For us...a thread in which we can ask Bob archeology questions

[Hawg73]

Again, I am not an expert on Yonaguni- but I did hear Dr. Schoch talk about it briefly and although he believed that it was the result of natural seismic activity, he did not entirely dismiss the possibility of artificial construction (.e.g, he did not think it was "absolutely a closed case"). He only said that he was unable to determine beyond a doubt that those particular structures were the result of human labor. His argument was that he could find no tool marks, nor could he find seams in the rock that suggested that there was any artificial fitting done, and until he could find conclusive proof, he was going to be inclined to think of it as the product of continual seismic activity.

I suppose that is the difference between a genuine scientist and a schlub like myself who posts on the internet. I see what surely looks like a big-ass carving of a head and think "well, somebody must've carved it", but Schoch is bound by the need to find actual scientific evidence, but it's good to know he is at least open to the man-made theory.

Since I posted that I happened to catch him on the history channel (a strange coincidence, since I never heard of him until this morning) and he was talking about the stones of Karnac in France and he said something to the effect that they could have been some sort of magnetic anti-gravity thing that focused the earth's natural electric field for some unknown purpose. So, it's not like the guy is just afraid to come up with a theory that could blow up in his face, because that wasn't exactly a conservative statement.

If he was looking to keep his academic street cred intact he could have just said "Hey, it's just a couple of rows of big rocks. It doesn't do anything."

Oh, and thanks.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

This is why you get so many of those wild theories and speculation- and most are pretty baseless. I am not an expert on the Minoan Civilization that existed on Santorini- but it is not far-fetced to assume that they were readily advanced in all aspects of technology that did not survive. It is a fact that they did have running water (gravity-induced). So it is not unreasonable that they would have sewer pipes as well.

Thanks.

One thing that everyone needs to be aware of is that there rarely are absolute answers in the field of archaeology. Frankly- and this honesty does hurt, the best that can be done is we make educated guesses based on the data available to us.

Yeah, I read some thing called "Digging the Weans" by Robert Nathan when I was in high school which drove that home very nicely. It's disconcerting to think that we really have no way of knowing something, but that's just how it is.

EDIT: Oh, I found it. Link added.

 

[ParanoidPatriot]

Bob, my wiener dogs keep digging in the back yard. What could they be looking for? Don't say "a bone", because the both have been spayed.

Are there any ancient Indian burial grounds in Maine? What would happen if someone built a house on one?

Have you ever locked yourself in your shed?

 

[AnOldTroll]

Are archeologists allowed to wear baseball/football caps or must they always sport a trusty ole rimmed hat?:shrug:

 

[AllWorldTE]

Bob,

Thanks for participating in this interesting thread. I find myself wondering about technology and archeology. How do you feel about the introduction of tools such as ground penetrating radar to the archeologist's took kit? Does this simply make life easier or does it diminish the experience of digging and finding sites through research and trial and error? Or are these new innovations simply ways to get more out of less ($$$)?

 

[WisColtFan7]

How advanced were the Sumerians in relativity to their neighbors and similar groups worldwide?

Why does Jeopardy keep asking questions about the Etruscians? Were they really that important?

Do you believe they will ever find the proverbial "missing link" in human evolution, or do you feel like I do that there will be discovered several links that will piece together the origins of man?
Posted via Mobile Device

 

[PatsFan09]

WCF, the Etruscans are pretty fascinating for a variety of reasons.

1. The Etruscans heavily influenced their neighbors, particularly the Romans. When you see a Roman temple, it's based on the Etruscan, not Greek, model. The Etruscans themselves RAN the Roman government back in Rome's early days; Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus were both Etruscans, as was Servius Tullius. Roman art was heavily influenced by the Etruscans, i.e. the veristic style of art, bronze statues, etc.

2. Even more importantly, the Etruscans were COMPLETELY different, and more sophisticated, than anyone in Europe at that time. They also had a completely different language than the Latin tribes of Italy, and may have even been from the Middle East originally. They left behind no written records, but their archaeological record is pretty impressive. What always impresses me are their sarcophagi, particularly the ones that have the figures of the husband and wife carved on the lids.

 

[Claremonster]

I can't help but notice he skipped right over the fridge question. That operation must still be classified.

 

[bob]

Bob, my wiener dogs keep digging in the back yard. What could they be looking for? Don't say "a bone", because the both have been spayed.

Are there any ancient Indian burial grounds in Maine? What would happen if someone built a house on one?

Have you ever locked yourself in your shed?

There most certainly are Indian burial grounds in Maine- I really doubt if it's possible to build on top of one, because most houses in Maine have basements which of course require digging a hole in the ground. Subsequently the discovery of a burial ground would require, by law, that the construction stop. What happens next depends on a whole lot of factors, (example: the local tribal council), on whether the bodies are disinterred and transferred or if the construction must cease permanently.

 

[bob]

Are archeologists allowed to wear baseball/football caps or must they always sport a trusty ole rimmed hat?:shrug:

A hat with a wide brim protects your ears and the back of your neck from severe sunburn, especially when you are near the equator.

 

[bob]

Bob,

Thanks for participating in this interesting thread. I find myself wondering about technology and archeology. How do you feel about the introduction of tools such as ground penetrating radar to the archeologist's took kit? Does this simply make life easier or does it diminish the experience of digging and finding sites through research and trial and error? Or are these new innovations simply ways to get more out of less ($$$)?

It is absolutely my pleasure- thank you for answering those complicated football questions.

GPR is really good if you know what to look for- and it can take the guesswork out of what and how much lays beneath the ground, especially if something above has to be destroyed (e.g., a parking lot). But if you just take it and throw it down on the nearest ground and expect it to spit out very exact and revealing information, you'd be disappointed.

GPR and any other technological wonder will never replaced good old-fashioned hard work, i.e., getting your hands dirty on a dig, and being able to get your hands on artifacts, and examining and dating them.

That being said- there are downsides to it- it is virtually useless where you have excess vegetation such as bushes (as in the desert) or high grass, and where the terrain is anything but flat. GPR can work on terrain that is moderately diverse, up to a point.

 

[The Gr8est]

This may or may not be Bob on a talk show.....


<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9YpBo9WuKRE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


oke:

 

[Claremonster]

Damn right! You don't see us indians building houses and stuff in all ya all's cemetaries, do ya? Huh? NO!


Phew. Glad I got that out of my system. I feel better now.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

A hat with a wide brim protects your ears and the back of your neck from severe sunburn, especially when you are near the equator.

For some reason I love this post.

And I now have a mancrush on bob, who joins the ranks of Troy Brown and Charles Barkley.

 

[bob]

How advanced were the Sumerians in relativity to their neighbors and similar groups worldwide?

Why does Jeopardy keep asking questions about the Etruscians? Were they really that important?

Do you believe they will ever find the proverbial "missing link" in human evolution, or do you feel like I do that there will be discovered several links that will piece together the origins of man?
Posted via Mobile Device

Boy, you are asking loaded questions!

History traditionally holds the Sumerian to be the most advanced civilization at the time, hence their moniker as the "Cradle of Civilization," naturally because of their well-preserved Cuneiform tablets, artifacts, and excess pottery due to the dry heat of what is today, Northern Iraq. However that school of thought is starting to soften as there is more evidence that other civilizations were also sufficiently developed at the same time, such as China, the Indus Valley, Andes, and Mesoamerica.

I do not really watch Jeopardy, so I am not sure why they should refer so much to the Etruscans- but since that is a quiz show, I think it's probably because so little is known about the Etruscans- indeed, where they came from and what happened to them is in general, a mystery. Indeed, their hold on history is pretty temporary, when you look at the tapestry of Western Civilization history.

And as far as the "missing link" is concerned- that is more of an anthropological question, indeed the specialty of a paleontologist, and I don't think I am well qualified to answer that.

 

[Flagg the Wanderer]

And as far as the "missing link" is concerned- that is more of an anthropological question, indeed the specialty of a paleontologist, and I don't think I am well qualified to answer that.

I'm sorry, you may not be aware that this is an internet message board. That part that I bolded? Not permissible language around here.

Careful, mister.

 

[bob]

WCF, the Etruscans are pretty fascinating for a variety of reasons.

1. The Etruscans heavily influenced their neighbors, particularly the Romans. When you see a Roman temple, it's based on the Etruscan, not Greek, model. The Etruscans themselves RAN the Roman government back in Rome's early days; Tarquinius Priscus and Tarquinius Superbus were both Etruscans, as was Servius Tullius. Roman art was heavily influenced by the Etruscans, i.e. the veristic style of art, bronze statues, etc.

2. Even more importantly, the Etruscans were COMPLETELY different, and more sophisticated, than anyone in Europe at that time. They also had a completely different language than the Latin tribes of Italy, and may have even been from the Middle East originally. They left behind no written records, but their archaeological record is pretty impressive. What always impresses me are their sarcophagi, particularly the ones that have the figures of the husband and wife carved on the lids.

Not to nitpick, but the Etruscans, in fact, predate the Romans (and so were not their neighbors). Where they come from is a mystery, but the general conjecture is that they originated somewhere in the Mediterranean and were a sea-faring people.

You are correct that they were very unique and had a heavy influence on the subsequent development of Roman Civilization, after they were expelled, circa 509 B.C.

 

[O_P_T]

Do you have an opinion on cataclysmic pole shifts?
I heard this program a while back where the speaker was very convincing, using this theory as an explanation for the rising and sinking of whole areas, within hours, days, weeks...

If you have no opinion, can you ask your extra-terrestrial buddies for me?

:Lwelcome:

Which type of "pole shifts" are you talking about?

If you mean geomagnetic reversal, that is the magnetic field of the Earth reversing so that a compass will now point south, there's little doubt it's happened many times in the earth's past and will happen again.

One of the best pieces of evidence for this is looking at the rocks in the ocean crust. When they flow out of the earth similar to lava at a mid ocean ridge, the magnetic elements in them align with the existing magnetic field of the earth. Once they cool, they are "locked in" and can be used to tell us how the field was aligned when they formed.

Core samples brought up has shown that they flip orientations over a period of time.

On a side note, it was the repetition of this pattern on either side of the mid Atlantic ridge that was one of the major pieces of evidence supporting the plate tectonics theory.

If on the other hand, you're talking about the crust of the earth sliding as one large piece over the underlying mantle, as shown in 2012 or from the funniest book of all time, so that the axis of rotation moves relative to the entire crust, well let me just say this about that.


:LOL::LOL::LOL:













Oh and I'm not kidding about Noone's book.

This is a direct quote from the book and discusses the phone number of the head Masonic temple in Washington D.C. It states:

“... if one called long distance information and asked for the telephone number of the Supreme Council of the temple they might be told: ‘Someone, Sirius, detached from the hive economy via internal biochemical auto-experiments should know the first two numbers are 2 and 3, which form the numbers 23’. those who understand Maya mathematics or those who understand the I Ching’s trigrams have already solved, by trans-time signalry between members of a divine effort, that the third and fourth numbers of the supreme Council’s telephone number would also be 2 and 3, which again form the number 23. Chance? The name Scottish Rite Freemasonry has 23 letters. Coincidence? The ‘lucky coincidences’ or syncronicities - as they are called in Jungian psychology - of the number 23 Wilson believes guided him to ‘a network of adepts that extend far beyond our Earth,’ which he connects with the enigma star Sirius. Wilson writes: ‘I definitely experienced impressions which I thought were communications from Sirius’ - a somewhat ambiguous statement, since those who know, know.”​

He had another wonderful bit about the great pyramid at Giza, specifically the angled portion that goes up to the burial chamber in the center of the pyramid.

He made some comment about the holes in the side of the walls along that passage, and what they signified.

They were for a machine that traveled at "unusual speed".

Of course, he never bothered to explain just what the "usual" speed any machine inside a pyramid should travel, but we were assured that this one was "unusual".

 

[Big/Sky/Fly]

I'm sure there is any number of members here that have other questions about different things (I'm looking at you, TGIASM).

:shrug:

I have nothing right now...I'm sure I'll have many different questions later.

Oh wait, why is most history made up and/or extremely edited and tainted "for our best interest"?

 

[Baron Samedi]

I have read several books and seen a few shows regarding the "discovery" of the Americas.

Has the archaeological community come to accept the notion that Columbus did not actually discover the Americas? Particularly given that there are maps showing Peurto Rico, Cuba, and Florida that predate Columbus? And Columbus's journal records his expectations of where he would arrive, and that he visited colonies in the Caribbean on his way to discover America?

Or that tobacco has been found in Egyptians mummies, a product native to North America?

There is loads of other anecdotal evidence, but I know for a fact that there are ancient maps showing North America on them predating Columbus...so I don't see how that can be disputed.

Second question...

Very near my cabin in Maine was an archaeological dig that turned up artifacts of "Clovis Man". I understand that is very significant, but I never really grasped what is so important about Clovis Man.

Perhaps you could explain it?

The site in question is known as the "Vail Site".....my recollection was it was around 1980 or so....but I could be off.