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POPS'Massive' ancient wall uncovered in Jerusalem "This is the most massive wall that has ever been uncovered in the City of David," Reich and Shukron said in a joint statement about the find. It marks the first time "that such massive construction that predates the Herodian period has been discovered in Jerusalem." It appears to be part of a "protected, well-fortified passage that descends to the spring tower from some sort of fortress that stood at the top of the hill," according to the joint statement. The spring "is located in the weakest and most vulnerable place in the area. The construction of a protected passage, even though it involves tremendous effort, is a solution for which there are several parallels in antiquity, albeit from periods that are later than the remains described here."
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POPSThe Strangest Things Pulled Out of Peat Bogs more: Murder wasn’t all that happened out on the bogs. Multiple trepanated skulls, that is to say, skulls with holes drilled in them, have been found. Based on the use of the procedure in medieval times, one hypothesis is that the “operation may have been performed to remove a blood clot or a less-tangible thing like a spirit” from an individual. Even now, there’s still a small number of people who think drilling holes in their skulls is therapeutic. While we don’t know much about the people who wandered these bogs thousands of years ago, analytical chemistry has helped identify substances that make them seem startlingly modern.One corpse’s hair appears to have been coated with primitive hair gel, made from “vegetable oil mixed with resin from pine trees found in Spain and southwest France.” The man lived around 300 B.C.
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POPS1000 year old marks in tree found near Prague more: Archaeologist Dagmar Dreslerova points out that the tradition of engraving signs and ornaments date back to the Palaeolithic Era (Old Stone Age). However, only engravings made on stone, rocks and exceptionally on bones have been preserved, as wood and other organic material decompose with time. The first written sources mentioning signs engraved into trees to mark land borders and paths come from antiquity.
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POPSHunter-Gatherer House Reveals Stone Age Lifestyle "They may have been burnt because the shells were discarded into a fire after consumption of the fruit," he added. "When the hearth sweepings were cleaned from the building, the burnt nutshells and all else were cleaned to the periphery. Hazelnuts would have been an abundant and highly nutritious source of food that could easily be gathered in the autumn and stored for consumption through lean winter months."
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POPS51 Headless Vikings Found in English Execution Pit? "You've got Danish and Saxon armies fighting backwards and forwards across England," The early English also faced the threat of longship-sailing Vikings, Scandinavian seafarers who pillaged coastal regions. The team hopes chemical analysis of the buried men's teeth will show whether they grew up in Britain or Scandinavia. (Related: "Vikings Filed Their Teeth, Skeleton Study Shows.") Signs of muscle attachment on the bones could also help reveal whether the executed were Viking oarsmen, since "strong physical exertion in a particular direction does affect the bones,"
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POPSToltec: Don Miguel Ruiz 'Fortunately, the esoteric Toltec knowledge was embodied and passed on through generations by different lineages of Naguals. Though it remained veiled in secrecy for hundreds of years, ancient prophecies foretold the coming of an age when it would be necessary to return the wisdom to the people. Now, don Miguel has been guided to share with us the powerful teachings of the Toltec."
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POPSFacedown Burials Widely Used to Humiliate the Dead Arcini searched existing literature to make the first ever catalog of facedown burials from around the world. She found descriptions of more than 600 bodies from 215 grave sites, from Peru to South Korea. Dating from 26,000 years ago all the way up to World War I, these so-called prone burials include men, women, and children, though the majority were men. Facedown burials occurred in all sorts of graves, including single graves, double graves, and mass graves.
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POPSSearching for Afghanistan's Third Giant Buddha I love ancient history. No matter what our present relationship with Afghanistan, we should remember that it was considered the "cradle of civilization" and there is a wealth of history, culture, and societies.
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POPSMachu Picchu Described as Pilgrimage Site
The author of "Mysteries and Discoveries of Archaeoastronomy," Magli suggests that the ceremonial path into the city was conceived as a replica of the path followed by the first Incas in cosmological myth. In their final leg, the pilgrims approached three important places: the so-called quarry, an area possibly connected with Mother Earth and the underground travel of the first Incas, the temple of the three windows (it was believed that the first Incas came out from one of the three windows), and the Intihuatana Pyramid, which resembled the sacred mountain Huayna Picchu, located at the end of the path. According to Magli, the picture also fits with celestial cycles that appeared in the sky at the times of the Incas. These were dominated by the Milky Way, which was perceived as a "celestial river" having its terrestrial counterpart in the Urubamba River. "Machu Picchu was located at the ideal, opposite crossroads between the terrestrial and the celestial rivers. It was
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POPSAncient Elite Island With Pyramid Found in Mexico continues: From their powerful capital city and religious center Tzintzuntzan, the Tarascans successfully thwarted every attack by the Aztec. Tarascan people valued such products as honey, cotton, feathers, and salt, and they often expanded into neighboring lands in search of these goods. Ritual Center Fisher and colleagues found a square structure with a formal entrance that is believed to have been an imperial treasury. Adjacent to the treasury is a small pyramid, which has large, open rooms that would have been suitable for ritual activity. Pipe fragments were also found near the treasury. The pipe discoveries may bear out ritual descriptions on a previously found ancient Spanish scroll. The scroll shows people smoking pipes and drinking pulque—a drink made of agave, a crucial crop used for alcoholic drinks, such as tequila, and syrup, Fisher said.
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