December 2011, Daily News

Archaeology News for the Week of October 30th, 2011

Thu, Nov 03, 2011

November 5th, 2011

Long Pilgrimages Revealed in Ancient Sudan Art

Excavations of a series of medieval churches in central Sudan have revealed a treasure trove of art, including a European-influenced work, along with evidence of journeys undertaken by travelers from western Europe that were equivalent to the distance between New York City and the Grand Canyon. A visit by a Catalonian man named Benesec is recorded in one of the churches, along with visits from other pilgrims of the Middle Ages, according to lead researcher Bogdan Zurawski of the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences. (Live Science)

200-year-old mummy found in Dong Nai of noble descent

The Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism in the southern province of Dong Nai on Friday revealed conclusive findings of an excavated mummified woman in an ancient tomb in Cau Xeo commune in Long Thanh district. ) The 200-year-old mummy was discovered two months ago when workers were clearing the site to facilitate construction of the Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay highway road. (Saigon GP Daily)

Haul of prehistoric objects unearthed on building site

ARCHAEOLOGISTS working on a routine survey of a Scottish hillside have uncovered a treasure chest of historic artefacts dating back 6000 years. The find was made during preparatory work for a new housing development in Oban and is the biggest of its kind in mainland Argyll in recent years. (Herald Scotland)

Humans ventured as far as Torquay more than 40,000 years ago

A fragment of human jaw unearthed in a prehistoric cave in Torquay is the earliest evidence of modern humans in north-west Europe, scientists say. The tiny piece of upper jaw was excavated from Kents Cave on the town's border in the 1920s but its significance was not fully realised until scientists checked its age with advanced techniques that have only now become available. (The Guardian)

November 4th, 2011

Conquistador Was Deep in U.S.: "Stunning" Jewelry Find Redraws Route?

Under a former Native American village in Georgia, deep inside what's now the U.S., archaeologists say they've found 16th-century jewelry and other Spanish artifacts. The discovery suggests an expedition led by conquistador Hernando de Soto ventured far off its presumed course—which took the men from Florida to Missouri—and engaged in ceremonies in a thatched, pyramid-like temple. (National Geographic)

Magical Viking stone may be real

A Viking legend which tells of a glowing "sunstone" that, when held up to the sky, disclosed the position of the Sun on a cloudy day may have some basis in truth, scientists believe. (The Telegraph)

Medieval Graves Were Disturbed for Surprising Reasons

Once laid to rest, the remains of many who died in medieval Europe were not left in peace. As much as 40 percent of graves from the mid-fifth to mid-eighth centuries appear to have been disturbed after burial. Grave robbers, searching for wealth buried along with the dead, have frequently born the blame from archaeologists.  (Fox News)

Sex of Egyptian Child Mummy Remains a Mystery

A 2,000-year-old child mummy visited an Illinois hospital earlier this year so researchers could use imaging technology to look for clues to the child's life and death. (LiveScience)

Study finds dual causes for mass extinction in Ice Age

Ice Age beasts likely fell victim to a changing climate, and for some, prehistoric hunters, researchers concluded in a study published Wednesday. (USA Today)

November 3rd, 2011

First-Wave Pioneer Settlers in Quebec May Hold Keys to Understanding Human Evolution, Study Suggests

New research on the first colonizing pioneers in Quebec suggests that humans who were first in territorial expansion made a significant mark on the course of human evolution. (Popular Archaeology)

New Evidence for the Earliest Modern Humans in Europe

The timing, process and archaeology of the peopling of Europe by early modern humans have been actively debated for more than a century. Reassessment of the anatomy and dating of a fragmentary upper jaw with three teeth from Kent's Cavern, Devon, in southern England has shed new light on these issues. Originally found in 1927, Kent's Cavern and its human fossil have been reassessed by an international team, including Erik Trinkaus, PhD, professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, and the results published in Nature. (Science Daily)

The Goddess Goes Home

One of the world’s most contested pieces of ancient art: a 2,400-year-old statue of a woman believed to be Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. The statue, which stands seven-and-a-half-feet tall and weighs more than half a ton, had reigned since 1988 as the centerpiece of the Greek and Roman antiquities collection at the J. Paul Getty Museum near Malibu, California, the world’s richest art institution. Italian officials insisted it had been looted from central Sicily, and they wanted it back. (Smithsonian.com)

Serpent-Studded Aztec Artifact Found on Quest for Emperor's Tomb

Archaeologists found a round Aztec ceremonial platform studded with stone carvings of serpent heads at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin, raising hopes in the search for an emperor's tomb, authorities said Thursday. No Aztec ruler's tomb has ever been located and researchers have been on a five-year quest to find a royal tomb in the area of the Templo Mayor, a complex of two huge pyramids and numerous smaller structures that contained the ceremonial and spiritual heart of the pre-Hispanic Aztec empire. (Fox News) 

November 2nd, 2011

Technology Unlocks Secrets of Ancient Egyptian Mummy

A team of investigators use medical technology and analysis to uncover mysteries of a mummy from Roman period Egypt. (Popular Archaeology)

Evidence of Earliest Known Modern Human in Northwest Europe Discovered

Re-dating of a fossil human jawbone from a cave in England may help answer questions about the advent and spread of modern humans in Europe. (Popular Archaeology)

Modern work takes place on ancient coffin

FOR nine months, experts have been using a hyperdermic needle and catheter tubing to slowly restore a single 2,750-year-old coffin. A small team of conservators at the Ashmolean Museum are finishing their painstaking work to restore and preserve dozens of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in time for the grand opening of the new £5m galleries next month. (Oxford Mail)

Hidden History of Greenwich Revealed in University Study

The hidden history of Stockwell Street has been revealed in a new archaeological study commissioned by the University of Greenwich. Over the summer, a team of up to 15 expert archaeologists excavated the town centre site, uncovering hundreds of years of human activity in the area. (Science Newsline)

Linn Duchaill: Ireland's unlikely Viking capital

A windswept barley field just south of Dundalk seems an unlikely spot for Ireland's capital. But if things had been different, Annagassan near Castlebellingham might have been the principal city on the island of Ireland. Twelve hundred years ago it was the site of Linn Duchaill, one of the first Viking settlements, which rivalled Dublin in size and importance. (BBC News)

Joint Palestinian-American dig near Jericho yields clues about early Islamic culture

As the Byzantine Empire was in decline, Islam began to dominate the Middle East, with a remarkable culture that showed a command of technology and an appreciation of art and decoration, research by archaeologists shows. (UChicago News)

Solving the Mysteries of Short-Legged Neandertals

While most studies have concluded that a cold climate led to the short lower legs typical of Neandertals, researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that lower leg lengths shorter than the typical modern human's let them move more efficiently over the mountainous terrain where they lived. The findings reveal a broader trend relating shorter lower leg length to mountainous environments that may help explain the limb proportions of many different animals. (Science Daily)

November 1st, 2011

1,000-year-old human skull found on banks of lake

Two fisherman have caught a 1,000-year-old human skull on the banks of Lake Georgetown in Texas. Black said further down from Lake Georgetown, near the San Gabriel River, researchers discovered a cemetery dating back between 1,000 and 1,500 years old. He said the skull might have come from a similar site. (A Blog About History)

Prehistoric site is found at Cave Hill in Belfast

Archaeologists have discovered what is believed to be a prehistoric ceremonial site on Cave Hill in north Belfast. It follows a community excavation involving more than 400 people at the site of Ballyaghagan cashel on the Upper Hightown Road, which had never before been unearthed. (BBC News)

Chennai's links to ancient Rome found

Ancient Romans did not restrict themselves to coastal Tamil Nadu; they set up trading centres even far inland. A team of archaeologists exploring a dry lake bed in Naduvirapattu village, some 12km from Tambaram, unearthed a few days ago some artefacts, including broken pieces of amphorae (jars used by Romans). (The Times of India)

13th Century Mongolian Shipwreck Found off Nagasaki

Okinawa Prefecture's University of the Ryukyus has announced that large parts of a Mongolian ship presumed to have been part of a 13th century Yuan Dynasty-era invasion fleet has been discovered on the seafloor near Nagasaki. The find is the first intact wreck related to invasion attempts of Japan by the Mongolian ruler, Kublai Khan. (The Maritime Executive)

October 31st, 2011

Modern Humans Interbred with Archaic Humans in East Asia, Study Says

Latest research shows that modern humans and archaic humans, or Denisovans, were mixing it up about 20,000 years ago on the mainland of East Asia.

It is well-known today, based on various genetic studies, that some of the ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals, a closely-related human species or sub-species that lived 130,000 - 30,000 years ago in Eurasia.  Less known is information that has recently emerged about the possibility that modern human ancestors were also busy with at least one other archaic human species. (Popular Archaeology)

Aztec temple platform found in Mexico

Archaeologists have found a round Aztec ceremonial platform studded with stone carvings of serpent heads at Mexico City's Templo Mayor ruin, raising hopes in the search for an emperor's tomb. No Aztec ruler's tomb has ever been located and researchers have been on a five-year quest to find a royal tomb in the area of the Templo Mayor, a complex of two huge pyramids and numerous smaller structures that contained the ceremonial and spiritual heart of the pre-Hispanic Aztec empire. (3News.co.nz)

300-Year-Old Chinese Coin Found in North of Canada

A Chinese coin more than 300 years old has been found near a proposed mine site in Yukon in north of Canada. James Mooney, a cultural resource specialist with Ecofor Consulting Limited, spotted the coin while doing heritage impact assessment work for Western Copper and Gold Corporation. (The Epoch Times)

Pa. researchers unable to unearth Irish mass grave

The Irish immigrants building a stretch of railroad near Philadelphia in 1832 had been in the U.S. only a few weeks when they died—ostensibly of cholera—and were unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave. Their families never knew what happened to them.Nearly 180 years later, local researchers say they have a clearer picture of the men's fate. But their massive effort to unearth, identify and properly re-inter the workers' remains will not be realized; the grave is inaccessible, they say, and will remain undisturbed. (YorkDispatch.com)

Israeli archaeologists find tiny token of Christian faith from the 6th century in Jerusalem

A tiny, exquisitely made box found on an excavated street in Jerusalem is a token of Christian faith from 1,400 years ago, Israeli archaeologists said Sunday.The box, carved from the bone of a cow, horse or camel, decorated with a cross on the lid and measuring only 0.8 inches by 0.6 inches (2 centimeter by 1.5 centimeter), was likely carried by a Christian believer around the end of the 6th century A.D, according to Yana Tchekhanovets of the Israel Antiquities Authority, one of the directors of the dig where the box was found. (The Washington Post)

Egypt receives 122 stolen artefacts from Australia

After a decade of lying hidden in storehouses at auction halls in Melbourne, Australia, a collection of 122 ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman artefacts is to return to Egypt on 5 November. An archaeological mission led by Ahmed Mostafa, director general of the Retrieved Antiquities Department at the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), travelled early Friday to Melbourne to receive the items which are now at the Egyptian embassy in the city. (Ahram Online)

Spectacular Underwater Archaeology Photos by Wes Skiles

Octavio del Rio examines an ancient Maya skull, well-preserved in the low-oxygen environment of an underwater cave. The scene was captured by underwater photographer and explorer Wes C. Skiles, whose incredible images grace this gallery. Skiles died July 21 while filming and diving in the ocean off the Florida coast. His breathtaking coverage of blue holes is National Geographic magazine's August cover story. (National Geographic)

October 30th, 2011

World-Famous Anglo-Saxon Hoard Now in the U.S.

First discovered by a metal detectorist and then recovered by archaeologists near Hammerwich Parish in south Staffordshire, England in July 2009, more than 100 of the best artifacts from a hoard of 3,940 early medieval period pieces of mostly gold and silver alloy military battle items are now available for public viewing and examination at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C. (Popular Archaeology)