Secret HistoryS


Pirates

How the Nazi network and ideology retained power in Germany's Interior Ministry after WWII

Sibylle Fuchs and Verena Nees
World Socialist Web Site
Fri, 11 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
Reinhard Gehlen
US War Department's Identification Card for Hans Holbein aka Reinhard Gehlen - infamous Nazi General protected and employed by the U.S. Gov't
The German Interior Ministry (BMI) employed more former Nazis after the Second World War than previously thought. Between 1949 and the beginning of the 1970s, there were more former Nazis in leading positions than in other ministries, such as the foreign office or the justice ministry, which were also teeming with former Nazis.

This was demonstrated in the concluding report of a preliminary study by historians, which appeared on October 29. In December 2014, Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière ordered a project group, led by Professor Frank Bösch (ZZF Potsdam) and Andreas Wirsching (IfZ Munich-Berlin), to study the role of National Socialists in the Interior Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Interior Ministry of former Stalinist East Germany (GDR).

The Interior Ministry had blocked such a study for longer than most of the other ministries and authorities. Since they had something to hide, this is not surprising! Immediately after the founding of the BMI in 1949, half of all newly hired department heads, branch and subdivision leaders were former members of the Nazi Party. This percentage rose to 66 percent between 1956 and 1961. This number in the Interior Ministry was only exceeded by the number in the Federal Criminal Office (BKA), which is under the control of the Interior Ministry. The proportion of ex-Nazis in the BKA was 75 percent.

Comment: Given the above analysis, one shudders to think how modern day Germany is in a position to effect the lives of so many Muslim refugees who are basically at their mercy.

See: Refugee crisis in Germany - Nazis on the rise - 'Never again' is happening again

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Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Cholula: Little known but recognized as largest pyramid in the world by volume

DHWTY
Ancient Origins
Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:06 UTC
Great Pyramid of Cholula
© Diego Delso/CC-BY-SA 3.0A section of the ruins of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, Puebla, Mexico
Mesoamerica is home to a number of pyramids. Some of these pyramids are quite well-known, whilst others are much more obscure. Despite being recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest pyramid in the world, one of the less familiar pyramids is the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

It should be mentioned here that the Great Pyramid of Cholula (which actually functioned as a temple) is the largest pyramid in the world in terms of its volume. The volume of the Cholula pyramid is estimated to be 4.45 million cubic meters (157.2 million cubic feet). By comparison, the Great Pyramid of Giza, though about 2.5 times the height of the Great Pyramid of Cholula, has a volume of 2.5 million cubic meters (88.3 million cubic feet).

Location and Construction of the Great Pyramid of Cholula

The Great Pyramid of Cholula is located just outside Puebla, the fourth largest city in modern day Mexico. This pyramid was dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, one of the most important deities of the Mesoamerican pantheon and during pre-Colombian times, Cholula was a large city and the religious center of highland Mexico.
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Info

Buried towers and spiral structure discovered at Angkor Wat

Owen Jarus
Live Science
Wed, 09 Dec 2015 11:22 UTC
Angkor Wat_1
© Khmer Archaeology Lidar Consortium (KALC)At Angkor Wat, a massive sand structure encompassing several rectangular spirals was discovered using a laser-scanning technique called LiDAR.
Eight buried towers and the remains of a massive spiral structure created from sand have been discovered at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The massive structure — almost a mile long — contains a spiral design, with several rectangular spirals that form a giant structure, archaeologists say. "This structure, which has dimensions of more than 1,500 m × 600 m (about 1 mile by 1,970 feet) is the most striking discovery associated with Angkor Wat to date. Its function remains unknown and, as yet, it has no known equivalent in the Angkorian world," Roland Fletcher, a University of Sydney professor, said in a statement put out by the university.

Today, the spiral structure is hard to make out on the ground, having been obscured by modern features and vegetation.

By examining the mile-long spiral structure and the stone towers, researchers date them back to when Angkor Wat was first built in the 12th century A.D. [See Photos of the Spiral Structure and Buried Towers at Angkor Wat]

King Suryavarman II had Angkor Wat built as a Hindu temple to the god Vishnu. The temple has a 213-foot-tall (65 meters) central tower that is surrounded by four smaller towers and a series of enclosure walls. The layout "is considered to correspond with the cosmology of Mount Meru and the surrounding Sea of Milk from which ambrosia was churned by the gods and demons," wrote a research team in an article published this month in the journal Antiquity.

Antiquity recently published a special section dedicated to the latest archaeological research at Angkor Wat.
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Colosseum

Unique 3rd century Roman-era mausoleum, temple unearthed in an extinct volcano in Central Anatolia


Hurriet Daily News
Tue, 08 Dec 2015 01:28 UTC
Pyramidal mausoleum Turkey
© Hurriet Daily News
Continuing excavations in an extinct volcano in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman have unearthed a unique pyramidal mausoleum and a temple.

Karaman Museum Director Abdülbari Yıldız said excavation and cleaning works had been continuing at the Değle and Madenşehri villages in the skirts of Karadağ Mountain since 2014.

He said six church structures had been so far unearthed during the excavations, adding, "Excavations recently focused on Madenşehri. We worked in the region called 'mint' by locals. As the works progressed, we got very excited. A mausoleum and a temple that had not been seen in the Central Anatolian and Mediterranean regions were found here."

The pyramidal mausoleum and the temple with a podium dated back to the 3rd century, Yıldız said.

"The mausoleum and the temple were completely unearthed. Environmental arrangements are being made. These are Roman-era structures. The roof of the two-story mausoleum had collapsed. It is known that Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius had coins printed in this region. We estimate that this mausoleum belonged to a top Roman official," he said.

"After Christianity became dominant in the region after the 5th century, dozens of churches were built. The region was recognized as the center of episcopalism and pilgrimage. The newly-discovered structures are from the Roman era when Christianity was not popular. Churches have been found in the region but not a temple. We can see such structures on the Aegean coasts. It is very important that it is the only pyramidal mausoleum and temple with a podium ever found in Central Anatolia," he added.
pyramidal mausoleum temple turkey
© Hurriet Daily News
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Info

Adena giants: Profile of prehistoric mound builders

Jason Jarrell and Sarah Farmer
Ancient Origins
Tue, 08 Dec 2015 14:53 UTC
Adena giant
© Marcia K Moore / Ciamar StudioArtist’s representation of the “Adena Giant”, Prehistoric Mound Builders
In the 1800s, reports began to surface of the discovery of very large skeletal remains in the burial mounds of North America. These skeletons were described as reaching seven to eight feet (2.4 meters) in length, with a lower frequency of discoveries spanning nine to 11 feet (3.3 meters) in length, and having very large skulls and gigantic lower jawbones.

Historians often detailed these remains in early local historical records, such as the following from Cass County, Michigan:

"It was a mound about thirteen feet high.... the diameter of its base was about fifty feet...Portions of the skeletons were in a good state of preservation. The femur, or thigh bone, of one of the males, which Dr Bonine has now in his possession, is of great size and indicates that its owner must have been at least seven feet in height"

Comment:

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Sherlock

Evidence suggests Stonehenge was originally erected In Wales

Dalya Alberge
The Guardian, UK
Sun, 06 Dec 2015 19:01 UTC
Archaeology site
© University College LondonStonehenge may have been first erected in Wales, evidence suggests.
Evidence that bluestones were quarried in Wales 500 years before they were put up in Wiltshire prompts theory that Stonehenge is "second-hand monument"

Evidence of quarrying for Stonehenge's bluestones is among the dramatic discoveries leading archaeologists to theorise that England's greatest prehistoric monument may have first been erected in Wales.

It has long been known that the bluestones that form Stonehenge's inner horseshoe came from the Preseli hills in Pembrokeshire, around 140 miles from Salisbury Plain.

Now archaeologists have discovered a series of recesses in the rocky outcrops of Carn Goedog and Craig Rhos-y-felin, to the north of those hills, that match Stonehenge's bluestones in size and shape. They have also found similar stones that the prehistoric builders extracted but left behind, and "a loading bay" from where the huge stones could be dragged away.
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Magnify

Difference between facial growth of Neanderthals and modern humans


ScienceDaily
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 00:00 UTC
skulls
© Rodrigo S. LacruzGrowth directions of the maxilla in the Sima de los Huesos (SH) and Neanderthals compared to modern humans. This impacts facial growth in at least two ways. (i) Extensive bone deposits over the maxilla in the fossils are consistent with a strong forward growth component (purple arrows); whereas resorption in the modern human face attenuates forward displacement (blue arrow). (ii) Deposition combined with larger developing nasal cavities in the fossils displaces the dentition forward generating the retromolar space characteristic of Neanderthals and also in some SH fossils.
An international research team, led by Rodrigo Lacruz, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Basic Science and Craniofacial Biology at New York University's College of Dentistry (NYUCD), has just published a study describing for the first time the developmental processes that differentiate Neanderthal facial skeletons from those of modern humans.

Lacruz's research team showed that the Neanderthals, who appeared about 200,000 years ago, are quite distinct from Homo sapiens (humans) in the manner in which their faces grow, adding to an old but important debate concerning the separation of these two groups. The paper, "Ontogeny of the Maxilla in Neanderthals and their Ancestors," appears in Nature Communications.

"This is an important piece of the puzzle of evolution," says Lacruz, a paleoanthropologist and enamel biologist. "Some have thought that Neanderthals and humans should not be considered distinct branches of the human family tree. However, our findings, based upon facial growth patterns, indicate they are indeed sufficiently distinct from one another.
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Sherlock

400-year-old embalmed hearts found under French convent

Megan Gannon
LiveScience
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 17:06 UTC
heart of Toussaint Perrien
© Rozenn Colleter, Ph.D./INRAPThis is a heart-shaped lead urn with an inscription identifying the contents as the heart of Toussaint Perrien, Knight of Brefeillac.
Four hundred years after they were buried in heart-shaped lead urns, five embalmed human hearts have been discovered in a cemetery in northwestern France.

Scientists said they were able to peer inside those organs with modern medical imaging techniques, revealing the hearts' chambers, valves and arteries, some still bearing marks of disease.

The hearts were discovered underneath the basement of the Convent of the Jacobins in Rennes, where archaeologists with France's National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research have been excavating graves for the past several years, ahead of a plan to turn the site into a conference center.
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Sherlock

6,000-year-old lead "wand-sword" discovered in Israel

Laura Geggel
LiveScience
Fri, 04 Dec 2015 16:20 UTC
wand artifact
© Yahalom-Mack, et al.The ancient lead and wood artifact isn't much larger than a modern pocketknife.
A lead and wood artifact discovered in a roughly 6,000-year-old grave in a desert cave is the oldest evidence of smelted lead on record in the Levant, a new study finds.

The artifact, which looks like something between an ancient wand and a tiny sword, suggests that people in Israel's northern Negev desert learned how to smelt lead during the Late Chalcolithic, a period known for copper work but not lead work, said Naama Yahalom-Mack, the study's lead researcher and a postdoctoral student of archaeology with a specialty in metallurgy at the Institute of Earth Sciences and the Institute of Archaeology at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Moreover, an analysis of the lead suggests that it came from Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which is part of the Levant, or the area encompassing the eastern Mediterranean. The artifact was likely a valuable tool, given that it shows signs of wear and was placed in a grave alongside the remains of an individual in the cave, she said.
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Sherlock

Michigan farmer stumbles upon a mammoth discovery

Adam G.
The Rain Forest Site
Mon, 07 Dec 2015 02:16 UTC
Mammoth in Michigan
Mammoth in Michigan
Most kids have the daydream of digging in the front yard and discovering pirate treasure or the remains of a dinosaur. Heck, even some adults still hold onto that image. For one farmer in rural Michigan, that is exactly what happened!

Farmer James Bristle was working on planting soy beans when he discovered a crop of wood fragments. As he continued to drain the water from a portion of his field, it became clear that the "wood" was actually bone.
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