[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #218 Saturday, September 20, 2008
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Large Reservoir Of Mitochondrial DNA Mutations Identified In Humans
	09/19/2008 8:21:43 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 1 replies ScienceDaily | August 12, 2008 | adapted from Virginia Tech release Researchers at the University of Newcastle, England, and the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech in the United States have revealed a large reservoir of mitochondrial DNA mutations present in the general population. Clinical analysis of blood samples from almost 3,000 infants born in north Cumbria, England, showed that at least 1 in 200 individuals in the general public harbor mitochondrial DNA mutations that may lead to disease.... Mutations in mitochondrial DNA inherited from the mother may cause mitochondrial diseases that include muscle weakness, diabetes, stroke, heart failure, or epilepsy. In almost all mitochondrial diseases caused by mutant mitochondrial DNA,...
Prehistory and Origins
Malaysian archaeologists find complete Neolithic skeletons: report
	09/19/2008 7:26:18 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies PhysOrg | September 19, 2008 | AFP Archaeologists have found two groups of complete Neolithic human remains in peninsular Malaysia and on Borneo island that may better explain prehistoric human life, reports said Friday... the remains are more than 3,000 years old and were found within two months of each other, in prehistoric burial grounds surrounded by ceremonial beads, pottery, shells and animal bones... The first set of remains found in a mangrove swamp on the island of Pulau Kalumpang off northern Perak state consists of three Mongoloid males aged between 15 and 35 years old... The second set were of seven males and a female found...
Asia
Out of Africa: Scientists find earliest evidence yet of human presence in Northeast Asia [ 2004 ]
	09/19/2008 8:14:53 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 4 replies Eurekalert | September 29, 2004 | Elizabeth Malone Early humans lived in northern China about 1.66 million years ago, according to research reported in the journal Nature this week. The finding suggests humans -- characterized by their making and use of stone tools -- inhabited upper Asia almost 340,000 years before previous estimates placed them there, surviving in a pretty hostile environment. The research team, including Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, reports the results of excavating four layers of sediments at Majuangou in north China. All the layers contained indisputable stone tools apparently made by early humans, known to researchers as "hominins."
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Photo In The News: DNA-Based Neanderthal Face Unveiled
	09/19/2008 7:20:56 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 32 replies National Geographic News | September 17, 2008 | David Braun
Neanderthals Conquered Mammoths, Why Not Us?
	09/18/2008 10:51:17 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies Discovery News | September 9, 2008 | Jennifer Viegas Most notably among the new studies is what researchers say is the first ever direct evidence that a woolly mammoth was brought down by Neanderthal weapons. Margherita Mussi and Paola Villa made the connection after studying a 60,000 to 40,000-year-old mammoth skeleton unearthed near Neanderthal stone tool artifacts at a site called Asolo in northeastern Italy. The discoveries are described in this month's Journal of Archaeological Science. Villa, a curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History, told Discovery News that other evidence suggests Neanderthals hunted the giant mammals, but not as directly. At the English...
British Isles
Discovery of ancient axes delights experts[UK][400K BC]
	09/18/2008 7:30:37 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 16 replies Western Daily Press | 18 Sep 2008 | Western Daily Press They may only look like a couple of sharp rocks, but 400,000 years ago these stones may well have been used as axes to butcher woolly rhinos. Archaeologists were celebrating the find of the two rare huge hand axes found in a gravel pit at a Somerset quarry. Dr Laura Basell, Professor Tony Brown and Dr Phil Toms could not believe their luck when they spotted the pair at Bardon Aggregates' quarry at Chard Junction. And it is thought that the quality of the workmanship indicates it was not our own species wielding the deadly hand axes back in the...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Stone-age pilgrims trekked hundreds of miles to attend feast [ Stonehenge ]
	09/15/2008 9:08:27 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 12 replies · 256+ views Guardian | September 11, 2008 | James Randerson Stone age people drove animals hundreds of miles to a site close to Stonehenge to be slaughtered for ritual feasts, according to scientists who have examined the chemical signatures of animal remains buried there... Durrington Walls is a stone-age village containing the remains of numerous cattle and pigs which are thought to have been buried there after successive ritual feasts. The site is two miles north east of Stonehenge and dates from around 3000 BC, 500 years before the first stones were erected... The evidence points to groups of people driving animals from as far away as Wales for the...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Research pushes back history of crop development 10,000 years
	09/19/2008 7:17:04 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies PhysOrg | September 19, 2008 | University of Warwick Until recently researchers say the story of the origin of agriculture was one of a relatively sudden appearance of plant cultivation in the Near East around 10,000 years ago spreading quickly into Europe and dovetailing conveniently with ideas about how quickly language and population genes spread from the Near East to Europe. Initially, genetics appeared to support this idea but now cracks are beginning to appear in the evidence underpinning that model. Now a team led by Dr Robin Allaby from the University of Warwick have developed a new mathematical model that shows how plant agriculture actually began much earlier...
Diet and Cuisine
Chianti: Secret to Long Life, Says Ancient Recipe
	09/18/2008 11:03:38 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies Discovery News | September 15, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi The elixir of life may be a concoction of honey, cherries and secret herbs infused in a full Chianti wine, according to a centuries-old recipe discovered in one of Italy's oldest pharmacies. The 18th century-old recipe was discovered in an old manuscript found among the shelves of a pharmacy in Asciano near Sienna dating back to 1715. "My ancestors left several manuscripts with formulas for digestive drinks, but this one struck me because of its ingredients. I knew it had strong scientific basis," said pharmacist Giovanni De Munari, who found the old recipe from behind a small shelf in his...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
How Lager Yeasts Came in from the Cold, Twice
	09/18/2008 11:16:22 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies New Scientist | September 10, 2008 | Andy Coghlan Yeast strains used today to brew lager have two genetic ancestors, not one as previously thought. The discovery may explain the origins of the two major categories of lager today, described in the trade as the "Saaz" beers such as Pilsner and Budweiser, and the "Frohberg" beers such as Orangeboom and Heineken. It turns out that both probably owe their origins to laws in 16th-century Bavaria that banned brewing in the summer because scorching heat ruined the ale that was brewed before the emergence of lager. Forced to produce their beer in the winter, brewers accidentally created conditions favouring the...
Anatolia
Defences at Troy reveal larger town [ news finally reaches UK ]
	09/19/2008 7:36:25 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies Times o' London | September 19, 2008 | Normand Hammond Ancient Troy was much bigger than previously thought, and may have housed as many as 10,000 people, new excavations have revealed. The lower town, in which most of the population would have lived, may have been as large as 40 hectares (100 acres), according to Professor Ernst Pernicka... Excavations by the late Manfred Korfmann showed that this Troy was just the citadel and that a much larger lower town lay south of it enclosed by a rock-cut ditch (The Times, February 25, 2002). Professor Pernicka's continuation of Korfmann's work has confirmed the substantial nature of this defensive work, which was...
Greece
First Greek Mummy Once Led Privileged Life
	09/17/2008 10:13:39 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 212+ views Discovery News | August 8, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi Dating to 300 A.D., when the Romans ruled Greece, the partially mummified remains belong to a middle-aged woman. Her Roman-type marble sarcophagus was unearthed in 1962 during archaeological excavations in the eastern cemetery of Thessaloniki, which was used from the Hellenistic to the Byzantine Periods for burials and other rituals. Wrapped in bandages and covered with a gold-embroidered purple silk cloth, the woman lay on a wooden pallet... [from page 2] Although there are no written accounts describing the practice of mummification in ancient Greece, it is known that the Greeks were familiar with the extraction of essential oils and...
Rome and Italy
How the barbarians drove Romans to build Venice
	09/17/2008 10:08:24 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 433+ views The Times | September 17, 2008 | Richard Owen in Rome The hidden ruins of an ancient lagoon city that was the ancestor of Venice have been unearthed by scientists using satellite imaging. The outlines are clearly visible about three feet below the earth in what is now open countryside... Paolo Mozzi, a researcher at the University of Padua geography department, said high-definition satellite photographs had revealed the ruins of an extensive town much closer to present day Venice at Altino -- known in Roman times as Altinum -- a little more than seven miles north of the city, close to Marco Polo airport... The newly identified ruins include streets, palaces,...
Epigraphy and Language
Coin found by Wrexham pensioner is 2,000 years old[UK]
	09/16/2008 6:39:52 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 18 replies · 712+ views Evening Leader | 16 Sep 2008 | Evening Leader A ROMAN coin unearthed by a Wrexham metal detecting enthusiast has been confirmed as one of the oldest ever found in Wales. Retired butcher Roy Page, 69, of Coedpoeth, found the detailed 2,000-year-old coin on a farm near St Asaph when he went on a search there with the Mold-based Historical Search Society earlier this year. Roy gave the tiny silver coin, which depicts two horses being driven by a man on a chariot, to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), who have recently confirmed the specific date that it was made. It is believed to have been brought over some...
India
A Strategic Advance on Europe [ from 2002, chess in 5th century Europe ]
	09/14/2008 9:37:31 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 169+ views Discover Vol. 23 No. 11 | November 2002 | Jocelyn Selim A two-inch-tall ivory chess piece, part of an ancient set, suggests that traders brought the game to Europe at least five centuries earlier than previously thought. Archaeologists led by Richard Hodges of Britain's East Anglia University excavated the game piece (right) from the remains of a fifth-century port city on the Albanian coast. Chess had probably originated as a war-strategy training game in India by the third century A.D., but it took ages to reach Europe, historians traditionally believed. "A number of chess pieces, found from Scotland down to southern Italy, date to around the 12th century, so it...
One Hump or Two?
Million-year-old camel bone unearthed in Syria (unknown tiny species of camel family)
	09/13/2008 1:03:48 PM PDT · Posted by NormsRevenge · 16 replies · 239+ views AP on Yahoo | 9/13/08 | AP DAMASCUS, Syria -- Scientists have unearthed a camel jawbone in the Syrian desert that they think may be a previously unknown tiny species of the animal and say dates back a million years.
Let's Have Jerusalem
Galilee Drought Uncovers Oldest Village In The World
	09/24/2001 1:40:07 PM PDT · Posted by blam · 96 replies · 998+ views Sunday Times (UK) | 9-23-2001 | Dina Shiloh Israeli archeologists have found what could be the world's oldest village on the dried-out bed of the Sea of Galilee. The settlement, dating back 20,000 years, came to light in one of the worst droughts in recent years. Thousands of items including huts, tools and fireplaces found at Ohalo, on the southwestern shore, give a unique insight into the semi-nomadic people who lived there towards the end of the early Stone Age. "We found what every researcher dreams of finding," said Dani Nadel, ...
Climate
Sahara dried out slowly, not abruptly: study
	05/08/2008 2:12:41 PM PDT · Posted by suthener · 20 replies · 603+ views Reuters | Thu May 8, 2008 2:10pm EDT | Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent OSLO (Reuters) - The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes. And there are now signs of a tiny shift back towards greener conditions in parts of the Sahara, apparently because of OSLO (Reuters) - The once-green Sahara turned to desert over thousands of years rather than in an abrupt shift as previously believed, according to a study on Thursday that may help understanding of future climate changes. And there are now signs of a...
Graves Found From Sahara's Green Period
	09/15/2008 4:21:39 PM PDT · Posted by Fred Nerks · 51 replies · 733+ views New York Times Science | August 15, 2008 | By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD When Paul C. Sereno went hunting for dinosaur bones in the Sahara, his career took a sharp turn from paleontology to archaeology. The expedition found what has proved to be the largest known graveyard of Stone Age people who lived there when the desert was green. The first traces of pottery, stone tools and human skeletons were discovered eight years ago at a site in the southern Sahara, in Niger. After preliminary research, Dr. Sereno, a University of Chicago scientist who had previously uncovered remains of the dinosaur Nigersaurus there, organized an international team of archaeologists to investigate what had...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Solving a 10,000-year-old mystery
	09/17/2008 10:33:47 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies Columbus Dispatch | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 | Kevin Mayhood Among the stag moose remains Bob Glotzhober is studying is this fossilized jaw bone. The teeth indicate that the animal was probably 4 or 5 years old... In August, Tyler Underwood was digging clay in Medina County when he unearthed remains of a stag moose, a mammal that became extinct 10,000 years ago. In all, 34 pieces were recovered. Most of the other stag-moose remains found in Ohio consist of one or two bones... a humerus, a long forelimb bone... [has] a hole on one side and grooves on the other... "If we can show the marks on this bone...
Paleontology
Pigs ruled the world 260 million years ago: Study
	09/17/2008 1:54:57 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 70 replies · 518+ views Newspost Online | Sep 17, 2008 | Unknown Scientists from Leeds University have discovered that the world was ruled by pig-like creatures for a million years. The "Age of the Porcine" occurred around 260 million years ago - when the creatures called lystrosaurs were the few survivors of a mass extinction. Nearly 95 pct of the living species were destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions leaving behind pigs in a "golden age" of no predators. They had Earth's abundant plant-life all to themselves. "We can only speculate on how lystrosaurs survived while the rest died. Perhaps its ability to burrow and hibernate protected it from the worst...
High Hopes
Scientists discover 120 million year-old ant
	09/16/2008 10:05:02 AM PDT · Posted by null and void · 36 replies · 867+ views Reuters | Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:48am EDT | Reporting by Josie Cox, Editing by Mark Trevelyan BERLIN (Reuters) - German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years. Researchers from Karlsruhe's Natural History Museum found the 3-millimeter-long (0.118 inch) insect in the Amazon rainforest in 2007, and hope it will shed light on the early evolution of ants. "It's by far the most spectacular find of my 26-year career," said museum biologist Manfred Verhaagh on Tuesday. A new species of Martialis heureka, a blind, subterranean, predatory ant, in an undated photo. German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe...
Strange 'Ant From Mars' Discovered in Amazon Rainforest
	09/16/2008 9:12:42 PM PDT · Posted by Justice Department · 25 replies · 709+ views foxnews | September 16, 2008 A newly discovered species of a blind, subterranean predator -- dubbed the "Ant from Mars" -- is likely a descendant of one of the very first ants to evolve on Earth, a new study finds.
The Vikings
Kimmirut site suggests early European contact [ Vikings ]
	09/15/2008 8:58:05 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 211+ views Nunatsiaq News | September 12, 2008 | Jane George Vikings - or perhaps other Europeans - may have set up housekeeping and traded with Inuit 1,000 years ago near today's community of Kimmirut. That's the picture of the past emerging from ancient artifacts found near Kimmirut, where someone collected Arctic hare fur and spun the fur into yarn and someone else carved notches into a wooden stick to record trading transactions. Dorset Inuit probably didn't make the yarn and tally sticks because yarn and wood weren't part of Inuit culture at that time, said Patricia Sutherland, an archeologist with the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Other artifacts from the area,...
Clovis Superhunters
'Macho' ancient hunters may have relied on rabbits [ Clovis ]
	09/17/2008 10:04:45 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 355+ views Columbus Dispatch | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 | Bradley T. Lepper Clovis points are the hallmark of one of America's earliest cultures: the Paleoindians. Since archaeologists found Clovis points lodged in the skeleton of a mammoth, they have viewed Paleoindians as big-game hunters par excellence... This macho view of Paleoindian prehistory has prevailed even though surprisingly little evidence exists to support it. In a study published in the October issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, Kent State University archaeologist Mark Seeman and several co-researchers wrote of Paleoindian stone tools from the Nobles Pond site in Stark County. They reported the discovery of blood residue on eight Clovis points. Four were...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
'Lost towns' discovered in Amazon
	09/19/2008 4:43:17 AM PDT · Posted by Renfield · 12 replies BBC News | 8-28-08 A remote area of the Amazon river basin was once home to densely populated towns, Science journal reports. The Upper Xingu, in west Brazil, was once thought to be virgin forest, but in fact shows traces of extensive human activity. Researchers found evidence of a grid-like pattern of settlements connected by road networks and arranged around large central plazas....
Early America
How in the world did coin land in Latham?[NY]
	09/17/2008 8:50:58 PM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 21 replies Times Union | 16 Sep 2008 | JORDAN CARLEO-EVANGELIST Dig at 19th-century tavern site reveals possible link to China -- Digging through 200-year-old trash heaps isn't always glamorous. But a small Asian coin uncovered behind a 19th-century Latham tavern turned a routine archaeological survey into an international puzzle. The copper alloy coin was unearthed as archaeologists combed through the soil behind the old Ebenezer Hills Jr. house. The one-time way station on a busy turnpike between Albany and Schenectady (now Route 7) was the equivalent of a Thruway rest stop when the trip between the two cities could take a day. Last month, the Albany County Airport Authority...
Early America
Ike Uncovers Mystery Civil War-Era Shipwreck
	09/19/2008 4:23:26 PM PDT · Posted by metmom · 15 replies FOXNews.com | Friday, September 19, 2008 | Associated Press FORT MORGAN, Ala. , Texas -- When the waves from Hurricane Ike receded, they left behind a mystery -- a ragged shipwreck that archeologists say could be a two-masted Civil War schooner that ran aground in 1862 or another ship from some 70 years later. The wreck, about six miles from Fort Morgan, had already been partially uncovered when Hurricane Camille cleared away sand in 1969. Researchers at the time identified it as the Monticello, a battleship that partially burned when it crashed trying to get past the U.S. Navy and into Mobile Bay during the Civil War.
World War Eleven
A Chat w/WW II Vet
	09/15/2008 6:13:36 AM PDT · Posted by 7thson · 34 replies · 411+ views My wife and I went to a Republican fund-raiser this weekend - a wine-tasting party. At our table an eldery couple sat down - both in their late 80's. The man was a WW II vet. Joked that he joined the army in 1940 only for one year and ended up getting out in 1946. Was in the Normandy invasion all the way to Germany. Was part of the group that liberated Dachau. Swore up and down that Patton was the greatest general ever. Had some good conversation with both he and his wife.
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Check out this amazing ad!!! 12 Decades of English History in 2 minutes.
	09/15/2008 11:25:40 AM PDT · Posted by C19fan · 24 replies · 867+ views http://www.hovisbakery.co.uk/our-ads/ | 9/15/08 | Me What an amazing ad from UK bakery Hovis. A little boy taking a loaf home goes through 120 years of British history, the bakery is celebrating its 120 anniversary. What a great scene of the Tommies marching off to Flanders and a Spitfire.
Longer Perspectives
I, Obama
	09/12/2008 2:10:24 PM PDT · Posted by Congressman Billybob · 50 replies · 1,343+ views Special to FreeRepublic | 12 Sept 2008 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob) Remember the PBS series special on the Roman Emperor, Claudius? The title, which captured the style of his governance, "I, Claudius." It was a 13-part series on Masterpiece Theater. How many of you saw it? Let's not always see the same hands. Well, almost all of you remember some of the history of the Roman Emperors. They ranged from mad and murderous, like Nero, to rational and effective, like Augustine. Hold that thought, and we'll get to today's subject. A good friend, Duncan Parham, is a man of eclectic interests. One of those is rare coins. Last weekend he showed...
Moderate Islam
Did Muhammad Ever Really Live?
	09/19/2008 5:25:25 AM PDT · Posted by Perdogg · 29 replies Spiegel (Germany) | 9/18/2008 A number of Islamic associations have put a quick end to their collaboration with a professor -- and trainer of people who are supposed to teach Islam in German high schools -- who has expressed his doubt that Muhammad ever lived. Islam scholar Michael Marx spoke with SPIEGEL ONLINE about what lies behind the debate and the historical person of the Prophet.
end of digest #218 20080920

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #218 20080920 · Saturday, September 20, 2008 · 32 topics · 2086337 to 2081746 · 686 members ·
	Saturday Sep 20 2008 v 5 n 9 view this issue	Welcome to the 218th issue. 32 topics! New members! I'm on a roll! I've got this issue done, it's only about 10 after, and I'm going to call it a week. :') Of course, I have to work all weekend... On Tuesday -- I believe -- I'll be starting the new shift. I guess we'll all find out soon. Yes, I do need a new job. Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #219 Saturday, September 27, 2008
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Neanderthals Ate Seals and Dolphins
	09/22/2008 4:47:55 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 27 replies · 2+ views Live Science | Sep 22, 2008 | Clara Moskowitz The diet of prehistoric Neanderthals living in caves on the Rock of Gibraltar included seals and dolphins, showing once again that the hominids had skills rivaling those modern humans living then, according to a new study. The discovery of seal, dolphin and fish remains in the caves dating from 60,000 to 30,000 years ago provides the first evidence that Neanderthals ate sea mammals as well as land grub.
Let's Have Jerusalem
Biblical archaeology focus of lecture and exhibit [ Sennacherib, Tell Halif ]
	09/26/2008 4:39:57 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 89+ views Webster Progress Times | September 17, 2008 | from Press Reports Dr. James W. Hardin and Dylan Karges of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University will present an upcoming lecture and host a reception for an exhibit of finds from excavations in southern Israel... [Hardin's] current research has focused mostly on materials from excavations at Tell Halif, a small, fortified village in the border country with Phillistia and on the northern fringe of the Negev Desert. This area was the buffer zone between the Coastal Plain and the Hill Country, which guarded the routes to Jerusalem. Excavations at Tell Halif have uncovered evidence of a major destruction that...
Khazars / Lost Tribes
Scholar claims to find medieval Jewish capital
	09/20/2008 3:31:37 PM PDT · Posted by kronos77 · 13 replies · 2+ views http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jCPEFby_6F0YUp2G94NhXNwtf4iwD93AJSA80 ^ A Russian archaeologist says he has found the lost capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear leaving little trace of its culture. Dmitry Vasilyev, a professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital. By law Khazars could use flamed bricks only in the capital, Vasilyev said....
Scholar Claims to Find 1,000-Year-Old Jewish Capital
	09/20/2008 9:14:49 PM PDT · Posted by Cinnamon Girl · 23 replies · 4+ views fox news | Saturday, September 20, 2008 MOSCOW -- A Russian archaeologist says he has found the lost capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear leaving little trace of its culture. Dmitry Vasilyev, a professor at Astrakhan State University, said his nine-year excavation near the Caspian Sea has finally unearthed the foundations of a triangular fortress of flamed brick, along with modest yurt-shaped dwellings, and he believes these are part of what was once Itil, the Khazar capital. (edit) The Khazars were a Turkic tribe that roamed the steppes from Northern China...
Jewish city feared by Stalin is rediscovered
	09/24/2008 6:02:50 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 10 replies · 517+ views The Telegraph | 9/24/2008 | Ben Leach The ruins of a lost Jewish city that vanished 700 years ago have been found, it has been claimed. The city, Itil, was the capital of the Khazars, a powerful nation that adopted Judaism as its official religion more than 1,000 years ago, only to disappear, leaving little trace of its culture. Archeologists hope the discovery of Itil will reveal how the Khazars actually lived It was mentioned in medieval travellers' accounts but Soviet dictator Josef Stalin banned any research into the city and the Khazars, fearing it would prove Russia was descended from a Jewish state. The city made...
Rome and Italy
Roman skeleton may give TB clues
	09/21/2008 8:02:35 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 4+ views BBC | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 | unattributed A newly-discovered Roman skeleton could be one of the earliest British victims of tuberculosis, experts believe... The man's remains - which date from the fourth century AD - were found on a construction site at York University. The first known case of TB in Britain is from the Iron Age - but finding cases from Roman times is still rare, especially in the north. Most finds have been confined to the southern half of England. If the new case is confirmed as TB it could provide scientists with a valuable tool to trace the movement of the disease as it...
Greece
Greek dig unearths secrets of Alexander the Great's golden era
	09/21/2008 7:56:59 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 3+ views Daily Mail | September 11, 2008 | Ryan Kisiel It would be more than 100 years at least until Alexander the Great led the forces of Macedonia to conquer the Hellenistic world... A dig in an ancient burial ground in Alexander's birthplace of Pella, northern Greece, has unearthed the graves of 20 warriors in battle dress, a find which archaeologists say sheds fresh light on the development of Macedonian culture... The warriors, whose remains have been dated to the late Archaic period, between 580BC and 460BC, were among 43 graves excavated in the latest dig, with the other bodies ranging from 650BC to 279BC... Among the excavated graves, the...
Thrace
Georgi Kitov [obit, Bulgarian archaeologist, excavator of Thracian tombs]
	09/22/2008 4:01:10 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 6+ views Telegraph | Monday, September 22, 2008 | Obituaries Georgi Kitov, who died on September 14 aged 65, led a Bulgarian archaeological team which unearthed a hoard of treasures from ancient Thrace, said to be as important as those of Agamemnon or Tutankhamun. The Thracians were Indo-European tribes which settled the Balkans in the third millennium BC and built a civilisation that, at its height 2,400 years ago, controlled what is now Bulgaria as well as parts of Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Greece before finally being incorporated into the Roman Empire. Little is known of their culture because they had no written language. Greek and Roman writers tended to...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Ancient genetic imprint unites the tribes of India
	09/21/2008 8:11:19 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 25 replies · 6+ views New Scientist | September 11, 2008 | Anil Ananthaswamy The first humans to arrive on the Indian subcontinent from Africa about 65,000 years ago left a genetic imprint that can still be found in the tribes of India... "Whether the original inhabitants of India were replaced by more modern immigrants or contributed to the contemporary gene pool has been debated," says Michael Bamshad of the University of Washington in Seattle, who has studied the genetic diversity of India. One way researchers have used to figure this out is to use linguistic groups. The tribes speaking Indo-European languages, for instance, are known to be descendants of the people who migrated...
Prehistory and Origins
Tribal war drove human evolution of aggression
	09/21/2008 7:47:24 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 21 replies · 1+ views PhysOrg | September 9, 2008 | Lisa Zyga However, as you might expect, there is a downside to belligerence and bravery. While both these traits offer advantages during war for a tribe, both traits are also considered high-risk social behaviors. An individual possessing the traits has a greater chance of dying, which means the tribe not only loses a warrior, but the death also opens a spot for another male to appropriate the first male's reproduction-enhancing resources. This trade-off leads to another question: if an individual himself does not benefit from belligerence and bravery, but only his tribe, why would humans evolve this altruistic trait? The scientists explain...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Wolves make dog's dinner out of domestication theory
	09/26/2008 5:15:44 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 226+ views New Scientist | September 24, 2008 | Ewen Callaway Dogs are no better than wolves at picking up on human cues... When tasked with choosing between two paint cans based on a trainer's hand signal, tamed wolves actually proved more adept at picking the right can. This casts doubt on the idea that domestication some 15,000 years ago imbued dogs with a window into the human mind, says Clive Wynne, an animal psychologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Rather, dogs -- and tamed wolves -- probably learn to associate human arm movements with treats, play and affection. Researchers who argue for a dog "theory of mind" are...
Ancient Europe
Mysterious Neolithic People Made Optical Art
	09/25/2008 5:39:23 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 31 replies · 466+ views Discovery News | September 22, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi Running until the end of October at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in the Vatican, the exhibition, "Cucuteni-Trypillia: A Great Civilization of Old Europe," introduces a mysterious Neolithic people who are now believed to have forged Europe's first civilization... Archaeologists have named them "Cucuteni-Trypillians" after the villages of Cucuteni, near Lasi, Romania and Trypillia, near Kiev, Ukraine, where the first discoveries of this ancient civilization were made more than 100 years ago. The excavated treasures -- fired clay statuettes and op art-like pottery dating from 5000 to 3000 B.C. -- immediately posed a riddle to archaeologists... "Despite recent extensive excavations, no...
The Vikings
Rare Viking-era shield found in Denmark
	09/21/2008 7:50:28 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 2+ views Yahoo! | Thursday, September 18, 2008 | AP? Danish archaeologists say they have found a well-preserved Viking shield that is more than 1,000 years old.
British Isles
Rare Viking ingot found[UK]
	09/25/2008 7:42:12 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 16 replies · 523+ views Luton Today | 23 Sep 2008 | Paul Fisher An ancient solid silver ingot found in Stagsden is stealing the limelight at Bedford Museum. The Viking coin is the first of its kind discovered in the county and dates from AD 850-1000. It was found by treasure hunters in the north Bedfordshire village last year, but has only just been bought by the museum following lengthy examination and valuation at the British Museum in London. Jim Inglis, keeper of archaeology at Bedford Museum, said: "This is the only one to be found in Bedfordshire, and in terms of looking for Viking material in Bedford, which used to be a...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
UK experts say Stonehenge was place of healing
	09/22/2008 12:33:00 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 25 replies · 3+ views Associated Press | Sep 22, 2008 | Raphael G. Satter The first excavation of Stonehenge in more than 40 years has uncovered evidence that the stone circle drew ailing pilgrims from around Europe for what they believed to be its healing properties, archaeologists said Monday.
Oh So Mysteriouso
Smithsonian Puts Mysterious Crystal Skull on Display
	09/23/2008 4:04:46 PM PDT · Posted by Justice Department · 27 replies · 4+ views foxnews | Wednesday, July 09, 2008 Some mysteries are such fun you almost don't want to know the truth. That may help explain why people are fascinated with crystal skulls. "People like to believe in something greater than themselves," Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh said, and crystal skulls are mysterious and beautiful.
Diet and Cuisine
Prehistoric Oregon latrine trove of fossil DNA
	09/22/2008 2:06:38 PM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 30 replies · 5+ views AP | 21 Sep 2008 | Jeff Barnard For some 85 years, homesteaders, pot hunters and archaeologists have been digging at Paisley Caves, a string of shallow depressions washed out of an ancient lava flow by the waves of a lake that comes and goes with the changing climate. Until now, they have found nothing conclusive-arrowheads, baskets, animal bones and sandals made by people who lived thousands of years ago on the shores of what was then a 40-mile-long lake, but is now a sagebrush desert on the northern edge of the Great Basin. But a few years ago, University of Oregon archaeologist Dennis Jenkins and his students...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Updated Three-Stage Model for the Peopling of the Americas
	09/21/2008 8:18:03 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 14 replies · 3+ views Plosone.org | September 17, 2008 | CJ Mulligan, A Kitchen, MM Miyamoto We recently published a three stage model for the peopling of the Americas [1]. Specifically, we proposed that a recent, rapid expansion into the Americas was preceded by a long period of population stability in greater Beringia by the proto-Amerind population after divergence from their ancestral Asian population... Fagundes et al. have published a re-analysis of the data we used in developing our three stage model for the peopling of the Americas [1]. Specifically, they identified nine mitochondrial coding region sequences that we assumed were Native American sequences, but instead are likely to derive from Asian or European individuals. Fagundes...
Humans Inhabited New World's Doorstep For 20,000 Years
	02/14/2008 2:40:28 PM PST · Posted by tricky_k_1972 · 17 replies · 24+ views www.terradaily.com, Gainesville FL (SPX) | Feb 14, 2008 | Staff Writers Humans Inhabited New World's Doorstep For 20,000 Years "The idea that people were stuck in Beringia for a long time is obvious in retrospect, but it has never been promulgated. But people were in that neighborhood before the last glacial maximum and didn't get into North America until after it. It's very plausible that a bunch of them were stuck there for thousands of years." by Staff Writers...
Peru, the Andes
Rare Mass Tombs Discovered Near Machu Picchu
	09/21/2008 8:06:27 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 3+ views National Geographic News | September 15, 2008 | Jose Orozco Eighty skeletons and stockpiles of textiles found in caves near the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu may shed light on the role that the so-called lost city of the Inca played as a regional center of trade and power, scientists say. Researchers found the artifacts and remains at two sites within the Machu Picchu Archaeological Park in southeastern Peru, said Fernando Astete, head of the park (see map of Peru).
Climate
Ice Age Features Found at World Trade Center Site
	09/24/2008 9:06:47 AM PDT · Posted by Justice Department · 41 replies · 680+ views foxnews ^ Construction workers digging at ground zero have uncovered a 40-foot pothole and other features carved by glaciers about 20,000 years ago. Unearthing these glacial features has been critical in preparing the foundation for Tower 4 of the new World Trade Center, being built by Silverstein Properties at the southeast corner of the site. Engineers need a clear understanding of the contours of the rock....... "It's nice to look at," said Robert B. Reina, a supervising structural engineer at Mueser Rutledge, "but it's all got to go."
Paleontology
Smallest Dinosaur in North America Discovered
	09/26/2008 6:48:57 AM PDT · Posted by Renfield · 10 replies · 211+ views National Geographic News | 9-25-08 | Ker Than A chicken-size dinosaur with a taste for termites was the "anteater" of its day and may be one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered in North America, scientists say. The new species, dubbed Albertonykus borealis, is a member of an unusual-looking dinosaur group known as the Alvarezsaurs, which have also been found in Asia and South America. About a dozen arm and leg bones dated at 70 million years old were found in Alberta, Canada, in 2002 but have only recently been analyzed. Bizarre Creatures "They're really freakish animals," study co-author Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
St. Peter's in St. Paul ('Vatican Splendors' tour comes to Minnesota)
	09/25/2008 10:04:08 PM PDT · Posted by MplsSteve · 4 replies · 106+ views Minneapolis StarTribune (aka The Red Star) | 9/26/08 | Mary Abbe - Staff Reporter Mannequins sport the plumed helmets and gaily striped uniforms of the Vatican's Swiss Guard. There's a walk-through recreation of the scaffolding from which Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling. But beyond all the gold embroidery and bejeweled chalices, the "Vatican Splendors" show opening Saturday at the Minnesota History Center presents a sweeping 2,000-year survey of Roman Catholic Church history and ceremony, art and architecture, outreach and faith. With more than 200 objects -- from ancient relics to a modern smoke cartridge --"Vatican" tries to offer something for all of the 150,000 expected visitors. More than 20,000 have already bought tickets...
Early America
Archaeologists hold out hope of finding lost French fleet [ Jean Ribault's, 1565, Florida]
	09/26/2008 4:25:26 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 157+ views Daytona Beach News-Journal Online | September 20, 2008 | Ronald Williamson It's an old story of a terrible storm that some believed was the hand of God. It scattered and sank a French fleet led by Jean Ribault as it bore down on a handful of Spanish ships sheltering with Pedro Menendez in a harbor at today's St. Augustine. Hundreds of Frenchmen, mostly Protestants, died either in the tempest, or of starvation and exposure, or at the hands of Catholic Spaniards who hunted down survivors in a bloody autumn genocide. Despite the passing of 443 years, archaeologists say the remains of those galleons still lie beneath the sand and water, a...
Civil War
The Washington Post Slams Civil War History
	09/22/2008 5:45:30 AM PDT · Posted by Mobile Vulgus · 32 replies · 3+ views publiusforum.com | 09/22/08 | Warner Todd Huston Washington Post Writer Philip Kennicott sees all the worst in America at the reopening of the famous Gettysburg Cyclorama. Talk about a skewed look at history. On September 20, the Washington Post's Philip Kennicott unleashed a tirade against everything Civil War in a story that was supposed to be about the re-opening of the revamped Cyclorama painting in the America's quintessential Civil War town, Gettysburg, PA. Not only did Kennicott denigrate in every way possible the over 100-year-old painting in the round of the battle of Gettysburg -- it's a mere "relic" that doesn't live up to its hype he...
A Candid Topic
Photography and archaeology: Going back in time
	09/24/2008 8:25:21 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 9 replies · 82+ views Sunday Times, Sri Lanka | Sunday, September 21, 2008 | unattributed Most historians consider 1839 as the year of the birth of photography. Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre's innovative method of image-making was placed before the French Academy of Sciences in the same year. The words ethnography and anthropology were also coined around the same time. It also signalled the beginnings of archaeology in a professional sense. The potential of using photography as a recording tool in the service of archaeology, engineering, medicine, science and technology was quickly appreciated. As early as 1840, Alexander Gordon lectured to the Institute of Civil Engineers on the advantages to the profession resulting from the discovery...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Gem stone discovered could be world's largest diamond
	09/22/2008 8:43:36 AM PDT · Posted by Red Badger · 24 replies · 1+ views www.telegraph.co.uk | 09/22/2008 | Staff A huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history has been discovered. Miners in Lesotho have discovered a huge gem stone which could become the largest polished round diamond in history Photo: PA The massive stone is the 20th largest rough diamond ever found, weighs 478 carats and is of outstanding clarity, said Gem Diamonds. It was recovered at the Letseng Mine, owned by the company, in Lesotho earlier this week. Another similar sized rough stone from the same mine was recently valued at 12 million US dollars. But the clarity and round shape of...
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