Stone Pages Archaeo News: January 2009 Archives

January 2009 index:

3 January 2009: DNA tracks ancient Alaskan's descendants; An ancient mariner who died 10,000 years ago probably doesn't have any close relatives left in Alaska (USA). But some of them migrated south and their descendents can be found...
: Ancient graves found accidentally in Turkey; Two ancient graves, dating back to the 7th century BCE, have been uncovered during construction of a cesspool at the house of Mehmet Çoban in the Damlıboğaz village of Muğla's...
: Prehistoric artifacts unearthed in Oklahoma; Archaeologists recently unearthed about 16,000 stone artifacts at a site for a new Delaware County bridge (Oklahoma, USA), offering scientists clues to how a prehistoric culture lived, a scientist said....
: Before corn, wild lilies were on ancient menu; Long before humans in North America grew corn and beans and wheat, they were harvesting and cooking the bulbs of lilies, wild onions and other plants, roasting them for days...
: Macedonia archeologists uncover 4,000 year old writing; Uncovered are the first traces of the old Macedonian language in the country, says Dr. Dushko Aleksovski, paleolinguistics professor and honorary president of the World Rock Art Academy. "This is...
: European Neanderthals had ginger hair and freckles; The gene known as MC1R suggests the Neanderthals had fair skin and even freckles like redheads. In a major breakthrough, Spanish scientists have discovered the blood group and two other...
: Celtic village discovered in Poland; A 3rd to 2nd century BCE Celtic village was discovered four miles east of Krakow (Poland). Archaeologists from the Krakow Highway Exploration Team (Krakowski Zespol do Badan Autostrad) had been...
: Traces of an ancient civilization found in Bulgaria; The archeological excavations at the prehistoric tomb in the village of Yunatsite, Pazardzhik district (Bulgaria), give pleasant surprises every year to specialists working there, the leader of the team of...
: Ancient burial site uncovered in Dorset; More than a dozen skeletons thought to be thousands of years old, have been found by Oxford archaeologists working at an ancient burial site in Dorset (England). Excavations are taking...
: Pollen grain study yields new picture of Ice Age; According to a new doctoral dissertation at Stockholm University in Sweden, based on analyses of deposits of pollen grains, it is possible that all of Sweden was virtually free of...
: Competition led to Neanderthal extinction, study shows; In a recently conducted study, a multidisciplinary French-American research team reported that Neanderthal extinction was principally a result of competition with Cro-Magnon populations, rather than the consequences of climate change....
: Iran's Burnt City yields ancient graves; The 12th phase of Burnt City archeological excavations in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan Province has yielded 12 ancient graves. A brick-walled quadrangular grave was found at the site, which is believed...
: Prehistoric artifacts found in Arizona; A mysterious 'circle stone' is puzzling archaeologists who unearthed it with an ancient village in Arizona (USA). "You don't find little pieces of rock art like that very often," archaeologist...
: Did a comet explode over North America 12,000 years ago?; Roughly 12,900 years ago, massive global cooling kicked in abruptly, along with the end of the line for some 35 different mammal species, including the mammoth, as well as the...
: Prehistoric plaque may provide link with Stonehenge; Archaeological director Mike Emery believes new evidence shows a direct link between his dig south of Chester and Stonehenge. His team has uncovered a 4,500 year-old limestone plaque at the...
11 January 2009: Bulletin published on 4800-year-old artificial eye; All studies on the 4800-year-old artificial eye from the Burnt City (Iran) have been published in an English-Persian bulletin early last week. "The bulletin contains all comprehensive studies and analysis...
: Archaeology project in Amesbury; While internationally-sponsored archaeological work at Stonehenge and Durrington Walls (Wiltshire, England) has seized the public interest, Amesbury's very own project has unobtrusively continued just a short distance away. For the...
: Necklaces reveal early man's intelligence; The date when our ancestors first began to use ornaments has once again been under debate. While good evidence exists for the use of natural objects modified as jewellery almost...
: More on Stonehenge as a 'giant concert venue'; Rupert Till, an expert in acoustics and music technology at Huddersfield University, West Yorkshire (England), believes the standing stones at Stonehenge had the ideal acoustics to amplify a 'repetitive trance...
: The Penwith Moors saga; The moors of the Land's End district of Cornwall (England) are incredibly rich in archaeology. The ritual landscapes of Merry Maidens, Tregeseal and Nine Maidens are superb reminders of a...
: Unusual stone formation discovered in Lake Michigan; Stones in a circular formation along with possible ancient carvings have been discovered deep below the surface of Lake Michigan (USA). According to BLDGBLOG, in 2007, Mark Holley, professor of...
: Prehistoric stone tools discovered in India; A team of officials led by Director of Archaeology and Museums P. Channa Reddy discovered a great deal of stone tools from the Ketavaram rock art site (India). The team...
: Migrants may have settled New World in two groups; Diversity ruled among the first American settlers. Within a relatively short time span, at least two groups of people trekked across a land bridge from Asia to Alaska and then...
: Early Irish were just visiting; Ireland's first farmers settled the island later than some sites from Ulster have long suggested, but did so in a short period which may also have seen parallel migration into...
: Indian team finds Megalithic Age burial ground; Archaeologists discovered a burial ground dating back to the Megalithic Age at Thazhuthala in Kollam district (India). Excavation by the Department of Archaeology at the site unearthed three chambers separated...
: Istanbul's ancient past unearthed; Archaeologists in Istanbul (Turkey) have discovered a grave that proves the city is 6,000 years older than they previously thought. The skeletons of two adults and two children lie curled-up,...
20 January 2009: Neolithic site in Scotland will not hold up bypass; Transport Scotland denied claims that the discovery of a Neolithic settlement would delay a long-awaited bypass on the A96. The Scottish Government body said the Fochabers bypass, estimated to cost...
: Time Team uncovers ancient artifacts in Northern Ireland; Cairncastle area (Northern Ireland) featured in an episode of Channel 4's Time Team following a dig carried out last year. News of that Time Team was heading to this area...
: Ancient tombs near Dublin saved from development; The decision to move large parts of the proposed port infrastructure at Bremore, North Dublin, away from an area containing a cluster of Stone Age passage tombs is a vindication...
: Archaeologists return to 8000-year-old site in Iran; A team of Iranian, Australian, and British archaeologists has recently begun the fifth season of excavation at the 8000-year-old site in Sorvan near Nurabad Mamasani in Fars Province (Iran). An...
: Oldest known human brain from Old World found in Armenia; Scientists have uncovered in an Armenian cave what may be the oldest preserved human brain from an ancient society, which dates back to 6,000 years. The cave overlooks southeastern Armenia's...
: Cavern 'disaster' in Britain; One of the most famous Stone Age monuments in Britain was transformed into a disaster zone as 100 emergency services personnel took part in a major cave collapse exercise. Police,...
: Neanderthals lacked projectile weapons; A trio of new studies on prehistoric weapons suggests Neanderthals made sophisticated weapons and tools — possibly including the first sticky adhesive — but they lacked the projectile weapons possessed...
: Axe heads kept at Cornwall museum; A collection of rare Bronze Age axe heads discovered in Cornwall (England) has gone on display in Truro after a campaign to keep the relics in the county. The 3,000-year-old...
: Ancient tombs and artifacts recovered in Southern Italy; More than 120 findings dating back from 4th and 3rd century BCE have been recovered on the fields around San Severo (Foggia, Italy) by Guardia di Finanza (Revenue) officers who...
: Early farmers bred different coloured animals for their own amusement; Early farmers may have genetically altered the coats of domestic animals for their own amusement, creating spots and stripes in the process, scientists believe. The results of their experiments can...
: Colchester probably was a major settlement 2,000 years ago; Vital evidence has been discovered which could prove Colchester (Essex, England) was a major settlement more than 2,000 years ago. Experts from the Colchester Archaeological Trust have been digging at...
: Ridgeway excavation film released; A short film showing the findings of an archaeological dig on the site of a planned £87m relief road in Dorset (England) has been released. More than a dozen skeletons,...
25 January 2009: Piecing together an ancient tale from Sri Lanka; The shark tooth ornament seems too small and delicate to have survived so many centuries unaltered. The two people who wore it lie beside it, their bones lie scattered, and...
: Part of Nazca lines covered with clay and sand; Heavy rains have damaged part of one of Peru's top tourist destination, depositing clay and sand on mysterious figures etched in the desert sand by indigenous groups centuries ago, an...
: Natural disasters doomed early civilization in South America; Nature turned against one of America's early civilizations 3,600 years ago, when researchers say earthquakes and floods, followed by blowing sand, drove away residents of an area that is now...
: Ancient village found on U.S.-Mexico border; The construction of the fence along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2007 led to the find of a prehistoric village east of the San Pedro River. "The San Pedro is a...
: 'Hobbit' skull study: species not human; In a an analysis of the size, shape and asymmetry of the cranium of Homo floresiensis, Karen Baab, a researcher in the Department of Anatomical Scienes at Stony Brook University,...
: Skara Brae sea wall set for work; Work to strengthen the foundations of the sea wall near the famous Neolithic village of Skara Brae in Orkney (Scotland) is about to begin. Waves have affected a section of...
: Pacific people spread from Taiwan 5,200 years ago; New research into language evolution suggests most Pacific populations originated in Taiwan around 5,200 years ago. Scientists at The University of Auckland have used sospisticated computer analyses on vocabulary from...
: Rare ancient Indian art found in Tennessee; Cory Holliday almost didn't see the stick figure painted on the sandstone. His first impression was that it was a clever fake. A cave specialist for the Tennessee chapter of...
: Danube delta holds answers to 'Noah's flood' debate; Did a catastrophic flood of biblical proportions drown the shores of the Black Sea 9,500 years ago, wiping out early Neolithic settlements around its perimeter? A geologist with the Woods...
: Chinese inscriptions 1000 years older than other previously found?; Professor Liu Fengjun, doctoral supervisor in art and archaeology at Shandong University (China), has declared his recent discovery of Changle bone inscriptions in Weifang city of the country's Shandong Province....
: Prehistoric site found in Pakistan; An archaeological site dating back about 5,500 years and believed to be older than Mohenjodaro has been found in Pakistan's southern Sindh province. A team of 22 archaeologists found some...
31 January 2009: Canadian rock petroglyphs are rapidly vanishing; "It's a place for dreams," says Gary Manson, a spiritualist with the Snuneymuxw First Nations, as he walks towards the entrance of Petroglyph Provincial Park, a two-hectare chunk of land...
: Ancient human remains discovered in Bali; The human remains discovered inside a sarcophagus that was excavated recently in Keramas village, Gianyar, may be the ancestors of today's Balinese, chief of the Bali Archeology Office Wayan Suantika...
: Extensive project to document rock art of India; An extensive project to document rock art in several hundred sites in jungles, hills, caves and dolmens in 14 States of India is under way, courtesy the Indira Gandhi National...
: Report due on prehistoric Scottish bones; A report on the discovery of prehistoric human remains on a beach at Uig on Lewis (Western Isles, Scotland) is to be submitted to government agency Historic Scotland. Two skeletons...
: Nazca lines created by prayers walking?; The Nazca lines are huge, intricate geoglyphs, built directly into the ground of the Nazca Desert, in modern-day Peru. The arid stretch of land is 80 kilometers (50 miles) long,...
: New dig hopes to reveal British cavern's secret; A team of archaeologists will survey Kents Cavern, Torquay (Devon, England), in advance of major excavations at Easter and in September. The digs aim to discover more about the Neanderthals...
: Comet impact theory disproved; New data, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, disproves the recent theory that a large comet exploded over North America 12,900 years ago, causing a shock...
: Earliest man-made cave houses in China; Archaeologists in China have unearthed the earliest man-made cave houses and privately-owned pottery workshops which date back 5,500 years. After four years of excavation, a row of 17 cave houses...
: Historic Miami Circle shrouded from public view; The Miami Circle (Florida, USA), the 2,000-year-old remnant of the city's original inhabitants, has just been designated a National Historic Landmark, an honor that puts it on a select list...
: New discoveries in Burnt City; The latest anthropological studies on the people of Iran's 5200-year-old Burnt City determined that they used their teeth as an extra hand. The studies were carried out on 52 skeletons...
: Avebury skeleton's fate to be decided soon; Druids are calling for the remains of a three-year-old Neolithic child to be reburied at Avebury in Wiltshire (England), out of respect but archaeologists insist the skeleton should be kept...
: Ancient burial cave found in Yemen; A local Yemenite stumbled upon the ancient remains of human bones and broken pottery in a tomb near his house in the Qrew area of Hadramout (Yemen). "The cave is...
: Glacier man may have been attacked twice; New investigations by an LMU research team working together with a Bolzano colleague reconstructed the chronology of the injuries that Oetzi, the glacier man found in Italy in 1991 and...
: A controversial Canadian Stonehenge; An academic maverick is challenging conventional wisdom on Canada's prehistory by claiming an archeological site in southern Alberta is really a vast, open-air sun temple with a precise 5,000-year-old calendar...
: Tara Landscape for UNESCO Tentative List; Tara campaigners have submitted a form to the Department of the Environment asking that the Tara landscape (co. Meath, Ireland) be placed on the Tentative List of potential sites to...
: Volunteers clear Bronze Age site in England; Volunteers from East Sussex (England) have been recruited to help preserve an important Bronze age archaeological site in Eastbourne by clearing vegetation. The raised timber platform was probably a small...
: Hidden sites revealed off the English coast; Nearly a thousand new archeological sites have been discovered off the North East coast of England as part of an English Heritage-funded project. The survey, conducted by EH archaeologists along...
: New insight on Silbury Hill; Silbury Hill (Wiltshire, England), the largest man-made mound in Europe, is 30-metres high and 160-metres wide. It is more than 4,000 years old (c 2,400-2,000 BCE), and its purpose has...
: Prehistoric flint blades unearthed in Birmingham; Archaeologists in Birmingham (West Midlands, England) have discovered two stone flint blades which date back more than 9,000 years. A dig at Birmingham City University unearthed the amazing find, which...
: German-Iranian team to study prehistoric site; The city divisions of the ancient site of Gohar-Tappeh in Iran's northern province of Mazandaran will be studied by a joint team of German and Iranian archaeologists in the near...
: Ambitious bid to bring Scottish broch to life; Discovered only 13 years ago, the remarkably preserved ancient settlement at Old Scatness on Shetland (Scotland) forced experts to completely rewrite the history of Iron Age Britain. Old Scatness Broch,...