Pouring a bowl of cereal is a morning ritual for many people. Popular wisdom holds that our taste for grains goes back some 10,000 years. New findings may more than double that estimate.
This might be a subscription-only article, but we had no trouble getting to it. The 'broad spectrum revolution' is defined nicely here and more info can be gained by a simple search of the Web. For a rather interesting article on the use of a wide variety of plant foods in the American southeast, see Seed Processing and the Origins of Food Production in Eastern North America by Kristen J. Gremillion in the April 2004 American Antiquity (Volume 69 Number 2 April 2004). Fascinating study that describes in pretty good detail the different types of plants that were utilized before maize became so dominant.
Archaeologist Tries to Solve 1,500 Year Old Mystery
A Wichita State archaeologist is trying to learn more about the path the Hopewell people took as they traveled across the state from about 50 B.C. to 500 A.D.
The Hopewell culture is best known for the earth mounds along the Ohio River. But these early inhabitants also made religious pilgrimages to sacred sites in the Yellowstone National Park area and Idaho.
Jim Dougherty, of Wichita State University, is trying to trace their travel routes across Kansas. He believes the items they left behind can help. And he's asking farmers, ranchers and amateur archaeologists in west-central and western Kansas to contact him if they've found particular kinds of pottery shards, certain styles of arrow points, and other objects.
This story also has a good description of the Hopewell phenomenon, or the Hopewell Interaction Sphere as it's also known. It's another fascinating aspect of North American prehistory that is not so well known popularly.
Yet another cemetery uncovered Indian burial ground discovered at Bay Area construction site
A centuries-old American Indian burial ground has been discovered at a construction site east of San Francisco, offering new clues about the people who inhabited the region long before the Spanish arrived.
About 80 sets of human remains and artifacts have already been unearthed, and at least as many are believed to be hidden beneath Lafayette's Hidden Oaks housing development, where two dozen upscale homes are planned.
Construction on the two-acre site was halted last week when the first remains were uncovered, so Lafayette officials could review the project and ask experts to study the discovery's significance.
Archeologists said they may have found one of the San Francisco Bay area's last, mostly intact Indian burial sites of significant size. Among the items recovered are projectile points, stone mortars and beads.
Yet another story on the Stonehenge 3 Tooth enamel sheds light on ruin's origin
Roadworks have unearthed clues to who built Stonehenge - long the source of speculation and myth, writes David Derbyshire from London.
Ever since the Romans stumbled across the crumbling ruins 2000 years ago, mankind has wondered at the mysterious origins of Stonehenge.
Julius Caesar thought the temple was the work of the Druids; the medieval writer Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that it had been magically whisked from Ireland by Merlin; folk tales claimed it as the work of the devil.
Now archaeologists believe they have finally unmasked the elusive Britons who dragged Stonehenge's bluestones more than 160 kilometres from the Welsh mountains to Salisbury Plain to create Europe's greatest prehistoric monument.
Chemical tests on the tooth enamel from Bronze Age skeletons buried in a mass grave near the site have revealed that they were almost certainly born in west Wales - close to the mountains where the stones originated.
Expert reveals Dilmun truths
Saudi archaeologist Nabiel Al Shaikh observes yesterday's sunset from the remains of the 4,000-year-old Dilmun settlement in Saar.
Mr Al Shaikh, a photographer and archaeologist at Dammam Regional Museum, in Saudi Arabia, claims the landmark proves that the Dilmun civilisation was one of the first to use a solar calendar.
He says that on the summer solstice, which occurs every year on June 21, the sun sets directly over an odd triangular corner of the temple - suggesting the corner was some sort of astronomical device used to measure the position of the sun.
He has returned to the site every year since 1996 to witness the phenomenon, but has yet to convince the Bahraini authorities that his theory is correct.