The return of long-lost Sumero-Akkadian heritage and modern disorders: rediscovering Gilgamesh, Victorian tension, and aftermath
“The rediscovery of the Mesopotamian epic complicated centuries-old and on-going debates about time and history: The major archaeologists of the period utilized it to return the field to its earliest arguments and better understand what time and history meant at the end of the nineteenth century, the Historians, Hebraists, and Biblicists began to question the originality of the Bible and verify its reliability, and figures specialized in literature and/or the arts got access to the primary sources of prehistory to update existing literature or create new fictional arts.”
Nobody’s land? The oldest evidence of early Upper Paleolithic settlements in inland Iberia
“The directly dated cut-marked bones of ungulates indicate the presence of AMHs in inland Iberia during the early and mid-Upper Paleolithic. The paleoecological inferences suggest that human populations occupied Malia when climatic and ecological conditions were not particularly severe in terms of aridity and temperature.”
Nohemi Sala et al., Nobody’s land? The oldest evidence of early Upper Paleolithic settlements in inland Iberia. Sci. Adv.10, eado3807 (2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado3807
Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom)
“Our research reveals that remaining in a cross-legged sitting or kneeling position for extended periods, and the repetitive tasks related to writing and the adjusting of the rush pens during scribal activity, caused the extreme overloading of the jaw, neck and shoulder regions.”
Brukner Havelková, P., Dulíková, V., Bejdová, Š. et al. Ancient Egyptian scribes and specific skeletal occupational risk markers (Abusir, Old Kingdom). Sci Rep 14, 13317 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-63549-z
Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines
“Our analysis suggests that this genetic distinction is due to a European-related gene flow introduced in Ashkelon during either the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Iron Age. This timing is in accord with estimates of the Philistines arrival to the coast of the Levant, based on archeological and textual records (2–4).”
Michal Feldman et al., Ancient DNA sheds light on the genetic origins of early Iron Age Philistines. Sci. Adv.5, eaax0061 (2019). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax0061
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples.”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples.”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations
“_ The Arabian Peninsula was the initial site of the out-of-Africa migrations that occurred between 125,000 and 60,000 yr ago, leading to the hypothesis that the first Eurasian populations were established on the Peninsula and that contemporary indigenous Arabs are direct descendants of these ancient peoples._”
Rodriguez-Flores, J.L. et al. (2016) ‘Indigenous Arabs are descendants of the earliest split from ancient Eurasian populations,’ Genome Research, 26(2), pp. 151–162. https://doi.org/10.1101/gr.191478.115.
“In what follows, a reading of Wittgenstein’s remarks will be offered according to which Wittgenstein subscribes to a form of dialetheism (that is, the view that there are sentences that are both true and false). In contrast to modern dialetheist approaches to the Liar, however, some of Wittgenstein’s remarks suggest combining a dialetheist position with what is called ‘logical nihilism’ (that is, the view that there are no universally valid inference rules).”
Late Neolithic collective burial reveals admixture dynamics during the third millennium BCE and the shaping of the European genome
“To conclude, our study of a Late Neolithic burial enables direct, quasi–real-time observation of the trimodal admixture processes in Europe between 3300 and 2600 cal BCE as steppe ancestry people dispersed and mixed with local Neo-ancestry groups or individuals. The generalization of the results obtained from our data suggests that this genomic transformation took place during a period of profound cultural change.”
Oğuzhan Parasayan et al., Late Neolithic collective burial reveals admixture dynamics during the third millennium BCE and the shaping of the European genome. Sci. Adv.10, eadl2468(2024). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adl2468
“For a process that’s anything but exotic, ice nucleation remains surprisingly mysterious. Chemists can’t reliably predict the effect of a given impurity or surface, let alone design one to hinder or promote ice formation. But they’re chipping away at the problem.”
The potential of lacustrine sedimentary ancient DNA for revealing human postglacial recolonization patterns in northern Sweden – a review
“The questions of who the first postglacial peoples, or pioneers, were and where they came from therefore remain unanswered. Previous palaeogenomic analyses from remains from adjacent regions have suggested that two main routes into Sweden could have been taken by the pioneers, one from the SW through modern-day Denmark and Norway, and one from the east via Finland. However, no direct genetic evidence from the pioneers of northern Sweden exists.”
Johnson, E., Regnéll, C., Heintzman, P.D. and Linderholm, A. (2024), The potential of lacustrine sedimentary ancient DNA for revealing human postglacial recolonization patterns in northern Sweden – a review. Boreas. https://doi.org/10.1111/bor.12660
We're releasing today another bonus clip from behind the Patreon paywall. This originally was produced by Christina as a bonus clip to follow the early release of S5E5; supporters on Patreon at the Companion tier and higher gain access to bonus content that is either excerpted from episodes or prompted by their content every other week. Here is the original description:
"I didn't have any extra clips from the interview with the organizers of The Solarpunk Conference. Instead, here's me (Christina) reading my contribution to The Solarpunk Conference Journal that was published after last year's conference.
Enjoy!
PS- you can catch videos of many of the presentations from the conference on The Solarpunk Conference's YouTube channel (including the presentation/panel that @arielkroon was a part of)."
Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe
“The historical and archaeological record leave no doubt that the development of culture and population in southwestern Germany was temporarily characterized by profound discontinuities, particularly during the third to first century BCE. The definitive end of the 2,000 years of relative genetic continuity from the Bronze throughout the Iron Age in southern Germany is marked by a sudden, sharp increase of Steppe-related ancestry during the Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.”
Gretzinger, J., Schmitt, F., Mötsch, A. et al. Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe. Nat Hum Behav (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01888-7
The Making and Unmaking of a Presidency: Envisioning Empire in British Bencoolen, 1685–1825
“The effort to transform Sumatra into a productive constituent of a larger imperial nexus depended on many of the same processes that were to shape modern capitalism. Not only did British officials in Bencoolen deploy coerced and enslaved labor, they did so with the intent of wresting control of the production, consumption, and circulation of valuable commodities such as pepper and sugar. Practices of slavery, transplantation, and agrarian change typically associated with British colonies in the Atlantic world fundamentally shaped Bencoolen.”
Bains, T. (2024) ‘The Making and Unmaking of a Presidency: Envisioning Empire in British Bencoolen, 1685–1825’, Journal of British Studies, pp. 1–21. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/jbr.2023.142.
Biblical Gilgal: A Common Place Name or a Cult Site near Jericho?
“Gilgal was a national cult centre of the Kingdom of Israel, and in several references its name appears alongside that of Bethel (1 Sam 7:16; 2 Kgs 2:1–2; Hos 4:15; 12:12; Amos 4:4; 5:4–5). Bethel, located in the highlands, was the seat of a national temple (see Amos 7:13) and the place where the golden calf, the animal sacred to the Storm God, represented the God of Israel in his temple.”
“He argued that all four sublunar elements, namely, earth, water, air, and fire, can be analysed into geometrical units which take two shapes: cubical when at rest, and pyramidal when in motion. This allowed him, in turn, to solve the difficulty of the participation of the cubical portions of earth in elemental transmutations, which was due to the triangular faces of the other elements.”
“Hermeneutical disarmament is the process by which a person is rendered less able to understand or communicate experiences, ideas, and other phenomena as a result of semantic change to the linguistic resources that could previously have been deployed for these purposes.”
F. A. Hayek, Libertarianism, and the Denationalization of Money
“Hayek found support within the American libertarian movement. Libertarians realized that Hayek’s radical proposal would limit state control over the monetary system and allow for the free exchange of gold.”
McIntosh, W. (2024) ‘F. A. Hayek, Libertarianism, and the Denationalization of Money’, Modern American History, pp. 1–20. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/mah.2024.19.
Conditional Enfranchisement: How Partisanship Determines Support for Noncitizen Voting Rights
“Our findings suggest that U.S. voters are pragmatic about extending the local franchise to noncitizens. Although U.S. voters are, on average, indifferent toward local noncitizen suffrage, they oppose enfranchisement when noncitizens would vote for the opposing party.”
ALARIAN, H. and ZONSZEIN, S. (2024) ‘Conditional Enfranchisement: How Partisanship Determines Support for Noncitizen Voting Rights’, American Political Science Review, pp. 1–8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055424000522.
"Focusing on classical philologists and biblical scholars in nineteenth-century Germany, it examines how Hyperkritik developed from a technical philological term into a pejorative label that was widely invoked to discredit the latest trends in classical philology and, especially, biblical scholarship."
"After a thorough examination, we may conclude that the item’s amateurish preparation and local origin are suggestive of a scribal exercise. The use of an available mould that was not suitable for a tablet, the child’s fingerprint on the reverse and the corrected mistakes in the script all point to an inexperienced scribe."
“After a thorough examination, we may conclude that the item’s amateurish preparation and local origin are suggestive of a scribal exercise. The use of an available mould that was not suitable for a tablet, the child’s fingerprint on the reverse and the corrected mistakes in the script all point to an inexperienced scribe.”
"A Bayesian analysis showed that participants had high expectations and performed descriptively better irrespective of the AI description when a sham-AI was present. Using cognitive modeling, we could trace this advantage back to participants gathering more information."
Agnes Mercedes Kloft, Robin Welsch, Thomas Kosch, and Steeven Villa. 2024. "AI enhances our performance, I have no doubt this one will do the same": The Placebo effect is robust to negative descriptions of AI. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 299, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642633
"A Bayesian analysis showed that participants had high expectations and performed descriptively better irrespective of the AI description when a sham-AI was present. Using cognitive modeling, we could trace this advantage back to participants gathering more information."
Agnes Mercedes Kloft, Robin Welsch, Thomas Kosch, and Steeven Villa. 2024. "AI enhances our performance, I have no doubt this one will do the same": The Placebo effect is robust to negative descriptions of AI. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 299, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642633
"A Bayesian analysis showed that participants had high expectations and performed descriptively better irrespective of the AI description when a sham-AI was present. Using cognitive modeling, we could trace this advantage back to participants gathering more information."
Agnes Mercedes Kloft, Robin Welsch, Thomas Kosch, and Steeven Villa. 2024. "AI enhances our performance, I have no doubt this one will do the same": The Placebo effect is robust to negative descriptions of AI. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 299, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642633