Genetics: Phoenicians leave their mark on the world ...again

Darkfrog submitted, created time 3 weeks 1 day (www.nytimes.com)

If you look for "Phoenicia" on a map, you won't find it. The people, culture and language were dead when the Romans were still Roming all over the place. (As a matter of fact, these two events were directly related; darn legionnaires!) Still, you're heard of the Phoenicians before. Maybe you don't remember precisely when, but it's something that reminds you of stone and Greece and a sea that is for some reason wine-dark.

It could be because Phoenicia had a huge trading empire and a huge influence on the ancient Mediterranean

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: ancient DNA DNA archaeology history science and history populations demographics migrations diaspora

The Iceman's mysterious genetic past

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 1 day (www.sciencenews.org)

A 5,000-year-old mummy displays a genetic signature no longer found in Europe, according to its complete mitochondrial DNA sequence.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: prehistory science and history history mitochondrial DNA human evolutionary biology mummy mummies early humans human evolutionary biology archaeology genetic

Ancient tsunami uncovered

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 weeks 2 days (www.nature.com)

Geologists have found evidence for the most recent predecessor of the Indian Ocean mega-tsunami thought to have killed more than 220,000 people in 2004

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Women's dental health takes a hit with the move from hunting and gathering to agriculture

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 21 hours (sciencenow.sciencemag.org)

There is an old wives' tale saying that women lose one tooth for every child they have. While this is not precisely true, pregnancy does take a toll on a woman's teeth. On one hand, they tend to crave sweeter, calorie-rich foods. On another hormonal changes affect a woman's saliva, diminishing its ability to protect her teeth.

For years, archaeologists and anthropologists have known that dental health among women takes a dive when a society shifts from hunting and gathering to early agriculture

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: agriculture pregnancy dentistry dental health hunter-gatherers culture womens health anthropology archaeology

Harvard celebrates the goofy side of science

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 month 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

The Ig Nobel prizes were given out last Thursday. Winners included the team that showed that a stripper's ovulatory cycle affected her tips (economics) and some folks who taught slime molds to solve mazes (cognitive). The archaeology prize went to a team who documented armadillos messing up their dig site. As to whether they found a way to keep the little dudes out ...not mentioned.

The evening culminated with "Win a date with Benoît Mandelbrot."

4 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: mathematics animal behavior slime molds human behavior science and culture prizes economics archaeology cognitive science science and economics Nobel Prize

Ancient bones could yield TB clue

sea-maid submitted, created time 4 months 6 days (news.bbc.co.uk)

Researchers are using human remains from the ancient city of Jericho to study the evolution of tuberculosis. So far, the team out of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has found evidence of TB on several sets of 6000+ year-old bones that were collected during the thirties, forties, and fifties. They are also looking for leprosy, leishmania and malaria.

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Archaeological discovery elucidates misconceptions about domestication

Darkfrog submitted, created time 7 months 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

A discovery of ten donkey skeletons at a dig in Abydos reveals that the Egyptians didn't always view asses as a bumbling, low-rent form of transportation. The donkeys' skeletons show clear signs of wear and tear from freight work, but their hooves and teeth seem to indicate that they were cared for scrupulously and their general bone structure is almost identical to that of the wild ass. More significantly, the position of the burial site -- diggers initially expected to find human officials killed to accompany their king into the afterlife -- suggests a great deal of reverence

7 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: economics science and history history archaeology mummies egyptology domestication agriculture domesticated animals donkeys asses human cultures religion

Pig study sheds new light on the colonisation of Europe by early farmers

kitty submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.eurekalert.org)

The earliest domesticated pigs in Europe, which many archaeologists believed to be descended from European wild boar, were actually introduced from the Middle East by Stone Age farmers, new research suggests.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: pig domesticate archaeology farmer