For Those Interested in Archaeology

"BOURNEMOUTH, ENGLAND—Preserved footprints of human ancestors can offer a wealth of information on everything from ancient climate to the evolution of the human gait. But, impressions dating back tens of thousands of years are not always fossilized in stone. In fact, footprints dating to 1.5 million years ago sit in sand at the northern Kenyan site of Ileret that is in danger of coastal erosion. Researchers at the Bournemouth University contrasted two methods of recording footprints: photographing the impressions from various angles to build up a complete picture, called digital photogrammetry, and optical laser scanning, which can build 3-D light maps of the footprints. Photogrammetry is quicker and less expensive, whereas laser scanning is more precise and more expensive."
http://www.archaeology.org/news/826-human-footprints-ileret-photogrammetry-laser-scanning?

 

"PHOENIX, ARIZONA—A canal dug by the Hohokam people some 1,500 years ago has been unearthed at a construction site for a commuter train station at Sky Harbor airport. The Hohokam built canals to carry water from the Salt River to their irrigated field systems."
http://www.archaeology.org/news/830-130429-arizona-hohokam-canal?

 

"Archaeologists have unearthed skeletal remains of eight people that may be the relatives of a medieval knight discovered under a parking lot last month in Scotland. The team uncovered one partial skeleton and seven complete skeletons, including one infant and an adult female.
The remains were all buried behind a wall in what may have been an ancient family burial crypt.
"This site just keeps getting more and more interesting, it is turning out to be a real treasure trove of archaeology," Ross Murray, a former student at the University of Edinburgh, said in a statement. "These new finds look likely to be the possible relations of the suspected Medieval knight we found earlier this year. The skull of the skeleton found immediately beneath the location of the knight looks like that of a female and the remains found on the other side of the ornate slab belong to an infant from the same period.""
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/29/skeletons-parking-lot-scotland-medieval-knight_n_3179733.html

 

"WASHINGTON — Scientists revealed Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism.
For years, there have been tales of people in the first permanent English settlement in America eating dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes and shoe leather to stave off starvation. There were also written accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archaeologists had been skeptical of those stories.
But now, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and archaeologists from Jamestown are announcing the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head of the girl, who appears to have already been dead at the time.
Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the “starving time” in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, which resulted in severe food shortages for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.
The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a “world of miseries,” that included digging corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. “Nothing was spared to maintain life,” he wrote."
http://www.roanoke.com/news/1901477-12/cannibalism-found-at-jamestown.html?

 

"The first evidence of agriculture appears in the archaeological record some 10,000 years ago. But the skills needed to cultivate and harvest crops weren’t learned overnight. Scientists have traced these roots back to 23,000-year-old tools used to grind seeds, found mostly in the Middle East.
Now, research lead by Li Liu, a professor of Chinese archaeology at Stanford, reveals that the same types of tools were used to process seeds and tubers in northern China, setting China’s agricultural clock back about 12,000 years and putting it on par with activity in the Middle East. Liu believes that the practices evolved independently, possibly as a global response to a changing climate.
Once the stones are unearthed, use-wear traces and residue of starch grains on the used surfaces can be analysed to reveal the types of plants processed.The earliest grinding stones have been found in Upper Palaeolithic archaeological sites around the world. These consisted of a pair of stones, typically a handheld stone that would be rubbed against a larger, flat stone set on the ground, to process wild seeds and tubers into flour-like powder.
Liu focused on stones discovered at a roughly 23,000-year-old site in the middle of the Yellow River region in northern China. Most of the agricultural research in this area has focused on the Holocene period, roughly 10,000 years ago, when people were domesticating animals and farming.
“The roots of agriculture must be much deeper than 10,000 years ago,” Liu said. “People have to first be familiar with the wild plants before cultivating them. The use of these grinding stones to process food indicates that people exploited these plants intensively and became familiar with their characteristics, a process that eventually led to agriculture.”
Indeed, the starch analysis has shown traces of grasses, beans, wild millet seeds, a type of yam and snakegourd root – the same types of food that people in the region would domesticate thousands of years later. Domesticated millet, in particular, became the main staple crop that supported the agricultural basis of ancient Chinese civilization."
http://www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/05/2013/origins-of-chinese-agriculture-pushed-back-by-12000-years

 

Nice how post 759 is written very very small. So peeps won't notice...peep.....Very interesting one, Mr H.

 

Still haven't quite got the hang of the new software yet, Poppy.

 

"The “Dialogue of Civilizations” conference in Guatemala brought together archaeologists studying five ancient cultures to discuss their similarities and differences and what they can tell us about human society as a whole. You can still be a part of the conversation, commenting on this post or tweeting using #5Civilizations.
On the final day of the conference, after two days of individual presentations on ancient China, the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Maya, all the presenters and hosts sat together on stage to discuss the nature of civilization and what we can apply today from the lessons of yesterday, or as the tagline for the Dialogue put it, how to view “the past as a window to the future.” Two days later, sitting on top of Temple IV in Tikal, looking out over the city’s ruins and miles and miles of jungle canopy, the group engaged in another conversation, centered around the collapse of civilizations.
Pulling from both of those, and the experience of recapping the presentations in these blog posts, here are the main questions and themes that seemed to arise from the Dialogue. Leaving the conference there was a distinct feeling that this was simply the beginning of the conversation. Keep it going in the comments below.
Part 1: What Is “Civilization”?
Part 2: Why Did Ancient Civilizations Build Such Huge Monuments?
Part 3: Is Every Civilization Destined to Collapse?
Why Such Big Buildings?
Richard Hansen, director of the Pre-Classic Maya site of El Mirador, and one of the creators of the whole idea of the dialog had a particular question that had been getting at him. “Somehow we’re all wired to put a major emphasis on labor and resources at the very beginning of a society,” he said. Why is there that early emphasis on monumentality?
Renee Friedman of the British Museum and director of excavations at Hierakonpolis in Egypt pointed out that it’s not just at the beginning that a civilization builds huge monuments. 2000 years after the pyramids, the Ptolemaic kings were building huge monumental temples. “It’s just a different form,” she said, but “it’s still plenty of monumentality.” In particular, “when they were trying to reassert their power, there was again a big push to build these huge stone temples…trying to bind society together again.”
The interesting thing there is that groups trying to “reassert” their power are in many ways comparable to groups at the “beginning of a society.” So perhaps building big things is simply something people do when they begin to work together. Once there is a sense that they want to do things together, they do things that weren’t possible in smaller groups. Elaborate dances might be one example, but monumental architecture is another, and it’s the one that stays visible."
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/01/the-ancient-past-as-a-window-to-the-future-part-2-of-3/

 

"Nok — By all standards, this enclave which is reputed to have hosted the African tribe that first had the visible traits of civilization and modern touch should be a tourist's haven, but it is not so for this village located deep in Southern Kaduna.
A long rugged route to 'Africa's first civilisation'
The road to Kwoi, a neighboring town is a much better one for motorists to ply. But as soon as one leaves Kwoi, the road becomes very rugged. The untarred road has innumerable gaping potholes that the nimble driver or motorcyclists just has to be wary of. But the scenery makes up perhaps for the arduous journey into the heart of Nok, known worldwide to be the seat of Africa's first civilisation. Many archaeologists and historians would well attest to this though a few still pick holes in the theory. At the sides of the winding road to Nok, vast farmlands with neatly arrayed ginger plants swaying to the enchanting hymn of the wind greats the sight of the first timer into the village. Nok is known also for being a veritable store of ginger, a major part of its revenue.This morning many of the residents appear to be in a jovial mood. This is understandable for a community which is agrarian in nature. Just last night the heavens unleashed a huge torrent of rain, the first this year and apart from the cool weather ushering in the season, the water soaked farmlands also attest to further good news for the farmers who are optimistic of a flourishing farming season.
"Anytime the rains fall we are always happy. You know we don't have any other source of livelihood here as farmers. All we depend on is the produce from our farms. The government seems to have neglected us here so we have to make do with what we can get within our community. The rains always give us hope of better things to come,' says the motorcyclist who offers to take the reporter into the community. He is one of the few farmers in the community who can boast of a means of transportation to and fro the village. On this particular day he is on his way to his farm to do a bit of work.
'The roads are very bad. We hope someday they will remember us. When you come into the community you will see the pains our people are going through. This place is supposed to be a tourist attraction but I tell you it does not even have a sign that a government establishment is located here. Our people deserve more than they are currently getting,' he adds as the reporter disembarks after a gruelling 20 minutes bumpy ride into the village.
A mild drama ensues when he refuses to take the fare. But after entreaties interspersed with gruff outbursts from the reporter, he finally relents and collects the stipend. His amiable disposition is not unique to him. Friendliness and politeness seems to be the watchword here in this small community. All through the brief journey into the village, the reporter is inundated with greetings from both the elderly and the youthful along the rugged route. Many of these even under the burden of farming implements on their shoulders pause intermittently to offer a hand of fellowship to visitors.
Nok's noble place in history
Nok Culture civilization was discovered in 1928. Nokculture.com perhaps does the greatest justice to it when it says inter alia that, 'the first discoveries were accidentally unearthed at a level of 24 feet in an alluvial tin mine in the vicinity of the village of Nok in Jaba Local Government in the southern part of Kaduna state, near the Jos Plateau region which lies in the central part of Nigeria in west Africa. As a result of natural erosion and deposition, Nok terracottas were scattered at various depths throughout the Sahel grasslands, causing difficulty in the dating and classification of the mysterious artifacts. Luckily, two archaeological sites, Samun Dukiya and Taruga, were found containing Nok art that had remained unmoved. Radiocarbon and thermo-luminescence tests narrowed the sculptures' age down to between 2000 and 2500 years ago, making them some of the oldest in West Africa.'"
http://allafrica.com/stories/201305061211.html?viewall=1

 

"LONDON — From Ireland to Turkey, Europeans are all related, sharing a link with ancestors who were alive just 1,000 years ago, according to a new genetic study.
Research by scientists in California is further evidence that neat distinctions between various European peoples are largely artificial and that they are all one big family — although not necessarily a happy one.
“Even pairs of people as far apart as the U.K. and Turkey share a chunk of genomic material 20 percent of the time,” according to the authors of a paper published on Tuesday.
Peter Ralph and Graham Coop of the University of California used genomic data for 2,257 Europeans to conduct the first such study of an entire continent.
In recent years, genetics has combined with archaeology and linguistic studies as a tool to help answer the eternal question of where we come from.
A separate study, based on DNA recovered from ancient skeletons,revealed last month that the genetic makeup of modern Europe was established by a wave of newcomers to the continent 6,500 years ago, more recently than previously thought."
http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/genetics-reveal-europe-is-one-big-family/

 

"May 9, 2013 — A University of Southampton professor has carried out the most detailed analysis ever of the archaeological remains of the lost medieval town of Dunwich, dubbed 'Britain's Atlantis'.
Funded and supported by English Heritage, and using advanced underwater imaging techniques, the project led by Professor David Sear of Geography and Environment has produced the most accurate map to date of the town's streets, boundaries and major buildings, and revealed new ruins on the seabed. Professor Sear worked with a team from the University's GeoData Institute; the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton; Wessex Archaeology; and local divers from North Sea Recovery and Learn Scuba.

He comments, "Visibility under the water at Dunwich is very poor due to the muddy water. This has limited the exploration of the site.
"We have now dived on the site using high resolution DIDSON ™ acoustic imaging to examine the ruins on the seabed -- a first use of this technology for non-wreck marine archaeology.
"DIDSON technology is rather like shining a torch onto the seabed, only using sound instead of light. The data produced helps us to not only see the ruins, but also understand more about how they interact with the tidal currents and sea bed.""
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130509091118.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29

 

Pardon moi Monsieur H...Should not have posted that here.

 

"NORTH COUNTY — A fossilized Ice Age bison that was recently discovered at a Caltrans construction site in North County will be unveiled Monday at the San Diego Natural History Museum.
The fossil was unearthed near Pala Mesa during construction on the state Route 76 east project, California Department of Transportation spokeswoman Cathryne Bruce-Johnson said in a statement. It is the first fossilized bison found in Southern California, she said.
The fossil will be displayed at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the museum in Balboa Park. Museum paleontologists will demonstrate how they clean sediment from the fossil, estimated to be about 200,000 years old, Bruce-Johnson said.
Caltrans District Director Laurie Berman and Tom Demere, the museum’s curator of paleontology, will talk about the discovery.
A California law known as the Environmental Quality Act requires developers to allow fossil researchers to collect specimens before construction is completed."
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/may/11/ice-age-bison-fossil-found-near-pala-mesa/?

 

"MIAMI (AP) — In urban archaeology, the backhoe is a time machine: Scrape away a mountain of asphalt, dirt and rock near the river in downtown Miami, and the city's buried history, centuries of it, suddenly comes to light in a startling reveal.
There are the brick bases of the columns that once held up the hotel's famed veranda. Here are three smooth concrete steps leading down to a tiled floor, a remnant of industrialist Henry Flagler's grand Royal Palm Hotel, which gave birth to modern Miami and its tourism industry.
A few more steps bring you to a pattern of ancient postholes bored in the bedrock, likely for Tequesta Indian village structures and likely well more than 1,000 years old.
And then perhaps the most remarkable find: the worn limestone of the original shoreline at the confluence of the Miami River and Biscayne Bay, long ago covered with fill as Flagler and his successors extended the downtown land mass for development."
http://newsok.com/remnants-of-ancient-indian-village-found/article/feed/540213?custom_click=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Newsok%2FNews+%28NewsOK.com+RSS+-+news%29

 

It's paydirt, boyz....! (wish there was an app for doing a Gabby Hayes voice).


"The discovery of a previously unknown species of ancient bird has been confirmed after the fossilized remains were discovered near Rzeszow, south eastern Poland.
“The find is the crowning discovery of my life,” said amateur palaeontologist Albin Jamroz, in an interview with the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

The extraordinary find has been described in the new edition of long standing international quarterly The Journal of Ornithology.
Jamroz found the fossil in the banks of a small brook, and both he and the nearby city of Rzeszow have been commemorated in the species' Latin name, Resoviaornis jamrozi (The Rzeszow bird of Jamroz).
According to Dr Zbigniew Bochenski from the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), the bird lived about 29 million years ago, during the Oligocene Epoch.
“It was the size of today's blue tits,” he told PAP.
“The bird's beak indicates that it fed on fruit and insects,” he reflected.
“It had pretty long legs and probably spent most of the time on the ground or among branches, and not in the air,” he added."
http://www.thenews.pl/1/9/Artykul/135558,Ancient-bird-species-fossil-confirmed-in-Poland?

"Human remains and earthen vessels dating to the Bronze Age 'Beaker' settlers were uncovered at Duns Law, in southeast Scotland. The finds are estimated to be 4500 years old.
Simon Brassey, Scottish Water's specialist engineer on their environment team said: "Whilst stripping back the topsoil to prepare the ground for the new water mains being laid, the team uncovered some significant archaeological findings adjacent and outside of the scheduled monument of Duns Law Fort and Camp, north of Duns in the Scottish Borders."
The finds include the cremated bones of a woman and other fragments of human bone from at least two other adults and a juvenile. Up to seven earthen vessels from the Beaker era were revealed, each decorated with comb-impressions with different geometric patterns. A stone axe was also found."
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/005025.html?


"More than a thousand flint tools and waste generated on during their treatment were discovered near Pietrowice Wielkie (Silesia) by archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Wrocław - told PAP head researcher Dr. Andrzej Wiśniewski.

The flint workshops, remains of which were found by archaeologists, had been used by Neanderthals. The researchers are waiting for more detailed information on the site dating. The workshop is certainly more than 45 thousand years old.

"Tools were made by a specific canon of Neanderthals living in Central Europe. These items have a cutting edge on both sides, they are bifacial" - said Dr. Wiśniewski.

Tools, including bifaces and asymmetric blades, are made of siliceous rocks, commonly called flint. According to head researcher, Neanderthals made their tools with holders made of antlers, wood or other materials. This is evidenced by the results of the microscopic analysis of similar items discovered in Germany. Among the flint, archaeologists also found fragments of coarse grained crystalline rock used as pestles - support tools in the manufacture of other tools. This is one of few places in Poland, where archaeologists discovered tools of this kind."
http://www.naukawpolsce.pap.pl/en/news/news,395189,unique-workshop-of-palaeolithic-hunters-discovered-in-silesia.html

 

"Researchers believe they may finally have uncovered the lost 'White City of gold' in Honduras using hi-tech scanners that let aircraft 'see' through dense forest.
Researchers from the University of Houston and the National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping (NCALM) flew over the Mosquitia region in a small plane shooting billions of laser pulses at the ground to create a 3D digital map of the topology beneath the jungle canopy.
Compiling their data, the analysts revealed what appears to be man-made elevation changes that are thought to show a forgotten city plaza dotted with pyramids reclaimed by the jungle.

Inspired by this legend, cinematographer and Ciudad Blanca enthusiast Steven Elkins sought backing from private investors to pay for the team at NCLAM to use their laser mapping technology to chart the forest floor of Mosquitia.According to legend, Ciudad Blanca or the 'White City' is full of gold and has been sought out by explorers and treasure hunters since conquistador Hernando Cortes first made reference to it in a 1526 letter to King Charles V of Spain.
Over the course of a week, the NCALM and University of Houston engineers flew over 60 square miles of forest in their dual-engine Cessna planes.
LiDAR’s computer-generated images allow researchers to 'see' through the forest canopy to the ground surface, revealing any evidence of ancient settlements or human-engineered landscapes.
'The LiDAR point cloud data clearly show the remains of large settlements that can be characterized as ancient cities based on their spatial complexity, size and organization,' said Colorado State University professors Christopher Fisher, who led the research.
'We may never be able to tell whether any of these are Ciudad Blanca, or whether the legendary city ever existed, but we can clearly see in the UTL data evidence that there was a densely settled region with a human modified environment.
'These conclusions provide important new insights into the pre-Hispanic settlement of this largely unexplored region.'"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2324863/Have-scientists-lost-white-city-gold-dense-Central-American-jungle-Radar-scans-taken-air-reveal-mysterious-ancient-cities.html#ixzz2TMbJK1X4

 

"Danish museum officials say that an archaeological dig last year has revealed 365 items from the Viking era, including 60 rare coins.
Danish National Museum spokesman Jens Christian Moesgaard says the coins have a distinctive cross motif attributed to Norse King Harald Bluetooth, who is believed to have brought Christianity to Norway and Denmark.
Sixteen-year-old Michael Stokbro Larsen found the coins and other items with a metal detector in a field in northern Denmark.
Stokbro Larsen, who often explores with his detector, said he is often laughed at because friends find him "a bit nerdy.""
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/05/16/teenager-rare-viking-era-find-metal-detector/?intcmp=HPBucket#ixzz2TTRUs41V

 

Wahey! Nice bit of controversy!



"Five copper coins found in northern Australia could rewrite the country's history.
The coins are thought to date back as early as the 900s and are believed to have originated in Africa.
Written history of Australia only dates back to 1606, when Dutch explorers landed in the region, and researchers from Indiana University want to find out how the thousand-year-old copper coins ended up on the other side of the Indian Ocean six centuries earlier.
Lead researcher, Australian scientist Ian McIntosh said the coins were first discovered by soldier Maurie Isenberg in 1944.
Isenberg was stationed on the Wessel Islands - an uninhabited group of islands of the north coast of Australia - during World War II and he found the coins buried beneath the sand.
In 1979, Isenberg sent the coins to an Australian museum and now McIntosh wants to investigate how they arrived on the island.
Isenberg also marked the location the coins were found on a map using an 'X'.
At the same time, Isenberg found four coins that came from the Dutch East India Company, dating back to 1690.
This discovery supports claims that Dutch explorers discovered the island before Captain James Cook in 1770."


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2327362/Coins-suggest-Australia-discovered-SIX-CENTURIES-Captain-Cook-arrived-island.html#ixzz2TsYhMrpf

 

[SIZE=xx-large]"I[/SIZE]n a Perspective article published in the May 24, 2013 issue of the journal Science, scientists Simon E. Fisher and Matt Ridley argue the case that at least some evolutionary changes in the human genome in humankind's distant past may actually be consequences of cultural evolution and not the other way around, as is commonly assumed by mainstream human evolutionists.
"A common assumption is that the emergence of behaviorally modern humans after 200,000 years ago required—and followed—a specific biological change triggered by one or more genetic mutations", write Fisher and Ridley. "But are evolutionary changes in our genome a cause or a consequence of cultural innovation?...........The smallest, most trivial new habit adopted by a hominid species could— if advantageous—have led to selection of genomic variations that sharpened that habit, be it cultural exchange, creativity, technological virtuosity, or heightened empathy".
To support their view, they point to studies that illustrate cultural or behavioral change or innovation preceding the genetic change, such as R. Wrangham's study on the impact of fire and cooking on the size of the human gut, and other genetic studies related to the development of spoken language. They also point to more recent examples, such as Lactase-persistence mutations that occurred and spread as an evolutionary response to dairy consumption, and the higher alcohol tolerance among Europeans as a result of greater alcohol consumption in Europe, as compared to Asians."
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/march-2013/article/are-human-evolutionists-confusing-cause-and-effect

 

Brother, posts 776,7,8 are miniscule to me. Last post is legible....Does it not show on your end as miniscule posts? Mr.H's stuff should not be small.