Dig hits rich vein of medieval history
The jewelled cross pulled from an archaeological dig in rural Aberdeenshire does not, admittedly, look like much. Caked in heavy mud and withered by age, it could easily be overlooked. But the cross is the latest piece in a jigsaw puzzle that is casting new light on the remarkable life of a medieval community.
"It promises quite a lot," says Penny Dransart, who is leading the dig at Fetternear. "We don't clean items like that on site so we can't say too much about it yet. But, at the very least, it will add to the cumulative knowledge we are building about life at Fetternear."
ArchaeoBlog reconstruction of what the jewelled cross may look like:
Oddly enough, we found this site while researching this story: IndyGear.com. Neat site. Especially check out the section by a Dr. David West Reynolds on The Archaeology of Indiana Jones. Lots of neat trivia, and some real archaeology, too.
News from Wausau, Wisconsin! Digging up the Past
On the Northeast shore of Butternut Lake, archaeologists, volunteers, and students are digging for archaeological deposits from early native cultures. Their purpose, to learn more about their hunting, eating habits, and seasonal movements in the region.
"It's just very important to learn about the people that lived here because there was no written word like there may have been from Europeans," says Kristine Werhand, archaeological volunteer.
Short story, little information there, but hey, it's Wausau.
"Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" Bone return consultation launched
The UK government has launched a consultation document to consider the repatriation of human remains held in Britain to aboriginal groups.
Thousands of ancient human parts - from hair samples to whole skeletons - have been collected by UK museums.
The latest initiative will review the report issued last year by the Working Group on Human Remains.
It recommended scientists should seek out descendants for permission to hold on to body parts up to 500 years old.
And on a related note New wrangle over Kennewick bones
The legal battle over the ancient bones of Kennewick Man has been won by the scientists, but they now face a new wrangle over access to the remains.
The 9,300-year-old skeleton is among the most complete specimens of its period known from the Americas.
Four Native American tribes that sought to re-bury the bones have announced they will not be taking their fight to the US Supreme Court.
But they still regard the skeleton as an ancestor and call it "ancient one".
And something we missed earlier in the week Date limit set on first Americans
A new genetic study deals a blow to claims that humans reached America at least 30,000 years ago - around the same time that people were colonising Europe.
The subject of when humans first arrived in America is hotly contested by academics.
On one side of the argument are researchers who claim America was first populated around 13,000 years ago, toward the end of the last Ice Age. On the other are those who propose a much earlier date for colonisation of the continent - possibly around 30,000-40,000 years ago.
The authors of the latest study reject the latter theory, proposing that humans entered America no earlier than 18,000 years ago.
Neat study. The weakness in it, of course, is recognized by the scientist in question: But Dr Wells acknowledged the possibility that even more ancient American populations carrying unidentified Y chromosome haplotypes could have been swamped by later migrations, resulting in their genetic legacy being erased. That is, only the survivors were tested; it doesn't rule out the possibility of earlier migrations.
Finally, golf meets archaeology Caesar’s Camp: ancient enigma
A mysterious bump in Wimbledon Common's golf course has intrigued residents, archaeologists and developers since the 19th century.
An excavation by a London water board in 1937 dated the site, known as Caesar's Camp, back to the third century BC.
More recent discoveries indicate the period between the Bronze and Iron Age the sixth to eighth century BC.
Archaeologists have discovered that the site had formidable defences. The original ditch was 30ft wide and probably 12ft deep. The main wall had retaining walls of wood inside and outside, with a wooden fence on top for extra protection.
Ancientg engineering update Archaeologists Discover How Achaemenid Architects Buttressed Pasargadae
Achaemenid architects knew properly applied foundation-making principles in Pasargadae to boost its resilience, Iranian archaeologists have concluded.
Having studied techniques applied in construction of the Achaemenids’ first capital city over the past year, experts with Pars-Pasargadae Project decided the designers used the foundation method since the area’s land was unstable. “We have come to the conclusion that Achaemenid architects built the monuments on two layers of stone foundation,” said Babak Kial, head of the site. “This technique has enabled the ancient city to withstand quakes over the centuries.”
While they didn't (generally) have the mathematical tools to work out problems ahead of time, the ancient engineers were not the simpletons many would have us believe. Much of the "ancient astronauts" literature, or the more recent new agey stuff that requires poor, prehistoric people to only know how to build things using psychokinetic powers, relies on the assumption that ancient people were just plain dumb and couldn't figure out a natural mechanical way to lift and place large objects.