Stone Pages Archaeo News: February 2015 Archives

February 2015 index:

2 February 2015: Ancient bone hand ax identified in China; Researchers say they have identified the first example of a bone - not stone - hand ax crafted by ancient humans in East Asia. Makers of the curved, pear-shaped implement...
: Ancient humans from Atapuerca cave ate dog, wild cat, fox and badger; Between 7,200 and 3,100 years ago, humans that lived in the Cueva El Mirador at Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain) included in their diet domestic dog, wild cat, fox and badger. Although...
5 February 2015: First Americans used spear-throwers to hunt large animals; A new analysis of microscopic fractures on spear points provides the first empirical evidence that America's first hunters really did use spear-throwers, sometimes called 'atlatls', from an Aztec word for...
: Scientists recreate ancient Siberian brain surgery; Following the discovery of holes in three ancient human skulls in the Altai Mountains of Siberia, neurosurgeons have been working with anthropologists and archaeologists to determine how the early doctors...
8 February 2015: Australian stories tell of ancient climate change; An early European settler in Australia described stories told by the Aboriginal people of a time when three islands off the southwest coast near Perth "formed part of the mainland,...
: Fossilized bone may belong to new human species; The first known prehistoric human from Taiwan has been identified, and may represent an entirely new species that lived as recently as 10,000 years ago. The newly identified human, 'Penghu...
10 February 2015: New tattoos discovered on Oetzi mummy; Oetzi the Iceman, who was attacked one late spring or early summer around 3500 BCE and whose belongings and naturally mummified 5,300 year old body were found in a glacier...
: 55,000-year-old skull may link us with Neanderthals; A 55,000-year-old incomplete skull discovered deep in Manot Cave in northern Israel fills a major gap in the fossil record of Homo sapiens' journey from Africa to Europe. Study leader...
12 February 2015: Prehistoric caves discovered in Papua; The Archaeology Office of Jayapura has found caves used to be inhabited by prehistoric people in the Karst hilly areas of Lake Sentani, Jayapura, Papua. "The caves discovered are the...
: Bronze Age body found near Loch Ness; Following the discovery of an early Bronze Age burial cist in Drumnadrochit, on the west shore of Loch Ness (Highland, Scotland), archaeologists have found shards of pottery and a wrist...
: Ancient child remains unearthed in Orkney; Last 3 February, Carrie Brown of See Orkney tours was walking along the coast in the north end of the Sanday island (Orkney, Scotland) when she spotted part of a...
13 February 2015: Embracing corpses from 3,800 BCE found in a Greek Cave; A rare Neolithic-era find of the skeletons of a couple embracing was found in excavations by the northern entrance of the Alepotrypa ('Foxhole') cave in southern Greece, on the Peloponnese...
16 February 2015: Canadian dam will flood 12,000 years of human history; More than 30 years ago archaeologist Jonathan Driver was part of the team that uncovered one of the rarest finds in Canadian history - evidence of human occupation in northern...
: New algorithm could reveal oldest spoken words; A team of scientists has developed a mathematical technique that can work out how and when changes occurred to words in different languages, giving researchers the potential to turn the...
17 February 2015: Earliest example of death during childbirth; A prehistoric cemetery in Irkutsk, near the southern tip of Lake Baikal in eastern Russia, is partially covered by city development and has not been fully excavated. All 101 of...
19 February 2015: Neanderthals disappeared from the Iberian Peninsula earlier than elsewhere; Neanderthals could have disappeared between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago, according to fossil remains found at sites located from the Black Sea in Russia to the Atlantic coastline of Spain....
: Stones discovered in Israel suggest ancient fertility cult; Prehistoric sites are generally known for the representation of female fertility symbols - male fertility objects are far more unusual. In one area in the arid Eilat Mountains of the...
20 February 2015: Retired policeman convicted of damage to a protected site; In a rare case of prosecution in the case of criminal damage to a listed monument, a court in County Wicklow (Ireland) found a retired policeman guilty of criminal damage...
: Security threats delay research into Nok Culture; The on-going research into the Nigerian Nok Culture has recently received some good news but also suffered bad news also. The 12 year old project, headed up by the Institute...
24 February 2015: Neolithic skeleton returned to its home in Wales; In 1891 a civil engineer from Bacup, Lancashire (England) was excavating in the Little Orme: one of two promontories which flank the town beach at Llandudno, on the coast of...