An eclectic assortment of stuff: food, archaeology, fun, books, history, geekery, etc.
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 28th, 2007
From the BBC: Olympic digs yield historic finds.
Valuable archeological finds have been unearthed on two Olympics 2012 sites.
Pottery from the 4th Century and a Roman coin were found on the London stadium site and Iron Age activity found on the Aquatics Centre site.
The finds will form part of the Museum of London’s collection but digging [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 28th, 2007
From discovery.com: Sick Rams Used as Ancient Bioweapons.
Infected rams and donkeys were the earliest bioweapons, according to a new study which dates the use of biological warfare back more than 3,300 years.
According to a review published in the Journal of Medical Hypotheses, two ancient populations, the Arzawans and the Hittites, engaged "in mutual use of [...]
Posted in miscellaneous on Nov 27th, 2007
From the Guardian: Undercover restorers fix Paris landmark’s clock.
It is one of Paris’s most celebrated monuments, a neoclassical masterpiece that has cast its shadow across the city for more than two centuries.
But it is unlikely that the Panthéon, or any other building in France’s capital, will have played host to a more bizarre sequence of [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 27th, 2007
From The Australian: Expert sceptical of sacred Roman cave.
A leading Italian archaeologist said that the grotto whose discovery was announced this week in Rome is not the sacred cave linked to the myth of the city’s foundation by Romulus and Remus.
The Culture Ministry and experts who presented the find said they were "reasonably certain" the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 27th, 2007
From EurekAlert: Gene study supports single main migration across Bering Strait.
Did a relatively small number of people from Siberia who trekked across a Bering Strait land bridge some 12,000 years ago give rise to the native peoples of North and South America?
Or did the ancestors of today’s native peoples come from other parts of Asia [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 27th, 2007
From Why a Nile tadpole means a great deal.
Recording numbers and quantities was one of the first requirements of the bureaucracy as soon as hieroglyphs had been invented. Items to be accounted for varied from enemies slain in battle and prisoners to how many jars of beer or bunches of onions were needed to accompany [...]
Posted in strange stuff on Nov 27th, 2007
From the Daily Mail: Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by ‘paranormal’ eccentric.
But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region’s greatest wonders are concealed.
Here, 100ft down and hidden from public view, lies an astonishing secret – one that has drawn comparisons with the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 26th, 2007
From the Beeb: Ancient Roman road map unveiled.
The Tabula Peutingeriana is one of the Austrian National Library’s greatest treasures.
The parchment scroll, made in the Middle Ages, is the only surviving copy of a road map from the late Roman Empire.
The document, which is almost seven metres long, shows the network of main Roman roads from [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 22nd, 2007
From the BBC: Roman skeleton find in farm field.
A Roman skeleton dating back 2,000 years has been unearthed after it was spotted by a member of the public in a farmer’s field in North Yorkshire.
Archaeologists have dug up a 6ft lead coffin containing the well-preserved remains of a Romano-British adult. (…)
Archaeologists will now use the [...]
Posted in animals, birds, insects, etc on Nov 22nd, 2007
The Interactive Blue Whale on the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society’s site will give you some idea. And wow, is it ever cool.
(Thanks to Lorna for writing to tell me about the whale.)
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 21st, 2007
From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Unique mosaic floor uncovered in excavations of ancient synagogue in Galilee.
Remains of an ancient synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine era have been revealed in excavations carried out in the Arbel National Park in the Galilee under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The excavations, in the Khirbet Wadi Hamam, [...]
Posted in Italy, history & archaeology on Nov 20th, 2007
From the International Herald Tribune: Newly unearthed cave may be linked to myth of Rome’s founding.
Italian archaeologists have inched closer to unearthing the secrets behind one of Western civilization’s most enduring legends.
On Tuesday, the government released photographs of a deep cavern where some archaeologists claim that ancient Romans honored Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders [...]
Posted in chocolate, food, history & archaeology on Nov 12th, 2007
From the Telegraph: Earliest chocolate drink found.
Our love affair with chocolate began at least 500 years earlier than previously thought, and was combined with a love of alcohol too, according to traces of the treat found in pottery shards uncovered in Honduras. (…)
Today, researchers say that residue of the chemical theobromine, which occurs in Mesoamerica [...]
Posted in Linux, computer stuff on Nov 12th, 2007
A recent New York Times article gives a good introduction: Laptop with a mission.
In November, you’ll be able to buy a new laptop that’s spillproof, rainproof, dustproof and drop-proof. It’s fanless, it’s silent and it weighs 3.2 pounds. One battery charge will power six hours of heavy activity, or 24 hours of reading. The laptop [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 10th, 2007
From scotsman.com: Mummy’s curse unwrapped.
On 26 November 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter broke through the sealed wall of a miraculously undisturbed pharaonic tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and was struck dumb for several minutes by the riches within.
"Can you see anything?" Carter’s sponsor, the fifth Earl of Carnarvon, eventually blurted, unable to bear the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, language on Nov 10th, 2007
From the New York Times: Humdinger of a Project: Tracing Slang to Ireland.
Growing up Irish in Queens and on Long Island, Daniel Cassidy was nicknamed Glom.
"I used to ask my mother, ‘Why Glom?’ and she’d say, ‘Because you’re always grabbing, always taking things,’" he said, imitating his mother’s accent and limited patience, shaped by a [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, religion on Nov 6th, 2007
From A fragment of history squirreled away / One more piece of famed ancient Bible comes to Jerusalem.
For 18 years businessman Sam Sabbagh resisted pressures from Israeli scholars to let them have the small piece of parchment that had been his good luck charm for six decades.
Sabbagh was convinced that thanks to the parchment, which [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 5th, 2007
From the Beeb: Stonehenge’s huge support settlement.
Archaeologists working near Stonehenge have uncovered what they believe is the largest Neolithic settlement ever discovered in Northern Europe.
Remains of an estimated 300 houses are thought to survive under earthworks 3km (2 miles) from the famous stone rings, and 10 have been excavated so far.
But there could have been [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 5th, 2007
From the Gunpowder Plot Society:
November 5, 1605, a solitary figure is arrested in the cellars of Parliament House. Although he first gives his name as John Johnson, a startling series of events begins to unfold under torture. Guy Fawkes, as he is really called, is one of thirteen who have conspired to blow up the [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 4th, 2007
From Science Daily: How Old Tree Rings And Ancient Wood Are Helping Rewrite History.
Cornell archaeologists are rewriting history with the help of tree rings from 900-year-old trees, wood found on ancient buildings and through analysis of the isotopes (especially radiocarbon dating) and chemistry they can find in that wood.
By collecting thousands of years worth of [...]
Posted in history & archaeology, technology on Nov 1st, 2007
From Wired: Escape Old London’s Most Feared Prison — Guided by GPS.
Through a thick drizzle I gaze at the ominous gray stone buildings of the Tower of London, England’s most notorious prison. I wander from one to the next, trying to imagine what it was like to be held captive here hundreds of years ago. [...]
Posted in history & archaeology on Nov 1st, 2007
From the BBC: Iron Age chain discovery hailed.
A 2,000-year-old bronze Iron Age chain has been discovered during work in Scatness.
The chain, with 20 double links and the remains of possibly the clasp, was recovered from a roundhouse wall by the Shetland Amenity Trust.
The chain is described as extremely well preserved and adds to the jewellery [...]