Most people know him as the Minister for Silly Walks on "Monty Python" or as Q in James Bond films. But John Cleese will also go down in history for another reason: lemurs.
Researchers from the University of Zurich have named a newly discovered species of lemur — one of the most primitive and endangered primates in the world — after the British comedian in honor of his work with the animal.
The avahi cleesei, which weights less than two pounds and eats leaves, was discovered in Western Madagascar in 1990 by a team led by anthropologist Urs Thalmann and his colleague Thomas Geissman of Zurich University.
We here at ArchaeoBlog are big fans of lemurs. In fact, it's our favorite prosimian. They're "coooote little buggahs" as Steve Irwin would say. Can't find any actual "Save the Lemur" sites, but we encourage readers to support their favorite. . .errr. . lemur-friendly charitable organization.
Not Avahi cleesei:
DNA shows first Europeans were hunters not farmers
Whisper it quietly in Brussels but Europe may not have been a continent of farmers for time immemorial after all. New DNA research suggests we are actually descended from hunter-gatherers who pre-date the arrival of agricultural techniques.
The first farmers to arrive in Europe more than 7,000 years ago appear to have left behind a legacy of agriculture but no descendants, a study of ancient DNA has found. Modern Europeans do not seem to have inherited the genes of the first farmers to arrive from the Near East, where they had invented agriculture 12,000 years ago.
A study of 24 skeletons of an early farming community in central Europe has found that their DNA does not match the DNA of modern men and women living in the same part of the world. The researchers believe the findings indicate that although the first farmers brought agriculture to Europe, they did not manage to displace the much older, resident population of hunter gatherers.
Good little article. It emphasizes the whole question of the spread of agriculture in Europe: Diffusion vs. Migration. We'll try to get a link to the actual paper up and see what it says next week.
Hourig Sourouzian: Resurrection
The Colossi of Memnon, two lonely sentinels, have greeted visitors to the Theban necropolis since Roman times. More recently, as you look beyond the seated monoliths, a temple can be seen progressively re-emerging from what, to an unprofessional eye, earlier appeared as no more than slight elevations and depressions in the packed earth. In this age of advanced technology, what is officially known as The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III Temple Conservation Project, simply "Memnon/Amenhotep III Project", under the auspices of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), is casting light on a great monument that was swept away soon after its completion. "Despite the difficulty of our task," announces Hourig Sourouzian -- Egyptologist, art historian and project director -- "I feel wonderfully privileged to be working on this project."
Interview by Jill Kamil
'Saipan may be Pacific's oldest archaeological site'
Hmmmmm. Seems impossible to quote any portion of the text. Upshot: They cored in Lake Susepe and found a rather abrupt increase in charcoal, grass pollen and pollen from betel nut and coconut trees which supposedly indicate landscape alteration by humans. The shift is dated to 6860 BC. They admit this isn't definitive and plan to check for actual sites by locating ancient shorelines from the same general period.
Odd story alert Bimini Harbor: Hoax?
An American archaeological team has discovered definitive evidence of underwater ancient harbor remains at two separate locations at Bimini. A hoax begun in 1978 by skeptics has also been uncovered.
Article also points to this website which includes a link to a larger document on the findings. COuldn't get the one document to ever load, but we poked around a little and found what is probably a similar document here. Note the domain: EdgarCayce.org. Dr. Little has a short biography here.
More here as well. In the above article he blasts the "skeptical" geologists for only having bachelors degrees while he has a PhD -- in counseling. That certainly is a qualification for doing archaeology and geology. This page also reveals the usual array of crank science put out by purveyors of Truth:
For 70 years American archaeology has been dominated by a "Holy Writ" of beliefs that few professionals have dared to challenge. These beliefs, presented as indisputable facts by the American academic community, include the following: 1) That all the ancestors of Native populations in the Americas migrated from Siberian Asia starting no earlier than 9,500 B.C., 2) prior to 9,500 B.C. no humans resided anywhere in the Americas,. . .
Obviously, in 2003 they hadn't heard anything about Monte Verde. Or Kennewick Man. Or Dennis Stanford, for that matter (who's been arguing for a European Paleolithic in North America). You'd think a PhD would follow such things. . . .