December 2011, Daily News

Archaeology News for the Week of February 19th, 2012

Sun, Feb 19, 2012

February 25th, 2012

Bronze Age hoard found near Kidwelly declared treasure

A "significant discovery" of a Bronze Age artefacts in Carmarthenshire have been recorded as treasure. The hoard of 13 bronze items found in a field at St Ishmael, near Kidwelly, last June, included a bracelet, fragments of a spearhead and an axe. The artefacts are thought to have been buried around 1000 to 800 BC, and were declared treasure by the Carmarthenshire coroner on Friday. (BBC News)

BLACK SWAN SHIPWRECK ORDEAL COMES TO END

A fabulous sunken treasure recovered from a Spanish wreck in the Atlantic Ocean is flying back home from the United States, ending a five-year legal battle. The treasure was put aboard two Spanish military C-130 planes. They took off Friday from a Florida Air Force base with 595,000 silver coins and other gold aboard. They are expected to land in Madrid's Torrejon Air Base after a 24-hour flight with two stops on the way -- New Jersey and the Azores. (Discovery News)

Exploring Wisconsin's underwater archaeology

Wisconsin has a long standing maritime history, from the voyageurs seeking furs to the huge freighters of today taking raw materials and goods to and from ports throughout the world. The Wisconsin state flag even recognizes the mariner's contribution to the development of the state. (Examiner)

Evidence of Early Bronze Age Massacre Found in Turkey

Mass killings, systematic violence or warfare seem to have existed across all stages of the human civilization. A mass burial excavated at Titris Hoyuk, an archaeological site of Early Bronze Age (3000-2000 BC) in southern Turkey, shows evidence of massacre that happened about 4,000 years ago. Skeletal remains of at least 19 individuals, including three women, two children and an infant, were found placed on a plastered basin buried under a house floor in Southeast Anatolia in 1998. (International Business Times)

Houghton Valley dig unearths clues from the past

An army of amateur archaeologists have descended on a valley near Wellington, unearthing china, old glass bottles and old shoe. The archaeological event - named Dig Central - took place today at Restieaux dairy farm in Houghton Valley. (Stuff.co.nz)

Stone Age pebble may be oldest engraving ever

A colorful pebble bearing a sequence of linear incisions may be the world's oldest engraving. The object, which will be described in the April issue of the Journal of Archaeology, dates back about 100,000 years ago and could also be the world’s oldest known abstract art. It was recovered from Klasies River Cave in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. (Msnbc.com)

Rethinking the social structure of ancient Eurasian nomads: Current Anthropology research

Prehistoric Eurasian nomads are commonly perceived as horse riding bandits who utilized their mobility and military skill to antagonize ancient civilizations such as the Chinese, Persians, and Greeks. Although some historical accounts may support this view, a new article by Dr. Michael Frachetti (Washington University, St. Louis) illustrates a considerably different image of prehistoric pastoralist societies and their impact on world civilizations more than 5000 years ago. (EurekAlert!)

February 24th, 2012

Underground city is more than a curiosity

There are two Chattanoogas. The one we see, and the one we don't. The city we see bustles with restaurants, shops and gyms housed in buildings old and new, mixed like puzzle pieces between downtown city streets. What we don't see lies beneath the streets, a crazy quilt of yesteryear's commerce buried a century ago, but preserved in traces found in basements and passages that once were the city's ground floor. We don't see the town that Chattanooga buried to save the one we have today. (The Leaf Chronicle)

Mexicans find millennium-old game board

Archaeologists carrying out restoration at a site in the southeastern state of Campeche discovered a Mayan game board dating from more than 1,000 years ago, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said. A member of the team that found the artifact, Heber Ojeda, estimates the board was used between the 7th and 10th centuries during the Late Classic period of Dzibilnocac. (TheJapanNews.net)

Sarawak Museum to reacquire Niah Cave bones from US

The Sarawak Museum announced a plan to repatriate a set of bones from the Niah Cave that were placed in the custody of the University of Nevada, Los Vegas in the 1960s. (SEAArch)

February 23rd, 2012

Drought a Factor in Maya Civilization Collapse, Suggests New Study

Along with runaway slash-and-burn agriculture and mismanagement of resources, climate change has long been suggested by scientists as a cause for the mysterious 200-year decline of the Maya civilization. The suspect was drought, but there has been no solid data to explain the timing and gravity of any such drought period(s). Now, new research has produced results that give us some specifics about how this could have happened. (Popular Archaeology)   

PRE-COLUMBIAN STAR WAR STORIES EMERGE FROM STONES

Pre-Columbian star war stories have emerged from 23 stone carvings unearthed near the Great Temple in Tenochtitlan, the ancient Aztec center that became Mexico City after the Spanish invasion in 1521. Providing unique iconographic evidence for Aztec myths, the bas-relief sculptures lay embedded in a strip of floor in front of the Templo Mayor complex, Tenochtitlan's holiest shrine. Far from being purely decorative, the artistic carvings show symbols of death and crude representations in line with the Aztecs' bloody rituals. (Discovery News)

Earliest image of Mother Goddess found

The first-ever ‘Mother Goddess' image carved in sandstone rock — representing the earliest perception of idolising woman as Goddess dating back to 3 Century BC — has been found close to the Sri Chalukya Kumara Bheemeswara Swamy temple at Samarlakota near Kakinada in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. (The Hindu)

Ancient Byzantine wall damaged to make hotel

The walls of an ancient palace from the Byzantine era in Sultanahmet have been demolished to make way for a new five-story hotel, prompting anger from scholars (Hurriyet Daily News)

Discovering Jiangsu Province's Atlantis

For more than 300 years, the legend of an ancient city destroyed by flood and buried under Jiangsu Province's Xuyi County has lived on. Huai'an city's farmers often find bizarre rectangular stones in their fields. And vast amounts of broken tiles and piles of carved stones were discovered when a bridge was built in the county about 25 years ago. (News.xinhuanet.com)

Ancient rock art found in Brazil

Researchers have discovered an extremely old anthropomorphic figure engraved in rock in Brazil, according to a report published Feb. 22 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The petroglyph, which dates to between 9,000 and 12,000 years old, is the oldest reliably dated instance of such rock art yet found in the Americas. (EurekAlert!)

Shark curry dinner leads to 13th century medallion find

A shark curry dinner in Malaysia turns up an unexpected find – a Portuguese medallion that is thought to date to the 13th century! (SEAArch)

February 22nd, 2012

Rare Opportunity to Hear about Excavation of Ancient Port of Constantinople 

The N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh presents a rare opportunity to hear firsthand about the 2004 discovery and subsequent excavation of the ancient Harbor of Theodosius, the principal port of Byzantium or Constantinople, in present-day Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Ufuk Kocabas, Director of Istanbul University’s Department of Marine Archeology and the Yenikapi Shipwrecks Project, will present a lecture and question-and-answer session about the archaeological findings of the ancient harbor beneath the modern Yenikapi neighborhood of Istanbul on Thursday, March 1, at 7:30 p.m. at the museum (Popular Archaeology) 

Archaeologist Says Rockart Found at Local Paleoindian Site

The site of a possible Paleo-Indian solstice site recently discovered in Clarke County, Virginia gained new interest among members and guests who attended the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia (NVCASV) during its monthly meeting in January. Lead archaeologist for the site, Jack Hranicky, announced new findings to include what Hranicky reportss are stone art carvings located in rocks near the area of the initial discovery. (Clarke Daily News)

Archaeologists bringing Jerusalem's ancient Roman city back to life

If you look at a map of the Old City of Jerusalem, you'll notice something odd. While the vast majority of the Old City's streets form a crowded casbah of winding alleyways, there are a few straight-as-a-ruler streets that bisect the city from north to south and east to west. The best known of these straight roads are Beit Chabad and Hagai streets, exiting through the Damascus Gate; David Street, exiting the Jaffa Gate; and the Via Dolorosa. (HAARETZ.com)

Indonesian pyramids - just a pyramid scheme?

A column in the Jakarta Globe rounds up the current opinions about the supposed pyramids in Java, and points out the lack of evidence to support the theory and the lack of qualifications behind supporters of the theory. (SEAArch)

Malta: Workmen discover a Muslim cemetery

Roadwork excavations in Marsa have revealed the archaeological remains of a Muslim cemetery dating back to 1675, confirming historians' belief of the existence of a Turkish slave cemetery in the area. The find is being documented and excavated by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and an archaeologist specialising in documentation of human remains is closely following the investigation. (SOTT.net)

Archaeology: Acropolis of forgotten kingdom uncovered

Numerous archaeological excavations are underway at a huge site in Anatolia which will uncover an ancient and rich yet forgotten kingdom known as Tuwana from the darkness of history, which will be featured in an open-air museum. The news was reported by Lorenzo d'Alfonso, an Italian archaeologist leading the joint mission by the University of Pavia and NYU, who provided details on the excavation campaign in a press conference in Istanbul this month, during which the details of the Italian archaeological missions in Turkey were explained. (ANSAmed)

February 21st, 2012

Archaeologists discover Jordan’s earliest buildings

Archaeologists working in eastern Jordan have announced the discovery of 20,000-year-old hut structures, the earliest yet found in the Kingdom. The finding suggests that the area was once intensively occupied and that the origins of architecture in the region date back twenty millennia, before the emergence of agriculture. (Cambridge Research News)

Bronze Age hut found on Lipari

Italian archaeologists on Friday found a Bronze Age hut during construction work in a town square on the southern Italian island of Lipari. Roman-era Hellenistic slabs were also unearthed, archaeologists said. (ANSA.IT)

Archaeologists begin restoring ancient boat near pyramids

Archaeologists on Monday began restoration on a 4,500-year-old wooden boat found next to the pyramids, one of Egypt's main tourist attractions. The boat is one of two that were buried next to the Pharaoh Khufu, spokesmen for a joint Egyptian-Japanese team of archeologists said. The boats are believed to have been intended to carry pharaohs into the afterlife. Khufu, also known as Cheops, is credited with building the Great Pyramid of Giza, the largest of the pyramids. Khufu, son of Snefru, was the second ruler of the 4th Dynasty around 2680 B.C. and ruled Egypt for 23 years. (TheDailyNewsEgypt.com)

Spain sending military planes to retrieve treasure

Spain said Monday it will soon send hulking military transport planes to Florida to retrieve 17 tons of treasure that U.S. undersea explorers found but ultimately lost in American courts, a find experts have speculated could be the richest shipwreck treasure in history. (ArtDaily.org)

Armchair archaeology

After making aerial surveys of archaeological sites in Jordan for 35 years, David Kennedy has has set his sights on their equivalents across the border in Arabia, previously inaccessible to science thanks to the proclivities of the current Saudi government. (Ghost of a Flea)

February 20th, 2012

Archaeologists Excavate Magnificent Monumental City of the Decapolis

A line of fallen ancient columns remain in place today, undisturbed, configured exactly where they fell after a massive, devastating earthquake destroyed this city on January 18th, 749 C.E. They appear as though the event had happened only yesterday. Images of ancient Pompeii come to mind. But this was not Pompeii. Known as Antiochia Hippos (Hippos meaning "horse", or Hebrew Sussita, also meaning "horse"), its ruins are perched atop Sussita Mountain, an isolated table-top mountain that overlooks the eastern bank of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) in present-day Israel. (Popular Archaeology)

Jennings men accused of digging for human artifacts

The search for human artifacts at a Decatur County site once populated by Native Americans yielded the arrests of two Jennings County men. The same site was disturbed about six years earlier and also resulted in the arrests of two other men, Indiana Conservation Officer Stephen R. Miller said Sunday. (Tribtown.com)

February 19th, 2012

Scientists Turn to Archaeology for Clues to Adapting to Climate Changes

Global concerns about climate change, economic turmoil and cultural upheaval have often generated worldwide discussion through a variety of forums. For a number of scholars and scientists, some of the answers are being sought by looking at the archaeology of past societies to determine how they coped with change. Two scientists at the Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver, B.C., have unveiled their thoughts and research bearing on two very different cultures separated by time and distance, and how their adaptations have implications for modern society. (Popular Archaeology)

The Ligny Tower

The Tower of Ligny is an ancient bastion at the very tip of Trapani's city, in the western coast of Sicily island, Italy. It was Built in 1671 in order to defend the city from the incursions of the Turkish pirates. Claudio La Moraldo, Prince of Ligny acted on the Spanish king' s order to strengthen the city's fortifications. At the end of 2009, the city of Trapani conceded the Ligny tower to the Euploia association who transformed it into a museum. (technorati.com)

Fiddler's Hill: Norfolk Archaeological Trust takes over monument

The future of one of Norfolk's best-preserved ancient burial mounds has been placed into the hands of a local heritage group. Fiddler's Hill, between Binham and Warham, has been transferred from Norfolk County Council to the Norfolk Archaeological Trust (NAT). The deal is expected to lead to improved public access and historic interpretation on the bronze age site. The NAT said the 4,000-year-old hill is a welcome addition to their sites. (BBC News)

Ancient Goldmine Discovered in Ethiopia, Are We Close to Solving Biblical Queen of Sheba’s Treasure Mystery?

An ancient goldmine discovered on a hill on the Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia is said to be the treasure trove of Queen of Sheba, the biblical legend who traveled from Ethiopia to Israel to meet the king and showered upon him tons of gold about 3,000 years ago. Called by different names such as Balqis in Islamic tradition and Makeda in Ethiopian culture, the queen is mentioned everywhere in biblical history as the “Queen of Sheba.” Legend has it that she was charmed by Israel’s King Solomon’s wisdom and gifted him four and a half tons of gold that she had brought with her, according to Hebrew Bible. (IBTraveler)

Digital tools 'to save languages'

Facebook, YouTube and even texting will be the salvation of many of the world's endangered languages, scientists believe. Of the 7,000 or so languages spoken on Earth today, about half are expected to be extinct by the century's end. Globalisation is usually blamed, but some elements of the "modern world", especially digital technology, are pushing back against the tide. (BBC News)

Prehistoric prattle: Early humans liked a good gossip too

News Technology & Science By Mirror.co.uk Comments 18 Feb 2012 00:00 Prehistoric prattle: Early humans liked a good gossip too Buildings dating back 20,000 years show that hunter-gatherers came together to swap goods and even bury their dead Excavation: Jordan's earliest hutsLisa Maher Primitive humans were sociable people who met in large groups to gossip about the neighbours, experts say.(Mirror.co.uk)

Prehistoric cybermen? Sardinia's lost warriors rise from the dust

An elite force of prehistoric warriors – carved from solid rock in the western Mediterranean 2700 years ago – is rising from oblivion. Archaeologists and conservation experts on the Italian island of Sardinia have succeeded in re-assembling literally thousands of fragments of smashed sculpture to recreate a small yet unique army of life-size stone warriors which were originally destroyed by enemy action in the middle of the first millennium BC. (The Independent)