Archeologists Discover Ancient Temple in Syria

Polish archeologists from the University of Warsaw's Mediterranean Archeology Center have found temple remains dating back some 5,000 years in Syria. The archeologists, led by Prof. Piotr Bieliński, came across the temple, the largest building of its kind from that period, while researching the ruins of the ancient city of Tell Arbid in the northeast of the country, one of the best architectural examples of the Nineveh V period. The temple walls are almost two meters thick and, like the rest of the city, were made of brick.

The archeologists found the remains of an altar and hearth as well as an overturned incense burner under a layer of earth and rubble in the middle of the temple. "What is most interesting is that, besides these objects, we did not find anything else," said Bieliński. "This means that the temple must have been thoroughly looted and then buried to erase all signs of its existence."

The temple's builders remain anonymous but what is known is that it was erected during the Nineveh V period in the third millennium BC. The builders were probably Semites or ancestors of the Hurites. It will also be difficult for the archeologists to establish which god the temple served since it was built before written records began in northern Mesopotamia. Thus there are no records at all on the subject of the temple.


Super Care of Male Offspring

In medieval Cedynia, a town on Poland's western border, mothers probably breast-fed their male children longer than female children, according to Dr. Marta Krenz-Niedbała, an anthropologist at Poznań University's Anthropology Institute.

Boys were breast-fed for a year longer than girls on average. Krenz-Niedbała reached this conclusion after analyzing the tooth enamel on 270 male and 280 female skeletons found in a medieval cemetery in Cedynia. The remains date from between the 10th and 13th centuries.

Why were boys better looked after? Krenz-Niedbała searched for the answer in ancient records. These revealed that it was about preserving male heirs of titles or land, particularly in royal families and those of the gentry. Other historical data, however, underscores the happiness of parents at the birth of a daughter. In Poland, Krenz-Niedbała's work is pioneering and thus there is no other data to compare her work to.


Wind Affects Mood

Scientists from Warsaw's Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology have set up a team to study physiological reactions in people to the strong wind frequently experienced in the Tatra Mountains, called the halny. Some atmospheric conditions can make people aggressive, depressed or emotional and could lead to suicidal tendencies.

Strong blustery winds can evoke a sense of danger and even fear, tiredness and depression and cause lack of concentration and sleep, heart palpitations and bad migraines. However, some people become euphoric and hyperactive, which are natural reactions to stress. According to statistics, when the Tatra's halny is blowing more people have strokes and accidents.

The effect of such winds is also visible in sentencing for petty crimes, for example in Switzerland or the Mediterranean area where the sirocco and hamsin winds blow respectively.

Prof. Jerzy Faff and Aleksander Ochocimski from Warsaw's Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology carried out research into hamsin winds using a group of male Central Europeans who were members of a United Nations peacekeeping mission. Tests were carried out on two groups, one a controlled group and the other partly supervised. The research showed that hamsin winds have a significant effect on daily loss of body mass. Controlled distribution of ionized liquids partially prevents dehydration.


Lutein Good for Your Health

Lutein is a natural, yellow pigment of the carotenoid family mainly found in fruit and vegetables. Its ability to combat cancer has attracted the interest of researchers in recent years. Dr. Jadwiga Hamułka and Agnieszka Ślifierska from the Nutrition Department of the Warsaw University for Life Sciences (SGGW) have done research on how much lutein is ingested by consumers in Poland. Some 178 people took part, with ages ranging from 18 to 27 years.

The research showed that the average Pole ingests 2.35 milligrams of lutein each day. The main source of lutein in Poland are fresh vegetables, particularly green leafy vegetables and yellow, orange and red vegetables. When taking gender into account, men eat more green leafy and processed vegetables, while women eat more yellow, green, orange and red fresh and frozen vegetables.

In Spain and France, spinach and salads provide the most lutein. In Britain and Ireland it is peas, broccoli and eggs; and in the Netherlands it is spinach. Poles ingest lutein by eating fresh green leafy vegetables and processed and frozen vegetables. In the human body, lutein is found in tissues such as the liver, pancreas, ovaries, testicles and in the macula, lens and retina of the eye. Lutein protects the body against cancer, improves blood circulation and, above all, acts as a filter in light sensitive tissues such as the eye macula, lens and retina.


Students Win Grants

Students from the Łódź University of Technology received 10 of 15 grants available in this year's Scholar-Leaders Grant Program organized by the GE Foundation and the Institute of International Education (IIE). The program is directed at second-year students on engineering, technological, economic and management courses. Students from the Warsaw, Wrocław and Gdańsk Universities of Technology as well as Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu/National Louis University in the southern city of Nowy Sącz received the other five grants.

Each grant is worth a total of 3,000 euros and is divided into three annual payments of 1,000 euros. Moreover, according to Piotr Dobosz from Mmd Corporate, Public Affairs & Public Relations Consultants, the program winners will take part in an international Leadership Development Program. This involves shadowing GE managers during a typical working day. The program organizers took into consideration students' scientific achievements, involvement in student affairs, charity work, and leadership qualities.

This year's program was the fifth to be run in Poland. The award ceremony was held at the Warsaw University Library April 21.

The Scholar-Leaders Grant Program is run in Poland, the Czech Republic, Rumania and Hungary. Each country awards 15 grants. To date, 75 students in Poland and 251 in the whole region have benefited from the program. Detailed information on the Scholar-Leaders GE Foundation and the universities participating in the program can be found at www.iie.eu/ge_pl


Colleges Team up for Criminology

The University of Warsaw (UW) and the Warsaw University of Technology (PW) May 13 signed an agreement to run joint courses and postgraduate studies in criminology. The universities also agreed to make their joint expertise available to the court system and prosecutors and to set up interdisciplinary scientific research teams to help identify persons and objects in crimes being dealt with by the courts. The UW's Center for Court Sciences will coordinate any joint projects that result from the agreement. The center is an interdepartmental unit that runs research and courses in fields such as biology, chemistry and physics as well as law and administration.


Record Bison Herd at Białowieża

At the end of last year, in the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest near the country's eastern border, there were 439 European bison, or 35 more than a year earlier. Forest rangers count the bison in winter when there is snow and the animals herd together in areas where the rangers leave food for them. The rangers find any lone animal by its tracks. The job was made difficult this winter because there was not much snow.

According to Małgorzata Karaś, director of Poland's Białowieża National Park, there were 76 bison born last year, or over 20 more than in 2006. Such a large number of calves is the result of the bison's natural life cycle in which a female gives birth to young every two or three years. Another record year for bison births was 2005 when 79 were born.

These young bison have boosted the population of these animals in the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest. Every year a similar number of bison die of natural causes, are selectively culled or are relocated elsewhere in Poland or abroad. Białowieża is renowned worldwide as a center for the restoration and breeding of the species. The animals not only roam the forest in the wild but are also kept in enclosures for show and breeding purposes. In Poland, European bison also live in the wild in the Bieszczady Mountains, the Pilskie Forest, the Borecka Forest, and the Knyszyńska Forest.


Tadeusz Belerski