Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

Again, only a day late. Swamped yesterday. Slow week for GGG.

Belated Happy Haiku Day.

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #42
Saturday, May 7, 2005

Anatolia

The Seeds Of Civilization (Catalhoyuk)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/05/2005 9:43:03 AM PDT · 15 replies · 376+ views

The Smithsonian | 5-5-2005 | Smithsonian
The Seeds of Civilization Why did humans first turn from nomadic wandering to villages and togetherness? The answer may lie in a 9,500-year-old settlement in central Turkey Since researchers first began digging at Catalhoyuk (pronounced "Chah-tahl-hew-yook") in the 1960s, they've found more than 400 skeletons under the houses, which are clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Burying the dead under houses was common at early agricultural villages in the Near East-at Catalhoyuk, one dwelling alone had 64 skeletons. Archaeologist Ian Hodder and his colleagues are also working to decipher paintings and sculptures found at Catalhoyuk. The surfaces of many houses are...

Ancient Egypt

2,300-Year-Old Mummy Unveiled in Egypt

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/03/2005 9:43:09 AM PDT · 37 replies · 841+ views

AP | May 3 | PAUL GARWOOD
SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) - A superbly maintained 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brightly colored images of gods and goddesses was unveiled Tuesday at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo. The unidentified mummy, from the 30th pharaonic dynasty, had been closed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot shaft before being discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological team. "We have revealed what may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said as he helped excavators remove the sarcophagus'...

Asia

Tantalizing Clues In Ancient Mounds (Japan/Jomon)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/04/2005 11:31:36 AM PDT · 17 replies · 514+ views

Asahi News | 5-4-2005 | Asahi Shimbun
Tantalizing clues in ancient mounds 05/04/2005 The Asahi Shimbun SAGA-Ancient mounds here may be among the nation's oldest and prove that the original owners were pretty inventive for their day. Recent excavations at the Higashimyo archeological site indicate the shell mounds date back 7,000 years-to the early Jomon Period (8000 B.C.-300 B.C.). Higashimyo has western Japan's largest such mounds. They are believed to have been created by the dumping of shells and other refuse. Remains of more than 40 baskets, hand-woven from thin strips of wood, have been found there. Experts say they may be the oldest so far discovered....

Biology and Cryptobiology

Earliest Domesticated Dog Uncovered

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/08/2003 5:55:22 PM PDT · 31 replies · 84+ views

Discovery News | 5-7-2003 | Jennifer Viegas
Earliest Domesticated Dogs Uncovered By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Skull of a Stone Age Dog April 7, 2003 — The skulls of two Stone Age dogs believed to be the earliest known canines on record have been found, according to a team of Russian scientists. The dog duo, which lived approximately 14,000 years ago, appear to represent the first step of domestication from their wild wolf ancestors. Mikhail Sablin, a scientist at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, along with his colleague Gennady Khlopachev, analyzed the dog remains, which were found at the Eliseevichi...

Wild Dingoes Descended From Domestic Dogs

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/29/2003 9:22:30 AM PDT · 15 replies · 209+ views

New Scientist | 9-29-2003 | Emma Young
Wild dingoes descended from domestic dogs 12:45 29 September 03 NewScientist.com news service The mysterious origin of Australia's wild dingoes has become substantially clearer following new genetic research. It shows the animals descended from domestic dogs introduced from South East Asia about 5000 years ago. The ancestry of dingoes has been much debated. The time of arrival, the source and type of animal - wild or domestic - were all uncertain. "There hasn't been a lot of evidence, so everything has been speculation," says Alan Wilton, of the University of New South Wales. Wilton, with colleagues including Peter Savolainen at...

Catastrophism and Astronomy

Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 03/04/2002 6:31:38 AM PST · 13 replies · 83+ views

Science Daily | 3-4-2002
Date: Posted 3/4/2002 Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets, Researchers Say WASHINGTON (February 28, 2002) -- The bombardment that resurfaced the Earth 3.9 billion years ago was produced by asteroids, not comets, according to David Kring of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Barbara Cohen, formerly at the UA and now with the University of Hawaii. Their findings appear today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, published by the American Geophysical Union. The significance of this conclusion is that the bombardment was so severe that it destroyed older rocks on ...

Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues To Ancient Cataclysm

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 11/16/2001 1:23:50 PM PST · 21 replies · 87+ views

Natinal Geographic | 11-13-2001 | Hillary Mayell
Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues to Ancient Cataclysm Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News November 13, 2001 About 35 million years ago—the dinosaurs are dead, but the Appalachian Mountains are still covered in tropical rain forests—a rock from space that was more than a mile wide and moving at supersonic speed crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off North America. Traveling at about 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) an hour, the asteroid or comet (bolide) splashed through several hundred feet of water and several thousand feet of mud and sediment. Drilling for Knowledge A trailer hauls drilling rods the U.S. Geological Survey ...

Scientists Uncover 'Deep Impact' Disaster From Space

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/13/2003 6:10:30 PM PDT · 34 replies · 204+ views

Ananova | 6-12-2003
Scientists uncover 'deep impact' disaster from spaceA new report suggests that a massive object from space smashed into what is now the Moroccan desert 380 million years ago, wiping out 40% of the world's marine species. The discovery adds to the evidence linking such impacts with mass extinction events. Only one other impact by a large comet or asteroid has convincingly been held responsible for a mass extinction. That occurred off the Yucatan peninsular in Mexico 65 million years ago and is thought to have ended the reign of the dinosaurs. The newly discovered impact coincided with the Kacak/otomari extinction,...

Origins and Prehistory

Chinese Roots: Skull May Complicate Human-Origins Debate

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/02/2003 11:03:24 AM PST · 82 replies · 273+ views

Science News | 12-21/28-2002 | Bruce Bower
Chinese Roots: Skull may complicate human-origins debate Bruce Bower In 1958, farm workers digging in a cave in southern China's Liujiang County discovered several human bones including a skull. Relying on its resemblance to securely dated human fossils in Japan, scientists assigned this Homo sapiens skull an age of 20,000 to 30,000 years. ASIAN CONNECTION. If southern China's Liujiang skull is really more than 100,000 years old, this modern Homo sapiens fossil will shake up theories of human evolution. W. Wang However, the Liujiang finds may be much older than that, according to a report in the December Journal of...

Geneticists expose racism as nonsense-We started off black & brown, we'll all end up black & brown

Posted by chance33_98
On News/Activism 08/09/2003 8:05:00 PM PDT · 33 replies · 263+ views

sundaytimes.co.za
Geneticists expose racism as nonsense Rowan Philp Gene experts have declared race to be no more than an accident of geography - and predict the future of black and white South Africa will probably be more shades of brown. Racism is scientifically unfounded, confirmed Professor Trefor Jenkins, Professor Emeritus at Wits University, and Dr Himla Soodyall, director of the Human Genomic Research Unit. The genetic pool in the country was already so mixed that supremacists had no hope of a pure lineage, they said during a series of workshops at the National Festival of Science, Engineering and Technology in...

New Age For Mungo Man, New Human History

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 02/20/2003 3:51:29 PM PST · 34 replies · 161+ views

Science Daily | FR Post 2-18-03 | Editorial Staff
New Age For Mungo Man, New Human HistoryA University of Melbourne-led study has finally got scientists to agree on the age of Mungo Man, Australia's oldest human remains, and the consensus is he is 22,000 years younger. A University of Melbourne-led team say Mungo Man's new age is 40,000 years, reigniting the debate for the 'Out of Africa' theory. The research also boosted the age of Mungo Lady, the world's first recorded cremation, by 10,000 years putting her at the same age as Mungo Man. It is the first time scientists have reached a broad agreement on the ages of...

Australia DNA Challenges Human Origin Theories

Posted by Pharmboy
On News/Activism 01/10/2001 08:30:57 PST · 43 replies · 45+ views

Reuters Health via Yahoo | 1/9/2001 | Keith Mulvihill
Australian researchers have found ancient DNA evidence that throws into question current scientific beliefs about where humans first evolved. A team of scientists extracted "mitochondrial" DNA from fossils found in 1974 near Lake Mungo in the state of New South Wales. These fossils, dating from as far back as 60,000 years, had previously been identified as anatomically modern, meaning that they look and function very similarly to the skeletons of people living today. But the researchers report in the January 9th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from these ancient humans is extinct, or not present in humans living today....

Noses Didn't Need Cold To Evolve (Neanderthal)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/05/2005 8:54:08 AM PDT · 12 replies · 447+ views

Science News Magazine | 5-5-2005 | Bruce Bower
Noses didn't need cold to evolve Bruce Bower From Milwaukee, at a joint meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society and American Association of Physical Anthropologists Fossil evidence that Neandertals possessed exceptionally large, broad noses has often been explained as an evolutionary response to life in cold, dry locales. An expansive schnoz might have warmed incoming cold air or expelled body heat during hunting and other strenuous activities. However, new data indicate that climate played no role in shaping the Neandertal nose. Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his coworkers found similarly sized nasal passages in a...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

DNA finally identifies child killed in Titanic sinking

Posted by Asmodeus
On News/Activism 11/06/2002 11:22:19 AM PST · 12 replies · 130+ views

Associated Press
TORONTO -- Nearly a century ago, Canadian sailors buried an unidentified infant who died on the Titanic and, touched by the tragedy, called him the Unknown Child -- a symbol of the children lost in the luxury liner sinking. Now at last, the child is known. On Tuesday, Magda Schleifer, a retired Finnish bank clerk, visited the grave, which DNA tests have now established holds the remains of one of her relatives. "First I thought this could not be true,'' Schleifer, 68, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Schleifer had long known that her...

end of digest #42 20050507

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #43
Saturday, May 14, 2005

Anatolia

The Seeds Of Civilization (Catalhoyuk)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/05/2005 9:43:03 AM PDT · 15 replies · 398+ views

The Smithsonian | 5-5-2005 | Smithsonian
The Seeds of Civilization Why did humans first turn from nomadic wandering to villages and togetherness? The answer may lie in a 9,500-year-old settlement in central Turkey Since researchers first began digging at Catalhoyuk (pronounced "Chah-tahl-hew-yook") in the 1960s, they've found more than 400 skeletons under the houses, which are clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Burying the dead under houses was common at early agricultural villages in the Near East-at Catalhoyuk, one dwelling alone had 64 skeletons. Archaeologist Ian Hodder and his colleagues are also working to decipher paintings and sculptures found at Catalhoyuk. The surfaces of many houses are...

Ancient Egypt

2,300-Year-Old Mummy Unveiled in Egypt

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/03/2005 9:43:09 AM PDT · 37 replies · 923+ views

AP | May 3 | PAUL GARWOOD
SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) - A superbly maintained 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brightly colored images of gods and goddesses was unveiled Tuesday at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo. The unidentified mummy, from the 30th pharaonic dynasty, had been closed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot shaft before being discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological team. "We have revealed what may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said as he helped excavators remove the sarcophagus'...

CT Scans Show What King Tut Looked Like

Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 05/10/2005 1:20:56 PM PDT · 46 replies · 1,773+ views

Yahoo News | 5/10/05 | MAAMOUN YOUSSEF/AP
The first ever facial reconstructions based on CT scans of King Tutankhamun's mummy have produced images strikingly similar to the boy pharaoh's ancient portraits, Egypt's top archaeologist said Tuesday. One of the models shows a baby-faced young man with chubby cheeks and a round chin — with a resemblance to the famous gold mask of King Tut found in his tomb in 1922 by British excavation Howard Carter. Three teams of forensic artists and scientists — from France, the United States and Egypt — built models of the boy pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT...

Fractured Leg Bone Not The End Of Tutankhamen Mystery

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 04/01/2005 1:30:06 PM PST · 10 replies · 623+ views

Science Daily/University Of Liverpool | 2005-04-01
Fractured Leg Bone Not The End Of Tutankhamen Mystery Original X-rays of Tutankhamen's body, taken by scientists at the University of Liverpool, could throw new light on the mystery of the young King's death. Robert Connolly, Senior Lecturer in Physical Anthropology from the University's Department of Human Anatomy and Cell Biology, is working with the Egyptian authorities to analyse recent findings from a CT scan of the mummy and has been asked to comment on suggestions by scientists that Tutankhamen died as a result of an infection following an injury to the femur bone. Mr Connolly has re-analysed the original...

Tutankhamun died of gangrene

Posted by SkyPilot
On News/Activism 05/10/2005 6:41:42 PM PDT · 94 replies · 2,357+ views

10 May 05 | Not listed
Egyptian scientists have finally lifted the veil of mystery surrounding famed pharaoh Tutankhamun's death, saying he died of a swift attack of gangrene after breaking his leg. "After consultations with Italian and Swiss experts, Egyptian scientists ... have found that a fracture in the boy king's left leg a day before his death was infected with gangrene and led to his passing," Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday. "The fracture was not sustained during the mummification process or as a result of some damage to the mummy as claimed by (British archeologist Howard) Carter," who discovered the sarcophagus of...

The King of Egyptology

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/12/2005 12:20:51 AM PDT · 23 replies · 304+ views

Gulf News | 5/9/2005 | Sonali Raha
Beyond Egypt's political demonstrations and suicide bombings lies a country where history lives outside classrooms. A country that draws inspiration — and money — from its past to fuel its present.And while tourism is good for the economy, too many tourists can destroy the very monuments they flock to see, warns Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt's top archaeologist and the person who led the CT scan on King Tutankhamun's mummy. "Egypt's monuments can finish in a 100 years if we don't control the tourists now, and I mean NOW. Think, no more pyramids, no more sphinx, no more temples. All our...

Climate

Britain faces big chill as ocean current slows

Posted by velyrorenry
On News/Activism 05/08/2005 8:21:59 AM PDT · 175 replies · 2,186+ views

The Sunday Times
CLIMATE change researchers have detected the first signs of a slowdown in the Gulf Stream — the mighty ocean current that keeps Britain and Europe from freezing. They have found that one of the "engines” driving the Gulf Stream — the sinking of supercooled water in the Greenland Sea — has weakened to less than a quarter of its former strength. The weakening, apparently caused by global warming, could herald big changes in the current over the next few years or decades. Paradoxically, it could lead to Britain and northwestern and Europe undergoing a sharp drop in temperatures. Such a...

Asia

Earliest States Possibly In Shape 5,000 Years Ago (East China)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/11/2005 11:11:18 AM PDT · 15 replies · 418+ views

Xinhuanet/China View | 5-11-2005 | Xinhuanet
Earliest states possibly in shape 5,000 years ago www.chinaview.cn 2005-05-11 15:56:15 JINAN, May 11 (Xinhuanet) - Dozens of prehistoric states might have been developing in eastern China as early as 5,000 years ago,thousands of years before the birth of the first textually attested state that existed in Xia Dynasty (2100 B.C.-1600 B.C.), said a Sino-US archaeological research team. The presumption was based on a decade-long regional survey and excavation in Rizhao, a coastal city in east China's Shandong Province. Archaeologists with the team are almost sure they have identified the ruins of a prehistoric state dating back between 3,000 B.C....

Tantalizing Clues In Ancient Mounds (Japan/Jomon)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/04/2005 11:31:36 AM PDT · 25 replies · 623+ views

Asahi News | 5-4-2005 | Asahi Shimbun
Tantalizing clues in ancient mounds 05/04/2005 The Asahi Shimbun SAGA-Ancient mounds here may be among the nation's oldest and prove that the original owners were pretty inventive for their day. Recent excavations at the Higashimyo archeological site indicate the shell mounds date back 7,000 years-to the early Jomon Period (8000 B.C.-300 B.C.). Higashimyo has western Japan's largest such mounds. They are believed to have been created by the dumping of shells and other refuse. Remains of more than 40 baskets, hand-woven from thin strips of wood, have been found there. Experts say they may be the oldest so far discovered....

Biology and Cryptobiology

Earliest Domesticated Dog Uncovered

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/08/2003 5:55:22 PM PDT · 31 replies · 94+ views

Discovery News | 5-7-2003 | Jennifer Viegas
Earliest Domesticated Dogs Uncovered By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Skull of a Stone Age Dog April 7, 2003 — The skulls of two Stone Age dogs believed to be the earliest known canines on record have been found, according to a team of Russian scientists. The dog duo, which lived approximately 14,000 years ago, appear to represent the first step of domestication from their wild wolf ancestors. Mikhail Sablin, a scientist at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, along with his colleague Gennady Khlopachev, analyzed the dog remains, which were found at the Eliseevichi...

Wild Dingoes Descended From Domestic Dogs

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/29/2003 9:22:30 AM PDT · 15 replies · 228+ views

New Scientist | 9-29-2003 | Emma Young
Wild dingoes descended from domestic dogs 12:45 29 September 03 NewScientist.com news service The mysterious origin of Australia's wild dingoes has become substantially clearer following new genetic research. It shows the animals descended from domestic dogs introduced from South East Asia about 5000 years ago. The ancestry of dingoes has been much debated. The time of arrival, the source and type of animal - wild or domestic - were all uncertain. "There hasn't been a lot of evidence, so everything has been speculation," says Alan Wilton, of the University of New South Wales. Wilton, with colleagues including Peter Savolainen at...

British Isles

Archaeologists Find 'Britain's Oldest Shoe'

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/10/2005 1:28:24 PM PDT · 44 replies · 736+ views

The Guardian (UK) | 5-10-2005 | James Sturcke
Archaeologists find 'Britain's oldest shoe' James Sturcke and agencies Tuesday May 10, 2005 A 2,000-year-old shoe uncovered at a Somerset quarry. Photograph: Exeter Archaeology/PA Archaeologists excavating a quarry in Somerset claim to have found Britain's oldest shoe, believed to be 2,000 years old. They said the shoe, which was found at Whitehall Quarry, near Wellington, was the equivalent to a modern size 9 or 10, and was so well preserved that the stitching and lace holes were visible in the leather. It was taken to a specialist conservation centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire, and was expected to go on display at...

Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran

Ancient Tombs Of Unknown Ethnic Group Discovered In Mazandaran (Iran)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/10/2005 1:34:45 PM PDT · 24 replies · 686+ views

Mehr News | 5-10-2005
Ancient tombs of unknown ethnic group discovered in Mazandaran TEHRAN, May 10 (MNA) -- Archaeologists working at the Laforak Cemetery in Savadkuh of Mazandaran Province recently discovered the remains of three skeletons with dolichocephalic skulls, anthropologist Farzad Foruzanfar announced on Tuesday. Of the fifteen graves excavated in the 2800-year old cemetery, three were different, in that they contained three skeletons with dolichocephalic (long-headed) skulls which were covered with a layer of earthenware, and their walls were reinforced by earthenware, too, he added. Experts have surmised that the three people belonged to a non-indigenous nation, since the inhabitants of Mazandaran at...

Catastrophism and Astronomy

Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 03/04/2002 6:31:38 AM PST · 13 replies · 90+ views

Science Daily | 3-4-2002
Date: Posted 3/4/2002 Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets, Researchers Say WASHINGTON (February 28, 2002) -- The bombardment that resurfaced the Earth 3.9 billion years ago was produced by asteroids, not comets, according to David Kring of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Barbara Cohen, formerly at the UA and now with the University of Hawaii. Their findings appear today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, published by the American Geophysical Union. The significance of this conclusion is that the bombardment was so severe that it destroyed older rocks on ...

Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues To Ancient Cataclysm

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 11/16/2001 1:23:50 PM PST · 21 replies · 101+ views

Natinal Geographic | 11-13-2001 | Hillary Mayell
Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues to Ancient Cataclysm Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News November 13, 2001 About 35 million years ago—the dinosaurs are dead, but the Appalachian Mountains are still covered in tropical rain forests—a rock from space that was more than a mile wide and moving at supersonic speed crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off North America. Traveling at about 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) an hour, the asteroid or comet (bolide) splashed through several hundred feet of water and several thousand feet of mud and sediment. Drilling for Knowledge A trailer hauls drilling rods the U.S. Geological Survey ...

Scientists Uncover 'Deep Impact' Disaster From Space

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/13/2003 6:10:30 PM PDT · 34 replies · 216+ views

Ananova | 6-12-2003
Scientists uncover 'deep impact' disaster from spaceA new report suggests that a massive object from space smashed into what is now the Moroccan desert 380 million years ago, wiping out 40% of the world's marine species. The discovery adds to the evidence linking such impacts with mass extinction events. Only one other impact by a large comet or asteroid has convincingly been held responsible for a mass extinction. That occurred off the Yucatan peninsular in Mexico 65 million years ago and is thought to have ended the reign of the dinosaurs. The newly discovered impact coincided with the Kacak/otomari extinction,...

Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory Places 4th On NASA List

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/12/2005 11:36:20 AM PDT · 2 replies · 194+ views

Southeast European Times | 5-11-2005 | Marija Lazarova
Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory Places 4th on NASA List 11/05/2005 Kokino Observatory in Macedonia, discovered two and a half years ago, has placed fourth on the NASA list rating old observatories. Explorations aimed at learning more about the observatory resume next month. By Marija Lazarova for Southeast European Times in Skopje -- 11/05/05 Macedonia's Megalithic Kokino Observatory is more than 3,800 years old. NASA has ranked it the fourth oldest in the world. Macedonia's Megalithic-era Kokino Observatory is located 1,030m above sea level on the Tativec Kamen Summit near Kumanovo. Archaeological and astronomical analyses have shown that the observatory is...

PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis

Archaeologist Discovers Ancient Mayan Wood Architecture

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/13/2005 9:17:58 PM PDT · 14 replies · 449+ views

Earthwatch | May 12
Former Earthwatch principal investigator finds the first wooden ruins and artifacts from Maya civilization in Belize Dr. Heather McKillop, William G. Haag Professor of Archaeology at Louisiana State University, has been investigating the ancient sea trade of the Maya civilization for 25 years, in the 1980s and 1990s with the help of Earthwatch volunteers. But her recent find of the remains of wooden structures and even a wooden paddle, perfectly preserved under the water of a Belize lagoon, was a turning point in Maya research. Her discovery, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms that...

Origins and Prehistory

Chinese Roots: Skull May Complicate Human-Origins Debate

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 01/02/2003 11:03:24 AM PST · 82 replies · 283+ views

Science News | 12-21/28-2002 | Bruce Bower
Chinese Roots: Skull may complicate human-origins debate Bruce Bower In 1958, farm workers digging in a cave in southern China's Liujiang County discovered several human bones including a skull. Relying on its resemblance to securely dated human fossils in Japan, scientists assigned this Homo sapiens skull an age of 20,000 to 30,000 years. ASIAN CONNECTION. If southern China's Liujiang skull is really more than 100,000 years old, this modern Homo sapiens fossil will shake up theories of human evolution. W. Wang However, the Liujiang finds may be much older than that, according to a report in the December Journal of...

DNA Study Yields Clues on Early Humans' First Migration

Posted by TigerLikesRooster
On News/Activism 05/12/2005 6:44:45 PM PDT · 34 replies · 779+ views

NYT | 05/13/05 | NICHOLAS WADE
May 13, 2005 DNA Study Yields Clues on Early Humans' First Migration By NICHOLAS WADE By studying the DNA of an ancient people in Malaysia, a team of geneticists says it has illuminated many aspects of how modern humans migrated from Africa. The geneticists say there was only one migration of modern humans out of Africa; that it took a southern route to India, Southeast Asia and Australia; and that it consisted of a single band of hunter-gatherers, probably just a few hundred people strong. Because these events occurred in the last Ice Age, when Europe was at first too...

Geneticists expose racism as nonsense-We started off black & brown, we'll all end up black & brown

Posted by chance33_98
On News/Activism 08/09/2003 8:05:00 PM PDT · 33 replies · 280+ views

sundaytimes.co.za
Geneticists expose racism as nonsense Rowan Philp Gene experts have declared race to be no more than an accident of geography - and predict the future of black and white South Africa will probably be more shades of brown. Racism is scientifically unfounded, confirmed Professor Trefor Jenkins, Professor Emeritus at Wits University, and Dr Himla Soodyall, director of the Human Genomic Research Unit. The genetic pool in the country was already so mixed that supremacists had no hope of a pure lineage, they said during a series of workshops at the National Festival of Science, Engineering and Technology in...

Neanderthal femur from France

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/09/2005 10:49:02 PM PDT · 10 replies · 129+ views

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | March 31, 2005 | Cédric Beauval et al
In 2002, a Neandertal partial femoral diaphysis was discovered at Les Rochers-de-Villeneuve (Vienne, France). Radiocarbon dated to 40,700 14C years before present, this specimen is one of the most recent Middle Paleolithic Neandertals. The diaphysis derives from an archeological level indicating alternating human and carnivore (mostly hyena) occupation of the cave, reinforcing the close proximity and probable competition of Middle Paleolithic humans with large carnivores for resources and space. Morphological aspects of the diaphysis and ancient DNA extracted from it indicate that it is aligned with the Neandertals and is distinct from early modern humans. However, its midshaft cortical bone...

Noses Didn't Need Cold To Evolve (Neanderthal)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/05/2005 8:54:08 AM PDT · 12 replies · 463+ views

Science News Magazine | 5-5-2005 | Bruce Bower
Noses didn't need cold to evolve Bruce Bower From Milwaukee, at a joint meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society and American Association of Physical Anthropologists Fossil evidence that Neandertals possessed exceptionally large, broad noses has often been explained as an evolutionary response to life in cold, dry locales. An expansive schnoz might have warmed incoming cold air or expelled body heat during hunting and other strenuous activities. However, new data indicate that climate played no role in shaping the Neandertal nose. Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his coworkers found similarly sized nasal passages in a...

Scientists Build 'Frankenstein' Neanderthal Skeleton

Posted by null and void
On News/Activism 03/10/2005 6:37:15 PM PST · 42 replies · 1,127+ views

LiveScience | 10 March 2005 | Bjorn Carey
Anthropologists have built a "Frankenstein" Neanderthal skeleton, the first and only full-body reconstruction of the species. The result, announced today, is a shape no one expected. "It's almost like making my own fossil discovery," said Gary Sawyer, one of the skeleton's architects. Sawyer, an anthropologist at the American Natural History Museum in New York, and his colleague Blaine Maley of Washington University, pieced together the skeleton using bones mostly from an individual known as La Ferrassie 1. La Ferrassie 1 was missing its rib cage, pelvis, and a few other parts, so Sawyer and Maley had to scrounge around to...

Seafood Was The Spur For Man's First Migration

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/12/2005 5:26:39 PM PDT · 36 replies · 706+ views

The Telegraph (UK) | 5-13-2005 | Roger Highfield
Seafood was the spur for Man's first migration By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 13/05/2005) The lure of a seafood diet may explain why the first people left Africa, according to a genetic analysis published today that overturns the conventional picture of the very first migration of modern humans. The international project shows - contrary to previous thinking - that early modern humans spread across the Red Sea from the Horn of Africa, along the tropical coast of the Indian Ocean towards the Pacific in just a few thousand years. And it suggests that the first migratory wave probably included...

New Age For Mungo Man, New Human History

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 02/20/2003 3:51:29 PM PST · 34 replies · 163+ views

Science Daily | FR Post 2-18-03 | Editorial Staff
New Age For Mungo Man, New Human HistoryA University of Melbourne-led study has finally got scientists to agree on the age of Mungo Man, Australia's oldest human remains, and the consensus is he is 22,000 years younger. A University of Melbourne-led team say Mungo Man's new age is 40,000 years, reigniting the debate for the 'Out of Africa' theory. The research also boosted the age of Mungo Lady, the world's first recorded cremation, by 10,000 years putting her at the same age as Mungo Man. It is the first time scientists have reached a broad agreement on the ages of...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

DNA finally identifies child killed in Titanic sinking

Posted by Asmodeus
On News/Activism 11/06/2002 11:22:19 AM PST · 12 replies · 148+ views

Associated Press
TORONTO -- Nearly a century ago, Canadian sailors buried an unidentified infant who died on the Titanic and, touched by the tragedy, called him the Unknown Child -- a symbol of the children lost in the luxury liner sinking. Now at last, the child is known. On Tuesday, Magda Schleifer, a retired Finnish bank clerk, visited the grave, which DNA tests have now established holds the remains of one of her relatives. "First I thought this could not be true,'' Schleifer, 68, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Schleifer had long known that her...

Former Outhouse Yields Historical Treasure

Posted by Loyalist
On News/Activism 05/13/2005 9:18:29 AM PDT · 11 replies · 834+ views

Halifax Daily News | May 13, 2005 | Chris Lambie
HALIFAX – Three archeologists are digging through what is likely the remains of a rich man’s privy. Developers want to build a $20-million hotel and residential development beside Halifax’s Brewery Market. But provincial law dictates that scientists armed with trowels and hoes get to comb the site first, looking for artifacts of historical significance. Yesterday the cultural detectives were concentrating on the brick foundation of what they suspect was once a large outhouse. “There’s no unpleasant surprises,” said Stephen Davis, the Saint Mary’s University archeologist leading the dig. Among buckets of ash from coal-fired furnaces that filled the old outhouse,...

Story of Abraham Lincoln's Remains

Posted by GodfearingTexan
On General/Chat 05/10/2005 8:21:58 AM PDT · 15 replies · 549+ views

Abe Lincoln Research Site | today | none
A couple of Sundays ago our preacher was talking about the bad things that can come from telling and spreading rumors, and how the tongue can be hurtful, etc. As part of his sermon, he stated that sometime after Lincoln's death a rumor began to spread that his body was not inside the coffin. So, it was exhumed and viewed to verify it was there. Then again in 1901, he said, it was dug up again. Why? Same rumor. I thought this was exceptionally odd but possible and so I got online and found this quote from the above site:...

end of digest #43 20050514

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #44
Saturday, May 21, 2005

Science and Technology

Engineers Help to Save and Reconstruct the Past

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 04/08/2005 12:37:59 AM PDT· 3 replies · 409+ views

UANEWS.ORG | March 22, 2005 | Ed Stiles
Each time an ancient vase disintegrates, a ceramic tile crumbles or a painting cracks and fades, another link with our past is lost and we understand just a little less about where we came from and, ultimately, who we are. When the last artisan dies and an ancient technology is lost, we're similarly impoverished, says Pamela Vandiver, an internationally recognized expert in artifact preservation and, now, a professor at The University of Arizona. Vandiver came to UA last year to start a program in Heritage Conservation Science (HCS) that trains students to stabilize, preserve and better understand ancient artifacts and...

Biology and Cryptobiology

Mammoth Herds 'Roamed Fertile Bering Strait In Ice Age'

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/04/2003 3:39:25 PM PDT· 92 replies · 376+ views

Ananova | 6-5-2003
Mammoth herds 'roamed fertile Bering Strait in Ice Age' Huge herds of mammoth, wild horses and bison once roamed the land bridge between North America and Siberia, new evidence suggests. Plant fossils have shown that 24,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, dry grassland covered much of region. The vegetation would have allowed large populations of mammals to survive all year round on the now-submerged landmass known as Beringia or the Bering Strait. Scientists writing in the journal Nature said the animals would have been sustained by a diet rich in prairie sage, bunch grasses, and other grass-like plants....

Anatolia

Museum Curator Credited With Finding Oldest 'Steel' (1800BC)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/14/2005 2:48:24 PM PDT· 10 replies · 348+ views

Yomiuri | 5-14-2005 | Yomiuri Shimbun
Museum curator credited with finding oldest 'steel' The Yomiuri Shimbun Two pieces of metal unearthed at colonial ruins in Turkey have been deemed the world's oldest examples of a crude type of steel, dating back to 1800 B. C.The discovery has been credited to Hideo Akanuma, senior curator at Iwate Prefectural Museum, who tested the pieces, which were excavated in 1994 at the Kaman-Kalehoyuk ruins, 100 kilometers southeast of Ankara. Both pieces measure between one and two centimeters long and about one centimeter wide and were excavated by archaeologists of the Middle Eastern Culture Center in Japan, who started digging...

India

Clues To Missing Pagodas Found

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 07/10/2002 4:51:08 PM PDT· 18 replies · 139+ views

Times Of India | 7-6-2002 | Akshaya Mukul
Clues to missing pagodas found AKSHAYA MUKUL TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, JULY 06, 2002 11:49:09 PM ] NEW DELHI: Submerged structures found off the coast of Mahabalipuram in the Bay of Bengal could well solve the mystery of seven pagodas dating back to the Pallava Period (7th Century AD). The Archaeological Survey of Indiaís Underwater Archaeology Wing (UAW) has discovered three walls and a number of carved architectural members of ancient temples running north to south and east to west. Also found are seven big submerged rocks 500 metres off shore. According to UAW in-charge Alok Tripathi, who undertook...

Vikings

Persian Coins From Sassanid Era (224-640AD) Discovered In Sweden

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 09/08/2002 9:01:14 AM PDT· 26 replies · 253+ views

Tehran Times | 9-6-2002
Persian Coins from Sassanid Era Discovered on Swedish Island BERLIN -- Archaeologists discovered 23 old Persian coins from the Sassanid era on the southeastern Swedish island of Gotland, the press reported here Friday. The latest find, regarded as the biggest archaeological sensation of the century(sic), contained Persian and Byzantine coins in a Viking treasure box which was hidden on the island. The oldest Persian coin in the Viking treasure goes back to 538 A.D. and was specially designed for a king of the Sassanid empire. The discovery is vivid proof that Vikings did sail as far as the Middle East...

Viking treasure hoard yields astounding finds

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 06/28/2002 5:47:42 PM PDT· 43 replies · 673+ views

China Daily | 06/24/2002 | Agencies via Xinhua
Viking treasure hoard yields astounding finds 06/24/2002 STOCKHOLM: Four years ago, a farmer digging in his fields in Sweden's Baltic island of Gotland came across a Viking coin. He called a friend from the local museum, and together they soon uncovered another 150 Viking relics. But the crops growing in the fields hindered their work and they gave up. The following summer, with crops that year infected by lice, they resumed their search - and on July 16, 1999, came across the biggest Viking-period treasure hoard so far discovered. It had been lying there for about 1,100 years. The Spillings...

Ancient Egypt

Ancient Beer, Wine Jars Found in Egypt

Posted by TFFKAMM
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 7:01:35 PM PDT· 52 replies · 674+ views

AP/SF Chronicle | 5/18/05 | AP
(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.

Colossal head discovered in Egypt that could be Queen Nefertari

Posted by kattracks
On General/Chat 03/28/2002 11:57:01 AM PST· 29 replies · 158+ views

AFP | 3/28/02
CAIRO, March 28 (AFP) - Egyptian and German archeologists have discovered the head of a colossal statue which could be an image of Nefertari, the queen of Pharaoh Ramses II, a senior antiquities official said Thursday. The head, discovered in the Nile Delta region of Tel Basta, could also belong to her daughter Princess Merit-Amon, the official said. "The head, in granite, stands 3.5 meters (about 11 feet) high and is 3 meters (about 10 feet) wide, and weighs more than 11 tons," the director of antiquities for the Delta, Mohamed Abdel Maqsoud, told AFP. "These measurements mean that the...

Rare Nubian King Statues Uncovered in Sudan

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/18/2005 4:21:01 PM PDT· 3 replies · 90+ views

National Geographic News | February 27, 2003 | Hillary Mayell
The seven statues, which stood between 1.3 to 2.7 meters (4 to 10 feet) tall, were inscribed with the names of five of Nubia's kings: Taharqa, Tanoutamon, Senkamanisken, Anlamani, and Aspelta. Taharqa and Tanoutamon ruled Egypt as well as Nubia. Sometimes known as the "Black Pharaohs," Nubian kings ruled Egypt from roughly 760 B.C. to 660 B.C... The Nubian period in Egypt is known as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty... Historians dislike the term "Black Pharaohs," calling it more of a media ploy than a meaningful designation. "It's such a loaded term," said Kendall. "The ancient Nile dwellers didn't really use...

Ancient Greece

Archaeologist Tells Of Digs In Central Asia (Greeks)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 3:13:36 PM PDT· 6 replies · 252+ views

Kathumerini | 5-19-2005 | Effi Hadzioannidou
Archaeologist tells of digs in Central AsiaVictor Sariyiannidis has spent his life searching for traces of Greeks Findings from the royal Bactrian graves. A statuette of a goat, exquisitely fine work cast in gold, a gold ring engraved with a seated Athena and an inscription, and a gold clasp . These are just some of the 20,000 ancient pieces of jewelry Sariyiannidis unearthed at the site of Tilia Tepe in 1979 in what is now Afghanistan. By Effi Hadzioannidou - Kathimerini When Victor Sariyiannidis discovered the 20,000 pieces of gold jewelry in 1979 in Tilia Tepe in Afghanistan ó an...

Thracian Owner Of Gold Mask Axe-Chopped

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/17/2005 2:56:28 PM PDT· 9 replies · 440+ views

Sofia News Agency (Noinvite) | 5-17-2005
Thracian Owner of Gold Mask Axe-Chopped The owner of the ancient gold mask ñ Thracian king Seutus III ñ has been chopped after his death, Bulgarian experts found, proving a theory for Thracians' funeral rituals. Photo by Kameliya Atanasova (Sofia News Agency) Lifestyle: 17 May 2005, Tuesday. The Thracian king Seutus III, whose gold mask was unearthed in 2004 by Bulgarian archaeologists, has been chopped with an axe after his death, an expert research showed. According to archaeologists this discovery is pure sensation because it proves the theory that ancient Thracians used to chop into pieces their rulers' bodies and...

Ancient Rome

An Ancient Masterpiece or a Master's Forgery? (Did by Michelangelo Sculpt the Laocoˆn?)

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 04/19/2005 12:08:30 AM PDT· 54 replies · 1,101+ views

New York Times | April 18, 2005 | KATHRYN SHATTUCK
A scholar has suggested that "Laocoˆn," a fabled sculpture whose unearthing in 1506 has deeply influenced thinking about the ancient Greeks and the nature of the visual arts, may well be a Renaissance forgery - possibly by Michelangelo himself. Her contention has stirred some excitement and considerable exasperation among art historians in the Classical and Renaissance fields. Many other challenges to accepted attributions have faded quickly into oblivion. The scholar advancing the theory, Lynn Catterson, a summer lecturer in art history at Columbia University, presented her argument in a talk at the university's Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America...

ROMAN REMAINS (Ancient Sports Fans (Gladiator Contests) Ate Fast Food, Bought Tacky Gifts)

Posted by nickcarraway
On General/Chat 05/18/2005 5:23:35 PM PDT· 21 replies · 175+ views

May 18 2005
ANCIENT sports fans ate fast food and bought tacky gifts, it is claimed. Archaeologists say Romans gnawed on spare ribs and chicken while watching gladiators fight nearly 2000 years ago. It follows a dig at the site of an amphitheatre in Chester where the bones of discarded snacks were found. Part of a souvenir bowl decorated with pictures of the fights was also uncovered

Archaeologists Unearth Britain's Own Miniature Coliseum

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/17/2005 3:04:52 PM PDT· 28 replies · 556+ views

Scotsman | 5-17-2005
Archaeologists Unearth Britain's Own Miniature Coliseum By Emma Gunby, PA Archaeologists have discovered evidence of Britainís own miniature Coliseum, it was revealed today. The two-tier stone built structure, in Chester, which dates back to 100AD, hosted gladiatorial contests, floggings and public executions. Experts say the amphitheatre is the only one of its kind in Britain and the new evidence proves that Chester must have been an important site within the Roman Empire. Dan Garner, senior archaeologist for Chester City Council, said: ìPrevious findings have suggested that the amphitheatre was a two-tier structure, but it was always believed the second tier...

They Came, They Saw, They Bought the Souvenir

Posted by wildbill
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 7:58:12 AM PDT· 5 replies · 211+ views

Telegraph (UK) | may 18, 2005 | nic fleming
A series of finds unearthed at a previously unknown Roman amphitheatre in Chester suggest the habits of sports fans have not changed in almost two millennia, archaeologists said yesterday. Milling about outside the ground, spectators picked up fast food on the way to their seats. Stalls offered cheap souvenirs of the fearsome encounters...

Asia

Excavation Of Ancient Desert Tombs Ends, Riddles Waiting For Answers (Urumchi)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/22/2005 11:08:59 AM PDT· 6 replies · 238+ views

Xinhuanet/China View | 3-20-2005 | Xinhuanet
Excavation of ancient desert tombs ends, riddles waiting to answer www.chinaview.cn 2005-03-20 15:33:59 URUMQI, March 20 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese archaeologists finished the excavation of an ancient tomb complex in the Lop Nur Desert, northwest China, but researchers say the finds are puzzling and need more time to be understood. By mid March, archaeologists in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region unearthed 163 tombs of the Xiaohe Tomb complex, which sprawls on a 2,500-square-meter oval-shaped dune, 174 km from the ruins of the Loulan Kingdom, an ancient civilization that vanished 1,500 years ago. The complex contains about 330 tombs, but about 160 of...

Archaeologists Uncover Scene Of Human Sacrifice (7,000 YO - China)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 2:23:18 PM PDT· 25 replies · 682+ views

ABC News | 5-18-2005
Archaeologists uncover scene of human sacrificeA gruesome sight has met archaeologists engaged in excavations in central China - an altar devoted to human sacrifice, complete with the remains of an unfortunate victim. The discovery of the 7,000-year-old cult site, near Hongjiang city in Hunan province, may make it necessary to rewrite history, as it is the earliest human sacrificial site ever found in China. According to local media, the fact that the sacrificial venue contained the skeleton of a human left no doubt in the archaeologists' minds what its original use had been. Nearby was a separate sacrificial site for...

British Isles

Cave Art Hoax Hits British Museum (Fake prehistoric rock art of a caveman with a shopping cart)

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 6:39:21 PM PDT· 33 replies · 908+ views

BBC | Thursday, 19 May, 2005
Fake prehistoric rock art of a caveman with a shopping trolley has been hung on the walls of the British Museum.The rock was put there by art prankster Banksy, who has previously put works in galleries in London and New York. A British Museum spokeswoman said they were "seeing the lighter side of it". She said it went unnoticed for one or two days but Banksy said three days. Banksy also hung a sign saying the cave art showed "early man venturing towards the out-of-town hunting grounds". It read: "This finely preserved example of primitive art dates from the Post-Catatonic...

Origin Of New British Museum Exhibit Looks A Bit Wobbly

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 5:58:32 PM PDT· 9 replies · 222+ views

The telegraph (UK) | 5-19-2005 | Nigel Reynolds
Origin of new British Museum exhibit looks a bit wobbly By Nigel Reynolds, Arts Correspondent (Filed: 19/05/2005) Visitors to the British Museum unfamiliar with the date of the wheel's invention may have been puzzled by a primitive painting in the Roman Britain gallery this week, showing a caveman pushing a supermarket trolley. The earliest recorded wheels, as every schoolboy knows, are from Mesopotamia around 5,500 years ago. Trolleys were first used in the Piggly-Wiggly Supermarket chain [really], Oklahoma City, in 1937. The bizarre exhibit, stuck to a wall with double-sided tape and labelled "Early Man Goes to Market" was, of...

LOST ROMAN EMPEROR GETS CENTRE STAGE AT ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 03/31/2005 2:18:13 PM PST· 9 replies · 400+ views

24 Hour Museum | March 31, 2005 | Zoe Adjonyoh
Zoe Adjonyoh pulled her fedora down and made for Oxford in search of buried treasure. A very rare and exciting Roman discovery is now on show at Oxford's Ashmolean Museum. One year ago, 5000 Roman coins were found in a field in Oxfordshire. When British Museum experts examined the hoard, they were surprised to find a coin that confirms the existence of the ëlostí Emperor Domitianus. The coin was unearthed by local treasure hunter Brian Malin in April 2004, in a field ten miles south-east of Oxford with the aid of his trusty metal detector. Mr Malin swiftly took the...

UK: Unearthed Coin Proof of 4 day Roman emperor ("Domitianus", 271AD, penultimate emperor)

Posted by yankeedame
On News/Activism 02/25/2004 6:25:29 AM PST· 15 replies · 87+ views

BBC On-Line | Wednesday, 25 February, 2004 | staff writer
Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 February, 2004, 07:15 GMT Coin unearths new Roman emperor Mr Malin's discovery is now going on show at the British Museum A coin that solved the mystery of a little-known Roman emperor is going on display at a new exhibition. The bronze coin, that bears the face of Emperor Domitianus was found by Brian Malin as he combed a field in Oxfordshire with a metal detector. Only one other such coin exists, showing the face of the man who ruled Britain for just four days, but was dismissed as a hoax.Mr Malin's coin is on exhibition...

Climate

African Ice Core Analysis Reveals Catastrophic Droughts, Shrinking Ice Fields, Civilization Shifts

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/18/2002 7:41:36 AM PDT· 20 replies · 196+ views

Science Daily | 10-18-2002 | OSU
African Ice Core Analysis Reveals Catastrophic Droughts, Shrinking Ice Fields, Civilization Shifts COLUMBUS, Ohio ñ A detailed analysis of six cores retrieved from the rapidly shrinking ice fields atop Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro shows that those tropical glaciers began to form about 11,700 years ago. The cores also yielded remarkable evidence of three catastrophic droughts that plagued the tropics 8,300, 5,200 and 4,000 years ago. Lastly, the analysis also supports Ohio State University researchers' prediction that these unique bodies of ice will disappear in the next two decades, the victims of global warming. These findings were published today in the journal...

Fly fossil found in Antarctica

Posted by byteback
On News/Activism 05/25/2003 10:13:36 AM PDT· 31 replies · 48+ views

Netscape | May 25, 2003
It's just a tiny fossil of a fly that scientists found some 300 miles from the South Pole. But this fossil will help them: --figure out what life was like millions of years ago in ancient Antarctica and --help explain global changes in today's climate. One of the biggest surprises of the discovery: No one even knew there were flies in this frozen land where summer temperatures are a bone-chilling 20 degrees below zero. The fly fossil is from the Cyclorrhapha family, the so-called "higher flies" that include the common housefly, reports CNN. North Dakota State University geologist Allan Ashworth,...

THE END OF THE CLIMATE DEBATE?

Posted by Mike Darancette
On News/Activism 09/26/2002 9:56:06 AM PDT· 24 replies · 228+ views

sepp.org | 9/28/02 | Lee C. Gerhard
THE END OF THE CLIMATE DEBATE? >From SEPP.org, 28 September 2002 By Lee C. Gerhard, Principal Geologist, Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS 66047 Letter to The Professional Geologist The climate change debate appears to be rapidly reaching its end. New credible scientific evidence has demonstrated very strong correlations of solar and orbital variability with climate change. Advances in correlation of proxy information with natural processes of climate change, and better understanding of climate history, trends, and rates of change, have all merged to provide a much clearer picture of climate change than has been available before. Despite the data and...

Catastrophism and...

'Krakatoa': The Wrath of the Earth and how it turned Indonesia Muslim

Posted by Destro
On News/Activism 04/21/2003 9:11:48 PM PDT· 14 replies · 1,337+ views

nytimes.com | April 20, 2003 | RICHARD ELLIS
'Krakatoa': The Wrath of the Earth By RICHARD ELLIS The cover of "Krakatoa" by Simon Winchester. When a volcano erupts, it can do terrible damage, as Vesuvius did in A.D. 79, burying the cities and inhabitants of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But as the tens of thousands of people now living on its slopes can attest, Vesuvius is still there, and so are most of the world's better-known volcanoes, such as Etna, Rainier, Kilauea, Paricutin and Fujiyama (yes, Fuji is a volcano; it last erupted in 1707). Even Mount St. Helens, the top of which blew off in 1980, is (mostly)...

Mass-extinction controversy flares again (Chicxulub crater kills dinosaurs, or not?)

Posted by SteveH
On News/Activism 04/11/2003 2:34:46 PM PDT· 28 replies · 139+ views

Nature | 10 April 2003 | Rex Dalton
EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, April 2003 Mass-extinction controversy flares again Core from asteroid crater fuels debate on what wiped out the dinosaurs. 10 April 2003 REX DALTON [photo] The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. © alamy.com A claim that the asteroid that struck Mexico 65 million years ago did not cause the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs triggered heated debate at a meeting this week. The announcement is based on preliminary analysis of the first core drilled into the 185-kilometre Chicxulub asteroid crater near the Yucatan Peninsula. Gerta Keller of Princeton University in New Jersey says...

Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'?

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 02/10/2003 11:03:23 AM PST· 26 replies · 135+ views

SPACE dot COM | 03 April 2001 | By Robert Roy Britt
Nemesis: Does the Sun Have a 'Companion'?By Robert Roy BrittSenior Science Writerposted: 07:00 am ET03 April 2001 "The trouble with most folks isn't so much their ignorance. It's know'n so many things that ain't so." -- A favorite quote of Richard A. Muller, by 19th century humorist Josh Billings.When you think big, as Richard A. Muller does, you're bound to create ideas now and then that are so compelling you just can't let go of them -- ideas so outlandish that mainstream scientists are equally eager to dismiss them.Muller, a physicist at University of California at Berkeley, has had...

Researchers Plot Course Of Ancient American Tsunami (902AD)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/28/2002 4:27:53 PM PST· 28 replies · 330+ views

Ananova | 10-28-2002
Researchers plot course of ancient American tsunami Researchers have calculated the scale of a giant wave that devastated the north west coast of America 1,100 years ago. Japanese scientists used computer modelling to recreate the devastation from the ancient tsunami. The team from the Disaster Reduction and Human Renovation Institution in Kobe say the work will help planners minimise the impact of any future wave. The researchers took clues from silt deposits found in the Puget Sound, a Pacific inlet above earthquake fault lines in the Seattle area. Experts say the tsunami could have reached up to seven metres in...

Slam, bang, thanks Saddam: new meteor theory

Posted by dead
On News/Activism 11/05/2001 7:38:35 AM PST· 33 replies · 381+ views

The Sunday Telegraph via Sydney Morning Herald | 11/06/01 | Robert Matthews
Perusal of an article about Saddam Hussein's canal-building projects has led a scientist to a startling discovery about the mysterious collapse of Middle East civilisations more than 4,000 years ago. Sharad Master, a geologist at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, saw on satellite images of southern Iraq a large circular depression which he believes is a meteor crater. If confirmed, it would indicate an impact equivalent to hundreds of nuclear bombs, causing devastating fires and flooding in an area which would have been shallow sea at the time. The discovery could explain why so many early cultures went into ...

What killed the mammoths and other behemoths?

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 06/05/2002 3:34:28 PM PDT· 91 replies · 859+ views

FR Post 6-6-2 | Interview with Ross MacPhee
Interview with Ross MacPhee What killed the mammoths and other behemoths that once roamed the Americas? This mammalogist thinks it may have been hyperlethal disease Image: Clare Flemming Around 11,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, North America witnessed an extinction that claimed its mammoths, giant ground sloths, camels and numerous other large-bodied animals. Exactly what happened to these megafauna is unknown. Indeed, researchers have puzzled over their disappearance for decades. Traditional explanations hold that either dramatic climate shifts, or human hunting (overkill) extinguished these species. But in recent years a new hypothesis has emerged. According...

...Astronomy

Closest Asteroid Yet Flies Past Earth

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/03/2003 8:37:27 AM PDT· 42 replies · 75+ views

New Scientist | 10-3-2003 | Jeff Hecht
Closest asteroid yet flies past Earth 18:17 02 October 03 NewScientist.com news service An asteroid about the size of a small house passed just 88,000 kilometres from the Earth by on Saturday 27 September - the closest approach of a natural object ever recorded. Geostationary communication satellites circle the Earth 42,000km from the planet's centre. The asteroid, designated 2003 SQ222, came from inside the Earth's orbit and so was only spotted after it had whizzed by. The first sighting was on Sunday 28 by the Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search program in Arizona, US. Amateur astronomer Peter Birtwhistle of Great...

The Curious Tale of Asteroid Hermes (Look up this week and watch asteroid sail by!)

Posted by mhking
On News/Activism 11/03/2003 2:41:03 PM PST· 29 replies · 71+ views

RedNova.com | 11.3.03
For the next few days backyard astronomers can see for themselves the long lost asteroid Hermes. Science@NASA -- It's dogma now: an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago and wiped out the dinosaurs. But in 1980 when scientists Walter and Luis Alvarez first suggested the idea to a gathering at the American Association for Advancement of Sciences, their listeners were skeptical. Asteroids hitting Earth? Wiping out species? It seemed incredible. At that very moment, unknown to the audience, an asteroid named Hermes halfway between Mars and Jupiter was beginning a long plunge toward our planet. Six months later it...

Earthgrazers and Fireballs: The Strange Side of The Leonid Meteor Shower

Posted by MeekOneGOP
On News/Activism 11/17/2001 3:31:38 AM PST· 68 replies · 100+ views

Space.com | November 16, 2001 | By Robert Roy Britt, Senior Science Writer, SPACE.com
Friday November 16 09:37 AM EST Earthgrazers and Fireballs: The Strange Side of The Leonid Meteor ShowerBy Robert Roy BrittSenior Science Writer, SPACE.com   The Leonid meteor shower is a strange show. Its meteors are among the fastest known. It is notoriously difficult to predict. And it is a total night owl, refusing to show its best stuff until well after midnight. But while the 2001 Leonids will likely be remembered for the sheer volume of shooting stars, there are some strange characters to look for as the shower's source ekes above the eastern horizon late Saturday night and early Sunday ...

Not Enough Comets in the Cupboard

Posted by bondserv
On News/Activism 09/13/2003 5:17:25 PM PDT· 123 replies · 193+ views

Creation-Evolution Headlines | Creation-Evolution Headlines
Not Enough Comets in the Cupboard† †09/03/2003 Thereís a shortage of comets.† The Hubble Space Telescope peered into the Kuiper Belt cupboard, and found it nearly empty ñ only 4% of the predicted supply was found. † † Astronomers needed a bigger storehouse to explain the number of short-period comets now inhabiting the solar system.† The Kuiper Belt, a region of small icy bodies beyond Neptune, has been the favored source of comets with orbital periods 200 years or less, but the new measurements, soon to be published in the Astrophysical Journal, are 'wildly inconsistent' with the observed number of...

ODD ASTEROID

Posted by green team 1999
On News/Activism 04/15/2003 2:06:02 PM PDT· 39 replies · 134+ views

spaceweather.com | april-15-2003 | spaceweather.com
ODD ASTEROID: On April 7th, astronomers discovered a near-Earth asteroid following a curious path around the Sun. The orbit of 2003 GQ22 is nestled almost entirely inside Earth's own. "2003 GQ22 is nearly a member of the elusive inner-Earth object group, for which there is thought to be several members, but only one discovered to date (2003 CP20)," says Donald Yeomans, the manager of JPL's Near Earth Object Program. Inner-Earth asteroids start out like most space rocks--orbiting the Sun in the asteroid belt beyond Mars. But over the course of time, perhaps hundreds of millions of years or longer, they...

The Search for the Missing Amazon Meteor

Posted by SteveH
On News/Activism 09/27/2002 1:53:55 AM PDT· 45 replies · 107+ views

space.com | 9/25/2002 | diana jong
The Search for the Missing Amazon Meteor Wed Sep 25, 9:27 AM ET By Diana Jong Staff Writer, SPACE.com The Araona people wanted $1 million before they would let the NASA ( news - web sites) scientists pass through their territory in the remote Bolivian Amazon. Given a budget of $20,000 for their entire expedition, the scientists resorted to negotiating, and the indigenous people eventually agreed to a payment of $500, plus 500 rounds of .22 ammunition and 200 D-cell batteries. "They couldn't be Eveready; they had to be Rayovac," recalls Compton Tucker, an earth scientist from NASA's Goddard Space...

Elam, Persia, Parthia, Iran

Unusual Bronze Coffin Unearthed In Lorestan (Iran)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/16/2005 3:17:34 PM PDT· 25 replies · 812+ views

Tehran Times | 5-16-2005
Unusual bronze coffin unearthed in Lorestan Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- A bronze coffin containing a skeleton with a golden blindfold and a golden gag on its face were unearthed in farmland near the provincial capital city of Khorramabad in Lorestan Province, the director of an archaeological team working in the region said on Friday. ìIt was an exciting discovery. The golden items and bronze coffin show that the casket was for a person from a prominent family,î Jalal Adeli added. With four handles, the coffin is like a bathtub, and has been broken into four pieces. Its length...

Unique Violet Shards Discovered In East Azarbaijan

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/16/2005 3:09:38 PM PDT· 14 replies · 483+ views

Tehran Times | 5-16-2005
Unique violet shards discovered in East Azarbaijan Tehran Times Culture Desk TEHRAN -- A team of archaeologists has recently discovered over 100 violet-colored shards at the ancient site of Kala Tepe in the reservoir area of the Ai-Doqmush Dam, near the city of Mianeh in Iranís East Azarbaijan Province, Javad Qandgar, the director of the team said on Sunday. The team has been tasked with saving the artifacts and gathering information from Kala Tepe, which contains ruins and artifacts from the Bronze Age. The site is being threatened by the Ai-Doqmush Dam, which recently became operational. ìNo example of shards...

Epigraphy and Language

German Scientists: Europe's Oldest Script Found In Bulgaria (Minoan)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 2:56:33 PM PDT· 46 replies · 670+ views

Sofia News Agency | 5-18-2005
German Scientists: Europe's Oldest Script Found in Bulgaria Lifestyle: 18 May 2005, Wednesday. Ancient tablets found in South Bulgaria are written in the oldest European script found ever, German scientists say. The tablets, unearthed near the Southern town of Kardzhali, are over 35-centuries old, and bear the ancient script of the Cretan (Minoan) civilization, according to scientists from the University of Heidelberg, who examined the foundings. This is the Cretan writing, also known as Linear A script, which dates back to XV-XIV century B.C. The discovery proves the theory of the Bulgarian archaeologists that the script on the foundings is...

Macro-Etymology: Paleosigns [writing 20,000 years ago?]

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/19/2005 11:00:18 PM PDT· 6 replies · 130+ views

Macro-Etymology Website | prior to May 20, 2005 | the webmasters thereof
Examples of (a) Upper Paleolithic signs, and characters in three of the early written languages which resemble the Paleolithic marks: (b) Indus Valley signs, (c) Greek (western branch), (d) Runic... Correlation of the symbols found accompanying Magdalenian cave art with symbols from other ancient cultures shows a nearly-complete match, after Forbes and Crowder, "The Problem of Franco-Cantabrian Abstract Signs: Agenda for a New Approach." World Archaeology 10 (1979): 350-66... These illustrations show (a) the collection of symbols that accompany the Magdalenian cave art in France, from 20,000 years ago or less, and characters in three of the early written languages...

Remote Villagers Speak in Sassanid Language After 2,000 Years

Posted by nuconvert
On News/Activism 07/16/2004 12:10:31 PM PDT· 14 replies · 418+ views

Payvand | July 10, 2004
Remote Villagers Speak in Sassanid Language After 2,000 Years July 10, 2004 Following the recognition of 903 Sassanid words in the language of Maymand residents, experts have concluded the language of these people has barely changed since 2,000 years ago, mainly because of the isolation of their helmet after the Arab invasion in the seventh century. Experts working with the renovation project of the village have managed to recognize and categorize these words after conversing with the secluded people. ìSome of these words are purely Persian and free of Arabic influences,î said Farhnaz Firozehchian, linguist in charge of the word...

NASA science uncovers texts of Trojan Wars, early Gospel

Posted by mlc9852
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 9:31:48 AM PDT· 104 replies · 2,814+ views

Chicago Tribune | May 19, 2005 | Tom Hundley
OXFORD, England -- The scholars at Oxford University are not sure how it works or why; all they know is that it does. A relatively new technology called multispectral imaging is turning a pile of ancient garbage into a gold mine of classical knowledge, bringing to light the lost texts of Sophocles and Euripides as well as some early Christian gospels that do not appear in the New Testament.

Papyrus Reveals New Clues to Ancient World (New Sophocles, Lucian: More)

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 04/28/2005 12:55:52 AM PDT· 26 replies · 798+ views

National Geographic News | April 25, 2005 | James Owen
Classical Greek and Roman literature is being read for the first time in 2,000 years thanks to new technology. The previously illegible texts are among a hoard of papyrus manuscripts. Scholars say the rediscovered writings will provide a fascinating new window into the ancient world. Salvaged from an ancient garbage dump in Egypt, the collection is kept at Oxford University in England. Known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, the collection includes writings by great classical Greek authors such as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides. Using a technique called multi-spectral imaging, researchers have uncovered texts that include ï parts of a lost tragedy...

Some Recently Published NEW TESTAMENT Papyri from Oxyrhynchus: Overview and Assessment

Posted by rface
On News/Activism 04/16/2005 8:54:33 PM PDT· 18 replies · 911+ views

Tyndale Bulletin 51 | April 15, 2005? | Peter M. Head
I post this scholarly paper to compliment the link on DRUDGE:Eureka! Extraordinary discovery unlocks secrets of the ancients Summary:Seventeen newly published manuscripts of the Greek New Testament (comprising a new portion of P77 as well as P100-P115) are introduced and then discussed individually, with special attention to two groups of manuscripts: seven of Matthew and four of John. The material offers important new evidence on a range of text-critical issues and three passages are discussed (Mt. 23:38; Jn. 1:34; Rev. 13:18). I. Introduction:Within the last three years seventeen previously unknown papyrus manuscripts of portions of the New Testament have been...

Origins and Prehistory

Did Early Humans Go North or South?

Posted by Lessismore
On News/Activism 05/14/2005 7:58:39 AM PDT· 70 replies · 936+ views

Science Magazine | 2005-05-13 | Peter Forster and Shuichi Matsumura
By analyzing the DNA of living humans from different locations, geneticists are able to assemble a detailed reconstruction of prehistoric human colonization of the world. This research endeavor was championed by the late Allan Wilson [HN1] and his colleagues (1, 2), who led the way with their studies of maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) [HN2]. Their work led to the proposal of a recent African origin for modern humans, some 5000 generations ago. Anthropologists and geneticists have since joined forces to create a broad framework of possible prehistoric human migration routes [HN3] and time scales (3-6). The two latest additions...

Earliest European 31,000 Years Old

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 2:44:29 PM PDT· 43 replies · 670+ views

ABC News/AFP | 5-19-2005 | AFP
Earliest European 31,000 years old AgenÁe France-Presse Thursday, 19 May 2005 Radiocarbon dating of human remains found in the Czech Republic has confirmed they come from the oldest European found so far (Image: iStockphoto) Fossilised human bones found in the Czech Republic have been dated back to some 31,000 years, which scientists say confirms them as the oldest known examples of Homo sapiens found in Europe. Austrian and US scientists publish their carbon-dating results in today's issue of the journal Nature. An upper jaw, teeth and the skull of a female were found in a cave in Moravia in the...

Genomics refutes an exclusively African origin of humans

Posted by Lessismore
On News/Activism 05/22/2005 12:27:12 PM PDT· 34 replies · 588+ views

Science Direct | Available online 6 May 2005 | Vinayak Eswaran(a), Henry Harpending(b), and Alan R. Rogers(c)
Abstract Ten years ago, evidence from genetics gave strong support to the 'recent Africa origin' view of the evolution of modern humans, which posits that Homo sapiens arose as a new species in Africa and subsequently spread, leading to the extinction of other archaic human species. Subsequent data from the nuclear genome not only fail to support this model, they do not support any simple model of human demographic history. In this paper, we study a process in which the modern human phenotype originates in Africa and then advances across the world by local demic diffusion, hybridization, and natural selection....

PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis

Archaeologists Uncover Tombs at Peruvian Ruins

Posted by rdl6989
On News/Activism 05/16/2005 11:33:20 PM PDT· 12 replies · 262+ views

Scotsman.com | May 17, 2005
Archaeologists have uncovered a multi-level grave site at Peruís ancient ruins of Pachacamac, including mummy bundles containing whole families. There were also bodies of pilgrims who presumably sought cures from an oracle deity for diseases like syphilis, tuberculosis and cancer, the projectís leader said. ìWhat is interesting in this cemetery is that it is totally intact, and we have mummies of different epochs, different periods, and they have their burial goods with them,î archaeologist Peter Eeckhout, of the Free University of Brussels, told The Associated Press.

Peru Ruins Reveal Their History

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 12:31:00 AM PDT· 6 replies · 252+ views

BBC | Tuesday, 17 May, 2005
Mummies of different epochs were among the finds Archaeologists digging at the ruins of Pachacamac in Peru say they have discovered a multi-level burial site. Mummy bundles of entire families were found in the graves from various eras, built on top of each other, they say. The researchers described the find as "exceptional" as the previously ignored cemetery had not been looted and is completely intact. Pachacamac, south of the capital, Lima, is thought to have been ruled by the Ychsma lords from 900 to 1470. The Incas turned it into a place of pilgrimage and it was abandoned after...

A site in Oregon could shake America's view of history, says Sanjida O'Connell

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 10/19/2002 10:11:55 AM PDT· 46 replies · 225+ views

The Guardian | 10-19-2002 | Sanjida O'Connell
Archaeologists split hairs over first arrivalsA site in Oregon could shake America's view of history, says Sanjida O'Connell Sanjida O'Connell Thursday October 17, 2002The GuardianWoodburn is a small agricultural town in the US state of Oregon. Next to the high school is Mammoth Park. It sounds cheesy, but Mammoth Park is a paleoarchaeological site whose findings could shake America's view of her history. In suitably prosaic fashion, the site was discovered in 1987, when local authorities tried to install a sewer line. At depths of 5m, workers found huge bones, but said nothing and took them home. Now, Mammoth Park...

U.S. Widens Its Protective Frame for Indian Rock Art

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 05/21/2005 9:45:09 PM PDT· 2 replies · 25+ views

Los Angeles Times | May 20, 2005 | Fred Alvarez
A ceremony at China Lake will mark the 36,000-acre expansion of the historical landmark... There are bighorn sheep and long-tailed cougars scratched into the walls of the high desert corridor. There are snakes and dragonflies and mammoth-like creatures, captured in rock carvings by the native people who once hunted and gathered their food on the western edge of the Mojave Desert. There are so many images, in fact, that they can't all be counted. All anyone knows for sure is that the carvings, set deep within the Navy's testing range at China Lake, make up the largest concentration of Indian...

Let's Have Jerusalem

Have Jordanian archaeologists found the place Jesus was baptized?

Posted by NYer
On News/Activism 05/21/2005 5:46:49 AM PDT· 16 replies · 687+ views

Daily Star | May 20, 2005 | Rami G. Khouri
AMMAN, Jordan: Substantial new evidence from archaeological excavations may have located where Jesus was baptized. Scholars long identified Jesus' baptism as taking place at the lower reaches of the Jordan River, east of Jericho - prompted by a combination of biblical references, Byzantine and other mediaeval texts, and the uninterrupted traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, which has custody of the area.Following the 1994 Jordan-Israel peace agreement, archaeologists promptly resumed the search for the place the Bible called "Bethany beyond the Jordan." That search had begun over a century earlier. In a region of some 8 square kilometers on...

In Iraq, The Home Of Patriarch Abraham Being Excavated

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 10/12/2002 8:40:24 PM PDT· 16 replies · 73+ views

RNA (Russian News Agency) | 10-11-2002
IN IRAQ THE HOME OF PATRIARCH ABRAHAM BEING EXCAVATED BAGHDAD, October 11, 2002. /from RIA Novosti correspondent Pavel Davydov/. - The Department of Antiquities of Iraq is starting a second stage of excavations of the home of prophet Abraham in the town of Ur /380 km to the south of Baghdad./ The town, known as the biblical Ur of the Chaldees, dates back to the remotest antiquities. In the time of Abraham, it held the leading position among other cities. In the time of Ur-Engur and Dungy-Ur the town covered the territory stretching from Persia and the Mediterranean sea and...

Oldest Altarpiece Restored to Former Glory

Posted by siunevada
On Religion 05/19/2005 10:02:32 AM PDT· 24 replies · 325+ views

The Scotsman | May 18, 2005 | John-Paul Ford Rojas
Neglected for centuries, Englandís oldest altarpiece has been restored to its former glory and today goes on display in the National Gallery. The Westminster Retable, an ornately-decorated thirteenth century panel painting, has been painstakingly repaired in a twenty-year project. The Retable is divided into five panels depicting biblical figures, including an image of Christ holding a miniature representation of the earth. It is considered one of the most important northern European panel paintings of its time. Henry III gave it to Westminster Abbey at the end of his reign after he had overseen the churchís reconstruction in the French Gothic...

Science reveals biblical rainbow

Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 7:02:35 PM PDT· 8 replies · 734+ views

The Washington Times | 5/17/05 | Jennifer Harper
Azurite, cinnabar, malachite, verdigris, carbon: These are the true colors of the Bible -- the Gutenberg Bible, that is. For the first time in 600 years, the world has become privy to the mysterious substances used to illustrate the rare volumes of God's word produced by the German printer Johann Gutenberg circa 1454. It took a pair of enterprising researchers with a delicate touch to isolate the composition of the nine colors -- painstakingly concocted by unknown artists from such substances as precious metals and minerals, ground chalk, copper, plants and even insects. Gregory Smith, an artifact conservation specialist at...

Scientist Defends Account Of Exodus

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 04/11/2003 1:52:30 PM PDT· 47 replies · 391+ views

Washington Post | 4-10-2003 | Richard N. Ostling
Scientist Defends Account of Exodus By RICHARD N. OSTLING The Associated Press Thursday, April 10, 2003; 12:18 PM A British scientist is making two claims about Jewish history this Passover season that could surely spark discussion over the Seder meal. Colin J. Humphreys of Cambridge University has concluded that science backs traditional beliefs that the Israelites' exodus from Egypt was led by Moses pretty much the way the Bible and the Haggadah ritual tell it. He also says that Mount Sinai, where Scripture says Moses received God's Law, is located in Saudi Arabia, not Egypt's Sinai Peninsula - moving a...

Why I think Noah's "erets" flood occurred around 9,000 - 12,000 B.C. and ended in Turkey.

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 04/19/2002 12:51:23 PM PDT· 19 replies · 212+ views

Trust the Bible DOT com | 2002 | Wayne McKellips
Why I think Noah's "erets" flood occurred around 9,000 - 12,000 B.C. and ended in Turkey. Intro: For a long time I thought the flood waters destroyed all air breathing life on earth, except for those in the ark. That view has problems. I now believe the flood, at the minimum, filled the land of Turkey up with water. As 1st Samuel 30:16 shows sometimes "the whole earth" or "all the earth" can refer to a country or land area. The word translated land or earth in 1st Samuel 30:16 is the main one of the two words used...

Oh So Mysteriouso

Exclusive: Real Indiana Jones Locates Lost Ark

Posted by Alouette
On News/Activism 05/18/2005 11:38:36 AM PDT· 180 replies · 5,485+ views

Israel National News (Arutz 7) | May 18, 2005
Dr. Vendyl Jones, the inspiration for the ìIndiana Jonesî series, told Israel National Radio that he is sure he will uncover the hidden Ark of the Covenant before the Fast of Tisha BíAv this summer. The explorer and teacher, who published a book in 1959 predicting the Six Day War based on his analysis of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt up until the First Temple Period, says that employing the same biblical analysis to modern times points to major events that will ìturn the world right side upî this coming June. Dr. Jones left his post as a Christian pastor...

Testing the Faith: 666 wrong number of prophetic beast?

Posted by Perdogg
On General/Chat 05/08/2005 7:12:27 PM PDT· 16 replies · 253+ views

Wold Net Daily | 05/08/05 | satff
For centuries, people have been intrigued by the number 666, the "number of the beast" from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Not only is it mentioned in the Bible, it has been associated with the Satanism, universal price codes and the game of roulette, as the numbers on the wheel add up to 666. Now, the legendary number is getting a fresh look, as researchers are re-examining evidence the number may actually be 616. Fragment from Book of Revelation mentions 616 in the third line ñ chi, iota, sigma (courtesy Egypt Exploration Society) In the King James...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

The Dwindling Light of Hellenism

Posted by robowombat
On News/Activism 08/01/2002 12:54:22 PM PDT· 9 replies · 135+ views

grecoreport.com | 1996 | A. Frangos
The Dwindling Light of Hellenism If the light by which we are guided is ever extinguished it will dwindle by degrees and expire by itself. Alexis de Tocqueville Ra-hotep gazed with admiration at the pyramids under construction and the intricate interlaced irrigation systems which brought life to the crops that fed his happy nation. How proud he was of the wonders wrought by his intelligent brown-skinned people. He was at the controls of a wood and papyrus glider which had been flung into the sky by a catapult designed by his ingenious engineers. His scientists had also built his cunningly...

Egyptian Jurists Sue 'The Jews' for Compensation...of Gold Allegedly Stolen During Exodus from Egypt

Posted by adam_az
On News/Activism 08/21/2003 12:48:59 PM PDT· 109 replies · 517+ views

Memri.org | 8/09/03 | Dr. Nabil Hilmi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Al-Zaqaziq
The August 9, 2003 edition of the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi featured an interview with Dr. Nabil Hilmi, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Al-Zaqaziq who, together with a group of Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland, is preparing an enormous lawsuit against "all the Jews of the world." The following are excerpts from the interview: [1] Dr. Hilmi: "Ö Since the Jews make various demands of the Arabs and the world, and claim rights that they base on historical and religious sources, a group of Egyptians in Switzerland has opened the case of the so-called 'great exodus...

Have two new Imperial FabergÈ eggs surfaced in Russia?

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 6:33:36 PM PDT· 17 replies · 397+ views

The Art Newspaper | 5/19/05 | John Varoli
Leading jewellery experts are not so convinced, but refuse to say so publiclyMOSCOW. A group of Russian collectors thought to include some of Russiaís richest oil barons is claiming to own two FabergÈ Easter eggs made for the Tsar. The eggs in question are currently on display in Moscow at the Museum of the History and Reconstruction of Moscow near Red Square. FabergÈ experts are not convinced by the objectsí supposed imperial provenance. The exhibition, held under the patronage of President Putin, includes works from Gokhran, the State depository of precious metals and gemstones, the Russian State Archives, and the...

Iraqi Sumerian artifacts confiscated in Diwaniya from a Syrian officer (Interesting Carvings)

Posted by monkeybrau
On News/Activism 05/14/2005 1:31:27 PM PDT· 12 replies · 420+ views

Iraq the Model | 5/12/2005 | http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
From Iraqthemodel.blogspot.com: Al-Witwity reports about the confiscation of many Iraqi Sumerian artifacts in Diwaniya after arresting a Syrian mukhabarat officer who was trying to smuggle these priceless artifacts out to Syria in cooperation with some local thugs. Experts estimate the total price of these artistic historic pieces to be around 35 million dollars.Click here for pictures of the retreived artifacts.

Memorial rite recalls day etched in minds ~ Anniversary of Mt. St. Helens eruption

Posted by 2sheep
On News/Activism 05/18/2002 2:37:17 AM PDT· 15 replies · 3,839+ views

The Oregonian | May 19, 2000 | Erin Middlewood
57 died when the volcano erupted on May 18, 1980 Friday, May 19, 2000By ERIN MIDDLEWOOD, Correspondent, TheOregonianHOFFSTADT BLUFFS, Wash. -- When Mount St. Helens erupted 20 years ago, Paul Nickell's mother and stepfather were camping there. It was as if the mountain swallowed them.† Their bodies were never recovered. Nickell felt hopeless sorrow seeing their names on the list of those presumed dead.† "It doesn't seem real until you see their names on a list," he said. On Thursday, the 45-year-old Portland resident saw Ellen and Robert Dill's name on another list.† But this one brought him comfort.† It's...

A Mysterious Darkness: The Day the Sun Went Out in New England

Posted by quidnunc
On News/Activism 05/20/2005 9:46:07 AM PDT· 41 replies · 2,131+ views

The Colonial Williamsburg Journal | Summer 2005 | Andrew G. Gardner
The nineteenth day of May, 1780, began in New England like any other pretty, late-spring morning. Fruit blossoms dangled heavy in the warm, newly risen sun. The scent of nectar brought drowsy honeybees from their straw hives. The dawn chorus of songbirds chirped and echoed across the sleepy countryside as farm laborers yoked their horses to heavy wooden ploughs and carts ready for the day ahead. But by mid-morning the pastoral calm would be turned on its head. Laborers and schoolchildren would be scurrying home for shelter. By noon, birds would be roosting in the trees and bats would be...

Portugal: Medieval Muslim Burial Ground Unearthed

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/15/2005 11:29:27 AM PDT· 14 replies · 413+ views

Adnkoronos International | 5-12-2005
PORTUGAL: MEDIEVAL MUSLIM BURIAL GROUND UNEARTHED Lisbon, 12 May (AKI) - Skeletons belonging to some 35 corpses have surfaced from a Portuguese excavation site which archaelogists believe could be one of the the largest medieval Muslim burial grounds in Europe. The corpses, found in vaults carved out of the rockface were buried facing due west in the direction of the Muslim holy city, Mecca. The remains were unearthed at the Largo de Candido Dos Reis park, near the northern Portuguese city of Santarem. Local authorities believe the burial ground, discovered by Portuguese archaeologist, Antonio Matias, could extend over an area...

Portuguese may have 'discovered' Australia! (Not Captain Cook)

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 10/09/2002 8:42:41 AM PDT· 11 replies · 946+ views

CNN | Tuesday, October 8, 2002 Posted: 1050 GMT | SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters)
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) --Captain Cook fans who credit the English explorer-adventurer with the formal "discovery" of eastern Australia may have to think again. History teacher Greg Jefferys said on Tuesday he believed he had found remains of a Portuguese warship buried under a beach in what is now the state of Queensland and he had dated the wreck to as much as 200 years before James Cook landed in Botany Bay.

end of digest #44 20050521

[back to normal size]

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #45
Saturday, May 28, 2005

Ancient Greece

'Cyclops'-like remains found on Crete

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 02/01/2003 11:07:21 AM PST · 12 replies · 288+ views

CNN | Friday, January 31, 2003 Posted: 2:52 AM HKT (1852 GMT) | Editorial Staff
IRAKLIO, Greece (AP) -- Researchers on the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a Deinotherium Gigantisimum, a fearsome elephant-like creature that might have given rise to ancient legends of one-eyed cyclops monsters.

Ancient Rome

Archaeologists offer tastes of Pompeii

Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 05/26/2005 5:28:24 PM PDT · 23 replies · 615+ views

Duluth News Tribune | 5/25/05 | ARIEL DAVID/AP
ROME - Sauces made from fermented fish entrails. A quiche-like pastry shell filled with bay leaves and ricotta cheese. For dessert, peaches with aromatic cumin and honey. Those tastes may not be for everyone's palate, but the specialties of ancient Pompeii are being revived for a month at the site of the ruins by a research project intended to give new insights into how the Romans lived. Pompeii's busiest restaurant was buried with the rest of the prosperous city when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The eruption killed thousands of people, but a 20-foot-deep cocoon of volcanic ash kept...

Epigraphy and Language

Archimedes manuscript yields secrets under X-ray gaze

Posted by PatrickHenry
On News/Activism
For five days in May, the ancient collided with the ultra-modern at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), bringing brilliant, long-hidden ideas to light with brilliant X-ray light. A synchrotron X-ray beam at the Department of Energy facility illuminated an obscured work - erased, written over and even painted over - of ancient mathematical genius Archimedes, born 287 B.C. in Sicily. Archimedes' amazingly advanced ideas have been lost and found several times throughout the ages. Now scientists are employing modern technology -- including X-ray fluorescence at SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) -- to completely read the Archimedes Palimpsest, the...

India

Seventeenth-Century Islamic Brassmakers Were Far Ahead Of European Peers, Engineers Say

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/26/2005 6:37:44 PM PDT · 39 replies · 586+ views

Eureka Alert | 5-26-2005 | Kurt Pfitzer
Seventeenth-century Islamic brassmakers were far ahead of European peers, engineers sayContact: Kurt Pfitzer kap4@lehigh.edu 610-758-3017 Lehigh University Archaeometallurgists announce findings after four-year study of astrolabes Manufacturers of brass astrolabes in 17th-century India were two centuries more advanced than their European peers, says a doctoral student at Lehigh University who just completed a four-year study of astrolabes. Brian Newbury, who earned a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering in May, said the high zinc content in astrolabes fabricated in Lahore (now in Pakistan) proves that brass made there in the early 1600s was produced by a co-melting technique that was not...

Sixth Century (Female) Buddhist Statue Discovered

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/25/2005 12:16:42 PM PDT · 16 replies · 556+ views

WebIndia 123 | 5-24-2005 | Sirpur
Sixth century Buddhist statue discovered:- Sirpur | May 24, 2005 7:26:11 PM IST Indian archaeologists have discovered a rare statue of a Buddhist female monk dating back to the sixth century. The discovery was made during recent excavations in Sirpur, situated 84 kms. from Raipur, capital of central Chhattisgarh state. The excavators unearthed the statue of Haritika, who as per legend abducted infants and later on killed them.Arun Kumar Sharma, chief of the excavation project, said that it was for the first time they have discovered the image of Haritika, which proves that female deities were as popular as their...

Oh So Mysteriouso

Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras | Mithraism | Ancient Religion

Posted by ckilmer
On News/Activism 10/31/2003 6:19:29 PM PST · 9 replies · 128+ views

Biblical Archaeology Review vol. 20, #5 | September/October 1994 | David Ulansey
MITHRAISM The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras by David Ulansey Author of THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES (Oxford University Press, 1991) The following essay is adapted from my article,"Solving the Mithraic Mysteries" Biblical Archaeology Review (vol. 20, #5 [September/October 1994] pp. 40-53) This article is a summary of my book on Mithraism, THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES(Oxford University Press, revised paperback, 1991) [To order this book (for $13.95), click here.] † The Encyclopedia Britannica has given this page its "Web's Best Sites" award. The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras (Note: complete documentation for the following essay can be found...

Now's the Time to Find Holy Lost Ark (Ark of the Covenant possibly located)

Posted by axes_of_weezles
On News/Activism 05/25/2005 10:18:09 PM PDT · 84 replies · 2,513+ views

Arutz Sheva | 20 May 05 | Unknown/Arutz Sheva
An unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha BíAv Fast this summer. The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the ìIndiana Jonesî movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple. The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the...

Phoenicians

Carthage Tries To Live Down Image As Site Of Infanticide

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/27/2005 12:20:44 PM PDT · 93 replies · 1,239+ views

Post-Gazette/Wall Street Journal | 5-26-2004 | Andrew Higgins
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...

Vikings

Unlocking Minnesota's 'DaVinci Code'

Posted by FreeManWhoCan
On News/Activism 05/24/2005 9:45:19 PM PDT · 57 replies · 1,230+ views

Wcco.com | May 24, 2005 10:15 am | wcco
Kensington, Minn. (WCCO) Researchers have found new evidence of a secret code concealed on the Kensington Runestone, one of the most controversial pieces of Minnesota history. The rock was found near Alexandria, Minn. a century ago. It bears an inscription that places Norwegians here in 1362. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is the Kensington Runestone an elaborate hoax? New research suggests the rune stone is genuine, and a hidden code can prove it. "Eight Goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey ... 10 men red with blood and dead ... 14 days...

PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis

Kon-Tiki Theory Floats Again After 50 Years

Posted by blam
On General/Chat 04/08/2002 4:57:41 AM PDT · 12 replies · 83+ views

IOL | 4-7-2002
Kon-Tiki theory floats again after 50 years April 07 2002 at 02:16PM Guimar, Canary Islands - Thor Heyerdahl's theories on ancient seafarers spreading civilization were initially ridiculed by scientists, but a younger generation is studying his ideas from five decades ago as the basis for new ideas about early cultural exchanges. Robson Bonnichsen, who studies how the American continent became populated, calls Heyerdahl "a visionary ahead of his time". Bonnichsen, director of the Centre for the Study of the First Americans at Oregon State University, said that many experts now give serious consideration to the idea that people in boats...

Founding Fathers And Mothers: How Many Crossed The Land Bridge?

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/24/2005 10:47:07 AM PDT · 19 replies · 722+ views

Eureka Alert/Rutgers State University | 5-24-2005 | Joseph Blumberg
Founding fathers & mothers: How many crossed the land bridge?Contact: Joseph Blumberg blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x652 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. ñ Programs on the Discovery Channel and PBS have sparked fresh interest in the prehistoric peopling of the New World. Now, for the first time, we have a realistic estimate of how many ancients made that ice age trek across the long-lost land bridge from Asia to become the first Native Americans. Jody Hey, a professor of genetics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has developed a computational method that uses genetic information...

Court battle resumes .. over ancient remains (Kennewick Man)

Posted by vannrox
On News/Activism 09/12/2003 1:51:35 PM PDT · 19 replies · 193+ views

Tribnet.com, The News Tribune's online newspaper | (Published 12:01AM, September 11th, 2003) | WILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press
Court battle resumes between tribes, scientists over ancient remainsWILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press PORTLAND - The definition of "Native American" is at stake in deciding whether the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes, lawyers for both sides told a federal appeals court Wednesday. The Interior Department has fought with scientists since the bones were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick. A group of eight anthropologists who want to do research on the skeleton went to court to seek permission. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago...

Last Word On Kennewick Man?

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 11/17/2002 4:09:41 PM PST · 37 replies · 105+ views

Archaeology | 11-17-2002
LAST WORD ON KENNEWICK MAN? A court ruling on the controversial remains pleases archaeologist James Chatters. On August 30, Judge John Jelderks of the U.S. District Court of Oregon ruled against the government's 1996 decision that declared the 9,400-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man to be Native American, a classification which would require the remains to be turned over to a coalition of tribes for reburial. James Chatters, archaeologist and author of Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), identified the remains when they were found on the banks of Washington's Columbia River...

Tribes quit long fight over Kennewick Man's remains

Posted by Willie Green
On News/Activism 07/16/2004 3:40:56 PM PDT · 91 replies · 2,541+ views

The Oregonian | Friday, July 16, 2004 | RICHARD L. HILL
The case appears to be over and the stage set for scientific study, barring a federal appeal to the Supreme Court The convoluted legal fight for Kennewick Man's bones -- the remains found along the Columbia River almost eight years ago that make up one of the oldest, most complete skeletons found in North America -- is likely over. Four Northwest tribes seeking to bury the 9,300-year-old bones indicate they will not take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing in lower federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains. The bones now await a formal...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

FROM ANCIENT WHITE MALES-(revitalizing classical studies critical to combatting liberal revisionism)

Posted by CHARLITE
On News/Activism 05/19/2005 10:56:07 AM PDT · 37 replies · 552+ views

WASHINGTON TIMES.COM | MAY 19, 2005 | SUZANNE FIELDS
Like Rodney Dangerfield, the humanities in Washington "don't get no respect." Not as much as they should, anyway. We're a company town and the company makes politics. But like a blind squirrel who finds an acorn once in a while, politicians and the journalists gather occasionally with others who crave more profundity than the noise in political rhetoric to listen to the annual >Jefferson Lecture. "The training of the intellect was meant to produce an intrinsic pleasure and satisfaction but it also had practical goals of importance to the individual and the entire community, to make the humanistically trained individuals...

end of digest #45 20050528

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #46
Saturday, June 4, 2005

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Archaeologists Announce 'Beautiful' Mummy Found

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 4:28:24 PM PDT · 28 replies · 1,072+ views

Turkish Press | Tuesday, May 31, 2005
VOA- Egyptian archaeologists say they have found a well-preserved mummy that ranks among the most beautiful ever discovered. The more than 2,300-year-old unidentified mummy was found wearing a golden mask and covered Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said it "may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt." The mummy was recently discovered buried in a six-meter-deep, sand-covered pit at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo.

Ancient Europe

Mutilated Bronze Age Lord Found In Germany

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 4:47:40 PM PDT · 8 replies · 676+ views

Mail And Guardian | 5-30-2005 | Thomas Schoene
Mutilated Bronze Age lord found in Germany Thomas Schoene | Halle, Germany 30 May 2005 05:23 Archaeologists have discovered the skeletons of a lord and his retainers in a burial mound at Germany's most celebrated Bronze Age site. Archaeologist Olaf Schroeder said the intact, 4 200-year-old mound was one of at least eight "barrows" within view of the ancient holy site that yielded the 3 600-year-old Nebra celestial disc, a bronze and gold depiction of the heavens, in 1999. Government archaeologists began excavating the wooded area after being tipped off that treasure-hunters were digging over the area in search of...

Ancient Greece

Treasures Fit For A King (Thracians)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/29/2005 10:35:02 AM PDT · 10 replies · 287+ views

Time - Europe | 5-29-2005 | Jumana Farouky
Treasures Fit For The KingsA spate of spectacular discoveries could completely change our view of the Thracians, one of history's most mysterious peoples By JUMANA FAROUKY TCVETAN TOMCHEV / AFP GOLD RUSH: Thracian artifacts, like this piece of horse's armor, reveal Bulgaria's past Sunday, May. 29, 2005 They had been digging for 12 years, 4 months a year, 18 hours a day. Since 1992, Georgi Kitov and his team have been searching through Bulgaria's Valley of the Kings, a 100-km, heavily forested region in the center of the country. The valley is dotted with ancient burial mounds erected by the...

Ancient Rome

Pannonian gladiators

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 06/03/2005 9:29:08 AM PDT · 6 replies · 104+ views

Budapest Sun | May 19, 2005 | Esther VÈcsey
Legionaries were recruited from all parts of the Empire - those who came to Pannonia mostly hailed from Africa, Syria and Iran. At first turf and timber forts with earthen huts as housing formed the military camps surrounded by deeply dug ditches. The Romans were great engineers and developed highly practical and easily reproducible methods of building. They used bricks and concrete to make arches unknown in ancient Egypt and Greece... The camps were strategically placed at 20 - 30km distances from each other along the limes (boundaries), with 1,260km-long ditches protecting them. These stretched from Siscia (Sis·k), Sirmium (Mitrovica),...

Asia

Korea's Oldest Artificial Pond Discovered

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 12:32:04 PM PDT · 12 replies · 410+ views

Korea Times | 5-31-2005 | Kim Ki-tae
Korea's Oldest Artificial Pond Discovered By Kim Ki-tae Staff Reporter The nation°Øs oldest artificial pond was found in Andong, North Kyongsang Province. The pond°Øs construction dates back to the Bronze Age. Museum of Dongyang University yesterday announced that the artificial pond was created at least 2,600 years ago, after examining the site where the pond used to be, a swampy place in Chojon-ni, Sohu-myon in the region. It said the rectangular pond was formed in the valley area by digging paths from nearby streams. The artificial lake is estimated to be 50 meters long and 15 meters wide, with a...

Climate

Man 'Not To Blame' For Extinction Of Giant Wombat

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 5:38:51 PM PDT · 38 replies · 570+ views

The Telegraph (UK) | 5-31-2005 | Roger Highfield
Man 'not to blame' for extinction of giant wombat By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 31/05/2005) Humans may have been unjustly accused of wiping out the giant kangaroos, wombats and other massive marsupials that roamed Australia 40,000 years ago, new research suggests. One study by British and Australian scientists reveals today that humans co-existed with megafauna - large native animals such as the Diprotodon, a three-ton, wombat-like creature, a ferocious, marsupial "lion" and the world's all-time biggest lizard - for at least 15,000 years. Another, by a Queensland team, suggests it was climate change, rather than early Australian aborigines, that...

Elam, Media, Persia, Parthia, Iran

Islamic Iran uncovers more of its winemaking past

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 6:36:03 PM PDT · 15 replies · 279+ views

Middle East Times | May 30, 2005
TEHRAN -- Archaeologists digging in southern Iran have found a pool and pots that they believe were used some 1,800 years ago for large scale wine production, reinforcing the now-Islamic nation's status as the cradle of wine drinkers. "We have found an almost intact pool with a canal in the middle of it. This is where the juices from crushed grapes would flow and be collected later in pots for fermentation and turning into wine," said Ali Asadi, the head of the excavation team. The team, which includes a group of Polish archaeologists, is digging at a site called Tange...

Iran digs up more of its wine-making past [Shiraz Wine]

Posted by freedom44
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 9:09:52 PM PDT · 15 replies · 257+ views

Daily Star | 5/30/05 | Daily Star
TEHRAN: Archaeologists digging in southern Iran have found a pool and pots they believe were used some 1,800 years ago for large scale wine production, reinforcing the now-Islamic nation's status as the cradle of wine drinkers. "We have found an almost intact pool with a canal in the middle of it. This is where the juices from crushed grapes would flow and be collected later in pots for fermentation and turning into wine," Ali Asadi, the head of the excavation team said. The team, which includes a group of Polish archaeologists, is digging at a site called Tange Bolaghi, near...

Epigraphy and Language

History Of Persian Or Paarsi Language

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/29/2005 11:34:32 AM PDT · 61 replies · 681+ views

Iranian Journal | 5-24-2005 | Fariborz Rahnamoon
HISTORY OF PERSIAN OR PAARSI LANGUAGE May 24, 2005 Fariborz Rahnamoon ORIGIN Paarsi or Persian was the language of the Paarsa people who ruled Iran between 550 - 330 BCE. It belongs to what scholars call the Indo-Iranian group of languages. It became the language of the Persian Empire and was widely spoken in the ancient days ranging from the borders of India in the east, Russian in the north, the southern shores of the Persian Gulf to Egypt and the Mediterranean in the west. Over the centuries Paarsi has changed to its modern form and today Persian is spoken...

India

Mystery of the smiling Buddha that arrived as a gift from the tsunami

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 7:58:45 PM PDT · 20 replies · 707+ views

The Times (U.K.) | May 31, 2005 | Catherine Philp
THE little Buddhist sage sits underneath the tree only yards from the sea from which he was plucked, a whimsical smile upon his face. Villagers gather before him with offerings of incense and food. ìWe must look after him,î Gajendram, a fisherman, said as he knelt to light a candle. ìHe was sent 1,000 miles across the sea to protect us and he will stay with us for ever.î A few miles up the coast at Mahabalipuram, a group of daytrippers marvel at the weathered carvings on a huge rock sitting in the middle of the beach. To one side...

Let's Have Jerusalem

Ark of the Covenant's discovery imminent?

Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 05/29/2005 1:28:15 PM PDT · 293 replies · 5,431+ views

WorldNetDaily | 5/28/05 | Dr. Kelly Hollowell
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" is one of my all-time favorite movies, filled with mystery and adventure. It focuses on the search for a biblical artifact and treasure called The Ark of the Covenant. What makes the movie particularly exciting is how closely it mimics (with some added Hollywood flair) the real life hunt for the lost Ark. History has it that the original Ark was where God manifested His presence on earth beginning in the days of Moses. The Ark was designed as a chest made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. It had four golden rings. Each one...

Astronomers try to make comet sense of festive apparition

Posted by missyme
On News/Activism 01/04/2005 8:27:59 PM PST · 25 replies · 418+ views

Scotmans News | Jan 4th, 2005
A COMET that appeared in the night sky over Christmas has invited comparisons with the Star of Bethlehem. But it is amateur astronomers with telescopes and binoculars who are pursuing the object rather than Wise Men bearing gifts. Comet Machholz will be at its most visible tomorrow and Thursday. Even then it will be no more than a faint smudge of light difficult to see with the naked eye. A pair of binoculars pointing south should pick it out near the Pleiades star cluster. Comets have been proposed as an explanation for the star that guided the Three Wise Men...

Researcher Develops Methods To Test Artifacts' Links To The Bible

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/29/2005 5:17:11 PM PDT · 13 replies · 392+ views

Newswise/Purdue | 5-28-2005
Researcher Develops Methods to Test Artifacts' Links to the Bible Newswise ó A Purdue University professor has invented a system to judge whether ancient inscriptions refer to people in the Bible. Lawrence Mykytiuk (MICK-ee-took) uses the system to test whether archaeological inscriptions refer to ancient Hebrew kings such as David, Omri, Jeroboam II, Uzziah and other Old Testament personages such as Mesha and the high priest Hilkiah. The system and results are detailed in his new book, "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E." (Society of Biblical Literature, $42.95). Mykytiuk's work steps outside the conflict between two...

Oh So Mysteriouso

Zoroastrianism - The World of the Wise Lord [Religion of the Persian Empire]

Posted by freedom44
On News/Activism 05/31/2005 9:59:31 PM PDT · 30 replies · 491+ views

Persian Journal | May 21, 2005 | Nazar Khan
While browsing through the ancient Persian history, I was struck and fascinated by another subject Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism has not only made a major contribution to the ancient philosophical thought but has also had a deep imprint on the Persian history and culture. Since ages, man has been striving to search for the meaning and purpose of life. Two ancient philosophies threw up answers to this eternal quest. One came out of the Vedic thought of re-incarnation (samsara) which believed in perpetual cycles of life, death and re-birth. It believed that soul (atma) finally got liberated (moksha) based on man's good...

Prehistory and Origins

Bones Of Contention ('Hobbits' - More)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 4:35:41 PM PDT · 10 replies · 393+ views

Time - Asia | 5-30-2005 | John Stanmeyer
Bones of ContentionIs a small, 18,000-year-old skeleton the older cousin of modern-day Pygmiesóor a new human species? BY SIMON ELEGANT | RAMPASASA JOHN STANMEYER FOR TIMESMALL WORLD: Rampasasa resident Anggalus Jalur, 55, stands just 130 cm tall "In those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

Ancient stone tortoise discovered in Hue

Posted by nickcarraway
On General/Chat 06/03/2005 6:44:26 PM PDT · 5 replies · 47+ views

VietNam News | 6/2/2005
THUA THIEN-HUE ó An ancient stone tortoise, which is thought to date from the Nguyen Dynasty, has been found recently in the central Thua Thien-Hue Province ñ the ancient imperial capital in 18th and 19th centuries. The white stone sculpture, which weighs 1 tonne, and is 1.6m in length, was discovered by local farmers in the province's Phu Loc District. Besides many sophisticated patterns that decorate the artefact, there is a Chinese character on its head, which means "King" and deep square cavity 60cm up the tortoise's back. According to local residents, they also found broken porcelain, tiles and a...

Archaeologists' Intoxicating Find (WW-2 Beer)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/02/2005 10:34:15 AM PDT · 26 replies · 973+ views

BBC | 6-2-2005 | David Fuller
Archaeologists' intoxicating find By David Fuller BBC News The bottles were in good condition, but the liquid inside was not Archaeologists searching for remains of a city's medieval past have made an intoxicating discovery - a cache of World War II beer. The hundred-or-so bottles of lager buried beneath Southampton's Guildhall Square were still capable of developing a head when they were opened. It is thought they had been stored in the cellar of an off-licence which was destroyed in the Blitz. The routine dig was to study the site before a new arts centre was built. Pete Cottrell, the...

Cajuns Seek Remains Of Guerrilla Leader (Beausoleil)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/02/2005 10:43:14 AM PDT · 18 replies · 480+ views

Yahoo/AP |-1-2005 | Cain Burdeau
Cajuns Seek Remains of Guerrilla Leader By CAIN BURDEAU Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 1,12:42 PM ET NEW ORLEANS - For Louisiana's Cajuns, Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil was their Che Guevara, their Thomas Jefferson, their Moses. But the gravesite of the 18th-century guerrilla fighter has long been a mystery. Now, historians and archaeologists ó some of them descendants of the Acadian leader ó are hoping to find his bones. The search is part of an Acadian renaissance movement that has sprung up since the 1960s to honor the music, art, language and customs of Louisiana's Cajun people, the Acadians' direct...

'Preserved' WWI British officer found 90 YEARS ON (In Flanders)

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 05/30/2005 8:17:51 PM PDT · 27 replies · 1,330+ views

The Scotsman | Mon 30 May 2005 | ALLAN HALL
THE remarkably well preserved remains of a British officer, killed in one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, have been discovered in the mud of Flanders. The man, still wearing his gas cape, boots and helmet, was killed during the battle of Passchendaele almost 90 years ago. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission team is due to arrive in Belgium today to help identify the Lancashire Fusiliers' officer, whose remains were found by archaeologists. The officer, who was found on Friday, is one of more than 58,000 men who fought in the notorious Ypres Salient in Belgium during...

end of digest #46 20050604

Yeah, that's right, a day early.

Gods, Graves, Glyphs
Weekly Digest #47
Saturday, June 11, 2005

Ancient Egypt

King Tut Exhibit Outrages Activists

Posted by echoBoomer
On News/Activism 06/08/2005 4:49:47 AM PDT · 208 replies · 3,046+ views

NBC 4 | 4:03 pm PDT June 7, 2005
King Tut Exhibit Outrages Activists. Critics Want Busts Depicting Tut As White Removed. LOS ANGELES -- African-American activists criticized the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for allowing a King Tut exhibition at the county Museum of Art, saying that renderings of the boy king as white are inaccurate. The "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs" exhibit opens a four-city, nationwide tour at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on June 16. Among the installations are three busts of Tut II reconstructed from the boy king's mummified corpse. All of the busts, fashioned by three groups of researchers, show...

Statue of Egyptian pharaoh found after nearly 3,600 years

Posted by TigerLikesRooster
On News/Activism 06/04/2005 9:03:10 PM PDT · 52 replies · 998+ views

AFP | 06/04/05
Statue of Egyptian pharaoh found after nearly 3,600 years Sat Jun 4, 4:45 PM ET LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) - Buried for nearly 3,600 years, a rare statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I has been brought to light in the ruins of Thebes by a team of French archaeologists. Officials said on Saturday that the statue was unusual in that the king is depicted holding hands with a double of himself, although the second part of the carving remains under the sand and its form has been determined by the use of imaging equipment. Archeologists unearthed the 1.8 metre (six foot)...

Ancient Greece

Battle of Thermopylae

Posted by Sparta
On News/Activism 11/15/2002 2:10:24 PM PST · 124 replies · 3,116+ views

greyhawkes.com | 11/15/02 | unknown
Thermopylae The Greeks realized that it was only a matter of time before the Persians came back. Darius died in 494 BCE, six years after Marathon. His son, Xerxes, would continue his work. The empire had already expanded as far south, north, and east as possible. The only way to go was west, and conquer Europe. The plan was formulated to invade Greece and Greek Sicily before raiding the rich Italian peninsula. Xerxes started a large buildup of his army and supplies. He sent slaves to cut a canal through the peninsula at Mount Athos so that his fleet would...

Greek Antiquities Are Threatened In Albania

Posted by SunkenCiv
On General/Chat 06/09/2005 9:55:20 AM PDT · 5 replies · 67+ views

Macedonian Press Agency | 8 June 2005 | staff writer
Greek monuments in ancient Apollonia, Albania are being threatened with destruction because of the construction of a high-speed motorway promoted by the Albanian Transportation Ministry aimed at providing access to the Adriatic coasts for their tourist development at a time when new findings are being unearthed. Excavation works began 3 years ago under the guidance of Cincinnati University professor Jack Davies and Lorenc Bejko from the Albanian Archaeology International Center who recently announced the discovery of a large ancient Greek temple (7th-4th century BC) possibly dedicated to ancient Greek goddess Artemis. The region has a great significance for the history...

Research To Investigate Links Between Ancient Greeks And Modern Science Fiction

Posted by nickcarraway
On General/Chat 06/08/2005 11:28:49 PM PDT · 5 replies · 112+ views

Science Daily | 2005-06-08
New research into the Ancient Greeks shows their knowledge of travel inspired early forms of fantasy and science fiction writing.There is a long tradition of fantasy in Greek literature that begins with Odysseus' fantastic travels in Homer's Odyssey. Dr Karen Ni-Mheallaigh, at the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is exploring fantasy in ancient literature, examining theories of modern science fiction writing and how these can be applied to texts from the ancient world. Dr Ni-Mheallaigh is looking at the work of 2nd century AD writer, Lucian of Samosata, who wrote True Histories, a travel narrative that...

Ancient Rome

Supermarket molluscs reveal Roman secret

Posted by presidio9
On News/Activism 09/12/2003 9:17:38 AM PDT · 43 replies · 513+ views

BBC News | Friday, 12 September, 2003 | Kristine Krug
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...

Asia

Burma Rebuilding Risks Pagan Jewel ("Archaeological Blitzkrieg")

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/06/2005 2:27:41 PM PDT · 12 replies · 206+ views

BBC | 6-6-2005 | Andrew Harding
Burma rebuilding risks Pagan jewel By Andrew Harding BBC News, Burma Pagan's temples are one of Asia's most important cultural sites The sunsets are still spectacular - a golden glow brushing the curves of 2,000 ancient temples and pagodas clustered on the edge of the Irrawaddy River in central Burma. But today some of the world's leading experts have accused Burma's military regime of waging "archaeological blitzkrieg" against the legendary Buddhist treasures of Pagan. "They're ruining it," said Richard Engelhardt, regional advisor for the UN's cultural arm, Unesco. "It makes me feel hopeless and helpless and angry and disappointed," he...

New Weapon Weilded In Old Tomb Debate (Japan)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/05/2005 12:15:17 PM PDT · 5 replies · 269+ views

Japan Times | 6-4-2005 | Reiji Yoshida
New weapon wielded in old tomb debate By REIJI YOSHIDA Staff writerInformation disclosure law reveals uncertainty over emperor's graves A law enacted six years ago has given historians a new powerful weapon to challenge a long-held taboo preserved by the Imperial Household Agency: investigating the secrets of ancient emperors' tombs. A booklet that assistant professor Noboru Koike found at a bookstore (below) and a copy of it obtained from the Imperial Household Agency suggest the agency had questions about the way some ancient tombs were linked to past emperors. The weapon is the public information disclosure law, which has allowed...

Britain

Mystery goo jar opened

Posted by Pokey78
On News/Activism 07/28/2003 8:14:00 PM PDT · 55 replies · 139+ views

The Sun (U.K.) | 07/29/03 | GARY OíSHEA
Liz ... with the old cream Mystery goo jar openedBy GARY OíSHEA A SEALED jar of 2,000-year-old white cream was opened yesterday after being found at a Roman ruins site. The goo which could be make-up still has fingerprints of the last person to use it. Archaeologists excavating the site in Southwark, South London, said the find was ìof major significanceî. The fist-sized cylindrical tin box was opened by experts at the Museum of London. Specialist Liz Barham described it as smelling ìsulphurous and cheesyî. Curator Francis Grew said: ìWe are in completely uncharted territory here. ìTo find one...

Prehistoric Find Sheds Light On History Of Castle

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/07/2005 9:46:23 AM PDT · 38 replies · 778+ views

This Is Bristol | 6-7-2005
PREHISTORIC FIND SHEDS LIGHT ON HISTORY OF CASTLE 11:00 - 07 June 2005 Archaeologists from Bristol University have added 1,000 years of history to Berkeley Castle by uncovering remains of an Iron Age settlement there. The unexpected discovery was made in the kitchen gardens of the castle during a training excavation for students from the university. Parts of a ring ditch that might have circled a barrow - a mound over an ancient burial site - prehistoric flint tools and a few fragments of human bone have been found immediately below the Victorian kitchen garden's flower beds and greenhouses. Berkeley...

Catastrophism and Astronomy

WORRYING ABOUT THE NEXT BIG SPLASH

Posted by Mike Darancette
On News/Activism 06/17/2003 8:01:59 AM PDT · 9 replies · 95+ views

Casa Grande Dispatch | 11 June 2003 | Alan Levine
The headline read: "Massive tsunami sweeps Atlantic Coast in asteroid impact...." It was at that point that I wished that I had taken a speed-reading course, because the rest of the headline read: "...scenario for March 16, 2880." I'm really thankful for all those folks who spend countless hours each week with their eyeballs glued to the small end of a telescope as they search the skies, keeping constant vigil for anything heading toward Earth that's larger than a frozen turkey. The men and women of NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab, college professors and their student assistants and even...

Elam, Media, Persia, Parthia, Iran

How Great Was Alexander?

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/13/2003 6:20:15 PM PDT · 39 replies · 484+ views

U/C Berkeley | 6-12-2003 | Kathleen Maclay
This intricate mosaic floor, featuring a masked young man from the Greek comic theater, is one of more than 100,000 artifacts uncovered by archaeologists at the ancient Israelite seaport site of Dor. (Credit: Gabi Laron) How great was Alexander? By Kathleen Maclay, Media Relations | 12 June 2003 BERKELEY ñ Alexander the Great may not have been so great after all. A University of California, Berkeley-led group of researchers is challenging the common history that credits the Macedonian king with initiating the spread of ancient Greek culture throughout the Middle East during his conquest of the region during the...

Medieval Europe

Archaeologists make discovery in downtown Prague

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 06/07/2005 11:13:21 PM PDT · 9 replies · 368+ views

Prague Daily Monitor | 6 June
Archaeologists unearthed a ceramic goblet and a large number of small, silver coins in the courtyard of a house between Stepanska and Skolska streets in the centre of Prague last week, said Vojtech Kaspar from the Archaia archaeological society. The coins were minted in Kutna Hora in the middle or late 15th Century. According to experts, the finding is unique since such a large number of coins is seldom unearthed in Prague. The so-called "Lostice goblet" was covered under the floor of a Gothic stone house. Archaeologists unearthed its foundations under the tarmac covering of the courtyard. There were about...

Mesopotamia

Cuniform Tablets And Royal Stamp Unearthed In Northeast Syria (+1800BC)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/04/2005 11:50:32 AM PDT · 24 replies · 399+ views

Arabic News | 6-2-2005
Cuneiform tablets and royal stamp unearth in northeast Syria Syria, Local, 6/2/2005 The Syrian-Belgian joint excavation mission in northeast Syria has recently discovered some cuneiform tablets dating back to the neo Assyrian king in the Mesopotamia Shamshi Adad, 1800 BC, as well it unearthed the king personal stamp. Head of the Belgian team of excavations told SANA today that after the discovery of the king special stamp, the mission is doing her best to come across the full palace of the king, noting that the mission has started her excavation work this year at Shager Bazar hill in Hassaka, northeast...

Epigraphy and Language

Archaeologists Find Hoard Of Celtic Coins

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/04/2005 11:39:54 AM PDT · 27 replies · 635+ views

Yahoo | 6-3-2005
Archaeologists Find Hoard of Celtic Coins Fri Jun 3,10:43 AM ET AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - Archaeologists have uncovered 17 ancient Celtic coins in a field in the south of the Netherlands, the first hoard of such coins found in the country. Amsterdam's Free University excavated the site in April and will display the coins, which are made of silver and mixed with copper and gold, in the Limburgs Museum in the city of Venlo on Saturday. They are estimated to date from 20-50 B.C., shortly after Julius Caesar began the Roman conquest of the region. Leaders of local Germanic tribes "probably...

Let's Have Jerusalem

'Biblical Temple' tablet found

Posted by Walkin Man
On News/Activism 01/14/2003 6:38:37 PM PST · 40 replies · 164+ views

BBC News | Tuesday, 14 January, 2003, 03:41 GMT
Tuesday, 14 January, 2003, 03:41 GMT 'Biblical Temple' tablet found Israeli geologists say a purportedly ancient stone tablet detailing repair plans for the Jewish Temple of King Solomon is genuine, an Israeli newspaper has reported. The fragment is said to date from the period of the Jewish King Joash, who ruled the area 2,800 years ago. If officially authenticated, the find would be the first piece of physical evidence backing up biblical texts. It could also intensify competing claims to the site in Jerusalem's Old City, where the stone is said to have been found, which go to the heart of...

The Book of Judges: The Israelite Tribal Federation and Its Discontents

Posted by Remember_Salamis
On News/Activism 06/02/2005 1:05:44 AM PDT · 4 replies · 210+ views

Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs | Daniel J. Elazar
The Book of Judges: The Israelite Tribal Federation and Its Discontents Daniel J. Elazar The study of the Bible as a political teaching has undergone a considerable revival in the past decades. One need only consult the works of Wildavsky,1 Brams,2 Walzer,3 and the materials published by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs group in the Jewish Political Studies Review4 to get a good sense of the scope of this rediscovery of biblical teachings. While the Bible never ceased to be a source of political teaching, after the American Revolution it was pushed out of the mainstream of Western Civilization....

Israel: Sensation or forgery? Researchers hail dramatic First Temple period finding

Posted by HAL9000
On News/Activism 01/13/2003 9:05:23 AM PST · 31 replies · 46+ views

Ha'aretz | Nadav Shragai
An inscription attributed to Jehoash, the king of Judea who ruled in Jerusalem at the end of the ninth century B.C.E., has been authenticated by experts from the National Infrastructure Ministry's Geological Survey of Israel following months of examination. The 10-line fragment, which was apparently found on the Temple Mount, is written in the first person on a black stone tablet in ancient Phoenician script. The inscription's description of Temple "house repairs" ordered by King Jehoash strongly resembles passages in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 12. Dr. Gabriel Barkai, a leading Israeli archaeologist from Bar Ilan University's Land...

Jesus died of blood clot - Israeli researcher

Posted by echoBoomer
On News/Activism 06/08/2005 4:41:38 AM PDT · 430 replies · 4,804+ views

Yahoo - Reuters | June 8, 2005
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli researcher has challenged the popular belief that Jesus died of blood loss on the cross, saying he probably succumbed to a sometimes fatal disorder now associated with long-haul air travel. Professor Benjamin Brenner wrote in The Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis that Jesus's death, traditionally believed to have occurred 3-6 hours after crucifixion began, was probably caused by a blood clot that reached his lungs. Such pulmonary embolisms, leading to sudden death, can stem from immobilisation, multiple trauma and dehydration, said Brenner, a researcher at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa. "This fits well with Jesus's...

Jewish Home Found In The City Of David

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/06/2005 2:39:34 PM PDT · 82 replies · 1,165+ views

Jerusalem Post |-5-2005 | Etgar Lefkovits
Jewish home found in City of David By ETGAR LEFKOVITS Jun. 5, 2005 18:32 | Updated Jun. 5, 2005 19:29 "Site of excavation at City of David. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority A Second Temple Jewish house has been uncovered in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Sunday. The 2,000 year old private home, which archeologists believe was part of a complex of homes belonging to affluent people, was discovered during an excavation at the history-rich site last month. Several rooms of the split-level house - as well as a ritual bath - were found at the compound,...

St. Sergius Church - site of oldest altar

Posted by NYer
On Religion 06/07/2005 1:53:16 PM PDT · 27 replies · 306+ views

Marsarkis.com
About our church here in Maaloula, it must be built before 325 A.D. for three reasons: Infact, the main and first proof is this altar inside made of marble; it has a border semi-circular which is a pagan architecture. Pagans used such borders in their altars to forbid the blood of sacrifices to go on the ground, so they used to make a hole in the middle to drain it properly; they used also to sculpt† or design on this border some illustrations of animals to be sacrified. The Church used this architecture at the beginning before it had its...

Oh So Mysteriouso

Plagued by curse of the Pharaoh

Posted by wagglebee
On News/Activism 06/09/2005 7:32:20 PM PDT · 18 replies · 464+ views

Malaysia Star | 6/8/05 | Malaysia Star
When a woman in Canada refused to return a valuable statue to the Cairo Museum, Dr Zahi Hawass, who was handling the negotiation, casually mentioned a curse said to be associated with the artifact. The next day the statue duly arrived at the Egyptian embassy in Canada. The fear of the Pharaohsí curse has long been the stuff of fiction and films. It is a subject that has stirred public imagination. There are those who believe that the pharaohs placed a curse on whoever disturbed their place of eternal rest. When Lord Carnavon died on 5 April 1923, barely six...

Prehistory and Origins

400,000-Year-Old Stone Tools Discovered In Mazandaran (Iran)

Posted by blam
On News/Activism 06/08/2005 11:08:52 AM PDT · 97 replies · 1,484+ views

Mehr News | 6-8-2005
400,000-year-old stone tools discovered in Mazandaran TEHRAN, June 8 (MNA) -- Recent discoveries by a team of archaeologists indicate that the coast of the Caspian Sea in Mazandaran Province was home to the earliest hominid habitation in that region. Archaeologist Ali Mahforuzi said on Wednesday that 400,000-year-old stone tools discovered in the valleys of Shuresh near the Rostam Kola, Huto, and Kamarband caves are the oldest ever found in the area. The previous studies had dated human settlement in the region to have begun about 50,000 years ago. ìThe recent studies conducted by a joint team of archaeologists from the...

PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis

Mayan Crypt Reveals Power of Women

Posted by nickcarraway
On News/Activism 06/10/2005 6:27:20 PM PDT · 33 replies · 478+ views

Nature | 10 June 2005 | Alexandra Witze
Murder victims suggest female strength in ancient culture.Archaeologists have entered a long-sealed crypt in Guatemala to find an ancient murder scene. The tomb, in the ancient city of Wak·, contains the remains of two women, one pregnant, arranged in a ritual tableau. Researchers say the young, wealthy women were probably slaughtered as part of a power struggle between Mayan cities. And that, they say, sheds new light on the role of women in the Mayan culture 1,600 years ago. "This tomb tells us that women were extremely powerful," says Dorie Reents-Budet, a Maya specialist who works for the Smithsonian Institution...

Thoroughly Modern Miscellany

1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro

Posted by nickcarraway
On General/Chat 06/05/2005 9:02:31 AM PDT · 3 replies · 63+ views

The Times (U.K.) | June 05, 2005 | PETER KEMP
1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare by James Shapiro REVIEWED BY PETER KEMP Faber £16.99 pp429 REVIEWED BY PETER KEMP A heavy snowstorm shrouded London on December 28, 1598. Through it a group of men bristling with swords and axes closed in on a building in the cityís northern suburbs. The building was The Theatre ó Londonís oldest playhouse, once the scene of full-blooded dramas by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd, but empty for the past two years since the Chamberlainís Men whose base it was had quarrelled with their cantankerous landlord, Giles Allen. Now, while Allen...

American Civil War submarine found

Posted by saquin
On News/Activism 06/05/2005 5:23:03 PM PDT · 14 replies · 1,461+ views

The Times (UK) | 6/6/05 | Joanna Bale
A unique boat from 1864 may have inspired Jules Verne to create Captain Nemo's vessel NautilusA BRITISH explorer has found an early submarine that he believes was the inspiration for Nautilus, Captain Nemoís vessel in Jules Verneís novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea. Colonel John Blashford-Snell discovered the half-submerged, cast-iron wreck off the coast of Panama while searching for ancient ruins. She was built in 1864 by a visionary craftsman, Julius Kroehl, for the Union forces during the American Civil War. But the boat, called Explorer, was never used in the conflict and was subsequently taken to Panama where...

end of digest #47 20050611

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Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #42 Saturday, May 7, 2005
Anatolia
The Seeds Of Civilization (Catalhoyuk)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/05/2005 9:43:03 AM PDT · 15 replies · 376+ views The Smithsonian \| 5-5-2005 \| Smithsonian The Seeds of Civilization Why did humans first turn from nomadic wandering to villages and togetherness? The answer may lie in a 9,500-year-old settlement in central Turkey Since researchers first began digging at Catalhoyuk (pronounced "Chah-tahl-hew-yook") in the 1960s, they've found more than 400 skeletons under the houses, which are clustered in a honeycomb-like maze. Burying the dead under houses was common at early agricultural villages in the Near East-at Catalhoyuk, one dwelling alone had 64 skeletons. Archaeologist Ian Hodder and his colleagues are also working to decipher paintings and sculptures found at Catalhoyuk. The surfaces of many houses are...
Ancient Egypt
2,300-Year-Old Mummy Unveiled in Egypt
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/03/2005 9:43:09 AM PDT · 37 replies · 841+ views AP \| May 3 \| PAUL GARWOOD SAQQARA, Egypt (AP) - A superbly maintained 2,300-year-old mummy bearing a golden mask and covered in brightly colored images of gods and goddesses was unveiled Tuesday at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo. The unidentified mummy, from the 30th pharaonic dynasty, had been closed in a wooden sarcophagus and buried in sand at the bottom of a 20-foot shaft before being discovered recently by an Egyptian-led archaeological team. "We have revealed what may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said as he helped excavators remove the sarcophagus'...
Asia
Tantalizing Clues In Ancient Mounds (Japan/Jomon)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/04/2005 11:31:36 AM PDT · 17 replies · 514+ views Asahi News \| 5-4-2005 \| Asahi Shimbun Tantalizing clues in ancient mounds 05/04/2005 The Asahi Shimbun SAGA-Ancient mounds here may be among the nation's oldest and prove that the original owners were pretty inventive for their day. Recent excavations at the Higashimyo archeological site indicate the shell mounds date back 7,000 years-to the early Jomon Period (8000 B.C.-300 B.C.). Higashimyo has western Japan's largest such mounds. They are believed to have been created by the dumping of shells and other refuse. Remains of more than 40 baskets, hand-woven from thin strips of wood, have been found there. Experts say they may be the oldest so far discovered....
Biology and Cryptobiology
Earliest Domesticated Dog Uncovered
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/08/2003 5:55:22 PM PDT · 31 replies · 84+ views Discovery News \| 5-7-2003 \| Jennifer Viegas Earliest Domesticated Dogs Uncovered By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Skull of a Stone Age Dog April 7, 2003 — The skulls of two Stone Age dogs believed to be the earliest known canines on record have been found, according to a team of Russian scientists. The dog duo, which lived approximately 14,000 years ago, appear to represent the first step of domestication from their wild wolf ancestors. Mikhail Sablin, a scientist at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, along with his colleague Gennady Khlopachev, analyzed the dog remains, which were found at the Eliseevichi...

Wild Dingoes Descended From Domestic Dogs
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 09/29/2003 9:22:30 AM PDT · 15 replies · 209+ views New Scientist \| 9-29-2003 \| Emma Young Wild dingoes descended from domestic dogs 12:45 29 September 03 NewScientist.com news service The mysterious origin of Australia's wild dingoes has become substantially clearer following new genetic research. It shows the animals descended from domestic dogs introduced from South East Asia about 5000 years ago. The ancestry of dingoes has been much debated. The time of arrival, the source and type of animal - wild or domestic - were all uncertain. "There hasn't been a lot of evidence, so everything has been speculation," says Alan Wilton, of the University of New South Wales. Wilton, with colleagues including Peter Savolainen at...
Catastrophism and Astronomy
Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 03/04/2002 6:31:38 AM PST · 13 replies · 83+ views Science Daily \| 3-4-2002 Date: Posted 3/4/2002 Cataclysm 3.9 Billion Years Ago Was Caused By Asteroids, Not Comets, Researchers Say WASHINGTON (February 28, 2002) -- The bombardment that resurfaced the Earth 3.9 billion years ago was produced by asteroids, not comets, according to David Kring of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and Barbara Cohen, formerly at the UA and now with the University of Hawaii. Their findings appear today in the Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets, published by the American Geophysical Union. The significance of this conclusion is that the bombardment was so severe that it destroyed older rocks on ...

Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues To Ancient Cataclysm
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 11/16/2001 1:23:50 PM PST · 21 replies · 87+ views Natinal Geographic \| 11-13-2001 \| Hillary Mayell Chesapeake Bay Crater Offers Clues to Ancient Cataclysm Hillary Mayell for National Geographic News November 13, 2001 About 35 million years ago—the dinosaurs are dead, but the Appalachian Mountains are still covered in tropical rain forests—a rock from space that was more than a mile wide and moving at supersonic speed crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off North America. Traveling at about 70,000 miles (113,000 kilometers) an hour, the asteroid or comet (bolide) splashed through several hundred feet of water and several thousand feet of mud and sediment. Drilling for Knowledge A trailer hauls drilling rods the U.S. Geological Survey ...

Scientists Uncover 'Deep Impact' Disaster From Space
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/13/2003 6:10:30 PM PDT · 34 replies · 204+ views Ananova \| 6-12-2003 Scientists uncover 'deep impact' disaster from spaceA new report suggests that a massive object from space smashed into what is now the Moroccan desert 380 million years ago, wiping out 40% of the world's marine species. The discovery adds to the evidence linking such impacts with mass extinction events. Only one other impact by a large comet or asteroid has convincingly been held responsible for a mass extinction. That occurred off the Yucatan peninsular in Mexico 65 million years ago and is thought to have ended the reign of the dinosaurs. The newly discovered impact coincided with the Kacak/otomari extinction,...
Origins and Prehistory
Chinese Roots: Skull May Complicate Human-Origins Debate
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 01/02/2003 11:03:24 AM PST · 82 replies · 273+ views Science News \| 12-21/28-2002 \| Bruce Bower Chinese Roots: Skull may complicate human-origins debate Bruce Bower In 1958, farm workers digging in a cave in southern China's Liujiang County discovered several human bones including a skull. Relying on its resemblance to securely dated human fossils in Japan, scientists assigned this Homo sapiens skull an age of 20,000 to 30,000 years. ASIAN CONNECTION. If southern China's Liujiang skull is really more than 100,000 years old, this modern Homo sapiens fossil will shake up theories of human evolution. W. Wang However, the Liujiang finds may be much older than that, according to a report in the December Journal of...

Geneticists expose racism as nonsense-We started off black & brown, we'll all end up black & brown
	Posted by chance33_98 On News/Activism 08/09/2003 8:05:00 PM PDT · 33 replies · 263+ views sundaytimes.co.za Geneticists expose racism as nonsense Rowan Philp Gene experts have declared race to be no more than an accident of geography - and predict the future of black and white South Africa will probably be more shades of brown. Racism is scientifically unfounded, confirmed Professor Trefor Jenkins, Professor Emeritus at Wits University, and Dr Himla Soodyall, director of the Human Genomic Research Unit. The genetic pool in the country was already so mixed that supremacists had no hope of a pure lineage, they said during a series of workshops at the National Festival of Science, Engineering and Technology in...

New Age For Mungo Man, New Human History
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 02/20/2003 3:51:29 PM PST · 34 replies · 161+ views Science Daily \| FR Post 2-18-03 \| Editorial Staff New Age For Mungo Man, New Human HistoryA University of Melbourne-led study has finally got scientists to agree on the age of Mungo Man, Australia's oldest human remains, and the consensus is he is 22,000 years younger. A University of Melbourne-led team say Mungo Man's new age is 40,000 years, reigniting the debate for the 'Out of Africa' theory. The research also boosted the age of Mungo Lady, the world's first recorded cremation, by 10,000 years putting her at the same age as Mungo Man. It is the first time scientists have reached a broad agreement on the ages of...

Australia DNA Challenges Human Origin Theories
	Posted by Pharmboy On News/Activism 01/10/2001 08:30:57 PST · 43 replies · 45+ views Reuters Health via Yahoo \| 1/9/2001 \| Keith Mulvihill Australian researchers have found ancient DNA evidence that throws into question current scientific beliefs about where humans first evolved. A team of scientists extracted "mitochondrial" DNA from fossils found in 1974 near Lake Mungo in the state of New South Wales. These fossils, dating from as far back as 60,000 years, had previously been identified as anatomically modern, meaning that they look and function very similarly to the skeletons of people living today. But the researchers report in the January 9th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from these ancient humans is extinct, or not present in humans living today....

Noses Didn't Need Cold To Evolve (Neanderthal)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/05/2005 8:54:08 AM PDT · 12 replies · 447+ views Science News Magazine \| 5-5-2005 \| Bruce Bower Noses didn't need cold to evolve Bruce Bower From Milwaukee, at a joint meeting of the Paleoanthropology Society and American Association of Physical Anthropologists Fossil evidence that Neandertals possessed exceptionally large, broad noses has often been explained as an evolutionary response to life in cold, dry locales. An expansive schnoz might have warmed incoming cold air or expelled body heat during hunting and other strenuous activities. However, new data indicate that climate played no role in shaping the Neandertal nose. Marc R. Meyer of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and his coworkers found similarly sized nasal passages in a...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
DNA finally identifies child killed in Titanic sinking
	Posted by Asmodeus On News/Activism 11/06/2002 11:22:19 AM PST · 12 replies · 130+ views Associated Press TORONTO -- Nearly a century ago, Canadian sailors buried an unidentified infant who died on the Titanic and, touched by the tragedy, called him the Unknown Child -- a symbol of the children lost in the luxury liner sinking. Now at last, the child is known. On Tuesday, Magda Schleifer, a retired Finnish bank clerk, visited the grave, which DNA tests have now established holds the remains of one of her relatives. "First I thought this could not be true,'' Schleifer, 68, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Schleifer had long known that her...
end of digest #42 20050507

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #45 Saturday, May 28, 2005
Ancient Greece
'Cyclops'-like remains found on Crete
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 02/01/2003 11:07:21 AM PST · 12 replies · 288+ views CNN \| Friday, January 31, 2003 Posted: 2:52 AM HKT (1852 GMT) \| Editorial Staff <p>IRAKLIO, Greece (AP) -- Researchers on the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a Deinotherium Gigantisimum, a fearsome elephant-like creature that might have given rise to ancient legends of one-eyed cyclops monsters.</p>
Ancient Rome
Archaeologists offer tastes of Pompeii
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 05/26/2005 5:28:24 PM PDT · 23 replies · 615+ views Duluth News Tribune \| 5/25/05 \| ARIEL DAVID/AP ROME - Sauces made from fermented fish entrails. A quiche-like pastry shell filled with bay leaves and ricotta cheese. For dessert, peaches with aromatic cumin and honey. Those tastes may not be for everyone's palate, but the specialties of ancient Pompeii are being revived for a month at the site of the ruins by a research project intended to give new insights into how the Romans lived. Pompeii's busiest restaurant was buried with the rest of the prosperous city when Mount Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79. The eruption killed thousands of people, but a 20-foot-deep cocoon of volcanic ash kept...
Epigraphy and Language
Archimedes manuscript yields secrets under X-ray gaze
	Posted by PatrickHenry On News/Activism For five days in May, the ancient collided with the ultra-modern at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), bringing brilliant, long-hidden ideas to light with brilliant X-ray light. A synchrotron X-ray beam at the Department of Energy facility illuminated an obscured work - erased, written over and even painted over - of ancient mathematical genius Archimedes, born 287 B.C. in Sicily. Archimedes' amazingly advanced ideas have been lost and found several times throughout the ages. Now scientists are employing modern technology -- including X-ray fluorescence at SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) -- to completely read the Archimedes Palimpsest, the...
India
Seventeenth-Century Islamic Brassmakers Were Far Ahead Of European Peers, Engineers Say
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/26/2005 6:37:44 PM PDT · 39 replies · 586+ views Eureka Alert \| 5-26-2005 \| Kurt Pfitzer Seventeenth-century Islamic brassmakers were far ahead of European peers, engineers sayContact: Kurt Pfitzer kap4@lehigh.edu 610-758-3017 Lehigh University Archaeometallurgists announce findings after four-year study of astrolabes Manufacturers of brass astrolabes in 17th-century India were two centuries more advanced than their European peers, says a doctoral student at Lehigh University who just completed a four-year study of astrolabes. Brian Newbury, who earned a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering in May, said the high zinc content in astrolabes fabricated in Lahore (now in Pakistan) proves that brass made there in the early 1600s was produced by a co-melting technique that was not...

Sixth Century (Female) Buddhist Statue Discovered
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/25/2005 12:16:42 PM PDT · 16 replies · 556+ views WebIndia 123 \| 5-24-2005 \| Sirpur Sixth century Buddhist statue discovered:- Sirpur \| May 24, 2005 7:26:11 PM IST Indian archaeologists have discovered a rare statue of a Buddhist female monk dating back to the sixth century. The discovery was made during recent excavations in Sirpur, situated 84 kms. from Raipur, capital of central Chhattisgarh state. The excavators unearthed the statue of Haritika, who as per legend abducted infants and later on killed them.Arun Kumar Sharma, chief of the excavation project, said that it was for the first time they have discovered the image of Haritika, which proves that female deities were as popular as their...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras \| Mithraism \| Ancient Religion
	Posted by ckilmer On News/Activism 10/31/2003 6:19:29 PM PST · 9 replies · 128+ views Biblical Archaeology Review vol. 20, #5 \| September/October 1994 \| David Ulansey MITHRAISM The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras by David Ulansey Author of THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES (Oxford University Press, 1991) The following essay is adapted from my article,"Solving the Mithraic Mysteries" Biblical Archaeology Review (vol. 20, #5 [September/October 1994] pp. 40-53) This article is a summary of my book on Mithraism, THE ORIGINS OF THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES(Oxford University Press, revised paperback, 1991) [To order this book (for $13.95), click here.] † The Encyclopedia Britannica has given this page its "Web's Best Sites" award. The Cosmic Mysteries of Mithras (Note: complete documentation for the following essay can be found...

Now's the Time to Find Holy Lost Ark (Ark of the Covenant possibly located)
	Posted by axes_of_weezles On News/Activism 05/25/2005 10:18:09 PM PDT · 84 replies · 2,513+ views Arutz Sheva \| 20 May 05 \| Unknown/Arutz Sheva An unnamed Kabbalist has granted blessing to famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones to uncover the Holy Ark of the Covenant. Jones plans to excavate the Lost Ark by the Tisha BíAv Fast this summer. The famed archaeologist, the inspiration for the ìIndiana Jonesî movie series, has spent most of his life searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The ark was the resting place of the Ten Commandments, given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai, and was hidden just before the destruction of the First Temple. The Talmud says the Ark is hidden in a secret passage under the...
Phoenicians
Carthage Tries To Live Down Image As Site Of Infanticide
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/27/2005 12:20:44 PM PDT · 93 replies · 1,239+ views Post-Gazette/Wall Street Journal \| 5-26-2004 \| Andrew Higgins 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...
Vikings
Unlocking Minnesota's 'DaVinci Code'
	Posted by FreeManWhoCan On News/Activism 05/24/2005 9:45:19 PM PDT · 57 replies · 1,230+ views Wcco.com \| May 24, 2005 10:15 am \| wcco Kensington, Minn. (WCCO) Researchers have found new evidence of a secret code concealed on the Kensington Runestone, one of the most controversial pieces of Minnesota history. The rock was found near Alexandria, Minn. a century ago. It bears an inscription that places Norwegians here in 1362. Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is the Kensington Runestone an elaborate hoax? New research suggests the rune stone is genuine, and a hidden code can prove it. "Eight Goths and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey ... 10 men red with blood and dead ... 14 days...
PreColumbian, Clovis, PreClovis
Kon-Tiki Theory Floats Again After 50 Years
	Posted by blam On General/Chat 04/08/2002 4:57:41 AM PDT · 12 replies · 83+ views IOL \| 4-7-2002 Kon-Tiki theory floats again after 50 years April 07 2002 at 02:16PM Guimar, Canary Islands - Thor Heyerdahl's theories on ancient seafarers spreading civilization were initially ridiculed by scientists, but a younger generation is studying his ideas from five decades ago as the basis for new ideas about early cultural exchanges. Robson Bonnichsen, who studies how the American continent became populated, calls Heyerdahl "a visionary ahead of his time". Bonnichsen, director of the Centre for the Study of the First Americans at Oregon State University, said that many experts now give serious consideration to the idea that people in boats...

Founding Fathers And Mothers: How Many Crossed The Land Bridge?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/24/2005 10:47:07 AM PDT · 19 replies · 722+ views Eureka Alert/Rutgers State University \| 5-24-2005 \| Joseph Blumberg Founding fathers & mothers: How many crossed the land bridge?Contact: Joseph Blumberg blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu 732-932-7084 x652 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. ñ Programs on the Discovery Channel and PBS have sparked fresh interest in the prehistoric peopling of the New World. Now, for the first time, we have a realistic estimate of how many ancients made that ice age trek across the long-lost land bridge from Asia to become the first Native Americans. Jody Hey, a professor of genetics at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, has developed a computational method that uses genetic information...

Court battle resumes .. over ancient remains (Kennewick Man)
	Posted by vannrox On News/Activism 09/12/2003 1:51:35 PM PDT · 19 replies · 193+ views Tribnet.com, The News Tribune's online newspaper \| (Published 12:01AM, September 11th, 2003) \| WILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press Court battle resumes between tribes, scientists over ancient remainsWILLIAM MCCALL; The Associated Press PORTLAND - The definition of "Native American" is at stake in deciding whether the 9,300-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man belongs to scientists or Indian tribes, lawyers for both sides told a federal appeals court Wednesday. The Interior Department has fought with scientists since the bones were discovered in 1996 along the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick. A group of eight anthropologists who want to do research on the skeleton went to court to seek permission. But then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt ruled three years ago...

Last Word On Kennewick Man?
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 11/17/2002 4:09:41 PM PST · 37 replies · 105+ views Archaeology \| 11-17-2002 LAST WORD ON KENNEWICK MAN? A court ruling on the controversial remains pleases archaeologist James Chatters. On August 30, Judge John Jelderks of the U.S. District Court of Oregon ruled against the government's 1996 decision that declared the 9,400-year-old skeleton known as Kennewick Man to be Native American, a classification which would require the remains to be turned over to a coalition of tribes for reburial. James Chatters, archaeologist and author of Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), identified the remains when they were found on the banks of Washington's Columbia River...

Tribes quit long fight over Kennewick Man's remains
	Posted by Willie Green On News/Activism 07/16/2004 3:40:56 PM PDT · 91 replies · 2,541+ views The Oregonian \| Friday, July 16, 2004 \| RICHARD L. HILL The case appears to be over and the stage set for scientific study, barring a federal appeal to the Supreme Court The convoluted legal fight for Kennewick Man's bones -- the remains found along the Columbia River almost eight years ago that make up one of the oldest, most complete skeletons found in North America -- is likely over. Four Northwest tribes seeking to bury the 9,300-year-old bones indicate they will not take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after losing in lower federal courts to scientists who want to study the remains. The bones now await a formal...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
FROM ANCIENT WHITE MALES-(revitalizing classical studies critical to combatting liberal revisionism)
	Posted by CHARLITE On News/Activism 05/19/2005 10:56:07 AM PDT · 37 replies · 552+ views WASHINGTON TIMES.COM \| MAY 19, 2005 \| SUZANNE FIELDS Like Rodney Dangerfield, the humanities in Washington "don't get no respect." Not as much as they should, anyway. We're a company town and the company makes politics. But like a blind squirrel who finds an acorn once in a while, politicians and the journalists gather occasionally with others who crave more profundity than the noise in political rhetoric to listen to the annual >Jefferson Lecture. "The training of the intellect was meant to produce an intrinsic pleasure and satisfaction but it also had practical goals of importance to the individual and the entire community, to make the humanistically trained individuals...
end of digest #45 20050528

Gods, Graves, Glyphs Weekly Digest #46 Saturday, June 4, 2005
Ancient Egypt
Egyptian Archaeologists Announce 'Beautiful' Mummy Found
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/31/2005 4:28:24 PM PDT · 28 replies · 1,072+ views Turkish Press \| Tuesday, May 31, 2005 VOA- Egyptian archaeologists say they have found a well-preserved mummy that ranks among the most beautiful ever discovered. The more than 2,300-year-old unidentified mummy was found wearing a golden mask and covered Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass said it "may be the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt." The mummy was recently discovered buried in a six-meter-deep, sand-covered pit at Egypt's Saqqara Pyramids complex south of Cairo.
Ancient Europe
Mutilated Bronze Age Lord Found In Germany
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/30/2005 4:47:40 PM PDT · 8 replies · 676+ views Mail And Guardian \| 5-30-2005 \| Thomas Schoene Mutilated Bronze Age lord found in Germany Thomas Schoene \| Halle, Germany 30 May 2005 05:23 Archaeologists have discovered the skeletons of a lord and his retainers in a burial mound at Germany's most celebrated Bronze Age site. Archaeologist Olaf Schroeder said the intact, 4 200-year-old mound was one of at least eight "barrows" within view of the ancient holy site that yielded the 3 600-year-old Nebra celestial disc, a bronze and gold depiction of the heavens, in 1999. Government archaeologists began excavating the wooded area after being tipped off that treasure-hunters were digging over the area in search of...
Ancient Greece
Treasures Fit For A King (Thracians)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/29/2005 10:35:02 AM PDT · 10 replies · 287+ views Time - Europe \| 5-29-2005 \| Jumana Farouky Treasures Fit For The KingsA spate of spectacular discoveries could completely change our view of the Thracians, one of history's most mysterious peoples By JUMANA FAROUKY TCVETAN TOMCHEV / AFP GOLD RUSH: Thracian artifacts, like this piece of horse's armor, reveal Bulgaria's past Sunday, May. 29, 2005 They had been digging for 12 years, 4 months a year, 18 hours a day. Since 1992, Georgi Kitov and his team have been searching through Bulgaria's Valley of the Kings, a 100-km, heavily forested region in the center of the country. The valley is dotted with ancient burial mounds erected by the...
Ancient Rome
Pannonian gladiators
	Posted by SunkenCiv On General/Chat 06/03/2005 9:29:08 AM PDT · 6 replies · 104+ views Budapest Sun \| May 19, 2005 \| Esther VÈcsey Legionaries were recruited from all parts of the Empire - those who came to Pannonia mostly hailed from Africa, Syria and Iran. At first turf and timber forts with earthen huts as housing formed the military camps surrounded by deeply dug ditches. The Romans were great engineers and developed highly practical and easily reproducible methods of building. They used bricks and concrete to make arches unknown in ancient Egypt and Greece... The camps were strategically placed at 20 - 30km distances from each other along the limes (boundaries), with 1,260km-long ditches protecting them. These stretched from Siscia (Sis·k), Sirmium (Mitrovica),...
Asia
Korea's Oldest Artificial Pond Discovered
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/31/2005 12:32:04 PM PDT · 12 replies · 410+ views Korea Times \| 5-31-2005 \| Kim Ki-tae Korea's Oldest Artificial Pond Discovered By Kim Ki-tae Staff Reporter The nation°Øs oldest artificial pond was found in Andong, North Kyongsang Province. The pond°Øs construction dates back to the Bronze Age. Museum of Dongyang University yesterday announced that the artificial pond was created at least 2,600 years ago, after examining the site where the pond used to be, a swampy place in Chojon-ni, Sohu-myon in the region. It said the rectangular pond was formed in the valley area by digging paths from nearby streams. The artificial lake is estimated to be 50 meters long and 15 meters wide, with a...
Climate
Man 'Not To Blame' For Extinction Of Giant Wombat
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/30/2005 5:38:51 PM PDT · 38 replies · 570+ views The Telegraph (UK) \| 5-31-2005 \| Roger Highfield Man 'not to blame' for extinction of giant wombat By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 31/05/2005) Humans may have been unjustly accused of wiping out the giant kangaroos, wombats and other massive marsupials that roamed Australia 40,000 years ago, new research suggests. One study by British and Australian scientists reveals today that humans co-existed with megafauna - large native animals such as the Diprotodon, a three-ton, wombat-like creature, a ferocious, marsupial "lion" and the world's all-time biggest lizard - for at least 15,000 years. Another, by a Queensland team, suggests it was climate change, rather than early Australian aborigines, that...
Elam, Media, Persia, Parthia, Iran
Islamic Iran uncovers more of its winemaking past
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/30/2005 6:36:03 PM PDT · 15 replies · 279+ views Middle East Times \| May 30, 2005 TEHRAN -- Archaeologists digging in southern Iran have found a pool and pots that they believe were used some 1,800 years ago for large scale wine production, reinforcing the now-Islamic nation's status as the cradle of wine drinkers. "We have found an almost intact pool with a canal in the middle of it. This is where the juices from crushed grapes would flow and be collected later in pots for fermentation and turning into wine," said Ali Asadi, the head of the excavation team. The team, which includes a group of Polish archaeologists, is digging at a site called Tange...

Iran digs up more of its wine-making past [Shiraz Wine]
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 05/30/2005 9:09:52 PM PDT · 15 replies · 257+ views Daily Star \| 5/30/05 \| Daily Star TEHRAN: Archaeologists digging in southern Iran have found a pool and pots they believe were used some 1,800 years ago for large scale wine production, reinforcing the now-Islamic nation's status as the cradle of wine drinkers. "We have found an almost intact pool with a canal in the middle of it. This is where the juices from crushed grapes would flow and be collected later in pots for fermentation and turning into wine," Ali Asadi, the head of the excavation team said. The team, which includes a group of Polish archaeologists, is digging at a site called Tange Bolaghi, near...
Epigraphy and Language
History Of Persian Or Paarsi Language
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/29/2005 11:34:32 AM PDT · 61 replies · 681+ views Iranian Journal \| 5-24-2005 \| Fariborz Rahnamoon HISTORY OF PERSIAN OR PAARSI LANGUAGE May 24, 2005 Fariborz Rahnamoon ORIGIN Paarsi or Persian was the language of the Paarsa people who ruled Iran between 550 - 330 BCE. It belongs to what scholars call the Indo-Iranian group of languages. It became the language of the Persian Empire and was widely spoken in the ancient days ranging from the borders of India in the east, Russian in the north, the southern shores of the Persian Gulf to Egypt and the Mediterranean in the west. Over the centuries Paarsi has changed to its modern form and today Persian is spoken...
India
Mystery of the smiling Buddha that arrived as a gift from the tsunami
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/30/2005 7:58:45 PM PDT · 20 replies · 707+ views The Times (U.K.) \| May 31, 2005 \| Catherine Philp THE little Buddhist sage sits underneath the tree only yards from the sea from which he was plucked, a whimsical smile upon his face. Villagers gather before him with offerings of incense and food. ìWe must look after him,î Gajendram, a fisherman, said as he knelt to light a candle. ìHe was sent 1,000 miles across the sea to protect us and he will stay with us for ever.î A few miles up the coast at Mahabalipuram, a group of daytrippers marvel at the weathered carvings on a huge rock sitting in the middle of the beach. To one side...
Let's Have Jerusalem
Ark of the Covenant's discovery imminent?
	Posted by wagglebee On News/Activism 05/29/2005 1:28:15 PM PDT · 293 replies · 5,431+ views WorldNetDaily \| 5/28/05 \| Dr. Kelly Hollowell "Raiders of the Lost Ark" is one of my all-time favorite movies, filled with mystery and adventure. It focuses on the search for a biblical artifact and treasure called The Ark of the Covenant. What makes the movie particularly exciting is how closely it mimics (with some added Hollywood flair) the real life hunt for the lost Ark. History has it that the original Ark was where God manifested His presence on earth beginning in the days of Moses. The Ark was designed as a chest made of acacia wood overlaid with gold. It had four golden rings. Each one...

Astronomers try to make comet sense of festive apparition
	Posted by missyme On News/Activism 01/04/2005 8:27:59 PM PST · 25 replies · 418+ views Scotmans News \| Jan 4th, 2005 A COMET that appeared in the night sky over Christmas has invited comparisons with the Star of Bethlehem. But it is amateur astronomers with telescopes and binoculars who are pursuing the object rather than Wise Men bearing gifts. Comet Machholz will be at its most visible tomorrow and Thursday. Even then it will be no more than a faint smudge of light difficult to see with the naked eye. A pair of binoculars pointing south should pick it out near the Pleiades star cluster. Comets have been proposed as an explanation for the star that guided the Three Wise Men...

Researcher Develops Methods To Test Artifacts' Links To The Bible
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/29/2005 5:17:11 PM PDT · 13 replies · 392+ views Newswise/Purdue \| 5-28-2005 Researcher Develops Methods to Test Artifacts' Links to the Bible Newswise ó A Purdue University professor has invented a system to judge whether ancient inscriptions refer to people in the Bible. Lawrence Mykytiuk (MICK-ee-took) uses the system to test whether archaeological inscriptions refer to ancient Hebrew kings such as David, Omri, Jeroboam II, Uzziah and other Old Testament personages such as Mesha and the high priest Hilkiah. The system and results are detailed in his new book, "Identifying Biblical Persons in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions of 1200-539 B.C.E." (Society of Biblical Literature, $42.95). Mykytiuk's work steps outside the conflict between two...
Oh So Mysteriouso
Zoroastrianism - The World of the Wise Lord [Religion of the Persian Empire]
	Posted by freedom44 On News/Activism 05/31/2005 9:59:31 PM PDT · 30 replies · 491+ views Persian Journal \| May 21, 2005 \| Nazar Khan While browsing through the ancient Persian history, I was struck and fascinated by another subject Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism has not only made a major contribution to the ancient philosophical thought but has also had a deep imprint on the Persian history and culture. Since ages, man has been striving to search for the meaning and purpose of life. Two ancient philosophies threw up answers to this eternal quest. One came out of the Vedic thought of re-incarnation (samsara) which believed in perpetual cycles of life, death and re-birth. It believed that soul (atma) finally got liberated (moksha) based on man's good...
Prehistory and Origins
Bones Of Contention ('Hobbits' - More)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 05/30/2005 4:35:41 PM PDT · 10 replies · 393+ views Time - Asia \| 5-30-2005 \| John Stanmeyer Bones of ContentionIs a small, 18,000-year-old skeleton the older cousin of modern-day Pygmiesóor a new human species? BY SIMON ELEGANT \| RAMPASASA JOHN STANMEYER FOR TIMESMALL WORLD: Rampasasa resident Anggalus Jalur, 55, stands just 130 cm tall "In those days we ate our meat raw, like animals." The speaker is Viktor Jurubu, an Indonesian farmer in his 60s, who, in his T shirt and sarong, looks little like the cavemen he's describing. Except for his height, which is about 140 cm. In the world of anthropology, Jurubu's small size is big news because he and his 246 fellow villagers of...
Thoroughly Modern Miscellany
Ancient stone tortoise discovered in Hue
	Posted by nickcarraway On General/Chat 06/03/2005 6:44:26 PM PDT · 5 replies · 47+ views VietNam News \| 6/2/2005 THUA THIEN-HUE ó An ancient stone tortoise, which is thought to date from the Nguyen Dynasty, has been found recently in the central Thua Thien-Hue Province ñ the ancient imperial capital in 18th and 19th centuries. The white stone sculpture, which weighs 1 tonne, and is 1.6m in length, was discovered by local farmers in the province's Phu Loc District. Besides many sophisticated patterns that decorate the artefact, there is a Chinese character on its head, which means "King" and deep square cavity 60cm up the tortoise's back. According to local residents, they also found broken porcelain, tiles and a...

Archaeologists' Intoxicating Find (WW-2 Beer)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/02/2005 10:34:15 AM PDT · 26 replies · 973+ views BBC \| 6-2-2005 \| David Fuller Archaeologists' intoxicating find By David Fuller BBC News The bottles were in good condition, but the liquid inside was not Archaeologists searching for remains of a city's medieval past have made an intoxicating discovery - a cache of World War II beer. The hundred-or-so bottles of lager buried beneath Southampton's Guildhall Square were still capable of developing a head when they were opened. It is thought they had been stored in the cellar of an off-licence which was destroyed in the Blitz. The routine dig was to study the site before a new arts centre was built. Pete Cottrell, the...

Cajuns Seek Remains Of Guerrilla Leader (Beausoleil)
	Posted by blam On News/Activism 06/02/2005 10:43:14 AM PDT · 18 replies · 480+ views Yahoo/AP \|-1-2005 \| Cain Burdeau Cajuns Seek Remains of Guerrilla Leader By CAIN BURDEAU Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 1,12:42 PM ET NEW ORLEANS - For Louisiana's Cajuns, Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil was their Che Guevara, their Thomas Jefferson, their Moses. But the gravesite of the 18th-century guerrilla fighter has long been a mystery. Now, historians and archaeologists ó some of them descendants of the Acadian leader ó are hoping to find his bones. The search is part of an Acadian renaissance movement that has sprung up since the 1960s to honor the music, art, language and customs of Louisiana's Cajun people, the Acadians' direct...

'Preserved' WWI British officer found 90 YEARS ON (In Flanders)
	Posted by nickcarraway On News/Activism 05/30/2005 8:17:51 PM PDT · 27 replies · 1,330+ views The Scotsman \| Mon 30 May 2005 \| ALLAN HALL THE remarkably well preserved remains of a British officer, killed in one of the bloodiest battles of the First World War, have been discovered in the mud of Flanders. The man, still wearing his gas cape, boots and helmet, was killed during the battle of Passchendaele almost 90 years ago. A Commonwealth War Graves Commission team is due to arrive in Belgium today to help identify the Lancashire Fusiliers' officer, whose remains were found by archaeologists. The officer, who was found on Friday, is one of more than 58,000 men who fought in the notorious Ypres Salient in Belgium during...
end of digest #46 20050604