Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #169
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Site Provides Evidence For Ancient Comet Explosion (Topper - SC)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/08/2007 1:07:52 AM EDT · 37 replies · 765+ views
The News Tribune | 10-7-2007 | Joey Holleman
Site provides evidence for ancient comet explosion JOEY HOLLEMAN; McClatchy Newspapers Published: October 7th, 2007 01:00 AM COLUMBIA, S.C. -- For the second time in less than a decade, a South Carolina river bluff holds evidence pointing to a theory with history-rewriting potential. Microscopic soil particles from the Topper site near Allendale might hold a tiny key to a big theory: that comet-caused explosions wiped out the mammoths and mastodons, prompted the last ice age and decimated the first human culture in North America about 12,900 years ago. The comet theory first began generating a buzz at an international meeting...
Climate
Newfound ancient African megadroughts may have driven the evolution of humans and fishes
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 10/08/2007 8:31:23 PM EDT · 41 replies · 705+ views
University of Arizona | October 8, 2007 | Unknown
From 135,000 to 90,000 years ago tropical Africa had megadroughts more extreme and widespread than any previously known for that region, according to new research. Learning that now-lush tropical Africa was an arid scrubland during the early Late Pleistocene provides new insights into humans' migration out of Africa and the evolution of fishes in Africa's Great Lakes. "Lake Malawi, one of the deepest lakes in the world, acts as a rain gauge," said lead scientist Andrew S. Cohen of The University of Arizona in Tucson. "The lake level dropped at least 600 meters (1,968 feet) -- an extraordinary amount of...
Prehistory and Origins
Human Ancestors Walked Upright, Study Claims (Evolution in Reverse)
Posted by Dallas
On News/Activism 10/10/2007 3:15:58 PM EDT · 16 replies · 584+ views
Yahoo
The ancestors of humanity are often depicted as knuckle-draggers, making humans seem unusual in our family tree as "upright apes." In other words, "the other great apes we see now, such as chimps or gorillas or orangutans, might have descended from human-like ancestors," researcher Aaron Filler, a Harvard-trained evolutionary biologist and medical director at Cedars-Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders in Los Angeles, told LiveScience. Filler analyzed how the spine was assembled in more than 250 living and extinct mammalian species, with some bones dating up to 220 million years old. He discovered a series of changes that suggest walking upright-and...
Pandemics, Epidemics, Disease
Origins of Syphilis [It was waiting for Columbus and his crew~~~NEW WORLD]
Posted by shield
On News/Activism 10/06/2007 9:04:49 PM EDT · 95 replies · 2,525+ views
Archaeology.org | January/February 1997 | Mark Rose
snip... Syphilis, it seems, developed in the New World from yaws, perhaps 1,600 years ago, and was waiting for Columbus and his crew. The Rothschilds are now examining skeletal collections from the Bahamas to look for evidence of syphilis nearer to Columbus' landfall.
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Ancient Boats Surface At Fla. Lake
Posted by stainlessbanner
On General/Chat 10/07/2007 12:19:42 AM EDT · 44 replies · 658+ views
local6 | October 6, 2007
IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- From a distance, the brown object near the bank of Lake Trafford looks like a log, or maybe a big alligator. Close up, though, it becomes identifiable as a large section of a dugout canoe, possibly more than 1,000 years old. As lake levels have dropped during the ongoing drought, normally submerged areas have become dry. Ten canoes, long buried in the sand, have been exposed. Click here to find out more! "They started showing up a couple of months ago, but I wanted to verify what they were," said Ski Olesky, owner of the Lake Trafford...
Bound and Beheaded
Ancient bodies had hands bound
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/08/2007 7:47:01 PM EDT · 13 replies · 219+ views
Canada.com | 10-06-07 | Robert Barron
A traditional burial ground, or the site of a massacre? Questions continue to surround the discovery of the remains of more than 80 First Nations people at an excavation site near Departure Bay beach in Nanaimo. Excavation for a condo development uncovered the remains at the ancient Snuneymuxw burial site. On Friday, Nanaimo media members received an anonymous tip suggesting that at least 60 of the bodies were uncovered, with their hands bound and their heads removed, suggesting a massacre had occurred. Calls to Madrone Environmental Services, conducting the archeological excavation of the site near Departure Bay Road's 7-Eleven store,...
and For Dessert, Lady Fingers
The Heart Rippers Killed Children for the Rain God
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/10/2007 7:58:20 AM EDT · 19 replies · 253+ views
Softipedia News | Stefan Anitei
Aztecs, Mayas and their preceding civilizations in Central America are famous for their appetite for blood. The cruel and megalomaniac sacrifice rites produce stupor amongst modern people and these people knew very well how to use it against their enemies. Would you have opposed them when you were risking to be sacrificed by ripping off your heart from your chest while still alive? A new discovery adds another gruesome aspect to the picture. Archaeologists have found the remains of 24 children who must have been sacrificed in the honor of the rain god a millennium ago. "The bones of the...
Navigation
1559 Shipwreck Found Off Pensacola, Fla.
Posted by RDTF
On News/Activism 10/11/2007 7:42:56 PM EDT · 23 replies · 863+ views
Breitbart | October 11, 2007 | AP
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - In 1559, a hurricane plunged as many as seven Spanish sailing vessels to the bottom of Pensacola Bay, hampering explorer Don Tristan de Luna's attempt to colonize this section of the Florida Panhandle. Almost 500 years later and 15 years after the first ship was found, another has been discovered, helping archaeologists unlock secrets to Florida's Spanish past. The colony at the site of present-day Pensacola was abandoned in 1561, and no trace of it has been found on land. Teams of University of West Florida archaeology students last summer discovered what they thought was the...
Epigraphy and Language
Archaeologists in Portugal net haul of Roman coins
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/11/2007 1:51:04 PM EDT · 3 replies · 95+ views
PR-inside.com | Wednesday, October 10, 2007 | AP
Archeologists in Portugal have found more than 4,500 Roman coins bundled together inside the wall of a blacksmith's house dating from the fourth century. Antonio Sa Coixao, who is leading excavations in Coriscada in northeastern Portugal, said Wednesday by telephone the 4,526 copper and bronze coins were inside a hollow wall and covered by dirt and tools. The coins had apparently been put in a sack which had mostly disintegrated, he said... Archeologists excavating the site, which is believed to be a Roman village, came across the coins Friday, he said... The excavation site, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from...
Rome and Italy
Report: Ancient Roman graveyard found in suburban Copenhagen
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/11/2007 2:55:59 PM EDT · 11 replies · 135+ views
IHT | October 10, 2007 | Associated Press / Roskilde Dagblad
Archaeologists have discovered a Roman cemetery from about 300 A.D. in suburban Copenhagen with about 30 graves, a newspaper reported Wednesday. "It is something special and rare in Denmark to have so many (ancient Roman) graves in one place," archaeologist Rune Iversen was quoted as saying by the Roskilde Dagblad newspaper. The graveyard's exact location in Ishoej, southwest of downtown Copenhagen, was being kept secret until the archaeologists from the nearby Kroppedal Museum have completed their work, the newspaper wrote... Archaeologists found necklaces and other personal belongings, as well as ceramics for containing food. "It shows that we're dealing with...
Greece
A Prayer for Archimedes
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/10/2007 8:15:21 AM EDT · 2 replies · 45+ views
Science News Online | 10-04-07 | Julie J. Rehmeyer
A long-lost text by the ancient Greek mathematician shows that he had begun to discover the principles of calculus. ~~~snip~~~ An intensive research effort over the last nine years has led to the decoding of much of the almost-obliterated Greek text. The results were more revolutionary than anyone had expected. The researchers have discovered that Archimedes was working out principles that, centuries later, would form the heart of calculus and that he had a more sophisticated understanding of the concept of infinity than anyone had realized. ~~~~snip~~~~
Anatolia
Diyarbakir Excavation Reveals Ancient Tomb Of Young Lovers (8,000 YO - Turkey)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/08/2007 1:23:17 AM EDT · 10 replies · 431+ views
Todays Zaman | 10-7-2007
Diyarbakir excavation reveals ancient tomb of young lovers Archaeologists discovered the tomb of a young couple locked in an embrace during their work in Hakemi Use in the Bismil district of the southeastern province of Diyarbakir on Saturday. The young couple, archaeological history's oldest buried lovers, was discovered by excavations in Bismil; they were still embracing one another. Archaeologists assert that the couple, who presumably died some 8,000 years ago, is likely to set a record as the oldest embracing couple in the history of archaeology. Diyarbakir was witness to an extraordinary discovery when archaeologists revealed the tomb of the...
Agriculture
'Oldest' Wall Painting Looks Like Modern Art
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/11/2007 4:31:49 PM EDT · 31 replies · 992+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 10-11-2007 | Roger Highfield
'Oldest' wall painting looks like modern art By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:56pm BST 11/10/2007 French archaeologists have discovered an 11,000-year-old work of art in northern Syria which is the oldest known wall painting, even though it looks like a work by a modernist. The painting resembles the work of Paul Klee The two square-metre painting, in red, black and white, was found at the Neolithic settlement of Djade al-Mughara on the Euphrates, northeast of the city of Aleppo. "It looks like a modernist painting," said Eric Coqueugniot, the team leader. "Some of those who saw it have...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Dutch Researcher Claims To Confirm Queen Jezebel's Seal
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/10/2007 9:40:14 PM EDT · 19 replies · 566+ views
Haaretz | 10-11-2007 | Cnaan Liphshiz
Dutch researcher claims to confirm Queen Jezebel's seal By Cnaan Liphshiz For some 40 years, one of the flashiest opal signets on display at the Israel Museum had remained without accurate historical context. Two weeks ago, Dutch researcher Marjo Korpel identified article IDAM 65-321 as the official seal of Queen Jezebel, one of the bible's most powerful and reviled women. Israeli archaeologists had suspected Jezebel was the owner ever since the seal was first documented in 1964. "Did it belong to Ahab's Phoenician wife?" wrote the late pioneering archaeologist Nahman Avigad of the seal, which he obtained through the antiquities...
Longer Perspectives
Ancient documents portend major earthquake
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/10/2007 7:03:53 AM EDT · 5 replies · 69+ views
Science Daily | 10-04-07
TEL AVIV, Israel, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- An Israeli scientist said ancient documents suggest a major earthquake triggered by the Dead Sea Fault is long overdue in the Middle East. Although seismologists don't know when the next big earthquake will occur, Tel Aviv University geologist Shmulik Marco said earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents indicate the region's next significant quake might be imminent. Based on the translations of hundreds of ancient records from the Vatican and other religious sources, Marco has helped determine a series of devastating earthquakes occurred across the Holy Land during the last 2,000 years. The major...
Ancient Autopsies
Unlocking the secrets of history [mummies in Yemen]
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/10/2007 12:17:45 PM EDT · 4 replies · 85+ views
Yemen Times | Issue: (1090), Volume 15, From 1 October 2007 to 3 October 2007 | Hamed Thabet
For the first time, Windol Fliees, the head of an American expedition group found samples in Ma'reb in 1951-1952 in the graveyard or cemetery of Awam Temple called Haied Bin Aqeed. But the important discovery was in 1983 in Shebam Al Garas by the archeology expedition department, which found 26 Mummies at a depth of 60 centimeters, and among all those, only one has survived. Moreover, in 1991 Mummies have been found in the Al Noman mountain in Al Mahweet governorate, and until today their work is not finished as there are many more. In 1994 in Saih Bani Matar,...
India
Guardian of the Dawn, documents the little-known Portuguese Inquisition in India
Posted by Arjun
On News/Activism 09/14/2005 2:56:19 PM EDT · 19 replies · 830+ views
us.rediff.com
Richard Zimler's novel, Guardian of the Dawn, documents the little-known Portuguese Inquisition in India, in 16th century Goa. He points out that, apart from their laws and religion, the Portuguese also imported and enforced their infamous methods of interrogation to subdue troublemakers. Zimler has won numerous awards for his work, including a 1994 US National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Fiction and 1998 Herodotus Award for best historical novel. The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon was picked as 1998 Book of the Year by British critics, while Hunting Midnight has been nominated for the 2005 IMPAC Literary Award. Together with...
Australia and the Pacific
Scientist debunks nomadic Aborigine 'myth'
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/11/2007 2:29:00 PM EDT · 3 replies · 101+ views
Guardian Unlimited | Tuesday October 9, 2007 | Barbara McMahon
Before white settlers arrived, Australia's indigenous peoples lived in houses and villages, and used surprisingly sophisticated architecture and design methods to build their shelters... Dwellings were constructed in various styles, depending on the climate. Most common were dome-like structures made of cane reeds with roofs thatched with palm leaves. Some of the houses were interconnected, allowing native people to interact during long periods spent indoors during the wet season... Dr Memmott said the myth that indigenous Australians were constantly on the move had come about because early explorers made their observations in good weather, when indigenous people were more mobile...
British Isles
Archaeologists Find Mystery Carved Stone At Whitby Abbey (UK)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/12/2007 6:43:26 PM EDT · 11 replies · 488+ views
24 Hour Museum | 10-10-2007 | Museum Staff
ARCHAEOLOGISTS FIND MYSTERIOUS CARVED STONE AT WHITBY ABBEY By 24 Hour Museum Staff 12/10/2007 An archaeologist with the rare stone at the site at Whitby Abbey. © English Heritage Experts are studying a carved stone recently uncovered on Whitby Abbey Headland in North Yorkshire to see if it represents the first Bronze Age artefact from the site. St Hild founded an abbey on Whitby Headland in 657AD, which is now an important historical site. However, little was known about the site in the Anglo Saxon period in which it was founded until archaeologists carried out clifftop excavations in 2001 and...
British Archaeology (Latest News)
Posted by blam
On General/Chat 05/13/2002 7:56:46 PM EDT · 10 replies · 324+ views
British Archaeology | 5-13-2002
Anglo-Saxon 'planned town' revealed this month in Whitby House platforms, artefacts and a cemetry near the abbey Several years of intensive and often dangerous excavations by English Heritage on the eroding headland near Whitby Abbey in North Yorkshire culminated in the opening of a new Lottery-funded visitor centre on the site this month. The excavations revealed that Anglo-Saxon settlements surrounding the royal abbey founded in 657 were far more extensive and well-planned than had previously been thought. An area of sloping ground north of the abbey, thought to have originally measured about 20 acres before centuries of cliff erosion, had...
Surnames That Reveal Pirate Ancestry
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 08/16/2007 9:47:43 PM EDT · 67 replies · 2,298+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 8-17-2007 | Nick Britten
Surnames that reveal Pirate ancestry By Nick Britten Last Updated: 1:34am BST 17/08/2007 With all that pillaging and looting, it could be one of the bloodiest reunions in history when descendants of six of Britain's famous pirates are invited to a get-together. People with the surnames Morgan, Rackham, Bonny, Read, Kidd or Teach, are being invited to discover possible connections with the likes of Blackbeard and Calico Jack, in a series of events by English Heritage. Dressing as a sea dog is optional. Proving your lineage with a real-life buccaneer, however, may prove difficult. Abigail Baker, of the genealogy research...
Scotland Yet
Orkney arrowheads find points to Scotland's earliest settlement
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/08/2007 7:51:26 PM EDT · 7 replies · 87+ views
The Scotsman | 10-05-07 | John Ross
THEY may look like just a collection of broken stones, but the finds made in a field in Orkney might be evidence of the earliest settlement in Scotland. Two flint "tanged points" or arrowheads found on the island of Stronsay are thought to have been used by hunters between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, just after the Ice Age. The arrowheads were found among a collection of scattered artefacts, including bladed tools, on a farm by Naomi Woodward and a team of MA students on an archaeology course at Orkney College. The discoveries were made during a two-week research trip...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
This Day in History-The Battle of Lepanto
Posted by guinnessman
On General/Chat 10/07/2007 3:47:28 PM EDT · 20 replies · 378+ views
Crisis Mageazine | December 20, 2006 | H. W. Crocker III
Lepanto, 1571: The Battle That Saved Europe The clash of civilizations is as old as history, and equally as old is the blindness of those who wish such clashes away; but they are the hinges, the turning points of history. In the latter half of the 16th century, Muslim war drums sounded and the mufti of the Ottoman sultan proclaimed jihad, but only the pope fully appreciated the threat... The Ottoman Empire, the seat of Islamic power, looked to control the Mediterranean. Corsairs raided from North Africa; the Sultan's massive fleet anchored the eastern Mediterranean; and Islamic armies ranged along...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Knights Templar win heresy reprieve after 700 years
Posted by xzins
On Religion 10/12/2007 2:41:08 PM EDT · 45 replies · 321+ views
Yahoo | Thu Oct 11, 8:33 PM ET | By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Knights Templar, the medieval Christian military order accused of heresy and sexual misconduct, will soon be partly rehabilitated when the Vatican publishes trial documents it had closely guarded for 700 years. A reproduction of the minutes of trials against the Templars, "'Processus Contra Templarios -- Papal Inquiry into the Trial of the Templars'" is a massive work and much more than a book -- with a 5,900 euros (4,125 pounds) price tag. "This is a milestone because it is the first time that these documents are being released by the Vatican, which gives a stamp...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
'Britain's Leonardo' rescued on safety net
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/10/2007 7:40:58 AM EDT · 2 replies · 31+ views
Times Online (UK) | 10-08-07 | Max Henderson
The papers of one of Britain's greatest scientists, which were lost for centuries and saved for the nation in a £1 million sale last year, become available to read online today. The innovative "digital folio" provides unprecedented public access to hundreds of pages of manuscript notes and minutes kept by Robert Hooke, who is sometimes described as Britain's Leonardo da Vinci. The remarkable collection contains Hooke's minutes of early meetings of the Royal Society, taken while he was curator of experiments and then secretary of the national academy of science, between 1661 and 1692. They record many of the scientist's...
end of digest #169 20071013
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· Saturday, October 13, 2007 · 26 topics · 1910516 to 1907673 · still 653 members · |
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Saturday |
Welcome to the 169th issue of the Gods, Graves, Glyphs ping list Digest. Thanks to all who contributed the 26 topics this week -- nice selection, nice job! One duplicate could have appeared this week, but wasn't in the "raw" file, and I figured I'd just add the keyword today and post it with #170. Have a great week, all. |
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Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #170
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Prehistory and Origins
Fragments of another skull unearthed at the Atapuerca site
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/16/2007 10:49:05 AM EDT · 13 replies
Typically Spanish | July 24, 2007 | m.p
Juan Luis Arsuaga, co-director of the excavations, announced on Tuesday that the discovery was made in the 'Sima de los Huesos, - 'The Pit of the Bones' and that the skull is that of a hominid female, probably in her teens. It's the sixteenth such find at the site, and is believed to be more than 500,000 years old. Another of the three Atapuerca co-directors, Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, has meanwhile said that a study of two fossilised human teeth also discovered at the dig will likely be published in an international scientific journal early next year. One of...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Inconsistencies With Neanderthal Genomic DNA Sequences
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/15/2007 1:45:59 PM EDT · 37 replies
Science Daily | 10-14-2007 | Public Library of Science
Source: Public Library of Science Date: October 14, 2007 Inconsistencies With Neanderthal Genomic DNA Sequences Science Daily -- Were Neanderthals direct ancestors of contemporary humans or an evolutionary side branch that eventually died out? This is one of the enduring questions in human evolution as scientists explore the relationship of fossil groups, such as Neanderthals, with people alive today. Two recent papers describing the sequencing of Neanderthal nuclear DNA from fossil bone held promise for finally answering this question [1, 2]. However, the two studies came to very different conclusions regarding the ancestral role of Neanderthals. Jeffrey D. Wall and...
Africa
Early humans may have used makeup, seafood
Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 2:22:47 PM EDT · 36 replies
AP Science via Yahoo! | 10-17-07 | SETH BORENSTEIN
In one of the earliest hints of "modern" living, humans 164,000 years ago put on primitive makeup and hit the seashore for steaming mussels, new archaeological finds show. Call it a beach party for early man. But it's a beach party thrown by people who weren't supposed to be advanced enough for this type of behavior. What was found in a cave in South Africa may change how scientists believe Homo sapiens marched into modernity. Instead of undergoing a revolution into modern living about 40,000 to 70,000 years ago, as commonly thought, man may have become modern in stuttering fits...
ASU team detects earliest modern humans
Posted by Boxen
On News/Activism 10/18/2007 11:17:11 AM EDT · 6 replies
ASU News | October 17, 2007 | Jodi Guyot, Carol Hughes
Evidence of early humans living on the coast in South Africa 164,000 years ago, far earlier than previously documented, is being reported in the Oct. 18 issue of the journal Nature. The international team of researchers reporting the findings include Curtis Marean, a paleoanthropologist with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and three graduate students in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. "Our findings show that at 164,000 years ago in coastal South Africa humans expanded their diet to include shellfish and other marine resources, perhaps as a response to harsh environmental conditions," notes Marean,...
Biology and Cryptobiology
First Chimpanzee Fossils Cause Problems for Evolution
Posted by truthfinder9
On News/Activism 02/15/2006 2:47:51 PM EST · 148 replies · 3,639+ views
reasons.org
First Chimpanzee Fossils Cause Problems for Evolution by Fazale (Fuz) R. Rana, Ph.D.Where were you on September 1, 2005? Perhaps you missed the announcement of a scientific breakthrough: the influential journal Nature published the completed sequence of the chimpanzee genome.1This remarkable achievement received abundant publicity because it paved the way for biologists to conduct detailed genetic comparisons between humans and chimpanzees.2Unfortunately, the fanfare surrounding the chimpanzee genome overshadowed a more significant discovery. In the same issue, Nature published a report describing the first-ever chimpanzee fossils. This long-awaited scientific advance barely received notice because of the fascination with the chimpanzee genome....
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Ancient Mexican City Raises Questions About Mesoamerica's Mother Culture
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/14/2007 12:20:42 PM EDT · 43 replies
My San Antonio | Tracy L. Barnett
Ancient Mexican city raises questions about Mesoamerica's Mother Culture Web Posted: 10/11/2007 05:17 PM CDT Tracy L. Barnett Express-News Travel Editor TAMUIN, Mexico -- Deep in the Huastec jungle the enormous carved stone monolith stands, suspended over the pool of water where a team of archaeologists discovered it. A powerful woman stands at the center of the carving, flanked by two smaller decapitated women. A stream of liquid flows from the headless women toward the woman in the center. Altug S. Icilensu/Special to the Express-NewsThe leader salutes the musicians before beginning the Malinche, a traditional Huastec dance. The women on...
NAGPRA
Native American Skull Found At Malibu Construction Site
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 5:24:12 PM EDT · 40 replies
Malibu Surfside News | 10-17-2007 | Anne Soble
Native American Skull Found at Malibu Construction Site -- State Native American Heritage Commission Initiates Process for Handling Find -- BY ANNE SOBLE A human skull unearthed at a construction site in the Paradise Cove mobile home park has been officially declared a prehistoric Native American find, and the wheels have been put in motion for the remains to be handled in accord with state law. Workers preparing the foundation for a new mobile home in the beachside complex discovered the skull during routine digging Monday at about 4 p.m. and contacted the sheriff's department. Capt. Ed Winter of the Operations...
Ancient Europe
Czech Archaeologists Find 7,000 Year-Old Unique Statue
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/19/2007 12:15:37 AM EDT · 17 replies
Xinhuanet | 10-19-2007 | China View
Czech archaeologists find 7,000 year-old unique statue www.chinaview.cn 2007-10-19 01:26:14 PRAGUE, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Czech Archaeologists have uncovered a part of a half-meter high statue of a woman nearly 7,000 years old in the country, which was called "a find of the century," the daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) reported on Thursday. Experts from Brno's Masaryk University confirmed the unique character of the statue uncovered in Masovice, South Moravia area of the Czech republic, the paper said. The hollow legs and haunch of the female statue, made of ceramic, originate in 4,800 - 4,700 B.C., MfD wrote. Nothing similar...
Asia
Dynasty of Nomads: Rediscovering the forgotten Liao Empire
Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 10/19/2007 9:27:43 AM EDT · 3 replies
Archaeology | November/December 2007 | Jake Hooker
The Liao Empire was once considered a minor state on the fringes of Chinese civilization. Chinese-language sources depicted the Khitan as barbarians; Western scholars, who hadn't seen much material evidence other than Liao pagodas, regarded the dynasty as esoteric. But discoveries in Inner Mongolia over the past three decades have prompted scholars to reconsider these views, and Liao society is now recognized as a sophisticated blend of Khitan and Chinese traditions... Scholars agree Liao rulers adapted Chinese customs and traditions over time. They governed the sedentary Chinese population with a civil bureaucracy modeled on the earlier Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-907):...
Greece
Greece hoists Parthenon sculptures to new home
Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 10/15/2007 7:34:55 PM EDT · 8 replies
Reuters | 10/14/07 | Renee Maltezou
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece on Sunday began moving the ancient sculptures from the temples of the Athens Acropolis to a new museum, designed specifically to prod the British Museum into returning its own prized collection of Parthenon marbles. Dozens of bystanders, some in tears, watched as three cranes relayed a massive stone slab from the 2,500-year-old Parthenon. It was carved with four youths leading bulls to sacrifice to the goddess Athena. "I am trembling, it touches my soul," said pensioner Pelagia Boulamatsi, 71, unable to hold back tears. "This is an ancient civilization that is the foundation of the world."...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Archaeology and the Propaganda War Against Israel
Posted by Renfield
On News/Activism 10/15/2007 7:39:40 AM EDT · 13 replies
History News Network | 10-15-07 | Richard L. Cravats
Archeology and the Propaganda War Against Israel By Richard L. Cravatts In one of those ironies of questionable scholarship, just as a battle over a Barnard scholar's book about Israeli archeology had inflamed her application for tenure, heavy equipment was tearing away at the ancient crown of Jerusalem's 36-acre Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site. Nadia Abu El-Haj's book, Facts on the Ground: Archeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society, originally a doctoral thesis, questions the historical existence of a Jewish link to Israel, and her provocative claims have caused her to become the center of a fractious debate about...
Archaeoastronomy and Megaliths
Professor Says History's Best Known and Most Debated Star Proven
Posted by AngieGal
On News/Activism 10/16/2007 11:14:43 PM EDT · 25 replies
ASSIST News Service | Tuesday, October 16, 2007 | Jeremy Reynalds
For centuries, historians, scientists and scholars have debated the existence of the Star of Bethlehem in the Biblical telling of Christ's birth. Now Texas lawyer and professor Rick Larson says he has proven the existence of this celebrated, yet debated, star. He sets forth his case in a documentary, "The Star of Bethlehem." "Historically, people have taken two positions on the Star," said Larson in a news release. "Either they believe the Star is true or they think it was made up by the early Church. I took a different approach in my research and treated the Star as a...
Pandemics, Epidemics, Disease
Medieval DNA, Modern Medicine (Lessons From The Black Death)
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/16/2007 3:58:12 PM EDT · 33 replies
Archaeology Magazine | 11/12-2007 | Heather Pringle
Medieval DNA, Modern Medicine Volume 60 Number 6, November/December 2007 by Heather Pringle Will a cemetery excavation establish a link between the Black Death and resistance to AIDS? Beneath Eindhoven's modern skin of brick and asphalt lie the bones of its medieval townspeople. Studying their DNA may reveal the origin of the genetic resistance to AIDS. (Courtesy Laurens Mulkens) From the start, Nico Arts sensed that the frail remains of a child buried in front of a medieval church altar had an important story to tell. Arts is the municipal archaeologist in Eindhoven, a prosperous industrial city in the southern...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Robin Hood's Prison? Sheriff's Dungeon Found At Nottingham Gaol
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 5:33:00 PM EDT · 31 replies
24 Hour Museum | 10-17-2007 | Caroline lewis
ROBIN HOOD'S PRISON? SHERIFF'S DUNGEON FOUND AT NOTTINGHAM GAOL By Caroline Lewis 17/10/2007 New evidence has been discovered that the medieval caves under Nottingham's Galleries of Justice museum were once used by the Sheriff of Nottingham as a prison. The dark dungeon cells would have been in use when the Sheriff resided at the Shire Hall and County Gaol. "It is an exciting discovery," said Tim Desmond, Chief Executive at the Galleries. "The cave has always been known as the 'Sheriff's Dungeon', but until...
British Isles
Just What Did The Mary Rose Tell Us?
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/14/2007 7:03:20 PM EDT · 20 replies
BBC | 10-14-2007 | Finlo Rohrer
Just what did the Mary Rose tell us? By Finlo Rohrer BBC News Magazine The Mary Rose in dry dock The raising of the Mary Rose in 1982 was greeted with feverish excitement, but what has this landmark find actually told us in the 25 years since? At the tail end of 1982 it seemed like you couldn't switch on Newsround without seeing something to do with Mary Rose. Our fascination with the ship that met a sticky end while firing at a French invasion fleet in 1545 has flared at times in the years since. It is almost a...
Ancient Autopsies
Time Changes Modern Human's Face
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/25/2006 11:52:48 AM EST · 130 replies · 7,422+ views
BBC | 1-25-2006 | Rebecca Morelle
Time changes modern human's face By Rebecca Morelle BBC News science reporter Our ancestors had more prominent features but lower foreheads Researchers have found that the shape of the human skull has changed significantly over the past 650 years. Modern people possess less prominent features but higher foreheads than our medieval ancestors. Writing in the British Dental Journal, the team took careful measurements of groups of skulls spanning across 30 generations. The scientists said the differences between past and present skull shapes were "striking". Plague victimsThe team used radiographic films of skulls to record extensive measurements taken by a computer....
Scotland Yet
Earliest Scots Braved Ice Age Conditions
Posted by Renfield
On General/Chat 10/18/2007 6:57:59 AM EDT · 28 replies
Discovery.com | 10-05-07 | Jennifer Viegas
Oct. 5, 2007 -- During the last ice age, Scotland was likely a desolate place covered by glaciers, but new evidence suggests intrepid settlers braved the elements by establishing a community there as early as 13,000 years ago. The determination, published in the latest British Archaeology, further suggests the earliest Scots shared a common ancestor with the first Norwegians, meaning that some people of Scottish descent could be distantly related to modern Norwegians. "So often we hear that conditions in Scotland during the late Paleolithic and early Mesolithic would have prohibited human settlements because the landscape was cold and icy,...
Agriculture
First Farmers Wanted Clothes, Not Food
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/18/2007 11:47:45 PM EDT · 38 replies
The Discovery Channel | 10-15-2007 | Anna Sellah
First Farmers Wanted Clothes, Not Food Anna Sellah, ABC Science Online Oct. 15, 2007 -- People turned to farming to grow fiber for clothing, and not to provide food, says one researcher who challenges conventional ideas about the origins of agriculture.The Original Crop Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University, says his theory also explains why Aboriginal Australians were not generally farmers. Gilligan says they did not need fiber for clothing, so had no reason to grow crops like cotton. He argues his case in the current issue of the Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. "Conventional...
Nuts To You
Fossilized cashew nuts reveal Europe was important route between Africa and South America
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 2:53:45 PM EDT · 17 replies
Eureka Alert | October 17, 2007 | Unknown
Cashew nut fossils have been identified in 47-million year old lake sediment in Germany, revealing that the cashew genus Anacardium was once distributed in Europe, remote from its modern "native" distribution in Central and South America. It was previously proposed that Anacardium and its African sister genus, Fegimanra, diverged from their common ancestor when the landmasses of Africa and South America separated. However, groundbreaking new data in the October issue of the International Journal of Plant Sciences indicate that Europe may be an important biogeographic link between Africa and the New World. "The occurrence of cashews in both Europe and...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Genetic ancestral testing cannot deliver on its promise, study warns
Posted by decimon
On News/Activism 10/18/2007 5:40:58 PM EDT · 37 replies
University of California - Berkely | October 18, 2007 | Unknown
Berkeley -- For many Americans, the potential to track one's DNA to a specific country, region or tribe with a take-home kit is highly alluring. But while the popularity of genetic ancestry testing is rising - particularly among African Americans - the technology is flawed and could spawn unwelcome societal consequences, according to researchers from several institutions nationwide, including the University of California, Berkeley. "Because race has such profound social, political and economic consequences, we should be wary of allowing the concept to be redefined in a way that obscures its historical roots and disconnects from its cultural and socioeconomic...
Slightly Silly
Scientists: Appendix protects good germs
Posted by neverdem
On News/Activism 10/06/2007 12:40:57 AM EDT · 48 replies · 1,070+ views
San Luis Obispo Tribune | Oct. 05, 2007 | SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer Some scientists think they have figured out the real job of the troublesome and seemingly useless appendix: It produces and protects good germs for your gut. That's the theory from surgeons and immunologists at Duke University Medical School, published online in a scientific journal this week. For generations the appendix has been dismissed as superfluous. Doctors figured it had no function, surgeons removed them routinely, and people live fine without them. And when infected the appendix can turn deadly. It gets inflamed quickly and some people die if it isn't removed in time. Two years ago, 321,000...
Extremely Silly
'Black people are less intelligent than whites', claims DNA pioneer (James Watson)
Posted by TigerLikesRooster
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 4:36:52 AM EDT · 452 replies
Daily Mail | 10/17/07
'Black people are less intelligent than whites', claims DNA pioneer One of the world's most eminent scientists is at the centre of a row after claiming black people are less intelligent than whites. James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, has drawn condemnation for comments made ahead of his arrival in Britain tomorrow for a speaking tour. Dr Watson, who now runs one of America's leading scientific research institutions, made the controversial remarks in an interview in The Sunday Times. The 79-year-old geneticist said he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect...
Nobel Scientist Condemned For 'Racist' Claims
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/17/2007 1:20:53 PM EDT · 183 replies
The Telegraph (UK) | 10-17-2007 | Stephen Adams
Nobel scientist condemned for 'racist' claims By Stephen Adams Last Updated: 2:48pm BST 17/10/2007 Nobel Prize winning scientist Dr James Watson has been heavily criticised for making "racist" comments after he said Africans were not as intelligent as Europeans. Dr Watson is no stranger to controversy Dr Watson, who helped unravel the structure of DNA with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, was roundly condemned for saying he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours -- whereas all the testing says not...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Raiders Of The Faux Ark
Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/16/2007 3:34:53 PM EDT · 30 replies
Archaeology Magazine | 10-10-2007 | Eric Cline
Raiders of the Faux Ark October 10, 2007 by Eric H. Cline Biblical archeology is too important to leave to crackpots and ideologues. It's time to fight back. This editorial was first published in the Boston Globe on September 30, 2007, and is republished here with their kind permission. Eric Cline at Megiddo (Courtesy Eric Cline) Noah's Ark. The Ark of the Covenant. The Garden of Eden. Sodom and Gomorrah. The Exodus. The Lost Tomb of Jesus. All have been "found" in the last 10 years, including one within the past six months. The discoverers: a former SWAT team member;...
Navigation
450- Year Old Shipwreck Found In Florida Artifacts Reveal More About Florida's Spanish Past
Posted by rdl6989
On News/Activism 10/12/2007 12:04:14 PM EDT · 8 replies · 917+ views
ABC News | 10-12-2007 | GARRY MITCHELL
In 1559, a hurricane plunged as many as seven Spanish sailing vessels to the bottom of Pensacola Bay, hampering explorer Don Tristan de Luna's attempt to colonize this section of the Florida Panhandle. Almost 500 years later and 15 years after the first ship was found, another has been discovered, helping archaeologists unlock secrets to Florida's Spanish past. The colony at the site of present-day Pensacola was abandoned in 1561, and no trace of it has been found on land. Teams of University of West Florida archaeology students last summer discovered what they thought was the shipwreck, picking up pieces...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Dive Team Discovers 1800s-Era Steamboat At Bottom Of Lake
Posted by stainlessbanner
On News/Activism 10/16/2007 10:45:52 PM EDT · 6 replies
local6 | 16-October-2007
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- A sheriff's dive team discovered what is believed to be a late-1800s era steamboat at the bottom of a Central Florida lake during a training exercise last month. The Lake County sheriff's dive team found the boat at the bottom of Lake Minneola in the lake's southwest corner in Clermont while training with side-scan sonar, which they recently acquired. The sonar is a piece of equipment that is dragged by a boat and projects images of the underwater environment. After seeing an image of the boat, which appeared to be about 18 feet long, dive team...
end of digest #170 20071020