Stone Pages Archaeo News: February 2008 Archives

February 2008 index:

2 February 2008: 260 Bronze Age axe heads unearthed in England; Three amateur treasure hunters from Ringwood (Hampshire, England) have unearthed a great number of Bronze Age axe heads in what is one of the largest finds of its kind in...
: Architect could make Stonehenge comeback; British architect Ted Cullinan could make a dramatic return to the Stonehenge visitor-centre project – 15 years after he was first selected to design a facility there. English Heritage (EH)...
: Ancient bones suggest cavemen wore boots; Footwear, it seems, has been fashionable for rather a long time. Toe bones from a cave in China suggest people were wearing shoes at least 40,000 years ago. Erik Trinkaus...
: Ancient bones found at University of California; Locked away in a museum safe near Escondido (California, USA) are perhaps the oldest skeletal remains found in the Western Hemisphere. More than 30 years after the relics were unearthed...
: Lindow Man goes back to his roots; Lindow Man is to return to close to the spot where he met an appalling death almost 2,000 years ago, skull smashed in, strangled, stabbed, and finally dumped face down...
: Glimpse of hunter-to-farmer shift unearthed in Ohio; Ohio's Adena culture represents a turning point in state history. Situated between the nomadic hunting and gathering cultures of the North American Archaic period and the more settled farming cultures...
: Neolithic settlement found in Egypt; A team of US archaeologists has discovered the ruins of a city dating back to the period of the first farmers 7,000 years ago in Egypt's Fayyum oasis, the supreme...
: Prehistoric finds at British motorway dig; New evidence of prehistoric life has been discovered during motorway excavations in Merseyside (North West England). A team of archaeologists found flints and burnt hazelnuts during preparations for a new...
: One common ancestor behind blue eyes; People with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor, according to new research. A team of scientists has tracked down a genetic mutation that leads to blue eyes. The mutation...
: UN vandals spray graffiti on Sahara's prehistoric art; Spectacular prehistoric depictions of animal and human figures created up to 6,000 years ago on Western Saharan rocks have been vandalised by United Nations peacekeepers. Archaeological sites boasting ancient paintings...
: Ancient temple-well restored in Bulgaria; Italian historians will take part in the restoration of the only temple-well in Bulgaria. The unique monument is called 'Pusto Gurlo' ('Vain Throat') and is located in Gurlo Village, Pernik...
: 'The Drawings on the Wall' - BBC Radio 4; Archaeologist Dr. George Nash visits five of Western Europe’s most significant prehistoric rock art sites to examine whether the modern minding can ever successfully interpret the mysterious graffiti created by...
: Tara Solidarity Vigil; A peaceful demonstration will take place within the Tara/Skryne Valley this Sunday February 3rd. The demonstration, to illustrate the magnitude of the Lismullen henge will use hundreds of crosses, symbolising...
10 February 2008: Bronze Age burnt mound to be saved from the sea; Archaeologists plan to save a fine example of a Bronze Age burnt mound from disappearing into the sea in a unique £70,000 removal operation on Shetland (Scotland) this coming summer....
: Royal goddesses of a Syrian Bronze Age state; It's been more than 30 years since Italian archaeologists found a vast archive of 17,000 cuneiform tablets at the Bronze Age site of Ebla in northern Syria. But the ancient...
: The city of Bath puts the clock back 10,000 years; Archaeologists admitted that new chapters of the history of Bath (Somerset, England) would have to be written after amazing discoveries made while a new sewer was being dug. At the...
: An altar beyond Olympus for a deity predating Zeus; Before Zeus hurled his first thunderbolt from Olympus, the pre-Greek people occupying the land presumably paid homage and offered sacrifices to their own gods and goddesses, whose nature and identities...
: High Court action to protect Lismullin henge; A High Court action was launched aimed at protecting the Lismullin national monument near Tara (co. Meath, Ireland). The action is being taken by Gordon Lucas, who is seeking to...
: The enigmatic Gungywamp monuments; Gungywamp is a 100-acre area in Groton (Connecticut, USA) that archaeologists consider a treasure. Its exact origins remain a mystery, but its unusual stonework and artifacts span centuries. Among Gungywamp's...
: Student makes discovery on Neanderthal eating habits; A doctoral student studying hominid paleobiology has pioneered a method for analyzing reindeer bones from around 65,000 to 12,000 years ago, an accomplishment that allows scientists to further understand the...
: Remains held in museum to be tested for tuberculosis; Skeletons which have been dug up in Portsmouth (Hampshire, England) during developments, some dating back to the Bronze Age, will now form a vital part of new research into tuberculosis...
: Major Anglesey plans include a prehistoric burial chamber; Plans for a shopping and leisure complex on Anglesey (Wales) are going on public display for the first time. The Ty Mawr development on land between Llanfairpwll and Menai Bridge...
: Ancient city unearthed in India; Remains of an ancient city believed to be around 2500 years old have been unearthed by archaeologists at Sishupalgarh (Khurda district, India). The remnants at the site including 18 pillars...
: Neanderthals travelled more than first thought; Analysis of a 40,000-year-old tooth found in southern Greece suggests Neanderthals were more mobile than once thought, paleontologists said. Analysis of the tooth - part of the first and only...
17 February 2008: With climate swing, a culture bloomed in Peru; Along the coast of Peru, a mysterious civilization sprang up about 5,000 years ago. This was many centuries before the Incan Empire. Yet these people were sophisticated. They cultivated crops...
: Migrating people had 20,000-year campout; People who migrated from Asia to the New World camped out for 20,000 years on land now submerged under the Bering Strait between Alaska and Siberia, according to a genetic...
: Replica of ancient boat will float again; Based on the 3,550-year-old vessel discovered beneath Dover town centre (England) 16 years ago, a replica boat, lashed together from planks of wood, waterproofed with beeswax and moss, will set...
: Excavation work on a Neolithic settlement in Egypt; At the site, known as Z-Basin, on the north shore of Lake Qaroun, an archaeological and geological team from University College of Los Angeles (UCLA) and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG) stumbled...
: Prehistoric site unearthed under a British church; Work on a church in North East England has revealed that the site may have been used for ritual and worship for thousands of years. Major refurbishment work on the...
: Oldest African human sacrifice discovered in Sudan; French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years. The...
: Dig of megalithic tombs planned in the Channel Islands; Archaeological work is to be carried out on Herm in the Channel Islands (Great Britain). Professor Chris Scarre, who has already undertaken work on Jethou, plans to examine the megalithic...
: Natural-gas drilling threatens ancient rock art in Utah; Eastern Utah's Nine Mile Canyon holds more than 10,000 known American Indian rock-art images. But they may be no match for 800 gas wells. A Denver-based energy company's proposal to...
: Ancient Minoan culture comes to life in New York; On March 13, 2008, more than 280 artifacts from the ancient land of Crete, most of which have never been shown outside of Greece, will be on view at the...
: Rock carving found after a storm in Scotland; A rock carving dating back to the Bronze Age has been uncovered by Scottish forestry workers clearing trees which fell during the recent storms. The mysterious rock art had been...
24 February 2008: Jewelry and makeup in ancient Persia; Archaeological finds in Iran show that women and men applied makeup and arrayed themselves with ornaments approximately 10,000 years ago, a trend which began from religious convictions rather than mere...
: Ancient Scottish burials reveal links with the Netherlands; Recent analysis of 4,000-year-old pots recovered during an excavation of two graves at Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute (Scotland), has provided exciting evidence linking prehistoric Scotland with...
: Mysterious pyramid complex discovered in Peru; The remnants of at least ten pyramids have been discovered on the coast of Peru, marking what could be a vast ceremonial site of an ancient, little-known culture, archaeologists say....
: Orkney islanders asked to help heritage; Orkney islanders (Scotland) have been invited to assist the draft of a new management plan for the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site (WHS). The aim is to maximise...
: Possible turbine site includes burial grounds in Florida; Recent archaeological surveys show prehistoric Indians in Florida (USA) made their homes and buried their dead along the banks of Blind Creek, an area that has drawn controversy as a...
: Iran's Kelar mound dated to 4000 BCE; Oxford scientists have determined the exact date of Iran's northern site of Kelar Mound by studying ancient coal and bone samples. Although many archeologists believed that the area was not...