Stone Pages Archaeo News: July 2003 Archives

July 2003 index:

1 July 2003: Rare gold cup procured by British Museum; A rare gold cup dating back to the Stonehenge era (1700–1500 BCE) has been procured by the British Museum. Crafted from sheet metal and the only second example of its...
2 July 2003: Permanent home for Seahenge?; Proposals to permanently house the Bronze Age Seahenge timber circle as the centrepiece of a £800,000 redevelopment of the Lynn Museum in King’s Lynn, Norfolk (England), have been put forward....
7 July 2003: Looking for the real age of Pedra Furada petroglyphs; At Pedra Furada, a prehistoric site in a remote area of Brazil, there are more than 350 stone walls filled with paintings of people, deer, llamas, crocodiles and even pumas....
: Miami circle to be reburied; Five years after discovery of the Miami Circle, overseers have decided to rebury the 2,000-year-old archeological landmark, pushing plans for public access still further into the future. "It was decided...
: Stonehenge: an ancient sex simbol?; Stonehenge's purpose has always remained a mystery, but now a University of British Columbia researcher has announced he has uncovered its true meaning: it is a giant fertility symbol, constructed...
: Humans settled in Amazon 4,500 years ago; Archaeologists said that they had uncovered remains of a monument and carved stone receptacles which prove that man had lived in the upper reaches of the Amazon some 4,500 years...
8 July 2003: Ancient Aboriginal art discovered; Thought to be one of the most significant finds of Aboriginal art in Australia’s history, a series of 203 images in a cave near Sydney (Australia) are being investigated by...
: Prehistoric stone axe found at Ulverston; A polished stone axe dating back 5,000 to 6,000 years was one of the most exciting finds unearthed during a test dig in Ulverston (England). The axe is thought to...
: 7,000-year-old tools in Dorset; An archaeological dig in West Dorset (England) has unearthed primitive tools dating back to the late Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. The site, at Thorncombe Beacon near Charmouth, was previously thought...
: Malvern ditch may date to Bronze Age; Shire Ditch, one of the most prominent man-made features of the Malvern Hills (England) may be very much older than previously thought. Until now it was thought that the ditch,...
: Avebury has become too untidy; Avebury (England) parish councillors have criticised the National Trust for the “disgraceful” state of their village, which is a World Heritage Site, and have agreed to write National Trust Director...
9 July 2003: Bronze Age stone set back in position; Gun Rith Menhir, a 12-foot, Bronze Age standing stone located close to the Merry Maidens Stone Circle near Land’s End (England), has been lifted back into place after falling over...
: Final season for Iron Age village excavation; Work has begun for the ninth and final season on Britain’s largest excavation: an Iron Age village at the Scatness broch, at the southern tip of the Shetland Islands (Scotland)....
18 July 2003: Excavation at Heathrow Airport; The largest single archaeological excavation in the UK, at the planned Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport (England), has yielded an unprecedented insight into the way mankind has used the landscape...
19 July 2003: Stone age axe found in Lomonds; Michael Kelly, a local film-maker, was scouting locations at the foot of the Lomond Hills (Scotland) when he stumbled upon the rare example of Fife's stone age past. Kelly spotted...
: School children visit Neolithic project; More than 150 of the Isle of Man's (United Kingdom) school children experienced one of the most important Neolithic sites in the British Isles when they visited the Billown Neolithic...
: Stonehenge parking fees tests; New charges are being trialled at Stonehenge: tourists will now have to pay to park and have a look at the famous stones. This was previously free. English Heritage is...
: Neolithic tool found at Swindon; A flint tool dating back more than 6,000 years has been discovered at Swindon's (England) buried Roman complex. The 13-strong team of English Heritage experts uncovered the Neolithic tool during...
: Ancient carvings on Burntisland's Binn Hill; Ancient stone carvings found on Burntisland's Binn Hill (Scotland) have excited major interest among archaeologists. As a result they look likely to be designated a scheduled ancient monument, given the...
20 July 2003: 5,000-year-old settlement found in Ireland; The Republic of Ireland's largest Neolithic settlement dating back to 2500 to 3000 BCE has been uncovered. A team lead by Dr Stefan Bergh of the Department of Archaeology of...
: Neolithic skeleton unearthed in South China; An intact, 5,000-year-old male skeleton, positioned face up with limbs extended, has been discovered at the Haogang Neolithic site in South China’s Guangdong Province. Experts say he was an inhabitant...
: British comedian has his own standing stone; British comedian Billy Connolly has erected a 3-ton, 9-foot-high standing stone at his home in Straitdon, Aberdeenshire (Scotland). The lump of Caithness granite at Candacraig House is inscribed with Connolly’s...
: Prehistoric findings along the Roman Fosse Way; The construction of a newly opened stretch of the A46 between Lincoln and Newark (England), which follows the same route as the historic Roman thoroughfare, the Fosse Way, has allowed...
: 1,200 sites flooded by Yangtze dam; On 1st June the waters began rising on schedule in the 375 miles long Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River (China). A massive archaeological salvage effort during the later...
: Museum planned for cave paintings; A £4.5m museum to house the 12,000 year old cave paintings at Creswell Crags, Derbyshire (England) is being planned by historians. The Ice Age engravings of birds and animals, discovered...
24 July 2003: Australia colonized earlier than previously thought?; Prehistoric stone tools discovered at Rottnest Island and Rockingham could rewrite the story of Australia's colonisation by early humans. The tools could be at least 70,000 years old and there...
: Iron Age 'industrial' kilns discovered in Italy; Archaeologists have discovered what appear to be the precursors of today's industrial kilns, dating back to the Iron Age. The discovery was made at Piani d'Emma (Italy), during a archaeological...
: Baja California rock art dated to 7,500 years ago; The giant rock art murals that grace the walls of hundreds of shelters and caves found in the hills of the high sierra in Baja California Sur (Mexico) date back...
: Ruins of ancient village unearthed in central China; The ruins of a complete ancient village have been discovered on the western edge of Yinxu, an important archaeological site dating back 3,000 years, in the central China province of...
25 July 2003: Northern Ireland's heritage treasures lost through list omissions; Northern Ireland’s Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) has been criticized for failing to publish an up-to-date inventory of Northern Ireland’s archaeological sites that can be used to protect the country’s...
26 July 2003: Supernatural power dressing; The 4,300-year-old burial of the ‘Amesbury Archer’ in Wiltshire (England), unearthed in 2003, was the richest early Bronze Age grave ever found in Britain. The grave goods comprised around 100...
27 July 2003: Late date set for first Americans; A new genetic study suggests that humans reached America no earlier than 18,000 years ago. The authors base their conclusion on research into mutations on the form of the human...