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[zale]

Interesting but I still think the savannah theory holds much more water.
From Arch. News.

If holding water is your goal, one would have thought the aquatic ape theory would be favored.

If anyone knows an obvious reason why that theory is wrong (namely that our ancestors spent a certain substantial time waddling around the shore, hence no hair, hence bipedalism, high fat, etc, plus an irrational fascination with the beach and the Beach Boys music), I would like to hear it. I know it is not considered a serious theory, but none of the arguments against it seemed convincing to me. And all the criticism came from the savannah gang, which it turns out is not bulletproof either.

[zale]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200706050712.html

WHY IS ENKAI, THE Creator god of the Maasai, almost the same as Enki, who created the Sumerians, as well as Enoch, the Canaanite hero who stormed heaven, and Inca, the divine chief of the ancient Andeans?

Is it accidental that if you reverse the syllables of those names - a word-game which ancient societies played all the time - you get Ka'in of the Sumerians, Kainan of the Canaanites, Cain of Genesis and Chanes of Mesoamerica?

Since the Bible(particularly Genesis) borrows heavily from Sumer (and Egypt) this similarity is not surprising. The Mesoamerica connection baffles me though...

[zale]

BTW, what European "advanced culture [that] has been found dating to 7,000ya" are you referring to?

Talking about nonexisting ancient European civilisations, whatever happened to the great Oz of Visoko, btw? Didn't hear anything for months about him, and it's theoretically digging season...

[Beagle]

http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/chicken/

Most scholars assume that the chicken, like the horse, was unknown in the New World before the arrival of the Spaniards. But now radiocarbon dating and DNA analysis of a chicken bone excavated from a site in Chile suggest Polynesians in ocean-going canoes brought chickens to the west coast of South America well before Europe's "Age of Discovery."

Some 50 chicken bones belonging to five chickens were recently recovered from the site of El Arenal-1, on Chile's Arauco Peninsula. The site is the first excavated settlement of the Andean people known as the Mapuche, who lived on the southern fringe of the Inca empire from about A.D. 1000 to 1500.

I see that John mentioned the Polynesian chickens here the other day. Here's more on the subject. Posted in Archaeologica News.

[Minimalist]

Oz is still at it.

http://science.monstersandcritics.com/n ... ramid_site

[Beagle]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6728805.stm

The World Monument Fund has placed Tara on its "crisis list" following the go-ahead for the controversial M3 motorway through the site.

The project has been bitterly opposed by environmental campaigners.

They are opposed to the route because of its proximity to the historic sites of Tara and Skryne.

Just saw this in Arch. News. This would be a terrible shame if this roadway is allowed.

[Minimalist]

I don't know why, Beags, but you just reminded me of an old Jackie Gleason bit on The Honeymooners.

He's sitting there reading the paper and says to Alice.

"Here's something...they're going to build a new highway from Mongolia to Tibet. It will save everybody who's going there about 40 miles off the trip."


I hope this highway has a better rationale!

[Beagle]

I loved the Honeymooners.

[Beagle]

http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/archae ... 5/catid_70

ARCHAEOLOGISTS IN BULGARIA FIND LABYRINTH RESEMBLING ONE IN CRETE
09:02 Thu 14 Jun 2007

The archaeological expedition Strandzha discovered a labyrinth, similar to the famous labyrinth on the island of Crete.

The discovery was made near the village of Golyam Derven, close to the Bulgarian-Turkish border.

Archaeologists also found a skeleton of a ruler in the labyrinth, BGNES news agency reported.

Among the finds in the labyrinth were abundantly ornamented ceramics artifacts with unknown so far elements and bird figures.

This is the second unique discovery that the archaeologists made within a week. A few days ago, they found stone ornament, resembling double axe at the entrance of a tomb.

The ornament changed historians' ideas on the establishment of Thracian state in the region.

This is the entire article. Seems like there is a lot of archaeology going on in Bulgaria. I wonder just how similar this labyrinth is to the one in Crete.

[Minimalist]

I always thought the labyrinth in Crete was a metaphor for the palace of Knossos?

[Rokcet Scientist]

I always thought the labyrinth in Crete was a metaphor for the palace of Knossos?

Indeed. Where the Minotaur lived.

[Beagle]

http://www.daedalus.gr/DAEI/THEME/Knossos.htm

Here's everything about it.

[kbs2244]

It seems that just because the Greeks called Thrace full of barbarians, and told outlandish tales about them doesn’t mean it was all true.

It makes you wonder how much of the Greek/Roman social/political propaganda we learned as history is really true.

When I went through the Egyptian display at the Chicago Field Museum they showed some truly pornographic stonework political cartoons of Anthony and Cleopatra. One man’s, with money to express it, point of view. But when it is latterly carved in stone, it gives it some kind of authority to us in our day that it may not have had in its own day.

I cannot even think about how loud I will laugh if they do prove there is a pyramid up there. Pre, post, or contemporary Egyptian. I don’t care. Just the fact that they were not what the Greeks told us they were, and what we have been taught, re-taught, and believed ever since.

[Beagle]

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/849/he1.htm

The discovery of huge rocks decorated with Palaeolithic illustrations at the village of Qurta on the northern edge of Kom Ombo has caused excitement among the scientific community. The art was found by a team of Belgian archaeologists and restorers and features groups of cattle similar to those drawn on the walls of the French Lascaux caves. They are drawn and painted in a naturalistic style which is quite different from those shown in cattle representations of the well-known classical, pre-dynastic iconography of the fourth millennium BC. Illustrations of hippopotami, fish, birds and human figures can also be seen on the surface of some of the rocks.

Rock art in Egypt, possibly 15,000 years old. Pretty neat but I don't know that the authors assertion that it rivals Lascaux is true.

[kbs2244]

The piont they were maliking is the "style" of the art.
These were very true to life vs stylized.
The pics they showed had a real French Cave type style to them.
"Long, long ago, in a savana far away....."