December 2011, Daily News

Archaeology News for the Week of December 25th, 2011

Mon, Dec 26, 2011

December 31st, 2011

Large Roman City Uncovered in Romania

Featuring numerous temples, an amphitheater, a large forum with associated buildings, gladiator schools, massive fortifications and several necropolises, casual observers might think that they were walking among ruins not far from the center of ancient Imperial Rome herself. But this site is located on a plain at the foot of the Retezat Mountains in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Here, archaeologists have been systematically uncovering an ancient Roman center that, during its heyday in the 2nd century A.D., commanded the countryside as the capital of the conquered Dacian provinces. (Popular Archaeology)

Model unlocks human impact on Africa's fire regimes

A model has helped shed light on how human-started fires shaped Africa's landscape, researchers report. Before human activity became widespread, most fires were caused by lightning strikes during the continent's wet seasons, they said. As the human population expanded, more fires occurred during the dry season, triggering a shift in the impact of fires on Africa's ecology, they added. (BBC News)

Traverse Corridor: a prehistoric crossroads in Michigan

Michigan State University professor and paleoanthropologist Charles Cleland and his students began digging for information about prehistoric northwestern lower Michigan (USA) inhabitants in 1966 and have continued for 40 years. Cleland postulated that a prehistoric 'Traverse Corridor,' stretching from the base of Grand Traverse Bay to the Mackinac Straits, was used by early Native Americans during their migrations thousands of years ago. (Stone Pages)

Archaeologists Uncover Lovers' Pipe Dreams in Jerusalem Dig

An archaeological excavation in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem has uncovered a centuries-old clay pipe inscribed with the phrase "Love is the language for lovers." Literally translated, the inscription reads "Heart is language for the lover." And, not surprisingly, it was most likely a gift to a lover, according to Shahar Puni, of the Israel Antiquities Authority. (Fox News)

Top 10 Hominid Discoveries of 2011

For this last Hominid Hunting post of 2011, I reviewed recent human evolution research highlights to come up with my picks for the top 10 hominid discoveries of the year. While genetic breakthroughs have hogged the spotlight the past couple of years, good old-fashioned fossil and archaeological finds were front and center in 2011. (Smithsonian.com)

December 30th, 2011

End of World in 2012? Maya "Doomsday" Calendar Explained

It's remotely possible the world will end in December 2012. But don't credit the ancient Maya calendar for predicting it, say experts on the Mesoamerican culture. It's true that the so-called long-count calendar—which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C.—reaches the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012. That day brings to a close the 13th Bak'tun, an almost 400-year period in the Maya long-count calendar. But rather than moving to the next Bak'tun, the calendar will reset at the end of the 13th cycle, akin to the way a 1960s automobile would click over at mile 99,999.9 and reset to zero. (National Geographic)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS DISCOVER MEDIEVAL ARTIFACTS AT ART ACADEMY SITE

Archaeologists digging at the site of the future Academy of the Arts have uncovered a trove of medieval artifacts, including several boxes of ceramic pottery, as well as silver coins, wooden dice, bone jewelry and a piece from a board game. (Shaan.typepad.com)

Irikaitz archaeological site: only for the tenacious

The recent discovery of a pendant at the Irikaitz archaeological site in Zestoa (in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa) has given rise to intense debate: it may be as old as 25,000 years, which would make it the oldest found to date at open-air excavations throughout the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. This stone is nine centimetres long and has a hole for hanging it from the neck although it would seem that, apart from being adornment, it was used to sharpen tools. (Basqueresearch.com)

Walter B. Allen shipwreck near Sheboygan deemed historic site

A vessel lying on the floor of Lake Michigan and considered one of the best-preserved Great Lakes shipwreck has been named to the National Register of Historic Places. The canaller Walter B. Allen, which sank in a storm in April 1880, lies upright and intact in about 170 feet of water seven miles northeast of Sheboygan. (PostCrescent.com)

December 29th, 2011

Mysterious Mass Sacrifice Found Near Ancient Peru Pyramid

An apparent ritual mass sacrifice—including decapitations and a royal beer bash—is coming to light near a pre-Inca pyramid in northern Peru, archaeologists say. Excavations next to the ancient Huaca Las Ventanas pyramid first uncovered bodies in August, and more have been emerging since then from a 50-by-50-foot (15-by-15-meter) pit. The pyramid is part of the Sicán site, the capital of the Lambayeque people—also known as the Sicán—who ruled Peru's northern coast from about A.D. 900 to 1100. (National Geographic)

Colosseum May Be a Fixer-Upper but It’s Not Collapsing, Italian Officials Say

Italian archaeology officials on Wednesday played down Italian news reports that chunks of masonry had been falling off the Colosseum. “Nothing has collapsed” at the Colosseum “since the 18th century,” said a statement issued by a department of the Culture Ministry responsible for Rome’s archaeological sites. The Colosseum, the first-century A.D. arena, is Italy’s most popular tourist draw. (The New York Times)

Whitehorse monument reveals its ancient secrets

A monument on Dartmoor has been restored to its previous condition after a stone that had been removed for laboratory analysis was returned. Beads, worked leather and cremated human remains have been discovered in a cist, or burial chamber/chest, at Whitehorse hill after it was removed by Dartmoor National Park Authority's archaeology and conservation works teams. There are roughly 200 cists on Dartmoor, all hidden in the ground or inserted into barrows. (Devon)

Pillar collapses in Pompeii garden

Archaeologists on Thursday were assessing the damage after one of the pillars in the garden of an ancient Roman home collapsed at Pompeii. Police were also called to investigate the collapse of the pillar which was part of an external pergola at the house of Loreius Tiburtinus in the centre of the popular tourist site. News of the collapse was announced by the Special Archaeology Superintendent of Naples and Pompeii and the site was immediately closed to the public. (ANSAMed)

December 28th, 2011

Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents

A team of scholars has discovered what might be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel of Biblical fame, they report in a newly published book. Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE. It was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen, a businessman from Norway who owns the largest private manuscript assemblage formed in the 20th century.Consisting of 13,717 manuscript items spanning over‭ ‬5,000‭ ‬years, the collection includes parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Buddhist manuscript rescued from the Taliban, and even cylcon symbols by Australia's Aborigines which can be up to 20,000 years old.

Franklin dig evidence reveals mastodon was butchered by ancient humans

A Cool Springs archaeological dig keeps yielding details about Paleolithic man and the big game he hunted.State archaeologists say discoveries unearthed in 2010 at a long-studied archaeological site known as Coats-Hines in Cool Springs reveal it to be one of only a few sites that show early man in this area hunted and ate "megafauna," a term describing very large animals. Scientists confirm finding three and possibly four mastodons — large elephant-like creatures with tusks — at the site, with one mastodon, known as Mastodon B, having "unequivocal association" with human activity in the form of butchering marks. (The Tennessean)

Archaeology meets politics: Spring comes to ancient Egypt

In a secluded stretch of desert about 300 kilometres south of Cairo, hundreds of bodies lie buried in the sand. Wrapped in linen and rolled up in stiff mats made of sticks, they are little more than bones. But their ornate plaited hair styles and simple personal possessions help to reveal details about the individuals in each grave. The bodies date from around 3,300 years ago, when the Pharaoh Akhenaten renounced Egypt's traditional polytheistic religion and moved his capital to remote Amarna, to worship just one god: the Sun disc Aten. (Nature)

December 27th, 2011

Large Roman City Uncovered in Romania

Featuring numerous temples, an amphitheater, a large forum with associated buildings, gladiator schools, massive fortifications and several necropolises, casual observers might think that they were walking among ruins not far from the center of ancient Imperial Rome herself. But this site is located on a plain at the foot of the Retezat Mountains in Southern Transylvania, Romania. Here, archaeologists have been systematically uncovering an ancient Roman center that, during its heyday in the 2nd century A.D., commanded the countryside as the capital of the conquered Dacian provinces. (Popular Archaeology)

Clues to past glories in Italy's Ostia Antica

Ostia Antica is a long-abandoned city and continuing archaeological dig at what was once the seaport of imperial Rome, about 20 miles down the Tiber River from the Roman Forum. (The Seattle Times)

Historical and Archaeological Investigations at Pace House

Vinings Historic Preservation Society has engaged the services of archaeologist, Garrett W. Silliman, of Terminus Archaeological Research, to conduct research at the historic Pace House on Paces Mill Road. Garrett will conduct field investigations, in association with Georgia State University, using remote sensing to detect potential archaeological features and artifact signatures on the property. (SmyrnaVinings.com)

12 World Monuments at Risk

Vietnamese fishers wearing traditional conical hats go about their daily business along the country's Halong Bay waterfront. Halong Bay is one of 67 international sites—12 of which are presented here—selected for the World Monuments Fund's (WMF) 2012 World Monuments Watch. The list, issued every two years, calls attention to cultural-heritage sites around the globe that are deemed at risk due to natural, social, political, and economic change. (National Geographic)

CT Imaging Allows Analysis of Hidden Human Fossil

At a tea party earlier today for a research team at the University of the Witwatersrand that has grown accustomed to making stunning discoveries of human fossils, a curious excitement erupted when Kristian Carlson unveiled a seemingly modest find: a rib bone from Australopithecus sediba. In fact, it wasn’t even an actual fossil—just a resin replica. But despite its humble appearance , the little white rib represents a major scientific advance. (Scientific American)

December 26th, 2011

Tax bill paid with 2,000-year-old Iron Age fire guard

A 2,000-year-old Iron Age fire guard has been accepted into Wales' national museum in lieu of inheritance tax. The Capel Garmon Firedog, once one of a pair on the hearth of a chieftain's roundhouse, is regarded as one of the finest surviving prehistoric iron artefacts in Europe. Previously on loan to the National Museum it will now be part of Wales' collections of Early Celtic Art. It was discovered in a peat bog in 1852. (BBC News)

Archaeologists from city to look for Harappan trade links in Kutch

Researchers from the Archaeology Department of Deccan College, Pune, will soon be part of the large-scale excavation in Kotada Bhadali village of Kutch district of Gujarat, where they hope to find indicators of trade links that existed between the smaller and bigger Harappan civilisation sites. The team, a collaboration between Deccan College and the Gujarat State Archaeology Department, comprises 20 members, of whom 12 are from Pune. (IndanExpress.com)

San Francisco construction unearths window to the past

The big dig for San Francisco's multibillion-dollar transportation terminal has unearthed some artifacts from the city's heady Gold Rush days, including opium pipes from a Chinese laundry and a chipped chamber pot found in a backyard outhouse. The 70 artifacts have city archaeologists eager for more and local residents pondering the ground beneath their feet. (Tampa Bay Online)

December 25th, 2011

Deciphered Ancient Tablet Reveals Curse of Greengrocer

A fiery ancient curse inscribed on two sides of a thin lead tablet was meant to afflict, not a king or pharaoh, but a simple greengrocer selling fruits and vegetables some 1,700 years ago in the city of Antioch, researchers find. Written in Greek, the tablet holding the curse was dropped into a well in Antioch, then one of the Roman Empire's biggest cities in the East, today part of southeast Turkey, near the border with Syria. (Live Science)

Ruins in Georgia mountains show evidence of Maya connection

Archaeological zone 9UN367 at Track Rock Gap, near Georgia’s highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, is a half mile (800 m) square and rises 700 feet (213 m) in elevation up a steep mountainside. Visible are at least 154 stone masonry walls for agricultural terraces, plus evidence of a sophisticated irrigation system and ruins of several other stone structures. Much more may be hidden underground. It is possibly the site of the fabled city of Yupaha, which Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto failed to find in 1540, and certainly one of the most important archaeological discoveries in recent times. (Examiner.com)

Two archaeological sites surveyed on Mount Ararat

Harvard University educated archaeologist and director of the Paleontological Research Corporation, Dr. Joel Klenck, surveyed and completed a preliminary analysis of two sites on Mount Ararat in Turkey discovered by a Kurdish guide, Ahmet Ertugrul. “The research areas are noteworthy”, states Klenck, “and comprise a large wood structure and cave with an archaeological assemblage that appears to be mostly from the Late Epipaleolithic Period.” These assemblages at other sites in the Near East have calibrated radiocarbon dates between 13,100 and 9,600 B.C. (ArtDaily.org)

Ancient Seal Found In Jerusalem Linked To Ritual

A rare clay seal found under Jerusalem's Old City appears to be linked to religious rituals practiced at the Jewish Temple 2,000 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said Sunday. The coin-sized seal found near the Jewish holy site at the Western Wall bears two Aramaic words meaning "pure for God." (NPR News)