Hi all,

I’m getting married this weekend and will be zipping off on my honeymoon right after, so I won’t be able to update A Blog About History until I return on Monday September 20th, 2010.

If you are pining hard for history, now would be a great time to go back in time through the A Blog About History archives (navigate using the pages, search, tag cloud and months on the right-side column).

If you have a Facebook account, why not join my A Blog About History Facebook fan page? While I’m away I encourage you all to share links to the latest history news on there and post your own comments and thoughts on the articles submitted.

I look forward to seeing you all when I return!

Thanks for your patience and patronage,
Sevaan Franks

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Archaeologists have found evidence that the Amazon rainforest was home to an advanced civilization with as many as 20 million individuals living amoungst the jungle.

To the untrained eye, all evidence here in the heart of the Amazon signals virgin forest, untouched by man for time immemorial – from the ubiquitous fruit palms to the cry of howler monkeys, from the air thick with mosquitoes to the unruly tangle of jungle vines.

Archaeologists, many of them Americans, say the opposite is true: This patch of forest, and many others across the Amazon, was instead home to an advanced, even spectacular civilization that managed the forest and enriched infertile soils to feed thousands.

The findings are discrediting a once-bedrock theory of archaeology that long held that the Amazon, unlike much of the Americas, was a historical black hole, its environment too hostile and its earth too poor to have ever sustained big, sedentary societies. Only small and primitive hunter-gatherer tribes, the assumption went, could ever have eked out a living in an unforgiving environment.

But scientists now believe that instead of stone-age tribes, like the groups that occasionally emerge from the forest today, the Indians who inhabited the Amazon centuries ago numbered as many as 20 million, far more people than live here today.

[Full story]

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I knew the phrase “corpse-eating bugs” would get your attention! Apparently the Moche  people would expose their recently deceased to corpse-eating bugs for a week before burial as an act of veneration.

Insect remains littered the grave, including the shells of at least 200 blowflies, alongside corpse beetles and other flesh-eating bugs. Moche art at the site contains numerous depictions of such insects, the team notes, surrounding sleletons and war captives, who were likely sacrificed at the pyramid. “Flies and death in Mochica iconography are dramatically depicted on Moche ceramics,” say the authors.

Weighing the numbers of insect remains, which would not have reached a body buried at least three feet deep, the archeologists estimate the man’s corpse was exposed for at least a week prior to burial. Unlike the ancient Egyptians and other ancient cultures, the Moche may have venerated corpse-eating insects, they conclude:

There is a major difference between the Moche view of flies and that of the ancient Near East, typified by the Egyptians. The latter did everything in their power to prevent flies from destroying the corpse, including enclosing written prayers with the body and embalming. The Egyptians hoped the ka would accompany the body of the deceased into eternity, whereas the Moche deliberately exposed the body to the flies with the hope that the anima or spirit of the deceased would be carried from the maggots into adult flies and through close contact with people, complete the human cycle.

[Full story]

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200 years ago Charles Darwin changed the face of Ascension Island in a unique ecological experiment that could hold the secret to colonizing Mars.

Ascension was an arid island, buffeted by dry trade winds from southern Africa. Devoid of trees at the time of Darwin and Hooker’s visits, the little rain that did fall quickly evaporated away.

Egged on by Darwin, in 1847 Hooker advised the Royal Navy to set in motion an elaborate plan. With the help of Kew Gardens – where Hooker’s father was director – shipments of trees were to be sent to Ascension.

The idea was breathtakingly simple. Trees would capture more rain, reduce evaporation and create rich, loamy soils. The “cinder” would become a garden.

So, beginning in 1850 and continuing year after year, ships started to come. Each deposited a motley assortment of plants from botanical gardens in Europe, South Africa and Argentina.

Soon, on the highest peak at 859m (2,817ft), great changes were afoot. By the late 1870s, eucalyptus, Norfolk Island pine, bamboo, and banana had all run riot.

[Full story]

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National Geographic has posted some beautiful new photographs of the Titanic to mark the 25th anniversary of the famous shipwreck’s discovery.

In what Expedition Titanic is calling the clearest picture yet of Titanic’s bow, the ocean liner’s cargo crane—and yet more rusticles—make an appearance.

Rusticles form as microbes eat away at Titanic and form self-contained, icicle-like biological communities.

By 1996 there were some 650 tons (dry weight) of rusticles on the outside of Titanic’s bow section alone (picture), according to estimates by microbiologist Roy Cullimore, a microbiologist and veteran Titanic explorer. Since then rusticles have continued to grow both inside and outside the wreck.

[Full story]

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Protesters are fervently trying to stop the construction of the Illisu Dam in Turkey as it will flood the ancient city of Hasankeyf.

“This dam will not turn us into a developed country; it will turn us into an uncivilized and underbred community that does not know how to spend its money,” Yüksek said, stressing the potential loss of a 15,000-year-old piece of cultural heritage.

Although a site must meet only one of the 10 criteria of UNESCO’s World Heritage List to be included on the list, Hasankeyf meets nine criteria, the only ancient site in the world to meet so many criteria.

UNESCO, however, can only grant heritage list status if the government requests it, yet Turkey has not applied.
Yüksek said the government refused to apply to UNESCO because the World Heritage status necessitates the protection of the site.

Constructing a dam on such a valuable site was also an injustice to local people, Yüksek said, because the area has a high economic potential for tourism.

[Full story]

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A 3,000-year-old Moabite temple has been unearthed in Jordan.

Archaeologists in Jordan have unearthed a 3,000-year-old Iron Age temple with a trove of figurines of ancient deities and circular clay vessels used for religious rituals, officials said Wednesday.

The head of the Jordanian Antiquities Department, Ziad al-Saad, said the sanctuary dates to the eighth century B.C. and was discovered at Khirbat ‘Ataroz near the town of Mabada, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) southwest of the capital Amman.

He said the complex boasts a main room that measures 388 square feet (36 square meters), as well as two antechambers and an open courtyard.

The sanctuary and its artifacts — hewn from limestone and basalt or moulded from clay and bronze — show the complex religious rituals of Jordan’s ancient biblical Moabite kingdom, according to al-Saad.

“Today we have the material evidence, the archaeological proof of the level of advancement of technology and civilization at that period of time,” he said.

[Full story]

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Morons have defaced the ancient petroglyphs carved into the rock at Keyhole Sink in Kaibab National Forest.

Petroglyphs at the site date back at least a thousand years. The site remains open to the public so that people can learn about the history of the area and enjoy the unique setting.

Since the vandalism was reported, the Forest Service has documented the damage and is assessing its monetary value, in accordance with the

Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979.

Kaibab National Forest Archaeologist Erin Woodard said the petroglyph vandalism is unfortunate.

“Many of us in the Southwest enjoy the rich historic culture of the area,” Woodard said. “Non-renewable, historic resources, such as petroglyphs and pictographs, can be easily damaged. So, it is important that each visitor to national forests be respectful of the cultural resources in the area and leave them as found for future generations to enjoy.”

[Full story]

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Divers have stolen from the Holland 5, a historically important submarine wreck lying in the English Channel.

English Heritage said divers stole the torpedo tube hatch of the Holland 5, which sank six miles off Eastbourne in East Sussex in 1912.

The theft was discovered during a licensed dive by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) in June and confirmed during a dive last month.

The NAS described the wreck as a “remarkable piece of naval heritage”.

Sussex Police and English Heritage have appealed for help to catch the perpetrators, who may have struck up to two years ago.

Experts said a group of people would have been behind the theft but that the hatch carried very little monetary value.

[Full story]

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A rare Roman lantern made of bronze has been unearthed by a metal-detectorist in a field in England.

Danny Mills, 21, made the find in a field near Sudbury in Suffolk.

The area was dotted with plush Roman villas and country estates in the second century.

The object, described as a rare example of Roman craftsmanship, has been donated to Ipswich Museum where it is now on display.

In the autumn of 2009, Mr Mills, a metal detector user, found a large bronze object whilst metal detecting in a field near Sudbury.

He immediately reported the discovery to Suffolk Archaeological Unit.

[Full story]

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The remains of La Belle, a ship which sank in 1686, are set to be freeze dried in a massive dryer at Texas A&M university in a revolutionary new procedure.

Texas A&M University researchers working to restore the hull of La Belle, a light frigate recovered from its underwater grave, are using an unconventional method to preserve the pieces: a state-of-the-art freeze dryer big enough to hold a few head of cattle.

La Belle was carrying 43 people when it sank in Matagorda Bay in January 1686. The ship’s remains now lie in a vat of oily preservative on Texas A&M’s Riverside Campus, the former Bryan Air Force Base that serves as headquarters for research and related activities, including a division of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation.

The massive freeze dryer, at 40 feet long with an 8-foot internal diameter, is the largest such machine for conservation use in the hemisphere, says Peter Fix, the maritime center’s assistant director and project conservator for the La Belle.

The instrument arrived Monday, and Fix plans to test some smaller pieces of other objects before dismantling the carefully tended timbers of La Belle and placing them in the cavernous cavity.

[Full story]

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A 9,000-year-old coral reef found in the South Pacific may provide clues as to what will happen to coral when sea temperatures rise.

The samples confirmed that it was indeed coral and radiocarbon dating confirmed its age.

Other similar ancient reefs – called relict reefs – have been discovered before, but none as far south as this.

The team think that this reef died when it was flooded as a result of sea levels rising about 7,000 years ago, but the modern temperature at these latitudes also limits coral growth, which is why the relict reef is so much bigger than the modern reef.

Now that sea temperatures are rising, however, reefs may start to grow bigger at higher latitudes.

The relict reef doesn’t have an extensive modern reef attached to it but it does have some individual corals which are newer – from the last 2,000 years.

[Full story]

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An expedition to Titanic has revealed that the famous shipwreck is not as badly corroded as feared.

The hi-resolution images show the ship’s iconic bow, complete with railings, four kilometres below the surface.

A team of scientists used a pair of robots to take thousands of photos and hours of video. More than 1,500 passengers and crew died when the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic, 98 years ago.

The release of the new material come almost 25 years – to the day – since the vessel was first discovered.

[Full story]

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The remains of a Balaur bondoc, a relative of the Velociraptor, has been found in Romania. It is the first-meat-eating dinosaur to be describe which live in Europe during the final 60 million years of the dinosaurs.

“Balaur might be one of the largest predators in this ecosystem because not even a big tooth has been found in Romania after over a hundred years of research,” paleontologist Zoltan Csiki of the University of Bucharest in Romania said in a press release. Csiki is the lead researcher of the discovery announced Aug. 30 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new dinosaur was about 6 to 7 feet long. It had functional big toes with large claws — presumably for slashing prey — in addition to a claw on the second toe that is typical of the group of dinosaurs. Its feet and legs were short and stocky, with bones fused together, and large muscle attachment areas on its pelvis, indicating the dinosaur was built for strength over speed. Its hands were atrophied, so Balaur likely used its feet rather than its hands to grasp prey.

“Its anatomy shows that it probably hunted in a different way than its less stocky relatives,” said paleontologist Stephan Brusatte of Columbia University in a press release. “Compared to Velociraptor, Balaur was probably more of a kick boxer than a sprinter, and it might have been able to take down larger animals than itself, as many carnivores do today.”

[Full story]

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Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed two obsidian blades used as bronze age surgical tools and skulls showing evidence of scarring.

What makes you think they were used for surgery?

We have found traces of cuts on skulls in a nearby graveyard. Out of around 700 skulls, 14 have these marks. They could only have been cut with a very sharp tool. At this time, 4000 years ago or more, it could only have been an obsidian blade. The cut marks show that a blade was used to make a rectangular opening all the way through the skull. We know that patients lived at least two to three years after the surgery, because the skull has tried to close the wound.

Have you uncovered any clues to why this surgery was performed?

There seem to be three main reasons. The first is to relieve the pressure of a brain haemorrhage; we found traces of blood on the inside of some of the skulls. The second is to treat patients with brain cancer, as we can see pressure traces from the cancer inside some of the skulls. And the final reason was to treat head injuries, which seem to have been quite common. The people of Ikiztepe got their copper from mines in the local mountains, and we think they had to fight other local people for access to it.

[Full story]

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The famous Magna Carta, which has been lying in a sealed box containing helium, will soon be moved to a new box filled with Argon.

The very first Magna Carta dates to 1215, when English barons forced King John to write down the traditional rights and liberties of the country’s free persons. A copy of the Magna Carta signed by King Edward I in 1297 currently resides within a helium-filled casement at the National Archives Building in Washington. But the medieval document is scheduled for a temporary removal in 2011 so it can be re-measured for a new case filled with argon.

Researchers worried that helium atoms, which are relatively small, could escape from the case holding the Magna Carta, leaving the 713-year-old animal skin parchment susceptible to degradation. Those fears proved unfounded, but the National Archives has chosen to preserve the parchment in another inert gas, argon, whose larger atoms have proven easier to contain.

“Argon is used to displace oxygen and any moisture that may be remaining in the encasement area, to preserve the document and minimize degradation,” said Mark Luce, an engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

[Full story]

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A mitochondrial DNA study of cave bears suggest that cavemen hunted them to extinction.

Now an international team of scientists analyzing DNA in 17 newly identified fossils of cave bears has revealed the decline started 50,000 years ago, “much earlier than previously suggested, at a time when no major climate change was taking place, but which does coincide with the start of human expansion,” said researcher Aurora Grandal-D’Anglade at the University of Coruña in Spain.

The scientists compared 59 DNA sequences from cave bear mitochondria – the powerhouses within their cells – with 40 modern and fossil DNA samples from brown bears (Ursus arctos) to find out why the former went extinct while the latter did not.

Their findings suggest that cave bear genetic diversity – a clue to how many there were – began declining 50,000 years ago. Other fossil evidence reveals they ceased to be abundant in Central Europe roughly 35,000 years ago. (Diversity of genes can provide indirect evidence for the number of breeding individuals, because with more bears mating more genes are thrown into the mix, and vice versa.)

“This can be attributed to increasing human expansion and the resulting competition between humans and bears for land and shelter,” Grandal-D’Anglade explained.

[Full story]

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The remains of two 5,000-year-old villages have been found in Mongolia.

he archaeologistsin north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found the ruins in Hamin’aile Village, of Horqin Left-wing Middle Banner (County).

The remains were identified in the spring as possibly originating from Hongshan Culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology of Inner Mongolia.

About 1,200 square meters had been excavated out of an estimated 200,000 square meters, and homes and tombs had been discovered, said Ji, reports Xinhua.Pitted earthenware, such as jars and pots, were also found, which was the first time that have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins in northeast China,” he said.

“We have also found bones of deer and rodent animals, on which we suppose they lived by hunting,” he added.

[Full story]

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A chemical analysis of the bones belong to ancient Nubians show that they regularly consumed tetracycline.

A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.

The research, led by Emory anthropologist George Armelagos and medicinal chemist Mark Nelson of Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Inc., is published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

“We tend to associate drugs that cure diseases with modern medicine,” Armelagos says. “But it’s becoming increasingly clear that this prehistoric population was using empirical evidence to develop therapeutic agents. I have no doubt that they knew what they were doing.”

Armelagos is a bioarcheologist and an expert on prehistoric diets. In 1980, he discovered what appeared to be traces of tetracycline in human bones from Nubia dated between A.D. 350 and 550. The ancient Nubian kingdom was located in present-day Sudan, south of ancient Egypt.

Armelagos and his fellow researchers later tied the source of the antibiotic to the Nubian beer. The grain used to make the fermented gruel contained the soil bacteria streptomyces, which produces tetracycline. A key question was whether only occasional batches of the ancient beer contained tetracycline, which would indicate accidental contamination with the bacteria.

[Full story]

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TopTenz has posted an interesting list about ten technologies and techniques that we have lost knowledge of over the years, from Damascus steel to Roman cement.

2. Roman Cement

Modern concrete was developed in the 1700s, and today the simple mixture of cement, water, sand, and rocks is the most widely used building material in the world. But the recipe developed in the 18th century wasn’t the first time concrete was invented. In fact, concrete was widely used throughout antiquity by the Persians, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Romans. The Romans in particular made extensive use of concrete, and they were responsible for first perfecting the recipe by mixing burnt lime with crushed rocks and water. Their mastery of its use allowed them to build many of their most famous structures, among them the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the aqueducts, and the Roman Baths.

How was it Lost?

Like so many technologies of the Greeks and Romans, the recipe for concrete was lost during the descent into the Dark Ages, but just why remains a mystery. The most popular theory is that the recipe was something of a trade secret among stonemasons, and that the method for making cement and concrete died along with those who knew it. Perhaps even more interesting than the disappearance of Roman cement are the particular qualities that separate it from more modern Portland cement, which is the most common type of cement used today. Structures built with Roman cement, like the Colosseum, have managed to weather thousands of years of punishment from the elements and remain standing, but buildings constructed with Portland cement have been known to wear down much faster. This has been theorized to be the result of different chemicals that the Romans added to their cement, among them milk and even blood. These were said to create air bubbles within the concrete that helped the material to expand and contract in the heat and cold without damaging itself.

[Full story]

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Archaeologists working in a cave near Tel Aviv have found the world’s oldest known disposable knives.

Dating to the Stone Age, the tiny knives are believed to be at least 200,000 years old. A Tel Aviv University excavation team found the tools around a fireplace littered with charred animal bones.

Archaeologist Ran Barkai said he believes Stone Age hunter-gatherers used the rough, round-shaped cutlery — ranging from the size of human teeth to guitar picks — for slicing through cooked meat because they were found next to the animal bones. The bones were used to determine the age of the knives.

The number of knives found, coupled with the fact that they had no signs of sharpening, indicates they were disposable because they would have dulled after several uses, he said.

The knives were made from recycled material — parts of larger knives and tools designed for other uses such as butchering animals and scraping hides, he said.

“They are made in a special way. On the one hand, they are very efficient and on the other, very simple,” Barkai said.

[Full story]

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The remains of a massive banquet from 12,000 years ago have been found in a cave in northern Israel.

A team excavating a burial cave in Galilee, northern Israel, uncovered the remains of at least 71 tortoises and three wild cattle.

The shells and bones showed evidence of the animals being cooked and butchered for human consumption.

The finds were in two specially crafted hollows linked to burial rituals, said the researchers writing in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Tortoise shells were placed under, around and on top of the remains of a ritually buried shaman.

Meat from the tortoises alone could probably have fed around 35 people, according to study leader Dr Natalie Munro, from the University of Connecticut, United States.

[Full story]

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Dry weather in the UK has revealed “cropmarks” indicating the presence of hundreds of previously unknown archaeological sites.

The surveys show marks made when crops growing over buried features develop at a different rate from those nearby.

The newly-discovered Roman and prehistoric settlements include a site near Bradford Abbas, Dorset.

The Roman camp was revealed in June after three sides became visible in sun-parched fields of barley.

The lightly-built defensive enclosure would have provided basic protection for Roman soldiers while on manoeuvres in the first century AD and is one of only four discovered in the south west of England, English Heritage said.

The dry conditions also allowed well-known sites to be photographed in greater detail.

[Full story]

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The 3,500-year-old remains of a settlement have been found by an oasis in Egypt, revealing evidence of desert trade routes during the early days of the Egyptian civilization.

The settlement at Umm el-Mawagir in Egypt’s Kharga Oasis, more than 300 miles (500 kilometres) south of Cairo, has been excavated for the past year by a Yale University expedition, whose initial findings suggest it was an administrative post with massive baking facilities, possibly to feed local troops.

“The amount of bread production was pretty amazing,” said John Darnell, head of the expedition, citing discoveries of ovens, bread moulds and storerooms at the site, far out of proportion to its size.

“It’s probably a good bet they were basically baking enough bread to feed an army, literally,” he said.

The site was home to a few thousand inhabitants and also includes remnants of mudbrick buildings, similar to those used for administrative purposes in the Nile Valley to the east, suggesting close contact between the two regions.

[Full story]

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A new study is suggesting that two meteorite impacts killed off the dinosaurs, not one.

Previously, scientists had identified a huge impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico as the event that spelled doom for the dinosaurs.

Now evidence for a second impact in Ukraine has been uncovered.

This raises the possibility that the Earth may have been bombarded by a whole shower of meteorites.

The new findings are published in the journal Geology by a team lead by Professor David Jolley of Aberdeen University.

When first proposed in 1980, the idea that a meteorite impact had killed the dinosaurs proved hugely controversial. Later, the discovery of the Chicxulub Crater in the Gulf of Mexico, US, was hailed as “the smoking gun” that confirmed the theory.

[Full story]

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