A new study suggests that during the Iron Age Finland was home to separate
and different populations.

Researchers at Helsinki and Turku universities mapping ancient Finno-Ugric ancestry say
modern-day Finns carry genes from diverse populations living in the region of Finland
during the Iron Age.

They said they were able to reconstruct 103 complete mitochondrial genomes from
archaeological bone samples, allowing them to trace maternal lineage. The samples were
collected from burial sites across Finland and the Republic of Karelia, Russia.
Scientists found that genes associated with ancient farmer populations were more
common in the east, whereas lineages inherited from hunter-gatherers were more
prevalent in the west.

The SUGRIGE Finno-Ugric genome project said its study is the most extensive
investigation to date focusing on the ancient DNA of people inhabiting the region of
Finland.

Read more:
https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/iron_age_dna_sheds_light_on_finns_genetic_origin/110
72769

British scientists brought the Viking woman to life using facial reconstruction
technology.
They based their work on a skeleton found in a Viking graveyard in Solør, Norway,
which is now preserved in Oslo’s Museum of Cultural History.
The female warrior was buried surrounded by deadly weapons but was not initially
considered to be a warrior because of her gender.
She was buried with a hoard of weapons including arrows, a sword, a spear and an axe
but the dent in her head was a bigger clue about her past.
The dent in her skull was consistent with a sword wound and she was placed in her grave
with her head resting on a shield.
Experts are unsure whether the head injury is what caused the Viking woman’s death.
However, archaelogist Ella Al-Shamahi told The Guardian that this is “the first evidence ever found of a Viking woman with a battle injury”.
She added: “I’m so excited because this is a face that hasn’t been seen in 1,000 years…
She’s suddenly become really real.”
Read more:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7642565/Scientists-reconstruct-face-1-000-
year-old-Viking-warrior-woman.html ?

Danger Cave, Old Iron Town may get new state designation
By Amy Joi O’Donoghue
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Gary Herbert’s office wants state park officials to further refine the criteria for possible new state monument candidates, but did give its endorsement on the first two designations that will need approval by Utah lawmakers.
The two candidates — Danger Cave State Park Heritage Area near the Nevada border
and Old Iron Town in Iron County — received unanimous legislative endorsement by the
Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee last month. The committee
will draft a concurrent resolution that will need the support of the full Legislature.
Jeff Rasmussen, director of the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation, told the
committee the initial criteria for possible state monument candidates includes that it must
be the first, last, only, most important or best preserved site of its kind in the state, or
offer a major contribution to pre-history or history, or feature outstanding scenic value.
Candidates must be “extraordinary” in one of those ways, be self-sustaining and not add
more financial burden to the division and also must have the support of local and other
community stakeholders.
The criteria was developed after lawmakers spent three years developing a state law that
provides for monument designations on public property.
Danger Cave is one of North America’s most significant archaeological sites, once home
to artifacts and relics detailing the history of Native Americans as far back as 11,000
years ago. The site has been excavated and provided the first opportunity for
archaeologists to use radio carbon dating to trace the age of artifacts, Rasmussen said.
Just a bit off in the distance is Jukebox Cave, given its name because it still contains a
World War II era dance floor installed by military members stationed at the nearby
Wendover Airfield and test range so they had a cool cavern to host social gatherings out
of the summer heat. Rasmussen said reclassifying Danger Cave to monument status would actually help temper people’s expectations about the site, since the words “state park” often denotes the existence of campground facilities and amenities such as restrooms, and none of those features are currently there.
Old Iron Town in Iron County was home to several hundred residents in early statehood
history as pioneers tried to hold onto their independence from the federal government. In
its short existence from 1868 to 1876, the area played a critical role in iron ore supplies,
feeding the Utah Western Railroad and still includes an iconic charcoal kiln from its era
featuring iron works and a foundry. Old Iron Town also supplied the materials to sculpt the 12 oxen at the baptismal font of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ St. George Temple, Rasmussen said. Both sites are ideal candidates because they are already owned and managed by the state parks division and most critically, the possible new designations have support from local and county leaders, he told committee members. Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, and a cosponsor of the 2019 legislation that allows the possible designations, cautioned committee members that all sites under consideration must be self-sustaining because in an economic downturn, the state of Utah doesn’t want to be faced with the prospect of any park closures due to financial constraints. Rasmussen said both of these potential candidates would only require some updates in signage so the public is aware of their status.
Although these two candidates have the support of the governor’s office, parks
spokesman Eugene Swalberg said later that the executive branch informed park officials
the criteria’s language should be tightened to be more discerning of potential candidates.
https://www.deseret.com/utah/2019/11/2/20944290/new-utah-state-monument-
candidates-emerge-after-3-year-process

According DAILY SABAH a fortress wall dating 7,000 years back to the Chalcolithic Age has been unearthed at the Yumuktepe Mound in southern Turkey’s Mersin province. The Yumuktepe Mound is highly significant as a continuous settlement for 9,000 years since the Neolithic Age.
Two and a half months of excavations at the mound are coming to an end on Friday. This
year’s excavations, focused on the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, were carried out by
a 30-person team led by Isabella Caneva – a professor of archeology at the University of
Salento in Lecce, Italy. Caneva said that the 7-meter fortress wall discovered this season can now be shown to the public. While every year’s excavations have provided historical insights, this year’s dig produced especially “striking” Neolithic and Chalcolithic findings, Caneva said. Caneva said the layer in Yumuktepe Mound is special in that it contains very special architecture.
The fortress wall was made with a variety of materials, including a 1.5-meter-thick
support wall made of limestone at the bottom, 2 meters of well-cut stones and 3 meters of
mudbrick. Previous excavations had discovered the existence of the castle, dating back to 5,000 B.C., but the team did not uncover the wall until this season’s deeper dig in the area.
“We didn’t know that there was such a technology in that period in technical terms. Now
we see it and it’s a special structure. There was certainly a special product being made
there, because a normal village would not require such a thick and solid wall,” Caneva
said, explaining that the village is the oldest site in the world known to produce molten
copper.
“This is a very important product. Later on, there was a war for metal. It was an
important technology and a valuable substance. Tools, flashy objects and weapons were
all made with copper,” she said. The team also discovered that homes in the Neolithic period were built in a certain way, continuously constructed on top of one another, for 2,000 years. Caneva expressed hopes that the site will be developed into an open-air museum for visitors in the future.

Fire spread quickly through 600-year-old site dating back to Ryukyu kingdom in Okinawa A fire has swept through a historic castle on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, destroying much of a structure that had come to symbolise the ancient Ryukyu kingdom
and the island’s recovery from the second world war .
Flames engulfed Shuri castle, a Unesco world heritage site located in the island’s capital Naha, at around 2:40 am and quickly spread to other buildings in the complex, local police said.
There were no initial reports of injuries, but nearby residents were evacuated while
firefighters spent several hours attempting to bring the fire under control.
The castle, a popular tourist spot, dates back to the days of the Ryukyu kingdom, which
began in 1429 and ended in the late 1800s when it was annexed by the government in
Tokyo.
More recently, the castle has come to symbolise Okinawa’s struggle to overcome the
devastation of war. More than 200,000 Americans and Japanese, including around a
quarter of Okinawa’s civilian population, died during a fierce 82-day battle from April to
June 1945. The island is still home to a large number of US military bases.
As the headquarters of the imperial Japanese army, Shuri castle was relentlessly shelled
by US forces, who occupied the island until it reverted to Japanese control in 1972, two
decades after the rest of Japan regained full independence. The castle was extensively
restored and reopened as a national park in 1992.

As we are getting closer to the Cyrus the Great Day 2019, we at WCHV look at parts of the world where people celebrate the life of the great Persian King, Cyrus.
One of these countries is the Republic of Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a country in Central Asia surrounded by Afghanistan, China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. It’s known for rugged mountains and popular for hiking and climbing. The Fann Mountains, near the national capital Dushanbe, have snow-capped peaks that rise over 5,000 meters. The range encompasses the Iskanderkulsky Nature Refuge, a notable bird habitat named for Iskanderkul, a turquoise lake formed by glaciers.
Tajikistan was a part of Persian Empire and today, the country still celebrate the Persian New Year, Nawruz and most people speak Farsi. In fact, Cyropolis or “The City of Cyrus” which was an ancient city founded by Cyrus the Great in 544 BCE to mark the northeastern border of his Achaemenid Empire is believed to be the same location as the modern day city of Istaravshan in Tajikistan.

In the capital city, Dushanbe, the Cyrus (the) Great Park is a beautiful park with beautiful
statutes of animals as well as a large statute of the Persian King, Cyrus. In the video created by the Tajikistan tourism (below), they show the Cyrus Great Park on a beautiful spring day with women in colorful clothing walking and children playing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5Y-_MdQ-yE

The love of Persian culture in fact is quite apparent in Tajikistan as Dushanbe also has another park named after the great Persian poet, Rudaki. Abū ‘Abd Allāh Ja’far ibn Muḥammad al-Rūdhakī, better known as Rudaki, and also known as “Adam of Poets”, was a Persian poet regarded as the first great literary genius of the Modern Persian language. Rudaki composed poems in the‌ modern Persian alphabet and is considered a founder of classical Persian literature.

In another part of Dushanbe one can find the statute of another Persian poet, Ferdowsi. Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi, or Ferdowsi was a Persian poet and the author of Shahnameh, which is the world’s longest epic poem created by a single poet, and the national epic of Greater Iran.