December 2011, Daily News

Archaeology News for the Week of March 27th, 2011

Thu, Mar 31, 2011

April 2nd, 2011

HISTORY OF PERU SERIES – ANCIENT TEXTILES

Somewhat pre-Picasso, the Wari people and empire (Peru AD 600 to 900) were “abstract artists” abstracting barely recognizable yet iconic images from their cultural repertoire. Their art now informs directly the output –for example—of Or Tapestries (left), as it did the artists and architects of the Bauhaus school and hence the development of modernist architecture. (Peruvian Times)

Kashmiris populated Europe 40,000 years back: Study

An international study has found that Europe was populated by people from Kashmir around 40,000 years back and that they carry two to four percent Neanderthal genes – an ancient species of homosapiens. (Greater Kashmiris)

April 1st, 2011

1830-Era Shipwreck Found in Lake Michigan

A 60-foot, single-masted sloop dating back to perhaps the 1830s has been discovered in Lake Michigan. Holland-based Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates made the discovery at about 250 feet down between Saugatuck and South Haven, Mich. The group worked in collaboration with author Clive Cussler and his sonar operator Ralph Wilbanks of the National Underwater & Marine Agency (NUMA). At the time of the discovery, the group was searching for the remnants of Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, which crashed into the lake in 1950, killing 58 people. (Discovery News)

Ancient Tablet Found: Oldest Readable Writing in Europe

Marks on a clay tablet fragment found in Greece are the oldest known decipherable text in Europe, a new study says. Considered "magical or mysterious" in its time, the writing survives only because a trash heap caught fire some 3,500 years ago, according to researchers. (National Geographic News)

Scientists try to unlock Serpent Mound secrets

Scientists have been trying to uncover the secrets of Serpent Mound for 165 years. A new effort, which will include ground-penetrating radar and radiocarbon dating of soil samples, is to begin April 8 at the Adams County earthwork. (Community Press)

Prehistoric Fossil May Have Inspired Greek Myths

The bone of a large extinct creature, once treasured by the ancient Greeks, has finally found a permanent home in England. Known as the Nichoria bone, the blackened fossil is part of the thigh bone of an immense extinct mammal that roamed southern Greece perhaps a million years ago. The bone was collected by ancient Greeks and may have even helped inspire certain beasts in Greek classical mythology. It was then rediscovered 40 years ago. (Discovery News)

Millions of mummy puppies revealed at Egyptian catacombs

The excavation of a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the Egyptian desert has revealed the remains of millions of animals, mostly dogs and jackals. Many appear to have been only hours or days old when they were killed and mummified. (Mother Nature Network)

China: Dog stew pot found in ancient tomb

Archeologists in the northwestern Shaanxi province confirmed Thursday, after weeks of lab work, that the bones they found in a bronze cooking vessel from a 2,400-year-old tomb belonged to a male dog under a year old. (KunMing)

March 31, 2011

Researchers Explore Origins of Urbanization in Iraqi Marshlands

Looking at this land area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers today, one sees mostly desert with scattered settlements. In recent years, it has been part of the visible backdrop for combat and military operations, land patrolled by soldiers executing their duties in the war-torn country of Iraq. But below the surface, according to a team of researchers, lie what could be new evidence of the remains of ancient man-made systems and settlements that defined the beginnings of urbanization and the foundations of the great Mesopotamian civilizations that followed.

The dawn of beer remains elusive in archaeological record

Who brewed—and then enjoyed—the first beer? The civilization responsible for the widely beloved beverage must have been a very old one, but we don't yet know who first brewed up a batch of beer, Christine Hastorf explained in a March 10 lecture at New York University on the archaeology of beer. (Scientific American)

8,000-year-old remains of early Anatolians discovered in Istanbul

Two skeletons dating back 8,500 years, making them the oldest ever found in what is now Turkey, have been discovered during archaeological excavations in Istanbul's Yenikapı area. (Daily News Hurriyet)

Explorer's first trading post discovered in Manitoba

Two little piles of stones surrounded by scrub pine in northern Manitoba may have given archeologists and historians a physical link to one of North America's greatest explorers and map-makers. (CTV News)

More findings from Stanley Park High School archaeological dig

A large number of animal sacrifices found on an archaeological dig have shown Carshalton was likely to have been a key spiritual site in the Iron Age. (Sutton Guardian)

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March 30th, 2011

Indians, dogs were companions in life and death centuries ago

The close, personal bonds between humans and their dogs date back centuries in California, according to new archaeological research that illuminates the relationship between Central Valley Indian tribes and their dogs. The evidence: Central Valley Indians buried their dogs carefully and with ceremony. People and their dogs were often buried together, curled up side by side. Indian dogs were working animals. They defended the village by warning of intruders and helped procure food by chasing game during hunts. (The Sacramento Bee)

UC Research Explores Why Ancient Civilization Was 'Livin' on the Edge'

University of Cincinnati research is investigating why a highly sophisticated civilization decided to build large, bustling cities next to what is essentially swampland. (Innovations Report)

How a New Mexico Find Revolutionized Archaeology

The existence of Folsom Man and the projectile points he used to down massive, now-extinct creatures was revealed here in 1926-27, after the bones were found in 1908. Until those years, the theory held by influential archeologists at the Smithsonian Institute was that native people had only been in North America for about 4,000 years, said Steve Holen, curator of archeology for the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. (New West)

Jordan fights for return of its 'Dead Sea Scrolls'

Jordan has vowed to use all means at its disposal to recover a set of artefacts allegedly smuggled into Israel that it believes could constitute the most important Christian texts ever found. (Calgalry Herald)

March 29th, 2011

Jordan battles to regain 'priceless' Christian relics

A group of 70 or so "books", each with between five and 15 lead leaves bound by lead rings, was apparently discovered in a remote arid valley in northern Jordan somewhere between 2005 and 2007. A flash flood had exposed two niches inside the cave, one of them marked with a menorah or candlestick, the ancient Jewish religious symbol. A Jordanian Bedouin opened these plugs, and what he found inside might constitute extremely rare relics of early Christianity. That is certainly the view of the Jordanian government, which claims they were smuggled into Israel by another Bedouin. (BBC News)

Scientists Trace Violent Death of Iron Age Man

An Iron Age man whose skull and brain was unearthed during excavations at the University of York was the victim of a gruesome ritual killing, according to new research. (ScienceDaily)

Kansas evidence may predate Texas discovery

Michael Waters said evidence already found in Kansas might shake up archaeology soon. "Kansas is right in the bulls-eye for activity by the Paleo Indians," said Waters, a professor of anthropology and geography at Texas A&M and director of Center for the Study of the First Americans. (The Wichita Eagle)

Scientific Investigation of the Norwich Shroud

With the shroud unfolded for the first time (although still in need of much conservation attention) David Saunders, Keeper of Conservation and Scientific Research, Emma Passmore, Mellon Research Fellow, Caroline Cartwright, scientist, and I made our first visit to see what had been revealed on the inner surface. (The British Museum)

March 28th, 2011

Excavators dig up artifacts in Santa Fe

Archaeologists excavating around San Miguel Mission in Santa Fe have found everything from animal bones and pre-Columbian artifacts to a quarter-real Spanish coin from the 1820s and a 20th century school-tax token.San Miguel Mission is known as the oldest church in the United States. It was built in 1610, destroyed by fire in 1640, rebuilt in 1645, destroyed again in the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 and rebuilt again in 1710. (Kasa.com)

Experts: Tombs found at Jaffa excavation site not Jewish

Announcement comes after examination of site revealed burials contained pig bones, allowing archaeologists to conclude they were not Jewish burials; excavation has been site of ultra-Orthodox demonstrations. (Haaretz.com)

Ancient Egyptians made the arduous trek to Chad new research suggests

One line of evidence, which suggests that Egyptians travelled to Chad, is found in the archaeology of the southwest desert. "The Dakhla Oasis, situated some 300 km from the Nile Valley in Egypt's Western Desert, can be regarded as the most southwesterly outpost of pharaonic civilisation," writes Frank Förster in a British Museum article. (Unreported Heritage News)

March 27th, 2011

Million-year-old tools found near Chennai - India’s prehistory pushed back

Archaeologists have discovered India’s oldest stone-age tools, up to 1.5 million years old, at a prehistoric site near Chennai. The discovery may change existing ideas about the earliest arrival of human ancestors from Africa into India. A team of Indian and French archaeologists has used two dating methods to show that the stone hand-axes and cleavers from Attirampakkam are at least 1.07 million years old, and could date as far back as 1.5 million years. (The Telegraph India)

Phonograph records recovered from Gold Rush wreck

Conservation specialists have rediscovered the soundtrack of a deadly shipwreck from the Klondike Gold Rush, identifying three records found with a vintage phonograph alongside the sunken sternwheeler A.J. Goddard, which went down in a storm more than a century ago on Yukon's fabled Lake Laberge. (The Vancouver Sun)

Caithness relics protection call on wind farm site

Archaeologists have asked that Neolithic and Iron Age sites be protected during the construction of a new wind farm in Caithness. Npower Renewables propose erecting nine turbines at Burn of Whilk. While there are no known archaeological remains on the site itself there are five designated Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs) nearby. (BBC News)

The jars and ‘bombies’ of Laos

Circular stone discs lie near some of the jars. “These are grave markers,” says Yang, “and not lids, as sometimes suggested. Since lids for the jars are not found, it is believed they were made of perishable materials.” Archaeological evidence suggests the jars are funerary urns carved by Iron Age peoples more than 2,000 years ago. (bclocalnews.com)

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