Indus Valley Civilization Collapse Fueled By Climate Change, Researchers Say By Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor: The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say. Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east. "They had cities ordered into grids, with exquisite plumbing, which was not encountered again until the Romans," Giosan told LiveScience. Also on HuffPost:
World-wide Ancient Site Database, Photos and Prehistoric Archaeology News with geolocation : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map: Archaeologists unearth 5,000-year-old 'third-gender' caveman Archaeologists investigating a 5,000-year-old Copper Age grave in the Czech Republic believe they may have unearthed the first known remains of a gay or transvestite caveman, reports the Telegraph. The man was apparently buried as if he were a woman, an aberrant practice for an ancient culture known for its strict burial procedures. Since the grave dates to between 2900 and 2500 BC, the man would have been a member of the Corded Ware culture, a late Stone Age and Copper Age people named after the unique kind of pottery they produced. "From history and ethnology, we know that people from this period took funeral rites very seriously so it is highly unlikely that this positioning was a mistake," said lead archaeologist Kamila Remisova Vesinova. Another clue is that Corded Ware men would typically be buried alongside weapons, hammers and flint knives, as well as food and drink to prepare them for their journey to the other side.
A Visual Anthropology of the World's Last Living Nomads by Maria Popova From Morocco to Mongolia, or what we can learn about climate change from Inuit whale hunters. What is it about Dutch photographers that makes them so visually eloquent at capturing the human condition? From Jeroen Toirkens comes Nomad — a fascinating and strikingly beautiful visual anthropology of the Northern Hemisphere’s last living nomadic peoples, from Greenland to Turkey. Since the beginning of time, nomadic people have roamed the earth. Zuun Taiga, Mongolia, 2007 Tiniteqilaaq, Greenland, 2009 Altai Mountains, Russia, 2006 Nuuk, Greenland, 2009 Arghangai Aimag, Mongolia, 2007 Gobi Desert, Mongolia, 2007 Kola Sami, Russia, 2006 Nenets, Russia, 2005 Baruun Taiga, Mongolia, 2004 Kazakh, Altai Mountains, Russia, 2004 Berbers, High Atlas Mountains, Morocco, 2002 Kirgiz, Kyrgystan, 2000 Yörük, Bolkar Mountains, Turkey, 1999 Sami, Karesuvanto, Finland, 2001 Because of climate change, we can see and feel winter days get colder and the sea, it’s warmer. Images courtesy of Jeroen Toirkens