Ancient Assyrian rock carvings unearthed in Iraq after narrowly avoiding destruction by ISIS show a king surrounded by gods astride mythical beasts

Assyrian rock carvings are the first of their kind found in 150 years 

Archaeologists abandoned the dig in 2014 as ISIS was just 15 miles away 

Following ISIS defeat, experts returned to the site in Iraq to finish excavations 

Found rock carvings of an Assyrian king paying homage to the gods and surrounded by mythical creatures

By MICHAEL HAVIS and JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE  PUBLISHED: 30 January 2020 

Ancient carvings of an Assyrian king honouring the gods while surrounded by mythical beasts have been safely unearthed in Iraq after being threatened by ISIS.

ISIS seized the city of Mosul in 2014 and researchers were forced to abandon the archaeological site of Faida as the ruthless force was just 15 miles away.

The ten rock reliefs were found in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and are believed to be the first of their kind discovered in 150 years.

Archaeologists surveyed the site in 2012 and it was only late last year, with the self-proclaimed caliphate overthrown, that archaeologists were able to return and excavate the treasures left behind.

See the rare Assyrian carvings uncovered in Iraq after ISIS defeat


Ancient carvings menaced by the advance of ISIS have finally been revealed after the terror group's defeat, in the first discovery of its kind for more than 150 years


The ten rock reliefs depict Assyrian gods riding mythical creatures in procession with the king (pictured)

Italian and Iraqi archaeologists uncovered the reliefs 12 miles (20km) south of the Kurdistani city of Duhok.

Expedition leader, Daniele Morandi Bonacossi of the University of Udine in Italy, said nothing like the carvings had been found since 1845.

'Assyrian rock reliefs are extremely rare,' he said.

'There is no other Assyrian rock art complex that can be compared with this one, with the only exception being Khinis, in the north-eastern part of the region.'

ISIS, or Islamic State, was remorseless in destroying antiquities it felt were idolatrous, though it also looted artifacts to sell. At the height of its powers, its fighters were only 15 miles from the dig site.

But even now, with ISIS defeated, the rock carvings face fresh threats.

'The most serious threats are vandalism, illegal excavations and the activities of the nearby village that are literally besieging the site,' said Professor Bonacossi.

'One of the reliefs was illegally excavated and thereby damaged in May 2019, and the owner of one farmstead has partly destroyed one of the reliefs in order to expand his cow stable.

'The only way to protect the site is to fence it off and guarantee a constant security service controlling the area.

'The Duhok Governorate is committed to guarantee the protection of the reliefs.'

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Italian and Iraqi archaeologists uncovered the reliefs 12 miles (20km) south of the Kurdistani city of Duhok

Archaeologists surveyed the site in 2012 and it was only late last year, with the self-proclaimed caliphate overthrown, that archaeologists were able to return and excavate the treasures left behind


The reliefs (pictured) once decorated the banks of the Faida irrigation canal, which was part of a vast network that brought water to the Assyrian capital, Nineveh. The canal was likely built during the reign of Sargon II


Among the deities depicted is Ashur, the main Assyrian god, his wife Mullissu, the moon god Sin and the sun god Shamash. They are shown astride mythical beasts including dragons and horned lions (pictured)

The reliefs once decorated the banks of the Faida irrigation canal, which was part of a vast network that brought water to the Assyrian capital, Nineveh.

The canal was likely built during the reign of Sargon II, whose successor, Sennacherib, is believed to have incorporated it into the wider network.

Both kings are named in the Bible for their military exploits, with the former conquering the Kingdom of Israel.

The figures on the panels are shown in profile, facing left, in the direction the water would have flowed.

Among the deities depicted is Ashur, the main Assyrian god, his wife Mullissu, the moon god Sin and the sun god Shamash.

They are shown astride mythical beasts including dragons and horned lions.

'The reliefs tell us that the construction of this local irrigation system was celebrated by royal power through the carving of rock reliefs,' said Professor Bonacossi.

The excavation of impressive irrigation systems across the core region of the Assyrian empire changed the economic foundation of the regions involved.

'It transformed them from extensive dry-farming regions into highly-productive irrigation agriculture areas.

'But it also profoundly modified the space and settlement patterns in the core of the Assyrian empire.'

Professor Bonacossi believes the site could hold more secrets still.

'During the excavation of one relief, we found another which was not visible at the surface,' he said.

'This means that probably many other reliefs are still to be found and that this rock art complex is larger than we expected.

'This explains why the Faida archaeological site is so important.'

Archaeologists surveyed the site in 2012 (pictured), following up on an earlier British excavation in 1973, but the project ground to a halt when ISIS captured the nearby city of Mosul in 2014

WHAT WAS THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE?


The Assyrian Empire was a complex Mesopotamian civilisation dating from 2,500 BC to around 600 BC.

Mesopotamia, an area of ancient Asia, was where people first gathered in large cities, created governments, and learned to write.

Alongside other Mesopotamian groups like ancient Babylon and the Sumerian cities, the Assyrian Empire was one of the earliest civilisations in history.

As its height, the empire stretched from Egypt up through what is now Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and into Turkey.

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As its height, the Assyrian Empire (red) stretched from Egypt up through what is now Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and into Turkey

Turkey's Kültepe district was home to a settlement of the Old Assyrian Empire from the 21st to 18th centuries BC.

Over 1,000 cuneiform tablets were found in the area in 1925, revealing a rich and complex cultural heritage.

Much of our knowledge of early human societies comes from stone tablets such as these, leading some scholars to label Mesopotamia 'the place where history began'.

Antonio Negri on Postmodern Fascism

Antonio Negri on Postmodern Fascism

these remarks by Toni Negri on postmodern fascism - published in 1996 - in his Constituent Republic essay are quite perceptive.

Postmodern fascism seeks to attach itself to the realities of post-Fordist labour cooperation, and seeks at the same time to express some of its essence in a form that is turned on its head. In the same way the old fascism mimicked the mass organisational forms of socialism and attempted to transfer the proletariat's impulse toward collectivity into nationalism (national socialism or the Fordist constitution), so postmodern fascism seeks to discover the communist needs of the post-Fordist masses and transform them, gradually, into a cult of differences, the pursuit of individual differences, and the search for identity - all within a project of creating overriding despotic hierarchies aimed at constantly, relentlessly, pitting differences, singularities, identities, and individualities one against the other. Whereas communism is respect for and synthesis of singularities, and as such desired by all those who love peace, the new fascism (as an expression of the financial command of international capital) would produce a war of all against all; it would create religiosity and wars of religion, nationalism and wars of nations, corporative egos and economic wars. (Constituent Republic, in Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt (eds) Radical Thought in Italy, p.216)

I WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE QUOTE AND THE SOURCE ESSAY I DIDN'T HAVE 
UNTIL NOW THANKS TO PHIL AT ALL THAT IS SOLID 

New Study Identifies Neanderthal Ancestry In African Populations And Describes Its Origin

We're all a little more Neanderthal than we thought: Study claims ancient Europeans introduced Neanderthal DNA to African populations 30,000 years ago

• Study found the first conclusive evidence for Neanderthal DNA in Africans  
• Neanderthal DNA previously only found in Americans, Europeans and Asians  
• Neanderthals and humans hybridised after Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa 
• Ancient Europeans descended from these events then migrated back into Africa
• Mating between these European migrants and native Africans passed trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA into their genes  

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE 

PUBLISHED: 11:00 EST, 30 January 2020 | UPDATED: 03:08 EST, 31 January 2020

Scientists have found, for the first time, conclusive evidence that Neanderthal DNA exists in modern-day Africans. 

A new study by Princeton University reveals that African people — who were previously thought to have no Neanderthal DNA — got around 0.3 per cent of their genes from our ancient ancestors. 

African people obtained a sliver of Neanderthal DNA after breeding with humans, who migrated to Africa from Europe around 30,000 years ago.  

Ancestors of these Europeans are known to have bred with Neanderthals around 20,000 years earlier, providing an indirect pathway for Neanderthal DNA into Africans. 

The new study shows that native Europeans, Asians, Africans and Americans all have some Neanderthal DNA - and non-Africans have even more than previously assumed.  

Scroll down for video 

Study finds previous assumptions that Africans did not breed with Neanderthals direct

ly are true, but they inadvertently received Neanderthal DNA from those who originated in parts of the world whose ancestors had mated with Neanderthals (pictured, the two stages which led to Neanderthal DNA being found in Africans)

 

Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago but their DNA lives on in modern humans thanks to interbreeding between the two species (file photo)

TIMELINE OF HOW NEANDERTHAL DNA REACHED AFRICA

100,000 years ago - A large wave of migration out of Africa occurred

50,000 years ago - Parts of this Homo sapiens population mated with Neanderthals  

DNA from Neanderthals was then passed down the generations, becoming steadily more diluted 

30,000 years ago - European and East Asian populations split 

Some Europeans then migrated back into Africa where they mated with native Africans 

Neanderthal DNA was then passed into future generations of Africans from the European lineage  

Dr Aaron Wolf, study author from the University of Washington, told MailOnline: 'We believe a large portion of the Neanderthal ancestry in African populations is due to historic back-migration from an ancestral European population into Africa.'

Around 100,000 years ago, a large wave of migration out of Africa occurred, from which the vast majority of modern non-African populations are descended.

Parts of this population interbred with Neanderthals - around 50,000 years ago - and passed Neanderthal DNA onto today's human populations. 

'We believe some of this Neanderthal carrying non-African population returned to Africa, and introduced Neanderthal DNA into African populations,' said Dr Wolf.

'Importantly, we believe this happened after the split of the European and East Asian populations (~30,000 years ago).' 

Scientists identified regions of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time by identifying, on average, 17 megabases (Mb) of Neanderthal DNA per individual.

This corresponds to approximately 0.3 per cent of the African peoples' genome stemming from the Neanderthals, who went extinct around 40,000 years ago.  

This is significantly less than the levels of Neanderthal ancestry in Europeans (51 Mb/individual), East Asians (55 Mb/individual), and South Asians (55 Mb/individual). 

East Asians, who were thought to have 20 per cent more Neanderthal DNA than Europeans, actually only have 8 per cent more, the scientists discovered.  

'This suggests that most of the Neanderthal ancestry that individuals have today can be traced back to a common hybridisation event involving the population ancestral to all non-Africans, occurring shortly after the Out-of-Africa dispersal,' Dr Joshua Akey of Princeton University and study author says.  

The study confirms previous assumptions that Africans did not breed with Neanderthals directly.

However, it shows that they inadvertently received Neanderthal DNA from those who originated in parts of the world whose ancestors had mated with Neanderthals.

'I am struck by the fact that we often conceptualise human history in very simple terms,' Dr Akey says. 

'For example, we often imagine there was a single dispersal out of Africa that happened 60,000 to 80,000 years ago that led to the peopling of the world. 

'However, our results show this history was much more interesting and there were many waves of dispersal out of Africa, some of which led to admixture between modern humans and Neanderthals that we see in the genomes of all living individuals today.' 

WHO WERE THE NEANDERTHALS?

The Neanderthals were a close human ancestor that mysteriously died out around 50,000 years ago.

The species lived in Africa with early humans for hundreds of millennia before moving across to Europe around 500,000 years ago.

They were later joined by humans taking the same journey some time in the past 100,000 years. 

The Neanderthals were a cousin species of humans but not a
direct ancestor - the two species split from a common ancestor
 -  that perished around 50,000 years ago. 
Pictured is a Neanderthal museum exhibit

These were the original 'cavemen', historically thought to be dim-witted and brutish compared to modern humans.

In recent years though, and especially over the last decade, it has become increasingly apparent we've been selling Neanderthals short.

A growing body of evidence points to a more sophisticated and multi-talented kind of 'caveman' than anyone thought possible.

It now seems likely that Neanderthals buried their dead with the concept of an afterlife in mind.

Additionally, their diets and behaviour were surprisingly flexible.

They used body art such as pigments and beads, and they were the very first artists, with Neanderthal cave art (and symbolism) in Spain apparently predating the earliest modern human art by some 20,000 years.

 African people — who were previously thought to have no
Neanderthal DNA — got 0.3 per cent of their genes from our
 ancient ancestors. This breakthrough means scientists have
now discovered native Europeans, Asians, Africans and
Americans all have some Neanderthal DNA

In a study published in the journal Cell, Princeton University researchers used a computational method, called IBDmix, to assess the DNA of 2,504 modern Africans and non-Africans. 

The method looks for sections of DNA in two individuals that is identical which implies they once shared a common ancestor.  

Co-first author Lu Chen, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI), said: 'This is the first time we can detect the actual signal of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans. 

'And it surprisingly showed a higher level than we previously thought.' 

Scientists then used the principle of IBD — identity by descent — to identify Neanderthal DNA in the human genome.  

The new method uses characteristics of the Neanderthal sequence itself to distinguish shared ancestry from recent interbreeding. 

Researchers were able to identify Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time and estimate that Europeans and Asians to have more equal levels of Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought. 

It adds that some of the detected Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was actually due to human DNA introduced into the Neanderthal genome.  

While researchers acknowledged the limited number of African populations they analysed, they hope their new method and their findings will encourage more study of Neanderthal ancestry across Africa and other populations. 

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT HUMANKIND'S JOURNEY OUT OF AFRICA?

The traditional view

The traditional 'Out of Africa' model suggests that modern humans evolved in Africa and then left in a single wave around 60,000 years ago. 

The model often holds once modern humans left the continent, a brief period of interbreeding with Neanderthals occurred.

This explains why individuals of European and Asian heritage today still have ancient human DNA.

There are many theories as to what drove the downfall of the Neanderthals.

Experts have suggested that early humans may have carried tropical diseases with them from Africa that wiped out their ape-like cousins.

Others claim that plummeting temperatures due to climate change wiped out the Neanderthals.

The predominant theory is that early humans killed off the Neanderthal through competition for food and habitat.

How the story is changing in light of new research

Recent findings suggest that the 'Out of Africa' theory does not tell the full story of our ancestors.

Instead, multiple, smaller movements of humans out of Africa beginning 120,000 years ago were then followed by a major migration 60,000 years ago.

Most of our DNA is made up of this latter group, but the earlier migrations, also known as 'dispersals', are still evident.

This explains recent studies of early human remains which have been found in the far reaches of Asia dating back further than 60,000 years.

For example, H. sapiens remains have been found at multiple sites in southern and central China that have been dated to between 70,000 and 120,000 years ago.

Other recent finds show that modern humans reached Southeast Asia and Australia prior to 60,000 years ago.

Based on these studies, humans could not have come in a single wave from Africa around this time, studies have found. 

Instead, the origin of man suggests that modern humans developed in multiple regions around the world.

The theory claims that groups of a pre-human ancestors made their way out of Africa and spread across parts of Europe and the Middle East.

From here the species developed into modern humans in several places at once. 

The argument is by a new analysis of a 260,000-year-old skull found in Dali County in China's Shaanxi Province.

The skull suggests that early humans migrated to Asia, where they evolved modern human traits and then moved back to Africa. 

New Study Identifies Neanderthal Ancestry In African Populations And Describes Its Origin

When the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, using DNA collected from ancient bones, it was accompanied by the discovery that modern humans in Asia, Europe and America inherited approximately 2% of their DNA from Neanderthals -- proving humans and Neanderthals had interbred after humans left Africa. Since that study, new methods have continued to catalogue Neanderthal ancestry in non-African populations, seeking to better understand human history and the effects of Neanderthal DNA on human health and disease. A comparable catalogue of Neanderthal ancestry in African populations, however, has remained an acknowledged blind spot for the field due to technical constraints and the assumption that Neanderthals and ancestral African populations were geographically isolated from each other.

A team of Princeton researchers led by Joshua Akey found that that African individuals
have considerably more Neanderthal ancestry than previously thought, which was
 only observable through the development of new methods
[Credit: Matilda Luk, Princeton University]

In a paper published in the journal Cell, a team of Princeton researchers detailed a new computational method for detecting Neanderthal ancestry in the human genome. Their method, called IBDmix, enabled them for the first time to search for Neanderthal ancestry in African populations as well as non-African ones. The project was led by Joshua Akey, a professor in Princeton's Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics (LSI).

"This is the first time we can detect the actual signal of Neanderthal ancestry in Africans," said co-first author Lu Chen, a postdoctoral research associate in LSI. "And it surprisingly showed a higher level than we previously thought," she said.

The method the Princeton researchers developed, IBDmix, draws its name from the genetic principle "identity by descent" (IBD), in which a section of DNA in two individuals is identical because those individuals once shared a common ancestor. The length of the IBD segment depends on how long ago those individuals shared a common ancestor. For example, siblings share long IBD segments because their shared ancestor (a parent) is only one generation removed. Alternatively, fourth cousins share shorter IBD segments because their shared ancestor (a third-great grandparent) is several generations removed.

The Princeton team leveraged the principle of IBD to identify Neanderthal DNA in the human genome by distinguishing sequences that look similar to Neanderthals because we once shared a common ancestor in the very distant past (~500,000 years ago), from those that look similar because we interbred in the more recent present (~50,000 years ago). Previous methods relied on "reference populations" to aid the distinction of shared ancestry from recent interbreeding, usually African populations believed to carry little or no Neanderthal DNA. However, this reliance could bias estimates of Neanderthal ancestry depending on which reference population was used.

The Princeton researchers termed IBDmix a "reference free method" because it does not use an African reference population. Instead, IBDmix uses characteristics of the Neanderthal sequence itself, like the frequency of mutations or the length of the IBD segments, to distinguish shared ancestry from recent interbreeding. The researchers were therefore able to identify Neanderthal ancestry in Africans for the first time and make new estimates of Neanderthal ancestry in non-Africans, which showed Europeans and Asians to have more equal levels than previously described.

Kelley Harris, a population geneticist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the study, noted that the new estimates of Neanderthal ancestry using IBDmix highlight the technical problem in methods reliant on reference panels. "We might have to go back and revisit a bunch of results from the published literature and evaluate whether the same technical issue has been throwing off our understanding of gene flow in other species," she said.

In addition to identifying Neanderthal ancestry in African populations, the researchers described two revelations about the origin of the Neanderthal sequences. First, they determined that the Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was not due to an independent interbreeding event between Neanderthals and African populations. Based on features of the data, the research team concluded that migrations from ancient Europeans back into Africa introduced Neanderthal ancestry into African populations.

Second, by comparing data from simulations of human history to data from real people, the researchers determined that some of the detected Neanderthal ancestry in Africans was actually due to human DNA introduced into the Neanderthal genome. The authors emphasized that this human-to-Neanderthal gene flow involved an early dispersing group of humans out of Africa, occurring at least 100,000 years ago -- before the Out-of-Africa migration responsible for modern human colonization of Europe and Asia and before the interbreeding event that introduced Neanderthal DNA into modern humans. The finding reaffirmed that hybridization between humans and closely related species was a recurrent part of our evolutionary history.

While the Princeton researchers acknowledged the limited number of African populations they were able to analyze, they hope their new method and their findings will encourage more study of Neanderthal ancestry across Africa and other populations. Regarding the overall significance of the research, Chen said: "This demonstrates the remnants of Neanderthal genomes survive in every modern human population studied to date."

Source: Cell Press [January 30, 2020]




NEANDERTHALS 
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=NEANDERTHALS

Fire of the sea: Mesmerising footage of bioluminescent ALGAE glowing bright blue as photographer runs his hands through water off the coast of Australia

• Jordan Robin, 26, recorded the phenomenon at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay
• This rare event only occurs on the shoreline there once or twice each year 
• It is caused by tiny organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed
• Otherwise the microscopic creatures cause the water to look reddish instead

By IAN RANDALL FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 08:38 EST, 30 January 2020 | UPDATED: 10:01 EST, 30 January 2020

Mesmerising footage shows the moment bioluminescent algae glow bright blue as a photographer runs his hand through sea water off the coast of Australia.

Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast.

The rare event — which only happens there once or twice a year — is caused by a microscopic organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed.

In the video, the award-winning photographer can be seen moving his hand through the water, which triggers the algae to glow with an eerie, bright blue light.

'This rare occurrence only usually happens once or twice a year,' said Mr Robin, who hails from New South Wales, Australia.

'The video was taken on the 14th of January 2020.' 
'What can be seen as a red tide during the day, the microalgae Noctiluca scintillans produces a bright blue glow at night, like seen in the video,' Mr Robin added.

Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism.

Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton.


The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down.

Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast



The rare event ¿ which only happens there once or twice a year ¿ is caused by a microscopic organisms dubbed 'sea sparkle' that glow when disturbed



In his video, the 26-year-old award-winning photographer can be seen moving his hand through the water, which triggers the algae to glow with an eerie, bright blue light


'This rare occurrence only usually happens once or twice a year,' said Mr Robin, who hails from New South Wales, Australia. 'The video was taken on the 14th of January 2020,' he added


'What can be seen as a red tide during the day, the microalgae Noctiluca scintillans produces a bright blue glow at night, like seen in the video,' Mr Robin said



Pictured, Noctiluca scintillans as seen under a microscope



Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism


Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton



The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down


Jordan Robin, 26, captured the gorgeous natural phenomenon which he found taking place at Plantation Point in Jervis Bay, on Australia's east coast

WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT SO-CALLED 'SEA SPARKLE'? 

Commonly called the 'sea sparkle', 'sea ghost' or 'fire of the sea', Noctiluca scintillans is a microscopic single-celled organism.

They can appear as a red tide in the daytime but when disturbed, however, they glow bright blue.

In high enough numbers, this effect can even be detected by satellites orbiting the Earth.

This phenomenon is called the 'milky seas effect', or 'mareel' — as derived from the Old Norse for 'sea fire'.

Each individual Noctiluca scintillans is around 0.02 inches (0.5 millimetres) in diameter and has a tentacle-like 'flagellum' that helps it eat plankton.

The microscopic creatures bob around in the water column, regulating their buoyancy in order to move up and down. 

They are found widely distributed across the world's oceans. 

Engineers develop a 'lava-like' material similar to the highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel created during the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters to investigate ways to clean up the ruined power station sites

• Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCM) were created in nuclear meltdown
• Contain highly-radioactive nuclear fuel mixed with reactor building materials
• This molten material spread throughout the reactor site and is 'truly unique'
• Little is known about the material and scientists don't know how to remove it 
• Creating a structure that behaves similarly will allow for the development of techniques and robots to help neutralise the material 

By JOE PINKSTONE FOR MAILONLINE   PUBLISHED: 30 January 2020

A substance has been made in a laboratory which mimics an extremely dangerous material created during the nuclear reactor disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima.

The material is intentionally similar to the Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs) created by the extreme and unique conditions only found during a nuclear meltdown. 

Researchers from the University of Sheffield say it is so radioactive it cannot be safely studied and its properties remain a mystery to scientists.  

This means it cannot be removed from the sites and is therefore obstructing decommission efforts and posing an ongoing radiological risk to the environment.

The artificial version is similar in its structure and properties to the enigmatic original material, which means it behaves in a similar way but is safe to use.

Scientists hope this material can aid in the creation of tools and processes to help rid the sites of LFCMs and aid in decommissioning them.   

Scientists believe they can help clean up Chernobyl and Fukushima

A substance has been made in a laboratory (pictured) which mimics an extremely dangerous material created during the nuclear reactor disasters of Chernobyl and Fukushima. The material is intentionally similar to the Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs)

The 100-ton mass of the glass-like lava at Chernobyl spread to sub-reactor rooms, solidifying in large masses and creating, among other things, the infamous 'elephants foot' (pictured)

Researchers from the University of Chernobyl created a material designed to replicate the highly-radioactive rocks created in unique conditions to form Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs). Pictured, a Chernobyl rock

Chernobyl's catastrophic meltdown on April 26, 1986 'caused 31 direct deaths and a mass evacuation from a 30-km exclusion zone surrounding the reactor, that remains in place today', the authors write in their study, published today in the journal Nature Materials Degradation.

The formation of LFCMs at Chernobyl is well-known and the problems they pose are well documented. 

LFCMs are a mixture of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel and building materials that fuse together.

For example, during the meltdown of Chernobyl's reactor core, temperatures exceeded 1600°C and the uranium fuel melted with the zirconium cladding.

This formed a radioactive molten mush that remained at an extremely high temperature. Propelled by its own weight, it then mixed with steel, concrete, serpentine and sand.

The 100-ton mass of the glass-like lava then spread to sub-reactor rooms, solidifying in large masses and creating, among other things, the infamous  'elephants foot'.

The researchers say there are relatively few samples of meltdown materials available for study and creating an artificial version is the best option. 

Dr Claire Corkhill from the University of Sheffield's Department of Materials Science and Engineering said: 'Understanding the mechanical, thermal and chemical properties of the materials created in a nuclear meltdown is critical to help retrieve them, for example, if we don't know how hard they are, how can we create the radiation-resistant robots required to cut them

The team of researchers developed the material in the lab to try and imitate the 'truly unique nuclear materials' at the centre of Chernobyl and Fukushima. 

They have a similar internal structure (as confirmed by scanning electron images), composition and behaviour to the real thing.   

Researchers suspect LFCMs have also formed at the site of Fukushima's doomed nuclear power plant, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 2011. 

It killed more than 21,000 people and the reactor is now still submerged in water used to cool the melted core.

Dr Corkhill is collaborating with researchers at the University of Tokyo and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency to see what happens to the highly radioactive dust that billows out from the surface of LFCM when water is removed. 

Dr Corkhill added: ''Thanks to this research, we now have a much lower radioactivity simulant meltdown material to investigate, which is safe for our collaborators in Ukraine and Japan to research without the need for radiation shielding. 

'Ultimately this will help advance the decommissioning operations at Chernobyl and also at Fukushima too.'

WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE 1986 CHERNOBYL NUCLEAR DISASTER? 

On April 26, 1986 a power station on the outskirts of Pripyat suffered a massive accident in which one of the reactors caught fire and exploded, spreading radioactive material into the surroundings.

More than 160,000 residents of the town and surrounding areas had to be evacuated and have been unable to return, leaving the former Soviet site as a radioactive ghost town.

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 A map of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is pictured above. The 'ghost town' of Pripyat sits nearby the site of the disaster

The exclusion zone, which covers a substantial area in Ukraine and some of bordering Belarus, will remain in effect for generations to come, until radiation levels fall to safe enough levels.

The region is called a 'dead zone' due to the extensive radiation which persists. 

However, the proliferation of wildlife in the area contradicts this and many argue that the region should be given over to the animals which have become established in the area - creating a radioactive protected wildlife reserve.

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REAL VERSUS SIMULANT CHERNOBYL LAVA 

 PROPERTY

UO2% 

DENSITY

MELT TEMP (°C)  

 REAL

7.8 

 1.8 – 3.5 g/cm3  

 ~1,450

SIMULANT 

8

3.054 g/cm3 

 1280