Mummies with Ulcers
Two Mexican mummies circa 1350 A.D. have been found to contain Helicobacter pylori, the bacteria that causes ulcers, in their intestinal tracts. In other Mexico news, mysterious pyramids north of Mexico city are being excavated in the hope they will provide insight into a pre-Aztecan culture that inhabited the area then abandoned it in 700 A.D.
Bruce Conner (1933-2008)
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Bruce Conner’s “Sound of Two Hand Angel,” 1974.
Bruce Conner died Monday (July 7, 2008). This from a [Smithsonian] Archives of American Art interview, April 16, 1973:
BRUCE CONNER: Well, when I was in high school I was very interested in paleontology and archeology. I had a geology class which I had no real interest in because they were always scratching rocks for the first two-thirds of the semester before it got into paleontology. My instructor in high school, Dr. Barnard, made a claim that there were no trilobites in the Permian strata in Kansas. Nobody had ever found any. Michael and Dave knew of a limestone quarry where there were lots of fossils.
The Gabriel Tablets
The release of inscriptions from a three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing quiet a stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it appears to speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days. If this turns out to be an accurate rendering, and the date holds, this turns out to show that the idea of resurrection did not come from Christianity per se, but was part of a larger, Jewish world of anticipation and thought. The Jewishness of early Christianity is more positively confirmed by this extraordinary finding.
A Brig-Sloop for India and Mary
The prow of the 1780 British warship H.M.S. Ontario is shown 500 feet (150 meters) below Lake Ontario near Rochester, New York, upon the ship’s discovery in early June. Called a “holy grail” of Great Lakes wreck hunters, the 80-foot (24-meter) brig-sloop sank in a sudden gale during the U.S. Revolutionary War on October 31, 1780.
The National Geographic News feature on the H.M.S. Ontario includes additional images.
Many Pictures, Same Thing
Via mefi:
many same is an archive of universal sameness –
as observed through the internet.in isolation from their original context images acquire new meaning. similarity is amplified while any inherent significance or value is diminished. ultimately the viewer is prompted to re-interpret the message, placing new cultural, aesthetic and emotional qualities upon it.
as a publication tool the Internet has facilitated an unprecedented accumulation of privately owned images, which are for the most part freely accessible. this constitutes a vast repository of the ‘everyday’ that provides a unique perspective of minute social and cultural phenomena.
All the images are sourced from online social photography sites.
Of Beavers, and a Curious Simile
This recollection harkens back to a time years ago, when I had a professional (and genuine) interest in exploring and documenting the history and culture of the Land Between the Rivers (southernmost Illinois, that is to say — not Mesopotamia-as-was). A couple of my fellow explorers were over on the Ohio River side of the region, seeking out something or another of historical significance (as I recall, evidence of the so-called Hopewell Culture).
And they came back and told me of their adventures.
“And then — ,” she said, “we heard something that sounded like people were throwing refrigerators into the water.
“It was beavers.”
a brief history of stonehenge
As if Nigel’s theories weren’t enough, recent studies of Stonehenge suggest a large settlement surrounded the monument and perhaps select individuals were buried there.
“I don’t think it was the common people getting buried at Stonehenge — it was clearly a special place at that time. One has to assume anyone buried there had some good credentials.”
Great moments in archaeological deduction
“We know they were there because they were remarkably messy.”
–Thomas Gilbert, University of Copenhagen
India! Oh, India! How about this?
. . . in the event you find yourself wandering aimlessly about London’s Docklands . . .
take me to the river from pau ros on Vimeo.
Read more
Divers Find Caesar Bust in Rhone River
The Guanajuato Mummies
A link from Coudal to the creepiest photos ever taken reminded me of the Museum of the Mummies in Guanajuato.
The Guanajuato mummies were discovered in a cemetery of a city named Guanajuato northwest of Mexico City (near Léon). They are accidental modern mummies and were literally “dug up” between the years 1896 and 1958 when a local law required relatives to pay a kind of grave tax. You could pay the tax once (170 pesos) and be done with it; this option may have appealed to wealthier individuals. But you were also allowed to pay a yearly fee (20 pesos); this would have appealed to less wealthy families. However, if the relatives could not pay this yearly tax for three years, the body (which had, by the way, become accidentally mummified) was dug up from the cemetery and (if the fee still wasn’t paid) placed on display in El museo de las momias.
Trepanation
Archaeologists have unearthed the skull of a young woman in northern Greece who is believed to have undergone head surgery in the third century, Greek news media reported Wednesday.
Strange New Cities
Using earth orbiting satellites, acclaimed researcher David Flynn has studied the high plateau of Bolivia and found previously undiscovered unnatural patterns stretching outward from Lake Titicaca for hundreds of square miles. The geoglyphic works range from arrow straight parallel lines, enormous over lapping perfect circles and rectangles to ‘labyrinth like’ systems of walls and mounds extending over every feature of the terrain.
A Tree Grows in Detroit
Tree growing in rotting paper, Detroit Public Schools book depository.
Polynesian Chickens
Scholars have long assumed the Spaniards first introduced chickens to the New World along with horses, pigs, and cattle. But now radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis of a chicken bone excavated from a site in Chile suggest Polynesians in oceangoing canoes brought chickens to the west coast of South America well before Europe’s “Age of Discovery.”
Dakota the Dino “Mummy”
A newly un veiled “dinosaur mummy” is one of the best-preserved of the ancient reptiles found to date, accord ing to researchers—who say this one may have had stripes and the ability to out run fearsome T. rex. Scientists on Monday announced a preliminary analysis of the 67-million-year-old duck-billed dinosaur, with muscles and bones preserved in large, intact segments of skin.
Million-year-old human tooth found in Spain
Origin of Masada remains questioned
An Israeli anthropologist is using modern forensics and an obscure biblical passage to challenge accepted wisdom about mysterious human remains found at Masada, the desert fortress famous as the scene of a mass suicide nearly 2,000 years ago.
Ancient Egyptian City Spotted From Space
Satellites hovering above Egypt have zoomed in on a 1,600-year-old metropolis, archaeologists say.
Images captured from space pinpoint telltale signs of previous habitation in the swatch of land 200 miles south of Cairo, which digging recently confirmed as an ancient settlement dating from about 400 A.D.
The find is part of a larger project aiming to map as much of ancient Egypt’s archaeological sites, or “tells,” as possible before they are destroyed or covered by modern development.
“It is the biggest site discovered so far,” said project leader Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Based on the coins and pottery we found, it appears to be a massive regional center that traded with Greece, Turkey and Libya.”
Smells Like Vanilla
One of the reasons the relics of Joan of Arc’s body — housed in a church museum — are forgeries and not the remains of the 15-century French heroine and saint is the charred-looking human rib smells like vanilla.
Italian art thief says tomb raiders provide important service
School started this week—naturally, I’m already behind—but I’m trying to get caught up with stuff that I’ve spotted and wanted to post. How about this to get started:
A retired Italian antiquities thief told a Rome court that tomb robbers provide an important service by saving ancient art and helping to preserve a historical record.
Link (Via Arts Journal)
Ancient Fishhook
A man hunting for American Indian artifacts with his sons along a gravel bar on the Missouri River has uncovered an ancient fishhook that is making collectors envious.
Rome’s new vigilance for its buried treasure
Of all the old saws about the Eternal City, at least one remains simply true: dig a deep hole almost anywhere here, and you’ll unearth an archaeological artifact, or two.
“Tricky Situation”
Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey is giving no quarter to powerful evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya’s national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans’ early ancestors.
The Rock that Whispers
“You could see the mouth and eyes of the snake. It looked like a real python,” said Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo. “The play of sunlight over the indentations gave them the appearance of snake skin. At night, the firelight gave one the feeling that the snake was actually moving.”