BHR-50
Brit-Am Historical Reports
15 September 2010 7 Tishrei 5771
Contents:
1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of
Explorator
13.20
2. When Germany tried to foment a Grand Jihad in Muslim lands
Lorenz of Arabia by DAVID PRYCE-JONES
A Review of "The Berlin-Baghdad Express" by Sean
McMeekin
3. Alleged New Human Species was simply Abnormal Child?
Researchers offer alternate theory for found skull's asymmetry
4. Early Christian Ireland and Egypt
Egyptian treasures unearthed in the land of peat
5. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of
Explorator
13.21
1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of
Explorator
13.20
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@gmail.com>
================================================================
AFRICA
================================================================
Ancient Nubian beer had antibiotic properties, apparently:
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/antibiotic-beer-nubia.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38990966/ns/technology_and_science-science/
http://www.news-medical.net/news/20100903/Study-finds-source-of-antibiotics-from-bone-analysis-of-Nubians.aspx
http://www.physorg.com/news202459514.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100902094246.htm
http://esciencecommons.blogspot.com/2010/08/ancient-brew-masters-tapped-drug.html
================================================================
ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
================================================================
Remains of a 12 000 y.b.p. funeral feast in a cave in northern Israel:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11153902
http://www.physorg.com/news202382957.html
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=117600&org=NSF&from=news
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/08/30/Signs-of-ancient-feasting-uncovered/UPI-11521283210017/
http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-31903.html
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-uconn-archaelogical-discovery-20100901,0,4117335.story?track=rss
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/193384
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-researchers-discover-evidence-of-feast-dating-back-12-000-years-1.311150
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/100830-first-feast-science-proceedings-israel-shaman-sorcerer-tortoise/
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/uoc-fce082510.php
http://www.pnas.org/content/107/35/15362
A 3000 y.b.p. Moabite temple find from Jordan:
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=40413
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38952079/ns/technology_and_science-science/
http://newskf.com/researchers-found-iron-age-temple-in-jordan/11265/
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20100902111728719C848777
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Jordan-unearths-3000-year-old-Iron-Age-temple/articleshow/6474816.cms
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5ifnA0hlXulN1E1oZw9Qk88tHnAgA
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11536537
http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=29730
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hu1_0YaM--kE9iLM-fEurUnWv4LQD9HVALM81
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/01/jordan-unearths-year-old-iron-age-temple/
Assorted publications about archaeology in the Levant from UCSD:
http://anthro.ucsd.edu/~tlevy/Archaeology_in_the_Levant/Publications.html
================================================================
ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
================================================================
Interesting Cupid cameo from the City of David excavations:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-archeologists-uncover-2-000-year-old-cupid-in-city-of-david-dig-1.311059
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186462
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/article630445.ece/Israel-finds-2000-year-old-Cupid
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949063,00.html
In case you're wondering about Atlantis ... or want to attract
squirrels:
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100902/local/another-attempt-to-locate-the-mythical-city-of-atlantis
Review of Steven Saylor, *Empire*:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/reviews/2010-09-05-empire-review_N.htm
Review of Robert O'Connell, *Ghosts of Cannae*:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/books/review/Feeney-t.html
================================================================
NORTH AMERICA
================================================================
Interesting evidence for 'shamanic surgery' from Canada's north:
http://www.archaeology.org/1009/etc/artifact.html
More evidence against a comet being to blame for megafauna demise:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/wuis-ihl082510.php
================================================================
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
================================================================
Rethinking the population of the Amazon region:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/03/AR2010090302302.html
Lima beans were domesticated twice:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100831222310.htm
More on Nazca lines and water:
http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-31134.html
================================================================
OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
================================================================
What we might learn from the medieval diet:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11161525
Evidence of 'globalization' some 4000 y.b.p.:
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/7122499.html
On dogs and humans:
http://www.archaeology.org/1009/dogs/
Interview about Newton and Mishna/Talmudic laws:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/2500
================================================================
TOURISTY THINGS
================================================================
Syria:
http://www.smh.com.au/travel/in-the-footsteps-of-ancients-20100830-1404r.html
================================================================
CRIME BEAT
================================================================
A major bust near Hod Hasharon:
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/antiquities-authority-raid-yields-2-000-year-old-stolen-artifacts-1.311834
They've recovered a stolen 'mere' stone belonging to a Maori
prophet:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10670837
================================================================
EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
================================================================
A History of the World (BM)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/
2. When Germany tried to foment a Grand
Jihad in Muslim
lands
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748703461504575444532238358048-lMyQjAxMTAwMDIwMjEyNDIyWj.html
Lorenz Of Arabia
By DAVID PRYCE-JONES
A Review of "The Berlin-Baghdad Express" by Sean
McMeekin
Extracts:
The Ottoman Empire took its time to die. Hovering around the death bed, the
Great Powers of the late 19th centuryRussia, France, Germany and Britainwere
eager to have a share of the spoils and fearful that others might pre-empt them.
None was so eager or so greedy as the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II.
A grandson of Queen Victoria, the kaiser nonetheless found the British a
"hateful, lying, conscienceless people of shopkeepers." He especially resented
that they were ruling India. In the course visiting Turkey and its Arab
provinces, he fantasized that he could build an empire out of these lands, a
German counter-weight to British India. This foolish and neurotic fellow has
much to answer for. Sean McMeekin, a professor at Bilkent University in Ankara,
Turkey, now produces a charge sheet, and it is detailed and instructive.
The first step in the kaiser's policy of expansion was to build a railway from
Germany to Constantinople, eventually terminating in Baghdad, with an extension
to the Persian Gulf. This great engineering feat, begun in 1903, was intended to
carry German merchandise on German rails, but its military purpose was clearto
establish German hegemony in Ottoman lands. But intervening mountain ranges in
eastern Turkey made for slow progress and prevented the railway's completion in
time to help fulfill the kaiser's ambitions before war broke out in August 1914.
The Berlin-Baghdad Express
By Sean McMeekin
(Belknap/Harvard, 461 pages, $29.95)
In Turkey itself, in the prewar years, revolution was in air, complicating the
Germans' calculations. The Young Turks, conspirators with an army background,
rebelled against the sultanate and pushed for constitutional reforms, forming
the government in 1908. Still, they were uncertain how to modernize and preserve
the empire. In the crisis of 1914 they were pressured into an alliance with
Germany, and this alliance brought about the collapse that they had hoped to
avoid.
For Germany, the Ottoman alliance was a help, but not enough in itself. Facing
Russia in the east and Britain and France in the west, Germany simply did not
have the manpower or the means to fight on multiple fronts. Complex strategies
of subversion were devised instead. They were to pay off in one notorious case,
when the Germans, in 1917, sent Lenin in a special train to launch the Bolshevik
Revolution and take Russia out of the war. The Germans encouraged Zionism, too,
in the belief that Germany could recruit the loyalty of persecuted Russian Jews.
The strategy of subversion that most interests Mr. McMeekin in "The
Berlin-Baghdad Express" was the kaiser's plan to foment rebellion among Muslims
living under British rule. Toward this end he pushed for a Grand Jihad, the aim
of which was to revive the figurehead of a Sultan Caliph, to whom all Muslims of
the world would show loyalty. If Muslims in Egypt and India could be persuaded
to rise and free themselves from their colonial masters, the kaiser believed,
the British Empire would lose its prize possessions and the British could not
win the war.
In charge of this Grand Jihad was Baron Max von Oppenheim, a rich dilettante, an
Arabist and an Anglophobe who knew how to excite the kaiser with the news that
all Muslims were looking to him for leadership. Urged by the Germans, Ottoman
sheiks, all of them Sunni, duly issued fatwas ordering Muslims to kill infidels.
Mr. McMeekin makes it plain that this gave Turks license for the mass murder of
Armenians and Greeks, the infidels and enemies within reach. The impact of the
fatwas was dissipated by the absurd fact that they had to exempt infidels who
were allies, namely Germans, Austrians and Hungarians.
Meanwhile, Oppenheim put out a mass of printed propaganda and sent German agents
fanning out to one Muslim ruler after another, urging each to pursue jihad. As
Mr. McMeekin shows, these agents had experience of the Muslim world; they were
usually linguists, explorers and scholars, at least as impressive and as hardy
as Lawrence of Arabia on the Allied side. To their dismay, though, Oppenheim's
agents discovered that the position of Sultan Caliph was of no more interest in
the broad Muslim world than the position of Holy Roman Emperor was in
Christendom.
What really mattered to the Muslims, as Mr. McMeekin puts it, "was superior
force in theatre, pure and simple." The Shia Grand Mufti of Karbala gave the
Germans a solitary success by signing up for jihad, but the emir of Afghanistan,
the shah of Persia and the religious dynasty of Sanussi in Libya were among
those waiting to see which side would ultimately win the war before committing
themselves. Of course, Muslim leaders were delighted to be propositioned by
German agents and in return for subsidies and armaments made the airiest
promises of support, exactly as they were doing with the British, playing one
side off against the other.
Sherif Hussein of Mecca, Mr. McMeekin notes, was the most skillful of all these
blackmailers. Head of the Hashemite family and engaged in tribal rivalry in
Arabia, he had made sure to send his sons to treat with Oppenheim while also
testing what the British might give him. The price he extracted from Britain was
kingdoms for himself and for two of his sons, and he was duly rewarded with them
when the war ended.
In addition to bringing to life a fascinating episode in early 20th-century
history, "The Berlin-Baghdad Express" contains several timely lessons and
cautionary tales. Purchased loyalty is worthless. Western countries may possess
superior military force, but they are outwitted time and again by diplomacy as
practiced by Muslim leaders. Lastly, there is no such thing as global Islamic
solidarityjihad is an expedient, not a belief system.
Mr. Pryce-Jones is the author of, among other books, "The Closed Circle: An
Interpretation of the Arabs."
3. Alleged New Human Species was simply Abnormal Child?
Researchers offer alternate theory for found skull's asymmetry
http://live.psu.edu/story/48238
Extracts:
"Virtually everyone is asymmetrical to a minor degree," he noted. Normal becomes
abnormal when that asymmetry exceeds about 1 percent. LB1 surpasses this cutoff
for developmental abnormality -- all eight measurements on either side of the
facial midline exceed 6 percent asymmetry, most by a large margin. The unusually
large differences between the two sides of the skull provided evidence of
disordered development, reinforcing their idea that the tiny brain of LB1
signaled not a new species, but a malformed human ancestor.
Eckhardt said that, aside from having a tiny brain, LB1 resembles the normal
people who still live on Flores in many features (such as jaws and teeth). But
that tiny brain of LB1 is inside an asymmetrical skull, which is powerful
independent evidence for abnormal development. He believes that many researchers
in the field of paleoanthropology tend to favor differences as evidence of a new
species rather than looking at characteristics as reflecting child development.
4. Early Christian Ireland and
Egypt
Egyptian treasures unearthed in the land of peat
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=119163
DUBLIN: Irish scientists have found fragments of Egyptian papyrus
in the leather cover of an ancient book of psalms that was unearthed from a peat
bog, Ireland’s National Museum said this week.
The papyrus in the lining of the 1,200-year-old manuscript’s Egyptian-style
leather cover “potentially represents the first tangible connection between
early Irish Christianity and the Middle Eastern Coptic Church,” Museum spokesmen
said.
“It is a finding that asks many questions and has confounded some of the
accepted theories about the history of early Christianity in Ireland.”
Raghnall O Floinn, head of collections at the Museum, said the manuscript, now
known as the “Faddan More Psalter,” was one of the top-10 archaeological
discoveries in Ireland. It was uncovered four years ago by a man using a
mechanical digger to harvest peat near Birr in County Tipperary, but analysis
has only just been completed.
O Floinn told the press that the illuminated vellum manuscript encased in the
leather binding dated from the eighth century but it was not known when or why
it ended up in the bog where it was preserved by the chemicals in the peat.
Historically used as an energy source, peat briquettes are most frequently used
nowadays in the production of certain Scotch whiskeys, when damp malt is dried
over a peat-heated fire, conveying the smell of peat smoke into the barley,
thence the tipple itself.
“It appears the manuscript’s leather binding came from Egypt. The question is
whether the papyrus came with the cover or if it was added,” O Floinn continued.
“It is possible that the imperfections in the hide may allow us to confirm the
leather is Egyptian. We are trying to track down if there somebody who can tell
us if this is possible. That is the next step.”
O Floinn said the psalter is about the size of a tabloid newspaper and 15
percent of the pages of the psalms, which are written in Latin, had survived.
The experts believe the manuscript was produced in an Irish monastery and it was
later put in the leather cover.
“The cover could have had several lives before it ended up basically as a folder
for the manuscript in the bog,” O Floinn said. “It could have travelled from a
library somewhere in Egypt to the Holy Land or to Constantinople or Rome and
then to Ireland.”
The National Museum in Dublin plans to put the psalter on public display for the
first time next year. AFP
5. Archaeology: Brit-Am Versionb of Explorator 13.21
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@gmail.com>
================================================================
EARLY HUMANS
================================================================
More on homo floresiensis' asymmetric skull:
http://live.psu.edu/story/48238
http://www.physorg.com/news202977515.html
================================================================
AFRICA
================================================================
More on Nubian antibiotic beer:
http://www.emorywheel.com/detail.php?n=28599
http://www.livescience.com/health/ancient-nubians-fermented-antibiotics-with-alcohol-100909.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1309540/Ancient-Nubians-took-antibiotics-beer-2-000-years-ago.html?ITO=1490
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/antibiotic-beer/
================================================================
ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
================================================================
Latest facial reconstruction thing is on a mummy at the Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art:
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=40693
http://www.kait8.com/global/story.asp?s=13131059 (no photo?)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/modern-science-reveals-secrets-of-2500-year-old-mummy-102626489.html
Controversy whether a 2000 years b.p. Parthian fortress in Iran was
destroyed for a mosalla:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2010/09/iran-ancient-monument-destruction-basiij-hamadan.html
More on that 3000 b.p. temple from Jordan:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=119161
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hu1_0YaM--kE9iLM-fEurUnWv4LQD9HVALM81
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38952079/ns/technology_and_science-science/
================================================================
ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
================================================================
Exceedingly brief item on a horse burial from Armenia, ca 2500 B.C.:
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/society/news/53034/
Somewhat differing comments on whether the Greeks mentioned
Halley's comet:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11255168
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20016110-501465.html
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/health/ancient-greeks-the-first-to-spot-halleys-comet_100426306.html
http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-38922.html
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/142110.html
cf:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727774.400-ancient-greeks-spotted-halleys-comet.html
http://journalofcosmology.com/AncientAstronomy106.html
Review of John Hale, *Lords of the Sea*:
http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/9/7/hale-athenian-themistocles-ships/
More on those restored cave paintings from Petra:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/08/photogalleries/100902-petra-wine-cult-cave-art-restored-world-science-pictures/
Latest reviews from BMCR:
http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/recent.html
Visit our blog:
http://rogueclassicism.com/
================================================================
EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
================================================================
Archaeologists have found what is being dubbed as the 'birth certificate' of
Scotland:
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/39Birth-certificate-of-Scotland39-unearthed.6521243.jp
http://www.newkerala.com/news2/fullnews-39163.html
... and they're looking for the remains of Bernard of Kilwinning:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/hunt-is-on-for-lost-remains-of-bishop-who-wrote-declaration-of-arbroath-1.1052952
Some medieval (or so) shipwrecks found between Rhodes and Turkey
are
shedding light on the transition to modern shipbuilding methods:
http://www.livescience.com/history/shipwrecks-mediterranean-historical-shipbuilding-100903.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39041413/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Egyptian papyrus from an Irish bog:
http://www.physorg.com/news202991457.html
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=41136
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=384454&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=4&article_id=119163
It's Scottish Archaeology Month:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/glasgowandwestscotland/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8956000/8956390.stm
Archaeology in Europe Blog:
http://archaeology-in-europe.blogspot.com/
================================================================
ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
================================================================
They're looking for the Czar's lost gold again:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,715373,00.html
New Zealand Archaeology eNews:
http://www.nzarchaeology.org/netsubnews.htm
================================================================
NORTH AMERICA
================================================================
Dog burials at William and Mary (forgot this one last week!):
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=2045561&nid=600
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/09/04/Colonial-era-dog-graves-found-in-Virginia/UPI-73901283638867/
Pondering Custer's last stand:
http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=13111078
cf:
http://www.tnr.com/book/review/last-stand-custer-little-bighorn-philbrick
The mounds in Indian Mound Park apparently are misnamed:
http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/09/08/indian-mound-is-only-a-name.html
================================================================
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
================================================================
This seems to be a followup to last week's suggestion of a heavily-populated
ancient Amazon region:
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/natures-incredible-cover-up-an-ancient-amazonian-civilization.html
cf:
http://www.statesman.com/news/world/amazon-was-home-to-large-civilization-archaeologists-say-899310.html
Yaxchilan's elite produced some interesting handicrafts:
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=40615
================================================================
OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
================================================================
Well, we have old beer, champagne ... and now cheese (with a somewhat
different backstory):
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2010/09/13/100913ta_talk_sullivan
A heptad of 'history's mysteries':
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38832309/ns/technology_and_science-science
Suggestion that the Lewis Chessmen were actually from Iceland (hmmmm):
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/arts/09lewis.html
Peter Stothard on 17th century writers:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/bookshow/stories/2010/3006897.htm
The Book of Aneirin is being transferred to the National Library of
Wales:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-11247799
================================================================
TOURISTY THINGS
================================================================
Cappadocia:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/turkey/7979918/Cappadocia-guide-Turkeys-kingdom-of-caves.html
Ein Gedi:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/travel/12Journeys.html
================================================================
EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
================================================================
On the reopening of the Israel Museum:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/08/arts/08iht-rartisrael.html
Feature on globetrotting via museums:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/arts/design/12cotter.html
A History of the World (BM)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/explorerflash/
================================================================
ON THE WEB
================================================================
Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations:
http://darmc.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do
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