Stone Pages Archaeo News: December 2003 Archives

December 2003 index:

1 December 2003: Findings of ancient civilisation discovered in Vietnam; Archaeologists have found traces of ancient Vietnamese civilisation from 3,500 to 4,000 years ago at the Co Loa citadel in the Hanoi suburbs. One of the archaeological sites covers 132...
: Ancient cups show wine made in China 5000 years ago; A large number of drinking vessels recently excavated at Yuchi Temple, south China's Anhui Province, show the Chinese may have been making wine 5,000 years ago, almost 1,000 years before...
: Visitors Centre at Navan Fort to reopen; A major tourist centre for visitors to the historic Navan Fort in Co Armagh (Ireland), which was a seat of the historic kings of Ulster and was used in the...
: Evolution of Indo-European languages traced to Hittites; Languages, like people, are related. Russell Gray of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, reports in Nature magazine that he and a colleague decided to treat language as if it...
8 December 2003: Ancient stone warrior found in France; Archaeologists are delighted by a 2,500-year-old stone statue that offers a rare insight into life in western Europe before the Roman conquest. The stone torso, unearthed at Lattes in southern...
: Rare Iron Age burial unearthed in England; Archaeologists have unearthed a rare and nationally significant Iron Age burial site in West Yorkshire (England) – complete with a chariot, a spear and the 2,500-year-old skeleton of a Celtic...
: Ancient cave art found in Tasmania; Aboriginal rock art believed to date back some 11,000 years has been discovered in a cave in Tasmania's south-west (Australia). Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council manager Brian Mansell today said the...
: Submerged city may be the birthplace of modern civilisation; A submerged coastal city near Poompuhar in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu (India), is the focus of a major expedition being conducted jointly by the Indian Naval Hydrographic Department (INHD) and the...
: Oetzi moves into chilly new home; Oetzi, the 5,000-year-old man found frozen in the Italian Alps, has been given a new home - a refrigerated igloo in Italy, which experts believe will prevent him from losing...
: Discovery of buried megaliths completes Avebury circle; Archaeologists have discovered an arc of buried megaliths that once formed part of the great stone circle at Avebury in Wiltshire (England). Visitors to Avebury will see most of the...
: China's carving technology dates back to early Neolithic; China's carving technology could be several thousand years older than what many people think, as Chinese forefathers were already carving dainty images into porcelain and stoneware in the early Neolithic....
: Would eating a Stone Age diet make us healthier?; Supporters of the so-called Stone Age diet argue that farming practices introduced about 10,000 years ago are ultimately harmful to human health, and that if our hunter-gatherer ancestors evolved without...
: Enormous Irish monument discovered underground; Archaeologists already knew that a huge structure was hidden under Ireland's Hill of Tara, about 30 miles northwest of Dublin. In 1999 we covered a first discovery of a henge....
: English farmer unearths Ice Age trowel; A primitive tool made during the last Ice Age some 8,000 years ago has been discovered in a Lincolnshire field (England). Known as a perforated stone, it is believed the...
11 December 2003: Vixen Tor owner charged; The farmer who closed Dartmoor’s (England) Vixen Tor to the public has been charged with carrying out land improvements without an environmental impact assessment. Mary Alford, who owns the site...
: Iron Age chariot to feature in exhibition; An Iron Age chariot discovered in Yorkshire (England) last week is to go on display in an exhibition in Pontefract Museum next year. Dating back some 2,500 years, the chariot...
: Ritual burials excavated in Australia; Aboriginal elders in the Willandra Lakes region of New South Wales, Australia, have lifted a 20-year moratorium, allowing scientists to excavate and study newly-discovered human remains. The ban was imposed...
: 3,000-year-old dam found in Dubai; French archaeologists from the French National Research Centre working at a temple and fortified site near Al Bithna village, on the east coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, have found...
12 December 2003: Remains could lie under a proposed building in Wales; Experts believe important prehistoric remains could lie under a proposed international sheepdog centre near Bala, in North Wales. Gwynedd Archaeological Planning Service stepped in after realising there is a prehistoric...
: Isle of Man's Tynwald Hill deserves recognition; The Isle of Man has been continually let down by the British Government in its pursuit of world heritage status for Tynwald Hill, a member of the Tynwald House of...
: Early farmers may have warmed Earth's climate; Measurements of ancient air bubbles trapped in Antarctic ice offered evidence that humans may have been changing the global climate since thousands of years before the industrial revolution. Beginning 8,000...
: 2,700-year-old coffin unearthed in China; A coffin dating back 2,700 years was unearthed in southwestern China's Chongqing municipality during an excavation for rescuing cultural relics at the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River. Experts...
: Lemdubu Woman: when Indonesia was part of Australia; Back when Indonesia was part of Australia, a young woman left treasure in a cave. She was tall and strong and in her late 20s when she died about 18,000...
: Additional details on Goseck circle; In august 2003 we already covered the news about a German site that could be an ancient astronomical observatory. More details about this site are now emerging. A vast, shadowy...
13 December 2003: Arabian Iron Age site under threat; Agricultural development and the uncontrolled 'dune bashing' on four-wheel-drive vehicles may obliterate important clues to the rich ancient past of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) if left unchecked. This is...
15 December 2003: Ancient Peruvian site in danger; In the far north of Peru, about 20 km east of the city of Trujillo is a highly endangered archaeological site located in the Quebrada de Santo Domingo, a dry...
17 December 2003: Prehistoric site saved from development; The site of archaeological remains which are thought to date back thousands of years has been saved from development. An area occupied by a Scheduled Ancient Monument was at risk...
: Site restored by volunteers on Dartmoor; Volunteers from Tavistock Conservation Project have been helping to restore the setting of an ancient Scheduled Monument on Dartmoor (England), almost totally obscured by vegetation. The Pound at Deeper Marsh...
: Third dig planned at Cedar Creek; The archaeologists who excavated land near Cedar Creek Mall (Wisconsin, USA) are planning an in-depth dig in the area next spring or summer. Officials from the state Department of Transportation...
: Theft hampers archaeology site protection; Last June, while patrolling some remote areas in north-central Wyoming (USA), Ranger Jason Caffey discovered that a rockshelter that archaeologists had been excavating for a decade was looted, scooped out...
19 December 2003: Scottish heritage group gets cash boost; The Dalriada project which has been masterminded by a host of partner groups - including Historic Scotland, Kilmartin House Museum and Scottish Natural Heritage - has been given a £90,000...
: Ancient cliff paintings found in Inner Mongolia; Chinese archeologists have found a group of cliff paintings in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region that they believe are more than 2,000 years old. The 100-odd paintings were found...
: 30,000-year-old figurines discovered; Three tiny figurines carved from mammoth tusks have provided fresh evidence that the earliest Europeans were accomplished artist, according to a new study published in the journal Nature. One of...
: Buried treasure on show; Archaeological treasures found in Britain by enthusiasts with metal detectors were shown to the public as the arts minister, Estelle Morris, launched the annual report into unearthed artefacts. The minister...
20 December 2003: Group seeks grant to move the Panorama Stones; The Doctor Little Heritage Group is behind a bid to preserve the Panorama Stones, a group of rocks with ancient cup and ring markings, located in Ilkley (England). The group...
: An appeal to save the FUMDHAM; Niède Guidon, President of the Brazilian Rock Art Association (Associação Brasileira de Arte Rupestre) and Director of the Serra Capivara National Rock Art Park (Parque Nacional da Serra da Capivara)...
22 December 2003: Ancient tomb found in Cyprus; An ancient tomb was found on on Meleandros Street in Ayia Phyla in Limassol (Cyprus) by men working while digging a ditch. The Polemidia police and archaeologist Eleni Prokopiou of...
: Irish crowd for solstice watch at Newgrange; Twenty people squeezed themselves into a tight prehistoric chamber in Ireland on this year's winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, to marvel at an...
: Iceman discoverer claims reward; A German man who in 1991 discovered the 5,300-year-old iceman, Oetzi, in the Alps is now demanding up to $250,000 as a finder's reward. The provincial government of Bolzano in...
: Protest at Boyne battle site; A cross-border heritage group has been protesting against plans to build a rubbish incinerator near the site of Newgrange and the Battle of the Boyne in County Louth (Ireland). The...
: A safe future for Scottish ancient stones?; One of Scotland's most valuable historic resources could be safeguarded for future generations by a consultation document recently published. Carved stones, from prehistoric rock art to gravestones, will be the...
24 December 2003: Cave paintings being destroyed in India; A series of rare cave paintings, made thousands of years ago near Umaraoganj outpost on the Bhopal-Raisen road (India), are risking destruction by lack of proper conservation. Other cave paintings...
: Prehistoric 'Venus' carved on cliff in China; A figure of a pregnant woman carved into a cliff, known as a prehistoric oriental "Venus", the Goddess of love, has been discovered by Chinese archaeologists in Zhongwei county, northwest...
27 December 2003: Project to protect ancient Chinese capital; The municipal government of Zhengzhou City, capital of central China's Henan Province, will invest 500 million yuan (60.5 million US dollars) to preserve the historical site of Shang city, capital...
: Quarries threaten ancient English monuments; Revised proposals have been submitted to the Peak District National Park Authority for the reopening of the controversial quarries at Stanton Lees near Matlock (England). Stancliffe Stone Ltd is seeking...
28 December 2003: Invention of pottery may be linked to snail eating; After studying relics in Zengpiyan Cave in Guilin City, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, archeologists say China's most primitive pottery was made to cook freshwater snails. The cave represents...
: 8,000-year-old wine unearthed in Georgia; Scientists have discovered the world's oldest wine - a vintage produced 8,000 years ago. The find pushes back the history of wine by several hundred years. New discoveries show how...