Summer Archaeological Project in the Republic of Macedonia: 2008

2005 was the first season of a highly successful collaboration between St. Louis Community College (SLCC) and archaeologists at the Museum of Skopje. The second and third seasons were conducted during summers of 2006 and 2007; both the second and third seasons were very successful. The fourth season will be conducted during the summer of 2008. We will be working side-by-side with Kiro Ristov (Skopje Museum) and approximately a dozen archaeology students from universities in the Republic of Macedonia. The program allows students to participate in exciting educational activities involving archaeology and art history. This is an international service learning project. Numerous field excursions will punctuate the academic program. Participants will earn six hours of academic credit. The course may be audited.

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Digging for history

Archaeologists have begun to search for hidden historical treasures on a site that will house a new Otley supermarket.

The dig, pictured, on land behind the abattoir off Bondgate, earmarked for the new Sainsbury's superstore, began on Monday and is due to last for around five weeks. It follows an exploratory dig which uncovered evidence of habitation, including pottery and a surfaced footpath from Roman times.

The West Yorkshire Archaeological Services team hopes to find more evidence to piece together a better picture of the early history of Otley.

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Data: cave bears ate berries, roots, each other

Our primitive cave-dwelling ancestors did not have to deal with dangerous dinosaurs, despite Hollywood portrayals to the contrary, but they did have to stay clear of saber toothed cats, dire wolves, giant man-eating birds of prey and cave bears a third larger than modern grizzlies.

Scientists used to think cave bears were vegetarians that mostly fed on berries and roots. But, now bones from the Carpathian mountains suggest cave bears could have also been carnivores, and possibly even cannibals.

Cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) are named after the places where their bones are commonly found — caves across Europe. They died out roughly 20,000 years ago, when ice dominated the Earth.

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Unearthing city's vibrant past one tiny piece at a time

HE air was thick with the stench of animals, the din of horses braying and traders raising the volume as they yelled to attract custom.
It was market day and everyone would be vying to get the best prices for their goods in the square surrounded by ale houses.

The rowdy scene would have been typical of market day in the Grassmarket in 18th-century Edinburgh.

As far back as the late 15th century, it is known that the Grassmarket was a thriving place, where corn and livestock were bought and sold several days a week. Yet little was known about what happened in the area before that time – until now.

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Recently discovered bones suggest cave bears could have been meat eaters

Our ancestors had lots of predators and competitors to worry about — saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and even giant man-eating birds of prey.

Now you can add cave bears to that list. These prehistoric giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears.

Previously scientists thought cave bears were just vegetarians, evoking an image of gentle giants that fed solely on berries and roots. Now bones from the Carpathians — the mountains where Dracula supposedly dwelt — suggest cave bears could have also been carnivores, and possibly even cannibals.

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Ancient Roman road gets virtual life

All roads lead to Rome, even virtual ones.

A museum on Tuesday unveiled a virtual reconstruction of one of the bustling arteries that led into ancient Rome, allowing visitors to wander through rebuilt monuments and interact with the city's political elite.

Using a concept similar to that of online virtual worlds, the project creates characters, or avatars, that roam the ancient Via Flaminia, exploring funerary monuments that lined the road, bridges and arches. They can also roam through the villa belonging to Livia, wife of Rome's first emperor, Augustus.

The avatars also can switch between the splendor of ancient Rome and a virtual tour of the monuments as they look today: fragile ruins on the outskirts of the Italian capital.

In this way, the project gives access to sites that are off the beaten track for tourists, difficult to visit or surrounded by the traffic of the modern-day Via Flaminia, which often overlaps the ancient Roman road, experts said.

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Archaeological dig at cathedral

PREPARATIONS for this year's celebrations of Salisbury Cathedral's 750th anniversary have continued apace, with an archaeological dig taking place inside the cathedral to allow a new specially-designed font to be installed.

The purpose of the dig is to ascertain whether the reservoir, pump housing, water supply and drainage for the new font, which was designed by William Pye, can be installed under the cathedral's floor.

It is believed that when the main body of the Cathedral was completed in 1258 the nave may have been paved in Purbeck Marble. Records state that this was replaced in 1878, at a cost of £1250, during the restoration work undertaken by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

The archaeological explorations being undertaken will investigate any surviving evidence of an earlier floor, record any burial features found below the floor and attempt to tie them to the adjacent ledger slabs, which themselves may have been moved when the floor was relaid in 1878.

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Roman fort is revealed by work at water plant

A 2,000-YEAR-OLD Roman fort has been uncovered on the site of a new £60 million water treatment plant.
The remains of the camp were found during work on the Glencorse plant on the edge of the Pentland Hills Regional Park in Midlothian.

It is hoped the find will yield clues on how the Romans organised their occupation of the area in the first century AD.

The site is thought to be a Roman marching camp and is part of a network of bases, watchtowers and camps across lowland Scotland.

Historians had suspected there were Roman remains at Glencorse from studying aerial photographs, but this is the first evidence to be found.

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Historiker dokumentieren regionale klösterliche Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte

Ein Klosterbuch für Schleswig-Holstein und Hamburg wird jetzt an der Kieler Universität geschrieben. Darin werden erstmals alle 48 Klöster, Stifte und Domkapitel in den ehemaligen Herzogtümern Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg und den Hansestädten Lübeck und Hamburg in einem Werk geschichtlich aufbereitet. Den zeitlichen Rahmen bilden die Anfänge der Christianisierung im 9. Jahrhundert und die Reformation im 16. Jahrhundert, in deren Verlauf die Einrichtungen aufgelöst wurden.

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Water plant work digs up evidence of Roman fort

A 2000-YEAR-OLD Roman fort has been uncovered on the site of a new £60 million treatment plant for the Capital's drinking water.

The remains of the camp were discovered during preparations for the Glencorse works on the edge of the Pentland Hills Regional Park.

It is hoped the find will give archaeologists further clues about how the Romans organised their occupation of the Lothians in the first century AD.

The site is thought to be a Roman marching camp and is part of a network of other bases, watchtowers and camps across lowland Scotland.

Historians had suspected there were Roman remains at Glencorse from studying aerial photographs, but this is the first actual evidence to be found.

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ANCIENT ROMAN PAN OFFERS VALUABLE INSIGHTS AT ARBEIA ROMAN FORT

An ancient Roman pan, which was made sometime after AD 122 but was only uncovered in 2003, is to go on display at Arbeia Roman Fort on Saturday January 5 2007.

Unearthed by a man using a metal detector in the Staffordshire Moorlands, the pan is a tiny cast copper-alloy bowl missing its base and handle and shows exceptional craftsmanship.

It will go on display until April 27 2008 alongside a selection of enamelled finds from Arbeia, and staff hope it will offer visitors valuable insights into the history of Hadrian’s Wall as Alex Croom, Senior Keeper of Archaeology and Curator at Arbeia Roman Fort, explained.

“Although the pan is a small object, it can tell us a great deal about life on Hadrian’s Wall,” said Alex. “The inscription on the pan names four of the westernmost forts of the Wall; it is the earliest naming of the fort Congabata.”

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Archaeologists find thousands of items after Prague flat fire

Archaeologists have found thousands of mainly metal historical items in a burnt down flat in Prague, Miroslav Dobes from the Academy of Sciences' Archaeological Institute, who is exploring the finds, has told CTK.

The extensive collection includes prehistoric stone axes, Germanic bronze buckles, arrow tips, fragments of weapons, parts of armour as well as medieval spurs.

Nevertheless, their scientific value is negligible since concrete localities where the finds come from are unknown.

Dobes said the collection resulted from illegal activities of amateur "metal hunters" not only in the Czech Republic, but maybe in other central European countries.

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Furness home to Viking burial site?

FURNESS archaeologists believe a metal detector enthusiast might have stumbled on an important Viking burial site after unearthing an ornate merchant's weight.

The man was pottering around Low Furness farmland before Christmas when his detector's bleeping led him to a piece of lead 20cm beneath the soil, reports Jennie Dennett.

When it was unearthed, a 70g weight, 42mm long piece inlaid with an ornate bronze and enamel design depicting what look like entwined mythic beasts and two men with crossed swords emerged. The pattern indicates that it dates back to between AD 1030 and AD 1130.

It has already been described by The British Museum as a "remarkable" find and is setting Viking historians abuzz since it could challenge the textbook theories on the kind of Scandinavian raiders who put down their roots in Cumbria.

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ROMAN GARDEN TAKES SHAPE AT WALES' NATIONAL ROMAN LEGION MUSEUM AT CAERLEON

Once a Roman stronghold where military features were part of the landscape, Wales’ National Roman Legion Museum at Caerleon will soon have a new, more floral and ornamental Roman feature.

Work is underway on a new Roman style garden at the museum, inspired by gardens from around the Roman Empire with traditional elements such as pergolas, ornate raised flower beds, box hedging and frescoes.

“We have been looking forward to starting work on the Roman garden for some time,” said Dai Price, Museum Manager, “and we are developing a range of resources and interpretation to help visitors find out more about Roman horticulture and its uses in everyday life.”

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Can Ice Age art survive Man’s attempt to save it?

The survival of the most important cave paintings in the world is in doubt because of a severe fungal infection that spread after an air-circulation system was installed to protect them, archaeologists say.

The 17,000-year-old paintings known as “the Sistine Chapel of pre-history” - the Lascaux cave in the Dordogne region of southwest France - are being damaged by black spots that are spreading at an alarming rate. Fragments of the cave walls have broken off and some colour tones are fading. Now Unesco is sending a delegation of specialists to the cave to determine whether it should be placed on its World Heritage in Danger list.

The paintings were discovered in 1940 by four teenagers who followed their dog into a large hole that had opened under the roots of a fallen pine tree. The extraordinary images of bulls, deer and horses have survived since the last Ice Age but are now being damaged by a bacterial and fungal infection. The deterioration is blamed on what the archaeologists describe as an “ill-conceived and disastrous” air-circulation system that was installed seven years ago.

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Neanderthals Stitched Too Little Too Late

Neanderthals probably froze to death in the last ice age because rapid climate change caught them by surprise without the tools needed to make warm clothes, finds new research.

Ian Gilligan, a postgraduate researcher from the Australian National University argues his case in the current issue of the journal World Archaeology. By the time some Neanderthals developed sewing tools it was too little too late, said Gilligan.

Neanderthals began to die out just before the last glacial maximum, 35,000 to 30,000 years ago and were replaced by modern humans. Previous studies have argued that one of the key reasons for this is that modern humans had better hunting tools, providing them with the extra food they needed to survive the cold.

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Grisly discovery of headless bodies gives insight into justice Saxon style

ONCE they were spectacular resting places to honour the dead.
But with pagan Britain's conversion to Christianity, the Bronze Age burial mounds came to be regarded with suspicion as places where devils and dragons lurked.

It was at one such site in East Yorkshire that the Anglo-Saxons chose to bury the worst kind of criminals, away from hallowed ground, leaving their heads to rot on stakes.

The latest archaeological techniques have now thrown a new light on an eerie cemetery – the only one so far discovered north of the Humber – where the decapitated bodies of executed criminals were laid to rest.

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Roman camp is found at Glencorse

AN unexpected historical discovery has been made at Scottish Water's site at Glencorse, near Penicuik — a Roman marching camp nearly 2000 years old.
The revelation has provided another clue as to how the Romans organised their occupation of the Lothians.

It had not been confirmed whether the site was, in fact, a Roman marching camp, which had previously only been suggested by aerial photographs.

Scottish Water's stakeholder manager for the Glencorse Water Treatment Works Project Kenny Naylor said: "We carry out a detailed site investigation on all sites as a matter of course, and found a change in the soil when we were digging the ground.

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Georgians lay claim to 'first Europeans'

Dmanisi, Georgia - Back in 1991, when archaeologists first unearthed a human jaw bone in these rolling hills, few in the outside world had even heard of tiny Georgia.

The idea that an ex-Soviet republic collapsing in civil war and poverty could be an integral part of the West was laughable.

Then scientists determined the jawbone and dozens of other fragments to be at least 1.7 million years old - the earliest human remains discovered outside Africa and therefore, logically, the ancestors of all Europe and Asia.

"It was a sensation," said Nana Rezesidze, an archaeologist from Georgia's State Museum, at the forested dig site, located on a hillside overlooking a grey-blue mountain river.

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Bedeutende Gottesdarstellung in der Türkei gefunden

Einen herausragenden Fund hat das internationale Team um Prof. Dr. Engelbert Winter von der Forschungsstelle Asia Minor der WWU Münster in der Südosttürkei gemacht: Die Forscher haben die erste bildliche Darstellung einer der wichtigsten orientalischen Gottheiten des Römischen Reichs, des Gottes von Doliche, in seiner Heimatstadt freigelegt. Der Fund ist für die Erforschung der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Doliche-Kultes von großer Bedeutung, da er eine Vorstellung davon vermittelt, wie der Gott in seiner Heimat selbst gesehen wurde.

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