December 2011, Daily News

Archaeology News For the Week of April 17th, 2011

Tue, Apr 19, 2011

April 23rd, 2011

Rare well-preserved Ming Dynasty tomb found in Longquan

A well-preserved and exquisitely designed Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644) tomb was found at a Longquan construction site for the new Chengdu-Chongqing bullet train tunnel, reported Sichuan Online and West China City Daily. The tomb is the only one featuring engraved text of the 13 unearthed in the 700-square-metre area near the Shuangbeicun Village in Longquanyi's Baihezhen Town. The text, Jiazi Nian Ji Nian (甲子年纪年) was noticed on the tomb's back wall. The Chengdu archaeological team finds such a well-preserved tomb to be rare in the area. (GohengDoo.com)

Wilderness therapy group finds rare artifact in southeastern Utah

Exquisitely shaped nearly 1,000 years ago by Utah inhabitants from gray clay and decorated with bold geometric patterns in black paint, an ancient bowl has been discovered in pristine condition in southeastern Utah. Participants in Loa-based Aspen Academy, a wilderness therapy group, contacted authorities after making the remarkable find earlier this month under a rock overhang in the northwest region of the Henry Mountains in Garfield County.(The Salt Lake Tribune)

Boat found at Sea of Galilee dates back to time of Jesus

After a severe four-year drought, two fishermen were walking alongside the Sea of Galilee when they made an amazing discovery. Buried in the sea was the barely visible remains of an ancient boat. At its lowest level in memory, the Sea of Galilee in 1986 was unveiling its tremendous treasure.(Herald Times Online)

Scribbled by a community of nuns – Ancient Coptic graffiti adorns walls of 3,200 year-old Egyptian temple

April 22nd, 2011

Archaeologists Explore Site for Answers About First European Farmers

It is a small, quiet village in Bulgaria. Before now, few people knew of its existence. It sits adjacent to mountains in a river valley and any photographer might say that, from a distance and at the proper elevation, viewing it from afar would be a scenic experience. What may place this little village on the map, however, has nothing to do with scenery. In the coming months, it will be the focus of a group of archaeologists who hope to find some answers to questions about the first farmers of Europe. (Popular Archaeology) 

Indians first to ride monsoon winds

Mariners from India's east coast exploited monsoon winds to sail to southeast Asia more than 2,000 years ago, an archaeologist has proposed, challenging a long-standing view that a Greek navigator had discovered monsoon winds much later.Sila Tripati at the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa, has combined archaeological, meteorological, and literary data to suggest that Indian mariners were sailing to southeast Asia riding monsoon winds as far back as the 2nd century BC. (The Telegraph)

Tibetan encyclopedia provides evidence of ancient brain surgery

Brain surgery was practiced by doctors at least 2,900 years ago, a specialist on Tibetan culture and literature said Wednesday after four decades of research on the Tibetan Tripitaka, an ancient encyclopedia. "The 2,900-year-old Tibetan Tripitaka states clearly why and how brain surgery was carried out," said Karma Trinley, an associate professor from the Tibetan language and literature department of Tibet University in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (news.xinhuanet.com)

Jitters over Unesco visit after damage to Hanoi’s citadel

Custodians of the Thang Long Citadel are worried that the recent damage to the ruins will prompt Unesco to revoke the world heritage listing, particularly during a scheduled inspection in June. Parts of the protective wall and soil layers were damaged as a result of construction at an adjacent plot of land. (SEAArch)

In the Village: The limits of archaeology

Any respectable archaeologist would know that there is no way, from the archaeological record, to declare the nonexistence of a particular historical individual. As the saying goes, "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." For instance, for many years many archaeologists were convinced that the great Maya city-states of Mesoamerica were peaceful — in part because there were no signs of fortification.(Deseret News)

Anglo-Saxon hall unearthed at Bamburgh Castle

An archaeological research team in Northumberland has unearthed a medieval hall underneath Bamburgh Castle. Bamburgh Castle Research Project dug up a small trench under the inner courtyard at the core of the castle and discovered an Anglo-Saxon hall. (BBC News)

Tameside castle was built to keep 'Scots from Cheshire'

Archaeologists working on a ruined Tameside castle have concluded it was built to prevent parts of England coming under Scottish rule. Buckton Castle in Stalybridge by the Earl of Chester was built in the 1100s. (BBC News)

April 21st, 2011

Did Neanderthals Believe in an Afterlife?

Evidence for a likely 50,000-year-old Neanderthal burial ground that includes the remains of at least three individuals has been unearthed in Spain, according to a Quaternary International paper. The deceased appear to have been intentionally buried, with each Neanderthal's arms folded such that the hands were close to the head. Remains of other Neanderthals have been found in this position, suggesting that it held meaning. Neanderthals therefore may have conducted burials and possessed symbolic thought before modern humans had these abilities. The site, Sima de las Palomas in Murcia, Southeast Spain, may also be the first known Neanderthal burial ground of Mediterranean Europe. (Discovery News)

Evolution of Human 'Super-Brain' Tied to Development of Bipedalism, Tool-Making

CU-Boulder Research Associate John Hoffecker said there is abundant fossil and archaeological evidence for the evolution of the human mind, including its unique power to create a potentially infinite variety of thoughts expressed in the form of sentences, art and technologies. He attributes the evolving power of the mind to the formation of what he calls the "super-brain," or collective mind, an event that took place in Africa no later than 75,000 years ago. (Science Daily)

Two ancient tombs unearthed in Hanoi's new urban center

The first tomb was dug up by road builders in the evening of April 1. The Vietnam Archaeology Institute has sent three experts to the site. Construction activities at this area have been canceled to serve urgent excavation. Shortly after that, the second tomb and the well were unearthed. The two tombs were buried around 2 meters underground. The big one is 4.7m long and 2m wide and high. The other is 3.9m long, 1.2 m wide and nearly 1m high. The two tombs are parallel. The two tombs were built by terra-cotta bricks, with domes. Bricks have patterns and ancient characters.(VietnamNet)

Geocacher discovers ancient Yavapai jar in Prescott National Forest

When Dave Kurr was a kid exploring the hills north of Prescott with his friends, he was bummed out when they would find arrowheads and he never did. It took him until he was 43 years old to find an Indian artifact, but he's made up for it by finding an amazingly rare ceramic jar on the Prescott National Forest. (The Republic)

Why Ancient Mayan Communities Were 'Living on the Edge' of What Is Now a Massive Wetland

University of Cincinnati research is investigating why a highly sophisticated civilization decided to build large, bustling cities next to what is essentially swampland. The research by UC Geography Professor Nicholas Dunning, a three-year, interdisciplinary project including David Lentz, professor of biological sciences, and Vern Scarborough, professor of anthropology, will be presented April 1 at the annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Sacramento, Calif.(Science Daily)

April 20th, 2011

Gazelles caught in ancient Syrian 'killing zones'

It was slaughter on a huge scale. Hundreds of migrating gazelles would be funnelled into enclosures where they could be butchered en masse. This was the practice of communities living some 6,000 years ago in what is now north-eastern Syria. Archaeologists say they have unearthed the remains of animals forced into these killing zones. They tell the journal PNAS that is was an early example of over-hunting. So many Persian gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa) would be taken down that it must have had a catastrophic impact on animal populations. "We counted more than 100 individuals, comprising equal numbers of males and females," explained Dr Guy Bar-Oz from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, Israel. (BBC News)

New research suggests right-handedness prevailed 500,000 years ago

Right-handedness is a distinctively human characteristic, with right-handers outnumbering lefties nine-to-one. But how far back does right-handedness reach in the human story? Researchers have tried to determine the answer by looking at ancient tools, prehistoric art and human bones, but the results have not been definitive. (Eureka Alert)

Roman high street reopens to visitors after more than 20 years

The archaeologist Andrew Wallace-Hadrill calls it "one of those places where you step into a time machine" – the high street of a town that disappeared 1,932 years ago under ash and mud 20 metres deep. At one end of the Decumanus Maximus at Herculaneum, near Naples, is a triumphal arch. Along its length stand archaeological treasures such as the House of the Double Porticos which retains original, though carbonised, wooden beams and shutters. For more than 20 years the Decumanus Maximus has been closed to visitors. But at a ceremony at the site it was returned to the public. (guardian.co.uk)

April 19th, 2011

Finds in South Africa Continue to Shake Current Models of Human Evolution

New fossil finds in South Africa continue to stir the pot in world-wide scientific efforts to fill the gaps between the earlier more ape-like hominids known as australopithecines and the later Homo genus of the human evolutionary family tree. The finds may represent, according to researchers, a new species of early humans that could be directly ancestral to our own genus, Homo. The latest reported research now provides additional grist for the discussion mill, opening new questions about the anatomical evolutionary path that humans took to become what we are today. (Popular Archaeology)

Wyoming Oil and Gas Exploration Leads to Undiscovered Artifacts

Drilling by energy companies is uncovering exciting finds on private property long after public lands have been picked over. (New West Energy)

Iron age mass grave discovered in peaceful Peak District

A two-year community dig has uncovered the remains of women, babies, a toddler and a single teenage male in what is the first time a selective massacre of women and children has ever been found on an Iron Age hillfort in Britain. The discovery was made at the peaceful Fin Cop in the Derbyshire Peak District. So far only ten metres of ditch – out of 400 – has been excavated, so it's likely that hundreds of skeletons are still buried. (M&H Online)

Two ancient tombs lifted out of earth after 18-day excavation

Wares unearthed from two ancient tombs believed to date from the Warring States Period (475 B.C.- 221 B.C.) in Lu'an, east China's Anhui Province, April 18, 2011. The coffins discovered in the two ancient tombs here started to be lifted out of earth Monday after the 18-day excavation. (Peoples Daily Online)

Dresden archaeological site protected for research

After nearly 25 years waiting at the gate — the last three of which involved heavy negotiations and deal-making among multiple parties — a Dresden property considered to be one of the most archaeologically significant sites in Maine is protected for research. (Bangor Daily News)

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April 18th, 2011

Archaeologists Uncover Likely Evidence of Church Where Pocahontas Was Married

Archaeologists excavating in the area where remains of the 1607 James Fort on Jamestown Island in Virginia were discovered are now encountering possible traces of the 1608 church where Pocahontas, the daughter of the Indian emperor that headed the Powhatan tribal nations, and who arguably saved the life of the legendary 17th century explorer John Smith, was baptized and then married in 1610. Jamestown Island was the location of the first successful, permanent English colony in what is now the United States. (Popular Archaeology) 

Rising above the Acropolis

About 2,500 years ago, at a time when Athens was in its prime, the people of the city celebrated the birth of Athena, their patron goddess, with a great event. Known as the Panathenaic festival it featured a series of athletic games that included chariot races, javelin throwing and boating. It even had a bloody contest known as pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing which is not that dissimilar from today's mixed martial arts. Celebrated annually around late July – mid August it was an important part of the city's life and now, thanks to new research by Professor Efrosyni Boutsikas of the University of Kent, we have evidence that astronomy played a role in these games. She reconstructed the sky over the Athenian acropolis, determining how it would have looked about 2,500 years ago. Her results were published in the latest issue of the American Journal of Archaeology. (Unreported Heritage News)

Experts build picture of Roman settlement in Cumbria

Archaeologists working on the site of a Roman settlement in Cumbria have released details of how it might have looked in its heyday. The site, near Brougham, was discovered in 2008 by United Utilities engineers excavating for a sewage pipeline. It included remains of timber buildings and streets, and is now believed to date back to the 1st Century. (BBC News)

Adze found near site of Kupe's landing

An ancient Maori adze has been unearthed from a 15th-century settlement in Porirua, near the the spot believed to be where Kupe landed. The 40-centimetre stone adze, probably used to carve wood, was found at Ngatitoa Domain, the Historic Places Trust said. (Stuff.co.nz)

Spy satellites watch ancient ruins

Indiana Jones seems a bit more like James Bond in archaeology these days, with the intrepid explorers of the ancient world growing ever more fond of high-tech tools. Everything from laser mapping to radioactive dating has been added to the spadework that once defined archaeology. One that might make the most difference? Spy satellites. (USA Today)

Dundee academics reconstruct Viking woman's face

Academics at Dundee University have helped recreate the face of a Viking woman whose skeleton was unearthed in York more than 30 years ago. The facial reconstruction was achieved by laser-scanning her skull to create a 3D digital model. Eyes were then digitally created, along with hair and a bonnet, to complete the look. (BBC News)

April 17th, 2011

Did Lucy's species butcher animals?

In August 2010 archaeologists announced that they had discovered evidence that pushed back the origin of butchery nearly 800,000 years. Studying bones of cow- and goat-size animals dated to around 3.4 million years ago from a site in Ethiopia called Dikika, Shannon McPherron of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, and his colleagues observed several distinctive marks. After conducting an extensive analysis of the marks, the team determined that they resulted from butchery with stone tools, although no implements were recovered at the site. Because the only human remains known from Dikika belong to Australopithecus afarensis—the species to which the famous Lucy fossil belongs—the researchers concluded A. afarensis was the butcher. (Scientific American)

New research shows 3,500 year old tomb contained infants who suffered from disease

New research presented recently at the annual meeting of the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) shows that a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, KV 44, contained the remains of infants who were suffering from disease. The skeletons of adult women were also found but no men. The tomb was first discovered in 1901 by Howard Carter who found it to be looted and containing “rubbish.” Its design is remarkably simple, consisting of a shaft entryway and chamber with no apparent decoration on the walls. (Unreported Heritage News)

William Wallace's victory set to win iconic status

Historic Scotland revealed in December the first 17 nationally important sites for inclusion, including Bannockburn and Culloden. Now the site of the 1297 Battle of Stirling Bridge is under consideration to join them as part of a second batch set to be revealed. The battle would become the earliest date to feature in the inventory. (Heritage & Culture)

Amazing artifacts unearthed at Pig Point

By the time Capt. John Smith rowed up the Patuxent River in the summer of 1608, indigenous people had been gathering at present-day Pig Point for thousands of years. Had Smith gone another couple miles up river, he might have come upon what Anne Arundel County's Lost Towns Project has uncovered - a mother lode of evidence indicating generations of settlement, fishing and hunting on a knoll overlooking Jug Bay. (HomeTownAnnapolis.com)

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