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Mysterious Ancient Rock Carvings Found Near Nile

Etchings on Rock
© Tim Karberg/Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität MünsterHere a rock etched with patterns forming a crescent moon and orb, an example of another piece of rock art discovered at Wadi Abu Dom in northern Sudan.
An archaeological team in the Bayuda Desert in northern Sudan has discovered dozens of new rock art drawings, some of which were etched more than 5,000 years ago and reveal scenes that scientists can't explain.

The team discovered 15 new rock art sites in an arid valley known as Wadi Abu Dom, some 18 miles (29 kilometers) from the Nile River. It's an arid valley that flows with water only during rainy periods. Many of the drawings were carved into the rock faces - no paint was used - of small stream beds known as "khors" that flow into the valley.

Some of the sites revealed just a single drawing while others have up to 30, said lead researcher Tim Karberg, of the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster in Germany.

"We asked the local people about the rock art and they said that it would be very old, before their grandfathers," Karberg told LiveScience.

Gear

Best of the Web: Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race

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© Unknown
To science we owe dramatic changes in our smug self-image. Astronomy taught us that our Earth isn't the center of the universe but merely one of billions of heavenly bodies. From biology we learned that we weren't specially created by God but evolved along with millions of other species. Now archaeology is demolishing another sacred belief: that human history over the past million years has been a long tale of progress. In particular, recent discoveries suggest that the adoption of agriculture, supposedly our most decisive step toward a better life, was in many ways a catastrophe from which we have never recovered. With agriculture came the gross social and sexual inequality, the disease and despotism, that curse our existence.

At first, the evidence against this revisionist interpretation will strike twentieth century Americans as irrefutable. We're better off in almost every respect than people of the Middle Ages who in turn had it easier than cavemen, who in turn were better off than apes. Just count our advantages. We enjoy the most abundant and varied foods, the best tools and material goods, some of the longest and healthiest lives, in history. Most of us are safe from starvation and predators. We get our energy from oil and machines, not from our sweat. What neo-Luddite among us would trade his life for that of a medieval peasant, a caveman, or an ape?

Arrow Down

Saudi Arabia reveals new historical finds dating back to 1st century BC

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© scta.gov.sa
Two new archaelogical sites have been discovered in Jubail in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Dr. Ali Al Ghabban, Vice President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) for Antiquities and Museums Affairs, explained that the commission intends to transform the two locations into open museums for the public. His assertions came during a field trip to the sites organized by the SCTA branch of the eastern province in collaboration with the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu (RCJY).

The two archeological sites in Al Jubail Industrial city in the eastern province of KSA dates back to the 3rd century BC and the 1st century BC, corresponding to 5th century AH.

Dr. Ghabban stated: "The first site is near Al Dafi within the Jubail Industrial College near the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu building about 14 kilometers from the city of Jubail. The site area, which is about 60 thousand square off the sea coast, is surrounded by a wall on an archaeological hill that rises to 5 to 6 meters above sea level.

"This site is believed to be the location of [the] ancient Thaj seaport in Al Jahra kingdom, which had taken control of [the] east of the Arabian Peninsula before Islam. Third century BC could be the possible date of the site, however, accurate dating could be given only after finalizing the layer tests."

Hourglass

UK: Glastonbury Abbey's pottery link to Dark Ages

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© unknownRalegh Radford and Linda Witherill excavated Glastonbury Abbey in 1954
Pottery fragments from an excavation archive of Glastonbury Abbey have shown the site dates back to the Dark Ages, which is later than previously thought.

The research project into the 1951-1964 excavation archive have shown humans occupied the site in the late 4th or 5th centuries.

Archaeologist John Allan said: "We hadn't realised these periods were represented in the excavated pottery."

Other finds include "exotic" pottery from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France.

Pharoah

Crocodile God Temple Featured Croc Nursery

Egyptian Temple
© Courtesy of Minister of State for AntiquitiesLions and sphinxes line the processional way to the temple at Madinet Madi.
Egyptian authorities put another archaeological site on the country's tourist map yesterday by opening a visitor center at Madinet Madi in the Fayoum region south of Cairo.

Founded during the reigns of Amenemhat III (about 1859-1813 B.C.) and Amenemhat IV (about 1814-1805 B.C.) of the 12th Dynasty, Madinet Madi contains the ruins of the only Middle Kingdom temple in Egypt.

Approached by a paved processional way lined by lions and sphinxes, the temple was dedicated to the cobra-headed goddess Renenutet, and the crocodile-headed god, Sobek of Scedet, patron god of the region.

Now almost forgotten by tourists, the site was swarming with pilgrims in ancient times.

Indeed, 10 Coptic churches dating from the 5th to 7th centuries and the remains of a Ptolemaic temple dedicated to the crocodile god were unearthed in the past decades by renowned Egyptologist Edda Bresciani of Pisa University, who has been excavating the area since 1978.

Info

Ancient Cultures and Prehistoric Discoveries in Costa Rica

Guayabo
© Anita363The main plaza of Guayabo seen from above.

To most Costa Ricans - Ticos and expats alike - Costa Rican history begins with the arrival of the Spanish in 1502. Recent developments and archeological finds are painting a far different picture however. In fact, there is increasing evidence that ancient cultures thrived in the land of Pura Vida long before European explorers cast covetous eyes upon its beauty and natural riches.

Three archeological sites in various parts of the country give an interesting glimpse into pre-Columbian life: Guayabo and La Montana complex in Turrialba, the footpaths of Lake Arenal, and . Each site offers a different window into who the ancient Costa Ricans were and how they lived.

Turrialba

The first, and probably the most notable, is Guayabo de Turrialba. This 540 acre - which is roughly 219 hectares - site can be found in Turrialba on the southern slope of the Turrialba Volcano.

The Guayabo National Park monument was established to preserve the ruins of the city even as archeologists continue to unearth details about the settlement and those who lived there. To date, it is estimated that Guayabo was established and inhabited somewhere around 1500 B.C. During the height of its existence, the city may have held between 10,000 and 25,000 people. For unknown reasons, the settlement seems to have been abandoned by 1400 A.D.-nearly a century before the Spanish arrived. Curiously, no record was left by the Spanish as to whether they had discovered the location and, if so, what condition it was in.

Stop

India: Archeological find: Excavation Banned at Site to Stop Degradation

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© unknownArchaeology Dept team to prepare preservation plan
The government on Friday issued a notification banning any excavation at the site where the ruins of a bridge supposedly from the Mughal era, have been discovered.

The Punjab Archaeology Department will send a team of technical staff, architects and civil engineers within a couple of days to the site for the documentation of the structure for preservation.

Nadia Saquib, the Ferozewala assistant commissioner, told The Express Tribune that she had prohibited all kinds of excavation at the site.

She said the land owners had been directed not to take any step that could harm the historic structure.

While the Punjab Archaeology Department said they were informed about the ruins by a revenue official, Saquib told The Tribune that the ruins were found during a visit by a city government team looking for land to set up a disposal plant.

She said she had informed the Punjab chief secretary, the culture and youth affairs secretary and the archaeology director about the discovery.

"It is now the duty of the departments concerned to preserve the site," she said.

Sherlock

Psychopath: King Henry VIII's Madness Explained

Henry VIII
© CorbisA portrait of a middle-aged Henry VIII painted by Hans Holbein appears in this photo.

* Henry VIII may have had two rare medical conditions that could explain both his health issues later in life and the miscarriages of two of his wives.
* An X-linked genetic disease might have caused Henry to become paranoid and anxious after his 40th birthday.
* An unusual blood type might have caused the bodies of his wives to attack their fetuses.


Among a long list of personality quirks and historical drama, Henry VIII is known for the development of health problems in mid-life and a series of miscarriages for two of his wives. In a new study, researchers propose that Henry had an X-linked genetic disorder and a rare blood type that could explain many of his problems.

By suggesting biological causes for significant historical events, the study offers new ways to think about the infamous life of the notorious 16th-century British monarch, said Catarina Whitley, a bioarchaeologist who completed the research while at Southern Methodist University.

"What really made us look at Henry was that he had more than one wife that had obstetrical problems and a bad obstetrical history," said Whitley, now with the Museum of New Mexico. "We got to thinking: Could it be him?"

Plenty of historians have written about Henry's health problems. As a young man, he was fit and healthy. But by the time of his death, the King weighed close to 400 pounds. He had leg ulcers, muscle weakness, and, according to some accounts, a significant personality shift in middle age towards more paranoia, anxiety, depression and mental deterioration.

Comment: Unfortunately these researchers never talked about psychopathy, which seems to be what Henry VIII was.

Andrew Lobaczewski talked about the inheritance of psychopathologies through the X chromosome, in his book Political Ponerology:
It was discovered long ago that these two above-mentioned anomalies - hemophilia and color blindness - are inherited by means of a gene located in the X chromosome, and tracking their transmission through many generations is not difficult. Geneticists have similarly studied the inheritance of many other features of human organisms, but they have paid scant attention to the anomalies interesting us here. Many features of human character have a hereditary bases in genes located in the same X chromosome; although it is not a rule. Something similar could apply to the majority of the psychological anomalies to be discussed below.

Significant progress has recently been made in cognition of a series of chromosomal anomalies resulting from defective
division of the reproductive cells and their phenotypic psychological symptoms. This state of affairs enables us to initiate studies on their ponerogenetic role and to introduce conclusions which are theoretically valuable, something which is in effect already being done. In practice, however, the majority of chromosomal anomalies are not transferred to the next generation; furthermore, their carriers constitute a very small proportion of the population at large, and their general intelligence is lower than the social average, so their ponerological role is even smaller than their statistical distribution. Most problems are caused by the XYY karyotype47 which produces men who are tall, strong, and emotionally violent, with an inclination to collide with the law. These engendered tests and discussions, but their role at the level studied herein is also very small.

Much more numerous are those psychological deviations which play a correspondingly greater role as pathological factors
in the ponerological processes; they are most probably transmitted through normal heredity. However, this realm of
genetics in particular is faced with manifold biological and psychological difficulties as far as recognizing these phenomena. People studying their psychopathology lack biological isolation criteria. Biologists lack clear psychological differentiation of such phenomena which would permit studies of heredity mechanics and some other properties.

[...]The earlier phase of a ponerogenic union's activity is usually dominated by characteropathic, particularly paranoid, individuals,
who often play an inspirational or spellbinding role in the ponerization process. Recall here the power of the paranoid characteropath lies in the fact that they easily enslave less critical minds, e.g. people with other kinds of psychological deficiencies, or who have been victims of individuals with character disorders, and, in particular, a large segment of young people.

[...]Among individuals carrying other indications of brain-tissue damage, only two described types have a somewhat measured
inclination, namely frontal and paranoidal characteropaths. In the case of frontal characteropathy, this is principally the result of an incapacity for self-critical reflection and an incapacity for the abandonment of a dead-end street into which one has thoughtlessly stumbled. Paranoidal individuals expect uncritical support within such a system. In general however, the carriers of various kinds of brain-tissue damage lean clearly toward the society of normal people, and as a result of their psychological problems, ultimately suffer even more than healthy people under pathocracy.

It also turned out that the carriers of some physiological anomalies known to physicians and sometimes to psychologists,
and which are primarily hereditary in nature, manifest split tendencies similar to schizoids. In a similar manner, people whom nature has unfortunately saddled with a short life and an early cancer-related death frequently indicate a characteristic and irrational attraction for this phenomenon. These latter observations were decisive in my agreeing to call the phenomenon by this name, which had originally struck me as semantically overly loose. An individual's decreased resistance to the effects of pathocracy and his attraction to this phenomenon appear to be a holistic response of person's organism, not merely of his psychological makeup alone.

Approximately 6% of the population constitutes the active structure of the new rulership, which carries its own peculiar consciousness of its own goals. Twice as many people constitute a second group: those who have managed to warp their personalities to meet the demands of the new reality. This leads to attitudes which can already be interpreted within the categories of the natural psychological world view, i.e. the errors we are committing are much smaller. It is of course not possible to draw an exact boundary between these groups; the separation adduced here is merely descriptive in nature.
More on psychopathy:

On the Nature of Psychopathy: A Thought Experiment

Neurobiological basis of psychopathy

Authoritarianism and Psychopathy

Psychopaths' Brains Wired to Seek Rewards, No Matter the Consequences

Ponerology 101: The Political Psychopath

The Dot Connector - The Golden Age, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction

Ponerology 101: Lobaczewski and the origins of Political Ponerology


Palette

25,000-Year-Old Cave Paintings Discovered in Spain

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© DeiaImage enhanced by photographic treatment.
Paintings depicting horses and human hands made by prehistoric humans around 25,000 years ago have been discovered in a cave in northern Spain, regional officials said on Wednesday.

The red paintings, found by chance by archaeologists looking for signs of ancient settlements, were made around the same time as the Altamira Cave paintings -- some of the world's best prehistoric paintings discovered in northern Spain in 1879.

"It was a chance finding," archaeologist Diego Garate told Reuters.

"Although they were difficult to spot because they are badly deteriorated, our experienced eye helped us to identify them."

Experts will further explore the caves for evidence of prehistoric utensils or tools, officials said.

The first homo sapiens arrived in small groups in northern Spain around 35,000 years ago.

They cohabited for a time with the last of the Neanderthals and then developed a significant culture known as the Upper Palaeolithic, producing stone blade tools and decorating cave walls.

Magnify

Oldest remains of Caspian Horse discovered in Iran

Oldest Horse Caspian Iran
Gohar - A team of archaeologists working in Gohar Tappeh, situated in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, have discovered the oldest known remains of the Caspian Horse, the oldest horse breed in the world still in existence.

Also known as the Mazandaran horse, the discovery was made in a cemetery dating back to the late Bronze and early Iron age, around 3400 BCE, Archaeology Daily reports. "Due to the form, figure and size of the discovered remains of the horse, we now have the oldest evidence for Caspian horse ancestry at hand," said Ali Mahforuzi, director of the team in Gohar Tappeh.

Discovery of the Caspian horse, or the 'Kings' Horse', was made by the team during the eighth season of archaeological research in Gohar Tappeh, a 50-hectare historical site located between the cities of Neka and Behshahr, in the eastern part of the Mazandaran province.