Thursday, February 17, 2005

Ain't nuthin safe anymore
Ice Age axes taken by car thieves


An archaeologist's car containing two axes from the Ice Age has been stolen from outside a Birmingham hotel.

Mark Olly, of Warrington, Cheshire, was giving a lecture on druids at the Wellington Hotel in Bromsgrove Street, when the vehicle was taken on Tuesday.

A replica of a 750BC bronze sword, with a distinctive brass discoloration on the blade, was also taken, along with electrical goods worth nearly £5,000.


Heh.

Archaeologists say ancient pueblo buried under Santa Fe City Hall

Archaeologists report an ancient pueblo is buried beneath Santa Fe City Hall, the city’s convention center and a parking lot they share.

The report is from the Museum of New Mexico’s office of archaeological studies and says the pueblo is a relatively undisturbed village dating to between AD 1350 and 1400.

Archaeologists have long suspected that an ancient pueblo was underneath downtown Santa Fe.

A team of state archaeologists dug a dozen test pits during October 2004 and last January and confirmed those suspicions.

They uncovered what appeared to be burial pits with human and animal remains, pottery shards, kivas and tools.


More here.

NAGPRA update Reburial of bones delayed again

The on-again, off-again reburial of human remains on the Wal-Mart property is off again.

Melanie Chinen, the administrator of the State Historic Preservation Division, yesterday said the planned reinterment on Friday of an estimated 61 sets of remains unearthed during construction of the Wal-Mart complex on Ke'eaumoku Street has been postponed.

The state could not take over control of the on-site trailer where the bones are stored, Chinen said, because the archaeologist hired to work on them did not submit a final written inventory of the remains.


Archaeology in Iran: could the Bulaghi dam project be a blessing in disguise?

Between Pasargadae, the first capital of the Persian empire, and Persepolis, a road leads through a narrow gorge through a little valley called Bulaghi. A dam is under construction, scheduled to be finished this year, which will flood 20 square kilometres of the valley, raising the water level in the river that flows through it by several metres. The waters will rise to within six kilometres of the tomb of Cyrus, which is not itself at risk, nor are the palaces in the vicinity. At the request of the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO), archaeologists carried out emergency surveys of this area in 2003 and 2004.


This is actually quite a good article. Read the whole thing.

Tsunami update Tsunami waves uncover ancient temple relics near Chennai

The impact of the Indian Ocean tsunami may have been devastating but the fury of the waves has also exposed some ancient relics on the coast close to India's famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu.

Archaeologists believe that the findings belong to the ancient port of Mahabalipuram, part of the Pallava dynasty that existed in South India from the first century BC.

Carved out of single rock, the exposed stone remains have engravings depicting animal figures and characters from Hindu scriptures.


We don't think this is the same story of a few days ago. Probably more will come to light.

Saaaay more bones at a construction site Bones Found On Metro Construction Site

A construction crew in the metro stumbled upon the unexpected while at work. They were digging at a construction site at East 4th and Grand in Des Moines.

Some human bones were found about ten to fifteen feet under ground. They were found in soil that used to be part of the Des Moines River leading investigators to believe they've been there for quite awhile.

Dr. Gregory Schmunk, Polk County Medical Examiner, said, "I'm sure the river has shifted over years. These look like ancient bones, but the question is- are they Native American?" The state archaeologist will examine the bones to see if they are Native American.

Meanwhile, construction has stopped for the time being, and the Des Moines Police Department is keeping an eye on the scene.


That's the whole thing. No doubt we will be hearing more on this story.

Heh. Oops. Bones found under Des Moines street

The bones found by crews digging a trench under a downtown Des Moines street turned out not to be human.
Shirley Schermer of the state archaeologist's office in Iowa City said today (Wednesday) the bones were deer bones.


Oh well,maybe we won't be hearing anymore about it. . . .

More on the Omo remains The oldest Homo sapiens

When the bones of two early humans were found in 1967 near Kibish, Ethiopia, they were thought to be 130,000 years old. A few years ago, researchers found 154,000- to 160,000-year-old human bones at Herto, Ethiopia. Now, a new study of the 1967 fossil site indicates the earliest known members of our species, Homo sapiens, roamed Africa about 195,000 years ago.

"It pushes back the beginning of anatomically modern humans," says geologist Frank Brown, a co-author of the study and dean of the University of Utah's College of Mines and Earth Sciences.


And more on the King Tut Murder Mystery Tutankhamun Murder Mystery Hangs on March Report

A team of experts expects to announce in March whether the latest test results on the mummified body of Tutankhamun will provide evidence for the theory that the boy pharaoh was murdered.

Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian government's Supreme Council for Antiquities, told Reuters that results from a high tech x-ray scan of the mummy would help explain a bone chip in the skull that has sparked the murder theory.


And an update on the great Oetzi Murder Mystery Alpine iceman reveals Stone Age secrets

Some 5,300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man found
frozen in the Alps is slowly revealing his secrets to a global team of scientists.

But despite more than a decade of high-tech efforts by geneticists, botanists and engineers
many questions about his life and death remain unsolved.

And rumours of a deadly curse on those who found him continue to swirl.


Not a terribly detailed article, and the curse stuff is a little bizarre, but it gives basic info on what's been happening to the Iceman.

Old story update Carbon dating backs Bible on Edom

The Mideast's latest archaeological sensation is all about Edom.

The Bible says Edom's kings interacted with ancient Israel, but some scholars have confidently declared that no Edomite state could have existed that early.

The latest archaeological work indicates the Bible got it right, those experts got it wrong and some write-ups need rewriting. The findings also could buttress disputed biblical reports about kings David and Solomon.


Heh. Guess these are all "old stories". . . . .

The ancient stadium revealed

The ambitious task of documenting the stadia of the ancient world and of analyzing the diverse roles and significance of athletic games is undertaken in the compendious book “Ancient Stadia: Stadia and Games from Olympia to Antioch,” recently published by Itanos in English.

Designed by Maria Stefossi, who was also responsible for the book’s concept, this publication more closely approximates an album than a specialized treatise on the subject. The book contains 280 color, large-format photographs that show the stadia in their present state, ancient vase paintings and sculptures related to the ancient games. Interspersed among them are brief chapters on a number of subjects broadly related to the spirit of athleticism, among them sport as a vital part of education, the ways that athleticism was tied to religion, the myths from which the various games were born, and the types of games themselves. The research and text is by archaeologist George G. Kavvadias.