Archaeology news

• Archaeologist - Indianapolis Area!

  20-02-2017 15:48
  Posted by CardnoRecruiting.Tagged under: [employment-listings](click on the link to view details about this job listing and to see other job opportunities for archaeology professionals)
  
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• Teotihuacan's Pyramids Damaged By Ancient Earthquakes

  25-04-2024 20:30 via archaeology.org
  MADRID, SPAIN—A new study of pyramids at the ancient city of Teotihuacan by a team of Spanish geologists has documented damage to the structures caused by five devastating megathrust earthquakes that hit the site between about A.D. 100 and 600, Live Science reports. At its height, the population of Teotihuacan, which is located northeast of Mexico City, reached some 100,000 residents. Megathrust earthquakes occur at subduction zones of tectonic plates, and though they tend to happen more i
  
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• Rare Turtle Statue Found in Angkor

  25-04-2024 20:30 via archaeology.org
  SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—A rare sandstone sculpture of a turtle has been found at Bayon Temple in the Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap, according to a report in The Phnom Penh Post. The Bayon temple was built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century A.D. during the reign of the Khmer ruler Jayavarman VII (reigned 1181–1220) and is best known for the many enormous carved faces of the Buddha that adorn its highly decorated exterior. The sculpture was found beneath a previousl
  
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• Sacred Spring Unearthed Beneath Roman Ruins in France

  25-04-2024 07:48 via archaeology.org
  PARIS, FRANCE—According to a Live Science report, near the village of Chamborêt north of the French city of Limoges, archaeologists have uncovered a freshwater spring likely dating to between 4,500 and 6,000 years ago below the remnants of a Roman-era pool. The Roman ruins, which date to the third century A.D., probably formed a landscaped basin surrounded by a wall of granite stones. A team of archaeologists from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological R
  
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• “Porcelain Gallbladder” Identified in Mississippi

  24-04-2024 05:31 via archaeology.org
  JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI—According to an Atlas Obscura report, a “porcelain gallbladder” has been identified among a woman's 100-year-old bones exhumed from the cemetery at the site of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, which operated from 1855 to 1935. A porcelain gallbladder forms through calcium build-up in the wall of the organ, which causes it to harden. Upon initial examination during the course of excavations, researchers did not know what the object, which was approximat
  
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• 18th-Century Foundation Uncovered at Colonial Williamsburg

  24-04-2024 04:53 via archaeology.org
  WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA—The foundation of an eighteenth-century house was uncovered during an excavation at Colonial Williamsburg, according to a WAVY report. The Colin G. and Nancy N. Campbell Archaeology Center is scheduled to be built on the site. Archaeologist Jack Gary of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation said that the house had plaster walls, casement windows, a chimney on at least one side, and a cellar. The thousands of artifacts recovered during the excavation will be conserved,
  
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• Miniature Portrait of Alexander the Great Found in Denmark

  24-04-2024 04:22 via archaeology.org
  RINGSTED, DENMARK—Live Science reports that a miniature bronze alloy fitting bearing a portrait of Alexander the Great was discovered on an island in Denmark by a pair of metal detectorists who were conducting a survey. Alexander the Great succeeded his father as the king of Macedon and eventually created a far-flung empire before his death in Babylon in 323 B.C. at the age of 32. The one-inch round fitting, known as a bracket, shows an engraved image of a man with wavy hair wearing a crow
  
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• Prehistoric Tools Uncovered in Northern England

  23-04-2024 02:13 via archaeology.org
  CUMBRIA, ENGLAND—An excavation conducted in northern England ahead of a road improvement project along an ancient pathway has uncovered flint tools dated to the Upper Paleolithic period, according to a Newsweek report. The tools could be between 10,000 and 14,000 years old, when the climate would have been colder. Hunter-gatherers likely followed herds of reindeer, wild horses, and wild cattle over a wide range, said archaeologist Stephen Rowland. The tools were found in a pit that had bee
  
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• Bottles of 18th-Century Cherries Discovered at Mount Vernon

  23-04-2024 01:53 via archaeology.org
  MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA—According to a Washington Post report, two bottles containing liquid and some surviving cherries have been uncovered in the dirt basement of George Washington’s plantation home. The excavation was conducted as part of a project to conserve the mansion’s foundation. Archaeologist Jason Boroughs said that much of the liquid in the bottles may be groundwater that entered the vessels after their corks had deteriorated. While emptying the bottles, members of t
  
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• Bear Bone Engraved by Neanderthals Studied

  23-04-2024 01:51 via archaeology.org
  WROCŁAW, POLAND—IFL Science reports that a team of researchers led by Tomasz Płonka and Andrzej Wiśniewski of the University of Wrocław has examined an engraved bear bone with microscopy and X-ray computed tomography. Discovered in the 1950s in southern Poland’s Dziadowa Skała Cave, the bone has been dated to between 115,000 and 130,000 years ago, and is thought to have been engraved by Neanderthals. The researchers determined that the marks on the bone are o
  
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• Stolen Ramesses II Sculpture Returned to Egypt

  23-04-2024 01:49 via archaeology.org
  CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a fragment of a sculpture of Ramesses II stolen some 30 years ago was handed over to Egyptian authorities by Swiss officials. The 3,400-year-old carving, which shows the pharaoh’s face, was taken from the Ramesses II temple in Abydos. The sculpture originally featured Ramesses II with a group of deities. It was recovered in Geneva during a criminal proceeding. To read about recent finds at the temple of Ramesses II in Abydos, go to "Ram Heads fo
  
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• Audio News for April 14th through the 20th, 2024

  22-04-2024 09:52 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:18th Century cleft palate prosthesis found in mouth of Polish crypt skeleton(details)(details)(details)Excavations off Great Barrier Reef prove early Aboriginal Australians crafted pottery(details)(details)Analysis of pyramid damage suggests Teotihuacan suffered through five damaging earthquakes(details)(details)Genomic study proves Blackfoot Confederacy historical rights with lineage tracing to Late Pleistocene(details)(details)
  
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• 300-Year-Old Medical Prosthesis Found in Poland

  20-04-2024 05:27 via archaeology.org
  KRAKOW, POLAND—Live Science reports that an eighteenth-century palatal obturator has been found with the remains of a man with a cleft palate who was buried in a crypt at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Krakow in the eighteenth century. The prosthesis measures about an inch long and consists of a woolen pad sewn to a metallic plate that would have fit into his nasal cavity and blocked substances in the mouth from entering it. The wool pad is thought to have been coated in silver iod
  
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• 18th-Century Fort Site Explored on Island of St. Barts

  20-04-2024 05:25 via archaeology.org
  GUSTAVIA, SAINT BARTHÉLEMY—According to a Miami Herald report, a collection of small cannonballs known as grapeshot has been unearthed at Fort Gustav, a military outpost on the Caribbean Island of Saint Barthélemy, by researchers from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research. Construction of the fort was begun by the French in the mid-eighteenth century to protect ships headed to Europe from pirates, but the island was soon traded to Sweden for trad
  
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• Genomes of Modern Japanese People Analyzed

  19-04-2024 04:42 via archaeology.org
  YAKOHAMA, JAPAN—A new genetic study conducted by Xiaoxi Liu of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences and his colleagues suggests that modern Japanese people are mostly descended from three ancestral groups, according to a Live Science report. Those three groups include Jomon hunter-gatherers; a group thought to be the predecessors of the Han people of China; and an unidentified group with ties to Northeast Asia. It had been previously thought that the Japanese were descended fr
  
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• Burned Bodies at Maya Site May Reflect Regime Change

  19-04-2024 04:07 via archaeology.org
  GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA—According to a CNN report, burned human remains and artifacts have have been discovered under a pile of discarded construction materials in a room beneath a temple at Guatemala’s Maya site of Ucanal by a team of researchers led by Christina T. Halperin of the University of Montreal. The warped, shrunken condition of the bones, thought to represent four adults, indicates that they had been burned at high temperatures, Halperin said. Radiocarbon dating indicat
  
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• Occupation of Cave in Saudi Arabia Dates Back 10,000 Years

  19-04-2024 03:04 via archaeology.org
  BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—Nature News reports that hundreds of human and animal bones and more than 40 fragments of stone tools have been uncovered at the entrance to a lava tube cave in northwestern Saudi Arabia. The stone tools are thought to be as much as 10,000 years old, while the oldest human bone fragment has been dated to about 7,000 years ago. Zooarchaeologist Mathew Stewart of Griffith University and his colleagues said that the distribution of the artifacts indicates that the cave was
  
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• What Factors Drove Human Evolution?

  19-04-2024 03:01 via archaeology.org
  CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—According to a Cosmos Magazine report, Laura van Holstein of the University of Cambridge and her colleagues examined the rate of evolution of hominin species over a period of five million years. First, Van Holstein created a database of the 385 known hominin species, and then she modeled a timeline for the emergence and disappearance of species to fill out the incomplete fossil record. Vertebrates, she noted, usually evolve to fill in “niches” in the environm
  
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• Contents of Roman Lead Coffin Examined in England

  18-04-2024 03:45 via archaeology.org
  WEST YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND—Newsweek reports that the examination of the contents of a Roman lead coffin discovered in 2022 in the city of Leeds has identified the partial remains of a child. The initial evaluation of the coffin’s poorly preserved contents found the remains of a woman between the ages of 25 and 35 at the time of her death some 1,600 years ago, a bracelet, a glass bead necklace, and a finger ring or an earring. Researchers at Leeds City Museum have now determined that the
  
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• Sumerian Sculpture Repatriated to Iraq

  18-04-2024 02:40 via archaeology.org
  NEW YORK, NEW YORK—According to a statement released by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, museum officials handed over a Sumerian sculpture to representatives from Iraq in a ceremony conducted in Washington, D.C. The copper alloy figurine, dated to between 2900 and 2600 B.C., depicts a man carrying a box or potential temple offering on his head. The Met purchased the sculpture in 1955 and decided to return the artifact to Iraq after an internal review of its provenance. To read about the com
  
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• Traded Tasmanian Devil Tooth Uncovered in Australia

  18-04-2024 02:15 via archaeology.org
  PILBARA, AUSTRALIA—ABC News Australia reports that an excavation conducted at the site of a rock shelter destroyed by mine blasting in 2020 in north Western Australia’s Juukan Gorge has uncovered a tooth from a Tasmanian devil. Archaeologist Michael Slack said that the tooth likely reached the rock shelter through trade with people living on the coast to the south, since there is no evidence that Tasmanian devils ever lived in the region surrounding the rock shelter. Evidence does in
  
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• 2,200-Year-Old Chu State Tomb Excavated in China

  17-04-2024 02:26 via archaeology.org
  HUAINAN, CHINA—China Daily reports that a tomb built by the Chu vassal state at the end of the Warring States Period (475–221 B.C.) has been excavated at the Wuwangdun site in eastern China. Looting has severely damaged the tomb, prompting this rescue excavation. The site features a cemetery surrounded by a moat. The largest tomb, made up of eight chambers arranged in the shape of a cross around a central chamber, had been topped with an earthen mound. Each of the eight chambers was
  
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• Australia’s Ice Age Tools Analyzed

  16-04-2024 01:11 via archaeology.org
  SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA—According to a Live Science report, David Zeanah of California State University, Sacramento, representatives of the Thalanyji people, and their colleagues have analyzed more than 4,400 cutting and grinding tools recovered from open-air sites on Barrow Island, which is located off the coast of northwestern Australia. Between 29,000 and 19,000 years ago, when sea levels were lower, the island would have been a high plateau connected to what is now Australia by a coasta
  
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• Possible Signs of Border Violence Found in Scottish Churchyard

  16-04-2024 01:10 via archaeology.org
  SWINTON, SCOTLAND—Chronicle Live reports that human bone fragments have been discovered in disturbed soil in the area of Swinton Parish Church, which is located in Scotland near the Anglo-Scottish border, by researchers from the Border Reivers Archaeology Unit. The bones are thought to represent two adults and three children who suffered multiple injuries around the time of their deaths. Blade wounds thought to have been made with an ax or sword were found on three of the leg bones. One of
  
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• German Museum Returns Wine Jug to Greece

  16-04-2024 01:07 via archaeology.org
  HANOVER, GERMANY—The National Herald reports that the August Kestner Museum has repatriated a seventh-century B.C. oenochoe, or wine jug, to Greece. Traces of decoration are still visible on the neck of the jug. The museum received the oenochoe as a gift in 1986, along with a letter stating that the artifact had been found at one end of the Corinth Canal in an excavation conducted in 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Greece. The letter also includes a description of the trench in wh
  
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• Clovis Points May Have Had Multiple Uses

  16-04-2024 01:05 via archaeology.org
  KENT, OHIO—A new study suggests that Clovis spear points may have been used for butchering as well as hunting big game, according to a Phys.org report. Clovis points and tools, dated to between 13,500 and 12,800 years ago, were first identified at a site near Clovis, New Mexico. A team of researchers led by Metin I. Eren of Kent State University and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History asked five modern hunters to use large, hand-held stone flakes and replica Clovis points mounted on wo
  
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• Ancient Graves Uncovered in Southern Portugal

  16-04-2024 01:04 via archaeology.org
  FARO, PORTUGAL—Portugal Resident reports that three burials dated to the fifth or sixth century A.D. have been unearthed in southern Portugal, at the site of the ancient Roman city of Ossónoba. The tombs, which held the remains of a man, a young woman, and baby who was no more than six months of age at the time of death, had been sealed with limestone slabs taken from older monumental buildings. It is not clear if the individuals were related to each other, but analysis of DNA sampl
  
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• Audio News for April 7th through the 13th, 2024

  15-04-2024 10:19 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Newly discovered Pompeii paintings tell of the Trojan War(details)New research in Tonga reveals high population living in low-density city system(details)Virginia dig at historic log house documents Black American life after Civil War(details)1800-year-old clay seal reveals name of Sassanid city(details)
  
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• Traces of an Ancient City Discovered on a Pacific Island

  13-04-2024 01:13 via archaeology.org
  NUKU’ALOFA, KINGDOM OF TONGA—ABC News Australia reports that traces of an ancient city in the form of some 10,000 mounds have been identified on the Pacific Island of Tongatapu through high-tech mapping with aerial scanners and archaeological fieldwork. “Earth structures were being constructed in Tongatapu around A.D. 300. This is 700 years earlier than previously thought,” said Phillip Parton of The Australian National University. As the settlement spread and grew, he ex
  
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• Shoe Buckle Found on Scotland's Culloden Battlefield

  13-04-2024 00:32 via archaeology.org
  EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—An excavation of the Culloden battlefield has recovered musket balls, grapeshot, and a shoe buckle that may have belonged to a Scottish Jacobite clan chief, according to a report in The National. The defeat of the Jacobite army by British forces at the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746, resulted in the collapse of the Jacobite uprising. Archaeologists from the National Trust Scotland think the copper alloy buckle may have belonged to Donald Cameron of Lochiel, the Ja
  
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