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2007

December 30, 2007

Archeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of Mexico City that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.

Chinese archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient city in eastern Zhejiang Province, which could better prove the long history of Chinese civilization.

A buried cache of 10,000 ancient Chinese coins weighing 1.5 tons uncovered in Changzi County, north China's Shanxi Province

Archaeologist and author Michael Cremo, the king of alternative history.

Epic Flood Triggered Ancient "Big Chill, Study Says: An epic gush of fresh water into the North Atlantic slowed a deep ocean current and triggered a century-long chill in Europe and North America some 8,200 years ago.

Remains of ancient civilization discovered on the bottom of a lake: An international archeological expedition to Lake Issyk Kul, high in the Kyrgyz mountains, proves the existence of an advanced civilization 25 centuries ago, equal in development to the Hellenic civilizations of the northern coast of the Pontus Euxinus (Black Sea) and the Mediterranean coast of Egypt...

Easter Island Stone Heads Endangered:
Gigantic statues will vanish without preservation effort

December 18, 2007

Not exactly news - but a nice, long holiday read and a gift that keeps giving historians fits. ANCIENT ECONOMIES TOPIC V: The Argonaut Epos and Bronze Age Economic History. All that's missing under this tree (O.K. - under this mast) are references to actual board games. However, much is inferred and considerable information supplied. Portions of in this essay resonate with factors apparent in Peter Piccione's decipherment of Egyptian senet and Leslie Kurke's examination of the Greek "poelis" game - both of which augur distant elements related to the traditional relationship between Moorish "counting boards", chess, checkers and European forms of exchequership.

Tracing the origins of "Carolina Gold" rice...

Latest evidence for the explosion of a comet could explain sudden disappearance of Clovis point culture and indirectly support evidence of human habitation in North Carolina 50,000 years ago. But see, contra: Scientists give ice-age theory cold shoulder.

Giants: Myth or Realty? Okay, so it's from a UFO website, but it has some intriguing information and photographs.

The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the Austrian National Library's greatest treasures. The parchment scroll, made in the Middle Ages, is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire. The document, which is almost seven metres long, shows the network of main Roman roads from Spain to India.

Digging at Armageddon: "Tel Megiddo has been the subject of a number of decisive battles in ancient times (among the Egyptian, Hebrew and Assyrian peoples) and today it holds a venerated place in archaeology, explains site co-director and world-renowned archeologist Prof. Israel Finkelstein.

Chemists have confirmed something that archaeologists and art historians have long suspected: Ancient sculptures found in western Africa contain blood from ritual animal sacrifices in their patina.

Precursor of a Knight Chess Piece?

This nicely crafted copper-alloy Roman horse and rider figure, found in Cambridgeshire (2006-2007), is one of over 58,000 artifacts discovered during the past year by enthusiastic amateurs using metal detectors and/or amateur archaeologists in Great Britain (or uncovered by accident during construction and other types of digging) under a program instituted by the government in 1996 under the auspices of the British Museum. Information compiled from articles at The Daily Mail (scroll down) and BBC News Online.

No information was given about the dating of this horse and rider duo. "Roman" spans rather a large time frame, although since it was discovered in Great Britain, that narrows down the time considerably. However, there is something in these pieces vaguely reminiscent of the much earlier (and much finer) Scythian style - or perhaps Kushan style - that may date this prior to the first century BCE to fourth century CE. Notice the horse's mane gathered and tied - seems more in the Chinese style to us than the Roman style - but then, the tail is not cropped and tied.

Notice too, the "hollow" in the right hand of the rider, where the haft of a spear or some other kind of weapon was probably fitted. And in the left hand? It's unfortunately cut off, but perhaps he held a sword close to his left side.

The headdress of the rider is interesting. It doesn't seem Roman - they wore helmets. And the "collar" or"ruff" around the rider's neck - again, doesn't seem Roman, but Oriental.

December 9, 2007

Erichsen Collection Bequeathed to Stanford
Stanford has acquired the library of one of the foremost Egyptologists of the 20th century. The collection of Wolja Erichsen (1890-1966), now at Stanford's Green Library, documents more than 1,500 years of Egyptian history, ranging from about 650 B.C. to about A.D. 1000.

The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the Austrian National Library's greatest treasures. The parchment scroll, made in the Middle Ages, is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire. The document, which is almost seven metres long, shows the network of main Roman roads from Spain to India.

Shades of Graham Hancock! Smithsonian Magazine wonders, are the Ethiopians really the keepers of the Lost Ark of the Covenant?

Foundations and walls of Queen Helene of Adiabene's 1st century CE mansion believed to have been discovered in the "City of David" section of Jerusalem

Amateurs Unravel Russia’s Last Royal Mystery

Ancient Chinese Astronomy: New insights from old information

The Guennol Lioness

... was auctioned on December 5th, 2007 at Sotheby's New York and sold for 29 million pounds. Several press releases followed... one here

Only about 3 1/4 inches tall, the 5,000-year-old noble beast of white limestone was carved in ancient Mesopotamia, which now includes both Iran and Iraq. It was created around the time when the wheel was first being used, and dates back to the same era as the magnificent game boards recovered from the so-called "Royal Tombs of Ur." This piece was also excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley and subsequently sold to an antiquities dealer in New York in the early 1930's.

The artist created a diminutive queen who packs a giant punch with her human pose, paws grasped in front of her chest and her noble head turned over her very muscular left shoulder. Not discernible in this photograph, her tail wraps around her waist.

"The lion is a symbol of powerful forces in nature and it would mean it was owned by a figure of great importance," Richard Keresey, worldwide head of Sotheby's Antiquities department, said yesterday.

It was put up for sale by Alastair Bradley Martin, a New Yorker and a grandson of Henry Phipps, the steel magnate. Martin and his late, wife, Edith acquired the statue in 1948 and it has been on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art for nearly 60 years. The proceeds of sale will go to Martin's charitable foundation.