Part III: The Origins of Greyscale - Is Game of Thrones Prehistoric Fict...
Thursday, June 30, 2016
Possible Hobbits
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/evan.21460/abstract;jsessionid=3873F1FC7CD4EC14D5B454F1AEEE5F33.f01t04
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28765-tool-find-hints-java-man-and-hobbit-had-early-human-neighbour/
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28765-tool-find-hints-java-man-and-hobbit-had-early-human-neighbour/
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Fiji Has Already Experienced Climate Change Once
From where the rattly pickup truck dropped us, it took nearly three hours to reach the summit of Seseleka, a mountain on the island of Vanua Levu in Fiji. The lower part of the climb took us through pine forests, then into less dense woodland on steeper slopes made slippery by recent rain. The track was an elevated pathway following a narrow ridgeline that fell away steeply on either side; such pathways, called tua, were once the main lines of communication on these mountainous islands.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/06/fiji_s_experience_with_sea_level_rise_600_years_ago_shows_how_climate_change.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2016/06/fiji_s_experience_with_sea_level_rise_600_years_ago_shows_how_climate_change.html
New origins for farmed rice discovered
The oldest evidence of domesticated rice has just been found in China, and it's about 9,000 years old. (stock image)
Credit: © kazoka303030 / Fotolia
Chew on this: rice farming is a far older practice than we knew. In fact, the oldest evidence of domesticated rice has just been found in China, and it's about 9,000 years old.
The discovery, made by a team of archaeologists that includes University of Toronto Mississauga professor Gary Crawford, sheds new light on the origins of rice domestication and on the history of human agricultural practices.
"Today, rice is one of most important grains in the world's economy, yet at one time, it was a wild plant...how did people bring rice into their world? This gives us another clue about how humans became farmers," says Crawford, an anthropological archaeologist who studies the relationships between people and plants in prehistory.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Sign up to My Newsletter and Receive a FREE Prehistoric Fiction Ebook and 3 Songs from our new album, "Dr. Dan Matrazzo and The Looters"
The Man from Parkho Khatune Bears Favor - The prequel to Joe Lyon Layden's upcoming novel "The Oracle of Lost Sagas."
It has been sixteen generations since the Age of Winter ended. All but the wisest of sages have forgotten the kingdoms and peoples that thrived before the thaw. But those long gone refuse to be still, and their secrets, old and new, are on the verge of being revealed.
Shiromain Shitek is a Magus in service to the illustrious King Mokla, who has recently acquired lands along the River of Sorrows. A strange creature of shadow is stalking children in the border towns. The Magus must solve the monster's riddle, and restore peace between his own people and the conquered Misha, who he knows little about.
King Mokla's greatest rival is the matriarchy of Jaydu, to which the varied peoples of the Golden River pay tribute. When one of Jaydu's hamlets calls for ritual war against a tribe of newcomers seeking refuge, Nashira the court musician is sent to sit in judgement. But will the immigrants follow the ancient tenets of war?
The Initiated One is a novice in an ancient band of hunter-assassins, who must travel into the highlands that were once ruled by his ancestors, but are now overrun by those of ogre-kind. There, he must prove himself worthy of respect to those of his Order, and finally earn his name.
The Queen of a forgotten people comes of age in the cruel lands of the north, but slowly realizes that she is not of her subjects' kind.
On an island far to the south, a shipwrecked sailor battles for survival. With the help of a mysterious race of dwarves, he must escape cannibalistic goblin-men and flesh-eating dragons, even as a smoking volcano threatens to erupt. He has no knowledge of the woman, last daughter of an ancient line of chiefs , who will be the final arbiter of his fate.
The age in which these characters live has been recreated through over 15 years of research into myth, anthropology, archeology, and genetics. The result is an alien world of magic and mystery, stranger than science fiction and more wondrous than fantasy. It is a world that never existed... or did it?
Though my work reads like fantasy, and will seem like "sword and sorcery" to most readers, it is actually meticulously researched prehistoric fiction and involves such things as The Hobbit of Indonesia, The Red Deer Cave People, giant pangolins (that I believe inspired the dragon at Ishtar's Gate), Balangoda Man, Megalania Prisca, Denisovans, Ursicus Rossicus, horned gophers, giant rocs, etc.
Bizarre, Long-Headed Woman from Ancient Kingdom Revealed
The grave of a woman with a bizarre, long-headed skull has been unearthed in Korea.
The woman was part of the ancient Silla culture, which ruled much of the Korean peninsula for nearly a millennium.
Unlike some of the deformed, pointy skulls that have been found throughout the world in other ancient graves, however, it is unlikely that this woman had her head deliberately flattened, the researchers said.
http://www.livescience.com/55137-ancient-woman-with-long-head-korea.html
Bizarre, Long-Headed Woman from Ancient Kingdom Revealed
The grave of a woman with a bizarre, long-headed skull has been unearthed in Korea.
The woman was part of the ancient Silla culture, which ruled much of the Korean peninsula for nearly a millennium.
Unlike some of the deformed, pointy skulls that have been found throughout the world in other ancient graves, however, it is unlikely that this woman had her head deliberately flattened, the researchers said.
http://www.livescience.com/55137-ancient-woman-with-long-head-korea.html
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Is A Song of Ice and Fire Prehistoric Fiction? Evidence that Westeros is the Real Planet Earth During the Ice Age
The many hominids we once shared the world with are now become a younger and more numerous. The Red Deer cave people and Mongolian neanderthoids (Lishu skull) in China, the famous hobbits in Indonesia, Balangodo man in sri lanka and the Iwo alero scald from Africa all served to prove that Myths of goblins over trolls dwarves and brownies might have some actual basis in reality.
At the same time, the dawn of certain human technologies keeps getting older and older. for instance the dawn of both agriculture and the domestication of canines may have been pushed back as much as twenty thousand years from the mere 10,000 or 6,000 years that most scientists believed in in the 20th century. there are what looked to be domesticated tubers in an island in the Solomons that are twenty-eight thousand years old. the skull of a primitive dog has been found in the Altai region that dates to about thirty two thousand years before present. pottery as well as gained about 10,000 years just within the last 50 years in China and now dates to at least eighteen thousand years before present. Despite what many academiains would have you believe there are still many mysteries about our historic past that have not been fully explained by science. If your scientific theory about how we lost our fur or how we became dominant over all of the other hominids on Earth is too tin foil then you won't get your tenure in academia. You might be able to write a book and get asked to be on Ancient Aliens but the safer route is to channel your theories about these mysteries through science fiction or fantasy. Especially with fantasy I think that a lot of these artificial worlds that authors have created start from pondering our own past and the possibilities of what might have happened to bring us to where we are today. Nowhere do i find this more evident than in the works of George RR Martin.
George has been somewhat outspoken about author's writing in other authors world's such as against its fan fiction but as a prehistoric fiction writer I'm finding it very difficult not to write in George's world because George's world is essentially our own... I often find myself wanting to include little known facts about our prehistoric world in my own works of fiction only to find out that George's are used that, George's already use this, George already used this other tidbit... and so I have this fear of people thinking i'm copying George RR Martin instead of borrowing from the actual past.
There's been a lot said about A Song of Ice and Fire and it's parallel plots with the War of the Roses but i think that it has many more parallels with the time of our history that has not been preserved to us, the time before written language. The world depicted in A Song of Ice and Fire is our own world about 8,000 to 12,000 years ago, not the medieval period. The family feud between the Lannisters and Starks or Yorks and Lancasters from the War of the Rose is a type of family feud that's been happening all through the history of mankind; the Hatfields and McCoys, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Since it's repeated so much in written history it was probably happening way before we started writing history down, and so George simply uses this universal struggle that mankind has been having for probably a hundred eighty thousand years or longer, because he has no written language or written records of the prehistoric past, just cultures, bones, and artifacts and no stories. In a sense A Song of Ice and Fire is something that really could have kind of happened of about 12,000 years ago - 8000 years ago, because all of the creatures and technologies (that he actually depicts first hand by a POV character, at least) were around on this very Earth about 10,000 years ago (with the possible exception of dragons, but more on that later). The world was already built for George, he just needed a story...so why not choose one that seems to repeat itself every generation that man is on this Earth?
I know this sounds pretty out there, but in recent years I've heard several pseudo-scientists or investigative journalist coining the term "man is a species with amnesia." In other words we've forgotten a lot about our prehistoric past. Indeed, according to many mainstream scientists, such as Dr. Stephen Oppenheimer, much of our past has been erased. Any writing or records of what might have gone on before our earliest preserved written document have largely been destroyed because our coasts have been destroyed, and that's where the biggest part of our civilizations probably would have been before the end of the last ice age.
The fact that fifty percent of Americans are willing to entertain the notion that aliens might have had something to do with our origins as a species is telling- 20th century scientists did a woefully poor job of selling evolution to the public as it is written in the textbooks. And while i would like to fill in some of the gaps in our timeline in other videos, this series of videos is primarily about George RR Martin and prehistoric literary criticism and analysis of A Song of Ice and Fire. My own ideas about human origins don't involve ancient aliens, but George RR Martin's very well could. It makes no difference- we're not here to analyzing the facts behind human evolution or how it came to be, what we're analyzing are the works and the world view on evolution that is depicted in A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones.
My ideas about human origins don't involve ancient aliens but George RR Martin's very well good. Alternatively, it's possible George is donning the Alien Theory hat on this particular of fiction, and that's one of the things we're here to find out.
It makes no difference whether the theory is valid in the eyes of academia here: we're not analyzing the facts of human evolution per se or how it came to be... what we're analyzing are the world views on evolutionand prehistory that the world of Ice and Fire itself presents, rather than its author.
Does a Song of Ice and Fire and Game Thrones have a purely biological academic view of evolution? if it is a straight view of evolution, then does it present more of an Out of Africa idea or the multi-regionalist idea? Going back farther, does it believe in the Savannah ape possibility or is it more leaning towards the aquatic ape theory (AAT) which is a little bit less accepted? If A Song of Ice and Fire doesn't have a viewpoint that is straight evolution without any help from any outside source, then does it lean more towards the Creationist point of view? And when I say creationist viewpoint that can also be Hindu or Islamic or Zoroastrian or anything else.... or does the body of work have a more Ancient Aliens view point to it? And what is it saying or attempting to say about the part of our past that is closed off to us or which has been erased by Oppenheimer's floods? What I have found over the past few weeks researching this is that looking at George RR Martin's works from this standpoint gives me a unique perspective and trying to figure out what might be to come or in order to help explain the world of Ice and Fire and what's going on what is the big picture behind all these different factions that are coming together between the Lord of Light and the Lord death or the Great Other so we'll start with the earliest memories that any peoples in Planet owes seem to have recorded from the earliest era that anyone has any records essentially the prehistoric period of Martin's world the following is a tor . com article from 2015 (Chris Lough)
"...according to the world of Ice and Fire, the maesters of Westeros think that mankind only emerged 40,000 - 500 thousand years ago which is more than a million years younger than humans on Earth. The origins of humans on earth can be traced to the grass plains of northern Central Africa and it is expected that origins of human in westeros can be traced to a similar environment in the Dothraki sea. The first signs of human settlement are along the rivers in the western portion of the north Iraqi sea and cave painting have been found west of that, south of the free city of Norvos."
First I would like to point out that in one respect, Georgia Martin has his facts much more accurate than Chris Lough. I’m not sure what species of mankind Chris Lough thinks began about a million or a million and half years ago, but current thought among scientist is that bipedal apes began sometime between 6 million and 10 millon years ago. The genus homo began sometime between 1.8 million and 2.3million years ago, and Homo sapiens sapiens (which is us) didn’t begin untilsometime between 120,000 and 200,000 years ago. Up until the mid-20th century, most scientists believed that Homo Sapiens Sapiens didn’t begin until around 40,000 years ago. They had a very Euro-centric idea of evolution and many scientists refused to believe that Cro-magnons weren't the first Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Cro-magnons only evolved about 40,000 years ago in Europe, and so our scientists had the same evidence as the those in Westros seem to have had up until relatively recent times- cave paintings and other evidences of settlement along rivers. It’s only because of advancements in genetics that we know now that Homo Sapiens can trace their maternal lineage to 180,000 years ago, And we alsonow have fossils dating back to 160,000 years old. So the Maesters are right- they are more closer to the correct date than Chris Lough is. There are also some people who think Homo Sapien Sapien is a lot older, with evidence of an anatomical modern humans coming from Mungo Man who split of 350,000 years ago rather than 180 thousand. There are certain Y haplogroups in Africa that are 400,000 years old. 500,000years at about the dawn of heidelbergensis.... and it seems that both the neanderthal man and Homo Sapien Sapien splits off from heidelbergensis. So if you include the heidelbergensis and neanderthal in the group known as "Human," then George Martin is more accurate in that respect as well; humans came to be about 500,000 years ago.
The point is, here you see the Maesters following our own progression of knowledge. At one time we thought that Homo Sapien Sapien evolved somewhere in Asia or Europe, mostly because of cave paintings and because of primitive bones. Later we learned that they first evolved in Africa... and most likely one day Martin's Maesters in the future will come to these conclusions as well... if they survive this age. In the song of Ice and fire, Africa is Sothoryos, and as we see by studying the histories of some of the earliest civilizations in planetos. Mankind seems to have come up from Sothoryos around the Jade sea (which is basically the Mediterranean) and into Europe from that area' Ashai and the Shadow, the Soth Eastern lands of mystery, Sothoryos... these are all places that we don’t know anything about but they seems to be the places from where Homo Sapien sapien might have come.
Chris goes on to say others species on planet Westros are considered to be older than mankind. like the giants, the children of the forest, and quite possibly the Others. He is leaving out quite a few, but this is the same thing as in our own planet, there are homonids that are much older than mankind- homo erectos, and several others. In the wiki of ice and fire, which is derived from the world of ice and fire, they don’t talk about the first inhabitant of Essos, but they do talk about the first inhabitant of Westeros. It states; In the dawn age, Westeros is inhabited by the children of the Forest and possibly by giants in the far North. Some others semi-canonical sources say that the Others were there too; they are the White Walkers if you are watching the shows. That seems to have been contradicted by the idea that the white walkers were created by the children of the forest in order to protect them against men, and so they wouldn’t have come until the arrival of men, but this isn’t necessarily the case; we will talk about that in just a little bit. Whether the Others - white walkers- were there or not, we know that the children of the Forest and the giants weren’t the only species in westros when the first man arrived... and for several different reasons. On the sub redded," a song of ice and fire," a user named masogynistlesbian has this to say; many time throughout the words of ice and fire, there mentions of a certain blac stone, other structures built of this black stone are similar to valerian architecture, having quality of being fused smoothly together as from dragon flame. It’s set apart by having an oily or greasy feel to it and being unadorned rather twisted into some fancy shape, like the [valerians] often do. Additionally, all have agents and unknown origins. To recap, these agents are
1. the sea stone chair, the throne king of the iron island caved with oily black stones into the shape of a crakan, found on old [Wik where the Ironmen currently reside.
2. The foundation of the hightower on the mysteriously named battle isle, a square leviathan fortress infused on a dorm black stone sixth beneath the more recently built high tower.
3. The toad stone on the isle of toads - In an isle near sothoryos seats a forty foot tall ancient idol of a toad crudely carved with grisly black stone. Inhabitant of this isle have an unpleasant fish like appearance through their faces and many have webbed hands and feet. The idol is built entirely of huge oily black stones blocks in which some of the numerous ruinous people vanished over night during their exodus and the jungle does not row near. Aside, the buildings were assigned by shadows or said to consist of black stones with their grisly unpleasant feel. It’s claimed the stone drinks life, making their night pitch black and even the sunniest day quite gloomy. The city is also toxic, the plant, animals and children. Although nobody knows why, maybe related to, may not be, but I find that really similar to other far lands. The five ports on the eastern edge of the known world between planes of the Geros slide and the great waste in just south of the bleeding sea seats five ports whose walls of huge black stones of almost a thousand foot high. Remember the walls are supposed to be 750 feet tall and is huge, paper date the rise of the valerian field as well as the golden empire of yatee. Possible the black stone which fell from the sky in yatee shortly before the long night and was worshipped by the blood stone emperor. All that seems like more of an intentional parallel to the sword downs origin in star fall and other medorites falling stories from the series in in my eyes more on this later. Let’s begin with mentions of theory about this mysterious black stones from Master Aaron in his manuscript Strange Stone. Aaron drew the connection between the black stone of the six stone chair and that of the ancient fortress that serves as foundation of the high tower. He suggested that they were created by the deep ones and were a mis happens race of half beings reside by creatures of the salt seas upon human women. He also suggested that they inspired the legends of Merlings and that the sea creatures who fathered them inspired the religion of the drawn god. Additionally, the legends of the Lorads claim that they were rathy maze makers were destroyed by creatures from the sea whereas the inhabitant of the thousand isles sacrificed sailors to [sqaumosh] fish and their gods of which stones idols emerge which the titans loved. These folks are also hairless with green thin skins. Filing the teeth’s of their women in a point and cutting off the fore skin of their males. Strangely, it’s said that they greatly feared the sea and would not go into it even under the threat of death. Another fish people legends is that squishes on the crackup wall plane westros within the same vicinity is [ drift mark ]ruled by house valrion from the drift hood throne which leesle claim has given to them by the merlin king to conclude a path. They veil contains a few merling legends wrote by Rocce, repeatedly earned the legends of asurlar eclipse, a sorcerous who called herself the bride of the merling king. So they counted Merlin as friends and those of house morel or speedster still tend to have web appendages. Don’t forget patched faces miraculous surviving of the 3 days in the sea and subsequent pathetic ability and frequent referencing of drown god myths after he washed up. It’s possible, I say probably that this stories and beliefs are related their own [ ].
This editor goes on to compare Martin deep ones to HP Lovecraft's, which I think is spot on, but Lovecraft's deep ones appear in a lot more stories than shadow over [heads] now. she also points out that the oily black stones has a lot of similarities to Robert E. Howard's black stones in the story – the black stone. But these are not just references or not, these are expansions on the idea that Howard and Lovecraft actually corresponded over. Martin’s deep ones are almost exactly Lovecraft's deep ones. Both mentioned also the old ones which are another ancient race of cynthic beings who keeps these powers of the deep ones in check in some way. There seems to be no disharmony difference at all between Martins deep ones and old ones and Hp Lovecraft Deep ones and Old ones, he just tells us a little more about it. Maybe he even updates them with modern understanding of human evolution if you will. The idea of these deep ones also seems to serve the same kind of purpose as the song of ice and fire as they did HP love [ ] work. There is this ancient civilization that predates mankind, that has almost unknowable connections to the origin of mankind, and knowing those origins can drive a man insane. Several of Lovecraft's characters, go insane after finding the evidence that the old one is real. And we also see this one happening a song of ice and fire, especially with patch face, possibly with dampened hair as well as the great king of the iron island and the storms king of storms in.
Question
I have been thinking about recently, and I guess that there are some mysteries lying under the oceans in the sea around westros?
We can suppose that Lorath was also attack by Deep Ones or something else near the shivering sea at the end of the dance. Patch face was resurrected after been drowned in mad sea. I guess there is more than meets the eyes in the drown god legend. Too much resurrection too.
A world of ice and fire describes the crannogmen thusly- Some might say the least of the people of the north of the swamp dwellers of the north known as cranik man for the floating island on which they raise their homes and [ ]. A small slight people, some say they are small in stature because of their inner marriage with the children of before us. But more likely a result from inadequate nourishment, their brains did not flourish amidst the thins and swamps mashes of the [ ] and the crannogmen survive largely upon a diet of fish, frogs and lizards. They are quite secretive, prefers to keep to themselves. South of the the swamp in the the riverlands …..the small folk say that the cranik man breath water, have webbed hand and feet like frogs and use poison on their frog spears and their arrows.
Meera Ree,s in one of the books, informed us that Howland reed could breathe mud. There are names for this deep ones or their offspring or otherwise all over planetos, they are called merlins mermaids merman selkis squishers and other names for these fish people. Those who seem to worship them in the Far East bow down their teeth to sharpness. The small poke of westros say that the fish people looks normally enough if you get close to them and behind their mouth they have these rows of sharp pointed teeth. The culture from the East of essence worships this fish people, bow their teeth down to sharpness, at least the women do. Biter, who is a prisoner with Jaqen and Rorge during the 1st, 2nd and 3rd books has teeth that are filed to sharpness and he also has slits all over his body that could be a primitive homage to gills and there even theories that theirs is one of the fish people. They say they were small but he doesn’t open his mouth and show his teethes probably because his teethes are pointed and they have other little eastern eggs that point to Varys and Tyrion being fish people. There is even a theory that benjen is a fish person and that all of them are ruled by Little Figure whose house has an indications of some kind of merlin ancestry. While I may not buy in to all of that, it’s evident that George has put enough web fingers in all oily stones and references to merlings and deep ones that is going to be somewhat important to the story. I think it’s going to be a major part of the story and a big review plot west, but at the same time I don’t think we will ever know everything about origins of the deep ones. We may only go as far as the merlings and the squishers. Because George is using the deep one mystery for a horror element in his story just like HP love crab did before him. However, there is a lot we can learn from it, and we can use it to get what’s going to happen in the story and use it to see what a song of ice and fire’s interpretation of our own human pre history is.
Major transitions in human evolution
Discussion meeting issue ‘Major transitions in human evolution’
organized and edited by Robert A. Foley, Lawrence Martin, Marta
Mirazón Lahr and Chris Stringer
There is a long history for human 'origins', but not only are such
origins elusive, they are also an illusion, as in evolution new
features arise as transformations from existing ones. The rich human
palaeoanthropological record shows an unexpectedly complex pattern in
the tempo and mode of human evolution.
This theme issue focuses on key evolutionary transitions to understand
the interaction of biology, behaviour, culture and environment. This
issue is dedicated to Richard Leakey, whose critical discoveries have
provided evidence for many of the key phases, and who has inspired
much of the work discussed here. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1698 https://theconversation.com/no-giant-leap-for-mankind-why-weve-been-looking-at-human-evolution-in-the-wrong-way-60935
organized and edited by Robert A. Foley, Lawrence Martin, Marta
Mirazón Lahr and Chris Stringer
There is a long history for human 'origins', but not only are such
origins elusive, they are also an illusion, as in evolution new
features arise as transformations from existing ones. The rich human
palaeoanthropological record shows an unexpectedly complex pattern in
the tempo and mode of human evolution.
This theme issue focuses on key evolutionary transitions to understand
the interaction of biology, behaviour, culture and environment. This
issue is dedicated to Richard Leakey, whose critical discoveries have
provided evidence for many of the key phases, and who has inspired
much of the work discussed here. http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1698 https://theconversation.com/no-giant-leap-for-mankind-why-weve-been-looking-at-human-evolution-in-the-wrong-way-60935
Monday, June 20, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
A giant Megalithic site you probable didn't know about in north-west of Morocco, North Africa.
The so called “Cromlech de Mzoura” or “circle of Larache” is one of the most famous and largest megalithic landmark of the north-west of Morocco, North Africa.
“Mzoura” (in Arabic means “The Holy Place”) can be found about 15 km south of the harbor of Asilah not far from Tangier. The elliptical-shaped tumulus at Mzora has 55 meters (177 feet) in diameter and is surrounded by 167 stone monoliths, of which the tallest, is about 5m (3.2 feet) high.
The locals say that it has approximately 7 meter long stone “root” below the surface. The megaliths were hammered and polished by hand.
Their arrangement forms a perfect elliptic structure. Full Article
“Mzoura” (in Arabic means “The Holy Place”) can be found about 15 km south of the harbor of Asilah not far from Tangier. The elliptical-shaped tumulus at Mzora has 55 meters (177 feet) in diameter and is surrounded by 167 stone monoliths, of which the tallest, is about 5m (3.2 feet) high.
The locals say that it has approximately 7 meter long stone “root” below the surface. The megaliths were hammered and polished by hand.
Their arrangement forms a perfect elliptic structure. Full Article
Mysterious Earthen Mounds Discovered in Ancient Cambodian Cities
Using airborne laser-scanning equipment, archaeologists have discovered vast fields of dome-shaped earthen mounds, arranged into gridded patterns in 1,000-year-old Cambodian cities.
The scientists are puzzled as to what these vast "dome fields" (as archaeologists sometimes call them) would have been used for around 1,000 years ago, calling them "the most enigmatic features" from this archaeological landscape.
In addition to the dome fields, archaeologists also found mounds shaped into geometric patterns, such as spirals. These geometric features are located near Cambodian temple complexes,including examples found near Angkor. Wat Full Article
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Is Game of Thrones a Prehistoric Fiction Series? Reality of G.R.R. Marti...
Joe Lyon Layden is a prehistoric fiction author and primitive musician. To receive a free copy of this entire novella "The Man from Parkho Khatune Bears Favor," as well as three free songs and monthly updates, freebies, and discounts on Joe's ongoing work, please sign up for the newsletter below.
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Ancient mtDNA sequences from the First Australians revisited
Ancient mtDNA sequences from the First Australians revisited
Abstract
The publication in 2001 by Adcock et al. [Adcock GJ, et al. (2001)
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(2):537–542] in PNAS reported the recovery of
short mtDNA sequences from ancient Australians, including the
42,000-y-old Mungo Man [Willandra Lakes Hominid (WLH3)]. This landmark
study in human ancient DNA suggested that an early modern human
mitochondrial lineage emerged in Asia and that the theory of modern
human origins could no longer be considered solely through the lens of
the “Out of Africa” model. To evaluate these claims, we used second
generation DNA sequencing and capture methods as well as PCR-based and
single-primer extension (SPEX) approaches to reexamine the same four
Willandra Lakes and Kow Swamp 8 (KS8) remains studied in the work by
Adcock et al. Two of the remains sampled contained no identifiable
human DNA (WLH15 and WLH55), whereas the Mungo Man (WLH3) sample
contained no Aboriginal Australian DNA. KS8 reveals human mitochondrial
sequences that differ from the previously inferred sequence. Instead,
we recover a total of five modern European contaminants from Mungo Man
(WLH3). We show that the remaining sample (WLH4) contains ~1.4% human
DNA, from which we assembled two complete mitochondrial genomes. One of
these was a previously unidentified Aboriginal Australian haplotype
belonging to haplogroup S2 that we sequenced to a high coverage. The
other was a contaminating modern European mitochondrial haplotype.
Although none of the sequences that we recovered matched those reported
by Adcock et al., except a contaminant, these findings show the
feasibility of obtaining important information from ancient Aboriginal
Australian remains. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/01/1521066113.full.pdf?sid=60ba834c-a03d-4a6f-8db0-4c147d04c0bd
Abstract
The publication in 2001 by Adcock et al. [Adcock GJ, et al. (2001)
Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98(2):537–542] in PNAS reported the recovery of
short mtDNA sequences from ancient Australians, including the
42,000-y-old Mungo Man [Willandra Lakes Hominid (WLH3)]. This landmark
study in human ancient DNA suggested that an early modern human
mitochondrial lineage emerged in Asia and that the theory of modern
human origins could no longer be considered solely through the lens of
the “Out of Africa” model. To evaluate these claims, we used second
generation DNA sequencing and capture methods as well as PCR-based and
single-primer extension (SPEX) approaches to reexamine the same four
Willandra Lakes and Kow Swamp 8 (KS8) remains studied in the work by
Adcock et al. Two of the remains sampled contained no identifiable
human DNA (WLH15 and WLH55), whereas the Mungo Man (WLH3) sample
contained no Aboriginal Australian DNA. KS8 reveals human mitochondrial
sequences that differ from the previously inferred sequence. Instead,
we recover a total of five modern European contaminants from Mungo Man
(WLH3). We show that the remaining sample (WLH4) contains ~1.4% human
DNA, from which we assembled two complete mitochondrial genomes. One of
these was a previously unidentified Aboriginal Australian haplotype
belonging to haplogroup S2 that we sequenced to a high coverage. The
other was a contaminating modern European mitochondrial haplotype.
Although none of the sequences that we recovered matched those reported
by Adcock et al., except a contaminant, these findings show the
feasibility of obtaining important information from ancient Aboriginal
Australian remains. http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/01/1521066113.full.pdf?sid=60ba834c-a03d-4a6f-8db0-4c147d04c0bd
What about Palau? john hawks weblog
Lee Berger, Steve Churchill, Bonita De Klerk, and Rhonda L. Quinn have written a paper in PLoS ONE describing the skeletal remains of small-bodied humans recovered from two caves in the Rock Islands of Palau.
Full disclosure: I was the academic editor for this paper at PLoS.
OK, editor, what did you do for the paper?
This Stark Dies on Sunday Season 6 Episode 9 Episode 8 Review and Previews
This Stark Dies on Sunday Season 6 Episode 9 Episode 8 Review and Previews
Rickon Dies in Season 6 Episode 9 Game of Thrones E 8 Review Pr...
Theory: Rickon Dies in Season 6 Episode 9 Game of Thrones E 8 Review Pr...
Thursday, June 9, 2016
These Ancient Headless Corpses Were Defleshed By Griffon Vultures
By placing the deceased on the rooftops of the houses, the people of Çatalhöyük would have made the bodies immediately attractive to the griffon vulture and would have kept the bodies away from terrestrial carnivores. The vultures would have eaten the muscles and left the tendons, allowing the people of Çatalhöyük to wrap the corpse in a tight bundle and then bury the deceased underneath the house floor.
The most likely explanation, then, for these headless burials “based on current forensic experimental work, [is] that the people of Çatalhöyük may have employed vulture excarnation prior to interment,” the archaeologists conclude in their publication.
While defleshing by carrion birds is not uncommon — a similar form known as “sky burial” has long been practiced in parts of China, Tibet, Nepal, India, and Mongolia — this potential evidence of vulture excarnation from Çatalhöyük makes the site one of the earliest in the world known to engage in this burial practice.http://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2016/06/09/griffon-vultures-defleshed-corpses-to-create-headless-burials-in-ancient-anatolia/#4933c9372705
Pre Clovis Florida site did not depend on ice free corridor
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/
A handful of prehistoric stone tools and the remains of an extinct animal
found in a Florida river reveal a glimpse of an ancient scene: About 14,550
years ago, hunter-gatherers likely butchered or scavenged a mastodon near a
small pond. The age of these objects suggests that humans reached the
southeastern United States as much as 1,500 years earlier than scientists
had thought.
...
The early dating of pre-Clovis sites has also shed doubt on the mainstream
narrative of how people arrived in the Americas. This holds that humans
first arrived in North America from northeast Asia across a land bridge
that spanned what is now the Bering Strait between Russia and Alaska. These
people then supposedly spread to the interior through the so-called
ice-free corridor-an area of land between two giant ice sheets that once
covered most of Canada and the northern United States.
The problem with this theory is that the ice-free corridor did not open
until 14,000 years ago or later, but the new research shows that 400 to 500
years before that people were already in Florida, says Halligan. "So the
ice-free corridor is not our answer for how the Americas were initially
colonized," she says.
"There has been a lot of resistance to the idea that people could enter
North America from anywhere other than the Bering Strait," says Linda Scott
Cummings, an archaeobotanist at the PaleoResearch Institute in Golden,
Colorado, who was not involved in the new study.
...
One idea, for example, suggests that the first people may have come to the
Americas in boats, following coastlines from northeast Asia, down the Pacific
Coast. But even if that had been the case, Halligan notes that Florida is a
really long way from the Pacific. "How did people get here? When did people
get here?" she says. "To me, all of the original questions we have been
asking about the peopling of the Americas—those questions are open to
research again."
Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, and the peopling of the Americas
http://advances.sciencemag.
Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site,
Florida, and the peopling of the Americas
Abstract
Stone tools and mastodon bones occur in an undisturbed geological
context at the Page-Ladson site, Florida. Seventy-one radiocarbon
ages show that ~14,550 calendar years ago (cal yr B.P.), people
butchered or scavenged a mastodon next to a pond in a bedrock
sinkhole within the Aucilla River. This occupation surface was
buried by ~4 m of sediment during the late Pleistocene marine
transgression, which also left the site submerged. Sporormiella
and other proxy evidence from the sediments indicate that
hunter-gatherers along the Gulf Coastal Plain coexisted with and
utilized megafauna for ~2000 years before these animals became
extinct at ~12,600 cal yr B.P. Page-Ladson expands our
understanding of the earliest colonizers of the Americas and
human-megafauna interaction before extinction.
Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern France.
http://www.sciencemag.org/
Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern
France.
Very little is known about Neanderthal cultures, particularly early
ones. Other than lithic implements and exceptional bone tools, very
few artefacts have been preserved. While those that do remain include
red and black pigments and burial sites, these indications of
modernity are extremely sparse and few have been precisely dated, thus
greatly limiting our knowledge of these predecessors of modern
humans5. Here we report the dating of annular constructions made of
broken stalagmites found deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwest France.
The regular geometry of the stalagmite circles, the arrangement of
broken stalagmites and several traces of fire demonstrate the
anthropogenic origin of these constructions. Uranium-series dating of
stalagmite regrowths on the structures and on burnt bone, combined
with the dating of stalagmite tips in the structures, give a reliable
and replicated age of 176.5 thousand years (ą2.1 thousand years),
making these edifices among the oldest known well-dated constructions
made by humans. Their presence at 336 metres from the entrance of the
cave indicates that humans from this period had already mastered the
underground environment, which can be considered a major step in human
modernity.
http://www.nature.com/nature/
Pandora
Early Neanderthal constructions deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwestern
France.
Very little is known about Neanderthal cultures, particularly early
ones. Other than lithic implements and exceptional bone tools, very
few artefacts have been preserved. While those that do remain include
red and black pigments and burial sites, these indications of
modernity are extremely sparse and few have been precisely dated, thus
greatly limiting our knowledge of these predecessors of modern
humans5. Here we report the dating of annular constructions made of
broken stalagmites found deep in Bruniquel Cave in southwest France.
The regular geometry of the stalagmite circles, the arrangement of
broken stalagmites and several traces of fire demonstrate the
anthropogenic origin of these constructions. Uranium-series dating of
stalagmite regrowths on the structures and on burnt bone, combined
with the dating of stalagmite tips in the structures, give a reliable
and replicated age of 176.5 thousand years (ą2.1 thousand years),
making these edifices among the oldest known well-dated constructions
made by humans. Their presence at 336 metres from the entrance of the
cave indicates that humans from this period had already mastered the
underground environment, which can be considered a major step in human
modernity.
http://www.nature.com/nature/
Pandora
Neanderthals built mystery underground circles 175,000 years ago
They worked by torchlight, following the same procedure hour after hour: wrench a stalagmite off the cave floor, remove the tip and base, and carefully lay it with the others.
Today we can only guess as to why a group of Neanderthals built a series of large stalagmite structures in a French cave – but the fact they did provides a rare glimpse into our extinct cousin’s potential for social organisation in a challenging environment.
Gone are the days when we thought of Neanderthals as crude and unintelligent.
Archaeological evidence now suggests they were capable of symbolic thought, had a basic knowledge of chemistry,medicine and cooking, and perhaps some capacity for speech. They may even have taught modern humans new artisanal skills when the two species met and interbred.
Read it here How to speak Neanderthal: Perhaps we do already
A reassessment of evidence from Bruniquel cave, near Toulouse in south-west France, suggests even more Neanderthal sophistication. In one chamber, 336 metres from the cave entrance, are enigmatic structures – including a ring 7 metres across – built from stalagmites snapped from the cave floor.
Natural limestone growths have begun to cover parts of the structure, so by dating these growths a team led byJacques Jaubert at the University of Bordeaux could work out an approximate age for the stalagmite constructions.
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