Late Arctic Neanderthals

Late Mousterian Persistence near the Arctic Circle.
Abstract:
"Palaeolithic sites in Russian high latitudes have been considered as
Upper Palaeolithic and thus representing an Arctic expansion of modern
humans. Here we show that at Byzovaya, in the western foothills of the
Polar Urals, the technological structure of the lithic assemblage
makes it directly comparable with Mousterian Middle Palaeolithic
industries that so far have been exclusively attributed to the
Neandertal populations in Europe. Radiocarbon and optical-stimulated
luminescence dates on bones and sand grains indicate that the site was
occupied during a short period around 28,500 carbon-14 years before
the present (about 31,000 to 34,000 calendar years ago), at the time
when only Upper Palaeolithic cultures occupied lower latitudes of
Eurasia. Byzovaya may thus represent a late northern refuge for
Neandertals, about 1000 km north of earlier known Mousterian sites."
Source

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.

Sign Up Now

For Email Marketing you can trust.

Late Arctic Neanderthals

Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman

Archaeologists investigating a 5,000-year-old Copper Age grave in the Czech Republic believe they may have unearthed the first known remains of a gay or transvestite caveman, reports the Telegraph.

The man was apparently buried as if he were a woman, an aberrant practice for an ancient culture known for its strict burial procedures.



Since the grave dates to between 2900 and 2500 BC, the man would have been a member of the Corded Ware culture, a late Stone Age and Copper Age people named after the unique kind of pottery they produced. Men in this culture were traditionally buried lying on their right side with their heads pointing west, but this man was instead buried on his left side with his head pointing east, which is how women were typically buried.

"From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova. "Far more likely is that he was a man with a different sexual orientation, homosexual or transsexual."

Another clue is that Corded Ware men would typically be buried alongside weapons, hammers and flint knives, as well as food and drink to prepare them for their journey to the other side. But this man's grave instead contained only a traditional egg-shaped pot, which was what women were typically buried with.

With all the evidence taken together, archaeologists are confident that the best explanation for the strange burial is that the man was effeminate, perhaps a homosexual, and possibly a transvestite.

"We believe this is one of the earliest cases of what could be described as a 'transsexual' or 'third gender grave' in the Czech Republic," reiterated cooperating archaeologist Katerina Semradova.

Semradova also noted that archaeologists from a previous dig had uncovered a grave from the Mesolithic period where a female warrior was buried as a man, so mixed gender burials, though rare, were not unprecedented.


SOURCE

Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman

New Song By The Looters!!

Jess Make Up Your Mind by Rosa King and the Looters
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN!!!!
Joe Layden- guitar
Eric Layden- bass
David Denison- guitar
Charlie Denison- xaphoon, ocarina, keys, percussion

http://www.thelootersmusic.com

New Song By The Looters!!

Fish Tales by The Looters

Fish Tales by The Looters

The True Atlantis Found?

(Reuters) - A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune)SOURCE

The True Atlantis Found?

400,000 year old Human Teeth?

Main Article
Or Maybe Not?

400,000 year old Human Teeth?

Denisova Erectus?

Very Interesting Hypothesis
Article

Denisova Erectus?

8000 year old coca habit

Archaeological evidence shows that South Americans were chewing coca leaves at least 8,000 years ago, an international team of researchers has discovered.

The researchers, who were led by Dr. Tom Dillehay of the Vanderbilt University Department of Anthropology, discovered and dated coca leaves beneath house floors in the Nanchoc Valley of Peru.

Dillehay and colleague describe their findings in a paper, which appears in the latest edition of Antiquity, a quarterly journal of archaeology founded in 1927.

Furthermore, they also discovered fragments of calcite, which according to the researchers "is used by chewers to bring out the alkaloids from the leaves."

"Excavation and chemical analysis at a group of neighboring sites suggests that specialists were beginning to extract and supply lime or calcite, and by association coca, as a community activity at about the same time as systematic farming was taking off in the region," they added.

According to BBC News Science and Technology Reporter Jason Palmer, the discovery shows that people were using coca at least 3,000 years earlier than first believed. The alkaloids contained in coca leaves can serve as mild stimulants, can reduce hunger, can help the digestive process, and can help individuals overcome the effects of high-altitude, low-oxygen environments, he added.

"We found it not so much in a household context, as if it was something that was heavily used by a lot of people, but rather... restricted to certain households of individuals and produced in a sort of public context - not individualized," Dillehay told Palmer.

"The evidence we have suggests that unlike in Western societies--where if you've got the economic means you can have access to medicinal plants--that seems not to be the case back then," he added.

Palmer notes that the discovery could also have an effect on modern-day policy making, as the international community is attempting to curb the production of coca in the Andes due to its association with cocaine.

Dillehay told Palmer that people are too focused on the cocaine-related aspects of the plant, and they fail to see that the use of the coca plan is "a deeply-rooted economic, social and even religious tradition in the Andes."

link

8000 year old coca habit

Sea Level Jumps

Possible explanation for a non-linear migration, excess ice being
melted into the sea could provide conditions where either the shore
untraversible or the the ability to use small craft limited.


Global Sea-Level Rise at the End of the Last Ice Age Interrupted by
Rapid 'Jumps'


Coastal erosion in Portugal. (Credit: E. Rohling)


ScienceDaily (Dec. 4, 2010) — Southampton researchers have estimated
that sea-level rose by an average of about 1 metre per century at the
end of the last Ice Age, interrupted by rapid 'jumps' during which it
rose by up to 2.5 metres per century. The findings, published in
Global and Planetary Change, will help unravel the responses of ocean
circulation and climate to large inputs of ice-sheet meltwater to the
world ocean.


Global sea level rose by a total of more than 120 metres as the vast
ice sheets of the last Ice Age melted back. This melt-back lasted from
about 19,000 to about 6,000 years ago, meaning that the average rate
of sea-level rise was roughly 1 metre per century.


Previous studies of sea-level change at individual locations have
suggested that the gradual rise may have been marked by abrupt 'jumps'
of sea-level rise at rates that approached 5 metres per century. These
estimates were based on analyses of the distribution of fossil corals
around Barbados and coastal drowning along the Sunda Shelf, an
extension of the continental shelf of East Asia.


However, uncertainties in fossil dating, scarcity of sea-level
markers, and the specific characteristics of individual sites can make
it difficult to reconstruct global sea level with a high degree of
confidence using evidence from any one site.


"Rather than relying on individual sites that may not be
representative, we have compared large amounts of data from many
different sites, taking into account all potential sources of
uncertainty," said Professor Eelco Rohling of the University of
Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science (SOES) based at the
National Oceanography Centre (NOC) in Southampton.


The researchers brought together about 400 high-quality sea-level
markers from study sites around the globe, concentrating on locations
far removed from the distorting effects of the past massive ice
sheets.


Using an extensive series of sophisticated statistical tests, they
then reconstructed sea-level history of the last 21 thousand years
with a high degree of statistical confidence.


Their analyses indicate that the gradual rise at an average rate of 1
metre per century was interrupted by two periods with rates of rise up
to 2.5 metres per century, between 15 and 13 thousand years ago, and
between 11 and 9 thousand years ago.


The first of these jumps in the amount of ice-sheet meltwater entering
the world ocean coincides with the beginning of a period of global
climate warming called the Bølling-Allerød period. The second jump
appears to have happened shortly after the end the 'big freeze' called
the Younger Dryas that brought the Bølling-Allerød period to an abrupt
end.


"Our estimates of rates of sea-level rise are lower than those
estimated from individual study sites, but they are statistically
robust and therefore greatly improve our understanding of loss of ice
volume due to the melting of the ice sheets at the end of the last Ice
Age," said lead author Dr Jennifer Stanford of SOES.


"The new findings will be used to refine models of the Earth climate
system, and will thus help to improve forecasts of future sea-level
responses to global climate change," added Rohling.


The researchers are Jenny Stanford, Rebecca Hemingway, Eelco Rohling
and Martin Medina-Elizalde (SOES), Peter Challenor (NOC) and Adrian
Lester (The Chamber of Shipping, London).


The research was supported by the United Kingdom's Natural Environment
Research Council.


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101201120605.htm


Sea-level probability for the last deglaciation: A statistical
analysis of far-field records
Purchase the full-text article


References and further reading may be available for this article. To
view references and further reading you must purchase this article.


J.D. Stanforda, low asterisk, E-mail The Corresponding Author, R.
Hemingwaya, E.J. Rohlinga, P.G. Challenorb, M. Medina-Elizaldea and
A.J. Lesterc


a School of Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton,
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton SO14 3ZH, United Kingdom


b National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, SO14 3ZH, United Kingdom


c The Chamber of Shipping, 12 Carthusian Street, London, EC1M 6EZ
Received 4 March 2010;
accepted 8 November 2010.
Available online 26 November 2010.


Abstract


Pulses of ice-sheet meltwater into the world ocean during the last
deglaciation are of great current interest, because these large-scale
events offer important test-beds for numerical models of the responses
of ocean circulation and climate to meltwater addition. The largest
such event has become known as meltwater pulse (mwp) 1a, with
estimates of about 20 m of sea-level rise in about 500 years. A second
meltwater pulse (mwp-1b) has been inferred from some sea-level
records, but its existence has become debated following the
presentation of additional records. Even the use of the more
ubiquitous mwp-1a in modelling studies has been compromised by debate
about its exact age, based upon perceived discrepancies between far-
field sea-level records. It is clear that an objective investigation
is needed to determine to what level inferred similarities and/or
discrepancies between the various deglacial sea-level records are
statistically rigorous (or not). For that purpose, we present a Monte
Carlo style statistical analysis to determine the highest-probability
sea-level history from six key far-field deglacial sea-level records,
which fully accounts for realistic methodological and chronological
uncertainties in all these records, and which is robust with respect
to removal of individual component datasets. We find that sea-level
rise started to accelerate into the deglaciation from around 17 ka BP.
Within the deglacial rise, there were two distinct increases; one at
around the timing of the Bølling warming (14.6 ka BP), and another,
much broader, event that just post-dates the end of the Younger Dryas
(11.3 ka BP). We interpret these as mwp-1a and mwp-1b, respectively.
We find that mwp-1a occurred between 14.3 ka BP and 12.8 ka BP.
Highest rates of sea-level rise occurred at ~ 13.8 ka, probably (67%
confidence) within the range 100-130 cm/century, although values may
have been as high as 260 cm/century (99% confidence limit). Mwp-1b is
robustly expressed as a broad multi-millennial interval of enhanced
rates of sea-level rise between 11.5 ka BP and 8.8 ka BP, with peak
rates of rise of up to 250 cm/century (99 % confidence), but with a
probable rate of 130 -150 cm/century (67 % confidence) at around 9.5
ka BP. When considering the 67 % probability interval for the
deglacial sea-level history, it is clear that both mwp1a and 1b were
relatively subdued in comparison to the previously much higher rate
estimates.

source

Sea Level Jumps

12,000 yo Mine in Americas

"12K" ya? Work the logic of traveling the distance from Beringa,
roughly 6000 miles, establishing a culture, finding the mine, and
creating the mine.

12,000-Year-Old Mine Found in Northern Chile


SANTIAGO – A mine from which a prehistoric culture extracted iron
oxide 12,000 years ago was discovered in northern Chile by a group of
archaeologists, El Mercurio newspaper reported Sunday.


The find took place in the San Ramon ravine in 2008, although this is
the first time that the archaeological team has revealed it publicly,
and – they say – it could make an important contribution to the
understanding of the prehistoric cultures that lived in the Taltal
area, some 1,100 kilometers (682 miles) north of Santiago.


The ancient people who exploited the mine were members of the
Huentelauquen culture, which used iron oxide for ceremonial purposes,
archaeologists said.


This is the oldest mine discovered in the Americas, much older than
one used 2,500 years ago that was discovered in the United States,
University of Chile professor Diego Salazar said.


In South Africa, a 40,000-year-old mine was discovered, in Australia
there is one that was used 30,000 years ago and in Greece there is a
15,000-year-old mine, Salazar said.


The Huentelauquen culture, which inhabited the area, was discovered in
1961 and to date very little is known about its members, who were
nomadic hunters and gatherers but also lived from fishing and
collecting shellfish.


The exploitation of the mine “indicates the importance of religious
activity in their way of life because iron oxide is not eaten, is not
sold, is not bought,” and it was used as a coloring agent in religious
rites, Salazar said.


It has been determined that the Chinchorro mummies found farther to
the north in the Arica area and whose age has been calculated at about
10,000 years were dyed with iron oxide, the archaeologist said.

Link

12,000 yo Mine in Americas

Did first humans come out of the Middle East?

Did first humans come out of Middle East and not Africa? Israeli discovery forces scientists to re-examine evolution of modern man
By Matthew Kalman
Last updated at 7:51 AM on 28th December 2010

Comments (185) Add to My Stories
Scientists could be forced to re-write the history of the evolution of modern man after the discovery of 400,000-year-old human remains.
Until now, researchers believed that homo sapiens, the direct descendants of modern man, evolved in Africa about 200,000 years ago and gradually migrated north, through the Middle East, to Europe and Asia.
Recently, discoveries of early human remains in China and Spain have cast doubt on the 'Out of Africa' theory, but no-one was certain.
Professor Avi Gopher, a researcher from Tel Aviv University's Institute of Archaeology, holds a pre-historic tooth at Qesem cave, an excavation site near the town of Rosh Ha'ayin
The new discovery of pre-historic human remains by Israeli university explorers in a cave near Ben-Gurion airport could force scientists to re-think earlier theories.
Early humans: Middle Awash Aramis, Ethiopia, where the first 'modern' human beings were thought to have been discovered
Archeologists from Tel Aviv University say eight human-like teeth found in the Qesem cave near Rosh Ha’Ayin - 10 miles from Israel’s international airport - are 400,000 years old, from the Middle Pleistocene Age, making them the earliest remains of homo sapiens yet discovered anywhere in the world.
The size and shape of the teeth are very similar to those of modern man. Until now, the earliest examples found were in Africa, dating back only 200,000 years.
Other scientists have argued that human beings originated in Africa before moving to other regions 150,000 to 200,000 years ago.
Homo sapiens discovered in Middle Awash, Ethiopia, from 160,000 years ago were believed to be the oldest 'modern' human beings.
Other remains previously found in Israeli caves are thought to have been more recent and 80,000 to 100,000 years old.

A group of international and Israeli researchers have discovered pre-historic artefacts and human remains at the site that may prove the earliest existence of modern man was about 400,000 years ago
The findings of Professor Avi Gopher and Dr Ran Barkai of the Institute of Archeology at Tel Aviv University, published last week in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, suggest that modern man did not originate in Africa as previously believed, but in the Middle East.
The Qesem cave was discovered in 2000 and has been the focus of intense study ever since.
Along with the teeth – the parts of the human skeleton that survive the longest – the researchers found evidence of a sophisticated early human society that used sharpened flakes of stone to cut meat and other impressive prehistoric tools.

The Israeli scientists said the remains found in the cave suggested the systematic production of flint blades, the habitual use of fire, evidence of hunting, cutting and sharing of animal meat, and mining raw materials to produce flint tools from rocks below ground.
'A diversified assemblage of flint blades was manufactured and used,' the Tel Aviv scientists wrote, describing the tools they found in the cave.
'Thick-edged blades, shaped through retouch, were used for scraping semi-hard materials such as wood or hide, whereas blades with straight, sharp working edges were used to cut soft tissues.'

The explorers said they were continuing to investigate the cave and its contents, expecting to make more discoveries that would shed further light on human evolution in prehistoric times.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1341973/Did-humans-come-Middle-East-Africa-Scientists-forced-write-evolution-modern-man.html#ixzz19r1Nlm7sSource

Did first humans come out of the Middle East?

Smithsonian does not dispute authenticity of archaeological find in Vero Beach

The approval of the Smithsonian may be a crack at the people from
the Smithsonian who poo-pooed the Vero Man discovery of the 1916.
There were similar etched bones in that dig but mostly simple
markings.

Smithsonian does not dispute authenticity of archaeological find in
Vero Beach


By Elliott Jones
Updated Wednesday, October 20, 2010


VERO BEACH — The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has
found no reason to dispute the authenticity of an one-of-a-kind
archaeological discovery that might help confirm a human presence here
up to 13,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.


In early 2009, local fossil collector James Kennedy cleaned off an old
bone he found two years earlier and noticed some lines on it — lines
that turned out to be a clear etching of a walking mammoth with tusks.


The location where he found it hasn’t been disclosed, except that it
came from an area north of Vero Beach.


University of Florida researchers scrutinized the four-inch etching on
the 15-inch prehistoric bone with an electron microscope and their
tests showed it to be apparently genuine.


In May, Kennedy took the bone to the National Museum of Natural
History for further studies. There Smithsonian Institution
archaeologists made a copy and used advanced techniques to look at the
etching.


“We have found no traces that would indicate that a (modern) metal
tool was used to carve the bone,” said the institution’s Dennis
Stanford, who specializes in early North American archaeology.


“While we see no evidence that it is a forgery” the institution
doesn’t authenticate objects unless they are donated to the museum,
Stanford wrote in an e-mail on Tuesday.


Kennedy is keeping the bone in hopes of selling it by auction.


“I want to auction it to the person with the most money, although I
would rather it go to a museum,” Kennedy said.


It is presumed to be the oldest known art object of its type found in
the New World, said Richard Hulbert, a paleontologist with the Florida
Museum of Natural History, Gainesville.


The person who created the etching, presumably with a shark tooth or
flint implement, had to have seen a live animal to have drawn it in
such detail, he said.


“I’d like to have that (an image of it) flying on a flag outside the
museum,” Hulbert said while visiting Vero Beach during the spring.


“I pulled out of the dirt,” Kennedy said. “People have looked at it
with all types of equipment and it has all come back positive. It is
what it is.”


Source

Smithsonian does not dispute authenticity of archaeological find in Vero Beach