Pueblo May Be Linked to Lunar Standstill

Remains of the Great House Pueblo at Chimney Rock.

Archaeologists are uncovering evidence that may explain the significance of the nearly thousand-year-old Great House Pueblo high atop Colorado’s Chimney Rock Archaeological Area in the San Juan National Forest.

"It's a chance to have a new look at this site, because archaeology has really advanced in the last few decades," San Juan National Forest Archaeologist Julie Coleman tells the Durango (Colorado) Herald.

The site has possible ties to the major lunar standstill, an astronomical phenomenon marking the end of the moon's northern migration cycle. Every 18.6 years from the vantage point of the Great House, the moon rises within a narrow window of sky framed by the rock spires that give Chimney Rock its name.

The most recent lunar standstill took place from 2004 to 2008, and the next opportunity will not occur until about 2022.

"Based on research from the 1970s, we do think it was constructed in time for the major lunar standstill in 1076, and we think it was rebuilt in time for the next lunar standstill in the 1090s," Coleman said.

Click here for the Durango Herald article.

Maize Was Focus of Early Andean Agriculture

Remains of Wari structures on the slopes of the Andes.

New research indicates that prehistoric communities in Peru’s Andes Mountains 2,800 years ago regularly ate maize, otherwise known as corn. Growing it on the rugged slopes stimulated ancient population growth in the Andes and allowed a complex society ~ the Wari ~ to develop, according to bioarchaeologist Brian Finucane in the August Current Anthropology.

Wari society included a central government and other elements of modern states. It lasted from around 1,300 to 950 years ago and predated other Andes civilizations, including the Inca. According to the current issue of US News & World Report:

Scientists disagree about when and how civilizations formed in the Andes. One theory holds that complex societies, which perhaps fell short of states with centralized bureaucracies, first appeared at least 3,600 years ago in fishing villages along Peru’s coast and then spread inland.

Based on remains of various wild and domesticated plants found at inland sites, other researchers suspect that agriculture had an especially big impact on the establishment of highland societies, beginning roughly 2,500 years ago. Questions also remain about whether prehistoric Andean civilizations depended primarily on maize or on a suite of crops including potatoes and beans.

“These new findings indicate that intensive maize agriculture was the economic foundation for the development of the Wari state,” says Finucane, who analyzed the chemical composition of bones from 103 individuals excavated by other researchers at six prehistoric sites in Peru’s Ayacucho Valley, one of several Andean regions where early civilizations arose.

His data demonstrates that highland residents relied on maize shortly before the rise of the Wari state. A warmer, wetter climate during the Wari period and the spread of terraced cultivation areas may also have spurred maize farming, he suggests.

Click here for the US News & World Report article.

Ancient Village Unearthed in Bulgaria

Discoveries in Bulgaria include a massive stone fortification.

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old settlement close to the northeast city of Shumen, which dates back to the Stone-Copper Age. So far, they’ve uncovered more than 300 finds, most made of marble.

"These items are extremely rare,” says Stefan Chohadzhiev, an archaeology professor at Veliko Tarnovo University. “They were worn by very specific people. These are decorations that were not available to the masses. There are also others made of clay or bone."

The most valuable discovery, however, is a stone-wall fortification that protected the village from the west.

Huge Manmade Cavern Found in Jordan Valley

Archaeologists explore the one-acre former Christian hideout.

A 2,000-year-old underground chamber recently discovered in the Jordan Valley is being called the largest human-made cave in Israel. The one-acre space likely began as a quarry but later may have served as a monastery, hideout for persecuted Christians, or Roman army base, experts say.

Archaeologists found the cave in March. As they were about to enter, two Bedouins appeared and warned that hyenas and wolves inhabited the cave. But team leader Adam Zertal told National Geographic that once underground "our eyes opened to see something unimaginable."

The archaeologists peered into a huge hall lined with 22 thick pillars—giving the "impression of a palace," added Zertal, of the University of Haifa in Israel. "We didn't have much light ~ it was complete darkness ~ but even with the torches, we saw how glorious it looks."

Etched into those columns were 31 Christian crosses, Roman letters, a Zodiac sign, and what looks like the Roman army's pennant ~ all of which surprised the researchers.

"It surely was not just a quarry," Zertal said.

Around the first century B.C. and the first century A.D., when the chamber's creation likely began, the Roman-appointed King Herod the Great, who ruled the region from 37 to 4 B.C., had returned from Rome with plans to develop the Jordan Valley.

Click here for the National Geographic article.

Click here for several more photos of the cave.

Image of St. Paul Believed to be Earliest

Catacomb's images of St. Paul (left) and St. Peter (right).

Fourth-century images of St. Peter and St. Paul were discovered earlier this month on walls of the Catacomb of Santa Tecla beneath Rome. The image of St. Paul is “the oldest icon in history dedicated to the cult of the Apostle,” according to experts of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology.

Christians revere Peter and Paul as the greatest early missionaries. The apostle Peter accompanied Jesus during his lifetime, according the New Testament, while Paul converted to the faith following a blinding vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus in about 33 AD. He preached the faith to pagan Greeks and Romans and was martyred in Rome about 65 AD. Peter is presumed to have been martyred at the order of the Emperor Nero at about the same time.

The discovery of the images in the catacomb was made June 19 and announced yesterday.

Forensics Artists Reconstruct Mummy's Features

This video shows the reconstruction of Meresamun's head by Joshua Harker, while the drawing below shows her features as depicted by police artist Michael Brassell.

Two forensics artists have independently reconstructed the appearance of an ancient Egyptian temple singer named Meresamun, who lived around 800 BC and died of unknown causes at about age 30.

Researchers created a 3-D digital model of Meresamun's skull through multiple detailed CT-scans. Then the data was handed over to the two forensic artists to extrapolate the woman's facial features.

Chicago artist Joshua Harker used the Gatliff-Snow American Tissue Depth Marker Method to calculate the contours of the face and produce a digital reconstruction. This technique is considered accurate enough that its results are admissible in court to identify victims.

"The skull is the driving architecture of the face ~ all the proportions and placements are there, if you know how to read it," Harker said. "Even the shapes of the lips, nose and eyebrows can be determined if you know what to look for."

A more traditional police sketch was made by Michael Brassell, an artist who works on cold-case investigations with the Maryland Department of Justice and the State Police Missing Persons Unit. Brassell also used the CT-scan model to estimate the shape of Meresamun's face.

"The project was no different than any of the postmortem drawings I have worked on for cold case homicides," Brassell said. "The CT scans were very clear, making my job easy. If this was a homicide case, I would almost go as far to guarantee a hit on the profile drawing."

The woman inside the mummy was apparently tall for the time, with wide-spaced eyes and an overbite.

"Meresamun was, until the time of her death at about 30, a very healthy woman," said Michael Vannier, a University of Chicago radiologist who made the CT-scans. "The lack of arrest lines on her bones indicates good nutrition through her lifetime and her well-mineralized bones suggest that she lived an active lifestyle."

Click here for the LiveScience article.

Click here for the Archaeology magazine article.

Marble Head of Emporer Titus Found Near Rome

Archaeologists have unearthed a marble head of the Roman emperor Titus, during an excavation outside the southern Italian city of Naples.

So far, the digging in Rione Terra, a cliff in the port town of Pozzuoli, has yielded 12 ancient statues, columns and fragments bearing inscriptions from what appear to be monuments from the Republican and Imperial periods of ancient Rome.

The marble head of Emperor Titus ~ who ruled at the time of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. and who was celebrated throughout antiquity for providing generous financial assistance to survivors of the eruption ~ is the most striking find to date. Bearing a crown of laurel leaves, the emperor's head was found in an ancient water tunnel.

Nearby there were four marble busts, plus a frieze portraying two human figures, two figures wearing a toga, and part of an equestrian statue.

Click here for the complete Discovery News article.

Photo is marble head of Titus (39-81 AD) found recently in Pozzuoli.

Water System Contributed to Angkor Demise

Monks on the temple steps of Angkor Wat.

International scientists using new archeological, pollen and tree-ring dating evidence contend that Angkor crumbled due to urban sprawl and extreme weather conditions.

Sydney University archeologist Roland Fletcher ~ a co-director of the Greater Angkor Project, an initiative involving Cambodian, French and Australian experts ~ said he believed the new findings carry "clear implications for modern cities."

The scientists believe that before an alternating series of droughts and monsoon floods hit Angkor from the mid-14th to late 15th centuries, the capital of the Khmer empire had already had extensive problems with its vast, complicated water system.

Ultimately, it became impossible for the city to keep pace with further pressures from extreme weather. Although there was ongoing conflict with neighboring states, it was the over-built water infrastructure that locked Angkor into a trajectory of decline.

Before Angkor vanished into the jungle in the 17th century, it was the world's largest low-density pre-industrial city. Between the ninth and 13th centuries, the metropolis was home to as many as 750,000 people.

Click here for the article in The Australian.

Parthenon Once Had Painted Blue Highlights

Millennia have stripped away any visible traces of blue paint.

We’re familiar with Greece’s ancient Parthenon as a classic white edifice, but new imaging technology reveals that portions of it originally were painted blue.

The temple ~ sitting atop the Acropolis in Athens ~ dates from the 5th century BC. Its carved statues and friezes show scenes from mythology and are some of the most impressive to survive from ancient Greece. Pigments are known to have adorned other Greek statues and temples, but despite 200 years of searching, archaeologists had found no trace of them on the Parthenon's sculptures.

Until now.

Giovanni Verri, a researcher at the British Museum in London, has developed an imaging technique that's ultra-sensitive to traces of an ancient pigment called Egyptian blue. He shines red light onto the marble, and any traces of paint that remain absorb the red light and emit infrared light. Viewed through an infrared camera, parts of the marble that were once blue will appear to glow.

Egyptian blue has shown up on the belt of Iris, Poseidon's messenger goddess, and as a wave pattern along the back of Helios, god of the sun, who is depicted rising out of the sea. It also appears as stripes on the woven mantle draped over another goddess, Dione.

"This adds another dimension to how we perceive the Parthenon," says Ian Jenkins, also at the British Museum. He believes the temple would originally have looked "jewelled" and "busy." The main pigments used are likely to have been blue and red, with the white stone showing through in parts, as well as gilding.

Click here for the New Scientist article.

Click here for the longer Discover Magazine article.

Crop Circle Pattern Reveals Huge Bronze Age Site

Underground remains of the Bronze Age burial complex are etched into the crops about 15 miles from Stonehenge.

A group of farmland patterns resembling crop circles in southern England have led to discovery of a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex a thousand years older than Stonehenge.

The site includes remains of wooden temples and two massive 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead of Kingston University in London. She said for such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing."

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region. "I think everybody assumed such monument complexes were known about or had already been discovered," he told National Geographic.

At the 500-acre (200-hectare) site, outlines of the structures were spotted "etched" into farmland near the village of Damerham, some 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Stonehenge. Discovered during a routine aerial survey by English Heritage, the U.K. government's historic-preservation agency, the "crop circles" are the results of buried archaeological structures interfering with plant growth.

The central features are two great tombs topped by massive mounds called long barrows. The larger of the two tombs is 70 meters (230 feet) long. Such oblong burial mounds are very rare finds, and are the country's earliest known architectural form, Wickstead said. The last full-scale long barrow excavation was in the 1950s.

Click here for the National Geographic article.

Click here for previous post on the finding.

Did Machu Picchu Symbolize Mythic Journey?

Was Peru’s famed Machu Picchu actually a destination for Incan pilgrimages, offering a scaled-down version of the mythological realm encountered by Incan ancestors?

That’s the contention of a new study that disputes the conventional view that Machu Picchu was a royal estate of the Inca ruler Pachacuti, who built it around A.D. 1460. According to National Geographic:

"I believe that much of the sacred space of the Incas has still to be recognized as such," says study author Giulio Magli, an astrophysicist at the Polytechnic Institute in Milan, Italy.

Perched on a mountain ridge some 8,000 feet above sea level, Machu Picchu was for years lost to history after the Spanish conquest. The site gained notoriety following a 1911 visit by U.S. explorer Hiram Bingham, whose Machu Picchu excavation was funded in part by the National Geographic Society.

According to Magli, Machu Picchu was conceived and built specifically as a pilgrimage site where worshippers could symbolically relive an important journey purportedly taken by their ancestors.

In Inca mythology, the first Inca were created on Bolivia's Island of the Sun on Lake Titicaca. From there, they undertook a harrowing journey beneath the Earth and emerged at a place called Tampu-tocco, close to the future site of the Inca capital Cusco.

Magli argues that certain structures at Machu Picchu symbolize important landmarks of this journey. For instance, a disorderly pile of stones represents the underground "void" that the first Inca traveled through.

"Pacha-Mama, or Mother Earth, was associated with disorder," Magli said. Similarly, a plaza at Machu Picchu represents Tampu-tocco, and a stone pyramid at the site doubles for the Huanacauri hill.

Click here for the complete National Geographic article.

Aztec King's Tomb Still Eludes Archaeologists

Archaeologist cleans the Tlaltecuhtli monolith, looking for blood samples that would indicate human sacrifices at the site.

Archeologists continue to dig in the dirt and black ooze under Mexico City in hopes of finding the burial place of one of the last Aztec rulers.

"They keep finding astonishing things as they inch their way along," says David Carrasco, a Harvard University historian working with Mexican archeologists at the Templo Mayor.

But the great find – a royal tomb – has eluded scientists. The city of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that lies beneath the modern Mexico City, was founded on an island in the middle of a saltwater lake.

A high water table makes progress difficult. "When you dig a pit or a trench, you find very quickly the water level and cannot continue if you don't have a powerful pumping system," says Leonardo Lopez, the archeologist heading the excavation.

Since he uncovered a carved monolith of the ferocious earth deity Tlaltecuhtli in 2006, there has been intense speculation, based on historical writings and their own discoveries, that the four-metre-by-3.5-metre stone covers a royal tomb.

The stone monolith is inscribed with dates and language associated with Ahuitzotl, a king who died in 1502. Radar indicates "anomalies" under the monolith, which could be funerary spaces.

Though archeological finds in Mexico City date back to 1790, no one has ever found the burial site of an Aztec king.

"Everyone wants us to dig faster," says Lopez, "and this is the only thing we cannot do. You can only excavate once an archeological site. We are not treasure hunters but scientists, and we have a professional responsibility to record the slightest artifact in the best way."

Click here for the Toronto Star article.

China May Unearth Another 5,000 Clay Soldiers

Chinese archaeologists today began a new excavation to find more terracotta warriors in hopes of unraveling the mysteries surrounding the ancient figures buried in the tomb of the first emperor.

The new dig is in the site's largest pit, which is believed to be still hiding around 5,000 of the life-size figures. This is the third excavation in the pit ~ one of three at the site near Xian, the capital of northern Shaanxi province ~ since 1974 when the army of terracotta warriors and horses was discovered by a peasant digging a well.

"This time, the excavation could open many unresolved mysteries, such as whether there are civil servant officials in the pit as well as soldiers," according to an official statement. According to the official China Daily newspaper, the majority of the discovered figures are archers, infantrymen and charioteers that the Qin Emperor, who had the site built, hoped would follow him into the afterlife.

Less than 10 armored generals have been unearthed with the army, part of a burial site for Qin Shi Huang, who presided over the unification of China in 221 BC and declared himself the first emperor of the nation.

In past excavations, according to the China Daily, richly coloured clay figures have turned an oxidized grey when they have been exposed to the air. The Terracotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological finds of modern times, and was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1987.

Click here for the Sydney Morning Herald article.

Tomb May Be of Aztec Ruler

Archaeologists exploring a Mexico City site opened up by earthquake damage believe they have found the first tomb of an Aztec ruler. The site ~ likely the tomb of Ahuitzotl, who ruled from 1486 to 1502 ~ may yield one of the great treasures of antiquity.

The dig is in what was the Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan. Nearby stands the Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de María, which was destroyed by the Spanish in 1521. The temple’s ruins were subsequently lost for nearly five centuries and discovered only by accident in 1978. An earthquake in 1985 cleared the way for the present dig.

The new finds appear to be offerings left at the entrance to a tomb. Among them is a fearsome stone sculpture of Tlaltecuhtli, goddess of the Earth, perhaps a capstone to a burial chamber. When archaeologists moved the sculpture in 2007 they found four containers filled with more than 3,000 items, including animal skeletons, a fire god sculpture, blocks of incense and wooden masks.

Archaeologists found several plaster seals, which means that the site has not been looted. Between the seals there are several offerings blocking the entrance, including the skeleton of a dog, an animal that traditionally led the dead to the afterlife.

Click here for the London Times article.

Photo is mosaic serpent statue found at the site.

Basis of Death's 'Sardonic Grin' is Revealed

Scientists have determined how ancient Phoenicians created gruesome smiles ~ known as a “sardonic grin” ~ on the dead some 2,800 years ago.

According to National Geographic, elderly people who could no longer care for themselves and criminals "were intoxicated with the sardonic herb and then killed by dropping from a high rock or by beating to death," according to the new study.

For centuries the herb's identity has been a mystery, but study leader Giovanni Appendino and colleagues say they have discovered a sardonic grin-inducing compound in a plant called hemlock water-dropwort.

By the eighth century B.C., Homer had coined the term "sardonic grin" ~ "sardonic" having its roots in "Sardinia" ~ referring to the Sardinia’s ritual killings.

About a decade ago, a Sardinian shepherd committed suicide by eating a hemlock water-dropwort, leaving a corpse with a striking grin.

The death spurred study co-author Mauro Ballero, a botanist at the University of Cagliari in Sardinia, to study every dropwort-related fatality on the island in recent decades.

For the new study, Ballero and colleagues detailed the molecular structure of the plant's toxin and determined how it affects the human body.

Study leader Appendino, an organic chemist from the Università degli Studi del Piemonte Orientale in Italy, said, "The compound is highly toxic and causes symptoms similar to those described by the ancients for the sardonic smile, including facial paralysis."

Click here for the complete National Geographic article.

Photo shows 4th Century Phoenician mask displaying the notorious grin.

Ancient Tombs Found Near Stonehenge

Archeologists have discovered two 6,000-year-old tombs near Stonehenge. The Neolithic site had gone unnoticed under farmland despite being just 15 miles from the famous monoliths.

The tombs already are considered to be among the oldest monuments to have been found in Britain. Archaeologists say they will hold valuable clues about how people lived at the time and what their environment was like.

“It’s one of the most famous prehistoric landscapes, a Mecca for prehistorians, and you would have thought the archaeological world would have gone over it with a fine tooth comb,” Helen Wickstead, the Kingston University archaeologist leading the project, told the London Times.

From examining similar sites, archaeologists know that complex burial rituals were common at the time. Typically bodies would be left in the open air until the flesh had decayed, leaving only a skeleton. Then bones were put in special arrangements in the tombs.

“The tombs were like bone homes for important people in the community,” Wickstead said.

Click here for the complete Times Online article.

Mayans Likely Exhausted Natural Resources

Temple ruins at Tikal, Guatemala.

Builders of ancient Mayan temples at Tikal in Guatemala switched to inferior wood a few decades before they abandoned the city in the 9th century AD. This is the strongest evidence yet that Mayan civilization collapsed because it ran out of resources, rather than dying off due to war or illness.

Researchers have sampled wooden beams from all six major temples and two palaces at Tikal. The first three temples, built before AD 741, used only large, straight sapodilla logs ~ a strong wood that is nevertheless easy to carve.

But after that date, sapodilla was replaced in temple construction by logwood, a smaller tree almost impossible to carve. Researchers believe this indicates the superior sapodilla supply had been exhausted due to ecological over-exploitation.

Earlier studies of pollen deposits have suggested that deforestation and soil erosion increased in the region as Mayan civilization neared collapse.

Pieces of Roman Temple of Isis Believed Found

Image of Isis from a 2nd Century AD linen shroud.

Workmen inside the courthouse in Florence, Italy, have uncovered a spiral column and hundreds of multicolored fragments that may have belonged to a Roman temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis.

Dating to the second century AD, the remains were discovered as the men dug a hole for a new water cistern for the courthouse.

''These finds are of extraordinary importance,'' said Alessandro Palchetti, the archaeologist overseeing the works in the courthouse, who suspected something interesting might be uncovered because of the area's historic relevance. 

He said the remains were comparable to others found over the last three centuries in the immediate area that have also been attributed to the temple of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility who was later adopted by the Greeks and Romans.

The actual location of the temple is unknown, Palchetti said, but it is believed to have been built just outside the Roman part of the city, near the current courthouse building.

Click here for the Ansa.it article.

Second Viking Site Found in Canada

The site on Baffin Island where the Viking dwelling has been unearthed.

Remnants of a stone-and-sod wall unearthed on Canada’s Baffin Island may be traces of a shelter built more than 700 years ago by Norse seafarers. If so, it would be just the second location in the New World with evidence of a Viking-built structure.

Northern Newfoundland's L'Anse aux Meadows ~ about 900 miles southeast of the Nanook dig ~ is the only confirmed location of a Viking settlement in North America. There, about 1,000 years ago, a party of Norse voyagers from Greenland built sod-and-wood dwellings before abandoning their colony under threat from hostile natives.

However, over the past 10 years, research teams led by the Canadian Museum of Civilization's chief of Arctic archeology, Pat Sutherland, have compiled evidence that strongly suggests the Norse presence in northern Canada didn't end with the retreat from Newfoundland.

At three sites on Baffin Island, which the Norse called "Helluland" or "land of stone slabs," and another in northern Labrador, researchers have documented dozens of suspected Norse artifacts such as Scandinavian-style spun yarn, distinctively notched and decorated wood objects and whetstones for sharpening knives and axes. Among the new artifacts found near the sod-and-stone features at Nanook is a whalebone spade, consistent with tools found at Norse sites in Greenland, and which might have been used to cut sections of turf for the shelter. 

There is also evidence at Nanook of what appears to be a rock-lined drainage system comparable to others found at proven Viking sites.

Click here for the Canada.com article.

Drought Contributed to Mayan Collapse

Opening to Actun Tunichil Muknal, an entrance to the Mayan underworld.

Xibalba was a Maya name for the underworld, home of the gods of death and disease. Caves, not the lofty pyramids left behind by the ancient Maya, were the entrances to Xibalba. And here, in caves like Actun Tunichil Muknal in Belize, they left sacrifices ~ plates, bowls and captive's remains ~ as offerings to the gods.

For more than four millennia, Maya conducted rituals in caves like Actun Tunichil Muknal, where archaeologist Jaime Awe, director of Belize's Institute of Archaeology, led teams to explore starting in 1993. The Maya abandoned their pyramid-adorned ceremonial centers by 1050 A.D. In a recent paper in the Latin American Antiquity Journal, Awe and colleagues presented evidence from caves like this one that drought played a role in the famed collapse of the ancient Maya.

They compared charcoal dates left by torches to large jars left behind to find that more elaborate gifts were left at the most intense periods without rain, evidence of a "drought cult," Awe says. "They were asking for more water from caves seen as a water source and home of the gods."

When things got really tough, human sacrifices turn up in caves like Actun Tunichil Muknal, best known for its "Crystal Maiden" skeleton ~ a woman sacrificed here and left behind, her bones glistening with the limestone that cements her and many other sacrifices to the floor. "They were likely war captives, captured and brought here to be killed on the spot," Awe tells USA Today. "When things get hard, people take more extreme steps," he proposes.

“We are not arguing that drought was the sole reason for the Maya 'collapse'," Awe says. He argues the ancient Maya culture was "already broken" by deforestation and related excesses when the lack of water piled more weight on the society of the time. "It was a straw piled on the camel's back."

Click here for the complete article in USA Today.

Middle East's Oldest Village Unearthed in Iran

Iranian and English archeologists have discovered what is believed to be the Middle East's oldest village ~ datomg back to at least 9800 BC ~ in western Iran.

The unique archeological discovery reveals Iran was the main Neolithic center of the Middle East.



"The historical site dates back to 9800 BC and evidence suggest inhabitance in the site continued until 7400 BC," according to Hassan Fazeli, director of Iran's Archeology Research Center.

Archeologists believe such findings prove that Iran's dwellers moved out of caves around 11,800 years ago and settled in the plains.


Did Humans Feast on Neanderthals?

Computer-assisted paleoanthropological reconstruction of a Neanderthal child based on skull fragments unearthed in Gibraltar.

Scientists remain uncertain about the type of interaction that may have occurred during the Palaeolithic era between Neanderthals and humans. There has been speculation that the two species interbred in Europe between 33,000 and 24,000 years ago. Now, new evidence points to humans possibly having eaten Neanderthals and used their bones for ornaments.

According to Cosmos Online:

Re-examined artifacts from the Les Rois cave, a settlement of early modern humans in southwest France, include a jawbone with flint-knife cut marks on it and a pendant made from a child's tooth cut out of another jawbone, according to a report in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences.

“Secondary burial practices and cannibalism are the two explanations traditionally proposed to account for modifications on prehistoric human bones,” the researchers wrote.

Although researchers can’t be certain the 30,000-year-old jawbone belonged to a Neanderthal, several of its features are characteristic of that species, said co-author Marian Vanhaeren, an archaeologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research in Nanterre.

The idea will provoke considerable opposition from scientists who believe Neanderthals disappeared for reasons that did not involve violence. Neanderthals were a sturdy species who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages before they disappeared 30,000 years ago - just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa.

And according to Britain's Guardian:

The idea will provoke considerable opposition from scientists who believe Neanderthals disappeared for reasons that did not involve violence. Neanderthals were a sturdy species who evolved in Europe 300,000 years ago, made complex stone tools and survived several ice ages before they disappeared 30,000 years ago - just as modern human beings arrived in Europe from Africa.

Some researchers believe Neanderthals may have failed to compete effectively with Homo sapiens for resources, or were more susceptible to the impact of climate change. But others believe our interactions were violent and terminal for the Neanderthals. According to Rozzi, the discovery at Les Rois in south-west France provides compelling support for that argument.

Click here for the Cosmos Online article.

Click here for the Guardian article.

Click here for an earlier article about interbreeding.

Ancient Jar Handle Bears Hebrew Script

A section of the jar handle with its ancient inscription.

Archaeologists have uncovered a nearly 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing ancient Hebrew script. It was found on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives and is significantly older than most inscribed artifacts unearthed in the ancient city.

The Iron Age handle is inscribed with the Hebrew name Menachem, the name of an Israelite king, as well as a partly intact letter, the Hebrew character "lamed," meaning "to." That suggests the jar was a gift to someone named Menachem, said Ron Beeri, who directed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority.

"It's important because it shows that they actually used the name Menachem during that period," Beeri said. "It's not just from the Bible, but it's also in the archaeological record."

Based on the style of the inscription, he dated the handle to around 900 B.C., the time of the first Jewish Temple in Jerusalem as recounted in the Bible. The vessel the handle was attached to did not survive, so it is impossible to tell what it was used for. Similar vessels were known to have held products like oil or wheat.

Click here for the Associated Press article.

Primate Fossil Shows Missing Evolutionary Link

After 47 million years, the fossil named Ida remains remarkably preserved.

Scientists are proclaiming that a primate fossil nicknamed Ida is the missing evolutionary link between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom.

A top-level international research team who have studied the 47-million-year-old fossil in secret for the past two years believe she is the most complete and best preserved primate fossil ever uncovered.

According to Britain’s The Guardian:

The skeleton is 95% complete and thanks to the unique location where she died, it is possible to see individual hairs covering her body and even the make-up of her final meal – a last vegetarian snack.

"This little creature is going to show us our connection with the rest of all the mammals; with cows and sheep, and elephants and anteaters," said Sir David Attenborough, who is narrating a BBC documentary on the find. "The more you look at Ida, the more you can see, as it were, the primate in embryo."

"This will be the one pictured in the textbooks for the next hundred years," said Dr Jørn Hurum, the palaeontologist from Oslo University's Natural History Museum who assembled the scientific team to study the fossil. "It tells a part of our evolution that's been hidden so far. It's been hidden because the only [other] specimens are so incomplete and so broken there's nothing almost to study."

Ida was originally discovered by an amateur fossil hunter in the summer of 1983 at Messel pit, a world renowned fossil site near Darmstadt in Germany. He kept it under wraps for over 20 years before deciding to sell it via a German fossil dealer, who then notified Hurum in Oslo.

Click here for the article in The Guardian.

Ancient Native Americans Decorated Teeth

Ancient skull found in Chiapas, Mexico, displays embedded gems and notched teeth.

Sophisticated dentistry allowed Native Americans to decorate their teeth with gems, notches and grooves as far back as 2,500 years ago. The finding is based on a survey of thousands of teeth from collections in Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History.

Dental decoration was popular predominantly with men. "They were not marks of social class" but instead meant for pure decoration, José Concepción Jiménez, an anthropologist at the institute, told National Geographic.

The early dentists used a drill-like device with a hard stone such as obsidian, which is capable of puncturing bone."It's possible some type of [herb based] anesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain," Jiménez said.

The ornamental stones—including jade—were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, such as plant sap, which was mixed with other chemicals and crushed bones.

The dentists likely had a sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy. For example, they knew how to drill into teeth without hitting the pulp inside. "They didn't want to generate an infection or provoke the loss of a tooth," Jiménez said.

Click here for the National Geographic article.

Mayan Creation Myth Now Deemed Earlier

A section of the Mayan panels uncovered in the Guatemalan rain forest.

Archaeologists studying two large carved stucco panels in northern Guatemala say the panels depict a scene from the Popol Vuh ~ the Mayan creation myth ~ yet predate any other such artifacts by a millennium.

The recently uncovered panels ~ 26 feet long and 20 feet high ~ formed the sides of a channel for carrying rainwater into a series of stepped pools, where it was stored for drinking and agriculture. They date to 300 BC.

Idaho State University archaeologist Richard Hansen, directing the ongoing excavation, says the panels depict an important scene from the Popol Vuh, a text of the Mayan myth first recorded in the 16th century. In the part of the story shown, the Hero Twins swim through the underworld after retrieving the head of their father, the deity Hun Hunahpu, according to Discover News.

Some historians dismiss the Popol Vuh as a contaminated, containing not only ancient Mayan mythology but also Spanish Catholic influences. Hansen believes the panels establish key portions of the stories as genuinely Mayan. “We can now extend the authenticity of the creation myth back another 1,000 years,” he says.

Did One Small African Tribe Populate the World?

New genetic research is leading a group of geneticists and archaeologists to speculate that a small African tribe that crossed the Red Sea some 70,000 years ago is responsible for the spread of human beings around the globe.

“What you can see from the DNA of all non-Africans is that they all belong to one tiny African branch that came across the Red Sea,” says Oxford University geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer. “If it was easy to get out of Africa we would have seen multiple African lineages in the DNA of non-Africans but that there was only one successful exit suggests it must have been very tough to get out.”

The recent genetic research indicates that it was not until around 70,000 years ago that humans were able to take advantage of falling sea levels to cross into Arabia at the mouth of the Red Sea, and from there to spread along the Arabian coast as a prelude to colonizing the rest of the world.

Click here for the article.

Latest "Venus" Is Earliest Ever Found

Figure is thought to be the world's oldest representation of a human.

A small ivory carving of a large-breasted woman uncovered in a German cave last September is now believed to be 35,000 years old and perhaps the oldest known example of figurative art yet found. 

Now regarded as the earliest of the so-called Venus artifacts, the figurine is of the same age as some other very early artwork, including cave paintings in France and Italy. According to an article in yesterday’s New York Times:

Nicholas J. Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, who found the small carving in a cave last year, said it was at least 35,000 years old, “one of the oldest known examples of figurative art” in the world. It is about 5,000 years older than some other so-called Venus artifacts made by early populations of Homo sapiens in Europe.

The discovery, Dr. Conard wrote, “radically changes our view of the origins of Paleolithic art.” Before this, he noted, female imagery was unknown, most carvings and cave drawings being of mammoths, horses and other animals.

This Venus is reminiscent of the most famous of the sexually explicit Stone Age figurines, the Venus of Willendorf, discovered in Austria a century ago. That Venus is somewhat larger and dated about 24,000 years ago. Scholars speculate that Venus figurines were associated with fertility beliefs or shamanistic rituals.

Click here for the New York Times article and video.

Click here for the Los Angeles Times article.

Click here for other Ancient Tides "Venus" posts.

Pharaoh's Missing Pyramid Discovered

A section of the Saqqara Serapium along the uncovered ceremonial road.

Egyptian archaeologists have uncovered the base of a pharaoh’s "missing pyramid" and a ceremonial procession road where high priests carried mummified remains of sacred bulls.

The pyramid is believed to be that of King Menkauhor, an obscure pharaoh who ruled for only eight years more than 4,000 years ago. In 1842, German archaeologist Karl Richard Lepsius mentioned Menkauhor's pyramid among his finds at Saqqara, calling it the "Headless Pyramid" because its top was missing. But the desert sands covered Lepsius' discovery, and no archaeologist since was able to find it.

"We have filled the gap of the missing pyramid," Egyptian antiquities head Zahi Hawass said told reporters on a tour of the discoveries at Saqqara, the necropolis and burial site of the rulers of ancient Memphis, the capital of Egypt's Old Kingdom, south of Cairo.

Click here for the Discovery News article.

Fable Number 184 ~ Winter and Spring

Winter made fun of Spring and mocked her for the fact that as soon as Spring appears, nobody can keep still. Some people go off to the meadows or into the woods, others like to gather flowers and lilies or perhaps gaze upon a rose as they twirl it in the air, or to twine it in their hair; while some board ships and even cross the sea to meet different kinds of people. No one worries any longer about the winds or the great downpours of rain from the sky. 

"Whereas I resemble a dictator or a despot," said Winter. "I command everyone to look not at the sky, but down to the ground. I frighten them and make them tremble and sometimes I make them content themselves while having to stay indoors all day." 

Spring replied: "Indeed, that is exactly why mankind would be glad to get rid of you, whereas even the mere mention of my name is enough to bring them pleasure. By Zeus, there is no name more pleasant than mine! That is why they think fondly of me when I am gone and give thanks when I appear again."

Ancient Garrison May Reveal Fortification Plan

A view of a newly discovered ancient fortification at Tell Heboua.

Archaeologists are hoping the discovery of a 3,500-year-old military garrison of mud-brick and seashells in Egypt's Sinai desert may be key to defining pharaonic-era defenses at the northeast gateway to ancient Egypt. They say inscriptions at Luxor's Karnak temple may serve as a guide to finding other outposts.

Determining the location of the garrison at the ancient city of Tharu is key to understanding where to start looking.

"As we understand from the inscription at Karnak temple, the city of Tharu had two fortifications with the Nile in the middle," Mohamad Abdul Maqsoud, who heads archaeological exploration in Egypt's Nile Delta and Sinai regions, told Reuters. "This city was used to protect Egypt and as a gate to the Delta. It was a post of control. If you wanted to cross the Nile, you asked for permission before you crossed the bridge.”

Most Egyptian fortifications at the time were made of stone, not easily available in the Sinai. So Egyptians used seashells to strengthen the mud brick used to build the garrison, with a 15-meter thick and 12-meter high wall to discourage attack.

Click here for the Reuters article.

Face of Earliest European is Reconstructed

At the behest of the BBC, a skilled forensic artist has reconstructed the head and facial features representing the first anatomically modern human to live in Europe ~ a person inhabiting the Carpathian Mountains of Romania about 35,000 years ago.

According to Britain's The Independent:

The artist's reconstruction ~ a face that could be male or female ~ is based on the partial skull and jawbone found in a cave where bears were known to hibernate. The facial features indicate the close affinity of these early Europeans to their immediate African ancestors, although it was still not possible to determine the person's sex.

The lower jawbone of the first modern European was discovered in 2002 in Pestera cu Oase, the "cave with bones", located in the southwestern Carpathians. The remaining fragments of skull were unearthed in 2003.

Scientists have dated the bones using radiocarbon analysis to between 34,000 and 36,000 years ago when Europe was occupied by both Neanderthal man, who had lived in the region for tens of thousands of years, and anatomically-modern humans – Homo sapiens – who had recently arrived on a migratory route from Africa via the Middle East.

Although the skull shares many modern feature of human anatomy, it also displays more archaic traits, such as very large molar teeth, which led some scientists to speculate the skull may belong to a hybrid between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals ~ an idea discounted by other experts.

The reconstruction was made for the forthcoming BBC 2 series The Incredible Human Journey, which documents human origins and evolution.

Click here for the complete The Independent article.

Earliest Beads Unearthed in Moroccan Cave

Shell ornaments recently uncovered in a cave in Morocco are believed to be some of the world’s oldest beads. The fingernail-size Nassarius marine shells are perforated and some are covered in decorative red ochre.

Up until now, Blombos cave in South Africa has been leading the “bead race” with 41 Nassarius shell beads that can confidently be dated to 72,000 years ago. The 47 shells found in Morocco are likely at least 82,000 years old.

Archaeologists widely believe that humans in Europe first started fashioning purely symbolic objects about 40,000 years ago, but in Africa this latest evidence shows that humans were engaged in this activity at least 40,000 years before this.

Research team leader Professor Nick Barton of the University of Oxford, said: “These new finds are exciting because they show that bead manufacturing probably arose independently in different cultures and confirms a long suspected pattern that humans with modern symbolic behavior were present from a very early stage at both ends of the continent, probably as early as 110,000 years ago.”

Click here for the ScienceDaily article.

Luhan Pyramid Tomb Some 5,000 Years Old

Abdul Rahman Ayedi brushes dust from vessels found in the tomb.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 5,000-year-old tomb near Egypt's mud-brick Lahun pyramid.

According to Reuters, the find debunks beliefs that the site dates back only to 12th dynasty pharaoh Senusret II who ruled 4,000 years ago, archaeologist Abdul Rahman Al-Ayedi said.

"The existence of this tomb is very significant because now we know that Senusret II, the builder of the pyramid, is not the founder of this site," Ayedi told Reuters in an interview. "It must have had religious significance in ancient Egypt, so that's why he chose it for his pyramid."

Inside the tiny tomb, too small for a person to stand, a box-like wood coffin contains the remains of a 40 to 49-year-old man who was likely a significant figure in the ancient Egyptian government of the time, Ayedi said. Buried in a bent position and wrapped in linens, the body was not well preserved because the tomb predates the era in which ancient Egyptians mummified their dead.

"This was a very early example of a coffin,” he said. “The body was buried flexed. The lid of the coffin was vaulted and the side of the coffin has a representation of the facade of a palace or a house."

Click here for the Reuters article.

Balsa Rafts Permitted Ancient American Trading

Dutch envoy Joris van Spilbergen sketched this South American balsa raft in 1619.

An MIT doctoral candidate and her colleagues may have solved the mystery of why a specific style of ancient metalwork appears in South America and in western Mexico, but nowhere in between. Leslie Dewan contends Ecuadorean traders a thousand years ago sailed regularly to western Mexico and back ~ a round trip of 3,800 miles ~ on sail-bearing balsa rafts.

According to Discover Magazine:

Archaeologists have long wondered why copper work and other metalwork in a style typical of ancient South America appears in western Mexico but nowhere in between the two areas. This absence suggested a sea-based trade, so Dewan’s group decided to explore whether such lengthy voyages were feasible.

They based their mathematical study of seaworthiness on 16th-century European explorers’ descriptions of Native American trading vessels in western Mexico. The explorers wrote of seeing rectangular, two-sailed vessels made of balsa, a wood native to Ecuador, tied together with a hemplike fiber. Reaching about 35 feet in length, the rafts could probably have borne up to 30 metric tons of cargo—as much as 19th-century barges did in the Erie Canal.

Dewan’s team also evaluated the role of wind and water currents, concluding that the traders may have spent a few months in Mexico and returned when currents shifted. Meanwhile, her team is preparing to construct an actual-size model for the trip from Ecuador to Mexico, as they theorize it was done 1,300 years ago.

Click here for the Discover Magazine article.
Click here for Leslie Dewan’s description of her project.
Click here for a similar Ecuadorian project called the Manteno Expedition.

Foot-Shaped Enclosures Symbolized Ownership

One of the sites with a foot-shaped enclosure in the Jordan Valley.

Five archaeological sites surrounded by foot-shaped enclosures are now believed to be among the earliest sites built in Israel, with the odd foot-shaped layout symbolizing ownership of the land.

According to ScienceDaily:

"The 'foot' structures that we found in the Jordan valley are the first sites that the People of Israel built upon entering Canaan and they testify to the biblical concept of ownership of the land with the foot," said archaeologist Prof. Adam Zertal of the University of Haifa, who headed the excavating team that exposed five compounds in the shape of an enormous foot.

The sites are believed to date back to the Iron Age I, around the 13th century BC. Based on their size and shape, it appears they were used for human assembly and not for animals.

Zertal told ScienceDaily that the "foot" held much significance as a symbol of ownership of territory, control over an enemy, connection between people and land, and presence of a deity. Some of these concepts are mentioned in ancient Egyptian literature. The Bible also has a wealth of references to the importance of the "foot" as a symbol of ownership, the link between people and their deity, defeating the enemy 'underfoot', and the temple imaged as a foot.

Click here for the complete ScienceDaily article.

More "Dark Age" Discoveries in Turkish Temple

Remains of the Tayinat temple in southeastern Turkey.

Stone slabs engraved with a dead language and found in an ancient temple in Turkey continue to shed light on the eastern European “dark age” from 1200 to 900 BC, according to a new article in National Geographic.

The Biblical Old Testament, Greek Homeric epics, and texts from Ramses III describe the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age as a period of cultural collapse, famine and violence.

But the temple ruins suggest otherwise.

"We're beginning to find new archaeological evidence that there was a continuation of writing traditions, as well as cultural and political continuity from the Bronze Age into this Iron Age period," according to Timothy Harrison of the University of Toronto's Tayinat Archaeological Project . "We are filling in a cultural and a political history of this era."

Harrison and colleagues found the temple in 2008 at the Tell Ta'yinat site, an archaeological settlement on the Plain of Antioch in southeastern Turkey. It appears to have been built during the time of King Solomon, between the 10th and 9th centuries BC. It was likely destroyed with the rest of Tell Ta'yinat during the 8th century BC.

Click here for the National Geographic article.

Rare Roman Bowl found in Old London Cemetery

The bowl was pieced together from fragments found at the site.

Calling it a “miracle of preservation,” archaeologists have unearthed a Roman glass bowl in an ancient cemetery beyond the walls of the old city of London. The millefiori ~ meaning “a thousand flowers” ~ dish is believed to date from around the 2nd to 3rd century AD.

"For it to have survived intact is amazing,” Jenny Hall, curator of the Roman collection at the Museum of London, told Reuters News. “In fact, it is unprecedented in the western Roman world. We are still checking out whether there are similar examples surviving in the eastern part of the empire, in ancient Alexandria for example, but it's the only one in the West.”

The dish was found about nine feet deep in the ancient cemetery in Aldgate, east London, just beyond the old city walls. Romans were required by law to bury their dead outside the city gates.

Archaeologists said the dish was colored bright red when it was first pulled from the earth. The vermilion color has slowly disappeared since excavation as the water-saturated glass dried out. The moisture had preserved the original coloring, and some of the pigment is still distinguishable around the rim.

Click here for the Reuters article.

Native Americans Had Single Ancestral Source

An international team of scientists has concluded that Native Americans derived from a single ancestral population.

“Our work provides strong evidence that, in general, Native Americans are more closely related to each other than to any other existing Asian populations, except those that live at the very edge of the Bering Strait,” said Kari Britt Schroeder, a lecturer at the University of California, Davis, and the first author on the paper describing the study.

“While earlier studies have already supported this conclusion, what’s different about our work is that it provides the first solid data that simply cannot be reconciled with multiple ancestral populations,” said Schroeder.

For years various theories had been argued regarding whether ancestors of Native Americans emigrated to the New World in one wave or successive waves, or from one ancestral Asian population or a number of different populations. The new findings are from painstakingly comparing DNA samples from people in dozens of modern-day Native American and Eurasian groups.

Click here for the UC Davis article.

Temple Images Show Pharaohs and Gods

Here are two photos released this week related to the significant discovery in the Sinai peninsula of four ancient Egyptian temples. Archaeologists believe the four and a brick fortified wall were a religious center at the eastern gateway to Egypt around 1500 BC.

The top photo shows Pharaonic King Tuthmosis II (left) in front of the god Raa Hoor Akhti carved on a wall at one of the temples. The lower photo shows Pharaonic King Ramses II (right) and Geb, god of earth, carved on a wall at another one of the temples.

Click here for my previous post, based on a Reuters article.
Click here for the Associated Press article.

Durable Maya Blue Traced to Palygorskite Clay

Maya blue is a predominant color on this ancient mask.

Ancient Mayans used a rare clay called palygorskite to produce their traditional Maya blue. The clay has been used in Mesoamerica since ancient times and was closely related to socio-cultural aspects of the Mayan culture.

Palygorskite is produced by mixing indigo, an organic dye obtained from the plant of the same name, with a base of palygorskite clay. The resulting compound is extraordinarily resistant to chemical and environmental elements.

Maya Blue was invented between the 6th and the 8th Century and can be found in sculptures, fresco paintings, codices and pre-Columbian decorations across Mesoamerica, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. It was used during the colonial period to paint frescos in churches and convents. Maya blue was rediscovered in 1931 and scientists were baffled by the stability and persistence of this color found on objects dating back to pre-Columbian times.

"Present day native communities on the Yucatan Peninsula are familiar with and use palygorskite clay for a variety of purposes, ranging from making candles on All Saints' Day and household and artistic pottery to remedies for mumps, stomach and pregnancy pains and dysentery," explained Manuel Sánchez del Río, a physicist at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble (France). Modern pharmacology uses clays like palygorskite to produce anti-diarrhea medicine, a remedy the Maya began to use more than a thousand years ago.

Click here for the complete ScienceDaily article.

Egypt's Zahi Hawass in 'Perpetual Motion'

One name more than any other has cropped up in Ancient Tides ~ that of Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s antiquities bureau. Due to his high profile in the usually modest profession of archaeology, it’s no surprise that some controversy surrounds the man.

Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a feature article about Hawass, including these excerpts:

In the seven years since he was named general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Hawass has been in perpetual motion. He personally announces every new discovery, was the force behind plans to construct 19 new museums, approved the restoration of nine synagogues in Cairo and has contributed to countless books, documentaries, magazine and newspaper articles all promoting Egyptian antiquities — and, of course, himself.

There are scientists who say he is too concerned with self-promotion and is often loose with facts. There are Egyptian antiquities workers who complain that he takes credit for their accomplishments. But his penchant for drama and his virtual monopoly over Egypt’s unrivaled ancient riches have earned him an international following and helped Egypt sell itself to tourists at a time when tourism dollars are increasingly scarce.

“Whether we like it or not, he is a star, and he lives the life of a star,” said Mahmoud Ibrahim Hussein, chairman of the antiquities department at Cairo University. “When he goes to a place, people gather around him to talk to him. Many professors give lectures; but people pay more to hear Zahi speak.”

Click here for the complete New York Times article.

Four Egyptian Temples Are Major Find in Sinai

Archaeologists have unearthed four pharaonic temples in the Sinai peninsula, including one with fortified walls that served as an important religious center at the eastern gateway to ancient Egypt.

The temples date to the rule of Thutmosis II, who reigned from about 1512 BC and was ultimately succeeded by his wife Hatshepsut, among ancient Egypt's most successful female rulers.

"The discovery is considered among the biggest discoveries in Sinai and includes the largest fortified Pharaonic temple in Sinai, at 80 meters by 70 meters," according to the Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities in a statement released today. "It is the only example of a mud brick temple in the New Kingdom era in the (Nile) Delta and Sinai."

The temple was surrounded by walls four meters thick and contained paintings of a number of Egyptian deities, including Horus, the god of the sun, as well as depictions of Thutmosis II and Ramses II.

Click here for the Reuters article.

High-Tech Reveals More of China's Great Wall

A section of the Great Wall in disrepair.

China’s famed Great Wall has gained another 180 miles due to infrared range finders and GPS devices enabling researchers to find portions previously concealed by hills, trenches and rivers.

The newly mapped parts of the wall were built during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) to protect China against northern invaders and were submerged over time by sandstorms that moved across the arid region, according to China’s national mapping agency.

The additional parts mean the Great Wall ~ construction of which began more than 2,000 years ago to prevent incursions into China by the Mongols and others ~ spans about 3,900 miles through the northern part of the country.

Recent studies by Chinese archaeologists have shown that sandstorms are reducing sections of the wall in Gansu to "mounds of dirt" and that they may disappear entirely in 20 years. These studies mainly blame the erosion on destructive farming methods used in the 1950s that turned large areas of northern China into desert. In addition, portions of the wall in Gansu were made of packed earth, which is less resilient than the brick and stone used elsewhere in much of the wall's construction.

China in recent years has begun restoring parts of the wall as well as trying to curb commercial development on or next to the ancient structure.

Click here for the Guardian UK article.

Tomb May Have Held Ramses' Granddaughter

Remnants of the noblewoman's sarcaphagus displays hieroglyphics.

A 3,000-year-old tomb uncovered recently has been identified as belonging to a woman named Isisnofret, possibly the granddaughter of Pharaoh Ramses II, who reigned during the 13th century B.C.

The tomb was found in a burial complex long buried by sand and rubble on a rocky outcrop on the outskirts the ancient royal burial city of Saqqara. The complex includes the base of a pyramid, a monumental gateway, a colonnaded courtyard, and an antechamber with three cult chapels.

Though Isisnofret's chapels are in ruins, partly due to looting, archaeologists have found fragments decorated with hieroglyphics. In general, cult chapels were painted with scenes of daily life and offerings—in case the family failed to provide the real thing.

Inside Isisnofret's tomb building, a limestone sarcophagus was found holding three skeletons—degraded mummies whose ages and sexes have yet to be determined.

Archaeologists at the site are unsure why the sarcophagus holds three bodies, or even what the original state was. The sarcophagus is missing its internal, wooden coffin—perhaps stolen during the ancient pillaging that seems to have stripped the tomb of funerary objects.

Click here for the complete article.

Italian Earthquake Reveals Prehistoric Caves

Last week's powerful earthquake in central Italy unearthed prehistoric dwellings there, according Italian daily La Stampa. Some of the vaulted caves measure nearly 20 feet in height, according to Italian geologist Gianluca Ferretti.

"We are exploring them," said Ferretti, who teaches geology at L'Aquila's university. The caves date back 15,000 years, according to geologists.

"Some of the caves were hollowed out by the first shepherds to inhabit the area, who would also use them as shelters for their animals," said Ferretti's colleague, Antonio Moretti.

But while they represent a fascinating archaeological find, the caves' emergence has worried geologists. "It shows the fragility of the sediment on which the area is built," said Ferretti.

The magnitude 6.3 quake last week destroyed or seriously damaged several thousand buildings and killed about 300 people.

New Findings Point to Ancient Druid Savagry

Ancient Romans considered Britain’s Celts ~ and their priests, whom he named Druids ~ to be a particularly savage people, and new findings seem to be bearing out that observation. Indications now point to cannibalism and ritual human sacrifice on a potentially massive scale.

After a first century BC visit to Britain, the Romans came back with horrific stories about the Celts, who had spread throughout much of Europe over a roughly 2,000-year period. Julius Caesar ~ leading the first Roman landing in 55 BC. ~ said the native Celts "believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent."

First-century historian Pliny the Elder went further, suggesting the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies' flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength.

National Geographic reports that recent gruesome finds may confirm the Romans' accounts. 

Incriminating evidence includes the 2,000-year-old, bog-mummified body of Lindow Man, discovered in England in the 1980s. At least one thing appears nearly certain about the man: He was the victim of a carefully staged sacrifice.

Other grisly clues come from a cave in Alveston, England. Skeletons belonging to as many as 150 people and dating back to about the time of the Roman conquest were discovered in 2000.

Depiction above is of Roman slaughter of Druids, which may have led to Celtic savagry.

Click here for the complete National Geographic article. The short video below is a preview to a National Geographic television special on the Druid findings.

Temple Reveals Peaceful Passage Between Ages

The ongoing dig at the Tayinat Citadel reveals the noteworthy temple.

Discovery of a well-preserved temple in Turkey ~ constructed during the time of King Solomon around the 10th Century BC ~ casts doubt on the view that the transition from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age was violent, sudden and culturally disruptive.

Ancient sources such as the Homeric epics and the Hebrew Bible depict an era of widespread famine, ethnic conflict and population movement, including migrations of Philistines and the Israelites, also called the Sea Peoples. According to ScienceDaily:

This is thought to have precipitated a prolonged Dark Age marked by cultural decline and ethnic strife during the early centuries of the Iron Age. But recent discoveries ~ including the Tayinat excavations ~ have revealed that some ruling dynasties survived the collapse of the great Bronze Age powers.

"Our ongoing excavations have not only begun to uncover extensive remains from this Dark Age, but the emerging archaeological picture suggests that during this period Tayinat was the capital of a powerful kingdom, the ‘Land of Palastin’," says Timothy Harrison, professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Toronto and the director of the project. "Intriguingly, the early Iron Age settlement at Tayinat shows evidence of strong cultural connections, if not the direct presence of foreign settlers, from the Aegean world, the traditional homeland of the Sea Peoples."

The temple’s inner sanctuary ~ also know as its 'holy of holies' ~ will be the focus of the 2009 field season which begins on July 1.

Click here for the complete ScienceDaily article.

Number 10 ~ TREADING (Conduct)

Treading upon the tail of the tiger.
It does not bite the man. Success.

The situation is really difficult. That which is strongest and that which is weakest are close together. The weak follows behind the strong and worries it. The strong, however, acquiesces and does not hurt the weak, because the contact is in good humor and harmless. In terms of a human situation, one is handling wild, intractable people. In such a case, one's purpose will be achieved if one behaves with decorum. Pleasant manners succeed even with irritable people.

Search Intensifies for Anthony & Cleopatra Tomb

An ancient coin displaying the likenesses of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

Archaeologists in Egypt next week begin excavating three sites in search of the tombs of the doomed lovers, Cleopatra and Mark Anthony.

The sites were identified last month during a radar survey of the temple of Taposiris Magna. It is located on Lake Mariut ~ now known as Abusir ~ near the coastal city of Alexandria, and was built during the reign of King Ptolemy II (282-246 BC.)

Cleopatra, then queen of Egypt, and her Roman general lover, Mark Anthony, committed suicide after being defeated in the battle of Actium in 31 BC.

Excavators found a number of deep shafts inside the temple, three of which were possibly used for burials. Leaders of the excavation believe Cleopatra and Mark Anthony could have been buried in a deep shaft similar those already found.

Last year, archaeologists at the site also unearthed a bronze statue of the goddess Aphrodite, the alabaster head of a Queen Cleopatra statue, a mask believed to belong to Mark Anthony and a headless statue from the Ptolemaic era at the excavation site.

Click here for the Associated Press article.

Clay Figures May Be Servants, Not Soldiers

A small portion of the terracotta figures, either soldiers or servants.

A Chinese professor says the famed terracotta soldiers of Xi'an aren't soldiers at all ~ they're royal servants and bodyguards, most likely modeled after high-ranking Qin dynasty officials.

Most historians believe the 2,200-year-old clay statues buried near the emperor's tomb represent an army to guard him in the afterlife. But Liu Jiusheng of Shaanxi Normal University argues ordinary soldiers weren't allowed to get close to the emperor, even in death.

Furthermore, Liu says the figures stand at around six feet, much taller than average Chinese past or present. Liu theorizes the clay statues were probably made taller to show their elevated social status. Though not widely accepted, experts say Liu's argument is worth studying.

The 1,000-strong terracotta army was discovered near Xi'an in 1974 and was listed as a world heritage site by UNESCO in December 1987.

Dozens of Painted Mummies Found in Necropolis

One of the brightly colored mummies found near the Ilahun pyramid.

Archaeologists in an Egyptian oasis have found dozens of brightly painted mummies dating back as far as 4,000 years.

"The mission found dozens of mummies in 53 rock-hewn tombs dating to the Middle Kingdom" from 2061-1786 BC, according to Zahi Hawass announced Sunday. "Four of the mummies date back to the 22nd Dynasty (931 to 725 BC) and are considered some of the most beautiful mummies found."

The linen-wrapped mummies are painted in the still-bright traditional ancient Egyptian colors of turquoise, terracotta and gold.

The necropolis was uncovered near the Ilahun pyramid in Fayoum oasis south of Cairo. The team also found 15 painted masks, along with amulets and clay pots, Hawass said.

Click here for the Middle East Online article.

Human Evolution May Be Accelerating

Humans are continuing to evolve as our genes respond to rapid changes in the world around us. In fact, according to some anthropologists, the pressures of modern life may be speeding up human evolution.

The idea that "human evolution is a continuing process is widely accepted among anthropologists,'' Robert Wald Sussman, editor of the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis, told McClatchy news. This concept contradicts the 20th-century assumption that modern medical practice, antibiotics, better diet and other advances would protect people from the perils and stresses that drive evolutionary change.

It's even conceivable, Sussman said, that our genes eventually will change enough to create an entirely new human species, one no longer able to breed with our own species, Homo sapiens.

"Someday in the far distant future, enough genetic changes might have occurred so that future populations could not interbreed with the current one,'' he speculates.

Click here for the complete article.

Peru to Protect Nazca Lines from Rainwater

A figure called La Mano (The Hand) damaged by unusual flooding.

Peru’s National Institute of Culture is preparing to protect from heavy rains the enigmatic Nazca Lines, located in the country’s southern region, according to the resident archaeologist in Nazca, Mario Olaechea.

"It's a project that will serve the whole area in general, including drainage services, to avoid events such as the one in January when rainwater accumulated and drained, covering with a clay layer of the geoglyph called La Mano", Olaechea said. "The figure has not been erased. It is still intact, only one percent was covered by the clay layer.”

In the first months of the year, heavy rains also affected the southern plains of Nazca, but without serious consequences.

Work to Uncover Massive Mayan City Begins

Thick vegetation covers the ground over the ruins of the large Mayan city.

Mexican archaeologists have begun recovery of a great Mayan city buried under tons of earth and jungle in the area of Ichkabal on the Yucatan peninsula, according to the National Anthropology and History Institute (INAH).

Previous archaeological digs in Ichkabal have indicated existence of a vast Mayan settlement of buildings, the biggest roughly 650 feet wide at the base and 150 feet high. The buildings are believed to be part of a city covering about 11.5 square miles whose study will add important archaeological information to what is known about ancient Mayan civilization.

“This is a city whose construction began in preclassic times, 250 years before Christ,” INAH said. No architectural details are visible on the surface. All that can be seen are mounds covered by “the exuberant vegetation” of the area.

The site was discovered in 1995 by a local inhabitant, who revealed the existence of pre-Colombian vestiges to two Mexican archaeologists.

Click here for the Latin American Herald Tribune article.

The great Way is easy,
yet people prefer the side paths.
Be aware when things are out of balance.
Stay centered within the Tao.

When rich speculators prosper
while farmers lose their land;
when government officials spend money
on weapons instead of cures;
when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible
while the poor have nowhere to turn --
all this is robbery and chaos.
It is not in keeping with the Tao.

Wooden Version of Stonehenge Found in Ireland

Artist's conception of the Stonehenge-like sacred monument in Ireland.

Archaeologists in Ireland have unearthed a mammoth wooden version of Stonehenge. It appears to have been a major structure at the ancient seat of the Irish high kings in the Hill of Tara in County Meath.

Archaeologist Joe Fenwick said a laser beam had been used to scan the ground surface to create a three-dimensional map of the site, revealing more than 30 monuments around Tara. Using another technique ~ described as taking an X-ray through the hillside ~ archaeologists discovered a ditch stretching six meters wide and three meters deep in the bedrock. The ditch, circling the Mound of the Hostages passage tomb, separated the outside world from the ceremonial center of Tara.

“The Hill of Tara had enormous ritual significance over the course of 5,000 to 6,000 years, so it's not surprising that you get monuments of the scale of the ditch pit circle," Fenwick says.

Click here for the Irish Independent article.

Ancient Israel May Have Had A Woman King

Archaeologists at Tel Beth-Shemesh have uncovered possible evidence of a mysterious female ruler of Canaan, or ancient Israel. The finding appears on an unusual ceramic plaque of a goddess in female dress, suggesting that a mighty female “king” may have ruled the city. If true, they say, the plaque would depict the only known female ruler of the region.

The plaque itself depicts a figure dressed as royal male figures and deities once appeared in Egyptian and Canaanite art. The figure’s hairstyle, though, is womanly and its bent arms are holding lotus flowers ~ attributes given to women.

The plaque, art historians suggest, may be an artistic representation of the “Mistress of the Lionesses,” a female Canaanite ruler known to have sent distress letters to the Pharaoh in Egypt reporting unrest and destruction in her kingdom.

Click here for the Science Daily article.

Jewelry, Skeletons Found in Moche Tomb

This 1,500-year-old gilded-copper-and-seashell funerary mask was found several months ago in a treasure-filled tomb of the Moche culture in Peru. It's one of two masks that shielded the face of the so-called Lord of Ucupe.

Archaeologists believe the Lord of Ucupe in life would have been covered nearly head to toe in shining metal, so as to dazzle and distract his subjects. The tomb ~ found at the base of a mud-brick pyramid ~ also contained 19 golden headdresses, various pieces of jewelry and the skeletons of two other men and a pregnant woman.

The tomb's mysterious contents and location ~ far from known Moche capitals ~ could shed new light on this little-known culture of Peru's arid northern coast. Thriving between A.D. 100 and 800, the highly agricultural Moche Indians are known in large part by their stepped pyramids, jewelry-filled tombs, and exquisite pottery and art.

Click here for the complete National Geographic article.
Click here for a video on the discovery of the Moche tomb.

Early Christian Diet Was Laden with Fish

Roman fish mosaic from the early Christian period.

Early Christians ate more fish then their non-Christian counterparts. Some scientists theorize it was because the early Christians tended to be poor. Others will content it was because the fish was the symbol of the faith. And still other, I’m sure, would attribute the fish-laden diet to the Age of Pisces that dawned during at the outset of the Christian era and also is symbolized by the fish.

“The eating habits of Rome’s early Christians are more complex than has traditionally been assumed,” writes Leonard Rutgers and his colleagues in The Journal of Archaeological Science. They analyzed 22 skeletons found in the Catacombs of St. Callixtus on the Appian Way, an area utilized in the 3rd to 5th centuries AD, although some of the skeletons were radiocarbon-dated to the 2nd century, according to the Times of London.

“While distancing themselves from Jewish food taboos and generally avoiding meat derived from pagan sacrifices, the early Christians are normally hypothesized to have eaten the same food as their non-Christian Roman contemporaries,” the team says. “Within the larger context of what is currently known about Roman dietary habits, the inclusion of freshwater fish therefore comes as unexpected and raises questions about the social origins of Christianity as well.”

“When Romans ate fish at all, they are normally believed to have consumed sea fish. Freshwater fish has not been considered as an essential ingredient in the classical Roman diet.” In AD301, the Emperor Diocletian’s Edict on Prices tried to fix the cost of freshwater fish at around a half to a third of its marine equivalent, so that even the poor could eat it. Roman fish probably came from the Tiber, and would have been a free or cheap source of protein.

Rutgers and his colleagues conclude “that at least the small selection of early Christians analyzed were all simple folk, suggesting that the inclusion of freshwater fish is indicative of a relative lack of wealth rather than of religiously motivated ascetic behavior."

Click here for the complete Times of London article.