Stone Pages Archaeo News: July 2008 Archives

July 2008 index:

5 July 2008: Stonehenge builders rival Pythagoras; Stone Age Britons had a sophisticated knowledge of geometry to rival Pythagoras – 2,000 years before the Greek 'father of numbers' was born, according to a new study of Stonehenge....
: New finds at Rotherwas, while road over it is complete; The remains of animals burnt at extreme temperatures have been confirmed among finds from the Rotherwas Ribbon, the 4,000-year-old archaeological site uncovered by roadbuilding work near Hereford (England) last year....
: 4,500-year-old mummies discovered in Chile; Eight perfectly preserved mummies, believed to be some 4,500 year old, were found by workers engaged in a restoration project in Chile's far north. "These mummies date back to between...
: Stonehenge: £37m later and back to square one; A major public consultation is set to take place in a new bid to upgrade disgraceful visitor facilities, appalling traffic conditions and the poor environment at Stonehenge after the dramatic...
: Findings on Tara were altered, says archaeologist; Archaeologists working on excavations on the controversial M3 motorway near Tara (co. Meath, Ireland) feared they would be 'sacked, blacklisted or bullied out of their profession' for not supporting the...
: Neolithic house found during dig in England; Archaeologists have found the site of what they believe is one of England's oldest houses. The Stone Age house was unearthed at Kingsmead Quarry in Horton, close to Windsor Castle,...
: Humans wore shoes 40,000 years ago, fossil suggests; Humans were wearing shoes at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study. The evidence comes from a 40,000-year-old human fossil with delicate toe bones indicative...
: Exploding asteroid theory strengthened by new evidence; Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana (USA) in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America - when the end of...
: Digging up the past at the Ring of Brodgar; Work will start next week to unearth the secrets of one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites. The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney (Scotland), the third-largest stone circle in the...
: Stone Age art caves may have been concert halls; Prehistoric peoples chose places of natural resonant sound to draw their famed cave sketches, according to new analyses of paleolithic caves in France. In at least ten locations, drawings of...
14 July 2008: Six months to save Lascaux cave art; Experts believe that up to half of the prehistoric art in the Lascaux caves (France) is at risk. Efforts to combat a fungal invasion have been unsuccessful. Meanwhile Unesco, the...
: Early Australian tattoos match rock art; A new study reports that elaborate and distinctive designs on the skin of indigenous Aussies repeated characters and motifs found on rock art and all sorts of portable objects, ranging...
: 3000 years old ruins found in Bolivia; Archeologists have begun digging at an ancient ceremonial site in eastern Bolivia to piece together the rites and daily life of cultures dating as far back as 3,000 years ago....
: Megalithic remains unearthed in Malta; An archaeological discovery described as the most important in 18 years has been made at the site of the Tarxien temples (Malta). Malta Environment Planning Authority (Mepa) officials discovered megaliths...
: Ancient English monuments are under threat, say experts; Experts at English Heritage have just compiled a Risk Register which pinpoints England's historic treasures that are most in need of urgent attention to save them for the future. Heritage...
: Norwegian ancient sites are being destroyed; Burial mounds, rock carvings, ancient dwellings and other cultural heritage sites are increasingly being destroyed in Norway by new roads, agriculture and building sites. The number of criminal investigations connected...
: Carwynnen Quoit is going to be saved; The Sustainable Trust (www.sustrust.co.uk) is now about to buy Carwynnen Quoit near Camborne, West Cornwall (England). The Trust is buying about 5 acres of land around the quoit, that is...
: Probable chambered cairn unearthed in Orkney; Archaeological excavations on a large mound in South Walls (Orkney, Scotland) suggest that it does not contain a broch. Instead, it appears to be a Neolithic chambered cairn. A two-week...
19 July 2008: Bronze Age treasure unearthed in Surrey; A Coroner has ruled that a hoard of ancient bronze ingots found on farmland near Dorking (Surrey, England) are treasure. Nick Green, who is a member of the East Surrey Search and...
: Construction damages prehistoric site in Illinois; About an acre of one of Illinois' most significant prehistoric sites was destroyed by bulldozing. Located a mile or so from Lebanon's bricked and antique shop-lined main thoroughfare, the Pfeffer...
: Search for first Americans to plunge underwater; C. Andrew Hemmings, research associate of the Texas Archeological Research Laboratory (TARL) at The University of Texas at Austin, will lead an underwater archeological expedition in the Gulf of Mexico...
: 6,000-year-old knife unearthed in Florida; It started out as a simple plan to erect a pavilion-like shelter at Safety Harbor (Florida, USA). Then it became an archeology dig. A city crew erecting the shelter stumbled...
: Wollemi Wilderness yields its ancient secrets; There is a ridge and a creek in the heart of the 500,000-hectare Wollemi Wilderness (New South Wales, Australia) which are so remote they have never been officially named by...
: Prehistoric underwater forest explored in Scotland; Underwater archaeologists are taking to Loch Tay (Perthshire, Scotland) to try to uncover more about a submerged prehistoric woodland. The stumps of about 50 trees were discovered in 2005 -...
: Cavemen and their relatives in the same village after 3,000 years; Two Germans share the longest proven family tree in the world. The men, Manfred Huchthausen and Uwe Lange, had known each other from living in the same village. But they...
: Early irrigation farming traced in ancient Yemen; In the remote desert highlands of southern Yemen, a team of archaeologists have discovered new evidence of ancient transitions from hunting and herding to irrigation agriculture 5,200 years ago. As...
: Syrian settlement dates back to 5,000 BCE; A number of round buildings that are eight and half meters high and date back to 5,000 BCE were discovered al-Hasaka governorate, 650 kilometres northeast of Damascus (Syria). Abdul Massih...
: Stonehenge centre ready for 2012 Olympics?; Ambitious plans for a world-class visitor centre for Stonehenge may have dwindled to a world-class prefab, but both English Heritage and the government pledged it would be built in time...
: Henge unearthed in the grounds of an Oxford college; Archaeologists excavating a mass grave in the grounds of an Oxford (England) college uncovered what could be a monument dating back 5,000 years. The team unearthed between 30 and 40...
: Ancient finds at a British bus station dig; Stone Age pits containing tools and pottery have been uncovered during work on a new bus station in Warwickshire (England). Digs for the bus station in Warwick started in early...
28 July 2008: Battle over Rhode Island rock mounds; As a boy, John Brown remembers traveling with his family to the wooded hills in northwest Rhode Island (USA) where his fellow Narragansett Indians gathered near stone piles they believe...
: Large Neolithic settlement unearthed in China; More than 2,000 wooden poles recently unearthed at a site in Jianchuan county (China), have been found to be more than 3,000 years old. The poles, still standing, were dug...
: Malta exported wine in antiquity; There is mounting evidence that Malta was competing with other ancient Mediterranean wine producers as far back as the 3th-4th century BCE. The Superintendence of Cultural Heritage is mapping archaeological...
: Australia's ancient Aboriginal rock art at risk; Australia's greatest ancient Aboriginal rock art is at risk of being damaged or destroyed because it sits at the epicentre of the country's resources boom, experts say. The etchings of...
: TV archaeologist tells of his love for Avebury; TV archaeologist Phil Harding from Channel 4's Time Team returned to a Wiltshire megalithic monument that helped shape his career. The former Marlborough Grammar School student was invited to help...
: Flint hints at existence of Palaeolithic man in Ireland; The possibility of a Palaeolithic human presence in Ireland has once again presented itself. A flaked flint dating to about 200,000 years ago found in Co Down is certainly of...
: Protection plan to be piloted in Tara valley; A new project to protect the landscape and improve planning decisions nationally is to be piloted in the Tara Skryne valley, Co Meath (Ireland). The project, which will be carried...