Stone Pages Archaeo News: December 2004 Archives

December 2004 index:

3 December 2004: More debates over Cypriot Bronze Age site; The row over whether a Turkish Cypriot construction company should be allowed to build on the site of a Bronze Age necropolis in the village of Kazafani outside Kyrenia resurfaced...
: 4,000-year-old axe found by a 6-year-old boy; When Jak MacDonald picked up a pebble on a beach, he had no idea he was holding an artefact shaped by a craftsman 4,000 years ago. The six-year-old, from Broughton...
: Neolithic settlement found in England; Archaeologists believe that ancient artifacts uncovered at a Cambridge village college are evidence from a 5,000-year-old settlement. Pits containing neolithic remains of arrowheads, pottery and knives have been found at...
: Tourists jailed for stealing ancient objects; Five German tourists who went missing in the Sahara desert have been jailed by an Algerian court for stealing protected ancient archaeological artifacts from Tissili National Park, including a number...
: Bronze age boat to be recreated; Archaeologists are planning to build a copy of an ancient boat found in Dover and sail it from Britain to France. The £200,000 project is intended to demonstrate how the...
: A new theory on how Stonehenge came about; For more than 20 years, Derbyshire carpenter Gordon Pipes has been striving to find an answer to a 4,000-year-old question that still confounds archaeologists; namely how, without roads or wheels,...
: A complex society in Uruguay, 4,800 years ago; A complex farming society developed in Uruguay around 4,800 to 4,200 years ago, much earlier that previously thought, Iriarte and his colleagues report in December 2nd issue of Nature magazine....
4 December 2004: Exhibition devoted to ancient site of Arslantepe; An Italian archeological mission has been excavating Arslantepe, a remote ancient site near the town of Malatya and the source of the Euphrates in south-eastern Turkey, for more than 40...
8 December 2004: Ancient jewellery discovered in Iran; Archaeologists in Iran working on the remains of a developed city have found that ancient Iranians loved jewellery and ornaments made by highly-skilled craftsmen. The site of Shahdad in Kerman...
: Eight thousand year old paintings found in Egypt; A joint US and Egyptian archaeological team have unearthed an ancient monument in the western desert region of Egypt. Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni revealed the archaeologists had unearthed paintings...
: Evidence of Neolithic wine found in China; The first wine may have been made in China during the Neolithic period, according to scientists from the University of Pennsylvania. A study published in the science journal Proceedings of...
11 December 2004: World's oldest backgammon set found in Iran; Archaelogists in Iran have said they have uncovered what they believe is the world's oldest backgammon set, which could make the country the cradle of board games. The game, complete...
: Louisiana's Ancient Mounds Trail; Louisiana (USA) has a wealth of Native American sites dating to as early as 4000 BCE; the most obvious remains of ancient peoples are the over 700 mounds that can...
: Ice Age ivory flute found in German cave; A 35,000-year-old flute made from a woolly mammoth's ivory tusk has been unearthed in a German cave by archaeologists. The flute, one of the oldest musical instruments discovered, was pieced...
13 December 2004: Clay lamps in antiquity; Today as in antiquity, light has served the principle utilitarian function of illuminating dark spaces. It has also performed a symbolic role. In ancient times, people would leave votive lamps...
: Rock Art event in England; Archaeology enthusiasts from across the north rolled up for a sell-out conference to experience recording rock and the Lake District’s (England) rich history. The gathering, exploring thousands of years of...
15 December 2004: A civilisation parallel to Harappa?; The view that Gujarat was the cradle of an independent civilisation, contemporary of the classical Harappan civilisation around the Indus Valley, is gaining academic support. The Sorath (present Saurashtra) region...
: Archaeologist finds ancient settlement in New Jersey; About the time Stonehenge was being built, along what is now the Millstone River (New Jersey, USA), a tribe of Native Americans set up a fall camp to prepare for...
: 8,300-year-old grave unearthed in Bulgaria; A grave dug some 8,300 years ago was disclosed during excavation works near the Veliko Tarnovo village Dhzulyunitsa, in Bulgaria. The archaeologists were working in a Neolithic village, when they...
: Airports 'will kill heritage'; British High Court heard that ancient monuments, woodlands and hundreds of homes will be lost if expansion at three airports goes ahead. The claim was made as local councils launched...
17 December 2004: Stone Age axe found at a quarry in Warwickshire; A Stone Age hand axe dating back 500,000 years has been discovered at a quarry in Warwickshire (England). The tool was found at the Smiths Concrete Bubbenhall Quarry at Waverley...
: Ancient Welsh site spotted from the air; Two university men flying near Beaumaris (Island of Anglesey, Wales) spotted what they believe to be an ancient burial site. David Roberts and John Rowlands, who work in the ocean...
: Irish Minister has no power to alter Tara motorway; Irish Environment Minister Dick Roche has reportedly stated that he does not have the power to significantly alter the proposed route of the M3 motorway through Co Meath. Campaigners are...
18 December 2004: Ancient hill fort defended from raiding rabbits; Burrough-on-the-Hill, an ancient hill fort in Leicestershire (England), has recently been under attack from the local rabbit population. Farmer and Country Park Ranger, Tim Maydwell, has been fighting back. "The...
20 December 2004: Ancient flood may have triggered Intra-Allerod Cold Period; Scientists in America have uncovered evidence that the Intra-Allerod Cold Period was started by a massive catastrophic flood on the US-Canadian border a3,350 years ago. Glacial Lake Iroquois, which was...
: Call to show Scotland's cultural artefacts online; The Cultural Commission, a body set up to review Scotland’s cultural provision and make recommendations for the future, is being urged to ask the Scottish Executive to set up a...
22 December 2004: Seahenge focal point of museum revamp; Norfolk's famous Bronze Age timber circle should finally go on public show in 2007. A display of part of Seahenge, which in 1999 was controversially dug up from the shoreline...
: Kansas intaglios are a story of ancient beliefs; Long before the first Europeans walked on Kansas soil, Native Americans celebrated the prairie and its December night skies. The winter solstice held tremendous significance to these prehistoric Kansans, said...
: The old stones say: 'This land is ours'; Fanning out from the edge of the Cheviot Hills in Northumberland is the Milfield Plain: a special area in its own right, not least because it is one of the...
: Remains of 7,500-year-old man found in UAE; Archaeologists in the United Arab Emirates have found the remains of a 7,500-year-old man, the oldest skeleton found in the country. The skeleton was found buried on Marawah island, some...
: Out of the flames, a work of art from 4,000 years ago; A carved stone dating back 4,000 years to the early Bronze Age could be an early example of decorative landscape art. The relic, unique to England, was uncovered when a...
: Solstice illumination at Newgrange; Clear skies benefitted the twenty people who were selected from thousands of applicants to see the annual illumination of Newgrange by the solstice sunrise. The massive passage tomb of Newgrange...
: Stonehenge marks winter solstice; A crowd of around 600 gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice. A further 60 also celebrated the solstice at the ancient stone circle at Avebury, also in Wiltshire...
26 December 2004: 7,000 years of religious ritual traced in Mexico; Archaeologists have traced the development of religion in one location over a 7,000-year period, reporting that as an early society changed from foraging to settlement to the formation of an...
: Earliest depiction of a rainbow found?; An ancient bronze disc may show the world's earliest known depiction of a rainbow, according to a report published in the new issue of British Archaeology magazine. If the rainbow...
: Archaeologists push back beginning of civilization in Americas 400 years; Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that the oldest civilisation in the Americas dates back 400 years earlier than previously thought. New radiocarbon dating of 95 samples taken from pyramid mounds and...
: 5000 years ago, women held power in Burnt City, Iran; According to the research by an archeological team in the burnt city (Iran), women comprised the most powerful group in this 5000-year-old city. The archeological team has found a great...
: In Illinois, unrecorded history being written in small discoveries; Two thousand years ago, a community of American Indians lived along the Rock River in far northwestern Illinois, where they shaped stone into smoking pipes with such acumen that they...