[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #252 Saturday, May 16, 2009
Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Ancient Elite Island With Pyramid Found in Mexico
	05/16/2009 1:03:58 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 16 replies · 475+ views National Geographic News | May 13, 2009 | Alexis Okeowo An island for ancient elites has been found in central Mexico, archaeologists say. Among the ruins are a treasury and a small pyramid that may have been used for rituals. The island, called Apupato, belonged to the powerful Tarascan Empire, which dominated much of western Mexico from A.D. 1400 to 1520, before the European conquest of the region. "Because Apupato was an island and relatively unsettled, it is a neat window into how the [Lake P·tzcuaro] basin looked like years ago," said Christopher Fisher, lead investigator and archaeologist at Colorado State University.
Sunken Civilizations
Exploration of the Bimini Underwater Rectangles Yields Stunning Finds (Art Bell history)
	05/16/2009 3:44:17 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 13 replies · 764+ views Alternate Perceptions Magazine | May 2009 | Dr. Lora Little with Dr. Greg Little Greg and I have just returned from our most recent expedition to Bimini in the Bahamas where we were filmed by the History Channel for a show about the search for Atlantis (tentatively scheduled to air in August 2009). They had filmed some footage for the Atlantis show during a trip with us back in January of 2009 while also filming with us for an upcoming Bermuda Triangle show.
Egypt
Prehistoric fishing tackle found in Egypt
	05/15/2009 5:44:37 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 36 replies · 538+ views AFP | May 12, 2009 | Unknown An Egyptian archaeological team has found prehistoric fishing gear, sewing equipment and jewellery all made from animal bones, as well as pottery and coins, near an oasis south of Cairo, officials said on Tuesday. > "During excavation, the mission found antiquities from the Pharaonic, Greek, Roman and Islamic periods," Hawass said. The team also found a rare block which dates back to 3150 BC depicting the mythical leader known as the Scorpion King, as well as colourful mosaic plates with engravings of the Fatimid caliph Al-Zafir.
Australia and the Pacific
Ancient Trading Raft Sails Anew [ Thor Heyerdahl did it first ]
	05/15/2009 7:08:30 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 55 replies · 488+ views ScienceDaily | May 13, 2009 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology For the first time in nearly 500 years, a full-size balsa-wood raft just like those used in pre-Columbian Pacific trade took to the water on Sunday, May 10. Only this time, instead of the Pacific coast between Mexico and Chile where such rafts carried goods between the great civilizations of the Andes and Mesoamerica as long as a millennium ago, the replica raft was floated in the Charles River basin. The faithful reproduction of the ancient sailing craft, built from eight balsa logs brought from Ecuador for the project, was created in less than six weeks by 30 students in...
Hetero Erectus
Homo Erectus Crosses The Open Ocean
	05/15/2009 7:53:17 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 22 replies · 459+ views Environmental Graffiti | 06 May 2009 | Environmental Graffiti Imagine a group of Homo erectus, the earliest members of our family genus, living near a coastline on an Indonesia island and well aware of a lush island that is visible only a few miles offshore. One day while on the coast, a herd of elephants emerges from the nearby forest and crosses the beach. They enter the ocean and swim successfully to the offshore island. Could this be the experience that triggers a creative process in our ancestors who are watching nearby? Does their imagination and thinking include not only a desire to reach that island, but ideas about...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
Neandertals Sophisticated And Fearless Hunters, New Analysis Shows
	05/15/2009 7:34:53 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 11 replies · 319+ views ScienceDaily | Thursday, May 14, 2009 | Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, via AlphaGalileo Dutch researcher Gerrit Dusseldorp analysed their daily forays for food to gain insights into the complex behaviour of the Neandertal. His analysis revealed that the hunting was very knowledge intensive. Although it is now clear that Neandertals were hunters and not scavengers, their exact hunting methods are still something of a mystery... His analysis of two archaeological sites revealed that Neandertals in warm forested areas preferred to hunt solitary game but that in colder, less forested areas they preferred to hunt the more difficult to capture herding animals... Rhinoceroses, bisons and even predators such as the brown bear were all...
Duct Tape
Stone Age Superglue Found -- Hints at Unknown Smarts?
	05/12/2009 5:05:01 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 39 replies · 759+ views National Geographic News | May 11, 2009 | Ker Than Stone Age humans were adept chemists who whipped up a sophisticated kind of natural glue, a new study says. They knowingly tweaked the chemical and physical properties of an iron-containing pigment known as red ochre with the gum of acacia trees to create adhesives for their shafted tools.
Stone Age Humans Made "Superglue' 70,000yrs Ago
	05/14/2009 10:00:04 AM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 20 replies · 399+ views Sindh Today | May 12th, 2009 Stone Age humans who lived about 70,000 years ago were such good chemists that they made a sophisticated kind of natural glue by tweaking the chemical and physical properties of an iron-containing pigment, known as red ochre, with the gum of acacia trees for their shafted tools, according to a study. While it has long been believed that the blood-red pigment served a decorative or symbolic purpose, scientists also suspected that the pigment might have been purposely added to improve glue that held the peoples' tools together. With a view to testing this idea, researchers at the University of the...
Brown and Sounds Like a Bell
200,000 year old human hair found in dung
	05/09/2009 6:13:11 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 69 replies · 1,265+ views Telegraph | May 9, 2009 | Richard Gray Palaeontologists found 40 strands of fossilised hair inside samples of coprolite, or fossilised dung, from a cave in South Africa that was used by brown hyaenas. Until now the oldest samples of human hair were from a 9,000 year old mummy found in northern Chile. It is extremely rare for soft tissue such as hair, skin and muscle to survive more than a few hundred years and only hard tissue like bone is fossilised normally. But scientists believe the new samples of hair are the remains of an early species of human that was scavenged by hyaenas after death, allowing...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
African tribe populated rest of the world
	05/09/2009 4:28:16 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 25 replies · 736+ views Telegraph | May 9, 2009 | Richard Gray Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world. Genetic analysis of modern day human populations in Europe, Asia, Australia, North America and South America have revealed that they are all descended from these common ancestors.
African tribe colonized world 70,000 years ago
	05/10/2009 12:29:19 PM PDT · Posted by MyTwoCopperCoins · 136 replies · 2,952+ views PTI via The Times of India | 11 May 2009 | PTI A single tribe of around 200 people which crossed the Red Sea 70,000 years ago is responsible for the existence of the entire human race outside Africa, a new study has found. Research by geneticists and archaeologists has allowed them to trace the origins of modern homo sapiens back to a single group of people who managed to cross from the Horn of Africa and into Arabia. From there they went on to colonise the rest of the world. While there are 14 ancestral populations in Africa itself, just one seems to have survived outside of the continent, the Daily...
Prehistory and Origins
Missing link in evolution found
	05/13/2009 2:29:18 PM PDT · Posted by mnehring · 46 replies · 851+ views Hindustan Times Famous broadcaster and naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, is all set to present a documentary claiming to have discovered a missing link in human evolution - a monkey-like creature called an adapid. According to a report in the Telegraph, the programme, which would be aired on the BBC later this month, could help to resolve the debate about which kind of primates humans are descended from. Sir David will reveal the well-preserved frame of the small monkey-like creature on the programme. The fossilised animal, thought to be at least 37 million years old, is a member of the extinct adapid family,...
Fossil Find May Tweak Evolution Debate
	05/15/2009 3:31:32 PM PDT · Posted by JoeProBono · 13 replies · 367+ views cbsnews | May 15, 2009 47 Million-Year-Old Primate Skeleton Suggests Different Precursor To Monkeys, Apes, Humans: A primate skeleton claimed to be 47 million years old could further amplify the often contentious debate between evolutionists and creationists. A prominent paleontologist says the discovery of the ancient primate fossil suggests the creature is the common ancestor of monkeys, apes and humans, reports The Wall Street Journal. The find bolsters the less-popular stance that humans' ape-like ancestor was a precursor to the lemur - the tarsier, a tiny, bug-eyed primate in Asia, is more commonly thought of as the precursor, the Journal reports. Dr. Philip Gingerich, the...
Greece
Ancient Greece's 'global warming'
	05/08/2009 6:39:00 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 22 replies · 865+ views American Thinker | May 08, 2009 | Ben-Peter Terpstra In Heaven + Earth (Global Warming: The Missing Science), Ian Plimer, Professor of Mining Geology at The University of Adelaide, Australia, asks us to embrace big-picture science views; for to recognize our limits is a sign of maturity. "Climate science lacks scientific discipline," says the pro-amalgamation Professor, and in order to see more clearly we need to adopt an interdisciplinary approach. This requires humbleness. In Chapter 2: History, Plimer travels back in time, thousands of years, in fact, to debunk Gore's catastrophic global warming myths. I particularly like his research on the ancient Greeks. For Plato (427-347 BC) advanced the...
Thallosocracy
Making merry at Knossos
	05/15/2009 7:44:43 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 235+ views The Economist | May 14th 2009 | unattributed Archaeology is an inexact science, as Sir Arthur Evans, a flamboyant early practitioner, knew... an excavator can always promote an extravagant theory under the guise of interpreting the finds. As he started to unearth a prehistoric mound at Knossos in Crete at the turn of the 20th century, Evans put his imagination into high gear. He rebuilt parts of a 3,500-year-old palace in modernist style using cement and reconstructed fragmentary frescoes to suit his views on Bronze Age religion and politics. Evans boldly argued that the Minoans, as he called the early islanders, shunned warfare, conveniently forgetting about the ruined...
Underwater Archaeology
Race to preserve the world's oldest submerged town [ Pavlopetri in Greece ]
	05/15/2009 6:00:07 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 17 replies · 250+ views PhysOrg.com | May 11th, 2009 | University of Nottingham The ancient town of Pavlopetri lies in three to four metres of water just off the coast of southern Laconia in Greece. The ruins date from at least 2800 BC through to intact buildings, courtyards, streets, chamber tombs and some thirty-seven cist graves which are thought to belong to the Mycenaean period (c.1680-1180 BC). This Bronze Age phase of Greece provides the historical setting for much Ancient Greek literature and myth, including Homer's Age of Heroes... Although Mycenaean power was largely based on their control of the sea, little is known about the workings of the harbour towns of the...
Ancient Europe
Pile village fortification found on Lake Biel [3,200 BC]
	05/15/2009 7:03:22 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 206+ views swissinfo.ch | Friday, May 15, 2009 | agencies Archaeologists in canton Bern have discovered a village built on piles at Lake Biel with an impressive defensive fortification dating back to around 3,200 BC. Such villages from this period are new to researchers; in the lake archaeology of central Europe they have only been found dating from 1,500 years later. A statement from the authorities in canton Bern on Friday said that the find shed new light on the social behaviour of the local people at that time. It meant that they were not always peaceful. The researchers note that no fewer than seven pile villages have been found...
Shocking Blue
German 'Venus' may be oldest yet
	05/14/2009 7:30:19 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 461+ views BBC | Thursday, May 14, 2009 | Jonathan Amos The distorted object, which portrays a woman with huge breasts, big buttocks and exaggerated genitals, is thought to be at least 35,000 years old. The 6cm-tall figurine, reported in the journal Nature, is the latest find to come from Hohle Fels Cave in Germany. Previous discoveries have included exquisite carvings of animals, and an object that could be a stone "sex toy". Professor Nicholas Conard, from the department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, at Tübingen University, said is was understandable that many would also view the new discovery in a pornographic light, but he cautioned against jumping to quickly...
Archaeoastronomy and Megaliths
The role of astronomy in antiquity examined in new book [ archaeoastronomy ]
	05/15/2009 6:55:39 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 172+ views Science Centric | Friday, May 15, 2009 | Springer In the new authoritative study of the growing discipline of archaeoastronomy, Mysteries and Discoveries of Archaeoastronomy: From Giza to Easter Island, Professor Guilio Magli asks, 'Was it an attempt to reproduce the sky on Earth? To bring down the power of the stars to where they could see it, worship it, and use it?' Magli examines the role of astronomy in antiquity and provides a clear, up-to-date survey of current thinking on the motives of the ancients for building fabulous and mysterious monuments all over our planet. He uses astronomy as a key to understanding our ancestors' way of thinking....
Stonehenge
The king of Stonehenge: Were artefacts at ancient chief's burial site Britain's first Crown Jewels?
	05/12/2009 8:57:45 PM PDT · Posted by JoeProBono · 66 replies · 886+ views dailymail | 12th May 2009 | Paul Harris He was a giant of a man, a chieftain who ruled with a royal sceptre and a warrior's axe. When they laid him to rest they dressed him in his finest regalia and placed his weapons at his side. Then they turned his face towards the setting sun and sealed him in a burial mound that would keep him safe for the next 4,000 years. In his grave were some of the most exquisitely fashioned artefacts of the Bronze Age, intricately crafted to honour the status of a figure who bore them in life in death. For this may have...
Rome and Italy
Volcanic ash may have preserved Roman ruins (Good cement)
	05/14/2009 3:15:11 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 23 replies · 393+ views Discovery | May 13, 2009 | Rossella Lorenzi Sandy ash produced by a volcano that erupted 456,000 years ago might have helped a huge ancient Roman complex survive intact for nearly 2,000 years despite three earthquakes, according to research presented last week in Rome. X-ray analysis of a wall sample from the Trajan's Market ruins in Rome showed that the mortars used by ancient Romans contained stratlingite, a mineral known to strengthen modern cements. "It is the first time that stratlingite is recognized in ancient mortars," Lucrezia Ungaro, the Trajan Forum archaeological chief, told Discovery News. "This is amazing, and shows the technical expertise of Roman builders."
The Vikings
Viking ship found on Swedish lake bottom
	05/09/2009 9:30:44 PM PDT · Posted by Free ThinkerNY · 16 replies · 679+ views upi.com | May 9, 2009 VANERSBORG, Sweden, May 9 (UPI) -- Divers stumbled on the wreck of a Viking ship this week on the bottom of the largest lake in Sweden. Archaeologists say the ship is the first from the Viking era found underwater in Sweden, The Local reported. Previous Viking ship discoveries have been used for land burials. The boat was in the midst of an island group in the center of Lake Vanern. Most of the wreck was covered with 3 feet of mud with a single rib sticking out of the ooze, the divers said.
Dinosaurs
New dinosaur species possible in Northwestern Alberta (Better avoid Alberta)
	05/12/2009 12:02:20 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 21 replies · 391+ views University of Alberta | May 12, 2009 | Unknown Edmonton -- The discovery of a gruesome feeding frenzy that played out 73 million years ago in northwestern Alberta may also lead to the discovery of new dinosaur species in northwestern Alberta. University of Alberta student Tetsuto Miyashita and Frederico Fanti, a paleontology graduate student from Italy, made the discovery near Grande Prairie, 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton. Miyashita and Fanti came across a nesting site and found the remains of baby, plant-eating dinosaurs and the teeth of a predator. The researchers matched the teeth to a Troodon, a raptor-like dinosaur about two metres in length. This finding has opened new doors...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Maybe an Asteroid Didn't Kill the Dinosaurs
	05/09/2009 2:45:01 PM PDT · Posted by antiunion person · 29 replies · 1,156+ views Time CNN | Monday, Apr. 27, 2009 | Jeffrey Kluger When a scientific principle is common knowledge even in grammar school, you know it has long since crossed the line from theory to established fact. That's the case with dinosaur extinction. Some 65 million years ago -- as we've all come to know -- an asteroid struck the earth, sending up a cloud that blocked the sun and cooled the planet. That, in turn, wiped out the dinosaurs and made way for the rise of mammals. The suddenness with which so many species vanished after that time always suggested a single cataclysmic event, and the 1978 discovery of a 112-mile,...
Hetero Sapiens
'Gay gene' theory dealt a knockout punch
	05/14/2009 11:26:07 AM PDT · Posted by mikelets456 · 72 replies · 1,265+ views One news now | 5/14/2009 | Charlie Butts The attempt to prove that homosexuality is determined biologically has been dealt a knockout punch. An American Psychological Association publication includes an admission that there's no homosexual "gene" -- meaning it's not likely that homosexuals are born that way. For decades, the APA has not considered homosexuality a psychological disorder, while other professionals in the field consider it to be a "gender-identity" problem. But the new statement, which appears in a brochure called "Answers to Your Questions for a Better Understanding of Sexual Orientation & Homosexuality," states the following: "There is no consensus among scientists about the exact reasons that...
Early America
Revolutionary War fort in Greenbrier continues to yield clues[WV]
	05/12/2009 9:14:38 PM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 11 replies · 329+ views The Charleston Gazette | 09 Mary 2009 | Rick Steelhammer ALDERSON, W.Va. - Although it was occupied off and on for only about 10 years by Revolutionary War-era soldiers and settlers who left few traces of their presence behind, Arbuckle's Fort continues to shed light on the lives of those it protected. During an excavation last weekend involving Concord University and Marshall University Graduate College students, new evidence surfaced about a likely black presence at the fort during the struggle for independence from Britain. The frontier fortress was built on a bluff overlooking the confluence of Muddy and Mill creeks during the peak of tensions between Virginia settlers who developed...
The Framers
the 13th Amendment
	05/14/2009 4:41:44 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 316+ views Constitution of the United States, via FindLaw et al | adopted December 6, 1865 | The Framers et al Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
The "greatest" -- and "worst" -- presidents Rethinking the presidential rating game
	05/11/2009 8:01:56 PM PDT · Posted by ReformationFan · 18 replies · 438+ views RenewAmerica.Us | May 11, 2009 | Wes Vernon The trouble with many of the past ratings of America's presidents is that the "consensus" has been arrived at by academics who act alike, do alike, and think alike. In the view of many, they are suspect of viewing history exclusively through the prism of Ivy League faculty lounge discourse. Alvin Stephen Felzenberg (Ph.D.) -- who has taken a fresh and comprehensive look at the nation's chief executives in his book The Leaders We Deserved (and a Few We Didn't): Rethinking the Presidential Rating Game -- does not challenge the credentials of the conventional historians. Rather, as he explains in...
Climate
The Coming Ice Age
	05/12/2009 11:03:30 PM PDT · Posted by neverdem · 43 replies · 1,482+ views American Thinker | May 13, 2009 | David Deming Those who ignore the geologic perspective do so at great risk. In fall of 1985, geologists warned that a Columbian volcano, Nevado del Ruiz, was getting ready to erupt. But the volcano had been dormant for 150 years. So government officials and inhabitants of nearby towns did not take the warnings seriously. On the evening of November 13, Nevado del Ruiz erupted, triggering catastrophic mudslides. In the town of Armero, 23,000 people were buried alive in a matter of seconds. For ninety percent of the last million years, the normal state of the Earth's climate has been an ice age....
Longer Perspectives
Cold water ocean circulation doesn't work as expected (N. Atlantic conveyor belt)
	05/13/2009 12:30:05 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 37 replies · 561+ views Duke University | May 13, 2009 | Unknown DURHAM, N.C. -- The familiar model of Atlantic ocean currents that shows a discrete "conveyor belt" of deep, cold water flowing southward from the Labrador Sea is probably all wet. New research led by Duke University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution relied on an armada of sophisticated floats to show that much of this water, originating in the sea between Newfoundland and Greenland, is diverted generally eastward by the time it flows as far south as Massachusetts. From there it disburses to the depths in complex ways that are difficult to follow. A 50-year-old model of ocean currents had...
Oh So Mysteriouso
It's a Skull, But What Kind?[Texas]
	05/12/2009 7:07:18 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 45 replies · 1,345+ views DFW News | 09 May 2009 | Scott Gordon Workers unearth unusual skull in North Dallas A plumber working on a construction project outside a North Dallas school unearthed a mysterious skull. "We all know it's a primate," said David Evans, 25, of Alvarado. "We just don't know which kind." The skull was buried about five feet underground, he said. It's six inches from front to back and two inches wide. Most of the teeth, including one-inch canines, are intact. Evans said the skull was discovered last week at the St. Alcuin Montessori School near Churchill Way and Preston Road. A noted anthropologist for the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Right-wing Israelis seek to sue pope over plunder (Want gold Menorah from the Biblical Temple back!)
	05/10/2009 11:21:21 AM PDT · Posted by springtime4hillary · 84 replies · 1,234+ views Middle East Online | 5-8-09 The two accuse the pontiff and other top Roman Catholic officials of receiving and possessing stolen goods. The complaint lists treasure allegededly plundered from the Jewish people and held in the Vatican, incuding a golden Menorah looted from the Jerusalem Temple by Roman troops under general Titus, who played a major role in the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. It also mentions that Jewish religious documents, as well as thousands of works of philosophy and science allegedly stolen on various occasions hundreds of years later, are held in the Vatican library. The two chief rabbis of Israel
end of digest #252 20090516

[SunkenCiv]

Gods Graves Glyphs Digest #252 20090516 · Saturday, May 16, 2009 · 32 topics · 2252343 to 2247808 · 717 members ·
	Saturday May 16 2009 v 5 n 44 view this issue	Welcome to the 252nd issue. A ping-message welcome to this week's new GGG'ers. 32 excellent and engaging topics. LOTS of topics pertaining to underwater archaeology. I want to go to bed soon, so I'm going to rush through this and probably generate an epic fail. For example, I've now posted it, and noticed that I corrected one typo to Lake Pátzcuaro, but didn't paste in the change before posting. At least keep the laughter amongst yourselves, preferably in private FReepmail. ;') Be sure to check Woo hoo!! Less than $13.4k to go!! [FReepathon thread XVIII]. Past mid-may. AuntB posts M3Report topics pertaining to our national problems stemming from the tide of illegal aliens crossing the border. * Sandrat posts a lot (possibly most) of the topics pertaining to the War on Terror. Be sure to check Celebrimbor's and StarCMC's YouTube Smackdown topics, which are "Countering the cyber-jihad one video at a time". Be sure to visit the invisib1e hand's Founder's Quote Daily topics. Be sure to check Homer_J_Simpson's topics, many of which are based on archival newspaper articles, usually 70 years ago that day. Visit the Free Republic Memorial Wall -- a history-related feature of FR. Donate to FreeRepublic.
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[SunkenCiv]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #253 Saturday, May 23, 2009
Diet and Cuisine
Biblical diet 'not very healthy'
	05/22/2009 7:44:53 AM PDT · Posted by mnehring · 36 replies · 720+ views BBC Ancient Israel was far from "the land of milk and honey," and instead people suffered from the lack of a balanced diet, according to a theologian. Dr Nathan MacDonald, an Old Testament lecturer at St Andrews University, used biblical texts and archaeological evidence to study the ancient diet. He has concluded that there were frequent famines and people's meals often lacked vitamins and minerals. --snip-- ...In North America, books based on the diet of the Bible such as What Would Jesus Eat? and The Maker's Diet are bestsellers. Dr MacDonald explained: "Though many people have thought otherwise, the evidence is...
Neandertal / Neanderthal
How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans
	05/17/2009 3:55:56 AM PDT · Posted by LibWhacker · 65 replies · 1,294+ views Guardian | 5/17/09 | Robin McKie A fossil discovery bears marks of butchering similar to those made when cutting up a deerOne of science's most puzzling mysteries - the disappearance of the Neanderthals - may have been solved. Modern humans ate them, says a leading fossil expert. The controversial suggestion follows publication of a study in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences about a Neanderthal jawbone apparently butchered by modern humans. Now the leader of the research team says he believes the flesh had been eaten by humans, while its teeth may have been used to make a necklace.
Early human ate young Neanderthal
	05/21/2009 12:37:17 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 46 replies · 757+ views Discovery | May 21, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas Sometime between 28,000 and 30,000 years ago, an anatomically modern human in what is now France may have eaten a Neanderthal child and made a necklace out of its teeth, according to a new study that suggests Europe's first humans had a violent relationship with their muscular, big-headed hominid ancestors. The evidence, which includes teeth and a carefully butchered jawbone from a site called Les Rois in southwestern France, could represent the world's first known biological proof for direct contact between the two human groups.
Prehistory and Origins
VIDEO: Scientists hail stunning fossil
	05/19/2009 2:29:11 PM PDT · Posted by JoeProBono · 30 replies · 801+ views .bbc | Tuesday, 19 May 2009 | Christine McGourty The beautifully preserved remains of a 47-million-year-old, lemur-like creature have been unveiled in the US. The preservation is so good, it is possible to see the outline of its fur and even traces of its last meal. The fossil, nicknamed Ida, is claimed to be a "missing link" between today's higher primates - monkeys, apes and humans - and more distant relatives. But some independent experts, awaiting an opportunity to see the new fossil, are sceptical of the claim. And they have been critical of the hype surrounding the presentation of Ida. The fossil was launched amid great fanfare at...
"Missing Link" Primate Likely To Stir Debate
	05/20/2009 6:42:42 AM PDT · Posted by steve-b · 25 replies · 586+ views MSNBC | 5/19/09 A discovery of a 47 million-year-old fossil primate that is said to be a human ancestor was announced and unveiled Tuesday at a press conference in New York City. Known as "Ida," the nearly complete transitional fossil is 20 times older than most fossils that provide evidence for human evolution....
Some scientists say Ida is the missing link
	05/20/2009 8:07:15 AM PDT · Posted by lakeprincess · 133 replies · 1,485+ views The Washington Times | 3/20/09 | Jennifer Harper "This is an incredible piece of hype to popularize a movie and a book. It's hard to believe that this story took off, but the media picked up on very emotional claims about the 'missing link.' It's created good publicity," said Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis and founder of the Creation Museum.
Ho-Hum, Another Human Missing Link (Temple of Darwin in full religious revival mode)
	05/20/2009 8:44:42 AM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 24 replies · 501+ views CEH | May 19, 2009 May 19, 2009 -- Shoppers typically are wary of over-hyped ads, knowing that any claim sounding too good to be true probably is. What would they think about media reports claiming a new fossil monkey is the "8th wonder of the world"? The scientific paper in PLoS ONE1 had hardly been published before the press went ape, as if on cue, at the buzzphrase missing link. A couple of press releases about the new lemur fossil of a female nicknamed Ida are calm and rational, like the one by Gautum Naik at the Wall Street Journal. If what...
Ida: the Missing Link at Last? (the Creationist Interpretation)
	05/20/2009 8:56:16 AM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 60 replies · 979+ views AiG | May 19, 2009 For all the headlines and proclamations, this "missing link" story includes an amazing amount of hot air...
'Missing Link' Ida Is Just Media Hype
	05/20/2009 7:58:38 PM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 25 replies · 512+ views ICR | May 20, 2009 | Christine Dao 'Missing Link' Ida Is Just Media Hype by Christine Dao* Scientists and media outlets around the world are praising "Ida," the primate fossil hailed as the long-sought-after "missing link" in the human evolutionary theory.In a major public relations campaign, Ida was unveiled in New York City yesterday, May 19, 2009, and will make a stop in London May 26 before returning to its owners at the University of Oslo's Natural History Museum. BBC1 will air a documentary based on the fossil the same day as its UK unveiling, and Little, Brown -- publisher of the popular Twilight fiction series -- put out a book...
History Channel Announces "Global Event" For May 25th...
	05/18/2009 12:19:54 PM PDT · Posted by TaraP · 378 replies · 4,813+ views Look Up Fellowship | May 14th, 2009 The History Channel has been running an unusual 14-second ad that simply says: "May 25, 2009. A Global Event. This Changes Everything." Maybe this? ISBN:9780316070089 Library Bound #: 619216 Format: Hardcover Price: $28.99 Pub Date: May 2009 Lying inside a high security vault, deep within the heart of one of the world's leading museums, is a discovery that will change textbooks, change science, and change how we understand the human race. The author of Untitled has been given exclusive access to all of the research and the team of top scientists who have been validating the discovery, the announcement...
Ida: Humankind's Earliest Ancestor! (Not Really) -- Time Magazine exposes primate fossil hype
	05/22/2009 8:16:16 AM PDT · Posted by SeekAndFind · 19 replies · 453+ views Time Magazine | 5/22/2009 | Michael D. Lemonick From the beginning, Ida's unveiling has been a master class in ballyhoo. A week ago, the first breathless press releases began to arrive, portending the presentation of the now famous 47-million-year-old primate fossil from Germany: "MEDIA ALERT," the notice shouted in all caps. "WORLD-RENOWNED SCIENTISTS REVEAL A REVOLUTIONARY SCIENTIFIC FIND THAT WILL CHANGE EVERYTHING." The press releases were followed by an international press conference at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the publication of a book, The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor (Little, Brown), an ABC News exclusive and on May 25 a prime-time television special...
Dinosaurs
Long-Necked Dinos Didn't Graze Treetops
	05/17/2009 8:09:00 PM PDT · Posted by nickcarraway · 14 replies · 451+ views Hindustan Times | May 15, 2009 A new research has suggested that long-necked dinosaurs didn't graze treetops, and were better off holding their necks horizontal, not upright. According to a report in National Geographic News, lifting long necks at steep angles would have put intense pressure on sauropod hearts, requiring dramatic expenditures of energy to keep blood pumping to the brain. Sauropods were giant, long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged plant-eaters that lived about 200 to 66 million years ago (prehistoric time line). Since long-necked modern animals, such as giraffes, tend to browse on leaves in tall trees, paleontologists have assumed that sauropods-whose necks could be as long as...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Were dinosaurs done in by gas?
	05/20/2009 3:52:48 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 41 replies · 518+ views Discovery | May 19, 2009 | Michael Reilly When a giant asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago, the results were devastating: rock and ocean water vaporized, searing debris flung into outer space, and a smoldering hole in the Earth almost 75 miles wide. Scientists debate whether the cataclysm was enough to wipe out the dinosaurs. But a new set of experiments shows the impact produced a huge amount of carbon monoxide, a compound commonly found in car exhaust. The sudden pulse of gas may have been enough to cause a large spike in global temperatures, and trigger a mass extinction.
Pole Shift
Giant Trees Once Grew in Iceland's West Fjords
	05/18/2009 8:06:19 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 474+ views IcelandReview | May 13, 2009 | unattributed The largest piece of wood coal that has ever been discovered in Iceland was recently brought down from a height of 300 meters from Mt. Ernir that towers over Bolungarvik. It indicates that giant trees once grew in the West Fjords. Its existence had been known for some time but the right opportunity to take it down from the mountain didn't present itself until recently, ruv.is reports. The wool coal is probably around 12 million years old and Thorleifur Eiriksson at the Nature Historic Institute of the West Fjords said that research of this time period and the biosphere of...
Sunken Civilizations
Wild, wild floods! (does growing evidence of massive regional floods point to single global flood?)
	05/17/2009 6:24:41 PM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 99 replies · 1,567+ views Journal of Creation | Emil Silvestru Recently the Brits have found out what really separated them from mainland Europe: catastrophic flooding!...
Climate
SUN heats EARTH, EARTH heats ATMOSPHERE - NOT The Other Way Around
	05/17/2009 6:11:58 AM PDT · Posted by steelyourfaith · 33 replies · 671+ views Right Side News | May 14, 2009 | Hans Schreuder The so-called greenhouse effect of the atmosphere is commonly explained as followed: "The heating effect exerted by the atmosphere upon the Earth because certain trace gases in the atmosphere (water vapor, carbon dioxide, etc.) absorb and reemit infrared radiation. [...] The component that is radiated downward warms the Earth's surface more than would occur if only the direct sunlight were absorbed. The magnitude of this enhanced warming is the greenhouse effect. Earth's annual mean surface temperature of 15°C is 33°C higher as a result of the greenhouse effect ..." The above definition is the accepted one by climate alarmists and...
Rome and Italy
Roman France
	05/16/2009 11:08:02 PM PDT · Posted by Cincinna · 23 replies · 628+ views The New York Times | May 17, 2009 | ELAINE SCIOLINO THE summer evening was autumnally cold and damp, the backless stone seats in the outdoor theater unforgiving. Many of the 8,000 spectators were irritable; most of us had shown for a rained-out performance the night before. And frankly, I've seen better productions of "Carmen." But as the performers began to move, their shadows rose 100 feet and danced across the imposing backdrop of a yellow limestone wall. A marble statue of Caesar Augustus stood ghostly white upon his perch in the wall, his right arm raised as if he had just commanded the singers to begin their performance. When Carmen...
Rome to open gladiators training ground to public
	05/21/2009 3:53:13 PM PDT · Posted by bruinbirdman · 26 replies · 429+ views The Telegraph | 5/21/2009 | Nick Squires In Rome Rome is to put over 30 historical sites including a gladiators training ground and the aqueduct that feeds the Trevi Fountain on display for the first time. The sites, part of a vast network of tunnels, caves and catacombs which lie beneath the city, will be open from the end of this month. Highlights are the 2,000-year-old aqueduct which is still used to bring water to parts of the city, including the Trevi Fountain, and Ludus Magnus, where gladiators -- many of them slaves and prisoners of war -- were taught how to fight.. There is also the headquarters of...
Archaeoastronomy and Megaliths
2,000 year-old megalith uncovered in Tam Dao
	05/22/2009 8:35:54 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 4 replies · 249+ views VietNamNet | 21 May 2009 | VietNamNet Researchers from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute and the Hanoi University of Culture have discovered a megalith of nearly 2,000 years old in Tao Dao district, Vinh Phuc province. The megalith of over three metres long, over one metre wide, and nearly 0.5 metres thick looks like a boat. It is propped up on four big rocks which are buried deep in the earth, which are also megaliths. Dr. Trinh Nang Chung, the leader of the archaeological team, said that this is a Dolmel relic, a kind of megalith culture. Such relics have been unveiled in some northern provinces of Ha...
Let's Have Jerusalem
First Temple period seal with the name Shaul found in City of David excavations
	05/20/2009 6:19:00 PM PDT · Posted by SJackson · 20 replies · 746+ views IMRa | 5-20-09 First Temple period seal with the name Shaul found in City of David excavations A photo of the seal in high resolution can be downloaded from this link - www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14 Press Release Tuesday May 19, 2009 A Bone Seal Engraved with the Name Shaul, from the Time of the First Temple, was Found in the IAA Excavations in the Walls Around Jerusalem National Park, in the City of David The seal was displayed during a visit there by the Knesset presidium prior to Jerusalem Day Today (Tuesday) the Knesset presidium, headed by Speaker Reuben Rivlin, visited the City of David...
Tell me - who's buried down there, anyway? [Suleiman al-Hijazi's grandfather]
	05/20/2009 8:16:11 PM PDT · Posted by SJackson · 2 replies · 361+ views Jerusalem Post | 5-20-09 | ABE SELIG Shimon Hatzadik was one of the last surviving members of the Great Assembly, the high priest who replaced Ezra - who had led the Jews back to Israel from the Babylonian exile - and the man whom Alexander the Great is said to have prostrated himself in front of, explaining that that it was his image that he always saw leading him to victory in battle. "But that's not who's buried down there," said a woman residing in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Wednesday, pointing toward a slope where a group of religious Jews were walking. "That's...
Faith and Philosophy
India and Israel: Diverse in a homogeneous world
	05/19/2009 5:58:45 AM PDT · Posted by SJackson · 20 replies · 305+ views Jerusalem Post | 5-19-09 | SETH J. FRANTZMAN In a recent book entitled The Hindus: Alternative History, Wendy Doniger claims that Hinduism was invented by the British. Doniger is a scholar of Indian religions at the University of Chicago. She argues that Hinduism's unity and its holy Vedas are primarily a myth created by Protestants who sought a "unified Hinduism." She further argues that upper-caste Brahmins and other elites in India collaborated with the British and invented a "British-Brahmin version of Hinduism - one of the many invented traditions born around the world in the 18th and 19th centuries." These "bad Hindus" are accused of having an inferiority...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Thinking Outside the Box (Noah's Ark hull design rivals modern ocean tankers!)
	05/17/2009 3:02:08 PM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 52 replies · 1,728+ views AiG | Tim Lovett --snip-- Noah's Ark was the focus of a major 1993 scientific study headed by Dr. Seon Hong at the world-class ship research center KRISO, based in Daejeon, South Korea. Dr. Hong's team compared twelve hulls of different proportions to discover which design was most practical. No hull shape was found to significantly outperform the 4,300-year-old biblical design. In fact, the Ark's careful balance is easily lost if the proportions are modified, rendering the vessel either unstable, prone to fracture, or dangerously uncomfortable...
Biology and Cryptobiology
Human-Ape Hybridization: A Failed Attempt to Prove Darwinism
	05/16/2009 9:43:28 PM PDT · Posted by GodGunsGuts · 49 replies · 1,405+ views ICR | May 2009 | Jerry Bergman, Ph.D. Human-Ape Hybridization: A Failed Attempt to Prove Darwinism by Jerry Bergman, Ph.D.* Ilya Ivanov (1870-1932) was an eminent biologist who achieved considerable success in the field of artificial insemination of horses and other animals. Called "one of the greatest authorities on artificial fecundation,"[1] he graduated from Kharkov University in 1896 and became a professor of zoology in 1907. His artificial insemination techniques were so successful that he was able to fertilize as many as 500 mares with the semen of a single stallion. Ivanov also pioneered the use of artificial insemination to produce various hybrids, including that of a zebra...
Agriculture and Animal Husbandry
China's millet spread to Europe 7,000 years ago
	05/18/2009 7:53:02 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 8 replies · 281+ views People's Daily Online | May 14, 2009 | unattributed Millet was brought into Europe from China more than 7,000 years ago, archaeologists from the University of Cambridge in the UK stated in a thesis published by US journal "Science" on May 8. The report, entitled "Origins of Agriculture in East Asia," was coauthored by Martin Jones, a professor of archaeology at the University of Cambridge and his Chinese student Liu Xinyi. The study said that charred millet seeds found in the Neolithic farming remains in Northeast China indicated that locals had planted millet as early as 8,000 years ago. Millet was gradually introduced to Europe during the next millennium....
Precolumbian, Clovis, and PreClovis
Unearthing the Mayan Creation Myth
	05/17/2009 12:19:23 PM PDT · Posted by decimon · 16 replies · 599+ views Discover | May 16, 2009 | Sam Kissinger Archaeologists who have uncovered two massive carved stucco panels in the Mirador Basin of Gua≠temala's northern rain forest say they are the earliest known representation of the Mayan creation myth, predating other such artifacts by a millennium. According to the researchers, the panels -- 26 feet long and 20 feet high, with images of monsters, gods, and swimming heroes -- date to 300 B.C. They formed the sides of a channel that carried rainwater into a complex system of stepped pools, where it was stored for drinking and agriculture.
Hand of Bridge
Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists
	05/20/2009 6:15:25 PM PDT · Posted by JoeProBono · 15 replies · 563+ views nationalgeographic | May 18, 2009 The glittering "grills" of some hip-hop stars aren't exactly unprecedented. Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to add bling to their teeth as far back as 2,500 years ago, a new study says. Ancient peoples of southern North America went to "dentists" -- among the earliest known -- to beautify their chompers with notches, grooves, and semiprecious gems, according to a recent analysis of thousands of teeth examined from collections in Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (such as the skull above, found in Chiapas, Mexico). Scientists don't know the origin of most of the teeth in the collections, which belonged to people living...
Hand of Bridge, 1492
Who Went With Columbus? Dental Studies Give Clues.
	05/18/2009 11:49:05 AM PDT · Posted by decimon · 20 replies · 641+ views Washington Post | May 18, 2009 | Kari Lydersen The first planned colonial town in the New World was founded in 1494, when about 1,200 of Christopher Columbus's crew members from the 17 ships that made up his second journey to the Americas settled on the north coast of what is now the Dominican Republic . Beset by mutiny, mismanagement, hurricanes and disease, the settlement of La Isabela lasted only a few years. The ruins remained largely intact until the 1950s, when a local official reportedly misunderstood the order from dictator Rafael Trujillo to clean up the site in preparation for visiting dignitaries, and had them mostly bulldozed into...
Malta
Scholar on ancient textile colours gives lecture in Malta
	05/21/2009 11:23:17 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 10 replies · 206+ views Malta Star | Thursday, May 21, 2009 | unattributed Professor Zvi C. Koren has recently given a lecture entitled 'The Fashionable Colours of Antiquity Uncovered by Scientific Analyses' at Heritage Malta's Institute of Conservation and Management of Cultural Heritage (ICMCH) in Bighi, Kalkara. Professor Koren's lecture was based upon the study of ancient colorants, which opens a historical window in the field of ancient technologies... The presentation discussed the various botanical and animal sources and the dyeing technologies associated with ancient colorants. The vegetal sources of dyestuffs that produce yellow, red and blue colours include amongst others, plant roots, leaves, flowers, tree bark and branches. These colours were also...
Radiometric Dating
Ancient clay has internal clock
	05/21/2009 3:57:56 PM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 5 replies · 256+ views BBC | Wednesday, May 20, 2009 | unattributed Fired clay ceramics start to react chemically with atmospheric moisture as soon as it is removed from the kiln. Researchers believe they can pinpoint the precise age of materials like brick, tile and pottery by calculating how much its weight has changed. The team from Edinburgh and Manchester universities hope the method will prove as significant as radiocarbon dating... Radiocarbon dating, used for bone or wood, cannot be used for ceramic material because it does not contain carbon... He and his team, from the universities of Edinburgh and Manchester and the Museum of London, were able to date brick samples...
Helix, Make Mine a Double
Pirate bones could be in that box, author says[NC]
	05/15/2009 8:50:49 AM PDT · Posted by BGHater · 11 replies · 392+ views The News & Observer | 15 May 2009 | JERRY ALLEGOOD State rejects request for DNA test on 18th-century remains from Bath A Raleigh author is attempting to reopen the 274-year-old estate of a Beaufort County man he thinks was once a member of Blackbeard's pirate crew -- and whose bones may be stored in a box in Raleigh. Kevin P. Duffus, a writer and filmmaker, says he needs access to the estate of Edward Salter, a landowner and merchant who died in 1735, to help confirm that the state has Salter's remains. With the backing of some of Salter's descendants, Duffus is seeking to have DNA testing done on bones...
Early America
Braddock's Road to War
	08/22/2004 9:53:14 AM PDT · Posted by Willie Green · 12 replies · 367+ views The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | Sunday, August 22, 2004 | Richard Robbins In the summer of 1755, soldiers faced heat, disease and enemies as they marched across a quarter of the American continent to do battle. That summer, some 2,400 French and Indian War troops under the command of British Gen. Edward Braddock walked from Virginia to stage what turned out to be a botched assault on the Point in Pittsburgh, the key to westward expansion and in the firm grip of the French and their Indian allies in the 1750s. "These were tough people," mused tourist Douglas Roach, as he rested on a bench next to Braddock's Grave along Route 40...
The American Colonist's Library-A Treasury of Primary Documents (Repost)
	12/05/2004 12:30:14 PM PST · Posted by Gritty · 20 replies · 15,711+ views Rick Gardiner Website | various | various Primary Source Documents Pertaining to Early American History -- An invaluable collection of historical works which contributed to the formation of American politics, culture, and ideals The following is a massive collection of the literature and documents which were most relevant to the colonists' lives in America. If it isn't here, it probably is not available online anywhere. Arranged In Chronological Sequence (500 B.C.-1800 A.D.) Given the Supreme Court's impending decision, the ultimate historic origins of the national motto, "In God We Trust" and...
You say you want a revolution? [TV Series on French&Indian War Alert]
	01/12/2006 5:24:59 AM PST · Posted by Pharmboy · 29 replies · 447+ views The Arlington Advocate | January 12, 2006 | Jennifer Mann When reflecting upon the momentous battles that shaped America as a country, most go no further back than the Revolutionary War. The French and Indian War, or what British and Canadians refer to as the Seven Years' War, is often relegated to a smaller place in U.S. history. But an upcoming four-part dramatic documentary, Episodes 1 and 3 of which were written, produced and directed by Arlington resident and filmmaker Eric Stange, intends to change perceptions of the 1754 to 1763 struggle. Titled "The War That Made America," the documentary premiering on PBS Jan. 18 and 25 explores how the...
The Framers
the 14th Amendment
	05/21/2009 11:14:03 AM PDT · Posted by SunkenCiv · 7 replies · 273+ views Constitution of the United States, via FindLaw et al | adopted on July 9, 1868 | The Framers et al FindLaw's commentary: In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress, in addition to proposing to the States the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, enacted seven statutes designed in a variety of ways to implement the provisions of these Amendments. Several of these laws were general civil rights statutes which broadly attacked racial and other discrimination on the part of private individuals and groups as well as by the States, but the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional or rendered ineffective practically all of these laws over the course of several years. In the end, Reconstruction was abandoned and with rare exceptions no...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Genes of 'Bearded Lady' Revealed
	05/21/2009 2:59:34 PM PDT · Posted by JoeProBono · 19 replies · 892+ views news.yahoo | Thu May 21 Julia Pastrana became famous as the "bearded lady" in the mid-1800s. Now, more than 150 years later, scientists have discovered the genetic mutations responsible for her rare condition. The disorder, known as congenital generalized hypertrichosis terminalis (CGHT) with gingival hypertrophy, is characterized by excessive growth of dark hairs all over the body, distorted facial features, and enlarged gums. In some cases, people can have CGHT with normal gums. All of these diseases fall into a group of conditions called congenital generalized hypertrichosis (CGH). The disease is difficult to study because it is so rare. After analyzing the genomes of members...
The Great War
Cross Village native among 'The Polar Bears' who fought for eight months in Russia inWWI
	05/21/2009 1:29:10 PM PDT · Posted by Tailgunner Joe · 9 replies · 381+ views harborlightnews.com | May 20, 2009 | Daniele Kapral In September 1918, though told they were headed to France, the soldiers in company M 339th Infantry were shipped from Camp Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan, to the bitter cold Archangel, Russia. The R.E.F (Russian Expeditionary Force), later referred to as "The Polar Bears," went to battle in a desolate, frozen land. They were left to fight eight months after World War I had ended, and became one of the most highly decorated regiments in all the war. These men will be remembered in a documentary film, "Voices of a Never Ending Dawn," which premieres this Memorial weekend in southern...
end of digest #253 20090523