The Race to save Mes Aynak.

The fight to save an ancient Buddhist city in Logar from destruction

American documentary maker Brent Huffman is racing against time.

Since 2011, he's been trying to raise money for a film to document the last days of Mes Aynak,  a 2,600 year old Buddhist city in Logar province, before it is destroyed by a Chinese mining company.

In December 2012, the company, MCC,  was due to start mining the huge copper deposits which lie below the ancient site as part of a $3 billion dollar deal with the Afghan 

government.  However, a major campaign by Huffman and others has succeeded in winning more time for archaeologists excavating the 400,000 square metre site, which includes Buddish temples and monasteries.

In an interview with BAAG, Huffman outlined the importance of the site.  "We really saw there this melting pot of cultures, meeting and influencing each other in a way that could really define the importance and the history of Afghanistan in this period.  If it’s destroyed, to me, that's the equivalent of erasing that history ... and erasing Afghanistan’s place in that history”

"The biggest success we've had is to get the Ministry of Mines in Afghanistan to really pay attention to this and to see the significance of the site - and to see this global outcry really recognising how important this site is."

Huffman says one big breakthrough was getting Buddhist countries involved in the campaign.  "In Thailand we actually had people protesting in the street," he says, "they protested  outside the UN and UNESCO offices there.  They did video stories, they did Facebook and they also really pushed support for our petitions."

And that pressure has yielded results.  "We've been able to buy more time" adds Huffman.  "Recently the deadline has been pushed to 2014.  All that's relatively good news.  But still Mes Aynak faces the exact same threats."

When he talks about the "threats" posed by the Aynak copper mine project, Huffman doesn't just mean the loss of this amazing cultural site - a site so huge that archaelogists say it could take 30 years to excavate properly. 

He, along with many other campaigners, fears that if it isn't handled transparently and responsibly, the mining project might actually prove detrimental to the local environment - and to Afghans living there.

It's been estimated that the huge copper reserves under Mes Aynak could be worth $100 billion dollars.  According to the Afghan Ministry of Mines, "The Aynak project represents the largest private sector project in the country’s history, and it will generate more jobs, revenues, and enhancements to Afghanistan’s infrastructure than any other single project to date."

Huffman agrees that Afghanistan needs good development projects.  However, he has also worked in Africa - and has seen first-hand how Chinese mining companies operate there.  And because of that, he fears that China's promises of large numbers of jobs and services for local Afghans will not materialise.

"In my experience ... China makes these big promises but if someone doesn’t hold them to it, if the Afghan government basically doesn’t force them to follow through on these things, they just won't happen" he says. 

Campaigners - including BAAG member agency Global Witness - have also expressed concerns about the transparency of the Mes Aynak contract.  According to Global Witness, if the project is managed well it could provide economic and social benefits for years to come.  However, it also warns, "managed badly, it could seriously undermine long-term security and development, and set a poor precedent for much needed future foreign direct investment." 

Huffman is one of many campaigners who would like to know more about environmental safeguards, saying if the project's managed badly there could be environmental devastation, with aquifers under Mes Aynak poisoned.  Such allegations have been denied by the Afghan government.  It says it will shortly publish details of the Mes Aynak contract, adding that other issues raised by campaigners are covered "in the laws, regulations and international standards that the Consortium is required to adhere to as specifically stated in the contract".

For now, Huffman says, the important thing is to keep up the pressure.

"I think the pressure we've exerted on the Ministry of Mines in Afghanistan has been working.  We are seeing results.  So I would say, 'Let's ramp it up; let's continue on to put pressure on them'.  I still want to see the site preserved.  I still want to see these temple structures, these monasteries, these Buddhist statues preserved for future generations of Afghans."

To sign the petition to President Karzai on Mes Aynak click here 

To read Global Witness' recent report on the Aynak copper project click here

To read the Afghan Ministry of Mines' reply to the Global Witness report click here

Source: BAAG

Ancient bison allows scientists to travel back in time - 9,000 years

The autopsy, conducted on 27 February 2014, is understood to be the first in the world on a 9,000 bison, and it could provide vital scientific information. 

The creature was found in exceptional condition in July 2011 by Yukagir community members in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, where mammoth remains were also found. This bison, dating from 9,000 years ago, was located on the shore of a lake in the north of Ust-Yana district.

The body became visible after a part of the shore collapsed into the water. The Yukagirs delivered the precious find to regional Academy of Science experts. 

Albert Protopopov, chief of the Mammoth Fauna Research Department of the Yakutian Academy of Sciences, said: 'The discovery has an enormous value for scientists since it is the best preserved bison ever found. We have ascertained that the bison lived 9,000 years ago, at the very beginning of the Holocene epoch and died aged approximately four. By that time, many mammoths had died here, but the bison still lived. 

'The careful and thorough examination we have began will give us answers to many questions, first of all as to why did the bison die out'.

Currently, scientists continue a full anatomic autopsy, taking out and describing every organ, with a simultaneous microbiological, genetic and histological tests, as well as studying of animal's parasites. 

A brilliant scientific team is working together to carry the autopsy and the tests, with paleontologists from the Yakutian Academy of Sciences, experts from Institute of Geology of Diamond and Precious Metals, Yakutsk Agricultural Research Institute and the Agricultural Academy of Yakutsk. 

The autopsy, conducted on 27 February 2014, is understood to be the first in the world on a 9,000 bison, and it could provide vital scientific information. 

The creature was found in exceptional condition in July 2011 by Yukagir community members in the Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, where mammoth remains were also found. This bison, dating from 9,000 years ago, was located on the shore of a lake in the north of Ust-Yana district.

The body became visible after a part of the shore collapsed into the water. The Yukagirs delivered the precious find to regional Academy of Science experts. 

Albert Protopopov, chief of the Mammoth Fauna Research Department of the Yakutian Academy of Sciences, said: 'The discovery has an enormous value for scientists since it is the best preserved bison ever found. We have ascertained that the bison lived 9,000 years ago, at the very beginning of the Holocene epoch and died aged approximately four. By that time, many mammoths had died here, but the bison still lived. 

'The careful and thorough examination we have began will give us answers to many questions, first of all as to why did the bison die out'.

Currently, scientists continue a full anatomic autopsy, taking out and describing every organ, with a simultaneous microbiological, genetic and histological tests, as well as studying of animal's parasites. 

A brilliant scientific team is working together to carry the autopsy and the tests, with paleontologists from the Yakutian Academy of Sciences, experts from Institute of Geology of Diamond and Precious Metals, Yakutsk Agricultural Research Institute and the Agricultural Academy of Yakutsk. 

Source: The Siberian Times

Geologist who unearthed Mungo Man fights for 40,000-year-old remains

Forty years after Mungo Man was unearthed in the dunes of western New South Wales, the geologist who made the discovery is urging the NSW government to speed up repatriation of the remains.

Professor Jim Bowler said the process of returning the remains dated at more than 40,000 years old, whose 1974 discovery confirmed that Indigenous Australians belonged to the world’s oldest continuing culture, had “stalled”, and needed to be “dealt with quickly, and dealt with authoritatively by [NSW environment minister] Robyn Parker”.

Bowler said the World Heritage-listed Willandra Lakes region, where the remains where found, was being improperly managed and could soon “fall into a stage that we would regret, unless moves are made to put management into a better, more efficient level of operation”.

It had been hoped that the repatriation would take place on Wednesday, 40 years to the day since Bowler made his famous find. But obstacles meant it would still be “some weeks” before Mungo Man was returned to country, he said.

“We’re waiting on the protocols to be worked through. But we’re using the anniversary to highlight the relevance of Mungo Man, and to speed up his repatriation.”

Long-term plans to commemorate the discovery include building a mausoleum near the site, “as we have built for Australian soldiers in [the first world war battleground] Fromelles”, Bowler said. “The remains we hope will be put in a crypt with appropriate dignity, in a place that’s in keeping with their sacred nature and their national and international importance.”

Mungo Man is currently housed at the Australian National University in Canberra, where his remains have been intensely scrutinised. The ancient bones have been Cat-scanned and thoroughly documented at a local hospital. But the research has long since been exhausted, and Mungo Man now sits “incarcerated in a cardboard box in Canberra”, Bowler said. “The time has come now for the bones to come back to country.”

Bowler discovered Mungo Man (though some local Aboriginal elders insist it was the other way around) while conducting geological research in the dried-up lake basins of far-western NSW. The rich sands had, five years before, yielded the 20,000-year-old remains of a woman, dubbed Mungo Lady, whose bones showed signs of ritualistic cremation and burial, evidence she had belonged to a developed culture.

That afternoon, heavy rain had battered the dunes, forcing the geologist to take shelter. When he emerged, he spotted a patch of bone glinting in the shore of a then unnamed lake. He brushed away the sand to reveal an intact jawbone. Archaeologists would soon unearth Mungo Man, the oldest skeleton ever discovered in Australia. Dated at 41,000 years old, it more than doubled previous estimates of the length of human settlement in Australia.

Mungo Lady was returned to what is now called Lake Mungo national park in 1991, and is awaiting reburial.

Bowler said he hoped to forge an agreement with the local Aboriginal people to allow scientists future access to both her and Mungo Man. He was also working to “develop a forum with scientists, Aboriginal people and the community, to discuss the incredible significance of this turning point in Australian history”.

“There will be a national dialogue about the contribution of these remains. They are the iconic foundations for the World Heritage area. They have defined the almost sacred nature of Aboriginal connections with land,” he said.

“It puts the Australian cultural context right at the forefront of the international story of what it means to be human.”

Parker said in a statement: “The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage and the Aboriginal community at Mungo are in discussion about how to best manage the repatriation of remains to Mungo national park, including those of Mungo Man.

“These discussions and associated planning is now occurring while the current keeping place at Mungo national park is being upgraded to improve its cultural appropriateness in readiness.

“While we are committed to the repatriation as soon as possible, the decision as to what will occur with the ancestral remains rests with the traditional owners – members of the Mutthi Mutthi, Ngiyampaa and Paakantji tribal groups, and those discussions are continuing.”

Source: The Guardian

Nine manuscripts with biblical text unearthed in Qumran.

The West Bank excavation site Qumran has brought to light another exceptional find after that of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Working on materials from archaeological excavations of the 1950s, archaeologist Yonatan Adler found three phylacteries - pouches used by religious Jews containing small manuscript scrolls with a biblical text - dating back to about 2,000 years ago.

A total of nine manuscripts have been found by the Israel Antiquities Authority by using technology known as multispectral imaging, which makes it possible take specialized photos. The discovery was announced at the International TerraSancta Conference on 'Qumran and the Dead Sea Region' held in the Swiss city of Lugano. The conference brought together 65 of the top international experts on Qumran, an archaeological site that garnered international attention in the mid-twentieth century when the 900 documents comprising the Dead Sea Scrolls (also known as the 'Qumran manuscripts') - which date back to between 150 BC and 70 AD - were unearthed there. The three phylacteries are from caves 4 and 5, which were excavated in 1952 by the archaeologist Roland de Vaux.

''It's not every day that you get the chance to discover new manuscripts,'' Adler said. ''It's very exciting.'' The Israel Antiquities Authority is also very pleased about the find. Pnina Shor, tasked with the laboratory for the conservation of the scrolls within the government agency, said that ''I am very proud of the fact that, by using the most advanced technology, we can contribute to reconstructing the history of 2,000 years ago.''

Source: ANSAmed

A drought coincided with the beginning of the decline of the metropolis-building Indus Civilisation,

Scientists from the University of Cambridge have demonstrated that an abrupt weakening of the summer monsoon affected northwest India 4,100 years ago. The resulting drought coincided with the beginning of the decline of the metropolis-building Indus Civilisation, which spanned present-day Pakistan and India, suggesting that climate change could be why many of the major cities of the civilisation were abandoned.

The research involved the collection of snail shells preserved in the sediments of an ancient lake bed. By analysing the oxygen isotopes in the shells, the scientists were able to tell how much rain fell in the lake where the snails lived thousands of years ago.

Climate change

The results shed light on a mystery surrounding why the major cities of the Indus Civilisation (also known as the Harappan Civilisation, after Harappa, one of the five cities) were abandoned. Climate change had been suggested as a possible reason for this transformation before but, until now, there has been no direct evidence for climate change in the region where Indus settlements were located.

Moreover, the finding now links the decline of the Indus cities to a documented global scale climate event and its impact on the Old Kingdom in Egypt, the Early Bronze Age civilisations of Greece and Crete, and the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, whose decline has previously been linked to abrupt climate change.

“We think that we now have a really strong indication that a major climate event occurred in the area where a large number of Indus settlements were situated,” said Professor David Hodell, from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences. “Taken together with other evidence from Meghalaya in northeast India, Oman and the Arabian Sea, our results provide strong evidence for a widespread weakening of the Indian summer monsoon across large parts of India 4,100 years ago.”

Hodell together with University of Cambridge archaeologist Dr Cameron Petrie and Gates scholar Dr Yama Dixit collected Melanoides tuberculata snail shells from the sediments of the ancient lake Kotla Dahar in Haryana, India. “As today, the major source of water into the lake throughout the Holocene is likely to have been the summer monsoon,” said Dixit. “But we have observed that there was an abrupt change, when the amount of evaporation from the lake exceeded the rainfall – indicative of a drought.”

Abandoned megacities

At this time large parts of modern Pakistan and much of western India was home to South Asia’s great Bronze Age urban society. As Petrie explained: “The major cities of the Indus civilisation flourished in the mid-late 3rd and early 2nd millennium BC. Large proportions of the population lived in villages, but many people also lived in ‘megacities’ that were 80 hectares or more in size – roughly the size of 100 football pitches. They engaged in elaborate crafts, extensive local trade and long-ranging trade with regions as far away as the modern-day Middle East. But, by the mid 2nd millennium BC, all of the great urban centres had dramatically reduced in size or been abandoned.”

Many possible causes have been suggested, including the claim that major glacier-fed rivers changed their course, dramatically affecting the water supply and the reliant agriculture. It has also been suggested that an increasing population level caused problems, there was invasion and conflict, or that climate change caused a drought that large cities could not withstand long-term.

“We know that there was a clear shift away from large populations living in megacities,” said Petrie. “But precisely what happened to the Indus Civilisation has remained a mystery. It is unlikely that there was a single cause, but a climate change event would have induced a whole host of knock-on effects.

“We have lacked well-dated local climate data, as well as dates for when perennial water flowed and stopped in a number of now abandoned river channels, and an understanding of the spatial and temporal relationships between settlements and their environmental contexts. A lot of the archaeological debate has really been well-argued speculation.”

Monsoon weakening

The new data, collected with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, show a decreased summer monsoon rainfall at the same time that archaeological records and radiocarbon dates suggest the beginning of the Indus de-urbanisation. From 6,500 to 5,800 years ago, a deep fresh-water lake existed at Kotla Dahar. The deep lake transformed to a shallow lake after 5,800 years ago, indicating a weakening of the Indian summer monsoon. But an abrupt monsoon weakening occurred 4,100 years ago for 200 years and the lake became ephemeral after this time.

Until now, the suggestion that climate change might have had an impact on the Indus Civilisation was based on data showing a lessening of the monsoon in Oman and the Arabian Sea, which are both located at a considerable distance from Indus Civilisation settlements and at least partly affected by different weather systems.

Hodell and Dixit used isotope geochemical analysis of shells as a proxy for tracing the climate history of the region. Oxygen exists in two forms – the lighter 16O and a heavier 18O variant. When water evaporates from a closed lake (one that is fed by rainfall and rivers but has no outflow), molecules containing the lighter isotope evaporate at a faster rate than those containing the heavier isotopes; at times of drought, when the evaporation exceeds rainfall, there is a net increase in the ratio of 18O to 16O of the water. Organisms living in the lake record this ratio when they incorporate oxygen into the calcium carbonate (CaCO3) of their shells, and can therefore be used, in conjunction with radiocarbon dating, to reconstruct the climate of the region thousands of years ago.

Speculating on the effect lessening rainfall would have had on the Indus Civilisation, Petrie said: “Archaeological records suggest they were masters of many trades. They used elaborate techniques to produce a range of extremely impressive craft products using materials like steatite, carnelian and gold, and this material was widely distributed within South Asia, but also internationally. Each city had substantial fortification walls, civic amenities, craft workshops and possibly also palaces. Houses were arranged on wide main streets and narrow alleyways, and many had their own wells and drainage systems. Water was clearly an integral part of urban planning, and was also essential for supporting the agricultural base.

At around the time we see the evidence for climatic change, archaeologists have found evidence of previously maintained streets start to fill with rubbish, over time there is a reduced sophistication in the crafts they used, the script that had been used for several centuries disappears and there were changes in the location of settlements, suggesting some degree of demographic shift.”

“We estimate that the climate event lasted about 200 years before recovering to the previous conditions, which we still see today, and we believe that the civilisation somehow had to cope with this prolonged period of drought,” said Hodell.

Multidisciplinary project

The new research is part of a wider joint project led by the University of Cambridge and Banaras Hindu University in India, which has been funded by the British Council UK-India Education and Research Initiative to investigate the archaeology, river systems and climate of north-west India using a combination of archaeology and geoscience. The multidisciplinary project hopes to provide new understanding of the relationships between humans and their environment, and also involves researchers at Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and the Uttar Pradesh State Archaeology Department.

“It is essential to understand the link between human settlement, water resources and landscape in antiquity, and this research is an important step in that direction,” explained Petrie. “We hope that this will hold lessons for us as we seek to find means of dealing with climate change in our own and future generations.”

Source: Past Horizonts

Have Russians Discovered Ancient 'Super-Megalithic' Architecture in Siberia?

Are these images posted to a Russian blog evidence for one of the greatest megalithic constructions ever discovered, or are they just a geological quirk of nature, like the Japanese site of Yonaguni seems to be? My votes on the latter, but I look forward to further investigation:

The super megaliths were found and photographed for the first time by Georgy Sidorov on a recent expedition to the Southern Siberian mountains. The following images are from Valery Uvarov's Russian website. There are no measurements given, but from the scale depicted by the human figures, these megaliths are much larger (as much as 2 to 3 times larger) than the largest known megaliths in the world. (Example: The Pregnant Woman Stone of Baalbek, Lebanon weighs in at approximately 1,260 ton). Some of these megaliths could easily weigh upwards of 3,000 to 4,000 tons.

What do you think?

Source: Daily Grail

Incredible underground chamber with 130 ancient Greek statues awaiting investigation

An underground chamber containing 130 ancient Greek statues was discovered in Athens 25 years ago. But no one, apart from the finders, has cared enough to battle the bureaucracy that has prevented the hatch from being opened and the remarkable treasures from being recovered. So what has stopped the Ministry of Culture from retrieving such precious relics of the past? Apparently the obstacle is as simple as the fact that the mysterious underground chamber lies on private property and no one wants to get involved.

The chamber was discovered in Athens when two friends found an opening in the ground in an area that was being excavated to lay the foundations for a new building.  After throwing some burning paper in the opening they saw that there were stairs leading further under the surface. So they went down with the help of two lit candles. Here is the description of Constantinos Kyparissis, one of the two friends that made the discovery:

 … We threw the lit newspaper and the rays of light have shown the stairs. At the end of the stairs and at a depth of 3 meters or more there was a room and at the right of the room there was the statue of a Goddess of a height of about 1.80 meters, a magnificent statue. The left side of her face was unfinished. At her right side there was the statue of a lion and next to it Diogenes naked and next was Goddess Athena. Alongside the tunnel on both the left and right side there have been multiple full body statues. After 20 meters there is no oxygen but the tunnel keeps going….

In total, more than 130 undamaged statues were counted by Constantinos and his friend.

There is a speculation that the room that was found at the beginning of the 4-meter wide corridor was one of the workshops of the great Greek sculptor, painter and architect Phidias, because many of the sculptures were similar to those once found in the Parthenon.  Phidias was the creator of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World – the statue of Zeus at Olympia – as well as other monumental statues and gates at the Parthenon in Greece. Others have theorised that with such a large number of statues, it is possible that the corridor leads to a temple.  

You would expect that with such a great discovery the Ministry of Culture and the archaeological department would rush to go and research further. However, this was not the case.

Constantinos spoke to a lawyer who advised him and his friend not to talk to anyone about the finding but to write a letter to the Ministry of Culture and let them know about the discovery, and so they did. The first letter was sent on 1st March, 1988, and there have been multiple letters since then.  Unfortunately, it appears that the importance of the discovery was lost with every change of Minister and every change of Government.

On the 20th of August 2003, Constantinos sent another letter, and he sent new letters every time the Minister for Culture changed.  In 2004, he sent a letter directly to the Prime Minister. He repeated the process in 2006 and again in 2007.

After nearly 20 years, Constantinos received his first reply.  On 12th March, 2007, the Ministry replied thanking him for his interest and asking him to declare what he had found. They wrote that if it was verified, he would receive a reward and recognition.  On the same day, they sent him a second letter asking him to take them to the location to see. 

A team of 17 people, including archaeologists, government officials, and lawyers went to the site where the discovery was made.  The exact spot had since been covered with asphalt, but a simple process of drilling through the thin layer of asphalt would have revealed the marble entrance and no further excavation would be needed.

The following day, Government representatives sent a letter to Constantinos telling him that because the place is on private property and covered with asphalt, they are not permitted to drill and therefore they cannot verify if what Constantinos said was true or not.  (Of course, there are devices that can easily measure if there is empty space below ground level and this would not require any drilling). 

A few days later, Constantinos’ lawyer went to the site and found that the asphalt above the entrance was fresh – showing that someone had got into it and then resealed it.  Nothing was heard again from the Ministry of Culture or the archaeological department. So Constantinos’ lawyer contacted the Archaeological Council and gave them all the papers, letters, and details about the place and the situation. The Archaeological Council was surprised as they had never been informed about it. They appeared very enthusiastic about the information and promised to investigate and get back to him.  This never happened.

What could possibly explain the Government’s failure to intervene on a matter of such national importance? Did they ever investigate the chamber? If so, why did they do so secretly? Did they find something that they did not want to announce, or is it simply an extreme example of bureaucratic incompetence?  We do not know, but we intend to find out.  Stay tuned!

For those who speak Greek, here is a video from a Greek TV program in which Constantinos’ lawyer, and a number of others who have been involved, speak about the case.

Source: Ancient Origins