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Archaeologists search for 'new' Bronze Age stone circle at The Hurlers, Bodmin Moor, U.K.

Graham Smith
West Briton
Sat, 10 Sep 2016 19:53 UTC
The Hurlers
© NilfanionThe stones are thought to have had astronomical significance
A team of archaeologists is about to resume work at the Bronze Age stone circles known as The Hurlers on Bodmin Moor. The excavation, part of the Heritage Lottery Fund-supported Reading the Hurlers project, aims to learn more about a site that was identified by geo-physics in the early 1990s.

Starting on Tuesday and working until September 18, members of the Cornwall Archaeological Unit will be working alongside geologists and volunteers to shed light on the potential for a "fourth" circle at the 4,000-year-old site near Liskeard.
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Attention

Unit 731 and the Asian Auschwitz

AnonWatcher
anonhq
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 16:28 UTC
Shiro Ishii
The man who commanded Unit 731, Shiro Ishii
We're all familiar with the horror stories of the Holocaust, Auschwitz and the torturous scenarios playing out behind the barbed wire fences of the many other death camps across Germany in the War. But have you heard of the equally horrific Unit 731?

Unit 731 was the equivalent to Auschwitz, not by death tolls, but by the methods of torture employed on the civilian and military prisoners held captive. Not only the torture, but the underlying nature of why the Japanese employed such brutality at the time, is also shocking.

Shiro Ishii - who was never charged with any war crimes - was the commander of the Imperial Japanese Army's Unit 731. This closely guarded secret wasn't widely acknowledged until the mid-1980s, when the extent of the human experiments began to surface.

Comment: See also:
Japanese government conducted macabre human experiments during WWII
Japan unearths site linked to human experiments

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Archaeology

Geologist claims to have found tomb where mythical Jesus was buried

Hannah Ferrett
The Sun
Sat, 17 Sep 2016 14:58 UTC
jesus tomb
© GettyThis is the tomb in question
One thing's for sure - Dr Aryeh Shimron's claims are going to be pretty controversial. He's a geologist and he apparently has proof that Jesus Christ is buried at a site in East Jerusalem.

The area is called Talpiot Tomb and it was first found in 1980. But now Aryeh has done some tests, which he says prove Jesus of Nazareth, his wife Mary Magdalene and son Judah were laid to rest there.

There are nine burial boxes in the tomb, and they all have names with links to the New Testament of the Bible on them.

Comment: Did Jesus ever exist, or is the story depicted in the Bible a conglomeration of other historical figures? There is a lot of evidence that says the Jesus of the Bible never actually existed:

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Fish

Oldest fish hooks found in Japan


Radio New Zealand
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 02:32 UTC
Fish Hooks
© National Academy of SciencesThe 23,000-year-old fish hooks that were found in a cave on Okinawa.
Archaeologists have found the world's oldest fish hooks in a cave on the Japanese island of Okinawa. The pair, dating from about 23,000 years ago, were carved from sea snail shells and found with other ancient relics, according to a newly-published paper.

It is thought humans inhabited the island from at least 30,000 years ago, surviving despite scarce resources.

The findings suggest a wider use of advanced maritime technology in that era than previously thought.

Modern humans first moved to offshore islands some 50,000 years ago.

While fishing has been essential for early humans to spread around the planet, it is unclear how the technology evolved, with evidence limited to sites in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

"The new evidence demonstrates a geographically wider distribution of early maritime technology that extended north to the mid-latitude areas along the western Pacific coast," according to the National Academy of Sciences.

The fish hooks predate ones found in Timor, thought to be at least 16,000 years old, and Papua New Guinea, from at least 18,000 years ago.

Also found in the cave were two partially carved fish hooks, tools, beads and food debris.

The paper's authors even suggest that those who visited the cave did so seasonally, when certain species of crab were at their "most delicious".

Source: BBC
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Dig

Neolithic figurine, over 7,000 years old, unearthed at Turkey's Çatalhöyük


Daily Sabah
Tue, 13 Sep 2016 22:01 UTC
Neolithic figurine
Archaeologists at Turkey's neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in central Anatolia have unearthed a "unique" complete female figurine, The Ministry of Culture and Tourism said on Tuesday.

The statuette, measuring 17 centimeters (6.7 inches) long and weighing one kilogram (2.2 pounds), is considered unique due to its intact form and fine craftsmanship; it dates back to about 5500-8000 BC, a statement said.
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Dig

Window to prehistoric beliefs: Archaeologists unearth 9,000 year old shamanic sanctuary in Poland

The Explorer
EWA
Mon, 11 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
shaman sanctuary poland
The recent discovery of a 9,000-year-old shamanic sanctuary in Europe proves that an advanced and knowledgeable culture once flourished there. The capabilities of the shamans described in mystic tales might had once been a reality after all.
One of the key figures of the ancient world was the shaman. According to ancient accounts, these magic practitioners helped shape the first human societies. As wise as they were feared, the shaman mystics were a high-rank figure in the human society, capable of winning battles, de-cursing allies, they could heal physical wounds and the soul, but also communicate with animal spirits and even shapeshift.

While all this knowledge may seem loose out of fantasy books, there's a great chance that shamans were capable of performing all of the above feats. Although records of these mystics often comes from the 16th century and mostly referrers to Asia as their last known refuge, it's likely that they did their bidding all over the world. At least that's what this ancient shaman site from Europe indicates.

In 2012, archaeologists uncovered an unusual site near Lake Świdwie, in north-western Poland. After meticulously analyzing the settlement using modern techniques, the team of researchers concluded that it dated back more than 9,000 years.

Comment: Talisman made from a 9,000 year-old Meteorite found inside prehistoric shaman's hut in Poland

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Footprints

Famous Danish Bronze Age icon turns out not to be Danish

Charlotte Price Persson
ScienceNordic
Wed, 03 Jun 2015 23:04 UTC
Analysis of the Egtved girl's teeth, clothes, hair, and nails, show that the Bronze Age teenager was not born in Denmark.

Egtved Girl oak coffin
© Roberto Fortuna, National Museum of DenmarkThe Egtved Girl’s oak coffin shown along with a well-preserved wool garment and a bronze belt decorated with small spirals
The Egtved Girl is considered one of the best-preserved Bronze Age relics in Denmark.

The remains of the 16-18 year old girl is the pride of the National Museum of Denmark. Whilst skin and body parts have disappeared over the years, the young girl's unique style of dress is exactly as it was when she was buried about 3,400 years ago.

The Egtved Girl is, in other words, a Danish Bronze Age icon. Only now it turns out that she was not actually Danish.

Comment: Bronze Age society was highly globalized. See also Rare glass beads found in Danish tomb were made in King Tut's workshop

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Star of David

Book review: How Israel stole the bomb from right under the U.S.'s nose

James DiEugenio
Consortium News
Sun, 11 Sep 2016 20:02 UTC
numec
When Israel launched a covert scheme to steal material and secrets to build a nuclear bomb, U.S. officials looked the other way and obstructed investigations, as described in a book reviewed by James DiEugenio.

In 1968, CIA Director Richard Helms was presented with a disturbing National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) stating that Israel had obtained atomic weapons, a dangerous development that occurred earlier than the CIA had anticipated.

It was particularly dangerous because just the year before, the Six Day War had marked the beginning of open hostilities between the Israelis and Arab nation states. To prevail, Israel had launched preemptive air attacks against Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq at the start of the conflict. Considering that violent backdrop, Helms immediately arranged a meeting with President Lyndon Johnson to inform him of this troubling milestone.

The man who had prepared the NIE and gave it to Helms was the CIA's chief science and technology officer, Carl Duckett. After Helms met with Johnson, the CIA Director told Duckett about the President's rather odd reaction. LBJ did not get upset, and he did not order an investigation into how it happened. Further, he did not tell Helms to let both the Defense Department and State Department know about it so they could establish intelligence inquiries or consider sanctions.

Instead, Johnson did the opposite. He told Helms to keep the news secret and specifically told the Director not to let the secretaries of State or Defense know about it.

Helms obeyed the orders of his Commander in Chief, but he decided to talk to the FBI about how this development had occurred earlier than expected. Thus begins Roger Mattson's Stealing the Atom Bomb: How Denial and Deception Armed Israel, the riveting story of duplicity, betrayal, cover-ups and deceit.

Comment: There's currently a lawsuit against U.S. officials for illegally supplying aid to a non-NPT signatory, i.e. Israel: And Colin Powell admitted in email that Israel has 200 nukes. There's no way around it; the recent $38-bln "aid package" for Israel is illegal: SOTT News Snapshot: September 16 edition - Colin Powell brushes off Iraq Chilcot report, admits Israel has 200 nukes

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Heart - Black

The Night of the Pencils: When Argentina's military dictatorship hunted down its young dissidents


telesur
Thu, 15 Sep 2016 18:07 UTC
argentina night pencils
In mid-September 1976, a group of 10 teenagers were abducted and disappeared by members of the Argentina junta's state security forces in the Argentine city of La Plata, about 33 miles from capital Buenos Aires. It was the beginning of the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina until 1983.

The teens, all aged between 16 and 18, were captured in the middle of the night, of Sept. 16-17, by masked men who violently raided their houses and took them to clandestine detention centres in what is known as the "Night of the Pencils," because they were all idealistic high school students.

The students were illegally imprisoned and tortured, only four of them survived. Six of were brutally killed, adding numbers of dead and missing from dictatorship.

Francisco, Maria Claudia, Claudio, Horacio Daniel and Maria Clara remain disappeared. Pablo Diaz, Gustavo Calotti, Emilce Moler and Patricia Miranda miraculously survived.

Most of them had political militancy backgrounds as many of them had attended the 1975 spring protests in which they demanded the restoration of a preferential transportation fare, a benefit seen by them as a social gain lost due to the authoritarianism of the military government of their province.

Comment: Argentina's Dirty War was a brutal crackdown on political dissidents, human rights defenders, academics, church leaders, students, and other opponents of the right-wing regime. The war was also part of the U.S. backed Operation Condor, a state terror operation that carried out assassinations and disappearances in support of South America's right-wing dictatorships.

Declassified docs partially reveal U.S. role in Argentina dirty war - CIA/DIA docs remain classified

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Hourglass

Forgotten utopia?: The Indus people may have lived for 700 years without war, weapons or inequality

Shivali Best
Daily Mail
Thu, 15 Sep 2016 20:57 UTC
Indus valley
© De Agostini / Getty ImagesMany people believe that one mysterious, ancient society may have led a Utopian life. The Indus civilisation flourished from 2600 to 1900 BC, and it has been suggested that they lived in a real, functioning utopia
Many believe the idea of a utopian society is an impossible fantasy.

But there may have been one mysterious, ancient group of people that was able to fulfil the dream of life without conflict or rulers.

Remains of the Indus civilisation, which flourished from 2600 to 1900 BC, show no clear signs of weapons, war or inequality.

This is according to Andrew Robinson. the author of The Indus: Lost civilisations, who has written an in-depth piece in the New Scientist.

Comment: For more on the Indus civilization see:

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