Ancient Road Found at Maya Village Buried by Volcanic Ash 1,400 Years Ago

A University of Colorado Boulder-led team excavating a Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has unexpectedly hit an ancient white road that appears to lead to and from the town, which was frozen in time by a blanket of ash.

The road, known as a "sacbe," is roughly 6 feet across and is made from white volcanic ash from a previous eruption that was packed down and shored up along its edges by residents living there in roughly A.D. 600, said CU-Boulder Professor Payson Sheets, who discovered the buried village known as Ceren near the city of San Salvador in 1978. In Yucatan Maya, the word "sacbe" (SOCK'-bay) literally means "white way" or "white road" and is used to describe elevated ancient roads typically lined with stone and paved with white lime plaster and that sometimes connected temples, plazas and towns.

The sacbe at the buried village of Ceren -- which had canals of water running on each side -- is the first ever discovered at a Maya archaeology site that was built without bordering paving stones, said Sheets. The road was serendipitously discovered by the team while digging a test pit through 17 feet of volcanic ash in July to analyze agricultural activity on the edges of Ceren, considered the best preserved Maya village in Central America.

Yom Kippur-A History

Friday, October 7, 2011 is the date in which most American Jews will take time to observe Yom Kippur.  For many Christians, Jewish traditions are very foreign even though Christianity finds it's roots in Judaism.

Yom Kippur is known as the Day of Atonement.  It is considered the holiest day of the year for most Jews.  In the Torah, Yom Kippur is called Yom HaKippurim.  In the book of Leviticus, chapter 23 and verse 27, it forbids work on Yom Kippur.

Held on the tenth day of the seventh month, called Tishrei, Yom Kippur is traditionally known as the date when Moses received the second set of Ten Commandments.  It happened after the completion of the second 40 days of God's instructions.  It was at this time that the Israelites were granted atonement for building the golden calf to worship.  Therefore it is known as the Day of Atonement.

At the time the Temple was in Jerusalem, the High Priest was mandated by the Torah to apply a very detailed set of required services and sacrifices for Yom Kippur to become a Day of Atonement.  These were considered to be the most sacred of services performed by the Jews.  They would provide atonement to all Jews and the world.

Oktoberfest: The World's Largest Festival

It is billed as the world's largest festival.  Oktoberfest, which began as a German festival, circumvents the globe and is virtually celebrated in all parts of the world.

Oktoberfest's roots begin in the Bavarian capital, Munich.  It began as a celebration of the October 12, 1810 marriage of Prince Ludwig, who later became King Ludwig I, to Princess Theresa of Saxony-Hildburghausen.  The Prince organized a horse race and issued an invitation to all the people of Munich.  It has been said that this grand celebration was attended by more than 40,000 guests.  The guests consumed copious amounts of beer.  In 1811, the celebration  with massive amounts of beer  and the horse race was reinstated as part of the state agricultural show.

Eventually, the horse racing segment of the celebration was dropped and the celebration was extended to a two-week period beginning in late September and running through the first weekend in October.

The celebration has grown.  In 1997, 6.4 million people attended the event.  Oktoberfest in Munich continues to be held in the same site, Theresienwiese (which means field or meadow of Theresa) as the 1811 party.  It opens each year with a parade of what is called the Oktoberfest "landlords" and breweries.  The parade highlights included traditional Bavarian dancers in costumes, the Riflemen' Process, and of course music.  Even though the agricultural show is held only every third year, the brewery celebration is held annually.

Ancient Music Books Accessible To All

Fragile treasures of 16th Century music are now freely available online, thanks to a partnership between Royal Holloway, University of London, the British Library and JISC.

The Early Music Online project has digitised more than 300 books of the world’s earliest printed music from holdings at the British Library. Some of the books date back as far as the 1500s and, due to their fragile nature, would not be freely available to researchers, but thanks to this digitization project, musicians from around the world can now source the original music free of charge using the Early Music Online website.

Almost Never Happened: The story of one encounter during World War I that might have prevented World War II

93 years ago on September 28, 1918 a young British soldier, Private Henry Tandey found himself near the small village of Marcoing, France.  He was about to make a decision that profoundly affected human history for many years to come.

It was World War I, and life on earth was a tumultuous blood bath that no one ever could have comprehended.  The age of toxic gases being used as weapons was upon the world and automatic weapons were now officially part of the reality of war.  Life was no longer made of the simple days on the farm as it had been for so long for many young men of the time.

An original resident of Warwickshire, Tandey had taken part in the First Battle of Ypres in October of 1914.  He again found himself in the cross-hairs of war while at the Battle of the Somme in 1916.  It at the Battle of the Somme in 1916 that Tandey was wounded in the leg.  He was later released from the hospital and moved to the 9th Battalion which was in France at the time.  During the summer of 1917, he was again wounded.  This time he was hurt at the Third Battle of Ypres at Passchendaele.  From July 1918 to October of that same year Tandey was placed with the 5th Duke of Wellington Regiment.  While with that Regiment he helped take part in the British capture of Marcoing.

Dominating the Known World: Archaeologists Uncover Evidence of a Large Ancient Shipyard Near Rome

A Digital reconstruction of the shipyard from the west.  Inside, ships can be seen still while in construction.
(Photo by the University of Southamption)

University of Southampton and British School at Rome (BSR) archaeologists, leading an international excavation of Portus – the ancient port of Rome, believe they have discovered a large Roman shipyard.

The team, working with the Italian Archaeological Superintendancy of Rome, has uncovered the remains of a massive building close to the distinctive hexagonal basin or ‘harbour’, at the centre of the port complex.

University of Southampton Professor and Portus Project Director, Simon Keay comments, “At first we thought this large rectangular building was used as a warehouse, but our latest excavation has uncovered evidence that there may have been another, earlier use, connected to the building and maintenance of ships.

The First Wild West: In America's first West, one animal proved himself to be someone not to mess with.

Skeletal reconstruction of Talos sampsoni. (Photo by Scott Hartman.  Paper authors: Lindsay E. Zanno,
David J. Varricchio3, Patrick M. O'Connor, Alan L. Titus, Michael J. Knell)

Raptor dinosaurs like the iconic Velociraptor from the movie franchise Jurassic Park are renowned for their "fear-factor." Their terrifying image has been popularized in part because members of this group possess a greatly enlarged talon on their foot—analogous to a butcher's hook. Yet the function of the highly recurved claw on the foot of raptor dinosaurs has largely remained a mystery to paleontologists. This week a collaboration of scientists unveil a new species of raptor dinosaur discovered in southern Utah that sheds new light on this and several other long-standing questions in paleontology, including how dinosaurs evolved on the "lost continent" of Laramidia (western North America) during the Late Cretaceous—a period known as the zenith of dinosaur diversity. Their findings will be published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Who's the Culprit? Doubts Surface About Asteroid Family Believed Responsible for Dinosaur Extinction

Scientists think that a giant asteroid, which broke up long ago in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,
eventually made its way to Earth and led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.  This artist's concept shows a broken-up
asteroid.  (Graphic by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. -- Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not likely the culprit, keeping open the case on one of Earth's greatest mysteries.

While scientists are confident a large asteroid crashed into Earth approximately 65 million years ago, leading to the extinction of dinosaurs and some other life forms on our planet, they do not know exactly where the asteroid came from or how it made its way to Earth. A 2007 study using visible-light data from ground-based telescopes first suggested the remnant of a huge asteroid, known as Baptistina, as a possible suspect.

James Black: Master Blacksmith

One early version of the famous Bowie Knife
(Photo by Ark30inf-wikipedia commons)

James (Jim) Bowie perished at the Alamo holding back Santa Anna to allow Sam Houston the time he needed to gather forces to win the Texas battle for independence from Mexico.  However, his legend and the legend of his famous knife refused to die.  While tales about the knife dubbed the "Bowie Knife" and the "Arkansas Toothpick" circulated, little was ever told about the man responsible for the design and craftsmanship behind this famous knife: James Black.  Bowie's fame can hardly hold a candle to the life experiences of Black.

Time Capsule: 80-Million-Year-Old Feathers Captured in Amber

A feather from the late Cretaceous is trapped in amber.  (Photo by the University of Alberta-the University of Alberta
does not endorse Fossil HD)

(Edmonton) Secrets from the age of the dinosaurs are usually revealed by fossilized bones, but a University of Alberta research team has turned up a treasure trove of late Cretaceous feathers, which have been discovered trapped in tree resin.

Power of the Press: How one common cartoon character summed up the American Cause

In today's high tech world of the internet, 24/7 satellite television, and smart phones, it's easy to forget what life was like before all of the gadgets entered into our lives.  At one time the local radio station was our lifeline to world news.  In the not so distant pass the post office was our social network.  Believe it or not, newspapers used to exist primarily on paper rather than on the iPad.  The times have changed.

Almost everywhere you travel these days across the United States you hear about the downfall of our society.  While many people disagree on the core issues, most agree that the news media has become too biased and polarized as well as downright nasty.  Democrats jump on Fox News for their blatant support of the Republican Party, Republicans claim that MSNBC has become the pulpit for Democrats, and others are upset with seemingly the lack of professionalism in the media as a whole.

So where have we gone wrong?  Maybe that is not the best choice of questions.  Perhaps we should be asking  "Where did we learn this behavior?"

Jacob Shallus: Penman of the United States Constitution

(Photo by Jonathunder)

When the Thirteen Original Colonies felt forced into declaring their independence from the mother country of Great Britain, the Continental Congress must have felt overwhelmed.  They had to establish a government and a set of rules for the government.  This was no small task, but add to it the fact that the nation was at war with one of the most powerful nations in the world.  The delegates to the congress feared creating a government that would simply be trading one tyrannical government for another that could be equally as bad.  This fear drove them to proceed with caution as they drafted the Articles of Confederation.  Under the Articles, the government was too weak lacking the power to tax and having no chief executive to carry out the laws.  By 1787, it was clear that something must be done.

Newborn Dinosaur Discovered In Maryland

Fossil of the baby nodosaur.
(Photo by Ray Stanford)

No, this isn't Jurassic Park. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with help from an amateur fossil hunter in College Park, Md., have described the fossil of an armored dinosaur hatchling. It is the youngest nodosaur ever discovered, and a founder of a new genus and species that lived approximately 110 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous Era. Nodosaurs have been found in diverse locations worldwide, but they've rarely been found in the United States.  The findings are published in the September 9 issue of the Journal of Paleontology.

"Now we can learn about the development of limbs and the development of skulls early on in a dinosaur's life," says David Weishampel, Ph.D., a professor of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "The very small size also reveals that there was a nearby nesting area or rookery, since it couldn't have wandered far from where it hatched. We have the opportunity to find out about dinosaur parenting and reproductive biology, as well as more about the lives of Maryland dinosaurs in general."

Tough Turtles: Surviving the Cretaceous Meteorite Impact

Image 1(Photo by SVP)

New fossil localities from North Dakota and Montana have produced the remains of a turtle that survived the 65 million-year-old meteorite impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. The resulting study, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, suggests that Boremys, a turtle that belongs to a group known as the baenids (bay-een-ids) survived the extinction event unharmed. Baenids are a group of extinct river turtles native to North America that flourished from approximately 80 million to 42 million years ago.


The lead author, Tyler Lyson from Yale University, has been collecting turtles from the western United States for years, and immediately realized the importance of these new specimens, "This find further confirms that turtles were not fazed by the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years-ago."

The 900: The heroic Dogs of 9/11, a Decade Later

Cynthia Otto (center) is pictured with fellow
members of the Pennsylvania Urban Search
and Rescue Team. (Photo by upenn.edu)

After the attacks of 9/11, the heroism of first responders — firefighters, police officers, EMTs, rescue workers and more — became a source of hope and inspiration in a trying time. But one group of responders has remained relatively unsung: 9/11’s working dogs.

Though they are mostly owned by volunteer handlers and privately trained, an estimated 900 dogs were involved in the 9/11 response. They searched for survivors and human remains, patrolled with police officers and comforted both victims and rescue workers.

Cynthia Otto, assistant professor of critical care at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, saw the heroism of these dogs first hand. Otto was deployed with the Pennsylvania Urban Search and Rescue team, which consists of firefighters, medics, engineers and other specialists. Though the team did not officially have a slot for a veterinarian, Otto made the case that the team’s four search-and-rescue dogs needed just as much medical care as the people that would be handling them.

Museum of Natural and Cultural History opens Salish weaving exhibit

Native American Basket (Photo by Ernest Amoroso,
National Museum of the American Indian)

A new art exhibit at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History will showcase Native American weaving. "SQ3Tsya'yay: Weaver's Spirit Power by Susan Pavel" will be on view in the MNCH Galleria Sept. 7 through Jan. 29.

SQ3Tsya'yay is pronounced "cut-see-ya-ya" and means "Weavers Spirit Power." The exhibit includes woven blankets, used as clothing and worn on ceremonial occasions, and hand woven goat and sheep wool textiles. Visitors will have the opportunity to try their hand at weaving and touch samples of weavings and materials, including rare mountain goat wool.

sa'hLa mitSa (Susan Pavel) spent six years as an apprentice under Coast Salish master weaver subiyay (Bruce Miller) (Skokomish) to become a master weaver and weaving teacher.

Pavel will attend a free public reception to answer questions about her art from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 13, at the museum.

This was a press release from the University of Oregon.

An international music event which simultaneously spans two continents is to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

(Photo by Derek Gleeson)

An international music event which simultaneously spans two continents is to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

The two specially written works by Dr Kevin Malone, Head of Composition at The University of Manchester, will bring together Britain and America in an act of international solidarity to remember the victims of 9/11, ten years to the day after the tragedy.

The 45-minute public event — which is the brain child of Dr Malone — will be held at Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) in Greater Manchester and Wake Forest University’s Wait Chapel in North Carolina.

The two venues will be connected by live audio-video transmission displayed at both sites.

Unnecessary Extinction, A Recent Study Suggests that one animal was hunted to extinction for a problem it had nothing to do with.

The Tasmanian Tiger with it's
trademark striped back went extinct in the 1930's.

Australia's iconic thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, was hunted to death in the early Twentieth century for allegedly killing sheep; however, a new study published in the Zoological Society of London’s Journal of Zoology has found that the tiger had such weak jaws that its prey was probably no larger than a possum.

"Our research has shown that its rather feeble jaw restricted it to catching smaller, more agile prey," said lead author Marie Attard, of the University of New South Wales Computational Biomechanics Research Group. "That's an unusual trait for a large predator like that, considering its substantial 30 kg body mass and carnivorous diet. As for its supposed ability to take prey as large as sheep, our findings suggest that its reputation was at best overblown.

Guilty: Scientists Have Identified What Bacterium Caused the Greatest Epidemic In Human History

Yersinia Pestis, the culprit of the Black Plague.

Genetic analysis of medieval plague skeletons proves the presence of yersinia pestis bacteria. Collaboration between the University of Tübingen and Canadian scientists proves today’s plague pathogen has been around at least 600 years.

The Black Death claimed the lives of one-third of Europeans in just five years from 1348 to 1353. Until recently it was not certain whether the bacterium yersinia pestis – known to cause the plague today – was responsible for that most deadly outbreak of disease ever. Now, the University of Tübingen’s Institute of Scientific Archaeology and McMaster University in Canada have been able to confirm that yersinia pestis was behind the great plague.

Previous genetic tests indicating that the bacterium was present in medieval samples had previously been dismissed as contaminated by modern DNA or the DNA of bacteria in the soil. Above all, there was doubt because the modern plague pathogen spreads much more slowly and is less deadly than the medieval plague – even allowing for modern medicine.

Roman Civilization Travelled Further than History Books Tell Us

Roman Coins (Photo courtesy of
the Portable Antiquities Scheme and the
University of Exeter)

A University of Exeter archaeologist’s research has uncovered the largest Roman settlement ever found in Devon.

The discovery could force us to rewrite the history of the Romans in Britain.

The discovery of a large Roman Settlement in Devon was the result of a chance metal detecting coin find.  Danielle Wootton, the Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) and archaeologist at the University of Exeter was called on to investigate further.