Archaeologists do it in holes: Tales from the stratigraphy

[Legbiter]

Those Yamnaya show up everywhere!

Horse, wheel and...milk. 

[crazy canuck]

Archeogenetics just solved the origins of the Hittites. This is an amazing paper.

The Genetic Origin of the Indo-Europeans

Seems a confirmation of the work of Anthony rather than a new discovery.

https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691148182/the-horse-the-wheel-and-language

[The Minsky Moment]

Seems a confirmation of the work of Anthony rather than a new discovery.

Not a huge surprise, as he's a listed author on the paper. 

[crazy canuck]

Seems a confirmation of the work of Anthony rather than a new discovery.

Not a huge surprise, as he's a listed author on the paper. 

Not sure what the emoji is for. I was pointing out that it is not correct to say that it was just now figured out.

[The Minsky Moment]

CLV cline people with Lower Volga ancestry contributed four fifths of the ancestry of the Yamnaya, but also, entering Anatolia from the east, contributed at least a tenth of the ancestry of Bronze Age Central Anatolians, where the Hittite language, related to the Indo-European languages spread by the Yamnaya, was spoken.

Most of the genetic ancestry of the Anatolians seems to have been Mesopotamian.  But the language comes from the CLV minority coming from the east, according to the paper.

[Sheilbh]

Floor of the Great Synagogue of Vilna uncovered:
https://www.jta.org/2024/07/26/global/archeologists-uncover-floor-of-the-great-synagogue-of-vilna-destroyed-by-the-nazis-and-soviets?utm_content=buffer1a61b&utm_medium=jtafeed&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_campaign=jtafeed

Something quite moving about needing ground-penetrating radar to discover the remains of a building that was standing within living memory. It makes clear how total the destruction.

[Sheilbh]

6 tonne altar stone at the centre of Stonehenge didn't come from Wales but the Far North of Scotland about 500 miles away:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c207lqdn755o

Given that I think we didn't really understand how they got the rest of the stones from Wales this is adding another level of complication

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

[Jacob]

Possible that the altar and ring were put in place by different people at different times, demonstrating their power, social bonds, and organization by getting stones from far away but within their respective spheres of connection?

[The Brain]

Maybe pork for the Scottish stone industry?

[Jacob]

More likely pork for unionized teamsters.

[Sheilbh]

Possible that the altar and ring were put in place by different people at different times, demonstrating their power, social bonds, and organization by getting stones from far away but within their respective spheres of connection?

I've no idea - not just Scotland but it's Orcadian rock so Orkney, Caithness (where I grew up) or bits of Sutherland. It's about 15-8 hours by car between there and where Stonehenge is.

It's wild - the last line of the paper: "A Scottish provenance for the Altar Stone implies Neolithic transport spanning the length of Great Britain." Getting it from Wales is already weird but this suggest some level of communication across GB in the stone age - no idea what that would be.

[Valmy]

If it was from Orkney then they could have put it on a boat for a large portion of the journey though, right?

[Sheilbh]

If it was from Orkney then they could have put it on a boat for a large portion of the journey though, right?

I don't know. I've no idea about the ancient Orkadians - Skara Brae is one of the most amazing places I've ever been though. And the islands are littered with (small) standing circles.

I'm not sure when Orkeny lost their trees though - my understand was that part of the reason you have an entire village like Skara Brae in stone is because the trees were gone by that point. I've no idea if that's the case. Practically I think it'd have to be Caithness or Sutherland.

[Josquius]

Outside the box idea.
But stories I've seen about stonehenge all have it as a big purposeful effort.
Someone decided to move this big rock from one place many miles to another place.

Can we tell whether this was actually the case or is it feasible they could have been moved over time?
Tribe 1 steals tribe 2s magic stone steals tribe 3s magic stone until after many years it ends up far from where it stated?