The year was 1693. The people living in Salem, Massachusetts strongly believed that Satan was both present on earth and very active as well. The settlers had brought this belief with them from Europe where charms were used in order to increase the productivity of both their farming and their agricultural pursuits.

Over time, the harmless “white magic” that allowed fields to produce a larger crop yield and to protect their animals from disease or injury was slowly transformed into something darker. Now people who used witch craft did it to harm their neighbors. If an animal was born with a defect or crops failed it was witch craft that was to blame.

This belief was especially strong in Salem. They blamed the supernatural for every ill that befell them such as arguments or strife between members of the congregation. If a baby died, crops failed or there was any kind of disagreement among the colonists it was Satan and his minions that were to blame. Men such as Cotton Mather and Joseph Glanvill wrote about the supernatural and went a long way to strengthening sentiments against the supernatural.

It didn’t help that in 1692, a group of young girls began to have strange fits. They were examined and it was found that the fits were not caused by epilepsy or any other known disease. The girls were related to Reverend Samuel Parris, a Puritan minister. When the girls had their fits they tended to scream, make strange sounds and even contort their bodies into strange positions. These strange actions were then mimicked by other girls in the town.

Many historians have looked for a reason for the Salem witch trials. They felt that it was mass hysteria that was to blame for the deaths of innocent men and women. In one case, children as young as four testified against some of the members of the Salem community.

Now scientists and historians have a different theory as to the cause of the Salem witch trials. It is now theorized that ergot poisoning may have been the reason for the fits and strange dreams rather than simple mass hysteria. Ergot is caused by a fungus that grows on rye and other grains that would have been grown in the Salem settlement. The poison can be passed from mother to infant through breast milk, making it possible for very young children to suffer from this condition.

Some of the symptoms include convulsive fits that are very similar to those that the girls had during the trials. Sufferers will experience muscle spasms, parasthesia, nausea and vomiting. They also experience hallucinations similar to those that are produced by LSD.

While it is not possible to blame all of the activities in Salem on ergot poisoning it goes a long way to explaining many of them.

It has been discovered that the carving is actually 13,000 years old. Originally, scientists believed that the piece was a fake. They began to compare the piece to other bones that were found at the site and studied them using electron microscopy. It was found that the carving did not have any coloring differences between carved grooves and other bones that were found on the site.

This is exciting for scientists as it means that the marks and grooves that were made on the bone aged at the same rate as other bones and debris found at the same site. If the marks had been made more recently it would mean that they were a different color than the other bone surfaces would have been. As there were no differences, it is now believed that the carvings were made approximately 13,000 years ago.

Even the bone itself supports these findings. Scientists believe that the bone fragment belonged to one of three mammals, all of which died out as the last ice age ended. This was between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. Scientists have been able to figure out that the bone belonged to a mammoth, a giant sloth or a mastodon. The last mammoth was believed to have died out approximately 4,000 years ago but the species was on the decline as much as 10,000 years ago.

It was believed that a combination of climate change and predation by humans was responsible for the mammoths to become extinct. Scientists studied factors such as ocean currents and rainfall and were able to determine that the climate that the mammoths preferred (which was cold and dry) actually began to change approximately 42,000 years ago. The mammoths would have had issues with the warmer, wetter climate that began to set in.

Mammoths needed a large supply of coarse tundra vegetation in order to survive. Their teeth had actually evolved in order to consume this type of vegetation. When that type of plant matter began to die off it became difficult for the mammoths to eat the food that they had evolved to eat. It also did not help that humans began to hunt the mammoth as much as 40,000 years ago.

The artwork on the bone is exciting as it is a sign of what early Western art looked like. There are many differences between the mammoth incising and cave drawings and art that have been found in Europe. It is believed that they may have had a memory of what the artwork looked like in Europe but took the art in their own direction.

A literal interpretation of the passage states that the dead will first rise to Heaven. After that, the faithful will vanish from the earth and will journey up to heaven. The remainder of the people will be left behind in a chaotic world where they will essentially suffer until the world is destroyed. The radio evangelist Harold Camping has predicted that the Rapture would take place on two different occasions. His first prediction was that it would take place on September 6^th, 1994. He has since revised the date and has said that on May 21^st, 2011 the world will take place. He has further stated that the world will actually end several months later on October 21^st.

While Camping’s predictions are certainly the most recent and up to date, he was certainly not the first person to have preached about this event. One of the earliest and best known proponents of the Rapture was actually Cotton Mather. Mather lived from 1663 CE to 1728 CE. He was a New England Puritan minister who was known as an author and pamphleteer as well.

It was not his writing that made him famous, however. The majority of people who recognize the name Cotton Mather connect it to the Salem Witch Trials instead of his views on politics, medicine and the Rapture. There were several judges who heard charges of witchcraft in many towns and villages in New England. It was Mather, however, that was willing to admit spectral evidence as a way of proving that some individuals were in fact guilty of witchcraft. This form of evidence includes information that was given out in dreams or visions rather than physical proof of guilt.

Mather was known for his zealous approach to hunting witches. He wrote several books and essays including Illustrious Providences (1684) and Wonders of the Invisible World (1693) as a way of encouraging and even reviving the trials when they began to decrease in popularity. Many people view Mather as a rabid witch hunter who was willing to go to extreme lengths in order to prove an individual’s guilt and obtain their conviction.

Mather wrote many different books on a variety of topics during his life. Some works were several volumes in length. The vast majority of his works were religious in nature. A number of his works were on the topic of the Salem witch trials, spectral evidence and the witch trials that took place in Europe at approximately the same time.

As a result of mass hysteria and the witch trials, twenty-nine people either died in prison or were executed after being convicted of the crime of witchcraft. One of the most famous, Giles Corey, was pressed to death under heavy stones when he refused to confess.

Jellyfish fossils are incredibly rare. The creatures are mainly composed of soft parts and lack the bones that are more commonly preserved in the form of fossils. However, the fine sediment that was present in prehistoric Utah created an environment where the soft shape of the creature was preserved. There were many details present in the fossil. Archaeologists were able to see the bell, the tentacles and the muscle scars that made up the creature. The fossils were discovered by Richard D. Jarrard and Susan Halgedahl, both from the University of Utah

What is amazing is how highly evolved (for a jellyfish) the fossil appears to be. There were many similarities between the 500 million year old specimen and the creatures that are currently alive and stinging swimmers in modern waters. While scientists believed that jellyfish evolved slowly over millions of years, the fossils found in Utah present several alternate possibilities.

The first is that jellyfish evolved very quickly. This may have been because of the presence of warm, shallow seas. It was believed that these conditions, present during the Cambrian period, actually led to the evolution of many different aquatic life forms. Another theory is that the jellyfish did evolve slowly over an extended period of time but that these unique creatures are actually much, much older than scientists originally thought they were. The Cambrian period lasted from 542 million years ago to 488 million years ago (approximately).

The jellyfish discovered in Utah were tiny and measured less than half an inch in size. The location of the fossils also suggests that they lived in fairly deep water. The similarity to modern species suggests that they lived in much the same way: swimming around hunting for food.

Modern jellyfish are among some of the most durable and enduring creatures. Some travel from one body of water to another by traveling in the bilge areas of ships. Massive specimens have been found in Arctic waters. All around the world, run-ins with these creatures have resulted in pain and (in some cases) death when swimmers or divers had encounters while swimming.

Since humans have only existed for about half as long as jellyfish it is reasonable to believe that we have likely been dealing with these creatures all along. A jellyfish sting can cause massive pain, nausea and vomiting. Some will cause muscle spasms or numbness and, in severe cases, can also cause breathing problems. Some individuals will even slip into a coma and die.

We now know that it is possible to treat a jellyfish sting with vinegar or, in a pinch, urine. You have to wonder what prehistoric humans would do in order to treat the stings and minimize the pain and swelling. Hopefully they had some vinegar on hand.

It is difficult to tell exactly when building began on the Cahokia site. This is because the people who lived in the area and built the mounds did not leave any written records behind. The only examples of their writing consisted of symbols that were found on copper, wood, stone and pottery. These have been found at the site and show that the area was lived in as well as used as a burial site. The city of Cahokia was settled around 600 CE and evolved into a sophisticated city with plazas, stockades and watchtowers. This was not surprising considering the fact that the city was a center for trade and, at one time, was the largest urban center north of the cities in Mexico. There may have been as many as 40,000 people living at Cahokia at the city’s peak.

The main feature that dominates the area is Monk’s Mound. This mound is ten stories or ninety-two feet high. It is a massive nine hundred and fifty one feet in length and eight hundred and thirty six feet long. The mound took several centuries to complete. While it is massive, it is not the only interesting feature that can be found in the area.

One of the most interesting features is actually the Grand Plaza that stretches out from Monk’s Mound. The Grand Plaza seems to be where ceremonies were held by the residents who were living at the mound. Studies have shown that while the landscape was originally undulating, the residents were able to level and fill it in order to make a flat area where they could worship, celebrate and play games. It was one of four large, flat areas that radiate out from Monk’s Mound.

Another example of the site’s sophistication includes the Woodhenge. This was a circle of posts that was used in astronomy. It was made up of a series of posts which were placed so that they marked equinoxes and solstices. The wooden posts served much the same purpose as the stones that made up Stonehenge. Archaeologists were able to prove that not only was Woodhenge rebuilt several times during the past, remnants of another Woodhenge were also found near another one of the area’s burial mounds.

Although Cahokia was home to a sophisticated civilization, it eventually began to decline. This began in 1300 CE and the site was completely abandoned by the time the Europeans arrived in the area although some indigenous tribes did continue to live in the area. There have been many theories as to why the site was abandoned, ranging from disease to over hunting, deforestation and environmental issues that may have caused the area to become uninhabitable.

The settlement is known as L’Anse Aux Meadows and it was discovered in 1960. The ruins were discovered by Helge Ingstad, an explorer from Norway who was involved in a project to map Norse settlements. He and his wife discovered the site and were able to prove that the Vikings had settled here well before Columbus began his voyage. Although the precise age of the site is not known there are a lot of similarities between this site and others found in Greenland and Iceland which have been dated to around 1000 AD.

The settlement was discovered in northern Newfoundland and Labrador. Due to its status as one of only two known North American Viking settlements the area was declared to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although the remains of the settlement were not discovered until 1960, the name had been appearing on maps of the area ever since 1862. The area where the settlement is located is extremely open and has many meadows. This is one thing that may have made it appealing to early Viking settlers.

There are a few theories as to why L’Anse Aux Meadows may have existed. One theory is that this was where Vikings who fled Greenland may have settled. It is close enough to Greenland that they would have been able to reach the area somewhat easily.

Another theory is that the settlement was part of a land known as Vinland. The Norse may have settled L’Anse Aux Meadows in order to get a foothold in Vinland, a land that was described as being to the west of Greenland. It is unknown why the Norse did not choose to settle in the area permanently. Evidence exists that shows the Vikings likely only lived in the area for a short time and then left to travel to other destinations.

There have been several periods of excavation at L’Anse Aux Meadows. The first was in the 1960’s and was conducted by the Ingstads. The second was in the 1970’s. During these two excavations a total of eight buildings were uncovered. The walls of the buildings were made of turf or sod that was placed over a framework of wood. Surprisingly, some of the largest dwellings have more than one room. A wide selection of tools was also discovered and remains of some of the foods that may have been eaten at the settlement.

This site is valuable because of the large number of artifacts that have been discovered as well as giving us an idea of what kinds of tools and equipment were used by the settlers in this area. Archaeologists have also managed to unearth a smithy that still contained a forge and some slag, an area where carpentry was performed and an area where boats could be repaired. This was important to the Vikings as travel by water was central to their way of life.

Typically, “coastal migration theory” has centered around the idea that early seafaring people moved from one island to another by boat, hunting the sea creatures that lived in kelp forests for food. The potential ‘kelp highway’ from Asia to America only lends strength to this theory, and certainly provides a rational explanation for how so many people moved themselves across such a vast distance.

Kelp forests are among some of the richest ecosystems in the world today – as they were in ancient times – and are home to an incredible number of living creatures: abalone, urchins, hundreds of varieties of fish, otters, seals, and more, all of which would have provided excellent nutrition value and practical materials for people moving across the ocean.

Often referred to as ‘maritime people’, the ancient humans who made the migration move are believed to have boated along the Kurile and Aleutian Islands from Japan to Alaska approximately 16,000 years ago – some settlements of around 12,000 to 9,000 years old have been discovered along the coastlines of these islands, and they also have rich kelp forests that ecologists believe existed tens of thousands of years ago.

A group of maritime people who lived in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands around 35,000 to 15,000 years ago are known to have had the ability to travel 90 miles or more at once while moving between islands, so at the very least, humans already knew how to cover vast distances in relatively simple boats. In a place called Daisy Cave in the Channel Islands, located off of southern California, remains of some kelp resources have been found that date to around 10,000 BC!

With kelp forests found right next to plenty of the Americas’ earliest known archaeological coastal sites, it certainly seems that the ability of ancient peoples to move such enormous distances across the ocean was dependent on these kelp forests – after all, even today, a nearly continuous ‘highway’ of kelp stretches from Japan all the way across Siberia, past the Bering Strait to Alaska, and then moves down along the coastline of California!

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Tomorrow: The last Pagan Emperor of Rome

It was around 1100 AD that an obscure native culture, known as the Gallina, lived in a small area of New Mexico’s northwest. And it was around 1275 AD that the entire culture suddenly vanished without a trace.

Until recently, less than one hundred skeletons from the Gallina culture have been found, but a new cache of seven skeletons has added a twist to the tale of this vanishing group of people. The bones of five adults, one child, and one infant all show evidence of violent murder. One skeleton had a fractured skull, jaw, forearm, pelvis and thighbone, and several ribs were also cracked. Another body had cut marks on the upper arm, similar to the kind of marks made by an axe. The skull of the child, probably about two years old at the time of death, had been crushed.

Two of the bodies were also arranged in an unusual way: an adult male and a female were face down, on their knees, with their heads bent back far enough to rest between their shoulder blades. The female’s head had been snapped back so far that a piece of her vertebrae had been forced into the back of her skull. This could have been the result of a deliberate pose, or it is possible that the individuals were crouched defensively when their necks were broken. This kind of position also shows that whoever killed these people did not bother to bury them – they simply carried out the murders and moved on.

Another unusual feature of the murder scene was a burnt pit house quite near to where the bodies were found. According to reports from previous Gallina sites, in 90% of cases, attackers tended to throw their Gallina victims inside their own houses and then burn the houses on top of them. However at this site, the bodies had simply been thrown into a pile. According to archaeologists working at the site, it is extremely likely that more bodies and burnt houses are nearby – though whether they will show such evidence of brutal murder is uncertain.

Although very little is known about this culture, two of the adult skulls showed distinct evidence of culturally-induced cranial deformation – they have an unusual flattened shape which has not show up anywhere else in the American southwest. It is entirely possible that distinctive internal traits such as these were the cause of violent conflicts with other groups of Gallina people in the area, or it may have also been the result of drastic climate change in the region.

In fact, one of the main theories on the massacre site is that the Gallina culture’s disappearance was the result of genocide. Around 1100 AD, shortly after the culture appears in the archaeological record, the southwest of New Mexico was struck with severe drought. By about 1150 AD, the water table had begun to drop, preventing inhabitants of the region from growing as much corn as was needed to survive – it is possible that this could have been the source of stress between villages, as they struggled to ensure each group had enough resources. With competition for water and arable land, it is possible that internal strife took a turn for the worse – resulting in mass killings for the sake of food and water.

A second theory rests on the known evidence that other established cultural groups in the area, such as the Anasazi, abandoned their own massive settlements during the drought. If established groups like the Anasazi saw the new Gallina people as a threat – new, alone, without any political allies – they may have done what they thought they needed to do to restore the land’s harmony. After all, if they had no problems growing their corn for hundreds of years – and then a new group of people came into the area, and all of a their sudden corn wasn’t growing anymore – who were they going to blame?

Although the fate of the Gallina culture remains undetermined, the horrendous violence inflicted on the most recent skeletons certainly shows that whatever happened, the conflict was swift and ruthless – and let toward a complete destruction of an entire culture.

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Tomorrow: 2000 year old noodles, yummy!

Hearkening back 140 million years before the dinosaurs, and earlier than the Wollemia pine from Australia that may have lived with the dinosaurs, the Wattieza tree fern had a thin palm-like trunk with a top that resembled the fronds of a modern palm tree. It was likely only around 10 meters high during maturity, though this would have been high enough to reach sunlight through the dense forest canopy.

Archaeogeologists have identified this period of time as the Middle Devonian Period, between 397 and 385 million years ago, which is thought to have been an incubator period that saw the development of new reproductive strategies for land plants. Other life at the time included small insects, spiders, and oceanic crustaceans, as identified through fossil remains.

With the rise of land plants, the atmosphere and ecosystem of the entire Earth would have shifted, creating new micro-environments that could have sustained additional smaller plants and insects, eventually storing enough carbon to support an extensive amount of land life.

Previously, the oldest known tree was a plant called Archaeopteris, which had leafy twigs and long roots and branches, very unlike the small fern-leaves and reproductive spores from Wattieza. Archaeopteris was placed in the Late Devonian Period, around 359 million years ago.

The discovery of the world’s oldest tree has managed to shed significant insight into how the Earth’s landscape developed over the course of time, as well as helping to understand how much impact a forest’s growth can have on the rest of an area’s environment. So far, archaeobotanists have realized that it was the growth of these early forests and plant systems that must have paved the way for the sustainable development of early reptilian and mammalian life.

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Tomorrow: Nostradamus…OoOoOoooh

The site of Cahokia is located near Collinsville, Illinois, and was home to an ancient Native American city between 650-1400 AD. It is made up of a series of earthen mounds, which were constructed by the city’s inhabitants around 1050 AD, when the city’s population suddenly exploded at the beginning of the Mississippian cultural period.

The most interesting aspect of this city is a giant hill called the Monk’s Mound, which was built with four levels of terraces and is the largest man-made earthen mound known in North America. On top of the mound, there seems to be some evidence for a large building, possibly a temple or ceremonial center for the city’s religious leader. It would have been visible to the entire city, and so it seems that the religion of these people was a focal point of their daily existence.

To the west of Monk’s Mound, archaeologists have identified a series of postholes forming what has affectionately been coined as “Woodhenge”, since it is likely that this area was used for astronomical observations such as seasonal equinoxes and solstices. During the 300-year occupation of the site, it seems that Woodhenge was rebuilt several times, and therefore must have played an integral role in the community.

Although it was visible to the rest of the city, the Monk’s Mound was also surrounded by a wooden stockade and a series of watchtowers placed at regular intervals. This stockade seems to have separated the religious district or ceremonial center from the rest of the city itself, which was settled in a diamond-shape of about a mile long. There are about 120 additional mounds within the city area, and they are of varying shape, such as: conical pyramid, platform style, or ridge-top.

One intriguing find at Cahokia was the burial of a 40-year-old man who seems to have been an important community figure, possibly a religious leader or respected warrior. His grave-bed was an arrangement of more than twenty thousand seashell disc beads in the shape of a falcon – and the man’s body was placed on the falcon so that his head, arms, and legs aligned with those of the bird. This kind of burial must have held a very powerful significance for the inhabitants of the city. He was also found with a large cache of arrowheads from across North America, which demonstrates the extensive trade that must have been conducted at the site.

A number of other burials in the city were simply mass graves, and many of the skeletons here were missing hands and heads, which has led to the speculation of human sacrifice at the city.

Cahokia’s high point as a major urban center held a population of around 40,000 inhabitants, making it the largest prehistoric site in North America – a close rival to the great cities of Mesoamerica in Central Mexico. Its decline was likely caused by the depletion of natural resources as a result of climate change, and by 1400 AD the city was completely abandoned.

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Tomorrow: State of the art siege weaponry, diseased corpses?