updates, recent related media reports and news about Old News

Intermarriage of Pawnee Indians and Celtic sailors?

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:00:00 -0600

An article published In Kansas Historical Collections Vol. XVI 1923-1925 suggests yes, they did, leaving behind archaeological evidence and reports taken by ethnographers, suggestive of the mixed bloodlines.

Newgrange Winter Solstice 2007

Sat, 22 Dec 2007 12:09:00 -0600

A clear sunrise on December 21 treated the world to Heritage Ireland's inaugural live webcast of this phenomenon. Link to the official video archive available here and Victor Reijs' condensed YouTube summary embedded here.

Celtic or Keltic?

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:09:00 -0600

The uncommon pronunciation with a leading soft C which we use in our videos is actually the preferred pronunciation based on linguistic principles

Old News site for iPhone owner

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:00:00 -0600

We have launched up a special mini-website, m.onter.net, especially for iPhone users to tune in five of our 3 minute videos on-the-go at any time.

Beltaine sunrise in SE Colorado

Wed, 09 May 2007 19:00:00 -0600

Chas S. Clifton's blog, Letter from Hardscrabble Creek, features his account of our four man camp-out and dawn observation on Beltane, Saturday, 5 May, at the Sun Temple with digital images.

Solar Observatory at Chankillo, Peru

Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:00:00 -0600

Yale University anthropolgy graduate student Ivan Ghezzi and University of Leicester Archaeoastronomy Professor Clive Ruggles decode purpose behind an ancient, enigmatic series of towers on a remote ridgeline

Archaeologists Decry TV Film

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:00:00 -0600

Washington Post article on "Lost Tomb of Jesus" documentary and harsh criticism by University of North Carolina archaeologist Jodi Magness

Video clips on YouTube, too

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 12:01:00 -0600

Eight of our 3 minute video clips are now available for viewing on YouTube. You are welcome to publicly post your remarks alongside any or all of our vignettes.

Coast to Coast AM, February 19

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 23:00:00 -0600

Internationally syndicated overnight program on Premiere Radio Network: host George Noory interviewed maverick archaeologist Gunner Thompson, Ph.D., about ancient voyages to the New World long before Columbus

Stonehenge builders' houses found

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:00:00 -0600

Archaeologists say they have found a huge ancient settlement used by the people who built Stonehenge. Excavations at Durrington Walls, near the legendary Salisbury Plain monument, uncovered remains of ancient houses. People seem to have occupied the sites seasonally, using them for ritual feasting and funeral ceremonies. In ancient times, this settlement would have housed hundreds of people, making it the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain.

Roman skywatchers built computer, 100 BC

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 17:00:00 -0600

Researchers confirm mystery device found abord a Roman shipwreck in 1901 was an amazing, elaborately-geared mechanical computer designed to mimic fine eccentricities in solar and lunar movements calculated --- literally cranked in by hand --- for the past, present and future. The ship went down in 65 B.C. off the coast of Greece. It had sailed from Rhodes and the Antikythera Mechanism found in the wreckage may well have been the handiwork of ancient astronomer Hipparchos.

Living off the sea may have helped early humans travel around the globe

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:00:00 -0600

10 Oct 2006 article at BBC News, excerpts: Professor Jon Erlandson says the maritime capabilities of ancient humans have been greatly underestimated. Anthropologists have long regarded the exploitation of marine resources as a recent development in human history, and as peripheral to the development of civilisation. This view has been reinforced by a relative lack of evidence of ancient occupation in coastal areas. Shifting sea levels since the last Ice Age, combined with coastal erosion, would have erased many traces of a maritime past, Professor Erlandson explained. "I grew up on the coast and I always thought this didn't make much sense. Coastlines are exceptionally rich in resources."

Apocalypto director Mel Gibson stirring new controversies

Wed, 27 Sep 2006 11:00:00 -0600

27 September 2006, Director Mel Gibson is fueling new controversy with "work in progress" previews of his Mayan epic, Apocalypto, to native American audiences and a Texas film fest. Disney's Touchstone Pictures has set December 8 for the movie's US premiere. See the Apocalypto page in our section on archaeoastronomy in dramatic cinema. At the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, Gibson remarked that the USA seems to him to be following the same path that led to the tenth century CE downfall of the most advanced civilization in the western hemisphere prior to European colonization. "I don't mean to be a doomsday guy, but the Mayan calendar does end in 2012, boys and girls. Have fun!" For more details read today's news article in The Australian. Winner of the Directing and Best Picture Academy Awards for Braveheart in 1995, Gibson directed the 30 million dollar Passion of the Christ in 2004, to mixed reviews. His production company, Icon, is budgeting under 50 million for Apocalypto. A magnet for controversy even before his vocal drunk driving arrest, Gibson is accused of taking dramatic license with the Popul Vuh, use of a modern Mayan dialect, where the film was shot and mass human sacrifices attributed to the Maya. "After what I experienced with The Passion, I frankly don't give a flying f___ about much of what those critics think," he told TIME last March.

Video podcasts of Old News documentary clips now available at iTunes Store

Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:00:00 -0600

Apple has announced the addition of Old News video podcasts to its iTunes Store. To view our 3 minute clips, mostly excerpted directly from Old News, you need the iTunes 6 or 7 application installed. If so, find our podcasts simply by visiting this direct link Our primary podcast category is "TV & Film" however we're also listed under the "Society & Culture / History" and "Education / Higher Education" sub-categories.

Celebrating Cosmogenesis as the Triple Spiral in the Seasonal Wheel

Fri, 03 Feb 2006 17:21:00 -0700

Spring 2006 article at Gaian Voices by Glenys Livingstone, excerpt; "It is significant that places like New Grange, Stonehenge and Silbury Hill can only be comprehended when one is actually there and observes the relationship between the place and the cosmic/seasonal events - the Moon and Sun over a period of time, over years - and this is what the researchers had to do. These sites are alive texts - that still speak when the receptive observant mind is present. Martin Brennan spent years at New Grange observing the interplay of Sunlight and the inner engravings and bowls. He was among the first to assert that New Grange was not a tomb, but was a ritual centre. Brennan says that the Triple Spiral is "perhaps the most powerful representation" of the sacred heritage of ritual celebration of eternal Creation represented in the Wheel of the Year, the phases of the Moon and the lives of all beings."

Ancient People Followed 'Kelp Highway' to America, Researcher Says

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 12:00:00 -0700

19 February 2006 article at Live Science by Bjorn Carey

First Americans May Have Been European

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 13:00:00 -0700

19 February 2006 article at Live Science by Bjorn Carey

The Untold Saga of Early Man in America

Mon, 13 Mar 2006 12:00:00 -0700

13 March 2006 cover story in TIME Magazine by Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, excerpts: "The Clovis-first theory is pretty much dead, and the case for coastal migration appears to be getting stronger all the time. But in a field so recently liberated from a dogma that has kept it in an intellectual straitjacket since Franklin Roosevelt was President, all sorts of ideas are suddenly on the table. At least a couple of archaeologists, including Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian, even go so far as to suggest that the earliest Americans came from Europe, not Asia, pointing to similarities between Clovis spear points and blades from France and Spain dating to between 20,500 and 17,000 years B.P. All this speculation is spurring a new burst of scholarship about locations all over the Americas."

Kennewick Man Skeletal Find May Revolutionize Continent's History

Wed, 26 Apr 2006 12:00:00 -0600

26 April 2006 article at Science Daily, excerpts; "What the experts were able to ascertain from their brief encounter with Kennewick is that he did not look like a Native American. In fact, Berryman says Kennewick's facial features are most similar to those of a Japanese group called the Ainu, who have a different physical makeup and cultural background from the ethnic Japanese. Some of Ainu's facial features appear European. Their eyes may lack the Asian almond-shaped appearance, and their hair may be light and curly in color. However, this does not mean that Kennewick Man necessarily was European in origin. His features more closely resemble those of the natives of the Pacific Rim than those of Native Americans."