Stone Pages Archaeo News: November 2009 Archives

November 2009 index:

2 November 2009: Neanderthals and modern humans got together; Modern humans and Neanderthals had sex across the species barrier, according to a leading geneticist who is overseeing a project to compare their genomes. Professor Svante Paabo, director of genetics...
: Evidence of human habitation on Trinidad 7000 years ago; An archaeological team has found more evidence on a site at St John's Road, South Oropouche (Trinidad), that people lived there 7,000 years ago. The site is as old as...
: 'Matuto' petroglyphs found in New Guinea; Many 'matuto' petroglyphs were found in a number of villages of the Kaimana District, Provinice of Papua Barat (Indonesia). Matuto petroglyphs usually have a half-man lizard shape and are believed...
: The oldest 'continuously inhabited' place in Britain?; Did Palaeolithic man settle in what is now known as Thatcham? It has been claimed on numerous occasions that Thatcham in Berkshire (England) is the oldest 'continuously inhabited' place in...
: Extinct bison could rewrite Canadian archaeological record; The carcass of an extinct steppe bison, discovered two years ago melting out of a cliff in a remote village in the Northwest Territories, is shedding new light on the...
: Bronze Age cattle travelled long distances; The 4,000-year-old barrows at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire (both in England) are famous among Bronze Age archaeological sites for the unusual amounts of cattle remains associated with their central...
: Mesolithic flint found by 11-year-old boy in England; Budding archaeologist Samuel Owens uncovered a 10,000 year old piece of history when he found a segment of flint in his dad's allotment. The piece has now been identified as...
: Fallen standing stone found in Cornwall; Early this year archaeologists working on behalf of South West Water have discovered a fallen standing stone at Quoit, between Trevalga and Trethevy (Cornwall, England). The 4.5 tonne stone is...
: 11th Nordic Bronze Age Symposium; The 11th Nordic Bronze Age symposium has been organized by the Institute for Cultural Research / Archaeology, University of Helsinki (Finland). The theme of the Symposium was the changing picture...
: Possible Bronze Age burial site discovered in Oxford; Archaeologists have unearthed what they say could be a prehistoric Bronze Age burial site in central Oxford (England). Experts say important chiefs may have been laid to rest at the...
: Expert uncovers celestial connection in desert US Southwest; Jim Krehbiel and an Ohio Wesleyan student spent years uncovering why ancient kivas (rooms used for religious rituals) were built in such remote sites in Utah (USA). Why, he wondered...
: Nazcas' destruction of forests caused downfall; An ancient civilisation brought about its own demise by destroying forests which kept its delicate ecosystem in balance, according to researchers who claim the discovery has important implications for the...
7 November 2009: Father and son cleared of illegal treasure hunting in England; A father and son team of treasure hunters who were accused of illegally removing 3000 year old artefacts from an Uttlesford estate (Essex, England) while acting as metal detecting 'nighthawks',...
: Chinese challenge to 'out of Africa' theory; The discovery of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the commonly held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa. Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute...
: Novice metal detector man discovers treasure hoard in Scotland; A Iron Age treasure hoard has been unearthed by a safari park keeper using a metal detector for the first time. David Booth was 'stunned' when he found several 2000-year-old...
: Prehistoric burial ground discovered on Skye; A prehistoric burial ground has been discovered on Skye (Inner Hebrides, Scotland). Six slab-lined graves and six cremation pits have been unearthed on the excavation site close to Armadale pier...
: Iron Age burial mound found in the Netherlands; Archaeologists have found the Iron Age burial mound of a wealthy man in Noord Brabant, the second major find within a cluster of earthworks and other remains near the town...
: Ancient weapons factory unearthed in Leicestershire; Archeologists have unearthed an 8,000-year-old weapons factory in Britain. The find, near Melton, is the biggest ever mid-Stone Age discovery in Leicestershire (England), with fingernail-sized flint pieces, burned animal bones...
: Oregon caves yield evidence of continent's first inhabitants; Archaeologists claim to have found the oldest known artefact in the Americas, a scraper-like tool in an Oregon cave (USA) that dates back 14,230 years. The tool shows that people...
: Additional details on 'dugong' prehistoric ritual site; About 6 week ago, we published an article about the discovery of the oldest known place of worship dedicated to the dugong, or sea cow, on an island just north...
23 November 2009: Expert says ancient art was 'an instinct'; Images pecked in stone hundreds to thousands of years ago could be for religious reasons, to mark territories or simple doodles such as those still made today by children and...
: Europe's largest rondel enclosures unearthed in Bohemia; Czech archaeologists have uncovered four prehistoric rondel enclosures (a type of circular prehistoric earthworks enclosure), two of which are the largest in Europe, within an unprecedented extensive research accompanying the...
: Ancient stone moved from archaeological site in Cyprus; Police officers in Cyprus are investigating what they believe to be the attempted theft of a giant 2,000-year-old standing stone, which was been removed from the archaeological site in Pissouri....
: Archaeologists to study Bronze Age barrow in West Sussex; Archaeologists are to study a Bronze Age barrow in a corner of a sand quarry site at Minsted, near Stedham (West Sussex, England). West Sussex County Council has given consent...
: Protest over hill fort land sale in Britain; Hundreds of people have staged a protest on land near a British Iron Age hill fort in a bid to stop it being sold and keep it in public ownership....
: Indus Valley's civilisation 'had first sophisticated exchange system'; The Indus Valley's Bronze Age civilisation may have developed the world's first sophisticated system of wage labour, financial exchange and measurement, a Canadian mathematician has discovered. According to a new...
: Valley in Jordan irrigated for 13,000 years; Dutch researcher Eva Kaptijn succeeded in discovering - based on 100,000 finds - that the Zerqa Valley in Jordan had been successively inhabited and irrigated for more than 13,000 years....
: Early humans may have been 'hobbits', scientists say; Since its 2003 discovery on the Indonesian island of Flores, the Homo floresiensis (nicknamed 'hobbit' because it only grew to be about three feet tall) has caused scientists across the...
: Hunters' remains earliest known in Scotland; Scotland's foremost amateur archaeologist, Tam Ward of Biggar Archaeology Group, was guest speaker at the November meeting of Lanark and District Archaeological Society. The subject of Tam's talk was about...
: Ancient hunters not to blame for driving mammoths to extinction; Woolly mammoths and other large, lumbering beasts faced extinction long before early humans perfected their skills as spearmakers, scientists say. The prehistoric giants began their precipitous decline nearly 2,000 years...
: Bronze Age findings unearthed near Moscow; Evidence of human activity dating back 3,000 years ago has been reported in New Jerusalem monastery near Russian capital Moscow. "Archaeologists have found ceramics produced back in the Bronze Age,...