BBC item today Bulgaria’s ancient Thracian heritage has been thrust into the spotlight this year with a number of key archaeological discoveries in the so-called “Valley of the Thracian Kings”. The golden treasures are attracting international attention and there is a push to make the Thracian heritage Bulgaria’s trademark abroad in a bid to boost…
the shape of history
Jan Assmann and ancient monotheism
A talk and dinner tonight with Jan Assmann, the great Egyptologist – the topic – ancient monotheism. Fascinating. Jan Assmann tonight I am particularly interested in the early genealogy of religion, part of my Origins project. What I came away with was Jan’s distinction between universalist and globalist monotheisms. The first centers upon an inherent…
another unique species?
A BBC article on the new species of homo UK | Magazine | Eton or the zoo? raises some excellent questions. How would the new species be treated? If it is such a close relative, would we give these people the vote? The discovery of homo floresiensis reiterates what anthropologists have been saying for a…
a new species of homo?
The discovery of remains of another species of homo that lived alongside modern humans only 18 or even 13 thousand years ago is everywhere today – Guardian Unlimited | Life | “From 18,000 years ago, the one metre-tall human that challenges history of evolution” – a new “hobbit” species found on the Indonesian island of…
Guy Sanders on the excavations at Corinth
A few days ago I took Guy Sanders, Director of excavations in Corinth, to task about a recently reported story of enormous sarcophagi at Corinth, complaining that there was so much more to the early city of Corinth than this supposed and amazing technological first [Link] He posted a comment explaining that, as we might…
Excavating the mind
Chris (Witmore) is back from Denmark – we are planning fieldwork in Romania, in collaboration with Gothenburg, the Swedish National Heritage Board, and other colleagues from northern Europe. This is his report on a conference at Aarhus he attended – Excavating the Mind The Department of Prehistoric Archaeology in cooperation with the Centre for Cultural…