Artifacts News

Discovery reveals plant based aspirin medicine was used 50,000 years ago

Amy Goodrich — Fri, 10 Mar 2017 16:10:56 +0000

Neanderthals are our closest extinct relatives. They left Africa some 200,000 years ago to venture into Eurasia long before humans did. It is believed that, for a while, Neanderthals and our early human ancestors lived alongside each other in Europe. While Neanderthals looked quite similar to us, they are often thought of as our dumber, more brute caveman relatives.

New research, however, has discovered that they may have been more intelligent than we think. While antibiotics and painkillers are often touted as the miracles of modern medicine, it appears that our early relatives were using them tens of thousands of years before we first discovered them.

Ancient DNA sampled from the dental plaque on the teeth of Neanderthals has provided new insights into their dietary habits and knowledge of plant-based medicines to treat pain and disease. According to a recent analysis published in the journal Nature, Neanderthals used a natural form of aspirin for pain relief and a natural antibiotic (Penicillium) from molded herbaceous material.

Not all Neanderthals were predominantly meat eaters

The research was conducted by an international team led by the University of Adelaide’s Australian Centre for Ancient DNA and Dental School, in cooperation with the University of Liverpool in the U.K. The team analyzed plaque samples from the teeth of four Neanderthals found at the cave sites of Spy in Belgium and El Sidrón in Asturias, Spain.

The four skeletons range from 42,000 to around 50,000 years old, making it the oldest dental plaque samples ever to be analyzed. The team found that the Neanderthals from Spy cave consumed mainly meat supplemented with wild mushrooms, while those from El Sidrón cave appeared to live a vegetarian lifestyle, feasting on pine nuts, moss, mushrooms, and tree bark. While Neanderthals were thought to be enthusiastic meat eaters, the revelation that some of our ancient ancestors were vegetarians came as a big surprise to the researchers.

“We were surprised not to find any remains of meat in the Asturias Neanderthals, given that they were thought to be predominantly meat eaters. However, we have found evidence they enjoyed a varied diet including a wide range of plants. What’s more, some of these plants may well have been cooked before being eaten,” said one of the researchers, Dr. Antonio Rosas, of Spain’s National Natural Science Museum.

Neanderthals possessed a sound knowledge of medicinal plants

But what was even more surprising to the research team was that Neanderthals from El Sidrón apparently had an excellent understanding of medicinal plants and their various anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving benefits, which stands in great contrast to the simplistic view we have of our ancient relatives.

Data showed that one of the El Sidrón Neanderthals must have been in considerable pain as he was clearly quite sick. He had a hole in his jawbone caused by a dental abscess, and they also discovered that he had an intestinal parasite, Enterocytozoon bieneusi, which causes severe gastrointestinal problems, including serious acute diarrhea.

After analysis of his plaque sample, researchers found that he was self-medicating to cure his medical conditions. They found evidence that he was munching on poplar, a tree which bark, roots, and leaves contain salicylic acid, the main ingredient of aspirin and other painkillers. Next to poplar, the researchers also found traces of the Penicillium fungus, a natural antibiotic, in the plaque sample.

Professor Alan Cooper, of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at Adelaide University, who helped carry out the genetic analysis, said that these findings clearly show Neanderthals were more sophisticated than previously thought. Especially the use of antibiotics is remarkable as it took modern medicine over 40,000 years more to discover the antibiotic penicillin accidentally.

Stay informed about more natural cures at Cures.news.

Sources:

CIA docs reveal the agency attempted to use Remote Viewing (ESP) to scout Mars

Tracey Watson — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Extrasensory perception, or ESP as it is commonly known, is defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as “perception that occurs independently of the known sensory processes [hearing, seeing, touching, tasting and smelling]. Usually included in this category of phenomena are telepathy, or thought transference between persons; clairvoyance, or supernormal awareness of objects or events not necessarily known to others; and precognition, or knowledge of the future.”

While many would view ESP as being a bit “out there,” most would be intrigued to know that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – at least at one time – seemed to feel that there was some merit to the whole concept.

In January of this year, the CIA released about 13 million documents, detailing both “conventional” spying missions and some that came right out of left field, so to speak. These included both investigations into UFO sightings (X-Files, anyone?) and “missions” involving ESP. (RELATED: Are you as interested in outer space as the CIA? Stay in the loop of all the latest discoveries at Space.news)

One of the more interesting ones took place in May 1984, when the CIA undertook a sort of reverse fortune telling into the ancient past of the planet Mars by recruiting a clairvoyant in to help in a “remote viewing” exercise.

The clairvoyant was presented with a sealed envelope which contained a 3×5 card that simply stated: “The planet Mars. Time of interest approximately 1 million years B.C.” He was then verbally given a couple of coordinates and told to go for it. Incidentally, he wasn’t allowed to see what was hidden in the envelope until after the experiment was completed.

One can’t be sure if he was fed any other clues, e.g. “We want you to tell us what you can see in outer space, but we won’t tell you any more than that” etc. but if he genuinely wasn’t given any other information, then what he “saw” is really quite interesting. (RELATED: Follow more news of the unexplained at Unexplained.news)

He described what he referred to as an okra-colored “pyramid or pyramid form.” He also spoke of a dust storm that seemed to stem from a “major geologic problem,” and referenced several gigantic structures, including one that looked like the Washington Monument.

Managing to catch a glimpse inside a Martian structure, he described a utilitarian “hibernation” area that appeared to be more functional than comfortable, as it had no furniture and was strictly for sleeping (hibernating?).

Though there was no mention of color, green or otherwise, the clairvoyant did describe the Martians themselves as “thin and “tall.” He also said that they were very large and that they wore strange clothing (though no details were provided).

The government was clearly really interested in this kind of thing for a good number of years. Similar investigations were undertaken by “Project Stargate,” a Defense Intelligence Agency program that ran for 25 years, and which investigated consciousness, paranormal phenomena, ESP and remote viewing, among other things. (RELATED: If you, too, want to know all there is to know about ESP, check out this GoodGopher.com search from across the web.)

It’s unclear what conclusions the CIA drew from their ESP clairvoyance experiment. It certainly raises questions about the appropriate use of taxpayer money. And it makes one wonder what else they might be hiding, doesn’t it?

Sources:

SputnikNews.com

Global.Britannica.com

Collective-Evolution.com

Archaeologists unearth new Dead Sea Scrolls cave

News Editors — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Archaeologists have unearthed a new cave associated with the famed Dead Sea Scrolls, filled with ancient storage jars and lids off the Judean cliffside, marking the first successful excavation of its kind in 60 years.

(Article by Avalon Zoppo from Nbcnews.com)

Until Wednesday, researchers assumed only 11 caves contained scrolls. But the discovery of a twelfth cave cements a longstanding belief among archaeologists that looters stole the artifacts in the mid-1900s, referencing pick ax heads found deep inside a tunnel at the new cave’s rear as proof.

Hidden along the cave’s walls, excavators found numerous broken jars and lids. Among the other findings were fragments of scroll wrappings, leather and string.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of nearly 1,000 manuscripts written in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic dating back to 4th century BC. The texts were first discovered in 1947 near modern-day West Bank by a Bedouin shepherd.

“This exciting excavation is the closest we’ve come to discovering new Dead Sea Scrolls in 60 years. Although at the end of the day no scroll was found… the findings indicate beyond any doubt that the cave contained scrolls that were stolen,” Dr. Oren Gutfeld, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology and director of the excavation, said in a statement.

An undated handout photo made available by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology on Feb. 9, 2017 shows a remnant of a scroll after it was removed from a jar that has been discovered by archaeologists in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Israel. Casey L. Olson and Oren Gutfeld / EPA

The discovery of pottery, flint blades, arrowheads and semi-precious stone suggest the new cave was used during the Neolithic period — an era that began in 10,200 BC and ended between 4,500 and 2,000 BC.

Israel Hasson, Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said “work remains to be done” in the Judean Desert, with archaeologists in a “race against time as antiquities thieves steal heritage assets worldwide for financial gain.”

“The important discovery of another scroll cave attests to the fact that a lot of work remains to be done in the Judean Desert and finds of huge importance are still waiting to be discovered,” Hasson said. “The State of Israel needs to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to launch a historic operation, together with the public, to carry out a systematic excavation of all the caves of the Judean Desert.”

Excavations into the caves of the Judean Desert will continue as part of Israel Antiquities Authority’s “Operation Scroll,” officials said.

An undated handout photo made available by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Archaeology on Feb. 9, 2017 shows Israeli archeologists working in a cave on the cliffs west of Qumran, near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, Israel. Casey L. Olson and Oren Gutfeld / EPA

Amazing discovery resembling Stonehenge found in Amazon rain forest

Vicki Batts — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In Acre state, in the western Brazilian Amazon, an amazing discovery has been made. After flying drones over the area, scientists have discovered that the rain forest is also home to hundreds of ancient earthworks that resemble Stonehenge.

For the first time, its been proven that prehistoric settlers in Brazil created giant enclosures by clearing wooded areas — indicating that the “pristine” rain forest ecosytem that is so often celebrated by ecologists may not be so untouched after all.

Trees have been concealing the abandoned enclosures for centuries — but modern deforestation has unearthed more than 450 earthworks, or as archaeologists call them, “geolyphs.” Scientists from the United Kingdom and Brazil made the discovery last year, after flying drones in the area.

Researchers estimate that the geolyphs date all the way back to “year zero.”

Jennifer Watling, a post-doctoral researcher at the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography at the University of São Paulo, led the research while she was studying for a PhD at the University of Exeter.

According to Dr. Watling, the structures resemble Neolithic causeway enclosures, such as Stonehenge, though she notes that they do appear to be more “regular.”

“It is likely that the geoglyphs were used for similar functions to the Neolithic causewayed enclosures, i.e. public gathering, ritual sites,” Dr Watling explained. Dr. Watling says that the format of the geolyphs is particularly interesting; they have an outer ditch and inner wall enclosure, which she says “classically describe henge sites.”

Dr. Watling also pointed out that the earliest phases at Stonhenge were comprised of an enclosure with a similar lay-out.

Stonehenge is approximately 2,500 years older than the Amazonian geolyphs, but experts say that the period of social development they represent is likely quite similar.

Because very few artifacts were uncovered during excavation, it seems unlikely that the earthworks represent village borders. Researchers think that the geolpyhs were probably used sparingly, possibly as ritual gathering spaces.

The team also took soil samples from pits that were dug in and around the geolyths. Phytoliths — a type of microscopic plant fossil made of silica — were also collected and analyzed.

From this data, the researchers were able to reconstruct the ancient vegetation and charcoal quantities, and then assess the amount of forest burning and carbon stable isotopes. This allowed them to calcuate how “open” the vegetation used to be.

The investigation revealed that the indigenous people did not, in fact, burn down large swathes of the forest for earthworks or agricultural practices. What the researchers found was that they seemed to concentrate on “valuable” tree species, like palms, and in the process of doing so, they turned their environment into a “prehistoric supermarket.”

The researchers posit that the biodiversity seen in some of Acre’s forests may actually be rooted in these “agroforestry” practices from the past.

Despite the huge number and density of geoglyph sites in the region, we can be certain that Acre’s forests were never cleared as extensively, or for as long, as they have been in recent years, Dr Watling noted.

She explains that these findings should not in any way be used as a justification for current land-use practices in use today, which are both damaging and unsustainable. Instead, Dr. Watling says that their findings demonstrate that even indigenous people had enough sense not to irreparably destroy their environment.

Dr. Watling says their findings “highlight the ingenuity” of past land-use methods that didn’t lead to deforestation, and the “importance of indigenous knowledge” for developing more sustainable alternatives.

Sources:

Telegraph.co.uk

DailyMail.co.uk

Does The Daily Beast Think Jewish Artifacts Are a Hoax?

hoaxnews — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Why does the artifact appear to be genuine?

First of all, carbon dating establishes the age of the papyrus. Second, the IAA’s Dr. Eitan Klein explains that the text’s orthography (style of writing) matches with other texts from the period, thus confirming the carbon dating. Finally, the consensus opinion among scholars who have actually been involved with authenticating the artifact is that the find is, indeed, genuine.

Article by Daniel Pomerantz

Why does the Daily Beast refer to the artifact as a “hoax?”

For reasons that have nothing to do with the artifact itself, with the data, or with science.

Authors Candida Moss and Joel Baden say that the timing of the discovery makes it suspect: because of a recent UNESCO resolution which denies Jewish ties to Jerusalem, and which has been roundly criticized by most of the Western World. According to Moss and Baden, this, and this alone, casts doubt on the artifact, regardless of what science has to say on the topic.

The authors attempt to support their claim that the artifact is suspect by covering up the fact that the papyrus was recovered by the IAA in 2012 , that for years the agency has been working to examine it scientifically without connection to external political events, and that all of this has been publicly disclosed throughout the process.

Moss and Baden go on to imply that scholars deny the authenticity of the artifact.

They do not.

Their supporting link makes reference not to “scholars” but only to only one scholar: Aren Maeir, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University who was not involved with the acquisition or analysis of the papyrus, and who never said that it wasn’t authentic. To the contrary, Maeir merely discussed some commonly known challenges faced by any scientist when performing an authentication of this type, and how such challenges may also be relevant in this case.

In one final and desperate attempt to twist facts into their biased agenda, Moss and Baden imply that antiquities scholar Christopher Rollston has called the artifact a “fraud.”

He did not.

Rollston, like Maeir, has not been involved in authenticating the document, and he did not say that the discovery isn’t authentic. As part of a book he is writing, Rollston discusses commonly known challenges related to authentication in general, and the ways in which such challenges might be relevant to this particular discovery.

Our e-book, Red Lines: HonestReporting’s 8 Categories of Media Bias, examines the phenomenon of journalists using true facts to reach false conclusions.

There is nothing wrong with a professional journalist examining the various challenges related to authenticating any ancient artifact, just as the professional scholars quoted in this article have done.

But to call a scientific discovery “shady” and a “hoax” right in the headline, despite the weight of scientific evidence and scholarly consensus to the contrary, is simply irresponsible and unprofessional journalism.

Ancient burial and prayer sites bulldozed for pipeline in North Dakota

Vicki Batts — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

North Dakota’s Standing Rock Sioux filed for a temporary restraining order on September 4th to halt construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline. This is a last-ditch effort by the Sioux to preserve ancient burial sites and prayer areas. Irreparable damage has already been done to a number of sacred plots.

In a press statement, tribal chairman David Archambault II said: “On Saturday, Dakota Access Pipeline and Energy Transfer Partners brazenly used bulldozers to destroy our burial sites, prayer sites and culturally significant artifacts.” The chairman went on to illustrate how just one day after filing their court papers to identify sacred sites, the pipeline company moved forward with their plans and decimated the sacred land anyway. Archambault declared: “The desecration of these ancient places has already caused the Standing Rock Sioux irreparable harm. We’re asking the court to halt this path of destruction.”

Along with garnering a substantial amount of media attention, the ongoing protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline has gained thousands of supporters, including representatives from more than 200 tribes.

The Daily Sheeple reports that a federal judge is currently deciding whether the project should be halted altogether. The tribe filed a complaint which “argues that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the project without their consent.” A decision had not yet been handed down at the time of this writing.

The attorney for the Standing Rock Sioux, Jan Hasselman, stated: “Destroying the Tribe’s sacred places over a holiday weekend, while the judge is considering whether to block the pipeline, shows a flagrant disregard for the legal process.”

LaDonna Bravebull Allard, the historic preservation officer for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s Section 106, noted that 26 of the 380 identified spiritual or sacred sites are located at the confluence of two rivers, the Cannonball and the Missouri. She identified these as ancient trading sites and places that are held sacred not just by the Sioux, but by several other Native American nations as well. The Arikara, Mandan and Northern Cheyenne nations are all connected to those sacred spots. Allard says that allowing the Dakota Access Pipeline to destroy these and other ancient sites erases Native American history, and thereby their culture.

“The U.S. government is wiping out our most important cultural and spiritual areas. And as it erases our footprint from the world, it erases us as a people.”

Sources:

TheDailySheeple.com

CommonDreams.org

A New Scientific Model That Defines Alien Intelligence

spacenews — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Should we ever detect an extraterrestrial civilisation, or any kind of alien life for that matter, it’s a safe bet they will look very different from us. They will also probably think in a way that’s completely foreign to what we’re used to. Here’s how experts believe we might be able to predict what the minds of aliens will be like.

(Article by George Dvorsky)

Late last year, I talked about how extraterrestrial intelligences are probably more like us than not — at least for those alien civilizations living in a post-industrial Information Age. But we have no empirical evidence to support such a claim. It’s possible, for example, that we’re the anomaly when it comes to technological civilizations, and that there’s a multiplicity of alien-types that far exceeds our imagination and the limits of our current science. Perhaps it’s 16-tentacled rhino-cephalopods living in glass domes that’s the norm. Or maybe intelligent minds emerge from biological computers that form on the surface of dynamically complex pond scum.

No doubt, aliens could be really, really weird. At least compared to us. And not just in terms of their physical morphologies or cultural and technological adaptations. The very way they think could be vastly different from the way we do it. Extraterrestrials could have alternative modes of intelligence, communication, and social cooperation that we can scarcely imagine.

Thankfully, there are other intelligences we can study. As a new paper published in Acta Astronauticasuggests, our efforts to profile nonhuman animal intelligence can help us develop unbiased tools for describing other types of intelligence, both on Earth and beyond. What’s more, these intelligence profiles can provide a new perspective on how we should look for aliens and what we might expect to find.

The Self-Sampling Bias

There may be limitations to using ourselves as the standard template for all intelligence. As noted by marine mammal biologist/behavioural biologist Denise Herzing, who’s the author of the new study, most of our definitions of intelligence are based on comparisons of nonhuman cognitive and language abilities with our own.

In particular, we have a bias towards primate-like species, and for good reason. As primates, we certainly appear to have something special going on, both in terms of our physical and intellectual capacities. But as we’re learning, humans aren’t the be-all and end-all of intelligence on this planet. Different animals have different capacities, many of which result in qualitatively different psychological and cognitive experiences. For example, as Japanese researchers have learned, chimps do better on working memory tests than humans.

Historically, our measures of nonhuman intelligence has looked like this:

Physical measurements: brain to body ratio, brain structure/convolution/neural density, presence of artifacts and physical tools
Observational and sensory measurements: sensory signals, complexity of signals, cross-modal abilities, social complexity
Data mining: information theory, signal/noise, pattern recognition
Experimentation: memory, cognition, language comprehension/use, theory of mind
Direct interfaces: one way and two way interfaces with primates, dolphins, birds
Accidental interactions: human/animal symbiosis, cross-species enculturation

But these are mostly “human-like” attributes and measures. Most scientists are often reluctant to consider other types of intelligence that may not have human analogues.

“[Our] abilities to profile ‘types’ of intelligence that differ on a variety of scales is weak,” writes Herzing. “Just as biologists stretch their definitions of life to look at extremophiles in unusual conditions, so must we stretch our descriptions of types of minds and begin profiling, rather than equating, other life forms we may encounter.”

Intelligence is COMPLEX

To that end, Herzing has proposed a new approach to profiling a variety of nonhuman intelligences along multiple dimensions. Called COMPLEX (COmplexity of Markers for Profiling Life in EXobiology), it looks like this:

EQ: Encephalization Quotient
CS: Communication Signal complexity
IC: Individual Complexity
SC: Social Complexity
II: Interspecies Interaction

For example, dolphins have a high encephalization quotient, they engage in complex communication, and have big brains. The octopus is capable of associative learning, tameness, and exploratory behaviour. Bees have collective intelligence, a symbolic waggle dance, and are capable of counting and learning. Even bacteria can exhibit complex behavioural responses without having to evolve complex brains. As for machine intelligence, namely AI, it demonstrates intelligence via neural networks, computational power, and algorithms.

To scale these markers, Herzing used a small set of taxa devised by biologists Lori Marino and Kathryn Denning. Each category was scored by experts on a scale from 1 to 10. Using this system, dolphins scored high in most categories, bees and machines scored relatively high in both the Communication Signal and Social Complexity categories, and microbes scored high in terms of Interspecies Interaction.

This chart shows the comparable category scores for each taxon. The red boxes indicate the most interesting aspects of various taxa:

The overlapping five dimensional profiles generated a distinct shape for each organism:

Five different profiling types were described:

The Party Animal: Brainy, communicative, and socially interactive (a high potential for social interactions)
The Accountant: Brainy and detail oriented (a high potential for specialised interactions)
The Loner: Brainy, communicative — but nonsocial (medium potential for individual interaction)
The Crowd: Communicative and integrated (low potential for individual interaction)
The Busy Body: Detail oriented and follows authority (smart, but low potential for creative interaction.

Charted, these profiling types look like this:

Herzing says this system can be easily used to assess a larger pool of nonhuman intelligences.

Interestingly, her findings suggest — and like I alluded to earlier — that convergent evolution may result in a certain universality of cognitive aspects of social animals, including the ability to comprehend artificial language (like mammals and birds) and show numerical competence (such as mammals, birds, fish, and amphibians). Indeed, many of these traits often predate language production or verbal language. Though she didn’t state this in her paper, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that intelligences do converge around certain cognitive traits.

The Search for Alien Alien Intelligence

Moving on the issue of exobiology and SETI, Herzing says her system can also be used to assess alien nonhuman intelligence.

“If we can successfully use pattern recognition tools to profile ‘intelligent types’ on Earth, could we then apply these tests to species outside our Earth?,” she asks. “Could we develop pattern recognition tools and techniques that verify ‘types’, for remote information gathering?”

She says that, based what we known of extremophiles, we should expect a similar diversity of types and manifestations of intelligence. That said, some “types” of organisms may use multiple of even unknown sensory systems.

“Documenting the behaviour of a species, as in the case of dolphins, can give us examples of quantitative measures,” Herzing told io9. “For example, by measuring such things as personalities — via boldness, shyness, willingness to explore — we might develop tools to measure these qualities in other species, to determine whether they are approachable or not, either as individuals or as a species.”

So when searching for alien life, it could help us, for example, to predict biosignatures resident in the atmospheric composition of exoplanets, whether it be generated by microbes or an industrial-scale civilisation. Or, it could inform SETI. We’re currently looking for radio signals, but perhaps we should be looking for some other kind of communication beacon or signature produced by a civilisation with sensory, cognitive, and physical capacities different from our own.

Indeed, profiling other “types” of intelligence on Earth would be a good exercise for future exobiology explorations. Such a system could prepare us for what we might find, whether it be microbial life, complex terrestrial organisms, or even an intelligence that’s capable of communicating with us.

NASA denies accusations it cut live video feed when UFO appeared

spacenews — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

In case you hadn’t heard about the latest UFO cover-up theory circulating the internet, last week people began accusing NASA of covering up a sighting of an unidentified flying object when its live-streaming video cut out just as something appeared to be entering Earth’s atmosphere.

(Article by Danielle Lopez)

YouTube user StreetCap1 posted the video clip, acknowledging that the object is not necessarily a spacecraft and it could be something less notable like a meteor.

“What made it interesting was the camera cut off when the UFO seemed to stop,” he wrote.

After the video went viral, CNET reached out to NASA for comment. NASA spokesman Daniel Huot said to CNET in an email that the video is from the High Definition Earth Viewing experiment aboard the International Space Station. He said the experiment is on automatic controls to cycle through various cameras, meaning no one is actually monitoring the feed.

>> Read more trending stories

“The station regularly passes out of range of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS) used to send and receive video, voice and telemetry from the station,” Huot said. “For video, whenever we lose signal (video comes down on our higher bandwidth, called KU) the cameras will show a blue screen (indicating no signal) or a preset video slate.”

As for what the object was, Huot said, “It’s very common for things like the moon, space debris, reflection from station windows, the spacecraft structure itself or light from Earth to appear as artifacts in photos and videos from the orbiting laboratory.”

New Book Reveals the University of Texas at Austin’s Hidden Treasures

austinsentinel — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

AUSTIN, Texas — In the first thorough account of the collections at The University of Texas at Austin, a new book from the University of Texas Press spotlights more than 80 collections — some familiar and others virtually unknown outside their fields of research — acquired since the university’s inauguration in 1883. The book shows the university is the largest repository of cultural objects in the state and the largest in the U.S. in terms of the number of objects.

(Article by Brady Dyer, republished from https://news.utexas.edu/2016/01/21/new-book-reveals-ut-austins-hidden-treasures )

Edited by Andrée Bober with foreword by UT Austin President Gregory L. Fenves and essay by Lewis Gould, the book will be published Jan. 22.

Antique Light Face Extended, The Hamilton Manufacturing Company. 1891–ca. 1920. The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection, College of Fine Arts. Photo by Adam Voorhees

UT Austin has long been one of the world’s distinguished collecting universities, home to renowned institutions such as the Harry Ransom Center, the Blanton Museum of Art and the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Other collections have grown apart from the public eye, typically as the byproduct of research and pedagogical interests. The Collections offers an account of all the university’s irreplaceable artifacts, introducing each collection by outlining its history, highlighting its strengths and suggesting its educational function.

The Collections also reveals the scale and diversity of the holdings by bringing these materials together for the first time. With more than 170 million objects, the university outpaces the largest collections in America and rivals many in variety and importance. The book highlights materials held by some 40 academic and administrative units, and it covers a radical range of subjects — archaeology, ethnography, fine and performing arts, rare books and manuscripts, decorative arts, photography, film, music, popular and material culture, regional and political history, natural history, science and technology.

“The University of Texas at Austin is built on the core values of learning, expanding understanding, and creating knowledge. Celebrating the material holdings that support its mission, this book offers a chronicle of creativity and discovery fostered by the collections,” President Fenves states in his foreword.

Cramer’s eighty-eight (Diaethria clymena) Brazilian species. Collection: Freshwater and Terrestrial Invertebrates, Texas Natural Science Center. Photo by Mark Menjivar

Bober conceived this survey and organized more than 350 individuals to lend their expertise. She writes in the introduction, “Coming to understand the richness of Austin’s collections while working closely with so many people who share a passion for them has been an enormous privilege. I believe this book, whatever its lacunae, speaks eloquently to the university’s collecting strengths and the resources for scholarship and study that are publicly available.”

Included is a historical introduction by Lewis Gould, professor emeritus of American history. His essay traces the formation of the collections and acknowledges many people whose visions are manifest in these material resources.

Unanimous Declaration of Independence by the delegates of the People of Texas, in general convention at the town of Washington on March 2, 1836. Collection: Eugene C. Barker Texas History Collections, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History. Printed by Baker and Bordens, San Felipe de Austin

_________________________________________

Andrée Bober is the founding director of Landmarks, the public art program of The University of Texas at Austin. Previously she served as deputy and then interim director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Her publications include Landmarks, The University of Texas at Austin and Susan Unterberg: A Retrospective. She lives with her family in Chevy Chase, Maryland.

The University of Texas Press, founded in 1950, is a scholarly press that is part of The University of Texas at Austin.

For more information about the book, please visit the UT Press website.

Release: January 2016, $125

9 7/8 x 12 inches, 720 pages, 807 color and 117 b&w illustrations

ISBN 978-1-4773-0785-4

For more information, contact: Brady Dyer, UT Press, 512-232-7627.

Read more at: https://news.utexas.edu/2016/01/21/new-book-reveals-ut-austins-hidden-treasures

Satellite images reveal mysterious, ancient superstructures built in Kazakhstan thousands of years before the Egyptian pyramids

Norman Smith — Mon, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

A few years ago, an amateur archaeologist named Dmitriy Dey was searching for pyramids on Google Earth when he discovered over 200 ancient earthworks that have gone unnoticed for 8,000 years. Located near the former Soviet territory of Kazakhstan, these colossal geometric figures appear in the shape of squares, crosses, lines and rings, measuring hundreds of yards across.

The largest is a square consisting of 101 raised mounds, with its opposite corners connected by a giant diagonal cross, covering more terrain than the largest pyramid in Egypt.

Another fascinating figure resembles a 300-foot triradial swastika. Swastikas have been one of the most popular graphic designs throughout history until it was appropriated by the Nazis and became associated with terror and mass murder.

And now NASA has released satellite photographs of some of the figures, taken from 430 miles in space, offering the clearest view yet of these amazing artifacts. As one NASA scientist put it, “I’ve never seen anything like this; I found it remarkable.” So remarkable, in fact, that NASA has made further visual documentation of the Kazakhstan earthworks a priority of astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Nobody knows what these ancient constructions were used for, but the most obvious theory is that they were solar observatories, akin to Stonehenge in England and the Chankillo towers in Puru. “Everything is linked through the cult of the sun,” as Dmitriy Dey puts it.

To further the terrestrial examination of the earthworks, Mr. Dey and colleagues in the U.S. scientific community are considering the use of drones, as the Culture Ministry in Peru has been doing to map and protect ancient sites in that country.

In the meantime, however, they remain a puzzling mystery.

For another fascinating story about ancient archaeology, be sure to check out this Prophecy.news article about the giant pyramid that was discovered in Bosnia. Is it a real, or just a big hoax? You be the judge!

Source:

NYTimes.com

Telegraph.co.uk