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A new dating method applied on several cave paintings shows cave art is 20,000 years older than previously thought

Seth Borenstein
Associated Press
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 20:52 UTC
spanish cave painting
© Pedro Saura, AAAS
New tests show that crude Spanish cave paintings of a red sphere and handprints are the oldest in the world, so ancient they may not have been by modern man.

Some scientists say they might have even been made by the much-maligned Neanderthals, but others disagree.

Testing the coating of paintings in 11 Spanish caves, researchers found that one is at least 40,800 years old, which is at least 15,000 years older than previously thought. That makes them older than the more famous French cave paintings by thousands of years.

Scientists dated the Spanish cave paintings by measuring the decay of uranium atoms, instead of traditional carbon-dating, according to a report released Thursday by the journal Science. The paintings were first discovered in the 1870s.

The oldest of the paintings is a red sphere from a cave called El Castillo. About 25 outlined handprints in another cave are at least 37,300 years old. Slightly younger paintings include horses.
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Pharoah

Newly discovered unlooted burial chamber in the Valley of the Kings

Julian Smith
Archaeology.com
Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:10 UTC
On January 25, 2011, tens of thousands of protestors flooded Cairo's Tahrir Square, demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak's regime. As the "day of revolt" filled the streets of Cairo and other cities with tear gas and flying stones, a team of archaeologists led by Susanne Bickel of the University of Basel in Switzerland was about to make one of the most significant discoveries in the Valley of the Kings in almost a century.
Image
© University of Basel Kings' Valley Project

A wooden coffin holding the remains of a temple singer sat inside a tomb undisturbed for nearly 3,000 years. It is the first unlooted burial to be found in the Valley of the Kings since 1922.
The valley lies on the west bank of the Nile, opposite what was once Egypt's spiritual center - the city of Thebes, now known as Luxor. The valley was the final resting place of the pharaohs and aristocracy beginning in the New Kingdom period (1539 - 1069 B.C.), when Egyptian wealth and power were at a high point. Dozens of tombs were cut into the valley's walls, but most of them were eventually looted. It was in this place that the Basel team came across what they initially believed to be an unremarkable find.

At the southeastern end of the valley they discovered three sides of a man-made stone rim surrounding an area of about three-and-a-half by five feet. The archaeologists suspected that it was just the top of an abandoned shaft. But, because of the uncertainty created by Egypt's political revolution, they covered the stone rim with an iron door while they informed the authorities and applied for an official permit to excavate.
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Pharoah

Monmouth ruin find could pre-date pyramids


BBC News
Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:08 UTC
Image
© Media Wales
Archaeologists Paul Davies (left) and Steve Clarke at the site in Monmouth
Archaeologists claim to have unearthed the remnants of a large prehistoric building, which they say could be older than Egypt's pyramids.

Experts said they were mystified by the "unique" find on the site of a housing development in Monmouth.

Monmouth Archaeology, which found the wooden foundations, said they dated to at least the Bronze Age, but could be early Neolithic, about 6,500 years old.

It said the pyramids were built about 4,500 years ago.

Steve Clarke of Monmouth Archaeology, who has 55 years' experience, claimed nothing like it had been discovered in Britain before and he was checking if something similar had been unearthed on mainland Europe.

He said the structure, possibly a long house, had been built on the edge of a long-lost lake, which has silted up over time.

The building's foundations were made from entire tree trunks, measuring about a metre wide.
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Meteor

Meteorite storm that smashed the Earth 12,000 years ago and killed off a prehistoric people


Mail Online
Tue, 12 Jun 2012 20:18 UTC
Scientists have found compelling evidence that a meteorite storm hit the earth more than 12,000 years ago, and is likely to have been responsible for the extinction of a prehistoric people and giant animals including mammoths.

Evidence of the meteorite's intense heat was found on two continents. The researchers believe the huge cosmic impact triggered a vicious cold snap, which caused widespread destruction.

The international team found a substance known as melt glass, which forms at temperatures of 1,7000 to 2,200 degrees Celcius and can result from a 'cosmic body' hitting the earth.

extreme_heat
© UCSB
Extreme heat: The meteorite impact caused the 13,000-year-old quartz found in Syria to melt and boil, creating features including burst bubbles and flow textures
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Info

Historian: The Turin Shroud is a Fake....and It's One of 40

Matthew Kalman
The Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:50 UTC
Not only is the Turin Shroud probably a medieval fake but it is just one of an astonishing 40 so-called burial cloths of Jesus, according to an eminent church historian.

Antonio Lombatti said the false shrouds circulated in the Middle Ages, but most of them were later destroyed.

He said the Turin Shroud itself - showing an image of a bearded man and venerated for centuries as Christ's burial cloth - appears to have originated in Turkey some 1,300 years after the Crucifixion.
Turin Shroud_1
© The Daily Mail, UK
The Turin Shroud was believed to have covered Jesus, but a leading Church historian says it is one of many produced over a thousand years after his death.
Lombatti, of the Università Popolare in Parma, Italy, cited work by a 19th century French historian who had studied surviving medieval documents. 'The Turin Shroud is only one of the many burial cloths which were circulating in the Christian world during the Middle Ages. There were at least 40,' said Lombatti.

'Most of them were destroyed during the French Revolution. Some had images, others had blood-like stains, and others were completely white.'

The Turin Shroud is a linen cloth, about 14ft by 4ft, bearing a front and back view of the image of a bearded, naked man who appears to have been stabbed or tortured. Ever since the detail on the cloth was revealed by negative photography in the late 19th century it has attracted thousands of pilgrims to the Cathedral of St John the Baptist in Turin.
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Info

Ancient Greek Cemetery Found in Marseille

Marianna Tsatsou
Greek Reporter
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 09:37 UTC
Marseille Cemetery
© Greek Reporter
It is already known that the first residents of Marseille in Southern France were Greeks, specifically from the ancient tribe of Phocaea. But now, archaeologists discovered an ancient Greek cemetery in the region that would shed light on the habits and customs of the ancient inhabitants of the area.

The ancient graveyard, dating back to the 4th or 5th century B.C.E, was brought to light by archaeologists who have established ongoing excavations in the ancient port of Marseille. At present, they have already located six sarcophagi and urns.

"These findings in this specific area are totally unexpected," said Lionel Guévalet, director of the Provence de la société Bouygues Immobilier and added that this was a very important discovery because "it could dispute everything we know about the Marseille habitants of Greek origin."

According to the French archaeologists, this excavation will provide us with new information about the life of Greeks of Marseille, as well as about the exact position of the cemeteries, which were traditionally located outside the city.

Marseille was a Greek colony founded by the residents of Phocaea in 600 B.C.E.
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Hourglass

More terracotta warriors unearthed in China

Phaedra Singelis
MSNBC
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 10:44 UTC
Image
© Agence France Presse/Getty Images
Chinese archaeologists at work in the extended excavation of the Pit One of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xian, using delicate equipment to help preserve the detailed work in their original production more than 2,000 years ago, of the latest terracotta warrior find in Xian, China's Shaanxi province.

Image
© Agence France Presse/Getty Images
Chinese archaeologists at work in the extended excavation of the Pit One of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xian, June 9, 2012.
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Sherlock

Plucked from the Earth after 2,000 years: Archaeologists unveil 120 stunning new figures after third dig at terracotta warriors' site

Lu Hongyan and Ma Lie in Xi'an
ChinaDaily.com
Mon, 11 Jun 2012 08:52 UTC
Archeologists working on the latest dig at the site of the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an say the project has already turned up vital historical finds.
Image
© Zhang Yuan / China News Service
Painstaking: Archaeologists at work in the extended excavation of the Pit One of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum in Xian, China where they are measuring and recording the dimensions of the latest terracotta warrior find
Experts restarted work on the No 1 pit of the Terracotta Warriors in 2009 and have so far unearthed 310 artifacts, including parts of chariots, weapons and tools, along with 12 pottery horses in three groups, and about 120 more warriors.

"For the first time, we have found a painted, cortex shield on a chariot, which is the first of its kind to be discovered in any of the three pits," said Cao Wei, curator of the Museum of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shi Huang.

Shields used by soldiers in the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) were 60 cm long and 40 cm wide, with red, green and white geometric patterns.

"The shield was partly broken, and it's believed it was the type used by a high-ranking official, as it's larger and had colorful patterns," said Zhang Weixing, a researcher on the archaeology team.
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Hardhat

Short History of Upper Peninsula of Michigan Copper Mining


exploringnorth.com
Sun, 10 Jun 2012 16:26 UTC
mining stones
© Unknown
Copper was first mined in this area by an ancient vanished race between 5,000 and 1,200 bc. These miners left no burial grounds, dwellings, pottery, clay tablets or cave drawings. What was left behind was thousands of copper producing pits and more thousands of crude hammering stones with which the pits had been worked. The ancients apparently worked the copper bearing rock by alternately using fire and cold water, to break the copper ore into smaller pieces from which they could extract the metal with hand held hammering stones or stone hatchets. With this copper, they made tools.

Scientists and engineers estimate that it would have required 10,000 men 1,000 years to develop the extensive operations carried on throughout the region. It is estimated that 1.5 billion pounds of copper were mined by these unknown people.

The pure copper of Lake Superior has been discovered in prehistoric cultures throughout North and South America.

mining tools
© Unknown
The mystery of their origin remains unsolved. The mystery of their disappearance remains unsolved.

Many hammered copper knives, arrow and spear heads and axes were recovered at ancient mining sites. Some fine examples are on display at Fort Wilkins.

In 1842, the Chippewa ceded all claims to 30,000 square miles of the Upper Peninsula to the United States Government. The Copper Rush was on. In 1843, before the western gold rush of the '49ers, thousands came to the Copper Country to try their luck.

The first mining rush came to Copper Harbor. All travel was by boat, there were no roads. Copper Harbor became a bustling sea town.

Comment: Interestingly, Cassiopaean Experiment has references to the origin of this mining.

Session 20 August 2001

Q: What group mined the copper in northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, like in Isle Royale?
A: Aryans.
Q: What did they want the copper for?
A: Weapons.
Q: Wouldn't iron make better weapons?
A: Not in 4th density.

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Sherlock

Measuring up: Ancient jugs hold the secret to practical mathematics in Biblical times

Author
PhysOrg
Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:08 UTC
ancient measuring jugs
© American Friends of Tel Aviv University
Because we're used to the metric system, which defines units of volume based on the cube, modern archaeologists believed that the merchants of antiquity could only approximately assess the capacity of these round jugs.
Archaeologists in the eastern Mediterranean region have been unearthing spherical jugs, used by the ancients for storing and trading oil, wine, and other valuable commodities. Because we're used to the metric system, which defines units of volume based on the cube, modern archaeologists believed that the merchants of antiquity could only approximately assess the capacity of these round jugs, says Prof. Itzhak Benenson of Tel Aviv University's Department of Geography.

Now an interdisciplinary collaboration between Prof. Benenson and Prof. Israel Finkelstein of TAU's Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures has revealed that, far from relying on approximations, merchants would have had precise measurements of their wares - and therefore known exactly what to charge their clients.

The researchers discovered that the ancients devised convenient mathematical systems in order to determine the volume of each jug. They theorize that the original owners and users of the jugs measured their contents through a system that linked units of length to units of volume, possibly by using a string to measure the circumference of the spherical container to determine the precise quantity of liquid within.

The system, which the researchers believe was developed by the ancient Egyptians and used in the Eastern Mediterranean from about 1,500 to 700 BCE, was recently reported in the journal PLoS ONE. Its discovery was part of the Reconstruction of Ancient Israel project supported by the European Union.
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