PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Experts question claim that Alexander the Great's half-brother is buried at Vergina

2010-09-08
(Press-News.org) The tomb was discovered during the excavation of a large mound – the Great Tumulus – at Vergina in 1977. Along with many treasures including ceremonial military equipment, bronze utensils, silver tableware, and gold wreaths, the tomb contained two sets of skeletal remains. Those of a man were found in a gold casket in the main chamber and those of a woman in a smaller gold casket in the second chamber. Both individuals had been cremated and evidence of a wooden funerary house containing a pyre was also found near the tomb.

Dr Jonathan Musgrave of the University of Bristol's Centre for Comparative and Clinical Anatomy and colleagues argue that evidence from the remains is not consistent with historical records of the life, death and burial of Arrhidaios, a far less prominent figure in the ancient world than his father Philip II.

The male skull appears to have a healed fracture on the right cheekbone and a marked asymmetry in the wall of the right maxillary sinus. History records that Philip II lost his right eye at the siege of Methone in 355-4 BC – an injury which would be consistent with this damage to the skeleton.

The colour and fracture lines of the bones suggest they were cremated 'green' (with flesh still around them) rather than 'dry' (after the flesh had been decomposed by burial). Arrhidaios was murdered in the autumn of 317 BC; his remains, some suggest, were subsequently exhumed and reburied between four and 17 months later. However, the existence of the funeral pyre indicates that the bodies were cremated at Vergina. As Greek beliefs would never have countenanced contact with a decomposing corpse, Arrhidaios would not have been exhumed, moved and then cremated 'green'.

From the historical account of their deaths and committals, it is thought that Arrhidaios was buried along with his wife Eurydice and her mother Kynna. However, the tomb contains remains from only two individuals. The female remains belong to a woman aged between 20 and 30 whereas Eurydice seems to have been no more than 19 years old when she died.

Dr Musgrave said: "The aim of this paper is not to press the claims of Philip II and his wife Cleopatra but to draw attention to the flaws in those for Philip III Arrhidaios and Eurydice. We do not believe that the condition of the bones and the circumstances of their interment are consistent with descriptions of the funeral of Arrhidaios, his wife and his mother-in-law."

INFORMATION:

The paper is published in the International Journal of Medical Sciences.

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Micro-RNA determines malignancy of lung cancer

2010-09-08
Cancer becomes life-threatening when tumor cells start leaving their primary site. They travel through the lymph and blood streams to other tissues where they grow into metastases. This transition to malignancy is associated with characteristic changes in the cancer cells. The activity of several genes is reprogrammed and, thus, the production of proteins anchoring cells to a tissue is reduced. On the other hand, the amount of surface markers which make a cancer cell mobile increases. Professor Dr. Heike Allgayer heads a Clinical Cooperation Unit of DKFZ and UMM. She ...

A nearby galactic exemplar

A nearby galactic exemplar
2010-09-08
Originally discovered from Australia by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop early in the nineteenth century, NGC 300 is one of the closest and most prominent spiral galaxies in the southern skies and is bright enough to be seen easily in binoculars. It lies in the inconspicuous constellation of Sculptor, which has few bright stars, but is home to a collection of nearby galaxies that form the Sculptor Group [1]. Other members that have been imaged by ESO telescopes include NGC 55 (eso0914 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0914/), NGC 253 (eso1025 - http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1025/, ...

Chopping and changing in the microbial world: How mycoplasmas stay alive

2010-09-08
Mycoplasmas are responsible for a variety of important diseases, including atypical pneumonia in humans and mastitis in cows, sheep and goats, which results in loss of milk production. Mycoplasmal mastitis represents a particular problem in the dairy industry and is thus a subject of intense study. One of the most important mastitis agents in sheep and goats is Mycoplasma agalactiae, which has been under investigation by the group of Renate Rosengarten and Rohini Chopra-Dewasthaly at the Institute of Bacteriology, Mycology and Hygiene at the University of Veterinary Medicine, ...

Does the impact of psychological trauma cross generations?

2010-09-08
Philadelphia, PA, 8 September, 2010 - In groups with high rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such as the survivors of the Nazi Death Camps, the adjustment problems of their children, the so-called "Second Generation", have received attention by researchers. Studies suggested that some symptoms or personality traits associated with PTSD may be more common in the Second Generation than the general population. It has been assumed that these trans-generational effects reflected the impact of PTSD upon the parent-child relationship rather than a trait passed biologically ...

Scientists make leap forward in early detection for Alzheimer's and cancer

2010-09-08
Scientists at the UK's National Physical Laboratory have developed a new strategy for quicker and more precise detection of biomarkers – proteins which indicate disease. The work could pave the way for new tools to detect early stages of Alzheimer's and cancer at the molecular level. All diseases have proteins specifically linked to them called biomarkers. Identifying these in body fluid such as blood can be a powerful tool in identifying diseases in their early stages. This would help doctors increase the success rate of treatment through early intervention and help ...

New American Chemical Society podcast: Economical biodiesel from sewage sludge

2010-09-08
WASHINGTON, Sept. 8, 2010 — Biodiesel fuel could be produced from municipal sewage sludge at a cost that is within a few cents a gallon of being competitive with conventional diesel refined from petroleum, according to the latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning podcast series, "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions." To boost biodiesel production, sewage treatment plants could use microorganisms that produce higher amounts of oil, says study leader David M. Kargbo, Ph.D., with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).That step alone ...

ACP explores ethical issues for use of incentives to promote personal responsibility for health

2010-09-08
PHILADELPHIA, September 8, 2010 -- The American College of Physicians (ACP) today released a new position paper that provides ethical guidance for using incentives to promote personal responsibility for health. In "Ethical Considerations for the Use of Patient Incentives to Promote Personal Responsibility for Health: West Virginia Medicaid and Beyond (http://www.acponline.org/running_practice/ethics/issues/policy/personal_incentives.pdf)," ACP stresses that innovative programs designed to motivate behavior change should be part of a comprehensive strategy for well-being ...

Tips from the journals of the American Society for Microbiology

2010-09-08
Frog Skin May Provide Antimicrobial Peptides Effective Against Multidrug-Resistant Infections Antimicrobial peptides from the skin of frogs may protect against life-threatening, multidrug-resistant infections such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa say researchers from Italy. They detail their findings in the September 2010 issue of the journal Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. P. aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes some of the most prevalent life-threatening infections such as eye and ear infections, burn wound infections and lung infections in cystic ...

Study shows nano-architectured aluminum has steely strength

2010-09-08
A North Carolina State University researcher and colleagues have figured out a way to make an aluminum alloy, or a mixture of aluminum and other elements, just as strong as steel. That's important, says Dr. Yuntian Zhu, professor of materials science and the NC State researcher involved in the project, because the search for ever lighter – yet stronger – materials is crucial to devising everything from more fuel-efficient cars to safer airplanes. In a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, Zhu and his colleagues describe the new nanoscale ...

USDA scientists, cooperators create the first genomic map of the domesticated turkey

2010-09-08
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) researchers and their university colleagues have sequenced the majority of the genome of Meleagris gallopavo, the domesticated turkey, creating the first-ever turkey genome map. The nearly complete map could help growers to more efficiently produce bigger, meatier turkeys. The research is reported today in PLoS Biology, an online journal of the Public Library of Science. Americans consume about 17.6 pounds of turkey per capita every year, and the U.S. produces nearly 6 billion pounds of turkey meat annually. "Turkey is the fourth ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Dr. Megan Abbott and the University of Colorado awarded $450,000 establishing a Clinical Research Center of Excellence that will also serve as a second site for SYNGAP1 ProMMiS

Empire Discovery Institute appoints Dr. Ronald Newbold as Chief Executive Officer

Douglas Hanahan, Ph.D., FAACR, honored with the 2025 Pezcoller Foundation-AACR International Award for Extraordinary Achievement in Cancer Research

Mapping DNA's hidden switches: A methylation atlas

Beneficial genetic changes observed in regular blood donors

New research reveals psychological ‘booster shots’ can strengthen resistance to misinformation over time

Arctic sea ice loss drives drier weather over California and wetter over Spain and Portugal

Nwd1 gene deletion triggers MASH-like pathology in mice: a new scientific breakthrough

First burials: Neanderthal and Homo sapiens interactions in the Mid-Middle Palaeolithic Levant

Machine learning models fail to detect key health deteriorations, Virginia Tech research shows

Women with PVD often underdiagnosed & undertreated, highlighting need for more research

New Irresistible Materials CEO to drive commercialization and market adoption

Gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon has done more damage to peatlands in the last two years than in the previous three decades 

Cheap and environmentally friendly – the next generation LEDs may soon be here

Rare frog rediscovered after 130 years

Earth's 'dirty mirror' effect is accelerating climate change

Breakthrough in next-generation polio vaccines

A call for federally funded pediatric firearm injury prevention research

New research reveals how a 252 million year old climate crisis accompanied the ‘Great Dying’ mass extinction event, completely reorganizing the Earth’s ecosystems

Untangling quantum entanglement with new calculation formulas

Adults abused as children twice as likely to develop health and mental health conditions

A dive into erythritol slurry and its potential for waste heat recovery

No place like home—how proteins that plasma cells express at their origin affect migration

Socioeconomic factors fuel global inequalities in Alzheimer's disease burden, study finds

Foraging footballers suggest how we come together to act as one

SSA: Semantic Structure Aware Inference for Weakly Pixel-Wise Dense Predictions without Cost

New test helps doctors predict a dangerous side effect of cancer treatment

UC Study: Long sentences for juveniles make reentry into society more difficult

Death by feral cat: DNA shows cats to be culprits in killing of native animals

Plant Physiology is Searching for its Next Editor-in-Chief

[Press-News.org] Experts question claim that Alexander the Great's half-brother is buried at Vergina