Stone Pages Archaeo News: January 2006 Archives

January 2006 index:

1 January 2006: Burnt City mothers suffered from malnutrition; A team of archaeologists working at the 5200-year-old Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchestan Province(Iran) believes that mothers of the ancient city suffered from malnutrition at one period of time due to...
: 3,800-year-old Indian skeletons throw light on evolution; A team of members led by Superintendent Archaeologist of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chennai Circle, T Satyamurthy, has recently unearthed nearly 169 clay urns containing human skeletons, dating back...
7 January 2006: Study traces Egyptians' stone-age roots; Some 64 centuries ago, a prehistoric people of obscure origins farmed an area along Egypt’s Nile River. They produced simple but well-made pottery, jewelry and stone tools, and carefully buried...
: Ancient sites unearthed in Tibet; Chinese archaeologists unearthed five ancient human activity sites in eastern Saga and northwestern Qiongguo in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, among which, four belong to the Paleolithic and date back 10,000 years....
: New lights on origin of Chinese civilization; After five years of intensive study, researchers engaged in a grand archaeological project have drawn an outline of the Chinese society 3,500 to 4,500 years ago, the most important period...
: Major Bronze Age tool discovery in Somerset; Archaeologists have uncovered hundreds of Bronze Age tools on a Somerset (England) building site. About 800 items, including arrow heads, scraping knives and flint blades were found at the former...
: Neolithic baby boom; In a new study assessing the demographic impact of the shift from foraging to farming, anthropologists use evidence from 60 prehistoric American cemeteries to prove that the invention of agriculture...
: Throwing new light on the purpose of Stonehenge; Stonehenge: iconic, ancient, mysterious. Or perhaps not so mysterious any more, since research conducted jointly by the universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Bournemouth, Bristol and UCL has shed new light on...
: Discovery of ancient mass graves in Burnt City; Archaeologists unearthed more than 108 graves in the pre-historic cemetery of Burnt City (Iran) during their latest excavations in the site. In some of these graves, three to eight bodies...
: Hopes to recreate ancient trade route still float; Humbled after three attempts at making a vessel modelled on an ancient Bronze Age boat float, the team that conceptualised the Magan Boat project — an attempt at recreating the...
: Earliest Mayan writing found in pyramid; Archeologists excavating a pyramid complex in the Guatemalan jungle have uncovered the earliest example of Mayan writing ever found, 10 bold hieroglyphs painted on plaster and stone. Newly discovered hieroglyphs...
: Cave art: men and women each did their own thing; Analysis of stenciled handprints found on the walls of an Indonesian cave suggest that prehistoric men and women chose not to mix genders when it came to this enigmatic art...
: Geoscience rediscovers Phoenicia's buried harbors; The exact locations of Tyre and Sidon's ancient harbors, Phoenicia's two most important city-states, have attracted scholarly interest and debate for many centuries. New research reveals that the ancient basins...
: 5,400 years ago, Andeans irrigated crops; In the Andean foothills of Peru, not far from the Pacific coast, archaeologists have found what they say is evidence for the earliest known irrigated agriculture in the Americas. An...
: Studies show Jiroft was ancient trade link; Recent studies conducted on seals unearthed at the ancient site of Jiroft (Iran) prove that the area was once the most important economic center of the Iranian plateau. The studies...
: Bronze Age ditch found in Wiltshire; Archaeologists have unearthed a Bronze Age ditch during major road improvement works in Wiltshire (England). Archaeologist Neil Holbrook said the 3,000-year-old ditch dating back to the Bronze Age has been...
: Iron Age 'bog bodies' unveiled in Ireland; Archaeologists have unveiled two Iron Age 'bog bodies' which were found in the Republic of Ireland. The bodies, which are both male and have been dated to more than 2,000...
12 January 2006: A fascinating book about ancient carvings in Yorkshire; Whether their intricate designs are maps, religious symbols or simply an early form of graffiti, Stone Age rock carvings are seen as invaluable to unlocking secrets of civilisations dating back...
: Irish farmers urged to be countryside guardians; Irish farmers must become guardians of the countryside to ensure that archaeological monuments survive, it was claimed by the National Heritage Council. Heritage Council chief executive Michael Starrett said Ireland...
: Over 4,200 cliff tombs found in China; Archaeologists announced that more than 4,220 cliff tombs have been discovered at 680 sites in Shangluo, a city in western China's Shaanxi Province. The cliff tombs are large, they have...
: USC seeks volunteers for excavating ancient sites; The University of South Carolina is accepting registrations from volunteers to help excavate ancient archaeological sites along the Savannah River from May 2 - June 3, 2006. The expedition will...
: The mysterious Mongolian megaliths; The Darkhat Valley (Mongolia) marks the boundary between the vast central Asian steppe and the forested Siberian taiga. From the earliest times, this region has been a crossroads, a place...
: Ta’ Hagrat and Skorba temples open to the public; Heritage Malta, the national agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage, is opening two sites at Mgarr – Ta’ Hagrat and Skorba – on a weekly basis. These sites, both of...
: Ancient Australian rock carvings vandalised; The Wilderness Society has labelled as disgusting and malicious an attack on an ancient Aboriginal rock carving in Tasmania's northwest. The group says the vandalism of circular petroglyphs at Arthur...
: Neolithic skeleton on display in Bulgaria; A skeleton of a woman from 5,800 BCE is displayed at a museum in the town of Vratsa, some 120 km (75 miles) north of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. A...
: Pennsylvania hunters shouldn't use prehistoric weapon; The state Game Commission’s staff concluded in an internal study that Pennsylvania hunters should not be allowed to use the prehistoric weapon known as the atlatl to kill deer. One...
: A highway to the past of Ireland; The eighteen kilometre stretch of modern roadway, which will stretch from the Swinford bypass to Carracastle, west of Ballaghaderreen (Co. Mayo, Ireland), has unearthed what is described as a 'treasure...
: Discovery rewrites Hong Kong's prehistory; Archaeologists have discovered a new site of human activity in remote antiquity in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. Zhang Shenshui, researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the important...
: M3 case opens in Irish High Court; The Irish High Court has begun hearing an action by conservationists seeking to have the M3 motorway re-routed from the present route through the Tara/Skryne Valley. The action is being...
: Fears for ancient remains from underwater site in UK; Divers face a desperate race against time to recover 8,000-year-old artefacts from the bottom of The Solent before they are lost forever. The underwater site, off Bouldnor, is the only...
14 January 2006: Ancient remains found in downtown Miami; Archaeologists excavating an American Indian burial site in downtown Miami (Florida, USA), where a condominium development is being built, say it dates back about 2,000 years, and burials there appear...
: Jiroft inscription may be the earliest written language; Studies by five linguists on a discovered inscription in Jiroft (Iran) indicate that the Elamite script is 300 years older than that of the civilization of Susa. The inscription was...
: 3,000-year-old ancient state found in north China; A small ancient state dating back nearly 3,000 years, which was never recorded in historical documents, has been discovered in north China's Shanxi Province. Archaeologists deduced the existence of the...
20 January 2006: Experts try to explain the Cycladic mystery; British and Greek archaeologists are preparing a major excavation on a tiny Greek island to try to explain why it produced history's largest collection of Cycladic flat-faced marble figurines. Artwork...
: 4,000-year-old 'kitchen' unearthed in Indiana; Workers building a boat ramp at southeastern Indiana's Charlestown State Park (USA) have uncovered the apparent remains of a 4,000-year-old "kitchen" ancient American Indians tribes may have used to prepare...
: Early Neolithic site found in western Beijing; A site dating back about 10,000 years offers new clues about the development of people living in northern China in the early Neolithic period. The excavation of Donghulin Site, located...
: Ancient 'Cyclops' wall collapses in Italy; Part of a massive wall started in around 600 BCE around the central Italian town of Amelia collapsed for reasons still unclear. The so-called Polygonal walls around Amelia are famous...
: Lecture on early history of Chippenham; The early history of Chippenham (Wiltshire, England) is the topic of an illustrated lecture to be given by Mike Stone, curator of Chippenham Museum and Heritage Centre, next month. Chippenham's...
: Man's suicide near prehistoric site; A man shot himself in the head at the site where he had made 'significant discoveries' as an amateur archaeologist, an inquest has heard. Derek Upton's body was found on...
: Hair-gelled Celt may have been sacrificed; The hair-gelled head of an ancient Celt, dubbed the Iron Age Beckham because of his slicked-back look, has been reconstructed by Scots scientists. Examinations of the Clonycavan man, found fully...
: Ancient lakes of the Sahara; The Sahara has not always been the arid, inhospitable place that it is today – it was once a savannah teeming with life, according to researchers at the Universities of...
: Early Spanish sculpture to return to town; An early Spanish sculpture, symbol of the advanced nature of prehistoric culture on the Mediterranean coast, is to return on loan to the town where it was discovered. The Dame...
: Traces of ancient settlement found in Sicily; Archaeologists working in Sicily's Valley of the Temples (Italy) have found traces of a settlement thought to pre-date the famous Greek temples built there in around 600 BCE. The discovery...
: Archaeology team to solve Bosniac pyramid riddle; Australian archaeologist Royce Richards is among a team preparing to look for the truth behind a theory that Bosnia-Herzegovina has an ancient pyramid. Archaeologists from Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Austria, and...
: 3,000-year-old necropolis unearthed in Rome; Archaeologists digging beneath the Roman Forum have discovered a 3,000-year-old necropolis that pre-dates the birth of ancient Rome by several hundred years. State Television showed an excavation team removing vases...
21 January 2006: Schoolgirl finds Bronze Age tool in playground; Second class pupil at St Brigid's National School in Greystones (co. Wicklow, Ireland), Laoise Mangan (9), in the summer months of last year, she discovered an odd looking stone on...
: Campaign group makes henges call; Heritage campaign group, TimeWatch has called for international support in the battle to save the Thornborough Henges from the threat of quarrying nearby. Quarry company Tarmac Northern Ltd was granted...
: Neolithic axe head uncovered in Lancashire; History has been rewritten in Barnoldswick (East Lancashire, England) after a Neolithic axe head – dating back 6,000 years – was uncovered. Father and son Chris and Jordan Green were...
27 January 2006: Largest ever ancient temple discovered in Yemen; Archeologists in Shabwa governorate have discovered what is said to be the biggest temple ever discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, dating back to the 5th Century BCE. The Italian archeological...
: Paper reports world’s oldest temple is in Sanliurfa; One of Germany's leading newspapers, Die Welt, reported that the world's oldest temple, dating back around 12,000 years, is located on Göbekli Hill in Turkey's province of Sanliurfa. According to an article titled 'Holy Hill...
: New plans for Stonehenge bypass; The British government published five options for road schemes around the ancient British monument of Stonehenge, including a tunnel under the site rejected as too expensive last year. The circular...
: Archeologists unearth 3,200-year-old woman in Vietnam; Archeologists in northern Vietnam have unearthed the skeleton of a young woman buried at least from 3,200-3,700 years ago. The discovery is one of the oldest human remains found in...
: Stonehenge road 'a risk to birds'; Alternatives to an underground road tunnel at Stonehenge could threaten the recovery of one of Britain's rarest birds, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has warned. The...
: Neolithic Europeans made cheese and yogurt; Dirty cooking pots dating to nearly 8,000 years ago reveal that some of Europe's earliest farming communities produced dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt. Two separate studies indicate that...
: Blaze destroys stone circle's hut; The visitor hut at the Rollright Stones on the border of Oxfordshire and Warwickshire (England) has been badly damaged in what police say was an arson attack. According to Andy...
: Hopes of revival for Iron Age Centre; The Cinderbury dream could rise from the ashes thanks to a new business proposal to run the Iron Age Centre. A new bidder has come forward to reopen the village,...
28 January 2006: Plumbing the depths of an ancient spring in Florida; Casey Coy, who works for the Florida Aquarium, and Rick Gomez, diving safety officer for the University of Miami, are the first divers to explore the bottom of Little Salt...
: New discoveries in Jiroft; Latest archeological excavations in Jiroft (Iran) resulted in the discovery of a bronze statue depicting the head of goat which dates back to the third millennium BCE. This statue was...
: Archaeologists uncover 10,000-year-old site in Oregon; Researchers from Oregon State University have analyzed a second archaeological site on the southern Oregon coast (USA) that appears to be about 10,000 years old, and they are hopeful that...
: Experts to study Orkney's underwater past; Archaeologists in Orkney are seeking funding for a project to study the islands' hidden treasures. Orkney-based independent archaeological consultant Caroline Wickham-Jones said they were keen to investigate the submerged prehistory...
30 January 2006: 7000 year-old altar found in China; A sacrificial altar, dating back about 7,000 years, has been discovered in central China's Hunan Province, according to Chinese archaeologists. The altar is the earliest sacrificial site so far found...