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New in situ finds from the areas around the ears and mouth in burials at Boncuklu Tarla, a Neolithic settlement in Türkiye, add a novel dimension to the interpretation of stone ‘tokens’ or ‘plugs’. This article presents a new typology for these artefacts and argues for their use as ear ornaments or labrets in a practice involving significant and lasting corporal alteration.

Bodily boundaries transgressed: corporal alteration through ornamentation in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic at Boncuklu Tarla, Türkiye

#Neolithic #body piercings #adornment #plugs #labrets #corporal alteration

A History of the Mad Stone, the One-Time 'Cure' for Rabies

The mad stone, in other words, is a variation on the bezoar: a real phenomenon that occurs in ruminants whereby a mass of swallowed matter is compacted into a small, hard orb that is passed through the animal’s digestive tract. The word “bezoar” comes from the Persian for “antidote,” and such objects were long believed to have medicinal properties. In fact, modern chemical analyses have shown that certain bezoars, when immersed in a solution that includes arsenic, can indeed extract the poison from the liquid.

Before vaccines, pseudoscientific folks remedies for the deadly virus involved mysterious animal-vegetable-mineral hybrids.

#The Mad Stone #Rabies Cure #bezoar #ruminants

Birds are actually a type of dinosaur.

They are closely related to smaller, agile meat-eating dinosaurs such as the Velociraptor. Ancient birds came in a variety of forms, from ones with teeth and claws to species barely distinguishable from farmyard chickens.

So, if you were to point your binoculars over the heads of Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex, what could you spot?

Here is a quick introduction to six of the most interesting ancient bird species.

If you love learning about dinosaurs don’t let crowdpleasers like the T Rex distract you from the fascinating birdlife that once roamed the

#Dinosaurs #Flying #Birds #Ancient Bird Species

Fulgurite is a hollow, glassy tube formed when lightning strikes the ground. The tube has a rough exterior and either a rough or smooth interior. Fulgurites may be branched like a tree or Lichtenberg figure. They come in a range of colors, including white, brown, green, and black. Most fulgurites are impure silica glass (SiO2) and are classified as the mineraloid lechatelierite. Other forms of lechatelierite include tektites and trinitite.

The word fulgurite comes from the Latin word fulgur, which means thunderbolt. Sometimes fulgurites are called “petrified lightning.”

Make a Rocket Fulgurite

Rather than waiting for lightning to strike, draw the lightning using a D model rocket. Attach the rocket to a spool of copper wire and the end of the wire to a bucket of sand. Launch the rocket at a thunderhead. Anecdotally, this “Ben Franklin” method is highly successful. But, it’s not recommended because launching a rocket during a thunderstorm isn’t safe!

Learn what fulgurite is. See where to find it and how to make fulgurites yourself using different methods.

#fulgurites #sand #lechatelierite #petrified lightning #lightning strikes #silica glass

Detailed linguistic analysis suggests that the script represents a graphic subsystem of Palaeohispanic that shares its roots with the modern Basque language and constitutes the first example of Vasconic epigraphy," write the researchers in their published paper.

The script's orientation, along with the position of a small hole in the object and the location of its discovery suggest it may have been hung by the entrance of a building.

Researchers have come across a wonderfully intriguing find in the north of Spain: a bronze hand dating back some 2,000 years, all the way ba

#Bronze Hand #Basque Language #Spain #mysterious writing

Over the past decade, increasing evidence suggests artistic expression emerged much earlier in human evolution than scientists once thought, and it's reshaping our understanding of the cognitive abilities of archaic humans, such as Neanderthals and earlier hominins.

For instance, there's archaeological evidence that Neanderthals made abstract designs on cave walls long before Homo sapiens arrived in Europe and may have made pendants from eagle talons up to 130,000 years ago.

"Cognitively, Neanderthals seem to have been just as capable at becoming artists as our own species, Homo sapiens,"

Scientists are finding ever-earlier examples of artistic expression in the archaeological record that reshape what we know about the abiliti

#Neanderthals #Art #design #carving #Artists

The benefits of hot mixing are twofold

First, when the overall concrete is heated to high temperatures, it allows chemistries that are not possible if you only used slaked lime, producing high-temperature-associated compounds that would not otherwise form.

Second, this increased temperature significantly reduces curing and setting times since all the reactions are accelerated, allowing for much faster construction.

The ancient Romans were masters of building and engineering, perhaps most famously represented by the aqueducts.

#Roman Concrete #slaked lime #hot lime #pozzolans #self healing

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.

By comparing the Ranis mitochondrial DNA sequences with mtDNA sequences obtained from human remains at other paleolithic sites in Europe, Zavala was able to construct a family tree of early Homo sapiens across Europe. All but one of the 13 Ranis fragments were quite similar to one another and, surprisingly, resembled mtDNA from the 43,000-year-old skull of a woman discovered in a cave at Zlatý kůň in the Czech Republic. The lone standout grouped with an individual from Italy.

"That raises some questions: Was this a single population? What could be the relationship here?"

A genetic analysis of bone fragments unearthed at an archaeological site in central Germany shows conclusively that modern humans—Homo sapie

#Neanderthals #Homo sapiens #DNA #research

In 1881, Ramesses II’s mummy was discovered in a secret royal cachette at Deir el-Bahari, along with those of more than 50 other kings and nobles, including his father Seti I.

In 1974, archeologists noticed its deteriorating condition and flew it to Paris, where it was treated for a fungal infection. Before the journey, Ramesses was issued an Egyptian passport, which listed his occupation as “King (deceased).”

According to the X-rays, the king was suffering from dental problems and severe arthritis in his hip joint. Ramesses II’s mummy was sent to Paris for further studies and preservation. The king most probably died in his late eighties or early nineties.

Subsequent microscopic inspection of the roots of Ramesses II’s hair proved that the king’s hair originally was red, which suggests that he came from a family of redheads.

The mummy of Ramesses II was found in Tomb (DB320), covered with linen bandages that bear the king's name and epithets in Hieratic script.

#Mummy #Ramesses II #red hair #arthritis #old age #Egyptian passport

In 2021, the site of Sayburç was added to this corpus. Here, a relief was discovered in a communal building that displays a scene depicting humans and animals. This scene has the narrative integrity of both a theme and a story, in contrast to other contemporaneous images, and represents the most detailed depiction of a Neolithic ‘story’ found to date in the Near East, bringing us closer to the Neolithic people and their world.

The Sayburç reliefs correspond to the style and themes of the Neolithic. Phalluses are the only elements identifying the sex of the figures, and emphasis is placed on predatory and aggressive aspects of the animal world, as represented by the depiction of dangerous features, such as teeth and horns, which has been observed at other sites

The Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the Neolithic - Volume 96 Issue 390

#Sayburç reliefs #Neolithic #story in stone

Last Stand of the Hunter-Gatherers?

Schmidt posited that both the construction and abandonment of what he called “special enclosures” had been accompanied by great feasts of local game washed down with beer brewed from wild grasses and grains.

Those who gathered for these periodic monumental building projects scattered before coming back decades or centuries later to do it all again.

He called Göbekli Tepe “a cathedral on a hill,” and imagined it might have been a place where hunter-gatherers bid farewell to their dead or staged ceremonies to emphasize their shared identity.

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/422-2105/features/9591-turkey-gobekli-tepe-hunter-gatherers

#Göbekli Tepe #Turkey #construction #abandonment #feasting

Arts and crafts

Some of the Neanderthal artifacts discovered were very practical in nature. Bits of twisted wood fiber attached to a modified stone flake found in France in 2017 suggest that at least some Neanderthals knew how to make rope, for example, which may have opened the door to fashioning other objects like clothes, bags, nets and mats. There also is evidence that Neanderthals were heating birch bark to make adhesives — no mean feat. “A few researchers have recently tried to do the same in similar circumstances,” says Nowell, “and it’s a lot harder than most people thought.”

Beyond daily chores, Neanderthals evidently liked to adorn themselves.

We now know they were using colorful pigments like red ochre as far back as 200,000 to 250,000 years ago, maybe not just on objects, but also on their own bodies — and they may have sometimes imported the substance from tens of kilometers away. Excavations have also revealed perforated and sometimes painted shells that were likely strung together and worn. A creative Neanderthal in Croatia made a necklace or other adornment out of white-tailed eagle talons, and elsewhere, tool marks found on bird bones suggest that feathers were also popular.

They have held our fascination ever since we first identified their remains. Today, thanks to new artifacts and technologies, findings about

#Neanderthals #arts and crafts #glue #rope making #jewellery

A team of researchers from China, Australia, France, Spain, and Germany has revealed advanced material culture in East Asia dating to 45,000 years ago.

Shiyu provides us with an opportunity to look into the life of the skillful hunters from northern China 45,000 years ago. The people inhabiting the region had a remarkably advanced tool kit, with a range of innovative tools from the Upper Paleolithic, including end-scrapers, awls, and tools of former times, including Middle Paleolithic Levallois points, various tanged tools, denticulates, and borers.

A team of researchers from China, Australia, France, Spain, and Germany has revealed advanced material culture in East Asia dating to 45,000

#East Asia #advanced culture #Upper Palaeolithic #China #Shiyu

A "lost" 4,000-year-old tomb has been rediscovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry.

The megalithic tomb known locally as Altóir na Gréine (the sun altar) was believed to have been completely destroyed in the 1840s, with its stones broken and carried away for use as building material.

While the existence of a tomb "near" Baile an Fheirtéaraigh is documented in 19th century antiquarian literature, a record of the monument's location did not exist.

An 1838 sketch of the tomb, its reputed association with the sun and its strange disappearance has been a source of intrigue for archaeologists for decades.

The folklorist has not only found the prehistoric site, but he has also discovered some of the large stones, which had been believed to have been removed, still in situ.

A number of orthostats (large upright stones) have survived, as well as a large capstone, while more may lie under the dense undergrowth.

A "lost" 4,000-year-old tomb has been rediscovered on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry.

#lost tomb #Co Kerry #rediscovered #Ireland

BEFORE STONEHENGE

The earliest structures known in the immediate area are four or five pits, three of which appear to have held large pine ‘totem-pole like’ posts erected in the Mesolithic period, between 8500 and 7000 BC.

It is not known how these posts relate to the later monument of Stonehenge.

At this time, when much of the rest of southern England was largely covered by woodland, the chalk downland in the area of Stonehenge may have been an unusually open landscape.

It is possible that this is why it became the site of an early Neolithic monument complex.

Learn how the world famous prehistoric monument developed from an early henge into its final form, as well as its later history.

#Stonehenge #England #construction #development #Youtube

One of Ireland's best-preserved chambered cairns can be found next to a wishing tree.

A COURT TOMB (ALSO KNOWN as a court cairn) is a collection of megalithic stones that form a circle or cluster of burial sites. There are nearly 400 of these tombs dotting Ireland: Another 100 can be found in the southwest of Scotland.

One court cairn, the Creevykeel Court Tomb is located just off the N15 between Donegal and Sligo. The tomb is said to date back to the Neolithic period between 4000 and 2500 B.C. Considering its age and location, it is one of the most well-maintained and easiest court tombs to get to in the country.

One of Ireland's best-preserved chambered cairns can be found next to a wishing tree.

#Creevykeel Court Tomb #Ireland #court tombs #megalithic sites

When the stone is broken apart, a little water vapor is released. This vapor attaches to the freshly split surface, and the water molecules break apart, forming hydroxyl (OH) groups.

Under the microscope, you don't see the feldspar surface itself but a surface covered with hydroxyl groups, in nature, the feldspar surface is also covered with such a hydroxyl layer .

Feldspar is a ubiquitous mineral and makes up about half of the Earth's crust. In the Earth's atmosphere, feldspars play a surprisingly impo

#feldspar #cloud formation #hydroxyl groups

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