For Those Interested in Archaeology

Nice one!

 

Interesting, but finding it hard to share the excitement.
'The world's first farmers have been traced to a 12,800 year-old Stone Age village in Syria using ancient dung - providing the earliest evidence of animals being reared to produce food for humans.
Remnants of the animal dung were found in soil gathered during excavations in Abu Hureyra in present day Syria - now a prehistoric archaeological site in the Euphrates valley - during the 1970s.
They were found to date back 12,800 years - suggesting people were tending sheep and possibly other livestock nearly 2,000 years earlier than previously thought.'
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11206549/Ancient-dung-reveals-evidence-worlds-farmers-12-800-year-old-Stone-Age-village.html

On the other hand-
'A prehistoric human skeleton that dates to the end of the last ice age was unearthed in a cave system in Mexico.
Due to the distance from the cave's entrance, the skeleton could not have landed where it was found without modern diving equipment, so the researchers believe it dates to a time 8,000 years ago when rising sea levels flooded the caves.
'We don’t know if the body was deposited there or if that was where this person died,' said cave-diving archaeologist Octavio Del Rio. '
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11212717/Human-SKELETON-seen-8-000-years-underwater-Mexican-cave.html

 

The skeleton? Yeah.

 

"Humans and Neanderthals may have coexisted in Europe for up to 2,900 years, giving them time to learn from and breed with each other, a new study finds.
Using artifacts - tools and bones- from both groups found at sites in France and Spain, archaeologists determined humans were present about 42,500 years ago and the subspecies of archaic humans showed up about 40,000 years ago before disappearing some 1,000 years after.
This means the two species lived alongside each other in the region for 1,400 to 2,900 years, marking the first evidence showing how long and where the pair mingled before subspecies of archaic humans went extinct."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11312381/Research-sheds-light-modern-humans-Neanderthals-existing-France.html

 

Surely DNA tells the story that indeed we did breed with them, but at the same time, not to the extent of ‘hybrids’ becoming wide spread…most of us have Neanderthal DNA but the small percentage ‘could’ suggest that inter breeding wasn’t rampant. However, there has been sufficient time since the end of Neanderthals to ‘re-strengthen’ the sapien genes…So it maybe that hybrids were in fact common…one could think of Eurasians today as a sub set of Asians and Europeans (a beautiful combination as it turns out) similar to the sub set created by humans and Neanderthals…If Asians and Europeans stopped ‘breeding’ with each other, then the Asian or European genes would re assert themselves over time and generations…see what I mean?

 

Aye, that's actually a great point.

 

Bit Biblical archaeology for a change.
"Archaeologists have confirmed Biblical accounts of military campaigns against the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah by reconstructing the direction and/or intensity of the Earth's magnetic field recorded in burnt remnants found at 21 different sites across Israel.
A team of researchers led by Tel-Aviv University used a collection of mud stones containing magnetic minerals that record magnetic fields when heated or burned.
This is because some rocks and materials contain minerals that respond to the magnetic field like the needle of a compass, allowing researchers to determine if the city that once stood was burned to the ground.
The study, however, also uses ancient inscriptions found at the sites and text from the Old Testament.
Findings indicate that the army of Hazael, King of Aram-Damascus, was responsible for the destruction of several cities—Tel Rehov, Tel Zayit and Horvat Tevet, in addition to Gath of the Philistines, whose destruction is noted in the Hebrew Bible.
At the same time, the study debunks the prevailing theory that Hazael was the conqueror who destroyed Tel Beth-Shean."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11353097/Biblical-stories-military-campaigns-against-kingdoms-Israel-Judah-proven.html

 

And again, right on my doorstep.
"An “exceptionally rare” golden artefact - thought to be around 1,300 years old and found near Blairdrummond – has been acquired by National Museums Scotland.
The gold sword pommel, a decorative fitting which would have adorned the top of a sword hilt thousands of years ago, is the first of its kind to be discovered in Scotland.
Archaeologists have stressed the discovery of the pommel in the Stirling countryside adds to its significance, giving it cultural, political and artistic links to northern Britain.
Measuring 5.5cm wide and weighing 25g, the golden knob is valued at £30,000.
Dr Alice Blackwell, senior curator of medieval archaeology and history at National Museums Scotland, said: “Goldwork from this period is virtually unknown from anywhere in the UK and we are delighted to secure the Stirling Pommel for Scotland’s national collections.
“It’s a bit of a cultural, artistic melting pot, so it’s difficult to say where it fits and where it was made. It certainly has a lot of inheritance from Anglo-Saxon art, but it belongs to this period of the most amazing creative fusion where different types of styles and art and techniques for making things were all melted together to make something new.”
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/archaeologists-rave-exceptionally-rare-1300-28337043?fbclid=IwAR3DToIgIraIa-NgMdXR2CQSOdmNNtClsdpz0ZI4OYiJ5iccPD9xgyIhyks

 

Another one from Down Under.
"Three amateur palaeontologists have discovered the remains of a 100-million-year-old long-necked marine reptile at an outback Queensland station.
In an Australian first, the complete skeleton of an ancient plesiosaur, or extinct marine reptile, was discovered at a sprawling remote property in the McKinlay region.
The rare fossil was discovered by a station owner, Cassandra, alongside fellow amateur fossil sleuths Sally and Cynthia, known as the 'Rock Chicks'.
The discovery has been described as the Rosetta Stone of marine reptile palaeontology, a reference to the ancient carved stone discovered in Egypt in 1799 and considered to hold the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics.
A team of museum palaeontologists travelled to the remote site to collect the fossil of the elasmosaur, a plesiosaur that lived alongside the dinosaurs.
The Elasmosaurus lived in the Eromanga Sea, which covered large parts of inland Australia between 140 and 100million years ago.
The recovery was led by Queensland Museum Network Senior Scientist Dr Espen Knutsen, who said the remains were the first known head and body of an Australian elasmosaur to be held in a museum collection...
...'We were extremely excited when we saw this fossil - it is like the Rosetta Stone of marine palaeontology as it may hold the key to unravelling the diversity and evolution of long-necked plesiosaurs in Cretaceous Australia,' Dr Knutsen said."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11509869/Queensland-fossil-hunters-unearth-globally-significant-elasmosaur-dinosaur-skeleton.html

 

Some news on the Time Team front-

 

Well, at least they're not blaming "the aliens". Yet.
"The deserts of Saudi Arabia were once the lush and fertile homes of ancient people more than 8,000 years ago.
Today, the remnants of these long-gone communities still stand – frozen, or rather, desiccated in time.
Right across the Arabian peninsula, from Jordan to Saudi Arabia to Syria, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Iraq, researchers have identified thousands of huge stone structures from the sky.
The V-shaped arrangements were first noticed by British air force pilots in the 1920s, and for more than a century, experts have debated why they were built.
Recent satellite images and drone surveys in the ʿUwayriḍ desert of Saudi Arabia now support a commonly held suspicion.
Today, archaeologists working on these ancient stone patterns, sometimes known as 'desert kites', think they were most likely used as mass hunting traps.
Dozens of previously unknown desert kites found recently in ʿUwayriḍ all seem to be built with the same sort of function in mind.
Some of the V-shapes point to a pit, others to a sudden cliff, and still others to an enclosure.
All three designs suggest desert kites were once used to funnel herds of wild animals to death or captivity."
www.sciencealert.com/mysterious-patterns-span-the-arabian-desert-and-we-may-finally-know-why

 

Pre Vauban!