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Neil MacGregor: 2600 years of history in one object

  

Category:  Anthropology & Archeology

Via:  kpr37  •  7 years ago  •  10 comments

Neil MacGregor: 2600 years of history in one object


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kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37    7 years ago

A clay cylinder covered in Akkadian cuneiform script, damaged and broken, the Cyrus Cylinder is a powerful symbol of religious tolerance and multi-culturalism. In this enthralling talk Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, traces 2600 years of Middle Eastern history through this single object.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   Bob Nelson    7 years ago

Very cool!

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Bob Nelson   7 years ago

Hi, Bob.How's it going? Yes, that is one of my favorite historical artifacts. 

I'm bringing over some of my favorite seeds, and articles from the vine.

 
 
 
Bob Nelson
Professor Guide
link   Bob Nelson  replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

The cylinder is cool in so many ways. It's a historical relic, a religious relic, a Rosetta relic, a mirror image of so many later events. Very cool!

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika     7 years ago

Good article, interesting and informative. 

Let me pose this question. Objects live longer than humans, thus giving us a history. Is it not true that humans do the same? When a bone or skeleton of a human is found it gives us a trail to follow, at the same time giving us information and history of that time period. 

I would say that human bones are as valuable as objects that have passed into history.

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

.. I would say that human bones are as valuable as objects that have

passed into history.

Yes we can learn many things from bones. Some of it confusing. Good thing I don't believe my "Bible" (LOL)

 

Genome sequencing performed on remains of early settlers in Ireland by researchers at Trinity University in Dublin and Queens University has revealed at least two waves of migration to the island in past millennia. Analysis of the remains of a 5,200 year-old Irish farmer suggested that the population of Ireland at that time was closely genetically related to the modern-day populations of southern Europe, especially Spain and Sardinia. Her ancestors, however, originally migrated from the Middle East, the cradle of agriculture.

Egypt?

Verse 16 and 17 the Lebor Gabala Erenn

§16 . Now Sru s. Esru s. Gaedel, he it is who was chieftain for the Gaedil who went out of Egypt after Pharao was drowned [with his host in the Red Sea of Israel]: Seven hundred and seventy years from the Flood till then. 

Four hundred and forty years from that time in which Pharao was drowned, and after Sru s. Esru came out of Egypt, till the time when the sons of Mil came into Ireland , to wit, Eber and Eremon: hereanent [one] said--

Forty and four hundred of years--it is no falsehood--
from when the people of God came, 
be ye certain over the surface of Mare Rubrum, 
till they landed in Scene from the clear sea, 
they, the Sons of Mil, in the land of Ireland. 

§17 . Four ships' companies strong went Sru out of Egypt. There were twenty-four wedded couples and three hirelings for every ship. Sruand his son Eber Scot, they were the chieftains of the expedition. [It is then that Nenual s. Baath s. Nenual s. Feinius Farsaid, prince of Scythia, died: and] Sru also died immediately after reaching Scythia.

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

Great info Kpr. 

I closely follow developments in north America concerning First Americans, migration, culture etc. 

The bones of a 1 year old boy in Montana made the connection between the Clovis people and modern Native Americans. ''Follow the bones'' so to speak.

The mysterious Clovis culture, which appeared in North America about 13,000 years ago, appears to be the forerunner of Native Americans throughout the Americas, according to  a study  in  Nature . Scientists have read the genetic sequence of a baby from a Clovis burial site in Montana to help fill out the story of the earliest Americans.

Until now, archaeologists have had to rely mainly on tools made of stone and bone, and other artifacts to tell the story of human migration about 15,000 years ago to the New World.

Now that story is bolstered with some dramatic, ancient DNA, extracted from the remains of a 1-year-old boy who died in what is now Montana more than 12,000 years ago.

That's the only human skeleton known from a brief but prolific culture in the Americas called Clovis.

Until recently, finding characteristic stone and bone tools was the only way to trace the fate of the Clovis people, whose culture appeared in North America about 13,000 years ago.

Sarah L. Anzick/Nature

"Clovis is what we like to refer to as an 'archaeological complex,' " says  Michael Waters , an archaeologist at Texas A&M University. That complex is defined by characteristic tools, he says.

The Clovis artifacts were common for about 400 years, starting about 13,000 years ago. But at this point, there is only one set of human remains associated with those sorts of tools: that of the baby from Montana.

"So this genetic study actually provides us with a look at who these people were," Waters says.

The most obvious conclusion from the study is that the Clovis people who lived on the  Anzick site  in Montana were genetically very much like Native Americans throughout the Western Hemisphere.

"The Anzick family is directly ancestral to so many peoples in the Americas," says  Eske Willerslev , from the University of Copenhagen. "That's astonishing!"

 

He led the effort to read that genome. The genes reveal that early Americans are the product of two lineages that most likely met and interbred in Asia before making the trek across the Bering land bridge.

This strongly suggests that there was a single migration of people into the Americas. And these people were probably the people who eventually gave rise to Clovis.

"So this strongly suggests that there was a single migration of people into the Americas," Waters says. "And these people were probably the people who eventually gave rise to Clovis."

The finding contradicts a long-shot hypothesis that Clovis' ancestors actually came from Europe, not Asia. But it leaves many other questions about Clovis unresolved.

The artifacts from this culture are found from Washington state to Florida and many places in between. But the culture also disappeared suddenly, around 12,600 years ago. Waters doesn't find all of that so mysterious.

"People change all the time and cultures change all the time and technologies change," Waters says. "And they change because people are adapting to new environments and changes in climate."

"And at the end of the Clovis time period, 12,600 years ago, when this child was buried, the climate was changing. It was the beginning of the  Younger Dryas cold snap . This is when you start seeing a lot of cultural differentiation taking place," Waters says.

The DNA evidence now makes clear that the people who used Clovis tools lived on, even though they left their old technology behind. But the Clovis genes give only a broad-brush view of how and when migrations through the Americas took place.

"We have no idea exactly where the U.S. fits in this pattern," Willerslev says. "And to be completely honest, we have no idea how they actually moved through time, these different groups throughout the continent. In order to answer that question there's only one way to go, and that is sequencing more genomes from ancient remains."

That will require, among other things, cooperation with native peoples.

In the case of the Clovis child, the archaeologists worked closely with modern tribes to make sure the scientists were treating the remains appropriately. The Clovis infant is to be reburied later this year, on the property where he was unearthed.

 
 
 
kpr37
Professor Silent
link   seeder  kpr37  replied to  Kavika   7 years ago

Hueyatlaco is the place I'm most interested in. Can not wait to see how it turns out. It could upset many theories and assumptions. Native Americans could have been here far longer than anyone thought!!!

 

Hueyatlaco is an archaeological site in the Valsequillo area south of Puebla in Mexico. The site was buried under the ash of the La Malinche volcano and was excavated in the 1960s by archaeologist Cynthia Irwin Williams and her team. What she found there was ground-breaking and ‘heretic’. She discovered that the site was inhabited by humans approximately 250,000 years BC . Just this on its own goes against Darwin’s theory and against mainstream archaeology which suggests that humans migrated to America from Asia at about 15,000 BC.

 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
link   Kavika   replied to  kpr37   7 years ago

A recent discovery in San Diego Ca. has lead to a paper that makes the claim that the site shows that humans were there 130,000 years ago. This of course has upset the cadre that believes in the theory of a 12/15 thousand year old occupation of what is now north America.

With advancements in DNA, ground penetrating radar etc etc. New worlds of discovery are becoming common place. Unknown civilizations in the South and Central America being some of the latest discoveries.

Here is the link to an article that you may find interesting. 

 

 

 
 
 
Enoch
Masters Quiet
link   Enoch    7 years ago

Dear Friend Kpr37:

Great article.

We look to the future to better understand the past.

With improved technology maybe more light will be shed.

"Min ha Avar, Ateednu Yiphtach".

"From the past our future derives".

Jewish Yemenite saying.

Peace and Abundant Blessings.

Enoch.

 
 

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