Water mains work unearths Roman cemetery in Somerset

Several Roman human remains were discovered at Banwell in Somerset

A Roman cemetery containing several human burials has been found during work on a new water mains in Somerset.

The finds were made by archaeologists during the laying of a four-mile (7km) long mains between Banwell and Hutton. 

Among the skeletons, which have been exhumed for further study, there was one in a partially-preserved coffin.

A Bristol Water spokesman said the excavation had been described as "potentially the most important for 100 years in North Somerset".

The cemetery was discovered "isolated from the surrounding landscape" in a curved water-filled ditch.
Roman cemeteries, according to Neil Shurety from Border Archaeology, are generally sited outside settlements and away from areas of human habitation.

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Were Prehistoric Statues Pornographic?

The Venus of Hohle Fels

Photograph by Gerbil/Wikimedia Commons.

Our interpretations say more about modern sexism than life in the Paleolithic.

April Nowell is a Paleolithic archaeologist at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. The idea that curvaceous figurines are prehistoric pornography is an excuse to legitimize modern behavior as having ancient roots, she says. Her paper, "Pornography is in the eye of the beholder: Sex, sexuality and sexism in the study of Upper Paleolithic figurines," co-authored with Melanie Chang, will appear next year.

Jude Isabella: Which Paleolithic images and artifacts have been described as pornography?
April Nowell: The Venus figurines of women, some with exaggerated anatomical features, and ancient rock art, like the image from the Abri Castanet site in France that is supposedly of female genitalia.

JI: You take issue with this interpretation. Who is responsible for spreading it, journalists or scientists?

AN: People are fascinated by prehistory, and the media wants to write stories that attract readers—to use a cliché, sex sells. But when a New York Times headline reads "A Precursor to Playboy: Graphic Images in Rock," and Discover magazine asserts that man's obsession with pornography dates back to "Cro-Magnon days" based on "the famous 26,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf statuette ... [with] GG-cup breasts and a hippopotamal butt," I think a line is crossed. To be fair, archaeologists are partially responsible—we need to choose our words carefully.

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Eastern valley shows off traces of Neolithic Age

The Levent Valley is home to thousands of large and small caves carved by the human hand, according to officials. There are still 20 villages in the village (L). AA photo 

Recent archaeological work in the Levent Valley in the eastern province of Malatya’s Akçadağ district has revealed traces of life from the Neolithic Age.

Levent İskenderoğlu, chairman of Malatya’s branch of the Conservation Implementation and Control Branch (KUDEB), said the 28-kilometer-long Levent Valley was a very attractive place thanks to its geological formations.

The valley is home to thousands of large and small caves carved by the human hand, he said. “One can see the traces of life in these caves with the naked eye.”

KUDEB has recently completed inventory work in the valley, he said. “The work, carried out by scientists – KUDEB’s technical staff including art historians and archaeologists – has revealed that life existed there until the Paleolithic age. We have seen traces of life from the Neolithic period in the valley caves.

There are also traces of the Hittite, Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman periods. Life is still continuing in villages. We can say that life has been continuing in the Levent Valley, which is a natural wonder, for 10,000 years. People have chosen this area to life in every age.” 

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Stone age nomads settled down in Merseyside, flints and timber suggest

Lunt Meadow is close to Formby beach, where scores of trails of ancient human and animal footprints have been discovered preserved in the silty mud. Photograph: Colin Mcpherson/Corbis

It will come as no surprise to proud Merseysiders, but a recent discovery of worked flints and charred timber suggests that when stone age people reached Lunt Meadows, a beautiful site at Sefton, they liked it so much that instead of continuing as nomadic hunter-gatherers, they settled down and built permanent dwellings.

Archaeologists are still working on the site, discovered this summer during work for the Environment Agency, but preliminary carbon-dating results suggest that they are almost 8,000 years old, from the Mesolithic period, and come from at least three structures, suggesting family groups living together in a settlement which may have lasted for centuries.

As well as the worked flint, and large pebbles with a partly polished surface showing they were used as tools, the archaeologists have found quantities of chert stone which is not local, but must have been specially imported – the nearest site would be across the estuary, in what is now north Wales.

Archaeologist Ron Cowell called the discoveries "fascinating". He added: "It looks as if we have the remains of three houses, or structures, which were very substantial, up to six metres across. They fit an emerging body of recent evidence, challenging the traditional view of people of this period as constantly on the move. Our site suggests that they had permanent structures which at the least they repeatedly returned to for part of the year."

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Mesolithic man find could rewrite Stone Age history

An archaeological find at Lunt Meadows in Sefton, Merseyside has unearthed evidence that Mesolithic man may have built settlements.

If proven, it could change the way historians think about how humans lived in the middle Stone Age period.

It was always thought that Mesolithic man was nomadic, yet this site presents the possibility that several families may have lived together in one place.

The discoveries have been dated back to the middle Stone Age (5,800 BC) and reveal a floor, timber stakes which would have been part of a wall, as well as flints and other utensils.

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Der Neandertaler in uns

Der Neandertaler in uns
 
(Deutschland, 2010, 52mn)
ZDF
Regie: Tamara Spitzing

A video over recent research into the Neandertal genome.

This video is available in either Gerrman or French.

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Scottish dig unearths '10,000-year-old home'

The remains of what is believed to be one of Scotland's earliest homes have been uncovered during construction works for the new Forth crossing. The site dates from the Mesolithic period, about 10,000 years ago.

Archaeological excavation works have been taking place in a field at Echline in South Queensferry in preparation for the Forth Replacement Crossing.

A large oval pit nearly 7m in length is all that remains of the dwelling, along with hearths, flint and arrowheads.

'First settlers'

Rod McCullagh, a senior archaeologist at Historic Scotland, said: "This discovery and, especially the information from the laboratory analyses adds valuable information to our understanding of a small but growing list of buildings erected by Scotland's first settlers after the last glaciation, 10,000 years ago.

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Slavic Origins. A Linguistic-Historical Workshop

Slavic Origins. A Linguistic-Historical Workshop

Wolfson College, Oxford, 10 December 2012
organized by Ilya Yakubovich and Marek Jankowiak
Research Fellows at Wolfson College

Slavic origins remain a highly contentious topic. Within their respective fields, scientists
produced widely diverging visions of the emergence of the Slavic language
and identity. From the picture the gradual emergence of common Slavic from
Balto-Slavic inherent in the methodology of traditional historical linguistics,
to a historian’s vision of the making of the Slavs in the shadow of Justinianic
limes on the Danube in the 6th century AD, the divide seems impossible to
bridge. Are these perspectives irreconcilable? What are the premises of the
respective positions? What do we mean by “Slavic origins”?

Further information...

Wawel architectural complex – Centuries of Slavic heritage

Wawel is an architectural complex erected over many centuries atop a limestone outcrop on the left bank of the Vistula River in Kraków, Poland, at an altitude of 228 metres above the sea level. It is a place of great significance to the Polish people. The Royal Castle with an armoury and the Cathedral are situated on the hill. Polish Royalty and many distinguished Poles are interred in the Wawel Cathedral. Royal coronations took place there also.

Wawel began to play the role of a centre of political power at the end of the first millennium AD. In the 9th century it became the principal fortified castrum of the Vistulans tribe (Polish: Wiślanie). The first historical ruler Mieszko I of Poland (c.965-992) of the Piast dynasty as well as his successors: Boleslaw I the Brave (Polish: Bolesław I Chrobry; 992-1025) and Mieszko II (1025–1034) chose Wawel as one of their residences. At that time Wawel became one of the Polish main centres of Christianity. The first early Romanesque buildings were erected there including a stone cathedral serving the bishopric of Kraków in the year 1000. Since the reign of Casimir the Restorer (1034–1058) Wawel became the leading political and administrative centre for the Polish State.

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Slavic Germany

There was very little known about Slavs and their culture who lived in present day Mecklenburg, Western Pomerania until the end of the World War 2. During 2nd and 3rd Reich, for political reasons, archaeological artefacts found in these areas were attributed to ‘German Vikings’ instead of the confederation of western Slavic tribes known as Obodrites.

The landmarks such as ramparts of Mecklenburg, Dobin, Ilow, Quetzin, Teterow, Werle and others from the period during which the region was populated by Slavic tribes were also attributed to ‘German Vikings’.

After World War II much was done to restore historical justice by historians, archeologists and scientists of German Democratic Republic. In particular, by Professor Ewald Shuldt  whose ancestors were from Mecklenburg land. Since his appointment as the director of the prehistoric department of Historical Museum of Schweriner in 1953, he devoted his life to the study of Slavic settlements around the cities of Schwerin (Slavic: Zverin) – Rostock and Neubrandenburg.
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Bogomilism among Slavic people

Bogomilism was a heretical Gnostic dualistic sect, the synthesis of Armenian Paulicianism and the Bulgarian Slavonic Church reform movement, which emerged in Bulgaria between 927 and 970 and spread into Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, Serbia, Bosnia, Italy, and France.

Bogomils, adherents of Bogomilism, were followers of an Orthodox Cleric, likely a priest, from Bulgaria by the name of Bogomil (Gr. Theophylus) active around 950 A.D. Their doctrine most resembles Armenian Paulicianism and earlier Gnostic sects in its insistence upon Dualism. In its Christian form Gnosticism tended to insist upon an “appearance” of flesh for Christ since “true flesh” would be a hindrance to his work of Salvation rather than an aid.

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Summer Courses in Archaeology

Oxford Experience Archaeology Courses

The Oxford Experience Summer School offers weekly introductory courses in the Sciences and Humanities.  Participants stay in Christ Church, the largest and one of the most beautiful Oxford Colleges.

You can find a list of Oxford Experience archaeology courses here...

You can find out more about the Oxford Experience here...

Milan cathedral puts gargoyles up for adoption

Milan's main cathedral has put its 135 gargoyles up for adoption as it seeks to raise funds for renovations.

Donors who contribute 100,000 euros (£80,000) to the Gothic building will have their names engraved under a gargoyle.

These are the often grotesque figures used in Gothic architecture to drain off rainwater.

The campaign has been introduced to make good a shortfall caused by cuts to the Italian culture budget.
The cathedral's management said it wanted "to encourage the Milanese and citizens of the world as a whole to be protagonists in the history of the cathedral, a priceless treasure that belongs to all of humanity".

It is seeking to raise 25m euros (£20m) for essential maintenance.

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Pompeii collapses 'exaggerated' by media, site chief says

Paestum, November 16 - Recent collapses at the ancient city of Pompeii had been exaggerated by the media and efforts to protect the site are progressing, according to the Special Archaeological Superintendent for Naples and Pompeii, Teresa Elena Cinquantaquattro.

Cinquantaquattro was speaking along with other senior archaeological officials from the culture ministry at the 15th annual Mediterranean Archaeological Tourism Exchange in Paestum on how to conserve sites in southern Italy in a climate of shrinking government funds. "Problems exist at Pompeii but they have been exaggerated by negative journalists," Cinquantaquattro told ANSA.

After recent falls of structures in the past two years there has been growing concern about Italy's ability to protect the 2,000-year-old site from further degradation and the impact of the local mafia, the Camorra. In April this year a wall surrounding an ancient villa at Pompeii collapsed just two weeks after the Italian government launched a joint 105-million-euro project with the European Union to save the UNESCO World Heritage site.

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Medieval underwear points to racy history

Underwear dating from medieval times that was found under flooring of an Austrian castle is hardly racy by the standards of today.

But the discovery does suggest that women in 15th-century Europe took pride in their appearance, and perhaps not just the privileged classes.

The University of Innsbruck announced this summer that "the world's oldest brassieres" had been found at Longberg Castle in Tyrol, western Austria.

The cotton garments were decorated, much like today, with lace and embroidery. It might not be a stretch to suggest that such underwear was designed for those "special occasions," scholars say.

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Archaeologists unearth rare finds

Construction work on a new dual carriageway section of the A11 near Thetford has uncovered primitive flint tools dating back over 6,000 years.

An archaeological dig at the site has also uncovered evidence of settlements dating back to 1500 BC
For archaeologists the discovery at Eleveden is an opportunity to peak behind the curtain of time to catch glimpses of how our ancestors lived.

Items unearthed include fragments of vase, a Roman door latch and even flint cutting blades from around 2,000BC.

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Astronomer Tycho Brahe died of burst bladder, not poisoning

Also, that famous silver prosthetic nose of his wasn't really silver, but brass, remains show 

Two years after Tycho Brahe was exhumed from his grave in Prague, chemical analyses of his corpse show that mercury poisoning did not kill the prolific 16th-century astronomer. The results should put to bed rumors that Brahe was murdered when he most likely died of a burst bladder. 

Separately, tests revealed that Brahe's famously "silver" prosthetic nose was actually made out of brass.
Born in Denmark in 1546, Brahe served as an astronomer for the Danish king before settling in Prague in the court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II.

Brahe is known for making the most accurate measurements of stars and planets without the aid of a telescope, proving that comets are objects in space and not in Earth's atmosphere, and hiring the not-yet-famous German astronomer Johannes Kepler as his assistant.

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Scythian warriors show genetic blending between Europeans and Asians

Evidence of the potential genetic blending between Europeans and Asians has been discovered by a team of researchers led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) within the remains of Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia.

Tracing the lineage routes

The Scythians were already documented as the first large Eurasian culture, but were believed to be the product of migration from Europe. The researchers now suggest that the genetic blending is actually a result of the expansion of Scythian culture over the mountains.

Studies on ancient mitochondrial DNA of this region suggest that the Altai Mountains played the role of a geographical barrier between West and East Eurasian lineages until the beginning of the Iron Age.
After the 7th century BC, coinciding with Scythian expansion across the Eurasian steppes, a gradual influx of East Eurasian sequences in Western steppes is detected. However, the underlying events behind the genetic admixture in Altai during the Iron Age are still unresolved: 1) whether it was a result of migratory events (eastward firstly, westward secondly), or 2) whether it was a result of a local demographic expansion in a ‘contact zone’ between European and East Asian people.

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500-year-old remains of 3 males unearthed in remote Alaska

Discovering prehistoric human remains in Interior Alaska is exceedingly rare, thanks to acidic soil in the region. So when three bodies -- an adult, young adult and child, all male -- were discovered in McGrath in early October, it was an unusual find. On Thursday, that unique find became even more so with the revelation that the bodies are likely more than 500 years old.

The remains were discovered in the village on Oct. 3 as a crew cleared a lot as part of an erosion control project along the Kuskokwim River -- which runs near the community of about 350 people situated 220 miles northwest of Anchorage -- stumbled across a human skull poking out from the freshly-cleared land.

Despite some in the community’s hopes that the remains might be those of a village elder who went missing about 30 years ago, Alaska State Troopers and an archaeologist concluded the remains were far too old to be the same person. Just how old was more of a surprise.

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Archaeologists probe River Leri wrecks near Aberystwyth

One of the wrecks is jutting out of a bank on the River Leri at Ynyslas, near Aberystwyth

 he wrecks of three 19th Century boats are being examined by archaeologists after heavy rain eroded their watery final resting places.

The 65ft (20m) vessels have been in the River Leri, near Aberystwyth, since the 1860s.

It is believed they were used to transport slate from mines in Gwynedd to ports for export around the world.

Experts said the wrecks had appeared in recent years after heavy rain and high tides had eroded the riverbank.

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) has been examining one of the wrecks with help from Aberystwyth University.

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