Stone Pages Archaeo News: December 2018 Archives

December 2018 index:

18 December 2018: Prehistoric cave art reveals ancient use of complex astronomy; Some of the world's oldest cave paintings have revealed how ancient people had relatively advanced knowledge of astronomy. The artworks, at sites across Europe, are not simply depictions of wild...
: Ancient DNA from Finland reveals origins of Siberian ancestry; New study shows that the genetic makeup of northern Europe traces back to migrations from Siberia that began at least 3,500 years ago and that, as recently as the Iron...
: Archaeologists find the oldest burials in Ecuador; Archaeologists of the Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) found three burials of the ancient inhabitants of South America dated from 6 to 10 thousand years ago. The excavations were carried...
: 9,000-year-old stone mask excavated in Israel; Archaeologists have recovered an ancient limestone mask from Israel's Hebron Hills, located on the West Bank; the 9,000-year-old mask dates to the Neolithic. "Stone masks are linked to the agricultural...
: Stone Age food was haute cuisine; Ingredients from a 6,000-year-old meal have been identified by scientists led by Anna Shevchenko from the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Cell Biology in Dresden, Germany. They did so by...
19 December 2018: Ritual finger amputation may explain missing fingers in Paleolithic people; A trio of researchers at Simon Fraser University in Canada theorizes that ritualistic finger amputation during the Upper Paleolithic explains the number of missing fingers in depictions from that time....
: New light on the ancient populations of Patagonia; The presence of humans on the American continent dates back to at least 14,500 years ago, according to datings made at archaeological sites such as Monte Verde, in Chile's Los...
: Unique Bronze Age discovery in Slovakia; Archaeologists made a unique discovery in the village of Hozelec near Poprad, in northern Slovakia. They have discovered various items from different time eras in a ground bank located in...
: Young warrior in Iron Age grave was 'killed' again after death; He was somewhere between the age of 17 and 25 when he died, apparently of natural causes. But for reasons that are unclear, a warrior's body found in Yorkshire (England)...
: Oldest ever traces of the plague found in Sweden; In a 5,000 year old grave outside Falköping (Sweden), scientists have found the oldest traces of the plague bacterium's DNA in the world. According to the researchers, this discovery may...
: Prehistoric gameboard carved into the earth shows how nomads had fun; A pattern of small holes cut into the floor of an ancient rock shelter in Azerbaijan shows that one of the world's most ancient board games was played there by...
: Stone snakeheads may be related to 8,300-year-old ritual ceremonies; Archaeologists have found two oddly shaped rocks that are the work of Stone Age artisans who sculpted them into beady-eyed snake heads. "These sculptures could have ritual purpose," said study...
: Ancient 'pencil' up to 50,000 years old found in Siberia; According to archaeologists, cave-dwellers used hematite crayon for art work in Altai Mountains - a mountain range where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan come together. The pre-historic artists were not...
29 December 2018: Neolithic village found in Albania; Excavations near the village of Turan in southeastern Albania have revealed one of the biggest ancient cemeteries in Albania - about 1,000 layered burials, several richly furnished - and under...
: Oldest human remains in Poland; The oldest human remains discovered in Poland are about 115,000 years old. They are finger bones of a Neanderthal child which were digested by a large bird, and found in...
: Prehistoric art hints at lost Indian civilisation; The discovery in the Konkan region of Maharashtra of thousands of rock carvings may hold clues to a previously unknown civilisation. Etched on flat rocky hilltops, most remained unnoticed for...
: Santorini excavation yields impressive new finds; Significant new discoveries have been made during ongoing excavations at Akrotiri, on the Aegean island of Santorini, about 120 kilometres north of Crete and 230 kilometres southeast of Athens, Greece....
: World's oldest dated rock art in Southeast Asia; Cave paintings in remote mountains in Borneo have been dated to at least 40,000 years ago, and include a painting of what seems to be a local species of wild...
: Owner of modern long barrow tomb must pay taxes on it; A British farmer who built the first new long barrow tomb in the UK in more than 5,000 years has been told that he must pay thousands of pounds in...
: Ancient platform 'damaged' during Stonehenge tunnel work; Archaeologists have accused Highways England of accidentally drilling a large hole through a 6,000-year-old structure near Stonehenge during preparatory work for a tunnel. The drilling, which is alleged to have...
: 'New' recumbent stone circle identified on Aberdeenshire; A newly-identified Recumbent Stone Circle has been recorded on a farm in Aberdeenshire (Scotland), in the parish of Leochel-Cushnie. Despite being a complete stone circle that has obviously been known...
: A Bronze Age regicide in Germany?; A group of archaeologists and forensic researchers in the eastern German city of Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, announced that after reexamining the bones of the so-called 'Prince of Helmsdorf' they have concluded...
: Remains of baby born 5,700 years ago found in Argentina; Archeologists have found remains belonging to a male baby born 5,700 years ago in an excavation in Argentina's Mendoza city. An archeological team from the Natural Science Department of the...