Viking ship sets sail for Dublin

A Viking ship has set sail for Dublin from the Danish port of Roskilde, in an attempt to recreate the voyages undertaken by early Norsemen.

The 30m (100ft) long replica, called Sea Stallion, is said to be the world's largest reconstructed Viking vessel.

It is based on a ship made nearly 1,000 years ago in Ireland, which in 1962 was excavated from the Roskilde fjord.

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Bid to uncover Scone’s buried past

A TEAM of archaeologists equipped with the latest underground scanning tools are set to descend on one of Scotland’s most significant medieval centres.

Scone Palace will play host to investigators attempting to discover more about the lost rich abbey of Scone and the famous Moot Hill, where Robert Bruce was crowned King of Scots in 1306.

Visitors to the top tourist attraction will be able to witness the team at work.

In ancient times, Scone was a centre of royal and ecclesiastical power.

The abbey was a centre of kingship in medieval Scotland, and archaeologists are amazed such an important place has left so little trace above ground.

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DNA testing to uncover Czech noble mysteries

Prague - DNA testing will be used in a unique scientific project to solve a more than thousand-year mystery over the noble occupants of Dark Age graves in Prague castle, a team of Czech specialists announced on Tuesday.

DNA tests on remains from 19 bodies, thought to belong to the Czech noble Premyslid family, considered the founders of the Bohemian kingdom who ruled the country for 400 years, will be used to determine who is who. In parallel, 50-70 tests will be carried out on remains from ordinary graves found around the ancient castle site.

"This is a unique project in the scale of what is being done. Nothing this big has ever been attempted in the world before," DNA forensic expert Daniel Vanek, who worked for three years on identifying genocide victims in Bosnia and will use techniques finetuned from then, said.

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500-year-old bronze disc is found in field

A HORSE harness decoration thought to have belonged to a lord of the manor at Bletchingley more than 500 years ago has been unearthed in a field.

Chris Andre, a member of the Reigate-based Weald and Downland Metal Detecting Club, handed the artefact to an archaeological expert for identification.

David Williams, Surrey County Council's finds liaison officer, has revealed that the small circular bronze disc may have been a personal belonging of Henry Stafford, who held the manor of Bletchingley in the late 15th century, or one of his retinue.

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Was Lucy a Brutal Brawler?

These legs were made for fighting.

Anthropologists have long assumed that the short stature of australopithecines like Lucy was related to treetop living: Having short legs makes it easier to climb trees and gives stability when balancing on branches. David Carrier, a biologist at the University of Utah, has another idea. After taking measurements and collecting observations on nine living primate species, including humans, Carrier concluded that the living apes with the shortest legs for their body size, like gorillas and orangutans, are those that spend the least time in trees. They’re also the ones whose males exhibit especially aggressive behavior.

Carrier doesn’t rule out that Australopithecus may have spent time in trees, but he insists a more likely explanation for why short legs persisted is that Lucy and her ilk were particularly prone to fighting. According to this hypothesis, it was advantageous for males to remain short because it gave them an edge when grappling with one another for access to females. “With short legs, you have a lower center of gravity. You’re more stable, and you have greater leverage,” Carrier says.

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'Royal' Iron Age roundhouse found

One of the biggest Iron Age roundhouses ever found in Scotland has been uncovered during an archaeological dig near Inverurie in Aberdeenshire.

The 2,000-year-old stone building was found in the Bennachie hills on the site of an earlier Bronze Age fort.

The archaeologists who uncovered it said the size of the building suggested it was inhabited by society's elite.

But they said it was impossible to say what relationship the owners had with Roman soldiers living in nearby camps.

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Million-year-old human tooth found in Spain

Spanish researchers on Friday said they had unearthed a human tooth more than one million years old, which they estimated to be the oldest human fossil remain ever discovered in western Europe.

Jose Maria Bermudez de Castro, co-director of research at the Atapuerca site said the molar, discovered on Wednesday in the Atapuerca Sierra in the northern province of Burgos, could be as much as 1.2 million years old.

"The tooth represents the oldest human fossil remain of western Europe. Now we finally have the anatomical evidence of the hominids that fabricated tools more than one million years ago," the Atapuerca Foundation said in a statement.

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Restaurierung von bedeutendem römisch-antiken Mosaik in Köln

Das infolge des Sturms Kyrill zu Beginn des Jahres beschädigte Dionysosmosaik im Römisch-Germanischen Museum Köln wird seit letzter Woche vom Fachbereich Konservierung und Restaurierung der FH Erfurt restauriert. Es handelt sich dabei um eines der bedeutendsten römisch- antiken Mosaiken nördlich der Alpen.

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Cats are our oldest friends

The dog is usually thought of as man's best friend.

But a genetic study published today suggests that cats may actually have been a more constant companion of humans over the millennia.

Ancestors of domestic cats are now believed to have started living alongside humans any time from about 10,000 to 130,000 years ago. In the case of dogs, an earlier DNA study showed that they originated from east Asian wolves a mere 15,000 years ago.

The new DNA evidence shows that cats around the world can trace their origins to the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East, which stretches from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, revealing how at least five female ancestors from the region gave rise to all the domestic cats alive today.

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Archaeology expert to carry on campaign over M3 route

Archaeology expert Conor Newman, appointed by Minister for the Environment John Gormley to advise on the excavation of the national monument at Tara, has said he will continue to campaign against the routing of the M3 through the area. Login or subscribe for more.

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DNA research identifies homeland of the domestic cat

The ancestry of the world's household cats can be traced to an ancient region of the near east, suggesting an unusually exotic origin for one of the most aloof animals ever to be domesticated by humans.

A major genetic survey of nearly 1,000 feral and domestic cats has revealed that every breed of household cat alive today originates from just five lineages which lived alongside ancient settlers in the Fertile Crescent, an area stretching from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf.

The earliest archaeological evidence for cat domestication dates to 9,500 years ago, when cats were thought to have been kept as pets in parts of Cyprus. But the researchers believe domestication started 3,000 years earlier, with the family feline having broken ranks with its wild relatives as long as 130,000 years ago.

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Dig discovery is oldest 'pet cat'

The oldest known evidence of people keeping cats as pets may have been found by archaeologists.

The discovery of a cat buried with what could be its owner in a Neolithic grave on Cyprus suggests domestication of cats had begun 9,500 years ago.

It was thought the Egyptians were first to domesticate cats, with the earliest evidence dating to 2,000-1,900 BC.

French researchers writing in Science magazine show that the process actually began much earlier than that.

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TEAM UNEARTHS ANCIENT CIRCLE

A Team of archaeologists from Bath has helped uncover an ancient stone circle in one of Britain's most remote locations.

Members of the Bath and Camerton Archaeological Society (Bacas) have taken part in a two-week excavation on Foula, part of the Shetland Islands.

The team was previously involved in an extensive geophysical survey on the island in May last year.

They were invited back to investigate the possibility that an early Bronze Age ceremonial enclosure, aligned to the midwinter sunrise, had been discovered.

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Iron Age 'royal house' discovered

AN IRON Age "royal residence" - one of the biggest roundhouses ever discovered - has been found during an archaeological dig near Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, it was revealed yesterday.

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Die Prinzessin mit den Seidenstrümpfen

Eine seltene Gelegenheit nutzten die Wissenschaftler des Rheinischen Amtes für Denkmalpflege (RAD), um Erkenntnisse über Leopoldine Eleonore, die 1693 im Alter von 13 Jahren verstorbene Schwester des Kurfürsten Jan Wellem zu gewinnen: anlässlich notwendiger Dekontaminierungsarbeiten am Mausoleum in der Düsseldorfer St. Andreaskirche wurde ihr Sarg veröffnet.

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Ancient virus left us vulnerable to Aids

Ancient virus left us vulnerable to Aids

The discipline of "palaeovirology" sheds light on why we are vulnerable to HIV, reports Roger Highfield

The Aids pandemic is the price humanity now has to pay for our ancestors winning an earlier battle against disease millions of years ago, scientists report.

Human resistance to a virus that infected chimpanzees and other apes four million years ago ironically may be at least partially responsible for the susceptibility of humans to HIV infection.
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These findings, reported by Dr Michael Emerman and colleagues at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre, Seattle, in the journal Science, provide a better understanding of Aids through the study of an ancient relative, a virus called Pan troglodytes endogenous retrovirus, or PtERV1.

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Exploring Human Origins

Exploring human origins in the Great Rift Valley of east Africa has profound significance for people today. In this interview, Dr. Louise Leakey reflects on current knowledge about human evolution through the lens of her own research at Lake Turkana, Kenya, and her life growing up as the third generation of the Leakey family to engage in paleoanthropological research. With remarkable candor and warm personality, Dr. Leakey shows that exploring the deep human past is far more than a purely academic subject.

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Campaigners to protest over M3 route

Protesters opposed to the M3 motorway being routed near the Hill of Tara will today stage a demonstration at Custom House in Dublin.

The campaigners want the Government to halt works through newly discovered archaeological sites along the historic valley in Co Meath.

TaraWatch will urge the new Green Party Minister for Environment John Gormley to stop the major road construction after a number of monuments were uncovered over the weekend.

It said a stone underground chamber and an underground stone passageway with wooden entrances – apparently linked to a complex of underground souterrains - must be saved.

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Tara campaigners to protest outside Gormley's offices

Heritage campaigners are planning a protest outside the offices of Environment Minister John Gormley today as part of their ongoing campaign against the route of the M3 motorway.

The protestors from the TaraWatch group are demanding that Mr Gormley halt construction on the controversial road following the recent discovery of two more archaeological sites.

The group is rubbishing claims by the National Roads Authority that the sites are not unique.

Spokesman Vincent Salafia says it is absurd for anyone to claim that archaeological remains dating back to before the time of Christ are unimportant.

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'Drive around, not over, archaeological sites'

Five years after the US warned the Iraq war would destroy some of the most precious archaeological sites in the world, what have they done? Sent out some more playing cards.

The five of clubs says: "Drive around, not over, archaeological sites."

Presumably there wasn't room on the card for "do not flatten the heart of ancient Babylon to make a helicopter landing pad and tank park; strive not to fill thousands of wire baskets with potshards, bone fragments and mudbrick inscribed with the name of Nebuchadnezzar; if possible avoid digging trenches into the ziggurat, the original Tower of Babel and part of one of the wonders of the ancient world."

It's enough to make archaeologists weep, and some will.

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Medieval Gold Jewellery Found in Thracian Mound in Bulgaria

A total of eleven gold rings, three bracelets and a pair of ear-rings have been found in a Thracian mound between Bulgaria's villages of Topolchane and Kaloyanovo.

The artifacts were discovered in the tombs of three women by one of Bulgaria's best-known archaeologists, Professor Georgi Kitov.

"In 13th-14th century BC there was a medieval settlement near the mound," professor Kitov explained.

The finds will be preserved in the museum of history in the nearby town of Sliven.

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EMAS Field Trip to Godmersham, Kent

Saturday, 7 July

EMAS, the University of London Extra-Mural Archaeological Society, will be conducting a field trip to Godmersham, Kent.

Click here for further details…

Ancient Human Behavior Uncovered

A major question in evolutionary studies today is how early did humans begin to think and behave in ways we would see as fundamentally modern" One index of 'behavioural modernity' is in the appearance of objects used purely as decoration or ornaments. Such items are widely regarded as having symbolic rather than practical value. By displaying them on the body as necklaces, pendants or bracelets or attached to clothing this also greatly increased their visual impact. The appearance of ornaments may be linked to a growing sense of self-awareness and identity amongst humans and any symbolic meanings would have been shared by members of the same group.

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NRA rejects claims of new archaeological find on M3 route

The National Roads Authority is rejecting a claim that an important archaeological find has been made at a site in the path of the new M3 motorway.

Campaign group "TaraWatch" has claimed that two underground stone chambers, believed to date to the Stone Age, have been found in Lismullen in the Tara Valley.

As a result the group wants work to stop on the M3.

However the NRA has insisted that the find is not new.

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Rare carving on display at Cathedral

An "exceptional" 8th century limestone carving is set to return to permanent public display for the first time in more than 1,100 years.

The return of the Lichfield Angel, which was destroyed by a Viking raid in 873 and lay undiscovered under Lichfield Cathedral until 2003, comes as part of an £8 million development plan to dramatically transform the Cathedral's image. Yesterday senior clergy announced the start of the Lichfield Inspires campaign, which aims to change the way tourists and pilgrims view one of the country's most historic cathedrals.

The proposals, which are still in the development stage, will see improvements to the entrance of the building as well as new educational facilities and a visitor centre. It also features the restoration of the artwork, which depicts the Archangel Gabriel. This will go on show permanently from midday on Sunday.

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Campaigners say new archaeological find lying in path of M3 works

The new Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, is being asked to stop work on the M3 motorway after a new archaeological find.

The TaraWatch group, which is campaigning for the motorway to be re-routed, says the underground stone structures, which are located near another archaeological site, are a significant find.

"Its further evidence for what we have been saying all along about this valley - its just full of archaeological wonders," said member Laura Grealish.

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Angel is back after 1,100 years

An 8th-century limestone religious carving is to go on display for the first time in more than 1,100 years.

The Lichfield Angel was destroyed by a Viking raiding party in 873 and its remains lay buried under Lichfield Cathedral until archaeologists dug it up in 2003. The carving, which depicts the Archangel Gabriel, was made originally in 700, and formed part of a shrine to St Chad. It will go on show at the cathedral from noon tomorrow, after 14 months of conservation work.

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3rd-Century Man Preserved in Salt

During the Roman Empire period, just after the fall of Parthia, a salt mine worker from northwestern Iran lost his life following a catastrophic rock collapse. Approximately 1,800 years later, the man's body — preserved in salt — was discovered in the very spot where he died, according to recent Iranian news service accounts and to a report issued by the Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies.

Since salt prevents bacterial growth and acts as a drying agent, the unfortunate accident victim became a rare natural mummy. He is the sixth "salt man" to be found at the Chehr Abad mine in Zanjan province.

Removal of the body from its salty environs could damage it, so archaeologists hope to keep the mummy on site for now.

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Egypt asks British Museum for Rosetta Stone

The Egyptian government has made a formal request to borrow the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum (BM). A letter was sent last month by Dr Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The Art Newspaper can reveal that the request is for a three-month loan in 2012, for the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is being built near the Pyramids. Until now, the BM has been able to fend off questions about the return of the Rosetta Stone, since there had been no formal request.

Whether the loan is eventually granted is expected to depend on three main factors. First, conservation, and whether the 1,680 pound stone could be at risk.

Secondly, if the Rosetta Stone can be lent in view of its iconic importance. It is probably the single most-visited object in the BM’s entire collection, attracting even more visitors than the Parthenon Marbles. The Rosetta Stone has been at the museum since 1802, and has only left the building twice—when it was evacuated during World War I and when it was lent to the Louvre for one month in 1972.

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Riddle of the bog

A murder mystery preserved in peat is at the heart of the British Museum's revamped prehistoric galleries. Jonathan Jones turns detective

A single brown fingernail lies on the leather bag of his chest, which tapers to nothing where the peat-cutting machine chopped him in two. His arm lies next to him, but these fragments of a body would mean nothing, were it not for the look on his face. A face that is 2,000 years old is not expected to have a "look". Death destroys individuality - but not his. When the remains came rising out of a Cheshire bog in 1984, that deflated torso would turn out to be packed with biological information, clues to a violent death, but it's all there for anyone to see, the full horror of it, in his face. It is the face of the eternal victim, bound and garrotted and thrown into the marsh.

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Medieval find casts new light on town

NEW light is being shed on the history of Helmsley with a discovery which indicates the medieval layout of the market town may have been dramatically different.

The granting of planning consent to the Feversham Arms Hotel for works including creating an underground car park has provided the fascinating glimpse of what lies underneath the present town centre.

There had been archive evidence of some kind of past settlement in the area of the hotel tennis court – earmarked for a new extension – but contractors were surprised by what they found just below the surface.

There were remains of medieval buildings and boundaries – two top of the range private
homes, possibly built two centuries apart, with the remains of a kiln used to produce lime for construction work and agriculture.

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Solstice celebrated at Hill of Tara

Revellers gathered at the Hill of Tara to greet the morning sun today, the longest day of the year.

TaraWatch - which is campaigning for the M3 motorway to be re-reouted away from the historic Tara-Skryne valley - is staging a four-day summer solstice celebration at the site. Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. Solstice celebrations were a highlight of the pre-Christian calendar.

The Tara archaeological complex was recently placed on the World Monuments Fund's last of the World's 100 Most Endangered Sites.

TaraWatch are holding a number of protests at various archaeological sites in the area during the course of the week.

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Archaeologist sparks hunt for Holy Grail

An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome.

The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries.

Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome.

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35,000-Year-Old Mammoth Sculpture Found in Germany

In southwestern Germany, an American archaeologist and his German colleagues have found the oldest mammoth-ivory carving known to modern science. And even at 35,000 years old, it's still intact.

Archaeologists at the University of Tübingen have recovered the first entirely intact woolly mammoth figurine from the Swabian Jura, a plateau in the state of Baden-Württemberg, thought to have been made by the first modern humans some 35,000 years ago. It is believed to be the oldest ivory carving ever found. "You can be sure," Tübingen archaeologist Nicholas J. Conard told SPIEGEL ONLINE, "that there has been art in Swabia for over 35,000 years."

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Ancient Romans Preferred Fast Food

Just as a U.S. Presidential state dinner does not reflect how most Americans eat and socialize, researchers think the formal, decadent image of wining and dining in ancient Rome mostly just applied to the elite.

According to archaeologist Penelope Allison of the University of Leicester, the majority of the population consumed food "on the run."

Allison excavated an entire neighborhood block in Pompeii, a city frozen in time after the eruption of volcano Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.

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Neanderthals bid for human status

NEANDERTHALS as innovators? That the concept seems amusing goes to show how our sister species has become the butt of our jokes. Yet in the Middle Palaeolithic, some 300,000 years ago, innovation is what the Neanderthals were up to.

This period is usually regarded as undramatic in cultural and evolutionary terms, with little in the way of technological or cognitive development. Palaeoanthropologists get more excited about the changes in tools found later, as the Middle Palaeolithic gave way to the Upper, and as modern humans replaced Neanderthals, some 40,000 years ago.

Terry Hopkinson of the University of Leicester, UK, has now challenged this view, showing that Neanderthals were far from behaviourally static. They incorporated different forms of tool construction into a single technique, and learned to cope with the ecological challenges posed by habitats in eastern Europe.

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TUDOR ERA WARDERS' GATEHOUSE DISCOVERED AT TOWER OF LONDON

Extensive archaeological remains of an old guard house dating to the Tudor and Jacobean periods have been uncovered at the Tower of London.

Staff were relaying a cobblestone path across Tower Green to conform with disability regulations when they found evidence of walls, which turned out to be the remains of a substantial building.

“The work we were doing was resurfacing for compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act,” explained Jane Spooner, Historic Buildings Curator at the Tower.

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Greece hails return of stolen ancient statue

Greece on Thursday said an agreement with Switzerland to facilitate the return of stolen or illegally excavated antiquities was starting to bear fruit with the return of an ancient male marble torso.

Greece and Switzerland, a main thoroughfare for internationally traded ancient art, signed a memorandum of cooperation in May for the repatriation of illegally exported Greek antiquities.

"The return of this statue would not have taken place were it not for this memorandum," Culture Minister George Voulgarakis told reporters, standing next to the marble male torso dating to the 1st century AD, stolen from the island of Crete in the early 1990s.

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CHAVIN DE HUANTAR: A CYARK CASE STUDY

Location: Peru Length: 4 min.

Chavin de Huantar exemplifies CyArk, a project of the Kacyra Family Foundation that is preserving the world's most valued cultural heritage sites in three-dimensional digital form. Between 800 and 300 BC, during the Chavin Horizon, the site was the ceremonial center of the Peruvian Andes and the location of the "Smiling God" of the Lanzon, represented by the Lanzon Monolith. Chavin's advanced textiles, metallurgy and ceramics changed traditional methods throughout South America. This video shows how CyArk is preserving the site in digital imagery through laser-scanning technology and the most accurate 3D models possible today.

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A boy archaeologist as the next Harry Potter?

The publisher who discovered the Harry Potter books 11 years ago claimed yesterday that stories of a boy archaeologist may follow the boy wizard as the must read for children after the final volume by J K Rowling is published next month.

Two unknown authors have amassed advances of more than £500,000 for their debut book. Tunnels is a fantasy adventure book that Barry Cunningham, who snapped up J K Rowling's first book in 1996, believes will be the next major children's success story.

Tunnels, the story of a "boy archaeologist, merciless villains, a lost world and a journey to the centre of the earth", will be published on July 2.

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TIME TO CALL IN THE TIME TEAM

The old Nat West Bank and site of the Greyfriars Church and burial site of King Richard III is being redeveloped into a restaurant and flats.

An archaeological team is apparently going to be allowed in for a short time in order to investigate, but quite clearly it is being given little, to no, priority.

Considering that King Richard III is responsible for the majority of Leicester's tourist income, as well the site being, potentially, one of the greatest historical significance (King Richard III is the only king of England not to have a proper resting place), I find this lack of concern and urgency on behalf of the council simply quite appalling.

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Boy archeologist has Potter magic

The publisher who first signed up J.K. Rowling believes he may have found another Harry Potter -- but this time it is a boy archaeologist.

In an industry that revels in hype and is always on the lookout for the next blockbuster, two unknown authors have amassed advances of more than £500,000 ($1 million) and pre-publication rights in 15 languages.

Roderick Gordon and Brian Williams were signed by Chicken House publisher Barry Cunningham after he tracked down an early version of their book "Tunnels" that was self-published.

"I knew from page one that Harry Potter was magic. Reading 'Tunnels' gave me the same thrill," said Cunningham, who has also achieved worldwide publishing success with the children's books of German writer Cornelia Funke.

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Ancient Rome comes back to life in virtual model

Tourists puzzled by the jumble of buildings in classical and modern Rome can now find their bearings by visiting a virtual model of the imperial capital in what is being billed as the world's biggest computer simulation of an ancient city.

"Rome Reborn" was unveiled on Monday in a first release showing the city at its peak in 320 AD, under the Emperor Constantine when it had grown to a million inhabitants.

Brainchild of the University of Virginia's Bernard Frischer, Rome Reborn (www.romereborn.virginia.edu) will eventually show its evolution from Bronze Age hut settlements to the Sack of Rome in the 5th century AD and the devastating Gothic

Reproduced for tourists on satellite-guided handsets and 3-D orientation movies in a theatre to be opened near the Colosseum, Frischer says his model "will prepare them for their visit to the Colosseum, the Forum, the imperial palaces on the Palatine, so that they can understand the ruins a lot better".

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Unique Thracian Symbol of Royalty Discovered in Bulgaria

Archaeologists have discovered the most ancient ruler's symbol on Bulgarian territory, what was once the kingdom of the Thracian tribes.

The Bulgarian archaeologists Daniela Agre and Deyan Dichev, who are leading the Strandzha expedition, made the announcement for the exceptional finding on the Bulgarian National Radio on Monday.

The artifact was unearthed near the village of Golyam Dervent. Dichev and Agre were researching a dolmen (dolmens were the first Thracian tombs) when they noticed a frieze of intertwined zoomorphic and geometrical elements carved on the entrance of the tomb. The most interesting part of the discovery is the double-axe (labris) - a symbol of power in the Thracian society - placed inside a circle. The labris has lots of additional ornamentation on it, Dichev said. The frieze includes the images of snakes, which were the symbol of the king in the Thracian religious beliefs.

This is the first time when such an artifact is found on the territory, where Thracian tribes have lived in the 9-8 BC.

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WAC-6 First Announcement

The organising committee of the Sixth World Archaeology Congress (WAC-
6) are delighted to now invite colleagues from across the globe to
come to University College Dublin, Ireland from June 29-July 4, 2008
for this spectacular archaeological conference. We are planning a
varied and engaging thematic programme and a wide range of social
events that will provide opportunities to experience the cultural and
social life of Dublin and Ireland and to sample this island's
outstanding archaeological heritage.

WAC is committed to diversity and to redressing global inequities in
archaeology through conferences, publications and scholarly programs.
It has a special interest in protecting the cultural heritage of
Indigenous peoples, minorities and peoples from a range of countries.
WAC-6 will continue the established practice of previous international
congresses in facilitating the participation and empowerment of
indigenous peoples and researchers from economically disadvantaged
countries.

This first announcement is a call for themes, sessions, papers and
posters. See www.ucd.ie/wac-6 for details of application, programme,
accommodation, costs and grant opportunities.

View the Website...

Metageum '07

May I draw your attention to Metageum '07: An international,
interdisciplinary conference on different ways of approaching the thinking
and imagination of the Neolithic people who built the megalithic temples.
The conference will be held on the Vittoriosa Waterfront, Malta, 3rd-11th
November.

Full details are available on the web site, www.metageum.org.

View the Website...

Is this Chaucer's astrolabe?

Astronomical instruments were probably made after Chaucer's designs, not before.

Want to see the astrolabe used for astronomical calculations by Geoffrey Chaucer himself? You'll be lucky, says Catherine Eagleton, a curator at the British Museum in London.

Several astrolabes have been suggested to have once belonged to Chaucer. The claims are based on the device in question's resemblance to one described by Chaucer in his Treatise on the Astrolabe, written in the late fourteenth century. Perhaps, the claimants argue, the astrolabe they now have in their collection was Chaucer's own, and served as a model for his work.

But Eagleton argues it's the other way around. It's more likely, she says, that these instruments were made after Chaucer's death, inspired by the design given in the English scholar's treatise.

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Diving back into history

UNDERWATER archaeologists have probed the depths of a south Wiltshire lake in the grounds of a stately home to try and discover what was there before the valley was flooded.

Members of the Nautical Archaeology Society started their underwater research at Stourhead, the National Trust property near Mere.

They are interested in the huge lake, which was created when Henry Hoare flooded the area as part of his design for the landscape garden in the 18th Century.

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What gladiators were really like

When you hear 'gladiator', what do you picture? A fat vegetarian with bad teeth, who never fought wearing strappy leather sandals? Well, that's what evidence from an ancient mass grave is telling us.

The discovery of the first confirmed collection of gladiator remains has allowed scientists to apply forensic analysis - such as seen in television dramas like CSI, except with real science and not just fluorescent sprays and swabs - to bones, providing startling new evidence of just how gladiators lived and died.

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Tablets tell all: ancient athletes flogged for sins

AN ANCIENT training manual for Roman athletes — carved in marble almost 2000 years ago — prescribes far worse punishments than a sending off or a week's docked pay if they performed badly in the Colosseum.

The manual recommends a flogging to get them to perform better. And the same went if they drank too much mead or behaved disgracefully with the local maidens.

The marble tablet was found in 2003 in the town of Alexandria Troas in Turkey, and deciphered only recently by academics at the University of Muenster in Germany. Applied to professional football players today, the whip would undoubtedly replace the half-time talk as the favoured discipline of choice.

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Konstantin der Große - Landesausstellung in Trier

Als ein Hauptprojekt der Kulturhauptstadt Europas 2007, Luxemburg und Großregion zeigt das Land Rheinland-Pfalz gemeinsam mit dem Bistum Trier und der Stadt Trier in drei Museen die große Landesausstellung Konstantin der Große. Zum ersten Mal widmet sich eine Ausstellung in diesem Umfang dem bedeutenden römischen Kaiser, der Konstantinopel als neue Hauptstadt des Römischen Reiches gründete und die Geschichte Europas durch die Förderung des Christentums bis heute geprägt hat.

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Ice ages dried up African monsoons

When ice ages held Europe in their grip, Africa also felt the pinch - though in a different way.

It has long been suspected that there is a connection between the west African monsoon and climate at higher latitudes - especially over geological timescales, says David Lea at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "But until now, there hasn't been enough supporting evidence." Now Lea, with team leader Syee Weldeab and colleagues, has reconstructed the most detailed history of the monsoon yet, spanning 155,000 years and two ice ages.

The team analysed the amount of barium in plankton shells found in an ocean sediment core drilled beneath the Gulf of Guinea. Barium is found in freshwater run-off from the river Niger, says Lea, and is a gauge of past run-off levels and monsoon intensities. When the northern latitudes were frozen over, monsoon rains were much weaker, only gaining strength again when the temperatures in the north increased, the team found.

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Students to study history through hairdressing

Schoolchildren taking a new beauty diploma will study ancient Egyptian make-up, hairstyles in society and cuticle care as a substitute for traditional GCSEs in history, geography and the sciences.

While classmates struggle with Nazi Germany, tectonic plates and the periodic table, 14-year-olds taking the Government's vocational diploma will spend most of their timetable exploring skin care and learning about health and safety.

The diploma, one of 14 work-related courses to be introduced in secondary schools by the end of the decade, will count for either six GCSEs or three A-levels, depending on the level at which it is taken. There will be little time left for any other qualification beyond the core subjects of English, maths and information and communication technology.

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Volunteers wanted for dig in England

Keen historians are being invited to help a team of Exeter University archaeologists uncover secrets of an ancient Bronze Age site. The team have worked at the site, in Stokenham, near Kingsbridge (South Devon, England), for two years and they will reopen it again from July 2 to 24. Last year's excavation unearthed a number of finds including Bronze Age pottery. Project director Penny Cunningham said that anyone who wanted to help would not need any particular skills. "They will be asked to sort or wash finds like pottery and will help analyse them," she said.

The team will work from 9am to 5pm every day except Fridays. Anyone who wants to lend should just turn up. There are open days on the weekends of July 7 and 8, 14 and 15 and 21 and 22. Children of all ages are welcome to participate in the junior archaeologist workshop days on July 7, 14 and 21 from 10am to 3pm. For more information contact Dr Williams, Department of Archaeology, Laver, University of Exeter, EX4 4QE, or h.m.r.williams@exeter.ac.uk, or call 01392 262491.

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The Southeast Asian Archaeology newsblog

The Southeast Asian Archaeology newsblog was started in May 2006 to keep track of the archaeology news in the region. Archaeology is a relatively young discipline in Southeast Asia today, and also one of the field’s most excitng frontiers. Even as many questions remain unanswered, it is becoming more and more apparent how diverse - yet closely interconnected - the region is. SEAArch initially began as a personal effort to learn more about the archaeology of Southeast Asia by keeping track of news, but has since expanded to cover podcasts, links and books as well.

You can find the blog at:

http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/...

or in our sidebar under "Archaeological Weblogs"

Viking Longship to Sail Across North Sea

ROSKILDE, Denmark (AP) - On the skipper's command, deckhands haul in tarred ropes to lower the flax sail. Oars splash into the water. The crew, grimacing with strain, pull with steady strokes sending the sleek Viking longship gliding through the fjord.

A thousands years ago, the curved-prow warship might have spewed out hordes of bloodthirsty Norsemen ready to pillage and burn.

This time, the spoils are adventure rather than plunder.

The Sea Stallion of Glendalough is billed as the world's biggest and most ambitious Viking ship reconstruction, modeled after a warship excavated in 1962 from the Roskilde fjord after being buried in the seabed for nearly 950 years.

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Creationist museum brings dinosaurs on board Noah’s Ark

A vegetarian Tyrannosaurus rex frolicked alongside human beings only a few thousand years ago in the Garden of Eden until Eve decided to munch on that apple, according to the Creation Museum, which opens in Kentucky today.

The $27 million (£14 million) exhibition is funded by evangelical Christians, who apparently believe that by reclaiming dinosaurs and fossils for their literal biblical interpretation of natural history, teenagers are less likely to look at internet pornography or get pregnant out of wedlock.

This sprawling 50-acre (20hectare) site is the latest effort to counter the evolutionary science taught in state schools that Answers in Genesis, the religious group behind the museum, claims has chipped away at the nation’s moral fabric.

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Graveyard claimed to be Armenian belongs to Romans

Yusuf Halaçoğlu, president of the Turkish Historical Society (TTK), has announced that a graveyard in Mardin’s Nusaybin district that had been claimed by the Armenians in fact dates to the Roman period.

During a press conference Halaçoğlu said they had appealed to foreign scientists to come and assist with the opening of the graveyard. David Gaunt, a scientist from Switzerland, was the only one to express interest.

Gaunt accepted the offer on condition that the research be conducted without intervention from the Turkish administration. Gaunt began studies with the TTK president and delegation on April 24. However Gaunt soon realized that the photographs of the graveyard he had seen were different from the graveyard in Nusaybin and thus decided to return home without taking any soil or bone samples from the grave.

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Road plan fears for Dales heritage

PLANS to build a stone track across scenic Yorkshire Dales moorland are being delayed because of fears they could endanger a unique archaeological site.

Multi-millionaire Michael Cannon – one of Britain's richest men – wants to build the two-mile road on a grouse moor he owns in Upper Wensleydale.

He is also seeking permission to re-open a disused moorland quarry and extract 5,000 tonnes of limestone from which the track would be constructed.

But archaeologists are concerned the plan could jeopardise the remains of a historic opencast coalmining site.

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Hügelgrab aus der Urnenfelderzeit

Rund eine Woche dauerte eine archäologische Ausgrabung im Vorfeld einer Baumaßnahme in Wehrheim, Hochtaunuskreis, die vom Verein Archäologie im Gleiberger Land e.V. durchgeführt wurde.

Auf dem Nachbargrundstück wurde vor einigen Jahren bereits der Teil eines Gräberfeldes aus der späten Urnenfelderzeit (11./10. Jahrhundert v.Chr.) ausgegraben. Die damaligen Erkenntnisse konnten nun durch die neue Kampagne erweitert werden: es fand sich ein weiteres Grab, das von einem Kreisgraben mit 13,5 m Durchmesser umgeben war.

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Archaeology at Newcastle University

We have added a link to the Archaeology at Newcastle University web site which has details of courses, staff, research interests, etc.

You go directly to the site here

or find the link in the sidebar under “Archaeological Academic Links”

TARA - Work Halted along Controversial Stretch of Motorway

Today in the Tara Skryne Valley a number of environmental activists prevented machinery from exiting construction depots along a controversial stretch of the proposed M3 motorway. The protesters maintain that no work should be ongoing along the route until directions are issued by Minister Roche regarding the new national monument at Lismullen. Two weeks ago a massive henge, 80mts in diameter, was discovered along the route through the Valley. Indications are that the henge was a ceremonial site connected to the Hill of Tara. No work took place along the contested stretch before lunchtime today.

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After the fire, heritage chiefs dare to hope that a treasure can be rebuilt

Investigators were last night combing through the blackened shell of the Cutty Sark to establish the scale of the damage caused by the fire that ripped through the historic 19th-century tea clipper in the early hours of yesterday.

As trustees waited to find out whether the ship could be restored, police said they believed the blaze could have been started deliberately. Firefighters were called at 4.46am and were on the scene within four minutes. By 6.20, they had brought the fire under control.

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Police launch Cutty Sark arson investigation

An appeal for help to save the Cutty Sark, one of the world's most important maritime treasures, was issued last night after the historic vessel was ravaged by a suspected arson attack that caused £10 million damage.

The Cutty Sark after the fire. It is thought that the iron hull of the vessel may have buckled in the heat

The charity in charge of restoring the tea clipper said it feared its insurance would not cover the full cost of repairing the ship to its original standards and appealed for donations to meet the shortfall.

The fire, which ripped through the vessel's 19th century hull as it sat in dry dock in Greenwich, east London, early yesterday, also left those involved in conservation work on the vessel emotionally devastated.

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A tale of two clippers

It could be fortuitous that the Clyde-built Cutty Sark went up in flames the week before The Carrick, the world's only other surviving tea clipper, is due to be consigned to oblivion. It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of these two ships to Britain's maritime heritage. Like thoroughbred race horses, they were built for speed at a time when fortunes were to be made from reaching London with the first tea of the season out of Shanghai. Under full sail, they were not only a beautiful sight but for a brief period they were able to outpace the new generation of steamships. We will never see their like again and it would be tragic if 2007 saw the demise of them both.

In recent years their fortunes have contrasted sharply. While Cutty Sark embarked last year on a £25m renovation project, The Carrick has continued to deteriorate at the Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine, after a £5m rescue plan failed to attract sufficient backing. It is a vivid illustration of the extent to which the estate agent's catchphrase, "Location, location, location", applies to British industrial and maritime heritage. It is almost inconceivable that The Carrick would have suffered this fate in the Solent or on the Thames. Scotland's preoccupation with fine art at the expense of its own industrial heritage is such that it would be easier to raise £5m for a Turner painting of The Carrick than the ship herself.

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Archaeological find could shed light on Orkney's past

Archaeologists have discovered what appears to be a subterranean Iron Age structure, known as a souterrain, in an Orkney field.

The find was made when the field was being seeded for barley. At first it was believed to be a Bronze Age cist burial, as others have previously been uncovered nearby, but subsequent examination has revealed it to be an Iron Age souterrain or earth-house.

Dr Allan Rutherford of Historic Scotland said: “Preliminary investigations by staff from Orkney College Archaeology Department have shown this to be a souterrain, rather than a cist burial as was initially thought. This example seems to conform to the Orkney form, with a long narrow passage and an oval chamber at the inner end. Structures like this are believed to be have been used essentially as storage cellars and were usually associated with above-ground houses, although it is now that they may have had wider uses, particularly ritual.

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'History itself has been lost'

Two hours after a fire ripped through the hull of the Cutty Sark, the smell of burning timber lingered on the morning air as fire crews continued to soak the boat's decks and hull using pressure hoses.

The blaze was brought under control quickly.

Emergency services received a call at 0446 BST from a member of the public who said the Cutty Sark was ablaze.

The 138-year-old tea clipper lies just yards from the Thames in the heart of Maritime Greenwich, a World Heritage Site.

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Roman Woman Had Golden Smile

The earliest known dental prosthesis from ancient Rome may not have been very functional, but it gave its wealthy wearer a million dollar smile.

The gleaming grin resulted from multi-karat gold wire, which was used to string together "artificial teeth," according to the team of Italian researchers who analyzed the ancient bridgework.

They found the object, which dates from the 1st to the 2nd century A.D., in the mouth of an unidentified woman who was buried in an elaborate mausoleum within a Roman necropolis.

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Roman remains threaten metro

A planned hi-tech driverless underground railway line set to bring desperately needed transport links to the historic heart of Rome has run into a minefield of Roman remains.

Planners aim to send the new C line under the city centre at a depth of 30 metres, well beneath the archaeological treasures that litter Rome. Stations will also be built deep underground, but even the simple task of digging entrances and exits is proving a headache and could mean the scrapping of the Largo Torre Argentina stop, which serves crowded tourist sights such as the Pantheon.

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Getty Moves Closer to Returning an Ancient Statue to Italy

The J. Paul Getty Museum inched a step closer to relinquishing ownership of one of its most prized artifacts, a 2,400-year-old statue of a goddess claimed by Italy, at a conference of international experts to discuss the artifact this week, its director said.

The Getty has not reached a formal conclusion based on the conference, which was convened at the museum on Wednesday and was closed to the public. But museum officials and some of the experts who attended said their discussions buttressed what the museum says are its own suspicions that the statue, acquired by the Getty in 1988, might have been illegally excavated in southern Italy.

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Herodes - geschickter Diplomat und Friedensfürst

Es ist zwar Zufall, dass just wenige Tage nach der Entdeckung des vermutlichen Grabes von Herodes eine Publikation zu selbigem und seinen Beziehungen zum römisches Reich erscheint, doch wird diese mit Sicherheit das Bild dieses Königs präzisieren.

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Die Antike kopiert

Die Antike und was man dafür hielt, prägte entscheidend die Epoche des Klassizismus. Die Antikenbegeisterung jener Zeit ließ Keramikmanufakturen entstehen, die sich auf die Nachahmung antiker Vasen spezialisierten und einen internationalen Markt bedienten. In der Sonderausstellung "Keramische Meisterwerke des Klassizismus aus Neapel" präsentiert das Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig eine Auswahl solcher klassizistischer Vasen aus der Sammlung der Familie von Boch und den Beständen der Stiftung Saarländischer Kulturbesitz.

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Excavations to start in July in Ancient City of Zeugma

Archaeological excavations will start on July 15th in the ancient city of Zeugma. Associate Prof. Kutalmis Gorkay of the Ankara University Department of Archaeology, who leads the excavations in the ancient city, said on Thursday that a 60-member team including 4 foreigners would participate in this year's excavations between July 15 and October 20.

During this year's excavations, Danae and Dionysos temples will be renovated, along with excavations in the Agora, he said, with findings to be displayed in the Gaziantep Archaeology Museum. "So far, we could unearth only 10 percent of the artifacts. The remaining 90 percent has still been under earth," he said in an interview with the Anatolia news agency. Gorkay said they aimed at making the ancient site an "archaeo-park."

Zeugma, an ancient city of Commagene, was unearthed in the southeastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. The ancient city was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 B.C. King Seleucus almost certainly named the city Seleucia after himself. The population in the city was approximately 80,000.

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Novgorod archaeologists: Scouts reburied medieval remains

The mass grave of elders, women and children found in Shimsky District Novgorod Region, Russia, is dated back to 13-14th centuries, a REGNUM correspondent was told today at Novgorod Antiquity Club. According to the archaeologists, the grave is a medieval “zhalnik” (a Slavic grave). The experts say the grave was not made at a time: it was a cemetery that grew stage by stage.

The archaeologists say they knew long ago about the zhalnik. Since 1984, it has been under protection as a federal archaeological site and listed in the register of Novgorod Region historical and cultural sites, “Absence of coordination of archaeologists and the scouts from Dolina expedition resulted in serious damage to the grave,” the experts said.

As REGNUM reported earlier, the Dolina scouts found a grave near the village of Khotyn last autumn, and several days ago they exhumed the remains. On May 6, remains of 32 children and 56 women and elderly people were reburied in the village of Malye Ugorody. The scouts suppose that there was a mass shooting or burning of people on the same place in the Great Patriotic War.

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Out of Africa theory 'correct'

The theory that all modern humans descended out of Africa is almost certainly correct, new research claims.

According to the 'Out of Africa' theory, all modern humans come from a single group of Homo sapiens who emigrated from Africa 2,000 generations ago and spread throughout Europe and Asia over thousands of years.

They then replaced other early human settlers, such as Neanderthals, rather than interbreeding with them.

Some scientists have said that there is evidence which dispels this theory, but a new study claims that its DNA evidence proves Out of Africa to be true.

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Group threatens legal action over Tara

An environmental group warned today it would begin new legal proceedings to have work on the M3 motorway halted if sufficient action was not taken to preserve the recently discovered monument at Lismullen in the Tara-Skryne valley.

If the Minister for the Environment Dick Roche issues directions to allow the motorway between Navan and Dunshaughlin go through the site there will be litigation, TaraWatch spokesman Vincent Salafia said.

Archaeologists with the National Roads Authority (NRA) believe the circular enclosure - dating from the late Bronze or early Iron Age - may be a sister site to the Hill of Tara which is located 2km away.

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King Herod's tomb discovered in hilltop palace

An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod after a 35-year search. It is in the ruins of Herod's fortified palace on a hilltop outside Jerusalem.

The discovery was made in Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the desert east of Jerusalem, by Professor Ehud Netzer, one of the world's leading experts on Herod. He began concentrating his search on the palace in Herodium in 1972. But although most historians and archaeologists remained convinced that Herod was buried there, up until now no substantial evidence had been found.

Professor Netzer had been working on his search for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who had wanted to keep the discovery secret until today, when they planned to make the announcement in a press conference.

But late last night, the university released its preliminary details of the find on its website after the news was broken by the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.

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Archaeologist Finds Tomb of King Herod

JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.

The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.

The university had hoped to keep the find a secret until Tuesday, when it planned a news conference to disclose the find in detail, but the Haaretz newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 40 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem still stands, and he also ordered big construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Massada and other sites.

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Archaeologist Finds Tomb of King Herod

JERUSALEM (AP) - An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, Hebrew University said late Monday.

The tomb is at a site called Herodium, a flattened hilltop in the Judean Desert, clearly visible from southern Jerusalem. Herod built a palace on the hill, and researchers discovered his burial site there, the university said.

The university had hoped to keep the find a secret until Tuesday, when it planned a news conference to disclose the find in detail, but the Haaretz newspaper found out about the discovery and published an article on its Web site.

Herod became the ruler of the Holy Land under the Romans around 40 B.C. The wall he built around the Old City of Jerusalem still stands, and he also ordered big construction projects in Caesaria, Jericho, the hilltop fortress of Massada and other sites.

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Tomb of King Herod discovered in West Bank

Archaeologists in Israel claim to have unearthed the tomb of King Herod.

King Herod
Herod the Great

Pieces of an elaborate sarcophagus believed to contain Herod’s remained were found at Herodium, a mesa rising more than 750 metres above sea level around 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank.

Herod built a palace on the flattened hilltop and it was long thought that he was buried on the site, but years of excavations failed to find his burial spot.

"Three weeks ago we found the sarcophagus and we knew that it was it," said Ehud Netzer, a professor of archaeology at Hebrew University, who led the digs and has been working at the site for three decades.

"The location and unique nature of the findings, as well as the historical record, leave no doubt that this was Herod's burial site.”

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King Herod's grave uncovered in hilltop fortress

Archaeologists have unearthed the grave of King Herod the Great, the ruler of Jerusalem who attempted to kill Jesus soon after his birth, it was announced today.

Professor Ehud Netzer, of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, said that he had finally located the king's last resting place in Herodium, Herod's fortified palace on a hilltop outside Jerusalem, after a 35-year search.

"This is significant because of Herod's importance to Christianity and Judaisim and the number of buildings he left behind," he said.

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King Herod's ancient tomb 'found'

An Israeli archaeologist says he has found the tomb of King Herod, the ruler of Judea while it was under Roman administration in the first century BC.

After a search of more than 30 years, Ehud Netzer of the Hebrew University says he has located the tomb at Herodium, a site south of Jerusalem.

Herod was noted in the New Testament for his Massacre of the Innocents.

Told of Jesus' birth, Herod ordered all children under two in Bethlehem to be killed, the Gospel of Matthew said.

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Archaeologists unearth King Herod's tomb

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An ancient staircase used in a royal funeral procession led an Israeli archaeologist to solve a 2,000-year-old mystery, the location of the tomb of the Roman-anointed "King of the Jews," Herod the Great.

Hebrew University archaeologist Ehud Netzer said on Tuesday he had found the sarcophagus of the king, who ruled Judea from about 37 BC until his death in 4 BC, had been smashed, most likely by Jews who rebelled against Rome from 66 to 72 AD.

Speaking at a news conference a day after the university announced the discovery, Netzer said the monarch's remains most likely disappeared when the rebels raided the tomb at Herodium, where Herod's fortress palace once stood, near Jerusalem.

Herod has a special place in biblical history.

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Fragmentary Knowledge

Was the Antikythera Mechanism the world’s first computer?

In October, 2005, a truck pulled up outside the National Archeological Museum in Athens, and workers began unloading an eight-ton X-ray machine that its designer, X-Tek Systems of Great Britain, had dubbed the Bladerunner. Standing just inside the National Museum’s basement was Tony Freeth, a sixty-year-old British mathematician and filmmaker, watching as workers in white T-shirts wrestled the Range Rover-size machine through the door and up the ramp into the museum. Freeth was a member of the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project—a multidisciplinary investigation into some fragments of an ancient mechanical device that were found at the turn of the last century after two thousand years in the Aegean Sea, and have long been one of the great mysteries of science.

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Ancient Gladiator Mosaic Found in Roman Villa

A newly discovered mosaic might depict a "superstar" gladiator—a fighter who won the hearts of the people much like Maximus, the general-turned-fighter played by Russell Crowe in the 2000 film Gladiator.

Archaeologists discovered the image of the ancient brawler just outside Rome at the residence of Emperor Commodus. The movie version of Commodus, played by actor Joaquin Phoenix, was Maximus' enemy.

Researchers say the pictured fighter was probably a star gladiator fancied by the real Commodus, who was an enthusiast of blood sports.

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Archaeologists discover the real Roman Gladiator Maximus

Archaeologists have discovered a new mosaic depicting a superstar gladiator, who won the hearts of the people, much like Maximus, the general-turned-fighter played by Russell Crowe in the movie Gladiator.

Archaeologists have discovered a new mosaic depicting a superstar gladiator, who won the hearts of the people, much like Maximus, the general-turned-fighter played by Russell Crowe in the movie 'Gladiator'.

The image was discovered just outside Rome at the residence of Emperor Commodus.

The movie version of Commodus, played by actor Joaquin Phoenix, was Maximus' enemy.

Researchers say the pictured fighter was probably a star gladiator fancied by the real Commodus, who was an enthusiast of blood sports.

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Modern Man, Neanderthals seen as kindred spirits

Researchers have long debated what happened when the indigenous Neanderthals of Europe met 'modern humans' arriving from Africa starting some 40,000 years ago. The end result was the disappearance of the Neanderthals, but what happened during the roughly 10,000 years that the two human species shared a land? A new review of the fossil record from that period has come up with a provocative conclusion: The two groups saw each other as kindred spirits and, when conditions were right, they mated.

In his latest work, published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Trinkaus, of Washington University in St. Louis, analyzed prehistoric fossil remains from various parts of Europe. He concluded that a significant number have attributes associated with both Neanderthals and the modern humans who replaced them. "Given the data we now have, it would be highly improbable to argue there is no Neanderthal contribution to the early European population that came out of Africa," Trinkaus said. "I believe there was continuous breeding between the two for some period of time."

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Study: prehistoric man had sex for fun

New research into Stone Age humans has argued that, far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun. Various sex practices were widespread in primitive societies as a way of building up cultural ties. According to the study, a 30,000-year-old statue of a naked woman - the Venus of Willendorf - and an equally ancient stone phallus found in a German cave, provide the earliest direct evidence that sex was about far more than babies.

Timothy Taylor, reader in archeology at Bradford University, reviewed evidence from dozens of archeological finds and scientific studies for his research. "The widespread lay belief that sex in the past was predominantly heterosexual and reproductive can be challenged," said Taylor. He argues that monogamy only became established as hunter-gatherer societies took up agriculture and settled in houses, allowing the social roles of men and women to become more fixed.

Experts believe research such as Taylor's may help overturn false assumptions that sex for the purposes of reproduction is the form closest to nature. Petra Boynton, a relationship counselor and health lecturer at University College, London, found the study 'refreshing.' "So much evolutionary theory promotes the idea that humans, particularly women, are preprogrammed for monogamy, but that is often simply overlaying science on a pre-existing view of society," she said.

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Ancient pips reveal thirst for pleasures of the vine

Gastroarchaeology, the study of our ancestors’ cooking and eating habits, has a long history. Based initially on animal bones, the recent systematic recovery of plant remains and even coprolites – fossilised faeces – has led to a more broad-based understanding of ancient diets.

Our earliest forebears seem to have scavenged for meat from carnivore kills, collected fruits and seeds, and grubbed for roots: some ten millennia ago people in the Middle East began to grow wheat, barley, lentils and other cereals and pulses, and domesticated sheep, goats, cattle and pigs to eat, and then for milk, cheese, and wool. In the Americas, maize was the staple crop, while few animals were domesticated, even by the time of the Spanish Conquest.

Several recent studies have expanded our understanding: in northern Greece, a burnt-down house has preserved what are claimed to be the oldest known grapes, and the earliest evidence for wine.

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Digging in...

PEOPLE in York were getting in touch with the past during a public open day at an archaeological site.

York Archaeological Trust (YAT) is excavating the Hungate site in a bid to uncover the layers of history behind this major part of the city centre - and on Saturday YAT archaeologists were showing off their findings.

YAT will be digging the area, which lies to the east of the city centre, by the River Foss, until 2012.

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Historically Important Greek Stele Inscriptions Unveiled

The Israel Museum unveiled a unique 2,200-year-old stele (inscribed stone block) on May 3 that provides new insight into the dramatic story of Heliodorus and the Temple in Jerusalem, as related in the Second Book of Maccabees.

"The Heliodorus stele is one of the most important and revealing Hellenistic inscriptions from Israel," said James S. Snyder, Anne and Jerome Fisher Director of the Israel Museum.

"It contextualizes the Second Book of Maccabees and provides an independent and authentic source for an important episode in the history leading up to the Maccabean Revolt, whose victorious conclusion is celebrated each year during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah."

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Climate Change, Not Humans, Trounced Neanderthals

Neanderthals disappeared from Earth more than 20,000 years ago, but figuring out why continues to challenge anthropologists. One team of scientists, however, now says they have evidence to back climate change as the main culprit.

The Iberian Peninsula, better known as present-day Spain and Portugal, was one of the last Neanderthal refuges. Many scientists have thought that out-hunting by Homo sapiens and interbreeding with them brought Neanderthals to their demise, but climate change has also been proposed.

Francisco Jiménez-Espejo, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Granada in Spain, says a lack of evidence has left climate change weakly supported—until now. “We put data behind the theory,” he said, filling in a large gap in European climate records when Neanderthals faded out of existence.

The scientists’ study is detailed in a recent issue of Quaternary Science Reviews.

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Builders move in at castle

Stafford Castle is undergoing a major £100,000 renovation project.

Work to create a new visitors entrance and to restore the west wing has just started at the popular tourist attraction.

It is anticipated that the new entrance will be completed in time to coincide with the first Stafford Festival Shakespeare performance of Much Ado About Nothing on June 28.

Workers will be on site for the next couple of months restoring the main wall to the west of the castle, which faces the M6 motorway.

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Native American DNA found in UK

DNA testing has uncovered British descendents of Native Americans brought to the UK centuries ago as slaves, translators or tribal representatives.

Genetic analysis turned up two white British women with a DNA signature characteristic of American Indians.

An Oxford scientist said it was extremely unusual to find these DNA lineages in Britons with no previous knowledge of Native American ancestry.

Indigenous Americans were brought over to the UK as early as the 1500s.

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Arrogance and Ineptitude led to M3 Debacle

After the recent announcement of the discovery of a National Monument at Lismullen, the Campaign to Save Tara is calling for any decision on the future of the Henge to be postponed until the Election is over. As far back as 2001 a Government funded research project reported that the whole area around the Hill of Tara comprised a 'mosaic of monuments' and should be considered as a whole and interconnected archaeological landscape. During the preparation for the Environmental Impact Statement, the NRA’s own archaeological advisors stated: ‘The monuments around Tara cannot be viewed in isolation, or as individual sites, but must be seen in the context of an intact archaeological landscape, which should not under any circumstances be disturbed, in terms of visual or direct impact on the monuments themselves.’ (Margaret Gowan and Co. Ltd, Navan to Dunshaughlan Route Selection, August 2000, paragraph 7.3)

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Bones clue to life and death of gladiators

Remarkable details of how Roman gladiators fought each other - and how a cowardly combatant would be put to death - have emerged after the discovery of a dedicated graveyard for those who died in the public arena.

The find, the first of its kind in the Roman world, has been made at Ephesus, now in Turkey, but the capital of western Asia under Rome.

Archaeologists have found three gravestones depicting armed gladiators and thousands of bones - almost all from men aged between 20 and 30 and bearing signs of injury from weapons. Tell-tale nicks on vertebrae appear to confirm accounts suggested on carved panels that a combatant who had shown little skill, or even cowardice, would be despatched after his fight by kneeling so that a sword could be rammed down his throat into his heart.

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BONES OF 20 SKELETONS FOUND AT SITE

Twenty skeletons - thought to be more than 300 years old - have been unearthed on a Plymouth building site.Archaeologists have spent the past two weeks digging up the bones on the former Crescent Cars site at the junction of Athenaeum Street and Notte Street, in the city centre.

They originally thought there were just four sets of bones on the site - but now they realise they have discovered an entire burial ground.

The first set of bones was found by contractors working on the site, however digs and investigations by experts from Exeter Archaeology have since been carried out.

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Roman ring gives clue to buried treasure

A SILVER Roman ring found in a field in Cottered may indicate that a treasure hoard could be buried on the edge of Buntingford.

The Roman 'Empire ring', right, dating from the 1st-3rd centuries and made of solid silver, was discovered by a metal detector in the same field and on the same day as a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age penannular ring.

It is believed more ancient artefacts were found during the same hunt, on August 6, 2006.

Coroner Edward Thomas declared the find to be treasure.

He said that a report from Dr Ralph Jackson, curator of Romano-British collections at the British Museum, revealed that it was only the fourth ring of its kind found in Britain, two of which are on display in the museum.

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Ireland Halts Tara Valley Highway Work After Archeological Find

Ireland's government halted work on a highway passing less than a mile from the Hill of Tara, the site of a 5,000-year-old passage tomb, burial grounds and ancient stone monuments after the remains of an enclosure were discovered on the route.

``Everybody knew that this route was destined to destroy the landscape of Tara if it went ahead,'' the Campaign to Save Tara group said in a statement late yesterday welcoming the halt. Work had begun a day earlier.

The 37-mile (60-kilometer) road, intended to ease congestion in towns on a commuter route to Dublin, will run through the Skryne Valley next to Tara. Opponents say the road, in particular a 34-acre (14-hectare) floodlit intersection north of the hill, will ruin the landscape and destroy many archeological sites.

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Gauner, Gräber und Gelehrte

Gauner, Gräber und Gelehrte. Antikenraub und Archäologie im Lichte der aktuellen Gesetzeslage, so lautet der Titel eines Kolloquiums das am 5. Mai 2007 an der Universität Frankfurt stattfindet.

Veranstaltet vom Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften der Universität Frankfurt wird auf der eintägigen Tagung das Problem des Antikenraubs und des illegalen Handels nicht nur von archäologischer Seite beschrieben, sondern auch unter juristischen und polizeilichen Aspekten beleuchtet.

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