'Europe's oldest city' is found

Archaeologists in Spain's southern port of Cadiz believe they have found remains which prove that it is Europe's oldest inhabited city – Phoenician Gadir, or Gades in Roman times.

Remnants of walls have emerged seven metres deep in a dig beneath Cadiz's old town centre which have been dated to the 8th century BC. Scientists found shards of Phoenician pottery, and pieces of jars, bowls and plates once used in everyday life which all point towards the existence of a town. A well-preserved bronze brooch has also appeared, suggesting a high level of civilisation. Previous finds, including funeral relics, did not provide conclusive evidence of urban settlement.

"We need to excavate further to see where these walls go," said the director of the dig, Juan Miguel Pajuelo. "The existence of items of daily use suggests the walls were of houses."

Ancient tomb of young lovers excavated in Turkey

Turkish archaeologists discovered a tomb of a young couple locked in an embrace during their work in Turkey' southeastern Turkey, local Today's Zaman reported on Monday.

The report said that the tomb of the couple was found at Hakemi Use in the Bismil district of Diyarbakir province, and archaeologists stated that the couple, who presumably died some 8000 years ago, is likely to set a record as the oldest embracing couple in the history of archaeology.

"The tomb is at least 1,000 years older than the one found last year in Verona, Italy. The way they were buried signifies they were lovers", Halil Tekin, head of the archaeologist team from Hacettepe University, was quoted as saying.

It's a new one, not the same one from a year or so ago.

Biblical archaeology updateArchaeology and John's Gospel: Is skepticism chic passé?

John is known as the spiritual Gospel because, among other reasons, it has extended metaphorical discourses, such as the bread of heaven (6:25-59), and a long, one-on-one dialogue with the religious leader Nicodemus about deep truths (3:1-15).

Until recently, much scholarship did not take seriously the topographical or historical details in John's Gospel. Scholars ignored them or preferred to see them as symbolic because surely John was not concerned with mundane matters. The more skeptical said that it was wrong in many cases.

So it may come as a surprise to readers that many archaeological discoveries match up with the historical assumptions in this spiritual Gospel. Many scholars now take John's topography and other down-to-earth matters seriously. Archaeology has turned the tide.

It's chock full o' links to check out. Seems like a decent enough article.

Site provides evidence for ancient comet explosion

For the second time in less than a decade, a South Carolina river bluff holds evidence pointing to a theory with history-rewriting potential.

Microscopic soil particles from the Topper site near Allendale might hold a tiny key to a big theory: that comet-caused explosions wiped out the mammoths and mastodons, prompted the last ice age and decimated the first human culture in North America about 12,900 years ago.

The comet theory first began generating a buzz at an international meeting of geophysicists in Mexico in May. The findings were published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They’re about to go mainstream, with a National Geographic Channel segment today. The History Channel will film for a future show at Topper this week.

How about that, it prompted the last ice age.

Stalag Luft III's 'Great Escape' tunnels revealed

The archaeology of warfare has a long history, and now includes the study of bullets scatter across battlefields, such as the Little Big Horn and Naseby, the airfields and aircraft of the Battle of Britain and, more recently, the hardware of the Cold War. However, a new area of discovery has been opened up in the investigation of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp and attempts to escape from it during the Second World War.

The camp is question is the famous Stalag Luft III, the site of such notorious escape episodes as those immortalised in the film The Wooden Horse, from Eric Williams’s book, and the mass breakout described in Paul Brickhill’s The Great Escape, when 76 RAF men got away, only for most of them to be murdered by the Gestapo on recapture.

Well, that's funny, I did a search and found I posted about this way back in 2004. I did another one not too long ago, but I'm having trouble finding it. There's a Nova show about it.

Unearthing Rome's king

Italian archeologists have uncovered the ruins of a 2,700 year old sanctuary which they say provides the first physical evidence of Rome at the time of Numa Pompilius, Rome’s legendary second king, in the 8th century BC.

Numa Pompilius, a member of the Sabine tribe, was elected at the age of forty to succeed Romulus, the founder of Rome. He reigned from 715-673 BC, and is said by Plutarch to have been a reluctant monarch who ushered in a 40-year period of peace and stability. He was celebrated for his wisdom, personal austerity and piety.

News you some of you can use. Maybe. New Study: Fertile Strippers Make More Money

Ancient documents portend major earthquake

An Israeli scientist said ancient documents suggest a major earthquake triggered by the Dead Sea Fault is long overdue in the Middle East.

Although seismologists don't know when the next big earthquake will occur, Tel Aviv University geologist Shmulik Marco said earthquake patterns recorded in historical documents indicate the region's next significant quake might be imminent.

Based on the translations of hundreds of ancient records from the Vatican and other religious sources, Marco has helped determine a series of devastating earthquakes occurred across the Holy Land during the last 2,000 years. The major ones were recorded along the Jordan Valley in the years 31 B.C. and in 363, 749 and 1033 A.D.

Ancient world treasure unearthed

After seven hot summers of digging, an Italian archaeological team believe they have discovered one of the most important sites of the ancient world.

Fanum Voltumnae, a shrine, marketplace and Etruscan political centre, was situated in the upper part of the Tiber river valley.

It lies at the foot of a huge outcrop of rock, upon which is perched the mediaeval city of Orvieto.

Sounds pretty neat. Although check out the excavation wear:


Sign me up!

Ancient bodies had hands bound

A traditional burial ground, or the site of a massacre?

Questions continue to surround the discovery of the remains of more than 80 First Nations people at an excavation site near Departure Bay beach in Nanaimo.

Excavation for a condo development uncovered the remains at the ancient Snuneymuxw burial site.

Historians puzzle over black face in ancient tapestry of Culloden battle

A TAPESTRY of the Battle of Culloden has revealed a new mystery about the last battle fought on British soil.

The historic work, which shows events at the 1746 conflict from the point of view of government troops, was bought at auction by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) for about £4,000.

It will play a central role in the new £10 million visitor centre at the battlefield near Inverness.

Fights! Fights! Anthropology: the great divide

In the fall of 1996, anthropologist Richard Jantz e-mailed fellow scientists with a plea to help save history.

The University of Tennessee professor urged colleagues to challenge the federal decision to give the 9,300-year-old remains that became known as Kennewick Man to the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla for burial. In Jantz's view, the Army Corps of Engineers was about to slam shut a critical window into America's past.

In Seattle, archaeologist Julie Stein read the e-mail with disdain. She had had enough of the ham-handed handling of the unusual case of the remains found on the shores of the Columbia River in southeastern Washington. Then-curator of the Burke Museum of Natural History, Stein had spent 14 years studying Washington archaeology and building relationships with local tribes.

She fired back, chiding Jantz for the effort and alleging the Benton County coroner's local consulting anthropologist, who collected the remains, had attempted to mislead the tribes and the corps by saying they belonged to a recent European settler. She also noted hand bones were submitted for carbon-dating without proper consultation with tribes.

"This is an example of why every tribe in the United States should mistrust and detest archaeologists," she said. "This write-in campagne (sic) of yours is targeted toward the wrong individual.

"Disgustedly yours, ... " she concluded.

Gentle, mild-mannered archaeologists all. . . .

Read the whole thing. It's only partly about the Kennewick case. This part is probably the most important as far as the Kennewick blowup is concerned:

Jantz and the other plaintiffs would not have brought their lawsuit — and prevailed in federal court — if the Corps of Engineers had followed the repatriation law. Corps officials almost immediately decided to return the Kennewick Man remains to the tribe without establishing affiliation with modern tribes, as required by the law.

The Corps botched it horribly by trying to repatriate far too quickly. Still, in the end it got the law resolved to a certain extent.

Archaeologists Have No Credibility

I have an intense distrust of archaeologists. These earth-dusters enter a cave and see a drawing of a man killing a buffalo with a sharp object. Then take detailed notes analyze the soil content and then, three years later, they write a thesis paper stating that people who lived in caves, referred to as "cavemen," killed their prey with a primitive weapon known as a spear. I guess I'm selling these scholars a bit short. The work they do is probably a little more complicated - I just didn't want to do any research. Anyway, for the sake of this article, we are going to leave it at that.

My point is that while analyzing drawings is simple enough, how do we know that these drawings are indicative of what was actually happening? When I was younger I liked the Ninja Turtles so much that I used to draw myself as a one, every time we were asked to sketch a self portrait - I even went as far as changing my name. It was a very awkward experience to walk around high school with a letter jacket that said Leonardo on the front. But imagine a couple thousand years down the road, an archaeologist unearths a painting of a Ninja Turtle approaching a girl at the lunch line. They might think that, in the past, turtles could talk, as well as learn various types of martial arts and they were very unsuccessful with women.

I think he's trying to be funny. Not working, dude.

Whoops Archaeologist loses important artifact

On the morning of Sept. 20, archaeologist David Peterson misplaced a carved stone artifact in the vicinity of the Sports Pavilion and Aquatics Center parking lot. Peterson, who is conducting research at the University of Chicago, was working with colleagues at Northwestern's Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Cook Hall before he lost the relic.

The artifact is a carved rectangular stone marked with horizontal dashes and circular designs; it is less than four inches long and about half an inch thick. The artifact was recovered from the Eurasian steppes and is an important piece of Peterson's research. The archaeologist has posted signs near SPAC and surrounding buildings but without success.

Although the relic has no monetary value, it has great research value to archaeologists studying ancient Eurasian metalworking, Peterson said.

Italian archaeologist unearths new discoveries in Syria

A renowned Italian archaeologist announced on Thursday that his team has unearthed new discoveries in the ancient site of the Ebla Kingdom in Syria which can be dated back to nearly 4000 years ago, the official SANA news agency reported.

Describing his findings as "the most important archaeological discoveries" in recent years, Paulo Mattieh said integrated buildings found at the site can be date back to 1600-1800 B.C., the period of the fall of the kingdom.

Orkney arrowheads find points to Scotland's earliest settlement

THEY may look like just a collection of broken stones, but the finds made in a field in Orkney might be evidence of the earliest settlement in Scotland.

Two flint "tanged points" or arrowheads found on the island of Stronsay are thought to have been used by hunters between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, just after the Ice Age.

The arrowheads were found among a collection of scattered artefacts, including bladed tools, on a farm by Naomi Woodward and a team of MA students on an archaeology course at Orkney College. The discoveries were made during a two-week research trip in April, but have just been made public.

Mouse click reveals ancient coastline

The changing shape of Australasia can now be seen in a new interactive digital map that mimics the rise and fall of sea levels over the past 100,000 years.

The map also has pop-up images and text about key archaeological sites and possible routes humans took from Asia to Australia during the last ice age.

View the map here.

"What I've done is take a lot of the paradigms of Google Earth and extend them by the extra dimension of time," says designer, Matthew Coller who presented his map at the recent Australasian Archaeological Conference at the University of Sydney.

Pontification alert Exploring Ways to Shorten the Ascent to a Ph.D.

Many of us have known this scholar: The hair is well-streaked with gray, the chin has begun to sag, but still our tortured friend slaves away at a masterwork intended to change the course of civilization that everyone else just hopes will finally get a career under way.

We even have a name for this sometimes pitied species — the A.B.D. — All But Dissertation. But in academia these days, that person is less a subject of ridicule than of soul-searching about what can done to shorten the time, sometimes much of a lifetime, it takes for so many graduate students to, well, graduate. The Council of Graduate Schools, representing 480 universities in the United States and Canada, is halfway through a seven-year project to explore ways of speeding up the ordeal.

For those who attempt it, the doctoral dissertation can loom on the horizon like Everest, gleaming invitingly as a challenge but often turning into a masochistic exercise once the ascent is begun. The average student takes 8.2 years to get a Ph.D.; in education, that figure surpasses 13 years. Fifty percent of students drop out along the way, with dissertations the major stumbling block. At commencement, the typical doctoral holder is 33, an age when peers are well along in their professions, and 12 percent of graduates are saddled with more than $50,000 in debt.

Okay, so I spent 15 years for the whole grad school routine: Two years of classes and preparing for and passing comprehensives, and from then on doing a master's thesis and thence on to the dissertation. There are a number of reasons for the length of time, including, but not limited to, crappy funding in my department and the resulting nearly full-time job outside the department for the last 11 years of that. That job actually helped me build a separate research career. I wrote the dissertation in the evenings and weekends, mostly sitting alone in a lab on campus. Which was actually quite pleasant for me, really. I liked working all day, going home, having something to eat, and then taking a nice walk to campus, working along for a couple hours, and then having a pleasant walk home in the evening. Happy times, the late 1990s were.

Most of this depends on two things: funding and what is demanded of the dissertation. The Princeton thing in the article is moot because nowhere else is going to do that. So, most people are stuck with working in some capacity and doing the dissertation on off-time. If you can, do it by teaching and paid research since it keeps you in the loop of your profession.

The other thing is my personal crusade, sorta. I will type this slowly so everyone can read it clearly: THE DISSERTATION SHOULD NOT BE EXPECTED TO BE YOUR MAGNUM OPUS. It should not be the utter high point of your career, from thence on only a downhill slide into research mediocrity. Faculty need to get that in their heads as well as students. The dissertation should be a mechanism by which you demonstrate that you can do original research (I left out the "significant" part most people include, for a good reason), nothing more.

We had something of an arms race in my department, with people racing to see who could make the biggest frickin' dissertation EVER. It was eventually won decisively by some guy whose dissertation eventually ended up as two massive volumes. Forget that. I think in some ways these things end up as sort of an academic form of hazing, a weeding mechanism to see who will do the most tortuous thing to please the faculty.

It should not be so and I think students ought to do more to prevent this sort of thing from happening. Faculty will probably give you leeway if you have a pretty good idea of what sort of research you want to do straight up, and demonstrate that you are serious about just putting out a nice piece of original work. If you spend several months seeing your committee chair with the usual "What do you think of this idea? I think maybe I should try this approach. . .blah blah blah". No prof wants to do your thinking for you.

Which means, of course, you should find a good topic you're interested in that most decidedly isn't a magnum opus. What they're interested in seeing is that you can identify a research question or problem, decide on a way to address it, assemble or create the relevant data, and produce a coherent piece of work explaining what you did.

Yes, I kind of made that mistake. I had an initial idea that was WAY more than I could have done myself without major funding and wasted like 4 years chasing it down. I finally settled on some work that needed to be done, wasn't earth-shattering, and could be accomplished with the data at hand. And it worked out fine; my first draft was largely accepted as-is and the defense was. . .well, our "defense" was really a formality; once they signed off on the dissertation, that was basically it. It helps if your adviser has an ongoing project or two (or three or four) that always has analysis needed, which is what I fortunately had. That's why it's also important to choose your faculty advisers carefully.

Okay, soapbox OFF.

(HT to CalGal at TPW)

This ain't no Discovery Channel

When he was 14, Miroslav Bárta received a punishment that was to change his life.
Bárta, now a 40-year-old Egyptologist, remembers he was an unruly pupil at school. He was punished frequently by his teachers, who often made him memorize paragraphs of information.
One day, a history teacher made Bárta commit to memory something about the “bloody pyramid of Khufu,” as he calls it now, one of the three pyramids of Giza outside of Cairo, the last standing monument of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
He hasn’t looked back.

Dig unearths part of city's Viking times

The secrets of Norwich's past are being unearthed as part of archaeological digs in the north of the city - where city walls which date back to the Vikings have been discovered.

Archaeologists have discovered remains from the city's old walls, dating back from the 10th century, as part of excavation work being carried out in the Botolph Street area, near Anglia Square.

The work, which started two weeks ago, is being carried out in advance of a planning application to assess what lies under the ground and is expected to continue until early November.