3,500-year-old remains unearthed in Cornwall

A 3,500-year-old Bronze Age skeleton, found beside a beach, could be a tribal chieftain, archaeologists believe. The discovery of the middle-aged man's remains and burial casket, or cisk, was made by an amateur archaeologist, Trevor Renals, as walked on Constantine Island, North Cornwall (England). It was regarded as unusual because cremation rather than burial was popular in the bronze-age period and skeletons are not normally found in such a well preserved state.
     A spokesman for the National Trust, which owns the land, said: "As soon as we found out we had to make arrangements for it to be excavated because of the danger of it going into the sea. It is believed the man was from the middle bronze age, between 1380 and 1100 BCE, and he may have been an important member of his community. The spokesman added: "We don't know how tall he would have been because the long bones were fragmented. Little is known about him but he may have been of importance to the small community that he would have come from as it appears that special care was taken over his burial.
     Mr Renals said: "I was walking along the coast, which is a particularly rich area for remains. I was actually looking for flint and there was one area that was particularly eroded from pedestrian access. While searching one particular area I found a front tooth and another piece of bone and I looked to see where it had come from. I could see from the bit of flint sticking out of the ground that it was actually a stone-lined cisk."
     The discovery was made last October but it has taken nearly a year for the remains to removed, and carbon dated.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk (15 August 2008)

  Ancient souterrain unearthed in an Irish garden

An ancient underground chamber which could date back 2,000 years has been unearthed near Clonmany in Inishowen (Co. Donegal, Ireland). Discovered by Clonmany man Sean Devlin, the previously unrecorded structure appears to be an underground tunnel or souterrain.
     Mr Devlin revealed that he first discovered the underground chamber several years ago while landscaping his front garden, but didn't make much of a fuss about his amazing find at the time. The historic significance of the tunnel only became apparent recently after Mr Devlin showed it to amateur archaeologist friends. "I knew it was an exciting find and I did show it to some people but never to any real experts," Mr Devlin said. "I had been doing my lawn and dug it out accidentally with a digger. It was a big round circle with a tiny dark tunnel leading off it which seems to go quite far."
     Souterrains are underground man-made drystone built structures roofed with large lintels, comprising of one or more chambers linked by tunnels called creepways. Their entrance is concealed at ground level.
     Mr Devlin says he may try to improve the underground chamber: "My children couldn't believe it when we found it - it was great. And the tunnel seems structurally safe and dry so eventually I might do it up and maybe try and put some kind of lights in there to make going in there a bit easier."
     Long time amateur archaeologist Eddie Harkin, who visited and examined this fascinating structure with colleagues Tommy Gallagher and Brian MacNeachtain, confirmed that it has at least three chambers with a creepway linking each one. In one chamber Mr Harkin says there is a quantity of bones - which may or may not be human - deposited in niches along one side of the souterrain wall. He also found part of a quern stone as well as a quantity of shells.
     A member of his local heritage group, Mr Devlin says he is delighted to have discovered this ancient monument in his garden and he hopes to learn more about it when an archaeologist from Dublin examines it some time soon.

Source: Derry Journal (15 August 2008)

  The Ancient Skies film project

Ancient Skies will be a 4k resolution 'FullDome' planetarium show that explores the relationship between ancient cultures and the night sky - principally the Megalithic of Northern Europe - and will be the first to showcase the emerging science of Archaeo-Astronomy. With the sponsorship of one of the world's top 3 Planetarium companies, SKY-SKAN, an extensive pre-production phase has just been completed, with 60 minutes of location material shot principally in digital timelapse under motion control. A dedicated page for the project is available at
www.pmwcreative.org/ancient_skies.html. You can also view online 'The Empire of Stone': a compilation of the best of the material from the pre-production shoots.

Source: The Modern Antiquarian (15 August 2008)

  Three Neolithic skulls found in Galilee

Archaeologists have discovered three 9,000-year-old skulls at the Yiftah'el dig in the Lower Galilee, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. Experts said the placement of the skulls confirms the worship of ancestors from during that time, practiced by displaying skulls inside houses. The skulls were apparently placed on benches in a house where they would inspire the younger generation to continue in the ways of their forefathers. A similar custom was also identified in Syria, Turkey and Jordan.
     The skulls are 8,000-9,000 years old and were buried in a pit adjacent to an excavated large public building. They were discovered during excavations for a new highway interchange. "The skulls were found plastered – that is to say sculpted – which is a phenomenon that is identified with the Neolithic," said site director Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily. "The practice included the reconstruction of all of the facial features of the deceased by means of sculpting the skull with a variety of materials such as plaster that was specifically intended for this. On the skulls that were found in the excavation the nose was entirely reconstructed."
     The pit where the skulls were found showed depressions that probably were used for graves underneath floors. Dr. Khalaily explained, "Some time thereafter, the residents would dig up the grave, retrieve the skull from the rest of the skeleton and recover the grave. Later they would then mold the skull in the image of the deceased and keep it inside the house. This custom is known in the scientific literature as 'ancestor worship.'"
     The three molded skulls that were found at Yiftah'el join 15 other similar skulls that have been found to date.

Sources: Thaindian News (14 August 2008), Arutz Sheva (17 August 2008)

  Ancient cemetery found in the Sahara desert

Dinosaur hunters have stumbled across the largest and oldest Stone Age cemetery in the Sahara desert. Paleontologist Paul Sereno and his team were scouring the rocks between harsh dunefields in northern Niger for dinosaur bones in 2000 when they stumbled across the graveyard, on the shores of a long-gone lake. Excavation seasons in 2005 and 2006 have revealed 200 burials of two vastly different cultures that span five thousand years — the first time such a site has been found at a single site.
     Called Gobero, the area is a uniquely preserved record of human habitation and burials from the Kiffian (7700 to 6200 BCE) and the Tenerian (5200 to 2500 BCe) cultures, says a new study led by Sereno of the University of Chicago. The find also offers a new window into how these tribes lived and buried their dead during the extreme Holocene period, when a grassy Sahara dried up in the world's largest desert.
     One of the most striking discoveries was what the research team calls the 'Stone Age Embrace': A woman, possibly a mother, and two children laid to rest holding hands, arms outstretched toward each other, on a bed of flowers.
     A wobble in Earth's orbit—along with other environmental factors that occurred about 12,000 years ago—brought intense monsoons to the Sahara, greening the desert and attracting a wave of human inhabitants, according to Sereno and colleagues. Scientists already knew that the hunter-gatherer Kiffian occupied the region during a temperate phase. Between 6200 and 5200 BCE, one of the most severe climatic fluxes in that period's history desiccated the land and forced people out, the authors say. Soon afterward a second group arrived, the Tenerian.
But evidence of such population shifts rested largely on tool artifacts, with few human skeletons to analyze—until now.
     The team discovered that the older group, the Kiffian, were buried with harpoon points and bone fishhooks, along with 6-foot (1.8-meter) Nile perch skeletons. The presence of the fish bones and tools suggested the lake water was deeper around 7000 BCE, though probably no more than ten feet deep (3 meters), Sereno said. A ridge on a male Kiffian thighbone also told bioarchaeologist Chris Stojanowski of Arizona State University that the people had huge leg muscles, likely from a high-protein diet and strenuous lifestyle.
     The Tenerian thighbone, on the other hand, had a smaller ridge, indicating a smaller build. To adapt to an arid climate, Tenerians had a more diverse palate, including clams, fish, and savanna animals, the study says. Their burials often included jewelry or ritual poses. For example, one girl had an upper-arm bracelet carved from a hippo tusk. An adult Tenerian male was buried with his skull resting on part of a clay vessel; another adult male was interred seated on the shell of a mud turtle. The most striking find occurred in 2006, when the researchers uncovered what they say is Africa's first triple burial. A petite, 40-year-old Tenerian woman lay on her side, facing two children, an 8-year-old and a 5-year-old. Their entwined arms reached out and their hands clasped in an embrace. These individuals died from undetermined causes 5,300 years ago.
     Stefan Krõpelin, of the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne, finds the site impressive. But he points out that it is a single location situated in a unique landscape at the foot of the Aïr Mountains, and shouldn't be linked to broader ancient climatic changes in the Sahara. Krõpelin doubts there will be much support for the theory of a thousand-year break in rainfall throughout the entire Sahara around 6200 to 5200 BCE. But Sereno said that the general climate record, bolstered by lake-core samples and solid animal and pollen evidence, points to this "arid interruption" period that separates the Kiffian and Tenerian.

Sources: National Geographic News, ScienceNews, The New York Times (14 August 2008), Associated Press, Fox News (15 August 2008)

  Grave robbers strike Bronze Age tomb in Sussex

Archaeologists excavating an enigmatic burial mound in Sussex (England) believe that grave robbers beat them to the prize of finding the remains of a Bronze Age chief.
     Racing against time to date a burial mound on the cliffs at Peacehaven Heights in East Sussex before it collapses into the sea, they have found evidence of human occupation of the site spanning back to 8,000 years BCE. But the prize was to find the remains of the warrior chief who was placed there in the Bronze Age, when the burial mound was built some 2000-3000 years ago.
     Many such mounds were built in the Bronze Age, often in high places, to mark the burial of a local chief. With him would have been placed grave goods such as beads, bone pins, pottery, even gold artefacts. However, the team found pottery and a clay pipe dating from the 1700-1800s, which suggests that robbers had excavated the mound then, said Susan Birks, who has led the effort by the Brighton & Hove Archaeological Society and the Mid Sussex Field Archaeological Team.
     Ms Birks said that although only one quarter of the mound has been excavated so far, it now looks likely the grave goods and remains were taken. However, she stressed that many other valuable finds have come to light. The presence of a small pits and possible post holes in the ground suggest there may have secondary cremations placed around the chief - a practice that may have been copied centuries later by the Romans.
     The excavations carried out over the past two weeks have also uncovered tools dating back to the Mesolithic period, some 8000 years ago, when the area may have been wooded and people were hunting animals, foraging for nuts and berries and making their camps in the area. A flint arrowhead was found from the late Neolithic period, some 5000 years ago, when the earliest farmers settled on the land, along with numerous pieces of pottery.
     The burial mound is perilously close to the edge of the cliff at Peacehaven Heights and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The pace of coastal erosion means it is likely that the barrow will be unsafe to access within the next few years and will probably disappear altogether within the next 25 years. Any finds will be donated to the Brighton & Hove Museum.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk (13 August 2008)

  5000 years ago women in control of Burnt City

Recent studies of a team of archeologists have shown that 5000 years ago (3200 BCE) women had the economic control of the Burnt City, a Bronze Age urban settlement associated with the Jiroft civilization and located in Iran.
     Some paleo-anthropologists believe that mothers in the Burnt City had social and financial prominence, director of the team working at the Burnt City said recently.  Addressing the archaeology students at Zabol University, Seyed Mansour Seyed Sajjadi said that 5000 year-old insignias, made of river pebbles and believed to belong only to distinguished inhabitants of the city, were found in the graves of some female citizens. "Some believe the female owners of the insignias used them to place their seal on valuable documents. Others believe the owners may have used the seal to indicate their lofty status in society", he added.
     In December 2006, archaeologists discovered the world's earliest artificial eyeball in the city's necropolis, thought to have been worn by a female resident of the Burnt City. Microscopic research has revealed that the eye socket of the female remains bear clear imprints of the golden thread, suggesting that the woman must have worn the eyeball during her lifetime. With her shining golden eye she must have been a striking figure, perhaps a soothsayer or an oracle. The woman with the artificial eye was 1.82 m tall (6 feet), much taller than the average women of her time. Experts say that her skeleton dates to between 2900 and 2800 BC, when the Burnt City was a bustling, wealthy city and trading post at the crossroads of the East and the West. It is thought that the woman may have arrived at the city on a caravan from Arabia. Archeologists have not yet revealed the cause of the woman's death. 
     Paleopathological studies on 40 teeth unearthed in the Burnt City's cemetery show that the inhabitants of the city used their teeth as a tool for weaving to make baskets and other handmade products. The use of teeth as a tool in the Burnt City is seen in both males and females of different age groups. Evidence shows that weaving was more than a hobby in the prehistoric city. It was one of the most common professions in the city which required a special skill. Residents made a variety of weaved products such as carpets, baskets and other household items.
     The Burnt City has been continually excavated since the 1970s by Iranian and Italian archaeological teams, with new discoveries periodically reported. Covering an area of 151 hectares, the city was built around 3200 BCE and abandoned over a millennium later in 2100 BCE.  The city experienced four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. It took its eventual named because it was never rebuilt after the last fire.

Source: IranMania (12 August 2008)

  Skeletons uncovered during tube excavations in Turkey

Human skeletons, which experts say could be more than 8,000 years old, were found in four prehistoric graves recently unearthed at the Marmaray tunnel excavation site in the Yenikapı district of Istanbul (Turkey).
     "These graves reveal Istanbul used to be home to some of the earliest types of settlements during the Stone Age when people migrated from Anatolia to the European continent," said Mehmet Özdoğan, professor of prehistory at Istanbul University. "They also show that the Marmara Sea used to be a small and shallow water in ancient times." Özdoğan said the graves, two of which were smaller than the others, might date back to between 6,400 BCE and 6,200 BCE. The human skeletons were the oldest skeletons unearthed so far during the Marmaray project, which will be the first underwater tube to connect Europe and Asia beneath the Bosporus. He said the site was plastered and the Stone Age skeletons have been moved to the Istanbul Archeology Museum. 
     Excavations on the area where tube station will be constructed are lingering due to the discovery of new relics one after the other. The excavations in Yenikapı started on a 58,000-square-meter area in 2004. Some archaeological excavations have been held on about 30,000 square meters so far.

Source: Turkish Daily News (11 August 2008)

  4,500-year-old artifacts found in South Carolina

Archaeologists have found artifacts dating back as far as 4,500 years at the site of what will become a new Bluffton elementary school,  in South Carolina (USA). While doing preliminary testing on the site an arrowhead made of coastal plain chert, a flint-like rock, between 1,000 and 1,500 years old and two arrowhead flakes, a piece of clay pottery from the same period and a quartz stone used as a hammer that's more than 4,500 years old to fashion tools - including arrowheads - have been found last May.
     Archaeologists from S&ME, a Columbia engineering company, found the artifacts buried up to a yard under the surface of the ground, said Bill Green, the company's principal archaeologist and cultural resource department manager. The site is about 250 feet by 50 feet, he said. "We can't really tell much based on five artifacts," Green said. But he said some of them may have been part of a short-term encampment.
     The find was not particularly uncommon, Green said. Beaufort County has more than 2,000 dig sites named as part of the National Register of Historic Places. The elementary school site may be eligible for the list as well, he said.
     The artifacts are being kept at S&ME in Columbia and will be given to the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. The pieces were found far from where an elementary school will be built and open in 2012.

Source: Beaufort Gazette (10 August 2008)

  German scientists dig for their own Stonehenge

Archaeologists have discovered traces of a Bronze Age place of worship in Germany in what they say might be the country's answer to Stonehenge. Scientists from a university in Halle are excavating a roughly 4,000 year-old circular site in eastern Germany which contains graves that bear a strong resemblance to Stonehenge.
     "It is the first finding of this kind on the European mainland which we have been able to fully excavate and which shows a structure we have until now only seen in Britain," Andre Spatzier, head of the excavation team, said. He thinks rituals and ceremonies took place at the site: "The way it is built, with many concentrated rings of graves, walls, palisades and pillars are very similar to the British monument at Stonehenge," added Spatzier.
     The site, near the town of Poemmelte, was discovered through aerial photos which showed the formation of the graves in a ring with a diameter of about 80 meters. One difference to Stonehenge, however, is that the remains are made out of wood rather than stone.
     So far the scientists have found few items such as bones or pieces of glass, but they expect to find more as the dig continues. The final results are expected to take up to three years.

Source: Reuters (6 August 2008)