The Wasteflake Project is intended as a place to commit public scientific collaboration, to consider scientific and philosophical concerns from many perspectives, professional and non-professional, insider and outsider. It combines the intimacy and informality of a conference symposium with the public availability of the Internet, linking scholars around the world in discussion, both structured and free-form, of issues of interest.
Courtesy of Kris Hirst at Archaeology.About.com. Check it out. We've only briefly visited it at this point, but it looks like a promising way to create a dialog on archaeology in the public sphere. We'll investigate further and report back.
Unless Kris is out there and wishes to comment on it. Hint Hint.
Burial Site Found Near Ancient Olympia
Archeologists have discovered ancient graves near Ancient Olympia, the hallowed site where the Olympic games were born in 776 B.C., the Culture Ministry said Thursday.
The 25 limestone graves date back to the Neolithic era — roughly 4000 B.C. to 2000 B.C — and were found during construction work about 200 miles southwest of Athens.
The ministry said each grave was used to bury at least three to five people but as many as 10 in one case. Also found inside the graves were amphorae — or two-handled ceramic jars used for shipping and storing oil and wine — and jewelry that were buried along with the dead.
"Bones have been preserved in excellent condition, along with grave offerings ... that will yield significant information about the society of this prehistoric settlement," a ministry statement said.
That's the whole thing.
Yes, most are previously unknown Previously Unknown Sites in Jewell County Excavated by Kansas State Professor
Archaeological sites previously unknown to professional archaeologists have been discovered in Jewell County, Kan., by a Kansas State University professor. He said a local collector alerted him to the sites.
Brad Logan, research associate professor of anthropology, spent three weeks in September doing test excavations onn White Rock Creek's Lovewell Reservoir, an archaeological site that is usually underwater.
"When the reservoir is at its normal flood pool, these sites are all underwater," Logan said. "It's only when the water is released in late summer for irrigation that these sites are exposed."
More on Bulgarian gold Bulgaria dig suggests rich past
Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have found hundreds of tiny gold jewels dating back 5,000 years, possible proof of Europe's earliest civilisation.
The head of Bulgaria's National Museum of History, Bozhidar Dimitrov, said the team had unearthed gold rings, beads and jewellery inlaid with tiny pearls.
He said the jewels had shown expert craftsmanship and an unexpectedly high level of technology for the time.