Thursday, March 10, 2005

That's one way to put it Archaeologists hit paydirt in Gola Dhora

A nine-year search ended successfully for MSu archaeologists this winter when their two-month excavation in Rajkot’s Bagasra opened gates to a new city. With an entrance to the fortification of Gola Dhora mound excavated, archaeologists have found one more proof of a thesis that is increasingly gaining ground on the Indus Valley Civilisation that the civilisation serviced by a parallel rural civilisation that catered to the lifestyle needs of the Harappan urban elite.


Homo hobbitus update Archaeologist joins in astounding discovery

FEW people can say they have been in on a discovery that shatters all previous concepts and existing theories of evolution. But archeologist Chris Turney, from Caterham, was with the team that discovered "the hobbit" of Indonesia. DAVID JOHNS reports

LAST year scientists stumbled across human-like remains in Indonesia that changed the way they thought of the evolutionary process and where man fitted into the great scheme of things.

They went to the tropical "lost world" of the Indonesian island of Flores, populated 18,000 years ago by miniature elephants, komodo dragons and the recently discovered Flores Man, dubbed "the hobbit".


We had no idea Chariot find is a victory for Scots

The centuries-long tussle for prestige between England and Scotland may be about to end in victory for the clans, with new archaeological evidence suggesting that the first national leader of the British Isles was a Scot.

The remains of a mysterious figure found in an Iron Age chariot burial under the A1M motorway was of "exceptional significance" according to academics, who have also unearthed the leftovers of one of Britain's biggest feasts at his funeral site in Yorkshire.


New Groton School Site Could Be ‘archaeologically Significant'

Connecticut's top archaeologist went for a hike Wednesday around the so-called King property to determine whether plans to build an elementary school there would affect four archaeologically sensitive areas.

After the nearly hourlong walk through rough terrain covered with brush, State Archaeologist Nicholas F. Bellantoni said he would ask the town to commission an archaeological survey to confirm the existence of the archaeological sites, identify their location, research the history of the property and conduct subsurface testing.


CSI: Florence


Report: Malaria, not murder, killed Medicis

Two brothers in the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy likely were not the long-rumored victims of murder, a new analysis of their centuries-old bones has concluded.

Despite the tremendous wealth and power of the Florence-based family, one that produced popes and intellectuals, commissioned art by Michelangelo and protected Galileo from persecution, the two teenagers and their mother instead may have succumbed to a disease that killed without regard to fame or fortune: malaria.

"We found no signs of violence at all, none at all," said Long Island University archaeologist and mummy expert Bob Brier to a crowd of about 200 gathered for his public presentation Tuesday at the C.W. Post Campus in Brookville.


This was a TV special a few months ago featuring the indefatigable Bob Brier.

Heavy is the head. . . .


Paleontology update Kenya's first dinosaur dig yields fossil wealth

Scientists on Kenya's first scientific dinosaur expedition have unearthed hundreds of bones in an area previously known for the discovery of ancient human remains.

Kenyan and US palaeontologists conducting the dig said they found more than 200 dinosaur specimens, including three from large carnivorous theropods thought to be related to the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex, in north-western Kenya.

The bones date to the Mesozoic era more than 200-million-years ago and are the first concrete evidence that dinosaurs inhabited what is now Kenya before early humans who lived there tens of millions of years later, they said.


Egypt as well has a rich collection of paleontological remains. Dinosaur fossils are found in the western desert near Bahariya and much of whale evolution as well as early primate evolution owes its progress to fossils derived from Egypt.

We'll probably post the weekly EEF news tomorrow.