History geekodrome

[Watser?]

Venus Real Estate Development Company, owned by Lebanese and Arab financiers, successfully set their bulldozers to destroy the Phoenician port in Mina al-Hosn. The archaeological treasure, discovered in the property across from the Monroe Hotel, was placed on the protected list for archaeological sites and historic buildings on 4 April 2011 when Salim Warde was the Lebanese Minister of Culture.

However, the current Cultural Minister Gaby Layoun the day before yesterday gave the development company a verbal promise that he would take the property off of the protected list, thus allowing the company’s bulldozers to begin demolishing the site at 6:00 am yesterday.

Phoenician Port Sold Down The River in Beirut | Al Akhbar English

[Pan Narrans]

I'm not [thanks]ing that

[Watser?]

Yeah, I was considering posting it in the two minute hate thread.

[Angakuk]

The US archaeologists involved have determined that fragments from a large bowl found in Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province, are 20,000 years old.

The discovery, published in the journal Science, is the latest in recent years that have pushed back the invention of pottery by 10,000 years.

Earliest example of pottery

The dating on this find is apparently quite secure. It is important because it provides significant evidence that the production of pottery predates the development of agriculture and settled communities, in south China at any rate.

[Watser?]

More historic vandalism:

Islamist militants in Mali have attacked one of the most famous mosques in the historic city of Timbuktu, residents say.

...

Ansar Dine spokesman Sanda Ould Bamana told the BBC that his movement had now completed nearly 90% of its objective to destroy all mausoleums that are not in line with Islamic law.

...

The 55-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference said in a statement that the sites Ansar Dine had attacked were "part of the rich Islamic heritage of Mali and should not be allowed to be destroyed and put in harm's way by bigoted extremist elements".

BBC News - Timbuktu's Sidi Yahia mosque 'attacked by Mali militants'

That is some undiplomatic language btw. Not that I disagree, it's just unusually strong language coming from the Islamic countries condemning Muslim extremists. Especially considering that this is standard Wahhabi procedure, they did the same thing to Shi'ite and Sufi shrines in Saudi Arabia and Qatar when they came to power in SA in the early 20th century. So I'm frankly amazed the Saudis supported this statement.

[Qingdai]

I thought the oldest pottery was from Japan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jōmon_Pottery

I'm drinking, so my math skills aren't what they could be, but 20,000 years old (China) versus 1,270 to 14,000 BCE (Jamon pottery from Japan) seems pretty equal, depending on the accuracy rate of the dating process.

[Angakuk]

Going with the earliest date for Jomon pottery, that would make it roughly 16,000 ybp. That is is still a 4,000 year gap. 4,000 years is not exactly chicken feed. I mean, a thousand years here and a thousand years there and pretty soon you are talking about some real time.

Sherds have been found in China and Japan from a period between 12,000 and perhaps as long as 16,000 years ago. As of 2012, the earliest pottery, dating to 20,000 to 19,000 before the present, found anywhere in the world was found at Xianrendong Cave, Jiangxi Province, China, a site used by a hunter-gathering culture in southern China. In Japan, the Jōmon period has a long history of development of Jōmon Pottery which was characterized by impressions of rope on the surface of the pottery created by pressing rope into the clay before firing.

Pottery

[Qingdai]

Math not good tonight, I did mean 12,700 to 14,000 BCE, but yes a few thousand years does add up (tell that to my knees!). Plus the Chinese always say the Japanese steal everything from them. I just know the Jomon pottery is widely accepted by archeologists and don't know anything journalists haven't said about the Chinese pottery.

[Angakuk]

Here is a link to the abstract of the relevant article from the journal Science. Is that scientifical enough for you?

[Qingdai]

Thanks, they've done radiocarbon analysis on "sherds" so either their peer reviewed or not, but edited? Not so much.

[fragment]

Sherd is a standard term.

[Angakuk]

I wondered what Qingdai was getting at. I didn't catch on to the fact that she thought that was a misspelling. I just figured it was the booze that was talking.

[LadyShea]

Royal Armouries Museum stakes a claim on Vampire Kit : Past Horizons Archaeology

[Janet]

My money's on it being inspired by the play revival and subsequent Langella film in the late Seventies, early Eighties. Hammer used crosses, not crucifixes as a rule and generally not silver bullets. I'm also wondering what those pliers are for. They're not mentioned in the article.

[LadyShea]

Looks like these sorts of kits come up for auction from time to time
http://spookylandcrypt.webs.com/kits.html

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by Janet

My money's on it being inspired by the play revival and subsequent Langella film in the late Seventies, early Eighties. Hammer used crosses, not crucifixes as a rule and generally not silver bullets. I'm also wondering what those pliers are for. They're not mentioned in the article.

I don't think those are pliers. I think that is a bullet mold.

[Ymir's blood]

Maybe the pliers are for extracting gold fillings after a successful hunt?

[Janet]

Bullet mold makes much more sense, thanks.

[Ymir's blood]

Making sense is overrated. I like the idea of mercenary vamp hunters.

[LadyShea]

BBC News - Faces of Egyptian mummies on show in Manchester


2nd Century portraits of Egyptian mummies

They look European to me! But what do I know?

[Sock Puppet]

The ruling family at the time, including the famous Cleopatra, was of Greek descent.

[LadyShea]

Well then that makes sense.

[Watser?]

Alexander the Great, Ptolemids and whatnot.

[livius drusus]

I don't know how far down into the general population the Greekness went. I always thought the Fayuum portraits looked classically Middle Eastern/North African.

[Watser?]

Yeah, they could be that too. Most North Africans could pass for Italians or Greeks. There's been extensive contacts back and forth for millennia of course.