Secret HistoryS


Muffin

5,000-year-old barley grain discovered in Finland changes understanding of livelihoods

University of Helsinki
Phys.org
Tue, 09 Apr 2019 10:20 UTC
barley grain 5,000
© Santeri Vanhanen, CC-BY 4.0 licenceResearchers determined the age of millennia-old barley grains using radiocarbon dating.
On the basis of prior research, the identity of the Pitted Ware Culture from the Stone Age has been characterized as hard-core sealers, or possibly even related to Inuits of the Baltic Sea. Now, researchers have discovered barley and wheat grains in areas previously inhabited by this culture, leading to the conclusion that the Pitted Ware Culture adopted agriculture on a small scale.

A study carried out in cooperation with parties representing the discipline of archaeology and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Helsinki, as well as Swedish operators in the field of archaeology (The Archaeologists, a governmental consultant agency, and Arkeologikonsult, a business), found grains of barley and wheat in Pitted Ware settlements on Finland's Aland Islands and in the region of modern Stockholm.

The age of the grains was ascertained using radiocarbon dating. Based on the results, the grains originated in the period of the Pitted Ware culture, thus being approximately 4,300-5,300 years old. In addition to the cereal grains, the plant remnants found in the sites included hazelnut shells, apple seeds, tuberous roots of lesser celandine and rose hips.

Comment: One wonders if there were any particular driving forces that caused these communities to begin experimenting with agriculture. It's notable that, concurrent with the findings above, a recent study found evidence of plague in Sweden's early farmers:
Nearly 5000 years ago, a 20-year-old woman was buried in a tomb in Sweden, one of Europe's early farmers dead in her prime. Now, researchers have discovered what killed her-Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague. The sample is one of the oldest ever found [...] This newly discovered strain of plague could have caused the collapse of large Stone Age settlements across Europe in what might be the world's first pandemic

[...]

They found Y. pestis sequences in the teeth of the 20-year-old woman, who was buried in the Frälsegården grave in western Sweden, and in the teeth of another person buried in the same grave, they report today in Cell. Both were farmers from Scandinavia's Funnel Beaker culture, and neither had any trace of Yamnaya ancestry-meaning a form of plague was present in Europe before the steppe migrants arrived. That the bacterium was preserved in their teeth means it was circulating in their blood and very likely killed them, Rasmussen says.
See also:

Read More...
Archaeology

Iroquois artifacts uncovered in downtown Montreal date back to 14th century


White Wolf Pack
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Clay artifact
Archaeologists in Montreal have uncovered Iroquois artifacts that date mostly to around 1375.

Thousands of artifacts - mostly pottery - have been found during an excavation at Peel and Sherbrooke Streets, where digging has been underway since 2016.

Archaeologist Roland Tremblay called it a "major discovery."

"We find their cooking vessels, essentially. But we also find their pipes because they were made out of ceramics," he told CTV Montreal.

The researchers also found a tooth from a beluga whale. It's not known what the tooth was used for, although it's believed it came from relatives down the St. Lawrence River toward Quebec City. This is not the first time Indigenous treasures have been found at the site. The site was excavated once before after pottery was found in 1859.
Read More...
Bad Guys

US ex-war planner reveals reasons NATO broke promise to Gorbachev not to expand east


Sputnik
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 18:22 UTC
Gorbachev bush
© RIA Novosti
NATO began expanding into Eastern Europe in the late 1990s, despite assurances to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 that the bloc would not expand beyond the former borders of East Germany following Germany's unification. Since then, the alliance has integrated every member of the ex-Warsaw Pact, and six former Soviet and Yugoslav republics.

NATO is a 'zombie' alliance whose reason for being perished along with the demise of the Soviet bloc but been repeatedly "reanimated" using a variety of tricks, US senior former military tactician and veteran Col. (ret.) Dr. Douglas Macgregor has suggested.

In an article for The National Interest magazine, Macgregor pointed out that, despite promises by US President George H.W. Bush, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, French President Francois Mitterrand and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl that the alliance would not move "one inch eastward" beyond unified Germany, the alliance went back on its word.

Comment: It's also likely that any promises made by NATO were intended to be broken: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: NATO's Secret Armies in Europe - Interview with Daniele Ganser

Read More...
Bad Guys

Who directed the destruction and breakup of Yugoslavia - and how?

Andrey Fomine
Oriental Review
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 00:00 UTC
Map of Kosovo
Map of Kosovo
Twenty years ago, on 24 March 1999, Operation Allied Force began - the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia that led to the country's dismemberment - and the independent state of Kosovo was proclaimed. Yet these events were far from historically contingent, as some people claim. So who orchestrated the breakup of Yugoslavia and how?

These days, few remember that the Bulgarians were at the start of it all. Even the Bulgarians themselves don't like to think about it.

In early March 1999, Bulgaria's National Intelligence Service told Germany's Federal Intelligence Service (BND) that it had information about a secret plan by the Yugoslav General Staff, codenamed Operation Horseshoe, to destroy/expel the entire Albanian population of Kosovo and Metohija by 1 April. The BND passed the information on to the German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joschka Fischer, who took it extremely seriously and immediately called for a military intervention in Yugoslavia, something that went against the pacifist position of the Green party from which he had been appointed foreign minister.

Comment: See: Parenti: NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 wrapped up 'rational destruction' of Yugoslavia

Read More...
Info

Pristine weapons of China's Terracotta Warriors solved by scientist

Will Dunham
Reuters
Thu, 04 Apr 2019 19:59 UTC
For decades, scientists have been perplexed by the marvelous preservation of bronze weapons associated with China's famed Terracotta Warriors, retaining shiny, almost pristine surfaces and sharp blades after being buried for more than two millennia.
Terracotta Warriors
© REUTERS/Charles PlatiauTerracotta warriors and horses, which were unearthed during the first excavation from 1978 to 1984, stand inside the No. 1 pit of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xian, Shaanxi province, in China, January 8, 2018.
Research by an international team of scientists published on Thursday may solve the mystery while putting to rest an intriguing hypothesis: that ancient Chinese artisans employed an unexpectedly advanced preservation method using the metal chromium.

The fine preservation of weapons including swords, lances and halberds was due to serendipity - factors such as the bronze's high tin content and favorable soil composition, the scientists decided after examining 464 bronze weapons and parts.

Chromium found on the bronze surfaces, they determined, was simply contamination from chromium-rich lacquer applied by the artisans to the terracotta figures and weapons parts. Chromium played no role in their preservation.

The Terracotta Army consists of thousands of life-sized ceramic warriors and horses alongside bronze chariots and weapons, part of the vast 3rd century BC mausoleum near the city of Xi'an for Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of a unified China. Found in 1974, it represents one of the 20th century's greatest archaeological discoveries.
Read More...
Star of David

How did the Israel lobby get its start?

Walter Hixson
Consortium News
Tue, 26 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
Biltmore Hotel
© Zionist ArchivesExtraordinary Zionist Conference at the Biltmore Hotel, New York, May 1942, which recommended an end to the British Mandate and establishment of a Jewish commonwealth in Palestine. Among those present: Israel Goldstein, Louis Levinthal, David Wertheim, Louis Lipsky, Meyer Weisgal, Stephen S. Wise, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Nahum Goldmann, Tamar De Sola Pool, Abba Hillel Silver, Devorah Rothbart, Hirsch Ehrenreich, Isaac Naiditsch.
As the annual AIPAC conference wraps up in Washington on Tuesday, historian Walter Hixson looked back on the Israel Lobby's origins in this speech last Friday to the "Israel Lobby & American Policy Conference" at the National Press Club.

This conference speaks truth to power. We gather here because we support truth and justice in Palestine. We also insist on a free and open discussion of the Israel lobby and its impact on American democracy and world politics.

All of you already know that the Israel lobby is extremely powerful - for the record, it constitutes easily the most powerful diaspora lobby representing the interests of a foreign nation in all of American history - but you may not know how deeply rooted it is. In fact, the extensive lobbying efforts of Zionists and their Jewish and Christian sympathizers in the United States predate the creation of Israel and flourished throughout the first generation of the Palestine conflict.

As good a date as any to fix the origins of the Israel lobby in the United States is the 1942 Biltmore Conference held in the heartland of American Zionism, New York City. Zionists quickly discovered that they could mobilize Jewish organizations as well as groups such as the American Christian Palestine Committee, to pressure Congress to back the cause. The nascent lobby efficiently lined up the two main political parties in support of creation of a Jewish commonwealth, admission of masses of refugees, and crucial US financial assistance to accommodate them. Military assistance would come later.

Comment: Watch Hixson's full speech:



Read More...
People 2

Denisovans may have mated with modern humans as recently as 15,000 years ago

Ann Gibbons
Science Magazine
Fri, 29 Mar 2019 10:30 UTC
New Guinea
© DOZIER MARC/hemis.fr/Getty ImagesSome of the last Denisovans may have intermingled with modern humans in mountainous New Guinea or on nearby islands.
The elusive Denisovans, the extinct cousins of Neanderthals, are known from only the scraps of bone they left in Siberia's Denisova Cave in Russia and the genetic legacy they bequeathed to living people across Asia. A new study of that legacy in people from New Guinea now suggests that, far from being a single group, these mysterious humans were so diverse that their populations were as distantly related to each other as they were to Neanderthals.

In another startling suggestion, the study implies one of those groups may have survived and encountered modern humans as recently as 15,000 to 30,000 years ago, tens of thousands of years later than researchers had thought. "A late surviving lineage [of Denisovans] could have interbred with Homo sapiens" in Southeast Asia, paleoanthropologist Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London, not a member of the team, said in a Skype interview during a session at the annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists here. The new study was presented Thursday at the meeting.

Comment: It appears that the date for the disappearance and last intermixing of Denisovans and Neanderthals is just getting later and later, along with our understanding of just how many similarities they both shared with Homo sapiens: And check out SOTT radio's:

Read More...
Archaeology

Bolivian lake excavation reveals artifacts of a mystery religion pre-dating the Incas by 500 Years

Peter Dockrill
Science Alert
Tue, 02 Apr 2019 20:24 UTC
pre-inca religion
© Teddy SeguinOffering pieces found in lake with iconography suggesting they were offerings to Viracocha, the principle deity of the Tiwanaku
Hundreds of years ago, the west coast of South America was ruled by the Incas - a mysterious empire considered to be the most elaborate society to exist in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus. This is not their story.

For long before the Incas held dominion over the sweeping lands stretching from Colombia to Chile, an even more mysterious and ancient society inhabited this elevated Andean region.

This older empire was called the Tiwanaku state, whom we know even less about. At their peak, they may have only numbered 10,000 to 20,000 people.

What scarce details we do know about the Tiwanaku state come from archaeological finds, uncovering a trail of clues about the Tiwanaku people and their long-gone culture. Now, scientists have just announced the discovery of a big new piece of the puzzle.
Read More...
Colosseum

2,000yo 'fast food' bar unearthed in ancient city of Pompeii

Angela Giuffrida
The Guardian
Wed, 27 Mar 2019 18:30 UTC
pompeii ancient fast food
© Massimo Ossana/InstagramDozens of thermopolia, or snack bars, have been found across Pompeii.
Thermopolia used by poorer residents with few cooking facilities, archaeologists say

A well-preserved frescoed "fast food" counter is among the latest discoveries unearthed by archaeologists in the ancient Roman city of Pompeii.

The 150 or so thermopolia, or snack bars, dotted across the city were mostly used by the poorer residents, who rarely had cooking facilities in their home, to grab a snack or drink. Typical menus included coarse bread with salty fish, baked cheese, lentils and spicy wine.

Comment:

Read More...
Sherlock

Neanderthal cannibalism was probably a sign of desperate times

Kiona N. Smith
ArsTechnica
Mon, 01 Apr 2019 09:40 UTC
Neanderthal bone
© Defleur et al. 1999Fragments of a left femur show evidence of cut marks and percussion scars
A new study suggests that a group of Neanderthals in southeast France resorted to cannibalism to survive lean times. If that says anything about Neanderthals, it's that they weren't so different from us-for better and for worse.

The bones in the cave

Something awful happened in Moula-Guercy cave in southeastern France around 120,000 years ago. Archaeologists excavating the site in the early 1990s found the bones of six Neanderthals near the eastern wall of the cave, disarticulated and mingled with bones from deer and other wildlife. That mixing of bones, as though the dead Neanderthals had been discarded with the remains of their food, is strange enough; there's plenty of evidence that Neanderthals typically buried their dead. But at Moula-Guercy, at least six Neanderthals-two adults, two teenagers, and two children-received very different treatment. Their bones and those of the deer show nearly-identical marks of cutting, scraping, and cracking, the kind of damage usually associated with butchering.

Comment: Whether desperation, an aberration within a neanderthal group, it seems clear that cannibalism wasn't part of normal Neanderthal society:

Read More...