Secret HistoryS


Sun

Multiple ancient sites discovered on land parched by heatwave in UK

Will Hayward
Wales Online
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 14:44 UTC
Cropmarks of a large Bronze Age barrow cemetery on the Llyn Peninsula
© Crown Copyright RCAHMWCropmarks of a large Bronze Age barrow cemetery on the Llyn Peninsula
A Bronze Age cemetery has been discovered in Wales following the recent scorching temperatures.

The cemetery is one of dozens of finds that have emerged due to the hot weather which include a Roman villa, prehistoric animal enclosures and an iron age farmstead.

The "crop marks" for the large Bronze Age barrow cemetery were discovered on the Llyn Peninsula in Gwynedd by Senior Aerial Investigator Dr Toby Driver from Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW).

What are crop marks?

Cropmarks are a way which archaeological features below the soil can be visible from the air or a high vantage point.

Comment: The heatwave and drought in the UK and Ireland has led to unprecedented wildfires and crop damage but it also seems to be revealing more than a few formerly concealed sites: Heatwave reveals undiscovered ancient henge in Ireland

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Folder

Newly revealed documents: Two US soldiers were committed after reporting overhearing plot to assassinate JFK

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 16 Jul 2018 19:42 UTC
JFK and the CIA
Despite receiving little attention in the mass media, the November 2017 and April 2018 release of more than 35,000 and 18,000 documents by the Trump Administration, relating to the assassination of former President Kennedy-which had been withheld from the public for more than 50 years-sheds new light on the president's murder and the two soldiers who attempted to stop it.

While the mainstream media did cursorily cover the two releases, virtually none of the coverage was aimed at the most damning revelations, which included the fact that two U.S. soldiers in separate locations uncovered cryptographic messages indicating that President Kennedy was going to be assassinated, prior to his murder in Dallas.

Ominously, both of these soldiers were subsequently institutionalized after attempting to get the information they had uncovered to authorities.

The first case involves an army code breaker named Eugene V. Dinkin.

U.S. Army Private First Class Eugene Dinkin served in Metz, France, in the 599th Ordinance Group and worked in the cryptography section of his unit. His duties at Metz reportedly included deciphering cable traffic from the European Commands, NATO, etc.

Comment: See also:

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Muffin

Archaeologists find oldest evidence of bread in Jordan


University of Copenhagen
Mon, 16 Jul 2018 17:36 UTC
Fireplace for making bread
© Alexis PantosOne of the stone structures of the Shubayqa 1 site. The fireplace, where the bread was found, is in the middle.
At an archaeological site in northeastern Jordan, researchers have discovered the charred remains of a flatbread baked by hunter-gatherers 14,400 years ago. It is the oldest direct evidence of bread found to date, predating the advent of agriculture by at least 4,000 years. The findings suggest that bread production based on wild cereals may have encouraged hunter-gatherers to cultivate cereals, and thus contributed to the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic period.

A team of researchers from the University of Copenhagen, University College London and University of Cambridge have analysed charred food remains from a 14,400-year-old Natufian hunter-gatherer site - a site known as Shubayqa 1 located in the Black Desert in northeastern Jordan. The results, which are published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provide the earliest empirical evidence for the production of bread:

"The presence of hundreds of charred food remains in the fireplaces from Shubayqa 1 is an exceptional find, and it has given us the chance to characterize 14,000-year-old food practices. The 24 remains analysed in this study show that wild ancestors of domesticated cereals such as barley, einkorn, and oat had been ground, sieved and kneaded prior to cooking. The remains are very similar to unleavened flatbreads identified at several Neolithic and Roman sites in Europe and Turkey. So we now know that bread-like products were produced long before the development of farming. The next step is to evaluate if the production and consumption of bread influenced the emergence of plant cultivation and domestication at all," said University of Copenhagen archaeobotanist Amaia Arranz Otaegui, who is the first author of the study.
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2 + 2 = 4

Devastation and denial: The academic left and Cambodia

Matthew Blackwell
Quillette
Tue, 17 Jul 2018 00:12 UTC
Cambodian prisoners
Looking out across the yellow-washed angular buildings that clutter the inner city of Phnom Penh in 2016, hindsight fills me with anxiety. Imagining myself here in 1975, I recall the jubilant and cheering crowds in the spring of that year who weren't privy to that hindsight as they welcomed Khmer Rouge communists into Cambodia's capital city after months of siege.

On the morning of 17 April, word had arrived that the Khmer Rouge had captured the government's last beleaguered military stronghold on the outskirts of the city. Prime Minister Long Boret could hardly believe the news. He demanded to be driven to the riverside to see it with his own eyes. By the time he arrived, order had already collapsed in the streets and men wearing the black shirts of the Khmer Rouge surrounded his small entourage and demanded his guards put down their guns. Managing to slip away in the chaos, Boret reported back to his cabinet at the Defence Ministry that the enemy was already in the streets. The rush then began to evacuate senior government members from the country on any government helicopters still available amidst the anarchy. Had he taken action, Boret might have escaped with his wife and children on a helicopter reserved for him, but he delayed, trying to find a helicopter with enough space for his extended family.

Comment:

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Russian Flag

RT's 'live updates' of the Romanov family on the centenary of their execution


RT
Mon, 16 Jul 2018 18:23 UTC
Romanovs Tsar Nicholas II
On this day 100 years ago, Russia's last reigning monarch, Tsar Nicholas II, his wife and five children were murdered by the Bolsheviks. Follow #Romanovs100 Live Feed to find out what exactly happened on July 16th-17th, 1918.

16 July 2018

16:55 GMT

It's heartbreaking to see how the royal children had to grow up fast, caring for each other in captivity.


Comment: For more 'live updates' from RT on the Romanovs see here.

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Info

2000-year-old mysterious Basel papyri solved


University of Basel
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 05:22 UTC
Basel Papyrus
© University of BaselNot high-tech at all: The conservation of papyrus requires above all craftsmanship, expertise and time. A specialized papyrus conservator was brought to Basel to make this 2000-year-old document legible again.
Since the 16th century, Basel has been home to a mysterious papyrus. With mirror writing on both sides, it has puzzled generations of researchers. A research team from the University of Basel has now discovered that it is an unknown medical document from late antiquity. The text was likely written by the famous Roman physician Galen.

The Basel papyrus collection comprises 65 papers in five languages, which were purchased by the university in 1900 for the purpose of teaching classical studies - with the exception of two papyri. These arrived in Basel back in the 16th century, and likely formed part of Basilius Amerbach's art collection.

One of these Amerbach papyri was regarded until now as unique in the world of papyrology. With mirror writing on both sides, it has puzzled generations of researchers. It was only through ultraviolet and infrared images produced by the Basel Digital Humanities Lab that it was possible to determine that this 2,000-year-old document was not a single papyrus at all, but rather several layers of papyrus glued together. A specialist papyrus restorer was brought to Basel to separate the sheets, enabling the Greek document to be decoded for the first time.
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Archaeology

Did ancient Romans kill off Mediterranean whale species?

Alison George
New Scientist
Wed, 11 Jul 2018 16:54 UTC
roman mosaic sea monster
© Gianni Dagli Orti/REX/ShutterstockA mosaic showing a 'sea monster' taken from a Roman garrison in North Africa
They are 15 metres long and weigh around 40 tonnes, but two species of whale are mysteriously absent from the Mediterranean Sea.

Now an analysis of bones found at ancient Roman fish factories shows that these whales were common there 2,000 years ago - raising the possibility of a forgotten Roman whaling industry.

The Mediterranean is home to sperm and fin whales, but no gray or right whales are found there and there are no historical records of their presence. This is a mystery to biologists.

"Why are they not there? It seems like a hole in their home range," says biologist Ana Rodrigues of the University of Montpellier, France. She was part of a team of biologists and archaeologists who analysed the DNA of a rare set of presumed whale bones found at Roman fish-processing sites in Gibraltar and northern Spain.
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Dig

1,000 year old runes carved on mammoth bone pendant found in Siberia


Siberian Times
Thu, 05 Jul 2018 12:00 UTC
rune Yakutia. mammoth
Pavel Yakovlev makes 'great scientific discovery' near his village in Yakutia.

The fifth grade student discovered the 'jewellery' decorated with ancient Turkic runic inscriptions.

The four words are believed to be in the Orkhon-Yenisei type script.

Such writings are normally found in rock art in Yakutia, also known as Sakha Republic, the world's coldest region and the largest within the Russian Federation.

Academic Ninel Malysheva said: 'Runes rarely occur on such things as talismans and amulets.

'If it is confirmed that this bone found in Namsky district is genuine, it will be a great scientific discovery for the republic.

'A comprehensive study is now required involving paleontologists, archaeologists and Turkologists.'

Comment: Siberia has been revealing some fascinating finds of late:

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Dig

Heatwave reveals undiscovered ancient henge in Ireland

Barra Best
BBC
Thu, 12 Jul 2018 08:45 UTC
Meath's Boyne Valley ancient site
© Anthony Murphy
Relics of Ireland's ancient past have been uncovered - thanks to the recent heatwave and drought.

Images captured by a drone show a previously undiscovered monument or henge close to the 5,000 year old Newgrange monument in County Meath.

Measuring up to 200m in diameter, it is believed to be a late Neolithic or early Bronze Age enclosure.

"The weather is 95% responsible for this find," said Anthony Murphy who found the site along with Ken Williams.

Comment: We may find clues for why these henges were built by looking into what was happening with other cultures around the world during the same period:

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Cow Skull

How America walked away from the drug war in Afghanistan

Josh Meyer
Politico
Sun, 08 Jul 2018 15:47 UTC
drugs afghanistan
© Shah Marai/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesAn Afghan man pours gas onto a pile of seized drugs, including opium, hashish and heroin, before incinerating it outside Kabul, Afghanistan, in September 2004. The Taliban reaps hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the narcotics trade, according to U.S. and United Nations estimates.
A high-stakes plan to indict Afghan drug lords and insurgency leaders on criminal conspiracy charges ran afoul of the Obama team. Five years later, it remains buried under Trump.

As Afghanistan edged ever closer to becoming a narco-state five years ago, a team of veteran U.S. officials in Kabul presented the Obama administration with a detailed plan to use U.S. courts to prosecute the Taliban commanders and allied drug lords who supplied more than 90 percent of the world's heroin - including a growing amount fueling the nascent opioid crisis in the United States.

The plan, according to its authors, was both a way of halting the ruinous spread of narcotics around the world and a new - and urgent - approach to confronting ongoing frustrations with the Taliban, whose drug profits were financing the growing insurgency and killing American troops. But the Obama administration's deputy chief of mission in Kabul, citing political concerns, ordered the plan to be shelved, according to a POLITICO investigation.
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