Sunday Round Up: Archaeology and Anthropology News 3/06/2011

Discovery by Oregon archaeologist looks 12,000 years into past at people who settled the West Coast

A trove of Stone-Age tools, discarded shells and animal bones unearthed by a University of Oregon anthropologist and others open a new window on lives of the long-vanished people who settled the West Coast more than 12,000 years ago.

Gettysburg work tracks Civil War remains Contractors are taking extra precaution when they dig up streets in Gettysburg this summer, as part of several multi-million dollar roadway upgrades. After all, this is historic Gettysburg, and you never know what crews may unearth. “Everybody is just a little bit more careful when they do road work or projects around here, because it’s Gettysburg,” says Borough Manager Florence Ford, previously of nearby Cumberland Township.

Roman remains found at Weston College but will not proceed to examine Weston College has said it will not pay for a full study of a skeleton, coins and stone foundations uncovered during a six-week dig at its Knightstone Campus. The decision comes despite archaeologists proclaiming the dig as the first clear evidence of a Roman settlement in the town. This week, the college, which paid for the initial excavation under a planning agreement to refurbish its Hans Price building, said ‘the investigation was complete’.

Altar of the Twelve Gods sees the light Renovation work on the aged Piraeus-Kifissia electric railway (ISAP) on the stretch between the central Athenian neighborhoods of Monastiraki and Thisseio have brought to light one of the most exciting archaeological discoveries of recent years.

Antiquities at risk in Arab world Though reportedly safe for now, as the tension escalates in Libya, the fate of the country's archaeological heritage is increasingly uncertain, experts say. Meanwhile, in Egypt, threats to national treasures may resurface, after a pause. The last of the foreign archaeologists working in Libya were evacuated Feb. 26, according to Nature News. The 11 archaeologists with the Italian-Libyan Archaeological Mission in the Acacus and Messak are studying ancient archaeology and rock art in the country. Doing Anthropology-MIT Cultural Anthropology is a social science that explores how people understand - and act in - the world. But what, exactly, is it that Cultural Anthropologists do? How do they approach their research? In this short film, three members of MIT's Anthropology Department, Stefan Helmreich, Erica James, and Heather Paxson, talk about their current work and the process of doing fieldwork.

"S" Twist Handaxes, a Palaeolithic enigma, a close examination of these evocative items

Egyptology: Zahi Hawass confirms resignation Egypt's chief antiquities official, Zahi Hawass, has confirmed his resignation late this week from his post, amid political turmoil and the looting of antiquities.

Signs of early life found in Alaska Some 11,500 years ago one of America's earliest families laid the remains of a three-year-old child to rest in their home in what is now Alaska. The discovery of that burial is shedding new light on the life and times of the early settlers who crossed from Asia to the New World, researchers report in the journal Science . The bones represent the earliest human remains discovered in the Arctic of North America, a "pretty significant find," said Ben A. Potter of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Post colonial Archaeology Takes Over the World By Michael Smith I really dislike postcolonial theory and postcolonial archaeology, so I was not thrilled to see that the current issue of World Archaeology is devoted to this topic. Issue editor Peter van Dommelen (2011) contributes an introduction to the papers.

Click on the keywords for the full articles. Have a great Sunday from Ancient Digger.

Can Humans Survive In An Even Warmer World?

During the Pleistocene ice sheets close to 2 miles thick covered the earth, the ground temperature was much cooler, and sea temperatures were 3 to 4 degrees cooler than they are today.

Change of a single degree in ocean temperature can cause irreversible changes or cessation in the movement of ocean currents. Florida and the Bahamas are a perfect example used to demonstrate the drop in sea level during the Pleistocene.

As you can see by the picture, sea levels dropped close to 300 feet in Florida, exposing larger land mass, aiding large animals in their transition from South America to North America via the Great American Biotic Interchange (Florida Museum).

Pleistocene land mammals were probably the single most important food source for Upper Paleolithic humans. On the contrary, depending on who you talk to today, people are sustaining a healthy lifestyle by living off the land or eating a diet rich in meatless protein, such as legumes.

Grasslands and cooler environments are indeed favorable for large land mammals, as the case was with megafauna during the Pleistocene, but today we don’t depend on them for survival.

Although it’s easy to have faith in humankind that we will find a way in a warmer world, I can’t help but question the actual facts presented by NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Read this excerpt from the article, Global Surface Temperature Change, by J. Hansen, R. Ruedy, M. Sato, and K. Lo, and see how your outlook for humans in a warmer world changes.

The 12-month running mean global temperature in the GISS analysis has reached a new record in 2010. The new record temperature in 2010 is particularly meaningful because it occurs when the recent minimum of solar irradiance (defined as the amount of radiant energy emitted by the Sun over all wavelengths that fall each second on 11 sq ft (1 sq m) outside the earth's atmosphere) is having its maximum cooling effect. At the time of this writing (July 2010) the tropical Pacific Ocean is changing from El Nino to La Nina conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. It is likely that global temperature for calendar year 2010 will reach a record level for the period of instrumental data, but that is not certain if La Nina conditions deepen rapidly (Hansen et al 2010).

Each decade that passes, global warming continues without any fear of slowing down. Temperature anomalies furnished by NASA and NOAA, effectively illustrate the never declining warming trend of the earth that is occurring on decadal time scales.

In essence, let’s consider our situation here in Florida. When temperatures rise to over 90°, what kind of clothing do you see people wearing? What if the temperature rose to 120°? 150°? and how about 200°? Is there any question in your mind whether you could cope in such conditions?

Unless there’s a way to shield our bodies from the sun, whether that’s by protective clothing or underground living spaces, I fail to see how we’d ever be prepared for such an event. We won’t experience these changes in our lifetime, but generations of humans, plants, and animal species after us might.

This is my opinion. So what's yours? Please leave comments below.

Resources

Global Surface Temperature Change
Florida Image

Geoglyphology, A New Tool for the Archaeologist

Contributed By Arthur D. Faram

Over the past several years The Faram Foundation has been involved in the research and development of a new and emerging science. That science has been named Geoglyphology. Research has shown that this science has the power to rewrite history as we know it. During our research it was discovered that civilizations have secretly passed down a legacy of geoglyphs on the shores and highlands of land masses around the world. A well known example of this is the Nazca Lines in Peru. The reason the Nazca lines and other Geoglyphs were not discovered until recently is that they are too large to be seen from the ground. And so it is with most geoglyphs.

Until now the majority of the information available to the Archeologist is gleaned from the information recovered at the dig site. We discovered that a great majority of the ancient architectural, monolithic and geoglyphic structures built around the world had something in common. That commonality is that the structures were aligned in such a manner that the study of their linear alignment unveils a much larger story and immensely expands the data available to the archeologist and the related disciplines.

Extensive research on these geoglyphs, which exist on every continent and many islands around the world, have shown that, no matter when or where they were constructed, they all tie into a worldwide network of civilizations that have progressed, prospered and suffered setbacks for millennia. These glyphs range in age from the 10,000 year old Yonaguni Pyramid in Japan, to the 250 year old streets of Washington, DC USA.

Data recovered from these studies includes obtaining the geographical range of the culture being studied, the level of sophistication that existed in relation to their understanding of mathematics and geometry, their knowledge of world geography, the discovery of other archeological sites that were unknown prior to the studies, and the dating of the culture itself by the data collected at the offsite locations and the sophistication of the geoglyphs identified at the other dig sites.

It is our mission to assist the Archaeologist, and the related disciplines, in identifying any collateral data related to the dig site that might assist the Archaeologist in understanding the culture, or in expanding the search area.

More information can be obtained at: http://www.thefaramfoundation.com .

Arthur Faram's Biography

Arthur Faram was born in Fort Worth, Texas and moved with his parents, at the age of 13, to California. He later graduated from high school in Anaheim California. After graduation he joined the Marine Corps, serving 9 years and receiving the Purple Heart in Vietnam. When discharged from the military he was employed as a Computer Analyst and Certified Cartographer by the US Government. Upon retirement Arthur finished College and attended Law School to prepare himself for starting his own business.

Now that Arthur is retired he has the time to research the stories that his grandfather told him about the Faram family when they lived in England. He not only found out that the stories were true but was led into a family history that is more amazing than anything he could have imagined. It was while compiling and verifying his family history that he discovered the Geoglyphs which now form the nucleus of his research.

Brother-Sister and Father-Daughter Marriage in Ancient Egypt

I recently read an article by Russell Middleton titled "Brother-Sister and Father-Daughter Marriage in Ancient Egypt". Upon studying the inner workings of Egypt and the Mesopotamian kings, I stumbled upon this piece and thought I would share the main points.

Brother-Sister and Father-Daughter Marriage in Ancient Egypt Overview

Anthropologists recognize that marrying one’s sister, brother, father, or mother was quite common in Ancient Egypt. Marriage of kin functioned "to preserve the purity of the royal blood line," to keep privilege and rank rigidly within the group .

The greatest instance of Pharaoh-sister marriage occurred during the Pharonic period. De Rouge called attention to evidence that Ramses II married two of his sisters and at least two of his daughters. This evidence was refuted by Erman, stating the title of "Royal Wife," bestowed upon daughters, was of mere ceremonial significance. There were no documented cases of brother-sister marriage during this period.

The Ptolemaic kings adopted the royal custom of sister-brother marriage, even though the union wasn’t actually permitted. Middleton mentions, of the thirteen Ptolemaic kings, seven contracted such marriages. Of those unions the most famous being between Ptolemy XIII, married to their sister, and the famous Cleopatra VI. Brother-sister marriage during the Greek period in Egypt seems to have been restricted to the royalty.

Commoners were practicing brother-sister marriage during the Roman period. Documents of a technical character have an "indisputable precision”, to attest to this fact. Most of the marriages were between full sisters.

Ultimately, this act of near kin marriages was a result of cross cultural influence, or rather the “diffusion hypothesis”. Middleton (1962) noted, this hypothesis does not answer the question of why the custom developed in the original host culture or why it was later adopted in a secondary culture.

Your thoughts?

Middleton, Russell. 1962 Brother-Sister and Father-Daughter Marriage in Ancient Egypt. American Sociological Review, Vol. 27, No. 5:603-611.

Also check out:

• The Art and History of Ancient Egyptian Jewelry
• Serapeum: The Tomb of the Apis Bulls
• In the Days of Pharaohs and Deities 
• Evidence for Pharaonic Seagoing Ships in Egypt 
• Mortuary Temple of The Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut 
• The Mummified Bubastis Cat