For Those Interested in Archaeology

"Jawdropping discovery".

 

24,000 to 1.9 million years is a he'll of a spread!

 

That's pretty good for the Daily Fail.

 

I'll give kudos to anyone to want to research Ancient history but I try to keep in mind the source. I recently had another talk with an acquaintance of mine, Quiche. He mentioned his ancestors dated back millennia and can still be found around the world and their shared memories would have a profound impact on today's understanding. He wouldn't say much about what he knows but enough to let me know I'd be better off not knowing too much.
One time I inadvertently offended him and he tossed me 30 yards into the lake. He hates being called Squatch

 

Was Ötzi's brain preserved?

 

I just wanted to compare it to my hillbilly cousins' brain-like matter.

 

You do realize you share the same DNA.
Just saying ! I've got relatives I don't consider Family. I swear I must have been adopted.

 

The primary objection to the "family idiocy" is that the hillbillies decided to voluntarily settle near the last operation lead mine in the US.

 

Little known fact : the kid wasn't really playing the Banjo. He just looked the part. Sneaky normal lookin' guy was hiding behind him and reaching around him. Which (!) goes to show their ability.

"Eric Weissberg, who arranged, played banjo on and won a Grammy for “Dueling Banjos,” from the 1972 movie Deliverance, died Sunday of Alzheimer’s disease complications. He was 80.

His son, Will Weissberg, confirmed the news to our sister publication Rolling Stone.

Born on August 16, 1939, in New York City, Weissberg was a bluegrass musician from an early age, having seen Pete Seeger play at his school in Greenwich Village, and went on to attend the Juilliard School of Music in the 1950s. He also played guitar, mandolin, fiddle, pedal steel, and string bass."

Eric Weissberg Dead: Arranger & Player On 'Dueling Banjos' Song From 'Deliverance' Was 80

 

Oh, I know a few hillbillies that graduated from Purdue about the same time as I got my Masters. When they first arrived they looked me up and gave me two cases of Mason jars, filled with moonshine. I was a happy camper.

 

I'm still nursing a Mason jar an Army Major dropped off years ago. Just a sip now and then.

 

Just thought I should try to nudge us back on topic. Hey, have I mentioned before I shook Roy Clarks hand? I have haven't I? It was 1971 so that's old times.

https://www.penn.museum/research/project.php?pid=12

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Chemical analyses of ancient organics absorbed, and preserved, in pottery jars from the Neolithic village of Jiahu, in Henan province, Northern China, have revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit was being produced as early as 9,000 years ago, approximately the same time that barley beer and grape wine were beginning to be made in the Middle East.

In addition, liquids more than 3,000 years old, remarkably preserved inside tightly lidded bronze vessels, were chemically analyzed. These vessels from the capital city of Anyang and an elite burial in the Yellow River Basin, dating to the Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties (ca. 1250-1000 BCE), contained specialized rice and millet "wines." The beverages had been flavored with herbs, flowers, and/or tree resins, and are similar to herbal wines described in the Shang dynasty oracle inscriptions.

The new discoveries, made by an international, multi-disciplinary team of researchers including the Penn Museum's archaeochemist Dr. Patrick McGovern, provide the first direct chemical evidence for early fermented beverages in ancient Chinese culture, thus broadening our understanding of the key technological and cultural roles that fermented beverages played in China.

The discoveries and their implications for understanding ancient Chinese culture are published in the PNAS Early Edition (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences): "Fermented Beverages of Pre-and Proto-historic China," by Patrick E. McGovern, Juzhong Zhang, Jigen Tang, Zhiquing Zhang, Gretchen R. Hall, Robert A. Moreau, Alberto Nuñez, Eric D. Butrym, Michael P. Richards, Chen-shan Wang, Guangsheng Cheng, Zhijun Zhao, and Changsui Wang. Dr. McGovern worked with this team of researchers, associated with the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei, the Institute of Archaeology in Beijing, the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Henan Province, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Firmenich Corporation, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), and the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr. McGovern first met with archaeologists and scientists, including his co-authors on the paper, in China in 2000, returning there in 2001 and 2002. Because of the great interest in using modern scientific techniques to investigate a crucial aspect of ancient Chinese culture, collaboration was initiated and samples carried back to the U.S. for analysis. Chemical tests of the pottery from the Neolithic village of Jiahu was of special interest, because it is some of the earliest known pottery from China. This site was already famous for yielding some of the earliest musical instruments and domesticated rice, as well as possibly the earliest Chinese pictographic writing. Through a variety of chemical methods including gas and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, infrared spectrometry, and stable isotope analysis, finger-print compounds were identified, including those for hawthorn fruit and/or wild grape, beeswax associated with honey, and rice.