Category: owenjarus - Part 11

Pottery Find on the Galapagos Islands Suggests Pre-Columbian Visitors

, of Australian National University, has said that ~~Andean~~ coastal South American Pottery, possibly Incan, has been discovered on the Galapagos Islands. The islands arenearly 1,000kilometers off the coast of South America, and its been widely believed, until now, that the first people to reach the Galapagos were European explorers in 1535.

Dr. Haberle, along with Professor Atholl Anderson, is leading a team of scientists who are looking for evidence that people voyaged on the Galapagos Islands before Europeans arrived in the 16th century. Theyve been re-analyzing all the pottery that has been discovered in the Galapagos Islands so far. Dr. Haberle said that only a small amount ofcoastal South Americanpottery has been found in this assemblage.

“Overwhelmingly the pottery we find is derived from the European period” says Haberle. However, recent finds may pre-date the European period, suggesting that South Americans may have visited the islands.

He said that, “we’re talking about only a very few pot sherds left (which) may be quite old but they need further analysis to actually confirm that.”

However, he qualifies that the findings are far from conclusive: “We have pottery that may be of some antiquity, but we cant actually put a firm date on it that would place it prior to the European phase.”

The pottery appearsto have been made in the time that theIncaexisted (16th century and earlier). “It’s kind of difficult, but it’s most likely to be during the Incan period,” he said. (Theyre) not decorated or anything, theyre plain sherds, not particularly diagnostic.

Dr. Haberlesays that it’s possible that this potterycould have been picked up in South America by European explorers and brought to the island by them. “We may find an old pot sherd in the Galapagos (but)it doesn’t mean it was brought out there in antiquity,” he said. “They could be 1,000 years old, but Europeans coming along 500 years ago, raiding these burial sites (inSouth America) -they can actually pick up some of these older pots anduse them as well.”

We need to do more work to actually confirm or deny.

He said that there is no sign that these pot sherds were made in the Galapagos themselves. “There doesn’t appear to have been any types that were actually made in the Galapagos Islands, that’s the other important point.” This means that these pottery sherds would have been imported from South America.

The team has also been analyzing the pollen record of the island in an effort to see if anyone was there before Europeans. So far the results have not yielded evidence that South Americans, or Polynesians, ventured out to the Galapagos islands before Europeans arrived.

It would have been a very rare event for a vessel for such a vessel to have gone out to the Galapagos

If the pottery does turn out to be from an ancient voyage it will bequite adiscovery. People in Peru did have vessels that (in theory) are capable of reaching the island as Thor Heyerdahl showed with his Kon Tiki voyage. However, it has not been proven that they travelled out this far.

The Kon Tiki was a raft that, in April 1947, Heyerdahl sailed from Callao Peru to Raroia Island in French Polynesia, a journey of 4,300 nautical miles. The raft was modelled on the typeused byPeruvians, just beforeEuropeans arrived. It was made up of nine balsa trunks tied together with hemp roaps. It also had a 15 by 18 foot sail.

Haberle said that the small amount of pottery, and the raft-based sailing technology of the Inca,would suggest that if these voyages occurred, they were infrequent. It would have been a very rare event for such a vessel to have gone out to the Galapagos, he said. “They certainly had large vessels that went up and down the coast of South America but they don’t seem to be suitable for long-distance ocean voyages.”

Thor Heyerdahl did conduct archaeological work on the Galapagos nearly 50 years ago. He claimed to have found South American pottery remains, but his work, along with his theory that Polynesia was settled by South Americans, has not been widely accepted.

Afghan Treasures exhibit opening in Ottawa, despite museum strike

Theyve faced bombs, the Taliban and civil war, and now Afghanistans ancient treasures have a new challenge a Canadian museum strike.

This Friday, the exhibit, Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, will be making its next stop in Ottawa Canada.

As Heritage Keys Helen Atkinson writes, it features treasures from Afghanistans history that have survived the turmoil the country has faced for the past three decades.

In Ottawa the Canadian Museum of Civilization, where it will be displayed, has been experiencing a strike by more than 400 of its workers, including guides and educational staff. They walked off the job September 21. The curators of the museum are part of a different bargaining unit and are not on strike.

Wages and the contracting out of jobs have been the two key issues. There was an attempt to re-start negotiationstwo weeks ago, but talks fell apart within a day.

So what does this mean for those hoping to visit the Afghanistan exhibit when it opens?

In short picket lines. Picketers have been delaying entrance into the museum, so expect to spend a bit of time waiting in the chilly Ottawa weather.

I talked to Chantal Schryer, the museums Vice-President for Public Affairs. She says visitors can expect short delays while they wait to cross the lines. A union official speaking on background confirmed that picketers have been delaying entrance to the museum.

Schryer emphasized that the exhibit is opening as planned. Most of the installation work was done before the strike began. Also, the people doing much of the work are a group of Afghanistan curators from the museum in Kabul. Theyve been following the exhibit, setting it up where it goes.

Visitors will also experience other shortcomings obviously tours of the museum will be affected and lines may be longer for ticket sales.

But the biggest consideration will be deciding whether to cross a picket line to go and see it.

What artefact will people stand in a kilometre long line-up to go and see?

At the corner of Bloor and Queens Park a security guard uses a blow-horn to yell out a warning the line-up to see the Ten Commandments is very long and theres no guarantee you will get to see it.

For those who dont have a membership at the Royal Ontario Museum, but want to see the commandments anyways, the line starts here, at this Toronto street intersection. Despite asizable lobby the museum simply isnt big enough to contain the people who want to buy a ticket this Saturday afternoon (Oct. 17).

I get to skip this particular line since I have a membership.

Once inside the lobby, the line assumes a snake shape, as people get close to the ticket counter. The museum is trying to keep the children from getting bored. Aperson dressed up as a green dinosaur plodstheir way over to entertain the children. The dinosaur has a museum staff identification badgearound its neck.

But, just when you thought youve gone through the worst of it, another line starts on the third floor. It starts in the Egyptian gallery, in the Middle Kingdom section working its way to the Predynastic section it than circles around the Book of the Dead exhibit. Museum staff members along the wayyell outthat an image of the scroll will be put online on Monday – along with a translation. (Note- Heritage Key has had it up for more than a week)

If youre still game for seeing the commandments after this (and everyone, that I can see,is),you have quite awaymoreto go.

The adults were dead silent as if they were at a religious service preparing themselves for an experience.

You would be surprised how calm people are through this. While I was waiting the adults were dead silent as if they were at a religious service preparing themselves for an experience. Scarcely a word comes from any of them despite the super-long wait. The children didn’t share their patience and periodically zipped away from the line to get a closer look at a mummy or one of the other Egyptian artefacts along our path.

Eventuallythe moment comes its hard to see the scroll because 20-30 people at a time are crowded around the display case. Its a tiny scroll no more than 30 cm wide that contains the second oldest copy of the commandments we have today. Ironically it was probably used for study or prayer, rather than as a canonical version of Deuteronomy.

A Toronto Policeman stands to the right of it at all times. Its very dark only a dim light fixture in the shape of a candle is above the displaycase. Photography is strictly forbidden when a man tries to take a picture using a camera the policemen tells him to put it away.

Again the crowd is dead silent. A staff member nearby is the only voice being heard telling people to take it in but not to take too long. I take about 30 seconds to look at it, I have to put my face near the glass to see any of the text and even then its pretty blurry. (The picture the ROM released to Heritage Key shows it better)

And then its over, I have to move on.

Iestimate that thosewho dont have a membership have to wait in nearly a kilometreof linedup people all to get a brief glimpse of this sacred scroll.

The Egyptian Pharoah Who Helped Win a Nobel Prize

Senwosret III probably isnt the first person you think of when it comes to the Nobel Prize, but this ancient Egyptian Pharoah was making a significant contribution to future archaeology long before Barack Obama stole the show by scooping this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

The Egyptian pharaoh, who lived ca. 1870-1831 BC, launched several military campaigns into Nubia. As Egyptologist Gae Callender writes in The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt these were brutal conquests. Nubian men were killed, their women and children enslaved, their fields burnt, and their wells poisoned.

Not something Alfred Nobel would condone.

Nevertheless, in an indirect way, the pharaoh helped garner a 20th century chemist, Dr. Willard Libby, a Nobel Prize. How is this so?

It all started with research that was going on the 1940s and 1950s. Libby was researching Carbon-14 and whether it might be useful to date ancient objects. This isotope is found in organic matter and decays at a set rate, with a half life of about 5,730 years.

Today its used all over the world to date archaeological remains and has become something we tend to take for granted.

But, in the 1940s, this was revolutionary new technology. Archaeologists lacked a method to precisely date archaeological andbotanicalremains and Libbys method would go on to change all that.

There was just one problem – Libby needed to prove that his technology could reliably date objects of an ancient date.
Enter Senwosret III, the Nubia conquering Egyptian Pharaoh. When he died,his people builta funerary boat to aid his passage into the afterlife. In the 1940s remains of it were being kept in the Chicago Natural History Museum (now the Field Museum).Archaeologists had a pretty good idea, from historical records, of whenSenwosret IIIdied (ca. 1830 BC). Wood is also an organic matter, which means Carbon-14 dating works on it.

The extremely delicate measurements of the carbon-14 isotope which you have inaugurated in your ingenious method serve not only natural science but to a very great extent archaeology and the study of the history of mankind in its early ages.

Libby recognized that this artefact would be excellent for testing. He used his upstart Carbon-14 method to date Senwosret IIIs boat.

The results came back showing that the boat dated to 1,700 BC, plus or minus 400 years. Not bad for one of the first tests! He testedseveral other artefacts to prove that this wasn’t a fluke.

In the years to come it would be found that these dates need to be calibrated to take into account the changing level of Carbon-14 in the atmosphere. Tree rings would become a popular method with which to do it.

But, with some help from a pharaoh, Libby had proven his point. Carbon-14 was a viable dating method. In 1960 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his discovery.

At the Nobel Prize ceremony the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Astronomy, Dr. Bertil Lindblad, said:

What’s the Size of a Thumbnail and the Biggest Obstacle to Ancient Great Lakes Archaeology?

For the last 12,000 years people have clustered near the Great Lakes, using them for drinking, food, sanitation and transportation, and the area is ripe for archaeological exploration. The shorelines of these lakes have have shrunk and expanded as the climate changed, which means that many ancient sites are now underwater. With advances in underwater archaeology now enabling more and more offshore excavations, this would not normally be a problem. However, in this case, it seems that archaeologists have turned up just a few decades too late. A recent massive invasion of zebra mussels is making progress extremely difficult.

During a period from roughly 10,000 to 7,500 years ago, the shoreline of Lake Huron was lower than today and a ridge called the Alpena-Amberley, whichconnectedMichigan and Ontario, stood above water. Computer models indicate that this ridge was a popular migration route for caribou and would have attracted hunters.

Last spring, University of Michigan archaeologist Dr. John O Shea and his team reported that they have found evidence of these hunterson the now submerged ridge.They found what appears to be a caribou drive lane – a simple structure with three small inukshuk rocks, spaced in a row, which would have been used to lure the caribou to walk in the same direction. (Caribou tend to follow features they see in the landscape).

They also found what appears to be a hunting blind – a pile of rocks used to hide from the animals, so that they do not see that you are hunting them until its too late.

Last Thursday, on the University of Toronto campus, John O Shea discussed thisresearch in detail. While much of what he said has been reported before here on HK, he illustrated a problem which is preventing them from taking their discovery to the next level Zebra Mussels.

If we had been doing this work in 1975 it would be like going to the museum, said OShea, but the thumbnail-sized invaders appeared on the Great Lakes in late 1980s and spread rapidly, and now cover much of the area they’re trying to excavate. The mussels are indigenous to the Caspian area of Asia.

If we had been doing this work in 1975 it would be like going to the museum

Aside from wrecking havoc with the ecosystem, these mussels, according to Dr. OShea, are making underwater archaeology very difficult. Whenever a submersible gets a close-up view of an archaeological feature (such as the hunting blind), the details (artefacts in particular) are blurred out by all the mussels.

Fixing the problem is even harder. While it may be possible to blast the mussels away using an engine or some other device, it would have to be done in a way that doesnt harm any artefacts. At present the best option seems to be to usedivers to go down, pick up artefacts by hand, and dust the mussels off carefully. Its an expensive proposition, and, in the deeper levels of the ridge, not even possible since divers can only go so deep.

80 hour Ten Commandments display in Toronto starts this Saturday

Starting this Saturday, the second oldest copy of the Ten Commandments will go on display, at the Royal Ontario Museum, for 80 hours only. The exhibit will run from October 10 to October 18.

It runs concurrently with a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that is taking place at the museum.

The Israel Antiquities Authority has been very cautious about how much light it gets exposed to which is the reason why it is only going to be put on display for 80 hours.

Damage due to light is accumulative and it just gets worse and worse, said Dan Rahimi, an archaeologist and Vice-President of Gallery Development for the Royal Ontario Musuem.

The museum is going to be displaying it under lighting that is equivalent to the light of a candle. You will still be able to see the text since the light outside the display case will be turned down so that the scroll will appear bright.

This scroll isthe oldest of the Ten Commandment texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It dates to somewhere between 30 BC 1 BC. According to Rahimi there is only one other copy of the 10 commandments that is older. It was written on a papyrus and is only older by a matter of years.

The text of the scroll,that will be displayed at themuseum,is quite a bit different from the versions you will see in the modern day Old Testament. Take a look at the translation below (courtesy Royal Ontario Museum).

English Translation
Column III
DEUT . 5:12

Observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.

Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; you shall not do any work on it you, your son, your daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or your ass,

Column IV

or your cattle, the stranger in your settlements, so that your male and female slave may rest as you do. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt and the LORD your God freed you from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day to consecrate it.

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

EXOD. 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

DEUT . 5:16 Honour your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that you may long endure, and that you may fare well, in the land that the LORD your God is assigning to you.

17 You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

18 You shall not covet your neighbours wife. You shall not crave your neighbours house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbours.

Notice something unusual? The scroll has both the Exodus and Deuteronomy versions of the Ten Commandments intertwined.

Why it is written like this is a mystery.

Rahimi said that there has been some suggestion that this is not meant as a copy of the canonical text of Deuteronomy. He added that it may have been used for study or prayer.

Its not unheard of for the Dead Sea Scrolls to have this sort of deviation.

Dead Sea Scroll scholar Geza Vermes says in his book The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls, that thescrolls are remarkable in that the writing style and wording of the scrolls can vary from one copy of a scroll to another.

This is different than the medieval versions of the Hebrew bible, where the content became canonized and differences are frowned upon.

Ive been told that a photo of the scroll will not be released until the exhibit is underway, so unfortunately were going to have to wait a bit to see it on the internet.

Tip for Treasure Hunters: Jeselsohn Stone and Copper Scroll to be Revealed at Milwaukee Exhibition

The MilwaukeePublic Museum is going to be the site of a major Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition starting January 22, 2010.

The exhibition will feature the recently discovered Jeselsohn Stone, which only came to light recently.

The stone is estimated to be about 2,000 years old. It was acquired by a collector, David Jeselsohn, about 10 years ago. Where it was found is unknown, although Jordan has been suggested as a probable location.

Its partially legible and, as such, onlychunks of the inscription can be made out. It appears to be written by someone named Gabriel (it has the words I Gabriel on it) and talks about the apocalypse (a common topic in religious texts of the time).

Part of the text reads (from a translation by Ada Yardeni):

[Thus] said YHWH, the Lord of Israel: Behold, all the nations are
14. against(?)\to(?) Jerusalem and ,
15. [o]ne, two, three, fourty(?) prophets(?) and the returners(?),
16. [and] the Hasidin(?). My servant, David, asked from before Ephraim(?)
17. [to?] put the sign(?) I ask from you. Because He said, (namely,)
18. [Y]HWH of Hosts, the Lord of Israel:
19. sanctity(?)\sanctify(?) Israel! In three days you shall know, that(?)\for(?) He said,
20. (namely,) YHWH the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Israel: The evil broke (down)
21. before justice. Ask me and I will tell you what this bad plant is

For copyright reasons I cannot post the full translation here, although one did appear online at Biblical Archaeology Review.

The document came to light abouta year ago whenscholar Ada Yardeni, of Hebrew University, wrote about it. In Biblical Archaeology Review he said that, If it were written on leather (and smaller) I would say it was another Dead Sea Scroll fragmentbut it isnt. It is written on gray-coloured stone!

Another treat coming to Milwaukee is a fragment of the copper scroll.This scroll wasfound in cave 3 at Qumran and is made out of copper. Its a controversial and odd scroll. Rather than dwelling on religious matters it talks about the location of hidden treasure.

Part of it reads (from theWest Semitic Research Project)

In the fortress which is in the Vale of Achor, forty cubits under the steps entering to the east: a money chest and it contents,of a weight of seventeen talents.

No one has ever found the treasures it talks about and its a matter of debate whether they existed or not.

Other scrolls are going to be featured as well, although the exact fragments have not been announced.

Also being featured is a 23 foot reproduction of the Isaiah scroll andpapyri from Egypt that have Greek translations of the New Testament. The exhibit will also feature several hand-copied medieval bibles, including the oldest version of the Greek Masoretic text.

Is there an Assyrian royal inscription waiting to be deciphered at Tayinat?

There is some interesting news coming from Tayinat that Heritage Key will be reporting on soon as part of a larger article.

Tayinat is the site in southeast Turkey that has been making media headlines for the discovery of a tablet cache. It wasfound in atemple that was reported, in many outlets, to have stood during the Dark Ages.

I sat down with Professor Timothy Harrison, the project leader, to learn about what they found.

News on the tablet discovery

First bit of news, an update on the tablet cache discovered this summer.

In 738 BC Tiglath Pilesar III destroyed Tayinat and the site would later be rebuilt as a provincial capital for the Assyrians. The tablets date to this time of Assyrian occupation.

Right now (as per Turkish archaeological policy) the tablets are in storage in a museum. Conservation work will likely be continuing during the winter and, hopefully, somefulltranslations will appear in the spring.

At this point the team has only a general idea as to what the tablets say. One of the tablets reads like a spreadsheet according to Professor Harrison and listscommodities such as wheat and emmer, along with numbers that represent months of the year.

The format of the document indicates that its clearly either a literary or historical document it may well prove to be something like a royal inscription

One of the tablets however, appears to be something else, its 45 cm by 35 cm in size and the format suggests that its no ancient commodity list.

The format of the document indicates that its clearly either a literary or historical document it may well prove to be something like a royal inscription, Professor Harrison told me.

I’ve requested photographs of the front of the tablets, however the Tayinat project will not be releasing them right now. They want the epigraphers to have a shot at translating them first, before they are disseminated over the internet.

News on the Dark Age temple

Second bit of news – the Dark Age temple, reported widely in the media, doesnt date to that time. I talked to Professor Harrisonfor a half-hour interview, and followed it up with an email exchange just to make sure.

The earliest architecture, from the temple, dates to the 9th and 8th centuries the time-frame after the Dark Ages. The team has a lot of excavating to do in the years to come, and they might find a Dark Age temple layer yet, but they dont know for sure that they will.

“Our excavations in the temple have not yet reached Early Iron Age levels (ie the ‘Dark Age’ period). I anticipate that they will, but in archaeology you never know what you might, or might not, find,”Harrison wrote in an email.

How this erroneous information got into the media is complicated. First of all, there was a release from the University of Toronto in the spring, which said the temple dates from the 10th/9th centuries.

In fact the team cannot say that the temple existed in the 10th century, at least not yet. Professor Harrison hastried to clarify the dating in media interviews.

Second thing is that there seems to be misconception, in some of the reporting, as to how long the Dark Ages last. The Dark Age period starts in 1200 BC and goes until 900 BC. The 9th/8th centuries are not the Dark Ages.

Be sure to check out our in-depth articlewhich will explain, in detail, what does date to the Dark Age at Tayinat. I assure you, there will be lots of interesting stuff.

Why do Canadians Want to Learn Latin?

Canada probably isnt the first place you think of when it comes to Latin. The countrys rather chilly climate doesnt exactly inspire images of the Mediterranean. By the time the language arrived in the country, in the 16th century, Latin was a long dead language. There is no evidence that any ancient Roman ever set foot in this land.

Nevertheless, according to this article written by the Globe and Mails Ingrid Peritz, Latin is becoming an increasingly popular subject in the countrys post-secondary institutions.

Peritz’s article reports that, in general, enrolment in Latin classes has been rising in recent years. The University of Montreal actually had to turn away students to its introductory class last year. York University, in Toronto, has been expanding its Latin program and recently started up a studying optionthatallows itsgraduates to teach the language in high schools.

Its a bit of a mystery why this trend exists.

Peritz mentions Hollywood as being a major influence on this trend – with the popularity of HBOs Rome and success of films such as Gladiator.

Still, there are very few jobs that require Latin language skills. Many public high schools in Ontario take a pass on teaching the language. In some provinces, like Quebec, it doesnt even exist on the provincial curriculum, which means that no public school could teach it, even if they wanted to.

Some private schools do teach it and there are a few jobs in academia and at museums. But other than that, there are not a lot of opportunities to earn money from this skill.

We both got tied down in Iraq

We havent had any major blockbuster Roman exhibitions (on a par with, for example, the Dead Sea Scrolls) recently.

My own personal suggestion is that the revival of the language has something to do with current events. Our society is similar to Rome in so many ways in governance, in literature, in military organization, in entertainment (ultimate fightingand gladiator battles). We both got tied down in Iraq.

In fact in recession wracked, post-9/11, North America, its become intellectually in vogue to consider whether our society is doomed to go the way of the Romans (even the BBC got in on the act a few years ago). Perhaps in studying Latin, and getting a better understanding of the Roman world, Canadian undergrads are hoping to get a new take on our own.

How to Unroll a Papyrus – Video Release From the ROM

Unrolling a papyrus (without destroying it) is an expensive and complicated process. How do you do it without causing the whole thing to crumble into unintelligable flakes? Well, last year the Royal Ontario Museum unrolled a Book of the Dead that had long been in their collection, which dated back to ca. 320 BC, the early Ptolemaic period. And they also made a cool video about how it was done.

A group at the ROM called, Friends of Egypt, financed the project. A language expert and specialized conservators were brought in. The book was mounted, and, at the beginning of this year, put on public display.

The book was purchased by the museums founder Charles Trick Currelly about 100 years back. Its from the Luxor (Thebes) area and was buried with a man named Amenemhat.

One fragment of the book was put on display at the museum. But over the past 100 years the museum forgot that this was part of a larger papyrus that was in storage. It wasnt until 2006 when Book of the Dead expert, Dr. Irmtraut Munro, of the University of Bonn, visited the museum and made the connection.

The fully unravelled papyrus is about six meters long and its one of the best preserved books, from its time-period, that we have. This youtube video, posted by the ROM a year ago, shows Assistant Curator Roberta Shaw discussing the papyrus and how the unrolling process worked.

The Book of the Dead exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will continue running until the 18th October, so there is still time to learn see some of these remarkable ancient texts yourself.