The Moche ceramics, popular tourist attractions at fine museums, explore sexual values in pre-Columbian Peru.
LIMA - Nearly 40 years ago, historian Maximo Terrazos descended narrow stairs into a tomb-like chamber where, he says, he experienced a sexual awakening of sorts.
Then a 20-year-old university student, he was escorted along with his classmates to a subterranean room marked ''Private'' in Peru's Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History to see huacos eróticos for the first time.
Before them were explicit ceramic depictions of sexual acts crafted more than 1,500 years earlier by the Moche, a highly organized, class-based society that dominated Peru's northern coast for 800 years until about 800 A.D.
You would be amazed at the kind of naughty stuff the ancients produced. Which I won't go into here as this is a family web page.
"Yoinked"???Invasion of the Kennewick Men
After almost eight years of labyrinthine litigation the case of Kennewick Man has ended with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and archaeological science is the winner -- for now.
In a February 4 decision, the Ninth upheld the district court ruling stating that since no relationship could be established between modern American Indians and Kennewick Man -- physically, contextually, or otherwise -- he is not a Native American as defined under NAGPRA, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, thus NAGPRA isn't applicable. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) therefore applies and the bones can once again be studied by anthropologists. The tribes, who argue that any and all pre-Columbian remains are Native American regardless if the individual's tribe or culture still exists in modern times, are sure to appeal.
Kind of an interesting article (although it doesn't say much that's new about Kennewick), but the discussion of migration hypotheses merits some commentary. The 'boat theory' of humans migrating along the coast (which was then farther west of the current shoreline due to lowered sea levels during the ice age) has been around a while, but generally not used much because of the lack of evidence. It seems doubtful to me that much will ever be found that bears directly on this issue, unless there are some coastal areas that are for whatever reason, close today to the original shoreline and evidence of a maritime economy is found. I'm skeptical that archaeology off the coast will ever produce much more than a few artifacts here and there, certainly no actual boats, and I think it would be extremely difficult to do the sorts of underwater archaeology out there that would be in any way stratigraphic. It's a difficult problem. But also see this earlier link to some supposed evidence of a maritime economy off the coast of California.
Tuscan 'Excalibur' Mystery to be Unearthed
March 1, 2004 — Archaeological digging might soon unveil the mystery surrounding a sword buried in a Gothic abbey in Tuscany, Italian researchers announced.
Known as the "sword in the stone," the Tuscan "Excalibur" is said to have been plunged into a rock in 1180 by Galgano Guidotti, a medieval knight who renounced war and worldly goods to become a hermit.
Built in Galgano's memory, the evocative Gothic abbey at Montesiepi, near the city of Siena, still preserves the sword in a little chapel. Only the hilt and a few centimeters of the blade protrude from the rock in the shape of a Cross.
What a cool story. Really not archaeology, except in that there will be some digging involved.
Rediscovering the legend of the lake dwellers
One hundred and fifty years ago, the first settlements of ancient lake-dwelling peoples emerged from Lake Zurich. The discovery gave Europeans a new insight into the lives of their distant ancestors.
This year, around 20 Swiss museums are organising exhibitions dedicated to this significant chapter in Swiss history.
In the winter of 1854, the commune of Meilen took advantage of exceptionally low water levels to start building a harbour on the shore of Lake Zurich.
Quite by chance, the excavations unearthed a number of odd-looking, superbly preserved ancient artefacts, and a series of wooden poles embedded in the mud. The diggers had found a prehistoric lake village.
. . .
“Until then, the archaeological investigation of prehistory had brought to light almost nothing except symbols of death, such as graves, weapons and military sites. The lake villages and the objects they yielded provided the first evidence that enabled scholars to understand how our ancestors lived.”
I highlighted that last paragraph to show how skewed much of archaeology has traditionally been, in favor of burials and weaponry. Much of this has to do with preservation, obviously, since weaponry is usually hard (it needs to penetrate bodies, obviously) and preserves well, and also that burials are in a sense meant to preserve their contents. SO they are more visible archaeologically. Also, mcuh earlier work was done in large part to furnish museums with display items and thus only the cool stuff was usually collected.