Back!

[jeweledeyes]

Sorry for the lack of posts, I have been quite busy but I am trying to make more time to come on DW and stay abreast of archaeology news ♥ Here is some of what I've rounded up:

Deadly medication? Bonn scientists shed light on the dark secret of Queen Hatshepsut's flacon
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/uob-dm081911.php

Gene study sheds new light on origins of British men
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-08/uoe-gss082311.php

Earliest ever civil Roman basilica found outside Alexandria
http://english.ahram.org.eg/~/NewsContent/9/41/15847/Heritage/GrecoRoman/Earliest-ever-civil-Roman-basilica-found-outside-A.aspx

Rome archaeologists find Apollo mosaic
http://www.dawn.com/2011/07/30/rome-archaeologists-find-apollo-mosaic.html

Roman-era shipwreck reveals ancient medical secrets
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8627715/Roman-era-shipwreck-reveals-ancient-medical-secrets.html

Modern humans developed stronger immune systems after they interbred with Neanderthals
http://news.discovery.com/human/neanderthals-interbreeding-humans-110825.html

Horses Domesticated 9,000 Years Ago in Saudi Arabia
http://news.discovery.com/animals/horse-domestication-saudi-arabia-110825.html

Comments

[steorra]

You're back!
It's funny to see the Roman shipwreck article saying "The pills are the oldest known archaeological remains of ancient pharmaceuticals" juxtaposed with the article about Queen Hatshepsut's skin medication from over a thousand years earlier.

[jeweledeyes]

Seriously! Of course, it's no surprise that a popular newspaper would use less precise language than a scholarly source would. After all, this is the same place where I just saw King Arthur's Round Table Found in Scotland! XD

[archersangel]

Modern humans developed stronger immune systems after they interbred with Neanderthals

i often heard early humans didn't breed with neanderthals. i always called BS on that because if a lion & a tiger can get together sometimes in the wild to make a liger, then surely early humans & neanderthals hooked up sometimes.

[jeweledeyes]

The whole "interbreeding with Neanderthals" thing is so widely debated, even now. I literally saw two articles from the same journal in the same week from differing researchers— the first was about the sequencing of Neanderthal DNA that confirmed that they had definitely interbred with humans (and stated something like all non-African modern humans are descended to some degree from Neanderthals), and the second stated that Neanderthals and modern humans had never inhabited the same areas of Europe at the same time and thus could never have interbred or even interacted with each other. It's so controversial that hardly anyone agrees, but I have always been of the opinion that they did interact and interbreed, which seems to be the general consensus that the scientific community is reaching now.