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Louisiana, US: Oil Spill Clean-Up Turns Up Trove of Native American Relics

Cain Burdeau
San Francisco Chronicle
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 22:26 UTC
Image
© Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Forrest Travirca III, walks along Port Fourchon Beach as he searches for artifacts from Pre-historic American-Indian settlements in Caminada Headland, La., Tuesday, June 28, 2011.
Cleanup after the BP oil spill has turned up dozens of sites where archaeologists are finding human and animal bones, pottery and primitive weapons left behind by pre-historic Indian settlements.

It's a trove of new clues about the Gulf Coast's mound dwellers more than 1,300 years ago, but scientists also fear the remains could be damaged by oil or lost to erosion before they can be fully studied.

So far, teams of archaeologists hired by the oil giant have visited more than 100 sites and sent back a growing list of finds to labs for radiocarbon dating and other tests, though extensive excavations haven't been done. Scholars have also accompanied cleanup crews to make sure they don't unwittingly throw away relics.

Larry Murphy is lead archeologist for a council of government agencies and trustees overseeing the oil cleanup. He says neither the discovery of the sites - nor the money to study them - would have come as quickly without the spill.
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Cow Skull

Taiwan: Three sarcophagi found in Taitung


Taipei Times
Sun, 17 Jul 2011 05:12 UTC
A cluster of three ancient sarcophagi recently discovered in Taitung could give archeologists new insights into a nearby prehistoric site, a researcher from the National Museum of Prehistory said on Thursday.

Parts of the sarcophagi, or stone coffins, have already been unearthed, showing them to be 60cm high and 50cm wide, although their lengths have yet to be determined because the excavation is still underway.

Weathered remains and mortuary objects, such as jade adzes, have been found in the sarcophagi, located on a hill more than 200m above sea level and about 3km from the Peinan archeological site. The prehistoric site, where more than 20,000 ancient objects have been unearthed, is one of the largest archeological sites in Taiwan.
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Eye 2

Fossil find suggests dinosaurs became extinct in a single blow


The Hindu
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
dinosaur
© The Associated Press
It’s been believed that dinosaurs were killed when a huge asteroid smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico some 65 million years ago.
Palaeontologists have found a piece of dinosaur horn which they say is pointing to a catastrophic end for the "Age of Dinosaurs", not a gradual end, as some experts have suggested.

It's been believed that dinosaurs were killed when a huge asteroid smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico some 65 million years ago.

Although it is now accepted that a cosmic impact took place at that time, known as the Cretaceous - Tertiary, or K - T boundary, it was unclear if the mass extinctions started gradually before the hit due to volcanoes or other factors.

The reason behind this controversy was a 10 - feet zone in the earth right below the K - T boundary that purportedly lacked dinosaur fossils.

Some experts have claimed this gap, seen in the western interior of North America, was evidence that dinosaurs might have died well before any impact.

Now, researchers have found a fossil in this zone - a dinosaur horn no more than five inches below the impact layer, making it the specimen closest to the end of the Age of Dinosaurs found yet.
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Magnify

US: Ancient, moss-covered canoe found in Alaska forest

Yereth Rosen
Reuters
Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:49 UTC
unfinished Indian canoe
© Reuters
An unfinished Indian canoe, apparently abandoned 500 years ago, has been discovered in a remote section of an Alaska rain forest, according to officials.
An unfinished Indian canoe, apparently abandoned 500 years ago, has been discovered in a remote section of an Alaska rain forest, according to officials.

The canoe, carved from cedar, was discovered under a thick layer of moss and is surrounded by trees that are several hundred years old, Sealaska Corp., the Alaska Native corporation that owns the land, said in a statement.

The artifact was first spotted last winter by a surveyor checking potential timber-harvest sites, but the discovery was kept confidential until now, the company said.

Its exact site - near the Haida and Tlingit village of Kasaan on Alaska's Prince of Wales Island - was also being kept confidential, Sealaska said.

Preliminary examination shows that ancient hand tools, not modern saws introduced by Europeans, were used to cut the wood and hollow out the canoe, Sealaska officials said.

Based on that, and on the age of the cedar trees that have grown up around the site, experts believe the canoe is roughly 500 years old.

Rosita Worl, an anthropologist and president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, said she knows of only one other canoe found in the rain forest of southeast Alaska. This is a special find, she said on Wednesday.
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Sherlock

Azerbaijan starts archaeological digs in Gulustan castle in Shamakhi


News.Az
Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:58 UTC
Image
© unknown
Archeological excavations started in Gulustan fortress

The Shamakhi-Agsu Archeological Expedition of Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archeology and Ethnography started the archeological excavations in Gulustan fortress (8th century) built in Shamakhi.

The Institute reported that that head of the expedition Akif Guliyev said that the researches conducted in the Gulustan fortress holds a prominent place in the learning of history of Shirvanshakhs state, as well as dark pages of the Azerbaijani history. According to him, the Gulustan fortress, which has an important place in the history of Azerbaijani statehood, also bears a great importance from the archeological tourism point of view: "It will tell about Azerbaijan not only in the region but in the world".

The information says that the conversation and restoration of this monument IN the future can strengthen the tourist flow to Azerbaijan. The bad condition of the road, leading to the fortress, offers great difficulties for the expedition as well as the tourists. According to the expert opinion, the settlement of this problem doesn't demand the investment of great capital. The relevant executive authorities may soon solve this problem.
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Cow Skull

Back to Neanderthal? Discoveries in a Crimean Cave


Welcome to Ukraine
Thu, 14 Jul 2011 04:26 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Nataliya Mychailova, an archeologist, tells a story of momentous discoveries which were made in one of the many caves in the Crimean Mountains. A special touch, in her opinion, was provided by the participation in the archeological excavations in 2008 of a group of Japanese archeologists.

Before I narrate my story of the fossil discoveries in a Crimean cave, some introductory words into the history of the study of the human evolution are needed.

From the end of the nineteenth and well into the twentieth century, the evolution of man was thought to be linear, that is, from more primitive forms to the more advanced, with Homo sapiens sapiens of today crowning the evolutionary process (the name Homo sapiens was applied in 1758 by the father of modern biological classification Carolus Linnaeus). The immediate predecessor of the Cro-Magnon, that is Homo sapiens, was called the Neanderthal, Homo neanderthalensis, a burly, hairy creature.

But in the course of the twentieth century, and particularly at the end of it, many discoveries considerably changed our views on the human evolution. The progress in the DNK research revealed that the Neanderthals were unlikely candidates for the immediate ancestors of Homo sapiens.

According to a view which is shared by many archaeologists and anthropologists, modern humans, Homo sapiens, formed in East Africa. They (also referred to as the Cro-Magnon people), appeared in Europe and then began replacing Neanderthals, pushing Neanderthal populations into regional groups, where they held on for thousands of years. Proponents of this model believe that modern humans and the Neanderthals were separate species.

Now, where does the Crimea come in into this picture? It seems that the Neanderthals, fighting a rearguard action, survived the longest Homo sapiens onslaught in the Crimean mountains.

Comment: Regarding enigmatic Neanderthal and sudden appearance of Cro-Magnon, read The Golden Age, Psychopathy and the Sixth Extinction by Laura Knight-Jadczyk.

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Info

Gold hoard found in French Cellar


British Broadcasting Corporation
Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:44 UTC
Image

The coins could fetch 100,000 euros at auction, a coin expert who examined them said
A French couple have found a hoard of gold coins worth at least 100,000 euros (£89,000; $140,000) in the cellar of their home in the town of Millau.

They were working on their drains when they dug up the 34 coins in a little clay pot, French media said.

The coins date from 1595 to the French Revolution, which began in 1789, said a local coin expert who evaluated them.
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Sherlock

Roman-Era Shipwreck Reveals Ancient Medical Secrets

Nick Squires
The Telegraph, UK
Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:10 UTC
shipwreck artefacts
© EMANUELA APPETITI
The aquarium recreated in the museum, where several vials and containers, (still sealed), are preserved.
A first-aid kit found on a 2,000-year-old shipwreck has provided a remarkable insight into the medicines concocted by ancient physicians to cure sailors of dysentery and other ailments.

A wooden chest discovered on board the vessel contained pills made of ground-up vegetables, herbs and plants such as celery, onions, carrots, cabbage, alfalfa and chestnuts - all ingredients referred to in classical medical texts.

The tablets, which were so well sealed that they miraculously survived being under water for more than two millennia, also contain extracts of parsley, nasturtium, radish, yarrow and hibiscus.

They were found in 136 tin-lined wooden vials on a 50ft-long trading ship which was wrecked around 130 BC off the coast of Tuscany. Scientists believe they would have been used to treat gastrointestinal complaints suffered by sailors such as dysentery and diarrhoea.
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Info

Supernova Record Found in Kashmir

Ashiq Hussain
Hindustan Times
Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:34 UTC
Supernova
© The Daily Galaxy
A painting on the arch-door of the 17th century tomb of Sufi saint Syed Mohammad Madni in Srinagar is the "first firm record" of a supernova sighting in India, claim researchers. The mural, which shows two archers, a representation of the Sagittarius constellation, depicts the celestial event dating back to 1604, according to researchers from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and University of Kashmir.

German astronomer Johannes Kepler observed the supernova - a spectacular explosion of a massive star - and described it as an archer in his book De Stella nova in pede Serpentarii. The supernova, the last in our galaxy, was subsequently named Kepler's Supernova after him.

The mural at Madni's tomb depicts the same celestial event. The tomb, however, was built 15 years after the event.

"Our research suggests that India also saw the supernova in 1604. It was winter in Kashmir and the sky was bright for weeks," said Aijaz Banday, an archaeologist at Kashmir university's department of Central Asian studies.
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Better Earth

North Atlantic: Lost World? A Submerged Landscape Discovered

Wynne Parry
LiveScience.com
Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Don Anderson
Buried deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean lies an ancient, lost landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains. Geologists recently discovered this roughly 56-million-year-old landscape using data gathered for oil companies.

"It looks for all the world like a map of a bit of a country onshore," said Nicky White, the senior researcher. "It is like an ancient fossil landscape preserved 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) beneath the seabed."

So far, the data have revealed a landscape about 3,861 square miles (10,000 square km) west of the Orkney-Shetland Islands that stretched above sea level by almost as much as 0.6 miles (1 km). White and colleagues suspect it is part of a larger region that merged with what is now Scotland and may have extended toward Norway in a hot, prehuman world.
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