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Keyword: platoprehistorian

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  • Runes were just as advanced as Roman alphabet writing, says researcher

    03/08/2023 11:05:31 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies
    Phys dot org ^ | March 3, 2023 | Lisbet Jære, University of Oslo
    In the Middle Ages, the Roman alphabet and runes lived side by side. A new doctoral thesis challenges the notion that runes represent more of an oral and less of a learned form of written language....Johan Bollaert, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies... has investigated written language used in public inscriptions in Norway from the 1100s to the 1500s. Last autumn, he defended his doctoral thesis "Visuality and Literacy in the Medieval Epigraphy of Norway."The assumption that runes represent a more oral tradition is based on the idea that runic inscriptions are contextually bound and are...
  • Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing

    11/12/2016 9:06:16 AM PST · by JimSEA · 23 replies
    New Science ^ | 11/9/2016 | Alison George
    cave paintings Spot the signs: geometric forms can be found in paintings, as at Marsoulas in France Philippe Blanchot / hemis.fr / Hemis/AFP By Alison George When she first saw the necklace, Genevieve von Petzinger feared the trip halfway around the globe to the French village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac had been in vain. The dozens of ancient deer teeth laid out before her, each one pierced like a bead, looked roughly the same. It was only when she flipped one over that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. On the reverse were three etched symbols: a...
  • Bulgaria's Burgas Showcases for the first time 7,000-year-old... 'Pre-Alphabetic Writing'

    06/13/2016 11:25:52 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 22 replies
    Archaeology in Bulgaria ^ | June 12, 2016 | Ivan Dikov
    A nearly 7,000-year-old ceramic prism with what might be pre-alphabetic writing has been unveiled to the public for the first time by the Regional Museum of History in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Burgas. The prism-shaped prehistoric artifact featuring the supposedly pre-alphabetic signs on its four sides was discovered during the excavations of an Early Chalcolithic settlement mound near Burgas back in 2008, and has never been shown to the public before. The artifact (and the Burgas Chalcolithic Mound where it was found) dates back to the Early Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) – 4,900 / 4,850-4,600 / 4,550 BC, the...
  • Prehistoric Hand Stencils In Spanish Caves Not Randomly Placed, Say Researchers

    04/23/2016 11:54:33 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 44 replies
    Popular Archaeology ^ | Sunday, April 17, 2016 | editors
    Prehistoric cave occupants paid attention to cave wall morphology and touch when creating hand stencils. Human occupants of two caves in Northern Spain put some thought into where they placed their hand stencils on cave walls as much as 37,000 years ago, during Palaeolithic times. The topography and physical characteristics of the walls in the low light conditions of the caves seem to have mattered to them, suggest a team of researchers... What they found was a pattern that indicated selection or attention to certain types of natural cave wall features for placement of the stencils. "In total 80% of...
  • Ancient Apocalypse is the most dangerous show on Netflix

    11/26/2022 3:11:24 AM PST · by blueplum · 97 replies
    The Guardian ^ | 23 Nov 2022 | Stuart Heritage
    A show with a truly preposterous theory is one of the streaming giant’s biggest hits – and it seems to exist solely for conspiracy theorists. Why has this been allowed? At the time of writing, Ancient Apocalypse has been comfortably sitting in Netflix’s Top 10 list for several days. This presents something of a mystery.... ... if he’s right, and the history of humanity really is just the first five minutes of Prometheus, it would change everything we know about ourselves. But we certainly shouldn’t treat his hodgepodge of mysteries and coincidences as fact. That’s the danger of a show...
  • Who Invented the Alphabet: The Semites or the Greeks?

    01/17/2011 6:27:27 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 51 replies
    Archaeolgy Odyssey ^ | Winter 1998 | Barry B. Powell
    I would make the startling suggestion that the alphabet was invented by a single human being, who created this remarkable technology to record the Greek hexameters of the poet we call Homer. Certainly everyone agrees that the invention of the alphabet made possible the development of philosophy, science and democracy, some of the finest achievements in the history of human culture. But who invented the alphabet? Was it really the Semitic-speaking Phoenicians, as many of us learned in grammar school? Or was it actually the Greeks, to whom the Phoenicians supposedly passed it? I don't believe the Phoenicians actually had...
  • Beyond Mesopotamia: A Radical New View Of Human Civilization Reported In Science

    08/02/2007 2:55:22 PM PDT · by blam · 47 replies · 1,241+ views
    Eureka Alert ^ | 8-2-2007 | American Association For Advancement Of Science/Andrew Lawler
    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...
  • Petroglyph in Spain Marks when Atlantic and Mediterranean Cultures Met

    10/06/2015 6:17:04 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 36 replies
    popular-archaeology.com ^ | Mon, Oct 05, 2015 | Staff
    Bronze Age rock carving depicts a Mediterranean style boat. Above: A graphic representation of the Auga dos Cebros petroglyph, showing the obvious boat feature at the bottom. This image is a screenshot of the same as depicted in the YouTube video (see below). =================================================================================================================== A unique petroglyph discovered near the Atlantic coast of northern Spain has provided evidence that contacts between ancient Atlantic cultures and contemporaneous cultures of the Mediterranean were earlier and perhaps more intense than previously thought. The rock art panel, located in the Costa dos Castros region and known as Auga dos Cebros, depicts a boat with...
  • How Neanderthals met a grisly fate: devoured by humans

    05/17/2009 3:55:56 AM PDT · by LibWhacker · 65 replies · 2,058+ 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.
  • Neanderthals in Color

    05/06/2012 7:48:57 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 52 replies
    Archaeology, v65, n3 ^ | May/June 2012 | Zach Zorich
    In 1981, when Wil Roebroeks of Leiden University was beginning his archaeological career, he ran across some red stains in the grayish sediments on the floodplain of the Maas River where his team was excavating. The site, called Maastricht-Belvèdère, in The Netherlands, was occupied by Neanderthals at least 200,000 years ago. Roebroeks collected and stored samples of the red stains, and 30 years later he received funding to analyze them. It became apparent that he and his team had discovered the earliest evidence of hominins using the mineral iron oxide, also known as ocher. Until now, the use of...
  • New Lemnian Inscription

    12/28/2014 11:18:54 AM PST · by SunkenCiv · 40 replies
    Rasenna Blog ^ | December 1, 2010 | rwallace
    A new Lemnian inscription was discovered recently during excavation of an ancient sanctuary at Efestia on the island of Lemnos. The inscription was incised in two lines on the upper portion of a rectangular altar measuring 50 cm. in length and 13.05 cm. in height (see photograph below). The direction of writing is boustrophedon. The upper line reads from left-to-right, the lower line from right-to-left. The inscription has 26 letters plus punctuation marks in the form of three vertically-aligned points separating words. The transcription provided below is that given by de Simone (2009). The letter âi (= palatal sibilant) is...
  • Kerala's possible Mediterranean links unearthed by researchers

    03/19/2010 4:28:26 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 13 replies · 320+ views
    Business Ghana ^ | March 9th 2010 | GNA
    A wide range of megalithic burials recently discovered in some northern districts of Kerala during a research project have thrown light on possible links between the Mediterranean and Kerala coasts in the prehistoric stone age that occurred between 6000 BC and 2000 BC. The researchers, however, say further studies and analysis are required to establish the thesis. Interestingly, the finds were unearthed at a time when the researchers have firmly established the maritime links between the Mediterranean region with Kerala since ancient times... The recent study was done by V P Devadas, principal investigator, as part of a project of...
  • Runestone hits the road with U-Haul (MN)

    05/28/2011 11:35:08 PM PDT · by ButThreeLeftsDo · 18 replies
    StarTribune.com ^ | 5/28/22 | Kelly Smith
    A controversial Minnesota artifact is making a name for itself across the country in its next biggest publicity move. The Kensington Runestone, which was unearthed in Minnesota but has been long disputed as a hoax, will now be featured on 2,300 20-foot moving trucks across the country. U-Haul unveiled the image Saturday morning at the Alexandria museum that houses the stone during the city's "Awake the Lakes" celebration. About 1,000 people celebrated the announcement at the Runestone Museum with T-shirts and a truck depicting the stone behind a large Vikings ship -- the fourth image representing Minnesota on the company's...
  • Seafaring in the Aegean: new dates

    03/02/2012 6:23:34 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 10 replies
    Stone Pages ^ | January 21, 2012 | Journal of Archaeological Science
    Seafaring before the Neolithic -- circa 7th millennium BCE -- is a controversial issue in the Mediterranean. However, evidence from different parts of the Aegean is gradually changing this, revealing the importance of early coastal and island environments. The site of Ouriakos on the island of Lemnos (Greece) tentatively dates to the end of the Pleistocene and possibly the beginning of the Holocene, circa 12,000 BP... Obsidian, or 'volcanic glass', has been a preferred material for stone tools wherever it is found or traded. It also absorbs water vapour when exposed to air -- for instance, when it is shaped...
  • Humans worked the Welsh hills 10,000 years ago

    06/17/2009 4:26:34 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 21 replies · 816+ views
    News Wales ^ | Wednesday, June 17, 2009 | unattributed
    Hunters and farmers were using the Clwydian Hills in North Wales 10,000 years ago, new research has revealed. Analysis of a sample of earth extracted from the Clwydian Range has pieced together the timeline of human activity on the hills dating back almost 10,000 years. The sample was taken from Moel Llys y Coed near Cilcain, to provide a picture for the change in the landscape over the years to become the heather moorland seen today... Techniques used included analysis of the pollen present in the sample and radio carbon dating. Evidence of burning in the Mesolithic period (8000-4000BC) implies...
  • Animal Connection: New Hypothesis for Human Evolution and Human Nature

    07/23/2010 3:11:21 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 26 replies · 1+ views
    ScienceDaily ^ | July 20, 2010 | adapted from Penn State material written by Kevin Stacey
    It's no secret to any dog-lover or cat-lover that humans have a special connection with animals.... paleoanthropologist Pat Shipman of Penn State University argues that this human-animal connection goes well beyond simple affection. Shipman proposes that the interdependency of ancestral humans with other animal species... played a crucial and beneficial role in human evolution over the last 2.6 million years... "Having sharp tools transformed wimpy human ancestors into effective predators who left many cut marks on the fossilized bones of their prey," Shipman said. Becoming a predator also put our ancestors into direct competition with other carnivores for carcasses and...
  • A Turkish origin for Indo-European languages

    08/24/2012 8:04:40 AM PDT · by Renfield · 43 replies
    Nature.com ^ | 8-23-2012 | Alyssa Joyce
    Languages as diverse as English, Russian and Hindi can trace their roots back more than 8,000 years to Anatolia — now in modern-day Turkey. That's the conclusion of a study1 that assessed 103 ancient and contemporary languages using a technique normally used to study the evolution and spread of disease. The researchers hope that their findings can settle a long-running debate about the origins of the Indo-European language group...
  • 9500 year old obsidian bracelet shows exceptional craft skills

    12/29/2011 10:36:07 PM PST · by SunkenCiv · 74 replies
    Past Horizons ^ | Tuesday, December 27, 2011 | LTDS press release
    Researchers have analysed the oldest obsidian bracelet ever identified, discovered in the 1990s at the site of Asikli Höyük, Turkey. A high level of technical expertise Using high-tech methods developed by LTDS to study the bracelet's surface and micro-topographic features, the researchers have revealed the astounding technical expertise of craftsmen in the eighth millennium BCE. Their skills were highly sophisticated for this period in late prehistory, and on a par with today's polishing techniques. This work is published in the December 2011 issue of Journal of Archaeological Science, and sheds new light on Neolithic societies. Dated to 7500 BCE, the...
  • In Ruin, Symbols on a Stone Hint at a Lost Asian Culture

    05/25/2011 6:02:59 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 20 replies
    New York Times ^ | May 13, 2001 | John Noble Wilford
    In an unexpected benefit of the cold war's end, Russian and American archaeologists say they have discovered an ancient civilization that thrived in Central Asia more than 4,000 years ago, before being lost in the sweep of history. The people of that area, the archaeologists say, built oasis settlements with imposing mud-brick buildings and fortifications. They herded sheep and goats and grew wheat and barley in irrigated fields. They had bronze axes, fine ceramics, alabaster and bone carvings and jewelry of gold and semiprecious stones. They left luxury goods in the graves of an elite class. The accomplishments of those...
  • Hunting for the Dawn of Writing, When Prehistory Became History

    10/30/2010 7:17:25 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 19 replies
    New York Times ^ | October 19, 2010 | Geraldine Fabrikant
    One of the stars of the Oriental Institute's new show, "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond," is a clay tablet that dates from around 3200 B.C. On it, written in cuneiform, the script language of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, is a list of professions, described in small, repetitive impressed characters that look more like wedge-shape footprints than what we recognize as writing. In fact "it is among the earliest examples of writings that we know of so far," according to the institute's director, Gil J. Stein, and it provides insights into the life of...