Warring patrilineal clans blamed for ancient men shortage

Recent genetic research suggests that the number of reproducing men plummeted around 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Scientists think this population dropped by 95 percent. Now researchers have an explanation. Warring patrilineal clans—where membership follows the male line—could be to blame. In 2015 scientists identified a historical bottleneck, where the diversity of the Y chromosome—which is passed from father to son—appeared to collapse. No such pattern was found in the mitochondrial DNA—which is passed from mother to child. This suggests no big changes in the number of reproducing women at the time.

After the advent of farming some 12,000 years ago, hunter-gatherer societies began to morph into larger, patrilineal clans, where women could move and marry between different clans but men stayed put. The team’s models and simulations backed up the idea of warring, patrilineal clans. When competing patrilineal groups fought and wiped each other out in their simulations, Y chromosome diversity took a nosedive. 5,000 to 7,000 years ago wasn’t the best time to be a male, unless you were a member of one of those very few clans we are all now descended from.

The Monster of Troy

A strange, menacing creature lurks on one of the ancient Greek vases in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The scene is painted on a Corinthian black-figure krater dating to between 560 and 540 B.C. It is the oldest illustration of the ancient legend of the Monster of Troy.

In Greek myth, a terrible sea monster suddenly appears on the Trojan coast, where it causes great destruction. To appease the giant beast, the king of Troy, Laomedon, sends his daughter Hesione as a sacrifice. At the last moment Hercules arrives to slay the monster and rescue the princess. The vase shows Hesione and Hercules fighting the monster. Hesione throws rocks from a pile at her feet. Hercules shoots a volley of arrows, one of which has hit the monster’s chin.

Some have suggested that the Monster of Troy resembles a Plesiosaur, a Mesozoic marine reptile. Plesiosaurs are amoung the largest marine apex predators in the fossil record.

Colossal 3,000-year-old statue unearthed in Cairo

A team of archaeologists discovered a giant 3,000-year-old statue last year thought to depict Ramses II, in what the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities is describing as "one of its most important archaeological discoveries." The head and torso will be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which is due to open in late 2018.

Archaeologists from Egypt and Germany began removing the quartzite statue -- estimated to stand 30 feet tall -- from the ground in Matariya, greater Cairo. Ramses II, known as the "Great Ancestor" to his descendants, ruled for 66 years from 1279 to 1213 BC as part of Ancient Egypt's 19th dynasty.

Abraxas

An abraxas is an invented word or symbol. An ancient charm word engraved on gemstones composed of seven Greek letters, which when converted to numerals, totaled 365 (the number of heavens by Gnostic sect). Abraxas is considered the Supreme Unknown in gnostic theogony and the source of 365 emanations in Persian mythology. His name is found on gems and amulets, and is associated with the word “abracadabra.” Abrasax stones are ancient gemstones engraved with the word Abrasax, or the images of the god, or both the image and inscriptions.

Ancient Greek gold crown kept for decades in a box of old newspapers under bed

A rare gold crown believed to be more than 2,300 years old was discovered last year under a bed in a Somerset cottage. The delicate Greek myrtle wreath, which is thought to date to 300BC, was found in a cardboard box in a modest Taunton property. Its elderly owner was stunned when he found out the artifact is worth at least £100,000. Stylistically it belongs to a rarefied group of wreaths dateable to the Hellenistic period and the form may indicate that it was made in Northern Greece. It is eight inches across and weighs about 100 grams. It's pure gold and handmade and it would have been hammered out by a goldsmith.

Gold wreaths like the one found were meant to imitate the wreaths of real leaves that were worn in Ancient Greece in religious ceremonies and given as prizes in athletic and artistic contests. They usually depicted branches of laurel, myrtle, oak and olive trees, which were symbolic of concepts such as wisdom, triumph, fertility, peace and virtue. Due to their fragile nature, they were only worn on special occasions. Many were dedicated to the Gods in sanctuaries or placed in the graves of royal or aristocratic people as funerary offerings.

The current owner's grandfather was a collector who was fascinated by the ancient world. Although his family do not know how or where he acquired it, it is likely he bought it sometime in the 1940s. A gold wreath similar to this one sold at auction in 2012 for almost £200,000.

See ----->http://psjfactoids.blogspot.ca/2016/04/ancient-wreath-found-in-thessaloniki.html

Gold coin featuring King Ptolemy III found

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the remains of a Roman bath — as well as a mountain of treasures, including a statue of a ram and a gold coin featuring King Ptolemy III.

The artifacts uncovered at the site of San El-Hagar, in Tanis, include pottery vessels, terra-cotta statues, bronze tools, a stone fragment engraved with hieroglyphs and a small ram statue. The gold coin was created in the 221 B.C. to 205 B.C. reign of King Ptolemy IV in memory of his father.

Gold aureus of Septimius Severus

A circa A.D. 202 to 210 gold aureus issued by Septimius Severus recalls the measures he took to keep his sons Caracalla and Geta from fighting. The boys were then in their mid- to late teens. All three appear on horses on the reverse of the aureus, raising their right hands as if receiving an ovation. The coin will appear in August at ANA World’s Fair of Money. Severus took his wife and two sons to wage war against the Caledonians of northern Britain. Severus sent his sons to lead the troops. While in Britain Severus fell ill and died in A.D. 211, leaving behind two sons who were still intent on eliminating one another.

The Romans never campaigned deep into Caledonia again: they soon withdrew south permanently to Hadrian's Wall. Upon his death, Severus was deified by the Senate and succeeded by Caracalla and Geta, who were advised by his wife Julia Domna. Caracalla had Geta murdered later that year. Severus was buried in the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. His remains are now lost

Severus' currency debasement was the largest since the reign of Nero. The coin is among the best known. It has an estimate of $24,000 to $30,000.

Caracalla persecuted and executed most of Geta's supporters and ordered a damnatio memoriae. It became a capital offence to speak or write Geta's name.

The Saddle Ridge Hoard

The Saddle Ridge Hoard is the name given to a treasure trove of 1,427 gold coins unearthed in the Gold Country of the Sierra Nevada, California in 2013. Collectors scooped up the gold coins from the Saddle Ridge Hoard at a brisk pace. Nearly half of the 1,427 coins sold within the first dozen hours at per coin prices ranging from $2,500 to $10,000. The collection was estimated in value of at least $10 million. The treasure of gold pieces were discovered in buried cans on a couple’s private land. They went on sale May 27, 2015 on the websites of Kagins.com and Amazon.com.

The Saddle Ridge 1866-S No Motto Double Eagle is one of the best ever discovered, it is valued at close to $1 million. Broken out by type, the hoard consists of 1,373 $20 Double Eagles, 50 $10 gold coins and 4 $5 gold coins.

"John: Years ago, on our first hike, we noticed an old tree growing into the hill. It had an empty rusty can hanging from it that the tree had grown around – that was right at the site where we found the coins… At the time we thought the can might be a place for someone to put flowers in for a gravesite – something which would have been typical at the time.

Gold Coins of the Kushans

Little is known about the Kushans, a dynasty that controlled much of India nearly 2,000 years ago. Written records of the era, where they exist at all, are all from others and are imprecise and lacking in detail. The Kushans emerged from western China and swept into the Indian subcontinent in the second century BCE.

They are believed to be a branch of the Yuezhi, fierce nomadic horsemen.

Kushan Empire, Huvishka, gold dinar, c. 155-190 CE

Kushans first swept through Bactria, occupying modern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, where they assimilated native forms of dress, a slightly modified Greek alphabet, and a mixture of Iranian and Greek religion.

Kushan king Huvishka

Vima Kadphises. Circa AD 100-128

Kushan coins favoured the Hindu pantheon. Kanishka the Great was a vocal proponent of Buddhism. Impressive Kushan gold coins marked the apex of the Kushan empire. By the the fifth century AD Hunnic rulers and later, the Muslims, incorporated Kushan lands into their own territories.

Hawaiian statue of the god of war Ku-ka’ili-moku - $7.5m

Sold in the 'Collection Vérité' on 21 November 2017 at Christie’s in Paris. Hawaiian figurative sculptures are incredibly rare. Kamehameha I associated himself with the war god Ku-ka’ili-moku — the ‘land snatcher’ or ‘island eater’. This example was made circa 1780-1820 from the Metrosideros, a tree found in the high mountains of Hawaii. The figures that are known are all in museums. Statue made $ 7.5m blowing well past it's $3.5m estimate. Also being auctioned is a Uli figure, which is a type of wooden statue carved only in the villages of New Ireland in Papua New Guinea. Tribal art is rising in value and has been for many years. The reason is extreme rarity, there are more and more museums, but fewer and fewer pieces.

Hellhounds

A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of hellish supernatural dogs occur in mythologies around the world. Some European legends state that if someone stares into a hellhound's eyes twice or more, that person will surely die. Hellhounds often have fire-based abilities and appearance. They are often assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards and burial grounds, or undertake other duties related to the afterlife, such as hunting lost souls. In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl is an omen or even a cause of death. They are said to be the protectors of the supernatural.

In Greek mythology the hellhound belonged to Hades, the Greek god of death and the underworld. It's name in Greek mythology is Cerberus. It has three heads and guards the gates of hell. The Bearer of Death is a term often used in describing the Hellhound. Hellhounds are said to be as black as coal with a smell of burning brimstone. They leave behind a burned area wherever they go.

Hades with Cerberus - Pluto Carricci painting

Hellhounds of myth is common across Great Britain and Western Europe. In southern Mexico and Central America folklore, the Cadejo haunts travelers who walk late at night.