Stone Pages Archaeo News: March 2008 Archives

March 2008 index:

3 March 2008: Archaeological treasures found in Ireland; A beautiful Bronze Age axe and a number of ancient burial grounds have been unearthed near Roscrea during the construction of the new Dublin-Limerick motorway in the area. The bronze...
: Archaeologists find 5,500 year old plaza in Peru; A circular plaza built 5,500 years ago has been discovered in Peru, and archaeologists involved in the dig said carbon dating shows it is one of the oldest structures ever...
: Ancient human remains found at construction site in California; Archaeologists have removed 174 sets of human remains from a controversial housing development under construction in Huntington Beach, bolstering claims that it was a significant prehistoric Native American settlement. Dave...
: Bronze Age tombs unearthed at a road site in Britain; Archaeologists have unearthed an ancient burial ground at the site of a major new road. Evidence of two Bronze Age tombs dating back some 4,000 years were found during work...
: Cannibalism may have wiped out Neanderthals; A Neanderthal-eat-Neanderthal world may have spread a mad cow-like disease that weakened and reduced populations of the large Eurasian human, thereby contributing to its extinction, according to a new theory...
: Pakistan's stolen prehsitoric artifacts recovered in Italy; Pakistani archaeological artifacts have been recovered from Italy which were smuggled to the country and would now reach home in two months, officials said. Ancient artifacts from museums in the...
: Power works avoid Scottish prehistoric site; A power line upgrade in the Scottish Borders has taken a new route - in order to avoid a prehistoric settlement. Scottish Power was installing new posts and lines between...
: Drill near London to find evidence of ancient occupation; Archaeologists from Durham University will be returning to a London borough site (England) where a 19th century historian once found flint tools and animal bones. This time, however, the latest...
: Ancient toy or whistle found in Cyprus; A small masterpiece of coroplastic Early Bronze Age Cyprus (3500- 2000 BCE), believed to be a water whistle or a toy, was found during the excavations at Pyrgos/Mavrorachi, in...
: Heaney claims motorway near Tara desecrates sacred landscape; Poet and Nobel laureate Séamus Heaney has described the M3 motorway as a ruthless desecration of the sacred landscape around the Hill of Tara, in a BBC documentary broadcast last...
: Prehistoric stone circle unearthed in India; An ancient human burial site, estimated to be 3,000 years old, was unearthed at Drugdhamna on Nagpur-Amravati road by the department of ancient Indian history, culture and archaeology, Rashtrasant Tukdoji...
16 March 2008: Also Irish vessels found in Scottish graves; Further evidence that prehistoric Scots travelled considerable distances has come from two graves in Upper Largie, near Kilmartin in Argyll and Bute (Scotland). We already mentioned in one of our...
: Turkish site casts ancient man in new light; One of the most intriguing developments in archaeology in recent decades is the serious study of ancient ceremonial life. Previously, 'ceremonial objects' were the odd bits left over after archaeologists...
: Quarrying permission near Thornborough Henges; Plans for a controversial quarry extension near Thornborough Henges (North Yorkshire, England) have been thrown into disarray following a legal challenge. Tarmac Northern won planning permission in January 2007 from...
: Loughcrew Equinox Dawn March 2008; The Irish Office of Public Works will have staff in attendance at Cairn T at Loughcrew (about 40 km from Newgrange, Co. Meath, Ireland) for the equinox illumination on the...
: Ontario lake reveals mysterious structure; In the spring of 2005, diving was conducted in MacDonald Lake as part of a unique submarine project at the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve. Repeatedly staff of Haliburton...
: Rare cave inscriptions discovered in Sri Lanka; A cave with rare ancient inscriptions dating back to more than 10,000 years has reportedly been discovered at Badungala in the PS division of Yakkalamulla in Galle (Sri Lanka). Archaeology...
: Stone age bones and axes found off Norfolk coast; Some of the world's best preserved prehistoric landscapes survive in pristine condition at the bottom of the North Sea, archaeologists claimed. The weapons of the stone age Norfolk men who...
: Neolithic findings discovered in Azerbaijan; Neolithic and III-I millennium BCE archaeological findings belonging to Yalavlu Tepe culture have been discovered in Zaqatala Region of Azerbaijan, Jahangir Soltanov, Director of Zagatala Regional Ethnography Museum said. J....
: Oldest animation discovered In Iran; Long considered a modern invention, animation has apparently been lying about its age. A 5,200-year-old bowl found in Iran's Burnt City in the 1970s features a series of five images...
: Native Americans traced to 6 'Founding Mothers'; Nearly all of today's Native Americans in North, Central and South America can trace part of their ancestry to six women whose descendants immigrated around 20,000 years ago, a DNA...
: Controversy over M3 motorway in Ireland still rages on; The Irish National Roads Authority is insisting that construction work on the controversial M3 motorway in Co Meath (Ireland) is not damaging a protected national monument at Rath Lugh. Campaigners...
: Pictograph in NZ derived from ancient Asian-Pacific culture?; Hanging Rock's famous Ruataniwha image is probably derived from an Asian-Pacific culture more than 4000 years old, according to geographer, ecologist and planner Haikai Tane. Prof Tane is an expert...
: Historic Scotland urged to give broch visitor numbers; A challenge is being laid down for Historic Scotland to come forward with visitor numbers to the Clickimin Broch in Lerwick (Shetland) after hopes access to the monument could be...
: Iron Age remains found on British school site; Archaeologists have found what they think is the remains of an Iron Age settlement under part of a Wearside school (Sunderland, England). The surprising discovery was made by experts carrying...
23 March 2008: Chinese miners arrested for damaging Neolithic site; A group accused of operating clandestine mines across an important but sparsely guarded complex of Neolithic Chinese culture is now facing criminal trial, Chinese government officials say. The illicit iron-ore...
: Oregon obsidian traces history for archaeologists; Clues to the travels of ancient hunters can be found in the glassy debris from volcanoes that they used to make sharp tools and arrowheads. Obsidian is abundant in Oregon...
: Neolithic arrowhead discovered near Abu Dhabi oilfield; A flint arrowhead, about 3 cm long, dating back to the Neolithic period, has been discovered just south of the Sahil oilfield, 120 kms south-west of Abu Dhabi city (UAE)...
: 7,000-year-old UAE skeletal remains give glimpse of the past; An exhibition displaying six skeletal castings 7,000 years old was opened to the public on Sharjah emirates (UAE), offering an insight into the Stone Age period in the region. More...
: Neolithic carved stone discovered on a beach in Orkney; A rare piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by...
: Archaeologists unearth ancient temple in Yemen; A team of German archaeologists has discovered an ancient temple dating back to 7th century BCE. The discovery was made during excavation works in the ancient Sabaean town of Sirwah,...
: Aerial scanning reveals details of ancient sites; New technologies seem to make almost everyone's job easier, and archaeology is no exception. One of the newest and most exciting tools in the archaeologist's kit is aerial laser scanning,...
: Ancient bones laid to rest in British Columbia; The ancient remains of 45 First Nations people were finally laid to rest in a traditional reburial ceremony at Poets Cove Resort and Spa (Britsh Columbia, Canada). As the box containing...
: M3 work near Rath Lugh site moves ahead; The Irish National Roads Authority has confirmed work is advancing on the M3 motorway in the area close to Rath Lugh where protestors have set up camp. Up to 50...
: Bronze Age skeleton unearthed in Kent; In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death and mortality. His name was Thanatus in Latin. The Isle of Thanet is an area at the most easterly point of...
: Past Horizons Internet magazine launched; A new form of magazine designed to cater for the heritage conservation and archaeological volunteer has been launched. Issue one of 'Past Horizons' (www.pasthorizons.com/magazine) looks at conservation work that you...
: Unique cremation graves discovered in Moravia; Czech archaeologists have uncovered unique cremation graves in Prostejov (Moravia, Czech Republic) that date back to the Neolithic period of the Linear Pottery culture. The graves were uncovered during construction...
: New tomb for 'Altai Princess' to be built in Siberia; A tomb to house the remains of a woman found after being preserved in ice for 2,500 years will be built in Siberia's Altai Republic, the director of a local...
: Early settlement site unearthed in Orkney; There's a new contender for Orkney's earliest settlement, following a two week investigation in Stronsay (Scotland). Naomi Woodward, who discovered two tiny flint arrowheads in Stronsay last year, returned to...
: Oldest human remains unearthed in Macedonia; Macedonian archeologists unearthed a skeleton of a human dating from 7,000 BCE, suspected of being the oldest Neolithic inhabitant on the Balkans. The skeleton has been uncovered at the archeological...
: Cave sculptures on display for first time in 15,000 years; A museum to open in western France will span one-a-half millenniums of human image-making, from stone chisels to computers. The star of the show, at Angles-sur-L'Anglin, in the dÃ©partementof Vienne,...
: Early Americans may have arrived 2,000 years earlier than thought; A new study by anthropologists suggests that first Americans to come to the country 1,000 to 2,000 years earlier than the 13,500 years ago previously thought. The team, led by...
: Sailor to recreate Phoenicians' epic African voyage; On the ancient Syrian island of Arwad, which was settled by the Phoenicians in about 2000 BCE, men are hard at work hammering wooden pegs into the hull of a...
: Victoria suburb yields 850 BCE archeological site; Archeologists and Songhees Nation members have been chipping away at a 2,850-year-old aboriginal site, one of the oldest to be found on Vancouver Island (Canada), experts say. "This find is...
31 March 2008: Earliest signs of corn as staple food found in South America; Corn has long been known as the primary food crop in prehistoric North and Central America. Now it appears it may have been an important part of the South American...
: Siberian, Native American languages linked; A fast-dying language in remote central Siberia shares a mother tongue with dozens of Native American languages spoken thousands of miles away, new research confirms. The finding may allow linguists...
: Conflict alert for ancient British Columbian sites; Without a radical shift in thinking about first nations archaeology, British Columbia (Canada) is in danger of losing what is left of its ancient heritage and sparking heated conflict with...
: 'First European' is 1.2 million years old; An analysis of an ancient jaw containing teeth has confirmed that humans reached Western Europe well over a million years ago, far earlier than previously thought. The prehistoric fossil was...
: Iron Age bones found at Olympic site in London; Archaeologists uncovered four skeletons in Iron Age graves on the site of the London 2012 Olympic Park. The graves were in an area of a buried settlement on the site...
: Neolithic site unearthed in Serbia; Artefacts from the Neolithic have been found at a site where digging had begun for a new petrol station near Niš (Serbia). The Archaeological Bureau for the Protection of Monuments...
: Iron Age brought back to life; A replica of an Iron Age roundhouse, created after extensive research on prehistoric sites at West Heslerton and Pickering, has been built at Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole (North Yorkshire, England),...
: Seahenge 'returns home'; The famous timber circle dating back 4,000 years which was found in the sea off the Norfolk coast (England) is to return to the county in a permanent display. Seahenge,...
: Stone Age weapons dug up in India; Archaeologists in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal have discovered small weapons made of stone which are around 15,000-20,000 years old. About 200 small stone tools, knives and needle-like...
: Ancient Chinese cliff paintings 'face severe damage'; Cliff paintings in northern China that date back to prehistoric times face severe damage from natural erosion and human destruction, according to a Chinese archaeological expert. About 80 percent of...