Stone Pages Archaeo News: September 2003 Archives

September 2003 index:

2 September 2003: Evidence of earliest European metallurgy in Bulgaria; A Stone Age fireplace and residues from copper smelting, both dating to about 6000 BCE, have been discovered in southern Bulgaria. Archaeologists say that the fireplace and copper slag are...
: Heritage agency may limit visitor numbers to Skara Brae; Architects and conservationists from Historic Scotland are investigating the impact of visitors on the ancient village of Skara Brae on Orkney (Scotland) following concerns that the monument is suffering serious...
3 September 2003: Prehistoric Indian earthworks still exist in Louisiana; Well before the construction of Stonehenge in England or the Egyptian pyramids, prehistoric Americans were building earthen structures. Today, these mounds yield evidence of peoples who were both primitive and...
: Ancient stone is modern art; An 'ancient' relic which had excited experts with its strange markings (as reported in Archaeo News on 30 August 2003) has been revealed as a modern work of art. The...
: 9,000 year-old stone axe found in Northern Ireland; A large stone axe has been discovered buried in a garden at Culmore, Derry, in Northern Ireland. The axe was uncovered when Hugh Gillespie was digging the foundations for a...
4 September 2003: Scottish Archaeology Month; As part of the European Heritage Days programme, the Council for Scottish Archaeology is running a range of events as Scottish Archaeology Month in September. All free of charge, the...
6 September 2003: The Royal Navy in search of prehistoric settlements; Wrecks and ‘drowned’ prehistoric settlements may be among the mysteries of the Solent channel (England) that could be discovered during the most scientifically advanced survey of the area, being undertaken...
: Did the early Americans come from Oceania?; The accepted theory of how prehistoric humans first migrated to America has been challenged by a study of an ancient set of bones unearthed in Mexico. An analysis of 33...
: New findings from under Miami parking-lot site; The archaeological site in the heart of downtown Miami (USA) is beginning to surrender its centuries-old secrets. Scientists digging, combing and filtering soil covered for 50 years by a parking...
: Aboriginal art at Ayers Rock is vanishing; Australian scientists are being asked to help to preserve ancient Aboriginal rock art at Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, which is vanishing because of wind, rain and vandalism. There...
: Farmers urged to protect ancient sites; Farmers in Northern Ireland are being encouraged to help preserve ancient sites by ensuring proper protection of archaeological sites on their land. Under the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) Scheme and...
: Culmore axe goes on display; The stone axe found in a garden at Culmore, near Derry in Northern Ireland, and mentioned in Archaeo News last week, has gone on display at Derry's Central Library on...
10 September 2003: Prehistoric agriculture in Wisconsin; Archaeologists have discovered the first hard evidence of organised prehistoric farming in Wisconsin (USA). The site, near Fabry Creek in the town of Union on the Door County peninsula, shows...
: Dartmoor archaeology threatened by bracken; The archaeological record of 10,000 years of human habitation on Dartmoor (England) is under serious threat from bracken invasion. Spreading at a rate of more than 2 per cent a...
12 September 2003: Ancient fish trap found in Alaska; While walking along the lower Chilkoot River (near Haines, Alaska, USA) just over a year ago, a Lutak resident noticed a pattern in some wooden stakes embedded on the bank....
: 30,000-year-old carving might be work of Neanderthals; Intricate ivory carvings said to be the oldest known examples of figurative art have been uncovered in a cave in southwestern Germany. The artefacts - including a figurine depicting a...
: Rare Paleoindian hunting camp discovered; University of Vermont archaeologists have identified what is unequivocally the first Late Paleoindian site (10,000-9,000 BCE) in the state - and one of very few known to exist in the...
: English village is 4,000 years older than thought; Archaeological discoveries by a student on her summer holiday have dated a Devon village (England) 4,000 years older than previously thought. Lympstone resident Charlotte Coles, 19, who is studying archeology...
: Iron Age skull found in English garden; A family in North Shields in north-eastern England uncovered a human skull while gardening. Carmel Healy was with her nephew digging in the back garden in Kirklinton Road, when he...
: Human remains found near "Miami Circle"; Archaeologists working on a construction site close to the site of the Miami Circle have found fragments of human bone. In all, a piece of skull, and four finger bones...
: Stone Age settlements found underwater in Britain; Archaeologists have stumbled across the first underwater evidence of Stone Age settlements in Britain. A team from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in northeast England say they found flint...
13 September 2003: Scottish Iron Age fort blaze sparks fear for relics (updated); Hidden archaeological treasures at the site of a Scottish Iron Age fort may have been destroyed by a massive fire which has burned for five days. It is thought a...
: Metalworking and mystery at Minehowe; The 2003 archaeological excavations at Minehowe in Tankerness (Orkney, Scotland) came to an end - but although it confirmed the extent and importance of metalworking around the enigmatic Iron Age...
21 September 2003: Warfare began after people formed villages; Warfare forms the backdrop of human history. But anthropologists, archaeologists and other scholars tend to disagree on war's origins: Some see it as an ailment of civilization and others say...
: Plea to walkers over relics; A Cumbrian museum has urged hill walkers to leave Neolithic relics where they find them on the fells. Stone axes are often found on Lake District (England) scree slopes, and...
: Ancient artefacts discovered in Vietnam; Archaeologists have unearthed more than 200 objects and a thick stratum of ash, animal bones and mollusc shells at the Rach Nui archaeological site in the Vietnamese southern province of...
: Prehistoric human figurine found in England; An insight on life 3,000 years ago has been provided by archaeological remains found at Hillfarrance (Somerset, England), including what is thought to be a carving of a human figure....
: Ancient Indian idols unearthed; Two idols of Jain Tirthankaras, claimed to be over 2,000 years old, were found while digging a tank in Parmarwali ‘gali’ of Chotila (India). The discovery has sent a wave...
: Protests against quarry plans; Environmentalists are protesting against a piece of west Devon countryside (England) becoming a quarry. The Dartmoor Preservation Association and the Ramblers' Association want to stop the china clay company Imerys...
: 5,000-year-old axe found near Stonehenge; Archaeologists have discovered a 5000-year-old polished stone axe head during an investigation of an area that forms part of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. Dating back to the Neolithic Age...
: Ancient rampart may pre-date Pictish fort site; A team of archaeologists have made a historic discovery in the back garden of a Moray village (Scotland). Burghead is already well-known throughout the world for its Pictish fort site...
: Prehistoric Iraqi sculpture found; A 5,000-year-old sculpture looted from Baghdad Museum in April has been recovered. The relic was found by Iraqi police and US soldiers in an orchard on the outskirts of the...
: Peeping at Avebury's prehistoric past; Archaeologists exploring Avebury's prehistoric past showed off their findings during an open day. The experts, who are halfway through the month-long Negotiating Avebury Project, thrilled crowds with a guided tour....
: Welsh version of Stonehenge is under construction; The Welsh version of Stonehenge is under construction. Tim Halewood from the Vale of Glamorgan is constructing the area's first solar lunar circle. The ancient timepiece, designed to act as...
: English henge for sale; A rural property is for sale at Marden, Devizes, Wiltshire (England). This 1.1 million UKP sale (corresponding to about 1,58 million Euros or 1,79 million US$) includes a "5 bedroom...
: Stonehenge referred to public inquiry; Transport minister Alistair Darling has announced that, because of the number of objections to the proposed Stonehenge (England) traffic scheme (Archaeo News, 30 August 2003) there will be a public...
: Mapping Britain’s drowned landscapes; The drowned plains and valleys of the North Sea and English Channel may soon be revealed by British scientists using a revolutionary scanning technique that can create maps as accurate...
23 September 2003: 4,000-year-old pottery shards in S. Carolina; Shards which may date back to 2000 BCE have been unearthed by a preliminary dig on a city-owned site in Beaufort, South Carolina (USA). Now archaeologists are hoping that the...
: Earliest British Cemetery; Aveline’s Hole, a cave near Burrington Combe in the Mendip Hills (England), has been scientifically dated as the earliest known cemetery in Britain. Radiocarbon dating of bone fragments originally removed...
: Oldest European human fossils; A male adult jawbone found in a bear cave in the Carpathian Mountains (Romania) has been dated to between 34,000 and 36,000 years old. The fossil belongs to one of...
25 September 2003: Change of diet during the Neolithic; Prehistoric man swapped a diet of fish for meat and vegetables as soon as the opportunity arose, according to researchers at Bradford. "In Britain it happened very quickly, in a...
: Scottish Iron Age Chariot proves link with Europe; Archaeologists studying an ancient chariot burial have found evidence that Iron Age Scots had far closer ties with Europe than previously thought. Experts examining the unprecedented find at Newbridge, west...
26 September 2003: Bronze Age necropolis found in Italy; How did the men of the oldest northern Italian populations organise their villages? How did they live and with what rites did they pass on to the other world? An...
: Prehistoric skull unearthed in England; A Quarry worker could have discovered proof of prehistoric life close to the River Trent (England). Part of a skull was found at a working gravel pit off Pasture Lane,...
27 September 2003: Cornish barrow withdrawn from sale; A Bronze Age burial mound which sits on a Cornish hilltop went under the hammer at an auction, attracting hundreds of potential buyers. But the 4,000-year-old monument, which has belonged...
29 September 2003: Extraordinary finds in Norway; Since May 2003 archaeologists have uncovered 100,000 items from the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages at one of the largest digs ever undertaken in Norway. The oldest artefacts have been...
: Prehistoric munitions factory found; A mother lode of obsidian nodules has been discovered at Ptarmigan Lake (Alaska), near the headwaters of the Nabesna and White rivers. Mass spectrometer analysis has revealed that the Ptarmigan...