Scientists have discovered evidence of an ancient kingdom previously thought to have been a mythical creation in the Bible.

The Old Testament described Edom as a neighbouring enemy state of Judea, located southeast of the Dead Sea where explorers would now find parts of Jordan and Israel.

It was spoken of extremely harshly, with some biblical texts indicating that it was complicit in the destruction of Judea and the holy city of Jerusalem.

Edom has been described as a place "where kings reigned before any Israelite king reigned", but is later said to have been defeated and plundered by King David of Israel.

Such tales have been scoffed at by plenty of historians down the years, but discoveries by a team of scientists and archaeologists in the area where it would have stood have raised new questions about its possible existence.

Researchers from the University of California and Tel Aviv University have been working at the supposed site in what is now known as the Arabah Valley.

There they excavated a copper production site dubbed Slaves' Hill, dating back more than 6,000 years, which yielded layers of smelting waste that have helped reconstruct a time when the region enjoyed a "technological leap".

Using a process called radiocarbon dating, which helps determine how old an organic object is, the researchers were able to put a date on the smelting waste - better known as slag.


The modern day Arabah Valley

Analysis of the minerals and metals within the slag was then used to work out how smelting techniques changed over the centuries, with lower concentrations of copper indicating that more had been extracted.

Efficiency improved dramatically in the second half of the 10th century BC and the techniques also became common across various sites in the region - indicating that other workers were picking them up.

Detailing the findings in the journal PLOS ONE, team leader Erez Ben-Yosef said the technological leap played a key role in the move from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

"Our study sheds new light on the emergence of the archaeologically elusive biblical kingdom of Edom, indicating that the process started much earlier than previously thought," he said.

"That said, the study's contribution goes beyond the Edomite case, as it provides significant insights on ancient technological evolution and the intricate interconnections between technology and society.

"The results demonstrate that the punctuated equilibrium evolutionary model is applicable to ancient technological developments, and that in turn, these developments are proxies for social processes."

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/ancient-kingdom-presumed-to-be-bible-story-could-be-real/ar-AAHPrBR?OCID=ansmsnnews11

Modern-day Indians are descendants of one of humanity's most ancient civilizations

Ancient DNA evidence reveals that the people of the mysterious and complex Indus Valley Civilization are genetically linked to modern South Asians today.

The same gene sequences, drawn from a single individual who died nearly 5,000 years ago and was buried in a cemetery near Rakhigarhi, India, also suggest that the Indus Valley developed farming independently, without major migrations from neighboring farming regions.

It's the first time an individual from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization has yielded any DNA information whatsoever, enabling researchers to link this civilization both to its neighbors and to modern humans.

The Indus Valley, or Harappan, Civilization flourished between about 3300 B.C. and 1300 B.C. in the region that is now covered by parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India, contemporaneous with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.

The people of the Indus Valley forged an impressively advanced civilization, with large urban centers, standardized systems of weights and measurements and even drainage and irrigation systems. Yet despite that sophistication, archaeologists know far less about the civilization than that of ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia, in part because the Indus Valley writing system hasn't yet been deciphered.

Gathering ancient DNA from the Indus Valley is an enormous challenge, Vagheesh Narasimhan, one of the leading authors of the new research and a postdoctoral fellow in genetics at Harvard Medical School, Live Science, because the hot, humid climate tends to degrade DNA rapidly. Narasimhan and his colleagues attempted to extract DNA from 61 individuals from the Rakhigarhi cemetery and were successful with only one, skeleton likely belonging to a female which was found nestled in a grave amid round pots, her head to the north and feet to the south.

The first revelation from the ancient gene sequences was that some of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley are connected by a genetic thread to modern-day South Asians. "About two-thirds to three-fourths of the ancestry of all modern South Asians comes from a population group related to that of this Indus Valley individual," Narasimhan said.

Where the Indus Valley individual came from is a more difficult question, he said. But the genes do suggest that the highly agricultural Indus people were not closely related to their farming neighbors in the western part of what is now Iran.

"We were able to examine different associations between the advent of farming in that part of the world with the movement of people in that part of the world," said Narasimhan.

Farming, Narasimhan said, first began in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East around 10,000 years ago. No one knows precisely how it spread from there. Did agriculture pop up independently in areas around the globe, perhaps observed by travelers who brought the idea to plant and cultivate seeds back home? Or did farmers move, bringing their new agricultural lifestyle with them?

In Europe, the genetic evidence suggests that the latter is true: Stone Age farmers introduced Southern Europe to agriculture, then moved north, spreading the practice as they went.

But the new Indus Valley genetic evidence hints at a different story in South Asia. The Indus Valley individual's genes diverged from those of other farming cultures in Iran and the Fertile Crescent before 8000 B.C., the researchers found.

"It diverges at a time prior to the advent of farming almost anywhere in the world," Narasimhan said. In other words, the Indus Valley individual wasn't the descendent of wandering Fertile Crescent farmers. She came from a civilization that either developed farming on its own, or simply imported the idea from neighbors — without importing the actual neighbors.

Both immigration and ideas are plausible ways to spread farming, Narasimhan said, and the new research suggests that both happened: immigration in Europe, ideas in South Asia. The results appear today (Sept. 5) in the journal Cell.

Complex populations

The researchers also attempted to link the Indus Valley individual to his or her contemporaries. In a companion paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers reported on ancient and modern DNA data from 523 individuals who lived in South and Central Asia over the last 8,000 years.

Intriguingly, 11 of these people — all from outside the Indus Valley — had genetic data that closely matched the Indus Valley Individual. These 11 people also had unusual burials for their locations, Narasimhan said. Together, the genetic and archaeological data hint that those 11 people were migrants from the Indus Valley Civilization to other places, he said.

However, these conclusions should be viewed as tentative, warned Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, an archaeologist and expert on the Indus Valley Civilization at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not involved in the new research. Archaeological evidence suggests that Indus Valley cities were cosmopolitan places populated by people from many different regions, so one person's genetic makeup might not match the rest of the population. Furthermore, Kenoyer said, burial was a less common way of dealing with the dead than cremation.

"So whatever we do have from cemeteries is not representative of the ancient populations of the Indus cities, but only of one part of one community living in these cities," Kenoyer said.

And though the Indus individual and the 11 potential migrants found in other areas might have been related, more ancient DNA samples will be needed to show which way people, and their genes, were moving, he said.

Narasimhan echoed this need for more data, comparing the cities of the Indus Valley to modern-day Tokyo or New York City, where people gather from around the world. Ancient DNA is a tool for understanding these complex societies, he said.

"Population mixture and movement at very large scales is just a fundamental fact of human history," he said. "Being able to document this with ancient DNA, I think, is very powerful."


https://www.livescience.com/south-asians-descend-from-harappan-civilization.html

Cows have the right of way, the phone book features nicknames and homes are sold with the furniture thrown in

Norfolk Island, which is roughly 1500kms off Byron Bay, has a host of fun facts under its belt — like how there are no traffic or street lights — but perhaps the most surprising is that the peaceful and picturesque South Pacific island has a median house price of $400,000.

A place most of us have heard of, but know little about, Norfolk Island was for a long time an Australian territory with quirky laws restricting the purchase of real estate to those who were born on the island, married an islander or bought a local business.

In 2015, the remote island underwent historic changes to ownership rules when the Australian government announced comprehensive reforms. Since then, the dreamy locale has opened up to a world of new househunters. Originally only people born on the island could buy there — but that’s now changed.

“It’s now the same as if you’re moving from Sydney to Melbourne, there are no restrictions whatsoever for Australians and New Zealanders,” said David Hall, a local real estate agent who has been selling property on the 35sq km island for more than a decade.

“Up until Australia took over, prior to that, it was different.  “The Norfolk Island Government had an immigration policy so you couldn’t just come here and live. You could buy a house, but only live here for up to three months and that was restrictive.

“The only way you could buy and live here permanently back then was to buy a business, run that business for five years, and then after that period if you’d behaved yourself, you could apply for residency.”

The Australian external territory, which was home to 1748 residents at the last Census, is located at the centre of a triangle made up of Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia.

It is just 8km long and 5km wide, has one solitary roundabout, no public transport, a maximum speed limit of 50km and peak hour only exists when the local livestock take to the streets.

As well as speaking English, locals have their own living language. Norfuk is a blend of eighteenth century English and Tahitian derived from the original settlers on the island.

While there were no indigenous people recorded on the island at the time of European settlement, the descendants of Tahitians and the HMS Bounty mutineers, including those of Fletcher Christian, were resettled on Norfolk from the Pitcairn Islands.

As a result, the Norfolk Island phone book has a “faasfain” (or fast find) section featuring nicknames, rather than surnames, because so many of the locals share just a few family names.

Mr Hall said life on the island is simple, but that’s just the way locals like it and now more mainlanders than ever are buying their own slice of the property paradise.

“The sales volume has gone up, probably nearly doubled since Australia took over and that’s been fantastic. People who want to retire are happy because they don’t have to work, they can come over here now and just retire. And why not, it’s one of the safest, cleanest and most beautiful islands in the Pacific,” he said.

“It’s so safe here that the only cars you find in the street that will be locked will be those of tourists, because they can’t get out of the habits of mainland Australia.”

While retirees are definitely taking note of Norfolk Island, with the median age almost a decade older than the rest of the country at 49, Mr Hall said there is also plenty on offer for aspiring residents of all ages.

“Kids can ride their bikes to school and don’t have to be taken by their parents. It is so safe you can walk the streets day or night, in complete safety. It’s unique, it’s really lovely. We don’t have street lights, but most people have a torch,” Mr Hall added.

Norfolk Island’s local school caters for more than 300 children from Kindergarten to Year 12 and according to Census 2016, there were officially only 16 unemployed people.

“If you’re over here and you’re not working, it’s because really you don’t want to work,” explained Mr Hall.

“We’re also getting more people who are working via the internet, now we’ve got the NBN,” he said, adding that there is a need for more traditional talent as well.

“We have quite a few really good builders, we have a couple of timber mills, three joiners, a heap of plumbers and electricians. But there is a shortage, basically, of tradespeople, because they’re all so busy.”

The unique island, which is home to just over 1000 houses, has an unusual real estate market unlike that of the mainland.

While the median house price might sit a little higher than some other remote Australian regions, Norfolk Island buyers get a lot more bang for their buck.

“They’re mostly fully furnished, right down to your knives and forks and crockery, to your beds and blankets and in some cases it’ll even include the car,” Mr Hall said.

“We probably need to do more in promotions, so that people know that they can come live here, and at a fraction of the price you’re going to pay in the mainland,” he said.

“The highest sale price last year was $1.2 million. It was lovely modern home with magic views. For something like that, you would probably pay $4 million to $6 million in Sydney.”

Although property data firms don’t collect sale prices for Norfolk Island, Mr Hall has determined that the median price last year was $399,000, up from $313,000 in 2014 which was a year before the ownership rule changes.

Investors have begun to take note of Norfolk Island, with a solid rental market according to Mr Hall, however anyone looking to ride the holiday rental wave should reconsider.

“We’ve had some people buy without even coming to look at the property, but what we really don’t need is any more short term accommodation, there is a lot of that here,” he said.

Property purchases do not attract stamp duty, instead there is a local “transaction levy” which is calculated on a sliding scale.

“Basically, it’s 2 per cent up to $250,000; between $250,000 and $500,000 it’s 3 per cent; and above $500,000 it is 4 per cent,” he explained.

Another financial quirk is that the island has no GST, so life’s vices such as alcohol and cigarettes are actually cheaper than on the mainland.

While the idea of a tree or sea change might be a dream for many worn out city slickers, Mr Hall warns that island life runs at a very different pace.

Island life is remote — a world away from Amazon deliveries and Westfield shopping centres — so Norfolk Islanders have had to become a resourceful bunch, living by the rules of self sufficiency and “reduce, reuse, recycle” long before hipsters took on the second-hand economy.

“Most people grow at least some fruit and vegetables at home because the climate is ideal for it, but not everyone does.  “If you can’t grow what you need you’ll probably find it at a roadside stall where there are honest boxes,” Mr Hall said.

For new furniture, household appliances or even personal travel, patience pays off. Airfreight and travel costs can be sky high given there isn’t a flight everyday and sea mail is slow.

“You can sometimes wait months for things to be shipped over.

For travel, if you plan your visits back to the mainland in advance you can get a good deal with flights. You just have to be prepared to wait, but it’s worth it,” Mr Hall said.

https://www.realestate.com.au/news/norfolk-island-rare-opportunity-arises-to-buy-property-on-australias-mystery-isle/