Was He the World’s Oldest Whale?

A gigantic bowhead whale recently killed by Eskimos may prove to have been the oldest whale
on earth. Estimated to have been more than 115 years ago, it provides evidence that these
whales may be some of the longest-living mammals. They are thought to survive for up to 200
years.

New evidence came to light when a 50-ton bowhead shale was killed by members of an Inuit
village. As they were dismembering the big mammal, they discovered fragments of a harpoon
lodged in one of its shoulder blades.

It turns out that the harpoon tip could be determined to have been made in the late 1800s in New
Bedford. And given the time range when that type of harpoon was used, they believe the whale
was shot sometime between 1885 and 1895.

Alaskan biologists will attempt to verify this estimate by studying the whale’s eyes, which often
cloud as they grow old.

Bowheads, who only live in the waters of the Arctic, were nearly hunted to extinction around the
turn of the century because of the demand by women for whalebone corsets. Fortunately the
fashion industry has changed and now only Alaska’s native tribes hunt the whales.

Was this really the world’s oldest mammal? I suspect not, but it certainly gives new meaning to
the word “old..”

The World’s Oldest Cheese

The world’s oldest known cheese was discovered in China’s Taklamakan desert. The ancient
chunks were found attached to Bronze Age mummies’ necks and chests.

A chemist with the Max Planck Institute analyzed samples of the cheese and was able to identify
the types of yeast used in making the cheese and the bacteria used to ferment the product.

One question that apparently has not been answered yet is the source of the milk used to make
this ancient cheese. Were these ancient people actually herding milk-producing animals more
than 6,000 years ago?

The World’s Oldest Pearl?

It is certainly not the oldest pearl that ever existed, but it is the oldest known to be harvested and used by people. Discovered in a grave in the United Arab Emirates, this ancient pearl, called the Umm al Quwain pearl, has been discovered to be more than 7,500 years old. The oldest known pearl before this discovery was 5,000 years old.
The tiny pearl measures only 0.07 of an inch in diameter and was placed on a skeleton in a Neolithic graveyard. Archaeologists have found that fully drilled pearls were placed with women while fully drilled pearls were buried with men. Unpierced pearls were at times placed on the deceased’s upper lip.
Since the Arabian pearl is older than anything found in Japan so far, researchers are now wondering whether pearl gathering actually originated in Arabia rather than in Japan. At the time it was gathered, Europe and North Africa were living in the Neollithic period, also known as the New Stone Age, when people were transforming from hunter-gatherers into farmers and animal caregivers.
The discovery provides insight into the origins of pearl oyster hunting, suggesting the practice began in Arabia and not in Japan, as researchers originally thought.
The Neolithic period, also known as the New Stone Age, was marked by the change in human lifestyles from hunter-gatherers to farmers. So far, about 101 Neolithic age pearls have been gathered. This suggests that pearl diving was practiced along at least the southern Mediterranean coast.