Evidence of a 2,800-year-old biblical earthquake is found in Jerusalem after archaeologists uncover ‘layer of destruction’ of collapsed walls and broken pottery

• The Old Testament discuses an earthquake that hit Jerusalem some 2,800 years ago and now, archaeologists have found the first evidence of the event

• Researchers found a layer of destruction while conducting excavations

• It consisted of collapsed walls and broken pottery dating to the 8th century BC

By STACY LIBERATORE FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

Books of Amos and Zechariah in the Old Testament describe an earthquake that rocked the city Jerusalem about 2,800 years ago and archaeologists have now found the first evidence of biblical event.

The Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) excavations in the City of David National Park uncovered a layer of destruction during excavations, which consists of collapsed walls, broken pottery and bits and pieces of other goods.

Researchers say that since there was no signs of fire or an ancient conquest the destruction had to have been caused by an earthquake that hit Israel during the 8th century BC.

Some evidence of the event has been found in surrounding areas, but this is the first time archaeologists can prove it hit the major city.

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The Israel Antiquities Authority's (IAA) excavations in the City of David National Park uncovered a layer of destruction during excavations, which consisted of collapsed walls, broken pottery and bits and pieces of other goods

In the book of Amos, the passage reads: 'The words of Amos, a sheep breeder from Tekoa, who prophesied concerning Israel in the reigns of Kings Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

'And the Valley in the Hills shall be stopped up, for the Valley of the Hills shall reach only to Azal; it shall be stopped up as it was stopped up as a result of the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah,' reads another passage in Zechariah, recalling the event some 200 years later, to suggest how strong of a collective memory it left.'

Among the artifacts, archaeologists found were fragments of pottery, some nearly intact that they could be put back together, and small tables, The Jerusalem Post reports.

Since the artifacts were discovered deep into excavation site, experts say residents had to have built on top of the ruins following the earthquake, which preserved traces the event occurred.

Researchers say that since there was no signs of fire or an ancient conquest the destruction had to have been caused by an earthquake that hit Israel during the 8th century BC. Pcutred are collapsed walls that ruins of the event

Among the artifacts, archaeologists found were fragments of pottery, some nearly intact that they could be put back together, and small tables

IAA excavation directors Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf said in a statement: 'When we excavated the structure and uncovered an 8th century BCE layer of destruction, we were very surprised, because we know that Jerusalem continued to exist in succession until the Babylonian destruction, which occurred about 200 years later.

'We asked ourselves what could have caused that dramatic layer of destruction we uncovered.

'Examining the excavation findings, we tried to check if there is a reference to it in the biblical text.

'Interestingly, the earthquake that appears in the Bible, in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred at the time when the building we excavated in the City of David collapsed.'

Another biblical find was discovered in Israel last month - a pottery fragment unearthed in Israel bears the name of the biblical judge 'Jerubbaal,' which was inked on the artifact 3,100 years ago

Another biblical find was discovered in Israel last month - a pottery fragment unearthed in Israel bears the name of the biblical judge 'Jerubbaal,' which was inked on the artifact 3,100 years ago.

Mentioned in the Hebrew bible, Jerubbaal was a military leader, judge and prophet whose story is recounted in chapters 6 to 8 of the Book of Judges.

The ceramic artifact was discovered in an archeological excavation at Horbat al-Ra'i, near Kiryat Gat in Israel, which experts say it was part of a small jug that carried precious liquids.

'The name written on the jug, Yarubaal, may allude to biblical Jerubbaal, also known as the judge Gideon ben (son of) Yoash, but we cannot be sure if he owned the inscribed vessel,' the Israel Antiquities Authority shared in a statement.

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08-08-2021 om 23:01 geschreven door peter  

Based on damaged artifacts found in Jerusalem, experts are convinced that they have proof of a 2,800-year-old devastating earthquake that was mentioned in the Bible. According to the books of Amos and Zechariah, there was a great earthquake that shook Israel “in the days of Uzziah king of Judah”.

A collection of shattered vessels that included cooking utensils, bowls, storage containers, and lamps, were unearthed in a layer of destruction by archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority. It is believed that these items would have been damaged when the walls of an old building collapsed due to an earthquake because there wasn’t any evidence of a fire or any other natural phenomena. These vessels have been dated back to the 8th century BC. (Pictures can be seen here.)

The excavation area of an 8th century BCE layer of destruction in the City of David likely resulting from an earthquake from the same period that rocked the Holy Land and was mentioned in the Bible.

(Ortal Kalaf/ Israel Antiquities Authority)

Remains of tools discovered in Jerusalem's City of David within a layer of destruction from the 8th century BCE, which coincided with a massive earthquake mentioned in the Bible. The tools were likely shattered during the quake.

(Eliyahu Yanai/ City of David)

Vessels discovered in Jerusalem's City of David within a layer of destruction from the 8th century BCE, which coincided with a massive earthquake mentioned in the Bible. They are photographed after their restoration by Joseph Bocangolz.

(Dafna Gazit/ Israel Antiquities Authority)

Dr. Joe Uziel, right, and Ortal Kalaf from the Israel Antiquities Authority.

(Yaniv Berman/ Israel Antiquities Authority)

The researchers also described where the items were found, “This was most notable on the earliest floor of the southernmost room.” “In this room, a row of smashed vessels was uncovered along its northern wall, above which fallen stones had been found. It appears that these stones were the upper part of the walls of the room, which had collapsed, destroying the vessels which had been set along the wall.”

Dr. Joe Uziel and Ortal Chalaf, who are the directors of the excavation, explained in further detail how they came to the conclusion that an earthquake caused the damage, “We asked ourselves what could have caused that dramatic layer of destruction we uncovered,” adding, “Examining the excavation findings, we tried to check if there is a reference to it in the biblical text. Interestingly, the earthquake that appears in the Bible in the books of Amos and Zechariah, occurred at the time when the building we excavated in the City of David collapsed. The combination of the finds in the field together with the biblical description, led us to the conclusion that the earthquake that struck the Land of Israel during the reign of Uzziah king of Judah, also hit the capital of the kingdom – Jerusalem.”

Furthermore, they have found evidence of the earthquake in other parts of Israel as the researchers explained, “The earthquake that occurred in the middle of the 8th century BCE was probably one of the strongest and most damaging earthquakes in ancient times, and evidence of its occurrence has been discovered in the past in excavations conducted at a variety of sites throughout Israel, such as Hazor, Gezer, Tel Agol, and Tell es-Safi/Gath.”

Their findings will be presented next month at the “City of David Research” conference.

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08-08-2021 om 22:51 geschreven door peter  

The Real Story of the ‘Bearded God’ Named Quetzalcoatl

Many myths have cropped up in the centuries since Columbus landed upon the shores of Hispaniola. While some of these myths have come to be seen for what they are, many more persist in the zeitgeist as fact. One such myth is that the Aztecs believed that Hernan Cortes, the leader of a band of conquistadors, was in fact a reincarnated deity by the name of Quetzalcoatl.

As the story goes, the Aztec believed in a white, bearded god named Quetzalcoatl, who, long ago, had disappeared into the east. Before he left, however, he promised to return. When Cortes and his crew of Spaniards came ashore in Mexico in 1519, many thought they were gods.

And when their march inland took them to the Aztec emperor’s doorstep, he recognized who Cortes truly was. A pious man, Montezuma proclaimed Cortes was in fact Quetzalcoatl himself, come to fulfill the prophecy. He then graciously handed over the keys to his empire to the bearded, white god.

This tale has become so pervasive in the modern ethos that I even learned it in my 9th grade world history class. Told by our teacher that this story was historical fact, I went on believing the myth for years. It wasn’t until graduate school, when I became more interested in the history of the Atlantic World and the colonial societies it produced, that I learned that the story of a white bearded god named Quetzalcoatl was a myth.

In this article, I’d like to explore this myth, examining why it’s untrue, how it came about, and why both European and Indigenous people of post-Conquest Mexico came to believe in it. But first, let’s quickly delve into the history of the real Quetzalcoatl and his theological origins in Mesoamerica.

The Real Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent

The Plumed Serpent made his first appearance in the archaeological record over 2,000 years ago. In the heartland of the Olmec civilization, at a site known as La Venta in the present-day state of Tabasco, Mexico, archaeologists discovered a carving of a snake sporting a beak and feathered crest, with birds (or quetzal in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs ) on either side. Under the Olmecs, La Venta flourished from 900 BC to somewhere between 300 and 200 BC. Credited as the mother of civilization in Mesoamerica, the Olmec spread their culture throughout the region, including their belief in the Plumed Serpent deity.

A photo of La Venta Stela 19, the earliest known representation of the Feathered Serpent in Mesoamerica.

( Audrey and George Delange )

The next great civilization that left signs of worshiping Quetzalcoatl was Teotihuacan. While scholars do not know who built and inhabited this magnificent ancient city, its people etched their reverence for Quetzalcoatl into stone. The site contains three large pyramids: the Pyramid of the Sun, the Citadel, and the Temple of Feathered Serpent.

Built around 150 AD, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, also known as the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, was the third largest pyramid in the city. Made up of seven tiers, the facade of the pyramid swarms with carvings of snakes. The symbolism of Quetzalcoatl here is intriguing.

Archaeologists have argued that the ornate headdresses found on the serpents represent time. This suggests the people of Teotihuacan gave Quetzalcoatl a role in the creation of the calendar, a role he would continue to play in later civilizations. Though Teotihuacan lay abandoned by 750 AD, it represents an important point in the evolution of Quetzalcoatl in Mesoamerican thought.

Quetzalcoatl head in Teotihuacan .

( Josue /Adobe Stock)

By the time the Aztecs emerged on the scene in fourteenth-century Mesoamerica, Quetzalcoatl had become an important god for many peoples of the region. And during the centuries of the Aztecs’ rise to power, the god came to play a variety of roles in Aztec belief .

For one, they credited him with the creation of the universe, humanity, the calendar, and their most important crop, corn. The Aztecs also drew upon long standing traditions that associated Quetzalcoatl with science, arts, and learning, as well as the planet Venus. And, as if this were not enough, he was also closely associated with rain.

Despite the various roles and deeds ascribed to Quetzalcoatl in Aztec theology, he was not the most important god worshipped in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. Indeed, nowhere in the traditions of the Aztec, or the Olmec, Toltec, Maya, or numerous other cultures for that matter, did the Plumed Serpent god disappear, promising one day to return.

Quetzalcoatl.

( guillermo /Adobe Stock)

Lost in Translation

So how did this myth come about? As with most historical phenomena, many events fed into the Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl legend, like tributaries into a river. Perhaps one of the first to occur, chronologically, was a simple matter of mistranslation.

When the Spanish arrived on the Mexican coast in 1519, they were a complete unknown in the Mesoamerican world. Thus, as the Spanish made their way inland, the towns they passed, and sometimes destroyed, had no idea what to call them.

In sixteenth-century Mesoamerica, part of a person’s identity was their city of origin or the social role they filled. Eventually, Nahuatl speakers denoted the Spaniards as Caxtilteca, or people of Castile; but that was years in the future. For now, no one knew from whence the Spanish had come, and so could not label them in traditional fashion.

It seems, however, that many people in the region were impressed with Spanish guns and horses. After all, nothing like this existed in Mexico at the time. When the Spanish recorded the interactions they had with the various peoples of central Mexico, they noted that these people called them ‘teotl.’ In Nahuatl, teotl can mean god, and this was the translation the Spaniards latched onto.

‘The Conquest of Tenochtitlán’

( Public Domain )

But, teotl had other meanings as well. As historian Matthew Restall explains, “it could be combined with other words… to qualify them not as specifically godly or godlike, but as fine, fancy, large, powerful, and so on.”

Impressed by the horses and goods the Spanish brought with them, the people who met Cortes on his march inland surmised the Europeans were important people. And, lacking any other way to distinguish them in speech, used the word ‘teotl’ to denote this, which later Spanish chroniclers misinterpreted as ‘god.’

Not So Reverent Actions

If the Aztecs had truly believed that Cortes was a god, Cortes himself would certainly have made note of it. But in all the letters he wrote to King Charles V in which he attempted to establish political and moral legitimacy for the war he started, he never mentions it. Even when describing his first encounter with Montezuma, the Aztec emperor, Cortes portrays Montezuma as recognizing the Spaniard’s humanity. In a letter to Charles V, Cortes recounted how Montezuma told him, “See that I am of flesh and blood like you and all other men, and I am mortal and substantial.”

Whether or not Montezuma ever actually spoke those words, we can never know. But, if the Aztec emperor had proclaimed Cortes’s divinity, why did the conquistador leave it out of his letter? Surely, such a thing would have gone far in his attempts to justify the conquests he sought in the New World.

Additionally, in the midst of the battle for that conquest, the Aztec did not sit passively by and watch the Spanish take their capital of Tenochtitlan. While they found Spanish horses and guns rather fascinating, the Spaniards themselves had quickly worn out their welcome.

In traditional Aztec warfare, soldiers captured enemies for sacrifice, which was thought to be an honorable death. In their war against the conquistadors, however, Aztec warriors delivered a devastating blow to the back of their opponent’s head whenever they could. In pre-conquest Tenochtitlan, such a death had been reserved for the city’s criminals.

Through the re-examination of the word ‘teotl’ and closer look at the actions we know the Aztecs took in regards to the Spanish presence , we can say with certainty they did not view Cortes as a god. To get a better understanding of how this myth came to permeate both European and Mesoamerican histories of the conquest, we need to examine the works of prominent thinkers in post-conquest Mexico.

Planting the Seeds of a Myth

One of the most prominent of these thinkers is the Franciscan friar Toribio de Benavente, known to history as Motolinía. While in the decades following the Aztec-Spanish War, many Spanish chroniclers made mention of the variant forms of teotl used to identify the conquistadors, most left it at that. They simply observed its use, telling their readers it translated as ‘god’ or ‘gods’ and moved on. But Motolinía took it a step further.

He saw this mistranslation as evidence of God’s approval. Writing about the conquest and post-conquest era while living in the Valley of Mexico as a missionary, Motolinía noted that the Nahua people “called the Castilians teteuh, which is to say gods, and the Castilians, corrupting the word, said teules.” For Motolinía, the use of this word denoted that the Mesoamericans had been awaiting the Spanish arrival. As Restall notes, this “anticipation… proved the Conquest was part of God’s plan for the Americas.”

Some 30 years after Motolinía scribbled those words, the Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl myth reached its penultimate form in the work of Bernardino de Sahagún. Known as the Florentine Codex , this gargantuan work comprised 12 books that took around 45 years to compile.

Spaniards disposing of the bodies of Moctezuma and Itzquauhtzin in the Florentine Codex.

( Public Domain )

An intelligent man with an aptitude for languages, Sahagún travelled to Mexico as part of the Franciscan order’s attempts to convert the Indigenous populations to Christianity. During his time there, Sahagún learned to speak Nahuatl.

With his newly earned Nahuatl skills, Sahagún recruited the children of Nahua elites to work with him on creating the Codex. With Sahagún essentially filling the role of project manager, his Nahua assistants wrote most of the Florentine Codex .

This gave the Codex a decidedly Indigenous point-of-view on the conquest of Mexico. Yet, in this text composed by young Aztec scholars in the decades following the conquest, we see the following depiction of Montezuma preparing for Cortes’s arrival:

“When Moteucçoma heard the news, he immediately sent people for the reception of Quetzalcoatl, because they thought it was him who was coming, because they were expecting him daily.”

Aztec Gods in the Florentine Codex.

(Gary Francisco Keller/ CC BY 3.0 )

Reasons for Believing

Even though the form of the Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl myth so many of us were taught as children didn’t come about until the 1560s, some forty years following the fall of the Aztec empire, both European and Nahua populations had reason to buy into it.

By the time the Florentine Codex was published, the days of the conquistadors were long gone and Spain’s New World empire established. For some Europeans, the notion of Indigenous inferiority sufficed as an explanation for the success of the Spanish conquistadors. Other Spaniards who immigrated to the colony built on the ruins of the Aztec empire, known as New Spain, undoubtedly observed the unjust treatment the Indigenous populations faced at the hands of the Spanish empire.

Luckily, the Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl myth helped to assuage, at least in part, whatever guilt colonists may have felt. As historian Camilla Townsend put it, the myth showed that “the Europeans had not only been welcomed, they had been worshipped.”

• Quetzalcoatl: From Feathered Serpent to Creator God
• Xolotl – The Underworld Dog God of the Aztecs
• River of Mercury in Underworld of Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl may lead to Royal Tomb

The Nahua had the opposite question to answer: How did we fall from power? The Nahua who helped Sahagún create the Florentine Codex knew the Indigenous populations of the New World were not inferior to the Europeans. After all, their ancestors had built the most sophisticated city in the world, Tenochtitlan, and the Aztec empire had never before known defeat. And on top of that, they had personal memories of fathers and grandfathers who had fought against Cortes and his conquistadors.

To account for the fall of the Aztec from power, the Nahua writers of the Florentine Codex ascribed a generally positive attribute, piety, to their ancestors, rather than the negative attribute used by some Europeans, inferiority. By explaining the Aztec loss through this positive lens, the Nahua of post-conquest Mexico could remain confident in their ancestor’s strength and intelligence, while also accounting for their defeat in the Aztec-Spanish War. Could Montezuma and his empire be blamed for losing if they had been stunned, even just temporarily, by overwhelming reverence to their gods?

Quetzalcoatl, the plumed serpent.

( Kazakova Maryia /Adobe Stock)

Exposing the Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl Myth

The Cortes-as-Quetzalcoatl myth had been building steam for a few decades before work on the Florentine Codex began. By the 1560s, it had reached its final form, the one that survives to this day. In order to truly understand what happened in the years of the Spanish invasion and conquest of Mexico, indeed to understand the history of European colonization in general, we must expose this myth, and others like it, as falsehood.

Myths like this deny agency to the colonized, cause European victory to seem inevitable when it was not, and keep us from knowing the true, much more interesting story.

• Top Image: Quetzalcoatl, detail. Source: Manzanedo/ Deviant Art

By Jordan Baker

• Jordan Baker blogs about history at  eastindiabloggingco.com. 

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08-08-2021 om 00:41 geschreven door peter  

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07-08-2021 om 16:57 geschreven door peter  

ANCIENT PROTO-MATH FOUND IN BABYLONIAN TABLET

TUCKED AWAY in a seemingly forgotten corner of the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Daniel Mansfield found what may solve one of ancient math’s biggest questions.

First exhumed in 1894 from what is now Baghdad, the circular tablet — broken at the center with small perpendicular indentations across it — was feared lost to antiquity. But in 2018, a photo of the tablet showed up in Mansfield’s inbox.

Mansfield, a senior lecturer of mathematics at the University of New South Wales Sydney, had suspected the tablet was real. He came across records of its excavation and began the hunt. Word got around about what he was looking for, and then the email came. He knew what he had to do: travel to Turkey and examine it at the museum.

Hidden within this tablet is not only the oldest known display of applied geometry but a new ancient understanding of triangles. It could rewrite what we know about the history of mathematics, Mansfield argues.

These findings were published Wednesday in the journal Foundations of Science.

It’s generally thought that trigonometry — a subset of geometry and what’s displayed on the tablet in a crude sense — was developed by ancient Greeks like the philosopher Pythagoras. However, analysis of the tablet suggests it was created 1,000 years before Pythagoras was born.

Babylonian mathematics, which already holds a place of renown in the pantheon of ancient math, might’ve been more sophisticated than historians have given it credit for.

“The way we understand trigonometry harks back to ancient Greek astronomers,” Mansfield tells Inverse. “I like to think of the Babylonian understanding of right triangles as an unexpected prequel, which really is an independent story because the Babylonians weren’t using it to measure the stars, they were using it to measure the ground.”

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW FIRST

Mansfield is no stranger to a pair of white gloves and following his mathematical curiosity.

Years before discovering this latest tablet, dubbed Si.427, Mansfield was hot on the trail of another ancient Babylonian “document:” Plimpton 322. While the location of this artifact was known (it’s located at Columbia University) its true purpose was not.

Like Si.427, which dates back to roughly 1900 to 1600 BCE, Plimpton 322 is covered in geometric markings — riddles academics have tried to decipher for years. While the reigning theory was that these markings were a kind of teacher’s cheat code for Babylonian homework problems, Mansfield and colleagues were not convinced.

In a 2017 paper, Mansfield and colleagues propose Plimpton 322 might be a kind of proto-trigonometry table of values — suggesting it predates the development of trigonometry as we know it today.

“A modern analogy would be to say that it contains a mix of elementary school problems alongside the unsolved conjectures of mathematics,” writes Mansfield in the new paper.

WHAT’S NEW

Now, Mansfield argues the discovery of Si.427 could confirm his Plimpton 322 hunch.

In essence, Si.427 is argued to be a case study of how this proto-trig could be used in practice.

Si.427 is what’s known as a cadastral document. These are used to document the boundaries of land ownership. There are other examples on record, but Mansfield argues this tablet is the oldest known example from the Old Babylonian period — a range that stretches from 1900 BCE to 1600 BCE. On the tablet are legal and geometry details about a field that was split after some of it was sold.

This research suggests Plimpton 322 was used similarly: It might have been a surveyor’s cheat sheet, instead of a teacher’s. It’s possible Plimpton 322 was the theoretical solution to the practical problems a surveyor using Si.427 might have encountered.

“It’s a discovery that has come to us far outside our mathematical culture,” Mansfield says. “It seems new and fresh to us, even though it’s almost 4,000 years old.”

WHY IT MATTERS

While these tablets are the kind of thing you might easily walk past on display in a museum, Mansfield said this discovery could actually have a huge implication for how we understand these ancient mathematics.

Namely, it means mathematicians were working with so-called Pythagorean triples (trios of numbers that satisfy the infamous a^2+b^2 = c^2 equation) long before Pythagoras himself was even born.

It also helps answer a slightly less academic question: How do you evenly divide up disputed land?

“This is from a period where land is starting to become private — people started thinking about land in terms of ‘my land and your land,’ wanting to establish a proper boundary to have positive neighborly relationships,” Mansfield explains in a statement.

“And this is what this tablet immediately says. It's a field being split, and new boundaries are made.”

HOW DOES IT WORK?

As for how triangles sketched in clay translate to farmer’s fields, it all comes down to perpendicular lines.

Essentially, surveyors would choose two Pythagorean triples (which were inherently right triangles) and extend the boundary line of the resultant rectangle by eye to create true perpendicular lines that spread across the entire field.

“This proves that our Babylonian surveyor had a solid theoretical understanding of the geometry of rectangles and right triangles and used it to solve practical problems,” Mansfield says in the video.

There are also instances of resizing these triangles to better fit the physical shape of the field at hand, which surveyors would’ve liked done by referencing a table of trig values like Plimpton 322, the study suggests. This table would’ve been a comprehensive list of Pythagorean triples and the steps to resizing them.

WHAT’S NEXT

This discovery may have laid to rest one ancient math mystery, there’s still plenty more where that came from, Mansfield says.

“Ancient mathematics is not as sophisticated as modern mathematics,” he says. “But sometimes you want to simple answers instead of sophisticated ones.”

He’s not “just talking about how mathematics students want their exams to be.” The advantage of a simple approach is its quickness — and Mansfield wants to examine whether or not this approach has any real-world applications.

“This approach might be of benefit in computer graphics or any application where speed is more important than precision,” he says.

Abstract: 

Plimpton 322 is one of the most sophisticated and interesting mathematical objects from antiquity. It is often regarded as teacher’s list of school problems, however new analysis suggests that it relates to a particular geometric problem in contemporary surveying.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

06-08-2021 om 00:38 geschreven door peter  

Machu Picchu is 'several decades' OLDER than expected: Carbon dating of human remains found at the famous Inca site indicates it was in use in 1420 - over 20 years earlier than previously thought

• Research finds Machu Picchu is several decades older than previously thought

• Carbon dating of human remains at the Inca site indicates it was in use in 1420

• Archeologists said that is more than 20 years earlier than they had expected

• Experts thought it was built around 1440 as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti

By SAM TONKIN FOR MAILONLINE

The famous Inca site of Machu Picchu is several decades older than previously thought, archaeologists have discovered. 

Carbon dating of human remains suggests that it was in use in 1420 – more than 20 years earlier than scientists expected. 

Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located.

This led experts to believe it was built after 1440, and perhaps as late as 1450. 

Scroll down for video

Surprise discovery: The famous Inca site of Machu Picchu (pictured) is several decades older than previously thought, archaeologists have found

Carbon dating: Researchers dated 26 individuals recovered from three cemeteries in Machu Picchu during excavations in 1912. Archaeologists are pictured at the site in 1911

'Machu Picchu is among the most famous archaeological sites in the world,' said the study's lead author, Prof Richard Burger from Yale University.

'But until now estimates of its antiquity and the length of its occupation were based on contradictory historical accounts written by Spaniards in the period following the Spanish conquest.' 

He added: 'This is the first study based on scientific evidence to provide an estimate for the founding of Machu Picchu and the length of its occupation.'

Prof Burger and a team of experts from several US universities carried out accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of human remains from Machu Picchu. 

AMS dating is an advanced form of radiocarbon dating that can date skeletons with only small amounts of organic material left, expanding the pool of remains that can be examined. 

In this case, the team dated 26 individuals found at three cemeteries in Machu Picchu and recovered during excavations in 1912.

The study found the site was in use from 1420 to 1530 – ending around the time of the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. 

It also suggests that Pachacuti ascended to the throne and began his conquests decades before the accepted historical records indicate. 

Pachacuti took control of a city-state but his reign put the Inca on the path to becoming the most powerful empire in pre-Columbian America. 

Researchers said the discovery could have dramatic implications for our understanding of Inca history, and also challenges the reliability of using historical records of colonial forces. 

'The results suggest that the discussion of the development of the Inca empire based primarily on colonial records requires revision,' said Prof Burger.

'Modern radiocarbon methods provide a better foundation for understanding Inca chronology than the contradictory historical records.'

Machu Picchu is located in modern-day Peru's Cusco region, on a 7,970ft-long (2,430m) mountain ridge.

It was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls.

The site was abandoned during the time of the Spanish conquest, but was not discovered by the invading forces. 

Geological analysis has suggested that the citadel's location above a network of intersecting tectonic faults was deliberately chosen.

These would have provided an abundance of easy-to-work rock as well as a source of water and drainage.

Carbon dating, also referred to as radiocarbon dating or carbon-14 dating, is a method that is used to determine the age of an object. 

Machu Picchu is pictured during the 1912 expedition when the remains tested were first found

Machu Picchu was built as an estate for Emperor Pachacuti, who according to historical records rose to power in 1438 before conquering the area where the site is located 

The study found the site was in use from 1420 to 1530 – ending around the time of the Spanish invasion of the Inca Empire. They analysed the remains from three cemeteries (pictured right)

Carbon-14 is a carbon isotope that is commonly used by archaeologists and historians to date ancient bones and artefacts.

Lat year radiocarbon dating of ancient seafood remains revealed that Aboriginal Australians settled in the continent's Riverland region 22,000 years earlier than previously thought.

The dated shell middens – remnants of 'meals eaten long ago' – captured a record of Aboriginal occupation that goes back 29,000 years in the Katarapko Riverland Floodplains, South Australia.

They had to deal with unpredictable river flows and heavily-salted valley waters that may have limited their seafood options.

Radiocarbon dating was first invented in the 1940s by an American physical chemist called Willard Libby, who won the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery. 

The new study has been published in the journal Antiquity.

Who were the Inca? People indigenous to South America who ruled from modern Ecuador to central Chile by 1532

The Inca, also spelled Inka, were a people indigenous to South America who, at the time of the Spanish conquest in 1532, ruled an empire that spanned from the northern border of modern Ecuador to central Chile. 

Establishing their capital at Cusco (a city in modern-day Peru) in the 12th century, the Inca began a campaign of expansion in the early 15th century which would see some 12 million people come under their rule.

Much of the information we have today comes from the written records of Spanish conquistadores as the Inca passed on their history through story telling and other oral traditions.

Machu Pichhu is the best-known site remaining from the Inca Empire, once the largest and richest in the Americas

Best known for the brutal practice of human sacrifice, the Inca Empire is also notable for its advanced agricultural techniques, unique art and architecture.  

 At its peak, the Inca Empire was the largest and richest in the Americas. Its downfall is thought to have come about through rebellion, disease and the Spanish invasion. 

The most famous and perhaps best-preserved site that remains from Inca times is the citadel of Machu Picchu, located in Peru.

Source: Britannica, Ancient History Encyclopaedia 

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05-08-2021 om 18:39 geschreven door peter  

Mysterious GodSelf Icon Found Worldwide: Lost Symbol of an Ancient Global Religion?

Significant evidence now exists that ancient cultures worldwide were all connected by a powerful religious symbol which I call the “GodSelf Icon,” that is especially conspicuous among the pyramid cultures.

The pyramid cultures shared the “Triptych Temple” and “GodSelf Icon.”

In my 2011 book, Written in Stone , I revealed how these pyramid cultures all employed the same three-door “Triptych Temple” pattern. Another discovery that I announced concerns the GodSelf Icon, an image depicting a central figure, a hero or god, facing forward and holding in either hand parallel objects or animals.

THE GODSELF ICON

My new book, The Missing Link, shows more than 500 spectacular images as evidence of the central role the GodSelf Icon played in civilizations as diverse as Egypt, India, China, Persia, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, and ancient Europe:

GodSelf Icons found worldwide.

Just as the crucifix symbol unites millions of Christians under one universal religion, so the GodSelf Icon symbol did the same for our ancient ancestors.

GodSelf Icons found worldwide.

TRIPTYCH TEMPLES
Parallel art and architecture in Antiquity—pyramid-building, corbel arches, and mummification—always interested me, so much so that I began traveling at a young age in an effort to examine these parallels as well as discover as many more parallels that I could find:

The ancients shared a common wisdom and possibly a common heritage.

Written in Stone tells the heroic story of how organized guilds of medieval stonemasons— who officially surfaced in 1717, calling themselves “Freemasons”— attempted to take back the religious narrative from priests by embedding the lost secrets of this universal religion into Gothic cathedrals. Gargoyles have nothing to do with Christianity. I realized that the standard blueprints of Gothic cathedrals, which called for a large central door flanked by two smaller doors, and two towers on either side of the central entrance hall, were a memory of pagan temples in Egypt, Mexico, Peru, China, India, etc.:

Central door flanked by two smaller doors seen in architecture around the world.

The center door is the “source”—the “soul” inside the body. The twin doors are the opposing bodily forces of duality that surround the soul on either side, and that the soul must confront and master in life.

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The Universal Religion of the Triptych Temple formed the foundation of other Secret Societies besides Freemasonry, including the Knights of Pythias, Skull & Bones, and Shriners, all of whom use the Triptych entrance into their headquarters:

The Lost Universal Religion of the Triptych Temple

The main façade of Rockefeller Center in New York City depicts one of the most striking esoteric Triptychs of modern times. It shows a "god" image in the center doorway (the “GodSelf”) balanced between male / female opposites. Note that the god holds a compass—a key Masonic symbol :

Triptych façade, Rockefeller Center, NYC.

As with the Triptych, the GodSelf Icon represents the soul of the hero or sage who balances his opposing bodily forces, represented by the twin objects held symmetrically in each hand. The GodSelf Icon calls upon us to develop our inner strength and spiritual potential by means of balancing the twin opposing forces within us (through meditation) and by carefully cultivating our physical and mental powers.

The concept of an external “God,” as in the familiar monotheistic and polytheistic religions, is a distraction from what I believe is the true purpose of religion, which is to recognize the eternal nature of our own spiritual being and to nurture the “GodSelf” within ourselves.

The GodSelf Icon inspired the logos of companies like Starbucks.

Starbucks logo. (Source: BrandsoftheWorld.com)

A beautiful variation of the GodSelf Icon is visible at Rockefeller Center. The “twin opposites” are symbolized by the Comedy and Tragedy masks, held aloft on the right and left sides of the goddess:

Rockefeller Center in New York City, USA

THE GOLDEN AGE
The origins of the GodSelf Icon can be traced to a Golden Age “Mother Culture” that may have existed in the prehistoric past. Some Victorian-era scholars associated the Golden Age with Plato’s Atlantis, and with ideas of the rise and fall of civilization over a period corresponding with the Zodiacal precession of the equinoxes which takes roughly 25,000 years. Plato called it the “Great Year”; the ancient Greeks, even before Plato, linked the Great Year with the seasons. Similar theories lay behind such phenomena as the Mayan and Aztec calendars, and the Hindu Yuga concept.

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Recently, some alternative researchers have latched onto this Golden Age idea, claiming that a “technologically” advanced civilization flourished in the distant past. These researchers are making the mistake of projecting the spirit of our own times onto the distant past, rather than paying attention to what the ancients were trying to tell us. Plato describes the Golden Age as a “spiritually” advanced civilization, not “technically” advanced. The demise of this civilization occurred because the Atlanteans ceased identifying with their “divine” nature (i.e., their GodSelf nature):

“For many generations…they obeyed the laws and loved the divine to which they were akin…But when the divine element in them became weakened…and their human traits became predominant, they ceased to be able to carry their prosperity with moderation.”
—Plato, Timaeus

SURPRISING FIND: MORE ANCIENT = MORE ADVANCED

We see evidence of the remnants of the Golden Age not only in the common language of symbolism left by our ancient ancestors, but also in the common architecture (like the Triptych Temple). Ancient civilization is characterized by remarkable skill in stonemasonry. One of the most amazing facts about ancient stone masonry is that many of the greatest works are among the oldest: 

The most ancient stone structures are the most advanced.

In Italy, for example, Etruscan aqueducts and monuments are more tightly put together than later Roman-era constructions. The Great Pyramid at Cheops is thousands of years older than the inferior pyramids that surround it. The aqueduct in Segovia, Spain (said to be Roman) is far more advanced than later aqueducts. The development of many technologies in the ancient world often seems to reflect more degeneration and decay than progress. Perhaps this is really a result of a genuine pattern of a Great Year cycle of the decline and fall of civilizations, where the great period of spiritual achievement occurred over ten thousand years ago, and has been followed by a period of ever-accelerating spiritual decline. The purpose of my new book is to help uncover the real truth of the human past, in order to understand and eventually to reverse this decline.

MASONIC GODSELF ICONS
Much evidence that would illuminate the meaning of the GodSelf Icon was destroyed by the conquistadors, Crusaders, Mongol Hordes, and slave traders. My presentation emphasizes the critical role of medieval stonemasons in preserving ancient symbols like the GodSelf Icon into the present. Gothic cathedrals are full of marvelous examples of the GodSelf Icon:

GodSelf Icons in cathedrals.

The clincher for me was the image of the Rebis, an androgynous alchemical drawing published in 1613. The sun is over its right shoulder; the moon over its left:

The Rebis is an ancestor of Masonic tracing boards that feature similar dualities; like the tracing boards, the message of the Rebis is to overcome dualities by means of mystic techniques involving the ancient practice of balancing opposites to find the center. Note the Masonic Square and Compass symbols in the left and right hands of the Rebis—simple tools used to build incredibly advanced stone monuments (pyramids, aqueducts, cathedrals) which to this day remain a testament not to the “technological” power of the ancients, but to their “spiritual” centeredness.

Most Freemasons have no idea what their symbols mean. My research has convinced me that the “lost secret of Freemasonry” is the same as the “lost secret of the Incas” and the same as the “lost secret of the Egyptians.” The GodSelf icon, which is identical in form and meaning in places as far apart as Egypt and Peru, is an important key for understanding the origins and destiny of mankind.

• Richard Cassaro ’s new book, The Missing Link , is available on Amazon.com and on his website www.RichardCassaro.com.
• Top Image: Deriv; Step Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt. ( CC BY-SA 2.0 ), El Castillo (pyramid of Kukulcán) in Chichén Itzá, Mexico ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ), Candi Sukuh in eastern Central Java ( CC BY-SA 3.0 )
• Images, unless otherwise noted, via author Richard Cassaro.

By Richard Cassaro

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

05-08-2021 om 00:54 geschreven door peter  

The Mysterious Ancient Etruscan Monuments of Selva di Malano

Selva di Malano, which may be translated to mean ‘Forest of Malano,’ is an archaeological site located in Viterbo, in the central Italian region of Lazio. The site is known for its carved stone monuments, a number of which have been interpreted to be altars. It is believed that these altars date to the time of the Etruscans, though some of the site’s monuments are thought to be from the Roman period.

There is evidence that some of the Etruscan monuments were reused by the Romans for funerary purposes. It has been suggested that the monuments at Selva di Malano, as well as other Etruscan monuments in the area, played a part in the creation of the 16 ^th century Sacro Bosso (‘Sacred Grove’), located in nearby town of Bomarzo.

The Malano Jungle

Selva di Malano is a wooded area located between the municipalities of Soriano nel Cimino and Bomarzo. The forest is situated in the foothills of the Cimini Mountains, in the Vezza River Valley, and about 4 km (2.5 miles) to the west of the Tiber River . In terms of geology, the Selva di Malano “borders a long, exposed outcrop of quartzolatitic ignimbrite from the Cimini complex.” In other words, this is an area that has access to volcanic rock suitable for construction purposes. And there is evidence that the Romans carried out quarrying activities within the Selva di Malano.

The exploitation of this natural resource in the Selva di Malano, however, predates the Romans, as is evidenced by the monuments in the forest. Before the hegemony of Rome in Italy, the central part of the peninsula was dominated by the Etruscans. At the peak, during the 6 ^th century BC, the Etruscan civilization stretched as far north as the Po River valley and as far south as Campania. Additionally, by this time, the Etruscans had developed into three confederacies consisting of 36 cities. Central Italy, however, remained the heartland of the Etruscan civilization. This region, known as Etruria, corresponds roughly to modern day Tuscany, Lazio, and Umbria.

The Etruscans: The People and Culture That Influenced Rome

The origin of the Etruscans has been debated since antiquity. Some have argued that they were an indigenous people of Italy, while others claim that they came from outside Europe, perhaps from Lydia, or from the Greek island of Lemnos. Though this debate continues even today, it is clear that the Etruscan civilization had a huge impact on Europe and the Mediterranean world, as a result of their influence on the Romans.

The Etruscans made a big contribution to Roman culture, as Rome was once situated within Etruscan territory. Moreover, there is substantial evidence that during the early part of Rome’s history, the city was dominated by the Etruscans. In fact, it was only in 396 BC when the Etruscan city of Veii was sacked by the Romans.

One of the important sources for our understanding of the Etruscan civilization are ancient texts. It may be pointed out, however, that these works were written by Greek and Roman authors, rather than the Etruscans themselves. In addition to these texts, archaeological work has also helped to shed light on this ancient civilization. Nevertheless, archaeology its own limitations. Very few preserved Etruscan constructions have survived, as the Romans who succeeded them built over their settlements.

On the other hand, archaeologists have discovered numerous Etruscan necropolises in the areas where they once inhabited. Amongst the most famous of these are the necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, which have been designated as World Heritage Sites . The tombs and grave goods unearthed at these necropolises offer us a glimpse into the world of the Etruscans, especially their artistic achievements.

Steps leading to an Etruscan rock altar.

Source: Project Tuscia

The Notable Etruscan Monuments of the Selva di Malano

Although Selva di Malano is an Etruscan site, it is not considered to be a necropolis since the original Etruscan monuments are not believed to have had a funerary purpose. Neither are the monuments that are remnants of a lost Etruscan settlement. Instead, the site is thought to have been a place where ritual ceremonies were carried out. Some have even speculated that sacrifices to the gods were performed by the Etruscans in the forest. Therefore, a number of monuments in the Selva di Malano have been interpreted as being ‘altars,’ or ‘sacrificial altars’.

Sasso del Predicatore or ‘Stone of the Preacher’ in the Selva di Malano.

( Youtube screenshot )

Amongst the most notable monuments in the Selva di Malano are the two so-called Sasso del Predicatore (‘Stone of the Preacher’). The monuments were given this name due to their resemblance to pulpits. Both monuments are quite similar, consisting of an ovoid boulder with an altar on its flattened top. A flight of stairs is carved into the boulder, which allows access to its top. On the top of the first Sasso del Predicatore are the remains of what may have been a small altar. The top of the second Sasso del Predicatore , on the other hand, was modelled into a cube-like structure, which is still visible today.

The actual function of these two monuments is unclear, though it is quite unlikely that the Etruscans used them for preaching. It has been suggested that the monuments were used for haruspicy, a form of divination involving the inspection sacrificed animal entrails. Alternatively, it has been speculated that the two monuments were used for augury, specifically the interpretation of omens based on the flight of birds, or that they were used for astronomical observations .

Incidentally, there is another Etruscan monument not far from the Selva di Malano that resembles the Sasso di Predicatore . Tacchiolo, near Bomarzo, is the location of the so-called Piramide Etrusca di Bomarzo (‘Etruscan Pyramid of Bomarzo’). In spite of its name, the monument bears more resemblance to the Etruscan altars in the Selva di Malano. Like the Sasso del Perdicatore , steps were cut into the rock. The first flight of stairs leads to a pair of intermediate altars. Beyond the altars is another flight of stairs, which leads to the top of the rock, where there seems to have been another altar.

Piramide Etrusca di Bomarzo or the ‘Etruscan Pyramid of Bomarzo.’

(Alessio Pelligrini / Flickr)

Within the Selva di Malano, the second Sasso del Predicatore is not the only monument in the area with a cubic structure. Not far from the first Sasso del Predicatore is another cubic monument called the Ara Cubica (‘Cubic Altar’). Unlike the two monuments mentioned previously, the Ara Cubica is thought to have been created during the Roman period, and that it served as a sepulchral memorial stone. The problem with these three monuments, however, is the fact that there are no identifying or epigraphic marks on them. This means that their date of creation and their purpose are still nothing more than speculations. Nevertheless, one cannot help but marvel at the ability of the Etruscans and Romans to carve such perfectly shaped cubes out of rocks.

Etruscan Sasso del Predicatore rock cube in the Selva di Malano, Italy.

(Project Tuscia / Youtube screenshot )

Rock-cut ‘Dice Tombs’ of The Selva di Malano

At the bottom of a steep tufo (or volcanic tuff) cliff in the Selva di Malano are three rock-cut tombs, which are also believed to have been created during the Roman period. The tombs are known as tombe a dado in Italian, which roughly translates to mean ‘dice tombs.’ They are believed to have been made during the Late Republican or Early Imperial period, based on the observation that they possess both Roman and Etruscan characteristics. One of the tombs is surmounted by a low relief pediment and entablature, which are supported by five fictive Doric columns in sunken relief. As these features were carved into the rock, it looks as though the monument is emerging from the rock.

Etruscan tombe a dado or “dice tombs” in the Salvo di Malano.

(Giulio Monaldi / Flickr)

Another tomb has the inscription “Heros V.A. XXV”, above a niche, indicating that this was the tomb of a 25-year-old slave with the Hellenized name of Heros. Interestingly, a Benedictine abbey called San Nicolao was built on the top of the cliff much later. Today, however, the abbey lies in ruins.  

Epigraphic marks and artistic features allow us to attain a better understanding of the monuments, as seen in the case of the tombe a dado . Another monument where inscriptions have been found is the so-called Coelius Altar, known also as the Coelius Tomb or the Coelius Monument. This monument is believed to have originally been made by the Etruscans. Later on, however, it was reused by the Romans. The inscription on this monument reads “D. Coelius D. L. Alexander / Quintia P. L. Hilara”, which means “Decimus Coelius Alexander, freedman of Decimus and Quintia Hilara freedwoman of Publius.” In addition to this inscription, a small modification was made to the original monument, in order to make it suitable for its new purpose. Two niches were carved on the top of the Coelius Altar. These were meant to hold the ashes of Coelius and Quintia.

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Glaucus in the Parco dei Mostri, Bomarzo.

( CC BY-SA 4.0 )

Connections Between Selva di Malano and the Parco dei Mostri

The monuments in the Selva di Malano may be regarded as relics of a lost civilization. Nevertheless, it seems that they were not entirely forgotten by the inhabitants of that region. Similarities have been drawn between these ancient monuments and the Sacro Bosso , a Renaissance garden in nearby Bomarzo. This has led to the suggestion that the garden was partly inspired by the monuments of the Selva di Malano.

The Sacro Bosso is known also as the Parco dei Mostri , or ‘ Park of the Monsters ,’ due to its grotesque sculptures. The garden is located beneath Orsini Castle, and was commissioned in 1552 (based on an inscription in the park) by Pier Francesco Orsini, known also as Vicino Orsini. According to one interpretation, the garden was designed as an expression of grief, and was meant to shock those who visited it. In any case, in order to comprehend the Sacro Bosso , one has to first gain some understanding of its patron.

Pier Francesco Orsini was born in 1523. He was the second son of Duke Gian Corrado Orsini of Bomarzo and Clarice di Franciotto di Monterotondo. When he grew up, Orsini became a condottiere (a mercenary captain) like his father and served under the banner of the Farnese family. In the early 1540s, Orsini married Giulia, the daughter of a fellow condottiere, Galeazzo Farnese. During the 1550s, Orsini was active in the field. He retired from military service around 1560.

It was also around the time of Orsini’s retirement that his wife died. It has been argued, therefore, that the death of Giulia left Orsini inconsolable, and that he created the Sacro Bosso in her memory. An alternative interpretation argues that the garden was Orsini’s pet project. This takes into consideration Orsini’s infidelity and the pride he took in taking nobles and learned men (Orsini himself was an accomplished man of letters) around the garden.

As mentioned earlier, the Sacro Bosso was filled with grotesque sculptures, many of which make a clear reference to classical mythology . These include the Orcus Mouth, Proteus with the weapons of the Orsini family, and a triton in a niche. Other sculptures include a war elephant seizing a Roman legionary in its trunk, a turtle with a winged woman on its back, and a giant tearing its victim apart.

If the inhabitants of the region during the Renaissance had no memory or understanding of the Etruscans, then the monuments of the Selva di Malano would have made no sense to them. In this case, the monuments in the forest and the sculptures in Orsini’s garden would have been similar, in the sense that they are both enigmas that puzzle on-lookers. Moreover, both the ancient monuments and the grotesque sculptures are covered with moss and lichen. In Orsini’s garden it is unclear whether he intended his sculptures to have this look, though one may imagine that he was inspired by the monuments in the forest and to allow nature to add the ‘finishing touches’ to his art pieces.

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04-08-2021 om 00:53 geschreven door peter  

Godlike Power and Monster Malevolence: Mishipizheu of Lake Superior

In Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 song  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald , he figuratively blames the sinking of that ship on the “witch” of November. Folks more familiar with Ojibway mythology might, however, have pointed to Mishipizheu, one of the most important of the underground mythological creatures of the Northeastern and Midwestern North American tribes.

This pictograph of the Great Lynx known as Mishipizheu was created by Ojibway spiritual leaders at Agawa Rock in Lake Superior Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.

( Chris Hill  / Adobe Stock)

Was Mishipizheu a God or a Monster? 

The “Great-Lynx” Mishipizheu blurs the line between god and monster and thus sheds light on what it takes to be one or the other. The Ojibway, an indigenous people from southern  Canada and the northern Midwestern United States, believed Mishipizheu was a giant lynx-like creature. An apt description would be that the Mishipizheu was a horned panther covered in copper scales with razor-sharp spikes down its back and a long flexible tail. 

According to Ojibway mythology, Mishipizheu lived under the vast waterways of their territory in the Canadian Shield, in and near the Great Lakes. It exercised complete control over the waterways and had a mean-streak which had to be placated with  copper or tobacco offerings lest it use its tail to create violent whirlpools or harsh waves to drown the people residing in the area. 

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On the one hand, we might consider him a god as he exercised supernatural power over a vast area of waterways and accepted tokens or  sacrifices for his cooperation with human endeavors. On the other hand, he is primarily a malevolent presence, drowning those who forget their offerings to him, creating tumult capriciously with a whip of his tail, and standing in opposition, in many stories, to the heroic Thunderbird. He was godlike in his power, but monster-like in his malevolence.

The SS. Algoma went down on Lake Superior in 1885. It was the worst loss of life in the history of Lake Superior.

( Public domain )

The Malevolent Intentions of Mishipizheu the Underwater Panther

It is no wonder that a malevolent spirit was felt to inhabit Lake Superior. Some people believe Mishipizheu has sunk at least 400  ships on the lake in recorded memory alone, in addition to the Edmund Fitzgerald. Some have even said that the island of Michipicoten, in Ontario (Canada) in the northeastern part of Lake Superior, is the primary abode of Mishipizheu, when he is not swirling through underground tunnels and caverns throughout the region. 

The belief of  indigenous tribes  of the region is that Mishipizheu lives and travels through a vast system of tunnels and caverns underlying the vast waterways of Midwestern United States and  Canada, often wreaking havoc on those who sail those waters. But, why?

Mishipizheu guards the vast amount of copper which, to this day, lies within the  Great Lakes . Native inhabitants of the Great Lakes region, stretching back to about 7,500 BC, discovered copper that was 99% pure in Lake Superior, in veins or just lying around in nugget form. Initially they used the copper for spear points and tools, but as a larger social organization developed the copper was used for personal ornamentation denoting social standing. 

There was only one problem. Lake Superior was not a gentle lake to those extracting the copper, in fact it was quite fierce. The fierceness was attributed to a creature which seemed obviously to be guarding the  copper. Hence the existence of Mishipizheu. Indeed, if we dig a little deeper, the belief in this creature points to why  monsters were created in the first place. In pre-scientific cultures, folks often attributed evil intentions or ill will to events possessing no evil intentions or ill will. 

To this day, in some villages, when someone falls ill a shaman might declare that a personal enemy sent an evil spirit to possess the victim. A person does not just fall ill, someone or something must desire that. Thus it is with the sea and other bodies of water. Unpredictable tragedies occurred and we were quick to attribute the tragedies to an invisible malice or ill will. Anything other than natural causes. 

We seem to be wired, for whatever reason, to be super-keen to perceive and attribute malice and malevolence to adverse things that happen to us. It was too difficult for us to believe that things affecting us negatively could just happen. Mishipizheu became the figuration of the malice of the sea, part godlike in his scope, mostly monstrous in his intentions. But, interestingly, we attributed a reason for his malice – his irrational desire to possess all the copper in Lake Superior.

Stormy sky over Lake Superior, the home of Mishipizheu.

( boundlessimages / Adobe Stock)

Mishipizheu Ancillary Stories

The odds are that the origin of the Mishipizheu myth is derived from the destructive power of Lake Superior and other violent waterways of the Canadian Shield and the emotionally painful tragedies caused by the unpredictable harshness of these bodies of water. Mishipizheu became the malicious element causing the lake to harm innocent people. From this initial birth of the  monster, various tribes added on stories, which is not uncommon in myth-making. In fact, we can look at Mishipizheu as a good example of the possible evolution of a myth.

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Hunting and gathering peoples often have animistic beliefs. Every natural element has a spirit, even stones and streams. Perhaps it was recognized early on that Lake Superior’s was not a gentle spirit. Lake spirits often became personified in world  mythology. If you can imagine one being or creature controlling the lake, it is easier to deal with this entity through sacrifice and bargaining. 

Once you create a god, spirit or monster that you can appease or cajole, then stories concerning the exploits of this being can be constructed. You can even think of the Greek myths this way. Zeus was once a sky and thunder spirit. Then, through story-telling, he morphed into the leader of a pantheon and a character in a rich mythological tradition.

Some of the stories concerning Mishipizheu even purport that he engaged in acts of benevolence, thus adding to his stature as a god and not solely a  monster. In one story Mishipizheu was responsible for the primordial flood. In another story, we learn that swamps and quicksand are due to his slithering on the ground when he chose to take shortcuts from river to river. 

In one particular mythological tale, Mishipizheu is referred to as the ancestor of all  snakes, due to the belief that he was hit by lightning and shattered into thousands of those creatures. Another story tells of Mishipizheu the trickster. A shaman seeks a powerful medicine from Mishipizheu who happily complies. Unfortunately, the medicine only works for the shaman as he remains healthy while he watches his family and loved ones deteriorate and die around him.

Artists rendering of the famed Mishipizheu.

(Australopithecusman /  CC-BY-SA)

Final Verdict On Mishipizheu: Godly Extortion or Defender of Humanity

So is Mishipizheu more monster than god? What might tip the scales is that he does not engage in acts of benevolence. He is predisposed to cause harm continually and only will desist from this if he receives, basically, extortion money. But gods receive extortion money too, do they not? Did the ancient Greeks not placate Poseidon before sea travel? It seems that the gods like to be appreciated and remembered but are also quick to do good things for good people. They also might need to be coaxed a little into supplying help.

And it is not like the gods are a constant threat which has to be avoided. So the scales would seem to tip more toward  monster in this case, yet one interested in mythology might ask whether a primarily malevolent “god” is possible. Or, dare we stretch and say that  Mishipizheu was not at all malevolent but merely attempted, as well as he could, to steer humanity away from the world bought through copper, in an attempt to keep humanity living in a land of paradise.

• Top image: The malevolent Mishipizheu monster-god of Lake Superior.
• Source: SJB1995 /  CC-BY-SA

By Daniel Gauss

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

03-08-2021 om 21:31 geschreven door peter  

The Disc of Sabu: Ancient Egyptian Water Pump or Alien Hyperdrive?

There is no doubt that the Ancient Egyptian civilization is filled with wonders and mysteries beyond our comprehension. An exceptionally old culture that reaches far back to the early dawn of man’s advancement, Egypt left behind it many man-made wonders. From the enormous pyramids, the giant statues, and the sprawling mortuary temples, their monuments are many and glorious. 

While some of these are easy to understand, study, and explain, others remain an absolute mystery. One such enigma is the so-called “Disc of Sabu”, a curious stone object that almost defies all logic. Over the years, many odd theories arose have arisen in an attempt to uncover its true purpose.

The Tomb of Prince Sabu

Anyone visiting the sprawling museum of antiquities in  Cairo will be awed by the wealth of Ancient Egyptian treasures contained inside it. From the famed treasures found in the Tomb of  Tutankhamun, to the pharaonic statues and well-preserved mummies, this museum is the number one stop for all lovers of this ancient culture. But while you will be dazzled by these popular treasures, one curious item can be easily overlooked. The Disc of Sabu.

This odd item is circular in shape and measures roughly 610 millimeters (24 inches) in diameter and roughly 104 millimeters (4 inches) in height. It was discovered in 1936 by a renowned British Egyptologist, Mr. Walter Bryan Emery, and has been dated to the earliest periods of Ancient Egypt.

Emery devoted his career to excavations in the Nile River valley, and between 1935 and 1939 he conducted numerous surveys and digs in the burial grounds of Saqqara. The resting grounds of many high-status individuals from the early dynastic period, Saqqara is one of the oldest and largest necropolises from Ancient Egypt.

The Necropolis at Saqqara

(Jose Javier Martin Espartosa / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 )

Of course, digging in Saqqara yielded many important and valuable items, but none so odd as the Disc of Sabu. Emery discovered it while excavating the tomb of Prince Sabu, a First Dynasty governor and the son of the famed Pharaoh Anedjib. The latter was the fifth ruler of the First Dynasty, and succeeded the powerful Pharaoh Den.

Sadly, little is known of Anedjib’s son, Prince Sabu. He did not succeed his father on the throne, but still received an honorable burial at Saqqara. History does not record a lot of details about the dynastic relations in the First Dynasty, so we may never know of Sabu’s fate, his exact role in the court, or the political events of that time. Emery writes that Sabu was likely a high official and an administrator of a province, both during the reigns of Pharaoh Den (likely his grandfather), and his father Anedjib.

The Mysteries Beneath the Sands of Saqqara

The Mastaba (tomb) of Prince Sabu was discovered on the very edge of the plateau in the northern part of Saqqara. It was situated roughly 1.7 kilometers (1.1 miles) north of the iconic  Stepped Pyramid of Djoser . Designated as “Tomb 3111”, it was excavated by Emery on January 10th, 1936. 

The tomb consisted of seven funerary chambers, each strewn with assorted grave goods. The largest room held the body of Prince Sabu, which was accompanied by many funerary items. Most of these were nothing out of the ordinary - animal bones, flint implements, pottery vessels, ivory items, stone bowls. But one item stood out like a sore thumb: Emery discovered a curious disc, broken into numerous pieces.

The Disc of Sabu

(Gretarsson /  Public Domain )

Once painstakingly re-assembled, the Disc of Sabu intrigued many leading Egyptologists. The disc-shaped object resembles a round-bottomed bowl and has three extremely thinly carved, curving lobes at roughly 120 degree intervals around the bowl’s periphery. These lobes are separated from the rim by three biconvex holes. 

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In the center of the disc is a thin tube, roughly 10 centimeters in diameter. The object is constructed of  metasiltstone, elsewhere referred to as  schist. This is a porous, fragile rock that would be extremely difficult to carve - especially in such delicate detail.

Schist is comprised of coarse grains and characterized by elongated minerals in marked layers. It has the propensity to flake when worked, and can be crushed very easily when tools are applied to it. So here we have our first mystery: how was the disc carved in such fine detail? 

When asking this question, we need to consider the age of the disc. Prince Sabu’s tomb is dated to circa 3,000 BC, making the disc at least 5,000 years old! It is believed that the tools used back then were made of stone and copper, which would make fine craftsmanship quite challenging, if not impossible, especially on such a fragile material as schist stone. Somehow, the Disc of Sabu seems out of place in a tomb of a First Dynasty noble.

An Ancient Egyptian Puzzle

The next mystery is the purpose of this object. Over the years, many convincing theories surfaced. Almost immediately following its discovery, the disc was “dismissed” as being a “vase” or  “incense burner” , or simply a trivial decorative or ceremonial item. But many believe that this is far, far from the truth. One glimpse and just the basic knowledge of mechanics and engineering offers a wholly different interpretation – this disc could be a part of a mechanism.

There are marked similarities between the disc and a modern pump impeller

(Asurnipal /  CC BY-SA 3.0 )

One resourceful amateur historian may have solved the mystery. Armed with a 3D printer, this person created an accurate replica of the disc of Sabu in an attempt to prove his own theory: the disc was an ancient “impeller”, a part of a centrifugal  pump. When placed in a housing and propelled at high speed via the small shaft at its center, the disc was extremely efficient at displacing water. 

Furthermore, when propelled without a housing to direct the displaced water, the disc creates a powerful vortex. Observing these recorded experiments makes one thing clear: the curiously folded lobes and a slightly concave shape of the disc are there for a purpose. Thanks to the intricately carved details, the disc is able to displace water with ease, and is seemingly a crucial component of a water pump mechanism.

One fact supports this theory: Ancient Egypt depended on  irrigation. Later in their history they perfected water management through basin irrigation, a process that allowed them to control the rise and fall of the river. Thus they managed to maximize their crops and boost their agricultural capabilities. So, why should it be odd to consider that they made attempts at creating an advanced design that would help them irrigate land quickly and efficiently?

An even older clay object dated to the Predynastic  Naqada II period (3650 - 3300 BC) is oddly similar to the disc of Sabu.  This object shows three “snakes” leaping up from the center of a disc that looks extremely similar to the Sabu disc, complete with the central shaft and the three biconvex holes. Could this clay object represent three water spouts being propelled from the disc? It seems very likely.

Proof of Ancient Astronauts?

But schist does not seem a strong enough material for a pumping mechanism. This suggests something else: were craftsmen from the First Dynasty of Egypt attempting to recreate an older object using the tools and materials available to them, an object they perhaps did not completely understand? 

Many theories suggest that the disc of Sabu is just a schist stone replica of an original item made from metal. It is even suggested that the object was discovered amongst the remnants of an older, more advanced civilization, one that preceded the earliest history of Ancient Egypt.

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The renowned  Swiss author, Erich Von Däniken , is one of the leading proponents of the theory that extraterrestrials or superior, advanced civilizations influenced early humans. He suggests that the Disc of Sabu was an Egyptian stone copy of an internal component from an extraterrestrial ship’s  hyperdrive, or more simply a stone model of a  flying saucer . Others likened the disc to the advanced light-rimmed flywheels that were developed in the 1970’s by Lockheed missile engineers, and there are indeed plenty of similarities. 

Does the Disc suggest alien contact with Ancient Egypt?

( Matrioshka / Adobe Stock)

Some however have proposed a much simpler role for the disc. They state that the three lobes were used to hold strands of  silk or rope: when the disc was spun, it would weave the three strands into one, creating twine and thicker ropes. This theory is often dismissed as simply too straightforward: the Egyptians would not go to such extreme lengths to create the disc just to weave fibers when other methods were available quite early on.

There are other theories, some more extreme than the others. One  French author suggests that the Disc of Sabu is just one of many that were an integral part of an early “factory”. This complex theory explains how the Ancient Egyptians manufactured Sodium Carbonate within  pyramids using advanced systems and technologies. 

As can be seen, a lot of proposals simply swerve into the realms of the impossible, and seem more based on wish-fulfilment than sound archaeology. Ancient hyperdrives, factory complexes, steering wheels, and other unlikely suggestions are simply impossible to prove.

Certainly More than a Vase

On the other hand, mainstream science has a suspicious tendency to dismiss every suggestion that the disc is part of a mechanism. Mainstream archaeology considers the disc to be an incense burner, or – bluntly – a  vase. 

Going to such extreme lengths to polish and shape the super-delicate schist stone into such a complex form simply to create a “vase” seems, on the face of it, unlikely. Even the process used to create the disc is difficult to explain, given its age. But, if we accept the fact that this is something craftsmen of the First Dynasty were able to create with the  tools at their disposal, the question still remains: for what purpose? It seems clear that the disc of Sabu was part of something complex.

Schist was a popular choice for funerary carvings through Ancient Egypt

(Daderot /  Public Domain )

Walter Bryan Emery made note of his discovery in his  Great Tombs of the First Dynasty , mentioning it as simply “a container in the form of a schist bowl.” He later mentioned it again in his work  Archaic Egypt , where he described it as a “cachivache” – a knick-knack or trinket, a gadget. 

However, several sources point to the fact that he was well aware of the problem it posed in scientific circles, where it was described “as a small hole that threatens to become a much larger one”. It is perhaps, for this reason, that the Disc of Sabu is often overlooked in scholarly literature. In fact, little is known at all about Prince Sabu, his tomb, or his peculiar disc.

Ancient Doesn’t Mean Primitive

In the end, it remains entirely possible that the Disc of Sabu was a crucial part of a more advanced design, one likened to a water pump. Considering the fact that the experiments using a disc replica were highly successful in that role, it could certainly function as one. 

Ancient Egypt was highly dependent on irrigation to survive in the desert

( dejank1 / Adobe Stock) 

With an adequate housing, water outlet, and means of propulsion, the Disc of Sabu could have easily displaced large amounts of water, quickly and efficiently. And given the need for  irrigation in Ancient Egypt , the pieces of the puzzle quickly seem to fall into place. Given how unusual the design of the disc is, and given how useful a pump of this kind would be, it seems beyond coincidence that the disc would not be used for that purpose.

Perhaps it is time that we looked at the early Egyptians from a different perspective. Even though Prince Sabu lived 5,000 years before present, it doesn’t mean he and his contemporaries weren’t able to observe the world around them and come up with logical and ingenious solutions to the problems of their time. Even so, plenty of aspects about this disc cannot be easily explained, which leaves a lot of questions unanswered.

• Top image: The Mysterious Disc of Sabu.                         
• Source: Christian Hart /  Public Domain

By Aleksa Vučković

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

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03-08-2021 om 21:10 geschreven door peter  

Neanderthals Hunted with Leaf-Shaped Spears, Archaeologists Say

Archaeologists say they have found a 65,000-year-old leaf point in a cave in the Swabian Jura, Germany.

“This discovery represents the first time a leaf point has been recovered from a modern excavation, allowing us to study the fresh find with state-of-the-art methods,” said Professor Nicholas Conard, a researcher at the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment.

“The last time archaeologists in the region recovered such artifacts was in 1936.”

The leaf point was found at the archaeological site of Hohle Fels, a cave in the Swabian Jura of Germany.

The artifact is 7.6 cm (3 inches) long, 4.1 cm (1.6 inches) wide, 0.9 cm (0.35 inches) thick, and has a mass of 28 grams.

“Our results document how the tool was made, used and why it was discarded,” Professor Conard said.

“Thanks to a series of four ESR-dates the find is securely dated to over 65,000 years ago.”

“Until now finds of leaf points were interpreted as belonging to the period between 45,000 and 55,000 years ago — the last cultural phase of Neanderthals in Central Europe,” he added.

“The new results demonstrate that our assumptions about the dating of the cultural groups of the late Neanderthals were wrong and need revision.”

Using detailed microscopic analyses, the researchers found that the leaf point was mounted on a wooden shaft.

“Damage to the tip indicates that the artifact was used as a hafted spear point, and that the spear was likely thrust into prey rather than being thrown,” they said.

“Neanderthals used plant-based glue and bindings made from plant fibers, sinew, or leather, to secure the leaf point to the spear.”

“They clearly used the spear for hunting. While they re-sharpened the tool it broke, leading to its discard.”

“Neanderthals were expert stone knappers and knew exactly how to make and use complex technologies combining multiple parts and materials to produce and maintain deadly weapons,” said Dr. Veerle Rots, a researcher at the University of Liège.

“Homo heidelbergensis used sharpened wooden spears for hunting too, but their spears lacked mounted stone points like those used by Neanderthals.”

The team’s results appear in two papers in the journal Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg and the journal Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte.

_____

• Nicholas J. Conard & Alexander Janas. Ausgrabungen im Hohle Fels: Fundschichten aus dem Mittelpaläolithikum und Neues zur Jagdtechnik der Neandertaler. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2020: 60-65
• Veerle Rots et al. 2021. A Leaf Point Documents Hunting with Spears in the Middle Paleolithic at Hohle Fels, Germany / Eine Blattspitze belegt die Jagd mit Speeren im Mittelpaläolithikum am Hohle Fels, Deutschland. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 30: 1-28

{ http://www.sci-news.com/ }

03-08-2021 om 20:42 geschreven door peter  

Fossils belonging to very ancient sponges dating back nearly a billion years have been discovered in northwest Canada and may be the oldest ever evidence of animal life on our planet.

Geologist Elizabeth Turner made an incredibly significant discovery on rocks located in a very remote area in the Northwest Territories that is only accessibly by helicopter. However, about a billion years ago, this area which is now covered with steep mountains was a marine environment.

In the thin layers of rock, she noticed the fossilized remains of what looked similar to sponges from modern times but they were much older than that. Analysis of the rock layers revealed that the fossils date back approximately 890 million years. This is absolutely jaw-dropping as the previous oldest sponge fossils were 350 million years younger.

Close-up of a sponge.

A lot of scientists think that the first groups of animals that were present on our planet included soft sponges or sponge-like creatures that didn’t have any nerves or muscles but did have cells with numerous functions as well as sperm. Unfortunately, there isn’t much animal evidence that dates back close to a billion years and that’s why this recent discovery is so fascinating and important.

It is believed that life first appeared on our planet approximately 3.7 billion years ago and that the first animals only showed up many years later but the exact date is still unknown and highly debated.

Since the previous oldest sponge fossil dated back about 540 million years during the Cambrian Period and this new specimen is around 890 million years old, it means that it was around for hundreds of millions of years longer than first estimated and possibly even longer (perhaps a billion years). Since sponges didn’t have any hard shells or skeletons that would have remained preserved over time, evidence of them dating back 890 million years is astonishing.

Another close-up of a sponge.

Paco Cardenas, who is an expert on sponges at Sweden’s Uppsala University but wasn’t involved with the study, stated, “This would be the first time that a sponge fossil has been found from before the Cambrian, and not only before, but way before — that’s what’s most exciting,” adding, “To have discovered sponge fossils from close to 900 million years ago will greatly improve our understanding of early animal evolution.”

Further analysis needs to be conducted on the fossilized sponge, but if it is confirmed to be 890 million years old, it would mean that the first animals to have inhabited our planet would have survived during a time when scientists didn’t think anything would have been able to live based on the small amount of oxygen that was in our oceans and atmosphere. (Pictures of the sponge’s remains found in the Northwest Territories can be seen here.)

The research was published in the journal Nature.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

31-07-2021 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

300,000-Year-Old Nanostructures in the Ural Mountains: Alien Technology?

A team of archaeologists was surprised during an investigation to find strange microscopic objects; a mysterious nanostructures in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

During a geological investigation for the extraction of gold in 1991 , a group of archaeologists found themselves on the banks of the Balbanyu, Narada and Kozhim rivers , in the Ural Mountains. In the process, they found nanostructures. Some extremely strange microscopic objects.

Nanostructures in the Ural Mountains

Due to the minute dimensions of the structures, various theorists suggest that they were made by a very ancient advanced civilization .

This civilization could have, approximately 300,000 years ago , the capacity to develop nanotechnology.

They found metallic coils and spirals axes that make up the list of rare nanopiezas. These were found embedded in a rock over 100,000 years old .

This nanotechnology, in addition, was classified as an Oopart, or an object out of time. The scientists agreed that it is impossible for such technology to be around 300,000 years old.

For an object to be considered an Oopart, it must be unique and little known in historical or paleontological archaeological records. Scientists classify it as something “anomalous”, since they are found when and where they ” should not be “. Hence, it contradicts the traditional story.

Mainstream research regarding these objects is usually looking for a logical explanation . For archeology it is ” impossible to affirm” that there existed a degree of technology and culture more advanced than that known to the academic world.

However, alternative researchers are convinced of the existence of ancient astronauts . Or extraterrestrial beings that visited Earth in the past.

Discovery investigation

The study was originally conducted by the Russian Academy of Sciences in Syktyvkar. After conducting different tests on the nanostructures, the experts found strange characteristics .

The larger pieces are made of pure copper , the smaller ones were made of molybdenum and tungsten . These metals have been used in the manufacture of missiles and spacecraft due to their high resistance to high temperatures.

The length of the smallest object is only one tenth of an inch.

Subsequently, they underwent intensive investigations at facilities in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Helsinki in order to find clues about their origin.

The scientists concluded that these components were not a product of nature , but that their origin is artificial. In short, they were built.

Experts said the nanostructures were the rocket parts from the Plesetsk launch base.

However, a report that was made in 1966, excluded this possibility, since the analysis showed that they were found in great depth .

As if the discovery of these objects was not mysterious enough, the Ural Mountains have always been the subject of theories and strange events.

One of the most enigmatic events to take place in the region was the Dyatlov Pass incident . A group of Russian hikers were found dead in strange circumstances.

Many theories were created from the event, from UFOs , secret experiments. Even even from a Yeti or unknown tribes.

Could they be alien technology? If so, these nanostructures would confirm the visit of ancient astronauts in the remote past.

{ https://mysteriousthing.com/ }

31-07-2021 om 01:19 geschreven door peter  

Max Kozlov

Most major groups of animals — including arthropods, molluscs and worms — first appear in the fossil record during the Cambrian explosion, 541 million years ago. But according to a paper published today in Nature¹, sponge fossils from northwestern Canada could be 350 million years older, significantly pushing back the date of Earth’s earliest-known animals.

The ancient discovery is igniting debate among palaeontologists, who have long contested when complex animal life first evolved.

“If I’m right, animals emerged long, long before the first appearance of traditional animal fossils,” says study author Elizabeth Turner, a sedimentary geologist at Laurentian University in Sudbury, Canada. “That would mean there’s a deep back history of animals that just didn’t get preserved very well.”

Weird and wonderful shapes

Some scientists, however, are not convinced that the microscopic patterns in Turner’s 890-million-year-old fossils indicate an ancient sponge, given the evidence provided in the study.

“It’s such a big claim that you really have to eliminate all the other possibilities,” says Rachel Wood, a geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh, UK, who researches fossil reefs. “Microbes, for example, produce weird and wonderful shapes and forms.” Sometimes crystals also grow in a way that looks like patterns formed by living organisms, she says, meaning that the rock samples Turner found might not be fossils at all.

Turner counters that none of the known reef-building organisms that existed 890 million years ago, such as cyanobacteria or algae, can explain the complex structures in her samples.

She collected the purported fossils from ancient microbial reefs preserved in the rocks of Canada’s remote Northwest Territories, starting during her graduate studies in the 1990s.

When Turner examined slices of the rock under a microscope, she saw branching networks of crystalline tubes. She later realized that these structures resemble the internal scaffolding of modern horny sponges, and line up with the expected decay and fossilization patterns of spongin, a collagen protein that forms their scaffolding.

“These rocks are beautiful, but you don’t expect to find something that complicated or weird in them,” she says.

Early history of animal life

It wasn’t until the past few years, when she saw studies that described similar structures in much younger rocks — from a time when sponges were known to exist — that Turner felt confident in publishing her results. But those studies, too, are disputed on the grounds that they might not be actual sponge fossils.

The authors of one of these papers² took photographs of many thin slices of their rock sample and used them to generate a 3D model of the purported sponge. Wood says that a similar piece of evidence would have strengthened Turner’s claim.

If Turner’s structures do prove to be sponge fossils, says David Gold, a geobiologist at the University of California, Davis, “it would be very exciting, and help us nail down the early story of animal evolution”, a subject that has been hotly debated for decades.

But although “it’s easy to find things that look like sponges in the fossil record”, he says, it’s more difficult to back them up with other evidence. He and other researchers, for instance, have supported³ fossil claims by pointing to rock samples containing traces of biological molecules that are linked to sponges. Unfortunately, given the sheer age and type of Turner’s rock samples, this type of preservation isn’t really possible, he adds.

It’s not inconceivable that sponges could have pre-dated the Cambrian explosion, says Phoebe Cohen, a geobiologist at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Scientists estimate how long ago the ancestors of groups of living animals diverged using ‘molecular clocks’, which measure the rate of mutation in DNA and proteins over time.

The majority of these estimates suggest that the last common ancestor of all animals alive today evolved before the Cambrian explosion, but not by as much as 350 million years, says Cohen. Nevertheless, she says she could be convinced that Turner’s samples are sponge fossils if she saw more evidence, including studies on how horny sponges fossilize.

Molecular-clock estimates

The palaeontological community is split on whether the dearth of animal fossils from before the Cambrian period is because the creatures that lived then rarely survived as fossils to the present day, or because molecular-clock estimates of animal origins are wrong. Gold is convinced there were sponges before the Cambrian, but says that exactly how far back is a big, unresolved question.

Ancient worm fossil rolls back origins of animal life

If the ancestors of modern sponges really were alive 890 million years ago, then it means early animals survived through very trying conditions for life, such as extremely low levels of oxygen and ‘snowball Earth’ periods during which the surface of the planet almost entirely froze over, says Gold.

Turner argues that sponges could have survived the low-oxygen environment by eking out a living in cavities and crevices in the microbial reef next to photosynthetic cyanobacteria, which release oxygen. The sponges might also have been nourished by organic ooze that the bacteria produced. “There was probably a delicious and very copious supply of ‘snot’ for these filter-feeding organisms to have eaten,” she says.

Scientists are passionate about their views of when animal life started on Earth. The paper could reinvigorate the debate that has been quietly simmering for decades, says Gold. “But I suspect it’s not going to change a lot of minds for those who have made a decision about how old animals are.”

© Photograph by Rasmus Loeth Petersen, Alamy Stock Photo A great bathing sponge, Spongia officinalis, surrounded by funnel weed and other algae; Mediterranean Sea, Malta.

• doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02066-9

References

1. 1. Turner, E. C. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03773-z (2021).

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2. 2. Luo, C. & Reitner, J. Naturwissenschaften 101, 467–477 (2014).

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3. 3. Gold, D. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 2684-2689 (2016).

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{ https://www.nature.com/ }

30-07-2021 om 01:38 geschreven door peter  

The Borg have landed — or, at least, researchers have discovered their counterparts here on Earth. Scientists analysing samples from muddy sites in the western United States have found novel DNA structures that seem to scavenge and ‘assimilate’ genes from microorganisms in their environment, much like the fictional Star Trek ‘Borg’ aliens who assimilate the knowledge and technology of other species.

Borgs seem to be associated with single-celled microorganisms known as archaea, shown in this scanning-electron microscopy image of Sulfolobus sp. archaea.

Credit: Science Source

These extra-long DNA strands, which the scientists named in honour of the aliens, join a diverse collection of genetic structures — circular plasmids, for example — known as extrachromosomal elements (ECEs). Most microbes have one or two chromosomes that encode their primary genetic blueprint. But they can host, and often share between them, many distinct ECEs. These carry non-essential but useful genes, such as those for antibiotic resistance.

Borgs are a previously unknown, unique and “absolutely fascinating” type of ECE, says Jill Banfield, a geomicrobiologist at the University of California, Berkeley. She and her colleagues describe their discovery of the structures in a preprint posted to the server bioRxiv¹. The work is yet to be peer-reviewed.

Unlike anything seen before

Borgs are DNA structures “not like any that’s been seen before”, says Brett Baker, a microbiologist at the University of Texas at Austin. Other scientists agree that the find is exciting, but have questioned whether Borgs really are unique, noting similarities between them and other large ECEs.

In recent years “people have become used to surprises in the field of ECEs”, says Huang Li, a microbiologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. “However, the discovery of Borgs, which undoubtedly enriches the concept of ECEs, has fascinated many in the field.”

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Their vast size, ranging between more than 600,000 and about 1 million DNA base pairs in length, is one feature that distinguishes Borgs from many other ECEs. In fact, Borgs are so huge that they are up to one-third of the length of the main chromosome in their host microbes, Banfield says.

Banfield studies how microbes influence the carbon cycle — including the production and degradation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas — and, in October 2019, she and her colleagues went hunting for ECEs containing genes involved in the carbon cycle in Californian wetlands. There, they found the first Borgs and later identified 19 different types from this and similar sites in Colorado and California.

Borgs seem to be associated with archaea, which are single-celled microorganisms distinct from bacteria. Specifically, those Banfield and her team have discovered are linked to the Methanoperedens variety, which digest and destroy methane. And Borg genes seem to be involved in this process, says Banfield.

Scientists can’t yet culture Methanoperedens in the laboratory — an ongoing challenge for many microbes — so the team’s conclusions that Borgs might be used by the archaea for methane processing are based on sequence data alone.

“They’ve made an interesting observation,” says systems biologist Nitin Baliga, at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, Washington. But he cautions that when researchers sift through fragments of many genomes and piece them together, as Banfield’s team has done, it’s possible to make errors. Finding Borgs in cultured Methanoperedens will be necessary for the finding to be considered definitive, he adds.

Costs and benefits

Assuming Borgs are real, maintaining such a massive ECE would be costly for Methanoperedens, Banfield and colleagues say, so the DNA structures must provide some benefit. To learn what that might be, the researchers analysed the sequences of hundreds of Borg genes and compared them with known genes.

Borgs seem to house many genes needed for entire metabolic processes, including digesting methane, says Banfield. She describes these collections as “a toolbox” that might super-charge the abilities of Methanoperedens.

So what makes a Borg a Borg? In addition to their remarkable size, Borgs share several structural features: they’re linear, not circular as many ECEs are; they have mirrored repetitive sequences at each end of the strand; and they have many other repetitive sequences both within and between the presumptive genes.

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Individually, these features of Borgs can overlap with those seen in other large ECEs, such as elements in certain salt-loving archaea, so Baliga says the novelty of Borgs is still debatable at this stage. Borgs also resemble giant linear plasmids found in soil-dwelling Actinobacteria, says Julián Rafael Dib, a microbiologist at the Pilot Plant for Microbiological Industrial Processes in Tucumán, Argentina.

Banfield counters that although the individual features of Borgs have been seen before, “the size, combination and metabolic gene load” is what makes them different. She speculates that they were once entire microbes, and were assimilated by Methanoperedens in much the same way that eukaryotic cells gained energy-generating mitochondria by assimilating free-living bacteria.

Now that scientists know what to look for, they might find more Borgs by sifting through old data, says Baker, who used to work in Banfield's lab. He thinks he might already have discovered some candidates in his own genetic database since the preprint was posted.

Resistance is futile

When analysing the Borg genome, Banfield and colleagues also saw features suggesting that Borgs have assimilated genes from diverse sources, including the main Methanoperedens chromosome, Banfield says. This potential to ‘assimilate’ genes led her son to propose the name ‘Borg’ over Thanksgiving dinner in 2020.

Banfield’s team is now investigating the function of Borgs and the role of their DNA repeats. Repeats are important to microbes: differently-structured repeats called CRISPR are snippets of genetic code from viruses that microbes incorporate into their own DNA to ‘remember’ the pathogens so they can defend against them in the future.

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Pioneers of revolutionary CRISPR gene editing win chemistry Nobel

CRISPR and its associated proteins have been a boon for biotechnology because they have been adapted into a powerful gene-editing technique — hinting that Borg genomes might also yield useful tools. “It could be as important and interesting as CRISPR, but I think it’s going to be a new thing,” says Banfield, who is collaborating on future investigations with her preprint co-author, Jennifer Doudna, a pioneer of CRISPR-based gene editing at the University of California.

One potential application that the researchers see for Borgs could be as an aid in the fight against climate change. Fostering the growth of microbes containing them could, perhaps, cut down the methane emissions generated by soil-dwelling archaea, which add up to about 1 gigatonne globally each year. It would be risky to do this in natural wetlands, Banfield says, but it might be appropriate at agricultural sites. So, as a first step, her group is now hunting Borgs in Californian rice paddies.

Nature 595, 636 (2021)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-01947-3

{ https://www.nature.com/ }

29-07-2021 om 01:31 geschreven door peter  

9,350-year-old structure found in the Mediterranean “could rewrite history”

In 2015 a strange 11.88 meter high monolith was discovered off the coast of Sicily, 39 meters deep. This structure is very similar to Stonehenge and could rewrite history.

The Stonehenge found in the Mediterranean Sea is at least 9,350 years old . Studies revealed that it weighs about 15 tons and is divided into two parts.

An underwater Stonehenge?

Emanuele Lodolo , an oceanographer at the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics in Italy, along with Zvi Ben-Avraham, from the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv, were responsible for finding the monolith.

“The monolith is made of stones other than those that make up all the neighboring outcrops, and is quite isolated from them.”

The stones that compose it are chalcirudites, from the late Pleistocene age , as determined from radiocarbon measurements.

The structure was found on the Bank of Panteleria Vecchia, an ancient island in the Sicilian Channel. This island, according to archaeologists, was submerged during a flood 9,300 years ago.

This time chronologically squares with the beginning of the Mesolithic of Europe and the Middle East. The discovery of this monolith fully expands the knowledge of the first civilizations of the Mediterranean basin and the knowledge about their technology and development.

The structure required a cutting, extraction, transportation and installation system that undoubtedly demonstrates advanced engineering skills and techniques.

“The belief that our ancestors lacked the knowledge, skill and technology necessary to exploit marine resources or make sea voyages must be progressively abandoned.

The recent findings of submerged archeology have definitively dismantled the idea of ​​technological primitivism that is usually attributed to the hunter-gatherer coastal settlers ”, the archaeologists concluded.

Radar view of the monolith.

Who built the monolith?

While it is true that the monolith of Sicily is very similar to Stonehenge, this could explain more about the civilizations that inhabited the Mediterranean basin.

To date it is not known if the structure was alone and if it was part of a group, like the monument in England , which is much younger.

Currently, little or nothing is known about the inhabitants of Pantalleria Vecchia some 10,000 years ago . However, this construction demonstrates his skill for construction.

Experts believe that this town traded with the fish they caught, with other islands. The stone may have served as a primitive “lighthouse” , even as a place to moor or anchor ships.

Although, its enormity does not convince much that it was used for that purpose. If so, the boats must be huge.

• All this information suggests that a prehistoric civilization not only prospered, but was much more advanced than is believed. This could change the history of the region completely. Here is an interesting video of submerged cities.

{ https://mysteriousthing.com/ }

29-07-2021 om 00:00 geschreven door peter  

Just 7% of Human DNA Is Unique, Says Latest Large-scale Genetic Study

{  https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

27-07-2021 om 22:57 geschreven door peter  

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

27-07-2021 om 22:41 geschreven door peter  

Did Japanese Population Originate with this Minatogawa Man?

A new scientific report published in Nature has concluded that the modern Japanese descended from the Minatogawa people of the Paleolithic era. This is based on a DNA study of a 20,000-year-old human, codenamed Minatogawa 1, who was discovered in a limestone quarry in the Japanese Okinawa Prefecture back in 1970.

Replica of the Minatogawa man’s skeleton with DNA ties to modern Japanese population.

(National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo)

The Origins of Modern Human Japanese Population

Paleoanthropologists have long assumed that modern man ( Homo sapiens ) first migrated east out of Africa and into modern-day China about 50,000 BC. The popular belief is that the first humans on the Japanese Archipelago migrated from somewhere in southeast Asia. According to human migration models and archaeological evidence, people first reached Japan in the late Pleistocene, around 40,000 or 30,000 years ago, at a time when the archipelago was connected to the Asian continent.

• 9,000-Year-Old Human Remains May Shed Light On Prehistoric Okinawa
• Five Bold Navigators Master the Deadly ‘Black Stream’ Migration After 32,000 Years

The frequently told story of human history in Japan claims that the modern-day Japanese descended from two different groups of migrants. These were the historic ancestors of the Jomon people, hunter-gatherers who existed between 14,500 BC and 1,000 BC. Later they were followed by a second wave of farming human migrants from Northeast Asia known as the Yayoi who existed between 1,000 BC and 250 AD. Both cultures have been identified due to their distinctive pottery styles.

Forensic reconstruction and skull of a Jomon person in Japan.

(inazakira / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Discovery of the Minatogawa

In the late 1960s, amateur archaeologist Seiho Oyama purchased a series of stone blocks in which he observed fossilized bone fragments within. This unexpected discovery led to his near obsession with the Minatogawa quarry in the Okinawa Prefecture, on the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, from where they had been sourced. In 1968 Oyama reported the discovery of human remains to a Tokyo University professor who then proceeded to excavate the site up until 1974.

Digs at the site took place in a 1-meter-wide (3.28 ft) exposed fissure at the quarry. Archaeologists unearthed bone fragments belonging to between 5 and 9 individual skeletons, which they named the Minatogawa people. The Tokyo University professor who led the excavations, Hisashi Suzuki, argued that these Paleolithic individuals had been killed by arrows or spears and were then cannibalized.

The males were about 1.55 meters tall (5 ft) while the women were about 1.4 meters (4.6 ft) tall. “Narrow-shouldered, they had a sturdy lower-body skeletal build, which experts believe made them suited to running on barren land,” explains Archaeology News Network . Minatogawa 1 is the name given to a complete skeleton found at the site, a replica of which is now on display at the Tokyo University Anthropology Museum.

This discovery was very exciting for Japanese archaeology, due to the lack of skeletal remains and DNA unearthed to date on the islands. This is caused by the acidic soil composed of volcanic ash which creates “an environment which is detrimental to the preservation of ancient biomolecules,” explains the report in Nature. The 20,000-year-old remains discovered at the Okinawa quarry “are amongst the few Paleolithic humans whose remains have so far been discovered in Japan,” explains Archaeology News Network .

Reconstruction on display of a Minatogawa man in Japan.

( Tsunagaru Map )

Science Uncovers New Links to Explain the Origins of Japanese Population

Nevertheless, after the excitement subsided researchers were unable to uncover the link between these Minatogawa peoples and the story of human history in Japan as evidenced in the rest of the archaeological record. Were these Minatogawa peoples the ancestors for the Jomon? Had the Minatogawa died out? Or had they simply emigrated somewhere else at some point in ancient history?

Due to a lack of evidence to prove any direct connection, Archaeology News Network highlights that “the issue had remained moot, not least because the facial skeleton of the Minatogawa people bore little resemblance to Jomon people.” That is until a group of researchers from a selection of institutions, including the Graduate University for Advanced Studies and Toho University, came together to look at mitochondrial DNA.

Minatogawa 1, the male Paleolithic human found at the quarry, became the focus of the study after the team managed to extract a complete mitogenome sequence. Their hope was to trace the human origins of Japanese population further back than the Jomon. To understand why this was an important breakthrough, “Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mothers to their children and contains region-specific vestiges due to mutations, which allows origins of populations to be traced,” highlights Archaeology News Network .

• Here’s How Genetics Helped Crack the History of Human Migration
• Surprise Discovery of 45,000-Year-Old Tools in Mongolia Indicates Early Human Migration

Through analysis of Minatogawa 1’s DNA, the team were able to identify a component common to the Jomon, the Yayoi and modern Japanese humans. While an analysis of about 2,000 modern-day members of the Japanese population did not find any direct descendants, that doesn’t rule out the possibility that Minatogawa direct ancestors will not be discovered in future studies.

In a nutshell, this means that the “modern Japanese likely have distant ancestral ties with Minatogawa people.” Nevertheless, to truly decipher the human history of Japanese populations, archaeology will need to keep digging to find more Paleolithic bones and do more tests on existing human remains. The lead author of the study, Jun Gojobori, stressed that they “hope to study the bones of more Paleolithic people to better understand the origins of the Japanese .”

• Top image: The Japanese population is descended from the Minatogawa man, depicted here in an artistic reconstruction. Source: Teruya Yamamoto / National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo

By Cecilia Bogaard

{ https://www.ancient-origins.net/ }

27-07-2021 om 22:22 geschreven door peter  

An ancient road as well as the remnants of a dock and structures were found submerged in a lagoon located in Venice, Italy. While there is a lagoon there now, this proves that the location once had some dry land. The discoveries were located in the Treporti channel in the northern part of Venice’s outer lagoon.

A research team conducted sonar scans and archaeological dives in the channel and that’s when they discovered several stones that had an ovoid underside and a smooth upper face that were very similar to Roman basoli which were stones that were used to pave the upper surfaces of ancient roads.

Additionally, they found 12 archaeological structures within a distance of 1,140 meters (3,740 feet). They measured as high as 2.7 meters (9 feet) and 52 meters in length (171 feet) and could have possibly been part of a road-bed. Then they located other structures around 9 meters (30 feet) underneath the road that might have been part of a dock.

Remains of an old dock were found.

They even found the remains of what they believe were several settlements that were located along the ancient road such as bricks, roof tiles, and even pottery.

Based on what they found, the researchers think that the road connected the dock and settlements to several additional roads that connected other towns in the southern portion of the now-lagoon to the northern Roman trading center of Altinum. Although there would have been lots of dry land in that area during that time, there would have also been a decent amount of water – the sea coast would have been on the eastern side of the road while an enclosed waterway would have been on the other side.

As for when the road and settlements were constructed as well as how long they were in use for, the researchers aren’t entirely sure but they are hopeful that radiocarbon dating will help to answer those questions. (A reconstructive photo of the road can be seen here.)

(Not the old road found in Venice)

In an email to Live Science, Fantina Madricardo, who is a geophysicist at the Institute of Marine Science (ISMAR) in Venice, stated, “The Venice lagoon formed from the main sea-level rise after the last glaciation, so it’s a long-term process,” adding, “We know that since Roman times — about 2,000 years — that the sea level there rose [up to] two and a half meters [8 feet].”

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports where it can be read in full.

Figure 1

Figure 2

The Venice Lagoon and the bathymetry of the tidal channels. High resolution bathymetry of the Treporti Channel (DTM horizontal resolution 0.2 m, vertical exaggeration 5 x). The numbers 1 to 12 indicate the alignment of structures whose properties are summarized in Table 1. The letters a to d identify other structures found in the area. The zoom-in pictures show the detail of some of the archaeological structures: the sites 3, 8–9 and 10 (bottom-right) and the structure a (top-left), with the profiles I–II and III–IV, described in the text. The lower part of the picture represents the bathymetric profile extracted along all identified structures (white dashed line).

Figure 3

Stratigraphy of cores extracted below the archaeological layer under the structures 8 and 9 (Fig. 2) and their position on the bathymetric map.

Figure 4

Upper part. Pictures of material discovered in the Treporti Channel in correspondence to the structure 8–9 (Figs. 2, 3) in 1985: (a) Basoli; (b,c) small amphora; (d) basoli on the seafloor; (e) Dressel 6A type amphora; (f) vase discovered in 1985; Lower part. Pictures extracted from the videos recorded by the divers of the Nucleo Sommozzatori della Polizia di Stato during the shooting of a documentary (see Supplementary Material) in different points along the structure 3, depicted in Fig. 3: (g) about 50 cm × 50 cm cubic stone found close to the flat stones; (h) preserved alignment of flat stones (basoli?); (i) inclined flat stone (basolo?) flanked by square stones in alignment; (j) detail of the square stone flanking the (basolo?).

Figure 5

RSL data points (red dots) extracted from the database by Vacchi et al.⁴⁷ and their location in the Venice Lagoon plotted as calibrated age against sea level relative to the present. The error bars represent the elevation and age errors.

Figure 6

The position of the paleobeach ridge in the Treporti Channel in Roman Times (in yellow in transparency over the current satellite data) and the alignment of Roman lithic remains and levee road (red dots and lines), buildings (green squares) and brick walls (white pentagons); the map was modified from the Archaeological Map of the Venice Lagoon¹¹. The pink solid line indicates the position of the structures reconstructed by this study (Fig. 2). Satellite image source: Esri DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA,USGS,AEX,Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community, 

https://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer.

Figure 7

Reconstruction of the Treporti Channel paleobeach ridge and the Treporti Channel road (TC road)in Roman Times: (a) from an aerial perspective, with the Venice lagoon to the left and the Adriatic Sea to the right. The position of the TC road corresponds exactly to the position of the archaeological structures mapped (Fig 2), whereas the extension of the TC paleobeach ridge is only hypothetical since the area has been radically modified over the centuries; (b) a zoom-in view and (c) section of the TC road based on the stratigraphy of the cores extracted under the basoli (Fig. 3).

Figure 8

(Left) Roman road and waterways network in the Augustan Venetia et Histria Regio in the North-East Italy. (Right) zoom on the Venice Lagoon showing the fossa Popilliola in blue (after Dorigo²²) and the hypothetical path of the Roman road along the littoral in red, with the TC road segment in purple and the segment reconstructed from Canal¹¹ (Fig. 6, 123), in yellow. Satellite image source: Esri DigitalGlobe, GeoEye, i-cubed, USDA, USGS, AEX, Getmapping, Aerogrid, IGN, IGP, swisstopo, and the GIS User Community, 

https://services.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer.

 READ MORE on https://www.nature.com/srep IN 

New evidence of a Roman road in the Venice Lagoon (Italy) based on high resolution seafloor reconstruction

© Federica Foglini Bathymetric map showing the locations of the structures.

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26-07-2021 om 18:53 geschreven door peter