Dozens of mummy-filled tombs discovered in Peru
New York: Archaeologists have discovered dozens of tombs filled with up to 40 mummies each around a 1,200-year-old ceremonial site in Peru. The tombs discovered in Peru’s Cotahuasi Valley are located on small hills surrounding the site. The researchers have so far excavated seven tombs that contain at least 171 mummies from the site now called Tenahaha.
The mummies were found to be curled up, ie their knees were put up to the level of their shoulders and their arms were folded along their chest. The corpses were bound with rope and wrapped in layers of textiles, ‘Live Science’ reported. In a newly published book, archaeologist Justin Jennings, a curator at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, wrote, “The dead, likely numbering in the low thousands, towered over the living.”
The mummies range in age from foetuses to older adults. Some of the youngest infants were buried in jars. These people appear to have lived in villages close to Tenahaha. The mummified remains were in poor shape and showed signs of damage from water and rodents. Some of the mummies were intentionally broken apart, their bones scattered and moved between the tombs. Carbon dating has placed the age of the site from 800 AD to 1000 AD. The excavations, carried out between 2004 and 2007, will provide clues about the lives of ancient Peruvians. (PTI)
Titanic deckchair may fetch 80,000 pounds at UK auction
London: One of a handful of deckchairs salvaged from the wreck of the doomed liner Titanic could fetch up to a whopping 80,000 pounds at an auction in UK. The deckchair was found floating on the surface by the crew of the Mackay-Bennett, which was sent to recover victims’ bodies after Titanic sank in the Atlantic waters on April 14, 1912.
The Nantucket wooden chair was used on the first class promenade deck of the ship and was believed to have been given to former crewmate Captain Julien Lemarteleur. For the last 15 years it has been owned by an English Titanic collector who used it as a display item, ‘express.co.uk’ reported. The deckchair is due to be auctioned at Henry Aldridge & Son in Devizes, Wiltshire, on April 18. Auctioneer Andrew Aldridge said deck or steamer chairs from the luxury liner were “one the rarest types of Titanic collectable”.
“The in-depth provenance documentation confirms the chain of custody of the deckchair through from Captain Lemarteleur in 1912 through to the present day,” Aldridge said. “Due to its fragile condition the chair was professionally but sympathetically conserved several years ago, it is estimated at 70,000 pounds to 80,000 pounds,” Aldridge said. The chair was one of six or seven recovered by the Mackay-Bennett and taken back to Nova Scotia, Canada. About 1,500 people died when the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg during its maiden voyage to New York from Southampton. (PTI)
International Hindi Centre to be set up in US
New York: With a view to promote Hindi as a world language, plans are underway to establish a ‘Hindi Centre’ near here that will serve as an academic and cultural hub and facilitate exchange programmes between Indian and American universities.
Consul General Ambassador Dnyaneshwar Mulay assured the Indian government’s support for the ‘International Hindi Center’ to academicians, business professionals, public officials and community leaders gathered for the 2nd International Hindi Conference at Rutgers University campus in New Jersey last week.
The center will serve as “vibrant hub” of academic and cultural activities focused on promoting Hindi as a world language, said Ashok Ojha, Managing Trustee of the Hindi Sangam Foundation, which organized the conference. A resolution to set up the Hindi centre was adopted unanimously by the delegates at the three-day conference, chaired by Mulay. Assuring his support to raise funds for the center, Mulay said, “Hindi Center will become a reality soon where all educational activities regarding Hindi learning including exchange programs and joint projects with India based institutions and universities will take place under one roof.” Presenting a blueprint of the centre, Hindi Sangam Foundation official Ved Chaudhary estimated that about USD 4 million would be required to set up an independent facility for the center in Central New Jersey, where Rutgers is located. (PTI)
Ancient giant lizards gave birth in open oceans
Washington: Throwing fresh insight into the initial environment of mosasaurs — a gigantic marine lizard — researchers have found that the iconic predator gave birth in the open ocean, not on or near shore.
The mighty mosasaurs, which could grow to 50 feet long, were seen in most waters of the earth before their extinction 65 million years ago.”Mosasaurs are among the best-studied groups of Mesozoic vertebrate animals, but evidence regarding how they were born and what baby mosasaur ecology was like has historically been elusive,” said Daniel Field, a doctoral candidate in Yale University’s department of geology and geophysics and lead author.In their study, Field and his colleagues describe the youngest mosasaur specimens ever found.Field had come across the fossils in the Yale Peabody Museum’s extensive collections.
“These specimens were collected over 100 years ago,” Field noted. “They had previously been thought to belong to ancient marine birds,” Field pointed out.Field and Aaron LeBlanc, a doctoral candidate at University of Toronto at Mississauga, said the specimens showed a variety of jaw and teeth features that are only found in mosasaurs. Also, the fossils were found in deposits in the open ocean. “Really, the only bird-like feature of the specimens is their small size,” LeBlanc said. “Contrary to classic theories, these findings suggest that mosasaurs did not lay eggs on beaches and that newborn mosasaurs likely did not live in sheltered nearshore nurseries,” LeBlanc concluded. The study was published online in the journal Palaeontology. (IANS)
Found: Oldest Neanderthal DNA
London: Researchers have stumbled upon the oldest Neanderthal DNA sample. The sample came from an ancient skeleton still buried deep inside a cave in Italy.
The DNA could be up to 170,000-year-old and could one day help form a clearer picture of the Neanderthal life, researchers said. The sample came from an extraordinarily intact skeleton of an ancient human scientists had found amidst the stalactites and stalagmites of the limestone cave of Lamalunga, near Altamura in southern Italy in 1993. “The Altamura man represents the most complete skeleton of a single nonmodern human ever found,” study co-author Fabio Di Vincenzo, a paleoanthropologist at Sapienza University of Rome, was quoted as saying by Live Science. “Almost all the bony elements are preserved and undamaged,” Di Vincenzo added. The Altamura skeleton bears a number of Neanderthal traits, particularly in the face and the back of the skull. But it also possesses features that usually aren’t seen in Neanderthals – for instance, its brow ridges were even more massive than those of Neanderthals. (IANS)