Stone Pages Archaeo News: October 2014 Archives

October 2014 index:

2 October 2014: Iron Age bowl tells a grisly tale; In 1958, archaeologists digging through the ruins of Hasanlu - a burned Iron Age citadel in northwestern Iran - pulled a spectacular, though crushed, golden bowl from the layers of...
: 43,000-year-old modern human settlement in Central Europe; In 1908 the famous Venus of Willendorf was discovered during an excavation near the Austrian town of Melk. The statuette has been dated to 30,000 years ago, and is one...
: The geoglyphs of Kazakhstan; More than 50 geoglyphs with various shapes and sizes have been discovered across northern Kazakhstan in central Asia. These sprawling structures, mostly earthen mounds, create a similar type of landscape...
9 October 2014: Armenian site challenges assumptions about human technology; The analysis of artifacts from a 325,000-year-old site in Armenia shows that human technological innovation occurred intermittently throughout Europe, rather than spreading from a single point of origin, as previously...
: Neolithic pottery found on Scilly Isles; Archaeologists have discovered one of the largest hauls of Neolithic pottery in the south west on St Martin's in the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall (England). Thousands...
: Bronze Age knife discovered in Denmark; A flint-bladed knife with a wooden handle has been found in an archaeological dig in Rødby in southern Zealand. It is the first such knife ever found in Denmark and...
: Cave paintings in Indonesia shatter theories about the origin of art; Scientists have identified some of the earliest cave paintings produced by humans. The artworks are in a rural area on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi. Until now, paintings this old...
10 October 2014: Neanderthal human remains found in Normandy; Despite numerous sites of great antiquity having been excavated since the end of the 19th century, Middle Pleistocene human fossils are still extremely rare in northwestern Europe. However, archaeologists have...
: Bronze Age palace and grave goods discovered in Spain; Archaeologists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) shed light on the rich historical and archaeological heritage of the site of La Almoloya, located in Murcia (Spain). A silver diadem...
12 October 2014: Ancient Harappan reservoir dwarfs that of Mohenjo Daro; A 5,000-year-old stepwell has been found in one of the largest Harappan cities - Dholavira, near the Arabian Sea, in what is now western India. Rectangular, 73.4 metres long, 29.3...
13 October 2014: Early humans in Saudi Arabia were a diverse lot, says study; In studies about early human dispersals out of Africa into Asia, scientists have long debated how, when and who moved into the Arabian Peninsula tens of thousands of years ago,...
: Prehistoric pit discovered on Irish beach; Archaeologists have discovered signs of human habitation, possibly dating back 4,000 years, on Sligo's Coney Island (Ireland). A box-like structure built from large stone slabs found on the island may...
19 October 2014: Greek Bronze Age re-evaluated thanks to statistical methodology; The origins of Bayesian statistical methodology can be traced back to Thomas Bayes in the 18th Century CE, who developed Bayes' Theorem, which relates current to prior belief and current...
: First ever excavation on Skomer Island; Skomer Island, off the coast of Pembrokeshire (Wales), is a bird and wildlife sanctuary under the control of The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. Until recently no archaeological...
: Ancient male warriors showed signs of vanity; The most prominent burial artefacts in male graves in the Bronze Age were for grooming - razors made of bronze, tweezers, and an item possibly used for manicuring. "We have...
20 October 2014: Prehistoric artifacts discovered in Poland; At the highest point of an elevation consisting of sands and gravels deposited long ago by a moving glacier, archaeologists stumbled upon fragments of pottery cups and bowls belonging to...
: Tracing our ancestors at the bottom of the sea; A specialist group of European researchers are studying the remains of prehistoric human settlements which are now submerged beneath our coastal seas. Some of these drowned sites are tens of...
: New settlement found in Arizona desert; In the northeast corner of Arizona (USA) is an area known as the Arizona Petrified Forest National Park. The forest in question is actually over 200 million years old and...
23 October 2014: 5000-year-old cave paintings discovered in Russia; Russian archaeologists have discovered ancient cave paintings dating back to 3000 BC in a gorge in southern Russia. "A few days ago we found five drawings, fairly large fragments, on...
: Neolithic barbeque pit found in Cyprus; Archaeologists have uncovered what could be a prehistoric barbeque pit used by large bands of hunters at the Prastio-Mesorotsos site in Cyprus. According to the antiquities department, the team of...
: Massive prehistoric settlement unearthed in Ukraine; A temple dating back about 6,000 years has been discovered within a massive prehistoric settlement in Ukraine. The temple is about 60 by 20 meters (197 by 66 feet) in...
31 October 2014: Ancient sundial discovered on a Russian stone slab; The stone slab is marked with round divots arranged in a circle, and an astronomical analysis suggests that these markings coincide with heavenly events, including sunrises and moonrises. Last year,...
: Bronze Age settlement in England found using Google Earth; Devonshire treasure hunter Howard Jones trawled satellite images for the sort of terrain that would have offered food, water and shelter for a prehistoric settlement, pinpointing a spot in the...