Geologic Time: Graphical Representation of Geologic Time. Mummies Show Symptoms, Offer Disease Clues. A.R.
Williams Whether laid to rest in a simple grave or a grand tomb, the human body rarely survives the sweep of time. But in a few places where people deliberately mummified their dead, or the environmental conditions were right—very dry or wet—flesh and bone are preserved. Today these remains, probed by modern CT scans, MRIs, and DNA tests, are offering intriguing insights into how people lived and died long ago. A 2011 study of 52 mummies in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo showed that almost half had clogged arteries, the kind of condition that can lead to a heart attack or stroke. What was to blame? As it turns out, those ancient Egyptians weren't alone.
Again, the experts are stumped. Herewith, a selectively macabre list: 1. Tissue samples from two adult mummies from about 3,500 years ago yielded the earliest known DNA from a parasite that causes malaria. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
The Easter Island “Heads” Have Bodies. Lindau Gospels - Gilt silver, enamel, and jeweled bookcover - The Morgan Library & Museum - Collections. 110 new soldiers join China’s 2,200-year-old terra-cotta army. June 9, 2012: Archaeologists work on terracotta warriors from the third excavation of pit one at the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi province.
After centuries of standing guard, their shift is finally over. Fresh excavations near the tomb of China’s first emperor have revealed 110 new terra-cotta warriors that have been covered up for 2,200 years, archaeologists said -- adding to the army of over 8,000 solders. The relics were well-preserved and colorfully painted. Evidence suggests the figures were burned when the emperor was overthrown.
The discovery is the latest in China's cultural sector, after experts found that the Great Wall of China was much longer than thought. The army was first discovered by farmers in the spring of 1974, as a peasant dug a well in a field near the tomb of the Qin Emperor, reported AFP. HOT GEAR: Best new gadgets The existence of colors preserved after two millennia was a surprise to the archaeologists. 4,000 years ago, climate change caused massive civilization collapse.
A simple map of the Indus Civilization (or Harappa civilization) with important archeological sites noted.Wikipedia The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say.
Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east. 'The Indus civilization ... was completely forgotten until the 1920s.