For Those Interested in Archaeology

"ELLENSBURG — In a historic first meeting of two very different worlds, Columbia Plateau tribal leaders met privately Tuesday with the scientist who led the court battle to study Kennewick Man.
The skeleton, more than 9,500 years old, has long been at the center of a rift between tribal members and scientists, led by Doug Owsley, a physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History who spearheaded the legal challenge to gain access to the skeleton for scientific study.
Owsley says study shows that not only wasn't Kennewick Man Indian, he wasn't even from the Columbia Valley, which was inhabited by prehistoric Plateau tribes."
Kennewick Man bones not from Columbia Valley, scientist tells tribes | Local News | The Seattle Times

 

Currently on holiday in Ireland, and today managed to visit two sites I've always wanted to see; Newgrange passage tomb and the Boyne battlefield. Not going to bore you with the battlefield here, but here are pics of the tomb.
This is a passage tomb built 5000 years ago in the middle of a ritual landscape in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Republic of Ireland. It's older than Stonehenge and the pyramids, and is surrounded by tumuli, various earthworks and two other passage tombs at Knowth and Dowth. The former is much bigger than Newgrange (but didn't have time to visit it), while Dowth is unstable and closed to the public.
Newgrange consists of a long (and very narrow) entrance passage which leads to three recesses, one at the end and two at right angles either side. Human cremations have been found in them. The roof is a corbelled one (ie the stones fractionally overlaid the lower ones until eventually they reached a narrow enough gap at the top for a capstone to be placed to seal the interior) .



Before the whole structure was covered in earth, a wall of white quartz was erected around it and huge boulders used as paving stones to buttress it.



The entrance. The black stones are modern limestone, and there is a wooden stairway giving access over the entrance stone, which is fantastically carved.
Originally it was a liminal entrance which had to be climbed over to physically leave the mortal world and enter the ritual one-



The original entrance slab.



Above the door is the lightbox. At sunrise on Midwinter's Day, the Sun filters right down to the end of the passage and illuminates the end chamber. This can be seen on various webcams nearer the date.



Unfortunately, no photography is allowed inside the monument, so I can't show you the fantastic carvings on the stonework. There is plenty on the outside though.





This is the larger tomb at Knowth which is about 1.5 miles away.



This link contains a wealth of information I haven't even touched on!
Newgrange Stone Age Passage Tomb - Boyne Valley, Ireland

 

"The carbon clock is getting reset. Climate records from a Japanese lake are set to improve the accuracy of the dating technique, which could help to shed light on archaeological mysteries such as why Neanderthals became extinct.
Carbon dating is used to work out the age of organic material — in effect, any living thing. The technique hinges on carbon-14, a radioactive isotope of the element that, unlike other more stable forms of carbon, decays away at a steady rate. Organisms capture a certain amount of carbon-14 from the atmosphere when they are alive. By measuring the ratio of the radio isotope to non-radioactive carbon, the amount of carbon-14 decay can be worked out, thereby giving an age for the specimen in question.
But that assumes that the amount of carbon-14 in the atmosphere was constant — any variation would speed up or slow down the clock. The clock was initially calibrated by dating objects of known age such as Egyptian mummies and bread from Pompeii; work that won Willard Libby the 1960 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. But even he “realized that there probably would be variation”, says Christopher Bronk Ramsey, a geochronologist at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the latest work, published today in Science[SUP]1[/SUP]. Various geologic, atmospheric and solar processes can influence atmospheric carbon-14 levels."
Core sample sends carbon clock farther back in time : Nature News & Comment

 

"A new, comprehensive review of humans' anthropological and genetic records gives the most up-to-date story of the "Out of Africa" expansion that occurred about 45,000 to 60,000 years ago.
This expansion, detailed by three Stanford geneticists, had a dramatic effect on human genetic diversity, which persists in present-day populations. As a small group of modern humans migrated out of Africa into Eurasia and the Americas, their genetic diversity was substantially reduced.
In studying these migrations, genomic projects haven't fully taken into account the rich archaeological and anthropological data available, and vice versa. This review integrates both sides of the story and provides a foundation that could lead to better understanding of ancient humans and, possibly, genomic and medical advances."
New Stanford analysis provides fuller picture of human expansion from Africa | Stanford News Release

"In a landmark study, University of Otago researchers have achieved the feat of sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes for members of what was likely to be one of the first groups of Polynesians to settle New Zealand and have revealed a surprising degree of genetic variation among these pioneering voyagers."
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of ancient New Zealanders


"Computer simulations provide new mathematical support for the "grandmother hypothesis" – a famous theory that humans evolved longer adult lifespans than apes because grandmothers helped feed their grandchildren.
"Grandmothering was the initial step toward making us who we are," says Kristen Hawkes, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah and senior author of the new study published Oct. 24 by the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The simulations indicate that with only a little bit of grandmothering – and without any assumptions about human brain size – animals with chimpanzee lifespans evolve in less than 60,000 years so they have a human lifespan. Female chimps rarely live past child-bearing years, usually into their 30s and sometimes their 40s. Human females often live decades past their child-bearing years.
The findings showed that from the time adulthood is reached, the simulated creatures lived another 25 years like chimps, yet after 24,000 to 60,000 years of grandmothers caring for grandchildren, the creatures who reached adulthood lived another 49 years – as do human hunter-gatherers."
Popular Archaeology

 

"A new, comprehensive review of humans' anthropological and genetic records gives the most up-to-date story of the "Out of Africa" expansion that occurred about 45,000 to 60,000 years ago.
This expansion, detailed by three Stanford geneticists, had a dramatic effect on human genetic diversity, which persists in present-day populations. As a small group of modern humans migrated out of Africa into Eurasia and the Americas, their genetic diversity was substantially reduced.
In studying these migrations, genomic projects haven't fully taken into account the rich archaeological and anthropological data available, and vice versa. This review integrates both sides of the story and provides a foundation that could lead to better understanding of ancient humans and, possibly, genomic and medical advances."
New Stanford analysis provides fuller picture of human expansion from Africa | Stanford News Release

"In a landmark study, University of Otago researchers have achieved the feat of sequencing complete mitochondrial genomes for members of what was likely to be one of the first groups of Polynesians to settle New Zealand and have revealed a surprising degree of genetic variation among these pioneering voyagers."
Complete mitochondrial genome sequences of ancient New Zealanders


"Computer simulations provide new mathematical support for the "grandmother hypothesis" – a famous theory that humans evolved longer adult lifespans than apes because grandmothers helped feed their grandchildren.
"Grandmothering was the initial step toward making us who we are," says Kristen Hawkes, a distinguished professor of anthropology at the University of Utah and senior author of the new study published Oct. 24 by the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The simulations indicate that with only a little bit of grandmothering – and without any assumptions about human brain size – animals with chimpanzee lifespans evolve in less than 60,000 years so they have a human lifespan. Female chimps rarely live past child-bearing years, usually into their 30s and sometimes their 40s. Human females often live decades past their child-bearing years.
The findings showed that from the time adulthood is reached, the simulated creatures lived another 25 years like chimps, yet after 24,000 to 60,000 years of grandmothers caring for grandchildren, the creatures who reached adulthood lived another 49 years – as do human hunter-gatherers."
Popular Archaeology

 

"Analysis of the bones of a girl who died 3.3million years ago in East Africa suggests our ancestors came down from the trees later than many scientists thought.
The fossilised shoulder blades of Selam, a three-year-old unearthed in Dikika, Ethiopia, show features that suggest she and her family were able climbers - despite also being adapted for walking on the ground.
Selam is a remarkably well-preserved example of Australopithecus afarensis, thought to be an important forerunner of modern human beings. She is the same species as Lucy, the famous 3.2million-year-old skeleton discovered in 1974.
Although A. afarensis was an upright walking species, the question of whether it also spent much of its time in trees has been hotly debated, partly because a complete set of shoulder blades has never before been available for investigation.
Lead researcher Professor David Green, from Midwestern University, Illinois, said: 'These remarkable fossils provide strong evidence that these individuals were still climbing at this stage in human evolution.'
It took 11 years to painstakingly extract the paper-thin shoulder blades from the rest of Selam's skeleton, which was encased in sandstone in 2000 by Zeresenay Alemseged, a co-author of the study published in Science."
Man came down from the trees much later than thought: New analysis of 3.3m-year-old girl shows shoulders adapted for climbing | Mail Online

 

"One of the oldest Maya tombs ever found has been uncovered in western Guatemala, say archaeologists.
Located at a temple site in Retalhuleu province, the grave is thought to be that of an ancient ruler or religious leader who lived some 2,000 years ago.
Carbon-dating indicated the tomb had been built between 700 and 400 BC, said government archaeologist Miguel Orrego.
A rich array of jade jewels, including a necklace depicting a vulture-headed human figure, were found.
The scientists found no bones at the tomb in the Tak'alik Ab'aj site - some 180km (110 miles) south of Guatemala City - probably because they had disintegrated.
But the vulture-headed figure appears to identify the tomb's occupant as an ajaw - or ruler - because the symbol represented power and economic status and was given to respected elder men.
The scientists named the grave's occupant K'utz Chman, which in the Mayan language, Mam, means Grandfather Vulture.
"He was a big chief", said Mr Orrego. "He bridged the gap between the Olmec and Mayan cultures in central America.""
BBC News - 'Oldest Maya tomb' found in Guatemala's Retalhuleu

"Turns out the early Romans were wild about orchids. A careful study of ancient artifacts in Italy has pushed back the earliest documented appearance of the showy and highly symbolic flowers in Western art from Renaissance to Roman times. In fact, the researchers say, the orchid's popularity in public art appeared to wilt with the arrival of Christianity, perhaps because of its associations with sexuality.
The fanciful shapes and bright colors of orchids have long made them popular with flower fanciers, and today they support a multibillion-dollar global trade. The flowers also have a symbolic value that spans many cultures due to their resemblance to both male and female sexual organs; the flower's scientific name—Orchis—derives from a Greek word for testicles. But while the biology and ecology of orchids has gotten plenty of attention from researchers, there are few studies of its "phytoiconography," or how the flower has been used symbolically in art."
Caesar, the Orchid Chief - ScienceNOW

 

"DNA sequencing has revealed a previously unknown human population boom between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago, a new study claims.
The sequencing of the Y chromosomes from 36 men has revealed a ten-fold increase in the number of genetic markers nearly 20,000 years after our ancestors first left Africa.
Scientists believe the expansion could have occurred as our ancestors adapted to more rugged environments, allowing them to spread inland from coastal areas.
'We have always considered the expansion of humans out of Africa as being the largest population expansion of modern humans, but our research questions this theory,' said Wei Wei of the West China University of Medical Sciences.
'The out-of-Africa expansion, which happened approximately 60,000 years ago, was extremely large in geographical terms with humans spreading around the globe.
'Now we’ve found a second wave of expansion that is much larger in terms of human population growth and occurred over a very short period, somewhere between 40,000 to 50,000 years ago.'
The newly discovered population boom occurred between the first expansion of modern humans out of Africa and the Neolithic expansions which began 10,000 years ago with the advent of farming.
There is no obvious archaeological event that would explain why this sudden expansion in the human population occurred, the researchers reported."
Previously unknown human population boom revealed by DNA: Massive expansion occurred 40,000 years ago | Mail Online


"The world's oldest flying fish glided over the seas in a bid to evade predators some 240million years ago, Chinese palaeontologists claim.
Fossils held in Chinese museum collections have been dated and categorised to reveal flying fish existed much earlier than was previously thought, the researchers reported.
There are no known specimens of modern flying fish older than about 65million years, but it appears this ancient unrelated specimen evolved the same ability much earlier.
Named Potanichthys xingyiensis, the specimen lived during the Middle Triassic period between 235million and 242million years ago - some 50million years before the emergence of dinosaurs in the Jurassic era.
That makes it up to 27million years older than the previous record-holder, a species found in Europe, said the study, which is published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
P. xingyiensis presents 'the earliest evidence of over-water gliding in vertebrates,' co-author Guang-Hui Xu of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in China told AFP.
The strange-looking, snub-nosed creature was already gliding some 80million years before the emergence of birds, which are thought to be the descendants of small feathery dinosaurs.
Scientists believe that flying fish evolved out of a need to flee attack from predators. Modern flying fish, which live in tropical and subtropical seas, are able to glide as much as 1,300ft at speeds of up to 45mph.
They take to the air mainly to escape from predators such as dolphins, squid and larger fish."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...years-birds-appeared-skies.html#ixzz2AvohylKH

"Nearly 1,500 years ago a massive flood in Geneva reportedly swept away everything in its path—mills, houses, cattle, even entire churches.
Now researchers believe they've found the unlikely sounding culprit: atsunami-like killer wave in the Alps. The threat, they add, may still be very much alive.
Spurred by a huge landslide, the medieval Lake Geneva "tsunami" (technically defined as a seismic ocean wave) swamped the city, which was already a trading hub, according to a new study. Far from any ocean, the massive wave was likely generated by a massive landslide into the Rhône River, which feeds and flows through Lake Geneva, according to a group of Swiss researchers.
The team analyzed a massive sediment deposit at the bottom of the lake's easternmost corner and determined that the material had once sat above the lake and had slid all at once into the Rhône, near where the river flows into the eastern end of Lake Geneva .
The sudden splash sent a tsunami barreling down the length of the 225-square-mile (580-square-kilometer) lake toward Geneva, at the western end of the lake, the study suggests. Researchers estimate the wave was between 9 and 26 feet (3 and 8 meters) tall, depending on how quickly the rockfall occurred, which they were unable to measure."
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...ps-tsunami-geneva-nature-geoscience-science/?

 

Pharaonic princess's tomb found near Cairo, Egypt | Fox News

Czech archaeologists have unearthed the 4,500-year-old tomb of a Pharaonic princess south of Cairo, in a finding that suggests other undiscovered tombs may be in the area, an official from Egypt's antiquities ministry said Saturday.

Mohammed El-Bialy, who heads the Egyptian and Greco-Roman Antiquities department at the Antiquities Ministry, said that Princess Shert Nebti's burial site is surrounded by the tombs of four high officials from the Fifth Dynasty dating to around 2,500 BC in the Abu Sir complex near the famed step pyramid of Saqqara.

"Discoveries are ongoing" at Abu Sir, El-Bialy said, adding that the excavation was in a "very early stage" and that the site was closed to the public.



Read more: Pharaonic princess's tomb found near Cairo, Egypt | Fox News

 

Bulgaria archaeologists find Europe's most prehistoric town Provadia-Solnitsata - Telegraph

Archaeologists in Bulgaria believe they have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town, a settlement that was founded nearly 5,000 years before the birth of Christ.

The inhabitants of the settlement, in north-west Bulgaria, boiled brine from salt springs in kilns, then baked it into bricks and used it for trading.

Highly valued by surrounding tribes, it may explain why ancient caches of gold jewellery and ritual objects have been unearthed in the region.

A collection of 3,000 gold objects found 40 years ago at a necropolis near Varna represented the oldest trove of ancient gold treasure in the world.

"At a time when people did not know the wheel and cart, these people hauled huge rocks and built massive walls. Why? What did they hide behind them? The answer was salt," Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria's National Institute of Archeology, told AFP.

 

"Paris, it seems, is not just home to chocolate crêpes, amazing architecture, and romantic strolls.
An almost-complete skeleton of a mammoth that lived between 200,000 and 500,000 years ago has been found near the French capital.
The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) said the remains were discovered at Changis-sur-Marne, northeast of Paris.
According to AFP, they included a femur, a complete pelvis, jawbones and four connected vertebrae.
The mammoth, named "Helmut" by the team that found it, is estimated to have been between 20 and 30 years old.
According to the Huffington Post, archaeologists from INRAP said: "Such a discovery is extraordinary in France, since only three specimens have been unearthed in 150 years."
Almost-complete mammoth skeleton found near Paris - AOL Travel UK

 

"On the south coast of South Africa, scientists (including a researcher from the University of Wollongong), have found evidence for an advanced stone age technology dated to 71,000 years ago at Pinnacle Point near Mossel Bay.
This technology, allowing projectiles to be thrown at greater distance and killing power, takes hold in other regions of Africa and Eurasia about 20,000 years ago. These small lethal tools reveal big implications for early modern human complexity.
When combined with other findings of advanced technologies and evidence for early symbolic behaviour from this region, the research documents a persistent pattern of behavioural complexity that might signal modern humans evolved in this coastal location.
These findings have been reported today (8 November, AESD) in the article “An Early and Enduring Advanced Technology Originating 71,000 Years Ago in South Africa” in the latest issue of the journal Nature."
The lethal tools of early modern humans | Machines Like Us

 

I know there's a lot of competition for the title "oldest city in the world" , but never heard of this one?
"Archaeologists said a 4-square-kilometer city ruins discovered in northwest China's Shaanxi Province was the largest of its kind in neolithic China.
The conclusion came after more than 40 archaeologists researched into the 4,000-year-old Shimao Ruins in Shenmu County and measured the exact size of the ancient stone city.
"The city has magnificent stone walls and we've unearthed a large number of carved jade, which hint at the city' core status in north China's early civilization," said Zhang Zhongpei, head of Archaeological Society of China.
Shimao Ruins was first found in 1976 in the form of a small town, but local archaeological authorities conducted a thorough survey last year, which led to the discovery of more city walls."
Chinese scientists identify largest neolithic city - China.org.cn

 

"HUTCHINSON ISLAND — The ancient skeletal remains unearthed by erosion from Hurricane Sandy have yet to be reburied, officials said.
The remains, which are estimated to be between 2,000 to 6,000 years old, have been taken to the regional medical examiner's office at Indian River State College in Fort Pierce. They will remain there until a decision is made to rebury them.
"As with any case of human remains, we will treat them with respect," said Daniel Seinfeld, archaeologist with Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research in Gainesville.
About 10:22 a.m. Oct. 29, officials responded to a citizen's call of finding bones on the beach.A crime scene detective responded and determined they were human remains found on a public county beach. They are the same remains that were first exposed by the hurricanes of 2004 and reburied on Hutchinson Island.
The location of the remains isn't being disclosed to help protect them.
"I think it is pretty amazing to know we had prehistoric people living here," said Martin County engineer Don Donaldson."
Ancient bones found on Martin County beach resting temporarily at IRSC in Fort Pierce » TCPalm.com

 

"We have long taken for granted the benefit of a hard skeleton. Vertebrates like ourselves can grow large and nimble thanks to bones containing calcium and phosphorous. Mollusks and other animals are protected by shells made of calcium carbonate, whereas certain sponges construct an internal framework of silica to help them filter food. "It is hard to imagine that life would have advanced very far without skeletons," says Shuhai Xiao from Virginia Tech. The first instance of biomineralization – i.e. the biologic use of minerals – was around 2 billion years ago when certain bacteria precipitated grains of magnetite to apparently help orient themselves in the Earth's magnetic field. However, the first animal skeletons didn't appear until right before the Cambrian explosion, at the end of the Ediacaran Period. These early shell-bearing creatures help to resolve Charles Darwin's concern over the sudden appearance of so many new animal species during the Cambrian explosion. The fossil record gives the impression of a "Creation" event, but in reality, animals had evolved prior to the explosion. They just didn't leave much for paleontologists to find until they developed the skeleton-making trait. And once a few animals started building with minerals, a "housing boom" erupted across the animal kingdom. In order to understand the driving factors of this biomineralization event, Xiao and his colleagues are studying the first skeleton-builders at a unique site in China. They want to find out what kind of organisms these Pre-Cambrian organisms were, and whether they left any descendents. They will be doing this work with help from the NASA Astrobiology: Exobiology and Evolutionary Biology program. "
Skeletons in the pre-Cambrian closet

 

"Scientists found evidence that human ancestors used stone-tipped weapons 200,000 years earlier than once thought, findings that may change notions about the smarts and capabilities of prehistoric people.
Spears topped with stone points were most likely used for hunting large game and self-defense and were an important advance in weaponry, according to Jayne Wilkins, lead author of the paper today in the journal Science. The points came from one of the Stone Age archaeological sites in South Africa called Kathu Pan 1, and were used a half-million years ago.
Researchers first thought the early humans were using sharpened wooden spears or stone hand axes, Wilkins said. The steps required to put a sharp-tipped stone at the end of a wooden spear, called hafting, means these ancestors had to engage in planning and other goal-driven thought processes long before a hunt took place, she said.
“This expands the range of behavioral complexity known in human ancestors living 500,000 years ago,” said Wilkins, a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto, in a Nov. 13 e-mail. “The amount of fore-planning and goal-oriented behavior required for collecting stone, wood and bindings for hafting indicate capabilities much greater than was previously known. It also shows that stone-tipped spears were being used by the ancestors of both modern humans and Neanderthals, so the technology is probably not an independent invention nor something one group learned from the other.”
The spears were an improvement because the hunters could get further out of harm’s way and were more likely to make a successful kill, she said"
Prehistoric Man Was Deadlier Earlier Than Once Thought - Bloomberg

 

"SFU professor David Burley, Marshall Weisler and Jian-Xin Zhao argue the first boats arrived between 880 and 896 BC. The 16-year window is far smaller than the previous radiocarbon-dated estimate of 178 years between 2,789 and 2,947 years ago. Burley, the lead author, and his colleagues have recently had their claims published in an article in the open access journal PLOS ONE. Polynesia, a group of 1,000 islands forming a geographic triangle connecting Hawaii, New Zealand and Easter Island in the South Pacific Ocean, is one of the last landscapes discovered and settled by humans. Burley's team applied uranium/thorium dating to a series of coral artifacts recovered from a site in Tonga known to be the first settlement location for Polynesia. This dating technique is not new, having been used previously to date coral reefs and stalagmites in caves and other materials. But this study's authors had to develop new processes and verification protocols to achieve their more precise dating of the Tongan artifacts."
Scientists improve dating of early human settlement

"Evidence of the potential genetic blending between Europeans and Asians has been discovered by a team of researchers led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) within the remains of Scythian warriors living over 2,000 years ago in the Altai region of Mongolia.
[h=3]Tracing the lineage routes[/h]The Scythians were already documented as the first large Eurasian culture, but were believed to be the product of migration from Europe. The researchers now suggest that the genetic blending is actually a result of the expansion of Scythian culture over the mountains.
Studies on ancient mitochondrial DNA of this region suggest that the Altai Mountains played the role of a geographical barrier between West and East Eurasian lineages until the beginning of the Iron Age.
After the 7th century BC, coinciding with Scythian expansion across the Eurasian steppes, a gradual influx of East Eurasian sequences in Western steppes is detected. However, the underlying events behind the genetic admixture in Altai during the Iron Age are still unresolved: 1) whether it was a result of migratory events (eastward firstly, westward secondly), or 2) whether it was a result of a local demographic expansion in a ‘contact zone’ between European and East Asian people.
The Altai is a mountain range in Central Asia occupying territories of Russia and Kazakhstan to the west, and of Mongolia and China to the east. Historically, the Central Asian steppes have been a corridor for Asian and European populations, resulting in the region’s large diversity in population today. In ancient times however the Altai Mountains, located in the middle of the steppes, represented an important barrier for the coexistence and mixture of the populations living on each side. And so they lived isolated during millennia: Europeans on the western side and Asians on the eastern side."
Scythian warriors show genetic blending between Europeans and Asians : Past Horizons Archaeology

"Neanderthals and other extinct human lineages might have been ancient mariners, venturing to the Mediterranean islands thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
This prehistoric seafaring could shed light on the mental capabilities of these lost relatives of modern humans, researchers say.
Scientists had thought the Mediterranean islands were first settled about 9,000 years ago by Neolithic or New Stone Age farmers and shepherds.
"On a lot of Mediterranean islands, you have these amazing remains from classical antiquity to study, so for many years people didn't even look for older sites," said archaeologist Alan Simmons at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
However, in the last 20 years or so, some evidence has surfaced for a human presence on these islands dating back immediately before the Neolithic. [Image Gallery: Our Closest Human Ancestor]
"There's still a lot to find in archaeology — you have to keep pushing the envelope in terms of conventional wisdom," Simmons said."
Ancient Mariners: Did Neanderthals Sail to Mediterranean? - Yahoo! News

"An important archaeological excavation has just started at the “Koupos” site, by Krousona, not far from Herakleion (Crete). The site has been known since the early 20th century for the existence of an ancient city whose name remains unknown. The actual project is made possible by the collaboration between the 13th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and the Malevisi Municipality. Mayor Kostas Mamoulakis has taken in charge all expenses, while Athanasia Kanta, Director of the 13th EPCA, supervises the work. Furthermore, to facilitate the excavations, Malevizi Municipality has bought a big lot of land.The site has been first investigated by the 13th EPCA back in the 1980s. A large settlement came to light, inhabited from the Late Minoan to the Hellenistic years (1200-100 BC). Many Archaic buildings had well built rooms. Inside the rooms were found the stone bases of the wooden columns that used to hold the roof. Pits carved in the rock contained ceramics and other findings that seem to have been offered for the house’s solid foundations."
An ancient city (1200-100 BC) comes to light at Krousona |

 

"The remains of what is believed to be one of Scotland's first homes have been uncovered during construction works.
The ancient dwelling, believed to be more than 10,000 years old, was unearthed during building work for the Forth Replacement Crossing at South Queensferry, near Edinburgh.
A large oval pit nearly seven metres in length is all that remains of the dwelling, which has been dated to the Mesolithic period.
Rod McCullagh, a senior archaeologist at Historic Scotland, said the discovery at a field in Echline provided valuable information about the first people to settle in Scotland after the Ice Age.
"This discovery and, especially, the information from the laboratory analyses adds valuable information to our understanding of a small but growing list of buildings erected by Scotland's first settlers after the last glaciation, 10,000 years ago,” he said.
"The radiocarbon dates that have been taken from this site show it to be the oldest of its type found in Scotland which adds to its significance."
The remains feature a number of postholes which would have held wooden posts to support the walls and roof, probably covered with turf.
Several internal fireplace hearths were also identified and more than 1000 flint artefacts were found, including materials which would have been used as tools and arrowheads.
Other discoveries included large quantities of charred hazelnut shells, suggesting they were an important source of food for the occupants of the house.
Archaeologists believe the dwelling would have been occupied on a seasonal basis, probably in winter, rather than all year round."
Remains of Scotland's earliest house unearthed during bridge works | News | Edinburgh | STV

 

Is this old news? Neolithic discovery: why Orkney is the centre of ancient Britain | Science | The Observer

 

Sort of, the full size of the place is just being revealed, but it's been known about for a while-
The Ness of Brodgar Excavations – Excavation background