Archaeological discoveries, breakthroughs and theories

[petee]

Archaeologists Devise a Better Clock for Biblical Times - The New Yor…

archived 20 Dec 2022 16:00:12 UTC

archive.ph

the radiocarbon analysis that scientists use to date organic remains is less accurate for certain epochs. And, in part, because archaeologists often disagree over what the timelines for different narratives should be. But a new technique, which makes use of consistently reliable geomagnetic data, allows scientists to study the history of the Levant with greater confidence.

Many materials, including rocks and soils, record the reversals and variations over time in earth’s invisible geomagnetic field. When ancient ceramics or mud bricks that contain ferromagnetic, or certain iron-bearing, minerals are heated to sufficiently high temperatures, the magnetic moments of the minerals behave like a compass needle, reflecting the orientation and intensity of the field at the time of burning. The new methodology can provide a sort of geobiblical clock.

 

[Crispy]

Archaeologists Devise a Better Clock for Biblical Times - The New Yor…

archived 20 Dec 2022 16:00:12 UTC

archive.ph

the radiocarbon analysis that scientists use to date organic remains is less accurate for certain epochs. And, in part, because archaeologists often disagree over what the timelines for different narratives should be. But a new technique, which makes use of consistently reliable geomagnetic data, allows scientists to study the history of the Levant with greater confidence.

Many materials, including rocks and soils, record the reversals and variations over time in earth’s invisible geomagnetic field. When ancient ceramics or mud bricks that contain ferromagnetic, or certain iron-bearing, minerals are heated to sufficiently high temperatures, the magnetic moments of the minerals behave like a compass needle, reflecting the orientation and intensity of the field at the time of burning. The new methodology can provide a sort of geobiblical clock.

Comment before reading the article: Wouldn't you have to know what orientation the ceramic was fired at?
Comment after reading the article: Hmmm, seems to rely on intensity. Amazing they can get such accuracy.

 

[trabuquera]

Not really a discovery, breakthrough or theory but I just saw pics of these for the first time and they're amazing! Sorry if off topic:

 

[Gerry1time]

This seemed pretty interesting.

Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery

Furniture conservator Ben Bacon spent hours of his own time decoding cave paintings.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[danny la rouge]

This seemed pretty interesting.

Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery

Furniture conservator Ben Bacon spent hours of his own time decoding cave paintings.

www.bbc.co.uk

Yes, I liked that story.

 

[ska invita]

This seemed pretty interesting.

Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery

Furniture conservator Ben Bacon spent hours of his own time decoding cave paintings.

www.bbc.co.uk

i was expecting it to involve a drawn penis, but good stuff despite that

 

[Gerry1time]

i was expecting it to involve a drawn penis, but good stuff despite that

Yeah, there's at least a PhD somewhere in the topic of 'the lack of big veiny nobs with all spunk coming out the end in prehistoric cave art', but alas I'm probably not the one to write it.

 

[petee]

"It was just one more than 600 Bronze Age rock carvings, known as petroglyphs, that Magnus Tangen, Lars Ole Klavestad and Tormod Fjeld have discovered. Since making petroglyph hunting their collective hobby, in 2016, the three enthusiasts have transformed knowledge about prehistoric art in Norway, more than doubling the number of carvings known in their home region. And although they are motivated, in part, by the pleasures of friendship and the outdoors, their findings have also lent serious weight to theories about the mysterious petroglyphs’ meaning."

Welcome to nginx!

 

[DotCommunist]

Roman concrete was self healing

 

[goldenecitrone]

This seemed pretty interesting.

Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery

Furniture conservator Ben Bacon spent hours of his own time decoding cave paintings.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[bcuster]

 

[danny la rouge]

I’m currently reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. I’d like to read an up-to-date popular science book on more general hominin evolution, particularly culture. I’m interested in the current thinking on clothing, “house”-building, cooking and so on pre H. sapiens, which seems to have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. (As ever, things that were once strictly modern H. sapiens are no longer considered so, and behaviours that once defined “us” seem to be bleeding into our relative species. This interests me).

So, any recommendations?

 

[Dystopiary]

I’m currently reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. I’d like to read an up-to-date popular science book on more general hominin evolution, particularly culture. I’m interested in the current thinking on clothing, “house”-building, cooking and so on pre H. sapiens, which seems to have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. (As ever, things that were once strictly modern H. sapiens are no longer considered so, and behaviours that once defined “us” seem to be bleeding into our relative species. This interests me).

So, any recommendations?

I love stuff like that and need to read that book. Sorry that doesn't answer your question.

I've just been reading this though, might interest you.

Extended youth identified in human brain

According to a recent study, "in important respects the evolution and development of the human brain clearly demonstrates juvenilisation of the typical ape brain."

[The team of scientists] found that both apes and humans grow highly coordinated brains up to last developmental stage before sexual maturity, with change in the shape of lobes clearly correlating with change in others, especially between the parietal and frontal. These lobes are associated with reasoning and the integration of sensory inputs. However, as it enters the adult stage, the ape brain suddenly loses coordination between lobes, probably in favor of functional specialization of the different brain areas in response to the demands of adult life.

Humans though, were very different, with the high-coordination typically of juvenile ape brains retained well into adulthood.

snip

[They] found that the branch of the primate tree that includes early human ancestors, such as Australopithecus and early Homo) showed a significantly higher evolutionary rate, and this rate accelerated rapidly as one moves from our old African ancestors to the Homo sapiens – Homo neanderthalensis pair.

“This suggests that brain coordination was a key factor in human evolution, prompted by natural selection. It seems likely that our recently lost cousins, the Neanderthals, probably had a powerful, highly coordinated brain like ours”, commented Gabriele Sansalone, the leading author of the study. Dr. Antonio Profico added that “the brains of Neanderthals and modern humans are very similar in terms of brain volume, although Neanderthals retain a distinctively archaic, elongated brain shape. The fact that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens retain high brain integration levels during adulthood is surprising, because until now we were acquainted with the idea that the emergence of modern human behavior was linked to the presence of a globular brain”.

The finding also lends support to the famous, yet hard to prove theory of the great British archaeologist Steven Mithen, who posited that humans possess a unique degree of cognitive fluidity, with a singular capacity to mix different domains of thought. “The human mind is especially creative, able to mix abstract thoughts generated in different domains of intelligence into new combinations which provide new and often unanticipated affordance and goals. We suggest that the high coordination between different brain areas identified in our study may be the mechanism underpinning Mithen’s cognitive fluidity hypothesis” commented Pasquale Raia, who was involved in the research.

 

[Dystopiary]

Archaeologists in Norway claim that a runestone they've discovered is the oldest known in Europe. "[T]he inscriptions are up to 2,000 years old and date back to the earliest days of the enigmatic history of runic writing."

The flat, square block of brownish sandstone has carved scribbles, which may be the earliest example of words recorded in writing in Scandinavia, the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo said. It said it was “among the oldest runic inscriptions ever found” and “the oldest datable runestone in the world.”

“This find will give us a lot of knowledge about the use of runes in the early Iron Age. This may be one of the first attempts to use runes in Norway and Scandinavia on stone,” Kristel Zilmer, a professor at University of Oslo, of which the museum is part, told The Associated Press.

Norway archaeologists find "World's oldest runestone"

 

[JimW]

I’m currently reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes. I’d like to read an up-to-date popular science book on more general hominin evolution, particularly culture. I’m interested in the current thinking on clothing, “house”-building, cooking and so on pre H. sapiens, which seems to have changed a lot in the last couple of decades. (As ever, things that were once strictly modern H. sapiens are no longer considered so, and behaviours that once defined “us” seem to be bleeding into our relative species. This interests me).

So, any recommendations?

Was reading this story on neanderthal art: Neanderthals: The oldest art in the world wasn't made by humans and the author has a book out: Homo Sapiens Rediscovered
Published late last year and not read it but the write-up suggests it might come at the question from the angle you mention: "He focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past."

 

[Chilli.s]

I’m currently reading Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art by Rebecca Wragg Sykes.

I recently read and enjoyed that too. Also: Ancestors : A prehistory of Britain in seven burials by Alice Roberts, not neanderthals but a good, easily approachable archaeology tales.

 

[redcogs]

Another huge thumbs up for Graeber and Wengrows 'The Dawn of Everything'. Rivetting read which fundamentally challenges many archaeological and anthropological orthodoxies.

 

[Kevbad the Bad]

Another huge thumbs up for Graeber and Wengrows 'The Dawn of Everything'. Rivetting read which fundamentally challenges many archaeological and anthropological orthodoxies.

Halfway through reading this. Very densely argued stuff, requiring quite a bit of underlying knowledge of anthropology worldwide, as well as Enlightenment philosophy, to properly understand it all. But quite fascinating. Can't wait to see where the argument ends up.

 

[redcogs]

Halfway through reading this. Very densely argued stuff, requiring quite a bit of underlying knowledge of anthropology worldwide, as well as Enlightenment philosophy, to properly understand it all. But quite fascinating. Can't wait to see where the argument ends up.

Same Kev' im about halfway through the read. A great deal of it is new to me so i'm being enlightened at a slow pace. Tremendously well written and accessible though. i'm frequently resisting the temptation to skip to conclusion also :-D

 

[danny la rouge]

Another huge thumbs up for Graeber and Wengrows 'The Dawn of Everything'. Rivetting read which fundamentally challenges many archaeological and anthropological orthodoxies.

Yes, I’ve read this.

 

[redcogs]

Very sad that comrade David Graeber passed just around the time the book was published. Did you enjoy the read danny'?

 

[belboid]

Was reading this story on neanderthal art: Neanderthals: The oldest art in the world wasn't made by humans and the author has a book out: Homo Sapiens Rediscovered
Published late last year and not read it but the write-up suggests it might come at the question from the angle you mention: "He focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past."

this is covered in an In Our Time episode from a couple of years back, twas and interesting show (with reading list)

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Cave Art

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how and why Stone Age people decorated caves with images.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Idaho]

Ooh .. Downloaded the dawn of everything. Looks just the ticket.

I loved kindred. I thought the poetry was a very impressive way to get the message across. And that's from someone who doesn't think he likes poetry.

 

[danny la rouge]

Very sad that comrade David Graeber passed just around the time the book was published. Did you enjoy the read danny'?

Yes, it was very thought-provoking.

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Another huge thumbs up for Graeber and Wengrows 'The Dawn of Everything'. Rivetting read which fundamentally challenges many archaeological and anthropological orthodoxies.

Graeber is generally a good read. His Debt: The First 5000 Years was one of the more interesting books I've read in the last decade. Its a shame that he passed too soon.

 

[Dystopiary]

Was reading this story on neanderthal art: Neanderthals: The oldest art in the world wasn't made by humans and the author has a book out: Homo Sapiens Rediscovered
Published late last year and not read it but the write-up suggests it might come at the question from the angle you mention: "He focuses in particular on behaviour, using archaeological evidence to bring an intimate perspective on lives as they were lived in the almost unimaginably distant past."

I enjoyed that, but the headline is bad. Neanderthals were humans!

 

[JimW]

I enjoyed that, but the headline is bad. Neanderthals were humans!

I did wonder at that!

 

[belboid]

Some people don't consider neanderthals human, they're a separate species. Dunno if its in that show, but according to the IOT other higher primates also make similar kinds of drawings.

 

[redcogs]

Reading about our distant relatives and their ways and means always seems much more fascinating than being overly concerned with the physics of deep space and the 'known' universe for this ignoramus. :-D

 

[Crispy]

Some people don't consider neanderthals human, they're a separate species. Dunno if its in that show, but according to the IOT other higher primates also make similar kinds of drawings.

Given that H.Sapiens interbred with them multiple times, such that everyone with ancestry outside Africa carries their genes, then they certainly were humans. The Denisovans too.