Remote sensing update NASA, UNH Scientists Uncover Lost Maya Ruins – from Space

Remains of the ancient Maya culture, mysteriously destroyed at the height of its reign in the ninth century, have been hidden in the rainforests of Central America for more than 1,000 years. Now, NASA and University of New Hampshire scientists are using space- and aircraft-based "remote-sensing" technology to uncover those ruins, using the chemical signature of the civilization's ancient building materials.

NASA archaeologist Tom Sever and scientist Dan Irwin, both from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are teaming with William Saturno, an archaeologist at the University of New Hampshire, to locate the ruins of the ancient culture. Saturno discovered the oldest known intact Maya mural at the site in 2001.

“From the air, everything but the tops of very few surviving pyramids are hidden by the tree canopy," said Sever, widely recognized for two decades as a pioneer in the use of aerospace remote-sensing for archaeology. "On the ground, the 60- to 100-foot trees and dense undergrowth can obscure objects as close as 10 feet away. Explorers can stumble right through an ancient city that once housed thousands – and never even realize it.”

Basicaly, the limestone they used to build their cities disintegrated over time and changed the chemistry and drainage of the soil creating different vegetation from the surrounding areas. Hey, maybe this could be used to identify shell middens. . . .

This just in Karima Adebibe as the new Lara Croft

Karima Adebibe, 20 years old from London who has been chosen as the new international face of 'Lara Croft' action hero, poses for the media in London, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2006. Karima was chosen from thousands of hopefuls, and will now embark on a gruelling training programme to prepare her for the role.

Alrighty then.

Not sure what she is going to actually do, but probably sort of a spokesmodel who goes to gaming conventions and what-not, rather than taking over the movie role from Angelina Jolie.

First Scarlett Johannsen, then Josh Bernstein, now Karima Adebibe. Archaeology departments worldwide are going to have their doors busted in by young, attractive undergraduates wanting desperately to study archaeology.

Thanks to Nick at The Perfect World.

Early California: A killing field

When explorers and pioneers visited California in the 1700s and early 1800s, they were astonished by the abundance of birds, elk, deer, marine mammals, and other wildlife they encountered. Since then, people assumed such faunal wealth represented California's natural condition – a product of Native Americans' living in harmony with the wildlife and the land and used it as the baseline for measuring modern environmental damage.


The news release below is a story by University of Utah Public Relations science writer Lee Siegel, published this month in the spring 2006 issue of Continuum, the magazine of the University of Utah.

That assumption now is collapsing because University of Utah archaeologist Jack M. Broughton spent seven years – from 1997 to 2004 – painstakingly picking through 5,736 bird bones found in an ancient Native American garbage dump on the shores of San Francisco Bay. He determined the species of every bone, or, when that wasn't possible, at least the family, and used the bones to reconstruct a portrait of human bird-hunting behavior spanning 1,900 years.

. . .

Broughton says his study challenges "a common perception about ancient Native Americans as healthy, happy people living in harmony with the environment. That clearly was not always the case. Depending on when and where you look back in time, native peoples were either living in harmony with nature or eating their way through a vast array of large-sized, attractive prey species."

Interestingly, this research (and it's been going on for a while) hasn't attracted (that I know of) quite the controversy surrounding other findings that can cast aboriginal groups in a negative light, such as cannibalism in the southwest. This will undoubtedly attract some of that sort of attention. It will no doubt also provide some, at least rhetorical, support for the Overkill Hypothesis of late Pleistocene megafauna extinctions.

Our graduate student careers intersected for a time at the University of Washington. See Jack's page at the U of Utah. My God, he still looks exactly the same as he did then! Outlines of some of his research are here and also his list of publications which documents the type of foraging models he works with.

More battlefield archaeology West Columbia dig uncovers mysteries, but not right ones

An archaeological dig in one of Texas' oldest cemeteries Saturday failed to find the mass graves of 248 Mexican War soldiers that local lore has long said were buried there.

The dig did, however, uncover some other historical mysteries.

"I knew we would find some answers," said Texas A&M archaeologist Alston Thoms, "and I was fairly sure they wouldn't be the answers we were looking for."

U of Minnesota professor investigates ancient battlefield

In the year 9 CE, three Roman legions, 15,000 troops in total, were attacked and destroyed by German tribespeople in the Teutoberg Forest. Despite its relatively recent discovery, this battlefield is on its way to becoming the best-researched ancient battle site in the world, according to Peter S. Wells.

In his Feb. 3 lecture, Wells, a professor at the University of Minnesota, informed students of the details of this particular military encounter, as well as some techniques used in analysing ancient battlefields. The author of The Battle That Stopped Rome, Wells received his BA and PhD from Harvard University, and his MA from the University of Tübingen. He was introduced as “one of the real giants of Roman archaeology.”

The cause of the ancient defeat: underestimation of other cultural groups, in particular the cultures of barbarian groups, according to Wells, who explained the lesson to be learned.

VK update Archaeologist Digs A Path For Home

Broughshane archaeologist Alistair Dickey, one of the team that has discovered a 3,000 year old tomb in the Valley of the Kings, is coming home to Northern Ireland. Because of other pre-arranged commitments he is having to leave the history-making dig, which has uncovered the first major find in that region since the 1922 discovery of that of King Tutankhamin's last resting place.

It was, he said, both very exciting and very surreal. The 26-year-old Co Antrim man said yesterday that while he is unable to stay along with the team from the University of Memphis, he will be keeping a close eye on developments, particularly as more incredible discoveries could take place over the coming weeks at the site of the dig in Egypt which has unearthed five mummies with painted funeral masks. Mr Dickey said that they were found in an undecorated single chamber tomb, but that the door is only partially open at present. The team is currently clearing rubble at the foot of the shaft and when that is completed the door will then be fully opened. The top priority then will be searching for hieroglyphs that could identify those who were buried there.

That's the whole thing.

Dead Sea Scrolls update Touching our ancient past

Over a year ago we began to see the attractive billboards along our highways: The Dead Sea Scrolls are coming to Charlotte. It was true. Charlotte's Discovery Place had been chosen over many competitors to host this new historic exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Why are the Dead Sea Scrolls causing such a stir in the Charlotte area? Why do hundreds of thousands of us sense some kind of connection with them?

In the last few months I regularly have given lectures in churches and synagogues scattered around the city that have drawn crowds of 300, 500, even 800. My topic: What do the Dead Sea Scrolls mean to us today?

The Biblical Archaeology Society has planned a seminar here in March, and it is filling up. World-class scholars are flying to Charlotte to lecture as part of the Discovery Place Dead Sea Scroll program during the 100-day exhibit. Busloads of visitors are coming from all over the country.

This is the year for tombs Greek tomb find excites experts

The tomb is thought to be from the time of Alexander the Great
Archaeologists in Greece say they are examining the largest underground tomb ever found in the country.

They said a farmer had stumbled across the tomb carved into the rock near the ancient city of Pella, the birthplace of Alexander the Great.

Archaeologists believe it dates to the period after Alexander's death, which was marked by mass power struggles.

The tomb was probably used by a noble family about 2,300 years ago - some of whose names are still visible.

Archaeologists said that the eight-chambered tomb was significant in style. It is accessible through a 16-metre entrance.

Also see here.

And still more from Reuters.

And CNN.

How do you spell relief? Methane burps disproved?

Methane escaping from the sea floor to the atmosphere has been a popular suspect for causing rapid climate changes during and at the end of the last ice age. But new data derived from a Greenland ice core have delivered a killer blow to the idea.

Methane (CH4) is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. It is usually released from swamps or through biomass burning. But it is also trapped in huge amounts in some ocean-floor sediments, where it lies buried in a strange kind of ice known as 'methane clathrate'. These clathrates are stable only within a certain range of temperatures and pressures; when brought to the surface, they melt rapidly and release burnable gas to the air.

A catastrophic release of trillions of tonnes of methane is thought to have triggered a temperature jump some 55 million years ago in an already warm climate at the Palaeocene/Eocene boundary (see 'Gas leak!'). But some scientists suspect that similar methane bursts, triggered perhaps by submarine landslides, sea-level drops or changes in water temperature, may also have caused a number of rapid warming episodes during and at the end of the last glacial period.

There are other jokes that could be made here.

But then, you knew that.

Bronze Age mourners used flowers

The practice of placing floral tributes on graves may date back 4,000 years, research in west Wales suggests.

Archaeologists have been examining a Bronze Age burial mound on the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire.

As well as analysing cremated bone, an urn and flint tools found in a cist, tests on soil taken from around the site found microscopic pollen grains.

Researchers believe it paints a new picture of ancient burial rituals - more tender than previously thought.

And another mystery! Can genes unravel
a Viking mystery?

The grave of a mysterious Viking queen may hold the key to a 1,200-year-old case of suspected ritual killing, and scientists are planning to unearth her bones to find out.

She is one of two women whose fate has been a riddle ever since their bones were found in 1904 in a 72-foot (22-meter) longboat buried at Oseberg in south Norway, its oaken form preserved miraculously, with even its menacing, curling prow intact.

No one even knows the name of the queen, but the Oseberg boat stirred one of the archaeological sensations of the 20th century two decades before the discovery of the tomb of Egypt’s Pharaoh Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings.

It's a pretty good article.

A long-standing mystery Digging deep for a clue to a global mystery

For more than two decades, Yang Shoukai had hoarded his secret, unsure what to do with a possible clue to one of China's most baffling mysteries.

As construction supervisor on the site of an abandoned U.S. military barracks in Tianjin in 1982, he had discovered a strange cement box in the basement of the old wartime barracks. He tried to dig it up, but lacked the proper tools, and the box was buried under a new medical laboratory.

Mr. Yang, now retired and in poor health, is convinced that the box contains a 500,000-year-old archeological treasure that China has hunted for in vain since the Second World War: the missing skulls of Peking Man, one of the most famous links in the evolution of prehistoric humans.

A tiny paradise slips away

Rome's tiny Non-Catholic Cemetery possibly contains the highest density of famous and important bones anywhere in the world, the cramped final resting place of the poets Shelley and Keats, dozens of diplomats, the Bulgari family, Goethe's only son, and Antonio Gramsci, a founding father of European Communism, to name a few.

The site, also widely known as the Protestant Cemetery, although it contains the graves of Jews and other non-Christians, is also the oldest burial ground in continuous use in Europe, conservationists say.

. . .

But today, this precious bit of paradise is decaying and in financial crisis, recently added to the World Monument Fund's 2006 Watch List of the 100 most endangered sites on earth. Many of its important monuments are crumbling like the bones they mark, damaged by pollution and years without archeological maintenance. The landscape is overgrown, waterlogged by poor drainage.

Peterborough’s earliest people

Leading archaeologist Dr Francis Pryor will officially open Peterborough Museum’s new-look archaeology gallery featuring ‘Peterborough’s First People’ on 11 February at 2pm.

Dr Pryor, who discovered the internationally important Flag Fen Bronze Age site in Peterborough, gained national recognition for his television appearances on 'Time Team' and as presenter of the 'Britain BC' and 'Britain AD' series.

The Museum's archaeology gallery has undergone a one-year refurbishment financed by English Heritage, the Esme Fairbairn Trust, the Garfield Weston Foundation and the Friends of Peterborough Museum.

Archaeologists dig not so deep for buried town

Cast your minds back to 1804 when Lieut-Col. William Paterson led four ships carrying more than 200 convicts, soldiers, women and children to a place that he named York Town.

The West Tamar Historical Society is now conducting tours of the site, near Beaconsfield.

It is the fourth- oldest settlement site in Australia, which tour guide John Dent said was often forgotten.

"We know a lot about Sydney, Norfolk Island and Hobart, but not a lot about York Town," he said.

New 18th Dynasty tomb update

Obviously, there's a lot of stories coming out about this one. From all the reports, it's not going to turn out to be another exceptionally rich Tutankhamun-type thing. There are several small, uninscribed tombs in the VK (see Don Ryan's work, for example) that were probably meant to contain court officials and the like. Here's a roundup of some stories sent over the EEF:

A clear press report, with a brief interview with Patricia Podzorski, curator of Egyptian Art at the University of Memphis:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4700032.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4702060.stm

Note the map with find-spot and close-up photos of jars and coffin face.

Slideshow with photos also at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11252094/

And at
http://snipurl.com/mfjt

With close-up photo of coffins and a photo of Otto Schaden.
Also good photos of the discovered Amenhotep III head (see EEFNEWS 392), curiously mixed in with the tomb find.

Edwin Brock, co-director of the University of Memphis team, says "I don't think it's a royal tomb, maybe members of the court."
"Contemporaries of Tutankhamun are possible - or of Amunhotep III or even Horemheb," he said. Based on their style, the jars appear to date to the late 18th Dynasty:
http://snipurl.com/mfja

"It could be the gardener," Schaden joked to Hawass at he site. "But it's somebody who had the favor of the king because not everybody could come and make their tomb in the Valley of the Kings."
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=3734


University of Memphis press release, mainly containing information about the team/expedition (rather than the find):
http://www.memphis.edu/releases/feb06/kv10.htm


Two other reports:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_technology/article344496.ece

"The large storage jars [are] sealed with pharaonic seals,
according to Zahi Hawass. (..) The tomb is rectangular, and
the wooden sarcophagi are surrounded by the jars, which seem
to have been placed haphazardly, suggesting that the burial had
been completed quickly, according to Dr Hawass".
Some details of how the tomb was found are given.
"Some time ago a British team did remote sensing around
the tomb and said they thought there might be something
down there," said Dr Podvorzski [which refers to
http://www.ldolphin.org/egypt/egypt2/index.html ]
"The fact that the tomb contains a single chamber likely means it was
meant for only one mummy, Weeks said. More likely is that the
tomb was used as a storeroom for sarcophagi moved from
other tombs later -- either by priests to protect them from thieves,
or by thieves to stash before removing them completely. The
jars, he said, appear to be meat jars for food offerings."
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/02/09/egypt.new.tomb.ap/index.html


So, apparently, only the coffins and some offering jars are in there. There could be interesting items within the coffins, of course, and hopefully some texts.

Breaking news This actually started coming in yesterday, but the articles on it were too short to be of any use:

Intact tomb found in Egypt's Valley of the Kings

An American team has found what appears to be an intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first found in the valley since that of Tutankhamun in 1922, one of the archaeologists said on Thursday.

The tomb contains five or six mummies in intact sarcophagi from the late 18th dynasty, about the same period as Tutankhamun, but the archaeologists have not yet had the time or the access to identify them, the archaeologist added.

The 18th dynasty ruled Egypt from 1567 BC to 1320 BC, a period during which the country's power reached a peak.

The Valley of the Kings in southern Egypt contains the tombs of most of the pharaohs of the time but the archaeologist said the mummies in the newly found tomb need not be royal.

"There are lots of non-royal tombs in the valley. It wouldn't be the only one by any means," said the archaeologist, who asked not to be named because the Egyptian authorities are planning a media event at the site on Friday.

Aayko Eyma (EEF) added this to the email with the above link:

Moreover (with thanks to John Wall), the team that made the discovery is the one that is working at the tomb of Amenmesse http://www.kv-10.com/
So the new tomb/shaft must be near there. Perhaps below the workmen's huts mentioned here:
http://www.kv-10.com/tomb_diagram.htm

Stay tuned. . . . .

Possibly major big news New analysis shows three human migrations out of Africa

A new, more robust analysis of recently derived human gene trees by Alan R. Templeton, Ph.D, of Washington University in St Louis, shows three distinct major waves of human migration out of Africa instead of just two, and statistically refutes — strongly — the 'Out of Africa' replacement theory.

That theory holds that populations of Homo sapiens left Africa 100,000 years ago and wiped out existing populations of humans. Templeton has shown that the African populations interbred with the Eurasian populations — thus, making love, not war.
*Homo sapiens*: 'Out of Africa' three distinct times, new analysis shows
Homo sapiens: 'Out of Africa' three distinct times, new analysis shows

"The 'Out of Africa' replacement theory has always been a big controversy," Templeton said. "I set up a null hypothesis and the program rejected that hypothesis using the new data with a probability level of 10 to the minus 17th. In science, you don't get any more conclusive than that. It says that the hypothesis of no interbreeding is so grossly incompatible with the data, that you can reject it."

No comments from other researchers in this article so it's difficult to judge how this is being received. No doubt this will receive more coverage in the coming weeks.

Book corner UT Body Farm prof writes tale suitable for 'CSI'

Bill Bass reads bones as easy as most folks read the morning paper.

The man, who has shaken the skeletal hands of death a thousand times, founded the University of Tennessee's Anthropology Research Facility, better known as the Body Farm, in Knoxville.

Now, he and Jon Jefferson have written a mystery novel, using the pen name of Jefferson Bass, so that readers can see just how many clues are left behind in the skeleton of a murder victim.

This is probably worth a read, if you're into fiction and have some time. Aaron Elkins wrote several novels based on a forensic anthropolgist. Gideon Oliver was the main character's name. I believe it was also a short-lived movie series at one time as well, starring Louis Gossett. No idea if this is any good, but at least the science ought to be well-founded.

Also in Italy
Archaeologists Unearth Headless Sphinx

Archaeologists who have been digging for more than a year at the villa of Roman Emperor Hadrian in Tivoli have unearthed a monumental staircase, a statue of an athlete and what appears to be a headless sphinx.

The findings were presented Tuesday by government officials who described the discoveries as extremely important for understanding the layout of the ruins. The staircase is believed to be the original entrance to the villa, which was built for Hadrian in the 2nd century A.D.

So far, 15 steps, each 27 feet wide, have been identified and archaeologists did not rule out uncovering more.

Officials said that the newly uncovered area of the site, northeast of Rome, would be open to the public within a year.

That's the whole thing.

More tombs in Rome Tomb of Prehistoric Leader Unearthed in Modern Rome

The ashes of an ancient chief or priest who lived three centuries before the legendary founding of Rome have been unearthed in the heart of the city, archaeologists report.

The remains were discovered late January inside a funerary urn at the bottom of a deep pit, along with bowls and jars, all encased in a hutlike box.

The artifacts date to about 1000 B.C. The size and richness of the tomb suggest that the ashes are the remains of a high-ranking individual, said the researchers who made the discovery.

A team of archaeologists with the Department of Cultural Heritage of the Rome Municipality discovered the prehistoric tomb under the sprawling ruins of ancient imperial forums that still lie in the center of modern Rome. (See photos of Rome.)

Between 1999 and 2000 the researchers had found two smaller, barer graves near this latest pit that date to the same period.

Apparently more stuff from earlier reports on tombs under the Forum.

Make that pre-historic French caver makes historic find

A French caver has discovered prehistoric cave art believed to date back 27,000 years - older than the famous Lascaux paintings.

Gerard Jourdy, 63, said he found human and animal remains in the chamber in the Vilhonneur forest, in caves once used to dispose of animal carcasses.

The paintings included a hand in cobalt blue, he told AFP news agency.

The discovery was made in November, but kept secret while initial examinations were carried out.

Good idea keeping the location secret.

Another amazing psychic feat Human skeletons found at falls

A week after a psychic investigation of the 20-year-old unsolved murder of Luana Williams was aired on television, police yesterday took two archaeologists to examine skeletal remains discovered at the reserve.

In TV2 show Sensing Murder, three psychics independently identified a spot at the falls as the burial site of Williams.

The Tauranga woman disappeared without trace from her Gate Pa home on June 5, 1986. Her body has never been found.

A man phoned police the day after the show screened, saying he knew of a skull at the falls.

But his discovery was kilometres away from the spot the pyschics were drawn to - at the top lake end of McLaren Falls.

They weren't the bones of the person in question and they were miles away from the site the "psychic" said. This virtually guarantees that this will be a celebrated success story in the psychic world for years to come.

Lost civilization village. . . .found Ancient village found in China

Four well-preserved residences in an ancient village, probably submerged by a flood, have been unearthed in central China, providing an insight into rural life about 2,000 years ago, archaeologists said.

The village in Neihuang county, Henan province, belongs to the late western Han dynasty (206 BC - AD25), director of the Henan provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, Sun Xinmin said.

"With the excavation, archaeologists are able to map out the layout of the ancient village and the architecture of village residences in the western Han dynasty for the first time," Sun said.

Breaking news Part of colossus found near Luxor

A German expedition has unearthed part of a colossal statue of an XVIII dynasty pharaoh. Minister of Culture Farouq Hosni said that "the red granite head and shoulders of Amenihotep III (1390-1352 BC) were unearthed in the pharaoh's temple area at Kom el-Hetan on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor."

Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawass said that "The one-metre, high bust is in good condition' except for a slight crack on the right side." For her part, the leader of the German team described the bust as "the best portrait of King Amerihotep III that has over been found.

The team is led by Hourig Sourouzian (via EEF).

Rising water threatens great temples of Egypt

Some of the world's most precious archaeological treasures - the ancient Egyptian tombs and temples at Luxor - are being devastated by salt water that is eating their foundations, scientists have discovered.
The temples of Amun, Luxor and Karnak, designated World Heritage Sites, have survived 4,000 years of arid desert heat but are now being destroyed by rising ground water.

The threat has been uncovered by American Egyptologists, who have warned that urgent action is now needed. Their view has been backed by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. 'When I found out the Temple of Luxor and the Temple of Karnak were going to completely fall apart because of the rising water table, I was shocked,' Hawass said in an interview in Science.

Well. Not exactly news since all of this has been discussed in depth for years.

Mystery solv-ed BBC history team solves riddle of Llywelyn

One of the last great mysteries of the history of the independent Welsh nation was apparently solved yesterday by a group of English historians working for the BBC.

For centuries, people living in and around the chicken farm called Pen y Bryn on top of a hill overlooking the Menai Straits in Caernarvonshire have been convinced that it is a royal place.

More than that, they all firmly believed that the 36-acre farm was the last remnant of the palace of Llywelyn, the first and last prince of a "free" Wales, who died in 1282.

But Cadw, the Welsh equivalent of English Heritage, says it has found traces of a medieval house about 400 yards away, near to a Norman motte, or defensive mound, that is the real site of the palace.

Kennewick update Researcher seeks secrets of Kennewick Man

Milwaukee Journal SentinelMILWAUKEE - Ground to the bone, the teeth of the famous fossil skeleton, Kennewick Man, look as if they've spent a lifetime gnashing rocks.

But it's from these worn choppers that Thomas Stafford Jr., a research fellow in the department of geology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and president of Stafford Research Laboratories in Boulder, Colo., plans to learn about the origins, movement and lifestyle of this highly controversial, 9,000-year-old North American.

In 1996, Kennewick Man was discovered on the banks of the Columbia River near Kennewick, Wash.
Found by a couple of college students who were hydroplaning along the river, K-Man - as he is fondly called by Stafford - became one of the most notorious and controversial skeletons ever discovered.

Actually a pretty good article explaining what they'll be doing and why. The same techniques were used on Otzi the Ice Man te determine where was hailed from.

Not that kind of tongue Ancient Tongue Linked to Aztec Past

For 15 years, David Vazquez has awakened each morning at 5:30 to clean the pews and the patio at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah in Santa Ana.

His wife, Rosa, brings him lunch. When the musicians don't show up on Sundays for the Spanish-language service, Vazquez plays the guitar. For Good Friday, he weaves religious figures out of palm leaves and makes church decorations for Day of the Dead.

But what has attracted attention among Mexican Americans seeking to learn more about their heritage is his second, unpaid job. He teaches his native Nahuatl, a language spoken by the Aztecs and still spoken in parts of central Mexico.

Good show.

Scholars to explore protocol for defending cultural heritage

As the plundering of artifacts continues in Iraq, the work that University scholars and others have done to protect them will be the focus of a conference titled, “Protecting Cultural Heritage: International Law after the War in Iraq.”

The conference, which will take place at 3 p.m., Friday, Feb. 3, in the Weymouth Kirkland Courtroom at the Law School, will examine shortcomings in the international legal framework built over the last century to prevent looting and destruction of cultural property in times of war. McGuire Gibson, Professor in the Oriental Institute, as well as other academics, called international attention to the pillaging of Iraq’s National Museum in the early weeks of the war in Iraq. They also drew attention to the plundering at archaeological sites throughout the country that took place as a result of the war.

Good idea to bring the issue front and center but, you know, everywhere is being systematically looted. We can't even control it here.

Old news? Tutankhamen dead of knee infection

Egyptian boy Pharaoh King Tutankhamen whose death has intrigued
archaeologists, historians and medical experts alike, through three millenniums,
seems to have died of infection from a wound in his left knee.

Eduard Egarter Vigl, caretaker of Ötzi the Iceman, and Paul Gostner, head of
radiology at Bolzano General Hospital, members of the Egyptian-led research team
that conducted study on the Pharaoh’s CT scan images said Tutankhamen suffered
from a deadly infectious disease in his left knee.

Three dimensional examination of the images of the left knee and foot revealed
that Tutankhamen’s kneecap as well as his left foot was broken, and the
embalming liquid had entered spaces within the knee fracture, a clear sign that
the pharaoh was mummified when the wounds were still open.

Politics at ArchaeoBlog Leave archaeology to the archaeologists

HB139 is working its way through committee in the Utah Legislature.
The archaeological and cultural conservation communities in this state hold
grave concerns about the potential ramifications if this becomes law.
Among the alarming results of the bill would be to deteriorate the quality of
science performed on state lands by transferring authority to the Public Lands
Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO) that is currently held by the antiquities
section of the Division of State History.
As I sat down to write this, I contemplated the audience I was speaking to,
and the one I hoped to reach. I had considered visiting how cultural
preservation and the state's archaeological resources benefit the state
financially through tourism and visitation. I could have listed myriad fiduciary
benefits of this resource, and the detrimental impacts of this legislation.

This is an opinion piece on some legislation in Utah that removes some authority
on land use restrictions.

Now that ArchaeoBlog has entered the political realm, I fully expect the hit
count to go through the roof and have hundreds of emails per day accusing me of
being a *&%$@%$ shill for the $(^$@^ [insert interest group here].

News article here.

And more controversy! Archaeologist stands by rock art book

A Kimberley archaeologist involved in the research for a
controversial book on the northern Western Australian region's rock art has
defended the publication.

Lee Scott Virtue guided author Ian Wilson to rock art sites while he was
researching his book Lost World of the Kimberley, which provides theories on the
Gwion Gwion paintings, also known as "Bradshaws".

The author has been criticised by the Kimberley Land Council and traditional
owner Donny Woolagoodja for not consulting native title holders.

Archaeologial studmuffin corner

Yes, you read that right. I anxiously await the coming apocalypse at having put
those two words together in a sentence. Well, strictly speaking, I suppose
Indiana Jones and perhaps even Alan Quatermain (sp) could be conceived of as
'studmuffins'. . . .but I digress. Leave it to say that when most people think
of archaeologists the first thing that leaps to mind is Harrison Ford. The
second thing that leaps to mind is. . . .well, probably someone with a beard and
jeans and something of a pot belly showing us this EXCITING ARTIFACT HE'S JUST
FOUND that most people would think of as kind of a neat little arrowhead.

But now there's Josh Bernstein:
WIDTH=250>

Chatty Host Who Makes Archaeology Glamorous

An Ivy-League educated guy who grew up on the Upper East Side would not necessarily seem to fit the bill to be the next Indiana Jones. But Josh Bernstein, the chatty, photogenic host of "Digging for the Truth" on the History Channel could be the best thing for archaeology's image since Harrison Ford cocked his hat and starred in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Mr. Bernstein's show is the channel's highest-rated series, bringing younger viewers to a network whose average armchair adventurer is 50-something. Beginning today, there will even be a comic-book promotion for the show featuring Mr. Bernstein as a superhero.

The 34-year-old Mr. Bernstein, who is also the president of a wilderness survival school, is back for the second season of "Digging," which is broadcast on Monday nights at 9. The show takes viewers to archaeological sites all over the world — searching for the Ark of the Covenant in Ethiopia or the Holy Grail in southern France.

I was going to blog about this program because I watched the one last night
about the mound builders. Based on that one, I was a bit disappointed because I
thought it sacrificed information for cool camera shots of Josh trudging through
the woods, Josh scuba diving, and Josh paragliding. These aren't bad things
necessarily, since they allow us to live it vicariously through the host. But
still, there is a lot that these scenes could add other than lots of cool but
MTV-jerky camera shots.

It seems to be quite popular, and a studly host can't help but project a good
image on the profession. Plus it's obvious he's not an airhead, which is a plus.

You know, I really tried, but could not find any more suitably beefcake pictures
of young Josh to put up to get a bit more traffic from all those lust-crazed
female fans out there. Josh, if you're reading this, send a couple of those
pictures WE KNOW YOU HAVE SOMEWHERE that you just did for money back in college.
*nudge nudge wink wink* Say no more.

Interesting non-archaeology story du jour Pity the Scientist Who Discovers the Discovered

IN 1996, Rakesh Vohra, a professor at Northwestern University, and his colleague Dean Foster published "A Randomized Rule for Selecting Forecasts," a paper in the journal Operations Research. It illustrated how a random investor could outperform a group of professional stock pickers simply by following a "buy and hold" investment strategy.

It was important research, the authors believed, until they learned that the same discovery had been made at least 16 times since the 1950's.

I would guess this doesn't happen in archaeology that often, at least I've never heard of it before. One would think it would be rare because we're generally a site-specific bunch and it's pretty obvious when the site you're working on has been dug before. Since, you know, ancient peoples probably didn't dig square holes and put all the dirt from them into a few piles close by that often. Even lit reviews that cover the same topic can generally be said to bring a different perspective on things.

New blog update Well, probably not "new", but reader Roberto Bustamante sent along a link to his blog, ArchaeoMorsa about Peruvian archaeology. My Espanol is pretty rough, but check it out anyway.

Treasure! Archaeologist vindicated in hunch on antique silver hoard

Malcolm Bell III, an archaeology professor at the University of Virginia, was walking through the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York one spring day in 1987 when his eye caught a display of two small silver horns, dated to the third century B.C.

As chief archaeologist at an excavation at Morgantina, site of an ancient Greek colony in eastern Sicily, Bell had heard whispered reports that two such horns had been looted from the site in the early 1980s. "They had to be the same," he recalled in an interview on Dec. 1. "I just put two and two together."

Seventeen years later, his hunch has been proved right. The Metropolitan Museum has offered to return 15 pieces of Hellenistic silver, including the horns, to Italy, where government officials for years have charged that the set was stolen.

A good outcome for one of these disputes for a change.

But then there's this.

Greek ship update Ancient Greek Merchant Ship Found

Photographs taken by an undersea robot are providing the first public glimpse of a wrecked ancient Greek merchant ship loaded with olive oil and wine that probably capsized in a sudden gust of wind off the coast of the island of Chios in the fourth century B.C.

The images represent a breakthrough in underwater technology since the exploration of the Titanic; the robot photographer in this case was fully autonomous, according to a recent MIT press release.

Scientists program the robot, called "SeaBED," with missions that can be changed via an acoustic modem once the robot is launched.

It's got more detail than the earlier story, and some pictures.

Also see here.

Huh? Italy's iceman a sterile outcast?

New DNA analysis shows that a 5,000-year-old mummy found frozen in the Italian Alps may have been sterile -- a hypothesis that would support the theory that he may have been a social outcast, officials said Friday.

Franco Rollo, an anthropologist and ancient DNA specialist, also determined that the man's genetic makeup belonged to one of the eight basic groups of DNA occurring in Europe, although his particular DNA belonged to a subgroup that has been identified for the first time, officials said.

No very detailed (or long) so it's impossible to tell just where this conclusion came from. Seems a ittle weird, but maybe once more info becomes available it will make sense.

Remote sensing update A Modern Survey of Ancient Ruins

Laser surveying instruments (e.g., terrestrial light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and high-density survey (HDS) instruments) are increasingly becoming valued tools for geospatial professionals. They can quickly provide a dense set of 3-D data points that can be used to characterize buildings, engineering features and areas.

. . .

This feature discusses the use of an Optech ILRIS 3-D scanner in a challenging situation, a high-density survey of Machu Picchu, the famous Peruvian archaeological site. In summer 2005, with National Science Foundation support, researchers conducted an initial HDS at two World Heritage sites, Tiwanaku, Bolivia, and Machu Picchu, Peru, but this article discusses only the work at Machu Picchu.

Moderately technical article on aser range scanning. For anyone unfamiliar with the technique, this provides a good overview.

Bronze Age man's burial site unearthed

Human remains dating back almost 4,000 years have been uncovered on Rathlin Island off the County Antrim coast.

Senior archaeologists are investigating the remains of a man who could have been buried in the Bronze Age.

The skeleton was found in a crouched foetal-like position, which would indicate a cist burial in about 2000 BC.

The body was accompanied by a food vessel. The remains were uncovered on Monday on the north coast, close to Rathlin Island's only pub, during work.

Greek archaeologists unearth ancient city fortifications on Crete

Greek archaeologists have unearthed the fortifications of a 2,350-year-old city marked by extensive signs of siege on the southern island of Crete, officials said on Wednesday.

The archaeologists discovered the remains of a fortified tower, a city gate and a 3.5-kilometer (2.2-mile) wall surrounding the ancient city of Aptera, near the northwestern town of Chania and dating from the mid-fourth century BC, the culture ministry said in a statement.

The remains of weapons and sling bullets have also been discovered in the vicinity, in addition to funeral monuments, vessels, coins and oil lamps.

Short article.

Also from Crete Update 1: Roman-Era Benefactors' Tomb Unearthed

A well-preserved underground tomb belonging to a prominent Roman-era family has been unearthed on the island of Crete, archaeologists said Wednesday.

The large first or second century A.D. structure beside one of the main gates to the walled city of Aptera was looted during Christian times, archaeologist Vanna Niniou-Kindeli said.

It still yielded a wealth of finds, including 10-inch pottery statuettes of the ancient Greek love deity Eros, glass and pottery vases and lamps.

Warning, Will Robinson, Greek shipwreck!


Robot spots ancient Greek shipwreck
Vessel laden with wine and oil went down 2,300 years ago

The remains of an ancient Greek cargo ship that sank more than 2,300 years ago have been uncovered with a deep-sea robot, archaeologists announced Thursday.

The ship was carrying hundreds of ceramic jars of wine and olive oil and went down off Chios and the Oinoussai islands in the eastern Aegean Sea sometime around 350 B.C.

Archaeologists speculate that a fire or rough weather may have sunk the ship. The wreckage was found submerged beneath 200 feet (60 meters) of water.

I've commented on this before, but deep sea shipwrecks -- even though this one isn't all that deep -- is the next frontier in archaeology, especially in anoxic conditions.

Bone discovery points to Indian graves

State officials are examining bones found on the site of a new home being built in Onslow County, which they believe may be from an American Indian burial ground.

Workers first found a skull and then enough bones for two people, along with pieces of pottery and part of a pendant made from animal bones. The find was about 10 feet behind the home on Chadwick Bay.

Lawrence Abbott, a state archaeologist, estimates they were buried between the years 600 and 14-hundred.

Abbott says the landowner would be contacted if the bones came from an American Indian site, which would be protected by state law. The remains would be studied by specialists and preserved.

Lord of the Ring: The Return of the Ring Professor returns ring from Lost Colony dig to East Carolina U.

The retired head of East Carolina University's coastal archaeology office has returned to the school a 16th-century ring he found while exploring ties between native people and the doomed English colonists who first tried to settle the Outer Banks.

Experts believe the ring discovered in 1998 by former archaeologist David S. Phelps during his last dig before retiring may offer evidence of early contact between the Indians and the first English colony in the Americas.

Phelps had kept the ring at his Florida home since 2000 along with other artifacts found near Croatan, the only permanent Indian community on the Outer Banks. The site is in Buxton on Hatteras Island.

Artifacts found near library site

Artifacts found during water line work across from the new library site probably should have been reported for evaluation of their significance, said James McConaha, a state historic preservation officer.

He said the city has a memorandum of agreement with the state that requires reporting of any resources found, so their significance can be determined.

If the state finds the artifacts to be of historical significance, it has the authority to temporarily halt the library project.

Good stewardship

Anyone who visits the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde National Park should know about it.

So should any archaeologist who digs on national park land, as well as those who toil in the field of historic preservation.

"It," in this case, is three different anniversaries being marked this year and noted next week during the annual Saving Places conference in Denver sponsored by Colorado Preservation Inc.

The conference, which begins Wednesday, is expected to attract more than 600 people who work in preservation, whether making policy or keeping bricks and mortar together.

Good article.

EEF news

An Egyptological team led by Hourig Sourouzian has discovered
two 18th dyn. statues of Sekhmet (one made of granite, with
only the feet and base missing; of the other, only the black diorite
bust was recovered), plus a red granite head of a statue of a king
the team believes to be a ruler from the Kushite period. The statues
were found at the temple of Amenhotep III in Luxor.
Press reports:
http://snipurl.com/m330
http://snipurl.com/m38j
http://snipurl.com/m38l
Enlarged photo of one of the Sekhmet statues:
http://snipurl.com/m331

On his website, Dr Zahi Hawass dedicates a page to the recent
discovery of the statue of Tiye:
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/articles/discovering_queen_tiye.htm
Nothing new, except for confirming that the late cartouche is that of queen Henuttawi herself (and not of her husband).


Marsia Sfakianou, "Was the function of the earliest writing in
Egypt utilitarian or ceremonial? Does the surviving evidence
reflect the reality?". In PDF, 2.07 MB (28 pp., richly illustrated).
A new student paper at the EEF Library site:
http://www.egiptomania.com/EEF/EEFLibrary.html

Delwen Samuel, "Archaeology of Ancient Egyptian Beer", in:.
Journal of the American Society for Brewing Chemists 54(1),
pp. 3-12. In PDF (634kB).
http://www.asbcnet.org/journal/abstracts/1996/0103-02a.htm
"An archaeological approach to the study of ancient Egyptian
brewing has focused primarily on the desiccated remains of
cereal-based, starchy beer and brewing by-products. The
microstructure of these residues is outstandingly well preserved
and can be studied using scanning electron microscopy. The
state of the starch has been used to determine the ancient
processes used for brewing. Strong evidence for malting
comes from pitted and channeled starch granules present in
most of the beer residues. Gelatinization indicates that cereals
or cereal products were heated while moist, but the degree
of heating and the level of moisture appear to have varied.
Evidence is presented for different possible cereal processing
methods, and the subsequent mixture of products to create
the final beer. Arguments are presented against the traditional
view that ancient Egyptian beer was made from bread and that
dates were a standard ingredient. "

The article I mentioned in the "Literacy of women" thread
is available online (in PDF):
Stephen Houston, John Baines, Jerrold Cooper, "Last Writing:
Script Obsolescence in Egypt, Mesopotamia and Mesoamerica"
(2003)
http://eprints.ouls.ox.ac.uk/archive/00001037/01/houston_2003.pdf

End of EEF news

Note: Starting to revamp the links over to the left there, separating blogs from archaeology-related web sites. Feel free to send emails suggesting either one.

Hello, Journal of Irreproducible Results Japanese Scientists Identify Ear Wax Gene

Earwax may not play a prominent part in human history but at least a small role for it has now been found by a team of Japanese researchers.

Earwax comes in two types, wet and dry. The wet form predominates in Africa and Europe, where 97 percent or more of the people have it, and the dry form among East Asians, while populations of Southern and Central Asia are roughly half and half. By comparing the DNA of Japanese with each type, the researchers were able to identify the gene that controls which type a person has, they report in the Monday issue of Nature Genetics.

They then found that the switch of a single DNA unit in the gene determines whether a person has wet or dry earwax. The gene's role seems to be to export substances out of the cells that secrete earwax. The single DNA change deactivates the gene and, without its contribution, a person has dry earwax.

Okay. . . .

I thought discussing wet and dry earwax was kind of iffy, but then came this: "[E]arwax type and armpit odor are correlated. . ."

Next up: Genes controlling wet or crunchy boogers.

Now, this is cool Warrior Found Buried In Attack Position

Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old skeleton of a man who appears to be clutching a dagger and is posed as though he were about to thrust the weapon into something, or someone, according to a Cultural Heritage News report from Iran.

The unusual burial is the first of its kind for Iran, and possibly for the rest of the world.

"He is holding a 26-centimeter dagger and appears to be making a forward thrust," said archaeologist Ali Mahforuzi, who led the excavation at Gohar Tepe, where the skeleton was found.

Seems like the interpretation could go either way, though the picture does make it look like an unusual sort of burial.

And along those lines. . . A Mammoth Death Match Preserved for the Ages

In the 1960s, workers in western Nebraska stumbled on the intact remains of two giant Ice-Age mammoths, their tusks locked together -- a vestige of the battle that doomed them both. After sitting in storage for decades, the unique fossils will finally go on public display soon.

The fossils were discovered in 1962 in the Nebraska Panhandle, when a pair of workmen stumbled on a large thighbone while installing an electric line on a ranch. That summer, 20-year-old paleontology student Mike Voorhies was in the area working on a fossil dig. After working at the discovery site for a couple of days, Voorhies and his crew realized the men had found the intact remains of not one but two Ice-Age mammoths.

Apparently, they were in the middle of a fight and must have fallen over and been unable to both get up again with their tusks locked together. Bummer of a way to go.

Johor to mount hunt for 'bigfoot'

The government of the Malaysian state of Johor says it is to organise an attempt to track down a legendary ape man reputed to roam its jungles.

After a spate of sightings, Johor's chief minister says he will launch an official search for the beast, dubbed Malaysia's Big Foot by local media.

Malaysians have a long-standing love affair with anything big.

The obsessions resulted in record-breaking buildings, bridges, even piles of food.

Now they have gone crazy for Big Foot, known in local legend as Hantu Jarang Gigi - ghosts with widely spaced teeth.

Back in the late 1980s some people decided they would, if they came across a Bigfoot, shoot it so as to bring back definitive proof of its existence. This caused a flood of letters to the local papers decrying the barbarism of shooting one of these, beautiful, yet strangely, and, apparently, nonexistent, creatures.

Nothing's ever settled Experts clash over demise of the dinosaur

The giant impact that shook the Earth 65 million years ago is still sending out shock waves, triggering a scientific feud over whether the event really killed off the dinosaurs.

Efforts to identify what wiped out the great creatures have been confused by evidence of massive volcanic activity in India at the same time, and a fossil record that suggests the dinosaurs disappeared gradually as the Earth's climate and geology changed over millions of years.

Now a bitter row has broken out on CCNet, a scholarly electronic network, over a paper by Peter Schulte of the Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg and colleagues in the journal Sedimentary Geology: they conclude that two cores drilled in Brazos, Texas, provide new support for the much-loved disaster movie scenario.

I post because it's similar to the post-Pleistocene extinction debate in archaeology. For many, human overkill has become the accepted cause of the megafauna demise while others are far less impressed with the evidence (such as it is).

Sorry about the 2-day delay. Tuesday was both hectic and the start of a nasty little virus, and Wednesday was the continuation of the latter.

The Relative Longevity of Science Frauds

The fabricated evidence on human stem cells published by Hwang Woo-suk and colleagues had a life shorter than two years as scientific fact. In contrast, the infamous hominid remains of Piltdown Man announced in 1912 stood as real for nearly 40 years.

Basically just a recounting of Piltdown in relation to the current fraud over Hwang et al's stem cell work (see links in article). But it also mentions something I'd not been aware of, that Richard Feynman worked on Maya codices.

This might have been posted before Amateur archaeologists make significant contribution to field

Early humans first left Africa on tentative forays into southern Europe more than 1.8 million years ago, but until now it was thought that they didn’t colonize northern Europe until only about a halfmillion years ago.

Two amateur archaeologists in Britain, working with a team of professional scientists, recently discovered flint artifacts that are 700,000 years old, pushing back the date for the human occupation of those northern latitudes more than 200,000 years.

A reporter for the journal Nature, where the discovery was announced, said the team "struck Ice Age gold" and that the seemingly meager haul of 32 small flint chips has "grand implications" for our understanding of human history.

Seems familiar anyway.

Bill Would Limit Archaeologists' Role in Excavations

A bill being considered on Utah's Capitol Hill would sharply limit archeologists in decisions about public lands.

Utah has some of the greatest archaeological sites in the US, if not the world, with everything from dinosaur bones to the settlements of the ancient Fremont and Anazazi tribes. But those sites are often fragile and are protected by both federal and state laws.

When a site is discovered, archaeologists play an important role in decisions about excavating, surveying and recording what's there. Some of those finds sometimes conflict with resource extraction and development. Now, a new bill, House Bill 139, would change the equation handing the oversight of resources from archaeologists to the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. The bill would also lower the standards for the professional archaeologist involved in the process.

First, use a spell- and grammar-checker. Second, This sounds rather like the developers doing the talking.

And related: Past blocks road to the future

The proposed East-West corridor on National Highway 25 has run into a 3,000-year-old road block - the ghost of an ancient civilization. The Jajmau hillocks encasing the relics fall bang in the way of the four-lane Lucknow-Kanpur highway, which is part of the East-West corridor connecting Porbandar in Gujarat and Silchar in the Northeast.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has requested the state archaeology department (SAD) to allow them to cut through the mound, but the department has put its foot down. "How can the remnants of an ancient civilization be crushed under the wheels of a bulldozer," archaeologists have questioned. The NHAI is stumped and fears that it might have to divert the route if the officials stick to their guns.

Hmmmm Archaeologists Discover Possibly First New World Slaves

A team of archaeologists have announced they have found the remains of what they believe was one of the first group of slaves brought to the Americas from Africa. The remains date back to the late-16th, early 17th century.
The remains were found in a graveyard in one of Mexico’s European cities. Testing was carried out on the teeth enamel of the skeletons, which then was used to determine the skeletons’ African origins.
Head researcher T. Douglas Price said: "This is the earliest documentation of the African Diaspora in the New World. It does mean that slaves were brought here almost as soon as Europeans arrived."

Price used to work in northern Europe. How'd he get down to Mexico?
(That's the whole thing)

Medieval graveyard update Archaeologists Uncover One Of Biggest Medieval Graveyards

University of Leicester archaeologists are beginning work on examining the largest discovery of medieval skeletons -- numbering 1,300 -- to be found outside London. The burials are from the graveyard of the lost church of St Peter’s, demolished in 1573 and recently rediscovered.

The skeletons were discovered by a team from University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) working at the site of a former swimming pool- St Margaret’s Baths- which is being redeveloped as part of a £350m Shires shopping centre expansion.

Richard Buckley, Director of ULAS, said the discovery had surpassed his expectations and would provide new insights into medieval life in Leicester.

Tiy statue update

A couple more stories on the head and two others found with it:

Egyptian Statue Met Undignified End

In life, King Tut's grandmother was a powerful woman in ancient Egypt, but after death a monument to her met an undignified end.

A Johns Hopkins University archaeological team found a life-sized statue believed to represent Queen Tiye buried face down under the floor of the sprawling Karnak Temple site in Luxor, the ancient Egyptian royal city.

The statue, which dates to between 1391 and 1352 B.C., was found under the platform of a temple of the goddess Mut, which dates to about 700 B.C. It appears to have been tossed in with rubble used to fill in the floor during that temple's later expansion, said Betsy Bryan, a professor of Egyptian art and archaeology at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

"The reason for using the statue as construction material, however, remains unknown," Bryan said in an e-mail from Egypt.

Ancient Egyptian royal head puzzles archaeologists

A German archaeological mission stumbled on a mystery with the discovery of three partial pharaonic statues in Luxor, Egyptian officials announced on Monday, because one appears to date to a later period than most previous finds at the site.

Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced on Monday the discovery of two statues of Sakhmet, the goddess of war, as well as the head of a member of the royal family, at the temple of Amunhotep III on the west bank of the Nile River in Luxor, 700km south of Cairo.

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.

Lame use of the "xxxxx can dig it" joke, # 18,479 She can dig it

Sutphin says treasures are buried under the city's brownstone neighborhoods.

Amanda Sutphin is not accustomed to being in the limelight. As the chief archaeologist for the city of New York, her days typically involve lots of research, meetings, looking at maps, examining excavation plans and more research. But for the department of archaeology, these are not typical days. Early last month, Sutphin was among the city and MTA officials to announce the discovery of a wall, dating to at least the 18th century, unearthed by workers building the new South Ferry subway station in Battery Park.

Much of the article has to do with the recent wall discovered in Battery Park.

Fight! Fight! A Sunken Warship Sets Off a New Mediterranean Battle

What is probably the world's richest sunken treasure — the Sussex, a British warship that went to the bottom of the Mediterranean in 1694 with a cargo of coins now worth up to $4 billion — has become embroiled in a bitter diplomatic dispute that pits Spain against Britain, the United States and an American company that wants to salvage the wreck.

The conflict turns on arcane and often disputed aspects of international law that govern sovereign waters and the rights of shipwreck owners and finders.

Spain claims the waters, off the coast of Gibraltar. Britain claims the ship, says its decomposing hull rests in the high seas, and has struck a deal with the American company, Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. of Tampa, Fla., to split the recovery's proceeds.

Eh, not really archaeology.

Ancient Papyrus Goes on Display in Turin

It served first as a notebook for ancient painters and then as part of a mummy's wrapping. Now, a first century B.C. parchment believed to contain the earliest cartography of the Greek-Roman era will be on display next month in the northern city of Turin.

The Papyrus of Artemidorus tells a tale of more than 2,000 years of art and culture.

Egyptologist Alessandro Roccati, of the University of Turin, said the parchment was "extraordinary" in that it "conserves direct and ancient testimony that helps reconstruct history." Roccati was not involved in the project.

Using New Methods, Oregon State University Archaeologists Uncover 10,000-Year-Old Coastal

Researchers from Oregon State University have analyzed a second archaeological site on the southern Oregon coast that appears to be about 10,000 years old, and they are hopeful that their newly fine-tuned methodology will lead to the discovery of more and older sites. Results of their study were just published in the journal Radiocarbon.

The site, located on a bluff just south of Bandon, Ore., included a large number of stone flakes, charcoal pieces and fire-cracked rock, according to Roberta Hall, professor emeritus of anthropology at OSU and principal investigator in the study. There also is evidence of a stone hearth, Hall added.

This is the bit describing the new method: The OSU research team . . . developed a model using geologic features, soil type and radiocarbon dating to pinpoint locations most likely to include the oldest sediments. Their theory: these older sediments hold the greatest potential for holding late Pleistocene (older than about 11,000 years) or early Holocene sites.

Which is pretty cool.

New Discoveries in Jiroft May Change History of Civilization

"One of the reasons the archeologists and historians give for Mesopotamia to be the cradle of civilization is that the most ancient historical evidence and relics which have been discovered in Jiroft so far date back to the third millennium BC or nearer, and therefore they argue that this region could not have been the place where civilization began. However, some cultural evidence and ancient artifacts belonging to the fourth millennium BC were traced while digging a trench beneath the Matot Abad cemetery which gave proof to the fact that the history of this region goes back to the sixth millennium BC. Aside from these ancient articles found so far, archeologists were able to unearth a bronze statue of the head of a goat from one of the graves of Jiroft cemetery which raised new questions about the history of this region and whether or not the civilization that lived here is older than that of Mesopotamia," said Yousof Majidzadeh, head of excavation team in Jiroft.

Watch this space for more.

Archaeologists plumb depths of ancient spring

Watching Casey Coy and Rick Gomez prepare to dive into Little Salt Spring is like observing a pilot getting ready for takeoff.

Step by step, the two divers painstakingly review their equipment, instruments and procedures before taking the plunge into the prehistoric underwater site.

They say such meticulousness is imperative: When you're 242 feet underwater, there's no time for mistakes or miscommunication.

Breaking news Archeologists Find Ancient Ship Remains

An American-Italian team of archaeologists has found the remains of 4,000-year-old ships that used to carry cargo between Pharaonic Egypt and the mysterious, exotic land of Punt, the Supreme Council of Antiquities has announced.

The ships' remains were found during a five-year excavation of five caves south of the Red Sea port of Safaga, about 300 miles southeast of Cairo, the chairman of the supreme council, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement late Thursday.

The archaeologists, who came from Boston and East Naples universities, found Pharaonic seals from the era of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III, one of seven rulers of the 11th dynasty, which lasted from about 2133 B.C. to 1991 B.C.. They also found wooden boxes, covered with gypsum, bearing the inscription "Wonders of the land of Punt."

This post by Daniel Goleman is getting a lot of play in and around the blogosphere, thanks to it's linking by the link Santa Instapundit Glenn Reynolds:

The Internet inadvertently undermines the quality of human interaction, allowing destructive emotional impulses freer reign under specific circumstances. The reason is a neural fluke that results in cyber-disinhibition of brain systems that keep our more unruly urges in check. The tech problem: a major disconnect between the ways our brains are wired to connect, and the interface offered in online interactions.

Basically he's saying people are rude on the Internet because we don't get immediate feedback from the person we're being rude to so we don't develop any empathy for them and thence go crashing through the gates of inhibition and off to the Land of Invective. That's an observation people have been making for quite a while, ever since this whole Internet thang got going in a big way. The isolation and anonymity just makes you more likely to rip into someone.
Plus, my own pet theory contributing to this is that people these days tend to treat their written communication as they do speaking. You 'write what you think you're saying' as it were. Trouble is, we think we're also exporting tone of voice and other vocal and visual clues along with the typed words when we're really not. Emoticons and ALL CAPS and italics can sometimes make up for this, but a lot of time, people just don't pay enough attention to how others will actually interpret the words they're writing. Hence, one might think one is making a perfectly humorous, if slightly sarcastic, comment on something someone else has written, which is then interpreted as a slam requiring immediate retaliation. Written communication is, indeed, an art.

So when I refer to post-processual archaeology as fuzzy-headed mentalist claptrap, just throw in some good-natured facial expressions and quit sending email calling me a "*$@% loser of a $)*@&^$* useless piece of $*&@^$ logicial positivist dog*$&%@. So there, you $@($^@(."

Of course, most of you out there don't know this, but the inner voice I was using while writing the above was all done in a French accent akin to Inspector Clouseau.

CSI: Brest (no, this is not another Scarlett Johanssen post)


DNA helps solve mysterious murder case

French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing was that the woman died half a millennium ago.

The skeleton of a woman in her thirties was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.

Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests.

Eventually radiocarbon dating established that the death had occurred between 1401 and 1453.

"We are satisfied because at least we know the date now. We reckon it was pirates," said Francois Gerthosser of the Plourin-les-Morlaix police.

Viking update Vikings filed their teeth, not their nails

Viking warriors filed deep grooves in their teeth, and they probably had to smile broadly to show them off, according to new finds in four major Viking Age cemeteries in Sweden.

Caroline Arcini of Sweden's National Heritage Board and colleagues analysed 557 skeletons of men, women and children from 800 to 1050 AD.

She discovered that 22 of the men bore deep, horizontal grooves across the upper front teeth.

Not much more there than when last this story was posted. Cool picture though.

PhDiva update Linked earlier to an article on one Dorothy King who is opposed to returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece. In that earlier post I was unable to locate a current blog for Dr. King, but reader Charles Jones kindly sent along the proper blog address. Many thanks.

Here is a blog entry referring specifically to the Elgin Marbles.

Field school opportunity One of the Meccas of archaeology, at least from a popular perspective, we relay this email message from Terry Hunt in Hawaii:

Dear Colleagues, Friends, and Students:

This coming summer (2006) we will again offer a University of
Hawai`i ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SCHOOL ON EASTER ISLAND (Rapa Nui). There will
be two sessions, 5 June to 5 July and 10 July to 9 August, 2006. For
details, please visit our NEW and updated web pages:

http://www.anthropology.hawaii.edu/projects/rapanui/index.html



The field school is open to undergraduate and graduate students.
Students will participate in survey, mapping, excavation, geophysical
survey, museum/laboratory analyses, and training Native Rapanui high school
students and community members on the island.

Applications should be made through the U.H. Study Abroad program.
The application DEADLINE is 17 February, 2006. For applications go to:

http://www.studyabroad.org/rapanui.htm

Please forward this message as appropriate. Thank you very much for
your assistance.

Best Regards,

Terry L. Hunt
Associate Professor
Director, Rapa Nui Archaeological Field School

That's a haul Archeologists Unearth 1,300 Skeletons

A medieval cemetery containing around 1,300 skeletons has been discovered in the central English city of Leicester, archaeologists said Tuesday.

The bones were found during a dig before the site is developed as part of a $630 million shopping mall.

University of Leicester archaeologists say the find promises to shed new light on the way people lived and died in the Middle Ages.

"We think, probably outside London, this must be one of the largest parish graveyards ever excavated," said Richard Buckley, director of University of Leicester Archaeology Services.

More here.

More construction finds Archaeologists advise moving prison after Christian relics found on site

The Antiquities Authority on Tuesday recommended the Meggido Prison be transferred to a new location, after the remains of an ancient church were discovered on the facility's grounds four months ago.

The Antiquities Authority made the recommendation on Tuesday at a meeting with President Moshe Katzav and Christian leaders at the excavation site.

An excavation team last year discovered a mosaic floor on the prison grounds adorned with three inscriptions indicating religious activity from the early Christian period. Some 60 prisoners from Meggido and Tzalmon Prison particpated in the excavation, which was carried out as part of the prison's decision to build new incarceration units on the grounds.

Mystery solved Scientists solve puzzle of death of Pericles

The cause of the plague of Athens in 430BC, which devastated the city and killed up to one-third of the population, including its leader, Pericles, was typhoid fever, scientists believe. Doctors and historians have long speculated about the nature of the disease, which precipitated the end of the golden age of Athens, from the account given by Thucydides. Ebola fever, anthrax, tuberculosis and lassa fever have been suggested as candidates.

"The profound disagreement on the cause of the plague has been due to the lack of definite microbiological or palaeopathological evidence," write Manolis Papagrigorakis of the dental school at the University of Athens, and colleagues. But the discovery of a mass grave dating from the time of the epidemic appears to have solved the mystery.

. . .

The scientists took three teeth at random from the remains in the pit and extracted DNA from the dental pulp. They compared it with sequences from plague, typhus, anthrax, tuberculosis, cowpox and cat-scratch disease, and found a match with typhoid fever.

A UAB research team discovers a new type of building built in Peru over 2000 years ago

A research team from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has discovered a new type of construction, unknown until now, in the archaeological region of Puntilla, in the province of Nazca, Peru. These yards, built with stone walls, situated in the centre of the village, is where people went to work, either in agricultual or in the crafts. The yards date from the first millenium BC, but their exact date is yet to have been determined.

These results come from the analysis of archaeological excavations in the 2005 La Puntilla Project, which ended last December. The project aims to produce sociological research on the communities living in the Nazca province – where the archaeological area of La Puntilla is situated – on the south coast of Peru in the first millenium BC. The researchers have worked in two sites in the area.

Neolithic Europeans Made Cheese, Yogurt

Dirty cooking pots dating to nearly 8,000 years ago reveal that some of Europe's earliest farming communities produced dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt.

Two separate studies indicate that Neolithic dairying took place in what are now Romania, Hungary and Switzerland.

The discoveries suggest people in these regions might have originally learned how to process milk-based foods from Asian farmers.

Good article, especially describing why they would have cooked milk.

Queen Tiy statue update Here.

And another update On the large necroplis found in Rome, preceding the state of Rome here.

Historic archaeology update Dig Adds to Cherokee "Trail of Tears" History

Archaeologists working in the rugged mountains of southwestern North Carolina are adding new details to the story of a tragedy that took place more than 160 years ago.

The scientists are uncovering the remains of farms and homes belonging to the Cherokee Indians before they were forced to abandon their property and move to Oklahoma.

About 16,000 Cherokee and hundreds of other Native Americans were forced out of North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama in the late 1830s. The event came to be known among the Cherokee as the Trail of Tears.

Brett Riggs, an archaeologist with the University of North Carolina's Research Laboratories of Archaeology, is leading the excavations. He said the relocation of the Indians was a form of ethnic cleansing.

Non-archaeology but interesting Closer to man than ape

They already use basic tools, have rudimentary language and star in TV commercials, but now scientists have proof that chimpanzees are more closely related to humans than other great apes.
Genetic tests comparing DNA from humans, chimps, gorillas and orang-utans reveal striking similarities in the way chimps and humans evolve that set them apart from the others.

The finding adds weight to a controversial proposal to scrap the long-used chimp genus "Pan" and reclassify the animals as members of the human family. The move would give chimps a new place in creation's pecking order alongside humans, the only survivor of the genus Homo.

Basically, they're saying that mutation rates (the molecular clock) in the two genii are more comparable than either are to other apes.

Also more or less non-archaeological Chinese Columbus" Map Likely Fake, Experts Say

A recently unveiled map purporting to show that a Chinese explorer discovered America in 1418 has been met with skepticism from cartographers and historians alike.

The map depicts all of the continents, including Australia, North America, and Antarctica, in rough outline.

An inscription identifies the map as a copy made in 1763 of an original drawn in 1418.

Antiquities collector Liu Gang, who unveiled the map in Beijing last week, says it proves that Chinese seafarer Zheng He discovered America more than 70 years before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World.

Bog bodies update A bit more on the analysts who examined the bodies reported everywhere in the last week (one had "hair gel") here.

This just in Several stories out on the finding of a statue of Queen Tiy, mother of Akhenaten:

US archaeologists find statue of Akhenaten's mother

A team of US archeologists have discovered a statue depicting Pharaoh Akhenaten's mother, Queen Tiy, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities told AFP.

The team from John Hopkins University found the statue near those of Tiy's husband Amenhotep III in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, the council's Sabri Abdel Aziz said.

The black granite statue measuring 4.5 feet in height and 17 inches in width was found in good condition but the feet are missing, he added.

Official Egyptian givernment announcement here. (Supposedly)