Archaeologica.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/16/scien ... ref=slogin


It's the NY Times and it may require free registration.

Archaeologists digging in Syria, in the upper reaches of what was ancient Mesopotamia, have found new evidence of how one of the world’s earliest cities met a violent end by fire, collapsing walls and roofs, and a fierce rain of clay bullets. The battle left some of the oldest known ruins of organized warfare.

Ouch! The bullets, projected with a good sling, could definitely put the hurt on someone. Hell, throwing one real hard at someone's head would put the hurt on them.

this is old old old news

May 25, 2000

http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/PROJ/HAM/NN_S ... Sum00.html
and use a .edu and not a news site and you get better information

Actually Marduk it is an update from the University of Chicago release dated December 15, 2005 found here:

http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/0 ... ukar.shtml

The bullets and the pattern of destruction led the archaeologists to rule out earthquake damage and conclude that a tremendous battle had taken place. Dr. Reichel and other experts said there was no way to identify the aggressor, but they assumed it was the army of one of the southern cities.

That seems a little odd. I guess the attacking army took their dead with them, or maybe we know very little about the people in this area.

Lots of armies remove their own casualties for honorable burial and leave the enemy's carcasses lying around.

Actually Marduk it is an update from the University of Chicago release dated December 15, 2005 found here:

cool thanks for that
it doesn't seem to have anything new in the update though
just a brief recap imo

i'm also starting to think that the greeks have done everyone a big disservice when they coined the term mesopotamia
maybe mesoextrapotamia would have been better

Minimalist wrote:Lots of armies remove their own casualties for honorable burial and leave the enemy's carcasses lying around.

Sure enough, but nobody wants to tote a bunch of dead bodies too far though - way too unpleasant. Here in Tennessee there are Union cemetaries and mass graves of Southerners from the Civil war.

I rather think that we have very little knowledge of this area ca3500 BC.
They may not have even discovered the city state of the aggressor.

but nobody wants to tote a bunch of dead bodies too far though

Cremation? Honor is served with less lugging of bodies or digging of holes.

Very good point, especially for that time in history.

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