Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Thompson
Date: 18 Sep 24 - 07:18 AM

All we know is they were able to speak
Really, someone should tell the Neanderthal people who model for those photos to comb their hair!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 24 - 07:58 AM

right on!

checking out a site I bookmarked sometime back & forgot about - it's too interesting to ignore

17th c. gallows yields bone pits, revenant and suicide burials

Dig uncovers 200-year-old message in a bottle from archaeologist it was written in 1825.

Edfu temple restoration reveals original inscriptions, colors, gold

Brain and skin remains found in Bronze Age burials

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 24 - 12:57 PM

I've started reading a book called So Much Stuff by Chip Colwell, and it begins with an analysis of creatures around the world using tools, either opportunistic or crafted, and then into the wide range of humanoid ancestors over the last seven million years and their stone cutting tools. He has references and notes and citations, and from where I am in chapter one I can project that he will soon be talking about modern era archaeology and our looking back at what our ancestors chose to carry around and keep. (I think I bought this via Bookfinder.com, and though Amazon owns Bookfinder, you can still find new and used books much cheaper there because they have charity shop listings and such.)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Oct 24 - 08:49 AM

Archaeologists discover 12 skeletons at a buried tomb in Petra, Jordan

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Oct 24 - 10:19 AM

thanks for posting the story

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Oct 24 - 08:42 AM

Not a new discovery, but fascinating link to Neolithic sites in Scotland

Skara Brae

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 24 - 06:01 AM

Here is the best discussion of the current state of archeology I have heard in a long time. Enjoy in two or three sittings, it is very inclusive.   Ed Barnhardt with Lex Fridman
source
https://youtu.be/AzzE7GOvYz8

While Egypt has 140 pyramids the Americas have thousands.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Nov 24 - 05:18 AM

Sacred Tunic of Alexander the Great Found in an Ancient Macedonian Tomb? ... The team of archaeologists uncovered a cotton textile dyed in purple that aligns with ancient accounts of the sarapis, a ceremonial garment worn by Persian kings, which Alexander adopted after his victory over Darius III ...

New Clues Finally Unravel Mysteries Surrounding Christopher Columbus’ Origins and Remains

Maya Storm God Huracán Taught That When We Damage Nature, We Damage Ourselves

Cannibalized Sailor From Doomed Arctic Expedition Identified Through a DNA ... While the wrecks were only recently found, the remains of crew members were discovered much earlier on the southwest coast of King William Island in Nunavut. Search teams came across boats tied to large sleds, seemingly in preparation for a journey toward the Back River ... Fitzjames is the second crew member to be positively identified. The first was John Gregory, an engineer on the Erebus, whose skull yielded a DNA match in 2021 ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 24 - 04:42 PM

Pompeii's diversity shown in DNA results.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Dec 24 - 06:19 PM

I also posted this on the "D'ye Ken John Peel" thread as one of the coffins held the remains of John Woodcock Graves, author of the song.

Archaeologists complete largest mass exhumation in Australian history from old cemetery under The Hutchins School

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Dec 24 - 03:14 PM

What I call the Los Vegas of ancient EGYPT was Canopus. It was a diverse wild Greek, Roman, and Egyptian sacred city. Over time the land around Canopus was weakened by a combination of earthquakes, tsunamis and rising sea levels. The eastern suburbs succumbed to liquefaction of the soil. The western suburbs eventually became the present day Egyptian coastal city of Abu Qir. The city survived through the reign of Cleopatra but its demise was sudden enough to leave nearly all the artifacts intact despite the disruption of being underwater. It is a wet Pompeii in some ways. It was a fashionable place of hedonism and healing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Dec 24 - 11:51 AM

You should have pulled up a couple of links. Canopus looks interesting.

An article from MIT.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Jan 25 - 08:47 PM

A look at the newly-restored Notre-Dame Cathedral mentioned the sarcophagus so I went looking for more info

Archaeologists unearth Sarcophagus beneath Notre Dame Cathedral

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 12:15 AM

The Notre-Dame Cathedral cleans up nicely, doesn't it? Comparing photos of the cathedral before with all of the black smoke stains till now is remarkable.

That lead sarcophagus has been featured on a couple of programs I've seen recently. All of the stuff going on in nooks and crannies and under the floors is equally interesting.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 08:39 AM

One of my other interests is the history of costume, & in the 60s/70s an amazing researcher took patterns from surviving garments, including those European Royalty & nobility were buried in, see volume 3 - Janet Arnold Patterns of Fashion series Parts of the tomb clothing had rotted over the centuries.

here's one of the garments she measured - scroll down to "Die gruftigsten Klamotten" (Dorothea Sabina von Nuremberg)

Others researchers also did so, but I didn't have their books.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 12:03 PM

I just ran that book title/author past my daughter who makes historic garments for SCA and activities at the art museum where she is the librarian. Her texted answer is "Hah yes, I have a couple of her books at home and all of them at work." When she was learning how to make some of the garments they used for anime and other events she would put some pretty obscure and often quite expensive books on her Amazon or other wish list. I may have purchased one for her and don't remember it. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 05:06 PM

I had 4 of her books & they went last year when I downsized my Historic Costume collection. Some of our historic & colonial dancers make & wear perfectly authentic costumes & 4 of them went up & down my stairs removing my books! One looked at the Ladies of Fashion (17 dolls, 1066-1911) & said she'd take them & her daughter collects bears. Dolls & bears are still here but they have a home!

Other collections of course are still here ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Helen
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 06:06 PM

This is a bit of a stretch for archaeology but, it's an interesting historical concept with links to the modern technological world.

When I was a librarian I saw a book in the collection, Card Weaving by Candace Crockett. I ordered a copy for myself and played around with various projects over a number of years. I bought two other books as well: Introducing Tablet Weaving, by Eileen Bird, and The Techniques of Tablet Weaving by Peter Collingwood.

A history of card weaving

There is a lot of archaeological history behind card or tablet weaving dating back at least as far as Ancient Egypt or the Bronze Age. You can do an internet search for images of some of the woven patterns, and some patterns are available to download.

Even more interesting is the link to a key idea in computing technology, i.e. punch cards which can be linked also to Joseph Marie Jacquard's brilliant concept of punched weaving cards on mechanical and then electrified looms in France. The punch card concept, based on binary 1's and 0's was used in the development of the Enigma machine. I also learned about punch cards in my librarian course because libraries previously used them too.

A couple of years ago I saw a documentary on the development of computer technology which probably owes a lot to the punch card system. Coincidentally, after emailing some information to my family about it, that very night another documentary showed the Jacquard weaving innovation and referred to the link to computer technology.

If you are wondering why I sent the info to my family, my adult nephew who has two school-age sons, was sitting at the Christmas lunch table trying to get one of those bracelet making gadgets to work, with little coloured rubber bands. It looked a bit fiddly and I was reminded of the card weaving and how easy it was, after understanding the concept and after I created the cards.

I told the family all about card weaving and offered to lend the books and cards to my nephew so that he could try it out. He is a computer engineer by trade, so it seemed like a good fit to me.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 25 - 07:27 PM

World's oldest cloth - 2010 article

Exploring the Oldest Fabrics in Existence

Scientists find evidence of humans making clothes 120,000 years ago

Textiles - Decay and preservation in Seventeenth-to Nineteenth- Century Burials in Finland

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jan 25 - 11:20 AM

My mom was an expert at the spinning wheel. I never got more than a foot or two of perfect yarn. It's really hard to do.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jan 25 - 11:34 AM

Those basic things our ancient ancestors developed that we still use - cooked food, clothing, shelter, art, and writing. All interesting subjects that archaeologists look for in their digs. Drop spindles for making thread and yarn are incredibly simple technology that may not be recognizable unless you're looking for them in a dig. Illustrated here - beads or ballast for a spindle? These Mysterious 12,000-Year-Old Pebbles May Be Early Evidence of Wheel-Like Tools, Archaeologists Say from Smithsonian late last year.

When I was an undergraduate back in the 1970s I house-sat for a friend who had a keeshond dog and a visiting friend told me she used that kind of dog hair in making wool, so for the couple of years I was there I took her bags of hair after brushing the dog. There was probably enough hair off that pooch to knit another dog. :)