Nefertiti's 3,300-year-old royal makeover - Science- msnbc.com

Nefertiti's 3,300-year-old royal makeover - Science- msnbc.com:

"BERLIN - Researchers in Germany have used a modern medical procedure to uncover a secret within one of ancient Egypt's most treasured artworks — the bust of Nefertiti has two faces.

A team led by Dr. Alexander Huppertz, director of the Imaging Science Institute at Berlin's Charite hospital and medical school, discovered a detailed stone carving that differs from the external stucco face when they performed a computed tomography, or CT, scan on the bust. ..."

Interesting...

In Fall of 1968 I traveled to West Berlin with my Explorer unit (BSA) and among the places we visited was a museum in which I came face to face with the bust of Nefertiti. This was somewhat exciting to me as it was pictured in my world history textbook from Heidelberg American High School, thus providing me a real world link with ancient history. Did I see the real Nefertiti or a copy? I can't remember the building in which I saw it, but its current location is the Altes Museum.

The bust is a thin layer of stucco over a stone core, and what is intriguing archaeologists is that the stone core is a detailed bust of Nefertiti as well -- with some differences. Computer Tomography (CT scan) was used to show the detailed sculpture below. Previously, the stone core was thought to be merely a support for the stucco.

The image shown here is part of the Wikimedia Commons and contains the following permission: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered - NYTimes.com

Workings of Ancient ‘Computer’ Deciphered - NYTimes.com:

"After a closer examination of the Antikythera Mechanism, a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games.

The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism’s concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, in Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with the great Archimedes. ..."

This device is quite sophisticated for its time, which suggests that earlier versions must have been made, yet thus far this is the only one found.

Earlier blog entries on this:

• EurekAlert!: Mystery of ancient astronomical calculator unveiled
• Nature: Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism

1,600-year-old version of Bible goes online - Internet- msnbc.com

1,600-year-old version of Bible goes online - Internet- msnbc.com:

"BERLIN - More than 1,600 years after it was written in Greek, one of the oldest copies of the Bible will become globally accessible online for the first time this week.

From Thursday, sections of the Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the oldest complete New Testament, will be available on the Internet, said the University of Leipzig, one of the four curators of the ancient text worldwide. ..."

It helps if you can read ancient Greek, although some passages will be available in English and German.

The article did not list a URL, but I will try and add it Thursday when the website is expected to go online.

[UPDATE] Actually, the article did list a URL, but it was not linked, nor is it live at this time. You should be able to go to www.codex-sinaiticus.net on Thursday, July 24, so I will link it now in anticipation of it going live in two days.

Researchers open secret cave under Mexican pyramid | Science | Reuters

Researchers open secret cave under Mexican pyramid | Science | Reuters:

"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists are opening a cave sealed for more than 30 years deep beneath a Mexican pyramid to look for clues about the mysterious collapse of one of ancient civilization's largest cities.

The soaring Teotihuacan stone pyramids, now a major tourist site about an hour outside Mexico City, were discovered by the ancient Aztecs around 1500 AD, not long before the arrival of Spanish explorers to Mexico.

But little is known about the civilization that built the immense city, with its ceremonial architecture and geometric temples, and then torched and abandoned it around 700 AD."

I was able to visit this site in 2002 during a two week stay at CIMMYT, near Texcoco (a little east of Mexico City). The Teotihuacan pyramids are a truly awesome site, and climbing the steep steps of the Pyramid of the Moon was an aerobic exercise made more difficult by an elevation exceeding 7400 feet. I did get several nice images:

Here is the Pyramid of the Moon, which in 2002 only allowed access
to the second landing due to ongoing archaeological research.

These steps are roughly knee-high and for someone who already
had knee issues, that rail was quite necessary.

The Pyramid of the Sun seen from the Pyramid of the Moon.

Looking to the side of the Pyramid of the Moon revealed these unexcavated
structures, including what seems to be a smaller pyramid on the left.

A lot of nice stonework can be seen all over the Teotihuacan site, replicas of which
can be seen in the Museo Nacional de Antropología.

The Betrayal of Judas - ChronicleReview.com

The Betrayal of Judas - ChronicleReview.com :

"... As soon as the show ended, she went to her computer and downloaded the English translation from the National Geographic Web site. Almost immediately she began to have concerns. From her reading, even in translation, it seemed obvious that Judas was not turning in Jesus as a friendly gesture, but rather sacrificing him to a demon god named Saklas. This alone would suggest, strongly, that Judas was not acting with Jesus' best interests in mind — which would undercut the thesis of the National Geographic team. She turned to her husband, Wade, and said: "Oh no. Something is really wrong."

She started the next day on her own translation of the Coptic transcription, also posted on the National Geographic Web site. That's when she came across what she considered a major, almost unbelievable error. It had to do with the translation of the word 'daimon,' which Jesus uses to address Judas. The National Geographic team translates this as 'spirit,' an unusual choice and inconsistent with translations of other early Christian texts, where it is usually rendered as 'demon.' In this passage, however, Jesus' calling Judas a demon would completely alter the meaning. 'O 13th spirit, why do you try so hard?' becomes 'O 13th demon, why do you try so hard?' A gentle inquiry turns into a vicious rebuke. ..."

This is a lengthy and fascinating piece written by Thomas Bartlett on the work done by April DeConick on the Coptic manuscript released over two years ago by National Geographic. She noted not only the mistranslation described in the quotation, but at least two others that stated that Judas "would ascend to the holy generation" and that Judas would be "set apart for the holy generation". In the first of the "holy generation" passages, deConick claimed that a negative in the text was overlooked, thus rendering the meaning as "would not ascend to the holy generation". Apparently National Geographic agreed because the passage was corrected in a second edition of the Gospel of Judas. The second passage was translated by DeConick as "set apart from the holy generation", which National Geographic acknowledged in a footnote as being a valid translation. These three passages are key to whether Judas is viewed as a hero or a traitor.

According to the article, the preponderance of scholarly opinion is that DeConick's translation is accurate. To be sure there is controversy over DeConick's revelations, revolving mostly on the fact that they were not delivered in private or published in a scholarly journal, but rather appeared in an OpEd piece in the New York Times.

First Temple seal found in Jerusalem | Jerusalem Post

First Temple seal found in Jerusalem | Jerusalem Post:

"A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name 'Temech' engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig."

This article from the Jerusalem Post is quite interesting.

The seventh chapter of Nehemiah enumerates the exiles who returned to Israel from Babylon. Listed among the temple attendants is Temech (Temah in the NIV). Interestingly enough, the crescent figure above the two men has been identified as the symbol of a Babylonian deity. The three letters at the bottom are Hebrew and spell "Temech".

While this does not prove that the person listed on the seal and the one listed in Nehemiah are the same individual, it is significant because it is contemporaneous with the events described in Nehemiah, and names an individual whose name also appears in the book of Nehemiah.

'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called a Stunt - washingtonpost.com

'Lost Tomb of Jesus' Claim Called a Stunt - washingtonpost.com:

"Leading archaeologists in Israel and the United States yesterday denounced the purported discovery of the tomb of Jesus as a publicity stunt.

Scorn for the Discovery Channel's claim to have found the burial place of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and -- most explosively -- their possible son came not just from Christian scholars but also from Jewish and secular experts who said their judgments were unaffected by any desire to uphold Christian orthodoxy. ..."

Here is a pretty interesting take on the recent "bombshell" which seems more like a squib these days.

Alan Cooperman, Washington Post staff writer, interviews people from the archaeology community as well as the Israeli director of the film, the the preponderance of scientific opinion is that this is more about money than it is about science.

One archaeologist, William G. Dever, points out that not only are the some of the inscriptions unclear, but the purported names are common names. Dever also stated that this find has been known for many years, and he and other colleagues have been of the opinion that this was not a particularly important find.

A University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill archaeologist, Jodi Magness noted that these claims have not been peer-reviewed in a research article, but rather have been publicized as if it were a matter of academic debate.

Magness suggested that the practice of placing the dead in hand-cut stone tombs and later transferring the bones to ossuaries, was a practice of the wealthy. According to Scripture, Jesus was placed in such a tomb, but it belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It was not the tomb of a poor family from Nazareth.

There have been other blog entries on this subject, but Russell Smith's entry stands out. Take a look at "The Talpiot Tomb Controversey -- What to make of the latest eastertime criticism of the resurrection" -- He has done a good job of aggregating information from many sources.

Update (2/28/2007) -- Quotidian Grace mentioned in a comment that Ben Witherington also had a good posting on the subject: "THE JESUS TOMB? ‘TITANIC’ TALPIOT TOMB THEORY SUNK FROM THE START". I like the alliteration in the title, but the whole article is well worth reading.

Dr. Witherington also posted some additional information today in a posting called "PROBLEMS MULTIPLY FOR JESUS TOMB THEORY". (Thanks to Brett for pointing this out)

It's great that so many good bloggers are out there passing on their knowledge and experience. I tend to agree with Russell Smith and QG that this is getting to be an annual irritation, and that the timing is no accident. The antidote is to shine a bright light on the claims have been and continue to be made -- and in this case it comes not only from the faith community, but the archaeology community as well, many of whom are non-Christian or agnostic, thus have no vested interested in propping up Christianity.

Photo: Skeletons locked in eternal embrace | CNET News.com

Photo: Skeletons locked in eternal embrace | CNET News.com

"It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love. Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in an eternal embrace and buried outside Mantua, Italy, just 25 miles south of Verona, the city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of Romeo and Juliet. ..."

Happy Valentine's Day!

Nature: Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism

Nature: Decoding the ancient Greek astronomical calculator known as the Antikythera Mechanism:

"The Antikythera Mechanism is a unique Greek geared device, constructed around the end of the second century bc. It is known that it calculated and displayed celestial information, particularly cycles such as the phases of the moon and a luni-solar calendar. Calendars were important to ancient societies for timing agricultural activity and fixing religious festivals. Eclipses and planetary motions were often interpreted as omens, while the calm regularity of the astronomical cycles must have been philosophically attractive in an uncertain and violent world. Named after its place of discovery in 1901 in a Roman shipwreck, the Antikythera Mechanism is technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterwards. ..."

Yesterday I pointed to a news release about this and as it happened, Nature had already published a letter from the research team about this. The above quote is part of the abstract of a 5 page letter on the subject of the Antikythera Mechanism. If you are at a university or your public library has a Nature subscription, you should be able to read the full text.

The bibliographic citation for this article is "Nature 444, 587-591 (30 November 2006)"

EurekAlert!: Mystery of ancient astronomical calculator unveiled

EurekAlert!: Mystery of ancient astronomical calculator unveiled:

An international team has unravelled the secrets of a 2,000-year-old computer which could transform the way we think about the ancient world.

Professor Mike Edmunds and Dr Tony Freeth, of Cardiff University led the team who believe they have finally cracked the workings of the Antikythera Mechanism, a clock-like astronomical calculator dating from the second century BC.

Remnants of a broken wooden and bronze case containing more than 30 gears was found by divers exploring a shipwreck off the island of Antikythera at the turn of the 20th century. Scientists have been trying to reconstruct it ever since. The new research suggests it is more sophisticated than anyone previously thought.

Detailed work on the gears in the mechanism show that it was able to track astronomical movements with remarkable precision. The calculator was able to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the Zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The team believe it may also have predicted the positions of some or all of the planets.

This can be filed under "seriously cool". This will be published in Nature and I am looking forward to reading the article when it appears. Professor Edmunds raises the tantalizing question of what else the Greeks were making at the time, if they could design a mechanical computer as sophisticated as this.