Not a union matter Skeleton under ship is Iron age

The remains of a skeleton found underneath a medieval ship discovered buried in the banks of the River Usk in Newport are that of an Iron age man.

Tests carried out on the bones which were found in December 2002, have shown that they date back to 170BC.

It makes the skeleton about 1,500 years older than the 15th century ship.

The man is thought to have been about 5ft 9in tall and very muscular. He was probably in his late 20s or early 30s when he died.

Ordinarily, its position would have been considered in "good archaeological context" and related to the ship. Good thing for C-14.

We're back

People dying sucks.

Jungle discovery opens new chapter in Maya history
University of Calgary-led team discovers earliest known portrait of Maya woman

A University of Calgary archaeologist and her international team of researchers have discovered the earliest known portrait of a woman that the Maya carved into stone, demonstrating that women held positions of authority very early in Maya history – either as queens or patron deities.

The discovery was made earlier this year in Guatemala at the site of Naachtun, a Maya city located some 90 kilometres through dense jungle north of the more famous Maya city of Tikal. The woman's face, carved on a stone monument called a stela [STEE-la] – and in an artistic style never before seen – suggests women played significant roles in early Maya politics.

"I've worked in the Maya area a long time and I've never seen anything like it," says Dr. Kathryn Reese-Taylor, the director of the U of C-led Naachtun project. "We have images of queens, who ruled both singly and with their husbands or sons, depicted on stelae later in Maya history beginning in the early 6th century AD. But this stela is completely unique in style and likely dates to the 4th century AD."

Interesting. Only the line drawing really shows anything.

No posting for several days

We have an impending death in the family and must travel to be with loved one at this time. We'll resume posting in a week or so. Thank you for reading and we'll get back to it as time permits.

Archaeologists find 4,500-year-old fortune-telling instruments

A Chinese archaeologist said Wednesday that a 4,500-year-old jade tortoise and an oblong jade article discovered in east China's Anhui Province were China's earliest fortune-telling instruments found so far.

The two jade objects were discovered in an ancient tomb in Lingjiatan Village, Hanshan County, Anhui Province.

Gu Fang, an expert with the jadeware research committee under the China Society of Cultural Relics, told Xinhua that the jade tortoise is made up of a back shell and a belly shell. Several holes can be found on the jade tortoise.

TV Corner Egyptologist brings lost civilisation to life for television series

A researcher at the University of Liverpool has written a book about the lives of the world's most famous Egyptologists to accompany BBC One's major new documentary series, Egypt.
Egypt: How a Lost Civilisation was Rediscovered by Dr Joyce Tyldesley, covers the history of Egyptology, from the end of the Dynastic age to the present, beginning with little known Egyptians who investigated the country's ancient monuments to famous archaeologists such as Howard Carter, who uncovered the resting place of the boy king, Tutankhamen.

Dr Tyldesley, from the University's School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, said: "Napoleon's invasion of Egypt in 1798 sparked a huge interest in the country's ancient civilisations. Stories of lost treasure and mummies gripped the public's imagination and the world became obsessed with everything Egyptian. Explorers and collectors who went in search of Egyptian artefacts produced some of the first Egyptologists and a new area of scientific study. Amongst these 'explorers' are some of the most fascinating characters in modern history."

Fort Clatsop update Closest look yet at Fort Clatsop leaves mystery

A 200-year-old mystery remains unsolved.

A three-week archaeological excavation at Fort Clatsop near Astoria ends today with no physical evidence that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark spent 106 dreary days there in 1805-06. Despite decades of searching, the precise fort site is uncertain.

"The search continues," said Doug Wilson, an archaeologist with the National Park Service who led the most complete excavation of the site where a 50-year-old fort replica stood until a fire Oct. 3.

Flints give Cyprus oldest seafaring link in Med

Archaeologists have discovered what they believe is the earliest evidence yet of long distance seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean, undermining beliefs that ancient mariners never ventured into open seas.

Fragments of stone implements believed to be up to 12,000 years old have been found at two sites of Cyprus, suggesting roving mariners used the areas as temporary camp sites after forays from what is today Syria and Turkey.

The flints are unlike anything found in the geological make-up of Cyprus, and more than 1,000 years older than the timing of the first permanent settlers to the island.

Now that's interesting. Seems like a very early date though, but they must have had to get there somehow.

Heh. Oops. Greek Vase, 2,500 Years Old, Is Shattered in Smuggling Probe

On June 19, 1990, Sotheby's Holdings Inc. held the century's first known auction of works by the Leonardo da Vinci of Greek pots, Euphronios. A 2,500-year-old kylix wine cup painted with a Trojan War scene, sold in New York for $742,000 to a then-anonymous ``European buyer.''

Then it vanished. The kylix is the only Euphronios vase listed as having an ``unknown'' location by Oxford University's Beazley Archive, the standard reference for Greek vessels.

``We just don't know where it is,'' said Thomas Mannack, 46, who runs the archive's pottery database.

It's a mystery no more. The missing kylix is in a cardboard box in a storeroom of Rome's Villa Giulia museum.

The bad news: It's smashed into dozens of pieces

America prediscovered

THE VEXED question of American independence has arisen once again: not, in this case, in 1776, but before Columbus came to the New World.

It is generally accepted that the Amerindian population originated in Asia, probably more than 15,000 years ago, but whether there were subsequent transoceanic contacts and influences remains a matter of hot debate. Vikings from Maine to Minnesota, Romans crossing from Africa to Brazil, and Chinese and Japanese voyagers hitting the Pacific coastline have all been proposed. Now a new candidate for transpacific contact has reached a major academic journal.

Not much there, but also a blurb on some marble Michaeolangelo used.

Scientists show we’ve been losing face for 10,000 years

THE human face is shrinking. Research into people’s appearance over the past 10,000 years has found that our ancestors’ heads and faces were up to 30% larger than now.

Changes in diet are thought to be the main cause. The switch to softer, farmed foods means that jawbones, teeth, skulls and muscles do not need to be as strong as in the past.

The shrinkage has been blamed for a surge in dental problems caused by crooked or overlapping teeth.

“Over the past 10,000 years there has been a trend toward rounder skulls with smaller faces and jaws,” said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology at Ohio State University.

Yes, we do in fact prefer

to


ALso see this: Homo erectus ate crunchy food. Along those same lines.

Save the whales baby seals spotted owls toilets! Why only plumbing can prevent the fall of Rome

An urgent rescue operation is being launched to save some of Rome's most important ancient ruins, including the palace where Julius Ceasar once lived, from the ravages of increasingly violent rainstorms that are undermining their foundations.

Archaeologists fear that buildings on the Palatine Hill, most more than 2,000 years old, are becoming dangerously unstable and pose an increasing risk to the 3.5 million tourists who visit the area each year.

Repairs could take up to 10 years, engineers have said, and are expected to cost between €100 and €200 million (£68 and £136 million) - a small price to pay, they say, to preserve some of Rome's historical treasures.

1,700-year-old 'Roman Glass' Discovered in East China

Glass remains over 1,700 years old, possibly imported from ancient Rome, have been discovered in an ancient tomb located in east China's Anhui Province, local cultural relic department said on Sunday.

The tomb was found during the latest road project in Zhulong Village of Dangtu County in Anhui. Archaeologists believed the tomb was built in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317 - 420).

Covered with white mantlerock, the glass remains seem to have ancient Roman shapes and craftwork.

According to the local cultural relic department, the owner of the tomb was possibly from an eminent family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Besides the "Roman glass," other rare articles including a gold bracelet, a silver ring, a bronze bowl and porcelain were also discovered in the tomb.

Currently, pieces of the "Roman glass" have been sent to the Anhui-based University of Science and Technology of China for further study and analysis, said the local cultural relic department.

That's the whole thing.

Nubia's Black Pharaohs

On a cloudless morning in northern Sudan, the first rays of the sun cast a glow on Jebel Barkal, a small tabletop mountain perched near the Nile River. Jebel Barkal rises barely 320 feet above the surrounding desert but is distinguished by one prominent feature: a pinnacle jutting out from its southwestern cliff face. If your imagination is keen enough, the isolated butte might resemble a crown or an altar, and the pinnacle an unfinished colossal statue—perhaps a rearing serpent, its body poised to strike.


Striding toward an excavation near the base of the pinnacle, archaeologist Tim Kendall pauses momentarily to admire what he calls the "little mountain with big secrets." Thousands of years ago, Jebel Barkal and Napata, the town that grew up around it, served as the spiritual center of ancient Nubia, one of Africa's earliest civilizations. The mountain was also considered a holy site by neighboring Egypt, whose pharaohs plundered and tyrannized Nubia for 400 years.

Just a short part of a longer (sub only) article).

Travel section On the outskirts of Rome, an ancient city rivals Pompeii

The ruins of Ostia Antica, on the outskirts of Rome, remain as captivating as I remembered from decades ago. As a teenager growing up in the Italian capital, I would join classmates to perform school plays in Ostia Antica's ancient open-air theater. Costumed in togas made of bedsheets, we'd cheerfully mangle Aristophanes' classical plays then scamper off to roam the ruins, poking into ivy-draped passageways and secluded rooms and clambering over fallen columns.

Ostia Antica, once the ancient port of Rome, has hundreds of 2,000-year-old buildings spread over hundreds of acres. Yet somehow it's always eclipsed by its Italian neighbor Pompeii, a city frozen in time by the volcanic ash blast of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. that has become one of the world's best-known archaeological sites.

Now this is interesting Modern hunters take up ancient weapon

An ancient weapon that was apparently used as early as prehistoric times to slay woolly mammoths may soon be added to the arsenals of Pennsylvania hunters.

The state Game Commission is drafting proposed regulations to allow hunters to use the atlatl, a small wooden device that propels a six-foot dart as fast as 80 mph. The commission could vote in January and make a final decision in April, officials said.

It's not yet clear which animals would be hunted, but the proposal has the support of people who want to kill deer with the handmade weapon of Stone Age design.

Whoa. You can even purchase them online here. I sense an episode of CSI coming in the near future. . . .

Mummy update


CT tells mummy's secret: Preservation no accident

Researchers oohed and aahed so much over the patient's internal organs one might be forgiven for thinking he was still alive.

But Sylvester, the object of all the attention Saturday at Inland Pacific Imaging in Seattle, is a mummy.

Researchers who did a CT scan on him four years ago came back for a more detailed look, this time using both CT and MRI equipment.

"Amazing!" and "Awesome!" they exclaimed over images of the mummy's brain. "That is impossible. He can't look like that," said Jerry Conlogue, co-director of the Bioanthropology Research Institute at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn.

It really is an excellent mummy. Not very ancient, however. Apparently whoever embalmed it injected much of its internals with arsenic, hence the good preservation. Read the whole thing.

More from Iran
French, Canadians to explore Mazandaran caves

Scholars from Lyon and Toronto Universities have asked to carry out excavations in the ancient caves of Mazandaran province in Iran, CHN reported.

Previous studies and excavations in the caves indicate that human settlement in Mazandaran province dates back to 40,000 years ago.

Mazandaran province, in the southern coastal line of the Caspian Sea, enjoys several unique caves such as Kushiman. Mazandaran is one of the most historical provinces of Iran, the inhabitants of which have lived in urbanized societies from the 5th millennium BC. Until now a lot of mysteries of the 5,000-year-old life of the people of the region have been revealed.

?We are determined to start digging archaeological boring pits in the historical Kumishan cave. The cave has undergone excavations both before and after the revolution, but none of them were systematic,? said Ali Mahforouzi, head of research center of the historical caves of Mazandaran province.

Energy Development Threatens Ancient Village

SALT LAKE CITY The remote Utah canyon that long concealed a string of ancient Indian settlements holds another surprise: The rancher who sold the land kept the mineral rights and says he may use them.

Waldo Wilcox, who for nearly 50 years kept the ancient Fremont Indian sites remarkably well preserved, tells a KUED documentary he kept the mineral rights because Utah wouldn't pay what he thought his 4,200-acre ranch was worth.

Wilcox wanted $4 million but got $2.5 million for the ranch in remote Range Creek Canyon, which was called one of the most important discoveries of 2004 by the magazine ``Scentific American.''

Wilcox, 75, said that before he opens the canyon to any oil-and-gas development, he would offer the mineral rights to the state _ for a price. But during an hourlong documentary, Wilcox recalled bitterly his negotiations with the state.

This was a big story from the past year. Can't tell what this would really entail as far as the archaeological sites were concerned. It seems as if he's already sold the land to the state, so it's unclear what sort of rules would govern any kind of development in the area. Obviously, unrestricted mining, etc., would be terrible for the remains. So would unlimited public access. OTOH, some mineral development might bring in money for actual archaeological work to take place. We'll keep following this.

Fight! Fight! Wal-Mart archaeologist to fight claim he desecrated remains

A Honolulu archaeologist who oversaw the construction site of the Keeaumoku Street Wal-Mart complex vowed to fight allegations that he violated state laws regarding burials and desecrated human remains.

The state Historic Preservation Commission has recommended $210,000 in fines, the highest possible under law, against Akihiko Sinoto, of Aki Sinoto Consulting, and other archaeologists involved in the Wal-Mart site for allegedly failing to notify "proper authorities" in a timely fashion when a burial site was inadvertently found during construction that began in 2003.

Sinoto said yesterday that he and the other archaeologists "intend to vigorously defend ourselves" in a state administrative process that could begin next month. The other archaeologists, who worked with him or were subcontracted by him, are Paul Tichenal and L.J. Moana Lee of Honolulu-based International Archaeological Research Institute Inc., and J. Stephen Athens and Rona Ikehara-Quebral of Honolulu.

A grave discovery Grave accidentally discovered in Iran's Siraf

A grave accidentally discovered in the ancient city of Siraf has puzzled archaeologists. Due to its strange burial, none of the archaeologists seeing it have been able to determine its exact date, CHN reported.

Based on the evidence, unlike other remains of the area, the grave belongs neither to the Parthian nor to the Sassanid nor the Islamic era.

Visiting historical city of Siraf was one of the programs of Siraf international conference which was attended by almost 200 Iranian and foreign experts and archaeologists. It was during the visit that the unusual burial was discovered accidentally.