Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #197
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Macedonia
Alexander the Great's "Crown," Shield Discovered?
04/25/2008 7:11:55 PM PDT · by blam · 16 replies · 605+ views
National Geographic News | 4-23-2008 | Sara Goudarzi
An ancient Greek tomb thought to have held the body of Alexander the Great's father is actually that of Alexander's half brother, researchers say. This may mean that some of the artifacts found in the tomb -- including a helmet, shield, and silver "crown" -- originally belonged to Alexander the Great himself. Alexander's half brother is thought to have claimed these royal trappings after Alexander's death. The tomb was one of three royal Macedonian burials excavated in 1977 by archaeologists working in the northern Greek village of Vergina (see map of...
Egypt
Egypt: Tomb Of Cleopatra And Lover To Be Uncovered
04/25/2008 7:44:34 PM PDT · by blam · 35 replies · 578+ views
Adnkronos | 4-24-2008
Archaeologists have revealed plans to uncover the 2000 year-old tomb of ancient Egypt's most famous lovers, Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony later this year. Zahi Hawass, prominent archaeologist and director of Egypt's superior council for antiquities announced a proposal to test the theory that the couple were buried together. He discussed the project in Cairo at a media conference about the ancient pharaohs. Hawass said that the remains of the legendary Egyptian queen and her Roman lover, Mark Antony, were inside a temple called Tabusiris...
Ancient Autopsies
Berkshire Museum Puts A Face On Its Mummy
04/20/2008 7:46:15 PM PDT · by blam · 19 replies · 605+ views
Berkshire Eagle
The mummy has returned. And he has new tales to tell. One of the county's most beloved relics -- the nearly 2,300-year-old corpse of the ancient priest Pahat -- is back on view at the Berkshire Museum's recently reopened Ancient Civilizations gallery. But now, thanks to modern forensic science and technology, specialists have been able to put flesh to his bones, creating a three-dimensional reconstruction of Pahat's head. Further research has also revealed that Pahat...
Rome and Italy
Integration: a centuries-old issue (Where all roads lead)
04/23/2008 9:48:34 AM PDT · by decimon · 6 replies · 205+ views
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research | April 3, 2008 | Unknown
When can a person be regarded as a full and equal citizen of a country? Is a double nationality possible and what advantages does it offer a newcomer? These questions were already contemplated in ancient Rome. The Italian allies of Rome were keen on obtaining the Roman citizenship. Dutch researcher Roel van Dooren investigated why.At first sight, the Social War appears to be an old problem that is only interesting for historians. However, this war provides surprising insights into current societal issues. Even the ancient state of Rome struggled with integration and immigration problems and an understanding of this provides...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Exhibit Shows Ancient Links Between Persia And Korea
04/24/2008 7:53:38 AM PDT · by blam · 9 replies · 255+ views
Chosun.com | 4-24-2008 | Arirang News
Cultural exchange between Korea and Persia goes back more than a thousand years. Some historians say through the Silk Road, Muslim traders put the name, Shilla, Korea's ancient dynasty, on the world map. To open a window into this intriguing past, the National Museum of Korea is hosting an exhibit of Persian artifacts. "Glory of Persia" showcases the history of Persia over a span of twelve centuries when it was one of the world's biggest empires. Shilla-period artifacts such as pottery and daggers show Persian influences in the form of artistic techniques...
Anatolia
Turkish Site A Neolithic 'Supernova'
04/21/2008 3:24:52 PM PDT · by blam · 20 replies · 807+ views
Washington Times | 4-21-2008 | Nicholas Birch
Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt was among the first to realize the significance of the Gobekli Tepe site, which is 7,000 years older than Stonehenge. URFA, Turkey - As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, as a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on...
Neanderthal / Neandertal
Neanderthals At Mealtime: Pass The Meat
04/25/2008 6:58:54 PM PDT · by blam · 15 replies · 477+ views
Discovery News | 4-23-2008 | Jennifer Viegas
Neanderthals living in southwestern France 55,000 to 40,000 years ago mostly ate red meat from extinct ancestors of modern bison, cattle and horses, according to a new study on a large, worn Neanderthal tooth. The extinct hominids were not above eating every edible bit of an animal, since they were dining for survival, explained Teresa Steele, one of the study's co-authors. While a steak dinner "is probably the closest modern comparison," Steele said, "remember too that they were consuming all parts of...
Origins
Humans re-united to fight extinction
04/25/2008 11:04:35 AM PDT · by CarrotAndStick · 52 replies · 778+ views
AFP via. The Times of India | 25 Apr 2008, 1932 hrs IST | AFP
Human beings for 100,000 years lived in tiny, separate groups, facing harsh conditions that brought them to the brink of extinction, before they reunited and populated the world, genetic researchers in a study said on Thursday. "Who would have thought that as recently as 70,000 years ago, extremes of climate had reduced our population to such small numbers that we were on the very edge of extinction," said paleontologist Meave Leakey, of Stony Brook University, New York. The genetic study examined for the first time the evolution of our species from its origins with "mitochondrial Eve," a female hominid...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Study: Humans Almost Went Extinct 70,000 Years Ago
04/24/2008 12:07:36 PM PDT · by Sopater · 66 replies · 1,364+ views
Fox News | Thursday, April 24, 2008 | AP
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.
Study Says Near Extinction Threatened People
04/24/2008 2:05:33 PM PDT · by blam · 52 replies · 751+ views
Physorg | 4-24-2008 | RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday. The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age. "This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics...
Prehistory and Origins
Did The Flores Hobbit Have A Root Canal?
04/20/2008 7:35:51 PM PDT · by blam · 25 replies · 830+ views
Scientific American | 4-18-2008 | Kate Wong
The lower left first molar of the hobbit is claimed to have a filling -- an observation that other hobbit researchers say is refuted by this photograph. PETER BROWN University of New England And you thought Frodo had it hard. In what is shaping up to be a battle of Tolkienian proportions, the tiny remains from Flores, Indonesia -- paleoanthropology's hobbit -- have once again come under attack. Most paleoanthropologists believe that the hobbit belongs to a new species of human, Homo floresiensis. But now comes...
Baby I Hate Your Weight
Early Parents Didn't Stand For Weighty Kids
04/23/2008 1:30:31 PM PDT · by blam · 19 replies · 462+ views
Physorg | University of Manchester
A volunteer carrying baby mannequin on the hip has her energy consumption measured. Credit: University of Manchester Scientists investigating the reasons why early humans -- the so-called hominins -- began walking upright say it's unlikely that the need to carry children was a factor, as has previously been suggested. Carrying babies that could no longer use their feet to cling to their parents in the way that young apes can has long been thought to be at least one explanation as to why humans became bipedal. But University of Manchester researchers investigating...
British Isles
Germanic Invaders May Not Have Ruled By Apartheid
04/23/2008 2:49:29 PM PDT · by blam · 15 replies · 544+ views
New Scientist | 4-23-2008 | Emma Young
When a strong Germanic signal was discovered in the Y-chromosome of British men, geneticists at University College London suggested that enslavement and apartheid imposed by Saxon invaders was responsible. It was an idea that, given 20th-century European history, had a particular resonance. The argument is, that from AD 430 to 730, the Germanic conquerors of Britain formed an elite, with a servant underclass of native Britons. Inter-marriage was restricted, and the invaders and their genes flourished. "But it is just not necessary to...
Welcome to Sherwood!
Anglo-Saxon Mound Found In Sherwood Forest
04/25/2008 6:26:52 PM PDT · by blam · 7 replies · 424+ views
thisisnottingham.co.uk
A Mysterious mound in Notts that was once thought to mark the boundary of two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is to be investigated by historians, the Forestry Commission has said. Known as Thynghowe, the hillock was only discovered three years ago in the Birklands area of Sherwood Forest by former teacher Lynda Mallet and her husband Stuart Reddish. With their friend John Wood, the couple used an original 19th Century perambulation document to find Thynghowe, which is believed to be an ancient meeting place dating back to Viking times. Experts think...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Viking Acquitted In 100-Year-Old Murder Mystery
04/25/2008 4:08:07 PM PDT · by blam · 17 replies · 446+ views
Yahoo News | 4-25-2008 | Alister Doyle
Photo: Archaeological conservationist Brynjar Sandvoll and his co-worker Ragnar Lochen (R) study the bones of a... OSLO (Reuters) - Tests of the bones of two Viking women found in a buried longboat have dispelled 100-year-old suspicions that one was a maid sacrificed to accompany her queen into the afterlife, experts said on Friday. The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the younger woman had been healing for several weeks -- meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution as suspected since the...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
How Deep Should We look For evidence Of First Americans
04/20/2008 7:20:42 PM PDT · by blam · 21 replies · 908+ views
Corsicana Daily Sun | 4-20-2008 | Bill Young
Three sites in Texas have been discovered and at least partially excavated in the past 15 years yielding evidence of at least one culture older than Clovis. Most of the Clovis sites have been firmly dated to around 12,500 to 13,000 years ago. Not only did these Clovis sites yield projectile points of the very distinct Clovis type, the sites also yielded true blades and very large well- made thin preforms diagnostic of only the Clovis people. The archeologists who have worked at some of these Clovis...
Fossil Feces Push Back Earliest Date of Humans in Americas
04/04/2008 7:47:46 AM PDT · by Malone LaVeigh · 21 replies · 660+ views
Foxnews.com | April 04, 2008
New evidence shows humans lived in North America more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than had previously been known. Discovered in a cave in Oregon, fossil feces yielded DNA indicating these early residents were related to people living in Siberia and East Asia, according to a report in Thursday's online edition of the journal Science. "This is the first time we have been able to get dates that are undeniably human, and they are 1,000 years before Clovis," said Dennis L. Jenkins, a University of Oregon archaeologist, referring to the Clovis culture, well known for its unique spear-points...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Buried Dogs Were Divine "Escorts" for Ancient Americans
04/25/2008 7:30:07 PM PDT · by blam · 8 replies · 192+ views
National Geographic News | 4-23-2008 | Anne Casselman
Hundreds of prehistoric dogs found buried throughout the southwestern United States show that canines played a key role in the spiritual beliefs of ancient Americans, new research suggests. Throughout the region, dogs have been found buried with jewelry, alongside adults and children, carefully stacked in groups, or in positions that relate to important structures, said Dody Fugate, an assistant curator at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Fugate has conducted an ongoing survey of known dog burials in the...
Peru
Bandurria Is Oldest Peruvian Archaeological Site, Say Expert
04/20/2008 7:28:12 PM PDT · by blam · 8 replies · 362+ views
Andina | 4-16-2008 | Alejandro Chu
The archaelogical site of Bandurria dating back 3200 BC (located in the province of Huaura, Lima) is considered the origin of ancient American civilization, said archaeologist Alejandro Chu Barrera, director of the Archaeological Project of Bandurria. "Several radiocarbon datings done in the United states confirmed that Bandurria dates back from 3200 B.C., while Caral dates from 2900", said the archaeologist. The expert mentioned that the main reason for the development of highly organized cultures along the Peruvian coast is...
Central Asia
Synchrotron Light Unveils Oil In Ancient Buddhist Paintings From Bamiyan
04/22/2008 1:37:21 PM PDT · by blam · 5 replies · 557+ views
Physorg | 4-2-2008 | European Synchrotron Radiation Facility
A cross-section of the sample, where the different layers are visible. Credit: National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Tokyo (Japan) The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient colossal Buddha statues in the Afghan region of Bamiyan. Behind those statues, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from Taliban destruction, as well as from a severe natural environment, but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments...
China
Terracotta Army Has Egg On Its Face
04/21/2008 10:04:15 PM PDT · by blam · 33 replies · 874+ views
ABC News - Discovery News | 4-21-1008 | Jennifer Viegas
Soldiers of China's terracotta army were once brightly painted, then preserved with an egg coating (Source: Reuters/Philippe Wojazer) China's terracotta army, a collection of 7000 soldier and horse figures in the mausoleum of the country's first emperor, was covered with beaten egg when it was made, scientists say. According to German and Italian chemists who have analysed samples from several figurines, the egg was as a binder for colourful paints, which went over a layer of lacquer. "Egg paint is normally very stable, and not...
Australia and the Pacific
Fiji Jewellery Box Find Stuns Archaeologists (Lapita People)
04/22/2008 2:59:43 PM PDT · by blam · 14 replies · 899+ views
Fiji Live | 4-22-2008
Archeologists have discovered a 3000-year-old pot in Fiji containing jewellery believed to have been made by the South Pacific's original settlers -- the Lapita people. The discovery was made by an excavation party from the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum at Bourewa in Natadola on the Coral Coast. The dig at Bourewa, which is the earliest human settlement in Fiji, unearthed the pot and a thick piece of "exquisitely decorated pottery". The Lapita people were the first colonists of Pacific Island groups, including the eastern Solomon...
Paleontology
Tests Confirm T. Rex Kinship With Birds
04/24/2008 11:04:30 PM PDT · by Soliton · 37 replies · 339+ views
NYT | April 25, 2008 | JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
In the first analysis of proteins extracted from dinosaur bones, scientists say they have established more firmly than ever that the closest living relatives of the mighty predator Tyrannosaurus rex are modern birds.
Faith and Philosophy
Film Director: Jesus Was Son of a Roman Rapist
04/23/2008 10:36:19 PM PDT · by Aussie Dasher · 25 replies · 564+ views
Newsbusters.org | 24 April 2008 | Warner Todd Huston
According to The Hollywood Reporter, film director Paul Verhoeven is soon to release a book that is claimed to be a new "biography" of Jesus Christ. In this new publication, Verhoeven feels that he successfully proves that Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, was raped by a Roman soldier during the Jewish uprising in Galilee and the boy Jesus was the result of that attack. No virgin birth for Christ, but instead a rape. Verhoeven is best known as the director of the films "Basic Instinct," the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Total Recall," as well as the spectacular flop "Showgirls." The...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
1600 Eruption Caused Global Disruption (Peruvian eruption)
04/23/2008 11:46:31 AM PDT · by decimon · 20 replies · 655+ views
UC Davis | April 23, 2008 | Unknown
The 1600 eruption of Huaynaputina in Peru had a global impact on human society, according to a new study of contemporary records by geologists at UC Davis. The eruption is known to have put a large amount of sulfur into the atmosphere, and tree ring studies show that 1601 was a cold year, but no one had looked at the agricultural and social impacts, said Ken Verosub, professor of geology at UC Davis. "We knew it was a big eruption, we knew it was a cold year, and that's all we knew," Verosub said. Sulfur reacts with water in the...
Africa
Slowly-Developing Primates Definitely Not Dim-Witted
04/21/2008 8:49:33 AM PDT · by RightWhale · 5 replies · 217+ views
SPX | 21 Apr 08 | staff
Some primates have evolved big brains because their extra brainpower helps them live and reproduce longer, an advantage that outweighs the demands of extra years of growth and development they spend reaching adulthood, anthropologists from Duke University and the University of Zurich have concluded in a new study. The four investigators compared key benchmarks in the development of 28 different primate species, ranging from humans living free of modern trappings in South American jungles to lemurs living in wild settings in Madagascar. "This research focused specifically on the balance between the costs and benefits...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
New TB threat: Global ties bring an ancient disease to Silicon Valley
04/20/2008 9:20:48 AM PDT · by Technoman · 33 replies · 759+ views
San Jose Mercury News | 4-18-08 | Mike Swift
Call it one price of globalism. Last year, tuberculosis increased in four of the Bay Area's five largest counties, and the San Jose area in 2006 had the highest TB rate of any large American metro area, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the California Department of Public Health. San Francisco, after an outbreak of TB among Latino day workers in the Mission district, has the highest TB rate of any...
Civil War
On this Day April 20: Republicans outlawed the Ku Klux Klan
04/20/2008 5:42:38 AM PDT · by paltz · 6 replies · 312+ views
GRAND OLD PARTISAN | 4/20/08 | Michael Zak
For decades after the Civil War, the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist wing of the Democratic Party. Klansmen murdered hundreds of Republican activists and office-holders, including U.S. Representative James Hinds (R-Arkansas). On this day in 1871, the Republican-controlled 42nd Congress passed and the Republican President, Ulysses Grant, signed into law the Ku Klux Klan Act. The law banned the KKK and other Democrat terrorist organizations. President Grant then deployed federal troops to crush a Klan uprising in South Carolina. Eleven years later, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned most provisions of the Act. Though legalized, this original version of the...
World War Eleven
Gay Paris? Photos of Paris under Nazi occupation draw fire
04/23/2008 7:52:53 AM PDT · by Tolkien · 42 replies · 1,699+ views
Breitbart.com | 4/23/08 | Breitbart.com
Photos of carefree Parisians lazing in cafes, flocking to cinemas or enjoying a day at the races during the Nazi occupation have sparked outrage in Paris and calls for the exhibit to be shut down.
Oh So Mysterioso
New footage of JFK in Dallas released
02/19/2007 5:52:35 PM PST · by Mr. Brightside · 65 replies · 3,012+ views
Yahoo | 2/19/07
Previously unreleased footage of John F. Kennedy's fateful motorcade in Dallas moments before he was gunned down was released on Monday, a surprising new detail in a saga that has gripped the United States for four decades. The silent 8mm film shows a beaming Jacqueline Kennedy close up in vivid color waving to the crowd. A group of excited bystanders -- women sporting big 1960s hairstyles -- waves to the cameraman shortly before the motorcade sweeps past. The president's coat is...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
5th-grader finds mistake at Smithsonian
04/02/2008 6:12:07 PM PDT · by Hildy · 91 replies · 2,874+ views
Yahoo News
Is fifth-grader Kenton Stufflebeam smarter than the Smithsonian? The 11-year-old boy, who lives in Allegan but attends Alamo Elementary School near Kalamazoo, went with his family during winter break to the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.Since it opened in 1981, millions of people have paraded past the museum's Tower of Time, a display involving prehistoric time. Not one visitor had reported anything amiss with the exhibit until Kenton noticed that a notation, in bold lettering, identified the Precambrian as an era.Kenton knew that was wrong. His fifth-grade teacher, John Chapman, had nearly made the same mistake...
end of digest #197 20080426
|
· Saturday, April 26, 2008 · 31 topics · 2006992 to 2004754 · 684 members · |
|||
Saturday |
Welcome to the 197th issue. Thanks to Founding Father for noting that I'd failed to update the header for last week's digest. I didn't notice it until I went back to the tab I'd opened to post the new one, and thought I had the wrong saved link and hunted forward one by one. Anyway, mea culpa. |
||
|
|
|||
Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #198
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Africa
500-Year-Old Shipwreck Found By Diamond Firm
04/30/2008 8:44:11 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 10 replies · 778+ views
The Telegraph (UK) | 5-1-2008
A shipwreck, believed to be 500 years old, containing a treasure trove of coins and ivory has been discovered off the southern African coast. The site yielded a wealth of objects including thousands of Spanish and Portuguese gold coins A Namibian diamond company, Namdeb, said on Wednesday that it found the wreck during mining operations in the Atlantic. "The site yielded a wealth of objects including six bronze cannon, several tons of copper, more than 50 elephant tusks, pewter tableware, navigational instruments, weapons and thousands of Spanish and Portuguese...
Mesopotamia
Were Mesopotamians The First Brand Addicts
04/26/2008 3:09:16 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 7 replies · 263+ views
New Scientist | 4-26-2008 | Jeff Hecht
Product branding first emerged in ancient Mesopotamia, the birthplace of cities and writing. So claims David Wengrow, an archaeologist at University College London, who says that bottle stops stamped with symbols some 5000 years ago are evidence of the first branded goods. Around 8000 years ago, village-dwelling Mesopotamians began making personalised stone seals, which they pressed into the caps and stoppers used to seal food and drink. Originally these goods would have been traded directly with neighbours and travellers. But when urbanisation began -...
India
Megalithic Period Pottery Found
04/26/2008 7:21:13 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 4 replies · 366+ views
Hindu.com | 4-26-2008 | T.S. Subramanian
Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department leads excavation -- Significant finds: Pottery with graffiti marks found at Sembiyankandiyur village in Nagapattinam district. CHENNAI: Pottery items including bowls, dishes and urns, from the Megalithic period, have been excavated at Sembiyankandiyur near Kuthalam in Mayiladuthurai taluk of Nagapattinam district by the Tamil Nadu Archaeology Department. An important finding: eight urns aligned in a particular manner, three of them with human bones inside. These might be of members of one family, according to department officials. The pottery included black-and-red ware, black ware and red ware. The site yielded a rich...
Epigraphy and Language
From Indus Valley To Coastal Tamil Nadu
05/02/2008 8:03:44 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 7 replies · 116+ views
The Hindu | 5-2-2008 | TS Subramanian
Strong resemblances between graffiti symbols in Tamil Nadu and the Indus script Continuity of tradition: Megalithic pots with arrow-work graffiti found at Sembiankandiyur village in Nagapattinam district. CHENNAI: In recent excavations in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu, megalithic pottery with graffiti symbols that have a strong resemblance to a sign in the Indus script have been found. Indus script expert Iravatham Mahadevan says that what is striking about the arrow-mark graffiti on the megalithic pottery found at Sembiyankandiyur and Melaperumpallam villages is that they are always incised twice and together, just...
Egypt
A new angle on pyramids: Scientists explore whether Egyptians used concrete
05/01/2008 11:04:55 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 30 replies · 475+ views
Boston Globe | April 22, 2008 | Colin Nickerson
At MIT, Hobbs and two colleagues teach a course called Materials in Human Experience... The MIT pyramid will contain only about 280 blocks, compared with 2.3 million in the grandest of the Great Pyramids... Hobbs describes himself as "agnostic" on the issue, but believes mainstream archeologists have been too contemptuous of work by other scientists suggesting the possibility of concrete. "The degree of hostility aimed at experimentation is disturbing," he said. "Too many big egos and too many published works may be riding on the idea that every pyramid block was carved, not cast." ...In 2006, research by Michel W....
Egypt's Pyramids Packed With Seashells (Not Concrete)
05/01/2008 2:02:14 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 43 replies · 1,067+ views
Discovery Channel | 5-1-2008 | Jennifer Viegas
Many of Egypt's most famous monuments, such as the Sphinx and Cheops, contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils, most of which are fully intact and preserved in the walls of the structures, according to a new study. The study's authors suggest that the stones that make up the examined monuments at Giza plateau, Fayum and Abydos must have been carved out of natural stone since they reveal what chunks of the sea floor must have looked like over 4,000 years ago, when the buildings were...
Australia and the Pacific
Hobbit Wars (Small Islanders Show No Signs Of Growth Disorder)
04/28/2008 2:25:37 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 11 replies · 334+ views
Science News | 4-24-2008
Computer-generated reconstructions (bottom) of the fossilized skulls of the small islanders suggest that, contrary to corresponding photos (top), these "hobbits" belonged to a unique species.K. Smith/Mallinckrodt Inst. Radiology, Wash. Univ. St. Louis; E. Indriati, D. Frayer -- Defenders of a small humanlike species that lived on an Indonesian island more than 12,000 years ago have launched their latest scientific counterattacks against critics of their position. Remains of Homo floresiensis, also referred to as hobbits, display no signs of growth disorders proposed by researchers who regard the fossils as...
Neanderthal / Neandertal
Neandertals Had Big Mouths, Gaped Widely
05/02/2008 3:01:53 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 42 replies · 1,016+ views
National Geographic News | 5-2-2008 | Mati Milstein
Neandertals had big mouths that they were able to open unusually wide, new research has determined. A recent study found that a combination of facial structure, forward-positioned molars, and an unusually large gap between the vertical parts of the back of the jaw allowed Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals) to gape widely. Modern humans and our direct ancestors don't have these traits, the researchers note. But the team was unable to measure exactly how far Neandertals could open their mouths. "This ability is connected...
Diet, Nutrition, Health
Neandertals Ate Their Veggies, Tooth Study Shows
04/29/2008 1:18:25 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 11 replies · 340+ views
National Geographic News | 4-28-2008 | ShowsSara Goudarzi
Tiny bits of plant material found in the teeth of a Neandertal skeleton unearthed in Iraq provide the first direct evidence that the human ancestors ate vegetation, researchers say. Little is known about diet of Neandertals (also spelled Neanderthals), although it's widely assumed that they ate more than just meat. Much of what is known about their eating habits has come from indirect evidence, such as animal remains found at Neandertal sites and chemical signatures called isotopes detected in their teeth. The new hard evidence is...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Heated Debate Over Who Planted First Sunflower
04/28/2008 7:21:53 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 16 replies · 330+ views
New Scientist | 4-28-2008 | Colin Barras
Could raking over the ashes of past civilisations help tackle the current food crisis? David Lentz at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, thinks so. Genetic information from wild strains of domestic crops could help to improve crop yield, he says, making it important to identify the point of domestication. That makes his controversial theory that the sunflower was domesticated in Mexico at least 4000 years ago more than just a matter of ancient history. "If we are to improve the sunflower crop, we need...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Iran: Seven historic synagogues in Tehran destroyed
04/16/2008 2:44:05 PM PDT · Posted by knighthawk · 15 replies · 603+ views
AKI | April 15 2008
Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities. The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live. "These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground," said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums' (ICOM) office in Tehran. "With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history," said Tabatabaii. He called for the government to intervene to stop the work commissioned by the...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Jerusalem's Wailing Wall at risk of collapse
04/28/2008 1:56:22 PM PDT · Posted by NYer · 38 replies · 639+ views
Telegraph | April 28, 2008 | Carolynne Wheeler
For thousands of years it has withstood fires, floods and earthquakes. But now a portion of one of Judaism's holiest sites, Jerusalem's Western Wall, is crumbling.The rabbi charged with watching over the structure, which the faith believes to be the last remnants of a retaining wall from the ancient Second Temple, has warned that a section repaired more than a century ago is again at risk of falling. †Mourning prayer: a young Jew at Jerusalem's Western Wall which is losing its mortar to the rain Because the weakened stonework is high on the 60ft wall, the danger from any...
Japan
Japanese Royal Tomb Opened To Scholars For First Time
04/28/2008 2:33:40 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 12 replies · 410+ views
National Geographic News | Tony McNicol
A rare visit by archaeologists to a fifth-century imperial tomb offers hope that other closely guarded graves in Japan might soon be open to independent study. This month a group of 16 experts led by the Japanese Archaeological Association released results from their February visit inside Gosashi tomb. The event marked the first time that scholars had been allowed inside a royal tomb outside of an official excavation led by Japan's Imperial Household Agency. Archaeologists have been requesting access to Gosashi tomb...
Need This Like A...
Incan Skull Surgery
04/26/2008 7:32:58 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 25 replies · 716+ views
Science News | 4-25-2008 | Bruce Bower
When Incan healers scraped or cut a hunk of bone out of a person's head, they meant business. Practitioners of this technique, known as trepanation, demonstrated great skill more than 500 years ago in treating warriors' head wounds and possibly other medical problems, rarely causing infections or killing their patients, two anthropologists find. Trepanation emerged as a promising but dangerous medical procedure by about 1,000...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Tse-Whit-Zen Artifacts Languish In Storage
05/01/2008 1:42:41 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 7 replies · 285+ views
Seattle Times | 5-1-2008 | Jonathan Martin
An arrowhead created by a Lower Elwha Klallam tribal member. One of the Pacific Northwest's most astonishing archaeological finds in a generation has languished for more than a year, lingering on metal shelves in a Seattle warehouse, unseen by the public and unexamined by scientists. No one questions the discoveries -- artifacts from a 2,700-year-old Native American village excavated from the Port Angeles waterfront amid great public interest -- should be exhibited, analyzed and celebrated. But the 900 boxes of artifacts -- such things as spindle whorls carved from...
Prehistory and Origins
Humans Have More Distinctive Hearing Than Animals, Study Shows
04/02/2008 5:56:12 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 7 replies · 348+ views
Science Daily | 4-2-2008 | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Do humans hear better than animals? It is known that various species of land and water-based living creatures are capable of hearing some lower and higher frequencies than humans are capable of detecting. However, scientists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and elsewhere have now for the first time demonstrated how the reactions of single neurons give humans the capability of detecting fine differences in frequencies better than animals. They did this by utilizing a technique for recording the activity of single neurons in the auditory...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Iceman's DNA Linked To Coastal Aboriginals (Canada)
04/26/2008 7:01:25 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 18 replies · 1,047+ views
Leader - Post | 4-26-2008 | Judith Lavoie
Sisters Sheila Clark and Pearl Callaghan held hands and blinked back tears Friday as they talked about their ancestor Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi, better known as Long Ago Person Found, a young aboriginal man whose frozen body was discovered nine years ago at the foot of a melting glacier in Northern B.C. Three hunters found the body in 1999 in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, part of the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. And earlier this month, 17 aboriginal...
Paleontology
Shock: First Animal on Earth Was Surprisingly Complex
04/27/2008 6:07:35 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 184 replies · 1,595+ views
Yahoo! | Thursday, April 10, 2008 | LiveScience
Earth's first animal was the ocean-drifting comb jelly, not the simple sponge, according to a new find that has shocked scientists who didn't imagine the earliest critter could be so complex... scientists analyzed massive volumes of genetic data to define the earliest splits at the base of the animal tree of life... The new study surprisingly found that the comb jelly was the first animal to diverge from the base of the tree, not the less complex sponge, which had previously been given the honor... Unlike sponges, comb jellies have connective tissues and a nervous system, and so are more...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Sun's Movement Through Milky Way... Comets Hurtling...Life Extinctions
05/02/2008 8:53:50 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 68 replies · 1,020+ views
Science Daily | 5-2-2008 | Cardiff University
A large body of scientific evidence now exists that support the hypothesis that a major asteroid or comet impact occurred in the Caribbean region at the boundary of the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods in Earth's geologic history. Such an impact is suspected to be responsible for the mass extinction of many floral and faunal species, including the large dinosaurs, that marked the end of the Cretaceous period. (Credit: Art by Don Davis / Courtesy of NASA) ScienceDaily (May 2, 2008) -- The sun's movement through the Milky...
Oh So Mysterioso
Penis theft panic hits city...
04/24/2008 10:56:48 PM PDT · Posted by Menelaus · 36 replies · 491+ views
Reuters | Joe Bavier
Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft. Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur. Rumors of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of...
Geology
Geology Picture of the Week, April 27-May 3, 2008: Giant's Causeway, Ireland
04/29/2008 3:11:51 PM PDT · Posted by cogitator · 34 replies · 675+ views
simonward.com | Simon Ward
British Isles
Bronze Age Axe 'Factory' Survey
04/29/2008 10:45:00 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 12 replies · 417+ views
BBC | 4-28-2008
Part of a Bronze Age axe made from picrite rock Archaeologists are hoping to unearth evidence of what they believe to have been one of Bronze Age Britain's largest axe-making "factories". Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (CPAT) said the axes, made from a distinctive type rock - known as picrite - had been found throughout the country. A three-week survey at the 4,000-year-old site will start soon in Hyssington, near Welshpool, Powys. The trust's Chris Martin said it may have been a large industrial centre. The trust carried out a preliminary survey last year, but it did...
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Gloucester's Roman Mass Grave Skeletons Were Plague Victims (Smallpox?)
04/30/2008 6:04:50 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 2 replies · 397+ views
24 Hour Museum | 4-29-2008 | Oxford Archaeology
Archaeologists work to uncover the Roman mass grave in Gloucester during 2005. © Oxfod Archaeology A mass Roman grave, discovered in Gloucester in 2005, may have contained the victims of an acute disease of epidemic proportions, possibly plague. This is the startling conclusion to a new report by Oxford Archaeology and archaelogical consultancy CgMs, who have been conducting an 18-month programme of scientific study on the grave, which contained around 91 skeletons. The discovery of a mass grave of Roman date is almost unparalleled in British...
Rome and Italy
Stunning Finds On Archaeological Dig (UK)
05/01/2008 1:53:51 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 12 replies · 882+ views
The hereford Times | 5-1-2008 | By Paul Ferguson
One of the bodies discovered on the site -- a 35-year-old woman, who had curvature of the spine. A ROMAN cemetery containing items of national importance has been uncovered in Herefordshire. One of the biggest historical finds in the Marches has been made at Stretton Grandison. A complete wooden coffin -- only the third to be found in the UK -- was one of the items uncovered by Leominster-based Border Archaeology (BA). A kiln, various urns and a working brooch were also unearthed, along with the remains of up...
Ancient Autopsies
Cave Woman Is Laid To Rest After 1,900 Years
04/29/2008 1:26:02 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 15 replies · 604+ views
Yorkshire Post | 4-29-2008 | Rob Preece
The remains of a woman have been laid to rest in a hidden location in the Yorkshire Dales -- about 1,900 years after she died. She was returned in a special ceremony to the mysterious limestone cave where she was discovered by two Yorkshire divers more than a decade ago. Phillip Murphy, an academic at Leeds University, and his friend Andrew Goddard found the woman's skull by chance during a diving mission at the cave, dubbed the Wolf Den, in 1997. Carbon dating tests confirmed that...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Words coined by Shakespeare
04/28/2008 11:35:28 AM PDT · Posted by Borges · 12 replies · 330+ views
Rhymezone | 1589-1611 | Shakespeare
Nouns: accused addiction alligator amazement anchovies assassination backing bandit bedroom bump buzzers courtship critic dauntless dawn design dickens discontent embrace employer engagements excitements exposure eyeball fixture futurity glow gust hint immediacy investments kickshaws leapfrog luggage manager mimic misgiving mountaineer ode outbreak pageantry pedant perusal questioning reinforcement retirement roadway rumination savagery scuffles shudders switch tardiness transcendence urging watchdog wormhole zany Verbs: besmirch bet blanket cake cater champion compromise cow denote deracinate dialogue dislocate divest drug dwindle elbow enmesh film forward gossip grovel hobnob humour hurry impedes jet jig label lapse lower misquote negotiate numb pander partner petition puke rant reword secure...
Numismatism
Boy 9, And Grandfather Find Medieval Silver Treasure In Sweden
04/28/2008 2:47:11 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 22 replies · 1,087+ views
Earth Times | 4-28-2008 | DPA
A 9-year-old boy's search for shrapnel on an old battlefield resulted in a huge find of medieval silver coins near the Lund in southern Sweden, local media reported Monday. Alexander Granhof, 9, and his grandfather made the recent discovery, dubbed "silverado" by archaeologists. "We went out on the field looking for cannonballs," Alexander Granhof told the online edition of the Sydsvenskan newspaper. "I found a piece of metal and thought at first it was shrapnel from a...
Holocaust Denial
France - Le Pen: Auschwitz didn't have gas chambers
04/25/2008 9:07:30 PM PDT · Posted by HAL9000 · 83 replies · 1,331+ views
Agence France-Presse (excerpt) | April 25, 2008
Extreme right-wing leader repeats claim that no Jews were gassed or burned at Nazi death camps, says Auschwitz inmates worked as laborers for factory -- Far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen sparked a chorus of outrage in France on Friday by repeating an incendiary claim that the Nazi gas chambers were a "detail of history." Anti-racism and Jewish groups threatened immediate legal action against the National Front chief - who already holds several similar convictions - after he made the comments in a magazine interview. "I said the gas chambers were a detail of...
World War Eleven
Scholars Run Down More Cluels to Abiding Holocaust Mystery [Fate of Raoul Wallenberg]
04/28/2008 8:36:32 PM PDT · Posted by justiceseeker93 · 18 replies · 783+ views
Yahoo! News | April, 28, 2008 | Arthur Max and Randy Herschaft (AP)
Budapest, November 1944: Another German train has loaded its cargo of Jews bound for Auschwitz. A young Swedish diplomat pushes past the SS guard and scrambles onto the roof of the cattle car. Ignoring shots fired over his head, he reaches through the open door to outstretched hands, passing out dozens of bogus "passports" that extended Sweden's protection to the bearers. He orders everyone with a document off the train and into his caravan of vehicles. The guards look on dumfounded. Raoul Wallenberg was a minor official of a neutral country, with an unimposing appearance and a...
Longer Perspectives
The Left's Theft of the Open Society and the Scientific Method
04/24/2008 1:15:40 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 15 replies · 570+ views
American Thinker | April 24, 2008 | Jonathan David Carson
The Left misappropriates intellectual capital for perverse ends, in order to lend itself a veneer of respectability and befuddle its critics. According to the website of the Open Society Institute, the George Soros funded nerve-center of today's Left, "The term 'open society' was popularized by the philosopher Karl Popper in his 1945 book Open Society and Its Enemies. Popper's work deeply influenced George Soros, the founder of the Open Society Institute, and it is upon the concept of an open society that Soros bases his philanthropic activity." But the Open Society Institute embodies Popper's idea of an open society the way...
Pages
The Forgotten Man (Required Summer Reading for ALL conservatives)
04/30/2008 5:37:48 AM PDT · Posted by mek1959 · 10 replies · 347+ views
Amitysclaes.com | 2007 | Amity Shlaes
"Americans just now need what Amity Shlaes has brilliantly supplied, a fresh appraisal of what the New Deal did and did not accomplish...." -George F. Will, Columnist
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Father loses custody of son over lemonade
04/28/2008 8:00:02 AM PDT · Posted by mombyprofession · 223 replies · 3,460+ views
WZZM 13 Website | 4-28-08 | Brian Dickerson
If you watch much television, you've probably heard of a product called Mike's Hard Lemonade. And if you ask Christopher Ratte and his wife how they lost custody of their 7-year-old son, the short version is that nobody in the Ratte family watches much television. The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage...
end of digest #198 20080503