[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #211 Saturday, August 2, 2008
Let's Have Jerusalem
Seal of King Zedekiah's minister found in J'lem dig
	08/01/2008 1:50:13 PM PDT · Posted by Alouette · 26 replies · 387+ views Jerusalem Post | Aug. 1, 2008 | Etgar Lefkowitz A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday. The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the...
Epigraphy and Language
Phaistos Disc declared as fake by scholar
	07/30/2008 10:56:36 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 30 replies · 597+ views The Times of London | July 12, 2008 | Dalya Alberge, Arts Correspondent Jerome Eisenberg, a specialist in faked ancient art, is claiming that the disc and its indecipherable text is not a relic dating from 1,700BC, but a forgery that has duped scholars since Luigi Pernier, an Italian archaeologist, "discovered" it in 1908 in the Minoan palace of Phaistos on Crete. Pernier was desperate to impress his colleagues with a find of his own, according to Dr Eisenberg, and needed to unearth something that could outdo the discoveries made by Sir Arthur Evans, the renowned English archaeologist, and Federico Halbherr, a fellow Italian... Dr Eisenberg, who has conducted appraisals for the US...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Flint hints at existence of Palaeolithic man in Ireland
	07/28/2008 7:24:09 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 204+ views Times Online | Sunday, July 27, 2008 | Norman Hammond The possibility of a Palaeolithic human presence in Ireland has once again presented itself. A flaked flint dating to about 200,000 years ago found in Co Down is certainly of human workmanship, but its ultimate origin remains uncertain. Discovered at Ballycullen, ten miles east of Belfast, the flake is 68mm long and wide and 31mm thick. Its originally dark surface is heavily patinated to a yellowish shade, and the lack of sharpness in its edges suggests that it has been rolled around by water or ice, Jon Stirland reports in Archaeology Ireland. Dr Farina Sternke has identified it as a...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
The Surprising History of America's Wild Horses
	07/26/2008 5:19:59 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 40 replies · 618+ views Natural History Magazine | 7/26/2008 | Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Patricia M. Fazio Modern horses, zebras, and asses belong to the genus Equus, the only surviving genus in a once diverse family, the Equidae. Based on fossil records, the genus appears to have originated in North America about 4 million years ago and spread to Eurasia (presumably by crossing the Bering land bridge) 2 to 3 million years ago. Following that original emigration, there were additional westward migrations to Asia and return migrations back to North America, as well as several extinctions of Equus species in North America.
Paleontology
Soft tissue in fossils still mysterious: Purported dinosaur soft tissue may be modern biofilms
	08/01/2008 9:48:00 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 332+ views Science News | July 29th, 2008 | Sid Perkins Three years ago, a team of scientists rocked the paleontology world by reporting that they'd recovered flexible tissue resembling blood vessels from a 68-million-year-old dinosaur fossil... Subsequent analyses by many of the same scientists -- including Mary H. Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh -- indicated that the fossil contained small bits of collagen, a fiber-forming protein that's the largest non-mineral component of bone... Schweitzer and her colleagues, of course, take issue with the new findings. "There really isn't a lot new here, although I really welcome that someone is attempting to look at and repeat...
Ancient Autopsies
First indication for embalming in Roman Greece
	07/31/2008 8:42:55 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 120+ views AlphaGalileo | Wednesday, July 30, 2008 | unattributed A Swiss-Greek research team co-lead by Dr. Frank Rahli from the Institute of Anatomy, University of Zurich, found indication for embalming in Roman Greek times. By means of physico-chemical and histological methods, it was possible to show that various resins, oils and spices were used during embalming of a ca. 55 year old female in Northern Greece. This is the first ever multidisciplinary-based indication for artificial mummification in Greece at 300 AD. The remains of a ca. 55-year old female (ca. 300 AD, most likely of high-social status; actual location: Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece) shows the preservation of various...
Climate
Archaeologists find 9,000-year-old rhino remains in Urals
	07/28/2008 8:08:14 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 28 replies · 381+ views RIA Novosti | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed Archaeologists in the Sverdlovsk Region in Russia's Urals have discovered the 9,000-year-old bones of a rhinoceros, a local museum worker said on Monday. The excavations during which the bones were discovered were carried out at a site on the bank of the Lobva River, said Nikolai Yerokhin from the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Plant And Animal Ecology department. It was generally assumed that rhinoceros last wandered the Urals some 15,000 to 20,000 years ago. However, the latest findings seem to prove that they existed in the area a lot more recently.
Vikings
Ruins may be Viking hunting outpost in Greenland
	07/31/2008 8:48:40 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 25 replies · 471+ views Reuters | July 28, 2008 | Alister Doyle Knut Espen Solberg, leader of 'The Melting Arctic' project mapping changes in the north, said the remains uncovered in past weeks in west Greenland may also be new evidence that the climate was less chilly about 1,000 years ago than it is today. 'We found something that most likely was a dock, made of rocks, for big ships up to 20-30 metres (60-90 ft) long,' he told Reuters by satellite phone from a yacht off Greenland. He said further study and carbon dating were needed to pinpoint the site's age... Viking accounts speak of hunting stations for walrus, seals and...
Britain
VIDEO: 2,000-year-old Roman body found in West Sussex
	07/27/2008 10:45:30 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 509+ views LittleHampton Gazette | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | unattributed The skeleton is believed to have been a warrior who died around the time of the Roman invasion of England in AD43. He is likely to have been a prince or rich person of some status because of the quantity and quality of goods found with his remains... "There is no comparision for this metalwork that we know of," said Dr Fox. "It might well be unique. It's a very intricate piece of work for its time. "Professor Barry Cunliffe, the professor of European archaelogy at Oxford University, visited the site when he was in Chichester and said he knew...
Ancient grave found on Bognor new homes site[UK]
	07/28/2008 9:00:54 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 9 replies · 518+ views The Argos | 28 July 2008 | Sam Underwood Land soon to become a new housing estate has yielded an unexpected treasure -- a 2,000- year-old skeleton, believed to be that of a prince, a warrior or a priest. Planning permission has been granted for more than 600 houses in open fields at North Bersted near Bognor. But before the work could go ahead, an archaeological survey had to be carried out on the site to check if there was anything of historical interest under the topsoil. What the team from the Thames Valley Archaeological Services found was beyond their wildest dreams. After digging tirelessly for several months they...
Neolithic Art
Over 100 Neolithic Stone Carvings Found In Northumberland[UK]
	07/31/2008 10:46:50 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 35 replies · 661+ views 24 Hour Museum | 31 July 2008 | 24 Hour Museum Staff Volunteers working in Northumberland and Durham have unearthed a remarkable collection of intricate rock art formations dating back 5,000 years. Over 100 of the extraordinary Neolithic carvings of concentric circles, interlocking rings and hollowed cups were uncovered in the region by a team of specially trained volunteers working on a four-year English Heritage backed project called the Northumberland and Durham Rock Art Project (NADRAP). Their findings have now been recorded and published online via a website called England's Rock Art (ERA), which was launched today, Thursday July 3 2008, athttp://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/era. © English Heritage (Above) Barningham Moor County Durham: Photographer R....
Older Than The Pyramids, Buried For Centuries - Found By An Orkney Plumber
	03/17/2008 8:45:12 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 20 replies · 1,644+ views The Scotsman | 3-14-2008 | Tristan Stewart-Robinson A rare piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week. Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece. Archeologists last night heralded the discovery as a "once-in- 50-years event". But they warned...
Rock 'Face' Mystery Baffles Experts
	06/17/2004 4:00:51 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 29 replies · 224+ views Innovations Report | 6-17-2004 Archaeologists have found a trio of extraordinary stone carvings while charting the phenomenon of prehistoric rock markings in Northumberland, close to the Scottish border in the United Kingdom. Records and examples of over 950 prehistoric rock art panels exist in Northumberland, which are of the traditional 'cup and ring' variety, with a typical specimen featuring a series of cups and concentric circles pecked into sandstone outcrops and boulders. However, archaeologists at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who are studying prehistoric rock carvings,...
Asia
Eclipses in Ancient China Spurred Science, Beheadings?
	07/31/2008 8:51:11 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 229+ views National Geographic News | July 29, 2008 | Brian Handwerk Ciyuan Liu and Liping Ma, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Xueshun Liu, of the University of British Columbia, studied early eclipse records and wrote of the total eclipse's special political position in ancient Chinese culture. "It was a warning to the Emperor -- for the Sun was the symbol of the Emperor according to traditional astrological theories," Liu said in email, quoting his 2003 paper published in the Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage "When an eclipse occurred, the Emperor would normally eat vegetarian meals, avoid the main palace, perform rituals to rescue the Sun and, sometimes, issue...
Open Wide for Chungke
Ancient Ohioans' ball game mix of sport, religious ritual [ chungke or chunkey ]
	07/28/2008 8:44:25 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 195+ views Columbus Dispatch | Tuesday, July 22, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper As I've watched the Olympic trials on television, I've thought about the role athletic competitions might have played in ancient Ohio... In 1775, English trader James Adair described a game called chungke or chunkey that he saw being played in the South. Warriors took turns hurling a wheel-shape stone across a square plaza while others threw spears at the place where they anticipated the stone would come to rest. Adair writes that the chunkey stones were "kept with the strictest religious care" and belonged to the "town where they are used." Chunkey stones are a hallmark of the Mississippian period,...
Navigation
How Did People Reach the Americas?
	07/27/2008 10:12:03 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 33 replies · 429+ views US News | July 24, 2008 | Andrew Curry [isn't this Gannett?]
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Unknown Writing System Uncovered On Ancient Olmec Tablet
	07/30/2008 6:58:45 PM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 48 replies · 650+ views scienceagogo | 15 September 2006 | by Kate Melville Science magazine this week details the discovery of a stone block in Veracruz, Mexico, that contains a previously unknown system of writing; believed by archeologists to be the earliest in the Americas. The slab - named the Cascajal block - dates to the early first millennium BCE and has features that indicate it comes from the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica. One of the archaeologists behind the discovery, Brown University's Stephen D. Houston, said that the block and its ancient script "link the Olmec civilization to literacy, document an unsuspected writing system, and reveal a new complexity to this civilization." "It's...
Cave Art
Many hands painted Lascaux caves
	07/31/2008 8:26:14 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 16 replies · 310+ views Times of London | July 29, 2008 | Norman Hammond The painted caves of Lascaux in the Dordogne region of France are one of the most famed monuments of Ice Age art. Dating back about 17,000 years, the great Hall of the Bulls and its adjacent chambers proved so popular with visitors that a generation ago the cave had to be closed to save the paintings from encroaching mould. A replica, Lascaux II, was built nearby and has proved equally popular. One thing that strikes the visitor is the exuberance of the compositions, with hundreds of animals, including bison, horses and deer, parading along the walls and ceilings, often overlapping....
Australia and the Pacific
'Chicken and Chips' Theory of Pacific Migration
	07/31/2008 12:33:31 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 200+ views Newswise | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | University of Adelaide The study questions recent claims that chickens were first introduced into South America by Polynesians, before the arrival of Spanish chickens in the 15th century following Christopher Columbus. ...the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) Director Professor Alan Cooper says there has been considerable debate about the existence and degree of contact between Polynesians and South Americans, with the presence of the sweet potato throughout the Pacific often used as evidence of early trading contacts... A recent study claimed to have found the first direct evidence of a genetic link between ancient Polynesian and apparently pre-Columbian chickens...
Greece
Ancient Greek ship fished from sea
	07/28/2008 7:14:39 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 470+ views ANSA.it | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed An ancient Greek trading ship that had lain on the seabed off the coast of Gela in southern Sicily for 2,500 years was brought to the surface for the first time on Monday. The ancient Greek vessel is 21 metres long and 6.5 metres wide, making it by far the biggest of its kind ever discovered. Four Greek vessels found off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and France are at most 15 metres long. The one in Gela is also of particular value for scholars who will be able to delve into Greek naval construction techniques thanks to the amazing...
Egypt
Ancient Egyptian boat to be excavated, reassembled
	07/28/2008 10:43:47 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 269+ views Middle East Online | July 19, 2008 | Jason Keyser The 4,500-year-old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat removed in pieces from another pit in 1954 and painstakingly reconstructed. Experts believe the boats were meant to ferry the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid in the afterlife. Starting Saturday, tourists were allowed to view images of the inside of the second boat pit from a camera inserted through a hole in the chamber's limestone ceiling. The video image, transmitted onto a small TV monitor at the site, showed layers of crisscrossing beams and planks on the floor of the dark pit... Experts will begin removing around 600...
Africa
Two Egyptians rewarded for turning in antiquities [ Ahmose ]
	07/31/2008 12:29:13 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 182+ views EarthTimes | Tuesday, July 29, 2008 | DPA Egypt's top archaeologist said Tuesday that two Egyptian citizens were rewarded for turning in two pieces of antiquities they found while each was redecorating his house in the northern Menoufiya governorate. "The Egyptian Ministry of Culture decided to give each citizen five thousand Egyptian pounds (970 US dollars)," said Zahi Hawass, Head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Hawass stated that the two pieces belong to Ancient Egyptian King Ahmose of the 26th dynasty. After asserting the authenticity of the pieces, the SCA took the pieces to start their restoration process. Hawass added that both pieces are made of...
Strings Attached
Harrari Harps Recreates Biblical Instruments
	07/28/2008 8:51:11 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 242+ views IsraelNN.com | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | interview by Ben Bresky The harp of Israel goes back to the Tanach. It is written that the first person to play was a man called Yuval who played on a kinor. The next person was King David, who was the one who brought it to a very high level of awareness. He used it as a spiritual instrument to connect to Hashem. Then it went right into the Beit Hamikdash where there were 4,000 Leviim who played the harp. The tribe of Levi taught their children at age three to play on the nevel, the kinor, the shofar, and the silver trumpet. They...
Sex in the City
FOXSexpert: Kiss and Mind-Blowing Make-Up Sex
	07/25/2008 5:33:33 AM PDT · Posted by Pistolshot · 33 replies · 1,051+ views Fox News | Thursday, July 24, 2008 | Fox News It's a common way for couples to reconcile. Animalistic, uninhibited and aggressive, many couples are enthralled by make-up sex. Some couples actually thrive on it. So why is anger such a powerful stimulant? And what are the rules of engagement for resolving conflict in this way? While fighting as a form of foreplay doesn't make much sense, on second thought, it's not such an inconceivable aphrodisiac. Physiologically speaking, anger and arousal have quite a bit in common in revving up the body. When angry or sexually aroused, a person's body reacts in much the same way -- to the point...
Why Women Have Sex On The Brain
	09/09/2001 7:56:10 AM PDT · Posted by blam · 170 replies · 1,780+ views TheTimes.com.uk | 9-8-2001 | Nigel Hawkes Scientific study has answered the question of why we fall in love in the most unromantic way possible THE question that has perhaps most obsessed and mystified the poets, philosophers and thinkers -- why do we fall in love? -- has been answered in the most unromantic way possible: by the scientific study of the humble prairie vole. Music was the food of love in Shakespeare's book, but the truth, according to Professor Gareth Leng of the University of Edinburgh, lies in a "love potion" ...
600 Year Old Easy Pieces
Archaeologists find 600-year-old chess piece in northwest Russia
	07/28/2008 9:31:27 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 436+ views RIA Novosti | July 18, 2008 | unattributed Archaeologists in northwest Russia have discovered a chess piece dating back to the late 14th century, a spokesman for local archaeologists said on Friday. "The king, around several centimeters tall, is made of solid wood, possibly of juniper," the spokesman said. The excavations are being carried out at the site of the Palace of Facets, in the Novgorod Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod. The palace is believed to be the oldest in Russia. According to the city chronicles, chess as a competitive game emerged in Veliky Novgorod, the foremost historic city in northwest Russia, in the 13th century, but was banned...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Roman dog skeleton is 'donated'
	07/28/2008 12:17:31 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 23 replies · 357+ views BBC | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | "posted" by "unattributed" A Lincolnshire charity has had what could be a 2,000-year-old dog skeleton donated to one of its stores. A note with the bones said they were Roman, excavated from a 1st Century AD pit at the Lawn in Lincoln in 1986... Nicknamed Caesar, the dog bones will be handed over to The Collection museum in Lincoln, she said... "It's not a big dog, probably like a small whippet or greyhound. There are lots of bones, though perhaps not all, but its like a big jigsaw puzzle," she added. A note from the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology which was...
Rome and Italy
Water To Run Down From Antonine Nymphaeum After 1300 Years
	07/28/2008 6:36:52 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 16 replies · 382+ views Turkish Press | Monday, July 28, 2008 | unattributed Water will run down from the Antonine Nymphaeum, a monumental fountain located on the north of the ancient city of Sagalassos near Aglasun town of the southwestern Turkish province of Burdur, after some 1300 years. In an exclusive interview with the A.A, Semih Ercan said on Friday that restoration works on the fountain dated to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180) were expected to finish in 2010. Ercan, who heads the restoration works, said, "the fountain with a height of 10 meters and width of 30 meters, is one of the most splendid structures in the ancient city. It...
Underwater Archaeology
Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C.
	07/31/2008 8:35:20 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 29 replies · 707+ views New York Times | Thursday, July 31, 2008 | John Noble Wilford The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C. Only now, applying high-resolution imaging systems and three-dimensional X-ray tomography, have experts been able to decipher inscriptions and reconstruct functions of the bronze gears on the mechanism. The latest research has revealed details of dials on the instrument's back side, including the names of all 12 months of an ancient calendar. In the...
Secrets of Antikythera Mechanism, world's oldest calculating machine, revealed
	07/31/2008 8:14:49 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 9 replies · 831+ views The Times | 7/30/2008 The secrets of the worlds oldest calculating machine are revealed today, showing that it had dials to mark the timing of eclipses and the Olympic games. Ever since the spectacular bronze device was salvaged from a shipwreck after its discovery in 1900 many have speculated about the uses of the mechanical calculator which was constructed long before the birth of Christ and was one of the wonders of the ancient world. The dictionary sized crumbly lump containing corroded fragments of what is now known to be a marvellous hand cranked machine is known as the 'Antikythera Mechanism' because it was...
Under the Boardwalk
Past Climate Change: Continental Stretching Preceding Opening Of The Drake Passage
	07/27/2008 10:18:40 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 298+ views ScienceDaily | Friday, July 25, 2008 | (Geological Society of America) ...age estimates for the onset of a seaway through the Drake Passage range from middle Eocene to early Miocene, complicating interpretations of the relationship between ocean circulation and global cooling. Studying the southeast tip of Tierra del Fuego, a region that was once attached to the Antarctic Peninsula, Ghiglione et al. discovered evidence for the opening of widespread early Eocene extensional depocenters. The succession of events described in their study show that the opening of a seaway through the Drake Passage was early enough to contribute to global cooling through lowering levels of atmospheric CO2. Their data bolster interpretations of...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Volunteers uncovers 58th Mammoth at the Mammoth Site (Hot Springs, SD)
	07/29/2008 1:28:53 AM PDT · Posted by ApplegateRanch · 16 replies · 387+ views RapidCityJournal | Friday, July 25, 2008 | Mary Garrigan Joanne Bugel is happy to be the Earthwatch volunteer who uncovered the 115th tusk at the Mammoth Site and moved the popular Hot Springs tourist site's mammoth tally to 58. [snip] This group has been a particularly productive bunch, said crew chief Don Morris. [snip] Bones unearthed by 2008 Earthwatch volunteers include: three tusks, a tooth, a patella, six ribs, a fibula, four vertebra and assorted other bones. Neteal Graves, 18, of Kaycee, Wyo., also unearthed some coprolite -- [snip] Graves has the Mammoth Site in her bloodline. In 1974, her mother, Cheri Graves, was a college...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Mystery hairs 'may have come from a Yeti'
	07/28/2008 6:56:50 AM PDT · Posted by Daffynition · 17 replies · 522+ views The Daily Telegraph | 28 Jul 2008 | staff reporter The hunt for the elusive creature - said to be 10ft tall, part man, part ape and otherwise known as the Abominable Snowman - has frustrated scientists for decades. Now tests at Oxford Brookes University on hairs said to be from a Yeti in India have failed to link the strands with any known species. Ape expert Ian Redmond, who is leading the research, said: "The hairs are the most positive evidence yet that a Yeti might possibly exist. "It may be that the region this animal is inhabiting is remote enough for it to remain undiscovered so far." The...
Meet the Flintstones
Rock solid proof?
	07/28/2008 2:17:21 PM PDT · Posted by Soliton · 148 replies · 2,095+ views The Weatherford Democrat | David May The limestone contains two distinct prints -- one of a human footprint and one belonging to a dinosaur. The significance of the cement-hard fossil is it shows the dinosaur print partially over and intersecting the human print. In other words, the stone's impressions indicate the human stepped first, the dinosaur second.
Campfire Song and Dance
Tanzania: Prehistoric Footprints Stir Fresh Controversy
	07/27/2008 10:38:06 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 278+ views The Citizen (Dar es Salaam) | Monday, July 21, 2008 | Zephania Ubwani Archaeological experts are divided on a plan to exhume the hominid footprints at Laetoli for public display, some arguing that this could lead to erosion of the rare imprints. The 3.6 million- year old footprints, discovered in 1978, have since the 1990s been reburied for protection while a replica of the original cast is on display at the site. Government authorities recently intended to exhume the oldest known footprints of human ancestors for public view in order to attract more tourists and researchers... With the assistance of scientists from Getty Conservation Institute of Los Angeles in the US, the track-way...
Swans in the Evening
Voyage to the bottom of the world's deepest lake
	07/28/2008 6:47:03 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 47 replies · 966+ views Russia Today | July 27, 2008 | unattributed The two Russian submersibles which dived to the sea-bed beneath the North Pole last year are now attempting to reach the bottom of Lake Baikal in Siberia. Mir One and Mir Two will try to measure the maximum depth of the world's deepest lake. A preliminary dive to test the equipment under water was postponed on Saturday because of bad weather. Research work on the bottom of the lake is scheduled to begin on July 29. Scientists intend to go as deep as 1,700 metres to study the tectonics of Lake Baikal and to inspect archaeological artefacts. The operation, which...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Woodwork discovery means summertime dig ends on a high: Peat-rich soil has preserved carpenter's...
	07/28/2008 9:51:09 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 291+ views Aberdeen Press and Journal | July 2008 | Alistair Beaton The latest summer season at one of the longest-running and most important archaeological excavations in the north-east has ended on a high note, with the uncovering of mediaeval woodwork. Peat-rich soil around the site of a lost bishop's palace, just outside Kemnay, has preserved sections of centuries-old carpentry in remarkable condition. Saw marks are visible on one piece and another has been turned and decorated on a primitive lathe by a skilled craftsman... The finds have been preserved in water and will go for microcarbon dating that could pinpoint when the timber was felled... Also found over recent weeks was...
Early America
Cathedral yields more surprises: Crews unearth Presidio chapel remnants
	07/30/2008 6:51:18 AM PDT · Posted by NYer · 8 replies · 242+ views Monterey Herald | July 30, 2008 The wall footings, foundation and floor of the oldest Christian house of worship in California were found during grading work on Monterey's San Carlos Cathedral on Monday. The "third chapel" of the Royal Presidio of Monterey was a rectangular adobe building located directly in front of the present stone church, according to archaeologist Ruben Mendoza of CSU-Monterey Bay. The chapel was built in 1772 after the first two chapels -- a lean-to made of brush and a later log pole structure with a thatched roof -- burned down. Historian Gary Breschini, writing on the Monterey County Historical Society Web site,...
Longer Perspectives
The world's oldest jokes revealed by university research
	07/31/2008 7:55:23 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 74 replies · 1,569+ views The Telegraph | 8/1/2008 | Stephen Adams Academics have unearthed what they believe to be Britain's oldest joke, a 1,000-year-old double-entendre about men's sexual desire. They found the wry observation in the Codex Exoniensis, a 10th century book of Anglo-Saxon poetry held at Exeter Cathedral. It reads: "What hangs at a man's thigh and wants to poke the hole that it's often poked before?' Answer: A key." Scouring ancient texts, researchers from found the jokes laid down in delicate manuscripts and carved into stone tablets up to three thousand years old. Dr Paul MacDonald said ancient civilizations laughed about much the same things as we do today....
Oh So Mysteriouso
Columbus debunker sets sights on Leonardo da Vinci
	07/28/2008 6:04:40 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 33 replies · 702+ views Reuters | Jul 28, 2008 | Tim Castle Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of machines are uncannily similar to Chinese originals and were undoubtedly derived from them, a British amateur historian says in a newly-published book. Gavin Menzies sparked headlines across the globe in 2002 with the claim that Chinese sailors reached America 70 years before Christopher Columbus. Now he says a Chinese fleet brought encyclopedias of technology undiscovered by the West to Italy in 1434, laying the foundation for the engineering marvels such as flying machines later drawn by Italian polymath Leonardo.
Bobbleheads Up Their...
Historical Society Bobbleheads Criticized As Offensive
	07/28/2008 8:44:40 PM PDT · Posted by LibFreeOrDie · 20 replies · 476+ views WMUR.com | POSTED: 10:39 am EDT July 28, 2008 | WMUR.com AP story. Headline and link only. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Anatolia
Turks Revere an Ancestor: Ol' St. Nick
	12/20/2001 4:04:25 PM PST · Posted by a_Turk · 38 replies · 1,193+ views International Herald Tribune | 12/20/2001 | John Ward Anderson For those who think Santa Claus is just a fantasy - brace yourselves. If the legends of that jolly old elf are traced back far enough, many lead to this down-on-its-luck farming community on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, where in the 4th century a kindly bishop named Nicholas performed so many good deeds that he later was named a saint and eventually earned worldwide renown as Father Christmas, or Noel Baba, as his predominantly Muslim countrymen call him. The North Pole it's not. In fact, to the Western eye, ...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Spanish Moor-killing saint is given the chop (Might offend muslims)
	05/02/2004 3:35:38 PM PDT · Posted by Eurotwit · 115 replies · 813+ views The Times | 3 May, 2004 | From David Sharrock in Madrid Santiago cathedral is to lose its politically incorrect sculpture -- A statue of Spain's patron saint, Saint James "the Moorslayer", is to be removed from one of the country's most famous cathedrals and pilgrimage centres in case it offends Muslims. The decision, announced by Santiago Cathedral's church authorities, has outraged traditional Catholics, many of whom still light candles and pray to the 18th-century statue in the tiny chapel inside one of Christendom's three greatest pilgrim places of worship. Although the cathedral's spokesman insisted the decision was taken four months ago to remove the Moorslayer sculpture -- which depicts the sword-wielding apostle...
Church to remove Moor-slayer saint
	05/03/2004 2:52:51 PM PDT · Posted by swilhelm73 · 29 replies · 541+ views BBC | 3 May, 2004, | N/A A statue in a Spanish cathedral showing St James slicing the heads off Moorish invaders is to be removed to avoid causing offence to Muslims. Cathedral authorities in the pilgrim city of Santiago de Compostela, on Spain's north west coast, plan to move the statue to the museum. Among the reasons for the move is to avoid upsetting the "sensitivities of other ethnic groups". The statue of St James "the Moor-slayer" is expected to be replaced by one depicting the calmer image of St James "the Pilgrim", by the same 18th century artist, Jose Gambino. The Saracen-slaying image of St...
Spain Former PM: "The West did not attack Islam, it was they who attacked us"
	09/26/2006 4:13:39 PM PDT · Posted by excludethis · 29 replies · 1,006+ views gulfnews.com | Published: 09/25/2006 12:00 AM (UAE) Madrid: Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish prime minister, defended Pope Benedict XVI's comments about Islam, saying on Friday the pontiff had no need to apologise and asking why Muslims never did. the Spanish media said yesterday. "Why do we always have to say sorry and they never do?" Aznar told a conference in Washington on "global threats" on Friday. On Saturday, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted as saying that more European leaders should have spoken out in support of the Pope after he made his disputed comments on Islam. "I was disappointed there were not more European...
Moderate Islam
Islamists Damage Giant Rock Buddha
	10/10/2007 6:30:46 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 27 replies · 749+ views The Telegraph (UK) | 10-11-2007 | Ben Quinn Islamist radicals in Pakistan have attempted to destroy an ancient carving of Buddha by drilling holes in the rock and filling them with dynamite.The Buddha is thought to date from the seventh century AD The 23ft high image was damaged during the attack, which brought back memories of the Taliban's destruction six years ago of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan, in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Buddha, in the Swat district of north-west Pakistan, is thought to date from the seventh century AD and was considered the largest in...
Another Attack On The Giant Buddha Of Swat (Islamofascists Compelled By "The Religion Of Peace")
	11/10/2007 11:14:14 AM PST · Posted by DogByte6RER · 35 replies · 137+ views AsiaNews.it | 11/09/2007 | AsiaNews.it Another attack on the giant Buddha of Swat In the valley of Swat, north western Pakistan, Islamic militants have launched a second attack in less than a month on the gigantic sacred statue. The head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed while the militants threaten a third and final attack. Islamabad (AsiaNews) -- A group of Islamic militants have attacked for the second time in less than a month the giant Buddha carved in the rocks of Swat Valley, in north western Pakistan. Despite the many requests for greater protection, the government has failed to intervene in any...
There as a Czar, he could only receive
Peter the not so Great, Tsar of Russia
	07/26/2008 8:33:55 PM PDT · Posted by WesternCulture · 39 replies · 824+ views 07/26/2008 | WesternCulture There are, indeed, many reasons why people of Russian ancestry ought to keep their heads high. But just perhaps, the nation which my country - Sweden -nowaday manages to outdo in hockey rinks, although not in football/soccer fields (it was the other way around some decades ago) needs to rethink its self image. Russia of today is a giant, but sadly backward nation, presently going through a phase reminiscent of what took place in Italy during the 1920s and 1930s; she firmly believes in proudly waving a national banner and claiming territory, but her understanding of the very concept of...
Pages
Any Great Books?
	07/25/2008 3:01:11 PM PDT · Posted by Stephanie32 · 382 replies · 2,316+ views July 25, 2008 | Stephanie32 (My first thread, hope I'm doing this right!)
end of digest #211 20080802

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #211 20080802 · Saturday, August 2, 2008 · 49 topics · 2055066 to 2051940 · 675 members ·
	Saturday Aug 02 2008 v 5 n 1 view this issue	Welcome to the 211th issue and the first of volume 5. A whopping 49 topics this week, 32 last week. The main reason for the huge selection of topics was finding and adding archival topics which had somehow escaped former dragnets. Membership apparently declined, but that was due to the deletion of suspended/banned members. Three new members joined. Two folks got fired this week. I really need a new job. I know what you're thinking -- I should be out looking instead of doing this, eh? Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #212 Saturday, August 9, 2008
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
A Potted History of Milk
	08/08/2008 11:30:55 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 43+ views PhysOrg.com | August 2008 | University of Bristol Humans were processing cattle milk in pottery vessels more than two thousand years earlier than previously thought... In work published online in Nature this week, Professor Richard Evershed and colleagues describe how the analysis of more than 2,200 pottery vessels from southeastern Europe, Anatolia and the Levant extends the early history of milk by two millennia to the seventh millennium BC... Organic residues preserved in the pottery suggest that even before 6,500 BC milk was processed and stored, although this varied regionally depending on the farming techniques used. Cattle, sheep and goats were familiar domesticated animals by the eighth millennium...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Study uses genetic evidence to trace ancient African migration
	08/05/2008 10:34:02 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 251+ views PhysOrg | Monday, August 4, 2008 | Stanford University Medical Center Using a genetic technique pioneered at Stanford, the team found that animal-herding methods arrived in southern Africa 2,000 years ago on a wave of human migration, rather than by movement of ideas between neighbors. The findings shed light on how early cultures interacted with each other and how societies learned to adopt advances. "There's a tradition in archaeology of saying people don't move very much; they just transfer ideas through space," said Joanna Mountain, PhD, consulting assistant professor of anthropology. Mountain and Peter Underhill, PhD, senior research scientist in genetics at Stanford's School of Medicine, were the study's senior authors....
Ancient Autopsies
Tutankhamun Fetuses To Get Paternity Test
	08/07/2008 10:43:00 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 23 replies · 317+ views New Scientist | Wednesday, August 6, 2008 | staff and Reuters Egyptian scientists are doing DNA tests on stillborn children found in Tutankhamun's tomb in the hope of confirming if they are the pharoah's offspring and confirming his family tree. British archaeologist Howard Carter found the mummified fetuses when he discovered the tomb in 1922. Archaeologists assume they are the children of the teenage pharaoh, but this has not been confirmed. The identity of their mother is also still unknown. Many scholars believe their mother to be Ankhesenamun, the boy king's only known wife. Ankhesenamun is the daughter of the queen Nefertiti, who was renowned for her beauty. "For the first...
Prehistory and Origins
Little teeth suggest big jump in primate timeline
	08/07/2008 10:27:32 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 188+ views PhysOrg | Monday, August 4, 2008 | Duke University Just 9-thousandths of a square inch in size, the teeth are about 54.5 million years old and suggest these early primates were no larger than modern dwarf lemurs weighing about 2 to 3 ounces... Previous fossil evidence shows primates were living in North America, Europe and Asia at least 55 million years ago. But, until now, the fossil record of anthropoid primates has extended back only 45 million years... In addition to stretching the primate timeline, the specimens represent a new genus as well as a new species of anthropoid, which the researchers have named Anthrasimias gujaratensis by drawing from...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Scientists map mitochondrial DNA of prehistoric Neanderthal
	08/07/2008 12:37:19 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 29 replies · 446+ views AFP | Aug 7, 2008 | Unknown The bones of a Neanderthal man's skeleton, found during several excavations undertaken in 1856, 1997 and 2000. Researchers announced Thursday that they have sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a Neanderthal, using genetic material recovered from a 38,000-year-old bone. (AFP/DDP/File/Michael Latz) WASHINGTON (AFP) - Researchers announced Thursday that they have sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of a Neanderthal, using genetic material recovered from a 38,000-year-old bone. Scientists said the breakthrough, published in the August 8th issue of the scientific journal Cell, will help resolve lingering questions about the genealogical relationship between the prehistoric hominids and modern man.
Epigraphy and Language
Nigerian Monkeys Drop Hints on Language Origin
	05/23/2006 4:32:06 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 29 replies · 574+ views NY Times | May 23, 2006 | NICHOLAS WADE Researchers taping calls of the putty-nosed monkey in the forests of Nigeria may have come a small step closer to understanding the origins of human language. The researchers have heard the monkeys string two alarm calls into a combined sound with a different meaning, as if forming a word, Kate Arnold and Klaus Zuberb¸hler report in the current issue of Nature. Monkeys are known to have specific alarm calls for different predators. Vervet monkeys have one call for eagles, another for snakes and a third for leopards. But this seems a far cry from language because the vervets do not...
Deep Life, Panspermia, Archaea
"Slow Life' and its Implications
	08/07/2008 8:52:36 AM PDT · Posted by LibWhacker · 12 replies · 252+ views Centauri Dreams | 8/6/08 Imagine a form of life so unusual that we cannot figure out how it dies. That's exactly what researchers are finding beneath the floor of the sea off Peru. The microbes being studied there -- single-celled organisms called Archaea -- live in time frames that can perhaps best be described as geological. Consider: A bacteria like Escherichia Coli divides and reproduces every twenty minutes or so. But the microbes in the so-called Peruvian Margin take hundreds or thousands of years to divide. "In essence, these microbes are almost, practically dead by our normal standards," says Christopher H. House (Penn State)....
Oh So Mysteriouso
Biology and Cryptobiology
What was the Montauk monster?
	08/07/2008 11:51:26 AM PDT · Posted by ari-freedom · 59 replies · 2,233+ views Tetrapod Zoology | August 4, 2008 | Darren Naish Unless you've been hiding under a rock, or spending all your time on Tet Zoo, you will almost certainly have heard about the 'Montauk monster', a mysterious carcass that (apparently) washed up on July 13th at Montauk, Long Island, New York. A good photo of the carcass, showing it in right lateral view and without any reference for scale, surfaced on July 30th and has been all over the internet. Given that I only recently devoted a week of posts to sea monsters, it's only fitting that I cover this too. I'm pretty sure that I know what it is,...
Asia
Mysterious ancient Buddhist box opened
	08/07/2008 10:41:16 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 37 replies · 1,095+ views China.org | 07 Aug 2008 | China.org Chinese archaeologists on Wednesday opened a 1,000-year-old steel case that was believed to contain Buddhist relics. A pagoda top wrapped in silk emerged after archaeologists removed two steel panels of the cube-shaped case, which is 0.5 meter long, 0.5 meter wide and 1.34 meters high. Hua Guorong, vice curator of the Nanjing City Museum where the case was opened, said an initial analysis showed the object was a pagoda about 1 meter high. He said Buddhist relics, which were formed from the ashes of cremated Buddhist masters and were an important aspect of the religion, were likely to be under...
Greece
Greek archaeological site reburied [ Akrotiri Santorini ]
	08/04/2008 10:55:31 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 155+ views Spero Forum | Friday, August 1, 2008 | Stephen Brothwell (Athens News) Three year after part of a protective roof collapsed killing a British tourist, the ancient Minoan site of Akrotiri on Santorini remains closed. Excavations have halted and the reconstruction of its roof is stuck in the wheels of bureaucracy. Tourism businesses on the island say they are losing money and prestige as a result. In September 2005, part of a new 1,000m2 roof designed to cover and protect the excavations collapsed without warning, killing Richard Bennion and injuring many others. The site was immediately closed for investigation but inexplicably has remained so for the last 34 months. "I can't say...
What a Pane
The Nature of Glass Remains Anything but Clear
	08/03/2008 6:56:52 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 40 replies · 1,634+ views NY Times | July 29, 2008 | KENNETH CHANG It is well known that panes of stained glass in old European churches are thicker at the bottom because glass is a slow-moving liquid that flows downward over centuries. Well known, but wrong. Medieval stained glass makers were simply unable to make perfectly flat panes, and the windows were just as unevenly thick when new. The tale contains a grain of truth about glass resembling a liquid, however. The arrangement of atoms and molecules in glass is indistinguishable from that of a liquid. But how can a liquid be as strikingly hard as glass? "They're the thickest and gooiest of...
Rain of Frogs
Incredible Discoveries Made in Remote Caves
	08/02/2008 3:03:00 AM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 35 replies · 1,227+ views LiveScience | 31 July 2008 | Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Managing Editor Scientists exploring caves in the bone-dry and mostly barren Atacama Desert in Chile stumbled upon a totally unexpected discovery this week: water. They also found hundreds of thousands of animal bones in a cave, possibly evidence of some prehistoric human activity. The findings are preliminary and have not been analyzed. The expedition is designed to learn how to spot caves on Mars by studying the thermal signatures of caves and non-cave features in hot, dry places here on Earth. Scientists think Martian caves, some of which may already have been spotted from space, could be good places to look for...
Swastika a Butt Pucker?
Scent of a Fuehrer
	08/02/2008 12:31:38 AM PDT · Posted by uglybiker · 47 replies · 845+ views The Smart Set | Tony Perrottet Hitler wanted to control the world. But he couldn't even control his flatulence. Guests at the Berghof, Hitler's private chalet in the Bavarian Alps, must have endured some unpleasant odors in the otherwise healthful mountain air. It may sound like a Woody Allen scenario, but medical historians are unanimous that Adolf was the victim of uncontrollable flatulence. Spasmodic stomach cramps, constipation and diarrhea, possibly the result of nervous tension, had been Hitler's curse since childhood and only grew more severe as he aged. As a stressed-out dictator, the agonizing digestive attacks would occur after...
Vikings
Viking ring is "treasure" and will be valued at British Museum[UK]
	08/04/2008 9:54:08 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 8 replies · 758+ views Bridlington Free Press | 31 July 2008 | Alexa Copeland TREASURE dating back to the time of the Vikings has been found in a Bridlington field. The Viking finger ring has a silver content of 98% which, combined with its age, meets the criteria for it to be officially classed as treasure. The ring, found by Paul Rennoldson, has been sent to the British Museum in London where it will be valued. Alan Worth, chairman of the Bridlington Metal Detecting Society, said finding any items dating back to the Viking age was very rare. "The Vikings were around in about 700AD which is an incredibly long time ago," said Mr...
Underwater Archaeology
Exploring the blue depths of the Aegean and Mediterranean
	08/04/2008 4:27:23 PM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 10 replies · 260+ views TurkishPress.com | Monday, Aust 4, 2008 | By Levent Konuk The coasts of Anatolia are sprinkled with ancient cities whose harbours bustled with ships engaged in the thriving sea trade of the Aegean and Mediterranean. But not every ship made it safely to harbour. Many were wrecked in storms and sank with their cargoes to the seabed, and the remains of these have lain hidden on the seabed for long centuries. Wrecks of both merchant and warships each have their historical tale to relate, and are among the underwater sights that fascinate divers today. No other region of the world is so rich in sunken history as the seas around...
Anatolia
Zeugma Ancient City To Be Covered With Glass Bell Jar
	08/04/2008 4:34:39 PM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 10 replies · 230+ views TurkishPress.com | Monday, August 4, 2008 | U/A GAZIANTEP - Governor Suleyman Kamci of southeastern province of Gaziantep said Friday ancient city of Zeugma would be covered with a structure resembling a "glass bell jar" in an effort to make the historical site a more attractive place for tourists. Kamci said the historical artifacts unearthed in Zeugma were currently being displayed at Gaziantep Museum in order to protect the pieces from harsh weather conditions. "However, these artifacts would be more attractive for tourists if they could be preserved and exhibited in their original location," Kamci said. He said some of the artifacts that are on display at the...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Biblical Proof of Jeremiah Unearthed at Ancient City of David
	08/03/2008 11:10:36 AM PDT · Posted by ScaniaBoy · 26 replies · 694+ views ArutzSheva | August 3, 2008 | Hana Levi Julian (IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have unearthed proof of another Biblical story at Jerusalem's ancient City of David, this time corroborating the Book of Jeremiah. A completely intact seal impression, or "bula", bearing the name Gedaliahu ben Pashur was uncovered. The bula is actually a stamped engraving made of mortar. Gedaliahu ben Pashur's bula was found a bare few meters away from the site where a second such seal, this one belonging to Yuchal ben Shlemiyahu, an elder in the court of King Tzidkiyahu, was found three years ago, at the entrance to the City of David. According to Professor Eilat Mazar of...
Old Testament 'proof': Royal seal discovered
	08/05/2008 3:59:43 AM PDT · Posted by Convert from ECUSA · 22 replies · 393+ views World Net Daily | 8/3/08 | Joe Kovacs A team of archaeologists in Israel has unearthed what's believed to be the royal seal of an Old Testament prince who is said to have tossed the prophet Jeremiah down a well. Royal seal bears name of Gedaliah, a prince to Judah's King Zedekiah, mentioned in the Old Testament Book of Jeremiah. (courtesy Dr. Eilat Mazar) The stamped engraving, known as a "bulla," was discovered earlier this year about 600 feet south of the Temple Mount, but is just now making headlines. Team leader Dr. Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem's Hebrew University says the imprint was found in clay, astonishingly well-preserved,...
Phoenicians
4,000-year-old Canaanite warrior found in Sidon dig[Lebanon]
	08/07/2008 9:48:09 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 12 replies · 764+ views The Daily Star | 05 Aug 2008 | Mohammed Zaatari The British Museum's excavation team in Sidon have recently unearthed a new grave containing human skeletal remains belonging to a Canaanite warrior, archeology expert and field supervisor Claude Doumet Serhal told The Daily Star on Monday. According to Serhal, the delegation made the discovery at the "Freres" excavation site near Sidon's crusader castle. "This is the 77th grave that we have discovered at this site since our digging activities has started ten years ago with Lebanese-British financing," she said. According to Serhal, the remains go back to 2000 B.C., with a British archeologist saying the warrior had been buried...
Thrace
Bulgarian archaeologists discover ancient chariot
	08/07/2008 8:52:37 AM PDT · Posted by bamahead · 10 replies · 666+ views Yahoo / AP | August 7, 2008 | VESELIN TOSHKOV Archaeologists have unearthed a 1,900-year-old well-preserved chariot at an ancient Thracian tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, the head of the excavation said Thursday.
Neolithic Art
Ancient Burial Site Discovered In Batu Niah [ Malaysia ]
	08/04/2008 11:04:56 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 113+ views Yahoo! | Saturday, August 2, 2008 | Bernama A research team from the Centre For Archaeological Research Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and the Sarawak Museum Department has discovered an ancient burial site, believed to be from the Neolithic period, at Gua Kain Hitam in the Niah-Subis limestone hills in Batu Niah, Miri division. Sarawak Museum Department deputy director Ipoi Datan said today the excavations at the site, funded by the National Heritage Department in 2007 and the USM Research University Grant last year, has so far uncovered more than eight human skeletons, dating back 2,000 to 3,000 years ago. "The human skeletons as well as the associated...
Australia and the Pacific
European woman 'arrived in New Zealand before Captain Cook'
	08/05/2008 10:22:17 PM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 26 replies · 603+ views The Telegraph | Paul Chapman The discovery of a European skull dating back more than 260 years has cast doubt that Captain James Cook was the first Westerner to step foot on the shores of New Zealand. Captain Cook recorded in his log, a tale told to him by a Maori chief, of a ship having been shipwrecked many years earlier Scientists are baffled after carbon dating showed the skull, a woman's which was found near the country's capital, Wellington, dates back from 1742 -- decades before Cook's Pacific expedition arrived in 1769. The discovery was made by a boy walking his dog on the...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Energy Boom in West Threatens Indian Artifacts
	08/04/2008 10:38:49 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 311+ views The New York Slimes | August 2, 2008 | Kirk Johnson Less than a fifth of the park has been surveyed for artifacts because of limited federal money. Much more definite is that a giant new project to drill for carbon dioxide is gathering steam on the park's eastern flank. Miles of green pipe snake along the roadways, as trucks ply the dirt roads from a big gas compressor station. About 80 percent of the monument's 164,000 acres is leased for energy development. The consequences of energy exploration for wildlife and air quality have long been contentious in unspoiled corners of the West. But now with the urgent push for even...
Longer Perspectives
Military Advantage in History
	08/06/2008 4:16:07 PM PDT · Posted by gandalftb · 17 replies · 507+ views Mother Jones | July, 2002, Declassified August, 2008 | Office/Sec./Defense/Net Assessment This paper examines the nature of military advantage by exploring the character of major hegemonic powers in history and seeks to gain a better understanding of what drives US military advantage; where US vulnerabilities may lie; and how the US should think about maintaining its military advantage in the future.Case studies of Macedonia under Alexander the Great, Imperial Rome, the Mongols, and Napoleonic France compose the core of the analysis as they illustrate important themes that remain relevant to the US' position today.The case studies focus on two key questions:What were the sources of military advantage in history?What made military...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Top secret E German bunker open for short time (Huge underground facility; photos and video avail.)
	08/04/2008 1:21:27 PM PDT · Posted by Stoat · 35 replies · 1,083+ views Euronews / various others | August 1, 2008 Holidaymakers feeling nostalgic for the Cold War can now tour what was once a top secret bunker in the former East Germany. Opened to the public for the first time on Friday, it was meant to house the ruling Communist elite in the event of a nuclear attack.Something some visitors said they were relieved was no longer a concern:"What goes through my mind is that it is quite nice to stand around here, look at the bunker and talk to each other peacefully," one man said.Close to the size of a football field, the bunker was designed to function...
World War Eleven
Sea unearths secret Nazi bunkers that lay hidden for more than 50 years
	08/04/2008 4:48:22 AM PDT · Posted by Stoat · 40 replies · 1,930+ views The Daily Mail (U.K.) | August 3, 2008 Three Nazi bunkers on a beach have been uncovered by violent storms off the Danish coast, providing a store of material for history buffs and military archaeologists. The bunkers were found in practically the same condition as they were on the day the last Nazi soldiers left them, down to the tobacco in one trooper"s pipe and a half-finished bottle of schnapps. (edit) They were located by two nine-year-old boys on holiday with their parents, who then informed the authorities. Archaeologists were able to carefully force a way, and were astounded at what they found.'What's so fantastic is...
Revealed: The astonishing D-Day tanks found at the bottom of the English Channel
	08/06/2008 6:36:41 AM PDT · Posted by DemonDeac · 71 replies · 2,644+ views Daily Mail | 05th August 2008 | DEBRA KILLALEA "Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures at the bottom of the English Channel got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across two massive army tanks on the ocean floor." "Divers found the massive vehicles were relatively well preserved with guns still intact even after more than 64 years under sea. And by painstakingly checking minute details on the sunken vehicles against historical records, investigators managed to identify them as rare British Centaur CS IV tanks. The historic weapons were destined for battle during the D-Day landings but never arrived. Historians discovered the tanks fell overboard when a landing...
Sunken D-Day tanks found
	08/06/2008 8:14:43 AM PDT · Posted by cups · 7 replies · 1,085+ views Revealed | Debra Killalea Scuba divers searching for hidden treasures at the bottom of the English Channel got more than they bargained for when they stumbled across two massive army tanks on the ocean floor. The divers, who were eight miles of the West Sussex Coast, were left baffled as to how the Second World War tanks came to be at the bottom of the Channel. But the mystery was soon solved after a lengthy investigation involving more than 80 dives at the site which is 65ft under water. (has pictures)
Climate
Climate Cycles in China as Revealed by a Stalagmite from Buddha Cave(Journal Review)
	07/08/2003 3:48:19 PM PDT · Posted by PeaceBeWithYou · 58 replies · 971+ views CO2 Science Magazine | July 08, 2003 | Staff Reference Paulsen, D.E., Li, H.-C. and Ku, T.-L. 2003. Climate variability in central China over the last 1270 years revealed by high-resolution stalagmite records. Quaternary Science Reviews 22: 691-701. What was done In the words of the authors, "high-resolution records of 13C and 18O in stalagmite SF-1 from Buddha Cave [33°40'N, 109°05'E] are used to infer changes in climate in central China for the last 1270 years in terms of warmer, colder, wetter and drier conditions." What was learned Among the climatic episodes evident in the authors' data were "those corresponding to the Medieval Warm Period, Little Ice Age and...
Age of Sail
Lord Nelson and Captain Cook's shiplogs question climate change theories
	08/04/2008 3:18:54 AM PDT · Posted by Cincinatus · 47 replies · 2,094+ views Daily Telegraph (UK) | August 4, 2008 | Tom Peterkin The ships' logs of great maritime figures such as Lord Nelson and Captain Cook have cast new light on climate change by suggesting that global warming may not be an entirely man-made phenomenon. Scientists have uncovered a treasure trove of meteorological information contained in the detailed logs kept by those on board the vessels that established Britain's great seafaring traditition including those on Nelsons' Victory and Cook's Endeavour.
Ice Age
Last Ice Age happened in less than year say scientists
	08/02/2008 2:28:28 PM PDT · Posted by Renfield · 74 replies · 1,305+ views The Scotsman | 8-02-08 | angus howarth THE last ice age 13,000 years ago took hold in just one year, more than ten times quicker than previously believed, scientists have warned. Rather than a gradual cooling over a decade, the ice age plunged Europe into the deep freeze, German Research Centre for Geosciences at Potsdam said. Cold, stormy conditions caused by an abrupt shift in atmospheric circulation froze the continent almost instantly during the Younger Dryas less than 13,000 years ago -- a very recent period on a geological scale. The new findings will add to fears of a serious risk of this happening again in the...
Arctic
Undersea 'Black Smokers' Found Off Arctic
	08/04/2008 5:58:31 PM PDT · Posted by krb · 32 replies · 960+ views Discovery | August 4, 2008 | AFP Jets of searingly hot water spewing up from the ocean floor have been discovered in a far-northern zone of the Arctic Ocean, Swiss-based scientists announced Monday. The so-called "black smokers" were found 73 degrees north, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway, in the coldest waters yet for a phenomenon first observed around the Galagapos islands in 1977.The earth's plumbing system of hydrothermal vents contain their own, unique ecosystems given the absence of sunlight at depths, in this case, of 7,874 feet, with vinegar-like water attaining temperatures of up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit. A team from...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Ancient Vegetation, Insect Fossils Found in Antarctica
	08/05/2008 9:56:54 AM PDT · Posted by Scythian · 45 replies · 939+ views Fox News Fourteen million years ago the now lifeless valleys were tundra, similar to parts of Alaska, Canada and Siberia -- cold but able to support life, researchers report. The moss was essentially freeze dried, he said. Unlike fossils, where minerals replace soft materials, the moss tissues were still there, he said. "The really cool thing is that all the details are still there," even though the plant has been dead for 14 million years. "These are actually the plant tissues themselves." ==================================================== And they redicule me for believing in the bible ... 14 million years, ya right
Moderate Islam
The Rush to Save Timbuktu's Crumbling Manuscripts
	08/03/2008 11:38:38 PM PDT · Posted by FreedomCalls · 28 replies · 643+ views Der Spiegel | 08/01/2008 | Matthias Schulz and Anwen Roberts Fabled Timbuktu, once the site of the world's southernmost Islamic university, harbors thousands upon thousands of long-forgotten manuscripts. A dozen academic instutions from around the world are now working frantically to save and evaluate the crumbling documents. Bundles of paper covered with ancient Arabic letters lie on tables and dusty leather stools. In the sweltering heat, a man wearing blue Muslim robes flips through a worn folio, while others are busy repairing yellowed pages. An astonishing project is underway in Timbuktu, Mali, one of the world's poorest countries. On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, experts are opening an...
Libraries in the sand reveal Africa's academic past
	11/12/2006 7:03:58 AM PST · Posted by Valin · 29 replies · 867+ views Reuters | 11/10/06 | Nick Tattersall Researchers in Timbuktu are fighting to preserve tens of thousands of ancient texts which they say prove Africa had a written history at least as old as the European Renaissance. Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand. The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French...
Faith and Philosophy
322nd Anniversary of "The Battle of Vienna" (Polish king saves Europe from Islam)
	09/12/2005 5:06:39 PM PDT · Posted by bummerdude · 180 replies · 6,029+ views http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/EastEurope/ViennaSiege.html One of the most important battles of the 17th century was the Battle of Vienna, which was fought on September 12, 1683... This victory freed Europe from the Ottoman Turks and their invasions and secured Christianity as the main religion in all of Europe.
The Real History of the Crusades
	05/10/2005 7:20:05 AM PDT · Posted by robowombat · 59 replies · 4,639+ views Christianity Today | Week of May 2, 2005 | Thomas F. Madden Christianity Today, Week of May 2 The Real History of the Crusades A series of holy wars against Islam led by power-mad popes and fought by religious fanatics? Think again. by Thomas F. Madden | posted 05/06/2005 09:00 a.m. With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during the annual bacchanalia we call the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, of all places), poring over musty chronicles and writing dull yet meticulous studies that few will read. Imagine, then, my surprise...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Bones mystery [ near Lough Fea in Ireland ]
	08/04/2008 11:22:30 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 286+ views Mid Ulster Mail | Thursday, July 31, 2008 | Staff reporter Cremated bones thought to date from around 3,500BC to 2,000BC have been unearthed by archaeologists during a dig near Lough Fea. A team of four archaeologists came across a mound of stones, known as a cairn which often points to a burial site, at the Creagh Concrete plant near Blackwater Bridge. The find was unearthed when workers from Creagh Concrete were extracting gravel earlier this week. An archaeologist is always present on site when work of this nature is being carried out. Following excavation of the site, the archaeologists discovered two small cist burials, one octagonal in shape, around 45...
Scotland Yet
Ancient palace found in dig on hill[UK]
	08/02/2008 7:28:38 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 6 replies · 576+ views The Press and Journal | 02 Aug 2008 | Alistair Beaton Archaeologists uncover Aberdeenshire's hidden history on slopes of Bennachie Archaeologists have uncovered ancient traces, from tiny bead ornaments to massive walls, of a forgotten prince's palace on the slopes of Bennachie in Aberdeenshire. Only yards from a busy car park used by walkers visiting the landmark hill, a 15-strong team rediscovered remains of Maiden Castle just below the surface of a wooded hillside mound. A stone's throw from the Rowantree car park, near Pitcaple, and also close to one of the most important Pictish carved monuments in the country, the two-week dig confirmed the importance of the 2,000-year-old fort area....
Britain
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Dig reveals The Theatre - Shakespeare's first playhouse
	08/05/2008 10:16:09 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 5 replies · 436+ views The Times | 8/6/2008 | Fiona Hamilton Every year hundreds of thousands of visitors make their way to Stratford-upon-Avon and the Globe Theatre, on the Thames, to explore Shakespeare's intriguing past. Not surprisingly, an unremarkable plot of land on New Inn Broadway, just north of London's medieval City wall, does not rate a mention on the Shakespeare tourist trail, since before now only the most fervent history buffs were aware of the site's significance in the playwright's life. However, that history can be laid bare after an archaeological dig at the Shoreditch site uncovered the remains of The Theatre - one of the capital's first playhouses -- ...
Sex in the City
Are Couch Potatoes More Creative?
	05/10/2005 6:18:02 PM PDT · Posted by kingattax · 16 replies · 1,217+ views ABC Science Online | May 10, 2005 | Judy Skatssoon We're smarter and more creative lying down than standing up, says a researcher who believes this helps to explain Archimedes' eureka moment. Darren Lipnicki from the school of psychology at the Australian National University (ANU) found that people solve anagrams more quickly when they are on their backs than on their feet. He said his research, which will be published in the journal Cognitive Brain Research, relates to how neurotransmitters are released. Lipnicki tested 20 people, who were asked to solve 32 five-letter anagrams, such as 'osien' and 'nodru' while standing and lying down. "I found anagrams were solved more...
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