An archaeological dig at one of Tucson's oldest homes is yielding artifacts dating back hundreds of years, including a a musket ball, gun flints, bones and pottery.
The dig at the so-called Triplex building, Tucson's fifth-oldest home, is being done under contract with the city's downtown revitalization project.
The home will be used as a museum in the project, said Homer Thiel, project director of Desert Archaeology and a local authority on the Tucson Presidio period, 1775 to the mid-1850s.
Mysteries of the Xiaohe Tombs in Xinjiang, China
On April 17, 2004, the Xiaohe ("Small River") Tombs in Xinjiang Province, discovered in 1939 by Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, were said to be among China's top 10 archaeological discoveries. According to a Guangming Daily report from April 23, public interest in the tombs was first sparked when Bergman published a detailed introduction to the Xiaohe basin archaeology called the Archaeological Researches in Xinjiang in Stockholm in 1939.
However, when the tombs' landmark Xiaohe River dried up, the public essentially forgot about the tombs for several decades. It was not until more than 60 years later, on Dec. 11, 2000, that a Chinese member of the Xinjiang Cultural Relics and Archaeology Institute entered the Lop Nor Desert with a global positioning satellite and found the Xiaohe Tombs once more. In March 2005, the comprehensive excavation successfully ended.
Bronze ornament found at Iran's Bardak Siah
A bronze eagle ornament symbolizing the Achaemenid dynasty and an ivory handle of a dagger have been discovered at the Darius Palace at Bardak Siah by a team of archaeologists working at the2500 -year-old site, the director of the team announced, MNA reported.
“It seems that the ornament was placed on the tip of an Achaemenid flagpole. Verdigris must be removed from the surface to determine its use during that era,” Ehsan Yaghmaii added.
Lost civilization. . .found! Found: Europe's oldest civilisation
Archaeologists have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
We're kind of suspicious of the dating here and the lack of any apparent scholarly publications on these things. Bears close watching.
Some items from Zahi Hawass's web site:
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/Press_Release_05-05_Luxor.htm
About the Neferhotep statue (you can read the cartouche on these pics)
-- Tutankhamun Facial Reconstruction
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/Press_Release_05-05_Tut_Reconstruction.htm
Lists the names of the teams' members (but mislabels one model)
-- Abydos Reveals Some of its Secrets
http://www.guardians.net/hawass/press_release_Abydos_05-05.htm
About the second mud-brick mortuary enclosure of king Hor-Aha
Mayan crypt reveals power of women (Subscription only)
Archaeologists have entered a long-sealed crypt in Guatemala to find an ancient murder scene. The tomb, in the ancient city of Waká, contains the remains of two women, one pregnant, arranged in a ritual tableau.
Researchers say the young, wealthy women were probably slaughtered as part of a power struggle between Mayan cities. And that, they say, sheds new light on the role of women in the Mayan culture 1,600 years ago.
"This tomb tells us that women were extremely powerful," says Dorie Reents-Budet, a Maya specialist who works for the Smithsonian Institution from North Carolina. "When there were political disagreements, women were killed."
Pre-Clovis update Dig may change beliefs on early peoples
These days, on the banks of the dry Middle Beaver Creek, Janice McLean gets excited about tiny rocks.
It was Friday afternoon, just after lunch, and volunteer archaeologists at this dig site had uncovered one of the largest finds of the weeklong dig: a stone about the size of a nickel.
. . .blah blah blah. . .
This year’s dig has taken on new importance based on radiocarbon dating results completed in February. The tests showed that mammoth and prehistoric camel bones found at the site dated back to 12,200 years ago.
The bones appear to have tool marks made by humans, who probably broke the bones apart to extract marrow for food or to make bone tools, said Steve Holen, curator of archaeology at the Denver Museum.
This site will likely have problems with the artifactual nature of the bones and whatever context exists between the dated material and the undoubted artifacts.
Did someone say. . .Mehr? Iranian, U.S. experts to excavate ancient academic city of Jondishapur
Experts of the Archaeological Research Center of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago plan to conduct some excavations at the ancient academic city of Jondishapur next year, the director of the center announced on Sunday.
“Since a major part of Jondishapur has been damaged by farming over the years, we intend to save the ancient site through this project,” Dr. Masud Azarnush added.
Life from 2,000-year-old seed in Israel
Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed that is nearly 2,000 years old.
The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand rather than surrender to a Roman assault.
The point of growing the seed is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders.
That seems really interesting. Shorter blurb from MSNBC here.
Roman mosaic 'worthy of Botticelli'
A SPECTACULAR Roman mosaic discovered in Libya has been hailed as one of the finest examples of the artform to have survived.
British scholars yesterday described the 2,000-year-old depiction of an exhausted gladiator as one of the finest examples of representational mosaic art they have seen — a masterpiece comparable in quality with the Alexander mosaic in Pompeii.
Mark Merrony, an archaeologist who specialises in Roman art, said: “What struck me was the realism of the depiction. It’s absolutely extraordinary.