12,450-year-old frozen puppy undergoes autopsy

The frozen remains of 3-month old puppy killed during a landslide 12,450 years ago in Siberia has undergone autopsy

Experts spent the past four years analysing the body – which included not just bones but also its heart, lungs and stomach – but only carried out the long-awaited autopsy in April.

It took place at the Institute of Medicine within the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk, and experts say the results will ‘greatly help’ the research of ancient dog species.

Indeed, the study could prove if the animal was an ancestor of modern-day domestic pets.

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Story: Anna Liesowska, The Siberian Times | Photo: NEFU

Dog catacomb with 8 million mummies surveyed at Saqqara

Researchers have surveyed a dog catacomb containing 8million dog mummies found near the temple of Anubis at Saqqara in Egypt.

In ancient Egypt, so many people worshiped Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death, that the catacombs next to his sacred temple once held nearly 8 million mummified puppies and grown dogs, a new study finds.

The catacomb ceiling also contains the fossil of an ancient sea monster, a marine vertebrate that’s more than 48 million years old, but it’s unclear whether the Egyptians noticed the existence of the fossil when they built the tomb for the canine mummies, the researchers said.

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Story: Laura Geggel, LiveScience | Photo: P.T. Nicholson; Copyright Antiquity Trust

Remains of Iron Age pork feast found in Wales

An analysis of animals bones found at a prehistoric feasting site in Wales has revealed that pork, specifically the right forequarters of the animals, was heavily featured on the menu.

“Surprisingly, nearly 80% of the animal remains at Llanmaes were from pigs, at a time when sheep and cattle were the main food animals and pork was not a favoured meat. What is perhaps more remarkable is that the majority of the pig bones were from just one quarter of the animal – the right forequarter. It might be that each household had to donate the same cut of meat to be included in the feast – that way everyone would have to slaughter a pig in honour of the feast.

“This selective pattern of feasting principally on just one quarter of one species is genuinely globally unparalleled and particularly startling as it continued over a period of centuries during the Iron Age.”

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Story: Cardiff University | Photo: National Museum Wales

Artifacts recovered from Spanish Armada ship

Stormy weather off the coast of Ireland has exposed a ship from the Spanish Armada, allowing divers to recover artifacts.

“We have uncovered a wealth of fascinating and highly significant material, which is more than 425 years old,” she said.

“The National Monuments Service believes that all of the material has come from La Juliana, one of the three Armada ships wrecked off this coastline in 1588. On current evidence, the other two wreck sites remain buried beneath a protective layer of sand, but the wreck of La Juliana is now partly exposed on the seabed along with some of its guns and other wreck material.”

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Story: UTV Ireland | Photo: Getty Images/Hulton Archive

Face of 7,000-year-old woman reconstructed

Researchers have recreated in 3D the face of a woman who died 7,000 years ago in Tehran, Iran.

He told Mehr News that to develop a 3D documentation, “we used whole parts of the skeleton and the principle of symmetry of human skeleton to reconstruct the missing parts or parts which are unfit for the reconstruction.”

“The model was developed drawing upon the supine position of the skeleton to represent its true position when interred; to reconstruct the face we added a digital version of missing parts mounted on the 3D model; the prepared model was pinpointed in 11 points in face on eyes, nose, ears, chicks, lips, and chin, and then the digital texturing filled these pinpoints to give us a clear image of the face,” he detailed.

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Story: MNA | Photo: MNA

Air pollution found in 400,000 dental plaque

Respiratory irritants have been found on 400,000-year-old teeth discovered in Qesem Cave, Israel.

Possible respiratory irritants, including traces of charcoal—manmade environmental pollution—found in the dental calculus, may have resulted from smoke inhalation from indoor fires used for roasting meat on a daily basis. This earliest direct evidence for inhaled environmental pollution may well have had a deleterious effect on the health of these early humans.

“Human teeth of this age have never been studied before for dental calculus, and we had very low expectations because of the age of the plaque,” said Prof. Gopher. “However, our international collaborators, using a combination of methods, found many materials entrapped within the calculus. Because the cave was sealed for 200,000 years, everything, including the teeth and its calculus, were preserved exceedingly well.”

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Story: Phys.org | Photo: Israel Hershkovitz, Tel Aviv University

Excavations underway at Marden Henge

Archaeological excavations have begun at Marden Henge, located in the Vale of Pewsey in England.

Situated between the iconic prehistoric monuments of Stonehenge and Avebury, the Vale of Pewsey is a barely explored archaeological region of huge international importance. The project will investigate Marden Henge. Built around 2400 BC ‘Marden’ is the largest henge in the country and one of Britain’s most important but least understood prehistoric monuments.

Excavation within the Henge will focus on the surface of what is thought to be one of the oldest houses in Britain, a Neolithic building revealed during earlier excavations. The people who used this building will have seen Stonehenge in full swing, perhaps even helped to haul the huge stones upright.

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Story: University of Reading | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Canaanite name found inscribed on 3,000-year-old jar

The Canaanite name Eshba’al Ben Bada’ has been found inscibed into a 3,000-year-old jar.

Intensive restoration work conducted in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority Artifacts Treatment Department, during which hundreds of pottery sherds were glued together to form a whole jar, solved the riddle – the jar was incised with the inscription: Eshba?al Ben Bada?. Dr. Mitka Golub and Dr. Haggai Misgav were among the team of researchers involved in deciphering the text.

According to Professor Yosef Garfinkel of the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University and Saar Ganor of the IAA, “This is the first time that the name Eshba?al has appeared on an ancient inscription in the country. Eshba?al Ben Shaul, who ruled over Israel at the same time as David, is known from the Bible. Eshba?al was murdered by assassins and decapitated and his head was brought to David in Hebron (II Samuel, Chaps. 3-4). It is interesting to note that the name Eshba?al appears in the Bible, and now also in the archaeological record, only during the reign of King David, in the first half of the tenth century BCE.

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Story: Israel Antiquities Authority | Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

Gladiator battles revealed in ancient graffiti

Hundreds of graffiti messages have been found in the ancient city of Aphrodisias, shedding light on what life was like there 1,500 years ago.

Some of the most interesting gladiator graffiti was found on a plaque in the city’s stadium where gladiator fights took place. The plaque depicts battles between two combatants: a retiarius (a type of gladiator armed with a trident and net) and a secutor (a type of gladiator equipped with a sword and shield).

One scene on the plaque shows the retiarius emerging victorious, holding a trident over his head, the weapon pointed toward the wounded secutor. On the same plaque, another scene shows the secutor chasing a fleeing retiarius. Still another image shows the two types of gladiators locked in combat, a referee overseeing the fight.

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Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Nicholas Quiring, Angelos Chaniotis

Intact wine jug found in Denmark

A fully-intact 1,000-year-old wine pitcher has been unearthed in a cemetery in Ribe, Denmark.

“It is a unique find,” said Morten Søvsø, the head of archaeology at Sydvestjyske Museum.

“The pitcher is an example of the finest pottery produced in northern Europe at the time, and it has never been seen before in Denmark. The vessel reveals information about the vast trading network that put Ribe on the map during the Viking era.”

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Story: Pia Marsh, The Copenhagen Post | Photo: Sydvestjyske Museer

Medieval wall found in East Midlands

Construction workers in England’s East Midlands have uncovered part of a medieval wall.

Archaeologist, Leigh Brocklehurst, said: “Our initial excavation work has unearthed a wall which looks to be Medieval or earlier. Nearby on the site we have also started to uncover what is essentially a cross section in time; behind a Medieval wall we can see several layers which each date from a different period, from Victorian to Medieval and Roman at the very bottom.

“You can see pieces of pottery and bone through the layers allowing us to date them. Although we have what looks like a Medieval dwelling, we do not know at this stage its purpose – whether it was residential or if a trade was carried out here. It is a very exciting discovery and we will now start to carefully dig around each discovery to see what else we can find out about the site’s past.”

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Story: Lincolnshire County Council | Photo: Lincolnshire Country Council

Byzantine church found in Israel

The remains of a large Byzantine-era church has been found during highway construction in Israel.

The 16-meter-long (52 feet) church building has a side chapel 6.5 meters long and 3.5 meters wide, with a floor tiled in white mosaic.

A baptismal font shaped like a four-leaf clover, symbolizing the cross, is located in the northeastern corner.

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Story: Times of Israel | Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

3,800-year-old statuettes found in Peru

Three 3,800-year-old statuettes have been found in a reed basket in northern Peru.

The mud statuettes were found inside a reed basket in a building at the ancient city of Vichama in northern Peru, which is today an important archaeological site.

The ministry said they were probably used in religious rituals performed before breaking ground on a new building.

Two of the figures, a naked man and woman painted in white, black and red, are believed to represent political authorities. The third, a women with 28 fingers and red dots on her white face, is believed to represent a priestess.

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Story: Phys.org | Photo: Peruvian Ministry of Culture

Roman kilns uncovered in Bulgaria

Four Roman kilns dating back to the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D. have been found in northern Bulgaria.

A total of four ovens, or furnaces, for baking pottery and an ancient water well have been discovered by the three teams of archaeologists working on the rescue excavations in the northern Bulgarian town of Pavlikeni which is rehabilitating its water supply and sewerage system.

Late week, the archaeologists in Pavlikeni discovered Ancient Roman ceramic vessels from the period of the Late Antiquity, the 2nd-3rd century AD

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Story: Archaeology in Bulgaria | Photo: News7

Neanderthals did not hunt rabbits

New research has found that Neanderthals did not hunt rabbits, unlike modern humans who did. This may provide clues as to why Neanderthals went extinct while we flourished.

“Rabbits originated in Iberia and they are a very special kind of resource, in that they can be found in large numbers, they are relatively easy to catch and they are predictable,” said Dr Stewart. “This means that they are quite a good food source to target. The fact that the Neanderthals did not appear to do so suggests that this was a resource they did not have access to in the same way as modern humans.”

The fact that Neanderthals – typically associated with hunting large prey over short distances in woodland settings – were seemingly unable to catch and kill such creatures is compounded by rapid changes in the environment. “The climate was changing and the ecology was decreasing in terms of the amount of animals they were able to hunt,” Dr Stewart explained. “If Neanderthals were more tied to these large mammals, the loss of them could have driven them to extinction.”

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Story: Bournemouth University | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Remains of early farmers found in Jordan

The 14,000-year-old remains of an adult and child have been found in Jordan’s Black Desert and are providing clues to how human’s first made the leap to agriculture in the area.

By analysing bones, seeds and other remains scientists hope to discover that in this area, 14.000 years ago, humans began farming, settling and forming large social groups.

“We can then identify different species of plants, which in turn will tell us what sorts of things were growing out here. It’s hard to imagine right now because it’s all desert, but back many, many years ago, it was actually really nice and very, very green, and we can tell that from these plant remains,” says finds co-ordinator Erin Estrup.

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Story: Dalya Alberge, The Guardian | Photo: Graeme Laidlaw

Roman artifacts found in Ethiopia

2,000-year-old Roman artifacts have been found in eleven graves uncovered in Ethiopia.

She was particularly excited about the grave of a woman she has named “Sleeping Beauty”. The way the body and its grave goods had been positioned suggest that she had been beautiful and much-loved.

Schofield said: “She was curled up on her side, with her chin resting on her hand, wearing a beautiful bronze ring. She was buried gazing into an extraordinary Roman bronze mirror. She had next to her a beautiful and incredibly ornate bronze cosmetics spoon with a lump of kohl eyeliner.”

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Story: Dalya Alberge, The Guardian | Photo: Graeme Laidlaw

Late Period tombs found in Egyptian cemetery

Six tombs dating back to Egypt’s Late Period (664-332 B.C.) have been found in a cemetery west of Aswan.

The tomb revealed a group of mummies found inside stone and wooden sarcophagi, faience statues representing the four sons of God Horus along with a number of amulets and small wooden statues of Horus, said the statement.

“This discovery is extremely unique because it is the first Late Period discovery at the Ancient Cemetery in Aswan. The previously discovered tombs at this area date back to the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms,” Damaty said.

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Story: The Cairo Post | Photo: The Antiquities Ministry

Looters raid Thracian mound in Bulgaria

Looters in Bulgaria have raided an ancient Thracian burial mound in southern Bulgaria ahead of planned excavations.

At least one of the Ancient Thracian burial mounds (tumuli) in the southern Bulgarian town of Tatarevo, Plovdiv District, which are soon supposed to be excavated by the Director of the Plovdiv Museum of Archaeology, Kostadin Kisyov, has been raided by treasure hunters recently, a report says.

Photos made on the site and with Google Maps demonstrate that looters have made their way into one of the three Thracian tumuli known as the Tatarevo Mounds, reports local news site Parvomai.net.

Traces on the spot show that the treasure hunters must have managed to take away ceramic vessels from it, plus potentially other ancient artifacts.

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Story: Ivan Dikov, Archaeology in Bulgaria | Photo: Parvomai.net

Aboriginal artifacts found in Australian park

Aboriginal spear barbs and other blades and flakes have been found at the future site of a playground in Sydney.

Archaeologist Jillian Comber said many of the artefacts found during the past two weeks were thousands of years old and included back blades and flaking, which is the remnants of stone from tool making.

The park and its surrounds would have been home to the Burramatta clan after which Parramatta is named.

It is believed the area might also have been a spot where aboriginal clans came together for trading.

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Story: Cathy Morris, Daily Telegraph | Photo: Daily Telegraph

French noblewoman remains found in lead coffin

The 17th century remains of a French noblewoman and her husband have been found inside of a lead coffin.

The corpse of Louise de Quengo, a widow from an aristocratic family from Brittany, was discovered in an hermetically sealed lead coffin placed in a stone tomb at a convent chapel in the western city of Rennes.

Four other lead coffins dating from the 17th century were also found at the site of the Saint-Joseph chapel, as well as 800 other graves containing skeletons.

Researchers expected to find little but dust and bones when they opened the fifth coffin and were astonished to discover the nearly intact body of De Quengo, Lady of Brefeillac, who died in 1656, some time in her 60s. They were able to identify the 1.45 m (5ft) body because of inscriptions on a relic containing the heart of her husband, Toussaint de Perrien, Knight of Brefeillac, who died in 1649.

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Story: Kim Willsher, The Guardian | Photo: Rozenn Colleter/AFP/Getty Images

Roman rubbish dump gives clues to ancient trading networks

Archaeologists examining the millions of shards of Roman amphorae found at Monte Testaccio are finding clues to the extent and sophistication of trade in the Mediterranean.

Monte Testaccio is an artificial hill in the centre of Rome that is made up of an estimated 25 million shards of broken amphorae, many from as far afield as Spain and North Africa.

The amphorae, containing wine and olive oil, were broken up and dumped on the spoil heap after being unloaded from a nearby port on the River Tiber.

They could not be reused because wine and oil residue seeped into the clay, turning rancid after a while and preventing the containers from being recycled for fresh shipments.

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Story: Nick Squires, The Telegraph | Photo: Chris Warde-Jones

Natural pearl found in 2,000-year-old shell midden

A natural marine pearl which dates back 2,000 years has been found in a shell midden in Australia.

“Pearls have not been recovered before from ancient sites in Australia. Since the find is unique, analysis could not damage or take samples from any portion of the pearl, so researchers from UOW developed a range of non-destructive analyses to gather more information,” she said.

Round natural pearls are extremely rare in nature. The Brremangurey pearl’s shape, and the fact that it was found near the heartland of the Australian cultured pearl industry, initially raised doubts about its 2,000 year old date. The date was established through radiocarbon analysis of surrounding shell midden material. To investigate whether it was a modern cultured pearl which may have worked its way into the deposits from the surface, micro-computed tomography (a form of micro CAT scan) was used.

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Story: University of Wollongong | Photo: University of Wollongong

3,000-year-old stone axes unearthed in Vietnam

Archaeologists working near the Ngu Hanh Son Mountains in Vietname have unearthed five stone axes.

An archeological team from Viet Nam Archaeology Institute found five stone axes believed to come from the 3,000-year-old Sa Huynh Culture at a Khue Bac communal house garden in the central city.

The communal house lies at the foot of the Ngu Hanh Son Mountains (Marble Mountains), 15km from the city centre.

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Story: Viet Nam News | Photo: Viet Nam News

Figurine of Roman God Mercury found in England

A 2,000-year-old figurine depicting the Roman God Mercury has been found in a field in North Yorkshire.

The 1,000th officially recorded archaeological find of the year in Yorkshire is a mercurial one. Registered on May the 15th – the day of the festival of Mercury – a 2,000-year-old figurine of the Roman god, found by Dave Cooper while he was metal detecting in a field near Selby, is a remarkable reminder of Roman times.

“It honestly was pure coincidence – but a very happy one,” says Rebecca Griffiths, the Finds Liaison Officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the York Museums Trust.

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Story: Ben Miller, Culture24 | Photo: PAS

Medieval cemetery unearthed in Oxford, England

A medieval cemetery located at the Littlemore Priory in Oxford has been excavated ahead of construction of a new hotel.

Females made up the majority of the burials, at 35, with males accounting for 28; it was impossible to determine the gender of the remaining 29.

Among the burials, the archaeologists unearthed a female aged 45 or more who was likely one of the 20 women who held the position of prioress throughout the history of the priory.

She was interred at the exact center of the crossing in a well constructed stone coffin, with a head niche.

[Full story]

Story: Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News | Photo: John Moore Heritage Services

Prehistoric cemetery excavated in China

A 4,000-year-old cemetery, made up of hundreds of tombs, has been excavated in northwest China.

The burials date back around 4,000 years, before writing was developed in the area. In just one archaeological field season — between August and November 2009 — almost 300 tombs were excavated, and hundreds more were found in other seasons conducted between 2008 and 2011.

The tombs were dug beneath the surface of the ground and were oriented toward the Northwest. Some of the tombs had small chambers where finely crafted pottery was placed near the deceased. Archaeologists also found that mounds of sediment covered some of the tombs, which could have marked the location of these tombs.

[Full story]

Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Chinese Cultural Relics

Dragon head sculptures found at Xanadu

The remains of three colourful dragon heads made out of clay have been found in Xanadu, Mongolia.

The palace sprawls over 9,000 square meters (about 100,000 square feet), or nearly twice the floor space of the modern-day White House.Archaeologists have been excavating the palace, learning how it was designed and decorated.

Made of fine, red, baked clay the dragon heads would have been attached to the ends of beams and used asdecoration. They “are lifelike and dynamic” and “have yellow, blue, white and black coloring” glazed on them, researchers wrote in a report published recently in the journal Chinese Cultural Relics.

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Story: Owen Jarus, LiveScience | Photo: Chinese Cultural Relics

Roman fortress wall found in Bulgaria

Archaeologists working in Bulgaria have found a late antiquity outer fortress wall at the Roman city of Durostorum.

The newly discovered fortress wall is about 2-2.15 meters wide, and is preserved up to a height of 1.5 meters at some sections, Prof. Georgi Atanasov, an archaeologist from the Silistra Regional Museum of History, has announced, as cited by the Bulgarian state news agency BTA.

Atanasov hypothesizes that at the beginning of the 4th century AD the entire Ancient Roman city of Durostorum might have been surrounded with a previously unknown outer fortress wall.

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Story: Ivan Dikov, Archaeology in Bulgaria | Photo: Silistra Regional Museum of History

Bronze mirror mold found in Japan

A fragment of an ancient mold used to produce bronze mirrors that was found here predates any other artifacts linked to mirror production in Japan by up to 200 years.

The mold fragment dates to around 200 B.C. and was found during an archaeological dig at the Sugu Takauta ruins in Kasuga, the city’s board of education announced May 27.

The mold was apparently used to produce bronze mirrors known as Tachukyo (mirror with knobs) during the first half of the middle Yayoi Pottery Culture (300 B.C.-A.D. 300).

[Full story]

Story: Shunsuke Nakamura, Asahi Shimbun | Photo: Shunsuke Nakamura

Franklin Expedition artifacts recovered from HMS Erebus

Underwater archaeologists have recovered some artifacts from the wreckage of the HMS Erebus.

They are among the smallest artifacts recovered from the recent dive to HMS Erebus, but the two brass tunic buttons are also offering the most personal glimpse yet into what mysteries the shipwreck may reveal about the ill-fated Franklin expedition in the High Arctic.

The buttons found during the under-ice exploration of the wreck in mid-April, as it lay in the shallow waters of Wilmot and Crampton Bay off the coast of what is now Nunavut, certainly don’t answer the big questions about how Sir John Franklin’s quest to find the Northwest Passage came to its tragic end nearly 170 years ago.

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Story: Janet Davison, CBC News | Photo: Thierry Boyer/Parks Canada

Wall relief hacked out of 3,850 year-old Egyptian tomb

A colourful wall fragment has been illegal hacked out of an ancient Egyptian tomb.

The fragment in question measures 30 by 50 centimeters (12 by 20 inches.) The archaeology mission, currently carrying out excavations where the tomb is located, has posted photos of the wall and the fragment before and after the looting.

“We have since been trying to get reliable information on this matter from the antiquities authorities. The reports we now have are consistent in confirming the grave news that the tomb has been entered and that a relief has been stolen,” said the statement.

[Full story]

Story: The Cairo Post | Photo: KU Leuven, Egyptologie

5,000-year-old seal is oldest musical image in Israel

The impression made by a 5,000-year-old seal is the oldest known musical image found in Israel.

Archaeologists now believe the scene shows the musical part of a ritual dating back 5,000 years, of the “sacred marriage” between the Mesopotamian king and a goddess, whose role would have been played by a priestess.

Found in Early Bronze Age ruins in Beit Haemek in the 1970s, the impression was made using a cylinder seal rolled along the surface of clay before it was fired, creating repeating designs. It shows two standing women and one sitting, who is playing a musical instrument that is, apparently, a lyre.

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Story: Ruth Schuster, Haaretz | Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

Medieval hospital foundations found under English Theatre

The medieval foundation of St. Leonard’s Hospital, have been found underneath the York Theatre Royal in England.

It was previously thought that the Victorians destroyed the foundations of St Leonard’s Hospital (one of the largest and most important hospitals in medieval England) when building the theatre on the site. Last week these foundations have been uncovered. They are still intact and located underneath the stalls.

The City of York archaeologist has confirmed further excavation is needed. A longer time-frame has now been set to excavate an area of the stalls floor. Architects, De Matos Ryan, are now working on ideas for incorporating the archaeology into the new design of the theatre.

[Full story]

Story: Viv Hardwick, The Northern Echo | Photo: The Northern Echo

Early Mosche Temple found in Peru

A small Mosche temple has been found on a mountain in northern Peru.

The temple is thought to date from between 1700 and 1800. To Walter Alva, Director of the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum, it must have preceded big sanctuaries of administrative centers belonging to the peak of Moche culture. “The temple, which is 30-meter wide and 40-meter long, dates back to the earliest stage of the Mochica culture.”

[Full story]

Story: Andina | Photo: Andina

Dog split from wolves earlier than thought

New research carried out on an 35,000 wolf bone has revealed that dogs split from wolves earlier than we thought.

Dogs’ special relationship to humans may go back 27,000 to 40,000 years, according to genomic analysis of an ancient Taimyr wolf bone reported in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on May 21. Earlier genome-based estimates have suggested that the ancestors of modern-day dogs diverged from wolves no more than 16,000 years ago, after the last Ice Age.

The genome from this ancient specimen, which has been radiocarbon dated to 35,000 years ago, reveals that the Taimyr wolf represents the most recent common ancestor of modern wolves and dogs.

[Full story]

Story: EurekAlert! | Photo: Love Dalen

Ancient aqueduct excavated in Jerusalem

A section of ancient Jerusalem’s lower aqueduct has been excavated and preserved.

The Israel Antiquities Authority conducted an archaeological excavation there following the discovery of the aqueduct. According to Ya’akov Billig, the excavation director, “The Lower Aqueduct to Jerusalem, which the Hasmonean kings constructed more than two thousand years ago in order to provide water to Jerusalem, operated intermittently until about one hundred years ago. The aqueduct begins at the ‘En ‘Eitam spring, near Solomon’s Pools south of Bethlehem, and is approximately 21 kilometers long. Despite its length, it flows along a very gentle downward slope whereby the water level falls just one meter per kilometer of distance. At first, the water was conveyed inside an open channel and about 500 years ago, during the Ottoman period, a terra cotta pipe was installed inside the channel in order to better protect the water”.

[Full story]

Story: Israel Antiquities Authority | Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority

Gambling game pieces found in Utah cave

Hundreds of ancient game pieces used for gambling have been found in a cave in Utah.

Researchers exploring the cave, known simply as Cave 1, have identified hundreds of dice, hoops, carved sticks and other trinkets used in indigenous games of chance and skill.

Based on what they’ve found so far, they project that there are more than 10,000 such items still waiting to be uncovered, making it likely the largest deposit of ancient gambling artifacts ever found in the western U.S.

[Full story]

Story: Blake De Pastino, Western Digs | Photo: Ives and Tanicki

Early medieval butter churner lid unearthed in England

A lid to a Saxon butter churner which dates back between 715-890 A.D. has been unearthed during construction in Staffordshire, England.

She said: “During this period this part of Staffordshire was part of the Mercian heartland and was populated by a pagan tribe called the Pencersaete.

“Existing knowledge of this period for the north and east of the Midlands and the UK in general is very scarce, so this find is fantastic and of regional significance.”

[Full story]

Story: Staffordshire Newsletter | Photo: Staffordshire Newsletter

Civil War ironclad recovered by navy divers

Navy divers have recovered the wreckage of the CSS Georgia, which sunk in 1863.

The ironclad served its purpose, but wouldn’t have been candidate for the “Battle E” ribbon had it existed at the time. The vessel leaked badly, likely a result of using unseasoned wood in her construction. According to historic accounts, the ship had a double engine with twin propellers, but was hardly maneuverable. The engines could not provide the force necessary to drive the heavy vessel against the Savanna River’s swift currents. That could be why the ironclad, designed to carry 10 heavy guns, had only four heavy and two light guns at the time of her sinking.

[Full story]

Story: Lance M. Bacon, Navy Times | Photo: Lance M. Bacon, Navy Times