History/Archaeology

[greennui]

World's oldest known cave painting found in Indonesia

Picture of wild pig made at least 45,500 years ago provides earliest evidence of human settlement



https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... SApp_Other

[rischka]

https://twitter.com/archaeologyart

i just started following this twitter! i <3 archaeology

wait... are you trying to distract me from the politics thread? very clever greennui

edit: https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... es-reveal/

an interesting piece about genetic research into dire wolves. tldr: not actually wolves!

[greennui]

wait... are you trying to distract me from the politics thread? very clever greennui

That's a neat twitter page.

[Holdrüholoheuho]

This cloaca is more than 100 million years old, and it did a lot of work for this extinct species.

Scientists Have Described The Butt Orifice Of A Dinosaur For the first Time

“All-purpose dinosaur opening”
https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-a ... irst-time/

A dinosaur's butthole was a Swiss Army knife of orifices

Reconstructing a dino's cloaca gives scientists a new perspective
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/jan-23- ... -1.5882552

https://twitter.com/TheCut/status/13527 ... 52576?s=20

[rischka]

probly can't compete with dinosaur butthole but i'll give it a go

https://twitter.com/ahencyclopedia/stat ... 02212?s=20

i only saw the airport

[Holdrüholoheuho]

Eagle's feathers that "look like sacrificial knives" are no less amazing than a "Swiss army knife of orifices".

[rischka]

connection between mexico and megafauna...avocados!

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-cul ... o-4976527/

Barlow writes in “Haunting the Wild Avocado,” originally published in Biodversity:

The identities of the dispersers shifted every few million years, but from an avocado’s perspective, a big mouth is a big mouth and a friendly gut is a friendly gut. The passage of a trifling 13,000 years (since the Pleistocene extinction) is too soon to exhaust the patience of genus Persea. The genes that shape fruits ideal for megafauna retain a powerful memory of an extraordinary mutualistic relationship.

Ecologist Dan Janzen conducted groundbreaking research on these and other “anachronistic fruits” and found that the avocado isn’t alone in this regard. His research in the late ’70s in the neotropics— an ecozone that includes both Americas and the entire South American temperate zone—sparked a shift in ecological thinking regarding these evolutionary-stunted fruits. Other examples include: papaya, cherimoya, sapote and countless other fleshy fruits of the neotropics. Another surprising “ghost” you may see everyday: Honey locust pods scattered about your driveway. All of these fruits are not considered edible by most native mammalian standards today. Barlow continues:

“In 1977, however, was beginning to suspect that he—along with every other ecologist working with large tropical fruits of the New World—had been wrong in one very big way. They all had failed to see that some fruits are adapted primarily for animals that have been extinct for 13,000 years.”

in conclusion, the avocado, originally named with the aztec word for testicles, may have had it's seed excreted from a dinosaur butthole

[rischka]

https://artsandculture.google.com/stree ... 1499270758

street view

scale model of ancient rome commissioned by mussolini took over 35 years to complete

https://mymodernmet.com/scale-model-ancient-rome/

[Holdrüholoheuho]

ha, that model looks gorgeous!

in Prague, there is...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langweil% ... _of_Prague
Langweil's Model of Prague is a realistic paper model of Prague dating from 1826–1837 and named after its creator Antonín Langweil. Due to Langweil's early death, the model remained unfinished. It covers an area of 20 m2 and shows more than 2,000 buildings in the historic heart of Prague in fine detail; approximately half of them do not exist anymore.

more than 9,000 chimneys

https://youtu.be/T3rXhIpiZuA

[sally]

my favourite ever tv series EVER has been uploading old episodes onto youtube recently. i am still in love with stewart ainsworth (nerdy crush) and i once walked past john 'geo-fizz' in the grocery store in haworth and just screamed at him

https://www.youtube.com/c/timeteamclassics/videos

[rischka]

omg thank you this looks AMAZING

[greennui]

https://twitter.com/whencyclopedia/stat ... 4225124353

[greennui]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RjBePQV4xE

The haunting Song of Seikilos is the oldest complete musical composition in existence and was engraved on a tombstone in the town of Tralles near modern-day Aydin in Turkey.

The text says:

While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and time demands an end.

And is signed from Seikilos to Euterpe – probably his wife.

Oldest melody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpxN2VXPMLc

[Holdrüholoheuho]

the closer to the present, the creepiest items found in graves next to the skeletons.

/google translated/

An amateur metal detector found the grave of a probably Soviet soldier from the end of the Second World War among the vineyards in Kostice in the Břeclav region. Since there was also a hand grenade in the grave, he called police pyrotechnics to the site and they also contacted the archaeologist.

The archaeologist did not find anything on the site that would allow the person to be identified. "According to the equipment, it should be a Russian soldier, his skeleton will still be examined by an anthropologist," said archaeologist Libor Kalčík from the Břeclav Museum.

In addition to a Soviet-made hand grenade that police pyrotechnicians took for disposal, the grave also contained one and a half kilograms of ammunition, a helmet, a gas mask, boots, and a pendant with a picture of a saint. The weapon was not stored in the grave.

"About some objects, we do not yet know what they are, and they will be the subject of further research. So far, it appears that the soldier died after a gunshot wound and was buried by his friends. The grave was not deep at all, but it was obviously deliberately dug," Kalčík described. As it is a war grave, its finding will be reported to the authorities and the Russian side.

[rischka]

watching TIME TEAM ♥♥♥ sad to discover that this madman in his multi-colored jumper has already passed away



i'm afraid to watch time team america has anyone seen it

[sally]

THERE IS AN AMERICAN TIME TEAM????? (this video is blocked in your country ) the only couple of ones i could see were like 'all the way back, in 1836...' lol

i rewatched all the uk time teams and am pretty sad about having none left to watch again. mick was a grumpy old prof, however, as i still love stewart, have to say that mick was the only one that ever listened to him!

[rischka]

i enjoyed phil harding very much too i envy your strong tradition of eccentric people

[rischka]

https://apnews.com/article/ancient-coin ... eab451f90c

reminds me of reading about the wydah galley found in 1984 off cape cod https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whydah_Gally

yeah we don't have much history here but we do have pirates yo ho ho

[Holdrüholoheuho]

https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot ... ns-in.html
Foxes Were Domesticated By Humans In The Bronze Age
In the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula, between the third and second millennium BC, a widespread funeral practice consisted in burying humans with animals. Scientists have discovered that both foxes and dogs were domesticated, as their diet was similar to that of their owners.
...
Female burial of Minferri with a goat and two foxes. The woman embraces a female fox

[pabs]

Is it true that other (now extinct) human species (e.g., homo neanderthalensis) lived in North America before we (homo sapiens) first arrived there from Asia about 20 to 30,000 years ago?

[rischka]

i want a pet fox

[sally]

i spend way too much time watching these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gx_jRfB-Ao

[sally]

we will make lists about anything won't we. ranking 1773's london prostitutes

[sally]

happy birthday, rome!



https://twitter.com/pompei79/status/1384789329915125761

[sally]

this is mad. a british archaeology gameshow from 1956 featuring objects from the national archaeological museum of prague (my czech would sound about as good as the host's plus it's also referred to as central europe, so when on earth did it become eastern europe to the brits i wonder) featuring sex god sir mortimer wheeler, and vere gordon childe - legend of archaeology (and despondent unloved virgin and future one year later suicide) just fascinating to see

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdI6T-74E_o

[Holdrüholoheuho]

i would be very cautious about the items from the local archeological museum.
as i have already elaborated about the local (19th-century) national revival movement and related activities of faking "old" manuscripts (to prove the long & splendid history of the nation), there is also an instance of "excavating" (by the local national revivalists) a little sculpture of supposed old Slavic goddess.
its "discovery" was cheered and applauded.
unfortunately, later local egyptology got solid grounds and this splendid Slavic goddess was identified as the goddess Isis bought originally on some minor Egyptian fleamarket.
"Czech Republic — Land of Stories," says the main marketing claim of the nowadays Czech Tourism agency.

btw. i can share an interesting story related to the local national museum.
during the warsaw pact invasion in 1968, at one point (for not completely known reason) occupant soldiers started ferociously shoot on the national museum building (making many little holes in the facade).
it looked like this...


later, it was only provisionally fixed and looked like this..


because it is cherished folklore to permanently pose like victims, locals started to fancy this patchwork look of the facade (an explicit sign of 1968 occupation).
name of the Soviet minister of defense in 1968 was Andrei Antonovich Grechko... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Grechko
so, locals nicknamed these patched holes on the facade as "El Grechko Frescoes".
recently, the building was thoroughly reconstructed and when the restored building was unveiled to the shock of the locals "El Grechko Frescoes" were gone (no more clearly visible).
it triggered a huge uproar, locals demanded "El Grechko Frescoes" back and were accusing those responsible for the reconstruction of the building from a vile attempt to eradicate the history (from the facade of the national archaeological museum).

[sally]

oh your czech archaeological frauds would find a happy home with us

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piltdown_Man

The Piltdown Man fraud significantly affected early research on human evolution. Notably, it led scientists down a blind alley in the belief that the human brain expanded in size before the jaw adapted to new types of food.

[Holdrüholoheuho]

i like when archeologists are imaginative!

--------------------------------

btw. i fancied about the archeological tv gameshow that all the dudes (host & contenders) throw the druid's head at each other almost as if playing a ball game.
as i already mentioned (in another thread) i have seen this head https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C5%A1ec ... ovice_Head in September 2019 and when this exhibition was being prepared in local mass media it was highlighted it's one of the most treasured objects, etc., etc., and these claims were accompanied by footage of ppl touching the head only in gloves and the transport of the head being assisted by a commando of masked & armored cops with big guns.


thus it was pleasing to see there was a time when these objects were treated in a more casual & playful fashion.
tho i must admit i am partly brainwashed by the local mass media because my second thoughts were, "omg, Mr. Wheeler, please don't drop the salad bowl on the floor," or, "omg, Mr. Childe, please, don't break the (obviously fragile) goddess (made of mammoth-ivory) in two halves."

[Holdrüholoheuho]

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/04/s ... ves/138552

Stone Age Humans Got “Stoned” in Caves
...
In a new study published in the Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture, archaeologists have been conducting studies on the effects of smoke and poor air circulation on humans whilst inside palaeolithic caves and rock shelters.
...
Various caves in France contain cave paintings deep inside the cave interior, which has led to the researchers investigating the possibility that humans penetrated further into caves where the lower concentration of oxygen could lead to hypoxia.

Hypoxia is a condition in which the body or a region of the body is deprived of adequate oxygen in environments where the oxygen concentration stands below 18%.

The study found that a combination of the enclosed environment, limited air circulation, and the use of fire to illuminate a cave led to a rapid decrease in oxygen as low as 11%.

Humans can survive in environments as low as 9%, but If oxygen delivery to cells is insufficient due to rapid onset of hypoxia, subjects can suffer symptoms such as headaches, confusion, disorientation, hallucinations, behavioural change, severe headaches, a reduced level of consciousness, and a sense of euphoria like a drug.

The researchers also suggest that the altered mindset would have affected their cognitive abilities to draw in the caves.
...

[rischka]

i like the bohemian head! last year i saw the big giant olmec heads in mexico (or at least the ones at villahermosa) dating from before 900 BC. i knew of the giant heads since childhood and was excited to see them up close. there are 17 confirmed examples, all carved from basalt, the smallest weighing 6 tons. the one below is the largest from la venta, it is 8 feet high and weighs 24 tons. these were moved from their original site due to oil exploration and are in an outdoor park there
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec_colossal_heads