France's new Stonehenge: Secrets of a neolithic time machine

Because the Kerdruelland menhirs have been preserved in mud and silt for 4,500 years, they should offer important new information on how such alignments were created and why. At the well-known sites, such as Carnac and Stonehenge, some of the stones have been moved or propped up or stolen or added over the centuries. Here the stones, up to 2m long, lie just as they did after they were felled four-and-half millennia ago.

At neolithic sites elsewhere, the soil of the period has been eroded by the ravages of time and man. At Kerdruelland, the neolithic sub-soil - the soil on which the stones were erected - has been preserved intact. This offers a cornucopia of possible new archaeological finds. Already, a brief dig has yielded a rich harvest of flint tools and shards of pottery.

Just as importantly, the preservation of the neolithic sub-soil will help the experts to discover traces of the original earthworks and study the methods of assembling and positioning the menhirs.

THe quoted portion explains why this site is important. Apparently, it was built and toppled in a relatively short span of time so we're not dealing with multiple episodes of rebuilding. Pretty cool. Read the whole thing.

Secrets of the mummy revealed

Doctors at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital are used to dealing with patients with all sorts of different needs.

But this 1,900-year-old patient, who had come all the way from Egypt, was definitely one of the most unusual.

The three-foot Egyptian mummy had been on display in Oxford's Ashmolean Museum for the past 20 years.

You'd think by now, CT scanning of a mummy would be kind of old news. Useful, but the scanning itself is kind of old hat anymore.

Venture Smith update Archaeologists Trying to Find Grave of 'Black Paul Bunyan'

Archaeologists have begun digging up the 200-year-old graves of a slave family in hopes of separating fact from fiction in the legend of "the black Paul Bunyan."

The dig has the blessing of more than a dozen descendants of Venture Smith who believe science can finally lend credence to the tales they have heard all their lives about the fabulous feats of strength that helped the lumberjack slave win his freedom.

Standing 6-foot-1 by his own account and weighing more than 300 pounds according to local lore, Smith is said to have carried a nine-pound ax and split seven cords of wood each day.

This is a first Lincoln forest unearths old locomotive

Archaeologists and volunteers have unearthed part of an old locomotive and other artifacts buried in a canyon in the Sacramento Mountains.

Lincoln National Forest assistant archaeologist Eric Dillingham believes it could be part of a train involved in a boiler explosion in late 1938 in the old timber town of Marcia.

For ArchaeoBlog anyway: The first reported archaeological discovery of an exploded train.

Archaeology dig delaying new school

Construction of a new school must wait until archaeologists finish digging at the Southern Indiana site after the discovery of flint and other artifacts believed to date from the state's pioneer days.


The school and football field along Ind. 54 are slated for completion in December 2007 if construction continues as scheduled, Eastern Greene Schools Superintendent Randy Barrett said.

There we go, getting all excited again Greek subway dig excites archaeologists

Another subway in Greece, another look into the past.

Tunneling work to build a metro system for the country's second-largest city started Thursday, as Culture Ministry officials signed an agreement to protect antiquities they expect to be discovered during construction.

The agreement follows a massive horde of antiquities uncovered while building a new subway system in Athens, which opened in 2000, with extensions added before the 2004 Olympics. Some of the discoveries are on display at Athens stations.

Fight! Fight! Wal-mart Supercenter: Archaeologist: developers discount site findings

An archaeologist who worked on the site of the planned Wal-Mart Supercenter in southwest Santa Fe says the developers didn't want to hear about him finding 2,000-year-old artifacts there.

Tom McIntosh, who was hired to examine the vacant 65 acres earlier this year, said the developers seemed to have their minds made up that there was no significant archaeology there.

It's not terribly clear whether the archaeologist in question really did find anything "significant":

Other archaeologists agreed with McIntosh's definition of archaeologic significance but said almost any site has the potential to yield more information. They said lithic sites are common in the Santa Fe area and are considered significant only when found in a context that allows the sites to be dated through scientific methods, such as the presence of hearths with charcoal that yields carbon-14.

Tough to call. W-M has had both good and bad press regarding archaeology (see here for e.g.,) and there was one article in the SAA Bulletin/Archaeological Record a while back (I'm just full of half-remembered references today. . . .) about a good working relationship between W-M and archaeologists.

Transforming the Alchemists

Historians of science are taking a new and lively interest in alchemy, the often mystical investigation into the hidden mysteries of nature that reached its heyday in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries and has been an embarrassment to modern scientists ever since.

. . .

But in the revival of scholarship on the field, historians are finding reasons to give at least some alchemists their due. Even though they were secretive and self-deluded and their practices closer to magic than modern scientific methods, historians say, alchemists contributed to the emergence of modern chemistry as a science and an agent of commerce.

“Experimentalism was one of alchemy’s hallmarks,” said Lawrence M. Principe, a historian of science at Johns Hopkins University and a trained chemist. “You have to get your hands dirty, and in this way alchemists forged some early ideas about matter.”

I linked this because it's somewhat similar to the long-running debate (really big during the 1970s and early 1980s) about how/whether archaeology should/can be a science, and also a debate from a couple of years ago regarding a book (canNOT remember it now for the life of me) who argued that much of Western science was really just derived from ancient sources. This article highlights the empiricism that alchemists displayed, as opposed to the natural philosophy out of which sprang classical physics. There seems to be only passing mention of 'theory' in the article as regards alchemy, which may or may not arise directly from the subject. Formal theory is really what differentiates science from non-science or simple empirical generalization, and one wonders if the basic reason chemistry didn't adopt formal theory is. . . .what? I was hoping this article would shed light on this. It might be suggesting that perhaps an existing folk theory of transformation got in the way of developing formal theory:

Why did a “scientific revolution” in experimental chemistry not occur earlier in the 17th century? Why was a clear separation of alchemy and exact chemistry delayed until the 18th century?

Bruce T. Moran, a historian at the University of Nevada at Reno and the University College London, said it was not all that unreasonable at the time to be attracted to alchemy. “For a variety of practical and intellectual reasons,” Professor Moran said, “the idea of transforming one thing into another was to be expected.”

In everyday life, grapes were turned to wine and wheat to bread. A sour green apple grew into a sweet red one. It was in the nature of things to change, even metals. Miners and refiners already knew that lead ore almost always contains some silver, and silver ore almost always contains some gold. This implied that the metals changed one into the other over time.

Which rather complicates things, if you're looking at an incredible variety of things that transform into other things; gravity or motion in this light looks pretty simple: things drop in one direction unless you throw them some other direction.

If I find a link to the book I'm thinking of, I'll post that as well. IIRC, it wasn't particularly well-received, as the author basically argued that anything in the past that looked vaguely empiricist could be regarded as Science and was therefore a precursor to any modern scientific theory.

Breaking news Another new tomb in the Valley of the Kings: ‘KV64’ - II

ARTP first encountered evidence of a second anomaly in the central area of the Valley of the Kings in the autumn of 2000, located at a point close to the southeast corner of the modern flood-prevention wall around the Tutankhamun-tomb entrance and a short distance to the north of KV63 (see Fig. 6). The radar readings generated by our equipment were uniformly strong and impressive (Fig. 5) - even more so than the data which in 2000 first alerted ARTP to the existence of KV63 (Fig. 4). As analysed by our radar specialist Hirokatsu Watanabe it seems all but certain (on analogy with the KV63 radar evidence) that the new data identify the presence of another tomb at some considerable depth - ‘KV64’.

This is a general link, so the contents will change in the future. This one is dated 28 and 31 July. This is a good observation:

Why this fear of a new gold rush? Because despite current media disappointment at the absence of bodies it will soon become apparent that KV63 is in fact a discovery of the most extraordinary significance - not for what the single chamber actually holds but for what it clearly signals, which is the definite presence in the Valley of at least one further tomb. The situation is this: as a chamber full of embalmers’ refuse KV63 stands in relation to a future burial as the KV54 embalming-cache in 1907 stood to the tomb of Tutankhamun. It represents without question an augury of further, significant discoveries to come.

Reader Luis Aldamiz sends these comments on the Anglo-Saxon apartheid story from a couple of weeks ago:

I read the same story in BBC and left me flippant. The premise is that
Anglo-Saxon male lineages outbred the previous ones but that's not the
truth. In fact Britons, even those of the regions more affected by
Anglo-Saxon and Viking (Danish) invasions (Yorkshire and Norfolk) are
still more "Basque" (Atlantic) than anything else. Only the people of
Orkney and Shetland seem to show about 50% of Norwegian male lineages.

Check this paper carefully and compare with the far-fetched ideas published recently in those articles.

Actually based on that paper and its graphics I found rather that the
rank of male "Basque" (Atlantic) lineages range from c. 100% in some
areas of Ireland and Wales to c. 60% in the regions apparently most
affected by Anglo-Saxon and Danish (Viking) invasions (their genome is
so simmilar, unlike Norwegian, that you can't take them apart). Britons
are still more Atlantic/Western than Nordic, at least via male genetic
lineages.

Curiously female MtDNA lineages seem closer to those of Friesland and
other North European regions (sorry, I don't have any link for that
right now). This was a puzzle for me initially but my conclussion is
that the British Islands were probably populated mostly from the Rhin
region (Belgium and surroundings) and that it is in that region where
there's been a male "outbreeding" in the continent rather than in the
islands. Female lineages are much more homogeneous throught most of
Europe than male ones, what seems to show, in my understanding, a
relative "outbreed" (to continue with the euphemistic term) by
Indo-European male invaders in the Metallic Ages, much less intense west
of the Rhin, as it served as rather stable border between IEs and
Western pre-IEs for c. 1000 years (between c. 2400 and 1300 BCE),
according to what I know of European late pre-History.

So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn’t Even Know You

New research from around the world has begun to reveal a picture of humans today that is so different from what it was in the past that scientists say they are startled. Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.

Apparently, the root causes are still unknown in their particulars. The article centers around a particular hypothesis that much of this is a function of fetal and infant health:

“Why do some people get heart disease and strokes and others don’t?” he said. “It’s very clear that current ideas about adult lifestyles go only a small way toward explaining this. You can say that it’s genes if you want to cease thinking about it. Or you can say, When do people become vulnerable during development? Once you have that thought, it opens up a whole new world.”

It is a world that obsesses Dr. Barker. Animal studies and data that he and others have been gathering have convinced him that health in middle age can be determined in fetal life and in the first two years after birth.

Read the whole thing.

Update: Hawks thought it was pretty good, too.

Web site alert Just found this one via a message that came across the EEF lists: The Egyptian Study Society. They have a periodical -- The Ostracon -- with articles/papers by a variety of authors, both professional Egyptologists and enthusiasts. And a page with gobs and gobs of links to other Egypt-o-Sites. It's added to the list at left.

Controversy Archaeologists unearth tomb, seeking clues about Venture Smith

Efforts to unearth the truth behind the legend of freed slave, Venture Smith, are in jeopardy. A lawyer with no connection to the family has filed a lawsuit to stop the excavation.

It does not appear that a decision on this injunction will be made until early next week.

At issue now is whether or not this request can even go forward because the defense says the state archaeologist who is named in the suit does not have the authority to stop the dig - even if the injunction is against him is granted.

Archaeologists in Guatemala discover Mayan king’s tomb

Looters who tunneled for decades looking for treasure deep underneath Guatemala's Mayan pyramids were outsmarted by archaeologists who earlier month discovered two major royal tombs.

Guatemalan Minister for Culture Manuel Salazar, one of the first to arrive on the scene after the discovery was made, prayed and played the flute at the entrance of one of the tombs. The body of a king adorned jewels was uncovered at the site in Laguna del Tigre National Park and is thought to have been buried more than 1,500 years ago.

This could turn out to be a very important discovery so stay tuned.

Cemetery archaeology update Old cemetery found at CVG airport

A family cemetery found at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport is going to be moved.

Tombstones belonging to the Popham family were found last year when survey work was being done for a road, according to Bill Martin, the airport's senior director of planning and development.

The cemetery is southeast of the airport's middle north-south runway and west of DHL's facility. It has 15 graves.

Pipe-layers unearth bit of history

Contractors have found the remains a 2,000-year-old village near Thornholme, including children's and animals' bones, British and foreign pottery, coins and the outline of a roundhouse.

Archaeologists have des-cribed the find as significant and teams are now sifting through a field off the A614 looking for more artefacts.
Site manager Ben West-wood, from Northern Archae-ological Associates, said: "The earliest pottery we have so far had dated for the site indicates that it is from the second century. The latest is a coin from the late third or maybe fourth century.

Pyramid pioneers were spot on

Archaeologists who measured the Egyptian pyramids at Giza more than 100 years ago were surprisingly accurate, a review of historical surveys has shown.

The paper, posted online by Australia's Queensland University of Technology, reviews the major surveying projects of the pyramids Cheops, Chephren and Mycerinus, built around 2600 BC south of what's now Cairo.

"They weren't that far out; their surveys were quite diligent and systematic and we're getting fairly good agreement using modern technology," says the paper's co-author Robert Webb, a lecturer in surveying in the school of urban development.

DVD Review

Okay, somewhat off the beaten path of archaeology, but there is some in here. I just got a copy of the DVDs for the old TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. It was kind of a cult hit in 1974-75 and only lasted one season. The set itself doesn't have a lot of production quality to it -- there are no extras like a "making of" minidocumentary, no interviews, etc., and the disks themselves have no graphics at all, just off-the-shelf burned DVDs. The set also doesn't contain either of the pilot movies (The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler) which is a pity because both of those were excellent TV movies.

It's well-known that Chris Carter drew much inspiration for The X-Files from this series and its monster-of-the-week formula. Anyone who was around during the 70s and earlier will also reconigze a lot of actors from back then making guest appearances: Keenan Wynn, Scatman Crothers, Phill Silvers, etc. Some episodes were markedly better than others; when they concentrated on suspense and worked around a limited monster budget, it worked very well. Other times, not so good. One of the last episodes, about a giant lizard terrorizing an underground complex, was rather embarrasingly obvious as a man in a lizard suit.

A great deal of its appeal was McGavin, of course, who recently passed away. He was sort of an anti-hero -- no gun, no special abilities, no badge, no immense resources -- which made his exploits seem close to us normal folk. Would any of us sneak into an abandoned car and try to sew the lips of a zombie shut? Sheesh. He rushed sort of headlong into things and that was what made it click, along with McGavin's humorous portrayal.

Archaeologically, they worked some things into it. One of my first archy-memories is of the Demon in Lace episode which involved a succubus who was associated with a Mesopotamian (?) tablet, which Kolchak had to destroy to get rid of the demon. The ep creeped me out something awful. There was also one where modern-day Aztec cultists commit a series of sacrifices, and works the 52-year cycle of time used in that calendrical system.

The two pilot movies are sold separately. Interestingly, The Night Strangler is set in Seattle where I attended graduate school. This was the first time I'd ever heard of "Seattle" and was rather disappointed when I actually got here and found out that the really cool "Seattle Underground" wasn't a bunch of full-size buildings underground complete with working streetlights. Bummer. Still had the serial killers though.

Ancient Human Footprints Uncovered in Australia

About 20,000 years ago, humans trekked along the margins of a shallow lake in Australia, leaving behind records of their passage in the soft, wet sand.

In 2003, an aboriginal woman who is likely a descendant of those early Australians stumbled across dozens of timeworn footprints in the same area. Excavations of the site have since uncovered hundreds more.

The discovery, detailed in a recent issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, represents the largest collection of Pleistocene human footprints in the world, and the only footprints from that era ever found in Australia. In total, 457 footprints have now been uncovered.

Archaeologists 'excavate' old van

Project leader Cassie Newland says it is an exercise in methodology
Archaeologists are "excavating" an old transit van to help refine techniques used in studying modern artefacts.
The team at Bristol University is examining the van's contents, bodywork and engine and recording an oral history of the people who have used it.

A forensic scientist is also taking part in the "van dig". Police are increasingly using archaeological techniques for forensic investigations.