Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Today's top billing Md. Field Dig May Reach Back 16,000 Years

Robert D. Wall is too careful a scientist to say he's on the verge of a sensational discovery.

But the soybean field where the Towson University anthropologist has been digging for more than a decade is yielding hints that someone camped there, on the banks of the Potomac River, as early as 14,000 B.C.

If further digging and carbon dating confirm it, the field in Allegany County could be among the oldest and most important archaeological sites in the Americas.


That would definitely be important. The 7,000 date on charcoal is problematic, and leads us to suspect that one is probably the correct date. But, stay tuned.

While researching this story a bit we came across the Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland site. This seems like a great idea, and would be especially helpful to non-professionals who happen across artifacts in their area. Looks to be geared mainly towards professionals, but none of it seems overly technical.

Archaeologists insist there was a community at Qumran

he Qumran myth is alive and well, despite recent attempts to disprove it, according to archaeologists digging at the site.

The archaeologists, who are financed by Christian fundamentalist organizations, believe that despite recent theories to the contrary, there was a community at the place sometimes called "the oldest monastery in the Western world."

The archaeologists said at a news conference yesterday that they intend to find the proof that the residents of the site indeed wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls, found in nearby caves.


Virginia City dig finds toys, opium cache

A Virginia City store that burned to the ground nearly 140 years ago is yielding an archaeologist’s treasure from its ruins.

Given just a few weeks this summer to excavate, volunteers unearthed a wooden staircase and found what appears to be an opium stash, with a small glass vial, a slate plate, a tin and a pipe.

They also found the sacrificial remains of small cats or birds entombed in the concrete foundation, a ritual practice used by cultures of that day.


Fight! Fight! Rewriting History

In A.D. 612 an Imperial Chinese army of more than a million soldiers marched on the northeast Asian kingdom of Koguryo. Though vastly outnumbered, the soldiers of Koguryo—whom many modern-day Koreans see as their ancestors—routed the Chinese in a victory that is still a source of pride on both sides of the DMZ.

Now, almost 1,400 years later, Chinese scholars are attempting a subtler land grab, claiming that the ancient kingdom of Koguryo was a part of China—a "regional government founded by an ethnic group," as Beijing's state-run Northeast Asia Project put it in June. The argument isn't just academic.


Not gone yet Historians work to set record straight on Cuba's Taino Indians

In a sweltering coastal settlement, Alejandro Hartmann pulled out a spiral notebook and jotted notes as a local peasant described his family's ties to a long forgotten indigenous group that is witnessing a modest resurgence.

"What is the name of your mother and father?" Hartmann asked Julio Fuentes, a wisp of a man parked on a wooden bench. "Where do they live? How old are they?"

Hartmann fired off a dozen more questions as part of his effort to complete the first census of the descendants of the Taino Indians, an indigenous group that once thrived in this remote region of eastern Cuba and later were thought to be extinct.


This is very valuable work. It's only recently that we are beginning to appreciate the fact that two entire continents' worth of people and their culture are nearly gone. Apart from the humanistic value, scientifically it is imperitive that we document and help to preserve aboriginal culture and history, since it represents one of the very few culture areas entirely cut off from Old World influence. This point really cannot be overstated. Due to the vagaries of geography and timing, we are fortunate enough to have two populations that developed in isolation for the past 12-15,000 years. This is absolutely crucial for testing theories of cultural (and, of course, biological) evolution. Even though there are immense problems with using historical/oral data, we really need to do as much as we can to help preserve the language and historical ties extant aboriginal populations share with their ancestors.

Yet another lost city, found Forgotten Roman Town Unearthed on Farm

A forgotten Roman town has been unearthed in Gloucestershire after remaining buried under a farmer’s fields for hundreds of years, archaeologists said today.

The fortified town, which is thought to have been established in the 1st century, could have been home to 1,000 people.

Archaeologists believe the 10 hectare settlement was large enough to have been a regional centre for trade and industry.

Investigations have so far revealed evidence of an entrance gate, industrial works, a road and a large number of houses.


Update on John the Baptist cave find Cave in Israel linked to John the Baptist

Archaeologists think they've found a cave where John the Baptist baptized many of his followers — basing their theory on thousands of shards from ritual jugs, a stone used for foot cleansing and wall carvings telling the story of the biblical preacher.

Only a few artifacts linked to New Testament figures have ever been found in the Holy Land, and the cave is potentially a major discovery in biblical archaeology.

"John the Baptist, who was just a figure from the Gospels, now comes to life," British archaeologist Shimon Gibson said during an exclusive tour of the cave given to The Associated Press.


This one, together with the above regarding Qumran, illustrates one of the great dangers of archaeology, not to life and limb -- although that sometimes happens -- but no, we're talking about. . . .written records. Especially sacred texts. It's a fine line to walk, trying to use information from both ducumentary sources and purely archaeological data. Trouble is, with written records there is already a built-in bias operating: people wrote down what they thought was important, not any sort of objective reality. Still, one can get a lot of useful information from texts.