Neandertals: Medicinal (wo)Men?

Recently, Karen Hardy of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies in Spain and Stephen Buckley of the University of York in the United Kingdom did analysis on the teeth that were found in El Sidrón Cave in Piloña, Asturias, Spain. Few the "gunk" that was found on the teeth, they were able to do a DNA analysis to figure that the Neandertals who lived in this area consumed medicinal plants and knew what they were consuming. The calcified plaque on the teeth dated to about 50,600-47,300 years ago. The results showed that "the Neanderthals inhaled wood smoke, probably from a campfire, and that they had eaten cooked plant foods as well as the bitter-tasting medicinal plants chamomile and yarrow." “They had to have a body of knowledge about plants to select yarrow and chamomile,” says Hardy.

It is interesting to find that researchers have thought to analyze as well as able to get the results. How well was the teeth preserved to be able to find such results as this? It is questionable, since depending on how they tested for this analysis and would there have been a default in this type of model of sampling? How accurate is this data? However, it is fascinating that one can get a glimpse of how people lived in this era, especially Neandertals. (I believe this is a recent find -December of 2012?)

http://www.archaeology.org/issues/61-1301/features/top-10/266-top-10-2012-neanderthal-medicine

Horse meat is Pagan food?

Reading through Archaeology.com, one article stood out to me.
"Why Brits stopped eating horese meat"
It was interesting because the article itself was very short with few facts saying that eating equine meat had fallen out of practices during th late 8th century. Poole, a doctorate candidate for Nottingham University, suggested that it was because the practice was drive out by Christianity and that horse meat was associated with Pagan practices, which would have been supressed at the time.
Horse is related to Pagan gods and known to have eaten the meat for religious purposes.

Ross Bay Cemetery

This is a picture of my group members.
I was busy wandering off by the Presbyterian section that I could not feature myself in this wonderful photo. Oh shame.

Ross Bay was SO beautiful. It was my first time ever to step in a cemetery, so my group had to deal with my squeals and constantly yelling, "AH I AM SO SORRY FOR STEPPING ON YOU, DEAD PERSON!"

We chose a pretty good day to do the field work. It was sunny, but still COLD. Most of the field was shadowed off and since it's by the water, the sea breaze did not help either. We walked about for an hour to see what we wanted to choose for our topic and noticed few particular things. We saw wargraves in the Roman Catholic side that was newly put in (or so it seems like). They were all in line (except for few) and helped linining it up, they had flowers and decorative grass(?) plants going side by side the graves. We figured they were put in recently to recognize the ones who died over seas. We also noticed the differences between the Christian groups. Roman Catholic graves had bigger crosses, mentioning of Mary, and had seperate site for all the M. Sisters. Other Christian sites like Presbyterian and Anglican had Angels featured or had celtic crosses. (It was definately fascinating to see the different ways to 'decorate' the crosses).

We wanted to see what would have effected us to pick the sights of the graves and what could effect our statement for this project. One of the things that all of our group members agreed on was... that the sunlight manipulated us to choose spots. It was so cold in the shade, that I chose two of the graves just because they were in the sunlight.

This definately was an interesting experience. I think I might come back to Ross Bay just for a walk or so. I was trying to convince my boyfriend and some of my friends to go to the Ross Bay Cemetery for a date or a stroll, and they thought I was crazy. This place was so peaceful and beautiful. Thanks Erin for this amazing experience!

Different Burials

There was a youtube video that I saw by vsauce, titled "Taxidermy". However, I believe any of the practices done to taxidermy people have failed, because even though there are practices for the animals. If that animal was close to you, the taxidermists could not get it exactly the same for the outcome to look like when it was alive. In this video, Michael (the youtuber) talks about Lenin's body (and I believe Mao as well) and how it is preserved exactly the same. The scientists made a specific liquid that you can inject it into the body, for it not to deteriorate. The other people who have tried this are either very rich or higher ranking mobs.

Green burial is a new alternative for people who are worried about the environmental impact the traditional burials might cost. Body is placed in a casket made of cardboard or biodegradable materials and laid to rest in a park or woodland known as a natural burial ground or eco-cemetery.

I also found myself fiding "Top 10 Fascinating Funerals" list, which has funerals like :Drive thru funeral, sky burial, etc. You should definitely check it out!

link:
http://listverse.com/2012/08/18/top-10-fascinating-funerals/