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Pompeii: Wild parties, riots and famine preceded cataclysmic eruption of Vesuvius, inscription reveals

Owen Jarus
Live Science
Sat, 05 Oct 2019 09:57 UTC
pompeii
© Eric VANDEVILLE/Getty ImagesPompeii was buried in ash in A.D. 79 in the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
In the decades before the city of Pompeii was buried in ash by the cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, everyday life was filled with parties and struggles.

That's according to a recently deciphered inscription found on the wall of a Pompeii tomb that was discovered there in 2017.

The inscription describes a massive coming-of-age party for a wealthy young man. who reaches the age of an adult citizen. According to the inscription, he threw a massive party that included a banquet serving 6,840 people and a show in which 416 gladiators fought over several days.

The inscription also tells of harder times, including a famine that lasted four years and another gladiator show that ended in a public riot, Massimo Osanna, the director general of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, wrote in a paper published in the 2018 issue of the Journal of Roman Archaeology, which is published once a year.

Comment: A bit more insight into the the overall health of the population is provided in the article Exploded skulls and vaporized bodies: Pompeii finds reveal horror of Vesuvius eruption:
Previous studies of the skeletal remains from Herculaneum include those related to understanding the ancient diet and disease load. According to an early study by anthropologist Sarah Bisel, overall excellent teeth suggest a diet low in cavity-causing foods, which could be the result of natural fluoride in the water owing to the volcano. Nearly half of the people examined had some amount of osteoarthritis, however, and many others appear to have suffered from childhood diseases or famines. Another study by anthropologist Luigi Capasso notes evidence of respiratory infections, potentially caused by indoor cooking. While many people at Herculaneum were eating seafood, their diet was mostly based on terrestrial meats and carbohydrates.


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The Nabataeans: Work begins on uncovering mystery civilization in Saudi Arabia

Sylvia Smith
BBC
Thu, 03 Oct 2019 12:00 UTC
Nabataeans
© Richard DuebelThis rock tomb is just one of the monuments left in the area by the Nabataeans
A team of researchers is carrying out the first in-depth archaeological survey of part of Saudi Arabia, in a bid to shed light on a mysterious civilisation that once lived there. The Nabataean culture left behind sophisticated stone monuments, but many sites remain unexplored.

The rock-strewn deserts of Al Ula in Saudi Arabia are known for their pitch-black skies, which allow stargazers to easily study celestial bodies without the problem of light pollution.

But the region is becoming even more attractive for archaeologists.

A long-lost culture known as the Nabataean civilisation inhabited the area starting from around 100 BC and persisted for some 200 years.

While the Nabataeans ruled their empire from the stunning city of Petra in Jordan, they made Hegra (the modern Mada'in Saleh) in Al Ula their second capital.

Comment: See also:

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New evidence sheds light on Younger Dryas impact hypothesis

Francis Thackeray
The Conversation
Wed, 02 Oct 2019 21:58 UTC
Comet
© Shutterstock
Just less than 13,000 years ago, the climate cooled for a short while in many parts of the world, especially in the northern hemisphere. We know this because of what has been found in ice cores drilled in Greenland, as well as from oceans around the world.

Grains of pollen from various plants can also tell us about this cooler period, which people who study climate prehistory call the Younger Dryas and which interrupted a warming trend after the last Ice Age. The term gets its name from a wildflower, Dryas octopetala. It can tolerate cold conditions and was common in parts of Europe 12,800 years ago. At about this time a number of animals became extinct. These included mammoths in Europe, large bison in North America, and giant sloths in South America.

The cause of this cooling event has been debated a great deal. One possibility, for instance, is that it relates to changes in oceanic circulation systems. In 2007 Richard Firestone and other American scientists presented a new hypothesis: that the cause was a cosmic impact like an asteroid or comet. The impact could have injected a lot of dust into the air, which might have reduced the amount of sunlight getting through the earth's atmosphere. This might have affected plant growth and animals in the food chain.

Research we have just had published sheds new light on this Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis. We focus on what platinum can tell us about it.
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Bones from rare Mesolithic cave burial rediscovered in England


BBC
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
Cannington Park
Cheddar Man lived in the Somerset area 9,000 years ago and was buried in Cheddar Gorge, where his nearly complete skeleton was discovered in 1903
Two boxes of human remains rediscovered after 55 years have been found to be as old as the Cheddar Man - Britain's oldest complete skeleton.

The bones were discovered in a cave in Cannington Park Quarry near Bridgwater, Somerset, in the 1960s.

Soon after they "disappeared", and were recently found at Somerset Heritage Centre near Taunton, Cotswold Archaeology said.

Radiocarbon dating has shown them to be more than 9,000 years old.

Comment: See also:

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Dishing the dirt on Denisova cave: A refuge for hominins and a home to bears, wolves and hyenas

Flinders University
Phys.org
Thu, 26 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
denisova
© Dr Mike Morley, Flinders UniversityMicroscopic studies of sediment left in the cave includes fossil droppings left by predatory animals such as hyenas and wolves.
Fossil animal droppings, charcoal from ancient fires and bone fragments litter the ground of one of the world's most important human evolution sites, new research reveals.

The latest evidence from southern Siberia shows that large cave-dwelling carnivores once dominated the landscape, competing for more than 300,000 years with ancient tribes for prime space in cave shelters.

A team of Russian and Australian scientists have used modern geoarchaeological techniques to unearth new details of day-to-day life in the famous Denisova Cave complex in Siberia's Altai Mountains.

Large carnivores such hyena, wolves and even bears and at least three early nomadic human groups (hominins) - Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early Homo sapiens - used this famous archaeological site, the researchers say in a new Scientific Reports study examining the dirt deposited in the cave complex over thousands of years.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: America Before: Comets, Catastrophes, Mounds and Mythology

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Info

The earliest evidence for spears in Europe


Tohoku University
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 18:16 UTC
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.
Stone Artifact
© K.SanoA backed piece with an impact fracture from Grotta del Cavallo. The impact fracture demonstrates that this small stone artifact was used as a hunting weapon.
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.

The research team included 17 scientists from Italy and Japan, coordinated by the archaeologists Katsuhiro Sano (Center for Northeast Asian Studies, Tohoku University) and Adriana Moroni (Department of Environment, Earth and Physical Sciences, University of Siena), and the paleoanthropologist Stefano Benazzi (Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna).
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Butterfly

420,000 years ago archaic humans collected swan feathers in Qesem Cave, Israel

Ruth Schuster
Haaretz
Mon, 23 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
swan wing bone
© Ruth BlascoA swan wing found at Qesem Cave has marks that can only be from defeathering: Like among the ancient Owl People of Louisiana, feather-based ritual may have been a mark of respect, says Tel Aviv University's Ran Barkai.
Over a million years ago, archaic humans ate of the rat, did not shrink at the shrew and somehow caught and consumed birds too. No sign has yet been found that they harbored ritualistic or symbolic regard for micro-mammals, but regarding the birds at least — these ancient hominins didn't just eat them.

New evidence found at Qesem Cave, a Paleolithic site occupied on and off from about 420,000 years to 200,000 years ago, indicates that the hominids living there were going to some effort to remove the feathers from their prey.

That practice adds to indications from other sites throughout the history of human evolution that our ancestors not only exploited their environment but appreciated it too, says the team.

Comment: See also: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Question

Körtik Tepe - Older than Göbekli Tepe?

Chuck
YouTube/cfapps7865
Sun, 29 Sep 2019 21:12 UTC
Older than Gobekli Tepe, ...Located on the Tigris River, Körtik Tepe to me provides part of the answer to who built Gobekli Tepe...and were they hunter gatherers? This site was occupied 12,500 years ago to 11,700 years ago, right in the window of the Younger Dryas cataclysms 12,800 years ago and 11,600 years ago.
Kortik Tepe Excavations
© Hurriyet Daily NewsExcavations in Körtik Hill (Körtik Tepe) in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır’s Bismil district have unearthed more than 30,000 artifacts in 17 years.

Comment: Körtik Tepe, a new Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in south-eastern Anatolia

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Flashlight

Wemyss: The Scottish caves housing mysterious carvings from the Bronze Age to the Picts

Amanda Ruggeri & Adam Proctor
BBC
Fri, 27 Sep 2019 12:00 UTC
Wemyss Caves
Wemyss Caves
The Wemyss Caves house mysterious carvings from as early as 300AD. In the face of natural and human threats, archaeologists are racing to decode them before they vanish.

Hidden beneath the medieval ruins of Macduff's Castle in Fife, Scotland, lies an even more ancient wonder: a series of 4,000- to 1,500-year-old carvings that archaeologists have yet to fully comprehend.

Inside the shadowy, red-tinged Wemyss Caves hide ancient etchings of animals, hunting scenes and what might be the first rendering of a Scottish ship. As archaeologists and historians work to unravel the meanings of these mysterious drawings, environmental and human threats are forcing them into a high-stakes race against time.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:

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SOTT Focus: MindMatters: Origins of the Power Elite: Inequality and "The 1%"

Elan Martin, Harrison Koehli, Corey Schink
Sott.net
Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00 UTC
inequality
© SOTT
According to Walter Scheidel in The Great Leveler, the only ways to equalize the distribution of wealth effectively have involved violence on a massive scale: famine, war, state collapse, revolution. But how did things get so inequal in the first place? Today on MindMatters we discuss the first chapter of Scheidel's book, which provides an overview of the history of inequality. From chimps and hunter-gatherers to the first farmers and the emergence of classes of elites, there has always been - and arguably always will be - inequality. But certain circumstances and practices have made things perhaps more extreme than they need to be. Especially since the advent of agriculture and the possibility of surplus production, elite classes of thieves and thugs (otherwise known as governments) have greatly exacerbated wealth inequality, and created new means accruing even more wealth and power to themselves. Join us today as we begin our discussion of inequality: is it good or bad, or both? And if it's inescapable, what can be done about its negative consequences?


Running Time: 01:15:12

Download: MP3 — 68.9 MB

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