Daily Dose of Archaeology 4.0

Lowell2 · Feb 8, 2015

Fishy cooking habits of North American hunter-gatherers revealed -- ScienceDaily
Archaeologists have discovered the first use of pottery in north-eastern North America was largely due to the cooking, storage and social feasting of fish by hunter-gatherers. Studying how pottery production in north-eastern North America developed 3000 years ago, researchers found that the increasing use of pottery was not simply an adaptive response to increased reliance on specific kinds of wild foodstuffs, as previously thought.

Instead, new analysis on pottery vessels indicates that social factors triggered the innovation of pottery. While a wide range of wild animal and plant foods were exploited by hunter-gatherers of north-eastern North America, their pottery was used principally to process fish, and produce fish oil. This suggests that abundant aquatic resources allowed investment in the production of pottery, as fish became a valued exchange commodity and was prepared, cooked and consumed in hunter-gatherer group feasts.

Lowell2 · Feb 9, 2015

The Archaeology News Network: Remains of Bronze Age bowman found in Scotland
Archaeologists have discovered new artefacts suggesting a Highland village resident of 4,500 years ago fought with bow and arrow.

Holes in the wrist guard could be for leather bindings [Credit: AOC Archaeology]
A Bronze Age burial cist in Drumnadrochit, near Inverness, was found last month, and researchers have now found shards of pottery and a wrist guard, for use when shooting using bow and arrow, at the same site.

Lowell2 · Feb 9, 2015

Photos: 100 Cult Sites Discovered in Eilat Mountains in Israel A team of archaeologists have discovered 100 "cult sites" in the Eilat Mountains, an extremely arid part of the Negev Desert in Israel. Archaeologists aren't sure what types of ritual activities may have been practiced at the sites, but based on animal bones found there, they think animal sacrifice was one of them. see also Cult Sites in Israel Dotted with .....-Shaped Stone Structures
At the sites, which date back around 8,000 years, archaeologists discovered a variety of stone structures and artifacts, including stone circles that measure 1.5 to 2.5 meters across (roughly 5 to 8 feet) with .....-shaped installations pointing toward them. Other findings there include standing stones that reach up to 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) high, stone bowls and stone carvings that have a humanlike shape.

Lowell2 · Feb 9, 2015

Excavated records show the perilous past of 17th century Londoners | NewsDaily
LONDON (Reuters) – Londoners in the 17th century were never far from danger as plague, infant mortality and angry mobs menaced the capital, burial records dug up by the Crossrail construction project showed on Monday.

Crossrail, a 15 billion pound ($23 billion) railway link connecting east and west London due to open in 2018, is conducting a marathon digging operation for the 42 km (26 miles) of new tunnels under the British capital.

Sixteen volunteers working with Crossrail did a different sort of digging, combing through parish records to provide the names of more than 3,000 people at the Bedlam Burial Ground under Liverpool Street Station.

The majority of those identified were buried between 1570 and 1729, a period which included the English civil war of 1642-51, the Great Plague of 1665, and the Great Fire of London of 1666.

“This research is a window into one of the most turbulent periods of London’s past,” Jay Carver, Crossrail’s lead archaeologist, said in a statement.

Among those identified was Nicholas Ambrose, a mayor of London buried in 1575, and John Lamb, an astrologer with noble clients who was stoned to death by an angry mob in 1628 after allegations of .... and black magic.

davu · Feb 9, 2015

what a find -- in a scrapbook -- ???

Amazing! Original Magna Carta Copy Found in Scrapbook

Yahoo!

An original copy of the Magna Carta has been discovered in a scrapbook in Kent, England

I bet every person with a scrapbook is going to be busy this week ------ !!!!!!

Lowell2 · Feb 10, 2015

seems to be the year for tombs. The Archaeology News Network: Untouched Mycenaean tomb found in Central Greece An ancient Greek Mycenaean tomb was unearthed in Amfissa, central Greece, during an irrigation project that required excavation in the area. It is a unique finding, the first of its kind that has ever been found in West Locris and one of the few in central Greece. The preliminary archaeological study of the findings shows that the tomb was used for more than two centuries, from the 13th to the 11th century B.C..

Lowell2 · Feb 11, 2015

Historic Indian sword was masterfully crafted -- ScienceDaily The 75-centimeter-long sword from the Wallace Collection in London was made in India in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. The design is of Persian origin, from where it spread across Asia and eventually gave rise to a family of similar weapons called scimitars being forged in various Southeast Asian countries It was established that the steel used is quite pure. Its high carbon content of at least one percent shows it is made of wootz steel. This type of crucible steel was historically used in India and Central Asia to make high-quality swords and other prestige objects. Its band-like pattern is caused when a mixture of iron and carbon crystalizes into cementite. This forms when craftsmen allow cast pieces of metal (called ingots) to cool down very slowly, before being forged carefully at low temperatures. Barzagli's team reckons that the craftsman of this particular sword allowed the blade to cool in the air, rather than plunging it into a liquid of some sort. Results explaining the item's composition also lead the researchers to presume that the particular sword was probably used in battle.

Lowell2 · Feb 12, 2015

The Archaeology News Network: Major Roman cemetery revealed at Ipplepen
Fifteen ancient skeletons have been discovered on an archaeological dig in Ipplepen, a major Romano-British settlement in Devon and now the best preserved Roman cemetery. University of Exeter archaeologists and a team of students and volunteers uncovered the human remains during an excavation of a Roman Road and found a roadside cemetery, the like of which has never been seen in the region.

Lowell2 · Feb 13, 2015

The Archaeology News Network: Cyprus' Nissia shipwreck reveals its treasures First underwater excavations on a rare shipwreck off Paralimni have revealed a small part of the side of the hull to be in a good state of preservation while several moveable finds included wooden rigging-elements, pistol bullets, ceramics, glass tableware and bricks, the antiquities department said on Wednesday.

Lowell2 · Feb 13, 2015

Based on the radiocarbon dating archaeologists determined the burial’s age to 3800 BC, while the bone analysis of the two skeletons proved they belonged to a man and a woman. In layers of the Late Neolithic, 4200-3800 BC, a double primary pithos child burial and an undisturbed infant burial were also found. A rare double undisturbed burial of two young adults, a man and a woman, in an embracement position, and a second double, intact burial of young adults in an extremely contracted position in relevance with broken arrowheads are the most important finds of the excavation at the “Xagounaki” site, located in the surrounding area of the Alepotrypa Cave. The excavations were conducted in the context of the 5-year Diros Excavation Project.

Lowell2 · Feb 14, 2015

Researchers use isotopic analysis to explore ancient Peruvian life -- ScienceDaily Bioarchaeologists and archaeologists have been able to study the diets of 14 individuals dating back almost 2,000 years. The mummies were unearthed from one of the most famous sites in Peru: the Paracas Necropolis of Wari Kayan, two densely populated collections of burials off the southern coast. The findings were recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. During the last months of their lives, the Paracas individuals appear to have eaten primarily marine products and C4 and C3 plants, such as maize and beans. Also, they were either geographically stable or, if they traveled between the inland highlands and coastal regions, continued to consume marine products.

Lowell2 · Feb 15, 2015

Bejewelled backdrop to coronations did not cost a king’s ransom
Source:University of Cambridge
Summary: Research into England's oldest medieval altarpiece -- which for centuries provided the backdrop to Westminster Abbey coronations -- has revealed that it cost no more than the rather unprincely equivalent of eight cows.

Rather than penny-pinching to preserve pounds, crowns and shillings, Bucklow believes that Henry III deliberately chose cheap materials and fake gemstones to accentuate one of the key themes of the altarpiece -- miraculous transformations

Lowell2 · Feb 16, 2015

The Archaeology News Network: Medieval battle site yields UK?s oldest cannon ball A lead ball found at a medieval battle site could be the oldest surviving cannonball in England, an expert says.

Otranto · Feb 17, 2015

pharmacological preparations

Mystery Over 15th-Century Drilled Skull Solved

Researchers at the University of Pisa, Italy, have solved a longstanding mystery around the honeycombed skull of one of the Italian martyrs beheaded by 15th century Ottoman Turk invaders when they refused to give up their Christian faith.
Featuring 16 perfectly round holes of various sizes and depth, the skull belonged to an individual who was executed on a hill outside the town of Otranto in Apulia along with more than 800 other men.
The skull was later drilled, most likely to obtain bone powder to treat diseases such as paralysis, stroke, and epilepsy, which were believed to arise from magical or demonic influences.

Indeed, in his Pharmacopée universelle, a comprehensive work on phamaceutical composition, French chemist Nicolas Lémery (1645 –1715) detailed how powdered human skull drunk in water was effective to treat "paralysis, stroke, epilepsy and other illness of the brain."

According to Fornaciari, trepanation in the Otranto skull was probably performed during the arrangement of the bones in the cathedral’s glass cabinet, which took place in 1711.

The conclusion is that it was for pharmacological preparations, but couldn't trepanation also be used as a method of torture or obtaining relics? Maybe the mystery hasn't been solved yet.

Lowell2 · Feb 17, 2015

Otranto said:
Mystery Over 15th-Century Drilled Skull Solved

The conclusion is that it was for pharmacological preparations, but couldn't trepanation also be used as a method of torture or obtaining relics? Maybe the mystery hasn't been solved yet.

The skull actually has no nerves. Once one was past the skin, further cutting would not have been useful for torture, and destroying a person's brain would have eliminated any useful information that torture might have elicited. It's also possible to determine if the drilling was before or after death as healing occurs in the case of trepanation if the individual survives.

Lowell2 · Feb 17, 2015

First-ever evidence of drastic climate change of Northern China region 4,200 years ago -- ScienceDaily
Using a relatively new scientific dating technique, geologists were able to document -- for the first time -- a drastic climate change 4,200 years ago in northern China that affected vegetation and led to mass migration from the area. Steve Forman, Ph.D., professor of geology in the College of Arts & Sciences, and researchers -- using a dating technique called Optically Stimulated Luminescence -- uncovered the first evidence of a severe decrease in precipitation on the freshwater lake system in China's Hunshandake Sandy Lands. The impact of this extreme climate change led to desertification -- or drying of the region -- and the mass migration of northern China's Neolithic cultures.

Their research findings appeared in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
see also:
Physical Sciences - Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Xiaoping Yang,
Louis A. Scuderi,
Xulong Wang,
Louis J. Scuderi,
Deguo Zhang,
Hongwei Li,
Steven Forman,
Qinghai Xu,
Ruichang Wang,
Weiwen Huang,
and Shixia Yang

Groundwater sapping as the cause of irreversible desertification of Hunshandake Sandy Lands, Inner Mongolia, northern China

PNAS 2015 112 (3) 702-706; published ahead of print January 5, 2015, doi:10.1073/pnas.1418090112

Otranto · Feb 17, 2015

Lowell2 said:
The skull actually has no nerves. Once one was past the skin, further cutting would not have been useful for torture, and destroying a person's brain would have eliminated any useful information that torture might have elicited. It's also possible to determine if the drilling was before or after death as healing occurs in the case of trepanation if the individual survives.

In this scenario however, these men were tortured moments before beheading (so no time to heal), but the records do not describe any torture such as trepanation.

I did not realize that the skull has no nerves, but that makes sense of course. I guess pharmacological purposes are the better explanation then (though I had never heard of relics being allowed to be used for such things before).

OccamsRazor · Feb 18, 2015

Lowell2 said:
It's also possible to determine if the drilling was before or after death as healing occurs in the case of trepanation if the individual survives.

It doesn't look very healed.
Why are there different sizes of hole? More than one trepanning procedure?

Lowell2 · Feb 19, 2015

OccamsRazor said:
It doesn't look very healed.
Why are there different sizes of hole? More than one trepanning procedure?

no. it doesn't look healed at all, which would indicate it happened "post mortem" (after death). Different sizes would possibly be due to different sizes of the tools used.

Lowell2 · Feb 19, 2015

The Archaeology News Network: Shipwreck found in Rhodes port to be showcased An important initiative that will showcase the wooden shipwreck that lies at the bottom of the sea at Rhodes port in Greece has been undertaken by the Technological Educational Institute of Athens which is currently looking for qualified partners to implement the program design.

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