Prehistoric Flutes Reveal Earlier Music

Recently discovered flute made of bird's bone.

Discovery of bone flutes dating back some 40,000 years is leading researchers to conclude that human creativity evolved earlier than originally thought.

Researchers were studying a modern human settlement called Geißenklösterle in southern Germany when they came across the flutes, one made from ivory of a mammoth, the other from the bones of a bird.

According to LiveScience.com:

"These results are consistent with a hypothesis we made several years ago that the Danube River was a key corridor for the movement of humans and technological innovations into central Europe between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago," study researcher Nick Conard, of Tübingen University, said in a statement. 

The researchers radiocarbon-dated bones found in the same layer of the archaeological dig as the flutes. This carbon dating uses the level of radioactive carbon, which is naturally occurring in the world and decays predictably into nonradioactive carbon, to estimate the age of organic materials. 

They found the objects were between 42,000 and 43,000 years old, belonging to the Aurignacian culture dating from the upper Paleolithic period. So far, these dates are the earliest for the Aurignacian and predate equivalent sites from Italy, France, England and other regions.

Results indicate that humans entered the Upper Danube region before an extremely cold climatic phase around 39,000 to 40,000 years ago, researchers said.

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New Findings Extend Mayan Calendar

Mayan numbers on the wall stretch 7,000 years into the future.

The recent discovery of an underground Mayan workshop in the dense Guatemalan jungle is important for two reasons: one, the murals and other wall painting are all surprisingly well preserved; and two, calendar fragments show that the Mayan calendar does not end this year.

According to NPR:

Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say the murals confirm what Mayan archaeologists have been saying for years: The Mayan calendar does not predict the end of time in 2012, as some New Age prophets have argued. In fact, the murals register future time stretching far beyond 2012. 

Archaeologist William Saturno from Boston University compares Mayan calendars to a car's odometer. "If we're driving a car," Satruno says, "we don't anticipate that at 100,000 miles the car will vanish from beneath us. We know that it will reset to zero, and the next 10th of a mile we go we'll have another number to look at." 

What these Mayan timekeepers were doing was simply marking the passage of time from past to future, but in discrete intervals.

The buried room apparently was a workshop used by scribes or astronomers working for a Mayan king. The paintings depict the king and members of his court. The numbers mark important periods in the Mayan calendar.

 Click here for the article.

Rare Petroglyphs on Easter Island Statues

A partially excavated statue, revealing carving.

Researchers have long been aware that many of the nearly 900 statues on Easter Island are full-bodied, but now are seeing that some of the petroglyphs carved into excavated statues are considered unique.

According to the director of the Easter Island Statue Project, Jo Anne Van Tilburg:

"While many statues have individual petroglyphs, these and only one other statue—of over 1,000 we have documented—have multiple petroglyphs carved as a composition on their backs.  Underlying these carvings is a complex symbol found on less than 100 statues. It is referred to by previous researchers as the ‘ring and girdle’ design, and sometimes said to represent the ‘sun and rainbow.’ 

She also says the excavation sites offer new "strong evidence" of how the Rapa Nui ancestors managed to manipulate the heavy statues into place with limited technological resources.

In addition, Dr. Van Tilburg wrote that her team has found tuna vertebrae near the bottom of a recent excavation. The evidence backs up claims from Easter Island's Rapa Nui community that the original statue carvers were rewarded for their efforts in meals of tuna and lobster.

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Chauvet Paintings Again Deemed Oldest

Section of paintings from the Chauvet cave.

French scientists say they have confirmed that the ancient paintings in the Chauvet cave ~ discovered in southern France in 1999 ~ are “the oldest and most elaborate ever discovered.”

Scientists originally used radiocarbon dating of the rock art, charcoal and animal bones in the Chauvet cave to place them between 30,000 to 32,000 years old.

Later, other scholars dated the paintings at 12,000 to 17,000 years old, based on their artistic sophistication. That would place them as relics of the Magdalenian culture, in which human ancestors used tools of stone and bone and created increasingly advanced art as time went on.

In the new research being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a US journal, French scientists believe they have confirmation that the paintings are "the oldest and most elaborate ever discovered." Their findings are based on geomorphological and chlorine-36 dating of the rockslide surfaces around what is believed to be the cave's only entrance.

"Remarkably agreeing with the radiocarbon dates of the human and animal occupancy, this study confirms that the Chauvet cave paintings are the oldest and the most elaborate ever discovered, challenging our current knowledge of human cognitive evolution," said the study.

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Hero Stone Found in India

An ancient hero stone with inscriptions has been unearthed at Karattampatti near Thuraiyur. It was discovered in a field by a research team led by Subash Chandira Bose, advisor for the archaeological wing of the Center for Cultural Studies in Coimbatore, following a tip given a local resident.

Bose said the bas-relief stone measuring 30 centimeters in width and 92 centimeters in height has been carved within a rectangular vertical frame. It depicts a warrior holding a sword in his left arm.

The inscription belongs to the 31 regnal year of Paranthaga Chola-I (AD 938), also known as Madurai Kondan, he said. The inscription says the people of Viriyur had donated a non-taxable land to the daughter of a hero known as Nagan who sacrificed his life to bring back a herd cows taken away by a group.

The inscription also refers to a few names of places such as Miamaa Nadu, Valluvappadi, Viriyur, Oottrathur Nadu, Paadaavur and Ainjurinimangal.

Marco Polo Visited China, Scholar Says

An Italian drawing of Marco Polo's caravan from 1375.

For 300 years, historians have argued that Marco Polo did not really visit China, but had fabricated his journeys based on the information from his trips to the Black Sea, Constantinople and Persia and from talking to merchants. Now University of Tübingen Sinologist Hans Ulrich Vogel says he believes Polo.

In his new book, Marco Polo was in China: New Evidence from Currencies, Salts and Revenues, Vogel presents a comprehensive review of the arguments for and against, and follows it up with evidence from relevant Chinese, Japanese, Italian, French, German and Spanish literature. The result is compelling: despite a few, well-known problems with Marco Polo’s writings, they are supported by an overwhelming number of verified accounts about China containing unique information given over centuries. 

According to Archaeology News Network:

Professor Vogel examines an area so complex and which requires such a high level of historical expertise that it has largely been neglected – Marco Polo’s descriptions of currency, salt production and revenues from the salt monopoly. Vogel concludes that no other Western, Arab, or Persian observer reported in such accurate and unique detail about the currency situation in Mongol China. 

The Venetian traveler is the only one to describe precisely how paper for money was made from the bark of the mulberry tree. He not only details the shape and size of the paper, he also describes the use of seals and the various denominations of paper money. He reports on the monopolizing of gold, silver, pearls and gems by the state – which enforced a compulsory exchange for paper money – and the punishment for counterfeiters, as well as the 3% exchange fee for worn-out notes and the widespread use of paper money in official and private transactions. 

Marco Polo is also the only one among his contemporaries to explain that paper money was not in circulation in all parts of China. It was used primarily in the north and in the regions along the Yangtze, but not in Fujian and certainly not in Yunnan, where according to Polo, cowries, salt, gold and silver were the main currencies.

This and similar information is confirmed by Chinese sources and by archaeological evidence, Vogel contends. Most of these sources were collated or translated long after Marco Polo’s time, so he could not have drawn on them.

Click here for the complete article.

Rare Sumerian Golden Mug Was For Beer

The slender spout on a 4,500-year-old golden beer mug from ancient Mesopotamia was designed to filter out unwanted particles, according to researchers assembling a collection of period artifacts for public display.

The cup is the centerpiece of Melbourne Museum's latest international exhibition, the Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia. The exhibition showcases more than 170 artifacts on loan from the British Museum, charting the history of one of the world's oldest civilizations, dating back as far as 2600 BC.

The cup was recovered from the "death pit" of Queen Puabi in the ancient city of Ur, in modern day Iraq, during an excavation led by archaeologist Leonard Woolley between 1922 and 1934. It was found in the royal cemetery amid precious jewels, musical instruments, containers once laden with food, and other riches.

"This is really rather unique,” British Museum exhibition curator Sarah Collins said. “So far archaeology hasn't uncovered tombs or riches quite like this. It's certainly a very spectacular example of the Sumerians' belief and burial and afterlife practices.

Click here for complete article.

More Credence to Historical Jesus

Christ as imagined by Rembrandt

The debate over whether Jesus actually existed in an historical sense is large, with much intensity on both sides of the question. That’s why I find it especially interesting when a self-proclaimed agnostic who also happens to be a leading biblical scholar decides to take a bold position.

Yes, says Bart Ehrman. Jesus did exist.

Ehrman, historian and professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and author of several best-sellers relating to the Bible, recently published Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, which investigates the historical evidence regarding the existence of Jesus.

Ehrman says there is a large contingent of people claiming that Jesus never did exist, and he calls them the mythicists.

"It was a surprise to me to see how influential these mythicists are," Ehrman says. According to them, Jesus was never mentioned in any Roman sources and there is no archeological evidence that Jesus ever existed. Even Christian sources are problematic – the Gospels come long after Jesus' death, written by people who never saw the man. 

"Most importantly," he explains, "these mythicists point out that there are Pagan gods who were said to die and rise again and so the idea is that Jesus was made up as a Jewish god who died and rose again."

In his book, Ehrman marshals all of the evidence proving the existence of Jesus, "Paul knew Jesus' brother, James, and he knew his closest disciple, Peter, and he tells us that he did," Ehrman says. "If Jesus didn't exist, you would think his brother would know about it, so I think Paul is probably pretty good evidence that Jesus at least existed," he says.

Ehrman builds a technical argument and shows that one of the reasons for knowing that Jesus existed is that if someone invented Jesus, they would not have created a messiah who was so easily overcome.

Click here for the NPR article and audio discussion.

Exploration May Be Near Naymlap Tomb

Figure found on mural near site.

Among the most colorful pre-Columbian Peruvian legends is of Naymlap, fearless founder of a centuries-old dynasty that supposedly ruled the Lambayeque Valley in northern Peru.

Archaeologist Christopher Donnan’s revelations about the legend are detailed in a new 268-page book that was just published by the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Chotuna and Chornancap: Excavating an Ancient Peruvian Legend.

According to UCLA:

As the legend goes, Naymlap arrived with a vast fleet of balsa rafts carrying an entourage that included a chief wife and many concubines. He also brought with him an idol made of green stone, and he built a palace where it was installed. In his court were a trumpeter who blew through shells much prized by the Indians; a servant who scattered the dust of pulverized seashells on the ground where Naymlap tread; and servants who tended his every need, from an official bather to the keeper of his feathered shirts. 

Throughout Naymlap’s long reign, the tale continued, people enjoyed peace until his death, kept secret by his attendants who — fearing that his followers would find out their venerated leader had succumbed to this human fate — buried him in the same room where he had lived. Saddened by his mysterious disappearance, many of his followers abandoned their homes to find him.

Donnan and his UCLA team of students and fellow archaeologists found a wealth of ceramics, burials, colorful wall murals and other materials in an area that once was the location of domestic dwellings, pyramids, palace complexes, walled enclosures and a room-filled site. In other words, the archaeologist said, “What we found was perfectly in keeping with the legend.”


Click here for the complete article.

Mystery Surrounds Celtic Mummy in China

The mummy is that of a Bronze Age Celt, according to his DNA, but the mummy of Cherchen Man is from the Taklamakan Desert in western China. In the local Chinese language, the word “taklamakan” means “You come in and never come out.” And that seems to be the case.

According to Britain’s The Independent:

He looks like a Bronze Age European. In fact, he's every inch a Celt. Even his DNA says so. 

But this is no early Celt from central Scotland. This is the mummified corpse of Cherchen Man, unearthed from the scorched sands of the Taklamakan Desert in the far-flung region of Xinjiang in western China, and now housed in a new museum in the provincial capital of Urumqi. 

The extraordinary thing is that Cherchen Man was found - with the mummies of three women and a baby - in a burial site thousands of miles to the east of where the Celts established their biggest settlements in France and the British Isles. 

DNA testing confirms that he and hundreds of other mummies found in Xinjiang's Tarim Basin are of European origin. We don't know how he got there, what brought him there, or how long he and his kind lived there for. But, as the desert's name suggests, it is certain that he never came out.

His discovery provides an unexpected connection between east and west and some valuable clues to early European history. The bodies are far better preserved than the Egyptian mummies, and it is sad to see the infants on display; to see how the baby was wrapped in a beautiful brown cloth tied with red and blue cord, then a blue stone placed on each eye. Beside it was a baby's milk bottle with a teat, made from a sheep's udder.

Click here for the complete article.

Sources Found for Mayan Blue Pigment

Maya blue is the man-made pigment that colored the Mayan world, associated with sacrifice and Maya deities such as the rain god Chaak.

Impervious to the effects of chemical or physical weathering, Maya blue was applied to pottery, sculpture and murals of Mesoamerica largely during the Classic and Postclassic periods (AD 250-1520), playing a central role in ancient Maya religious practice. It was also coated the victims of human sacrifice and the altars on which they were killed.

According to Past Horizons:

Scientists have already discovered that it is produced by chemically binding indigo to the clay mineral palygorskite by carefully controlled heating, though it is still not absolutely clear exactly how the Maya actually made it.  

However, science and anthropology teamed up to solve another question concerning the brilliantly hued pigment and the researchers have established a link between contemporary indigenous knowledge and the ancient sources of the mineral.

Research on sources for palygorskite has been ongoing since the late 1960s. It was recently discovered that palygorskite was well known among indigenous potters of Ticul, Yucatán. These contemporary Maya use palygorskite as a key component of their own pottery production as a temper and also prescribe the mineral for medicinal purposes for intestinal problems.

Click here for the complete article.

Genes Reveal Prehistoric African Migration

Stone art depiction of Africans migrating.

Researchers have uncovered the first genetic evidence for prehistoric gene flow between Africa and Europe, as far back as 11,000 years ago. This evidence predates better known migrations between Africa and Europe during the Roman Empire, Arab conquest and the slave trade.

To trace human ancestry, scientists study the DNA sequence of the mitochondria, a specialized cellular structure that produces energy for the cell and carries genetic information separate from the rest of the genome that resides in the nucleus. While the nuclear genome is a mix of genetic information from both mother and father, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed directly from mother to child without any contribution of DNA from the father. Geneticists can use these changes as markers that indicate the movements and migrations of humans in the past, and classify them into specific "haplogroups."

According to Genome Research:

"It was very surprising to find that more than 35 percent of the sub-Saharan lineages in Europe arrived during a period that ranged from more than 11,000 years ago to the Roman Empire times," said Dr. Antonio Salas of the University of Santiago de Compostela and senior author of the study. The other 65 percent of European haplogroup L lineages arrived in more recent times.

The authors explain that these contacts likely connected sub-Saharan Africa to Europe not only via North Africa, but also directly by coastal routes. Salas said it remains unknown why there was genetic flow between the Africa and Europe in prehistoric times, but one possible scenario is that some bidirectional flow was promoted when the last glaciation pushed some Europeans southward, until the glacier receded and populations returned north.

 Click here for the complete article.