Secret HistoryS


Boat

2,000-year-old skeleton discovered in famous Antikythera shipwreck

April Holloway
Ancient Origins
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 15:54 UTC
Antikythera shipwreck
© Louisa Gouliamaki/Agence France-PresseArtifacts found at the so-called Antikythera shipwreck off a remote Greek island in 1900, as displayed at the Archaeological Museum in Athens on Sept. 14, 2014. The remains of a young man who was on the ship 2,000 years ago were found on Aug. 31, 2016. (/Getty Images)
Underwater archaeologists made an extremely rare discovery at the world-famous Antikythera shipwreck site in Greece—the 2,000-year-old remains of a young male. And now scientists are hopeful they may be able to carry out the first ever DNA sequencing from an ancient shipwreck victim.

The Antikythera wreck, located off the island of Antikythera in the Aegean Sea, is a famous underwater archaeological site thrown into the spotlight in 1900 when researchers discovered an incredible mechanical device, now known as the Antikythera mechanism.
Antikythera
© Marsyas via Wikimedia CommonsPart of the Antikythera Mechanism.
The metallic device consists of at least 30 different types of gears and is so complex that many consider it to be the first human-made analogue computer. After decades of research, scientists were able to determine that it shows the positions of the sun, moon, and planets as they move through the zodiac, predicts solar and lunar eclipses, and even marked key events such as the Pan-Hellenic games.

Along with the discovery of this unique form of ancient technology, archaeologists have found other treasures, including finely carved bronze and marble statues, glassware, jewellery, a bone flute, game pieces, and coins.

Now, according to Nature.com, researchers have made another significant finding with the recovery of a partial skull, two arm bones, several ribs and two femurs from a man in his late teens to early 20s. The skeleton was found buried under around two feet of pottery shards and sand.


He was trapped on board when the ship went down, The Guardian explained. The ship hit rocks, bashed along an undersea cliff and became buried in sediment.
Read More...
Info

Frisland and Iceland: A tale of two islands


Malaga Bay
Wed, 08 Feb 2017 15:44 UTC
Frisland
© Malaga Bay
The Frisland Finesse is a few short sentences of duplicitous doublespeak originally concocted by the Divine Right Diviners and merrily endorsed [with a sly chuckle] by the Mainstream Hoax Meisters.

Frisland, also called Frischlant, Friesland, Frislandia, or Fixland, is a phantom island that appeared on virtually all of the maps of the North Atlantic from the 1560s through the 1660s.

Link

According to Zeno, the map and letters date from around the year 1400 and purportedly describe a long voyage made by the Zeno brothers in the 1390s under the direction of a prince named Zichmni.

Map link
Read More...
Archaeology

The Lady of Elche: a mysterious limestone bust found in 1897 on a private estate at La Alcudia, Spain


The Vintage News
Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
The Lady of Elche
The Lady of Elche
The Lady of Elche, also known as Lady of Elx, is a limestone bust of a woman's head found on a private estate at La Alcudia, two kilometers south of Elche, Spain.

The Iberian artifact is believed to have been produced in the 4th century BC, although the craftsmanship suggests strong Hellenistic influences. It is one of the most famous sculptures in the world.

The sculpture was found on 4 August 1897, by a young worker, Manuel Campello Esclapez. However, local keeper of the records Pere Ibarra had a different version of the discovery: he stated that a man named Antonio Maciá, one of the workers clearing the southeast slope of La Alcudia for agricultural purposes, was the one to find the bust.
Read More...
Archaeology

Anthropologists uncover 38,000-year-old engravings - considered art by 'Old Masters'


NYU
Fri, 27 Jan 2017 00:00 UTC
38,000 yo rock art
© MNP - Ph. JugieAn international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image, above, in a southwestern French rockshelter—a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period. The limestone slab engraved with image of an aurochs, or extinct wild cow, was discovered at Abri Blanchard in 2012.
aurochs
© R. Bourrillon
An international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image in a southwestern French rockshelter—a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period.

"The discovery sheds new light on regional patterning of art and ornamentation across Europe at a time when the first modern humans to enter Europe dispersed westward and northward across the continent," explains NYU anthropologist Randall White, who led the excavation in France's Vézère Valley.

The findings, which appear in the journal Quaternary International, center on the early modern humans' Aurignacian culture, which existed from approximately 43,000 to 33,000 years ago.

Read More...
Mars

CIA spooks used PSI to scout Mars, spy on Martians


Sputnik
Tue, 07 Feb 2017 18:31 UTC
CIA use PSI to scout Mars
© Pixabay
Recently declassified CIA files reveal that at some point the agency actually attempted to employ extrasensory perception (ESP) to scout out Mars.

Last month the CIA published over 13 million documents which, along with details of more conventional espionage operations, contained the records of the agency's more esoteric pursuits such as investigations into UFO sightings and studies into the use of ESP.

One such document reveals how the CIA, apparently dissatisfied with spying only on the people of Earth in the present, turned its attention to prehistoric Mars, and on May 22, 1984 performed a scrying of the red planet's ancient past with the help of a clairvoyant.

According to the document, the clairvoyant who took part in the experiment was given a sealed envelope containing a 3x5 card with the following information: "The planet Mars. Time of interest approximately 1 million years B.C."
CIA document
© cia.govExperiment record
The subject however was prohibited from opening the envelope before the end of the experiment, and the exact geographical coordinates of the areas his CIA handlers chose to survey were given to him verbally.

Comment: See also: CIA declassifies records of Project Star Gate experiments involving supernatural abilities

Read More...
Colosseum

Greek archaelogist says he has found Aristotle's tomb

Denisse Moreno
Epoch Times
Fri, 27 May 2016 00:00 UTC
Aristotle
© Tilemahos Efthimiadis via Compfight cc
A Greek archaeologist claimed on May 26 to have discovered the tomb of philosopher Aristotle in the ancient city Stageira in Greece.

The archaeologist, Konstantinos Sismanidis, began excavating the birthplace of Aristotle in northern Greece in the 1990s.

Sismanidis revealed his discovery at the "Aristotle 2400 Years" World Congress, which marks the anniversary of the philosopher's birth.

He says a destroyed structure he discovered may have been the final resting place of the philosopher after his death.
Read More...
Frog

Hundreds of ancient earthworks resembling Stonehenge found in Brazil's Amazon rainforest

Sarah Knapton
The Telegraph, UK
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 20:00 UTC
Earthworks in the Amazon
© Salman Kahn and Jose Iriarte450 'henge' earthworks were found using drones in the Brazilian rainforest
Hundreds of ancient earthworks resembling those at Stonehenge were built in the Amazon rainforest, scientists have discovered after flying drones over the area.

The findings prove for the first time that prehistoric settlers in Brazil cleared large wooded areas to create huge enclosures meaning that the 'pristine' rainforest celebrated by ecologists is actually relatively new.

The ditched enclosures, in Acre state in the western Brazilian Amazon, have been concealed for centuries by trees, but modern deforestation has allowed 450 to emerge from the undergrowth. They were discovered after scientists from the UK and Brazil flew drones over last year.

The earthworks, known by archaeologists as 'geoglyphs' probably date from around the year zero.

The research was carried out by Jennifer Watling, post-doctoral researcher at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography, University of São Paulo, when she was studying for a PhD at the University of Exeter.

Although the function of the sites is unknown Dr Watling said they resembled Neolithic causewayed enlosures found at sites such as Stonehenge in Wiltshire, although they appear to be more regular.
Read More...
Info

Finding Frisland and the Zeno map


Malaga Bay
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 18:10 UTC
Frisland
© Malaga Bay
The Zeno Map [claimed to have been drafted in the 1390s] was first published in 1558.
Zeno Map
© Wikipedia Commons
The Zeno map is a map of the North Atlantic first published in 1558 in Venice by Nicolo Zeno, a descendant of Nicolo Zeno, of the Zeno brothers.

The younger Zeno published the map, along with a series of letters, claiming he had discovered them in a storeroom in his family's home in Venice. According to Zeno, the map and letters date from around the year 1400 and purportedly describe a long voyage made by the Zeno brothers in the 1390s under the direction of a prince named Zichmni.

Zeno Map
Amongst the many curiosities found on the Zeno Map is the island of Frisland.
Read More...
Wolf

German lover fueled SAS co-founder Jock Lewes' brief flirtation with Nazism


RT
Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:39 UTC
SAS flag
The Special Air Services is a special forces unit of the British Army. The SAS was founded in 1941 as a regiment, and later reconstituted as an elite corps in 1950.
The maverick co-founder of the SAS flirted with fascism because of his German lover, new research shows.

A forthcoming documentary will show how Jock Lewes, who would eventually found the elite special forces unit alongside David Stirling, showed sympathies for the Nazi cause during his numerous pre-war visits to the Reich.

It will be claimed Lewes was "dazzled" by the fascist regime just years before he founded the secretive group in 1941.

A former Oxford boat team captain, Lewes fell in love with Nazi-supporting society figure Senta Adriano and, according to the Times, wrote to his parents that "England is no democracy and Germany [is] far from being a totalitarian state."

He even attended a society dinner at which Hitler and his henchman Josef Goebbels were honored guests.
Read More...
Dig

Leicester, UK: Archaeological evidence of Roman past discovered, mosaic and underfloor heating


University of Leicester
Fri, 03 Feb 2017 00:00 UTC
Roman mosaic
© sciencedaily.comRoman mosaic dates to 4th Century
The team from the University of Leicester is currently excavating a large site on the corner of Highcross Street and Vaughan Way, next to Leicester's John Lewis car park. The project, which has been running since November 2016, is uncovering exciting new evidence for Leicester's Roman past, including evidence for a Roman street, and a Roman house once floored with mosaic pavements.

The excavation is funded by Ingleby, who will be developing the site into apartments, and the team from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) is working closely with the architects to minimise the impact of the new building on the underlying archaeology. Modern rubble and Victorian garden soil are being removed from the footprint of the proposed building to expose the medieval and Roman archaeology. This allows archaeologists to identify where the footings for the new building will have an adverse effect on important archaeological remains, which can then either be designed around, or excavated before they are destroyed, leaving most of the archaeology preserved intact beneath the new building.

The excavation covers nearly two-thirds of a Roman insula (city block), giving archaeologists an amazing opportunity to investigate life in the north-east quarter of the Roman town. So far, a Roman street and three Roman buildings have been identified.

Today, Highcross Street still follows the line of the main road leading from the Roman forum (beneath Jubilee Square) to the north gate, at the junction with Sanvey Gate. On this western side of the site a large Roman building has been uncovered. Two ranges of rooms flanked by a corridor or portico appear to surround a courtyard. At least one room had a hypocaust (underfloor heating), and it is likely that this is a large townhouse, reminiscent of the Vine Street courtyard house excavated nearby, beneath the John Lewis car park, in 2006.

Read More...