Archaeologica.org

If evolutionary advantage really is a biological urge, i.e. existing on the visceral level in human beings and even possibly programmed into our genes - then it would exist now as despite our sophistication, we are still basically the same 'animals' as we were then. Of course, I take the point that...

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if your book has an explanation for how the Iraq War was caused by Bush's desire for reproductive success. This is very strange. I put together a reply which turned out, in my opinion, to be not what you were looking for. It was more a clarification and recapitulat...

Confession time. After having a pop at the US National Debt (then 73% of GDP) I checked it out (after a fashion) and discovered that the UK ND (about 43%) may not be all it’s cracked up to be - the items included seemed different to those of the US and they favoured a low estimate. Also, Japan’s ND ...

Anyway, I'd be interested to hear if your book has an explanation for how the Iraq War was caused by Bush's desire for reproductive success. I'm not sure how to respond to this apart from referring you to my reply to kbs. However, that seems to be something of a cop-out and I assume you have read i...

Having a woman, or more likely a harem of women as the kings of old did, is in itself a symbol of power. It's about potency ... on every level. Power, yes. But power for what? For its own sake? That doesn't scan. Power for its own sake is nothing. Power is the energy to do something. The means to a...

Ish: Your "Mother of Gods" actually fits the evolutionary biological hypothesis brilliantly...think about it... kbs: Gottschall's thesis only applies to prehistoric cultures. Even then it can be obscured by secondary 'masking' characteristics like politics, economics and other reasons for ...

It would make more sense to me that they would fight over what they saw as the source of their power and wellbeing than a mere pretty woman, despite the biological imperative. It's interesting, too, that it is the only Greek myth that we read as possibly true historically. This, I suppose, is becau...

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20081018-167118/Unearthing-ancient-history-in-Beirut BEIRUT -- Ancient history is getting in the way of construction in Beirut's building boom as new archaeological discoveries delay the long-planned high rises. And the delays can be long, frustr...

OK, but that is still not my point.

The quote at the start of this thread was taken from an article by Jonathan Gottschall. I was sufficiently intrigued by his ‘explanation’ of the Trojan War to get a copy of his book, The Rape of Troy . His thesis is deceptively simple - sex imbalance in populations i.e. more males than females, caus...

OK, but that is not my point.

“The general who inspired Gladiator.” Where did this come from? Marcus Aurelius liked one of his generals, Marcus Nonius Macrinus - seems weak to me although filmmakers can be inspired by anything, I guess. The production notes on the DVD make no mention of Macrinus but do say that the inspiration c...

Nor me.

Min - you may recall my wail of anguish when you first mentioned this book in a previous thread. This was because I often find myself believing the last book I've read (pathetic or what?) especially when it comes to investigative reporting type books. In The Jesus Family Tomb (Jacobovici and Pellegr...

Pope, your clarion call for action stirred my blood and impelled me to do something about it other than sit here in front of this infernal screen and think of mere words. I sweated blood for a while, paced up and down, and then knew what I had to do … I had to have a drink … two fingers of Famous Gr...