The Cochno Stone: This 5,000-year-old Star Map Is Evidence Of A Lost Advanced Civilization

Archaeologists in Glasgow, Scotland, briefly excavated and then reburied a 5,000-year-old slab of stone that contains incised swirling geometric decorations.

The Cochno Stone, which measures 43 feet by 26 feet (13 by 8 meters), contains swirling decorations, also called "cup and ring marks." The stone and its decorations have been known to people in the area since at least the 19th century. Decorations similar to these swirls have been found at other prehistoric sites around the world; however, the examples incised in the Cochno Stone are considered to comprise "one of the best examples" of such art in Europe, according to a statement by the University of Glasgow, which led the new study.

The stone slab was fully unearthed in West Dunbartonshire by Rev. James Harvey in 1887. By 1965, the stone had been vandalized with graffiti and damaged by the elements, so a team of archaeologists buried it beneath the dirt in order to protect the artwork . This summer's two-week re-excavation allowed archaeologists to use modern-day surveying and photography techniques to better record the artwork.

For instance, digital-scanning and mapping experts from the Factum Foundation used cutting-edge 3D-imaging technology to make a detailed digital record of the site, according to the university statement.

The re-excavation also revealed 19th- and 20th-century graffiti etched alongside the swirls, as well as painted lines intentionally made by an archaeologist named Ludovic Maclellan Mann, who worked at the site in 1937. Mann painted lines on the Cochno Stone to help measure the prehistoric artwork and see if there was a link to astronomical phenomena, such as eclipses.

Mann "was trying to prove that the symbols could predict eclipses and were marking movements of the sun and moon in prehistory," said Kenny Brophy, an archaeologist and senior lecturer at the University of Glasgow, in a video released by the university. He said that Mann's own data ended up disproving the archeologist's theory.

The meaning of the artwork is still unknown, said Brophy, adding that the vast amount of data gathered this summer may, in time, allow archaeologists to better understand the artifact. He said that the graffiti is also of interest and will help archaeologists better understand what people who lived in the local area thought of the artwork during the 19th and 20th centuries and how they incorporated it into their lives.

While archaeologists had to rebury the swirling prehistoric artwork in order to protect it, Brophy said he hopes that one day it will be possible to create an area where the rock art can be permanently revealed for both tourists and people in the local area to see. Funding will have to be obtained to build a protective area and visitors centre so that people can view the prehistoric artwork without damaging it.

"It is emotional when you have worked on a project such as this, touched it, walked on it and closely examined it, to then rebury it. But for now, that is what we have to do to protect it from the elements," Brophy said in the statement. "Perhaps in the future, this site could be turned into a major tourist attraction in Scotland, with a visitor center — who knows?"

Source: https://www.livescience.com/56287-ancient-...

An Empty Dancing Structure | African Voodoo Dance (Zangbeto)

This Africa dance is called the Zangbeto and it's the African Voodoo dance of the people of West Africa. Trust me you won't forget what you see. Voodoo is a religion that is practiced by the people of the coastal region of Ghana, Togo Benin and Nigeria and the Zangbeto is their main Police force. This dance is a show of power.

A Student In Venice Found One Of The Oldest Swords Ever – And It’s A Weapon Steeped In Mystery

Victoria Dillard Molina, an italian postgraduate student enrolled at the Kapha Scara university in Venice, is taking a break from her coursework on this November day in 2017. She is going to an Armenian monastery that is perched on a small island in the Venetian Lagoon. There are many of them.

However, as she explores the early 18th-century building, she notices a sword in a glass display case. The student in Venice discovered one of the oldest swords ever made. She stressed that she had not actually been to the island monastery to study when she found this mysterious weapon. Dillard Molina told the live science website in March 2020 that the trip was enjoyable. She went on to say that this was her first trip to the island, but finding the sword shed would require a long and careful investigation. Along with other items, the sword that had intrigued and alarmed molina had now been identified as medieval. This indicated that it was most likely centuries old.

Yet, the youthful understudies field of study was the early bronze age. Solara molina's research in her thesis dealt with grave goods, including weapons buried with high-status individuals 1000 years ago. As she explained to CCN, “I immediately noticed the 17-inch sword and its alleged age”. Considering that she had firmly concentrated on imperial burial places in the close to eastern districts of the Aegean Anatolia in the Caucasus, its nothing unexpected that she could recognize an abnormality in the blades depiction. Indeed, dr. Molina had researched the history and development of swords in the ancient near east, as stated in a press release issued by Khari university in February 2020. Yes, that was the focus of both her master's thesis and her phd work.

Therefore, it was actually a stroke of luck that someone so knowledgeable had discovered the sword at the monastery, and the sword's actual history would prove to be an intriguing tale. However, the island's name, which translates to "Saint Lazarus of the Armenians," begs the question of why there was ever an armenian catholic monastery on a small island in the Venetian Lagoon in the first place. However, Armenia is 1700 miles to the east of Venice. Actually, the monastery was once a colony for lepers. Since he is the patron saint of lepers, the name "Lazarus" comes from him.

Between the 12th and 16th centuries, the island was used as a leper sanctuary before being abandoned for a while. That returns us to the appearance of an Armenian priest in Venice in 1715. The monk marketer had been forced to leave his homeland due to Turkish invaders' persecution. In addition, he established a convent and a church in the modin region, which was under venetian control, in 1701. Mecca had to flee once more when hostilities with Venice broke out in Greece.

Archaeological digs above the clouds: Exposing new chapters in our ancient history

Have you ever wondered what secrets the skies hold about our ancient past? Thanks to groundbreaking technology called lidar, archaeologists can now unlock past mysteries in a way that was once impossible. With lidar, massive areas of land can be scanned in just a few hours, revealing incredible archaeological finds that might have otherwise gone undiscovered for centuries.

Today we will explore the exciting world of lidar and the big archaeological digs happening in the sky.

This Rock Violate All The Laws Of Physics

Think rocks are boring? Think again! Not only do they batter the heck out of scissors in a good old-fashioned game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” but they can also be in rather peculiar shapes. These are the 20 most unreal rock formations!

Beauties Of The Past Brought To Life | Blanche Monnier, Pauline Chase

Throughout history, people have been fascinated by beautiful women. While black and white photography was a largely underdeveloped technology in the 19th or early 20th century, beautiful and iconic women of that era managed to shine through in a very poignant fashion. With the technology of today, we can now see these elegant and beautiful women of the past as they were meant to be seen. Let's watch a few examples of beauties from the bygone era come back to life in a very touching way.

This Gecko Has Been Trapped In Amber For 100 Million Years

Researchers at the University of Oregon state and the Natural History Museum in London confirmed that they had found the oldest known gecko fossil with life-like pieces after 100 million years of the amber-buried skeleton.

The tiny foot of this ancient lizard also displays the tiny “lamellae” or sticky headdress hairs, that to this day give modern geckos their unusual ability to cling to surfaces or run across a ceiling. Research programs around the world have tried to mimic this bizarre adhesive capability, with limited success.

This gecko’s running days are over, however, as only the foot, toes, and part of a tail are left in the stone. The rest might have become lunch for a small dinosaur or another predator during an ancient fight in the tropical forests of Myanmar during the Lower Cretaceous Period, from 97 million to 110 million years ago.

The find is at least 40 million years older than the oldest known gecko fossil, shedding additional light on the evolution and history of these ancient lizards that scampered among the feet of giant dinosaurs then and still are common in tropical or sub-tropical regions all over the world.

The findings were just published in Zootaxa, a professional journal.

“It’s the unusual toe pads and clinging ability of some geckos that make them such a fascinating group of animals, so we were very fortunate to find such a well-preserved foot in this fossil specimen,” said George Poinar, Jr., a courtesy professor at OSU and one of the world’s leading experts on insects, plants and other life forms trapped in amber, a semi-precious stone that begins as tree sap.

“There’s a gecko society, gecko clubs, just a lot of interest in these animals because of their unusual characteristics,” Poinar said. “So there are a lot of people pretty excited about this.”

Based on the number of lamellae found on its toe pads, this gecko was probably a very small juvenile of what would have become a comparatively large adult, possibly up to a foot long, the researchers say. Modern geckos get no more than about 16 inches long, although it’s possible there were larger species millions of years ago.

The juvenile gecko found in the fossil was less than an inch in length when it died – possibly by being eaten or attacked since only partial remains were found.

The discovery has been announced as a new genus and species of gecko, now extinct, and has been named Cretaceogekko. It had a striped pattern that probably served as camouflage.

There are more than 1,200 species of geckos in the world today, common in warm or tropical regions, including parts of the southern United States. They are frequently kept as pets, and often are welcome in the homes of some tropical residents because they help control insects. Some are very colorful. They use long tongues to lick, clean, and moisturize their eyes.

“Geckos are territorial, and when I lived in Africa in the early 1980s we used to have them in our house,” Poinar said. “They are pretty friendly and don’t bother humans. Certain individuals would move into the house, we’d give them names, and they would run around the house, catch mosquitoes, help control bugs. They would crawl across the ceiling and look down at you.”

The new study provides evidence that geckos were definitely in Asia by 100 million years ago, and had already evolved their bizarre foot structure at that time. The amber fossil was mined in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, and during its life, the gecko probably lived in a moist, tropical forest with ample opportunities for climbing.

The ability of geckos to walk on vertical walls or even upside down is due to the presence of thousands of “setae” on their toes, very tiny, hairlike structures that have tips which attach to surfaces by van der Walls forces. It’s a type of incredibly strong, dry adhesion shared by virtually no other group of animals.

It’s not known exactly how old this group of animals is, and when they evolved their adhesive toe pads. However, the new study makes it clear that this ability was in place at least 100 million years ago, in nature. Modern research programs still have not been able to completely duplicate it.

Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley reported earlier this year that they have developed a new “anti-sliding” adhesive that they said was the closest man-made material yet to mimic the ability of geckos – they think it might help a robot climb up the side of walls. A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by geckos, that may someday be used in surgery. And of course, geckos have become an advertising icon for the insurance company Geico.

This study is just one of many in which Poinar and colleagues have used the unusual characteristics of amber to study ancient life forms and develop information on the ecology of ancient ecosystems.

As a stone that first begins to form as sap oozing from a tree, amber can trap small insects or other life forms and preserve them in near-perfect detail for observation millions of years later.

Source: https://archaeology-world.com/this-gecko-h...

The Most Unbelievable Recent Finds

In the following video we will be exploring the most unbelievable recent finds around the world. Watch the video to find out more!

Iron Pillar that never RUSTS - Ancient Secret Revealed?

In today’s video we will investigate this ancient iron pillar of India. It has many baffling features which have not been explained till date. One of the strangest features is that it has not rusted for more than a thousand years, although we can see some rusting in the recent years. Archeologists confirm that this was created at least 1600 years ago, but it could be much older than that. An iron pillar made such a long time ago should have rusted and completely disintegrated. How was such a pillar made, 1600 years ago, at a time when Historians claim there was no advanced technology?

In 2002, scientists studied the iron pillar and realized that it has a strange way of reacting to the atmosphere. Normally, Iron reacts with moisture in the atmosphere or rain and produces Iron oxide, which is called Rust (Fe2O3). This rust is very powerful, it will deteriorate the iron, and eventually destroy the entire structure. For example, if you look at this Nandu bridge in China which is less than 80 years old, it has been completely taken over by rust, making the bridge unusable. But the iron pillar does something very strange. When it comes in contact with moisture or rain, it produces a strange material called Misawite = y-FeOOH) which has not been seen anywhere before. This material actually forms a protective coating over the iron pillar and shields it from damage, and also increases its magnetic property.

Now, why does the iron pillar create Misawite instead of Rust or Iron Oxide? What makes this Iron pillar produce such a strange compound that is not seen anywhere else?

12 Most Mysterious Finds Scientists Still Can't Explain

When archaeologists dig up an old ceramic pot, they can usually figure out what it was used for back in the day. The same goes for other ancient things like tools, temples, weapons, and even whole cities. But, there are still some things that even these experts can't fully understand, and that's when they might reach out to scientists for assistance. To show you what we mean, we've put together this video compilation of some pretty perplexing finds that archaeologists have found.

Primitive Technology: Wood Ash Cement & Fired Brick Hut

Primitive technology is a hobby where you build things in the wild completely from scratch using no modern tools or materials. These are the strict rules: If you want a fire, use a fire stick - An axe, pick up a stone and shape it - A hut, build one from trees, mud, rocks etc. In this video we will build a hut from fired clay bricks and mortared them together with a cement made from wood ash left over from the firing process.

Uncovering the ancient secrets of the Great Pyramid

You stand there in awe, over-powered by their sheer magnificence. No wonder we've been intrigued, totally baffled for more than 4000 years. And of all Egypt's pyramids, the Great Pyramid at Giza is by far the most mysterious. It's so imposing, so perfect you can see why many insist it couldn't possibly be the work of mere mortals. It has to be a creation of the gods, either that, or aliens. But at last it seems this ancient riddle has been solved. There's one man who reckons he's figured it all out. And he's willing to share his amazing discovery with us. To take us to the very heart of the mystery, deep inside the Great Pyramid, where very few have ever been.

Lost Film Footage of The Sphinx Excavations Found and Restored

After a video showing vintage photographs of the Sphinx excavations from the 1920s and 30s we went on the hunt for more, and came across something we had never seen before, actual video footage of the Sphinx excavation and renovation work from nearly 100 years ago.

Most vintage black and white footage of the Sphinx comes from after 1930s, and you can tell this because the headdress has been restored, but finding footage of the Sphinx pre-1930s is incredibly rare. In fact such footage is generally stored on archives, owned by private companies and it never gets to see the light of day.

Experts Studying The 14,000 Year Old Remains Of A Frozen Siberian Puppy Made A Genetic Breakthrough

Scientists are poring over the body of a puppy; but this is no ordinary animal. The young pup has lain frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 14,300 years. Painstakingly, the researchers extract samples of tissue from cartilage, liver and muscle. And once they’ve analyzed the samples in the lab they make a groundbreaking discovery – and it may have huge implications for science.

Ancient Trilobite Had a Hidden Third Eye on Their Foreheads; What Were These Prehistoric Creatures?

New research suggests that extinct trilobites had a hidden third eye right in the middle of their foreheads.

Hidden Third Eye

Live Science reports that paleontologists are familiar with how these hard-shelled creatures had compound eyes that they used around 541 million to 252 million years ago, during the Paleozoic time.

The discovery of a hidden third eye is only recent. This eye was situated in the middle of their forehead, which is quite common among present-day arthropods. Findings were published in a Scientific Reports study.

When the researchers looked into an Aulacopleura koninckii specimen that had a missing part of its head, they discovered three tiny, inconspicuous, dark, and same-sized oval-shaped spots at the head's front.

Brigitte Schoenemann, the study's lead author and a substitute professor from the University of Cologne's Institute of Zoology, says that the regular and clear appearance of the feature distinguishes it from other formations that may have randomly formed due to fossilization or decay. It also corresponds with the expected relics of middle eyes that have a pigment layer. Schoenemann adds that, though this finding is singular, it supports the notion that ancient trilobites had median eyes on their foreheads.

Live Science also adds that, at varying evolution points, the creatures may have had one to multiple middle eyes. For instance, the scientists also discovered that the Cyclopyge sibilla trilobite had three median eyes that had lenses that were similar to human ones. The Cindarella ecualla, on the other hand, had four median eyes. Lately, most modern crustaceans and insects reportedly have three median eyes.

The study authors note that they now have a vital tool that can help in determining the position of the creatures in the evolutionary tree.

Trilobites

According to Oxford University's Museum of Natural History, trilobites are an extinct marine arthropod group that first showed up roughly 521 million years ago. Fossils of this arthropod group have been found across the globe.

Some of these creatures burrowed in the sediments, while others swam through open seas or crawled on the floor of the sea. Some trilobites could have also been predators, scavengers, or detritus feeders.

According to the Australian Museum, trilobites are the most species-rich arthropod group that is completely extinct. Among trilobites, its sturdy exoskeleton that covers the surface of its dorsal body and its "well-marked segmentation" are classic features of arthropods.

These creatures lived through almost the entire Palaeozoic Era for almost 300 million years. They became extinct by the end of the Permian period, which was roughly 251 million years ago. The Permian mass extinction event led to their eradication, as well as the deaths of over 90% of species across the globe.

Source: https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/4292...