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Better Earth

Best of the Web: The Hand of Irulegi: 2,100 year-old artefact shows earliest evidence of Basque language ever found

Vicente G. Olaya
El Pais
Mon, 14 Nov 2022 18:06 UTC
Basque
© juantxo eganaAn archaeologist holds the Hand of Irulegi, the earliest known text in Basque script. The Hand of Irulegi, unearthed in 2021 near Pamplona, is a bronze plate containing 40 mysterious symbols. Experts believe they have deciphered its first word: ‘sorioneku’, or ‘good fortune’.
Between the years 80 BC and 72 BC, the armies of Quintus Sertorius on one side and of the generals Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey) on the other had transformed Hispania into the main battlefield for control of Rome. Indigenous tribes who supported one faction in a conflict known as the Sertorian War faced immediate reprisals from the other side. This was exactly what happened to the inhabitants of the settlement located on Mount Irulegi, near the Valley of Aranguren, around five miles from present-day Pamplona in Spain's northern Navarre region. Pompey's troops attacked it, destroyed it and burned it to the ground.

In 2018 Manolo Romero, the mayor of Valle de Aranguren (a municipality bringing together eight villages located in the valley of the same name) sought help from the regional government of Navarre and from the Aranzadi Science Society (known in Spain for conducting hundreds of exhumations of Civil War-era mass graves). Researchers got to work excavating the hillock, on which the walls of a medieval castle also stand. At the foot of the fortification, the remains of a 2,000-year-old settlement were uncovered. In 2021, on the threshold of one of the houses razed during the Sertorian Wars, workers found a bronze slab in the shape of a hand and about 14.5 centimeters (5.7 in) long. Laboratory analysis confirmed that strange inscriptions were engraved on its fingers, in the form of 40 symbols distributed across four lines.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's: MindMatters: Meaning All the Way Down: The Wonders and Mysteries of Language with Juliana Barembuem



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Family

Another fragment of NASA's Challenger shuttle discovered by divers in the Atlantic Ocean

Stacy Liberatore
Daily Mail
Thu, 10 Nov 2022 19:40 UTC
challenger shuttle fragment discovered
© Associated PressUnderwater explorer and marine biologist Mike Barnette and wreck diver Jimmy Gadomski explore a 20-foot segment of the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger that the team discovered in the waters off the coast of Florida
A piece of NASA's fallen Challenger has been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida nearly 37 years after the craft exploded 73 seconds into flight and killing all seven astronauts aboard.

It was found by a History Channel documentary diving crew who shared footage of the find with the American space agency because the 'large humanmade object' was in 'proximity to the Florida Space Coast.'

NASA confirmed it is a segment of the heat shield that was in the nose cone of the Challenger, marking 'the first discovery of wreckage' from 1986 craft in more than 25 years,' History Channel proudly announced on Twitter Thursday.

Michael Ciannilli, a NASA manager who established the remnant's authenticity, said his heart skipped a beat watching the crew's footage, as the emotions he had that fateful date came rushing back.
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Info

Previously unknown monumental Etruscan Temple discovered in Italy


Universität Freiburg
Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:36 UTC
Archeologists from the universities of Freiburg and Mainz identify one of the largest known sacred buildings of the Etruscans.
Etruscan temple in Vulci
© Mariachiara FranceschiniArchaeologists and other colleagues uncover the walls of the Etruscan temple in Vulci.
An interdisciplinary team headed by archeologists Dr. Mariachiara Franceschini of the University of Freiburg and Paul P. Pasieka of the University of Mainz has discovered a previously unknown Etruscan temple in the ancient city of Vulci, which lies in the Italian region of Latium. The building, which is 45 meters by 35 meters, is situated west of the Tempio Grande, a sacred building which was excavated back in the 1950s. Initial examination of the strata of the foundation of the northeast corner of the temple and the objects they found there, led the researchers to date the construction of the temple towards the end of the sixth or beginning of the fifth century BCE.

"The new temple is roughly the same size and on a similar alignment as the neighboring Tempio Grande, and was built at roughly the same Archaic time," explains Franceschini. "This duplication of monumental buildings in an Etruscan city is rare, and indicates an exceptional finding," adds Pasieka. The team discovered the temple when working on the Vulci Cityscape project, which was launched in 2020 and aimed to research the settlement strategies and urbanistic structures of the city of Vulci. Vulci was one of the twelve cities of the Etruscan federation and in pre-Roman times was one of the most important urban centers in what is now Italy.
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USA

America's Neo-Nazi bedfellows in Ukraine are latest in long line of odious allies


RT
Sun, 13 Nov 2022 13:44 UTC
neo-Nazi US
© Spencer Platt/Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO. Members of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a swastika burning after a rally on April 21, 2018 in Draketown, Georgia, USA. Washington has used against Russia From pogrom-mongers to Hitlerites to radical Islamists, the US has collaborated with repugnant partners for more than a century.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was furious when he found out in March 1945 that his supposed World War II ally, Washington, was negotiating with the German Nazis behind his back. In fact, by the accounts of some historians, American spy and future CIA director Allen Dulles essentially kicked off the Cold War when he held secret talks with Waffen SS General Karl Wolff as Hitler's regime was nearing its collapse.

Stalin, US President Franklin Roosevelt, and UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill had agreed that they would accept only unconditional surrender from the Nazis because of the Hitler regime's monstrous crimes. When the Dulles-Wolff talks came to light, FDR repeatedly and falsely told Stalin that no one was negotiating with the Germans. The Georgian generalissimo was unconvinced and suspected that his Western allies were maneuvering to contain the USSR and occupy territory that might otherwise fall to the Red Army.

Comment: See also:

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Better Earth

Footprints indicate human presence in Spain in Middle Pleistocene, 200,000 years earlier than previously thought

University of Seville
Phys.org
Thu, 10 Nov 2022 22:47 UTC
Matalascañas
© Scientific Reports (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2The Matalascañas site (El Pichilín Ranch area). (A) Geographical location and geological setting. (B) Mapping for the hominin footprints (HTS) and animal tracks (MTS) A and B. (C) Aerial view of the drone flight. (D–I) Some relevant footprints from the outcrop. All scale bar: 5 cm. (D) M2020-02. (E) M2020-06. (F) M2020-05. (G) M2020-11. (H) M2020-74. (I) M2020-35. The map in (B) was created using Adobe Photoshop Versión: 9.0 based on the photogrammetric orthomosaic (C) produced using Pix4DMapper (versión PIX 4D Cloud). (C) was obtained by a low-altitude programmed flight using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on June 6, 2020, 12 AM UTC. A multirotor DJI Phantom 4 + with a 4 k 20 Mpix RGB CMOS camera was collected at an average height of 7 m above the ground photographs over the study area (564 m2).
Researcher and GRS Radioisotopes technician Jorge Rivera, from the University of Seville, has participated in an incredible discovery that is unique in Europe. After applying an optically-stimulated luminescence technique at the Center for Research, Technology and Innovation laboratories at the University of Seville (CITIUS) and at CENIEH to hominin footprints found at Matalascañas in 2020, Rivera helped to determine that the footprints are in fact 200,000 years older than previously suspected.

This would mean that pre-Neanderthals would have lived in the Doñana area during the Middle Pleistocene, around 295,800 years ago. To obtain this result, the team used optically-stimulated luminescence, a method used to find the absolute age of sediments that have been fully exposed to sunlight.

Comment: See also:

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Colosseum

'Exceptional' trove of 24 ancient statues found immersed in Tuscan spa, sheds light on transition between Etruscan and Roman period

Angela Giuffrida
The Guardian
Tue, 08 Nov 2022 16:44 UTC
etruscan roman statue
© Jacopo Tabolli/Universita per Stranieri di Siena/EPAAmong the well-preserved statues were five almost a metre in height.
An "exceptional" trove of bronze statues preserved for thousands of years by mud and boiling water have been discovered in a network of baths built by the Etruscans in Tuscany.

The 24 partly submerged statues, which date back 2,300 years and have been hailed as the most significant find of their kind in 50 years, include a sleeping ephebe lying next to Hygeia, the goddess of health, with a snake wrapped around her arm.

Archaeologists came across the statues during excavations at the ancient spa in San Casciano dei Bagni, near Siena. The modern-day spa, which contains 42 hot springs, is close to the ancient site and is one of Italy's most popular spa destinations.

Comment: Excellent footage of the finds can be seen in the following video:



See also:

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Blackbox

Getting out the vote in ancient times

Dave Roos
History.com
Fri, 04 Nov 2022 20:32 UTC
voting elections ancient greece
© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty ImagesA depiction of an ancient Greek election using pebbles.
In Athens and Rome, voting could entail shouting contests, secret stone ballots and an election system with built-in bias for the wealthy.

Citizens of modern democracies have used a variety of methods and technologies to cast their votes on election day, but how did people participate in elections in ancient times? Historians have pieced together some intriguing details from Athens, the first and only direct democracy, and the Roman Republic, a quasi-democracy where the wealthiest classes wielded more influence than the workers.

In both Athens and Rome, participation in the democratic process (The Greek word dēmokratia means "people power") was limited to the dēmos, which were free, male citizens. Women and enslaved people did not have a vote.
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Info

5,000-year-old ring made in Iraq, with silver from Turkey found in Oman


Muscat Daily
Mon, 07 Nov 2022 21:09 UTC
Ancient Seal
© Muscat Daily
Muscat - A team of international archaeologists working under the auspices of the Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has recovered an exceptional collection of silver jewellery from a prehistoric grave of the 3rd millennium BC in Dahwa in North Batinah.

The collection includes parts of necklaces with beads and several rings.

Researchers involved in the study also found a silver ring, likely made in Mesopotamia (Iraq), made of silver from Anatolia (Turkey) for an individual who had links with the Indus Valley Civilisation (Pakistan and western India).

"This shows the complexity of commercial and cultural interactions in Eurasian prehistory, which can definitely be regarded as the prototype for modern global exchanges," said Dr Dennys Frenez, an Italian expert in ancient trade between the Indus Valley and Oman and a collaborator with the ministry.

The international team is led by Prof Kimberly Williams from Temple University, Philadelphia, US, and includes Prof Nasser al Jahwari and Prof Khaled Douglas from Sultan Qaboos University.
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Eagle

U.S. Covid response taken over by National Security Council in March 2020 to impose pre-prepared lockdown plan, evidence shows

Debbie Lerman
The Daily Sceptic
Thu, 03 Nov 2022 04:29 UTC
White House Coronavirus Task Force
In previous articles I discussed the probability that Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator, was not a representative of the public health agencies but, rather, was appointed by the National Security Council. I now have proof that this was, indeed, the case. I have also uncovered documents that show:
  • As of March 13th 2020 the National Security Council (NSC) was officially in charge of the U.S. Government's Covid policy.
  • Starting on March 18th 2020 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was officially in charge of the U.S. Government's Covid response.
On March 11th 2020, at a Heritage Foundation Talk, Trump's National Security Advisor, Robert O'Brien when discussing what the White House and NSC were doing about the virus, confirmed that the Covid Task Force Coordinator was brought in by the NSC. He said:
We brought into the White House Debi Birx, a fantastic physician and ambassador from the State Department. We appreciate Secretary Pompeo immediately moving her over to the White House at our, well at the President's, request. (min. 21:43-21:56)
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Russian Flag

Best of the Web: The 'Time of Troubles' and the birth of the nation: Why Russia celebrates its 'Unity Day' every November 4

Evgeny Norin
RT
Fri, 04 Nov 2022 22:26 UTC
St. Basil's Cathedral
© Getty Images/Francesco Vaninetti PhotoSt. Basil's Cathedral and Monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Moscow, Russia.
November 4 marks Unity Day in Russia, which is a fairly new holiday. It was established in order to replace the old October Revolution Day, which was celebrated in the USSR for over 70 years. Many generations grew up loving this holiday; after communism collapsed, it was no longer possible to keep it as a public holiday.

Its replacement goes back to an event that proved to have as much significance for the country's history. In November 1612, Russia was reborn as a state.

End of a dynasty

The early 17th century is known in the history of Russia as 'the Time of Troubles', or 'Smuta'. After the death of Tsar Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, in 1584, the country found itself sinking slowly into a deep political crisis. The new leader, his son Fyodor I, took little interest in politics, and his court became a place ridden with scheming and plotting by the rival clans of top officials.

Fyodor I ruled for a total of 14 years, and this was a relatively peaceful time, right up to his death in 1598, which created a succession problem since he left no heirs to the throne. Boris Godunov, once Ivan the Terrible's confidante and brother to Fyodor's beloved wife, had managed to consolidate a great deal of power in his hands and had been ruling the tsardom as de facto regent for at least 15 years until then. The only legal contender to the throne would have been Fyodor's brother Dmitry, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible and his last wife. Dmitry, however, died as a child under mysterious circumstances. Godunov was believed by many to have been involved in his death, since Dmitry was the last heir of the Rurik dynasty.

Comment: The Time of Troubles was one of the central events that shaped Russian security culture. Foreign aggressors and internal traitors have been the main threats shaping this culture for centuries. Now you can see why. If you want to understand modern Russia, you have to understand Russian security culture, and for that, you need to read its history.

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