ArchaeoBlog

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

Yay, a new post was finally accepted. We've been having trouble lately getting things to actually post. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to get the latest out to you, our valued reader.

Mystery solved Mysteries of the mesa solved

Almost a century after these ancient Indian ruins became a national park in 1906, strange earthen formations near the cliff and mesa-top dwellings continued to puzzle and divide scientists, until recently.
One mysterious dirt mound, 200 feet across, rises 16 feet above the floor of Morefield
Canyon. A 1,400-foot path or channel extends from it, making it resemble an upside-down frying pan with a long, flat handle.
And then there was the large depression in the park's heart on Chapin Mesa. It was labeled for years as either a prehistoric amphitheater or perhaps an impoundment of water — nicknamed Mummy Lake — with no known source of water.
Now, scientists know the depression was part of an elaborate water storage system and have dubbed it Far View Reservoir. And Morefield Canyon's elevated mound, which does not resemble a reservoir, was a storage facility that could have held 120,000 gallons of water.

We think this is fascinating. There was also a story several years ago of some archaeologists studying some odd trench features associated with raised-field agriculture in South America. No one really knew what the function of the trenches were other than irrigation and protecting the planted parts from the high ground water. Turns out the water in the tranches retained some heat from the day and prevented frost from ruining the crops.

Here's a link to the guy who did this work. Explanation of raised-field agriculture from page 3 of this link:

Raised fields are large artificial platforms of soil created to protect crops from flooding. They are generally found in areas of permanent high water table or seasonal flooding. The addition of earth for drainage also increases the depth of the rich topsoil available to plants. In the process of building raised fields, canals are excavated adjacent to and between fields. These depressions fill with water during the growing season and provide irrigation when necessary. Decomposing aquatic plants and nutrients captured in the canals provide a fertile "muck" or "green manure" for periodically renewing the soils of the platforms. We found that in the high Andes where "killer" frost is a serious problem at night, the water in the canals of raised fields helps to store thesun’s heat and blanket the fields in warm air at night—protecting crops against the cold. Raised fields have been found to be highly productive, and if managed properly, can be planted and harvested for many years.

It's not often archaeology can be used to actually improve the lives of existing people. But in this case at least ancient agricultural methods have been resurrected and turn out to be more appropriate for the area than more modern techniques.

Buckeye rocks An ancient quarry: Indians found high-quality, colored stones at Ohio site

Little-known Flint Ridge may be the most important historical site in Ohio, but it's a place that's unfamiliar to most people.Flint Ridge State Memorial in southeast Licking County marks the site where ancient Indians quarried brightly colored flint, starting 11,000 or more years ago.

The Indians needed razor-sharp flint for tools, weapons, ceremonial objects and jewelry, and
Flint Ridge offered high-quality stone in a rainbow of colors: pink, gray, white, black and copper.

The Ohio flint had a high quartz content, flecked with crystals that made it shine when polished by the Hopewell Indians.

Oops Lost letter spells heritage 'disaster'

A DEVELOPMENT which archaeologists claim could destroy thousands of years of Welsh history was given the go- ahead because a letter went missing.

Monmouth Archaeological Society is dismayed an extension to a business on Monmouth's Monnow Street is taking place without, they allege, proper precautions to protect the town's heritage.

They claim permission was granted for the property to be modified without an archaeological evaluation first taking place and that no requirement was made for the developers to have an expert on site.

. . .

Monmouthshire County Council's head of planning said a letter was sent to umbrella group Glamorgan and Gwent Archaeological Trust but it never arrived.

See? If they only used email. . . .

Hmmm. Searching for the 'Mayan Atlantis'

A team of international archaeologists have set sail from Mexico to seek a sunken city that has been dubbed the "Mayan Atlantis", press reports said on Monday.

Quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenio, team leader Paulina Zelintzky, a Russian archaeologist, said sonar equipment had given indications there could be ancient structures on the ocean floor between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba.

According to Milenio, resonances showed geometric images similar to pyramids and round structures. The archaeologists will search the area using a mini-submarine known as "Deep Worker".

Signs there could be Mayan remains on the seabed first surfaced in 2000 when the area next to Cuba's westernmost tip was being explored for petroleum.

Before beginning their project, the archaeologists had to raise $2-million (about R13-million). They set sail from the port of Progreso in eastern Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. - Spa-dpa

That's the whole thing. We're rather dubious of this since many geological features can be mistaken for man-made objects. Besides being excellent pattern-recognition animals, the old adage that nature abhors right angles (in addition to a vaccuum) is not really true.

At least they could still dance. . . Artifacts a field of dreams for Mexican village

The ancestors on the hill left no written record. Until a team of Chicago archaeologists came, nobody really thought much about them. And, strangely, some of the urns they left behind showed supernatural figures with two left hands. (hint hint -- Ed.)

Nevertheless, this small village hopes a connection with the 6th century Zapotec community on the nearby hilltop will help preserve their 21st century future, or at least keep some of the teenagers from leaving for Los Angeles.

Good news from Afghanistan Afghan archaeology on road to recovery

Persian and Hellenistic strata uncovered in Bagram (ancient Kapissa) were bulldozed into the ground and destroyed. The Great Buddha from the Bamiyan Valley was dynamited. Everywhere the Taliban destroyed anything that told a story about Afghanistan's cultural and historical heritage, predating their particularly sectarian version of "history."

Now Afghanistan is recovering from years of war and civil strife. Seventy years of hard work and research have been lost through the chaos and anarchy of war. The central government had become so weak that it was not in a position to protect any public or state properties. In the early 1990's, over 60,000 citizens of Kabul died in the fighting, and nearly 70 percent of the objects in the National Museum were plundered.

Remember this when you read yet another story on the Iraq museum and archaeology.

Mystery solved Mysteries of the mesa solved

Almost a century after these ancient Indian ruins became a national park in 1906, strange earthen formations near the cliff and mesa-top dwellings continued to puzzle and divide scientists, until recently.
Image
One mysterious dirt mound, 200 feet across, rises 16 feet above the floor of Morefield Canyon. A 1,400-foot path or channel extends from it, making it resemble an upside-down frying pan with a long, flat handle.
And then there was the large depression in the park's heart on Chapin Mesa. It was labeled for years as either a prehistoric amphitheater or perhaps an impoundment of water — nicknamed Mummy Lake — with no known source of water.
Now, scientists know the depression was part of an elaborate water storage system and have dubbed it Far View Reservoir. And Morefield Canyon's elevated mound, which does not resemble a reservoir, was a storage facility that could have held 120,000 gallons of water.

Raised fields are large artificial platforms of soil created to protect crops from flooding. They are generally found in areas of permanent high water table or seasonal flooding. The addition of earth for drainage also increases the depth of the rich topsoil available to plants. In the process of building raised fields, canals are excavated adjacent to and between fields. These depressions fill with water during the growing season and provide irrigation when necessary. Decomposing aquatic plants and nutrients captured in the canals provide a fertile "muck" or "green manure" for periodically renewing the soils of the platforms. We found that in the high Andes where "killer" frost is a serious problem at night, the water in the canals of raised fields helps to store thesun’s heat and blanket the fields in warm air at night—protecting crops against the cold. Raised fields have been found to be highly productive, and if managed properly, can be planted and harvested for many years.

Little-known Flint Ridge may be the most important historical site in Ohio, but it's a place that's unfamiliar to most people.

Flint Ridge State Memorial in southeast Licking County marks the site where ancient Indians quarried brightly colored flint, starting 11,000 or more years ago.

The Indians needed razor-sharp flint for tools, weapons, ceremonial objects and jewelry, and Flint Ridge offered high-quality stone in a rainbow of colors: pink, gray, white, black and copper.

The Ohio flint had a high quartz content, flecked with crystals that made it shine when polished by the Hopewell Indians.

Oops Lost letter spells heritage 'disaster'

A DEVELOPMENT which archaeologists claim could destroy thousands of years of Welsh history was given the go- ahead because a letter went missing.

Monmouth Archaeological Society is dismayed an extension to a business on Monmouth's Monnow Street is taking place without, they allege, proper precautions to protect the town's heritage.

They claim permission was granted for the property to be modified without an archaeological evaluation first taking place and that no requirement was made for the developers to have an expert on site.

. . .

Monmouthshire County Council's head of planning said a letter was sent to umbrella group Glamorgan and Gwent Archaeological Trust but it never arrived.

See? If they only used email. . . .

Hmmm. Searching for the 'Mayan Atlantis'

A team of international archaeologists have set sail from Mexico to seek a sunken city that has been dubbed the "Mayan Atlantis", press reports said on Monday.

Quoted by the Mexican newspaper Milenio, team leader Paulina Zelintzky, a Russian archaeologist, said sonar equipment had given indications there could be ancient structures on the ocean floor between Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and Cuba.

According to Milenio, resonances showed geometric images similar to pyramids and round structures. The archaeologists will search the area using a mini-submarine known as "Deep Worker".

Signs there could be Mayan remains on the seabed first surfaced in 2000 when the area next to Cuba's westernmost tip was being explored for petroleum.

Before beginning their project, the archaeologists had to raise $2-million (about R13-million). They set sail from the port of Progreso in eastern Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula. - Sapa-dpa

The ancestors on the hill left no written record. Until a team of Chicago archaeologists came, nobody really thought much about them. And, strangely, some of the urns they left behind showed supernatural figures with two left hands. (hint hint -- Ed.)

Nevertheless, this small village hopes a connection with the 6th century Zapotec community on the nearby hilltop will help preserve their 21st century future, or at least keep some of the teenagers from leaving for Los Angeles.

Good news from Afghanistan Afghan archaeology on road to recovery

Persian and Hellenistic strata uncovered in Bagram (ancient Kapissa) were bulldozed into the ground and destroyed. The Great Buddha from the Bamiyan Valley was dynamited. Everywhere the Taliban destroyed anything that told a story about Afghanistan's cultural and historical heritage, predating their particularly sectarian version of "history."

Now Afghanistan is recovering from years of war and civil strife. Seventy years of hard work and research have been lost through the chaos and anarchy of war. The central government had become so weak that it was not in a position to protect any public or state properties. In the early 1990's, over 60,000 citizens of Kabul died in the fighting, and nearly 70 percent of the objects in the National Museum were plundered.

Remember this when you read yet another story on the Iraq museum and archaeology.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

We'll have more news up later on today, as we are a bit off from a profound lack of sleep last night, not to mention numerous other duties commanding our attention (much less important, but far more urgent than the latest archaeological news, we assure you). To whet your appetites we forward the following posting from the EEF as a follow-up on a story posted here in the recent past regarding an Arab scholar who apparently had decoded Egyptian hieroglyphs several hundred years before those in the West (original article here). Aayko Eyma reports that these two pieces are "A press release of the UCL on which the inaccurate Observer report was based but with the usual media spices added and a statement by Dr. Okasha El Daly in answer to media enquires."

UCL Press release
3 October 2004

Hieroglyphics cracked 1,000 years earlier than thought
Western scholars were not the first to decipher the ancient language of the
pharaohs, according to a new book that will be published later this year by
a UCL researcher.

Dr Okasha El Daly of UCL's Institute of Archaeology will reveal that Arabic
scholars not only took a keen interest in ancient Egypt but also correctly
interpreted hieroglyphics in the ninth century AD - almost 1,000 years
earlier than previously thought.

It has long been thought that Jean-Francois Champollion was the first person
to crack hieroglyphics in 1822 using newly discovered Egyptian antiquities
such as the Rosetta stone. But fresh analysis of manuscripts tucked away in
long forgotten collections scattered across the globe prove that Arabic
scholars got there first.

Dr Okasha El Daly, of UCL's Institute of Archaeology, explains:

"For two and a half centuries the study of Egyptology has been dominated by
a Euro-centric view, which has virtually ignored over a thousand years of
Arabic scholarship and enquiry encouraged by Islam.

"Prior to Napoleonic times little was known in the West about the ancient
civilisation of Egypt except what had been recorded in the Bible. It was
assumed that the world of the pharaohs had long since been forgotten by
Egyptians, who were thought to have been incorporated into the expanding
Islamic world by the seventh century.

"But this overhasty conclusion ignores the vast contribution of medieval
Arabic scholars and others between the seventh and 16th centuries. In
reality a huge corpus of medieval writing by both scholars and ordinary
people exists that dates from long before the earliest European Renaissance.

Analysis reveals that not only did Moslems have a deep interest in the study
of Ancient Egypt, they could also correctly decipher hieroglyphic script."

Following the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC the use of hieroglyphics
began to die out with the last known writing in the fifth century AD.

While Western medieval commentators believed that hieroglyphics were symbols
each representing a single concept Dr El Daly has shown that Arab scholars
grasped the fundamental principle that hieroglyphics could represent sounds
as well as ideas.

Using his unique expertise in both Egyptology and medieval Arabic writers,
Dr El Daly began a seven year investigation of Arabic writing on ancient
Egypt.

"The manuscripts were scattered worldwide in private as well as public
collections and were mostly not catalogued. Even when they were, they were
often wrongly classified so I had to go through each one individually - it
is not like researching in modern books with an index which you can check
for relevant information," says Dr El Daly.

"A specialist in only Arabic or Islamic studies reading these manuscripts
would fail to grasp their significance to Egyptology. Conversely
Egyptologists think that Arabs and Moslems had nothing useful to say about
ancient Egypt, so there wasn't any need to look at manuscripts that were
mainly the domain of scholars within the disciplines of Arabic/Oriental
studies."

The breakthrough in Dr El Daly's research came from analysis of the work of
Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Wahshiyah, a ninth century alchemist. Ibn Wahshiyah's
work on ancient writing systems showed that he was able to correctly
decipher many hieroglyphic signs. Being an alchemist not a linguist, his
primary interest was to identify the phonetic value and meaning of
hieroglyphic signs with the aim of accessing the ancient Egyptian scientific
knowledge inscribed in hieroglyphs.

"By comparing Ibn Wahshiyah's conclusions with those in current books on
Egyptian Language, I was able to assess his accuracy in understanding
hieroglyphic signs," says Dr El Daly.

"In particular I looked at the Egyptian Grammar of Sir Alan Gardiner which
has a sign list at the end, it revealed that Ibn Wahshiyah understood
perfectly well the nature of Egyptian hieroglyphs."

Dr El Daly added: "Western culture misinterprets Islam because we think
teaching before the Quran is shunned, which isn't the case. They valued
history and assumed that Egypt was a land of science and wisdom and as such
they wanted to learn their language to have access to such vast knowledge.

"Critically they did not, unlike the West, write history to fit with the
religious ideas of the time, which makes their accounts more reliable. They
were also keen on the universality of human history based on the unity of
the origin of human beings and the diversity of their appearance and
languages. Furthermore, there are likely to be many hidden manuscripts
dotted round the world that could make a significant contribution to our
understanding of the ancient world.

Dr Okasha El Daly is based in UCL's Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology,
one of the world's largest collections of artefacts covering thousands of
years of ancient Egyptian prehistory and history. On Wednesday 6 October UCL
launches the biggest university fundraising campaign, Advancing London's
Global University - the Campaign for UCL, which will seek to raise £300
million over the coming decade, including £25 million to build a purpose
built museum, the Panopticon, that will house UCL's collections of
Egyptology, art and rare books in an environment that preserves them for all
to see.

The Panopticon, which means 'all-visible' in Greek, will be unlike any other
museum in the UK because the entire collection will be on display and
publicly accessible. Other highlights will include works by Durer,
Rembrandt, Turner and Constable; an unrivalled collection of John Flaxman's
drawings and sculpture; the first edition of Milton's Paradise Lost and the
George Orwell archives.

(end of press release)

The short report in the Observer failed to mention that Ibn Wahishiyah is
one of several medieval Arabic scholars that I used for my research which
covered much wider issues. My main concern when I started almost a decade
ago, was to establish whether Moslems/Arabs ever too serious interest in the
study of Ancient Egypt and if so, what interested them most. The result was
beyond my expectations with several profound findings only one of them was
the issue of the correct decipherment of hieroglyphs. The most important
finding is simply the fact that they were so interested in anything ancient
Egyptian that they left behind countless number of studies still in
manuscript form waiting serious attention . I only scratched the surface.
One minor finding was that they reached a correct understanding of the
nature and function of hieroglyphic, that is not to say they understood
a whole text in hieroglyphs but they correctly identified the phonetic
value of several letters having understood in the first place that these
were not just pretty pictures. Moreover, in the case of Ibn Wahishiyah,
he understood that some hieroglyphic signs served as what he called
"determinatives" which is exactly what we call them in our modern
Egyptology studies. Please also get a copy of the following book
and read my chapter:

El Daly, O. (2003) Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings. In P. Ucko and
T. Champion (eds) The Wisdom of Egypt: changing visions through ages. UCL
Press. pp. 40-63.

You should be able to get a copy from the library or order one from your
local bookshop.
My main book based on my PhD these, will be published by the same press,
(University College London) UCL Press as Egyptology: The Missing
Millennium. Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings.
Hopefully it will be ready by early December 2004.

However here is a brief answer to some of your questions:
Ibn Wahishiya was an Iraqi alchemist who lived at the end of the
9th century and early 10th century, he wrote several books claiming
that he only translated them from ancient sources (dating to before Islam)
and among his books are ones on agriculture, poisons, magic..etc. But
one of his most remarkable is this book on Decipherment of Ancient
Scripts including ancient Egyptians. This book was translated by
Hammer into English and published in London 1806, 14 years
before Champollion announced his famous theory of deciphering hieroglyphs.
Ibn Wahishiya may have never seen Rosetta stone, but there are dozen
monuments in Egypt which had several languages/scripts inscribed on them, in
fact now in Cairo Museum there is an identical but complete one like Rosetta
stone. Even in Tehran Museum there is a famous statue of King Darius the
Great (5th century BC) which has hieroglyphic text as well as 3 more
languages. So objects likes these would have easily been available to Arab
scholars.
That he knew the correct phonetic (sound) value of many Egyptian hieroglyphs
is clear from his book but he went further understanding the function of
what we call in language studies "determinatives".

All these and the plates from unpublished Arabic manuscripts will be in my
forthcoming book mentioned above.

One of the plates already published in the above cited chapter of mine,
represents a medieval Arab attempt (by an Iraqi alchemist called
Abu Al-Qasim Al-Iraqi 14th century) to copy an ancient Egyptian
stela and it is clear that the copyist did very well considering that his
main interest is gaining alchemical knowledge since he was an
alchemist. But anybody who can read Egyptian hieroglyphs can easily
read most of this stela which has the name of King Amenemhat II, of the
12th Dynasty who reigned between 1922-1878 BCE.

Okasha El Daly

Dr. Okasha El Daly
Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology

Monday, October 11, 2004

Online paper alert David Meltzer has provided an (apparently free) link to a paper he co-authored with Mike Cannon on his web site. It's an examination of the early Paleoindian record with implications for terminal Pleistocene extinctions in North America:

Early Paleoindian foraging: examining the faunal evidence for large mammal specialization and regional variability in prey choice Michael D. Cannon and David J. Meltzer

North American archaeologists have spent much effort debating whether Early Paleoindian foragers were specialized hunters of megafauna or whether they pursued more generalized subsistence strategies. In doing so, many have treated the foraging practices of early North Americans as if they must have been uniform across the continent, even though others have pointed out that adaptations appear to have varied among groups inhabiting different kinds of environments. Resolving these issues fully requires referring to archaeofaunal data and evaluating those data critically. In this paper, we conduct such an evaluation of the existing Early Paleoindian faunal record, which we then use to test the hypothesis that early Americans across the continent specialized in the hunting of megafauna. After detailed attention is given to taphonomic issues, to the limited geographical distribution of sites with secure associations between humans and prey taxa, and to differences among sites in the roles that they likely played in settlement and subsistence systems, it becomes clear that the faunal record provides little support for the idea that all, or even any, Early Paleoindian foragers were megafaunal specialists. It does appear, however, that there was considerable variability in Early Paleoindian prey choice across the continent, which was likely related to variability in the environments that different groups inhabited.

Money quote: That is, there is no a priori reason why Clovis mammoth hunters of the plains and southwest, rather than, for example, early hunters of medium-sized artiodactyls in the northeast, should be used as a model for hunters in places where Early Paleoindian subsistence practices are, as of yet, largely unknown. Indeed, as we have noted, there is perhaps better faunal evidence to support the idea that the early inhabitants of the intermountain west focused their hunting on medium-sized artiodactyls like mountain sheep than there is to support a hypothesis of specialization on megafauna.

Thus, an assumption of continent-wide adaptive uniformity is not supported by the faunal record at hand. . . .

Sadly, a very close reading of the archaeological literature on many subjects reveals that often our notions of what actually took place are strongly influenced by what we think we know rather than what can be empirically demonstrated.

Repatriation update UK museums face controversial Ethiopian legacy

British Museum (BM) director Neil MacGregor has decided that there is one small group of objects within his care that no one, not even he, should be allowed to see. These are tabots, which are regarded by Ethiopian Christians as representing the original Ark of the Covenant, the wooden chest which once housed the Ten Commandments. The Ark was placed in the Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon in the 10th century BC, and the Ethiopian Orthodox church believes that it was later taken to Aksum, in the north of
the country.

Tabots are wooden tablets which must be hidden from view, and should only be seen by the senior clergy. It is highly sacrilegious for them to be viewed by other believers, let alone non-believers.

Upshot is that they (the BM) are working on perhaps a renewable 5-year-term loan (read: permanent) to the Church; the objects would be housed in a London church.

Medieval dentistry Medieval teeth 'better than Baldrick's'

Think of medieval England and you are likely to conjure up an image of a wizened hag with black stumps for teeth.

But although that might have been the unfortunate state of some people's teeth, others had much better care.

Documents show that, not only were the educationally elite aware of the importance of keeping their teeth clean, but they also knew how to fill cavities and deal with facial fractures.

They could recognise oral cancer and even knew the rudiments of teeth whitening.

Iron Age horse burial unearthed

A RARE ritual burial of four horses has been discovered in an area experts regard as a sacred landscape surrounding one of the most important prehistoric sites in the North of England.
Carbon dating shows the horses – lying nose to tail at Nosterfield Quarry close to Thornborough Henges, north of Ripon – were buried around 50AD, shortly after the Romans arrived in Britain.
The burial pit, or barrow, was found earlier this year as a team from Field Archaeological Specialists, based at York University, watched over the removal of topsoil at the sand and gravel quarry.
Zoo-archaeologist Steve Rowland, who uncovered them, said: "Two of the skeletons were virtually intact, but the other two had been accidentally damaged through ploughing of the land in previous years.

Book corner History Of Archaeology

Archaeology, or digging up History by scientific methods, yields three-dimensional clues about the Past, and then goes mute. It is accorded voice by the qualified diggers who sift through the disinterred ‘remains’ or decipher the stone and copper inscriptions to tell what these could have meant in times past, and their significance in the present. The most exacting of the historical crafts, it still requires a professional narrator—the Archaeologist, who second-guesses, surmises, collates, piecing together the shards and shreds to build a reasoned story.

What a great quote. We admit to knowing very little regarding Indian archaeology.

Pickin' over the Picayune Archaeology chapter digs for Picayune's past

Cloudy skies and a rain forecast didn't stop the approximately 20 archaeology enthusiasts from looking for relics from Picayune's past, particularly the past as associated with native Americans that lived in the area.

The archaeologists chose as the spot for their "dig" a high ridge overlooking Hobolochitto Creek near The Hermitage. They named the site of their dig after the property owner who is allowing them to study the spot, Huey Stockstill. The spot was selected because earlier scouting finds, such as pottery shards by Larry Pearson and other materials unearthed in a "shovel test" by Robert Reams, U.S. Forest Service archaeologist for the DeSoto National Forest District.

Historic find on building site

Historic artefacts dating back 3,500 years have been unearthed on a development site for luxury apartments near Loch Lomond.

The team of 15 archaeologists excavating the site believe they have uncovered settlements which include 7th century Christian cemeteries.

The plot has yielded objects spanning the Bronze and Ice Ages and early Christian and Medieval times.

The find includes cremation pots, jewellery and corn-drying kilns.

Heh: "It's cost us half a million quid paying the archaeologists, which is a planning requirement, but at least we'll have some good names for the golf course holes."

Give them free golf, too!

More here.

Black Sea update 7-Foot Robot Used in Black Sea Expedition

Four years ago, scientists thought they had found the perfect place to settle the Noah flood debate: A farmer's house on a bluff overlooking the Black Sea built about 7,500 years ago - just before tidal waves inundated the homestead, submerged miles of coastline and turned the freshwater lake into a salty sea.

Some believed the rectangular site of stones and wood could help solve the age-old question of whether the Black Sea's flooding was the event recounted in the Biblical story of Noah.

That story told of a calamitous flood occurring over 40 days and nights. Scientists had largely dismissed it, believing the Black Sea filled up gradually with gently rising waters. That wisdom was rocked, however, when two scholars claimed several years ago that the Black Sea's flooding was more recent - and so rapid and widespread that it forced people to move as far away as mainland Europe.

Scientists who in the summer of 2003 visited the underwater site off the northern Turkish coastal town of Sinop couldn't arrive at any conclusions. The settlement, about 330 feet underwater, was "contaminated" by wood that had drifted in, foiling any attempt to accurately date the ruin - and thus date the flood.

Darn it.

Make sure to check out Nat. Geo's Black Sea site as well.

Scientists search Chinese site for evidence of early man

Scientists have started drilling holes into the ground around the Peking Man site near Beijing in hopes of finding more relics from the ancient representative of the human race.

The project, jointly conducted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Electricite de France, aims to drill nine holes of up to 30 metres in depth, the Xinhua news agency reported.

The scientists hope the effort will result in evidence of early human activity in the area, as suggested by previous preliminary investigations, according to the agency.

The discovery of the 500,000-year-old Peking Man was one of the most decisive steps in the scientific quest to trace man's prehistoric development from the apes.

Since Peking Man was first unearthed in 1929, archaeologists have found fossils belonging to 40 different individuals and more than 100,000 stone implements and other objects.

The Zhoukoudian area, where the Peking Man's cave is located, was listed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation as a world heritage site in 1987.

That's the whole thing.

News from. . . .Bam!

Bam Ancient Body Remains Reach 36, Iran

The upsurge in the number of skeletons found in the surviving walls of the Bam Citadel, southern Iran, has tossed the biggest mystery for local archeologists in recent history.

Since 2 months ago, experts have exhumed over 36 remains buried inside the adobe walls of the 2,500-year-old fort, considered the world's biggest mud-brick structure prior to its almost complete devastation in a major earthquake last December.

"Most of the discovered remains belong to children and this has made us face an enormous puzzle. You could say it is the biggest mystery of the Bam Citadel since it has been academically studied," said Eskandar Mokhtari, head of the Project for Salvaging Bam.

That's the whole thing.

And more from Iran ran, US Set to Dig Rare Elamite City

A joint team of Iranian and American archeologists are set to start the latest season of excavation in the historical city of Enshan, left from the Elamite era.

It is one of the rare cities remained from the period and already numerous seasons of excavations have yielded precious artifacts.

Starting from next week, the experts hope to unravel some questions about the Iranian civilization up to the second millennium B.C., said Masoud Azarnoush, head of the research center at Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO).

Five American archeologists, some from the Pennsylvania University, would assist their Iranian counterparts in the latest season of excavation.

We've reported here on the recent moves by Iran to invite more archaeologists into the country. This is a positive development, as Iran is one of the richest and most important nations archaeologically speaking. The collaborative nature is something most countries are insisting upon, which is also a positive move.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Yes, we said dancing elephants

'Dancing elephants' help chart prehistoric Canada

Imagine an ocean on the Prairies and mountains higher than the Himalayas in Ontario.

That's part of the picture unveiled by Lithoprobe, a 20-year examination of Canada's ancient geological history. Named for the probe of the lithosphere (the earth's outer shell) the project used 20-tonne trucks dubbed "dancing elephants" to generate some of its data.
"Dancing elephant" in action.

Since 1984, more than 800 university, government and industry scientists have been examining the movements of ancient continents, oceans and islands, piercing together the evidence to draw a map of Canada's origins.

Dig 'em up! Renewed pressure for full excavation of Viking site

THE ‘Save Viking Waterford Action Group’, have called on new Minister for the Environment, Dick Roche, to make a commitment to the full excavation of the entire Woodstown Viking Site one of his first announcements in his new role.

The National Monuments Act 2004, drafted by the previous Minister, Martin Cullen, invests the Minister for the Environment with arbitrary authority over Ireland’s heritage.

The new act, the action group maintains, abolishes the democratic checks and balances which previously existed, meaning that Dick Roche now has sole authority over the future of the Woodstown Viking Site and other sites of crucial archaeological importance around the country.

Remains of ancient wall found at city site

THE remains of a medieval wall built to guard the city have been discovered on a building site.

Workers building dozens of flats on a site beside Old Fishmarket Close in the Cowgate have unearthed the one metre-high structure, which is thought to be part of the "King’s Wall".

Although historians are divided over the wall’s origins, it is believed that James II ordered the construction of the King’s Wall in 1450 as a defence against English forces.

But some experts claim the wall was actually built by English forces more than 100 years earlier when they occupied Edinburgh Castle around 1335.

Taking a pipi at a site Pipi shell may lead to ancient village site

A pipi shell midden at Karamea may conceal an early Polynesian village occupied for at least a century about 700 years ago, according to an initial finding by archaeologists.

"We believe the midden may be part of a site that is several hectares in size - it's a big site, a very big site," Otago University archaeology senior lecturer Richard Walter said yesterday.

The site, on the edge of Karamea township and the Karamea River estuary, 100km north of Westport, is under pasture and was an exciting find because of its age.

It suggested the coast had more people early in the history of New Zealand's settlement than first thought.

The site was also interesting because of its relationship to other known early settlements at Westport, 100km south, and at the Heaphy River mouth, about 25km north. Both were about 700 years old.

Following news courtesy of the EEF

Press report about the Egyptian Festival, held at St. Mary's Coptic Orthodox Church in East Brunswick:
http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,1069694,00.html

Press report: "Il Museo Egizio diventa Fondazione"
URL: http://www.porter.it/portale/articoli/articolo.asp?id_articolo=3920

-- "Turin Egyptian Museum: First in Italy to Become Foundation"
URL: http://snipurl.com/9lol

"The Misfortunes of Wenamun" (pMoscow 120)
-- Hieratic text (the beginning: 1,1-1,21): [Georg Möller, Hieratische Lesestücke für den akademischen Gebrauch, Zweites Heft: Literarische Texte des Neuen Reiches, 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1927, p. 29]
URL: http://www.egiptologia.org/fuentes/papiros/moscu120/moscu120_g.gif
-- Hieroglyphic text based on LES, 61-76
URL: http://www.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/hieroglyphes/oun/
the same as pdf-file: 166 KB
URL: http://www.iut.univ-paris8.fr/~rosmord/hieroglyphes/oun.pdf
-- English translation [= Hans Goedicke, The Report of Wenamun, Baltimore / London, 1975, pp. 149-158]
URL: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/cc304c2/wenamun.html
-- English translation [= Lichtheim II, 224-239]
URL: http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/report.html

Ahmad bin Abubekr bin Wahshih - Ancient alphabets and hieroglyphic characters explained: with an account of the Egyptian priests, their classes, initiation, and sacrifices. English translation of Ibn Wahshiyya's book 'Kitab Shawq al-Mustaham', by Joseph Hammer, London, 1806. Arab and English text available in HTML format at:
http://www.blackcrescent.com/w2_HG_01.html

Digitized book from the Bibliothèque Nationale de France:
-- Émile Amélineau, Histoire des monastères de la Basse-Égypte. Monuments pour servir à l'histoire de l'Egypte chrétienne: vies des saints Paul, Antoine, Macaire, Maxime et Domèce, Jean le Nain, etc. Texte copte et traduction française, Ernest Leroux, Paris, 1894 (Annales du Musée Guimet, vol. 25). LXIII, 429 pp.
URL: http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=Gallica&O=NUMM-107943

Digitized book from the Lepsius project:
-- Georg Ebers, Richard Lepsius - Ein Lebensbild, Verlag von Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, 1885. xi, 390 pp. pdf-file: 21.7 MB
URL: http://snipurl.com/9l11

The November/December 2004 issue of Archaeology Odyssey has several Egyptological features (Petrie's discovery of the Fayum Portraits, a review of Pascal Vernus' book "Affairs and Scandals in Ancient Egypt", etc.), but only the abstracts are online:
http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_AO/indexAO.html

Online version of: Patrizia Piacentini, 'Wonderful things' on paper: the Egyptologist Victor Loret in the Valley of the Kings, in: Apollo Magazine, July 2003, pp. 1-6 [figs. omitted]
URL: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0PAL/is_497_158/ai_106732097

Special note!
Online version of: Canadian Association of Radiologists Journal [CARJ], vol. 55, issue 4 (October, 2004) "This issue ... is devoted entirely to paleoradiology ..." - Full text
available in HTML- or pdf-format.
TOC: http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/41681/la_id/1.htm
A section is devoted to the study of mummies:
-- Rethy K. Chhem, Pierre Schmit, Clément Fauré, Did Ramesses II really have ankylosing spondylitis? A reappraisal, in: CARJ, vol. 55 (4), pp. 211-217 (2004) -- see EEF News (320) of September 16, 2004
"The radiologic evidence does not support the claim that Ramesses II had ankylosing spondylitis. Our radiologic reappraisal suggests instead the diagnosis of diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis. This new diagnosis needs to be validated by a computed tomographic scan of the mummy."
HTML: http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/41669/la_id/1.htm
pdf-file - 450 KB: http://snipurl.com/9l14
-- Frank J. Rühli, Rethy K. Chhem, Thomas Böni, Diagnostic paleoradiology of mummified tissue: interpretation and pitfalls, in: CARJ, vol. 55 (4), pp. 218-227 (2004)
"The purpose of this article is to review the role of diagnostic paleoradiology in mummy studies."
HTML: http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/41670/la_id/1.htm
pdf-file - 285 KB: http://snipurl.com/9l16
-- Janet C. Gardner, Greg Garvin, Andrew J. Nelson, Gian Vascotto, Gerald Conlogue, Paleoradiology in mummy studies: the Sulman Mummy Project, in: CARJ, vol. 55 (4), pp. 228-234 (2004)
"In this paper, we describe a previously unreported, ongoing and collaborative paleoradiologic project focused on an Egyptian mummy, involving researchers from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), St. Joseph's Health Care, Robarts Research Institute and the National Research Council of Canada's Virtual Environment Technologies Centre (VETC), London, Ont. This project mirrors the evolution
of paleoradiology in mummy studies, from basic plain film images to the latest 3-dimensional (3D) reconstructions based on computed tomography (CT)."
HTML: http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/41672/la_id/1.htm
pdf-file - 345 KB: http://snipurl.com/9l1b

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Look, we have our own saints and everything

Patron saints of archaeology:

Pope Damasus I (ca. 306-384):

His pontificate suffered from the rise of Arianism, and from several schisms including break-away groups in Antioch, Constantinople, Sardinia, and Rome. However, it was during Damasus' reign that Christianity was declared the religion of the Roman state.

Patron of his secretary, Saint Jerome, commissioning him to make the translation of scripture now known as the Vulgate. Damasus restored catacombs, shrines, and the tombs of martyrs, and wrote poetry and metrical inscriptions about and dedicated to martyrs. They state that he would like to be buried in the catacombs with the early martyrs, but that the presence of one of his lowly status would profane such an august place. Ten of his letters, personal and pontifical, have survived.

St. Jerome (347-419):

Born to a rich pagan family, he led a misspent youth. Studied in Rome. Lawyer. Converted in theory, and baptised in 365, he began his study of theology, and had a true conversion. Monk. Lived for years as a hermit in the Syrian deserts. Reported to have drawn a thorn from a lion's paw; the animal stayed loyally at his side for years. Priest. Student of Saint Gregory of Nazianzen. Secretary to Pope Damasus I who commissioned him to revise the Latin text of the Bible. The result of his 30 years of work was the Vulgate translation, which is still in use. Friend and teacher of Saint Paula, Saint Marcella, and Saint Eustochium, an association that led to so much gossip, Jerome left Rome to return to the desert solitude. Lived his last 34 years in the Holy Land as a semi-recluse. Wrote translations of Origen, histories, biographies, and much more. Doctor of the Church, Father of the Church. Since his own time, he has been associated in the popular mind with scrolls, writing, cataloging, translating, etc. This led to those who work in such fields taking him as their patron - a man who knew their lives and problems.

St. Helen (250-330):

Converted to Christianity late in life. Married Constantius Chlorus, co-regent of the western Roman empire. Mother of Constantine the Great. Her husband put her aside for a second marriage with better political connections. On his death, her son ascended to the throne, brought her home, and treated her as royalty. She used her high position and wealth in the service of her religious enthusiasm, and helped build churches throughout the empire.

At the age of 80 she led a group to the Holy Land to search for the True Cross. She and her group unearthed three crosses in 326. At the suggestion of Saint Macarius of Jerusalem, she took them to a woman afflicated with an incurable disease, and had her touch each one. One of them immediately cured her, and it was pronounced the True Cross. She built a church on the spot where the cross was found, and sent pieces to Rome and Constantinople; the Feast of the Holy Cross on 14 September celebrates the event. Thus in art, she is usually depicted holding a wooden cross.

We here at ArchaeoBlog, while rather taking a liking to a fellow who is described as having a "misspent youth", still prefer Helen as our official patron saint. After all, she did fieldwork, conducted empirical tests on the efficacy of true-crossness, and sent samples back to the home office for curation, display, and storage.

And here she is after pondering Schiffer's latest tome:

Post-Pleistocene extinctions. . .again Extinct Giant Deer Survived Ice Age, Study Says

Saber-toothed cats, mastodons, giant sloths, woolly rhinos, and many other big, shaggy mammals are widely thought to have died out around the end of the last ice age, some 10,500 years ago.

More recently, however, evidence has emerged that at least two of the spectacular megafauna of the Pleistocene era (1.6 million to 10,000 years ago) clung on until recent times.

. . .

Now a new study, published tomorrow in the science journal Nature, suggests that another striking mammal, the Irish elk, likewise lived way beyond the last ice age.

Money quote: Writing independently in tomorrow's Nature, biologists John Pastor and Ron Moen state: "The [Irish elk] finding lends weight to the idea that there is no one explanation for the so-called Pleistocene extinctions."

Alongside climate fluctuations and vegetation changes, they say, human activity, competing species, and other ecological pressures need to be taken into account for each animal.

Lister said, "Whereas people have been looking for single blanket explanation to account for all these species going extinct, we're saying you've got a range of species with different ecologies and adaptations."

This is precisely what needs to be done. Detailed records for the distributions of animal and human populations need to be produced before a cause(s) can be assigned for the extinction of individual species or genus.

A mammoth excavation Lecture will detail archaeology dig in Woodburn (Free quick reg. required)

The history of the archaeological dig in Woodburn's Mammoth Park will be the topic of a program Saturday in the Woodburn Public Library. The Mammoth Park archaeological site was discovered in 1987 after utility crews found large bones while trenching the area at the eastern edge of Woodburn High School to install a sewer line.

Beth Walton, an archaeologist and a member of the Oregon Archaeological Society, will discuss how researchers and scientists began testing the site in 1996 and later confirmed their findings were numerous species of small animals from the Ice Age. Woodburn became the first to document these types of animals in the Pacific Northwest.

The free presentation begins at 1:30 p.m. in the children's area of the library at 270 Garfield St. For more information, call the library at 503-982-5252 or visit its Web site at www.ccrls.org/woodburn.

And a mammoth mystery Yakutsk find baffles archaeologists

Remains of an ancient mammal, supposedly of a newborn mammoth, have been unearthed in the Oimyakonsky region of Yakutia during planned excavations at one of the local gold mines.

According to the Mammoth Institute of Yakutia, the remains have been discovered at one of the gold mines "Volnik-terrace" situated within 2 km from the Oktybrskaya village of the Oimyakonsky region.

The skeleton was discovered by pure accident in the course of seasonal excavation works in the region. It has been successfully extracted from the ever-frozen soil by the "Kamazu" bulldozer. The upper part of the animal's head has been fractured, that is why it was quite difficult to tell from the start whether it's a rhinoceros or a mammoth.

The find appears quite odd however. For instance, neither the animal's head nor its body has fur. The bulldozer operator claims he smelled something burning while excavating the skeleton. However, no traces of burnt fur or bones have been found. And one more detail: according to the same man, when placed under the direct rays of the sun, the remains began bleeding, reports YACIA.

In the meantime, scientists are still trying to determine the animal's type. Yakutia's Mammoth Museum does not rule out the possibility that the skeleton is in fact of a newborn mammoth. In case the presumption proves to be true, perhaps its mother is buried somewhere next to him in the permafrost.

We have no idea what to make of this.

Hurricane archaeology Storms erase sands of time

To date, there have been no reports of remnants of any ancient civilizations unearthed along the shoreline, courtesy of Charley, Frances and Jeanne.

Atlantis, in other words, is still missing.

But like archaeologists gone wild, the recent hurricanes have done some heavy-duty digging hereabouts, turning large swaths of the beach into impromptu excavation sites.

In New Smyrna Beach, for example, the rusty skeleton of what seems to be a school bus is now free of the 10 or more feet of sand in which it lay hidden for who knows how long -- prompting the curious to contemplate what manner of early Floridian would have left it there in the first place. And all along what we still like to call the World's Most Famous Beach, newly revealed layers of old foundations -- some of which look, to the untrained eye, like the remains of temples from previous beach-worshipping civilizations -- serve as irrefutable evidence that modern "homo-vehicularis" (beach-driving man) was not the first hominid to get sand between his toes.

Breaking news Mexico Clears Wal-Mart Store Construction

Retail giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc. won a rare victory after Mexican officials and an international preservation group said no damage would be caused by building a discount store less than a mile from the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan.

The announcement Wednesday by the State of Mexico and the Paris-based International Council On Monuments and Sites, Icomos, struck a blow to opponents who had vowed to block the store, claiming it would intrude upon and damage the archaeological site.

"The project in question does not damage the conservation of archaeological remains, nor the integrity, environmental or cultural values of the archaeological zone," according to the report by the Mexico chapter of Icomos.

Update on Port Angeles dig 14 skulls found in a pit at graving yard

LOWER ELWHA KLALLAM Tribal Chairwoman Frances G. Charles says a pit containing 14 human skulls has been uncovered at the graving yard site.

The discovery was made last week by archaeologists and tribal members working to complete an archaeological excavation at the waterfront property.

``The skulls were placed very carefully into a pit, and were all teenagers to young adults when buried,'' Charles said.

It is unknown if the skulls are male or female.

Fraud! Archaeologists find evidence of 300-year-old fraud

Evidence that one of the most powerful men in Scotland was stealing the country's money more than 300 years ago has been discovered at the site of the new Scottish Parliament. Archaeologists have found proof that the Third Earl of Lauderdale was melting down silver coins in his kitchen at Queensberry House in the 17th century.

In 1670, Lord Hatton, whose family name was Charles Maitland, was one of Scotland's most important men. He led a lavish lifestyle - with a stately home beside Holyrood in Edinburgh. His big brother effectively ran the country for Charles II. But all was not well - Lard Hatton was running out of cash.

Coffins shed light on Ancient Greeks

THE discovery of two large limestone coffins dating back 3,000 years could indicate that the ancient Greeks may have been more technologically advanced than previously thought, an archaeologist said today.

Each of the coffins, also known as a sarcophagus, was found in Ancient Corinth and dates back to 900 to 875 BC - a period known as the early Geometric period.

The name derives from the art of the period, mostly found on pots, with its characteristically linear designs and dots and lines forming zigzags and angles.

Also from Greece. . . Mersey archaeologist investigates lost society

AN ARCHAEOLOGIST from the University of Liverpool is uncovering the secrets of one of the world's oldest civilisations.

Dr Alan Greaves is looking at the people of the lost society of Ionia, which was in ancient Greece, now within the borders of Turkey.

He has been carrying out excavations in Turkey for the past decade and his findings have revealed new insights into the lives of the Ionian land workers. Previous studies have focused on Ionia's structures and literary texts, but little has been revealed about the day-to-day experiences of the Ionian people.

His work over the last decade has discovered the civilisation's structure and literature but little about the people's everyday lives, which is the subject of his latest work.

CSI: Toronto

Swansea skull centuries old

The mysterious skull that labourers unearthed near Swansea Town Hall did not belong to Mabel Crumback, to Marion McDowell or to any of the 1950s cold cases revived by west-end locals in recent months.

The case, it turns out, is much, much colder.

The skull belonged to an aboriginal man in his 20s who probably died from a serious infectious disease before Europeans arrived here, according to Kathy Gruspier, the forensic anthropologist who examined the skull for Ontario's chief coroner's office.

This is a lousy story Extinct humans left louse legacy

Some head lice infesting people today were probably spread to us thousands of years ago by an extinct species of early human, a genetics study reveals.

It shows that when our ancestors left Africa after 100,000 years ago, they made direct contact with tribes of "archaic" peoples, probably in Asia.

Lice could have jumped from them on to our ancestors during fights, sex, clothes-sharing or even cannibalism.

Details of the research appear in the open access journal Plos Biology.

We were going to use the "Of lice and men" line, but they beat us to it. Interesting study. Read the whole thing.

Another bizarre twist in the NAGPRA saga Compromise should
protect museum and Hawaiian sanctity

The 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, or NAGPRA, was aimed at returning human remains held in museums to the care of their Native American or Hawaiian descendants. Faced with a wholesale seizure of its inventory, Bishop Museum proposed that it be designated a native Hawaiian organization eligible to maintain possession of sacred and funerary objects.

The strategy seemed to be the only way to preserve the museum's precious collection of artifacts, and the museum's Hawaiian roots drew sympathy within the Interior Department. Craig Manson, assistant interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, said in a letter to Senator Inouye that his department "does not consider 'museum' and 'native Hawaiian organization' to be mutually exclusive categories."

Archaeologist plans ambitious survey of the Trans-Pecos

The Big Bend is 50 years behind the rest of Texas and the Southwest in terms of archaeological study, and many of the region’s sites are disappearing quickly.

Robert Mallouf, director of the Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University since 1995 and a professional archaeologist, has an ambitious plan to document the region’s prehistory and history.

This sounds like a good project. It has specific goals, is region-wide in focus, and addresses real gaps in archaeological knowledge. Pay attention, dissertation-topic seekers.

Discovery of the oldest remains of a woman who died in childbirth

In ancient times, female death rates were particularly high and generally related to problems in maternity, such as complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the period of breast-feeding. However, in most cases this link has only been established from indirect data, such paleodemographic data and ethnographic references, or based on the poor health conditions normally attributed to ancient human groups.

. . .

The burial dates from the Argaric period, between 1,500 and 1,000 years BC, in the Bronze Age. Argaric culture funeral rituals were characterised by individual inhumations, most of them within the dwelling or its perimeter. This burial is within one of these dwellings. It is that of a young woman, about 25-26 years of age, with a foetus in the 37th to 39th week of gestation in the uterine cavity, in a crosswise position and with part of the right arm outside the uterus.

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Sad news

Dominic Montserrat, who has died suddenly at his home in
London, was an extraordinarily gifted Egyptologist,
who combined his technical work as a scholar with an
immense talent for introducing his subject to a wider
audience. He went on from school to study Egyptology
at Durham, and subsequently took a PhD in Classics
from University College, London, specialising in
Egyptian, Coptic, Greek, and papyrology, to which he
added a variety of modern languages, including Arabic.
His first job was as a lecturer in Classics at Warwick
University, but his increasingly unreliable health,
led him to resign from Warwick and move to the Open
University where he worked in the research group
devising a course on Art and Society in the Later
Roman Empire, which allowed him to continue
professionally without having to meet a regular
schedule of undergraduate teaching. Like some other
haemophiliacs, his health was inadvertently undermined
by unscreened blood transfusions before the necessity
for screening was established, which gave him
hepatitis B and C. It became clear to him gradually
that he was living on borrowed time, and when he felt
he could not continue even in the relatively
unstructured environment of the Open University, he
resigned. In his brief working life, he was
nonetheless amazingly productive. As well as his
technical works on papyrology, which are of the first
quality, he wrote a number of radio plays and other
works exploring such topics as mediumistic or
fantastic evocations of ancient Egypt. His second
book, on the heretic pharaoh, Akhenaton: History,
Fantasy, and Ancient Egypt, explores these themes. He
also curated a well-received exhibition for the Petrie
Museum, Digging for Dreams. His last major project
was a series of documentaries for Channel Five,
co-presented with Miriam Cooke, The Egypt
Detectives, not merely a popularising rehash of the
already-known, but in fact, a series which presents
genuine and important discoveries in Egyptian
archaeology. With all that, he packed in an
extraordinary amount of life into a very few years
he travelled widely and adventurously, particularly in
the Middle East, with extraordinary bravery,
considering the risks which travel posed for a man for
whom a bruise could lead to months of continuous pain.
His health took a significant turn for the worse last
summer, and he had been aware since the New Year that
he had little future to look forward to. His funeral will be private.

We'd never heard of him, but share our condolences with his friends and loved ones.

Update I: On skull surgery Skull reveals how cranial surgery saved life of 11th-century peasant

ARCHAEOLOGISTS revealed new evidence yesterday which shows complicated cranial surgery was being performed in Britain 1,000 years ago.

An 11th-century skull, found at the abandoned ancient village of Wharram Percy in North Yorkshire, shows the scars of a near-fatal blow by a blunt weapon. But, thanks to a "life-saving" procedure performed at the time, the victim, aged about 40, survived the injury and made a good recovery.

Scientists say the man was a peasant who lived between 960AD and 1100AD in Wharram Percy. More than 700 skeletons were unearthed there during one of the longest digs in British archaeological history, between 1950 and 1990.

Analysis of the skull, found by English Heritage, shows he underwent a form of surgery known as trepanning. The procedure involved lifting a rectangular area of the scalp measuring 3.5in by 4in and scraping away at the skull beneath to remove bone fragments and relieve pressure on the brain.

Update II: Ghengis Khan's mausoleum Genghis Khan's mausoleum found

Archaeologists have unearthed the site of Genghis Khan's palace and believe the long-sought grave of the 13th century Mongolian warrior is somewhere nearby, the head of the excavation team says.

A Japanese and Mongolian research team found the complex on a grassy steppe 150 miles east of the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator, said Shinpei Kato, professor emeritus at Tokyo's Kokugakuin University.

Genghis Khan (c. 1162-1227) united warring tribes to become leader of the Mongols in 1206. After his death, his descendants expanded his empire until it stretched from China to Hungary.

Genghis Khan built the palace in the simple shape of a square tent attached to wooden columns on the site at around 1200, Kato said.

And a picture!

Remote sensing update China employs high-tech to find out how much is left of the Great Wall

China has employed state-of-the-art technology to determine how much is left of the Great Wall and which parts belong to which provinces.

The remote sensor technology will enable the State Administration of Cultural Heritage to chart every inch of the 2,500 kilometers (1,560 miles) that still remains of the wall, the China Daily said.

Doesn't say what was used.

Something we had not heard Koum El-Hisn reveals new secrets of Ancient Egypt

A mission of the Faculty of Arts in Damanhur conducted excavations in the area of Koum El-Hisn in the governorate of Bahira. The team of archaeologists discovered a number of items which might change some of the concepts about the Old Kingdom.

The mission has found some clay vessels, stone tools, sharp metal tools, group tombs, and alabaster make-up vessels dating back to the Old Kingdom.

Dr. Hassan El-Sharief, head of the mission and Professor of Ancient History, declared that they have dug clay walls of a temple built 4,500 years ago. The walls are 80 CM high and 70 CM thick. The temple has an open yard and an offering table.

Dr. El-Sharief also mentioned that they have discovered a tomb for a mummified horse. This finding proved that the area was inhabited by the invading Hyksos who used to worship this particular animal.

The mission of Damanhur Faculty of Arts includes lecturers, demonstrators and post-graduate students.

This is a site we'd worked on. Did not know anything about Second Intermediate Period remains (Hyksos) although there are supposedly some there. The only temple we knew about was the New Kingdom one. Learn something new every day, I guess.

For more on Kom el-Hisn, look here.

Don't hate them because they were beautiful Iranian Women & Cosmetics in Ancient Iran

Based on recent excavations in northwestern Iran, archaeological now believe that eye makeup has been used Iran since about 4500 B.C. Other archaeological discoveries at Haft-Tappeh in Khuzestan Province indicate that women used to wear lipstick, rouge, and eye makeup in 2000 B.C. in Iran.

Achaemenid era religious texts say that the wives of the king spent a lot of time applying makeup and perfume before meeting the king. The ancient Greeks admired the Achaemenid era Persians for their custom of wearing makeup and attributed the origin of the use of cosmetics to the East.

Artist's conception of what an ancient Iranian woman may have looked like:

And now for something completely similar

Some exchanges from a recent set of postings to the EEF listserv:

I. I have a question regarding the garden scene from the tomb of 'Userhet' TT56. In the lower register of the scene one can see two gentlemen having their hair groomed.
Does this scene depicting the sheering or braiding of hair? An image of the scene is available online @ http://members.tripod.com/~ib205/nobles/userhat-56/image-6.gif [Edit: This link doesn't appear to work]

II. I don't know if this will be of any help, however, this is what i found concerning the tomb of Userhet, TT56.
http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/ous56/e_user56.htm
I am not sure what the object between the two solders is...it appears to be a wine cup or perhaps a water bowl used to clean the razors used by barbers.

III. You can have a closer view of the scene here: http://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/ous56/e_user56.htm
To my knowledge, and according to Lise Manniche, this scene is unique in Egyptian art.

IV. In the scene the barbers are shaving the heads of some soldiers. In the image that I have put in http://www.egiptomania.com/tt56.jpg you can appreciate it better. [Edit: This is the best picture]

The object seem to be a recipient to deposit the hair (later use in wigs?).

V. The scene is usually referred to as the 'barbering scene.' This is a correct assumption as there are razors in the hands of the two barbers, and the inclusion of the bowl on the ground before one solider (being shaved) is clearly there to catch the lose hair being removed and/or provide water/shaving emulsion while the central barber performs his task.

As far as I know, the 'barber scene' is considered unique in Egyptian art, although the role of a barber and hairdresser are well attested, including an example from the tomb of Montuhotep I's two minor wives where a haidresser is represented on both sarcophagi attaching a curl to the body of the deceased (Green 2000: 74).

A full description of this scene, again with colour pictures, can be found
in

Hodel-Hoenes, S. 2000. _Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Scene from Pirvate Tombs in New Kimgdom Thebes._ Ithaca: Cornell University Press. (See pp. 65-84 on the Tomb of Userhet; Fig. 43 is the barbering scene, with description on p.76)

Reference:

Green, L. 2000. Hairstyles. In Redford, D. B., Ed. _The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt._ 2: 73-76. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

This seems positive Prestwich skeletons: memorial for Green Point

While archaeologists moved back on site to exhume skeletons from Prestwich Street this week, plans are afoot that could see a large section of Green Point become a heritage area with a museum housing the excavated human skeletons forming a central focus.

On Monday developers Ari Efstathiou and Andre van der Merwe, owners of the Prestwich Street site where the skeletons were found, said they had been in discussion with the city council and the SA Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) about a proposal that would use a section of Green Point for a memorial to all the people who were buried at sites in the area.

Amateurs, unite! FAITHFUL AMATEURS

WHEN LATE September rolls around each year, freelance author Zach Kent of Passaic, N.J., gets excited about getting into a pit with his trusty trowel.

At the same time, in Dresden, Tenn., Jeff Higgs can hardly wait to trade his dental office for the great outdoors in Orange County.

And Mary Wyman, Nancy Wright and Cindy Reusche?

The residents of Washington, Philadelphia and Lake Forest, Ill., count the days until they can once again become volunteer archaeologists at Montpelier, the estate of President James Madison and his politically accomplished wife, Dolley.

A lot of excavation projects would be lost without volunteers. I believe we've posted on this subject before, but are far too ~~lazy~~ busy with important archaeological investigations to go look for said posts.

Here's something interesting: MEDICINE AND SURGERY IN ANCIENT EGYPT

Homer (c.700 BC) describes the Egyptian doctors in the Odyssey thus: 'For the fertile soil of Egypt is most rich in herbs, many of which are wholesome in solution, though many are poisonous. In medical knowledge the Egyptian leaves the rest of the world behind. He is a true son of Paeon the Healer'.

Monday, October 04, 2004

Update on post-Pleistocene extinctions Dog Extinctions Show Why Bigger Isn't Better

Fossils from extinct dogs show why bigger is not better -- giant meat-eating animals died out because they relied too heavily on hunting other big animals, scientists reported on Thursday.

Smaller, quicker carnivores could vary their diet more, hunting small rodents and mixing in berries, roots and other food sources, said Blaire van Valkenburgh and colleagues at the University of California Los Angeles.

But once a carnivore reached a certain size, it would spend more energy hunting than it would get from small prey, and had to rely on big game, they report in this week's issue of the journal Science. And that made them less adaptable.

"Among living meat eaters, almost all species larger than about 21 kg (45 pounds) prey on species as large or larger than themselves, whereas smaller carnivores can subsist on much smaller prey (such as invertebrates and rodents)," the researchers wrote.

Summary: Selection for individual traits and characteristics, or specialization, can be
immediately beneficial but detrimental to a clade in the long run. Van Valkenburgh et al. (p. 101) show that this likely happened to canids (the group that includes dogs) repeatedly during the past 50 million years, and perhaps to many large predators and mammals. Canid clades repeatedly show an increase in body size. Those clades that had the largest increase in body size and became specialized for attacking large prey, on the basis of teeth size and morphology, typically span only about 6 million years before becoming extinct, which is considerably less than for clades with smaller individuals and a more diverse diet.

Actual paper here. (subscription only)

Summary: They plotted an index score based on craniodental measurements which measure hypercarnivory against estimates of species duration and found that "none of the hypercarnivorous species (solid symbols) persisted for more than six million years, whereas some more omnivorous species (open symbols) endured for as much as 11 million years" concluding that large hypercarnivores tend to be more susceptible to extinction. The mechanism they suggest is that selection for large size and hypercarnivory locked them into a suite of specializations which make them more vulnerable to extinction than more generalized critters. This is a general characteristic of mammals known as Cope's Rule.

Update: Another paper on extinctions here. (Subscription only again) Summary:

One of the great debates about extinction is whether humans or climatic change caused the demise of the Pleistocene megafauna. Evidence from paleontology, climatology, archaeology, and ecology now supports the idea that humans contributed to extinction on some continents, but human hunting was not solely responsible for the pattern of extinction everywhere. Instead, evidence suggests that the intersection of human impacts with pronounced climatic change drove the precise timing and geography of extinction in the Northern Hemisphere. The story from the Southern Hemisphere is still unfolding. New evidence from Australia supports the view that humans helped cause extinctions there, but the correlation with climate is weak or contested. Firmer chronologies, more realistic ecological models, and regional paleoecological insights still are needed to understand details of the worldwide extinction pattern and the population dynamics of the species involved.

Abandonment archaeology The Jewish millionaire who surrendered to the Romans

Dozens of coins from the tenth Roman Legion, uncovered during the last excavation season at the Herodian palace in Ramat Hanadiv, offer some insight on the demise of the glamorous palace. Prof. Yizhar Hirschfeld, a Hebrew University archeologist who has been managing the excavations at the site since the 1980s, says that it is possible to learn from the presence of the coins that that the palace was abandoned during the Great Rebellion that started in 66 CE not far away from there, in Caesarea.

The findings at the site do not make it possible to determine whether the palace was captured by force or abandoned and then fell into Roman hands, says Hirschfeld. But they do say something about the haste of the residents as they left. Among other things found at the site were a gold earring and a gold clasp - jewels that even a person of means does not leave behind during a leisurely moving to another place.

This is a generalized interpretation of the mode of abandonment: valuable objects left behind are thought to indicate rapid abandonment, while areas left fairly clean or full of low-cost, low-value objects are presumed to indicate gradual or planned abandonment.

Note: Only IE seems to be working with BlogSpot today, rather than our usual Mozilla. This miffs us greatly as we find using Microsoft products to be the functional equivalent of repeatedly stabbing one's groin area with a sharp piece of obsidian.

So, go complain to these people.

Gobs of news today, so multiple posts will probably take place over the day. Third post is probably the most interesting.

They made an offer no one could refuse. . . ARCHAEOLOGY: MEDITERRANEAN ANCIENT HISTORY HAS SICILIAN BASE

The commercial and political history in the ancient Mediterranean area is documented in the relics that are spread generously around the Capo Molini seabed, which is just north of Catania, between Acitrezza e Acireale. The results of the excavation carried out this summer in that part of the sea, between the coast and the Cyclops Islands were being presented by Edoardo Tortorici, an archaeologist at the University of Catania. He was speaking at the International Under-Water Archaeological Conference being held in Aci Castello. He said, "The findings that have been studied show the origins of the commercial system. Over the course of more than a thousand years, this operated along Sicily's eastern coast, from the archaic era of maritime trafficking with the ancient Greek colonies (from the 6th to the 1st centuries B.C..) up to the beginning of the Medioeval period (7th century A.D.).

No paragraph breaks, difficult to read. Kind of interesting though.

Nice pot Archaeologist based in San Marcos unveils new discoveries in Israel

Dr. Randall Price of San Marcos is a co-pastor at Grace Bible Church, so on weeks that he preaches, like any other pastor, he prepares a sermon that will retell a piece of the biblical past. But this particular pastor does a lot more than narrate history. In fact, he creates it.

Price - arch- aeologist, theologian, pastor, professor, father and husband - has just returned from an excavation in Israel, and as he begins to tell of his latest discovery, you realize you're speaking to more than just an inspiring preacher, but a man at the forefront of theological discoveries.

Hmmmmmmm. . . . Discovery keeps human origin debate alive

For decades, Federico Solorzano has gathered old bones from the shores of Mexico's largest lake - bones he found and bones he was brought, bones of beasts and bones of men.

The longtime teacher of anthropology and paleontology was sifting through his collection one day when he noticed some that didn't seem to fit: a mineral-darkened piece of brow ridge bone and a bit of jaw that didn't match any modern skulls.

But Solorzano found a perfect fit when he placed the brow against a model of the Old World's Tautavel Man - member of a species, Homo erectus, that many believe was an ancestor of modern homo sapiens.

The catch: Homo erectus is believed to have died out 100,000 to 200,000 years ago - tens of thousands of years before men are believed to have reached the Americas.

And archaeologists have never found a trace of Homo erectus in the Americas.

Key sentence: Most frustrating for archaeologists, who are accustomed to fussing over the tiniest details, is that nobody knows quite where the bone came from or even when it was found."

We admit having never heard of this before. The sentence quoted above makes it well-nigh impossible to evaluate it.

And in related news. . . Finder of first Peking Man skull commemorated in Beijing

An exhibition is being held in Beijing to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pei Wenzhong,the discoverer of the first Peking Man skull.

The exhibition, which showcases Pei's life and achievements, began Friday and will last through the end of the year. This year is also the 75th anniversary of Pei's discovery.

Born in 1904 in north China's Hebei Province, Pei was a famous prehistory archaeologist and paleontologist and a founder of China's studies in Paleolithic archaeology.

Another lost city, found Remains of Sanish surfacing in dry Lake Sakakawea

The town of Sanish, flooded 50 years ago when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Missouri River to create Lake Sakakawea, has started to reappear as years of drought have lowered the lake.

Corps archaeologist Steve Gilbert said about one-third of the town is visible, though there is not much left but building foundations and rubble.

"But for some of the old-timers who may have lived here and are still alive ... they would have a pretty good idea of what they're looking at," he said.

The federal government bought out the town, and it was evacuated in 1953. The 1950 census said Sanish had 500 residents.

Gilbert said the remains of the town are on federal land, and it is a crime to take anything from the site.

That's the whole thing.

From Egypt to Peru, archaeologists are unearthing breweries from long ago

Beer is nearly as old as civilization itself. It's mentioned in Sumerian texts from more than 5,000 years ago. Starting in the 1950s, scientists have debated the notion that beer, not bread, was actually the impetus for the development of agriculture. Nearly every culture around the world has invented its own local concoction. Historically, brewing was a home-based operation, as part of the preparation of meals. From South America to the Middle East, beer production grew in scale with the rise of organized societies, scientists theorize, and later became primarily a function of the state. Beer was given to laborers or soldiers, incorporated into religious ceremonies, and drunk by politicians at state functions.

Almost all of what scientists know about beer's history, however, is based on written evidence and drawings, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman tablets, and European frescoes. Such works tell, for example, that thousands of years ago in Iraq, each city-state had its own brew master, says anthropologist James L. Phillips of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Archaeologists will date any old thing Marking time is a science at Berkeley center -- It devises ways to date nearly everything

When chemist Willard F. Libby discovered unexpected evidence that all the plants on Earth, both living and dead, were faintly radioactive, he opened an era of age-dating that has since seen extraordinary new techniques emerge to tell how old everything might be -- from mountains to fossil microbes.

Would you like to know how long ago the Pharaoh Sesostris III of Egypt sailed to the land of the dead aboard his funerary boat? Libby's "atomic clock" determined it almost exactly: It was 3,676 years ago, give or take a decade or two.

Do you want to know how long ago our earliest relatives on the human family tree lived in Africa's Great Rift Valley? Geochronologists in Berkeley can tell you that one branch of hominids inhabited a once-verdant site in now arid Ethiopia about 5.8 million years ago -- among the earliest prehuman remains discovered so far.

And then there's this: Arab scholar 'cracked Rosetta code' 800 years before the West

It is famed as a critical moment in code-breaking history. Using a piece of basalt carved with runes and words, scholars broke the secret of hieroglyphs, the written 'language' of the ancient Egyptians.

A baffling, opaque language had been made comprehensible, and the secrets of one of the world's greatest civilisations revealed - thanks to the Rosetta Stone and the analytic prowess of 18th and 19th century European scholars.

But now the supremacy of Western thinking has been challenged by a London researcher who claims that hieroglyphs had been decoded hundreds of years earlier - by an Arabic alchemist, Abu Bakr Ahmad Ibn Wahshiyah.

'It has taken years of painstaking research to prove this,' said Dr Okasha El Daly, at UCL's Institute of Archaeology. 'I was convinced that Western scholars were not the first, and I have found evidence that shows Arabian scholars broke the code a thousand years ago.'

We vaguely remember linking, or at least reading, something on this a while back. If we recall correctly, there was some work on deciphering Egyptian glygphs by the Arab scholar noted in the piece, but the controversy regards how much of it he actually interpreted correctly. Did it lead to real translations, in other words. This was just posted on the EEF list and we will pass along any commentary on it.

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