6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine 109
An anonymous reader writes A massive archaeological dig of an ancient Ukrainian village first begun in 2009 has yielded a discovery that I sort of hope ends up inspiring a video game: a massive, scary-sounding temple. From the article: "Inside the temple, archaeologists found the remains of eight clay platforms, which may have been used as altars, the finds suggested. A platform on the upper floor contains "numerous burnt bones of lamb, associated with sacrifice," write Burdo and Videiko, of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The floors and walls of all five rooms on the upper floor were "decorated by red paint, which created [a] ceremonial atmosphere."
Maybe this is what Putin has been after.
Maybe this is what Putin has been after.
Good D&D setting (Score:5, Funny)
Based solely on the description provided, this would make for a great setting in D&D.
Lich? Wight? Vampire? Evil mage? Jar Jar Binks?
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I have EXACTLY the thing for you!
A Colder War
a novelette by Charles Stross
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/... [infinityplus.co.uk]
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Based soley on the description, this would make for a great setting in D&D.
Maybe if they keep digging, they'll find... idk... cameras... and then we won't have to base anything on descriptions.
Also, dude... FYI, D&D is for children. Real men AD&D.
Oh, come on, who are we kidding? (Score:5, Funny)
All we really want to know is: did they find a Stargate?
Re:Oh, come on, who are we kidding? (Score:4, Funny)
Putin and the quest for the holy grail? I'd watch that SyFy special.
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"- Look my Liege!
- Kiev!
- Kiev!
- Kiev!
- It's only a model..."
Was the Loc-Nar kept here? (Score:2)
Why scary? (Score:5, Funny)
Because of the bones? That's doesn't sound any scarier than the BBQ rib joint down the street.
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Unless your BBQ joint is undergound, recently excavated and features sacrificial altars... of course I don't know where you live so....
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Unless your BBQ joint is undergound, recently excavated and features sacrificial altars... of course I don't know where you live so....
Sacrificed...to the god of flavor!
Re:Why scary? (Score:5, Funny)
undergound, recently excavated and features sacrificial altars
In the distant future, archeologists will unearth the food court on the lower level of our local mall and discover the altar upon which thousands of chickens were sacrificed to the god Colonel Sanders.
Sacrificial Altar, vs. Butcher and BBQ? Words. (Score:2)
The difference between a sacrificial altar and a butcher shop / BBQ joint is the words people say when they're there, and the article says that culture didn't have writing. If the person in charge asks the customers what favors they want from the gods, it's a temple; if they ask whether you want regular or extra crispy, it's a BBQ joint, and in some cultures they're going to thank the gods for the life of the animal even if it's a BBQ joint. In a temple, it's more likely that some parts of the animal will
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Don't be so sure about that.
In the sacrificial rites of the ancient Greeks only some parts of the slaughtered animals were consecrated to the gods (the fat and a few other small parts) while the rest were properly roasted and consumed, with spices and all I suppose and wine.
And this was not only true for the Greek, the Aztec did the same ... just that they preferred humans instead of oxen or lambs. I'm curious on how human shoarma may taste.
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Well the colour Red is said to make people hungry (hence why lots of fast food joints have a lot of Red around) and the walls were painted Red. Sounds like a BBQ joint to me.
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In fact that was my first thought -- they didn't discover a temple; they discovered Ugg's Rib Joint.
Or possibly a communal kitchen, which wasn't so uncommon way back when.
See also Digging the Weans, by Robert Nathan.
http://www.joshpachter.com/pag... [joshpachter.com]
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Not such stupid idea.
I recall a tv interview with an anthropologist quite a long time ago. The guy went to Amazonia to study a tribe. There was an object that he knew from a museum and which was tagged as "cult object", when he asked the locals about it's use he found out it was actually a comb (!)
And in fact it could have been both.
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Imputing some sort of religious/magic interpretations onto other cultures' tools and customs seems to be a problem with our anthropologists.
I remember years ago, they came up with a bunch of theories about how the Rapa Nui moved their Moai [wikipedia.org] stone sculptures from the quarries to their current locations. When asked, the descendents just said, "They walked". So the anthropologists wrote that off as some sort of mysticism and theorized about rollers and dragging.
Then, someone asked, "What do you mean by 'walke
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and theorized about rollers and dragging.
And as there weren't enough trees for the rollers some wing-nuts like Erich von Dänicken theorised about Ancient Astronauts
That's IT!!!! (Score:2)
Fuck! You actually got it!!
It is not a temple at all, just a shoarma restaurant for Vikings.
Why no direct link ? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.livescience.com/483... [livescience.com]
No seriously I want the editor tell me WHY ?
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http://antiquity.ac.uk/projgal... [antiquity.ac.uk]
Clearly, it's indicative of anti-Ukranian racism on the part of the editors to obscure this.
P.S. If you are getting irate because it's the Christian Science Monitor, and imagine it was used because of a Slashdot PRO-religion bias, you are in a fantasy world all your own.
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http://www.livescience.com/48352-prehistoric-ukraine-temple-discovered.html
actual article link, not photos link...
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http://www.livescience.com/48352-prehistoric-ukraine-temple-discovered.html [livescience.com]
Scrub
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You must be new here!
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This is not a newspaper with paid writers who report to an editor prior to publishing. This is a site that runs by user submissions where "editing" is in reality "moderating".
Why would the editor be able to tell you what the submitter did with linking articles? No seriously I want you to tell me WHY ?
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meh, they have pretty solid reporting
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To reach the hall, you could navigate the roof and descend from the awnings
Coincidentally, the earliest known stone villages appeared in Turkey ~12,000 years ago, they had no streets and the houses had no doors, they were all squashed together as one big flat building, people entered individual homes by navigating the roof and descending through a hole into their "cubicle". They also had a habit of burying dead relatives in the living room. Similar architecture and burial practices were common across the N. Hemisphere for the next 10,000yrs.
Also in the news (Score:5, Insightful)
Western media lost no time to put the blame on burying it squarely on Russia, with RT wasting no time declaring how the temple was originally built by Russian forces and how they will gladly provide archaeological aid to examine it. A convoy is already en route, of course it consists mostly of military material to ensure that any kind of necessary heavy duty equipment will be available. The west immediately complained and sent a contingent of a few thousand observers and advisers, just in case anything needs to be observed or anyone needs any kind of advice. After a few days of heated threats and accusations the only agreement is that nobody gets closer than 2 miles to the ruins until some sort of agreement can be achieved.
Ruins? Oh, right, a stray artillery strike hit the temple. In a rare case of unity both sides immediately agreed on who is to blame: THE OTHER SIDE!
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The worst case of heritage destruction I can recall recently was on
Putin... (Score:2)
...immeditately declared that the temple was obvious built by Russians and demanded Ukraine return it.
Burned after abandoment? (Score:2)
Conan: Crom, I have never prayed to you before. I have no tongue for it. No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad. Why we fought, or why we died. All that matters is that two stood against many. That's what's important! Valor pleases you, Crom... so grant me one request. Grant me revenge! And if you do not listen, then to HELL with you!
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Triumph: For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm.
FOR ME TO POOP ON!
THAT'S NOT PAINT!!! (Score:2)
ive rooms on the upper floor were "decorated by red paint,
Run!!!!!!
But the obvious question remains unanswered... (Score:2)
...were they able to disarm the poison darts, large bowling ball and swinging scythes?
Yuck! Here's My Advice: The Unbelievers (Score:2)
Now on TPB.
"Ecrasez l'Infame", my fellow slashdotters.
My guess is a bar. (Score:3, Insightful)
Archeologists have a prejudice that every ancient building is a religious temple. They shy away from secular uses. When was the last time you heard about an ancient discovery that was toy, or a a bracelet that did not give the wearer a connection to the Gods?
So, I'll throw. From what I read so far, it could be a bar.
Or a brothel. Hmm, that's back to worshiping...
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Agreed -- why does finding burnt bones mean it was a "religious sacrificial alter". Why can't it just be the owner's BBQ pit?
this is getting ridiculous ... (Score:2)
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Without a shirt on.
No, not the goddam tiger, you dongdips.
6,000 only (Score:1)
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I have met young Earth creationists. At one time, I belonged to an Orthodox temple (I was living with my parents back then and membership was free because my parents were members). The rabbi would give speeches often decrying how scientists kept changing their minds about how the world worked but the bible was constant in its message. (I won't get into all the ways this sentence is wrong. That's a whole other post.) He was of the mindset that the world was formed around 6,000 - 10,000 years ago (I don't
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It's an endle
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Partly for the same reason that Moon landing conspiracy theorists claim the existence of a vast conspiracy that is both competent enough to hide the truth from the general public/media/competing nations/etc but yet incompetent enough to make easily spotted basic mistakes. They want to feel special and how they do this is by a) setting up a very powerful, secretive individual/organization and then b) being one of only a few pe
Project Koschei (Score:2)
See also: "A Colder War"
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/... [infinityplus.co.uk]
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Russian? (Score:2)
I assume that Russian archaeologists have found proof that ancient Ukraine actually worshiped the Sun-god Poo-ten, who was granted an eternal right to return when He saw fit.
"When abandoned, they were burnt down" (Score:2)
As others of that culture were. Um, guys, is it unreasonable of me to not assume that they burnt them due to plague, but rather that they were burnt down by invaders, and there was no one left to live there?
mark
Re:6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine (Score:4, Informative)
You seem completely confused about military behavior by national demographics. You're thinking of either Muslims or Southeast Asian communists. Russians, on the other hand, have a distinct reverence for history. For example, when the Bolsheveks took St Petersburg they rather famously protected the Winter Palace and the Hermitage from any kind of vandalism.
Re:6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine (Score:5, Interesting)
No, he's thinking of the US military's insistence on bulldozing an airfield well into the protected archeological zone of Babylon, destroying (IIRC) an unexcavated mound and a minor temple in the process. (Then to add insult to injury, they abandoned the project because it wasn't needed, something they were told well before starting work.).
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Re:6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine (Score:5, Insightful)
And you must not be thinking of the Russians famously defecating in the hallways of the Czechoslovak National Museum after ransacking it and destroying what they could not steal in 1967.
Tell me about reverence by the Russians for anything other than vodka.
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OOPS, 1968. Fat fingers strike again.
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The difference, of course, is that Czechoslovakia was never a part of Russia in any way, shape or form, while Ukraine is a cradle of the entire Eastern Slavic civilization.
Re:6,000 Year Old Temple Unearthed In Ukraine (Score:4, Insightful)
The difference, of course, is that Czechoslovakia was never a part of Russia in any way, shape or form
Except for the thousands of square miles of Czech territory [wikipedia.org] annexed by the Soviet Union in 1945.
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For example, when the Bolsheveks took St Petersburg they rather famously protected the Winter Palace and the Hermitage from any kind of vandalism.
Well that's lovely. I'm glad they protected buildings while murdering so many, ya know, people.
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So they bilt this not only in one day but the very day after the earth was craterd? I don't think.
Haven't read TFA but I do know Roman battalions advanced by marching for a few days, stopping at a strategic point, and proceed to turn a nearby forest into a 3 storey fort in a single day. The forts were all of the same design and required ~5,000 trees to build, each man was an expert at a specific task. Reinforcements moved from fort to fort and signal towers were set up in between so that there was a visual link along the entire path. Today, we call this strategy a "supply line".
The Romans did a simil
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just cuz you can build something in a day doesn't mean you could build it in a day, then bury it for a thousand years!