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August 2003 | |
 Stunning number of ancient sites found in Scotland
Prehistoric remains hailed by experts as one of Scotland’s most significant archaeological finds in 50 years have been unearthed in the path of a major road development.
Scores of pots, tools and ceremonial items dating back 7000 years have been unearthed where work is being carried out to create a dual-carriageway between Haddington and Dunbar. Ancient burial sites and Neolithic settlements have also been uncovered. The discovery has stunned experts who say it is one of the biggest and most important finds in recent years.
Archaeologists have yet to analyse the many items uncovered along the 11-mile stretch but are already predicting it will tell them much about early civilisation in the Lothians region. They say the sheer volume of material confirms the existence of thriving communities which survived on the fertile farmland of East Lothian for thousands of years. John Atkinson, team leader of the excavations, carried out by a team of archaeologists from Glasgow University, said: "In a rich farming area like East Lothian we expected to find quite a lot, but we were taken aback by the sheer volume of what we discovered. It is absolutely priceless."
Twelve individual sites were uncovered by the team of 30 archaeological staff; among the most stunning finds was a burial cairn at Ewford, near Dunbar. A copper alloy pike, used for ceremonial occasions was also found together with funeral urns thought to be 3500 years old. Elsewhere, remains of a prehistoric burial ground were found on Pencraig Hill, overlooking Traprain Law. But the most exciting and unexpected find was evidence of a previously unknown settlement at Phantassie, near East Linton. The remains of around a dozen buildings and linking pathways constructed entirely of rock were discovered along with hundreds of small pieces of pottery.
Mr Atkinson said they found evidence of both burial and cremation. He said it was also possible their discoveries suggested excarnation - where the bodies of the dead are left for animals to eat and their skeleton later buried - had taken place. He said dating of the recovered items would tell whether the ancient fort on Traprain Law was built before, or after, the surrounding settlements.
The discoveries also supported the theory that a clear class system existed in prehistoric times. "We found large ceremonial cairns which had grave goods with them, suggesting they were for people with a reasonably high status in society. In other sites, like Phantassie, you see signs of every day, subsistence life, in the Iron Age." Mr Atkinson added: "As a group it certainly qualifies as one of the most important finds in Scotland in the last 50 years."
Source: East Lothian Courier (1 August 2003), The Scotsman (2 August 2003)
Ancient cities discovered in Yangtze Valley
China's Yangtze River was once home to an ancient civilisation, just as the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Indus rivers were, according to new archaeological research.
A series of 13 walled towns and cities have so far been discovered. Dating from around 3000 BCe these ancient urban centres - excavated by Chinese and Japanese archaeological teams over the past decade - appear to have had populations of up to 10,000. The largest cities had up to three miles of defensive walls. The discoveries show that exactly the same process of urbanisation and state formation was taking place in China in the same river valley environment and in roughly the same period that similar developments were occurring in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley.
Like the earliest phases of the other great riverine civilisations, the newly discovered Yangtze civilisation belonged to the neolithic period - substantially prior to the development in China of metal technology. The culture that gave rise to these first Chinese towns had its origins in around 7000 BCe, when the first villages started appearing on the banks of the Yangtze. Indeed the Yangtze area was one of the first in the world to produce pottery - an amazing 13,000 years ago. Archaeological investigations have so far revealed the sites of nine ancient towns in the Middle Yangtze Valley between Wuhan and Jiangling, and four in the Upper Yangtze near Chendu.
The excavations have been revealing evidence of the Yangtze Valley civilisation's culture. Stone weapons and sickles have been unearthed as well as jade statuettes of humans, birds and animals. Beautiful pottery with geometric designs is also being found. The three biggest urban sites each cover up to 2,250 acres.The archaeological discoveries show that the Yangtze Valley civilisation lasted for 500 years and collapsed as a result of climatic and environmental problems and warfare.
It is not clear who the people were who created China's first civilisation. They may have been related ethnically to Malays, Burmese or Tibetans, and were probably pushed south as peoples from further north invaded the Yangtze Valley. According to one leading authority on Yangtze Valley archaeology, Professor Kazuo Miyamoto of Japan's Kyushu University, the discoveries are "transforming the academic world's understanding of early China".
Source: The Independent (3 August 2003)
Projects to preserve the cave pictures at Creswell Rags
The discovery of 12,000-year-old artwork on the walls of a North Derbyshire (England) cave could spur on a bid for World Heritage Site status.
The find at Creswell Crags is believed to give the clearest evidence yet of how far north man had travelled during the ice ages, as it shows the world's most northerly Palaeolithic cave paintings. But while archaeologists are still in raptures over the images, mostly depicting animals, trust chiefs running the site believe it could spell great things for the area. Nigel Mills, of Creswell Heritage Trust, said the paintings "thought to be Britain's first ever cave pictures' could mean the resurrection of an ambitious scheme to gain World Heritage Site status. He said: "Creswell Crags is a hugely important site. The quality and the quantity of archeological evidence which has come from the site are second to none. At the time when these paintings were made the crags would have been at the very edge of the ice sheet which covered much of the North of England. The paintings are evidence that the crags were the most northerly place visited by ice age man. For these reasons the crags are unique places and something that is so unique could form the basis of a bid to be a World Heritage Site. In 1996, a bid was put forward but was rejected. In the light of recent events it may now be appropriate to reconsider that application."
The Creswell Crags site has come a long way in the intervening years when it was blighted by the nearby location of a sewage works and a busy road cutting through the gorge. Major progress has already been made on moving the sewage works and diverting a section of the B6042 road. The trust, set up in 1990 to safeguard the site, is leading a £14m scheme to regenerate the former coalfield area. Part of the scheme will see the construction of a £4.5m museum and visitor centre which it is hoped will secure the long-term future of the site.
In the meantime, Derbyshire County Council has awarded £10,000 to help Creswell Heritage Trust continue its work in the Creswell Crags area. Cllr Bob Janes, county community services chief, said: "Creswell Heritage Trust is a small charitable organisation but the work it does and amount of grant aid it attracts to this part of the county is invaluable. We are delighted to support its efforts to protect what is a site of tremendous historical importance".
Sources: Yorkshire Post Today (27 July 2003), Chesterfield Today (31 July 2003)
Ancient sites damaged by farmers
Thousands of archaeological sites are being damaged by farmers, English Heritage has warned. Ploughs had damaged or destroyed valuable sites, including Neolithic long barrows, Roman villas, Anglo-Saxon cemeteries and medieval field systems.
English Heritage wants for a new strategy to protect sites but said farmers were not to blame. "They have only been doing what society has asked and agricultural policy has dictated," said chief executive Simon Thurley. "Modern intensive ploughing has arguably done more damage in six decades than traditional agriculture did in the preceding six centuries." A new strategy would need the support of farmers and also reward them for stewardship, Dr Thurley said.
Since 1945 many sites, including some of the oldest visible monuments, have been destroyed or are being seriously damaged, ploughed up or degraded by increasingly powerful farm machinery and ever more intensive cultivation, English Heritage said. Examples of sites damaged by ploughing include numerous prehistoric burial grounds, but precious objects are also at risk. Only two out of 39 Bronze Age metalwork hoards recovered from Norfolk in the last 30 years had not been disturbed by farming, it said. A 4,000-year-old gold cup, discovered in a field at Ringlemere in Kent and recently bought by the British Museum, had been distorted by the impact of a plough.
The English Heritage campaign, Ripping Up History, is aimed at improving the ways the past is protected. Heritage Minister Andrew McIntosh said: "It is vitally important that we do as much as we can to protect our heritage so that future generations will have a better understanding of our history."
The National Farmers' Union said the government, local authorities and archaeologists needed to work with farmers to investigate how more effective protection can be given to ancient sites on farmland. The union's environment chairman John Seymour said: "In the majority of cases, damage that has been caused to these sites has been the result of farmers not being informed about the sites rather than as a result of any malicious intent."
The English Heritage report says nearly 3,000 nationally important monuments are today under cultivation. Although legislation gives protection to these monuments from most threats, in many cases it permits them to be ploughed, even though it can cause damage to fragile and irreplaceable archaeological remains.
Sources: BBC News, English Heritage News (25 July 2003)
12,000-year-old settlement unearthed in Israel
Israeli archaeologists said they had discovered a 12,000-year-old neolithic settlement west of Jerusalem which they believe is the largest of the period ever discovered in the Holy Land.
The settlement, in Motza 5km west of Jerusalem, was home to 2,000 people and dates to 9,500 BC, Hammadid Khalife, head of the archeological team, said. "We discovered a real treasure on the site consisting of 58 flint blades, found together, which at the time served as a kind of currency," Khalife said. The dig, which started three months ago, was organised by the Israeli antiquities department. "The origin of the stone and the way the blades were made show they come from northern Syria," added Khalife. "It is the first time that such a treasure from this Neolithic period, has been discovered in the Holy Land," he said, who specified the site belonged to an era known as pre-pottery neolithic.
A similar discovery was made in Syria by a French team three years ago at a site called Jerat al-Ahmar.
Source: The Age (1 August 2003)
Tribes, archaeologists at odds over prehistoric cemetery
Prehistoric human remains and artifacts discovered in one of the oldest known cemeteries in the USA will undergo extensive analysis, despite complaints of grave desecration from several American Indian tribes.
Federal officials say they hope to minimize destructive tests on the human bones and promptly rebury them when studies are complete, but tribes say they are considering legal action to halt further analysis. "These are our ancestors," said Walter Celestine of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe in East Texas.
After more than 18 months of talks with archaeologists, tribes and others, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged the tribes' concerns and vowed to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act that prescribes treatment of such sites. Corps officials insisted that more study is warranted, given the knowledge to be gained about prehistoric culture.
The ancient cemetery, known as Buckeye Knoll, is south of Victoria and reflects more than 10,000 years of human history along the marshy Texas Gulf Coast. The site has the largest Early Archaic cemetery west of the Mississippi, holding 10 percent of all ancient human remains from 8000 BCe to 6000 BCe discovered in North America. Only about 20 similar sites have been discovered in the United States.
The graveyard was first noticed around 1960, but preliminary analysis didn't begin until 2000. Initial tests indicated that bones and primitive artifacts ranged from 600 to nearly 11,000 years old. No more excavation is planned at the site, only further study of the items found there during 2000-01. Seventy-nine sets of remains were encountered and taken to a laboratory for study and storage.
The government's decision to proceed "balances the diverse concerns of Native Americans and the archaeological community to the greatest extent possible," said Col. Leonard Waterworth, the Corps' Galveston district engineer and commander. Working with private contractors, the Corps will analyze all human remains and archaeological materials found at the site, officials said. Nondestructive techniques such as observation and measurement will provide some information about those buried there. But information about when the burials occurred and DNA makeup can be accomplished only using small samples of bones, weighing as little as 1 gram, said Corps archaeologist Jan Stokes.
"Because of concerns expressed by the consulting Native American tribes, and out of respect for the human remains, the number of samples obtained for destructive analysis has been limited to the amount necessary to obtain statistically valid results. The human remains and associated mortuary goods will be released for eventual reburial at the site of origin," Stokes said. Tribes including the Alabama-Coushatta, Choctaw, Comanche, Caddo and Tonkawa oppose the effort, said Celestine, of the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe. In early 2002, they unsuccessfully demanded a halt to the project, saying the remains should never have been disturbed after the initial discovery.
Sources: Houston Chronicle, Austin American Statesman (28 July 2003)
Neolithic grotto grave found in China
A Neolithic grotto grave was recently found in Nongshan Mountain in southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, unveiling the burial secrets of the Luoyue people, ancestors of one China's largest ethnic groups, the Zhuang.
Situated in Xianhu Town in Wuming County of Nanning, the grave is older than three others unearthed earlier in the autonomous region, which only date back to the early years of the Qin Dynasty (221 BCe - 206 BCe). From the 100-square-metre site, archaeologists have excavated more than 80 archeological findings, including stone implements, pottery, jade and clam ware, a few skeletons and some fossils of pandas, elephants and rhinoceros. A wealth of stone shovels made of fine-grained shale, which is rather delicate and fragile, have also been unearthed for the first time. With the largest shovel measuring 29 by 17 centimetres and the smallest measuring 10 centimetres long and 4.2 centimetres wide, the varying shapes and sizes have provided vital clues to the daily life and production of the ancient ethnic Luoyue people.
Archaeologist Li Zhen, who has taken part in the excavation, said the stone shovels go beyond the average farming tools popular in primitive digging and hoeing work, and function as ritual articles and funerary objects which might have been worshipped or deified as totems.
Among the unearthed pottery ware, there are numerous pots, axes, kettles, bowls and cups. On their surface, rope lines are engraved on most of them, while some have water wave lines and only a few have coloured drawings. Also excavated from the grave were a few clam ornaments and jade adornments which give expressions to the aesthetic views of the ancient dwellers in Guangxi and their handicraft, said Li.
Source: People's Daily (28 July 2003)
Ancient mounds get digital makeovers
Joe Saunders, an archaeologist at the University of Louisiana at Monroe (USA), has participated in a statewide project designed to create a road tour of prehistoric mounds called the Mounds Heritage Trail. The project, he said, will allow people to view mounds from the roadside only. "It's still in the formative stages," said Nancy Hawkins, archaeologist manager for the state. Once completed, the project would call for markers to designate certain Native American mounds located on private property that tourists could see from the road. The state also plans to develop a brochure as a guide for the mounds, Hawkins said.
Interest in ancient native culture isn't limited to northeastern Louisiana. Many long-abandoned earthworks or mounds have fallen to encroaching cities and farms - probably less than a dozen remain complete, researchers say. Millions of modern-day Americans live or work near earthworks in more than 20 states from Florida to Wisconsin, but do not know they exist.
A University of Cincinnati project seeks to rebuild the earthworks - at least on the Internet. In July, the university announced that its project - to visually reconstruct about two dozen earthworks in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky - is 80 percent complete. The Web project, available at http://cerhas.uc.edu/earthworks, aims to teach the public something most people don't learn in school or from watching Westerns on television, said John Hancock, an architecture historian at the university who led the work.
The University of Cincinnati assembled a team of artists, designers, archaeologists, Native Americans and scholars to do illustrations of earthwork sites, Hancock said. Some of the information was gleaned from illustrations and maps drawn more than a century ago. "We wanted the exact shape of the mound as measured by archaeologists," Hawkins said.
Source: The News Star (29 July 2003)
3,000-year-old Chinese earthenware restored
Some 700 pieces of earthenware made in the ancient Shu Kingdom have been unearthed by archeologists after they were buried thousands of years ago at the Sangxingdui Ruins in southwest China's Sichuan Province.
Some of the most striking pieces made of various materials like bronze and jade were found accidentally in 1986 in Sanxingdui, a small village in Guanghan City, Sichuan. Sanxingdui is regarded as the site of the earliest and largest ruins of the ancient Shu people, with earliest occupation dating back to the late Neolithic period from 5,000 to 3,700 years ago.
The earthenware pieces, including bowls, basins, Chinese goblets, 50-centimeter-tall serving vessels and 20-centimeter-tall pots, will be exhibited at the Sangxingdui Museum in Guanghan later this year. The bizarre shapes of the pieces give valuable clues to the lives of the ancient people who inhabited the place, said Chen De' an, chief archeologist at the Sanxingdui Ruins.
Since 1986 archeologists have launched five large-scale excavations at the ruins, unearthing hundreds of thousands of earthenware fragments. Chen said it was a difficult and time-consuming job to repair and restore fragments into a full earthenware piece.
Sources: English.eastday.com, Shanghai Daily (31 July 2003)
Neolithic skeleton found in Russia
An early Neolithic burial place has been discovered in the Ulyanovsk region on the Volga, southeast of European Russia. Archaeologists found a skeleton apparently of a young woman who, in their estimate, lived in the 8th millennium BCe. The age will be defined more precisely by the radio-carbonic method in St Petersburg.
Alexander Viskalin, who leads the expedition, saind that the skeleton found by his team lacks the skull, and this fact suggests a ritual to bury heads separately from bodies.
Local school and university students worked alongside professional archaeologists as part of a project sponsored by the youth committee of Ylyanovsk's Mayor's Office.
Source: Pravda (30 July 2003)
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