Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Latest Archaeology Reports

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Europe

The beginnings of trade in northwestern Europe during the Bronze Age

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 day ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Rectangular bronze weight (around 4.8 cm long; 29.8 g) from Salcombe, Devon, England. view more Credit: British Museum People in England were using balance weights and scales to measure the value of materials as early as the late second and early first millennia BC. This is what Professor Lorenz Rahmstorf, scientist at the University of Göttingen and project manager of the ERC "Weight and Value" project, has discovered. He compared Middle and Late Bronze Age gold objects from the British Isles and Northern France and found that they were based on the same u... more »

New light on contested identity of medieval skeleton found at Prague Castle

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 5 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Photograph of grave IIIN199, shortly after excavation in 1928. view more Credit: Institute of Archaeology of the CAS, Prague Castle Excavations Used as a propaganda tool by the Nazis and Soviets during the Second World War and Cold War, the remains of a 10th century male, unearthed beneath Prague Castle in 1928, have been the subject of continued debate and archaeological manipulation. The mysterious skeleton and associated grave goods, including a sword and two knives, were identified as Viking by the Nazis, as a Slavonic warrior by the Soviets and became p... more »

Earliest evidence of artificial cranial deformation in Croatia during 5th-6th century

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *CT scans of the so called circular-erect type cranial deformation. view more Credit: M Kavka People in Croatia during the 5th to 6th centuries may have used cranial modifications to indicate their cultural affiliations, according to a study published August 21, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* led by Ron Pinhasi of the University of Vienna and Mario Novak of the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia. The Hermanov vinograd archaeological site in Osijek Croatia has been known since the 1800s. A new pit excavated in 2013 contained t... more »

Nordic Bronze Age attracted wide variety of migrants to Denmark

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Teeth from male individual from the site of Gjerrild (Rise 73a) view more Credit: Marie Louise Jørkov Migration patterns in present-day Denmark shifted at the beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age, according to a study published August 21, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Karin Frei of the National Museum of Denmark and colleagues. Migrants appear to have come from varied and potentially distant locations during a period of unprecedented economic growth in southern Scandinavia in the 2nd millennium BC. The 2nd and 3rd millennia BC are known to have ... more »

Tiny ear bones help archaeologists piece together the past

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 6 days ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *Scan of ossicle bone view more Credit: Kevin Mackenzie at the University of Aberdeen Archaeologists from the University of Bradford have examined ear ossicles taken from the skeletons of 20 juveniles, excavated from an 18th and 19th century burial ground in Blackburn. They were chosen to represent those with and without dietary disease such as rickets and scurvy. These children, who were excavated by Headland Archaeology, were examined at the University by Masters student Tamara Leskovar, under the supervision of Dr Julia Beaumont. The new method has provided... more »
 

A Stone Age boat building site has been discovered underwater

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
National Oceanography Centre, UK [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is historian Dan Snow inspecting the site. view more Credit: Maritime Archaeological Trust The Maritime Archaeological Trust has discovered a new 8,000 year old structure next to what is believed to be the oldest boat building site in the world on the Isle of Wight. Director of the Maritime Archaeological Trust, Garry Momber, said "This new discovery is particularly important as the wooden platform is part of a site that doubles the amount of worked wood found in the UK from a period that lasted 5,500 years." The site lie... more »

Ancient feces reveal how 'marsh diet' left Bronze Age Fen folk infected with parasites

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
New research published today in the journal *Parasitology* shows how the prehistoric inhabitants of a settlement in the freshwater marshes of eastern England were infected by intestinal worms caught from foraging for food in the lakes and waterways around their homes. The Bronze Age settlement at Must Farm, located near what is now the fenland city of Peterborough, consisted of wooden houses built on stilts above the water. Wooden causeways connected islands in the marsh, and dugout canoes were used to travel along water channels. The village burnt down in a catastrophic fire around ... more »

'Oldest remains' outside Africa reset human migration clock

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Complete article The Apidima 1 partial cranium (right) and its reconstruction from posterior view (middle) and side view (left). The rounded shape of the Apidima 1 cranium a unique feature of modern humans and contrasts sharply with Neanderthals and their ancestors. by Patrick Galey 14 *PARIS* *(AFP)**.-* A 210,000-year-old skull has been identified as the earliest modern human remains found outside Africa, putting the clock back on mankind's arrival in Europe by more than 150,000 years, researchers said Wednesday. In a startling discovery that changes our understanding of... more »
 

Ancient pigs endured a complete genomic turnover after they arrived in Europe

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
New research led by Oxford University and Queen Mary University of London has resolved a pig paradox. Archaeological evidence has shown that pigs were domesticated in the Near East and as such, modern pigs should resemble Near Eastern wild boar. They do not. Instead, the genetic signatures of modern European domestic pigs resemble European wild boar. Published in *Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences*, the study shows how this has happened. Working with more than 100 collaborators, researchers from Oxford's School of Archaeology sequenced DNA signatures from more than 2,0... more »
 
Egypt

Invisible ink on antique Nile papyrus revealed by multiple methods

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *A team of researchers examined an ancient papyrus with a supposed empty spot. With the help of several methods, they discovered which signs once stood in this place and which... view more Credit: HZB The first thing that catches an archaeologist's eye on the small piece of papyrus from Elephantine Island on the Nile is the apparently blank patch. Researchers from the Egyptian Museum, Berlin universities and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have now used the synchrotron radiation from BESSY II to unveil its secret. This pushes the door wide open for analysing the gia... more »
 
Asia

Analyses of Roopkund skeletons show Mediterranean migrants in Indian Himalaya

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The lake was thought to be the site of an ancient catastrophic event that left several hundred people dead, but the first ancient whole genome data from India shows that... view more Credit: Atish Waghwase A large-scale study conducted by an international team of scientists has revealed that the mysterious skeletons of Roopkund Lake - once thought to have died during a single catastrophic event - belong to genetically highly distinct groups that died in multiple periods in at least two episodes separated by one thousand years. The study, published this week i... more »

Humans migrated to Mongolia much earlier than previously believed

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Stone tools uncovered in Mongolia by an international team of archaeologists indicate that modern humans traveled across the Eurasian steppe about 45,000 years ago, according to a new University of California, Davis, study. The date is about 10,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously believed. The site also points to a new location for where modern humans may have first encountered their mysterious cousins, the now extinct Denisovans, said Nicolas Zwyns, an associate professor of anthropology and lead author of the study. Zwyns led excavations from 2011 to 2016 at the Tolbo... more »
 
Israel
 

Shrine to Apostle Peter unearthed: Israeli archaeologist

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Excavations in Israel's Galilee have uncovered remains of an ancient church said to mark the home of the apostles Peter and Andrew, the dig's archaeological director said Friday. Mordechai Aviam of Kinneret Academic College, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, said this season's dig at nearby El-Araj confirmed it as the site of Bethsaida, a fishing village where Peter and his brother Andrew were born according to the Gospel of John. The Byzantine church was found near remnants of a Roman-era settlement, matching the location of Bethsaida as described by the first... more »

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient rural mosque in the Negev desert

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
Archaeologists working in Israel's Negev desert have discovered an ancient rural mosque, thought to be one of the earliest in the world. [image: Article Image] The mosque, which dates back to the 7th or 8th century, was discovered by researchers from the Israel Antiquities Authority as they prepared to build a new neighborhood in the southern Israeli Bedouin city of Rahat. The archaeologists said in a statement that large mosques from the period have been found in Mecca and Jerusalem but that it was rare to find such a building in the area, which is north of the city of Beer Sheva. ... more »

Israeli Archaeologists Discover One of the World’s Oldest Mosques

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Complete article The ruins of a 1200 year old rural mosque, one of the earliest mosques in the world, were uncovered in an archaeological dig in the predominately Bedouin city of Rahat north of Beersheba. “A local rural mosque from this early period is a rare find in the Middle East and in the world in general and especially in the area north of Beersheba in which a similar building has not been found until now,” said Shahar Zur and Dr. Jon Seligman, the directors of the excavation on behalf of the Antiquities Authority. “From this period, there are large known mosques in Jerusale... more »

Israeli Village Excavates Itself, Finds Biggest Winery in the Crusader World

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Complete article On a Galilean mountaintop, in about 1150, King Baldwin III stopped grousing at his mother, Queen Melisende of Jerusalem, and built a castle in the village of Mi’ilya, from which he sought to consolidate his shrunken share of the Frankish Crusader kingdom in the Holy Land. Almost 900 years later, residents of this village have come together in a unique venture spearheaded by a local archaeologist, to fix and restore the dangerously crumbling castle. In parallel, next door to the castle, a curious gas-station owner named Salma Assaf privately funded an excavation bene... more »

Evidence of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem found in Mount Zion excavation

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *This is one of the Scythian type arrowheads found in the destruction layer from 587/586 BCE. view more Credit: Mt Zion Archaeological Expedition/Virginia Withers Researchers digging at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte's ongoing archaeological excavation on Mount Zion in Jerusalem have announced a second significant discovery from the 2019 season - clear evidence of the Babylonian conquest of the city from 587/586 BCE. The discovery is of a deposit including layers of ash, arrowheads dating from the period, as well as Iron Age potsherds, lamps and... m
 

Archeologists May Have Found the Biblical City Where King David Sought Refuge

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
The site of Khirbet Al-Rai has been excavated by researchers who are with the Israel Antiquities Authority. These researchers have said that they believe that the settlement they’ve discovered is perhaps the remnants of Ziklag. The Bible tells the tale of how King David escaped Israel and King Saul by fleeing to Ziklag. In Ziklag, King David lived among the Philistines. The Philistines are believed to originate from the Mediterranean. The team isn’t the first group of researchers who happened to look for the settlement. Many archaeologists out there have gone on several many exca... more »

Nahal Mishmar hoard = one of the earliest forms of primitive writing in the world?

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Complete article A cache of copper artifacts made some 6,300 years ago may contain a secret code used by ancient Levantine metal workers, which would make this one of the earliest forms of primitive writing in the world. That’s the new and controversial theory of an Israeli researcher who believes he has deciphered the meaning of the exquisite but as-yet-enigmatic artifacts that were uncovered decades ago in a remote desert cave in Israel. More than 400 copper objects were found in 1961, wrapped in a tattered mat in a cavern on the nearly inaccessible slopes of Nahal Mishmar, a se... more »
 
 
Africa

New study in 'Science': Why humans in Africa fled to the mountains during the last ice age

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The Fincha Habera rock shelter in the Ethiopian Bale Mountains served as a residence for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. view more Credit: Götz Ossendorf People in Ethiopia did not live in low valleys during the last ice age. Instead they lived high up in the inhospitable Bale Mountains. There they had enough water, built tools out of obsidian and relied mainly on giant rodents for nourishment. This discovery was made by an international team of researchers led by Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in cooperation with the Universities of Cologne, B... more »

Ethiopian rock shelter earliest evidence of high-altitude prehistoric life

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
Archaeologists have uncovered the earliest evidence of high-altitude prehistoric living in the form of a rock shelter in Ethiopia, though whether the site was inhabited permanently is unclear. According to the report - based on archeological, biogeochemical, glacial chronological and other analyses - more than 30,000 years ago, the Fincha Habera rock shelter, a site situated more than 11,000 feet above sea level in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia, was home to Middle Stone Age foragers who made use of nearby resources and feasted upon plentiful giant mole-rats. Life at high-altitude... more »
 
Americas

Not just genes: Environment also shaped population variation in first Americans

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 2 weeks ago
The first Americans - humans who crossed onto the North American continent and then dispersed throughout Central and South America - all share common ancestry. But as they settled different areas, the populations diverged and became distinct. A new study from North Carolina State University shows that facial differences resulting from this divergence were due to the complex interaction of environment and evolution on these populations and sheds light on how human diversification occurred after settlement of the New World. "If we want to understand variation in modern populations in... more »

Maya more warlike than previously thought

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 3 weeks ago
Evidence of extreme warfare from Classic period disputes role of violence in civilization's decline University of California - Berkeley [image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *UC Berkeley's David Wahl and Lysanna Anderson of USGS with a local assistant taking a sediment sample from the center of Lake Ek'Naab from an inflatable platform. All the equipment... view more Credit: Francisco Estrada-Belli, Tulane The Maya of Central America are thought to have been a kinder, gentler civilization, especially compared to the Aztecs of Mexico. At the peak of Mayan culture some 1,500 years ago, warfare seemed... more »
 
Neandertals

Neanderthals commonly suffered from 'swimmer's ear'

Jonathan KantrowitzatArchaeology News Report - 1 week ago
[image: IMAGE] *IMAGE: *The La Chapelle-aux-Saints Neandertal skull, with the external auditory exostoses ( "swimmer's ear " growths) in the left canal indicated. view more Credit: Erik Trinkaus Abnormal bony growths in the ear canal were surprisingly common in Neanderthals, according to a study published August 14, 2019 in the open-access journal *PLOS ONE* by Erik Trinkaus of Washington University and colleagues. External auditory exostoses are dense bony growths that protrude into the ear canal. In modern humans, this condition is commonly called "swimmer's ear" and is known to ... more »
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