Tag: Historical Sites

Eye In The Sky

Welcome friends and I do hope you have a great weekend…..I will be posting little and enjoying nice weather……

I have written about an archaeologists , Sarah Parcak, who uses satellites top find long missing historical sites…..she has found hundreds of once unknown sites, most of which wait for excavation……she is just amazing and I am glad to see that she is getting the recognition that she deserves……

I have written about Dr. Parcak before for her new program to locate unknown historical sites worldwide…….

Source: “Space Archaeology” – In Saner Thought

Scientists have been trying to locate another North American site for the Vikings…..it appears that Dr. Parcak and her “space” equipment may have done just that…….

A “high-tech Indiana Jones” may have just done what no one else has been able to for 55 years: find a second Viking settlement in North America, the Washington Post reports. “Typically in archaeology, you only ever get to write a footnote in the history books, but what we seem to have at Point Rosee may be the beginning of an entirely new chapter,” archaeologist Sara Parcak tells the BBC. Parcak used images taken by satellites 400 miles above the Earth to find what appeared to be evidence that Vikings made it hundreds of miles further into North America than previously known. Parcak has used the same technique to find 17 pyramids, 1,000 tombs, and 3,000 forgotten settlements. But this newest discovery could change everything we know about Vikings in North America.

The first—and so far only—Viking settlement in North America was found in 1960 at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, the New York Times reports. Parcak’s site is 300 miles southwest at Point Rosee. After spotting discolorations and patterns in the satellite images, she had to hike through bogs and forests while worrying about bear attacks to confirm her suspicions. Some digging revealed a stone cracked by fire, scraps of iron ore, and Viking-style turf walls. “Either it’s … an entirely new culture that looks exactly like the Norse,” Parcak tells the Post, “or it’s the westernmost Norse site that’s ever been discovered.” And that means there could more undiscovered sites showing Vikings settled deep into North America hundreds of years before the arrival of Columbus. (A hiker found a 1,200-year-old Viking sword.)

If you would like to learn more about this young lady’s amazing discoveries……

Source: Possible Viking Find Could Rewrite North American History

I am very impressed this woman’s work….so much so I have volunteered to be part of the “group” that pours over satellite images looking for undiscovered sites….I am hoping that I can view the Middle East for these sites.

Through The Sands Of Time

I begin my weekend with good coffee, time with my lady and a good breakfast and look forward to a couple of days without the total BS of an election……

My regulars will know that I do enjoy history and international stuff and today’s post fills both of those desires.

Since I was very young and saw the original Mummy I have been interested in Egyptian history….and it became more pronounce when working in the Middle East and North Africa I got to visit historical sites in Egypt….Giza, Luxor, Karnak among others……you cannot imagine the awe one feels standing at the base of the Great Pyramid or at the Step Pyramid…….the national museum in Cairo is a place of wonder and awe also…..and there is where I am going with this post…..

There is a new museum slated to open soon on the Plain of Giza…….

When visitors arrive at the Grand Egyptian Museum—to open near the Giza pyramids in 2018—they’ll be greeted by a 4-ton statue of King Amenhotep seated beside the Egyptian god Ra. But first, the 3,500-year-old pink granite statue will be restored, having just traveled 400 miles from Luxor, reports NBC News. Carefully secured by the Tourism and Antiquities Police, the statue rediscovered in southern Egypt in 2009 was one of 780 Egyptian artifacts to arrive at the museum recently in special humidity-controlled trucks, per Ahram Online. They’ll become part of a collection that will number 50,000 pieces, more than half of which have never been seen by the public before.

Clay pots, painted sarcophagi, and limestone blocks inscribed with hierogylphics are just some of the items hand-picked by General Director Tarek Tawfiq, per Ahram Online. Every piece will be arranged in its original context. “You will be transferred to ancient Egypt and you will have an enjoyable experience through real authentic pieces,” Tawfiq says. The Grand Staircase alone will be a spectacle. It will showcase 100 artifacts representing kingship, including the statue of King Amenhotep, a granite column from the temple of King Sahure in Saqqara, and two black granite statues of the lioness war deity Sekhmet from Luxor, reports Ahram Online. (Egypt is now celebrating this incredible discovery.)

I am old and will not get to see this amazing site but maybe my granddaughter will get the chance.

As long as we are talking about history there has been a development in Syria…….

Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes pushed Thursday into the ancient town of Palmyra, which has been held by the Islamic State group since May, state TV reported. The advance came after the troops managed this week to capture several hills and high ground around the town, famed for its priceless archaeological site and Roman ruins, reports the AP. The state TV broadcast footage of its reporter, embedded with the Syrian military, speaking live from the entrance of Palmyra and saying that as of midday Thursday, the fighting was concentrated near the archaeological site on the southwestern edge of the town.

Recapturing the town, a UNESCO World Heritage site, would be a significant victory for Syria’s army and its Russian allies. Russia withdrew most of its forces and aircraft from Syria last week after a monthslong bombing campaign that succeeded in turning the tide of the war again in President Bashar Assad’s favor. Earlier in the day, Gov. Talal Barazi said from the nearby city of Homs that the Syrian army has determined three directions to storm Palmyra and was clearing all roads leading into the town of mines and explosives. “We might witness in the next 48 hours an overwhelming victory in Palmyra,” he said. (ISIS already has destroyed archaeological treasures in Palmyra.)

Sadly we will never be able to repair the damage the pigs in ISIS has done to this historical site….but at least we can punish the bastards for what they have done.

Septimia Zenobia, Queen Of Palmyra

Time for a IST history lesson…….

Keeping with the tradition of IST…..it is March and I try to post on women throughout history that have made a difference or have shown that they are as strong as any man……

This time it is the Queen of Palmyra, Septimia Zenobia…..of course you have heard of Palmyra….it is those ruins in Syria that those pigs in ISIS set about destroying for whatever wrapped reason….

Palmyra was the seat of power of a Roman woman……

Zenobia, in full Septimia Zenobia, Aramaic Znwbyā Bat Zabbai   (died after 274), queen of the Roman colony of Palmyra, in present-day Syria, from 267 or 268 to 272. She conquered several of Rome’s eastern provinces before she was subjugated by the emperor Aurelian (ruled 270–275).Zenobia’s husband, Odaenathus, Rome’s client ruler of Palmyra, had by 267 recovered the Roman East from Persian conquerors. After Odaenathus and his eldest son (by his former wife), Herodes (or Herodianus), were assassinated in 267 or 268, Zenobia became regent for her own young son Wahballat (called Vaballathus in Latin, Athenodorus in Greek). Styling herself queen of Palmyra, she had Vaballathus adopt his father’s titles of “king of kings” and corrector totius Orientis (“governor of all the East”).Nevertheless, unlike Odaenathus, Zenobia was not content to remain a Roman client. In 269 she seized Egypt, then conquered much of Asia Minor and declared her independence from Rome. Marching east, Aurelian defeated her armies at Antioch (now Antakya, Turkey) and at Emesa (now Ḥimṣ, Syria) and besieged Palmyra. Zenobia and Vaballathus tried to flee from the city, but they were captured before they could cross the Euphrates River, and the Palmyrenes soon surrendered. When they revolted again in 273, the Romans recaptured and destroyed the city. Sources differ about Zenobia’s fate after her capture. According to some, Zenobia and Vaballathus graced the triumphal procession that Aurelian celebrated at Rome in 274. However, other historians claim that she starved herself to death during the trip to Rome.
She had had enough of Rome’s crap and set about building her own empire…..Another woman that most of the historians would like to forget or ignore……while they taunt the power of the Roman Empire….this woman crapped in their pasta to prove that women are more than capable of being a strong leader…… and controlling an empire.

“Space Archaeology”

Today I will give props where props are due…..

The title might lead one to think that I am about to go off on some weird rant about Ancient Astronauts or aliens….or possible something about a face on mars or maybe even a robot part found on the moon….or other such nonsense…..if so then……you would be mistaken…..

It is no secret that I appreciate history and archaeology and try to pass on as much info as I can when I feel it is appropriate……today is one of those times…….

I want to talk about an archaeologist that uses satellites to find ancient historical sites….the History Channel even did a program on her discoveries, it was entitled “Egypt:  What Lies Beneath”….she has found many more possible pyramid sites and even some other types of structures……about 1250 sites I believe,  that were unknown before her……she is brilliant.

And she is asking for help…….

The winner of this year’s $1 million TED Prize has the unique title of “space archaeologist,” and she plans to use the money to recruit a network of digital helpers to identify and protect sites around the world, reports the BBC. As National Geographic explains, Dr. Sarah Parcak of the University of Alabama at Birmingham is a pioneer in the field of using satellite technology to pinpoint previously undiscovered archaeological sites. With the prize money, Parcak plans to develop a website that will use volunteer crowdsourcing to amplify that effort and to spot looting. She says the latter is more vital than ever now that groups such as the Islamic State are bent on destroying antiquities.

“We can’t keep up,” she says. “We are losing the battle. It is heartbreaking.” Parcak’s plan is to turn the process into something like a game for users, explains NPR. They’ll get cards with images representing about 50 square meters of land. “As the crowd populates these images with their tags, after 10, 20, or 50 users tell us that something is there, we’ll know to be able to check, to confirm, one way or another,” she says. On-the-ground archaeologists would then investigate, sharing their progress on social media. “The coolest part—they’ll be taking you with them,” Parcak tells the New York Times. The program is expected to launch this summer.

I like this….we are losing historic sites at an alarming rate and we all need to do all we can to help save them from the insanity of the world today…..

Source: Space Archaeologist Wants Your Help To Find Ancient Sites : All Tech Considered : NPR

I am old and retired…..so I shall apply to see if there is anything I can do to help…..if you would like to feel that you could make a difference then by all means join me and help this young lady in her quest……

Now with all that said……go out and enjoy what is left of your weekend…..

Peace….Out

Faith’s archivists

How about a little historical perspective?

We all know that the barbaric group known as ISIS has set on a path to destroy many historical sites all in the name of some BS they think is right…..the recent problems in Mali have put many ancient texts in danger and this piece is about the attempts to save them for the future….

Catholic monks in Minnesota are helping to save a trove of Islamic treasures in Mali

Source: Faith’s archivists | The Economist

I have a problem with anyone that destroys a civilization’s history and heritage and I salute these brave people for their efforts to preserve the history…….may I say that it is nice to see Christians acting like Christians and not just sounding like one…….

Oh Brother! Another Theory!

My weekend begins and I am so happy to be away from the mind numbing effect of constant news up-dates…..a few days to relax the mind and ignore the clutter……

Stonehenge!  It seems that there is a new theory pertaining to this historic structure….no I am not talking about one of those crazy things that the Ancient alien nuts would have you believe….this is a real theory (sort of)…….

Stonehenge may reside in England, but it “was a Welsh monument from its very beginning.” So says Professor Mike Parker Pearson in reference to what is a big step forward in our understanding of Stonehenge, reports the BBC. His team’s research, published Monday in the journal Antiquity, establishes the source of the monument’s “bluestones,” the smaller of its stones, which for nine decades were known to generally hail from the Preseli Hills in Wales. Now, scientists say they know exactly where in Wales they came from: the “spotted dolerite” bluestones hail from Carn Goedog, while the “rhyolite” were extracted from Craig Rhos-y-felin, reports Phys.org. The burnt hazelnuts and charcoal that persist as remnants of millennia-old campfires at the quarries further flesh out the tale of the rocks.

“We have dates of around 3400 BC for Craig Rhos-y-felin and 3200 BC for Carn Goedog, which is intriguing because the bluestones didn’t get put up at Stonehenge until around 2900 BC,” says Parker Pearson per Phys.org. “It could have taken those Neolithic stone-draggers nearly 500 years to get them to Stonehenge, but that’s pretty improbable.” His theory: The stones were put to use in a local monument, which was latter disassembled. His team suspects the remnants of that monument could sit between the two quarries; “we may find something big in 2016,” says one scientist. If they do, Parker Pearson believes it could reveal “the mystery of why Stonehenge was built and why some of its stones were brought so far.” One theory he shares with the Guardian: that it’s a “monument of unification, bringing together people from across the many parts of Britain.

Or maybe they thought the stones were…….pretty.

Well it is a better theory than the one that it is somehow connected to cute little grey guys from space……but I still want someone to tell me how they lifted those stones into place.

Any thoughts?

What’s New in Archaeology?

Once again I look forward to the weekend…..always nice to recover some mental clarity……

Most know I am a history buff….I enjoy learning new historical stuff and last week there were two stories that were very interesting…..

First, this discovery will get all those ancient alien geeks jerking off all over their out dated keyboards…….

A project to scan Egypt’s pyramids for 4,500-year-old secrets is turning up “anomalies” that may lead to hidden passages and more, Discovery reports. Two weeks of thermal scanning have revealed signs of internal cavities and structures in several pyramids and a standout anomaly at the so-called Great Pyramid, also known as Cheops. “This anomaly is really quite impressive and it’s just in front of us, at the ground level,” says researcher Mehdi Tayoubi. He called the anomaly “impressive and obvious” but inconclusive. Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty was more specific: “There is something like a small passage in the ground that you can see, leading up to the pyramids ground, reaching an area with a different temperature,” he said, per the AP. “What will be behind it?”

In this first phase of the Scan Pyramids project, a team from Cairo University and the Heritage, Innovation and Preservation organization explored the pyramids with technologies including a thermal camera. The idea was to see how pyramid stones heated up in the morning and cooled down in the evening, and big temperature differences between adjacent stones could indicate structural differences inside the pyramid. Led by Tayoubi, researchers spotted a 6-degree difference in a block of stones on the ground level at Cheops. “We need now to build models and thermal simulations to test different hypotheses in order to understand what we have found,” says Tayoubi. The project is slated to continue next year with an infrared scan of the pyramids. (Also giving up potential secrets? King Tut’s tomb.)

Will this help Carson’s claim that they were grain storage?  Or is it some secret library that the ancient aliens have been talking about for a couple of seasons on that “reality” show?  What will be the final determination?

Second, another fave of the ancient alien nerds….Stonehenge…..

The New York Times has an interesting roundup of recent discoveries made at and around Stonehenge that could shed new light on the famous monument and the people who built it nearly 5,000 years ago. Last month, archaeologists dug up an ancient house at an area called Blick Mead about a mile from Stonehenge. Built around 4300 BC, they believe the house is one of the oldest in England. In September, a team of archaeologists using radar imaging found what they believe are 90 standing stones buried at another nearby site called Durrington Walls. Teams also think they’ve found where Stonehenge’s builders lived around 2600 BC. Fatty acids still inside ancient pots show the people of the time had a “very meat-heavy diet” of grilled and boiled pork and beef with some apples, berries, and hazelnuts.

But despite the recent discoveries, the major question remains: Why was Stonehenge built? Some archaeologists believe it was a “land of the dead” used to honor the builders’ ancestors, the Times reports. Others believe it was the opposite: an area renowned for its life-giving healing properties. A team used an isotope contained in ancient cattle teeth to deduce people came to the area around Stonehenge from far and wide. Archaeologists are also left wondering if Stonehenge was built atop a site that was already revered by ancient peoples. For example, charcoal and bones found in nearby pits left by large posts—possibly totem poles—date back to nearly 8000 BC. “The stone monument is iconic,” one archaeologist says. “But it’s only a little part of the whole thing.” Read the full story here.

That is my short round-up of archaeology finds…….what say you?

Speaking Of “Good Christians”

My friend over at “Lines by Liming” turn me onto this story…..and after I read about it I have to concur with his humorous take of the story…..

Hobby Lobby?  Remember them?  They will not let you work for them if you happen to be gay….they find same sex marriage abhorrent…..or to terminate a pregnancy…..and they are a good Christian organization…..remember them now?

According to them…..a woman does not have a right that is Federal law……but this is somehow just fine……

The Museum of the Bible being built in DC by the Christian family behind one of the nation’s biggest arts-and-crafts retailers is coming along nicely. Maybe too nicely, per law enforcement sources, who tell the Daily Beast that the Green family—the ones whose Hobby Lobby chain claimed a big victory last year when the Supreme Court ruled it didn’t have to provide insurance for employee birth control—has been the subject of a four-year federal investigation for “illicit importation of cultural heritage from Iraq,” per the Daily Beast. That comprises hundreds of clay tablets, thousands of years old and inscribed in ancient cuneiform, allegedly smuggled out of the Middle East and shipped to the Greens’ Oklahoma City home base in 2011. The tablets and tens of thousands of other artifacts are for the museum, set to open in 2017 as “one of the world’s largest private collections of rare biblical texts, objects, and artifacts.”

The problem with the Iraq tablets is that, as museum head Cary Summers puts it, there was “incomplete paperwork” attached, though the Daily Beast points out that a simple logistical issue wouldn’t have dragged on so long. Instead, someone looking to bring in artifacts that should never have left their country of origin may have purposely undervalued the antiquities so they could be smuggled into the US. An unnamed source tells the Daily Beast the FedEx forms were marked “hand-crafted clay tiles,” with a value of around $300—which is “technically accurate, but … vastly underestimates their true worth, and … obscures their identification as the cultural heritage of Iraq,” the site notes. Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green tells the Daily Beast, “Is it possible that we have some illicit [artifacts]? That’s possible,” but adds they didn’t knowingly act illegally.

So is it okay to STEAL?  That is exactly what they are doing…stealing another culture’s history…..I believe there is something written down about stealing, right?

But because they are a “good” Christian group these laws do not apply to them…is that about it?

Stealing history of a people is by far the worse type of rape…the rape of a culture…there is NO excuse for this…..religion or otherwise……There is NOTHING “Good” or “Christian” about the theft of a country’s heritage….PERIOD!

Speaking of “good” Christians…..look at what that mental midget Pat Robinson has to say about a guy who ran Guatemala…….

Robertson gushed over Ríos Montt, claiming that he was the real victim because he was targeted by liberals just for being a good Christian.

“I know Efraín Ríos Montt, who was the president there,” Robertson said. “He’s a terrific guy, he was with the El Verbo Church and they had a marvelous government but the left got after him and he couldn’t survive. They just went after him and attacked him and attacked him, the United States State Department went after him, it was terrible.”

Rios-Montt is a good person because he went to a Christian church?

Let’s look at this “good Christian”……….

“At the height of the bloodshed under Ríos Montt, reports put the number of killings and disappearances at more than 3,000 per month,” Patrick Daniels of the Guatemala Solidarity Network noted. “Such was the extent of the violence that in 1999 the UN commission concluded that it constituted acts of genocide.”

His regime specifically targeted indigenous communities with violence and displacement, and in 2013 Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide for crimes committed against the Maya Ixil community. “Hunger, systematic rape and forced displacements were all used as tools of war against the Ixil people,” the BBC reported. However, the conviction was overturned due to a legal technicality and Ríos Montt was later declared unfit to stand for retrial.

– See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-hails-guatemalan-dictator-charged-genocide#sthash.Ba0VQhpU.dpuf

Yep…..”Good Christians” every one!
There is something to be said about all these “Good Christians” and none of it positive.

Atlantis Found (Again)!

A beautiful Saturday and the start of my weekend….days of wine and roses…..relax and enjoy the show……

How many stories have you seen with the title “Atlantis Found”?  Well, there is yet another of those…….

There have been how many references to the location of Atlantis?  SyFy has made movies about it….aliens have created it……books written….historical papers delivered……on and on.

The island has been in the imagination of everyone since it was written about by Plato in those years before Alexander the Great…..people have used every source available to place the exact location of the legendary island……is it in Bimini?  How about in the Aegean Sea…..off Spain….somewhere in the India Ocean?  Lots of speculation…..little factual information.

And now we have another “discovery” about Atlantis…….

Some say the lost city of Atlantis lies not at the bottom of the ocean but in plain sight off the coast of Italy on the island of Sardinia. Herodotus and Aristotle were two who thought Plato’s description of a land beyond the strait between Sicily and Tunisia, which disappeared beneath the waves, referenced the island. Writer and journalist Sergio Frau is another. After researching the island for a decade, Frau suspects a mysterious disaster that devastated Sardinia 3,200 years ago was in fact a tidal wave, which boosts the theory that Sardinia and Atlantis are one and the same, reports the Guardian. Stefano Tinti, an expert on tidal waves who recently visited the island with Frau along with a dozen other experts, says 350 tidal waves have occurred in the Mediterranean over the last 2,500 years and one might explain why all of Sardinia’s ancient megalithic edifices below 1,640 feet of elevation are hidden beneath dirt.

Frau explains at least 20,000 nuraghi—fortresses with a main tower—can be found across the island, dating between the 16th and 12th centuries BC. But below 1,640 feet in the south, the structures are buried. Excavations in this area have found a jumble of ceramics, cups, pots, oil lamps, sharpening stones, metal implements, knives, chisels, needles, and arrow tips; gold, silver, amber, and rock crystal jewellery have also been found. Tinti notes the 2003 earthquake in Algeria “triggered a shockwave that reached the Balearics and Sardinia an hour later,” but only a comet hitting “very close to the coast and in a very specific direction” could have created a wall of water 1,640 feet high. The Guardian reports researchers could search for evidence of such an impact, including comet fragments, underwater. The initial purpose of the nuraghi, used later for moon worship, is also a subject of interest.

All these people know the location…..and yet there is little proof that they are right in the declarations…….

Will the elusive island of wonder ever truly be pinpointed?  Better yet,,,,did it ever exist?

Found In Last Place They Looked

My readers know that I loves me some history……..history is just damn fascinating…….

There is a mystery from the early years of settlement of this country…….the mystery of Roanoke Island.  Hollywood has made movies about it…..books have been written with all kinds of theories of where and why the residents disappeared…..there has even been some rumblings that Aliens may have had something to do with their disappearance……then there is that “Unearthed” guy who thinks the Holy Grail is here in the US…….lots of speculation little facts……..

But finally there may be a definitive answer………

The mystery of Roanoke Island may be one for the books. Two archaeological teams have dug up new evidence pointing to the fate of English colonists who mysteriously vanished from the North Carolina island 425 years ago, National Geographic reports. One collection of items appears to support the long-held theory that some colonists moved to Hatteras Island, about 50 miles southeast of Roanoke. “The evidence is that they assimilated with the Native Americans but kept their goods,” says chief archaeologist Mark Horton. Among the Hatteras Island finds: a small bit of a slate writing tablet marked by the letter “M,” a rapier hilt likely dating to the late 16th century, and pieces of iron, ingot, and stoneware apparently dating to the same period.

What’s more, the name of a native American settlement on Hatteras Island—”Croatoan”—was found etched into a post in 1590 when all the colonists had vanished. For the second find, archaeologists used a map drawn by colony governor John White in 1585. The map includes an “X” obscured by a patch and may have been a “‘cover-up’ … to keep information from the public and from foreign agents,” a historian told National Geographic two years ago. The “X” marked a site on Albemarle Sound, an estuary in North Carolina, where archaeologists recently discovered dozens of pottery pieces that resemble others found on Roanoke Island. So is this finally proof? Not really, because it’s hard to date items precisely or know how they got there. “What we’ve found is tantalizing,” a volunteer says. “I would love to see some definitive evidence, but what we have is fragmentary.”

May not be the answer we were looking forward…..but we are getting closer…….

And the saga continues……..

Now they can turn all their attention on helping find my lost virginity……Haha

Enjoy the rest of your weekend……..I will.