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Shroud of Turin: Could quake explain face of Jesus?

Megan Gannon
LiveScience
Tue, 11 Feb 2014 11:02 UTC
Shroud of Turin
© Public Domain
Full-length negative photograph of the Shroud of Turin.
The authenticity of the Shroud of Turin has been in question for centuries and scientific investigations over the last few decades have only seemed to muddle the debate. Is the revered cloth a miracle or an elaborate hoax?

Now, a study claims neutron emissions from an ancient earthquake that rocked Jerusalem could have created the iconic image, as well as messed up the radiocarbon levels that later suggested the shroud was a medieval forgery. But other scientists say this newly proposed premise leaves some major questions unanswered.

The Shroud of Turin, which bears a faint image of a man's face and torso, is said to be the fabric that covered Jesus' body after his crucifixion in A.D. 33. Though the Catholic Church doesn't have an official position on the cloth, the relic is visited by tens of thousands of worshippers at the Turin Cathedral in Italy each year.
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Book 2

Secrets of the slave trade revealed in Merchant's notebook

Sarah Griffiths
Mail Online
Thu, 06 Feb 2014 01:35 UTC
slave book

A wealthy slave merchant's 270-year-old notebook and business log (pictured) has revealed a chilling insight into the slave trade and attitudes to human trafficking
A wealthy slave merchant's 270-year-old notebook and business log has revealed a chilling insight into the slave trade and attitudes to human trafficking.

Cranfield Becher's written instructions order the captain of the Jason Gally to swap brandy and guns for 'as many Negros as our ship can carry'.

He specifies that the slaves are 'not too old or decrepit' and his entries make it clear that he views the unfortunate people as simple commodities to be bought and sold.
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Sun

Rare bronze statue of Apollo, dated between 5th and 1st Century BC, found in Gaza


The Guardian
Mon, 10 Feb 2014 01:18 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Lost for centuries, the rare bronze statue of the Greek God Apollo has mysteriously resurfaced in the Gaza Strip.
Lost for centuries, a rare bronze statue of the Greek god Apollo has mysteriously resurfaced in the Gaza Strip, only to be seized by police and vanish almost immediately from view.

Word of the remarkable find has caught the imagination of the world of archaeology, but the police cannot say when the life-sized bronze might re-emerge or where it might be put on display.

A local fisherman says he scooped the 500kg (1,100lb) god from the seabed last August, and carried it home on a donkey cart, unaware of the significance of his catch.

Others soon guessed at its importance, and the statue briefly appeared on eBay with a $500,000 (£300,000) price tag - well below its true value. Police from the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the isolated Palestinian territory, swiftly seized it and say they are investigating the affair.

Archaeologists have not been able to get their hands on the Apollo - to their great frustration- and instead must pore over a few blurred photographs of the intact deity, who is laid out incongruously on a blanket emblazoned with Smurfs.

From what they can tell, it was cast sometime between the 5th and the 1st century BC, making it at least 2,000 years old.
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Info

Ancient footprints dating back 800,000 years found in Norfolk

Jane Matthews
The Express, UK
Fri, 07 Feb 2014 10:32 UTC
Ancient Footprint
© British Museum
One of the footprints, which dates back around 800,000 years.
The prints, thought to be more than 800,000 years old, were found in silt on the beach at Happisburgh on the north-east coast of the county.

Scientists believe the prints, which were probably made by five different people, are direct evidence of the earliest known humans in northern Europe.

Dr Nick Ashton from the British Museum said it was "an extraordinarily rare discovery".

The prints were found at low tide when heavy waves washed away much of the beach sand to briefly expose the silt and scientists rushed to take photographs of them before they were eroded by the sea.

He said: "At first we weren't sure what we were seeing but as we removed any remaining beach sand and sponged off the seawater, it was clear that the hollows resembled prints, perhaps human footprints, and that we needed to record the surface as quickly as possible before the sea eroded it away."

The scientists also made 3D models of the surface which show distinct heel, arch and toe marks left by a group of adults and children - with some equating to modern shoe sizes of up to UK size eight.
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Comet

Greenland: Once a Viking paradise

Peter Mungo Jupp
Thunderbolts.info
Wed, 05 Feb 2014 20:53 UTC
temperature variations
© NOAA
Greenland’s temperature variations: comparing 2011, 2012 and 2013.
The "Little Ice Age" impact on Europe was sudden and ferocious.

Using its weapons of plague, famine and (perhaps controversially) earthquake, the so-called "Little Ice age" reduced the population of Europe by around 30 to 50 percent. The virulence and death toll of the 1348 AD plague is totally unmatched by modern examples. Further, the world mega-famine of 1315 AD, due to both weather and pestilence, was catastrophic. The relentless temperature drops combined with erratic weather are nearly impossible to explain, but mankind had no hand in its inception. What forces of nature caused this catastrophic scenario? Greenland is a classic example of death and abandonment. Let's travel back in time and see what happened.

Although the Little Ice Age is a scientific reconstruction, it covers a period when there was a significant and chaotic down-turn in climate, compared to the present era. It is classified into four periods from around 1280 AD to 1850 AD. These erratic cold periods are referred to as the Wolf, Sporer, Maunder and Dalton weather minima. Those dramatic climatic deteriorations were not only cooler, wetter and windier on average, but also vastly more chaotic in their fluctuations, creating the prime ingredients for famine and (curiously) plague.

The Little Ice Age followed a period known as the "Medieval Maximum" that is dated to between 900 AD - 1280 AD, which copious records reveal was much warmer than modern times. For instance, grapevines grew in the area of today's shivering Wales! This was generally a period of prosperity for civilizations. There was a large increase in world population and an era of colonial expansion. During the years 800 AD - 1200 AD, Greenland and Iceland were settled by the Vikings. The "Medieval Warm Period" allowed this great migration to flourish. Drift ice at later dates posed the greatest hazard to sailors but reports of drift ice in old records do not appear until the thirteenth century.
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Document

Mexican plants could break code on Voynich manuscript

Lisa Grossman
New Scientist
Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:03 UTC
Voynich Manuscript
© General Collection, Beinecke RareBook and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Name that plant.
A mysterious manuscript that appears to be written in gibberish may actually be in an extinct dialect of the Mexican language Nahuatl. Illustrations of plants in the manuscript have been linked to plants native to Central America for the first time, suggesting a new origin for the text. But some still say it could be a hoax.

The Voynich manuscript has puzzled researchers since book dealer Wilfrid Voynich found it in an Italian monastery in 1912.

Among hundreds of pages of so-far undecipherable text, it includes illustrations of naked nymphs, astrological diagrams and drawings of plants that no one has been able to identify.

An academic war has raged for years between those who think the manuscript contains a real language that could eventually be decoded, and those who think it was a clever forgery designed to dupe book collectors.

"It's a battle with two sides," says Alain Touwaide, a historian of botany at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
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Footprints

Prehistoric village found in downtown Miami

Andres Viglucci
Miami Herald
Sun, 02 Feb 2014 15:50 UTC
Image
© CW GRIFFEN / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Archaeologists who for months have been uncovering mounting evidence of an ancient and extensive Native American village in the middle of downtown Miami have concluded it's likely one of the most significant prehistoric sites in the United States.

The archaeologists, under the direction of veteran South Florida archaeologist Bob Carr, have so far painstakingly dug up eight large circles comprised of uniformly carved holes in the native limestone that they believe to be foundation holes for Tequesta Indian dwellings dating as far back as 2,000 years.
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Magnify

Elongated skulls found in La Libertad, Peru (photos)


La Industria
Thu, 29 Sep 2011 09:40 UTC
Image
© Hernán Flores
Elongated skulls of Pataz, Peru.
Though some doubted the accuracy of the two skulls found by farmers in Pataz, La Libertad, La Industria presents unpublished images from this discovery that sheds new light about the lifestyle of ancient civilizations in Peru. The elongated skulls are over 30 cm long and belong to a man and a woman, according to director of History, Archaeology and Tourism of the province of Pataz, Sergio Montero Cruzado.

Comment: See also:

DNA analysis of Paracas elongated skull finally complete - with incredible results
Elongated human skulls of Peru: Possible evidence of a lost human species?

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Magnify

DNA analysis of Paracas elongated skull finally complete - with incredible results

April Holloway
Ancient Origins
Wed, 05 Feb 2014 08:34 UTC
Image

"It had mtDNA (mitochondrial DNA) with mutations unknown in any human, primate, or animal known so far. But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans."
Paracas is a desert peninsula located within the Pisco Province in the Ica Region, on the south coast of Peru. It is here were Peruvian archaeologist, Julio Tello, made an amazing discovery in 1928 - a massive and elaborate graveyard containing tombs filled with the remains of individuals with the largest elongated skulls found anywhere in the world. These have come to be known as the 'Paracas skulls'. In total, Tello found more than 300 of these elongated skulls, which are believed to date back around 3,000 years. A DNA analysis has now been conducted on one of the skulls and expert Brien Foerster has released preliminary information regarding these enigmatic skulls.

It is well-known that most cases of skull elongation are the result of cranial deformation, head flattening, or head binding, in which the skull is intentionally deformed by applying force over a long period of time. It is usually achieved by binding the head between two pieces of wood, or binding in cloth. However, while cranial deformation changes the shape of the skull, it does not alter its volume, weight, or other features that are characteristic of a regular human skull.

The Paracas skulls, however, are different. The cranial volume is up to 25 percent larger and 60 percent heavier than conventional human skulls, meaning they could not have been intentionally deformed through head binding/flattening. They also contain only one parietal plate, rather than two. The fact that the skulls' features are not the result of cranial deformation means that the cause of the elongation is a mystery, and has been for decades.
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Hardhat

Pagan temple remains unearthed under Milan Cathedral


Ansa
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 00:14 UTC
Image

Milan Cathedral from the Square.
The remains of a pagan temple believed to have been devoted to the goddess Minerva have been found under the Milan Cathedral.

The announcement was made Wednesday during the presentation of other archaeological finds, the remains of the ancient Mediolanum Forum discovered recently under the basement of the building housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.

Archaeological excavations to unearth the remains of the large city that, beginning in 292 A.D., was the capital of the Western Roman Empire for over a century continue despite funding difficulties. So far, part of the floor made out of what is known as 'Verona stone' has been found. The base of a section of an arcade can also be seen. The entire forum occupied an estimated surface area of 166 by 55 square meters. While waiting to be able to extend the excavations, the zone has been fitted with a special entrance on the side of the building, walkways, and illustrative signs to make visits by the public possible. The works were conducted with funding from the Cariplo foundation and the Lombardy regional government and are part of the project for a 'Milan Archaeology' route being readied for the 2015 Milano Expo, said regional culture councillor Cristina Cappellini.
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