Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Jun 25 - 04:16 PM

One of the finest Roman mosaics has been found and refurbished in London.
npr

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Jun 25 - 09:07 AM

My sister is in Europe catching up with old friends, it's her first overseas trip since COVID. She did a lot of travelling in the decades before covid.

This is what she is doing Exploring Wessex: From Stonehenge to Georgian Bath sigh!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 12:22 AM

I'm reading library copies of Archaeology, a publication of the Archaeological Institute of America, & came across this article Alexander the Great's Untold Story, Archaeology Magazine, May/June 2024

so I went looking for further information (preferably images!) on the Macedonian family graves & found this beautifully illustrated article

another sigh!

more pics on WIkipedia

back to the rabbit warren of results for search on "philip ll tomb vergina"

The Discovery of The Tombs of Alexander the Great’s Father and Son in Vergina


enuf!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 25 - 05:07 PM

Back at 12,000 thousand year old Gobli Tepe, so many beads were found that some think they were manufactured there on a massive scale. Nine adjacent megolithic sites have not been excavated. There seems to be a symbolic astronomical indication of when and why Gobli Tepe was built.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Jul 25 - 09:00 AM

videos of excavations near Hadrian's wall

"Vinolanda"

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jul 25 - 11:47 AM

On Facebook today there was a blurb about the Windover Archeological site in Florida; if I've heard of it before I've forgotten a pretty interesting story. I went looking for more robust sources than Facebook.

Wikipedia

(Might be US only unless you have VPN) PBS: Florida Frontiers, The Windover people

Atlas Obscura: Bog Bodies Lay Hidden in a Florida Pond for More than 7,000 Years

NOVA (PBS); America's Bog People

From the NOVA site:

When most of us think of bog bodies, we think of northwestern Europe—Ireland, say, or Denmark. But North America has its peat bogs, too, and some of them contain the remarkably well-preserved remains of ancient people. One site in particular stands out as America's premier bog-body site: Windover.

Since its discovery in 1982, this small, peat-bottomed pond situated roughly between Cape Canaveral and Disney World in east-central Florida has offered up no fewer than 168 burials. Unlike their European counterparts, these long-dead individuals have no skin remaining; they are skeletons. But they are otherwise so well-preserved that, when unearthed, over half of them still contained brains—brains that once held the thoughts and emotions of a prehistoric people.

The remains, together with artifacts that look like they were deposited yesterday such as bone tools, a bottle gourd, and woven fabric shrouds, offer a rare portrait of life in an ancient hunter-gatherer-fisher community. And ancient it is: radiocarbon dating has placed the burials in an 1,100-year window centered on about 6280 B.C. That's over 3,500 years before the Pyramids were built (and thousands of years older than most European bog bodies). In 1986, when its full significance was coming to light—for one thing, it's the largest collection of skeletal material of this antiquity in North America—Windover was named a National Historic Landmark.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Jul 25 - 01:56 PM

ancient temple discovered in Peru-older than Macchu Pichu

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jul 25 - 06:18 AM

thanks Maggie -In Denmark, an Ancient Army Met a Mysterious End in a Lake another good site bookmarked

& thanks Bill for your post

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 25 - 11:24 AM

hidden pyramid 28,000 years old?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Jul 25 - 12:56 PM

Tomb Belonging to the First Known Ruler of a Maya City in Belize

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jul 25 - 05:36 PM

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this link was below the message - Archaeologists Unearth Treasure-Filled Tomb Belonging to the First Known Ruler of a Maya City in Belize

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Aug 25 - 05:46 PM

Shroud of Turin Matches Medieval Sculpture, Not a Human Body A fascinating 3D modeling study has provided compelling evidence that the enigmatic Shroud of Turin was created using a low-relief sculpture rather than a human body. This revolutionary research challenges centuries of debate surrounding the mysterious linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man.

The study, published in Archaeometry, employs advanced digital modeling techniques to demonstrate that the proportions and characteristics of the shroud's image are consistent with medieval artistic practices rather than direct contact with a corpse. Brazilian researcher Cicero Moraes utilized sophisticated software including MakeHuman, Blender, and CloudCompare to create two distinct digital models for comparison (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Aug 25 - 12:01 PM

It seems that the devastating flood on the Guadalupe River washed topsoil off of the underlying rock along the Guadalupe and uncovered dinosaur tracks. Dinosaur footprints from 115 million years ago found after Texas flood.

Ancient dinosaur footprints dating back 115 million years were discovered in Northwest Travis County, Texas, after recent flooding swept away layers of sediment and brush that had long hidden them, according to officials.

The discovery was made in the Big Sandy Creek area over the weekend by a group of volunteers, Travis County Judge Andy Brown, who serves as the county's chief executive, told ABC News. The tracks were found on private property, with the exact location being kept secret at the owner's request.

University of Texas paleontologists confirmed at least 15 individual footprints, Matthew Brown, a paleontologist at UT Austin, told ABC News. Each footprint measured approximately 18-20 inches long and dated back 110-115 million years, according to Brown.

There is a park a couple of counties SW of Fort Worth called Dinosaur Valley State Park that we visited often with the kids because we could look at dino tracks in the Glen Rose formation and play in the Paluxy River.

From CNN: The Texas floods washed away debris and dirt. They also uncovered 100-million-year-old dinosaur tracks

A volunteer helping residents clear debris discovered 15 large, three-clawed dinosaur footprints scattered in a crisscross pattern along the Sandy Creek area. “The tracks that are unambiguously dinosaurs were left by meat-eating dinosaurs similar to Acrocanthosaurus, a roughly 35-foot-long bipedal carnivore,” said Matthew Brown, a paleontologist with the Jackson School Museum of Earth History at the University of Texas at Austin. The tracks are approximately 110 to 115 million years old and each footprint is roughly 18 to 20 inches long, according to Brown. Waterways like the Sandy Creek “cut through the Glen Rose Formation limestone, which is the rock layer that bears the tracks and is about 110ish million years old,” Brown said. “And so, that’s how we know how old the dinosaur tracks are, it’s because they’re preserved in rock layers that are that old.”

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Aug 25 - 11:51 AM

A beautiful wall painting was restored at Pompei that depicts the first known image of a pizza.
1st pizza

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Helen
Date: 13 Aug 25 - 03:15 AM

I saw a segment on Oz TV this week:

Nilpena fossils - Landline TV show - Oz

That link is YouTube but if you are in Oz you can watch it on ABC-TV iView, otherwise search for Nilpena fossils. It was filmed in a desert area in Central Australia. "For a quarter of a century a US palaeontologist and her family have been uncovering fossils dating back to the dawn of animal life, on a pastoral property in the Flinders Ranges."

{Note: I *love" the Flinders Ranges. Absolutely one of the most stunning places I have been in my life. Search for paintings by Doug Absolom to see what I mean.]

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 11:02 AM

Much more recent history here: Low Water Levels Reveal Sunken Nazi Ships Full of Unexploded Munitions in the Danube River
Due to a drought in Eastern Europe, the scuttled German vessels are reemerging 80 years after they disappeared beneath the river’s surface

From the Smithsonian almost a year ago, here's the first part of it:

As Soviet forces advanced in Eastern Europe in 1944, Nazi troops began deliberately sinking their ships in the Danube River. For much of the past 80 years, the scuttled German vessels—including torpedo boats, tugboats, transport ferries and barges—remained hidden beneath the surface.

Earlier this month, however, some of the vessels reemerged from the water, per Reuters’ Krisztina Fenyo and Fedja Grulovic.

A summer drought caused the river’s water levels to drop, revealing the World War II wreckage near Prahovo, a river port town in Serbia. Some of the ships were almost completely buried under sand, while parts of others were more visible, including their command bridges, hulls, masts and turrets, according to Reuters.

The sunken vessels make it difficult for modern boats to navigate parts of the Danube, which travels 365 miles through Serbia. In Djerdap Gorge near Prahovo, the sunken ships have narrowed the waterway to roughly 330 feet.

Shipping by waterway is much less expensive than by trucks, so the countries in the area are motivated to remove the sunken ships and unexploded ordnance.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: DaveRo
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 12:02 PM

I'd never noticed before that Americans tend to put 'River' after its name - Colorado River, Misissipi River, etc. I've never heard the River Danube referred to as the Danube River here in the UK.

Do Aussies refer to the River Murray or the Murray River? Just curious.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Aug 25 - 05:07 PM

The Po River in Italy has revealed old warships due to low water levels as well.

The half a billion year old shallow Eromanga Sea in Australia lasted until 150 million years ago. The ancient sea is responsible for all the opals and opalized fossils further east.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 26 Aug 25 - 12:07 PM

In case this hasn't been mentioned before ....

One of the problems that engineers have, when building certain types of sensitive instrument for use in deep space, is finding steel which was smelted before 1945: any steel smelted after The Bomb was first dropped will be sufficiently radioactive to ruin the sensitivity. The major source of "clean" steel, I read once, is the ships of the German fleet that were scuppered in Scapa Flow in 1918.

Now I'm wondering whether these Nazi-scuppered ships could be a similar source of clean steel. Cue an entire generation of archaeologists going spare.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 25 - 12:03 AM

MaJoC, That is astonishing, if that is the case!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 02:50 AM

Surprising is what it was to me, Stilly, but it can be made to make sense. There's a lot of air shot through pig-iron to burn off the carbon ("Bessemer convertor", nags my inner completist), and we're talking about very low but detectable levels of radiation.

I read somewhere else that residual radioactivity in the air gets picked up by vines, and measurable amounts end up in the resulting wine;* the levels have varied over the years, and have been declining since the Test Ban Treaties took effect. This, it was suggested, can be used to tell when a specific bottle of wine was made, whatever it says on the label.

* It was not mentioned whether drinking certain vintages causes one to glow in the dark.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Aug 25 - 08:04 AM

Scientists discover 'jaw-droppingly weird' dinosaur fossil in Morocco In short:

Scientists on Wednesday announced they had uncovered a "jaw-droppingly weird" dinosaur fossil that had metre-long spikes protruding from its neck.

Discovered near the Moroccan town of Boulemane, the Spicomellus dinosaur lived 165 million years ago.

What's next?

The scientists said the discovery made them rethink theories about how dinosaurs evolved ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Sep 25 - 05:01 AM

Evidence points to remains found in Vietnam cave being South-East Asia's earliest known homicide victim

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Sep 25 - 07:46 PM

Smoke-dried bodies the oldest-known evidence of deliberate human mummification, study claims A study of burial sites in southern China and South-East Asia, between 4,000 and 14,000 years old, has found evidence that some bodies were gently heated after death.

The researchers claim this means the bodies were smoked for preservation, making them the oldest-known evidence of human mummification, and predating Egyptian mummies by around 10,000 years.

But not all archaeologists think the bodies were deliberately preserved via smoking. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Sep 25 - 05:38 AM

A Greek Island’s First Settlers Weren’t Human An archaeological dig on Naxos is overturning our assumptions about who Neanderthals were — and how they differed from Homo sapiens In the 1960s, the U.S.-based behavioral scientist Alfred de Grazia bought a large piece of land on Stelida, a remote, scrubby hill on the Greek island of Naxos. He resided there every summer with his French wife Anne-Marie, a poet. The couple lived a quiet, secluded life until one afternoon in 2014, just a couple of weeks after her husband had passed away, Anne-Marie de Grazia peered out of her window to see two stooping figures planting little red flags along the edges of her garden.

After a brief exchange, it transpired that the pair were the archaeologists Tristan Carter and Katie Campeau, who were surveying the land for traces of Neanderthal toolmaking. Excited by the possibility, and in honor of her late husband, who would have been thrilled by the discovery, de Grazia wasted no time in granting the team full authorization to excavate on her property, with the approval of the Greek Ministry of Culture. The encounter would mark the beginning of the Stelida Naxos Archaeological Project, a pioneering dig that is not only rewriting the Neanderthal story, but shrinking the distance between us and them.

It’s long been assumed that island colonization was an exclusively human activity. Only we could build boats and only we had the desire to navigate the oceans. The new finds at Stelida have exposed a weakness in the narrative, however: Modern humans are not supposed to have settled in Europe until around 50,000 years ago, and yet the lithics (tools and other worked stone) found on Naxos hint at island habitation as far back as 200,000 years ago. What’s more, many of these finds bear the hallmarks of Neanderthal craftsmanship, suggesting that the enigmatic hominin reached these islands either around the same time as humans or even before us, toppling our assumption that only modern humans had the navigational nous and curiosity to colonize these islands. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Sep 25 - 05:49 AM

a book I'm currently reading

Empress of the Nile. The Daredevil Woman Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt’s Ancient Temples from Destruction

In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: an attempt to rescue more than a dozen priceless Egyptian temples from drowning. But the massive press coverage of this remarkable rescue effort—the greatest of its kind in history—completely overlooked one essential element of the story: the gutsy French woman archaeologist who made it happen.

Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples—including the Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur—would now be at the bottom of a gigantic reservoir. A project of almost unthinkable magnitude and complexity, the rescue initially was dismissed as a fool’s errand by virtually everyone. Its enormous engineering challenges were compounded by the towering political difficulties of urging worldwide cooperation during an especially dangerous spike in Cold War tensions.

Desroches-Noblecourt refused to accept that verdict. A willful, real-life version of Indiana Jones, she refused to be cowed by anything or anyone. She’d already had plenty of experience dealing with powerful men who didn’t take her seriously. In the macho, rough-and-tumble world of archaeology, women were an extreme rarity, and she’d been shunned and harassed since her earliest days in the field. “You don’t get anywhere without a fight, you know,” she once told an interviewer. “I never looked for the fight. If I became a brawler, it was out of necessity.”

Throughout her career, Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt resembled nothing so much as a female action hero come to life. A woman who swaggered. A woman who talked and fought back. A woman who owned her power.

She even added her husband's name to hers when she eventually married!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Sep 25 - 10:06 AM

A quarter million years ago there were about 6 species of sapiens. As a result of interaction, cross-breeding or dieing out of certain species, we arrived at a languaged homo sapiens sapiens. We are now only one species of mankind but embodied with ancestral species.

The concept of trying to reverse DEI is antithetical to our species, our crops, the forests, and the animal kingdom.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Oct 25 - 06:51 PM

Ancient rock art in Saudi Arabia hints at how humans repopulated desert at end of last ice age

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth) pt 2
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 25 - 05:16 PM

Mariners at the Dawn of History How far did the horizons of our first ancestors extend? In the furthest past, even the nearest ridge of hills might then have disclosed a sight no human eyes had ever seen, and every river crossed was a ford into the unknown. The Palaeolithic and Mesolithic were eras when all was a great trek, all an act of discovery and endurance. Yet there is one frontier we do not so often associate with the distant past today, one even greater, and more imposing, than the primordial steppes and forests: that of the oceans.

For many decades, conventional wisdom held that the ability to construct complex sea-going vessels did not develop until the last legs of prehistory, in the lead-up to agriculture and more complex societies. Hunter-gatherers were thought to be “reluctant seafarers” if they went at all, and if travel overwater did occur, it was mostly likely by hapless castaways, set adrift by misfortune. There were always archaeological finds from certain locations inaccessible save by long sea voyages—yet the paradigm was believed anyway, buoyed by convention and an element of prejudice against ancient peoples assumed to be little more than savages. This paradigm, however, is now crumbling, worn away by the waves of new discoveries and experimentation. (read on)