Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2

Subject: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 09:17 AM

I can't find the old one, even going back a year... I hope it's ok.
Anyway, here's a nice list of recent finds.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/art-archaeology-discoveries-2022/index.html

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 10:46 AM

Here it is. Do you want to go with this new thread or combine them?

I remember a few of these, but some are new. Nice year-end summary!

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 04:33 PM

Your choice...
Not sure why a year's update didn't find it...

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 05:48 PM

I was about to say: I suggest making this the new fork, as the old one causes my browser indigestion, and presumably much mewing at Max's end .... then I went to submit the reply, and the Cat had gone off for a brief nap. In the argot of the music-hall comedians: Badum, Tish.

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 07:29 PM

thanks for the link, Bill.

I'd prefer all posts in one thread, but if long threads are a problem, this new thread could have a link to the old thread posted above it, like other popular themes. A link inside a post will be lost.

When a decision is made, I'll post some more links I've collected

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Dec 22 - 07:30 PM

my fist attempt to post my reply was made during the catnap!

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: DaveRo
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 02:47 AM

MaJoC: don't you use one of the two 'paged' views:
Latest post at the bottom
Latest post at the top

See the 'how to' under Mudcat Time at the bottom of the index page.

I use the 'latest on top' for threads I follow.

The old title - Armchair Archeology was much better.

And I'll mention my Simple Linkifier which works with long URLs.

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Rain Dog
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 03:03 AM

The old title was called 'Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)'

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: DaveRo
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 04:59 AM

The armchair is the important bit ;)

Sandra should choose. She is the main poster - SRS is next.

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 08:49 AM

I bookmarked the (old) thread some time back, & also have bookmarked your Linkifier as The Guardian likes long URLs & I like their archaeology pages!

I would like all archaeology posts together, but as Stilly has to do the work, it's really her decision.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Rain Dog
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 09:00 AM

A related thread link to the previous thread would make a lot of sense, as you suggested Sandra.

It has been mentioned before that long threads do put a strain on the mudcat site.

Subject: RE: BS: New thread on archeology
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 08:25 PM

rename thread? - Armchair Archaeologist, part 2 & add Related link

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Dec 22 - 09:46 PM

I can fix the name. :)

"Armchair" seemed a natural because we can sit at our computers and pull up Google Earth and find these places. I've explored ancient wells in Croatia, Chinese dessert roads, spent tons of time poking around the pyramids and ruins in Egypt, and poked around the Middle East in general. All from the chair in my office.

Also, there are actual discoveries made by people who studied these online maps and noticed patterns or shadows that were remarkable and realized there was *something* there.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Dec 22 - 03:38 AM

great, mate!

are you able to put a related thread above our shiny new thread so enquiring minds can see where we've been?

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=163442&messages=461&page=1

meanwhile, here's a few articles I've been saving up - links crated using DaveRo's linkifier

Quarries, trade and Dark Emu: unearthing treasures from ‘Australia’s Silk Road’ Researchers continue the search for evidence of traditional Aboriginal food production.
In 2017, the Indigenous elder George Gorringe led a small research expedition in the Channel Country of south-west Queensland.
The expedition, on the traditional land of the Mithaka people, visited several sites including sandstone quarries, stone arrangements, and the remains of gunyahs – dwellings made from excavated structures covered with branches.
The region is archaeologically significant: the landscape has been dramatically altered by a huge network of quarries, which Mithaka people once used to make seed-grinding implements (read on)
===========
shock! horror! Iconic 30000-Year-Old Ancient Female Dubbed “Dangerous Pornography” By Facebook (2018)
==============
New evidence of a Roman road in the Venice Lagoon (Italy) based on high resolution seafloor reconstruction

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Dec 22 - 06:08 AM

As an aside, it's nice to see "archaeology," not "archeology." I love most American spellings and am a doughty defender thereof, but that one always looks like a mistake to me!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Dec 22 - 12:46 PM

Just in time for news out of Nazca, Peru

Archaeologists Uncover Nearly 170 Nazca Lines Dating Back About 2,000 Years in Peru

Following the discovery of an enormous lounging cat in 2020, archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of additional geoglyphs on the Nazca Lines site in Peru. A team from Yamagata University has spent nearly a decade at the location 250 miles south of Lima, and a field study between June 2019 and February 2020 unveiled 168 previously hidden works. Spotted in aerial photos captured by drones, the drawings feature myriad creatures like birds, snakes, orcas, and people likely created between 100 B.C. and 300 A.D.

Researchers believe there are two types of geoglyphs on the Nazca Pampa, a linear and relief, although only five documented during this mission are linear. Prehistoric populations created the works by removing darker stones from the earth’s surface to reveal the lighter sand below, and the renderings are thought to be part of spiritual, astronomical rituals. Spreading across 170 square miles, the Nazca lines vary in size, although most are smaller than 30 feet in diameter.

Archaeologists have spotted 358 geoglyphs at the UNESCO World Heritage site so far, which is currently being studied to see how the works are distributed across the area. (via ArtNet)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Dec 22 - 10:28 AM

To Save a Ruin, Send in the Sheep
The archaeological park of Pompeii has found a low-tech way to prevent the site from being overrun by vegetation: hungry sheep.

In recent years, the vast archaeological park of Pompeii, a city buried alive by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, has turned to high-tech options to maintain its excavated ruins. A surveillance drone makes a monthly flight over the site’s roughly 10,000 exhumed rooms. Artificial intelligence programs analyze aerial images for new cracks, fallen stones and other signs of erosion. But to prevent the third of the park that remains hidden under pumice and meters of earth from becoming overgrown with thorn bushes, wild hedges and trees, Pompeii has found a more appropriately ancient, and inexpensive, solution in hungry sheep.

Without the sheep “you’d have some kind of jungle that would invade the archaeological structures and the site,” said Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the park’s director. He said that he came up with the idea of bringing in the sheep after seeing them maintain the land on top of dikes in the North Sea, and said that the Pompeii sheep would chomp down invasive vegetation, destructive roots and wild terrains that could lead to the city’s reburial under landslides.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Dec 22 - 09:11 PM

Scientists claim first discovery of mammal eaten by dinosaur Paleontologists say they have identified foot of mouse-sized mammal in fossilised rib cage of predatory microraptor

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Dec 22 - 03:54 PM

Archaeologists have linked Graham Hancock's claims to "racist" and "white supremacist" ideologies from the 19th century, which they say are insulting to the ancestors of indigenous peoples who built the monuments. A Maltese archaeologist who appeared in the episode said that her interview had been manipulated. The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) objected to the classification of the series as a documentary and requested that Netflix reclassify it as science fiction. The SAA also stated that the series repeatedly and vigorously dismisses archaeologists and the practice of archaeology with aggressive rhetoric, willfully seeking to cause harm to our membership and our profession in the public eye; ... the theory it presents has a long-standing association with racist, white supremacist ideologies; does injustice to Indigenous peoples; and emboldens extremists.

While it is true Graham is a polemicist and media hound much like Michiu Kaku or Professor Dyson I think a prehistoric advanced building civilization is a 'holy grail' worth searching for that existed prior to the latest ice age. The ancient Egyptians called these people the Zep Tepi. It is also true That Hitler and Himmler did search for some archeological evidence of a master race but that is certainly not what Hancock wishes to do.

In short we shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Dec 22 - 04:30 PM

What do/did Donna Haraway or Annette Kolodny think of him? I'd trust their opinions.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Dec 22 - 08:27 AM

Young Sudanese archaeologists dig up history as ‘west knows best’ era ends On a continent that has long attracted western expeditions, a wave of young people are now exploring sites.
A late morning in Khartoum. Inside a low, dusty building in the centre of the Sudanese capital, there are crates of artefacts, a 7ft replica of a 2,000-year-old stone statue of a Nubian god, and students rushing through the corridors. Outside is noisy traffic, blinding sunlight and both branches of the Nile.

Heading down one staircase are Sabrine Jamal, Nadia Musa, Athar Bela and Sabrine al-Sadiq, all studying archaeology at Khartoum University. Not one of them is older than 24 and they see themselves as pioneers, breaking new ground on a continent that has long attracted western expeditions, specialists and adventurers but whose own archaeologists have received less attention overseas.

“It is very important that Africans do African archaeology … because then we will have our own archaeological cultures. There is a lot we understand because we are from here. The idea that people from the west know best is changing,” said Sadiq.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Dec 22 - 07:36 AM

Eight Historic Lies about the Ancient World that will Blow Your Mind

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Jan 23 - 07:40 PM

I haven't tried this yet, but here is a link to, of all people, Martha Stewart, about You Can Now Use Google Maps' Street View to Travel Back in Time—Here's How to Use the Interactive Feature. While it isn't archaeology or ancient history, it is another hole we can dive down exploring places included in this feature.

If you've ever used the tool to view your own home, you know that Google updates these photos regularly. Now, the technology company is using its database of street level photography to allow users to see what a particular area looked like years ago, according to a report by Wired.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jan 23 - 10:59 AM

Material Evidence of Silk Road Found In Israel

A joint team from the Israel Antiquities Authority, Ben-Gurion University, Hildebrandt of Göttingen University, and Nofar Shamir of Haifa University, have uncovered cotton and silk fabrics that date from the Early Islamic Period, which were imported from India and China around 1,300-years-ago along the Silk Road.

The Silk Road was a network of trade routes for exotic goods, which derives its name from the highly lucrative trade of silk textiles. During its 1,500 years of existence, the Silk Road endured the rise and fall of numerous empires, and major events such as the Black Death and the Mongol conquests.

The researchers have been excavating rubbish deposits in the Aravah that date back to the late 17th century AD. Excavations uncovered a treasure trove of finds, including fabrics, clothing, and leather, preserved in the arid climate that reveals new insights into the material culture and the daily lives of the people that inhabited the region.

Previous excavations also revealed decorative fabrics from India and silk from China, in which a Carbon-14 analysis has dated to between the 7th to 8th century AD. The archaeologists suggest that the cotton fabrics probably came from India and Nubia, and that the silk fabrics provide strong evidence for trade with China.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Jan 23 - 02:07 AM

‘3D medieval puzzle’: Newport ship to be reassembled from 2,500 pieces of timber Oak and beech 15th-century vessel is being returned to Welsh city where it was found in riverside mud in 2002 ...

The ship was a three-masted craft measuring more than 30 metres in length and capable of carrying about 200 tonnes of cargo. Examination of the artefacts found onboard suggests it probably sailed the Lisbon to Bristol trade route.
Through the study of tree-ring data, it has been concluded that the trees used to construct the ship were felled around 1449 in the Basque Country. It was brought to Newport for repairs or refit in about 1469 but was taken to bits after being damaged when a cradle supporting it collapsed and it did not sail again.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 09:29 AM

This is not the time to visit Machu Pichu.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64037002

Friends made it to Peru only 2 weeks ago and were OK but now its a mess.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 09:55 AM

btw my childhood hometown was named after the American discoverer of Machu Pichu. Binghamton

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 06:13 PM

Digital scan unwraps secrets of mummy from 2,300 years ago Team at Cairo University conclude teenager was rich and he may point to evidence non-Egyptians were mummified
Matthew Weaver
Tue 24 Jan 2023 16.15 AEDT

A new digital scan has revealed intimate details about a teenage boy who was mummified about 2,300 years ago.

A team of scientists led by Sahar Saleem, a professor of radiology at the faculty of medicine at Cairo University, concluded that the boy and his family were rich and of high social status because his body was adorned with 49 precious amulets.

Saleem said: “Many were made of gold, while some were made of semi-precious stones, fired clay or faience. Their purpose was to protect the body and give it vitality in the afterlife.”

The team dubbed the mummy the Golden Boy. He was first discovered in 1916 at a cemetery used from 332BC to 30BC in Nag el-Hassay in southern Egypt. Until now it had been stored unexamined in the basement of Cairo’s Egyptian museum. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 07:36 PM

Modern mummification is more complex than the Egyptian book of the dead.
https://patents.google.com/patent/CA1087101A/en

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 08:32 PM

One of those intimate details is that the lad wasn't circumcised! Speculation is rife!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 01:39 PM

LIDAR discoveries and speculations

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 04:11 PM

‘Incredible’ Roman bathers’ gems lost 2,000 years ago found near Hadrian’s Wall Intricately carved stones that fell down drain at ancient pool uncovered by archaeologists in Carlisle

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 23 - 03:27 PM

Not archaeology, but you can still travel to Mauritius on your map and look around.

Resurrecting the Dodo: How Scientists Plan to De-Extinct an Iconic Species
The dodo's demise was caused by humans. Now scientists think they can bring the bird back. But should they?

The wildlife of Mauritius, a tropical island in the Indian Ocean just 500 miles east of Madagascar, could not have known the giant shadows cast across the bay in 1598 would signal their doom. The fleet of Dutch ships was akin to the Chicxulub asteroid that had arrived in the Yucatan peninsula some 66 million years earlier.

That rogue rock ended the reign of the dinosaurs in dramatic fashion. The threat posed to their modern-day relatives — creatures like the blue pigeon, the scops owl and the broad-billed parrot — by the Dutch fleet was much more insidious. It wasn't an explosive end. It was a slow burn: The sailors who colonized the island destroyed the natural habitat and introduced alien species like rats, pigs and monkeys, pests that could outcompete the island's native residents for resources.

Some species disappeared before anyone even noticed.

The most enduring emblem of the island's extinct species is, without doubt, the dodo (Raphus cucullatus). It was wiped out no more than a century after the Dutch arrived.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jan 23 - 05:46 PM

Metal detectorist unearths Tudor gold pendant linked to Henry VIII in Warwickshire ... What the Birmingham cafe owner had discovered was a huge and quite spectacular early Tudor pendant and chain, made in gold and enamel and bearing the initials and symbols of Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon.

When Rachel King, curator of Renaissance Europe at the British Museum, first heard about the discovery, she had to sit down. Nothing of this size and importance from the Renaissance period had been found in Britain for more than 25 years, she said.

The heart-shaped pendant, attached to a chain of 75 links and made of 300 grams of 24-carat gold, is decorated with a bush bearing the Tudor rose and a pomegranate, Katherine’s symbol, and on the reverse the initials H and K. Ribbon motifs carry the legend TOVS and IORS, which King called “a beautiful early English Franglais pun” on the French word “toujours” and “all yours” ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Jan 23 - 06:04 PM

It is not that the Dutch found Dodo indescribably delicious it was that the ground nesting bird became prey to the rats the Dutch inadvertently brought.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 23 - 09:43 PM

See if this opens.

Wall Street Journal Vast Maya Kingdom Is Revealed in Guatemalan Jungle
Archaeologists identify a sprawling network of ancient ruins using laser mapping technology

The WSJ has a robust paywall.

Airborn laser mapping technology was used in this project. (Lidar)

Nestled in the jungle of northern Guatemala, a vast network of interconnected Maya settlements built millennia ago has been mapped in unprecedented detail.

The civilization featured towering pyramids, palaces, terraces, ball courts and reservoirs connected by a sprawling web of causeways, an international group of archaeologists reported during a presentation at Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala City this month.

Their findings reveal a “level of infrastructure that is just mind-boggling,” said Dr. Timothy Beach, a professor of geography at the University of Texas at Austin who wasn’t involved in the research.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/lidar-analyses-in-the-contiguous-miradorcalakmul-karst-basin-guatemala-an-introduction-to-new-perspectives-on-regional-early-maya-socioeconomic-and-political-organization/31075DFA8ADBAA5E7C7320CA6DB93E5E really long file and link to the original paper.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Feb 23 - 04:40 PM

Embalming recipes used on Egyptian mummies at ancient workshop near pyramids decoded Researchers analysed embalming vessels found at a mummification workshop dated between 664 BC and 525 BC near the Saqqara pyramid
They found several different ingredients were used for different parts of the body
Some of the ingredients were sourced from as far away as South-East Asia

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 02:18 PM

I wish the artist had been told that the ancient Egyptians performing this work probably DIDN'T look like tall European men with really short hair, or that perhaps it was women who did some of this work.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 05:31 PM

I wonder how old the image is

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 02 Feb 23 - 07:33 PM

I remember reading an account of the time that stated that the Dodo was actually not that tasty, just easy to catch.

Robin

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 23 - 11:05 AM

The Oldest Door from the Association of English Cathedrals (link to Facebook page)

The oldest door. It has lasted pretty well.

Hidden away in Westminster Abbey is Britain's oldest door in the passage leading to the Chapter House.

Dated for the first time in 2005 by the process known as dendrochronology. It showed that the wood was felled after 1032 AD and that the door was constructed sometime in the 1050s. This was during the reign of King Edward the Confessor, who built the Norman Abbey which was consecrated in 1065.

The ring-pattern of the timber indicates that the tree grew in eastern England, most probably coming from the extensive woodland owned by the Abbey in this area, and possibly from Essex.

The door is made of five vertical oak planks held together with three horizontal battens and iron straps. Most unusually the battens are recessed into the planks so that the door is flush on both sides. Normally medieval doors have a flat front and the back has projecting ledges and braces. The construction of this door is unique and shows that it was intended to communicate between spaces of equal importance in the Abbey. But its original position is not known. The boards are from a single tree and rings on them show growth during the years from AD 924 to 1030. As the bark was trimmed when the planks were made into a door it means the exact year of felling cannot be known.

Source - Westminster Abbey

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Feb 23 - 04:46 PM

Half–bull, half-truth… How English archaeologist claimed credit for discovering home of the minotaur Oxford museum aims to ‘set the record straight’ about the discovery of Knossos Palace in Crete.
Sir Arthur Evans, the renowned English archaeologist, stands guilty of pouring concrete into what he claimed was the lost palace of Knossos on Crete, of spinning the story of the Labyrinth, and of cutting out the local man who first discovered the famous site.

Yet today he is widely admired in Greece, by contrast with Lord Elgin, the Scottish nobleman whose seizure of part of the Parthenon’s marble frieze has long branded him an enemy of Greek culture.
Knossos locator map

Now the full history of Knossos, reputed home of the minotaur – the half-man, half-bull monster of legend – is to be displayed for the first time in a major British exhibition. While it will acknowledge Evans’s positive legacy, it belatedly gives full recognition to Minos Kalokairinos, the Cretan businessman and scholar who originally found the famous ruins. (read On)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 09:52 AM

I haven't checked Sandra's link (the Grauniad web site gives my browser indigestion), but Sir Arthur Evans also did damage to the understanding of Linear B, by insisting it was a native Cretan language; such was his authority that nobody dare contradict him. Only in the 1940s, after Evans was long dead, did Alice Kober get hold of samples and start cracking Linear B from scratch; Michael Ventris then found it to be Greek after all.

Reference: Simon Singh: The Code Book, ch 5 ("The language barrier"). Read the whole saga (pp 217--242) for the connection with Bletchley Park.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 23 - 10:24 AM

That is a rather fraught story, isn't it? Thanks, Sandra!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Feb 23 - 07:12 AM

Such is the nature of the narcissist expert who claims the authority of the past and declares the impossibility of anything new. The enemy of discovery or invention is a bevy of Ph.D. status quo experts compared to open minded researchers.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Feb 23 - 04:40 PM

Discovery of 3m-year-old stone tools sparks prehistoric whodunnit Presence of teeth from extinct hominin challenges view that only members of Homo genus used complex tools.
The discovery of stone tools dating back nearly 3m years has raised questions about which hominin species was behind the ancient technology.

The artefacts, found at a site in Kenya, are thought to be the oldest known example of a specific set of stone tools used for butchery and pounding plant material. The emergence of the so-called Oldowan toolkit is viewed as a milestone in human evolution and was assumed to be an innovation of our ancestors.

However, the latest excavation revealed a pair of massive molars belonging to Paranthropus, a muscular-jawed hominin on a side branch of our evolutionary tree, alongside the tools. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Feb 23 - 04:51 PM

Paleo religion, acheo pharmacology and chromospectography to identify the residue in archeologic cups are subjects that you might expect I would broach.
Brian Muraresku wants to be very clear: the book 'immortality key' is not about psychedelics per say, nor has he tried them.. He’s referring to the concept of “dying before dying,” a mystical, near-death state spiritual experience.
-during a recent interview,
“Certainly, psychedelics seem to be an awfully fast-acting, reliable way to enter into that state—that state between life and death.
But it’s not the only one, and I want to be very, very clear about that.”

Still, “The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion With No Name” is kind of about psychedelics. The main thesis of Muraresku’s exceptional investigative work: the modern Eucharist is a placebo variation of a psychedelic brew that originally represented the body and blood of Christ, as was likely practiced during the secret Eleusinian Mysteries. Unlike other religions and mythologies (which acknowledge prior influences), Christian leaders have remained steadfast in the assertion that Christianity emerged whole-cloth as a unique (and, in the eyes of believers, true) faith.

That’s just not how religion works. Nothing is created in a vacuum.

What are the foundations of Western civilization to Christianity? The real lineage belongs to Greece. Muraresku, who holds a degree in Latin, Greek,and Sanskrit, spent 12 years investigating this book due to his longstanding love of the Classics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c-bWymbT04 This link is a discussion among classicists on the subject of psychedelics.

The shamanic journey is a religious experience that will expose most modern western concepts of God as ridiculous and replace them with mysteries that are profound..
Being an initiated enlightened person will make them an atheist to current western religion but replace that religion with a far more spiritual understanding.
The Dionysian journey and the Elesian mysteries are being found to be from 200 million year old fungi, like Ergot rye in which beer and wine were 'dosed' as well as with psilocybin mushrooms. The ancient Greeks h ad more experience and influence from an altered state of consciousness than mere imagination and curiosity. There is a certainty in discovering who you are in the shamanistic experience that without the experience a life is only half lived. It is the experience of the God within, which has nothing to do with an egotistical view. It is not just the Mayans but it is western civilization itself that has visionary roots going back to the ancient Greeks and perhaps the Egyptians. A way to see the difference between people who have had visionary experiences and those who have not
is to compare Carl Jung and all his works and Freud. Carl Jung spent an undocumented year in Taos where he discovered psilocybin and Freud
was hung up on cocaine.
Pre Greecian civilization that has known this transcendence go back as far as Gobekli Tepi which was not a farm or temple but may have been a a brewery that made beer with rye. Was it ergotized beer? Beer residue has been found.
THERE HAS ONLY BEEN A DECADE OF ARCHEOCHEMISTS LOOKING AT ANCIENT DENTAL CALCULUS TO SEE WHAT DIET WAS EATEN. Only a few dozen are doing research. It is a new window in the archeological spectrum.

more on Brian Muraresku and Dionysian sacrements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYQh1ZNkC70
At minimum, Brian has a hypothesis worth a second look.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Feb 23 - 04:15 PM

Myth-Busting Study Reveals Vikings Were More Genetically Diverse Than We Thought

Over a period of six years, the study authors sequenced the genomes of 442 Viking age skeletons, dating from 2400 BCE to 1600 AD. In doing so, they shed new light on the genetic origins of the Viking populace, while also revealing how different factions within the Viking world spread through Northern Europe.

“We found that Vikings weren't just Scandinavians in their genetic ancestry, as we analysed genetic influences in their DNA from Southern Europe and Asia which has never been contemplated before. Many Vikings have high levels of non-Scandinavian ancestry, both within and outside Scandinavia, which suggest ongoing gene flow across Europe,” explained study author Martin Sikora in a statement.

What it also suggests is that their women went along on the ships or they brought back women from other countries. At the very least.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Feb 23 - 04:24 PM

interesting article, thanks for posting it.

I wonder if the Hollywood Vikings will stay blond, or will diversity come into casting! And will audiences accept it?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Feb 23 - 04:31 PM

I knew I had a few interesting article just waiting to be posted - however these have been waiting for 12 months (well, 11 months & 3 weeks to be exact) I really must clear up my email drafts! Some are actually real emails addressed to someone, others are just info.

Has The “Red Bag” That Once Held Sir Walter Raleigh’s Decapitated Head Been Discovered At An Old Family Manor? ... But, But… How does leather transform into velvet?

Bedsheet Lovingly Embroidered With Hair Likely From A Severed Head

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Feb 23 - 05:33 PM

Discovery of 4,500-year-old palace in Iraq may hold key to ancient civilisation Sumerian Lord Palace of the Kings found in archeological collaboration with British Museum

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 23 - 10:33 PM

This is a baby in terms of history, but it's something a lot of people have probably wondered about. FBI records deepen mystery of dig for Civil War-era gold

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Feb 23 - 10:33 PM

There's a glitch right now and Mudcat isn't allowing for multiple paragraphs so I'll keep it all here. From the Seattle Times: Dennis Parada waged a legal battle to force the FBI to turn over records of its excavation in Dents Run, Pennsylvania, where local lore says an 1863 shipment of Union gold disappeared on its way to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. The FBI, which went to Dents Run after sophisticated testing suggested tons of gold might be buried there, has long insisted the dig came up empty.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Feb 23 - 02:22 AM

interesting story, thanks for posting it

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Feb 23 - 05:11 AM

It’s not a darning tool, it’s a very naughty toy: Roman dildo found Two thousand-year-old object found at Roman fort in Northumberland in 1992 has been reassessed by archaeologists

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Feb 23 - 03:25 PM

India

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Feb 23 - 02:54 AM

Evidence of Bronze Age neurosurgery found in remains of wealthy brothers buried in Israel

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Feb 23 - 04:15 PM

Russian scientists dissect nearly 3,500-year-old bear discovered in Siberian permafrost A brown bear that lay almost perfectly preserved in the frozen wilds of eastern Siberia for almost 3,500 years has undergone an autopsy by a team of scientists after it was discovered by reindeer herders on a desolate island in the Arctic.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 23 - 10:22 PM

Bows Were Being Used in Europe 40,000 Years Earlier Than We Thought (here's part of the story)

A cave in southern France has revealed evidence of the first use of bows and arrows in Europe by modern humans some 54,000 years ago, far earlier than previously known. The research, published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, pushes back the age of archery in Europe by more than 40,000 years. The use of the bow-and-arrow in Africa has been documented to date back some 70,000 years. But the oldest previous evidence of archery in Europe was the discovery of bows and arrows in peat bogs of Northern Europe, notably Stellmoor in Germany, dating back 10,000 to 12,000 years.

The new research comes from the Mandrin rock shelter overlooking the middle valley of the Rhone River in southern France. The Grotte Mandrin site, which was first excavated in 1990, includes layer upon layer of archaeological remains dating back over 80,000 years. The researchers who conducted the latest study have documented previously that Neanderthals and their modern "cousins" – Homo sapiens – alternated in inhabiting the Mandrin cave. A level known as the "Layer E" has been attributed to the presence of Homo sapiens some 54,000 years ago and is interposed between layers of numerous Neanderthal occupations.

The researchers conducted a functional analysis of flint artifacts found in Layer E that were more finely executed than the points and blades in the layers above and below. Tiny flint points were the key because other elements of archery technology such as wood, fibers, leather, resins and sinew are perishable and rarely preserved in European Paleolithic sites.

The article is made of teeny-tiny single-sentence "paragraphs" combined here so it looks somewhat normal. The rest at the link.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Feb 23 - 06:50 PM

Modern and ancient simultaneously. Nashtifan, Iran: The Ancient Windmills That Have Stood the Test of Time

Deep in the desert of Iran, there is a small town called Nashtifan. What makes this town unique is that it is home to some of the world’s oldest windmills, dating back over a thousand years. These vertical-axis windmills, also known as panemone windmills, have been used for centuries to grind grain and pump water in the arid region.

Despite their age, the windmills in Nashtifan are still in use today. The locals have maintained and preserved the structures, recognizing their value not only as a piece of history, but as a crucial part of their daily lives. The windmills continue to harness the power of the wind to grind grain and pump water, just as they have done for centuries.

Don't ask how I landed on this - the serendipity of the Internet!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 23 - 06:17 AM

How an Unorthodox Scholar Uses Technology to Expose Biblical Forgeries Deciphering ancient texts with modern tools, Michael Langlois challenges what we know about the Dead Sea Scrolls

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 11:28 AM

There are 3 job openings at Vindolanda Trust in the UK for our readers in that area. In case you're interested!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Feb 23 - 04:24 PM

further to my post of 20 Feb 23 - 05:11 AM

It’s not a Roman dildo, it’s a drop spindle

Linsey Duncan-Pitt offers another explanation for the 2,000-year-old artefact that’s being touted as a sex toy

As an avid spinner of yarn who uses a drop spindle, a dildo was not the first explanation that came to mind when I perused your article and the accompanying image (It’s not a darning tool, it’s a very naughty toy: Roman dildo found, 20 February). The artefact looks very much like the dealgan or farsadh, a type of drop spindle.

The tip looks a little glans-like, but it is also like the notch at the pointed end of the dealgan, used to secure the spun fibre with a half-hitch. The spindle is then rotated to add twist to the drafted fibres, and the spun fibre is wound around the shaft. The base of the artefact is wider than the tapering shaft; that would help stop the fibre slipping off. Some dealgans have a notch on the base, but not all.

Given that it was found among other crafting materials, this would seem to be a much more feasible explanation for this object than a dildo. It’s a bit understated as a dildo, and would no doubt make for a more satisfying spin than anything else.

Modern spinners like me love a decorative and unusual spindle, and so it seems more logical that this was a cheeky Roman design.

Linsey Duncan-Pitt
Telford, Shropshire

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Antique French drop spindles see 3rd image

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Feb 23 - 04:48 PM

yet another interesting article - Australia's most intact Cooyoo australis fossil discovered in Richmond with specimen in its belly ... about 1.6 metres long ...

see also the pic of the 2.6m specimen!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Mar 23 - 04:56 PM

Scientists Map an Unexplored Corridor of Egypt's Great Pyramid Using Cosmic Rays
Thanks to cosmic rays, secrets of the last remaining Wonder of the Ancient World are being revealed.

The Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of Egypt's famous landmarks, has stood tall for around 4,500 years. But the 2 million blocks that make up the tomb and fortress have not been impenetrable. Looters robbed the structure of its ancient treasures thousands of years ago and scientists have probed its interiors either by studying its corridors or with more advanced measuring techniques like thermal scanners.

The structure still holds many secrets, but since 2015 an international team of scientists, the ScanPyramids team, has been using subatomic particles to probe the unknowns of the monument. In 2017, they revealed a huge void -- creatively dubbed the Big Void -- situated above the pyramid's gallery, though the purpose of this void remains unknown.

On Thursday, in a study published in the journal Nature Communications, the team characterizes the structure of this corridor by taking advantage of the cosmic rays that constantly smash into the Earth.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 09:44 AM

A tunnel is just now discovered behind the entrance to the Great Pyramid at Giza.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Mar 23 - 10:07 AM

"? Freud's mystic world of meaning needn't have us mystified
It's really very simple what the psyche tries to hide:
A thing is a phallic symbol if it's longer than it's wide
As the id goes marching on
Glory glory psychotherapy, glory glory sexuality
Glory glory now we can be free as the id goes marching on.?"

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Mar 23 - 02:03 AM

Well-preserved spices found in 500-year-old Gribshunden shipwreck in Baltic Sea off Sweden

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Raggytash
Date: 06 Mar 23 - 08:12 PM

Minature Sphinx found

An interesting article in yesterdays Guardian

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Mar 23 - 11:21 AM

Same basic story on CNN

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 01:00 PM

Roman ‘shrine’ found in Leicester Cathedral graveyard

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 01:02 PM

Ancient Restaurant Highlights Iraq's Archeology Renaissance

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 04:49 PM

Roman Shrine ... Continue reading Enjoy unlimited digital access. £1 for 6 months. (I do have an Australian £1 note!! My parents found it among stuff when they retired & moved out of Sydney in 1978, tho I don't think it could be used to subscribe, alas.)

Folktale becomes reality as Roman altar unearthed at Leicester Cathedral

thanks for the links, Bill

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 23 - 06:33 PM

I went elsewhere to find the story also: Roman shrine discovered near Leicester cathedral graveyard from BBC.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Mar 23 - 01:34 PM

sill more"https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/uk/roman-burial-garforth-scn-scli-gbr-intl/index.html

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 03:25 PM

ancient mudcat tavern

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Mar 23 - 06:03 PM

Western Australian archaeological project to connect 60,000 years of desert history Traditional owners and leading archaeologists hope a five-year exploration project will uncover a rich history and find connections between Aboriginal communities across a huge stretch of Western Australia.

Baiyungu elder Hazel Walgar said within her traditional land of the Ningaloo coast there was evidence of trade with groups from other parts of Australia.

"Artefacts from my traditional area, Ningaloo, are found in the Central Australia, artefacts like the marnargee, the baler shell, and we find cutting tools in our area that don't come from here," she said.

"Those artefacts come from inland, from Martu country ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 12:56 PM


‘The stuff was illegally dug up’: New York’s Met Museum sees reputation erode over collection practices
An investigation identified hundreds of artifacts linked to indicted or convicted traffickers. What does this mean for the future of museums?

In the village of Bungmati, Nepal, above an ancient spring, stand two stone shrines and a temple. On the side of one of those shrines is a large hole where a statue of Shreedhar Vishnu, the Hindu protector god, used to be.

Carved by master artisans nearly a thousand years ago, the sandstone relic was carefully tended and worshipped by local people. Sometime in the early 1980s that tradition abruptly ended when thieves removed the 20-inch statue. A Bungmati resident, Buddha Ratna Tuladhar, recalls how the community was “overwhelmed by melancholy” over its loss. “We kept hoping the statue would be restored, but it never was,” he said.

About a decade after the theft, and on the other side of the world, a wealthy American collector donated the statue to New York City’s celebrated Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it would remain for nearly 30 years, until an anonymous Facebook account called the Lost Arts of Nepal finally identified it, in 2021. Although the Met has since removed the statue from its publicly listed collection, signaling that it may soon be returned, the damage to the Bungmati community was already done.

“Nepal has a living religion where these idols are actively worshiped in temples. People pray to them and take them out during festivals for ceremonies,” said Roshan Mishra, a volunteer with the Nepal Heritage Recovery Campaign, a coalition formed to restore the country’s lost heritage. “When relics are stolen, those festivals stop. Each stolen statue erodes our culture. Our traditions fade and are eventually forgotten.”

In the antiquities trade, the Met’s reputation has also begun to erode. Over the last two years, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and its news media partners have reported on the Met’s acquisition practices – often in relation to a trove of items obtained from Cambodia in an era when that country’s cultural heritage was sold off wholesale to the highest bidder. A broader examination of the Met’s antiquities collection, conducted by ICIJ, Finance Uncovered, L’Espresso and other media partners over recent months, raises new concerns over the origin of the museum’s inventory of ancient statues, friezes and other relics.

New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in 1880, long after its counterparts in Paris and London. The museum started out with a purchase of 174 paintings, placing it far from the scale of France’s palatial Louvre’s galleries already holding thousands of works, many inherited from the nation’s colonial exploits.

The rest is at the link.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 05:40 PM

I read that article last night - very interesting! Very immoral, but only money counts (counted?) in acquisitions for this young institution.

... New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in 1880, long after it's counterparts in Paris and London ...

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 06:53 PM

The archaeological museum in Naples is stunning. But it contains many mosaics and frescoes hacked out of Roman ruins in the area. We visited two amazing Roman villas in the ancient Roman town of Stabiae, a few miles from Vesuvius (Pliny the Elder witnessed the eruption from there in 79 AD as the town was inundated by ash - he died there, though probably not from the eruption). As of 2013 when we visited, the villas had not been developed for tourism, though a local man gave the two of us a superb guided tour for a few euros. There were plenty of impressive artefacts, but achingly notable were the dozens of missing frescoes, just huge holes in the plaster left in the walls. There was no doubt that many of them ended up in museums.

And don't get me started on the Elgin Marbles.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 06:54 PM

Just noticed that that was post no.79 in the thread!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 07:55 PM

Private collections of billionaires would shock you.
Items naturally go to the highest bidders. What you can see in museums is often on a temporary loan privately or from another museum.
I could not say whose collection is larger, billionaires or all museums.

Questionable ownership is an ever-lasting tricky ethical conundrum.

10 years after the Nazi art theft many items ended up in fancy restaurants, not museums. Times are changing and slowly even the Smithsonian is repatriating some artifacts only after a big stink.
Museums that have obviously stolen art use methods to tie up an item until the true owners have died. Of course its a nasty business dealing with 'priceless' things.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:06 PM

Lets just look at new artifacts. Of the 270 Apollo 11 Moon rocks and the Apollo 17 Goodwill Moon Rocks that were given to the nations of the world by the Nixon Administration, approximately 180 are unaccounted for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_and_missing_Moon_rocks#:~:text=Of%20the%20270%20Apollo%2011,away%20in%20storage%20for%20decades.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:30 PM

Yup. :-(

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 04:02 AM

Spears stolen by Captain Cook from Kamay/Botany Bay in 1770 to be returned to traditional owners Held by Cambridge University for more than 250 years, the spears mark ‘first point in shared history’

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 11:26 AM

Souvenirs and graffiti. Both part of the experience of European travelers. Taking stuff and leaving a mark of our passing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Mar 23 - 12:58 PM

Yep. Some museums trouble me almost as much as zoos.