Secret HistoryS


Footprints

200,000-year-old baby tooth is fourth fossil identified from Siberia's Denisova Cave

Charles Q. Choi
Live Science
Mon, 10 Jul 2017 19:28 UTC
Denisovian tooth
© Slon et al. Sci. Adv. 2017; 3: e1700186Photographs of the Denisova 2 lower second molar in (A) occlusal, (B) mesial, (C) buccal, (D) lingual, (E) distal, and (F) apical views. Scientists estimate the molar found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia is older than previously studied Denisovan fossils.
DNA in a fossil from a young girl has revealed that a mysterious extinct human lineage occupied the middle of Asia longer than previously thought, allowing more potential interbreeding with Neanderthals, a new study finds.

Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other hominins — which include modern humans, extinct human species and their immediate ancestors — once lived on Earth. These included Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, as well as the Denisovans, who lived across a region that might have stretched from Siberia to Southeast Asia.

In 2010, researchers analyzed DNA from fossils to reveal the existence of the Denisovans, suggesting the lineage shared a common ancestor with Neanderthals. However, the Denisovans were nearly as genetically distinct from Neanderthals as Neanderthals were from modern humans, with the ancestors of Denisovans and Neanderthals splitting about 190,000 to 470,000 years ago.
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Info

Neandertal thigh bone may rewrite history of humanity's origins

Tabitha M. Powledge
PLOS
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 17:57 UTC
German neanderthal thigh bone
© Oleg Kuchar/Museum UlmGerman neanderthal thigh bone
It was big news, the announcement in Nature Communications that mitochondrial DNA recovered from a German Neandertal thigh bone believed to be more than 120,000 years old was (1) from a modern Homo sapiens (or almost-modern Homo sapiens), and (2) entered the Neandertal gene pool more than 270,000 years ago.

"This Thigh Bone Could Force Us To Completely Rewrite The History Of Our Species" is the headline on Kristy Hamilton's post at IFLScience. (I see that this long-lived science blog has turned its original attention-getting name into a decorous acronym.)

It was big news because, if confirmed, it means that the early direct ancestors of all 7.5 billion of us anatomically modern humans, the last Homo standing, entered Eurasia much earlier than current theory holds. Current theory being that we emerged from Africa relatively recently, only 60,000 or 70,000 years ago.

But hardly any of the commentary spoke of another major reason it was big news: it calls into question another central thesis of human evolution, which is that we came out of Africa at all.
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Wine n Glass

New Jersey museum finds cases of wine nearly as old as the United States


NWF Daily News
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 16:11 UTC
300 year old wine US museum
© Davud J. Del Grande/NJ Advance Media
A restoration project at a New Jersey museum unearthed cases of wine nearly as old as the United States.

The Liberty Hall Museum in Union says it discovered almost three full cases of Madeira wine, a fortified wine, dating to 1796 while restoring its wine cellar. NJ.com (http://bit.ly/2sHP4uh ) reports the museum also found 42 demijohns — large glass jugs sometimes used for holding spirits — dating to the 1820s.

The museum said the monetary value of the wine cannot be made public.
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Propaganda

In 1951 the CIA compared U.S & Soviet Propaganda - here's what they found

Alec Shea
Muck Rock
Wed, 12 Jul 2017 12:32 UTC
CIA Central Intelligence Agency logo
In 1951, as the Cold War was intensifying, the CIA decided to see how Voice of America radio broadcasts into Eastern Europe compared with Soviet efforts. In a remarkably candid document, the Agency critically assessed the similarities and differences between U.S. and Soviet propaganda.

Today, VOA claims that it was founded during the Second World War to provide "Unbiased and accurate information." The CIA officers assessing VOA in 1951, though, saw the service as essentially similar to Soviet propaganda, going so far as saying that most Americans would be surprised by the similarities between the two.

CIA’s 1951 listicle comparing U.S and Soviet Propaganda
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MIB

Unit 731: Japan's inhuman experimentation camp that the West tried to erase from history

Rachel Blevins
Free Thought Project
Sun, 09 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
Unit 731
No one involved with Unit 731 has ever been tried for war crimes, and there are many who hold the U.S. responsible for helping to cover up the atrocities.

Newly released historical documents are giving insight into a mass killing during the World War II era that is not covered in public schools. Japanese Unit 731, a group that specialized in biological warfare, committed horrifying atrocities during the Japanese Army's occupation of northeast China—and the United States was complicit in its cover up.

According to a report from Xinhua Net News, 24 documents were collected in Japan on Thursday that were written by members of Unit 731. This adds to the current public information on the unit, categorized in the Museum of Evidence of War Crimes by Japanese Army Unit 731, which was opened in 2015.
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Archaeology

Stone monument carvings, only visible at night, may have been used in mysterious night-time rituals

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 18:14 UTC
Stonehenge
© WENNThe Summer Solstice at Stonehenge
Ancient stone monuments may have been used for mysterious night-time ceremonies, archaeologists believe, after finding that some rock carvings only appear in moonlight.

Traditionally Neolithic structures were believed to align with the movements of the Sun, with the huge Wiltshire circle of Stonehenge lining up perfectly with the summer solstice.

But a new investigation of the stone age engraved panel Hendraburnick Quoit in Cornwall by Dr Andy Jones, found nearly 10 times the number of markings when viewed in moonlight or very low sunlight from the south east.

They also discovered that pieces of quartz had been deliberately smashed up around the site which would have glowed in the dark under moonlight, or firelight, creating a gentle luminescence.
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Pyramid

Tunnel to 'underworld' discovered beneath pyramid at Teotihuacan in Mexico


RT
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 10:05 UTC
Pyramid in Mexico
© Henry Romero / Reuters
An underground tunnel that archaeologists believe was meant to imitate the underworld has been found under a pyramid at Teotihuacan in Mexico. Electrical scans taken at the ancient city revealed the extent of the mysterious tunnel.

"The finding confirms that Teotihuacans reproduced the same pattern of tunnels associated with their great monuments, whose function had to be the emulation of the underworld," archaeologist Veronica Ortega, who was involved in the discovery, said in a statement.

Hidden 10 meters (33 feet) beneath the ground, the tunnel extends from the Pyramid of the Moon, the second largest structure at the site, to the central square.

Comment: See also: Secret chamber may solve Mexican pyramid mystery

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Camera

New photo may prove Amelia Earhart survived plane crash


RT
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 10:05 UTC
Amelia Earhart photo
© National ArchivesThe new evidence came to light ahead of a History Channel investigation.
Aviator Amelia Earhart may have survived a plane crash previously believed to have killed her 80 years ago, according to a new picture uncovered in the National Archives. The image is widely speculated to show her alongside the Japanese military.

"I think it leaves no doubt to the viewers that that's Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan," analyst Shawn Henry told NBC News. Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan were declared dead after they disappeared in 1937 during her quest to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe.

The photo, believed to have been taken in the Marshall Islands in 1937 by a US spy, was labelled 'Jaluit Atoll,' referring to a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Earhart is believed to be the woman sitting on the dock with her back to the camera. Her short hair and pants give weight to the identification. Noonan appears standing on the left of the image.
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Fireball 5

Tunguska impact of 1908: Witnesses describe what it's like to live through a meteor strike

K. N. Smith
Forbes
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 06:52 UTC
Tunguska blast
© Denys, Wikimedia CommonsThe Tunguska blast affected hundreds of square miles of northern Russia.
109 years ago today, a meteor crossed paths with Earth and blew apart in the air above a remote area of northern Russia, near the Tunguska River, on June 30, 1908.

Wind from the blast flattened trees for hundreds of miles, and the shock wave it sent through the ground would have registered a 5.0 on the Richter scale. The dying meteor exploded with a force estimated to be on par with the earliest nuclear bombs, around 15 megatons, although estimate range from 3 megatons to 30. (It's hard to say much for sure about the Tunguska object, because it left no crater, and no fragments have ever been found -- though not for lack of searching.) It could have flattened a major city. Fortunately, it struck in a remote area of the Russian taiga.

The director of the meteorological observatory at Irkutsk, whose seismographs recorded the impact, gave questionnaires to witnesses in the region and published a collection of their responses in 1924. Locals describe a fireball in the sky, multiple thunderclaps, a blast of heated wind, and a rumbling of the Earth.
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Rocket

The 'Accidental' and 'Forgotten' U.S. Destruction of Iranian Airliner Flight 655­, Killing 290 Civilians

Jeremy R. Hammond
Foreign Policy Journal
Mon, 03 Jul 2017 00:00 UTC
The USS Vincennes
© US Navy/Public DomainThe USS Vincennes
On the rare occasions the US mainstream media refer to the US shootdown of an Iranian airliner in 1988, they sustain the myth it was simply a "mistake".

Today marks twenty-nine years since the shootdown by the USS Vincennes of Iran Air flight 655, which killed all of the plane's 290 civilian passengers. This shootdown of a civilian airliner by a US naval ship occurred on July 3, 1988, toward the end of the eight-year Iran-Iraq War.

This incident is, of course, something that the people of Iran well remember. Americans who rely on the US mainstream media, on the other hand, would have to be forgiven for never having heard about it.

Furthermore, in the rare instances when the media do mention it, to this day they tend to maintain official US government falsehoods about what occurred and otherwise omit relevant details that would inform Americans about what really happened.
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