the daily goingons of a (semi)creative genius

New Project - Caesar Miniatures 1:72 Conquistadors

2010-03-26T08:29:00.011-04:00

I know, I haven’t updated this blog in a bit.. I started a new project so hopefully I can get enough steam behind this one to actually finish it in its entirety. I started painting 1:72 model figures again. After I got all of those Eastern Friendly Indians painted I never got around to making them a diorama so they’re still sitting in a box somewhere. Over the weekend at my parents my Dad gave me a nice big wooden box, the kind that really nice sets of silverware come in and I decided that this would be the perfect thing to create my diorama in since I can shut the lid and put it away so I don’t have to have this thing displayed anywhere, I can just pull it out and show it to people and look at it then close it up and put it back.

So I decided instead of using the Indians for this project I wanted to do the Spanish Conquistadors invading the Aztecs so I went on my favorite hobby website and bought the two kits. I picked up the Caesar Miniatures 1:72 Conquistadors set and the Aztec set.

Currently working on the Conquistadors.. I painted 20 of the figures last night, all the clothing is done on them, just gotta go back in and do fine detail work and some shadowing. After I get these 20 painted in their entirety I’ll finish up the rest of them before I start on the Aztecs. Here’s the set I’m working on, sometime this weekend I’ll take a picture of the ones I've done so I can post on here.

Ancient Tribal Meeting Ground Found in Australia

2010-03-11T06:46:00.001-05:00

The site of the 40,000-year-old tribal meeting ground has been hailed by
one archaeologist as "Tasmania's Valley of the Kings."

THE GIST:

An archaeology survey conducted ahead of roadwork has found an ancient, Aboriginal meeting ground.
Up to three million artifacts were believed to be buried in the area.
Only around 470,000 of Australia's original inhabitants are still alive today.

Australian archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the world's southernmost site of early human life, a 40,000-year-old tribal meeting ground, an Aboriginal leader said Wednesday.

The site appears to have been the last place of refuge for Aboriginal tribes from the cannon fire of Australia's first white settlers, said Michael Mansell of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

The find came during an archaeological survey ahead of roadwork near Tasmania's Derwent River and soil dating had established the age of the artifacts found there.

"When the archaeological report came out it showed that (life there) had gone back longer than any other recorded place anywhere else in Tasmania, dating back to 40,000 years," Mansell told AFP.

Up to three million artifacts, including stone tools, shellfish fragments and food scraps, were believed to be buried in the area, which appeared to have been a meeting ground for three local tribes.

They died out after white settlers arrived in the late 18th century.

"They (settlers) hunted people here to this place and shot them just so they could get the land," said Mansell. "Many others were imprisoned until they died."

"In terms of culture and history this region now represents Tasmania's Valley of the Kings," he added, referring to the world heritage listed Egyptian tombs on the west bank of the Nile.

"When you get something like this that evokes memory of what your people did before we were born and evokes a memory about the legacy that they left us ... it makes the place irreplaceable."

The survey was finished last week and chief archaeologist Rob Paton said he had been surprised at the age of the items found.

"We haven't even done a reading on the bottom sample yet, I was expecting 17,000 (years) for the base of the trench and about four or 5,000 (years) for the top," Paton told state radio.

Paton said luminescence readings -- measuring the age of the artefacts based on how much exposure they had received to sunlight -- had been "nice and statistically tight".

"That suggests to me that they're probably correct, giving us a top reading of 28,000 (years old) and certainly seeming to go back another 10,000 (years) at least beyond that," he said.

The readings indicated that "we do have the oldest, most southern site anywhere in the world", said Paton, making it "an important site for anyone and quite exciting for us".

"I think the thing to stress is no matter what the age of the site it's important anyway," he added.

Mansell said the tribes were famous for their defiant stand against the settlers, and so frustrated the authorities they ultimately issued an order that any Aborigine in the area be shot on sight.

He said the dig's findings were merely the "tip of the iceberg" and called for plans to build a bridge over the site to be scrapped.

"The Tasmanian government must immediately declare it a protected site, not just for Aboriginal people but for peoples of the world," said Mansell.

Australia's original inhabitants, with cultures stretching back tens of thousands of years, are believed to have numbered around one million at the time of white settlement.

There are now just 470,000 out of a population of 21 million and Australia's most impoverished minority.

From the source.

photos for sale that I could never afford

2010-02-15T08:03:00.009-05:00

News broke last week that Polaroid has to sell off a huge chunk of their photo collection to pay off creditors, including my allll time favorite photo, Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother". MAN I wish I had enough money to buy this image.

Soooo this got me thinking about other photographs that I love and that I could afford and although its not the original print I'll settle for the 1985 June issue of National Geographic featuring the Steve McCurry photo of the "Afghan Girl", another photograph that I've always loved. So for $25 I'll get to enjoy this image whenever I like.. =)

Ancient Tree Carving Points to the Stars

2010-02-10T15:57:00.002-05:00

On the trunk of a gnarled, centuries-old oak tree, about 90 miles southwest of Phoenix, Ariz., are odd carvings of six-legged, lizard-like beings.

The tree is located at Painted Rock, an archaeological site peppered with hundreds of ancient petroglyphs, images created upon rock surfaces.

Known as the "scorpion tree," locals had long believed that cowboys were behind the tree carving (the technical term is "arborglyph"). But paleontologist Rex Saint Onge knew it dated to long before then.

His analysis offers a glimpse not only into the cultural history of the Chumash people, the Native American tribe that once inhabited the region; it also provides unique insights into their scientific expertise.

Although Saint Onge is uncertain how old the tree carving is, he believes that nearby Chumash residents may have maintained it until the early 20th century.

The images at Painted Rock were originally written off by past researchers as "the work of wild-eyed, drug-induced shamans." However, the arborglyph led Saint Onge to connect the symbols within the carving with the stars in the sky.

Africa Slideshow

2010-02-03T08:31:00.009-05:00

It's been over a month since I got back and I'm just now posting pictures, better quality ones to come later, just wanted to get the bulk of them uploaded. Enjoy!

Here are the direct links to the albums:

Album 1 - http://picasaweb.google.com/JrOodesigns/AfricaTrip#

Album 2 - http://picasaweb.google.com/JrOodesigns/AfricaTripPart2#

Apple Head Update!

2009-11-20T06:32:00.005-05:00

The glass eyes I ordered came in yesterday so you know what that means?!!?..... Craft Update!
Pics below of the dried apple heads with their new snazzy glass eyes inserted. These are 7mm glass eyes and I was thinking that the whole eye itself would be 7mm but I guess they judge sizes by pupil size? The pupil looks to be around 7mm but the whole eye is a bit larger. At first I was kinda bummed that they weren't the right size for the eye slots I carved out but I just ended up widening the slots and I think they came out pretty neat.. Next up is paint and i already bought 2 mohair wigs to put on them. One in long light brown and another in a long greenish gray. Stay tuned for that update..

King Tut tomb to get makeover

2009-11-11T08:03:00.002-05:00

Mysterious brown spots in the Tomb of Tutankhamun will be fully investigated during a five-year project to restore the burial of the boy King, Egypt's antiquities department announced today.

The Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) has partnered with the California-based Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) to work on the conservation and management of the more than 3,000-year-old tomb.

"I am happy that Getty will look at the tomb and preserve its beautiful scenes," Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said in a statement.

Located in the Valley of the Kings, the tomb of Tutankhamen is among the most heavily visited sites in the Theban necropolis. The five-year conservation project follows concern that the large number of people visiting the pharaoh's resting place may be contributing to its physical deterioration.

Discovered in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter with almost all of its contents intact, Tutankhamen's is the smallest of the 26 royal tombs discovered in the Valley of the Kings.

Of the tomb's four rooms, only the walls of the burial chamber are decorated.

However, the wall paintings in this chamber, as well as some of the tomb's other surfaces, are marred by disfiguring brown spots, which were first noted by Howard Carter when he discovered the treasure-packed burial.

The nature and origin of the spots have never been fully ascertained, and they are among the technical conservation challenges presented by the tomb.

"I always see the tomb of King Tut and wonder about those spots, which no scientist has been able to explain. I have worried about these, and have asked experts to examine the scenes," Dr. Zahi Hawass said.

The conservation plan will involve a two-year research period to determine the causes of deterioration, followed by a three-year implementation plan.

"The SCA-GCI project will include scientific analysis of the problems afflicting the wall paintings," said Tim Whalen, director of the GCI. "But that is only one aspect of the project. The ultimate goal of our work with our Egyptian colleagues is to develop a long-term conservation and maintenance plan for this tomb that can serve as a model for preservation of similar sites."

From the source.

Maya Murals Give Rare View of Everyday Life

2009-11-10T08:16:00.003-05:00

Recently excavated Mayan murals are giving archaeologists a rare look into the lives of ordinary ancient Maya.

The murals were uncovered during the excavation of a pyramid mound structure at the ancient Maya site of Calakmul, Mexico (near the border with Guatemala) and are described in the Nov. 9 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The find "was a total shock," said Simon Martin of the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, who studied the paintings and hieroglyphs depicted in the murals.

The Maya have been studied for more than a century, but "this is the first time that we've seen anything like this," Martin said.

The Maya, like many other societies, left more traces and accounts of the lives of the ruling classes - the royalty, religious orders and artisans - than of the lower orders of society that made up the bulk of such civilizations.

"We almost never get a view of what other layers of society are doing or what they look like, so this is one of the things that makes [the murals] so special," Martin told LiveScience.

The murals were found on the walls of one layer of the mound structure - Maya built over the top of older structures, creating buildings in layers like onions, Martin explained. While other layers were scraped up and destroyed in the effort to build over them, the layer with the murals appears to have been carefully preserved, with a layer of clay put over the murals, ostensibly to protect them.

This careful preservation "might suggest that it was something pretty special," Martin said.

The images on the mural show people engaged in mundane activities, such as preparing food. Hieroglyphic captions accompany each image, labeling each individual. In each case the term "aj," meaning "person," is used and followed by the word for a foodstuff or material. For example, the terms "aj ul" ("maize-gruel person") shows a man with a large pot, dish and spoon with another man drinking from a bowl, and the term "aj mahy" (tobacco person) depicts two men, one holding a spatula and the other a pot that likely holds a form of the tobacco leaf.

Such scenes have never been seen in surviving Mayan paintings before, though some parts of quotidian Mayan culture have survived through the ages with the remaining Mayan populations) and the hieroglyphs for some words (such as "tobacco" and "maize-gruel") were already known. Other hieroglyphs, though, were new to researchers - of particular importance were finding the words for maize itself and salt, which were known to be key staples of the Mayan diet.

Whether or not any other such murals are hidden in mounds in the jungles of Central America isn't known, but Martin and other archaeologists say that, chances are, any such paintings that did exist are likely long one.

"Tremendous amounts of Maya culture and writing have just perished," Martin said. "It's not like Egypt, where even bits of paper in the sand can survive 5,000 years; this is an extremely hostile environment, it's extremely humid."

Martin and his colleagues are not yet sure what the structure was or why the mural was painted and preserved. But they hope to learn more as they continue to excavate more layers of the pyramid and uncover more of the mural.

From the source.

Vanished Persian Army Said Found in Desert

2009-11-10T08:06:00.003-05:00

The remains of a mighty Persian army said to have drowned in the sands of the western Egyptian desert 2,500 years ago might have been finally located, solving one of archaeology's biggest outstanding mysteries, according to Italian researchers.

Bronze weapons, a silver bracelet, an earring and hundreds of human bones found in the vast desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert have raised hopes of finally finding the lost army of Persian King Cambyses II. The 50,000 warriors were said to be buried by a cataclysmic sandstorm in 525 B.C.

"We have found the first archaeological evidence of a story reported by the Greek historian Herodotus," Dario Del Bufalo, a member of the expedition from the University of Lecce, told Discovery News.

According to Herodotus (484-425 B.C.), Cambyses, the son of Cyrus the Great, sent 50,000 soldiers from Thebes to attack the Oasis of Siwa and destroy the oracle at the Temple of Amun after the priests there refused to legitimize his claim to Egypt.

After walking for seven days in the desert, the army got to an "oasis," which historians believe was El-Kharga. After they left, they were never seen again.

"A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear," wrote Herodotus.

A century after Herodotus wrote his account, Alexander the Great made his own pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun, and in 332 B.C. he won the oracle's confirmation that he was the divine son of Zeus, the Greek god equated with Amun.

The tale of Cambyses' lost army, however, faded into antiquity. As no trace of the hapless warriors was ever found, scholars began to dismiss the story as a fanciful tale.

Now, two top Italian archaeologists claim to have found striking evidence that the Persian army was indeed swallowed in a sandstorm. Twin brothers Angelo and Alfredo Castiglioni are already famous for their discovery 20 years ago of the ancient Egyptian "city of gold" Berenike Panchrysos.

Presented recently at the archaeological film festival of Rovereto, the discovery is the result of 13 years of research and five expeditions to the desert.

"It all started in 1996, during an expedition aimed at investigating the presence of iron meteorites near Bahrin, one small oasis not far from Siwa," Alfredo Castiglioni, director of the Eastern Desert Research Center (CeRDO)in Varese, told Discovery News.

While working in the area, the researchers noticed a half-buried pot and some human remains. Then the brothers spotted something really intriguing -- what could have been a natural shelter.

It was a rock about 35 meters (114.8 feet) long, 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) in height and 3 meters (9.8 feet) deep. Such natural formations occur in the desert, but this large rock was the only one in a large area.

"Its size and shape made it the perfect refuge in a sandstorm," Castiglioni said.

Right there, the metal detector of Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat of Cairo University located relics of ancient warfare: a bronze dagger and several arrow tips.

"We are talking of small items, but they are extremely important as they are the first Achaemenid objects, thus dating to Cambyses' time, which have emerged from the desert sands in a location quite close to Siwa," Castiglioni said.

About a quarter mile from the natural shelter, the Castiglioni team found a silver bracelet, an earring and few spheres which were likely part of a necklace.

"An analysis of the earring, based on photographs, indicate that it certainly dates to the Achaemenid period. Both the earring and the spheres appear to be made of silver. Indeed a very similar earring, dating to the fifth century B.C., has been found in a dig in Turkey," Andrea Cagnetti, a leading expert of ancient jewelry, told Discovery News.

In the following years, the Castiglioni brothers studied ancient maps and came to the conclusion that Cambyses' army did not take the widely believed caravan route via the Dakhla Oasis and Farafra Oasis.

"Since the 19th century, many archaeologists and explorers have searched for the lost army along that route. They found nothing. We hypothesized a different itinerary, coming from south. Indeed we found that such a route already existed in the 18th Dynasty," Castiglioni said.

According to Castiglioni, from El Kargha the army took a westerly route to Gilf El Kebir, passing through the Wadi Abd el Melik, then headed north toward Siwa.

"This route had the advantage of taking the enemy aback. Moreover, the army could march undisturbed. On the contrary, since the oasis on the other route were controlled by the Egyptians, the army would have had to fight at each oasis," Castiglioni said.

To test their hypothesis, the Castiglioni brothers did geological surveys along that alternative route. They found desiccated water sources and artificial wells made of hundreds of water pots buried in the sand. Such water sources could have made a march in the desert possible.

"Termoluminescence has dated the pottery to 2,500 years ago, which is in line with Cambyses' time," Castiglioni said.

In their last expedition in 2002, the Castiglioni brothers returned to the location of their initial discovery. Right there, some 100 km (62 miles) south of Siwa, ancient maps had erroneously located the temple of Amun.

The soldiers believed they had reached their destination, but instead they found the khamsin -- the hot, strong, unpredictable southeasterly wind that blows from the Sahara desert over Egypt.

"Some soldiers found refuge under that natural shelter, other dispersed in various directions. Some might have reached the lake of Sitra, thus surviving," Castiglioni said.

At the end of their expedition, the team decided to investigate Bedouin stories about thousands of white bones that would have emerged decades ago during particular wind conditions in a nearby area.

Indeed, they found a mass grave with hundreds of bleached bones and skulls.

"We learned that the remains had been exposed by tomb robbers and that a beautiful sword which was found among the bones was sold to American tourists," Castiglioni said.

Among the bones, a number of Persian arrow heads and a horse bit, identical to one appearing in a depiction of an ancient Persian horse, emerged.

"In the desolate wilderness of the desert, we have found the most precise location where the tragedy occurred," Del Bufalo said.

The team communicated their finding to the Geological Survey of Egypt and gave the recovered objects to the Egyptian authorities.

"We never heard back. I'm sure that the lost army is buried somewhere around the area we surveyed, perhaps under five meters (16.4 feet) of sand."

Piero Pruneti, editor of Archeologia Viva, Italy's most important archaeology magazine, is impressed by the team's work.

"Judging from their documentary, their hypothesis of an alternative route is very plausible," Prunetic told Discovery News. "Indeed, the Castiglioni's expeditions are all based on a careful study of the landscape...An in-depth exploration of the area is certainly needed!"

From the source.

craft updates, apple head dolls & africa!

2009-11-10T07:56:00.006-05:00

I haven't really been working on anything lately, the headdress is still at a stall, I know what beads I'm buying to replace the Indian glass beads so whenever I feel like spending the money for them I'll resume the headdress craft. I made up a bunch of apple head dolls a few weeks ago and they're at the very last stages of drying so I'll get some of those pictures uploaded soon. Here they are when they were freshly carved and a couple photos of them after a week of drying. They look even better now and I’ll take pictures with my good camera so you can see all the details.

But the BIG news I have is… I’m going to Africa!!!!! I’m going to Johannesburg to visit my sister and her family for Christmas this year so I leave December 9th and I don’t come home till December 29th.. And the best part is my parents are also flying out there the 11th and they’re staying a whole month so we all get to hangout together. So the first week there we’re going on a week long safari at Kruger National Park and the last week I’m there we’ll be taking side trips in and around Joburg. I’m SOOOO excited and can’t WAIT to show you all the photos I’ll be taking.

Here's some shots of the apple heads in various states of drying:

i heart mushrooms - new craft

2009-10-15T08:49:00.004-04:00

Some photos of my little mushroom table sculptures.. in the beginning stages mind you, I'm planning on making a ton more in different styles, sizes, etc.. made from tree branch slices, twigs, and acorn caps... oh and I'm planning on making a full table and chairs set as well. the first photo started out as the table I was going to use but I want to make one with the bark still attached to the sides like the 2nd photo.

Roman Statues Found in Blue Grotto Cave

2009-09-28T11:30:00.000-04:00

Triton

Sept. 28, 2009 -- A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave.

Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods.

"A preliminary underwater investigation has revealed several statue bases which might possibly hint to sculptures lying nearby," Rosalba Giugni, president of the environmentalist association, Marevivo, told Discovery News.

Carried out in collaboration with the archaeological superintendency of Pompeii, the Marevivo project aims at returning the Blue Grotto to its ancient glory by placing identical copies of Tiberius' statues where they originally stood.

Celebrated for the almost phosphorescent blue tones of the water and the mysterious silvery light flowing through fissures in the rocks, the Grotta Azzurra, as the cave is called in Italian, is one of the top attractions in Capri.

The island was the capital of the Roman empire between 27 and 37 A. D., when Tiberius made a permanent home there to take advantage of the mild climate and its seclusion.

Dividing his time among 12 villas and orgiastic feasts, the emperor used to bath in the almost hallucinogenic blue light of the cave, swimming among naked boys and girls.

The story goes that those who displeased him were thrown into the sea from a rock near his Villa Jovis. Perched 1,000 feet above the sea with Mount Vesuvius's cone in the distance, this was the most magnificent of his residences on the island.

The Blue Grotto might have been equally amazing. In 1964, archaeologists recovered three statues from the sea bottom. One sculpture depicts the sea good Neptune, while the other two statues each represented the Greek god Triton, who was the son of Poseidon (Neptune, for the Romans).

According to the archaeologists, the position of the Tritons' shoulders (the arms are missing) would suggest that the marine creatures were blowing into large seashells as if they were trumpets.

Triton was known to carry a twisted conch shell, on which he blew to calm or raise the waves.

The recovered sculptures confirmed an account by Roman scholar Pliny the Elder (23 A.D. - 79 A.D.), who described the sea cave as populated by a Triton "playing on a shell."

Now on display at a museum in Anacapri, the three statues have provided a glimpse of the original setting of the Blue Grotto.

Magical Blue Waters

According to the reconstruction, a swarm of Tritons headed by Neptune might have lined the rocky walls of the cave. Bathed in the magic light of the grotto, the statues stood with waters at their knees.

During the Marevivo survey, aimed at finding the original bases of the three statues, divers found a total of seven bases at a depth of 150 meters (492 feet). This suggests that at least four other statues lie on the cave's sandy bottom.

"The sculptures were all placed at the same level. It is likely that other statues will come to light as the project continues with new underwater investigations," diver Vasco Fronzoni told Discovery News.

The Grotta Azzurra's reputation as a natural paradise was seriously threatened last month. The cave was closed twice due to fears that its waters had been contaminated by raw sewage.

Aimed at returning the grotto to its full ancient glory, the Marevivo project is also expected to pave the way to a more strict controls to preserve the natural wonder.

"By next summer, tourists to the Grotta Azzurra will enjoy a really unique experience," Giugni said.

From the source.

Treasure Trove Found in Farmer's Field

2009-09-28T09:05:00.001-04:00

Sept. 25, 2009 -- It's an unprecedented find that could revolutionize ideas about medieval England's Germanic rulers: An amateur treasure-hunter searching a farmer's field with a metal detector unearthed a huge collection of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver artifacts.

The discovery sent a thrill through Britain's archaeological community, which said Thursday that it offers new insight into the world of the Anglo-Saxons, who ruled England from the fifth century until the 1066 Norman invasion and whose cultural influence is still felt throughout the English-speaking world.

"This is just a fantastic find completely out of the blue," Roger Bland, who managed the cache's excavation, told The Associated Press. "It will make us rethink the Dark Ages."

The treasure trove includes intricately designed helmet crests embossed with a frieze of running animals, enamel-studded sword fittings and a checkerboard piece inlaid with garnets and gold. One gold band bore a biblical inscription in Latin calling on God to drive away the bearer's enemies.

The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes who invaded England starting in the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire. Their artisans made striking objects out of gold and enamel, and their language, Old English, is a precursor of modern English.

The cache of gold and silver pieces was discovered in what was once Mercia, one of five main Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is thought to date to between 675 and 725.

For Terry Herbert, the unemployed metal-detecting enthusiast who made the discovery on July 5 while scouring a friend's farm in the western region of Staffordshire, it was "more fun than winning the lottery."

The 55-year-old spent five days searching the field alone before he realized he needed help and notified authorities. Professional archaeologists then took over the find.

"I was going to bed and in my sleep I was seeing gold items," Herbert said of the experience.

The gold alone in the collection weighs 11 pounds and suggests that early medieval England was a far wealthier place than previously believed, according to Leslie Webster, the former curator of Anglo-Saxon archaeology at the British Museum.

She said the crosses and other religious artifacts mixed in with the military items might shed new light on the relationship between Christianity and warfare among the Anglo-Saxons -- in particular a large cross she said may have been carried into battle.

The hoard was officially declared treasure by a coroner on Thursday, which means it will be valued by experts and offered up for sale to a museum in Britain. Proceeds will be split 50-50 between Herbert and his farmer friend, who has not been identified. The find's exact location is being kept secret to deter looters.

Bland said he could not give a precise figure for the value of the collection, but said the two could each be in line for a "seven-figure sum."

Kevin Leahy, the archaeologist who catalogued the find, said the stash includes dozens of pommel caps -- decorative elements attached to the knobs of swords -- and appeared to be war loot. He noted that "Beowulf," the Anglo-Saxon epic poem, contains a reference to warriors stripping the pommels of their enemies' weapons as mementoes.

"It looks like a collection of trophies, but it is impossible to say if the hoard was the spoils from a single battle or a long and highly successful military career," he said.

"We also cannot say who the original, or the final, owners were, who took it from them, why they buried it or when? It will be debated for decades."

Experts said they've so far examined a total of 1,345 items. But they've also recovered 56 pieces of earth that X-ray analysis suggests contain more artifacts -- meaning the total could rise to about 1,500.

The craftsmanship was some of the highest-quality ever seen in finds of this kind, Leahy said, and many British archaeologists clearly shared his enthusiasm.

Bland, who has documented discoveries across Britain, called it "completely unique." Martin Welch, a specialist in Anglo-Saxon archaeology at University College London, said no one had found "anything like this in this country before."

Herbert said one expert likened his discovery to finding Egyptian Pharoah Tutankhamen's tomb, adding: "I just flushed all over when he said that. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up."

The collection is in storage at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, where some of the items are to go on display starting Friday.

It's unclear how the gold ended up in the field, although archaeologists suggested it may have been buried to hide the loot from roving enemies, a common practice at the time. The site's location is unusual as well -- Anglo-Saxon remains have tended to cluster in the country's south and east, while the so-called "Staffordshire hoard" was found in the west.

In the meantime, archaeologists say they're likely to be busy for years puzzling out the meaning of some of the collection's more unusual pieces -- like five enigmatic gold snakes or a strip of gold bearing a crudely written and misspelled Biblical inscription in Latin.

"Rise up, O Lord, and may thy enemies be dispersed and those who hate thee be driven from thy face," reads the inscription, believed to be from the Book of Numbers.

Also of interest is the largest of the crosses, which experts say may have been an altar or processional piece. It had been folded, possibly to make it fit into a small space prior to burial, and the apparent lack of respect shown to such a Christian symbol may point to the hoard being buried by pagans.

"The things that we can't identify are the ones that are going to teach us something new," Leahy said.

For England, a country at the edge of Europe whose history owes an enormous debt to the Anglo-Saxons, the find has the potential to become one of its top national treasures, according to Webster.

Caroline Barton, assistant treasure registrar at the British Museum, said objects over 300 years old and made up of more that 10 percent precious metal are only offered for sale to accredited museums in Britain, so the collection will not be leaving the country.

From the source.

umm yea...

2009-09-10T07:10:00.006-04:00

After looking at the picture of the original and what I made I'm DEFINITELY finding something else to use for the beads. Plus I have the spacing all wrong on this piece and I can't let it go.. haha..

I'm going with these:
4mm Sodalite stone beads, they're small, they're stone, and I feel like it will give the pieces the look I want. The red stone beads they have are a little too vibrant for what I'm thinking so I might have to find another source for them...

Pu'abi's Headdress Update

2009-09-10T07:04:00.002-04:00

Sometimes I hate what a perfectionist I am. I worked on one of the components of the headdress last night but I feel like the Indian Glass beads I used look cheap and like a child made it. I'm not sure if I should find some other kind of bead to use or just stick with what I have? I need to decide soon so I don't waste time with the other 2 parts that make up the headdress. Maybe I'll head to AC Moore this weekend to see if they have anything a little more closer to the original.

So anyways, this is how the first part of the headdress looks. This is the 12 leaf piece, the 24 overlapping leaf piece will sit under this piece, and the 12 "willow" leaf piece will sit on top of the bottom two. And I'm getting tired of staring at her bald head so I decided she needs a wig badly. I'm going to mix up something to put in her hair so I can style it and it will harden so it will look more like its sculpted then just a wig... I'm going to cut out and paint the remaining leaves I need for the 24 leaf piece tonight and after the trip to AC Moore this weekend I'll start stringing up the rest of it.

Queen Pu'Abi's Headdress Update

2009-08-31T06:31:00.002-04:00

So here's what I have so far.. The mannequin head primed and painted. The right size beads came in over the weekend so sometime this week I'll start on the actual headdress part. I'm most likely going to end up using the female attendant below as the model I'm recreating. I'm still going to make all of the headdress the Queen wore but just add it to whats on this woman.

cabinet cards - set 3

2009-08-26T08:22:00.005-04:00

Recreating Queen Pu'Abi's Headdress

2009-08-25T08:46:00.007-04:00

While reading though my one of my history books the other night, I came across a photo of the contents of The Royal Cemetery Of Ur and remember always admiring the amazing headdress worn by the Queen and the headdresses of her attendants. So I promptly decided to make that my new craft project since the other things I've got going on right now are pretty boring to me and I always liked a challenge. So I set out online to find a mannequin head to serve as the base for this piece and found a not too expensive of one for sale and snatched it it before I could be outbid. I think I'm going to paint a couple thin layers of plaster over the whole mannequin head so it loses its plastic look. She's also bald so I don't know if and how I’m going to add hair but I'll deal with that later.

The headdress is made up of a couple different parts so I'm taking each section apart and figuring out what I can do by all the photos and research I've been doing on it. The first part I started working on is the two separate strands of golden beech leaves. I'm recycling tin cans and cutting out the leaf shapes from that and embossing the leaf pattern then painting them gold. There's 12 leaves on the first stand and I’m guessing 24 on the second so I cut out the 12 leaves for the first strand last night and painted them gold. In the actual headdress the stem of the leaves act as the spacers to hold the strands in place, so on mine I'm going to have to figure out another way to make this happen. I'm probably just going to cut out a thin strip of tin can and poke two hole in it and slide that on the strands and paint the beads gold to look like its part of the tin can leaves I made. I thought I had enough blue glass seed beads to start the actual beading but I had to order and bunch last night so I’ll start the bead work whenever they come in, probably Thursday. For now I’m going to work on the remaining 24 leaves, and the 14 "willow" leaves for another part of the headdress. I'll post pictures of my progress tomorrow.

Keep an eye out for updates!

One of the headdresses found in the tomb.

Pharaohs' Tombs May Disappear, Egypt Warns

2009-08-20T08:58:00.001-04:00

Valley of the Kings

Aug. 19, 2009 -- The ornate pharaonic tombs in Egypt's Valley of the Kings are doomed to disappear within 150 to 500 years if they remain open to tourists, the head of antiquities has warned.

Zahi Hawass said humidity and fungus are eating into the walls of the royal tombs in the huge necropolis on the west bank of the Nile across from Luxor, which is swamped daily by several thousand tourists.

Poor ventilation and the breath of the hordes of visitors are causing damage to the carvings and painted decorations inside the tombs, he told journalists on a tour of the royal necropolis on Monday.

"The tombs (in the Valley of the Kings and nearby Valley of the Queens) which are open to visitors are facing severe damage to both colors and the engravings," Hawass said.

"The levels of humidity and fungus are increasing because of the breath of visitors and this means that the tombs could disappear between 150 and 500 years."

The Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens, where pharaonic royalty was mummified, is home to the tombs of legendary pharaohs such as the boy king Tutenkhamun and Queen Nefertiti.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities have taken a series of measures to protect the tombs, including setting up new ventilation systems, restricting the number of visitors and closing some tombs.

Hawass said the authorities have also decided "to close some tombs definitively to tourists and replace them by identical replicas," including those of Tutenkhamun, Nefertiti and Seti I.

"A team of experts is currently using laser technology to examine these tombs in order to build the replicas... which would then open to visitors in a place near the Valley of the Kings," Hawass said.

King Tut's tomb caused an international sensation when it was first discovered in 1922 by Briton Howard Carter and has not ceased to fuel the imagination because of the fabulous treasures that emerged from it.

The mummy of the "boy king", who was made pharaoh at the age of nine, was found in an ornate sarcophagus his face covered by a solid gold burial mask encrusted with semi-precious stones.

The 18th dynasty pharaoh reigned reigned 1333 and 1324 B.C. and died mysteriously at the age of 19. Some experts say he was assassinated, other blame the death on a gangrened leg.

His ancestry is also a mystery and Hawass said in June that DNA testing would be conducted to determine his parentage.

The pharaoh Akhenaten was thought to have fathered King Tut and his mother could have been Nefertiti, a foreign princess, or his wet nurse Maya.

Nefertiti, renowned as one of history's great beauties, was the wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten, remembered for having converted his kingdom to monotheism with the worship of one sun god, Aton.

But in March German researchers in Berlin said they have uncovered a second, hidden face within an iconic bust of Nefertiti, which indicates she may not have been the flawless beauty depicted on the bust's exterior.

The bust is on display in Berlin's Altes Museum and has been at the centre of a row with Egypt which has repeatedly demanded its restitution.

Seti I was one of ancient Egypt's greatest rulers and a formidable military commander from the 19th dynasty, whose tomb in the Valley of the Kings is the largest ever discovered but archeologists have yet to tap all its mysteries.

From the source.

cabinet cards - set 2

2009-08-20T08:49:00.004-04:00

Some more cabinet cards... I scanned in a bunch more the other night, I'll post some of my favorites from that set a little later...

the apartment

2009-08-17T06:33:00.005-04:00

After I got done cleaning this weekend I thought I would take a panoramic photo of the apartment to show ya the layout & collections.. It came out pretty nice, only a few places you can tell where the photos were stitched at.. I need to use a wider angle lens so you can get the full view but this will do for now...

c l i c k f o r l a r g e r
oh yea, and click again for the full screen zoom

Cave Complex Allegedly Found Under Giza Pyramids

2009-08-14T06:22:00.004-04:00

Caves at Giza

Aug. 13, 2009 -- An enormous system of caves, chambers and tunnels lies hidden beneath the Pyramids of Giza, according to a British explorer who claims to have found the lost underworld of the pharaohs.

Populated by bats and venomous spiders, the underground complex was found in the limestone bedrock beneath the pyramid field at Giza.

"There is untouched archaeology down there, as well as a delicate ecosystem that includes colonies of bats and a species of spider which we have tentatively identified as the white widow," British explorer Andrew Collins said.

Collins, who will detail his findings in the book "Beneath the Pyramids" to be published in September, tracked down the entrance to the mysterious underworld after reading the forgotten memoirs of a 19th century diplomat and explorer.

"In his memoirs, British consul general Henry Salt recounts how he investigated an underground system of 'catacombs' at Giza in 1817 in the company of Italian explorer Giovanni Caviglia," Collins said.

The document records that the two explored the caves for a distance of "several hundred yards," coming upon four large chambers from which stretched further cave passageways.

With the help of British Egyptologist Nigel Skinner-Simpson, Collins reconstructed Salt's exploration on the plateau, eventually locating the entrance to the lost catacombs in an apparently unrecorded tomb west of the Great Pyramid.

Indeed, the tomb featured a crack in the rock, which led into a massive natural cave.

"We explored the caves before the air became too thin to continue. They are highly dangerous, with unseen pits and hollows, colonies of bats and venomous spiders," said Collins.

According to Collins, the caves -- which are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years old -- may have both inspired the development of the pyramid field and the ancient Egyptian's belief in an underworld.

"Ancient funerary texts clearly allude to the existence of a subterranean world in the vicinity of the Giza pyramids," Collins told Discovery News.

Indeed, Giza was known anciently as Rostau, meaning the "mouth of the passages."

This is the same name as a region of the ancient Egyptian underworld known as the Duat.

"The 'mouth of the passages' is unquestionably a reference to the entrance to a subterranean cave world, one long rumored to exist beneath the plateau," Collins told Discovery News.

Collins' claim is expected to cause a stir in the Egyptological world.

Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has dismissed the discovery.

"There are no new discoveries to be made at Giza. We know everything about the plateau," he stated.

But Collins remarks that after extensive research, he found no mention of the caves in modern times.

"To the best of our knowledge nothing has ever been written or recorded about these caves since Salt's explorations. If Hawass does have any report related to these caves, we have yet to see it," Collins said.

From the source.

some recent purchases.... cabinet cards

2009-08-13T07:01:00.006-04:00

I picked up a few of these at the bottom of an old box at a flea market and that set me a quest to find some more online.. pretty cheap.. I found a bunch of sets of 6 for around $4 so I snatched them all up.. talk about acquiring a collection quickly, I have around 50 cabinet cards now so I'm just gonna post some of my favorites... as always, click to enlarge!

Hunter-Gatherer House Reveals Stone Age Lifestyle

2009-08-12T06:28:00.002-04:00

Stone Age Dwelling

Aug. 11, 2009 -- The remains of a 9,000-year-old hunter-gatherers' house, uncovered during construction at an airport, have been unearthed in Great Britain's Isle of Man. The house was surrounded by buried mounds of burnt hazelnut shells and stocked with stone tools, according to archaeologists working on the project and a report in the latest British Archaeology.

It is the earliest known complete house on the Isle of Man and one of Britain's oldest and best-preserved houses, according to the report. The find also offers a glimpse of domestic life 4,000 before Stonehenge.

Based on the many ancient shells found surrounding its exterior, the home's first inhabitants must have eaten a lot of hazelnuts.

"There were presumably so many hazelnuts near the house as a result of processing and consumption of these within the building," project manager Fraser Brown of Oxford Archaeology North told Discovery News.

"They may have been burnt because the shells were discarded into a fire after consumption of the fruit," he added. "When the hearth sweepings were cleaned from the building, the burnt nutshells and all else were cleaned to the periphery. Hazelnuts would have been an abundant and highly nutritious source of food that could easily be gathered in the autumn and stored for consumption through lean winter months."

A pit containing the structure's remains is about 23 feet wide and 12 inches deep. A ring of postholes around the edge, along with carbonized timbers, suggests the building's supports were about 6 inches thick.

In addition to the hazelnut shell mounds, the archaeologists also found a few hammer and anvil stones as well as approximately 14,000 flint artifacts that the researchers say once made up stone tools, such as fishing spears.

The hunter-gatherer residents "probably had a permanent base near the sea so that they could have easy access to marine resources, but given the small size of the Isle of Man, it would have been a simple matter to foray inland to exploit the different resources available there."

Once the residents arrived at the island by boat, they probably would have not strayed far from home since "they could obtain all that they needed locally," which could be the reason they set up a permanent home.

Remains of another hunter-gatherer home, found over two decades ago just 492 feet from this latest discovery, also contained a hearth, small stone tools and numerous hazelnut shells.

Mike Pitts, an archaeologist who is also the editor of British Archaeology, still wonders why burnt hazelnut shells would have been buried so prominently around the houses.

"Perhaps the smell of the burnt shells had some significance?" Pitts speculates. "Was it comforting, redolent of good meals, or could it have had a more complex, ritual meaning?"

Andrew Johnson, curator of Field Archaeology at Manx National Heritage in the Isle of Man, helped to monitor the recent excavation work.

Johnson told Discovery News, "I would regard the finds as being of national importance for the Isle of Man, and certainly of international significance in that they add to what at present is only a very small number of Mesolithic buildings found in Northwest Europe."

From the source.

Fun Friday

2009-07-31T06:44:00.003-04:00

Love love love this photo... The Pond-Moonlight by Edward Steichen. It's sold at auction for $2.9 million.. Wish one of my photos would be worth that much.. LOL

c l i c k f o r l a r g e r

hello dear friend

2009-07-31T06:35:00.002-04:00

Whenever I get into one of my creative funks I have to stop and remind myself that I have a TON of half finished projects laying around so instead of stressing over not creating anything, why don't I just pick up where I left off.. So last night I started back up on the paper mache secretary desk that's been sitting for a few months and worked on that for a few hours.. Another few hours this weekend and the bulk of the project will be done, after that I moved on to a mosaic I've been working on too. It's of my teddy bear, Anner Bear (When I was little I tried to name him Andrew Bear but Anner is how it came out and the name stuck). My Grandmother gave him to me when I was born so he's been with me for 28 years and yes... I still sleep with him, much to the annoyance of my boyfriend.. So I figure he's not going to last forever so I wanted to make something I could have after he falls apart. So all that's left is filling in the background and the "A" & "B". I was going to do a plain white background but I'm still thinking it over. Pictures below.

remember fun friday?

2009-07-21T08:40:00.005-04:00

Fun Friday was where I posted some of my favorite artwork and I forgot all about it so I'm changing it to Fun Whatever Day and I'm posting whenever I want! So here ya go: Dante And Virgil In Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau

c l i c k f o r l a r g e r

work is the curse of the drinking class

2009-07-15T20:23:00.004-04:00

This is a letter to one Rex Mellville, I have a bunch of letters to him that will be featured on The Forgotten Mailbox but I just loved the look of this typed letter so I decided to scan it and post it instead. Bob is quite the character!

c l i c k f o r l a r g e r

Scanned Ephemera

2009-07-15T20:12:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to share with you some of my favorite old pieces from a recent purchase in high-rez so you can download it and use if for your digital art projects and whatnot.... =) enjoy!

The Forgotten Mailbox - April 23, 1959 - Frances Summers to her Mother

2009-07-15T19:29:00.023-04:00

Mrs. Frank R Summers
Box 506
Kings Mountain, NC

                                                                                                           Thursday A.M. Apr 23

Dear Mother,

Appreciated your note yesterday. And the little poem was so nice – probably shouldn’t of called, but wanted to talk to you – hope to see Frank too.

It helped to get moved back up town yesterday; at least I know what I was doing – Ate lunch at the banks cafeteria – lobster newburg, cottage cheese, etc – even “lusted” over on “sweet tater” pie – Anytime you or Va want to eat up there, just come on –

Mary Jane & Mrs. Miller asked me to eat with them today – Janice Jones (the nurse in Oratonio) and I are going to supper Friday nite before the rehearsal at the auditorium at 9:00 –

Saw Mr. Motley Plonk & Thad Harrison yesterday – Asked about you – Mr. Poter looked a little better.

Dropped by and gave Mr. Tibbs a few cigars – his birthday – he had a real bad day – he asked about you too.

Hope the sun will soon come out as to help all our morales – and the “mess” in the basement too –

All My Love –

Frances

New Feature On The Blog - The Forgotten Mailbox

2009-07-15T19:11:00.004-04:00

I’ve been scouring eBay for months looking to buy someone’s old journal or diary. Reading about these people’s lives and what they did, even the most mundane things interests me. The only problem is, old handwritten journals and diaries are expensive! There’s really not that big of a market for it, only a handful of them are available that reach into the $200’s and above.. So the next best thing I thought would be old letters so once I switched my search to Etsy.com for old letters, bingo! I was on my way to starting a new collection. Fast forward 2 weeks and I’m now in possession of over 50 letters that I’ve decided to type up and post on here to let everyone else read and enjoy them as well. So look forward to a new feature here on (semi)creative genius, The Forgotten Mailbox. Each week I’ll post another letter from the same person until I move on to the next. If possible I’m going to link to things they’re talking about in the letters, recipes, maps of where they lived, etc to make it a more interactive experience.

2 new designs from jroo[[designs]]

2009-06-15T20:00:00.004-04:00

2 more for ya,

art deco inspired "fishies" antiqued gold filigree drops dangling with gunmetal chain with a single fresh water pearl attached on the end.

art deco inspired checkerboard black & white swarovski crystals mismatched pair. The crystals on the left reflect the crystals on the right in reverse.

new from jrOo[[designs]]

2009-06-07T20:58:00.005-04:00

I spent most of the weekend creating some new pieces of jewelery since I've been super lazy lately and haven't made anything in a long time. All are available for purchase on my etsy.com page.

Human sacrifice: Dozens of Incas killed in ritual found in Peru

2009-06-05T14:19:00.001-04:00

Archaeologists in Peru have discovered the remains of nearly three dozen people sacrificed some 600 years ago by the Incan civilisation.

The bodies, some of which show signs of having been cut along their necks and collarbones, were otherwise found in good condition, said Carlos Webster, who is leading excavations at the Chotuna-Chornancap camp.

The sprawling 235-acre archeological site is 12 miles outside the coastal city of Chiclayo, near the ancient tomb of Sipan, which was one of the great finds of the last century. The sacrifices were made just decades before Spanish explorers arrived in what is now Peru.

Although archeologists regularly find evidence of human sacrifice from Incan and pre-Incan cultures, it is rare to find the remains of 33 people in one place, researchers said.

Scientists say human sacrifice was common within the Incan culture, which flourished immediately before the arrival of the Spanish in what is now parts of Peru, Chile and Ecuador between 1400 and the mid-1500s.

"Most of the remains belong to young women, around 15 years of age. One of them appears to have been pregnant because in her abdomen, the collarbone of a fetus, probably around 4 months, was found," Mr Webster said of the latest find, made over the past year and a half.

"The majority (of the bodies) are in good condition - skin tissues and hair have been preserved. They were found in a dry area more than 7 feet underground," he said.

Incan civilisation is best known for the city of Machu Picchu, the ruins of which are Peru's top tourist destination and considered one of the new seven wonders of the world.

2009 Northbrook Canoe Challenge - Soaaaked

2009-06-05T08:00:00.006-04:00

My friend Tara and I thought it would be a fun day out if we signed up for the 2009 Northbrook Canoe Challenge, a 9 mile canoe race where all proceeds go towards Cerebral Palsy research. In our mind we thought it would be a nice sunny day with a leisurely trip down the Brandywine Creek... boy we were wrong! It ended up being the weekend where it rained all week long, including the Sunday the race was on. So we stuck it out and did the 9 mile race, in the pouring rain! At first we said we weren't going to race, just take our time and enjoy the day but once we got in the water and I would see a canoe ahead of us I would push Tara to pass them, so in the end we came in 15th place in our category.. 52nd place in the whole race. It was our first time so I'm sorta proud of those numbers but whatever.. it was a lot of fun! We capsized twice and went underwater but since we were already soaked from the rain it wasn't that much of a shock.. We would of had a better time if we didn't capsize the 2nd time, the entire canoe filled with water and we had to drag it to shore to dump it out so the 5 people we passed zoomed right pass us during that..

Urine, Fingernail-Filled 'Witch Bottle' Found

2009-06-05T07:51:00.003-04:00

Potent Contents

June 4, 2009 -- During the 17th century in England, someone urinated in a jar, added nail clippings, hair and pins, and buried it upside-down in Greenwich, where it was recently unearthed and identified by scientists as being the world's most complete known "witch bottle."

This spell device, often meant to attract and trap negative energy, was particularly common from the 16th to the 17th centuries, so the discovery provides a unique insight into witchcraft beliefs of that period, according to a report published in the latest British Archaeology.

Lead researcher Alan Massey, a former chemist and honorary fellow of Loughborough University, believes "the objects found in witch bottles verify the authenticity of contemporary recipes given for anti-witchcraft devices, which might otherwise have been dismissed by us as being too ridiculous and outrageous to believe."

An Old Bailey court record from 1682 documents that a husband, believing his wife to be afflicted by witchcraft, was advised by a Spitalfields apothecary to "take a quart of your Wive's urine, the paring of her Nails, some of her Hair, and such like, and boyl them well in a Pipkin."

The excavated bottle appears to have been made according to those, or similar, instructions.

CT scans and chemical analysis, along with gas chromatography conducted by Richard Cole of the Leicester Royal Infirmary, reveal the contents of the bottle to include human urine, brimstone, 12 iron nails, eight brass pins, hair, possible navel fluff, a piece of heart-shaped leather pierced by a bent nail, and 10 fingernail clippings.

Although some 200 early witch bottles have been identified, all were found opened, with their contents likely eroded or otherwise lost. This artifact, in contrast, had its cork closure still intact.

The urine contained nicotine, so a smoker produced it. Since the fingernails showed little wear, Massey believes the individual was "of some social standing."

Brimstone, the ancient name for sulfur, is associated with passages in several religious texts, including the Bible. In the Book of Revelations, for example, "false prophets" were cast into a volcano-like lake "burning with brimstone."

In terms of the heart object, Massey said other witch bottles were found to contain "a cloth heart pierced by brass pins," but "this is the first example where a nail was used for this function." The meaning remains unclear.

Witch Bottle

The bottle itself is actually a salt-glazed jar made in the Netherlands or Germany and stamped with the face of Cardinal Roberto Bellarmino (1542-1621), who played an important role in the Catholic Reformation.

Massey believes witch bottles "emphasize just how frightened people were of the 'black arts' -- the early settlers even took their superstitions to the New World with them as excavated witch bottles demonstrate."

The general time period of the bottle coincides with the Salem Witch Trials, which happened in late 1600's America.

Archaeologist Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, told Discovery News, "The discovery of something so apparently bizarre, indicating a clear belief in witchcraft and forces that have nothing at all to do with conventional, approved religion, remind us that early modern England did not belong to the same world we now inhabit."

From the source.

Mammoths Roasted in Prehistoric Kitchen Pit

2009-06-05T07:45:00.004-04:00

One Big BBQ

June 3, 2009 -- Central Europe's prehistoric people would likely have been amused by today's hand-sized hamburgers and hot dogs, since archaeologists have just uncovered a 29,000 B.C. well-equipped kitchen where roasted gigantic mammoth was one of the last meals served.

The site, called Pavlov VI in the Czech Republic near the Austrian and Slovak Republic borders, provides a homespun look at the rich culture of some of Europe's first anatomically modern humans.

View a slide show of the prehistoric grill site here.

While contemporaneous populations near this region seemed to prefer reindeer meat, the Gravettian residents of this living complex, described in the latest issue of the journal Antiquity, appeared to seek out more super-sized fare.

"It seems that, in contrast to other Upper Paleolithic societies in Moravia, these people depended heavily on mammoths," project leader Jiri Svoboda told Discovery News.

Svoboda, a professor at the University of Brno and director of its Institute of Archaeology, and colleagues recently excavated Pavlov VI, where they found the remains of a female mammoth and one mammoth calf near a 4-foot-wide roasting pit. Arctic fox, wolverine, bear and hare remains were also found, along with a few horse and reindeer bones.

The meats were cooked luau-style underground. Svoboda said, "We found the heating stones still within the pit and around."

Boiling pits existed near the middle roaster. He thinks "the whole situation -- central roasting pit and the circle of boiling pits -- was sheltered by a teepee or yurt-like structure."

It's unclear if seafood was added to create a surf-and-turf meal, but multiple decorated shells were unearthed. Many showed signs of cut marks, along with red and black coloration. The scientists additionally found numerous stone tools, such as spatulas, blades and saws, which they suggest were good for carving mammoths.

Perforated, decorative pebbles, ceramic pieces and fragments of fired clay were also excavated. The living unit's occupants left their fingerprints on some of the clay pieces, which they decorated with impressions made from reindeer hair and textiles.

Some items might have held "magical" or ritualistic significance, according to the scientists. One such artifact looks to be the head of a lion.

"This carnivore head was first modeled of wet clay, then an incision was made with a sharp tool, and finally the piece was heated in the fire, turned into some kind of ceramic," Svoboda explained. "We hypothesize that this may be sympathetic magic."

"Sympathetic magic" often involves the use of effigies or fetishes, resembling individuals or objects, and is meant to affect the environment or the practitioners themselves.

Archaeologist Erik Trinkaus of Washington University supports the new study, saying the site was "excavated meticulously" by Svoboda and his team.

"This is one more example, in this case from modern detailed excavation and analysis, of the incredibly rich human behavior from this time period,"Trinkaus told Discovery News.

A Lion Head?

From the source.

From the Library Of Drew

2009-04-09T07:29:00.006-04:00

I have a fairly small collection of books from the late 1800's and always wanting to add on to this collection, off to eBay I went! I love the smell of old books, the history of them, who owned them before, etc. I especially love antique poetry books and ended up buying these 3. I won't spend more than $20 for a book for my collection so all of these were under that price. The most I spent on a book recently is $50 but that was a gift for my dad, but more on that later...

The first book I picked up was The Poetical Works of Lord Byron. What started me on this whole book buying spree was I read an article a month or so ago about Lord Byron and then a few days later on an episode of Antiques Roadshow someone brought in a wine cabinet that belonged to Lord Byron so the name came up again. The following morning I looked up some of his work and printed it out to read on the train but then decided I wanted to do a search on eBay for antique poetry books. Well wouldn't ya know it but the 3rd listing down was for that Lord Byron book.

The 2nd book, The Dramatic Works Of Edward Bulwer Lytton was a whim purchase, it was only $4.50 so I thought why not. Lord Lytton is considered a bad writer today, but was quite popular when he was alive. He was the one who coined the phrases "It was a dark and stormy night", "the pen is mightier than the sword" and "pursuit of the almighty dollar". I figured it would be interesting to read more of his work since some of his quotations are so popular and well heard of today.

Finally the 3rd book I purchased is Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. It has a ton of works from various poets including Francis Bacon, Robert Burns, Coleridges, John Dreyden, Goldsmith, Keats, Nash, Walter Scott, Shakespeare, Shelley, Wordsworth, and many more. The reason I bought this is so many poets are included so I have a ton of material to read plus this book as well as the first book I purchased are from the same publisher and from the same series of books they put out in the 1880s, The Crowell's Red Line Poets series. So they have really beautifully designed covers and gilded edges.

I would of had 3 more books to write about but unfortunately I lost the bid on eBay to only 50¢! I was devastated because all 3 were only going to cost me $20.00, two of which were from the Red Line Poets series. I watched the auction for 2 hours and in the last minute I put my bid in and in the last couple seconds I was outbid. I should of waited till the last 20 seconds to put the bid in to guarantee the win but I didn't.. I'm still not over it.. LOL

it's been awhile....

2009-04-09T07:24:00.004-04:00

I haven’t blogged in awhile so here’s a little update. My birthday was on the 1^st, I know.. Happy Birthday to me… As an early birthday gift to myself I bought a laptop! It’s an HP mini netbook so it’s smaller than a traditional laptop but with all the same functions. I absolutely love it. My parents bought me A Fruit Bat specimen for my collection and I must say it’s the one creature in my collection that’s a little unsettling when I look at it. It’s VERY creepy. Instead of asking for gifts from my sisters, this year I decided to tell them to give me the money they were going to spend on gifts for me and I was going to donate it to the World Wildlife Fund. So They gave me money and I added some as well and donated $50 to the WWF. It’s not a lot but it will help and I’m glad I did it. I also participated in Earth Hour on the 28^th, I tried to get everyone I know to do it as well but it seems like I was the only one who actually did. I made my boyfriend sit and eat dinner in candle light, haha but he didn’t see it as romantic just annoying because he couldn’t watch TV.

Currently Reading: Wildlife Wars My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures

2009-03-30T22:11:00.006-04:00

My dad let me borrow this book yesterday and I'm already half way though it. My sister Kim lives in South Africa so our whole family has a fascination for Africa. This is going to be my parents 3rd trip out there, 2nd time to Kruger and I couldn't be more jealous. Kim keeps urging me to come out there so when I get some money saved I'm totally there.

In this sequel to his 1983 memoir One Life, paleontologist Leakey writes about his appointment in 1989 to a mismanaged Wildlife Department in his home of Kenya. He immediately realized the unprecedented challenge that he faced in not only revitalizing the agency but also combating the precipitous decline in Kenyan wildlife, most particularly, the African elephant. One of his first decisions was to burn rather than sell tons of confiscated ivory. This sent a strong message that his department would be unwavering in opposing the ivory trade. He backed this up by reorganizing the department into the Kenyan Wildlife Service and arming his rangers to do battle with poachers. This, combined with international lobbying against the ivory trade, did much to bring the elephant back from the brink of decimation, but the cost included continual conflict with other government officials and the loss of his legs in a suspicious 1993 plane accident. He joined an opposition political party after a smear campaign but has now rejoined the government in a new role. Wildlife readers will find few animal stories here; this is a political story. At times, even Leakey himself admits that he is not a consummate political player, but as an effective champion of wildlife he appears to have few equals.

I'm going to order his memoir when I'm though with this book so I can't wait to start reading that.

Giza Pyramids Align Toward City of Sun God

2009-03-30T17:35:00.002-04:00

The Giza Pyramids | Discovery News Video

March 24, 2009 -- Some of Egypt's most magnificent pyramids were deliberately designed to follow a pattern of invisible diagonal lines, an Italian study has concluded.

According to Giulio Magli, professor of archaeoastronomy at Milan's Polytechnic University, these invisible lines would connect most of the funerary complexes raised by the kings of the Old Kingdom between 2630 and 2323 B.C.

"Following these diagonals, it appears clear that the arrangement of the monuments was carefully chosen in order to satisfy a number of criteria, which include dynastic lineage, religion and astronomical alignments," Magli told Discovery News.

Published on the Cornell University physics Web site arXiv.org, the study examined the chronology and geographical location of all the pyramids of the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties, from the Step Pyramid of Djoser (2630-2611 B.C.) to the now-collapsed pyramid of Unas (2356-2323 B.C.), both in Saqqara.

"Our starting point was the so-called 'Giza diagonal,' an ideal line which connects the southeast corners of the three main pyramids and points to Heliopolis. This was an important religious center sacred to the sun god," Magli said.

While the pyramids of Khufu, the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, and his son Khafre were easily aligned along the diagonal, the pyramid of Menkaure, Khufu's grandson, had to be built very far into the desert to sit on the line of sight toward Heliopolis.

"But there is more. As a consequence of this intentional alignment, the second smaller pyramid becomes invisible from Heliopolis, its mass being covered by Khufu's larger pyramid," Magli said.

Why would Khafre position his pyramid so that it becomes invisible from the city sacred to the sun god?

According to Magli, the illusion might indicate a sign of respect for the sun god, and it might also have also launched a "symbolic invisibility" model which governed the planning of the pyramids up to the end of the Fifth Dynasty.

"Under this model, the funerary monuments of the pharaohs stand one after another, marking the dynastic link with the preceding pharaoh," Magli said. "They are linked by a diagonal which points to Heliopolis."

Attaching new pyramids to the "Giza diagonal" became increasingly difficult as the line extended far into the desert.

"It wasn't by chance that a new pyramid field rose in Abu Sir. This is the first available location in the south from which Heliopolis is not visible, although a diagonal can be drawn to link it to the city of the sun," Magli said.

The northwest corners of three chronologically successive pyramids in Abu Sir -- those identified with the tombs of Sahure, Neferirkare and Neferefre -- align on a diagonal similar to that of Giza, said Magli.

Again, the line points to Heliopolis, though the view is blocked by the rock outcrop which today is occupied by the Cairo citadel.

"Although of topographical-dynastical origin, these diagonals probably also included a deep astronomical meaning," Magli added.

He found that the Abu Rawash, Giza, and Abu Sir diagonals point to three stars -- Sirius, Crux-Centaurus, and Canopus, respectively. These stars sat in alignment over the pyramids when viewed from Heliopolis.

"This is an interesting and thought-provoking study," said David Jeffreys, senior lecturer in Egyptian archaeology at the University College London and an expert on the topography of Heliopolis.

"I am not necessarily convinced that celestial observations were of paramount importance, but Giulio Magli may have a point," Jeffreys told Discovery News.

From the source.

Luna Moth & Birch Trees... a weekend update

2009-03-23T07:29:00.005-04:00

I'm saving for a vacation so I PROMISED myself I wouldn't buy anything for awhile, but alas.... I did.. I told you the story about how I tried to pin my own Luna Moth specimen and how badly it turned out and not wanting to wait until they're out in full force to go and try to find a new one, I just ended up going back to that eBay store and buying one. $30 whatever.. it's not going to break my bank account and I'll finally have one. Also this weekend I started my birch tree wall project, I saw these decals on etsy awhile back but I figured I could paint it myself. So after figuring how how big I wanted them and how many, I got to work sketching them out on the wall with chalk and painting them in. I did the first one Friday night, the 2nd on Saturday and the 3rd last night. They only take about an hour per tree but I don't know if I would feel like sitting there and getting them all done at once. I'm going to the the 4th and 5th one today and tomorrow and depending on how big the span is of the trees are (I want it to be a little bigger than the size of the dining room table so it just looks better) I might add a 6 tree to the mix. I figured since that wall has to get repainted anyways when we move out I might as well do something fun on it.

Female 'Vampire' Unearthed in Venice

2009-03-16T06:19:00.001-04:00

Vampire or Victim? | Discovery News Video

March 14, 2009 -- An archaeological dig near Venice has unearthed the 16th-century remains of a woman with a brick stuck between her jaws -- evidence, experts say, that she was believed to be a vampire.

The unusual burial is thought to be the result of an ancient vampire-slaying ritual. It suggests the legend of the mythical bloodsucking creatures was tied to medieval ignorance of how diseases spread and what happens to bodies after death, experts said.

The well-preserved skeleton was found in 2006 on the Lazzaretto Nuovo island, north of the lagoon city, amid other corpses buried in a mass grave during an epidemic of plague that hit Venice in 1576.

"Vampires don't exist, but studies show people at the time believed they did," said Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University who studied the case over the last two years. "For the first time we have found evidence of an exorcism against a vampire."

Medieval texts show the belief in vampires was fueled by the disturbing appearance of decomposing bodies, Borrini told The Associated Press by telephone.

During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.

"These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies," Borrini said. "But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: 'This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud.'"

Modern forensic science shows the bloating is caused by a buildup of gases, while fluid seeping from the mouth is pushed up by decomposing organs, Borrini said. The shroud would have been consumed by bacteria found in the mouth area, he said.

At the time however, what passed for scientific texts taught that "shroud-eaters" were vampires who fed on the cloth and cast a spell that would spread the plague in order to increase their ranks.

To kill the undead creatures, the stake-in-the-heart method popularized by later literature was not enough: A stone or brick had to be forced into the vampire's mouth so that it would starve to death, Borrini said.

That's what is believed to have happened to the woman found on the Lazzaretto island, which was used as a quarantine zone by Venice. Aged around 60, she died of the plague during the epidemic that also claimed the life of the painter Titian.

Much later, someone jammed the brick into her mouth when the grave was reopened. Borrini said that marks and breaks left by blunt instruments on several among more than 100 skeletons found by the archaeologists show that the grave was reused in a later epidemic.

Such a reconstruction of events is plausible, as is the link to the superstitions about "shroud-eaters," said Piero Mannucci, the vice president of the Italian Society of Anthropology and Ethnology.

"Maybe a priest or a gravedigger put the brick in her mouth, which is what was normally done in such cases," Mannucci said.

The anthropologist, who did not take part in Borrini's research, said that at a time when bacteria were unknown, such superstitions were a way for the terrified population to explain the waves of plague epidemics that killed millions during the Middle Ages. Jews were also often accused of spreading the disease.

Borrini said the discovery shows that vampires in popular culture were originally quite different from the elegant, aristocratic blood-drinker depicted in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel "Dracula" and in countless Hollywood revisitations.

"The real vampire of tradition was different," he said. "It was just a decomposing body."

From the source.

buying stuff...... again

2009-03-06T08:01:00.002-05:00

I have a problem, and at least I can admit to it but I seriously buy something like every week, the past few months its rare that I haven't been waiting for a package to arrive. My reasoning is if all my bills are paid, I'm putting money away in my savings and if I have something left over... why not buy something I want?! It's so bad that last night, in anticipation for pay day, I was looking around for a Buckeye butterfly specimen for my collection (my sister Jen and I share this as one of our favorite North American butterflies) and I found this A M A Z I N G eBay store that has every kind of butterfly you could ever imagine... needless to say I was happier than a pig in shit! I ended up buying the North American Buckeye and a Madagascar Sunset Moth. The store makes their own frames too so you have 6 color options AND the specimens are mounted on parchment paper with the classification of the butterfly printed in pretty scroll font, it has a very old world/antique feel to it and it fits in with my whole style I already got going in the apartment.

paper mache secretary desk update

2009-03-05T08:24:00.002-05:00

Here are the beginning shots of the progress I'm making on the paper mache secretary desk. The first shot is the boxes I'm recycling for the project, the second shot is setting up the shelf placement and the third shot is the shelves all attached and a coat of sealer so the moisture from the paper mache doesn't warp everything. Next up is making the drawers for the 3 lower shelves, I made one last night but it fits pretty snugly in there so I need to cut it down a bit so when I add the layer of paper mache it will still be able to slide in and out with no problem. I'm still debating on if I should paper mache the whole base first and then make the drawers since I'll know how thick of a layer the paper mache is an not have to remake the drawers. I think this is the smartest way to go about this, I'm not trying to make up all 3 and then not have them fit when they're ready to go in. So this weekend I'll probably just paper mache the whole base. Stay tuned for the next update.

thrift store finds

2009-03-05T08:02:00.001-05:00

The past weekend before death came knocking on my door (I've been incredibly sick since Saturday, today is the first day I feel somewhat better) I went trolling to the various thrift stores I always go to looking for some hidden treasures.The first one I went to was down by my parents house, they had some good stuff but its priced so high now, I remember going there when i still lived at home and you could find some awesome shit for cheap. So I found the clock in the photos below, it was $20 as is but I couldn't pass it up, it was quirky and odd so I just had to have it. The two men on the top saw back and forth and everything is hand carved. I just need to buy a new motor for it and the one pin holding the seconds regulator is bent so after I straighten that all out it will be a working clock again. I looked online to see if I could find any info on it and I found a website that sells the woodworking plans to make it and the site also sells replacement motors so fixing it will be no problem.

Moving on to the next thrift store I came across these wood, plaster and real fur animal figurines. I spotted the mom and baby Cuvier's Gazelle first sitting on top of a display cabinet and picked them up, they were only $10 each so I figured why not. While waiting in line I was looking inside the cabinet and saw the bear figure and as well, I reminded me a lot of Winston's fur (my dog) so I snatched that one up too.. In the checkout the woman told me they were all half off so they were all just $5 each so I decided to buy the giraffe figure too since everything was so cheap. I ended up with 4 awesome figurines and I found this roll of really super vintage wallpaper, I'll have to cut out a section and scan it, it really is wild! So it ended up being a good day, now I gotta find room for all of it.. LOL

the butterflies - the pictures

2009-03-05T07:11:00.004-05:00

I promised to take better photos of the new butterflies for the blog so here they are, they came out pretty nice considering I took the photos though the glass. I still need to get some good photos of all my other insects to post here, and get a better photo of the Atlas Moths my Dad bought for me. Enjoy the pictures!

yippie kay yay!!

2009-02-22T14:39:00.004-05:00

Check out this sweet vintage fabric from the 50's I just bought!

I've been meaning to try and find some of this fabric for awhile now so I can make some pillows for our couch or do something with it.. I love vintage cowboy & indian stuff so this fabic is right up my alley. Right now the pillows are the front runner but I might figure out something else to make out of them by the time I actually get the sewing machine out.. gotta love eBay

Cache of Ice Age Fossils Found in L.A.

2009-02-19T08:15:00.001-05:00

Recovering L.A.'s Ice Age Population | Discovery News Video

Feb. 18, 2009 -- Scientists are studying a huge cache of Ice Age fossil deposits recovered near the famous La Brea Tar Pits in the heart of the nation's second-largest city.

Among the finds is a near-intact mammoth skeleton, a skull of an American lion and bones of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, bison, horses, ground sloths and other mammals.

Researchers discovered 16 fossil deposits under an old parking lot next to the tar pits in 2006 and began sifting through them last summer. The mammoth remains, including 10-foot-long tusks, were in an ancient riverbed near the fossil cache.

Officials of the Page Museum at the tar pits plan to formally announce their findings on Wednesday. The discoveries could double the museum's Ice Age collection.

Such a rich find usually takes years to excavate. But with a deadline looming to build an underground parking garage for the next-door art museum, researchers boxed up the deposits

"It's like a paleontological Christmas," research team member Andie Thomer wrote in a blog post in July.

The research dubbed "Project 23" -- because it took 23 boxes to house the deposits -- uncovered fossilized mammals as well as smaller critters including turtles, snails and insects. Separately, scientists found a well-preserved Columbian mammoth that they nicknamed Zed.

An examination reveals Zed, which is 80 percent complete, had arthritic joints and several broken and re-healed ribs -- an indication that he suffered a major injury during his life.

"It's looking more and more as if Zed lived a pretty rough life," Thomer blogged in December.

Some scientists not connected with the discovery said this is the first significant fossil find since the original excavations at the tar pits more than a century ago.

"Usually these things are either lost in the mixing or not recovered in the processing of the oily sand and soil they occur in," paleontologist Jere H. Lipps of the University of California, Berkeley wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

The La Brea Tar Pits ranks among the world's famous fossil sites. Between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago, mammoths, mastodons, saber-tooth cats and other Ice Age beasts became trapped by sticky asphalt that oozing upward through cracks and fissures in the ground. The newly recovered fossils were also in asphalt.

Since 1906, more than a million bones have been unearthed from the sticky ponds.

From the source.

new obsession

2009-02-18T08:04:00.007-05:00

I never really got into the whole audio book thing, I guess I'm old fashioned and actually like to hold a book in my hand to read it but the other day I searched for audio books for download and came across CBS Radio Mystery Theater, don't know why it was classified as an audio book but nonetheless I download one and gave it a listen. WOW.. everyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for stuff like this, old time radio (though it started in the 70s) broadcasts of macabre & spooky stories, with the corny drama music they used in old time soap operas.. its campy and plain fun. So after listening to the first one yesterday on the way home from work I searched for them again and ended up downloading 50 or so more. I'm so excited to start listening to the rest of them, I did a search online this morning and found a site that sells the complete run of the series from 1974-1982, all 1399 episodes for $40! So maybe I'll end up buying the whole set, but for now I'll enjoy what I have. I definitely recommend checking them out (Make a donation and you can listen to all 1399 episodes!).. now....back to Invaders From Atlantis!....

from the sketch pad.....

2009-02-18T07:01:00.003-05:00

Since I like to keep busy and I'm almost done with the curiosity cabinet, my mind was searching for a new project to start yesterday (not that I don't have a ton of other things going on but they're more side projects and I need a new main project) I came up with the idea for a new piece of paper mache furniture. On Antiques Road Show a few weeks back I saw this miniature secretary desk that's been in this family since the 1660's, filled with newspaper clippings, family photos, historical documents, the list goes on and on. It was really the coolest thing ever to have all that stuff in one place and to be able to trace your family history back that far is amazing. So I pulled out my sketch pad with all my ideas and got to drawling and came up with this.

Just a small table top version for my desk at home, it's going to be made the same way as the curiosity cabinet but a lot more detailed with the drawers that pull out. I'm thinking maybe 24inces long 20inces high? I have to play around with sizes a bit, I don't want it to big but not super tiny either. I'm going to get some boxes this weekend and start constructing and prepping it for the first layer of paper mache.. I'm still not sure on the finish I'm going to use either. The brown paper bags I've used for the other pieces are nice but I might try something different this time, maybe with dark brown tissue paper, I've done some books that have been covered in this method and they came out looking really neat so maybe just the outside finish will be that the the regular smooth brown paper bags inside.

13,000 species found in Arctic, Antarctic Oceans

2009-02-16T08:16:00.007-05:00

February 16, 2009 - A marine census has documented more than 13,000 species in the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans, including several hundred that may be new to science.

Conducted over a two-year period under often perilous conditions — including monster waves, freezing seas, and dangerous polar bears — the series of 18 surveys turned up a wealth of information on the diversity, distribution and abundance of marine life. The research will also help establish a baseline for measure changes in polar ecosystems.

This is a photo of sand fleas (amphipod crustaceans) under nearshore ice in the Beaufort Sea. Ice-associated amphipods are a major food source for Arctic cod, in turn the main prey for ice seals. Credit: Photo credit: Shawn Harper, University of Alaska Fairbanks / COML

"The polar seas, far from being biological deserts, teem with an amazing quantity and variety of life," Dr. Ian Poiner, Chair of the Census Scientific Steering Committee for the Census of Marine Life (CoML), said. "Only through the co-operation of 500 people from more than 25 countries could the daunting environmental challenges be overcome to produce research of such unprecedented scale and importance. And humanity is only starting to understand the nature of these regions."

Chionodraco hamatus, an Antarctic ice fish, can withstand temperatures that freeze the blood of all other fish types. This finger-lengthed juvenile was photographed in 2008.

The tiny crustacean Gaetanus brevispinus is among 235 found to live in both Arctic and Antarctic waters. All photos courtesy Russ Hopcroft, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Census of Marine Life

"In these unique oceans, where the water temperature is colder at the surface than below, we are establishing the first benchmarks of marine biodiversity against which change may be measured, a significant polar year legacy for future generations," he continued. "The significant investment of nations, the skills of scientists from the many ocean research disciplines, and the social network of the Census of Marine Life made it happen."

The surveys surprisingly turned up dozens of species found in both seas, despite a separation of 13,000 kilometers. Now the scientists have to determine how these species — including worms, crustaceans, and angelic snail-like pteropods — originated and how they ended up on both poles.

The researchers also studied sections of seafloor that have been exposed to sunlight for the first time in 100,000 years due to melting ice. They found an abundance of sea life. The researchers have now accumulated more nearly one million marine life observations from both the Arctic and the Antarctic in a pair of marine biodiversity databases.

"One hundred years ago, Antarctic explorers like Scott and Shackleton saw mostly ice," said Victoria Wadley of the of the Australian Antarctic Division. "In 2009, we see life everywhere."

"We have filled in major blank spots on the Arctic map, and continue to add more, though big unobserved areas remain," added Russ Hopcroft of the University of Alaska.

To date the census has recorded 7,500 animal species in the Antarctic and 5,500 in the Arctic. Scientists estimate some 230,000-250,000 species live in the world's oceans.

CoML has relied heavily on new technology for the surveys. Researchers are using cell phone-like devices to track marine mammals like narwhals and have employed deep water optical systems on Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to study delicate marine animals too fragile to collect as well as record video of penguins and seals under Antarctic ice. Meanwhile rapid DNA sequencing has enabled scientists to quickly identify new species.

The effort has also helped raise awareness about marine life and the polar environment.

CoML, which is conducting surveys of all the world's marine ecosystems, aims to present its full results on Oct. 4,
2010.

From the source.

j u s t w o w

2009-02-13T12:39:00.009-05:00

The butterflies I ordered came in the mail yesterday and all I could say was WOW. The specimens are gorgeous, nice and bright and beautiful. I hung them on the wall but I'm going to do a better arrangement over the weekend because I don't like how they look now with all the other specimens. I'm running out of room on that wall! The specimens are:

The Common Commander - Limenitis procris
The Spotted Sawtooth - Prioneris thestylis
The Fivebar Swordtail - Graphium antiphates
The Tailed Jay - Graphium agamemnon
The Cruiser - Vindula arsinoe

The Tawny Rajah - Charaxes bernardus
The Yellow Nawab – Polyura jalysus
The Constable - Dichorragia nesimachus
The Common Mormon (male) - Papilio polytes
The Hill Jezebel - Delias belladonna

The Yellow Moth - Dysphania militaris
The Common Tiger - Danaus genutia
The Red Helen - Papilio helenus
The Siam Tree Nymph - Idea leuconoe

The Spot Swordtail - Graphium nomius
The Archduke - Lexias pardalis
The Dark Blue Tiger - Tirumala septentrionis
The Lime Butterfly - Papilio demoleus
The Common Indian Crow - Euploea core

The Striped Albatros - Appias libythea
The Common Jay - Graphium doson
The Lemon Emigrant - Catopsilia pomona
The Common Mormon (female) - Papilio polytes
The Great Orange Tip - Hebomoia glaucippe

They are tagged with their common names and I spent last night researching their Latin names just because I like to know all that info, where they're from, life cycle and all that good stuff. I'm definitely going to buy from this guy again.

And I got a male and female specimen of the Atlas Moth:

The Atlas Moth - Attacus atlas

c l i c k f o r l a r g e r i m a g e

If you want to get an idea of what each specimen looks like the list above is separated into the vertical lines of the butterflies, so starting from the left would be The Common Commander, The Spotted Sawtooth, etc. I plan of taking detailed shots of each specimen so keep an eye out for a future post with those.

Darwin at 200: Still Evolving

2009-02-13T08:02:00.001-05:00

"I Think..." | Discovery News Video

Feb. 9, 2009 -- It's well known that Charles Darwin's groundbreaking theory of evolution made many people furious because it contradicted the Biblical view of creation. But few know that it also created problems for Darwin at home with his deeply religious wife, Emma.

Darwin held back the book to avoid offending his wife, said Ruth Padel, the naturalist's great-great-granddaughter. "She said he seemed to be putting God further and further off," Padel said in her north London home. "But they talked it through, and she said, "Don't change any of your ideas for fear of hurting me.'"

The 1859 publication of "On the Origin of Species" changed scientific thought forever -- and generated opposition that continues to this day. It is this elegant explanation of how species evolve through natural selection that makes Darwin's 200th birthday on Feb. 12 such a major event.

More than 300 birthday celebrations are planned in Britain alone, where Darwin's face graces the 10-pound bill along with that of Queen Elizabeth II. Shrewsbury, the central England town where Darwin was born and raised, is holding a month-long festival for its most famous son. And a permanent exhibition re-creating some of his most famous experiments is opening at Down House, his former home near London.

Many more events are planned worldwide, including the Second World Summit on evolution in the Galapagos islands in August. In Australia, the Perth Mint is putting out a special commemorative silver coin.

Even Darwin's ideological adversaries concede that he was a towering figure.

"He was clearly extremely important, his thinking changed the world," said Paul Taylor, a spokesman for Answers in Genesis, a prominent group that rejects Darwin's theory of evolution in favor of a literal interpretation of the Bible. "We disagree with his conclusions, with the way he made extrapolations, but he was a very careful observer and we've got a lot to be grateful for."

Bob Bloomfield, special projects director at London's Museum of Natural History, said Darwin was cautious not only because he didn't want to offend his wife, but also because he understood that the concept of man's evolution from other animals was controversial. He didn't want to present it simply as a hypothesis, but as an explanation buttressed by many observations and facts.

"He knew he had to make an absolutely iron-cast case for his theory," Bloomfield said. "He was one of the earliest true scientists where everything he was prepared to write about had to be based on evidence."

Darwin's small, handwritten diaries are on display at a major exhibit at the Museum of Natural History, as well as thousands of specimens he collected. Some came from his fabled five-year trip to South America aboard the Beagle, when he visited the remote Galapagos Islands and saw how some species had adapted to its strange, demanding environment.

The diaries offer insights into Darwin's meticulous, analytical approach. He even lists the pros and cons of getting married.

The advantages? A wife would be a constant companion, a friend in old age, and fill the house with music and feminine chitchat. The cons? Losing the freedom to come and go as he pleased and to read as much as he wanted at night. Visiting relatives. And he would have to spend money on children, not books.

After much deliberation, Darwin renounced the single life: "One cannot live this solitary life, with groggy old age, friendless and cold, and childless staring one in ones face, already beginning to wrinkle," he concluded.

It is in the diaries that Darwin's personality best comes through, said Padel, one of 72 great-great-grandchildren.

"That's where his real life was," said Padel, an acclaimed poet. "He had the most amazing sense of wonder. He was always thinking, 'How does that work?' And that led him to everything."

Once he married, Darwin turned his family into willing research assistants. He enlisted his wife to play piano to a jar of earthworms placed on the piano lid to see if they would respond to music (they didn't).

Stephen Keynes, a great-grandson, said Darwin also enlisted his children to throw flour on bees so the path of their flight could be followed. There are no reports of any of the children being stung.

"He was the most wonderful father, ever," said Keynes, 81. "He allowed his children access to his study where he was working at any time."

Darwin was also an innovator at home. He put wheels on the chair in his study so he could get to his specimens more quickly -- and, bingo, the modern office chair was invented.

His passion to understand nature's unseen workings made him a frequent visitor to the London Zoo, where he made friends with an orangutan called Jenny. He offered Jenny a mouth organ and showed her her reflection in the mirror. He also noted that when her keeper would not give her an apple, she pouted and sulked like a child. These seemingly trivial observations helped Darwin develop his theory that man evolved from primates.

"He was very interested in the expressions of animals and in particular primates and how similar they could be to humans," said Becky Coe, an education director at the zoo, which is setting up a temporary "Darwin Trail" using animals to help explain evolution. Coe said Darwin went back to the zoo time and time again to make sure he had physical evidence for every aspect of his theory.

Darwin's inquisitiveness outlasted his physical vigor.

"Late in life when he was quite ill, he would look at plants curling up at the window, bending to the light, and he would wonder, 'How do they do that?'" said Padel. "He was constantly thinking of relationships and that led him to understand natural selection. He realized that every population is in competition with every other. He realized that is how species adapt, because they are always competing for light, water and food."

What would he be doing if he were alive today?

Padel thinks he would probably be studying DNA and the immune system. And she thinks the great scribbler would be online much of the time. "He'd be a demon at e-mail," she said.

From the source.

giving it another shot

2009-02-11T07:39:00.005-05:00

Ok Ok, I know I said I would never try to collect and pin my own insects ever again BUT I sorta want to now. I spent last night reading though the chapter of insect collecting in my Peterson's Field Guide and the idea of going out on excursions looking for butterflies with my net and collecting specimens really appealed to me (in my mind I saw myself as Darwin out in the field collecting specimens and sketching them in my journal) lol, plus I think collecting your own is so much more rewarding than just going online and buying what you want. To be able to look on the wall at a specimen that you caught, pinned and tagged is a better story to tell than, yea I bought it online. I'm having a moral dilemma with it though because I'm killing this beautiful thing for the purpose of hanging it on my wall?! I'm trying to rationalize it by saying their life cycles are only a few days, a week at the most and they're just going to die or be eaten anyway so whatevs... I forget where I read the alcohol pads killing jar method so maybe that was the reason why the first time I tried didn't work out so well. I'm going to make a killing jar the way the field guide says to with ethyl acetate and hope that does the trick. I'll get everything ready and come spring/summer, the hunt is on.

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree

2009-02-09T08:16:00.006-05:00

My dad and I are soo much alike when it comes to building/making/crafting things that I wanted to share with you one of his current projects. He used to have a really elaborate outdoor train set around our fishpond in the back yard but since we're not in a climate where this can stay year round the outdoor railroad ended up being dismantled and one of the outdoor houses that resembled my parents house sat around in my parents basement for awhile. Fast forward a few years and my dad retiring and then BAM! craft explosion.

Since he has so much free time now and when he can find time in between the jobs my mom has him doing he works on building dioramas of wars with tons and tons of miniature figures and this.... an almost exact replica of their house.. It started out with just a paint job to resemble ours and then my dad found a working miniature light that looks like the light we have on our front lawn, from there it got more and more detailed.

When I gave him a box of extra sculpey I had laying around, things really went crazy. I'm not one for sculpting, I'll make some random things here and there out of sculpey but the things my dad is doing is just wow. We have a suit of armour on our front porch (you can see when I get my eccentricities from) and he made a miniautre one for the model house, along with bird baths, bird feeders complete with birds, our mailbox, etc. And during my visits over there I end up searching online for him and buying him more and more stuff to make the house look even better. So the gargoyle on the front lawn (again eccentric) I bought him a miniature one, and the fench section for the rose garden I found for him.

So enjoy the shots below. I wonder what his next project will be? =)

Annnd yes, my parents house is that color purple.
I grew up in a big Victorian Painted Lady.

yesterday was a good day

2009-02-09T07:04:00.006-05:00

Ahhhh yesterday.... 62 degrees in the beginning of February was such a nice break from the blistering cold (and 8 inches of snow 5 days ago) so I decided to go over to my parents early and enjoy the day. I LOVE going to my parents, we just hangout and and talk, my dad and I trade stories about our various craft projects we have going on and I help my mom out with whatever computer problems she has.

While talking yesterday I brought up this music box that I remember from when I was little above the one window in our living room and asked my mom about it. It was a little bigger than a 8x10 picture frame with a mirrored back and it had a dried flower scene with butterflies in it and the one butterfly flew around on the glass when the music played. So I asked about it with hopes that she would gift it to me if she knew how much I liked it and it turns out that she just found it the other day when she was cleaning out the basement, she put it in her yard sale pile! So she said I could have it, she went down and got it for me and it still works!! I took it apart to clean the mirror and the inside glass because it sat for the past 10 years in our basement but after a few minutes of cleaning it was nice and clean and my new treasure.. It plays "Fly Me To The Moon" and the butterfly that fly's around the glass is a Common Buckeye butterfly. My mom told me that my grandfather gave her the music box when her and my dad were first dating.

Also when my dad and I were talking I told him about the butterfly specimens I bought the other day so I showed him the specimens and the other butterfly & moth specimens this eBay seller has and I told him how much I liked the Atlas Moth specimens he had on the website so my dad offered to buy them for me since I always buy him stuff for his crafts. So I left my parents yesterday with a treasured music box from my childhood AND a 2 specimen Atlas Moth for my collection.

Just so you can get an idea of just how big Atlas Moth's are (Atlas Moths are considered to be the largest moths in the world in terms of total wing surface area) here's a picture of one being held in an adult man's hand. The specimen I bought is a male and female specimen and the frame is 10.75 wide and 15 inches high so the specimens I got wingspan is probably around 8inches..

On a side note, I used to think I would be able to catch bugs and pin them myself instead of buying them so I thought I would give it a try. My old job at the dry ice factory was set deep in the woods so I would take my breaks and walk around outside and find the most amazing moths hanging around the lights. These are where I got all the moths for these pictures I used to take. So one of said moths, the Luna Moth was so beautiful that I wanted to try to pin myself. I searched online for ways to kill them (horrible I know) and made a killing jar (a Tupperware container with a grate in it, you put pads soaked in alcohol in the bottom and lay the insect on the grate above, shut it up for an hour and your ready to pin) So after an hour I took him out, had such a horrible time putting a pin though his chest (the worst moment ever) and pinned his wings back how I wanted them, put the lid on the pinning box and left him to sit until he dried and was ready to mount. Well I come back 2 days later to check on him and when I take the lid off his wings were all cut up from where I put the pins and I thought maybe someone moved the box and they came undone, well I decided to blow on the Luna Moth for some reason and as soon as I did he started flapping his wings! I guess he was only knocked out from the killing jar and not all the way dead. I was ready to cry, I felt so horrible for pinning him and leaving him in a dark box alone for two days with a pin though his chest. It was the single worst thing I can ever remember doing. So from then on I decided that I'm too much of a wimp to handle that again and I'll just buy my specimens for now on...

butterfly update

2009-02-06T09:52:00.005-05:00

I told you I can get obsessive sometimes. After striking out with the 15 butterfly set for $50 I set out to find another website that would have something similar. So I searched and searched and everything is way more expensive and then I remembered.... Ebay... DUH... sooooo I found a great seller who deals everything butterflies and ended up buying this...

25 butterfly specimens for a grand total of..... $50! So thanks to the other site being out of stock I get 10 more specimens for the price of the 15 set.. IN YOUR FACE FOR BEING OUT OF STOCK!

annoyed

2009-02-06T08:16:00.006-05:00

I've been on a break from my insect collecting for awhile now and I really want to get back to it, my parents bought me this amazing Tarantula specimen for Christmas that I LOVE, the one I have now is a replacement for the first one whose one leg was broken in shipment. The first one was much larger than the replacement but whatevs, it's still pretty bad ass. It's mounted in a double glass frame so you can see the underside of it as well, photo below.

I have a few old butteries in one frame that I bought at the Chelsea flea market last time I was up in New York but I've been wanting to get some newer butterflies because these have definitely faded over time. So I've been coveting a butterfly specimen set on this website for months and today I finally decided to buy it. 15 butterflies for $50 is a good deal so I go to add it to my cart and what a surprise.... out of stock... I guess other people know a good deal when they see it. So I'll just have to wait until it comes back in. They have a 25 butterfly collection for $100 which is really nice but I don't know if I'm willing to spend all that right now.

mummie dearest

2009-02-06T07:10:00.007-05:00

I watched this awesome show about the Capuchin Catacombs the other night and I definitely want to see this sometime before I die...

The Catacombs located in Palermo, Italy, date back to 1599 when the local priests mummified a holy monk for all to see. From there it grew into the collection they have now until local authorities discontinued the practice in 1920 with the submission of Rosalia Lombardo, which the show was mainly based on, and the embalming process that was used to keep her looking so lifelike even today.

We've been planning a trip to Italy sometime this summer or next summer, so hopefully we can make this a stop...

'Green Magic' Protected Egyptian Child Mummies

2009-02-05T18:34:00.003-05:00

Protection for the Afterlife | Discovery News Video

Feb. 5, 2009 -- A rare mummified child from the early period of Egyptian history was discovered buried with a bright green amulet stone once believed to hold magical powers, according to a new study.

The finds help to explain why hieroglyphics and historical texts record that Egyptian children wore green eye makeup. It also adds to the growing body of evidence that ancient Egyptians thought color itself held sacred energy that could help or hurt individuals.

Lead author Raffaella Bianucci explained that the first Egyptian colored amulets occurred as early as the predynastic Badarian period, from 4500 to 3800 B.C. The recently analyzed child mummy, containing the remains of a 15- to 18-month-old toddler, dates to 4,700 years ago.

"Even in limited forms and materials, these earliest amulets give a good indication of the dangerous forces that the early Egyptians felt were present in their world and needed to be harnessed by magical means," said Bianucci, a scientist in the Department of Animal and Human Biology at Via Accademia Albertina in Turin, Italy.

She and her colleagues first examined the child's remains, which were wrapped in linen bandages. Immunological evidence determined that the youngster died from an acute malarial infection.

The researchers then turned their attention to a fossilized leather bag tied with linen twine, which was wrapped in the bandages with the mummy. Two stones were found within the bag. The researchers focused on a bright green one, found poking through the fossilized leather.

Powerful X-rays, as well as scanning electron microscope analysis, revealed that the stone was chrysocolla, or hydrated copper silica, according to the paper that will be published in the March issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science. To this day, chrysocolla is valued as an ornamental stone that, in its bluer forms, is sometimes confused with turquoise.

Bianucci said malachite was a more common green mineral in early Egypt, since chrysocolla ores were limited to very few in the Sinai and the Eastern Egyptian Desert. Chrysocolla may have been special for children, as archaeologists previously unearthed a small figure of a child made of the green material in another grave.

"In ancient Egypt, color was an integral part of the substance and being of everything in life," she said, explaining that green -- the color of new vegetation and growing crops, including the treasured papyrus plant -- was linked to health and "flourishing." Chapter 30 of the Book of the Dead, an ancient Egyptian funerary text, instructs that a scarab beetle amulet be made of green minerals and placed at the heart of mummies.

Bianucci continued that, based on such records, red was the color of life and victory, white suggested omnipotence and purity, black was a symbol of death and the night, blue symbolized life and rebirth and yellow was thought to be eternal and indestructible, like the sun and gold.

In terms of the child mummy's green amulet, she said, "We can hypothesize that (the parents) wished their child to be protected from unwanted influence and to be healthy in its afterlife."

Salima Ikram, a professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, told Discovery News that "the study was very well executed" and "is just what we need to shed light on the cultural practices and beliefs of the ancient Egyptians."

"The fact that the child was buried with a chrysocolla bead is very interesting as it is rare to have such an identification," Ikram added. "Clearly this was an amulet that was interred with the child in an effort to ensure its safety in the afterworld -- a pity it did not protect the infant in this one."

Related Links:

Ancient Egyptian Magic

Mummies of Ancient Egypt

How Stuff Works: Amulet

From the source.

Bones Reveal Harsh Life of Colonial America

2009-02-05T18:31:00.002-05:00

Forgotten Lives Revealed in Bone | Discovery News Video

Feb. 5, 2009 -- It's a tale of toil, starvation and death, set forth in messages from the grave.

The saga of life in 17th century America -- "Written in Bone" -- goes on display Saturday at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Some 340 objects, including artifacts and human bones, are on display for two years, with discussions of how cold cases from colonial times shed light on what life was like for some of the earliest English and Africans to settle in America.

The exhibit is "a fascinating window into the lives of our nation's earliest colonists," observed museum director Cristian Samper.

Since 1992 researchers have unearthed the remains of hundreds of early settlers around Chesapeake Bay.

"Now we can get to know these individuals, learn about how they lived and sometimes how they died," said forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley, curator of the exhibit.

Added co-curator Karin Bruwelheide: "Stories more amazing than you can ever imagine can be revealed by this type of investigation."

Indeed, among the stories told in the exhibit is the mystery of a grave found in 2002 just outside the palisade at Jamestown.

The bones of a man 5-foot-3, aged 30 to 36, yielded no obvious cause of death. Nothing clearly identified the occupant other than a captain's staff and coffin, indications that he was someone important.

Records show four men in that age group died in the early years of the Jamestown colony 400 years ago.

One died after a brief illness, which would leave no clue in the bones, and was recorded as buried in the parade ground just outside the walls.

Now, nameless no longer are remains believed to be those of Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, who led an expedition to New England in 1602, named Cape Cod for the fish and Martha's Vineyard for his daughter, and captained Godspeed, one of the three ships that sailed to Virginia in 1606.

Included is a life-size figure of Gosnold, dressed in captain's garb of the time.

Owsley, who often assists police in their investigations, said the exhibit offers a look at how forensic science works.

There is a public fascination with forensics thanks to television shows, he explained, but those can sometimes be misleading, Owsley said. "This gives us a chance to show the science -- how we know what we know."

The bones on exhibit tell a tale of lives lived and lost.

"Lifelong, backbreaking labor marked the bones of men, women and children who tended fields. Most are nameless now, their stories lost -- until we find their remains," proclaims the greeting for visitors in a section on working life.

For example, consider tailor's notches and shoemakers femur.

Studying these ancient bones tells the scientists that one lady was a tailor, her front teeth marked by tiny notches from holding pins. Another thigh bone shows its owner was a shoemaker, the bone changed by the pounding of leather and nails into boots braced on the man's leg.

A look at medical care of the time includes a set of 17th century medical tools -- a sight not for the squeamish.

From the source.

Pagan Cult Mosaic Found Under Cathedral

2009-02-03T13:13:00.000-05:00

Ivy Crown | View a slide show of the mosaic here.

Feb. 3, 2009 -- A Roman mosaic floor filled with scenes depicting pagan rites and oriental gods has emerged from the ground of a Catholic church in Italy, archaeologists announced.

View a slide show of the mosaic here.

The mosaic pavement, which measures 13 square meters (140 square feet) and dates to the fourth century A.D., was unearthed at a depth of about 4 meters (13 feet) below the the ground's surface during archaeological investigations in the crypt of the Cathedral of Reggio Emilia, in central-northern Italy.

"The size and design of the mosaic pavement suggest that it formed the floor of a huge room. We believe this was the residence of a wealthy Roman," Renata Curina, the archaeologist in charge of the dig, told Discovery News.

The fact that depictions of pagan gods had lain for hundreds of years just a few meters under the cathedral doesn't come too much as a surprise, according to the archaeologist.

"The church was built on top of preexisting building structures. This is rather normal in Reggio Emilia. We can see that little care was taken of the mosaic floor, since pillars are built on top of it," Curina said.

Made up of small tesserae -- tiny tiles -- of different materials, which include colored stones, glass cameos and golden leaves, the intricate mosaic floor features geometric designs of circles and squares with little figures of dancers, flowers and birds such as magpies and peacocks.

What makes the mosaic unique, however, are three large mythological scenes.

"So far all scenes show naked figures. We are still trying to figure out their meaning. I believe that more clues might come to light as we continue to dig," Curina said.

The scenes are rather unusual. One shows a naked man falling into someone's arms, another displays two naked figures -- a man and a woman -- wearing jewels. The woman holds a just caught fish, while the man holds two live ducks.

Another extraordinary scene shows a naked man wearing an ivy crown and holding a lotus flower in his right hand.

In his left hand, the mysterious character holds a lituus. This is a crooked cane which in ancient Rome was used by the augurs as a cult instrument. The cane was regarded as a symbol of a priestly group.

The augurs were religious officials who observed natural signs, such as the flight of birds, in order to interpret them as indications of divine approval or disapproval.

"Symbols such as the lotus flower and the ivy crown might hint that this was a private room dedicated to the cult of oriental gods," Curina said.

According to Luigi Malnati, superintendent of archaeological heritage in Emilia Romagna, such pagan scenes must have been pieced together before 380 A.D., the year when the emperor Theodosius proclaimed Christianity the state religion. Indeed, a series of decrees in 391-392 A.D. banned and punished pagan cult practices within the empire.

"This is one of the most important and interesting mosaics in northern Italy. It stands out for its size, design and refined technique," Malnati said.

Roger Ling, a professor of classical art and archaeology at the University of Manchester, U.K., and the author of "Ancient Mosaics," agreed. "It's a sensational discovery," Ling told Doscovery News.

Once fully detached and restored, the mosaic will be put on display at a local museum.

From the source.

Earliest Chemical Warfare Felled Roman Fort

2009-02-02T07:49:00.003-05:00

The Lone Persian | Discovery News Video

Jan. 30, 2009 -- A cramped tunnel beneath a Middle Eastern fort might have produced the oldest evidence of chemical warfare, according to a CSI-style review of archival records.

Presented at the recent meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, the review focused on the dramatic remains of 20 Roman soldiers unearthed in the 1930s in the city of Dura-Europos, Syria.

Sitting on a cliff overlooking the Euphrates River, the Roman fort at Dura was the site of a violent siege by the powerful Persian Empire around 256 A.D.

No historical record of the battle exists, but archaeological remains have helped piece together the action.

The Persians used a range of siege techniques to enter the city. These included laying mines in tunnels underneath the walls to breach them. Intending to hold their ground at all costs, Roman defenders responded with counter-mines.

In the 1930s, archaeologists unearthed dramatic evidence of the fight: In one of the tunnels, a pile of bodies, still completely fitted with their weapons and armor, testified the horrors of the battle.

At the time, the researchers believed that the trapped Roman soldiers had died after the tunnel collapsed.

The reality was more gruesome, according to Simon James of the University of Leicester in England.

Mixing archival records and extensive fieldwork at the site, James was able to reconstruct the coldest of cold-case crime scenes, and came to the conclusion that the Roman soldiers had been deliberately stacked atop one another at the mouth of the countermine by the Persians.

"They used their victims to create a wall of bodies and shields, keeping Roman counterattack at bay while they set fire to the countermine, collapsing it," James said.

A question, however, remained: How did the Roman soldiers die? Killing almost two dozen fully armed men in a space less than 6 feet high and 36 feet long would have required "superhuman combat powers, or something more insidious," James concluded.

The Coldest Case | Discovery News Video

He noticed that previous reports described telltale mineral residues and yellow sulfur crystals in the tunnel.

"These provided the vital clue. When ignited, such materials give off dense clouds of choking gases," James said.

According to James, the Persians, who had heard the Romans tunneling, "prepared a nasty surprise." They placed fire pits strategically throughout the tunnel, and when the Romans broke through, the Persians gassed them by adding sulfur crystals and bitumen to the fire. This filled the tunnel with toxic sulfur dioxide gas.

James' "crime scene" also included the skeleton of a Persian soldier, lying alone.

"Probably, he is the man who set the fire. He lingered too long to ensure it was alight, and was himself overcome by fumes from the bitumen and sulfur he used to start the blaze," James told Discovery News.

According to Adrienne Mayor, a visiting scholar at Stanford University's Department of Classics and History of Science, most of the reconstruction of the underground battle mentioned in James' study "were already revealed by major excavations in 1920 to 1937 by teams from France and Yale University, and after 1986 by French-Syrian teams."

Mayor described the skirmish in the tunnel and the presence of burnt residue in her 2003 book "Greek Fire, Poison, Arrows and Scorpion Bombs."

"But James adds vivid new details, based on his careful analysis of the evidence. His real breakthrough is the remarkable fact that the Persian deliberately created a chemical weapon," Mayor told Discovery News.

The Persians failed to bring the walls down but somehow broke into the city. It was the end for Dura: Defenders and inhabitants were slaughtered or deported to Persia.

From the source.

almost done!

2009-02-02T06:49:00.006-05:00

I took advantage of the break in the cold weather yesterday (51 degrees!) to finally start the paper mache on the base of the cabinet. I was waiting for warmer weather so I could paper mache out on the patio because I knew I would be a total slob and get the goo everywhere in the apartment. So I started around 11:30 and took maybe 3 breaks throughout the day and by 4:00 I was done. I still have to do the underside of the bottom shelf but I'm not to concerned with that yet since you can't even see it. I waited for an hour or so for the paper to dry just a bit before I started with the center branch idea I had. I just wanted to get it all together and up on the shelf last night so I'll have less to do in the coming weeks to finally finish it. But the center branch came out good, I was worried about the patina the branch I was using and the small branches for the birds to perch on wouldn't match up but its really close. At the end of the day I was so tired I just ended up taking the crappiest photos of the finished cabinet, I'll take better ones tonight. Photos below.

'Iceman' Oetzi Attacked Twice, Suggests Study

2009-01-29T07:28:00.002-05:00

Oetzi Today | Discovery News Video

Jan. 28, 2009 -- Oetzi, the 5,000-year old man whose frozen body was discovered in a glacier in the Alps in 1991, may have been attacked not once but twice in his final few days, German researchers said on Wednesday.

It was known that Oetzi, the oldest ice mummy ever found, was shot in the back with an arrow but scientists at Munich's LMU university have now concluded that he may have survived this, if only for a few minutes or hours at most.

And in addition to his being whacked with a blunt object just before Oetzi's 46-year existence in the Neolithic Age ended, he also sustained a nasty gash in his hand several days earlier, the LMU said.

"We are now able to make the first assertions as to the age and chronology of the injuries," said Professor Andreas Nerlich, who led the study. "It is now clear that Oetzi endured at least two events resulting in injury in his last days, which may imply two separate attacks."

The new research, done together with the Institute for Pathology in Bolzano, Italy, is also giving science critical new information about life more than five millennia ago, not least from his equipment, the LMU said.

His copper axe, for example, reveals that metalworking was already much more advanced in that era than was previously assumed, and his body gives many details as to his diet and state of health.

Oetzi's body was found in an astonishing state of preservation in the eastern Alps near the Austrian-Italian border in 1991 thanks to 5,000 years in the deep freeze.

From the source.

moss garden cloche

2009-01-27T08:24:00.003-05:00

I've been meaning to get a moss garden put together for the apartment for awhile but as usual I got distracted by other things and this went on the back burner for a bit. The first time I saw cloche bell jars used indoors was in the movie What Lies Beneath, Michelle Pfeiffer's character had 3 of them on a table in her hallway and I've always loved how it looked and wanted to do something like that for my apartment. Luckily my friend Matt works for this amazing nursery and they had quite a selection to pick from so after I picked out which one I wanted he got to work and made one up for me. Now that I have one I want to do a few more of other plants and maybe do a longer rectangular one with more kinds of moss. Photo below.

Zeus Cult Sacrificed Animals on Mountaintop Altar

2009-01-27T08:10:00.002-05:00

Collector's Item | Discovery News Video

Jan. 26, 2009 -- Burnt animal bones, petrified lightning and a bronze male hand grasping a silver lightning bolt have all been unearthed at the mountaintop site of a Mycenaean Greek cult whose members gathered around an "open fire altar," according to University of Pennsylvania Museum archaeologists.

The evidence suggests the cult worshiped Zeus, the "king of gods" in Greek mythology, more than 3,200 years ago at the top of Mt. Lykaion in Arcadia.

Getting to the site is a challenge, even now.

"It was most certainly a pilgrimage and a trek," project field director David Gilman Romano told Discovery News. "It still feels like that to us today."

Romano, who also is a senior research scientist in the museum's Mediterranean Section, added that "Zeus was a sky god, and the lightning bolt was one of his important emblems."

Romano and his team dug a trench at the high-altitude site and uncovered a trove of artifacts, including burnt bones -- mostly from goats and sheep -- human and animal figurines, drinking vessels, miniature bronze tripods, silver coins and a small double-headed axe known as a labrys, a motif incorporated into labyrinths found elsewhere in Greece and around the world.

Although the excavation is ongoing, a paper on the first three years of the project is in the works for Hesperia, the journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

The bronze male hand holding the silver lightning bolt likely represents Zeus, according to the archaeologists. It was found near a sample of glass-like fulgurite, otherwise known as petrified lightning, which is formed when lightning strikes sandy soil. It is not clear if the fulgurite was formed on the mountain or elsewhere.

"The altar would have been situated on top of the hill and may have been represented by a ring of stones," Romano said, adding that it was flanked by a nearby sacred area known as a temenos, which appeared to have no temple or other structure.

Early writings suggest that Mycenaean cult members sacrificed animals -- and possibly even humans -- before feasting. Romano and his colleagues haven't found any human bones at the site, but indicated they would not be surprised if they did.

The mountaintop site "is quite different in nature" from other lower elevation cult locations throughout Greece. In terms of the Mycenaean culture, marked by epic conquests dramatized by the poet Homer, cult meeting places were usually rooms or buildings connected to palaces. They often contain frescoes, statuettes and votive offerings.

The recent discoveries support the writings of Pausanias, a second century B.C. Greek historian who described "the birthplace of Zeus" at Arcadia in his multi-volume Description of Greece. Other early historians claimed it was in Crete on Mt. Ida.

Pausanias wrote, "On the highest point of the mountain is a mound of earth, forming an altar of Zeus Lykaios, and from it most of the Peloponnesos can be seen. Before the altar on the east stand two pillars....On this altar they sacrifice in secret to Lykaion Zeus."

In addition to searching for human remains on the mountaintop, the archaeologists continue to look for a shrine to Pan -- god of mountain wilds -- that historical texts suggest might be nearby.

From the source.

some scary ish...

2009-01-23T08:42:00.003-05:00

what if?.......

click on the triangle on the video and switch to the HQ view.. much better..

fun friday

2009-01-23T07:43:00.004-05:00

I saw this plate awhile back and this is the inspiration for the vertical branch idea I have for the big middle shelf of the curiosity cabinet. I have a small feathered bird collection that I’m going to attach to branches that I drill and glue into the main vertical branch.

John James Audubon: Birds of America London: 1827-38
Hairy Woodpecker (plate 416)

Natural Disasters Doomed Early Civilization

2009-01-22T08:05:00.004-05:00

Civilization Reborn | Discovery News Video

Jan. 20, 2009 -- Nature turned against one of America's early civilizations 3,600 years ago, when researchers say earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, drove away residents of an area that is now in Peru.

"This maritime farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years, they had no incentive to change, and then all of a sudden, boom, they just got the props knocked out from under them," anthropologist Mike Moseley of the University of Florida said in a statement.

Moseley and colleagues were studying civilization of the Supe Valley along the Peruvian coast, which was established up to 5,800 years ago.

The people thrived on land adjacent to productive bays and estuaries, the researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The Supe fished with nets, irrigated fruit orchards and grew cotton and a variety of vegetables, according to evidence found by research co-author Ruth Shady, a Peruvian archaeologist. They also built stone pyramids thousands of years before the better known Mayans.

But the Supe disappeared about 3,600 years ago and, after studying the region, the researchers think they know what happened.

They found that a massive earthquake, or series of quakes, struck the seismically active region, collapsing walls and floors and launching landslides from barren mountain ranges surrounding the valley.

In addition, layers of silt indicate massive flooding followed.

Then came El Nino, a periodic change in the winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean, which brought heavy rains that damaged irrigation systems and washed debris into the streams and down to the ocean, where the sand and silt settled into a large ridge, sealing off the previously rich coastal bays.

In the end, land where the Supe had lived for centuries became uninhabitable and their society collapsed, the researchers concluded.

The study was funded by the University of Florida and the Heyerdahl Exploration Fund, University of Maine.

From the source.

Ancient Greek Homes Doubled as Pubs, Brothels

2009-01-22T07:58:00.003-05:00

Athens Today | Discovery News Video

Jan. 21, 2009 -- A new analysis of archaeological remains might have solved the mystery of the elusive kapeleia, lively Greek taverns that have long puzzled archaeologists.

Despite the kapeleia being featured prominently in classical plays, no tangible evidence of the drinking dens has ever been found.

"Taverns are indeed so well hidden. We know them to have existed, yet we cannot seemingly find any physical evidence for the buildings themselves," said Clare Kelly Blazeby, from the University of Leeds, U.K., who presented her research last week at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Philadelphia.

Suspecting that archaeologists were missing something, Blazeby reviewed artifacts unearthed at several private houses across the Greek mainland, dating from 475 to 323 B.C.

She was struck by the fact that some houses had yielded hundreds of drinking cups -- far too many even for well-off families hosting lavish parties.

The most likely explanation, according to Blazeby, is that Greek homes doubled as pubs.

"There was nothing to stop part of a house being utilized for commercial gain by using a room fronting onto the street as a shop, or indeed from using the household courtyard for business transactions," she said.

Domestic walls might have also hidden other dubious commercial activities. Indeed, drinking, eating and sex seemed to have gone hand in hand in the homes of ancient Greece.

Presenting her research on prostitution in classical Athens, Allison Glazebrook of Brock University in St Catharines, Ontario, agreed that interpreting the physical evidence of Greek remains is a challenge. In some cases, she argued, buildings believed to be simple homes were instead "porneia," dedicated to prurient activities.

"There is no evidence of any purpose-built brothels for ancient Greece. We should not expect brothel spaces to look that different from houses in the material record because girls lived in brothels in which they worked," Glazebrook told Discovery News.

Hints to distinguishing a porneia, or brothel, from an ordinary house include not only the number of drinking cups, but also the presence of multiple entrances, the existence of oikemata or little rooms -- working in a brothel is usually coined as "sitting in a little room" in ancient Greek texts -- and an abundance of cisterns and wells, since bathing after sex was customary in Greece.

The new interpretation of Greek houses casts a new light on the economy in classical Greece. The Greeks simply did it all at home.

"My research shows that a lot of trade was embedded within the domestic walls. It also changes our perception of who was drinking wine, and where they were doing it. Women, slaves and foreigners as well as ordinary Greeks, would all have enjoyed time and wine in a classical tavern," Blazeby told Discovery News.

From the Source.

when can i move in?

2009-01-21T10:01:00.003-05:00

On one of my random internet searches I came across this cabin and all i want to know is... when can I move in? It looks sort of out in the open but put this cabin in the middle of a clearing deep in the woods and I'll be in heaven..

ummm cool

2009-01-20T08:36:00.006-05:00

If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.

You can go here to see a larger version of the video..

framed

2009-01-20T08:21:00.002-05:00

Here's the portrait from yesterday framed. I made a plain cardboard frame to keep with the whole art from trash look and I think I might glue some plain brown paper to the back of it so the wall color won't show though the two notches on either side of his cheeks .. now I just gotta find a place to hang it..

Homeless Art

2009-01-19T08:28:00.004-05:00

This morning while rushing though the piss reeking hallways of the subway trying to get to work on time I saw in the trashcan a piece of cardboard that some of the homeless use to sleep on to stay warm at night. It wasn’t just a piece of cardboard but a piece of art. It had a pen drawn portrait of a homeless man that I see every day in the hallway drawn on it and I really wanted to take it out of the trash then and there but I was sorta embarrassed with the mass exodus of people behind me from the train. So the rest of the morning I was stressing out about it, I really wanted it, I thought it would be a really cool piece to have and I kept thinking of the guy sitting there having his portrait drawn while wasting the night away in the subway. So I decided to run back and see if it was still there and luckily for me it was! It seems someone else wanted it too because it was no longer in the trashcan but shoved between the trashcan and the wall kinda hidden. So I snatched it up and ran back to work with my prize =) Now I’m deciding on if I want to cut out the central part of the portrait and frame it or leave it as is. Picture below…

Neanderthal Weaponry Lacked Projectile Advantage

2009-01-18T13:07:00.005-05:00

Out Competed | Discovery News Video

Jan. 14, 2009 -- A trio of new studies on prehistoric weapons suggests Neanderthals made sophisticated weapons and tools -- possibly including the first sticky adhesive -- but they lacked the projectile weapons possessed by early humans.

The missing technology, along with climate change and competition with arrow-shooting humans, may have contributed to the Neanderthals' eventual extinction.

"While we are not suggesting that modern humans were directing projectile weapons against Neanderthals, it is certainly possible that at times they did so," Steven Churchill, co-author of one of the papers, told Discovery News.

Churchill, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University, and colleague Jill Rhodes compared Neanderthal fossils with those of prehistoric and modern humans, focusing on the shoulder and elbow.

"When engaged in overhead throwing activity, such as throwing a baseball, or a spear, this increases the movement arm of the muscles and gives greater strength and velocity to the throw," said Rhodes, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology at Bryn Mawr College.

She explained to Discovery News that modern athletes, like baseball pitchers and handball players, often show a characteristic backward displacement at the shoulder joint. Usually just one joint shows this, since most people have a preferred throwing arm.

The anthropologists found this telltale skeletal characteristic in the early modern European fossils, but not in the Neanderthals. The findings are published in the current issue of the Journal of Human Evolution.

"Neanderthals probably hand threw spears over short distances, but perhaps they simply never got around to inventing means of propelling spears or other projectiles long distances," said Churchill.

"Or perhaps their...short, squat body build with short and massive limbs was not conducive to using throwing-based hunting technology," he added.

Neanderthals, however, likely came up with an important technological innovation that changed weapon-making for thousands of years to come.

Archaeologist Eric Boeda of University of Paris X, Nanterre, and his team recently discovered bitumen, a tar-like substance, on sharpened stone points associated with Neanderthals who lived in Syria 70,000 years ago. Bitumen served as an adhesive, allowing the Neanderthals to fasten points to wooden handles in a process known as hafting.

The findings, published in the latest issue of Antiquity, push known bitumen usage back by 30,000 years.

By the time modern humans migrated to Europe from Africa 40,000 years ago, bows and arrows were likely their weapons of choice, said John Shea, associate professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University. He indicated they're still popular with many Africans today.

"Nobody in Africa uses spear-throwers, and they use spears mainly for warfare and hunting the really big game, such as elephants, rhinos and hippos," Shea explained.

"Instead," he added, "nearly everybody uses bows and arrows for routine hunting, fishing and warfare too."

History's Most Terrifying Conventional Weapons

From the Source.

Nazca's Trophy Heads Culled From Own Culture

2009-01-18T12:56:00.002-05:00

Trophy Head Art | Nazca Slide Show

Jan. 14, 2009 -- The ancient South American people who carved the enigmatic Nazca Lines across the Peruvian desert some 1,500 to 2,000 years ago, literally lost their heads over spreading their puzzling culture, according to a recent analysis of specimens unearthed at various Andean archaeological sites.

The Nazca civilization, which flourished in Peru between the first century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. and slid into oblivion by the time the Inca Empire rose to dominate the Andes, is mostly known for carving in the desert hundreds of geometric lines and images of animals and birds that are best viewed from the air.

Less well known is that these ancient people boasted the largest collection of human heads in the Andes region of South America.

Carefully prepared, the lips sewed with long cactus spines, all heads featured a hole in the center of the forehead so that a carrying rope could be inserted.

Hanged and suspended from these woven cords, the heads were long believed to be war trophies.

But recent analysis of the diet-related substances found in the teeth of some heads unearthed in 1925, reveals that the Nazca built their collection not from foreign enemies slain in battles, but from their own people.

"Nazca pottery gives us very interesting information about the role of trophy heads, both in the hands of warriors and also in ritual activities, such as burials and ritual caches. We can use sophisticated laboratory techniques to answer very interesting questions about the past, even when the excavations took place almost 100 years ago," archaeologist and lead author Kelly Knudson of Arizona State University in Tempe, told Discovery News.

Published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, the study examined 16 trophy heads of the Kroeber collection at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and 13 mummified bodies buried in the Nazca region.

Knudson and colleagues compared tooth enamel from the trophy heads with the mummified bodies.

The researchers looked for subtle differences in three elements strontium, oxygen and carbon found in the samples. These elements display slightly different atomic structures that vary by geographic location, basically reflecting where a person lived and what types of foods he or she consumed.

"You are what you eat, and the elements you consume become a part of your bones' chemical signature," explained Field Museum curator Ryan Williams.

Teeth from the trophy heads and from the mummified bodies showed no substantial differences in the ratios of these substances, showing that the trophy heads came from the Nazca themselves rather than from outsiders.

"Our data do not support the hypothesis that Nazca trophy heads were taken from enemy warriors from foreign locales...We argue that transforming local Nazca individuals into trophy heads highlights their ritual role," the researchers concluded.

However, the researchers do not completely rule out war as the source of the heads, since the heads could have been collected from warring in the Nazca area.

"It is possible that the role of the trophy heads changed over time. It is possible that these individuals were sacrificed, but we don't have any evidence for that," Knudson said.

Giuseppe Orefici, an archaeologist who has spent decades excavating Cahuachi, the Nazca's most important ceremonial center, is not surprised by the results of the biochemical study.

"In 26 years of digging at Cahuachi, we have never come across any head used as a war trophy.

We are rather talking of 'offering heads' used in rituals. They belong to people of both sexes and in most cases they have been buried inside the ceremonial center. The images of disembodied heads in pottery and textiles are either representations of myths or indicate the high social status of the people who carry them," Orefici told Discovery News.

From the Source.

fun friday

2009-01-16T09:01:00.007-05:00

Thought I would start a Friday feature showing you things that inspire and influence me and just things that I find amazing and beautiful, starting off with this awesome self portrait of Frida Kahlo This is one of 3 paintings from her that I love. I'll post the other two some other Friday.

Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907-1954). Autorretarto con Collre de Espinas y Colibri, 1940.
Oil on canvas. 24 1/2 x 19 in. (62.2 x 48.3 cm).
Nickolas Muray Collection, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
The University of Texas at Austin.

earth art

2009-01-14T10:11:00.010-05:00

this one remind me of a gustav klimt

ahhh how i love boredom and photoshop, it's a good combo..
took the above photo and did a fractal image out of it. nothing more than mirroring each half but it still looks pretty neat-o

some recent shots of the cabinet

2009-01-12T19:12:00.006-05:00

Just some quick shots inside the cabinet... playing around with what's going in the niches and what fits where.. I have a ton more stuff that I hope all fits in the cabinet when it's done.

:::: f i n g e r s c r o s s e d ::::

smells like farts

2009-01-12T18:28:00.014-05:00

If you know me you know I go though different spurts of adding things to my collection, a month or two ago it was rocks and minerals, searching the internet for days and days clicking and buying my way to a larger collection. This week it’s been adding stuff to my Mexican folk art collection. I’ve been wanting to add on to my milagros collection since I only have a few now, so I found a great seller on etsy who still makes them the old fashioned way by hand and they were a nice price so I picked up 20 assorted hearts and 25 assorted mix (it includes arms, legs, various body parts, children in prayer, etc) so for under $20 I just added 45 milagros to my collection.. They’re made out of silver and I do love a nice shiny surface, but I would rather these have a patina on them to really bring out the detail so I went to search how to tarnish silver. I found two methods online but I choose to use the 2^nd way since it doesn’t use chemicals like the first method. I was a little skeptical at first when I read it but after hard boiling eggs, cutting one open and putting it in a Tupperware container with the Milagros, I woke this morning to find all the milagros were a nice tarnished mess. (I might do a light polish on the top of them to bring back some of the silver and leave some tarnish in the nooks and crannies to really make them pop) I just have my original collection of milagros in a little box but I’m thinking of ways to display them so you can take in the collection as a whole. The set of hearts I’m going to hang from the sombrero of a life size paper mache dia de los muertos skeleton that’s in the process of being made, I never posted photos of it yet so check below to see a shot of him so far. The first shot is the millagros tarnished with the egg yolk method & the second shot are the brand new ones.

T A R N I S H E D M I L A G R O S

B R A N D N E W M I L A G R O S

D I A D E L O S M U E R T O S S K E L E T O N

This is just what I have done so far, I still need to form the pelvis and 4 bones to finish the arms and legs, plus feet and hand bones. After all that is done I can do the first layer of paper mache and then mold the ribs, face, etc. The chest cavity is going to be a shelf when it's completed.

i'm good with my hands

2008-12-29T07:33:00.007-05:00

so i finally decided that i wanted to put a base on the curiosity cabinet to give it some height and up the wow factor on it but i couldn't find what i was looking for or it was the wrong size if i did find something.. very annoying

so a couple of weeks ago we bought a new bed to replace our old bed that broke from ikea and the way most ikea beds work is that they have wooden slats that go across the bed so the mattress sits on the frame. the new slats are fancy composite wood that are curved so it gives the mattress some springiness to it but the old slats are just plain ol' slats of wood. never one to throw something out that could be used for something else, the old slats sat on the bedroom floor out of the way for a month until last wednesday when i had the thought that i could just recycle those slats and build the base for the cabinet myself. so i lugged everything over to my parents house yesterday and set up shop in my dads workshop for 3 hours and this is the result...

the first shot is some of the slats i used to build the base, the second shot is the completed base in my parents living room and the third shot is the base with the curiosity cabinet on top. thank gosh for another short work week and another 4day weekend so this weekend i can decoupage the base to match the dark brown of the cabinet and screw the top cabinet onto the base and decoupage the entire thing to look like one complete piece of furniture.

anyways.. the cabinet is really impressive now, it stands about 6 feet high now and once its all the same color, it's going to look even better. my mind is already racing with ideas of what to put in the base now.. i saw a 18th centuray engraving of different kinds of birds all perched on a single vertical branch and since i have a collection of feathered birds i'm going to attach a branch in the center of the middle shelf and attach all the bird collection to it.

good morning!

2008-12-24T13:03:00.003-05:00

my love affair with singing in the rain will never end.. sorry for the poor quality but it's just to good not to post!

new design

2008-12-24T12:58:00.004-05:00

so i thought it was time for a change with my blog, i've had the same design now for 2 years so it's about time we get something new... so what do you think? i like it much better, i wanted to do a brownish theme for awhile so i searched around until i found a template i liked. this isn't the final version of the blog, i still wanna tweak the css a bit and add some more ish but for the most part it's pretty complete.

earth art

2008-12-24T08:21:00.015-05:00

i never tire of looking at images of the earth from space, to really see how tiny we are as a whole when compared to the hugeness of the planet. so i'm frequently on google earth for hours and hours just looking around and searching out remote places i'll never get to see in my lifetime. so as a new feature i introduce... EarthArt, screen shots of some of the more interesting things i find while on my virtual sightseeing tour of the earth.. i went back and forth on deciding if i should include the names of the places in the photos but finally decided that i'm going to leave them out so you don't think of it as a place, but as a work of art only the earth could produce, enjoy =)

Ancient 'Treasure' Found in Farmer's Bookshelf

2008-12-23T13:09:00.012-05:00

Dec. 22, 2008 -- Italian police have found the long-sought "treasure of Satricum" in a farmer's bookshelf, they announced at a news conference in Rome this week.

Consisting of more than 500 delicate miniature pots crafted about 2,600 years ago, the "treasure" was discovered during a police investigation in the countryside near the village of Campoverde di Aprilia, some 25 miles south of Rome.

The archaeological squad of the Carabinieri police noticed suspicious mounds, which are typical of a dig, near a small lake known as "Laghetto del Monsignore".

After spotting fragments of pottery in the soil, the Carabinieri placed the farmer who was working that land under investigation.

"He told us that he had found just a few fragments. Given the fact that he had already violated the law by not reporting to authorities his finding, we did not believe him and searched his house. Indeed, we seized 500 well-preserved miniatures," the Carabinieri wrote in a report called "Operation: Satricum."

Meticulously stored in a bookshelf in the farmer's house, the miniature jars were made of Italo-Corinthian pottery and Etruscan bucchero pottery, a kind of ceramic made in the Etruscan region between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.

They were thrown into the lake, which is fed by a perennial spring, as votive offers during ritual festivities.

Looked Suspicious...

"The lake was basically an open votive deposit. The Latin-speaking people who lived there offered their ceramic artifacts to a deity probably connected to the spring. We believe that a 7th to 6th century B.C. sanctuary can be found at its bottom," Stefano De Caro, director of archaeology at the Italian Culture Ministry, said.

Symbolic of storage and cooking vessels that were used in daily life, the miniature jars may have contained food, liquid offerings and perfumes that were dedicated to the lake deity.

"The Laghetto del Monsignore is a most important open-air sanctuary where the Latin peoples living in the surrounding areas dedicated offerings from the early Iron Age onward. It is of the utmost importance that the looted material be studied by specialists, and it is hoped that a regular excavation will be started to save what is left of this unique find," Peter A.J. Attema, director of the Pontine Region Project and professor in classical and Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, told Discovery News.

Attema and colleagues from the University of Groningen carried out intensive surveys around the lake, but found no trace of the tiny ceramic jars.

"We noticed that the area had already been illegally plundered. I congratulate this prompt action to save the looted material for further study," Attema said.

From the Source

King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription

2008-12-23T13:08:00.007-05:00

Dec. 17, 2008 -- An inscribed limestone block might have solved one of history's greatest mysteries -- who fathered the boy pharaoh King Tut.

"We can now say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

The finding offers evidence against another leading theory that King Tut was sired by the minor king Smenkhkare.

Hawass discovered the missing part of a broken limestone block a few months ago in a storeroom at el Ashmunein, a village on the west bank of the Nile some 150 miles south of Cairo.

Once reassembled, the slab has become "an accurate piece of evidence that proves Tut lived in el Amarna with Akhenaten and he married his wife, Ankhesenamun," while living in el Amarna, Hawass said.

The text also suggests that the young Tutankhamun married his father's daughter -- his half sister.

"The block shows the young Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenamun, seated together. The text identifies Tutankhamun as the 'king's son of his body, Tutankhaten,' and his wife as the 'king's daughter of his body, Ankhesenaten,'" Hawass said.

"We know that the only king to whom the text could refer as the father of both children is Akhenaten, himself. We know from other sources that Ankhesenamun was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Now, because of this block, we can say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten as well," Hawass said.

Found among other sandstone slabs in the storeroom of El Ashmunein's archaeological site, the block was used in the construction of the temple of Thoth during the reign of Ramesses II, who ruled around 1279-1213 B.C.

But the block wasn't freshly cut by the workers of the temple. Instead, it was recycled and brought there from el Amarna, along with some other thousand blocks, originally used to build the Amarna temples.

Now known as el Amarna, the city was once called Akhetaten after the "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 B.C.) had established the capital of his kingdom, introducing a monotheistic religion that overthrew the pantheon of the gods to worship the sun god Aton.

When Akhenaten died, a state decree was issued to purposefully destroy Amarna and its building materials were distributed for use elsewhere.

According to Hawass, the block comes from the temple of Aton in Amarna and the forms of the inscribed names clearly date it to the reign of Akhenaten.

The best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt, King Tut has been puzzling scientists ever since his mummy- and treasure-packed tomb was discovered in 1922 the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

Only a few facts about his life are known.

While he lived in el Amarna, his name was Tutankhaton ("honoring Aton" -- the sun god).

When he ascended the throne in 1333 B.C., at the age of nine, and moved to Thebes, he changed his name to Tutankamun ("honoring Amun" -- a traditional cult).

As the last male in the family, his death in 1325 B.C. at age 19 ended the 18th dynasty -- probably the greatest of the Egyptian royal families -- and gave way to military rulers.

Mapping out the lineage of the Egyptian pharaohs is one of Hawass's latest challenges. King Tut has been either credited to be the son of Akhenaten or the offspring of Amenhotep III, who was Akhenaten's father.

Doubts also remain about King Tut's mother. Scholars have long debated whether he is the son of Kiya, Akhenaten's minor wife, or Queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten's other wife.

Egyptian researchers are currently carrying out DNA testing on two mummified fetuses found in King Tut's tomb, believed to be his offspring.

"If the fetus DNA matches King Tut's DNA and Ankhesenamun's DNA, then we would know that they shared the same mother," Hawass said.

According to Swiss anatomist and paleopathologist Frank Ruhli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, Hawass' finding is very important.

"It supports one of my favorite theories about King Tut's parentage. DNA of proven relatives would help if it matches with the one of King Tut," Ruhli told Discovery News.

From the Source

Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra 'nowhere near reality'

2008-12-17T07:00:00.003-05:00

Elizabeth Taylor and Sophia Loren did their best but according to a leading Egyptologist, they came nowhere near to an accurate portrayal of ancient queen Cleopatra.

The image is darker-skinned than the Cleopatra portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor, right

Using images from ancient artifacts including a ring dating from Cleopatra's reign 2,000 years ago, Cambridge University's Sally Ann Ashton has pieced together an entirely different image that shows her as a mixed race beauty.

The three-dimensional, computer generated portrait bears little resemblance to the pale-skinned, heavily made-up versions created by Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor in their 1954 and 1961 films.

Nor does it fit with the picture recently revealed of her on an ancient coin found in a bank vault, in which her shallow forehead, pointed chin, thin lips and hooked nose make her look more like a witch than a queen.

Ashton developed her image of the monarch - who came to power at the tender age of 18 - by looking at her Greek heritage as well as her Egyptian upbringing.

"She probably wasn't just completely European. You've got to remember that her family had actually lived in Egypt for 300 years by the time she came to power," she said.

The images will be broadcast this week as part of a Five documentary, Secrets of Egypt: Cleopatra. The programme looks at whether the portrayal of Cleopatra as a temptress who ruined two generals of Rome - Julius Caesar and Mark Antony - was the victim of Roman "spin" aimed at blackening her name.

Pompeii Family's Final Hours Reconstructed

2008-12-12T08:16:00.004-05:00

Dec. 11, 2008 -- Italian researchers have reconstructed the last hours in Pompeii of a dozen people who managed to survive Mount Vesuvius' devastating eruption for more than 19 hours.

Volcanologist Claudio Scarpati, and colleagues Giuseppe Luongo and Annamaria Perrotta of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, analyzed layers of volcanic deposits in a Pompeian house and examined 13 skeletons found there on a carpet of pumice to reconstruct the events that occurred when the eruption was in progress. The team reported their findings at a recent international conference on ancient DNA in Naples.

Located in Pompeii's main street, Via dell'Abbondanza, the home of Iulius Polybius is one of the most studied in the ancient Roman town.

"This house has yielded rich and diverse archaeological findings. Moreover, it features the most complete stratified sections of Pompeii's volcanic deposit," Scarpati told Discovery News.

At around 1:00 p.m. on Aug. 24, 79 A.D., Pompeii residents saw a pine tree-shaped column of smoke bursting from Vesuvius. Reaching nine miles into the sky, the column began spewing a thick pumice rain. Many residents rushed in the streets, trying to leave the city.

"At that moment, Polybius' house was inhabited by 12 people, including a young woman in advanced pregnancy. They decided to remain in the house, most likely because it was safer for the pregnant woman. Given the circumstances, it was the right strategy," Scarpati said.

Once considered relatively innocuous by volcanologists, this first phase of the eruption in fact produced 38 percent of the deaths.

"Contrary to what was previously believed, a large number of deaths occurred in the first hours of the eruption. Many skeletons of those who tried to escape show fractured skulls, meaning that they died from collapsing roofs or large fragments falling from the eruptive column," Scarpati said.

By examining the density of volcanic deposits in relation to an accumulation rate of six inches per hour, the researchers concluded that it took up to six hours for the roofs of Polybius' house to collapse.

At around 7:00 p.m., by which time the front part the house had collapsed, the inhabitants took shelter in the rear rooms, whose steeper roofs had not been damaged by the falling material.

"There were three adult males, three adult females of various ages, four boys, one girl, one child and one fetus in the last month of intrauterine life. The fetus was associated with the skeleton of a young (16 to 18-year-old) female," Scarpati said.

Analysis of mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down through the maternal line, revealed that six individuals belonged to the same family.

"The age of five out of six individuals suggests that they were siblings. Another subject, about 25 to 30 years old, might have been a cousin. The three adult women were unrelated," molecular biologist Marilena Cipollaro, of the Second University of Naples, told Discovery News.

Cipollaro's analysis also revealed that two related subjects suffered from spina bifida, a birth defect resulting in an incomplete closure of the spinal column.

Most likely, the group of people in Polybius' house included the parents, their children, a cousin and his young, pregnant wife, plus a pair of servants.

They all witnessed the terrible evolution of the eruption. In the early hours of Aug. 25, a nearly 10-foot-thick carpet of pumice had already covered the streets and bottoms of buildings.

Polybius' family perished in their home's back rooms.

"The position of some skeletons on the volcanic deposit indicates that some individuals were lying on beds at the moment of death," Scarpati said.

When the first phase of the eruption ended, the eruptive column collapsed, producing a series of pyroclastic currents. These are fast-moving flows of hot gas and rock at temperatures ranging from 392 to 1,292 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The first pyroclastic currents arrived from the north and overtopped the rear part of the house. The currents moved into the garden and advanced toward the front of the house. No escape was possible for the people there. The ash reached every corner in the house and suffocated its inhabitants," Scarpati said.

Ash layers revealed that not all Pompeii residents were killed by the devastating wave of gas and rock.

"We found victims several centimeters above the basal ash layers related to this current. Some residents walked outdoors and survived until the second pyroclastic current," Scarpati said.

Between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., a final phase, punctuated by more pumice rain, buried Pompeii.

The solid roofs of Polybius' house collapsed. What followed was a long, deathly silence.

"It was impossible to survive that eruption. Even though we calculated that 75 to 92 percent of the residents escaped the town at the first signs of the crisis, it is not possible to know how successful those fugitives were. Hundreds of victims were recovered from the relatively small excavations outside the city walls," Scarpati said.

did they find a copy of pink floyd's the wall as well?

2008-12-03T20:28:00.006-05:00

Two pounds of still-green weed found in a 2,700-year-old Gobi Desert grave

Stash for the afterlife: A photograph of a stash of cannabis found in the
2,700-year-old grave of a man in the Gobi Desert. Scientists are unsure if the
marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes, but it's evident that
the man was buried with a lot of it.

Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany.

A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.

They apparently were getting high too.

Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana "is quite similar" to what's grown today.

"We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant)," he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia.

Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China. It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45.

"This individual was buried with an unusual number of high value, rare items," Russo said, mentioning that the objects included a make-up bag, bridles, pots, archery equipment and a kongou harp. The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic.

Scientists originally thought the plant material in the grave was coriander, but microscopic botanical analysis of the bowl contents, along with genetic testing, revealed that it was cannabis.

The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown.

What is in question, however, is how the marijuana was administered, since no pipes or other objects associated with smoking were found in the grave.

"Perhaps it was ingested orally," Russo said. "It might also have been fumigated, as the Scythian tribes to the north did subsequently."

Although other cultures in the area used hemp to make various goods as early as 7,000 years ago, additional tomb finds indicate the Gushi fabricated their clothing from wool and made their rope out of reed fibers. The scientists are unsure if the marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes, but it's evident that the blue-eyed man was buried with a lot of it.

"As with other grave goods, it was traditional to place items needed for the afterlife in the tomb with the departed," Russo said.

The ancient marijuana stash is now housed at Turpan Museum in China. In the future, Russo hopes to conduct further research at the Yanghai site, which has 2,000 other tombs.