Civilization // Current

Drawing parallels between our era and the Mayans

Are we on track to suffering the same fate as the Mayans? Could the economic collapse and climate change, over population, weak... more

abbym0308
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Seeds from Clifton: Joe the Plumber and Spreading the Wealth

In the fifth installment of the monthly series “Seeds from Clifton”, seed activist Clifton Middleton demystifies... more

rabruna
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Greek Stone Age household remains found intact: ministry

ATHENS (AFP) – Archaeologists in northern Greece have found the remains of a Stone Age homestead left intact for about 6,000... more

GETTINGOUTOURDREAMS
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Seeds from Clifton: A Higher Power

In the fourth installment of the monthly series “Seeds from Clifton”, seed activist Clifton Middleton explains the... more

rabruna
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Iraq seeks World Heritage status for restored marshlands

The United Nations on Friday launched a bid to designate Iraq's famed marshlands, which were ravaged by Saddam Hussein, a World Heritage site after a four-year restoration project.

The swampy southern region is believed by some to be the inspiration for the biblical Garden of Eden. Saddam drained the marshlands after the end of the first Gulf War to punish Iraq's Shiite majority for an uprising.

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) wrapped up a four-year project funded by Japan and Italy that restored more than half of the marshlands. Iraqi authorities took over plans for further rehabilitation.

Attending a final meeting on the project in Kyoto, Japan, UNEP chief Achim Steiner said the agency would work with UNESCO, the UN's cultural body, to list the marshlands as a World Heritage site.

Narmin Othman, Iraq's environment minister, said her government also planned to make the marshlands a national park, according to a UNEP statement.

"Because of what Saddam Hussein did, the marshlands were in danger of completely disappearing, as was the centuries-old culture of the Marsh Arabs," Othman said, according to the statement.

"It had become an ecological but also a human tragedy," she said.

Italy has agreed to fund the effort to list the marshlands as a World Heritage site, which would entail drafting plans to ensure the area's preservation, UNEP spokesman Nick Nuttall said.

The last available satellite images showed that around 58 percent of the marshlands had been restored.

The marshlands stretched across some 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 square miles) in the 1970s. Most residents are Shiite Muslims, who form the majority in Iraq but were marginalised until the US-led invasion overthrew Saddam in 2003

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Declaring the marshlands of Mesopotamia a World Heritage site will allow them to be preserved for future generations.This is truly remarkable in that only a couple of years ago it did not look good for the marshlands to be restored. However, with Iraq in the throse of a severe drought with Iraq also concerned over dams being built in Turkey that will divert water from the Tigris and Euphatres rivers, we will have to see if the UN can make this happen. For me on the one hand it is wonderful because it will protect a diversified ecosystem and also bring a truly human and environmental tragedy full circle. On the other hand, having people unable to farm due to drought and diversion of water from dams makes it a hard decision to make on a moral level. But perhaps it would be better to designate it as a World Heritage site to keep it as part of the rich history of Iraq and in the hands of Iraq, rather than other interests looking to loot it for its diversity and resources. It will be good to see the Iraqi people have something of beauty and diversity to take pride in amongst the turmoil of these past years.The United Nations on Friday launched a bid to designate Iraq's famed marshlands, which were ravaged by Saddam Hussein, a... more

JanforGore
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2 months ago

Seeds from Clifton: Cassava

In the third installment of the monthly series “Seeds from Clifton”, seed activist Clifton Middleton introduces... more

rabruna
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3 months ago

'Lost towns' discovered in Amazon

The remote Amazon river basin was once home to densely populated towns and villages, Science journal reports.
This part of the Amazon, once thought to be virgin forest, has in fact been touched by extensive human activity.
Researchers found traces of a grid-like pattern of settlements connected by road networks and arranged around large central plazas.
There is also evidence of farming and wetland management, including possible remains of fish farms.
The settlements are now almost completely overgrown by rainforest.
The ancient urban communities date back to before the first Europeans set foot in the Upper Xingu region of the Brazilian Amazon in the 15th Century.
Urban planning
Professor Mike Heckenberger, from the University of Florida, in Gainesville, said: "These are not cities, but this is urbanism, built around towns."
"They have quite remarkable planning and self-organisation, more so than many classical examples of what people would call urbanism," he said.
Dam used to funnel fish into submerged weirs (Science)
In modern settlements, dams are used to funnel fish into weirs
Although the remains are almost invisible, they can be identified by members of the Kuikuro tribe, who are thought to be direct descendents of the people who built the towns.
The tell-tale traces included "dark earth" that indicated past human waste dumps or farming, and concentrations of pottery shards and earthworks.
The researchers also made use of satellite images and GPS navigation to uncover and map the settlements over the course of a decade.
The communities consisted of clusters of 60-hectare (150-acre) towns and smaller villages spread out over the rainforest.
Road network
Like medieval European and ancient Greek towns, those forming the Amazonian urban landscape were surrounded by large walls. These were composed of earthworks, the remains of which have survived.
Concentrations of pottery and earthworks were found at the site
Each community had an identical road, always pointing north-east to south-west, which are connected to a central plaza.
The roads were always oriented this way in keeping with the mid-year summer solstice.
Evidence was found of dams and artificial ponds - thought to have been used for fish farming - as well as open areas and large compost heaps.
The people who once lived in the settlements are thought to have been wiped out by European colonists and the diseases they brought with them.

We've alot to learn from the past... I kinda like the way they all had a solstice road system.The remote Amazon river basin was once home to densely populated towns and villages, Science journal reports. This part of the... more