Archaeological discoveries, breakthroughs and theories

[JimW]

Genetic work on the pre-Islamic population of Nubia: First genome-wide ancient human DNA from Sudan shines new light on Nile Valley past

Supports notion that "race"-based social distinctions are not some long-standing human universal

"It seems that people in this area did not use biological ancestry as a basis for social differentiation," Thompson says. "This reinforces the point that dividing people up socially on the basis of their genetic ancestry is a recent phenomenon, with no basis in universal human tendencies."

 

[scalyboy]

Apols if this is already known, but Archaeopress have made quite a few of their e-books and reports free to download, in line with Open Access. There's some great stuff available here, and a wide range of subjects: Neolithic Britain ; pre- and post-Dynastic Sudan ; an Eastern Caribbean island and its C17th slavery / plantation history understood via archaeology ; an early medieval royal ringfort near Cork (I was interested to see that 'early medieval' in Irish terms = c.600AD-c.1300AD - no 'Dark Ages' there!) etc etc.

Here's one that caught my eye; it seems that Alexander Thom's archaeostronomy theories - that were criticised and arguably discredited by Clive Gamble and others - are being re-examined with an attempt to rehabilitate them.

It's by Euan MacKie, who died before he could complete it, so his son has helped edit it and make it ready for publication.

I've only skim-read it so far (mainly looking at the lovely photos of sites in the Orkneys and elsewhere ) but was intrigued that MacKie uses Julius Caesar's commentary on Gaul's Druids as supportive evidence for Thom's suggestion of a Neolithic priestly elite who had astronomical and architectural knowledge.

MacKie highlights two quotes from The Conquest of Gaul:
"The Druidic doctrine is believed to have been found existing in Britain and thence imported into Gaul; even today those who want to make a profound study of it generally go to Britain for the purpose"
and
"They also hold long discussions about the heavenly bodies and their movements, the size of the universe and of the earth, the physical constitution of the world, and the power and properties of the gods; and they instruct the young men in all these subjects".

Suggestive, but it requires us to accept a continuation of 2,000 - 3,000 years between the Neolithic builders of megalithic sites and the Iron Age Druids - a hell of a stretch.

 

[Idris2002]

Iron smelting and metallurgy among hunter-gatherers in what is now Sweden, a few thousand years ago:

Arctic hunter-gatherers were advanced ironworkers more than 2,000 years ago

Swedish excavations uncover furnaces and fire pits from a big metal operation run by a small-scale society, a new study finds.

www.sciencenews.org

That link should have a further link to the original (and open access) paper.

 

[Artaxerxes]

The latest and last David Graeber book is very readable, if nothing else it pushes back and says that you can't examine "the western mindset" so fond of libertarians and freedom lovers without bearing in mind much of the initial love of freedom and suchlike of enlightenment philosophy owes a debt to native American thoughts on the people who came over and took their land.

There's so much in there though, about how the meta narrative of progression primarive tribes to farmers to civilization is absolute bunkem.

The Dawn of Everything

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER AND BBC HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2022 'Pacey and potentially revolutionary' Sunday Times 'Iconoclastic and irreverent ... an exhilarating read' The Guardian For generations, our...

www.penguin.co.uk

 

[Dystopiary]

A Roman mosaic has been discovered near the Shard. It's apparently the largest area of mosaic found in London for over 50 years.

London's largest Roman mosaic find for 50 years uncovered

Very exciting! And so soon after the discovery of a Roman mosaic in Rutland.

 

[tim]

A Roman mosaic has been discovered near the Shard. It's apparently the largest area of mosaic found in London for over 50 years.

London's largest Roman mosaic find for 50 years uncovered

Very exciting! And so soon after the discovery of a Roman mosaic in Rutland.

According to Ian visits this is, at least for the next few days, visible from the window of trains coming out of London Bridge in their way to Charing Cross.

Remarkable Roman mosaic discovered in Southwark

An incredibly well-preserved Roman mosaic that may have decorated a room in an important building has been discovered near London Bridge in Southwark.

www.ianvisits.co.uk

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

I found this interesting:

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — A team of Jordanian and French archaeologists said Tuesday that it had found a roughly 9,000-year-old shrine at a remote Neolithic site in Jordan’s eastern desert.

The ritual complex was found in a Neolithic campsite near large structures known as “desert kites," or mass traps that are believed to have been used to corral wild gazelles for slaughter.

Such traps consist of two or more long stone walls converging toward an enclosure and are found scattered across the deserts of the Middle East.

“The site is unique, first because of its preservation state," said Jordanian archaeologist Wael Abu-Azziza, co-director of the project. “It's 9,000 years old and everything was almost intact.”

Within the shrine were two carved standing stones bearing anthropomorphic figures, one accompanied by a representation of the “desert kite,” as well as an altar, hearth, marine shells and miniature model of the gazelle trap.

Archaeologists find 9,000-year-old shrine in Jordan desert

Discovering a 9,000 year old anything that is intact is an amazing find. I can't wait to read more about this later.

 

[bcuster]

What Archaeology Tells Us About the Ancient History of Eating Kosher

A new study of fish remains deepens scholars’ understanding of how the dietary laws came to be.

getpocket.com

 

[bcuster]

In Search of Troy

It wasn’t just a legend. Archaeologists are getting to the bottom of the city celebrated by Homer nearly 3,000 years ago

www.smithsonianmag.com

 

[hipipol]

 

[JimW]

The stone used to carve the Venus of Willendorf likely came from north Italy Origin of the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf discovered

 

[bcuster]

At the Bottom of an Icy Sea, One of History’s Great Wrecks Is Found

Explorers and researchers, battling freezing temperatures, have located Endurance, Ernest Shackleton’s ship that sank in the Antarctic in 1915.

www.nytimes.com

 

[JimW]

Enjoyed this and the archaeologist's conclusion seems highly plausible; wondering why even more ancient stone tools were getting re-used in a resource rich setting where new ones were readily available, the suggestion is that like you find today, people found it meaningful to be using an ancient artefact: Collectors in the prehistoric world recycled old stone tools to preserve the memory of their ancestors

 

[petee]

 

[Artaxerxes]

 

[petee]

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

 

[ska invita]

he's a bit annoying but i liked that

 

[zahir]

 

[ringo]

That is fabulous

 

[bcuster]

 

[JimW]

Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch turns out to be real: Ancient hand grenades: Explosive weapons in medieval Jerusalem during Crusades

 

[Chilli.s]

TBH if you put that Bonne Maman stuff on a piece of plasterboard it'd probably taste ok

 

[petee]

that looks great, but it's impossible for me to believe that "only recently" has anyone seen that it's a sequence.

 

[Koknbul]

Loads of new sites being discovered or further revealed by the hot weather across Britain

Hidden landscapes the heatwave is revealing

View attachment 141627
As the summer sun continues to beat down on the British Isles, ghosts are appearing in the yellowing fields.

Normally kept hidden by lush grasses and crops, old and prehistoric features are making themselves known through imprints on fields and lawns, some for the first time in known memory.

It's hard to see these features from the ground - but with the rise of drones for aerial photography, they can be captured where they may have remained unidentified in previous heatwaves.

The marks are revealed when grass or crops on top of wood or stone still in the ground flourish or deteriorate at different rates to surrounding material in the unusually hot weather.

Ancient discovery
In County Meath, Ireland, one aerial photographer made a discovery that turned out to be far more significant than he initially realised.

Anthony Murphy, 44, captured pictures of a henge, using his drone in Newgrange. And when he noticed the "amazing detail", he "giggled with excitement, expecting someone to pinch and wake me up".

The henge, in a field close to other late Neolithic monuments, is "entirely new" and includes "extraordinary and unexpected" features, according to Stephen Davis, assistant professor in archaeology at University College Dublin.
Hidden landscapes the heatwave is revealing

fantastic weve been here 1000s of years, imagin what the next 1000 years will be like.......lol

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

he's a bit annoying but i liked that

His latest offering. This is a lot closer to what he started off doing which is debunking stuff on tiktok. This is a bit tangential but still has a solid core of archeology.

 

[petee]

His latest offering. This is a lot closer to what he started off doing which is debunking stuff on tiktok. This is a bit tangential but still has a solid core of archeology.

I can't watch it until he shaves that "mustache".

 

[Koknbul]

I can't watch it until he shaves that "mustache".

arm pity's too...maybe ?

 

[Artaxerxes]

Bison sculptures, 14000 years old in an flooded cave.

 

[hipipol]

Nice overview