– Terrestrial Archaeology, Marine Archaeology & Astro-Archaeology – News Headlines Archive – October 2011 – new archaeological discoveries on land and underwater – with emphasis on the ancient sciences reflected in astro-archaeology and archaeoastronomy from new discoveries revealing its practice in ancient societies under ancient skies
The events of July 16th – 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 had a very dynamic history over the past 20,000 years or so and it is only from this wider solar system perspective that the true history of human civilisation can ever
be fully understood. Therefore, The Morien Institute archive contains information from many disciplines
some news sources require registration but this is usually free
“Based on new dating results, the tip of a bone point lodged within the rib bone of a mastodon excavated in the 1970’s near Manis, Washington, turns out to be about 13,800 years old, say scientists.
The finding suggests that hunters who killed the mastodon likely lived in North America before the traditionally accepted dawn of the ‘Clovis’ culture, thought previously by many scientists to be the earliest human culture established on the continent.
Dr. Carl Gustafson of Washington State University, the initial excavator of the mastodon remains more than three decades ago, concluded from radiocarbon dating of charcoal deposits around the remains that it was about 14,000 years old, a conclusion that has been a subject of considerable debate among scholarly critics.
Also controversial was his suggestion that the bone point found embedded in the rib bone was an early projectile point, similar to other bone projectile points found at other Paleo-indian sites.”
“By sailing to the New World, Christopher Columbus and the other explorers who followed may have set off a chain of events that cooled Europe’s climate for centuries.
The European conquest of the Americas decimated the people living there, leaving large areas of cleared land untended.
Trees that filled in this territory pulled billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, diminishing the heat-trapping capacity of the atmosphere and cooling climate, says Richard Nevle, a geochemist at Stanford University.
Tying together many different lines of evidence, Nevle estimated how much carbon all those new trees would have consumed. He says it was enough to account for most or all of the sudden drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide recorded in Antarctic ice during the 16th and 17th centuries.
This depletion of a key greenhouse gas, in turn, may have kicked off Europe’s so-called Little Ice Age, centuries of cooler temperatures that followed the Middle Ages.”
“A plaster covered structure, likely a ritual bath (or mikveh in Hebrew), dated to the Second Temple period (first century BCE-first century CE) was unearthed during an archaeological excavation near Kibbutz Zor’a in Israel.
Conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority in advance of plans by a company to install a water line at the location, the excavation uncovered a plaster-treated square structure with three walls designed to store water.
In a corner, a channel was installed anciently to drain the water into the associated ritual bath. Moreover, a plaster floor and three descending stairs were exposed.
A mikveh, or ritual bath, is a small pool-like structure that held water, used as a means of ritual purification in connection with religious practices or activity.”
“THE remains of a Neolithic stone circle that could rival the most impressive in Britain may have been found off the coast of Orkney. Archaeologists surveying the seabed near the island chain’s famous Ring of Brodgar believe they could have discovered an earlier version just 500 metres offshore from the major tourist attraction.
“Movie industry computer graphics and the very latest digital marine technology have brought the world’s oldest submerged city back to life in a BBC Two documentary due to be shown this Sunday (October 9) at 8 pm.
“Coincidence has always played a major role in discovering important archaeological sites.
Among such finds are King Tutankhamen’s tomb on Luxor’s west bank and the golden funerary treasure of King Khufu’s mother Queen Hetepheres on the Giza plateau.
Today, coincidence led to the discovery of an unidentified 26th Dynasty tomb in the Ain Shams area.
According to Atef Abul Dahab, head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities, the tomb was found during routine digging work in Mansheyet Al-Tahrir Street in Ain Shams to lay the foundations of a residential house.”
“A Chinese-Turkish exploration team from the Hong Kong-based Noah’s Ark Ministries International may have discovered Noah’s Ark underneath the glacier of famous Mt. Ararat in Turkey.
Some skeptics believe that the remains may be part of a human settlement, but experts say that there has never been a human settlement above 4,000 meters (12,000 ft) in the history of mankind.
Specimens taken from the boat they have found have a carbon date of 4,800, around the same time the ark is said to have been afloat.”
Academic archaeologists and historians are publicly confident that they understand most if not all aspects of prehistory. When and where the first settled communities appeared. When and where agriculture began. They paint a picture of a gradual development from small hunter-gather tribal groups to the eventual rise of the cities that were excavated over the last couple of centuries in the regions of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
But numerous discoveries being made all over the world are questioning established wisdom. The 11,000-year-old megalithic complex at Göbekli Tepe is just one of them …
Another mysterious ancient megalithic structure can be found underwater about half a mile off the coast of the southernmost Japanese island of Yonaguni-jima …
Only one thing is certain. Young people studying archaeology at universities around the world are building up massive debts while being taught totally inadequate and often completely nonsensical rubbish about prehistory …
a selection of books written by John Michell (1933-2010)
the greatest Platonist of the 20th century
