Tuesday, June 07, 2005

More on the Neferhotep statue Ancient Pharaoh's Statue Found

A life-sized statue of the 13th Dynasty Pharaoh Neferhotep I has emerged from the ruins of ancient Thebes in Luxor, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Saturday.

Buried for almost 3,600 years, the six-foot limestone statue shows the "beautiful and good" pharaoh — this is what Neferhotep means — wearing the royal head cloth.

The forehead bears the emblem of a cobra, which pharaohs wore on the crown as a protective symbol: they believed that the cobra would spit fire at enemies.



Today's landfills are future archaeological sites

The year is 4005.

Just north of Asheville, the spade of an archaeologist, who has excavated an enormous ancient trash pit city, falls upon something shiny among the dark soil and plastic bottles. He brushes off the dirt from his find and stares in disbelief at a cache of jewelry.

It may sound farfetched, but thousands of years from now, archaeologists could fall back on a standard method of studying previous cultures: examining their trash piles.


Okay, everyone: stop what you're doing right now and write on everything in sight what it is in indelible ink.

Fight! Fight! Repeat ad infinitum Archaeology on front line of Jerusalem tug of war

In Jerusalem, people fight over stones, and archaeology can be seen as a weapon of war.

Israeli plans to evict 1000 Arabs in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for an "archaeological park" highlight the fundamental conflict between resident Palestinians and the Jews who claim an older and superior right to the ground on which they live.

At the centre of the controversy is the Arab village of Silwan, on the steep slopes below the Old City, known to Israelis as "The City of David".

Site of the Biblical Canaanite city of Jerusalem, which was seized by the Israelites more than 3000 years ago, the area is believed by many Jews to contain the lost tomb of King David.


Updated Congratulations Sage Advice in Archaeology: Think Like a Neanderthal

About three years ago, Dr. Ana Pinto, an archaeologist at Arizona State University, was driving past a natural outcropping in northwest Spain and - screech! - she put the brake to her car.

She had just spotted a limestone cave that she sensed might have once been settled by prehistoric humans.

For the next six months, she excavated the cave by hand, pushing through animal waste, bones, mud and human artifacts. By the time she had dug some nine feet deep, she knew she had hit the archaeological jackpot.

"This cave at Sopeña is almost unique because it has signs of continuous hominid habitation for at least 60,000 years," she said. "This is an incredibly rare find."


This is an interview with Dr. Pinto who was in NY to collect her Wings WorldQuest award, which we blogged a while ago as well.

Treasure in Prague! Archaeologists make discovery in downtown Prague

Archaeologists unearthed a ceramic goblet and a large number of small, silver coins in the courtyard of a house between Stepanska and Skolska streets in the centre of Prague last week, said Vojtech Kaspar from the Archaia archaeological society.

The coins were minted in Kutna Hora in the middle or late 15th Century. According to experts, the finding is unique since such a large number of coins is seldom unearthed in Prague.

The so-called "Lostice goblet" was covered under the floor of a Gothic stone house. Archaeologists unearthed its foundations under the tarmac covering of the courtyard. There were about 700 to 1,000 0.4-gramme silver coins in the goblet.


Archaeologist believes Chinese found Cape Breton

A nine-kilometre road winds its way up an isolated mountain where a stone wall sits amid fields of wild blueberries and mayflowers. A closer look reveals a series of stone platforms.

At first glance, the scene is not an unfamiliar one in Cape Breton's sprawling wilderness.

But this one, nestled along the island's east coast, has become the latest battleground for archeologists with the startling claim it was discovered by the Chinese, long before the arrival of any European explorers.


We'll make a prediction. . . . .well, no we won't.

But we WILL, if anyone can pony up the dough, excavate the place for an exhorbitant about of money. . . .

Beer cans and old pizza boxes MSU archaeology students digging for clues about early life on campus

For a team of MSU archaeology students, the next six weeks are going to be about digging up dirt - dirt from a site in the oldest part of campus and maybe dirt on some of the school's first students.

That is, they'll excavate the site of the school's first dorm, searching for clues about how students lived in the latter half of the 19th century.

Just what they'll find, no one knows.


Research to investigate links between Ancient Greeks and modern science fiction

New research into the Ancient Greeks shows their knowledge of travel inspired early forms of fantasy and science fiction writing

There is a long tradition of fantasy in Greek literature that begins with Odysseus' fantastic travels in Homer's Odyssey. Dr Karen Ni-Mheallaigh, at the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, is exploring fantasy in ancient literature, examining theories of modern science fiction writing and how these can be applied to texts from the ancient world.


Not archaeology, but cool Fresh look at Archimedes' theories

A long-obscured transcription of Archimedes' mathematical theories has been brought to light through x-rays, US scientists say.

The 1000-year-old parchment, made of goatskin, contains Archimedes' original work, which was written in the 3rd century BC but copied down by a 10th century scribe.

The manuscript includes the only copy in the original Greek of the treatise "Method of Mechanical Theorems", in which the Greek mathematician, physicist, and inventor describes how he developed his mathematical theorems using mechanical means.


PREHISTORIC FIND SHEDS LIGHT ON HISTORY OF CASTLE

Archaeologists from Bristol University have added 1,000 years of history to Berkeley Castle by uncovering remains of an Iron Age settlement there. The unexpected discovery was made in the kitchen gardens of the castle during a training excavation for students from the university.

Parts of a ring ditch that might have circled a barrow - a mound over an ancient burial site - prehistoric flint tools and a few fragments of human bone have been found immediately below the Victorian kitchen garden's flower beds and greenhouses.

Berkeley Castle is one of the most historic places in Gloucestershire, still inhabited and owned by the same family who were granted the castle in 1156.