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Meteorites: Bronze Age 'treasure' was crafted with extraterrestrial metal

Bronze age treasure
© Lanmas / Alamy Stock Photo)Replicas of artifacts that belong to the Villena hoard in Spain
A dazzling Bronze Age hoard discovered in Spain more than 60 years ago contains some out-of-this-world metal, as a new analysis reveals that parts of the treasures were made from meteoric iron.

The hoard, known as the Treasure of Villena and discovered by archaeologists in 1963, encompasses a total of 59 bottles, bowls and pieces of jewelry exquisitely crafted from gold, silver, amber and iron.

Upon the hoard's discovery, in a gravel pit in the province of Alicante, however, researchers noticed a few curious details about some of the iron pieces. At the time, they described the items as being crafted of "a dark leaden metal. It is shiny in some areas, and covered with a ferrous-looking oxide that is mostly cracked," according to El País, a newspaper in Spain.

Now, new research has revealed that the iron used in two of the artifacts originated from a meteorite that fell to Earth around 1 million years ago, according to a translated study published Dec. 30 in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria.

For the new study, researchers tested two of the iron pieces: a C-shaped bracelet and a hollow sphere topped with a gold sheet that may have once decorated a sword's pommel. Both items were crafted between 1400 and 1200 B.C.

Comment: It is not the first time that this connection has been made in recent times.

Bronze Age arrowhead found in Switzerland made from meteorite that landed 1,000 km away

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Archaeology

First passages of charred, rolled-up Herculaneum scroll revealed

herculam scrolls read AI
© Vesuvius ChallangeText from the Herculaneum scroll, which has been unseen for 2,000 years
Researchers used artificial intelligence to decipher the text of 2,000-year-old charred papyrus scripts, unveiling musings on music and capers.

A team of student researchers has made a giant contribution to solving one of the biggest mysteries in archaeology by revealing the content of Greek writing inside a charred scroll buried 2,000 years ago by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. The winners of a contest called the Vesuvius Challenge trained their machine-learning algorithms on scans of the rolled-up papyrus, unveiling a previously unknown philosophical work that discusses senses and pleasure. The feat paves the way for artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to decipher the rest of the scrolls in their entirety, which researchers say could have revolutionary implications for our understanding of the ancient world.

The achievement has ignited the usually slow-moving world of ancient studies. It's "what I always thought was a pipe dream coming true", says Kenneth Lapatin, curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California, who was not involved in the contest. The revealed text discusses sources of pleasure including music, the taste of capers and the colour purple. "It's an historic moment," says classicist Bob Fowler at the University of Bristol, UK, one of the prize judges. The three students, from Egypt, Switzerland and the United States, who revealed the text share a US$700,000 grand prize.

Info

Excavations in Brazil uncovered thousands of artifacts left by ancient peoples up to 9,000 years ago

Ancient Skull
© IPHAN
Archaeologists unearthed 43 human skeletons and more than 100,000 artifacts at an excavation site in the coastal city of São Luís in northeastern Brazil.

Scientists have long debated precisely when and how humans arrived in and populated the Americas from Asia.

The archaeological site is much older than the oldest documented "pre-sambaqui" settlement found so far in the region, dating back 6,600 years. The findings suggest that people settled in this part of modern-day Brazil at least 1,400 years earlier than previously thought.

However, the artifacts have only been dated based on their depth, and confirmatory isotopic analysis has yet to be performed.

The lead archaeologist on the dig, Wellington Lage said the find might "rewrite the history of human settlement in Brazil".

The archaeological site was found when a team of construction workers came across human bones and pottery shards while planning to build a new apartment complex in the coastal city.

Covered in tropical vegetation and bordered by the urban sprawl of Sao Luis, the capital of Maranhao state, the six-hectare (15-acre) plot was known as Rosane's Farm, for the daughter of a late local landholder.

Blue Planet

90,000-year-old footprints of multiple humans found on Moroccan beach

human footprint
© Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-52344-5Images of some of the hominin tracks in Larache. (a) Two tracks side by side at the bottom of the photo, which also depicts a ground control point (checkered cardboard) for differential GPS surveying. (b) Two cross trackways and photography for 3D footprint modeling. (c) to (g) Detailed view of some footprints. White Scale bars = 20 cm.
An international team of archaeologists has found and identified a trackway made by multiple humans approximately 90,000 years ago in what is now Morocco. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the group describes how they tested for its origins of the tracks.

Finding footprints left behind by people thousands of years ago is extremely rare due to their generally ephemeral nature. Still, occasionally, events will transpire to preserve footprints, such as encasement in sediment that hardens. Such prints can then over time be revealed as the material that once hid them erodes away. In this instance, the footprints were found in a sandy tract on a rocky part of the Moroccan shoreline.

Comment: Findings bringing into question the Out of Africa theory abound of late: Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, genetic analysis finds


Star of David

The Biblical lens and the Nietzschean light

zionist soldier israel tank prayer
© Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty ImagesAn Israeli soldier prays standing in front of a Merkava tank on the outskirts of the northern town of Kiryat Shmona near the border with Lebanon on Oct. 8, 2023
On Christian guilt and responsibility

Christians worship two gods, Christ and Yahweh, but claim they are one. Certainly, the God of the Old Testament plays a secondary role in Christian consciousness. He remains behind the scenes. But he nevertheless pulls a number of strings. It was he who inspired the Christians to promise Palestine to the Jews in 1917 (by the British Balfour Declaration, preceded five months earlier by the French Cambon Declaration), and to give it to them in 1948.

There is a theory attributing geopolitical motives to the British: they needed Israel as a bridgehead in the Middle East, to control the Suez Canal. That's Chomsky's theory, and a blatant falsehood. From 1916, British foreign policy in the Middle East favored good relations with the Arab regimes they had set up in Arabia, Jordan and Iraq. The creation of a "Jewish home" in Palestine, leading predictably to the Jews' full takeover, was deeply upsetting to the Arabs, and conflicted with British Arab policy. That is why in May 1939, the British Government tried to get out of its commitment to the Zionists with a White Paper providing for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within ten years. It stated:
His Majesty's Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country. ... His Majesty's Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of the their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subject of a Jewish State against their will.[1]

Better Earth

Neanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, genetic analysis finds

human neanderthal
© Marcel Weiss, License: CC-BY-ND 4.0Excavating the LRJ layers 8 meters deep at Ranis was a logistical challenge and required elaborate scaffolding to support the trench.
A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans — Homo sapiens — had already reached Northern Europe 45,000 years ago, overlapping with Neanderthals for several thousand years before the latter went extinct.

The findings establish that the site near Ranis, Germany, which is known for its finely flaked, leaf-shaped stone tool blades, is among the oldest confirmed sites of modern human Stone Age culture in north central and northwestern Europe.

The evidence that Homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis lived side by side is consistent with genomic evidence that the two species occasionally interbred. It also feeds the suspicion that the invasion of Europe and Asia by modern humans some 50,000 years ago helped drive Neanderthals, which had occupied the area for more than 500,000 years, to extinction.


Comment: There's no strong evidence that humans drove them to extinction, with researchers continuing to propose a number of theories, such as climatic changes.

Further, note that the 50,000 year 'invasion' date is brought into question by research from Asia which shows they were already in China 45,000 years ago (and likely much, much earlier than that).


Comment: These findings bring into question: just why did Neanderthals become extinct whereas their human neighbours, ultimately, went on to thrive?

Some researchers have suggested that at least one significant difference between the two was the Neanderthals' lack of ingenuity when compared to humans, which was further highlighted in a recent study: Prehistoric jewelry reveals 9 distinct cultures across Stone Age Europe

Notably this idea contradicts popular scientific thought which, particularly in recent years, has sought to push the idea that there was little difference between the two; seemingly as part of the 'everyone is equal' ideology.

Further insight on this topic can be found in the following article: The Golden Age, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction


Blue Planet

Prehistoric jewelry reveals 9 distinct cultures across Stone Age Europe

stone age
© J. Baker, et alA selection of beads dating to the Gravettian period in Europe.
Prehistoric humans adorned themselves with different types of beads depending on their culture and location in Europe.
Tens of thousands of years ago, prehistoric humans in Europe adorned themselves with such a wide variety of beads that researchers have classified nine distinct cultural groups across the continent based on their location and distinctive styles.

The researchers focused on the Gravettian period, which stretched between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago and was defined by hunter-gatherers who were also adept artisans, according to a study published Monday (Jan. 29) in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

The Gravettians' crafting skills can be seen in the variety of materials they used to make beads, such as ivory, bones, teeth (including those from bears, horses and rabbits), antlers, jet gemstones, shells and amber. These beads likely served as personal ornaments as well as cultural markers.

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Star of David

The veil is being torn: the hidden truths of Jabotinsky and Netanyahu

Borrell
© UnknownJosep Borrell denounces the links between Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas
The group that murdered 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza is not representative of Jews in general. It is the heir to an ideology that has been committing such crimes for a century. Thierry Meyssan traces the history of the "revisionist Zionists" from Vladimyr Ze'ev Jabotinsky to Benjamin Netanyahu.

Josep Borrell, the European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, receiving an honorary doctorate in Valadolid, declared:
"We believe that a two-state solution [Israeli and Palestinian] must be imposed from outside to bring about peace. Even if, and I insist, Israel reaffirms its refusal [of this solution] and, to prevent it, has gone so far as to create Hamas itself (...) Hamas has been financed by the Israeli government in an attempt to weaken the Fatah Palestinian Authority. But if we don't intervene firmly, the spiral of hatred and violence will continue from generation to generation, from funeral to funeral".
In so doing, Josep Borrell broke with the official Western line that Hamas is the enemy of Israel, which it attacked by surprise on October 7, justifying the current Israeli response and the massacre of 25,000 Palestinian civilians. He asserted that enemies of Jews can be supported by other Jews, Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. He rejected the communitarian reading of history and examined personal responsibilities.

This narrative shift was made possible by the UK's exit from the European Union four years ago. Josep Borrell knows that the European Union has financed Hamas since its 2006 coup, yet today he is free to say what's on his mind. He didn't mention Hamas's links with the Muslim Brotherhood, whose "Palestinian branch" the organization claims to be, or with MI6, the British secret service. He simply suggested withdrawing from the mess.

Better Earth

Tsunami that wiped out prehistoric communities in N England 8,000 years ago occurred alongside rapid drop in global temperatures

tsunami
© Shutterstock
A study by the University of York has revealed that a tsunami wiped out prehistoric communities living in Northumberland, England, causing wide-scale depopulation across the region.

According to the study, published in the Journal of Quarternary Science, a huge tsunami with 20 metre tall waves hit Britain's coastline and parts of Europe during the Mesolithic period around 8,000-years-ago.

The tsunami was likely caused by a large submarine landslide known as the Storegga slide, displacing 2400-3200 km3 of sediment off the coast of Western Norway. Traces of sediment deposits attributed to the event have been found in Northern England, Western Scotland, Shetland, Denmark, and as far as Eastern Greenland.

Comment: Notably we also recently learnt: Paleoclimate reconstructions show significant cold periods coincided with pandemics & plagues in ancient Rome

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Dig

Bizarrely adorned ancient burials found in Ukraine

ukraine skeleton
© (Courtesy of Vyacheslav Baranov/ National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine)
A recently unearthed cemetery in Ukraine, dating back 1,000 years, has yielded an array of fascinating finds, including weapons, jewelry, and, unusually, buckets positioned around the feet of some of the interred. The men were found buried with weapons such as axes, spearheads, and swords, and several of the women were buried with thick twisted bronze neck rings in an 11th-century cemetery near the village of Ostriv, south of Kyiv, Ukraine.

Excavations Reveal Millenium Old Burial Site

The site, located roughly 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Kyiv, encompasses 107 graves. According to archaeologists Vsevolod Ivakin and Vyacheslav Baranov from the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, most burials were contained in wooden coffins.

This discovery was detailed in a paper presented at the Archaeological Institute of America's annual meeting in Chicago, held from January 4-7.