'Oldest English words' identified

Researchers from Reading University have identified the oldest words in English and other Indo-European languages that are still in use. "I" and "we" are among the oldest unsurprising, well you didn't expect it to be "antidisestablishmentarianism" did you? The researchers have set up a web site which catalogues how words have changed over time allowing people to insert a date and see what words were used at the time.

They have also created a computer model to analyse the rate of change and see which words could become extinct. "Bad" is one of them apparently.

Update (06/03/09) : i am a historian not a linguist so felt the above story was interesting but a bit odd, proper linguists have found the whole thing rather baffling and laughable. Oh well!

Ancient Black Sea Flood: Nuisance or Calamity?

A catastrophic flood in the Black Sea area in pre-historic times is something that has interested me for some time, especially the idea that a major disaster in that area may have been the genesis (so the speak) of the great flood stories that appear in so many early cultures (including Noah of course).

However new research by a team led by Liviu Giosan, a geologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, indicates that there was not a huge flood. The Black Sea was originally a fresh water lake but 9500 years ago rising sea levels caused the Mediterranean to raise sufficient to be able to flow into the Black Sea. Initially it was thought this caused a catastrophic flood indicating a sudden change of water from fresh to salt water. However by analysing sediments in the Danube delta researchers think the flood was much smaller than thought as the original level of the Black Sea was higher to start with. However the results are not accepted by other researchers and it is hoped further analysis can take place now the region is more accessible following the end of the Cold War.

Iraq's National Museum reopens

Good news, Iraq's National Museum has reopened following the years of chaos after the fall of Saddam. Though many of the artefacts looted or damaged have yet to be replaced. Only a quarter of the 15,000 artefacts stolen after Saddam's fall have been recovered. The museum still has a vast collection though little of it has been catalogued or put on display.



Because of a dispute between various the museum and the Culture ministry who say the security situation is still not stable enough, only 8 of the 20 wings have been reopened yet and only to organised groups but its a start.

Resurrecting the Neanderthal

John Hawk's blog is a recommended read on anthropology, evolution and human origins and the like. He presents an interesting discussion about resurrecting the Neanderthal in the wake of the publishing of the Neanderthal genome. Not the technical aspect but rather the morals behind bringing back to life an extinct race of hominids. Also if they were bought back to life what would Neanderthals be like in the 21st century world. I kind of like the idea that they would like watching sitcoms and would be very popular on dating websites!

First TMA on the way

I am currently into week (or unit) 6 of AA312 and also need to start the first TMA, or tutor marked assignment which is due later this month. The first TMA is, as usual, a source analysis question which i don't enjoy that much but there will be some in the exam so its good to get as much practice as possible! I need to analyse an extract from a Times of London article on the eve of World War 1 (Aug 1 1914 to be exact) and sum up it's historical significance.

I should be fine though i always tend to miss something out on these kinds of questions, still its only worth a tiny amount of my overall mark at the end of the year.

I have started reading a book on Llyod George, not on the required reading list for the course but the book seemed interesting and it is related information anyway. He was involved in a scandal involving the selling of peerages, now where have i heard of that before?

Free history lectures on iTunesU

Something my employer is currently working towards is joining the Apple iTunesU project. Basically iTunesU uses the popular iTunes Store to deliver free video and audio lectures from universities across the world. Most of the universities are in the US still as you would expect but a few already are from the UK including the Open University as one would imagine they would be in at the start!

Unfortunately my current course is not covered on the OU's iTunesU site though my course last year is, with a number of video lectures. iTunesU has been a great success for the OU with the million download mark being reached last October.

There are a number of interesting history lectures on iTunesU already, i have just been watching a video lecture given by David Starkey for Cambridge University on the British Monarchy for example. Maybe next i'll start listening to a lecture series on British Parliamentary and Electroral Politics 1688-1832 from the University of Warwick...

Village photograph triggers police murder hunt for missing teenager - 80 years late

The case of a servant girl who went missing is now being treated as murder by the police, 83 years after she went missing. 16-year-old Emma Alice Smith disappeared on the way home from work in Tunbridge Wells in 1926. She was reported as missing but no trace of her was ever found and everyone apart from her family lost interest.


Waldron village 'stool ball' team, Emma is top left

The case has come to light again after Valerie Chidson began to research into Emma's disappearance after seeing her in a photograph and she wrote a short film based on Emma's story called Finding Esther.

Afterwards Chidson was told by a relative of Emma that they had been told Emma had been murdered and the killer had made a deathbed confession to Emma's sister, who is now deceased. Chidson persuaded Emma's family to go to the police and they have now begun an investigation. Their main aim is to locate Emma's remains so Emma can finally have a burial.

Unfortunately as the deathbed confession took place in 1953 the investigation will be difficult but they think they may have been murdered near to Waldron or Horam and her body disposed of in a pond.

Biodiversity hotspot enabled Neanderthals to survive longer in south east of Spain

Over 14,000 years ago when most of Europe was covered in ice and snow during the last ice age of the Pleistocene Neanderthals were able to survive in the very southern tip of the Iberian peninsula in the region of Gibraltar for much longer than elsewhere in Europe because of the plant and animal biodiversity in this "refuge". An international team has reconstructed the landscape near Gorham's cave in Gibraltar by analysing paleobotanical data from geological deposits.

The biodiversity in the area was "unique" compared to the rest of Europe at the time (much of which was under masses of thick ice anyway) and enabled the Neanderthals to survive here 10,000 years longer than in the rest of Europe.