Beyond bones & stones
Where did the black diorite and gabbro stone that ancient Mesopotamian statues come from? They aren't found in Iraq and northeastern Syria. A team of researchers from the University of Tübingen’s Resource Cultures collaborative research centre has teamed up with the Iranian Centre of Archaeological Research (ICAR) to help answer this question. They have announced... Continue Reading →
In regards to my previous post from yesterday, I'd like to quickly share this quote I've found from Clay Shirky, a Interactive Telecommunications teacher at NYU. He spoke to TED last year on Facebook, Twitter, and the like, and he was recently asked to comment about the usage of these tools in Iran. Here's what... Continue Reading →
I remember taking an ethnography class as an undergrad about the social, cultural, and political revolutions that happened in the Soviet block in the 80's and 90's. We discussed topics like how news was disseminated and how there was a massive identity shift. It seems as if this weekend, I saw something similar but not... Continue Reading →
Ivan Nasidze and Mark Stoneking, along with a half dozen or so other colleagues, have studied the mitochondrial and Y-chromosome diversity of the Talysh. They've published their analysis in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. The paper can be found under this title, "mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation in the Talysh of Iran and Azerbaijan." The... Continue Reading →
Two papers have come out this week that refine our understanding of the agricultural revolution in the Neolithic Near East. The first is actually an advance copy, "Population Based Re-sequencing Reveals that the Flowering Time Adaptation of Cultivated Barley Originated East of the Fertile Crescent," published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, in which... Continue Reading →
If you don't know already, I'm of Iranian decent. I was born in Tehran, but because of persistent socio-political instability in that region of the world, my family and I immigrated out of the country about 20 years ago. But just cause I live somewhere else doesn't mean I'm not interested in my background. I've... Continue Reading →
A new Nature study will report on the earliest known evidence of rice paddies in China. We're talking almost 8,000 years ago. Cheng Zong of Durham University lead the excavation at the Kuahuqiao site in the Zhejiang province. After analyzing sediments of ancient swamp beds at the site the team found signs that the dirt... Continue Reading →
