Posts

Showing posts from 2013

The Underground City of Derinkuyu

Image
Images: dailynewsdig.com Derinkuyu Underground City is an ancient multi-level underground city of the Median Empire in the Derinkuyu district in NevÅŸehir Province, Turkey. Extending to a depth of approximately 60 m, it was large enough to shelter approximately 20,000 people together with their livestock and food stores. It is the largest excavated underground city in Turkey and is one of several underground complexes found across Cappadocia. It was opened to visitors in 1969 and to date, about half of the underground city is accessible to tourists. Features The underground city at Derinkuyu could be closed from the inside with large stone doors. Each floor could be closed off separately. The city could accommodate up to 20,000 people and had all the usual amenities found in other underground complexes across Cappadocia, such as wine and oil presses, stables, cellars, storage rooms, refectories, and chapels. Unique to the Derinkuyu complex and located on the second f

The Lost Cities

Image
Images: ramhg.com Lost city is a term that can be used to a human settlement that which fell into terminal decline, became extensively or completely uninhabited. The location of many of these cities had been forgotten, but some have been rediscovered and studied extensively by scientists. Recently abandoned cities or cities whose location was never in question might be referred to as ruins or ghost towns. The search for such lost cities by European explorers and adventurers in the Americas, Africa and in Southeast Asia from the 15th century onwards eventually led to the development of archaeology. Lost cities generally fall into two broad categories: those where no knowledge of the city existed until the time of its rediscovery, and those where location has been lost but knowledge of its existence has been retained in myths, legends, or historical records. How cities are lost Cities may become lost for a variety of reasons including natural disasters, economic or socia

Ancient DNA

Image
Ancient DNA /Wikipedia Ancient DNA  is DNA isolated from ancient specimens. It can be also loosely described as any  DNA  recovered from biological samples that have not been preserved specifically for later DNA analyses. Examples include the analysis of DNA recovered from archaeological and historical skeletal material, mummified tissues, archival collections of non-frozen medical specimens, preserved plant remains, ice and permafrost cores, Holocene plankton in marine and lake sediments, and so on. Unlike modern genetic analyses, ancient DNA studies are characterised by low quality DNA. This places limits on what analyses can achieve. Furthermore, due to degradation of the DNA molecules, a process which correlates loosely with factors such as time, temperature, and presence of free water, upper limits exist beyond which no DNA is deemed likely to survive. Allentoft et al (2012) tried to calculate this limit by studying the decay of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA in Moa bones.

World's Unexplained Mystery: Stonehenge

Image
Images Wikipedia Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England, about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Amesbury and 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is the remains of a ring of standing stones set within earthworks. It is in the middle of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. Archaeologists believe it was built anywhere from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Radiocarbon dating in 2008 suggested that the first stones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, whilst another theory suggests that bluestones may have been raised at the site as early as 3000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. The site and its surroundings were added to the UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1986 in a co-listing with Avebury Henge. It is a national legally protected