Stone Pages Archaeo News: September 2010 Archives

September 2010 index:

2 September 2010: 5,000-year-old English landscape discovered; Five thousand years ago, the eastern coast of England, near present day Lincolnshire, was a swamp, inhabited by Bronze Age communities. Now, drained and cultivated, it supports English farms. But,...
: What the locals in Utah ate 10,000 years ago; If you had a dinner invitation in Utah's Escalante Valley (USA) almost 10,000 years ago, you would have come just in time to try a new menu item: mush cooked...
: Nebra sky disk discarded because of volcanic ash?; One of the most spectacular archaeological finds in recent years is the discovery of the Nebra sky disk. The disk was buried about 3,600 years ago after a catastrophic volcanic...
: Bronze Age henge found in Hertfordshire; A Bronze Age henge has been discovered on land near Letchworth (Hertfordshire, England). Archaeologists have found a circular area about 50 metres wide surrounded by a bank at Stapleton's Field...
: Mysterious object unearthed in South Carolina; Museum volunteer David Bertrand of Georgetown (South Carolina, USA) recently discovered a mysterious object that has archaeologists baffled. The object, made of unglazed clay and about the size of an...
: Iron Age dig in Kent to resume 21 years on; Evidence of the importance of Folkestone (Kent, England) as an Iron Age site has been unearthed as part of an archaeological project in the town. Work on A Town Unearthed:...
: Spear points from 3000 BCE found in Pennsylvania; A recent archaeological dig at Rotary Park has set Columbia Borough's historical clock back a few thousand years, revealing an American Indian community dating to a time when Stonehenge was...
: Welsh hillfort inspires paintings; In an excavation at Moel y Gaer hillfort, Llanbedr near Ruthin (Denbighshire, Wales) last year, students from Bangor and Vienna uncovered evidence of how the banks of the fort had...
: 10,000-year-old skeleton recovered from a Mexican cave; The skeletal remains of a young man found in a flooded cave in 2006 by German cave divers have recently been recovered following three years of in situ study. The...
: New theory: Oetzi was ceremonially buried; The prehistoric hunter known as Oetzi the Iceman may not have died at the site in the Italian Alps where he was found 19 years ago, but was only ceremonially...
: Discoveries in Syria reveal ancient trade routes to Nile; An academic excavation team said it had uncovered artifacts which indicate that an ancient Bronze Age kingdom in northern Syria had strong international trade relations with Nile river dynasties. Peter...
: Oldest evidence of arrows found; Researchers in South Africa have revealed the earliest direct evidence of human-made arrows. The scientists unearthed 64,000 year-old 'stone points', which they say were probably arrow heads. Closer inspection of...
: Flint tools found during road repairs in England; Archaeological remains dating back to the last Ice Age have been found during work to upgrade a major road, the Highways Agency said. The remains, along with Iron Age and...
: Prehistoric artifacts unearthed in Canada; Workers at a housing project in Sheshatshiu, central Labrador (Canada), have uncovered 3,000-year-old artifacts, including tools and weapons. What started as a housing development has evolved into an archaeological dig....
: The sites and sounds of prehistory; Some archaeologists argue that sound effects were an important, perhaps even decisive, factor in how early humans chose and built their dwellings and sacred places. However, assessing the claims of...
6 September 2010: Modern cactus traced to living ancestor in Mexico; In an article published in the Annals of Botany, a team from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) describes the domestication of the Gray Ghost Organ Pipe Cactus. Villagers...
: Cavemen accused of wiping out cave bears; Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) are named after the European caves where their bones are often found. These giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears - their populations...
: Tablets of first written trade agreement unearthed in Anatolia; Professor Cahit Gunbatti of Ankara University's Faculty of Letters, History and Geography said the first written trade agreement in Anatolia was made 4,000 years ago. "We have discovered the cuneiform-script...
: Israel researchers find ancient disposable cutlery; Israeli archaeologists believe thousands of ancient shards of flint found scattered around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv might be the world's oldest known disposable knives. The...
: Remains of funeral feast found in Israel; A team of archaeologists believe they have found the earliest evidence of a ritual feast in an Israeli cave near the Sea of Galilee. Natalie Munro from the University of...
: Bronze Age brain surgery in Turkey?; Archaeologist Onder Bilgi has been excavating the site of Ikiztepe, Samsun, in northern Turkey for some 37 years now. The Bronze Age inhabitants lived in hard-to-excavate log houses with courtyards...
: 4,500 year old settlement discovered in Canada; Archaeologists have discovered a 4,500 year old settlement on the Ausable River, near the shore of Lake Huron in Ontario (Canada). The find proves that people were living a sedentary...
: The WRAO Field School and Excavation 2010; The Welsh Rock Art Organisation (WRAO) is organising the last field school and excavation for this year in Pembrokeshire (South West Wales) from 3 November to 7 November 2010. Field...
: Dig planned on proposed daycare site in Scotland; In the 1930's, archaeologists discovered Bronze age artifacts at Knappers Quarry, Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire (Scotland). Burials dating from 4700 to 2700 years BP and holes that may have supported timbers...
: Moabite temple unearthed in Jordan; Joint Jordanian-US excavations at Khirbat 'Ataroz (Jordan), have revealed 'the largest and most complete' Iron Age temple in the region, archaeologists announced. The three-story temple, with a main room measuring...
: Mysterious Bronze Age oak road discovered in Ireland; Irish archaeologists are puzzled as to the exact purpose of an ancient oak road unearthed on a bog managed by Bord na Móna (a company responsible for the mechanised harvesting...
: Bronze Age gold bracelets found in Kent; Two Bronze Age gold bracelets almost 3,000 years old have been discovered during excavations along the route of the East Kent Access Road (England). When they were found one bracelet...
: Mass dismissal at Çatalhöyük dig; Researchers finishing the dig season at Turkey's Çatalhöyük - a 9500-year-old site famed for its art and symbolism at the dawn of agriculture - got a big shock last week....
: Unearthing the secrets of an Iron Age settlement in England; Archaeologist Derek Hurst recently disclosed the secrets of a Iron-Age settlement near Bewdley (Worcestershire, England). His report, which has appeared in The Council for British Archaeology's online journal Internet Archaeology...
: Prehistoric 'bone hats' found in Mongolia; Recently, archaeologists found prehistoric hats from an ancient tomb site at Tongliao City of Inner Mongolia. Experts said it was the first time this kind of hats, which were made...
21 September 2010: Ancient remains discovered in Yorkshire; A group of archaeology enthusiasts discovered a cup-and-ring stone in Steeton (West Yorkshire, England). According to a short report sent by Mr Paul Bennett, on the stone there are at...
: White Horses and Hill Figures exhibition extended; The Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes (Wiltshire, England) has decided to extend its current White Horses and Hill Figures exhibition until February next year after the show of intricate landscape...
: Dig in Wisconsin yields wealth of ancient artifacts; Archeologists have found thousands of artifacts at the Finch site on Highway 26 north of Milton (Wisconsin, USA). Archaeologists say a two-acre strip of wooded hills holds 160 identified pits...
: Prehistoric 'baby sling' claimed to have increased brain size; A recent research by a leading British prehistorian maintains that the most important aspect of human evolution was facilitated by a crucial technological device invented by early Stone Age women....
: Site in Utah indicates 9,000 years of habitation; Archaeologists have recently finished excavating one of the oldest inhabited sights in southern Utah (USA). The site, known as the North Creek Shelter Site, was first investigated in 2003. The...
: Sălcuţa-Telish vs Galatin; defining a culture; In the 1970's, discoveries of Copper Age pottery in Oltenia (Romania) led to the definition of the Sălcuţa Culture (Sălcuţa IV-II). The earliest artifacts date to approximately 6,000 years BCE....
: Improvements to the Avebury landscape; The gateway to the Avebury World Heritage Site (Wiltshire, England) has been transformed after work to bury unsightly electricity cables was completed. The project, which started over three years ago,...
: Did pets contribute to human development?; A professor of biological anthropology at Pennsylvania State University (USA), Pat Shipman, has written an article in which she postulates on the contribution that the domestication of animals has made...
: Planned footpath from Avebury to Stonehenge; A new long-distance footpath from Avebury to Stonehenge is being planned by the Friends of the Ridgeway, who want to widen their focus beyond the National Trail. Ian Ritchie, chairman...
: Neolithic cave dwelling found in Vietnam; A cave in Na Hang District in the northern province of Tuyen Quang (China) is thought to have housed primitive humans during the Neolithic Era (7,000-8,000 years ago). Tuyen Quang...
: Early Archaic visitors in Wyoming; An archaeological dig currently under way at Jackson Hole (Wyoming, USA) has discovered evidence of Early Archaic (3,500 to 6,000 BCE) visitors. The area was a good one to visit...
: Bronze Age skeleton died a violent death; A skeleton unearthed at Ronaldsway on the Isle of Man in 2008 bears signs that he may have been attacked and died defending himself. Archaeologosts discovered cut marks on his...
: Prehistoric cremation sites found in Scotland; The construction site for a new Asda superstore in Slackbuie (Inverness, Scotland) has revealed Neolithic pottery shards, cremation pits and 2,000 flints. The cremation pits were surrounded by a ring...