Saturday, October 30, 2004
Roman remains ‘hidden’ for another five years – but new book reveals all
ROMAN artefacts unearthed in a dig in front of Carlisle Castle are unlikely to go on display in the city before 2009.
But a book detailing finds made during the three-year excavation has gone on sale at the Tullie House Museum.
That is where a permanent exhibition of clothes, coins and other items discovered will eventually be housed.
City council leader Mike Mitchelson said last night that would not happen before a detailed academic report on the excavation findings was published in 2007.
Cumberland News
English elm 'brought by Romans'
All English elm trees could be descended from a single tree brought here by the Romans, scientists say.
Spanish researchers who examined DNA from English elm told Nature magazine they found almost no difference between elm from Britain, Spain and Italy.
BBC News
Archeology dig throws new light on history of Prague
A former army barracks on Prague's Namesti Republiky square is going to be the site of another shopping and office complex in the centre of the city. But the project has been delayed by the discovery there of major archeological treasures - in fact it is the biggest archeological dig in the country's history.
Radio Praha
Friday, October 29, 2004
Scots heritage archives to get new £12m home
A NEW home for Scotland’s heritage archives is set to be built in the Capital after a £12 million award was announced today by Scottish ministers.
The new purpose-built centre will contain thousands of ancient documents and historical records including aerial photographs taken by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
It will replace the current facilities run by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in the south of the city, which is struggling to house the growing collection.
Scotsman
Scientists dig up family skeletons
It has been a mystery for more than a century - is a skull in an Austrian basement really that of arguably the greatest composer of all time, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?
Over the weekend a group of archaeologists began to answer the question by digging up the remains of Mozart's close relatives.
Guardian
Thursday, October 28, 2004
The 3ft-tall 'hobbit' that rewrites the history of mankind
Scientists are celebrating the most important breakthrough in anthropology for a century: the discovery of a new species of apeman.
Described as human "hobbits", the apemen grew no taller than about 3ft and had brains the size of grapefruits. They lived alongside prehistoric man for thousands of years before they finally died out in the dense jungles of Indonesia, in a lost world inhabited by dwarf elephants and giant rats.
Archaeologists excavated the skeletal remains of the little humans from a cave on the remote Indonesian island of Flores, which has a rich history of exotic animals such as giant lizards and miniature beasts.
Independent
Scientists find new species of 3ft humans
The remains of a new species of human have been discovered on a remote Indonesian island - a spectacular find that could rewrite the story of human evolution.
The diminutive cavewoman shows that another kind of human walked alongside us much more recently than thought.
This questions current ideas about intelligence, further undermines traditional ideas about modern humans being unique, and even hints that other species of Homo may have survived into recorded history.
Telegraph
Scientists Hope to Find More Tiny Indonesia Hominids
Australian scientists who found a new species of hobbit-sized humans who lived about 13,000 years ago on an Indonesian island said on Thursday they expect to discover more new species of hominids on neighboring islands.
The partial skeleton of Homo floresiensis, found in a cave on the island of Flores in 2003, was of an adult female that was 3 feet tall, had a brain smaller than a chimpanzee's, and probably lived alongside modern humans on the island.
Australian and Indonesian scientists have since unearthed seven small hominids called "Flores man" from the Liang Bua limestone cave, the youngest living 13,000 years ago.
Reuters
Real-life 'Hobbit' skeleton found
Scientists in Indonesia think they've found the remains of a new type of mini-human that could have been a bit like a Hobbit.
It lived around 18,000 years ago and was just three-feet-tall and has been dubbed by experts as "the Hobbit".
It's believed that the mini-humans lived on Flores Island in Indonesia until at least 12,000 years ago.
CBBC Newsround
New 'mini-human' species discovered
Researchers and field-archaeologists in Indonesia have announced the discovery of a new species of human which is now known to have existed up to 12,000 years ago.
U TV
Found: 50,000 treasures unearthed by Britain's amateur archaeologists
When Peter and Christine Johnson decided on a whim to shut their fitness shop early one day last year to try their luck at treasure-hunting, their metal detectors had hardly been used.
Armed with a plastic bag for any swag, they expected to come back ruddy-cheeked and empty-handed after their first trek out into the fields of Kent.
Twenty minutes later, they had uncovered a precious hoard of 360 coins dating back to the Iron Age - two of them of a kind never previously found in Britain. The extraordinary collection has since been classified as an official treasure. The British Museum is also keen to acquire it.
Independen
Sea damaging Roman burial site
There are concerns for part of Cumbria's Roman heritage, which is being damaged by erosion.
Roman invaders buried and cremated their dead at Beckfoot, which lies north of Maryport.
Now the site is being badly damaged by the sea and work is being done to try to save its relics.
Local volunteers have been gathering artefacts which are being found on the beach and an underground survey of the site has now started.
Community archaeologist from the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Faye Simpson said: "Some of the problem is quite serious. Beckfoot is actually quite amazing and we think quite a large cremation cemetery.
BBC News
Internationale Tagung "Archäologie und Computer" in Wien
Mehr als 200 Teilnehmer aus über 30 Nationen werden in Wien beim Internationalen Workshop "Archäologie und Computer" erwartet, der vom 3. bis 5. November im Wiener Rathaus stattfindet. Das Thema der diesjährigen Veranstaltung lautet "Weltkulturerbe und EDV".
Seit dem Jahre 1996 veranstaltet die Stadtarchäologie Wien in Zusammenarbeit mit der EDV-Abteilung des Magistrats der Stadt Wien diese internationale Tagung.
Archäologie
Megalithic stone row discovered on Dartmoor's remotest hill
In the past thirty years Dartmoor has been the subject of some of the most detailed archaeological exploration and survey in Britain, surpassed only perhaps by the treatment given to Bodmin Moor in Cornwall.
It is therefore all the more remarkable that a previously unrecorded stone row with very large stones has been noted for the first time on one of Dartmoor’s highest and remotest hills. Cut Hill (603m) is no ordinary hill, being one of only five Dartmoor points above 600m in altitude. To reach it requires a walk of about two hours from whatever direction.
Megalithic Portal
Foil reveals Roman magic
The Norfolk gardener was quite irritated at finding bits of rubbish mixed with the expensive topsoil he had bought: he picked out what he took to be foil from a champagne bottle and unrolled it - to reveal a lost world of Roman magic.
Experts from the British Museum and Oxford University have been poring over the scrap of gold foil, no bigger than a postage stamp, which went on display for the first time yesterday, with other archaeological finds reported in the past year.
Guardian
Heritage Malta launches cart ruts project
The enigma surrounding the origin of the cart ruts, scattered across the island, may be close to a solution as Heritage Malta yesterday launched a project aimed at documenting and understanding the archaeological sites.
The project, 'The Significance of Cart Ruts in Ancient Landscapes', is the first Culture 2000 project of its kind to be led by a Maltese organisation - Heritage Malta.
Aimed to shed light on the cart ruts, the project involves three principle partners: the National Museum of Archaeology in collaboration with the Restoration Unit; the Faculty of Environmental Sciences of the University of Urbino, Italy; and APROTECO (the association for economic development of the valley of Lecrin, Granada, Spain).
Sunday Times
Stonehenge views 'disappointing'
The leader of Salisbury District Council has said he is disappointed with the response to a consultation on a new Stonehenge visitor centre.
About 400 people wrote in over the proposed £67m centre, which would be located two miles from the stones.
BBC News
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Sea damaging Roman burial site
There are concerns for part of Cumbria's Roman heritage, which is being damaged by erosion.
Roman invaders buried and cremated their dead at Beckfoot, which lies north of Maryport.
Now the site is being badly damaged by the sea and work is being done to try to save its relics.
BBC News
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Rabbits may cause fall of Roman forts
LEGIONS of rabbits are threatening to destroy dozens of Scotland’s most important Roman remains.
The rabbits have already burrowed deep beneath the defences of the 60 Roman forts and watchtowers built across Scotland to keep the marauding Picts at bay.
Archaeologists say many of the ancient structures are in danger of collapsing completely.
The Scotsman
HAVE ARCHAEOLOGISTS FOUND 14TH CENTURY BUTTON INDUSTRY IN COVENTRY?
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of what they think might be a small-scale 14th century button industry in Coventry.
Working on the site of an old Salvation Army building in Upper Well Street, the team from the University of Birmingham found pottery and bone in medieval hearths and rubbish pits.
But what caught their eyes was a number of bone button blanks. This suggests that rather than being used for decorative metallic buttons, the blanks would have been for the manufacture of buttons for practical use.
24 Hour Museum News
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