Especially on the back nine. . . . .
Archaeologists hungry for knowledge
ARCHAEOLOGISTS from the University of New England are giving new meaning to the old saying, "You are what you eat".
By analysing traces of food from 3000-year-old cooking pots, they hope to gain an understanding about population changes in prehistoric Asia Minor.
Todd Craig, a postgraduate archaeology student at the university, said the remains of cooking pots unearthed at Gordium in central Turkey could help archaeologists date the arrival of a new population between 1200 and 1000 BC. He said the university's newly-acquired liquid chromatography – mass spectrometry (LC-MS) machine was able to detect the presence of substances such as olive oil and wine, which didn't survive archaeologically.
The Ship(wreck)ing News Historic ship found at Coega
The wreck of a ship believed to date back to the 1880s has been discovered by divers on the site of the Coega deep water port.
The ship is thought to be the 534-ton 60-metre American brigantine, the John N Gamewell, which came ashore in the area after catching fire on December 15, 1880.
The wreck is still underwater and covered by Sand. Poor visibility is hampering further investigation and it is believed it will take some weeks to remove the vessel from the site.
Students Probe Historic Site
The grounds of the Fort Smith National Historic Site were probed Tuesday and Wednesday by University of Mississippi graduate students and staff.
Bill Black, superintendent of the site, said the students, who are in town for a National Park Service workshop on remote sensing and archaeology, wanted another place to practice their skills.
“We’ve had a lot of work done over the years, but these are two locations that really haven’t been gone over too well,” Black said.
Jay Johnson, a professor of anthropology at the University of Mississippi, has been supervising the students and former students as they use new tools, including gradiometers and magnetometers, which measure subtle differences in the magnetic field.
Next few courtesy of The EEF.
More The Ship(wreck)ing News Cheops’ 45 century old solar boat unearthed
The unearthing of the Cheops' solar boat is considered one of the most significant archaeological finds since the discovery of Tutankhamon's tomb.
The boat is considered the oldest wooden boat ever to be found in good condition.
However, the way it was preserved for 45 centuries is so amazing.
In May 1954, Kamal Ali Malaakh, the then director of the Pyramids archaeological zone, discovered two rectangular ditches in the rocks south of the Cheops Pyramid, each 40 meters in length, embracing the solar boats.
And three stories on restoration efforts in Egypt:
Esna Temple
Kom Ombo
Snosert (Sesostris) Obelisk
Zahi Hawass on the pyramid builders Dig days: A healthy diet
As we continue to understand more about the lives of the Pyramid builders through discoveries at Giza, both their tombs and settlements, an ever more remarkable picture emerges.
During the construction of the Pyramids, when 70 per cent of the population worked on the massive monuments on a rotation basis, the workmen slept in galleries and woke before the sunrise. There was a strict system of organisation. The workers would leave for work in orderly files, marching one in front of the other, towards Heit Al-Ghorab (the Wall of the Crow) then entering the work area through the middle gate and proceeding towards the quarry.
Also a short blurb on Zahi's new book, The Miracle of Great Cheops Pyramid
The Miracle of Great Cheops Pyramid is a new title written by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities.
The book, consisting of eight chapters, reveals much about the legendary Cheops Pyramid that is still an enigma to this day.
Dr. Hawass writes that the choice of the pyramid site was not coincidental, coming after architectural and astronomical research.
Lord knows why we need yet another book on the Great Pyramid, but what the heck. . . .
A couple on reorganization efforts at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo:
http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o110524h.htm
http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o120524j.htm
Definitely needed.
Day of counting the memories A story on Qurna/Gurna, above the Valley of the Kings. This paragraph is particularly noteworthy:
The robed people of Gurna continue to carry the heavy weight of the past into their modern-day lives. They work as craftsmen, tourist guides, drivers and guards. Their lives are inextricably linked to the tombs and temples of the ancient inhabitants of the area and to the rapidly expanding tourism industry.
Update on Saqqara mummies find Hundreds of Mummies Found in Egyptian Caves
An underground maze found packed with mummies was most likely an ancient multifamily cemetery, Egypt's top archaeologist said.
A French team made the recent discovery of hundreds of mummies crammed into deep shafts and corridors at Saqqara, 15 miles (25 kilometers) south of Cairo.
Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the burial site was used for many centuries, from the 26th dynasty (664-525 B.C.) through the end of the Ptolemaic period in 30 B.C.
I believe we reported on this earlier. Again, however, we emit a collective yawn at the lateness of the burials. Note: This is purely our personal predilection, and does not, in fact, in any way arise from any jealousy regarding the large number of way cool items people who work in the later periods find and THEN GET ALLLLLL THE ATTENTION WITH TV, MAGAZINE, AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT THEM WHILE WE SLAVE AWAY WITH NOTHING MORE THAN A BAZILLION POTSHERDS. *ahem*
Online paper alert The use and misuse of language in the study of African history, by Russel G. Shuh
No summary as it's a PDF file. In general, we here at ArchaeoBlog find linguistics about as exciting as watching paint dry, crack, and peel away over the course of 50 years, yet we recognize its utility. Therefore, we leave it to the reader to peruse this link.
More online papers These from the Tenth International Conference of the International Society of Nubian, Studies, September 9 - 14, 2002, Roma, Italy. We list the links only.
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/honegger.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/torok.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/bonnet.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/zurawski.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/grzymski.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/geus.doc
http://rmcisadu.let.uniroma1.it/nubiaconference/kendall.doc
Thus endeth the EEF news section.
And finally, for this post at least, the discovery making the rounds from Peru:
Ancient Pre-Inca Graveyard Found Near Lima
A well-preserved graveyard possibly 1,000 years old has been discovered at an archeological complex of Inca and pre-Inca temples on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital, experts said on Wednesday.
Archeologists this week unearthed the remains of 30 people, including 19 still intact as mummies, dating from between 1000 and 1500, making them some of the oldest mummies ever found in Peru.
They said the discovery was "exceptional" because the site had not been plundered by grave robbers and that some of the dead were religious sacrifices.