Archaeologists find signs of ancient advertisements from Sassanid era
During the latest season of excavations of the northern gate of Takht-e Suleiman, an ancient Zoroastrian fire temple located in northwestern Iran, the stamps of two seals were discovered which indicate that objects entered Takht-e Suleiman from other regions with special tags attached to them which seem to be advertisements.
They signify that an early form of advertising was being practiced during the Sassanid era (224-642 C.E.), Yusef Moradi, the head of the excavation team, said on Friday.
More underwater archaeology from a warm sunny location Group Finds Ancient Ships Off Italy Coast
Archaeologists exploring the bottom of the sea off the island of Capri have found the wrecks of three ancient ships that once plied the Mediterranean between Rome and northern African colonies.
Culture Minister Giuliano Urbani took a mini-submarine tour Thursday to see the latest additions to Italy's rich archaeological heritage, which were found earlier this month.
And in the Caribbean, too. Archaeologists to lead expedition to find sunken Spanish slave ship
Archaeologists are set to begin an expedition this month in hopes of finding a Spanish ship that wrecked along the jagged reefs off the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1841 carrying a cargo of African slaves.
The story of the Trouvadore is unusual because all 193 slaves made it to shore, and all but one survived to see their freedom granted by a British government that had just outlawed slavery. Most settled in the arid, low-lying islands and began new lives working its salt ponds and raising families.
The shipwreck holds particular significance for the British territory of 25,000 people because researchers say they believe that virtually all native islanders have ties by blood or marriage to the survivors.
Okay, at least these guys are actually working Underwater Archaeologists Dig for History
Instead of wearing khakis, students this summer at Croton Point Park donned wet suits and scuba gear as they dug up discoveries beyond the reach of landlocked archaeologists.
Daria Merwin and a team of students found buckets full of submerged stone artifacts where the Croton River flows into the Hudson River, about 30 miles north of New York City.
"I know it's stone tools, but it's stone tools people haven't seen in few thousand years," said Merwin, an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University.
More bones found at a construction site Archaeologists studying bones found at work site
Archaeologists are sifting through the remains of roughly 40 humans, estimated to be 3,500 to 4,000 years old, searching for clues on what could be an old Native American Indian encampment.
Officials were tipped off by an anonymous caller that home construction had turned up human remains, which have to be dealt with in a specific way.
''We didn't know about it until today,'' Nick Fielder, director of the state's Division of Archaeology, told The Lebanon Democrat this week.
Whoops. Sounds like the construction workers were conveniently failing to notice all of the bones they were digging up.
And this is why Three human skeletons sit in couple's front yard
For now, a Fox Lake family can't do much about the three human skeletons in their front yard.
Michael and Joanne Thompson discovered the skeletons of a man, woman and child while digging a drainage ditch in their yard on August 13th. Officials suspect the skeletons are Native American and say no one can touch them until a state archaeologist examines them next week.
More here. We thought NAGPRA didn't really apply in this case since it's on private property, but an Illinois state law apparently restricts what private landowners can do with human remains.
Good article Ties to the past Fremont Indians
Standing 900 feet above the canyon floor, the ancients who once lived in these rugged mountains could gaze down upon the creek that sliced through the area and nearby corn fields. Rock art adorned the cliff walls near a handful of ridge-top pithouses. Hidden granaries protected corn and other foods.
From this lookout near a natural stone arch, they could keep an eye on any neighbors or intruders moving through the canyon.
. . .
"There is not another region in the state of Utah that has the sheer number and density of essentially untouched archaeological sites - in fact, the archaeology of Range Creek Canyon may be unique in the United States," archaeologists wrote in a research proposal for the Book Cliffs site.
This is a nice article. It explains one of the big problems in archaeology, determining the type and extent of cultural interaction. Read the whole thing.
Book corner Archaeology With Brio, if No Mummy
The cast of Arthur Phillips's comic novel "The Egyptologist" could have come from one of those deliciously campy old Hollywood mummy movies. There's the intrepid explorer-archaeologist-adventurer, his beautiful, neurasthenic fiancée, her rich father who is bankrolling the expedition, and loads of confused-looking extras - including some upper-class English twits, a bevy of enigmatic Egyptians and a pair of naïve American tourists. All that's missing is a real live mummy, uttering ancient curses and imprecations as he rises, noisily, from the dead.
Who knows, maybe it's worth a read. Sounds like a nice sendup of the typical Egyptology stereotype (though we must confess, many in the field come scarily close to many stereotypes) and we here at ArchaeoBlog truly love those classic mummy movies. Well, at least it's not some smarmy new-ager trying to convince us she was both Cleopatra and Nefertiti in a past life. . . .
Ah, middle East archaeology not dealing with temples and tombs Uncovering Ice Age archaeology in Jordan
The early prehistory and archaeology of the Middle Pleistocene, or Ice Age, is being revealed in remarkable detail in studies in southern Jordan. The work, begun in the late 1990s, has documented the presence of Homo erectus, our ancient ancestor, at a series of archaeological sites at Ayoun Qedim in the al-Jafr Basin.
Today al-Jafr Basin is one of the most arid places in the Middle East. During the Pleistocene, the basin was filled with an enormous freshwater lake fed by springs and run off.
As we have mentioned on previous occasions, much of prehistoric archaeology in the middle east gets short shrift due to the later stuff.
News from Hertfordshire Ancient mosaic uncovered in park
AN ARCHAEOLOGIST has unearthed a colourful 3rd Century mosaic in Verulamium Park, St Albans, during building works on the ancient hypocaust and mosaic site.
The field archaeology unit at St Albans Museums was digging a trench for a new electricity cable when Jack Couch made the new find of a chequered mosaic.
Probably not seen for nearly 2,000 years, the mosaic is made up of red or brown tessera in a grid of grey Purbeck marble. It may be from the corridor of a town house built close to the hypocaust.
We have more, but Internet access is still spotty so we're just gonna hit Post and hope for the best right now.