WreckMap Britain 2006

Following a successful pilot scheme in 2005 the NAS will be running WreckMap Britain 2006 with the support of Seasearch, Crown Estates, PADI Project Aware and the British Sub-Aqua Jubilee Trust. Visit the NAS stand at LIDS (1st-2nd April 2006).

We hope to encourage as many of the 100,000 active divers in the UK as possible to participate as a part of their normal diving activities - just take a recording slate with you when you do a planned dive on a wreck site, record what you see and then report it back to us.

We are not expecting you to attempt a detailed and accurate survey during your dive. Rather, we would like you to record some basic, but specific, information about what you see and to make a simple, "swim-over" or profile sketch of the dive site (see example). A special Wreckmap Britain recording form has been prepared to assist you in recording the desired information.

Go to the website...

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."

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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...

Early signs of elephant butchers

Bones and tusks dating back 400,000 years are the earliest signs in Britain of ancient humans butchering elephants for meat, say archaeologists.

Remains of a single adult elephant surrounded by stone tools were found in northwest Kent during work on the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.

Scientists believe hunters used the tools to cut off the meat, after killing the animal with wooden spears.

The find is described in the Journal of Quaternary Science.

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Historic church in line for £500,000 restoration

A MINSTER in Yorkshire which dates from the 13th century is in line for £500,000 of restoration work.

The scheme to repair decaying stonework, rotting woodwork and a badly damaged roof at Howden Minster has been welcomed by the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu.
English Heritage will cover more than half of the £522,000 estimated cost, but the minster's finances will be exhausted by funding the balance.

The minster's Parochial Church Council has agreed to carry out work recommended by English Heritage that entails the restoration of the pinnacles and stonework of the west front.

Investigations into other parts of the building will establish priorities for the next phases of restoration

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Rare finds unearthed in city dig

A 13th Century well house and the stock of a wartime chemist's shop are among artefacts unearthed as part of an archaeological dig in Southampton.

The discoveries were made during a seven-month excavation at the French Quarter site in the city centre.

The dig has been carried out as part of plans to redevelop the area into flats, shops and offices.

Finds dating back 1,000 years to late Saxon times and rare pottery imports were also found, developers said.

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More on Bosnian "Pyramids"

In "Bosnian 'Pyramids' Update," which was posted on June 14, 2006, I commented on the news stories concerning geologist Aly Abd Alla Barakat, who was said to be from the Egyptian Mineral Resource Authority. According to the stories, Barakat declared that the hill was indeed a pyramid, though a "primitive" one. Was Barakat there officially? What was his expertise? The news stories said that he was "sent by Cairo" (Reuters, June 5) and that he was an "expert in pyramids" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, June 2). Barakat, we were told, had sent his report to Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, who had "recommended him to the foundation leading the excavation work" (Agence France-Presse, June 12). Taking it all together, you might believe that Barakat had been dispatched by Dr. Hawass. Could that be true?

Unable to confirm any of this, I asked Dr. Hawass directly. Concerning Barakat, he states: "Mr. Barakat, the Egyptian geologist working with Mr. Osmanagic, knows nothing about Egyptian pyramids. He was not sent by the SCA, and we do not support or concur with his statements." The supposed pyramid, Dr. Hawass says, is "evidently a natural geologic formation" and that "Apart from its general outline, this hill bears absolutely no resemblance to the Egyptian pyramids." He concludes that, "Mr. Osmanic's theories are purely hallucinations on his part, with no scientific backing."

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Out of Africa--with Worms

The latest tapeworm research suggests a time frame for human migration out of Africa, and also reveals that people gave the parasite to domestic animals such as pigs--not the other way around.

According to Eric P. Hoberg, a zoologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and his colleagues, tapeworms probably jumped from predators to humans between 2 and 2.5 million years ago, when hominids inhabited savannah environments in sub-Saharan Africa and were likely hunting or scavenging the same prey favored by hyenas and lions. Of the three tapeworms that infect people today, the researchers linked one, Taenia solium, most closely to a species that uses hyenas and African hunting dogs as its hosts. The other two, T. saginata and T. asiatica, are linked most closely to a species with lions as its host. Because T. solium and the pair T. saginata/T. asiatica are only distantly related, it appears that two tapeworms independently made the jump to hominids: the ancestor of T. solium, and a single parent species of both T. saginata and T. asiatica.

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Humans Gave Big Cats Ulcers

Early humans living in Africa's open savannahs probably made easy pickings for large predatory cats, but a new study suggests that at least one of the meals didn't sit well.
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A large cat dining on the entrails of one our early ancestors thousands of years ago contracted an ulcer-causing bacteria that spread to lions, cheetahs and tigers and which persists to this day, a new study concludes.

The strange finding will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal PLoS Genetics.

Too similar

Helicobacter pylori are bacteria that cause chronic stomach pains and ulcers in humans. Other animals, including non-human primates, are infected by other Helicobacter species that are only distantly related to H. pylori. The one exception is H. acinonychis, a microbe that infects large felines such as lions, tigers and cheetahs.

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FSU Etruscan expert announces historic discovery at ancient site

Digging on a remote hilltop in Italy, a Florida State University classics professor and her students have unearthed artifacts that dramatically reshape our knowledge of the religious practices of an ancient people, the Etruscans.

"We are excavating a monumental Etruscan building evidently dating to the final years of Etruscan civilization," said Nancy Thomson de Grummond, the M. Lynette Thompson Professor of Classics at FSU and director of the university's archaeology programs in Italy. Within the building, de Grummond's team located in early June what appears to be a sacrificial pit and a sanctuary -- finds remarkable for the wealth of items they are yielding that appear to have been used in religious rituals.

Nearly every summer since 1983, de Grummond has taken groups of FSU students into Italy's Tuscany region to participate in archaeological digs at Cetamura del Chianti, a site once inhabited by the Etruscans and ancient Romans. In the final days of this year's program, de Grummond and her students unearthed what she calls "the most thrilling" find she has seen in 23 years at Cetamura.

She explained that the Etruscans, who once ruled most of the Italian peninsula, were conquered and absorbed by the Romans in the second and first centuries B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era"). Prior to that time, however, they were a highly advanced civilization that constructed roads, buildings and sewer systems and developed the first true cities in Europe. They also built large, complex religious sanctuaries -- which may have been the purpose served, in part, by the Cetamura structure.

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European man 'worked on terracotta army tomb'

Archaeologists have unearthed evidence that a foreign worker helped build the terracotta army mausoleum, the resting place of China's first emperor, who died more than 2,200 years ago.

The remains of the worker, described as a European man in his 20s, were among 121 shattered skeletons in a labourers' tomb 500 metres from the mausoleum in the north-western city of Xian, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.

According to Xinhua, the man may be "China's first foreign worker", though it is unclear whether he was an employee or a slave of emperor Qin Shi Huang.

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Ancient Brazilian tribes 'charted the heavens'

Did the early indigenous peoples of the rainforest look to the stars to measure time and mark the passage of the seasons? Archaeologists believe they did.

This photograph shows what is being called the tropical Stonehenge, a grouping of 127 granite blocks, each 10ft high and spaced at regular intervals around a grassy hilltop in northern Brazil. On the winter solstice, 21 December, the shadow of one of the blocks disappears, leading experts to believe the formation was used as a calendar.

"Only a society with a complex culture could have built such a monument," said Mariana Petry Cabral, of the Amapa Institute of Scientific and Technological Research.

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France's Cluny Abbey restored

Cluny, France - Visitors to Cluny Abbey can now get a glimpse of life there 1 000 years ago thanks to a virtual tour of the church, once the biggest in Christendom, which was 90 percent destroyed some two centuries ago.

The 3-D tour is part of a major €20-million restoration project for the Benedictine abbey which in 2010 will celebrate its 1 100 birthday.

"People come here today to visit a ruined church and it is obviously out of the question that it should be rebuilt," said Jean-Paul Ciret, head of cultural development at France's national monuments body, Monum.

"So in order to make the monument more intelligible to people and to see what no longer exists we have turned to new technology."

Founded in 910, the church in central-eastern France was a major place of pilgrimage with the monastery becoming the most influential and prestigious in Europe from the 10th to 12th centuries.

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Did ancient Amazonians build a 'Stonehenge'?

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- A grouping of granite blocks along a grassy Amazon hilltop may be the vestiges of a centuries-old astronomical observatory -- a find archaeologists say indicates early rain forest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9 feet, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year -- December 21 -- the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.

"It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory," said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute.

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Historic brick castle is restored

A historic Leicestershire landmark has been restored in a project costing almost £500,000.

English Heritage brought in a firm of specialist conservation contractors to save Kirby Muxloe castle. It will re-open to the public on 1 July.

It has taken two years to restore the castle's brickwork and moat bridge.

Parts of the castle were built in 1480 for Lord Hastings. It was one of the earliest examples of the use of bricks in this country.

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'Tropical Stonehenge' found in Amazon

A Stonehenge-like grouping of granite blocks along a Brazilian Amazon hilltop may be the remains of a centuries-old astronomical observatory, experts say.

Archaeologists say the find indicates early rainforest inhabitants were more sophisticated than previously believed.

The 127 blocks, some as high as 9ft, are spaced at regular intervals around the hill, like a crown 100 feet in diameter.

On the shortest day of the year - December 21 - the shadow of one of the blocks disappears when the sun is directly above it.

'It is this block's alignment with the winter solstice that leads us to believe the site was once an astronomical observatory,' said Mariana Petry Cabral, an archaeologist at the Amapa State Scientific and Technical Research Institute.

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Iron Age farm to give up its secrets

The remains of an Iron Age farm are expected to give up more of their secrets during an annual Norfolk dig which gets underway next month.

The first serious excavation of the site was carried out last summer, uncovering ditches and a paved yard which could have been used to keep cattle.

Now it is set to become one of the focal points of the Sedgeford Historical and Archaeological Research Project's 2006 season, which starts on Sunday, July 9.

SHARP was launched in 1996 with the aim of building up a complete history of Sedgeford, near Hunstanton, and attracts volunteer archaeologists from around the world.

So far the summer explorations have unearthed more than 270 skeletons from a Saxon cemetery, a horde of Iron Age coins and the long-lost end of a torc, as well as numerous other artefacts.

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Digging deep into Caithness' past

Seven archaeology projects will be run across Caithness this summer to investigate its Neolithic, Iron Age and war-time history.

Experts will investigate the area's ancient cairns, brochs, crannogs, castles and shipwrecks.

With the help of local divers, they also hope to solve the mystery sinking of a World War I German warship.

There will be nothing of this scale anywhere else in the UK running at the same time this year.

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Replica of 3,300-year-old shipwreck arrives in Bodrum

The Uluburun II, which is on display in Bodrum, started to be built in 2004 using late Bronze Age techniques and set sail in 2005

A replica of the oldest known shipwreck, Uluburun II, built by the 360 Degree Historical Research Association in Urla, İzmir, arrived in Bodrum on Monday for display as part of activities marking the 80th anniversary of Cabotage Day.

Previously the ship had anchored in Istanbul, Marmaris, Cyprus and Kaş readying for the Cabotage Day celebrations, a maritime festival that commemorates the establishment of Turkey's sea borders and celebrated annually on July 1, reported the Anatolia news agency.

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Rocca Montis Dragonis Field School

The Museo Civico Archeologico di Mondragone and Libera Università Umanitaria Euromediterranea are pleased to announce the next session of the Rocca Montis Dragonis Field School. The project is lead by Dr. Luigi Crimaco, who is the Director of the Museo Civio di Mondragone and currently, Dr. Crimaco is the Administrator of the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei.

The project centers a castle(la Rocca) and principal residential building
patterns of the second century B.C. and the second century A.D., which we
find in the surrounding of the now modern town of Mondragone, situated on
top of Mount Petrino.

Find Project details here...