Greek archaeologists unearth rich tomb 

Swansea woman donates birdman tablet to Mounds

BY TERI MADDOX

News-Democrat

Archaeologists aren't sure why Mississippian Indians engraved small sandstone tablets with birdman images and crosshatching 1,000 years ago.

Maybe the tablets were used as visual aids for spiritual storytelling. Maybe they were dipped in dye and stamped on deerskin to create patterns.

"Maybe (a tablet) was displayed when you were traveling from one place to another," said Bill Iseminger, assistant site manager at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Collinsville. "It was a passport to show your rank or status or authority."

Whatever their purpose, the tablets are considered archaeologically significant because they provide rare pictures from an ancient culture.

Cahokia Mounds has a newly discovered Mississippian tablet, thanks to Elizabeth Kassly, 50, of Swansea, who donated it to the historic site. It's now on display in the interpretive-center lobby.

"I think it was just meant to be at Cahokia Mounds," said Kassly, a contract archaeologist with Powell Archaeological Research Center in Fairmont City. "Because of its potential, because of the stories it can tell."

The tablet actually is half a tablet because one side is broken off. It's about the size of a playing card, only thicker. It's estimated at 800 years old.

Kassly found the tablet in 2000 while surface collecting on a farm near Valmeyer in her free time. It's known as the Kassly-Schaefer Birdman Tablet because Vernon Schaefer owns the farm.

The front shows a birdman's dotted torso, fringed kilt-like garment and outstretched right wing, and a rattlesnake-like image across the top. Crosshatching covers the back.

"Birdman symbolism of similar hawk or falcon dancers is common in Mississippian iconography," according to interpretive materials. "... The meaning here is not clear with part of the left side and the head missing and the snake element in place of it, but raptorial birds are known to represent the 'upperworld' (spiritual world), humans 'this world' and snakes the 'underworld.'"

Cahokia Mounds is the former location of an American Indian city that flourished from about 950 to 1350 with a peak population of 15,000 to 20,000 residents known as Mississippians.

The historic site has portions of several sandstone tablets, but only one that's whole. It was found during a 1971 archaeological dig near Monks Mound.

That tablet is engraved with a different birdman image. It serves as the historic site's logo and appears on area highway bridges.

Officials believe the Kassly-Schaefer Birdman Tablet may have been engraved in the Cahokia Mounds area. The Mississippian artist probably used a flint tool.

"The thought is, maybe (tablets) were made here and distributed or carried to other places as Cahokia's influence spread," Iseminger said. "It could have even been like missionaries spreading the word about their beliefs."

Contact reporter Teri Maddox at tmaddox@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 26.

Entire organs could be grown from stem cells

British scientists have grown part of a human heart from stem cells for the first time.

Heart surgeon Sir Magdi Yacoub, who led the team, said doctors could be using artificially grown heart components in transplants within three years.

His researchers at Harefield hospital managed to grow tissue that works in the same way as human heart valves.

Sir Magdi told the Guardian newspaper a whole heart could be produced from stem cells within 10 years.

'Common pathway'

The team which spent 10 years working on the project included physicists, pharmacologists, clinicians and cellular scientists.

You can see the common pathway of death and suffering is heart failure Sir Magdi Yacoub

Researchers will see their achievement as a major step towards growing entire organs for transplant.

Stem cells have the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

Many scientists believe it should be possible to harness the cells' ability to grow into different tissues to repair damage and treat disease.

Previously, scientists have grown tendons, cartilages and bladders, which are all less complex.

Sir Magdi, professor of cardiac surgery at Imperial College London, had been working on ways to address a shortage of donated hearts for patients.

Entire heart hope

He said he hoped that soon an entire heart could be grown from stem cells.

STEM CELL TECHNOLOGY

Key sources for stem cells are adult organs or embryonic cells

Adult stem cells are identified and separated from other cells

Embryonic stem cells are removed from 5-day-old embryos

Cells are manipulated to stimulate them to take on a specific function

Specialised cells may then be used to treat unhealthy areas

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He added: "It is an ambitious project but not impossible. If you want me to guess I'd say 10 years."

His team extracted stem cells from bone marrow and cultivated them into heart valve cells.

After they were placed in scaffolds formed from collagen, 3cm-wide discs of heart valve tissue were formed.

Later in the year, these will be implanted into animals such as sheep or pigs to see how well they fare.

Heart valves do not simply open and close like the artificial alternatives currently used in surgery, they are able to anticipate changes in the way the blood flows, and respond accordingly.

Professor Yacoub's team hope the valves they are growing will be equally sophisticated.

No drugs

In theory, if the valve was grown from the patient's own cells there would also be no need to take drugs to stop the body rejecting it.

They would also be potentially much longer lasting than artificial valves, which often have to be replaced after several years.

Dr Adrian Chester, a senior member of the research team, said: "We are attempting to grow a valve that will be functional in adults and children and will be made entirely of living tissue.

"Hopefully it will be able to adapt to its environment, and then just sit there and function just as a normal valve functions under normal physiological conditions."

Dr Chester said ultimately the work could mean that some patients might be able to avoid a heart transplant.

Dr Stephen Minger, a stem cell expert at London's King's College, said Sir Magdi's team were at the forefront of tissue engineering for cardiac disease.

"If the valves they've engineered prove successful in experimental animals, this could open the door to generating complex tissues from stem cells for a wide variety of clinical application.

"But as they stress, this is very preliminary work and the direct translation to human is still some way off in the future."

Professor John Martin of the British Heart Foundation, which supported the research, said: "This opens the possibility that whole parts of the heart may be made in the laboratory from the patient's own stem cells. "

This is very preliminary work and the direct translation to human is still some way off in the future Dr Stephen Minger King's College London

He said patients could benefits because using the tissue could prevent the need for a heart transplant.

Professor Martin added: "Although the work carried out the Harefield is exciting there is a long road to be travelled before patients awaiting heart transplants will benefit from this research."

Heart disease is the UK's biggest killer. More than 200,000 people died from heart disease and strokes in 2004.

And in 2003 nearly 10,000 people needed surgery to replace heart valves with artificial ones.

Oldest Perfumes Found on "Aphrodite's Island"

The world's oldest known perfumes have been found on the island reputed to be the birthplace of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, lust, and beauty, Italian archaeologists announced last week.

Discovered on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus in 2003, the perfumes date back more than 4,000 years, said excavation leader Maria Rosaria Belgiorno of the National Research Council in Rome.

Remnants of the perfumes were found inside an ancient 3,230-square-foot (300-square-meter) factory that was part of a larger industrial complex at Pyrgos.

The buildings were destroyed during an earthquake in 1850 B.C., but perfume bottles, mixing jugs, and stills were preserved under the collapsed walls.

The artifacts are currently on display at the Capitolini Museum in Rome, along with modern reproductions of the centuries-old scents.

Dwight Loren is a perfumer and fragrance consultant with Essential Creations in New Jersey and a member of the American Society of Perfumers.

He said Grasse, France, is considered to be the center of modern perfume making, but the industry is known to have ancient roots.

"How sophisticated it was we don't know, but certainly people were looking at natural ingredients to enhance either their own body or their environments or to use them in medicine," he said.

Scents Re-created

Belgiorno's team analyzed the remains of the mixing jugs and identified 14 fragrances native to the Mediterranean region used in perfume production.

Extracts of anise, pine, coriander, bergamot, almond, and parsley are among the ingredients the ancient perfume-makers preferred.

The team also discovered four "recipes" concocted with the different fragrances.

Who Was Cleopatra?

By Amy Crawford

                                                     

Meanwhile, pursuing a military rival who had fled to Egypt, the Roman general Julius Caesar arrived at Alexandria in the summer of 48 B.C., and found himself drawn into the Egyptian family feud. For decades Egypt had been a subservient ally to Rome, and preserving the stability of the Nile Valley, with its great agricultural wealth, was in Rome's economic interest. Caesar took up residence at Alexandria's royal palace and summoned the warring siblings for a peace conference, which he planned to arbitrate. But Ptolemy XIII's forces barred the return of the king's sister to Alexandria. Aware that Caesar's diplomatic intervention could help her regain the throne, Cleopatra hatched a scheme to sneak herself into the palace for an audience with Caesar. She persuaded her servant Apollodoros to wrap her in a carpet (or, according to some sources, a sack used for storing bedclothes), which he then presented to the 52-year old Roman.

The image of young Cleopatra tumbling out of an unfurled carpet has been dramatized in nearly every film about her, from the silent era to a 1999 TV miniseries, but it was also a key scene in the real Cleopatra's staging of her own life. "She was clearly using all her talents from the moment she arrived on the world stage before Caesar," says Egyptologist Joann Fletcher, author of a forthcoming biography, Cleopatra the Great.

Like most monarchs of her time, Cleopatra saw herself as divine; from birth she and other members of her family were declared to be gods and goddesses. Highly image-conscious, Cleopatra maintained her mystique through shows of splendor, identifying herself with the deities Isis and Aphrodite, and in effect creating much of the mythology that surrounds her to this day. Though Hollywood versions of her story are jam-packed with anachronisms, embellishments, exaggerations and inaccuracies, the Cleopatras of Elizabeth Taylor, Vivien Leigh and Claudette Colbert do share with the real queen a love of pageantry. "Cleopatra was a mistress of disguise and costume," says Fletcher. "She could reinvent herself to suit the occasion, and I think that's a mark of the consummate politician."

When Cleopatra emerged from the carpet—probably somewhat disheveled, but dressed in her best finery—and begged Caesar for aid, the gesture won over Rome's future dictator-for-life. With his help Cleopatra regained Egypt's throne. Ptolemy XIII rebelled against the armistice that Caesar had imposed, but in the ensuing civil war he drowned in the Nile, leaving Cleopatra safely in power.

Though Cleopatra bore him a son, Caesar was already married, and Egyptian custom decreed that Cleopatra marry her remaining brother, Ptolemy XIV. Caesar was assassinated in 44 B.C., and with her ally gone Cleopatra had Ptolemy XIV killed to prevent any challenges to her son's succession. To solidify her grip on the throne, she dispatched her rebellious sister Arsinoe as well. Such ruthlessness was not only a common feature of Egyptian dynastic politics in Cleopatra's day, it was necessary to ensure her own survival and that of her son. With all domestic threats removed, Cleopatra set about the business of ruling Egypt, the richest nation in the Mediterranean world, and the last to remain independent of Rome.

What kind of pharaoh was Cleopatra? The few remaining contemporary Egyptian sources suggest that she was very popular among her own people. Egypt's Alexandria-based rulers, including Cleopatra, were ethnically Greek, descended from Alexander the Great's general Ptolemy I Soter. They would have spoken Greek and observed Greek customs, separating themselves from the ethnically Egyptian majority. But unlike her forebears, Cleopatra actually bothered to learn the Egyptian language. For Egyptian audiences, she commissioned portraits of herself in the traditional Egyptian style. In one papyrus dated to 35 B.C. Cleopatra is called Philopatris, "she who loves her country." By identifying herself as a truly Egyptian pharaoh, Cleopatra used patriotism to cement her position.

Cleopatra's foreign policy goal, in addition to preserving her personal power, was to maintain Egypt's independence from the rapidly expanding Roman Empire. By trading with Eastern nations—Arabia and possibly as far away as India—she built up Egypt's economy, bolstering her country's status as a world power. By allying herself with Roman general Mark Antony, Cleopatra hoped to keep Octavian, Julius Caesar's heir and Antony's rival, from making Egypt a vassal to Rome. Ancient sources make it clear that Cleopatra and Antony did love each other and that Cleopatra bore Antony three children; still, the relationship was also very useful to an Egyptian queen who wished to expand and protect her empire.

Though some modern historians have portrayed Cleopatra as a capable, popular Egyptian leader, we tend to imagine her through Roman eyes. During her lifetime and in the century after her death, Roman propaganda, most of it originating with her enemy Octavian, painted Cleopatra as a dangerous harlot who employed sex, witchcraft and cunning as she grasped for power beyond what was proper for a woman. The poet Horace, writing in the late first century B.C., called her "A crazy queen...plotting...to demolish the Capitol and topple the [Roman] Empire." Nearly a century later, the Roman poet Lucan labeled her "the shame of Egypt, the lascivious fury who was to become the bane of Rome."

After Roman tempers cooled, the Greek historian Plutarch published a more sympathetic biography. Cleopatra became a tragic heroine, with love of Antony her sole motivation. Over the next two millennia, countless paintings and dramatizations—including Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra and John Dryden's All for Love—focused on the fantastic details of her suicide after Octavian defeated Antony. We know almost certainly that Cleopatra, along with her two most trusted servants, killed herself on August 12, 30 B.C., to escape capture by Octavian. However, since the facts of her death were unclear even to the men who found the bodies, we will never know if it was the famous asp that killed the queen, or a smuggled vial of poison. The asp legend has prevailed, however, and the image of her death, more than anything else, gave Cleopatra immortality.

In February 2007, a recently discovered coin bearing a portrait of Cleopatra went on display at Newcastle University in England, sparking renewed interest in the queen and a debate about whether she was really as beautiful as we imagine. The coin, dated to 32 B.C., shows a rather homely Cleopatra with a large nose, narrow lips and a sharp chin. She looks nothing like Elizabeth Taylor. But ancient historians never characterized Cleopatra as a great beauty, and in her time she was not considered a romantic heroine. In his A.D. 75 Life of Antony, Plutarch tells us, "Her actual beauty...was not so remarkable that none could be compared with her, or that no one could see her without being struck by it, but the contact of her presence...was irresistible.... The character that attended all she said or did was something bewitching."

Cleopatra's beauty (or lack thereof) was irrelevant to the Romans who knew her and the Egyptian people she ruled. The real Cleopatra had charisma, and her sexiness stemmed from her intelligence—what Plutarch described as "the charm of her conversation"—rather than her kohl-rimmed eyes. Pharaoh Cleopatra VII was a brilliant leader, says Joann Fletcher. "She was one of the most dynamic figures the world has ever seen. And I don't think that's an exaggeration."