Secret HistoryS


Palette

25,000-Year-Old Cave Paintings Discovered in Spain

Arantza Goyoaga and Sonya Dowsett
Reuters
Wed, 04 May 2011 14:57 UTC
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© DeiaImage enhanced by photographic treatment.
Paintings depicting horses and human hands made by prehistoric humans around 25,000 years ago have been discovered in a cave in northern Spain, regional officials said on Wednesday.

The red paintings, found by chance by archaeologists looking for signs of ancient settlements, were made around the same time as the Altamira Cave paintings -- some of the world's best prehistoric paintings discovered in northern Spain in 1879.

"It was a chance finding," archaeologist Diego Garate told Reuters.

"Although they were difficult to spot because they are badly deteriorated, our experienced eye helped us to identify them."

Experts will further explore the caves for evidence of prehistoric utensils or tools, officials said.

The first homo sapiens arrived in small groups in northern Spain around 35,000 years ago.

They cohabited for a time with the last of the Neanderthals and then developed a significant culture known as the Upper Palaeolithic, producing stone blade tools and decorating cave walls.
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Magnify

Oldest remains of Caspian Horse discovered in Iran


Digital Journal
Mon, 02 May 2011 19:23 UTC
Oldest Horse Caspian Iran
Gohar - A team of archaeologists working in Gohar Tappeh, situated in the northern Iranian province of Mazandaran, have discovered the oldest known remains of the Caspian Horse, the oldest horse breed in the world still in existence.

Also known as the Mazandaran horse, the discovery was made in a cemetery dating back to the late Bronze and early Iron age, around 3400 BCE, Archaeology Daily reports. "Due to the form, figure and size of the discovered remains of the horse, we now have the oldest evidence for Caspian horse ancestry at hand," said Ali Mahforuzi, director of the team in Gohar Tappeh.

Discovery of the Caspian horse, or the 'Kings' Horse', was made by the team during the eighth season of archaeological research in Gohar Tappeh, a 50-hectare historical site located between the cities of Neka and Behshahr, in the eastern part of the Mazandaran province.
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Bacon

No nuts for 'Nutcracker Man': Early human relative apparently chewed grass instead


Physorg
Mon, 02 May 2011 19:04 UTC
Ancient hominid didn't nut
© Melissa Lutz Blouin, University of Arkansas.This photo of casts of two palates demonstrates the large size of the teeth of Paranthropus boisei (left), an early human relative that lived in East Africa between 2.3 million and 1.2 million years ago and is known as Nutcracker Man. Much smaller teeth from a human skull are shown on the right. A new study led by University of Utah researchers shows that Nutcracker Man didn’t eat nuts as had been believed for decades, but instead used the large, flat teeth to chew grasses or plants known as sedges.
For decades, a 2.3 million- to 1.2 million-year-old human relative named Paranthropus boisei has been nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big, flat molar teeth and thick, powerful jaw. But a definitive new University of Utah study shows that Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts, but instead chewed grasses and possibly sedges - a discovery that upsets conventional wisdom about early humanity's diet.

"It most likely was eating grass, and most definitely was not cracking nuts," says geochemist Thure Cerling, lead author of the study published in the May 2 online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Study co-author Kevin Uno, a University of Utah Ph.D. student in geology, adds: "This study provides evidence that Paranthropus boisei was not cracking nuts, but was instead eating mainly tropical grasses or sedges. It was not competing for food with most other primates, who ate fruits, leaves and nuts; but with grazers - zebras' ancestors, suids [ancestors of pigs and warthogs] and hippos."
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UK: Ancient Caithness site 'occupied for 1,000 years'

Steven McKenzie
BBC News
Mon, 02 May 2011 15:41 UTC
Nybster settlement
© AOC ArchaeologyNybster is one of Scotland's most important mainland broch settlements
The site of one of Scotland's most important mainland broch settlements may have been home to early people for up to 1,000 years, evidence suggests.

Archaeologists and volunteers have uncovered what could be the remains of walls dating back to 700 to 500 BC at Nybster in Caithness.

Andy Heald, of AOC Archaeology, said further investigations would need to be made to confirm the structure's age.
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Compass

Italy: Ancient Ship Uncovered Near Rome Coast


Adnkronos International
Fri, 29 Apr 2011 15:03 UTC
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Builders have unearthed the remains of a 2,000 year-old wooden ship dating from the Roman Empire, near the Italian capital Rome's ancient port of Ostia. The ship's discovery, made during work at the site of a new road, was hailed as an important one by archaeologists.

"It shows that the coastline during during ancient Roman times was some 3-4 kilometres farther inland than it is now," said Ostia archaeology official Anna Maria Moretti .

The wooden ship was about 11 metres long, making it one of the largest ancient vessels excavated near Ostia Antica, a port city founded some 2,500 years ago and Rome's first colony.
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Info

Controversy at the Smithsonian

Alexandra Perloff-Giles
The Huffington Post
Wed, 27 Apr 2011 02:28 UTC
On Monday, the Smithsonian Institution hosted a discussion surrounding whether or not to go forward with the proposed spring 2012 exhibition Shipwrecked: Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds. The Chinese artifacts included in the exhibition were found among the remains of an ancient trade-vessel off the coast of the Indonesian island of Belitung in 1998.

At issue here is the fact that the artifacts were removed from the shipwreck by a commercial excavation company, a practice that many archaeologists deem unethical. On April 5, a group of archaeologists and anthropologists from the National Academy of Sciences, including former Smithsonian Secretary Robert McCormick Adams, signed a letter to current Smithsonian head G. Wayne Clough condemning the exhibition on the grounds that it would "severely damage the stature and reputation" of the institution. Other groups, both within and without the Smithsonian Institution, have also expressed concerns.

The Arab merchant ship, which sank in the Java sea twelve centuries ago, contains the largest group of Tang dynasty artifacts ever found at a single site, including cooking utensils, measuring weights, spice jars, bronze mirrors, silver and gold vessels, and glazed ceramic wares. The discovery offers new and surprising insights into maritime trade patterns between the Abbasid Empire in the Middle East and Tang dynasty China.

The shipwreck was salvaged by a commercial venture called Seabed Explorations, run by German engineer Tilman Walterfang, who moved to Indonesia in the early 1990s in the hopes of profiting from the excavation of local underwater heritage.
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Attention

Jordan police recover Christian relics said smuggled into Israel


Haaretz
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 12:55 UTC
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© The Associated PressJordan's archaeology chief Ziad al-Saad speaks during a press conference in Amman on April 3, 2011.
Jordan's archaeology chief says the manuscripts, which could be the earliest Christian writing in existence, were smuggled into Israel by a Bedouin.

Jordan's archaeology chief, Ziad al-Saad, said on Tuesday that security police have recovered seven ancient manuscripts from local smugglers.

The writings are part of 70 manuscripts that Jordanian archaeologists discovered five years ago in a cave in the north. Later, they were stolen and most were believed to have been smuggled into Israel.
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Arrow Down

US: Scudder Falls site predates William Penn, dig reveals

Emilie Lounsberry
Philly.com
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Ed HilleField archaeologist Amadeus Zajac screens dirt from the dig looking for artifacts belonging to American Indians.
Beneath the roaring traffic of I-95 near the Delaware River in Bucks County, archaeologists are slowly unearthing the remains of another era - arrowheads, chunks of pottery, and perhaps even the remnants of a fire pit used by American Indians up to 1,000 years ago.

And they're just getting started.

During the next few months, workers will continue to strip away layer after layer of rich brown soil on a small piece of what used to be farmland in Lower Makefield, and they could find artifacts dating to 8000 to 10,000 B.C.

"It takes a lot of patience," said John W. Lawrence, senior archaeologist at the excavation site along River Road, where a new bridge is scheduled to be built in the coming years to replace the Scudder Falls Bridge between Bucks County and New Jersey.

The $322 million Scudder Falls project is the largest ever undertaken by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. Such archaeological digs are required by federal law when a construction project may threaten historic and archaeological artifacts.
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Pharoah

Giant statue of Amenhotep III unearthed in Egypt


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 26 Apr 2011 10:18 UTC
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© Agence France-PresseParts of a statue are seen during the excavation of an area close to the Temple of Amenhotep III in western Luxor. Archaeologists have discovered a giant statue of Egypt's famous pharaoh Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, according to the antiquities authority
Archaeologists have discovered a giant statue of Egypt's famous pharaoh Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, the antiquities authority said on Tuesday.

The 13-metre-tall (43-foot) statue was found buried in seven pieces at the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III at Kom al-Hitan.

It was one of two statues placed at the northern entrance of the temple, and was probably destroyed during an earthquake in 27 BC, the antiquities authority statement said.

"The archaeological team is now working to clean, restore and collect the seven pieces and find the head of the statue," the statement said.

It also said it was hoped the statue's twin would be unearthed soon.

Amenhotep III, who ruled Egypt between 1390 and 1352 BC, is the father of Akhenaten, the "heretic pharaoh" considered a precursor of monotheism because he tried to impose the exclusive worship of Aten.
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Book

500-year-old book, a history of the world, surfaces at small town US museum

Brian Skoloff
The Associated Press
Mon, 25 Apr 2011 01:52 UTC
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© AP/ Brian SkoloffIn this photo taken April 23, 2011, a copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle published in 1493 is displayed at Ken Sanders Rare Books in Salt Lake City. The Utah book dealer came across the 500-year-old German language edition while appraising items brought in by locals at a fundraiser for the town museum in Sandy, about 15 miles south of Salt Lake City. It's considered to be one of the earliest and most lavishly illustrated books produced after the invention of the printing press.

Book dealer Ken Sanders has seen a lot of nothing in his decades appraising "rare" finds pulled from attics and basements, storage sheds and closets.

Sanders, who occasionally appraises items for PBS's Antiques Roadshow, often employs "the fine art of letting people down gently."

But on a recent Saturday while volunteering at a fundraiser for the small town museum in Sandy, Utah, just south of Salt Lake, Sanders got the surprise of a lifetime.

"Late in the afternoon, a man sat down and started unwrapping a book from a big plastic sack, informing me he had a really, really old book and he thought it might be worth some money," he said. "I kinda start, oh boy, I've heard this before."

Then he produced a tattered, partial copy of the 500-year-old Nuremberg Chronicle.
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