Afarensis: Turkey Rehabs 3,000 Year Old Hittite Dam

Search

Profile

Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
My blog banners were designed by pough - frequent commenter and Photoshop wizard, Bill Clark, and Chris Whitehouse. Thanks, you all do excellent Photoshop work!

My Amazon Wishlist

Other Information

Order the Book!

Proud Member of the Reality Based Community

Moonbat courtesy of Creek Running North

View My Openlab Entry

View My Openlab Entry

Aphorisms

"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..."
Mark Twain

"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..."
Afarensis

"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity"
Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still

"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!"
Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind

"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..."
Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still

"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..."
The Simpsons

"This is between me and the vegetable..."
Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors

"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..."
Thea, Isle of the Dead

"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation

"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views."
Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man

"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny."
George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past

Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree! Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd, he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Unknown

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Frederich Nietzsche

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The Declaration of Independence

View My Stats

« Australians: Save Murijuga | Main | Because I Rarely Boast »

Turkey Rehabs 3,000 Year Old Hittite Dam

Category: Archaeology
Posted on: December 14, 2006 9:32 AM, by afarensis, FCD

Via Yahoo comes this interesting bit of archaeology information:

The 2,500 inhabitants of Alacahoyuk know the Hittites well: since the early 20th century, archaeologists have been digging the remains of a royal city at the entrance of their village about 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Ankara.

One of the things the archaeologists found was a dam built by the Hittites, which was discovered in 2002.

Assisted by the government and local authorities, the team removed 2.5 million cubic meters (88 million cubic feet) of mud from the site to recover the dam, and, after some restoration, put it back into operation.
Built by a barren hill surrounded by poplars, the reservoir has a capacity to hold up to 30,000 cubic meters (1.1 million cubic feet) of water from a subterranean stream.

It came complete with an antique purifying pool to make the water drinkable, as well as irrigation channels.

"It is the only dam in the world to have been repaired and put into use for its original purpose 3,240 years after its construction... It is truly unique," Aykut Cinaroglu, the head of the archaelogical team in charge of the dig, said proudly.

No word on the ecological effects this will have...still it's rather amazing that a 3,000 year old dam can be rehabbed back into working condition.

Comments

Watch out if they decide to rehab their war chariots!

Posted by: J-Dog | December 14, 2006 10:17 AM

It just goes to show, dams are among the longest lasting human constructions. Will Hoover dam be rehabbed a few thousand years after it completely silts up?

Posted by: Ian | December 14, 2006 8:01 PM