How 5000-yr-old Neolithic men painted their homes

London, Oct 30 : A new research has revealed that our ancestors from 5,000 years ago painted their homes to brighten up their places too.

They used red, yellow and orange pigments from ground-up minerals and bound it with animal fat and eggs to make their paint, the new study from a Stone Age settlement on the island of Orkney revealed.

Several stones used to form the buildings painted and decorated by the locals in about 3,000 BC, most probably to to enhance important buildings and may have been found in entranceways or areas of the building, which had particular significance.

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New study finds headless skeletons in ancient cemetery were Romans

Eighty headless skeletons unearthed between 2004 and 2005 from an ancient English cemetery in the city of York or the then Roman capital Eboracum holds proof that they all lost their heads far away from home.

Archeologists say the burial ground was used by the Romans throughout the second and third centuries A.D. Almost all the bodies were of males with more than half of them had been decapitated, and many were buried with their detached heads.

Eboracum was the Roman Empire's northernmost provincial capital during that period.

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Scientists issue call to action for archaeological sites threatened by rising seas

global warming cause sea levels to rise as predicted in coming decades, thousands of archaeological sites in coastal areas around the world will be lost to erosion. With no hope of saving all of these sites, archaeologists Torben Rick from the Smithsonian Institution, Leslie Reeder of Southern Methodist University, and Jon Erlandson of the University of Oregon have issued a call to action for scientists to assess the sites most at risk.

Writing in the Journal of Coastal Conservation and using California's Santa Barbara Channel as a case study, the researchers illustrate how quantifiable factors such as historical rates of shoreline change, wave action, coastal slope and shoreline geomorphology can be used to develop a scientifically sound way of measuring the vulnerability of individual archaeological sites. They then propose developing an index of the sites most at risk so informed decisions can be made about how to preserve or salvage them.

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Armenian archeologists: 5,900-year-old skirt found

An Armenian archaeologist says that scientists have discovered a skirt that could be 5,900-year-old.

Pavel Avetisian, the head of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, said a fragment of skirt made of reed was found during recent digging in the Areni-1 cave in southeastern Armenia. Avetisian told Tuesday's news conference in the Armenian capital that the find could be one of the world's oldest piece of reed clothing.

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Roman villa set to close to the public

A HISTORIC tourist attraction looks set to close to the public after council chiefs announced cuts and job losses within the museum service.

The nationally important Rockbourne Roman Villa and Museum near Fordingbridge has now closed for the winter after being open daily throughout the summer and attracting |thousands of visitors.

But the villa – the largest known villa in the area with its |history spanning from the Iron Age to the 5th century AD – will most likely not re-open as usual in the spring.

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Headless Romans in England Came From "Exotic" Locales?

An ancient English cemetery filled with headless skeletons holds proof that the victims lost their heads a long way from home, archaeologists say.

Unearthed between 2004 and 2005 in the northern city of York (map), the 80 skeletons were found in burial grounds used by the Romans throughout the second and third centuries A.D. Almost all the bodies are males, and more than half of them had been decapitated, although many were buried with their detached heads.

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Reiche Bestattungen aus der Jungsteinzeit und der Bronzezeit

Auf einer Länge von ca. 150 km wird die neue Bundesstraße B6n den niedersächsischen Harz mit der Bundesautobahn A9 im Osten von Sachsen-Anhalt verbinden. Seit dem Jahr 2000 finden im Vorfeld des Großprojektes umfangreiche archäologische Grabungen auf einigen hundert Hektar Fläche statt.

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Just ask Mummy: Cancer the least of their worries

Just imagine: a world without cancer. It's a tantalizing thought, recently floated by researchers at Manchester University in the UK.

That world may well have existed, but in the distant past, according to their survey of hundreds of mummies from Egypt and South America. The researchers found that only one mummy had clearly identifiable signs of cancer.

The study suggested that industrialization, pollution and the ills of modern life are to blame for the epidemic of cancer now seen sweeping around the globe.

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Heat brought instant death in Pompeii: Scientists

The people of Pompeii who died when Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago were killed by intense heat rather than suffocation, according to a new study.

Thousands of the Roman city's inhabitants were caught in a firestorm in which they were exposed to temperatures of up to 600 C, a team of Italian scientists believe.

The temperatures would have killed fleeing people in just 10 seconds, according to the volcanologists and anthropologists from Naples, the city overshadowed by the volcano.

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Turkey's underwater cultural heritage in danger, says expert

Turkey’s underwater cultural heritage faces a number of threats, especially from sport divers, an archaeology expert says during a meeting in Istanbul. ‘When sport divers go down 30 meters and find an artifact, they consider that a huge success and want to keep it,’ says an academic, adding that laws must be more strictly enforced

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Archaeology: 8000-year-old skeleton found in Bulgaria

Bulgarian archaeologists, led by lecturer Boris Borissov from the university of Veliko Turnovo, unearthed a skeleton estimated at 8000 years old, Bulgarian media reported on October 25 2010.

The remains were found while land was being cleared for the construction of the Maritsa motorway, en route to Turkey, near the village of Kroum, municipality of Dimitrovgrad. Experts say that the skeleton, was from the Neolithic age, dates back to 6000 BCE, and belonged to a young boy, aged 10-15.

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Stonehenge bosses 'regret' photography ban (update)

English Heritage has issued a statement to photographers after it sent an email that banned commercial use of images of historic tourist attraction Stonehenge.

The storm centred on a message sent to picture agency fotoLibra which read: 'We are sending you an email regarding images of Stonehenge on your fotoLibra website.

'Please be aware that any images of Stonehenge cannot be used for any commercial interest, all commercial interest to sell images must be directed to English Heritage.'

But the email prompted a flood of angry responses on fotoLibra's website.

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Archeology digs at Roman sites

A new project has been launched this week to explore East Oxford’s Roman and medieval archaeological sites.

Led by the University’s Department for Continuing Education, the project has been made possible by a £330,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Academics on the project will spend the next three years working with Oxford residents on digs, excavations, and surveys at sites believed to include Roman settlements, a medieval leper hospital and Civil War siege works.

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York Archaeological Trust find Roman vase at Hungate dig in York

A RARE glimpse into the world of Roman funeral rituals is on offer to visitors to DIG in York.

Archaeologists from York Archaeological Trust, who are excavating the Hungate site, have unearthed a small Roman cemetery which has so far revealed 20 burials and six cremations. In two graves, which contained the remains of Roman citizens, was an assembly of rich grave goods.

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Restoring 'lost city' of medieval Spain

It has been 100 years since excavations started on the Madinat Al Zahra, the magnificent 10th century palace city near Cordoba in southern Spain.

Although only 11% of the city - built by the powerful caliph Abd Al Rahman III - has been uncovered, it is unlikely that it will take another century to unearth the remainder of the site given the rapid advances in excavation technology.

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Archaelogists may have discovered 12th century royal court in Aber

ARCHAEOLOGISTS in Abergwyngregyn may have discovered one of the most iconic royal buildings of the 12th century.

Up to 20 archaeologists are digging into the history of the area which has links to the medieval Prince Llewellyn.

The dig has already unearthed a building which archaeologists say could be a royal court.

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Hunting for the Dawn of Writing, When Prehistory Became History

One of the stars of the Oriental Institute’s new show, “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond,” is a clay tablet that dates from around 3200 B.C. On it, written in cuneiform, the script language of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, is a list of professions, described in small, repetitive impressed characters that look more like wedge-shape footprints than what we recognize as writing.

In fact “it is among the earliest examples of writings that we know of so far,” according to the institute’s director, Gil J. Stein, and it provides insights into the life of one of the world’s oldest cultures.

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Archaeologists find early Neolithic evidence

Cornell archaeologists are helping to rewrite the early prehistory of human civilization on Cyprus, with evidence that hunter-gatherers began to form agricultural settlements on the island half a millennium earlier than previously believed.

Beginning with pedestrian surveys of promising sites in 2005, students have assisted with fieldwork on Cyprus led by professor of classics Sturt Manning, director of Cornell's archaeology program. The project, Elaborating the Early Neolithic on Cyprus (EENC), has involved undergraduate and graduate students from Cornell, the University of Toronto and the University of Cyprus.

Their findings were published recently in the leading archaeological journal Antiquity, after being reported to Cyprus' Department of Antiquities and presented at an annual archaeological conference there.

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Five things archaeologists can learn from Dragon's Den

It's not surprising that archaeologists are, on the whole, pretty poor business people: they don't want to be business people. But an industry that employs thousands of people in hundred of companies, partnerships and freelance operations, turning over £100m a year, IS a business: the question is whether we embrace that fact, and see what we can do to improve, or we ignore it and trust to luck.

It is possible to learn a lot about business from Dragon's Den: not so much from the revolutionary rubber hammers, innovative chocolate teapots, and re-engineered sliced bread that hopes to be the best thing since the original sliced bread, but from the pooled practical experience of the entrepreneurs. After a while their questioning starts to form a pattern, from which I'd highlight these:

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Archeologists aim to shed light on Sherwood Forest ancient monument

ARCHEOLOGISTS are bidding to shed light on one of Notts' most mysterious ancient monuments.

Three years ago the Forestry Commission revealed that the Friends of Thynghowe had found a Viking meeting place in the Birklands, part of Sherwood Forest, near Mansfield.

The earthen mound has now been listed on English Heritage's National Monument Record.

New studies have also found the name Thynghowe in an ancient Sherwood Forest book dated to around the 1200s.

But more research is needed to understand its mysterious story.

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