Non-archaeological post du jour Kathy Sierra on being around happy people:

The notion of "Happy People" was tossed around in the Robert-Lost-His-Mind posts as something ridiculous at best, dangerous at worst. One blogger equated "happy people" with "vacuous". The idea seems to be that "happy people" implies those who are oblivious to the realities of life, in a fantasy of their own creation, and without the ability to think critically. The science, however, suggests just the opposite.

One of the best passages is on happy people as a force for change:

[O]ne of the world's leading experts in the art of happiness is the Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Just about everyone who hears him speak is struck by how, well, happy he is. How he can describe--with laughter--some of the most traumatizing events of his past. Talk about perspective...

But he is quite outspoken with his criticism of China. The thing is, he doesn't believe that criticism requires anger, or that being happy means you can't be a disruptive influence for good. On happiness, he has this to say:

"The fact that there is always a positive side to life is the one thing that gives me a lot of happiness. This world is not perfect. There are problems. But things like happiness and unhappiness are relative. Realizing this gives you hope."

Not an academic essay, but an interesting one. A few years ago, two of my professors (RC Dunnell and RJ Wenke) wrote a short article in American Antiquity, I believe (can't find it in JStor for some reason) decrying the increasingly hostile tone in many articles. Might have done some good because the rhetoric did, in my view, tone down somewhat after that. The blogosphere is replete with anger, especially among anonymous commenters, none of whom, happily comment or email to ArchaeoBlog. Well, maybe once, but seeing as I'm a big blogosphere star, it rolled right off my back.
(HT: Instapundit)

Two bits from the EEF lists One item discussed recently is the apparent dessication of Lake Moeris in the Fayum during Old Kingdom times, related, of course, to the severe drought that occurred at that time (see this post). Here's a freely accessible paper on the general chronology of climate change in Egypt and Northern Sudan:

Recent environmental change and prehistoric human activity in Egypt and Northern Sudan. Quarternary Science Reviews (QSR) 23 (2004) pp. 561-580. Oxford 2003. (HT Brigitte Goede)

Also, the KV63 diary has been updated.

Shetland's past comes to life amid the ruins

HIDDEN beneath the turf of a windswept part of Shetland's coast lies the impressive remains of one of the longest inhabited spots in Britain. No-one knows what the earliest name of this settlement was, but from the rubbish they left we can tell a lot about the people who lived there over the years.

The people of Jarlshof threw garbage into dumps from before 2500 BC but, although their waste was unwanted, their refuse has been anything but rubbish for archaeologists investigating their lives. We know that the Stone Age settlers lived in small circular stone houses, that they tilled crops, kept cattle and sheep, and harvested the sea for fish and whales, seals and shellfish. They also made tools - some finely decorated - from stone, pottery and bone.

Check for small wooden cups First Knights Templar are discovered

The first bodies of the Knights Templar, the mysterious religious order at the heart of The Da Vinci Code, have been found by archaeologists near the River Jordan in northern Israel.

British historian Tom Asbridge yesterday hailed the find as the first provable example of actual Knights Templar.

The remains were found beneath the ruined walls of Jacob's Ford, an overthrown castle dating back to the Crusades, which had been lost for centuries.

That was an Indiana Jones joke, btw.

Dig finds long-term use at Hell's Half Acre

A preliminary report on an archaeological dig says Hell's Half Acre, west of Casper, was home to prehistoric American Indians at least 1,200 years ago, and perhaps as long as 8,000 years ago.

John Albanese, chairman of the Natrona County Historic Preservation Society, told Natrona County commissioners on Thursday that archaeological evidence shows Indians were hunting bison at Hell's Half Acre between 1,200 and 3,000 years ago, and that some evidence appeared to be much older.

"There could be some older material," Albanese said. "We found a spear point about 8,000 years old."

Light-rail work reveals Hohokam remains

A 10-person team of archaeologists on Monday carefully unearthed part of a Hohokam village found by workers during light-rail construction in Tempe.

The scientists found an undisclosed number of human remains and the plaster floors of five dwellings. They also found signs of prehistoric domestic life: part of a woven mat, pottery shards, stone tools, beads and shell ornaments that were used for jewelry.

"These people were sedentary, like we are, and had miles and miles of canals," said Allan Schilz, principal investigator for Archaeological Consulting Services Ltd. advertisement

He said the site likely is part of a larger village that may have had up to 1,000 inhabitants at one time.

Construction season is gearing up so expect lots more of this.

Archaeology dig resumes on Arkansas River

Work on an archaeological dig at a Wichita Indian village southeast of Arkansas City will continue this summer under the leadership of college professors from Oklahoma.

Oklahoma University archaeology professor Susan Vehik will join several colleagues leading 30 students from OU and and Oklahoma State University in the month-long dig at the Bryson-Paddock site. She also led students on the most recent dig at the site two years ago.

Vehik spoke on the Wichita Indians and the upcoming dig at a free lecture Saturday at the Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum. About 20 people attended the lecture, one of four Saturday events celebrating Kansas Archaeology Month.

She refers to a climate change event:

Vehik said some argue that around 1420 an ice age began, and that led to a cooler, dryer climate in the Southern Plains.

"Between 900 and 1200 was a relatively peaceful period between Indian tribes," she said. "But after the climate change in the 1400s, people begin to fight over bison."

Probably a slight misquote on the part of the reporter, as this coincides with the start of the Little Ice Age. Interestingly, I'm reading Steven LeBlanc's Constant Battles and one of his main contentions is that under environmental stress -- which the LIA certainly caused over wide areas of the globe -- people tend to fight rather than cooperate. I'll post a review of the book when I'm finished with it.

Ancient seaside villa found near Rome

Workers digging a new sewage system for a coastal resort near Rome found the remains of a second-century villa belonging to two Roman senators.

Archaeologists say the villa in Torvaianica is important and imposing enough to become a tourist attraction once excavation is complete.

Large group of ancient tombs excavated in Henan

Chinese archaeologists have conducted excavation on a total of 415 ancient tombs dating back to the dynasties of the Han (206 BC-220 AD), Tang (618-906), Song (960-1279) and Qing (1644-1911) in central China's Henan Province.

The tombs were found in the northeastern suburbs of Sanmenxia City. There are 196 tombs from the Han Dynasty, 66 from the Tang Dynasty, 10 from the Song Dynasty and 145 from the Qing Dynasty.

The archaeologists have unearthed some 1,421 pieces of historical relics from the tombs.

Ethiopia: Archaeologists Uncover Ancient Relics, Four-Pillar Building

A team of Ethiopian Archaeologists has uncovered several ancient relics and building through excavations conducted at the ancient town of Axum.

Coordinator of the team Tekle Hagos told ENA Tuesday that the team has been carrying out excavations beginning from February 8, 2006 on the tombs of Izana and Remhai around the Statue of Queen of Sheba in Axum town.

Tekle said the team has uncovered claywares, several metallic and stone-made relics as well as a four-pillar building.

The Fall of the Egyptian Old Kingdom

Nothing prepared Egypt for the eclipse of royal power and poverty that came after Pepy II (Neferkare). He had ruled for more than 90 years (2246 - 2152 BC) as the fourth king of the 6th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom. Within the span of 20 years, fragmentary records indicate that no less than 18 kings and possibly one queen ascended the throne with nominal control over the country. This was the entire length of the 7th and 8th Dynasties (2150 - 2134 BC). In the last few years of the 6th Dynasty, the erosion of power of the centralized state was offset by that of provincial governors and officials who became hereditary holders of their posts and treated their regions as their own property.

By Fekri Hassan. It's a fairly pursuasive case for a severe drought right around the time of the end of the Old Kingdom. Climate change from around this time is known elsehwere in the middle east and as Hassan points out, from several other places around the world:

In Iceland, researchers have detected a transition from birch and grassland vegetation to arctic conditions in about 2150 BC. This correlates with a shift to drier climate in south-eastern Europe c.2200 - 2100 BC. Also, the reappearance of oak at White Moss, UK, suggests fluctuating wetness in around 2190 - 1891 BC. In Italy, drier conditions are found around 2200-1900 BC in Lake Castglione. Dry spells have also been detected as far away as Western Tibet at Lake Sumxi.

The most tantalizing recent discovery, however, was made when scientists made a high-resolution study of dust deposition from Kajemarum Oasis in north-eastern Nigeria. The study conclusively revealed that a pronounced shift in atmospheric circulation occurred in around 2150 BC. This data indicates that an abrupt, short-lived event of cold climate led to less rainfall and a reduction of water flow in a vast area extending from Tibet to Italy. This had catastrophic effects on such early state societies as the Egyptian Old Kingdom.

He only notes this at the end of the article (and tangentially elsewhere) that the nature of kingship changed from the OK to the Middle. Earlier, the king had been much more clearly divine with direct control over everything in Egypt. Later, his status had diminished somewhat with his primary duty as that of maintaining the balance and eventually gaining access to divinity in the afterlife. Being divine and having a horrendous drought ruin the country might tend to make one's followers a tad bit suspicious.

Hassan also deals with some of the hypotheses that have cropped up over the years related to the collapse of the Old Kingdom. For example, the idea that nobles had gradually increased their power and authority and asserted their power to the detriment of the ruling family. This has always been controversial and, as Hassan notes, there is little evidence of this supposed power outside of increases in tomb richness around Giza and elsewhere.

Good article and, as they say, read the whole thing.

Antiquities Market Update Unearthed War Relics See Battle Again (via Althouse)

"You pull a Minie ball out of the ground, and the first thing that strikes you: The last hands that touched this were the hands of a Civil War soldier," dig participant Steve Silvia said of a Civil War-era bullet. "It's about as close as you can get to stepping back in time."

But to alarmed archaeologists, these "safari" digs -- though perfectly legal -- represent the wholesale destruction of the past. Stripping sites of their artifacts also strips the ability to learn what stories they could tell.

"These digs are like reading a book, ripping the pages out as you read and setting them on fire," said Kathleen Kilpatrick, director of the state's Department of Historic Resources. "It's an outrage."

The perspective of the article is definitely an anti-looting one. It does mostly touch on the core issues, but the basic point of the article will probably never go anywhere: That is, these people are digging on private property and therefore will never (in our lifetimes) be regulated. Private property is one of those sacrosanct aspects of American culture (and law). I can't see this changing anytime soon.

The article brings up two related aspects of this: The fact that archaeologists aren't digging any of this stuff up, and these things will be lost if not for the relic hunters. The first part is true enough; it's expensive and time consuming to properly excavate a site. Most archaeologists can spend most of their professional careers on only a handful of sites, and those aren't even generally fully excavated. The second part is debatable in many cases. Certainly there's a time dimension operating with certain types of artifacts. Various materials will decay at different rates depending on time and also sediment chemistry, mechanical disturbance, etc. Point being, it's not "lost forever" if it's left in the ground. In fact, any artifact that has survived more than a couple of hundred years is probably safer in the ground than anywhere else. We may not get to see it, but someone eventually will and they may be able to get more information from it than we can.

The upshot is, the archaeologists in question probably won't be able to take any legal action for material on private property, so the only way they can influence this behavior is by changing the culture, either through "shame" or by encouraging a sense of shared cultural responsibility.

Treasure myth inspires Cypriots to dig into past

Residents of a Cypriot village, intrigued for decades by a tale of buried treasure and an underground flight of steps leading nowhere, have decided to get to the bottom of the mystery.

More than half a century after British colonial rulers forced them to abandon their last attempt to explore the site, residents of Tseri village in central Cyprus have begun excavating the 1,500-year-old tunnel and stairway.

Antiquities officials say the stone structure is part of an ancient irrigation network.

That should be a disappointment.

Two from Greece <

Experts in awe of antiquity stash

The massive collection of illegal antiquities uncovered by authorities on the tiny Aegean island of Schinoussa is unique and probably the largest ever seen in Greece, police told Kathimerini yesterday.

Policemen and archaeologists were still combing through artifacts at the villa of an unnamed woman from a wealthy shipping family. The raid came after a search of her home in Athens, where more antiquities were found.

This: Among the most impressive items found on Schinoussa, south of Naxos, was a completely rebuilt ancient temple. The temple, made using artifacts from various eras, covers an area of some 30 square meters.

Yeesh.

Bringing the secrets of Antigoneia to light

Though Greece and Albania have much in common, Greece has not been officially involved in the burgeoning archaeological excavations and the activities of foreign archaeology schools in Albania in recent years.

But the cooperation memorandum signed last year by the Greek Culture Ministry and the Archaeological Institute of the Tirana Academy of Sciences has paved the way.

Joint research is being carried out at ancient Antigoneia under the supervision of the institute, headed by Muzafer Korkuti, and the 12th Ephorate, headed by Constantinos Zachos.

Medieval cemetery update SKELETONS AN INSIGHT INTO MEDIEVAL CHILDREN'S LIVES

Experts hope the discovery of more than 1,000 skeletons could throw new light on the lives and deaths of medieval children.

In one of the UK's largest finds of its kind, archaeologists unearthed 1,340 bodies at a site in the city centre.

Now it has emerged that more than a third of the bodies were those of infants and children.

This ought to be a fascinating project.

Archaeologists make unique findings in Prague centre

The thorough archaeological research on Republic Square in Prague centre, where a new commercial building is under construction, has resulted in some unique findings from Prague's early history, including the basement of a Romanesque palace, Petr Jurina from the Archaia archaeological company that headed the research told reporters today.

Archaeologists also uncovered a ring that is the oldest item to prove the presence of Jews in Prague settlement, as well as the foundations of several splendour houses built of other material but stone, and few potter's kilns.

An open- door policy

Last month's official opening in Room No 44 of the Egyptian Museum of an exhibition of American discoveries in Egypt was a high-profile event. It was launched by Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and attended by Frank Ricciardone, the American ambassador in Egypt -- who is showing more interest in Egyptian culture than did his predecessors -- as well as Gerry Scott, director of the American Research Centre in Egypt (ARCE), who demonstrates a more amicable attitude to the press, and Wafaa El-Saddik, director of the museum. The objects on display included pieces chosen from the permanent collection of the museum as well as some recent and impressive discoveries.

Another fine article by Jill Kamil. Read it all.

Archaeologist recommends graves be moved

Archaeologist Mike Henry says the best solution to the Cooley-Hatt cemetery controversy is to move the graves blocking the construction of a proposed road.

"The question is how much do we owe the past and what's best for the community's future," said Mr. Henry.

Mr. Henry, who was hired by developers to conduct an archaeological assessment in November 2004, visited Old Town Hall to speak about the Cooley-Hatt Cemetery last Friday.

Ancient tombs discovered in Sichuan

Chinese archaeologist have discovered a group of 24 ancient tombs dating back to the dynasties of Eastern Han (A.D.25-220), Tang (618-906) and Song (960-1279) in Chengdu, capital of southwes t China's Sichuan Province.

The tombs were found at a 3,000-square meter construction site in Shuangliu County.

Sixteen of the tombs were from the Eastern Han Dynasty and the earliest one was believed to be built in A.D. 74 as indicated by the date on the bricks. The other Han tombs were built in the following 200 years. Nine of the tombs were built in the Tang and Song dynasties.

Lost civilization village. . .found proved Archaeologist proves legend of lost village

A young archaeology enthusiast told today how he spent £32,000 on a plot of land to discover if local legend was true and a medieval village lay underneath.

Stuart Wilson had to dig deep and borrow most of the money to buy the four acres in Monmouthshire, south Wales.

So the 27-year-old archaeology graduate was delighted when his suspicions were confirmed with the discovery of four significant buildings and the promise of many more finds to come.

Lost civilization village. . .found proved Archaeologist proves legend of lost village

A young archaeology enthusiast told today how he spent £32,000 on a plot of land to discover if local legend was true and a medieval village lay underneath.

Stuart Wilson had to dig deep and borrow most of the money to buy the four acres in Monmouthshire, south Wales.

So the 27-year-old archaeology graduate was delighted when his suspicions were confirmed with the discovery of four significant buildings and the promise of many more finds to come.

Rare Roman burial urns unearthed

Two Roman burial urns have been found on the grounds of a retirement village being built in Tregony, Cornwall.
The 1st century AD pottery urns were found by a Cornwall County Council archaeologist in a pre-construction check at the Roseland Parc development.

Experts believe the urns were recovered from a shrine that overlooked Fal River. They are to go on show at the Truro Museum after analysis.

Afar just keeps givin' 'em up New Fossils Add Link to the Chain of the Evolution of Humans

In following the fossil tracks of human evolution, scientists have for years searched for links between Australopithecus, the kin of the famous "Lucy" skeleton, and even earlier possible ancestors. Now, they think they have found some connections in Ethiopia.

An international team of paleontologists is reporting the discovery of transitional species superimposed in sediments in the neighborhood of a single site. The findings appear today in the journal Nature.

Tim D. White, a paleontologist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was a team leader, and his colleagues said the 4.1-million-year-old fossils were anatomically intermediate between the earlier species Ardipithecus ramidus and the later species Australopithecus afarensis, the Lucy family. The newfound bones and teeth are the earliest remains of the most primitive Australopithecus, known as anamensis.

Great. Just what was predicted and when. And yet another one of those transitional fossils that supposedly don't exist. . . .

UPDATE: John Hawks has more.

Repatriation update Easter Island statue heads home

The huge stone head is framed by a wooden crate that casts shadows across its vacant eyes and elongated nose. After an odyssey of more than 80 years, the sculpture is set for what should be its final journey — home to Easter Island.
The 7-foot Moai, carved from compressed volcanic ash and decked in a red-rock headdress called a Pukau, is one of almost 900 ancestral statues crafted centuries ago on the remote Pacific island, annexed by Chile in 1888.

It was taken from the island in 1929 and spent some 40 years in the Chilean capital of Santiago before traveling to Argentina and making a quick round-trip visit to the Netherlands.

"Today is the end of a long exile for this Moai," Chilean Ambassador Luis Maira said at a ceremony Tuesday in Buenos Aires. "Today it is being returned to the place where it belongs, where the people are affectionately waiting for it."

He looks happy.

Applied archaeology? Researchers trawl the origins of sea fishing in Northern Europe

For decades the study of fish bones was considered one of the most esoteric branches of archaeology, but now it is helping to reveal the massive significance of the fishing trade in the Middle Ages.
New research co-ordinated by archaeologists at the University of York will spotlight the earliest development of Europe's sea fisheries and, given the continuous expansion of sea fishing since the Middle Ages, the ultimate origin of today's fishing crisis.

The three-year project, financed by the Leverhulme Trust and also supported by HMAP, the historical branch of the Census of Marine Life, will involve researchers across Northern Europe.

It builds on earlier research by the project team which discovered that extensive sea fishing began in Europe 1,000 years ago. A major shift from freshwater to sea fishing was due to a combination of climate, population growth and religion.

UPDATE: More here.

How the Gospel of Judas Emerged

When the National Geographic Society announced to great fanfare last week that it had gained access to a 1,700-year-old document known as the Gospel of Judas, it described how a deteriorating manuscript, unearthed in Egypt three decades ago, had made its way through the shady alleys of the antiquities market to a safe-deposit box on Long Island and eventually to a Swiss art dealer who "rescued" it from obscurity.

But there is even more to the story.

The art dealer was detained several years ago in an unrelated Italian antiquities smuggling investigation. And after she failed to profit from the sale of the gospel in the private market, she struck a deal with a foundation run by her lawyer that would let her make about as much as she would have made on that sale, or more.

Meanwhile John J. Miller comments:

This is ridiculous. It may very well be that the artifact exists because the people holding it were concerned with making money. They had a financial incentive to protect it. Waldbaum's comment is part and parcel with the academic war on the private antiquities market. A lot of scholars simply can't stand the fact that ancient items might lie in private collections rather than in their own university warehouses, and so they scorn discoveries such as this one.

I'm still dubious about, though open to, the idea that this would work. Museums and archaeologists did engage in for-profit archaeology early in the last century and before and it basically resulted in literally tons of no-value artifacts being plowed up and discarded in the search for the big-money items that wealthy collectors and museums paid them for. Then, what paid was individual objects, not context and association and consequently context and association was largely ignored; what pays now is context and association (in the form of grants and professional prestige). It's difficult to see what a market in individual objects would do to encourage the detailed excavations required for scientific archaeology.

BTW, the reason scholars tend not to like items being in private collections is because they are inaccessible for study. It's what we do. Which is precisely why collectors don't like them sitting in a university warehouse -- they can't look at them.

Eh, I'm devil's advocate for academic archaeologists today. It changes.

ID and archaeology, continued The latest issue of SAA's Archaeological Record is out (sub only at this point) and it contains three articles on the current (well, ongoing) ID controversy. All three argue that archaeology is somewhat tangential to the whole issue because, even though anthropology generally (through the study of hominid evolution) deals directly with Darwinism, most archaeologists don't have much to do with biological evolution. All three also argue that we probably ought to do more.

But, alas, ArchaeoBlog will not delve deeply into that debate. What is interesting though, is the first paper in the sequence by Peter Bleed titled "Archaeology and Intelligent Design". In it, he makes this interesting claim:

Darwinian thought is at the center of one of the hottest debates in modern AMericanist archaeology. In fact, if Darwinism has an organized opposition anywhere in the sciences, it consists of archaeologists who reject its utility for the interpretation of archaeologiocal phenomena. . . While several of us see utility in applying standards of selection and adaptation to the things we study, many others either find this topic uninteresting or deny the utility of those concepts to any form of reproduction that does not involve genes.

True enough, though of course that doesn't imply a rejection of Darwinian evolution generally, just as it applies to artifacts.

The ID lobby insists that there is some intentionality of design behind the biological structures we see in nature, an intentionality which implies some sort of being(s) -- ID people insist it could be anything, from God to little green aliens, but we know they mean God. Since God is supernatural, it follows that naturalistic explanations cannot be applied; God does what God does and his "intentions" for doing so are arbitrary and therefore not amenable to empirical testing. We have no direct access to God's thoughts, so we are unable to formulate any sort of predictive theory based on them

But what about archaeology?:

TO be sure, no establishment archaeologists see the hand of a supernatural designer in the archaeological record, but to take explanations of agriculture as an example, there is diversity of opionion and ample inconsistency in how archaeologists virw the role of human intelligence.

Which is, in a nutshell, a significant dilemma facing Darwinian archaeology and its critics. In our case, we know who the designer was, and we generally tend to gravitate towards explanations appealing to our common notion of what makes people tick. And, as Bleed notes, this often gets inserted into supposedly naturalistic explanations (again, using agriculture as an example):

Ecologically based discussions of agricultural origins regularly speak in terms of human choices, decisions, and desires. . .[For example] observed changes in domesticates are simply assumed to be the result of conscious human selection even when we have no way of demonstrating human intentionality.

In other words, we have a heck of a time giving up human thought and creativity as an explanatory mechanism for certain phenomena. This has been a crux of the critique of Darwinian archaeology from the beginning: "What about free will?" Of course, supporters reply that we don't ask about squirrel free will or sea slug free will in explanations about certain behaviors they engage in to survive and reproduce, since we can't talk to them and find out what sort of thoughts they may be thinking.

(Me, I think human intention ought to be treated as a source of variation and nothing more. But that's a bit far afield for one post. . .)

So, the issue of an "intelligent" designer ought to feel familiar to archaeologists and anthropologists generally and studying the current controversy can assist in our own work:

From a scientific perspective, the main failing of ID is that it offers no means of predicting how, why, or when supernatural innovations appear. They just happen, so ID adherents are free to call them up when they cannot think of, or have not looked for, alternative explanations. Archaeologists who treat human intelligence the same way replicate the essential flaw of ID. Human creativity and intellectual breakthroughs are, of course, real and very different from supernatural innovation. . .They certainly can be used in formulations of the past, but in doing that archaeologists should avoid the scholarly mistake made by proponents of the other kind of intelligent design. If our explanation of change depends on the intelligence of human designers, in addition to presenting evidence that the intelligence existed and that it was causative, we have to document the contextual conditions that made it effective.

I'm still not sure how intelligence can be made a 'causative' factor anymore than muscle is a causative factor in, say, wing design, but the point is a good one: you can't just fall back on the old "Necessity is the mother of invention" cliché.

Warning: Naked man ahead Pottery work bearing image of a man discovered at 5000-year-old Espidej cemetery

A team of Iranian archaeologists recently discovered a pottery work bearing an engraved image of a naked man at the 5000-year-old Espidej cemetery, the Persian service of CHN reported on Sunday.

“The pottery work was made of red earth, and the potter engraved the shape with a tool similar to a thin reed while it was still wet,” said Mohammad Heydari, the director of the team working at the site.

This is the second time that archaeologists working at the site have discovered an artifact bearing a human motif. The first one was a bas-relief of a dancing man and woman unearthed in 2003. All of the other artifacts found at the site bear animal or geometrical shapes.

Sorry, no pictures.

And I will NOT provide an artist's conception on this one.

Treasure! Buried treasure

Using the word centennial in the same sentence as Mesa Verde seems to miss the concept of 1,500 years.

But the yearlong celebration now under way does suit the national park there, which was designated in 1906 to manage and preserve an array of cliff dwellings and kivas that once supported a bustling culture. It now lures visitors charmed by the architecture and lore of a moment frozen in time.

Or perhaps not so frozen: For more than a century, much of the viewing of Mesa Verde has come via photography, an art form that grew up alongside the science of archaeology, compliments of those who wielded cameras along with shovels.

Okay, not treasure. It's an exhibition on photography of the Mesa Verde area.

The plot thickens. . . . Iraq Antiquities Find Sparks Controversy

Italian researchers in Iraq claim to have stumbled upon an important cache of ancient clay tablets in one of the world's oldest cities. But others dispute the claim, and Iraqi authorities say the scientists have been acting illegally.

No archaeologist has been given permission to do excavations since the U.S. invasion in March 2003 toppled Saddam Hussein. But last month, Italy's National Research Council announced that it had discovered some 500 rare tablets on the surface of Eridu, a desert site in southern Iraq. The team was reconnoitering artifacts and architecture for an online virtual museum project.

Video! Video: Decoding Ancient Scrolls From Volcanic "Tomb"

Scientists have started to decode some mysterious scrolls found centuries ago in the ancient Roman village of Herculaneum. The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 entombed the town in lava and ash, but the blackened papyruses survived—barely.

Join the scientists as they use new technology to reveal the scrolls' hidden words and become the first people in nearly 2,000 years to read the documents.

Kind of an old story, but in video form this time.

Update: More video from The Archaeology Channel on The Grewe site in Arizona.

Neanderthal update Neanderthals were not stupid, just a bit anti-social

"CRUDE, boorish and slow- witted" - even dictionaries give Neanderthals a hard time. But our prehistoric cousins were in reality just as smart as we are and did not die out as a result of a lack of brain power, according to a new archaeological study.

Until now, the leading theory of why the Neanderthals disappeared has been that a lack of intelligence meant they were less efficient hunters.

But a team of US archaeologists believe they met their evolutionary end because of a failure to maintain social links with other groups, unlike modern humans, who travelled widely, making the friends who would help them during hard times.

That makes some sense. Not sure of what's been done on the question of language among Neander's, but the ability to speak in a complex language and combine that sort of symbolic communication to create group identity and facilitate social relations among different groups seems like a sensible explanation. Kind of hard to demonstrte though.

Medieval cemetery update Burial find reveals ancient lives

They are dust and dry bones. Hundreds of people, generation upon generation, reduced to neatly boxed scraps and splinters.

But a team from the University of Leicester archaeology unit has a rare opportunity to tell us about the lives these people led.

Work on the extension to a shopping centre in Leicester city centre unearthed the largest medieval parish cemetery outside London, containing more than 1,300 skeletons.

A couple of tidbits of information, but not a whole lot.

And yet another article on looting: The Pillage Of History

The economy in this small, nondescript pocket of rural Bengal is booming. And not due to a miraculous leap in agricultural yield but the highly lucrative business of smuggling priceless antiques, including ivory and gold objects, and exquisite terracotta art, out of the country.

Located 40 kilometres northwest of Calcutta and spread over about four square miles, Chandraketugarh is a treasure trove of antiques, some dating back to 650 BC. These are being dug up by avaricious locals who form the first link in international gangs of smugglers. There has been little effort to prevent the looting of this rich archaeological site, which has been going on for at least two decades now.

More on the Polish expedition's discoveries here.

Artifacts in Ancient Chinese City Reveal Superb Technology

In Lingjiatan, Hanshan County of Anhui Province in China, archaeologists have discovered a primitive tribal site that was inhabited 5,000 years ago. Superb drilling technology and the world's earliest stone drill bits were found at the site. Archaeology professor Zhang Jingguo said there are still many mysteries in the Lingjiatan ruins waiting to be solved.

The Lingjiatan ruins are located in Lingjiatan Village, Tongzha Township of Hanshan County in Chaohu City, Anhui Province, covering about 1.5 million square meters. Archaeologists say the 5,000 year old city was probably a prosperous city with developed construction, animal husbandry and handicrafts.

Peking Man update Unearthing the lost Peking Man

After years of searching, a new initiative aims to trace these historic missing fossils, says Ching-Ching Ni

It's a mystery that has baffled the world for more than half a century. Whatever happened to the fossils of the prehistoric human ancestor known as Peking Man?

Their discovery in the late 1920s and 1930s in limestone caves on the outskirts of Beijing, then called Peking in the West, was one of the 20th century's greatest paleontological finds. The discovery was not the first of its kind, but it was the first and largest group of fossils of this ancient human found in China and established the hominid as a step in evolutionary history.

Hey, now we know what the next Indiana Jones movie will be about. . . .

I usually just find stuff the local cats bury Roman settlement unearthed in back garden

A Roman rubbish tip has been found - in a suburban back garden.

Garden landscaping work at a family home in Pentrebane, Cardiff, has turned up the remnants of a former drainage site nearly 2,000 years old.

The delighted owner, who asked not to be named, dubbed it 'a glorified Lamby Way' where people dumped their rubbish.

A team of local archaeologists has now dug up 300 shards of pottery of more than five types, hob nails from scandals and old building nails.

Hatchepsut update This regards an earlier story on Zahi Hawass announcing he'd found the long-lost mummy of Hatchepsut in the basement of the Egyptian Museum. The only other claim to this person has been the mummy found in KV-60.

Marianne Luban sent a post to the EEF lists regarding the possible reason why this new mummy is being touted as Hatchepsut, quoting part of an article in the Fall 2005 KMT magazine by Dennis Forbes on this mummy:

"It has recently been suggested to this writer that the elderly female [the
one found lying on the floor of KV60 by Don Ryan] is, in fact, that of
In-Sitre herself, and that the coffined mummy removed to the Egyptian
Museum (and stored there today), very well may be Hatshepsut--this
because the latter mummy purportedly has both arms folded across its
chest (the so-called "king's pose"); and also because the advanced age
and pendulous breasts of the uncoffined mummy are characteristics
one would expect of a wet nurse."

The mummy sitting in KV-60 right now has only one arm crossed. That seems to be the only real evidence thus far.

And. . .this story on Hatchepsut from Newsweek:

Hatshepsut's rule was peaceful, except for an early military expedition against invaders that she herself led. It was also prosperous—under her, Egypt traded with its neighbors—and has been compared to that of England's Queen Elizabeth I and Russia's Catherine the Great. Like them, she became a patron of art and architecture: by encouraging the creation of some of Egypt's finest sculptures, monumental statues, magnificent temples and stunning jewelry, she launched an artistic renaissance that would influence ancient Egyptian design and culture for centuries.

And more! National Geographic: Egyptian "Female King" Gets Royal Treatment

Web site alert Check out Sarah Parcak's web site on Remote sensing in Egypt and the Sinai.

Last week's news from the EEF

Press report: "Fatwa against statues triggers uproar in Egypt"
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060403-043824-7630r
"A fatwa issued by Egypt's top religious authority that forbids the
display of statues has art-lovers fearing that it could be used by
Islamic extremists as an excuse to destroy Egypt's historical heritage."

Press report: "Mysterious depictions of elephants in the Egyptian oasis of Dakhla"
http://snipurl.com/oocf
[http://en.naukawpolsce.pl/naukaen/index.jsp?place=Lead07&news_cat_
id=269&news_id=4383&layout=2&page=text]
"A group of Poznan archaeologists has discovered new examples of cave
paintings dating back to the 7th millennium B.C. in Dakhla oasis, Egypt."
-- Another (Polish) report, which includes some photographs (however,
without the elephant drawings):
http://www.rzeczpospolita.pl/gazeta/wydanie_060329/nauka/nauka_a_2.html
-- Results of earlier research: Michal Kobusiewicz, Romuald Schild,
Prehistoric Herdsmen, in: Academia. The Magazine of the Polish Academy of
Sciences, no. 3 [7], 2005, pp. 20-24 - pdf-file (770 KB)
http://www.pan.pl/academia/nr07/20-24%20kobusiewicz.pdf
"In the years 2001-2003, the Combined Prehistoric Expedition concentrated on
the newly-discovered ancient water body called Gebel Ramlah (Sandy Mountain)
Playa, located in the Egyptian portion of the Western Desert, some 130 km
directly west of Abu Simbel, near the Sudanese border ... the discovery of
three cemeteries accompanying such settlements, the first such sites ever to
have been encountered, proved to be a revelation ... Both the finds
unearthed at the cemeteries and the results of radiocarbon dating tests
indicate that human remains were buried here some 6,000 years ago ... The
exceptional wealth of the grave goods is striking ... One such slab was
shaped into the form of a fish. This sculpting is so accurate and realistic
that one archeozoologist, upon observing it, immediately identified the find
as depicting a _tilapia_ fish - a species very frequently encountered in the
Nile. This is the oldest known sculpture to have been discovered in Egypt."
Polish version: http://www.pan.pl/academia/PL/nr03/20-24kob.pdf
-- See also: Michal Kobusiewicz, Jacek KabaciNski, Romuald Schild, Joel D.
Irish, Fred Wendorf, Discovery of the first Neolithic cemetery in Egypt's
western desert, in: Antiquity, vol. 78, pp. 566-578 (2004)
abstract: http://antiquity.ac.uk/ant/078/Ant0780566.htm


The KV63 diary page has been updated on April 2:
http://www.kv-63.com/pages/1/index.htm
Mostly about issues of organisation, but also a bit about Coffin A.
A lot of pictures have been added (March '06); see also the little
map "KV-63 tomb in relation to previously excavated Workmen's
Huts" in the pictures section.

Also the ARTP website has been updated, with "KV63 in
context - part VI":
http://www.valleyofthekings.org/vofk/default.htm
With a plea to not only look for artefacts but in case of sealed
tombs to also salvage the ancient environment (air samples, smells,
pollen, insects, microbes, dust).


Two online articles that appeared in: Deborah Lyons and
Raymond Westbrook (eds.), Women and Property in Ancient
Near Eastern and Mediterranean Societies, Center for Hellenic
Studies, 2005.
-- Annalisa Azzoni, "Women and Property in Persian Egypt and
Mesopotamia" (460kB)
http://www.chs.harvard.edu/_/File/_/women_property_azzoni.pdf
-- Betsy Bryan, "Property and the God's Wives of Amun" (322kB)
http://www.chs.harvard.edu/_/File/_/women_property_bryan.pdf
-- Table of Contents of the whole volume:
http://snipurl.com/oqbi
[http://www.chs.harvard.edu/activities_events.sec/conferences.ssp/
conference_women_property.pg]

In light of the Spanish discovery of a senet game board:
-- On the website of Dr Peter Piccione
http://www.cofc.edu/~piccione/research.html
you may find a PDF copy (710 kB) of his article "In Search of the
Meaning of Senet," Archaeology 33 (July/August l980): 55-58.
[Note that on the site there is also a reprint of his article
about another (ritual) game, "Pharaoh at the Bat," College of
Charleston Magazine 7/1 (Spring/Summer 2003): 36.]

End of EEF news

Judas update Saw some of National Geographic's Lost Gospel of Judas program last night. Wasn't too bad, really, and fairly standard NG fare, meaning it wasn't overly sensational and reasonably balanced. Basically it was a program on the Gnostics and they set the new gospel within this context. Came to largely the same conclusions as other commenters elsewhere (see here for example): That this is probably less historical than the other gospels and says more about the Gnostic movement than anything else. Worth seeing in repeat though. The NG link above has a lot of sections

Having a bit of trouble with the extent of the translation/restoration provided in the pgogram though. Near the end they said only a portion of the codex had been restored and translated, but one gets the impression that the entire Judas portion is now done and published. There are other writings within the codex though, so maybe it's only those portions that are not yet finished.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing has more here.

Two items together

Dig unearths pieces of city's history

A human toe bone. A foldable brass telescope. An engraved pocket watch case.

These are just a few of the 100-year-old findings dug up in the past few months by local archaeologists on and near the old Hyde Park Market property in Fort Lauderdale.

''We have found missing pieces of early Fort Lauderdale history,'' Bob Carr, of the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy, said Saturday. ``These items create a connection to the community and a sense of place.''

State archaeologist says markers disturbed in historic graveyard

All but one of the graves in a historic Georgetown County cemetery appeared to have been moved, leaving a number of families with no idea where their relatives are buried.

Just one grave in a small, fenced-in area of the Campfield Cemetery in the northwestern part of the county looks to be authentic, state archaeologist Jonathan Leader said Friday.

The rest of the graves appear to have been moved because markers are pointed in the wrong direction and placed too close together and the sandy soil looks like it has been pushed into the area, Leader said.

Big win puts UW right back where it belongs

Madison is now Hockeytown, USA.

Step aside, Minnesota, North Dakota and all of you other schools that have hogged the NCAA men's hockey championship for the last 15 years.

The University of Wisconsin is once again No. 1 in the relatively small but madly passionate world of college hockey.

Yeah, baby.

"the intrinsic malignity of matter" Dave Kopel has some thoughts on The Gospel of Judas.

The Gospel of Judas adds no historical information to the biography of Jesus, but it does provide additional information about the gnostic heresy which thrived in the mid-second century, and which has attracted many adherents today as well.

Okay, slightly better pun Students dig in to archaeology

Gabby Porras hunches over her plot of sod, patiently brushing aside layer after layer with her plastic trowel. After several minutes, the 8-year-old hits paydirt — a rusted metal washer.
“I found a wheel,” she exclaimed, pleased with the results of her first archaeological dig.
Gabby was one of 130 ECISD gifted and talented students who trekked Thursday to Gardendale for a simulated excavation.
“The first- and second-graders have been studying ancient Egypt and Egyptology,” Pam Hicks, ECISD’s elementary coordinator of advanced academic services. “They know that modern archaeologists learned about ancient civilizations through archaeological techniques.”

Digging deep for restoration work

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have moved onto one of Bexley's most historic sites to prepare for its restoration.

Hall Place, the Tudor house in Bourne Road, Bexley, and its gardens, are about to undergo major renovation and conservation work to better reflect its past.

But before the work begins, investigation pits are being opened up all over the site, both in the house and the grounds.

Indiana Jones update Connery Lined Up For Indiana Jones

Actor Harrison Ford has hinted that Sean Connery may be joining him for Indiana Jones 4.

Connery appeared in the third movie as the archaeologist’s father.

Ford is due to start work soon on the as-yet untitled movie and hopes Connery will join him.

According to IMDb.com he hinted: "I can't really say, but I would hope."

Better hurry, Connery's not gettin' any younger.

That's the whole thing.

Evolution update Two New Discoveries Answer Big Questions In Evolution Theory

Even as the evolution wars rage, on school boards and in courtrooms, biologists continue to accumulate empirical data supporting Darwinian theory. Two extraordinary discoveries announced this week should go a long way to providing even more of the evidence that critics of evolution say is lacking.

One study produced what biblical literalists have been demanding ever since Darwin -- the iconic "missing links." If species evolve, they ask, with one segueing into another, where are the transition fossils, those man-ape or reptile-mammal creatures that evolution posits?

Sounds nice but, as the article states But refutation is in the eye of the beholder. No scientific discovery will end the evolution wars. Simply because ID is not at all interested in science or evidence at all; it exists solely outside of those bounds. Thus, there will always be gaps, no evidence will ever be good enough, and a million 'unexplainable' structures will always be waiting in the wings. Work like this is still important, however, since it will eventually away the majority of opinion even though strict adherents will remain.

Must read Construction Begins on UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology

The Lexikon der Ägyptologie is a standard reference for scholars of ancient Egypt. Professor Willeke Wendrich of UCLA's Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures owns all seven volumes. Her colleague, Jacco Dieleman, has the set of 6,000 articles in worn red binding lining his bookshelf.

The encyclopedia was published over the course of almost thirty years -- the final volume came out in 1992. But by 2008, Wendrich, Dieleman, and John Baines, a professor of Egyptology at Oxford University, plan to create a new Egyptology encyclopedia in a whole new medium. The online UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE) will be easy to update, easy to search, and illustrated with images, 3-D views of ancient cities and sites, and interactive maps.

This should be great if it ever really comes to fruition. Unlike Wikipedia, the content is edited and controlled so there is some continuity in being able to cite something from it (how that will work remains to be seen). This would be great if integrated with some of the online ext resources such as ETANA. The article has a link to the (under construction) UEE site.

Well, never mind, I provided that link in the quote.

Antiquities Market updae Donor at Center of Artifacts Storm

Leon Levy—a well-known Wall Street investor who died in 2003—and his widow Shelby White started the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications at Harvard in 1997 to support research on terminated and unpublished field work from sites in Greece, Turkey, Cyrpus, Iran, and the Middle East.

The program has has awarded $6 million over the past decade.

But archaeologists from the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Cinncinnati say that because Levy and White’s own artifact collection was obtained through questionable means, academic institutions like Harvard should not take money from them.

Update: A comment on this article here: When archaeologists accept monies from the likes of Leon Levy and Shelby White, how are they not implicated in such unethical behavior? How would their association not be understood as condoning the destruction of the record of the past?

Excavations online Unlocking a Civil War Prison

Several years ago, we published David Bush's account of a Civil War prison on Johnson's Island in Ohio ("Doing Time," July/August 1999), followed by our online exclusive featuring stories, photographs, and diaries provided by descendants of prisoners ("Tales From A Civil War Prison," August 30, 1999).

ARCHAEOLOGY joined Bush and his crew in 2002 as they headed into the field to excavate barracks that once housed Confederate POWs. We now go back to Johnson's Island to follow investigations of the prison hospital.

One of Archaeology.org's interactive dig sites.

Breaking news This just in from Aayko Eyma with the EEF:

Press report: "Egypt finds clue to ancient temple's secret"
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060407-033056-4219r


"An Egyptian archaeological team has discovered a series of
structures in the southwestern town of Fayoum that could yield
vital data as to how a Middle Kingdom temple was built...the
structures included administrative buildings, granaries and
residences believed to have belonged to priests of the temple,
which was dedicated to Renenutet, the goddess of harvest,
as well as the crocodile-god Sobk and falcon-deity Horus."

It is not clear to me whether the "items found at the site" are newly
found or have been found earlier, e.g. during the past decennia
by the Italian team(s) at the site:
(see http://www.egittologia.unipi.it/pisaegypt/medinet.htm
the Preliminary reports are in English).

The news is confirmed by the Egypt State Information Service site,
without supplying any info of use:
http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Culture/000001/0203000000000000000603.htm

Online documents update Just a reminder that the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) puts the entire contents of their newsletter "The Archaeological Record" up for public (i.e., free) perusal. They usually make all free but the latest edition, but as of this writing the November 2005 copy is still login-required. Check back though, as the new issue is out and the Nov. 2005 issue was devoted to cartoon archaeology. Not Lara Croft. The teaching of archaeology through cartoons. yeah, I thought that, too, but it's fairly good.

Mark Daniels has some thoughts on the new Judas Gospel:

The Times article rightly asserts:

The most revealing passages in the Judas manuscript begins, "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover."

That is revealing, a signal that the Gospel of Judas is an example of an early Christian heresy called gnosticism.

Not sure whether this was a completely unknown gospel before the discovery of the text in the 1970s or if it were known (and presumably rejected early in Church history) but never in a complete form. But it will no doubt shed much light on the mileiu of beliefs swirling around in the first couple of centuries A.D.

Facial reconstruction yields wrinkly mummy

The face of a 2 300-year-old Egyptian mummy has been reconstructed as the elderly woman she was, wrinkles and all.

The bust by Philadelphia forensic sculptor Frank Bender differs from most reconstructions, which typically portray smooth skin, according to Sam Farmerie, Westminster College's curator of cultural artifacts.

The mummy, named Pesed, was donated in 1885 to the college by an Egyptian missionary who paid $8 for it, and another $5 to ship it to the United States. The missionary was also a Westminster alumnus.

CT scans and X-rays indicate that Pesed was a 55- to 70-year-old woman who had osteoporosis and abscesses along her jaw, which could indicate that she had an infection that could have led to malnutrition or death. Experts believe that she likely looked older than her years.

No picture.

Thank heaven he outgrew that Archaeologist speaks on America’s earliest peoples

Al Goodyear knew he wanted to be an archaeologist before he knew what the word meant.

“It was in the second grade at Mount Vernon Elementary School,” he said. “Our teacher was Miss Mary Lou Wells and we were studying ‘Florida Heritage.’ I heard about the Indians and that’s all it took. I wanted to ride in a canoe and wear a breech cloth all day.”

Not much about his work at Topper (the suposedly pre-Clovis site).

Ugh Stone age man used dentist drill

Stone age people in Pakistan were using dental drills made of flint 9,000 years ago, according to researchers.

Teeth from a Neolithic graveyard in Mehgarh in the country's Baluchistan province show clear signs of drilling.

Analysis of the teeth shows prehistoric dentists had a go at curing toothache with drills made from flint heads.

The team that carried out the work say close examination of the teeth shows the tool was "surprisingly effective" at removing rotting dental tissue.

Shouldn't be surprising, really, since people were also drilling into skulls. Probably using the same sort of ideas about releasing diseased matter/.

New pyramid! Huge 1,500-year-old pyramid discovered in Mexico

Archeologists have discovered a huge 1,500-year-old pre-Hispanic pyramid in a working class district of Mexico City after digging into a hill used every year to depict the crucifixion of Christ.

The unnamed pyramid has the same sized base as the giant Pyramid of the Moon at the famous archeological site of Teotihuacan, an hour's drive northeast of the capital, which is known as the "City of the Gods" and is Mexico's biggest ancient city.

Archeologist Jesus Sanchez said on Wednesday the latest find was built by the same people who constructed Teotihuacan between A.D. 400 and 500, and has evidence that it was used for ceremonial purposes.

Makes one wonder what else is sitting in the same area.

Two non-archy news items:

Fishy Land Beast Bridges Evolutionary Gap

A newfound beast with swim fins and a head like a crocodile fills an evolutionary gap between fish and four-legged land animals.

The creature had gills, a fish-like jaw, and scales. But its mobile neck let it lift its head above water, and it could support its own weight on thick ribs and wrist-like bones. It may have even trudged across mudflats in the manner of four-legged animals, called tetrapods.

"I would say it's a key transitional form in the fish-to-land animal transition," said study co-author Neil Shubin of the University of Chicago. "It has features of both fish and tetrapods—we call it a ‘fishapod.'"

I read some Creationist's blog where he was having a hissy fit because those stupid evolutionists were TEACHING EVOLUTION IN THE SCHOOLS WHEN THEY DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A MISSING LINK BETWEEN FISH AND PEOPLE YET.

Not really archaeology, but. . . 'Gospel of Judas' to be revealed

Judas Iscariot's reputation as one of the most notorious villains in history could be thrown into doubt with the release of an ancient text on Thursday.
The Gospel of Judas, a papyrus document from the 3rd or 4th Century AD, tells the story of Jesus' death from the fallen disciple's point of view.

Alleged to be a copy of an even older text, it casts Judas as a benevolent figure, helping Jesus to save mankind.

No comments because this really isn't my bag.

(Via Althouse

Taming Wheat Took Time

About 10,000 years ago in the Near East, the first roots of civilization were planted along with the first crops of wheat and barley. What happened next is a matter of debate. Some archaeologists believe that once people started domesticating crops, the practice spread rapidly across the Near East. Others argue for a much more gradual adoption. A new study lends strong credence to this latter view and suggests that early farmers were cultivating wild plants for a millennium or more before their harvests began to resemble today's domesticated crops.

Also check out some of the links on Willcox's web site, especially the bibliography of near eastern archaeobotany by Naomi Miller.

This is neat Rare Painted Roman Sculpture Found

The marble head of an Amazon warrior woman has emerged from Vesuvius' volcanic rock with her make up still on, archaeologists announced this week.

Buried by the eruption that nearly 2,000 years ago covered Pompeii and the nearby towns of Herculaneum and Stabiae with nine to 20 feet of hot ash and pumice, the painted marble bust was found in a collapsed escarpment near Herculaneum's Basilica.

The newly found Amazon head belonged to a group of sculptures which adorned the Basilica, or the law courts.

Fight! Fight!
Archaeologists Launch Large Dig in Va.

Archaeologists are expected to begin searching thousands of acres on the Middle Peninsula this summer for Indian artifacts, marking one of the biggest investigations of its kind in Virginia history.

The area to be explored is the future site of a reservoir approved for construction last year, a project that has drawn fierce opposition from three Indian tribes.

The tribes also are upset about the archaeological dig, which will focus on 6,000 acres of forests and fields.

"Let the poor people rest, let the artifacts rest," said Warren Cook, assistant chief of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe.

Roman-era Burial Cave uneathed in Lebanon

Laborers working on the infrastructure of a sewage canal network have unearthed a Roman-era burial cave from the 2nd or 3rd century A.D. near the ruins of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon, the official National News Agency reported Tuesday.

Site supervisor Khaled al-Rifai said the cave contained one human skeleton, leaves made of gold, glass rings and other artifacts.

Al-Rifai was quoted as saying that representatives of the antiquities department accompanied the excavations because of the archaeological importance of the Baalbek area, famous for its Roman ruins, some 36 miles northeast of Beirut.

Al-Rifai said digging is still continuing in the cave and that more skeletons and artifacts are expected to be unearthed.

That's the whole thing.

Diggers unearth a tantalising glimpse of town's medieval past

ARCHAEOLOGISTS peeling back the layers of history at the site of a bulldozed
school in Beverley have made tantalising discoveries about the town's medieval heritage.
The excavation on the site of the old Walkergate Infants School is revealing traces of substantial medieval buildings – which could prove to be an inn which may have welcomed pilgrims who journeyed far and wide to visit the historic town.

Treasure! Scandal!
Sunken treasure at centre of murky Indonesian scandal

Southeast Asia's richest underwater archeological find in decades is stored under a leaky corrugated iron roof at a stable in Indonesia's capital, guarded by marines who claim a solitary gun between them.

The glittering treasures stashed at this site are at the center of a shadowy scandal entwining accused modern-day pirates, booty worth millions of dollars, stern diplomatic protests and murky corruption allegations.

At risk, experts say, is priceless Indonesian history.

Pretty long article detailing the whole sad story.

Secrets of 'swamp girl' revealed in Germany

German scientists on Tuesday said a girl whose 2 650-year-old skeleton was found in a swamp in the east of the country had lived a short life marked by famine.

"Moora", as the skeleton has been dubbed, was only about 15 when she died, forensic scientists at the Hamburg-Eppendorf university clinic said, as they unveiled the results of months of research on the skeleton.

Studies of her teeth and bones showed that she was malnourished up to the age of 11, suggesting that there had been food shortages in the region where she lived.

But were the tags removed? Unusual Ancient Egyptian Pillow Analyzed

Most ancient Egyptian pillows were rather uncomfortable-looking headrests carved out of wood, ivory and stone, but scientists have just analyzed a 4,000-year-old Egyptian pillow made out of woven plant fibers that were encased in a wax coating.

The rare artifact, which dates to 2055-1985 B.C., suggests Cleopatra and other well-known ancient Egyptians may have snoozed on relatively fluffy pillows that perhaps biodegraded over time, leaving the hard headrests for modern archaeologists to find.

A reader requested suggestions for archaeology-related magazines. Assuming 'American Antiquity' is out of the ballpark, there aren't a whole lot. Here are a few that I know of:

Archaeology (www.archaeology.org)

Current Archaeology (concentrates on British archy; www.archaeology.co.uk

Biblical Archaeology Review (www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BAR/indexBAR.html

American Archaeology (www.americanarchaeology.com

I've found Archaeology to be not bad. Most obviously tend to concentrate on the classic triumvirate of Tombs, Temples, and Texts, but Archaeology goes further afield into prehistoric stuff a lot as well. And, of course, there's KMT for Egyptology (www.egyptology.com/kmt ).

Any others? Submit comments.

Discovery of Roman clunch dig

TWO Roman quarries have been discovered by archaeologists on the site of a cement works.

Chalk has been excavated from Barrington quarry for around 80 years - but it now seems our Roman ancestors had the same idea nearly 2,000 years ago.

An archaeological team from Cambridge University made the discovery after they were called in by Cemex, which owns the quarry and adjacent cement works.

Argentina unearths forgotten past

Workers renovating a plaza in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, have stumbled across a forgotten cemetery. It was used by early immigrants in the first half of the 19th Century.

It was called the dissident cemetery since it was used by the Protestant and Jewish communities who were not allowed to bury their dead in the Roman Catholic cemeteries used by the majority of the population.

The find has excited experts keen to learn more about their country's early days.

Argentina: Great place. I spent a little over a week there in 1993 checking out ossibilities for doing research there. Unfortunately they did, and still do, have a rather chronic shortage of funds but lots of great material to work with. Not the kind of way cool Olmec-Maya-Aztec type stuff though, which is why it doesn't get a lot of attention. So you really need a good source of funding and a sponsor down there. But still, great people. Friendly, pleasant, one of the best trips I ever took.

Odd bunch in some ways though. They tend not to start doing anything (in Buenos Aires at any rate) until almost noon. So the basic workd day is from noon until 8 or 9 with dinner at 10 or 11. Very attractive people too, which I gather is because of the mixture of northern Europeans -- the more recent immigrants -- and earlier Latin Americans and aboriginals. Definitely go there if you get a chance or to study archaeology.

Uhhhhhh. . . . Jesus walked on ice, says study led by FSU scientist

The New Testament story describes Jesus walking on water in the Sea of Galilee but according to a study led by Florida State University Professor of Oceanography Doron Nof, it's more likely that he walked on an isolated patch of floating ice.

The study points to a rare combination of optimal water and atmospheric conditions for development of a unique, localized freezing phenomenon that Nof and his co-authors call "springs ice."

In what is now northern Israel, such ice could have formed on the cold freshwater surface of the Sea of Galilee –– known as Lake Kinneret by modern-day Israelis –– when already chilly temperatures briefly plummeted during one of the two protracted cold periods between 2,500 and 1,500 years ago.

Okay.

Digital model created for Qin terracotta pit

A three-dimensional data model has been created for the No 2 terracotta warrior pit of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province.

This is the first time such technology has been used to protect large-scale cultural relics in China, and will pave the way for building a digital information library, experts said during a recent meeting for testing and approving the model by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage in the city.

Long-term deterioration of cultural relics is unavoidable, and many important signs and traces are gradually removed during archaeological excavation work, experts said.

A frustrating lack of detail. But interesting.

Archaeobotany update Early Farming Communities Often Ate Weeds, Other Wild Plants, Archaeologist Finds

Thousands of years after the advent of agriculture, ancient farmers in India routinely foraged for wild plants — even weeds — when times got tough, a UCLA archaeologist has found.

In fact, they may have eaten a flower now used today in Hawaii for leis, a weed considered invasive in the American West and a relative of the acacia plant that now grows beside Southern California freeways, said Monica L. Smith, the article's author and an assistant professor in the UCLA Department of Anthropology and who also heads the South Asian archaeology laboratory at UCLA's Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

The findings, which appear in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed journal Economic Botany, challenge conventional wisdom about the speed and extent to which agriculture eclipsed hunting and gathering, not just in India but elsewhere.

Seems eminently plausible and it's true that very often non-domesticated plants don't get much mention in journal articles and monographs. One question though: What controls were used to separate human food plants from animal fodder? Often the two overlap and the latter can enter the archaeological record in similar settings (hearths) through dung used as fuel.

Also, check out this ethnobotany bibliography and this link describing some North American "weed plants" that were cultivated until maize came to dominate agriculture. Would be interesting to see if there were similar patterns of use in these formerly-cultivated plants after maize became dominant.

1,700-year-old tombs excavated in SW China province

Chinese archaeologists have discovered more than 360 tombs dating back more than 1,700 years in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Located in Chengjiang County, the tombs were found around a hill covering a total area of 8,000 square meters. The tombs are believed to be built duirng the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

"They hire only strong backs and pay a pittance." Mammoth team digs for help, funds

A mammoth that likely died about 16,000 years ago northeast of what is now Yakima is slowly giving up its secrets, scientists reported Friday at a meeting in Seattle, and anybody interested in assisting with the next phases of excavation and study is more than welcome to join up.

Anybody willing to get dirty and put money down, that is.

You would think that the discovery of a skeleton of one of the grandest creatures of the Pleistocene period in the Pacific Northwest would shake money out of those research agencies that seem happy to pay scientists to do other things, such as study the genes of some weird bacterium or determine why teenagers watch television. But then, you would not understand what it's like to be a paleontologist or an archaeologist.

Apparently they're trying to make this into a field school so anyone out there looking for FS credits, go for it.

Cave may be linked to John the Baptist

An Israeli archaeological site may be connected to John the Baptist or Jewish groups of his time, say U.S. researchers.

University of North Carolina at Charlotte archaeologist James D. Tabor, associate director of the excavation, says the site was brought to international attention in 2004 with the publication of "The Cave of John the Baptist," a book by Israeli archaeologist Shimon Gibson, the site's director.

The initial connection with John the Baptist was based on some of the earliest Christian drawings related to John on the cave walls as well as the location of the cave near Ein Kerem, John's birthplace.

The most recent excavations point to the possible existence of a second, still unexcavated cave at the site, suggesting that the location may have been a major complex of uncertain function during the Iron Age.

In the book, Gibson discussed discoveries from the cave and underground reservoir at Suba, 15 miles west of Jerusalem, focusing on the finding that it had seen particularly heavy use during the early Roman period, around the time of John the Baptist and Jesus.

That's the whole thing. Not much there, really.

And speaking of cool inventions Our Daily Thread: Dental floss is a great underappreciated invention

Every year more than three million miles of dental floss are sold in the United States. That’s a lot, but the total should be much higher, since that amount works out to only about one flossing per week for the average American. Dentists recommend flossing at least once a day to prevent gum disease, which robs more adults of their teeth than all other oral problems combined. A recent study reported that almost half of Americans feel guilty because they don’t floss their teeth, and 32 percent feel even more guilty for lying to their dentists about it.

Oh, they know when you're lying about flossing. All the blood when they floss you is a pretty good tipoff.

John Hawks has a good discussion on the spatial and temporal distribution of Acheulian handaxes and what it means as far as the Acheulian tradition's relationship to hominid species:

The maintenance of a single cultural tradition across much of three continents over a million years by exclusively social transmission seems incredible. Some have suggested that the handaxe is hardwired into the human genome, a proposition that seems even less credible (at least, to me). Absent these means of transmission, we are left with the proposition that the handaxe did not fade from the earth because of its functional utility -- either it was the tool that did the job the best, or it was the best tool that humans were capable of making that did the job adequately. If function and human ability combined to make it so persistent, it should not be the least bit surprising that the form should recur in later contexts -- in the scenario of recurrent invention, it never really went away. The production of handaxes on large Levallois flakes seems especially relevant.

I'm probably not as pessimistic about the possibility of purely cultural transmission of the style over such a long period -- culture seems to me to be fairly conservative in retaining selectively advantageous variation when interaction is low -- but it also makes sense that there's some pretty strong functional selection operating on a form that allows such a pretty low amount of variation over that amount of time. There doesn't seem to be that much stylistic license allowed in the basic design (is is a pretty simple technology, after all) so it's tough to tell what part of the variation is determined by selection and what by cultural interaction.

That's how they draw you in Sgt. Mageen Heffron Uses Her Previous Knowledge In Iraq

An Army Reserve Soldier uses her passion from the past in her quest to help build a promising future for the Iraqi people.

Sgt. Mageen Heffron, a civil affairs specialist with Company C, 445th Civil Affairs Battalion, has put her archaeological training to good use while serving at Forward Operating Base Warhorse. She has helped head-up U.S. efforts to return more than $1 million worth of antiques to Iraqi officials while ensuring that Coalition forces were mindful of the area's many archaeological sites.

. . .

"My first quarter of college, I was registering late and there was not a lot of classes left to enroll in," Heffron said. "There was a survey class of Greek and Roman something or other to enroll in.

"I loved the teacher, and the questioning method used by archaeologists."

Then it's all "Measure all of these 35,000 flakes" or "Sort these 250 sediment samples by individual grains" after that.

Chinese archaeologists probe origin of domestic horses through DNA

Chinese archaeologists are studying the DNA samples extracted from the bones of horses unearthed from ancient sites to probe the origin of domestic horses in China.

It's still a mystery to archaeologists when and where horses were first tamed in China, said Cai Dawei, a researcher with the center of archaeological research for China's border area under the Jilin University in Northwest China.

The DNA research will offer valuable clues on the study of migration, spread and domestication of horses, Cai said.

A large number of remains of domestic horses and carriages havebeen found in the relic sites dating back to the late Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1100 BC) in China.

Archaeologists unearth Pharaonic hall in Egypt

Archaeologists have found a hall in a Pharaonic tomb in the southern city of Luxor that they said could yield important information on how ancient Egyptians dug their tombs.

The Egyptian-Spanish team discovered the hall at Zira Abu Al Naga on the west bank of the Nile, as it was excavating the tomb site, the secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said on Thursday.

They believe that the tomb belonged to an official responsible for temple and tomb decorations during the rein of 18th dynasty (1580-1314 BC) Queen Hatshepsut, Hawass said.

And now the news for April 1, 2006

Atlantis found. . .finally! Nature: Italian researchers find fabled 'lost continent'

Italian researchers announced today that they had definitive proof
of the existence of Atlantis, the fabled civilization that supposedly vanished
beneath the waves millennia ago. The remains, which researchers described as
being 'nearly identical in every way' to the descriptions provided by Plato have
not yet been securely dated by radiometric means, but the context of the
architectural elements and associated artifacts are such that there is little
doubt this is, in fact, the Atlantis, the researchers said.

"This is a very important day in the history of archaeology," Lemnos
Barbatinios, the project leader, told reporters. "It will certainly shed light
on the development of other early civilizations now that definitive proof of its
existence has been verified by secure archaeological methods."

The remains were located on the third shelf of a refrigerator in Hoboken, NJ.
While some researchers not connected to the project remain skeptical, Jill
Rogers, the owner of the refrigerator, denied reporters' suggestions that the
remains were merely the molded-over remnants of an ordinary meat
loaf.

About time. . . Bad archaeological puns denounced

A group of professional archaeologists called on newspaper reporters
and editors to stop using the same archaeological puns over and over again,
saying it not only denigrates a highly professional discipline but is also
irritating.

"Look, we know you need some kind of clever hook to get readers interested,"
conceded Michael B. Schiffer of the University of Arizona, "But how many times
do we have to hear how 'archaeologists dig this' or 'archaeologists dig that'?
Yeah, we dig stuff up, but we also read things, write things, do really nifty
GIS work, and so forth. Can't you try something along those lines for a change?"

Other archaeologists at the press conference agreed. Donald Grayson of the
University of Washington in Seattle said "Do you know how many times students in
Archaeology 101 come up to us and say 'Hey, do you dig your job?'
thinking they're the first ones ever to come up with that? Do you know how
annoying that is year after year? And they get that from you guys. Just
stop it. Please. Stop.It."

Real archaeology at last Missouri archaeologists excavate, find nothing of interest

Work at the Cooper site, just southeast of Calhoun in Henry County,
ended today with archaeologists finding nothing of any particular consequence.

The site had been expected to yield a wealth of data for the period called the
'lower middle Paleo-Woodland' of Missouri, after local farmers found what
appeared to be abundant grinding stones -- known as 'metates' -- in one corner
of an alfalfa field. Archaeologists were initially excited about the prospect.

"We expected an entire lower middle Paleo-Woodland village to be here," said
Roger Whittaker of Calhoun Polytechnic, who led the project. "That would have
been spectacular. We could have tested many theories of social organization and
subsistence patterns here. How the ancient Native Americans farmed, hunted, how
they divided up labor among different social groups and between men and women,
how they fit into the region's trade networks. Lots of stuff like that. But all
we found after six weeks was a bunch of smooth river rocks. Not even a frickin'
projectile point. Kind of a bummer actually."

This is interesting Egyptologists enter tomb, accidentally break everything

A team of German Egyptologists today entered a previously sealed
tomb in Egypt's famed Valley of the Kings, but somehow managed to break
everything in sight.

"It was like some weird Peter Sellars movie," said Gerhard Shrodinger, the
project director. "Anna here tripped on the threshold coming in and it just went
from there. Next thing you know, she was plowing headfirst into a group of
offering jars, smashing every single one, and then when Johann tried to catch
her his shirt caught on a statue of Anubis and that went over in a heap. . .it
was terrible. We'll need a lot of glue here, let me tell you."

Asked for comment, Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities,
called them "A bunch of dumb-ass Krauts. You'll edit that out like usual,
right?"

Underwater archaeology update Fun, sun, and archaeology

A group of archaeologists spent most of their day sunning themselves
on deck rather than diving into the clear, blue waters of the Mediterranean
today. It marked the 5th day in a row that no one got near the water.

The group is ostensibly off the coast of southern Turkey to investigate the
remains of a Cypriot cargo ship that sank around 200 B.C. on its way from Cyprus
to Helicarnassus. Previous work has indicated that the ship carried jugs of wine
and olive oil to trade for spices and exotic oils from the Turkish mainland. The
archaeologists seemed largely unaware of this.

"We heard there's a ship down there, yeah," said Randy Barker, a student at
Texas A&M university who hopes to become a marine archaeologist in the future.
"But it's way nicer up here. I'm gettin' a killer tan, too. Have you checked out
some of the hotties we got working here this season? Suh-weeeet."

Breaking news. . . From Aayko at EEF:

Press report: "New discovery in Luxor"
http://www.algomhuria.net.eg/gazette/2/

"An Egyptian-Spanish archaeological team, operating on the West
Bank in Luxor, have discovered a room housing the tomb of the
foreman responsible for decorating all the temples and palaces
in Thebes in the reign of Queen Hatshepsut. The discovery also
includes a collection of wooden and clay artifacts. "

Just guessing: with "tomb" they probably mean the entry to the
tomb chamber which could be in a corner of the transverse hall
of the tomb (like in the tombs of Paser and Amenemopet)?

Another press report pinpoints it at Zira Abu al-Naga [Dra Abu
el-Naga], and speaks of a "34 metre "hall" located in a rock
cut tomb (..) which opens into the tomb area":
"Pharaonic tomb may hold ancient secrets"
http://snipurl.com/ogky

[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31
&art_id=qw1143753663158B221]
Found inside are "inscriptions on its walls and scenes that explain
religious rituals practised by ancient Egyptians [rather than "sermons"]
and show how they dug tombs."

And a third press report: "Parlour of Hatshepsut time unearthed"
http://snipurl.com/ogqg

[http://www.sis.gov.eg/En/EgyptOnline/Miscellaneous/000002/
0207000000000000001062.htm]
This one reveals the name of the tomb owner as "Gihoti" [surely:
Djehuty - also the name of Hatshepsut's overseer of the treasury]
and adds that also a game board and house utensils were found.

Aayko Eyma

Stay tuned. . . .