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The mysterious ancient figure challenging China's history

Alastair Sooke
BBC
Fri, 11 Oct 2019 11:00 UTC
China
A spectacular jade carving may hold the clue to an early society that predates what many historians believed to be China’s oldest, writes Alastair Sooke.
A grimacing figure wearing an elaborate feathered headdress is riding on the back of a frightening monster. He must be powerful, perhaps even supernatural, because he effortlessly subdues this sharp-clawed beast with bulging eyes. But who, exactly, is he? A shaman? A god? And why is he forcing historians to tear up the conventionally accepted timeline of Chinese history?

Earlier this year, while filming China's Greatest Treasures, a new six-part television documentary series for BBC World News, I encountered this mysterious character incised on a spectacular ancient jade carving that now belongs to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum in the city of Hangzhou. Known as a 'cong' (pronounced 'ts-ong') - essentially, a jade cylinder, squared on the outside, with a circular tube within - this squat column was recovered by archaeologists from a cemetery for elite members of a complex late Neolithic society that flourished at the site of Liangzhu, around 100 miles (160km) southwest of Shanghai, in the 3rd millennium BC. Traditionally, historians have taught that China's earliest recorded dynasty was the Shang, who ruled during the Bronze Age, in the 2nd millennium BC.

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Cow Skull

400,000 years ago prehistoric humans ate bone marrow like canned soup


Tel Aviv University
Thu, 10 Oct 2019 09:42 UTC
Marrow
© Dr. Ruth Blasco/AFTAUMarrow inside a metapodial bone after six weeks of storage.
Tel Aviv University researchers, in collaboration with scholars from Spain, have uncovered evidence of the storage and delayed consumption of animal bone marrow at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, the site of many major discoveries from the late Lower Paleolithic period some 400,000 years ago.

The research provides direct evidence that early Paleolithic people saved animal bones for up to nine weeks before feasting on them inside Qesem Cave.

The study was published in the October 9 issue of Science Advances.

"Bone marrow constitutes a significant source of nutrition and as such was long featured in the prehistoric diet," says Professor Ran Barkai. "Until now, evidence has pointed to immediate consumption of marrow following the procurement and removal of soft tissues. In our paper, we present evidence of storage and delayed consumption of bone marrow at Qesem Cave."

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Microscope 2

DNA study sheds new light on the people of the Neolithic Battle Axe Culture

Uppsala University
Phys.org
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 12:00 UTC
battle axe culture
© Uppsala University
In an interdisciplinary study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, an international research team has combined archaeological, genetic and stable isotope data to understand the demographic processes associated with the iconic Battle Axe Culture and its introduction in Scandinavia.

In 1953, a significant burial site belonging to the Battle Axe Culture was found when constructing a roundabout in Linköping. 4,500 years ago, a man and a woman were buried together with a child, a dog and a rich set of grave goods including one of the eponymous battle axes. "Today, we call this site 'Bergsgraven'. I have been curious about this particular burial for a long time. The collaboration of archaeologists with geneticists allows us to understand more about these people as individuals as well as where their ancestors came from," says archaeogeneticist Helena Malmström of Uppsala University, lead author of the study.

The Scandinavian Battle Axe Culture appears in the archaeological record about 5,000 years ago and archaeologically it resembles the continental European Corded Ware Culture. "The appearance and development of the culture complex has been debated for a long time, especially whether it was a regional phenomenon or whether it was associated with migratory processes of human groups, and - if the latter - from where," says osteoarchaeologist Jan Storå of Stockholm University, one of the senior authors of the study.

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Radar

1,000 lost ancient sites found using lidar on Scottish isle of Arran

Alison Campsie
Scotsman
Wed, 09 Oct 2019 11:36 UTC
arran
© Historic Environment Scotland.An aerial photo of the Isle of Arran, where new technology has revealed 1,000 previously unknown ancient sites.
A cutting-edge archaeological project using innovative technology has revealed around 1,000 previously unknown archaeological sites on the Isle of Arran.

The project, undertaken by archaeologists at Historic Environment Scotland (HES), used airborne laser scanning, also known as lidar, to document the land surface in 3D.

Prehistoric settlements, medieval farmsteads and a Neolithic cursus monument - an exceptionally rare find on the west coast of Scotland - are among the finds made.

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Sherlock

Freud, sexual abuse, and B'nai B'rith

Laurent Guyénot
The UNZ Review
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
Freud
In the last few years, there have been lots of news reports (e.g., here), documentary films (e.g., Yoland Zauberman's "M"), and articles (e.g., here and here) about sexual abuse of children in Orthodox Jewish communities. In March 2017, for instance, Haaretz reported that the Israeli police arrested 22 ultra-Orthodox Jews for sex crimes against minors and women, and in July 2019 The Times of Israel reported that "Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman was alleged to have improperly intervened to aid at least 10 sex offenders from Israel's ultra-Orthodox community." In 2015, Jewish attorney Michael Lesher wrote Sex Abuse, Shonda and Concealment in Orthodox Jewish Communities, to document
"the dismal history of how far too many of those cases have been assiduously concealed both from the public and from the police: how influential rabbis and community leaders have sided with the alleged abusers against their victims; how victims and witnesses of sexual abuse have been pressured, even threatened, not to turn to secular law enforcement for help; how autonomous Jewish 'patrols,' displacing the role of official police in some large and heavily religious Jewish neighbourhoods, have played an inglorious part in the history of cover-ups; ... how some Jewish communities have even succeeded in manipulating law enforcement officials to protect suspected abusers."

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Dig

5,000-year-old Canaanite megalopolis may rewrite history

Amanda Borschel-Dan
Time of Israel
Sun, 06 Oct 2019 11:32 UTC
Harish
© Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities AuthorityAerial photograph of the Early Bronze Age excavation site near modern Harish.
A massive 5,000-year-old metropolis that housed some 6,000 residents has been uncovered alongside Israel's newest city, Harish, during new roadworks. The 160-acre (over 650 dunam) city is the largest Early Bronze Age settlement excavated in Israel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Sunday.

"It is much larger than any known site in the land of Israel — and outside the land of Israel — in the region of Jordan, Lebanon, southern Syria," said excavation co-director Dr. Yitzhak Paz in an IAA video.

In addition, just ahead of the construction of a new interchange over the En Esur (Ein Asawir) archaeological site, IAA archaeologists also discovered an earlier, 7,000-year-old Chalcolithic settlement under several of the 5,000-year-old structures.

Comment: To note: there was no land of Israel before 1948; any claims of Israel's existence in the land of Palestine and elsewhere before then have been well and truly debunked.

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SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Decoding the American Minds: The Deep History of America's Culture Wars

Harrison Koehli, Elan Martin, Corey Schink
Sott.net
Sun, 06 Oct 2019 00:00 UTC
american nations
© SOTT
The United States is a big country, but its population is anything but homogenous. For its entire history the people of its various regions have clashed over everything from politics and economics, to religion and cultural norms. But why? Today on MindMatters we discuss Colin Woodard's book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, inspired by the earlier work of David Hackett Fischer. The current cultural landscape of North America traces back to its beginnings: the first settlers of its numerous colonies and their eventual spread west across the continent. From the Tidewater gentry and Puritan Yankees, the Spanish mestizo in the south and French in the north, the Dutch in New York and the Quakers in the Midlands, to the plantation slavers of the Deep South and clannish warriors of Greater Appalachia, the Left Coast and the Far West - the cultural template of each region was set by their respective 'founding fathers', and those trends have continued to the present day.

Tune in for a look at the fascinating, bloody, and often courageous history of North America, with all its twists and turns. This isn't the history your boring high-school teacher taught you!


Running Time: 01:13:59

Download: MP3 — 67.7 MB

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Bullseye

45,000 year old 'projectile weapons' oldest ever found in Europe

Tohoku University
Science Direct
Mon, 30 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
spear human
A team of Japanese and Italian researchers, including from Tohoku University, have evidenced mechanically delivered projectile weapons in Europe dating to 45,000-40,000 years -- more than 20,000 years than previously thought. This study, entitled "The earliest evidence for mechanically delivered projectile weapons in Europe" published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, indicated that the spearthrower and bow-and-arrow technologies allowed modern humans to hunt more successfully than Neanderthals -- giving them a competitive advantage. This discovery offered important insight to understand the reasons for the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans.

Apparently, Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted in Europe for at least 5,000 years. However, little is known about why modern humans could increase their population size after migrating to Europe and successfully occupy new territories, while autochthonous Neanderthals went extinct ~ 40,000 years ago.

Comment: While this would have given humans an advantage over neanderthals it does not provide a full and satisfactory explanation as to why neanderthals died out completely.

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Archaeology

Divers excavate Roman shipwreck packed with perfectly preserved wine, olive oil & KETCHUP jugs


RT
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 19:43 UTC
amphorae roman shipwreci mallorca
© Balearic Institute of Maritime Archeology StudiesPerfectly-sealed earthenware amphorae carrying Roman delicacies
The Roman delicacies spent 1,800 years on the bottom of the Mediterranean to become a true 'feast' for the archeologists, who said that they've stumbled upon one of the best preserved shipwrecks from the period.

The Balearic Institute of Maritime Archeology Studies posted a video that pictured the ship and its artifacts, as well as the complex job done by the divers to recover them from the deep.

"This wreck is one of the best preserved in the entire Mediterranean of the lower Roman Empire," the Department of Culture of Mallorca said.
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Bizarro Earth

Black Death traced back to Russia's Volga region via ancient DNA

Ann Gibbons
Science Magazine
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 05:00 UTC
plague pit
© Archeodunum SAS/Gourvennec MichaëlMass grave, Toulouse
In the 14th century, the Black Death wiped out as much as 60% of the population of Europe, spreading rapidly from the shores of the Black Sea to central Europe. Although historical records first document its appearance in 1346 C.E. in the lower Volga region of Russia, researchers didn't know whether the highly virulent strain of Yersinia pestis bacterium that caused the deadly pandemic came from a single source or was introduced to Europe more than once by travelers carrying diverse strains of plague from different parts of the ancient world.

Now, by analyzing 34 ancient genomes of Y. pestis from the teeth of people buried at 10 sites across Europe from the 14th to 17th centuries (including a mass grave in Toulouse, France — above), researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany, have found the earliest known evidence of this pandemic comes from Laishevo, in Russia's Volga region. There, researchers found a strain of Y. pestis that was ancestral to all other genomes they studied, differing by only one mutation from those that caused the Black Death in Europe, they report today in Nature Communications.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Who was Jesus? Examining the evidence that Christ may in fact have been Caesar!

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