Secret HistoryS


Eye 1

Hitler Used Cocaine and Had Semen Injections

Hitler used cocaine
© Deutsches Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archive)/Wikimedia Commons.Hitler,1932
Adolf Hitler farted uncontrollably, used cocaine to clear his sinuses, ingested some 28 drugs at a time and received injections of bull testicle extracts to bolster his libido.

The startling revelations come from Hitler's medical records, now up for auction at Alexander Historical Auctions of Stamford, Conn. (The full catalogues can be found here and here.)

Bidding for the documents -- which include 10 X-rays of various views of the dictactor's skull, the results of several EEG tests and sketches of the inside of his nose -- ends Tuesday and Wednesday.

The cache consists of a 47-page account compiled by his six chief physicians, each specializing in different areas of treatment, and a 178-page report dated June 12, 1945, which was compiled by Dr. Erwin Giesing, while he was interned by American forces.

The U.S. military commissioned the medical reports provided by Hitler's personal doctors, Bill Panagopulos, president of Alexander Autographs, told the New York Daily News.

Though there is no official document regarding Hitler's love of cocaine, Giesing wrote that the dictator inhaled powdered cocaine to "clear his sinuses" and "soothe" his throat. Since he had begun to "crave" the drug, his dosage had to be lowered, Giesing wrote.

The documents reveal another unflattering aspect of Hitler's life: der Führer "suffered from uncontrollable flatulence."

Sherlock

Glastonbury Abbey excavations reveal Saxon glass industry

Image
© Unknown
New research led by the University of Reading has revealed that finds at Glastonbury Abbey provide the earliest archaeological evidence of glass-making in Britain

Professor Roberta Gilchrist, from the Department of Archaeology, has re-examined the records of excavations that took place at Glastonbury in the 1950s and 1960s.

Glass furnaces recorded in 1955-7 were previously thought to date from before the Norman Conquest. However, radiocarbon dating has now revealed that they date approximately to the 680s, and are likely to be associated with a major rebuilding of the abbey undertaken by King Ine of Wessex. Glass-making at York and Wearmouth is recorded in historical documents in the 670s but Glastonbury provides the earliest and most substantial archaeological evidence for glass-making in Saxon Britain.

The extensive remains of five furnaces have been identified, together with fragments of clay crucibles and glass for window glazing and drinking vessels, mainly of vivid blue-green colour. It is likely that specialist glassworkers came from Gaul (France) to work at Glastonbury. The glass will be analysed chemically to provide further information on the sourcing and processing of materials.

Ladybug

Agriculture Expanded as Farmers Pressed North, Not Because Hunter-gatherers Adopted the Practice

Image
© Goran Burenhult / Science Ove Persson and Evy Persson at excavations in Gotland, Sweden
Analyzing DNA from four ancient skeletons and comparing it with thousands of genetic samples from living humans, a group of Scandinavian scientists reported that agriculture initially spread through Europe because farmers expanded their territory northward, not because the more primitive foragers already living there adopted it on their own.

The genetic profiles of three Neolithic hunter-gatherers and one farmer who lived in the same region of modern-day Sweden about 5,000 years ago were quite different - a fact that could help resolve a decades-old battle among archaeologists over the origins of European agriculture, said study leader Mattias Jakobsson, a population geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

The hunter-gatherers, from the island of Gotland, bore a distinct genetic resemblance to people alive today in Europe's extreme north, said Jakobsson, who reported his findings in Friday's edition of the journal Science. The farmer, excavated from a large stone burial structure in the mainland parish of Gokhem, about 250 miles away, had DNA more like that of modern people in southern Europe.

"People have known for some time that agriculture spread from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and northward and westward," Jakobsson said. "But it's been difficult to determine if people migrated and brought farming with them, or if local hunter-gatherers changed their practices."

The study joins a growing body of work, assembled over the last decade, that aims to settle lingering debates over early human history by examining ancient DNA.

Comment: Comment: For information on the devastation these early farmers have visited on humanity, read:
The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race
Lierre Keith on 'The Vegetarian Myth - Food, Justice and Sustainability'


Roses

Late Bloomer: 32,000-year-old frozen remains used to grow ancient Arctic flower

fossil flower
© Svetlana Yashina via The New York Times
An undated handout photo of a narrow-leafed campion that has been generated from the fruit of a little arctic flower. Russian biologists say that they have grown a plant that is 32,000 years old from seeds buried in permafrost.
In a discovery that may herald the Jurassic Park-style resurrection of mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers, Russian scientists have grown a plant from the frozen remains of a 32,000-year-old Arctic flower.

The plant is a narrow-leafed campion grown in petri dishes from organic materials pulled from the banks of the Kolyma River in Siberia. Details of the project appear in Tuesday's issue of The Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. It was drafted by a team led by Svetlana Yashina and David Gilichinsky of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Tragically, Mr. Gilichinsky died of a heart attack on Saturday.

The Russian-grown campion is suspected to be the oldest plant ever grown from ancient tissue. If so, it would trounce the previous record held by a date palm grown from a 2,000-year-old seed recovered from Masada, Israel, site of a mass suicide of Jewish rebels in 73 AD.

The Russian-grown campions are extremely similar to their modern-day descendants, although 32,000 years of evolution have given contemporary campions wider, less splayed-out petals.

A long-dead Arctic ground squirrel is credited with unwittingly creating the ancient seed bank.

Stop

Adolf Hitler profile suggests 'messiah complex'

Image
© Press AssociationThe report talks out of Hitler's paranoia and turn to "Jew-phobia" as Germany struggled militarily
Adolf Hitler developed a "messiah complex" during World War II, a newly unveiled report written for wartime British intelligence says.

The report, written in 1942 by Cambridge academic Joseph MacCurdy, said Hitler was turning increasingly to "Jew-phobia" as defeat loomed.

Social scientist Mark Abrams, who worked on the BBC's overseas propaganda analysis unit, commissioned the report.

The report came to light as a result of research into Mr Abrams' work.

"Hitler is caught up in a web of religious delusions," MacCurdy said in the report.

He outlined how Hitler began to focus on the "Jewish poison" as the tide of World War II turned against Germany.

"The Jews are the incarnation of evil, while he is the incarnation of the spirit of good," MacCurdy said.

Sherlock

Columbus May Not Have Been First to America

First Vovage
© Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery"The Departure of John and Sebastian Cabot from Bristol on their First Voyage of Discovery in 1497," as painted in 1906 by Ernest Board.
An investigation worthy of a Dan Brown novel has shed new light on the voyages of John Cabot,‭ ‬the Italian navigator and explorer, revealing that he may have‭ ‬had‭ ‬knowledge of European expeditions to the‭ "‬New World‭"‬ that predated Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage.

Although commonly credited with "discovering" America, Christopher Columbus would not reach the mainland of the New World until 1498 when he sailed to South America.‭

Farther north, Cabot became the first European since Leif Ericson and the Vikings to land on North American soil when he made three voyages ‬for England's Henry VII between the summers of‭ ‬1496‭ ‬and‭ ‬1498.‭ ‬The second of‭ ‬these expeditions,‭ carried‭ ‬out in‭ ‬1497,‭ ‬resulted in the European discovery of North America -- at Newfoundland‭.

Now a brief entry in a‭ ‬yellowed accounting ledger has revealed an unexpected European dimension‭ ‬to Cabot‭'‬s discovery:‭ ‬In April‭ ‬1496,‭ ‬the Italian-born explorer received financial backing from an Italian bank -- the Bardi banking house in London.

The notation -- found through some serious sleuthing of the works of Alwyn Ruddock, a deceased, secretive historian -- would also suggest that Europeans may have discovered the New World decades before both Cabot and Columbus set sail.

Found in a private Florentine archive,‭ ‬the document records that a‭ payment of‭ ‬50‭ ‬nobles sterling was made to‭ "‬Giovanni Chabotte‭" (John Cabot‭) of Venice so that‭ ‬he could undertake expeditions‭ ‬"to go and find the new land.‭"

"This brief entry opens a whole new chapter in Cabot scholarship.‭ ‬It shows that the Bristol voyages were part of a wider network of Italian-supported exploratory enterprises,"‭ ‬historian Francesco Guidi-Bruscoli,‭ ‬of the University of Florence,‭ ‬told Discovery News.

Info

Dirty Pages Reveal Medieval Reading Habits

Medieval Prayer Book
© University of St AndrewsQuantifying fingerprints on a medieval prayer book.
Dirty pages of centuries-old books have revealed the fears, desires and humanity of medieval Europeans, suggesting that they were as self-interested and afraid of illness as people are today.

Kathryn Rudy, lecturer in the School of Art History at the University of St Andrews, analyzed a number of 15th- and early 16th-century European prayer books to reconstruct the reading habits of people who lived in medieval times.

The book turned out to be a kind of forensic analysis of what interested people of the time. She soon realized that the darkness of thumbed pages correlated to the intensity of their use and handling. The dirtiest pages were most likely also the most read, while relatively clean pages were probably neglected.

Using a densitometer, a machine that measures the darkness of a reflecting surface, Rudy was able to interpret how a reader handled a book, which sections were the most popular and which were ignored.

"Although it is often difficult to study the habits, private rituals and emotional states of people, this new technique can let us into the minds of people from the past," Rudy said.

The densitometer spiked at a manuscript dedicated to St. Sebastian, who was often prayed to for protection against the plague.

Wine

Stone me! Archaeologists' new theory on ancient north Pembrokeshire site

Rare finds have prompted archaeologists to rewrite the history of an ancient north Pembrokeshire stone.

The Trefael Stone, a scheduled ancient monument in a Nevern field, was originally thought to be an ancient standing stone, but is actually the capstone of a 5,500-year-old tomb, according to new research from a Bristol University archaeologist.

Dr George Nash and colleagues' excavations at the site indicate that the 1.2m high stone once covered a small burial chamber, probably a portal dolmen, Wales' earliest Neolithic burial-ritual monument type.

Attention

Native American Burial Ground Discovered

 Dirt Moving Uncovers Remains

US, Nebraska - A Native American burial ground has been uncovered during dirt moving for a highway project. Skeletal remains were not found on the construction site but farmland leased for dirt.

District engineer Tim Weander told Channel Six News Fact Finders that bones were discovered in Cass County not far from the highway 75 reconstruction. The state historical society and Nebraska commission on Indian affairs were notified.

The historical society staff removed the remains and is attempting to determine the tribe. A historical society expert told Channel Six News Fact Finders the bone fragments are very old and may predate Europeans coming to America. He said it appears the remains are of about four or five Native Americans.

The Director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs Judi M. Gaiashkibos provided more information of the remains discovery.

Info

Older Than Giza - Ancient Burial Chamber Revealed

Ancient Grave
© Centre for Digital Documentation and Visualisation
Even 5000 years ago, Britons were an understated bunch. About 250 years before work began on Egypt's ostentatious Great Pyramid of Giza, the early settlers of Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, were building impressive stone chambers of their own - and burying them under mounds of dirt. Now, intensive laser scanning makes it possible to virtually peel away the mud, revealing one of those chambers in all its glory.

This is Maeshowe, a 3.8-metre-tall tomb chamber reached via a narrow passage 11 metres long. Maeshowe is one of several Neolithic monuments that comprise the Orkney UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was scanned by a team from the Glasgow School of Art's Digital Design Studio and the government agency Historic Scotland. The team is scanning 10 World Heritage Sites, five of which are in Scotland, for the Scottish Ten project. "We scanned Mount Rushmore [National Memorial] in the US in 2010," says Lyn Wilson of Historic Scotland.

All the sites are tourist attractions, which can make conserving them a challenge. The scans, accurate to within 6 millimetres, will form an invaluable record to monitor future wear and tear.

Not all damage made by visitors is unwelcome, though. A thousand years ago, Orkney was under Norwegian rule and Maeshowe was plundered. The robbers left behind the largest collection of runes known outside Scandinavia, carved into the stone. These, too, have been laser-scanned in sub-millimetre detail. That's pretty impressive for 1000-year-old graffiti