Ward World History

The Jerusalem Conquest of 492/1099 in the Medieval Arabic Historiography of the Crusades

2013-05-14T20:39:00.001-04:00

Introduction: In 2004 this journal published B. Kedar’s seminal article on the Jerusalem massacre in the western historiography of the Crusades. His article discussed reports ranging from eyewitness accounts to modern studies and tried to establish along the way a historically accurate picture of the events. On the basis of the medieval Latin (and also to some extent the Arabic) sources, Kedar concluded that ‘the massacre in Jerusalem was considerably more extensive than in other towns’. The present article examines the reports in (mostly Muslim) Arabic chronicles written between the early sixth/twelfth century and the end of the Mamluk era in 923/1517 to ask firstly what factual material these texts contain and secondly in what ways the authors ascribed meaning(s) to the conquest of Jerusalem. The argument in the following will thus be twofold and suggests firstly that the early Arabic sources do not imply that the conquest of Jerusalem was accompanied by a massacre that was more extensive than those in other towns. A number of contemporary or near-contemporary Arabic texts leave no doubt that a massacre did take place, but they contain no evidence of large-scale carnage of the town’s population that was any greater than that which took place in cities and towns such as Antioch, Caesarea or Maʿarrat al-Nuʿmān. The article’s second argument is that the conquest of the town only started to be remembered on a significant level several decades after the event itself.

It was only from this point onwards that the fall of the town gradually became a meaningful part of the region’s indigenous history and that it was described as a full-scale massacre.

As previous scholars have remarked, especially C. Hillenbrand, Arabic representations of the initial Crusader conquest are highly diverse and do not present a uniform picture. With reference to Jerusalem, I argue more specifically that three different conquest traditions developed quite independently of one another in Syria, Egypt and Iraq during the sixth/twelfth century. These traditions rarely agreed on what happened in the hours and days after the fall of Jerusalem and also disagreed on other issues such as the identity of the (Frankish/Byzantine) conquerors and their (Egyptian/Turkish/Muslim) opponents. It was only in the early seventh/thirteenth century with Ibn al-Athīr’s (d. 630/1233) chronicle that a non-regional conquest narrative emerged, which became the hegemonic way to present the events. Ibn al- Athīr’s evocative account of full-scale massacre and plunder as part of a Frankish-Muslim confrontation, hereafter termed the ‘Islamic narrative’, has remained popular until the present for the work of those scholars who argue that the conquest was indeed accompanied by a massacre. However, as the following will argue his account is, to say the least, of limited value for a historical reconstruction of the conquest of Jerusalem.

"Separation of Church and State": Prager University

2013-05-13T21:21:00.001-04:00

Builders bulldoze Mayan pyramid in Belize

2013-05-13T18:54:00.001-04:00

From: New York News

A construction company has essentially destroyed one of Belize's largest Mayan pyramids with backhoes and bulldozers to extract rock for a road-building project.

The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology says the destruction was detected late last week.
Only a small portion of center of the pyramid mound was left standing.

Dr. Jaime Awe says he was sickened by the destruction of the Nohmul pyramid and temple platform, which date back about 2,300 years.

Photos of the portion that remained showed what appeared to be classic Mayan-arched chamber dangling above one clawed-out section.

The Nohmul complex sits on private land, but Belizean law states any pre-Hispanic ruins is under government protection.

Chicago Alderman: Ban on Displaying Guns at City Museums Should be Lifted,

2013-05-08T18:34:00.001-04:00

From: DNAinfo.com

The city's most powerful alderman — Edward Burke (14th) — introduced an ordinance at Wednesday's City Council meeting that would allow Chicago museums to display unloaded firearms for historical purposes.

Currently, city museums are prohibited from lawfully displaying firearms of historic value, according to the city's long-standing gun ordinance.

Burke said Wednesday he recently learned of the "anomaly in the city code."

"Museums are caught in a dilemma that if they have in their collections artifacts that can be defined as firearms, even though there's historical significance to the memento, they can't be registered in the city and can't be displayed," Burke said.

Burke cited the example of Major General William P. Levine, one of the very first American soldiers to liberate the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.

Levine's family donated a German Walther PP he acquired during the war to the Pritzker Military Library following Levine's death in March, but the library is unable to display the gun under the current ordinance.

A history expert himself, Burke said allowing museums to display firearms like Levine's is a reasonable exemption to the city's ordinance, especially given museums across the country are free to do so.

"I think in Chicago, museums should have the same opportunity to display articles of historical significance even if they are firearms," he said.

Kenneth Clarke, CEO and President of the Pritzker Military Library, said the current policy leaves Chicago citizens missing out on a lot of history.

"It's about preserving the stories of citizen soldiers from World War II, World War I ... who have served our country," he said.

Clarke said the current city code is unclear if historic guns can even be stored in the museum's archives, so the library has moved its collection to a fire-proof safe at a gun range in the Chicago suburbs.

The library doesn't have the ability to store many firearms at that location, so it has had to turn away people who have wanted to donate their artifacts, Clarke said.

"The reality is there are a lot of historic firearms sitting across the city in closets and attics that nobody knows what to do with. ... Who knows where they end up," he said. "If the city were to have this kind of ordinance, libraries and museums could be places where those firearms go and are taken off the streets and properly secured."

The Pritzker Military Library has extensive security on its premises, just like any museum, Clarke said.

"They are stored in conditions that are likely to be preserved for the long haul," he said. "You’re talking about something that is not very accessible."

And even if someone were to get their hands on a historic gun, it's unlikely they'd be able to fire it.

"I don’t know if someone's going to find ammo for a German handgun from World War II all that readily," Clarke said, referring to the Levine's pistol Burke highlighted Wednesday.

Chicago has a well-known gun problem. Historic handguns aren't a part of it, he said.

"There are so many firearms available on the black market in Chicago, it's not likely these are going to be high on the list," he said. "These aren't the guns they want."

Burke's ordinance would allow museums to display "curios and relics" — historical firearms registered by the U.S. Department of Justice — if the council approves it.

The Field Museum, one of the the city's largest, has a historic gun collection in its archives but has never considered displaying it, said museum spokeswoman Nancy O'Shea.

"They're just artifacts in our collection," O'Shea said. "They can be accessed and studied [by] researchers who would find them interesting."

O'Shea did not have immediate information available on what era the guns are from. Clarke said any guns from before 1898 are allowed for archives and display in the city.

Review: "A Wicked War"

2013-05-06T19:03:00.000-04:00

From: Washington Times

The title of this book about the U.S-Mexican War (1846-47) gives away the author’s bias. It is lifted from a statement Ulysses S. Grant made in 1867, 20 years after the war ended.

The author, Amy Greenberg, is described on the jacket as “a leading scholar of Manifest Destiny.” It seems odd, therefore, that in this book she does not document the popularity of that concept among the people of James K. Polk’s time.

A theme running throughout the book is that Polk lied to Congress and the people, using a pretext to wage war. Ms. Greenberg also makes much of the point that this was the first case of one republic going to war with another. Ever since its independence from Spain in 1822, Mexico’s republican status was tenuous. There were constant power struggles among factions and frequent changes of president. One result was that possessions, notably Alta, Calif. (today’s state) had little oversight from Mexico.

American settlers, the British and Russians all had designs on the real estate. Polk wanted to acquire California and was willing to pay for it.

Early in his presidency, Polk had a conversation with Navy Secretary George Bancroft in which he laid out his four goals: acquire California, settle the Oregon boundary dispute with the British, lower tariffs and create an independent Treasury (which foreshadowed the Federal Reserve system). The author quotes from this conversation, although no known transcript exists. She says that Bancroft was “shocked” by Polk’s objectives, although this is unlikely. Bancroft himself was an expansionist.

Polk was a dour workaholic who made few friends and kept his own counsel, but he achieved all four of his goals during his only four-year term. By the time he left office, he was burned out. He died three months later.

Despite the author’s judgment that Polk was a man lacking moral scruples, she is a good writer, and the story of the war and its antecedents moves along at a brisk pace. She tells that story by following the careers and moves of Polk, Henry Clay (his Whig rival for the presidency in 1844), Abraham Lincoln, John J. Hardin (Lincoln’s predecessor in Congress, who died a hero’s death in the Mexican War) and Nicholas Trist (a ranking State Department official). She also explores the considerable importance of Sarah Polk as her husband’s partner and best friend.

Texas was admitted to the Union just before Polk was inaugurated. It had been a breakaway republic from Mexico for 10 years. It brought with it an unresolved boundary dispute. Mexico claimed that the international boundary was the Nueces River. Texas and the United States claimed it was the Rio Grande, to the south. Mexico had refused to recognize the Texas Republic. After its annexation, Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with the United States. In addition to the boundary dispute, the United States sought reparations for some of its citizens from Mexico. An independent commission said Mexico should pay the United States $2 million to compensate these people. It refused.

When Mexico also refused to negotiate, Polk sent troops to the disputed area in case Mexico should cross the river. Its troops did just that, killing 11 American troops. Polk considered this an act of war and asked Congress for permission to invade Mexico. Since the action had occurred in disputed territory was Polk a war provocateur? Congress debated, after which it voted heavily in favor of his request. The author asserts that the opposition, “watched helplessly as Polk’s supporters ruthlessly stifled debate and foisted war on Congress and the country.”

There is no question that many Americans favored expansion of the nation all the way to the Pacific. Some of these were Westerners; others, Southern slave owners who saw the possibility of new slave states entering the Union. Many Whigs, especially in the Northeast, were abolitionists and strongly against the admission of any more slave states.

As casualties grew and advances came more slowly, by early 1847, popularity of the war declined. The author claims at one point that most Americans opposed the war, but offers no proof because there is none. She also says, “The majority of the people in Mexico steadfastly believed the Nueces River was the rightful boundary,” but again offers no proof. Ringing statements of public figures no doubt denote support, but in the absence of public opinion polls, sweeping conclusions seem unwarranted.

Despite her disdain for Polk, Ms. Greenberg pays him something of a compliment: ” … during his single brilliant term, he accomplished a feat that earlier presidents would have considered impossible.”

Pope Francis to canonise 800 Italians slain during historic siege

2013-05-01T19:57:00.000-04:00

From: CatholicHerald

Pope Francis is preparing to canonise an estimated 800 Italian laymen killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century. The canonisation service will be on May 12 in St Peter’s Square and it will be the first carried out by the Pontiff since he was elected in early March.

The killing of the martyrs by Ottoman troops, who launched a weeks-long siege of Otranto, a small port town at the most eastern tip of southern Italy, took place in 1480.

When Otranto residents refused to surrender to the Ottoman army, the soldiers were ordered to massacre all males over the age of 15. Many were ordered to convert to Islam or die, but Blessed Antonio Primaldo, a tailor, spoke on the prisoners’ behalf. “We believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, and for Jesus Christ we are ready to die,” he said, according to Blessed John Paul II, who visited Otranto in 1980 for the 500th anniversary of the martyrs’ deaths.

Primaldo inspired all the other townspeople to take courage, the late Pope said, and to say: “We will all die for Jesus Christ; we willingly die so as to not renounce his holy faith.” There were not “deluded” or “outdated,” Blessed John Paul continued, but “authentic, strong, decisive, consistent men” who loved their city, their families and their faith.

The skulls and other relics of the martyrs currently adorn the walls around the altar of Otranto Cathedral as a memorial to their sacrifice. According to the archdiocese’s website, popular tradition holds that when the soldiers beheaded Primaldo, his body remained standing even as the combatants tried to push him over. Legend has it that the decapitated man stood until the very last prisoner was killed, at which point Primaldo’s body collapsed next to his dead comrades.

In 1771, the Church recognised the validity of the local veneration of Primaldo and his companions and allowed them to be called Blessed. In 2007, retired Pope Benedict XVI formally recognised their martyrdom and, in 2012, he recognised a miracle attributed to their intercession. Martyrs do not need a miracle attributed to their intercession in order to be beatified. However, miracles must be recognised by the Vatican in order for them to become saints.

The miracle involved the late-Poor Clare Sister Francesca Levote. She was suffering from a serious form of cancer but was healed after a pilgrimage to pray before the martyrs’ relics in Otranto in 1980, a few months before Pope John Paul’s visit in October. She died in February 2012 at the age of 85.

In a letter published in December 2012, Archbishop Donato Negro of Otranto said that the martydom of the townnsfolk must represent a “purification of the memory of the Catholic Church and a rooting out of every possible lingering resentment, rancor, resentful policies, every eventual temptation toward hatred and violence, and every presumptuous attitude of religious superiority, religious arrogance, moral and cultural pride.”

Remembering Christian martyrs is an occasion to examine one’s own life and make sure it corresponds with the Gospel call to love and forgive, he added.

Richard III gravesite may include medieval knight

2013-04-30T23:10:00.001-04:00

From: NBC NEWS

The lost English church where the body of King Richard III was discovered may still yield more treasures, researchers say. Archaeologists at the site in Leicester are preparing to expand their dig in the hopes of opening the grave of a possible medieval knight.

Richard III's battle-scarred bones were exhumed last year from underneath a parking lot that had been covering the ruins of the medieval Grey Friars Church. Researchers found three other tombs during their search for the king, including a 600-year-old lead-lined stone coffin that may contain the body of Sir William Moton, a knight thought to have been buried at Grey Friars in 1362, more than 100 years earlier than Richard III's death in 1485.

Archaeologists hope to excavate the possible grave of Moton in July during a proposed expansion of their dig at the former Alderman Newton Grammar School, which is set to be converted into a Richard III heritage center. The researchers say the tomb will be incorporated into a visitors' center.

"This will be a great opportunity to confirm the plan of the east end of the Grey Friars church to learn more about its dating and architecture, and will give us the chance to investigate other burials known to be inside the building," archaeologist Richard Buckley, of the University of Leicester, said in a statement.

Relying on historical records, Buckley and his team started digging beneath the Leicester City Council parking lot on Aug. 25, 2012, looking for the final resting place of Richard III. They soon found the church, a 17th-century garden marked by paving stones, and then a male skeleton with a spine curved by scoliosis, a skull cleaved with a blade, and a barbed metal arrowhead lodged among the vertebrae of the upper back.

These clues led researchers to believe they had finally uncovered the body of Richard III, who ruled England from 1483 until his death in 1485 in battle during the War of the Roses. In February, researchers announced that DNA from the teeth and a bone matched with a modern descendant of the king. The body eventually will be reinterred in the Leicester Cathedral.

The archaeologists have applied to the Ministry of Justice for an exhumation license and to Leicester City Council to extend their dig at the site.

"It's important that the University is given the chance to continue its excavation of the site, as it's quite possible there are more interesting discoveries to be made within the old Grey Friars church," said Leicester's mayor, Peter Soulsby, in a statement.

Ancient Europeans mysteriously vanished 4,500 years ago

2013-04-23T18:27:00.001-04:00

From: NBC NEWS

The genetic lineage of Europe mysteriously transformed about 4,500 years ago, new research suggests.

The findings, detailed Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, were drawn from several skeletons unearthed in central Europe that were up to 7,500 years old.

"What is intriguing is that the genetic markers of this first pan-European culture, which was clearly very successful, were then suddenly replaced around 4,500 years ago, and we don't know why," study co-author Alan Cooper of the University of Adelaide Australian Center for Ancient DNA said in a statement. "Something major happened, and the hunt is now on to find out what that was."The new study also confirms that people sweeping out from Turkey colonized Europe, likely as a part of the agricultural revolution, reaching Germany about 7,500 years ago.

For decades, researchers have wondered whether people, or just ideas, spread from the Middle East during the agricultural revolution that occurred after the Mesolithic period.

To find out, Cooper and his colleagues analyzed mitochondrial DNA, which resides in the cells' energy-making structures and is passed on through the maternal line, from 37 skeletal remains from Germany and two from Italy; the skeletons belonged to humans who lived in several different cultures that flourished between 7,500 and 2,500 years ago. The team looked at DNA specifically from a certain genetic group, called haplogroup h, which is found widely throughout Europe but is less common in East and Central Asia.

The researchers found that the earliest farmers in Germany were closely related to Near Eastern and Anatolian people, suggesting that the agricultural revolution did indeed bring migrations of people into Europe who replaced early hunter-gatherers.

But that initial influx isn't a major part of Europe's genetic heritage today.

Instead, about 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, the genetic profile changes radically, suggesting that some mysterious event led to a huge turnover in the population that made up Europe.

The Bell Beaker culture, which emerged from the Iberian Peninsula around 2800 B.C., may have played a role in this genetic turnover. The culture, which may have been responsible for erecting some of the megaliths at Stonehenge, is named for its distinctive bell-shaped ceramics and its rich grave goods. The culture also played a role in the expansion of Celtic languages along the coast.

"We have established that the genetic foundations for modern Europe were only established in the Mid-Neolithic, after this major genetic transition around 4,000 years ago," study co-author Wolfgang Haak, also of the Australian Center for Ancient DNA, said in a statement. "This genetic diversity was then modified further by a series of incoming and expanding cultures from Iberia and Eastern Europe through the Late Neolithic."

Mysterious sundial may be secret to Viking navigation

2013-04-12T19:26:00.000-04:00

From: NBC NEWS

A mysterious Viking sundial found in Greenland may have helped the ancient mariners sail at the same north-south latitude across the Atlantic, new research suggests.

The study, detailed Tuesday in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A Mathematical and Physical Sciences, suggests that the raiding Norsemen might have been even more impressive sailors than previously thought.

"It is widely accepted that Norse people were excellent mariners. Now it seems they used much more sophisticated navigational instruments than we thought before," said study co-author Balázs Bernáth, a researcher at Eötvös University in Hungary

Mysterious artifact

Exactly how Vikings navigated the open seas has been the subject of speculation and folklore. Researchers think the Vikings used sophisticated sun compasses to find true north and relied on a "magic" crystal to navigate on cloudy days. (Scientists recently unearthed evidence of one of these Viking sunstones.)

In 1948, an archaeologist discovered a mysterious wooden artifact under the ruins of a Benedictine monastery in a fjord in Uunartoq, Greenland, which was settled by Norse farmers during the 10th century. The artifact, shaped into a half-circle, had a center hole and a zigzag engraved along its perimeter. Several lines had also been scratched onto the plate's interior.

Some skeptics argued it was a household decoration, but most researchers thought it was an elusive Viking sun compass. Past researchers even took a similarly constructed compass aboard replica Viking ships and tested its navigational mettle.

But navigational lines scored on the compass were incomplete, so this ancient sundial wasn't great at finding North. It was off by about one degree, which could lead to days of sailing in the wrong direction, said Amit Lerner, an ocean optics researcher at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who was not involved in the study.

Ancient marinersThat led the team behind the new study to wonder whether the compass had a more sophisticated primary function: determining latitude, or the north-south position on the globe.

"Vikings performed latitude sailing, which means crossing open seas along a chosen latitude. For example, they regularly sailed more than 1,600 miles (2,500 kilometers) along the 61st latitude from Norway to Greenland and back. To do that, one needs a fine compass or needs to regularly check his or her current latitude," Bernath said.

But wind and ocean currents would have quickly diverted the Vikings' small ships, forcing the mariners to frequently check their latitude to stay on course. While Arabian sailors used the stars to check latitude, Vikings sailed near the Arctic Circle, where the sun never sets in summer. So they must have navigated by the sun, not the stars, researchers reasoned.

The team found that at noon every day, when the sun is highest in the sky, a dial in the center of the compass would have cast a shadow between two lines on the plate. The ancient seafarers could have measured the length of that noon shadow using scaling lines on the dial, and then determined the latitude.But while the calculations of latitude and longitude may be accurate, there's no way to test their hypothesis, Lerner told LiveScience.

"Nobody can know for sure if it's true or not," Lerner said.

WWI names found on theatre wall during renovation

2013-04-11T19:15:00.001-04:00

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

roy jenkins vs margaret thatcher

2013-04-08T23:32:00.000-04:00

The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher, and Ronald Reagan's 83rd Birthday [1/5]

2013-04-08T19:18:00.001-04:00

Thatcher announces the Falklands invasion to the House of Commons

2013-04-08T15:30:00.001-04:00

William Lane Craig: The Evidence for Jesus's Resurrection. Southampton G...

2013-04-03T16:27:00.001-04:00

What is Christian Gnosticism?

2013-04-01T22:26:00.001-04:00

From: Got Questions?

Question: "What is Christian Gnosticism?"

Answer: There is actually no such thing as Christian Gnosticism, because true Christianity and Gnosticism are mutually exclusive systems of belief. The principles of Gnosticism contradict what it means to be a Christian. Therefore, while some forms of Gnosticism may claim to be Christian, they are in fact decidedly non-Christian.

Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.

Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means “to know.” Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plain of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God.

To discredit the idea of any compatibility between Christianity and Gnosticism, one has only to compare their teachings on the main doctrines of the faith. On the matter of salvation, Gnosticism teaches that salvation is gained through the acquisition of divine knowledge which frees one from the illusions of darkness. Although they claim to follow Jesus Christ and His original teachings, Gnostics contradict Him at every turn. Jesus said nothing about salvation through knowledge, but by faith in Him as Savior from sin. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Furthermore, the salvation Christ offers is free and available to everyone (John 3:16), not just a select few who have acquired a special revelation.

Christianity asserts that there is one source of Truth and that is the Bible, the inspired, inerrant Word of the living God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice (John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12). It is God’s written revelation to mankind and is never superseded by man’s thoughts, ideas, writings, or visions. The Gnostics, on the other hand, use a variety of early heretical writings known as the Gnostic gospels, a collection of forgeries claiming to be “lost books of the Bible.” Thankfully, the early church fathers were nearly unanimous in recognizing these Gnostic scrolls as fraudulent forgeries that espouse false doctrines about Jesus Christ, salvation, God, and every other crucial Christian truth. There are countless contradictions between the Gnostic “gospels” and the Bible. Even when the so-called Christian Gnostics quote from the Bible, they rewrite verses and parts of verses to harmonize with their philosophy, a practice that is strictly forbidden and warned against by Scripture (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19).

The Person of Jesus Christ is another area where Christianity and Gnosticism drastically differ. The Gnostics believe that Jesus’ physical body was not real, but only “seemed” to be physical, and that His spirit descended upon Him at His baptism, but left Him just before His crucifixion. Such views destroy not only the true humanity of Jesus, but also the atonement, for Jesus must not only have been truly God, but also the truly human (and physically real) man who actually suffered and died upon the cross in order to be the acceptable substitutionary sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 2:14-17). The biblical view of Jesus affirms His complete humanity as well as His full deity.

Gnosticism is based on a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward, emotional approach to truth which is not new at all. It is very old, going back in some form to the Garden of Eden, where Satan questioned God and the words He spoke and convinced Adam and Eve to reject them and accept a lie. He does the same thing today as he “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). He still calls God and the Bible into question and catches in his web those who are either naïve and scripturally uninformed or who are seeking some personal revelation to make them feel special, unique, and superior to others. Let us follow the Apostle Paul who said to “test everything. Hold on to the good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and this we do by comparing everything to the Word of God, the only Truth.

Israel’s Early Stone Age Farmers

2013-03-27T18:25:00.001-04:00

From: Archaeology Magazine

Construction of a new railway line in northern Israel has uncovered two settlements, the first from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period. These buildings were carved from the bedrock, and some of them had plaster floors. “We found a large number of flint and obsidian arrowheads, polished miniature stone axes, blades and other flint and stone tools. The large amount of tools made of obsidian, a material that is not indigenous to Israel, is indicative of the trade relations that already existed with Turkey, Georgia, and other regions during this period,” said Yizhak Paz and Ya’akov Vardi of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

They also found thousands of charred broad bean seeds in a pit, indicating that these early farmers were growing legumes. Later buildings, from the Early Chalcolithic period, were constructed with thick walls of stone and clay and were sometimes covered with plaster. Archaeologists also found pig bones, pottery and flint tools, in addition to a stone phallus figurine and a palette on which an image of female genitals had been etched. The scientists say these symbolic items represented the fertility of the earth.

Audio: Supreme Court Justices Hear Oral Arguments In Prop 8 Case

2013-03-26T18:16:00.001-04:00

Pre-Viking tunic found on glacier as warming trend aids archaeology

2013-03-21T19:32:00.001-04:00

From: NBC

A pre-Viking woolen tunic found beside a thawing glacier in south Norway shows how global warming is proving something of a boon for archaeology, scientists said on Thursday.

The greenish-brown, loose-fitting outer clothing — suitable for a person up to about 5 feet, 9 inches tall (176 centimeters) — was found 6,560 feet (2,000 meters) above sea level on what may have been a Roman-era trade route in south Norway. Carbon dating showed it was made around the year 300.

"It's worrying that glaciers are melting, but it's exciting for us archaeologists," Lars Piloe, a Danish archaeologist who works on Norway's glaciers, said at the first public showing of the tunic, which has been studied since it was found in 2011.

A Viking mitten dating from the year 800 and an ornate walking stick, a Bronze Age leather shoe, ancient bows, and arrowheads used to hunt reindeer are also among 1,600 artifacts found in Norway's southern mountains since thawing accelerated in 2006.

One ancient wooden arrow had a tiny shard from a seashell as a sharp tip, revealing intricate craftsmanship.

Receding glaciers

The 1991 discovery of Otzi, a prehistoric man who roamed the Alps 5,300 years ago between Austria and Italy, is the best-known glacier find. In recent years, other finds have been made from Alaska to the Andes, many because glaciers are receding.

The shrinkage is blamed on climate change, stoked by human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels.

The archaeologists said the tunic showed that Norway's Lendbreen glacier, where it was found, had not been so small since 300. When exposed to air, untreated ancient fabrics can disintegrate in weeks because of insect and bacteria attacks.

A view over a valley in the mountains of south Norway where a 1,700-year-old loose-fitting tunic was found.

"The tunic was well-used — it was repaired several times," said Marianne Vedeler, a conservation expert at Norway's Museum of Cultural History.

The tunic is made of lamb's wool with a diamond pattern that had darkened with time. Only a handful of similar tunics have survived so long in Europe.

Climate's impact

The warming climate is having an impact elsewhere.

Patrick Hunt, a Stanford University expert who is trying to find the forgotten route that Hannibal took over the Alps with elephants in a failed invasion of Italy in 218 B.C., said the Alps were unusually clear of snow at the level of 2,500 meters last summer.

Receding snows are making searching easier.

"I favour the Clapier-Savine Coche route (over the Alps) after having been on foot over at least 25 passes including all the other major candidates," he told Reuters by e-mail.

The experts in Oslo said one puzzle was why anyone would take off a warm tunic by a glacier.
One possibility was that the owner was suffering from cold in a snowstorm and grew confused with hypothermia, which sometimes makes suffers take off clothing because they wrongly feel hot.

Michael Crichton on Environmentalism as a Religion

2013-03-20T18:11:00.001-04:00

Rewriting American History In A Radical Way

2013-03-19T18:25:00.000-04:00

From: EAG News

CREATE Wisconsin, a teachers training program sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, has more than one item on its questionable agenda.

First and foremost is its fascination with the concept of “white privilege,” and the theory that it causes millions of minority children to struggle in school and be unfairly placed in special education programs.

The program encourages teachers to customize education to minority students as much as possible, since it claims it’s unfair to expect them to succeed in today’s K-12 classrooms.

But CREATE Wisconsin is about much more than education. It seems clear that most of the people behind the program have a dim view of the United States, its history, and its socio-economic system. If they’re not avowed Marxists, these folks are the next best thing.

They obviously expect K-12 teachers who attend their events to incorporate radical political messages into their daily lessons, regardless of the grade level they teach. Their goal seems to be the political indoctrination of students into their leftist movement. Perhaps they consider that a necessary first step toward an eventual social revolution that will recreate America in their preferred image.

For instance, CREATE Wisconsin encourages teachers to treat early American history as a hostile invasion of blood-thirsty Europeans who were determined to exterminate native populations and steal the continent for themselves.

As if history were that simple to understand, interpret or teach. If history teaches us anything, it’s that there are two sides to every story, and usually a degree of right and wrong on both sides. But that fact seems to be lost on the CREATE Wisconsin crowd.

You can also view the attached EAGnews expose, “RE-CREATING AMERICA: Cultural Sensitivity in Wisconsin Schools.”

Perhaps the best example is a first Thanksgiving role-play exercise designed for K-5 students and posted on the CREATE Wisconsin website.

The exercise is designed around the following story, which supposedly symbolizes what the arrival of the Pilgrims must have been like for Native Americans who lived near the site of the Plymouth settlement.

“One day, when you are home alone, a strange object comes slowly into view in the sky. You’ve never seen anything like it before. It is a strange shape and very large. It lands in your own back yard! Soon very strange-looking people get out; they are dressed in clothes very different from yours and talk to each other in a way you cannot understand.

“You are hiding so that they cannot see you. You don’t want them to see you because you are trying to figure out who they are and what they want. You have heard about people who look like this from your mother and father.

“They walk about, pick up your toys and pets and examine them closely. One gets into your car, turns the key and drives all around on the grass and through the garden. Others are helping themselves to the tomatoes in the garden and the apples and plums on the trees. Then they fill a lot of big baskets with the fruit and vegetables from your garden and put them in the big machine they arrived in.

“Then they come straight toward your house! Without even ringing the bell, they come through the door and go through every room, picking up things and looking closely at them, talking and laughing among themselves. They really don’t seem to be afraid or even embarrassed about being in your house.”

The story goes on to explain how the strange aliens settle right in the backyard, cut down one of the biggest trees and built a house “in that favorite spot of yours back there by the stream.” Then they cut down more trees and build a half a dozen houses.

“You stare at all the activity going on out there in your backyard. Suddenly you start to cry. These strange people who have come from somewhere far off and who are so very rude are not going away – ever. They are going to stay. They are going to live in your own backyard and use your garden and your toys and fish in your stream and cut down your trees and act as if it all belonged to them!”

The lesson plan on the CREATE Wisconsin website admits that the above story is “simplistic and somewhat melodramatic.”

Really?

Were the pilgrims really this horrible to the Native Americans they encountered, particularly from the very beginning? And were the Native Americans really as timid and harmless as the abused people in this story?

It boils down to the fact that two very different races of people suddenly found themselves neighbors following their separate migrations from different continents. Many Native Americans and European settlers were probably equally frightened of, and intolerant toward, each other. What followed were centuries of mistrust, war, abuse, and a great deal of tragedy.

Does it help anything to assign singular blame in a historical sense? Not unless your goal is to demonize one group of people, disparage the history of the United States and try to perpetuate centuries of hatred.

So much for healing and bringing people closer together. But it’s pretty clear that was never the goal of CREATE Wisconsin in the first place.

Recommended reading by revolutionaries

One “highly recommended” textbook for teachers on the CREATE Wisconsin list is “Columbus and other Cannibals” by Jack Forbes, which describes Christopher Columbus and other early European explorers as agents of “terrorism, genocide and ecocide.”

Another recommended text, “Rethinking Columbus, the Next 500 Years,” includes a paragraph that suggests we’re doing a fine job of living up to the Italian explorer’s horrific legacy:

“From the poisonous chemical dumps and mining projects that pollute and threaten groundwater, to oils spills on the coastal shorelines, to the massive clear-cutting of old-growth forests, Columbus’ exploitive spirit lives on.”

Yet another recommended text, “A People’s History of the United States” by the late leftist scholar Howard Zinn, presents the entire American experience as the struggle of the downtrodden masses to survive under the withering rule of the privileged few.

What’s the point of all this America-bashing? CREATE Wisconsin seems to want teachers to become agents of “social change” within their classrooms, and preach the language of social revolution to children.

One 2012 CREATE Wisconsin conference speaker, Dr. Geneva Gay, went so far as to suggest that social change will have to be forced upon Americans in ways that probably don’t fit our democratic traditions:

“We know that social change is not something that comes about because people want to do it. There has to be some sort of mandatory kind of accountability tracking that’s going on. This requires fundamental change and change is difficult for most of us to engage with.”

Particularly the way she says it must happen. Thanks, but no thanks.

There’s nothing wrong with teaching K-12 students about the shameful aspects of our national history, like slavery, institutional segregation, the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan, the “Trail of Tears” that led to the horrible deaths of thousands of Indians, and the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II – just to name a few of the more obvious items.

But most Americans still recognize that we live in one of the most open, free and democratic nations in the history of the world. Our democratic institutions, like our freedom of speech, expression and press, allow us to look critically at ourselves and improve over time.

And we have improved. While much older societies around the world still struggle with ancient conflicts between various racial groups, the U.S. has done an admiral job of addressing its shortcomings and creating a better society for all.

Our nation will continue to address its challenges and improve, unless we give our children the mistaken impression that we live in a hopelessly evil country built upon the unstable foundations of institutional racism and unfair distribution of material wealth.

That seems to be the goal of CREATE Wisconsin.

The real question is whether Wisconsin parents want their children to learn such lessons, and whether they will continue to stand for the dissemination of this one-sided nonsense in publicly-funded classrooms.

Vatican Library To Go Online

2013-03-12T23:32:00.000-04:00

Chaplain Emil J. Kapaun to get Medal of Honor posthumously

2013-03-11T20:25:00.000-04:00

From: Army Times

Chaplain (Capt.) Emil J. Kapaun, a World War II and Korean War veteran who repeatedly sacrificed his own safety to care for his fellow soldiers, will be honored April 11 with the nation’s highest award for valor.

The White House announced Monday that President Obama will present the Medal of Honor to Kapaun.

Kapaun will receive the award posthumously for his extraordinary heroism while serving with 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, during combat operations in Unsan, Korea, and as a prisoner of war, according to the White House announcement.

“When Chinese Communist Forces viciously attacked friendly elements, Chaplain Kapaun calmly walked through withering enemy fire in order to provide comfort and medical aid to his comrades,” the White House statement reads.

When the soldiers were surrounded by the enemy, on Nov. 2, 1950, the able-bodied men were ordered to evacuate the area. Kapaun, “fully aware of his certain capture, elected to stay behind with the wounded,” according to the White House statement.

“As hand-to-hand combat ensued, he continued to make rounds. As enemy forces approached the American position, Chaplain Kapaun noticed an injured Chinese officer amongst the wounded and convinced him to negotiate the safe surrender of the American forces. Shortly after his capture, Chaplain Kapaun bravely pushed aside an enemy soldier preparing to execute a comrade, thus saving a life and inspiring all those present to remain and fight the enemy until captured,” the White House said.

Upon capture, Kapaun and the other prisoners of war were forced to walk more than 85 miles to the city of Pyoktong, North Korea, according to a statement from the 1st Cavalry Division.

During this march through snow and ice, Kapaun helped the wounded and encouraged other soldiers to do the same. In captivity, Kapaun snuck around to more than 200 fellow POWs to say prayers and give support. He also secretly moved able-bodied men out to the countryside at night, while avoiding the guards, to get food and firewood to help keep the prisoners alive.

Kapaun, whom fellow prisoners nicknamed the “good thief,” was a POW until he died from a blood clot on May 23, 1951.

In August 1951, Kapaun was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross; the Medal of Honor is an upgrade of that award, according to information from the 1st Cavalry Division.

Conclave: The making of a pope

2013-03-09T15:14:00.005-05:00

More than 150 years later, Civil War sailors buried at Arlington

2013-03-09T12:10:00.000-05:00

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Men Who Could Be the Next Pope

2013-03-09T05:48:00.000-05:00