Archaeologists Excavate a Lost Kingdom Buried Beneath Volcanic Ash Like Pompeii, evidence shows a human settlement frozen in time by volcanic pyroclastic flows. In 1980, people began to take notice when workers from a commercial logging company began dredging up pottery fragments and bones in an area near the little village of Pancasila on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Other locals began finding coins, brassware and charred timber in the same region, all buried beneath a thick layer of volcanic deposits. The finds were not far from the foot of the Tambora volcano, a volcano that, in April of 1815, produced the largest eruption in recorded history. In fact, so intense was the eruption, it's atmospheric effects influenced weather patterns across faraway Europe and North America. Acting on the discovery of these finds in 2004, Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurdsson of the University of Rhode Island began investigating the jungle-shrouded area by using Ground Penetrating Radar. One victim who was discovered during the 2009 excavations.
OH MY VOLCANO!!! INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE. NEWS, COMMENTARY & INSIGHT Minoan Culture and its Women RWAAG Home, Minoan Culture--> Minoan Culture Advertisement: Minoan Snake Goddess Sculpture and Jewelry - Herakleion Museum, Crete, 1600BC. Shop in a catalog of almost everything Buy Greek items on Amazon.com Advertiser Specials, Discounts, Sales, and Savings If you click above and follow the links to a purchase then this site receives a commission for its support. The Minoan culture was an ancient culture that survived on the island of Crete of what is now Greece for almost 2000 years until about 1450 BCE For about 3000 years until the early part of the Twentieth Century this culture was entirely unknown. An image on a pot of a labrus image by which Evans was able to connect to the Minoan Culture to ancient writing found by him on Crete. There are a number of powerful reasons for studying the Minoan culture and its women including its obvious influence. The Romans and later European cultures knew nothing of a culture on Crete that predated the ancient Greeks. Minoan Clothing
Atheists More Motivated by Compassion than the Faithful Atheists and agnostics are more driven by compassion to help others than are highly religious people, a new study finds. That doesn't mean highly religious people don't give, according to the research to be published in the July 2012 issue of the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. But compassion seems to drive religious people's charitable feelings less than it other groups. "Overall, we find that for less religious people, the strength of their emotional connection to another person is critical to whether they will help that person or not," study co-author and University of California, Berkeley social psychologist Robb Willer said in a statement. "The more religious, on the other hand, may ground their generosity less in emotion, and more in other factors such as doctrine, a communal identity, or reputational concerns." In the first study, Saslow and her colleagues analyzed data from a national survey of more than 1,300 American adults taken in 2004.
Erectile dysfunction in the Middle Ages – historian examines medieval impotence cases Like today, the problem of male impotence in the Middle Ages was often serious, and had important consequences for marriages and families. A recent article deals with the issue, explaining how it showed up in court cases in 14th century York. ‘Privates on Parade: Impotence Cases as Evidence for Medieval Gender’, by Frederick Pederson, a senior lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, analyses two cases where wives attempted to annul their marriages because they claimed their husbands were impotent. They are among six cases from the city’s records that deal with impotence that survive from the Middle Ages. These cases were adjudicated in ecclesiastical courts, also known as consistory courts, where decisions were based on canon law. Pederson notes that in the English cases the court would call upon a number of ‘honest women’ to perform a physical examination of the alleged erectile dysfunction. Within a few days of this testimony the court annulled the marriage.
LOL Theists What Vikings really looked like The fine decoration of the Oseberg ship in Norway, which was buried in the year 834, provides clues to what Vikings looked like. Inside the ship were two women and the archaeologists believe the ship has served as a sarcophagus. (Photo: Annie Dalbéra) There’s no shortage of myths about the appearance of our notorious Viking ancestors. To find out more about these myths, ScienceNordic’s Danish partner site, videnskab.dk, asked its Facebook readers to list their favourite myths about what the Vikings looked like. We have picked out five myths from the resulting debate and asked researchers to help us confirm or bust these myths. Armed with this information, our graphic designer then took a shot at drawing some examples of our infamous forefathers, which you can see in our picture gallery. The five myths are: MYTH 1: Vikings were dirty and unkempt Unwashed, rough warriors with froth hanging out of the corners of the mouth. But that’s unlikely to be true: It wasn’t enough just to be clean.
ARCHAEOLOGY - Roman sarcophagus found after 20 years ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News This file photo shows two guards waiting in front of Roman sarcophagus in Rome. According to Britain-based The Art Newspaper, an ancient Roman alabaster sarcophagus that had been stolen more than 20 years ago from a church south of Rome was returned to Italy July 18. A special team from the cultural heritage protection division of Italy’s police force, the Guardia di Finanza, gruppo Tutela Patrimonio Archeologico, lead by Massimo Rossi, conducted the repatriation operation, reported The Art Newspaper. The sarcophagus, which dates from between the second and third centuries BC, was presented at a press conference in Rome and then returned to its hometown of Aquino, around 100 kilometers south of the capital, where it is on display in the deconsecrated Church of Santa Marta. The work, which features in relief scenes of chariot races at Rome’s Circus Maximus, was stolen in 1991 from the Madonna della Libera Church in Aquino.
Turkey to create world's largest museum of civilizations Turkey exhibits an unprecedented activity in the area of the restitution of cultural property removed from the country. The country has an excuse - the creation of the world's largest museum of civilizations. The Turks not only want to return the heritage of their ancestors, Seljuks, but also ancient artifacts of Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Hittites - the cultures and peoples who once lived here. The Museum of Civilizations will be built in Ankara on the area of 25,000 square meters. Since the territory of modern Turkey was populated by a number of different cultures and different ethnic groups at different periods, the creation of the Museum of Civilizations will require a variety of artifacts, and if there is none in the country, they should be returned from abroad. Last spring, as a friendly gesture, Germany gave the Turkish Republic the statue of the Sphinx from Hattuša, the former capital of the Hittite Empire. In 1882 it was found in a field near the town of Samsat. Igor Bukker
Colossal statue of Neo-Hittite warrior king found The Tayinat Archaeological Project in southeastern Turkey continues to prove itself a bonanza of Bronze and Iron Age archaeological wonders. To last year’s roaring lion sculpture that once guarded the gates of the citadel of Kunulua (aka Kinalua), capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina (ca. 1000-738 B.C.), we can now add the top half of a colossal statue of Patina’s warrior king Suppiluliuma. The statue is the head and torso of the king, depicted with a neatly curled beard and head of hair. His wide eyes are made of inlaid white and black stone. The statue is almost five feet tall and intact from the waist to the top of his head, but the bottom half is missing. It’s a long inscription on the back that identifies him as the king. Experts believe this Suppiluliuma fought against the powerful Neo-Assyrian king Shalmaneser III as part of a coalition of Syro-Hittite states in 858 B.C.