BHR-114

Brit-Am Historical Reports (18 August, 2014, 22 Av, 5774)

Contents:
1. The Odd Way Tuberculosis Was Brought to America  by Laura  Geggel
2. Made in Israel [of the Ten Tribes]: 3D scans confirm Israelite origins of the ancient 'Hippo' jar
By ORTAL HARUSH
3. Has The Amazing Purpose of Petrospheres AKA Neolithic Stone Balls Finally Been Discovered?

 

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1. The Odd Way Tuberculosis Was Brought to America
Laura Geggel,  August 20, 2014 02:55pm ET
http://www.livescience.com/47469-tb-marine-animals.html

[Note: When the Whiteman came to the Americas,  many of the Amerindians died from plagues and sickness.
Casualties from diseases to which they had little resistance were probably more fatal than the direct actions of the newcomers. A new study indicates that at least one of these maladies had already began its gruesome work even before the arrival of Columbus. Tuberculosis may have ben brought to the Americas by seals.

Extracts:

When European explorers landed in the Americas, they brought tuberculosis (TB) and a wave of other deadly diseases with them. However, some strains of TB may have already been lurking in South America, a new study finds.

In fact, these strains may have been brought to the Americas by seals and sea lions, researchers say.

A new analysis of three ancient Peruvian human skeletons that date to between A.D. 1028 and 1280  well before Europeans landed on American shores shows evidence of tuberculosis, including skeletal lesions and curved spines.

"It looked as though tuberculosis was present in the New World before [European] contact, based on these skeletons," said Kirsten Bos, the study's lead researcher and a postdoctoral fellow in paleogenetics at the University of Tubingen in Germany.

However, when the researchers reconstructed the genomes of the tuberculosis samples, they found the strains didn't fit into any branches of the disease that are commonly associated with human infection. Instead, "it was branching with the animals'" strains of TB, Bos told Live Science.

.... Sebastien Gagneux, an expert on modern tuberculosis at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, suggested that the three Peruvians [whose remains were used in the study] caught the disease from seals that had once lived in Africa, and had swum to the New World.

"We all laughed; we were all thinking that was kind of a joke," Bos recalled. "Then, we got our hands on some seal TB sequences. We plugged them into our TB family tree, and wouldn't you know: They were branching with our Peruvian samples."

TB is known to jump across species, and there have been cases of people who have caught bovine TB, Brown told Live Science in an email.

"The reason why there are fewer reports of humans catching TB from seals is because we don't come into contact with seals so much," Brown said. "There have been previous speculations among archaeologists that this might have been a source of TB infections in coastal areas of South America, where seals were hunted and possibly even farmed."

But with only three human skeletons, it's unclear whether the seal strains of tuberculosis infected many people, or just an isolated few. More human archeological evidence is needed to determine whether the strains transmitted from seals and sea lions were widespread in the early Americas, experts agreed.

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2. Made in Israel: 3D scans confirm Israelite origins of the ancient 'Hippo' jar
By ORTAL HARUSH, HEBREW UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY
http://www.jpost.com/Not-Just-News/Features/Made-in-Israel-3D-Scans-Confirm-Israelite-Origins-of-the-Ancient-Hippo-Jar-370930?fb_action_ids=10203538857284811&fb_action_types=og.likes
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Brit-Am Note:
The article below tells us that a certain type of very large ceramic vessel, called a hippo due to its shape and size, was used all over the Middle East, Edom, Ammon, Moab, Israel, Judea and Philistine. Its use is connected with the administration of these kingdoms e.g. taxation, storage, etc.
Scientific analysis indicates that ALL  these  vessels probably came from a central workshop, or at least centrally administered producer, in the Kingdom of Israel i.e. of the Ten Tribes before their exile.

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Extracts:

At the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology, researchers were curious to know more about a type of storage container that began appearing around the late 10th or early 9th century BCE. Due to their large swollen bodies, they are dubbed 'Hippo' jars.

To probe the deep secrets of these ancient jars, the researchers:  Prof. Amihai Mazar, Prof. Uzy Smilansky, and Dr. Avshalom Karasik - went beyond traditional techniques by conducting a series of scans with 3D scanners and advanced computation.

Storage containers are one of the main types of ceramic that have been produced and used since pottery was invented. Throughout history, the need to collect, store and distribute large amounts of agricultural products has influenced the shape of jars.

During the first millennium BCE, new kingdoms were established in southern Levant: Edom, Ammon, Moab, Israel, Judea and Philistine. Those kingdoms required a bureaucratic system and maintaining armies, which called for an efficient tax collecting and trading operative. And storage jars are a must for any administration, as they can serve as a distribution and collecting mechanism.

The particular type of jars named after the hippopotamus can be found along the Beth-Shean Valley, Jezreel Valley and in the Lower Galilee; though they also appear in places such as the Jordan Valley. Their appearance in the region shed light on the flourishing administrative systems that were in place in the northern Israelite kingdom during the Iron Age Period. rized Archaeology Laboratory, which is directed by Dr. Leore Grosman. (The laboratory is a joint initiative of the Hebrew University, the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Weizmann Institute of Science, with the University of Haifa serving as a collaborating partner.)

Equipped with modern, high precision scanners, the lab created detailed three-dimensional models of the 'Hippo' jars.

These digital models provided precise measurements of the jars' shape, which was later correlated with independent features, such as the source of the clay used to make them, the potters' marks, and the jars' distribution. They also provided information on the jars' capacity, volume, height and maximal diameter.

What did the researchers learn from the 3D scans?

This analysis gave a glimpse into the administrative and bureaucratic systems in this period. Results revealed there was little diversity in production methods by various workshops; their similarity to each other implied that the potters who made them may have been trying to standardize their production process.

The jars' size, their relative standardization and their wide distribution may also indicate that the Hippo jars became a quality brand.

The evidence also suggests that the jars' production was connected to an organized administration in northern Israel during the Iron Age IIA period, which is associated with the flourishing of the Israelite kingdom. Whether or not production of the jars was tied to a royal administration is unknown; the organizing entity may have been specifically interested in commercial production.

One result of the 3D scans was clear: researchers were able to conclude that the so-called Hippo jars were without a doubt a 'made in Israel' product. 

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pollen?
3. Has The Amazing Purpose of Petrospheres AKA Neolithic Stone Balls Finally Been Discovered?
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread924178/pg1 

Brit-Am Note:
The stone balls of northeast Scotland in our opinion originated with the Picts.
They help prove that academic dating of megaliths etc is mistaken.
We may have a separate article dedicated to this matter.
The article below compares designs on these balls to pollen under a microscope.
Farfetched but interesting.

Extracts:

Let me say at the outset of this thread, that the following theory is my own, and does loosely touch upon my personal view that Humanity has endured cyclic periods of high technology, followed by cataclysmic decline, but this has absolutely nothing to do with ET or aliens in any way shape or form, so if you are expecting such discussion, this is the wrong thread.

Many examples of mysterious stone balls, of all sizes have been found across the world.

The stone balls that are the subject of this thread however, are much smaller and the examples discovered so far are almost exclusively found in Britain. The Majority of these stones are found in various places in Scotland, and are mostly spherical, some are oval and others are neither, but share characteristics of both.

The are thought to have been created mostly by the Celts and have been dated by experts to be as old as 3000 BC, although some are thought to be younger than this with the creation of these stones continuously being produced up until the early Iron age.

The sizes are almost always around 70mm (2.75 - 3.0 inches) though there are some exceptions with some being up to 115mm.

Historians have puzzled over the use and meaning of these stones, and while many theories have been offered, none have been firmly accepted.

Here are some images of the stones.
See:
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread924178/pg1

Some of the stones are not spherical at all...
Some of the stones are highly detailed, with many different surface details, ...
What you are looking at Ladies and Gentlemen, are images of microscopic POLLEN. Mostly tree pollen in fact.

The resemblance to the carved stones is...uncanny and compelling.