What lies beneath
ARCHAEOLOGISTS will begin exploring the fire-hit Cowgate site next week in a bid to uncover the early beginnings of the historic area.
The owners of the Old Town site have hired a team of archaeologists to carry out an extensive excavation underneath the foundations of the present ruins.
Experts hope to unearth the remains of 15th century buildings - or even earlier - across the entire site, which was devastated by a massive blaze in 2002.
The major dig, which marks the first step towards the re-development of the site, will give a clearer picture of life in the Cowgate centuries ago when it was one of the city’s most fashionable quarters.
Not really jewels Archaeology gems on display
A MASSIVE haul of treasure discovered by a metal detector expert has gone on show.
Bronze Age and Roman "treasures" found by archaeologist James Balme will be on display at Warrington Museum throughout April.
James discovered the ancient settlement of Warburton near Lymm after six years of investigations and many of the artefacts were recovered thanks to his metal detecting skills at the site, which also includes a previously unknown small Roman fort.
Colchester natives fight for EU status
Fishermen in Essex are fighting for the right to protect the geographical description "Colchester native oyster" - status achieved by Parma ham curers and the brewers of Newcastle Brown.
Okay. . . . .
They want the name to be enshrined in EU law so that it applies only to oysters produced in the beds around Mersea island and the Colne and Blackwater estuaries.
Okay. . . . .
Archaeologists have shown that Colchester oysters were traded across Europe before the Romans invaded Britain.
Kylie Minogue, Sir Roger Moore and the chef Jamie Oliver are among those who are said to swear by them.
There's the archaeological link.
Kylie Minogue is, of course, entirely pertinent to archaeology.
Uncovering of 218-year-old ship set to begin
SOUTHAMPTON, Ont. (CP) — It's been three years since a resident of this Lake Huron town noticed several wooden timbers pushing up through the sand on the local beach.
Ken Cassavoy is now preparing to lead a team of archeologists who will excavate the area to uncover what is thought to be the merchant schooner the Weazell — believed to be the oldest shipwreck ever discovered on the Great Lakes.
The wreck is to be fully excavated starting May 17 — the beginning of an estimated eight-week venture to open up the entire interior of the vessel as well as the full exterior on the starboard side, says Cassavoy, a research associate at Trent University in Peterborough who has been leading test excavations on the site.
"It's believed to be the earliest shipwreck ever found (on the Great Lakes), and we'll be able to learn a lot about the ship's constructions from its remains," Cassavoy, a marine archeologist, said Tuesday in an interview from his home in Southampton just southwest of Owen Sound.
Old Mound May Lead To New Ideas About People 5,000 Years Ago
MADISON -- Thanks in part to dynamite and the gold-seeking Mexican fishermen who detonated it in the late 1970s, archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 5,000-year-old shell mound.
Constructed of cement-like floors, the mound, researchers say, is the oldest known platform intentionally built in Mesoamerica, the cultural region comprising Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and it could completely change our understanding of the prehistoric people who once inhabited this area.
The mound, built almost entirely from marsh clamshells, is 240 feet long, 90 feet wide and 21 feet tall. John Hodgson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison doctoral degree candidate in anthropology discovered it last October on a remote island in a swampy area along the Pacific coast of Chiapas in Southwestern Mexico. Hodgson has named the site "Alvarez del Toro," a tribute to the naturalist who studied the fauna and wildlife of this region.
Old Stones Reveal Their Age
A team of archaeological scientists in the United States and Germany say they have developed a technique to accurately determine the age of stone tools and artifacts between 50,000 and 100,000 years old, a period that has proved particularly tricky to map with other methods.
If it's accepted by archaeologists and anthropologists, the technique could result in a clearer picture of the era and even lead to new discoveries about the civilizations that thrived in that period.
"Our objective is to close the chronological gap that is so critical to paleoanthropology," said University of California at Irvine professor Jonathan Ericson, who helped form the project. "The process will allow people to refine chronologies that have not been able to be refined because of the limitations of current techniques."
Expert: Cleopatra Seduces Antony on Vase
The epic romance between Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman general Marc Antony was immortalized on a Roman vase that is now housed at the British Museum, according to an expert in classical art.
Susan Walker, former deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum who is now the head of a similar department at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, believes the Portland Vase shows Cleopatra seducing Antony, while cupid and Anton, the son of Greek mythological hero Hercules, look on. Marc Antony's family claimed they had descended from Anton.
After careful review, we at ArchaeoBlog feel that certain parallels can be drawn between the above representation of Cleopatra and modern images of, say, Kylie Minogue.
