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by Sol
Part I - Paros
In the southern part of the Aegean sea, off the south-eastern coast of mainland Greece and east of the Peloponnesus peninsula, lies the island archipelago of the Cyclades (pronounced "kick-lah-des"). It is composed of over 200 islands ranging in area from a few hundred meters to over 400 square kilometers (240 square miles), and nestled together in a relatively small region. The impression one gets when flying over the entire complex at high altitude is of looking at a puddle that some playful child threw sand and rocks in.
The Cyclades are located in a highly active geological region, at the very meeting point of the African and Eurasian tectonic plates in the north-eastern Mediterranean. The continual subduction activity there formed a sea-floor in the Aegean, which differs greatly from the rest of the Mediterranean, its "parent" sea - the latter is mostly smooth, while the former is dominated by underwater mountains and deep trenches.
All of the islands are the visible tops of submerged mountains, except for two which were created by ancient volcanic eruptions - Milos, and the famous Santorini (Thera). And there is another island which is a notable exception in the area, a place whose Ancient Mystery is begging to be unraveled today.
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Article Source - Yahoo News
Archeologists excavating a pyramid complex in the Guatemalan jungle have uncovered the earliest example of Mayan writing ever found, 10 bold hieroglyphs painted on plaster and stone.
The 2,300-year-old glyphs were excavated last April in San Bartolo and suggest the ancient Mayas developed an advanced writing system centuries earlier than previously believed, according to an article published on Thursday in the journal Science.
The glyphs date from between 200 BC and 300 BC and come from the same site in the Peten jungle of northern Guatemala where archeologist William Saturno found the oldest murals in the Mayan world in 2001. Radiocarbon tests prove the writing is 100 years older than the murals depicting the Mayan creation myth.
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iamsam writes: Phnom Penh - Tomb raiders are decimating Cambodia's archaeological sites, looting ancient and remote cemeteries to sell antiques to tourists, an independent watchdog warned on Friday as it prepares a campaign to educate potential buyers.
The problem is in part an unintended side effect of Cambodia's success in protecting its world-famous Angkor Wat temple complex, said Terressa Davis of Heritage Watch, an independent group which works to protect Cambodia's archaeological heritage.
"Angkor is very well protected now, but there is still a large demand on the international art market for Cambodian arts," Davis said. "So thieves are going to temples outside of Angkor and stealing statues there," Terressa said.
Article Source - News 24.com
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Article Source Egypt Today
Recent controversy over moving King Tut puts Egyptologists in the spotlight.
DR. ZAHI HAWASS, Egypt’s most publicized Egyptologist and the secretary general of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), is renowned for the number of controversies he can stir. Brushing the controversies aside as nuisances “begun by backward people who are jealous,” as he told Egypt Today, Dr. Hawass keeps on working regardless of any setbacks.
Last month, in the midst of the controversy around the removal of King Tut-Ankh-Amon’s mummy from its resting place in Luxor, Hawass went to the Bahareya Oasis. Egyptians and Brits watched a live coverage transmitted by the television cameras of both countries as Hawass, holding his axe, opened a newly discovered tomb.
“We had made a number of discoveries here years ago, but in 2002, I had decided to stop all work. We had found 234 mummies, which is quite enough. The Valley [of the Golden Mummies] is huge, and encompasses around 10,000 mummies. It is Egypt’s biggest burial area, and was used by Egyptians from all classes. I believe mummies should remain underground. But then I decided to start work again,” Hawass says.
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Article Source
The mystery surrounding a cryptic string-based communication system used by ancient Incan administrators may at last be unravelling, thanks to computer analysis of hundreds of different knotted bundles.
The discovery provides a tantalising glimpse of bureaucracy in the Andean empire and may, for the first time, also reveal an Incan word written in string.
Woven from cotton, llama or alpaca wool, the mysterious string bundles - known as Khipu - consist of a single strand from which dangle up to thousands of subsidiary strings, each featuring a bewildering array of knots. Of the 600 or so Khipu that have been found, most date from between 1400 AD and 1500 AD. However, a few are thought to be about 1000 years old.
Spanish colonial documents suggest that Khipu were in some way used to keep records and communicate messages. Yet how the cords were used to convey useful information has puzzled generations of experts.
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Source
From 9 ft. giants to tiny mummies, these human remains are puzzling
In 2004, scientists were stunned by the discovery of skeletons of what are thought to be an ancient race of people that stood about 3½ feet tall about the height of a modern three year old. Found on the remote island of Indonesia, these pygmies were named Homo floresiensis and nicknamed hobbits because of their small size, their heads were no bigger than a grapefruit. The scientists believe this diminutive race died out about 13,000 years ago, although modern natives reported knowledge of a tiny race of people currently or recently living in isolated areas of the jungle.
These are not the first or only strange skeletons unearthed around the world including the U.S. Whether you believe humans are the descendents of Adam and Eve, the result of millions of years of evolution or the genetic creations of the Annunaki, there are many puzzling specimens of skeletons, and skulls that can make one wonder about mankind's past.
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Source
CAIRO, Egypt - Archaeologists digging in a 5,600-year-old funeral site in southern Egypt unearthed seven corpses believed to date to the era, as well as an intact figure of a cow's head carved from flint.
The American-Egyptian excavation team made the discoveries in what they described as the largest funerary complex ever found that dates to the elusive five millenia-old Predynastic era, Egypt's Supreme Council of antiquities said Wednesday.
"This is a major discovery, and will add greatly to our knowledge of the period when Egypt was first becoming a nation," said Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Chief archaeologist.
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Article Source
Decoded at last: the ’classical holy grail’ that may rewrite the history of the world. Scientists begin to unlock the secrets of papyrus scraps bearing long-lost words by the literary giants of Greece and Rome
For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.
Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
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Article Source
The first remains of ancient Egyptian seagoing ships ever to be recovered have been found in two caves on Egypt's Red Sea coast, according to a team at Boston University in the US.
The team also found fragments of pottery at the site, which could help resolve controversies about the extent of ancient Egyptian trade voyages. But details of the newly disclosed finds remain sketchy.
Kathryn Bard, who co-led the dig with Italian archaeologists in December 2004, has revealed to the Boston University weekly community newsletter that the team found a range of items - including timbers and riggings - inside the man-made caves, located at the coastal Pharaonic site of Wadi Gawasis.
According to the report, pottery in the caves could date at least some of the artefacts to a famous 15th century BC naval expedition by Queen Hatshepsut to the mysterious, incense-producing land of Punt. This voyage is depicted in detailed reliefs on Queen Hatshepsut's temple on the west bank of the Nile, near modern-day Luxor.
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Article Source
Achaeologists working in the extreme desert terrain of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region have moved a step closer to unravelling the mystery of a 40-century-old civilization.
They unearthed 163 tombs containing mummies during their on-going and long excavation at the mysterious Xiaohe Tomb complex.
And it's all thanks to the translation of a diary kept by a Swedish explorer more than 70 years ago.
"We have found more than 30 coffins containing mummies," said Idelisi Abuduresule, head of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute and the excavation team.
The complex is believed to contain 330 or so tombs buried in several layers within a 2,500-square-metre sand dune.
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