Stone Pages Archaeo News: August 2003 Archives

August 2003 index:

1 August 2003: Downtown Miami digs unearth Tequesta Indian artefacts; Archaeologists have been excavating one of three parking lots just north of the Dupont Plaza Hotel in downtown Miami (USA) in search of pottery, ancient tools, and other artefacts of...
: Genetics helps scientists determine Basque origins; Genetics is helping researchers trace the migration of the Basque people, a culture that originated in East Africa tens of thousands of years ago. By first tracking the female gene...
: Doubts resurface over Siberian land bridge migration; Radiocarbon dating has helped determine that a Siberian archaeological site long held to be the crossing-over point for the Bering Straits land bridge to North America is actually much younger...
3 August 2003: Neolithic skeleton found in Russia; An early Neolithic burial place has been discovered in the Ulyanovsk region on the Volga, southeast of European Russia. Archaeologists found a skeleton apparently of a young woman who, in...
: 3,000-year-old Chinese earthenware restored; Some 700 pieces of earthenware made in the ancient Shu Kingdom have been unearthed by archeologists after they were buried thousands of years ago at the Sangxingdui Ruins in southwest...
: Ancient mounds get digital makeovers; Joe Saunders, an archaeologist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (USA), has participated in a statewide project designed to create a road tour of prehistoric mounds called the Mounds...
: Neolithic grotto grave found in China; A Neolithic grotto grave was recently found in Nongshan Mountain in southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, unveiling the burial secrets of the Luoyue people, ancestors of one China's largest ethnic...
: Tribes, archaeologists at odds over prehistoric cemetery; Prehistoric human remains and artifacts discovered in one of the oldest known cemeteries in the USA will undergo extensive analysis, despite complaints of grave desecration from several American Indian tribes....
: 12,000-year-old settlement unearthed in Israel; Israeli archaeologists said they had discovered a 12,000-year-old neolithic settlement west of Jerusalem which they believe is the largest of the period ever discovered in the Holy Land. The settlement,...
: Ancient sites damaged by farmers; Thousands of archaeological sites are being damaged by farmers, English Heritage has warned. Ploughs had damaged or destroyed valuable sites, including Neolithic long barrows, Roman villas, Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and medieval...
: Projects to preserve the cave pictures at Creswell Rags; The discovery of 12,000-year-old artwork on the walls of a North Derbyshire (England) cave could spur on a bid for World Heritage Site status. The find at Creswell Crags is...
: Ancient cities discovered in Yangtze Valley; China's Yangtze River was once home to an ancient civilisation, just as the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Indus rivers were, according to new archaeological research. A series of 13...
: Stunning number of ancient sites found in Scotland; Prehistoric remains hailed by experts as one of Scotland’s most significant archaeological finds in 50 years have been unearthed in the path of a major road development. Scores of pots,...
6 August 2003: Prehistoric Scottish artefacts on display; A new exhibition is showcasing prehistoric artefacts that have not been seen in public in West Lothian for over 5000 years. Monuments in a Landscape Objects from Cairnpapple was officially...
: Seahenge could go on display in 2005; Seahenge could go on public display for the first time in the summer of 2005. The future of the 4000-year-old Bronze Age timber circle has been the subject of fierce...
: Ancient well uncovered in Israel; Archaeologists have uncovered an 8,000-year-old well, one of the oldest in the world, in the north of Israel. Archaeologists Yossi Garfinkel of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem says the well,...
: Reports on archaeological finds in UAE released; Reports on UAE archaeological studies and discoveries were released in an international seminar held at the British Museum in London last month. The annual seminar on Arabian Studies was held...
: 9-year-old unearths prehistoric arrow; On August 4 Alastair Dunn, aged nine, turned up at Castle Howard, Yorkshire (England) for an archaeological activity session. In one move he rewrote the site's history book by 3,500...
7 August 2003: Excavation could change views on early hunters; Tenderfoot Mountain, a ‘mesa’ in the Gunnison Valley (USA) has provided evidence that may upset traditional views on the Folsom hunters, who roamed the Great Plains and parts of the...
8 August 2003: Phone mast may threaten ancient site; Concern has been voiced by archaeologists over plans to site a mobile phone tower near a Bronze Age monument. Planning officers recommended Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council planning committee approve...
9 August 2003: Oetzi the Iceman was from Italy; Oetzi, the hunter whose frozen remains were found in a glacier in the Dolomites in 1991, can finally rest in peace after a row between Italy and Austria over his...
: German site could be an ancient astronomical observatory; German experts hailed what could be Europe’s oldest astronomical observatory (discovered near the town of Goseck, nestled in the district of Weissenfels in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt) a...
15 August 2003: Arsonists destroy building at dig site; Arsonists have destroyed the site headquarters of a major archeological dig in Oxfordshire (England). The temporary building was set up next to Castle Hill, the site of an Iron Age...
: Houses excavated in Neolithic city Catalhoyuk protected; The houses founded in Catalhoyuk, central Turkey - one of the most ancient settlement areas in the world - have been recently covered with a roof for protection. After the...
: Archaeologists find 6,000-year-old statuette in Czech Republic; Archaeologists have found a unique about 6,000-year-old statuette of a human head from the Neolithic period near Postrelmov (Czech Republic), archaelogists' team head Vladimir Gos said. The statuette, which probably...
: Prehistoric statue discovered in Italy; Workers fixing the sewers of a small Tuscan village have discovered a mysterious statue which may lead to a large Iron Age warrior cemetery. A little over 2 feet tall,...
: Dig seeks clues to Indians who lived in Maine 9,000 years ago; Archaeologists and volunteers visited a site along the Kennebec River (Maine, USA) in search of clues about a group of American Indians who set up camp there 9,000 years ago....
: Amesbury archer on display; It is now over a year since archaeologists, working on a routine excavation on the site of a proposed new school in Wiltshire (England), unearthed the richest Bronze Age burial...
: 10,000-year-old weapons found in Canada; The discovery in the Lac Mégantic region (Canada) of three fragments of spearheads, believed to be more than 10,000 years old, is being hailed as a major find. The artifacts...
16 August 2003: Ancient superflood brought climate chaos; A catastrophic 'superflood' following the rupture of a massive glacier-dammed lake in Canada at the end of the Ice Age probably plunged the world into centuries of climatic chaos. That...
: Dúchas to be closed down; Dúchas - the Irish equivalent of English Heritage - is being closed down. Some of its functions will pass to local authorities and others to the Department of Environment which...
: Astronomical alignment of stones in Colombia; Two Colombian geology students doing field work for their graduation thesis discovered ancient irrigation canals and mounds along the Bogotá River, in Colombia. While mapping the Jaboque wetlands, they discovered...
: Pre-historic finds in Yemen cave; Archaeologists have discovered pre-historic stone arrow or spear heads alongside animal bones in a cave at Sana’a, in Al-Mazbad, Hamdan (Yemen). The Yemeni government has ordered that rapid measures are...
: Did Oetzi die in boundary dispute?; DNA analysis of blood samples found on the clothing and equipment of 5,300-year-old Oetzi the Iceman suggests that at least four different people were involved in the events that led...
: Mobile phone tower plans rejected; Members of the Redcar and Cleveland Council Planning Committee have refused consent for the erection of a mobile phone mast near to the Bronze Age monument at Guisborough (England). The...
17 August 2003: Volunteers needed for Scottish crannog survey; As part of the South West Scotland Crannog Monitoring project, a programme of loch and landscape survey will be carried out in Dumfries and Galloway, investigating prehistoric and early historic...
19 August 2003: Ancient spoon found in Cornwall; A 2,000-year-old spoon, used for scooping out shellfish, has been discovered at the site of an ancient village. The tiny, copper alloy metal Romano British spoon, the handle of which...
20 August 2003: Irish bypass site yields prehistorical findings; The site of the planned Dundalk bypass (Ireland) has yielded archaeological treasures dating back thousands of years. The Irish Archaelogical Consultancy is digging beneath the proposed route of the Dundalk...
: Bronze Age village uncovered in highway dig in Israel; An archeological excavation ahead of advancing highway construction crews in southern Israel turned up an 8,000-year-old Bronze Age settlement. Contractors working on a new trans-Israel highway asked the authority to...
: Family go back to Bronze Age at Flag Fen; A family has stepped back in time to experience life at the city's Bronze Age site. Six members of the Pogmore family are spending a week living in a Bronze...
: Ancient burial mounds found in England; An independent archaeological dig in a Cheshire hamlet, near the Welsh border, has emerged as one of Britain's most important excavations. Experts working on farmland alongside the Duke of Westminster's...
22 August 2003: Important Bronze Age finds in Ulster; As bulldozers prepared the ground for the new £1.9m Mid-Ulster Sport Academy at Tullywiggan Road (Loughry, Northern Ireland), a team of archaeologists were delving deep into Mid-Ulster's past on the...
: Ancient Welsh farm discovered; One of Wales' oldest farms dating back thousands of years is believed to have been discovered in a field in Ceredigion. Archaeologists were called in to investigate the site near...
: Young archaeologists discover new sites in Cornwall; A group of young people on an archaeological holiday in Cornwall (England) with the Young Archaeologists' Club (YAC) have discovered two previously unrecorded oblong, grave-shaped stone mounds on Minions Moor,...
23 August 2003: Early settlement site in Pennsylvania debated; Evidence that humans inhabited western Pennsylvania (USA) some 16,000 years ago - thousands of years earlier than most scholars believe - is still dividing archaeologists, 30 years after blade tools...
: 7000-year-old clay figure found in Germany; An ancient clay figure of the lower half of a male body believed to date back to the Stone Age has been discovered in eastern Germany, archeologists said. Workers digging...
26 August 2003: Rich finds in Macedonia; Recent finds at the ancient settlement of Archontiko, near Pella in northern Greece, have shed further light on the wealth, heroic culture, commerce and burial rituals of ancient Macedonians, following...
: More details about Aboriginal ancient rock art; As already reported in July 2003 issue of Archaeo News, more details are emerging about the discovery of an unusually rare and pristine cache of ancient Aboriginal rock art in...
29 August 2003: Opportunity to visit ancient roundhouses; The developers and archaeologists working on the site of a proposed housing development at Knockomie, near Forres (Scotland), where two roundhouses have been discovered, said this week that visitors to...
: Skip yard could threaten Bronze Age site; A proposed skip yard near Waddon Ponds (England) could drain the River Wandle and destroy the remains of a Bronze Age settlement, a local historian has warned. Plans to house...
: Stone circle discovered near Callanish (updated); An ancient stone circle, buried for more than 3,000 years, has been uncovered by archaeologists on a ridge overlooking the famous Callanish standing stones, on the Isle of Lewis (Scotland)....
30 August 2003: 43 new archaeological sites discovered in Vietnam; A survey has revealed 43 sites of archaeological potential, with most dating back to the Neolithic, in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum (Vietnam). Jointly conducted by Vietnam’s Institute...
: Chance discovery of petroglyphs by holiday maker; A holiday maker has stumbled upon elaborate carvings on a granite boulder which has been part of the sea defences of the Norfolk resort of Gorleston (England) for the past...
: Illegal quarrying destroys prehistoric caves; Ten years of illegal stone quarrying have destroyed prehistoric rock shelters and irreplaceable cave paintings in the villages of Rasulpur and Patsal, near Fatehpur Sikri in Uttar Predesh (India). The...
: Stonehenge protests – deadline looms; A number of organisations are marshalling support and preparing objections to the Government’s road development plans for the Stonehenge World Heritage Site before the imminent deadline of September 4th. If...