Stone Pages Archaeo News: April 2005 Archives

April 2005 index:

1 April 2005: Are Irish travellers the remnant of a pre-Celtic culture?; Academics have suggested that Irish travellers may in fact be the descendants of a pre-Celtic culture in Ireland. Linguists, historians and anthropologists gathering for the world's first symposium on the...
: Infrared photography reveals tattoos on mummies; Researchers restoring mummies at the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg have been using infrared photography to reveal previously invisible tattoos. Three of the mummies were removed from the Pazyryk mounds...
: Stonehenge landscape to be returned to original state; As part of the plans to improve the Stonehenge landscape in southern England, farmers are being given grants to return their intensive arable fields to traditional low-density pasture. Fields close...
: Reports that Tara motorway plans have been approved; It's been reported that Ireland's Environment Minister Dick Roche has decided to allow the controversial M3 motorway through the Tara-Skryne valley to go ahead. Reports from Ireland said the minister...
2 April 2005: Chemists probe secrets in ancient textile dyes; Traveling along the ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang Province (China), two Boston University researchers found ancient fabrics – and hit upon a research adventure that combined chemistry, archaeology, anthropology, botany,...
: Lottery grant awarded for Iron Age hill fort; Heritage Lottery Funding has been awarded to Penwith Council (Cornwall, England) for the restoration of the prehistoric Lescudjack Hillfort in Penzance, and acquisition of the site will now begin. The...
6 April 2005: Indian archaeologist sparks debate after unauthorised excavation; A professor of archaeology at the Jahangirnagar University in India is courting controversy following the unauthorised excavation of an archaeological site. Professor Sufi Mustafizur Rahman led the excavation of an...
: Neutron activation analysis used on Olmec pottery; Archaeologists in America have used neutron activation analysis (NAA) to establish the origins of Olmec pottery found across Mesoamerica. Jeffrey Blomster of George Washington University, Hector Neff of Cal State-Long...
: Iron Age settlement found in India; Archaeologists in India have found the Iron Age settlement associated with the Adichanallur burial site. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Chennai Circle, has located where the people who were...
: Ancient Iranian cemetery looted; The ancient cemetery of Sarm Tepe, close to the central Iranian city of Qom, is regularly being looted by smugglers. Khosro Purbakhshandeh, the director of the archaeological team working on...
: World's oldest 'pornographic figure' found in Germany; Archaeologists working on a dig in Saxony, Germany, have uncovered what is believed may be the world's 'oldest representation of a pornographic scene.' Dr Harald Stäuble of the Archaeological Institute...
: Survey of ancient monuments in Wales; Archaeologists in Wales are undertaking a major survey of thousands of prehistoric sites. The project, which will involve several archaeological trusts, is being backed by Cadw, the organisation responsible for...
9 April 2005: Archeologists dig up Bronze Age casting centre; Archeologists claim to have found Viet Nam’s largest Bronze Age metallurgy centre, estimated to be 3,500 years old. The site, located at the Den Citadel in the northern province of...
: Female population predominant in 5000-year-old Burnt City; Anthropological studies indicate that females constituted about sixty percent of the population of the 5000-year-old Burnt City, said Farzad Foruzanfar, director of a team of anthropologists working on the ancient...
: Anger over stone circle burial plots; A Company offering burial plots at an ancient stone circle has provoked anger in a north-east Scottish community. Edinburgh-based Native Woodland hopes to attract buyers to the site at Cothiemuir...
: Ancient campsite discovered in South Dakota; Discovery of a campsite used by ancient hunters in South Dakota (USA) has delayed work on a stretch of an Expressway for at least a year. The site, along a...
: Earliest evidence of domestic herding in the Negev; Although layers of dung accumulated by herds of sheep and goat sheltering in the caves of the Near East have long been an annoyance for archaeologists working on the prehistoric...
: Oldest Iranian stylus discovered; The oldest Iranian Stylus, dating to the Middle Elamite era, 1550-1000 BCE, which were used for inscribing mud tablets, has been discovered from Bondul Tepe, Fars province. Bondul Tepe is...
16 April 2005: A new Megalith Map; The Megalithic Portal, created by our friend Andy Burnham, announced the new Megalith Map: an interactive multi-country map of of megalithic and other prehistoric sites, covering the whole of Europe....
: 400 ancient rock art carvings found in Iran; More than 400 rock art carvings, picturing humans and animals, dating to the Achaemenid and Parthian era (2500 years to 2138 years ago) has been discovered in Sardouyeh, north of...
: 2,500-year-old urns and tombs found in Viet Nam; Archaeologists made a significant discovery after unearthing an array of urns and earth tombs from Binh Dong Commune of the Binh Son District in the central province of Quang Ngai...
: Heritage Action fundraising CD: 'Earthworks'; 'Earthworks' is a twelve track CD, released to raise funds for Heritage Action, a not-for-profit voluntary group. Heritage Action was formed in 2003 by 'ordinary people caring for extraordinary places',...
: New rock art discoveries in Yorkshire; A recent survey of moorlands to the north of Ilkley in Yorkshire (England), has led to a number of previously undocumented archaeological sites being found. Particularly at Middleton Moor, where...
: Tibetan Monks at Stonehenge; Tibetan monks of the Tashi Lhunpo Temple will be performing by the central stone circle of Stonehenge on Monday, 30th May at 8:00 pm. Traditional Tibetan instruments, including the longhorn,...
: Scientists protest bill over Kennewick Man; Scientists hoping to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man are protesting legislation they say could block their efforts. They say a two-word amendment to a bill on American...
: Prehistoric cave of Theopetra will soon open to visitors; Work is to begin on making the cave of Theopetra in Thessaly (Greece) accessible to visitors. The cave is a unique prehistoric site that was continuously inhabited from the Middle...
: Search for lost ring leads to Bronze Age hoard; A quest for a missing wedding ring has helped uncover a collection of ancient treasures dating back up to 4,000 years. Thought to be from tombs on the island of...
: Twyfelfontein, a nominee for World Heritage; Twyfelfontein is being prepared by the National Museum and National Archives of Namibia for nomination to the World Heritage List, which encourages the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and...
: 4000-year-old Cypriot copper mine for sale; A copper mine in Cyprus where the metal has been mined for some 4,000 years faces closure unless the Church o fCyprus can find a buyer. The Skouriotissa mine suspended...
24 April 2005: 3,000-year-old finds in Temple Mount trash heap; Archaeologists sifting through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic officials from the Temple Mount have found rare artifacts dating to 3,000 years ago. The artifacts were found in the last...
: Round barrow unearthed in Leeds; Last summer East Leeds History and Archaeology Society (ELHAS), worked on an archaeological dig in the grounds of Austhorpe Hall, near Crossgates (Leeds, England). Members were astonished at what they...
: Prehistoric discovery at Pompei; Swedish archeologists have discovered a Stone Age settlement covered in ash under the ruins of the ancient city of Pompei (Italy), indicating that the volcano Vesuvius engulfed the area in...
: The ancient shell rings of South Carolina; Fig Island looks like any of the thousands of tidal hummocks along the South Carolina coast (USA). But much of Fig Island was built by man, not nature. Three of...
: Neolithic burial site unearthed in Slovak Republic; An ancient burial ground has been discovered at a building site near Levice city centre (Slovak Republic), where a new shopping centre will be built. Marián Samuel from the Archaeological...
: High-tech to unveil ancient Chinese bronze culture; High-tech will be used to further explore a 3,000-year-old bronze culture at Xingan County in east China's Jiangxi Province. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Archaeological Institute of...
: Remains at building site may be of ancient Indians; Archaeologists have found what they believe are the 5,000-year-old remains of two American Indians at a southern Jefferson County site (Kentucky, USA) planned for development. Bone fragments were unearthed last...
: Historic Scotland's new scheduling campaign; Archaeologists are turning their attention to one of Scotland's most historically overlooked areas by scheduling scores of ancient and modern sites dating from 4000 BCE to the cold war era....
: Ice Age rock art 'oldest in Britain'; A team of scientists from Bristol, The Open and Sheffield Universities have proved the engravings at Creswell Crags to be greater than 12,800 years old, making them Britain's oldest rock...
: 4,000-year-old arrowhead found in Cambridgeshire; An arrowhead thought to be 4,000 years old has been unearthed in Huntingdon (Cambridgeshire, England) The find has been unearthed on the excavation site at the rear of Walden House...
: The Thornborough henges saga continues; An 'exclusion zone' could be created around the 5,500-year-old Thornborough Henges in North Yorkshire (England) in a bid to protect its archaeology. The eight-square mile area is one proposal revealed...
: 6000-year-old pottery workshop discovered in Iran; A team of archaeologists have discovered over 5000 pottery works and shards and a large pottery workshop at the 6000-year-old site of Toll-e Bondu in the southern Iranian province of...
: Ancient jaw bone raises questions over early man; New research has revealed Britain's oldest fragment of modern human - a jaw bone unearthed in the Westcountry - is 6,000 years older than previously thought. Carbon dating had indicated...
30 April 2005: 2500-year-old gold unearthed in Iran; Four pieces of gold with a combined weight of about three kilograms were unearthed beside one of the columns of the main hall of the Darius Palace at Bardak Siah...
: Tall Neolithic man found in South China; Archaeologists in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, south China, unearthed remains of a 180-centimeter tall man dating back more than 6,000 years. "Such a tall man would rarely have been seen...
: Tests to recreate Bronze Age smelting techniques; Evidence for ancient metalworking is sparse, and now historians who recreated Bronze Age smelting techniques know why — the clues naturally disappear. The finding explains why, despite the discovery of...
: Bronze Age haul unearthed in Norfolk; A large haul of Bronze Age artefacts has been uncovered by a gardener in Norfolk, England The 145 items, dating from about 800 BCE, were found by Simon Francis as...
: Ancient human remains found in Viet Nam; A set of human remains, believed to be of a primitive man dating back 10,000-15,000 years, has been found in Viet Nam's northern mountainous Tuyen Quang province. Dr. Trinh Nang...
: Ancient communal cooking places found in Limerick; Ancient communal cooking places discovered during excavation work in Limerick (Ireland) may belong to the Bronze Age. Frank Coyne, managing director of the Corbally based company, Aegis Archaeology said the...
: Scottish archaeological task force to save the past; A team of archaeologists is to arrive in Inverness (Highlands, Scotland) later this year in the hope of uncovering scores of ancient remains in need of legal protection. The visit...