Vesti iz sveta arheologije

Rick Hunter · Moderator

http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/

http://www.archaeologychannel.org/content/newslinks.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/fossils_ruins/archaeology/

a posto se arheologija naslanja na antropologiju

http://anthropology.tamu.edu/news.htm

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Mexico opens windows on buried treasures

By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 30, 9:06 PM ET

MEXICO CITY - Archaeologists in Mexico City announced plans Friday to hold tours of inaccessible buried ruins via glass-covered shafts looking down on the sites.

Two daylong guided tours of the sites, known as "archaeological windows," are scheduled for April, and will take visitors to about 20 sites currently open to the public, as well as 20 more "windows" hidden beneath stairwells, floors and patios of buildings normally not open to the public.

The underground ruins — some swallowed or encased by the foundations of the Spanish buildings constructed atop them following the 1521 conquest — cannot be fully excavated without destroying the crumbling colonial buildings above them.

Moreover, the city's sinking subsoil — the result of excessive water extraction — caused buildings to sink. Seeking a solid foundation above the water table, later generations demolished the buildings and used the rubble to fill in the sinking lot, preserving subterranean layers of temples, floors, walls, stairways, convents and patios.

Among the stranger sites shown in an initial tour for reporters is an Aztec stone discovered about three decades ago beneath the city's cathedral. The stone depicts a symbolic connection between heaven, Earth and the underworld.

However, archaeologist Eladio Terreros, head of the program for the National Institute of Anthropology, said the Aztecs did not see the underworld as "hell." While the Aztecs tied the underworld to death, they also saw death as bringing forth life, Terreros said. He added the stone has no relation to the Roman Catholic cathedral above, which dates to 1567.

Human skulls are visibly entombed in a wall of the predecessor of the city's cathedral, a smaller building built in the early 1500s that is now buried under the current church.

The origins of the archaeological window technique go back to the early 1900s, when archaeologists began burrowing down to Aztec temples without disturbing the Baroque structures above them. By the 1960s, as subway lines were sunk through the downtown area, Aztec temples began turning up — and being preserved — even in subway stations.

"We save what we can, and we leave other things" buried, Terreros said.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Stonehenge Amulets Worn by Elite
Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

April 6, 2007 — Forget dressing for success: Clothing ornaments thought to confer supernatural power were all the rage among chiefs and other important people in England 4,000 years ago, say scholars.

A recent find indicates some of these fashion trends might have originally been designed by Stonehenge leaders.

While working two months ago in South Lowestoft, Suffolk, British archaeologist Clare Good excavated a four-sided object made of the mineral jet. It closely matches a geometrically designed gold object found far away at a burial site called Bush Barrow near Stonehenge in Wiltshire.

The match is so close that experts believe the black artifact is a skeuomorph, or a copy in a different material.

Good, who is with the Suffolk County Archaeology Service, told Discovery News that she made the discovery while investigating the remains of a probable funeral pyre dating to 1900-1700 B.C.

The funeral pyre, she said, is "a normal sort of feature we come across every day while out digging."

She thinks someone placed goods, including a flint knife, pottery and the jet object, inside the pit after the body was burned.

The findings are documented in the current issue of British Archaeology.

Editor Mike Pitts describes the jet object as having "two parallel lines around the edge, supporting 12 pendant semi-circles inside with a double circle and dot in the center. Small floating lines of rocker decoration, some on the side facets, complete the design."

"Rocker" refers to the rocking motion that the artist likely used when carving, drawing or chiseling out the design.

Like Stonehenge itself, the meaning of the design remains a mystery, but the material — though not as flashy and precious as gold — held significance for the ancients, according to Alison Sheridan, head of early prehistory in the Department of Archaeology at National Museums Scotland.

"Lots of substances are likely to have been ascribed magical powers, and were used as amulets," she explained. "Jet is a classic example, as it's electrostatic, as well as being rare and beautiful, and has been used by many people around the world and over time as an amulet."

She added that this particular piece was made from a "large lump of jet" so it would have been "extra-precious." It might have even been a commissioned "studio piece," perhaps copying the Stonehenge wearer's overall design.

Sheridan analyzed the jet piece and found traces of copper in 4 holes that were cut into the object. She said "it's likely that the lozenge had been fitted onto a garment by copper pins. This would suggest to me that we're thinking leather."

Put together with the position in which the Bush Barrow object was found, she thinks both the jet and gold pieces probably were fitted onto leather garments at the chest.

Sheridan, who came up with the term "supernatural power dressing," said these objects, and other evidence, indicate the Stonehenge-era elite were extremely "status and fashion conscious."

While no one knows who these people were, she theorizes they probably were wealthy individuals, local leaders, or even maybe some kind of early royalty.

She said, "(We) wouldn't want to conjure up images of Prince Harry, or maybe we would!"

Supernatural Stone?
While working two months ago in South Lowestoft, Suffolk, British archaeologist Clare Good excavated this jet amulet, which matches a geometrically designed gold object found far away at a burial site called Bush Barrow near Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The match is so close that experts believe the black artifact is a skeuomorph, or a copy in a different material.

Striking Gold
This gold object was unearthed at a Stonehenge burial site. Archaeologists believe the ornament and others like it were once worn by powerful individuals who believed they held magical powers.

Johag · Pristupio: 15 Nov 2006 Poruke: 46 Studijska grupa: Arheologija

Evo nesto za one koje interesuje numizmatika:

The collection Moneta <http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta> published 5 volumes, that is to say 1400 pages and 60 plates.
The section "e-papers" contains 4 links and 9 numismatic texts to be downloaded. By the end of the year, another group of books will be published.

Link
http://www.cultura-net.com/moneta/content.htm

garfield · Pristupio: 27 Jan 2007 Poruke: 2262 Studijska grupa: Etnologija i antropologija

2,400-year-old golden mask unearthed

Mon Jul 16, 1:05 PM ET

A 2,400-year-old golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Monday.

The mask, discovered over the weekend, was found in the tomb along with a solid gold ring engraved with a Greek inscription and the portrait of a bearded man.

"These finds confirm the assumption that they are part of the lavish burial of a Thracian king," said Margarita Tacheva, a professor who was on the dig near the village of Topolchane, 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia.

Georgi Kitov, the team leader, said that they also found a silver rhyton, silver and bronze vessels, pottery and funerary gifts.

"The artifacts belonged to a Thracian ruler from the end of the 4th century B.C. who was buried here," Kitov added.

According to Kitov, the Thracian civilization was at least equal in terms of development to the ancient Greek one.

The Thracians lived in what is now Bulgaria and parts of modern Greece, Romania, Macedonia, and Turkey between 4,000 B.C. and the 8th century A.D., when they were assimilated by the invading Slavs.

In 2004, another 2,400-year-old golden mask was unearthed from a Thracian tomb in the same area.

Dozens of Thracian mounds are spread throughout central Bulgaria, which archaeologists have dubbed "the Bulgarian valley of kings" in reference to the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt, home to the tombs of Egyptian Pharaohs.

Bes · Pristupio: 30 Dec 2006 Poruke: 79 Studijska grupa: Arheologija

NOVA ARHEOLOŠKA OTKRIĆA NA LOKALITETU CARIČIN GRAD
NAUKA - Subota, Jul 21, 2007 16:11
Na konferenciji za novinare u leskovačkom Narodnom muzeju saopšteno je da su ovogodišnja arheološka istraživanja na lokalitetu Caričin grad, odnosno Justinijana Prima, kod mesta Prekopčelica, završena. O rezultatima arheoloških radova koji su trajali mesec i po dana, govorili su rukovodioci istraživanja tog ranovizantijskog naselja, arheolog dr Vujadin Ivanišević iz Beograda i istaknuti francuski vizantolog profesor Bernar Bavan iz Strazbura.

Na tom lokalitetu, koji se nalazi na osam kilometra od Lebana, odnosno trideset kilometara od Leskovca, konstatovani su novootkriveni arheološki detalji i ostaci materijalne kulture u zonama Gornjeg i Donjeg grada, episkopskom dvorcu i bazilici koja je bila ukrašena podnim mozaicima u devet boja izuzetne lepote i vanredne kompozicije. Pažnja arheologa bila je usmerena i na proučavanje sistema centralnog vodovoda [akvadukta] te naseobine.

Caričin crad je sagrađen u 6. veku nove ere i spada u red najznačajnijih arheoloških lokaliteta u našoj zemlji, na Balkanu, pa i na širim evropskim prostorima. Porušila su ga varvarska plemena, u 7. veku.

Podignut je u doba vizantijskog vladara imperatora Justinijana I, čija je zadužbina. Caričin grad je, kako ocenjuju, bio karakterističan kulturni, religiozni, vojni i administrativni centar vizantijske imperije Ilirik u provinciji Sredozemna Dakija.

Nekadašnji carski grad nalazio se blizu Taurisiona, rodnog mesta Justinijana I. Redak je urbnistički fenomen toga doba, pa i kasnijih civilizacija.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Photos of a Thai bronze age burial excavation, showing shell and marble bracelets as well as large shell ear tunnels.

Rick Hunter · Moderator

Ekstra.

dun · Pristupio: 27 Sep 2007 Poruke: 7 Studijska grupa: Arheologija

Nedavno sam saznao da u Etiopiji postoji grad Gondar, sa vrlo zanimljivom tvrdavom (zbog toga naslov). Pa ko voli Tolkina, evo jos malo lepih vesti.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Ancient "Cloud Warrior" Skeletons Found in Peru Fort
Kelly Hearn for National Geographic News
September 26, 2007

The remains of 80 members of an ancient civilization have been unearthed in the ruins of a fortress high in the Peruvian Andes, an archaeologist has announced.

The skeletons bear evidence of extremely quick deaths, the bodies having been found where they fell, without burial, reported Alfredo Narváez, director of Peru's Kuélap Archaeological Complex Restoration and Conservation project.

Chachapoya skeleton found in Peru fortress picture

The remains were discovered in the fortress of Kuélap, a mountain stronghold of the Chachapoya, a culture known as the "cloud warriors" that thrived in Amazonian cloud forests from the 9th to the 15th century A.D.

"In recent days we have discovered the bones of at least 80 people," Narváez said late yesterday.

The bodies belonged to people of all ages and both sexes and were found alongside everyday utensils and tools, he said.

"We observed bodies together, dispersed and in positions they seemed to be when they died," he said.

The haphazard positioning of the bodies, the presence of everyday artifacts, and the lack of ceremonial burials falls counter to what experts say was the Chachapoya custom of meticulously burying relatives.

"It seems it all happened very quickly, without time to bury the bodies," Narváez said.

"Our team began to ask questions," he said. "Was there violence? Had there been an epidemic due to the presence of the Spanish? Future studies will give the answer."

Misleading Reports

Narváez first reported the discovery last week, prompting regional press reports that 40 mummies had been found.

The body count, however, has increased in recent days, according to the researcher, and none of the bodies—all found under deep layers of rock and dirt—were mummified.

"They aren't mummies but bodies found on inside floors and outside near a group of dwellings located very close to the fortress's main temple, once known as Tintero," Narváez said.

Early press reports also quoted Narváez as saying that some of the artifacts found were of Inca origin. The researcher, however, did not confirm by press time whether that was the case.

The Chachapoya were known as fierce fighters, staving off Inca invasions in strongholds like Kuélap until falling to the empire in A.D. 1470.

Experts praised the news of the discovery, noting that it may shed light on the poorly understood civilization.

"This is a truly important new find," said Daniel H. Sandweiss, an anthropologist at the University of Maine.

"The apparently violent deaths of these individuals and potential association with Inca pottery, as press reports suggest, could shed light on either the Inca conquest of the Chachapoya or on the events at the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca."

Others agreed.

"I can only say that the finds strike me as tremendously important, as the ultimate fate of Kuélap's residents remains poorly known," said Warren B. Church, anthropologist at Columbus State University.

"This find is really as important as any similar discovery might be at Machu Picchu," he added. "However, where the two mountaintop sites rival one another in scale and majesty, we probably know considerably less about Kuélap."

Epidemic or Violent invasion?

The job of teasing out the forensics of the newfound remains falls on bioarchaeologists like Marla Toyne, a doctoral candidate at Tulane University.

Toyne, who worked with Narváez for four years at Kuélap and has spoken with him by telephone in recent days, said she was told the bodies were found in a residential section of the fortress near Tintero but not at the temple itself.

"We've had a similar finding earlier to the south of the Tintero when we found three children sprawled on the floor," Toyne said.

"When I examined them, there were no signs of cut marks or evidence of trauma that I could observe."

Toyne said she could possibly determine whether the newly found bodies suffered from violent trauma, but it is much more difficult to determine if they died from a fast-moving epidemic.

Under normal conditions, people at Kuélap were buried in floors, caves, or walls, she added.

"It is clear they practiced a form of ancestor reverence," she said. "The deceased were treated with care. These individuals were not."

The victims have been killed by someone wanting to deny them a proper burial, or they may simply have lacked family members to bury them.

"But there still remains the question of who they were," she said.

"Were they Incas against whom the locals rebelled and killed off? Or were they locals whom the Incas attacked and killed to conquer the site? As always there are more questions raised than answers."

Keith Muscutt, an assistant dean at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has studied the Chachapoya culture.

"So little scientific excavation has occurred in this remote region, and even less published," he said, "that this report from Narváez, an experienced and highly respected Peruvian archaeologist, promises to open an important new chapter in Chachapoya archaeology."

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

Chatty cavemen? Me Neanderthal, talk good

This image is an artist's rendition of a Neanderthal family. Scientists have found DNA evidence which suggests that Neanderthals might have used language in ways similar to humans.

Neanderthals might have spoken just like humans do now, new genetic findings suggest.

Neanderthals are humanity's closest extinct relatives. Since their discovery more than 150 years ago, researchers have found out they could make tools just like our ancestors could, but whether Neanderthals also had advanced language, rather than mere grunts and groans, has remained hotly debated.

To learn more, scientists investigated DNA from Neanderthal bones collected from a cave in northern Spain, concentrating on a gene, FOXP2, which is to date the only one known to play a role in speech and language. People with an abnormal copy of this gene have speech and language problems.
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Genes similar to FOXP2 are found throughout the genomes of the animal kingdom, from fish to alligators to songbirds. The molecule that human FOXP2 generates differs from chimpanzee FOXP2's by just two amino acids, the building blocks of proteins.

Past research suggests the gene's modern human variant evolved fewer than 200,000 years ago. Now scientists find the Neanderthal FOXP2 gene is identical to ours. The ancestors of Neanderthals diverged from ours roughly 300,000 years ago, according to the latest thinking. Some studies have suggested that the two species might have intermingled after that, however.

"It is possible that Neanderthals spoke just like we do," paleogeneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, told LiveScience.

"Of course many genes are involved in language," cautioned Krause, the new study's lead researcher. As scientists discover more of such genes, these will have to be examined in Neanderthals as well, he said.

Krause noted that some might suggest that interbreeding or "gene flow" (aka sex) between modern humans and Neanderthals led to us having FOXP2 in common. "However, we see no evidence for gene flow in the Y chromosome sequences," he said. Instead, the modern human and Neanderthal Y chromosomes are substantially different genetically.

Krause and his colleagues detailed their findings online Oct. 18 in the journal Current Biology.

Rogan · Pristupio: 14 Apr 2006 Poruke: 5340 Studijska grupa: Istorija umetnosti

"Dinosaur Mummy" Found; Has Intact Skin, Tissue
John Roach
for National Geographic News
December 3, 2007

Scientists today announced the discovery of an extraordinarily preserved "dinosaur mummy" with much of its tissues and bones still encased in an uncollapsed envelope of skin.

Preliminary studies of the 67-million-year-old hadrosaur, named Dakota, are already altering theories of what the ancient creatures' skin looked like and how quickly they moved, project researchers say.

Further investigations may reveal detailed information about soft tissues, which could help unlock secrets about the evolution of dinosaurs and their descendents, the scientists added.

For now, the team continues to examine the rare specimen, which included preserved tendons and ligaments, and to prepare scientific articles on the find for publication.

"This specimen exceeds the jackpot," said excavation leader Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Britain's University of Manchester and a National Geographic Expeditions Council grantee.

Most dinosaurs are known only from their bones, which are seldom found joined together as they would be in real life.

But "we're looking at a three-dimensional skin envelope," Manning said. "In many places it's complete and intact—around the tail, arms, and legs and part of the body."

(The excavation is the subject of Dino Autopsy, a National Geographic Channel special airing December 9 at 9 p.m. ET/10 p.m. PT. The National Geographic Society owns National Geographic News and co-owns the National Geographic Channel.)

The hadrosaur, or duck-billed dinosaur, was discovered in 1999 by then-teenage paleontologist Tyler Lyson on his family's North Dakota property.

It was an extremely fortuitous find, because the odds of mummification are slim, researchers noted.

First the dinosaur body had to escape predators, scavengers, and degradation by weather and water. Then a chemical process must have mineralized the tissue before bacteria ate it. And finally, the remains had to survive millions of years undamaged.

"What usually would have been wiped out by the decay process—the mineralization has been so rapid that it is trapped and preserved," Manning said.

"It's such a unique preservational environment here that we'll be able to say, Well, you basically need these conditions to mummify a dinosaur," Lyson, now a graduate student in geology at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, told a National Geographic reporter during a field trip to the excavation site.

"I think that's going to be pretty neat."

Plant-eating hadrosaurs are often called the "cows of the Cretaceous"—the geologic period that spanned 145 million to 65 million years ago—Manning said. They had horny, toothless beaks but hundreds of teeth in their cheeks and a long, stiff tail that was likely used for balance. (Related: "Giant Duck-Billed Dino Unearthed in Utah" [October 3, 2007].)

Preliminary studies are revealing a surprising side to these reptiles, suggesting that Dakota—even though roughly 35 feet (12 meters) long and weighing some 35 tons—was no slowpoke.

With the aid of a large-scale CT scanner, the researchers determined how much muscle mass was packed between the bone and skin of Dakota's tail.

This allowed the researchers to infer the muscle mass of the dinosaur's rear end, which they calculated is about 25 percent larger than previously believed. A more muscular rear end means more powerful legs, Manning noted.

He plugged this new measurement into a computer model his team created to figure out how dinosaurs moved.

"Our models confirm this hadrosaur would have had potential to run faster than T. rex," Manning said.

The preliminary calculations suggest Dakota could run 28 miles (45 kilometers) an hour. Tyrannosaurus rex tops out at about 20 miles (32 kilometers) an hour, according to the model. (Related: T. Rex Quicker Than Fastest Humans, Study Says [August 23, 2007])

For Manning, the finding makes perfect sense. Hadrosaurs are believed to have been T. rex prey, so evolution would have favored a faster running speed.

"And that's what our initial findings support," he said.

John Hutchinson studies the movement of living and extinct animals at the University of London's Royal Veterinary College. He said caution is warranted for claims based on computer simulations, which he uses for his own work.

The margin of error for locomotion computer models can be greater than 50 percent, he noted—enough to wipe out the speed difference between a hadrosaur and a T. rex.

"Knowing the leg muscle mass would reduce at least one uncertainty," he commented via email. "That's progress, but there are still huge uncertainties left."

Research into Dakota's fossilized skin is also yielding image-altering clues to how hadrosaurs may have appeared, Manning's team says.

Though the skin has lost its color, much of its texture is still intact, allowing scientists to map it in 3-D to see what Dakota might have looked like.

"There seems to be a variation in scale size that might possibly correlate—as it does in modern reptiles in many cases—with changes in color," Manning said.

"There seems to be striping patternations associated with joint areas on the arm," he added, "and there's interesting information we're looking at in the tail as well."

The 3-D preservation of the skin has also prompted the researchers to search for traces of unfossilized soft tissue in the hopes that it might yield protein.

This April, for example, two teams announced the successful extraction and analysis of collagen, a bone protein, from 68-million-year-old T. rex fossils. Those findings supported the hypothesis that modern birds are descended from dinosaurs.

Manning's team is currently unable to discuss specific findings, which are pending peer review for publication in a scientific journal.

But team member Roy Wogelius, a geochemist at the University of Manchester, said: "We have an array of chemical analysis techniques that we're applying to the organism—and not just to the skin."

Other experts remain tight-lipped about the potential of Dakota to yield similar information as the T. rex studies.

Mary Schweitzer, a North Carolina State University scientist who worked on one of those projects, declined to comment until formal publication.

And Peggy Ostrom, a zoologist at Michigan State University who also studies ancient proteins for clues to how organisms are related to each other, commented only in general terms.

"It's rare to find an articulated skeleton and even more so to find one with fossilized soft tissue," she wrote in an email.

"If such finds show extraordinary preservation, they tempt us to wonder about the possibility of finding [unfossilized] biomolecules that might be remnants of the ancient organism."

hiperborejac

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/05/070508-herod-tomb.html

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3397066,00.html