Interesting facts from science
Genealogy research and DNA research are completely different. The genealogy examines facts from documents. DNA research examines DNA samples instead.
Scientific DNA research carried out by universities or well-known research institutes should not be equated with so-called rapid DNA analyses.
More about this in the article DNA analysis.
Australia’s rabbits
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) published an interesting article about Australia’s rabbits.
The British colonialists brought rabbits to Australia 1788 and sooner or later one or two of the rabbits managed to find their way into the wild. But domestic rabbits cannot find their way in the wild and are therefore easy prey.
Today there are around 200 million rabbits living in Australia. The rabbits, which are a real nuisance for farmers, are now an invasive animal species in Australia. They threaten plant and animal species and cause damage to agriculture every year. It is interesting that these rabbits have the same ancestor – 24 British rabbits that came to Australia with the colonialist Thomas Austin.
Augustin won a property near Melbourne. Australia’s invasive rabbit population likely descends from two dozen wild English rabbits that arrived near Melbourne in 1859. A genome analysis now suggests this. These rabbits were very shy and cautious and still had many of the wild rabbit genes. They were not easy prey and that is why they survived and spread so quickly to this day.
Source
Heather Chen, How 24 British rabbits took over Australia, CNN, August 24, 2022.
The first weapon
When did humans start making weapons? German archaeologists have now answered this question. Two sticks, a lance and nine spears were excavated in the town of Schöningen. The weapons were made from wood over 300,000 years ago. The spears and sticks were used as throwing weapons. The lance was intended for close combat.
Source
Ivo Verheijen, Britt M. Starkovich, Jordi Serangeli, Thijsvan Kolfschoten in Nicholas J. Conard, Early evidence for bear exploitation during MIS 9 from the site of Schöningen 12, Journal of Human Evolution, 2022.
Katie Hunt, Stone Age humans stepped out in cave bear fur 300,000 years ago, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/05/europe/bear-skins-prehistoric-clothing-scn/index.html, 6. 1. 2023.
The first coloured eggs
We associate the colouring of eggs with Easter, but the tradition is much older, as a study confirms.
Archaeologists have now uncovered an old settlement in the south of Israel and found eight decorated ostrich eggs. The settlement was inhabited by nomads. They collected the ostrich eggs in the wild and then decorated them. The decorated eggs were then sold to middlemen. The traders then resold the eggs to rich elites in the Mediterranean region and the Middle East.
Dating has shown that the eggs were 7,500 years old. So, people started decorating eggs about 8,000 years ago.
Remember the next time you are colouring and decorating Easter eggs, you are keeping an ancient tradition alive.
Source
Issy Ronald, Ostrich eggs up to 7,500 years old found next to ancient fire pit in Israel, CNN, 13. 1. 2023
The Legend of Saint Nicholas
In the past, Saint Nicholas brought modest gifts – dried fruits or nuts. Later also gingerbread and oranges, which were a specialty at this time. Children who were not well behaved throughout the year were punished with a rod. However, the punishment with the rod should not be thought of as a violent punishment. In popular belief, the rod was something magical. The rod brought health and vitality.
Saint Nicholas, bishop, lived in Asia Minor in the 4th century. He came from a wealthy family. He distributed his wealth to the poor and chose the priesthood. Soon after his death, around the year 350, his cult arose in the church because of his charity. Nicholas is one of the most famous saints in Christianity today.
In Slovenia, most churches are dedicated to Saint Mary, followed closely by Saint Nicholas.
Source
Saint Nicholas, today and past, https://tvlasko.si/2018/12/05/miklavzevanje-nekoc-in-danes/, 8.12.2023.
The first clothes
When people started wearing clothing.
The archaeologists from Germany have found remains of clothing that are around 300,000 years old. These are remnants of fur from cave bears that died out 25,000 years ago and were much larger than the bears of today. The researchers proved that cavemen hunted bears and used their fur for clothing.
Source
Ivo Verheijen, Britt M. Starkovich, Jordi Serangeli, Thijsvan Kolfschoten in Nicholas J. Conard, Early evidence for bear exploitation during MIS 9 from the site of Schöningen 12, Journal of Human Evolution, 2022.
Katie Hunt, Stone Age humans stepped out in cave bear fur 300,000 years ago, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/05/europe/bear-skins-prehistoric-clothing-scn/index.html, 6. 1. 2023.
Triglav
Triglav, also Triglaw and Triglaff, was a powerful Slavic god with three heads. He ruled over heaven, earth and the underworld. He was the master of battles and sea storms. His heads were usually depicted horizontally, and each pair of eyes looked in a different direction.
Triglav rode a black horse and appeared as an oak tree. The Slavs therefore worshipped numerous oak trees.
Before the Slavs went to war, a black horse was saddled with a golden or, if necessary, a silver saddle. 9 spears were laid on the ground. The chief priest then led the horse over the spears three times. If the horse did not touch a spear, this was considered a good omen.
Triglav was particularly worshipped among the West Slavs (the present-day territory of Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Prussia, Germany, Brandenburg, Sorbs). Numerous temples and statues were built in his honor. The temples were black and richly decorated with images from nature. The statues were very robustly built and had three heads. The Triglav cult was destroyed by Christianization. However, the statues or heads were taken over by the Christians and survived until the 16th century. One example is the Tüllner handgun.
The Triglav mountain is the only mountain in Slovenia that was named after a Slavic god. Triglav mountain is the highest Slovenian mountain and has three peaks. However, experts tend to believe that the mountain was not named after the Slavic god, but after three peaks. The same is said to be true for the Triglav massif in Bulgaria.
Source
Ingo Petri, Eine figürliche verzierte Tüllenhandbuchse als Triglav Darstellung aus dem spätem Mittelalter, Religion und Gesellschaft im nördlichen westslawischen Raum, 2017.
Mihai Dragnea, Some Considerations Regarding the Slavic God Triglav, Analele Universităţii Ovidius Constant, Vol.8 (2011).
Silar, Zbruch Idol, Kraków Archaeological Museum, Wikipedia, Zbruch Idol – Wikipedia, 19. 7. 2024.
Large family – number of relatives
The Max Planck Institute concluded that the families are shrinking worldwide. A 65-year-old has an average of 45 living relatives today. In 2095, a 65-year-old will only have 25 living relatives. The decline in the Caribbean and South America will be the most. In Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the number of living relatives will fall to 14.
The number of cousins, cousins, nephews, and nieces will lose weight. There will be more grandparents and great grandparents.
The country with the largest family size will remain Zimbabwe.
Source
Diego Alburez-Guiterezz, Ivan Williams and Hal Casvell, Project of Human Kinship for All Countries, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 120, No. 52, December 26, 2023.
The oldest chess piece from Europe
The game of chess has been known in Europe since the Middle Ages. Chess came to Europe via Italy and Spain around 1000 AD via the Byzantine Empire.
The game quickly spread across the continent and was one of the seven virtues that a knight had to master. The church, on the other hand, disapproved the game.
Archaeologists have excavated six game pieces in the south of Germany from an abandoned castle ruin in the district of Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg. They found a knight, a dice and four game pieces made of deer antlers.
The knight was part of a set of pieces that were colored red. It is four centimeters high. The special thing about it is that today we only know black and white chess pieces.
The dice has one to six eyes.
The game pieces are flower shaped.
The chess pieces were made in the 11th century.
Source
Fast 1000 Jahre alte Schachfigur in deutscher Ruine entdeckt, Standard, 9. 6. 2024.
Hail defense
People have been trying to defend against hail since time immemorial. In the Middle Ages there were numerous processions. In the 18th century special cannons were used. The clouds were shot at with a mixture of soot.
In the 1940s, the chemists Irving Langmuir, Vincent Schaefer and Bernard Vonnegut discovered silver iodide as a defense agent. Laboratory tests have produced positive results. People started using rockets to bombard the clouds. The new technology spread very quickly in the West. It was not used in the Soviet Union until the 1960s and from there it spread to the Eastern bloc.
The rockets were later replaced by airplanes. A so-called hail plane can hit the hail cloud better.
The hail protection provided by hail defense is often criticized, however. Critics claim that silver iodide has no effect on hail. Numerous studies have therefore been carried out. Dr. Pachatz studied and recorded hail defense in detail in his doctoral thesis. He could confirm in the laboratory that silver iodide has an effect on the hailstones. Silver iodide dissolves hailstones or makes them smaller. In practice, however, an unexpected problem has arisen. We currently have no measuring device with which we could measure the hailstones in the clouds. Radar can show a hail cloud, but it cannot detect hailstones. We cannot therefore scientifically assess the use of silver iodide.
Source
Günther C. Pachatz, Analyse der Effizienz der Hagelabwehr in der Steiermark anhand von Fallbeispielen, Doctorthesis, University Wien, 2005.
Kurt Werth, Geschichte der Hagelabwehr: Raketen, Kanonen, Wetterläuten, Wolkenimpfung, Versicherung und Netze zum Schutz gegen den Hagel, Retina, 2021.
The Cross
The cross is the symbol of the church today. But when was the cross created?
The cross is older than the modern church. The symbol was already known in ancient times.
A team of researchers led by archaeologist Dr. Lee Berger has now investigated the Rising Star fetching system in South Africa. The already extinct human species Homo Naledi buried its fellows in these holes. The graves are a full 100,000 years older than the graves of modern humans or Neanderthals.
Researchers have discovered mural paintings carved into the walls. The geometric symbols were carved around 115,500 years before the birth of Christ. The wall paintings by Homo Naledi are a full 80,000 years older than the oldest wall paintings by the Neanderthals. Among the geometric symbols such as squares, triangles, lines, etc., researchers have also discovered the cross.
Source
Lee Berger, Homo naledi, a new species of the genus Homo from the Dinaledi Chamber, South Africa, eLife, https://elifesciences.org/articles/09560, 10. 9. 2015.
Lee Berger, Evidence for deliberate burial of the dead by Homo naledi, Biorxiv, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.06.01.543127v1.full, 5. 6. 2023.
Ashley Strickland, Mysterious species buried their dead and carved symbols 100,000 years before humans, CNN, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/06/05/world/homo-naledi-burials-carvings-scn/index.html, 7. 6. 2023.
The first cross, around 111,500 BC:
The oldest pizza in the world
Researchers still don’t agree on when and where the first pizza originated. In certain Greek documents a dish like pizza was described. But that’s just a guess, there is no solid evidence.
Archaeologists recently discovered a fresco in Pompei from the year 79 depicting a pizza. And this is considered to be the oldest depiction of a pizza to date.
A Roman pizza had a thicker crust than today’s Italian pizza and was therefore more similar to an American pizza. The Roman pizza was not topped with salami, but with dried fruits. Furthermore, it wasn’t spread with tomato sauce or ketchup, but with a fruit pesto.
Source
Pompei: emerge una natura morta dai nuovi scavi della Regio IX, http://pompeiisites.org/comunicati/pompei-emerge-una-natura-morta-dai-nuovi-scavi-della-regio-ix/, 30. 6. 2023.
The oldest tattoo in the world
Tattoos were known to all ancient cultures and on all continents.
However, the oldest tattoo does not come from Africa or Asia as some would assume, but from Europe.
The oldest known tattoo is on the most famous mummy in the world – Ötzi. Ötzi died 5,200 years ago while trying to cross the Alps.
The researchers found 61 tattoos on Ötzi body. The tattoos had no aesthetic purpose, but rather a health purpose. The tattoos were carried out as a type of acupuncture, making this the oldest evidence of the use of tattoos as a therapeutic tool.
Source
Klaus Taschwer, Selbstversuch klärt Rätsel, wie Ötzi zu seinen 61 Tätowierungen kam, Der Standard, 10. 4. 2024.
Laura Geggel, Fresh Ink: Mummified Iceman Has New Tattoo, Live Science, 28. 1. 2015.
The origin of the Germans – Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg
The latest genetic study has brought new insights into our ancestors in southern Germany, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. The Celts lived here in the Iron Age. The Celts formed the Hallstadt culture (800 to 450 BC) and the Latten culture (450 to 50 BC).
In the first century AD, immigrants came from the north. The Germanic tribes did not drive out the Celts but merged. Nevertheless, there were more immigrants than natives, and Roman historians already referred to southern Germany as Germania.
The third migration then followed in the early Middle Ages. Slavs settled in the northeast and southern Germany. The settlement of northeast Germany is fully known to us. The settlement of southern Germany, however, is completely new and unknown. The genetic study has shown that 12 percent of southern Germans are descended from the Slavs.
This latest research is also interesting for Austria and Slovenia. The medieval agricultural colonization of these two countries took place precisely with farmers from southern Germany.
Source
Felicitas Schmitt, Angela Mötsch, Joscha Gretzinger, Johannes Krause, Stephen Schieffels in drugi, Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe, Nature, 3. 6. 2024.
The extinction of the Neanderthals
Modern humans and Neanderthals have a lot in common.
Modern humans, Homo Sapiens, and Neanderthals lived at the same time. For a long time, researchers believed that Homo Sapiens had displaced Neanderthals.
The latest genetic research, however, showed that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals had a lot of contact. The two human species even interbred.
There were three major mixtures:
The first mixture 250 to 200 thousand years before Christ
The second mixture 100 thousand years before Christ
The third mixture 60 to 50 thousand years before Christ
According to the study, 10 percent of Neanderthal genes ended up in Homo Sapiens in the first two mixtures. How many Homo Sapiens genes ended up in the Neanderthal population remains unclear.
When the third mixture took place, Homo Sapiens were already in the majority. There were five times more Homo Sapiens than Neanderthals. This fact also played a decisive role. The Neanderthals mixed with Homo Sapiens and perished.
Although the Neanderthals have disappeared, they have not become completely extinct. Their genes live on in today’s humans.
Source
Liming Li, Troy J. Comi, Rob F. Bierman, Joshua M. Akey, Share on Recurrent gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans over the past 200,000 years, Science, 12 Jul 2024, Vol 385, Issue 6.
Tomislav Veić, Photo of Neanderthal Family, Archive of the Krapina Neanderthal Museum.
Image Krapina, Croatia.