WHACK TO HEAD, NOT ARROW, KILLED ICEMAN
SOURCE: Discovery News - Aug. 30, 2007

A final blow to the head, not an arrow wound, killed Ötzi, the 5,000-year-old Iceman found in the Italian Alps, says a new study on the world's oldest and best-preserved mummy.

Presented at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman at the European Academy in Bolzano, a new research center launched in July, the study re-examines forensic data, various CT scans, and focuses on the unnatural position in which the mummy was found.
"The Iceman's body doesn’t only feature the already known arrowhead wound on the shoulder and wounds on the hand. There is also a traumatic cerebral lesion caused by a frontal attack," the academy said in a statement.

Now a team of researchers which include prehistory professor Andreas Lippert from the University of Vienna, radiologists Paul Gostner and Patrizia Pernter from the Bolzano regional hospital, and Eduard Egarter Vigl, Ötzi's official caretaker at the South Tyrol Archaeological Museum in Bolzano, have reopened the debate.

They believe that blood loss from the arrow wound would have only made Ötzi lose consciousness.
According to the researchers, death came from a violent blow to the head. Either the man’s killer gave Ötzi the final whack, possibly by hitting him with a stone, or he could have fallen over backward and hit his head on a rock.

Whatever the scenario, "death was caused by a cerebral trauma," the researchers concluded.
Egarter and colleagues believe they have also solved another long-standing mystery: Ötzi’s unnatural posture in death.

When the Iceman was found by accident in 1991 in a melting glacier in the Ötztal Alps — hence the Ötzi name — his frozen body was face down, with the left arm bent across the chest. It was thought that the position of the left arm was due to Ötzi’s effort to stop the hemorrhage or the acute pain.

But now the discovery of the head trauma paints a new picture of Ötzi's final hours. While there is no more doubt that the Iceman died after a violent encounter with his assailants, some of whose blood was found on his cloak and weapons, the theory of a solitary death from blood loss, hunger, cold and weakness seems no longer tenable.

On the contrary, the Iceman died with his killer standing over him. "The body’s unnatural position suggests that, in the effort to pull out the arrow shaft, the aggressor turned over Ötzi onto his stomach before rigor mortis set in," the researchers said.

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MUSEUM OF THE DELUDED
SOURCE: MSNBC NEWS - JUNE 2007

A new $27 million museum that tells a biblical version of the Earth’s creation is drawing fire from science educators, who say the exhibits are scientifically inaccurate. A museum where Adam and Eve share exhibit space with dinosaurs is drawing criticism from groups of science educators as it nears completion.

The $27 million Creation Museum, a few miles south of Cincinnati, tells a biblical version of the Earth's history, asserting that the planet is just a few thousand years old and man and the giant lizards once coexisted. The educators say its exhibits, inspired by the Old Testament, are geared toward children, but lack scientific evidence.

"When they try to confuse (kids) about what is science and what isn't science, scientists have an obligation to speak out," said Lawrence Krauss, an author and physics professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "There's no doubt these are documented lies."

Krauss has signed one of two petitions circulated by national groups this week that challenge the facility's exhibits. The museum, built by the nonprofit ministry Answers in Genesis with private donations, includes a 200-seat special-effects theater, a 40-foot-tall depiction of Noah's Ark and robotic, roaring dinosaurs. The 60,000 square-foot facility in rural Petersburg, Ky., opened to the public on Memorial Day with over 4,000 visitors, according to the museum's website. Answers in Genesis founder Ken Ham said the vast majority of natural history museums and textbooks available to students are devoted to teaching evolution.

"And they're worried about one creation museum?" he said. "I think they're really concerned that we're going to get information out that they don't want people to hear."

Ham said critics need to tour the museum before making judgments. One of the petitions, started by the Campaign to Defend the Constitution, a Washington, D.C., group that focuses on church and state issues, says the museum is part of a "campaign by the religious right to inject creationist teachings into science education."

Krauss said about 2,000 educators, mostly university-level, have signed the petition. A second petition from the National Center for Science Education sent to educators in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio had attracted support from nearly 600 university professors. It says there are scientifically inaccurate exhibits at the museum.

"The nature of the science process that's presented at the Answers in Genesis museum is very different from how science is really done by real scientists," said Eugenie Scott, executive director of the Oakland, Calif., group, which promotes the teaching of evolution in the classroom.

Scientists say Earth is several billion years old, and that the first dinosaurs appeared around 200 million years ago, dying out well before the first human ancestors arose a few million years ago. Ham maintains the museum exhibits, some of which include fossils, are based on scientific findings. He said the staff is stocked with scientists trained at secular universities.

"We use the same science they do," Ham said. "What they're really saying is they disagree with our beliefs about history, about the Bible, but we use the same science and genetics they do."

Scott, Krauss and others said Ham has a right to open the museum, but they are concerned with the effect it could have on science education in public schools.

"We're not talking about free speech. We would not protest the museum," said Alan Leshner, head of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes the journal Science. "However, we are concerned that we not mislead young people inadvertently or intentionally about what science is showing."

Ham said the museum will attract home-schooled kids and students from Christian schools, but he said there are no plans to reach out to public schools. Admission for children ages 5 to 12 will be $9.95, and $19.95 for most adults.

"We're not targeting the public schools," Ham said. "I suspect by intimidation and threats of lawsuits, I doubt whether public school students, as an official tour, would come."

Ham said the museum will draw an estimated 250,000 visitors in its first year, and TV and newspaper advertising will begin soon in six major metro areas.

If you go …

CREATION MUSEUM: http://www.creationmuseum.org, 800-778-3390. Location: 2800 Bullittsburg Church Rd., Petersburg, Kent.; in Greater Cincinnati off I-275 (exit 11), just west of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Admission: Adults, $19.95; seniors, $14.95; children 5-12, $9.95; children under 5, free; planetarium with admission, $5. Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. and Sun. 12 p.m.–6 p.m.; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

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Chocolate Jesus Show Canceled
SOURCE: Associated Press - 31 MAR 2007

NEW YORK - A planned Holy Week exhibition of a nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ was canceled Friday after the Roger Smith Hotel and gallery were deluged Thursday with angry phone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. The gallery's creative director said calls included death threats and therefore the "My Sweet Lord" display was shut down by the hotel that houses the Lab Gallery in midtown Manhattan. In the creative directors opinion the six-foot sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro was the victim of "a strong-arming from people who haven't seen the show, or seen what we're doing."

The sculpture was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit was planned for Easter Sunday. The beautiful sculpture was created from more than 200 pounds of milk chocolate and features Christ with his arms outstretched as if on an invisible cross, but without a loincloth. The watchdog Catholic League was apparently furious that an artist has insinuated that Jesus had normal genitalia.

COMMENT from Wm Seven – “Perhaps Catholics were afraid the sculpture would start the long awaited “ACHOCOLYPSE”. . . But seriously, aren’t these the same people who believe the image of the Virgin Mary can appear on a piece of toast?

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Neanderthals on the Hunt
SOURCE: Archaeology magazine March/April 2007

The Neanderthals didn't disappear because they were slouches when it came to hunting. According to a new study based on material from the Republic of Georgia, Neanderthals were as good at hunting as early modern humans. But it may have been gender equality that put them at a disadvantage to their Homo sapien neighbors. Anthropologists observed that Neanderthals focused primarily on large game for food, while the frequency of healed fractures present in both genders and all ages suggests everyone participated in the hunt. Neanderthal shelters lacked evidence of gathered foods, such as seeds, as well as signs of skilled craft. The ability of female modern humans to stay at home, fishing, hunting small game, collecting roots and berries and sewing weather-resistant clothing with bone needles, the anthropologists argue, allowed their species to live at higher, more advantageous population densities. Meanwhile, recent comparative analysis of the mandibles of Neanderthals from Spain and Britain have led researchers to conclude that not all Neanderthals looked alike, with southerners having distinctly broader faces and lower foreheads than their northern counterparts, suggesting physical variability across geographic regions.

COMMENT from Wm Seven – Neanderthals used thrusting spears thus having to get in close for the kill. This lead to more injuries and deaths from the big game they hunted. Modern humans used more accurate throwing spears as well as launching devices called atlatl in order to kill their preys at a distance. This means they were not only more effective and successful hunters, but were less likely to become victims of their prey. Another reason modern man thrived and the Neanderthals didn’t.

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Early Christian Prayer Hall Found in Megiddo Prison
SOURCE: Biblical Archaeology magazine March/April 2007

In the late 1990s, authorities at the prison that sits near the base of Tel Megiddo in northern Israel decided they needed more room. Accordingly, an addition was planned within the prison compound and work commenced. It was not long, however, before the construction workers (prisoners) hit ancient remains. Work on the prison extension was immediately stopped and the Israel Antiquities Authority notified. A so-called salvage, or rescue excavation was organized under the direction of archaeologist Yotam Tepper, and the archaeologists were soon in the field with the help of the prisoners.
What Tepper and the prisoners exposed is probably the earliest church ever discovered in the Holy Land (the excavators date it to the first half of the third century, around 230 A.D.) and one of the very few churches from this early period anywhere in the world—from a time before Christianity became the religion of the Roman empire in the early fourth century during the reign of Constantine the Great.

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The Lost Tomb of Jesus
SOURCE: Archaeology magazine March/April 2007

Simcha Jacobovici, the filmmaker behind "The Lost Tomb of Jesus," a Discovery Channel special which aired on Sunday, March 4, believes that he knows where Jesus is buried--in a tomb in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot that was discovered by an Israeli archaeologist in 1980 and, mysteriously according to the filmmaker, not publicized.
He has assembled an impressive number of experts to comment upon his theories, from Israel Antiquities Authority spokesmen to forensic specialists and statisticians. It worth noting, however, that none of these individuals, with the sole exception of Jacobovici himself and his statistical expert, seem entirely convinced by the evidence presented. The constant references to the wildly popular and absurdly wrongheaded thriller The Da Vinci Code might explain the reluctance of many scholars not related to the project to buy into these conjectures. But even one of the film's proponent experts, James Tabor of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, has said that the tomb only "arguably" might be connected to the Jesus of Nazareth.
To read the entire article, go to JESUS TOMB

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The Film “300” Loses Touch with a Critical and Moving Event in Greek History
SOURCE: Archaeology magazine March/April 2007

Herodotus, the “Father of History,” told many good stories, but there are few tales in his repertoire that surpass his narrative of the last-ditch stand of the Greeks against numerically superior forces at the pass of Thermopylae in August, 480 B.C. A huge military force led by Xerxes, the Persian King of Kings, crossed the Hellespont from Asia into Europe, intent on the subjugation of Greece. Whether Xerxes intended this invasion as revenge for the Athenian victory over the Persians at Marathon a decade earlier or whether his expedition had been planned all along as the natural extension of Persian rule into Europe is still a matter of debate among modern historians.
And the debate continues in this rather long article about the continuing discussions over judge this film's adherence to historical fact even though the film does not even pretend to be historically accurate. It is based on a graphic novel developed by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, whose previous credits are mainly as comic book and graphic novel writers and illustrators. This film version of Miller and Varley's graphic novel is the inspiration of director and co-writer Zack Snyder, who is said to have been deeply moved both by his childhood viewing of the 1962 The 300 Spartans and by the Miller-Varley graphic novel. Miller's influence on Snyder appears to be profound. In the on-line production notes for the film Snyder is quoted as saying "Frank took an actual event and turned it into mythology, as opposed to taking a mythological event and turning it into reality."
To read the entire article, go to THE 300

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Hanwakan Center Summer 2007 Conference
SOURCE: www.hanwakan.org - APR 2007

Good News for all you scientific minded citizens here in America. The Hanwakan Center Summer 2007 Conference of the Hanwakan Center for Prehistoric Astronomy, Cosmology and Cultural Landscape Studies is set and confirmed for August 11, 2007 at The Marsh Haven Nature Center Marsh Haven Nature Center at W10145 Hwy 49 East, Waupun, Wisconsin. Many people are behind the Hanwakan Center, all committed to furthering the understanding of prehistoric astronomy, while gathering traditions and stories which were born of mankind's interaction with the physical environment and his relationship between earth and sky. The Hanwakan Center will give these traditions and stories a voice once again, and connect them to the land from where they came. Preservation, protection, and study of our shared prehistoric and historic heritage is the goal of the Hanwakan Center. Many national and international scholars, members of the Native American community, and numerous interested individuals have expressed their desire to be a part of this endeavor and share their traditions, stories, and work with others.

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Is There Anybody Out There?
SOURCE: Archaeology magazine March/April 2007

Erich von Däniken's Mystery Park has closed its doors. The Disneyland type theme park based on pseudo-science opened in Interlaken, Switzerland in 2003 and was billed as the ultimate expression of von Däniken's theories, made famous by such books as Chariots of the Gods? The Swiss hotelier became a best-selling author on the strength of his claim that aliens had a hand in virtually every ancient achievement, from the Giza pyramids to the Nasca lines.

But don’t worry, If you didn't make it to the park, a bizarre hodgepodge of pyramids and space-age pavilions surrounding a geodesic sphere, you weren't the only one. Attendance fell far short of the projected 500,000 per year, and Mystery Park filed for bankruptcy late last year.

However, Switzerland still has the Laténium, an archaeological park at the important Celtic site of La Tène and it isn't closing any time soon. You won't find henge-building aliens there, but it has its fair share of mysteries.

COMMENT from Wm Seven – Is anyone surprised that an amusement park based on popular pseudo-science from thirty years ago went bust? Or is it the fact that no one appeared to care there was a place to explore theories gone bust? Unless verifiable extra-terrestrials were available to paying the public and ready to answer tourists questions, there was no way educated citizens of the 21st Century were going to provide enough patronage to keep the doors open. Get over it Erich von Daniken!! Unless verifiable scientific evidence emerges, we “the evolved humans of this planet” created every megalithic structure, as well as any other amazing expression of the bond between heaven and earth ourselves without any help from any outside source.

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Megalithomania Conference – MAY 19th - 20th 2007, Glastonbury
SOURCE: www.megalithomania.co.uk - APR 2007

“What were the ancients up to?” That is a question that frequents the lips of archaeologists, antiquarians, scientists and skeptics alike. The enigmatic megalithic culture that graced our planet between 5000 and 3000 years ago, building long barrows, stone rows and stone circles has left little clue to its thinking, lifestyle or teachings. There are, however, a number of researchers that have begun to unlock the secrets of the builders of the stone circles and related sacred sites. Coming from disciplines as diverse as archaeoastronomy, sacred geometry, ancient metrology, surveying, acoustics and mathematics these top authors will present their research into ancient megalithic sites at the 2007 Glastonbury Conference.

MEGALITHOMANIA is an annual conference held in Glastonbury, now in it's second year. The celebrated 2006 event saw speakers such as Graham Hancock, Andrew Collins, Robin Heath and Nicholas Mann grace the Assembly Rooms stage. Especially welcome was John Michell who coined the 'Megalithomania' name in the 1970's with his beautifully crafted book of the same name. His study of the history and meaning of the megaliths, combined with revealing the effects of the stones on the 'Megalithomaniacs', set the framework for the 'Earth Mysteries' movement of the 1960's and 70's.

Much stone circle research spends years on the fringe of acceptability before becoming mainstream, so Megalithomania is intent on creating a public forum to stretch the debate and challenge the archaeologists and historians that belittle our megalithic ancestors. Hugh Newman, the primary organiser, told us “To suggest the neolithic people were savages with no intelligence is unacceptable today. We want to challenge the status quo around the megalithic sciences.” His co-organiser John Martineau added “The ancients were excellent at astronomy, geometry and surveying, it’s an incredible mystery, why does the media and mainstream archaeology spend so much time dumbing it all down?”.

This Year at the 2007 Conference, to coincide with the re-launch of his classic 'Time Stands Still', keynote speaker Dr. Keith Critchlow will be updating his research into the geometry of the “megalithic artists”. Famous author Robert Temple will be giving us a glimpse through crystal lenses suggesting they could have been part of the megalithic surveyors and astronomers tool kit. Cornish researcher Paul Broadhurst will be focusing on St. George and the mythological relation to earth energies. Professor Ronald Hutton will be tracing the stones through an historical time-line. And to coincide with the republication of his original book Megalithomania, John Michell will be looking at the artists, antiquarians and archaeologists that gave rise to the name of the conference, forty years after the original earth mysteries renaissance.

the 'Gorsedd of Ynys Witrin' (Bardic Chair of Glastonbury) will be hosting their bardic poetry competition at the conference on the Saturday evening. The Chair is contested by open competition annually, always on St. Dunstans Day (May 19th), each contestant performing for up to 15 minutes on a given theme, chosen by the previous Bard. The Bardic Trials take place on the 15th , 17th and the final is on the Saturday evening at the Assembly Rooms, coinciding with Megalithomania. This is by donation only, no set fee (19th May).

The private Stonehenge visit will be on the Friday Evening. A guided tour around Glastonbury will take place on the Monday morning. Field trips are not included in the price. Call 01458 831800 for tickets and more details or visit the newly launched www.megalithomania.co.uk. Tickets are £80 for the conference. Extra for the guided tours.

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