Monday, January 30, 2006

It's all about Pocahontas Archaeologists unearth part of the city's past on Pocahontas Island

Since mid-December a group of professional archaeologists has been digging up the past of Pocahontas Island in a mission to paint a picture of one part of the city's history.

"We first had to establish the potential that we would find artifacts and significant artifacts," said Dulaney Ward, special projects consultant to the city manager. "I believe that this area probably has the richest untapped archaeological sites in the state."


Actually seems to be stuff from much later than the actual Pocahontas, mid-19th century.

Man’s best friend stands test of time, study says

The man was buried in Sweden with a dog laid out across his legs.

It could have been yesterday, but that burial site actually dates back 7,000 years to the Mesolithic period.

“It’s a social bond,” Kansas University professor Darcy Morey said of the relationship between humans and dogs, the study of which is his area of expertise. “It just keeps going. It’s an amazing thing.”

Morey, an assistant professor of anthropology, recently published his research on man’s best friend in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Among other things, his research shows that pet cemeteries are no recent invention but have existed for eons.


Best part: In one grave site in what is present-day Israel, an elderly person was buried with a hand lying on the body of a puppy. Awwwwwwwww. . . . .

Archaeologists puzzle over object buried in Civil War cemetery

University of Georgia archaeologists have been puzzling over finding an apparent manmade object buried in a historic Civil War cemetery.

Ground-penetrating radar on parts of Myrtle Hill Cemetery, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, found a reflection that did not look like a grave during a scan of two Civil War grave sites earlier this month.

"There definitely is something manmade there, something big and metal," said Sheldon Skaggs, a member of the archaeologist team. "Now we have to determine what it is."


I don't usually post much stuff on Civil War archaeology, but this has the remote sensing angle to it.

But yet another historical archaeology story anyway UK archaeologists lead dig at McDowell House

A professional team of archaeologists are getting good and dirty while sifting through the dirt at Dr. Ephraim McDowell's house.

Led by archaeologist Kim McBride, the group has been spending their days with shovels, trying to see what treasures they can unearth. The current project, under way at the home of the famed doctor since Jan. 16, has discovered remains of two previous structures on the site, including a fireplace, trash pits, animal bones and ceramics, which McBride believes could date back to the 1700s.

"There's a mixture of artifacts from the 1800s and ceramics possibly from the 1800s," said McBride, who believes the bones are probably the result of cooking done in the fireplace.


7000 year-old sacrificial altar found in Hunan

A sacrificial altar, dating back about 7,000 years, has been discovered in central China's Hunan Province, according to Chinese archaeologists.

The altar is the earliest sacrificial site so far found in China, said He Gang, a researcher with the Hunan Institute of Archaeology.

"Ancients prayed to the gods of nature, such as the gods of the earth, river and heaven," said He at a archaeological forum held by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently in Beijing.

Archaeologists have found China's oldest white pottery specimens among the altar relics. The pottery is decorated with phoenix and beast patterns.



10,000-year-old site on coast discovered by archaeologists

Another archaeological site on the Southern Oregon coast has been determined to be about 10,000 years old, making it the second-oldest known site in the state, according to Oregon State University researchers.

The site on a bluff just south of Bandon included a large number of stone flakes, charcoal pieces and fire-cracked rock, according to Roberta Hall, professor emeritus of anthropology at Oregon State and principal investigator in the study.

There also is evidence of a stone hearth, Hall added.

“There are a lot of rock outcrops nearby that would make good sources for tools,’’ she said. “And it appears that tool-making is one of the activities the site may have been used for. So there is potential to find much more there.’’


Same thing posted over the weekend, really, not much new detail.