Describing his innovative use of technology as creative grant writing, Tommy Hailey, an assistant professor of archaeology from Northwestern State University in Louisiana has taken the drudgery of an archaeological dig to newer and greater heights.
While other studies have been done from the air with blimps, this is believed to be the first use of a power parachute by an archaeologist.
Arriving at the Winterville Mounds early this week, Hailey and archaeology student J.T. Stark rolled the university's "Destiny 2000" powered parachute from its trailer onto a grass runway on the property of Delta & Pine Land Co. in Scott.
That's actually quite clever.
Life's a ditch Ditches at Indian leader's village date back before Jamestown
Archaeologists digging on a site thought to be the village of the powerful 17th-century Indian leader Powhatan found a system of ditches probably dating back to the early 1400s.
The village, Werowocomoco, served as Powhatan's headquarters at the time Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America, was founded in 1607.
It also is where Capt. John Smith of Jamestown claimed Pocahontas, Powhatan's daughter, begged her father to spare his life when he was kidnapped by Indians.
Archaeologists dig up Elliot Park's past
Kent Bakken squinted at the small jagged brown relic in his palm. "We've found somebody's head," he said.
"It's a rodent. You see the incisors? Could be a rat. It's too big for a mouse."
It may not have been the skull of a T-rex, but then few would confuse the Elliot Park area near downtown Minneapolis for the high plains of Montana.
Nevertheless, a special team of enthusiastic archaeologists and volunteers led by Bakken this weekend are digging into a nondescript vacant lot in search of the city's past.
We just couldn't. . . . Archaeology project searches for clues about Feltville
Students from the Montclair State University Historical Archaeology Field School spend five weeks during the summer, sifting through dirt and mud, searching for any signs or artifacts that might piece together the history of Feltville.
The village, built by entrepreneur David Felt in the mid-19th century, is located on a bluff along the north bank of the Blue Brook in the Berkeley Heights section of the Watchung Reservation, Union County's largest park. Today, the core of the community, now known as the Deserted Village, consists of 10 cottages, three of which are occupied, and a combined church and store, all built in 1845 and 1846.
. . .make a joke about the place. Too obvious.
Big $$$$ alert Linking Climate, Water and Civilisation in the Middle East and North Africa
A novel and exciting study that will provide new insights into the key relationships between climate, water availability and human activities in the semi-arid regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is getting under way at the University of Reading. The research will help shape our perception of the past, present and future of one of the most complex – and often troubled – parts of the world.
With a major funding award of nearly £1,240,000 from the Leverhulme Trust, a unique team of Reading researchers, including meteorologists, hydrologists, geologists, archaeologists and geographers, will work together to assess changes in the hydrological climate in the MENA region and its impact on human communities.
It is in the great river valleys of this region – the Jordan, Euphrates, Nile and Indus – that the ancient civilisations arose, while the plight of this region under a changing climatic and hydrological regime is central to global ecology, economics and politics today.
Sounds like a great project. This is usually what is needed in just about any area: a good sum of money to conduct regional surveys and analysis of resources, changing vegetation and cultural use patterns over time. Note to Reading archaeologists: We're available.
Ancient pottery with plowing design unearthed
A 4,800-year-old piece of colored pottery bearing designs of plowing was recently unearthed at Lintao County in northwest China's Gansu Province.
Chinese archaeologists believe the pottery, which is 30-cm-talland 34-cm in width, belongs to the Majiayao culture, a historical period in about 3300 B.C. to 2050 B.C..
The picture on the pottery vividly portrays a scene of plowing in simple black lines. Beside the farmland is a river, painted in several zigzag lines.
Wang Zhi'an, president of the Gansu Provincial Majiayao Culture Society, said the design reflects the production and life of people in that period. It is rare in China to discover a picture depicting men plowing in fields.
Discovery of the cultivation design suggests that agricultural civilization was present in China as long as 4,800 years ago.
The design also proved that figure painting in the country can be traced back to 4,800 years ago.
That's the whole thing. Note that this is another way archaeologists sometimes identify the presence of agriculture in an area, apart from finding actual domesticated plants and such.
Jill Kamil reports from Egypt An eternity of social distinction
"The world famous scene of the transportation of a monolithic statue from the quarries at Hatnub, east of Tel Al-Amarna, to Deir Al-Bersha is reproduced in almost every book on ancient Egypt. Yet most people are unaware that the statue's destination was this relatively little known burial ground in the Eastern Desert," said Harco Willems, professor of Egyptology and director of the Belgian archaeological mission at work at the site of Al-Bersha. At a lecture at the Netherlands-Flemish Institute last month he voiced the opinion that publicity for the site is long overdue.
"Few of the people who admire the marvellously decorated Middle Kingdom coffins in the Egyptian Museum realise that they come from this site," he said.
Seein' the Aegean
In June, a multinational expedition, led in part by Shelley Wachsmann of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M, finished a two-week survey of the seas near the Mount Athos Peninsula in Greece. The expedition conducts surveys in the Aegean Sea annually.
The researchers were searching for the wreckage of an ancient Persian fleet, which sank in that area about 429 B.C. According to the writings of Herodotus, nearly 300 ships and 20,000 soldiers perished in a storm.
There must be something in there about actually finding this fleet, but we didn't see it.
Not archaeology but we like curses anyway The scrivener's tale: how Chaucer's sloppy copyist was unmasked after 600 years
After more than 600 years, it was his handwriting that gave him away. A scribe - who until the weekend was known to history only as Adam the scrivener - so infuriated Geoffrey Chaucer with his carelessness that the poet threatened to curse him with an outbreak of scabs.
Now alert academic detective work has unmasked the sloppy copyist of the words of the father of English literature as Adam Pinkhurst, son of a small Surrey landowner during the 14th century.
Well, there's a surprise Fraud exposed - after 3,000 years
An Egyptian researcher says he has uncovered evidence of corruption and nepotism going back some 3,000 years.
A daily newspaper has published details of the study on its front page under the headline Thebesgate after the name of an ancient Egyptian city.
The paper says it is Egypt's oldest case of political corruption and official cover-up.
At issue was a plot to cover up the theft of gold and jewellery hidden in the tombs of the Pharaohs.
But they're so cute
Fight to stop Stonehenge being badgered
Determined digging by badgers living near Stonehenge, a 5000-year-old circle of megaliths, is damaging ancient archaeological artefacts and human remains.
The shy nocturnal animals are burrowing into pre-historic burial mounds and have already disturbed some of the thousands of human remains and rare artefacts buried a metre or so beneath the surface of Salisbury Plain, where Stonehenge was built 5000 years ago.
A better badger: