Pre-Clovis update Beringia: humans were here

Beringia is thought by a handful of renegade scientists to be a prehistoric homeland for aboriginal people who later spread across the Americas and the key to one of archeology's greatest Holy Grails - figuring out how humans first got to this continent.

This July, Jacques Cinq-Mars, a renowned archeologist living in Longueuil, is heading to Beringia - a vast territory that once spanned the Yukon, Alaska and Siberia - in hopes of resolving a controversy he unleashed nearly 20 years ago when he chanced upon a curious-looking cave in the Yukon's Keele Mountain Range, perched on a ridge high above the Bluefish River.

It's always been a controversial site because of the dating, or rather, the association of the dated remains with the events they are trying to date (see here for e.g.).

University of Chicago archaeology students dig close to home

For this dig, University of Chicago archeologists don't have to spend hours on planes like they do when they head off for the farthest reaches of the planet to unearth treasures. They can walk.

The site is right down the street from campus in Jackson Park. And as they dig, the archeologists may be uncovering artifacts from one of the most exciting events in the city's history, a time when the entire world was watching what went on here: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Archaeologist Rebecca Graff and 20 undergraduate students have pulled pieces of glass bottles, broken crockery, rusty nails and other items from the grounds of the World's Fair, the fabled "White City."

Digging for clues to Maryland's past

He'll face down Soviet spies, penetrate jungles and wrangle giant ants in his quest for a skull possessed of strange magical powers.

When Harrison Ford hits movie theaters next week in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - his fourth turn as America's favorite globe-trotting archaeologist - his character's exploits will quicken a few million more pulses than the day-to-day work of his brethren in the real world.

But a lack of derring-do is no reason, professionals say, that Marylanders should miss out on the many opportunities they'll have to take part in archaeological excavations this summer.

Indiana Jones update Two programs were on last night thattried to capitalize on the Indy mania: Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest on History Channel and Mystery of the Crystal Skulls on SciFi. This isn't really a review, since I only watched one of them. Why? Well, I started out with the former (it started an hour earlier) and then during a commercial break popped over to the latter and was really disappointed. I will readily admit that the little bit I saw may not have been representative and I invite anyone who saw more than that to post a comment, but what I saw was all Erick von Daniken type stuff. Previously unknown "experts" telling us how sticking a skull in some sort of electrically charged chamber makes the eyes all glowy and this is supposed to be significant for some reason. OOOOOOooooooo.

So anyway, the other one was much better. It went through most of the characteristics of the Indy movies such as the physical dangers involved in fieldwork, relations with the locals, whether or not old-time archaeologists were really glorified relic hunters, etc. Most (actually all from what I could tell) of the archys were pretty positive about the series. Not that it reflected any sort of reality, but that it was fun enough to get people interested in archaeology and want to learn more. I've argued this before on other topics related to science fiction; many if not most scientists are initially turned onto science by science fiction. Not that anyone seriously expects to go an Indiana Jonesish once they start studying archaeology -- or if they do, it doesn't last more than a few minutes listening to a professor drone on and on about C14 dating and carbon reservoirs and such -- but it gets them interested enough to learn more. And you still often do capture that spirit of adventure and wonder at stuff that's been preserved for thousands of years and you're the first one to see it.

It's worth watching by professionals just for some of the field stories. And Demerest is a hoot talking about snakes. Funny though, nobody mentioned the one great danger of archaeology to life and limb, which is third-world traffic. I swear, the only times my life seriously flashed before my eyes was while either in a car in Egypt or watching one bearing down on me. Or a horse. I almost got run over by a horse once, too.

I give it a thumbs-up and recommend watching it if it's on again.

They also had on a special Geico cavemen "commercial". It's kind of a typical Geico commercial, but it lasts for 2-3 minutes and has nothing to do with insurance. I'll try to find a link to the video.

Paper blogging Just finished up reading the following: Jessica C. Thompson, Nawa Sugiyama and Gary S. Morgan, Taphonomic analysis of the mammalian fauna from Sandia Cave, New Mexico, and the "Sandia man" controversy. American Antiquity 73.2 (April 2008): p337(24). Here's the abstract:

Sandia Cave in New Mexico was excavated in the late 1930s by Frank Hibben, who described a unique type of chipped stone artifact--the "Sandia point"--in association with a faunal assemblage that included extinct Pleistocene species. The site was interpreted as a late Pleistocene Paleoindian hunting station, making it the earliest human occupation known in America at the time. Despite the pivotal role the faunal assemblage has played in interpretations of the site, there was never a confirmed behavioral association between the artifacts and the fossils. A subsequent series of controversies about the age of the site and the integrity of the stratigraphy has since pushed Sandia Cave into obscurity. Results from a recent taphonomic study of the large and small mammal assemblages from the original excavations are reported here. These show that the majority of the fauna were accumulated by nonhuman agents (carnivores, raptors, and rodents), but that a small proportion of large mammal fragments retain human modification. The three major points of controversy are discussed in light of these and other findings, and it is shown that Sandia Cave remains an important datapoint in archaeological, paleontological, and paleoecological studies of the region.

Excellent little paper. Very well written as well. The cave has been controversial as a site of pre-Holocene humans almost ever since work on it was first published and has largely languished in recent decades, usually only brought up in lectures regarding the demonstration of pre-Clovis sites and how most of them haven't been accepted. That's all well and good and I'll get to some of the conclusions relating to that, but what really interested me about the paper was its use of previously-excavated materials. I've posted on this before (though I still haven't done a complete post on the Mayo Site like I've been promising) but this paper demonstrates the possibilities, dangers, and detective work that goes into using older curated material.

First, a disturbing statement: Only 44 percent of the bags retained provenience information by stratigraphic layer. That's the bad news. Sadly, this is probably typical even apart from the preservation of the remains and as we all know, context is nearly everything in archaeology. Especially when stratigraphy and the association of remains and artifacts (and dated material) is of primary importance.

Nevertheless Thompson et al. were able to use the material pretty effectively in no small part due to the excavation techniques employed by Hibben and the fact that the material had preserved so well. They hadn't been washed before being stored so much of the original matrix was still clinging to the fossils. In addition, the excavators had saved some bags that hadn't been screened and thus contained all of the included faunal materials. Using these samples and an analysis of the size ranges of the screened material, they determined that 1/4" screen was probably used. This was important in assessing what sorts of systematic bias due to the excavation techniques was present within the samples.

They used a variety of analytical techniques to attack two basic questions: Was the stratigraphy compromised due to mixing, and what were the most likely agents that acted to accumulate and modify bones present in the cave? The former was one of the major controversies about the site and many had commented on the presence of abundant bioturbation in the form of rodent burrowing. They looked at the level of fossilization in aggregate to see if the assemblages from higher and lower levels followed a pattern indicating time: Those lower down should have a greater proportion fossilized than those higher up. What they found was that the upper (Recent) and lower (Sandia) layers were statistically indistinguishable from one another on the degree of fossilization. That suggests that mixing between the two layers had occurred.

The latter question they examined mostly taphonomically in terms of species and element distribution and modifications to individual bones that would indicate human or animal agency. This is what they found:

It is likely that larger carnivores were the main accumulators of the large mammals, although these fragments may have been later modified by small carnivores in the role of scavengers. Large carnivores identified from the Sandia Cave assemblage include the gray wolf (Canis lupus), a bear (Ursus sp.), and the mountain lion (Puma concolor). Small carnivores include the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), ringtail (Bassariscus astutus), ermine (Mustela erminea), spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), and bobcat (Lynx rufus). . .

Only two percent of the [small mammal] assemblage displays possible traces of human modification, and none were determined to be of high confidence. Those that were identified as possible cut or percussion marks could easily be cut mark mimics from trampling or very tiny rodent gnaw marks. In the instance that some marks were the result of human activity, the proportion is small enough to rule out humans asa major accumulator of the small mammals at the site.

Hence, little evidence that humans had modified the material. In general they conclude:

On the whole, most of the fossil fauna, including extinct species, were accumulated by carnivores and deposited in the cave when it was in a nutritive state. In doing so, they left large quantities of tooth marks and gastrically etched fragments, and also consumed most of the spongy bone present in long bone ends and axial elements. Resident rodents then further modified the bones by gnawing. There are some infrequent traces of human involvement with the fauna, including two bone tools. However, no human modification was discovered on any fragments that could be positively identified as an extinct or extralimital species.

Plus some judos kudos for the original excavators:

Although Hibben's recovery techniques were not gentle, they were relatively thorough for his time. Similarly, the majority of the fauna lacked precise provenience information but a thorough taphonomic analysis was still possible and extremely fruitful. Despite any previous controversies, the fossil assemblage from Sandia Cave remains an important paleontological sample with a small archaeological component that has been recovered with sufficient diligence to make it amenable to modern analyses. Apart from the findings of the study that are specific to Sandia Cave, it also demonstrates that there may be many old, forgotten faunal assemblages that could benefit from being revisited with modern techniques.

It seems unlikely that humans played a major role, if any, in the Pleistocene assemblages on Sandia. The iffy stratigraphy, evidence of bioturbation, and lack of any conclusive taphonomic evidence attributable to humans in the lower levels strongly suggests that the controversy surrounding the site was well-founded. Nevertheless, this paper shows what can be done with material collected even decades ago and demonstrates once again the importance of proper attention being paid to long-term preservation of excavated materials, both the objects themselves and the documentation associated with them.

UPDATE: Rather humorous typo above fixed.

ArchaeoBlog review: Indiana Jones. . . cereal! We here at ArchaeoBlog like to keep our dear readers abreast of every new development in the world of archaeology, be it large or small. Thus, with the impending theatrical release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull we realize that there may be some often confusing and conflicting claims out there about what is real and what is fantasy in the world of Indiana Jones and archaeology generally. We also care deeply about the health and welfare of our faithful readership and consequently will render whatever assistance we can in helping our reading public make informed and healthy choices in their comestibles.

With that in mind, we now proceed with a review of the latest Indy offering, Kellogg's Indiana Jones cereal. First noted here, I have recently opened the one on the right and had a taste. Here is what comes in the box:

Full image here.

The main kibble (if I may use that term) is a little chocolate puff similar to a Kix or Coco Puffs (different company though). Yummy dry, but one must take care in the eating of it: it's like Cap'n Crunch in that if you don't chew it on the sides of your mouth it will tear up the roof of your mouth.

Mixed in are marshmallow treats, not unlike Lucky Charms. In truth, I only was able to dig out three, but there are actually four. From left to right they are: Indy's hat, the Temple of Akator, and a crystal skull. Missing is a torch, which looks kinda like the hat and the temple stuck together. I have a feeling most of them settle to the bottom of the box.

Like Coco Puffs or any other chocolate cereal, I suspect that when eaten with milk it will leave a delicious bowl of chocolate milk when you're done. I have only consumed it dry, however. Sadly there is no toy associated with it. I have a box of Frosted Flakes with an Adventure Spoon and as soon as I can convince myself to open the box (I don't eat that stuff) I will dig (heh) it out and post that as well.

I'll give this stuff a thumbs up and recommend it for snacking.

Crime ruled out after Renton body found

Renton police believe that a set of human remains discovered at a construction site this week are from someone who was legally buried in a coffin on the site up to 100 years ago.

Police spent much of Thursday excavating the site at 2211 Edmonds Ave. N.E. after a developer reported finding a human jaw bone on Tuesday, said police spokeswoman Penny Bartley. Police have since found other bones, likely belonging to the same person, she said.

Archaeologist to share discoveries from the bottom of Lake Okeechobee

With the discovery of human bone fragments on the lake bottom in March 2007, Davenport was drawn to the Belle Glade region and expanses of mucky land at the bottom of Lake Okeechobee.

Three prehistoric sites — Ritta Island, Kreamer Island and Pelican Bay — were already known from the south side of Lake Okeechobee, yet approximately 30 additional sites were recorded in this vicinity ranging from isolated shipwrecks to large ceramic scatters. Additional testing at certain sites revealed unique and disparate artifact assemblages. At the Kreamer Island site, particularly noteworthy was an abundance of shell ornaments, hammers/adzes, and celts while the Ritta Island site contained limited shell tools but considerable chert and human bone fragments. Davenport's presentation will address these finds and their implications for trade routes in southern Florida.

An archaeological 'headache'

As of the beginning of next semester, the anthropology department will no longer be accepting master's students interested in specializing in archaeology - not for a lack of interest, but because of what the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) calls "off course" instructing from professors.

According to CLA Associate Dean Mark Wiley, no classes have been cut from the archaeology (sic) and the only changes that have taken place have been a temporary halt to admitting students interested in archaeology on a master's level. There are talks about archaeology moving to the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics or partnering with other departments.

I admit I'm a bit confused as to what the controversy is. Sounds like there is no real archaeology "program" but a set of classes that can be used for a MA in anthropology with an archaeological focus?

Radiocarbon Dating of Malibu Artifacts Confirms Importance of Farpoint Site

Archaeologist Gary Stickel announced at a recent lecture at the Malibu Public Library that a stone spearhead, or point, found at a local construction site by a Native American project monitor in 2005 has been established as an artifact from the oldest archaeological find in the City of Malibu.
Radiocarbon dating of mussel shell fragments from the site that was provided gratis by the National Science Foundation at the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Laboratory at the University of Arizona dates them to 9074 BP (Be­fore Present).

Al Goodyear and the Secrets of the Ancient Americans

It was the summer of 1998, and University of South Carolina archaeologist Al Goodyear had a problem on his hands.

Fourteen years of digging at an ancient chert quarry outside Allendale had begun to bear fruit: At a site called Big Pine Tree, Goodyear was well on his way to establishing that a substantial Clovis population lived here. If you’ll recall your history lessons from high school, the Clovis people — named such because the first evidence of them was found at a site near Clovis, N.M. — were believed to be the first Americans who came into the North American continent across the Bering Sea land bridge from Asia some 13,000 years ago.

I still don't like the whole 'Clovis as Gospel' or 'Clovis as Dogma' idea. Nearly everyone was well aware that pre-Clovis was possible and it was just a matter of finding an appropriate site. Trouble was there were a lot of pretty dubious claims floating around so the bar got pretty high (though not unreasonably so, IMO). Good article though, so read it all.

Solitaire-y Confinement

Though on its face it might seem trivial, pointless, a terrible way to waste a beautiful afternoon, etc., solitaire has unquestionably transformed the way we live and work. Computer solitaire propelled the revolution of personal computing, augured Microsoft's monopolistic tendencies, and forever changed office culture. It has also helped the human race survive innumerable conference calls and airplane trips. If solitaire is not the most important computer program of all time, it is at least in the top two, along with Minesweeper.

[Via CG at TPW]

I include this because it's interesting. And I played numerous games on one trip to Egypt when I had innumerable downtime days. Never got into Minesweeper or Freecell, but the Chinese tile game (name escapes me at the moment) I really got into. The latter needed something exciting to happen at the end like Solitaire's dancing cards; it's kind of anticlimactic to win and then everything just sits there.

It is a good way for newbies to learn basic computer skills though, because it uses a familiar concept that's easy to pick up. Before you know it, you're moving on-screen items around without even thinking about it.

Best use of it on screen was an episode of Millennium: Spooky music plays as the camera shows Frank Black in a darkened room staring intently at his computer. Is he looking at crime scene photos? As the camera pans over behind him and the spooky music builds to a crescendo, we see he's just playing Solitaire.

Archaeologist Uses Satellite Imagery to Explore Ancient Mexico; Rochester Institute of Technology Professor Bill Middleton Uses Novel Approach to Study Zapotec Culture

Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help archeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico.

"If you ask someone off the street about Mexican archeology, they'll say Aztec, Maya. Sometimes they'll also say Inca, which is the wrong continent, but you'll almost never hear anyone talk about the Zapotecs," says Middleton, acting chair of the Department of Material Culture Sciences and professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Rochester Institute of Technology. "They had the first writing system, the first state society, the first cities. And they controlled a fairly large territory at their zenith - 250 B.C. to 750 A.D."

Indiana Jones update 'Indiana Jones': Real archaeologists don't have whips (Well not all of us. . . .)

Though he preaches research and good science in the classroom, the world's most famous archaeologist often is an acquisitive tomb raider in the field with a scorched-earth policy about what he leaves behind. While actual archaeologists like the guy and his movies, they wouldn't necessarily want to work alongside him on a dig.

Indy's bull-in-a-china-shop approach to archaeology will be on display again May 22 with "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," in which he's sure to rain destruction down on more historic sites and priceless artifacts.

Pretty good article. Not just a bunch of people saying how Indy doesn't do real archeology and oh, what a horrible thing it is.

More on the Inca trepanation finds from Nat Geo.

Pi, Phi and the Great Pyramid

It does seem that whenever an ancient Egyptian artist sculpted or painted figures, his proportions were determined by a certain canon.

It is not easy, however, to persuade the Egyptology community that the ancient Egyptians knowingly used the Golden Ratio. The mere existence of the numbers in art and architecture is not necessarily proof that the artisan was aware of the ratio inherent in those numbers, but the vast number of incidents they match cannot be down to coincidence alone.

Long article.

Nice bust Divers find Caesar bust that may date to 46 B.C.

Divers trained in archaeology discovered a marble bust of an aging Caesar in the Rhone River that France's Culture Ministry said Tuesday could be the oldest known.

The life-sized bust showing the Roman ruler with wrinkles and hollows in his face is tentatively dated to 46 B.C. Divers uncovered the Caesar bust and a collection of other finds in the Rhone near the town of Arles — founded by Caesar.

Among other items in the treasure trove of ancient objects is a 5.9 foot marble statue of Neptune, dated to the first decade of the third century after Christ.

Photo at the link. Very nice work.

This note came over the EEF lists and I thought it warranted posting here (in its entirety with permission of the author, of course). It's from Birgit Schoer:

I would like to draw your attention to recent developments
concerning the Egyptology collection at Manchester Museum
in the UK.

Following a conference held at Manchester Museum/Manchester
University in conjunction with Honouring the Ancient Dead (HAD,
an organisation representing British Pagans and their concerns vis
a vis ancient BRITISH human remains) in November 2006 entitled
Respect for Ancient British Human Remains: Philosophy and Practice,
the management of the museum seem to have been inspired/persuaded
to make at least some of the Egyptian mummies on display in the
Manchester collection less visible/accessible to the visiting public.

News items appearing on the BBC website on 15.02.08 entitled
"Doubt over museum displays" and related videos reported that
museum managers, concerned about critical comments made by
the Bishop of Manchester about the arrival of a totally unrelated
exhibition (Gunther von Hagen's Body Worlds 4) in the city, were
considering removing all human remains from display. However, at
the time a museum spokesperson was quoted saying that "We are
starting a public consultation to find out what people think about the
display of human remains ..." . Even though the great majority of
Manchester consultees appear to have strongly favoured the
continued display of the Manchester mummies, the museum
management have now completely covered at least some of
these mummies with shrouds, so that no parts of their bodies, not
even their faces, can be seen by museum visitors. This was
done BEFORE the consultation process has been officially
completed, which has left many Mancunians who took part and
expected additional meetings and events to aid decision-making
feeling very disappointed and frustrated with the process.

I attach a link to the museum's blog site, where the majority of
comments to date appear to be critical of the museum's decision.

http://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2008/05/06/covering-the-mummies/#commen
t-6

Personally I am extremely concerned about such developments,
for a number of reasons:

1) It appears that HAD, an organisation representing British
Pagans, appears to have been able to exert a disproportionate
amount of influence over the fate of ancient Egyptian mummies
in a world-famous Egyptology collection. In my opinion, this
cannot be justified.

2) In my opinion the fact that a mummy is on display does NOT
automatically signify disrespect for the culture it represents. On
the contrary, mummies in sensitive modern museum displays
are not shown to make score sensationalist points but to
enhance our understanding of an ancient culture with a rich
spiritual life and great sophistication.

3) I am concerned that the role of museums in the presevering
of heritage and educating the public may be jeopardised by such
misguided decisions in the long run, whatever the intention of the
decision makers. The management of Manchester Museum have
a responsibility towards this world class collection and its credibility
as a resource of both academic study and popular education, which
may be compromised by a loss of credibility arising from this decision.

4) In my opinion, covering mummies or removing them from display
IN ITSELF does noting to improve our respect for the ancient culture.
Respect can only arise from a greater understanding and appreciation,
which is not likely to be fostered by covering things up and hiding
them from view. The covering up of some of the Manchester Mummies
strikes me as a misguided reaction to pressure exerted by articulate
minorities whose views must be balanced against other, wider and
long-term considerations, and I fear that the decision represents the
retreat of a reasoned, rational approach to heritage in favour of a
return to something akin to the intellectual dark ages.

Make sure you go to the linked blog and go over some of the comments. Quite the kettle of worms, this subject. The most salient point made by both Brigit and, in the comments, Jasmine Day, is the definition of "respect". This seems to me the key, since one person's respect is another person's outrage. The notion of what constitutes "respect for the dead" isn't in any way a cultural universal (though I suppose most people could probably agree on a few no-no's), so to argue that X disposition of remains is somehow universally "disrespectful" is an exercise in futility. Brigit states this clearly: In my opinion the fact that a mummy is on display does NOT automatically signify disrespect for the culture it represents.

Is it the culture we're protecting from disrepect, or the individual dead person? Who decides then? The museum-going public? The "descendents" of the dead? Anthropologists?

Abu El Haj revisited Volokh's David Bernstein has a post up quoting Norman Levitt and adding a few thoughts of his own:

[Levitt] These ideas are at the least heavily tinctured with what, for want of a better term, is usually called "postmodernism." This incorporates the attitude that knowledge claims are, perforce, political claims, that "objective knowledge" is an oxymoron, and that modern science, in particular, is a repressive ideological edifice designed to bolster the hegemony of western capitalist patriarchal societies, not least by demeaning and displacing the "alternative ways of knowing" that are embedded in non-western cultures or are simply more appropriate to marginalized sub-populations. . .

And adds:

There are lots of methodologies and modes of thought that are widely acceptable within at least some circles of academia, but would strike an uninitiated outside observer as nonsensical, academically dishonest, or otherwise discreditable.

That's the rub, of course, and something non-academics and even academics from other disciplines have to watch out for. A lot of stuff in any discipline can look pretty kooky from the outside; I recall many long-winded arguments about what the proper definition of "culture" is, both in print, email, and conversation. Kind of a sticky question when you're talking about a publicly funded university.

Anyway, read the whole exerpt. The comments are worth reading as well, even though they tend, as expected, to have a lot of typical verbal flatulence in them.

Remote sensing update UCF Research Project Uses Technology to Revolutionize Archaeology

In 24 years of digging at Caracol, Belize, the Chase team has mapped 24 square kilometers in the dense rainforest, but the researchers believe the site is 177 square kilometers. The laser approach promises to enable them to gain the data necessary to produce a map of the entire area in about two months. The Chases will combine the complete landscape record with actual archeology to better define the socio-economic, cultural, political and religious systems of the ancient Maya.

Excellent.

DISAPPEARING SUSSEX CLIFFTOP BARROW REVEALS ITS PREHISTORIC SECRETS

Archaeologists, racing against time to date a burial mound on the cliffs at Peacehaven Heights in East Sussex before it collapses into the sea, have found activity spanning back to 8000 years BC - the time of some of the island's earliest hunter-gatherers.

The excavations, which were carried out between April 19 and May 4 2008, have uncovered tools dating back to the Mesolithic period (8000 – 4000 BC) when the area may have been wooded and people were hunting animals, foraging for nuts and berries and making their camps in the area.

'Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God' by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess

WHAT IF Troy was destroyed by an earthquake? What really brought down the walls of Jericho or the Colossus of Rhodes? These are some of the questions Stanford University geophysicist Amos Nur raises in "Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God" (Princeton University Press: 324 pp., $26.95), a book that posits seismicity -- rather than invaders or social forces -- as the prime dynamic behind the fall of ancient civilizations.

Admittely, this isn't something I've noticed very much, a strong anti-earthquake bias going around. I haven't read the book, so perhaps Nur is taking the idea to a hitherto unknown scale of destruction. Seems like a pretty straightforward archaeological problem.

Silbury gives up its final secret

Jim Leary, the archaeological director for English Heritage throughout the work, thinks he has solved a riddle which archaeologists have fretted over for centuries: why thousands of people piled up 35 million baskets of chalk into the largest artificial hill in Europe, now part of the Stonehenge World Heritage site. It wasn't the final structure, but the staggering contribution of work which was important, he now believes, marking a site of immense but only guessable significance to the hunters and farmers of Bronze Age Wiltshire.

Read the whole thing. Kind of an amazing set of circumstances. I mean, it's kind of a boring result, but one that makes sense.

Zahi Hawass on various VoK tombs.

I'd heard about the tunnel in Seti I before. I hadn't heard much speculation on what might be back there other than "I wonder what might be back there?" The linked article says the tunnel "descended" for 100 meters which would probably put it in the underlying Esna shale like Hatchepsut's tomb (KV-20). Which would make it a pretty nasty place. Hawass doesn't seem particularly confident that it leads the the actual burial chamber; if it does go into the Esna formation they probably would have abandoned it for the reasons explained in my old post. So, FWIW, I will make my prediction: Nothing of particular interest will be found down there.

(Link via EEF)

Paper blogging I linked to an article in this post on Monte Verde. I am now reading the paper in Science.

First off, I was wrong when I mentioned that the (apparent) lack of marine resource remains was not that big of a deal, if they were just going to get medicinal seaweed. They write:

Here we report the recovery of three marine, two estuarine, and one terrestrial shoreline algae species new to the site and three additional stone artifacts, one with the remains of seaweed on a worked edge, that suggest a strong reliance on coastal resources for food and medicine.

So we'll have to see what sort of comestibles they were getting.

And we see what else they had apprarently been getting:

Other coastal resources collected from beaches and transported to the site were discoidal pebbles made into stone tools, bitumen used as adhesive to attach tools to wooden shafts, and marine fossils.

The stuff they analyze came from the hearths and floors of two structures, one of which they describe as a "medicinal hut" and a residential tent. Looks as if the medicinal hut interpretation comes from the remains themselves. They interpret the medicinal nature of the seaweeds and algae because they were found in the form of chewed cuds, but some were also found scattered in the hearth structure and may have been food as well. These sorts of things have been found before; chewed coca leaves, agave, etc.

What sort of medicinal uses?

All nine seaweed species recovered at Monte Verde II are excellent sources of iodine, iron, zinc, protein, hormones, and a wide range of trace elements, particularly cobalt, copper, boron, and manganese (23–29). Secondary beneficial effects of these seaweeds include aiding cholesterol metabolism, increasing the calcium uptake of bones, antibiotic effects, and increasing the body's ability to fight infection. These species have medicinal uses that closely correspond to common contemporary health problems in the study area today.

The latter two seem about the only two that might have been recognized by the inhabitants for more or less immediate beneficial effects. Two of the seaweeds were also inedible, thus their interpretation as medicinal only.

They conclude by offering the following general subsistence strategy:

. . .these new data indicate that the people inhabiting Monte Verde II were accustomed to frequently exploiting coastal resources year round, which, coupled with interior foods, allowed them to remain in the area. Prior evidence suggests that the Monte Verdeans also regularly moved up and down the Maullín basin to exploit resources and/or to exchange them with other people living in the area. Assuming that other late Pleistocene people operated under similar subsistence and settlement practices, our data imply that if groups traveled along the Pacific coast, they may have migrated slowly and exploited the interior resources of the hundreds of river basins descending the long mountain chain from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego to the sea. Several recent archaeological findings support the idea of early coastal migration and specialized maritime sites, but this evidence also indicates contacts with interior people or transhumance between coastal and interior areas and thus broad-spectrum economies.

I guess I'm still not bothered by the lack of extensive coastal food resources. They seem to have had an extensive terrestrial subsistence base anyway, so exploiting marine resources doesn't seem to have been either necessary or efficient, especially if you have to travel 90 km just to get some chow. Obtaining a few easily curated resources -- some seaweed, rocks, bitumen -- doesn't strike me as that out of bounds.

As for the migration aspect. . . .I think it's way too early to say much of anything about how people moved. The paucity of dated sites makes such interpretations really dubious, though admittedly they realize (as does everyone else at this point) that it's all informed speculation. We still have no idea when and in what numbers people moved into the Americas.

Renée Friedman has a good update on this season's Hierakonpolis work up at Archy.org. Lots of good detailed photos, too.

Shift From Savannah to Sahara Was Gradual, Research Suggests

In Friday’s issue of the journal Science, the researchers, led by Stefan Kröpelin, a geologist with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Cologne in Germany, report that the climate transition occurred gradually. In particular, the changing types of pollen that fell on the water and drifted to the bottom tell a story of how the surrounding terrain shifted from trees to shrubs to grasses to sand — “where today you don’t find a single piece of grass,” Dr. Kröpelin said.

The findings run counter to a prevailing view that the change happened abruptly, within a few centuries, about 5,500 years ago, marking the end of the “African Humid Period” when monsoon rains poured down on the region. That view arises from ocean sediment cores drilled off the coast of Africa, to the west of Mauritania. In 2000, analysis of the cores by researchers led by Peter B. deMenocal of Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory showed a sudden rise in the dust blown off Africa at that time.

Dr. Kröpelin did not dispute the ocean core data, but said it had been “overinterpreted.”

It's got an Egyptian connection, what with the aridification (presumably) causing people to move out of the now-desert Sahara and into the Nile valley. It would affect models of how quickly this migration could have happened.

Mummy update

Computed Radiography System Helps Uncover Secrets From The Past

Digital medical imaging and information technology from Carestream Health, Inc., is playing a key role in helping The Field Museum of Chicago discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections.

Carestream Health has donated a computed radiography (CR) system that enables The Field Museum--for the first time--to capture, archive and share digital x-ray images from more than one million priceless specimens and artifacts in its Anthropology collection. The Field Museum is also using a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) from Carestream Health for the management, viewing and storage of the growing collection of digital images managed by the museum's staff.

Media update Egyptian elite tombs accessible for all

A number of elite tombs from Ancient Egypt are now accessible to all thanks to the launch of the Mastabase. The Mastabase is a CD-ROM containing descriptions and hieroglyphic inscriptions of scenes of daily life from 337 Mastaba tombs. This resource will make research into these elite tombs a lot easier. On 13 May 2008, Dutch Egyptologist René van Walsem will officially present the MastaBase in Leiden, Netherlands.

Very neat. But put it on the Net!

Or better yet, send me a review copy!

Monte Verde update Ancient Beachcombers May Have Travelled Slowly

Researchers envision that coastal migration would have been a rapid process, but seaweed samples and gomphothere meat (meat from an extinct elephant-like animal that was widespread in the Americas 12-1.6 million years ago) found at Monte Verde may be signs of slower migration.

Although the site is located 50 miles from the Pacific coast and 10 miles from an inland marine bay to the south, Dillehay and the research team identified nine species of seaweed and marine algae found in hearths and other areas in the settlement. The samples were directly dated between 14,220 to 13,980 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than other reliably dated human settlements in the Americas and indicate that early immigrants could have moved south along the shoreline exploiting familiar coastal resources to get much of their food.

The researchers also found a number of inland resources, including gomphothere meat. The finding suggests immigrants moved back and forth between the coast and inland areas.

This article is a bit confusing (I thought), but Nature sums it up better:

The settlers would have had to travel around 90 kilometres to reach the coast, or 15 kilometres to reach an inland bay to the south. Such journeys hint that the people may have already been familiar with marine resources, allowing them to return to beaches and estuaries at opportune times to harvest the material. And if they were familiar with the coast, perhaps this is because they had lived there while migrating to their new home.

“The easiest explanation is that the people at Monte Verde made their way to South America from Asia by the coastal route,” says archaeologist Tom Dillehay of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, the lead author of the report in this week’s Science

They quote Fiedel as a critic wondering why people would only go to the coast to get seaweed and not other resources (birds, fish, mammals); that doesn't strike me as particularly problematic, if you can assume -- as they argue in the paper (well, the article, I haven't read the paper yet) -- that it was used for medicinal purposes. After all, people don't eat everything they come across, they have particular subsistence strategies. Seems reasonable that they might go to the coast or the mountains or wherever to get one thing, but not everything possible.

Still, a must-read. I ought to get the new issue this weekend and will report on it then.

UPDATE: Here's the ref and abstract. It's up on their web site already, but I shan't read it today.

Monte Verde: Seaweed, Food, Medicine, and the Peopling of South America
Tom D. Dillehay, C. Ramírez, M. Pino, M. B. Collins, J. Rossen, J. D. Pino-Navarro
Science 9 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5877, pp. 784 - 786
DOI: 10.1126/science.1156533

Abstract:

The identification of human artifacts at the early archaeological site of Monte Verde in southern Chile has raised questions of when and how people reached the tip of South America without leaving much other evidence in the New World. Remains of nine species of marine algae were recovered from hearths and other features at Monte Verde II, an upper occupational layer, and were directly dated between 14,220 and 13,980 calendar years before the present (~12,310 and 12,290 carbon-14 years ago). These findings support the archaeological interpretation of the site and indicate that the site's inhabitants used seaweed from distant beaches and estuarine environments for food and medicine. These data are consistent with the ideas that an early settlement of South America was along the Pacific coast and that seaweeds were important to the diet and health of early humans in the Americas.

On blogging Blogs and Wikis and 3D, Oh My!

But even if it is unusually well-known, Volokh has the characteristics of most successful academic blogs: Its contributors are scholars and experts in a given field, and they use that expertise to provide on-the-spot analysis and running commentary on issues that matter. They interact with readers who comment on posts and build on (or push against) each other’s insights. Not unlike peer review ... except on a potentially wider scale, and in public.

“I do think it facilitates a sort of discussion, exchange of ideas, that one would hope you’d generally have in academia,” Adler said of the academic blogging world.

The column is mostly devoted to law blogs, but there's a lot of crossover, obviously. The tewo paragraphs above hit the nail on the head. With reader comments enabled -- and even with the possibility of reader email coming in -- you can get an immediate discussion on issues with both other professionals and with an interested lay public. As he says, it generates the kind of exchange of ideas that academia is supposed to be about.

Besides providing breadth, and an outlet, for scholars’ extracurricular interests, blogs can also quicken the pace at which serious questions get considered. Commentary can be instantaneous, “which certainly in legal academia,” Adler noted, is the “polar opposite of the rate at which things get published in academic journals.” And that can open the door to pursuits that scholars wouldn’t otherwise expend time and energy on, given the constraints of peer review.

Also a good thing, I think. It keeps said bloggers human and lets readers know that the blogger is not just a brain vacuum-packed inside a skull. Besides, most of us that do this sort of thing are kinda OCD anyway, so it gives us something else to pound on our keyboards about.

Yet some (or even most) in academe view blogging commitments as a distraction from scholarly work. “There is some tension between blogging and academia in certain disciplines. Many academics view blogging with suspicion,” Adler said. “It is often assumed ... that it is time that one could and should have been spending on one’s scholarship.” He disagrees, arguing that it all comes down to “free time.” Still, before he earned tenure, he blogged under a pseudonym.

Also true, which I've gone into a few times around here. Really no different than any other extracurricular pursuit that involves public writing or speaking; what you say outside the halls of academe will have some impact on what your peers think of you. Blogs are a bit more extemporaneous though, so there's more possibilities for paper trails of your thoughts. Plus, "the internet" sort of garnered a rep as a wild west sort of place, full of crackpots and losers (ahem) so there's also the general negative image you have to work against.

I think an even better function for an academiblog would be class-related. Sort of an adjunct to lectures where the prof could add anything he/she left out in a lecture and answer any student questions that come up outside of class. That way everyone could see the answers and you could do it without formal office hours.

Indiana Jones update A review here by someone who has supposedly seen the movie. Doesn't sound too promising and the reviewer wasn't thrilled. Supposed spoilers, too so beware.

Here's the official site, too. Got some behind-the-scenes stuff. Nice house. . . . .

Archaeologists uncover caveman bling

Archaeologists have uncovered shells used for finery by prehistoric man 85,000 years ago in a cave in eastern Morocco, the country's heritage institute said today.

A research team led by archaeology and heritage institute (INSAP) member Abdeljalil Bouzouggar and Nick Barton from Oxford University found the 20 perforated shells in a cave near Taforalt between March and April this year.

The Nassarius gibbosulus shells are the type prehistoric man would have worn, according to a statement from the Moroccan Ministry for Culture.

talian builders uncover 2,000-year-old tombs

ARCHAEOLOGISTS were yesterday celebrating the discovery of 27 2,000-year-old tombs in Italy's "Valley of the Dead".
The tombs, some dating back to the 7th century BC, were found by chance while builders carried out work.

The whole area was sealed off yesterday and put under police guard to prevent anyone from trying to steal artefacts inside the burial chambers.

Archaeologists find Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia

Archaeologists believe they have found the Queen of Sheba's palace at Axum, Ethiopia and an altar which held the most precious treasure of ancient Judaism, the Ark of the Covenant, the University of Hamburg said Wednesday. Scientists from the German city made the startling find during their spring excavation of the site over the past three months.

The Ethiopian queen was the bride of King Solomon of Israel in the 10th century before the Christian era. The royal match is among the memorable events in the Bible.

Ethiopian tradition claims the Ark, which allegedly contained Moses' stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were written, was smuggled to Ethiopia by their son Menelek and is still in that country.

Taking a stab at archaeology in the Slim Buttes

Northwestern South Dakota might appear to be on the road to nowhere. That would - and would not - be true since mixed in with the miles of wide-open ranch terrain you'll find Highway 85, the "Can-Am Highway," which stretches across the U.S. into Canada.

Also, you'll find a few, scattered units of the Custer National Forest. With the consolidation of Forest Service units, this one's headquarters are clear over in Billings, Mont. Yes, it's quite a ways from anywhere. Facilities are almost non-existent with little to no usage.

Therefore, I loved the area.

Neat article. Not a while lot of archaeology there, but worth a read nonetheless.

Amateur archaeologists find minor items at Mill Race dig

Joe Brodzik might not have uncovered any dinosaur bones at historic Mill Race Village, but he wasn't disappointed.

The amateur archaeologist from Northville, led a dig on Sunday, April 20, in an area of the village where the General Store is to be erected.

The dig took place because workers had to remove some ground for the store's basement.

"They did dig down into the historical layer called the fill layer," Brodzik said.

Marine archaeologists survey Manatee River

eff Moates and Coz Cozzi went searching for Manatee River history Wednesday.

It may take a few days to measure their success.

The maritime archaeologists took a Boston whaler jammed with nautical research equipment to survey three sites as part of a multi-agency project to determine their historical value.

Plantation to house archaeology research

The Smithsonian Institution announced yesterday that it has purchased 575 acres of farmland in Anne Arundel County, including the ruins of a historic tobacco plantation, that will be turned into an archaeology research site the public can visit.

The roughly 300-year-old Contee Farm off Route 468 on the Rhode River will become part of the adjacent Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, which has been conducting studies into Chesapeake Bay ecology and other subjects for 43 years, officials said.

Rare finds from long ago

They are rare artefacts that shed light on those who lived in the Norfolk landscape centuries ago.

The stash of coins and jewellery is set to be of immense value to archaeologists looking at the history of human activity in the area.

They were unearthed by archaeologists on a site earmarked for a large housing development near Dereham.

Roman coins, Saxon halfpennies, Venetian silver soldinos and even pre-historic flint and medieval clasps, buckles and brooches have been dug up on a four-acre piece of land at Church Close in Shipdham.

N.M. BLM looks to oil and gas to fund archaeology

Oil and gas developers could end up playing a big role in an effort by federal and state archaeologists to better understand the history of early human life among the sand dunes and grasslands of southeastern New Mexico.

The Bureau of Land Management announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement with the New Mexico Historic Preservation Division and the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation that will give oil and gas developers an option of funding excavation work and other studies rather than paying for archaeological surveys when they propose new development.

Hmmmm.

Typically, oil and gas developers hire a contract archaeologist to survey the area when they propose a project. If a site is found, it's documented and photographed. A developer can either move the project to avoid the site or pay to have the site excavated, which can be costly. Developers usually opt to move their projects, Fosberg said.

Under the new agreement, oil and gas developers who participate in the voluntary program will not have to pay for a survey but they will be required to pay a special fee that will go toward excavation and other research. The BLM expects to raise about $1 million a year.

I take that to mean that developers will be able to basically develop wherever they want, but pay a (yearly?) fee that will go into a basic research pool. Might make sense in an area that's already been heavily surveyed as this one has. I dunno, I'll have to think about this some more.

TV archaeologist Neil Oliver wants to reintroduce real heroes

NEIL Oliver says he has never done anything brave in his life - and that the same can be said for most modern blokes. So it was with an air of awe that he wrote a book about "manly men".

. . .

But the 41-year-old insists his efforts don't even come close to the heroics he writes about in Amazing Tales For Making Men Out Of Boys.

In it, he recounts the antics of World War II's The Cockleshell Heroes and the Battle of Britain.

Another one not doing much with archaeology, but good for him anyway.

Sticks nix hicks. . . .ummmm. . . Jez Nelson on Space Is the Place by Sun Ra

Space Is the Place combines many of the elements that make Ra’s music unique. It swings like classic jazz, features supremely accomplished but off-kilter musicianship, and has a catchy melody wrapped in a futuristic and crazy soundscape. The whole thing is finished off with imagery and messages drawn from Egyptology and Saturn - the planet Ra claimed was his home.

Nothing really to do with archaeology, but I liked the headline.

Students design archaeology site, local students dig and discover

Rapt, the young students started to dig, quiet with determination. As the fourth graders began to uncover the planted "artifacts," the silence ceased gradually. Excited by their discoveries, each student announced to the group what they had unearthed. They carefully recorded what they had found and where in the pit their finds were located.

"[The fourth graders] all seemed to understand the importance of the different tools and procedures involved, and a lot of them made really insightful observations about the things they found, which was a very important goal of our lessons," Kelly said.

Neat idea. I seem to recall a museum or two burying fake dinosaur bones and letting kids dig them up like that.

Stonehenge mystery hinges on unusual stones

Stonehenge's legends have been many. Some have said the devil bought the stones from a woman in Ireland; another story suggests they were placed on the plain by the fabled wizard Merlin; others have claimed that aliens built the monument and left it as a place for worship, or that Druids built it as a temple for sacrificial ceremonies.

"You could put 10 archaeologists in a room and you'd get at least 11 theories," said Dr. Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex Archaeology, a firm involved in the excavation, which was approved by English Heritage, which manages Stonehenge.

"I think the one thing everybody would agree on is that Stonehenge is a temple, which is easy to lose sight of in the kind of to-ing and fro-ing of ideas."

Good sentiment.

Spade gang hoping to unearth Kelly relics at Glenrowan

ARCHAEOLOGISTS will start a major month-long dig today on the site of Ned Kelly's doomed siege at Glenrowan.

Heritage Victoria is overseeing the project involving six professional archaeologists, a conservator and 40 student volunteers.

They hope to map out the site and find relics of the Glenrowan Inn, which police burnt down on June 28, 1880, in a bid to flush out the Kelly Gang — Ned, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart — after it had kept 60 locals hostage.

Budding archeaologists aren't hunting a Dr. Jones lifestyle

The world’s most famous archaeologist does little genuine archaeology.

“We don’t carry guns or whips. There’s no running from boulders. We might run from some indigenous people,” said ISU senior Ben Orcutt, “but archaeology is a science.

“I do have a nice hat like that, though,” he added.

Yes, I have one, too. I just wear it in the rain (or snow) though. I tried once in Egypt but the darn thing was too hot. A hard hat works much better.

Blogging update Back at it. Been dealing with a minor car accident (NOT my Mustang) and getting that wretched paper finalized. Posting will resume as soon as. . . .well, as soon as I quit typing this and start posting. . . .

Recent-ish archaeology "Everybody you see in that picture is probably dead. Except one."

I like the harsh content of old photographs. There's often a truth to them that all the careful curating of our soppy era cannot obfuscate. Things are as they are, not as some wish they might have been. Lovers stare without smiles. The hands charred by hard work and harsh soil are seen sharp. The child in the coffin is dead. What you see is what they had. What you see is what we've lost.

Neat little article. I know the museum. I went to it once, but it obviously didn't make such a big impression on me since I haven't ever been back. (Via Insty)

Hawks has an extended discussion of the 70k "bottleneck" paper from a while back.

Neanderthal update Neanderthals were separate species, says new human family tree

A new, simplified family tree of humanity, published on Sunday, has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears.

Neanderthals were a separate species to Homo sapiens, as anatomically modern humans are known, rather than offshoots of the same species, the new organigram published by the journal Nature declares.

The method, invented by evolutionary analysts in Argentina, marks a break with the conventional technique by which anthropologists chart the twists and turns of the human odyssey.

45-Foot Ancient Canoe Stuck In The Muck Of Weedon Island

Stuck somewhere in the muck of Weedon Island is a significant piece of history.

A 45-foot canoe, buried for more than a thousand years and used by a long-dead culture of Native Americans, worked its way to the surface, and now authorities are trying to figure out how best to preserve it.
Story continues below ↓advertisement

The vessel is carved out of a single pine tree, and archaeologists say it was used to paddle over the open waters of the bay — unlike the other ancient canoes uncovered in Florida over the years, which were used to ply the calmer waters of lakes and rivers.

More on those Hunduran textiles here.

Archaeological treasures being 'left exposed in open-air sites'

The Roads Authority says it expects to spend €300m on archaeological digs over the life span of Transport 21.

"It's like a conveyor belt at the moment, it won't stop. The museum is even telling archaeologists not to give them any more material," said the Fine Gael Deputy.

"We have a wealth of knowledge lying in an undocumented heap exposed to the elements or buried in an Indiana Jones-like crypt in. It really is appalling. People are on their hands and knees picking material out of sites and then it's being dumped in a heap."

Our Celtic roots lie in Spain and Portugal

THE Welsh have more in common with sun-kissed glamour pusses like actress Penelope Cruz and footballer Christiano Ronaldo than pale- faced Germans like Helmet Kohl, according to an academic.

Professor John Koch suggests the Welsh can trace their ancestry back to Portugal and Spain, debunking the century-old received wisdom that our forebears came from Iron Age Germany and Austria.

His radical work on Celtic origins flatly contradicts the writing of Sir John Rhys, who in the late 19th century established the idea that we originally came from central Europe.

Indiana Jones update

Well, the big marketing push has started:

Full image here.

There's a special Indiana Jones Adventure Spoon in the Frosted Flakes but I haven't opened them yet. Actually, I haven't opened either one yet. I'll probably leave the Indiana Jones cereal closed thus making it extremely valuable in 20 years (along with my box of Flutie Flakes) (yeah, right). The box also advertises special Indiana Jones Pop-Tarts which I will also have to purchase. I'll eat those, though.

More to come, surely.

The Androgynous Pharaoh? Akhenaten had feminine physique

Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine, which has puzzled experts for years. And he was a bit of an egghead.

Dr. Irwin Braverman, a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten, has a new theory on why. He'll be presenting his findings at an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the ailments and deaths of historic figures.

The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh's body to convert more male hormones to female hormones than needed, Braverman believes. And Akhenaten's head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.

At first I thought it was just another Marfan's idea, but he's pushing gynecomastia. Apparently, not a new idea either as I found an older (1980) paper on it here.

Non-archaeology post The Flash is back. ?

Okay, admittedly, I didn't even know that he was gone. Despite the fact that he was my favorite superhero when I was a kid, I didn't read the comics after the mid-70s or so. So, what, 23 years ago. . .1985. Yeah, I was a hopeless drunk by then, so no comic books.

They made a short-lived but very stylish TV series on him in the late '80s though, I believe.

Tse-whit-zen artifacts languish in storage

No one questions the discoveries — artifacts from a 2,700-year-old Native American village excavated from the Port Angeles waterfront amid great public interest — should be exhibited, analyzed and celebrated.

But the 900 boxes of artifacts — such things as spindle whorls carved from whale vertebrae, along with animal bones and shell fragments — remain hung up in a bureaucratic no man's land. Questions about who owns and controls access to the collection are still in dispute.

And there's also another all-too-familiar problem when the government gets involved: The money to study the collection evaporated.

My first thought was that someone ought to be applying for an NSF grant to look at the stuff and sure enough, someone is.

A not yet stale cliche Archaeologists still sifting through the sands of time

Even though the Hohokam site known as Honey Bee Village in Oro Valley already has provided rich data, archaeologists say more surprises may be in store.
"There is so much we still do not know about the Hohokam," said Henry Wallace, a senior research archaeologist at Desert Archaeology Inc. whose work on the site goes back to the mid-1980s.
"Most of the really interesting stuff will come out of the analysis," Wallace said.

Several artifact photos (good quality, too).

Sorta kinda archaeology DNA confirms IDs of czar's children, ending mystery

For nine decades after Bolshevik executioners gunned down Czar Nicholas II and his family, there were no traces of the remains of Crown Prince Alexei, the hemophiliac heir to Russia's throne.

Some said the delicate 13-year-old had somehow survived and escaped; others believed his bones were lost in Russia's vastness, buried in secret amid fear and chaos as the country lurched into civil war.

Now an official says DNA tests have solved the mystery by identifying bone shards found in a forest as those of Alexei and his sister, Grand Duchess Maria.

This little story has fascinated me for a while. I have no idea why, I'm not really a Russia buff or anything.

Concrete pyramid update Pyramids packed with fossil shells

Many of Egypt's most famous monuments, such as the Sphinx and Cheops pyramid at Giza, contain hundreds of thousands of marine fossils, according to a new study.

Most of the fossils are intact and preserved in the monument walls, giving clues to how the monuments were built.

The authors suggest the stones that make up the Giza plateau, Fayum and Abydos monuments must have been carved out of natural stone as they reveal what chunks of the sea floor must have looked like over 4000 years ago, when the buildings were erected.

Well, there's this whopper: "There is no evidence known that suggests the ancient Egyptians had cranes," he says. "Without cranes, it is difficult to imagine how they could have lifted giant stones, some as heavy as 200 tonnes."

Continental rift

Most scientists accept that humanity originally evolved in Africa. About 2m years ago, our predecessors Homo erectus - tall, tool-making, small-skulled apemen - emerged from the continent and began spreading around the Old World. But what came next is hotly disputed.

Not much new there, just a short summary.

Cave woman is laid to rest after 1,900 years

THE remains of a woman have been laid to rest in a hidden location in the Yorkshire Dales – about 1,900 years after she died.
She was returned in a special ceremony to the mysterious limestone cave where she was discovered by two Yorkshire divers more than a decade ago.

Phillip Murphy, an academic at Leeds University, and his friend Andrew Goddard found the woman's skull by chance during a diving mission at the cave, dubbed the Wolf Den, in 1997.

Canaveral National Seashore's Turtle Mound survives

Scores of Native American mounds have been lost through time, but the one thought to be the nation's highest -- Canaveral National Seashore's Turtle Mound -- survived.

Preservation of the mound has saved many of its secrets, clues to the past never unearthed.

That's why archaeologists and park rangers are excited to learn as much as they can from new holes dug into the massive oyster-shell pile last week.

Pretty good article and it's got a video, too. What was with the post-hole diggers?

Sunflower Debate Ends in Mexico, Researchers Say

Ancient farmers were growing sunflowers in Mexico more than 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived, according to a team of researchers that includes Florida State University anthropologist Mary D. Pohl.

In an article published in the journal PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), Pohl and lead author David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati said their evidence confirms that farmers began growing sunflowers in Mexico by 2600 B.C. The paper is in response to scientists who still believe that sunflowers were first domesticated as an agricultural crop in eastern North America and that the Spaniards introduced the sunflower to Mexico from further north.

“The evidence shows that sunflower was actually domesticated twice -- in Mexico and then again hundreds of miles away in the Middle Mississippi Valley,” Pohl said.

You Are What You Eat? Maybe Not for Ancient Man

Careful analysis of microscopic abrasions on the teeth of early human “cousins” by resesarchers at Johns Hopkins, University of Arkansas, Cambridge University and Stony Brook University show that although equipped with thick enamel, large jaws and powerful chewing muscles, this ancient species may not have eaten the nuts, seeds or roots their anatomy suggests. Instead, the tooth wear suggests a more general diet, as reported in next week’s Public Library of Science One.

“For so many years we’ve operated under the assumption that the shape of something’s teeth, jaws and skull tells us what they habitually ate,” says Mark Teaford, Ph.D., a professor of anatomy at Hopkins’ Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution. “But it seems like we had the wrong idea-just because they’re capable of eating hard foods doesn’t mean that they did-it really makes us rethink some of our basic assumptions.”

Which is interesting. Also, more here. I suppose the shape of the jaw and skull and what not could still be an adaptation for the ability to eat hard (less desirable) foods, just not on a regular basis. I.e., selected for in times of scarcity.

UPDATE: See also this on Neanderthal diet.

GLOUCESTER'S ROMAN MASS GRAVE SKELETONS WERE PLAGUE VICTIMS

A mass Roman grave, discovered in Gloucester in 2005, may have contained the victims of an acute disease of epidemic proportions, possibly plague.

This is the startling conclusion to a new report by Oxford Archaeology and archaelogical consultancy CgMs, who have been conducting an 18-month programme of scientific study on the grave, which contained around 91 skeletons.

Few photos at the link.

Well, this doesn't look good Regarding this story making various blog rounds about a couple of parents who had their child taken into protective custody for giving the kid and alcoholic beverage:

If you watch much television, you've probably heard of a product called Mike's Hard Lemonade.

And if you ask Christopher Ratte and his wife how they lost custody of their 7-year-old son, the short version is that nobody in the Ratte family watches much television.

The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.

Even if, in hindsight, that decision seems a bit, um, idiotic.

Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan, which means that, on a given day, he's more likely to be excavating ancient burial sites in Turkey than watching "Dancing with the Stars" - or even the History Channel, for that matter.

No comment on the actual merits of the whole imbroglio. But PLEASE, my fellow academicians, pay some attention to popular culture! Force yourself to watch one hour of MTV per week so you can at least know that when someone wants to "chop it up with you" they're not discussing vegetable preparation.

About 15 years ago I took a class on Rome and the (quite older) professor asked the class for the name of a currently popular musical group and someone suggested Guns 'n Roses. "Guns And Roses? Well, all right. I'll trust that if you say there is a group of this name that there actually is." Kind of quaintly humorous, but lawdy it feeds the stereotype.

OTOH, it might look weirder to have your 50-something prof actually know what Panic! At The Disco is. . . . .

Blogging note: Kind of light posting for this week as I am in the final throes of a paper preparation and have an all-day conference tomorrow (Wed).

ArchaeoForum update Two notes:

1) The anti-spam device seems to be working, so no fear of popping over only to see a thousand posts advertising [censored].

2) Kat has a post in the Old World section inquiring about the role of thesis people.

Neanderthal update Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

Neanderthals living in southwestern France 55,000 to 40,000 years ago mostly ate red meat from extinct ancestors of modern bison, cattle and horses, according to a new study on a large, worn Neanderthal tooth.

The extinct hominids were not above eating every edible bit of an animal, since they were dining for survival, explained Teresa Steele, one of the study's co-authors.

While a steak dinner "is probably the closest modern comparison," Steele said, "remember too that they were consuming all parts of the animals, definitely the bone marrow and probably also the organs, not just the 'prime cuts.'"

Buried Dogs Were Divine "Escorts" for Ancient Americans

Hundreds of prehistoric dogs found buried throughout the southwestern United States show that canines played a key role in the spiritual beliefs of ancient Americans, new research suggests.

Throughout the region, dogs have been found buried with jewelry, alongside adults and children, carefully stacked in groups, or in positions that relate to important structures, said Dody Fugate, an assistant curator at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Fugate has conducted an ongoing survey of known dog burials in the area, and the findings suggest that the animals figured more prominently in their owners' lives than simply as pets, she said.

Lost civilization hillock (hillock? yes, hillock). . .found
ANGLO-SAXON MOUND FIND IN SHERWOOD FOREST

A Mysterious mound in Notts that was once thought to mark the boundary of two Anglo-Saxon kingdoms is to be investigated by historians, the Forestry Commission has said.

Known as Thynghowe, the hillock was only discovered three years ago in the Birklands area of Sherwood Forest by former teacher Lynda Mallet and her husband Stuart Reddish.

With their friend John Wood, the couple used an original 19th Century perambulation document to find Thynghowe, which is believed to be an ancient meeting place dating back to Viking times.

Ancient erotic sculpture found in Jharkhand

A 45 cm tall ancient statue, similar to the ones found at the Konark Sun temple and Khajurao, has been found by the Archaeological Survey of India from Benisagar in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district, indicating existence of yet another undiscovered temple.

"We stumbled on the erotic figure during a scientific clearance work by the Ranchi circle of ASI recently, Superintendent Archaeologist, T J Baidya, said here.

The statue, which could date back to the 12th century, was found at the Benisagar, which is close to the Orissa border, he said.

For an artist's conception of what the EROTIC SCULPTURE may have looked like, click here.

Ancient settlement uncovered at Carwood Farm

BIGGAR Archaeology Group have discovered the location of an ancient 5000-6000-year-old settlement site in a ploughed field at Carwood Farm near the town.

After only two days walking ploughed fields to look for evidence of the past, an annual Spring event for the group, the ancient site was located.

Tam Ward, group leader, explained: “Last year we found a few flints at this location, and this time the first thing we noticed on the ground were carbonised hazel nut shells and bits of pottery.

CSI: Oslo


Vikings acquitted in 100-year-old murder mystery

Tests of the bones of two Viking women found in a buried longboat have dispelled 100-year-old suspicions that one was a maid sacrificed to accompany her queen into the afterlife, experts said on Friday.

The bones indicated that a broken collarbone on the younger woman had been healing for several weeks -- meaning the break was not part of a ritual execution as suspected since the 22-metre (72 ft) long Oseberg ship was found in 1904.

"We have no reason to think violence was the cause of death," Per Holck, professor of anatomy at Oslo University, told Reuters after studying the two women who died in 834 aged about 80 and 50.

UNLESS SHE WAS POISONED.

Ancient Maya Tomb Yields "Amazing" Fabrics

Fabric fragments excavated from the tomb of an ancient Maya queen rival modern textiles in their complexity and quality, scientists say.

The tomb was discovered in the Maya city of Copán in Honduras by a team led by archaeologist Robert Sharer of the University of Pennsylvania.

Researchers believe the queen, whose name is not known, was buried in the fifth century A.D.

Unfortunately, they don't say how the textile was preserved. Kinda neat though. Textiles are one of those subdisciplines I never took much interest in.

More trepaning news Incan skull surgery

Prehistoric trepanation in this part of South America consisted of four techniques, the scientists say. Practitioners cut out squares of bone, bored holes in the skull, scraped away bone to create an opening or made circular incisions to remove a plug of bone. Inca surgeons specialized in the latter two methods. Excavations, however, have not yielded trepanation instruments.

In pre-Inca times, only one-third of skull surgery patients survived the procedure, as indicated by short- or long-term healing around cranial openings. Survival rates rose to between 80 and 90 percent during the Inca era, from A.D. 1400 to 1532. Few skulls showed signs of infection near surgical holes.

Okay, I was expecting yet another "WOW, look at what these ancient people did!" story, but it's based on a paper in the AJPA so there's a bit more there than yer average gee-whiz article on trepanning.

An Urn or a Gravestone?

So I am torn. Do I want to leave this kind of solid evidence of myself for future archaeologists? Or do I take the more ecologically benign route of cremation and scattered ashes?

I'm going for the burial myself. I've thought about doing something really weird, like having myself buried with a bowling ball next to my head and a chicken on either side. I could go to my grave knowing that at some point a future colleague will furrow their brow and say "Must have some ritual significance."

Archaeologists, time unearth historical burial site on island

Under less than ideal settings with a brisk south wind blowing and pushing waves toward the shores of the Mississippi Sound, part of Pascagoula's history was uncovered.

While hunting along the banks of the land masses and islands that line the mouth of Bayou Casotte, local fisherman and artist Pete Floyd came upon two wooden boxes partially submerged in the salty water. Upon closer inspection, he determined that the boxes were in the shape of coffins and one had a lid still attached.

"I was looking for large barnacles for my birdhouses," Floyd said. "There was a piece of wood sticking out of the water. When I moved it, I saw the wooden boxes."

Archaeologist responds to find

Finding stone artifacts that are approximately 4,000 years old is not just rare, it’s never happened in Littleton, said Martin Dudek of J. Milner Associates, an archaeological consulting firm on Great Road.

“I’ve never seen stone axes that are found on private property,” said Dudek after confirming that five-year-old Dalton Blake dug up two Native American tools in his grandmother’s backyard earlier this month.

Dudek said artifacts like those are usually found in collections, historical societies or farms.

Remains found at toll road site

Human remains have been uncovered by workers laying gas pipes alongside Durham City's toll road barrier.

The bones and skulls are thought to be medieval and may be part of an old graveyard attached to the nearby St Nicholas' Church.

Work has been suspended while archaeologists from the Tyne and Wear Museums Service investigate.

Durham County Council has withdrawn the road toll temporarily, although limited access to the city centre remains.

Archaeologists in Fiji discover a three thousand year old pot

Archaeologists in Fiji are marvelling at the discovery of a 3,000 year-old pot containing jewellery.

The pot contained shell jewellery believed to have been made by the Lapita people and was found at Bourewa on Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu.

The Lapita people are thought by archaeologists to be the first colonists of much of the Pacific, and their unusual pottery has been discovered in a host of island groups.

Not much else there.

Archaeologists sift through storm-damaged Oakland Cemetery

They bent to their tasks, brand-new tools bright against the red dirt. What would the uprooted trees at Oakland Cemetery reveal?

Fragments of pottery, or maybe a Minié ball that killed a long-ago soldier?

Perhaps remains of the soldier himself?

Tuesday, archaeologists gathered at Oakland to prowl the path of the March 14 tornado. They came looking for whatever the root balls of toppled trees might reveal.

More on the concrete pyramids Tantalising new pyramid theory: they were built from concrete

IT IS a theory that gives indigestion to mainstream archaeologists: some of the immense blocks of Egypt's Great Pyramids might have been cast from synthetic material - the world's first concrete - not carved whole from quarries and hauled into place.

Such an innovation would have saved millions of man-hours of grunting and heaving in building the enigmatic edifices on the Giza Plateau.

Not exactly new though.

Lost civilization log road. . . .found Archaeologists find log road in Annapolis

Standing over one of the Colonial, brick sidewalks that help define Annapolis, the archaeologists began digging with trowels and shovels.

The team from the University of Maryland carved a 4-foot-long trench along a sidewalk at Fleet and Cornhill streets - two of the oldest in the historic district. Bagging and tagging artifacts along the way, they scraped through the powdered remains of a red brick sidewalk from 1820 and a black layer of wood chips from 1740.

Archaeology in popular culture watch


Full image here and link to the story here.

Study says near extinction threatened people 70,00 years ago

Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests. The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

"This study illustrates the extraordinary power of genetics to reveal insights into some of the key events in our species' history," Spencer Wells, National Geographic Society explorer in residence, said in a statement. "Tiny bands of early humans, forced apart by harsh environmental conditions, coming back from the brink to reunite and populate the world. Truly an epic drama, written in our DNA."

I have a memory tickle about a genetic bottleneck somewhere around that time, but I'm not sure if this has anything to do with that. Doesn't mean Homo almost bit it, just H.s.s.

Megafauna update Did a Significant Cool Spell Mark the Demise of Megafauna?

The end of the Pleistocene Epoch was marked with steadily warmer temperatures and the great ice age glaciers that covered vast areas of North America were in retreat.

Except for a 1,000-year period when things once again suddenly got remarkably colder, the cause of which is a mystery that researchers of the period have argued over for years.

Geologically, the start of this period is marked by a “black mat” of organically rich soil. Below the mat is the evidence of late Pleistocene flora and fauna, including the very large animals that once roamed across North America: mammoth and mastodons, dire wolves, horses, short-faced bears and others.

Hmmm. Gonna have to read that. There will be questions on the exact timing of various extinctions.

Bill Young - How deep should we look for evidence of first Americans?

Three sites in Texas have been discovered and at least partially excavated in the past 15 years yielding evidence of at least one culture older than Clovis. Most of the Clovis sites have been firmly dated to around 12,500 to 13,000 years ago. Not only did these Clovis sites yield projectile points of the very distinct Clovis type, the sites also yielded true blades and very large well- made thin preforms diagnostic of only the Clovis people.

The archeologists who have worked at some of these Clovis sites have consistently noted the Clovis people utilized a very specialized type of flint knapping when they were producing either points or blades. This technique of flaking is easily recognizable to researchers familiar with Clovis. I personally can recognize both the points and the blades but when it gets down to the chipping debris left at a Clovis site, I am only able to identify a few things.

Iron Age mystery of the 'Essex druid'

As sacred priests, their duties included teaching, law enforcement and possibly even burning people to death in giant wicker men. Druids dominated British culture with their mysterious magical rites in the centuries before the Roman invasion.

For such an important band of men, however – it could take 20 years to train to be a druid, according to some sources – hardly anything is known about them. That could be about to change now, though, after what is thought to be the first discovery in Britain of a druid grave.

The extraordinary find was made at the Essex village of Stanway, near Colchester. It is among a number of graves of eminent people interred around the time of the Roman invasion of Britain in AD43.