Public dig deep into city's past

PEOPLE got stuck into history as they unlocked the secrets of an 800-year-old Manchester mill.

Hundreds helped strip away layers of stone and sediment from a Northenden car park to unveil a mill dating back to medieval times.

More than 1,200 volunteers worked on the challenge to uncover the corn mill off Mill Lane, which would have been powered by the nearby River Mersey.

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Wreck of 16th-century warship found off Cyprus

The remains of a Turkish ship believed to have taken part in the 1570 to 1571 Ottoman siege of Famagusta have been located off the Cyprus coast, it was reported on Sunday.

Three cannons, 25.4 centimeters (10 inches) in diameter, and an anchor were found by amateur divers 40 meters down in the Mediterranean off the city on the island's southeast coast, Politis newspaper said.

The find is believed to be the first of its kind.

Politis said that the ship had probably been part of the fleet of general Lala Mustafa, who lost 80,000 men before the walled city finally fell in July 1571 after a 10-month siege.

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Ancient Thracian city uncovered

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient Thracian town in Karlovo Municipality in Central Bulgaria, local media reported on Sunday.

Initial estimates dated it to the 5th century B.C., and remnants of the town's fortress wall have been unearthed.

The archaeologist will be looking for the residence of the ruler, supposed to have been a powerful Thracian king, reports said.

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Festival of History

English Heritage's big summer event, the Festival of History, takes places 12th/13th August at Kelmarsh Hall, Northamptonshire and last year was attended by over 17,000 people.

Please see http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/festivalofhistory/ for further details.

"This is an action-packed, fun and quality weekend, with the highlight event this year being a WW1 aerobatic display of dog fights in the skies above. We are also hosting a round of the Knights’ Tournament (www.english-heritage.org.uk/knights), a fast-pace competition which has been a big hit with the crowds at the two weekends already played this year. As well as these spectaculars, there will be a wide range of activities for children and families, with battle re-enactments, living history, music and dance, and Terry Jones heads up our celebrity lecture programme."

Scottish Archaeology Month

Scottish Archaeology Month is an annual event whcih happens every September in Scotland, and is broadly similar to National Archaeology Week in England.

This year there will be 300 events happening all accross Scotland. The link for this is 'scottisharchaeologymonth.com'.

The 2006 Events Guide will appear on the above website.

Go to the Council for Scottish Archaeology's homepage...

Rare Bronze Age axe unearthed in Orkney

Men working on a peat bank in Orphir have unearthed an 'outstanding' example of a late Bronze Age socketed axe – believed to be only the second found in Orkney to date. The find is particularly exciting, given the comparative scarcity of Bronze Age artefacts in the county.

Michael Watt discovered the 3,000-year-old axe head while spreading peats at the Highland Park's Hobbister peat bank. Initially, it was thought that the peat-encrusted object was an old tractor part, but once its significance was realised it was passed to Scott Chalmers, whose father, Jim, took it to the archaeology department in Orkney College.

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Keros enigma cracked

Archaeologists say they have discovered a 4,500-year-old ceremonial centre, the oldest ritual site in Greece. Excavations resumed for a few weeks this summer at Dhaskalio Kavos on the tiny island of Keros, after a lull of nearly 20 years. The problem with the site had been that it was disturbed by looters, who made a lucrative trade in the 1960s of the now famous minimalist Cycladic figurines. As a result, archaeologists could never be sure whether fragments of the Cycladic statuettes had been smashed in antiquity or more recently by smugglers.

That puzzle has now been solved by this year's excavation on an undisturbed patch of the site dating to 2,500 BCE. "All the material found was already broken in fragments before it became buried in ancient times. Moreover, the rarity of joining pieces (as well as the different degree of weathering of the fragments) makes clear that they were broken elsewhere and that they were brought, already in fragmentary form," says an announcement from the team of Greek and British archaeologists who head the dig.

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Oldest Thracian Town Discovered

Sensational archeological finding near the village of Vassil Levski, Karlovo region, central Bulgaria is expected to attract thousands of tourists. "The oldest Thracian city with a large royal residence dating back to over 2500 ago was discovered," said archeologist Kostadin Kissiov. He is the leader of the excavation works with the Museum of Archeology in Bulgaria's second largest city of Plovdiv. We started a year ago but it is now that our efforts were rewarded with a finding that has no match, Kissiov thinks. He dates the site to the 5th century BC. It spreads on the vast for its time area of 2.5 ha. This is the oldest Thracian settlement ever found. The other similar town is Sevtopolis that is now on the bottom of Koprinka dam, at five kilometers from the town of Kazanlak, central Bulgaria.

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Ancient Beauty Unearthed

A unique statue depicting a female figure, probably the finest the land of Thessaly has brought to light, was unearthed Thursday at Larissa’s Ancient Theatre during restoration works.

The headless statue depicts goddess Artemis and probably dates back to the mid-1st century BC. A short tunic is wrapped around the statue with an animals’ skin on top, while the main body is richly decorated.

Archaeologist and Director of Larissa’s XV Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities Athanasios Tzafalias, who is supervising the excavation works, ranked it among the finest statues ever created in Ancient Thessaly.

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New home for ancient artefacts

Florence, July 7 - A rare collection of Greek, Roman and Etruscan finds went on public display this week, following renovation work at Florence's National Archaeological Museum .

Over 500 precious artefacts, previously kept in storage, are now housed on the second floor of the museum, located through 17 rooms .

"The second floor was actually restructured around ten years ago but until now has only been used to house temporary exhibits," said Carlotta Cianferoni of the museum director's office .

"This reopening will showcase pieces that have long been locked away in the warehouses. They reflect the history of the museum itself, and its growth and development within Palazzo della Crocetta" .

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Roman site open for two days only

AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL site will be open for one weekend.

Residents are invited to visit the Roman Bathhouse, Poverest Road, Orpington.

The site, which was excavated in the 1970s, will be opened by Bromley Museum next weekend as part of National Archaeology Week.
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There will be guided tours and children will have the opportunity to try out activities, including excavating genuine Roman finds and trying on costumes.

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SEARCH ON FOR SECRETS OF LOST BISHOP'S PALACE

Archaeologists from throughout the UK will team up with Aberdeenshire volunteers and students from as far afield as the US this month to uncover further traces of a lost bishop's palace.

Penny Dransart, of the University of Wales at Lampeter, who is leading the annual dig at the centuries-old palace site near Kemnay, said good progress was already being made in a new area where work began last summer.

Together with the late Nicholas Bogdan, of Oldmeldrum, Ms Dransart started excavations beside the ruins of Fetternear House in 1994.

The work uncovered the remains of the Palace of Fetternear, created by Alexander Kininmonth while he was Bishop of Aberdeen between 1329 and 1341.

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Massive earthquake destroyed ancient city of Anamurium, say scientists

The ancient city of Anamurium, located west of Mersin's Anamur district, was destroyed by a massive earthquake in the sixth century, scientists working at the site announced on Wednesday.

Professor Selim İnan of Mersin University said in a written statement that four fault lines in the triangle formed by the Mut, Ermenek and Anamur districts had been identified during studies conducted over the last two years with Professor Nurdan İnan.

İnan said the research revealed strong evidence that the ancient city was destroyed by an earthquake that occurred on the continuation of the Namrun fault line, which constitutes the southwest end of the Ecemiş fault line.

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Project to assess significance of Waterford Viking site

Heritage Minister Dick Roche today gave the go-ahead for a project to investigate the significance of a major Viking site in Co Waterford.

The site at Woodtown was discovered in 2003 during archaeological investigations ahead of construction of the N25 Waterford Bypass.

An interim report on the find has concluded that not enough is known as yet about the discovery to properly assess its significance and historical importance.

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Medieval badge found at Aberdeen Kirk

Archaeologists have unearthed a rare medieval badge in the grounds of an ancient church. The pewter badge was uncovered during excavations at the Kirk of St Nicholas in Aberdeen's city centre.

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Volunteers dig for history

ARCHAEOLOGISTS searching for the ruins of an Anglo-Saxon castle at North End Park, Driffield, have unearthed Roman and medieval remains.

Driffield archaeologist Simon Weaver has been commissioned by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council to carry out a dig in a bid to form a greater understanding of the area.

The team of volunteers, who have been working since last Wednesday, have already uncovered plain-coloured shards of Roman and medieval pottery and found what they believe could be ruins of a late-Norman tower.

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EARLY CHRISTIAN CEMETERY FOUND IN EXCAVATIONS?

A burial ground, the foundations of medieval castle buildings and a chapel have all been discovered by archaeologists carrying out an excavation in Exeter. The human remains date to before the construction of Rougemont Castle by William the Conqueror in 1068 and could represent an early Christian cemetery.

Archaeologists from Exeter City Council are undertaking the four-week trenching at the castle courtyard to discover what remains of the former medieval building and of Roman and Saxon Exeter beneath it.

Any finds could go on public display and help in discussions with a new owner about the future use and landscaping of the courtyard.

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Hitch in Acropolis restoration

Restoration work on the Acropolis monuments has hit “another small delay” but this should not hinder the overall course of the project, Culture Minister Giorgos Voulgarakis said yesterday after touring the ancient site.

The ministry will release further funding, if necessary, to tackle the latest glitches, which have arisen in the Temple of Athena Nike and the Parthenon’s vestibule, Voulgarakis said. Since 1999, more than 28 million euros has been spent on restoring the Acropolis, the minister said, noting that 86 percent of these funds came from the European Union. Voulgarakis said cutting-edge technology would be used to analyze the condition of the Acropolis’s peripheral walls, which will also be restored.

Voulgarakis also expressed his satisfaction with the progress in construction of the New Acropolis Museum, which he said was ready for the return of the Parthenon Marbles (currently in the British Museum) and other fragments in other foreign museums. “Greece now has the infrastructure to accommodate all the missing parts of the Parthenon,” he said.

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Roots of human family tree are shallow

Whoever it was probably lived a few thousand years ago, somewhere in East Asia — Taiwan, Malaysia and Siberia all are likely locations. He — or she — did nothing more remarkable than be born, live, have children and die.

Yet this was the ancestor of every person now living on Earth — the last person in history whose family tree branches out to touch all 6.5 billion people on the planet today.

That means everybody on Earth descends from somebody who was around as recently as the reign of Tutankhamen, maybe even during the Golden Age of ancient Greece. There's even a chance that our last shared ancestor lived at the time of Christ.

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Rome's Ancient Sites Are at Eternal Peril

Weeds with stone-splitting roots. Relentless traffic belching pollution. Tourists trampling across the once palatial residences of emperors. Earthquakes and terrorism waiting to happen.

From the imposing stone bulk of the Colosseum to the romantic ruins of imperial luxury atop the Palatine Hill, the Eternal City's monuments, once pillaged by foreign conquerors, today face an array of perils old and new.

Rome's fragile ruins have the urgent attention of teams of monument "doctors," armed with such high-tech instruments as micro-cameras probing for weak spots.

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