SAA award II Mesoamerican book wins archaeology book award
Aztec child raising, how to play the Maya ball game and the calorie counts for a forager's diet are a few of the special features found in "Ancient Mexico & Central America, Archaeology and Culture History," by Susan Toby Evans, winner of the Society of American Archaeology's 2005 Book Award.
The SAA's Book Award is given to a book that "has had, or is expected to have, a major impact on the direction and character of archaeological research."
This beautiful book, published by Thames & Hudson, covers Central America from the southern most portion of the American Southwest to the beginning of South America and is intended as an entry and resource for those interested in the archaeology and cultures of this area and as a textbook for undergraduate students.
Fight! Fight! III Archaeologist stirs storm with ‘ancient city’ claim
A professor of archaeology at the Jahangirnagar University has stirred a controversy with misleading claims about and unauthorised excavation at an archaeological site.
Professor Sufi Mustafizur Rahman, who led the excavation of an 18 by 16 metre area at Owari-Bateshwar in Belabo upazila of Narsingdi, claimed in April 2004 that the excavation had led to the discovery of a road, a citadel and a raft of artefacts that dated back to 450BC.
Sufi told the media that his findings indicated to the oldest civilisation to have been discovered so far, and would redefine the history of eastern India and substantiate the theory of the Brahmaputra civilisation.
Lost
In an important discovery, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chennai Circle, has located the habitational site of the Iron Age people who were buried in big urns at Adichanallur, 24 km from Tirunelveli town in Tamil Nadu. Although several urn burial sites such as at Amirthamangalam and Perumbair, both near Chengalpattu, have been discovered in the State, this is the first time the place where these people lived has been found.
The site discovered now is on the north and north-western slopes of the urn-burial mound at Adichanallur. It is a few hundred metres away from the burial fields.
Obviously he didn't die of heart disease then King Tut Liked Red Wine
Ancient Egyptians believed in properly equipping a body for the afterlife, and not just through mummification. A new study reveals that King Tutankhamun eased his arduous journey with a stash of red wine.
Spanish scientists have developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine used in ancient jars. They analyzed residues from a jar found in the tomb of King Tut and found that it contained wine made with red grapes.
Olmec pottery update Olmec People, Olmec Art
The Olmec, a complex society that arose in the lowlands of Mexico's Gulf Coast about 1200 B.C. have often been called Mesoamerica's first civilization. As such, the Olmec, best known for their enigmatic giant stone heads, figuratively stand at the head of the array of later Mesoamerican civilizations--Toltec, Maya, Aztec, and others.
Archaeologists have, since the nineteenth century, identified "cultures" or "people" or "folk" in the past based on recurring groupings of artifact types, building methods, funerary rituals, and artistic styles. This is convenient for discussing finds, especially in terms of geographical distribution or changes over the course of time. But in using this approach, there is a risk of identifying pots with people--that the appearance of a particular type of pot or tool or burial custom in an area means that people from elsewhere have brought that with them. The "movement" of pots can equally be explained as from trade, from the spread of manufacturing techniques, and the like, as from the movement of people.
More info on the recent work we've been blogging on the sourcing of Olmec pottery.
Project to uncover ancient village
In partnership with the Southeast Utah Group National Park Service, Crow Canyon will begin excavating one of the best-preserved archaeological landscapes in the Mesa Verde region - the Goodman Point Ruins Group Unit of Hovenweep National Monument.
The two-phase research project is set to begin Monday. Senior research archaeologist Kristin Kuckelman, joined by two assistants, will begin creating a detailed map of the 142-acre site, and then they will plot digging areas.
[CENSORED] Archaeologist finds 'oldest porn statue'
Stone-age figurines depicting what could be the oldest pornographic scene in the world have been unearthed in Germany.
Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be the 7,200-year-old remnants of a man having intercourse with a woman.
The extraordinary find, at an archaeological dig in Saxony, shatters the belief that sex was a taboo subject in that era.
Until now, the oldest representations of sexual scenes were frescos from about 2,000 years ago.
Not to worry, we only briefly considered posting an artists' conception of said statues.
We didn't even look for one either. Honest.