[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #216 Saturday, September 6, 2008
Ancient Europe
Melting Swiss glacier yields Neolithic trove, climate secrets
	09/05/2008 3:00:50 PM PDTT · Posted by Islander7 · 33 replies · 960+ views Yahoo - AFP | Sept 5, 2008 | by Hui Min Neo Hui Min Neo Some 5,000 years ago, on a day with weather much like today's, a prehistoric person tread high up in what is now the Swiss Alps, wearing goat leather pants, leather shoes and armed with a bow and arrows. The unremarkable journey through the Schnidejoch pass, a lofty trail 2,756 metres (9,000 feet) above sea level, has been a boon to scientists. But it would never have emerged if climate change were not melting the nearby glacier. So far, 300 objects dating as far back as the Neolithic or New Stone Age -- about 4,000 BC in Europe...
Ancient Autopsies
Putting a face to the past
	09/05/2008 9:01:42 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 265+ views BBC News | Monday, September 1, 2008 | Monise Durrani What do Johann Sebastian Bach, Saint Nicholas, and the firstborn son of Pharaoh Rameses II all have in common? The answer? All their faces have been reconstructed using cutting-edge computer technology.
No Pastys Jokes
Archeological dig unearths old woman in Poland
	09/04/2008 10:44:37 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 14 replies · 227+ views Polskie Radio | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | unattributed (mmj?) The remains of a 30-year-old woman were found today at an archeological excavation in Pinczow, in the Swietokrzyska region, southern Poland. The body, identified as female, dates back 6,500 years. The director of the dig, Przemyslaw Duleba, from the Institute of Archeology at the University of Warsaw, stated that this is the oldest discovery every to be found in this region. "The skeleton of the young woman is perfectly preserved and laid on her left side in an embryonic position." Duleba says that this skeleton provides evidence as to the funereal rites of the people that lived on this land...
Climate
Hot And Cold: Circulation Of Atmosphere Affected Mediterranean Climate During Last Ice Age
	08/30/2008 1:52:22 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 20 replies · 241+ views ScienceDaily | August 27, 2008 | National Oceanography Centre, Southampton A new study published in the scientific journal Science reveals the circulation of the atmosphere over the Mediterranean during the last ice age, 23,000 to 19,000 years ago, and how this affected the local climate... and is co-authored by Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of Southampton School of Ocean and Earth Science... The first surprise is that the Mediterranean climate at that time was similar to that seen during cold spells in the region today and -- particularly -- during the Little Ice Age (15th to 19th century), but more extreme. The new evidence suggests that the Mediterranean climate...
Astronomy and Catastrophism
Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century [possible mini-ice age]
	09/03/2008 2:40:38 PM PDTT · Posted by DBCJR · 30 replies · 461+ views Daily Tech | September 1, 2008 8:11 AM | Michael Asher The record-setting surface of the sun. A full month has gone by without a single spot (Source: Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)) The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted. The event is significant as many climatologists now believe solar magnetic activity -- which determines the number of sunspots -- is an influencing factor for climate on earth. According to data from Mount Wilson Observatory, UCLA, more than an entire month has passed without a spot. The last time such an event occurred was...
Asia
Tomb made from porcelain bowls unearthed
	09/04/2008 11:17:02 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 199+ views China.org | September 3, 2008 | Keen Zhang Yesterday the archaeology department of China's Chongqing Municipality announced a remarkable discovery: a Qing Dynasty tomb of an almost unique style, made out of more than 2,000 qing hua ci (blue and white porcelain) bowls. The Chongqing Economic Times quoted archaeologists as saying that this kind of tomb is very rare and had probably been constructed by migrants to the area... The tomb was discovered on the morning of August 24... in the Yuzhong district of Chongqing... The archaeology department sent a team to investigate. They discovered a tomb constructed from porcelain bowls. Lying just 60 centimeters under the road...
Hobbits
Bone Parts Don't Add Up To Conclusion Of Hobbit-like Palauan Dwarfs
	08/30/2008 1:46:13 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 143+ views Science News | August 27, 2008 | University of Oregon press release Scientists from the University of Oregon, North Carolina State University and the Australian National University have refuted the conclusion of Lee R. Berger and colleagues that Hobbit-like little people once lived there... They argue that Berger, an expert on much earlier humans dating to the Pleistocene, failed to review existing documentation, much of it published by Nelson or Fitzpatrick. Much of their rebuttal comes from remains unearthed by Fitzpatrick and Nelson at Chelechol ra Orrak, only miles from Berger's two sites. Among these whole remains are bone pieces that match -- some are even smaller that fragments found by Berger...
Keeping It In Your Genes
Marriage problems? Husband's genes may be to blame
	09/02/2008 6:33:28 PM PDTT · Posted by Pharmboy · 31 replies · 688+ views Reuters via Yahoo! | Tue Sep 2, 2008 | Maggie Fox The same gene that affects a rodent's ability to mate for life may affect human marriages, Swedish and U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. Men carrying a common variation of gene involved in brain signaling were more likely to be in unhappy marriages than men with the other version, the team at the Karolinska Institute found. Although they are not sure what the genetic changes do to a man's behavior, some other research suggests it has to do with the ability to communicate and empathize, the team reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We never looked at...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
In Our Genes, Old Fossils Take On New Roles
	09/02/2008 3:41:39 PM PDTT · Posted by decimon · 14 replies · 244+ views Washington Post | Sep 1, 2008 | David Brown "The past is never dead. It's not even past." -- William Faulkner · · Over the past 15 years, scientists have been comparing the inherited genetic material -- the genomes -- of dozens of organisms, acquiring a life history of life itself. What they're finding would impress even novelist William Faulkner, the great chronicler of how the past never really goes away. It turns out that about 8 percent of the human genome is made up of viruses that once attacked our ancestors. The viruses lost. What remains are the molecular equivalents of mounted trophies, insects preserved in genomic amber, DNA fossils.
Epidemics, Pandemics, Plagues, the Sniffles
Did the Romans destroy Europe's HIV resistance?
	09/04/2008 10:56:55 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 27 replies · 474+ views New Scientist | Wednesday, September 3, 2008 | Matt Walker The gene in question codes for a protein receptor called CCR5. The HIV virus binds to this receptor before entering cells. One gene variant, called CCR5-Delta32, has 32 DNA base pairs missing and produces a receptor that HIV cannot bind to, which prevents the virus from entering the cells. People with this variant have some resistance to HIV infection and also take longer to develop AIDS. Generally, only people in Europe and western Asia carry the variant, and it becomes less and less frequent as you move south. For example, more than 15 per cent of people in some areas...
Metallurgy
Blowing back to a red-hot history [ Sri Lanka iron smelting ]
	09/01/2008 10:03:08 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 135+ views Sri Lanka Sunday Times | Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Renuka Sadanandan Centuries ago, Arab writer Al Kindi referred to Sarandibi steel. Now comes the evidence that there had been in ancient Sri Lanka a large scale and highly successful metal producing industry which was based on a smelting and furnace design driven by the wind that only died out after the Chola invasion. In the quiet of a museum room in Koggala, visitors are transported to a wind-swept hillside in Sabaragamuwa, circa 9th century AD, where flourished this ancient iron smelting industry... discovery of the bigger wind-powered furnaces, that produced iron on an industrial scale, was, in fact, an earlier chapter...
Egypt
Ancient royal burial chamber found [ Pharaoh Senusret II ]
	09/02/2008 10:33:24 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 328+ views The Australian | Monday, September 1, 2008 | correspondents in Cairo Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the burial chamber and coffin of King Senusret II who was believed to have ruled Egypt from 1897 BC to 1878 BC, it was reported today. The burial chamber was found in Al Lahun, the town built by Senusret which became Egypt's political capital during the 12th and 13th dynasties, and where the king built his pyramid. "The coffin is made of pink granite and the burial chamber is lined with red granite," said Ahmed Abdel Aal, head of antiquities in Fayum, south of Cairo. The team also discovered "corridors and passageways inside the pyramid built...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Honey of a discovery [ 3000 year old beehive, ancient Israel ]
	08/31/2008 6:12:12 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 434+ views Science News | Friday, August 29th, 2008 | Bruce Bower The Bible refers to ancient Israel as the "land flowing with milk and honey," so it's fitting that one of its towns milked honey for all it was worth. Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large-scale beekeeping operation at a nearly 3,000-year-old Israeli site, which dates to the time of biblical accounts of King David and King Solomon. Excavations in northern Israel at a huge earthen mound called Tel Rehov revealed the Iron Age settlement. From 2005 to 2007, workers at Tel Rehov uncovered the oldest known remnants of human-made beehives, excavation director Amihai Mazar and colleagues report in...
Neolithic
Prehistoric Funerary Precinct Excavated In Northern Israel... [6,750-8,500 BC]
	09/02/2008 9:56:44 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 189+ views ScienceDaily | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | Hebrew University of Jerusalem / AlphaGalileo Hebrew University excavations in the north of Israel have revealed a prehistoric funerary precinct dating back to 6,750-8,500 BCE. The precinct, a massive walled enclosure measuring 10 meters by at least 20 meters, was discovered at excavations being undertaken at Kfar HaHoresh. The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site in the Nazareth hills of the lower Galilee is interpreted as having been a regional funerary and cult center for nearby lowland villages. Prof. Nigel Goring-Morris of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, who is leading the excavations, says that the precinct is just one of the many finds discovered at the site...
Cyprus
Plateau could be ancient gateway to Pyla
	09/05/2008 9:31:10 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 160+ views Cyprus Weekly | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | unattributed For over a millennium, a fortified settlement with a shrine stood on a plateau near the eastern Larnaca coast ringed with a defensive wall, foreign and Cypriot archaeologists believe. Earlier theories about the significance of the site were confirmed during this year's fieldwork at the Pyla-Koutsopetria locality by the identification of a section of the wall, datable to the Late Bronze Age... The settlement, located on a hill known as Kokkinokremmos/ Vigla -- Red Cliff/Lookout Post, is estimated to have been inhabited from the Cypro-Archaic period in the 13th-14th century B.C. to Hellenistic and Roman times. The site is situated...
Faith and Philosophy
Symbolic past of early Aegeans revealed at Dhaskalio Kavos site
	09/04/2008 10:49:55 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 83+ views Times of London | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | Normand Hammond A rocky islet and a nearby hillside have yielded evidence of one of Greece's oldest and most enigmatic ritual sites. Imported stones and fragmented marble statuettes show that Dhaskalio and Kavos were "a symbolic central place for the Early Bronze Age" in the Aegean, according to Professor Colin Renfrew. Kavos is a stony, scrub-covered slope on the Cycladic island of Keros. Forty-five years ago Professor Renfrew, then a PhD student at Cambridge, found extensive looting there, with fragments of marble bowls and the famous Cycladic folded-arm figurines scattered across the surface. The date of the Dhaskalio Kavos site, based on...
Greece
Ancient Treasure Unearthed in Greece
	08/30/2008 1:28:20 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 326+ views AOL News | August 29, 2008 | Nicholas Paphitis (AP) A priceless gold wreath has been unearthed in an ancient city in northern Greece, buried with human bones in a large copper vase that workers initially took for a land mine.
Constantinople
Mystery under famous mosque [ Hagia Sophia basilica, in the former Constantinople ]
	09/04/2008 10:38:10 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 323+ views Turkish Daily News | Thursday, September 4, 2008 | Vercihan Ziflioglu The second church was inaugurated in A.D. 405, after being built upon the remnants of the first church at the same site, which dates to A.D. 360... No scientific examinations have yet been carried out on the flooded ground four meters beneath the floor of the museum. According to Akkaya, the water found below is connected to the Basilica Cistern and Topkapi Palace. "Yes, the area underneath Hagia Sophia is filled with water. I assume the layers contain pieces of pottery and ceramics, as well as relics from the second church of Hagia Sophia," Akkaya acknowledged... Recently, a team of...
Forgotten Empire
Hittites' holy city Nerik to emerge
	09/05/2008 9:48:29 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 157+ views Turkish Daily News | Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | Fulya Cemen Today, excavators at the Oymaagac mound in the Black Sea city of Samsun's Vezirkopru district are reveling in their potential find, believing the evidence is mounting and Oymaagac will be unveiled as the holder of Nerik. The geographical location of Oymaagac, the impressive representative building on top of the acropolis, and especially the tiny cuneiform writing style on the tablet fragments all suggested the excavators might find Nerik here... the tiny cuneiform writing resembled that on clay tablets from the Bogazkoy/Hattusha archives dealing with Nerik... the writings, along with several ritual texts from the Hittite period, suggested Oymaagac had to...
Anatolia
Ancient City Waits To Be Unearthed In Western Turkey
	09/01/2008 10:16:38 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 146+ views Turkish Press | Sunday, August 31, 2008 | unattributed An ancient city in western Turkey, discovered by smugglers of ancient artifacts at an illegal excavation six years ago and recovered with soil by officials, now waits to be unearthed. Local officials asked archaeologists to dig the region in Saruhanli town of the western province of Manisa to bring to light the ancient city which is thought to be dated from around 3rd or 4th century B.C. "Six years ago, smugglers found a few pieces of historical artifacts at an illegal dig here. There were mosaics of a stag`s head among them. But no researches have been carried out since...
Sarmatians / Scythians
Archeologists found woman's burial of Sarmatian epoch in one of burial mounds of Chutovo district...
	09/05/2008 9:06:07 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies · 156+ views National Radio Company of Ukraine | September 2, 2008 | unattributed According to director of the centre of protection and research of the archeological monuments of the department of culture of the Poltava Regional State Administration Oleksandr Suprunenko, the woman was very influential. The things found next to her prove this, namely a bronze mirror, a dagger and iron scissors as well as a unique silver brooch. Besides, an iron awl was stuck in the woman's head. Sarmatians is a general name of the people that dominated in the Ukrainian steppes after collapse of the Scythian state. According to Herodotus, the Sarmatians originated from Amazonians who married Scythian men.
Malta
Luqa cemetery expansion finds Bronze Age remains [ Malta ]
	09/01/2008 10:36:46 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 108+ views Malta Independent | Saturday, August 30, 2008 | Francesca Vella A cluster of five silos dating back to the Bronze Age period were recently discovered when excavation work, forming part of a project to extend the Luqa cemetery, was being carried out... various cisterns and silo pits had previously been discovered in the area known as Tal-Mejtin... Themistocles (Temi) Zammit -- who discovered, among others, the Hypogeum, Tarxien Temples, Hagar Qim, Mnajdra, and St Paul's Catacombs -- had unearthed a number of silos in the same area, while British archaeologist David Trump had also discovered another cluster of pits in the 1960s... The Bronze Age culture replaced the Temple culture,...
Rome and Italy
Beyond Pompeii: Places swallowed by Vesuvius
	09/02/2008 9:49:01 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies · 330+ views Philadelphia Inquirer | Sunday, August 31, 2008 | Edward Sozanski Over several centuries, millions of tourists have visited Pompeii to acquaint themselves with the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius that began on Aug. 24, 79 A.D. But while it's the most famous eruption site, the ancient Roman city 15 miles south of Naples isn't the best place to gauge the volcano's awesome destructive power. For that, one should visit lesser-known Herculaneum, which is closer to Vesuvius, or Oplontis and Stabiae, two sites more recently uncovered and still relatively unknown to tourists. In these places, several of which are still being excavated, the eruption's consequences are more visible.
Phoenicians
Phoenician site agreement [ Spain ]
	08/30/2008 1:19:30 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 113+ views Euro Weekly News | August 28, 2008 | unattributed The new agreement also considers action on other sites within the province, that are related to the one at Cerro del Villar. This Phoenician site was one of the more important colonial sites on the Andalucian Coast. Its foundation dates from the VIII century B.C but due to the constant floods suffered in the area, the Phoenician settlers moved to what is known today as Malaga, which they named 'Malaka' about 570. It was discovered by the archaeologist Juan Manuel Munoz in 1965, and in 1998, the site was declared of general interest by the Andalucian Government... About 2,500 students...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Roman settlement uncovered in US
	09/04/2008 10:03:48 AM PDTT · Posted by Perdogg · 50 replies · 2,291+ views Press TV IR | Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:16:36 GMT An American archaeologist has uncovered the foundations for a Roman settlement on east Cleveland coast in the United States. According to a report in The Northern Echo, archaeologist Steve Sherlock has found a 1,600 year-old site for creating jet jewellery, with the help of volunteers from the Teesside Archaeological Society. Sherlock's latest discovery comes a year ater he uncovered evidence of Anglo-Saxon royalty in a farmer's fields near Loftus. Aerial photographs first guided Sherlock's Iron Age research project to the location in 2004, showing evidence of an Iron Age enclosure. Then last year, the site revealed 109 Anglo Saxon graves.
Biology and Cryptobiology
Mammoth Mystery: The Beasts' Final Years
	09/04/2008 10:42:29 AM PDTT · Posted by decimon · 22 replies · 494+ views Live Science | Sep 4, 2008 | Charles Q. Choi Woolly mammoths' last stand before extinction in Siberia wasn't made by natives - rather, the beasts had American roots, researchers have discovered. Woolly mammoths once roamed the Earth for more than a half-million years, ranging from Europe to Asia to North America. These Ice Age giants vanished from mainland Siberia by 9,000 years ago, although mammoths survived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean until roughly 3,700 years ago. "Scientists have always thought that because mammoths roamed such a huge territory - from Western Europe to Central North America - that North American woolly mammoths were a sideshow of no...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Missouri cave paintings give ancient insight
	08/30/2008 1:08:19 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 377+ views The Missourian | August 27, 2008 | Michael Gibney The story begins, as many do, with curiosity. About 20 years ago, two men exploring "Picture Cave" found paintings on the rock walls and sent hand-drawn reproductions to archaeologists Jim Duncan and Carol Diaz-Granados. "These things are fake!" Duncan remembered thinking at the time. As it turned out, the nature and location of the drawings contradicted widely held beliefs about Mississippian culture. The figures on the walls of the cave in east-central Missouri now provide crucial details of the prehistoric timeline of the region. And there's recent evidence that the paintings in Picture Cave predate the Cahokia Mounds as the...
Underwater Archaeology
Oldest Skeleton in Americas Found in Underwater Cave?
	09/03/2008 4:15:35 PM PDTT · Posted by my3centseuro · 21 replies · 557+ views National Geographic | 3 Sep 2008 | Eliza Barclay Deep inside an underwater cave in Mexico, archaeologists may have discovered the oldest human skeleton ever found in the Americas. Dubbed Eva de Naharon, or Eve of Naharon, the female skeleton has been dated at 13,600 years old. If that age is accurate, the skeleton -- along with three others found in underwater caves along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan Peninsula -- could provide new clues to how the Americas were first populated. The remains have been excavated over the past four years near the town of Tulum, about 80 miles southwest of Cancun, by a team of scientists led by Arturo Gonzalez,...
Australia and the Pacific
Pacific island claims to be the roots of Mexico [ Mexcaltitan was Atzlan? ]
	09/02/2008 9:51:06 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 17 replies · 347+ views Houston Chronicle | August 30, 2008 | Jeremy Schwartz For local officials and some historians, Mexcaltitan is nothing less than the mythical Aztlan, birthplace of the ancient Aztecs. According to legend, the Aztecs left an island in 1091 and wandered for two centuries before settling in what is now Mexico City. There, they founded the legendary city of Tenochtitlan, an island city of canals and floating gardens, and lorded over an empire that stretched from Guatemala to northern Mexico before the Spanish conquered them in 1521... In Mexcaltitan, located in the Pacific state of Nayarit, clues that this was once Aztlan are tantalizing. In Nahuatl, the language of the...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Stonehenge 'was hidden from lower classes'
	08/31/2008 8:04:57 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 492+ views Telegraph | Sunday, August 31, 2008 | "How about that?" editor Archeologists have uncovered the remains of what they believe to be a 20ft fence designed to screen Stonehenge from the view of unworthy Stone Age Britons. The wooden construction extended nearly two miles across Salisbury Plain more than 5,000 years ago, and would have served to shield the sacred site from the prying eyes of ordinary lower-class locals... The dig's co-director Dr Josh Pollard, of Bristol University, said: "The construction must have taken a lot of manpower. The palisade is an open structure which would not have been defensive and was too high to be practical for controlling livestock. It...
Scotland Yet
Chariot find at settlement site [ Birnie Scotland Iron Age ]
	08/30/2008 1:01:32 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 148+ views BBC | Thursday, August 28, 2008 | Steven McKenzie Archaeologists have uncovered a small - but vital - clue to the use of a chariot in Moray. The piece for a horse harness was found during the latest dig at an Iron Age site at Birnie, near Elgin. Dr Fraser Hunter, of the National Museums of Scotland, said it was further evidence of the high status of its inhabitants. Excavations would have been unlikely at Birnie if not for the discovery of Roman coins 10 years ago. Glass beads that may have been made at Culbin Sands, near Nairn, in the Highlands, a dagger and quern stones for making...
British Isles
Medieval canals spotted from air
	08/31/2008 7:21:19 PM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 19 replies · 580+ views BBC | Sunday, August 31, 2008 | unattributed Archaeologists have found what they have described as a "breathtaking engineering project" in Lincolnshire. Almost 60 miles of medieval canals, possibly built by monks to ferry stone, have been identified in the Fens. Although the canals were up to 40ft wide they have filled up with silt and are now only visible from the air. Experts said the network of waterways represented an achievement not matched until the Industrial Revolution 300 years later. Viking raiders Martin Redding, of the Witham Valley Archaeology Research Committee, discovered the canals using aerial photographs. "They have been completely infilled by later deposits that have...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Stone Clock from the First Bulgarian Kingdom Discovered
	08/30/2008 12:53:40 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 168+ views International Ibox (?) | Saturday, August 30, 2008 | Stefan Nikolov Bulgarian citizens have accidentally come across two stone blocks near a Proto-Bulgarian fortress near Mogila village, Kaspichan municipality. The fortress is a part of the system, constructed for the defense of the capital Pliska. It closely resembles the Madara fortress, but is considerably smaller. At the initial investigation enormous treasure-hunter decays can be seen, reaching a depth of 4 meters. Up to this moment no regular archeological studies have been carried out, but just on-foot surveillance by the late Professor Rasho Rashev. Typical Proto-Bulgarian graffiti are inscribed in one of the blocks, showing horsemen with their armory. Several horses...
Longer Perspectives
Ben Macintyre on the gory reality behind nursery rhymes
	08/30/2008 1:55:39 AM PDTT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 637+ views The Times | August 30, 2008 | Ben Macintyre The hapless Humpty, it appears, was not an egg (that notion did not take root until 1871, with the publication of Alice Through the Looking Glass and Sir John Tenniel's illustration of Humpty as an egg). The original Humpty Dumpty was really a large cannon, used by Royalist forces to defend besieged Colchester in 1648. Royalists under the command of Sir Charles Lucas defended the town against the encircling Parliamentarians for 11 weeks, largely thanks to "Humpty Dumpty", the nickname for the cannon expertly operated by a Royalist gunner, "One-eyed" Thompson, and mounted on the church tower of St Mary-at-the-Walls....
World War Eleven
Josef Stalin acted rationally in killing millions, claims Russian textbook
	09/05/2008 10:16:18 AM PDTT · Posted by george76 · 48 replies · 668+ views Telegraph | 03 Sep 2008 | Chris Irvine Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin claims he acted "rationally" in executing and imprisoning millions of people in the Gulags, a Russian school book claims. The book, A History of Russia, 1900-1945, will be used as a teaching guide in Russian schools, 55 years after Stalin died. It is designed for teachers to promote patriotism among the Russian young, and seems to follow an attempt backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate Stalin's record in a more positive light. Historians believe up to 20 million people died as a result of his actions, many times more than were killed under Hitler's...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Scientist says cremation should meet a timely death
	04/18/2007 1:00:49 PM PDTT · Posted by Triggerhippie · 128 replies · 2,190+ views (AFP) | Wed Apr 18, 10:30 AM ET | Staff Writer (apparently) An Australian scientist called Wednesday for an end to the age-old tradition of cremation, saying the practice contributed to global warming. Professor Roger Short said people could instead choose to help the environment after death by being buried in a cardboard box under a tree. The decomposing bodies would provide the tree with nutrients, and the tree would convert carbon dioxide into life-giving oxygen for decades, he said. "The important thing is, what a shame to be cremated when you go up in a big bubble of carbon dioxide," Short told AFP. "Why waste all that carbon...
end of digest #216 20080906

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #216 20080906 · Saturday, September 6, 2008 · 36 topics · 2075610 to 2071065 · 682 members ·
	Saturday Sep 06 2008 v 5 n 8 view this issue	Welcome to the 216th issue. I just jumped the v/n to 8, which is correct (4 years times 52 issues is 208). The week seemed to start a little slow, but then this FReeper got a *huge* wave of help, for which all those involved have my heartfelt thanks. The list has been growing a bit over recent weeks, including a returnee from the recent purge of banned FReepers. I get the eerie feeling that some bans are different than others -- I wonder if there is a read-only status that no one knows about except those who are in it, and they can't communicate it to us, kinda like the couple in "BeetleJuice". Of course, I don't know about you, but Alec Baldwin hasn't communicated much of any worth to anyone in a long time -- not even to his young daughter. Nothing much else to say, other than I need a new, well, you know. I will be changing shifts in the coming week, and am sort of looking forward to that. The night shift is just too many headaches, and my usual coworker has been getting on my nerves lately, probably due to burnout. I'm not unaffected by burnout myself. If Obama wins, I'm sure I'll just go on a multi-state crime spree and die in a horrifying shootout with a SWAT team. Or maybe I'll just get a different job. Six of one... Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #217 Saturday, September 13, 2008
Climate
Huge Ancient Lake Discovered in Russia
	09/10/2008 3:45:49 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 8 replies · 402+ views Live Science | Sep 9, 2008 | Andrea Thompson A huge ancient lake once dammed up by the vast ice sheets of the last Ice Age has been found by geologists in Russia. Large glacial lakes were known to cover parts of Russia and North America during the Ice Age. One of the most well-known is Lake Agassiz, which covered portions of Canada and northern Minnesota more than 10,000 years ago. At the time it was the largest freshwater lake on the planet, with an area larger than all of the present-day Great Lakes combined, larger even than California. Last year, geologists found the remnants of a lake near...
Panspermia
Tracing Our Interstellar Relatives
	09/12/2008 6:29:45 PM PDT · Posted by LibWhacker · 9 replies · 165+ views Centauri Dreams | 9/12/08 The idea that life on Earth might have originated elsewhere, on Mars, for example, has gained currency in recent times as we've learned more about the transfer of materials between planets. Mars cooled before the Earth and may well have become habitable at a time when our planet was not. There seems nothing particularly outrageous in the idea that dormant bacteria inside chunks of the Martian surface, blasted into space by comet or asteroid impacts, might have crossed the interplanetary gulf and given rise to life here. But what of an interstellar origin for life on Earth? The odds on...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
New Work Shows Shawnee Lookout Site to Be Ancient Water Works, Not a Fort (Not full title)
	09/12/2008 10:02:02 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 14 replies · 296+ views University of Cincinnati | Sep 12, 2008 | Carey Hoffman The site known as Miami Fort is no fort at all, and it is also much larger than previously believed -- so large, in fact, that its berms stretch to almost six kilometers in length, making it twice as large as any other Native American earthworks in Ohio, and one of the largest in the nation. Those are discoveries made this summer by members of UC's Ohio Valley Archaeology Field School project, who spent weeks working at the site in Hamilton County's Shawnee Lookout park. What they found actually offers great insight into the cultural priorities of the Shawnee --...
Paleontology
Lucky break allowed dinosaurs to rule Earth: study
	09/11/2008 12:58:08 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 20 replies · 579+ views Reuters | Sep 11, 2008 | Will Dunham Thanks to a big stroke of luck 200 million years ago, dinosaurs beat out a fearsome group of creatures competing for the right to rule the Earth, scientists said on Thursday. Dinosaurs appeared about 230 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, and competed for 30 million years with a group of reptiles called crurotarsans, cousins of today's crocodiles that grew to huge sizes and looked a lot like dinosaurs.
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Nails around Tahluj ancient skeletons puzzle archaeologists [Iran]
	09/09/2008 7:52:01 PM PDT · Posted by BlackVeil · 7 replies · 326+ views Tehran Times | September 10, 2008 | Tehran Times Culture Desk The nails found around ancient skeletons at a newly discovered cemetery of Tahluj have puzzled the team of archaeologists working at the 3000-year-old site. The cemetery dating back early Islamic era was discovered during the rescue excavation, which has begun at the site near the village of Mirar-Kola in northern Iran in late August. The Tahluj site, home to several sites dating back from Iron Age to early Islamic era, will be completely submerged under water and mud when the Alborz Dam becomes operational. Tahluj is located in the Savadkuh region of Mazandaran Province. The team has discovered...
Greece
Persian Wars Battle at Thermopylae - 480 B.C.
	03/12/2007 2:54:43 PM PDT · Posted by freedom44 · 93 replies · 4,467+ views Ancient History | 3/12/07 | Ancient History What Was the Battle at Thermopylae?: Thermopylae was a pass that the Greeks tried unsuccessfully to defend in battle against the Persians led by Xerxes in 480 B.C.Although the Spartans who led the defense were all killed (and may have known in advance that they would be), their courage provided inspiration to the Greeks, many of whom otherwise might have willingly become part of the Persian Empire (the relevant verb is "medize" from the word Mede). The following year the Greeks did win battles agains the Persians. Persians Attack the Greeks at Thermopylae: Xerxes' fleet of Persian ships had sailed...
Does military history hold the key to Western ascendency?
	12/28/2002 7:04:13 PM PST · Posted by chasio649 · 35 replies · 397+ views http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/default.htm | 12/12/02 | Stephen Barton In a recent article in the New York Times, Thomas Friedman wrote that NATO is essentially irrelevant. It had been replaced by what he tongue-in-cheek calls NASTY: Nations Allied to Stop TYrants. NASTY is made up of what he calls three "like-minded English-speaking allies", America, Australia and Britain, with occasional French involvement. He claims "what these four countries have in common is that they are sea powers, with a tradition of fighting abroad, with ability to transport troops around the world and with mobile special forces that have an 'attitude'." All four nations, he notes enjoy playing either rugby or...
Why the West Has Won (and will) Freedom is the Ultimate Weapon
	05/14/2002 6:42:50 AM PDT · Posted by Valin · 16 replies · 183+ views gilder.com | Victor Davis Hanson Even the plight of enterprising killers can tell us something. In the summer of 401 B.C., 10,700 Greek hoplite soldiers-infantrymen, heavily armed with spear, shield and body armor-were hired by Cyrus the Younger to help press his claim to the Persian throne. The recruits were mostly battle-hardened veterans of the 27-year Peloponnesian War, mustered from throughout the Greek-speaking world. Many were murderous renegades and exiles. Both near-adolescents and the still-hale in late middle age enlisted for pay. Large numbers were unemployed and desperate for lucrative work as killers in the exhausted aftermath of the internecine war that had nearly ruined...
Why Western Soldiers Have Always Been Such Fierce Fighters
	12/09/2001 6:31:26 AM PST · Posted by cornelis · 33 replies · 555+ views NYT | December 1, 2001 | Edward Rothstein In 480 B.C., near Salamis off the coast of Greece, an armada of perhaps a thousand Persian ships attacked some 300 Greek vessels. This was, as the military historian and classicist Victor Davis Hanson writes in this provocative book, "one of the most deadly battles in the entire history of naval warfare." Lured by a brilliant Greek strategy through the narrow straits, and rammed by Greek ships, hundreds of Persian vessels were sunk; more than 40,000 Persian soldiers were drowned ...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Olives and People, Past and Present
	09/09/2008 9:40:15 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 19 replies · 244+ views Archaeology | Monday, September 5, 2008 | interview of Anagnostis Agelarakis Hippocrates uses olive oil-based ointments for all kinds of uses and for treating trauma, scratches, wounds, and concussions that are not too deeply penetrating; it was considered to have healing power. In essence, it does because it contains the vital antioxidants scalene, flavonoids, and polyphenols at a minimum. Also, it has Omega components such as Omega 9, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, and traces of Vitamin C. It has Vitamin E, as well, which is in itself an antioxidant, so it has the ability to enhance and repair components of our skin. It is very important for our skin; our skin...
Diet and Cuisine
EU funds study of the origins of milk consumption in Europe
	09/09/2008 1:03:10 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 227+ views Cordis | Monday, September 8, 2008 | University of Uppsala, and Leche An EU-funded project coordinated by Uppsala University in Sweden will study the origins and significance of lactose tolerance in Europe. The project, called LECHE ('Lactase persistence and the early cultural history of Europe'), is a training network with 13 participating universities in Europe... Approximately 85% of adult northern Europeans are able to digest lactose, a sugar found in milk and other dairy products; however, in the rest of the world the ability to digest milk drops off sharply after infancy. In fact, as one moves south from Scandinavia, lactose tolerance in adulthood drops off. The persistence of lactase (the enzyme...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Few Clues About African Ancestry To Be Found In Mitochondrial DNA
	09/09/2008 12:34:57 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 344+ views ScienceDaily | October 14, 2006 | BioMed Central / Reuters Mitochondrial DNA may not hold the key to your origins after all. A study published in the open access journal BMC Biology reveals that fewer than 10% of African American mitochondrial DNA sequences analysed can be matched to mitochondrial DNA from one single African ethnic group. There has been a growing interest in the use of mitochondrial DNA to trace maternal ancestries, and several companies now offer to analyse individuals' mitochondrial DNA sequences to obtain information about their origins. The current study suggests that only one in nine African Americans may be able to find clues about where their ancestors...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Jews and Their DNA
	09/07/2008 9:41:27 AM PDT · Posted by Pharmboy · 26 replies · 692+ views Commentary Magazine | Sept, 2008 | Hillel Halkin Eight years ago, I published an article in these pages called "Wandering Jews -- and Their Genes" (September 2000). At the time I was working on a book about a Tibeto-Burmese ethnic group in the northeast Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur, many of whose members believe that they descend from the biblical tribe of Manasseh, and about a group of Judaizers among them known as the B'nei Menashe, over a thousand of whom live today in Israel as converts to Judaism. This led me to an interest in Jewish historical genetics, then a new discipline. Historical genetics itself was still a...
Khazars
Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital
	09/03/2008 9:26:26 AM PDT · Posted by Alouette · 43 replies · 1,086+ views AFP | Sept. 3, 2008 Russian archaeologists said Wednesday they had found the long-lost capital of the Khazar kingdom in southern Russia, a breakthrough for research on the ancient Jewish state. "This is a hugely important discovery," expedition organiser Dmitry Vasilyev told AFP by telephone from Astrakhan State University after returning from excavations near the village of Samosdelka, just north of the Caspian Sea. "We can now shed light on one of the most intriguing mysteries of that period -- how the Khazars actually lived. We know very little about the Khazars -- about their traditions, their funerary rites, their culture," he...
Asia
After millennia in India, lost tribe returns to Israel
	09/30/2006 2:42:52 PM PDT · Posted by Traianus · 41 replies · 1,638+ views Asia News | 09-30-2006 | Asia News The presumed descendents of the Bnei Menashe, one of the 10 lost biblical tribes mentioned in the Bible, are about to leave India after 2,700 years. They will reside in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Tel Aviv (AsiaNews/Agencies) -- A group of 218 people from a mountainous area of north-eastern India are about to be welcomed in Israel. These are the presumed descendents of the Bnei Menashe tribe, one of the 10 lost biblical tribes lost after the exodus from the Promised Land,...
Pages
Torturing History: Reason reviews Victor Davis Hanson's Carnage & Culture (with Davis's reply)
	07/12/2002 1:03:19 PM PDT · Posted by denydenydeny · 17 replies · 851+ views Reason | April 2002/July 2002 | Chris Bray/Victor Davis Hanson/Chris Bray You're in a crowded room, watching someone rail about some issue of politics or culture. He's loud, sloppy with facts. He's trashing his own position, discrediting the very thing that he believes. Which -- here's the problem -- is pretty much the same thing you happen to believe. He's a wrecking ball on legs, taking out the walls of his own house, and you live there too. So...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
The Carolina bays: Explaining a cosmic mystery, part one of three
	09/07/2008 6:57:55 PM PDT · Posted by baynut · 63 replies · 1,558+ views The Virginian-Pilot | September 7, 2008 | Dianne Tennant The morning began with a brief but vigorous argument - call it a discussion - in the hotel lobby. The breakfast table was loaded with road maps, Google Earth printouts and colorful elevation images intended to help the three researchers locate a curious landscape feature. They were hunting for slight depressions in the earth, dimples almost invisible at ground level but so striking from the air that, for a number of years, they captivated the entire country. Scientists in the mid-1900s devoted careers to their study, debated furiously in print, were celebrated, vilified, laughed at and honored,...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Neanderthal Brains Grew Like Ours
	09/09/2008 8:40:07 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 18 replies · 223+ views Live Science | Sep 8, 2008 | Neanderthal Brains Grew Like Ours Score one more for Neanderthals. A new study has found that Neanderthal brains grew at much the same rate as modern human brains do, knocking down the idea that they grew faster in a style considered more primitive.
Underwater Archaeology
Bronze Age mouse offers clues to royal shipwreck [ Ulu Burun wreck ]
	09/09/2008 12:31:13 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 272+ views New Scientist | Thursday, September 4, 2008 | unattributed Remains of a long dead house mouse have been found in the wreck of a Bronze Age royal ship. That makes it the earliest rodent stowaway ever recorded, and proof of how house mice spread around the world. Archaeologist Thomas Cucchi of the University of Durham, UK, identified a fragment of a mouse jaw in sediment from a ship that sank 3500 years ago off the coast of Turkey. The cargo of ebony, ivory, silver and gold - including a gold scarab with the name of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti - indicates it was a royal vessel. Because the cargo...
Moderate Islam
Afghans unearth 19-metre Buddha statue, relics
	09/08/2008 6:47:47 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 20 replies · 649+ views Reuters | 08 Sep 2008 | Sayed Salahuddin Archaeologists have discovered a 19-metre (62-foot) Buddha statue along with scores of other historical relics in central Afghanistan near the ruins of giant statues destroyed by the Islamist Taliban seven years ago. The team was searching for a giant sleeping Buddha believed to have been seen by a Chinese pilgrim centuries ago when it came upon the relics in the central province of Bamiyan, an official said on Monday. "In total, 89 relics such as coins, ceramics and a 19 meters statue have been unearthed," Mohammad Zia Afshar, adviser in the information and culture ministry, told Reuters. He said the...
Longer Perspectives
Alphamummy - The most controversial women ever
	09/09/2008 12:17:47 AM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 15 replies · 397+ views The Times | 9/9/2008 The 20 most controversial women in history It's disgraceful what passes for controversy these days. From the media storm created last week, you would think Sarah Palin was the first moose-shooting anti-abortionist to ever take the world stage. Come to think of it, she probably is. But to really get tongues wagging back in the day you had to have a reputation for incest, torture, murder and stealing from the destitute. Here, the top women leaders with reputations for raising hackles. 1. Messalina (c17-48) If a man is successfully promiscuous, he's regarded as a bit of a chap. A woman...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Jack the Ripper revealed at last -- by great-grandson of cop who tracked him down
	09/08/2008 7:05:43 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 42 replies · 2,938+ views East London Advertiser | 05 Sep 2008 | Mike Brooks The Jack the Ripper "industry' got a boost on the 120th anniversary of his first acknowledged murder. The great-grandson of the police chief in charge of the 1888 Whitechapel Murders arrived at the Ripper exhibition at the Museum in Docklands in East London -- just before the 120th anniversary of the murder Mary Ann Nichols, a prostitute known as "Polly,' believed by many to be his first victim. He arrived with evidence from his Victorian ancestor revealing the Ripper's true identity. Jack the Ripper was never caught and his identity has remained a mystery for 120 years, feeding a whole "industry' that...
Cold War One
Figure in Rosenberg Case Admits Spying for Soviets
	09/11/2008 3:45:45 PM PDT · Posted by RKV · 94 replies · 1,851+ views New York Times | 11 Sep 2008 | Sam Roberts Ever since he was tried and convicted with Julius and Ethel Rosenberg on espionage charges in 1951, Morton Sobell has maintained his innocence. A U.S. Marshal escorted Morton Sobell, left, to Federal Court in New York in March of 1951. Until now. In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Sobell, who served nearly 19 years in Alcatraz and other federal prisons, admitted for the first time that he had been a Soviet spy. And he implicated his fellow defendant, Julius Rosenberg, in a conspiracy that delivered to the Soviets vital classified military information and what the American government claimed was the...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Encore for a Stradivarius
	09/08/2008 5:17:29 PM PDT · Posted by Diana in Wisconsin · 32 replies · 617+ views JSOnline | September 6, 2008 | Tom Strini (Violinist welcomes loan with strings) The e-mail came to Frank Almond from out of the blue. It said, basically: I have a Stradivarius violin. Want to see it? Almond, concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and a violinist with an international career, knew from long experience that most alleged Strads turn out to be knockoffs. But he had a hunch about this one. He called Stefan Hersh, his Chicago violin dealer and occasional performing colleague, and shared what he'd been told of the instrument. The story sounded plausible to Hersh. In May, Almond and Hersh met the owner in the...
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