Remains recovered from Amphipolis tomb

The skeletal remains of a high-ranking man have been recovered from a late fourth-century B.C. tomb found in Amphipols, Greece.

The burial site at Amphipolis is the largest ever discovered in Greece.

The culture ministry said the almost intact skeleton belonged to a “distinguished public figure”, given the tomb’s dimensions and lavishness.

Chief archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said “the tomb in all probability belongs to a male and a general”.

The excavation has fascinated Greeks ever since Prime Minister Antonis Samaras visited the site in August 2014 and announced it amounted to “an exceptionally important discovery”.

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Story: Giorgos Christides, BBC News | Photo: Greek Culture Ministry

Decorative murals found in Chinese tomb

A 1,000-year-old tomb, complete with decorate murals depicting daily life in the area, has been found in northern China.

Found not far from a modern day railway station, the circular tomb has no human remains but instead has murals which show vivid scenes of life. “The tomb murals mainly depict the daily domestic life of the tomb occupant,” and his travels with horses and camels, a team of researchers wrote in their report on the tomb recently published in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

On the east wall, people who may have served as attendants to the tomb’s occupant are shown holding fruit and drinks. There is also a reclining deer, a crane, bamboo trees, a crawling yellow turtle and a poem. The poem reads in part, “Time tells that bamboo can endure cold weather. Live as long as the spirits of the crane and turtle.”

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Story: Owen Jarus, Live Science | Photo: Chinees Cultural Relics

Ice Age infant burials found in Alaska

The remains of two infants, which date back 11,000 years, have been uncovered at an archaeological settlement in Alaska.

Potter made the new find on the site of a 2010 excavation, where the cremated remains of another 3-year-old child were found. The bones of the two infants were found in a pit directly below a residential hearth where the 2010 remains were found.

“Taken collectively, these burials and cremation reflect complex behaviors related to death among the early inhabitants of North America,” Potter said.

In the paper, Potter and his colleagues describe unearthing the remains of the two children in a burial pit under a residential structure about 15 inches below the level of the 2010 find. The radiocarbon dates of the newly discovered remains are identical to those of the previous find–about 11,500 years ago–indicating a short period of time between the burial and cremation, perhaps a single season.

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Story: Science Daily | Photo: Ben Potter, UAF

Prehistoric reed basket found on Scottish island

An ancient woven reed basket has been exposed during recent storms on the Scottish Island of North Uist.

The basket, about half a metre in length, contains a handful of worked quartz stones, and a handful of diverse animal bones.

Local archaeologist Kate MacDonald of Uist Archaeology spoke of her excitement at the find.

She said: “It’s rare to find well-preserved organic material. It indicates that this basket must have been kept under water from the day that it was placed, or lost, there. Perhaps it was in a freshwater loch until it was covered over by encroaching beach sediment.

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Story: Susy Macaulay, Island News & Advertiser | Photo: Island News & Advertiser

Stone Age footprints found during tunnel excavation

Footprints left by fishermen 5,000 years ago have been found by archaeologists excavating ahead of tunnel construction in Denmark.

The footprints were found alongside a metre-long system of fishing weirs used to feed a nearby Stone Age community.

The discovery of the prints’ close proximity to the weirs, suggest the fishermen attempted to safeguard their constructions before a flood came in and covered it all with sand.

Judging by the size of the prints, at least two people waded out into the silted seabed in an attempt to salvage what they could. With every step, the sand left behind by the flooding got pushed further into the bed to leave behind the tell-tale prints.

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Story: Magnus Stroyer, The Copenhagen Post | Photo: Museum Lolland-Falster

Roman pond found in West Sussex village

An ancient pond and other assorted artifacts have been found at the site of a Roman settlement in West Sussex.

The objects, dating back to AD100 show there was a Roman settlement in the village of Barnham, West Sussex County Council says.

Over the last six weeks, Roman pottery, ancient rubbish pits and ditches have been found at the site.

It is thought the settlement may have started in the late Iron Age before the Roman conquest in AD43.

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Story: BBC | Photo: West Sussex County Council

Depiction of unknown god found in Turkey

Archaeologists working in Turkey have uncovered the image of an unknown bearded diety in an ancient sanctuary in Turkey.

Münster archaeologists excavated a unique Roman relief depicting an unknown god in an ancient sanctuary in Turkey. According to a first assessment, the one and a half metre (five feet) high basalt stele which was used as a buttress in the wall of a monastery shows a fertility or vegetation god, as classical scholar and excavation director Prof. Dr. Engelbert Winter and archaeologist Dr. Michael Blömer of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” said after their return from the sacred site of the god Jupiter Dolichenus close to the ancient city of Doliche in Southeast Turkey. “The image is remarkably well preserved. It provides valuable insights into the beliefs of the Romans and into the continued existence of ancient Near Eastern traditions. However, extensive research is necessary before we will be able to accurately identify the deity.”

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Story: Cluster of Excellence | Photo: Forschungsstelle Asia Minor

19th-century shipwreck uncovered during Hurricane Sandy construction

The remains of a 19th-century ship has been discovered 25 feet beneath the sand in Brick, New Jersey, during post-Sandy construction to build a 3.5-mile-long coastal wall.

Mayor John G. Ducey said workers using a specialized drill struck the relic last week. They were doing excavating work for the 3.5-mile long structure, which is intended to shield Route 35 and oceanfront homes in Mantoloking and Brick on the northern barrier island from the catastrophic impact of a future major hurricane or nor’easter comparable to the Oct. 29, 2012, disaster.

“They hit something. It broke the head on the machine,” Brick Deputy Office of Emergency Management Coordinator Joe Pawlowicz told CBS New York. “They decided to replace the head. They replaced the head, and it also broke.”

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Story: CBS New York | Photo: CBS New York

Joseon Dynasty shipwreck found off Korean coast

The wreckage of a Joseon-era cargo ship has been found off the coast of South Korea’s Mado Island.

“A pilot excavation of the shipwreck site resulted in the discoveries of two buncheong-ware ceramics. It’s highly likely that the vessel is from the Joseon era,” the institute said in a press release.

Buncheong refers to ceramics with a gray or bluish-green body, decorated with white. It is associated with the earlier part of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

The salvaging of 111 pieces of white ceramics ? all thought to date back to the late 18th or early 19th century ? from the sea floor near the shipwreck site also increased the likelihood of the vessel being a Joseon-era relic.

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Story: Korea Herald | Photo: Yonhap

Remains of Bronze Age children found in England

The remains of two children who were buried during the Bronze age have been uncovered in Buckinghamshire, England.

The skeletons of two pre-pubescent children have been discovered by archaeologists during an “amazing” dig at the back of an antiques shop which has also revealed pottery suggesting their bones could come from a Bronze Age burial.

The bodies, whose teeth pinpointed their owners’ ages to between ten and 12, contained 250 bones and fragments. Experts in Marlow say the pit they were found in, which was originally opened up in March 2013, included a burial mound disturbed during the 12th century.

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Story: Ben Miller, Culture 24 | Photo: MOLA

Medieval chess pieces found in England

Two medieval chess pieces carved from antler have been found in the East Midlands of England.

“They provide us with clear evidence of antler and bone working in the town, making something which is effectively a leisure product.

“It took quite a lot of effort to hand carve and finish these kind of things, so it’s going to be something that you’re paying the craftsman for.

“It’s almost certain we will publish something about this material as it’s of interest to researchers looking into history of board games.”

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Story: BBC News | Photo: MOLA

Three mosaics found in southern Turkey

Three new mosaics have been found at the Greco-Roman centre of Zeugma, located in southern Turkey.

The uncovered mosaics were displayed at a press conference attended by Gaziantep Mayor Fatma ?ahin and the head of the excavations, Professor Kutalm?? Görkay.

Görkay said excavations at Zeugma, which was one of the most important centers in the Eastern Roman Empire, had started in 2007, adding that good progress had been made with the support of the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and ?? Bank.

“There are still unexcavated areas. There are rock-carved houses here. We have reached one of these houses and the house includes six spaces. We have also unearthed three new mosaics in this year’s excavations,” he said.

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Story: Hurriyet Daily News | Photo: AA Photos

Ancient village found in Columbia

The remains of a pre-Columbian village have been found in central Columbia.

According to the involved archaeologists, the remains found at the site dated from 900BC until approximate 1500AD when most indigenous groups died amid a violent Spanish colonization of territory belonging to the ancient Muisca people.

The archaeologists found numerous pieces that are in a good enough condition to be displayed in local museums. Some 90% of the approximately 20 metric tons of archaeological material will be used for scientific research.

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Story: Adriaan Alsema, Columbia Reports | Photo: EPM

Roman skeletons found in school grounds

The remains of two adults Romans have been found during construction at a primary school in Worcestershire.

The adult female, aged over 50, was found with hobnails, which are associated with rural Roman agricultural burials.

The other was an adult male, aged 25 to 30 who had signs of degenerative joints and osteoarthritis. Also found were a selection of Roman pots.

Archaeologist Tom Vaughan said: “The remains have been thoroughly examined and found to be from the Roman era. The excavations, including the finds of hobnails with the adult female are typical of Roman internments in the area and similar to recent excavations near Wyre Piddle and St John’s, Worcester. It is well known that there was Roman occupation around Bredon Hill.”

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Story: James Connell, Worcester News | Photo: Worcester News

Fossilized maize and rice found in Indonesia

Fossilized maize and rice have been found inside a bamboo basket on the slope of Mount Sindoro in Central Java.

“The finding is also crucial to help us trace the history of food cultivation and technology in Indonesia, especially in Java,” said Siswanto, who spoke during the opening of the 2014 General Soedirman University (Unsoed) Fair in Purwokerto, recently.

During the excavation, the archeologists reportedly found fossilized maize and grains of rice in Liyangan, Purbosari village, Ngadirejo district, which is located 7.5 kilometers from the peak of Mt. Sindoro.

It was believed that the fossilized staple food grew between the eighth and tenth centuries, during the era of the ancient Mataram kingdom.

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Story: Agus Maryono, The Jakarta Post | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

17th century artifacts found at Irish castle

Construction workers installing an elevator at Rathfarnham Castle uncovered a hoard of 17th century artifacts found between two stone floors.

Among the items discovered was a foldable toothbrush, clay pipes, jewellery, porcelain, coins, chamber pots, crystal goblets, as well as wine bottles and ointment jars with as of yet unknown liquids inside.

It has been said Oliver Cromwell and his men held council at Rathfarnham Castle as they besieged Ireland, and the discovery of a Cromwellian armour breastplate with a musket-hole through it “ties in with that”, said Ms MacGowan.

The castle was built in 1583 by Lord Adam Loftus who was Archbishop of Dublin. The materials discovered are dated the mid to late 17th century and belonged to his descendants.

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Story: Colin Gleeson, Irish Times | Photo: Frank Miller, Irish Times

Peruvian dig unearths child sacrifices

Archaeologists working in Peru have unearthed the remains of 42 children and 76 llamas who were sacrificed 600 years ago.

Their latest excavation uncovered numerous additional sacrificial victims, which will allow for a more detailed reconstruction of this unusual event, Verano said. The researchers think that the sacrifice may have been an offering to the sea, or a response to severe flooding brought on by an El Niño event, and that the llamas may have been intended to transport the victims to the afterlife.

“It’s not a place where you’d think to look,” Verano said of the site, located on a sandy ridge 100 yards from the beach. With erosion and construction disturbing the site, the villagers in Huanchaquito “noticed these bones coming out of the sand.”

Some of Verano’s previous discoveries in Peru have revealed adults who were held captive and killed, “but usually not children,” he said.

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Story: Carol Schlueter, Physorg | Photo: John Verano

Aluminum debris linked to Amelia Earhart

A piece of aluminum debris found on a southwestern Pacific atoll has been identified has belonging to Amelia Earhart’s plane.

According to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR), which has long been investigating the last, fateful flight taken by Earhart 77 years ago, the aluminum sheet is a patch of metal installed on the Electra during the aviator’s eight-day stay in Miami, which was the fourth stop on her attempt to circumnavigate the globe.

The patch replaced a navigational window: A Miami Herald photo shows the Electra departing for San Juan, Puerto Rico on the morning of Tuesday, June 1, 1937 with a shiny patch of metal where the window had been.

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Story: Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News | Photo: Tighar

Cannon recovered from the Queen Anne’s Revenge

A 23rd cannon has been recovered from the pirate Blackbeard’s flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

The trip was the latest in 17 years of recovery efforts at the Queen Anne’s Revenge shipwreck site. The flagship of the infamous pirate Blackbeard sank off the coast of Beaufort after running aground nearly 300 years ago.

On Friday, the QAR team raised a 5-foot cannon weighing about 600 pounds after freeing it from a concretion of artifacts about 25 feet wide and 30 feet long. Attached to its barrel were several cannonballs.

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Story: Jannette Pipping, JDNews | Photo: JDNews

Deep-water divers reach 2,000-year-old shipwreck

A team of deep-water divers are helping archaeologists excavate the wreck of a 2,000-year-old shipwreck found under 410 feet of water near the Aeolian Islands, off the Italian coast.

Archaeologists working with the team have so far discovered terra cotta jars scattered across the ocean floors. The jars, called amphora, were used to carry wine, olive oil and other cargo.

Researchers told the AP they believe the ship was called the Panarea III, a wooden vessel about 50 feet long that was likely used as a cargo ship for a wealthy merchant or the Roman military.

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Story: Geetika Rudra, Good Morning America | Photo: Global Underwater Explorers

High-tech imagery reveal Philae Obelisk heiroglyphics

Modern imaging techniques are being applied to examine the faded inscriptions on the Philae Obelisk in England.

“The last time anyone made a good record of what was on this stone was in 1821 when a lithograph was commissioned to celebrate the obelisk’s arrival at Kingston Lacy,” explained Dr Jane Masséglia from the Centre for the Study of Ancient Documents.

“We had no way of knowing that that drawing was correct. But our images show that whoever did the lithograph, especially of the hieroglyphs, made a really great job.

“The other big thing for us is the Greek inscription. Even when the obelisk first came to Kingston Lacy, people looked at it and said they couldn’t make out the whole thing; there were large sections that were rubbed away.

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Story: BBC News | Photo: B. Altshuler/CSAD/Oxford University

17th century French ship to be reassembled in Texas

The remains of La Belle, a French frigate which sank off the Texas coast in 1686, are set to be reassembled after undergoing conservation work.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s like a dinosaur, big and dynamic and magnetic,” said Peter Fix, one of the assembly team members and chief conservator for Texas A&M University’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. “Once we get the framing up it’s going to look like a big beached whale, a bone carcass. And that’s dynamic and hopefully it will pique curiosity.”

The keel and other large structural pieces of La Belle—resembling old railroad ties—were discovered in 1995 by Texas Historical Commission archaeologists. Researchers built a dam around the site, pumped it dry, then retrieved the nearly intact hull that had been preserved in up to 6 feet of mud.

[Full story]

Story: Phys.org | Photo: Eric Gay

Roman gums were healthier than ours

A team of archaeologists have determined that people living in Romain Britain had healthier gums than their modern-day descendants.

A team at King’s College London and the Natural History Museum found only 5% of adults had gum disease in the Roman, and certainly pre-toothbrush, era.

Modern day smoking and type 2 diabetes are blamed for a figure of nearly one in three today.

But ancient Britain was certainly not a golden age of gleaming gnashers.

The smiles of our ancestors were littered with infections, abscesses and tooth decay, the study showed.

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Story: BBC News | Photo: Thinkstock

4,000-year-old burial mounds destroyed by looters in Denmark

Police are investigating the damage done to four ancient burials sites in Denmark that date back 4,000 years.

Lars Bjarke Christensen, an archaeologist from the Culture Ministry, is gutted over the theft and the loss of Danish history.

”It’s a disaster. The grave robbers have ruined part of Denmark’s history,” Christensen told DR Nyheder.

”The things we could have learned from the burial mounds have now been erased from history. We can no longer investigate how ancient life was in this area of Jutland.”

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Story: CW, Copenhagen Post | Photo: Scanpix

Ancient city ruled by Genghis Khan’s heirs uncovered

The 750-year-old remains of a city ruled by the descendants of Genghis Khan has been unearthed in Russia.

The city’s name was Ukek and it was founded just a few decades after Genghis Khan died in 1227. After the great conqueror’s death his empire split apart and his grandson Batu Khan, who lived from 1205 to 1255, founded the Golden Horde (also called the Kipchak Khanate).The Golden Horde kingdom stretched from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and controlled many of the Silk Road trade routes that connected China to Medieval Europe.

This city of Ukek was built close to the khan’s summer residence along the Volga River, something which helped it become prosperous. The name “Golden Horde” comes from the golden tent from which the khan was said to rule.

[Full story]

Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Dmitriy Kubankin

6,000-year-old temple discovered in Ukraine

The remains of a 6,000-year-old temple has been found at a prehistoric settlement near Nebelivka in the Ukraine.

The ancient settlement had over 1,200 buildings and nearly 50 streets, indicating that it was likely a huge settlement at the time and home to thousands of people.

The 6,000-year-old temple measuring about 60 by 20 meters in size contained figurines that resemble humans. Remains of sacrificed animals were also found at the ancient building. Sites such as this have been found in other parts of Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and these are believed to belong to the “Trypillian” culture.

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Story: Rhodi Lee, Tech Times | Photo: Nataliya Burdo and Mykhailo Videiko / Institute of Archaeology NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv.

45,000-year-old modern human genome sequenced

Researchers have completing genomic sequencing of a modern human based off 45,000-year-old DNA.

Researchers have successfully decoded the genes of a 45,000-year-old man from Siberia. The results offer clues about early human life outside of Africa as well as how humans interacted with Neanderthals and other groups around at the time.

The complete set of genes is the oldest genome of its kind, according to Svante Pääbo, a director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. “It’s almost twice as old as the next oldest genome that has been sequenced.”

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Story: Geoff Brumfiel, NPR | Photo: Bence Viola/Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

WWII battlefield found off North Carolina coast

Researchers from NOAA has located the underwater wreckage of German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields, both sunk during a convoy battle in 1942.

A team of researchers led by NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries have discovered two significant vessels from World War II’s Battle of the Atlantic. The German U-boat 576 and the freighter Bluefields were found approximately 30 miles off the coast of North Carolina. Lost for more than 70 years, the discovery of the two vessels, in an area known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic, is a rare window into a historic military battle and the underwater battlefield landscape of WWII.

“This is not just the discovery of a single shipwreck,” said Joe Hoyt, a NOAA sanctuary scientist and chief scientist for the expedition. “We have discovered an important battle site that is part of the Battle of the Atlantic. These two ships rest only a few hundred yards apart and together help us interpret and share their forgotten stories.”

[Full story]

Story: NOAA| Photo: Ed Caram

Sphinx’s head found in Amphipolis tomb

The head of a sphinx sculpted to guard the entrance to a tomb at Amphipolis has been found inside one of the tomb’s chambers.

The Sphinx’s head is intact, with minimal breakage on the nose. It has a height of 0.60m and it is assigned to the body of the eastern Sphinx. Made of marble, the head has signs of red color on its curly hair (falling onto its left shoulder) that is tied with a white stripe. It carries a pole and archaeologists characterize it as a sculpture of exceptional art. The head was found in a depth of 15cm inside a marble threshold. In addition, fragments of the Sphinx’s wings were discovered in the same chamber.

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Story: Aggelos Skordas, Greek Reporter | Photo: Greek Reporter

Dutch warship found off Tobago coast

A Dutch warship dating back to the 17th century has been found off the coast of Tobago.

The find is a significant source of information for the maritime history of the period. “Although we have some written records of the battle itself, we possess no detailed plans of 17th-century warships,” Batchvarov says, “so our only sources of information about the ships of the day are the wrecks themselves. It isn’t overstatement to say that what has been discovered is a treasure trove for archaeological researchers.”

What is known about the battle is that all told, 2,000 people, including 250 Dutch women and children and 300 African slaves, were killed. In addition to the Huis de Kreuningen, which was the largest ship in the Dutch fleet, the flagship of French Vice Admiral Comte D’Estrée – the Glorieux – was also sunk and all but 80 of the 450 men aboard were lost. In the end, the Dutch lost more vessels, but they succeeded in repelling the French landing party and retained possession of the island.

[Full story]

Story: Sheila Foran, UCONN | Photo: Jason Paterniti

Remains of butchered mastodon found in Ohio

An excavation of a mastodon skeleton found by a farmer in Ohio has unearthed flints and charcoal that could reveal that the carcass was butchered by Ice Age hunters.

The bones mostly have been discovered on piles of rocks and gravel. The researchers have found bits of flint and lines of charcoal, too.

The soybean field leads to a bog, which the scientists say probably existed back in the Ice Age when it likely was a little bit bigger — maybe the size of a small lake.

All the evidence leads Brush to believe that Ice Age hunters chased this mastodon across the field, trapped it on the uneven wet ground near the lake, and then killed it, cleaned it on those rock piles and cooked the meat right there.

[Full story]

Story: Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch | Photo: The Columbus Dispatch