Secret HistoryS


Bomb

Bombing Hiroshima changed the world, but it didn't end WWII

Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick
LA Times
Thu, 26 May 2016 04:30 UTC
the Trinity Test
© Associated PressA photo taken July 16, 1945 shows an aerial view after the first atomic explosion at the Trinity Test site in New Mexico.

Comment: Please note this article dates back to 2016.


President Obama's visit to Hiroshima on Friday has rekindled public debate about the U.S. atomic bombings of Japan — one largely suppressed since the Smithsonian canceled its Enola Gay exhibit in 1995. Obama, aware that his critics are ready to pounce if he casts the slightest doubt on the rectitude of President Harry S. Truman's decision to use atomic bombs, has opted to remain silent on the issue. This is unfortunate. A national reckoning is overdue.

Most Americans have been taught that using atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 was justified because the bombings ended the war in the Pacific, thereby averting a costly U.S. invasion of Japan. This erroneous contention finds its way into high school history texts still today. More dangerously, it shapes the thinking of government officials and military planners working in a world that still contains more than 15,000 nuclear weapons.

Comment: See also:

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Snowflake

The Dyatlov Pass incident: Who or what killed the Russian hikers? RT investigates


RT
Fri, 02 Aug 2019 12:24 UTC
Dyatlov Pass
© RuptlyDyatlov Pass
Exactly 60 years after the mutilated and half-naked bodies of seven hikers were found on the snowy slopes of the Ural Mountains, a Ruptly crew travels to the Dyatlov Pass to try and shed a new light on the coldest of cold cases.

CAUTION: STORY CONTAINS DISTURBING IMAGES

As it greets the cameras, the landscape of what has long been known by local Mansi tribesmen as Deadly Mountain is as bleak and snow-covered as it was when the seven men and two women under the command of Igor Dyatlov planted their tent here in inclement weather on February 1, 1959.

After all these years, the surroundings still betray no signs of what terror unfolded on these slopes, other than a plaque dedicated to the dead hikers. But even when the first victims were discovered here, weeks after they had perished, nature's clues were already conspicuous by their absence.
Plaque
© RuptlyPlaque dedicated to the victims
It was as if a macabre puzzle had been left there, waiting to be solved.


Comment: FWIW, our insider sources told us it was a transdimensional scientific expedition gone wrong. The hikers were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. The 'science project' was interested in the location, not the people. When they 'returned' the hikers, the amateurs apparently messed everything up. Happens all too frequently.

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Dig

Who were the mysterious Neolithic people that enabled the rise of ancient Egypt?

Joel D. Irish
The Conversation
Thu, 01 Aug 2019 14:48 UTC
Neolithic skull
Neolithic skull
To many, ancient Egypt is synonymous with the pharaohs and pyramids of the Dynastic period starting about 3,100BC. Yet long before that, about 9,300-4,000BC, enigmatic Neolithic peoples flourished. Indeed, it was the lifestyles and cultural innovations of these peoples that provided the very foundation for the advanced civilisations to come.

But who were they? As it turns out, they haven't actually been studied much, at least relative to their successors. But our excavations of six burial sites - with some of the analyses recently published - have now provided important insights into their mysterious ways of life.

One reason why we know so little about Neolithic Egypt is that the sites are often inaccessible, lying beneath the Nile's former flood plain or in outlying deserts. What's more, if you were an archaeologist what would you rather study - a pyramid near Cairo or a possible rock alignment in some remote desert?

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Cupcake Pink

Iron Age Celtic woman wearing fancy clothes buried in tree coffin in Switzerland

Laura Geggel
Live Science
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 06:43 UTC
tree coffin
© Amt für Städtebau, Stadt Zürich Office for Urban Development, city of ZurichThis illustration shows what the woman's grave might have looked like in 200 B.C.
During the late Iron Age, Celts laid one of their own to rest in a "tree coffin," but not before they dressed her to the nines; she wore a fine woolen dress and shawl, a sheepskin coat and a beautiful necklace strung with glass and amber beads, according to the Office for Urban Development in Zurich.

After studying the 2,200-year-old burial, archaeologists learned that the woman was about 40 years old when she died and had probably performed little physical labor during her lifetime. Moreover, an analysis of her teeth suggested this woman liked to eat starchy or sweetened foods.

Even her coffin was remarkable; the woman was buried in a hollowed-out tree trunk, which still had bark on its exterior.

The woman's remains were originally found in March 2017, during a construction project at the Kern school complex in Aussersihl, a district in Zurich. Since then, an interdisciplinary examination by the city of Zurich's archaeology department has illustrated much about this woman's life in 200 B.C. For instance, an isotope analysis of the woman's bones showed that she was a local who grew up in Zurich, likely in Limmat Valley. (An isotope is an element with a different number of neutrons than usual.)

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Pirates

The pirate who changed the way we eat

Luke Fater
Atlas Obscura
Fri, 26 Jul 2019 19:29 UTC
William Dampier pirate food writer
© National Portrait Gallery/Public DomainA 1697 oil painting of Dampier holding a book.
William Dampier's food-writing firsts included the use of the words "barbecue" and "chopsticks."

For all the perceived glamour of piracy, its practitioners lived poorly and ate worse. Skirting death, mutiny, and capture left little room for comfort or transformative culinary experience. The greatest names in piracy, wealthy by the day's standards, ate as one today might on a poorly provisioned camping trip: dried beef, bread, and warm beer. Those of lesser fame were subject to cannibalism and scurvy. The seas were no place for an adventurous appetite.

But when one gifted pirate permitted himself a curiosity for food, he played a pioneering role in spreading ingredients and cuisines. He gave us the words "tortilla," "soy sauce," and "breadfruit," while unknowingly recording the first ever recipe for guacamole. And who better to expose the Western world to the far corners of our planet's culinary bounty than someone who by necessity made them his hiding places?
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Dig

8th Century pre-Columbian figurine discovered at Peruvian dig

Harvard University
Phys.org
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
peru archeology
© Harvard GazetteCaroline Coolidge was stunned.
The rising second-year was digging at the archaeology field school in San José de Moro, Peru, and there in the dusty dirt a small face stared up at her. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her.

"I honestly at first just thought I was imagining it because I just wanted to find something so bad," said Coolidge, a Leverett House resident who is taking part in the summer archaeology program run by Pontifícia Universidad Católica del Perú in collaboration with the Harvard Summer School Study Abroad Program. "I thought, "This can't be this intact piece of pottery." But I just kept brushing away. I was honestly speechless when I saw what it was."

It turned out to be truly special.

Comment: See also:

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Archaeology

Was ancient Egypt full of giants? Archeologists unearth pits of very large hands near 3,600 y.o. palace


Strange Sounds
Mon, 29 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
severed large hands Egypt
© ArcheologyNewsThousands of severed large hands found in palace in Egypt.
While excavating a 3,600-year-old palace in the once-great city of Avaris, Egypt, a team of archaeologists unearthed four pits. What's in the pits? It's hands. There are no bodies - just a bunch of dismembered hands. Most of the hands are quite large and some of them are very large, further signifying that they were all taken from adult males, and possibly that ancient Egypt was full of giants.

These 4 ancient hand recycling bins were found in the palace of King Khayan of the Hyksos, a West Asian people who once ruled over part of Northern Egypt - 2 in an outer portion of the palace and 2 just outside the throne room, indicating some ceremonial importance.

So, like, what the hell?

Actually, these large to very large hands are the very first physical evidence archaeologists have found of a practice that's widely represented in ancient Egyptian art.

Comment: Numerous cultures throughout history have described giants in their myths and legends. There is also abundant archeological evidence of the existence of giants, although many of these discoveries are concealed from the public. See:

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Archaeology

Large buildings point to organized community at Neolithic site in central Greece

Nick Kampouris
Greek Reporter
Tue, 30 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
greece neolithic
© Ministry of CultureParts of the discovery.
Greece's Ministry of Culture issued a statement on Friday afternoon, regarding recent discoveries in a neolithic settlement that is located in Phthiotis region and dates back to 6,000 - 5,800 BC.

The settlement, known to archaeologists as Koutroulou Magoula, from a local toponym, underwent its tenth season of excavation, with major discoveries having been made.

A large, middle-Neolithic building was discovered, with stone walls measuring a total of 9.5 meters in length and nearly 8.5 meters in width.

Comment: More information about the site:
Birdmen of Koutroulou Magoula

Koutroulou Magoula
Archaeologists have uncovered more than 300 clay figurines depicting male and female forms, as well as human-bird hybrids, at Koutroulou Magoula, a Neolithic settlement in central Greece.

Ranging from 3-4cm to 10-12cm in length (about 1-4.5in), the models were scattered all over the 4ha site (nearly 10 acres), with some recovered from the foundations of houses, and others found around hearths and in post-holes.

'The techniques of making the figurines vary, but a common method involves a clay core, around which the rest of the body is built,' project co-director Professor Yannis Hamilakis of the University of Southampton told CWA. 'The range of imagery is very varied, including male and female figures, some with no indication of gender, and also bird-human hybrids, some of which have a kind of four-legged base.'
[...]
'This type of home would normally have stone foundations with mud-brick on top, but our investigations have found buildings preserved with stone walls up to a metre in height, suggesting that the walls may have been built entirely of stone - something not typical of the period,' said Professor Hamilakis. 'The tell is much larger than average, and the construction of its ditches must have been a major communal effort, though to date there are no signs of a centralised authority.'
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Hiliter

Roman stylus with joke inscription found at London building site

Dalya Alberge
The Guardian
Sat, 27 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
roman stylus
© Juan Jose Fuldain/MOLAThe inscription on the Roman stylus
It sounds just like the kind of joke that is ubiquitous in today's cheap-and-cheerful souvenir industry: "I went to Rome and all I got you was this lousy pen." But the tongue-in-cheek inscription recently deciphered on a cheap writing implement during excavations in the City of London is in fact about 2,000 years old.

"I have come from the city. I bring you a welcome gift with a sharp point that you may remember me. I ask, if fortune allowed, that I might be able [to give] as generously as the way is long [and] as my purse is empty," it reads.

The message was inscribed on an iron stylus dating from around AD70, a few decades after Roman London was founded. The implement was discovered by Museum of London Archaeology during excavations for Bloomberg's European headquarters next to Cannon Street station, on the bank of the river Walbrook, a now-lost tributary of the Thames.

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Dig

2,750 year old burial site of Urartian nobles revealed in eastern Turkey

Mesut Varol
Anadolou Agency
Mon, 29 Jul 2019 12:00 UTC
Urartian
Archaeological excavations have unearthed a burial ground, belonging to 9th Century B.C. Urartian royals in East Turkey's Van province.

The burial ground was discovered in the 2,750-year-old necropolis area, which was unearthed two years ago, during the excavation at Cavustepe Castle, a fortified site in the Gurpinar district.

A team of 22 excavators -- including anthropologists, archeologists, art historians and restoration work officials -- discovered the burial ground. Experts believe that the discovery will help, to study ancient civilizations, in a more scientific way.

Led by Rafet Cavusoglu, a professor of archaeology at the Van's Yuzuncu Yil University, the team found 2,777-year-old male and female skeletons, along with a silver necklace, 39 earrings, an amulet, a lion brooch, as well as a belt depicting mythological characters.

Comment: See also:

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