LINKS - February 8th, 2023
Welcome to LINKS — my attempt to provide Rhapsody readers with five interesting stories that tell us something about what it means to be human. LINKS is published every Wednesday. Have a link you want to share? Drop it in the comments.
3,200-year-old Trees Reveal the Collapse of an Ancient Empire
By Tom Metcalfe, National Geographic
“A new study of 3,200-year-old trees in Turkey suggests that the mysterious collapse of several civilizations in the Late Bronze Age, from around 1200 to 1150 B.C., coincided with a severe three-year drought in central Anatolia, a heartland of the powerful Hittite Empire and one of the worst-affected areas at the time.”
Neanderthal Crab Roast Leftovers Are Found in a Portuguese Cave
By Kate Golembiewski, The New York Times
“Dr. Nabais said that the discovery, which follows a 2020 study in Science detailing the variety of animal remnants found in the cave, including birds and tortoises, is more refutation for the traditional view of Neanderthals, humanity’s closest relatives, as dullards compared with modern humans.”
How Wikipedia Erases Indigenous History
By Kyle Keeler, Slate
“But related debates on Jackson’s talk page continue, and the issues FinnV3 raised are rampant across U.S. history pages on Wikipedia. Racist comments by influential U.S. history editors appear on talk pages, scholarship is misrepresented, and Native voices are erased. These issues are part and parcel of this country’s long history of settler colonial erasure, which is alive and well on Wikipedia and throughout digital spaces. Generally, U.S. history pages follow one strict interpretation of history written in the 1960s and ’70s, and most editors treat these matters as settled. When information that contradicts these histories is added, some editors claim that new additions constitute “presentism,” or “cancel culture.” In reality, understandings of history are constantly changing based on archival discoveries, new methodologies, and voices that had previously been silenced.”
Native Americans Conducted Large-Scale Copper Mining 6,000 Years Ago
By Sarah Derouin, Scientific American
“Before modern machinery, extracting copper was labor-intensive. Native Americans hammered it out of the rock—hard, dusty work that lofted fine particles of stone and metals into the air. Pompeani says they probably also used bonfires to warm this rock, softening the copper and liquefying the easily meltable lead. These fires volatilized the lead and wafted it over the surrounding area, sprinkling particles onto the land and lakes. Analyzing lake sediments, the researchers found evidence of a peak in lead pollution around 6,000 years ago during the Archaic period. This suggested a simultaneous peak in large-scale copper mining—and matched archaeological evidence from the same period.”
Meet the People Safeguarding the Sacred Forests and Lagoons of West Africa
By Ricci Shryock, NPR
“‘All of the fish that you see in the water there, they are all the people in the community," says the town chairman, Alphonso Dennis. ‘They are the children of the community. That's how we were taught. If you kill one of those fish, someone in the community will be affected.’”