Clipmarks | Prehistory Clips

New "Sea Monster" Species Identified

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:01:50 GMT

clipped by: Elfrida

Clip Source: news.nationalgeographic.com

The remarkably well-preserved fossil of a dinosaur-era sea creature found in a Canadian mine is turning out to be a gold mine for paleontologists.

The Cretaceous-period reptile, dubbed Nichollsia borealis, is not only a new species—it represents a whole new genus

It's also one of the oldest and most complete plesiosaur fossils ever unearthed in North America.

carnivorous reptiles that roamed the seas between about 205 million to 65 million years ago

The scans and other analyses of the reptile have provided more detail than for any other plesiosaur ever found, they said.

The newfound reptile also gave them a window into an ancient seaway that once cut through North America and teemed with marine life.

"It represents the oldest known forerunner of this amazing period in North American prehistory."

The Long History of Birth Control

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:02:45 GMT

clipped by: dmegivern

Clip Source: www.plannedparenthood.org

A History of Birth Control Methods

Contemporary studies show that, out of a list of eight reasons for having sex, having a baby is the least frequent motivator for most people (Hill, 1997). This seems to have been true for all people at all times. Ever since the dawn of history, women and men have wanted to be able to decide when and whether to have a child. Contraceptives have been used in one form or another for thousands of years throughout human history and even prehistory.

Many of the earliest methods of family planning were based on sexual behavior and are still used by millions of women and men around the world.

Continuous Abstinence

Outercourse

Withdrawal

Fertility Awareness-Based Methods

Lactational Amenorrhea Method

Barrier Methods

The Condom

The earliest known illustration of a man using a condom during sexual intercourse is painted on the wall of a cave in France. It is 12,000–15,000 years old

Female Condom and Vaginal Sponge

Hormonal Methods

Emergency Contraception

Permanent Methods

Tags: family planning, contraception

Little arrow that rewrites history books

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 18:25:15 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.pretorianews.co.za

Two researchers from Wits University believe that what they have discovered is a 60 000-year-old arrow that was fired from the earliest known bow. Their discovery has pushed back the origins of bow-and-arrow technology by 20 000 years.

The bow, probably made of wood and long since decayed, was used at a time when Neanderthals in Europe were using large spears in duels with woolly mammoths and other large prehistoric game.

The bone arrow, just 5cm long, was excavated by Wadley at the Sibudu cave, near the coastal town of Ballito in KwaZulu Natal, two years ago.

It's mystery who the people were who fashioned the arrow.

Also at this time, humankind was leaving an ever-increasing archaeological record of the first inklings of modern human behaviour. They were burying the dead, using coloured pigments and wearing jewellery.

"This at a time a few thousand years before they walked out of Africa, to become the ancestors of all humans," said Backwell.

Tags: archaeology, anthropology, south africa, prehistory, arrow, science

5000-year-old site discovered in Iran

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:33:25 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.tehrantimes.com

TEHRAN -- A broad site dating back to the third millennium BC was discovered during the latest excavations in Bampur region in Sistan-Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran.

“In the Bampur valley, there is an ancient site covered with sand mounds, which is as large as the Burnt City and may belong to a civilization as great as the civilization of that the city,” Mehdi Mortazavi, an archaeologist of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan, told the Persian service of CHN on Saturday.

According to Mortazavi, the site measures 1x1.5 kilometer.

“I feel sure that there are a large number of sites like this here. Such sites may even exist in nearby regions like Saravan,” he stated.

Twenty sites -- mostly prehistoric -- have been discovered by the archaeologists of the University of Sistan-Baluchestan over the past few years.

Tags: archaeology, iran, prehistory, burnt city

Solving the mystery of Nazca Lines

Mon, 26 May 2008 22:00:10 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.dailyindia.com

Washington, May 23: Two British archaeologists are trying to solve the mystery of the Nazca Lines in Peru by locating and measuring the lines with high-precision GPS, photographing the distribution of 1,500-year old pottery, and working out the chronological sequence of overlying lines and designs.

Funded by the Anglo-Peruvian Cultural Association in Lima, their research hopes to unlock the purpose of the dazzling but confusing array of desert drawings.

Professor Ruggles and Dr Saunders agree with other experts that some lines were pathways across the desert, others had a more religious significance, while some appear associated with desert scars caused by flash-floods, and are probably linked to the veneration of water.

According to Dr Saunders, "Identifying which lines came first, whether they were spiritual or functional, and exactly how they were used during a thousand years of prehistory is a great challenge."

Tags: archaeology, south america, peru, nazca, mystery

Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes

Wed, 21 May 2008 20:47:09 GMT

clipped by: ekorstanje
clipper's remarks: Long article but worth the read.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Does Time Run Backward in Other Universes?

One of the most basic facts of life is that the future looks different from the past. But on a grand cosmological scale, they may look the same

The basic laws of physics work equally well forward or backward in time, yet we perceive time to move in one direction only—toward the future. Why?

To account for it, we have to delve into the prehistory of the universe, to a time before the big bang. Our universe may be part of a much larger multiverse, which as a whole is time-symmetric. Time may run backward in other universes.

Tags: time

85,000-year-old finery recovered in Moroccan cave

Sun, 11 May 2008 21:09:31 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: www.dailystar.com.lb

Archaeologists have uncovered shells used for finery by prehistoric communities 85,000 years ago in a cave in eastern Morocco, the country's heritage institute said Tuesday.

A research team, led by archaeology and heritage institute (INSAP) member Abdel-Jalil Bouzouggar and Oxford University's Nick Barton, found the 20 perforated shells in a cave near Taforalt between March and April this year.

According to a statement from the Moroccan Ministry for Culture, the shells are the type prehistoric people would have worn.

"This discovery shows that the making and use of objects of finery is very anchored in the traditions of Morocco's prehistoric people," said Bouzouggar, in whose opinion the country is the original center of artistic and symbolic creation.

Objects of finery discovered in Morocco are "now considered to be even more ancient than those discovered in Algeria, South Africa and in Palestine," said the Culture Ministry.

Tags: archaeology, prehistory, morocco

Ancient Seaweed Tells of Earliest Americans

Thu, 08 May 2008 23:12:52 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

May 8, 2008 -- Remains of meals that included seaweed are helping confirm the date of a settlement in southern Chile that may offer the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.

Researchers date the seaweed found at Monte Verde to more than 14,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than the well-studied Clovis culture.

And the report comes just a month after other scientists announced they had found coprolites â€“ fossilized human feces -- dating to about 14,000 years ago in a cave in Oregon.

Taken together, the finds move back evidence of people in the Americas by a millennium or more, with settlements in northern and southern coastal areas.

Tags: archaeology, chile, america, prehistory, science

Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova'

Fri, 02 May 2008 17:50:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: The archaeological discoveries in Gobeklitepe - Turkey, continues to stun the archaeology world. The site is dated to 9,500 BCE.

Clip Source: www.stonepages.com

Klaus Schmidt, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, has found in Turkey a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt. "Within a minute of first seeing it, I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here."

The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe are his workplace since 1994.

Dated at about 9500 BCE, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

"Everybody used to think only complex, hierarchical civilizations could build such monumental sites and that they only came about with the invention of agriculture," said Ian Hodder, a Stanford University anthropology professor who has directed digs at Catalhoyuk,

"Gobekli changes everything. It's elaborate, it's complex, and it is pre-agricultural. That fact alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time."

Tags: archaeology, prehistory, neolithic, turkey, klaus schmidt, science

Prehistoric Milling Site Found in California

Fri, 03 Mar 2006 16:07:00 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

Prehistoric Milling Site Found in Calif.

AZUSA, Calif. - Archaeologists excavating a housing development site found a prehistoric milling area estimated to be 8,000 years old, officials said.

Large arrowheads, hearths and stone slabs used to grind seeds and acorns were among the items found at the site at the base of the Angeles National Forest, according to archeologists from Cogstone Resource Management Inc.

No human or animal bones were discovered, the company said.

The consulting firm was hired by Azusa Land Partners, which is developing 1,250 homes on the 520-acre site. Workers removed and catalogued about 100 tools and implements used by the Gabrielino-Tongva tribe, which lived in the area before Europeans arrived, said Cogstone President Sherri Gust.

Archaeologists have known since the 1960s that the area contained artifacts, but the exact location of the milling site was not discovered until three weeks ago, Gust said.

Azusa is about 30 miles east of Los Angeles.

Tags: archaeology, america, prehistory

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:22:18 GMT

clipped by: rmowery
clipper's remarks: At the rate we are going, perhaps it will happen again?

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," said Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence.

"Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."

Tags: prehistory, humans, dna, survival

Doodle Interpretation

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:19:38 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: drawsketch.about.com

Do you doodle? Many people love to scribble away absent-mindedly, and often these doodles can carry a great deal of meaning

Why do we doodle?

Often, its just boredom. People are not wired for doing nothing – with a long prehistory of precarious existence, people need to be constantly engaged in productive action. Laziness is a sure recipe for extinction.

Doodling is also an outlet for frustrated artistic expression

These fundamental outlets for creative expression have been stymied by a combination of social pressure (fear of inadequacy) and lack of training (our overfull school curriculums leaving little room for the arts, combined with a flawed view of artistic development as innate and not to be ‘messed with’ by education).

When we are otherwise occupied

Clip Source: drawsketch.about.com

Doodles can certainly reveal something of a person’s mental state

t must also be considered whether the inspiration for a doodle is internal or external.

Stonehenge Meets 21st-Century Science

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 09:28:13 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: www.dailygalaxy.com

One of the world's most famous prehistoric sites, the Stonehenge located about 8 miles north of Salisbury, England- has been the subject of so much study, and so little in the way of answers, that it is an archaeologist's dream; maybe they'll soon be the ones to solve the mystery of why, how, and who.

That definitely seems to be the mission for Timothy Darvill, a leading Stonehenge scholar from Bournemouth University, and Geoffrey Wainwright, president of the Society of Antiquaries, who have just begun a new dig at the famed site.

The new dig-the first in over sixty years- will last until the 11th of April in hopes of finding who built Stonehenge, for what reason, and why they brought the magnificent stones all the way from Wales.

"We will be able to say not only why, but when the first stone monument was built."

In fact, at the beginning, it is believed that the structure was actually made of wooden posts

where did the stones come from?

Tags: prehistory, archaeology, stonehenge

Peacekeepers 'deface ancient art'

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:34:50 GMT

clipped by: Robbert

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

UN peacekeepers in the disputed African territory of Western Sahara have vandalised ancient rock paintings, a UN official has told a UK newspaper.

The Times has published pictures of the paintings, some 6,000 years old, showing them defaced with spray paint.

Graffiti, including the spray-painting of UN personnel's names, can been seen at Lajuad, an important archaeological site, Mr Harston said.

"I was appalled. You'd think some of them would know better. These are officers, not squaddies," Mr Harston said.

"It is a tragedy that UN personnel tasked with resolving one of the world's longest running military and political conflicts are engaging in the wilful destruction of important archaeological sites that have much to teach us about the prehistory of a part of the world that is virtually unknown to the international research community," he writes on his Sand and Dust blog.

The Primal and Future Moon

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:43:40 GMT

clipped by: Moonowler
clipper's remarks: Although the Moon is slowing down Earth's rotation, it has stabilized it as well from movement of the Earth's poles.

Clip Source: starryskies.com

Every year, the Moon moves about four centimeters (about 1.6 inches,) farther out into space, away from Earth. Right now, the Moon's rotation rate, and the time it takes to orbit Earth are the same.

Four and a half billion years ago the Earth was about sixty percent formed, though it did have a differentiated core, crust and mantle. In these primal skies, there was no Moon.

One planet, about the size of Mars, probably had an orbit which crosses Earth's, and eventually a collision occurred.

The debris around Earth began to condense into clumps and quite rapidly, a blink in cosmic time, formed a large glowing ball: our primal Moon. The Moon would have looked about ten times larger than it does today, and the Earth was changed forever.

Earth's gravity has caused the Moon to become tidally locked us as well as increasing the distance between the two worlds.

But gravity lessens with distance and this means that the pull from the Moon is stronger on the side of Earth that is facing the Moon.

Tags: stars, earth, moon, gravity, galaxy, prehistory, solar, water, science, maps