Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Dec 20 - 06:27 AM

Tudor coins dedicated to three of Henry VIII's wives found in family garden

Welcome to the Portable Antiquities Scheme The Portable Antiquities Scheme is run by the British Museum and Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales to encourage the recording of archaeological objects found by members of the public in England and Wales. Every year many thousands of archaeological objects are discovered, many of these by metal detector users, but also by people whilst out walking, gardening or going about their daily work. Finds recorded with the Scheme help advance knowledge of the history and archaeology of England and Wales.

British Museum says metal detectorists found 1,311 treasures last year

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Dec 20 - 10:48 AM

This may have come through before, but I'll add it in case it didn't: Cache of Roman letters discovered at Hadrian's Wall. The Guardian is telling me that this article is more than 3 years old, but then, the letters are much older than that!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Dec 20 - 04:02 PM

tour a royal tomb
Tomb of
Menna

valley of the Kings you tube

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Dec 20 - 04:13 PM

https://www.virtualangkor.com/

3D scroll down for your personal tours

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 20 - 07:52 AM

true glory of 1,000-year-old cross - Dec 2020 after reading this I needed more info so went searching -

The Galloway Hoard (2014) The Galloway Hoard brings together the richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland.

Conserving the Galloway Hoard - it was in an urn & wrapped in textiles

Galloway Hoard’s Anglo-Saxon ‘owner’ identified?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 20 - 08:00 AM

photos

more pics!

lots more articles, but I really have other stuff to do

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 03:12 AM

Lost artefact from Great Pyramid of Giza found in cigar box in Aberdeen

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 04:14 PM

This story had me online looking for the Queen's Palace in Madagascar.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 05:02 PM

I was watching Japan's NHK channel earlier today and there was news of a "snack bar" being uncovered at Pompeii

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 05:51 PM

Arnies snack bar sold wolf nipple chips and Rococo cola. :*]
Have you ever thought of archeology of the future. If it is far enough away the present we discover will be ancient and our present will be the future. its a light speed thing/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 08:20 PM

Tau Zero

There was a young physicist, Bright
Who traveled much faster than light.
   He set out one day,
   In a relative way,
And returned on the previous night.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Dec 20 - 08:30 PM

Poul Anderson is fun to read.
my kind of poul

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 06:59 PM

Remains of well-preserved Ice Age woolly rhino found in Siberia

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 07:07 PM

I hadn't noticed the articles linked below the woolly rhino article

fossilised feathers

Canadian boy finds fossils critical to the study of the hadrosaur

Australia - Richmond's dinosaur museum goes digital

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 10:02 PM

The story of wood artfacts from the great pyramid found in Scotland reminds me of the actual mummy of Ramses being found in Niagara Falls NY.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 30 Dec 20 - 10:43 PM

I'm watching the TV series Fringe again from this week. Only another 85 episodes to go.

Nothing to do with the thread topic but everything to do with these comments in the thread:

Bill D's limerick: "There was a young physicist, Bright..."

Donuel's comment: "Have you ever thought of archeology of the future. If it is far enough away the present we discover will be ancient and our present will be the future. its a light speed thing".

(If you have never seen the series but you are into weird sci-fi with a sense of humour, I can highly recommend watching Fringe. I first discovered it when I happened to record the end of an episode before a different show which started in the wee hours of the morning and then got totally hooked on it. It was never advertised by the TV channel, and funnily enough they replayed the whole series in the last few weeks - again in the wee small hours - and didn't advertise it this time either. I sense a conspiracy at work. There could be a pattern. Fringe in-joke. Sorry! At least this time they didn't play series 1 and then series 4 episodes on the same day. Very confusing and it was very much a spoiler alert because I didn't realise they were two different series.)

Sorry. Back to the topic.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 12:20 AM

I've been meaning to watch that. Thanks for the reminder (I didn't realize it had that many episodes).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 03:01 AM

not having a TV, I knew nuffin' about it - & having just read a few (too many) paragraphs on wikipedia, I know even less ....

my brain feel sore & my eyes hurt, tho admittedly they have been sore all day, but they are even sorer

& it appears there are 100 episodes, lucky you!

getting back on topic Liu He and the Tomb of Two Million Coins

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 04:57 AM

Believe me Sandra, you'd be just as confused if you watched all the episodes. Predictability is not their thing. LOL

I bought the whole set on DVD when I first discovered the series. This will be my third or maybe fourth time watching it all.

Back on topic - Australia's shame: Pilbara mining blast confirmed to have destroyed 46,000yo sites of 'staggering' significance

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 11:47 AM

Wow, Sandra!

Archaeology is always full of surprises. When an excavation is started, the team never knows what the next artifact will be to see the light of day. Many times a find is mundane – pottery shards, inconclusive artifacts, and ancient garbage. But there are rare occasions when the dig proves to be an excavation of a lifetime and is certain to make the headlines. Such is the story of this unbelievable archaeological dig from China, when a stunning 10 tons of ancient coins were unearthed in a single burial chamber. There’s no doubt that the history of ancient China was filled with wonders and extravagance, but this discovery really put the benchmark way up high. It was Liu He’s tomb filled with two million coins and other luxury items.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 10:05 PM

who said you can't take it with you?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 10:16 PM

Fringe??? Why do I not know of that? Gotta go look at my 200+ channels...Maybe in between the Televangelists...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 10:22 PM

Huh... ran from 2008-2013! No wonder it's not on these days.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 10:40 PM

NetFlix.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 31 Dec 20 - 10:59 PM

Yes, but it pops up unannounced every few years or so here in Oz. It's brilliant! Funny, clever, thought provoking, and some things in it come completely out of the blue to make sense of previous events in past episodes.

To pretend to stick to this thread topic (LOL) I'll mention episode 15 of series 1. Inner Child: A mysterious child is recovered from a secret chamber that has been sealed for more than a half-century.

Does finding a live child in a room sealed for about 70 years beat finding 2 million coins?? :-D

Sorry. I should start a separate thread.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Jan 21 - 10:30 PM

3,500 year old bear amulet that I spotted on Twitter this evening. If you're using the Chrome browser right-clicking a photo gives you a dialog box with a number of options for opening the image, including to search for the image on Google. I use this all of the time to track down the sources of memes, etc.

More from Reddit (just part of it)

Thanks to an unknown stroke of fate, the copy encountered the original, after many years, in the Historic Museum in Stralsund. In the summer of 2002, the German press announced that the copy of the bear was presented to public, whereas the original amulet did not leave the museum's safe. It is a secret how the museum became the owner of these two figures. However one should be happy that both of them survived. The copy of the famous bear appeared again in the history of Slupsk. Thanks to the president, Maciej Kobylinski, the amber bear attracts tourists tothe town hall, where it is exhibited in a special show case. Once a year, the tiny figure is put on auction, and the funds raised are dedicated to charity.

They don't say what happened to the original after Nazi's stole it and a lot of other amber during WWII. It looks like something that could be reproduced fairly easily.

The Polish town near where it was found is Slupsk, and it is in the Pomeranian region (state). No surprise it's near the Baltic Sea, a major source of amber. Szczecin, Poland, is where it was safeguarded until WWII when it was lost for a while.

Stuff to look for includes archaeology in Poland to do with amber - it washes up on the beach there.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 12:10 AM

Medieval Chinese Coin Unearthed In The UK (found near Petersfield, Hampshire).

it was unearthed at Buriton in Hampshire, around 14 kilometers (9 miles) from the southern coast of the UK. It’s not totally clear whether the coin was dropped by a modern collector or medieval rambler. However, some historians have some well-founded suspicions that the coin was most likely dropped at some point during the Middle Ages.

Dr Caitlin Green, a historian at the University of Cambridge in the UK, has written a blog post describing this discovery and argues that the coin was likely not dropped by a modern-day collector.

For one, the coin was discovered in a field that was full of Medieval artifacts, including a coin of King John minted at London in 1205–7, a cut farthing coin dating between 1180 to 1247, fragments of medieval or early post-medieval vessels, and two 16th century coins. Furthermore, archeologists have previously discovered another Northern Song dynasty coin in England. The newly discovered coin was also found in the same area as the only confirmed medieval imported Chinese pottery from the 14th century.

Looks like another visit via Google Earth.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Jan 21 - 12:44 AM

only 1300 gold coins

from the Smithsonian magazine which has lotsa' other interesting articles, including a genetic analysis of Seabiscuit's hoof!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Jan 21 - 09:58 PM

Squatters issue death threats to archaeologist who discovered oldest city in the Americas

Wikipedia on Caral archaeological site.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Jan 21 - 04:13 AM

lots of great info on 'OLDEST SONG IN THE WORLD' thread. https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=157520&messages=33#3717921

a few of the links

Did Syria create the worlds first song ? VIDEO From the BBC, an interesting article on recreating songs, melodies, and instruments from archaeological finds. Michael Levy is a prolific composer for the recreated lyres of antiquity, whose musical mission is to create an entirely new musical genre, which could best be described as a 'New Ancestral Music' - dedicated to reintroducing the recreated lyres, ancient musical modes and intonations, back into the modern musical world.
Ancient Lyre It does say a bit about the process from the Cuneiform to the musical notes. This seems to be the work of a Dr. Richard Dumbrill. Well done him. Not so well done the scores of commenters on the Youtube clip, who seem not to want add any information, but simply to demonstrate to the world what arseholes they are.

Hurrian Songs

Seikilos epitaph

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 12:11 PM

Queen’s temple, 50 coffins, Book of Dead: Ancient Egypt trove ‘remakes history’

Unveiling funerary temple found at vast necropolis near Cairo, archaeologists showcase 3,000-year-old sarcophagi, papyrus with spells for directing the dead through the underworld

SAQQARA, Egypt — Egypt on Sunday unveiled ancient treasures found at the Saqqara archaeological site near Cairo, including sarcophagi over 3,000 years old, a discovery that “rewrites history,” according to famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass.

Saqqara is a vast necropolis of the ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis, a UNESCO World Heritage Site home to more than a dozen pyramids, ancient monasteries, and animal burial sites.

A team headed by Hawass made the finds near the pyramid of King Teti, the first pharaoh of the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

There are photos and more to the story at the link.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 05:07 PM

Check out the 30,000 year old cave painting. no typo 30,000

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 05:19 PM

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03826-4

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jan 21 - 07:54 PM

Speaking of cave art
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23230990-700-in-search-of-the-very-first-coded-symbols/?fbclid=IwAR013iSuGAaGoul7beJKeTJ45RXK07uR90PBSR9PkyGtR8B9kuRDP6EH1ko#ixzz6i02U2nTE

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 04:46 AM

I've been reading The 50 greatest prehistoric sites in the world by Barry Stone, so off I went to google for more info on the sites.

here are a few

Gabarnmung rock art, Australia, 46,000 BCE

Varna Necropolis - grave 43 - the bloke was covered in 1000 gold items!!

Nebelivka archaeological site in Ukraine

Arkaim archaeological site

Nuragic towers Sardinia

hypogeum Hal-Saflieni, Malta

Rujm El-Hiri Golan Heights

Heart of Neolithic Orkney UNESCO site

Jebel Hafeet tombs, Abu Dhabi

Shepsi and dolmens of North Caucasus

Sanxingdui, Sichuan, China

megaliths on Nias Island Indonesia - contemporary megolithic culture!

Prince of Glauberg - life-sized sandstone statue of a Celtic ruler

Bronze age battle field along Tollense River Germany - latest theory is that it was a massacre of merchants

I was hoping to find a list of the 50 sites, but all I can find how to buy the book, but I found this interesting site map, click on an icon & get the name of the site & google maps reference, very much on topic!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 05:17 AM

If anyone is perusing UK maps, particularly 1840 (upwards) I have put an OSGR / LatLong converter with several map/web links targeted to the location entered. The premise was to make it fast and not rely on the internet for calculation or embedded things.

osgr.mister.red (though if you put it on Fakebook use osgr.mister.red/osgr.htm because Fakebook cleverness doesn't like other's cleverness).

Best of luck. (thinks - I just thought of another useful link to add)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jan 21 - 03:26 PM

Sandra you just provided us a very deep rabbit hole to explore!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 12:57 AM

deepen your rabbit hole!!

Gulf of Campay, West India

Dolni Vestonice Czech republic

Upward Sun River, Alaska

Raqefet Cave, Israel

Gobekli Tepe, Turkey

Ceuva de las Manos, Argentina

Lepenski Vir, Serbia

Choirokitia, Cyprus

Goseck Circle,Germany

Wetzikon-Robenhausen, Switzerland

Man Bac, Vietnam

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 06:27 AM

My personal fave: Gobleki Tepe
(It was buried by hand not by time long ago)

Bill the evolution of writing is a great topic.
invented and reinvented over time and finally shifting from hiroglphics to REBUS style alphabet.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 05:39 PM

Remnants of mosque from earliest decades of Islam found in Israel

Yesterday I took some books to a charity Book stall & asked if they would like some archaeology magazines & the bloke running the store is a serious archaeology fan & collector of old & ancient pieces & wanted them!
I was taking '50 sites' back to the Library & we had a long conversation about archaeology. Charity shops don't always want magazines (& who would want to re-read old scandal about "famous" people?), so I wasn't sure if they would want them. I'll take the rest of my stash to him next week & probably have another chat with him!

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 06:00 PM

!..? Good luck, it sounds like a novel about love in the time of pandemic:*)

I have a very expensive art encyclopedia from the 1960's that includes many photos of the art objects from Iraq that are now missing.
The orthodoxy of that era is however silly in retrospect.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 09:36 AM

Anglo-Saxon graveyard discovered in Cambridge Graves found under demolished student halls are providing valuable insight into life in a post-Roman settlement.
An early medieval graveyard unearthed beneath student accommodation at Cambridge University has been described as “one of the most exciting finds of Anglo-Saxon archaeology since the 19th century”.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 10:01 AM

Sandra, that Cambridge location makes me wonder about how those buildings were constructed. One sees heavy earth-moving equipment working on the foundations of buildings when dormitories or other campus buildings are put up. These graves would have been just a few feet below the surface in that construction zone, so it sounds like they may have been pier and beam (no foundation)? Just posts in the ground?

That Roman bottle is gorgeous, quite a work of art!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 06:57 PM

I also wondered about the graves not being disturbed, the buildings must have had very shallow foundations or none. Perhaps the site was a garden or a park, so the builders might have had a level site to work with & not needed to dig down. If it was built during the Depression or even after the Depression, maybe lots of blokes with wheelbarrows did all the work ...

I'm reminded of a dig in Sydney several decades back. The new building, a Youth Hostel was being built on top of a concrete carpark (also decades old) & an enormous part of very early Sydney was sealed underneath.

The Big Dig Archaeology Education Centre is part of Sydney Harbour YHA in The Rocks heritage precinct of Sydney. The centre facilitates hands-on archaeology educational experiences and opens the archaeological site to the public.

pics of the site & some finds The Big Dig site is underneath a youth hostel in The Rocks area of Sydney, and guests walk through part of it to get to Reception upstairs. There are also a couple of display cases containing some of the objects found in the area. Wonderful!

google maps - The Rocks YHA

panels evoking the old streetscape displayed out on the streets

I was in the Rocks while it was being excavated in 2008 so took pics thru the mesh fence. One pic shows a pit with a broken china bowl poking out of the wall.

I also have pics of the YHA taken 2 years later. The building is in 2 parts, with the ruins in the middle so everyone (public & residents) can walk thru. It was put above the foundations so most of them (all of them??) were preserved.

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 07:11 PM

I post, then head for the news & find this - Tasmanian ship graveyard & related articles

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Jan 21 - 07:26 PM

Talking about building on top of ancient things, a few years ago we went to Minori, on the Amalfi Coast in Italy. In one place there are ancient Roman ruins - with modern blocks of flats perched right on top!

I suppose it does at least preserve the ruins... I can't recall too clearly but I think we saw a similar thing in Herculaneum.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 21 - 11:40 PM

Neanderthal glue was a bigger deal than we thought

Making birch tar at all is a fairly complex process. It takes multiple steps, lots of planning, and detailed knowledge of the materials and the process. So the fact that archaeologists have found a handful of tools hafted using birch tar tells us that Neanderthals were (pardon the pun) pretty sharp.

But the Zandmotor Beach flake tells us more than that. Making birch tar adhesive for tools was so routine that Neanderthals would do it even for a simple domestic tool like a small flake—even in the extreme environment of Ice Age Northwestern Europe, in the shadow of glaciers at the very northern edge of where Neanderthals could survive. And all the while, they were using fairly advanced methods for more efficient production.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Feb 21 - 05:04 AM

Conch shell in French museum found to be 17,000-year-old wind instrument

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 07:56 PM

World's oldest known beer factory may have been unearthed in Egypt

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 04:35 AM

Discovery of ancient Bogong moth remains at Cloggs Cave gives insight into Indigenous food practices 2000 years ago (Australia) see also links at end of article


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Emu_(book) Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident? is a 2014 non-fiction book by Bruce Pascoe. It reexamines colonial accounts of Aboriginal people in Australia, and cites evidence of pre-colonial agriculture, engineering and building construction by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In Dark Emu: Black seeds: agriculture or accident?, Pascoe examines the journals and diaries of early explorers such as Charles Sturt and Thomas Mitchell[5] and early settlers in Australia,[1] finding evidence in their accounts of existing agriculture,[6][7] engineering and building, including stone houses, weirs, sluices and fish traps, and also game management.[8][9] This evidence of occupation[10] challenges the traditional views about pre-colonial Australia[11] and "Terra Nullius".[12] The book also gives a description from Sturt's journal of his 1844 encounter with hundreds of Aboriginal people who were living in an established village in what is now Queensland (then part of New South Wales), in which a welcoming party offered him "water, roast duck, cake and a hut to sleep in".