[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #231 Saturday, December 20, 2008
Ice Age
Danish Arctic research dates Ice Age[Ended precisely 11,711 years ago]
	12/18/2008 11:35:27 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 25 replies · 468+ views Politiken | 11 Dec 2008 | Julian Isherwood The result of a Danish ice drilling project has become the international standard for the termination of the last glacial period. It ended precisely 11,711 years ago. A Danish ice drilling project has conclusively ended the discussion on the exact date of the end of the last ice age. The extensive scientific study shows that it was precisely 11,711 years ago -- and not the indeterminate figure of "some' 11,000 years ago -- that the ice withdrew, allowing humans and animals free reign. According to the Niels Bohr Institute (NBI) in Copenhagen, the very precise dating of the end of...
Australia and the Pacific
World's oldest portrait in peril [Australia]
	12/17/2008 7:31:37 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 17 replies · 457+ views Sunday Times | December 14, 2008 | Paul Ham, Sydney The world's oldest depiction of a human face could be threatened if Australian mining companies are permitted to build an explosives factory on the remote Burrup peninsula in the northwest of the country. A bulbous image of indiscernible sex, with huge eyes and sunken cheeks, the 10,000 year-old carving is chipped out of hard rock. Thousands of other carvings, mostly of plants and animals, which date back to beyond the last Ice Age, are scattered about the peninsula. Archeologists believe that aboriginal tribes made the distinctive carvings up to 30,000 years ago. They could be nearly twice as old as...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Tools with handles even more ancient
	12/15/2008 7:43:39 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 19 replies · 353+ views Science News | Friday, December 12th, 2008 | Bruce Bower In a gripping instance of Stone Age survival, Neandertals used a tarlike substance to fasten sharpened stones to handles as early as 70,000 years ago, a new study suggests. Stone points and sharpened flakes unearthed in Syria since 2000 contain the residue of bitumen -- a natural, adhesive substance -- on spots where the implements would have been secured to handles of some type, according to a team led by archaeologist Eric Boîda of University of Paris X, Nanterre. The process of attaching a tool to a handle is known as hafting. The Neandertals likely found the bitumen in nearby...
Diet and Cuisine
Of Neanderthals and dairy farmers
	12/15/2008 7:48:15 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 34 replies · 405+ views Harvard News Office | December 11, 2008 | Alvin Powell Harvard Archaeology Professor Noreen Tuross sought to rehabilitate the image of Neanderthals as meat-eating brutes last week, presenting evidence that, though they almost certainly ate red meat, Neanderthal diets also consisted of other foods -- like escargot. Evidence from Neanderthal bones collected from the Shanidar cave in Northern Iraq decades ago and analyzed recently by Tuross indicate that at least that particular Neanderthal was not a heavy carnivore. Neanderthals, she suggested, had a varied diet that included meat, but that was not solely or even largely made up of it. One possible alternative food was found in abundance in the...
Near East
Ancient necropolis found (Syria - found also, Roman ruins)
	12/20/2008 2:32:23 PM PST · Posted by decimon · 10 replies · 305+ views Zee News | Dec. 19, 2008 | Unknown Damascus, Dec 19: A research team from Udine University in Italy has uncovered a vast, ancient necropolis near the Syrian oasis of Palmyra. The team, headed by Daniele Morandi Bonacossi of Udine University, believes the burial site dates from the second half of the third millennium BC. The necropolis comprises around least 30 large burial mounds near Palmyra, some 200km northeast of Damascus in Syria. "This is the first evidence that an area of semi-desert outside the oasis was occupied during the early Bronze Age," said Morandi Bonacossi. "Future excavations of the burial mounds will undoubtedly reveal information of crucial...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Genetic research can open book on Jewish identity -- for good and bad
	12/15/2008 7:09:16 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 34 replies · 466+ views Jewish Journal | December 10, 2008 | Adam Wills Father William Sanchez wears a Star of David pendant on the same chain as his crucifix, and he keeps a menorah in his parish office. After a DNA test confirmed his Sephardic roots, the Albuquerque priest has been actively reconciling this discovery with his Catholic beliefs... Looking back over his childhood in New Mexico, Sanchez now recognizes the Jewish signs: his parents shunning pork, spinning tops during Christmas and covering the mirrors at home if someone in the family died... For small populations in Africa and Asia, genetic research has shed light on claims of Jewish ancestry and provided a...
Kohanim, Tribe of Levi to have 'family reunion'
	07/24/2006 1:49:47 PM PDT · Posted by Blogger · 66 replies · 1,369+ views http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3280527,00.html | 7/24/06 | Ynet News Kohanim, Tribe of Levi to have 'family reunion' Groundbreaking 'Gathering of the Tribe' will include leading researchers and rabbis. Conference is set to take place in Jerusalem in summer 2007 Ynetnews Recent scientific research and DNA testing has shown that today's descendents of the biblical priesthood known as Kohanim are genetically related. Although the descendents of Aharon, the brother of Moses, have spread throughout the world over the past 3,300 years, the members of this extended family are being invited to participate in the first "family reunion' held since the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. Participants...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Ancient Jewish Shrine is Registered on Iran's National Works List [Esther and Mordecai tomb]
	12/15/2008 7:17:36 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 210+ views Biblical Archaeology Review | December 11, 2008 | editors The head of the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Office has announced that the tomb of Esther and Mordecai has been added to the country's list of national monuments. Asadollah Bayat told the Iranian news service that the ancient tomb is an important Jewish shrine and one of the most historically important buildings in the Hamedan province of Iran. The monument bears Hebrew inscriptions, both on the plaster wall of the main hall as well as on the finely worked wooden tomb boxes. Bayat stressed the monument's importance to the Jewish community, adding that "Jews gather here in the...
Faith and Philosophy
The Last of the Zoroastrians
	12/15/2008 10:15:56 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 23 replies · 756+ views Time | 09 Dec 2008 | Deena Guzder Far removed from Tehran's bustling tin-roofed teashops and Isfahan's verdant pomegranate gardens, the deserts known as Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut meet at the city of Yazd,once the heart of the Persian Empire. Walking across the wind-whipped plains of the forgotten city, a young Iranian woman dressed in colorful floral garbs points out a sand-dusted tower hovering in the distance like a dormant volcano under a relentless sun. "This is where we put tens of thousands of corpses over the years," she explains with a congenial smile. The funerary tower is part of the ancient burial practice of Zoroastrianism, the...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Rubble yields silver Temple 'tax' half-shekel
	12/18/2008 3:38:09 PM PST · Posted by BGHater · 13 replies · 258+ views The Jerusalem Post | 18 Dec 2008 | ETGAR LEFKOVITS Two ancient coins, one used to pay the Temple tax and another minted by the Greek leader the Jews fought in the story of Hanukka, have been uncovered amid debris from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, an Israeli archeologist said Thursday. The two coins were recently found in rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount. It is carefully being sifted by two archeologists and a team of volunteers at a Jerusalem national park. The first coin, a silver half-shekel, was apparently minted on the Temple Mount itself by Temple authorities in the first year of the Great Revolt against the...
X'ed the Exodus, but...
Group of Egyptians to Sue 'All Worldwide Jews' Over "Theft of Pharoah's Gold" (No Joke)
	08/22/2003 6:13:30 AM PDT · Posted by AmericanInTokyo · 60 replies · 2,394+ views MEMRI (Middle East News Monitor/Translation) | 9 August 2003 (in Arabic) | MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) Special Dispatch - Egypt August 22, 2003 No. 556 (Translated from Arabic Language Sources) Egyptian Jurists to Sue 'The Jews' for Compensation for 'Trillions' of Tons of Gold Allegedly Stolen During Exodus from Egypt The August 9, 2003 edition of the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi featured an interview with Dr. Nabil Hilmi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Al-Zaqaziq who, together with a group of Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland, is preparing an enormous lawsuit against "all the Jews of the world." The following are excerpts from the interview: (1) Dr. Hilmi: "... Since the Jews...
Egypt
Egyptian Team Works to Uncover Statue of Pharaoh
	12/15/2008 3:34:45 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 309+ views Voice of America | December 13, 2008 | Edward Yeranian An archeological team, under the direction of Egypt's well-known Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, has begun uncovering rubble under which the largest known statue of Pharaoh Ramses II is buried in the southern Egyptian town of Sohag. The statue, which workers discovered more than 15 years ago, 476 kilometers miles south of Cairo, is finally being uncovered, according to Antiquities Chief Zahi Hawass. The Egyptian team had been hampered in its excavation work, until now, by the presence of a Muslim cemetery in the region of Akhmim across the Nile River from Sohag. Archeologists were finally able to begin their work...
Longer Perspectives
The Saint Louis Art Museum Ka-Nefer-Nefer Egyptian Mask Saga Continues
	12/14/2008 3:41:58 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 229+ views Riverfront Times Blog | Wednesday, November 26, 2008 | Tom Finkel A recent Associated Press article reports that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is now looking into the provenance of the Ka-Nefer-Nefer mask, a 3,000-year-old Egyptian relic acquired in the late 1990s by the Saint Louis Art Museum. The mask, said to date back to the Nineteenth Dynasty (1293-1185 B.C.), was unearthed early in 1952 by an up-and-coming Egyptian archaeologist named Mohammed Zakaria Goneim. It is now at the center of a long-running ownership dispute between the art museum and the Egyptian government. The set-to was the topic of an in-depth Riverfront Times story by Malcolm Gay, "Out of Egypt,"...
Ancient Autopsies
Scientists find 2,000-year-old brain in Britain
	12/12/2008 12:36:31 PM PST · Posted by Red Badger · 39 replies · 875+ views www.physorg.com | 12/12/2008 | RAPHAEL G. SATTER The existence of a brain where no other soft tissues have survived is extremely rare, according to Sonia O'Connor, an archaeological researcher at the University of Bradford in northern England who helped authenticate the discovery. "This brain is particularly exciting because it is very well preserved, even though it is the oldest recorded find of this type in the U.K., and one of the earliest worldwide," she said. The old brain is unlikely to yield new neurological insights because human brains aren't thought to have changed much over the past 2,000 years, according to Chris Gosden, a professor of archaeology...
Asia
Recently Uncovered Skeleton Offers Clues on Chinggis Khaan Era
	12/15/2008 7:22:12 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 27 replies · 478+ views Mongolian News | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | William Kennedy An ancient female skeleton discovered along the Tuul River, some 55 kilometers outside Ulaanbaatar, may be more remarkable for when she lived rather than who she was. After examining earrings and rings discovered amongst the remains, Kh. Lkhagvasuren, an archaeologist who heads the Mongolian Historical and Cultural Heritage Center, said this week that the woman was likely a contemporary of Chinggis Khaan... While an examination of the skeleton -- specifically the skull and waist -- revealed that it belonged to a teenage female, not much else is known about the young woman's life. The body was buried in a wooden...
China
Ancient ruins of salt-making from Shang and Zhou Dynasties found in Shouguang
	12/17/2008 7:43:11 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 3 replies · 166+ views People's Daily Online | December 15, 2008 | unattributed Recently, archeologists from the China Academy of Social Sciences and School of Archaeology and Museology from Peking University and Shandong Province visited and inspected archeological sites of salt-making at the Shuangwangcheng reservoir in Shouguang, Shandong Province. All the experts agree that the relics can be dated back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, and preliminarily examinations conclude that these are important ancient ruins connected to the salt industry. With over 80 sites covering 30 square kilometers the discovery of such densely distributed ancient ruins connected to salt-making is the first of its kind in China's archaeological history. The ancient ruins...
Phoenicians
Rare Lead Bars Discovered Off The Coast Of Ibiza May Be Carthaginian Munitions
	12/17/2008 7:39:02 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 19 replies · 456+ views Science News | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | source: University of Cologne One of the bars has Iberian characters on it. According to the German Mining Museum in Bochum, the lead originates from the mines of Sierra Morena in southern Spain... A fourth specimen had already been found on an earlier occasion. The characters on the upper surfaces of two of the four known bars are syllabary symbols from the script of Northeastern Iberian... The meaning of the characters has not yet been determined, however, the dating of the objects to the third century B.C., i.e. the period of the Second Punic War, raises further questions. The reason for this is that...
Etruscans
Farmer digs up ancient sanctuary in Italy
	12/17/2008 3:47:51 PM PST · Posted by decimon · 8 replies · 434+ views Associated Press | Dec. 17, 2008 | Ariel David Riccardo De Luca / AP Ancient vases and cups recovered by Italian authorities are shown on Wednesday. ROME - A farmer working his land south of Rome dug up hundreds of artifacts from a 2,600-year-old sanctuary, but ran afoul of police when he tried to sell the ancient hoard, officials said Wednesday.
Rome and Italy
Pompeii Family's Final Hours Reconstructed
	12/15/2008 7:31:13 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 36 replies · 1,148+ views Discovery News | December 11, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi At around 1:00 p.m. on Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Pompeii residents saw a pine tree-shaped column of smoke bursting from Vesuvius. Reaching nine miles into the sky, the column began spewing a thick pumice rain. Many residents rushed in the streets, trying to leave the city. "At that moment, Polybius' house was inhabited by 12 people, including a young woman in advanced pregnancy. They decided to remain in the house, most likely because it was safer for the pregnant woman. Given the circumstances, it was the right strategy," Scarpati said... At around 7:00 p.m., by which time the front part...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Indonesia May Face a "Supercycle" of Devastating Earthquakes
	12/15/2008 7:36:21 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 15 replies · 294+ views Discover Magazine 'blogs | December 12, 2008 | 80beats scientists are warning that several other major earthquakes are likely to occur in the region over the next decades. A new study examined the growth records of coral reefs off the coast of Sumatra, and say they show evidence of repeated bursts of earthquakes that relieve pressure on the Sunda fault. A shock in 2007 may be the beginning of a new cycle, researchers say. Says study coauthor Kerry Sieh: "If previous cycles are a reliable guide we can expect one or more very large west Sumatran earthquakes within the next two decades" [Reuters]. As if to illustrate the...
Megaliths and Archaeoastronomy
Mystery shrouds the ancient Oshoro circle
	12/15/2008 7:26:02 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 21 replies · 561+ views Japan Times | Sunday, December 14, 2008 | Michael Hoffman In 1861 at Oshoro, southwestern Hokkaido, a party of herring fishermen, migrants from Honshu, were laying the foundation for a fishing port when they saw taking shape beneath their shovels a mysterious spectacle -- a broad circular arrangement of large rocks, strikingly symmetrical, evidently man-made. What could it be? An Ainu fortress? ...Oshoro today is part of the city of Otaru, on its western fringe, 20 km from the city center and 60 km west of Sapporo. The Late Jomon period (circa 2400-1000 B.C.) was an age of northward migration. The north was warming, and severe rainfall was ravaging the...
Epigraphy and Language
Archaeologists unearth key to ancient sub-Saharan script
	12/16/2008 4:53:43 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 422+ views France 24 | Tuesday, December 16, 2008 | unattributed Three ancient ram statues newly discovered in Sudan could help decipher the oldest script in sub-Saharan Africa whose secrets are mysterious to the modern world, a Western archaeologist said on Tuesday. The rams were excavated at El-Hassa, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of Khartoum, on a sacred causeway leading to an ancient temple, said Vincent Rondot, head of the French Section of the Directorate on Antiquities of Sudan. The site is one of the most southern temples built to Amum, considered an omnipotent god, creator and guardian by people who lived throughout the Nile valley during the Merotic period 300...
Paleontology
New species of extinct animals found in Sahara
	12/16/2008 5:16:16 PM PST · Posted by JoeProBono · 21 replies · 461+ views hostednews British and Moroccan scientists said Tuesday they had found the remains of two new species of extinct animals in the Saharan desert, describing the find as one of the most important of the past 50 years. The team of paleontologists said they had unearthed a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Mesozoic era, and a new type of sauropod, a giant four-legged herbivore from the Jurassic period.
Scientist Says Ostrich Study Confirms Bird "Hands" Unlike Those Of Dinosaurs
	10/24/2002 1:32:37 PM PDT · Posted by vannrox · 100 replies · 929+ views University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill (http://www.unc.edu/) via Science Daily Magazine | Posted 8/15/2002 | Editorial Staff Scientist Says Ostrich Study Confirms Bird "Hands" Unlike Those Of Dinosaurs -- To make an omelet, you need to break some eggs. Not nearly so well known is that breaking eggs also can lead to new information about the evolution of birds and dinosaurs, a topic of hot debate among leading biologists. Drs. Alan Feduccia and Julie Nowicki of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have done just that. They opened a series of live ostrich eggs at various stages of development and found what they believe is proof that birds could not have descended...
Prehistory and Origins
'Hobbit' fossils represent a new species, concludes University of Minnesota anthropologist
	12/17/2008 10:57:58 PM PST · Posted by CE2949BB · 7 replies · 301+ views EurekAlert | 17-Dec-2008 University of Minnesota anthropology professor Kieran McNulty (along with colleague Karen Baab of Stony Brook University in New York) has made an important contribution toward solving one of the greatest paleoanthropological mysteries in recent history -- that fossilized skeletons resembling a mythical "hobbit" creature represent an entirely new species in humanity's evolutionary chain.
Too Much Monkey Business
Study Suggests Orangutans Are Cultured
	01/03/2003 7:50:16 AM PST · Posted by Junior · 36 replies · 1,894+ views AP Science | 2003-01-02 | PAUL RECER Some orangutan parents teach their offspring to use leaves as napkins. Others say good night with a spluttering, juicy raspberry. And still others get water from a hole by dipping a branch and then licking the leaves. AP Photo These are examples, researchers say, that prove the orangutan is a cultured ape, able to learn new living habits and to pass them along to the next generation. The discovery, reported in a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, suggests that early primates, which include the ancestors of humans, may have developed the ability to invent new behaviors,...
Monkey say, monkey do (wild chimps teach others to use tools, probably planning takeover)
	05/24/2002 8:01:45 AM PDT · Posted by dead · 29 replies · 552+ views SMH | May 25 2002 Young chimpanzees learn how to use tools to open nuts from their mothers. Photo: Christophe Boesch Researchers have discovered a band of chimpanzees in West Africa which use crude stone hammers to crack open nuts, a sophisticated use of tools the monkeys have been teaching to each new generation for more than a century. Using carefully selected stones weighing up to 15kg, the chimps pound the tough shell of the panda nut to extract a high-energy kernel that is an important part of the animal's diet, researchers report Friday in the journal Science. "It is a very skillful behavior...
Biology and Cryptobiology
(Werner) Herzog's epic quest for camera shy Nessie (Loch Ness Monster alert)
	07/01/2003 3:31:32 AM PDT · Posted by weegee · 3 replies · 431+ views Scottland On Sunday | Sun 29 Jun 2003 | BRIAN PENDREIGH Herzog's epic quest for camera shy Nessie BRIAN PENDREIGH THE legend is about to take on the monster. Eccentric German film-maker Werner Herzog will shortly arrive in Scotland to pursue one of the world's most elusive creatures. Herzog, widely regarded as one of the greatest film-makers alive because of his painstaking attention to detail, has become fascinated by the myth of the Loch Ness monster. He now intends to make the definitive documentary on Nessie for cinema release around the world. Friends say he has been obsessively collecting research material in advance of his trip to the Highlands next month....
Mormon missionaries find sasquatch print
	12/19/2008 12:37:27 PM PST · Posted by dragonblustar · 22 replies · 564+ views Houston-Today.com | December 4, 2008 Two missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints received a scare on the night of Dec. 2 when they saw what they think was a set of sasquatch footprints outside of their Burns Lake home. Tyler Beck and Brad Blazzard are in B.C. for two years, rotating in different communities throughout the Smithers and Burns Lake area for the past seven months. "The first thing we thought was that someone was playing a trick on us," Beck said."But we don't know anyone our age who would do that and our house in on the southside, so...
Navigation
'Evil water' linked to mysterious drownings
	12/18/2008 4:29:15 AM PST · Posted by Joiseydude · 48 replies · 1,472+ views newscientist.com | 17 December 2008 | Matt Kaplan It may sound like a superstitious excuse for a poor day's swimming, but it is not uncommon for triathletes to complain that the water is behaving badly - even that it is "evil". Now a study suggests what they are feeling is real. Leo Maas, a fluid dynamicist at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, and colleagues found that "dead water" - an obstructive effect encountered by ships at sea - can strike swimmers too. As ships sail over a layer of warm water sitting over saltier, or colder, layers, waves form in the boundary between the two layers....
Underwater Archaeology
200 Year Old "Dagger-Board" Schooner Discovered in Lake Ontario
	12/13/2008 7:19:54 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 613+ views Shipwreck World | Wednesday, December 10, 2008 | Jim Kennard A rare dagger-board schooner has been discovered in over 500 feet of water off the southern shore of Lake Ontario... Jim Kennard and Dan Scoville, shipwreck enthusiasts, located the schooner using deep towed side scan sonar equipment. Sailing vessels of this type were in use on the lakes for only a short period of time beginning in the very early 1800's. This ship is the only dagger-board schooner known to have been found in the Great Lakes.
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
American Indian cremation pit found on Ga. island
	12/19/2008 3:14:08 AM PST · Posted by NCDragon · 8 replies · 364+ views AP via WRALNews.com | December 19, 2008 | RUSS BYNUM Exposed by erosion at the edge of a crumbling bluff, the pit discovered beneath 2 feet of sandy dirt at first appeared to be a grave just long and deep enough to bury a human body. An excavation by archaeologists on Ossabaw Island revealed something more puzzling - just a few small bones, apparently from fingers or toes, mixed with charcoal, bits of burned logs and pottery shards more than 1,000 to 3,000 years old. The find has led researchers to suspect that American Indians used the ancient pit to burn bodies of the dead, making it...
Peru, the Andes
'Ancient city unearthed' in Peru [ Chiclayo, Wari, Moche ]
	12/17/2008 7:23:13 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 14 replies · 294+ views BBC | Wednesday, December 17, 2008 | unattributed The site, near the Pacific coastal city of Chiclayo, probably dates to the Wari culture which ruled the Andes of modern Peru between the 7th and 12th Century. The once buried city showed evidence of human sacrifice
British Isles
Century-old message in a bottle found[UK]
	12/20/2008 10:52:35 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 15 replies · 746+ views The Northern Echo | 20 Dec 2008 | Jim McTaggart WHEN a workman started knocking down part of a chimney in a museum he found a letter in a beer bottle that had lain hidden for 102 years. Stonemason Joe Kipling discovered the bottle as he worked on a major alteration project at the Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle. Museum officials were delighted yesterday when they read the letter, which had been handwritten in 1906 by Owen Stanley Scott, who was the curator and secretary of the museum at the time. It states that the flue was one of a number being blocked up in April 1906 when stoves used...
Angles, Saxons, Jutes
Fifth Century settlement located [ Kent UK ]
	12/17/2008 7:34:59 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 2 replies · 180+ views BBC | Thursday, December 11, 2008 | unattributed A Fifth Century Germanic settlement has been discovered on land set out for regeneration in Kent. A team of 30 archaeologists has been studying debris at the site in Rushenden, on the Isle of Sheppey, to learn how the original settlers lived. The remains of a large boat-shaped hall have been found as well as evidence of boat-building activity. Dr Paul Wilkinson, who heads the dig, said the settlement was one of the most important finds of its kind in Kent. "It's significant because it's a Germanic establishment. The boat shape gives the game away to us," he said. "The...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Video: Three near-invisible drawings discovered on back of Da Vinci masterpiece
	12/19/2008 12:52:51 PM PST · Posted by JoeProBono · 21 replies · 636+ views timesonline | December 19, 2008 The mystery is set in the Louvre and the clues are hidden behind a 16th-century masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. Remind you of anything? Lovers of Dan Brown novels will be salivating at the discovery of three previously unknown drawings on the back of one of Leonardo's major works. A curator spotted the sketches on the back of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne when it was taken down in September for restoration.
Greeks
The Discovery & Demonstration of the Minoan Calendar
	12/16/2008 3:07:04 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 22 replies · 405+ views Crete Gazette | December 16, 2008 | Dr. Jack Dempsey we knew nothing of how Minoan people reckoned the days of the year and the flow of time. No advanced and prosperous society could manage its agriculture, foreign trade and ritual life without a calendar. And yet, till now, little was known except that the 4-year timing of Olympic Games (first recorded in 776 BCE) was based in a much older calendar that began each year at Winter Solstice. This mystery began to be solved in 1972, when American scholar Dr. Charles F. Herberger published The Thread of Ariadne and revealed the Minoan calendar hiding in plain sight -- in...
Oh So Mysteriouso
The Mysteries of Rennes-Le-Chateau.
	07/24/2002 6:54:02 PM PDT · Posted by vannrox · 18 replies · 3,672+ views Ancient Civilizations | Wednesday, July 17, 2002 | Editorial Staff The Mysteries of Rennes-Le-Chateau. Perched on a dusty hilltop in Languedoc in the French Pyrenees lies the little village of Rennes-le-Ch‚teau. Three little words, Rennes-le-Chateau -- The passing millennia have produced many bizarre mysteries; the riddle of the Sphinx and the Pyramids on the Giza plateau are probably the most famous, but in recent years, perhaps the most engrossing of these enigmas concerns what transpired in the quiet village of Rennes-le-Chateau in the foothills of the French Pyrenees during the dying years of the 19th century. There have been many theories proffered to explain the events, but in essence, not one has...
Turin
Discovery Channel Shroud of Turin documentary will air again this Saturday
	12/19/2008 12:06:56 AM PST · Posted by Swordmaker · 35 replies · 476+ views Shroud.com email | 12/18/2008 | Barrie Schwortz In case you missed it last Sunday, the new Shroud documentary "Unwrapping the Shroud: New Evidence," will be airing again on Discovery Channel this coming Saturday evening, December 20 at 10:00pm eastern and again two hours later at 12:00am (early Sunday morning). Check your local listings for the exact time in your area.
Moderate Islam / ROP Alert
Arabic and Its Role in Egyptology and Egyptian Archaeology
	12/15/2008 7:42:28 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 157+ views Journal of the World Archaeological Congress | April 17, 2008 | Nicole B. Hansen Their lack of Arabic skills limits non-Egyptian Egyptologists in their ability to gain insights into Egyptian culture. The overwhelming reliance on European languages in the field limits the contributions that Egyptian Egyptologists are able to make to the field. The effects of these factors are discussed and suggestions are made as to how the situation can be ameliorated... Egyptology and Egyptian archaeology have been historically dominated by the use of three languages: English, French and German. Any scholar who wishes to make a serious career in the field must develop at least a reading knowledge of these three languages, in...
Anatolia
Derinkuyu, the mysterious underground city of Turkey
	12/15/2008 9:37:10 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 14 replies · 689+ views Corner Mystery | 11 Dec 2008 | CM In 1963, an inhabitant of Derinkuyu (in the region of Cappadocia, central Anatolia, Turkey), knocking down a wall of his house cave, discovered amazed that behind it was a mysterious room that he had never seen, and this led him room to another and another and another to it ... By chance he had discovered the underground city of Derinkuyu, whose first level could be excavated by the Hittites around 1400 BC Archaeologists began to explore this fascinating underground city abandoned. It managed to forty meters deep, but is believed to have a fund of up to 85 meters. At...
Climate
The Ghosts of Antarctica: Abandoned Stations and Huts
	12/15/2008 10:24:29 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 32 replies · 964+ views DRB | 09 Dec 2008 | Constantine vonHoffman More ghosts per capita than any continent Does Antarctica have the most ghosts of any continent? On a per capita basis, the answer is yes. While the South Pole and environs doesn't have a permanent population, there are on average 2,500 people living there during the year -- approximately 4000 in summer and 1000 incredibly hardy ones in winter (source). While no complete necrologies exists for the Antarctic, at least 268 people have died there since humanity first decided it was a good place to visit. So if the ghosts divvie the work evenly, each one only has to haunt...
World War Eleven
Islamo Nazism Historic reminder - on this day the Mufti met with Hitler
	11/21/2008 1:11:26 AM PST · Posted by PRePublic · 5 replies · 189+ views JihadiPedia Islamo Nazism Historic reminder - on this day the Mufti met with Hitler The Infamous Arab Muslim leader, Haj Amin Al Husseini (of "Palestine") who was responsible for inciting for the first large scale massacre of Jews by Arabs in 1929, and the Farhud massacre of the Jews in Iraq in 1941 On November 21, 1941 he meets with Adolph Hitler † The Nazi Connection to Islamic Terrorism:Adolf Hitler and Haj Amin Al-Husseini Grand Mufti Haj Amin al-Hussein, Who was the Grand Mufti, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini? Grand Mufti with Hitler. Grand Mufti with Hitler. Muhammed Amin al-Husseini.
'Adolf Hitler's bookmark' sold in Starbucks car park
	12/16/2008 4:53:09 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 10 replies · 494+ views The Telegraph The 18-carat artefact, which is engraved with a message to the German Nazi leader from his wife Eva Braun, had been missing since it was stolen six years ago. The dedication, to "My Adolf", consoles Hitler for the German surrender at Stalingrad in 1943. The defeat was "only an inconvenience that will not break your certainty of victory", it reads. "My love for you will be eternal, as our Reich will be eternal. Always yours, Eva. 3-2-43." US police recovered the bookmark after a Romanian named Christian Popescu attempted to sell it to an undercover agent for £65,000 ($100,000). Officers...
Takes a Licking...
Swiss watch found in 400-year-old tomb
	12/19/2008 1:22:56 AM PST · Posted by Bon mots · 52 replies · 1,761+ views Ananova | December 2008 | staff Archeologists in China are baffled after finding a tiny Swiss watch in a 400-year-old tomb. The watch ring was discovered as archeologists were making a documentary with two journalists from Shangsi town. "When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, a piece of rock suddenly dropped off and hit the ground with a metallic sound,? said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Museum. "We picked up the object, and found it was a ring. After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch." The time...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Gladiators return to Colosseum after 2,000 years
	12/20/2008 9:25:01 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 17 replies · 256+ views The Times | December 20, 2008 They came. They saw. They slaughtered. And now, almost 2,000 years after fighters and wild animals last entertained the rabble, gladiators are set to return to the Colosseum. Umberto Broccoli, the head of archaeology at Rome city council, said it was time that the five million people who visited the Colosseum annually saw the kind of shows originally staged there. They should also experience "the sights, sounds and smells" of Ancient Rome. Mauro Cutrufo, the deputy mayor, said that a series of events would be held next year to mark the two thousandth anniversary of the birth of the Emperor...
end of digest #231 20081220

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #231 20081220 · Saturday, December 20, 2008 · 46 topics · 2151320 to 2147790 · 697 members ·
	Saturday Dec 20 2008 v 5 n 21 view this issue	Welcome to the 231st issue. Christmas is Thursday. This issue is late because I had a lot to do yesterday, and spent my free time (about 60 minutes) not doing the Digest. I did spend a few hours on the road, and most of that time was listening to the book-on-CD version of Barbara Mertz' "Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs". Hey, that title sounds familiar... We've almost reached 700 members. Quit teasing me and join. This is late, and that's a break for you, no more smart remarks from me. Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR.
· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic ·

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks eleni121.

Nicholas of Myra: the Story of Saint Nicholas
The Official Motion Picture Website

[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #232 Saturday, December 27, 2008
Partisan Media Shills Debunked, Again
UNESCO inspection finds no evidence of recent looting in Northern Iraq
	12/21/2008 1:22:17 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 125+ views The Art Newspaper | December 18, 2008 | Martin Bailey A UNESCO mission has visited northern Iraq, with transport and security arranged by American troops. The specialists visited four key sites -- Nimrud, Ninevah, Ashur and Hatra -- and found no evidence of recent looting. This was the first UNESCO inspection since the 2003 invasion. The visit, which for security reasons was not publicised at the time, was from 18-25 November. Details of their findings were later released by Dr Suzanne Bott, a US State Department cultural heritage advisor based at Mosul, in Ninewa province. UNESCO confirmed the mission had taken place, saying that it had been organised by the...
Middle Ages and Renaissance
Hand-written note shows El Greco defending Byzantine style in face of Western art
	12/22/2008 7:05:36 AM PST · Posted by eleni121 · 7 replies · 211+ views AlphaGalielo | December 18, 2008 | AlphaGalileo A new investigation could end many of the speculations about the works of El Greco and the man himself. A hand-written annotation to a book, similar to the glosses of Saint Emilianus, found in Spain in a copy of Lives of the most excellent architects, painters and sculptors by Giorgio Vasari, has led Nicos Hadjinicolau, a researcher from the Institute of Mediterranean Studies, to conclude that the artist -- contrary to popular belief -- was a defender of Byzantine art.
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Neanderthals could have died out because their bodies overheated
	12/21/2008 9:45:20 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 65 replies · 972+ views Telegraph | 20 Dec 2008 | Richard Gray Neanderthals may have died out because their bodies overheated as the Earth grew warmer, according to new research. Analysis of DNA obtained from Neanderthal remains has revealed key differences from modern humans that suggest their bodies produced excess heat. While in the cold climate of an ice age this would have provided the species with an advantage, as the earth warmed they would have been less able to cope. Ultimately this would have caused their extinction around 24,000 years ago. Scientists at Newcastle University have put forward the theory after examining a particular form of genetic material which was obtained...
British Isles
Major Roman coins find at Petworth[UK]
	12/23/2008 8:49:08 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 8 replies · 294+ views Midhurst and Petworth Observer | 22 Dec 2008 | Midhurst and Petworth Observer An important discovery of more than 100 Roman coins has left archaeologists wondering whether Petworth has more to do with the Romans than first thought. The 103 coins, which equate to a third of a year's wages for a Roman soldier, were found on farmland in the area on November 24. Experts have previously believed Petworth to have been little affected by the Romans, but the discovery of the silver coins could mean there were wealthy people living there. The coins date from the third and second century BC to the Hadrian period of 132 to 148AD. Sussex Archaeological Society...
Rome and Italy
Ceramic Roman Lamp Of 1st Century Shows Gynecological Examination
	12/23/2008 4:52:35 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 28 replies · 621+ views MedIndia | Tuesday, December 23, 2008 | ANI A group of archaeologists has found in the northern Spanish region of Leon a ceramic lamp dating from the beginning of the 1st century that shows a representation of the gynecological exam performed on a sick woman. A report by the Latin American Herald Tribune said that the find is of an oil lamp, which according to Archaeology professor at Madrid's Universidad Complutense Angel Morillo, is a unique find without parallel in the Roman world. It is an exceptional piece that illustrates the presence of doctors in the city, and - specifically - a military hospital, according to Morillo. On...
Phoenicians
Ancient Mass Graves of Soldiers, Babies Found in Italy [ Himera battled Carthage ]
	12/21/2008 3:20:01 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 18 replies · 773+ views National Geographic News | Wednesday, December 17, 2008 | Maria Cristina Valsecchi More than 10,000 graves containing ancient amphorae, "baby bottles," and the bodies of soldiers who fought the Carthaginians were found near the ancient Greek colony of Himera, in Italy, archaeologists announced recently... "Each [mass grave] contains from 15 to 25 skeletons. They were all young healthy men and they all died a violent death. Some of the skeletons have broken skulls and in some cases we found the tips of the arrows that killed them," Vassallo said. He thinks the human remains are from soldiers who died fighting the Carthaginians in a famous 480 B.C. battle described by Greek historian...
Greeks
NY exhibit unveils women's lives in ancient Greece
	12/22/2008 7:56:09 AM PST · Posted by eleni121 · 14 replies · 433+ views PHYSORG | December 20, 2008 | VERENA DOBNIK A woman's place has never been just in the home - not even in ancient Greece. The proof is in an exhibit titled "Worshiping Women: Ritual and Reality in Classical Athens" - a collection of artifacts that correct the cliched idea of Athenian women as passive, homebound nurturers of men and children.
Ancient Autopsies
Egyptian archaeologists unveil pair of 4,300-year-old tombs of pharaonic officials
	12/23/2008 5:14:03 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 6 replies · 209+ views LA Times | Monday, December 22, 2008 | Rebecca Santana, AP, with contributions by Maamoun Youssef A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said Monday. The rock-cut tombs were built for high officials -- one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and another for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.
Egypt
King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription
	12/21/2008 1:39:52 PM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 31 replies · 407+ views Discovery News | Wednesday, December 17, 2008 | Rossella Lorenzi "We can now say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News. The finding offers evidence against another leading theory that King Tut was sired by the minor king Smenkhkare. Hawass discovered the missing part of a broken limestone block a few months ago in a storeroom at el Ashmunein, a village on the west bank of the Nile some 150 miles south of Cairo. Once reassembled, the slab has become "an accurate piece of evidence that proves Tut lived in el Amarna with Akhenaten and he married his...
Near East
Cavalry Soldiers unearth years of ancient Iraqi history
	12/24/2008 5:09:56 PM PST · Posted by SandRat · 19 replies · 624+ views Multi-National Force - Iraq FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq -- Soldiers from the 1-10 Cavalry Regiment, 172 Infantry Brigade unearthed potentially ancient pottery artifacts, while preparing to excavate a site for the building of a patrol base for the Iraqi Army in the Mahawil area Dec. 11. The Soldiers immediately stopped construction and restricted access to the site until someone with archeological expertise could be contacted and survey the site to determine if the pottery shards were of cultural importance and antiquity. Capt. Christopher Neyman, the C Troop commander, arrived at the scene and ensured the site was protected by establishing a 24 hour...
Priceless Smuggled Treasure Found
	12/25/2008 2:06:55 PM PST · Posted by SandRat · 21 replies · 767+ views Multi-National Force - Iraq BASRA -- Iraqi Security Forces recently uncovered hundreds of historical artifacts during two raids in northern Basra. The 228 ancient artifacts included Sumerian and Babylonian sculpture, gold jewelry and other items from ancient Mesopotamia."This is my favorite item," said Iraqi Col. Ali Sabah, commander of the Basra Emergency Battalion that led the operation, holding a piece of gold jewelry. "It's gold from the Babylon ages and about 6,000 years old. It doesn't have a price." "I'm very happy because this is my civilization's heritage," he said. The Basra Emergency Battalion led raid operated from tips that smugglers intended to remove the...
Vikings
1,000 years on, perils of fake Viking swords are revealed
	12/27/2008 6:39:09 AM PST · Posted by decimon · 27 replies · 814+ views Guardian | Dec. 27, 2008 | Maev Kennedy It must have been an appalling moment when a Viking realised he had paid two cows for a fake designer sword; a clash of blade on blade in battle would have led to his sword, still sharp enough to slice through bone, shattering like glass. "You really didn't want to have that happen," said Dr Alan Williams, an archaeometallurgist and consultant to the Wallace Collection, the London museum which has one of the best assemblies of ancient weapons in the world. He and Tony Fry, a senior researcher at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, south-west London, have solved a...
PreColumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
New World post-pandemic reforestation helped start Little Ice Age, say Stanford scientists
	12/18/2008 8:57:54 AM PST · Posted by Red Badger · 80 replies · 1,306+ views www.physorg.com | 12-18-2008 | Source: Stanford University The power of viruses is well documented in human history. Swarms of little viral Davids have repeatedly laid low the great Goliaths of human civilization, most famously in the devastating pandemics that swept the New World during European conquest and settlement. In recent years, there has been growing evidence for the hypothesis that the effect of the pandemics in the Americas wasn't confined to killing indigenous peoples. Global climate appears to have been altered as well. Stanford University researchers have conducted a comprehensive analysis of data detailing the amount of charcoal contained in soils and lake sediments at the sites...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
Predecessor of Cows, The Aurochs, Were Still Living In The Netherlands Around AD 600
	12/21/2008 10:02:49 AM PST · Posted by SunkenCiv · 56 replies · 921+ views ScienceDaily | Monday, December 15, 2008 | University of Groningen Archaeological researchers at the University of Groningen have discovered that the aurochs, the predecessor of our present-day cow, lived in the Netherlands for longer than originally assumed. Remains of bones recently retrieved from a horn core found in Holwerd (Friesland, Netherlands), show that the aurochs became extinct in around AD 600 and not in the fourth century. The last aurochs died in Poland in 1627... The aurochs was much larger than the common cows we know today, with aurochs bulls measuring between 160 and 180 cm at the withers, and aurochs cows between 140 and 150 cm. The cattle bred...
Oh So Mysteriouso
The Missing 13th Amendment
	12/24/2008 8:25:36 AM PST · Posted by Daddynoz · 69 replies · 2,830+ views The Commentator | 24DEC08 | Unknown TITLES OF NOBILITY" AND "HONOR" In the winter of 1983, archival research expert David Dodge, and former Baltimore police investigator Tom Dunn, were searching for evidence of government corruption in public records stored in the Belfast Library on the coast of Maine. By chance, they discovered the library's oldest authentic copy of the Constitution of the United States (printed in 1825). Both men were stunned to see this document included a 13th Amendment that no longer appears on current copies of the Constitution. Moreover, after studying the Amendment's language and historical context, they realized the principle intent of this "missing"...
Early America
Christmas Night, 1776
	12/23/2008 1:42:36 PM PST · Posted by jessduntno · 51 replies · 1,029+ views humanevents | Today | Newt Gingrich Christmas Night, 1776 By Newt Gingrich On Christmas Day, 1776, nearly all thought the Revolution was lost, except for a valiant few who still believed in "The Cause." We owe our liberty today to those valiant few. Led by George Washington, most of his army, dressed in rags and barefoot, faced a winter gale of rain, sleet, ice and snow. This band of patriots braved a midnight river crossing and a nine mile march over frozen roads to win a spectacular victory at Trenton, New Jersey, the following morning. Those were indeed times, as Thomas Paine would write, that "try...
A Christmas to Remember (1776)
	12/24/2008 2:12:31 PM PST · Posted by Coleus · 10 replies · 359+ views the new american | 12.24.08 | Dennis Behreandt Christmas morning dawned gloomy and cold over the rebel camp. The low, overcast sky promised drizzle, or worse, by afternoon. The temperature, hovering just above freezing the past few days, was now dropping rapidly. The weather conditions did not improve the mood of the soldiers who, having skewered chunks of meat with the ramrods from their flint-lock firearms, were squatting around low campfires preparing the morning's repast.† The general of this rag-tag army was cold too, but for the good of his men he tried not to let it show. Standing six feet, two inches tall and weighing nearly 220...
Pages
Ten American Biographies Everyone Should Read
	11/16/2003 1:11:01 PM PST · Posted by Theodore R. · 35 replies · 4,159+ views Human Events Online | 11-14-03 | Human Events Ten American Biographies Everyone Should Read Posted Nov 14, 2003 HUMAN EVENTS asked a panel of 21 distinguished scholars to help us develop a list of Ten American Biographies Everyone Should Read. We asked them first to nominate biographies or autobiographies of anyone who had been a native-born or naturalized American citizen since 1776. Then they listed their top ten choices from the entire roster of nominated titles. A book received 10 points for each No. 1 vote it received, 9 points for each No. 2 vote, and so on. The title with the highest aggregate score was rated the...
Longer Perspectives
Conor Cruise O'Brien: A Vindication of Edmund Burke
	12/22/2008 1:56:59 PM PST · Posted by neverdem · 18 replies · 428+ views National Review Online | December 22, 2008 | Conor Cruise O'Brien December 22, 2008, 1:30 a.m. A Vindication of Edmund Burke An NRO Flashback EDITOR'S NOTE: Edmund Burke biographer Conor Cruise O'Brien died this past weekend at the age of 91. The O'Brien piece below was the cover story in the December 17, 1990, issue of National Review. I. TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES On November 1, 1790, Edmund Burke's most famous book, Reflections on the Revolution in France, was published. It is important to get the title right. The book is often referred to as Reflections on the French Revolution. The book's real title adequately reveals Burke's intentions. Burke's point, in...
Civil War
Pilgrim politician: Abe Lincoln remembered as president who learned God is prime actor in history
	02/21/2008 5:07:01 AM PST · Posted by Caleb1411 · 2 replies · 333+ views WORLD | February 09, 2008 | Marvin Olasky Abraham Lincoln popped out of his mother's womb on Feb. 12, 1809, which means that soon begins a year of activities leading up to his bicentennial in 2009. With only $200, the devoted can buy the "premier package" for "The Official Bicentennial Kick-Off" next week in Kentucky, where Lincoln was born. That expenditure buys admission to a "Champagne Reception" and other activities. In a campaign year when reporters often ask candidates for yes-or-no answers concerning their religious beliefs, there is something to learn from Abraham Lincoln's long and winding road to God. Apart from the spin -- proclamations that Lincoln was a...
Underwater Archaeology
Divers find 1903 shipwreck near Block Island
	12/23/2008 7:46:05 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 4 replies · 387+ views Boston Globe | December 23, 2008 A group of divers says it has found the wreckage of a schooner that collided with a steamship and sank in 1903 near Block Island, R.I. Mark Munro of Griswold, Conn., said his Sound Underwater Survey group and the Baccala Wreck Divers began looking for the remains of the Jennie R. Dubois in 2002, searching a few times a year in an area that eventually stretched to 17 square miles. The group positively identified the shipwreck in September 2007, but kept it a secret until Monday so more research could be done and others interested in the ship couldn't claim...
Wilson's War
Secret of the Lusitania: Arms find challenges Allied claims it was solely a passenger ship
	12/26/2008 9:34:33 PM PST · Posted by SecAmndmt · 143 replies · 2,473+ views Daily Mail Online (UK) | December 20, 2008 | Sam Greenhill Her sinking with the loss of almost 1,200 lives caused such outrage that it propelled the U.S. into the First World War. But now divers have revealed a dark secret about the cargo carried by the Lusitania on its final journey in May 1915. Munitions they found in the hold suggest that the Germans had been right all along in claiming the ship was carrying war materials and was a legitimate military target. The Cunard vessel, steaming from New York to Liverpool, was sunk eight miles off the Irish coast by a U-boat.
World War Eleven
General Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
	12/20/2008 6:04:53 PM PST · Posted by bruinbirdman · 236 replies · 5,958+ views The Telegraph | 12/20/2008 | Tim Shipman in Washington The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with Russians that cost American lives. 'We've got a terrible situation with this great patriot, he's out of control and we must save him from himself'. The OSS head General did not trust Patton The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in...
General G.S. Patton was assassinated to silence his criticism of allied war leaders claims new book
	12/22/2008 3:26:44 AM PST · Posted by Daffynition · 54 replies · 1,565+ views The Telegraph | December 21, 2008 | Tim Shipman in Washington The newly unearthed diaries of a colourful assassin for the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, reveal that American spy chiefs wanted Patton dead because he was threatening to expose allied collusion with the Russians that cost American lives. The death of General Patton in December 1945, is one of the enduring mysteries of the war era. Although he had suffered serious injuries in a car crash in Manheim, he was thought to be recovering and was on the verge of flying home. But after a decade-long investigation, military historian Robert Wilcox claims that OSS...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Sunken Soviet sub needs buyer _ or it's scrapped (A late Christmas gift for me?)
	12/25/2008 10:22:40 AM PST · Posted by llevrok · 16 replies · 701+ views Philly.Com | 12/24/08 | eric tucker PROVIDENCE, R.I. - A former Soviet cruise missile submarine that was once featured in a Hollywood film and sank in the Providence River during a storm last year will be converted to scrap metal if no one agrees to buy it, the president of the foundation that owns it said Wednesday. The 282-foot submarine, also known as Juliett 484, began serving as a floating educational museum in 2002, until it went down during a powerful nor'easter in April 2007. Army and Navy dive crews raised the sub in a training exercise last July, and inspections showed the vessel had deteriorated...
Let's Have Jerusalem
British tourist strikes gold in Jerusalem parking lot...
	12/22/2008 10:16:19 AM PST · Posted by TaraP · 39 replies · 1,288+ views Jerusalem Post | Dec 22nd, 2008 Hundreds of gold coins from the seventh century have been uncovered just outside the walls of Jerusalem's Old City, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Monday. British tourist discovers hundreds of 7th century coins in Jerusalem's Old City The hoard of 264 gold coins was discovered Sunday by a British tourist volunteering at the ongoing dig in a parking lot outside the Dung Gate in the ancient City of David. The find is "one of the largest and most impressive" coins hoards even discovered in Jerusalem, and by far the largest and most important of its period, said Dr. Doron Ben-Ami...
Jerusalem dig finds big gold hoard from 7th century
	12/22/2008 7:58:22 AM PST · Posted by BGHater · 26 replies · 806+ views Reuters | 22 Dec 2008 | Douglas Hamilton Excavations have unearthed a hoard of more than 1,300-year-old gold coins under a car park by the ancient walls of Jerusalem, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said on Monday. Archaeologists said the discovery of the 264 coins, in the ruins of a building dating to about the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period, was one of the largest coin hoards uncovered in Jerusalem. "We've had pottery, we've had glass, but we've had nothing like this," said British archaeologist Nadine Ross, who found the hoard under a large rock on Sunday, in the fourth and final week of a trip...
Archaeoastronomy and Megaliths
'Jesus was born in June', astronomers claim
	12/09/2008 11:28:16 AM PST · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 102 replies · 1,652+ views telegraph.co.uk | December 9, 2008 Astronomers have calculated that Christmas should be in June, by charting the appearance of the 'Christmas star' which the Bible says led the three Wise Men to Jesus. They found that a bright star which appeared over Bethlehem 2,000 years ago pinpointed the date of Christ's birth as June 17 rather than December 25. The researchers claim the 'Christmas star' was most likely a magnificent conjunction of the planets Venus and Jupiter, which were so close together they would have shone unusually brightly as a single "beacon of light" which appeared suddenly. If the team is correct, it would mean...
Kresh
Chuck Norris: Jacking Jesus
	12/23/2008 2:05:02 AM PST · Posted by 2ndDivisionVet · 8 replies · 479+ views Townhall | December 23, 2008 | Chuck Norris 'Tis the season to be Jesus stealing? Away in a manger, no Christ for the bed? It has become a new Christmas fetish -- neutering Nativity scenes by jacking Jesus. Just over the past week, dozens of mini-messiahs have been nabbed from Nativities across the country. Residences, churches and even civic displays in New York, Michigan, Nebraska, Indiana, Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois and Texas have been exploited by these Christmas scrooges. And such criminal acts are not restricted to America, as a baby Jesus was smashed and then stolen at the 12th-century St. John's Church in Cardiff, Wales, and a...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Japanese who say they are the descendants of Jesus
	12/23/2008 6:08:28 PM PST · Posted by nickcarraway · 14 replies · 541+ views The Telegraph | 23 Dec 2008 On Dec 25, the round-faced Mr Sawaguchi will get up in the icy predawn of northern Japan, put on his uniform of suit and tie and head off for another day as a civil servant in the construction division of Aomori Prefectural Government. But on his way out the door of his home, in the hamlet of Shingo, he will probably give a nod in the direction of the mound of earth topped by a wooden cross that is the last resting place of the man that Christianity reveres as the Messiah. "I'm not really planning anything at all for...
Faith and Philosophy
Ufo's, Nibiru, 2012...and the Mandaeans
	12/23/2008 6:44:46 PM PST · Posted by indianbob · 30 replies · 719+ views All News Web | 24-12-2008 | M Cohen With all the talk about Nibiru, 2012 and UFO's it is amazing that many doing the talking have never heard of the Mandaeans, really amazing. It is like knowing all about Jesus and never having heard of the Jews. In fact it is amazing that Jews, Muslims and Christians have hardly heard of these people, considering they, in all likelihood, are the possessors of the religion and heritage that gave birth to all of the three monotheistic religions and they are still around to tell their story even if no one wants to hear it. So unknown is this grouping...
Moderate Islam / ROP Alert
According to expert guest on CoasttocoastAM - Christians burned the library at Alexandria
	12/22/2008 8:37:30 PM PST · Posted by edcoil · 31 replies · 866+ views Coast to Coast idiots | 12-22-08 | edcoil While driving into the office this morning I heard the "expert" guest on Coast to Coast tell everyone not once but several times it was the terrible Christians that burned down the Library at Alexandria. Sadly, facts do not matter or go challenged on that political show any longer. The fact is: Amr bin Aas at the behest of the Second Caliph, Umar burned the Library in Alexandria. Umar the Great or Omar the Great was a Muslim convert from the Banu Adi clan of the Quraysh tribe,[1] and a sahaba (righteous companion) of Muhammad. He became the second Caliph...
Asia
Dropa and the mysteries of the mountains of BayanKara-Ula.
	11/28/2002 11:48:10 AM PST · Posted by vannrox · 29 replies · 3,586+ views DROMO | FR Post 11-28-2002 | Editorial Staff Dropa background High in the mountains of Bayan Kara-Ula, on the boarders of China and Tibet - a team of archeologists were conducting a very detailed routine survey of a series of interlinked caves. Their interests had been excited by the discovery of lines of neatly arranged graves which contained the skeletons of what must have been a strange race of human beings; strange because they had unnaturally spindly bodies and large, overdeveloped heads. At first, it had been thought that the caves had been the home of a hitherto unkown species of ape. But as the leader of...
Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Who are the Zoroastrians?
	07/29/2003 11:17:26 PM PDT · Posted by freedom44 · 37 replies · 789+ views Zoroastrian Studies | 7/29/03 | Zoroastrian Studies Zoroastrians are the followers of the great Iranian prophet, Spitaman Zarathushtra (known to the Greeks as Zoroaster). Zarathushtra lived and preached somewhere around the Aral Sea, about three and a half thousand years ago, circa 1500 B.C.E. The Background Iran, at the time of Zarathushtra's birth, was a land where many pagan gods and goddesses were being propitiated through ignorance and fear. The prophet Zarathushtra, in his sublime hymns, the Gathas, revealed to mankind that there was the One, Supreme, All-Knowing, Eternal God of the good creations---Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, who was wholly Wise, Good and Just. Ahura...
Zoroastrian Prophecies
	05/16/2004 9:31:44 PM PDT · Posted by freedom44 · 90 replies · 720+ views Avesta | 5/16/04 | Avesta "Zoroaster was thus the first to teach the doctrines of an individual judgment, Heaven and Hell, the future resurrection of the body, the general Last Judgment, and life everlasting for the reunited soul and body. These doctrines were to become familiar articles of faith to much of mankind, through borrowings by Judaism, Christianity and Islam; yet it is in Zoroastrianism itself that they have their fullest logical coherence ..." (Mary Boyce, Zoroastrians, pg 29) Coming Comet will Destroy Earth See also Forthcoming Close Approaches To The Earth According to Zoroastrian scripture, the end of the world will come about when...
Future not so bright for Iran's [Zoroastrians]
	06/18/2004 3:25:42 PM PDT · Posted by freedom44 · 37 replies · 403+ views Yahoo! AFP | 6/17/04 | Yahoo! AFP YAZD, Iran (AFP) - In the burning desert north of this ancient Iranian city, the the Islamic republic's last followers of the Zoroastrian religion are making their annual pilgrimage to the temple of Chak-Chak. "We are a species on the road to extinction," laments Babak, a man in his sixties who came from Tehran with his wife for the annual pilgrimage to one of the Zoroastrians' holiest sites -- the rocky peak of Chak-Chak. The site is a 70-kilometer (50-mile) drive from the central Iranian city of Yazd, the historical capital of what many consider to be the world's first...
Iran hardliners keep lid on ancient fire festival
	03/16/2005 2:56:16 PM PST · Posted by freedom44 · 12 replies · 497+ views Reuters | 3/16/05 | Christian Oliver ISFAHAN, Iran, March 16 (Reuters) - Iranian authorities beat up and tear gassed exuberant young revellers as they breathed new life into a pre-Islamic fire festival with a night of dancing, flirting and fireworks. The Islamic Republic, which has an awkward relationship with its ancient Zoroastrian religion, only gave guarded recognition to the "Chaharshanbe Souri" festival last year. Hundreds of people poured onto the streets in Tehran and other cities for a rare night of partying. Public revelry is unusual in Iran where the authorities consider it to be at odds with the country's strict moral codes. The IRNA news...
The Fire in Iran. Forget about diplomacy, this is war.
	03/17/2005 7:59:31 AM PST · Posted by .cnI redruM · 29 replies · 1,108+ views NRO | March 17, 2005, 7:53 a.m. | Michael Ledeen From al-Reuters, we have a masterpiece of disinformation: ISFAHAN -- Iranian authorities beat up and tear gassed exuberant young revellers as they breathed new life into a pre-Islamic fire festival with a night of dancing, flirting and fireworks. The Islamic Republic, which has an awkward relationship with its ancient Zoroastrian religion, only gave guarded recognition to the "Chaharshanbe Souri" festival last year. The Islamic republic does not have "an awkward relationship" with Zoroastrianism. It forbids Zoroastrian practices, including the celebration of the Zoroastrian New Year, Norooz. Forget about "guarded recognition;" there is a ban. The mullahs know something that al-Reuters...
end of digest #232 20081227