Archaeological News

[Marek Tucan]

Roman man's burden

 

I would guess the Roman Empire and the British one had a lot in common - and British colonies and military garrisons also often gave shelter to refugees from local conflicts, no? Both to friendly local lords and to people. If they felt like it.

[Ivanhoe]

I suspect it often came down to what the local commander wanted to do. Besides, I suspect some of that Scottish Totty looked very welcoming to a lonely Roman soldier stood on the edge of the empire.

 

Might have been confused by the kilts...

[T19]

I would think Roman and Scotish would both be in a sort of kilt, unless they wore Trouse

[T19]

I would think Roman and Scotish would both be in a sort of kilt, unless they wore Trouse

 

On further thought, maybe this is how the Romans took care of the PA back in the day... put them in camps outside the wall... on wait thats what we do today. guess times dont change

[Richard Lindquist]

I would think Roman and Scotish would both be in a sort of kilt, unless they wore Trouse

 

 

 

TREWS (letters north!)

[MiloMorai]

trousers

[Marek Tucan]

Now they have unearthed laboratory apparatus and chemicals that belonged to Joseph Black. The scientist was a professor of chemistry at the university in the 1700s and discovered carbon dioxide gas.

 

So he's to blame for the global warming, no?

[Brad Sallows]

>Samples of mercury, arsenic and cobalt were found in the haul along with glass tubes, bottle stoppers and thermometers and storage jars.

 

...at which point the archaeological dig halted and a hazmat team with bucket loaders and dump trucks came in to scour the site to a depth of five metres and transport all the waste to a soil disposal site...

[X-Files]

Institute first-aid kit found on a 2000-year-old shipwreck has provided a remarkable insight into the medicines concocted by ancient physicians to cure sailors of dysentery and other ailments.

 

Medicines found inside a wooden chest included pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts - all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/medicine/news/article.cfm?c_id=255&objectid=10737289

 

 

TEL EL-SAFI, Israel – At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.

 

The city of Gath, where the annual digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more nuanced portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.

 

Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills. The city's most famous resident, according to the Book of Samuel, was Goliath -- the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd David and his sling.

 

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/07/11/in-israel-archaeologists-unearth-bibles-bad-guys/#ixzz1RoiJXQlA

Edited July 11, 2011 by X-Files

[X-Files]

A 3,000-year-old defensive wall possibly built by King Solomon has been unearthed in Jerusalem, according to the Israeli archaeologist who led the excavation. The discovery appears to validate a Bible passage, she says.

 

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100226-king-solomon-wall-jerusalem-bible/

[X-Files]

(Reuters) - An early prehistoric hearth has been discovered on the planned construction site for a branch of supermarket chain Sainsbury's.

 

The charcoal remains, excavated from the site in Nairn, a town in the Scottish Highlands, date back to the Mesolithic period (10,000 to 4000 BC). They are believed to have been a temporary travelling stop rather than a settlement, due to the absence of any further Mesolithic findings at the site.

 

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/uk-mesolithic-idUKTRE76I4WG20110719

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-14189794

[X-Files]

There are more than 700 curious tunnel networks in Bavaria, but their purpose remains a mystery. Were they built as graves for the souls of the dead, as ritual spaces or as hideaways from marauding bandits? Archeologists are now exploring the subterranean vaults to unravel their secrets.

 

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,775348,00.html

[X-Files]

It's one of the most significant pieces of prehistoric art ever found in North America — a carving of a mammoth or mastodon on a piece of fossilized bone dating back to the Ice Age. An amateur fossil hunter found it several years ago in Vero Beach, Florida. Now, after three years of study, a team of researchers say they believe it's authentic.

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/25/137549198/florida-fossil-hunter-gets-credit-for-big-find

[DKTanker]

http://www.npr.org/2...it-for-big-find

It's one of the most significant pieces of prehistoric art ever found in North America — a carving of a mammoth or mastodon on a piece of fossilized bone dating back to the Ice Age. An amateur fossil hunter found it several years ago in Vero Beach, Florida. Now, after three years of study, a team of researchers say they believe it's authentic.

 

 

Sure, that makes sense. There is no reason to think the great annual snowbird migrations were initated by WASPs and JAPs, it's likely been going on for tens and hundreds of millineum.

[X-Files]

It may not be a $500 million golden hoard, but underwater archaeologists are nevertheless excited about finding what they believe are traces of the five ships that British privateer Henry Morgan lost off the coast of Panama in 1671.

The discovery was made at the mouth of Panama's Chagres River, near another underwater site where six iron cannons were found. Taken together, the evidence suggests that the three-century-old story of Captain Morgan's lost fleet is finally near its conclusion.

 

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/04/7245795-capt-morgans-lost-fleet-found

 

With the financial help of the rum maker, a U.S. team of archaeologists just unearthed a portion of one of Sir Henry's lost five ships near the Lajas Reef at the mouth of the Chagres River in central Panama. Specifically: the starboard side of one ship's hull, including, according to Discovery, "a series of unopened cargo boxes and chests encrusted in coral."

 

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/08/08/captain-morgans-pirate-ship-found-be-there-rum-aboard/#ixzz1UUQRdjvW

Edited August 9, 2011 by X-Files

[Guest JamesG123]

Arrrgggh!

[Ivanhoe]

link

 

JERUSALEM — Israeli archaeologists have discovered a Roman sword from the time of the destruction of the second Jewish temple in 70 AD, officials said on Monday as Jews prepared to mourn the anniversary.

 

The Israel Antiquities Authority said that the 60-centimetre (23.6-inch) long weapon and its leather scabbard were found during excavations in a 2,000-year-old drainage channel in the City of David, in the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan just south of Jerusalem's Old City walls.

 

It said in a statement that the channel, which funnelled rainwater to the biblical pool of Siloam, "served as a hiding refuge for the residents of Jerusalem from the Romans during the destruction of the Second Temple."

 

No TankNetters have shown up yet to claim the lost sword...

 

Some tunnel pics here.

[Colin]

Possible 10,000 year old village found

 

The oral history of the Heiltsuk First Nation tells of the ancient village of Luxvbalis, abandoned after a smallpox epidemic in the late 1800s, its precise location lost because so few were left to tell the tale.

 

The village may just have been discovered on a site in Hakai Luxvbalis Conservancy on Calvert Island, off B.C.'s central coast 100 kilometres north of Port Hardy.

 

The village's history could date back 10,000 years.

 

"People lost information about the exact location after they were decimated during the epidemics in the 19th century," said anthropologist Farid Rahemtulla, director of the archeology project that made the discovery.

 

"Based on that oral tradition and how old it was, we think this might be that village - but we need to work with the elders of the Heiltsuk nation to conclusively establish this."

 

 

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/have+uncovered+lost+village/5226599/story.html#ixzz1UXIPapqm

[Rod]

Today is the 9th (Tisha) in the Hebrew Month of Av. On this date many calamities fell upon the Jewish people and is considered a sad day with fasting and mourning (I am getting hungry....). The 2 Temples were destroyed on this date besides many other calamities.

 

Recent excavations discovered tunnels where the Jews were fleeing the Romans (with video).

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4106700,00.html

[Archie Pellagio]

On this date many calamities fell upon the Jewish people and is considered a sad day with fasting and mourning (I am getting hungry....).

 

Perhaps an indicator I should go to bed but I first read that as Many catamites fell upon the Jewish Peoples

 

And I didn't know Judaism practised the whole fasting thing outside of Passover, interesting.

[X-Files]

Archaeologists believe they have found the first pre-Roman planned town discovered in Britain.

 

It has been unearthed beneath the Roman town of Silchester or Calleva Atrebatum near modern Reading.

 

The Romans are often credited with bringing civilisation to Britain - including town planning.

 

But excavations have shown evidence of an Iron Age town built on a grid and signs inhabitants had access to imported wine and olive oil.

 

Prof Mike Fulford, an archaeologist at the University of Reading, said the people of Iron Age Silchester appear to have adopted an urbanised 'Roman' way of living, long before the Romans arrived.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14555449

 

 

New research has cast doubt on the theory that 97 infants were killed at a Roman brothel in Buckinghamshire.

 

In 2008, the remains of the newborn babies were rediscovered packed in cigarette cases in a dusty museum storeroom by Dr Jill Eyers from Chiltern Archaeology.

 

They were excavated from the remains of a lavish Roman villa complex in Buckinghamshire almost 100 years earlier, but had remained hidden ever since.

 

The story caught the attention of the world's press last year as Dr Eyers suggested that the villa was operating as a brothel and its occupants committing infanticide to dispose of unwanted offspring.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14401305

 

Evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings in Oxford 1100 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists.

 

At least 35 skeletons, all males aged 16 to 25 were discovered in 2008 at St John's College, Oxford.

 

Analysis of wound marks on the bones now suggests they had been subjected to violence.

 

Archaeologists analysing the find believe it dates from 1002 AD when King Ethelred the Unready ordered a massacre of all Danes (Vikings) in England.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14476039

[Rod]

You probably mean Yom Kippur instead of Passover to the contrary is happy holiday and far from fasting it involves lots of eating, especialy Matzah. As for fasting, there are other fast days decreed by the Rabbis. Some are for the duration of a day only (meaning sunrise to sunset) and others for an entire 24 hour period.

 

 

And I didn't know Judaism practised the whole fasting thing outside of Passover, interesting.

[X-Files]

Quang Ngai, Vietnam (CNN) -- Nestled in the mountain foothills of a remote province in central Vietnam, one of the country's most important archaeological discoveries in a century has recently come to light.

After five years of exploration and excavation, a team of archaeologists has uncovered a 127-kilometer (79-mile) wall -- which locals have called "Vietnam's Great Wall."

 

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/01/25/vietnam.wall/index.html?iref=obinsite

[X-Files]

The King's Knot, a geometrical earthwork in the former royal gardens below Stirling Castle, has been shrouded in mystery for hundreds of years.

Though the Knot as it appears today dates from the 1620s, its flat-topped central mound is thought to be much older.

Writers going back more than six centuries have linked the landmark to the legend of King Arthur.

Archaeologists from Glasgow University, working with the Stirling Local History Society and Stirling Field and Archaeological Society, conducted the first ever non-invasive survey of the site in May and June in a bid to uncover some of its secrets.

Their findings were show there was indeed a round feature on the site that pre-dates the visible earthworks.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8724183/King-Arthurs-round-table-may-have-been-found-by-archaeologists-in-Scotland.html

[X-Files]

(CNN) -- Before Moammar Gadhafi, there were the Phoenicians. And the Greeks. The Romans. The first Arabs. They're a reminder that no civilization -- and no leader -- is forever.

The Libyan transitional leaders have a lot to deal with once they stop being rebels, and begin shaping a new Libya: Keeping law and order, setting up a rudimentary government, dealing with money -- and oil.

But what about Libya's other wealth? Its archaeological treasures?

They are all over the country.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/09/03/libya.archaeological.sites/index.html