Ancient World Review

New Collection Of Julian Jaynes Papers Released

"Princeton University psychologist Julian Jayne's revolutionary theory on the origin of consciousness or the 'modern mind' remains as relevant and thought-provoking as when it was first proposed. Supported by recent discoveries in neuroscience, Jaynes's ideas force us to rethink conventional views of human history and psychology, and have profound implications for many aspects of modern life." More on Jaynes here and here.

"Included in this volume are rare and never before seen articles, lectures, interviews, and in-depth discussions that both clear up misconceptions as well as extend Jaynes's theory into new areas such as the nature of the self, dreams, emotions, art, music, therapy, and the consequences and future of consciousness." More information can be found on the Julian Jaynes Society web site.

Students Find Iron Age Life Smoky And Cold

"Five students in the small Baltic state of Estonia, who have abandoned modern conveniences for a week in a replica wooden hut built on the site of an ancient hill fort, have discovered that Iron Age accommodation was mainly cold, dark and smoky." Source: Reuters.

Note: Experiments like this have been done in the past and for longer periods. For example, see this BBC documentary from the Seventies about a group who spent a year living in the Second Century B.C.

Divers Retrieve Prehistoric Wood From Lake Huron

"Under the cold clear waters of Lake Huron, University of Michigan researchers have found a five-and-a-half foot-long, pole-shaped piece of wood that is 8,900 years old," according to Science Daily. "The wood, which is tapered and beveled on one side in a way that looks deliberate, may provide important clues to a mysterious period in North American prehistory."

Earliest Known Modern Human Found in Europe

"A piece of jawbone excavated from a prehistoric cave in England is the earliest evidence for modern humans in Europe, according to an international team of scientists. The bone first was believed to be about 35,000 years old, but the new research study shows it to be significantly older -- between 41,000 and 44,000 years old, according to the findings that will be published in the journal Nature. The new dating of the bone is expected to help scientists pin down how quickly the modern humans spread across Europe during the last Ice Age. It also helps confirm the much-debated theory that early humans coexisted with Neanderthals." Source: Science Daily Nov. 2, 2011.

Archaeosoup Productions YouTube Page.

Stonehenge Rocks Origin Confirmed

"Experts say they have confirmed for the first time the precise origin of some of the rocks at Stonehenge," according to BBC News.

"It has long been suspected that rhyolites from the northern Preseli Hills helped build the monument.

"But research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 70m (230ft) of Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Pont Saeson." Note: Craig Rhos-y-felin is about 160 miles from Stonehenge.

"The museum's Dr Richard Bevins said the find would help experts work out how the stones were moved to Wiltshire."

Seabed Prehistory - United Kingdom

"Archaeologists have created a 3D visualisation of a whole prehistoric landscape [~6000 BC] now submerged 20 metres under the English Channel, and 8 miles off the West Sussex coast." Source: Wessex Archaeology.

Cave of Lascaux Imperiled By French Bureaucrats

Responding to the environmental degradation caused by tourism in the Cave of Lascaux, the "Sistene Chapel of Prehistoric Art," criminal idiot French bureaucrats made the problem worse, then tried to cover up the damage they had caused with their own incompetence.

"Lascaux-On-The-Nile" Discovered In Egypt

"A Canadian archeologist [Philip Smith] is being credited — nearly 50 years after the fact — with discovering a prehistoric petroglyph site in southern Egypt that is now being described as a 'Lascaux-on-the-Nile' because of its similarity in age and style to France's world-famous, cave-wall gallery of Stone Age cattle, deer and horses." Source: Vancouver Sun.

A method known as "optically stimulated luminescence" was used to date the artwork to between 15,000 and 19,000 years ago. "That places the Egyptian carvings in roughly the same timeframe as the famous cave paintings of animals at Lascaux and other Ice Age sites in Europe," according to the Sun.

Stories From The Stone Age Part 1/15

View the rest of this History Channel series.

Archaeologists Find Central Europe's Oldest Painting

"They may only be a series and red and brown spots, but they still constitute one of the most important works of art ever made in Central Europe. The spots were discovered on stones in a cave in southern Germany, and are the oldest known signs of painting ever found in the region." Source: Spiegel Online.

"Archeologists discovered the four stones in the Hohle Fels cave near the town of Schelklingen near the southern German city of Ulm. They are around 15,000 years old, according to Tübingen University archeologist Nicholas Conard, and are the first evidence that humans were already painting in Central Europe by the late Paleolithic Age."