Blogspot was terribly finicky yesterday so we were unable to get through to post anything past mid-morning. Here's some stuff we had in waiting. We'll be tossing up more as it comes in today.

Iranian archaeology update Ancient Iranian site shows Mesopotamia-like civilisation

Shellfish is not seen on most Iranians dining tables but it was part of the daily diet of the inhabitants of ancient Jiroft in southern Iran 5,000 years ago that showed the existence of an ancient civilisation.

Jiroft, located in Kerman province, is one of the richest historical areas in the world, with ruins and artefacts dating back to the third millennium BC and with over 100 historical sites located along the approximately 400 km of the Halil Rood riverbank, according to Mehr news agency.

Many Iranian and foreign experts see the findings in Jiroft as signs of a civilization as great as Sumerian and ancient Mesopotamian. They believe that Jiroft is the ancient city of Aratta that was described as a great civilization in an Iraqi clay inscription.

Jiroft came into the spotlight nearly three years ago when reports of extensive illegal excavation and plundering of priceless historical items of the area by local people surfaced.

Ignore the headline 3,000-year-old Embryo-Like Skeletons Found in Bulgaria

Bulgarian archeologists have discovered 3,000-year-old human skeletons, just weeks after Europe's oldest skeleton was unearthed in the country.

The skeletons, discovered near the village of Moguila in the district of Yambol, are about two meters tall, which is unusual for the people who inhabited the region in the Early Bronze era.

The skeletons are balled up in an embryo position, which, ancient peoples believed, immortalized the soul, archeologists explained.

The people came to the region from the Black Sea steppe and after mixing with the locals gave birth to the Thracians.

Bulgaria's ancient Thracian heritage has been put in the spotlight this year with a number of key archaeological discoveries in the so-called "Valley of the Thracian Kings".

We figure they mean "fetal". As in, buried in the fetal position. That's the whole thing, too.

Applied archaeology update The Rise and Fall of the Mayan Empire

Where the rain forests of Guatemala now stand, a great civilization once flourished. The people of Mayan society built vast cities, ornate temples, and towering pyramids. At its peak around 900 A.D., the population numbered 500 people per square mile in rural areas, and more than 2,000 people per square mile in the cities -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County.

. . .

Sever, NASA's only archeologist, has been using satellites to examine Mayan ruins. Combining those data with conventional down-in-the-dirt archeological findings, Sever and others have managed to piece together much of what happened:

Recall once again that much evidence now suggests that the abundant rain forest now seen across the Maya region is probably of recent origin, and that, were one to go back to the Classic period, one would probably see very little rain forest.

Also another good example (of very few unfortunately) where archaeologists might be able to assist modern people. Rare, but neat when it happens.

Neat article Garbage betrays date of earliest village life

It is amazing what you can find rifling through someone’s rubbish. You can even work out that people didn’t settle into permanent village life as early as once thought.

The first permanent human settlements are found in the Levant region which borders the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. But precisely when and why people made this transition is the subject of fierce debate.

“Virtually every possible explanation has been advanced,” says archaeologist Philip Edwards of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia.

And another one! British farming? Thank the French

No individuals have shaped Britain's landscape more profoundly than its farmers. They turned a forested wilderness, peopled by hunter-gatherer tribes, into a land of hedges, fields and orchards.

Yet the identity of the first people to begin this land-shaping has been shrouded in mystery. Scientists once thought farming was brought by invaders. More recently, some argued it was imported as an idea that only gradually spread across the country.

But now scientists are putting together evidence that paints a surprising picture: that farming arrived as an already sophisticated set of practices imported by continental entrepreneurs.

Note the bit about the longhouse design being different from standard ones from earlier, aboriginal people. That's a good example of how migration of people is differentiated from migration of ideas.

Archeological find won't deter plans for veterans memorial

Archeologists unearthed more than 1,000 artifacts during a recent exploratory dig on the Town Hall's front lawn. But the salvaged pieces of history won't stop a planned veterans memorial park from being built on the site.

Heidi Savery, director of the Robbins Museum of Archeology, said nothing of critical historic importance was found. The museum, on Jackson Street in Middleborough, serves as headquarters for the Massachusetts Archeological Society.

Savery said it's ''important to know they're not going to go in and destroy something significant. The worst thing that can happen is to have bulldozers come in and find a village."

And finally, a look at Hagar the Horrible's temples


A new look at Hagar Qim Temples

Various studies have been carried out and various theories have been proposed on the Maltese prehistoric temples, such as what the buildings were used for, what rituals were carried out in them, the methods used in their construction, their decoration, their alignment, the type of roofing they may have had, the society that built them, and so on. However, during this presentation we shall be taking a step back from these studies to look at the actual monuments themselves and how much we know about the physical remains we are using as evidence for these prehistoric studies.

Each generation of archaeologists, curators, conservators and restorers has left their mark on the temples so these monuments have changed through time. Therefore the prehistoric monuments we see today consist of the original prehistoric structures as well as the various elements that were introduced in them as part of past conservation and restoration interventions.

One quickie item:

Antiquities Return! Italy Prepares to Return Prized Ethiopian Obelisk

Italy finally looks set to heal a feud with Ethiopia by returning one of its most cherished relics, the obelisk of Axum, taken by fascist invaders almost 70 years ago.

Final details of a plan to transport the 200-ton granite column from Rome to the holy city of Axum are expected to be discussed when Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi meets Italian officials on Thursday and Friday.

Ethiopia has had to build an airstrip to receive the obelisk, the most important symbol of the dawn of Ethiopian civilization, and a road to take it to a pit in the center of town.

"Talks are in the final phase, there are just a few things to check, like whether the road is ready," an Italian government source said.

Indian pottery dating to 700 B.C. found at Panhandle condo site

Archaeologists have found pieces of rare Indian pottery dating between 400 and 700 B.C. at the site of a proposed condominium complex in downtown Fort Walton Beach.

Among thousands of pottery shards are many with decorated rims very unusual for that period of the early Weedon Island culture, said lead archaeologist Frank Servello.

The decorations indicate the plates and bowls were used by wealthy people. They provide additional evidence the Weedon Island culture had a distinct class structure with the upper class living on the sound, which was the main food source, Servello said.

Um, we really like our readers, we really do! Scientist awarded cyberlibel damages

An Ontario judge has awarded an archeologist $125,000 in damages after a native man used e-mails to smear her as a “grave robber.”

The archeologist's lawyer is calling the ruling a precedent-setting one in the emerging field of Internet libel, a notion that may eventually have a chilling effect on the freewheeling ways computer users send messages.

“People seem to think there is a level of anonymity to e-mail and the Internet. And that it's a lawless area,” said winning lawyer Berkley Sells. “And clearly it is not, nor should it be.”

So, you know, don't send email out telling people we're all scum here.

But if you do, at least get your spelling and grammar correct. If there's one thing we can't stand more than libelous emails, its people who get there wurds all wrong and dont check there speling. or punctuation U Know?

Atlantis found. . . . .again Atlantis Hunt Reveals Structures in Sea Off Cyprus

An American researcher on the trail of the lost city of Atlantis has discovered evidence of man-made structures submerged in the sea between Cyprus and Syria, a member of his team said Saturday.

Robert Sarmast, who is convinced the fabled city lurks in the watery depths off Cyprus, will give details of his findings Sunday.

"Something has been found to indicate very strongly that there are man-made structures somewhere between Cyprus and Syria," a spokesperson for the mission told Reuters.

Remote sensing update A new look at ancient tombs

Home to the Valley of the Kings, storied burial ground of the Pharaohs, Egypt's ancient necropolis of Thebes is yielding its secrets to the most modern of technologies: high-resolution satellite photos.

"Welcome to the 21st century," says Egyptologist Peter Piccione of the College of Charleston (S.C.). "We've found a new way to look at old tombs."

These photos are one more way archaeological riddles are increasingly yielding to modern technology. Investigators also are using CT scans of mummies and loading three-dimensional views of cuneiform texts onto the Internet.

Fight! Fight! Resolved, apparently. Acre dig finds proof that site wasn't Jewish graveyard

A day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon intervened in a crisis over the archaeological dig near the train junction in Acre, another monument was discovered at the scene proving the area was a Roman graveyard without the presence of any Jewish graves whatsoever.

Work under way at the site is meant to create a safety barrier between the Acre-Safed road and the railroad tracks, and some NIS 15 million has been spent so far on the project, including moving the road temporarily.

Archaeological finds were discovered on the scene six months ago, and construction of the new, safe junction was halted as the Antiquities Authority attempted to rescue the archaeological finds, which indicated that the site had been a large cemetery previously unknown to archaeologists.

5,000-Year-Old Artifacts Near Texas Coast (Free registration required)

Archaeologists have discovered a cache of artifacts near South Padre Island that they say could be up to 5,000 years old, potentially providing new clues about early peoples of the Texas coast.

The items, found in a protective clay dune about 6 feet underground, appear to be part of a fishing camp for a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers, archaeologist Robert Ricklis said. They include fragments of shell tools, chipped flint projectile points, and a fish earbone, or otolith, that can be analyzed for information about the bay environment of the time.

Ricklis said the find is significant because so little is known about the ancient Rio Grande Valley. Most early manmade items would have been eroded by sand and sea air, or washed out by the ever-changing course of the waterways of the Rio Grande basin near the Mexican border.

Necessity is the mother of invention report Tools especially crafted to help tribal members, archaeologists at graving yard site

When Lower Elwha Klallam tribal workers at the graving yard site needed special tools to excavate human remains and artifacts, they turned to a tribal member known for his artistic ability.

``Some of my family members who work there told me about some of the problems they were having removing items from the ground, so I started playing around in the shop,'' said Darrell Charles Jr.

Note: One can also use the hard interior/proximal end of date palm leaves as excellent bone picks.

We know why they like digging around taverns Searching for clues to the past

With shovels slung over their shoulders, trowels and sifters in their hands, six archaeologists this week prepared to dig into the county's past. But so far, none of two dozen or so test holes - 185 are planned - around Boykin's Tavern has turned up what local history buffs hoped to find: the remnants of an icehouse, a kitchen and an herb garden.

"Nope," said Andrew Butts with a sigh, the project archaeologist, slapping his mud-stained knees to shake off wet dirt. "Not yet, but maybe tomorrow."

"It's just a very interesting place to dig, that's all" they'll say. "Boy, we sure do have a lot of test pits to dig. Might take us weeks. Good thing there's a tavern right here on-site for, ummmm, you know, water breaks and stuff. That's it, water. And food, too."

Hill dig yields treasure from 5000 years ago

ROCK art dating back 5000 years and an ancient jewellery workshop are among the treasures discovered in a Lothians excavation site ravaged by fire last year.

Details of the finds, from Traprain Law in East Lothian, were due to be unveiled at a conference in the Capital today.

Fraser Hunter, a National Museums of Scotland archaeology expert, is set to reveal the fruits of an intensive search of the area at the Edinburgh and East Lothian Archaeological Conference.

Team to reassess dig

The second day of the search for Amelia Earhart's remains on Tinian proved unsuccessful, and the Tinian Earhart Expedition team is considering reassessing the information they have and possibly postponing further digging until a potential phase two of the expedition.

However, the discovery of what the archaeologists believe is a nearby road built in the Japanese occupation era may be a clue to where to search at a future date.

As of yesterday afternoon, the team was still planning to excavate two sites that not only may be prehistoric ovens, but burial sites, as well.

The archaeological work had uncovered a great number of artifacts, such as chunks of stone tools, the sole of a shoe, a bit of cloth to crinkled beer cans. But thus far, no human bones.

We hadn't bothered posting anything on this Earhart fiasco before since we don't particularly regard it as archaeology, per se. This story had some possibly real archaeology in it though, so we figured we'd pass it along.

CSI: Cairo


Egypt Hopes to Solve Riddle of Tutankhamun Death

Egypt plans to X-ray the mummy of Tutankhamun to find out what killed the king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago and died while only a teenager.

Archaeologists will move Tutankhamun's body from its tomb, which was discovered packed with treasure in 1922, to Cairo for tests which should resolve the mystery over whether he died naturally or was murdered.

"We will know about any diseases he had, any kind of injuries and his real age," Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told Reuters. "We will know the answer to whether he died normally or was he killed."

The mummy would be moved by the end of November and the CAT scan, which will produce a three-dimensional X-ray of his remains, completed by the end of the year, he said.

Hopefully a good set of CT scans will clear up some of the controversy about some aspects of the old x-rays.

Note: Link to Rise of the Nile video game fixed.

Waterfront real estate, cheap Artifacts reveal Lake CdA prime prehistoric real estate

Long before pioneers, loggers and wealthy retirees discovered the charms of Lake Coeur d'Alene, its shores were considered prime real estate.

Going back thousands of years, families have lived along the lake, fishing for mammoth bull trout in its blue depths and digging water potatoes near the shore. Archaeologists are now gathering evidence of prehistoric lakeside dwellers. In some areas, remnants of ancient villages have been found buried under deep layers of sediment. Some sites, however, have yielded only small flecks of charcoal from prehistoric hearths.

The work is part of a first-ever survey of prehistoric sites from the lower reaches of the rivers feeding into Lake Coeur d'Alene down the banks of the Spokane River all the way to Long Lake. The investigation is funded by Avista Utilities as part of its requirements for securing a new federal permit to operate hydroelectric dams in the region.

How Iranian Women Applied Makeup 3000 Years Ago

To describe how Iranian women applied makeup many thousand years ago is a difficult task. To say that how female cave dwellers used to array and beautify themselves within the geographical sphere now known as Iran, is not easy and the answer to such a question can be found only by a few archaeological excavations and rare records unearthed from ancient times. From a few records survived from such a time it is evident that not only women but men also used to apply cosmetics and that their makeup stemmed from religious beliefs rather than beautification ends.

Artists' conception of how an ancient Iranian woman may have looked:


Non-archaeological, but it's silly enough to post here MYSTERY SKELETON FOUND IN GARDEN

Forensic team called in to help identify 100-year-old bones

Dark and grisly tales of foul play sprang to mind when a skeleton was found buried in a Seal garden last week.

Rumours quickly spread around the village as residents speculated on the identity of the 'corpse' after the discovery of what was thought to be a collection of 100-year-old human bones.

But the mystery was solved when police confirmed that a forensic team and an archaeologist had identified the remains as Victorian farm animals.

This bears mention Fossil offers clues to bear migration

A fossilized jaw found in an Alberta gravel pit may have cleared up a mystery for researchers wondering how brown bears originally made it across North America.

They probably migrated from what's now Alaska and the Yukon before glaciers covered the region, thousands of years before previously believed.

The findings are discussed in today's issue of the journal Science.

"It's like finding the missing link," said Paul Matheus, lead author of the paper and a paleobiologist at the University of Alaska.

Matheus said the discovery could have interest to archaeologists trying to determine when humans first arrived in North America.

Indeed. More here. Key quote:

For decades many archaeologists have argued that humans migrated south of Beringia via an ice-free corridor about 13,000 years ago, when the ice sheets began to recede.

These scientists used the first appearance of certain animals, such as the brown bears, as a proxy indicator for when this corridor may have been available to humans.

"But our results show that brown bears were down further south much earlier, and that we just hadn't found the oldest fossils yet," Matheus said. "Archaeologists can no longer use brown bears as a test for when the first humans came south."

Attention all Druids ARCHEOLOGISTS UNCOVER A RUSSIAN "STONEHENGE"

Russia now has a Stonehenge of its own. In the summer, a 4,000-year-old megalithic structure was uncovered at a Spasskaya Luka site, in the central Russian region of Ryazan. This structure, which, archeologists believe, was built as a sanctuary, sits on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Oka and the Pron rivers. The surrounding area has always been seen as an "archeological encyclopedia," a kaleidoscope of cultures ranging from the Upper Paleolithic to the Dark Ages.

"If we look at this archeological site as represented on a map, it will be a circle seven meters in diameter, marked with pillars, half a meter thick and the same distance apart from each other," says the expedition leader Ilya Akhmedov, who works in the Moscow Historical Museum's Archeological Monuments Department. "Here's a large rectangular hole and a pillar in the center of the circle. The wooden pillars have not survived, of course, but the large holes from which they once stuck out can be seen pretty clearly. Along the edges of the site there are two more holes. Originally, there may have been four of them, but the bank over here is being destroyed by a ravine, so the temple has caved in partially."

No doubt England is still way more fun to spend the solstices.

Historic site reveals its secrets

Archaeologists are set to learn about new discoveries at one of Scotland's most important ancient sites.

Investigators began work at Traprain Law in East Lothian after a major fire in 2003 which damaged some historical remains and endangered others.

The experts called in to carry out a full assessment made a number of finds, including 5,000-year-old Neolithic rock art and Bronze Age axes.

The details will be revealed at a conference in Edinburgh on Saturday.

The other discoveries included evidence of a jewellery workshop and part of a roadway.

Fraser Hunter, a curator at the National Museums of Scotland, said the discoveries all helped to reinforce Traprain's reputation as a power and population centre in pre-history.

Traprain Law's inhabitants had regular contacts with Roman visitors between AD80 and AD400.

A huge hoard of Roman silver was found in 1919 on the Law, which dominates the countryside east of Haddington.

That's the whole thing, except for the picture.

Following news courtesy of the EEF.

"A new look at ancient tombs": Using high-resolution satellite photos of the Valley of the Kings; incl. an interview with Dr. Peter Piccione.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/science/2004-11-08-thebes-usat_x.htm

The Instruction of Kagemni (pPrisse 1,1 - 2,9)
-- Hieroglyphic text and English translation
URL: http://www.maati.org/ptahhotep.htm#kagemni

Review of James P. Allen, The Heqanakht Papyri
A note to inform you that I have reviewed James P. Allen, The Heqanakht Papyri for EH.NET. For your convenience I have placed a copy of the review on my website (http://sondmor.tripod.com/index-html).
URL: http://members.tripod.com/~sondmor/index-39.html

A game!
"Rise of the Nile" is a casual game for Windows and Mac, with an ancient Egyptian theme. A free demo can be downloaded from http://www.hypernovagames.com, and full versions can be purchased from the same site.

This is cool
"Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation"
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/gri/4tut.html
Project of the Griffith Institute, Oxford, that aims to make the complete records of Howard Carter's excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun available on the WWW. Transcripts of Howard Carter's diaries from all nine excavation seasons are now online.

End of EEF news

The one in Greece, not Egypt Archaeologists uncover remains from ancient city of Thebes

Greek archaeologists have uncovered an ancient altar on which the carcasses of animals sacrificed to a god were burnt in the ancient city of Thebes, the Culture Ministry said today.

Excavations that started in February in Thebes, some 200 kms north of Athens, revealed finds dating from the third century BC to late Byzantine times.

Archaeologists uncovered architectural fragments, sculptures, ceramics and bronze vessels.

One of the most interesting discoveries is what is believed to have been a huge ancient altar on which the carcasses of animals sacrificed to a god were burnt. Worshippers' terracotta vases were also deposited among the ashes.

Fight! Fight! Decision due on Hill of Tara motorway

Archaeologists say 'heart and soul of Ireland' is threatened

t is Ireland's most sacred stretch of earth and one of the most important ancient landscapes in Europe. The Hill of Tara, with its passage tomb, earthworks and prehistorical burial mounds, is the mythical and ceremonial capital of Ireland, dating back 4,000 years.

But now the landscape in county Meath, north-west of Dublin, is the subject of a campaign to save it from what one archaeologist has called the "worst case of state-sponsored vandalism ever inflicted on Irish cultural heritage".

Hmmmmmm. . . In Discovery Channel's RAMESES: WRATH OF GOD OR MAN?, a Find in a Massive Tomb Could Be a Crown Prince Who Provides Ties to the Story of Exodus

Discovery Channel announced today world-renowned Egyptologist Kent Weeks' discovery and possible identification of a skull that he believes could be that of Rameses II's firstborn son, who may have been killed during the 10th plague described in Exodus. Discovery Channel funded Weeks' expedition, which blends archaeology, state-of-the-art digital technology and the latest in forensic science to determine the identity of the skull and its possible place in history.

Weeks' findings, along with award-winning Middle Eastern correspondent Charles Sennott's epic travels across Egypt, are revealed in RAMESES: WRATH OF GOD OR MAN? scheduled to air during EGYPT WEEK on Sunday, December 5, 9-11 PM (ET/PT).

We predict this will shed about as much light on the Exodus as that wig did on the identity of Nefertiti's mummy.

That was sarcasm in case anybody missed it.

Ha Long they been there? Archaeologists unearth remains of 4,000-year-old skeletons in Ha Long

Skeletons thought to be from a civilisation that lived around Ha Long 4,000 years ago were uncovered by archaeologists excavating the Hon Hai–Co Tien cave, about 140km east of Ha Noi.

Team leader from the Archaeology Institute, Dr Nguyen Kim Dung, said the discovery should provide archaeologists and anthropologists with greater insight into the lifestyles of the ancient people who lived in the north-east of modern-day Viet Nam.

Artefacts including pestles, graters and ceramic wares were found buried with 18 skeletons that archaeologists said were probably adults aged between 25 and 30, with their genders and causes of death still being investigated.

Dumb archaeology pun #13,496 Students dig in to archaeology lesson

The first artifact to be unearthed looked like a rock to Sarah Lopez.

It probably was.

"I think it's a real scraper," Levi Cook said, hacking away at the turf with a garden trowel.

"I think it's just a rock," Sarah insisted as she recorded the "artifact" in her notes as a rock that looked like an American Indian hide scraper.

The Houck Middle School students were part of several social-studies classes that recently excavated simulated American Indian artifacts.

Scum! Developer destroys 14th century ruins

Archaeologists in Nanjing, China, have discovered what they believe are ruins of an ancient palace, but only after workers had destroyed large parts of it.

Workers excavating a construction site found pillars experts believe are part of a 14th century Ming dynasty palace. But the developer ignored orders from the city government to handle cultural relics with care, and allowed work to continue, the South China Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Local media said about two-thirds of the royal residence had been destroyed.

Experts from Nanjing Museum had investigated the downtown site before the construction workers arrived, but found nothing. The construction manager blamed them for not doing their job properly.

Archaeologists from the museum tried to halt the project Sunday after the discovery was confirmed, but it was already too late.

That's the whole thing. Bit more here.

Update on Finnish work in Boliva Finns uncover major Bolivian relics

Scientists from Helsinki University have discovered what are being considered as the most significant relics of Bolivian antiquity in the South American country’s long history. This announcement was made via the university’s well-developed communication services, which include news of the week on science and research topics and knowledge databases.

In their excavations of a site on Pariti Island in Bolivia, a team of archaeologists from Helsinki University (HU) discovered well-preserved ceramic remnants in what appears to be a ritual site. The find adds substantially to what is known about the Tiwanaku culture, which flourished before the Incas and for which the island was probably an important religious site.

Little is known about the Tiwanakus because they left no writings and their culture died out in the 11th century. Records show they settled on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca in the Andean mountains around 400 BC. They built their administrative centre – the city of Tiwanaku which is around 75km west of Bolivia’s capital La Paz – between 300-500 AD, and their influence on the region continued to grow for several centuries.

Surveys of the island, which took place over the summer, uncovered a cache of about 300 kilograms of deliberately broken ritual ceramics which, radiocarbon dating reveals, were buried some time between 900-1050 AD. “Some twenty vessels have been preserved intact,” says Antti Korpisaari, an archaeologist at HU’s Renvall Institute who participated in the dig. “The objects can be compared with the best china of a royal household or sacramental communion vessels,” he notes.

Bit more detail than was in the earlier posting, and it looks as if the pottery is as cool as we thought it was. Simply outstanding.

Underwater archaeology update Awash With History

Academics in Coleraine have produced the first study of the shipwrecks that lie off the coast of Ireland.

Boats and Shipwrecks of Ireland is the work of researchers from the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Ulster and highlights some of the thousands of sunken vessels that lie beneath the coastal waters.

Some, such as the ship of the Spanish Armada the Girona, are well documented, but many of the estimated 13,000 underwater sites have been neglected by scientists for years.

Now, however, new projects undertaken by researchers from the UU are beginning to reveal an exciting part of Ireland's past, as coauthor Colin Breen explained.

This is a serious drag American Indian languages dying off

Oklahoma City, OK, Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Twenty-five American Indian languages are still spoken in Oklahoma, but 10 of them are only one generation from extinction, experts say.

Speakers are dwindling because the older generation is dying, but a number of the state's 39 tribes are trying to save the languages, the Oklahoman reported Monday.

We here at ArchaeoBlog wholeheartedly support any efforts to retain native languages.

Rare wooden sarcophagus found in Egypt

German archaeologists have discovered a rare wooden Pharaonic sarcophagus in the southern city of Luxor, the first such find in nearly two centuries, the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Tuesday.

Halil Ghali, a senior antiquities official for southern Egypt, said the empty sarcophagus, from the 13th Dynasty (1785-1680 BC), "is believed to be the biggest of its type".

It is 2,7m long, 1,5m high and one metre wide.

A hieroglyphic inscription on its face revealed that it belonged to an official called "Amni", said the council.

Just a couple of items for now. We'll get more later.

Cool, but maybe overreaching Pompeii pottery may rewrite history

Archaeologists may need to change their view of Pompeii's role in trade and commerce, after a ceramics expert's recent discovery.

Australian researcher Jaye Pont from the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Sydney's Macquarie University says people who lived in Pompeii bought their pottery locally and didn't import it.

Pont said the find could "make waves" among archaeologists looking at trade in the Mediterranean.

And she said researchers may have to rethink shelves of museum pottery once thought to be from the eastern Roman Empire.

This seems terribly interesting. Basically what Pont has done is to source the ceramics to the local area through inclusions in the clay itself. This bit about other sourcing (?) "Most scientific analysis has been done chemically but not through thin section analysis," seems somewhat incongruous to us; chemical sourcing of clays should be very exacting. But she goes on to note that the classification as extra-local was done mainly on the basis of formal variation in shape, color, etc. which is often standard archaeological practice. While this is true, we don't think it's quite fair to rip on archaeologists for not doing this sort of detailed analysis all along. You've got to make some sense of masses of pottery and shape variation does have utility. Still, it goes to show what very detailed analyses can accomplish.

And along those lines. . . Mummies' tar provides a link to ancient trade routes

Historians have long known that Egyptians used tar to seal mummies during the embalming process.

What wasn't known until now is where the tar came from. Thanks to work by some Texas geochemists, however, scientists are now answering this millennia-old mystery.

The Middle East is, of course, littered with natural oil seeps, in which tar and other black deposits bubble up from oil beneath the surface.

Within each oil seep, however, the tar has a particular signature, which scientists can identify by measuring the various amounts of thousands of different hydrocarbons. The ratio of hydrocarbons is virtually the same for an entire seep.

Warning! Warning! Pyramid shower!

Hawas: Singaporean robot to creep into Cheops Pyramid in October

The robot experiment inside Cheops Pyramid in Giza will be repeated next year but this time by a different institution, said Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawas.

The University of Singapore is currently designing a robot to reach beyond the door which blocked the route of the robot used by the US National Geographic in September 2003, said Hawas in statements on Saturday.

The new experiment will be conducted in October 2005, added the SCA head.

Video! They Were Here: Ice Age Humans in South Carolina

It was a time when our climate was cooler. Great ice sheets covered the northern areas of what was to become the United States. At the Topper Site in what is now Allendale County, South Carolina, artifacts have been found that show early humans were coming to ancient chert quarries, making rudimentary knives and other tools. This South Carolina Educational TV documentary covers the careful study and analysis of artifacts, let by Dr. Albert C. Goodyear, leading to evidence of early humans that dates back 15,000-20,000 years ago.

Kinda neat, a streaming video feed of a short documentary. We haven't watched it yet, but the quality on our T1 line is pretty good.

Antiquities Market update I Archaeologists fear 'looters' charter'

Archaeologists were yesterday aghast over a plan by MPs loyal to Silvio Berlusconi to legalise the private ownership of archaeological treasures in Italy. One called the measure a "looters' charter".

At present, all antiquities found in Italian soil are deemed to be the property of the state and are meant to be handed over to the authorities.

But under the proposed legislation, treasure hunters who declare their finds can keep and own them if they pay the state 5% of the object's estimated value.

Supporters have argued that it would bring to light previously hidden treasures.

Antiquities Market update II 90% of archaeological sites in Pakistan plundered

According to research conducted by Robin Conningham, professor of archaeology at the University of Bradford, Pakistan is being robbed of antiquities created between 500BC and AD400, and Iran is being plundered of treasures dating from 3,000BC to AD500, The Times reported in its Monday edition.

Mr Conningham has done a six-year survey of the ancient sites in the region in collaboration with the universities of Peshawar and Tehran, and with the backing of the Royal Geographical Society, the British Institute of Persian Studies and the British Academy.

They found 18 new archaeological sites dating to the first millennium BC in the Hindukush region, of which 14 had been damaged by illicit excavations, and more than 120 sites dating back to 8,000BC in the Tehran plain, of which most had suffered recent damage.

Mr Coningham said: “Although the illegal destruction occurs abroad, much of the looted material is channelled here to Britain and is sold in London. The best material is coming to London.”

Homo hobbitensis update Hoping for hobbit DNA

An expert will examine hair and stone tool samples found in the "hobbit cave" in Indonesia hoping to extract DNA.

Scientists recently announced their discovery of a species of mini-human - Homo floresiensis - on Flores island.

Environmental archaeologist Dr Carol Lentfer, of the Southern Cross University, is examining residues on stone tools found in the cave. Any tools found with blood residue will be handed over to ancient DNA specialist, Dr Alan Cooper, of Oxford University, for analysis.

"We should be able to find out what impact the presence of modern humans had on the hobbits if they were living at the same time."

Lentfer will also examine the patterns found on the tools to determine how they were used.

That's the whole thing.

There's gobs of news to catch up on, so we'll be posting snippets throughout the day.

Chicken Little vindicated Giant hail killed more than 200 in Himalayas

For 60 years the skeletal remains of more than 200 people, discovered in 1942 close to the glacial Roopkund Lake in the remote Himalayan Gahrwal region, have puzzled historians, scientists and archaeologists. Were they soldiers killed in battle, royal pilgrims who lost their way and succumbed to hypothermia, or Tibetan traders who died of a mysterious illness?

Now, the first forensic investigation of one of the area's most enduring mysteries has concluded that hundreds of nomads - whose frozen corpses are being disgorged from ice high in the mountain - were killed by one of the most lethal hailstorms in history.

Commemorating the dead, Neolithic style

A reinterpretation of Neolithic plastered skulls from Jordan, Syria, Israel and Turkey is changing the way scholars think about cult, death and the afterlife in the Neolithic and the ancient Middle East. Current findings, based on scientific studies as well as bioarchaeological evidence, support an interpretation of a funerary practice that focused on the special treatment of the skulls of adult females, males and children.

Good, long detailed article on a subject we'd never heard of before.

The Moravian Venus

THE LONGEST and the oldest period in the history of mankind is the second period of the Stone Age, known as the Paleolithic Age. It started one and a half to two million years ago, and lasted till the end of the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago.

During this immense period of time, mankind gradually adapted to new climate conditions and developed into the modern human beings we are today, populating all the continents, with the exception of Antarctica. But the number of people on the earth was still very small, that being one reason why there was little interference in nature.

Digging away at Mayan mystery

Archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor, a University of Calgary professor, is currently digging into one of the most intriguing of all those many mysteries, a "lost" city that not only survived being caught between two warring Mayan superpowers but also may have blazed a new path culturally and linguistically.

Working with researchers from Australia and Guatemala, Reese-Taylor co-directs a team excavating the ruins of Naachtun, an ancient city situated at the geographical heart of the Mayan civilization.

The location in northern Guatemala — between the Mayan centres of Tikal and Calakmul, across the border with Mexico — is so remote that Naachtun has been rediscovered twice.

"It's completely unexcavated except for what we've done," says the 47-year-old archaeologist, the latest in a series of top Maya scholars at the university.

An honest headline Ancient Indian remains raise complex issues

On a ridge outside Morgantown, W.Va., work has stopped on a shopping mall while archaeologists excavate human remains found last month in an area where a group of Monongahela Indians once lived.

The remains are orphans, in a sense. There is no modern-day Monongahela tribe, and clear traces of the group disappear from the archaeological record before the arrival of European settlers.

Under a 1990 federal law governing the disposition of Native American remains, the status of such "unaffiliated" discoveries is left unclear.

Read the whole thing. It gives a good summation of what happens to "unaffiliated" remains and also touches on the complexity of aboriginal views on treatment of human remains, far from the monolithic stereotype some groups pretend to represent.

Ramesses, he is a-movin' Ramsses II to relocate temporarily to Giza Plateau in February

The giant statue of Ramses II will finally say farewell to its current noisy, fumy and bustling location in Cairo's most crowded square to rest in the Giza Plateau's Saqqara area, said Zahi Hawas, Chairman of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The transporting operation will be carried out on February 1, 2005, Hawas said in statements on Saturday.

The new location will be temporary until the monolithic granite statue is positioned permanently at Ramaya Square in Giza at the entrance to the Grand Museum that will be built in the Cairo-Alexandria Desert Road, said Hawas.

Top finds on Bolivian highlands

Finnish scientists discovered the most significant relics of antiquity in recent Bolivian history.

In the excavations on Pariti Island in Lake Titicaca, in the highlands of Bolivia, the historical-archaeological research team of the University of Helsinki discovered a ritual offering site with well-preserved pieces of ceramics. The find adds substantially to what is known about the Tiwanaku culture, which flourished before the Incas and for which the island was probably an important religious site.

If this is an example of the ceramics they're finding:


Then, wow. Just plain, wow.

34 Paleolithic Age sites found

Chinese archaeologists have spotted another 34 Paleolithic Era sites at a major reservoir area around the city of Danjiangkou in central Hubei province during a rescue excavation in the region.

Of the 34 sites, 15 were located in Yunxian county, six in Danjiangkou city and one in an inundated area of Shiyan City, according to a field investigation team under the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The archaeologists confirmed the sites to be built respectivelyin the early, middle and late periods of the Paleolithic Era.

The new discovery provides rare, important valuable material clues for the study of the evolution of the prehistoric "Yunxian man", an expert acknowledged.

Danjiangkou Reservoir is the major source of water supply for the middle route of the mammoth South-North Water Diversion Project.

Note to all journalists: "Digging archaeology" is no longer funny BCCC students dig archaeology

After taking an ancient-civilization course in high school, Bucks County Community College student Tina Nunn became interested in history.

"I always had a respect for the subject," said the 18-year-old archaeology major from Levittown. "But I wanted to find stuff."

That's why she jumped at the chance when Lyle Rosenberger, BCCC professor of historic preservation, offered his students the opportunity to study artifacts from the Clark Nature Center in Newtown Township.

Fight! Fight! 'Flores man not a new species'

A leading Indonesian scientist on Saturday challenged the widely publicised theory that fossilised bones found on the eastern island of Flores were from a previously unknown species of human.

Professor Teuku Jacob, chief palaeontologist from the state Gajah Mada University, will carry out tests to prove the fossils are from a sub-species of homo sapiens - "an ordinary human being, just like us".

"It is not a new species. It is a sub-species of homo sapiens classified under the Austrolomelanesid race. If it's not a new species, why should it be given a new name?" the professor said.

Australian scientists last month made world headlines by announcing the discovery of a new twig in mankind's family tree, 'homo floriensis', a one-metre hominid with a grapefruit-sized skull.

Eh, this sounds a bit odd. Even if this is a "sub-species" of Home sapiens sapiens it's still extremely odd, being this small with that tiny of a brain. The business of the small skull being due to "mental defects" seems simiarly capricious.

More on stuff under a pub Medieval mystery under the Maltsters

AN 800-YEAR mystery surrounding medieval Carlisle has been solved after a major discovery under a city pub.

Archaeologists uncovered a 12th century bronze-working complex complete with workshop and furnaces under the former Maltsters Arms in John Street, Caldewgate.

And they suspect that the city’s medieval church is buried under a pay and display car park next-door.

Frank Giecco of North Pennine Archaeology said until now medieval Carlisle had been a blank and the discovery would re-write the archaeological map of the city.

4,000-year-old tombs found in Quang Ninh province

Eighteen ancient tombs, believed to belong to the Ha Long Culture, some 4,000 years ago, have been unearthed in Hon Hai-Co Tien archaeological site in Ha Long city, northern Quang Ninh province.

Archaeologists said some skulls have been discovered intact as well as stone axes, grinding pestles, short swords and caremic pieces.

The one-month excavation, jointly carried out by the Quang Ninh Museum and the Archaeological Institute, is of great significance in researching the Ha Long Culture.

Archaeologists also found many artefacts belonging to the Dong Son Culture around the Hai Hai-Co Tien area, including bronze axes, stone necklaces, ear-rings and ceramic pots.

The Chairman of Quang Ninh People's Committee has instructed the Quang Ninh Museum to devise a project to build an open-air museum at the site.-Enditem

That's the whole thing.

Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover 9,000 Year-old Human Skeleton

Bulgarian archaeologists have discovered a 9,000 year-old human skeleton that may change current notions about history of mankind, a report said Saturday.

The find means that pre-historic people began to till land 500 years earlier than they were supposed till now, the Sofia-based Nova TV said.

Expedition chief Georgi Ganetsovski said the skeleton was of a proto-Mediterranean type and was probably one of a young woman.

He said the find was "sensational" as it represented the first ever discovered lodging and funeral from that era.

The expedition found the skeleton near the village of Ohoden, some 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Sofia.

Archaeologists said they found also 9,000 year-old burnt grains of wheat at the site.

That's the whole thing, too.

Traces of an ancient settlement found on the dry bottom of the Aral

Kyzylorda. November 5. KAZINFORM. The scientists of the Institute of Archeology named after Alkey Margulan found some traces of an ancient town on the dry bottom of the Aral Sea. The area of the town amounts to about 6 ha and goes back to the 13-14 centuries, i.e. the epoch of the Golden Horde.
As a result of archeological researches there have also been found the relics of different workshops, windmills and storehouses for ceramic articles and the burial ground where the noble representatives of that period had been buried.
The excavations of the ancient town are planned to start next year.

As is that.

Vandals! Controversial archeological excavation site vandalized

An archeological excavation site on the Acre-Safed road was vandalized by unknown assailants on the night between Thursday and Friday.
The director of the excavation site, Yotam Tefer, said the vandals destroyed archeological findings and damaged digging equipment and bulldozers.

The excavations were initiated six months ago in order to salvage an ancient Roman cemetery unearthed in Acre's city center during works on a new two level underpass on the Acre-Safed road.

The diggings raised the fury of orthodox Jews who claimed that the cemetery contained Jewish graves, despite archeologists' contrary findings, and should thus remain untouched.

What's with the toilets? 16th century toilet uncovered under Eyre Square taxi-rank

Archaeologists monitoring the Eyre Square refurbishment works have discovered an almost unknown building in the north of the square along with the city's earliest public lavatory.

As part of the ongoing Eyre Square enhancement scheme a number of archaeological test excavations have been carried out by the Moore Group Environmental and Archaeological Consultants on behalf of the Galway City Council.

The focus of the excavations on the taxi rank have also uncovered a substantial stone building. It may date from the late 1600s to the early 1700s. However it does not appear on the famous 1651 pictorial map of Galway and so could be of a later date. It appears on an 1818 map of Galway but was gone by the mid 19th century.

Following news courtesy of the EEF.

A tomb, from the Ptolemaic Era, containing six complete mummies and two limestone sarcophagi has been unearthed in the Al-Deir area in the Kharga Oasis:
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o311024m.htm

Reginald Magee. "Arterial disease in antiquity", Medical Journal of Australia 1998; 169: 663-666. Online in HTML.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/xmas98/magee/magee.html: Aortic calcification in Egyptian mummies and a description of aneurysm in the Papyrus Ebers.

Online version of: G. Maspero, Le Musée de Boulaq et le Musée de Gizéh, in: La Nature. Revue des sciences et leurs applications aux arts et à l'industrie, vol. 18, sem. 2, pp. 199-202 (1890) - beginning at:
URL: http://cnum.cnam.fr/CGI/sresrech.cgi?4KY28.35/0203

Online version of: Jean François Champollion, Systèmes des Égyptiens sur l'immortalité de l'âme et sur les récompenses et les peines de l'autre vie, in: Annales de philosophie chrétienne, vol. 5, pp. 261-266 (1832) - "Extraits des lettres écrites par M. Champollion, pendant son voyage en Egypte."
URL: http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=Gallica&O=NUMM-204474

Updated web pages on fieldwork at Kom Firin in the Western Delta: http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/aes/excavations/firin1.html

End of EEF news.

Archaeology station of remote monitoring launched in Yunnan

China will launch its 11th provincial archaeology station of remote monitoring in southwestern Yunnan province to support the research and protection of the area's natural heritage.

The station has been jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Ministry of Education, and State Cultural Relics Bureau.

Established in 2001, archaeology laboratories for remote monitoring have also been placed in cities and provinces such as Tianjin, Shaanxi, Sichuan, where are rich in historical culture and natural heritage.

That's the whole thing.

Scientific treasure hunters

REAL archaeology bears about as much resemblance to an Indiana Jones movie as real spying bears to James Bond. Excavation—at least if it is to be meaningfully different from grave robbing—is a matter of painstaking trowel work, not gung-ho gold-grabbing. But there is still a glimmer of the grave robber in many archaeologists, and the search for a juicy royal tomb can stimulate more than just rational, scientific instincts.

We admit that this paragraph is highly accurate. Ed.

Few tombs would be juicier than that of Lars Porsena, an Etruscan king who ruled in central Italy around 500BC. Porsena's tomb has been sought for centuries in the rubble under the Tuscan city of Chiusi, which is believed by most authorities to stand on the site of Porsena's capital, Clusium. No sign of it, however, has ever been found. And that, according to Giuseppe Centauro, of the University of Florence, is because everybody is looking in the wrong place.

More bodies in Texas More graves found under county parking lot

t least 30 graves have been discovered after construction workers digging a trench unearthed the city's first cemetery.

"I didn't think there would be this many," archaeologist John Keller said in Thursday editions of The Brownsville Herald.

The Cameron County-owned lot was dug up Sept. 24 by construction workers building a trench for utility lines. Initially, up to four graves were thought to be have been disturbed.

Myanmar Begins Retrieving Cultural Treasures Buried Under Riverbeds

Myanmar plans to next year begin retrieving cultural treasures that have been buried under riverbeds for centuries, a local cultural journal reported Wednesday.

Foreign experts will train people from Myanmar's archaeology and water resources departments in underwater archaeology skills next year, and the hunt should start soon after, Flower News said.

Eat! The Trouble With Blood

Like many Americans these days, I fancy myself a fairly adventurous cook. And I've produced some (overly) ambitious stuff in my cramped kitchen, like quail in rose-petal sauce and chicken livers and eggs in aspic. So when ARCHAEOLOGY asked me to fix up some ancient menus, I figured, no problem. I'll hit up the Greeks and the Romans and that will be that. But I had no idea what I was getting into. Because it turns out Apicius, first-century A.D., isn't the unchallenged king of the ancient culinary world, after all.

Get the recipes here! Please do not send us any turnips in blood. We get those around the corner at a Tunisian deli and we're sick of them.

Drink! Cathedral revives beer tradition

Canterbury Cathedral is reviving the ancient monastic tradition of making beer available within its precincts.

The Kent cathedral is selling a bottled bitter which is made by local brewer Shepherd Neame according to a 300-year-old Kentish recipe.

Canon Richard Marsh said beer was made on site by the monastic community in Canterbury between 1100 and 1538.

He hopes Cathedral Ale "will remind people of the fun and friendship of a visit to the cathedral".

Be buried! Loggers uncover Caddo's oldest cemetery

A cemetery that holds the remains of many notable pioneer Caddo Parish families, long swallowed up by dense woods just west of Greenwood, has been revealed by nearby logging _ exposure that has historians and archaeologists worried.

The Whitworth-Forest Park Cemetery "is very important for several different reasons," said cartographer Gary Joiner, who visited the site on behalf of state archaeologists and plans at least one more visit before submitting his report.

"This is a family cemetery from the very early 1800s. This is a pioneering family cemetery. These people were out on the west edge of Louisiana, before Shreveport was even a town, and when this was the western boundary of the United States. At the time it was established, this was perhaps the westernmost cemetery in the United States."

'Maya Hunter' Expeditionary Vehicle Aids Archaeologists

A team of Maya archeologists from
Vanderbilt University received the keys to a jungle-ready 2005 Toyota Tacoma
Double Cab 4x4 V6 pickup at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA)
trade show here today.
The customized truck, donated by Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A. and
Off-Road Adventures magazine, will transport the archaeologists deep into the
jungles of Guatemala as they explore Maya ruins dating back as far as 500 BC.
In addition, Yamaha Motor Corp., U.S.A., donated a Yamaha Rhino 660
two-person off-road machine, which will be towed on a trailer behind the
Tacoma. Introduced last year, the vehicle's side-by-side configuration
provides ample room for two archeologists and their tools. With a
liquid-cooled engine, fully independent suspension and push-button four-wheel
drive system, it will allow easy access into the deep-jungle terrain where a
smaller vehicle is needed to navigate narrow roads and tight trails.

Kind of a press release, but interesting. Note: We could really use something like this out in the Fayum Depression. . . .

2 prehistoric city sites discovered in Henan

Two prehistoric city sites have been discovered at the Puchengdian ruins in central China's Henan province, and one of them was confirmed by archeologists to be more than 4,000 years old and belong to the Longshan culture or late Neolithic cultures (3000 BC- 1700 BC).

The older city covers an area of more than 16,000 square meters,with the east, west and south walls still existing.

A well-preserved 5,000-year-old pottery kiln was unearthed in the relic city site, which comprised a kiln chamber, fireplace, workshop and ash pit. Archaeologists referred this to the first time such an ancient and well-preserved kiln was found in China.

Sunken treasure! Exotic Hindu statuettes discovered from Thames

The banks of the river Thames has yielded many exotic items, including a series of Hindu gods and godesses, some of which could be more than a century old.

The four deities discovered include Durga, Ganesha, Vishnu and Hanuman. The statuettes are made of stone or metal. Other discoveries include two metal plaques called yantras, one of copper alloy and the other silver plated.
Nikola Burdon of the Museum of London wrote in the London Archaeologist that the copper yantra has details of the nine planets, the silver one has a serpent entwining rows of numbers each of which adds up to 15.

Homage to Kent Weeks A pharaoh to remember

Kent Weeks, the American archaeologist charged with planning the rescue of the Valley of the Kings originally went to Egypt to make a map. While there, he poked around in a dirty, unimportant-looking hole in the ground and discovered the biggest tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In doing so, he secured a place for himself in the history of archaeology.

Weeks's career began in Nubia in the 1960s, salvaging stuff about to be submerged by the Aswan Dam, and at Giza and in the Nile delta. But it was in 1979 that he and his colleagues decided to make an accurate map of the 60-odd tombs in the Valley of the Kings. The earliest maps had been little more than fantasies: no accurate study of the whole valley had ever been done. He thought it would take a few seasons. "I'm always a hopeless optimist. I don't know where on earth I ever got that silly idea," he says. "And 20 years later, the project was finished."

Ancient cosmetics update Ancient Roman cosmetics resembled modern moisturizer

Fashionable women in ancient Rome applied a beauty cream that wasn't all that different from today's cosmetics, researchers say.

Archeologists in London found a rare pot with a lid containing a whitish cream that was in good condition. It was dated to the middle of the second century AD.

Chemist Richard Evershed of the University of Bristol and his colleagues determined the cream contained refined animal fat, starch and tin oxide.

Based on the analysis, the team then synthesized their own version of the white cream.

Artists' reconstruction of what a typical Roman woman would have looked like:


Original article here and the actual Nature paper is here. (Subscription required for both)

Artifact curation update Scientists pioneer biotech techniques to halt infestation of history, art treasures in tropics

The use of biotechnologies originally intended to remedy crop infestations and other problems is being pioneered in the protection of priceless art and historical archives in tropical countries from decay caused by insects, heat, humidity and other natural causes.

A specialized UN University program in Venezuela, UNU-BIOLAC, is leading the way in the application of biotech techniques to extend the life of some of the world's most important cultural heritage.

Art preservation protocols and strategies have largely been devised in northern countries with temperate weather. But the climate of the tropics and sub-tropics presents different, more complex challenges, including a huge variety of insects, bacteria and fungi that attack important sculptures, paintings, artifacts, photos, documents, records and books.

And finally, from Bahrain Golden anniversary of Bahrain expedition

Bahrain and its Persian Gulf neighbours have formally requested help from Denmark's Moesgård Museum on several new anthropological excavations in the region.

Archaeologists from Moesgård Museum have already begun digging in Bahrain for the first time in 25 years - at the same site where Royal Archivist P.V. Glob began his legendary 1953 expedition with Britain's Geoffrey Bibbi in the Falster-sized sheikdom.

Within five years of first breaking ground in Bahrain in 1953, the Danish-led team uncovered temples, palaces and city remnants from the drifting sands - and won international acclaim.

Not archaeology, but interesting Digging code: Software archaeology

At first glance, business software developers have little in common with Indiana Jones. But the emerging field of software archaeology applies some of the same skills, if not the dashing adventure.

In 1900, a Greek sponge diver found the wreck of a 2000-year-old ship near the island of Antikythera. The sunken ship yielded up the usual ancient booty, but among the loot was something unusual: a corroded lump of metal with a large wheel on its front. Decades later, gamma-ray examinations showed that the artifact contained bronze gears and wheels.

Science historians now call the device the Antikythera Mechanism, and science historians agree that it is the earliest known computing machine. To this day, however, despite many tests, simulations and reconstructions, no one knows exactly what the Antikythera mechanism actually computed. While the favorite theory alleges that it calculated the position of the stars to aid navigation at sea, its designers and builders are long dead, ancient literature lacks a single mention of such devices and the only documentation it bears is an inscription suggesting the island of Rhodes as the place it was built.

This ancient riddle will seem familiar to many software developers confronted with the task of rebuilding applications.

This article will likely only appeal to those of the nerd pursuasion but it does serve to illustrate the sort of time scales people tend to deal with. As we saw in the so-called 'millennium bug' (Y2k) a few years ago, people tend not to be too concerned about their work lasting more than a few years. We need to start thinking longer-term, not only with regards to what we're doing to the archaeological record now, but also how we save, conserve, and document what we dig up and what we do with it. It's fairly obscene how much work has been relegated to the dustbin of history simply because people didn't know what to do with all those artifacts and notebooks and other documents associated with any excavation.

Experts Study Skeletal Remains in Utah

Archaeologists have begun excavating ancient skeletal remains believed to be those of five people, probably Anasazis.

The bones were found on private land at the eastern edge of Kanab in southern Utah last week when a turf farmer was digging a trench to install an irrigation line.

"I was on a backhoe ... when the guy I was working with yelled at me. I saw a big femur bone sticking up," said Tom Willardson, the owner of Tommy's Turf.

"I stopped digging out of respect for who (the bones) belonged to," Willardson said Monday.

Good for him. Similar article here.

Local archaeologist will present artifacts collected over his career

A local archaeologist and steward of the Texas Historical Commission will present his extensive collection of artifacts and detail where the items were found during his program at the Museum of the Coastal Bend on Thursday.

Bill Birmingham will present The Birmingham Collection at noon and at 7 p.m. Thursday at the museum.

Birmingham will discuss his experiences with archaeological excavations in the Texas Coastal Bend area. His extensive collection of artifacts, collected during his lengthy career as a vocational archeologist, will be featured, according to information from the museum.

Neat research Pompeii artists painted the town red

The formula of the red, shiny and intense colour that dominated Pompeii's wall paintings 2000 years ago has been discovered by an Italian researcher.

Buried in the catastrophic eruption in 79 AD, the brilliant Pompeian red has been preserved forever by the lava of Mount Vesuvius and still makes an impressive show in several frescoes.

"Though it consists of simple cinnabar pigment, Pompeian red is really unique. It certainly stands out when compared to normal cinnabar paint layers," said Daniela Daniele, a researcher working at Berlin's Staatliche Museen.

No. We will not make the obvious joke. Uh-uh, not us. Ancient stone hoes found in Dong Nai province

Two stone hoes dating back around 2,000-3,000 years have been found in Long Thanh district, southern Dong Nai province.

Farmer Chau Ba Ngan and his neighbours discovered the rectangle and trapezoid-shaped hoes while they were digging the foundation for a house. The hoes are 32-33 cm long, 2-4 cm thick and 7-8 cm wide.

According to initial assessment of the Dong Nai Museum, the hoes were tools used by primitive people who inhabited Bien Hoa and the basin area of the Dong Nai river in the Stone Age.

More than 2,600 stone and ceramic artefacts, including axes, chisels, knives, and sickles have been unearthed so far in Dong Nai province.

That's the whole thing.

The beer that made Suffolk famous

Roman brewery timbers on display

FOR 1800 years these timbers of a Roman brewery have hidden away underground but now they're done roamin' and are on display in Ipswich museum.

The timbers, believed to be from a Roman brewery have evoked spirits of a bygone era.

The roof timbers are believed to date back to 200 years after the birth of Christ and conjure images of toga-laden men working the maltings.

Story about non-Hobbit hominids! Yunxian Skulls Restored

Chinese and French scientists announced on October 25 in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, that they had finally finished reconstructing the half-million-year-old skulls of Yunxian Man. The French scientists presented the restored No. 2 skull to the Hubei Provincial Archeology Research Institute.

Li Tianyuan of the institute in Wuhan discovered the two fossilized human skulls at a site in Yunxian County in 1989 and 1990. They were determined to be specimens of Homo erectus, the predecessor of Homo sapiens and who walked the earth 300,000 to 1.7 million years ago.

The No. 2 skull, although badly damaged and without a jawbone, was the most complete human skull of its age ever found in China. It was determined to be 350,000 to 500,000 years old.

Inscription news Fragment of Persepolis inscription puzzles experts

Iranian archaeologists have still been unable to translate a fragment of an inscription recently discovered during an excavation at the ruins of Persepolis, ancient scripts expert Abdul-Majid Arfa’i announced on Saturday.

“With dimensions of 2cm x 2cm x 4cm, the triangular clay fragment bears cuneiform script, but we have not succeeded in identifying the language,” he added.

Some photos of the fragment have been sent to experts at the University of Chicago in the U.S., the University of Luneburg in Germany, and the University of Rome in Italy to identify and translate the inscription, he added.

He said that the fragment might be written in a new unidentified language.

Ah, apparently it's written in a known script, but in a mysterious language.

It will be difficult to do Time to turn back tourist tide in Valley of the Kings

American scientists are preparing a makeover for the world's most famous graveyard. A plan to control tourism, limit traffic, deflect flash floods, reduce theft and vandalism and even alter farming on the banks of the Nile could soon begin to change the face of the Valley of the Kings.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities has asked the archaeologists, architects and engineers of the Theban Mapping Project - launched 25 years ago simply to make a detailed map of the 62 tombs and temples of the pharaohs and nobles buried more than 3,000 years ago - to complete a plan for the conservation of the valley by the end of 2005.

The eternal paradox. Being hidden and buried was what kept these things perserved for thousands of years and the only way to enjoy them is to hasten their destruction. We have some doubts this will ever amount to anything, since few will be willing to give up the money yourism brings in and this will no doubt have a substantial impact on that.

Standing Stone reveals ancient secrets at modern opencast site

FOUR human cremation burial plots have been uncovered at the Kingslaw opencast site on the outskirts of Kirkcaldy.
And it is understood they form part of complex religious ceremonies carried out by settlers thousands of years ago.
The discovery was made by Fife Council archaeologists as they removed the 4000-year-old Bogleys Standing Stone from the Kingslaw development, which is currently being mined by Lanarkshire-based GM Mining, before being turned into a business and leisure facility.
Moving and protecting the ancient Bronze Age stone was part of an archaeological condition laid down before planning permission was given.

Treasure sold on eBay

Pieces of Britain's past, including a second-century silver ring and a 500-year-old Tudor trade weight, are among artefacts being peddled daily on the Internet to the alarm of experts at the British Museum.

"We have been monitoring sites such as (online auctioneer) eBay for six months now. We are finding several items each week," Roger Bland, the British Museum's head of treasure, told Reuters on Wednesday.

"The most notable one I've seen was a beautiful gold fitting for a dagger's scabbard dating back to the Anglo Saxon era," he said. "It was offered for sale at several hundred pounds."

Hmmmmmm. . . . A New Ancient Map?

By way of a note to the classics list, Pierre-Louis Malosse has announced the discovery by his Université Paul Valéry (Montpellier III) colleague Thierry van Compernolle of an ostrakon bearing what appears to be an ancient map of the Salentine peninsula (the “boot-heel” of Italy), possibly dating to the 5th century BC. The item remains, as yet, unpublished, and there are no photographs presently available.

. . .

The object discovered on the 21st of August 2003 at Soleto (province of Lecce, Italy), in the course of on-going archaeological excavations directed on behalf of CERCAM (Université Paul Valéry) by Th. Van Compernolle, is an ostrakon, i.e., a fragment of a vase, in this case, an attic black-glazed vase, on which is incised the coastline of the Salentine peninsula as well as thirteen toponyms whose positions are indicated by points. The “Soleto Map” is, to date, the most ancient geographic map of classical antiquity to have been discovered.

Footprints that never disappear

Separated by 40 miles and nearly a millennium, ancient Pueblo la Plata and modern Phoenix seem to have little in common.

Sitting atop Perry Mesa in Agua Fria National Monument, Pueblo la Plata was seldom home to more than 50 people at a time during its 200-year history, starting around AD 1200. No organized community appears to have occupied this area before or since.
. . .

For all their odd-couple appearance, the two settlements form bookends in ambitious efforts by archaeologists, ecologists, and others to investigate the long-lasting effects of human habitation and what can be done to make it more sustainable in arid regions in the future. It also raises an intriguing question: If humans leave their mark on an environment even centuries after they've left, is any place on Earth really pristine?

Key paragraph: "A grassland ecologist would come [here] and they'd see evidence of [modern-day] cattle grazing, and that's all they'd see," Dr. Spielmann says. By subtracting the effects of grazing, they could walk away feeling that they knew what a pristine grassland would be like. "Our hypothesis is that the landscape has been modified for so long that you can't understand the ecology of the area without understanding what prehistoric people did."

The notion that ancient people (especially in N and S America) were somehow so in tune with their natural environment that they lived within it with little disturbance has been crumbling for years. Evidence continues to accumulate that we've been changing the environment for thousands of years.

This seems a bit creepy Pompeii gets digital make-over

The old-fashioned audio tour of historical places could soon be replaced with computer-generated images that bring the site to life.

A European Union-funded project is looking at providing tourists with computer-augmented versions of archaeological attractions.

It would allow visitors a glimpse of life as it was originally lived in places such as Pompeii.

It could pave the way for a new form of cultural tourism.

Although it would be tres cool to look at a digitally reconstructed version of the place with all its attendant colors while also being able to see it as it is today. That would nicely solve the whole leaving-as-is vs. recontruction controversy.

This seems positive Iran, France sign cultural agreement

Iran and France signed Sunday an agreement for cultural cooperation in major fields of archaeology, research, history of art and exchange of art information.

The agreement, signed by Head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization Hossein Marashi and Head of Louvre Museum Henry Loyrette, has underlined the need to promote cultural cooperation and hold joint research and scientific conferences by Iran and France.

The Louvre authorities are ready to hold an exhibition of Iran's antique works in France, Loyrette told reporters.

"It belongs in a MUSEUM! Coronado Project needs help tracing route

You'd think 1,400 people and 6,500 herd animals traipsing across the desert would leave a fairly easy trail to follow, right?

At the time, that undoubtedly was true.

But when you wait hundreds of years to try to retrace the route, finding evidence gets to be a needle-in-the-haystack proposition.

Such is the problem as researchers try to determine the route taken by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado on his expedition through Arizona looking for "cities of gold" in 1540-42.

Here, as promised, is the EEF news from last week and a new commentary on Hobbit Man.

Following news courtesy of the EEF.

Egypt "showed off some of the 619 ancient artifacts smuggled out of the country in the late 1990s and repatriated from London last week."
http://snipurl.com/a3ne
Slightly different reports:
http://www.sis.gov.eg/online/html11/o261024m.htm
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2004/714/eg6.htm

New translation of Herodotus, Book 2 (on Egypt):
http://www.losttrails.com/pages/Tales/Inquiries/Herodotus.html

[Ed. Herodotus has been used as a source of information on Egypt for centuries. One of the few "firsthand" accounts of Egyptian life, and even that's not strictly firsthand, as it were. But still, it's an important work.]

Archaeology magazine (Nov/Dec 2004) has a newsbrief with good photo online of the Predymastic vase from the Royal Pump Room Museum in Harrogate, England, showing
a burial scene on a boat.
http://www.archaeology.org/0411/newsbriefs/harrogate.html

Heidi Hoffman and Patricia A. Hudgins, "Head and Skull Base Features of Nine Egyptian Mummies: Evaluation with High-Resolution CT and Reformation Techniques", American Journal of Radiology 178 (2002), pp. 1367-1376
http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/178/6/1367 (Might be subscription only)

Albert Zink, PhD, Udo Reischl, PhD, Hans Wolf, MD, PhD, and Andreas G. Nerlich, PhD, MD, "Molecular Evidence of Bacteremia by Gastrointestinal Pathogenic Bacteria in an Infant
Mummy From Ancient Egypt", Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine: Vol. 124, No. 11, pp. 1614-1618.
http://snipurl.com/a3pl


Online BMCR book reviews of
-- Karol Mysliwiec, Eros on the Nile. Translated from the Polish by Geoffrey L. Packer. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. Pp. 180. ISBN 0-8014-4000-9. $28.95.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-10-15.html

-- Uri Yiftach-Firanko, Marriage and Marital Arrangements. A History of the Greek Marriage Document in Egypt. 4th century BCE - 4th century CE. Münchener Beiträge zur Papyrusforschung und antiken Rechtsgeschichte, 93. München: 2003. Pp. 388; pls. 4. ?82.00. ISBN-406-51167-8.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-10-19.html

-- William Adler, Paul Tuffin, The Chronography of George Synkellos: A Byzantine Chronicle of Universal History from the Creation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp.
lxxxviii, 638. ISBN 0-19-924190-2. $135.00.
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/bmcr/2004/2004-10-27.html
[Syncellus is a source of several dynastic lists - see Waddell's edition of Manetho]


Homo Hobbitus commentary 'What does it mean to be human?'

Anthropologist Desmond Morris suggested the discovery of a human "hobbit" on Flores would force many religions to examine their basic beliefs. The suggestion provoked quite a reaction.

"The existence of 'Mini-Man' should destroy religion", claims Desmond Morris.

I can't help thinking we've been here before. Indeed, Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, still cannot understand why religion survived Darwin.

Yet as science progresses, despite the decline of allegiance to traditional Christian churches in Western Europe, religion continues to grow world-wide in many different forms.

We see no real reason why this particular find should upset any apple carts. After all, it's not like proto-humans were a purely theoretical concept up until this point. The only salient feature of this find is its proximity in time, which, in effect, makes it little different from the controversies surrounding Neanderthals, with the exception that these seem to have rather more primitive features than Neanderthals.

Probably spotty blogging for the first few days this week. We'll have last week's EEF news up shortly though. We've been trying to track down some controversy regarding the Homo floresiensis we've been hearing through the grapevine, but haven't come up with anything yet. There are also rumors about native Florensians telling stories 100 years ago about short, pot-bellied people who didn't speak their own language, but we're dubious of such accounts.

Neat website alert Taxonomic Resources and Expertise Directory (TRED)

Okay, maybe "neat" is stretching it a bit. Nonetheless, it would be a great resource for those looking for information on specific taxa or locations. For example, if you enter Prince Edward island as the area of Geographic Expertise, you get several contacts who are experts in that area along with specific taxonomic areas of expertise for each, and contact information.

Well, tell us what it is!!!! Mystery behind Roopkund Lake unearthed

The Roopkund riddle, dating back to the 9th century AD, that haunted scientists, historians and mountaineers from around the world for many years, has finally been cracked. The National Geographic Channel with the help of scientists and anthropologists from India and abroad has cleared many theories and myths surrounding the age-old tragedy.

It all started in 1942, when a forest ranger accidentally unearthed a mass grave in Roopkund Lake, an area 16,000 feet above sea level in Uttaranchal. With hundreds of skeletons strewn on the slopes of the Himalayas this colossal tragedy shook people worldwide.

Grrrr. Mostly an ad for an upcoming National Geographic special. They never say what the answer to this great mystery is, but note that it will be broadcast on the Nat. Geo. Channel November 9, 2004 at 10 pm.

Shake your booty over ancient booty Is Goldiggers hiding proof of castle myth?

EXPERTS are a step nearer solving the mystery of an ancient castle hidden underneath Chippenham town centre, which has baffled experts for two centuries.

Archaeologists have completed their first search for the 900-year-old remains of a medieval fort believed to lie beneath the former Goldiggers nightclub.

The castle has lived in legend for 200 years, since Victorian archaeologists discovered a medieval mound on Timber Street, raising questions about the origin of the town.

Last week an evaluation dig by Wiltshire County Council archaeologists ahead of the proposed demolition of Goldiggers found undisturbed soil and a pot dating back to the 1600s, raising the possibility of the myth becoming a reality.

More mummies in Egypt Ancient tomb containing 6 mummies unearthed in new valley

The French archaeological mission operating in the Al-Deir area in the Kharga oasis unearthed a Ptolemaic-era tomb containing six complete mummies and two limestone sarcophagi.

A source from the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) Saturday said that large parts of a funerary bed emblazoned with numerous painted shapes with palm-fibre rug beside it were found for the first time inside this discovered tomb.