Secret HistoryS


Blue Planet

Roman Empire had little impact on ancient Balkan DNA despite supremacy in region, surprise discovery reveals

Petra Stock
Cosmos Magazine
Wed, 27 Dec 2023 18:28 UTC
aqueduct
© Jim CrowFILE PHOTO: The two-story Kurunlugerme Bridge, part of the aqueduct system of Constantinople: Two water channels passed over this bridge - one above the other.
Ancient DNA from the rise and fall of the Roman Empire reveals Italian ancestry had little detectable influence on Balkan Peninsula populations, despite the Empire's cultural supremacy in the region.

Compelling research drawing on the triumvirate of genetics, archaeology and history uncovers new insights into the social and demographic history of the Roman Empire. One individual analysed was likely an adolescent who had travelled far and wide before dying on the frontier.

The Balkan Peninsula was a "historic crossroads" and crucial frontier in the Roman Empire linking 2000 kilometres of military and communication infrastructure stretching east-west from Mesopotama and Arabia to Britain, and north-south from the Rhine and Danube to the Sahara Desert.

Comment: Considering how, across vast distances, population groups have remained relatively stable and homogenous, despite empires and upheaval, is it any wonder that current populations in the West object to modern day weaponised mass migration?

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Dig

2,000-year-old 'celestial calendar' discovered in ancient Chinese tomb

Tom Metcalfe
Live Science
Tue, 26 Dec 2023 23:55 UTC
china calendar
© Chongqing Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research InstituteEach of the wooden slips is marked with Chinese characters that relate to the traditional Tiangan Dizhi astronomical calendar. Perforations on their edges suggest they were once tied together.
Archaeologists in China have unearthed a mysterious set of rectangular wooden pieces linked to an ancient astronomical calendar. The artifacts were discovered inside an exceptionally well-preserved 2,000-year-old tomb in the southwest of the country.

Each of the 23 wooden slips is about an inch (2.5 centimeters) wide and 4 inches (10 cm) long and displays a Chinese character related to the Tiangan Dizhi, or "Ten Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches" — a traditional Chinese astronomical calendar established during the Shang dynasty, which ruled from about 1600 B.C. to about 1045 B.C.

Comment: Asia is proving to be a treasure trove of finds recently:

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Cult

Ex-Colonel calls CEOs of Defense Contractors Predatory Capitalists and Arch-Criminals of Empire at War Crimes Tribunal

Jeremy Kuzmarov
Covertactionmagazine.com
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 02:08 UTC
Colonel Larry Wilkerson
© wikipedia.orgwikipedia.org
Born in Gaffney, South Carolina, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson achieved the rank of full Colonel during a distinguished 31-year career in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1997 in which he served as an assistant to Colin Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Wilkerson later served as Powell's chief of staff when he was U.S. Secretary of State, though he admitted he made a mistake in prepping Powell for a UN address on the eve of the 2003 Iraq War in which Powell falsely claimed that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

Powell and Wilkerson
Colonel Larry Wilkerson and Colin Powell [Source: japan-forward.com]
Today, Wilkerson publicly denounces U.S. war-making in terms that recall Major General Smedley Butler who wrote upon his retirement from the military in 1935 that he had been a muscleman for Big Business, Wall Street and the Bankers and could have "given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."[1]
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No Entry

Gaddafi took the country with him: Why do Libyans feel occupied after being 'liberated'?

Mustafa Fetouri
RT
Sun, 24 Dec 2023 08:00 UTC
Gaddafi
© Joseph Eid/AFPLibyan leader Muammar Gaddafi • April 10, 2011
The nation still remembers the old days of real sovereignty it had before 2011...
Twelve years ago, the so-called Arab Spring visited Libya, ending Muammar Gaddafi's rule and plunging the country into chaos, leaving it divided along tribal and regional lines. Gaddafi himself was murdered at the hands of Western-supported militias.
NATO's disguised military invasion of Libya

What started in February 2011 as a small and limited civilian demonstration against the Gaddafi government in Eastern Libya turned out to be Western-supported regime change endeavour involving military intervention by NATO disguised as "protection of civilians."

The UN Security Council was forced by the US, UK and France to adopt Resolution 1973, which opened the door for the use of force against Libya simply because Western powers wanted to depose Gaddafi in a blatant violation of the resolution itself. The rest is history.

Confused Libyans were told that democracy, prosperity, and freedom were just around the corner. However, once they turned that corner they discovered that Gaddafi may have disappeared but, in a way, he took Libya with him.

Years later, the country is at a stand-still with little progress towards freedom and stability. Many of its sovereign decisions are made by others, while armed militias dominate the country, acting as proxies for foreign powers.

Comment: See also:

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Archaeology

2,300-year-old Chinese tomb found to contain rare ancient multiplication tables

Ben Taub
IFL Science
Fri, 22 Dec 2023 19:53 UTC
ancinet chinese tomb multiplication tables bamboo strips
© National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA)The ancient multiplication formulas were found written on bamboo strips.
A real addition to our understanding of a divided period in Chinese history, with many key take-aways.

Some incredibly old written multiplication formulas have been unearthed at a mausoleum in central China. While excavating the Qinjiazui site in Hubei Province, archaeologists came across strips of bamboo inscribed with mathematical tables, which are likely to have been recorded more than 2,300 years ago.

Announcing the discovery at a press conference, China's National Cultural Heritage Administration said the ancient scraps of bamboo were found in a tomb dating back to the Warring States period, which was characterized by bitter conflict between seven quarreling states. According to Yang Kaiyong from the Jingzhou Museum, the burial - known simply as M1093 - probably dates back to the reign of either King Chu Xuan or King Chu Wei, from 369 to 329 BCE.
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Info

2,500-year-old celestial map carved on the surface of a circular stone found in Italy

Leman Altuntaş
Arkeonews Net
Mon, 25 Dec 2023 06:16 UTC
Federico and Paolo
© INAFFrom the left, the archaeologist Federico Bernardini and the astronomer Paolo Molaro at the Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo, with what could be the oldest celestial map ever discovered.
Two circular stones measuring 50 centimeters in diameter have been discovered in Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo, an ancient hilltop fortress in the Italian province of Trieste, and one of them may be one of the oldest celestial map found in Italy.

The discovery was announced in a press release by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).

Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo is a defensive structure. Used as a fortification from an era between 1800 and 1650 BC. until 400 BC, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the most important castles, as well as the first brought to light.

Among the many castles in the Karst area, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the best preserved. It stands immediately outside the town, on a limestone hill, the top of which is enclosed by a wall 3-4 meters thick, but which in some places reaches up to 7 meters. The height has been preserved for a maximum of 3 meters, but originally it must have reached 7-8 meters.

Two large circular stones - two thick discs about 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep - were found near the entrance to the Castelliere and attracted the attention of archaeologists.
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Oscar

How American history gets sacrificed at the altar of fake 'healing'

Robert Bridge
RT
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 20:04 UTC
statue
© AP/Kevin WolfWorkers prepare a Confederate Memorial for removal in Arlington National Cemetery
December 18, 2023 • Arlington, Virginia
US liberals continue to neglect the age-old truism that "those who forget their history are condemned to repeat it"...

There are no safe spaces left anywhere in America, especially if you're an old bronze statue dedicated to dead white men with epic stories to tell. Unlike other ill-fated statues, however, the latest one to be savagely plucked from the American landscape kept silent vigil for 109 years over the most revered graveyard in the country: Arlington National Cemetery, Washington, DC.

Unveiled by US President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914, the 32-foot (9.8 meters) Reconciliation Memorial (known as the 'Confederate Memorial' to its detractors) towered over several hundred Civil War-era Confederacy tombs, that is, until this long-vanquished army suffered a second humiliating defeat, this time at the hands of America's Woke Army. Aside from the historical context that should have spared the memorial from the scrapyard, the statue itself, created by Moses Jacob Ezekiel, the first American-born Jewish artist to achieve international acclaim, was an exquisite piece of Neoclassical artwork.
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Chalkboard

Pythagorean theorem found on clay tablet 1,000 years older than Pythagoras

James Felton
IFL Science
Wed, 20 Dec 2023 16:49 UTC
It predates Pythagoras by over 1,000 years.
Clay Tablet
© Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); rotated, croppedThe proof is carved into clay.
Study math for long enough and you will likely have cursed Pythagoras's name, or said "praise be to Pythagoras" if you're a bit of a fan of triangles.

But while Pythagoras was an important historical figure in the development of mathematics, he did not figure out the equation most associated with him (a2 + b2 = c2). In fact, there is an ancient Babylonian tablet (by the catchy name of IM 67118) that uses the Pythagorean theorem to solve the length of a diagonal inside a rectangle. The tablet, likely used for teaching, dates from 1770 BCE - centuries before Pythagoras was born in around 570 BCE.

Another tablet from around 1800-1600 BCE has a square with labeled triangles inside. Translating the markings from base 60 - the counting system used by ancient Babylonians - showed that these ancient mathematicians were aware of the Pythagorean theorem (not called that, of course) as well as other advanced mathematical concepts.

"The conclusion is inescapable. The Babylonians knew the relation between the length of the diagonal of a square and its side: d=square root of 2," mathematician Bruce Ratner writes in a paper on the topic. "This was probably the first number known to be irrational. However, this in turn means that they were familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem - or, at the very least, with its special case for the diagonal of a square (d2 = a2 + a2 = 2a2) - more than a thousand years before the great sage for whom it was named."
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Archaeology

Interamna Lirenas: A Roman backwater town challenges assumptions about Empire's decline

Dario Radley
Archaeology Magazine
Thu, 14 Dec 2023 16:23 UTC
Interamna Lirenas excavation roman town
© Alessandro LaunaroView of the Interamna Lirenas excavation from above. The remains of the theater can be seen in the center, with the remains of the basilica behind it.
The discovery changes the whole timeline of the collapse.

In a thirteen-year study led by Dr. Alessandro Launaro from the University of Cambridge's Classics Faculty, a team of archaeologists has challenged prevailing assumptions about the decline of the Roman Empire in Italy.

The focus of their research, Interamna Lirenas, a town in Southern Lazio traditionally regarded as a failed backwater, has emerged as a resilient hub that defied expectations, thriving well into the 3rd century CE.

During the Crisis of the Third Century (CE 235-284), a period marked by the Roman Empire's near-collapse due to internal strife, barbarian invasions, and economic turmoil, Interamna Lirenas continued to flourish. Contrary to previous beliefs, the town's decline, as revealed by an extensive pottery analysis, began approximately 300 years later than initially assumed.
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Dig

Lost ancient colony discovered off coast of Australia that hundreds of thousands once called home

Katherine Donlevy
New York Post
Sat, 23 Dec 2023 04:36 UTC
australia coast
© wallixHundreds of thousands of people once lived on the northwest shelf of Sahul near Australia
Forget about the lost city of Atlantis.

Scientists stumbled upon a massive forgotten colony off the coast of Australia that was once home to hundreds of thousands of people.

Various artifacts and signs of human life were discovered on the northwest shelf of Sahul, located off the coast of the northern region of Kimberley on a landmass that connects to New Guinea, according to a study in Quaternary Science Reviews.

The drowned piece of land was likely a thriving ecosystem during the Late Pleistocene period, which dates back as far as 2.5 million years.

The now-submerged landmass was nearly 250,000 square miles — more than 1.6 times the size of the United Kingdom.

The shelf — once thought to be a desert — was filled with habitable fresh and saltwater lakes, rivers and streams, as well as a large inland sea, that could have supported between 50,000 and 500,000 people.
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