July 15, 2015 / consort3

Ancient civilisations mystery

I recently did a tour of the Scottish Islands and was struck by the henges erected 5000 years ago. A cult swept through Britain at the time. The climate was more favourable in the North then. But how did they transport themselves between the Islands and the mainland? The guide suggested animal skin boats similar to todays Coracles and Currachs:

http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue34/2/3-3.html

I remember Tim Severin’s re-creation of St Brendans voyage in a Currach

http://www.leathersmithe.com/the-brendan-voyage-select.html

The neolithic people were smarter than we give them credit for. A recently discovered example are the stone age man made islands in Scottish lochs.

In medieval times they used a boat called the Birlinn:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birlinn

Civilisation is older than you think

http://www.newsweek.com/turkey-archeological-dig-reshaping-human-history-75101

https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/gobekli-tepe-mystery-new-chapter-in-history-robert-adam-schneiker/

🆕https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/does-an-unknown-extraordinarily-ancient-civilisation-lie-buried-under-eastern-turkey-

Interesting documentary on this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDXTmCwAETM

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150722144709.htm

http://www.nature.com/news/ancient-civilization-cracking-the-indus-script-1.18587

Drought affected the Indus civilisation

http://www.nature.com/news/two-hundred-year-drought-doomed-indus-valley-civilization-1.14800

The Indus civilisation is older than first thought

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indus-era-8000-years-old-not-5500-ended-because-of-weaker-monsoon/articleshow/52485332.cms

Lost wax casting process is 6000 years old

http://www.popsci.com/bright-lights-illuminate-how-6000-year-old-artifact-was-made

Deciphering the Indus valley script

http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/25/14371450/indus-valley-civilization-ancient-seals-symbols-language-algorithms-ai

https://restofworld.org/2022/indus-translation-ai-code-script/

🆕Time in the Indus civilisation

https://medium.com/@wordcraftsolutions/what-is-so-right-about-the-hindu-calendar-708c85033b19

Debunking the Ancient aliens stuff

https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-asia/mohenjo-daro-massacre-00819

More on the Phoenicians

https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-famous-people/phoenicians-0012120

Development of the Greek Trireme ship

http://www.hellenicaworld.com/Greece/Technology/en/Trireme.htmly

Egyptian Baris boat described by Herodotus

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/03/shipwreck-on-nile-vindicates-greek-historians-account-after-2500-years/

What the Aztecs can teach us

https://aeon.co/ideas/what-the-aztecs-can-teach-us-about-happiness-and-the-good-life

Medieval Shangri-la or Utopia

http://www.thegoldendream.com/landofcokaygne.htm

Interesting Myceanean find at Pylos

pylos

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/golden-warrior-greek-tomb-exposes-roots-western-civilization-180961441/?no-ist

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-team-rare-minoan-sealstone-treasure-laden.html

They are finally flooding Hasankeyf which has been home to 9 civilisations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasankeyf

https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-05-22/11000-year-old-turkish-town-about-be-submerged-forever

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/sep/12/they-are-barbaric-turkey-prepares-to-flood-12000-year-old-city-to-build-dam

Earliest evidence of wine production:

https://phys.org/news/2017-11-earliest-evidence-winemaking-team-year-old.html

Hanging gardens of Nineveh, I wonder how they powered the Archimedes screw.

HangingGardens

The economic collapse in the Bronze age

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42864071

Did the Scottish tobacco trade cause the American war of Independence?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_Lords

Neolithic people did sophisticated carpentry

https://www.archaeology.org/issues/152-1411/features/2591-germany-recreating-neolithic-toolkit

Bread is 14,400 years old!

https://consumer.healthday.com/general-health-information-16/evolution-anthropology-972/ancient-bread-remnants-predate-early-agriculture-735821.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/07/24/631583427/14-000-year-old-piece-of-bread-rewrites-the-history-of-baking-and-farming?t=1540884605788

🆕Massive Mayan Megapolis:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=39PGjDU_feI

🆕Incredible Inca civilisation:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23931972-600-we-thought-the-incas-couldnt-write-these-knots-change-everything

🆕List of civilizations and how long they lasted courtesy Luke Kemp. If your favourite civilisation is missing please let me know.

Civilisation

The six pristine civilisations are Mesopotamia, Egypt, Mesoamerican, Norte Chico, China and the Indus valley

🆕The fate of empires

https://www.chestergrant.com/summary-fate-of-empires-by-sir-john-glubb

🆕New theory about the mysterious Voynich manuscript:

https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003808 (Click on PDF)

The experts are pooh-poohing this but there might be something in it. I first got interested with Bax work :

https://stephenbax.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Voynich-a-provisional-partial-decoding-BAX.pdf

Good background on the manuscript and the myriad efforts to interpret it:

http://www.voynich.nu/index.html

https://undark.org/2020/02/12/decoding-bizarre-voynich-manuscript/

Watching an old Timeteam episode about a Viking hoard “codename Ainsbrook” recently and I was struck by the puzzle of the site. It turns out it was a Viking Winter camp at Aldwark, hence the lack of identifiable features.

Where did writing begin?

https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin

I wondered if Bronze age Tin came from Cornwall, here is proof:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190913120830.htm

🆕Bronze age Copper came from Wales

https://theconversation.com/bronze-age-discovery-reveals-surprising-extent-of-britains-trade-with-europe-3-600-years-ago-125973

🆕Ancient Egypt had a port on the Red sea

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/egypts-ancient-fleet-lost-for-thousands-of-years-discovered-in-a-desolate

🆕I am amazed by the sophisticated trading links 3800 yeas ago:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2018/05/11/meet-the-worst-businessman-of-the-18th-century

🆕Excellent videos on ancient civilisations

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLP6ASi_bxCSAaJQfZ92yBh-z0VDuijVTX

The worst year to be alive was 536 apparently:

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/11/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive

Stonehenge originated in the Welsh hills

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/original-stonehenge-a-dismantled-stone-circle-in-the-preseli-hills-of-west-wales/B7DAA4A7792B4DAB57DDE0E3136FBC33

At 525ft or 159metres Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world from 1311 to 1548 when the spire fell down in a storm. The spire was never replaced. Curiously Old St Pauls Cathedral in London which was built about the same time was the second tallest at 489ft or 149metres . It became the tallest until 1561 when its spire burnt down. Salisbury Cathedral also built at the same time is 404ft or 123metres. Chesterfield church with its crooked spire gave me a clue on who built these edifices:

http://www.historicalcarpentry.com/fl-che-torse—twisted-steeple.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compagnons_du_Devoir

Nice to see that Notre Dame Cathedral is being re-built using the traditional Oak beams. I would have used Plybox or horror of horrors Aluminium extrusions!

Ancient societies had more bread, beer and veg. than previously thought:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01681-w

Newtons Chronology of ancient Kingdoms published posthumously in 1728

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15784/15784-h/15784-h.htm

Sutton Hoo New photograph collection from 1939 by National Trust

http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/article/the-photographic-collection-of-mercie-lack-and-barbara-wagstaff-at-sutton-hoo

The earliest human settlement in South America

https://nautil.us/issue/87/risk/the-greatest-journey-of-all-time

Rosetta stone

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/29/how-the-rosetta-stone-yielded-up-its-secrets-edward-dolnick-the-writing-of-the-gods