Monday, June 27, 2005

Lost city road. . . .found! EVIDENCE FOR ROMAN ROAD IS UNEARTHED

NEW evidence that appears to confirm the existence of another Roman road in Tynedale has rekindled the fires of controversy.

Historians and archaeologists have long argued about whether the Romans ever built a road heading due west from Corbridge on the south side of the River Tyne.

The perceived wisdom is that they wouldn’t have bothered – not when they had built another one, the Stanegate, going west on the north bank.


More Roman Britain stuff Major excavation at Roman forts

Three weeks of digging to excavate what could be the largest Roman garrison fort in Wales start on Monday.

The site, which dates from the first century AD, was first found at Dinefwr Park, near Llandeilo, in 2003.

Experts said the south Wales discovery could rewrite our understanding of the Roman conquest in the area.

Recent surveys confirmed the site, which is invisible from the surface, is much larger than first thought and is made up of two overlapping forts.



Field school update Uncovering History

Kimberly Eppler held shards of pottery in her hand, working to master the differences between whiteware, stoneware and yellow ware.

"Learning about it is fun for me," said Eppler, a senior at Natchitoches (La.) State University who graduates in December.

What Eppler learned helped with the sorting, bagging and initial cataloging of artifacts discovered at the New Philadelphia site near Barry.

Twenty-four undergraduate students wrap up five weeks of site work today as part of field schools sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the University of Illinois.


New Roman finds could turn history on its head

BRITAIN was home to Roman citizens some 50 years before the AD43 "invasion" date that generations of schoolchildren have been taught, new research has revealed.

The previously accepted version of the Roman invasion has its origins in the work of ancient spin-doctors trying to boost the reputation of the Emperor Claudius.

Archaeologists believe that a series of military artefacts unearthed in Chichester, Sussex, and dated decades before the AD43 date will turn conventional Roman history on its head.


More from The Independent

Book corner* These archaeologists are quite a find

(Review of "Guardian of the Horizon," by Elizabeth Peters: HarperCollins, 399 pages, $24.95.)

Although Elizabeth Peters is an American, she writes in the British style. Perhaps that is because the characters are British. Not a Yankee in the bunch.

She has captured the British gentry with accuracy. She features a family of archaeologists, the Emersons. They have the characteristic English upper lip and muddle through danger time and again, expecting to succeed in their endeavors. And they do.


* Why do they call it a "corner"? Who goes into corners for anything besides as a time-out (reserved for those under about 14 or so) or to be brutally murdered (Blair Witch)?

Chinese in America update Did Chinese beat out Columbus?

Did Chinese sailors really discover America before Columbus? A new exhibition sets the scene, presenting new evidence that lends support to the assumptions made in "1421: The Year China Discovered America" by Gavin Menzies.

"1421: The Year China Sailed the World," in Singapore in a special tent near the Esplanade (until Sept. 11), is primarily a celebration of Admiral Zheng He's seven maritime expeditions between 1405 and 1423. With a fleet of 317 ships and 28,000 men, Zheng He is generally acknowledged as one of the great naval explorers, but how far he actually went remains a matter of dispute.

With original artifacts, videos and interactive exhibits, "1421" aims to take visitors through Zheng He's life story, setting the historical and economic context of his voyages. Against this factual background, Menzies's theories are presented, along with new evidence, mainly maps, backing his claims.


Ancient Egyptians Loved Their Dead Animals

To most people, Egyptian mummies are a handful of dead pharaohs wrapped in linen bandages and buried in pyramids outside Cairo. In reality, virtually everyone in ancient Egypt who could afford it—as many as 70 million people over 3,000 years—wound up going through the elaborate two-month mummification process.

Additionally, millions of animals were mummified and buried alongside their owners. They were, says Richard Sabin, curator at the Natural History Museum of London, something of a send-off status symbol, much like large bouquets of flowers at funerals today.


Researchers Simulate Long-gone Societies of the American Southwest

According to new research, climate change alone cannot explain why the Puebloan people—also known as Anasazi—abruptly abandoned the Four Corners region of the U.S. Southwest in the 1300s after residing there for hundreds of years. Human impact on the environment, high population levels and social and political factors, including violent conflict, likely played important roles.

Tim Kohler of Washington State University bases this conclusion on the results of computer modeling simulations and traditional archaeological research performed by his NSF-supported research team.


Mummy scanning update Scientists may soon get glimpse of mummy's face

Pesed has called a western Pennsylvania college home for about 120 years, but her caretakers don't know what she looks like.

But that might change now that researchers have a CT scan of the 2,300-year-old Egyptian mummy. Officials believe the scan will provide enough information to allow a forensic artist to construct a bust of Pesed, a mummy from the Nile River town of Akhmim, about 350 miles south of Cairo.