Almost 6,000 years ago, the man was placed behind the woman with his arms around her body, and their legs were intertwined. They were buried. Why they were interred in this manner is not yet determined, but the international team that discovered them in Greece is still searching for answers, according to team member Michael Galaty, a Mississippi State University archaeologist. “There’ve only been a couple of prehistoric examples of this behavior around the world, but even when couples are buried together, they’re beside each other and not typically touching,” he said. “This couple was actually spooning. We assume they were partners of some kind, and because of DNA analysis, we do know they are male and female.” Not only does Galaty head MSU’s anthropology and Middle Eastern cultures department, but he also serves as interim director of the university’s Cobb Institute of Archeology. Another question for the researchers to examine is how the couple died, which happened around 3800 B.C., Galaty said. While archaeologists are unsure whether the man or woman died first, they are sure the couple’s times of death are close together. “This is unique in Greece, and we’re analyzing the skeletons and bones to find out more about what was going on, how they died and why they may have been placed there,” he said.
Bodies found in a 200 year-old Hungarian crypt have revealed the secrets of how tuberculosis (TB) took hold in 18th century Europe, according to a research team led by the University of Warwick.
A new study published in Nature Communications details how samples taken from naturally mummified bodies found in an 18th century crypt in the Dominican church of Vác in Hungary have yielded 14 tuberculosis genomes, suggesting that mixed infections were common when TB was at peak prevalence in Europe.
The research team included collaborators from the Universities of Warwick and Birmingham, University College London, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest. Read more.
I just saw an article on leprosy and started going through my old paleopathology images. I’ll be flooding my feed with pathology pictures for old times sake! I’m sure there are many that are missing my old blog scurvy, rickets, syphilis, oh my!
Bones Tell Tale Of Desperation Among The Starving At Jamestown
““First they ate their horses, and then fed upon their dogs and cats, as well as rats, mice and snakes.”
So says James Horn of the historical group Colonial Williamsburg, paraphrasing an account by colony leader George Percy of what conditions were like for the hundreds of men and women stranded in Jamestown, Va., with little food in the dead of winter in 1609.
They even ate their shoes. And, apparently, at least one person.”
The most supported traditional hypothesis points out that the earliest well-established human culture in the North American continent were the Clovis, a population of hunters who arrived about 13,000 years before present from North-East Asia through the Bering Strait, and scattered over the continent.
A 2500 year old mummy that had some amazing tattoos.
The Pazyryk Ice Maiden always delights. This is probably the first big archaeological discovery I remember watching/reading about as it unfolded. That makes me feel old, but…in the long view of things, I suppose I’ve still got some time. She actually had blonde hair, and was aged about 25, and…is in no way genetically linked to the locals who are claiming she is their great-x-ancestor and that the Russkies have to give the body (bodies, actually, they’ve found more, plus the horses, I’m not sure how the Altai feel about the horses. Well, I know how they feel about the horses…) back because it’s ‘technically theirs’…even though it’s not, you know, related in any way, predates their culture by quite some time…kinda like how Kennewick Man was tussled over until the courts finally, and sanely, ruled in favor of the US Army Corps of Engineers and their science-wonks…or Otsi the Ice Man…he should totally be returned to the fucking Alps because he’s like, spiritually, a descendent of the like Alpine people (well, sorta, but considering all the migrations and population shuffling…eh)…
Absolutely beautiful.
The Siberian Ice Maiden, also known as the Princess of Ukok, the Altai Princess, and Ochy-bala, is a mummy of a woman from the 5th c. BCE, found in 1993 in a kurgan of the Pazyryk culture in Republic of Altai, Russia.
Buried around her were six horses, saddled and bridled, her spiritual escorts to the next world, and a symbol of her evident status, though experts are divided on whether she was a royal or a revered folk tale narrator, a healer or a holy woman.
The Pazyryks also believed the tattoos would be helpful in another life, making it easy for the people of the same family and culture to find each other after death. The Siberian Times said, “the tattoos on the left shoulder of the ‘princess’ show a mythological animal - a deer with a griffon’s beak and a Capricorn’s antlers.“
Earlier I posted a story that had been circulating in the news circuit about Professor Church’s intentions to “create a Neanderthal baby, if I can find a willing woman.” But, cosmiccache brought to my attention that the quote, among others in the article, are false.
Woman NOT Wanted to make Neanderthal Clone Baby, Misquoted Harvard Prof George Church
Harvard University genetics professor George M. Church says media reports have fabricated quotes attributed to him.
The sensational quotes and reports claimed that Church was looking for a woman to serve as a surrogate to carry a Neanderthal baby. Church did give an interview to German publication Der Spiegel discussing, in part, the possibilities of cloning Neanderthals.
But, oddly, news outlets including the UK Telegraph published quotes that didn’t appear in the English-language version of the interview and attributed them to Der Spiegel. Church told iMediaEthics that this case of the media misrepresenting his words is a “litmus test as to which news providers check their sources.”
“If someone is keeping score, how many readers would change their media source?” Church asked.
For example,theUK Telegraph, Fox News and Australia’s News.com.au all published quotes that Church identified as “fabricated." The fake quotes are:
"I can create a Neanderthal baby, if I can find a willing woman.”
“I have already managed to attract enough DNA from fossil bones”.
“Neither of these is an actual quote, despite quotation marks and the word ‘I,’” Church told iMediaEthics by email. “I have never 'attracted’ nor 'extracted’ DNA from any fossil bones.”
Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby
They’re usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species. So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?
Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world’s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man’s long-extinct close relative back to life. Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago. His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer. He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA. He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human… It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.’ Professor Church’s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells. These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life. It is thought that the stem cells would steer the development of the hybrid embryo on Neanderthal lines, rather than human ones.
Wanted: ‘Adventurous woman’ to give birth to Neanderthal man - Harvard professor seeks mother for cloned cave baby
They’re usually thought of as a brutish, primitive species. So what woman would want to give birth to a Neanderthal baby?
Yet this incredible scenario is the plan of one of the world’s leading geneticists, who is seeking a volunteer to help bring man’s long-extinct close relative back to life. Professor George Church of Harvard Medical School believes he can reconstruct Neanderthal DNA and resurrect the species which became extinct 33,000 years ago. His scheme is reminiscent of Jurassic Park but, while in the film dinosaurs were created in a laboratory, Professor Church’s ambitious plan requires a human volunteer. He said his analysis of Neanderthal genetic code using samples from bones is complete enough to reconstruct their DNA. He said: ‘Now I need an adventurous female human… It depends on a hell of a lot of things, but I think it can be done.’ Professor Church’s plan would begin by artificially creating Neanderthal DNA based on genetic code found in fossil remains. He would put this DNA into stem cells. These would be injected into cells from a human embryo in the early stages of life. It is thought that the stem cells would steer the development of the hybrid embryo on Neanderthal lines, rather than human ones.
The highest Archaeological site on earth - Llullailaco volcano
At 6739m, Llulaillaco volcano is the highest archaeological site as well as the highest active volcano on earth. The peak’s name comes from Llulla (=dirty/muddy) and yacu(=water). In 1999 Archaeologist Johan Reinhard retrieved the mummified bodies of three Inca children, a 15 year old girl (Llulailaco maiden), a 7-year old boy (Llullailaco boy) and a 6 year old girl (Lightning girl since she was struck by lightning after her death) believed to have been sacrificed on the volcano 500 years prior. The volcano is located in one of the driest areas in the world, a NASA astrobiologist has even compared the conditions on the volcano to those on Mars. The mummies are considered to be the best preserved ever discovered.
The bodies of the children were buried in pit tombs 1.7 m deep and contained numerous grave goods as textiles, gold and silver statuettes, pottery and headdresses. It is apparent that the children did not die from natural causes. The boy was tightly bound in textiles suggesting he died from suffocation and in his stomach traces of the hallucinate achiote were found. The young girl had drunk chichi (maize beer) and ate coca leaves. This could imply that the children were drugged before being taken up the mountain against mountain sickness or for other more morbid reasons. Stable isotope and DNA research has revealed that the children were well-fed (or perhaps even fattened) before being led to the top of the volcano.
The Inca saw the mountains as the major deities, especially active volcanoes that spat fire and smoke and were high enough to attract lightning. In addition to tombs, stone shrines and altars were build on mountaintops. Numerous (Spanish Conquistador) sources speak of specially selected children that were sacrificed on top of mountain to satisfy the deities. Before the actual sacrifice, the children went trough a variety of rituals. So far the Andes displays over a 100 ritual Inca sites on mountain tops ranging between 5200-6700m. Of these fourteen sites contained human sacrifices discovered by Johan Reinhard..
Pictures and more information on the mummies can be found here.The mummies are currently on display at the Museum of High Altitude Archaeology in Salta, Argentina.
