Secret HistoryS


Black Cat

Flesh-eating ancient 'marsupial lion' species discovered in Queensland, Australia


RT
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 12:36 UTC
Marsupial lion
Scientists have discovered a strange new species of marsupial lion in northern Australia. The fearsome predator has been extinct for at least 18 million years.

The animal was uncovered by a team of Australian scientists who analyzed fossilized remains of its skull, teeth and upper arm bone, all found in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area of remote north-western Queensland.

The team, from the University of New South Wales, published their findings in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology and named the strange creature 'Wakaleo schouteni' in honor of palaeo-artist Peter Schouten.

Wakaleo schouteni was a meat-eating, marsupial, predator that roamed Australia's rainforests some 18 to 26 million years ago. It's estimated to be as big as a medium-sized dog, weighing about 23kg (51lb), according to the study.

Comment: See also: Did mega-drought kill ancient Aboriginal culture?

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Books

Trump & Jerusalem: A legal & historical analysis

Lorenzo Kamel
Al Jazeera
Thu, 07 Dec 2017 15:15 UTC
Jerusalem's Old City
© Ronen Zvulun/ReutersA general view shows the Dome of the Rock and Jerusalem's Old City from David Tower
US President Donald Trump has said it is time to officially recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The decision comes seven decades after the Declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, that was unilaterally announced on 14 May 1948 by David Ben-Gurion. At the time,no borders were settled for the new state. It is also for this reason that Israel's admission to the United Nations (UN) soon became a strategic priority. The admission to the UN, in fact, was and is the "most secure and expeditious way" of gaining widespread or universal recognition.

Yet, Israel's original application for admission to the UN was rejected by the UN Security Councilon December 17, 1948. The second bid for application was made on February 24, 1949. "Negotiations", assured the then Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban at the General Assembly of the UN, "would not, however, affect the juridical status of Jerusalem, to be defined by international consent".

These binding assurances - that served as the basis for Israel's admission to the UN - were made one year after the war of 1947- 48 (see Uri Avnery's "sacred mantras" on "rejectionism"): none of the historical events of the following seven decades has the legal capacity to erase them. Even more so considering that when, in 1980, Israel passed a Basic Law which declared Jerusalem "complete and united", as the "capital of Israel", the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 476affirming that "measures which have altered the geographic, demographic and historical character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem are null and void".
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Snow Globe

100 years ago today: Halifax, Canada devastated by massive explosion


Canada Encyclopedia
Wed, 06 Dec 2017 20:47 UTC
Halifax was devastated on 6 December 1917 when two ships collided in the city's harbour, one of them a munitions ship loaded with explosives bound for the battlefields of the First World War. What followed was one of the largest human-made explosions prior to the detonation of the first atomic bombs in 1945. The north end of Halifax was wiped out by the blast and subsequent tsunami. Nearly 2,000 people died, another 9,000 were maimed or blinded, and more than 25,000 were left without adequate shelter.
Halifax explosion1
Destruction caused by the Halifax Explosion, 6 December 1917.
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Archaeology

Oldest known waterway system that took a mystery Neolithic civilisation 3,000 people and nearly a decade to build is found in China

Harry Pettit
Daily Mail
Tue, 05 Dec 2017 13:50 UTC
Pictured is a map of the Liangzhu Ancient city
Pictured is a map of the Liangzhu Ancient city and its newly discovered hydraulic system along China's Yangtze River Delta. The team found levees (1), dams (2-11), mounds (12) and sections of the outer city wall (13, 14). Meirendi (15) and Bianjiashan (16) were part of this wall
An enormous waterway system built 5,000 years ago is rewriting the history of early Chinese engineering.

The recently excavated dam system was used by the Liangzhu society, a mysterious Neolithic group known for its stunning jade artefacts.

It took 3,000 people nearly ten years to build the waterway, which pushes back the date of the earliest known complex Chinese water system to around 5,100 years ago.

Experts found a series of high and low dams, as well as levees, that they say is one of the world's largest and oldest known hydraulic engineering systems.

Until now, the oldest known comparable systems had been Mesopotamian, dating to around 4,900 years ago.
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USA

The epochal consequences of Woodrow Wilson's war: 'The entire 20th Century was a giant mistake'

David Stockman
ContraCorner
Wed, 21 Jan 2015 23:20 UTC
woodrow wilson post card
© flickrPatriotic postcard from World War I.
Committee for the Republic

Washington DC January 20, 2015

My humble thesis tonight is that the entire 20th Century was a giant mistake.

And that you can put the blame for this monumental error squarely on Thomas Woodrow Wilson - a megalomaniacal madman who was the very worst President in American history........well, except for the last two.

His unforgiveable error was to put the United States into the Great War for utterly no good reason of national interest. The European war posed not an iota of threat to the safety and security of the citizens of Lincoln NE, or Worcester MA or Sacramento CA. In that respect, Wilson's putative defense of "freedom of the seas" and the rights of neutrals was an empty shibboleth; his call to make the world safe for democracy, a preposterous pipe dream.
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Archaeology

The historical mystery of the Dalhousie Mountain carvings

Jordan Gill
CBC News
Sun, 19 Nov 2017 15:20 UTC
dalhousie mountain mystery carvings
© Mary-Clare VautourNames carved onto a rock on Dalhousie Mountain. Questions remain as to who carved them and why?
On top of a hill in Dalhousie, colloquially known as Dalhousie Mountain, there are numerous names carved into rocks.Most are weathered and worn from the elements, but names such as "J.D. Howe" and the date "SPT 1880" can still be seen.However, there is a mystery. What exactly are these names doing on the top of that mountain?

Bill Clarke, the director of the Restigouche Regional Museum, said there's no concrete explanation as to who carved the names or why.

Clarke also said not a lot of research has been done to find out.

"We haven't really done a lot of research on them largely because there's so much else to do."
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Colosseum

Amazing pictures - Drowned city of the Caesars Baiae was Roman empire's wine-soaked party town of luxury

Michael Havis, Tom Howell
Mirror
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 12:09 UTC
The sunken city of the Caesars, lost for centuries beneath the waves, has been revealed in stunning new photographs.

Baiae was the resort of choice for the Roman super-rich and became notorious for its sprawling mansions.

Baiae Roman sunken city
© Pen News/Antonio Busiello
Italy is hardly short on Roman ruins - but what's left of Baia is in a league of its own

Comment: More on Baiae: Unsolved Mystery: Ancient Tunnels at Baiae

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Bad Guys

How Hitler's henchman bent Hollywood to his will

Steven J. Ross
The Daily Beast
Mon, 04 Dec 2017 22:43 UTC
Hitler Hollywood
© The Daily Beast
When Germany, Japan, and Italy formed the Axis alliance in November 1937, four months after Japan invaded China, the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo partnership appeared poised to take on the rest of the world.

With the Reich on the move, propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels tightened his command over his government's image at home and abroad. In April 1937, he transferred control of all German film companies to the government and appointed himself as overseer of all productions. Henceforth, the content of domestic films would "fulfill with distinction the National Socialist idea." As Fritz Wiedemann, now vice president of the Reich Film Chamber, boasted, "There is no such thing as public taste; we can shape that as we will. We have determined political taste; we can do the same with artistic taste."
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Key

Keys found in female Vikings' graves symbolic of women's independence

Thor News
Ancient Origins
Sat, 04 Nov 2017 00:49 UTC
The Symbolic Key to a Viking Woman’s Independence
This bronze key from Heggum farm in Røyken in the Oslofjord is dated to the Viking Age.
A large number of ornate keys from the Viking Age (c. 800-1066 AD) have been found in female graves and as individual findings. Bronze keys made with superb craftsmanship were used as a status symbol by women and were often small works of art worn on a belt around the waist.

The key from Heggum farm (Old Norse: Heggheimar) is 9.5 centimeters long and ornamented with intertwined animal figures. It was found in a burial mound and may have belonged to a powerful housewife. The day she got married, she got the keys to the farm doors and treasure chests as a visible sign of her position and power.

Comment: Also See:

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Horse

2,000 year old Roman 'stables' accidentally discovered in families backyard in Israel

Theodoros Karasavvas
Ancient Origins
Fri, 03 Nov 2017 21:52 UTC
2,000 year old Roman stables accidentall discovered in Families backyard
A family living in Israel was digging in their backyard when they came upon an opening in the ground. They were stunned when they discovered that it led to a complex network of underground caves. Archaeological investigations revealed it was an elaborate construction dating back 2,000 years, which probably served as stables.

Unexpected Find

Haaretz reported that the underground complex was discovered in a village called Eilabun, located just 11 miles from Nazareth, the ancient city where Jesus was said to have been raised.

Archaeologists suggest that the caves had been dug out by the Romans and probably served for storage and stabling. They came to this conclusion after noticing holes chiseled into the cave walls to which horses could have been tied, and a stone trough used for water or feed.

Comment: Also See:

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