Archaeology News for the Week of May 29th, 2011

December 2011, Daily News

Mon, May 30, 2011

June 4th, 2011

Moray site yields last-minute secrets for archaeology team

Archaeologists have uncovered some interesting finds at a Moray dig – just as their long-running excavation work draws to a close. Fraser Hunter’s team from Edinburgh were visiting Birnie to round off their latest project when they made some last-minute discoveries. Mr Hunter, the Roman and Iron Age curator for National Museums Scotland, has been leading the work at Birnie since 1998, but had to stop last year after funding ran dry. (The Press and Journal)

Musket ball at 'secret army' camp in Lochaber

A musket ball has been found in a part of the Highlands with close links to Bonnie Prince Charlie which was later used for training secret agents. Archaeologists said the find at Lochailort in Lochaber was post medieval and it would be sent to the Royal Armouries in Leeds for analysis. (BBC News)

lgarian-Italian Cooperation in Archaeological Research and Promotion of Historical Heritage Society

The Italian-Bulgarian expeditions during the last century in north-western Bulgaria have a significant role in the history of archaeological research. In the period 1941-1943 under the scientific guidance of Antonio Frova, who then acted on behalf of the Italian scientific expeditions to the east and of the Italian Institute in Sofia, were performed excavations in Gigen (Pleven), in the ancient colony Ulpia Oescensium. (novinite.com)

UF researchers unearth only stone mission church in St. Augustine

University of Florida archaeologists uncovered the remains of a more than 300-year-old building Friday in St. Augustine that may predate the famous Castillo de San Marcos fort. (PHYSORG.com)

June 3rd, 2011

Scientists dig for hints of ancient hurricanes

A sea turtle bone protruded from the wall of an archaeological excavation at the Pineland Site Complex on Pine Island.That bone, along with other evidence found in the pit, might prove that an intense hurricane pounded the island 1,700 years ago, said University of Florida graduate student Melissa Ayvaz, who is conducting the excavation. "We have evidence from one portion of the site that most likely a storm happened, but we don't know the extent of it," Ayvaz said. "My work is to characterize the extent of the storm and determine if it was one event or multiple events." (Asheville's Citizen-Times.com)

Mexico finds possible US remains from 1846-48 war

Archaeologists said Thursday they have found 10 sets of skeletal remains that may belong to U.S. soldiers who died during a battle in the 1846-48 Mexican-American war. The government experts said the shape of the skulls and bone measurements suggest the skeletons belonged to Americans who were killed in the battle of Monterrey on Sept. 21-23, 1846.(Las Vegas Sun)

Piece of jewelry a stunning find at Brunswick Town dig

A small, hand-painted piece of a pendant, decorated to look like a strawberry, is the most personal find he's had in his career. "That little piece of jewelry we found ... it's a very human part of archeology. It was picked out for someone, worn by someone, bought for someone," Beaman said. "I've been very fortunate in my career ... and I've never found anything like that."(StarNews Online)

New finds on the Plain

Archaeologists working with Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) conservation experts on Salisbury Plain Training Area (SPTA) have unearthed fragments of history dating back more than 6,000 years. A team from Salisbury-based Wessex Archaeology carrying out the dig for the DIO uncovered artefacts including a Roman cremation in a pottery urn and two 3,000-year-old prehistoric houses. (Salisbury Journal)

'Mystery' shipwreck artifacts will tell unwritten story about Civil War-era Mobile

A Gulf Shores company plans to tell a previously unwritten story about the Civil War era along the Alabama coast today by unveiling artifacts from a "mystery" shipwreck. (al.com)

'Intriguing' 1750s horse burial found in Rosemarkie

A horse burial site uncovered by chance during a survey of land for a proposed new house has intrigued archaeologists. The animal's skull and a selection of other bones were excavated at the plot in Rosemarkie, in Ross-shire. (BBC News)

June 2nd, 2011

Ancient Hominid Males Stuck Close to the Cave While Females Traveled, Study Says

A University of Colorado-Boulder study suggests that two species of early hominids, Australopithecus africanus andParanthropus robustus, sported males that generally preferred to stick close to home while their female counterparts traveled the countryside. The study results may also contradict the generally accepted theory that bipedalism in humans evolved in part to enable them to travel longer distances with greater efficiency. (Popular Archaeology)

No cheese for Neolithic humans in France

An excavation of a southern French burial site from about 3,000 B.C. shows that the modern humans who expanded into the area from the Mediterranean lived in patrilocal communities and did not have the genetic mutation that allowed later Europeans to digest fresh milk. (ScienceFair)

Female skeleton found in Mona Lisa search

A skeleton found in the former convent in Florence where archaeologists are searching for the remains of Leonardo's Mona Lisa may have belonged to a woman, experts say. (ANSA.it)

Little protection for archaeological sites in State

Archaeologist and University Grants Commission scientist P. Rajendran has said that archaeological sites from the Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Megalithic eras are facing neglect in the State.He said many of these sites had the potential to provide rich information about the people more than 3,000 years ago. (The Hindu)

Egypt's revolution may save Neolithic treasure

Egypt's popular uprising may have arrived just in time to save a Neolithic site that holds the country's oldest evidence of agriculture and could yield vital clues to the rise of Pharaonic civilization. (Reuters)

Lead Artifacts Reveal Their Age

There aren't many techniques for figuring out the age of archaeological relics made of copper, iron, tin, gold or lead. Now researchers have developed a method to date lead-containing artifacts based on a technique called voltammetry (Anal. Chem., DOI: 10.1021/ac200731q). The technique could have widespread use because many metal artifacts from antiquity, such as fishing nets, anchors, water pipes, jewelry, and cult figures, contain lead, the researchers say. (Chemical and Engineering News)

Here today, gone tomorrow? Saving Somaliland's heritage

When Sada Mire fled war-torn Somalia as a frightened teenager, the nation was descending into darkness, mired in the grip of a long civil conflict.But several years later, when she returned to the Horn of Africa as an ambitious archaeologist, her fierce determination and meticulous fieldwork brought to light the region's rich cultural heritage. (CNN International)

Wormlike Parasite Detected in Ancient Mummies

A tiny, wormlike parasite that plagues people worldwide also infected ancient Africans, new analyses of mummies reveal for the first time. The waterborne creature, Schistosoma mansoni, hitches a ride in aquatic snail tissue before emerging into water, where it can bore into swimming or wading people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (National Geographic)

June 1st, 2011

Ancient War Revealed in Discovery of Incan Fortresses

Incan fortresses built some 500 years ago have been discovered along an extinct volcano in northern Ecuador, revealing evidence of a war fought by the Inca just before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Andes. "We're seeing evidence for a pre-Columbian frontier, or borderline, that we think existed between Inca fortresses and Ecuadorian people's fortresses," project director Samuel Connell, of Foothill College in California, told LiveScience. The team has identified what they think are 20 fortresses built by the Inca and two forts that were built by a people from Ecuador known as the Cayambe. The volcano is called Pambamarca. (LiveScience)

Indigenous art at risk

Ancient Aboriginal rock paintings could disappear in less than 50 years. AUSTRALIA'S extraordinary collection of Aboriginal rock art is at risk from piecemeal recording practices and some sites are being degraded and lost before they have even been catalogued. (TheAge.com.au)

Statue of Ancient Egyptian King Found

A team of Egyptian and European archaeologists has unearthed a unique colossal statue of King Amenhotep III at his funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile near Luxor, according to a statement released on Tuesday by Egypt's ministry of state for antiquities. (Discovery News)

Unseen for 1,800 years: Archaeologists find 120m tunnel leading to 'funeral chambers' deep below ancient Mexican city

It has taken technology almost two millennia to break one of the greatest secrets of the ancient Americas. Archaeologists have discovered 'a recreation of the underworld' at the ancient city of Teotihuacan in Mexico thanks to a radar device. Researchers have only advanced 7 metres along the tunnel but the radar has revealed it to be 120 metres long and covered in symbols. It is thought that the passage leads to three chambers and may help explain the beliefs of the civilisation. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Seven New Maya Archaeological Sites Registered in Yucatan by INAH Specialists

Specialists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) identified seven new Prehispanic Maya sites and a high concentration of human burials in the town of Sitpach, located east of Merida, Yucatan. (ArtDaily.org)

Greenland cold snap linked to Viking disappearance

A cold snap in Greenland in the 12th century may help explain why Viking settlers vanished from the island, scientists said on Monday. (Reuters)

Marlborough mound mystery solved – after 4,400 years

For generations, it has been scrambled up with pride by students at Marlborough College. But the mysterious, pudding-shaped mound in the grounds of the Wiltshire public school now looks set to gain far wider acclaim as scientists have revealed it is a prehistoric monument of international importance. (Guardian.co.uk)

Roman ship had on-board fish tank

A Roman ship found with a lead pipe piercing its hull has mystified archaeologists. Italian researchers now suggest that the pipe was part of an ingenious pumping system, designed to feed on-board fish tanks with a continuous supply of oxygenated water. Their analysis has been published online in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology (NatureNews).

May 31st, 2011

Archaeologists Return to 'King Solomon's Mines' of Biblical Edom

A team of archaeologists and others will return to a site southeast of the Dead Sea in late September, 2011 to continue investigations of what is now considered to be one of the largest copper mines of the ancient Middle East. Among other things, scientists hope to be able to identify the ethnicity or nationality of the people who actually controlled the mining and smelting operation during the 10th century B.C.E., the time period when, based on the Biblical accounts, scholars have traditionally dated the kingdom of Edom, as well as that of David and Solomon of ancient Israel. (Popular Archaeology)

Pipeline work uncovers artifacts

About 200 years after a Warren County pioneer fired bricks to make his house, the dirt is still red. In fact, it's brick-red.

That was among the findings uncovered by archaeological work done to make way for a new gas pipeline. The state recently approved the reports about the work on two sites. (Cincinnati.com)

Blackbeard's anchor recovered from pirate shipwreck off NC coast

rchaeologists recovered the first anchor from what's believed to be the wreck of the pirate Blackbeard's flagship off the North Carolina coast Friday, a move that might change plans about how to save the rest of the almost 300-year-old artifacts from the central part of the ship. (MyCentralJersey.com)

NYC project IDs more than 4,000 Civil War graves

By the time the war ended four years later, about 200 other soldiers and sailors who died in the Civil War were buried at Green-Wood, established in 1838 in what was then a rural section of Brooklyn. In the decades after the war, thousands of others would join their comrades — and even some of their one-time enemies — at the historic cemetery. (FoxNews.com)

May 30th, 2011

Beneath Jerusalem, an undergound city takes shape

Underneath the crowded alleys and holy sites of old Jerusalem, hundreds of people are snaking at any given moment through tunnels, vaulted medieval chambers and Roman sewers in a rapidly expanding subterranean city invisible from the streets above. There is a smell of earth and mildew, and the geography recalls a Jewish city that existed 2,000 years ago. Archaeological digs under the disputed Old City are a matter of immense sensitivity. For Israel, the tunnels are proof of the depth of Jewish roots here, and this has made the tunnels one of Jerusalem's main tourist draws (ReadingEagle.com)

Azerbaijani and Japanese archaeologists to research ancient settlement in Tovuz region

The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) together with archaeologists of the Tokyo University will conduct excavations in the territory of ancient settlement Goytepe located in Tovuz region. (Trend)

Ancient site of human activity discovered in Eastern Ontario

An Ottawa archeologist has discovered a rare site of human activity in Eastern Ontario from between 3,500 and 9,000 years ago. Paul Thibaudeau, an adjunct professor at Carleton University, has been leading a team of archeologists, students, and volunteers collecting artifacts from a dig near Casselman, east of Ottawa. (Ottawa Citizen)

Amateur archaeologists unearth Pensacola's history

Chad Fitzgerald and Frank Phillips aren't your typical treasure seekers. Instead of dusty tombs or vine-covered temples, they explore their own yard. Armed with buckets and spades, they dig, unearthing bits and pieces of Pensacola's past. If one man's trash is another man's treasure, these amateur archaeologists are rich beyond measure. (Bradenton.com)

May 29th, 2011

West Texas prehistoric paintings get laser study

A complex colorful mural painted on canyon walls some 4,000 years ago in West Texas is getting modern laser treatment as researchers try to unlock its mysteries and protect it from the unintended consequences of a nearby reservoir. Panther Cave, among the best known of several hundred prehistoric pictograph sites that dot the rugged canyons along the US-Mexico border, is being scanned with lasers to produce a high-resolution 3-D image in efforts to gauge the mural's deterioration and detect images long ago erased by Mother Nature. They hope the project will help them preserve and decipher one of the oldest stories in North America. (Beaumontenterprise.com)

Runcorn dig uncovers medieval lion head

A bronze lion head dating from the 15th century has been found in Cheshire. The artefact, believed to have been a hat badge, is among 80 items discovered by archaeologists at a building site near Runcorn. (BBC News)

Penn Museum Begins Ground-breaking Project to Create Underground Image of Pre-Inca City

University of Pennsylvania Museum archaeologists working at the renowned ancient site of Tiwanaku in Bolivia site sometimes called the "American Stonehenge." Their three-year, collaborative pilot project, made possible through a 1.05 million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation, is called "Computing and Retrieving 3D Archaeological Structures from Subsurface Surveying." It seeks to collect detailed, three-dimensional archaeological structural data from approximately 60 subterranean acres of Tiwanaku--without benefit of the archaeologist's trowel. (Penn News)

Old Stone Fort state park reveals life 2,000 years ago

Visitors to Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park in Manchester today and Sunday will see how some of the state's earliest residents lived. The Old Stone Fort is a 2,000-year-old Native American ceremonial site. For about 500 years, the site served as a gathering area for people living in and around the eastern Highland Rim (dnj.com)

Argentina intercepts mailed pre-Inca mummy, skulls

The shipping label said the mailed package contained replicas of Peruvian ceramics. An X-ray machine used by customs agents discovered it really held three skulls and a mummy more than 2,000 years old. (newstimes.com)

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