Birth of civilization

po sluzhebnoj pochte poluchil sleduyuschee. dumayu, i vam budet interesno:

Baruch BRANDL
Library Director
Israel Antiquities Authority
P.O.B. 586, Jerusalem, 91004, ISRAEL


A colleague posted these two notices:
>
> 1.
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>
>
> TURKEY, May 31, 2003 - Prof. Dr. Marcella Frangipane is trying to
> convince scientists that Anatolia is the source of civilization on earth,
> and not Mesopotamia, as historians have claimed.
>
> After 13 years of work in the Aslantepe Mound Orduzu, Malatya, Frangipane
> says the archefacts he [sic] uncovered prove that the first civilization
> was established in Anatolia. According to Frangipane, the swords he found
> in Aslantepe and the palace, are the oldest in the world. These findings
> contradict everything in history books. Frangipane held a seminar,
> accompanied by a slide show, entitled 'Anatolia and Birth of State' for
> academics at the Turkish Embassy in Rome. While finding his assertions
> 'striking', Italian experts said they wanted to discuss the subject in a
> larger scientific forum.
>
> Frangipane's ideas rock Italian and Global scientific circles
>
> With Turkey unable to promote Aslantepe, the first excavations were done
> by the French in the 1930's. Their research has been continued by Italian
> Rome La Sapienza University archeologists since 1961. The Italians have
> covered all the costs, including the hiring of a custodian to protect the
> artifacts. Frangipane works hard to publicise his findings, which will
> earn Anatolia a place in history. Turkey, however cannot sufficiently
> promote it. Aslantepe was a city from 5000BC to 712BC, until the Asyrian
> invasion, and was later abandoned for a long time. It then became a Roman
> village from 500 to 600AD, and later the Byzantine necropolis. The first
> palace in the world was built in Aslantepe in 3350BC. There are storage
> chambers, a corridor, a courtyard and a temple in the palace.
>
> *******************************
>
> 2.
> ------------------------------------
>
>
> Oldest Swords Found in Turkey
> By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News
>
>
> March 25, 2003 The most ancient swords ever found were forged 5,000 years
> ago in what is today Turkey, according to Italian archaeologists who
> announced the results of chemical analysis at a recent meeting in
> Florence.
>
> Digging at Arslantepe, a site in the Taurus mountains of southeast
> Anatolia, Marcella Frangipane, professor at the department of historical
> science, archaeology and anthropology of antiquities of Rome University,
> found nine swords dating back to about 3,300 B.C.
>
> Blade and hilt were cast in one piece; moreover, three swords were
> beautifully inlaid with silver.
>
> "Their length ranges from 45 to 60 cm, and this leaves no doubt about
> their use. They predate of 1,000 years the most ancient swords found in
> Alaca Hoyuk, still in Turkey," Frangipane told Discovery News.
>
> Analysis of the arsenic-copper alloys indicated great metallurgy skills.
> When forging the swords, arsenic was used as a deliberate alloying element
> in order to change the properties of copper and produce a stronger metal.
>
> The swords were found in a large, palace-like complex, along with eleven
> lance tips, made of the same alloys, driven into a wall.
>
> Dating from 3,350-3,000 B.C., the complex represents the most ancient
> administrative palace in the Near East.
>
> "In Mesopotamia there are several temple areas, but only at Arslantepe we
> found a complex with connected buildings, storerooms, and decorated walls.
> A storeroom contained hundreds of mass-produced bowls, probably used to
> distribute food to workers," Frangipane said.
>
> The archaeologists also found 2,000 clay lumps, or sealings, which worked
> like receipts when the contents of bags, jars, and sacks were taken out.
> Archived and disposed, the sealings made up an administrative and
> accounting system which worked without any writing but established one of
> the first examples of bureaucracy.
>
> The swords and the lances were not some accidental findings. Frangipane
> and her team found other weapons, including another sword, in a royal tomb
> built right after the destruction of the palace in about 3,000 B.C. It
> contained a fortune in copper, silver and gold.
>
> "This tomb is not important simply for its weapons and precious metals,
> but for the detailed insight it can give into the events which destroyed
> this center. Through the work of Frangipane's team, we can understand, as
> closely as one can in prehistory, the actions and decisions of people who
> transformed societies," Henry Wright, professor of anthropology at the
> University of Michigan and a leading scholar in the study of complex
> societies and the emergence of civilizations, told Discovery News.
>
> "I believe this is the best work known being done on an early state
> administrative center in southwest Asia," he said.
>