History

[CaaC (John)]

The Mysterious Origins of the Handshake

Shaking hands seems like a gesture that has been around forever. Indeed, a throne base from the reign of ancient Assyria's Shalmaneser III in the 9th century BCE clearly shows two figures clasping hands. The Iliad, usually dated to the 8th century BCE, mentions that two characters “clasped each other's hands and pledged their faith.” Centuries later, Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It that two characters “shook hands and swore brothers.” It might seem like shaking hands is an ancient custom, the roots of which are lost to the sands of time.

Except.

Historians who have pored over old etiquette books have noticed that handshaking in the modern sense of a greeting doesn’t appear until the mid-19th century when it was considered a slightly improper gesture that should only be used with friends. But if Shakespeare was writing about shaking hands a few hundred years earlier, what happened?

Defining the Handshake

According to author Torbjörn Lundmark in his Tales of Hi and Bye: Greeting and Parting Rituals Around the World, the problem comes in differing definitions of the handshake. The early handshakes mentioned above were part of making deals or burying the hatchet; Shalmaneser III’s throne base references him honouring a treaty with the Babylonian king during a revolt. In the Iliad, Diomedes and Glaucus shook hands when they realized they were “guest-friends,” and Diomedes proclaimed “Let’s not try to kill each other.” Shakespeare was similarly referencing settlement of a conflict.

The modern handshake as a form of greeting is harder to trace. Traditionally, the origins are often given to the Quakers. But as Dutch sociologist Herman Roodenburg—the chief authority for the history of handshaking—wrote in a chapter of an anthology called A Cultural History of Gesture, “More than in any other field, that of the study of gesture is one in which the historian has to make the most of only a few clues” [PDF].

One of the earliest clues he cites is a 16th-century German translation of the French writer Rabelais’s Gargantua and Pantagruel. When one character meets Gargantua, Rabelais writes (in one modern English translation), “he was greeted with a thousand caresses, a thousand embraces, a thousand good-days.” But according to Roodenburg, the 16th-century German translation adds references to shaking hands. Roodenburg argues that if the translator adapted Rabelais to his audience, that’s an indication for an early handshaking tradition.

There's additional evidence for a handshaking tradition in that era: In 1607 the author James Cleland (believed to have been a Scotsman living in England) proclaimed that instead of things like bowing down to everyone’s shoes and kissing hands, he’d rather “retained our good olde Scottish shaking of the two right hands together at meeting with an uncovered head".

Handshaking—Back to the Future

A popular hypothesis suggests that Cleland’s statements against bowing were actually a wish to go back to a potentially very traditional (though poorly recorded) method of greeting in Europe. As the centuries progressed, handshaking was replaced by more ‘hierarchical’ ways of greeting—like bowing. According to Roodenburg, handshaking survived in a few niches, like in Dutch towns where they’d use the gesture to reconcile after disagreements. Around the same time, the Quakers—who valued equality—also made use of the handshake. Then, as the hierarchies of the continent weakened, the handshake re-emerged as a standard greeting among equals—the way it remains today.

Not everyone fell in love with the handshake, however. According to an article from December 1884, “the usage has found its way into other nations, but so contrary is it to their instinct, that, in France, for example, society has been recently formed to abolish ‘le shake-hands’ as a vulgar English innovation.”

As for why shaking hands was deemed a good method of greeting, rather than some other gesture, the most popular explanation is that it incapacitates the right hand, making it useless for weapon holding. In the 19th century, it was argued that shaking hands without removing gloves was quite rude and required an immediate apology. One 1870 text explains that this “idea would also seem to be an occult remnant of the old notion that the glove might conceal a weapon.”

Sadly, in a world where obscure Rabelais translations provide critical evidence, the true reason may remain forever elusive.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-mysterious-origins-of-the-handshake/ar-BBYx1QB

[CaaC (John)]

'The ghost of Manzanar': Japanese WW2 internee's body found in the US

A skeleton found in California last October has been identified as a Japanese-American artist who was held in a World War Two internment camp.

Giichi Matsumura had gone on a hike with fellow internees from the Manzanar internment camp for people of Japanese ancestry when he died in August 1945.

He left the group to paint the scene in solitude when a freak storm hit.

Mr Matsumura was given a sparse burial in the mountains, and details of his death were eventually lost to time.

But last year, he was rediscovered.

'The ghost of Manzanar'

Tyler Hofer and Brandon Follin were hiking near Mount Williamson when they came across an intact skeleton, partially covered by rocks.

According to Associated Press, the skeleton had a belt around the waist, leather shoes on the feet, and its arms were crossed over its chest.

Officers from Inyo County Sheriff's Office, the local police force, searched their records for missing person reports dating back decades and couldn't find anyone matching the description of the skeleton.

However, Mr Matsumura's story had been given renewed attention in 2012 when a documentary about the Manzanar camp came out. Although a segment about his death didn't make it into the final film, director Cory Shiozaki would talk about it at screenings.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

Hadrian's Wall fort gifted to England's historic sites collection

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A Roman fort at Hadrian’s Wall, in Northumberland, built around 122AD and which housed a garrison of 500 soldiers from Gaul, has been given to the nation.

English Heritage has announced that Carrawburgh Roman fort has joined sites such as Stonehenge, Tintagel castle, and Eltham Palace, in the national collection of historic sites and properties following its gift by a landowner.

Carrawburgh is one of 16 forts along Hadrian’s Wall, a boundary line that stretches 73 miles. It accommodated soldiers, first from the south-west of France and later southern Belgium, as part of the Roman effort to defend the imperial frontier and repel tribes from the north.

The fort sits between the Roman cavalry fort at Chesters and the infantry outpost at Housesteads. Nearby is a Roman temple built by the fort’s soldiers and dedicated to Mithras, an eastern god who, according to legend, captured and killed the primaeval bull in a cave.

Today sheep are more likely to be grazing on the grassy mounds which largely cover the remains of the 1.4 hectares (three and a half acre) fort. English Heritage said that compared to other sites on the wall Carrawburgh had undergone very little archaeological excavation, which meant it had many secrets and stories to be explored.

The site has been looked after by the family of Jennifer Du Cane since 1950. She said: “It has been a great privilege but also a serious responsibility to own Carrawburgh Roman fort. The time has come to pass on this amazing site as a gift to the nation.”

Carrawburgh is the first site of its type acquired by English Heritage since the body was made a charity by the government in 2015.

Kate Mavor, English Heritage’s chief executive, said: “This is a great start to the new year, not only for English Heritage but for the nation who will get to enjoy this wonderfully evocative site on what was once the edge of the Roman empire.”

Legal ownership of the site was transferred to Historic England, the government’s heritage advisor, and it will be cared for by English Heritage as part of the national heritage collection, which comprises about 420 sites, many free to enter, that together tell the story of England.

Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: “We are enormously grateful for this generous gift. Hadrian’s Wall is one of England’s most important historic sites and Carrawburgh makes a really valuable addition to our national collection of historic properties.

“The fort represents a key part of the Roman frontier and is of outstanding archaeological significance. It has the potential to contribute significantly to our knowledge of the Roman empire and to visitor enjoyment of the wall.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/hadrians-wall-fort-gifted-to-englands-historic-sites-collection/ar-BBYMaFg

[CaaC (John)]

'Extremely rare’ Assyrian carvings discovered in Iraq

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In the eighth century B.C., Assyrian King Sargon II ruled over a wealthy and powerful empire that included much of today’s Middle East and inspired fear among its neighbours. Now a team of Italian and Iraqi Kurdish archaeologists working in northern Iraq have uncovered ten stone reliefs that adorned a sophisticated canal system dug into the bedrock. The surprising find of such beautifully crafted carvings—typically found only in royal palaces—sheds light on the impressive public works supported by a leader better known for his military prowess.

“Assyrian rock reliefs are extremely rare monuments,” said Daniele Morandi Bonacossi, an archaeologist at the Italy’s University of Udine, who co-led the recent expedition. With one exception, no such panels have been found in their original location since 1845. “And it is highly probable that more reliefs, and perhaps also monumental celebratory cuneiform inscriptions, are still buried under the soil debris that filled the canal.”

The site near the town of Faida, close to the border with Turkey, has been largely closed to researchers for a half-century due to modern conflict. In 1973 a British team noted the tops of three stone panels, but tensions between Kurds and the Baathist regime in Baghdad prevented further work. An expedition led by Morandi Bonacossi returned in 2012 and found six more reliefs. The subsequent invasion by ISIS again halted research efforts; the battle line between the Islamic State and Kurdish forces lay less than 20 miles away until the Muslim fundamentalists were defeated in 2017.

This past autumn, Morandi Bonacossi and Hasan Ahmed Qasim from Iraq Kurdistan’s Dohuk department of antiquities catalogued a total of ten reliefs set along the banks of an ancient four-mile-long canal. The scene they portray is unique, according to the Italian archaeologist.

The panels display a king—who the archaeologists believe is Sargon II—observing a procession of Assyrian gods, including the main deity Ashur riding on a dragon and a horned lion, with his consort Mullissu on a lion-supported throne. Among the other figures are Ishtar, goddess of love and war, the sun god Shamash, and Nabu, the god of wisdom. Archaeologists suspect that such images emphasized to passersby that fertility comes from the divine as well as earthly power.

“The reliefs suggest that politically charged scenes of royal power and its divine legitimacy might have been commonplace,” said Harvard University archaeologist Jason Ur, who is researching ancient water systems in the region. The discovery shows that these works of art were “not just in the imperial palaces but everywhere, even where farmers were extracting water from canals for their fields.” 

The canal skirts a nearby range of hills and was fed by limestone springs. Branches off the waterway provided extensive irrigation for barley, wheat, and other crops. The fields would have helped feed the 100,000 or more residents of Nineveh, then one of the largest cities in the world. The ruins of this vast metropolis lay some 60 miles to the south, across the Tigris River from today’s city of Mosul.

Sargon II ruled over what historians call the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which dominated the region from 911 B.C. until its destruction in 609 B.C. at the hands of Persians and Babylonians. As the first army to use iron weapons, the Assyrians developed advanced military techniques to overwhelm their enemies.

When Sargon seized the throne in 721 B.C., he immediately conquered the rebellious northern kingdom of Israel and forcibly relocated thousands of captives. The Bible mentions that he overwhelmed the coastal city of Ashdod, and archaeologists recently found a hastily built wall around the settlement that failed to ward off the threat. The southern kingdom of Judah avoided Israel’s fate by becoming a vassal state.

Sargon’s military victories continued across Anatolia and the western Iranian plateau. At home, he constructed a new capital outside Nineveh at Dur Sharrukin, which means “Sargon’s fortress,” but little else is known of his non-military exploits. The Faida panels, the archaeologists say, point to extensive royal support for improving lands near the Assyrian heartlands.

Sargon’s son Sennacherib expanded this network and built what may be the world’s oldest aqueduct, a structure crossing a river near Nineveh that employed stone arches and waterproof cement. “Over steep-sided valleys, I spanned an aqueduct of white limestone blocks; I made those waters flow over it,” he boasted in an inscription.

Oxford University archaeologist Stephanie Dalley has argued that the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon actually were built in Nineveh to take advantage of the plentiful water pumped into the city. Though that thesis is controversial, Ur and other researchers say that scholars have underestimated Assyrian technological expertise off the battlefield.

The expedition itself used advanced technologies, including laser scanning and digital photogrammetry, to record every detail of the stone panels and their context. A drone provided high-resolution aerial photos that will allow researchers to map the entire canal network.

But the precious remains of Sargon’s patronage are “strongly threatened by vandalism, illegal excavations, and the expansion of the nearby village,” warned Morandi Bonacossi. One of the reliefs, he added, was damaged by a would-be looter last May. Another panel was battered when a farmer expanded a stable. And in 2018 a modern aqueduct was cut through the ancient canal.

The ultimate goal, he said, is to create an archaeological park that includes other rock reliefs, and to win UNESCO World Heritage Site protection for the entire hydraulic system constructed by several Assyrian rulers a full five centuries before the Romans arrived.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/extremely-rare-assyrian-carvings-discovered-in-iraq/ar-BBZ4wKK

[CaaC (John)]

Mount Vesuvius eruption: Extreme heat 'turned man's brain to glass'

Extreme heat from the Mount Vesuvius eruption in Italy was so immense it turned one victim's brain into glass, a study has suggested.

The volcano erupted in 79 AD, killing thousands and destroying Roman settlements near modern-day Naples.

The town of Herculaneum was buried by volcanic matter, entombing some of its residents.

A team of researchers has been studying the remains of one victim, unearthed at the town in the 1960s.

A study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, said fragments of a glassy, black material were extracted from the victim's skull.

Researchers behind the study believe the black material is the vitrified remains of the man's brain.

Vitrification, the study says, is the process by which material is burned at high heat and cooled rapidly, turning it into glass or a glaze.

"The preservation of ancient brain remains is an extremely rare find," said Dr Pier Paola Petrone, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Naples Federico II and lead author of the study.

"This is the first-ever discovery of ancient human brain remains vitrified by heat."

The victim, believed to be a man in his mid-20s, was "found lying on a wooden bed, buried by volcanic ash" at Herculaneum. He was probably killed instantly by the eruption, Dr Petrone said.

Analysis of charred wood found near the body showed a maximum temperature of 520C was reached.

This suggests "extreme radiant heat was able to ignite body fat and vaporise soft tissues", before a "rapid drop in temperature", the report says.

"The detection of glassy material from the victim's head, of proteins expressed in the human brain, and of fatty acids found in human hair indicates the thermally induced preservation of vitrified human brain tissue," the study says.

The glassy material was not found in other locations at the archaeological site.

• Narcissus fresco uncovered by archaeologists in Pompeii
• Vesuvius eruption may have been later than thought
• Italy stops UK tourist with Pompeii mosaic tiles

During the eruption of Vesuvius, Herculaneum was buried by pyroclastic flows, fast-moving currents of rock fragments, ash and hot gases.

That volcanic matter carbonised and preserved parts of the town, including the skeletons of residents who were unable to flee.

Archaeologists have been investigating the remains of Herculaneum, and Pompeii - the other famous Roman settlement destroyed by Vesuvius - for centuries.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-51221334

[CaaC (John)]

Ship That Mysteriously Vanished in Bermuda Triangle Almost a Century Ago Discovered

The wreckage of a ship that mysteriously went missing in the Bermuda Triangle almost 100 years ago has been discovered off the coast of Florida, a team of researchers has said.

The SS Cotopaxi—an American merchant steamer—left Charleston, South Carolina on November 29, 1925, loaded with coal. But the vessel vanished without a trace before arriving at its final destination, Havana, Cuba.

The fate of the Cotopaxi and the 32 people on board has long puzzled experts, and the ship's disappearance has become one of the famous stories associated with the legend of the Triangle—a notorious region of the western North Atlantic Ocean where several ships and aircraft are said to have gone missing in strange circumstances.

"The Cotopaxi was on a routine voyage," marine biologist and underwater explorer Michael Barnette told Newsweek. "She was employed in the coal trade and so this was just another trip at the end of November of 1925. We know that on that voyage something happened because she delivered a mayday message early December saying she's in distress.

"And then that was it. They never found any wreckage. They never found any lifeboats, bodies or anything. The vessel just disappeared after that point. So we've been trying to determine what happened."

The story of the disappearance of the Cotopaxi has had a colourful past. Film director Steven Spielberg included the vessel in his sci-fi classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind, in which it was discovered in the Gobi Desert, having apparently been placed there by extraterrestrials. In 2015, a news report said the ship had reappeared near a restricted military zone off the coast of Cuba. Various versions of this story emerged in the years that followed. All have been dismissed as hoaxes, however.

Now, after almost a century of uncertainty and speculation, a more realistic explanation has emerged. Barnette and colleagues say they have located the wreck around 35 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, on Florida's northeast coast.

The discovery is revealed in an episode of Shipwreck Secrets, a new Science Channel series that starts next month.

"I've always been fascinated by history," Barnette, who has discovered the wrecks of numerous lost ships over the course of his career, said. "I'm a marine biologist by profession. But maritime history is my real passion. I like going out and trying to identify wrecks because everyone has a fascinating story. I'm just a very curious guy."

The search for the wreck began thousands of miles away from the Bermuda Triangle in London, England. Barnette contacted British historian Guy Walters and asked him to dig through the archives of Lloyd's of London, which contains insurance documents related to the ship's fateful voyage.

During his search, Walters managed to uncover evidence that the Cotopaxi had sent out a distress signal on December 1, 1925—a key piece of information that historians had not previously known about.

"A lot of times, it's more important to spend more time in the archives researching than it is on the water because that's when you will make the discoveries in all these articles for insurance or things of that nature," he told Newsweek.

According to the documents he uncovered, the distress signals were picked up in Jacksonville, Florida, placing the ship in the vicinity of the so-called Bear Wreck—located off the coast of St. Augustine—which has baffled experts for decades.

The waters off the coast of St. Augustine—a thriving port in colonial times—are filled with 16th and 17th-century shipwrecks. The Bear Wreck, however, stands out from these in a number of ways. Firstly, it appears to be from the late 19th or early 20th century and is located much further off the coast than most of the other older shipwrecks. The ship's real name and the reason it sank have long remained a mystery.

With the evidence uncovered by Walters, Barnette and his dive partner Joe Citelli decided to conduct a series of dives at the Bear Wreck in order to look for an artefact that could link it to the Cotopaxi. Specifically, they wanted to find an object with the vessel's name on it—something commonly found on the bell of ships.

However, such discoveries are rare and despite the use of a remotely operated underwater vehicle, the divers did not find what they were looking for, in part, because the wreck is covered in large quantities of sand.

Barnette got in touch with Al Perkins, a diver who has been exploring the Bear Wreck for more than three decades, collecting numerous objects from it in the process. One of the items in his collection seemed to provide a clue to the wreck's origins.

The object was a valve that had been manufactured by a company based around 12 miles from where the Cotopaxi was built—in Ecorse, Michigan. But was this a coincidence or a piece of evidence linking the Bear Wreck to the Cotopaxi?

Barnette reached out to Chuck Meide and Brendan Burke from the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum—two experts on the shipwrecks in the waters surrounding the city.

Under the guidance of Meide and Burke, Barnette conducted more dives to collect measurements of the Bear Wreck. These were then compared with the original plans of the Cotopaxi. The team discovered that numerous features—including the length of the vessel and dimensions of the boilers—matched the measurements they had taken.

Finally, Barnette received a crucial piece of information from Walters, who had been carrying out research at the National Archives of New York. There, the historian found documents from a legal case that the families of some of the missing crewmen had brought against the Cotopaxi's operator—the Clinchfield Navigation company. They argued the ship was unseaworthy and unsuited to rough ocean conditions.

In the documents, the president of the company countered that this was not the case and the only reason the ship sunk was because she had been caught in a large storm off the Florida coast—one that is attested in historical weather records on the day that the Cotopaxi sent out distress signals.

In his testimony, the president reported the last known coordinates of the Cotopaxi, which were dated to November 30, 1925. Barnette plotted these coordinates on a map, placing the ship 22 miles north of the Bear Wreck on this date, on what would appear to be the vessel's expected course if it was travelling its regular route from Charleston to Havana.

For the team, this was the final piece of the puzzle linking the Cotopaxi to the Bear Wreck. Given that a storm would strike the area the next day—and the evidence from the legal documents indicating that the vessel was not seaworthy—the researchers also appeared to have uncovered a possible explanation for the ship's sinking.

The team believes these final coordinates, coupled with a distress signal being sent from the ship the next day, and historic records showing a storm had hit the area, are further evidence to show the Bear Wreck the site of the sunken Cotopaxi.

"We approach all these shipwrecks kind of like a cold case murder case, right? You know, you have the body there. You try and gain whatever information you can. There's a whole bunch of tools that we use to try to identify these wrecks," Barnette said.

He described the moment of realization that the Bear Wreck is probably the final resting place of the Cotopaxi as like a "jolt of electricity."

"A lot of times it is very emotional because first you are excited that your theory is correct. There's also an emotional rollercoaster because you realize, 'wait a second, this is a gravesite which marks the final resting spot of the crew members that went down with the vessel.' So there's a responsibility to try and reach out to the families so we can help give closure to them," he said.

"Myself and other wreck divers around the world, when we identify these wrecks, sometimes we're writing the final chapter in the story or sometimes we're actually rewriting history," he said. "What people assume actually happened sometimes is not the case."

Barnette adds that paranormal explanations for the disappearances of ships and aircraft in the Bermuda Triangle—which have frequently been debunked by experts—often distract from what's really important.

"Each one of these shipwreck stories is their own saga, and a lot of times you kind of hit on the Bermuda Triangle. But the Bermuda Triangle is not the story, it's the drama that unfolds on these individual shipwrecks, and aircraft." 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/ship-that-mysteriously-vanished-in-bermuda-triangle-almost-a-century-ago-discovered/ar-BBZpkZb

[CaaC (John)]

Jersey 'drowned landscape' could yield Ice Age insights

Archaeologists are planning an ambitious survey of part of the seabed off Jersey where Neanderthals once lived.

The site is part-exposed during spring low tide, giving the team a four-hour window to dig while the sea is out.

Stone tools and mammoth remains have been recovered from the Violet Bank over the years.

Neanderthals are known to have inhabited what is now Jersey for hundreds of thousands of years.

The Violet Bank is a type of coastal zone known as an intertidal reef. It's underwater at high tide but some 10 sq km of the seabed is exposed during the low spring tide.

In May, the team will spend a week living at an offshore fort built in the 18th Century and then digging on the seabed for three to four hours before the area is inundated.

The project's leader Dr Matt Pope, from UCL's Institute of Archaeology, said: "The Violet Bank is a starkly beautiful and scientifically important landscape.

"We know there is a record of Neanderthal archaeology, extinct fauna such as mammoth and more recent prehistoric monuments out there waiting to be discovered and documented."

• Neanderthals 'dived in the ocean' for shellfish
• Jersey's Neanderthal survival story
• Neanderthals were capable of making art
• Viewpoint: Why we still underestimate the Neanderthals

The effort aims to discover records of early human behaviour, insights into the ancient environment and could shed light on past climate change.

It will seek to understand how people used this landscape before the sea covered it around 6,000 years ago.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

These lovely little statues enchanted ancient Greece

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In the 1860s peasants from the town of Bratsi, in the Greek region of Boeotia, north of Athens were ploughing the soil when they unearthed an ancient grave, and then another and another. Although there were no lavish grave goods to be found, the burial sites did harbour a magnificent treasure of a different kind. As they dug, the peasants began to unearth beautifully made terracotta figurines. The fascinating little statues, mainly of female figures between three and nine inches tall, were everywhere. Eventually, hundreds would be collected.

The accidental archaeologists offered the pieces for sale to anyone they met and news of the extraordinary find soon spread, attracting treasure hunters. Grimadha, near the location of the ancient city-state of Tanagra, was a popular target for looters. It is estimated that more than 8,000 graves were dug up as people hungrily searched for the figurines.

The illegal excavation of the Tanagra necropolises became an open secret, and Greek authorities eventually decided to intervene, sending archaeologist Panayiotis Stamatakis to oversee the first official dig in 1874. The archaeologists’ attempt at imposing some order on the excavation was too little, too late. Their findings lacked the necessary detail to be of much academic use. In 1911 excavations began to be carried out more methodically, but it was not until the 1970s, more than a century after the first figurines came to light, that excavations were conducted with the proper rigour and care.

The demand for Tanagra figurines seemed to have no bounds in late 19th-century Europe. The statuettes, mainly of women, fit in with the ideals of feminine beauty and fashion of the Belle Epoque. The softness, grace, and modesty idealized in the diminutive figures, their robes, drapery, head coverings, and hairstyles contrasted with the austere depiction of male figures: classical Greek gods, statesmen and soldiers.

The presence of the government archaeologists at Tanagra did not stop the grave robbing. The insatiable demand for the figurines drove more clandestine removal from the necropolises. Fake figurines also began to enter the antiquities market. Some of the imitations were clumsy copies, but others were skilled forgeries and more difficult to detect. Local villagers would sell the figures–authentic and otherwise–to whoever would buy them, at increasingly exorbitant prices.

Many of these imposters fooled experts for years. They even made their way into prominent museum collections. Recent thermoluminescence analysis of Tangara figurines in the German State collections has revealed that as many as 20 per cent of them are fakes.

Custom models

The delicacy of the Tanagra figurines reveals how skilled the Greeks were in the art of coroplasty, or clay modelling. The body would be shaped from a two-part mould, and then the head and arms (also created from moulds) would be attached. The figure would be customized through different poses and by adding different decorative elements, like crowns and flower hats.

Before firing, artisans applied a mixture called white slip, made of water and clay. After the clay had baked, water-based pigments were applied to a layer of fresh lime plaster. The figures were painted in naturalistic hues and soft colours. Rich shades of blue and gold leaf were used sparingly, as both were very expensive at the time. The figures were popular around the Mediterranean in the fourth century B.C. Figurines have been found in Corinth, Macedonia, Asia Minor, southern Italy, North Africa, and as far away as Kuwait.

Form and function

The figurines discovered at Tanagra demonstrate how the wide artistic range of this kind of Greek sculpture. The excavations unearthed hundreds of different female forms, ranging from demure matrons to nubile veiled dancers and girls at play. Rather than exalting the gods or statesmen, these quiet statues were an intimate look into the lives of everyday women and their children, an experience which is often not reflected in the literature of the time. Their clothing and their gestures reveal contemporary attitudes towards female roles in society.

Scholars hold differing opinions on the function of these small statues. It’s possible that they manufactured for different uses. Since the majority of figurines were grave goods, it is possible they played an official role in burial practices. It’s also possible that the original rationale behind burying the figurines was eventually forgotten, while the custom of depositing them remained. Many Tanagra figurines were found in domestic settings, which suggests that they could have been affordable, decorative art.

Some of the most famous figurines, such as the Lady in Blue and the Sophoclean, seem to have been inspired by large statues by master sculptors such as Praxiteles and Leochares. Some experts believe that the Tanagra figurines were produced purely for their aesthetic appeal, as mini replicas, a practice that would later be developed by Roman patricians when they decorated their residences.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/these-lovely-little-statues-enchanted-ancient-greece/ar-BBZtk0K#image=1

Edited January 31, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)]

Rare fossil of bone-crushing crocodile cousin found in Brazil

Rodrigo Müller was working a block of rock and dirt at the base of Agudo Hill, an hour from Porto Alegre when he first saw an unusual set of osteoderms, bony deposits that form plates on the skin of a reptile or amphibian.

“It was a surprise because we had never seen anything like this in Brazil before,” Müller, a palaeontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria, says of what was otherwise an ordinary visit to the Janner dig site, once home to some of the earliest dinosaurs to roam Earth.

As he continued his delicate work, he brushed dirt from an intact cranium and several other fossilized bones. Together, the collection formed a well-preserved and almost complete skeleton of a rare Ornithosuchidae reptile, a family considered cousins to today’s crocodiles and alligators that had been previously recorded only in Argentina and Scotland.

Dated to 230 million years ago, Dynamosuchus collisensis—newly named for its powerful bite and the location of the find—was described January 31 in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica by a team that includes Müller’s colleagues at Argentina’s Museo de La Plata and Virginia Tech in the United States. Only three other species of Ornithosuchid have been discovered in the world, the last of which was found in Argentina and described 50 years ago.

While its bite could crush bones and its blade-like teeth tore through meat, Müller and company believe Dynamosuchus collisensis was a slow scavenger, or necrophagous, similar to the vultures and hyenas of today. It fed mostly off animal carcasses and easy-to-catch prey, meaning it filled a crucial part of the food chain that palaeontologists hadn’t known existed in this region of Brazil until now.

“It helps us understand better how that ecosystem worked,” Müller says.

Without scavengers like the Dynamosuchus collisensis, carcasses and other organic waste would pile up rather than breaking down. This decay allows plants to absorb essential nutrients. Those plants then feed herbivores and omnivores, allowing the cycle to continue.

Bone bonanza

This Triassic reptile was quite large compared to other animals that lived during the period, measuring roughly seven feet in length. Unlike its modern relatives, Dynamosuchus collisensis was terrestrial. Its four limbs swung underneath its body and not at its sides, while its osteoderms ran in two protective rows down its back.

It stalked around forested areas surrounded by rivers, alongside some of the oldest known dinosaurs in the world, mammal ancestors called cynodonts and other reptiles like rhynchosaurs.

The newly revealed fossils connect the evolution and interactions between the landmasses where Ornithosuchidae lived, which at the time, were all part of the supercontinent Pangaea. The animal discovered in Brazil is more closely related to one of the specimens found in Argentina than the two specimens in Argentina are to each other. This finding indicates the fauna exchanged members over long distances and didn’t evolve in an isolated fashion, Müller says.

“The fact that you have organisms that are very close in terms of kinship in Brazil and Argentina during the same time period indicates a similarity in environment and ecologies, although each region had differences that promoted speciation,” says Marco Aurélio Gallo de França, a palaeontologist from the Federal University of the Valley of San Francisco who did not take part in the discovery.

Thanks to the intactness of the Dynamosuchus collisensis fossil, Müller and the other researchers can run further tests on the strength of the reptile’s bite, using CT scans to create 3D digital models.

“It’s really well preserved. There’s practically no deformation in any of the bones, and there’s a good part of the cranium and the postcranial skeleton, so it’s very complete for this type of animal,” Müller says of the fossil. “There’s so much information in those bones.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/rare-fossil-of-bone-crushing-crocodile-cousin-found-in-brazil/ar-BBZHnvW?ocid=mailsignout

[CaaC (John)]

Neolithic Czech well claimed as the world's oldest wooden structure

Wooden well uncovered in the Czech Republic is the ‘World's Oldest Manmade Timber Structure'

Archaeologists claimed Tuesday that a Neolithic well found in the Czech Republic was the world's oldest uncovered wooden structure, citing extensive tests.

"We have carried out a dendrochronological analysis and confirmed it with radiocarbon dating," said Jaroslav Peska from the Archeological Centre in the eastern Czech city of Olomouc.

"The well dates back to 5,256-5,255 BC. There is currently no older man-made wooden structure dated by dendrochronology in the world, although this may change in the future," Peska told AFP.

Originally about four metres (yards) deep, the well was found in 2018 at the site of a future motorway about 120 kilometres (75 miles) east of the capital Prague.

"We dug up a lower wooden part of the well that is 1.4 metres high and which rose to the surface," said Peska.

The CTK news agency reported the well had wooden posts in corners with grooves for planks, a technology that scientists thought had been used much later.

The archaeologists removed the well together with soil which is also being tested to give scientists an idea of the environment of the Neolithic era, the last period of the Stone Age.

"The well is under conservation now, and when that's done, it will be taken to a museum in (the nearby city of) Pardubice in about two or three years," said Peska.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/neolithic-czech-well-claimed-as-worlds-oldest-wooden-structure/ar-BBZETtX#image=1

[CaaC (John)]

The 'Ghost' of an Unknown Extinct Human Has Been Found in DNA of Modern West Africans

The gene pool of modern West Africans contains the 'ghost' of a mysterious hominin, unlike any we've detected so far. Similar to how humans and Neanderthals once mated, new research suggests this ancient long-lost species may have once mingled with our ancestors on the African continent.

Using whole-genome data from present-day West Africans, scientists have found a small portion of genetic material that appears to come from this mysterious lineage, which is thought to have split off from the human family tree even before Neanderthals.

Today, it's thought (although still being debated) that anatomically modern humans originated in Africa, and that once these populations migrated to Europe and Asia, they interbred with closely-related species like Neanderthals and Denosovans.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

Biggest Turtle to Ever Walk the Earth Was Hunted by 40 Foot Crocodiles

The shell of an enormous prehistoric turtle that would have been eight feet long has been discovered in Colombia's Tatacoa Desert. Analysis of the shell showed several bite marks indicating this animal was hunted by enormous crocodiles that lived at the same time, some of which could have been over 40 feet in length.

The turtle, Stupendemys geographicus, lived during the mid to late Miocene, 13 to 7 million years ago. It represents the biggest complete turtle shell ever discovered.

S. geographicus was first discovered in the 1970s and is believed to be the largest land turtle ever to have walked Earth. However, the species is not well understood, with key details about it are lacking.

Edwin Cadena, a Geologist and Vertebrate Paleontologist from Colombia's Universidad del Rosario, and colleagues were searching for specimens to see if they could find out more about their lifestyles and biology. Findings are published in Science Advances.

S. geographicus was previously known to have lived in Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. The discovery of the new specimen expands this range significantly. It also provides an insight into the life of these turtles, showing males had huge horns on their shells that aided fighting.

Their analysis also revealed bite marks and punctured bones that indicates they were preyed on by the enormous, extinct crocodiles Gryposuchus and Purussaurus, the latter of which could reach over 40 feet in length.

In an email to Newsweek, Cadena said he and the team were surprised at the size of the new specimens, and even more so when they identified the "massive horns" the males had. The team propose these horns would have helped protect their skulls during combat.

Researchers say these turtles were able to grow to huge sizes because of their warm, wet habitat. Several other species in South America are known to have been extremely large, such as Titanoboa, the largest snake ever.

Cadena said S. geographicus may have gone extinct around 5 million years ago. "Although there is not the last word on the causes of its extinction we attribute it to a combination of factors including the habitat segmentation due to geological and hydrological events that occurred in northern South America for that time including intense uplift of the Andes, and the reconfiguration of the major rivers: Amazon, Orinoco and Magdalena," he said. "This reduction in habitat size could have created ecological disruptions for the giant turtles and crocodiles inhabiting this region and favouring their extinction."

Cadena said they now plant to continue to explore South America in search of new fossils: "Not only of this giant Stupendemys but also other extinct species that could shed light on the origin and history of current biodiversity, fossils that could even make a small contribution to conservation plans of their living descendants."

James Parham, Associate Professor of Geological Sciences from the California State University, Fullerton, who was not involved in the research, said the findings were important as they give a more complete picture of a turtle celebrated by paleontologists: "They show that Stupendemys was not only bigger than we thought but also more widespread. Is also nice to know what the skull of these turtles looks like," he told Newsweek.

Adán Pérez García, from the Evolutionary Biology Group of Spain's UNED, who was also not involved told Newsweek the research has several implications and markedly increases our knowledge of the anatomy of the biggest turtle to ever live. "The new study not only allows to know new anatomical information, but also helps to distinguish between males and females, and to better understand the way of life of this unique large form," he said.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/biggest-turtle-to-ever-walk-the-earth-was-hunted-by-40-foot-crocodiles/ar-BBZWtwm

[CaaC (John)]

Storm reveals 130 million-year-old dinosaur footprint on the Isle of Wight

VIDEO

A 130-million-year-old dinosaur footprint was uncovered on the Isle of Wight during Storm Ciara last week, according to fossil hunters.

The track was left preserved in clay by a large three-toed reptile such as the meat-eating predator Neovenator, which can grow up to 10 metres long and weigh up to 4,000kg.

It was found in Sandown Bay on Wednesday by members of the Wight Coast Fossils group after the area was lashed by 60mph winds and heavy rain over the weekend.

“All this weather is revealing traces of vanished worlds along our coastline,” the group wrote on their Facebook page.

“Shifting sands at Sandown Bay revealed this beautiful 130 million-year-old dinosaur track yesterday, preserved in the brightly coloured floodplain clays.”

The group, which runs tours of the area, said that the footprint was preserved in what would have been an area of marshland that regularly dried and flooded.

“Our track maker was crossing this environment 130 million years ago, heading southwest in what is now Sandown Bay, leaving these huge tracks in the boggy soil,” they wrote.

“Behind the animal lay a range of low forested hills, while ahead lay a flat floodplain landscape dotted with floodplain forests, river channels, and herds of herbivorous dinosaurs.”

However, the footprint may soon disappear as the tide wears down the soft clay on what is known as the “Wessex Formation”.

Violent storms along the south coast have previously revealed a large number of dinosaur footprints near Hastings, East Sussex.

Those tracks included a species of stegosaur, the armoured ankylosaurus and predatory theropod dinosaurs.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/storm-reveals-130-million-year-old-dinosaur-footprint-on-isle-of-wight/ar-BB100KLq?li=AAnZ9Ug

[CaaC (John)]

Have archaeologists found the burial place of Rome's founder? Tomb found under the city's Forum may be the final resting place of Romulus

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A tomb discovered under the Roman Forum could be the resting place of the city's legendary founder Romulus.     

Archaeologists are believed to have uncovered an area devoted to the first King of Rome and a rock sarcophagus, measuring 4.6ft, which are believed to date back to the 6th century BC. 

Director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park Alfonsina Russo told The Times: 'This is an extraordinary discovery. The forum never ceases to yield amazing fresh treasures.' 

The underground temple is buried beneath the entrance stairway to the Curia and was the place where Roman senators voted with every presumed to belong to one. 

What is the Roman Forum?  

The Roman Forum, known as the Forum Romanum in Latin, was the heartbeat of both Ancient Rome and its continent-straddling empire. 

Historians believe people first began meeting in the Forum in 500BC when the Roman Republic was founded. 

The area is situated between  Palatine Hill and Capitoline Hill. 

The Temple of Julius Caesar is the most striking monument and was built a couple of years after Ancient Rome's most famous leader was murdered in 44BC.

Scholars believed, according to Ms Russo, that the temple's altar has been positioned where ancient Romans believed Romulus was buried. Yet no bones were found in the coffin.  

The finding had taken place near the Lapis Niger, an ancient black shrine in the Roman Forum, according to Andreas Steiner, editor of the magazine Archeo.  

The shrine, discovered in 1899, has a Greek inscription referring to how the sacred ground must not be disturbed. 

In Roman mythology, Romulus and his twin brother Remus were left in a basket on the River Tiber. 

The pair survived and were discovered under a fig tree and a she-wolf suckled them. 

Romulus later killed his brother Remus in a fight on what became Palatine Hill in 753BC. 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/have-archaeologists-found-the-burial-place-of-romes-founder-tomb-found-under-the-citys-forum-may-be-the-final-resting-place-of-romulus/ar-BB106uwf?li=BBoPWjQ#image=1

[CaaC (John)]

Neanderthal 'skeleton' is first found in a decade

Researchers have described the first "articulated" remains of a Neanderthal to be discovered in a decade.

An articulated skeleton is one where the bones are still arranged in their original positions.

The new specimen was uncovered at Shanidar Cave in Iraq and consists of the upper torso and crushed skull of a middle-aged to an older adult.

Excavations at Shanidar in the 1950s and 60s unearthed partial remains of 10 Neanderthal men, women and children.

During these earlier excavations, archaeologists found that some of the burials were clustered together, with clumps of pollen surrounding one of the skeletons.

The researcher who led those original investigations, Ralph Solecki from Columbia University in New York, claimed it was evidence that Neanderthals had buried their dead with flowers.

This "flower burial" captured the imagination of the public and kicked off a decades-long controversy. The floral interpretation suggested our evolutionary relatives were capable of cultural sophistication, challenging the view - prevalent at the time - that Neanderthals were unintelligent and animalistic.

FULL REPORT

[CaaC (John)]

A stunning 14th-century medieval chapel is uncovered in County Durham 370 years after it was destroyed in the wake of the English Civil War

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Following this, the exact location of the chapel site had become a mystery. 

Part of Auckland Castle, the remains of the long lost place of worship — Bek's Chapel — were uncovered with the help of staff and students from Durham University, experts believe that the chapel would have been stunning to behold in its heyday — featuring a timber ceiling and huge pillars with decorated stonework.

FULL REPORT

Edited February 19, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)]

Impressive underground cities where people actually lived

Hidden entrances, ancient tunnels, and complex histories lurk beneath the earth's surface, teeming with tales of a life that few people know much about. Many underground paths or malls claim to be cities, but check out this gallery to see the few real underground habitations where people have actually carried out their lives.

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[CaaC (John)]

@nudge, in ref to the above 

 

This picture amongst that lot above you will like I think and any other Star Wars fanatics...

13/41 SLIDES© Shutterstock

Matmata, Tunisia

Matmata's Hotel Sidi Driss was used in ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ as Luke Skywalker’s childhood home on Tatooine.

 

14/41 SLIDES© BrunoPress

Matmata, Tunisia

The underground city was also featured in 'Attack of the Clones.'

 

Edited February 22, 2020 by CaaC (John)

[CaaC (John)]

17/41 SLIDES© Shutterstock

Petra, Jordan

One of the most exquisite carvings is Al-Khazneh, or “the Treasury,” which features an ornamental facade that reaches 130 ft (40 m) up a rock face.

18/41 SLIDES© BrunoPress

Petra, Jordan

Petra is also known for its cameo in the film 'Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.'

[CaaC (John)]

Secret 17th-century doorway found in Parliament restoration works

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A secret doorway used during a 17th-century royal coronation has been discovered in the House of Commons.

The entrance, thought to have been used by political luminaries such as diarist Samuel Pepys and Robert Walpole, the first de facto prime minister, dates back more than 350 years.

The hidden walkway had originally been established for Charles II’s coronation in 1660 to allow guests to process to the new king’s celebratory banquet.

It was later used by MPs to access the Commons, which was originally in the medieval Palace of Westminster before a fire destroyed much of its structure in the 19th century.

Only Westminster Hall – the oldest part of the palace, where the doorway was found – survived the blaze and was incorporated into Parliament’s neo-Gothic rebuild.

For the past 70 years, the entrance had remained forgotten behind wooden panelling in a cloister that was formerly used as offices by the Parliamentary Labour Party, according to Commons authorities.

A brass plate marks where the doorway had been in Westminster Hall, but historians thought it had been filled in during reconstruction work after the palace was bombed during the Second World War.

It was rediscovered following recent investigative work by Parliament’s architecture and heritage team who have been undertaking Westminster’s £4 billion restoration programme.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: “To think that this walkway has been used by so many important people over the centuries is incredible.

“I am so proud of our staff for making this discovery and I really hope this space is celebrated for what it is – a part of our parliamentary history.”

Graffiti written by bricklayers who helped architect Sir Charles Barry restore the palace following the fire in 1834 was also discovered during the works.

One sentence of the graffiti, dated 1851, reads: “This room was enclosed by Tom Porter who was very fond of Ould Ale.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/secret-17th-century-doorway-found-in-parliament-restoration-works/ar-BB10o8DU#image=1

[CaaC (John)]

Look at These Mind-Blowing Fossils of 1 Billion-Year-Old Seaweed

Strange, vein-like shadows imprinted in ancient rocks are some of the most important clues yet in piecing together the timeline of photosynthesis. At 1 billion years old, the tiny fossils are the oldest example of green algae we've ever discovered.

Even from all those aeons ago, the fossils show evidence of characteristics in common with modern algae. They represent multicellular organisms with branching structures and even root systems.

Palaeontologists have named the newly discovered, ancient algae Proterocladus antiquus, and it beats the previous record-holder - the fragmentary Proterocladus, 800 million years old (it's possible they're both the same species).

This discovery suggests seaweed were already thriving in the ocean, long before plants migrated to dry land.

"The entire biosphere is largely dependent on plants and algae for food and oxygen, yet land plants did not evolve until about 450 million years ago," said palaeontologist Shuhai Xiao of Virginia Tech.

"Our study shows that green seaweeds evolved no later than 1 billion years ago, pushing back the record of green seaweeds by about 200 million years."

The fossils themselves are tiny, just a few millimetres long - flea-sized smears on a sedimentary rock found in the Nanfen Formation in Liaoning Province, North China. But when studied under a microscope, their delicate, branching forms are crystal clear.

Older algae fossils have been found - a red alga called Bangiomorpha pubescens, which was dated to around 1.047 billion years ago. It's also an important find for our understanding of photosynthesis, but P. antiquus is different because it's green.

It's thought that green plants - Viridiplantae - emerged sometime between 2.5 billion and 635 million years ago. Because ancient plant fossils are rare, narrowing that timeline down has been extremely difficult. Scientists also don't know when they evolved from single-celled to multicellular organisms, or even where they started out.

Some believe that, just like multicellular animals, Viridiplantae started off in the ocean as seaweeds before moving onto dry land and evolving into all the different plants we have today, from the mightiest redwood to the smallest moss.

Others, however, believe that freshwater rivers and lakes gave birth to plants; from there, they moved into the ocean, before finally ending up on land.

P. antiquus supports an oceanic origin - because it's extremely similar to seaweeds that are around today.

"There are some modern green seaweeds that look very similar to the fossils that we found," Xiao said. "A group of modern green seaweeds, known as siphonocladaleans, are particularly similar in shape and size to the fossils we found."

The branching structures and tiny sizes have led the team to hypothesise that P. antiquus is a type of ancient siphonocladalean, although they note that it cannot be ruled out that P. antiquus developed a siphonocladalean morphology independently, and is now extinct.

Nevertheless, even if they were distinct species, their similarity suggests a similar environment; that is, the ocean. That finding, in turn, can help us also understand the ancient ocean environment.

And, of course, it tells us more about the complicated and mysterious plant family tree.

"These seaweeds display multiple branches, upright growths, and specialised cells known as akinetes that are very common in this type of fossil," Xiao said.

"Taken together, these features strongly suggest that the fossil is a green seaweed with complex multicellularity that is circa 1 billion years old. These likely represent the earliest fossil of green seaweeds."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/look-at-these-mind-blowing-fossils-of-1-billion-year-old-seaweed/ar-BB10m5Lq

[CaaC (John)]

Did early humans in India survive a supervolcano?

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Roughly 74,000 years ago, a supervolcano on the Indonesian island of Sumatra roared to life. Known as the Toba eruption, the event was the largest volcanic blast in the last two million years, scattering ash thousands of miles and leaving behind a 60-mile-wide crater that has since filled with water.

Some scientists have argued that the supereruption must have caused a global cold spell, darkening the sky with ash and soot and producing a prolonged period of deforestation in South Asia. If that’s the case, though, the eruption and its aftermath didn’t stop early humans from surviving in central India, scientists report.

At the Dhaba dig site in the state of Madhya Pradesh, ancient tools appear in layers of sediment that date to between 80,000 and 65,000 years ago. According to a new study in Nature Communications, the same types of tools continued being used before and after the eruption, so the study authors assert that one continuous population must have survived the fallout from Toba.

“The big theory out there was that the Toba supereruption created a volcanic winter, so it led to glaciation, it resculpted ecosystems, [and] it had tremendous impacts on the atmosphere and landscapes,” says Michael Petraglia, an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. But his group hasn’t found evidence for such large impacts to the landscape at the Dhaba site.

“It’s much more subtle than what people had imagined,” Petraglia says. “It doesn’t mean there’s no ecological change, but these hunter-gatherers would have been able to adapt to the changes.”

The study authors believe the artefacts from India match similar tools previously found at sites in Africa, Australia, and the Arabian Peninsula that date to the African Middle Stone Age, about 285,000 to 50,000 years ago. Given the similarity between these tool technologies, the team suggests that the site offers yet more evidence of Homo sapiens moving out of Africa earlier than previously believed.

Hints of early migrations

Genetic evidence suggests modern humans are the descendants of a wave of Homo sapiens that left Africa sometime between 80,000 and 50,000 years ago, although other populations remained in Africa. But fossils found in present-day Israel that appear to be modern humans date back more than 120,000 years. Such findings have led researchers to search for more clues about when smaller groups of humans might have left Africa.

When Petraglia went to India nearly 15 years ago to search for evidence of early humans’ migrations, he expected to find artefacts from the Upper Paleolithic—stone tools similar to those used by Homo sapiens in Europe around 45,000 years ago. Instead, his team uncovered much older stone tools at Dhaba, suggesting early humans trekked thousands of miles from Africa to India earlier than expected.

The new study provides further evidence against the once-popular belief that the Toba eruption decimated human populations and halted migrations around the world, says Jayne Wilkins, an anthropologist and executive member of the Human Evolution Research Institute in Cape Town, South Africa who was not involved in the research. A 2018 study similarly showed continuous tool use in South Africa around the time of the Toba eruption, and this site in India is about 3,000 miles closer to the volcano than South Africa—so conditions may have been significantly more challenging for survival.

“Data from new archaeological sites like Dhaba are showing that by 74,000 years ago, early hunter-gatherers were resilient in the face of major climatic events, aided by complex technologies, social networks, and other sophisticated cultural adaptations,” Wilkins says in an email.

“Whether this is exactly the same population or not could be debated, but based on the available information, it’s a reasonable suggestion.”

Shards of doubt

However, other experts are more critical of the study’s conclusions.

“I’m not excited about this paper,” says Stanley Ambrose, an anthropologist at the University of Illinois who has been studying tool technologies, geology, and human evolution since the 1980s. Ambrose collaborated with Petraglia on a 2010 study of tools excavated in southern India, which also suggested continued habitation after the eruption, and he authored a paper in 1998 suggesting Toba may have had an impact on the evolution of Homo sapiens.

“I’ve got Toba ash in my lab, in the creases of my boots, in my mind,” Ambrose says. “I’m quite familiar with the location.”

He points out that the authors only found six tiny glass shards matching the chemical signature of the Toba eruption, while there were far more volcanic shards found 5,000 miles away in South Africa. The shards at Dhaba, or even the tools, could have been carried to the site by the Son River or other geologic processes, he says.

“You can’t call it an archaeological site. You can call it a geological site that has archaeological artefacts in it,” Ambrose says. He also isn’t convinced that the tools found at Dhaba were made by early modern humans, especially because no one has found human fossils from the same time period near the tools.

“It takes close, careful forensic scrutiny and tedium to show that this is what the evidence actually shows,” he argues.

Petraglia counters that the ash fragments support the dates calculated for the sediment layers and provide additional evidence that the stone tools overlap with the Toba event, but the study team does acknowledge that the glass shards could have been carried in from nearby sites. He adds that this population from India didn’t necessarily contribute genes to modern human populations; they may well have died out or been replaced by later migrations.

“We don’t dispute the fact that there was an increase in modern humans after 60,000 years ago,” Petraglia says. “What we are arguing is the idea that modern humans only spread out of Africa once is wrong.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/did-early-humans-in-india-survive-a-supervolcano/ar-BB10sSLT

[CaaC (John)]

New lion, size of a house cat, with bone-crushing teeth, is found in fossil form

An artist's rendition of the newly discovered marsupial lion, Lekaneleo roskellyae, hunting in northwestern Queensland. Peter Schouten

A marsupial lion the size of a domestic cat, with teeth sharp enough to break bones, has been confirmed as a new genus. 

Palaeontologists from the University of New South Wales discovered the remains of the tiny lion at Australia's Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland, where scientists have been finding fossils for decades.

The new marsupial lion was previously believed to be part of the Priscileo roskellyae (Thylacoleonidae) genus because of its teeth and small size. But when researchers took a closer look at the skull and lower jaw, they noticed the skull anatomy was different from that of other marsupial lions. 

"As we found more and better specimens at Riversleigh, we began to realize it didn't belong to that group at all," University of New South Wales' Biological, Earth and Environmental Science Professor Michael Archer told CNN on Friday. "It was a new kind of marsupial that hadn't been seen before. It was a different branch on the marsupial lion family tree." 

In a paper published this month in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers confirmed that the mammal was a new genus of the marsupial lion. 

Researchers think the marsupial lion, named Lekaneleo roskellyae, lived in trees and ate birds, snakes and other small animals with its bolt-cutting teeth. 

Marsupial lions died out 35,000 years ago, so researchers look to fossilized remains to help determine how they died and if climate change had any impact.

"We see many of these very strange groups that don't have any living representatives, slowly disappearing," Archer told CNN. "Understanding this whole relationship between environmental change and biodiversity is very important in understanding and anticipating what's going to happen now."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/new-lion-size-of-house-cat-with-bone-crushing-teeth-is-found-in-fossil-form/ar-BB10AXLo

[CaaC (John)]

'DNA' found preserved in 75-million-year-old dinosaur fossils for the first time suggests that organic material can survive much longer than previously thought

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Cartilage cells, chromosomes and DNA have been found preserved in the 75-million-year-old fossils of a baby duck-billed dinosaur, a study has claimed.

Researchers analysed the skull fragments of young, nest-bound Hypacrosaurus specimens unearthed from the 'Two Medicine Formation' in Montana in the US.

Experts have conventionally believed that such organic material should not be able to remain intact for so long — with DNA expected to only last under 1 million years. 

If the findings are correct, however, it would appear that organic material can survive for much longer than previously thought.

'These new exciting results add to growing evidence that cells and some of their biomolecules can persist in deep-time,' said paper author and palaeontologist Alida Bailleul of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

'They suggest DNA can preserve for tens of millions of years.

'We hope that this study will encourage scientists working on ancient DNA to push current limits and to use the new methodology in order to reveal all the unknown molecular secrets that ancient tissues have.' 

In their study, Dr Bailleul and colleagues studied fossilised skull fragments of the young Hypacrosaurus under the microscope — finding exquisitely preserved cells within calcified cartilage tissues.

Two of the cartilage cells were still linked by an intercellular bridge — just as would be seen near the end of the process of cell division — while elsewhere cell nuclei could be seen as a dark material in the specimens.

Related Slideshow: Best places to see fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct species (Provided by Photo Services)

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One cartilage cell even held preserved dark elongated structures that the researchers believe may be chromosomes.

'I couldn't believe it, my heart almost stopped beating,' Dr Bailleul said. 

Having made this remarkable discovery, the researchers next set out to see if original molecules might also be preserved in the dinosaur cartilage — using another specimen from the same dinosaur nesting ground.

The team found that the organic material surrounding the cells reacted to antibodies of so-called Collagen II, the dominant protein in the cartilage of vertebrates.

'This immunological test supports the presence of remnants of original cartilaginous proteins in this dinosaur,' said paper author and palaeontologist Mary Schweitzer of the North Carolina State University. 

Another test suggested that the fossils may also even contain some original fragments of dinosaur DNA.  

These findings fly against conventional scientific understanding, which maintains — based on modelling and experimentation — that DNA likely cannot last for a million years, let alone tens of millions of years.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal National Science Review.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/dna-found-preserved-in-75-million-year-old-dinosaur-fossils-for-the-first-time-suggests-that-organic-material-can-survive-much-longer-than-previously-thought/ar-BB10GPqf#image=AAtfeJ8|1

 

 

 

 

[CaaC (John)]

A Secret World War II Bunker Was Just Discovered in Scotland

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Forty years ago, Kit Rodger and his friends discovered a small underground bunker while traipsing around Scotland’s Craigielands Forest. Apart from featuring in their boyhood adventures, the mysterious bunker remained unknown and was gradually obscured by undergrowth.

A few months ago, Rodger, now a survey technician for Forest and Land Scotland (FLS), returned to the area to check for any heritage sites or environmental attributes that would interfere with an upcoming tree-felling operation. Without an official record of the bunker, Rodger and his colleague, Kenny Bogle, scoured the forest floor for any signs of it.

“With only vague memories of more than 40 years ago, Kenny and I searched through head-high bracken until we stumbled on a shallow trench which led to the bunker door,” Rodger said in an FLS blog post. “Only a small opening remained, but we could just make out the blast wall in the darkness beyond.”

After an investigation, the FLS determined the bunker was built during World War II to house an Auxiliary Unit, a British citizen militia tasked with sabotaging an invasion if the enemies made it past the first line of defence, the Home Guard. These highly clandestine units sometimes called “Churchill’s secret army” or “scallywags,” comprised men with a wealth of knowledge about the land—like gamekeepers, foresters, and poachers. Because they were the last resort, they were expected to fight to the death.

And, because Auxiliary Units operated with utmost secrecy, many of their bunkers have never been found. This particular one is about 10 feet by 23 feet and was constructed from riveted, corrugated iron sheets over a cement floor. FLS archaeologist Matt Ritchie said in a press release that records indicate the bunker was used by about seven men who were armed with revolvers, submachine guns, a sniper’s rifle, and explosives. The only surviving evidence of the unit’s life underground is some broken wood, which might be the remains of bunk beds. As BBC News reports, the bunker likely also contained a table and a cooking stove.

Though we know the bunker is somewhere near Moffat, a town in Scotland’s Dumfries and Galloway council area, the FLS is keeping its exact location under wraps to protect it from a potential influx of visitors.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/a-secret-world-war-ii-bunker-was-just-discovered-in-scotland/ar-BB1139UC#image=1