Introduction to the the Oxus Civilization / Bactria-Margiana Complex

This program takes a look at the exciting and ancient world of the Oxus Civilization, also known as the Bactria-Margiana Complex, or BMAC for short. It's called by some the 5th great river civilization after those of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus Valley and China. The BMAC also has some of the most exquisite artwork from the Bronze Age.

The 5,000-Year-Old Yamnaya Copper Club

This Yamnaya warrior was buried in a kurgan (burial mound) on the steppe with this mighty weapon from prehistoric warfare. Is it the mythical weapon of Indra; the cudgel Vajra? What does it have to do with Hercules and Thor?

We discuss the mythology of the Striker-Thunderer and talk about Yamnaya burial practices and how this image of the Yamnaya warrior inspired my work.

The Indo-European myth of the Striker / Thunderer is seen in the forms of Thor, Herakles, and Indra. He is a thunder god - the sun of the sky father - who strikes with a hammer or an axe or club / cudgel. He makes thunder, sends lightning bolts crashing to earth, and he is a wandering hero who slays the serpent and other monsters.

Elements of the Striker / Thunderer merged with the figure of the sky father in the form of Zeus while the heroic deeds and monster slaying elements found expression in his sons Herakles and Perseus. Thor has a short handled hammer while Herakles famously has his wooden club.

This deity's name amongst the ancient steppe herders may have been Perkwunos meaning 'the Striker' or 'the Lord of Oaks' because of the way lightning tends to strike oak trees. In the most cosmic version of his myth the god uses his celestial weapon to strike down the monster who is holding back the life giving waters.

10 Most Bizarre Creatures Found In Antarctica

From gooey fish with enormous eyes to a mysterious monster that prowls the ice, here are ten of the weirdest creatures ever found in Antarctica. Watch the video and enjoy!

History's Real Life Vampire Vlad The Impaler

Welcome to the strange and gruesome world of Vlad the Impaler, a man known for his love of impaling his enemies and earning the nickname "Dracula." But was he really the bloodthirsty monster that history remembers him as, or was he just a product of a cruel and violent time? Join us as we delve into the life and legend of Vlad the Impaler and separate fact from fiction!

The Αncient Underwater 5,000- Year-Old Sunken City in Greece is considered to be the Oldest Submerged Lost City in the World

We are most fascinated by underwater finds, whether they are the ruins of sunken ships, long-lost cities, or buried relics. The lost city of Pavlopetri, which scientists think is the oldest submerged city in the world, is a great example of the riddles that surround such findings.

Aerial drone photo of the prehistoric settlement of Pavlopetri, a sunken city and archaeological site just below the surface in Peloponnese, Greece. Image Credit: Aerial-motion/Shutterstock

The Peloponnesus region of southern Greece's Pavlopetri is home to Pavlopetri, which is believed to be about 5,000 years old and predates the illustrious heroes of Homer. Pavlopetri is situated just off southern Laconia. Folkion Negris, a geologist, initially recognized it in 1904, but Nicholas Flemming of the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton rediscovered it in 1967. He said the Bronze Age city was submerged in water that was about 3 to 4 meters (10 to 13 feet) deep. Then, over the course of six weeks in 1968, Flemming went to the location with a team of archaeologists from the University of Cambridge to survey the massive ruins.

The team created a plan of the city using a grid system and hand tapes, which are used to mark the boundaries of an area to be explored. They estimated that the city covered an area of 300 meters by 150 meters (980 feet by 490 feet) and had at least 15 different buildings, as well as courtyards, five streets, two tombs, and at least 37 cist graves, a small stone-built ossuary used to hold bones. Additionally, they discovered that the underwater city continued southward onto Pavlopetri itself, where the ruins of walls and other artifacts were discovered.

The team also discovered other relics on the seafloor while doing their investigation, including pottery, obsidian and chert blades, and a small bronze figurine that they estimated to have been manufactured between 2800 and 1180 BCE. However, it was discovered that the majority of the structures in the sunken city date to the Mycenaean era, roughly 1650–1180 BCE.

The site at Pavlopetri didn't attract any more attention for about 40 years after that. A five-year initiative to thoroughly investigate the city was launched in 2009 by a team of researchers from the University of Nottingham, the Hellenic Centre for Maritime Research, and the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Greek Ministry of Culture. Through a thorough digital underwater archaeological survey and several underwater excavations, the team aimed to learn more about Pavlopetri's past.

The researchers' investigation led to the discovery of an additional 9,000 square meters (97,000 square feet) of brand-new structures, including a sizable rectangular hall and buildings that flanked a previously undiscovered street. Additionally, they discovered pithos burials, which are sizable potteries used to preserve bodies before inhumation or cremation, and graves with stone linings.

New ceramics were also found, which supported the Mycenaean occupation, and there was evidence that the city had been inhabited from roughly 3000 BCE until 1100 BCE throughout the Bronze Age. The city would have been home to 500 to 2,000 people at this period.

Aspect of a virtual reconstruction of the settlement's possible original layout (ANA-MPA/BRITISH SCHOOL OF ATHENS/STR)

Although the exact circumstances that sent Pavlopetri to the ocean floor remain a mystery, some have theorized that it may have been sunk by an earthquake that took place either around 1000 BCE or 375 CE.

Given that Pavlopetri is the oldest sunken city ever discovered and predates the time when Plato wrote his allegory of the mythical island of Atlantis (which never existed), some have immediately hypothesized that Pavlopetri was the model for his imagined island.

Source: https://www.iflscience.com/pavlopetri-the-...

Jordan River Finally Dried Up and Now something is going Terribly Wrong

A once-flowing river, the symbol of hope and renewal for thousands of years, has dried up completely. And believe it or not, this is not a good thing at all! The Jordan River, which stretches from Syria to Israel and beyond, has finally stopped flowing after centuries of being an essential water source for millions of people. But as we will discover in this video, something terrible is happening now that the river is gone. Get ready for a shocking insight into one of the most significant environmental issues plaguing our planet today: what happens when rivers dry up?

The Jordan River is one of the most important rivers in the world. It is the main source of water for the countries of Israel, Jordan, and Palestine. Millions of people rely on the river for their drinking water. The river has been drying up for years. In 2007, the Israeli government stopped allowing any water to be taken from the river for irrigation. This was done in an attempt to save the river. However, the river continued to dry up. In 2010, only 10% of the river's original flow remained. The situation became so dire that in 2013, the World Bank released a report saying that the Jordan River could completely dry up by 2022. Now, it seems that the worst has come to pass. The Jordan River has finally dried up.

Amazing Ancient Ruins Around The World That You Need To See

The world is littered with ancient ruins of man-made cities and settlements dating back thousands of years. We have compiled for you the ruins that represent the extraordinary achievements of humanity in various cultures and civilizations from South America to Mesopotamia and from Africa to Asia.

At a Suncor-operated mine site, Alberta's Oldest Plesiosaur Fossil was discovered

On March 12, 2023, hydraulic shovel operator Jenna Plamondon noticed fossilized plesiosaur remnants at the Mildred Lake site thanks to a bird's-eye view from the cab of her machine.

Suncor Energy, Tuesday, May 2, 2023, Press release picture

Although this marine reptile's fossils have previously been discovered in the area, this find represents the earliest Cretaceous plesiosaur to be discovered in Alberta.

At the Syncrude Mildred Lake Mine, Jenna was working her first day shift since her return when she noticed a disparity in the oil sand.

"I continued looking at one tiny dirt particle. We are taught to notice things that are unusual as shovel operators. Our pit and keeping the area tidy are really important to us", says Jenna, a 16-year employee. "I called my leader and requested them to confirm with geology. In case it was a genuine fossil, we decided to move the shovel."

The Mildred Lake Geology team came and immediately realized what they were seeing was unique. To ensure that the fossil could be recognized and saved as a piece of Alberta's history, they got in touch with the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. It was discovered after further investigation that the intact fossil jutting out of the ore was a fragment of a plesiosaur tail.

Older than dirt

Around 115 million years ago, when the mining region would have been a part of a large, shallow sea that encompassed much of northern Alberta, these aquatic reptiles existed. The layer of bitumen-rich ore that the fossil was found in added to the find's rarity. In contrast to the usual location higher up in the rock strata, this instance was located lower down in the McMurray Formation layer.

The fossil and the site of its discovery provide an intriguing glimpse into the past. The extinct marine reptile might have perished in an inland sea and washed up into shallow water as a carcass for other predators, like dinosaurs, to scavenge.

This one might have been covered in sand after a storm that dumped a lot of sand on top of the carcass all at once. The preservation circumstances shown by this are quite exceptional, according to Dr. Donald Henderson, the museum's curator of dinosaurs. Fossils of large creatures like dinosaurs and marine reptiles are extremely uncommon. We are only fortunate to observe this small fragment of fossil since we are shifting so much rock here.

Mine Operations gathered and arranged nearby oil sand into rows in order to search for fossil fragments that might have broken off from the larger piece. The field technicians for paleontology and geology then went through the information. One little piece of a vertebrae was found by a geology co-op student after several hours of searching.

Ruachwaar Gatwech, a third-year geology student at the University of British Columbia, says, "As we were digging, I found something that looked like bone, but I thought it could be something else." "The senior geologist thought that taking me and another co-op student to the site would be a worthwhile learning opportunity. A memorable experience it was. My first experience in the mine and my first encounter with an authentic fossil on the field.

The fossil was prepared for transport back to the museum in Drumheller, roughly 650 kilometers south of Fort McMurray, by the museum's paleontology staff in a manner akin to that of a cast made from human bone. With this method, the plaster can be fitted closely to the fossil without coming into contact with the bone. The delicate bone is safeguarded so that it can be taken to the museum for more in-depth analysis.

Jenna is pleased with the part her shovel crew performed in preserving a piece of history.

"I'm really excited because if the fossil ends up being displayed at the museum, I'll get to show my one-year-old son what mom found," the woman exclaims. "It's pretty cool that I'm one of the few shovel operators to find one," one said.

More than a dozen fossils have been identified since the first one was found at a Syncrude site in 1994. Other Suncor locations have had a number of ancient discoveries, including the 2011 finding of Base Plant, where a nodosaur, Alberta's oldest dinosaur, was found.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/alberta-old...

Restoring a 2.6 billion year old CRISPR system

The ancestor of the present CRISPR offers fresh perspectives on its history and the potential of genetic modification.

A team of Spanish scientists has recreated a CRISPR-Cas gene editing system that existed 2.6 billion years ago, an achievement they refer to as a "resurrection."

The research, which was published in Nature Microbiology, not only provides a deeper understanding of how bacteria first developed this potent gene editing tool, but it may also help create improved versions.

The team was able to develop functioning copies of the historic Cas proteins capable of cutting DNA in the present day by examining old CRISPR sequences and reproducing them in the laboratory.

Francis Mojica, a researcher from the University of Alicante who was a member of the study, said that the findings represent an incredible gain in understanding of the development of CRISPR-Cas systems.

Researchers at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, led by Mojica and Ruud Jansen, were the first to realize that the enigmatic CRISPR system in bacteria can function like a set of genetic shears, slicing DNA.

According to Mojica, the findings may contribute in the improvement of current CRISPR procedures and point to new avenues for the development of others.

The Spanish team has delved into the history of these bacteria as scientists seek Earth's microbes for fresh CRISPR candidates.

Describing CRISPR: The battle between bacteria, one of the most basic, well-adapted, and effective forms of life, and viruses, which are so basic they hardly qualify as living things at all, has been going on for billions of years invisibly.

Because viruses can't reproduce on their own, they must take control of other living things like bacteria in order to survive. So it should come as no surprise that bacteria have to create defense mechanisms.

A type of immune system among them is CRISPR, which uses a protein called Cas to combat viruses that reappear by keeping DNA records of prior infections. By cleaving the viral DNA when it comes in contact with the specific virus, Cas shields the bacterium from infection.

Researchers have used that ability to selectively cut DNA as a gene editing tool for a variety of creatures. CRISPR is being used in a wide range of industries, from gene editing plants and animals to fighting sickle cell disease and high cholesterol in people. It has shown to be an incredibly adaptable instrument.

In essence, we're reaping the rewards of a long-ago weapons race.

CRISPR's "origin and evolution are poorly understood," the authors concluded in their paper, despite the fact that it has undergone widespread adaptation.

Ancient Cas proteins were revived in contemporary labs to try and better understand that genesis and evolution, according to a team led by research professor Rául Pérez-Jiménez of CIC nanoGUNE.

Pérez-Jiménez's research team at nanoGUNE has been reassembling genes and proteins from extinct creatures for years to investigate the evolution of proteins like Cas and determine whether they may be used as cutting-edge biotech tools.

They used firmicutes, a class of bacterium that went extinct billions of years ago, to study ancient CRISPR-Cas sequences.

The researchers employed computer modeling to hopscotch their way back in time starting with different bacterial genomes that are currently known and moving forward towards their common ancestor. The scientists rebuilt the ancestor CRISPR sequences and then manufactured them in the lab to examine and evaluate whether they were functional. They discovered that the ancient Cas proteins were just as sharp as their contemporary counterparts.

As explained by researcher Llus Montoliu of the Rare Diseases Networking Biomedical Research Center (CIBERER), "What is surprising is that we can revive Cas proteins that must have existed billions of years ago and find that they already had the capacity to operate as gene editing tools at that time. We have now confirmed that by successfully editing genes in human cells.

Using a link to the past, the researchers was able to conclude that CRISPR-Cas systems have evolved over time, becoming more complicated as they have had to adapt to new viral threats – an example of the arms race.

Old weapons, new uses: CRISPR is a potent tool, but it isn't perfect.

According to Pérez-Jiménez, these contemporary, sophisticated CRISPR systems have evolved to become extremely specialized for use inside bacteria. The immune system may reject it when it is employed to modify human cells, and "molecular restrictions" hinder its use.

Oddly enough, some of these limitations vanish in ancestor systems, giving these systems more flexibility for novel applications, according to Pérez-Jiménez. The ancient Cas proteins may be a more adaptable alternative because they are less refined than contemporary options.

The resurrected ancient proteins "can make available gene editing tools with properties different from the current ones, and which are much more flexible," according to nanoGUNE researcher Ylenia Jabalera.

This could imply "new directions in the manipulation of DNA and the treatment of diseases like ALS, cancer, and diabetes, or even in the development of diagnostic tools for diseases."

Source: https://www.freethink.com/science/ancient-...

2,000-year-old coins surface with Lake Iznik's withdrawal in Türkiye

With the withdrawal of Lake Iznik in the northwest of Türkiye, the ancient coins found at the bottom of the water began to be found by the locals.

In Iznik, the world-famous historical city of Bursa, which is on the temporary heritage list of UNESCO and expected to enter the main list this year, a couple walking on the shore of Lake Iznik found a 2,000-year-old historical coin.

Locals began discovering ancient coins after the lake dried up, possibly from the historical basilica that was once submerged beneath Lake Iznik but rose above the water in 2014.