetla Tsaneva-Dimitrova, the head of the museum's restoration team. "A farmer's wife was wearing them as a necklace. Her husband had just dug them up in a field nearby. As you can imagine, we were stunned." Each tiny gold ring is 23-carat gold, but nobody knows how they were crafted. "Modern jewellers cannot make these things without...
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