Archaeology news

• Neolithic Flint Tool Found in Norway

  11-05-2023 06:51 via archaeology.org
  VESTLAND COUNTY, NORWAY—According to a Live Science report, a young girl playing near her school in western Norway started to pick up a piece of glass when she spotted a stone that turned out to be a 3,700-year-old flint tool. She showed it to her teacher, who contacted the Vestland County council. Vestland County archaeologist Louise Bjerre Petersen explained that the five-inch tool is rare because flint does not occur naturally in Norway. Petersen and her colleagues did not find any othe
  
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• Bronze Age Well Lined With Wood Discovered in England

  08-05-2024 04:51 via archaeology.org
  OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by the Oxfordshire County Council, a Bronze Age well lined with wood was uncovered during an investigation conducted by Oxford Archaeology ahead of a road construction project in southeastern England. The well is thought to have been used for agricultural purposes by people living in a nearby settlement. “When investigating what appeared to be a standard pit for the site, the archaeological team started exposing the remains of a
  
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• New Dates Obtained for Modern Human Remains in China

  07-05-2024 04:47 via archaeology.org
  QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—Cosmos Magazine reports that remains of modern humans discovered in a cave in southern China’s Liujiang District in 1958 may be much younger than previously thought. It had been suggested that the bones were approximately 227,000 years old, but the new dates, based upon radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence dating, and U-series dating, indicate that they are between 23,000 and 33,000 years old. “These revised age estimates align with dates
  
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• Volunteers Assist Search for 19th-Century Structures in Oregon

  07-05-2024 04:30 via archaeology.org
  SALEM, OREGON—Students from Willamette University and volunteers from the Oregon Archaeological Society assisted City of Salem archaeologist Kimberli Fitzgerald with the search for a parsonage constructed by Methodist missionaries in 1841, according to the Salem Reporter. The Christian missionaries sailed south from the east coast of the United States, around the tip of South America, and stopped in the Hawaiian Islands to resupply before continuing north to the coast of Oregon. The missio
  
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• Comparison of American Languages Detects Waves of Migration

  07-05-2024 04:28 via archaeology.org
  BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA—According to a Live Science report, historical linguist Johanna Nichols of the University of California, Berkeley, and her colleagues analyzed the structures of 60 languages found in the United States and Canada, and determined that they derived from two main language groups that left Siberia and entered North America in at least four distinct waves of migration. The analysis focuses on 16 features of the languages, including syllable structure, the gender of nouns, an
  
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• Audio News for April 28th through May 4th, 2024

  06-05-2024 17:41 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:Ancient Pueblo communicated through conch-shell trumpets(details)Ritual and medicinal plant DNA preserved under ancient Maya ball court(details)(details)Neanderthal woman’s face is reconstructed(details)Paleolithic North African hunter-gatherers ate plant-based diet(details)(details)
  
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• Cargo on the Ancient Ses Fontanelles Shipwreck Studied

  04-05-2024 05:17 via archaeology.org
  LES MERAVELLES, MAJORCA—According to a Live Science report, analysis of the contents of a Roman shipwreck found in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the island of Majorca suggests that many of the 300 amphoras in the cargo were filled with liquamen, a sauce made with whole anchovies and sardines. Miguel Ángel Cau Ontiveros of the University of Barcelona and the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies said that residues in the labeled jugs on board the fourth centu
  
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• Genome Study Traces Medieval Leprosy to England’s Squirrels

  04-05-2024 04:24 via archaeology.org
  BASEL, SWITZERLAND—IFL Science reports that England’s red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) may have spread leprosy to people during the medieval period, when the squirrels were plentiful and sometimes kept as pets or processed for their pelts. Verena Schuenemann of the University of Basel, Sarah Inskip of the University of Leicester, and their colleagues analyzed the genomes of the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae taken from 25 humans and 12 red squirrels found at a leprosarium, or lepers&r
  
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• Lump of Purple Dye Discovered at Roman Bathhouse in England

  04-05-2024 04:19 via archaeology.org
  CARLISLE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a ping-pong-ball-sized lump of Tyrian purple, a dye made from Murex sea snails, was uncovered in northwestern England at the site of a Roman bathhouse discovered in 2017. Carved semiprecious gems thought to have fallen out of ring settings, sandstone sculptures of Roman gods standing more than 12 feet tall, and several tiles bearing a Roman imperial stamp linked to the emperor Septimius Severus, who was born in Libya and ruled from A.D. 193 to 211, h
  
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• Possible Conch Shell Communication in Chaco Canyon Explored

  03-05-2024 03:58 via archaeology.org
  BINGHAMTON, NEW YORK—According to an IFL Science report, leaders of the Puebloan peoples who lived in Chaco Canyon between A.D. 850 and 1150 may have been able to communicate with their communities through blasts of conch shell trumpets. Such trumpets have been recovered from elite graves in the region, and are thought to have been imported over at least 620 miles from the Pacific coast. To test this idea, Ruth Van Dyke of Binghamton University and her colleagues created digital models of
  
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• Face of Neanderthal Woman Reconstructed

  03-05-2024 03:14 via archaeology.org
  CAMBRIDGE, ENGLAND—NBC News reports that the face of a Neanderthal woman dubbed Shanidar Z has been recreated by a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge. The woman’s 75,000-year-old skull was discovered in some 200 pieces during a 2018 excavation of Shanidar Cave, which is located in Iraqi Kurdistan. Analysis of tooth enamel proteins was employed to determine her sex, since only about half of her skeleton was preserved. A CT scan of each skull fragment was made, and the p
  
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• Unusual Maya Storage Pit Discovered in Tulum Cave

  03-05-2024 03:11 via archaeology.org
  QUINTANA ROO, MEXICO—Mexico News Daily reports that a bottle-shaped chultún, a structure usually used by the Maya to catch rainwater, has been discovered in the floor of a cave by researchers from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). The cave is located within Tulum National Park, the site of a walled Maya city situated on the Yucatán Peninsula’s Caribbean coastline. Archaeologist Enrique Marín Vázquez said that the chult&u
  
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• Early Farmers in Israel Adapted to Climate Instability

  02-05-2024 03:43 via archaeology.org
  SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA—According to a statement released by the University of California, San Diego, a now-submerged village site suggests that it was inhabited some 8,200 years ago, during an abrupt shift in climate called the 8.2ka event. It had been previously thought that the cooler temperatures and rising sea levels of the 8.2ka event would have resulted in the abandonment of coastal settlements in the southern Levant. Known as Habonim North, this site was discovered about 10 years ago
  
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• Did the Roman Emperor Augustus Die in This Vesuvian Villa?

  02-05-2024 03:13 via archaeology.org
  TOKYO, JAPAN—According to a Live Science report, researchers led by archaeologist Mariko Muramatsu of the University of Tokyo suggest that they have uncovered the place where Augustus, the first Roman emperor (reigned 27 B.C.–A.D. 14), died. The villa, located on the northern slopes of Mount Vesuvius about five miles from the modern town of Nola, was destroyed by the volcanic eruption in A.D. 79. A second villa constructed at the site in the second century was destroyed by a fifth-ce
  
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• 7,000-Year-Old Settlement Mapped in Serbia

  02-05-2024 03:09 via archaeology.org
  KIEL, GERMANY—According to a statement released by Kiel University, traces of a late Neolithic settlement were mapped during a geophysical survey conducted in northeastern Serbia, near the Tamiš River. “This discovery is of outstanding importance, as hardly any larger Late Neolithic settlements are known in the Serbian Banat region,” said Martin Furholt of Kiel University. The settlement covered more than 27 acres and was surrounded by at least four ditches. Artifacts re
  
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• Second Illyrian Helmet Uncovered in Croatia

  01-05-2024 04:07 via archaeology.org
  ZAKOTORAC, CROATIA—Euronews reports that a helmet dated to the fifth or sixth century B.C. has been recovered from a burial mound in southern Croatia’s Peljesac Peninsula. A similar helmet was found in the same area in 2020. The helmets are thought to be associated with the Illyrians, who came from the eastern Adriatic and the Balkans, and deposited at the site as a cult practice long after the dead had been buried, according to archaeologist Hrvoje Potrebica of the University of Zag
  
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• Sculptures Discovered at Khmer Temple in Cambodia

  01-05-2024 03:41 via archaeology.org
  SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—The Phnom Penh Post reports that more than 100 pieces of sandstone sculptures were uncovered at Ta Prohm, a temple built in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries on the southern edge of the East Baray, an artificial body of water in Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire. The temple is thought to have served as a royal monastery during the reign of Jayavarman VII, who ruled from 1181 to 1218, and is known for its construction without mortar. Rese
  
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• Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers in Morocco Relied on Plants

  01-05-2024 03:20 via archaeology.org
  LEIPZIG, GERMANY—According to a statement released by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, an international team of researchers analyzed 15,000-year-old remains of hunter-gatherers unearthed in Morocco, and determined that they ate a diet rich in plant foods. It had been previously thought that hunter-gatherers living in North Africa relied heavily on animal foods. The analysis featured zinc and strontium isotope analysis of tooth enamel; carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur ana
  
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• New Kingdom Pharaoh’s Royal Rest House Found

  01-05-2024 03:18 via archaeology.org
  CAIRO, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that a fortified royal retreat has been uncovered at the Tel Hebwa site, which is located in North Sinai. Mohamed Ismail Khaled of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the mudbrick structure was likely used during the 18th Dynasty reign of Thutmose III (ca. 1479–1425 B.C.). The structure’s entrance, located on its northern side, led to a large hall with three columns, added Hisham Hussein of Sinai Antiquities. This room connected to a s
  
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• Possible Bell Beaker Grave Uncovered in Germany

  30-04-2024 02:24 via archaeology.org
  OPPIN, GERMANY—Newsweek reports that the remains of a man estimated to have been between 40 and 60 years old at the time of his death have been unearthed in central Germany. Preliminary investigation suggests the burial is associated with the Bell Beaker culture and dates to some 4,500 years ago. Archaeologist Susanne Friederich of the State Office for Heritage Management and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt said that the man was buried in a crouched position with a large stone placed over his
  
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• Plant DNA Suggests Maya Blessed Their Ball Courts

  30-04-2024 01:45 via archaeology.org
  CAMPECHE, MEXICO—According to a Gizmodo report, an international team of researchers led by David Lentz of the University of Cincinnati analyzed a soil sample taken underneath a 2,000-year-old ball court platform at Yaxnohcah, a Maya city site on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The analysis detected the presence of Ipomoea corymbose, a type of morning glory also called xtabentun that is known for its hallucinogenic properties; Capsicum, or chili peppers, which were used by the Maya to tr
  
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• Prehistoric Monuments Discovered in Ireland

  30-04-2024 01:43 via archaeology.org
  COUNTY WICKLOW, IRELAND—A lidar survey of farmland in eastern Ireland has detected multiple prehistoric monuments, according to a Live Science report. The monuments include Bronze Age structures and five Neolithic cursus monuments, which are long and narrow earthwork enclosures built some 5,500 years ago. “There’s only about 20 known cursus monuments [in Ireland] and they occur in isolation,” said James O’Driscoll of the University of Aberdeen. The largest of the ne
  
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• Audio News for April 21st through the 27th, 2024

  29-04-2024 19:12 via archaeologychannel.org
  
  
  News items read by Laura Kennedy include:DNA analysis illuminates social practices of an ancient Eurasian warrior empire(details)(details)(details)Preserved Pre-Revolutionary War cherries unearthed at George Washington’s Mount Vernon(details)(details)Rare structures may have guided Neolithic farmers to the afterlife(details)(details)Interdisciplinary research team to investigate whether Stonehenge was designed for lunar alignment(details)(details)
  
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• 19th-Century Steelworks Unearthed in Northern England

  29-04-2024 05:02 via archaeology.org
  SOUTH YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND—BBC News reports that a nineteenth-century steelworks, including a crucible furnace, has been uncovered in northern England in a cellar at the site of Sheffield Castle, which was destroyed in 1648 during the English Civil War. The crucible furnace would have reached more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit to refine blister steel into higher quality crucible steel. Curving stone stairs to reach the cellar were found, along with a letter “H” scratched into a b
  
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• Traces of Feasts Found at Roman Necropolis in France

  29-04-2024 05:00 via archaeology.org
  NARBONNE, FRANCE—Excavation of the Robine necropolis, which was discovered in southern France in 2017, has uncovered more than 1,400 graves dating from the first century B.C. to the end of the third century A.D., according to a Live Science report. Researchers from the French National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research said that the cemetery served the Roman colony of Narbo Martius, and was well preserved by some 10 feet of silt laid down by flooding of the nearby Aude River.
  
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• Possible Snake Deity Statue Found at Roman Site in Germany

  29-04-2024 04:57 via archaeology.org
  STUTTGART, GERMANY—Newsweek reports that a worn sandstone carving unearthed at the site of a Roman fort in southwestern Germany may represent a hybrid Romano-Germanic deity. Standing about 12 inches tall, the 1,800-year-old carving shows a kneeling figure with a human head. Its arms are positioned at the sides of the upper body, with its hands on the hips and legs. The legs, however, merge into the form of a snake, according to archaeologist Andreas Thiel of the Baden-Württemberg Stat
  
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• Los Angeles Museum Will Repatriate Bronze Sculpture to Turkey

  29-04-2024 04:53 via archaeology.org
  LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA—According to a report in The New York Times, the J. Paul Getty Museum will repatriate a, 2,000-year-old bronze sculpture purchased from an antiquities dealer in 1971. An investigation conducted by the Antiquities Trafficking Unit at the Manhattan district attorney’s office indicates that the sculpture, “Head from a Statue of a Youth,” was likely stolen in the 1960s from Bubon, a Roman-era settlement in southwestern Turkey. The body of the statue ha
  
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• Ancient DNA Reveals Kinship Structure of Eurasia's Avars

  27-04-2024 06:43 via archaeology.org
  LEIPZIG, GERMANY—According to a CNN report, new analysis of ancient DNA samples from the Avars, a population of nomads from the Eurasian Steppe who dominated eastern central Europe for 250 years from the mid-sixth to early ninth century A.D, is shedding light on Avar social and marriage practices. Originating in eastern-central Asia as part of a coalition of tribes known as the Rouran khaganate, which was defeated in A.D. 550 by the Turks, the Avars traveled from Mongolia to Caucasus
  
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• Charred Scroll From Herculaneum Read With AI

  26-04-2024 05:20 via archaeology.org
  NAPLES, ITALY—Graziano Ranocchia of the University of Pisa and his colleagues have used infrared and ultraviolet optical imaging, thermal imaging, tomography, and artificial intelligence to decipher text on pieces of charred papyrus recovered from Herculaneum, a Roman town destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79, according to a Live Science report. Some of the fragments, which have been held at the National Library of Naples, belong to a scroll containing a work called &ldqu
  
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• Part of an 18th-Century Water System Found in Scotland

  26-04-2024 04:26 via archaeology.org
  EAST RENFREWSHIRE, SCOTLAND—According to a report in The Glasgow Times, a circular structure made of blonde sandstone was uncovered during a construction project in Barrhead, which is located in west-central Scotland. The eighteenth-century structure is thought to have been part of a gravitational system to provide fresh water to the town. Local residents are advocating for the preservation of the feature and its incorporation into the new construction, while a team from the West of Scotla
  
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