Discovery of Roman Battlefield Poses Historical Riddle

Archaeologists in Germany say they have found an ancient battlefield strewn with Roman weapons. The find is significant because it indicates that Romans were fighting battles in north Germany at a far later stage than previously assumed.

The wilds of Germany may not have been off-limits to Roman legions, archaeologists announced on Monday. At a press conference in the woods near the town of Kalefeld, about 100 kilometers south of Hanover, researchers announced the discovery of a battlefield strewn with hundreds of Roman artifacts dating from the 3rd century AD.

Read the rest of this article...

Fifth Century settlement located

A Fifth Century Germanic settlement has been discovered on land set out for regeneration in Kent.

A team of 30 archaeologists has been studying debris at the site in Rushenden, on the Isle of Sheppey, to learn how the original settlers lived.

The remains of a large boat-shaped hall have been found as well as evidence of boat-building activity.

Read the rest of this article...

Rare artifacts uncovered in Roman baths dig

ROME (Reuters Life!) - Excavations at an ancient Roman villa and bath complex in the outskirts of Rome have unearthed a wealth of surprisingly well-preserved artifacts, including the marble head of a Greek god, archaeologists said on Wednesday.

The site of the Villa delle Vignacce, toward Ciampino airport south of Rome, was first explored by archaeologists in 1780 who found statues that are now in the Vatican museum.

But excavations began in earnest only about two years ago, revealing a residence attached to an elaborate thermal bath complex dating to the 1st century A.D. complete with hot baths, large tubs and a communal latrine.

Read the rest of this article...

Graves 'may mark ancient church'

A team of Oxfordshire researchers and archaeologists have discovered three graves which they believe could mark the site of a medieval church.

The remains, which are about 800-years-old, were found in gardens of two cottages in Bix Bottom, near Henley.

They believe they may mark the location of the lost church of Bix Gibwyn.

Read the rest of this article...

Prehistoric bronze hoard found off Greek beach

ATHENS, Greece – Authorities say a hoard of 4,500-year-old copper weapons recovered off a northern beach is the largest of its kind ever found in Greece.

A Culture Ministry statement says the discovery includes at least 110 ax and hammer heads, but several more should be extracted from compacted masses of corroded metal.

The ministry says they were probably buried at a time of unrest or war. The hoard would have represented a fortune at the time.

Read the rest of this article...

Antikythera: A 2,000-year-old Greek computer comes back to life

Regulars of the Science Weekly podcast will remember our interview with Jo Marchant, the author of Decoding the Heavens. The book tells the story of the Antikythera mechanism, a mysterious clockwork object made up of numerous meshed cogs that was discovered more than a century ago among the cargo of a Greek shipwreck.

The mystery of how the Greeks had made a machine that appeared to be 1800 years ahead of its time and why that knowledge was seemingly lost is fascinating, but Marchant's story is really about the scientists and engineers who have fallen under the spell of the Antikythera mechanism over the last century. It is a gripping tale of scientific obsession, rivalry and skulduggery.

Read the rest of this article...

Archimedes and the 2000-year-old computer

MARCELLUS and his men blockaded Syracuse, in Sicily, for two years. The Roman general expected to conquer the Greek city state easily, but the ingenious siege towers and catapults designed by Archimedes helped to keep his troops at bay.

Then, in 212 BC, the Syracusans neglected their defences during a festival to the goddess Artemis, and the Romans finally breached the city walls. Marcellus wanted Archimedes alive, but it wasn't to be. According to ancient historians, Archimedes was killed in the chaos; by one account a soldier ran him through with a sword as he was in the middle of a mathematical proof.

One of Archimedes's creations was saved, though. The general took back to Rome a mechanical bronze sphere that showed the motions of the sun, moon and planets as seen from Earth.

Read the rest of this article...

Oldest brain of Britain unearthed in muddy pit

Archaeologists have unearthed Britain’s oldest human brain. The Iron Age brain, at least 2,000 years old, was spotted inside a skull in a muddy pit in the Heslington area of York. It is believed to be one of the oldest found anywhere in the world. Sonia O’Connor, research fellow in archaeological sciences at the University of Bradford, said: “The survival of brain remains where no other soft tissues are preserved is extremely rare.” It is believed that the skull was a ritual offering.

Read the rest of this article...

Ancient Roman battlefield excavated in Lower Saxony

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient roman battlefield from the third century near Göttingen that will rewrite history, Lower Saxony's department for preservation of historical monuments said on Thursday.

“The find can be dated to the third century and will definitely change the historical perception of that time,” Dr. Henning Haßmann told The Local.

The amazing discovery allows an insight in what must have been a dramatic battle between Romans and Germanic tribes. “The find indicates a massive Roman military presence,” Haßmann said.

Read the rest of this article...

Medieval Teutonic knights' remains found in Poland

Polish archaeologists said this week that they had identified the remains of three leaders of the Teutonic Knights, an armed religious order that ruled swathes of the country centuries ago.

"Anthropological and DNA testing has enabled us to back up the theory that these are the remains of the grand masters. We can be 96 percent certain," Bogumil Wisniewski, head of a team which found the skeletons, told AFP on Thursday.

Wisniewski said his team was convinced the men were Werner von Orseln, who led the knights from 1324-1330, Ludolf Koenig (1342-1345), and Heinrich von Plauen (1410-1413).

Read the rest of this article...

A NUN'S LIFE

Location: Nepal Length: 19 min.

High in the Nepalese Himalayas sits the monastery of Thupten Choling, one of the few remaining free, independent, and traditional Tibetan monasteries in the world. Its 900 resident monks and nuns, continuing Tibetan Buddhist cultural practices and a lifestyle many centuries old, rebuilt their stone monastery by hand over the past few years using traditional medieval technology, with the nuns providing the bulk of the labor. This short film describes these amazing people and their heroic struggle against the elements as they adapt to the modern world.

Watch the video...

Roman temple unearthed in Notts

THE remains of a Roman temple have been found in Notts – and experts say it could re-write the history books.

A wall dating back as far as 43AD, made from large smooth-faced sandstone blocks, has been unearthed at the former Minster School site in Southwell.

Twenty metres long by 2.5 metres tall, it is part of an emerging complex of buildings including a Roman bathing monument – known as a nymphaeum.

The site also contains what is believed to be a large villa.

Read the rest of this article...

TURKEY: ANCIENT PAGAN TEMPLE SITE YIELDS NEW ARCHEOLOGICAL CLUES ON ORIGINS OF FARMING

It’s the last day of the excavating year at Gobekli Tepe, the hill-top neolithic site whose circles of huge decorated T-shaped stones are at least 5,000 years older than any other monumental structure ever found.

Workmen have already buried the bases of the stones in rubble to protect them from the winter rain. Now they are laying raised walkways into the centre of a site that was previously off-limits to visitors.

Read the rest of this article...

Late Neandertals and Modern Human Contact in Southeastern Iberia

It is widely accepted that Upper Paleolithic early modern humans spread westward across Europe about 42,000 years ago, variably displacing and absorbing Neandertal populations in the process.

However, Middle Paleolithic, presumably Neandertal, assemblages persisted for another 8,000 years in Iberia. It has been unclear whether these late Middle Paleolithic Iberian assemblages were made by Neandertals, and what the nature of those humans might have been.

New research, published Dec. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is now shedding some light on what were probably the last Neandertals.

Read the rest of this article...

Divers search for Armada treasure off Mull

More than 400 years after a Spanish galleon loaded with gold and silver slid beneath the waves in the waters surrounding the Isle of Mull, a new mission has been launched to try to recover its hoard of treasure.

Divers will begin to sift through the silt at the bottom of Tobermory Bay in an attempt to recover the valuable cargo, reputed to have been intended to bankroll the ill-fated Spanish invasion of England in 1588. It is the second time that Sir Torquhil Ian Campbell, the 13th Duke of Argyll, has launched such a mission.

Read the rest of this article...

Archaeologists dig into Greenham peace camp

They may not rank with the Pyramids or Sutton Hoo, but the traces of one Britain's best-known protest camps are being sifted by a team of archaeologists.

More than 600 artefacts have been catalogued at the skeletal remnants of Turquoise Gate camp, Greenham Common, as part of a project to tell the "full story" about the women's anti-nuclear campaign 25 years ago.

Read the rest of this article...

Unique Archaeological Discovery In Balkan: World’s First Illyrian Trading Post Found

There is jubilation at the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo i Norway. Marina Prusac, Associate Professor in the department of archaeology, has just returned home after conducting excavations in the border area between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the course of several weeks of intense digging this autumn, her archaeological team found the very first traces of an Illyrian trading post that is more han two thousand years old.

Read the rest of this article...

Archaeologists find piece of string dating back 8,000 years

The fibres were discovered in a flooded Stone Age settlement just off the coast of the Isle of Wight.

The four-and-a-half inch long string was made from tough stems of honeysuckle, nettles or wild clematis that were twisted together.

Marine archaeologists discovered it when they found a pre-historic camp 30 feet below the surface, 200 yards off the Isle of Wight.

Read the rest of this article...

Salonica university initiates research program in Cyprus

The History and Archaeology Department of the Aristotle University of Thessalonica (AUT), continuing its long research presence in Cyprus, initiated in November 2008 a five-year Prehistoric Research Program.

According to a press release issued here, the scientific aim of AUT program is to search and locate installations of the early prehistory of the island (pre-Neolithic period) through an archaeological surface survey on part of Troodos.

Read the rest of this article...

NSF awards Brown researchers $2.6 million for computer vision in archaeology

A Brown University archaeologist and team of engineers have been awarded $2.6 million from the National Science Foundation to use computer vision and pattern recognition in an archaeological excavation. The team is setting out to change the way archaeologists conduct fieldwork by developing innovative techniques for excavation, reconstruction, and interpretation during the next four years.

The work will focus on the site of Apollonia-Arsuf, located on the Mediterranean coast in Israel. The site has been under archaeological excavation and conservation since the 1950s and was formally recognized in 2004 as one of the 100 most endangered world monuments by the World Monuments Fund.

Read the rest of this article...