Slider

Science

SCITECH

AMAZING FACTS

NATURE SPACE

Psychology

4,600-Year-Old Step Pyramid Uncovered in Egypt

TORONTO — Archaeologists working near the ancient settlement of Edfu, in southern Egypt, have uncovered a step pyramid that dates back about 4,600 years, predating the Great Pyramid of Giza by at least a few decades.
ancient step pyramid in Egypt
Archaeologists working near the ancient settlement of Edfu in southern Egypt have uncovered a step pyramid that dates back about 4,600 years.
Credit: Courtesy Tell Edfu Project at the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.
The step pyramid, which once stood as high as 43 feet (13 meters), is one of seven so-called "provincial" pyramids built by either the pharaoh Huni (reign ca. 2635-2610 B.C.) or Snefru (reign ca. 2610-2590 B.C.). Over time, the step pyramid's stone blocks were pillaged, and the monument was exposed to weathering, so today, it's only about 16 feet (5 m) tall.
Scattered throughout central and southern Egypt, the provincial pyramids are located near major settlements, have no internal chambers and were not intended for burial. Six of the seven pyramids have almost identical dimensions, including the newly uncovered one at Edfu, which is about 60 x 61 feet (18.4 x 18.6 m). [See Photos of the Newly Uncovered Step Pyramid]
The purpose of these seven pyramids is a mystery. They may have been used as symbolic monuments dedicated to the royal cult that affirmed the power of the king in the southern provinces.
"The similarities from one pyramid to the other are really amazing, and there is definitely a common plan," said Gregory Marouard, a research associate at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute who led the work at the Edfu pyramid. On the east side of the newly uncovered pyramid, his team found the remains of an installation where food offerings appear to have been made — a discovery that is important for understanding this kind of pyramid since it provides clues as to what they were used for.
The team also found hieroglyphic graffiti incised on the outer faces of the pyramid. The inscriptions are located beside the remains of babies and children who were buried at the foot of the pyramid. The researchers think the inscriptions and burials date to long after the pyramid was built and that the structure was not originally intended as a burial place.
Initial results of the excavation were presented at a symposium held in Toronto recently by the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.
Uncovering the pyramid
Though scholars knew of the existence of the pyramid at Edfu, the structure had never been excavated before Marouard's team started work in 2010, he said in the study. His team found that the pyramid was covered by a thick layer of sand, modern waste and remains from the pillaging of its blocks.
It didn't look like a pyramid he said, and people in a nearby village even thought the structure was the tomb of a sheikh, a local Muslim saint. As the team went to work cleaning the monument, the ancient pyramidwas revealed. [In Photos: The Seven Ancient Wonders of the World]
Built of sandstone blocks and clay mortar, it had been constructed in the form of a three-step pyramid. A core of blocks rises up vertically, with two layers of blocks beside it, on top of each other. This made the pyramid look like it had three steps. The style is similar to that of a step pyramid built by Djoser (reign ca. 2670-2640 B.C.), the pharaoh who constructed Egypt's first pyramid at the beginning of the third ancient Egyptian dynasty. The technique is close to that used at the Meidum pyramid, which was built by either Snefru or Huni and started out as a step pyramid before being turned into a true pyramid.
"The construction itself reflects a certain care and a real expertise in the mastery of stone construction, especially for the adjustment of the most important blocks," said Marouard in his paper. Marouard also noted that the pyramid was built directly on the bedrock and was constructed entirely with local raw materials. The quarry where the sandstone was extracted was discovered in 2011, and is located only about a half mile (800 m) north of the pyramid.
The growth of a modern-day cemetery and village poses a danger to the newly uncovered pyramid. In order to help prevent further looting, a fence was built around the structure, thanks to financial assistance from the American Research Center in Egypt and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Graffiti and child burials
As the team uncovered the pyramid, they found that inscriptions had been incised on its outer faces. They include hieroglyphic depictions of a book roll, a seated man, a four-legged animal, a reed leaf and a bird.
"These are mostly private and rough inscriptions, and certainly dedicated to the child/babies' burials located right under these inscriptions at the foot of the pyramid," Marouard told Live Science in an email. One of the inscriptions appears to mean "head of the house" and may be a reference to the mother of a buried child.
Marouard said his team would be publishing these burials and images in more detail in the future. 
A pyramid abandoned
The archaeologists found that by the time of the reign of Khufu (the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid), ca. 2590-2563 B.C., the pyramid at Edfu had been abandoned, and offerings were no longer being made. This occurred less than 50 years after its construction, Marouard said.
This suggests the seven small pyramids stopped being used when work on the Great Pyramid began. It seems Khufu no longer thought there was a need to maintain a small pyramid at Edfu, or elsewhere in southern Egypt, Marouard said. Rather, Khufu focused all the resources on building the Great Pyramid at Giza, which is close to the Egyptian capital at Memphis, he added.
Khufu may have felt politically secure in southern Egypt and saw no need to maintain or build pyramids there, Marouard said in the email. The "center of gravity of Egypt was then at Memphis for many centuries — this region draining resources and manpower from the provinces, all regions being put to use for the large construction sites of funerary complexes."
At Wadi al-Jarf, a port found on the shore of the Red Sea that dates to Khufu's time, papyri (written documents) dating to the end of Khufu's reign were recently discovered that supports the idea that the pharaoh tried to converge all the resources he could toward Giza and the ancient wonder being constructed there.

Preparations for 2022 World Cup Qatar is to keep workers like slaves

The Football World Cup 2022 in Qatar provides a new scandal: According to the "Guardian" toiling in the preparation of the tournament thousands Nepalese construction workers in slave-like conditions. Recently had died a worker on average almost daily.
Hamburg - Rarely has there been a World Cup that was years ago for so many negative hit the headlines as the planned 2022 tournament in the Emirate of Qatar . Have there been especially critical of the procurement practices and the scarcely tolerable temperatures , it is now a matter of life and death.
According to the British newspaper "Guardian" Nepalese immigrants are used under extremely poor conditions in the beginning of the construction boom before the World Cup of thousands.
Migrant workers in Doha: Shocking revelations about World Cup preparations
Migrant workers in Doha: Shocking revelations about World Cup preparations

The newspaper cites documents the Nepalese embassy in Doha, according to which only between the 4th June and the 8th August 44 workers have died from Nepal - more than half of them from the consequences of a heart attack or accident at work.
In addition, thousands of Nepalis are to be exploited in the construction of the country as slaves. Some reported that they had received no wages for months, others complained that it had provided to them despite extreme heat no drinking water available. About 30 Nepalis had sought refuge at the embassy in Doha to escape the predicament.
According to the "Guardian" of the International Trade Union Confederation ITUC has calculated that at least 4,000 foreign workers will have lost their lives before the first World Cup match will kick off.
"We would like to leave, but the company will not let us," the paper quoted a Nepalese immigrant who is employed on the construction site of the giant Lusail City project.There, north of the capital Doha, to be built a new city, including the football stadium. "I'm angry about how the company treats us, but we are helpless," says the man. "I regret to have come here, but what should we do?"
The organizing committee of the World Cup said loudly "Guardian" that the work that would have directly to do with the tournament, would yet to begin. Nevertheless, it was "very concerned about the allegations against certain contractors and subcontractors" who were entrusted with the work on the Lusail City. We will pursue the matter with "the highest seriousness." The relevant government departments would launch an investigation into the allegations.
The world football governing body FIFA announced to contact the responsible persons from the desert state. "These reports will be discussed at the Executive Committee meeting on 3/4 October," shared the FIFA on Twitter.

Brain scans show that dogs are as conscious as human children


FOR the past two years, my colleagues and I have been training dogs to go in an M.R.I. scanner — completely awake and unrestrained. Our goal has been to determine how dogs’ brains work and, even more important, what they think of us humans.
Now, after training and scanning a dozen dogs, my one inescapable conclusion is this: dogs are people, too.
Because dogs can’t speak, scientists have relied on behavioral observations to infer what dogs are thinking. It is a tricky business. You can’t ask a dog why he does something. And you certainly can’t ask him how he feels. The prospect of ferreting out animal emotions scares many scientists. After all, animal research is big business. It has been easy to sidestep the difficult questions about animal sentience and emotions because they have been unanswerable.
Until now.
By looking directly at their brains and bypassing the constraints of behaviorism, M.R.I.’s can tell us about dogs’ internal states. M.R.I.’s are conducted in loud, confined spaces. People don’t like them, and you have to hold absolutely still during the procedure. Conventional veterinary practice says you have to anesthetize animals so they don’t move during a scan. But you can’t study brain function in an anesthetized animal. At least not anything interesting like perception or emotion.
From the beginning, we treated the dogs as persons. We had a consent form, which was modeled after a child’s consent form but signed by the dog’s owner. We emphasized that participation was voluntary, and that the dog had the right to quit the study. We used only positive training methods. No sedation. No restraints. If the dogs didn’t want to be in the M.R.I. scanner, they could leave. Same as any human volunteer.
My dog Callie was the first. Rescued from a shelter, Callie was a skinny black terrier mix, what is called a feist in the southern Appalachians, from where she came. True to her roots, she preferred hunting squirrels and rabbits in the backyard to curling up in my lap. She had a natural inquisitiveness, which probably landed her in the shelter in the first place, but also made training a breeze.
With the help of my friend Mark Spivak, a dog trainer, we started teaching Callie to go into an M.R.I. simulator that I built in my living room. She learned to walk up steps into a tube, place her head in a custom-fitted chin rest, and hold rock-still for periods of up to 30 seconds. Oh, and she had to learn to wear earmuffs to protect her sensitive hearing from the 95 decibels of noise the scanner makes.
After months of training and some trial-and-error at the real M.R.I. scanner, we were rewarded with the first maps of brain activity. For our first tests, we measured Callie’s brain response to two hand signals in the scanner. In later experiments, not yet published, we determined which parts of her brain distinguished the scents of familiar and unfamiliar dogs and humans.
Soon, the local dog community learned of our quest to determine what dogs are thinking. Within a year, we had assembled a team of a dozen dogs who were all “M.R.I.-certified.”
Although we are just beginning to answer basic questions about the canine brain, we cannot ignore the striking similarity between dogs and humans in both the structure and function of a key brain region: the caudate nucleus.
Rich in dopamine receptors, the caudate sits between the brainstem and the cortex. In humans, the caudate plays a key role in the anticipation of things we enjoy, like food, love and money. But can we flip this association around and infer what a person is thinking just by measuring caudate activity? Because of the overwhelming complexity of how different parts of the brain are connected to one another, it is not usually possible to pin a single cognitive function or emotion to a single brain region.
But the caudate may be an exception. Specific parts of the caudate stand out for their consistent activation to many things that humans enjoy. Caudate activation is so consistent that under the right circumstances, it can predict our preferences for food, music and even beauty.

In dogs, we found that activity in the caudate increased in response to hand signals indicating food. The caudate also activated to the smells of familiar humans. And in preliminary tests, it activated to the return of an owner who had momentarily stepped out of view. Do these findings prove that dogs love us? Not quite. But many of the same things that activate the human caudate, which are associated with positive emotions, also activate the dog caudate. Neuroscientists call this a functional homology, and it may be an indication of canine emotions.
DOGS have long been considered property. Though the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 and state laws raised the bar for the treatment of animals, they solidified the view that animals are things — objects that can be disposed of as long as reasonable care is taken to minimize their suffering.
But now, by using the M.R.I. to push away the limitations of behaviorism, we can no longer hide from the evidence. Dogs, and probably many other animals (especially our closest primate relatives), seem to have emotions just like us. And this means we must reconsider their treatment as property.
One alternative is a sort of limited personhood for animals that show neurobiological evidence of positive emotions. Many rescue groups already use the label of “guardian” to describe human caregivers, binding the human to his ward with an implicit responsibility to care for her. Failure to act as a good guardian runs the risk of having the dog placed elsewhere. But there are no laws that cover animals as wards, so the patchwork of rescue groups that operate under a guardianship model have little legal foundation to protect the animals’ interest.
If we went a step further and granted dogs rights of personhood, they would be afforded additional protection against exploitation. Puppy mills, laboratory dogs and dog racing would be banned for violating the basic right of self-determination of a person.
I suspect that society is many years away from considering dogs as persons. However, recent rulings by the Supreme Court have included neuroscientific findings that open the door to such a possibility. In two cases, the court ruled that juvenile offenders could not be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. As part of the rulings, the court cited brain-imaging evidence that the human brain was not mature in adolescence. Although this case has nothing to do with dog sentience, the justices opened the door for neuroscience in the courtroom.
Perhaps someday we may see a case arguing for a dog’s rights based on brain-imaging findings.

40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World

If you’re a visual learner like myself, then you know maps, charts and infographics can really help bring data and information to life. Maps can make a point resonate with readers and this collection aims to do just that.
Hopefully some of these maps will surprise you and you’ll learn something new. A few are important to know, some interpret and display data in a beautiful or creative way, and a few may even make you chuckle or shake your head.
If you enjoy this collection of maps, the Sifter highly recommends the r/MapPorn sub reddit. You should also check outChartsBin.com. There were also fantastic posts on Business Insider and Bored Panda earlier this year that are worth checking out. Enjoy!

1. Where Google Street View is Available

map-of-the-world-where-google-street-view-is-available
Map by Google


2. Countries That Do Not Use the Metric System

map-of-countires-that-use-metric-system-vs-imperial


3. The Only 22 Countries in the World Britain Has Not Invaded (not shown: Sao Tome and Principe)

the-only-countries-britain-has-not-invaded


4. Map of ‘Pangea’ with Current International Borders

map-of-pangea-with-current-internatoinal-borders
Map by eatrio.net via Reddit

Pangea was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras, forming about 300 million years ago. It began to break apart around 200 million years ago. The single global ocean which surrounded Pangaea is accordingly named Panthalassa.

5. McDonald’s Across the World

map-of-countries-with-mcdonalds


6. Paid Maternal Leave Around the World


paid-maternal-leave-by-country


7. The Most Common Surnames in Europe by Country

map-of-most-common-surnames-in-europe


8. Worldwide Driving Orientation by Country

Worldwide_Driving_Orientation_by_Country-(1)


9. Map of Time Zones in Antarctica

Map-of-time-zones-in-Anarctica


10. Global Internet Usage Based on Time of Day

internet-usage-of-the-world-based-on-time-of-day_2
Map by Carna Botnet via Reddit


11. The World’s Busiest Air Routes in 2012


top-10-busiest-air-travel-routes-of-2012


12. Visualizing Global Population Density

there-are-more-people-living-inside-this-circle-than-outside-of-it


13. Flag Map of the World

Flag-Map-denmark-puerto


14. Map of Alcohol Consumption Around the World


map-of-alocohol-consumption-around-the-world


15. Map of Alcoholic Drink Popularity by Country


drink-popularity-by-country


16. Map of Rivers in the Contiguous United States

map-of-united-states-rivers
Map by Nelson Minar


17. US Map of the Highest Paid Public Employees by State

highest-paid-US-public-employees-by-state
Map by Deadspin.com


18. World Map of Earthquakes Since 1898

earthquakes-by-magnitude-since-1898


19. Map of Where 29,000 Rubber Duckies Made Landfall After Falling off a Cargo Ship in the Middle of the Pacific Ocean

where-rubber-ducks-made-landfall-after-being-dumped-in-pacific-ocean


20. Map of Countries with the Most Violations of Bribery


bribery-nigeria-is-the-worst


21. World Map of Vegetation on Earth

map-of-vegetation-on-earth
Map by NASA/NOAA


22. Average Age of First Sexual Intercourse by Country

Average_Age_at_first_sex_by_Country-(1)


23. If the World’s Population Lived in One City

the-worlds-population-concentrated


24. The Number of Researchers per Million Inhabitants
Around the World

Number_of_Researchers_per_million_inhabitants_by_Country


25. Worldwide Map of Oil Import And Export Flows

worldwide-oil-import-and-export-flows


26. The 7000 Rivers that Feed into the Mississippi River

map-of-rivers-that-feed-into-the-mississippi-river


27. World Map of the Different Writing Systems

map-of-the-writing-systems-of-the-world


28. Worldwide Annual Coffee Consumption Per Capita

Coffee_Consumption-(3)


29. The Economic Center of Gravity Since 1 AD


evolution-of-the-earth's-economic-center-of-gravity


30. The World Divided Into 7 Regions,
Each with a Population of 1 Billion

population-of-the-world-split-into-equal-sections-of-one-billion


31. Earth’s Population by Latitude and Longitude


the-worlds-population-by-latitue-and-longitude
Photograph by mrgeng on Reddit


32. Map of Contiguous United States
Overlaid on the Moon

map-of-united-states-overlaid-on-the-moon


33. Frequency of Lightning Strikes Throughout the World


frequency-of-lightning-strikes-in-the-world


34. Overall Water Risk Around the World

drought-risk-its-not-just-isolated-around-the-equator


35. The Most Dangerous Areas in the World
To Ship Due to Pirates

riskiest-areas-to-ship-where-the-pirates-rule-the-seas


36. Area Codes in Which Ludacris Claims to Have H*es
(song reference)

area-codes-in-which-ludracris-claims-to-have-hoes


37. Where 2% of Australia’s Population Lives

where-2-percent-of-australia-lives


38. The Longest Straight Line You Can Sail on Earth
(Pakistan to Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia – 20000 miles)

the-longest-straight-line-you-can-sail-in-the-world




39. Map of Europe Showing Literal
Chinese Translations for Country Names

literal-map-of-europe-by-chinese-name


40. Reversed Map with Southern Hemisphere at Top of Map (because position of North is arbitrary)

map-of-world-upside-down-south-pole-on-top
Map via nnm.me


*Bonus*
World Map Tattoo with Countries Visited Coloured

tattoo-of-world-with-countries-visited-colored-in

Top