The Whale Hunters

The North-West corner of Washington State, was inhabited by a tribe where powerful men were whalers. These men belonged to the Makah tribe.

A wale hunt was a serious thing. Whales provided meat, oil, sinew, bones (used for making weapons), and much that a village would need. Before the gray whales even came, the whale hunters were ready. The men and their wives had done the rituals: "They and their wives have fasted, bathed in secret prayer ponds, flogged themselves with stinging nettles, and entered the mind of the whale." National Geographic, Voices, America Before Columbus

The canoes leave, many canoes paddling out to the whale feeding grounds. Wives of the harpooners stay absolutely still in their beds facing the shore, trying to encourage the whale to be still as well...and head for the shore. Harpoons made of yew are used to be pushed into the whale, to be precise the whale's shoulder. It is not meant to kill the whale, but is meant to slow it down, for on the harpoon there is a line with many buoys strung on to it. This combined with the wound will slow the whale down. At this point the men will begin to sing, trying to encourage the whale to swim to shore. Eventually the whale will slow down, which is the point when a man may kill it with a sharp thrust with a lance. Another man will then jump into the water and sews the whales mouth shut, preventing water from getting inside its stomach and causing it to sink. As the whale is towed to the shore, the men continue to sing.

From National Geographic, Voices:Indian Perspectives, A Makah Village in 1491: Ozette

Scotland's Lost Abbey

Archaeologists at Scone Castle believe they have found the remains of Scotland's lost abbey. To learn a bit more about this recent discovery, go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/tayside_and_central/7517392.stm

A Glimpse Into Rural Egypt

A very well preserved Egyptian settlement has been discovered near the Edfu temple, the most well preserved temple in Egypt. Many settlements that have been discovered do not get much attention due to the fact stone buildings and the royalty seem more interesting then a mud brick settlement. The reason so little is known about Egyptian settlements is because many no longer exist. Many were destroyed as farmers started quarrying for the time old Nile mud to use as fertilizer. Luckily this missed the main part of the settlement. This settlement gives us "a window" into the past of rural Egypt. We get to see a rare view of normal peoples "religious, commercial, and administrative lives". If you would like to learn more about this recent discovery, go to http://www.archaeologynews.org/story.asp?ID=303324&Title=Ancient%20Egypt%20Settlement%20Sheds%20Light%20on%20Everyday%20Life

Picture from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/photogalleries/Edfu-photos/photo2.html

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

There is some truth behind the most recent addition to the Indiana Jones' Movies. It was 16 years ago when a considerably heavy package was sent anonymously to the Smithsonian Institution. Inside the package was, "an eerie, milky-white crystal skull considerably larger than a human head." (quoted from http://www.archaeologyj.org/0805/etc/indy.html) The curator of the Hispanic-American collections asked a certain expert on Mexican archaeology, Jane MacLaren Walsh if she knew anything about the topic of interest. She told him all she knew about a crystal skull being displayed in the British Museum, and some other smaller skulls the Smithsonian had displayed before. Walsh also told him that it would most certainly be accepted into the anthropology collections if it turned out to be an authentic pre-Columbian Mesoamerican skull. Crystal skulls have gone through much scrutiny, but they also have invoked much use of the imagination, due to their "mysterious" nature. The origin of these interesting objects is usually put into the hands of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. But they do not present much of a similarity to what pre-Columbian Mesoamerican skulls looked like.

Eugene Boban, has much to do with the history of the crystal skulls. He was a French "Archaeologist", and had several crystal skulls in his collection. Some of the other things he had in his collection turned out to be fakes. Boban had sold a total of 3 skulls to Alphonse Pinart, a French explorer, ethnographer. Many of the first skulls had vertical holes going through them. These may have been actual beads but were then carved into skull shapes by modern people. In 1881, however, a new skull was put on display. This skull had no vertical hole and was life size. Even though he noted this skull as "one of a kind" it did not sell. After a affair with Boban trying to sell the skull to Mexico's national museum, he was exposed as a fraud. He then moved to New York and started to sell antiquities there. The skull was later sold there. Another skull was also recorded but now, neither of these objects are known to exist. More skulls appeared in 1934, one that almost had the exact proportions as a skull the British Museum had bought. It was slightly more detailed and had a separate mandible (apparently very special). The skull is now known as the Mitchell-Hedges Skull.

All skulls have been identified as Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec and maybe Mayan. But these cultures did not represent skulls this way. The first small skull like beads were probably fakes. The other larger skulls may be fakes as well. For all we know the truth of the crystal skulls may have gone to the grave with Eugene Boban.

Picture of the crystal skull is from http://www.archaeology.org/image.php?page=0805/etc/jpegs/indy1.jpg

Akkadian was the written language of the Akkadians. But it was not only the Akkadians that used the cuneiform style of writing, it was also used by the Sumerians. Sumerian is very totally different from Akkadian. Akkadian, for one thing was more successful then Sumerian (it died out). Eventually, though, Akkadian would be changed into the more commonly known Babylonian and Assyrian.
Akkadian is a inflectional language, meaning it has several roots that when combined with other sounds form meanings. One root can be combined with many different things to create several words of different meaning. For example, the three letter root "ktb" gives the idea of writing, but does not mean anything on its own. But inflections of this root create words like "kitāb" which means book.
Akkadian is written using phonograms. Symbols representing different phonetic values. These symbols are shown in the chart (from Ancient Scripts). But, because Akkadian has homophonous sounds, the symbols shown in the chart are not the only symbols that could be used to represent the sounds they represent. Akkadian is a very complex writing system, and is not to be sniffed at. There are about 200-400 symbols used, but there were actually 700-800 symbols. Scribes of the time wrote on wet clay using a stylus (sharpened stick), and they had many ways to write one word! Akkadian was one of the most successful scripts, and from it we can learn the history, customs, writing, and science of of the Middle East.

Stonehenge: It Makes You Think

Stonehenge is one of those places that never ceases to amaze you. Four thousand years ago, the people from the Neolithic times built Stonehenge high on what is now the Salisbury Plain which is in Wiltshire, England. From what now remains of Stonehenge we can think about what it was used for, but, sadly, there is not enough left of it to know for certain why it was constructed. All types of scientists have continued to give ideas on what Stonehenge was actually used for, but there is only one thing we know for sure: what Stonehenge looks like today.

Some people have suggested that Stonehenge was used as a way to tell when the seasons would change. On the summer solstice, you will be able to see the rising sun (usually you can't see it on other days), and it will appear to balance on one of the main stones in Stonehenge. This stone, the heel stone, lies in the Avenue, a wide laneway that reaches the northeast corner of of Stonehenge. As the sun rises it will slowly move up the rock, casting a shadow straight into the heart of the horseshoe created by 5 pairs of tall standing stones, the Sarsen Stone Trilithons (two upright stones with another stone slab lying across it). A couple days after this the sun will rise again but to the right of the stone. The same thing will happen at the winter solstice except in the opposite direction, but it certainly marks a change of season.

Another mystery about Stonehenge is the bluestones. These are apparently from the Presli Mountains, about 385 km away from the Stonehenge site. It would be quite a feat in those days to move those stones, which way about 4 tonnes, all the way from the mountains to where Stonehenge lies today. Some people think that these stones were rolled down to the edge of the river Avon (Bristol) then put on raft and carried to Stonehenge. Another theory suggests that the people of the time already had quite a bit of experience in moving large heavy objects, so it may not have been that hard to them to transport these stones. One other theory says that the bluestones may have been already in the vicinity of Stonehenge due to glaciation (glaciers move rocks with them as they advance, as the ice recedes the rocks are left behind).

Recently though, an archaeological dig may help to solve the mystery of the bluestones and of what Stonehenge was used for. The dig is uncovering some of the areas where the bluestones were originally in. Archaeologists think that the bluestones may have been transported there because the ancient people thought that the bluestones had healing powers. That would certainly explain why those people would take the trouble to transport those heavy rocks to Stonehenge!

Stonehenge is truly mysterious, and a source of thought for thinkers.

The Ancient Runes

The ancient world had many different forms of writing. Futhark or futhorc, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Aztec, cuneiform, Coptic, Arabic, Zapotec and Nagari are all different types of writing used by ancient peoples but the types of writing I mentioned are only a small part of all the writings in the world. At the moment I would like to focus on one form of writing, the futhark/futhorc also the runic alphabet.
The Futhark

The futhark/futhorc is usually thought of as a mystical writing. The futhark was used by Germanic groups while the futhorc was developed from the futhark by the Anglo-Saxons. These two runic forms of writing are very similar; one difference being that the futhark has 24 letters (symbols) while the futhorc has 33. The name futhark came from the first six letters of the futhark alphabet. The name futhorc also came from the first six letters of the futhorc runic

alphabet, which is shown in the diagram here.

The Futhorc

The earliest runic inscriptions that have survived to today are dated back to 200 CE, and were written on rock, wood as well as metal. As the years went by, the futhark changed to suit the language it was going to write for. This form of writing was quite successful but began to decline when the Latin alphabet became more popular.

I got my information from Tolkien and Runes and Ancient Scripts

The Ever Evolving Human Genome

In another article (from the Archaeology Magazine) about a conversation between the reporter, Zach Zorich and John Hawks (assistant professor from the University of Wisconsin), I found some interesting facts about human evolution. Apparently, the evolution of humans has not stopped, on the other hand it has been speeding up for...let me see...the past 50,000 years! If your teacher told you that humans had stopped evolving...well...sorry but they were wrong. In those 50,000 years, the human body, brain and teeth have become smaller. Not to mention other things as well. Actually when they counted all the mutations in those 50,000 years they found that there were about 3,000! Amazing.

It was also interesting to find out that our language gene (FOXP2) could be a relatively recent gene. This gene could have started in ancient Neanderthals and was then passed on to the modern human. If that is so, evolution has won again!! But this is only a prediction, the FOXP2 gene could also have been developed in modern humans and passed on the Neanderthals, or maybe we are all wrong and FOXP2 is a very old gene.

This study helps us grasp a problem that has been laid out before scientists--what actually explains race. When explaining race by talking about environments experienced in the past, makes more sense than explaining race using 19th century ideas (racial relationships) which don't make much sense from the evolutionary point of view. The idea that there are genetic differences because of environments experienced in the past and demographic growth makes the most sense.

(A Neanderthal Skull from http://www.d.umn.edu/~gbabiuk/AnthropologySociologyandPsychology.htm)

The Egyptian Queen's Eyes

Were Nefertiti's (one of the Queens of Akhenaten) eyes a symbol of royalty in Egypt? The Archaeology Magazine has an interesting article about this particular queen and her eyes. In the Valley of the Kings, a chamber was discovered and in this chamber quite a few ceramic jars and several wooden coffins were found. At first, people thought they might find some of the female queens like Nefertiti and Ankhesenamun, but these hopes were soon proved wrong when they found that all seven coffins were devoid of mummies. Most of these coffins were nearly totally destroyed by termites. Apparently the termites preferred the uncured wood of the main part of the coffin. Everything except the faces of all the coffins were almost totally destroyed, due to the faces being made separately with some sort of covering (like a thin plaster or gesso). Three of the faces which were yellow depicted Nefertiti's strange eye shape. Another of the coffins had an normal eye shape unlike the three with yellow faces. Nefertiti's famous bust also has this eye shape. One stela which shows Nefertiti, her two daughters and Akhenaten. This stela shows Nefertiti with her distinguishing eye shape and Akhenaten appears with a normal eye shape. Was this caused by a genetic syndrome? It very well could be. Tutankhamun, who could possibly be Nefertiti's son, is shown in a one of his depictions with the same eye shape. Another relief shows Nefertiti kissing one of her daughters. Her daughter is also depicted with the very same eye shape. Other people have been shown with this eye shape, but did not necessarily have it. To the people who saw Nefertiti, her eyes must have presented something more to her beauty. Adding more to her name, which means "the beautiful one has come".

Just a Beginning

This blog is just the beginning of my search of interesting archaeological discoveries, which come from various sources. I hope to learn more and get feedback about any of the ancient discoveries I have mentioned. The occasional stray post you may find that does not have much to do with archaeology, and hopefully those will be few. And here is the end of the beginning...but nowhere near close to the end of the end.

The Temple of Nike (From From Old Books)