For Those Interested in Archaeology

Accumulation of extra terrestrial materials (dust, meteors, etc) is estimated to range from a few tons per day to a few hundred tons per day. The higher end estimates seam to be regarded as the more likely (i.e.100-300 tons per day)

 

Hmmm...
"Half of all Western European men are descendants of a Bronze Age 'king' who lived 4,000 years ago.
That's according to the largest ever study of global genetic variation in the Y chromosome.
Researchers believe the monarch was one of the earliest people to rule Europe in the Stone Age.
His identity remains a mystery, but scientists believe he fathered a group of nobles who then spread across Europe.
They brought with them advances in technology such as metal work and wheeled transport, according to a report in the Telegraph.
Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, told the paper: 'Genetics can't tell us why it happened but we know that a tiny number of elite males were controlling reproduction and dominating the population.
'Half of the European population is descended from just one man.
'We can only speculate as to what happened. The best explanation is that they may have resulted from advances in technology that could be controlled by small groups of men.'
The results revealed when populations exploded at several points in history, beginning 55,000 years ago.
Such 'bursts of extreme expansion' could be due to intrepid communities moving to new regions with a surplus of resources and the sharing of technologies helped the groups to thrive.
Half of all Western European men are descendants of a Bronze Age 'king' who live 4,000 years ago, shown by the brown dots in this graph. The discovery was made in largest ever study of global genetic variation in the Y chromosome. Scientists believe he fathered a group of nobles who then spread across Europe
Dr Tyler-Smith who led the study, said although there are some key events such as the movement of humans out of Africa that can explain some of the population explosions, other are harder to explain."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3557782/How-men-spread-globe-DNA-analysis-reveals-populations-began-explode-55-000-years-ago.html#ixzz46wReHXK2

 

Amazing.
"A 4,000-year-old red deer skull and antlers has been found on the same Welsh beach where an ancient forest was uncovered by storms two years ago.
The amazing find was made by two walkers who spotted the antlers lying in the sand on the beach at Borth, Ceredigion, Mid Wales – an area already rich in archaeology.
The 4ft-wide antlers belonged to a giant stag which roamed the forest during the Bronze Age, and were laid bare by strong tides on the Cardigan Bay coastline.
It is on the same shore where storms exposed the shin-high stumps of oak and yew trees in 2014, found when the peat which once covered the forest was washed away in torrential rain and waves pounding the shore.
After being spotted in a channel cutting through the site of the fossil forest, the antlers of a mature, large red deer were covered by the incoming tide.
But scientists were able to pinpoint its location from photographs taken at the time of the discovery and were able to lift it from the seabed where it had been covered by a metre of water."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3566100/Deer-skull-antlers-4-000-YEARS-old-walkers-beach-storms-uncovered-ancient-forest.html#ixzz47GrTMwcW

 

Which other "candidates" have any evidence whatsoever on the ground? "Claiming" is easy. Providing verifiable evidence for, is another matter entirely. Or we can just go with aliens.

 

#1242
It is good to be King.

 

From what I recall the evidence on the ground to date is rather controversial (at best) for the other claims. They include fishermen from Iberia, the Welsh, and Irish, and possibly others. 20 years ago there was about the same evidence for the Norse claims. The find does prove that the Norse were in North America at a particular time. It does not prove that they were the first although it does make their expeditions the earliest verifiable at this time. No need to "go with aliens", not sure how that was even relevant and certainly wasn't called for.

 

Bloody foreigners, coming over here, setting up their own parliaments...
"Nowadays, the word 'thing' is given to any object not important enough to have a name, but the meaning of the word for the Vikings could not be more different.
In the 8th century, a thing was an important meeting, essentially a kind of Norse parliament, where people would gather to settle disputes, decide laws and make other decisions.
Now archaeologists believe they have discovered one of the sites where these meetings happened, on the island of Bute in Scotland.
In the 8th century, a 'thing' was an important meeting, essentially a kind of Norse parliament, where people would gather to settle disputes, decide laws and make other decisions. In the 8th century, a 'thing' was an important meeting, essentially a kind of Norse parliament, where people would gather to settle disputes, decide laws and make other decisions.
Cnoc An Rath has been listed as an important archaeological monument since the 1950s, but the significance of the area has been unclear for decades.
Some had suggested it could have been a prehistoric or medieval farm site.
But new findings, presented at the Scottish Place-Name Society annual conference this week, revealed it is likely to have been an important assembly places.
'Although the excavations revealed the site had been heavily disturbed in the 19th century, the results of the carbon dating programme have allowed us to understand that human activity was occurring at the site between the 8th and late 9th century,' archaeologist Dr Paul Duffy, who runs Brandanii Archaeology and Heritage Consultancy told MailOnline.
He said this was 'a time we know historically marks the very end of the Dalriadic power in the area and the start of the period when Vikings were active on Bute and around the Argyll coast'
A series of excavations revealed samples of a preserved surface which, when analysed through radio-carbon dating, correspond to the time when Vikings were active around the Argyll coast.
'The dates strengthen the hypothesis developed through the place name evidence that the original name for the site indicates a "ting" or "thing" site, in other words a Viking assembly place,' Dr Duffy told MailOnline."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3581379/Viking-parliament-site-unearthed-Scotland-Analysis-reveals-Norse-assemblies-held-site-Bute.html#ixzz48FzUSJQK

 

From what I recall "parliament" is probably not the best analogy. They were a very interesting institution not only would they make laws but they would conduct legal proceedings (both criminal and civil), make or register agreements, and a fair amount of trade as well. A combination "parliament", "court", "convention", and social gathering. Violence at a "thing" or "all thing" was kept under pretty tight control but it was accepted practice to prevent your opponent in a legal proceeding from making it there, where a failure to appear meant he lost.

 

Been a while.
"Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 6,000-year-old massacre that took place in Alsace, in north-eastern France.
The corpses of 10 individuals were found in one of 300 ancient silos, used to store grain and other food, according a team from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap).
The Neolithic group appeared to have had violent deaths, with multiple injuries to their legs, hands and skulls. The way in which the bodies were piled on top of each other suggested they had been killed together and dumped in the silo.
“They were very brutally executed and received violent blows, almost certainly from a stone axe,” said Philippe Lefranc, an Infrap specialist on the period.
The skeletons of five adults and an adolescent were found as well as four arms from different individuals. The arms were probably war trophies, like those found at a nearby burial site of Bergheim in 2012, said Lefranc."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/07/french-archaeologists-unearth-bones-6000-year-old-neolithic-massacre

 

"almost certainly from a stone axe" - Recent discoveries suggest that the first handled stone axe came from Australia...I wouldn't have thought, but there it is.

 

[SIZE=14.4px]"Workers digging up a busy street in the Mexican city of Tultepec have delighted paleontologists with a mammoth find - literally![/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.4px]The skeleton of the long-extinct behemoth - which experts believe grew to 16 feet tall and weighed as much as 10 tonnes - was found while workers were carrying out drainage work in the the city's suburb of San Antonio Xahuento.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=14.4px]Experts say the beast died on that spot 12,000-14,000 years ago, and remained there while civilization sprouted up just six-and-a-half feet above it-[/SIZE]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3660412/Mexican-drainage-workers-14-000-year-old-mammoth-just-six-half-feet-beneath-busy-suburban-road.html#ixzz4ChAGDM9c

 

edit:
DOH

 

"Often stereotyped as tattooed barbarians, the Picts had a talent for war.
But it turns out these 'lost' ancient people of Scotland also a talent for carving stone and shaping silver.
Archaeologists have surveyed a field in Northern Scotland and uncovered a hoard of 100 more silver items, including coins, and pieces of brooches and bracelets, all dating to late Roman times.
A team led by Dr Gordon Noble, senior lecturer in the department of archaeology at Aberdeen University, reported the findings in a study published in the journal Antiquity.
'We set out, not really thinking we would find more silver,' Dr Noble said.
'We just wanted to learn more about the context' of the original find.
The researchers were surprised when they discovered more than 100 silver items.
The finds included late Roman coins and military equipment, personal ornaments including brooch and bracelet fragments, ingots and Hacksilber parcels - pieces of cut, bent and broken silver.
Originally, there were also two man-made stone circles, one dating to the Neolithic and the other the Bronze Age (B.C. 1670 to B.C. 1500), the researchers said.
Gaulcross is now an intensively-farmed field in rural Aberdeenshire, and there is no evidence left showing the stone circles."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3664282/Jewellery-crafted-Scottish-barbarians-unearthed-1500-year-old-trove-100-silver-pieces-discovered-Roman-era-stone-circle.html#ixzz4CvRIp5eQ

 

How cool are the Picts?...

 

Ooh, damned interesting stuff, if a bit theoretical!
"It is one of the key factors that has helped to define different national identities and introduced divides between populations around the world.
But many of the wonderful and varied languages spoken globally can trace their history back to just a few sources.
Now researchers have recreated what they claim is the mother tongue of one of the largest group of languages spoken around the world - the Indo-European languages."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3698184/Listen-mother-language-Researchers-recreate-words-spoken-8-000-years-ago.html#ixzz4ExBpI6eI

 

Very ancient history is just a best guess by those who think they know it all. They feel very threatened should anyone or evidence contradict their expensive educations.
That the cradle of human evolution may have been China, rather than Africa- has a definite ring of truth to it.

http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/evolution/chinese-academics-point-to-fossil-finds-as-evidence-modern-humans-evolved-in-southeast-asia/news-story/759392de611a3c7ffb5e57f97a2d4c1a

Would also extend the idea that our (Canada) native heritage is actually one of Chinese descent.
Looks like China has more legal rights to Canada than our indigenous would like to believe.
But who ever owns the land? Boundaries have changed so often over the millenia, that nobody could lay claim to it by anything other than force.

 

For your delight and delectation.
"An ancient tribal fire pit with tools, a spear tip and tobacco seeds that archaeologists say dates back 12,300 years was recently discovered on a military testing range in northern Utah.
An archaeological team this month uncovered the hearth at Hill Air Force Base's Utah Test and Training Range, which is south of Ogden. The artifacts will be curated through the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City, The Standard Examiner reported (http://bit.ly/2ayONDx).
Hill archaeologist and Cultural Resource Manager Anya Kitterman worked with Far Western Anthropological Research Group to uncover charcoal, animal bone fragments and other remnants from the cooking pit.
"When you come across a find like that, it's obviously very exciting," Kitterman said. "You're getting a real picture of the history of this land. It's an unbelievable feeling. We've been looking for something major like this for years."
Far Western Senior Archaeologist Daron Duke said the age of the hearth and the items within it are remnants from some of the Great Basin's earliest inhabitants. "They really are the first occupants of the Great Basin that we can demonstrate," Duke said."
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/12300-year-fire-pit-found-northern-utah-41171805

"UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA—How smart were human-like species of the Stone Age? New research published in the Journal of Archaeological Science by a team led by paleoanthropologist April Nowell of the University of Victoria reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis near Azraq, Jordan.
The research team from UVic and partner universities in the US and Jordan has found the oldest evidence of protein residue—the residual remains of butchered animals including horse, rhinoceros, wild cattle and duck—on stone tools. The discovery draws startling conclusions about how these early humans subsisted in a very demanding habitat, thousands of years before Homo sapiens first evolved in Africa.
The team excavated 10,000 stone tools over three years from what is now a desert in the northwest of Jordan, but was once a wetland that became increasingly arid habitat 250,000 years ago. The team closely examined 7,000 of these tools, including scrapers, flakes, projectile points and hand axes (commonly known as the "Swiss army knife" of the Paleolithic period), with 44 subsequently selected as candidates for testing. Of this sample, 17 tools tested positive for protein residue, i.e. blood and other animal products."
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/summer-2016/article/archaeology-team-makes-unprecedented-tool-discovery

 

Another day, another theory...
"It has long been believed that ancient humans from Siberia trekked over an icy land mass known as the Bering Land Bridge and crossed over a corridor into the Americas some 13,000 years ago.
However, a study of prehistoric DNA has now challenged this theory by suggesting this supposed entry route was 'biologically unviable'.
Researchers found that while people may have traveled this corridor after about 12,600 years ago, it would have been impassable earlier than that, because the passage lacked crucial resources needed for survival.
If this is true, it means that the first Americans, who were present south of the ice sheets long before 12,600 years ago, must have made the journey south by another route along the Pacific coast."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3733532/New-study-claims-theory-humans-populated-America-WRONG-Researchers-say-travellers-not-passed-ice-free-corridor-earlier-12-600-years-ago.html#ixzz4GynKA9CN

 

#1257- You were correct, sir. Was delighted although i try to not delectate too often.

Always with the interesting bits. He's a great watch, keeps on ticking. Like a metronome. Thanks for that, man.

 

Great stuff. There's an enormous amount of excitement locally about this-
"An archaeologist whose research was ignored because she was a woman is being honoured in a new project set up to rediscover one of her key finds.
Christian Maclagan investigated the remains of an Iron Age roundhouse in her home town of Stirling in the 1870s.
Attitudes towards women at the time meant her academic paper on the broch structure was only accepted after it was transcribed by a man.
A small team of enthusiasts plan to search for the 2,000-year-old house
They have dubbed their project as a search for "the broch sexism lost".
Since Maclagan's discovery of the Livilands broch the site is thought to have been buried during the landscaping of a garden in Wester Livilands in Stirling. There is also an Easter Livilands in Stirling, but the other location is thought to be the most likely site of the lost ruins.
Maclagan's discovery is important because the broch is the only known example to date of an Iron Age roundhouse in an urban setting.
The stone-built towers are more commonly found in rural and remote parts of the north of Scotland, including Caithness, Glenelg on the west Highland coast and Orkney."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-37044268?error_code=4201&error_message=User+canceled+the+Dialog+flow#_=_