Cypriot plateau could be an ancient gateway

For over a millennium, a fortified settlement with a shrine stood on a plateau near the eastern Larnaca coast (Cyprus) ringed with a defensive wall, archaeologists believe. Earlier theories about the significance of the site were confirmed during this year's fieldwork at the Pyla-Koutsopetria locality by the identification of a section of the wall, datable to the Late Bronze Age.
     According to Maria Hadjicosti of the Department of Antiquities, it could have been the original gateway – pyle in Greek - to a larger habitation, which later moved further inland for fear of sea raids to where the present mixed village of Pyla is situated. The settlement, located on a hill known as Kokkinokremmos/ Vigla – Red Cliff/Lookout Post, is estimated to have been inhabited from the Cypro-Archaic period in the 13th-14th century BCE to Hellenistic and Roman times. The site is situated inland, roughly opposite the eucalyptus-lined coast leading to the British base of Dhekelia. The most dramatic feature of the settlement was a fortification wall that ringed the entire plateau, an official press release said.
     The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project's two goals are the publication of the finds excavated from a small area of the site by Hadjicosti during two previous campaigns in the 1990s and a survey of archaeological features across the entire site of 1,500,000 sq m. The presence of numerous figurines discovered in recent survey work suggests a previously unknown shrine on the coastal plateau. The site had come to light when a local farmer undertook extensive cultivation in the area.
     Explaining further the possible connection between Vigla and Pyla, Hadjicosti recalled the important archaeological discoveries in the latter village, including that of a built tomb of the classical period with a gold trove in the late 1940s. The finds, including the famous Medusa with sphinxes, are housed in the British Museum, while a reproduction of the grave can be seen in the Cyprus Museum. A 14th century BCE cemetery was also discovered in the area, as well as a temple with limestone statues.

Source: The Cyprus Weekly (6 September 2008)

  Walks will 'unearth Scotland's hidden past'

Archaeology Month is being marked across the north-east of Scotland over the coming weeks with events retracing the footsteps of the area's earliest inhabitants. On Saturday, September 13, and again on Sunday, September 21, Formartine rangers will be hosting a Timeline event giving local people a chance to see the tools used by early residents of the area. The talk will range from the Paleolithic to Iron Ages, tracing the development of ancient settlements. On September 13, the venue will be Ellon library from 10.30am-11.45am. The event on September 21 will be held in the Beaton Hall, Methlick, from 2-4pm, with the help of Methlick Heritage Centre and Aberdeenshire Council's Museums on the Move team.
People are invited to take along local finds.
     Formartine rangers will also be leading a Time Trek from 11am-4pm on Sunday, September 14. The outing will start at Newburgh bridge car park and take in ancient sites across Forvie Nature Reserve. Walkers will visit prehistoric locations and a lost mediaeval church, as well as hearing the story of the Wicked Priest of Forvie. Places on all the events must be booked on 01358 726417 or 07786 021780.

Source: The Press and Journal (5 September 2008)

  British Minister critical of Stonehenge facilities

Facilities at Stonehenge have come under fire from Margaret Hodge, Britain's tourism minister. She criticised hotels across the country saying they are of 'worrying' quality and she said in particular the facilities at Stonehenge were not befitting of a World Heritage Site. She said the Department of Culture, Media and Sport was making efforts to improve facilities at Stonehenge, which is the subject of a long-running wrangle about how best to develop the site for visitors.
Last December the Tories warned Stonehenge could lose its status as a World Heritage Site if the problem of what to do about the busy A303, which runs parallel to the site, were not solved.
     The comments come as a public consultation on the future of the site continues and a man who has legally changed his name to King Arthur keeps up his one man fight for an improvement to visitor facilities at the site. English Heritage wants to know what people across Wiltshire want to see happen at the protected site – plans floated at the moment include the closure of the A344, which runs just metres from the stones. A report shaped by public comments on the proposals will go to Government by November and a reply will be published by the end of the year.

Source: Swindon Advertiser (5 September 2008)

  Czech archaeologists find unique 7000-year-old statue

Czech archaeologists have uncovered a torso of a unique female statue created about 7,000 years ago near Masovice (Czech Republic), which is the second similar find in this locality. The woman's statue found in the area last summer was given the name 'Hedvika of Masovice,' while 'her sister' is called Johanka, "That is according to the female names in the calendar on the days when the artifacts were found", head of the archaeological research Zdenek Cizmar said.
     Both sculptures, created by people of the Moravian Painted Ceramic culture, probably served as idols, symbolizing life and fertility. The lower part of the half-a-meter tall 'Hedvika' statue is the oldest sculpture of such a large size found in central Europe. The torso of 'Johanka,' measuring 35 centimeters, consists of four fragments of the body that were put together. The legs are missing. "It has a realistically shaped face. Distinctive ears with holes are also interesting features. Hands, chest and lap are very well apparent. Moreover, Johanka was completely white," said Cizmar. He added that the statue was polished with a resin base covered with a white colour finish.
    Masovice is a significant archaeological site where remains of prehistoric settlements as well as a high number of artifacts have been found. Among other rarities from the locality is the 'Masovice rondel,' of which a double circular ditch with a 110 metres in diameter has been preserved. It served as a ritual place and possibly as a calendar.

Sources: Prague Daily Monitor, China View, Mathaba (5 September 2008)

  Bronze Age mouse offers clues to royal shipwreck

Remains of a long dead house mouse have been found in the wreck of a Bronze Age royal ship. That makes it the earliest rodent stowaway ever recorded, and proof of how house mice spread around the world.
     Archaeologist Thomas Cucchi of the University of Durham, UK, identified a fragment of a mouse jaw in sediment from a ship that sank 3500 years ago off the coast of Turkey. The cargo of ebony, ivory, silver and gold - including a gold scarab with the name of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti - indicates it was a royal vessel.
     Because the cargo carried artefacts from many cultures, its nationality and route is hotly debated, but the mouse's jaw may provide answers. Cucchi's analysis confirms it belonged to Mus musculus domesticus, the only species known to live in close quarters with humans. The shape of the molars suggests the mouse came from the northern Levantine coast, as they are similar to those of modern house mice in Syria, near Cyprus. And, when generations of rodents live aboard ships, they evolve larger body shapes. Yet this mouse was roughly the same shape and size as other small, land-dwelling mice of the time, suggesting it boarded just before the ship set sail.

Source: NewScientist (4 September 2008)

  Archaeologists shed light on ancient Canaanite burial rituals

The British Museum's excavation team in Sidon (Lebanon) declared the end of its mission for 2008 at the 'Freres' excavation site near the southern port city's fortress. "Sidon is a remarkable archaeological city where we have found that economics and religion are closely related," archaeology expert and field supervisor Claude Doumet Serhal said. "And for the first time, we have discovered ways of burying the dead during the Canaanite period i.e. 3,000 years BCE and the accompanying ceremonial religious rituals."
     According to Serhal, excavation works have lasted more than two months this year. "We have expanded our work for a better understanding of the historic era that goes back to 3,000 years BCE," she added. "Our discoveries included eight rooms and 25 warehouses containing pottery and burnt wheat," she said. "But what surprised us," she added, "was the discovery of melted bronze material which indicated that the old Bronze Age existed before the Canaanite period."
     Serhal also said her team had unearthed 92 graves where children and teenagers were found buried in jars, in addition to warriors along with their spears, knives and arrows that dated to 2,000 years BCE. "We have also discovered the old oven known as 'Tannour' and a pestle to grind cereals," she added. "Some of the ovens discovered contained bones of goats, birds and fish representing the gifts that had been offered for the dead at the time. "The Freres site also included a four-meter-wide building of which we have discovered the ruins of five rooms so far, which were also related to the religious rituals of that period. Some 300 broken earthen plates and 600 lamps of the Canaanite period were also unearthed," she said.
     
Source: The Daily Star Lebanon (4 September 2008)

  Oldest skeleton in Americas found in underwater cave?

Deep inside an underwater cave in Mexico, archaeologists may have discovered the oldest human skeleton ever found in the Americas. Dubbed Eva de Naharon, or Eve of Naharon, the female skeleton has been dated at 13,600 years old. If that age is accurate, the skeleton—along with three others found in underwater caves along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula—could provide new clues to how the Americas were first populated. The remains have been excavated over the past four years near the town of Tulum, about 80 miles southwest of Cancún, by a team of scientists led by Arturo González, director of the Desert Museum in Saltillo, Mexico.
     "We don't now how [the people whose remains were found in the caves] arrived and whether they came from the Atlantic, the jungle, or inside the continent," González said. "But we believe these finds are the oldest yet to be found in the Americas and may influence our theories of how the first people arrived." In addition to possibly altering the time line of human settlement in the Americas, the remains may cause experts to rethink where the first Americans came from, González added.
     Clues from the skeletons' skulls hint that the people may not be of northern Asian descent, which would contradict the dominant theory of New World settlement. That theory holds that ancient humans first came to North America from northern Asia via a now submerged land bridge across the Bering Sea. "The shape of the skulls has led us to believe that Eva and the others have more of an affinity with people from South Asia than North Asia," González explained.
     Concepción Jiménez, director of physical anthropology at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, has viewed the finds and says they may be Mexico's oldest and most important human remains to date. "Eva de Naharon has the Paleo-Indian characteristics that make the date seem very plausible," Jiménez said. The three other skeletons excavated in the caves have been given a date range of 11,000 to 14,000 years ago, based on radiocarbon dating. According to archaeologist David Anderson of the University of Tennessee, however, minerals in seawater can sometimes alter the carbon 14 content of bones, resulting in inaccurate radiocarbon dating results. "If it's confirmed that Eva de Naharon is 13,000 years old, it will be a fantastic and extraordinary finding for understanding the first settlers of America," said Carlos Lorenzo, a researcher at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain.
     The remains were found some 50 feet (15 meters) below sea level in the caves off Tulum. But at the time Eve of Naharon is believed to have lived there, sea levels were 200 feet (60 meters) lower, and the Yucatán Peninsula was a wide, dry prairie. The polar ice caps melted dramatically 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, causing sea levels to rise hundreds of feet and submerging the burial grounds of the skeletons. Stalactites and stalagmites then grew around the remains, preventing them from being washed out to sea.
     This September, González will begin excavating the fourth skeleton, known as Chan hol, which he says could be even older than Eve. The Chan hol remains include more than ten teeth, which will allow researchers to date the specimen and gather information about Chan hol's diet.

Source: National Geographic News (3 September 2008)

  Prehistoric graves with phallic figurines found in Israel

Prehistoric graves with an unusual abundance of phallic figurines and oddly arranged human remains have been found in Israel, archaeologists announced recently.
     Near Nazerat (Nazareth), the The Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site, called Kfar HaHoresh, dates to between 8,500 and 6,750 BCE. The site was uninhabited and probably served surrounding villages as a centralized burial and cult center, said excavation leader Nigel Goring-Morris of Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology.
     Archaeologists have primarily found female symbolic figurines in other burials of this time period. "At Kfar HaHoresh, all the gender-oriented symbolism seems to be male," Goring-Morris said. "Researchers in the past have put more emphasis on the 'mother goddess' of agriculture." Among other oddities at the newly excavated site are human bones arranged into shapes and even buried with human remains. At least 65 individuals — mostly young males between the ages of 20 and 30 — were found buried in plaster-surfaced structures. The largest measures 33 feet (10 meters) by at least 66 feet (20 meters).
     "This is not a regular site," said Avi Gopher, an archaeologist at Tel Aviv University. "There are many burials and many of them are very unusual. Generally, we did not have central cemeteries during this period. … But there may well be places where the emphasis on burial was greater," added Gopher.
     The period between 8,500 and 6,750 BCE was characterized by a transition from hunting and gathering to large, village-based agricultural communities that domesticated crops and livestock. The people of Kfar HaHoresh were also dealing with fundamental societal change, archaeologists say. One young male was found buried atop the remains of seven wild cattle. It is likely among the first evidence of burial feasts, excavation leader Goring-Morris believes. Other people were buried with fox jaws.
     Also the shift in men's role from hunters to more settled herders and farmers may have reduced their status and self-image, Goring-Morris said. This may have led the prehistoric people to bury young male adults at Kfar HaHoresh with animals as a way of honoring their past lives as hunters. Some of the children buried at Kfar HaHoresh also received at least some of the same funerary treatments as adults, such as being buried with grave goods including pendants and fox jaws. "As agriculture progressed and developed, symbolism developed in parallel," Tel Aviv University's Gopher added.
     The people at Kfar HaHoresh also manipulated bodies before burial.
Many of the bodies' skulls were removed postmortem, and their facial features were reconstructed with lime plaster. "If you have the skull of your grandfather or grandmother on the mantelpiece at home, this could be your legal document that you were the owner of the house or had certain legal rights, passed from one generation to the next." The longer bones of a number of bodies were found arranged in shapes, one of which appears to depict an animal. Researchers also found flint tools, axes, and incised tokens. Other discoveries included seashells and exotic minerals from across the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea—finds that point to overland and maritime trade during the period.

Sources: Science Daily (2 September 2008), National Geographic News (5 September 2008)

  6,500-year-old skeleton unearthed in Poland

The remains of a 30-year-old woman were found at an archeological excavation in Pinczow, in the Swietokrzyska region, southern Poland. The body, identified as female, dates back 6,500 years. The director of the dig, Przemyslaw Duleba, from the Institute of Archeology at the University of Warsaw, stated that this is the oldest discovery ever to be found in this region.
     "The skeleton of the young woman is perfectly preserved and laid on her left side in an embryonic position." Duleba says that this skeleton provides evidence as to the funereal rites of the people that lived on this land in that era. These people were originally from the Danube River region.
     This archeological dig has been open for eight years and archaeologists have found bone fragments, metal bits, and ceramic pieces among other things.

Source: The News.pl (2 September 2008)

  Novices dig up rare bronze bowl in Sweden

Amateur archeologists digging near Skrea hill outside Falkenberg have unearthed a unique artifact. The find, a 2000-year-old bronze vessel, was uncovered at a Bronze Age grave site by members of the public who had been invited to participate in the dig. The vessel also contained bits of charred bone, which are believed to be from humans. According to archeologist Lena Bergland of the Halland county administrative board, the discovery may be the first of its kind in Sweden.
     The bronze bowl is about two to three centimeters high and 50 centimetres in diameter, and is believed to be from the early Iron Age. Vessels from that period and of that size have been found earlier in Sweden, but they've been made from clay rather than bronze, said Bergland.

Source: The Local (1 September 2008)