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The unique library of the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum, buried beneath lava by Vesuvius's eruption in AD79, is slowly revealing its long-held secretsSTORED in a sky-lit reading room on the top floor of the Biblioteca Nazionale in Naples are the charred remains of the only library to survive from classical antiquity. The ancient world's other great book collections -- at Athens, Alexandria and Rome -- all perished in the chaos of the centuries. But the library of the Villa of the Papyri was conserved, paradoxically, by an act of destruction. Lying to the northwest of ancient Herculaneum, this...

It’s a safe bet that most of you reading these words have been to a professional football game. Many of you—particularly those who live in Philadelphia—have probably witnessed the occasional brawls between the home crowd and those foolish enough to wear an opposing team’s colors. A few of you, I dare say, have been involved in such altercations. But how often have you witnessed football fans actually kill opposition partisans? Well, perhaps I should qualify that by saying American football fans. When was the last time you heard of agitated sports nuts rioting in the streets and burning down half...

Major Archaeological Find in Puerto Rico Published: 10/28/07, 4:25 PM EDT By LAURA N. PEREZ SANCHEZSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - U.S. and Puerto Rican archaeologists say they have found the best-preserved pre-Columbian site in the Caribbean, which could shed light on virtually every aspect of Indian life in the region, from sacred rituals to eating habits. The archaeologists believe the site in southern Puerto Rico may have belonged to the Taino or pre-Taino people that inhabited the island before European colonization, although other tribes are a possibility. It contains stones etched with ancient petroglyphs that form a large plaza...

Public release date: 2-Aug-2007 Contact: Natasha Pinol npinol@aaas.org 202-326-7088 American Association for the Advancement of Science Beyond Mesopotamia: A radical new view of human civilization reported in ScienceMany urban centers crossed arc of Middle Asia 5,000 years ago A radically expanded view of the origin of civilization, extending far beyond Mesopotamia, is reported by journalist Andrew Lawler in the 3 August issue of Science. Mesopotamia is widely believed to be the cradle of civilization, but a growing body of evidence suggests that in addition to Mesopotamia, many civilized urban areas existed at the same time – about 5,000 years ago...

Mystery of Tut's Father: New Clues on Unidentified Mummy Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News July 10, 2007 Egyptologists have uncovered new evidence that bolsters the controversial theory that a mysterious mummy is the corpse of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, husband of Nefertiti and, some experts believe, the father of King Tut. (Photos: Who Was Tut's Father?) The mummy's identity has generated fierce debate ever since its discovery in 1907 in tomb KV 55, located less than 100 feet (30 meters) from King Tutankhamun's then hidden burial chamber. So an international team of researchers led by Zahi Hawass, head of...

The Kush kingdom was conquered by the Egyptians A team of archaeologists has discovered a huge ancient gold processing centre and a graveyard along the River Nile in northern Sudan.They were part of the 4,000-year-old Kush, or Nubian, kingdom. The scholars say the finds show the empire was much bigger than previously thought and rivalled ancient Egypt. The archaeologists are racing to dig up the Hosh el-Geruf area, some 225 miles from the capital, Khartoum, before the Merowe dam floods the area next year. The dam is due to create a lake 100 miles long and two miles wide,...

I just watched a trailer of the new movie coming out - 300. It looks fairly decent. Anyone have anything to say about the movie? There are scenes where the talk about freedom and being free. I do not know the history of back then, but watching the trailer, I seemed to get a connection with what is going on in the world right now concerning the WOT and the storyline of the movie. They go against Persia - modern day Iran. 300 against one million - the United States against the world. Am I reading too much into this?...

These Pictures tell it all! Muslims have stated that England will be the first country they take over! These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers (as they might help Bush's war on terror), but were forwarded to me by a Canadian Friend who thought Americans ought to know! These pictures are of Muslims marching through the streets of London during their recent "Religion of Peace Demonstration." & Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice, peaceful Moslems?! Americans need to Know - You need to forward this one to everyone...

If the current trend continues, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is going to end up being involved in the journalistic equivalent of the Bay of Pigs. His article in the latest issue of Rolling Stone Republicans stole the 2004 election in Ohio is coming under a massive assault - and from the unlikeliest of places. Monday in Salon, Farhad Manjoo reduced RFK, Jr.'s seemingly authoritative argument to rubble. Democratic pollster Mark Blumenthal followed suit later the same day by taking down Kennedy's claim that exit polling is an "exact science" and highlighting how he either misinterpreted or willfully distorted numerous aspects...

MACHU PICCHU, PERU – The Incas built this mysterious city here, it is told, to be closer to the gods. It was placed so high in the clouds, at 7,700 feet, that the empire- raiding Spaniards never found, or destroyed, it. Today, visitors to Machu Picchu see well-preserved ruins hidden among the majestic Andes: complete with palaces, baths, temples, tombs, sundials, and agricultural terraces, and also llamas roaming among hundreds of gray granite houses. But they won't find too many bowls, tools, ritual objects, or other artifacts used by the Incas of the late 1400s. To see those, they have...

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To All members: This is a true virus warning and not a hoax. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Warning Emails with pictures of Osama Bin-Laden hanged are being sent and the moment that you open these emails your computer will crash and you will not be able to fix it!!! This e-mail is being distributed through countries around the globe, but mainly in the US and Israel. Don't be inconsiderate; send this warning to whomever you know. Confirmed at: http://www.snopes.com/computer/virus/osama.asp Origins: There are few headlines that would grab the attention of more computer users around the world than "Osama bin Laden Captured," and that's...

Carthage tries to live down image as site of infanticide Thursday, May 26, 2005 By Andrew Higgins, The Wall Street Journal CARTHAGE, Tunisia -- Mhamed Hassine Fantar has a bone to pick with the Roman Empire, French writer Gustave Flaubert and a group of Americans who specialize in digging up old graves. An expert on ancient Carthage -- a city obliterated by the Romans more than 2,000 years ago -- Mr. Fantar is campaigning to clear his forefathers of a nasty stigma: a reputation for infanticide. "We didn't do it," says the 69-year-old archaeologist, rejecting accusations that the ancient citizens...

The queen of Sheba was once one of the most powerful leaders in the world but there are few clues left anywhere about this woman who ruled a rich and powerful nation somewhere in Africa -- perhaps, as some archeologists maintain, in what is now southwest Nigeria. Now, in what may be the site of her last home and gravesite, a University of Toronto professor is trying to unearth the queen's story -- partially told in the Old Testament -- as well as honouring her in the form of a new Nigerian museum and interpretive centre. "Each year both Muslim...

(05-18) 18:18 PDT CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Archaeologists digging in a 5,000-year-old site in southern Egypt have unearthed 200 rough ceramic beer and wine jars and a second mud-brick mortuary enclosure of King Hur-Aha the founder of the First Dynasty, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday. A joint American excavation mission from Yale University, Institute of Fine Arts, the Pennsylvania University Museum and New York Universities found the treasure Wednesday at Shunet El-Zebib, north of Abydos in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag.

US soldiers just miss taking Iraq's al-Qa'eda leader By Oliver Poole in Baghdad (Filed: 27/04/2005) American troops seized the computer of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq, when they came tantalisingly close to capturing the terrorist after chasing a truck in which he was travelling, it was disclosed yesterday. A senior military official described finding the laptop as "a seminal event" which would help to run to ground the Jordanian-born militant and unravel his network, responsible for many of Iraq's worst outrages, including the beheading of the British contractor, Ken Bigley. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi Details of the computer's discovery...

ALERT...ALERT...ALERT...ALERT The long awaited and highly anticipated Google e-mail (g-mail) has arrived; I believe it is still in Beta testing as the one time link I was sent for account activation disabled itself after signup...but perhaps by some creative poking around on their website, you too can find a sign up link. About G-mail

Poor ships saved Japan from Mongolian army PARIS: Science has dealt a blow to a Japanese legend which says the country was twice saved from a Mongolian fleet thanks to a “divine wind,” or kamikaze, that destroyed the invaders' ships. A 900-ship fleet, sent by the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan in 1274, met resistance from Japanese samurai before being forced into retreat by bad weather and was then ripped to pieces by the kamikaze. Kublai Khan tried again years later, amassing a vast fleet of 4,400 ships from China and Korea, most of which were sunk by strong winds off...

12/27/04Human Sacrifice Was Common in Burnt City Tehran (Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency) -- According to archeological research in the 5000-year-old burnt city, in eastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, sacrificing human beings was a common practice in ancient times. After excavating a number of graves in the cemetery of the burnt city, the Iranian archeological team came across signs of murder and generally beheaded bodies.“During excavations in the burnt city cemetery, we came across a grave with only one skull buried along with gifts and personal items needed for the afterlife. There was also another grave in the form of a...

5000 Years Ago, Women Held Power In Burnt City, Iran Dec 23, 2004, 11:34 CHN According to the research by an archeological team in the burnt city, women comprised the most powerful group in this 5000-year-old city. The archeological team has found a great number of seals in the women's graves. In ancient societies, holding a seal was a sign of power, and was of 2 kinds: personal and governmental. The burnt city ancient site located in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran, dates back to between 2000 and 3000 BC. "In the ancient world, there were tools used as a means...

Mystery of 'chirping' pyramid decoded Philip BallAcoustic analysis shows how temple transforms echoes into sounds of nature El Castillo's strange echoes have fascinated visitors for generations © Punchstock A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists. Nico Declercq of Ghent University and his colleagues have shown how sound waves ricocheting around the tiered steps of the El Castillo pyramid, at the Mayan ruin of Chichén Itzá near Cancún in Mexico, create sounds that mimic the chirp of a bird...

Anyone who took offense at Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ", with its depiction of Jewish leaders condemning Jesus, should get ready soon to be offended all over again. Gibson, it is reported, has his heart set on doing a movie version of the story commemorated by Hanukkah. His text will be the novel "My Glorious Brothers" by Howard Fast. Ironically, this book is a sentimental favorite with the older-generation Jewish audience that also tends to be the main financial supporter of Gibson’s primary antagonist, the Anti-Defamation League, which led the drive to condemn "The Passion" as anti-Semitic. The...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt plans to X-ray the mummy of Tutankhamun to find out what killed the king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago and died while only a teen-ager. Archaeologists will move Tutankhamun's body from its tomb, which was discovered packed with treasure in 1922, to Cairo for tests which should resolve the mystery over whether he died naturally or was murdered. "We will know about any diseases he had, any kind of injuries and his real age," Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told Reuters. "We will know the answer to whether he died normally or was...

Bush/Kerry animated short - it is hilarious! However, let me warn you, the size of the clip is 3.7 megabites, so it takes time to download (depending on the speed of your connection). You need Macromedia Flash Player http://www.jibjab.com/

The British Museum is to lend Iran one of its most famous antiquities, which is regarded as the first charter of human rights, 30 years after its loan to the Shah triggered a fierce diplomatic row. The inscriptions on the clay drum known as the Cyrus Cylinder detail the conquest of the Babylon of Belshazzar and Nebuchadnezzar by the 6th-century BC Persian king, Cyrus the Great. It was the Iraq/Iran war of the time. The victory made Cyrus the leader of the first world empire, stretching from Egypt to China. Cyrus proved a model ruler. He describes on the cylinder...

Ancestors Of Turks Came To Anatolia In 2000s B.C. AFP: 8/27/2004 ERZURUM - Various archeological and cultural findings prove that Turks had come to Anatolia around 2000s B.C., Associated Prof. Semih Guneri said on Friday. Prof. Guneri and his team recently unearthed artifacts in excavations in Turkey's eastern provinces of Erzurum and Hakkari. According to experts, steles discovered by Associated Prof. Veli Sevin in Hakkari in the past will shed light on the question of ''When did Turks first come to Anatolia?''. Experts started to discuss this matter when a statue head which was sculpted around 2000s B.C. and was...

Prehistoric Desert Town Found in Western Sahara Thu Aug 19, 2004 01:52 PM ET RABAT (Reuters) - The remains of a prehistoric town believed to date back 15,000 years and belong to an ancient Berber civilization have been discovered in Western Sahara, Moroccan state media said on Thursday. A team of Moroccan scientists stumbled across the sand-covered ruins of the town Arghilas deep in the desert of the Morocco-administered territory. The remains of a place of worship, houses and a necropolis, as well as columns and rock engravings depicting animals, were found at the site near the town of Aousserd...

Our main sources for early Hoplite warfare come from the writings of Herodotus, who was born in the Greek city of Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, in 484 bc. He was an Ionian Greek who traveled widely and lived for a while in Athens, before settling in Thurii, a Greek colony in southern Italy. He died about 424 BC. We also get information from Thucydides, an Athenian who wrote of the Pelopponnesian Wars. We can also find references in the works of several of the Greek playwrights' material on Hoplite warfare. We can find an account of...

Secrets of an ancient Persian armada sunk off the coast of Greece 2500 years ago are being dredged up by modern archaeologists. A team from Greece, Canada and the United States has just completed a second expedition to retrieve artefacts from 300 ships of the Persian King Darius that were wrecked in a storm off the Mt Athos Peninsula, northern Greece, in 492BC or 493BC. Aucklanders will be among the first to hear the results today when three of the expedition leaders present their findings in a free public lecture at Auckland University. In two trips so far, last October...

Previously secret sworn statements by detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq describe in raw detail abuse that goes well beyond what has been made public, adding allegations of prisoners being ridden like animals, sexually fondled by female soldiers and forced to retrieve their food from toilets. The fresh allegations of prison abuse are contained in statements taken from 13 detainees shortly after a soldier reported the incidents to military investigators in mid-January. The detainees said they were savagely beaten and repeatedly humiliated sexually by American soldiers working on the night shift at Tier 1A in Abu Ghraib during...

The classical Greeks were really nothing like us — at least that now seems the prevailing dogma of classical scholars of the last half-century. Perhaps due to the rise of cultural anthropology or, more recently, to a variety of postmodern schools of social construction, it is now often accepted that the lives of Socrates, Euripides, and Pericles were not similar to our own, but so far different as to be almost unfathomable. Shelley’s truism that “We are all Greeks” has now become, as we say, “inoperative.” M. I. Finley, the great historian of the ancient economy, spent a lifetime to...

Flush from the success of The Passion Of The Christ, Mel Gibson is looking back in time once again – to produce an epic about Boudicca, who led Britain against Roman conquerors. Dubbed “Braveheart with a bra”, the film will chronicle Boudicca’s rise from peasant girl to a military leader who united the Celtic tribes of Britain. Gibson’s production company, Icon, appears keen to cash in on further historical tales, after The Passion netted hundreds of millions of pounds at the box office. The film will be directed by Gavin O’Connor who told the Hollywood trade paper Variety: “What drew...

French archeologists find Marcus Aurelius 'head' AMMAN, April 22 (AFP) - French archeologists have unearthed a perfectly preserved head of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius in the ancient Nabatean city of Petra south of Jordan, the head of the mission told AFP Thursday. "A monumental white marble head, in excellent condition, belonging to a statue the emperor Marcus Aurelius was found in Petra by French archeologists," Christian Auge said. The head of the 2nd century AD Roman leader who was also known as the "good emperor" or the "philosopher-king" was found in the Qasr al-Bint area of Petra, a Nabatean...

The Real Spartacus The real Spartacus was a freeborn provincial from Thrace (Greek, but from the hill country and not considered "a real Greek" by the Athenians or the Romans.) He may have served as an auxiliary in the Roman army in Macedonia. He deserted the army, was outlawed, captured and sold into slavery. He was eventually purchased by Lentulus Batiatus and trained at his gladiatorial school in Capua. Spartacus means "from the city of Sparta" in Latin. 73 B.C.: Spartacus escaped with 70-80 gladiators, seizing the knives in the cook's shop and a wagon full of weapons. They camped...

SHARONVILLE - Nearly 2000 years ago a young Roman soldier wrote home, asking his father's permission to marry his girlfriend. In another letter, he asks for boots and socks to keep his feet warm during a cold winter. And he tells how he must violently put down those who revolt and riot in Alexandria. All this - and more - about life for Tiberianus, who lived in Roman Egypt, is being advanced through the work of a Princeton High School graduate now attending the University of Michigan. Last fall, Robert Stephan (Class of 2001) found some papyri - ancient writings...

Thomas Cahill's "How the Irish Saved Civilization" was a surprise best-seller in the mid-1990s. Since then he has released three other highly regarded books in a planned seven-part work he calls the "Hinges of History" that chronicle the origins of the modern world. "They are The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels" (1998); "Desire of the Everlasting Hills: the World Before and After Jesus" (1999); and most recently "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter" (2003) all published by Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. Cahill was recently in Denver and...

Magi (Majusian) From old Persian language, a priest of Zarathustra (Zoroaster). The Bible gives us the direction, East and the legend states that the wise men were from Persia (Iran) - Balthasar, Melchior, Caspar - thus being priests of Zarathustra religion, the mages. Obviously the pilgrimage had some religious significance for these men, otherwise they would not have taken the trouble and risk of travelling so far. But what was it? An astrological phenomenon, the Star? Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, was erected in 329 by Queen Helena in the area it was believed to be where Jesus was born....

JERUSALEM - For centuries it has been known as "Absalom's Tomb." People made pilgrimages to it. Jews, Christians, and Muslims would throw stones at it to punish King David's rebellious son. But now, because of an almost chance discovery, one of Jerusalem's oldest landmarks is reemerging as one of the sites of early Christianity. A recently unveiled inscription, believed to date circa AD 350, identifies the monument as the tomb of Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist. Scholars say it does not necessarily mean Zacharias was buried on the site and some completely discount that possibility. But the find...

Many Christians think that Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the church fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. Almost no one minds, except for a few groups on the fringes of American Evangelicalism, who seem to think that this makes Christmas itself a pagan festival. But it is perhaps interesting to know that the choice of December 25th is the result of attempts among the earliest Christians to figure out the date of Jesus’ birth based on calendrical calculations that had nothing to do with pagan festivals. Rather, the pagan festival of the “Birth of the...

The Real History of the Crusades By Thomas F. Madden With the possible exception of Umberto Eco, medieval scholars are not used to getting much media attention. We tend to be a quiet lot (except during the annual bacchanalia we call the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Kalamazoo, Michigan, of all places), poring over musty chronicles and writing dull yet meticulous studies that few will read. Imagine, then, my surprise when within days of the September 11 attacks, the Middle Ages suddenly became relevant. As a Crusade historian, I found the tranquil solitude of the ivory tower shattered by...

Drought that destroyed a civilisation MARTIN WILLIAMS November 11 2003 IT is one of history's biggest mysteries and has confounded experts for hundreds of years. But a team of scientists believe they have discovered why the world's first great civilisation, established in Egypt nearly 5000 years ago, crumbled and plunged into a dark age that lasted for more than 1000 years. The researchers, including one academic from St Andrews University, have produced new evidence linking the demise of the Egyptian Old Kingdom with decades of drought after a study of layers of sediment at the source of the Blue Nile...

WMD 404

BLOODY KING LINKED TO SAXON BEACH FIND By Richard Wright A RARE gold sword belt ornament which could have belonged to the seventh century Saxon king, Caedwalla, has been found on an Island beach - and there could be another hidden under the sands. Discovery of the intricate gold decoration encrusted with garnets is regarded as being especially historically significant because it could have belonged to the king reputed to have put a quarter of the Island population to the sword in his attempt to convert them to Christianity. Enthusiast Darren Trickey, 21, had gone out for a few minutes...

Sacred Precincts: A Tartessian Sanctuary in Ancient Spain Sebastián Celestino and Carolina López-Ruiz When the Phoenicians arrived on the Iberian peninsula, probably at the end of the ninth century B.C., they came into contact with an indigenous people called the Tartessians. The two cultures soon fused. The hybrid culture produced by this fusion of peoples is evident in a mysterious structure at Cancho Roano, deep in the heart of south-central Spain. The structure at Cancho Roano is sometimes called a “palace-sanctuary” because of its monumentality. But it was not a palace at all; it was simply a Tartessian sanctuary, which...

Granada, Spain – A dispenser of iced lemonade sits invitingly by the door of the newly whitewashed building — hospitality for summer visitors coming to the first mosque built in Granada in over 500 years. But looming over the freshly planted garden, seeming to quiver in the furnacelike heat, is another image: the Alhambra, a 14th-century Muslim fortress of red-tinted stone that is everything this mosque is not: ancient, battle-scarred, monumental. It seems at once a reminder of lost glories and a spur for their restoration. It may also inspire darker sentiments. For it was from the Alhambra's watchtower that...

Appalachian Sands Covered N. America Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News Navajo Sandstone Sept. 12, 2003 — The vast and mysterious Sahara-like sea of sand that once covered much of western North America came from an Amazon-like river that brought sand from the far-off Appalachians, not the Rockies, geologists said. Thick remnants of the 190 million-year-old sand sea are found today in the scenic, buff-colored Navajo Sandstone cliffs of Utah, New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. By studying durable minerals in the sandstone called zircons, Yale University geologist Jeffrey Rahl and his colleagues have found a chemical signature that reveals their surprisingly distant...

The secret of imperial purple has been rediscovered. A British amateur chemist has worked out how the ancient Romans dyed the togas of emperors this deep colour thanks to a bacterium found in cockles from the supermarket Tesco. The hue had special significance as the colour of imperial power. Cleopatra also had the sails on her ship dyed the same colour. The recipe for the dye had been kept a craft secret, even in ancient Egypt and Rome. There are few references to the dying process in the historical literature. Green to purple Modern chemistry can make every shade of...

Did Caligula have a God complex?Stanford, Oxford archaeologists find evidence that depraved tyrant annexed sacred temple BY JOHN SANFORD Archaeologists from Stanford, Oxford and the American Institute for Roman Culture have unearthed evidence that Caligula, in an act of astonishing hubris, extended his palace to the podium of a sacrosanct temple. The discovery, made during the final weeks of a month-and-a-half-long dig this summer in the Roman Forum, appears to support accounts by some ancient historians that the profligate but short-lived emperor was a megalomaniac. "It's the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth taking over St. Paul's Cathedral as an anteroom,"...