Stone Pages Archaeo News: May 2004 Archives

May 2004 index:

1 May 2004: Another search for Atlantis off the Cyprus coasts; A quest for the lost island of Atlantis has begun off the southern shores of Cyprus. After a decade of study an American, Robert Sarmast, claims to have assembled evidence...
: 4,000-year-old artefacts found in Londonderry; Artefacts dating back around 4,000 years have been uncovered by archaeologists in Londonderry (Northern Ireland). The team, led by John O'Neill from Queen's University, was working on a Bronze Age...
: Lawsuit to protect Nine Mile Canyon rock art; Four environmental groups (the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance [SUWA], the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club) and one archaeological association (Utah Rock Art Research Association)...
: A new life for an ancient flute; Few Chinese people have heard of the yue, an ancient wind instrument that belonged to the flute family. However, this flute used to be an important instrument in many ancient...
: Eskdale Prehistoric trail; Illustrated interpretive panels, finger posts and a trail leaflet, link several outstanding prehistoric sites and bring to life this new way-marked trail in the parishes of Westerkirk and Eskdalemuir (Scotland)....
: Orcadian Crannogs project; Crannogs are small, artificial islands found in many of Scotland's lochs and inland waters. They are a class of monument not usually associated with Orkney. From the shore, most crannogs...
7 May 2004: Ancient cave in Central Iran dated to 15,000 BCE; Iranian scientists have dated a Paleolithic cave in the central Isfahan province at about 15,000 years BCE. Biologists at the university of Isfahan arrived at the conclusion after studying some...
: 'Kiwihenge' due to open in June; It took ancient peoples in Great Britain a millennium or more to create Stonehenge, but in New Zealand, a group of astronomy enthusiasts is building its own version in a...
: Welsh Bronze Age gold hoard declared treasure; A Bronze Age hoard of international significance has been declared treasure today by H.M. Coroner for North East Wales. Dating to the Middle Bronze Age, this hoard includes a torc,...
: Oldest Evidence of Bedding Found; An Upper Paleolithic camp, once submerged by the waters of the Sea of Galilee, has yielded the world's oldest evidence of bedding, according to Israeli archaeologists. Known as Ohalo II,...
: Biologists reveal source of civilisation; Academics have won more than £1M for their work to reveal the source of European civilisation. Keri Brown and a team of archaeologists and biologists are analysing the DNA in...
: Late Bronze Age treasure hoard unearthed in Surrey; The ancient stash, which includes two axe heads and the end of a sword scabbard, was discovered at Norbury Park (Surrey, England) on December 9 2003, but only came to...
: Dig shows Welsh were evolving at faster pace; During the middle Bronze Age, farming communities in North Wales were developing well, say archaeologists. The early Bronze Age had been characterised by communities based around monuments similar to Stonehenge....
8 May 2004: Unmasking Sanxingdui ruins; Some 100 years ago, Sanxingdui in today's Sichuan Province (southwest China) hadn't seemed to anyone anything more than a typical rural area, and just 20 years ago its significance was...
: Ancient Iranian site may date back 6000 years; The site of Gourtan, the most important historical area of Isfahan (Iran), is to undergo a new series of excavations to verify a hypothesis that it may possibly move back...
: Did ancient Britons use returning boomerangs?; A British historian has claimed to have uncovered the world's oldest evidence of the returning boomerang – in Yorkshire. Terry Deary says his research indicates a rock carving on Ilkley...
9 May 2004: Oman had ancient trade links with India and Africa; Archaeological discoveries in eastern parts of Oman have confirmed that the sultanate's merchants moved between the international civilisation centres in the third millennium BCE, according to a top official at...
11 May 2004: Druid Order's doubts over Stonehenge tunnel plan; Modern pagans are clashing with the custodians of Britain's most famous neolithic site over the fate of their buried predecessors. As it is known, British Government plans to dig a...
: Rock carvings found in Pakistan; A team of researchers and archaeologists has discovered a series of petroglyphic sites in the Khirthar mountain range (Pakistan) during their research regarding the activities of the ancient people of...
: 4000-year-old wood pipes discovered in Ireland; Archaeologists discovered a set of musical pipes believed to have been used 4,000 years ago by prehistoric man in Ireland, making them the world's oldest wooden instruments. The six wooden...
: Clues to early Americans sought at Fort Jackson; Small teams of archaeologists are digging up dirt and sifting buckets of soil at Fort Jackson Army training base to glean information about America’s early peoples. "The research potential here...
12 May 2004: Restoration of Nine Maidens stone circle; Archaeologists are starting work to restore one of Cornwall's prehistoric stone circles. Three of the stones at the Nine Maidens circle at Madron near Penzance (England) which have fallen over...
15 May 2004: Exhibit of Native American petroglyphs opens; A new exhibit of Native American petroglyphs opened quietly this spring in the Columbia River Gorge, which marks the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The region...
: Stonehenge road inquiry ends; The wrangling over the future of the roads near Stonehenge has come to an end, after almost three months of hearings. Since the inquiry began on February 17, Inspector Michael...
: Open air conference to save Silbury Hill; To save Silbury from further collapses and lobby English Heritage to 'Fix the Hill', Heritage Action group is organizing a protest meeting and open air conference to attract attention. Partecipants...
: 6,000-year-old human skull found in Shanghai; The skull of a man believed to have lived more than 6,000 years ago has been dug up in Shanghai's Qingpu District (China). Researchers believe the man was aged 25...
: Campaign to return 'Red Lady' to Wales; An Elgin Marbles-style campaign has begun to secure the return to Wales of the Red Lady of Paviland, one of the world's most important archaeological finds. The skeleton of the...
18 May 2004: Petroglyphs puzzle experts; An intriguing series of carved images on rock faces in the desert near Kalacha (Kenya) has generated a number of theories. But so far there is no consensus amongst experts...
: A hill or not a hill?; Following close on the announcement (Archaeo News, 15 May 2004) by Heritage Action Group of a conference to lobby for the proper conservation of Silbury Hill (England) a public enquiry...
22 May 2004: Ancient bones of mother and child found; Archeologists say an aboriginal grave they found during a routine survey in northern Manitoba (Canada) is 6,500 years old and contains the bones of a mother and child. They are...
: Kilmartin House Museum in crisis; Kilmartin House Museum is an independent charitable institution established in Scotland in 1994. The impetus for the museum was the rich archaeological and ecological heritage of the area, which includes...
: New recumbent stone circle built in Scotland; A Medicine man has helped build what he believes is the first stone circle for 6,000 years in North-East Scotland. Shaman healer Jason Schroeder planned and performed ceremonies to bless...
: 3000-year-old Chinese tomb found; Chinese archaeologists accidentally discovered a cemetery that may include the oldest tomb ever discovered of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century to 771 BCE). This find in Qishan County, Northwest...
: Ancient fort provides insight into history of weaving; Weaving has existed in the Middle East for thousands of years. And yet exactly how far back in the history of the region it goes is a matter of some...
: Legal fight over the future of Nine Ladies stone circle; Peak Park bosses and quarry chiefs are locked in a legal battle over the rights to extract stone from a controversial quarry where eco-warriors have been camped for four years....
: Golden find in Dorset is 4,000 years old; A day's metal detecting has unearthed an unexpected treasure - a 4,000-year-old piece of gold. The ornamental piece of gold is only the second piece to ever be found in...
25 May 2004: Perthshire Archaeology Week; Following on from the success of last year's event, Perthshire Archaeology Week is being run once again. A collaboration between local and national organisations, it aims to offer the general...
26 May 2004: A short life in Shanghai 6,000 years ago; The lifespan of people in the Shanghai (China) region, now famous for the longevity of its citizens, seldom exceeded 30 years in ancient times, according to current archaeological research. A...
: Plan to re-open Miami Circle to the public; The State of Florida (USA) is considering restoring access to the Miami Circle now that a federal study is looking at long term strategies for the 2,000-year-old artefact. The Circle...
: Commons reveal buried history; The first ever archaeological survey of Britain’s urban commons – protected from development as ‘peoples land’ for up to 1,000 years – has been launched by English Heritage. Four years’...
28 May 2004: 2600 BCE artifacts found at an airbase in Iraq; Thanks to some amateur archeologists serving with the U.S. 506th Air Expeditionary Group, an ages-old mystery is being unearthed at the Kirkuk Air Base in Iraq. Iraqi archeologists have determined...
: Derby housing may threaten a Bronze Age site; Derby residents (England) who have campaigned for more than a year against a proposal to build housing on a former hotel site (as we reported on a previous news) look...
: Ancient Native American burial uncovered; A family trying to add a room to their home in southern Indiana (USA) discovered ancient bones and Native American artifacts. Contractors started digging to build the home addition in...
29 May 2004: Large tomb group uncovered in China; Archaeologists have uncovered a complex of large tombs in Qishan County, Shaanxi Province, north-western China. The discovery was made at the Zhougong Temple site, where a joint excavation by the...
: American rock art under threat; One of the most significant Indian cultural sites in America has been placed on a list as one of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places." Nine Mile Canyon in Utah...
: DNA analysis of Mycenae shaft burials; A team from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology are applying DNA fingerprinting techniques to the elite shaft burials at Mycenae (Greece). After two years of form-filling...
: World record for Great Orme mine; The Great Orme copper mine on Great Orme’s Head, Llandudno (Wales) has been named the largest Bronze Age copper mine in the world in the 50th anniversary edition of the...
: Nine Maidens' restoration nears completion; Work to restore and repair one of West Penwith's (Cornwall, England) well-known prehistoric stone circles has neared completion, in a joint project between the county council's Environment and Heritage Service,...
: Neolithic ritual site discovered in Scotland; The setting for one of the most famous castles in Scotland’s North-east was first used as the site for a high-status building almost 6,000 years ago. A team of archaeologists...