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On 23 September 1999 NASA scientists lost the $100 million Mars Climate Orbiter because they instructed the craft in imperial (inches and feet) instead of metric (metres) measurements. It sent the probe, which was set up for metric data, off course and burning up in the Mars atmosphere. |
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Vikings: from ram-raiders to fishmongers
Reads: 44 |
Posted by Isis on Sunday, May 11, 2008 (CDT)
 Archaeologists and scientists have revealed that 1,000 years ago cod was traded extraordinary distances across Europe, from the Norwegian Arctic to England and the Baltic. The research may force yet another revision of the image of the Vikings, from longship ram-raiders, to mainly traders and colonising farmers, to the fishmongers of Europe. Vikings in York were eating cod caught off the Norwegian coast.
Scientists have perfected a technique of analysing cod bones which was originally developed to track modern fish stocks. It analyses collagen, which carries chemical traces of the water the fish originally swam in. Applied to bones from archaeological sites, it is beginning to show a picture of fish transported remarkable distances from AD950 on, when the quantity of bones shows a huge rise in consumption.
The team, led by archaeologists at Cambridge University, say that when fish were chopped up for processing, matching the results from fish bones and heads shows that in some cases they are separated by thousands of miles.
(Read More... Ancient History | Word Count: 291 | comments? | Score: 4) |
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Carpet of stone: medieval mosaic pavement revealed
Reads: 132 |
Posted by Isis on Saturday, May 10, 2008 (CDT)
 The wraps have come off one of Westminster Abbey's least known treasures, a medieval marble pavement foretelling the end of the world, while conservation experts consider how to preserve the ancient stones for the next 740 years. Few modern visitors have ever seen it, although since 1268 kings and princes, queens and cardinals have walked across a symbol laden mosaic as intricate as a piece of jewellery.
It is made up of rare marbles and gemstones, including some recycled from monuments 1,000 years older, and pieces of coloured glass, set in complex allegorical patterns into a framework of Purbeck marble cut as intricately as a jigsaw puzzle. "When this floor was new it would have blazed with colour," Vanessa Simeoni, the abbey's head of conservation said. "The materials were chosen for their brilliance and shine, and the quality of the craftsmanship is actually shocking, the ultimate that could be achieved."
The mosaics are known as Cosmati work, after the four generations of a Roman family of marble workers who perfected the technique. The Westminster one, regarded as the finest north of the Alps, uniquely has an inscription boasting of its makers - and a cryptic message about the end of the world.
(Read More... Ancient History | Word Count: 637 | comments? | Score: 4.5) |
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African Shipwreck Yields Rich Treasures
Reads: 139 |
Posted by Isis on Thursday, May 08, 2008 (CDT)
 The ship was laden with tons of copper ingots, elephant tusks, gold coins -- and cannons to fend off pirates. But it had nothing to protect it from the fierce weather off a particularly bleak stretch of inhospitable African coast, and it sank 500 years ago. Now it has been found, stumbled upon by De Beers geologists prospecting for diamonds off Namibia. "If you're mining on the coast, sooner or later you'll find a wreck," archaeologist Dieter Noli said in an interview Thursday.
Namdeb Diamond Corp., a joint venture of the government of Namibia and De Beers, first reported the April 1 find in a statement Wednesday, and planned a news conference in the Namibian capital next week. The company had cleared and drained a stretch of seabed, building an earthen wall to keep the water out so geologists could work. Noli said one of the geologists saw a few ingots, but had no idea what they were. Then the team found what looked like cannon barrels.
The geologists stopped the brutal earth-moving work of searching for diamonds and sent photos to Noli, who had done research in the Namibian desert since the mid-1980s and has advised De Beers since 1996 on the archaeological impact of its operations in Namibia. The find "was what I'd been waiting for, for 20 years," Noli said. "Understandably, I was pretty excited. I still am."
(Read More... Ancient History | Word Count: 1100 | comments? | Score: 0) |
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Scientists chip away at mystery of Stonehenge
Reads: 119 |
Posted by Isis on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 (CDT)
 The mysterious circle of stones that rises on Salisbury Plain near here has stood as a marvel for thousands of years, its origins and purpose shrouded in the mists of history. But a just-completed excavation of Stonehenge, the first within the ancient circle in more than 40 years, could provide some of the first reliable explanations for one of the greatest wonders of the prehistoric world.
A team of British archeologists hopes to prove its theory that nearly 4,000 years ago Stonehenge was regarded not as a place of sacrament for the dead, but as a temple with unique healing powers. The dig is investigating about 82 bluestones - a double circle of rocks, some weighing as much as 4 tons, that were brought in during the second stage of Stonehenge, which began about 2150 B.C. and account for the first stone construction at the site.
About 150 years later, these were rearranged and surrounded by the much larger sarsen stones that have become iconic of Stonehenge. Yet it is the bluestones, somehow hauled to the Salisbury Plain from the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, that researchers say hold the key to the mystery of Stonehenge. Although the researchers found to their dismay that the area they examined had been tampered with in Roman times, they still hope the excavations will help show that the bluestones were once viewed as therapeutic.
(Read More... Ancient History | Word Count: 1242 | comments? | Score: 0) |
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Knights Templar Tomb Discovered in France
Reads: 451 |
Posted by Isis on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 (CDT)
 A hidden tomb in the mountains of the Languedoc region of southwest France has the archaeological community buzzing, and Lakehead University's Paleo DNA Laboratory has played a role in creating that buzz. Lakehead University will be part of the panel at a media conference today in New York City to talk about the discovery.
The remote site holds a mummified corpse under a shroud which bears the distinct red cross of the Knights Templar. It lies on a rose-colored plinth, surrounded by wooden chests, some open and revealing a cache of gold chalices and coins. This unprecedented discovery - what appears to be an intact Knight's Templar burial - will be revealed in the documentary film Bloodline, which premieres in U.S. theatres in May 2008.
Bloodline Director Bruce Burgess explains there were rumours dating back to the end of the 13th Century Crusades which indicated the Templars had excavated beneath the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, and on returning to France, had hidden some priceless relics in the area south of Carcassonne. "The relics - possibly documents, and even the embalmed remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene - have all been speculation until now," Burgess says, and adds that "Thanks to this discovery, all that may soon change."
(Read More... Ancient History | Word Count: 619 | comments? | Score: 5) |
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