Archaeologists found a cave in Nottinghamshire, England, that is decorated with art dating from 13,000 years ago, Discovery News reported, citing a statement by the University of Sheffield.
University researchers are calling the cave the Sistine Chapel of the Ice Age because the ceiling -- depicting bears, birds, deer and what may be dancing women -- is the most ornate example of cave art in the world, Discovery said on its Web site. The finding means that rock art in Britain is 8,000 years older than experts previously believed, it said.
Archaeologists to seek artifacts at high-rise site
When bulldozers rolled into Atlantic City a couple months ago to start making way for a high-rise retirement community next to Fort Norfolk, history buffs worried.
When city officials told them there were no plans for an archeological survey, they panicked.
They feared the construction will destroy a part of the city’s history.
A $106 million, 17-story continuous-care facility called Harbor’s Edge will be built where historians say artifacts could be buried.
So they wrote letters and made phone calls.
More on the digital mummy Virtual voyage inside a 3,000-year-old mummy: Mountain View software-makers team up with British Museum
Computer engineers in Mountain View turned an Egyptian man inside out Wednesday, dissecting his skeleton, combing through his skull's interior and twisting his corpse into odd angles -- while keeping the 3,000-year-old mummy safely wrapped up.
Using powerful 3-D visualization technology, software pioneer Silicon Graphics Inc. has teamed up with the British Museum to probe a mummy of a priest without taking its bandages off.
The firm's sophisticated software already is used in oil exploration, weather forecasting, medical diagnosis and military training, but this was its first use in Egyptology. The project highlighted the growing importance of advanced imaging technology in analyzing materials -- be it a human body or terrain -- without having to physically take them apart.
We're glad this is getting so much publicity as it makes the idead of non-destructive study techniques widespread among the general public. And, hopefully, among archaeologists as well. More cool pictures:
Possible ethnoarchaeology in Pittsburgh Discovery Channel considering Pittsburgh for "Urban Explorers" series
Cable television's Discovery Channel is scouting Pittsburgh for a 13-part television series that examines historical architecture and urban planning.
The series, called "Urban Explorers" will air next spring.
The point of the series is to find interesting urban areas which two professional climbers, an engineer and an urban archaeologist can examine for clues about the city's history.
We don't get what the climbers would do.
At any rate, "ethnoarchaeology" has been around a while and basically consists of archaeologists working with modern peoples to see what sorts of activities leave behind what sorts of artifacts onj the ground. We're frankly rather suspicious of this approach for a number of reasons. Probably too detailed to go into at a humble blog, but one may research it on the Web.
Short update on Port Angeles (WA) site Port Angeles: Public can tour graving yard archeological site later this month
The public will have an opportunity to view the archaeological excavation of the graving yard, the former home of an ancient Klallam village.
Lower Elwha Klallam tribal officials and archaeologists will give three one-hour tours of portions of the 22-acre waterfront site July 23.
``The intent is to have visitors observe what is going on at the grounds to better understand the excavation process,'' said Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Chairwoman Frances G. Charles on Tuesday.
This is actually a good thing, allowing the public to come see what's going on. When some of our staff worked at a field school at a national park on the San Juan Islands (WA), they had one person each day do nothing but stand around outside of the excavation area with a small display of artifacts and be a liasion to park visitors, answereing questions as to what we were doing. It was very helpful to the excavators since there was one person for visitors to talk to, plus it gave the impression that we were really interested in letting the public know what we were doing.
Online excavation alert New Pueblo Arizona
Northern Arizona is famous for its plentiful archaeological sites and natural wonders. Within an hour and a half of Flagstaff there are no less than six National Monuments, including Wupatki, Sunset Crater, Walnut Canyon, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, and Tuzigoot. Also close by is Coconino National Forest, which is home base to archaeologist Peter Pilles, who knows this region as well as anybody. Join us for the next three months as we look over Peter's shoulder as he excavates at Elden Pueblo and carries out his duties as Forest Archaeologist for the Coconino National Forest. Check in for his weekly updates and be sure to ask him about his work and what it's like to be a Forest Service archaeologist in one of the country's richest archaeological landscapes.
Iroquoian longhouse remains found on Red Hill site
Archaeologists sifting through the soil below Rosedale Park to make way for rerouting of Red Hill Creek have uncovered the remains of two Iroquoian longhouses.
A team of city-hired archaeologists that is in its second week of working with consultants for the Six Nations band has also found two middens _ ancient garbage heaps.
"We're still trying to figure out the extent of the site," said Carol Ann Wood, as osteologist working with the Six Nations band.
"There's a very good chance that with this large a site that we're going to find burials."
North American archaeologists hate finding burials.
14 Warring States tombs discovered in Sichuan
After over one month's excavation, the archeologists in Sichuan discovered 14 tombs of the Warring States Period in Yonghe Township, Shimian County, Ya'an City, which is known as "Ancient Corridor of Ethnic Culture" in China. There unearthed over 200 rarely seen funerary objects such as Bashu style iron and bronze swords.
According to the associate-research fellow Leiyu with Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Research Institute, The Warring States tombs in Yonghe were located on the terrace of the south bank of the Dadu River. With one side backed by the mountain the other three sides are all encircled by water, covering about 30,000 square meters. It had been excavated initially in 1993. In order to go along with the construction of Sichuan Pubugou Hydropower Station, Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics Research Institute carried out this archeological excavation with Shimian Cultural Relics Administration.
This is really a good, informative article on what was found there.
Antiquities Market update Iran Presses UK to Probe Jiroft Ransacked Artifacts
Following the alleged haul in London of several Iranian artifacts belonging to the Jiroft civilization , Iranian officials are pressing the British government to make an inquiry to the case and, if true, extradite them according to international conventions, Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency reported on Wednesday.
It was earlier reported that a Kuwaiti citizen was trying to smuggle these looted artifacts to England, and subsequently officials in Iranian Foreign Ministry urged London to investigate the case. Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) has also sent some photos and documents to the UK to confirm the ownership claim. Mohammad Haj Seyyed Javadi, advisor to the head of CHTO, announced that if the initial reports are confirmed, London is obliged under 1970 convention to return those contraband artifacts.
Experimental archaeology Archaeologists retrace steps of Bronze Age man
ARCHAEOLOGISTS retraced the footsteps of Bronze Age men in a unique experiment to test whether Hengistbury Head played a part in the creation of Stonehenge.
They were investigating the theory that Hengistbury Head was the scene for one of man's earliest attempts to move large blocks of stone from the coast to Stonehenge.
To see how this would have worked, a team of archaeologists, wood carvers and prehistoric-boat specialists took delivery of a 17 tonne oak tree and used copies of Bronze Age axes and adzes to fashion it into an exact replica of a 3000-year-old Bronze Age dugout.
In line with the ethnoarchaeology story above, we have "experimental archaeology" here. We've seen this a lot recently, what with modern engineers, architects, whatever, attempting to recreate some structure or building or what have you, to see what it was like for the ancient people to actually accomplish something. In some respects, this can be a very useful exercise as it can often demonstrate the ability of ancient peoples to do certain things with the technology at hand. Especially useful in debunking whacked-out theories of ancient astronauts and the like.
On the other hand, it probably has little utility in either demonstrating exactly how they did things since there are no formal testing criteria to eliminate other options, and generally these things are done over a couple of weeks whereas the ancients had decades to work out how to accomplish certain tasks. So, watch 'em, they're usually pretty fun.
Thor Heyerdahl was a master of this. We can think of two examples that illustrate our point. First, he tried to see if ancient polynesians could have traversed the Pacific in a reed boat. Doing so successfully however, would only demonstrate that it could be done, not that it was (which may be useful). He also experimented on Easter Island using ancient tools to cut some famous stone heads out of the bedrock, which had been argued by some to be nearly impossible.