Replies

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #166
Saturday, September 22, 2007

Prehistory and Origins

Evolutionary Theory Challenged By Fossils

Posted by SirLinksalot
On News/Activism 09/18/2007 11:47:54 AM EDT · 89 replies

CBS NEWS | 08/09/2007
Surprising research based on two African fossils suggests our family tree is more like a wayward bush with stubby branches, challenging what had been common thinking on how early humans evolved. The discovery by Meave Leakey, a member of a famous family of paleontologists, shows that two species of early human ancestors lived at the same time in Kenya. That pokes holes in the chief theory of man's early evolution -- that one of those species evolved from the other. And it further discredits that iconic illustration of human evolution that begins with a knuckle-dragging ape and ends with a...

Human ancestor had mix of primitive, modern traits

Posted by Dysart
On News/Activism 09/19/2007 6:45:17 PM EDT · 40 replies

Reuters-Yahoo! | 9-19-07 | Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The earliest-known human ancestors to migrate out of Africa possessed a surprising mix of human-like and primitive features, according to scientists who studied remains dug up at a fossil-rich site in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.Writing on Wednesday in the journal Nature, the scientists described remains of three adults and one adolescent dating from about 1.77 million years ago, excavated at Dmanisi, about 55 miles southwest of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.The remains shed light on a little-understood but critical period in human evolution -- the transition from the more ape-like creatures known as australopithecines to the...

Fossils Reveal Clues on Human Ancestor (transitional fossil alert)

Posted by Alter Kaker
On News/Activism 09/20/2007 10:51:35 AM EDT · 75 replies

New York Times | 20 September 2007 | John Noble Wilford
The discovery of four fossil skeletons of early human ancestors in Georgia, the former Soviet republic, has given scientists a revealing glimpse of a species in transition, primitive in its skull and upper body but with more advanced spines and lower limbs for greater mobility. The findings, being reported today in the journal Nature, are considered a significant step toward understanding who were some of the first ancestors to migrate out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago. They may also yield insights into the first members of the human genus, Homo.Until now, scientists had found only the skulls of...

Hobbits

Scientists: Hobbit Wasn't a Modern Human

Posted by Sub-Driver
On General/Chat 09/20/2007 4:34:19 PM EDT · 9 replies

breitbart.com
Scientists: Hobbit Wasn't a Modern Human Sep 20 04:18 PM US/Eastern By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed "hobbit" fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. Now, a study of the bones in the creature's left wrist lends weight to the human ancestor theory, according to a report in Friday's issue of the...

PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis

Peruvian Archaeologists Find 40 1,200-Year-Old Mummies (Kuelap)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/20/2007 2:48:58 PM EDT · 7 replies

China View | 9-19-2007 | Xinhua
Peruvian archaeologists find 40 1,200-year-old mummies www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-20 10:55:40 LIMA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists in Peru have found 40 mummies dating from the 1,200-year-old Chachapoyas culture in the Amazon fortress of Kuelap, project leader Alfredo Narvaez told local media on Wednesday. He said the mummies were discovered alongside Inca pottery, and that they showed signs of being affected by a fire in the archaeological complex, some 1,409 km northeast to the nation's capital. He said the bodies had been buried under a platform of 24 meters in diameter in the El Tintero structure during a dig of the Kuelap...

Japan

Archaeologists Granted Access To Japan's Sacred Tombs

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/20/2007 2:59:40 PM EDT · 7 replies

The Guardian (UK) | 9-20-2007 | Justin McCurry
Archaeologists granted access to Japan's sacred tombs The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday September 20, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attend the opening ceremony of the World Athletics Championships in Osaka last month. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images Japan's imperial household agency is to open the doors to some of the country's mysterious imperial tombs early next year after decades of pressure from archaeologists, in a move expected to anger ultra-conservatives. Experts have long been denied access to the...

India

Until Proven, A Myth: Historians

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/15/2007 4:38:27 PM EDT · 14 replies · 492+ views

The Telegraph (India) | 9-12-2007 | CHARU SUDAN KASTURI & SUDESHNA BANERJEE
Until proven, a myth: Historians CHARU SUDAN KASTURI & SUDESHNA BANERJEE New Delhi/Calcutta, Sept. 12: Ram cannot be considered a historical figure despite references in ancient literature because crucial material evidence to authenticate his existence has not been found, historians have said. "A textual reference necessarily needs to be corroborated by inscriptions engraved in stone or other long-lasting material or by archaeological evidence," said Nayanjot Lahiri, professor of ancient history at Delhi University. Until such evidence is found, a character or event in texts or literature is considered mythological, historians said. Historians have traced the original texts of the Mahabharata...

Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran

Palace of Cyrus' Ancestor to Host Archeologists

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/20/2007 2:51:21 PM EDT · 4 replies

Cultural Heritage News Agency | September 19, 2007 | Soudabeh Sadigh
While the aerial pictures took from the Achaemenid site of Bardak Siah palace in Boushehr in 1978 revealed the existence of 5 historic hills in the area which were most probably denoted to palace of ancestor of Cyrus the Great, today only one fourth of one of these hills has been remained... Amongst the most prominent archeological achievements in Bardak Siah Palace is discovery of a large number of golden curly coins, more than 3 kilograms in weight, which were unearthed close to one of the columns of this Achaemenid palace... due to some problems they have not been examined...

Let's Have Jerusalem

Bronze Age building uncovered near Gaza

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/19/2007 2:00:58 PM EDT · 8 replies

Jerusalem Post | September 17, 2007 | Etgar Lefkovits
A building from the Late Bronze Age apparently constructed for Egyptian authorities before the Israelite settlement in the Land of Israel has been uncovered in an excavation on the edge of the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip, Ben-Gurion University announced Monday. The month-long summer dig on the eastern section of the Besor Stream, about 12 kilometers east of Gaza, revealed the 3,000-year-old site buried underneath a 7th century Philistine rural village from the Second Iron Age, said Ben-Gurion University archeologist Dr. Gunnar Lehmann... About 10-15 such buildings are known to exist off the Egyptian border, but most have been...

Faith and Philosophy

A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation

Posted by Convert from ECUSA
On News/Activism 09/17/2007 7:22:09 AM EDT · 21 replies · 132+ views

Jewish World Review | September 10, 2007 | Hershel Shanks
A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation By Hershel Shanks The "Jewish State" is allowing Judaism's holiest site to have its priceless artifacts destroyed and nobody seems to care No one really cares. But that puts me in an elite group: It includes two of Israel's most prominent Jerusalem archaeologists (Gaby Barkay and Eilat Mazar) -- and me. Meanwhile, the Muslim Waqf goes on tearing up Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where once the Jewish Temple stood. The week before last, they hit an ancient wall that might be the foundation of a wall from the Second Temple complex built by Herod...

Rome and Italy

Colosseum is menaced by vandals again

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/17/2007 1:31:11 PM EDT · 14 replies · 6+ views

Times Online | September 15, 2007 | Richard Owen
Visitors to the 1st-century amphitheatre are taking away "chunks of stone" as souvenirs despite the presence of guards and surveillance cameras, according to Angelo Bottini, the Superintendent of Archaeology for Rome. He said that most of the five million tourists who visited the Colosseum annually behaved responsibly. But others covered it in graffiti, left their rubbish behind and picked up bits of Ancient Roman wall or paving... He said he had started an inquiry and was asking police to reinforce patrols and closed-circuit television surveillance at the Colosseum and the adjoining Roman Forum, where tourists also pocketed souvenirs. At night,...

Ancient Europe

Bronze age settlement found at US Embassy site [ Malta ]

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/17/2007 11:44:24 AM EDT · 4 replies

Times of Malta | Saturday, September 15, 2007 | Mark Micallef
A series of tombs and silos, probably dating back to the Bronze Age and early Roman period, have been discovered on the site set to become the new US Embassy, in Ta' Qali... During an onsite visit yesterday, Cultural Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar said the findings had been given a C grade, which in layman's terms means they could now be buried again, but not destroyed. The US Embassy is not yet sure what it will do, yet it is possible the finds will remain exposed and incorporated in the landscaping since the embassy will only take up a small portion...

The Vikings

Rain Uncovers Viking Treasure Trove

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/15/2007 12:57:04 PM EDT · 51 replies · 1,691+ views

The Local | 9-14-2007
Rain uncovers Viking treasure trove Published: 14th September 2007 08:30 CET A bout of torrential rain left a surprising legacy in the garden of one Swede: a Viking treasure trove. Two coins were uncovered by the rain on the lawn of farmer Tage Pettersson, on the island of Gotland, in early August. He called in Gotland's archaeologists, who last week found a further 52 coins on the site. Most of the coins are German, English and Arabic currency from the late 900s and early 1000s. But archaeologists are most excited about the presence of six very rare Swedish coins, from...

Ancient Autopsies

Ancient Scots Mummified Their Dead

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/15/2007 12:49:52 PM EDT · 19 replies · 524+ views

Discovery | 9-14-2007 | Jennifer Viegas
Ancient Scots Mummified Their Dead Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Sept. 14, 2007 -- The ancient Egyptians were not the only ones to mummify their dead, according to a study in this month's Antiquity Journal that claims prehistoric Scottish people created mummies too. The researchers do not think the Egyptians influenced the Scots, but that mummification arose independently in the two regions. Initial evidence for Scottish mummies was announced in 2005, when archaeologists unearthed three preserved bodies -- an adult female, an adult male and an infant -- buried underneath two Bronze Age roundhouses in South Uist, Hebrides, at a site...

Catastrophism and Astronomy

Dinosaur creche was a no-frills business [123 myr old PsitTACOsaurus fossils in lava floe]

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/21/2007 11:48:54 PM EDT · 7 replies

The Times | September 20, 2007 | Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter
A dinosaur creche has been found entombed in the volcanic debris that engulfed it on a hillside 123 million years ago. Six young Psittacosaurus, all less than three years old, died side by side. It is the earliest known dinosaur nursery... Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum in London, one of the researchers, said that the fossilised juveniles appeared to have formed a creche but it was impossible to be sure if they were part of a larger herd or if they grouped together for protection. "This is the first time we've found a group of these dinosaurs together....

Biology and Cryptobiology

Mammoth graveyard may someday be open to public

Posted by Dysart
On News/Activism 09/20/2007 9:21:38 AM EDT · 49 replies

Star-Telegram | 9-20-07 | R.A. DYER
WACO -- Not far from modest suburban homes in the middle of some thick Texas woods lies a secret boneyard.Surrounded by a tall chain-link fence and covered by what looks like a red-and-white circus tent, the site contains the remains of towering monsters. Remains of at least 25 mammoths, signs of a big saber-toothed cat and a long extinct camel have been found at the site.This is the Waco Mammoth Site, a collection of prehistoric fossils embedded in the dirt not far from the Bosque River. The site could be a potent educational resource if it were not off-limits to...

Climate

Mammoth dung, prehistoric goo may speed warming

Posted by camerakid400
On News/Activism 09/16/2007 11:08:52 PM EDT · 36 replies · 59+ views

Reuters | Dmitry Solovyov
DUVANNY YAR, Russia (Reuters) - Sergei Zimov bends down, picks up a handful of treacly mud and holds it up to his nose. It smells like a cow pat, but he knows better. "It smells like mammoth dung," he says. This is more than just another symptom of global warming. For millennia, layers of animal waste and other organic matter left behind by the creatures that used to roam the Arctic tundra have been sealed inside the frozen permafrost. Now climate change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric ooze from suspended animation. But Zimov, a scientist who for...

Longer Perspectives

Lost in a Million-Year Gap, Solid Clues to Human Origins

Posted by shrinkermd
On News/Activism 09/18/2007 7:05:30 AM EDT · 18 replies

New York Times | 18 September 2007 | John Noble Wilford
In the study of human origins, paleoanthropology stares in frustration back to a dark age from three million to less than two million years ago. The missing mass in this case is the unfound fossils to document just when and under what circumstances our own genus Homo emerged. The origin of Homo is one of the most intriguing and intractable mysteries in human evolution. New findings only remind scientists that answers to so many of their questions about early Homo probably lie buried in the million-year dark age. It is known that primitive hominids -- human ancestors and their close...

Epigraphy and Language

Regions of dying languages named

Posted by Santa Fe_Conservative
On News/Activism 09/18/2007 5:35:30 PM EDT · 98 replies · 145+ views

Associated Press | 9/18/07 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
WASHINGTON - When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there's still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mangulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday. While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them.

Scientists: Many World Languages Are Dying

Posted by james500
On News/Activism 09/18/2007 11:34:19 PM EDT · 77 replies · 939+ views

AP via FOX News | Tuesday, September 18, 2007
When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there's still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mungulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday. While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them. Five hotspots where languages...

Middle Ages and Renaissance

Rare medical, astronomical manuscripts found at Dar al-Kotob

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/17/2007 1:22:48 PM EDT · 11 replies

Egypt State Information Service | Sunday, September 16, 2007 | unattributed
A number of rare and invaluable medical and astronomical manuscripts have been found at the National Library of Egypt (also known as Dar al-Kotob). A senior official at Alexandria Library said Saturday that the ancient documents were just laying there in the forgotten Dar al-Kotob archieves for many years but thanks to his Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) they were "technically rediscovered". "They are really priceless," he reiterated. The medical papers give prescription of the treatment of some chronic diseases, bone fractures and bruises and lessons in body and eye anatomy, CULTNAT chief Fathi Saleh said....

Gates of Eden

A quick history lesson: America is no Rome - The tired analogy of imperial decline and fall

Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 09/14/2007 1:53:26 PM EDT · 115 replies · 1,891+ views

The Times (UK) | September 14, 2007 | Gerard Baker
The ethnic origins of General David Petraeus are apparently Dutch, which is a shame because there's something sonorously classical about the family name of the commander of the US forces in Iraq. When you discover that his father was christened Sixtus, the fantasy really takes flight. Somewhere in the recesses of the brain, where memory mingles hazily with imagination, I fancy I can recall toiling through a schoolboy Latin textbook that documented the progress of one Petraeus Sixtus as he triumphantly extended the imperium romanum across some dusty plain in Asia Minor. The fantasy is not wholly inapt, of course....

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

The Case of Classical v. Modern Comes to Federal Court

Posted by Lorianne
On General/Chat 09/18/2007 7:10:33 PM EDT · 10 replies · 7+ views

Washington Post | September 15, 2007 | Roger K. Lewis
What architectural design issues most concern you? Perhaps carbon emissions, universal accessibility or the challenge of preserving at-risk historic properties? Maybe you think less about buildings and architectural design, and more about the shape of your community and the broader public realm. However, you probably rarely worry about which architectural style is appropriate for which kind of building, about whether columns should be Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. Many architects, however, feel passionately about competing design philosophies, and one competition in particular persists: classicism versus modernism. Much of Washington's architecture, typified by use of classical motifs derived from Greek and Roman...

end of digest #166 20070922

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #167
Saturday, September 29, 2007

Ancient Autopsies

DNA Extracted From Woolly Mammoth Hair

Posted by saganite
On News/Activism 09/28/2007 1:18:39 AM EDT · 51 replies

Science Daily | 27 Sep 07 | staff
Science Daily -- Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium, discovered that hair shafts provide an ideal source of ancient DNA -- a better source than bones and muscle for studying the genome sequences of extinct animals. Their research achievement, described in a paper to be published in the journal Science on Sept. 28, includes the sequencing of entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 individual woolly mammoths. Schuster and Miller, working at Penn State's Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Gilbert, from the Center for Ancient Genetics...

Helix, Make Mine a Double

Where Do The Finns Come From?

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/26/2007 1:49:43 PM EDT · 75 replies

Sydaby | Christian Carpelan
WHERE DO FINNS COME FROM? Not long ago, cytogenetic experts stirred up a controversy with their "ground-breaking" findings on the origins of the Finnish and Sami peoples. Cytogenetics is by no means a new tool in bioanthropological research, however. As early as the 1960s and '70s, Finnish researchers made the significant discovery that one quarter of the Finns' genetic stock is Siberian, and three quarters is European in origin. The Samis, however, are of different genetic stock: a mixture of distinctly western, but also eastern elements. If we examine the genetic links between the peoples of Europe, the Samis form...

Prehistory and Origins

Myths Of British Ancestry

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/28/2007 10:42:35 AM EDT · 83 replies

Prospect | 10-2006 | Stephen Oppenheimer
Myths of British ancestry October 2006Stephen Oppenheimer Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons, in fact neither had much impact on the genetic stock of these islands The fact that the British and the Irish both live on islands gives them a misleading sense of security about their unique historical identities. But do we really know who we are, where we come from and what defines the nature of our genetic and cultural heritage? Who are and were the Scots, the Welsh,...

Mediterranean

Ancient Fishermen Lured Fish With Fire

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/26/2007 6:02:02 PM EDT · 33 replies

Discovery | 9-25-2007 | Jennifer Viegas
Ancient Fishermen Lured Fish With Fire Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Sept. 25, 2007 -- Fishermen around areas mentioned in the New Testament worked the night shift, suggests fishing gear found in a 7th century shipwreck off the coast of Dor, Israel, west of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have preached. The standout item among the found gear is a fire basket, the first evidence for "fire fishing" in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Early images and writings indicate fires were lit in such baskets, which were suspended in giant lantern devices from the end of fishing boats. Light emitted from...

Catastrophism and Astronomy

Research Team Says Extraterrestrial Impact To Blame For Ice Age Extinctions (More)

Posted by blam
On General/Chat 09/25/2007 3:58:19 PM EDT · 56 replies

Eureka Alert | Northern Arizona University - Lisa Nelson
Contact: Lisa Nelson Lisa.Nelson@nau.edu 928-523-6123 Northern Arizona University Research team says extraterrestrial impact to blame for Ice Age extinctions A colorized scanning electron microscope image of a glassy carbon sphere that contains evidence of extraterrestrial impact. The sphere measures about .012 inches in width. What caused the extinction of mammoths and the decline of Stone Age people about 13,000 years ago remains hotly debated. Overhunting by Paleoindians, climate change and disease lead the list of probable causes. But an idea once considered a little out there is now hitting closer to home. A team of international researchers, including two Northern...

Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna Scientists say early humans doomed, too

Posted by baynut
On News/Activism 09/25/2007 9:45:11 PM EDT · 49 replies

Boston Globe | September 27, 2007 | Colin Nickerson
Wooly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, and dozens of other species of megafauna may have become extinct when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, according to research by an international team of scientists. The blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago, may have also doomed a mysterious early human culture, known as Clovis people, while triggering a planetwide cool-down that wiped out the plant species that sustained many outsize Ice Age beasts, according to research published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Climate

Ice Age Australians Sheltered In Caves

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:07:17 PM EDT · 20 replies

ABC Science | 9-24-2007 | Anna Salleh
Ice age Australians sheltered in caves Anna Salleh ABC Science Online Monday, 24 September 2007 Why would Aboriginal Tasmanians flock to one of the coldest parts of the island during an ice age? One researcher says it was to shelter from the wind in caves and steep valleys (Image: Ian Gilligan) Ice age Aboriginal Australians protected themselves from bitterly cold winds by flocking to caves in one of the most inhospitable parts of the continent, says an archaeologist. Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University, lays out his argument in the current issue of the journal Antiquity....

Australia and the Pacific

Early Polynesians Sailed Thousands Of Miles For Trade

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/27/2007 6:46:25 PM EDT · 47 replies

National Geographic | 9-27-2007 | Dave Hansford
Early Polynesians Sailed Thousands of Miles for Trade Dave Hansford for National Geographic News September 27, 2007 Early Polynesians sailed thousands of miles for exploration and trade, suggests a new study of early stone woodworking tools. The analysis confirms traditional tales of vast ocean voyages and hints that a trading network existed between Hawaii and Tahiti as early as a thousand years ago. The work also bolsters research suggesting that the Polynesians were skillful sailors who rapidly expanded across the Pacific and journeyed as far as South America by the 1400s A.D. Kenneth Collerson and Marshall Weisler of the University...

Biology and Cryptobiology

Historians propose various theories on early migrations

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 09/27/2007 12:39:46 PM EDT · 6 replies

Helena Independent Record | September 23, 2007 | Marga Lincoln
European prehistoric artifacts similar to ones in North America, such as Clovis points, have led some scholars to suggest that European prehistoric people crossed the Atlantic Ocean in boats, said Vrooman. And research in Siberia, where the Bering land bridge supposedly originated, reveals no solid evidence of Clovis points originating there, he said... A site in Brazil yields possible evidence of human habitation 37,000 years ago, long before the land bridge is believed to have existed, said Vrooman... Helena Forest archaeologist Carl Davis said it's also likely that early people walked down the frozen coast from Alaska to Baja thousands...

PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis

Snake-Bird Gods Fascinated Both Aztecs And Pharaohs

Posted by blam
On General/Chat 09/25/2007 3:19:09 PM EDT · 38 replies

Reuters | 9-24-2007 | Robin Emmott
Snake-bird gods fascinated both Aztecs and pharaohs Mon 24 Sep 2007, 17:05 GMT By Robin Emmott MONTERREY, Mexico, Sept 24 (Reuters Life!) - Ancient Mexicans and Egyptians who never met and lived centuries and thousands of miles apart both worshiped feathered-serpent deities, built pyramids and developed a 365-day calendar, a new exhibition shows. Billed as the world's largest temporary archeological showcase, Mexican archeologists have brought treasures from ancient Egypt to display alongside the great indigenous civilizations of Mexico for the first time. The exhibition, which boasts a five-tonne, 3,000-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and stone carvings from Mexican...

Egypt

Update - Latvian Scientifique Mission In The Step Pyramid Of Saqqara (Egypt)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/22/2007 11:14:49 AM EDT · 12 replies

Archaeogate | 9-18-2007 | Bruno Deslandes
Update on the recent works carried out by the Latvian Scientifique Mission in the Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Egypt) Redazione Archaeogate, 18-09-2007 During its last campaign, the Latvian Scientific Mission, which has already worked more than two years in the Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Egypt) in the framework of its joint-venture with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and direct supervision from Dr. Zahi Hawass, has successfully carried out some additional documentation works, very important for the safeguarding and restoration of the oldest stone monument in the world. Resources allocated to this program (15 scientists) represent the largest scientific team...

Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran

Ancient wall unearthed in Iran

Posted by freedom44
On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:01:05 AM EDT · 12 replies

Zeenews | 9/24/07 | Zeenews
Tehran, Sept 24: British and Iranian archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a 200 kilometre-long wall, the second longest wall in Asia after the Great Wall of China, in northern Iran. Experts believe the Gorgan Great Wall in northern Iran's Golestan Province was built at about the same time as the Great Wall of China and was used as a defence system against the invasions of the Ephthalites, a nomadic people who once lived in Central Asia. Archaeologists also discovered a 50-kilometre long stretch of a canal near the wall that was used to transfer water from the Gorganrud River...

Let's Have Jerusalem

Quarry Used For Jewish Temple Unearthed In Israel

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:23:22 PM EDT · 26 replies

Yahoo News | 9-23-2007 | Rebecca Harrison
Quarry used for Jewish temple unearthed in Israel By Rebecca Harrison Sun Sep 23, 11:22 AM ETReuters Photo: Ultra-orthodox Jewish boys walk through a quarry in Jerusalem September 23, 2007. Israeli archaeologists have... JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Archaeologists have found an ancient quarry where King Herod's workers may have chiselled the giant stones used to rebuild the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. The Israel Antiquities Authority said on Sunday experts believe stones as long as 8 meters (24 feet) were extracted from the quarry and then dragged by oxen to building sites in Jerusalem for major projects...

Japan

Israelites Came To Ancient Japan

Posted by pseudogratix
On Religion 03/27/2003 9:01:51 AM EST · 17 replies · 8,124+ views

5.ocn.ne.jp | Arimasa Kubo
Israelites Came To Ancient Japan Many of the traditional ceremonies in Japan seem to indicate that the Lost Tribes of Israel came to ancient Japan.Arimasa Kubo Ark of the covenant of Israel (left) and "Omikoshi" ark of Japan (right) Dear friends in the world, I am a Japanese Christian writer living in Japan. As I study the Bible, I began to realize that many traditional customs and ceremonies in Japan are very similar to the ones of ancient Israel. I considered that perhaps these rituals came from the religion and customs of the Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of...

Agriculture

Stone Age Rice Farms Found In China

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/28/2007 10:04:14 AM EDT · 9 replies

Statesman | 9-27-2007
Stone Age rice farms found in ChinaScientists find evidence of mass rice cultivation 7,700 years ago. Thursday, September 27, 2007 Stone Age Chinese began cultivating rice more than 7,700 years ago by burning trees in coastal marshes and building dams to hold back seawater, converting the marshes to rice paddies that would support growth of the high-yield cereal grain, researchers plan to report today. New analysis of sediments from the site of Kuahuqiao at the mouth of the Yangtze River near Hangzhou provides the earliest evidence in China of such large-scale environmental manipulation, experts said. "It shows people were changing...

British Isles

Archaeologists Have Uncovered A Royal Palace Used By King Henry II

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/23/2007 4:38:57 PM EDT · 41 replies

Newbury Today | 9-23-2007
Archaeologists have uncovered a royal palace used by King Henry II AN ANCIENT royal palace near Kingsclere unearthed during recent excavations will be open to the public over the weekend (September 22-23). The Royal Palace of Fremantle has lain hidden under the Hampshire Downs at Tidgrove Warren Farm, in the parish of Hannington, for nearly 900 years. Over the last three years the site has been excavated by staff and students from the University of Southampton in association with the Kingsclere Heritage Association local volunteers. Explorations have revealed a medieval enclosed settlement surrounded by a massive ditch - larger than...

Anatasia Screamed In Vain

Alexei and Maria Romanov: I Possibly Know Where Bones Are in Russia

Posted by GermanBusiness
On News/Activism 12/25/2005 5:58:41 PM EST · 74 replies · 4,830+ views

I've been dating a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia for over a year whose grandfather was apparently given a lethal injection by the communists when he went in for a routine physical in the late 1940s. His name: Fyedor Korablyev, born 16 February 1907 Even before the apparent murder, the family has been afraid to talk about any relation to the Romanov Family but an older family member has just told me that Alexei Romanov died as a monk in Siberia in 1960. The world is aware that Alexei's bones were never found. He was not executed with this family...

Remains may be children of last czar

Posted by darkangel82
On News/Activism 09/28/2007 8:47:14 PM EDT · 17 replies

Yahoo | 9/28 | Mike Eckel
MOSCOW - There is a "high degree of probability" that bone fragments found recently near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg are those of a daughter and son of the last czar, forensics experts said Friday. If confirmed, the find would fill in a missing chapter in the story of the doomed Romanovs, who were killed after the violent 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule. The fragments were found by archaeologists in a burned field near the Ural Mountains city where Czar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were held prisoner by...

Middle Ages and Renaissance

How Joan escaped the stake and lived happily ever after

Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 09/22/2007 12:55:20 PM EDT · 27 replies

The Guardian (UK) | 9-22-07 | Angelique Chrisafis
New book angers historians with claims maid was not an illiterate peasant but a royal.... She was a peasant teenager inspired by voices from God to lead the French against the English, and burned as a witch before being recognised as a hero and saint. For centuries, France's cult of Joan of Arc has been seized on by politicians looking for patriotic martyr figures, including by Nicolas Sarkozy during his presidential campaign. Now a new book has sparked anger among historians by claiming the Maid of Orleans was not an illiterate peasant but a royal. She did not hear voices...

Longer Perspectives

Politically Correct Anthropology

Posted by bs9021
On News/Activism 09/25/2007 10:39:57 PM EDT · 21 replies

Campus Report | September 25, 2007 | Don Irvine
Politically Correct Anthropology by: Don Irvine, September 25, 2007 Political correctness which has been invading academia with a vengeance has a new target- Anthropology. An ad-hoc group calling themselves the Network of Concerned Anthropologists is now circulating a petition on the internet called the Pledge of Non-Participation in Counterinsurgency whose central theme says that "Anthropologists should not engage in research and other activities that contribute to counterinsurgency operations in Iraq or in related theaters in the 'war on terror.'"In other words it's an anti-war declaration for anthropologists. The organizers, two of whom are at George Mason University, feel that anthropologists...

Early America

Archaeologist takes 2nd look at cannon Found off Virginia coast. How did it get there?

Posted by Pharmboy
On General/Chat 09/25/2007 9:29:15 PM EDT · 13 replies

The Associated Press via MSNBC | Sept 25, 2007 | Anon
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - An archaeologist is taking a second look at a small cannon found by fishermen off the Virginia coast more than two decades ago in hopes of determining how it got to the bottom of the ocean -- and who left it there. Rod Mather, a professor of maritime history and underwater archaeology at the University of Rhode Island, has studied the 25-square-mile area surrounding the site where the cannon was found the past two summers. Some historians believe the 4-feet-long, 300-pound cannon, which was loaded when it was found 24 years ago, is an English cannon...

London, Paris, Fresno

Archaeologists Probe Secret Tunnels in California

Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 09/27/2007 5:46:36 PM EDT · 55 replies

Associated Press | September 27, 2007 | Unknown
FRESNO, Calif. -- Tunnels run beneath Chinatown in Fresno, Calif.: brick-walled passages that were once home to people and activities that couldn't be mentioned aboveground. Rick Lew knows, because he walked the passages as a child, entering through a trapdoor in his grandfather's liquor store. "There was a nightlife you couldn't see from the streets," he said. As late as the 1950s, when Lew was a boy, Chinatown was still thriving -- both its respectable establishments and as its shadier side. He remembers visiting the underground world with his father, first passing though a dark basement before descending into a...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

Three-year Genghis Khan trek ends

Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 09/25/2007 4:49:08 PM EDT · 13 replies

BBC News | 9-23-07
An Australian man has completed a three-year journey from Mongolia to Hungary, following in the footsteps of the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan. The journey took more than double the time Mr Cope anticipated When Tim Cope began his 10,000 km (6,200 mile) journey in June 2004 he expected it to take 18 months. However, a stint at home when his father died and other delays meant it took more than double that. Throughout the trek he travelled on horseback and relied on the hospitality of local people, including nomads. He travelled with three horses at any time, one to carry...

end of digest #167 20070929

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #166 20070922 · Saturday, September 22, 2007 · 23 topics · 1900487 to 1897101 · still 652 members ·
	Saturday Sept 22 2007 v 4 n 10 view this issue	Welcome to the 166th issue of the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list Digest. A slow week, with a few interesting op-eds thrown in, but a decent selection and variety. 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 ·

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #166 Saturday, September 22, 2007
Prehistory and Origins
Evolutionary Theory Challenged By Fossils
	Posted by SirLinksalot On News/Activism 09/18/2007 11:47:54 AM EDT · 89 replies CBS NEWS \| 08/09/2007 Surprising research based on two African fossils suggests our family tree is more like a wayward bush with stubby branches, challenging what had been common thinking on how early humans evolved. The discovery by Meave Leakey, a member of a famous family of paleontologists, shows that two species of early human ancestors lived at the same time in Kenya. That pokes holes in the chief theory of man's early evolution -- that one of those species evolved from the other. And it further discredits that iconic illustration of human evolution that begins with a knuckle-dragging ape and ends with a...

Human ancestor had mix of primitive, modern traits
	Posted by Dysart On News/Activism 09/19/2007 6:45:17 PM EDT · 40 replies Reuters-Yahoo! \| 9-19-07 \| Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The earliest-known human ancestors to migrate out of Africa possessed a surprising mix of human-like and primitive features, according to scientists who studied remains dug up at a fossil-rich site in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.Writing on Wednesday in the journal Nature, the scientists described remains of three adults and one adolescent dating from about 1.77 million years ago, excavated at Dmanisi, about 55 miles southwest of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.The remains shed light on a little-understood but critical period in human evolution -- the transition from the more ape-like creatures known as australopithecines to the...

Fossils Reveal Clues on Human Ancestor (transitional fossil alert)
	Posted by Alter Kaker On News/Activism 09/20/2007 10:51:35 AM EDT · 75 replies New York Times \| 20 September 2007 \| John Noble Wilford The discovery of four fossil skeletons of early human ancestors in Georgia, the former Soviet republic, has given scientists a revealing glimpse of a species in transition, primitive in its skull and upper body but with more advanced spines and lower limbs for greater mobility. The findings, being reported today in the journal Nature, are considered a significant step toward understanding who were some of the first ancestors to migrate out of Africa some 1.8 million years ago. They may also yield insights into the first members of the human genus, Homo.Until now, scientists had found only the skulls of...
Hobbits
Scientists: Hobbit Wasn't a Modern Human
	Posted by Sub-Driver On General/Chat 09/20/2007 4:34:19 PM EDT · 9 replies breitbart.com Scientists: Hobbit Wasn't a Modern Human Sep 20 04:18 PM US/Eastern By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID AP Science Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists, wringing their hands over the identity of the famed "hobbit" fossil, have found a new clue in the wrist. Since the discovery of the bones in Indonesia in 2003, researchers have wrangled over whether the find was an ancient human ancestor or simply a modern human suffering from a genetic disorder. Now, a study of the bones in the creature's left wrist lends weight to the human ancestor theory, according to a report in Friday's issue of the...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Peruvian Archaeologists Find 40 1,200-Year-Old Mummies (Kuelap)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/20/2007 2:48:58 PM EDT · 7 replies China View \| 9-19-2007 \| Xinhua Peruvian archaeologists find 40 1,200-year-old mummies www.chinaview.cn 2007-09-20 10:55:40 LIMA, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Archaeologists in Peru have found 40 mummies dating from the 1,200-year-old Chachapoyas culture in the Amazon fortress of Kuelap, project leader Alfredo Narvaez told local media on Wednesday. He said the mummies were discovered alongside Inca pottery, and that they showed signs of being affected by a fire in the archaeological complex, some 1,409 km northeast to the nation's capital. He said the bodies had been buried under a platform of 24 meters in diameter in the El Tintero structure during a dig of the Kuelap...
Japan
Archaeologists Granted Access To Japan's Sacred Tombs
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/20/2007 2:59:40 PM EDT · 7 replies The Guardian (UK) \| 9-20-2007 \| Justin McCurry Archaeologists granted access to Japan's sacred tombs The divine origins of Japan's imperial family come under scrutiny as it allows limited access to two burial sites. Justin McCurry in Tokyo Thursday September 20, 2007 Guardian Unlimited (UK) Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko attend the opening ceremony of the World Athletics Championships in Osaka last month. Photograph: Michael Steele/Getty Images Japan's imperial household agency is to open the doors to some of the country's mysterious imperial tombs early next year after decades of pressure from archaeologists, in a move expected to anger ultra-conservatives. Experts have long been denied access to the...
India
Until Proven, A Myth: Historians
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/15/2007 4:38:27 PM EDT · 14 replies · 492+ views The Telegraph (India) \| 9-12-2007 \| CHARU SUDAN KASTURI & SUDESHNA BANERJEE Until proven, a myth: Historians CHARU SUDAN KASTURI & SUDESHNA BANERJEE New Delhi/Calcutta, Sept. 12: Ram cannot be considered a historical figure despite references in ancient literature because crucial material evidence to authenticate his existence has not been found, historians have said. "A textual reference necessarily needs to be corroborated by inscriptions engraved in stone or other long-lasting material or by archaeological evidence," said Nayanjot Lahiri, professor of ancient history at Delhi University. Until such evidence is found, a character or event in texts or literature is considered mythological, historians said. Historians have traced the original texts of the Mahabharata...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Palace of Cyrus' Ancestor to Host Archeologists
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/20/2007 2:51:21 PM EDT · 4 replies Cultural Heritage News Agency \| September 19, 2007 \| Soudabeh Sadigh While the aerial pictures took from the Achaemenid site of Bardak Siah palace in Boushehr in 1978 revealed the existence of 5 historic hills in the area which were most probably denoted to palace of ancestor of Cyrus the Great, today only one fourth of one of these hills has been remained... Amongst the most prominent archeological achievements in Bardak Siah Palace is discovery of a large number of golden curly coins, more than 3 kilograms in weight, which were unearthed close to one of the columns of this Achaemenid palace... due to some problems they have not been examined...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Bronze Age building uncovered near Gaza
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/19/2007 2:00:58 PM EDT · 8 replies Jerusalem Post \| September 17, 2007 \| Etgar Lefkovits A building from the Late Bronze Age apparently constructed for Egyptian authorities before the Israelite settlement in the Land of Israel has been uncovered in an excavation on the edge of the Negev desert near the Gaza Strip, Ben-Gurion University announced Monday. The month-long summer dig on the eastern section of the Besor Stream, about 12 kilometers east of Gaza, revealed the 3,000-year-old site buried underneath a 7th century Philistine rural village from the Second Iron Age, said Ben-Gurion University archeologist Dr. Gunnar Lehmann... About 10-15 such buildings are known to exist off the Egyptian border, but most have been...
Faith and Philosophy
A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation
	Posted by Convert from ECUSA On News/Activism 09/17/2007 7:22:09 AM EDT · 21 replies · 132+ views Jewish World Review \| September 10, 2007 \| Hershel Shanks A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation By Hershel Shanks The "Jewish State" is allowing Judaism's holiest site to have its priceless artifacts destroyed and nobody seems to care No one really cares. But that puts me in an elite group: It includes two of Israel's most prominent Jerusalem archaeologists (Gaby Barkay and Eilat Mazar) -- and me. Meanwhile, the Muslim Waqf goes on tearing up Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where once the Jewish Temple stood. The week before last, they hit an ancient wall that might be the foundation of a wall from the Second Temple complex built by Herod...
Rome and Italy
Colosseum is menaced by vandals again
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/17/2007 1:31:11 PM EDT · 14 replies · 6+ views Times Online \| September 15, 2007 \| Richard Owen Visitors to the 1st-century amphitheatre are taking away "chunks of stone" as souvenirs despite the presence of guards and surveillance cameras, according to Angelo Bottini, the Superintendent of Archaeology for Rome. He said that most of the five million tourists who visited the Colosseum annually behaved responsibly. But others covered it in graffiti, left their rubbish behind and picked up bits of Ancient Roman wall or paving... He said he had started an inquiry and was asking police to reinforce patrols and closed-circuit television surveillance at the Colosseum and the adjoining Roman Forum, where tourists also pocketed souvenirs. At night,...
Ancient Europe
Bronze age settlement found at US Embassy site [ Malta ]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/17/2007 11:44:24 AM EDT · 4 replies Times of Malta \| Saturday, September 15, 2007 \| Mark Micallef A series of tombs and silos, probably dating back to the Bronze Age and early Roman period, have been discovered on the site set to become the new US Embassy, in Ta' Qali... During an onsite visit yesterday, Cultural Superintendent Nathaniel Cutajar said the findings had been given a C grade, which in layman's terms means they could now be buried again, but not destroyed. The US Embassy is not yet sure what it will do, yet it is possible the finds will remain exposed and incorporated in the landscaping since the embassy will only take up a small portion...
The Vikings
Rain Uncovers Viking Treasure Trove
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/15/2007 12:57:04 PM EDT · 51 replies · 1,691+ views The Local \| 9-14-2007 Rain uncovers Viking treasure trove Published: 14th September 2007 08:30 CET A bout of torrential rain left a surprising legacy in the garden of one Swede: a Viking treasure trove. Two coins were uncovered by the rain on the lawn of farmer Tage Pettersson, on the island of Gotland, in early August. He called in Gotland's archaeologists, who last week found a further 52 coins on the site. Most of the coins are German, English and Arabic currency from the late 900s and early 1000s. But archaeologists are most excited about the presence of six very rare Swedish coins, from...
Ancient Autopsies
Ancient Scots Mummified Their Dead
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/15/2007 12:49:52 PM EDT · 19 replies · 524+ views Discovery \| 9-14-2007 \| Jennifer Viegas Ancient Scots Mummified Their Dead Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Sept. 14, 2007 -- The ancient Egyptians were not the only ones to mummify their dead, according to a study in this month's Antiquity Journal that claims prehistoric Scottish people created mummies too. The researchers do not think the Egyptians influenced the Scots, but that mummification arose independently in the two regions. Initial evidence for Scottish mummies was announced in 2005, when archaeologists unearthed three preserved bodies -- an adult female, an adult male and an infant -- buried underneath two Bronze Age roundhouses in South Uist, Hebrides, at a site...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Dinosaur creche was a no-frills business [123 myr old PsitTACOsaurus fossils in lava floe]
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/21/2007 11:48:54 PM EDT · 7 replies The Times \| September 20, 2007 \| Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter A dinosaur creche has been found entombed in the volcanic debris that engulfed it on a hillside 123 million years ago. Six young Psittacosaurus, all less than three years old, died side by side. It is the earliest known dinosaur nursery... Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum in London, one of the researchers, said that the fossilised juveniles appeared to have formed a creche but it was impossible to be sure if they were part of a larger herd or if they grouped together for protection. "This is the first time we've found a group of these dinosaurs together....
Biology and Cryptobiology
Mammoth graveyard may someday be open to public
	Posted by Dysart On News/Activism 09/20/2007 9:21:38 AM EDT · 49 replies Star-Telegram \| 9-20-07 \| R.A. DYER WACO -- Not far from modest suburban homes in the middle of some thick Texas woods lies a secret boneyard.Surrounded by a tall chain-link fence and covered by what looks like a red-and-white circus tent, the site contains the remains of towering monsters. Remains of at least 25 mammoths, signs of a big saber-toothed cat and a long extinct camel have been found at the site.This is the Waco Mammoth Site, a collection of prehistoric fossils embedded in the dirt not far from the Bosque River. The site could be a potent educational resource if it were not off-limits to...
Climate
Mammoth dung, prehistoric goo may speed warming
	Posted by camerakid400 On News/Activism 09/16/2007 11:08:52 PM EDT · 36 replies · 59+ views Reuters \| Dmitry Solovyov DUVANNY YAR, Russia (Reuters) - Sergei Zimov bends down, picks up a handful of treacly mud and holds it up to his nose. It smells like a cow pat, but he knows better. "It smells like mammoth dung," he says. This is more than just another symptom of global warming. For millennia, layers of animal waste and other organic matter left behind by the creatures that used to roam the Arctic tundra have been sealed inside the frozen permafrost. Now climate change is thawing the permafrost and lifting this prehistoric ooze from suspended animation. But Zimov, a scientist who for...
Longer Perspectives
Lost in a Million-Year Gap, Solid Clues to Human Origins
	Posted by shrinkermd On News/Activism 09/18/2007 7:05:30 AM EDT · 18 replies New York Times \| 18 September 2007 \| John Noble Wilford In the study of human origins, paleoanthropology stares in frustration back to a dark age from three million to less than two million years ago. The missing mass in this case is the unfound fossils to document just when and under what circumstances our own genus Homo emerged. The origin of Homo is one of the most intriguing and intractable mysteries in human evolution. New findings only remind scientists that answers to so many of their questions about early Homo probably lie buried in the million-year dark age. It is known that primitive hominids -- human ancestors and their close...
Epigraphy and Language
Regions of dying languages named
	Posted by Santa Fe_Conservative On News/Activism 09/18/2007 5:35:30 PM EDT · 98 replies · 145+ views Associated Press \| 9/18/07 \| RANDOLPH E. SCHMID WASHINGTON - When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there's still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mangulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday. While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them.

Scientists: Many World Languages Are Dying
	Posted by james500 On News/Activism 09/18/2007 11:34:19 PM EDT · 77 replies · 939+ views AP via FOX News \| Tuesday, September 18, 2007 When every known speaker of the language Amurdag gets together, there's still no one to talk to. Native Australian Charlie Mungulda is the only person alive known to speak that language, one of thousands around the world on the brink of extinction. From rural Australia to Siberia to Oklahoma, languages that embody the history and traditions of people are dying, researchers said Tuesday. While there are an estimated 7,000 languages spoken around the world today, one of them dies out about every two weeks, according to linguistic experts struggling to save at least some of them. Five hotspots where languages...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Rare medical, astronomical manuscripts found at Dar al-Kotob
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/17/2007 1:22:48 PM EDT · 11 replies Egypt State Information Service \| Sunday, September 16, 2007 \| unattributed A number of rare and invaluable medical and astronomical manuscripts have been found at the National Library of Egypt (also known as Dar al-Kotob). A senior official at Alexandria Library said Saturday that the ancient documents were just laying there in the forgotten Dar al-Kotob archieves for many years but thanks to his Centre for Documentation of Cultural and Natural Heritage (CULTNAT) they were "technically rediscovered". "They are really priceless," he reiterated. The medical papers give prescription of the treatment of some chronic diseases, bone fractures and bruises and lessons in body and eye anatomy, CULTNAT chief Fathi Saleh said....
Gates of Eden
A quick history lesson: America is no Rome - The tired analogy of imperial decline and fall
	Posted by neverdem On News/Activism 09/14/2007 1:53:26 PM EDT · 115 replies · 1,891+ views The Times (UK) \| September 14, 2007 \| Gerard Baker The ethnic origins of General David Petraeus are apparently Dutch, which is a shame because there's something sonorously classical about the family name of the commander of the US forces in Iraq. When you discover that his father was christened Sixtus, the fantasy really takes flight. Somewhere in the recesses of the brain, where memory mingles hazily with imagination, I fancy I can recall toiling through a schoolboy Latin textbook that documented the progress of one Petraeus Sixtus as he triumphantly extended the imperium romanum across some dusty plain in Asia Minor. The fantasy is not wholly inapt, of course....
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
The Case of Classical v. Modern Comes to Federal Court
	Posted by Lorianne On General/Chat 09/18/2007 7:10:33 PM EDT · 10 replies · 7+ views Washington Post \| September 15, 2007 \| Roger K. Lewis What architectural design issues most concern you? Perhaps carbon emissions, universal accessibility or the challenge of preserving at-risk historic properties? Maybe you think less about buildings and architectural design, and more about the shape of your community and the broader public realm. However, you probably rarely worry about which architectural style is appropriate for which kind of building, about whether columns should be Doric, Ionic or Corinthian. Many architects, however, feel passionately about competing design philosophies, and one competition in particular persists: classicism versus modernism. Much of Washington's architecture, typified by use of classical motifs derived from Greek and Roman...
end of digest #166 20070922

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #167 Saturday, September 29, 2007
Ancient Autopsies
DNA Extracted From Woolly Mammoth Hair
	Posted by saganite On News/Activism 09/28/2007 1:18:39 AM EDT · 51 replies Science Daily \| 27 Sep 07 \| staff Science Daily -- Stephan C. Schuster and Webb Miller of Penn State, working with Thomas Gilbert from Copenhagen and a large international consortium, discovered that hair shafts provide an ideal source of ancient DNA -- a better source than bones and muscle for studying the genome sequences of extinct animals. Their research achievement, described in a paper to be published in the journal Science on Sept. 28, includes the sequencing of entire mitochondrial genomes from 10 individual woolly mammoths. Schuster and Miller, working at Penn State's Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, and Gilbert, from the Center for Ancient Genetics...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Where Do The Finns Come From?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/26/2007 1:49:43 PM EDT · 75 replies Sydaby \| Christian Carpelan WHERE DO FINNS COME FROM? Not long ago, cytogenetic experts stirred up a controversy with their "ground-breaking" findings on the origins of the Finnish and Sami peoples. Cytogenetics is by no means a new tool in bioanthropological research, however. As early as the 1960s and '70s, Finnish researchers made the significant discovery that one quarter of the Finns' genetic stock is Siberian, and three quarters is European in origin. The Samis, however, are of different genetic stock: a mixture of distinctly western, but also eastern elements. If we examine the genetic links between the peoples of Europe, the Samis form...
Prehistory and Origins
Myths Of British Ancestry
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/28/2007 10:42:35 AM EDT · 83 replies Prospect \| 10-2006 \| Stephen Oppenheimer Myths of British ancestry October 2006Stephen Oppenheimer Everything you know about British and Irish ancestry is wrong. Our ancestors were Basques, not Celts. The Celts were not wiped out by the Anglo-Saxons, in fact neither had much impact on the genetic stock of these islands The fact that the British and the Irish both live on islands gives them a misleading sense of security about their unique historical identities. But do we really know who we are, where we come from and what defines the nature of our genetic and cultural heritage? Who are and were the Scots, the Welsh,...
Mediterranean
Ancient Fishermen Lured Fish With Fire
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/26/2007 6:02:02 PM EDT · 33 replies Discovery \| 9-25-2007 \| Jennifer Viegas Ancient Fishermen Lured Fish With Fire Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Sept. 25, 2007 -- Fishermen around areas mentioned in the New Testament worked the night shift, suggests fishing gear found in a 7th century shipwreck off the coast of Dor, Israel, west of Galilee, where Jesus is said to have preached. The standout item among the found gear is a fire basket, the first evidence for "fire fishing" in the ancient eastern Mediterranean. Early images and writings indicate fires were lit in such baskets, which were suspended in giant lantern devices from the end of fishing boats. Light emitted from...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Research Team Says Extraterrestrial Impact To Blame For Ice Age Extinctions (More)
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 09/25/2007 3:58:19 PM EDT · 56 replies Eureka Alert \| Northern Arizona University - Lisa Nelson Contact: Lisa Nelson Lisa.Nelson@nau.edu 928-523-6123 Northern Arizona University Research team says extraterrestrial impact to blame for Ice Age extinctions A colorized scanning electron microscope image of a glassy carbon sphere that contains evidence of extraterrestrial impact. The sphere measures about .012 inches in width. What caused the extinction of mammoths and the decline of Stone Age people about 13,000 years ago remains hotly debated. Overhunting by Paleoindians, climate change and disease lead the list of probable causes. But an idea once considered a little out there is now hitting closer to home. A team of international researchers, including two Northern...

Cosmic blast may have killed off megafauna Scientists say early humans doomed, too
	Posted by baynut On News/Activism 09/25/2007 9:45:11 PM EDT · 49 replies Boston Globe \| September 27, 2007 \| Colin Nickerson Wooly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-toothed cats, and dozens of other species of megafauna may have become extinct when a disintegrating comet or asteroid exploded over North America with the force of millions of hydrogen bombs, according to research by an international team of scientists. The blast, which the researchers believe occurred 12,900 years ago, may have also doomed a mysterious early human culture, known as Clovis people, while triggering a planetwide cool-down that wiped out the plant species that sustained many outsize Ice Age beasts, according to research published online yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Climate
Ice Age Australians Sheltered In Caves
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:07:17 PM EDT · 20 replies ABC Science \| 9-24-2007 \| Anna Salleh Ice age Australians sheltered in caves Anna Salleh ABC Science Online Monday, 24 September 2007 Why would Aboriginal Tasmanians flock to one of the coldest parts of the island during an ice age? One researcher says it was to shelter from the wind in caves and steep valleys (Image: Ian Gilligan) Ice age Aboriginal Australians protected themselves from bitterly cold winds by flocking to caves in one of the most inhospitable parts of the continent, says an archaeologist. Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University, lays out his argument in the current issue of the journal Antiquity....
Australia and the Pacific
Early Polynesians Sailed Thousands Of Miles For Trade
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/27/2007 6:46:25 PM EDT · 47 replies National Geographic \| 9-27-2007 \| Dave Hansford Early Polynesians Sailed Thousands of Miles for Trade Dave Hansford for National Geographic News September 27, 2007 Early Polynesians sailed thousands of miles for exploration and trade, suggests a new study of early stone woodworking tools. The analysis confirms traditional tales of vast ocean voyages and hints that a trading network existed between Hawaii and Tahiti as early as a thousand years ago. The work also bolsters research suggesting that the Polynesians were skillful sailors who rapidly expanded across the Pacific and journeyed as far as South America by the 1400s A.D. Kenneth Collerson and Marshall Weisler of the University...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Historians propose various theories on early migrations
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 09/27/2007 12:39:46 PM EDT · 6 replies Helena Independent Record \| September 23, 2007 \| Marga Lincoln European prehistoric artifacts similar to ones in North America, such as Clovis points, have led some scholars to suggest that European prehistoric people crossed the Atlantic Ocean in boats, said Vrooman. And research in Siberia, where the Bering land bridge supposedly originated, reveals no solid evidence of Clovis points originating there, he said... A site in Brazil yields possible evidence of human habitation 37,000 years ago, long before the land bridge is believed to have existed, said Vrooman... Helena Forest archaeologist Carl Davis said it's also likely that early people walked down the frozen coast from Alaska to Baja thousands...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Snake-Bird Gods Fascinated Both Aztecs And Pharaohs
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 09/25/2007 3:19:09 PM EDT · 38 replies Reuters \| 9-24-2007 \| Robin Emmott Snake-bird gods fascinated both Aztecs and pharaohs Mon 24 Sep 2007, 17:05 GMT By Robin Emmott MONTERREY, Mexico, Sept 24 (Reuters Life!) - Ancient Mexicans and Egyptians who never met and lived centuries and thousands of miles apart both worshiped feathered-serpent deities, built pyramids and developed a 365-day calendar, a new exhibition shows. Billed as the world's largest temporary archeological showcase, Mexican archeologists have brought treasures from ancient Egypt to display alongside the great indigenous civilizations of Mexico for the first time. The exhibition, which boasts a five-tonne, 3,000-year-old sculpture of Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II and stone carvings from Mexican...
Egypt
Update - Latvian Scientifique Mission In The Step Pyramid Of Saqqara (Egypt)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/22/2007 11:14:49 AM EDT · 12 replies Archaeogate \| 9-18-2007 \| Bruno Deslandes Update on the recent works carried out by the Latvian Scientifique Mission in the Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Egypt) Redazione Archaeogate, 18-09-2007 During its last campaign, the Latvian Scientific Mission, which has already worked more than two years in the Step Pyramid of Saqqara (Egypt) in the framework of its joint-venture with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and direct supervision from Dr. Zahi Hawass, has successfully carried out some additional documentation works, very important for the safeguarding and restoration of the oldest stone monument in the world. Resources allocated to this program (15 scientists) represent the largest scientific team...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Ancient wall unearthed in Iran
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:01:05 AM EDT · 12 replies Zeenews \| 9/24/07 \| Zeenews Tehran, Sept 24: British and Iranian archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a 200 kilometre-long wall, the second longest wall in Asia after the Great Wall of China, in northern Iran. Experts believe the Gorgan Great Wall in northern Iran's Golestan Province was built at about the same time as the Great Wall of China and was used as a defence system against the invasions of the Ephthalites, a nomadic people who once lived in Central Asia. Archaeologists also discovered a 50-kilometre long stretch of a canal near the wall that was used to transfer water from the Gorganrud River...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Quarry Used For Jewish Temple Unearthed In Israel
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/24/2007 1:23:22 PM EDT · 26 replies Yahoo News \| 9-23-2007 \| Rebecca Harrison Quarry used for Jewish temple unearthed in Israel By Rebecca Harrison Sun Sep 23, 11:22 AM ETReuters Photo: Ultra-orthodox Jewish boys walk through a quarry in Jerusalem September 23, 2007. Israeli archaeologists have... JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Archaeologists have found an ancient quarry where King Herod's workers may have chiselled the giant stones used to rebuild the second Jewish temple in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago. The Israel Antiquities Authority said on Sunday experts believe stones as long as 8 meters (24 feet) were extracted from the quarry and then dragged by oxen to building sites in Jerusalem for major projects...
Japan
Israelites Came To Ancient Japan
	Posted by pseudogratix On Religion 03/27/2003 9:01:51 AM EST · 17 replies · 8,124+ views 5.ocn.ne.jp \| Arimasa Kubo Israelites Came To Ancient Japan Many of the traditional ceremonies in Japan seem to indicate that the Lost Tribes of Israel came to ancient Japan.Arimasa Kubo Ark of the covenant of Israel (left) and "Omikoshi" ark of Japan (right) Dear friends in the world, I am a Japanese Christian writer living in Japan. As I study the Bible, I began to realize that many traditional customs and ceremonies in Japan are very similar to the ones of ancient Israel. I considered that perhaps these rituals came from the religion and customs of the Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of...
Agriculture
Stone Age Rice Farms Found In China
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/28/2007 10:04:14 AM EDT · 9 replies Statesman \| 9-27-2007 Stone Age rice farms found in ChinaScientists find evidence of mass rice cultivation 7,700 years ago. Thursday, September 27, 2007 Stone Age Chinese began cultivating rice more than 7,700 years ago by burning trees in coastal marshes and building dams to hold back seawater, converting the marshes to rice paddies that would support growth of the high-yield cereal grain, researchers plan to report today. New analysis of sediments from the site of Kuahuqiao at the mouth of the Yangtze River near Hangzhou provides the earliest evidence in China of such large-scale environmental manipulation, experts said. "It shows people were changing...
British Isles
Archaeologists Have Uncovered A Royal Palace Used By King Henry II
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/23/2007 4:38:57 PM EDT · 41 replies Newbury Today \| 9-23-2007 Archaeologists have uncovered a royal palace used by King Henry II AN ANCIENT royal palace near Kingsclere unearthed during recent excavations will be open to the public over the weekend (September 22-23). The Royal Palace of Fremantle has lain hidden under the Hampshire Downs at Tidgrove Warren Farm, in the parish of Hannington, for nearly 900 years. Over the last three years the site has been excavated by staff and students from the University of Southampton in association with the Kingsclere Heritage Association local volunteers. Explorations have revealed a medieval enclosed settlement surrounded by a massive ditch - larger than...
Anatasia Screamed In Vain
Alexei and Maria Romanov: I Possibly Know Where Bones Are in Russia
	Posted by GermanBusiness On News/Activism 12/25/2005 5:58:41 PM EST · 74 replies · 4,830+ views I've been dating a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia for over a year whose grandfather was apparently given a lethal injection by the communists when he went in for a routine physical in the late 1940s. His name: Fyedor Korablyev, born 16 February 1907 Even before the apparent murder, the family has been afraid to talk about any relation to the Romanov Family but an older family member has just told me that Alexei Romanov died as a monk in Siberia in 1960. The world is aware that Alexei's bones were never found. He was not executed with this family...

Remains may be children of last czar
	Posted by darkangel82 On News/Activism 09/28/2007 8:47:14 PM EDT · 17 replies Yahoo \| 9/28 \| Mike Eckel MOSCOW - There is a "high degree of probability" that bone fragments found recently near the Russian city of Yekaterinburg are those of a daughter and son of the last czar, forensics experts said Friday. If confirmed, the find would fill in a missing chapter in the story of the doomed Romanovs, who were killed after the violent 1917 Bolshevik Revolution ushered in more than 70 years of Communist rule. The fragments were found by archaeologists in a burned field near the Ural Mountains city where Czar Nicholas II, his wife, Alexandra, and their five children were held prisoner by...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
How Joan escaped the stake and lived happily ever after
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 09/22/2007 12:55:20 PM EDT · 27 replies The Guardian (UK) \| 9-22-07 \| Angelique Chrisafis New book angers historians with claims maid was not an illiterate peasant but a royal.... She was a peasant teenager inspired by voices from God to lead the French against the English, and burned as a witch before being recognised as a hero and saint. For centuries, France's cult of Joan of Arc has been seized on by politicians looking for patriotic martyr figures, including by Nicolas Sarkozy during his presidential campaign. Now a new book has sparked anger among historians by claiming the Maid of Orleans was not an illiterate peasant but a royal. She did not hear voices...
Longer Perspectives
Politically Correct Anthropology
	Posted by bs9021 On News/Activism 09/25/2007 10:39:57 PM EDT · 21 replies Campus Report \| September 25, 2007 \| Don Irvine Politically Correct Anthropology by: Don Irvine, September 25, 2007 Political correctness which has been invading academia with a vengeance has a new target- Anthropology. An ad-hoc group calling themselves the Network of Concerned Anthropologists is now circulating a petition on the internet called the Pledge of Non-Participation in Counterinsurgency whose central theme says that "Anthropologists should not engage in research and other activities that contribute to counterinsurgency operations in Iraq or in related theaters in the 'war on terror.'"In other words it's an anti-war declaration for anthropologists. The organizers, two of whom are at George Mason University, feel that anthropologists...
Early America
Archaeologist takes 2nd look at cannon Found off Virginia coast. How did it get there?
	Posted by Pharmboy On General/Chat 09/25/2007 9:29:15 PM EDT · 13 replies The Associated Press via MSNBC \| Sept 25, 2007 \| Anon NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - An archaeologist is taking a second look at a small cannon found by fishermen off the Virginia coast more than two decades ago in hopes of determining how it got to the bottom of the ocean -- and who left it there. Rod Mather, a professor of maritime history and underwater archaeology at the University of Rhode Island, has studied the 25-square-mile area surrounding the site where the cannon was found the past two summers. Some historians believe the 4-feet-long, 300-pound cannon, which was loaded when it was found 24 years ago, is an English cannon...
London, Paris, Fresno
Archaeologists Probe Secret Tunnels in California
	Posted by decimon On News/Activism 09/27/2007 5:46:36 PM EDT · 55 replies Associated Press \| September 27, 2007 \| Unknown FRESNO, Calif. -- Tunnels run beneath Chinatown in Fresno, Calif.: brick-walled passages that were once home to people and activities that couldn't be mentioned aboveground. Rick Lew knows, because he walked the passages as a child, entering through a trapdoor in his grandfather's liquor store. "There was a nightlife you couldn't see from the streets," he said. As late as the 1950s, when Lew was a boy, Chinatown was still thriving -- both its respectable establishments and as its shadier side. He remembers visiting the underground world with his father, first passing though a dark basement before descending into a...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Three-year Genghis Khan trek ends
	Posted by Renfield On General/Chat 09/25/2007 4:49:08 PM EDT · 13 replies BBC News \| 9-23-07 An Australian man has completed a three-year journey from Mongolia to Hungary, following in the footsteps of the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan. The journey took more than double the time Mr Cope anticipated When Tim Cope began his 10,000 km (6,200 mile) journey in June 2004 he expected it to take 18 months. However, a stint at home when his father died and other delays meant it took more than double that. Throughout the trek he travelled on horseback and relied on the hospitality of local people, including nomads. He travelled with three horses at any time, one to carry...
end of digest #167 20070929