Ancient Digger Archaeology

Archaeologists uncover Pagan skeletons at housing development near Stonehenge

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:26:00 +0000

Six Pagan Saxon skeletons dating back over 1,000 years have been discovered by archaeologists just a few miles from Stonehenge.

The discoveries, which also include round barrows dating back to the Bronze Age 4,000 years ago, were unearthed at a redundant brownfield development site in Amesbury, Wiltshire, which is also famous for the Amesbury Archer – an early Bronze Age man found buried among arrowheads.

The remains are thought to be those of adolescent to mature males and females. Five skeletons were arrayed around a small circular ditch, with the grave of a sixth skeleton in the centre. Two lots of beads, a shale bracelet and other grave goods were also found, which suggest the findings are Pagan.

The site is now being excavated for other artefacts by Wessex Archaeology, led by Phil Harding, known for his work on Channel 4’s Time Team, while colleagues back at the unit’s laboratory examine the remains and jewellery, which have already been removed.

Phil said: “Given that the Stonehenge area is a well-known prehistoric burial site, it was always very likely some interesting discoveries would be made here. The fact that these round barrows were previously unknown makes this particularly exciting.

“Finding the skeletons also helps us to get a clearer picture of the history of this area. To my knowledge these are the first Pagan Saxon burials to be excavated scientifically in Amesbury. “

Landowner Aster Group is building 14 affordable homes at the redundant brownfield site, which will be available to rent from 2014.

Anna Kear, Aster’s regional development director for Hampshire and Wiltshire, said: “Wiltshire is a treasure trove of archaeology, drawing people from across the world.

"Discovering a burial site in this beautiful county is always a possibility when building affordable homes. We’re working with everyone involved to ensure Phil and his team can investigate this exciting find while the build continues.”

Contractor Mansell, a Balfour Beatty brand, was preparing the site for the build when it made the discovery.

Site manager Brian Whitchurch-Bennett, of Mansell, said: “When we’re working in an area of historical importance we always undertake archaeological investigations to make sure that our construction works don’t damage hidden remains or artefacts. The findings within this particular site really are a one off, we’ve been amazed by the number of discoveries and the level of preservation. It’s certainly a project to remember.”

The archaeologists are expected to be on site for six weeks in total. Footage from the site may also be included in an archaeological production for ITV’s History Channel, due to be aired in January 2014.

[via 24dash]

The Professor Begins: Anthropology in Action

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:00:00 +0000

I've never been the kind of blogger that apologizes for being too busy with school to blog, so this is a first for me. I started teaching last week, and let me just say that it's harder than you might think. There's an extensive amount of planning and preparation that takes place when you're lecturing.

You start thinking. Should I just create a Powerpoint presentation with lots of visuals and limited textual information. Should I use the whiteboard to convey my opinion, even though for most of the class time your back will be to the students? Should I memorize the information and hope I don't read from some note cards like I'm in sixth grade speech class.

Well, the easier approach for me was Powerpoints, with a splash of whiteboard thrown in. Except today, for some odd reason, my lecture was not showing on my traveldrive. Talk about going old school when all of your information is missing. It certainly helps if you know the information beforehand, and why not, you are the teacher.

To be clear, I'm not teaching anthropology classes. I'm teaching ESOL, but my class is a melting pot of cultural diversity, so my anthropology background is an enormous help, especially when I'm dissecting the nuances of language. Language is a large part of our identity, and I told myself that I would never force a student of mine to discard any part of their heritage in order to function in American society.

This is the approach I've decided to take in the classroom, and I thank my anthropology professors for providing me a broader cultural outlook and an understanding of diversity, to be successful.

In the last couple of months, I have received several emails about what you can actually do with an anthropology degree. I think the main reason I took the approach that I did, that being teaching, is because of a 3 hour meeting I had with my anthropology methods and theory teacher during my last semester at UCF. He told me to never do something because you like it. Do it because you love it! I told him about my natural affinity towards language and my love of ancient and archaic languages (unspoken). He told me to find a way to combine archaeology, anthropology, and teaching, which is exactly what I decided to do.

Do I dig in the dirt all the time like many of you? No, I honestly don't. I'm getting older, not that much older, and digging in a ditch all day long can be really hard on your body. It also takes you away from all of those young minds you could be molding. So, I look for digs during the summer. I visit local archaeology sites, and tell the local stories that aren't being told.

I think when you initially have a plan, like I did when I started Ancient Digger years ago, you do your best to follow it. Sometimes you are just presented with something completely different. For me, I was dead set on research. Get in the dirt and write about it. That was my motto. Then, along came a graduate class, where I was required to work with students, and teach them history and culture. I was hooked from the beginning.

I tried to fight it. I tried to stop myself from making elaborate lesson plans, and looking for pictures, which represented every point in history, from the civilization of Ur to Napoleon. It was like a disease, and I'm glad to say that I have been infected.

So to answer the question as to how you can actually use your anthropology degree to get a job, well, think outside of the box. The dollar signs are not inside that trench. However, you may be a university professor digging inside that trench during the summer, and you may teach the rest of the year, or curate in a museum. Either way, do it because you love it, and be as flexible as possible. The money will eventually come.

As for Ancient Digger, I would like to share as much of myself as possible, even if it's not always about archaeological finds. My life is a combination of archaeology, anthropology, and language teaching, so my hope is to share with you all of the things that can change when you plan a future in anthropology.

Study provides insight into nesting behavior of dinosaurs

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Wed, 15 May 2013 22:02:00 +0000

A recent university study into the incubation behavior of modern birds is shedding new light on the type of parental care carried out by their long extinct ancestors.

The study, by researchers at George Mason University and University of Lincoln (United Kingdom), aimed to test the hypothesis that data from exisiting birds could be used to predict the incubation behaviour of Theropods, a group of carnivorous dinosaurs from which birds descended.

The paper, out today in Biology Letters, was co-written by Geoff Birchard from the Department of Environmental Science and Policy at Mason and Charles Deeming and Marcello Ruta from the University of Lincoln's School of Life Sciences.

A 2009 study in the journal Science suggested that it was males of the small, carnivorous dinosaurs Troodon and Oviraptor that incubated their eggs. However, by taking into account factors known to affect egg and clutch mass in living bird species, the authors found that shared incubation with mature young was the ancestral incubation behavior rather than male-only incubation, which had been claimed previously for these Theropod dinosaurs.

"The previous study was carried out to infer the type of parental care in dinosaurs that are closely related to birds," said Birchard. "That study proposed that paternal care was present in these dinosaurs and this form of care was the ancestral condition for birds. Our new analysis, based on three times as many species as in the previous study, indicates that parental care cannot be inferred from simple analyses of the relationship of body size to clutch mass. Such analyses have to take into account factors such as shared evolutionary history and maturity at hatching.

The group decided to repeat the Science study with a larger data set and a better understanding of bird biology because other palaeontologists were starting to use the original results to predict the incubation behavior of other dinosaur species.

"Irrespective of whether you accept the idea of Theropod dinosaurs sitting on eggs like birds or not, the analysis raised some concerns that we wanted to address," said Deeming. "Our analysis of the relationship between female body mass and clutch mass was interesting in its own right, but also showed that it was not possible to conclude anything about incubation in extinct distant relatives of the birds."

The project has helped in understanding the factors affecting the evolution of incubation in birds. More importantly it is hoped that the new analysis will assist palaeontologists in their interpretation of future finds of dinosaur reproduction in the fossil record.

Sago palms were major plant food prior to rice cultivation in China

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:05:00 +0000

According to resent reports, starch granules, discovered on Neolithic tools in China, resemble those of sago palms, bananas, and tubers.

This image shows modern starch
grains from sago palms and ancient
phytolith and starch grains recovered from
Neolithic tools.

Before rice cultivation became prevalent, ancient populations on the southern coast of China likely relied on sago palms as staple plant foods, according to research published May 8 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Xiaoyan Yang and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China.

Little is known about prehistoric diets of those who lived in southern subtropical China, as the acidic soils and humid climate of the region cause poor preservation of plant remains.

Though literature and archaeological discoveries have suggested that roots and tubers were the staple foods in this region, no direct evidence has so far been found. In this study, researchers analyzed starch granules recovered from Neolithic stone tools used approximately 3,350-2,470 BC, and found these to resemble starches typically found in sago-type palms.

They found that people at this time also likely relied on bananas, acorns and freshwater roots and tubers as important plant foods prior to the cultivation of rice.

What Happened to Dinosaurs' Predecessors After Earth's Largest Extinction 252 Million Years Ago?

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Wed, 01 May 2013 17:26:00 +0000

According to fossil records in South Africa and southwest Russia, the predecessors to dinosaurs may not have have missed the evolutionary race to take over dinosaur habitats left during Earth's largest mass extinction 252 million years ago.

It turns out that scientists may have been looking in the wrong places all along.

Newly discovered fossils from 10 million years after the mass extinction reveal a lineage of animals thought to have led to dinosaurs in Tanzania and Zambia.

That's still millions of years before dinosaur relatives were seen in the fossil record elsewhere on Earth.

"The fossil record from the Karoo of South Africa, for example, is a good representation of four-legged land animals across southern Pangea before the extinction," says Christian Sidor, a paleontologist at the University of Washington.

Pangea was a landmass in which all the world's continents were once joined together. Southern Pangea was made up of what is today Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia and India.

"After the extinction," says Sidor, "animals weren't as uniformly and widely distributed as before. We had to go looking in some fairly unorthodox places."

Sidor is the lead author of a paper reporting the findings; it appears in this week's issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The insights come from seven fossil-hunting expeditions in Tanzania, Zambia and Antarctica funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Additional work involved combing through existing fossil collections.

"These scientists have identified an outcome of mass extinctions--that species ecologically marginalized before the extinction may be 'freed up' to experience evolutionary bursts then dominate after the extinction," says H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences.

The researchers created two "snapshots" of four-legged animals about five million years before, and again about 10 million years after, the extinction 252 million years ago.

Prior to the extinction, for example, the pig-sized Dicynodon--said to resemble a fat lizard with a short tail and turtle's head--was a dominant plant-eating species across southern Pangea.

After the mass extinction, Dicynodon disappeared. Related species were so greatly decreased in number that newly emerging herbivores could then compete with them.

"Groups that did well before the extinction didn't necessarily do well afterward," Sidor says.

The snapshot of life 10 million years after the extinction reveals that, among other things, archosaurs roamed in Tanzanian and Zambian basins, but weren't distributed across southern Pangea as had been the pattern for four-legged animals before the extinction.

Archosaurs, whose living relatives are birds and crocodilians, are of interest to scientists because it's thought that they led to animals like Asilisaurus, a dinosaur-like animal, and Nyasasaurus parringtoni, a dog-sized creature with a five-foot-long tail that could be the earliest dinosaur.

"Early archosaurs being found mainly in Tanzania is an example of how fragmented animal communities became after the extinction," Sidor says.

A new framework for analyzing biogeographic patterns from species distributions, developed by paper co-author Daril Vilhena of University of Washington, provided a way to discern the complex recovery.

It revealed that before the extinction, 35 percent of four-legged species were found in two or more of the five areas studied.

Some species' ranges stretched 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers), encompassing the Tanzanian and South African basins.

Ten million years after the extinction, there was clear geographic clustering. Just seven percent of species were found in two or more regions.

The technique--a new way to statistically consider how connected or isolated species are from each other--could be useful to other paleontologists and to modern-day biogeographers, Sidor says.

Beginning in the early 2000s, he and his co-authors conducted expeditions to collect fossils from sites in Tanzania that hadn't been visited since the 1960s, and in Zambia where there had been little work since the 1980s.

Two expeditions to Antarctica provided additional finds, as did efforts to look at museum fossils that had not been fully documented or named.

The fossils turned out to hold a treasure trove of information, the scientists say, on life some 250 million years ago.

Other co-authors of the paper are Adam Huttenlocker, Brandon Peecook, Sterling Nesbitt and Linda Tsuji from University of Washington; Kenneth Angielczyk of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago; Roger Smith of the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town; and Sébastien Steyer from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.

The project was also funded by the National Geographic Society, Evolving Earth Foundation, the Grainger Foundation, the Field Museum/IDP Inc. African Partners Program, and the National Research Council of South Africa.

[Source: National Science Foundation]

Archeologists unearth new information on origins of Maya civilization

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 19:12:00 +0000

The Maya civilization is well-known for its elaborate temples, sophisticated writing system, and mathematical and astronomical developments, yet the civilization's origins remain something of a mystery.

A new University of Arizona study to be published in the journal Science challenges the two prevailing theories on how the ancient civilization began, suggesting its origins are more complex than previously thought.

Anthropologists typically fall into one of two competing camps with regard to the origins of Maya civilization. The first camp believes that it developed almost entirely on its own in the jungles of what is now Guatemala and southern Mexico. The second believes that the Maya civilization developed as the result of direct influences from the older Olmec civilization and its center of La Venta.

It's likely that neither of those theories tells the full story, according to findings by a team of archaeologists led by UA husband-and-wife anthropologists Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan.

"We really focused on the beginning of this civilization and how this remarkable civilization developed," said Inomata, UA professor of anthropology and the study's lead author.

In their excavations at Ceibal, an ancient Maya site in Guatemala, researchers found that Ceibal actually predates the growth of La Venta as a major center by as much as 200 years, suggesting that La Venta could not have been the prevailing influence over early Mayan development.

That does not make the Maya civilization older than the Olmec civilization – since Olmec had another center prior to La Venta – nor does it prove that the Maya civilization developed entirely independently, researchers say.

What it does indicate, they say, is that both Ceibal and La Venta probably participated in a broader cultural shift taking place in the period between 1,150-800 B.C.

"We're saying that the scenario of early Maya culture is really more complex than we thought," said UA anthropology graduate student Victor Castillo, who co-authored the paper with Inomata and Triadan.

"We have this idea of the origin of Maya civilization as an indigenous development, and we have this other idea that it was an external influence that triggered the social complexity of Maya civilization. We're now thinking it's not actually black and white," Castillo said.

There is no denying the striking similarities between Ceibal and La Venta, such as evidence of similar ritual practices and the presence of similar architecture – namely the pyramids that would come to be the hallmark of Mesoamerican civilization but did not exist at the earlier Olmec center of San Lorenzo.

However, researchers don't think this is the case of simply one site mimicking the other. Rather, they suspect that both the Maya site of Ceibal and the Olmec site of La Venta were parts of a more geographically far-reaching cultural shift that occurred around 1,000 B.C., about the time when the Olmec center was transitioning from San Lorenzo to La Venta.

"Basically, there was a major social change happening from the southern Maya lowlands to possibly the coast of Chiapas and the southern Gulf Coast, and this site of Ceibal was a part of that broader social change," Inomata said. "The emergence of a new form of society – with new architecture, with new rituals – became really the important basis for all later Mesoamerican civilizations."

The Science paper, titled "Early Ceremonial Constructions at Ceibal, Guatemala, and the Origins of Lowland Maya Civilization," is based on seven years of excavations at Ceibal.

Additional authors of the paper include Japanese researchers Kazuo Aoyama of the University of Ibaraki, Mito and Hitoshi Yonenobu of the Naruto University of Education, Tokushima.

"We were looking at the emergence of specific cultural traits that were shared by many of those Mesoamerican centers, particularly the form of rituals and the construction of the pyramids," Inomata said. "This gives us a new idea about the beginning of Maya civilization, and it also tells us about how common traits shared by many different Mesoamerican civilizations emerged during that time."

Source: UA News

Archaeology News: April 22, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:38:00 +0000

Story of Baum's Bridge begins in prehistoric times

The Kankakee River along southern Porter County has long been known for its prehistoric and historic human activity. The spot surrounding the Collier Lodge at Baum's Bridge was especially active and has had numerous archaeological investigations.

Roman-Era 'Cosmetics' May Have Treated Eye Chlamydia

Roman-era toiletry sets consisting of tweezers, scrapers and other artifacts have long been interpreted as beauty aids. But it's possible the tools had a more gruesome use: to treat a type of Chlamydia that infects the eye.

Burrup Peninsula rock art among world's oldest

Research into the rate of erosion of Pilbara rocks has put an upper limit on the possible age of up to a million ancient Aboriginal engravings in the Burrup Peninsula of Western Australia.

The peninsula and surrounding Dampier Archipelago have the highest concentration of rock art in the world. The carvings, called petroglyphs, include depictions of human-like figures, human faces and animals that no longer inhabited the region, including the Tasmanian tiger.

Brain size points to origins of 'hobbit'

A new study of fossil skulls has weighed into the debate on the identity of the ancestor of the so-called 'hobbit'. Japanese researchers argue today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B that Homo erectus is the most likely predecessor of the famously diminuitive creature known as H. floresiensis.

"We conclude that evolution from early Javanese H. erectus to H. floresiensis was possible in terms of brain size," say Dr Yousuke Kaifu and colleagues, from the University of Tokyo and the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo.

Oldest European Medieval Cookbook Found

A 12th-century manuscript contains the oldest known European Medieval food recipes, according to new research.

The recipes, which include both food and medical ointment concoctions, were compiled and written in Latin. Someone jotted them down at Durham Cathedral’s monastery in the year 1140.

It was essentially a health book, so the meals were meant to improve a person’s health or to cure certain afflictions. The other earliest known such recipes dated to 1290.

Richard III may have gone through painful medical treatments to ‘cure’ his scoliosis

Dr Mary Ann Lund, of the University’s School of English, has carried out research into the kinds of scoliosis treatments available at the time Richard III was alive.

The remains of Richard III discovered by University of Leicester scientists revealed that the King suffered from severe scoliosis, which he probably developed in early adolescence.

Sex and the Sun Temple in Konarak, India

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 10:00:00 +0000

Imagining the erotic images and sculptures that drape the ancient temples of India causes us to question the actual meaning and message behind them. Like the ancients in Pompeii, sex was never just sex. Sex in Pompeii was a completely normal and fulfilling experiencing, much like India, and most of what we know about the eroticism that took place in both of these places was left on the walls.

What is the Sun Temple at Konarak?

The Sun Temple is a 13th century Hindu temple, created to honor the deity Surya, the Sun God. The temple is a pristine example of Orisssan architecture, but unfortunately the temple continues to crumple. The Sun Temple was said to be created by King Narasimha of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. Although legend says that the temple was constructed by Samba, the son of Lord Krishna, there is more plausible evidence to support construction during Narasimha's reign. The reliefs on Konarak depict secular events, and one in particular, is a clear celebration of the military victory of Narasimha over the Muslims.

In 1931, the Earl of Ronaldshay remarked on the Sun Temple,

"One of the most stupendous building....a pile of overwhelming grandeur even in it's decay".

The Architecture of Konarak

Like many of the holy temples in India, Konarak is raised off the ground on a plinth. The superstructure and roof of the sanctuary collapsed sometime during the 19th century, however the main entrance still retains its pyramidal roof. Residents and tourists alike cannot enter the building regardless, as the entire structure was filled with sand and stone to keep it from collapsing.

In total, there are three sections that make up the Sun Temple. The main shrine connects to a prayer hall and the entrance to the temple. The pillared dance hall is separated from the main shrine, and is located in front of the main shrine. On of the most fascinating sections of the Sun Temple, in my opinion at least, are the twelve large wheels. It is said that the wheels are meant to represent the chariot of Surya.

Sculptures

Hamshitha Acharya

Originally, there were seven horses that stood in front of the chariot, however only one remains intact. According to Hamshitha Acharya (2012) , "the spokes of these wheels serve as sundials, and the shadows formed by these can give the exact time of the day. Some says that the wheels represent the 24 hours of the day and others says the 12 months in its concept, where as the seven horses dragging the temple makes up the seven days of the week".

There are several friezes of couples between the wheels, and nymphs, deities, musicians, and also dancers that can be found on the lower section of the Sun Temple. Lively carvings of birds and animals, mythological creatures, and geometrical carvings can be found interspersed throughout the temple.

Erotic Sculptures

The temple is famous for its erotic sculptures, which can be found primarily on the second level of the porch structure. Although it's unclear as to what these erotic art forms represent, we can postulate that they could have been used as amulets to avert evil. Of course, I like to think that that they meant a great deal more than what most people assume. The sculptures on the Sun Temple are lyrical and romantic, majestic and serene, and they all represent a realism that reflects a revolving circle of life.

Source

Acharya, H. (2012 ). Sun temple – konark, a source of sculptural beauty . Retrieved from http://indianmonumentsattractions.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/sun-temple-konark-a-source-of-sculptural-beauty/

King Khufu's harbour disocovered in Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 14:13:00 +0000

A French-Egyptian archaeological mission from the French Institute for Archaeological Studies may have discovered the oldest harbour ever found in Egypt, situated on the Red Sea shore at Wadi Al-Jarf area along the Suez-Zaafarana road

The harbour goes back to the reign of the fourth dynasty King Khufu, the owner of the Great Pyramid in Giza Plateau. The harbour is considered one of the most important commercial harbours where trading trips to export copper and other minerals from Sinai were launched.

A collection of vessel anchors carved in stone was also discovered as well as the harbours different docks.

Minister of State for Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim announced that a collection of 40 papyri, showing details of daily life of ancient Egyptians during the 27th year of King Khufu’s reign, was also unearthed during excavation work carried out.

“These are the oldest papyri ever found in Egypt,” asserted Ibrahim.

He also stated that these papyri are very important because it reveals more information on the ancient Egyptians’ daily life, as it includes monthly reports of the number of labours working in the harbour and details of their lives.

The papyri have been transferred to the Suez Museum for study and documentation.

French Egyptologist Pierre Tallet, director of the archaeological mission, pointed out that it is very important to carefully study the information in these papyri because it will introduce plenty of information about this period. The papyri will also show the nature of life that the ancient Egyptians once lived, their rights and duties, which we know little about, Tallet added.

The mission has also succeeded in discovering remains of workers’ houses, which reveals the importance of this harbour and area commercially whether among the different cities of Egypt or abroad, said Adel Hussein, head of the Ancient Egyptian Sector at the Ministry of State for Antiquities.

A collection of 30 caves were also discovered along with the stone blocks used to block their entrances, inscribed with King Khufu’s cartouche written in red ink. Ship ropes and stone tools used to cut ropes and wooden remains were discovered as well.

Archaeology News: April 16, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:00:00 +0000

Archaeologists in Fermanagh discover 600-year-old murder mystery beneath controversial crannog

Archaeologists excavating the crannog site in County Fermanagh believe a 600-year-old skeleton was the victim of an ancient murder mystery.

Experts working on the Drumclay Crannóg at Enniskillen believe the woman’s remains which date back to the 15th or 16th century were buried in an “irregular” way. Investigators also found that the woman’s skull was damaged, however it is not known if this happened after death.

Muslim Perspectives on the Military Orders during the Crusades

On July 4, 1187, the armies of Saladin, sultan of Egypt and Syria, surrounded thousands of Crusaders surmounting the Horns of Hattin near Tiberias in Galilee. Exhausted by heat, thirst, and days of marching and fighting, the Crusaders were forced to surrender. Thousands of the resulting prisoners were sold into slavery, but not all. While King Guy and the Frankish aristocrats who had led their followers to disaster were allowed for the most part to ransom themselves, the knights of Military Orders faced a different fate. After his triumphant victory, Saladin singled out the captive Templar and Hospitallers for execution.

La Tene Warriors Uncovered

A team of Inrap archaeologists recently uncovered an exceptionally preserved necropolis dating to the 4th – 3rd centuries BC in Buchères, north central France.

Tomb containing two burials and a sword, dating to 4th century BCE. © Denis Gliksman, Inrap
The team uncovered fifteen spectacular funerary enclosures, quadrangular, circular and horseshoe in shape dating from both the pre Celtic Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

‘Citizen archaeologists’ needed for Orkney’s eroding coastal heritage

If you enjoy the coast, know about your local heritage – or want to explore it further, you could make a real contribution to a national project which is being run by The SCAPE Trust and the University of St Andrews.

The Scotland’s Coastal Heritage at Risk project is looking for volunteers who can visit threatened coastal archaeological and historical sites in their local areas to take photographs, record their current condition and contribute information to a national database of coastal archaeological sites.

Horse-related artifacts unearthed in London dig

Several fascinating horse-related objects are among a treasure trove of 10,000 Roman objects unearthed during an archaeological dig in London. Many of the finds contain obscene imagery, such as a 1st century AD Roman pendant. It would have been used by cavalry and features a copper-alloy fist and phallus. It is believed to have had a pair of clappers to make a jingling sound as the horse moved.

Their finds include a padded and stitched piece of leather with an image of a gladiator fighting mythical animals. The leather has been elaborately worked by its creator. Archaeologists say it is one of the most puzzling finds at the site to date. They suspect it may have come from a chariot, but can only guess because nothing similar has ever been found.

Research Reveals How Australopithecus sediba Walked, Chewed, Moved

New research appearing in six papers in the journal Science describes how the hominid Australopithecus sediba walked, chewed, and moved around 2 million years ago. The research offers a comprehensive depiction of some of the most complete early human ancestral remains ever discovered.

Pottery cooked from the start

Ancient leftovers indicate that the earliest pottery was used by hunter-gatherers for cooking, thousands of years before farming communities began heating their food in vessels.

Chemical analyses of charred food clinging to pottery fragments from sites across Japan indicate that hunter-gatherers who lived there between 15,300 and 11,200 years ago cooked freshwater or marine animals in ceramic vessels, say bioarchaeologist Oliver Craig of the University of York in England and his colleagues.

Anthropology student finds excitement in the mundane

As a 38-year-old graduate student watches volunteers go through archeological materials from the Leonis Adobe site in Calabasas, she becomes excited with mundane objects like a nail, a marble and broken pieces of ceramic.

Ann Stansell, a second-year anthropology graduate student, works in CSUN’s Anthropological Research Institute once a week where she recently started overseeing undergraduate anthropology students who volunteered to help. The university has acquired much archaeological material since the 1960s and the inventory has never been properly organized.

12,000 Year-old Intact Giant Mammoth Uncovered Near Mexico City

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 17:52:00 +0000

Mexican archaeologists associated with the country’s National Institute of Anthrolopology and History have uncovered the intact skeleton remains of a giant mammoth.

The discovery was made near Mexico City in the town of Santa Ana Tlacotenco. The giant mammoth, which is nearly uncovered, is thought to have existed some 10,000-to-14,000 thousand years ago. This mammoth is estimated to have weighted 10 tons and be 17 feet tall.

Photo: Giant Mammoth, Mexico City, McClathchy

The skeleton was found in what was once a ditch; it is believed the mammoth fell in after experiencing a volcanic eruption. Mexican experts do not believe their find is the fabled woolly mammoth but rather a ‘Mammuthus columbi’. The ‘mammuthus’ is an extinct species of elephants that lived in Texas and Mexico where they were very common thousands of years ago.

The skeletal remains have stayed in tact in great part to the mammoth being buried in hot ash until its discovery in March.

Last year the well-preserved skeletal remains of a mammoth that lived between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago were discovered in the central Mexican state of Queretaro.

Source: Latino Daily News

Carbon-14 dating links Maya Long Count calendar and European calendar

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 15:38:00 +0000

The Maya are famous for their complex, intertwined calendric systems, and now one calendar, the Maya Long Count, is empirically calibrated to the modern European calendar, according to an international team of researchers.

"The Long Count calendar fell into disuse before European contact in the Maya area," said Douglas J. Kennett, professor of environmental archaeology, Penn State.

"Methods of tying the Long Count to the modern European calendar used known historical and astronomical events, but when looking at how climate affects the rise and fall of the Maya, I began to question how accurately the two calendars correlated using those methods."

The researchers found that the new measurements mirrored the most popular method in use, the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation, initially put forth by Joseph Goodman in 1905 and subsequently modified by others. In the 1950s scientists tested this correlation using early radiocarbon dating, but the large error range left open the validity of GMT.

"With only a few dissenting voices, the GMT correlation is widely accepted and used, but it must remain provisional without some form of independent corroboration," the researchers report in today's (April 11) issue of Scientific Reports.

A combination of high-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 dates and a calibration using tree growth rates showed the GMT correlation is correct.

The Long Count counts days from a mythological starting point. The date is comprised of five components that combine a multiplier times 144,000 days – Bak'tun, 7,200 days – K'atun, 360 days – Tun, 20 days – Winal, and 1 day – K'in separated, in standard notation, by dots.

Archaeologists want to place the Long Count dates into the European calendar so there is an understanding of when things happened in the Maya world relative to historic events elsewhere. Correlation also allows the rich historical record of the Maya to be compared with other sources of environmental, climate and archaeological data calibrated using the European calendar.

The samples came from an elaborately carved wooden lintel or ceiling from a temple in the ancient Maya city of Tikal, Guatemala, that carries a carving and dedication date in the Maya calendar. This same lintel was one of three analyzed in the previous carbon-14 study.

Researchers measured tree growth by tracking annual changes in calcium uptake by the trees, which is greater during the rainy season.

The amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere is incorporated into a tree's incremental growth. Atmospheric carbon-14 changes through time, and during the Classic Maya period oscillated up and down.

The researchers took four samples from the lintel and used annually fluctuating calcium concentrations evident in the incremental growth of the tree to determine the true time distance between each by counting the number of elapsed rainy seasons. The researchers used this information to fit the four radiocarbon dates to the wiggles in the calibration curve. Wiggle-matching the carbon-14 dates provided a more accurate age for linking the Maya and Long Count dates to the European calendars.

These calculations were further complicated by known differences in the atmospheric radiocarbon content between northern and southern hemisphere.

"The complication is that radiocarbon concentrations differ between the southern and northern hemisphere," said Kennett. "The Maya area lies on the boundary, and the atmosphere is a mixture of the southern and northern hemispheres that changes seasonally. We had to factor that into the analysis."

The researchers results mirror the GMT European date correlations indicating that the GMT was on the right track for linking the Long Count and European calendars.

Events recorded in various Maya locations "can now be harmonized with greater assurance to other environmental, climatic and archaeological datasets from this and adjacent regions and suggest that climate change played an important role in the development and demise of this complex civilization," the researchers wrote.

[Eureka Alert]

Archaeology News: April 10, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:35:00 +0000

Thracian exhibit at archaeological museum in Sofia

The archaeological museum in Bulgarian capital city Sofia is exhibiting several pieces of weaponry and armour attributed to Thracian king Seuthes III, discovered by archaeologist Georgi Kitov near Kazanluk in 2004.

China reports top 10 archaeological finds in 2012

Chinese authorities on Tuesday announced the top 10 archaeological discoveries made in 2012, with the earliest dating back to the Paleolithic era. Among the most significant discoveries was the ruins of a small city, the largest of its kind in neolithic China, discovered in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

8,000 artefacts and rising: City dig pronounced the 'most important ever' in London

When archaeologists were called to a site in the City of London where an ugly office block and a bar once stood, they were sceptical that it held any secrets. Yet six months into the dig on Bloomberg Place, a three-acre site close to Mansion House tube station, experts believed they have stumbled across the most important find of Roman London artefacts in recent memory and have dubbed it the “Pompeii of the north”.

4,000-year-old stone tools, earthenware unearthed from banks of river Narmada in Bhopal

Archaeologists have found 4,000-year-old stone tools and earthenware in a remote village on the banks of river Narmada in Harda district of Bhopal. The treasures that have emerged could change our whole understanding of how evolution of mankind began along the Narmada. These priceless relics belonging to Chalcolithic Age are probably the most important archaeological discovery ever made in the region.

Severe damage done to Nazca Lines

According to reports from the Peruvian newspaper El Comercio, serious damage to elements of the outer boundary of the world famous Nazca lines has been caused by heavy machinery belonging to a quarry firm removing limestone from the area.

The damaged lines are located near the Panamericana Sur Highway and an adjacent area has also been affected. There are hundreds if not thousands of these lines and trapezoids on the Nazca plain with many of the most famous geogylphs such as the spider, hummingbird and monkey, etc. all undamaged.

New Research Holds Fascinating Revelations About an Ancient Society’s Water Conservation and Purification

University of Cincinnati research at the ancient Maya site of Medicinal Trail in northwestern Belize is revealing how populations in more remote areas – the hinterland societies – built reservoirs to conserve water and turned to nature to purify their water supply. Jeffrey Brewer, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati’s Department of Geography, will present his findings on April 11, at the Association of American Geographers’ annual meeting in Los Angeles.

Traces of Norman Castle Found

The remains of a building from Northampton’s Medieval castle have been found on the site of the town’s railway station. Archaeologists working on the site ahead of the development of a new station, have found three 12th Century walls from a stone building just feet underneath the station’s car park.

Archaeologist Tim Upson-Smith said: “We certainly weren’t expecting to find a stone building this well preserved and this close to the surface.”

Food Cans Exonerated in Franklin Expedition Deaths

A long-standing Arctic mystery has become even more baffling with research that appears to debunk a common theory about the demise of the Franklin expedition.

Chemists at the University of Western Ontario used an array of the latest analytic techniques to conclude that poorly made cans of food were not responsible for the lead that poisoned the officers and crew of the doomed 19th-century voyage to explore the Arctic.

Archaeology News: April 8, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 19:04:00 +0000

Djehuty Project discovers significant evidence of the 17th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt

The Djehuty Project, led by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), has discovered on the hill of Dra Abu el-Naga in Luxor (ancient Thebes), the burials of four personages belonging to the elite of the 17th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, who lived about 3.550 years ago. These findings, discovered during the 12th campaign of archeological excavations of the project, shed light on a little-known historical period in which Thebes becomes the capital of the kingdom and the empire's foundations become established with the dominance of Egypt over Palestine and Syria to the north, and over Nubia to the south.

Sharjah museum marks 20 years, archaeological ‘gems’ go on show

Over 100 items pertaining to archaeological discoveries will be on display at the Sharjah Archaeology Museum, which is marking its 20th anniversary.

The 7-month-long exhibition, starting April 7, is titled “Our Monuments Narrate Our History” and includes findings unearthed since the first local archaeological excavation mission in 1993.

Israeli Archaeologists Find Rare Artifacts near Ashkelon

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have unearthed a huge wine press and a ceramic model of a church dating back to the early-Byzantine period (5th – 6th centuries CE).

Stanbury Hill Project unearths Bingley Moor history

A team of archaeologists have unearthed evidence which suggests Bingley Moor used to be as warm as the South of France. The Stanbury Hill Project, a community archaeology venture, has been investigating a prehistoric 50,000 square metre site since 2008 and will share its findings with the public later this month.

Sunken Ancient Egyptian Port-City Reveals Some Of Its Secrets

The ancient Egyptian sunken port-city of Thonis-Heracleion is now having some of its secrets revealed thanks to new research from the University of Oxford. The port-city served as the obligatory gateway to Egypt sometime around the first millennium BC, being the place where incoming cargo from other regions was inventoried and taxed, before being transferred to Egyptian ships for transport down the Nile.

Chemical Analysis Leads to New Discoveries in Archaeological Research

Gathered together at the 245th National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in New Orleans on April 8, 2013, a body of scientists revealed the advances and discoveries that have been made in recent years using chemical and biological analysis on archaeological finds, and how they have helped elucidate the human past. Of note was a presentation by Joseph G. Barabe, a senior research microscopist at McCrone Associates, who helped verify the authenticity of the much-publicized and controversial "Gospel of Judas", the ancient 3rd century AD manuscript that related a Gnostic gospel written in Egyptian Coptic and whose content consists of conversations between the Apostle Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ.

UR Project confirms massive building complaex in Southern Iraq

The Ur Region Archaeology Project has put together a team of Iraqi and international expertise to begin a new age of discovery, using the latest techniques to unveil and interpret a shared heritage. The team, directed by Professor Stuart Campbell, Dr Jane Moon and Robert Killick, has already discovered a remarkable new structure. First spotted from satellite remote sensed images, the building complex is thought to be an administrative centre serving one of the world’s earliest cities.

Archaeology News: April 4, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:51:00 +0000

Bronze warship ram reveals secrets

Known as the Belgammel Ram, the 20kg artefact was discovered by a group of British divers off the coast of Libya near Tobruk in 1964. The ram is from a small Greek or Roman warship – a “tesseraria”. These ships were equipped with massive bronze rams on the bow at the waterline and were used for ramming the side timbers of enemy ships. At 65cm long, the Belgammel Ram is smaller in size and would have been sited on the upper level on the bow. This second ram is known as a proembolion, which strengthened the bow and also served to break the oars of an enemy ship.

Anthropology students conduct live field work

A couple of weeks ago, anthropology students spent their Saturday combing through soil in an attempt to find artifacts from prehistoric people at Camp Tyler. The first discovery happened shortly after they arrived when a group of students uncovered a pottery sherd they believe could be more than a thousand years old.

Archaeologists Explore Ancient Sumerian Settlement Site in Iraq

Tell Khaiber, as the site is called, is playing host to one of the first major archaeological projects with extensive participation by foreign scientists since the hiatus caused by the political situation and hostilities of the Iraqi war. Consisting of an international mix of six British archaeologists representing four UK institutions and four Iraqi archaeologists from the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage of Iraq, the team expects to uncover not just monumental buildings, but evidence that may shed new light on the environment and lifeways of the people who inhabited the site.

Guarding the legacy of emperors

A dedicated few in Beijing's suburbs keep a lookout for tomb raiders, day and night. It was a clear day in March, and the air was still cold on this morning of early spring in Beijing. Li Jianzhong, a 54-year-old keeper of the Yongling Mausoleum, was walking along a path as usual, checking to see if there was any problem or threat in the mausoleum.

The mausoleum, in which Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and his three empresses were buried, was empty, except for several researchers - college students guided by their archeology professor. Like most of other tombs of the Royal Mausoleum of Ming, Yongling Mausoleum is not open to the public.

Gate to Hell Discovered

Italian scientists have announced the discovery in Pumakkale, Turkey, of the ruins of what was known in ancient times as Pluto’s Gate, or Plutonium, in Latin.

Thought by the ancients to be the gateway to Hell, it was described by the Greek geographer, Strabo, who lived between about 64 B.C. and 24 A.D., during the time of Julius Caesar. According to Strabo, Pluto’s Gate was an orifice in the hillside that filled up with a thick mist that was immediately lethal to anyone who entered.

Spielberg Double Feature: Indiana Jones, Always, And How Death Defines Us

Aside from their shared release year, what do Steven Spielberg's double-dips have in common? This was the question we here at the Cinema Blend looked to discover in this investigative series. In 1989, Spielberg released the third film of his Indiana Jones adventures, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, as well as the largely forgotten fantasy-drama Always. It had be years since I'd watched Last Crusade, and aside from recognizing its title from Audrey Hepburn's filmography, I'd never heard of Always. Much to my surprise, both films have some stark similarities in their heroes and the crucial decision each must face, though the lesson lands better in the former.

Historical society digs into Marco Island’s ancient past

Alongside professional archaeologists, volunteers will sift through midden — mounds of crushed shell and other remnants — at a Marco Island archaeological site starting Sunday, April 7. The ensuing five-day dig is part of The Big Sift, an effort by the city and the Marco Island Historical Society to glean physical evidence of the island’s original Calusa Indian inhabitants who arrived more than 6,000 years ago.

Oswego War of 1812 Symposium Adds Underwater Archaeologist to Roster

Dive into history at the third annual Oswego War of 1812 Symposium from Friday to Sunday at the Lake Ontario Conference and Event Center. Jonathan Moore, senior underwater archaeologist with Parks Canada, discusses the archaeological exploration of two shipwrecks from the war.

Neanderthal fossils discovered in a cave in Greece

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:12:00 +0000

Neanderthal fossils including bones of children and adults, have been discovered in a cave in Greece, hinting the area may have been a key crossroad for ancient humans, researchers say.

The timing of the fossils suggests Neanderthals and humans may have at least had the opportunity to interact, or cross paths, there, the researchers added.

Neanderthals are the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, apparently even occasionally interbreeding with our ancestors. Neanderthals entered Europe before modern humans did, and may have lasted there until about 35,000 years ago, although recent findings have called this date into question.

To learn more about the history of ancient humans, scientists have recently focused on Greece.

"Greece lies directly on the most likely route of dispersals of early modern humans and earlier hominins into Europe from Africa via the Near East," paleoanthropologist Katerina Harvati at the University of Tübingen in Germany told LiveScience. "It also lies at the heart of one of the three Mediterranean peninsulae of Europe, which acted as refugia for plant and animal species, including human populations, during glacial times — that is, areas where species and populations were able to survive during the worst climatic deteriorations."

"Until recently, very little was known about deep prehistory in Greece, chiefly because the archaeological research focus in the country has been on classical and other more recent periods," Harvati added.

Harvati and colleagues from Greece and France analyzed remains from a site known as Kalamakia, a cave stretching about 65 feet (20 meters) deep into limestone cliffs on the western coast of the Mani Peninsula on the mainland of Greece. They excavated the cave over the course of 13 years. [Amazing Caves: Photos Reveal Earth's Innards]

The archaeological deposits of the cave date back to between about 39,000 and 100,000 years ago to the Middle Paleolithic period. During the height of the ice age, the area still possessed a mild climate and supported a wide range of wildlife, including deer, wild boar, rabbits, elephants, weasels, foxes, wolves, leopards, bears, falcons, toads, vipers and tortoises.

In the cave, the researchers found tools such as scrapers made of flint, quartz and seashells. The stone tools were all shaped, or knapped, in a way typical of Neanderthal artifacts.

Now, the scientists reveal they discovered 14 specimens of child and adult human remains in the cave, including teeth, a small fragment of skull, a vertebra, and leg and foot bones with bite and gnaw marks on them. The teeth strongly appear to be Neanderthal, and judging by marks on the teeth, the ancient people apparently had a diet of meat and diverse plants.

"Kalamakia, together with the single human tooth from the nearby cave site of Lakonis, are the first Neanderthal remains to be identified from Greece," Harvati said. The discoveries are "confirmation of a thriving and long-standing Neanderthal population in the region."

These findings suggest "the fossil record from Greece potentially holds answers about the earliest dispersal of modern humans and earlier hominins into Europe, about possible late survival of Neanderthals and about one of the first instances where the two might have had the opportunity to interact," Harvati said.

In the future, Harvati and her colleagues will conduct new fieldwork in other areas in Greece to address mysteries such as potential coexistence and interactions between Neanderthals and modern humans, the spread of modern and extinct humans into Europe and possible seafaring capabilities of ancient humans.

"We look forward to exciting discoveries in the coming years," Harvati said.
The scientists detailed their findings online March 13 in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Source: Live Science

Tunnels to steal treasures discovered near archaeological sites in Egypt

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 17:57:00 +0000

Since the revolution in Egypt, large holes have been appearing in the ground close to places of archaeological significance, such as the Great Pyramids at Giza.

As the BBC's Aleem Maqbool discovered, it seems that people have been digging underground tunnels in order to find archaeological treasures. The problem extends to southern Egypt too, and to Luxor, once the great ancient capital city known as Thebes. Over the last two years, the police there have been inundated with audacious cases of people tunnelling for antiquities.

The security forces gave the BBC some extraordinary video footage they had taken of the vast tunnel networks that have been discovered.

[Source: BBC]

Archaeology News: March 27, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Artifacts Shed Light on Social Networks of the Past

An article published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on the transformation of social networks in the late pre-Hispanic American Southwest and shows that people of that period were able to maintain surprisingly long-distance relationships with nothing more than their feet to connect them. Led by University of Arizona anthropologist Barbara Mills, the study is based on analysis of more than 800,000 painted ceramic and more than 4,800 obsidian artifacts dating from A.D. 1200-1450, uncovered from more than 700 sites in the western Southwest, in what is now Arizona and western New Mexico.

A catastrophic mass extinction of birds in the Pacific Islands followed the arrival of the first people

Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and collaborators reveals that the last region on earth to be colonised by humans was home to more than 1,000 species of birds that went extinct soon after people reached their island homes.

The paper was published today (25th) in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. Almost 4,000 years ago, tropical Pacific Islands were an untouched paradise, but the arrival of the first people in places like Hawaii and Fiji caused irreversible damage to these natural havens, due to overhunting and deforestation. As a result, birds disappeared. But understanding the scale and extent of these extinctions has been hampered by uncertainties in the fossil record.

Richard III's distant relatives threaten legal challenge over burial

Last year, a human skeleton identified as that of Richard III was discovered at a medieval monastery site by a team from Leicester University. The Plantagenet Alliance, a group of 15 people who claim to be descendants of relatives of Richard III, wants the king’s bones to be buried in York, where he spent his childhood. The members assert that their right to a private and family life was violated by the Ministry of Justice, which granted an archaeological investigation license to Leicester University. “Re-interment on the nearest consecrated ground is in keeping with good archaeological practice. Richard has lain in the shadow of St Martin’s Cathedral, Leicester, for over 500 years….There is no obligation to consult living relatives where remains are older than 100 years,” said a spokesperson from the university. Richard III’s final resting place will probably bring in significant tourist revenue.

Egyptian tomb raiders persist under poor economy

Well-organized and well-armed gangs of thieves reportedly continue to plunder Egypt’s archaeological sites, while illegal construction encroaches upon them and sometimes even covers them. “Under Mubarak, (the pyramids) were seen as a revenue stream for tourism, and a point of pride. This government just doesn’t care,” said archaeologist Monica Hanna. Kamal Wahid of Egypt’s Antiquities Ministry says that the reports of damage are exaggerated, and counters that the new government simply lacks the resources to protect archaeological sites because of the steep drop in foreign tourism.

Sutherland shipwreck intrigues archaeologists

Archaeologists are trying to piece together clues to the identity of a shipwreck in the north-west Highlands. Three cannons and part of a wooden hull lie on the seabed near Drumbeg in Sutherland.

Archaeologists believe it could be the remains of a Dutch vessel that got into difficulty between 1650 and 1750. The site was given emergency protected status on 18 March this year, but the Scottish government has proposed giving it a more permanent designation.

Fish-based diets can cause headaches for archaeologists

Fish-based diets may be good for your health, but they can cause headaches for archaeologists.

While archaeologists are aware fish-based diets could cause inaccuracies in Carbon-14 dating, they were not aware the anomalies could go up to 500 to 2,100 years.

"I had not anticipated an error of up to 2000 years ... The implications of this discovery are fairly frightening, because it is crucial for archaeology to have a reliable dating procedure," Felix Riede, an archaeologist at Aarhus University who uses Carbon-14 dating in his work, said in an article posted on PastHorizonsPR.com.

Archaeology News: March 25, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:17:00 +0000

Before Dinosaurs' Era, Volcanic Eruptions Triggered Mass Extinction

More than 200 million years ago, a massive extinction decimated 76 percent of marine and terrestrial species, marking the end of the Triassic period and the onset of the Jurassic. The event cleared the way for dinosaurs to dominate Earth for the next 135 million years, taking over ecological niches formerly occupied by other marine and terrestrial species.

It's not clear what caused the end-Triassic extinction, although most scientists agree on a likely scenario. Over a relatively short time period, massive volcanic eruptions from a large region known as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) spewed forth huge amounts of lava and gas, including carbon dioxide, sulfur and methane.

Artifact found in Friendship is 3,500 years old

What began as a study of native American culture at the Friendship Village School turned into the realization that an artifact found in a scallop drag is actually 3,500 years old. Jimmy Wotton found the ax head in his scallop drag.

Stone ships show signs of maritime network in Baltic Sea region 3,000 years ago

In the middle of the Bronze Age, around 1000 BC, the amount of metal objects increased dramatically in the Baltic Sea region. Around the same time, a new type of stone monument, arranged in the form of ships, started to appear along the coasts. New research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden shows that the stone ships were built by maritime groups.

19th-century Butchery Discovered

Excavation to the Hailongtun Castle in Zunyi, Guizhou ProvinArchaeologists have found the brick-lined foundations of a nineteenth-century slaughterhouse at a construction site for a new school building. Located on the outskirts of Alexandria’s Old Town, the land was also used as a cattle run. An industrial archaeologist will be consulted about some machinery that was also unearthed. “It’s really the only site where we’re going to find anything out about a nineteenth-century butchery. It’s just really something that came as a surprise,” said acting city archaeologist Fran Bromberg.ce

Excavation to the Hailongtun Castle in Zunyi, Guizhou Province

Archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences have surveyed Hailongtun Castle, established in 1257 and destroyed by war in 1600. Excavations have focused on the newer of two palaces, but a treasury, a pavilion, a quarry, and watch towers have also been found. Bricks, tiles, and roof sculptures in the shape of dragons were probably fired in nearby kilns. Inscribed steles have provided information about the history of the castle and its administrative system. Other finds include porcelain cups, dishes, bowls, plates, and stemmed cups; coins; glass wares; iron locks and fittings; copper armor scales; ceramic pipes for water; and ink stones. Haichao Monastery was built on the site in 1603 and later renovated in 1645.

Pre-Viking tunic found by glacier as warming aids archaeology

More than 1,600 ancient objects have been found in southern Norway as its glaciers retreat. Some of the artifacts are made of rarely preserved organic materials. One such item is a tunic made of greenish-brown lamb’s wool in a diamond pattern. It has been dated to A.D. 300, and may have been lost along a Roman trade route. “The tunic was well used—it was repaired several times,” said Marianne Vedeler of Norway’s Museum of Cultural History. Researchers wonder why someone would have taken off the tunic while traveling so close to a glacier.

Erkki Huhtamo's Moving Media Archaeology

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 16:02:00 +0000

I can remember as a child watching 42nd Street with my father and dancing around to Meet Me In St Louis. I can also remember those nutty Alfalfa kids, Shirley Temple, and those silent movies of the 20's, where strings of film would be strung together to create these moving images, that even today, surprise us by their innovative nature, and comical ambiance.

This is just what Erkki Huhtamo's Moving Media Archaeology's is about. Images on paper strips blur into moving sequences as DESMA Professor Erkki Huhtamo spins a zoetrope from 1870 and peeks through the slits on the side of the metal wheel.

This device is just one of thousands that make up Professor Huhtamo's collection of antique optical viewing devices. From myriopticons to magic lanterns, Professor Huhtamo's collection tells the story of media culture and preserves the history of the moving image.

Erkki Huhtamo's collection extends back more than 800 years ago, and covers all of the early devices used before silect cinema. He first started buying his trinkets from flea markets and antique markets, and he often frequented film festivals, bringing back heavy packs of film history.

These are just some of Erkki Huhtamo's favorite media archaeology contraptions........

Zoetrope

This device is dated to around 1870, the time when these devices were first introduced to the market. A strip of paper with an image was placed inside and then you would spin the drum. You would watch through the slits and the image would appear to be moving.

Mutoscope

This device is from 1897 and it allowed people to really get an good idea about how movie images could be transported to a smaller screen. This device respresents small beginnings for peak media.

Kinetoscope

The concept for the Kinetoscope was first described in 1888 by Thomas Edison, however the device was further developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. This Kinetoscope was created by Edison in 1903. What's special about this device is that it's hand cracked. The movie starts when you turn the handle.

Erkki Huhtamo is making sure that we don't lose track of these unique historical documents by storing them properly. He's also encouraging students at UCLA to question their relationships with their devices and asking why they were constructed in this way to begin with.

Archaeology News: March 19, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 02:07:00 +0000

Nina Pinta Replica Ships to dock at Fishermen's Village Marina

On Friday March 29th, the ‘Pinta’ and the ‘Nina’, replicas of Columbus’ ships will open in Punta Gorda. The ships will be docked at Fishermen’s Village Marina, 1200 W. Retta Esplanade, until their departure early Thursday morning April 4th.

The ‘Nina’ was built completely by hand and without the use of power tools. Archaeology magazine called the ship “the most historically correct Columbus replica ever built.” The ‘Pinta’ was recently built in Brazil to accompany the ‘Nina’ on all of her travels. She is a larger version of the archetypal caravel. Historians consider the caravel the Space Shuttle of the fifteenth century.

Thieves steal artifacts from Jbeil archaeology museum

Thieves broke into Jbeil archaeological museum and stole 30 small artifacts in a daring overnight raid in the town of Jbeil Monday, the National News Agency reported. Local and government officials, including Culture Minister Gaby Layoun, arrived at the museum to inspect the crime scene as a police forensics team began work on extracting fingerprints to identify the perpetrators. The artifacts were stolen by thieves overnight and were easily carried out of the museum, Layoun said in a statement after visiting Jbeil earlier in the day.

Digital Archaeology: 3D Modeling Reveals Ancient Artifacts

Every archaeological site contains a wealth of information about the past, and context is key. A knife found by a stone hearth tells a different story than one alongside a human skeleton. Unfortunately, excavating the site to reveal the story also destroys it. Detailed records are the only way archaeologists can keep archaeology from erasing the past rather than preserving it. Today, they're using 3D modeling tech to preserve the information found in a site, find new places to dig, or create models of ancient artifacts via 3D printing.

Ancient stone tools show the pace of remarkable technological enhancements over time

Stone Age man's gradual improvement in tool development, particularly in crafting stone handaxes, is providing insight into the likely mental advances these early humans made a million years ago. Better tools make for better hunting, and better tools come from more sophisticated thought processes. Close analysis of bits of chipped and flaked stone from across Ethiopia is helping scientists crack the code of how these early humans thought over time.

Museums and Popes

On top of the Capitoline Hill in Rome are a group of art and archaeological museums known as the Capitoline Museums (Musei Capitolini). While the plan for the layout of the museums was the work of Michelangelo Buanarroti in 1536, the museums actually began in 1471 when Pope Sixtus IV donated a collection of ancient bronzes to the people of Rome. The bronzes all had great symbolic value to Rome and its history. The collection was located on Capitoline Hill and is often credited as the oldest public collection of art in the world.

US 'hair archaeologist' recreates coiffures of antiquity

By day, Janet Stephens cuts and colors at a hair salon. By night, she is an amateur archaeologist, meticulously recreating hairstyles dating back to the times of Roman antiquity. Stephens, 54, who has worked as a hairdresser for more than two decades, recreates updos from the Roman era at her home in Baltimore, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Washington, DC. She combines her vocation as hairdresser with her love of archaeology, in the process revealing the secrets of how women wore their hair in ancient times.

An Archaeologist Reviews Tomb Raider

This past week I purchased the Tomb Raider reboot. Reboots are all the rage now: Batman, Superman, Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, James Bond; half the stuff I grew up liking as a kid is being modernized. Lara Croft was one character who desperately needed an overhaul. The campy, one dimensional heroine of 1996’s original Tomb Raider left much to be desired. Originally, Lara was a stoic, crack shot, capable of outrageous gymnastic maneuvers despite her cartoonishly plump mammaries. She was shallow and uninteresting; more an object of male fantasy than of female empowerment. But her adventures were fun. And even while the past three games (Legend, Underworld, and Anniversary) have taken steps to add breadth and depth to her being, it still felt as though pieces were missing.

Cirencester Roman cockerel 'best find' in 40 years

A restored Roman cockerel figurine is the best result from a Cirencester dig in decades, archaeologists have said. The enamelled object, which dates back as far as AD100, was unearthed during a dig in 2011 at a Roman burial site in the town. It has now returned from conservation work and finders Cotswold Archaeology said it "looks absolutely fantastic".

Disputed finds put humans in South America 22,000 years ago

Stone tools unearthed at a Brazilian rock-shelter may date to as early as 22,000 years ago. Their discovery has rekindled debate about whether ancient people reached the Americas long before the famed Clovis hunters spread through parts of North America around 13,000 years ago.

Rail dig may reveal Black Death graves

Archaeologists said on March 15 they had found a graveyard during excavations for a rail project in London which might hold the remains of some 50,000 people killed by the “Black Death” plague more than 650 years ago. Thirteen skeletons laid out in two neat rows were discovered 2.5 meters below the road in the Farringdon area of central London by researchers working on the 16 billion pound ($24 billion) Crossrail project.

Archaeology News: March 15, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:35:00 +0000

Chinese coin found on the island of Manda, Kenya
(John Weinstein / The Field Museum)

600 Year Old Chinese Coin Found on Kenyan Island

An expedition of archaeologists has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese coin on the island of Manda, off the northern coast of Kenya. “This finding is significant. We know Africa has always been connected to the rest of the world, but this coin opens a discussion about the relationship between China and Indian Ocean nations,” said Dr Chapurukha Kusimba of the Field Museum, who co-led the expedition with Dr Sloan Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

'Black Death' skeletons found in the Crossrail closet

Crossrail workers are shocked to discover 13 skeletons buried under a square in the City of London - and archaeologists say there could be a mass grave containing the bones of 50,000 people nearby.

Archaeology director digs out skeletons from dept cupboard

Director of the State Archaeology department, R Gopal, made a startling revelation on Thursday that his department was “run by a mafia”. Speaking at the 125th year celebrations of the Department of Epigraphy at the Exhibition Grounds here, Gopal said fake bills to the tune of Rs 40 crore had been prepared at the house of conservation engineer S M Pujari at Siddartha Nagar in the city. Gopal said there was little room for corruption, as long as the department was receiving Rs one crore from the government. However, the situation started “degenerating” after funds were sanctioned in several crores of rupees.

So, what did the Romans do for us? New digs reveal truth about Hadrian's Wall

Stretching the breadth of northern England, Hadrian's Wall is a majestic reminder of the ambition and might of the Roman Empire's conquest in Britain. Now, new archaeological evidence has suggested, contrary to previous belief, that the Romans far from co-existing peacefully with the locals, ejected them by force in order to build the 73-mile divide.

Will the study of archaeology soon become a thing of the past?

Richard III's discovery showcased UK academia, says Michael Braddick. But as student demand for certain subjects falls, should we have grave concerns for our future knowledge base? Finding Richard III (on the premises of Leicester social services no less) is testament to the ingenuity of archaeologists. Weaving together findings from historical analysis of texts with scientific analysis of the skeleton and the site, they have made an overwhelming case that these are the remains of the king.

‘Lost’ Indian village discovery topic of archaeology talk

Diligent research and methodical investigation has solved a long-standing local mystery. Mary Ann Levine, associate professor of anthropology at Franklin and Marshall College, is convinced she's discovered Otstonwakin, the long-lost Woodlands Indian village once inhabited by "Madame" Catherine Montour along the Loyalsock Creek. Levine will discuss her research and conclusions at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 16, at the Lycoming County Historical Society's Taber Museum, 858 W. Fourth St. The talk, " Uncovering Madame Montour's Otstonwakin: Archaeological Excavations at an 18th-Century Native American Village," is free and open to the public.

Florida College students win archaeology grant

For local students, an appreciation for Florida's rich history has paid off. Two New College of Florida students, Matt Andersen and Jodi Johnson, won Cornelia D. Futor Archaeology Student Grants, sponsored by the Time Sifters Archaeology Society of Sarasota. The grants are to be used at the students' discretion to continue with their studies. Andersen, the first-place winner, received $200. Johnson received $100 for second place. The grant competition is open to undergraduate and pre-doctoral graduate students enrolled at a college in the Sarasota, St. Petersburg and Tampa area and is based on excellence in archaeology research papers.

Archaeology News: March 14, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 16:14:00 +0000

Cultic Sexual Symbols Uncovered in a Stone Age Site

The phallic figurine. Photograph: Dr. Ya’akov Vardi

A new site dating to the Stone Age was exposed in large scale archaeological excavations the Israel Antiquities Authority is carrying out at Ahihud Junction prior to the construction of a new railroad line to Karmiel by the National Roads Company. In the excavations, which are spread over 1,800 square meters, remains of two main periods were discovered: the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period and the Early Chalcolithic period (seventh millennium BCE – fifth millennium BCE).

Hershel Shanks Urges Megiddo Expedition to Try Wet-Sifting

The oldest writing ever found in Jerusalem almost got missed. The recently discovered fragment of cuneiform text dates to the 14th century B.C., which makes it Jerusalem’s oldest writing. It is so small that the archaeologists working at Eilat Mazar’s excavation just south of the Temple Mount didn’t see it when was dug out of the ground. In the March/April 2013 issue of BAR, editor Hershel Shanks explains how this scrap of Jerusalem’s oldest writing was saved.

Row over Richard III’s final burial site rumbles on

The bones of Richard III should be reburied under a modest slab in the floor of Leicester cathedral, “a place of dignified simplicity” rather than a grandiose modern reinvention of a medieval tomb, the cathedral authorities have decided – in a move that will do nothing to resolve the debate over where and how the king should finally be buried.

Discovering Early Farming Society in Israel

The Israel Antiquties Authority announced the discovery of an unprecedented Neolithic site in Israel on Wednesday, March 13, 2013. The earliest evidence, from a seventh millennium B.C.E. Pre-Pottery Neolithic culture, includes permanent architectural installations, plaster floors and obsidian tools. Obsidian is not local to the region, revealing that the Neolithic culture had access to long-distance trade networks. In addition, excavators uncovered large quantities of bean seeds, serving as one of the oldest known examples of legume domestication in the ancient Near East.

Science on Saturday at the McDonald Institute

The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research will be opening its doors this Saturday, the first weekend of the 2013 Cambridge Science Festival. Bring your family along to meet our researchers and discover the past through the tools of archaeological science with a range of fun and interactive activities.

Hidden Archaeology - Brien Foerster (The justBernard Show)

Brien Foerster, known for his appearances on Ancient Aliens is our favorite kind of researcher. Following his instinct and relying on his expertise he goes outside his comfort zone to find the hidden truths of human history. Brien is also contributing writer for Graham Hancock and is associated with Lloyd Pye of the Starchild project, who is analyzing the DNA of elongated human skulls of the Peruvian Paracas culture on his behalf. The preliminary results of this have been included in the book, The Enigma Of Cranial Deformation: Elongated Skulls Of The Ancients.

Dickson Mounds Museum Hosts Archaeology Program for Kids

Dickson Mounds Museum is hosting “Be an Archaeologist for a Day” for kids ages 9 to16 years old on Saturday, April 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kids will work side by side with professional archaeologists and learn excavation and artifact identification techniques, and how to process finds. The program will begin with hands-on preparatory activities indoors, and then, weather permitting, will be held outdoors for the afternoon.

Ancient Chinese coin found on Kenyan island by Field Museum expedition

A joint expedition of scientists led by Chapurukha M. Kusimba of The Field Museum and Sloan R. Williams of the University of Illinois at Chicago has unearthed a 600-year-old Chinese coin on the Kenyan island of Manda that shows trade existed between China and east Africa decades before European explorers set sail and changed the map of the world.

National Museum Wales to bid for Bronze Age treasure axes in Pembrokeshire

Tom Baxter and Luke Pearce found the warrior hoard during an August detecting visit to a field under pasture in the community of Nevern. Dated to around 2000 BC, they are thought to have been buried in a “special place” in the landscape, close to a stream source with a view of the sea.

Nomad Archaeology in the Near East

With the introduction of the Negev Emergency Survey, a series of systematic field surveys of the entire Negev had been undertaken since 1978. Numerous ancient ephemeral campsites were documented from all periods with the remains of tents and associated features being identified exclusively from the Classical period beginning with the Nabateans and continuing through the Early Islamic period. Using these data, I made an ethno-archaeological study by combining the survey-based research and making an ethnographic comparison with recent Bedouin black tents and campsites in the southern Negev.

Archaeology News: March 11, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:11:00 +0000

Turkish minister criticizes archaeology excavations

Archaeologists around Turkey are not taking their job seriously enough, Tourism and Culture Minister Ömer Çelik has said, according to daily Hürriyet. Çelik made the comments in an interview with Der Spiegel Magazine at the Berlin International Tourism Bourse, a well-known travel trade fair. German archeologists have been overseeing excavations at Göbekli Tepe, he said, adding that a total of 11,000 sculptures went missing from the site in 2010. “I am not accusing them of stealing, however, this is evidence that they are not giving sufficient importance to security issues.”

Cultural Anthropology Goes Full-OA!

The Society for Cultural Anthropology (a section of the American Anthropological Association) is excited to announce a groundbreaking publishing initiative. With the support of the AAA, the influential journal of the SCA, Cultural Anthropology, will become available open access, freely available to everyone in the world. Starting with the first issue of 2014, CA will provide world-wide, instant, free (to the user), and permanent access to all of our content (as well as ten years of our back catalog).

Famed Viking 'sunstone' did exist, believe scientists

Researchers who have spent three years poring over a cloudy crystal discovered in the wreck of an Elizabethan ship sunk off the Channel Islands believe they have proved that it could be the substance described by the Norsemen as helping to locate the sun when obscured by cloud. The so-called sunstone has long been the subject of scientific intrigue after it was described in one Icelandic saga as a magical gem which, when held up to sky, would reveal the position of the sun even before dawn or after sunset.

Ancient city Troy to have own museum

There is huge potential for further excavation at the site, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University academic Rüstem Aslan told Anatolia news agency. “For the past 15 years, everyone has been discussing the dream of a Troy museum. The construction of the museum will start soon.”

Fort St. Joseph Museum, WMU, offer archaeology camp

Western Michigan University and the Fort St. Joseph Museum are inviting members of the public to join in a week of excavations at the site of Fort St. Joseph during the 2013 Field School in Historical Archaeology. Officials said it's a great opportunity to experience hands-on history and learn what it means to be an archaeologist.

Archaeology Festival set for March 30 at Johnson history museum

The Palm Beach County Archaeological Society and Historical Society of Palm Beach County will host an Archaeology Festival from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. March 30 at the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum at the historic Palm Beach County Courthouse, 300 N. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach.

Historic Macedonia Tower to become museum

Edirne’s Macedonia Tower will become an archeology museum following restorations. The tower is one of the four greatest ramparts of a castle built in the northwestern province of Edirne during the Roman Empire and it is keeping it’s attraction for the cultural events as it’s secrets reveal.

Excavations continue at Despotikon

noreply@blogger.com (Lauren Axelrod) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:00:00 +0000

The important excavation that has been going on during the last few years on the little island Despotikon and the islet Tsimindiri, just outside Antiparos, will continue. The excavation is conducted by the 21st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and is directed by archaeologist Giannos Kouragios.

It is a five-year project that has already obtained grants from the Kanellopoulos and Latsis Foundations, and has the approval of the Central Archaeological Council.

This excavation program will enable the discovery of new parts of a significant Archaic sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Apollo and Artemis. The inhabitants of Paros island built this temple on Despotikon as a sign of their predominance in the Aegean.

According to Archaeology News Network, during the excavations the tower and the two rectangular buildings, which haven’t been excavated yet., will also be examined. In addition, the numerous rooms of the southern complex on Despotikon will be examined. The archaeological surveys will also include the five buildings revealed on Tsimindiri.

So far, 12 buildings have been located on the uninhabited islet of Depotikon, which in the past were connected by an isthmus to Despotikon. Among other finds in the sanctuary, archaeologists have as well revealed 20 marble bases of Archaic statues, 65 parts of Kouroi, the head of a Kore, and part of a marble Archaic life-sized Kouros, which was revealed this year on the island.

Archaeologists are also planning a small scale restoration of the sanctuary –namely the elevation of some columns, so that the third dimension of the temple can be recovered, which at some point in the past reached eight meters high. However, before proceeding to any such actions, the Central Archaeological Council should first give them the green light. According to archaeologist Giannos Kouragios, the creation of an archaeological park on Despotikon remains for now unfulfilled, due to the peculiar ownership situation of the islet.

[source: Greek Reporter]