From Syrian Arab News Agency:
Ancient Temple Dating Back to Ninth Millennium B.C. Unearthed in Northern SyriaSee also here.Aleppo, north Syria, Sep. 30 (SANA)-
The French-Syrian Archeological Mission for Excavations working at Ja’adat al-Maghara site in Manbej on River Euphrates in northern Syria unearthed a great temple dating back to the 9th millennium B.C. in Modern Stone Era, so far the most ancient discovery in Syria and the Middle East.
Head of the Mission French Archeological expert Eric Kiniou said the great temple consists of pieces of stones, bone appliances, walls decorated with geometrical shapes, in addition to an ox head with two horns in red, black and white colors still in their freshness.
He said the ox painting indicates that this kind of animal was worshipped in that period.
Associated Press, quoted in Israeli daily Haaretz, has also a report on this.
However, it speaks erroneously of the “ninth century B.C.” when the Neolithic was long past.
Also in Syria: giant camel fossil.
See also here.
Also Syria: third millennium BCE graves.
Neolithic archaeology of Arab Gulf emirates: here.
From Google cache of Dear Kitty ModBlog:
9/23/05 at 11:29PM
Mood: Thinking Playing: In the desert
Howells father, son find fossilized camel skull
The Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Nebraska — A father and son from Howells who were hunting in southwest Nebraska bagged more than they’d bargained for: a camel.
Or, more specifically, the fossilized skull of a Procamelus, a common ancestor of camels and llamas.
This particular one, Jim and son Brian Prusa were told by George Corner, vertebrate paleontology curator at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, probably died during the Pliocene epoch about 7 million years ago.
The Prusas had come across it on the lip of a ravine while hunting in Furnas County.
Experts believe camels originated in North America about 45 million years ago.
Then, about 7 million years ago, one branch of the camel family moved on to Asia, where the modern one- and two-humped camels developed.
Another Procamelus branch migrated to South America and evolved into the guanaco, later domesticated into llamas and alpacas.
The remaining Plains camels lasted until about 11,000 years ago.
The fossil will be displayed Saturday and Sunday at St. Mary’s Social Hall in Schuyler during a gem and mineral show.
Comment by Administrator — December 26, 2006 @ 1:28 am