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Multi-Winner of the GoldenWeb Award
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HUNTER IN THE SKY presents
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the LATEST NEWS |
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from the world of Archaeoastronomy, Archaeology,
Astronomy, Anthropology and Biblical Research.
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WINTER SOLSTICE NEWS
SOURCE: Lowel Observatory Flagsatff AZ - DEC 2005
December 1: New moon.
December 3: In 1973, Pioneer 10 made the first flyby of Jupiter and returned the first close-up images of this planet. For information about Pioneer 10, see http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/tmp/1972-012A.html
December 4: In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder was launched. For information
about this mission, including 3-D images, science results and more, see
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/index.html
December 7: In 1995, Galileo became the first spacecraft to orbit an
outer planet when it circled Jupiter. For extensive information about
this mission, see the Galileo homepage at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/
December 8: First quarter moon.
December 11: Apollo 17, which was the last manned mission to the moon
and carried the only scientist to the moon, landed on the lunar surface
in 1972. For information about this mission, see
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo17/index.html
December 13: Tonight/tomorrow morning is the peak of the Geminid Meteor
Shower. For information, see
http://comets.amsmeteors.org/meteors/showers/geminids.html and
http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/meteors/article_802_1.asp
December 14: Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe was born in 1546. For information about Tycho, see
http://es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/People/tycho_brahe.html
December 15: Full moon.
December 17: In 1903, the Wright brothers made their famous first flight at Kitty Hawk. For information about the invention of the airplane, including a bibliography, see
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~stwright/WrBr/taleplane.html
December 21: Winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. For information, see
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/WinterSolstice.html
December 23: Last quarter moon.
December 24: In 1968, Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. The crew highlighted the event with the "Christmas Eve broadcast", a live television broadcast from lunar orbit. For
information about Apollo 8, including a link to the broadcast, see
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo8info.html
December 25: Isaac Newton was born in 1642. For information about Newton, see http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html
December 27: In 1571, the enigmatic yet productive Johannes Kepler was born. For information about Kepler, see
http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/johannes.html
December 30: New moon.
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HANWAKAN CENTER BRIDGES THE EARTH AND SKY
SOURCE: Hanwakan Center, Wisconsin - May 2005
Hunter in the Sky is pleased to announce the formation, and incorporation in the state of Wisconsin, of the Hanwakan Center for Prehistoric Astronomy, Cosmology, and Cultural Landscape Studies.
The Hanwakan Center has been organized specifically for the gathering of traditions and stories which were born of mankind's interaction with the physical environment and his understanding of the relationship between earth and sky. The Hanwakan Center will give these traditions and stories a voice once again, and connect them to the land from where they came. The goal of The Hanwakan Center is the preservation, protection, and study of our shared prehistoric and historic heritage for public benefit. Scholars, members of the Native American community, and interested individuals have expressed their desire to be a part of this endeavor and share their traditions, stories, and work with others.
The word Hanwakan is a Lakota (Siouan) Indian word for the northern lights or Aurora Borealis. The geographic context is intentional although the organization will be international in scope. The literal meanings are "night" and "sacred," and many sacred places around the world incorporate these attributes. Please visit and watch our progress at the Hanwakan Center's website --http://www.hanwakan.org
The Hanwakan Center for Prehistoric Astronomy, Cosmology, and Cultural Landscape Studies is preparing for its first conference, "Living Landscapes: Stories on the Land," to be held June 17-19, 2005. Details will follow. If you're interested in attending or have any questions, please contact Herman Bender.
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TALKING JESUS DOLL WITH GRIP ACTION
Source: CNN - APR 2005
CALIFORNIA - Believe it or not, a talking Jesus doll is now on sale, along with versions of Moses, the Virgin Mary and David. It recites five Biblical verses, while the Moses doll recites the Ten Commandments and the Mary doll recites a long Bible verse. This line of Biblical dolls is known as "Messengers of Faith" and all have hands that can grip objects.
The company manufacturing the Biblical dolls expects to sell about 50,000 units by the end of the year, with the Jesus doll - not surprisingly - the top seller. It hopes to also bring out an Esther doll by the end of the year and hopes to have other Biblical dolls in future years. Creators of this concept, One2Believe, is the Biblical doll unit of Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Company who are marketing to churches and religious families.
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TUTANKHAMEN MYSTERY CONTINUES
Source: LA TIMES May 2005
Scientists are working with the Egyptian authorities to analyze recent findings from a CT scan of the Tutankhamen mummy. They have been asked to comment on suggestions by some experts that the pharaoh died as a result of an infection following an injury to the femur bone.
They re-analyzed the original X-rays of the leg taken by Professor Ronald Harrison in 1968 and found no evidence, such as the involvement of soft tissue, to suggest that the fracture in the femur bone became infected. But it is possible Tutankhamen's leg injury could have been sustained in an accident. There are remarkable similarities between his ribcage injuries and those of a British mummy - St Bees Man in Cumbria - who sustained fatal damage to his chest in a jousting accident. It is therefore highly possible that the King could have died as a result of a chariot or sporting accident, or even at war.
The original X-rays also revealed fragments of bone in the skull, which led many to believe the King could have been murdered by a blow to the head. Scientists, however, found that the bone had been dislodged from the top of the neck and not the skull as previously thought. And because the bone was not caught in the resin that the priests used to preserve the body, it suggests the bone was not broken during mummification. It is more likely that it was dislodged in a 1925 autopsy, when scientists searched for possible gold treasures hidden inside the skull.
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CHACO CANYON ON THE WEB
Source: Archaeology Magazine May/June 2005
That’s right, the famous center of a remarkable civilization that thrived in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah form 850 CE to 1250 CE is now a cyberspace experience. The Chaco Culture National Historic Park, NASA, and Ideum, an interactive design company, have created a site with satellite images everyone one can zoom into. One can even link to time-lapse movies, including one that tracks sunlight passing over what may be a solstice marker on a ruin called Casa Rinconada. Go to and be amazed!--http://www.traditionsofthesun.org
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EQUINOX SUNRISE
SOURCE: www.knowth.com - APR 2005
Michael Fox reports from the Emerald Isle that due to adverse weather conditions on the 20th, 21st and 22nd of March there was no spring equinox sunrise to illuminate the chamber of Cairn T. The sunrise on the March 23rd looked like it might be hampered by mist. Thankfully it turned out to be a perfect sunrise to illuminate the back-stone of the chamber in Cairn T. Click on http://www.knowth.com/loughcrew-equinox-mar05.htmfor images.
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UNIVERSE SPAWNED STARS AT A YOUNG AGE
Source: Nature Magazine APR 2005
The Universe's first stars were born a mere 700 million years after the Big Bang, far earlier than researchers previously thought. The discovery comes from images of stars in galaxies that are so far away their light has taken some 13 billion years to reach us.
What's more, the images show that these early galaxies were surprisingly heavy, with as much as a quarter of the mass of galaxies that developed later, such as our Milky Way. Scientists used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to collect infrared radiation from two of the most distant galaxies known, both found in the constellation Fornax in the southern skies. Given the Universe's estimated age of 14 billion years, scientists deduced that the galaxies look the way they did just a billion years after the Universe came into being.
The stars in the images are already well developed, the researchers add. They estimate that the stars are about 300 million years old in the images, meaning that they were born when the Universe was just 700 million years old.
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THE OLDEST HOMO SAPIENS
Source: Nature Journal - Feb 2005
When the bones of two early humans were found in 1967 near Kibish, Ethiopia, they were thought to be 130,000 years old. A few years ago, researchers found 154,000- to 160,000-year-old human bones at Herto, Ethiopia. Now, a new study of the 1967 fossil site indicates the earliest known members of our species, Homo sapiens, roamed Africa about 195,000 years ago.
The researchers dated mineral crystals in volcanic ash layers above and below layers of river sediments that contain the early human bones. They conclude the fossils are much older than a 104,000-year-old volcanic layer and very close in age to a 196,000-year-old layer. These are the oldest well-dated fossils of modern humans (Homo sapiens) currently known anywhere in the world pushing the emergence of Homo sapiens from about 160,000 years ago back to about 195,000 years ago. This is significant because the cultural aspects of humanity in most cases appear much later in the record - only 50,000 years ago. This means for about 150,000 years, Homo sapiens existed without cultural stuff, such as evidence of fishing implements, any type of musical instruments, needles, or complex tools. This stuff all comes in very late, except for stone knife blades, which appeared between 50,000 and 200,000 years ago, depending on whom you believe.
According to scientists, there is a huge debate in the archeological literature regarding the first appearance of modern aspects of behavior such as bone carving for religious reasons, or tools (harpoons and things), ornamentation (bead jewelry and such), drawn images, arrowheads. They only appear as a coherent package about 50,000 years ago, and the first modern humans that left Africa between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago seem to have had the full set. As modern human anatomy is documented at earlier and earlier sites, it becomes evident that there was a great time gap between the appearance of the modern skeleton and modern behavior.
The study moves the date of human skulls found in Ethiopia's Kibish rock formation in 1967 back from 130,000 years to a newly determined date of 195,000 years ago, give or take 5,000 years. Fossils from an individual known as Omo I look like bones of modern humans, but other bones are from a more primitive cousin named Omo II.
The earlier date for humanity's emergence is important for other reasons. It makes the dates in the fossil record almost exactly concordant with the dates suggested by genetic studies for the origin of our species. It also places the first appearance of modern Homo sapiens in Africa many more thousands of years before our species appears on any other continent. Finally, the similar dating of the two skulls indicates that when modern humans first appeared there were other contemporary populations that were less modern."
The study was funded by the National Science Foundation, the L. S. B. Leakey Foundation, the National Geographic Society and the Australian National University.
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CONTROVERSIAL DATES OF BIBLICAL EDOM
Source: Antiquity Journal APR 2005
New archeological research from modern-day Jordan indicates the existence of the biblical nation of Edom at least as early as the 10th Century B.C., the era of kings David and Solomon, and adds to the controversy over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. The full results of the 2002 excavation, by a team of international scholars, at the site of Khirat en-Nahas (or "ruins of copper," in Arabic), are reported in the current issue of the British journal Antiquity.
The new study, under the direction of University of California, San Diego, Professor of Archeology Thomas Levy, contradicts much contemporary scholarship which had argued that, because there had been no physical evidence, no Edomite state had existed before the 8th Century B.C. Until the current discovery many scholars had said the Bible's numerous references to ancient Israel's interactions with Edom could not be valid.
The Edomite lowlands, home to a large copper ore zone, have been ignored by archaeologists because of the logistical difficulties of working in this hyper-arid region. But with an anthropological perspective, and using high precision radiocarbon dating, this new research demonstrates two major phases of copper production--during the 12th to 11th centuries B.C. and the 10th to 9th centuries B.C. In this period evidence was found of construction of massive fortifications and industrial scale metal production activities, as well as over 100 building complexes.
New Kingdom (19th - 20th Dynasties) ca. 1295 -1069 B.C. and Third Intermediate Period (21st - 22nd Dynasties) ca. 1069 - 715 B.C. Egyptian scarabs of a walking sphinx and a hunting scene provide additional evidence of metal-working activities at the site in the period around 1200 to 900 B.C.
These results push back the beginnings of Edom 300 years earlier than the current scholarly consensus and show the presence of complex societies, perhaps a kingdom, much earlier than previously assumed. Previous investigations in Edom had been carried out in the Jordanian highland zone and had put the rise of the Edomite kingdom during the 8th to 6th centuries B.C. But the new work presents strong evidence for the involvement of Edom with neighboring ancient Israel as described in the Bible.
Excavations at Khirbat en-Nahas were part of the Jabal Hamrat Fidan Project and carried out under the auspices of the University of California, San Diego and the Department of Antiquities of Jordan. In addition to Professor Levy, the international team includes Russell Adams, McMaster University, Canada; Mohammad Najjar, Department of Antiquities, Jordan and Professor Andreas Hauptmann, German Mining Museum. The 2002 excavation was funded by grants from the C. Paul Johnson Family Charitable Foundation and the University of California, San Diego.
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OLDEST FOSSIL HUMAN PROTEIN EVER SEQUENCED
Source: LA TIMES - APR 2005
An international team led by researchers has extracted and sequenced protein from a Neanderthal from Shanidar Cave, Iraq dating to approximately 75,000 years old.
The Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Washington University in St. Louis, claim this is the oldest fossil human protein ever sequenced. The research will be published in the online early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
It is rare to recover a protein of this age and remarkable to be able to determine the amino acid sequence of this protein. Protein sequences may be used in a similar way to DNA, to provide information on the genetic relationships between extinct and living species. As ancient DNA rarely survives, this new method opens up the possibility of determining these relationships in much older fossils which no longer contain DNA.
The research presents the sequence for the bone protein osteocalcin from a Neanderthal from Shandivar Cave as well as osteocalcin sequences from living primates (humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans). The team found that the Neanderthal sequence was the same as modern humans.
The team also found a marked difference in the sequences of Neanderthals, humans, chimpanzees and orangutans from that of gorillas and most other mammals. This sequence difference is at position nine where the amino acid hydroxyproline is replaced by proline.
The authors suggest that this is a dietary response, as the formation of hydoxyproline requires vitamin C, which is ample in the diets of herbivores like gorillas, but may be absent from the diets of the omnivorous primates such as humans and Neanderthals, orangutans and chimpanzees. Therefore, the ability to form proteins without the presence of vitamin C may have been an advantage to these primates if this nutrient was missing from their diets regularly.
This research opens up the exciting possibility of extracting and sequencing protein from other fossils, including earlier humans, as a means of determining the relationships between extinct and living species, and to better understand the phylogenetic relationships.
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MUSEUM TEACHES ARAB AND JEWISH SHARED PAST
SOURCE: Biblical Archaeology Review NOV/DEC 2004
JERUSALEM – Arabs and Jews came together with their children at Jerusalem’s’ Bible lands Museum to celebrate the completion of the year long coexistence project that uses artifacts to trace the history of the ancient Near east to help children discover their common roots. The museum takes the children through the journey of patriarch Abraham/Ibrahim from Ur to Canaan. The museum has an extensive collection that helps to illustrate the similarities and differences in their cultures which becomes a starting point for encounters of various subjects and contemporary issues in a non-confrontational way. They learn the real history of each others religions in a non-political way. One Palestinian parent said of her ten year old son, “My son knows there are other people in Jerusalem. He knows there are Jews. At the museum he sees the children are the same as him.”
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SCIENTISTS TRACKING ASTEROID FOR 2029
SOURCE: Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A recently discovered asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit has been given a higher impact hazard rating than any other seen so far. Asteroid 2004 MN4, believed to be about 1,300 feet long, potentially could impact Earth in 2029, based on a number of initial sightings of the Near Earth Object Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. The asteroid has been given an initial rating of two on the ten-point Torino Impact Hazard Scale used by astronomers to assess predictions for asteroid or comet impacts. The relatively high rating, posted on the NEO program Web site, is unusual because no previously observed asteroid has been graded higher than one.
Announcements that scientists have spotted an asteroid that crosses Earth's orbit sometimes generate alarm when early analysis shows some possibility of an impact. The asteroid's estimated size has been inferred from its brightness, which assumes that its reflectivity is similar to other asteroids that have been observed. At about 1,320 feet in length, it would have about 1,600 megatons of energy and in the event that it did hit, it would be quite serious. It would generate either a tsunami if it hit in the ocean, which would be likely, or significant ground damage for hundreds of square miles. Statistically speaking, the impact probability, as it is called, is 300-to-1 against an impact. The asteroid will be observable for the next several months and the NEO program has alerted its network of ground-based observers to include 2004 MN4 in their searches.
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NEW DATA ON PLANET FORMATION
SOURCE: USA Today - October 2004
New observations of dust around 266 young stars suggest collisions between large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent. This is comforting because, based on the violent past of our own solar system; many astronomers had assumed planet formation was a chaotic process involving a lot of smash-ups. This research also suggests that the formation of rocky planets like Earth may well be common.
These observations were done by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope which spotted rings of dust around the stars by recording the heat emitted by dust grains lit by the star. In many cases, there is so much dust astronomers believe it is continually replenished by collisions between large objects.
Our Moon is thought to have formed when a Mars-sized object hit Earth shortly after our planet gathered itself together. For a few hundred million years thereafter, impacts of huge asteroids rocked all the worlds of the inner solar system. Craters on the Moon serve as a record of that chaotic time.
The stars in the new study ranged in age from newborn to about 800 million years old, covering a time frame corresponding to the Moon's formation here and on into the emergence of life on Earth. Earth is now about 4.5 billion years old, with the Sun about 100 million years older.
Importantly, the new set of observations detail dust disks that are relatively close to the stars, the region analogous to where Venus, Earth and Mars reside. The stars in the new study are all within 500 light-years of Earth. Most are about 2.5 times the mass of the Sun, similar enough that the processes around them ought to be similar to what occurred around our own young Sun.
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POOL A KEY SITE IN THE GOSPELS
SOURCE: Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Archaeologists in Jerusalem have identified the remains of the Siloam Pool, where the Bible says Jesus miraculously cured a man's blindness, researchers said Thursday underlining a stirring link between the works of Jesus and ancient Jewish rituals. The archaeologists are slowly digging out the pool, where water still runs, tucked away in what is now the Arab neighborhood of Silwan. It was used by Jews for ritual immersions for about 120 years until the year 70, when the Romans destroyed the Jewish Temple. Many of Jesus' acts are directly linked to Jewish rituals, and the miracle of the blind man is an example. According to the Bible, the man was undergoing ritual immersion in the Siloam Pool for entry into the Temple compound, and Jesus used the occasion to cure his blindness. In the last four months, archaeologists have revealed the pool's 50-yard length and a channel that brought in water from the Silwan spring. In the past week, a section of stone road that led from the pool to the Jewish Temple was uncovered.
The archaeologists excavating the site are with the Israeli government's Antiquities Authority. They found biblical-era coins marked with ancient Jewish writing, along with pottery shards and a stone bottle cork helping them confirm the area was the Siloam Pool. The stone-lined pool has steps leading into it from all sides, said Ronny Reich, a University of Haifa archaeologist. One side of the pool, two corners, a part of the esplanade around it and the water channel leading to it have been uncovered, he said. Jesus, according to the New Testament, put clay on a blind man's eyes and then sent him to wash them out in the pool's purifying waters, giving him sight. Jews, who traditionally made three pilgrimages a year to Jerusalem, would immerse themselves in the Siloam Pool before heading down the stone pathway to the temple. They also used the pool for drinking water and camped around it.
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BIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM IN BROOKLYN
SOURCE: Biblical Archaeology Review NOV/DEC 2004
BROOKLYN, NY – Though there are thousands of museums in the United States, on every subject imaginable, there hasn’t been a Biblical Archaeology museum – until now. The Living Torah Museum, located in the heart of Brooklyn, was founded by Rabbi Shaul Deutsch to illuminate the everyday world of the Bible and other Jewish texts. It is open the public regardless of ones beliefs and persuasions. Located over a synagogue, one room is dedicated to the Biblical period; the other, to the Second Temple and Rabbinic periods.
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IDEAL LUNAR ECLIPSE
SOURCE: Sky and Telescope Magazine – October 2004
The best astronomical events usually seem to happen at the worst times and places — at 3 a.m. low above your most obstructed horizon, or maybe only in East Antarctica. But not this time, not for observers anywhere in the Americas. On October 27, 2004, the full Moon will undergo a deep total eclipse lasting for 1 hour 22 minutes, when it will be high in the eastern sky after dark but while most people are still awake and about.
The only slightly problematic area will be near the West Coast of North America, where the partial phase of the eclipse will begin just a few minutes after sunset and moonrise. But if you have an open view low to the east, even this situation will only add to the drama. As twilight fades, westerners will see the shadow-bitten Moon coming into stark view low above the landscape, and by the time totality begins, the sky will be getting quite dark and the Moon will be fairly high.
What's more, in a conjunction of events never before seen in history, this eclipse happens during Game 4 of the World Series. The World Series Lunar Eclipse should be visible to fans with good sight lines from Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis, and we can hope that TV crews periodically aim up to show the progress of the event. Millions of watchers could be inspired to duck outside for a look between innings.
Europe and much of Africa also get a good view of the eclipse, but at a less convenient time: before dawn on the morning of October 28th.
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WAL-MART COULD RUIN CASA GRANDE RUINS
SOURCE: Archaeological Conservancy - September 2004
One of our country’s oldest archaeological monuments is being ruined by corporate development, and there’s not much we can do about it. The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Coolidge, south east of Phoenix, Arizona will be bordered by a Wal-Mart Supercenter on the east and a possible holding prison on the west. A new housing project already exists on the south.
Even preservations admit they cannot save the panoramic views from the 500 year old Hohokam village because the city of Coolidge claims they need to generate taxes and jobs from such developments. Though Wal-Mart changed the original location to accommodate remains found at the original site, the supercenter will still create too much traffic and destruction for the site to survive. Scientists say by adding the prison site to the mix, the impact will be devastating.
The city of Coolidge is also planning to put hotels and restaurants in the area because they want to draw more tourists to the area. Scientists are supporting this portion of the city’s plan because they think the funds generated by tourists visiting the site is more sensible than blanketing the extraordinary area with shopping centers and prisons.
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HOUSE VOTES TO GUARD ‘UNDER GOD’
SOURCE: LA Times – September 2004
WASHINGTON – The house, in an emotionally and politically charged debate voted to protect the words “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance from further court challenges. This legislation was promoted by Republican conservatives and cited by Democrats as debasing the Constitution. Promoters said they needed to protect an affirmation of religion that is part of the national heritage.
COMMENTARY:
Before one gets wound up over this issue, let’s look at a brief history of this well known phrase. The pledge originally read, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” and had no mention of God whatsoever. The phrase “Under God” became part of the pledge in June 1954, when Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike passed and President Eisenhower signed a law amending the phrase in an effort to dehumanize the “ungodly” communists.
As the President authorized this change he said, “In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war.” Okay….but where did the idea for this pledge first originate?
The Pledge of Allegiance was first published in the Youth’s Companion for the September 8, 1892 national Flag Day celebration and as part of a School Flag Movement. Translation: The “Pledge of Allegiance,” this imaginary scared cow, was made first popular as a sales gimmick by a flag manufacturer through the guise of raising the level of patriotism in American school rooms.
This means for over a hundred years the American public has embraced an advertising campaign as an idiom of patriotic living and for fifty years we have subverted a venerated symbol in the name of religious and racial intolerance. This makes the turmoil over this issue both senseless and laughable.
Zain Winter
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JAMES OSSUARY UPDATE—FINDS OR FAKES?
Source: Biblical Archaeology Magazine - Novemevr/December 2004
The debate continues over the supposed James ossuary. Script Expert and author Ada Yardeni weighs in on the controversial subject...
"Regarding the inscription on the famous James ossuary, Ya’akov bar Yoseph ahui d’ Yeshua (Yod, ayin, qof, waw, bet. bet, resh. Yod, waw, samah, pe. aleph, het, waw, yod. dalet, Yod, shin, waw, ayin, translated in English as “James [Jacob] son of Joseph brother of Jesus”), I have been following the discussion and reports, and I am by no means persuaded by the claims that it is a forgery. My opinion is based on paleographical as well as circumstantial evidence.
Having studied thoroughly the script of the Second Temple period (see my two-volume work The Aramaic Hebrew and Nabataean Documentary Texts from the Judaean Desert and Related Material, Jerusalem 2000), I have managed to develop a feeling for this script.
When I copied the inscription, I initially had some question about the qof and the final pe, as well as the angular first ayin. I also wondered about the name Joseph spelled Ywsp this way rather than Yhwsp (with a he). The latter spelling was much more popular in this period. I also noted that the first name, Yqwb (James/Jacob), is spelled with the waw (w) which might lead one to expect a he (h) in Joseph. (Both waw and he are rudimentary vowels.)
These were the only peculiarities I saw in the inscription. I also observed that there was no difference in the depth of the engraving between the two parts of the inscription.
It is quite normal for a hand-made inscription to display variations in the execution of the letters. However, the use of the cursive alef seems to be too sophisticated for a forger, while it may easily have occurred to a scribe who was trained in the cursive script.
I don’t see any similarity between the somewhat distorted dalet of this inscription and the dalet in ossuary No. 570 in Rahmani’s catalog of ossuaries. No. 570 is, of course, the only other ossuary inscription containing the name of the deceased’s brother. The verbal form is the same as in our ossuary. But it is clear that the engraver of our ossuary did not copy the dalet in No. 570.
I am confirmed in my opinion by external circumstances. When the ossuary’s owner, Mr. Oded Golan, first gave me a photograph of the inscription on November 1, 2001, it was with photographs of two other ossuary inscriptions, one of which is incised in a “Jewish” cursive script. There is no way that this could be a forgery. The second additional photograph was inscribed with letters in a so-far-unidentified script. Perhaps it’s a forgery. On January 2, 2002, I traced the inscriptions from the photographs, but Mr. Golan did not seem anxious to see my drawings. I think that I gave them to him later that month when he brought me, at my request, some Idumean ostraca to be examined and copied by me. I really don’t know if at that time he was aware of the meaning of the inscription. It was not until July 2002 that André Lemaire of the Sorbonne told me that he is going to publish in BAR the inscription mentioning Jesus.
This was totally different from the circumstances involving the so-called Yehoash inscription. In that case photographs were sent to me by a messenger in a mysterious way on November 18, 2001, following a phone call six days earlier. I was never told that Mr. Golan was actually behind this or behind the request that I write a paleographical report on this inscription. Looking back, this seems quite strange, but it could be explained by the claim that the dealer wanted it to be kept a secret.
In sum, I am confident that the James ossuary inscription is authentic. About the Yehoash inscription, there is more doubt".
Ada Yardeni
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SHATNER TO GO IN SPACE
SOURCE: Associated Press - October 2004
LONDON -- Virgin Galactic has announced more than 7,000 people have registered their willingness to pay the $210,000 fare for the service, which promises to send passengers 70 miles above the Earth. It hopes to offer flights — lasting about 3 1/2 hours including six minutes of weightlessness — by 2008.
Speaking from California's Mojave desert, company chief Richard Branson told news agencies there had been "tremendous take-up" of the idea since he announced it last month. He has personally committed $110 million toward spaceships and ground infrastructure for the new service.
Among the thousands waiting to be called is "Star Trek" star William Shatner who wants to go boldly where no other actors have gone before.
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Scientists Hope Solar Material Intact After Crash
Source: Reuters
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Optimistic scientists plucked dirt and mud from a mangled capsule which crashed in the Utah desert, hoping to find enough solar dust to yield clues about the dawn of the planetary system.
The capsule was carrying the first extraterrestrial matter to be returned to Earth by a spacecraft since lunar missions in the early 1970s. The capsule was supposed to have deployed a chute and be hooked in mid-air by a Hollywood helicopter stunt pilot. But the parachute failed to deploy and it smashed into the ground at 200 mph. A painstaking examination of what Genesis program scientist David Lindstrom called "a mangled mess of a spacecraft" which had spent three years collecting microscopic solar ions on collector plates described as a "fossil record" of the Sun. Scientists hoped the solar wind particles would help them learn how the sun and its family of planets originated an estimated 4.5 billion years ago and how the solar system evolved.
Lindstrom dismissed suggestions that the crash had raised questions about NASA's program of relatively cheap space explorations. "This was a very carefully planned, beautifully executed mission up until the very end so there is no need for soul searching," he said.
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OLYMPICS FOR WOMEN
SOURCE: Archaeology Odyssey magazine - JUL 2004
GREECE - Far from the city of Athens sits a relatively obscure site that held the most famous athletic-religious festival of the entire ancient world. They called the event…the Olympiads.
According to fifth-century Greek poets and historians,
“If you wish to celebrate great games, look no further for another star, shining through the sky, brighter than the sun, or for contests greater than the Olympic games.”
It was recorded that every four years, the world traveled to Olympia for an athletic religious event in the honor of Zeus. The festival began with the second full moon following the summer solstice – that is, the end of July or beginning of August. Additionally, the article tells of games held for women. According to chroniclers, a second festival was held at Olympia, called the Heraia. Every four years a committee of sixteen married women, one form each of the cities of the region, wove a sacred robe for Hera, the wife of Zeus, and held games for unmarried girls in three age groups. Each victor received an olive wreath, apportion of the cow that was sacrificed to Hera, and the right to make an offering to Hera at the temple. As far as we can tell, the first Olympic Games were held in 776 BCE and were held until 393 CE when the Christian Roman emperors decided it was too pagan and closed any and all temples and events in honor of the Olympian gods.
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SKYWATCH 05
Source: Sky & Telescope Magazine
COLORADO - Months ago, Sky & Telescope Magazine asked a good friend and fellow astronomy enthusiast to write a piece on astronomy travel. So she did, and true to their word, they sent her two copies of the finished magazine ‘Sky Watch’. (By the way, this is Sky &Telescope's annual publication that gives the upcoming celestial events for the year, and articles geared to everyone - not just dedicated amateurs).
Now here’s the kicker...they made her article the 'COVER STORY' of Sky Watch '05. After having more than 50 articles published nationally, this is her first cover story! She is soooo excited! And so are we, so we decided to let you know about it and if you want the dream vacation of a lifetime, you can contact her at http://www.mythictravels.comwhere her motto is “Uncommon Travel for Extraordinary People.” Additionally, she is a Freelance Writer, Photographer, Web Designer through her other project http://www.starfirecreations.com and is a member of the Denver Astronomical Society http://www.denverastrosociety.org
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CASSINI REACHES SATURN
Source: LA TIMES - JULY 2004
PASADENA, Calif. - Launched seven years ago — Cassini safely passed through the ring plane and then performed a crucial engine firing. It squeezed through a gap in the rings, fired its brakes and settled into a near-perfect orbit around the giant planet. A carefully choreographed maneuver allowed Cassini to be captured by Saturn’s gravity as it arced within 12,500 miles (20,000 kilometers) of the giant planet’s cloud tops. The maneuver had to be carried out automatically because Earth and Saturn are currently more than 900 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) apart and radio signals take more than 80 minutes to travel each way.
Cassini was launched on Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., over the objections of anti-nuclear protesters who feared what might happen if the rocket exploded while carrying Cassini and its 72 pounds (33 kilograms) of plutonium, which powers the spacecraft. NASA insisted that the launch would be safe because of the numerous precautions taken with the poisonous substance.
Hours after settling into orbit around Saturn, the international U.S.-European Cassini spacecraft on Thursday sent back unprecedented glimpses of the planet's rings, revealing patterned waves that looked like ripples in a pond.
Black-and-white images of the “A ring”, the outermost of Saturn's two brightest rings, showed patterns of ripples that scientists said were density waves, caused by the gravitational influences of the planet's moons. Although the rings look like solid, flat doughnuts from Earth, they actually behave more like rivers of ice and rock, with particles ranging in size from dust specks to mountains. Some of the waves might measure as little as a quarter of a mile (half a kilometer) across.
Putting the first spacecraft into orbit around Saturn marked another major success this year for NASA, which has had two rovers operating on Mars since January and has a spacecraft heading home with samples from a comet encounter.
The orbital insertion came after two decades of work by scientists in the United States and seventeen nations. The $3.3 billion mission was funded by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. David Southwood, director of space science for the European Space Agency, called it a “world mission” but said the orbital insertion was “America doing it right.”
Cassini will now go on at least a four-year tour of Saturn and some of its thirty-one known moons. In October it will reach Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and the Huygens probe it carries probe will be sent through Titan's atmosphere in January. The moon, blanketed by a thick atmosphere of nitrogen and methane, is believed to have organic compounds resembling those on Earth billions of years before life appeared. Scientists speculate that Huygens could well splash down into a lake or ocean of methane and ethane.
Scientists also hope the mission will provide important clues about how the planets formed. Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun and the second-largest, intrigues scientists because it is like a model of the early solar system, when the sun was surrounded by a disk of gas and dust.
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