Monday, August 02, 2004

UNC archaeologists locate S.C. home of war hero

As Revolutionary War hero, North Carolina delegate to the Constitutional Convention, N.C. governor, envoy to France and "father" of the University of North Carolina, Gen. William Richardson Davie left an indelible mark on the state's history and the nation's.

Not so indelible, however, was "Tivoli," his beloved Chester County, S.C., home
which, according to local lore, Union raiders pillaged and burned during the waning months of the Civil War, 45 years after his death.

Visible traces of the former modest mansion have been all but nonexistent for close to a century and its exact location lost to history.


More on graveyard archaeology Archaeologists prepare remains for move

Moses Valsaint watched through a chain-link fence July 21 as forensic archeologists used small hand tools to remove rainwater and mud from two unmarked gravesites at the Montgomery Square United Methodist Church cemetery.

"They're doing a good job," Valsaint said as he observed the work from the parking lot of the nearby Burger King restaurant, where he works.

Forensic archeological crews commissioned by the Philadelphia firm of Kise Straw & Kolodner began working at the site last week, and for the next two months will continue to dig up remains buried in the cemetery at 918 Bethlehem Pike. The remains will be moved to a specially designated section of the Beulah Cemetery on Route 202 in New Britain unless directed otherwise by surviving family members.


This seems a great way to conduct various forensic studies on recent remains. Probably no one has a research plan in place to do anything with them (i.e., stature, diseases, age/sex distributions, etc.) but it seems like a wealth of data could be generated without a great deal of effort.

And this also caused to remember a paper by Dethlefsen and Deetz from American Antiquity 1966 (reference: Death's Heads, Cherubs, and Willow Trees: Experimental Archaeology in Colonial Cemeteries, Edwin Dethlefsen; James Deetz, American Antiquity, Vol. 31, No. 4. (Apr., 1966), pp. 502-510. stable URL: http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0002-7316%28196604%2931%3A4%3C502%3ADHCAWT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D). Abstract:

Seventeenth and eighteenth-century gravestones in Massachusetts are decorated with a traditional set of designs which have distinctive spatial and temporal limits. By treating them as archaeological phenomena, one can demonstrate and test methods of inferring diffusion, design evolution, and relationships between a folk-art tradition and the culture which produced it. Early popularity of death's-head designs reflects Puritan attitudes toward death, while the later cherub, willow tree, and urn motifs indicate the breakdown of these values. Although cherubs appear earliest among an innovating urban class in Cambridge, they remain a relatively minor type in this central area but are rapidly adopted in outlying districts further removed from the center of influence. Imperfect reproduction of certain designs gives rise to distinctive local styles of other areas. The distribution of these local styles in time and space provides further insights regarding religious change in the Colonial period, including a clear indication of how this change proceeded in different geographical areas at different times. Future analysis of this material promises to be quite productive in the areas of experimental archaeology, kinship analysis, demographic studies, style change, and religious change in Colonial America.


It was really quite an innovative paper in many ways. Those with subscription access should read the whole article. Bsically, what they did was test various theoretical assumptions regarding diffusion of traits over space and time. This is important because trait transmission is key to certain kinds of relative dating methods, namely seriation.


More looting not involving Iraq Artifact looting ruins Cambodia's archaeology sites

At a bustling market in the capital city, Cambodia's heritage is being sold off: ancient beads are snapped up at two for US$1, while US$15 buys a 3,500-year-old stone tool.

Sales of such antiquities are booming at markets across the kingdom, robbing it of a rich history archaeologists are only beginning to study after decades of conflict ended here in 1998.

Ceramic pots and bronze bracelets may seem innocuous spoils compared with the stunning statuary prized by "tomb raiders," but their theft from underground sites means Cambodia's prehistory is being irretrievably lost, experts say.

"Most archaeologists are not really interested in finding a giant statue of Buddha or a single magnificent artefact. We're interested in spatial context," says Kyle Latinis, a US archaeologist specializing in Southeast Asia.


Update on Black Sea/Noah's flood Black Sea trip yields no flood conclusions

Four years ago, scientists thought they had found the perfect place to settle the Noah flood debate: A farmer's house on a bluff overlooking the Black Sea built about 7,500 years ago - just before tidal waves inundated the homestead, submerged miles of coastline and turned the freshwater lake into a salty sea.

Some believed the rectangular site of stones and wood could help solve the age-old question of whether the Black Sea's flooding was the event recounted in the Biblical story of Noah.

That story told of a calamitous flood occurring over 40 days and nights. Scientists had largely dismissed it, believing the Black Sea filled up gradually with gently rising waters. That wisdom was rocked, however, when two scholars claimed several years ago that the Black Sea's flooding was more recent - and so rapid and widespread that it forced people to move as far away as mainland Europe.

The scientists who visited the underwater site last summer off the northern Turkish coastal town of Sinop couldn't arrive at any conclusions. The settlement, about 330 feet underwater, was "contaminated" by wood that had drifted in, foiling any attempt to accurately date the ruin - and thus date the flood.


FYI, we believe the original discovery of the ship and site are available to those with Comcast digital cable in their On Demand feature. We just watched it a few days ago, via the National Geographic Channel.

Great site alert Archaeology professor digs to bottom of history

Imagine a pile of everything you've ever owned.

Then imagine that pile on top of all the piles of everything everyone in your family ever owned. Put that pile atop a pile of all the belongings of all your ancestors as far back as you can go.

Imagine the piles, one on top of another, in an area about 35 yards in diameter. And imagine that it is your task to sort it all out and make sense of what belongs to which pile and what each item is.

That, more or less, is the task facing Notre Dame archaeology Professor Mark Schurr upon his return from a dig in the area of Collier Lodge near Kouts, Ind.


Actually, it's more like, "Imagine a pile of everything you've ever own, minus about 95% of it. Now imagine that pile on top of. . .minus about 95% of it. Now imagine trying to make sense out of the remaining 5%."

Attack of the sand! Sand threatens to swallow ancient city

Heicheng, the largest and best preserved ancient city along China's portion of the Silk Road, is being devoured by advancing sand dunes, state media said on Saturday.

Located about 25km south-east of Dalai Hubu in northern Inner Mongolia province, the archaeological site is well known for its ten-metre-high city walls and a pagoda dating back to the Xixia Dynasty (1038-1227), the Xinhua news agency said.

Heicheng is viewed as priceless by archaeologists worldwide, given that the Xixia dynasty left no official written documents.


Dang it, a pun we hadn't thought of All the fun of the pharaoh

Mummy's the word for archaeologist and expectant mother Miriam Cooke as she presents a new series on Egyptian history.

Former model Miriam fronts Egypt Detectives (today, National Geographic, 7pm), a show about the mysteries of one of the world's earliest civilisations.

The six-part series, shown back-to- back, explores subjects like the beginnings of ancient Egyptian culture, how the pyramids were built and why so many pets were mummified.

Miriam, of Darlington, says she is obsessed with the past and couldn't be happier about her new job.


Pity this doesn't seem to be on in the US yet. We like the idea of an attractive female expounding on the allure of archaeology; we've already got an Indiana Jones for the men. OTOH, there's always Lara Croft.