Tag: lost civilizations

Psychedelic mushrooms may have played a role in development of human consciousness, study finds

Psychedelic fungi containing psilocybin may have played a role in the development of human consciousness a scientific review has suggested.

The study, published in the journal LILLOA, analysed multiple studies involving psilocybin, psilocin and human consciousness. Taking a multidisciplinary approach spanning studies from the fields of biology, ethnobotany, and neuroscience researchers found that psychedelic mushrooms, specifically the Psilocybe genus of the Hymenogastraceae family, had the “potential to trigger significant neurological and psychological effects” in humans.

The findings support the Stoned Ape Theory, a hypothesis proposed by ethnobotanist Terence McKenna in his 1992 book Food of the Gods. McKenna suggested that psychedelic mushrooms were the major evolutionary catalyst behind the rapid expansion of human consciousness.

“At the cerebral level, psilocybin affects various areas, such as the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the anterior cingulate cortex,” the study authors wrote. “The hypothesis that psilocybin mushrooms may have intervened as a factor in the evolution of human consciousness, either as catalysts for mystical experiences or as drivers of cognitive processes, raises profound reflections on the ancestral interaction between humans and their environment.”

The paper highlights how numerous ancient cultures across the world discovered and studied psilocybin-containing mushrooms, citing a prehistoric cave drawing of a shaman figure clutching mushrooms found in the Tassili caves in the Altas Mountains. This suggests, the authors said, that psychedelic mushrooms have played an important part in the evolutionary process of humans.

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Archaeologists unlock 3,000-year-old secrets about creation of universe and monsters after deciphering oldest known map of the world

Researchers have finally decoded a Babylonian tablet thought to be the oldest map of the world.

Created between 2,600 and 2,900 years ago, the Imago Mundi provided researchers with a unique glimpse into the beliefs and practices of the ancient civilization.

The Babylonian tablet has a circular map with pieces of text written in cuneiform – an ancient writing system that used wedge-shaped symbols – which describes the early creation of the world. 

The map depicted Mesopotamia – or the land ‘between the rivers’ – a historical area of the Middle East that was thought to be the entire ‘known world’ at the time.

The tablet’s map also confirmed their belief in the mighty God of Creation, Marduk, and mythical creatures and monsters like scorpion-man and Anzu – the lion-headed bird.

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Stonehenge mystery deepens: Scientists say the altar stone did NOT come from Orkney as claimed – as the hunt for its place of origin continues

The origin of Stonehenge’s iconic standing stones has baffled archaeologists for hundreds of years.

Last month, the plot thickened as scientists made a bombshell discovery that the stone circle’s altar stone could be traced back to Scotland, rather than Wales.

Now, the mystery has deepened once again as a new study finds that this bluestone slab did not originate from Orkney as most experts had assumed. 

‘The mystery of where the stone came from is becoming clearer and clearer as we begin to rule out specific areas in north-east Scotland,’ said Professor Richard Bevins from Aberystwyth University, the lead author of the new study.

‘This research is radically changing our thinking about the origins of the Altar Stone. It’s thrilling to know that our chemical analysis and dating work is slowly unlocking this great mystery.’

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Egyptologists uncover 2,500 year-old observatory full of precise tools

Egyptologists have excavated a nearly 9,150-square-foot astronomical observatory in modern-day Tell el-Faraeen dating back to the sixth century BCE—the first and largest of its kind from that era. In an August 23 announcement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities (interpreted from Arabic to English using Google Translate), the mud brick structure contained numerous tools that, although comparatively simple in design, allowed for the precise study and measurement of solar calendrical dates related to Egyptian religious rites, royal coronations, and agricultural plans.

The facility is located within a sprawling archeological site now known as the Temple of Buto (the Greek name of the Egyptian god, Wadjet), and is located about 50 miles east of Alexandria. Built in the southeastern portion of the temple, the astronomical complex featured an east-facing entrance for sunrises, an L-shaped open central hall supported by columns, and a high, inward sloping mud brick wall “resembling the style of the Egyptian edifice known in temple entrances,” according to the government’s statement.

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Stone Age builders had engineering savvy, finds study of 6000-year-old monument

The Neolithic farmers and herders who built a massive stone chamber in southern Spain nearly 6,000 years ago possessed a good rudimentary grasp of physics, geometry, geology and architectural principles, finds a detailed study of the site.

Using data from a high-resolution laser scan, as well as unpublished photos and diagrams from earlier excavations, archaeologists pieced together a probable construction process for the monument known as the Dolmen of Menga. Their findings, published on 23 August in Science Advances1, reveal new insights into the structure and its Neolithic builders’ technical abilities.

The dolmen pre-dates the main stone circle at Stonehenge in the United Kingdom by about 1,000 years, but the construction process described in the study would have involved similar techniques and demanded a similar level of engineering.

“These people had no blueprints to work with, nor, as far as we know, any previous experience at building something like this,” says study co-author Leonardo García Sanjuán, an archaeologist at the University of Seville in Spain. “And yet, they understood how to fit together huge blocks of stone” with “a precision that would keep the monument intact for nearly 6,000 years”.

“There’s no way you could do that without at least a basic working knowledge of science,” he adds.

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‘A king will die’: 4,000-year-old lunar eclipse omen tablets finally deciphered

Tablets added to the British Museum’s collection many decades ago have finally been deciphered.

Scholars have finally deciphered 4,000-year-old cuneiform tablets found more than 100 years ago in what is now Iraq. The tablets describe how some lunar eclipses are omens of death, destruction and pestilence.

The four clay tablets “represent the oldest examples of compendia of lunar-eclipse omens yet discovered” Andrew George, an emeritus professor of Babylonian at the University of London, and Junko Taniguchi, an independent researcher, wrote in a paper published recently in the Journal of Cuneiform Studies. (Lunar eclipses occur when the moon falls into Earth’s shadow.)

The authors of the tablets used the time of night, movement of shadows and the date and duration of eclipses to predict omens.

For example, one omen says that if “an eclipse becomes obscured from its center all at once [and] clear all at once: a king will die, destruction of Elam.” Elam was an area in Mesopotamia centered in what is now Iran. Another omen says that if “an eclipse begins in the south and then clears: downfall of Subartu and Akkad,”which were both regions of Mesopotamia at the time. Yet another omen reads: “An eclipse in the evening watch: it signifies pestilence.”

It’s possible that ancient astrologers used past experiences to help determine what omens the eclipses portended.

“The origins of some of the omens may have lain in actual experience — observation of portent followed by catastrophe,” George told Live Science in an email. However most omens were likely determined through a theoretical system that linked eclipse characteristics to various omens, he noted.

The cuneiform tablets probably come from Sippar, a city that flourished in what is now Iraq, George told Live Science. At the time the tablets were written, the Babylonian Empire flourished in parts of the region. The tablets became part of the British Museum’s collection between 1892 and 1914 but had not been fully translated and published until now.

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Fossils suggest even smaller ‘hobbits’ roamed an Indonesian island 700,000 years ago

Twenty years ago on an Indonesian island, scientists discovered fossils of an early human species that stood at about 3 1/2 feet (1.07 meters) tall — earning them the nickname “hobbits.”

Now a new study suggests ancestors of the hobbits were even slightly shorter.

“We did not expect that we would find smaller individuals from such an old site,” study co-author Yousuke Kaifu of the University of Tokyo said in an email.

The original hobbit fossils date back to between 60,000 and 100,000 years ago. The new fossils were excavated at a site called Mata Menge, about 45 miles from the cave where the first hobbit remains were uncovered.

In 2016, researchers suspected the earlier relatives could be shorter than the hobbits after studying a jawbone and teeth collected from the new site. Further analysis of a tiny arm bone fragment and teeth suggests the ancestors were a mere 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) shorter and existed 700,000 years ago.

“They’ve convincingly shown that these were very small individuals,” said Dean Falk, an evolutionary anthropologist at Florida State University who was not involved with the research.

The findings were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

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Carvings at ancient monument may be world’s oldest calendar

Markings on a stone pillar at a 12,000 year-old archaeological site in Turkey likely represent the world’s oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, experts suggest.

The markings at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey – an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures adorned with intricately carved symbols – could record an astronomical event that triggered a key shift in human civilisation, researchers say. 

The research suggests ancient people were able to record their observations of the sun, moon and constellations in the form of a solar calendar, created to keep track of time and mark the change of seasons. 

Fresh analysis of V-shaped symbols carved onto pillars at the site has found that each V could represent a single day. This interpretation allowed researchers to count a solar calendar of 365 days on one of the pillars, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days. 

The summer solstice appears as a separate, special day, represented by a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast thought to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time. Other statues nearby, possibly representing deities, have been found with similar V-markings at their necks.

Since both the moon’s and the sun’s cycles are depicted, the carvings could represent the world’s earliest so-called lunisolar calendar, based on the phases of the moon and the position of the sun – pre-dating other known calendars of this type by many millennia. 

Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago – or 10,850 BC – researchers say. 

The comet strike is suggested to have ushered in a mini ice age lasting over 1,200 years, wiping out many species of large animals. It could also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture thought to be linked to the birth of civilisation soon afterwards in the fertile crescent of West Asia.

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Strange ‘Stonehenge’ discovered in US lake that’s 5,000 years older than the British landmark

There’s much we may never know about our earliest ancestors, like why we started to walk upright and how we managed to create structures that seem to defy the engineering capabilities of the time.

Stonehenge remains one of these great mysteries, with experts around the world divided over why exactly the prehistoric monument was built.

Now, to add to this age-old confusion, it has emerged that a similarly enigmatic stone structure has been found beneath the waters of Lake Michigan in the US.

Not only that, but this underwater creation is around 5,000 years older than its British counterpart.

The site was discovered in 2007 by a team of archaeologists led by Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan College.

Holley and his colleagues were conducting a survey of the lake bed when they chanced upon a series of large stones, arranged in a circular pattern, just off the coast of Traverse City, Michigan.

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Researchers Claim Long-Lost Technology Used to Build Iconic Pyramid of Djoser

The magnificent step pyramid standing tall in the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara is truly one of the wonders of the ancient world.

Erected some 4,500 years ago, the tomb of the pharaoh Djoser is the earliest known example of Egypt’s colossal stone structures; a monument not just to the king but to the engineering ingenuity of the people who inhabited the land thousands of years ago.

How this architectural marvel was constructed – especially given its sharp departure from any building that came before – has been of intense interest to archaeologists and historians.

Now a team led by Egyptologist Xavier Landreau of Paleotechnic in France may have uncovered a significant clue.

A previously unexplained structure in Saqqara, they argue, is in fact a check dam, supporting the hypothesis a water-powered lift helped move materials used in the pyramid’s construction.

This is bolstered by the discovery of several other features, including what the researchers interpret as the remains of a novel kind of hydraulic lift: a central shaft through which water channeled from below might flow like lava in a volcano, raising a floating platform which would be capable of transporting large rocks to the pyramid’s summit.

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