Die 8 als Grabanlage

Seit Mai untersuchen Archäologen eine 10.000 Quadratmeter große Fläche in Ense-Bremen (Kreis Soest) und haben bisher über 80 Gräber entdeckt. Die untersuchte Fläche wurden besonders in der Bronzezeit und erneut im Frühmittelalter als Bestattungsplatz genutzt.

Bei den insgesamt 65 bronzezeitlichen Gräbern handelt es sich vorwiegend um Brandbestattungen. Der Leichenbrand wurde in Urnen aus Keramik oder organischem Material beigesetzt, teilweise auch schlicht auf den Grabboden geschüttet. Die ältesten Brandgräber sind rund 3000 Jahre alt und stammen aus der späten Bronzezeit. „Es konnten überraschenderweise auch zwei Grabeinhegungen aus der späten Bronzezeit dokumentiert werden, die die Form von Schlüssellöchern hatten“, freut sich Grabungsleiter Stephan Deiters. „Damit ist Ense-Bremen einer der südlichsten Fundpunkte dieser Grabform.“

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Getty museum walks out of talks over looted antiquities

The battle between the world's richest museum and the Italian state took a turn for the worse yesterday when the Getty museum in California walked out of talks over the restitution of looted antiquities.

Michael Brand, the director of the Getty, has sent a closely argued, six-page letter to Francesco Rutelli, the Minister of Culture, saying he is "deeply saddened" by the failure to reach agreement after more than a year of talks, and announcing the end of "these present negotiations". Mr Rutelli's office said the letter had been received "with surprise and disappointment".

At the centre of the dispute is an enormous marble and limestone statue of the goddess Aphrodite, sold to the Getty for $18m (£10m) by a British antiquities dealer who was jailed last year. The statue, one of the glories of the Malibu museum, is claimed by the Italians to have been dug up by grave robbers in Morgantina, Sicily, and illegally exported to Switzerland, where the British dealer Robin Symes sold it on to the Americans.

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Creation vs. Darwin takes Muslim twist in Turkey

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A lavishly illustrated "Atlas of Creation" is mysteriously turning up at schools and libraries in Turkey, proclaiming that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is the real root of terrorism.

Arriving unsolicited by post, the large-format tome offers 768 glossy pages of photographs and easy-to-read text to prove that God created the world with all its species.

At first sight, it looks like it could be the work of United States creationists, the Christian fundamentalists who believe the world was created in six days as told in the Bible.

But the author's name, Harun Yahya, reveals the surprise inside. This is Islamic creationism, a richly funded movement based in predominantly Muslim Turkey which has an influence U.S. creationists could only dream of.

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21st century technology cracks alchemists' secret recipe

A 500-year old mystery surrounding the centre-piece of the alchemists' lab kit has been solved by UCL (University College London) and Cardiff University archaeologists.

Since the Middle Ages, mixing vessels – or crucibles – manufactured in the Hesse region of Germany have been world renowned because of their ability to withstand strong reagents and high temperatures.

Previous work by the team has shown that Hessian crucibles have been found in archaeological sites across the world, including Scandinavia, Central Europe, Spain, Portugal, the UK, and even colonial America. At the time, many people tried to reproduce them but always failed.

Now, writing in Nature, the researchers reveal using petrographic, chemical and X-ray diffraction analysis that Hessian crucible makers made use of an advanced material only properly identified and named in the 20th century.

Dr Marcos Martinón-Torres, of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, who led the study, explains: "Our analysis of 50 Hessian and non-Hessian crucibles revealed that the secret component in their manufacture is an aluminium silicate known as mullite (Al6Si2O13).

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Rome's She-Wolf Younger Than Its City

The icon of Rome's foundation, the Capitoline she-wolf, was crafted in the Middle Ages, not the Antiquities, according to a research into the statue’s bronze-casting technique.

The discovery quashes the long-prevailing belief that the she-wolf was adopted as an icon by the earliest Romans as a symbol for their city.

Recalling the story of a she-wolf which fed Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, and his twin brother, Remus, after they had been thrown in a basket into the Tiber River, the statue has been always linked to the ancient world.

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Former Getty curator charged with Greek art theft

A Greek prosecutor on Tuesday charged a former curator of the American J. Paul Getty Museum with knowingly buying an ancient artifact which had been illegally dug up and smuggled out of Greece 13 years ago.

The accusation that former antiquities curator Marion True illegally obtained a 4th-century BC golden wreath is the latest controversy surrounding acquisitions she made for the wealthy Los Angeles-based museum.

True resigned from her post in a whirlwind of publicity last year when Italian authorities charged her with conspiring to receive stolen antiquities.

In the Greek investigation, police raided her Aegean island villa earlier this year and retrieved what authorities say are dozens of unregistered ancient objects.

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Giant Roman Shipwreck Yields "Fishy" Treasure

Sunken treasure with a distinctly fishy flavor has been recovered from a huge Roman shipwreck in the Mediterranean.

The 2,000-year-old vessel, discovered off the Spanish coast, was described by marine archaeologists last week as "a jewel of the Old World."

However, it wasn't gold or silver that the ship was carrying but hundreds of jars of a foul-smelling fish sauce.

The ancient delicacy, known as garum, was usually made from fermented fish guts and blood. Wealthy Romans, experts say, couldn't get enough of the stuff.

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Genetic Study Of Neanderthal DNA Reveals Early Split Between Humans And Neanderthals

In the most thorough study to date of the Neanderthal genome, scientists suggest an early human-Neanderthal split. The two species have a common ancestry, say the authors, but do not share much else after evolving their separate ways. The study, published in this week's issue of Science, also finds no evidence of genetic admixture between Neanderthals and humans.

The study helps to explain the evolutionary relationship between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis). It also "signifies the dawn of Neanderthal genomics," wrote the study's authors, who comprise scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley (Calif.) National Laboratory, the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (Walnut Creek, Calif.), the University of Chicago (Ill.) and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig, Germany).

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Risqué Roman cup goes on display in city museum

THIS piece of Roman art, which was considered too risqué to be put on public display until it was bought by the British Museum in 1999, is to be exhibited in York.

The Warren Cup, a first century AD silver vessel, which depicts two male couples in sexual acts, will be at the Yorkshire Museum from December 1 until January 21.

It will form the centrepiece of a new display, The Classical Ideal, exploring the debate around Greek and Roman attitudes to the development of the ideal male, which often involved sex between men.

The Warren Cup stands four inches high and is a drinking vessel that would been used by the Roman social elite just as the Roman city of Eboracum (York) was being founded. It is the first time it has been loaned by the British Museum.

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CAA UK 2007 - Southampton

Tudor Merchants Hall 24th - 26th January

Second Call for Papers

Selected papers from the recent CAA UK meetings, including 2007, will be included in a peer reviewed monograph for publication in 2007.

Further information...

3,000-year-old tools to museum

A man with a metal detector who came across a hoard of prehistoric bronze tools and weapons has handed over his find to the National Museum Wales.

Phil Smith came across the Bronze Age haul on land in Llanbadoc in Monmouthshire and reported his find.

Dating between 1,000 and 800 BC, the haul contains axes, fragments of swords and a spearhead as well knives and harvesting tools.

The 3,000-year-old pieces are being studied by experts.

The treasure was thought to have been buried together in the ground, probably in a small pit, as a ritual gift to the pagan gods of the time.

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Forensics, Archaeology Techniques Used in MIA Search

During his first-ever visit to Vietnam, U.S. President George W. Bush met this week with the country's leaders to discuss how lessons learned during the Vietnam War could be applied to the current conflict in Iraq.

One of the many topics under discussion was how U.S. and Vietnamese officials could better cooperate on retrieving information about the approximately 1,300 military personnel who are still considered missing in action (MIA) after the war ended in 1975.

As part of this effort, President Bush's agenda included a visit with a team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC).

JPAC teams work at sites around the world, searching for clues about the fates of the nearly 88,000 U.S. soldiers who have been listed as MIA since the end of World War II.

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Stonehenge was the Lourdes of the ancient world for pilgrims on a health kick

Stonehenge was a major international healing centre, according to a leading British archaeologist.

Up till now, most scholars have accepted that the 4,600-year-old stone circle was used mainly for ritual purposes but new research suggests that it was a prehistoric version of Lourdes packed full of pilgrims from all over the ancient world.

Professor Timothy Darvill, who has just published the most detailed study of the area ever carried out, says it is much more associated with water sources, traditionally imbued with healing properties, than thought.

The scientific theories also tally with legend - such as why stones were imported from Preseli in south-west Wales (by Merlin, naturally), a region with a dense concentration of holy wells.

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The real prehistoric religion of Malta

Forget the goddess theory, which you hear every tourist guide trying to explain the huge statues at the National Museum of Archaeology or while touring Hagar Qim.

That may not have been the original religion of Malta.

This was the startling starting point in a lecture “Ritual, Space and Structure in Prehistoric Malta and Gozo: New Observations on Old Matters”, given by Dr Caroline Malone, co-director, Xaghra Stone Circle excavation during the recent Heritage Malta international conference held at the Grand Hotel in Gozo.

Dr Malone is senior tutor at Hughes Hall, Cambridge, and Director of studies in archaeology and anthropology and principal research investigator for the Cambridge Templeton Project “Explorations into the conditions of spiritual creativity in prehistoric Malta” at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

The goddess theory may not have been adequately investigated and structured from the many archaeological remains in Malta and Dr Malone dismissed it summarily as a “faulty” theory.

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Search this Blog!

Now you can search the archives of the Archaeology in Europe Weblog!

We have added a Blogger search bar at the top of this page which gives you the ability to run a search on this, or other blogs.

Those of you who have been readers of the Archaeology in Europe Weblog for some time may remember that we previously provided a Blogger search bar, but removed it because it had many problems.

Blogger have now improved their search engine, so that the search bar will now provide a fast and efficient search which we hope will prove useful to our readers.

Best, Worst World Heritage Sites Ranked

The National Geographic Society's Center for Sustainable Destinations has released a scorecard ranking the world's top natural and cultural treasures.

Jonathan Tourtellot, geotourism editor of National Geographic Traveler magazine, spearheaded the survey, which solicited findings from more than 400 experts in sustainable tourism on nearly a hundred UN World Heritage sites.

The United Nations began naming World Heritage sites in 1973 to help preserve grand palaces like France's Versailles, remnants of ancient civilizations such as Peru's Machu Picchu, and natural wonders like Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Tourtellot explains.

But over the years some of the sites have struggled to maintain the unique character that landed them on the list, due to funding shortfalls, heavy tourist traffic, or political strife.

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Neandertal DNA Partially Mapped, Studies Show

Modern humans' closest relatives, the Neandertals, broke off from the family tree about 500,000 years ago, according to one of two new studies that analyzed DNA from the extinct species Homo neandertalis.

Nuclear DNA from a 38,000-year-old Neandertal (often spelled Neanderthal) fossil leg bone from Croatia was sequenced and compared to DNA from modern humans and chimpanzees.

The findings, published today in the journal Nature, also suggest that the entire Neandertal population was derived from a relatively small ancestral group of 3,000 individuals.

The second study, released simultaneously by the journal Science, analyzed DNA from the same ancient Croatian bone, revealing for the first time that modern humans and Neandertals share 99.5 percent of their genetic makeup.

But their analysis didn't find evidence that modern human and Neandertal DNA mixed, seeming to counter recent conclusions that Neandertals interbred with humans to the point of total absorption, leading to their extinction.

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Neanderthal DNA reveals human divergence

Fragments of DNA plucked from a 38,000-year-old Neanderthal fossil have pinpointed the time when modern humans split from their long-faced, barrel-chested relatives to become the world's most formidable species.
Anthropologists analysed 1 million "base pairs" of genetic material from a fossilised leg bone recovered from a cave in Vindija, Croatia, to show that modern humans and Neanderthals split evolutionary company 500,000 years ago. The feat is remarkable given the age and fragility of the DNA and marks a new push from geneticists to turn the most powerful technology of the day on some of the oldest remnants of life.

The team behind the study, which appears in the journal Nature today, hopes to unravel all 3 billion base pairs of the Neanderthal genome within two years. Comparing the biological blueprint with the human genome will reveal the subtle genetic differences that underpin what it means to be human. It will also help solve an ongoing controversy over whether Neanderthals and modern humans continued to interbreed after forming distinct species.

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Neanderthal Genome Being Mapped

A bone fragment that scientists had initially ignored has begun to yield secrets of the Neanderthal genome, launching a new way to learn about the stocky and muscular relative of modern humans, scientists say.

Genetic material from the bone has let researchers identify more than a million building blocks of Neanderthal DNA so far, and it should be enough to derive most of the creature's 3.3 billion blocks within the next two years, said researcher Svante Paabo.

"We're at the dawn of Neanderthal genomics," said gene expert Edward Rubin of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

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Neanderthals have genome chunk sequenced

What are the genetic changes that set us apart from our Neanderthal cousins? Although the ancient race is long extinct, we may soon know the answers.

More than one million base pairs of fossilised Neanderthal DNA have now been sequenced – the most of any extinct organism – thanks to a new high-throughput sequencing technique well-suited to handling old, degraded DNA.

Two research teams collaborated closely on the project – the first steps towards sequencing the Neanderthal genome – in a marked difference to the competitive race to for the human genome.

Both teams used the same 38,000-year-old Neanderthal specimen, discovered in Croatia, from which to extract DNA and report their findings on Wednesday in the journals Nature and Science, respectively.

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Neanderthal DNA secrets unlocked

A genetic breakthrough could help clear up some long-standing mysteries surrounding our closest evolutionary relatives: the Neanderthals.

Scientists have reconstructed a chunk of DNA from the genome of a Neanderthal man who lived 38,000 years ago.

The genetic information they extracted from a thigh bone has allowed them to identify more than a million building blocks of Neanderthal DNA so far.

Details of the efforts appear in the journals Nature and Science.

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Scientists unravel DNA of 38,000-year-old Neanderthal

Scientists have obtained the most extensive DNA profile of Neanderthal man from a fragment of bone of an individual who died 38,000 years ago - a few thousand years before the entire species became extinct.

An analysis of the genetic material confirms that the Neanderthal in question was male and his species probably did not interbreed with anatomically modern humans - Homo sapiens.

The researchers who isolated and deciphered the sequence of the Neanderthal DNA said their findings indicate that Neanderthals diverged genetically from the ancestors of modern humans about 400,000 years ago. It is known that H. sapiens and H. neanderthalenis lived alongside each other in Europe and the Middle East for thousands of years before the Neanderthals eventually disappeared about 30,000 years ago.

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Humans almost identical to Neanderthals

We may like to think we're far superior to the Neanderthals species that us humans beat in the evolutionary battle.

But analysis of DNA from a 38,000-year-old bone has revealed Neanderthal and human DNA is actually up to 99.9 per cent identical.

In contrast, humans and chimps only share 95 per cent of their genetic material.

The discovery came as scientists work on decoding the entire Neanderthal genome from a perfectly-preserved artefect.

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Neanderthal DNA will help to unlock the secrets of humanity

NEANDERTHAL Man has begun to give up his genetic secrets almost 30,000 years after he last walked the Earth, providing critical insights into the genes that make human beings what they are today.

DNA extracted from a Neanderthal bone has been analysed in detail for the first time and the genetic code of humanity’s closest cousin will be mapped completely within two years, scientists announced yesterday.

The development will allow scientists to compare the human genome with that of our nearest living and extinct relatives — the chimpanzee and the Neanderthal — to tease out the differences between the three. These variations will in turn reveal the genes that make us human.

A gene found only in Homo sapiens, but not in chimps or Neanderthals, must have evolved recently and is therefore solely part of Modern Man’s genetic heritage. Genes that we share with Neanderthals, but not with chimps, will also have played a part in human evolution, but at an earlier stage, before we diverged from our extinct cousins.

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Meet our very ape-like cousins

SCIENTISTS are close to discovering how humans differ from our extinct cousins the Neanderthals.

Research teams hope to crack the genetic code of Neanderthals within two years, using DNA from 38,000-year-old fossil bones found in Croatia.

Results so far, published in the journals Nature and Science, cast doubt on claims that humans ever interbred with the primitive Neanderthals — known for their heavy brows and low foreheads.

But it is still possible that some of us have Neanderthal ancestors.

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Monuments in danger

Researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute say the greenhouse effect is damaging monuments around the world, including the Parthenon.

Governments must realize that the greenhouse effect is damaging world heritage monuments such as the Parthenon, climatology experts said at the International Conference on Climate currently under way in Nairobi.

Climate change is a grave threat to some of the greatest world heritage monuments, from Darwin’s favorite coral reef in Belize to the archaeological treasures of Scotland.

Scientists have warned of the serious consequences of climate change, such as extreme weather conditions, mass population movements due to floods and droughts. But they have not managed to galvanize world governments into taking effective measures to curb activities that waste energy and cause pollution.

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Swedish woman returns Acropolis artifact to Greece

A retired Swedish gym teacher has returned an ancient piece of the Acropolis, taken by a member of her family more than a century ago.

Birgit Wiger-Angner returned the 20-by-8 centimetre section of the Erechtheion temple, built in the fifth century B.C., over the weekend. The 89-year-old said her great uncle, a naval officer, took it during a visit in 1896.

"I really hope this will be a signal to the many people in Europe, tourists and especially the British Museum, that has so many things from ancient Greece, to give them back to the Greek people," said Wiger-Angner.

Greek's culture minister Giorgos Voulgarakis hailed the gesture as "extremely significant."

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Roman tombstone to stay in city

A Roman gravestone which was unearthed by builders in Lancashire is to go on display near the site where it lay for almost 2,000 years.

The 6ft (1.8m) stone shows a mounted soldier holding a sword and the severed head of a barbarian he had killed.

Builders who were laying foundations for a block of flats in Lancaster city centre found the stone last year.

Archaeologists have worked with a number of organisations to raise enough money to keep it in Lancaster.

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Roman ship thrills archaeologists

A Roman ship, wrecked off the coast of Spain in the 1st Century AD, has been dazzling archaeologists with the array of historical treasures on board.

Thirty metres (100ft) long and holding 400 tonnes, it is the largest Roman ship found in the Mediterranean.

Chief amongst the goods the ship was carrying were hundreds of jars of garum - a fish sauce which was a favourite condiment for rich Romans.

It was accidentally discovered in 2000 by sailors whose anchor snagged a jar.

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Roman Shipwreck Bears Culinary Treasure

A shipwrecked first-century vessel carrying delicacies to the richest palates of the Roman Empire has proved a dazzling find, with nearly 2,000-year-old fish bones still nestling inside clay jars, archaeologists said Monday.

Boaters found its cargo of hundreds of amphoras in 2000 when their anchor got tangled with one of the two-handled jars.

After years of arranging financing and crews, exploration of the site a mile off the coast of Alicante in southeast Spain began in July, said Carles de Juan, a co-director of the project, who works for the Valencia regional government.

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Roman soldier comes 'home'

A ROMAN cavalryman is to get a new lease of life in Lancaster - almost 2,000 years after his death in the city.

Insus Vodullus's tombstone was discovered by archaeologists last year during works to develop a site on Aldcliffe Road into flats - and it has now been bought for the public and will go on permanent display in Lancaster City Museum next summer.

The six-foot tombstone is believed to be of international significance. It will be cleaned and reassembled by experts before returning to Lancaster.

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First mammoth since Ice Age roams London

This nine foot tall woolly mammoth roamed London for the first time in 60,000 years today.

The giant beast was unveiled in Trafalgar Square as an icon of climate change. The creatures last roamed in Britain when it was in the grip of an ice age.

The hairy tusked mammoth, an exact replica made in resin by experts at the Natural History Museum, is modelled on real skeletons and patches of frozen skin and hair recovered by archaeologists.

Mammoths began roaming the country after the gulf stream, a current of warm water from the Gulf of Mexico that travels across the North Atlantic ocean and warms Britain, shut down - which scientists fear could happen again.

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Roman coins found at Netherlands dig

Dutch archeologists have discovered an estimated 200 silver Roman coins, several jewels, an armband and a ring hidden in a clay pot, the city overseeing the dig said Monday.

The city of Cuijk, near the Maas river, 80 miles southeast of Amsterdam, said archeologists found the cache while excavating in an area where new housing is to be built.

So far, most of the treasure in the pot has only been examined with x-rays.

The first coin to be removed and cleaned bears the emblem of the eccentric Roman emperor Elagabalus, who reigned from 218-222 A.D., the city said.

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Early Roman Shipwreck Carried Fish Sauce

A shipwrecked first-century vessel carrying delicacies to the richest palates of the Roman Empire has proved a dazzling find, with nearly 2,000-year-old fish bones still nestling inside clay jars, archaeolgists said Monday.

Boaters found its cargo of hundreds of amphoras in 2000 when their anchor got tangled with one of the two-handled jars.

After years of arranging financing and crews, exploration of the site a mile off the coast of Alicante in southeast Spain began in July, said Carles de Juan, a co-director of the project, who works for the Valencia regional government.

The ship, estimated to be 100 feet long with a capacity for around 400 tons of cargo, is twice the size of most other Roman shipwrecks found in the Mediterranean, de Juan said in an interview with The Associated Press.

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Ein Krieger auf Eis

Einem internationalen Forscherteam ist Ende Juli 2006 im Permafrostboden des mongolischen Altai ein großartiger Fund gelungen. Auf 2600 Meter Höhe im Dreiländereck Mongolei, China und Russland entdeckten die Wissenschaftler einen intakten, unberaubten Kurgan eines skythischen Kriegers mit hervorragenden Erhaltungsbedingungen.

Die hervorragenden Erhaltungsbedingungen ergeben sich aus der Tatsache, dass es sich hier um einen sog. Eiskurgan handelt. Hierbei füllt sich bereits kurz nach der Bestattung die Grabkammer mit Wasser, das im Hochgebirge gefriert und nicht mehr auftaut. Diese Eislinsen erhalten den Toten und die Gegenstände, die ihm mitgegeben wurden. Vor allem Gegenstände aus organischen Materialien wie Filz, Wolle, Seide oder Holz, die üblicherweise auf archäologischen Ausgrabungen Mangelware sind, bleiben in dieser Umgebung erhalten und bieten somit einen ganz besonderen Einblick in die materielle Welt der damaligen Zeit.

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So what's with all the dinosaurs?

The world's first Creationist museum - dedicated to the idea that the creation of the world, as told in Genesis, is factually correct - will soon open. Stephen Bates is given a sneak preview and asks: was there really a tyrannosaurus in the Bible?

Just off the interstate, a couple of junctions down from Cincinnati's international airport, over the state line in rural Kentucky, the finishing touches are being put to an impressive-looking building. When it is finished and open to the public next summer, it may, quite possibly, be one of the weirdest museums in the world.

The Creation Museum - motto: "Prepare to Believe!" - will be the first institution in the world whose contents, with the exception of a few turtles swimming in an artificial pond, are entirely fake. It is dedicated to the proposition that the account of the creation of the world in the Book of Genesis is completely correct, and its mission is to convince visitors through a mixture of animatronic models, tableaux and a strangely Disneyfied version of the Bible story.

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Chlorinated Paintings

There’s nothing like a good layer of volcanic ash to preserve things. In Pompeii, which was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, even loaves of bread have been found beneath the pumice.

But once items are excavated, deterioration can begin. That’s the case with many of Pompeii’s wall paintings, particularly those made with cinnabar, a deep red pigment containing mercury sulfide. Since being exposed to the air in the past several decades, cinnabar frescoes have darkened considerably.

Art preservationists have been uncertain why the degradation occurs, but have suspected that sunlight causes the mercury sulfide to change crystalline phases, to a form called metacinnabar.

But an analysis using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, shows that there is no metacinnabar to be found. Instead, Marine Cotte of the synchrotron facility and colleagues found two other degradation processes at work, probably caused at least in part by chlorine.

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Sicilians in ancient Salcombe

AN ANCIENT bronze found on the seabed off Devon may be the first clear evidence of long-distance maritime trade between the central Mediterranean and the Channel coast.

Mike Pitts, the editor of British Archaeology, says that the curious object, of a type found otherwise only in Sicily, “is unique this far north, and raises the possibility, however remote, of a distant traveller reaching Britain from the Mediterranean”.

The bronze is one of 28 potential Bronze Age objects found recently off Salcombe, not far from the earlier Moor Sand finds which included post- medieval Moroccan gold coins and other historic material; both would seem to be from shipwrecks, although no ship remains have been found. The bronzes include 11 complete or fragmentary swords, five axes, three spearheads, and two gold ornaments, all dating to between 1300BC and 1150BC.

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Archaeological Study Tour to Provence

1 to 9 June 2007

There are still a few places available for the Archaeological Study Tour to Provence.

You can find further details here...

Keeping up a historical connection

IT is appropriate that the Glasgow Archeological Society should carry out an excavation at Pollok Park to mark its 150th year.

Sir John Stirling-Maxwell of Pollok was an early member after the society was set up in the director's room of the Merchants Hall, Hutcheson Street, on December 8, 1856.
A later member was William Burrell, who left his art collection to Glasgow. It is now housed in Pollok Park in the Burrell Collection.

The then Glasgow Herald, reporting its first meeting, said: "The object of the society shall be to encourage the study of archaeology generally and more particularly in Glasgow and the West of Scotland, to record interesting antiquarian discoveries and to disseminate information regarding antiquities, which might, without the aid of such a society, be entirely lost or merely confined to individuals."

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Sicilian island yields fresh riches

The Sicilian island of Pantelleria, midway to Africa, has yielded fresh Roman treasures that have spurred local officials to call for a full-fledged open-air archaeological park across the island .

"We've unearthed amphorae and urns in a necropolis that came to light during building work. The finds on the island have now reached a critical mass that makes an archaeological park imperative," said Sicilian culture chief Lino Leanza .

"With the prehistoric village of Mursia, the San Marco acropolis, the Punic-Roman shrine at the Lake of Venus and the late Roman settlement at Scauri, we have all the potential for putting the island on the world culture map," Leanza added .

He laid particular emphasis on a collection of marble Roman heads depicting Sicilian governors and emperors .

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Burial mounds move housing

The discovery of "nationally important" bronze age burial mounds on the edge of Bicester has prompted a housing developer to change its plans.

Archaeologists uncovered the two mounds buried beneath land between Bicester and Chesterton, which is earmarked for 1,585 houses.

The discovery has forced Countryside Properties to draw up new plans for the site, which it submitted to Cherwell District Council last week.
continued...

Experts dug 134 trenches between July and September and found archaeological remains in 41 of them.

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Varied diet of early hominid casts doubt on extinction theory, says Colorado U study

An upright hominid that lived side by side with direct ancestors of modern humans more than a million years ago had a far more diverse diet than once believed, clouding the notion that it was driven to extinction by its picky eating habits as the African continent dried, says a new University of Colorado at Boulder study.

The new study shows that Paranthropus robustus, once thought to be a "chewing machine" specializing in tough, low-quality vegetation, instead had a diverse diet ranging from fruits and nuts to sedges, grasses, seeds and perhaps even animals, said CU-Boulder anthropology Assistant Professor Matt Sponheimer. The findings cast doubt on the idea that its extinction more than 1 million years ago was linked to its diet, he said.

Paranthropus was part of a line of close human relatives known as australopithecines that includes the famous Ethiopian fossil Lucy that lived over 3 million years ago. Lucy is regarded by many anthropologists as the matriarch of modern humans.

"One line of Lucy's children ultimately led to modern humans while the other was an evolutionary dead end," he said. "Since we have now shown Paranthropus was flexible in its eating habits over both short and long intervals, we probably need to look to other biological, cultural or social differences to explain its ultimate fate."

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A Buffet for Early Human Relatives 1.8 Million Years Ago

"By analyzing tooth enamel, we found that they ate lots of different things, and what they ate changed during the year," says University of Utah geology doctoral student Ben Passey, a coauthor of the study in the Friday, Nov. 10 issue of the journal Science.

"We wanted to know if they had variability in their diets on the time scale of a few months to a few years," he says. "The new method showed that their diets were extremely variable. One possibility is that they were migrating seasonally between more forested habitats to more open, savanna habitats."

Study coauthor and geochemist Thure Cerling - a University of Utah distinguished professor of geology and biology - says the study of the now-extinct, ape-like species known as Paranthropus robustus is important because it "shows that the variability in human diet has been 'in the family' for a very long time. It is this variability that allows modern humans to utilize foods from all over the world."

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Scientists Create Neanderthal Genome

Scientists are reconstructing the genome of Neanderthals - the close relations of modern man.

The ambitious project involves isolating genetic fragments from fossils of the prehistoric beings who originally inhabited Europe to map their complete DNA.

The Neanderthal people were believed to have died out about 35,000 years ago - at a time when modern humans were advancing across the continent.

Lead researcher Dr Svante Paabo, an evolutionary geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, said: "This would be the first time we have sequenced the entire genome of an extinct organism."

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'Ten millennia-worth of history' unearthed by Thames Water

Ten millennia-worth of history have been unearthed by Thames Water at one of its sewage treatment works in Berkshire.

Stone Age flintwork dating back to 8,000 BC has been discovered at the site near Kintbury, along with pieces of a Bronze Age urn, burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the land was subsequently used for burial rituals. Shards of late Iron Age pottery were also discovered, clustered in pits and ditches.

The remains of three bread ovens, complete with hearth, flue and furnace, prove that the Romans also settled the area and evidence of two large gateposts indicates that visitors to the Roman community would have had to pass through an imposing entrance.

Dr. Roy Entwhistle, an archaeologist working for Thames Water, said: “Given how quiet this corner of the Kennet Valley is today, it’s remarkable to think that so many different people have called it home over the last ten thousand years.

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Ancestor of Modern Trees Preserves Record of Ancient Climate Change

About 350 million years ago, at the boundary of the Devonian and Carboniferous ages, the climate changed. There was no one around to record it, but there are records nonetheless in the rocks deposited by glaciers and in tissues preserved in fossils of ancient life.

“Events at the transition had terrific biological impact, marked by extinctions and the beginnings of new life forms,” said Stephen Scheckler of Blacksburg, professor of biological sciences and geosciences at Virginia Tech. He reported on evidence of climate change that he found in the fossils of the ancestors of modern trees at the at the Geological Society of America national meeting in Philadelphia Oct. 22-25.

“This glaciation was not widely understood until recently,” Scheckler said. “It was a worldwide event. The Europeans recognize the extinctions as the Hangenburg event, documented in a black shale deposit that contains a series of fauna changes. But the eastern United States was at a tropical latitude at that time, so the flora and fauna show less impact – but it is there. It is believed to be a time of coldness, because there was less diversity, but it is a subtle signal.”

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Could our big brains come from Neanderthals?

Neanderthals may have given the modern humans who replaced them a priceless gift -- a gene that helped them develop superior brains, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

And the only way they could have provided that gift would have been by interbreeding, the team at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Chicago said.

Their study, published in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, provides indirect evidence that modern Homo sapiens and so-called Neanderthals interbred at some point when they lived side by side in Europe.

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Google Earth, Satellite Maps Boost Armchair Archaeology

Satellite images are giving archaeologists a bird's-eye view of our past—by helping them quickly identify ancient sites from space.

Scott Madry, an archaeologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been pinpointing possible archaeological sites in France with the popular desktop program Google Earth.

The freely available software is a virtual globe created with a collection of mixed-resolution images from both government and private satellite sources.

"Frankly I was floored," Madry said. "I was just shocked at the results that I was able to get."

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November 2006: Roman Amphorae: digital resource now online.

The Amphora Project, developed by the Archaeology group at the University of Southampton and funded by the Arts and Humanities Reasearch Council (AHRC), provides an online resource for the study of Roman amphorae. Building on works published in the 1980s this interactive resource presents typological information, including photos and drawings, for c.250 amphorae forms. The resource also contains detailed information, text and images, on fabric types. All sections of the archive are fully searchable online as is an extensive bibliography.

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Pupils digging up the past

PUPILS at a primary school have started digging up the past as part of a pilot project.

The Medieval Glasgow Schools Project aims to help youngsters understand the city's history and encourage them to help preserve Glasgow's archaeological heritage.
The initiative, the first of its kind in Scotland, is inspired by discoveries during recent excavations around High Street, which revealed Glasgow as it was in the 12th century.

Pupils from Cadder Primary yesterday took part in simulated digs and discovered materials and artifacts on loan from Scottish Archaeological Services.
The youngsters will now divide into groups to research selected key sites marked on the medieval map and then write up a commentary to be used by pupils of other schools.

If the pilot is successful, the project will be adopted into the curriculum of all Glasgow primaries in June 2007.

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The Percy lion is set to roar again

Work has started on the latest stage of preserving a tower which symbolises the power of a family dynasty.

The 14th Century Lion Tower is part of English Heritage's Warkworth Castle in Northumberland.

The castle, which dates from the 12th Century, was given by Edward III to Henry, the second Lord Percy of Alnwick, and has been in the family ever since.

The Lion Tower, so called because it has the Percy emblem - the lion - on its frontage, served as a public entrance to the Great Hall, which would have been filled with rich tapestries and gold plate as a visible display of the family's wealth and power.

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Roman grave stele discovered in the village of Zabeni, Bitola region

The grave stele of the Roman period has been discovered by the citizens of the village of Zabeni, Bitola region while they conducted construction works.

- It is fragmented marble segment of monument, which with additional analysis will give an answer to the question whether there is new archaeological locality in the village of Zabeni or it belongs to already discovered one from the Neolithic period, Anica Gjorgjievska, the archaeologist of Bitola museum, said.

Gjorgjievska said that it was possible underground waters to throw out the grave stele.

This discovery starting Tuesday is under the authority of the Bureau for Protection of the Cultural Heritage.

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'Time team' uncovers Civil War clues

Archaeologists armed with hi-tech gear may have uncovered remains from a legendary English Civil War encampment.

Experts say it could be the first hard evidence of the Fairfax Entrenchment, a military base high above Bingley headed by a top-ranking Roundhead general.

Using technology seen by millions on television's Time Team programme, geophysicists led by Dr John Gater turned up a tantalising subterranean view of a field at the St Ives estate near Harden which may have held part of the encampment Dr Gater, a regular on the Channel 4 show, carried out the painstaking electronic survey on behalf of a group which is aiming to plant a new wood on the site.

The Friends of St Ives want to create a woodland containing British native trees, but they were keen to find out if there was anything of archaeological important around the site before setting out.

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Archaeologists sweep British site for relics

Archaeologists have moved onto fields which could, in years to come, house the hundreds of homes proposed for the controversial Felpham and North Bersted Site Six site near Bognor in West Sussex (England). The first of more than 300 sample trenches across the whole site and link road, in excess of 60 hectares or almost 150 acres, is part of investigations into the ancient significance of the land.

Undertaken by developers Hallam Land Management the extensive results will be evaluated by archaeologists from CGMS which is managing the dig. Speaking for the company Rob Bourn told the Bognor Regis Observer that it was 'early days' to come to any conclusions about the land which could show some use during a generalised period of around 3,500 years between 2000 BCE and 7000 BCE.

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Spotlight on ancient boat

THE RECOVERY of a 3000-year-old log boat from the River Tay was among topics highlighted at a weekend conference in Perth.

David Strachan of Perth and Kinross Heritage Trust told those who attended the event in the Dewar’s Centre of the operation in August to remove the boat from mudflats near Abernethy.

The vessel, which was carved from a single oak, is now undergoing preservation at the National Museum in Edinburgh.

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Possible third Jellinge stone found

Archaeologists believe they have found a new Viking-era stone engraved with ancient Danish Rune writing

Archaeologists from Vejle Museum think they may have found a third 'Jellinge stone' - a large rock with carved runes and considered the first examples of written language in Denmark.

The researchers have found seven stones in all, which they believe date from the 10th century. Jellinge stones tell of the founding of Denmark and of Christianity's arrival in the country.

Even if the stones do not yield a true Jellinge stone, the find is still significant.

'I have no doubts that this is a prehistoric structure,' said Peter Mohr Christensen, one of Vejle Museum's archaeologists, to Ritzau.

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Archaeological Team in Britain to Hone Skills

A team of Saudi academics specializing in archaeology and museums paid a visit to the United Kingdom recently as part of a cultural week organized by the Saudi Embassy in London in collaboration with the Royal Scottish Museum and the Royal British Museum.

The team, headed by Dr. Saad Al-Rashid, former deputy minister of education for archaeology and museums’ affairs, conducted a number of meetings with archaeology experts in London and Edinburgh. The team also participated in lectures on archaeology and its development in Saudi Arabia.

Al-Rashid said that the visit aims to tighten cultural relations between the two countries in addition to the exchange of experience with British experts in fields relating to museums and archaeology.

He said that the Kingdom has gone a long way in developing these areas and formed a huge databank about historical sites in the country.

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Spain digs for its once-hidden Jewish heritage

Spain has sometimes been slow to recognize its own treasures. Miguel de Cervantes was slipping into obscurity after his death until he was rescued by foreign literary experts. El Greco's paintings were pulled from oblivion by the French. The Muslim palace of Alhambra had fallen into neglect before the American author Washington Irving and others wrote about it in the 1800s.

Now, more than 500 years after expelling its Jews and moving to hide if not eradicate all traces of their existence, Spain has begun rediscovering the Jewish culture that thrived here for centuries and that scholars say functioned as a second Jerusalem during the Middle Ages.

"We've gone from a period of pillaging the Jews and then suppressing and ignoring their patrimony to a period of rising curiosity and fascination," said Ana María López, the director of the Sephardic Museum in Toledo, a hub of Jewish life before the Jews were expelled or forced to convert to Christianity in 1492 during the Inquisition.

Cities and towns across Spain are searching for the remains of their medieval synagogues, excavating old Jewish neighborhoods and trying to identify Jewish cemeteries. Scholars say they are overwhelmed with requests from local governments to study archaeological findings and ancient documents that may validate a region's Jewish heritage.

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Stonehenge savaged in American attack

Stonehenge, Britain’s most iconic heritage site, has been savaged by a leading publication in the American tourist industry.

National Geographic Traveler says that the Neolithic and Bronze Age stone circle is “a mess”, “over-loved” and lacking in magic.

The criticisms are made in a survey by the magazine of conditions at 94 UNESCO World Heritage Sites based on a point-scoring system.

Two other UK sites - the city of Bath and the West Country’s Jurassic Coast - won higher marks and praise.

Stonehenge, which only scored 56 points out of 100 in the survey, dates back to 3000 BC. It has been plagued in recent years by local and central government indecision over the upgrading of the A303 road which runs close to the site.

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Dig uncovers Britain's hunter-gatherer past

One of the country's richest archaeology sites has been uncovered at a Berkshire sewage works. Finds at the dig at Kintbury include 10,000-year-old flints left behind by ancient hunter-gatherers who lived at a time when Britain was still connected by land to Europe.

The archaeologists, led by Dr Roy Entwistle of Berkshire Archaeology Services, have also found Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman artefacts at the site, suggesting it had been in frequent use by humans for thousands of years.

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GEORGIA, AZERBAIJAN DEBATE CONTROL OF ANCIENT MONASTERY’S TERRITORY

An unresolved border between Georgia and Azerbaijan has put under question one of the South Caucasus’s most significant cultural and religious landmarks, the medieval David-Gareja monastery complex, located in Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Set in semi-desert some 70 kilometers southeast from Tbilisi along the Georgian border with Azerbaijan and within Azerbaijan proper, the complex, which contains a rich collection of cave frescoes, has been a site for conflict as well as for contemplation, ever since construction began in the 6th century.

The best-known part of the complex, the Udabno cave monastery, which contain frescoes dating approximately from the 8th to the 13th centuries, as well as the monastery headquarters at Lavra, are located within Georgia. Additional monasteries, some nearly inaccessible and largely ruined, are also on Georgian territory. Azerbaijan contains the monastery of Bertubani, which features frescoes of the legendary 12th-13th century Georgian Queen Tamara and her son, Giorgi IV.

But who should control the David-Gareja monastery? When the Soviet Union defined the borders between the then Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia, the monastery complex was split in two. The border between the two now independent countries has remained unchanged since 1991. Part of the border passes through the top of the 813-meter-high Udabno ridge (known in Azerbaijan as Keshishdag), which harbors cave monasteries on its top and also on the northern (Georgian-controlled) and southern (Azerbaijani-controlled) slopes.

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NATIONAL TRUST HIGHLIGHTS LINK BETWEEN HERITAGE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

The National Trust will be urging the Government to recognise the links between climate change and protecting heritage, at the organisation’s AGM in Cheltenham this weekend (November 4 2006).

Sir William Proby, the Trust’s Chairman, points out the central role that both Britain’s natural and historic environments play in quality of life, and how acting on climate change is crucial to the protection of both - sentiments echoed by Fiona Reynolds, the Trust’s Director General.

“Care for our history and historic environment – our physical record of where we come from – actually goes hand in hand with care for our planet as a whole,” she said in a statement ahead of the AGM.

“Concern for one is critical for concern for the other. As we made clear in our History Matters Declaration: ‘A society out of touch with its past can have little confidence in its future’.”

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What’s the story with... amateur archaeology?

Much of Scotland's past remains a mystery. While historians offer glimpses of insight gleaned from written documents, more than 80% of archaeological sites in Scotland are not even on record. Robin Turner, head of archaeology for the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) says: "There are literally thousands of acres of hidden archaeology throughout Scotland in addition to the more recent sites you can stumble over." When the NTS surveyed the West Affric Estate - 9000 acres of mountainous moorland which appeared hostile to human habitation - 30 new sites were identified.

A new scheme called Scotland's Rural Past Project has just been launched by Scottish Culture Minister Patricia Ferguson. It's an attempt by Scottish cultural heritage agencies to give expert help to amateurs willing to augment the efforts of professionals. There is now funding to pay for training sessions and other costs. Around 40 groups in Scotland will have access to support. Turner says: "There is an enormous amount we don't know. For instance, we've done a lot of excavation work on St Kilda in the past few years and some of the evidence we are finding fundamentally challenges the written accounts of how people lived."

Meryl Marshall, a recently retired physiotherapist who lives in Dingwall, is an enthusiastic founding member of the North of Scotland Archaeological Society (Nosas). She has spent years surveying Glenfeshie in Strathspey and has written a book about her work. She says: "What we found was a township that dates back 400 years." It is now registered with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. "This means it is afforded a degree of protection with regards to any future development."

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Archaeologists dig up major find

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Colchester have uncovered a major Roman find in the heart of the historic town.

The Head gate was one of the main Roman entrances to the ancient walled settlement and was situated where St John's Road, Crouch Street and Head Street now meet.

And on Saturday members of the Colchester Archaeological Trust (CAT) found the structure's central pier, proving that the gate had two arches and not one, as some people had speculated.

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Das Kardinalkollegium im Mittelalter

"Glieder des Papstleibes oder Nachfolger der Apostel?" So lautet das wissenschaftliche Netzwerk, das die Forschung über die Kardinäle - die höchsten katholischen Würdenträger nach dem Papst - des Mittelalters voranbringen soll. Das Projekt wird über drei Jahre von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) gefördert. Da zeitübergreifende und vergleichende Studien fehlen, lässt der derzeitige Forschungsstand tragfähige Aussagen über die Bedeutung des Kardinalkollegiums nicht zu. Das wissenschaftliche Netzwerk soll deshalb international den Austausch von jungen und etablierten Forschern zum mittelalterlichen Kardinalat stärken.

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Stonehenge 'in serious trouble'

The Unesco World Heritage site Stonehenge is "a destination in trouble", a new survey has found.

The National Geographic Traveler magazine marked the site 56 out of 100 against criteria including historic preservation and tourism management.

Survey panellists said Stonehenge was a "mess", "over-loved" and "crowded".

English Heritage, which looks after the site, said it was "actively seeking to revamp its visitor facilities" and improve the nearby A303 road.

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Cave fossils are early Europeans

Archaeologists have identified fossils belonging to some of the earliest modern humans to settle in Europe.

The research team has dated six bones found in the Pestera Muierii cave, Romania, to 30,000 years ago.

The finds also raise questions about the possible place of Neanderthals in modern human ancestry.

Details of the discoveries appear in the US journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

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Were We All Good Mates?

New evidence has emerged that early modern humans and Neanderthals may have mated.

It comes after scientists re-examined 30,000-year-old fossil bones from a cave in Romania.

They found they had both early modern human and Neanderthal characteristics.

The find suggests the two types of human interbred to produce hybrids with mixed features, the researchers claim.

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A royal tomb has been found in occupied Famagusta

Turkish Cypriot daily KIBRIS newspaper (28.10.06) reports that a royal tomb, the 11th in number, has been uncovered in the occupied Salamis area, close to the Park Hotel after excavations performed by the so-called Antiquities and Museums Department.

According to Hasan Tekel, in charge of the occupied Famagusta District Office of the Antiquities and Museums Department, the tomb which was found belongs to the first Archaic period, that is 800 B.C.

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Viking treasure found on Gotland

Two young men on Gotland have found Viking treasure dating to the 10th century.

The treasure cache consists of silver coins, weighing a total of around 3 kilos. They were discovered by 20-year-old Edvin Svanborg and his 17-year-old brother Arvid, who were working in the grounds of their neighbour, artist Lars Jonsson.

"I just stumbled by chance across an Arab silver coin that was around 1,100 years old," Edvin Svanborg told news agency TT.

Svanborg says he is studying history, and recognized the coin as one that is commonly found on Gotland. He said he had seen pictures of similar coins in the past.

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Viking treasure unearthed in Sweden

In what seems to have been a euphoric week for archaeologists, scientists unearthed both a Viking burial mound in Orkdal, Norway and a Viking treasure on the island of Gotland off the south-east coast of Sweden, last week. The burial mound in Norway, discovered on Tuesday last week, belonged to a wealthy farmer and contained amongst other things a Viking sword, body armour and the tip of a spear according to the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten, (only in Norwegian).

Preben Rønne, an archaeologist from the Museum of Science in Trondheim, Norway, believe the man buried in the mound was of a higher standing, possibly a local chieftain, adding that if a man could afford to slaughter his horse when he is buried he had to have sufficient means. The scientists claim that since the sea level was 5-7 meters above current day sea level, it is highly likely that this burial mound belonged to a settlement close to the sea.

Meanwhile on the island of Gotland off the Swedish east coast, scientists have uncovered a Viking treasure (article only in Norwegian) ranked as the 25th largest treasure ever to be uncovered on the island. The treasure, originally discovered by two amateur archaeologist brothers, soon revealed as many as 1.100 silver coins of foreign origin in addition to a substantial amount of bracelets.

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Swedish Teens Find Viking-Age Silver Treasure

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Archeologists said Monday they found more than 1,000 silver coins in a Viking-age hoard discovered by chance on the Swedish island of Gotland.

The treasure, believed to have been buried in the 10th century, also included several silver bracelets and weighed about 7 pounds, local curator Majvor Ostergren told Swedish news agency TT.

Edvin Sandborg, 20, and his 17-year-old brother Arvid said they found the hoard last week when they were helping a neighbor with some yard work.

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PROVING UP AND SETTLING DOWN: STORIES OF LIFE IN HELLS CANYON

Location: Idaho/Oregon Length: 25 min.

The basalt cliffs of Hells Canyon have witnessed the ebb and flow of Native American tibes, trappers, miners, and homesteaders as each has left a mark on America's deepest river gorge. This film brings Hells Canyon to life through the accounts of historians; Horace Axtell, a descendent of Chief Joseph's band of the Nez Perce; and early Hells Canyon residents, Violet Wilson, Ace Barton and Joe Jordan. These old-timers share stories of work and family, isolation and ingenuity, and a deep respect for the canyon they called home in the first half of the 20th Century

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Stone Age man was at sewage site

Evidence of a Stone Age settlement has been uncovered by a water company planning to extend a sewage works.

Stone Age flint and Roman items were found at the site in Kintbury, near Hungerford, Berkshire.

The find dates back to 8,000 BC and confirms that a nearby Roman bath site probably had a British owner, a local archaeologist said.

Thames Water is now reviewing its plans to improve the sewage treatment works after realising the site's importance.

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Ancient Pyramids Of Bosnia? Many Are Believers

A part-time archaeologist noticed odd mountains in Bosnia, so he started digging. He found cement-like blocks stacked in the shape of massive pyramids. Could ancient Bosnians have built them at a time Europeans were believed to be still living in caves?
Egypt has pyramids, China has a wall and Greece has the Parthenon -- all evidence of ancient and great civilizations.

Ever heard of ancient Bosnians?

Probably not. But some are seeing pyramids towering above a drab Bosnian town -- perhaps pyramids bigger than the Egyptians built.

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Ein zerstörtes Kloster wird wieder erlebbar

Im 16. Jahrhundert wurde das Kloster im thüringischen Georgenthal geplündert und zerstört, seitdem liegen das Gelände und die Gebäude brach. Um das Zisterzienserkloster touristisch für Menschen mit und ohne Behinderung nutzbar zu machen, entwarf das Verbundprojekt "Barrierefreier Tastparcours in Georgenthal", das von Prof. Dr. Ralf Böse vom Fachbereich Informatik der Fachhochschule Schmalkalden geleitet und vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung gefördert wird, einen behindertengerechten Tastparcours. Forscher des Fachbereichs haben auf der Grundlage des vorhandenen Quellenmaterials eine weltweit einmalige 3-D-Präsentation entwickelt, die die Basilikaruine des Klosters durch visuelle und akustische Technik sinnlich erfahrbar macht.

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The Oxford Experience Summer School 2007

Details of the Oxford Experience Summer School 2007 – which includes a number of courses in archaeology and history – are now available on the Internet.

The site includes a link to a PDF version of the complete brochure for the summer school.

This programme is run by University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education and is held in Christ Church, Oxford.

Find further details here…

War of words erupts over sale of ancient texts

Plans by a Geneva museum to sell two ancient manuscripts for millions of dollars have drawn consternation from scholars around the world.

They fear the sale of the papyri, which date back to the 2nd century, could precipitate the break-up of a unique collection of around 50 texts held by the Bodmer Foundation.

The Bodmer, based in Cologny just outside the city, says it needs to raise money to guarantee the long-term future of its museum, which opened only three years ago.

But around 20 academics from Switzerland and abroad are calling for the sale of two manuscripts – gospels of St John and St Luke – to be halted.

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Mastodon tusks tell of brutal battles

Battle scars on male mastodon tusks show these Ice Age giants were not the peaceful creatures once thought, according to new findings.

The scars reveal they fought in brutal combat each year during seasonal phases of heightened sexual activity and aggression.

The discovery, announced at a recent Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Ontario, counters the view that now-extinct mastodons were peaceful, passive creatures that rarely engaged in battles.

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Two Hellenistic-era mausoleums unearthed in western Turkey

Archeologists have unearthed two mausoleums dating as far back as the Hellenistic-era at the ancient city of Antandros in Turkey's Aegean province of Balikesir, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday.

During the excavations carried out in the necropolis near Altinoluk village of Balikesir, traces signing that the area was used as a residential place in the late Roman period were found, assistant professor Gurcan Polat, head of the excavation team, was quoted as saying.

"The mausoleums were built with rubble and plastered by lime having a facet of marble in the ancient period," said Polat.

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Antike Schätze aus dem Verborgenen befreit

Universitäten sind auch Stätten der Kultur. Ihr begegnet man an der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena unter anderem bei den Abgüssen antiker Skulpturen, die Campus, Hauptgebäude und Rosensäle schmücken. Sie gehören zu einem Kunstschatz, dessen Großteil heute nur noch selten für die Öffentlichkeit zugänglich ist. Doch einige der Schätze aus dem Archäologischen Museum - Abgüsse wie Original-Objekte - können ab 27.10.2006 betrachtet werden. Im Rahmen der Ausstellung "160 Jahre Archäologisches Museum der Universität Jena" werden bis zum 16.12.2006 ausgewählte Exponate in der Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Jena (Bibliotheksplatz 2) präsentiert. Der Eintritt ist während der gesamten Ausstellungsdauer frei.

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Neandertal Gene Study Reveals Early Split With Humans

A new genetic study bolsters theories of an early human-Neandertal split and is helping scientists pinpoint what makes humans unique.

Controversy has long swirled in the scientific community over how closely the hairy Eurasian hunters resembled modern humans, with some researchers even claiming Neandertals (often spelled Neanderthals) were actually members of our own species, Homo sapiens.

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Seeing the light

WHEN he caught sight of the bright red pentagon glowing above the great rose window of Rosslyn Chapel, Alan Butler almost let out a scream. At that point, he knew beyond doubt that Rosslyn was far more than just another medieval church.

By rediscovering the lightbox, forgotten for hundreds of years, Butler and John Ritchie, co-author of Rosslyn Revealed, moved closer to illuminating their theory that the truth about the chapel is even stranger than the fiction made world-famous by Dan Brown.

"It was a real Indiana Jones moment," recalls Ritchie. "Older inhabitants of Roslin village had told the story of a mysterious light which appeared in the chapel on St Matthew's Day [21 September]. But the story had been ignored by successive histories of the chapel."

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Erotic frescoes put Pompeii brothel on the tourist map

A LUXURIOUS brothel that once entertained wealthy clients in Pompeii has been opened as a visitor attraction after painstaking restoration.

The two-storey structure, which features erotic frescoes that leave little to the imagination, is expected to become one of the ancient city’s top draws. Officials who unveiled it yesterday emphasised that the year-long restoration had been carried out in the interests of archaeology — and to save the frescoes — rather than prurience. The brothel was named the Lupanare — from lupa (she-wolf), the colloquial Latin term for a prostitute. Prices were posted outside the building, which had three entrances, and the frescoes depict the sexual services on offer.

The Lupanare boasted ten rooms, five on each floor, with the upper floor (which had a balcony) reserved for more important and wealthier clients. Sexual activity took place on stone beds, which would have been covered by mattresses.

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900-YEAR OLD JUG FOUND UNDER NEW PRIMARK STORE

THE discovery of a near-complete medieval jug during building work for Doncaster's hottest new store has been described as one of the most important finds in the history of the town.

The 12th century pottery jug was unearthed by chance during the development of Primark in the market place - and went on display in Doncaster museum the same day the store opened.

The jug is of special interest to archaeologists because it is so well-preserved and because it is a rare example of the earliest types of pottery manufactured in Doncaster.

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Europe's oldest child skeleton unearthed in Bulgaria

Archaeologists have unearthed an 8,000 year old skeleton of a child in the village of Ohoden, northwestern Bulgaria, the Sofia News Agency reported on Thursday, citing Darik News.

Archaeologist Georgi Ganetsovski, the leader of the excavation, said the finding had been made at the southern end of a pre-historical funeral facility in a pre-historical village, which was found just two metres below the current ground level and was completely preserved in its original form.

Archaeologists at the site had also discovered a whole skeletonof a woman a year ago, which dated from 8100 year BC and was one of the most ancient in Europe, Ganetsovski added.

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Restored ancient brothel opens in Pompeii

POMPEII, Italy (AP) - Art officials on Thursday presented a newly-restored ancient brothel in the archaeological complex of Pompeii.

The "Lupanare" - which derives its name from the Latin word "Lupa" for "prostitute" - underwent a one-year restoration of its structure and decorations, the local office overseeing the famed tourist spot said. The brothel is believed to be the most popular one in the ancient Roman city.

The two-floor structure, decorated with explicit erotic frescoes, has 10 rooms, five for each floor, and a latrine. The better-decorated upper floor was destined for higher-ranking clients. The stone beds were covered with mattresses.

Pompeii had many brothels, most of which consisted of only a room, often on the top floor of a shop.

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Castle shock

A SURPRISE discovery of a 900-year-old medieval castle in Whitwood has astounded local heritage leaders.

Archaeologists and members of the community uncovered what could be Castleford's castle in a Wakefield Council-run excavation at Fairies Hill.

The hill – a large grassed mound near Whitwood Golf Course – had been dismissed as a slag heap from nearby coal mines.

But after council planning chiefs asked staff from West Yorkshire Archaeology Advisory Service (WYAAS) to investigate the hill before approving an application for drainage works at the Willowbridge Beck, it turned out to be the motte of a motte and bailey castle.

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Rare coins to form part of medieval exhibition

Five 600-year-old rare Spanish coins discovered in Myddle are set to be showcased at the British Museum after experts finally brokered a deal with treasure hunters.

The solid gold ‘doblas’ were found in a village field on September 4 last year and may now become part of a medieval exhibition in the National Collection.

Dr Barry Cook, museum curator of medieval and early modern coinage, revealed this week that the coins had been valued at £5,500.

He said: “We’re now definitely acquiring them. The deal is struck.

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Greek archaeologists discover Aristotle bust near Acropolis

Athens - A recently-discovered bust of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle has been described by archaeologists as the best-preserved likeness ever found, reports said Wednesday.

Discovered under the Acropolis, the Roman-era marble bust of the famous philosopher had probably occupied the nearby villa of a wealthy Roman citizen, senior archaeologist Alcestis Horemi was quoted by the Greek newspaper Kathimerini as saying.

The 46-centimetre bust, which dates to the 1st century AD, is the first to depict Aristotle's hooked nose.

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Tree-ring dating used on chests

A number of ancient wooden church chests are to be analysed for the first time by a tree-ring dating team.

The Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory team aim to date the medieval chests at Mendlesham, Chevington and Earl Stonham churches in Suffolk.

They will take a small sample from the chest and measure the rings against samples which have already been dated.

The team previously discovered that a Saxon door at Westminster Abbey is the oldest door in Britain.

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Prehistoric tooth found in wall

A tooth belonging to a prehistoric shark has been donated to a Kent museum after it was found in a wall.

The palm-sized incisor belonging to a creature called a Megladon was discovered by Angela Foster after her garden wall in Maidstone collapsed.

Experts at Maidstone Museum believe the tooth could be 10 million years old, but they do not know how it could have ended up where it was found.

Prof Ed Jarzembowski said the shark could easily have swallowed a human.

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'Stop the looters destroying history'

THE cultural treasures of Iraq — the birthplace of writing, codified law, mathematics, medicine and astronomy — are being obliterated as looters take advantage of the country’s bloody chaos.

Fourteen of the world’s leading archaeologists have written to the President and Prime Minister of the country, demanding immediate action to stem the vandalism after seeing photographs of sites left pockmarked by enormous craters.

Among examples in the letter, seen yesterday by The Times, was a Babylonian sculpture of a lion dating from about 1700BC that lost its head because the terracotta shattered as looters tried to remove it.

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Early maps to move to Perth

AN IMPORTANT slice of Scotland’s heritage has been secured for future generations through the vital conservation of a collection of early maps which will eventually be housed in in Perth.

The world-famous collection held by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society is to be preserved and made more accessible to the public after a £160,000 Heritage Lottery Fund award, it was announced by Professor Bruce Proudfoot, of St Andrews University.

Significant within the RSGS early map holdings is the Cuthbert Collection, gifted to the society in 2000 by the widow of the late William Cuthbert, a well-known Perth solicitor. This stunning collection consists of 300 maps spanning 400 years, depicting both Scotland and overseas.

William Cuthbert collected maps portraying both the whole of Scotland and a number of the old Scottish counties and regions.

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Archaeologist vows to finish £10,000 project in church

AN archaeologist has vowed to complete £10,000-worth of unfinished work at a Furness church.

The move comes after members of the Hidden Light Low Furness community group claimed Steve Dickinson had failed to complete work paid for using part of a £25,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

They say it should have been finished by Easter 2005. The bulk of it includes a display in the tower of St Mary and St Michael’s Church, Great Urswick, which aims to show off the culture and history of Low Furness.

Jim Webster, chairman of the Hidden Light Low Furness, says he has unsuccessfully tried to contact Mr Dickinson several times since the two attended a meeting in April.

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The Oxford Experience Summer School 2007

Details of the Oxford Experience Summer School 2007 – which includes a number of courses in archaeology and history – are now available on the Internet.

The site includes a link to a PDF version of the complete brochure for the summer school.

This programme is run by University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education and is held in Christ Church, Oxford.

Find further details here…

Online tutorial for Archaeologists on the Internet

Intute (the Higher Education web resource service) and the ADS are pleased to announce the availability online of a new element in their Virtual Training Suite (VTS) Internet Archaeologist. The Intute:VTS provides free Internet tutorials to help you learn how to get the best from the Web for your education and research. Internet Archaeologist comprises a guided tour of some of the webs most significant archaeological resources and provides guidance using them as well as helpful case studies highlighting successful use of the web in archaeological teaching and research.

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Archaeological dig before work starts on new homes

A TOP archaeologist has said trenches should be dug in the grounds of an historic home to check for Saxon remains before a contentious redevelopment project goes ahead.

County archaeologist Steve Membery suspects there could be parts of a Saxon settlement beneath the Grade II listed Manor House in Axbridge, where plans to build 10 houses were revealed recently.

The proposals have attracted deep concerns in the town, with several prominent groups objecting strongly to the plans.

But Sedgemoor District Council planning officers asked district councillors to approve the application at a meeting on Tuesday.

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The Sevso hoard undermines Britain's stand on illegal antiquities

Uncovering the origins of this magnificent Roman silverware is crucial, says Rupert Redesdale

The discovery and subsequent history of the Sevso treasure deserves to be the subject of a book (Not for sale yet - the 'cursed' 14 pieces of silver worth £100m, October 17). However, it also provides a sorry commentary on the difficulties governments have in attempting to stem the illicit trade in cultural objects.

I have long tried to prod the government into taking a more proactive stance on this issue, and there has been progress in recent years - most notably in 2003 when I had the privilege of steering a private member's bill through the Lords, which resulted in the Dealing in Cultural Objects (Offences) Act being passed. As Lord Renfrew said, the Sevso treasure was probably looted and therefore "ranks as tainted goods". It could well have come within the scope of the law, but unfortunately the act only applies to objects discovered after 2003.

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