Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The Mummy Speaks

Ancient remains preserved intentionally or accidentally tell much about past human diseases caused by indoor air pollution from poor quality energy supplies and equipment. Yet today in sub-Saharan Africa and regions of Asia more than 90 percent of households lack electricity and must rely on hazardously burning coal, wood, vegetation or dried animal dung in open hearths or poorly ventilated stoves for their cooking and heating needs.
. . .
The earlier disease burden from indoor air pollution in past cultures is revealed from preserved human remains by modern archaeological pathologists. Ancient Egyptian mummies have proven especially helpful in that task.


"Why'd it have to be snakes. . . Ancient serpent mound in Ohio remains a mystery

The 1,348-foot-long Serpent Mound remains Ohio's biggest mystery. No one knows who built the ancient earthwork in southern Ohio or when it was constructed, but it's believed to have been a religious or mythical symbol to its makers.

The mound is the largest serpent effigy in America and one of Ohio's only effigy mounds. It is a National Historic Landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places.


A Monumental Fountain Unearthed In Ancient City Of Sagalassos

A monumental fountain including a statue of Apollon was unearthed in the ancient city of Sagalassos near Aglasun town in southern province of Burdur.

Prof. Marc Waelkens from Belgium`s Leuven Catholic University who leads archaeological excavations in the ancient city, told the A.A correspondent on Sunday that they unearthed a monumental fountain which was 20 meters in height.

``The fountain was built by a rich merchant and dedicated to Roman Emperor Hadrianus. The fountain attracts attention with its rich ornaments. Bronze and marble statues were used to decorate the fountain,`` he said.


Unearthing the Bible

Sacred relics lie scattered beneath the deserts of the Middle East. In Iraq, our religious history is being obliterated; in Israel, it's a question of faith.

What there was in the beginning, in the world of the Bible, is what there was in the land now called Iraq. There is nothing left of the Garden of Eden, no artifact at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where myth has placed the Temptation and the Fall. But the great cities and empires from the Books of Genesis and Kings and Chronicles have left their traces: Ur, where Abraham was born; rapacious Assyria with its capital, Nineveh, and Babylon, where the ancient Israelites were carried into captivity and where, as the psalm
tells us, they wept when they remembered Zion.


Kind of a fluff piece decrying the looting in Iraq, but with a Biblical angle.

Something we haven't blogged on before SCRAPS OF PREHISTORIC FABRIC PROVIDE A VIEW OF ANCIENT LIFE

Fragments of ancient fabric – some dating back to the time the Coliseum was built in Rome – may give researchers better insight into the lives of Native Americans who lived in eastern North America some 800 to 2,000 years ago.

"Textiles give us information about the technological skills of the people who made them," said Kathryn Jakes, a professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University. "We can learn about a population from what they wore just as we learn from the tools and other gear they used on a regular basis."

Jakes has spent years studying the textiles from the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures which flourished in North America. She uses a variety of chemical and physical analysis techniques to help uncover the composition and structure of these ancient textiles.


Since textiles are usually not preserved, people don't hear much about this side branch of archaeology. Most fabrics are found in dry conditions, but they can be preserved elsewhere, as the article notes, by either charring or being in contact with copper. Copper is toxic to life and hence stops bacteria from growing and destroying organic remains. Every so often in Egypt's Delta (very wet conditions) one can find parts of the burial shroud preserved next to copper mirrors or daggers.