Saturday, February 18, 2006

Maritime Museum event focuses on local archaeology

The Columbia River Maritime Museum offers a presentation, “Cathlapotle and the Archaeology of Lewis and Clark and the Fur Trade,” by Portland State University Professor Kenneth Ames, at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 18. The program is free and open to the public.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition and the maritime fur trade (1792-1835) are best known from historical documents. However, recent archaeological research along the lower Columbia River has produced significant archaeological evidence about the period, especially American Indian people along the river and their responses to, and participation in, the fur trade. Excavations at Cathlapotle, a Chinookan town near Vancouver, Wash., and at McGowan Station Campsite, across the Columbia from Astoria, are particularly important in this record.


Lost civilization wall. . .found Archaeologists unearth Alexander the Great era wall

Greek archaeologists excavating an ancient Macedonian city in the foothills of Mount Olympus have uncovered a 2,600-meter defensive wall whose design was "inspired by the glories of Alexander the Great", the site supervisor said on Thursday.

Built into the wall were dozens of fragments from statues honoring ancient Greek gods, including Zeus, Hephaestus and possibly Dionysus, archaeologist Dimitrios Pantermalis told a conference in the northern port city of Salonika, according to the Athens News Agency.

Early work on the fortification is believed to have begun under Cassander, the fourth-century BC king of Macedon who succeeded Alexander the Great. Cassander is believed to have ordered the murders of Alexander's mother, wife and infant son, Pantermalis said.


Not 'archaeologists' but interesting anyway Large number of dinosaur fossils found in Yunnan

Archaeologists recently excavated a large number of dinosaur fossils in the county of Shuangbai in the Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Experts say new dinosaur species may be found among the newly unearthed fossils. Preliminary studies show the dinosaurs lived from the late Triassic Period to the early Jurassic Period (180 million years to 120 million years ago).


More later.