Archive for 2007
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
According to a 2000-year-old recipe for hair dye, the ancient Greeks and Romans were harnessing a scientific force that they had no idea even existed – they were using nanotechnology on their very own heads.
The Greeks and Romans used hair dye with some measure of frequency, most often for the purpose of dying their gray hair to black. Their dry mixture contained ingredients such as slaked lime and lead oxide, which – when exposed to human hair for approximately 3 days – causes nanocrystals made from lead sulfide to form inside the shaft of hair.
This reaction is caused when sulfur from the amino acids that are naturally present in hair keratins mix with the lead in lead oxide – initially, this is what causes the hair to turn black, but it apparently also causes lead sulfide nanocrystals that are highly similar to those found in modern, advanced scientific processes!
In simpler terms, the chemical compound that forms inside of the human hair is what colors the hair without damaging it – and the process by which the hair is dyed black is very similar to modern nanotechnology. Fortunately for the Greeks and Romans, this kind of lead-based hair dye is safe for human use, since the compound typically has trouble penetrating the skin.
Interestingly enough, the chemical engineering that came from this dye process – where the tiny crystal structures line up to form ‘quantum dots‘ – is something that scientists have admitted is a “current challenge in nanotechnology”, and is actually a process that researchers are currently trying to figure out how to develop on their own.
Turns out there really is some truth in the saying “it’s all been done before”…!
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Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard!
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
It turns out that the Biblical “land of milk and honey” may be just that after all… and lots of honey, for that matter. It turns out that the inhabitants of northern Israel developed their own beekeeping industry about 3,000 years ago – and the beehives are still intact today. Thirty beehives found in the city of Rehov date to around 900 BC, and give all indications that a healthy, thriving honey industry was well established during the Biblical timeframe.
Although beekeeping in the ancient world wasn’t an unusual practice in itself – beeswax was often used to create molds for metal casting and to create writing surfaces, while honey made an excellent medicinal substance, was added to food, and could often be used for religious purposes – nothing like the intact hives at Rehov in Israel have ever been found. Next to the hives were also remnants of ancient honeycomb and pieces of beeswax!
The beehives were made of straw and unbaked clay, and each one had a hole at the end where bees could move in and out of the hive. There was also a lid at the opposing end, allowing beekeepers to easily access the honeycombs inside. All 30 hives were discovered sitting in an orderly fashion: they sat in rows of three hives high, inside a room that could have comfortably held 100 hives. Clearly, beekeeping was an organized industry – after all, the population of the city at the time these hives were in use was probably about 2,000 people, and was made up of Israelites, Canaanites, and other individuals from the surrounding tribes.
While it may seem unusual to have a beekeeping industry located right in the center of the city, a consideration must be made of the religious use of honey – next to the hives, archaeologists located an altar that was decorated with fertility figurines, which likely links this hive collection to religious practices. Also, it’s entirely possible that the ruler of this city simply preferred to have such a lucrative industry under his control – namely, in a location where he could keep an eye on things.
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Tomorrow: Greco-Roman… nanotechnology?!
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
As they excavated a burial chamber in Luxor, the group of archaeologists who worked there hoped with all their might that they would discover a new mummy inside this tomb. When they finally made it inside the chamber, they found seven coffins, which they hoped would contain the carefully wrapped mummies of Egypt’s royal queens, or perhaps even the mother of Tutankhamun himself!
In a public display that seems to characterize today’s Egyptian finds, both researchers and local/international media were invited to watch the opening of the last coffin as it sat in its chamber, only a few steps away from Tutankhamun’s own ancient tomb. With bated breath, the archaeologists opened the final coffin, and found… flowers?
Indeed, instead of simply finding a body wrapped in its burial shroud, the coffin contained a perfectly preserved garland of flowers, estimated to be at least 3,000 years old. According to some of the team who had worked on excavating the tomb, the find was better than a mummy – after all, there is absolutely nothing like it in any museum in the world.
While there are plenty of drawings of flowers on Egyptian artifacts and documents, nothing like the garland has ever been found, not to mention that no one had ever even considered something so fragile would survive for three thousand years. Looking back at Egyptian art, it isn’t too difficult to see that there are many images of members of the Egyptian royal family wearing garlands of flowers, many of which were entwined with strips of gold, around their shoulders – and that they wore these golden garlands both in life and death.
At only five meters away from the tomb of Tutankhamun, there are still plenty of theories as to whom it was that this new tomb belonged. However for now, this ancient flowery necklace is enough to keep researchers busy, as they continue to draw links between what was depicted in Egyptian art and the Egyptians’ real-life ancient practices.
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Tomorrow: Ancient beehives
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
Judging by two Neanderthal molars recently found in the Madrid region, these human ancestors which today’s population often refers to as “cavemen” – meaning this in a derogatory way that suggests they were unclean, unhygienic, and unintelligent – apparently had far better oral hygiene than a good deal of the earth’s modern population…
That’s right – not only do dentists and health professionals implore you to brush twice a day, but it turns out that even Neanderthals knew the value of a clean mouth! These two teeth were perfectly preserved – even though they date to around 63,400 BC – and they show the same amount of wear that might be found on a typical 30-year-old human of today!
The clues that suggest these people took their oral health seriously are several grooves along the top of the teeth, which would have been formed by the passage of a pointed object across the teeth on a regular basis. This confirms that a small stick was used regularly to clean the mouth and teeth.
As predecessors of modern humans, some people may find it unusual to think that a population typically considered ‘less intelligent’ than today’s humans had the forethought to take their oral health into consideration – whereas there are plenty of countries in the world today where using a toothbrush simply isn’t a part of routine health care.
Determining the kind of implement that was used in Palaeolithic times to clean one’s teeth is another matter entirely, since the first “modern” toothbrush wasn’t thought to have been invented until sometime around 1600 AD in China. However, some Muslim populations actually still use something called a ‘miswak’ to clean their teeth, which is essentially a natural toothbrush that is made from the twigs of the Salvadora persica tree!
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Tomorrow: Ancient Egyptian flowers!
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