For Those Interested in Archaeology

The size of the earth has been known since the ancient Greeks, but due to the difficulty in calculating longitude, people thought Asia extended most of the way around the world, so there was hope for a manageable ocean voyage.

 

It's Orkney; the sea breeze'll have 'em up and running about in no time.

 

There is a famous map he used to make his case, where he massively extended Africa southwards, to 'prove' that sailing East around the world was less desirable

 

"Geologists have located the remains of the lost continent of Argoland, a 3,100-mile-long landmass that separated from western Australia some 155 million years ago.
The existence of the ancient landmass was known from the “void” it left behind — a submarine basin known as the Argo Abyssal Plain.
The structure of the seafloor indicates that Argoland must have drifted off to the northwest, to where the islands of Southeast Asia are located in the present day.
The problem, however, is that there is no large continent hidden beneath those islands — only the remnants of small continental fragments surrounded by much older ocean basins.
Now, however, a pair of researchers from the Netherlands have succeeded in reconstructing the history of the lost continent — revealing that it is in fragments, but still exists, under the jungles of large parts of Indonesia and Myanmar.
The study was undertaken by geologists Professor Douwe van Hinsbergen and Dr Eldert Advokaat of Utrecht University.
Van Hinsbergen said: “If continents can dive into the mantle and disappear entirely, without leaving a geological trace at the Earth’s surface, then we wouldn’t have much of an idea of what the Earth could have looked like in the geological past.
“It would be almost impossible to create reliable reconstructions of former supercontinents and the Earth’s geography in foregone eras.”
These reconstructions, he explained, are vital for our understanding of processes like the evolution of biodiversity and climate, or for finding raw materials…
“…and at a more fundamental level, for understanding how mountains are formed,or for working out the driving forces behind plate tectonics — two phenomena that are closely related.”"
www.express.co.uk/news/science/1827275/lost-continent-argoland-found-indonesia-myanmar

 

Thats interesting mate...

 

Misfiled, old boy.

 

That's the new cabin cruiser paid for with the loose change then?

 

Another amazing find literally on my doorstep.
"It has been dubbed the 'most important road in Scottish history', having been used by the likes of Henry VIII, William the Conqueror and Oliver Cromwell.
Now, MailOnline can exclusively reveal where the 2,000-year-old route started and finished, thanks to a detailed map drawn up following the cobbled road's discovery in a garden near Stirling.
Archaeologists say it was built by the Roman armies of general Julius Agricola in the 1st century AD and would have connected to a ford through the River Forth.
Many of the key historical figures of Scottish and wider British history would have used the road for military campaigns, given its strategic importance for crossing the Forth and reaching the Highlands, as well as its proximity to Stirling —Scotland's former capital.
Among them were Robert the Bruce and every King and Queen of Scotland, as well as the Picts, Vikings and a series of Roman legions in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD.
The discovery helped confirm that the road ran west from Stirling for around nine miles up to the village of Doune.
However, experts say this was likely just a small section of what was a much wider network extending all the way from Aberdeenshire down to Dover in Kent — a distance of more than 620 miles.
The map also reveals where a number of Roman camps are known to have existed, along with a Roman Fort close to what is now Doune Castle."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12706271/Mapping-important-Roman-Road-Scottish-history-Incredible-chart-reveals-route-travelled-historical-figures-including-William-Conqueror-Oliver-Cromwell-2-000-years-ago.html#comments

And not realy archaeology as such, but damned interesting.
"Humans having sex with a now-extinct subspecies they met in Asia some 60,000 years ago could be the reason you have depression, a new study has claimed.
Researchers discovered a gene variant linked to the crossbreeding of humans and Denisovans which they believe affects our mood.
Those with the variant have lower levels of zinc in the body - a nutrient which studies increasingly show is associated with mood and happiness.
The different branches of the human family tree have interbred and swapped genes — a processes known as 'introgression' — on numerous occasions.
Elena Bosch, IBE principal investigator and co-leader of the study, and her team identified an adaptive variant among current human populations in a region of our genome that bears remarkable similarity to the genome of an extinct ancestral population: the Denisovans.
'We discovered that this mutation surely had implications for the transport of zinc within the cell,' said Bosch.
Researchers did look into Neanderthal heritage but found the population was absent of the mutation.
Rubén Vicente, MELIS-UPF principal investigator, then joined the team to analyze intracellular zinc's movement.
'Elena contacted me because her team had observed a change in an amino acid in a zinc transporter, which was very different between the populations of Africa and Asia today, Vicente said.
'From there, we started asking ourselves questions and looking for answers.'
His laboratory identified that the observed variant causes a new zinc balance within the cell, promoting a change in metabolism.
This led them to find that the mutation helped Denisovans cope with the cold, hostile climate that once ravaged Asia.
Scientists said SLC30A9 is the most widespread Denisovan gene discovered to date - starting in Asia and has spread to European and Native American populations.
Only recently with the advances in advances in genomic sequencing has it been possible for scientists to trace modern human's DNA back to our ancient ancestors."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12704055/Humans-having-sex-extinct-denisovans-suffer-mental-health-issues.html

 

There's at least one those within 10 miles of me. Iron Age, IIRC.
Also a Roman road which is still in use as a country road.

 

Didn't realise they were still a thing, just found this.
Flanders Moss is about 15 miles from my house, it's the last remnant of the peat bogs which covered the Forth Valley until a local landowner cleared them about 200 years ago. Still around 30' deep in places.
Corduroy Road – copying the past
The fact Stirling is on top of a hill, surrounded by other hills, above a Prehistoric seabed with a major river running through it, is probably why it seems to be permanently cloudy at night and frustrating my aurora-watching activities. Nothing again last night despite a red alert out, and the entire country around me being able to see something. Think I'll move to Orkney.