Brit-Am Ephraimite Forum no. 101
Brit-Am Ephraimite Discussion. News and Issues concerning the Lost Ten Tribes and Judah in the World Today.
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Ephraimite
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no.101
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Ephraimite Forum no.101
7 April 2009, 13 Nisan 5769
Contents:
1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of
Explorator
11.50
2. Archaeology: Brit-Am Pick of the Week
'Supersize'
lions roamed Britain
3. Nazi "Aryan" Boy Mascot Was Jewish!
1. Archaeology: Brit-Am Version of
Explorator
11.50
From: david meadows <rogueclassicist@gmail.com>
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explorator 11.50 April 5, 2009
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===============================================================
ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND EGYPT
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There's a project to conserve the stones of the Western Wall:
http://www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14
A very nice Byzantine mosaic floor from the synagogue at Ma'on-Nirim:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130674
http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1513&module_id=#as
http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=29955
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090315114041.htm
A Byzantine 'bath house' near Kibbut Gevim
http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=25&subj_id=240&id=1511&module_id=#as
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/130621
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727540534&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
More coverage of Hateshepsut's perfume:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/uob-wsd031309.php
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1074914.html
http://www.thechronicle.com.au/story/2009/03/31/experts-recreating-pharaohs-own-perfume/
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ANCIENT GREECE AND ROME (AND CLASSICS)
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Somewhat lost-in-translation item on an Alexander inscription from
Bactria:
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n176236
http://www.chnpress.com/news/?id=7896§ion=2
Another Spartacus show in the works (with Lucy Lawless):
http://www.afterellen.com/blog/karmankregloe/lucy-lawless-to-star-in-spartacus-blood-and-sand-on-starz?comment=794772
Review of Barry Strauss, *The Spartacus War*:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR2009040301312.html
Visit our blog:
http://rogueclassicism.com/
Mediterranean Archaeology:
http://medarch.blogspot.com/
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EUROPE AND THE UK (+ Ireland)
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DNA evidence suggests a movement/invasion of people from Ireland
to Scotland:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7976510.stm
Bronze Age site from Guernsey:
http://www.thisisguernsey.com/2009/03/30/airport-dig-unearths-1500-bc-settlement/
... and some of Henry VIII's armour is going on display:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7971616.stm
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ASIA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC
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A positive story from French colonial history:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/30/world/asia/30iht-indochina.html
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NORTH AMERICA
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Marking New York's 400th birthday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/nyregion/29hudson.html
Researching iron coffin burials:
http://www.adaeveningnews.com/local/local_story_089091928.html
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OTHER ITEMS OF INTEREST
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Cambridge dons are still in control of the university:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/mar/20/cambridge-dons-control
On the origins and obsession with 'happy endings':
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7976192.stm
Humans on various continents apparently had to deal with giant
lions:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/7974948.stm
Chocolate wisdom:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/dining/01choc.html
Review of a couple of books about the seedier side of New York
history:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/books/review/Dominus-t.html
Review of John Guy, *A Daughter's Love: Thomas More and his Dearest Meg*:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/05/books/review/Tomalin-t.html
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TOURISTY THINGS
================================================================
Geshur:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1237727549085&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
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DIG DIARIES/BLOGS
================================================================
Tel Kadesh:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/kelseymuseum.digdiary/read_our_blog
Tel Dan:
http://teldan.wordpress.com/
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CRIME BEAT
================================================================
Feature on dealing with antiquities smuggling in Cyprus:
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/news/main.php?id=45001&cat_id=9
The Oded Golan (et al) trial seems to be going nowhere:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1238423655087&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
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EXHIBITIONS, AUCTIONS, AND MUSEUM-RELATED
================================================================
Amsertdam/New Amsterdam:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/arts/03spare.html
The Satirical Eye:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25269868-16947,00.html
A precedent in regards to Nazi loot?:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/arts/design/03arts-ARTRESTITUTI_BRF.html
2. Archaeology: Brit-Am Pick of the
Week
'Supersize'
lions roamed Britain
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/7974948.stm
By Natalie Hancock
BBC News, Oxford
Giant lions were roaming around Britain, Europe and North America up to 13,000
years ago, scientists from Oxford University have found.
Remains of giant cats previously discovered were thought to be a species of
jaguar or tiger but after DNA analysis they were proved to be lions.
They were 25% bigger than the species of African lion living today, and had
longer legs to chase their prey.
They would have lived in icy tundra with mammoth and sabretooth tigers.
It is thought these animals would hunt over longer distances, and their longer
legs would help them chase down their prey as opposed to the modern-day species
which tends to ambush its victims.
The Oxford team analysed DNA from fossils and other remains gathered from
Germany to Siberia, and Alaska to Wyoming.
Dr Ross Barnett, who conducted the research at Oxford University's department of
Zoology, said: "These ancient lions were like a super-sized version of today's
lions and, in the Americas, with longer legs adapted for endurance running.
"What our genetic evidence shows is that these ancient extinct lions and the
lions of today were very closely related.
"The extinction is a big question that remains unresolved"
Dr Ross Barnett
"Cave art also suggests that they formed prides, although the males in the
pictures would not have had manes and they are depicted very realistically."
Lions appear to have been very important to early man with many depictions of
them in their cave paintings, as in seen in the pre-historic cave complex at
Chauvet in France.
Other archaeological finds in Germany include figurines which are half man, half
lion, leading to the theory that lions may even have been worshipped by ancient
humans.
The team found that these remains from the Pleistocene Epoch (1.8 million years
ago to 10,000 years ago) could be divided into two groups: the American Lion
which lived in North America, and the Cave Lion which lived in northern Europe,
Russia, Alaska and the Yukon.
These ancient cats would have lived in an environment that was more like an icy
tundra and would have shared their habitat with herds of other large animals
such as mammoth, woolly rhino, sabre tooth tigers and giant deer.
About 13,000 years ago these species died out in a mass extinction. Figuring out
the reason behind this, Dr Barnett said, was one of the last great scientific
mysteries.
He said: "There are a couple of different schools of thought. It could have been
climate change or something to do with humans. Humans could have been killing
off their prey or killing the lions themselves.
"The extinction is a big question that remains unresolved. More research and
more advanced genetic analysis may help answer it."
3. Nazi "Aryan" Boy Mascot Was Jewish!
The secret history of the Nazi mascot
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6945847.stm
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Melbourne
Alex Kurzem came to Australia in 1949 carrying just a small brown briefcase, but
weighed down by some harrowing psychological and emotional baggage.
Tucked away in his briefcase were the secrets of his past - fragments of his
life that he kept hidden for decades.
Alex was forced to keep his Jewish identity hidden
In 1997, after raising a family in Melbourne with his Australian bride, he
finally revealed himself. He told how, at the age of five, he had been adopted
by the SS and became a Nazi mascot.
His personal history, one of the most remarkable stories to emerge from World
War II, was published recently in a book entitled The Mascot.
"They gave me a uniform, a little gun and little pistol," Alex told the BBC.
"They gave me little jobs to do - to polish shoes, carry water or light a fire.
But my main job was to entertain the soldiers. To make them feel a bit happier."
Painful memories
In newsreels, he was paraded as 'the Reich's youngest Nazi' and he witnessed
some unspeakable atrocities.
But his SS masters never discovered the most essential detail about his life:
their little Nazi mascot was Jewish.
"They didn't know that I was a Jewish boy who had escaped a Nazi death squad.
They thought I was a Russian orphan."
His story starts where his childhood memories begin - in a village in Belarus on
20 October 1941, the day it was invaded by the German army.
When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the
forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left
"I remember the German army invading the village, lining up all the men in the
city square and shooting them. My mother told me that my father had been killed,
and that we would all be killed."
"I didn't want to die, so in the middle of the night I tried to escape. I went
to kiss my mother goodbye, and ran up into the hill overlooking the village
until the morning came."
That was the day his family was massacred - his mother, his brother, his sister.
"I was very traumatised. I remember biting my hand so I couldn't cry out loud,
because if I did they would have seen me hiding in the forest. I can't remember
exactly what happened. I think I must have passed out a few times. It was
terrible."
False identity
"When the shooting stopped I had no idea where to go so I went to live in the
forests, because I couldn't go back. I was the only one left. I must have been
five or six."
"I went into the forest but no-one wanted me. I knocked on peoples' doors and
they gave me bits of bread but they told me to move on. Nobody took me in."
He survived by scavenging clothes from the bodies of dead soldiers.
After about nine months in the forest, a local man handed him over to the
Latvian police brigade, which later became incorporated in the Nazi SS.
That very day, people were being lined up for execution, and Alex thought he,
too, was about to die.
"There was a soldier near me and I said, 'Before you kill me, can you give me a
bit of bread?' He looked at me, and took me around the back of the school. He
examined me and saw that I was Jewish. "No good, no good," he said. 'Look I
don't want to kill, but I can't leave you here because you will perish.
"'I'll take you with me, give you a new name and tell the other soldiers that
you are a Russian orphan.'"
Joining the circus
To this day, Alex Kurzem has no idea why Sergeant Jekabs Kulis took pity on him.
Whatever his motives, it certainly helped that Alex had Aryan looks. And
together, they kept the secret.
"Every moment I had to remind myself not to let my guard down, because if ever
anyone found out, I was dead. I was scared of the Russians shooting me and the
Germans discovering I was Jewish. I had no-one to turn to."
Alex Kurzem kept the secret from his wife and family for decades
Young Alex saw action on the Russian front, and was even used by the SS to lure
Jewish people to their deaths.
Outside the cattle trains which carried victims to the concentration camps, he
handed out chocolate bars to tempt them in.
Then, in 1944, with the Nazis facing almost certain defeat, the commander of the
SS unit sent him to live with a Latvian family.
Five years later, he managed to reach Australia. For a time, he worked in a
circus and eventually became a television repair man in Melbourne.
All the time, he kept his past life to himself, not even telling his Australian
wife, Patricia.
"When I left Europe I said 'forget about your past. You are going to a new
country and a new life. Switch off and don't even think about it.'
"I managed to do it. I told people I lost my parents in the war, but I didn't go
into detail. I kept the secret and never told anyone."
It was not until 1997 that he finally told his family, and along with his son,
Mark, set about discovering more about his past life.
After visiting the village where he was born, they found out his real name was
Ilya Galperin, and even uncovered a film in a Latvian archive of Alex in full SS
regalia.
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