Cousins

Have you ever heard the phrase: You give someone a fish and they eat for a day, you teach them to fish and they will eat for the rest of their life?

Well, its probably not surprising that the fish hook was recently voted to be one of the top 20 tools of all time. The earliest known fish hooks are around 30,000 years old.

One of the oldest artificial objects ever found was a flute carved out of bone (shown above). Its been dated at 45,000 years old. That is extremely old when you think that civilisations are only really thought to have started in the last 10,000 years.

But here is the twist....

The interesting thing about both these artifacts is that they were not made by modern Humans at all, but by Cro-Magnon Man (the fish hooks) and Neanderthal Man (the flute).

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Lost Arts F.A.Q.

Haven't you ever wondered if our minds have untapped potential that lays dormant in today's age but that the ancients knew how to harness?

That was the question that started me off researching what has now become my new book: 'The Lost Arts of the Mind: the self-improvement secrets ofthe ancients'.

My friends and family used to laugh at me and roll their eyes whenI'd tell them I'm sure that people in ancient times knew how to usetheir own minds better than we do.

But their laughter has stopped now that I have the actual techniques to prove it!

Don't get me wrong. These aren't hocus-pocus mystical tricks. These are real, practical techniques.

And now, finally, I'm ready to release them in an e-book.

I thought you might have some questions about the Lost Arts of theMind book.

Q: What are the Lost Arts of the Mind

A: Mental techniques developed by ancient cultures for improvingthinking, better understanding personality, enhancing memory andgetting better sleep.

Q: How long is the e-book?

A: Currently just over 60 pages. Its pretty focused and free of waffle. So its shorter than a typical book. But full of content.

Q: So who are you?

A: My name's Darren Lloyd Bridger, I'm 29 and from the south coastof England. I work as a research psychologist, and I previously co-authored a psychology book about consumerism called 'The Soul ofthe New Consumer', which I was fortunate enough to have published in eight countries around the world.

Q: Why are you publishing this online rather than through atraditional publisher?

A: The main reason is time. By publishing online I can get this outquickly, rather than wait a year, which is what it would probablytake if I tried to sell it to one of the traditional bookpublishers. But the other reason is that by publishing it online Ican have much closer contact with you, the reader, and I can acceptsuggestions and ideas from you! :-)

Q: What are the benefits of buying it now rather than waiting untilthe 'official' release?

A: Firstly, you will get it cheaper now, $9.99 rather than about$20 when I release it 'officially'.

Secondly, you will get it quicker! Its going to take me a littlewhile to set up the official sales page and make it look all slickand professional(!). I know you don't really care about that stuffand are more interested in the actual content, so I think its agood idea to make it available on a limited pre-release basis now.

Ancient faces brought to life

Ancient faces brought to life

It has always been Nguyen Van Viet’s dream to recreate the faces, and lives, of ancient people. After years of study abroad and hard work, Viet and his colleagues finally have a place in the sun with the recent Dong Xa excavation, which revealed a tomb with 20 2,000-year-old skeletons from three different races.


Read more...

Experts 'decipher' Inca strings

From the BBC website:

Experts 'decipher' Inca strings



Researchers in the US believe they have come closer to solving a centuries-old mystery - by deciphering knotted string used by the ancient Incas.

Experts say one bunch of knots appears to identify a city, marking the first intelligible word from the extinct South American civilisation.

The coloured, knotted pieces of string, known as khipu, are believed to have been used for accounting information.

The researchers say the finding could unlock the meaning of other khipu.
Place name

Harvard University researchers Gary Urton and Carrie Brezine used computers to analyse 21 khipu.

They found a three-knot pattern in some of the strings which they believe identifies the bunch as coming from the city of Puruchuco, the site of an Inca palace.
"We hypothesize that the arrangement of three figure-eight knots at the start of these khipu represented the place identifier, or toponym, Puruchuco," they wrote in their report, published in the journal Science.

"We suggest that any khipu moving within the state administrative system bearing an initial arrangement of three figure-eight knots would have been immediately recognisable to Inca administrators as an account pertaining to the palace of Puruchuco."
Most experts agree the khipu represented an accounting system, but until now, no-one had been able to decipher them.

Ancient stories?

The researchers said their findings support what is already known about the Inca society.
"This work gives us some sense of how this complex information was compiled, manipulated, shared and archived in the Inca hierarchy," Mr Urton said in a statement quoted by Reuters news agency.

He said that the discovery could help researchers build up an inventory of place names, marking the first time khipu have been associated with words rather than numbers.

Mr Urton said there are about 700 known khipu, two-thirds of which are arranged in a numerical pattern.

The others may hold the key to historical information and stories. "We think those may be the narrative ones," Mr Urton said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4143968.stm