Stone Pages Archaeo News: March 2005 Archives

March 2005 index:

4 March 2005: Man arrested over Rollrights vandalism; A man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage over the vandalism of the Rollrights Stones near Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, central England. The stone circle was covered with yellow...
: Giant figures found in Peru; Archaeologists working in the hills of Peru's southern coastal desert have discovered a group of giant figures scraped into the earth. The site covers an area of around 90 square...
: New campaign group launched to save Thornborough henges; Heritage Action, the national campaign group dedicated to preserving Britain and Ireland's ancient heritage, has launched an independent pressure group focussing on the campaign to protect the Thornborough henges in...
: Iron Age kiln found in England; Archaeologists excavating the site of road improvements at Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwickshire, central England, have unearthed the only complete example of an Iron Age kiln to be found in Britain. The site...
6 March 2005: Ancient sky map or fake?; One of Germany's most acclaimed archaeological finds - a 3,600-year-old disc depicting the stars and the planets - is at the centre of a dispute following claims that it is...
: Iron Age fort threatened by planned coal mines; Plans to opencast a stretch of the Dearne Valley in Barnsley (South Yorkshire, England) should be halted until an Iron Age fort is located and preserved, councillors have said. Coun...
: Critics silenced by scans of 'hobbit' skull; A brain scan of the Homo floresiensis - nicknamed 'Hobbit' and found in Indonesia last year - appears to have settled a scientific dispute as to whether the creature was...
: Prehistoric farmers may have saved us from new Ice Age; Ancient man saved the world from a new Ice Age. That is the startling conclusion of climate researchers who say man-made global warming is not a modern phenomenon and has...
7 March 2005: British Rock-Art Group Conference; The 2nd annual conference of the British Rock-Art Group will be held at the University of Bristol, Dept of Archaeology & Anthropology, 43 Woodland Road, Clifton, Bristol, on Saturday 23...
10 March 2005: 2,000-year-old artefacts found in USA; Archaeologists in North Carolina, USA have uncovered ancient artefacts that is forcing historians to reconsider their theories about early Native Americans in the state. The site, at Chapel Hill on...
: Iranian artist's tomb excavated; The skeleton of a 3000-year-old artist has been found in a tomb in Espidej of Sistan-Baluchistan, 25km from Zabol in Iran. Archaeologists working on the site found his tools buried...
: Iron Age site investigated in Iran; Archaeologists in Iran are planning an in-depth study of the lifestyle of the Iron Age inhabitants of Shamshirgah, Qom Province. The site is in a region which contains other Iron...
: Divers find Bronze Age treasure off south-west England; A team of amateur divers have recovered artefacts from what may be one of the oldest shipwreck sites in the world. The thirteen members of the South West Maritime Archaeological...
: Acorn bread was made by ancient Iranians; A small bread oven, grindstone, and the remains of acorns have led archaeologists in Iran to conclude that ancient Iranians baked bread using acorn flour over 3000 years ago. The...
13 March 2005: Archaeological dig uncovers Bronze Age relics; Archaeologists have unearthed Bronze Age relics at an excavation near Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire, England). The finds have been discovered by archaeologists from the Archaeological Field Unit of Cambridgeshire County Council, who...
: Ancient earrings discovered at Burnt City; Archaeologists have found a pair of silver earrings in a grave of a woman in the 5200-year-old Burnt City (Iran) which disproves the theory that the inhabitants of the city...
: Earthworks site cleared for archaeologists; A mystery which has remained unsolved on Dartmoor (England) could soon be resolved, thanks to volunteers who have cleared scrub from earthworks on Roborough Down. Volunteers from the Dartmoor Preservation...
: Navan centre could be a 'tourist mecca'; County Armagh's Navan Interpretive Centre (Northern Ireland) could become a tourist mecca for the county if its new owners are ambitious enough, a local councillor claimed. Pat McNamee from Armagh...
: Henge campaigners refute job loss claims; Campaigners have hit back at claims by quarry company Tarmac over the threat of job losses if it is not allowed to expand its operations close to the Thornborough Henges...
: Hobbit skeleton 'damaged'; An Australian archaeologist has drafted a damning letter describing extensive damage to the bones of the 'Hobbit', the 18,000-year-old hominid remains found on an Indonesian island. But his Indonesian counterpart...
: Pigs domesticated 'many times'; Pigs were domesticated independently at least seven times around the globe, a new study has found. The discovery was made by linking the DNA of tame porkers with their wild...
: Talk will unveil Iron Age secrets; People in Swindon (England) will have the chance to re-live the Iron Age thanks to archaeologist Dr J D Hill, from the British Museum. In a series of talks at...
: Constellations carved on a 5000-year-old knife?; Archaeologists in northwest China's Qinghai province claimed that a 5,000-year-old stone knife with designs of constellations will extend China's history of astronomical observation by 1,000 years. The finely-polished stone knife,...
: Convention of alternative archaeology and earth mysteries; A major assembly bringing together people seeking insights into the ancient spiritual heritage will be held in Sherborne (Dorset, England) on October 16th 2005 (10:00am - 9:30 pm). Speakers at...
: English Heritage at risk?; Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, is threatening to dismantle English Heritage, which runs 400 of England’s greatest historic sites, ranging from Stonehenge to Dover Castle. The suggestion follows a series...
17 March 2005: Castanheiro do Vento excavation campaign 2005; The Castanheiro do Vento sites lie in the Alto Douro (Portugal), near the world-wide famous area of the Palaeolithic engravings of Foz Côa (a World Heritage site). Those sites are...
19 March 2005: Ggantija temples undergo 3-D survey; A digital three-dimensional survey is being carried out at Ggantija Temples in Xaghra (Malta) for a detailed documentation and a blueprint of the actual status of the temples to be...
: Alaskan salmon harvest is a 6,000-year-old practice; Archaeology has helped an Alaskan tribe to prove that its ancient fishing practices do not endanger the environment, and to refute accusations from US naturalists that threatened to end their...
: Cave discovery sparks environmental concern in Kentucky; Environmentalists who've been fighting an industrial park going up near Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky, USA) have a new focus for their opposition - the discovery of prehistoric Indian remains...
: Neanderthals may have had high-pitched voices; Neanderthals had strong, yet high-pitched, voices that they used for both singing and speaking, says a UK researcher. The theory suggests that Neanderthals, who once lived in Europe from around...
: Were Olmecs a 'mother' culture?; On a coastal flood plain etched by rivers flowing through swamps and alongside fields of maize and beans, the people archaeologists call the Olmecs lived in a society of emergent...
: Bronze Age skeletons found in closet; Skeletons in the closet were a real-life problem for Ashford Price when he opened a cupboard in his late aunt's bedroom to be confronted with dozens of human remains. The...
: Ancient settlement unearthed in South Carolina; Trudging through thick gray mud at this northern Greenville County farm (South Carolina, USA), it doesn't take long to find fragments of ancient history sticking out of the soil, be...
: Bronze Age droppings reveal health of ancients; Archaeologists have found rare 3000-year-old human fossilised droppings revealing the healthy diet of Scotland's ancient inhabitants. Work on a Bronze Age farmhouse in Catpund, Shetland, has unearthed the coprolites, which...
: Ancient village found in Shaanxi; Chinese archaeologists found ruins of a 2,700-year-old village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. The ruins date from the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th Century BCE to 771 BCE). Sections of a...
: Stop Stonehenge bureaucracy; English Heritage has called for an end to the bureaucracy which seems to be holding up the breakthrough Stonehenge project which could see the site returned to its peaceful glory,...
: Prehistoric artefacts found in Enfield Town; Excavations on the site of the PalaceXchange shopping development in Enfield Town (Engand) have revealed a collection of prehistoric relics, which include 3,000-year-old flint cutting tools. Sean Steadman, of Gifford...
: Henges: Tarmac gives moor pledge; A quarry firm has stated that it has no intention to extract sand and gravel from Thornborough Moor (North Yorkshire, England) – home of the historic Thornborough Henges – within...
: Teaching British children archaeology; A Decade ago they would not have known what the word meant, but programmes such as Time Team have filled today's youngsters with enthusiasm. Wiltshire (England) children as young as...
: Mysterious skeleton discovered near a church; Villagers are hoping carbon-dating experts can solve the mystery of a skeleton discovered near an ancient West church. The bones, which could date back 10,000 years, were uncovered when workmen...
24 March 2005: 4,000 year old cemetery found in Chinese sand dune; Archaeologists working in the remote deserts of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China have have uncovered an ancient burial site in a huge sand dune. The site was first...
: Evidence of settlements found in Arabian desert; The excavation of settlements in the deserts of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), has revealed that the area was once covered in lush green vegetation. Archaeologists from the Abu...
: Academic claims Indian rock paintings are 25,000 years old; An archaeologist in India has suggested that the rock paintings at Bhimbetka are as old as the oldest rock paintings known in the world, making them 25,000 years old. Dr...
: Traces of ancient settlement uncovered in Florida; A dig in the Pine Island Conservation Area of Florida, USA, has shown that humans were active there up to 5000 years ago. When septic tanks and parking were to...
27 March 2005: Cleaning of 2,200-year-old bamboo slips completed; The cleaning of 36,000 bamboo slips of Qin Dynasty (221 BCE - 207 BCE) unearthed in Liye ancient city in western part of South China's Hunan province in 2002 has...
: Plans for new excavations in ancient Turkish city; A plan has been initiated for new excavations in the ancient city of Pedasa, located eight kilometers from Bodrum in the small town of Konac?k (Turkey). Pedasa was an important Leleg city that enjoyed its...