Terrestrial Archaeology, Marine Archaeology & Astro-Archaeology News Headlines Archive June 2012

The Morien Institute - The events of July 16th to 22nd 1994, when the remnants of a fragmenting comet, P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, bombarded the surface of Jupiter causing fireballs many times the size of our own planet, were an abrupt wake-up call even for those who were aware of them. The historical sciences generally, and archæology in particular, have collectively painted a picture of the past as if our planet stands alone in empty space. Nothing could be further from reality. Our resilient planet exists in a solar system that has experienced a very dynamic history over the past 20 to 30 millennia, and it is only from this wider solar system perspective that the true history of human civilisation will ever be fully understood. The Morien Institute archive therefore contains relevant material from many disciplines.

an image of a meteor flashing through the sky

Image of a revolving globe showing current sea levels since the last ice age, before which many ancient societies like Atlantis flourished all over planet Earth on what are now sunken lands.



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As we enter the 21st century technological advances are coming to the aid of ocean scientists of all descriptions. But it will likely be the Marine Archæologists, whose discoveries on the continental shelves that were once the coastal plains of the archaic world, that will most significantly change our picture of the past. We cannot go on thinking of the past from the scant knowledge available to us from excavations of the remains of ancient peoples discovered solely on the dry land we now live on.


This dry land comprises just 29% of the total surface area of our planet and the remaining 71% is currently ocean. Over the last 15 years or more The Morien Institute has been carefully documenting as much information about new discoveries underwater as we can find, and The Morien Institute Marine Archæology Archive gives just a glimpse of the many recent discoveries showing evidence of sometimes vast coastal settlements that were inundated by the seas in ancient times.


During the last Ice Age the sea-levels were some 300 feet lower than they are today, and a wide band either side of the equator enjoyed a pleasent enough climate for human civilisation to have flourished in many parts of the world. When the sea levels rose as the ice sheets melted many coastal settlements disappeared under the waves – forgotten except in the oral traditions of peoples in every land. These oral traditions represent an invaluable archive of knowledge from the archaic world, but they are almost always dismissed by academic archæologists and prehistorians who have traditionally regarded them simply as ‘quaint myths’ which they claimed have no bearing on reality.


But that is a very foolish perspective. The countless oral traditions of every ancient society that has ever developed on our planet must be preserved at all costs so that future peoples can study the wisdom of ancient peoples with an open mind that was sadly absent from 20th century academic thinking. These oral traditions are now acknowledged as being the invaluable “Indigenous Knowledge” of ancient peoples, and represent a collective understanding of the natural world that had developed through careful observation over countless millennia. Despite the scepticism expressed in academia, we cannot afford to let this ancient knowledge die away simply becasue the supposed “experts” of today cannot understand it.


Neither can we continue to look at the prehistory of human civilisation as if our planet somehow stands alone in empty space. Nothing could be further from reality. Our immediate solar system environment is more of a cosmic shooting gallery’ than a vast expanse of emptiness, and evidence is emerging which shows that the environmental impact of encounters with comets, asteroids and cometary debris has probably been responsible for the destruction of a number of ancient civilisations on many occasions in the prehistory of the archaic world over the past 15 to 20 millennia.


Throughout the last few hundred years, and quite probably before that, individual researchers ranging from the eccentric ‘Gentleman Antiquarians’ of the 17 & 1800s to the so-called ‘dissident professors’ of the 20th century have pursued lines of enquiry which has horrified general academia. These individuals were ridiculed and vociferously opposed by academic archæologists and prehistorians who had often invested a lifetime’s work in what the more honest amongst them might reluctantly admit in private company to have been a totally inaccurate view of human history.


Theories that many megalithic sites began life as some form of observatories acting as ‘early-warning systems’ for imminent impacts of cosmic debris from the break up of a giant comet have been emerging over the last 30 years or so,but are only just beginning to get a proper hearing. Such theories, if proven, could help not only to date these monuments, but would also illustrate how well their builders were oriented in time and space. The simple appreciation that the Earth orbited the Sun and periodically encountered streams of cometary debris suggests that ancient peoples may well have been far more aware of the position of the Earth in the solar system, and the dynamics of the solar system itself, than has previously been suspected.


Dr. Duncan Steel, then of Spaceguard Australia, presented a paper to the Society for Inter-Disciplinary Studies conference at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, in July of 1997, in which he gave details of his research suggesting that the earlier ‘henge circle’ which preceded the stone circles at Stonehenge could have been deliberately constructed to function as a ‘cosmic impact early warning system’.


His paper, “Before the Stones: Stonehenge I as a Cometary Catastrophe Predictor” is must reading for all serious students of ancient astronomy, astro-archæology and prehistory. The Cambridge Conference focussed primarily on the effects of natural catastrophes resulting from the impacts of cometary debris. These impacts were presented as being the likely causes of the sudden collapse, and in many case the total destruction, of various Bronze Age civilisations right across the so-called ‘fertile crescent’ from Greece and Anatolia through Mesopotamia and Afghanistan to Harrapan India.


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Morien Institute News Headlines Archive for
2012

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February |
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April |
May |
July |
August
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November |
December

2011 |
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2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000


Marine Archæology News Archive |
Astro-Archæology News Archive


Marine Archæology 2012 News |
Astro-Archæology 2012 News

 


Lunar Phases
 


 


Top June 2012 New Discoveries


“Bulgarian Archaeologists Stumble Upon Ancient Treasure in Sozopol”

   

“Archaeologist Finds Oldest Rock Art in Australia”

   

“Vietnamese archaeologists have doubts of 3,500-year toilet discovery”

   

“Massive Gold Trove Sparks Archeological Dispute”

   

“First Dairying in Sahara 7000 Years Ago”

   

“Archaeology journal says burial box of Jesus’ brother is genuine”

   

“Experts: terra cotta army was looted and burned”

   

“Ancient cave art could be Neanderthal’s”

   

“Experts unearth new terracotta warriors”

   

“Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones”

   

“Part of Persepolis sewage system unearthed”

   

“Scientists excited about US mammoth discovery”

   

“Arabian Gulf ‘has potential for discovery of ancient remains’”

   

“Stoneage Artists Created Prehistoric Movies”

   

“Archaeologists look for wrecks off Qatar coast”

   

“Israeli archaeologists find ancient Roman treasure”

   

“Ship’s exotic cargo may be pirates’ haul”

   

“Six ancient kilns discovered in north China”

   

“Oldest musical instruments discovered”

   

“Iberia’s oldest Jewish artefact unearthed in Messines”

   

“Burial site revealing ancient Egyptian funerary rites uncovered”

   

“The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project”

   


 


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News Headlines Digest
June 2012


“Mysterious Structures Found in Syrian Desert”

Discovery News (USA)


“Ancient treasure found in Azerbaijan’s Aghsu region”

APA (Azerbaijan)


“Pre-Inca Cinnabar Mine Discovered in Trujillo”

Peruvian Times (Peru)



“The cinnabar used by the Moche to paint tattoos on their skin some 1,600 years ago may have been mined locally, according to recent findings by archaeologist Regulo Franco.

In 2006, Franco and his archaeology team at the El Brujo site on Peru’s north coast discovered the tomb of the Señora de Cao, a young mother who was obviously a ruler, buried around A.D. 400 in 26 layers of fine cloth and flanked by carved spears and clubs as signs of power.

From pots found in the tomb, she is believed to have died after childbirth, possibly from eclampsia.

One of the unique features was that, besides being magnificently decorated in glittering nose rings, crowns and necklaces, her skin was delicately tattooed with drawings of snakes, fish and other figures, which led to her nickname of the Tattooed Lady.”


[Full Story]


“Mysterious Building — Older Than Pyramids?”

Discovery News (USA)


“New test from a Welsh cave confirms Britain’s oldest rock-art”

Stone Pages Archaeo News (Italy)


“Cow and woman found in Cambridgeshire Anglo-Saxon dig”

BBC News (UK)


“Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Ancient Thracian Cemetery on Highway Route”

Novinite (Bulgaria)


“Archaeologists Solve Mystery of Palmyra”

Sci-News (USA)


“King’s Lynn: Bronze Age burial pot find excites experts”

Lynn News (England)


“Pakistan: Buddha rock carving attacked by Taliban gets facelift”

Jagran Post (India)


“Guardians ransack ancient archaeological site”

UzNews (Uzbekistan)



“Bulgarian Archaeologists Stumble Upon Ancient Treasure in Sozopol”

Novinite (Bulgaria)


“Feds Seize Etruscan Jug at Toledo Museum of Art”

GalleristNY (USA)



“Archaeologist Finds Oldest Rock Art in Australia”

Sudan Vision (Sudan)



“An archaeologist says he found the oldest piece of rock art in Australia and one of the oldest in the world: an Aboriginal work created 28,000 years ago in an Outback cave.

The dating of one of the thousands of images in the Northern Territory rock shelter known as Nawarla Gabarnmang will be published in the next edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

University of Southern Queensland archaeologist Bryce Barker said Monday that he found the rock in June last year but only recently had it dated at New Zealand’s University of Waikato radiocarbon laboratory.”


[Full Story]



“Vietnamese archaeologists have doubts of 3,500-year toilet discovery”

VietNamNet Bridge (Viet Nam)


“Seventy Egyptian artefacts found in illegal possession are authenticated”

Ahram Online (Egypt)


“Mysterious Structure May Have Led to Ancient Artificial Island”

Live Science (USA)



“Massive Gold Trove Sparks Archeological Dispute”

Spiegel Online (Germany)


“Serbian archaeologists discover mammoth field containing at least five of the giant beasts”

Art Daily (USA)


“As crisis bites, illegal digs are on the rise”

eKathimerini (Greece)


“Roman coins find prompts dig to uncover Newton Abbot Roman settlement”

This Is South Devon (England)



“First Dairying in Sahara 7000 Years Ago”

Sci-News (USA)


“French cave paintings suggest ancient man was first cartoonist”

The Voice of Russia (Russia)



“French scientists have suggested a sensational hypothesis: according to archaeologist Marc Azéma from Toulouse University and artist Florent Rivère, prehistoric artists who painted on the walls of caves were the first animators.

Mark Azéma and Florent Rivère draw attention to the fact that the majority of petroglyphs depict animals in motion, and the researchers believe that the flickering light of the torches intended to create optical illusions for the audience.

They assert that their conclusions are based on the results of more than twenty years of study that have recently been systematized and published.”


[Full Story]


“Digging for tsunamis”

ABC Science News (Australia)



“Archaeology journal says burial box of Jesus’ brother is genuine”

Los Angeles Times (USA)



“Experts: terra cotta army was looted and burned”

China.org (China)


“Prehistoric crustaceans found in Lake Eyre”

ABC Bush Telegraph (Australia)


“Early Iron Age fashion from Denmark”

Past Horizons (UK)


“Luxor court sentences 11 people for stealing antiquities”

Egypt Independent (Egypt)



“Ancient cave art could be Neanderthal’s”

ABC Science News (Australia)


“German translates oldest known Hebrew”

The Local (Germany)



“Experts unearth new terracotta warriors”

Global Times (China)



“Experts have found more terracotta warriors and wares in a new round of archaeological excavation at the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s mausoleum, as well as evidence that the mausoleum was once set on fire, according to the site’s management authority.

The Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Emperor Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC) announced on Saturday that in the third round of excavation, archaeologists found more than 310 relics at the northern part of the No.1 pit, including 120 terracotta figurines and 12 horses.

New findings have shown that each terracotta figurine has its own facial expression. In another finding, the terracotta armor on the figurine of a general had been produced more intricately than those of other figurines.”


[Full Story]



“Scientists are accused of distorting theory of human evolution by misdating bones”

The Guardian (UK)



“Part of Persepolis sewage system unearthed”

Payvand (Iran)



“Scientists excited about US mammoth discovery”

PhysOrg (USA)


“Archeological excavations in West Kazakhstan region”

CaspioNet (Kazakhstan)


“BYU students excavating Fremont Indian village in Goshen”

Daily Herald (USA)



“Arabian Gulf ‘has potential for discovery of ancient remains’”

Gulf Times (Qatar)


“Learning more about the Middle Kingdom”

Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)


“2 arrested in Greece with ancient wreath, armband”

The Jakarta Post (Indonesia)


“Trafficking In Antiquities During A Time Of War – Analysis”

EurAsia Review (Spain)



“Stoneage Artists Created Prehistoric Movies”

Discovery News (USA)



“Archaeologists look for wrecks off Qatar coast”

Gulf Times (Qatar)


“King Meneptah’s stelae in Silsila is safe after theft attempt”

Ahram Online (Egypt)


“Should Cambodian ‘blood antiquities’ be returned?”

CNN (USA)



“The last time most New Yorkers focused on pillaged antiquities from Cambodia was likely after the release of the Angelina Jolie film ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’, which featured the heroine’s adventures through the country’s famous archaeological wonder, Angkor Wat.

Now, real ‘tomb raiding’ is making the news as the Cambodian government seeks to recover antiquities allegedly plundered from the kingdom’s ancient sites during its civil war, ethnic cleansing and foreign occupation.

At Cambodia’s request, the United States recently filed suit in U.S. District Court against Sotheby’s in New York, demanding that the auction house forfeit a sandstone warrior that was ‘illicitly removed’, according to the complaint, from a remote jungle temple.”


[Full Story]



“Israeli archaeologists find ancient Roman treasure”

Ha’aretz (Israel)


“Are you sure digging him up is a good idea? Vampire found with iron rod staked through chest!”

Malaysia Chronicle (Malaysia)



“Ship’s exotic cargo may be pirates’ haul”

Irish Times (Ireland)


“When you’re in a hole, stop digging!”

The Jerusalem Post (Israel)


“Archaeologists in Oban discover Bronze Age was height of cool”

The Scotsman (Scotland)



“Six ancient kilns discovered in north China”

XinhuaNet (China)


“Sierra Nevada 200-Year Megadroughts Confirmed”

Science Daily (USA)



“Oldest musical instruments discovered”

Cherwell Online (England)


“1,600-year-old mosaic at synagogue damaged”

The Times & Democrat (USA)


“Maya mural found: Refutes world’s end on 12/21/12”

IT-Wire (Australia)



“Iberia’s oldest Jewish artefact unearthed in Messines”

The Portugal News Online (Portugal)



“A team of German archaeologists unearthed an artefact believed to be the earliest known evidence of the Jewish culture un the Iberian Peninsular during an excavation in S.B. Messines, Silves.

The team from the University of Friedrich-Schiller in Jena, Germany found a marble plaque measuring 40cm by 60cm with the name ‘Yehiel’ inscribed as well as other letters that have not yet been deciphered. It is believed the artefact could be a funerary stone.

Radiocarbon dating of deer horns found next to the stone artefact gives a date of no later than 390AD.”



[Full Story]


“Elizabethan ship to be laid to rest in Stoney Cove”

The Hinckley Times (England)



“Burial site revealing ancient Egyptian funerary rites uncovered”

Ahram Online (Egypt)


“Veterans learn valuable job skills curating archaeological finds in north Old Town”

Alexandria Times (USA)


“Local communities help discover new Australian dinosaurs”

ABC Radio News – The Science Show (Australia)


“James ossuary collector sentenced to month in jail”

The Jerusalem Post (Israel)


“Stolen Pharaonic statue pieces seized in Giza”

Egypt Independent (Egypt)


“Guildhall event uncovers the story of largest Anglo-Saxon gold find”

This Is Bath (England)


“Ancient Egyptian Husband and Wife to Be Re-united at Brussels Ancient Art Fair”

San Fransisco Chronicle (USA)



“The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project”

Cardiff/Athens Universites (Cymru/Greece)



[In October 1900, Captain Dimitrious Kondos was leading a team of sponge divers near the the island of Antikythera off the coast of Greece. They noticed a shipwreck about 180 feet below the surface and began to investigate. Amongst the artifacts that they brought up was a coral-encrusted piece of metal that later archaeologists found was some sort of gear wheel.

The rest of the artifacts, along with the shape of the boat, suggested a date around 2000 years ago, which made the find one of the most anomalous that had ever been recovered from the Greek seas. It became known as The Antikythera Mechanism.

In 2006 the journal “Nature” published a letter, and another paper about the mechanism was published in 2008, detailing the findings of Prof. Mike G. Edmunds of Cardiff University. Using high-resolution X-ray tomography to study the fragments of the anomalous Antikythera Mechanism, they found that it was in fact a bronze mechanical analog computer that could be used to calculate the astronomical positions and various cycles of the Moon – as seen from the Earth: – Ed]



Part of the Antikythera Mechanism


an image of Part of the Antikythera Mechanism, which is also a clickable link directly to the Lichfield Blog story


Copyright © 2006
Antikythera Mechanism Research Project


“Antikythera Mechanism – World’s earliest existing analogue computer”

HotnHit News (India)


“Decoding an Ancient Computer: Greek Technology Tracked the Heavens”

Scientific American (USA)


“Watch a video explaining the Antikythera mechanism”

Nature (UK)


“World’s First Computer Rebuilt, Rebooted After 2,000 Years”

Wired Gadget Lab (USA)


“Antikythera: A 2,000-year-old Greek computer comes back to life”

The Guardian Science Blog (UK)


Google image search results for The Antikythera mechanism

Google (USA)

 




“Decoding the Heavens:
Solving the Mystery of the World’s First Computer”

by

Jo Marchant

William Heinemann Ltd



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“For more than a century this ‘Antikythera mechanism’ puzzled academics, but now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings.”




“Ancient Greek Computer from Rhodes: Known as the Antikythera Mechanism”

by

V. J. Kean



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“This is the true history of an astonishing machine during the time when the island of Rhodes was the centre of both cultural and intellectual activity within the Roman Empire.


Made on the island of Rhodes around 71BC, the computer was lost beneath the waves for almost 2000 years.”




“Gears from the Greeks: The Antikythera Mechanism, a Calendar Computer from Ca 80 B.C.”

by

Derek de Solla Price



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“The first great discovery in underwater archaeology yielded not only a fine collection of art treasures but also the most enigmatic, most complicated piece of scientific machinery known from antiquity.”




“The Works of Archimedes”

by

Archimedes

(Author)

&
Sir Thomas Heath
(Translator)



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“The complete works of antiquity’s great geometer appear here in a highly accessible English translation by a distinguished scholar.


Remarkable for his range of thought and his mastery of treatment, Archimedes addressed such topics as the famous problems of the ratio of the areas of a cylinder and an inscribed sphere; the measurement of a circle; the properties of conoids, spheroids, and spirals; and the quadrature of the parabola.


This edition offers an informative introduction with many valuable insights into the ancient mathematician’s life and thought as well as the views of his contemporaries. Modern mathematicians, physicists, science historians, and logicians will find this volume a source of timeless fascination. Unabridged reprint of the classic 1897 edition, with supplement of 1912.”




“Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe”

by

Nicholas Nicastro



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“Forget the myth of Columbus’ daring in imagining a round earth. Nicastro not only traces the conception of a spherical world back more than a millennium before the seafarer set sail but also recounts in fascinating detail how the ancient Greek geometer Eratosthenes measured that sphere with astonishing accuracy.”


Though it would be thousands of years before his feat received appropriate recognition, Eratosthenes conducted his revolutionary science with nothing more complex than a sundial and a compass.


With reader-friendly clarity, Nicastro explains the surprisingly simple calculations behind the earth measurement. But readers learn about much more than geodesy: Nicastro delivers the deeply human story of a multitalented genius whose tenure as the head of Alexandria’s famed library occasioned remarkable achievements in literature, history, linguistics, and philosophy despite the political turmoil that periodically rocked the Ptolemaic world.”

 


June 2012
Monthly Magazine Articles



“Animation in Palaeolithic art: a pre-echo of cinema”


Antiquity (UK)


“Taxonomy of the Extrasolar Planet”


Astrobiology (USA)


“From The Trenches: Drought Doomed Angkor?”


Archaeology Magazine (USA)


“No causal link between terrestrial ecosystem change and methane release during the end-Triassic mass extinction”


Geology (USA)


“Twilight of the gods? The ‘dust veil event’ of AD 536 in critical perspective”


Antiquity (UK)


“From The Trenches: Nothing New Under the Sun”


Archaeology Magazine (USA)


“Detection Technique for Artificially Illuminated Objects in the Outer Solar System and Beyond”


Astrobiology (USA)


“Megalithic monumentality in Africa: from graves to stone circles at Wanar, Senegal”


Antiquity (UK)


“Growth of subtropical forests in Miocene Europe: The roles of carbon dioxide and Antarctic ice volume”


Geology (USA)


“Games Ancient People Played – An intriguing discovery in a Mexican swamp …”

Archaeology Magazine (USA)


“Rediscovering the settlement system of the ‘Dian’ kingdom, in Bronze Age southern China”


Antiquity (UK)


“Early to middle Miocene monsoon climate in Australia: COMMENT”


Geology (USA)


“From The Trenches: The Perils of Interpretation”


Archaeology Magazine (USA)



Make All Online Science Journals Free For Students

 


Morien Institute News Headlines Archive for
2012

January |
February |
March |
April |
May |
July |
August
September |
October |
November |
December

2011 |
2010 |
2009 |
2008 |
2007 |
2006 |
2005 |
2004 |
2003 |
2002 |
2001 |
2000

 



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