Stone Pages Archaeo News: December 2021 Archives

December 2021 index:

5 December 2021: Iberian dolmen was painted red; Investigations of the nearly 6,000 year old dolmen of Cañada Real, in the megalithic necropolis of Los Molares, about 40 kilometres southeast of Sevilla in what is now southwest Spain,...
: 5,000-year-old engraved chalk plaques found near Stonehenge; Analysis of four ancient chalk plaques from the Stonehenge area places the plaques in the early part of the 3rd millennium BCE, revealing previously unseen artistic elements. Discovered around Stonehenge...
: Stone Age textiles at Çatalhöyük; As many as 10,000 people lived in Çatalhöyük in what is now south-central Turkey some 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, making it the largest known settlement from the Neolithic and...
: World's oldest known jewellery found in Morocco; Archaeologists in Morocco have presented what they say was the oldest jewellery in the world - 33 perforated seashells. Assumed to have formed necklaces and bracelets, the shells were discovered...
: Discoveries in cave on Croatian island; Archaeologists exploring the cave called "Babina &Scaret;pilja" on the Adriatic island of Hvar found ceramic items and animal bones dating to the early Neolithic period, and a pebble with natural...
: 5,500-year-old pentagonal house in northern China; Archaeologists have found ruins of a 5,500 year old pentagonal structure at a construction site in the Chinese city of Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi Province, about 500 kilometres southwest...
: Prehistoric village discovered in Turkey; Karahan Tepe is around 35 kilometres east-southeast of Göbekli Tepe. Now considered part of a constellation of contemporaneous settlements that extends over 100 kilometres, and at least 11 other unexcavated...
: Hundreds of Mesolithic tools found in Scotland; More than 1,200 worked stone tools dating to around 6,000 to 10,000 years ago have been found alongside the River Dee, about 25 kilometres upstream of Aberdeen. Collected by volunteers...
6 December 2021: Early humans in prehistoric Israel were picky eaters; As with many quadrupeds used for food today, the diet of the animal has a great effect on the taste of the meat, even if it is only very subtle....
: Mercury poisoning in Copper Age Iberia; A recent paper from the International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, revealed that the oldest victims of mercury poisoning was buried in Spain and Portugal. While the exposure to mercury today happens...
: Why did modern humans take so long to settle in Europe?; From three sites in Romania, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic respectively, research have identified, and re-dated early human remains to between 40,000 - 50,000 years ago. However, these bones have...
15 December 2021: Perthshire artefacts could be 3,000 years old; Excavations in advance of a housing development about 120 kilometres northeast of Glasgow (Scotland) have revealed the remains of eight prehistoric buildings, including roundhouses and a rare metalworking hearth, that...
: Earliest evidence of humans decorating jewellery in Eurasia; A broken pendant carved from a 41,500-year-old piece of woolly mammoth tusk could be the oldest known example of decorated jewellery in Eurasia made by humans. Discovered in 2010 among...
: 3rd millennium BCE 'City of Canals' in China; New research suggests the collapse of the Liangzhu and other stone age cultures along the Yangtze river delta around 4,300 years ago were the result of climate change. Situated on...
: Bronze Age hoards found on Hertfordshire farm; About 200 artefacts have been unearthed after two Bronze Age hoards were found by metal detectorists. A 13-year-old girl on her third detecting trip uncovered 20 pieces from an eventual...
: 3D model of ancient neolithic village online; As part of a project to digitally document over 300 Scottish heritage sites and their collections, a model of the neolithic village at Skara Brae on Orkney (Scotland) lets people...
: Stonehenge builders' eating habits explored; Recent evidence shows that seasonally foraged sweet and savory snacks were part of the winter diet of inhabitants of the nearby ancient settlement of Durrington Walls, a large henge monument...
: Rare 99,000-year-old ivory tool found in China; Archaeologists have unearthed an ivory shovel dated to around 99,000 years ago at a paleolithic site in Yishui County, the heart of east China's Shandong Province. Ivory relics used for...
: Prehistoric artefacts found in Maryland; A trove of projectile points, drills, and other artefacts some 5,000 to 9,000 years old have been unearthed as part of the Herring Run Archaeology Project - a free, community-based,...
16 December 2021: Neolithic pits near Stonehenge were human-made; Originally described as being a natural occurrence, new findings have proven that the series of deep pits discovered near Stone Henge were man made. Together these pits form a circle...
: Digging down into the past with Mesolithic Deeside; The article details a reporter coming to an archaeological excavation with the archaeology group Mesolithic Deeside for an excavation at Milton of Crathes (Aberdeenshire, Scotland). The site the author visits...
: Discovery shed light on prehistoric Chinese civilization; Archaeological ruins found on the Loess Plateau dated to be about 5,000 years old could provide crucial clues about the infancy of Chinese civilization. These excavations were carried out at...
18 December 2021: Sligo Neolithic site sold to private buyer; A bid by the Irish government to purchase the site of a Neolithic passage grave on Cairns Hill, on the southern outskirts of Sligo, has been rejected by the seller....
: 4000-year-old graves discovered in Denmark; In an extremely rare find, the remains of five children have been discovered in two separate graves in a burial mound in Denmark, about 25 kilometres west of Copenhagen. A...
19 December 2021: Largest known Viking Longhouse in Scandinavia; Archaeologists have discovered several Iron Age Viking longhouses in Gjellestad, a village about 100 kilometres south-southeast of Oslo (Norway), thought to be a place of great importance during the Iron...
: Earliest female infant burial in Europe; An elaborate early Mesolithic burial of an infant girl who lived just 40 to 50 days is the oldest identified female infant burial in Europe. Nicknamed "Neve", she was discovered...
20 December 2021: Ethiopian monuments 1,000 years older than previously thought; Under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sakaro Sodo and other archeological sites in southern Ethiopia have the largest number and highest concentration of megalithic stele monuments in Africa....
21 December 2021: Isotope analyses unlock Iron Age secrets; Discovered in 1964, the Rochelongue underwater archaeological site west of Cap d'Agde on the south coast of France is believed to be four small boats dating to about 600 BCE,...
22 December 2021: Scottish farmer fined for digging up ancient burial cairn; A farmer has been fined £18,000 (around 21,000 euros) for destroying a Neolithic site on Skye (Inner Hebrides, Scotland) after using the earth from Upper Tote Cairn to help build...
: Metal deposition were 'the most ordinary thing in the world'; As part of her PhD on Bronze Age European metal deposits, Marieke Visser showed the practice of metal deposition was an expression of people's relationships with the world around them....
: Revealing the prehistoric origins of Scotland; Hadrian's Wall is often given the brunt of the blame for the division of Ancient Britain, but newly published archaeological research shows that the divide of Scotland and England was...
23 December 2021: The great Durrington ring; Explored in a recent Channel 5 television documentary titled 'Stonehenge: The New Revelations', a new study proves the roughly 2 kilometre diameter ring of pits discovered last year surrounding the...
: Vast trade network in prehistoric Russia; Green axes and adzes made from metatuff - a metamorphic rock formed when volcanic ash is subjected to high heat and pressure - were in great demand across Neolithic northeastern...
31 December 2021: Rock art found in Turkey; A rock shelter with paintings dating to the 5th millennium BCE has been discovered 2 kilometres northwest of the 3,500-year-old city of Alinda, about 500 kilometres south-southwest of Istanbul and...
: Elamite clay tablet unearthed in mysterious Burnt City; A team of archeologists has unearthed a clay tablet inside Shahr-e Sukhteh - known as Burnt City - in what is now eastern Iran, very near the border of Aghanistan....