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'True Forensics' Is My New Favorite Blog!
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The Xiphoid Process: Thousand-Year-Old Dirty Tea Cups Suggest Ancient City Had Far-Reaching Influence
The Xiphoid Process: Thousand-Year-Old Dirty Tea Cups Suggest Ancient City Had Far-Reaching Influence:
Article taken wholesale from the Discover Magazine blog, 80Beats. By Sophie Bushwick. That version actually has sources cited.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/08/08/thousand-year-old-dirty-tea-cups-suggest-ancient-city-had-far-reaching-influence/
Some teas are not as soothing as others. “Black drink,” brewed from the holly Ilex vomitoria by Native Americans on what is now the southeastern coast of the United States, had the lovely side effect of inducing vomiting and was a key part of a 16th-century religious purification ritual, according to European accounts. Researchers were recently surprised to learn, however, that it also seems to have traveled quite a bit: traces of black drink have now been found over 200 miles out of Ilex vomitoria’s coastal range at the site of Cahokia, an ancient city near modern-day St. Louis.
The inhabitants of Cahokia disappeared long before Europeans first recorded the presence of black drink in the southeast. But in the first few centuries after 1000 AD, the city was a thriving metropolis with a population that reached 15,000 and whose influence was felt for hundreds of miles around. Fragments of ceramic beakers from this period contain dark residues that researchers initially assumed came from chocolate, and chemical analysis of the traces revealed caffeine and theobromine, which are components of chocolate. But it also revealed ursolic acid, which is not.
Holly, on the other hand, does contain all three chemicals, and the ratio of caffeine to theobromine in the beverage residues matches the ratio in black drink. Though holly isn’t native to the area, it may have arrived in Cahokia through an extensive trade network, the researchers believe.
The fine Cahokian beakers containing traces of black drink were found near ritual gathering places, which suggests that the tea was being used in religious ceremonies as early as 1050 AD. In fact, it’s possible that the ritual that the Europeans observed in the 1500s may have been invented in Cahokia, and continued to be practiced on the coast long after the city disappeared.
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The Original Anti-Racist
The 14th-century Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun argued against the theory that physical characteristics reflected moral attributes. For example, he explained that dark skin developed because of the hot climate of Africa and not due to the curse of Ham.
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ancientart: The Two Dancers. In this Etruscan masterpiece from...
The Two Dancers. In this Etruscan masterpiece from the Tomb of the Triclinium at Tarquinia, a couple dressed in their finest costume dance into the hereafter.
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peroculi: Petra (by Leo Druker)
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nativeamericannews: Unearthing Native American culture Guests...
Unearthing Native American culture
Guests gathered on the lawn of the Elihu Akin House on Dartmouth Street on Monday to look through the eyes of prehistoric Native Americans.
The Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust and the Massachusetts Archaeological Society of Middleboro hosted a Family Archeology Day, one of many events to commemorate the 250th birthday of the historic house.
Because the property has been the site of three archeological digs in the past, representatives from the Archeological Society were invited to tell stories about Native American culture and provide tips on how guests can find artifacts in their own backyards.
Part of the day also consisted of a “Tool Time,” which compared modern tools to prehistoric ones that archeologists have found.
During the presentation, 12-year-olds Jasmin Davidson and Jillian DeAlmeida tried to guess which three artifacts Native Americans would have used together to drill holes.
The girls looked in contemplation at the modern-day electric drill to their left, then looked at the tools made of sticks, stones and sinew, not a single one resembling the contemporary piece.
As they studied the objects, Frederick Robinson, vice president of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society, literally tossed DeAlmeida a clue. She looked at it hard.
“This?” she asked in disbelief as she turned a rounded stone over in her hand before passing it to her cousin.
“It’s used with this,” Robinson said, picking up what looked like a small bow and arrow, using the bow drill to drill a hole into a wooden plank. The girls were amazed.
Diane Gilbert, president of the Dartmouth Heritage Preservation Trust, said she was happy to see the girls participate in the event.
“This is wonderful,” said Regina Brum, DeAlmeida’s grandmother and Davidson’s aunt.
“It’s great that the kids can come outside and learn instead of being inside in front of the TV.”
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The Eye of Horus was the basis for the Egyptian numbering...
The Eye of Horus was the basis for the Egyptian numbering system.
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middlesavagery: Give me WHS or give me death! - A 1997(!)...
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fpannortheast: Take a Virtual Florida Archaeology...
Take a Virtual Florida Archaeology Fieldtrip!
Kingsley Plantation and the birth of plantation archaeology.
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fpannortheast: Did you know…? Pipe-stem diameter gets smaller...
Did you know…?
Pipe-stem diameter gets smaller over time? Broke out the pipe bore measurement block (drill bits glued into wood) to help date a pipe-stem from our Black Creek Dig. Looks like the ever generic 1750+.
Want to try it yourself?
Check out NPS website for measurements and formula: http://www.nps.gov/archeology/afori/howfig_mar4.htm
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Archaeology:Going Public- New Blog, Follow from the Grass Roots
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victusinveritas: Hope is a thing with feathersLove is a thing...
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hornblende: So I’m back from the city of the dead! Pompeii was...
So I’m back from the city of the dead!
Pompeii was incredible, I miss it dearly, and will try to post picspams like this in the future. I’m also back in San Francisco for one final year rather than backpacking Europe.
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zacharycava: “The chimney is to some extent an independent...
“The chimney is to some extent an independent structure, standing on the ground and rising through the house to the heavens; even after the house is burned it still stands sometimes, and its importance and independence are apparent.”
“Now only a dent in the earth marks the site of these dwellings, with buried cellar stones, with strawberries, raspberries, thimbleberries, hazel-bushes, and sumachs growing in the sunny sward there; some pitch-pine or gnarled oak occupies what was the chimney nook, and a sweet-scented black-birch, perhaps, waves where the door-stone was. Sometimes the well dent is visible, where once a spring oozed; now dry and tearless grass; or it was covered deep, not to be discovered till some late day, with a flat stone under the sod, when the last of the race departed … These cellar dents, like deserted fox burrows, old holes, are all that is left where once were the stir and bustle of human life …
Still grows the vivacious lilac a generation after the door and lintel and the sill are gone … giving place to new-rising forests; the last of that stirp, sole survivor of that family. Little did the dusky children think that the puny slip …would root itself so, and outlive them, and house itself in the rear that shaded it, and grown man’s garden and orchard, and tell their story faintly to the lone wanderer a half century after they had grown up and died …”
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854)
Photo Credit: Zachary A. Cava
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myhistoryblog: Pompeii, Italy by davetonkin on Flickr.
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ancientart: The Kailashnatha Temple, the oldest temple in...
The Kailashnatha Temple, the oldest temple in Kanchipuram, India. The temple is devoted to Lord Shiva, and dates to the early 8th century.
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locaantiqua: I spent my summer working at an Etruscan Sanctuary...
I spent my summer working at an Etruscan Sanctuary site in Tuscany called Poggio Colla. Last year I was a field school student and this year I was the assistant trench supervisor. The site of Poggio Colla dates from the 7th c BCE to the 2nd c BCE (when the Romans rolled in and did their Roman thing) and includes an ‘arx’ or acropolis, probable burial areas, quarry, and kiln area, but the focus of the excavation has been on the arx. Three trenches were opened this year on the arx and one on the NW slope. Nothing really sexy was found… lots of pithoi, seeds, tile, bronze lumps, and stamped/decorated bucchero…. oh and lots of walls.
What I did all summer was this: dig really fast with the maddock when the supervisors needed to move fast (I did this a lot and have the shoulders to prove it), run the total station (I started the summer being its bitch and now it is mine), organizing on site photos (for finds and stuff), helping the students and making sure they don’t dig holes or puncture scarps, and helping the supervisors with all sorts of things.
All in all, it was another damn good summer and I hope I’ll be able to go back again next year.
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Boombully's blog: Dmanisi Summer School 2012
Boombully's blog: Dmanisi Summer School 2012:
The Georgian National Museum with the support of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation announces the opening of a new international project – “Dmanisi Summer School” from 27 August 2012 to 7 September 2012.
The focus of the school is the Georgian Studies - a field of humanities overing Georgian history, religion, linguistics and culture.
The Summer School is open to Georgian and international Bachelor, Master, PhD students or graduates interested in our heritage and in the disciplines related to Georgian history.
The school is located at the Dmanisi Archaeological Museum research base-camp in the village of Patara Dmanisi, 85 km south-west from Tbilisi, in the east Georgia.
Aims:
• Offering new theoretical and practical experience in the disciplines related to the history of Georgia.
• Acquiring better knowledge of the modern research methodologies in Georgian Studies.
• Improving cultural and academic relations between Georgian and foreign participants.
• Popularizing Georgian heritage and promoting Georgian Studies.
• Presenting various collections from the Georgian National Museum.
• Supporting the development of cultural tourism in Georgia.
Educational program is led by Georgian scientists specialized in social sciences and consists of theoretical and practical training. The topics covered are the following: art, history, and archaeology of Georgia, also ethnology and numismatics.
The program comprises of the workshops, discussions between the participants and the lecturers as well as screening of the documentaries.
Field trips to the Georgian historical sites and museums are included.
At the end of the program participants will be asked to prepare a small presentation.
Maximum number of students: 10
Language: English (and Georgian with translation into English)
Tuition fee: free
At the end of the course participants will receive certificates.
Application deadline is the 10th of August 2012.
Send your application form/inquiries to the following email:
dmanisisummerschool@gmail.com
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fuckyeahforensics: French archaeologists excavating a Neolithic...
French archaeologists excavating a Neolithic grave south of Paris have found evidence of a successful, infection-free amputation performed 6,900 years ago during the Linearbandkeram period when European hunter-gatherers were just settling down to subsistence farming. Considering that they didn’t even have blades back then, that’s pretty damn impressive.
The amputee was elderly, someone of stature in the community, and he lived for at least months, possibly years, after the surgery.
The patient was important: his grave was 2m (6.5ft) long — bigger than most — and contained a schist axe, a flint pick and the remains of a young animal, which are evidence of high status.
The most intriguing aspect, however, was the absence of forearm and hand bones. A battery of biological, radiological and other tests showed that the humerus bone had been cut above the trochlea indent at the end “in an intentional and successful amputation”. Mrs Buquet-Marcon said that the patient, who is likely to have been a warrior, might have damaged his arm in a fall, animal attack or battle.
“I don’t think you could say that those who carried out the operation were doctors in the modern sense that they did only that, but they obviously had medical knowledge,” she said.
The surgical tool would have been a sharpened flint. Archaeologists speculate that pain-killing plants would have been used to keep the patient still during the amputation. Antiseptic plants such as sage could have kept the wound from getting infected.
Neolithic people are known to have practiced trepanation — the surgical removal of a piece of skull — but that’s a more rudimentary kind of medicine. The earliest evidence of Stone Age trepanation is on 7,000-year-old skulls. They were performed by scraping away the bone with sharpened flint or obsidian stones. Later trepanations were done by primitive drilling tools, also made from sharpened rocks.
But it’s a big step from scraping or drilling a few holes in the skull to severing a forearm with its major arteries and nerves without killing the patient. This find suggests Stone Age farmers were significantly more medically advanced than previously realized.
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