Think your life is bad? Archaeologists show us worse

Welcome back to The Border!
	Quick Links	Announcements
	\| Home \| Member's Blogs \| \| Enter Chat Room \| \| Today's active topics \|	You can also see and join us at: TPB's YouTube Channel ~ Click to Register TPB's MySpace Page and Visit MonsterVisionTV MonsterVisionTV on YouTube

TPB's Quote of the Day!

We hope you enjoy your visit.

You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.

Join our community!

If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Think your life is bad? Archaeologists show us worse
Topic Started: May 12 2009, 11:45 PM (187 Views)
XNavyGunner	May 12 2009, 11:45 PM Post #1
Gunner Posts: 11,684 Group: Global Moderators Member #89 Joined: Sep 5 2006 Gender Male	Amid swine flu, sinking economies and other sorrows of the modern world, losing track of when life was really tough can be easy. Lucky for us, we have archaeologists to put things in a little perspective. Consider life on the high steppes of Central Asia, the Altai Mountains, around 500 B.C., in modern-day Mongolia. Back then, it was the home of the Pazyryk peoples, horse-riding nomads who lived next door to the not-so-friendly Scythians. In fact, the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, in The Histories, described the Scythians as warriors who tangled with tribes of Amazons, practiced human sacrifice, scalping and cannibalism of their enemies. A lot more aggravating than the neighbor who borrows your lawn mower, in other words. Archaeologists know the Pazyryk from burial mounds, or tumuli, of larch wood covered with stones, "in which the bodies of Pazyryk warriors were buried with their horses and their weapons, such as battle-axes, daggers, swords, and bows and arrows," according to a study in the July Journal of Archaeological Science, which describes seven of these graves. "These people led violent lives," says Xavier Jordana of Spain's Universitat Auto'noma de Barcelona, who led the two-year study effort. At the burial sites, which he describes as "typical," an international team uncovered the remains of 10 people in all, seven men, one woman and two children. Similar to past Pazyryk burials, a horse was buried with each individual, as well as a ceramic bowl, iron knife and back bone of a sheep or goat. "Small sheets of gold were also always found next to the skull," says the study. Weaponry included "pointed battle-axes with wooden handles, short daggers, both of bronze or iron, and trilobate arrowheads made of bone or bronze." Also typical, "Seven individuals exhibited a total of 14 traumatic injuries," notes the study. Two of the men showed evidence of healed battle-axe wounds on their skulls. Five of the individuals, including the women and one child, were killed by axes or dagger wounds. One man was shot in the head with an arrow. "This is not a large sample," Jordana says. "But half of them died violently. That has to mean something." Herodotus had described human sacrifice and warfare as common among nomads in his day, so Jordana and his colleagues analyzed the wounds they saw in an attempt to understand exactly how these people died. "Were they fighting battles or sacrificed," he asks. "Herodotus is known as the 'Father of History' but he is also called the 'Father of Liars,' so we wanted to see." Raids, not warfare, marked the deaths of the people who died violently, concludes the study. "A lot of the trauma was to the back, and comes in all directions," Jordana says. "These were people caught in surprise attacks." Herodotus didn't lie about scalping however, judging from shallow cut marks on one middle-aged man's skull. Call it CSI: Mongolia. Similar evidence for scalping turned up in another "ice mummy" burial from the region, Jordana notes. "These were burials of a warrior class of people," Jordana says, but they fit with the pattern of violent lives lived in the past. "They buried women and children with weapons. It's not clear (that) these were Amazons, but they led very hard lives, compared to today." Source And no iPods, internet, cable tv. GLad I'm alive today and not then.



Mystical	May 14 2009, 12:52 AM Post #2
Posts: 14 Group: BANNED Member #416 Joined: Jun 25 2007 Gender Female	I've always said I was born at the wrong time..but wouldn't want to be around at that time..



newbloodmoon	May 14 2009, 06:04 PM Post #3
Sik ómahkapi'si Posts: 1,618 Group: Members Member #3,302 Joined: Feb 22 2009 Gender Male Age Group 30's Country - USA Quotation - All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream. - Edgar Allan Poe	I think we are just as violent today if not more so, but with better, and more efficient killing tools.
	I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. Voltaire


DONTEATUS	May 15 2009, 04:01 PM Post #4
Higher Species Posts: 2,631 Group: Members Member #3,287 Joined: Jan 30 2009 Gender Male	Great post X-Navy



Welsh Shaun	May 15 2009, 09:25 PM Post #5
Quiz Master Posts: 489 Group: Members Member #32 Joined: Jun 16 2006 Gender Male	newbloodmoon May 14 2009, 06:04 PM I think we are just as violent today if not more so, but with better, and more efficient killing tools. I totally agree.



hunter207	May 20 2009, 04:34 PM Post #6
Boss Posts: 456 Group: Members Member #3,288 Joined: Feb 1 2009 Gender Male	Mystical May 14 2009, 12:52 AM I've always said I was born at the wrong time..but wouldn't want to be around at that time.. haha I agree with you there... I was born 1500 years to late...
	USS Excalibur NCC-7109


XNavyGunner	May 20 2009, 04:38 PM Post #7
Gunner Posts: 11,684 Group: Global Moderators Member #89 Joined: Sep 5 2006 Gender Male	I think we need to bring back gladiators. Use the thugs on death row.



1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)

« Previous Topic · World History and Ancient Mysteries · Next Topic »