texascavers Digest 16 Jan 2011 15:58:55 -0000 Issue 1226
Topics (messages 16857 through 16866):
Texas Cave Conservancy- 2011 Winter Conference- February 25-27
16857 by: Mike Walsh
NSS Report on conservation
16858 by: Linda Palit
caving in Cuba
16859 by: David
16862 by: Dave H. Crusoe
16863 by: David
cave archeology in the news
16860 by: David
Earliest Known Winery Found in Armenian Cave
16861 by: Justin Leigh Shaw
mountain-climbing related
16864 by: David
Bob Handley dies
16865 by: Gill Edigar
16866 by: Mark Minton
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Join us this February 25-27, 2011 for the fourth annual Texas Cave
Conservancy Winter Conference. As usual, it will be held at the TCC
Headquarters and Campground. While everyone is welcome, it is an event set
up for new cavers. Toward that end, the TCC will present a Basic Caving
Workshop on Saturday. Grottos, come on out and be sure to let your new
cavers know that they are welcome. We will have camping, caving, workshops,
a Saturday night meal and a party.
This year our special Speakers after the Saturday night meal will be James
Reddell & Mike Warton. We will even have a sound system so we all will be
able to hear James tell us about the early days of his caving. James
Reddell Speaks. Mike Warton will also provide us some info on his exciting
caving career.
Donations will be accepted, however, if you are a new caver everything will
provided at no cost. Camping, caving and a great party Saturday evening
will be some of the activities. If you want to set up a special event,
contact us. Start 2011 out with your caver friends, both old and new. For
more information contact us at:
[email protected]
512-249-2283
TCC Headquarters
1800 West Park
Cedar Park, Texas 78613
TCC Winter Conference Activities
February 25-27, 2011
Friday
Camping & caving
Saturday
Breakfast
Tours& Workshops - Starting 9:00-10:00 A.M.
. Westside Cave Preserve -
Cave Geology & Hydrology-10:00 A.M.
. Bill Larson
. Basic Caving Workshop - 9:00 A.M.
. Introduction-Land Owner Relations-
Cave Biology, Survey, Photography &
Urban caving (Visits several caves).
. Avery Ranch Cave- All Day
. Dies Ranch Treasure Cave-All Day
. Dies Ranch Shelter Cave-All Day
. Cedar Park area Caving-All Day
. Bob Finger Napping
. (Making arrowheads) TCC Headquarters
5:00 PM
. Urban Cave Monitoring & Management
Workshop- This is the basic introduction to the 25 hour course
At the TCC Headquarters -5:00 PM
. Dinner - 6:30 PM
. Special After- Dinner- guest presentations by James Reddell & Mike
Warton
.
. Hall of Texas Cavers slides & Party
. Dave Cave's Salon (Strawberry Margaritas & more)
Sunday
Breakfast
[email protected]
512-249-2283
TCC Headquarters
1800 West Park
Cedar Park, Texas 78613
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Hello, Mike,
I've been trying to put together the report on conservation and restoration
in Texas for the 2010 year.
I sent a note to Steve Gutting but had the wrong contact information for
you. I have corrected that, but wanted to make sure you received the
request.
I need activities, dates if possible, and short descriptions.
Thanks,
Linda
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Follower's of Oztotl are now permitted to travel in Cuba legally.
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David -
IN Cuba legally? I assume the usual procedures are still required to get TO
cuba, however, no? Unless there's something that's also smoothed over the TO
part?
--Dave
On Jan 15, 2011, at 12:18 AM, David wrote:
> Follower's of Oztotl are now permitted to travel in Cuba legally.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Visit our website: http://texascavers.com
> To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected]
> For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
>
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I was referring to the State Department's announcement yesterday that
in 3 weeks, religious groups
will be permitted to travel to Cuba.
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>From an article on the web last week,
Archaeologists on the island of Crete have discovered what may be
evidence of one of the world's first sea voyages
by human ancestors, the Greek Culture Ministry said Monday. A ministry
statement said experts from Greece and
the U.S. have found rough axes and other tools thought to be between
130,000 and 700,000 years old close to
shelters on the island's south coast.
Crete has been separated from the mainland for about five million
years, so whoever made the tools must have
traveled there by sea (a distance of at least 40 miles). That would
upset the current view that human ancestors
migrated to Europe from Africa by land alone.
"The results of the survey not only provide evidence of sea voyages in
the Mediterranean tens of thousands of
years earlier than we were aware of so far, but also change our
understanding of early hominids' cognitive abilities,"
the ministry statement said.
The previous earliest evidence of open-sea travel in Greece dates back
11,000 years (worldwide, about
60,000 years - although considerably earlier dates have been proposed).
The tools were found during a survey of caves and rock shelters near
the village of Plakias by archaeologists
from the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and the
Culture Ministry.
Such rough stone implements are associated with Heidelberg Man and
Homo Erectus, extinct precursors of
the modern human race, which evolved from Africa about 200,000 years ago.
"Up to now we had no proof of Early Stone Age presence on Crete," said
senior ministry archaeologist
Maria Vlazaki, who was not involved in the survey. She said it was
unclear where the hominids had sailed
from, or whether the settlements were permanent. "They may have come
from Africa or from the east," she said.
"Future study should help."
The team of archaeologists has applied for permission to conduct a
more thorough excavation of the area,
which Greek authorities are expected to approve later this year.
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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/01/110111-oldest-wine-press-making-winery-armenia-science-ucla/
Earliest Known Winery Found in Armenian Cave
Barefoot winemakers likely worked in cave where oldest leather shoe was found.
James Owen
for National Geographic News
Published January 10, 2011
As if making the oldest known leather shoe wasn't enough, a
prehistoric people in what's now Armenia also built the world's oldest
known winery, a new study says.
Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated
to the dead—and it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear.
Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly
preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found,
archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes,
fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape
vines, skins, and seeds, the study says.
"This is the earliest, most reliable evidence of wine production,"
said archaeologist Gregory Areshian of the University of California,
Los Angeles (UCLA).
"For the first time, we have a complete archaeological picture of wine
production dating back 6,100 years," he said. (Related: "First Wine?
Archaeologist Traces Drink to Stone Age.")
The prehistoric winemaking equipment was first detected in 2007, when
excavations co-directed by Areshian and Armenian archaeologist Boris
Gasparyan began at the Areni-1 cave complex.
In September 2010 archaeologists completed excavations of a large,
2-foot-deep (60-centimeter-deep) vat buried next to a shallow,
3.5-foot-long (1-meter-long) basin made of hard-packed clay with
elevated edges.
The installation suggests the Copper Age vintners pressed their wine
the old-fashioned way, using their feet, Areshian said.
Juice from the trampled grapes drained into the vat, where it was left
to ferment, he explained.
The wine was then stored in jars—the cool, dry conditions of the cave
would have made a perfect wine cellar, according to Areshian, who
co-authored the new study, published Tuesday in the Journal of
Archaeological Science.
(Related pictures: "Before and After: Wine-Cult Cave Art Restored in Petra.")
Wine Traces
To test whether the vat and jars in the Armenian cave had held wine,
the team chemically analyzed pottery shards—which had been
radiocarbon-dated to between 4100 B.C. and 4000 B.C.—for telltale
residues.
The chemical tests revealed traces of malvidin, the plant pigment
largely responsible for red wine's color.
"Malvidin is the best chemical indicator of the presence of wine we
know of so far," Areshian said.
Ancient-wine expert Patrick E. McGovern, a biomolecular archaeologist
at the University of Pennsylvania Museum in Philadelphia, agrees the
evidence argues convincingly for a winemaking facility.
One thing that would make the claim a bit stronger, though, said
McGovern, who wasn't involved in the study, is the presence of
tartaric acid, another chemical indicator of grapes. Malvidin, he
said, might have come from other local fruits, such as pomegranates.
Combined with the malvidin and radiocarbon evidence, traces of
tartaric acid "would then substantiate that the facility is the
earliest yet found," he said.
"Later, we know that small treading vats for stomping out the grapes
and running the juice into underground jars are used all over the Near
East and throughout the Mediterranean," he added.
(Related: "Ancient Christian 'Holy Wine' Factory Found in Egypt.")
Winery Discovery Backed Up by DNA?
McGovern called the discovery "important and unique, because it
indicates large-scale wine production, which would imply, I think,
that the grape had already been domesticated."
As domesticated vines yield much more fruit than wild varieties,
larger facilities would have been needed to process the grapes.
McGovern has uncovered chemical and archaeological evidence of wine,
but not of a winery, in northern Iran dating back some 7,000
years—around a thousand years earlier than the new find.
But the apparent discovery that winemaking using domesticated
grapevines emerged in what's now Armenia appears to dovetail with
previous DNA studies of cultivated grape varieties, McGovern said.
Those studies had pointed to the mountains of Armenia, Georgia, and
neighboring countries as the birthplace of viticulture.
McGovern—whose book Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and
Other Alcoholic Beverages traces the origins of wine—said the Areni
grape perhaps produced a taste similar to that of ancient Georgian
varieties that appear to be ancestors of the Pinot Noir grape, which
results in a dry red.
To preserve the wine, however, tree resin would probably have been
added, he speculated, so the end result may actually have been more
like a Greek retsina, which is still made with tree resin.
In studying ancient alcohol, he added, "our chemical analyses have
shown tree resin in many wine samples."
Ancient Drinking Rituals
While the identities of the ancient, moccasin-clad wine quaffers
remain a mystery, their drinking culture likely involved ceremonies in
honor of the dead, UCLA's Areshian believes.
"Twenty burials have been identified around the wine-pressing
installation. There was a cemetery, and the wine production in the
cave was related to this ritualistic aspect," Areshian speculated.
Significantly, drinking cups have been found inside and around the graves.
McGovern, the ancient-wine expert, said later examples of ancient
alcohol-related funerary rituals have been found throughout the world.
In ancient Egypt, for example, "you have illustrations inside the
tombs showing how many jars of beer and wine from the Nile Delta are
to be provided to the dead," McGovern said. (Also see "Scorpion King's
Wines—Egypt's Oldest—Spiked With Meds.")
"I guess a cave is secluded, so it's good for a cemetery, but it's
also good for making wine," he added. "And then you have the wine
right there, so you can keep the ancestors happy."
Future work planned at Areni will further investigate links between
the burials and winemaking, study leader Areshian said.
Winemaking as Revolution
The discovery is important, the study team says, because winemaking is
seen as a significant social and technological innovation among
prehistoric societies.
Vine growing, for instance, heralded the emergence of new,
sophisticated forms of agriculture, Areshian said.
"They had to learn and understand the cycles of growth of the plant,"
he said. "They had to understand how much water was needed, how to
prevent fungi from damaging the harvest, and how to deal with flies
that live on the grapes.
"The site gives us a new insight into the earliest phase of
horticulture—how they grew the first orchards and vineyards," he
added.
University of Pennsylvania archaeologist Naomi Miller commented that
"from a nutritional and culinary perspective, wine expands the food
supply by harnessing the otherwise sour and unpalatable wild grape.
"From a social perspective, for good and ill," Miller said, "alcoholic
beverages change the way we interact with each other in society."
****
The ancient-winery study was led by UCLA's Hans Barnard and partially
funded by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and
Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
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Not caving related, ( maybe potentially related to High Altitude
Alpine Caving ).
I am posting this here because lots of cavers are interested in climbing
news, and also, because the web-site's design integration with Google
Earth is interesting.
Below is a web-site blog from a solo mountain-climber attempting
Mt. Denali in the coldest darkest time of the year.
http://lonniedupre.com/index.php
He only has 7,000 feet to go. He is not carrying a tent. He is
stashing food in snow caves hoping to be able to find them again.
I think the blogs are being updated by someone receiving satellite phone
calls from him.
David Locklear
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From: Bill Balfour
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 3:57 PM
To: West Virginia Association for Cave Studies ; [email protected]
; Dave Scott ; chuck frostick
Subject: |wvacs| Bob Handley
Bob died in his sleep yesterday evening. From what I understand he
will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered on his property.
There will probably be a memorial service sometime this spring.
That's about all I know for now.
--Bill
_______________
A few Texas cavers will remember Bob Handley. His caving career
extends back to the 1940's and ended just recently. He was an active
participant in the C-3 Expedition in parts of what is now the Mammoth
system the 1950's. I was fortunate to cave with Bob in Simmons Mingo
cave several times in the early '70s. He was a natural. I've seen him
many times since at OTRs and NSS Conventions and other caver
gatherings and he always called my by name and seemed really glad to
see me. I consider it an honor to have caved with Bob and to have been
counted amongst his friends ever since. Bob was about 81 or 82 and has
probably been in more caves than any other caver I know of.
--Ediger
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I was in a cave with Bob Handley only a couple of years
ago. He was at a cave gating project and led a group into the cave
to see petroglyphs near the entrance. He was still very excited
about caving, but he was physically no longer able to do much. His
health took a turn for the worst last fall, and he missed many of the
caver social functions he would normally have attended. His status
in WVACS (West Virginia Association for Cave Studies) is legendary.
Mark Minton
At 11:47 PM 1/15/2011, Gill Edigar wrote:
From: Bill Balfour
Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2011 3:57 PM
To: West Virginia Association for Cave Studies ; [email protected]
; Dave Scott ; chuck frostick
Subject: |wvacs| Bob Handley
Bob died in his sleep yesterday evening. From what I understand he
will be cremated and his ashes will be scattered on his property.
There will probably be a memorial service sometime this spring.
That's about all I know for now.
--Bill
_______________
A few Texas cavers will remember Bob Handley. His caving career
extends back to the 1940's and ended just recently. He was an active
participant in the C-3 Expedition in parts of what is now the Mammoth
system the 1950's. I was fortunate to cave with Bob in Simmons Mingo
cave several times in the early '70s. He was a natural. I've seen him
many times since at OTRs and NSS Conventions and other caver
gatherings and he always called my by name and seemed really glad to
see me. I consider it an honor to have caved with Bob and to have been
counted amongst his friends ever since. Bob was about 81 or 82 and has
probably been in more caves than any other caver I know of.
--Ediger
Please reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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