For Those Interested in Archaeology

"SCIENTISTS DOCUMENT HIGHLY-DEVELOPED CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES OF WELLS BUILT BY EARLY NEOLITHIC SETTLERS
A research team led by Willy Tegel and Dr. Dietrich Hakelberg from the Institute of Forest Growth of the University of Freiburg has succeeded in precisely dating four water wells built by the first Central European agricultural civilization with the help of dendrochronology or growth ring dating.
The wells were excavated at settlements in the Greater Leipzig region and are the oldest known timber constructions in the world. They were built by the Linear Pottery culture, which existed from roughly 5600 to 4900 BC. The team’s findings, which have been published in the international scientific journal PLoS ONE, afford new insight into prehistoric technology. The study was conducted by archaeologists and dendrochronologists from the Institute of Forest Growth in Freiburg, the Archaeological Heritage Office of Saxony in Dresden, and the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
The four early Neolithic wells were constructed from oak wood. In addition to the timber, many other waterlogged organic materials, such as plant remains, wooden artifacts, bark vessels, and bast fiber cords, as well as an array of richly decorated ceramic vessels, have survived for millennia hermetically sealed below groundwater level. With the help of dendrochronology, the scientists were able to determine the exact felling years of the trees and thus also the approximate time at which the wells were constructed."
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2012/12/archaeologists-date-worlds-oldest-timber-constructions/?

 

"Climate change may have driven evolution, scientists believe

Rapid climate change in Africa two million years ago may have driven human evolution, researchers believe.

By Telegraph reporters

12:38PM GMT 26 Dec 2012

The early landscape shifted between woodland to grassland half a dozen times over 200,000 years, meaning man had to adapt to survive. Experts from Penn State university say that this may have set the tone for the rapid evolution which then took place.
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Clayton Magill said: "The landscape early humans were inhabiting transitioned rapidly back and forth between a closed woodland and an open grassland about five to six times during a period of 200,000 years.
"These changes happened very abruptly, with each transition occurring over hundreds to just a few thousand years."
The findings appear to contradict previous theories which suggest evolutionary changes were gradual, and in response to either long and steady climate change or one drastic change.
Professor Katherine Freeman said: "There is a view this time in Africa was the 'Great Drying,' when the environment slowly dried out over 3 million years. But our data show that it was not a grand progression towards dry; the environment was highly variable."
This rapid change could have triggered development of the brain, said Magill."
Climate change may have driven evolution, scientists believe - Telegraph

 

"Researchers discovered 4,000-year-old spearheads and other artifacts at a site in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History said. The find "will change the chronologies of the antiquity of human settlement in the northwest of the country," archaeologist Joel Santos Ramirez said. The items reflect a rudimentary technology also seen in artifacts from the U.S. Southwest, from what is now the central Mexican state of Puebla and in some desert regions of northern Mexico."
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004930.html?

 

I think this could be the first Celtic village ever discovered in Britain-
"The remains of the recently discovered village in Barton Seagrave, 125 kilometres north-northwest of London, was made in advance of housing development.
Carol Simmonds, from Northamptonshire Archaeology, said: "Archaeologically, the site suggests that people lived and farmed there for a long period of time dating from at least the Middle Iron Age [about 400 to 100 BCE] through to Anglo-Saxon times [410 to 1066 CE]."
The Middle Iron Age village is believed to have had at least 11 circular timber post round houses. Quantities of pottery, including whole vessels, have been recovered from this period along with animal bone and quern stones for grinding corn."
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004938.html?

 

Statues found in Ovid's Swimming Pool.
BBC News - 'Exceptional' find of Roman statues linked to poet Ovid

 

"For most of human history on this planet—about 90 per cent of the time—sea levels have been substantially lower than at present, exposing large tracts of territory for human settlement.
Europe alone would have had a land area increased by 40 per cent at the maximum sea level regression (Figure 1). Although this has been recognised for many decades, archaeologists have resisted embracing its full implications, barely accepting that most evidence of Palaeolithic marine exploitation must by definition be invisible, believing that nothing has survived or can be found on the seabed, and preferring instead to emphasise the opportunities afforded by lower sea level for improved terrestrial dispersal across land bridges and narrowed sea channels.
In the past decade, opinions have begun to change in response to a number of factors: evidence that marine exploitation and seafaring have a much deeper history in the Pleistocene than previously recognised; the steady accumulation of new underwater Stone Age sites and materials, amounting now to over 3000 in Europe, and often with unusual and spectacular conditions of preservation (Figure 2); availability of new technologies and research strategies for underwater exploration; and the growth of targeted underwater research (Erlandson 2001; Bailey & Milner 2002; Anderson et al. 2010; Benjamin et al. 2011)."
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/01/2013/splashcos-submerged-prehistoric-archaeology-and-landscapes-of-the-continental-shel?

 

"Ancient Indians migrated to Australia and mixed with Aborigines 4,000 years ago, bringing the dingo's ancestor with them, according to new research that re-evaluates the continent's long isolation before European settlement.
The vast southern continent was thought to have been cut off from other populations until Europeans landed at the end of the 1700s, but the latest genetic and archaeological evidence throws that theory out.
Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, reported "evidence of substantial gene flow between Indian populations and Australia about 4,000 years ago".
They analyzed genetic variations across the genome from Australian Aborigines to New Guineans, Southeast Asians, and Indians, including Dravidian speakers from the south.
"The prevailing view is that until the arrival of Europeans late in the 18th century, there was little, if any, contact between Australia and the rest of the world," the study released Tuesday noted.
However, analysis of genome-wide data gave a "significant signature of gene flow from India to Australia which we date to about 4,230 years ago," or 141 generations back."
Indians 'broke Australian isolation 4,000 years ago' - NY Daily News | NewsCred SmartWire

 

"January 2013
Prehistoric rock art site found in Western India
A prehistoric rock art site has been discovered at Kappikunnu near Pulppally in Wayanad district (India). The petroglyphs bear a close resemblance to those on the walls of the Edakkal caves on Ambukuthy hills, in the same region.
Four figures - one of a couple of deers facing each other, and three abstract ones - have been found engraved on a huge chunk of rock. Other lines on a smaller rock that could have dislodged itself from the main rock, resemble a headgear. The rocks were found in the precincts of the Sree Veliyambam Kotta Siva temple, believed to have been built in the 12th century CE, inside the South Wayanad Forest Division.
The petroglyphs probably date back to the Neolithic period, Gira Gratier, a scholar from Belgium, said. Ms. Gratier, who was there as a part of her research project on the tribesmen of South India, visited the site after she was told of it by the local people. The site might be a ritual area for ancient people, she said. The rock engravings might have been part of a huge structure in the past, she added."
Stone Pages Archaeo News: Prehistoric rock art site found in Western India

 

I love this story.
"The Celts were long considered a barbaric and violent society. But new findings from a 2,600-year-old grave in Germany suggest the ancient people were much more sophisticated than previously thought.
The little Bettelbühl stream on the Danube River was completely unknown, except to local residents. But that changed in the summer of 2010 when a spectacular discovery was made just next to the creek.
Not far from the Heuneburg, the site of an early Celtic settlement, researchers stumbled upon the elaborate grave of a Celtic princess. In addition to gold and amber, they found a subterranean burial chamber fitted with massive oak beams. It was an archeological sensation that, after 2,600 years, the chamber was completely intact.
The wooden construction was preserved by the constant flow of water from the Bettelbühl stream. "In dry ground, the wood wouldn't have had a chance to survive over so many centuries," said Nicole Ebinger-Rist, the director of the research project handling the find."
http://www.dw.de/archeologists-revise-image-of-ancient-celts/a-16528844

 

Seems the most appropriate place for this. Therer are a few military history papers included, but not enough to warrant its own thread in the MH section-
"19th European Association of Archaeologists Meeting
Pilsen
Czech Republic
4-8th September 2013.
List of Sessions and Round Table"
List of Sessions & Round Tables :: 19th Annual Meeting of the EAA 2013, Pilsen, Czech Republic

 

"The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) unearthed recently an ancient castle dating to the first century of Hijra (7th-8th centuries) in the Madinah province.
SCTA’s archaeological excavation division came across the remnants of the ancient castle in the Wadi Al-Aqiq area.
There are also clay and steatite potteries and glass artifacts besides stone implements at the site.
“Preliminary studies based on the architectural style and the artifacts found at the site indicated that the palace belonged to the Umayyad period (660-750),” chief of the excavation team Khaled Eskoubi said.
Eskoubi stressed the importance of excavations in the Wadi Al-Aqeeq because the 80-km long valley was densely populated in ancient times."
http://arabnews.com/remains-ancient-castle-found?

 

"(Phys.org)—Nominated early this year for recognition on the UNESCO World Heritage List, which includes such famous cultural sites as the Taj Mahal, Machu Picchu and Stonehenge, the earthen works at Poverty Point, La., have been described as one of the world's greatest feats of construction by an archaic civilization of hunters and gatherers. Ads by Google HMS Belfast - WW2 Warship - Kids go Free. Explore life on board and Discover 9 Decks of History - iwm.org.uk/HMS-Belfast Now, new research in the current issue of the journal Geoarchaeology, offers compelling evidence that one of the massive earthen mounds at Poverty Point was constructed in less than 90 days, and perhaps as quickly as 30 days—an incredible accomplishment for what was thought to be a loosely organized society consisting of small, widely scattered bands of foragers. "What's extraordinary about these findings is that it provides some of the first evidence that early American hunter-gatherers were not as simplistic as we've tended to imagine," says study co-author T.R. Kidder, PhD, professor and chair of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. "Our findings go against what has long been considered the academic consensus on hunter-gather societies—that they lack the political organization necessary to bring together so many people to complete a labor-intensive project in such a short period." Co-authored by Anthony Ortmann, PhD, assistant professor of geosciences at Murray State University in Kentucky, the study offers a detailed analysis of how the massive mound was constructed some 3,200 years ago along a Mississippi River bayou in northeastern Louisiana."
Archaic Native Americans built massive Louisiana mound in fewer than 90 days, research confirms

 

Well, well, well.
"A skeleton found beneath a Leicester car park has been confirmed as that of English king Richard III.
Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch's family.
Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: "Beyond reasonable doubt it's Richard."
Richard, who died in 1485, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral.
His skeleton had suffered 10 injuries, including eight to the skull. The bones, which are of a man in his late 20s or early 30s, have been carbon dated to a period from 1455-1540.
Richard was 32 when he was killed at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.
Speaking at the press conference at the University of Leicester, Dr Turi King, project geneticist, said there had been concern DNA in the bones would be too degraded: "The question was could we get a sample of DNA to work with, and I am extremely pleased to tell you that we could."
She added: "There is a DNA match between the maternal DNA of the descendants of the family of Richard III and the skeletal remains we found at the Greyfriars dig.
"In short, the DNA evidence points to these being the remains of Richard III."
BBC News - Richard III dig: DNA confirms bones are king's

 

And here's some more, including a facial reconstruction-
The face of Richard III: Reconstruction reveals the slain king more than 500 years after he was killed in battle | Mail Online

 

"About 35 pyramids have been found inSudan. At a site called Sedeinga, an estimated 35 pyramids have been found along with several graves. According to a reportfrom Wednesday (Feb. 6), they could date back 2,000 years to when the Kush kingdom controlled the area. At first they shared a border with Egypt and later on with the Roman Empire. Some of the pyramids at the site are reportedly about 22 feet wide at their base. They range in size as well, with one of them estimated at only 30 inches long. It is surmised that it was built for the burial of a child. Unfortunately time had taken its toll on these sites, as the tops to all of the pyramids are no longer attached. There is a theory that at the top of each pyramid there would have been a capstone depicting either a bird or a lotus flower."
35 pyramids found in Sudan - Spokane Headlines | Examiner.com

 

"Newly conducted dating of a human mandible fossil discovered in 2008 in the Mala Balanica cave in southern Serbia has revealed that the human species to which it belonged featured a morphology (form and structure) that significantly departed from the pattern of features of early humans who inhabited what is today Western Europe during the same time period.
Considered a remain from what is now suggested to be the oldest hominin (human-related) species found in the Balkans of Eastern Europe, its age is now placed between 397,000 and 525,000 years old based on the application of electron spin resonance (ESR), uranium series isotoptic analysis and infrared/post infrared luminescence dating. These cutting-edge dating techniques are thought, used in combination in this instance, to provide a highly reliable date range for the fossil found. The new testing and study* was conducted by an international team of researchers that included William Jack Rink of McMaster University, Canada, Dušan Mihailović, University of Belgrade, Serbia, and Mirjana Roksandic, University of Winnipeg, Canada. Mihailović and Roksandic were both involved in the initial discovery of the ancient mandible (scientifically labeled "BH-1") in 2008. The new date range corresponds to a time when a human species called Homo heidelbergensis was present in Western Europe and an early stage in Neanderthal evolution."
http://prehistoricarch.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/early-humans-in-southeast-europe-were.html

 

"Peruvian archaeologists discovered a temple in Lima that may predate Stonehenge and be the oldest known in the Americas.
The rectangular stone building in the El Paraiso archaeological complex in the north of the capital may date to 3000 B.C., Deputy Culture Minister Rafael Varon said in an e- mailed statement yesterday. The temple was found inside a complex of 10 buildings that were first explored in 1965.
The building, which covers an area of 48 square meters (517 square feet) and was plastered with a mud layer and decorated with red paint, may be as old as Caral, a 5,000-year-old temple north of Lima discovered in 2001, said Jose Hudtwalcker, an archaeologist at the Riva y Aguero Institute in Lima. At 3,000 BC the temple would predate the Step Pyramid in Egypt and Stonehenge in England.
This was the pre-Ceramic Period, when civilizations lived off fishing and basic agriculture,” Hudtwalcker, author of the forthcoming book on coastal Peruvian civilizations -- “San Lorenzo Island: Territory & Encounters” -- said today by phone. “Carbon dating will make it definitive, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at least as old as Caral.”"
Peru Archaeologists Discover 5,000-Year-Old Temple in Lima - Bloomberg

 

"New light has been shed on a genetic variation that may have played a key role in human evolution by two studies published by an international group of researchers this week in the journal Cell.To understand a gene variant that might have helped humans adapt to humid climates, the research team used an animal model, along with whole-genome sequencing data. The findings of these studies could provide a road map to human biological history and modern day variability.
“There is an archaeological record hidden in our DNA that can help point us to the traits that have been critical in human survival, such as resistance to infectious diseases and new abilities to respond to different environments,” says Pardis Sabeti of Harvard University and the Broad Institute. “The two studies have uncovered two intriguing human adaptive traits and demonstrate the ability to go from an unbiased genome scan to a novel hypothesis of human evolution.”
The first study, led by researchers from Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard,Massachusetts General Hospital, Fudan University and University College London (UCL), revealed that a single genetic mutation of the EDAR gene produced several traits common to East Asian populations such as thicker hair and denser sweat glands. They also modeled the spread of this gene mutation across Asia and North America from its emergence in what is currently central China approximately 30,000 years ago.
“This interdisciplinary approach yields unique insight into the generation of adaptive variation among modern humans,” said Sabeti, associate professor in the Center for Systems Biology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard.
“This paper tells a story about human evolution in three parts,” said Cliff Tabin, head of the HMS Department of Genetics. “The mouse model links multiple traits to a single mutation, the related association study finds these traits in humans, and computer models tell us where and when the mutation likely arose and spread.”"
Humans Adapted To Humid Climate Because Of Genes - Science News - redOrbit

 

"Evidence of a drowned "microcontinent" has been found in sand grains from the beaches of a small Indian Ocean island, scientists say.
A well-known tourist destination, Mauritius (map) is located about 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) off the coast of Africa, east of Madagascar. Scientists think the tiny island formed some nine million years ago from cooling lava spewed by undersea volcanoes.
But recently, researchers have found sand grains on Mauritius that contain fragments of the mineral zircon that are far older than the island, between 660 million and about 2 billion years old.
In a new study, detailed in the current issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists concluded that the older minerals once belonged to a now vanished landmass, tiny bits of which were dragged up to the surface during the formation of Mauritius. (Also see "World's Oldest Rocks Suggest Early Earth Was Habitable.")
"When lavas moved through continental material on the way towards the surface, they picked up a few rocks containing zircon," study co-author Bjørn Jamtveit, a geologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, explained in an email.
Most of these rocks probably disintegrated and melted due to the high temperatures of the lavas, but some grains of zircons survived and were frozen into the lavas [during the eruption] and rolled down to form rocks on the Mauritian surface."
Prehistoric Atlantis
Jamtveit and his colleagues estimate that the lost microcontinent, which they have dubbed Mauritia, was about a quarter of the size of Madagascar (map).
Furthermore, based on a recalculation of how the ancient continents drifted apart, the scientists concluded that Mauritia was once a tiny part of a much larger "supercontinent" that included India and Madagascar, called Rodinia.
The three landmasses "were tucked together in one big continent prior to the formation of the Indian Ocean," Jamtveit said.
But like a prehistoric Atlantis, Mauritia was eventually drowned beneath the waves when India broke apart from Madagascar about 85 million years ago. (Also see "Slimmer Indian Continent Drifted Ten Times Faster.")"
Ancient Lost Continent Discovered in Indian Ocean

 

"Recent archaeological discoveries on the Arabian Peninsula have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown civilisation based in the now arid areas in the middle of the desert.
The artefacts unearthed are providing proof of a civilisation that flourished thousands of years ago and have renewed scientific interest in man and the evolution of his relationship with animals.
The 300-odd stone objects so far found in the remote Al Magar area of Saudi Arabia include traces of stone tools, arrow heads, small scrapers and various animal statues including sheep, goats and ostriches.
But the object that has engendered the most intense interest from within the country and around the world is a large, stone carving of an "equid" - an animal belonging to the horse family.
According to Ali bin Ibrahim Al Ghabban, vice-president of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities, DNA and carbon-14 (radiocarbon) tests are continuing. But initial evidence suggests that the artefacts date back 9,000 years."
BBC News - Desert finds challenge horse taming ideas