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Ancient Mesopotamian discovery transforms knowledge of early farming

Emily Everson Layden
Rutgers University
Tue, 11 Jan 2022 17:39 UTC
Khani Masi plain
© Photo courtesy of Sirwan Regional Project and Dr. Elise LaugierDrone footage of the Khani Masi plain in the Garmian Province, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, taken in 2018.
Rutgers researchers have unearthed the earliest definitive evidence of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) in ancient Iraq, challenging our understanding of humanity's earliest agricultural practices. Their findings appear in the journal Scientific Reports.

"Overall, the presence of millet in ancient Iraq during this earlier time period challenges the accepted narrative of agricultural development in the region as well as our models for how ancient societies provisioned themselves," said Elise Laugier, an environmental archaeologist and National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.

Broomcorn millet is an "amazingly robust, quick-growing and versatile summer crop" that was first domesticated in East Asia, Laugier added. The researchers analyzed microscopic plant remains (phytoliths) from Khani Masi, a mid-late second millennium BCE (c. 1500-1100 BCE) site in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

"The presence of this East Asian crop in ancient Iraq highlights the interconnected nature of Eurasia during this time, contributing to our knowledge of early food globalization," Laugier said. "Our discovery of millet and thus the evidence of summer cultivation practices also forces us to reconsider the capacity and resilience of the agricultural systems that sustained and provisioned Mesopotamia's early cities, states and empires."
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Horse

Contrary to Hollywood, study finds medieval warhorses were surprisingly small in stature


University of Exeter
Mon, 10 Jan 2022 20:30 UTC
war horse medieval hollywood
© Barry James WilsonHollywood's version of the medieval war horse
Medieval warhorses are often depicted as massive and powerful beasts, but in reality many were no more than pony-sized by modern standards, a new study shows.

Horses during the period were often below 14.2 hands high (~5 ft. or 1.4m at the shoulder), but size was clearly not everything, as historical records indicate huge sums were spent on developing and maintaining networks for the breeding, training and keeping of horses used in combat.

A team of archaeologists and historians searching for the truth about the Great Horse have found they were not always bred for size, but for success in a wide range of different functions - including tournaments and long-distance raiding campaigns.
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Info

6th century mosaic revealed in Turkey during excavation


Arkeonews Net
Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:14 UTC
Ancient Peacock Mosaic
© Anadolu Agency
During the season excavation of the 6th-century Holy Apostles Church, located in an orange grove in the Arsuz district of Hatay in southern Turkey, after a slave was free, a mosaic he made to for the Thank God was unearthed.

Excavations continue in the area where the Church of the Apostles is the site, which Mehmet KeleลŸ discovered while trying to plant orange saplings in his garden in Arpaciftlik district in 2007.

Archaeologists excavated in the region this season and found an area with mosaics, including a peacock figure and an inscription in which a slave thanked the god after being freed.

AyลŸe Ersoy, Director of Hatay Archeology Museum, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Hatay attracts attention with its history, nature, and culture and that Arsuz district has had an important place as a port city since ancient times.
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Archaeology

Giant 'sea dragon' surfaces in one of Britain's 'greatest ever' prehistoric finds

Gurpreet Narwan
The Telegraph
Mon, 10 Jan 2022 17:05 UTC
Ichthyosaur skeleton rutland england
© Anglian Water/PAThe Ichthyosaur skeleton was found at Rutland Nature Reserve
The 180 million-year-old ichthyosaur is the largest and most complete fossil of any marine reptile found in Britain

Scientists are celebrating one of the "greatest finds" in British palaeontological history after the skeleton of a 180 million-year-old sea dragon was discovered in Rutland.

Measuring 10 metres in length with a skull weighing approximately one tonne, the ichthyosaur is the largest and most complete fossil of any marine reptile found in Britain.

The discovery was made by Joe Davis, an employee of the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust, during a routine draining of a lagoon island at Rutland Water in February 2021.

Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that lived in Britain 250 million years ago. They went extinct 90 million years ago.
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Nuke

'After 900 nuclear tests on our land, US wants to ethnically cleanse us': meet the most bombed nation in the world


RT
Sat, 08 Jan 2022 12:05 UTC
Shoshone dancers
© Ian ZabarteWomen dancers at Yucca Mountain gathering
Native-American nation's land was turned into a nuclear test site. Now, they suffer from illnesses

'The most nuclear bombed nation on the planet' is the unwanted accolade claimed by the Shoshone Native American tribe. This has had devastating effects for the community, and RT spoke with one campaigner fighting for justice.
"They are occupying our country, they are stealing our opportunities and we are expected to die because of that. We are still trying to grapple with and understand what happened to us, and find ways to stop it, correct it and prevent it happening in the future."
Ian Zabarte's voice is angry but does not falter as he describes the stark fate of his people, Native Americans who for decades have been - by any measure - subjected to the most unimaginable horrors, all perpetrated by their government in Washington.

Zabarte, 57, is the Principal Man of the Western Bands of the Shoshone Nation and he is spearheading a campaign to expose what he describes as the "ethnic cleansing" of his tribe.

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Info

Flashback Geomythology looks to ancient stories for hints of scientific truth

Prof. Timothy John Burbery
The Conversation
Sat, 07 Aug 2021 00:40 UTC
Everyone loves a good story, especially if it's based on something true.

Consider the Greek legend of the Titanomachy, in which the Olympian gods, led by Zeus, vanquish the previous generation of immortals, the Titans. As recounted by the Greek poet Hesiod, this conflict makes for a thrilling tale - and it may preserve kernels of truth.

The eruption around 1650 B.C. of the Thera volcano could have inspired Hesiod's narrative. More powerful than Krakatoa, this ancient cataclysm in the southern Aegean Sea would have been witnessed by anyone living within hundreds of miles of the blast.

Thera Volcano
© Steve Jurvetson, CC BYThe massive eruption of the Thera volcano more than 3,500 years ago left behind a hollowed out island, today known as Santorini.
Historian of science Mott Greene argues that key moments from the Titanomachy map on to the eruption's "signature." For example, Hesiod notes that loud rumbles emanated from the ground as the armies clashed; seismologists now know that harmonic tremors - small earthquakes that sometimes precede eruptions - often produce similar sounds. And the impression of the sky - "wide Heaven" - shaking during the battle could have been inspired by shock waves in the air caused by the volcanic explosion. Hence, the Titanomachy may represent the creative misreading of a natural event.

In 2021 I published the first textbook in the field, Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events. As the book demonstrates, researchers in both the sciences and the humanities practice geomythology. In fact, geomythology's hybrid nature may help to bridge the gap between the two cultures. And despite its orientation toward the past, geomythology might also provide powerful resources for meeting environmental challenges in the future.
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Treasure Chest

3,000 year-old tombs of wealthy Chinese "Ce" clan discovered


CNN
Sat, 08 Jan 2022 11:55 UTC
bronze age china
© Anyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
A 3,000-year-old cemetery containing the tombs of a wealthy clan has been uncovered in central China following two years of excavation by archaeologists.

The site in Anyang, Henan province, is thought to have been home to a clan named "Ce" during the Shang dynasty, said the Anyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in a news release on Thursday.

The clan cemetery was found just 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the ancient capital of Yinxu, where the ruins of a palace and ancestral temple are located. The archaeological site contained 18 building foundations, 24 tombs, four horse and chariot pits, and a number of remarkably intact relics, including jade and stone items, and bronzeware inscribed with the character "Ce."

Comment: China's mysterious Sanxingdui culture, thought to be of the same era as the Ce mentioned above, has provided of the most bizarre and exquisite finds yet.

See also:

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Star of David

State archive error reveals Israeli minister Aharon Zisling said he could 'forgive instances of rape' in redacted 1948 documents


Middle East Eye
Thu, 06 Jan 2022 21:08 UTC
Ben Gurion moshe dayan israel 1948 Nakba
© AFP/File photoFormer Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (left) accompanied by Israeli defence minister General Moshe Dayan (right)
Technical glitch in Israel's state archive also shows David Ben Gurion called for Palestinian villages to be 'wiped out'

A technical error on Israel's state archive website has revealed that a prominent Israeli politician said in 1948 that he could "forgive instances of rape" committed against Palestinian women in the violence that preceded the founding of the Israeli state, Haaretz has reported.

Aharon Zisling, who would later serve as agriculture minister, made the remarks during a provisional government meeting discussing the war that led to Israel's creation, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.

"Let us say that instances of rape occurred in Ramle. I can forgive instances of rape, but I will not forgive other acts," Zisling is quoted as saying.
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Gold Coins

Why did the world choose a gold standard instead of a silver standard?

Ryan McMaken
Activist Post
Wed, 05 Jan 2022 00:00 UTC
Gold key
© UnknownGold is the key
Among those who support the end of government fiat money, it's not uncommon to hear and see claims that gold is "the best money" or "natural money" or the only substance that's really suited to be commodity money. In many of these cases, when they say "gold" they mean gold, and not silver, platinum, or any other precious metal.

Naturally, one can expect to encounter these claims among those who have made a living out of promoting gold and gold-related investments for commercial purposes.

For example, consider Nathan Lewis's 2020 article in Forbes titled "Gold Has Always Been the Best Money." Lewis contends that gold and not silver is obviously the best money and its adoption as the metal behind the nineteenth-century gold standard was more or less inevitable and based on the alleged intrinsic superiority of gold as money. He writes:
In the late 19th century, a final decision had to be made between gold and silver. People chose gold; and silver, which had for thousands of years traded in a stable ratio with gold, lost its monetary quality and became volatile.
Lewis presents this as an event that was as natural as people choosing to ride in automobiles rather than on the backs of donkeys. Choosing gold over silver is progress, just like getting rid of the horse and buggy!

Lewis insists that "a final decision had to be made" between gold and silver and that "people" chose gold.

This leaves a lot unsaid, to say the least. Why, exactly, did this decision have to be made? Couldn't both metals serve as money? Moreover, who made this decision? Lewis says it was "people" who made the decision. Which people?
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Info

Flashback The Dispilio Tablet: The earliest known written text?

John Black
Ancient Origins
Sun, 13 Oct 2013 04:42 UTC
The Dispilio Tablet
© Ancient Origins
According to conventional archaeology, writing wasn't invented until 3000 to 4000 BC in Sumeria. However, an artefact was found over a decade ago which contradicts this belief - and perhaps this is the reason why few people know about the discovery.

The Dispilio tablet was discovered by a professor of prehistoric archaeology, George Xourmouziadis, in 1993 in a Neolithic lake settlement in Northern Greece near the city of Kastoria. A group of people used to occupy the settlement 7,000 to 8,000 years ago. The Dispilio tablet was one of many artefacts that were found in the area, however the importance of the table lies in the fact that it has an unknown written text on it that goes back further than 5,000 BC. The wooden tablet was dated using the C12 method to have been made in 5260 BC, making it significantly older than the writing system used by the Sumerians.

The text on the tablet includes a type of engraved writing which probably consists of a form of writing that pre-existed Linear B writing used by the Mycenaean Greeks. As well as the tablet, many other ceramic pieces were found that also have the same type of writing on them. Professor Xourmouziadis has suggested that this type of writing, which has not yet been deciphered, could be any form of communication including symbols representing the counting of possessions.
Ancient Dispilio Disk
© Ancient PagesAncient Dispilio Disk And Traditional History Of Writing.
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