Thursday, July 01, 2004

Except today they aren't usually naked Olympics: In antiquity, the polished marble Games came with rough edges

ATHENS In the good old days of the ancient Games, Olympia was the honorable playground of noble athletes, a theater of sacred peace, fair play and somber processions among white marble temples, right?
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Wrong. The ancient Games were loud, smelly, sometimes scandalous, every bit as political as their modern counterparts and once even saw a full-scale battle in the middle of a boxing match.
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"The games of antiquity were not the hallowed celebrations of amateur athletics which we are often led to believe," said David Gilman Romano, adjunct professor of classics at the University of Pennsylvania. "The ancient Games were in many ways very much like the modern Olympics: intrinsically political, nationalistic and commercial."




(Is this a creepy picture or what?)

More on the mummy imaging

The bandages are off, and whoompf, we are travelling fast inside the bony cavern of a mummified body, following the line of the spine, curving this way and that, threatening to bump into vertebrae. It's like flying. And under the wrappings, in the layer of remaining soft tissue, we discover that the mummy is unequivocally a man.

We are witnessing a virtual unwrapping. Years ago, mummy "unrollings" were acts of archaeological vandalism, conducted like dramatic performances in front of high-society fee-paying audiences. Now, by a fusion of advanced computer technology and state-of-the-art medical scanning techniques, we can sit in a darkened, air-conditioned "immersive theatre" in the British Museum, put on a pair of 3D glasses and penetrate a mummy's secret layers, one by one, without destroying a fibre of bandage, without even opening the spectacular painted coffin case. Wood, linen, tissue, bone… we can slice through them all like forensic scientists, like pathologists.


Money quote: "Once a mummy has been unwrapped, much of its value as a time capsule is lost for ever. Non-invasive imaging techniques have transformed this picture." Bingo.

Fresh from the Daily Yomiuri Amber beads, human bones, iron discovered in Kitora tomb in Nara Pref.

Two amber beads have been found at Kitora tomb in Asukamura, Nara Prefecture, along with two fragments of human bone and a piece of iron, the Cultural Affairs Agency announced.

The discovery indicates similarities between Kitora tomb and Takamatsuzuka tomb in the village, where several similar amber beads also were found.

The two barrel-shaped amber beads are 9.5 millimeters and 9.3 millimeters in length. Each has a 1.8-millimeter-diameter hole.

Experts believe amber beads were strung together and used to decorate a crown or worn at the waist.


We really have no clue as to the significance of this find, but we only accidentally clicked on it and figured we might as well just keep it in.

Interactive dig update Hmmm, there's no real title associated with this. . .

This summer's archaeology field school from Harvard University will excavate at La Karaña, an area north of the monumental zone that is never visited by tourists. It appears at first glance to be little more than a gentle slope, but closer inspection shows the entire surface to be covered with huge quantities of ceramics and other artifacts. A little over ten years ago, excavations by Bolivian archaeologist Javier Escalante revealed that this sloped area was formally sculpted into a series of stone terraces that served as platforms for homes. Could this be the place where the people of Tiwanaku lived?


This might be old news Museum's Detective Work Secures Return Of Ancient Coffin

A decorated fragment of a lead sarcophagus (or coffin) dating from the Roman period has been returned to the Syrian National Museum, thanks to the efforts of experts at Newcastle University's Museum of Antiquities.

The small fragment, which was brought into the University's Museum of Antiquities by a Newcastle resident, dates to the period between the 2nd century BC and the 2nd century AD.

Some years ago, it came into the possession of a Newcastle family, who recently decided they would like to donate it to the University's museums.


We seem to recall reporting on this story some time ago, but can't be bothered to go searching through old posts to find it. Suffice it to say, it's a nice thing.

The Old Man and Dhabi Remains of oldest inhabitant of Abu Dhabi found

Remains of the earliest-known inhabitant of Abu Dhabi have been found on the western island of Marawah by the Abu Dhabi Islands Archaeological Survey, ADIAS, as part of their spring excavation season, it was announced on Tuesday.

Marawah is part of the Marawah Marine Protected Area, MPA, which is managed by Abu Dhabi's Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA).

The excavations were carried out at the site of a 7,000 year old village which has the best-preserved and most-sophisticated stone buildings of Neolithic date that are known anywhere in Eastern Arabia. Radiocarbon dates from the building, analysed last year, suggests that the upper layers inside date to between 6,500 to 7.000 years ago, indicating that the original construction may have been earlier.


Breaking news from Egypt Battlements Found at Egypt's Ancient East Gateway

An Egyptian archaeological team has uncovered battlements from Pharaonic times at the ancient eastern gateway to Egypt in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, the Culture Ministry said Wednesday.

The find includes three fortifications built in the area of Tharu, an ancient city which stood on a branch of the Nile that has long since dried up, a ministry statement said.

The battlements stand on the ancient Horus Road, a vital commercial and military artery from ancient Egypt to Asia. The discoveries, about 20 miles east of the Suez Canal, form part of the defenses that stretched along the route.


And finally, we can't resist something about leeches When Alternative Medicine Is No Longer "Alternative Medicine"

When ACSH writes about bloodsucking creatures, you might expect to read an article about plaintiff's attorneys suing over multiple chemical sensitivity. But this time, we are writing about the actual aquatic animal, the leech, which is almost synonymous with pre-modern medicine.


Thanks to better FDA oversight, even the use of leeches must now be subjected to safety and efficacy reviews. Indeed, the leeches have just passed their tests with flying colors and have been approved by the FDA.


Note also the maggot treatment for gangrene. We're not sure of the antiquity of these practices, but we'd guess they stretch pretty far back. This is one of those cases of an "alternative medicine" that, efficacy issues aside, has a fairly well understood process behind it.