Here are some posts from around the web I enjoyed this week.
File in the busted history-myth department. We can no longer blame Christopher Columbus for bringing syphilis from the New World to Europe. New studies of skeletons dating to 1320 show presence of the disease. Aren’t those paleontologists clever? Who wants to offer guesses where it did come from? Click here for “Syphilis widespread in Central Europe even before Columbus’ voyage to America” in Archaeology News Network
From the NYT, a study of genomes of 230 people who lived between 8,500 and 2,300 yrs ago in Europe reveals the changes agriculture made on humans—ability to digest milk, skin tone changes and irritable bowel syndrome (which seems to have tagged along during the natural selection process). The author of the study calls his work a “time machine” and it is pretty amazing what we can know about the past from these studies. The information indicates 3 big waves of migration into Europe, first hunter-gatherers originally from Africa, then a Near-Eastern wave that brought agriculture and then nomads from the Russian steppes. Click here for NYT “Agriculture Linked to DNA Changes in Ancient Europe”
This article in the BBC History Magazine lists “8 things you (probably) didn’t know about Pompeii.” Which came as surprises to you? #7 was new to me and definitely falls in the clever ways to figure out the past department. Click here for BBC Magazine “8 Things You probably didn’t know about Pompeii”
Google mapping now includes Jordan and its remarkable site Petra. The video is even narrated by Queen Rania Al Abdullah. Gorgeous photos on this tour. 2,000 year old Petra was built by the Nabateans primarily as tombs around 312 BC, but was “found” by the West around 1800. Its most famous tomb, called the Treasury, was used in Indiana Jones, so even if you’ve never been there, you’ll recognize these red sandstone buildings carved into the rock faces. Enjoy some armchair tourism. Anyone have some fun Petra memories? Bob and I went about a year and a half ago. Click here for Google Maps Petra