Stone Pages Archaeo News: February 2009 Archives

February 2009 index:

8 February 2009: Ancient Tongan rock carvings may offer clues to voyagers; Discovery of over 50 ancient rock engravings in Tonga, may shed some light on the pre-Polynesian Lapita peoples who voyaged across the Pacific. The petroglyphs, including stylised images of people...
: 'Hobbit' feud: scientists argue over mysterious bones; The story of paleontology's 'Hobbits,' the extinct human species called Homo floresiensis, packs plenty of drama. But the 2003 discovery of the undersize bones inside Liang Bua cave on the...
: Researchers unearth more of China's ancient past; In the remote village of Yangshe on the banks of the Yellow River, Chinese archaeologists are little by little bringing an ancient culture back to life after nearly 3,000 years....
: New discoveries at Moenjodaro; Archaeologists cleaning a drain to flush out rainwater from an explored part of the ancient Indus Valley city of Moenjodaro (Pakistan) have been pleasantly surprised to come across artefacts and...
: Code of practice for Treasure Trove in Scotland; The first ever Code of Practice for Treasure Trove in Scotland is designed to ensure everyone involved with found objects of archaeological, historical or cultural significance understands the procedures which...
: Neanderthal genome to be unveiled; The entire genome of a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal has been sequenced by a team of scientists in Germany. The group is already extracting DNA from other ancient Neanderthal bones and hopes...
: 5,500-year-old tomb unearthed in Sudan; French archaeologists in northern Sudan say they've unearthed a 5,500 year-old Stone Age tomb which they believe confirms the location of Africa's 'oldest human sacrifice'. In a graveyard in Al-Kadada,...
: Debate unfolds over Lake Michigan's underwater stones; Forty feet below the surface of Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse Bay (USA), a mysterious pattern of stones can be seen rising from an otherwise sandy half-mile of lake floor....
12 February 2009: Archaeologist believes Newgrange is a multi-period mound; A new critical analysis has revealed that the world famous Irish passage-tomb mound Newgrange did look quite different in prehistory than hitherto believed. Newgrange is probably a multi-period mound with...
15 February 2009: Pagans will be able to camp in Avebury for festivals; The residents of Avebury, Britain's only village set inside a Neolithic stone circle, have reluctantly voted to back allowing pagans to camp there for their festivals – because they fear...
: British archaeologists lose their jobs as recession bites; Archaeology in Britain is in 'serious crisis' because of the recession-hit building industry, according to those in the profession. By the end of the year around one in five of...
: Armenian links to Stonehenge explored; The story of Stonehenge and the mystery that surrounds it is familiar to most Salisbury residents, but one man has come to the city to tell people about an ancient...
: Reappraisal of the Indus/Vedic Civilization; An international conference on the Sindhu-Sarasvati Valley Civilization will be held on Feb 21 and 22 at Loyola Marymount University, in Los Angeles (USA). Prominent scholars particularly archaeologists, linguists, anthropologists,...
: Ancient settlement unearthed in Iowa; What's left of a ring-shaped American Indian village discovered in Oakville (Iowa, USA) has been labeled as a rare site in pristine condition by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers....
: British Rock Art Group 2009 meeting; BRAG 2009 will be held on Saturday 9 May 2009 at the International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies (ICCHS), Newcastle University. Depending on interest, a trip to visit rock...
: Hill of Tara nominated for World Heritage Site status; The Tara landscape (Ireland) has been nominated by the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society (MAHS) for inclusion in UNESCO's tentative list of World Heritage Sites currently being drawn up by...
: New excavation on 3,000-year-old Vietnamese site; Archeologists hope to find traces of Vietnam's ancient inhabitants during a six month excavation beginning February 20. The excavation of a 2,000-squaremeter area at the Vinh Yen archaeological site in...
: British site may hold remains of ancient settlement; An archaeological dig is to start in Bradford woodland (West Yorkshire, England) later this month, thanks to a heritage lottery grant. A cheque for £24,300 has allowed the Friends of...
: Save the Peat Moors Centre; "On the 4th of Feb 2009 the Executive Committee of Somerset County Council (Engand) resolved to close the Peat Moors Centre at the end of October 2009. The decision is...
: Why 50,000 BP is a 'crazy date' for American site; Later this year, the first peer-reviewed report on the geostratigraphy of the Topper site in South Carolina (USA) will be published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. The Topper site...
: The Invisible Stone Circle: To See or Not to See; A lecture by renowned archaeologist Aubrey Burl will be held at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum on Saturday 21 March 2009. The lecture focuses on the stone circles in the British...
22 February 2009: 'Nighthawks' raid Britain's archaeological heritage; Britain's archaeological heritage is being plundered by metal detector users who are illegally raiding protected sites across the country, it has been claimed. The first comprehensive national survey of its...
: Ancient village discovered in Iowa; Some 1,700 years ago, the people who live in what is known officially as archaeological site 13LA582 west of Oakville, Iowa (USA), were hunter-gatherers who also grew native crops like...
: Dig unearths secrets of early Delawareans; As far back as 3,000 BCE, small tribes roamed with the seasons throughout the Delmarva Peninsula (Delaware, USA) and would settle for a while on the relatively high ground near...
: Sinkhole in Florida holds clues to early Americans; Divers exploring a southern Florida (USA) sinkhole have uncovered clues to what life was like for some of America's first residents. Led by University of Miami professor John Gifford, underwater...
: 2,500-year-old tomb found in Peru; After making an important discovery, archaeologist Ignacio Alva Meneses has affirmed he will stay and live in Lambayeque, one of Peru's northern regions. Alva did not make this decision because...
: Peat Moors Centre is to close; Sadly at the Somerset County Council meeting on the 18th February, it was decided to close the Peat Moors Centre on the grounds of budget savings, apparently there was no...
: Discoveries at ancient site in Saudi Arabia; A Saudi-German team of archeologists has discovered the 13 km-long remains of buildings during excavations at Tayma in northeastern Saudi Arabia. The team from the German Archeological Institute (GAI), which...
28 February 2009: Neolithic axes found in Britain were made in Italy; It's a mystery that could shed light on life in Hampshire (Southern England) 6,000 years ago. Four Stone Age axes are giving clues to the origins of settled human life...
: The plunder of Mohenjodaro continues; Pakistani authorities appear to be very slow in preventing the theft of precious artefacts from the Mohenjodaro site, according to an official document. Mohenjodaro (Mound of the Dead) was one...
: Mexico bequeathed 8,000 pre-Hispanic artifacts; Mexican authorities unveiled a stunning collection of 8,000 pre-Hispanic antiquities, some dating back 3,000 years, donated to the state by a private collector. "It literally took my breath away as...
: 13,000-year-old tools unearthed in Colorado; Landscapers were digging a hole for a fish pond in the front yard of a Boulder (Colorado, USA) home last May when they unerthed some 13,000-year-old lost tools. They had...
: Scientists meet to save Lascaux cave from fungus; Geologists, biologists and other scientists convened in Paris to discuss how to stop the spread of fungus stains - aggravated by global warming - that threaten France's prehistoric Lascaux cave...
: Oldest evidence of man found in Paraguay; Spanish experts have found in Paraguay the oldest evidence of the presence of man dating back more than 5,000 years. The find was made during the course of an investigation...
: Flint's importance continued long after Stone Age; In Texas (USA) you can still notice metates lying on the desert sand. Those metates are flat grinding stones used by American Indians to grind corn. Metates together with handheld...
: Triangular temple unearthed in Cyprus; A triangular building dating back from the Bronze Age has been discovered last year by Italian archaeologists digging in the Pyrgos archaeological area (Cyprus). This unique construction consists of two...
: Mesolithic finds delay bypass in North West England; A potentially significant find from the Mesolithic age was unearthed during surveying work for the road, known as the Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR - Cumbria, England). It has not...