A team of Iranian and French archaeologists has unearthed the first complete human skeleton ever found at the ancient site of Tang-e Bolaghi, the director of the team announced on Thursday.
“The skeleton was unearthed in a squatting position during excavations in three graves at a cemetery, which has been recently discovered by the team,” Mohammad-Taqi Ataii added.
An intact pottery work was also discovered beside the skeleton of the adult man, he said.
Much heat, little light Roman ruins dig up debate
This is a sublime moment for Andrea Carandini, an imposing man with white hair under a blue beret who looks every inch like what he is: one of Italy's most renowned archaeologists. It is not just that he has discovered something extraordinary underneath the tightly packed ruins of the Roman Forum: a palace that he thinks belonged to the first king of Rome, who just maybe was actually named Romulus.
But after 20 years of digging into the very heart of Rome, he is also convinced that now, finally, other scholars, whom he calls "my opponents," will be forced to "shut up."
Not much in the article on what exactly he thinks his evidence says about any of this, or anything from the critics. Why does he date said wall when he does, etc.
Çatalhöyük update Stories from a Neolithic Site
Between about 7500 and 6000 BCE, several thousand people lived within a dense cluster of mud-brick buildings surrounded by marshes in what is now central Turkey. Their houses have long since collapsed to leave a low mound known as Çatalhöyük on the now relatively arid Konya Plain. Each summer, this site becomes home to well over 100 archaeologists, who are conducting one of the most ambitious archaeological projects in the world today.
The site was discovered in 1958 by James Mellaart, whose excavations in the early 1960s revealed wall paintings and figurines--including depictions of bulls, leopards, vultures, and what he interpreted as "Mother Goddesses"--that astonished the academic world. In 1993, Ian Hodder, now an archaeologist at Stanford University, began a new campaign of excavations and research at the location.
That's a subscription only link. Much the same stuff as yesterday's link to the Smithsonian article.
Well, that's nice. . . . Archaeologist To Debunk Beliefs About North America’s Original Settlers
Archaeologist Mark Raab will present “The Peopling of North America -- Ice Age Mariners and Archaeology's New Frontier” from 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, May 18, Business Building Rotunda (Room 213).
Archaeologists once believed the New World's original settlers were big-game hunters who migrated from Asia to North America during the last Ice Age. . .
n his presentation, Raab will discuss how recent research in California's Channel Islands has shown that seafaring peoples must be counted among North America's earliest settlers.
We poke a bit of fun at the headline, but we've posted on this subject before (last year some time).
Beautiful mummy update 'Beautiful Mummy' Emerges from Egyptian Sands
Egyptian archaeologists digging near the Saqqara pyramids, 15 miles south of Cairo, have discovered what may be "the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt," Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities, announced on Tuesday.
Dating from about 2,600 years ago, the mummy was unearthed two weeks ago, buried in a wooden sarcophagus beneath 20 feet of sand in the necropolis of King Teti, who ruled Egypt more than 4,300 years ago.
It's a Late one so we're betting the actually mummy will be barely more than a skeleton. Still the coffin is, indeed, quite astounding.
And just when you thought you'd read all there is from Mehr. . . Ancient clay tariff certificates discovered at Toll-e Bondu
A team of archaeologists recently discovered over 50 clay tariff certificates at the 6000-year-old site of Toll-e Bondu in the southern Iranian province of Fars, the director of the team announced on Thursday.
“The tariff certificates indicate that there were substantial trade exchanges in the region,” Ehsan Yaghmaii added.
Toll-e Bondu is located near Nurabad, 158 kilometers west of the provincial capital Shiraz.
News from EEF
"Dig days: Back to Philadelphia", column of Dr Zahi Hawass, this time with biographical tales:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/740/he2.htm
[Submitted by Michael Tilgner]
Press report: "Recent Finds by Russian Egyptologists to be Displayed in Cairo, Moscow"
http://en.rian.ru/culture/20050429/39777756.html
Press report: "Mummy Clearest"
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050504/news_lz1c04mummy.html
About the scaning of the BM mummies at the Bowers Museum. This report has some photos and worthwhile details about the six mummies.
Press report: "Die Oxyrhynchus Papyri. Wir kennen erst ein Prozent"
Review of recent press reports:
http://snipurl.com/eny7
[See also some recent English reports about the recent Oxyrhynchus Papyri developments:
Interview with the director of the research, Dirk Obbink:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/04/0425_050425_papyrus.html
Among the new finds is a fragment of the Book of Revelation:
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=634679
Archaeology Interactive Dig: "Fixing the Fort" [Hierakonpolis], Part 2 by Renée Friedman
"... when we returned at the beginning of February 2005, after a holiday break, it was quickly apparently to us that, even in this short time, gravity had taken its toll. It was only a matter of 4-5 fallen bricks here and perhaps a dozen there, but it was clear that the Fort needed more immediate attention."
http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/hierakonpolis/field/fortd.html
"Conservation of the Sarcophagus of Rameses VI in the Valley of the Kings"
"The reconstruction project for the inner sarcophagus and its lid took place between June 2001 and 2003 ... This is the first time that a royal sarcophagus of the New Kingdom has been reconstructed and exhibited inside the tomb for which it was designed."
p. 1 (355 KB): http://www.arce.org/conservation/Ramses%20VI_1.JPG
p. 2 (422 KB): http://www.arce.org/conservation/Ramses%20VI_2.JPG
End of EEF news