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How were the pyramids of Egypt built? The leading theory is that laborers cut 2.5-ton blocks of limestone, dragged them across the desert, and carefully piled one-on-top-of-the-other until they reached the top.
But what if the Egyptians used concrete to form the blocks in place? It's certainly easier to imagine than the whole cutting-and-dragging-across-the-desert thing. But it's a deeply controversial idea. According to an MIT press release (originally found by Pound360 at The Anomalist), the idea is so outside the norm that, "you can't get research funding, and it's difficult to get a paper through peer review," said professor Linn Hobbs.
Professor Hobbs is leading a group of MIT students studying the concrete theory (more as an exercise than to revolutionize our understanding of the pyramids). As it turns out, concrete has been around for ages. For example, the Romans used it to build some of the structures we still see today, like the Pantheon.
The "cast-block theory" was first proposed by Joseph Davidovits, a French materials chemist in the 1930s.
How long have human beings walked North America? Previously, evidence discovered in Clovis, New Mexico put the first humans in the region about 13,300 to 12,000 years ago. But new evidence found in an Oregon cave helps push the official arrival of human beings in North America to 14,000 years ago, reports the NY Times.
The evidence, fossilized human feces (otherwise known as "coprolite"), contain DNA which connect the (latest) "first Americans" to American Indians.
Little else has been discovered in the Oregon cave, suggesting it was a waypoint, not a permanent residence (unless looters have already raided the site and sold the artifacts on eBay).
Another recent find at Monte Verde, Chile suggest humans roamed "deep into South America" 14,600 years ago. If they were there 14,600 years ago, they must have been as far north as Oregon well before that.
Pound360 wonders how long it took humans to make it from Alaska to Panama, Panama to Chile? One thing we're sure of, it was probably one of the greatest journeys in history, full of unfathomable struggle, surprises (both pleasant and terrifying), sacrifice and joy.
If you ask the average person what they know about the Aztecs, they'll probably respond to your question with a question of their own, "Like, sacrafices? Where they pull beating hearts out of people's chests?"
Sure. Brutality was a part of the ancient world. But the Aztecs were accomplished in other areas like architecture, agriculture, engineering and astronomy. Now, it appears as though mathematics can be added to the list.
According to a report at Reuters, "the ancient Aztecs maintained an arithmetic system that was far more complex than previously understood."
The Aztec system included more "numbers" than we have, according to an article at Scientific American. Instead of whole numbers, which we're used to, they had numerical concepts researchers call "monads" representing fractions. Said one researcher, "We don't like to call them fractions, though, because they were considered as unitary entities like inches, seconds or minutes."
These "extra units" are represented with hieroglyphics resembling arrows, hearts, hands, bones and arms. Researchers suggest these symbols had a role in what the numbers represent. For example, the arrow would be the distance from the shoulder to the hand, "like an archer with a taut bow." The heart might represent the distance from the middle of the chest to the hand.
Most of us know Stonehenge, but Silbury Hill is its lesser known cousin. Situated about 80 miles west of London, the Hill is "a 4,400-year-old, 130-foot-high mound of chalk and dirt," describes Discover Magazine. Like Stonehenge, its origins and purpose are largely a mystery, but new research is uncovering some potential new answers.
Following a series of excavations and radar snapshots, researchers have found there are no human bones, but plenty of "sarsen" stones. This is the same type of stone buried at Stonehenge.
What's up with sarsen stones? According to the Discvoer article, "Because the area is made mainly of chalk, prehistoric people would have seen no apparent natural origin for the stones. Archaeologists think the locals endowed these rocks with a spiritual importance."
According to one expert, quoted in a news piece at Australia’s ABC, "the story of Neanderthal extinction is one of the most intriguing in all of human evolution." So what happened? Competition with homo sapiens? Climate change? A plague?
A combination of factors probably wiped out the Neanderthals. But a new theory puts cannibalism at the top.
The news is based on the simple connection of two, distant dots. One, in 1999 researchers found evidence in a French cave that Neanderthals were likely cannibals. Dot two, research on a tribe in Papua New Guinea shows ritual cannibalism is causing a decimating disease that acts a lot like mad cow. The disease, known as "kuru" is part of a family of diseases (including mad cow) called "transmissible spongiform encephalopathy" (TSE).
TSEs are nasty, nasty diseases. They turn the brain into Swiss cheese. "TSEs cause brain tissue to take on an almost sponge-like appearance, caused by the formation of small holes during the development of the disease."
As it turns out, a TSE spread by cannibalism could have whittled Neanderthal populations down to a "non-viable level" in about 250 years.
What’s so astonishing about this story is that a pyramid could go unnoticed in one of the world’s biggest cities. With a population of nine million, Mexico City ranks tenth among the world’s biggest. But nobody noticed an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid “in the heart of the Mexican capital,” until archeologists uncovered it this year, reported Reuters.
After destroying the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in 1325, the Spanish conquistadors build Mexico City in its place. To this day, many Aztec ruins remain, but it amazes Pound360 that a pyramid was simply lost in the shuffle. It’s not like it was buried underground or out in the sticks. According to the Reuters piece, the pyramid ruins “are about 36 feet high” and located in the central neighborhood of Tlatelolco.
Tests may reveal the pyramid was built between 1100 and 1200. If so, that pushes the establishment of the Aztec capital back about 100 years. According to one archaeologist, “the (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised."
Does this mean we need to revise the date ancient calendars predict the end of the world? If so, does this give us an extra 100 years, or was the world supposed to be wiped out a hundred years ago?
“Our hominid ancestors could never have eaten enough raw food to support our large, calorie-hungry brains,” according to a new feature at Scientific American. The column looks at biologist Richard Wrangham’s theory that cooking -- which allowed creatures to consume more energy-dense, softer food -- spurred human evolution.
The theory easily explains why we have smaller stomachs, less menacing teeth and larger brains than our tree-swinging cousins. Brain tissue requires a lot of energy, 22-times as much as skeletal muscle tissue.
The problem with this theory is the timing. Wrangham’s theory requires one tricky ingredient: fire. For the theory to work, Homo erectus would have had to be cooking, with fire, 1.6 to 1.9 million years ago. But there’s little evidence that human ancestors were cooking more than 500,000 years ago.
So how could human brains evolve? Some scientist suggest early hominids ate “energy-dense animal-derived foods” like bone marrow and brain tissue to fuel their own growing brains. Brains to grow brains? It’s macabre, but it makes sense.
