Πέμπτη 7 Αυγούστου 2014
6,500-Year-Old 'Noah' Skeleton Found in Museum Closet AUG 6, 2014
The University of Pennsylvania did have a skeleton in its closet -- and it was quite old.
Scientists at the Penn Museum (the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology) announced Tuesday they had found a 6,500-year-old skeleton in the museum basement.
The bones belonged to a once well-muscled, 5'9" man estimated to be at least 50 years old. His remains had been lying in a coffin-like box for 85 years with no identifying documents. Since he likely outlived a great flood that, millennia later would be a precursor to the Biblical story, some are referring to the skeleton as "Noah."
"This summer, a project to digitize old records from a world-famous excavation brought that documentation, and the history of the skeleton, back to light," the Penn Museum said in a statement.
Records revealed the complete skeleton was unearthed at the site of Ur, an ancient city near modern-day Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, in 1929–30.
At that time, a joint Penn Museum/British Museum excavation team led by Sir Leonard Woolley excavated 48 graves in a floodplain, all dating to the Ubaid period. This was a culture characterized by large village settlements that originated on the alluvial plains of southern Mesopotamia around 5500 B.C. and lasted until roughly 4000 B.C.
Of all the bones found, only one skeleton was in good enough condition to recover. Buried with arms at his sides and hands over his abdomen, with pottery vessels at the feet, the skeleton is 2,000 years older than the famous Mesopotamian "royal tombs" that Woolley found in the same Ur location.
After Woolley discovered the Royal Cemetery, he kept digging. Around 40 feet down, he reached a layer of clean, water-lain silt. Digging further, Woolley found graves cut into the silt and eventually another silt layer. This "flood layer" was more than 10 feet deep.
Reaching below sea level, Woolley concluded that Ur had originally been a small island in a surrounding marsh. Then a great flood washed away the land.
The burial that produced the Penn museum skeleton was one of those cut into the deep silt. This indicates the man, as well as other people in Ur, had lived after the flood.
Archaeologists believe the disaster likely inspired stories of an epic flood which are the historic precursors of the biblical story written millennia later.
As such, Penn researchers named the rediscovered skeleton "Noah."
Though, since the skeleton is much older than the Bible, "Utnapishtim" would have been more appropriate.
"He was named in the Gilgamesh epic as the man who survived the great flood," William Hafford, Ur Digitization Project Manager at Penn.
Hafford was able to reconstruct how the skeleton reached the museum. Woolley himself painstakingly removed the intact skeleton, covered it in wax, fastened it onto a piece of wood, and lifted it out with the surrounding dirt using a burlap sling.
He shipped the remains to London for examination, and then on to Philadelphia. There, the skeleton rested in a wooden box with no catalog card, or identifying number, for 85 years -- one of 150,000 bone specimens in the museums possession.
Complete skeletons from the Ubaid period are extremely rare. According to archaeologists, the re-discovered skeleton may open up new research possibilities.
"Today's scientific techniques, unavailable in Woolley's time, may provide new information about diet, ancestral origins, trauma, stress, and diseases of this poorly understood population," the Penn museum said.
Τετάρτη 6 Αυγούστου 2014
Τρίτη 5 Αυγούστου 2014
Islamic State beheads 'Safavid' soldiers in Anbar Posted: 04 Aug 2014 11:58 AM PDT
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Posted: 04 Aug 2014 11:58 AM PDT
The Islamic State continues to release photographs of the execution of Iraq soldiers and security personnel. Yesterday, the Islamic State's Anbar Division released seven photographs documenting the beheading of three Iraq soldiers. While the beheadings could not be confirmed, the photographs released by the Islamic State are similar to images of other executions that have been confirmed.
The executions of the three captured soldiers are said to have taken place in the Al Sejar area just northeast of Fallujah, the second-largest city in Anbar province. Fallujah has been under the control of the Islamic State since the beginning of this year.
The soldiers are shown lying face first on the ground with their hands cuffed behind their backs. Each is shown holding up some form of identification. The Islamic State refers to the soldiers as "Safavids," or Iranians, as these soldiers fight for the Shia-led Iraqi government.
A different Islamic State fighter beheads each soldier, using a machete or a Bowie knife. The head of one of the soldiers is placed on his own back.
Only one of the photographs is reproduced, below. The rest of the photographs are extremely graphic and disturbing, and can be viewed here.
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Iraqi Yazidis caught in Islamic State advance
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 5 Αυγ 2014
The UN says thousands of people fleeing Islamic State fighters in Iraq are in urgent need of food, water and shelter. Many have fled to the Kurdish north. Now the Kurds have to protect them as well as their territory. Al Jazeera's Mohamed Vall reports.
'Bohemian Bestival': Camp Bestival 2014 Grand Finale - Official Multi Ca...
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 5 Αυγ 2014
‘Bohemian Bestival’: Camp Bestival 2014 Grand Finale fireworks & pyrotechnics display on Lulworth Castle.
Two Tigers Fireworks & Angelfire Pyrotechnics produced the Grand Finale of Camp Bestival 2014 at Lulworth Castle, Dorset, UK.
Filmed and edited by Jerry Morgan from the Groovy Movie Picture House, using only solar electricity generated on location at Lulworth Castle.
Two Tigers Fireworks & Angelfire Pyrotechnics produced the Grand Finale of Camp Bestival 2014 at Lulworth Castle, Dorset, UK.
Filmed and edited by Jerry Morgan from the Groovy Movie Picture House, using only solar electricity generated on location at Lulworth Castle.
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