Stone Pages Archaeo News: May 2005 Archives

May 2005 index:

8 May 2005: The seeds of civilization; Why did humans first turn from nomadic wandering to villages and togetherness? The answer may lie in a 9,500-year-old settlement in central Turkey. Since researchers first began digging at Catalhoyuk...
: Bog drew Indians to Cranberry, Pennsylvania; Newly uncovered archaeological evidence shows that American Indians were drawn in Cranberry (Pennsylvania, USA) 3,000 years ago by a huge cranberry bog and turned the area into a fall-time center...
: Tantalizing clues in ancient Japanese mounds; Ancient Japanese mounds may prove that the original owners were pretty inventive for their day. Recent excavations at the Higashimyo archeological site indicate the shell mounds date back 7,000 years-to...
: Pagan ritual used by Thornborough campaigners; More than 100 pagans joined a fight against proposals to extend quarrying at a historic site in North Yorkshire. Tarmac Northern wants to extend its present operations close to the...
: 3,000-year-old bronze sword discovered in China; Chinese archaeologists have recently unearthed a short bronze sword in one of the seven newly-discovered pits of chariots and horses in the famous ruins of Yin, in Anyang city of...
: Prehistoric bones found in Colorado; Fragments of what are believed to be a prehistoric skull and a couple of ribs have been found along the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad tracks (Colorado, USA). The...
: Road digs reveal ancient remains in Kent; Archaeologists have discovered iron age remains under the route of a new bypass around the village of Leybourne (Kent, England). In a dig before the construction work, ditches containing pottery,...
: Stone circle found on Ilkley Moor?; Experts are investigating claims by an amateur archaeologist from Bradford that he has found an important ancient monument on Ilkley Moor (Yorkshire, England). Two weeks ago Gordon Holmes, 52, who...
: First Neolithic site of Gilan discovered; A joint team of Iranian and Japanese Archaeologists working in the northern province of Gilan (Iran) have discovered a Neolithic site, which is the first of the period and the...
: New land acquired around the Rollright Stones; On Sunday June 19th at the Rollright Stones - Kings Men Stone Circle (Oxfordshire, England), will be held the official opening of the recently acquired extra land and footpath between...
: Ancient Parthian court unearthed in Turkmenistan; Italian digs in Turkmenistan are unearthing an extensive archaeological complex that was once a flourishing artistic and political center for the ancient civilization of Parthia. The latest round of digs...
11 May 2005: Iron-Age shoe discovered in UK; A team from Exeter Archeology has unearthed what may be the oldest shoe in the UK. Stephen Reed and his team unearthed the relic from a hollowed out tree trunk...
12 May 2005: Motorway through Tara gets go-ahead; The Irish Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, has cleared the way for the construction of the M3 motorway by issuing directions to Meath County Council on how archaeological work...
: Iron Age settlement halts road in Scotland; An Iron Age settlement has brought work on a major road bypass in Scotland to a standstill. Contractors are twiddling their thumbs while archaeologists excavate three 2500-year-old houses that were...
14 May 2005: Festival held at a modern Stone Circle in Scotland; A Festival for the 'mind, body and spirit' is being held at a modern stone circle in Aberdeenshire (Scotland) this summer, organised by a shamanic healer. Jason Schroeder hopes to...
: Harappa amusement park in Pakistan has been scrapped; A controversial amusement park being developed adjacent to the ruins of the 5,000-year-old Harappa civilisation is being scrapped, even as details are emerging about how it was initiated. Pakistani Minister...
: Anthropologists find ancient tombs in Iran; In the Mazandaran Provence in Iran, anthropologists discovered the remains of three dolichocephalic (long-headed) skeletons buried in the 2800 year old Laforak Cemetery. The three remains were not indigenous to...
: Archaeologists found a large Neolithic site in China; Dozens of prehistoric states might have been developing in eastern China as early as 5,000 years ago, thousands of years before the birth of the first textually attested state that...
: 'Stonerowing' experiment by the Stonehengineers; The Stonehengineers are a group of archaeologists, scientists and antiquarians investigating how Neolithic communities may have transported and erected large stones to produce megalithic monuments. They will be attempting a...
: Cypriots made Mediterranean's first wine; Maria-Rosaria Belgiorno, an Italian archaeologist, said Cyprus was the first Mediterranean country to make wine. She uncovered evidence during an archaeological dig near the southern coastal town of Limassol that...
: When humans left Africa, they traveled south; A team of geneticists believe they have illumined many aspects of how modern humans emigrated from Africa by analyzing the DNA of the Orang Asli, the original inhabitants of Malaysia....
: Gravel extraction threatens a Welsh valley rich in archaeology; An expert called for a halt on planned gravel extraction in a Welsh valley rich in archaeology. Professor Simon Haslett, from Bath Spa University College, said the range of finds...
18 May 2005: Weekend course: 'The Neolithic of Jersey'; Among their weekend courses, the Department of Archaeology & Anthropology at the University of Bristol is offering "An Island in Isolation: the Neolithic of Jersey" course. The tutor, George Nash,...
20 May 2005: Oldest 'steel' unearthed in Turkey; Two pieces of metal unearthed at colonial ruins in Turkey have been deemed the world's oldest examples of a crude type of steel, dating back to 1800 BCE. The discovery...
: Altar devoted to human sacrifice found in China; A gruesome sight has met archaeologists engaged in excavations in central China - an altar devoted to human sacrifice, complete with the remains of an unfortunate victim. The discovery of...
: Satellite villages found near Burnt City; Iranian experts have determined that ten mounds located near the 5200-year-old Burnt City were once villages, archaeologist Alireza Khosravi announced. "The discoveries will definitely provide us with useful information on...
: Thracian owner of gold mask axe-chopped; The Thracian king Seutus III, whose gold mask was unearthed in 2004 by Bulgarian archaeologists, has been chopped with an axe after his death, an expert research showed. According to...
22 May 2005: Bronze coffin unearthed in Iran; Archeologists digging on a farm in Western Iran have uncovered a bronze coffin that revealed a human skeleton with a solid gold mask. The coffin dates back to between 1700 to 2200...
: Ancient tablets found in Bulgaria; Bulgarian archaeologists unearthed tablets over 35-centuries old, bearing the ancient script of the Cretan (Minoan) civilization. Scientists from the University of Heidelberg examined the findings. The script is also known...
: Neolithic settlement discovered at Midross, Scotland; A 'national treasure trove' of artifacts was unearthed by archaeologists in the Loch Lomond national park in Scotland. Beside finding many artefacts the scientists found a number of roundhouses believed...
: 3,000 year old settlement revealed after scrub fire; A Bronze Age burial site has been discovered after a scrub brush fire above Fishguards Ferry Port in Pembrokeshire, Wales. A burial mound that had been discovered within field boundaries...
: Ancient remains from Wisconsin; Several artifacts dating thousands of years back have been found in Wisconsin (USA) by archaeologists from the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center at U.W. La Crosse. Wendy Holtz-Leith, a research archaeologist,...
: Cave art hoax hits British Museum; Fake prehistoric rock art of a caveman with a shopping trolley has been hung on the walls of the British Museum. The rock was put there by art prankster Banksy,...
: Earliest European homo sapiens is 31,000 years old; How did Neanderthals disappear from prehistoric Europe? The debate has been raging for decades. Neanderthals disappeared from Europe about 30,000 years ago, but what was the reason? Was it interbreeding,...
: Work starts soon on home for Seahenge; The £1m building work to renovate Lynn Museum (Norfolk, England) as the new home for the Seahenge Bronze Age timbers is set to start in July. A display of part...
24 May 2005: Gloucestershire fort saved from erosion; An Iron Age hill fort on Painswick Beacon (Gloucestershire , England) has been saved from erosion by a year-long restoration project. Gloucestershire County Council and English Heritage have spent more...
26 May 2005: New survey at Thornborough gives controversial results; Earthworks near Thornborough Henges, close to Ripon, North Yorkshire, England are in danger due to the proposed enlargement of a quarrying operation. The company, Tarmac, dismissed suggestions that the site...
: How many crossed the land bridge from Siberia?; How many people did it take to cross the land bridge from Siberia to populate the North American continent? Jody Hey, a genetics professor from Rutgers - the state University...
28 May 2005: Bacteria trouble for Oetzi; Oetzi, the world’s oldest and best-preserved mummy may be at risk of deteriorating, as is indicated by suspicious gray spots that have shown up on recent X-Rays. Oetzi’s official caretaker,...
: Giant figures in Peru pre-date Nazca lines; A group of about 50 drawings of giant figures recently discovered in the hills of Peru’s southern coastal desert near the city of Palpa has been said to predate the...
: Rare teeth as Stone Age status symbols; It seems that rare animal teeth served as Stone Age status symbols. Archaeologists excavating the grave of a woman nicknamed the Lady of Saint-Germain-la-Rivière who lived in France approximately 15,570...
29 May 2005: Rows over protection of Tara; Eighteen months after An Bord Pleanála’s decision, and almost nine months after Meath Co Council and the NRA finally revealed the extent of the archaeology that had been uncovered by...
: Ancient Chinese tombs destroyed by bulldozers; A hundred Chinese tombs more than 2,000 years old have been crushed or buried to make way for a housing project in Inner Mongolia province. The destruction, backed by the...
: Volunteers needed for project in the Isle of Wight; The West Wight community is being urged to get its hands dirty and help uncover the mysteries of how people lived in Yarmouth between prehistoric and medieval times. As part...
: Slice of Dartmoor land up for sale; Around 1,140 acres of Dartmoor (Devon, England) have been put on the market and the site expects to fetch up to £200,000 when it is sold next month. The site...