Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)

Subject: Armchair Archaeologist
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jan 18 - 01:12 PM

Every so often I come across an archaeological article about some new discovery and then I travel to the location via Google Earth to look around. This one, to do with desert agriculture along the ancient Silk Road route yielded quite an interesting look at that part of China.

The trick is to find the way to name the place so Google Earth can find it. "Tian Shan Mountains China" got me to the area, and then if you look at the photo in the article that gives you "Bosten Lake" you can look for the lake shape and navigate to the NW to find just the right ridges and look around and see those cisterns and fields that are clearly outlined. They stretch all down and around that small river delta.

What adventures have you taken with the help of Google Earth?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Jan 18 - 02:52 PM

A few years ago, I tried to view my husband's birthplace (Adjame, Abidjan, Ivory Coast) but the pictures were spoiled by loads of thick cloud. It's a tropical/equatorial climate, so there were obviously storms obscuring the satellite photo!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jan 18 - 06:19 PM

This is fun stuff. Even kids have found unknown pyramid ruins.

A different discovery.... http://www.newsweek.com/ancient-china-1000-year-old-royal-palace-summer-home-mongol-empire-liao-777972


http://www.newsweek.com/ancient-china-1000-year-old-royal-palace-summer-home-mongol-empire-liao-777972

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Will Fly
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 04:21 AM

Not having the inclination for long distance travel these days, I've looked at my cousin's house in North Island, New Zealand, and at my sister's house in Tucson, Arizona - both via Google Earth.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 08:01 AM

Ir's gives you a fascinating perspective of those western U.S. trout streams I've become enamored of.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 08:08 AM

it also enhances the reading of Himalayan mountaineering books. It gives you at least a vague sense of place that you wouldn't have without having visited a certain area.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: gillymor
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 08:26 AM

...it's also fun to follow along the trail when you're reading Western novels or American history and just about any book that's set in the outdoors.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 06:30 PM

Looked fr my cousin's house in Coburg Ontario.

And went looking for the house I lived in in Ngiao Gorge Wellington NZ. Not so easy, since memory is unreliable and things move on in 25 years.

Saw the section (aka plot) where my neice is about to build in Napier NZ.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jan 18 - 08:43 PM

I suppose the ultimate success story of using Google Earth to track down places you remember from years ago is Lion. Here is some of the real story.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Jan 18 - 12:55 PM

I sometimes use it to locate the towns named in folksongs. It's fun to discover (sometimes) that an old song is describing an actual region.

It's not digital, but a great book on archeology from above is called "History from the Air." It is about the British Isles. I got it from the library and liked it so much that I bought my own copy (used.)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 09:05 PM

Here's another one, looking up McIntyre Promontory?s frozen slopes in the Transantarctic Mountains: Antarctica fossils story

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 18 - 12:13 PM

I clicked on a page in a New York Times obituary for Allison Shearmur and down at the bottom of an article about her closet (whose closet has a sitting room?) is a video player that I can't break (not even viewing source code.) For the time being an article about the remote island of Saint Helena is the first in a playlist at this Elle magazine page. Scroll down to "Watch Next" to find it. Here's a BBC story about it. It's billed as the most isolated island, but it looks like Ascension Island is a contender. Both can be explored via Google Earth.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Vashta Nerada
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 01:20 PM

Sprawling Mayan network discovered under Guatemala jungle

Researchers have found more than 60,000 hidden Mayan ruins in Guatemala in a major archaeological breakthrough.

Laser technology was used to survey digitally beneath the forest canopy, revealing houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications.

The landscape, near already-known Mayan cities, is thought to have been home to millions more Mayans than other research had previously suggested.

The researchers mapped over 810 square miles (2,100 sq km) in northern Peten.

Archaeologists believe the cutting-edge technology will change the way the world will see Mayans' ancient civilisation.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 08:21 PM

A lot of the surface evidence for archaeology in Britain is on cultivated land or in upland areas. Aerial photography has long been used to pick it out, and archaeologists choose their moment carefully. Field marks often show up best in low sunlight, especially in winter when vegetation is less overwhelming, or in droughts, or when there's been a light dusting of snow. Google Earth, for all its glories, doesn't focus in that way, though it does reveal much of interest. It's easy to find my house, which is very isolated and hard to get to, but unfortunately Google Earth's resolution is low in my area. I noticed that it's updated the images since I filled in my pond this time last year. I wonder how long it'll be before it picks up the fact that I've just spread five tons of different-coloured gravel on my drive. My back's killing me.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 18 - 01:22 AM

Good one, Steve. I see that Google Earth has my house fairly close and up to date, though it's still a year or two old, based on the size of the trees. The resolution is excellent for my urban area, though it shows some kind of cartoon-ish 3D features. The small raised beds in my vegetable garden are clear, as are the paths in the back yard worn down by my dogs. I was hoping to see one of the dogs in the yard, and there might be one, but not recognizable. The garden beds show the footprint before I re-tilled it 2 years ago. Also, the photo was taken before part of the patio cover came down last year, and I think before the hail storm two years ago that punched holes in the cloth over the patio cover.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 03 Feb 18 - 03:48 AM

Google Street View showed an ex of mine still living in the same house after 40 years. She was putting out the wheely bins and looking puzzled by the strange camera car going by.

Ah, things could have been so different. Not better, but different...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 03 Feb 18 - 08:20 AM

Just had another look at my patch. I can see the fields that have been newly-planted with Miscanthus, including one which was only done a few months ago, which still has very patchy growth. That's pretty up to date. The shadows are pointing more or less north, which means the pics were taken around midday, but the shadows are quite long, so, going from the colour of the vegetation, I'm guessing the the pics were updated in the autumn (my location is about fifty degrees north). You can sign up with Google to get them to alert you when your area has been updated.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Feb 18 - 06:18 PM

Here's a group to explore in their region: The Bajau are a nomadic Malay people who have lived at sea for centuries, primarily in a tract of ocean by the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 05:14 PM

Countless Mayan city ruins discovered in Guatemala
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/02/03/mayan-civilization-was-much-vaster-than-known-thousands-of

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 05:38 PM

One that I bookmarked in GE several years ago is
Ggantia
"Ggantija (Maltese pronunciation: [d?gan'ti?ja], "Giants' Tower") is a megalithic temple complex from the Neolithic on the Mediterranean island of Gozo. The Ggantija temples are the earliest of the Megalithic Temples of Malta. The Ggantija temples are older than the pyramids of Egypt. Their makers erected the two Ggantija temples during the Neolithic (c. 3600–2500 BCE), which makes these temples more than 5500 years old and the world's second oldest existing manmade religious structures after Göbekli Tepe. "

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 09:39 PM

I've spent a lot of time poking around for abandoned sites that are discussed in articles like this. WHATEVER YOU DO, don't let Google convince you to switch to the new photo layer. There is very little there. Supposedly they're gradually transferring photos, but right now, you go from a view (for example) of Hirta Island, Scotland, that is dotted with photos, to a view with five iffy shots.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 10:02 PM

From that last article I poked around to find the Villa de Vecchi, east of Lake Como (look for Varenna on the eastern shore of Lake Como and move due east, into the river valley where you find Bindo to the NW of the house and Cortenova to the SE of the house.) There area few photos in the new layer, but there are probably tons of photos in the old Panoramio layer, with lots inside the house over the years. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/villa-de-vecchi.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 18 - 11:00 PM

Here. A volcano in Iceland. Another great armchair exploration.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 04:07 PM

Senoufou, je me souviens du marche d'Adjame... on y allait moins souvent qu'a celui de Treichville. On allait au Plateau, d'habitude.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 05:01 PM

Ya know who started this LIDAR survey of Guatemala big time?

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/05/20160511-Maya-Lost-City-Canadian-Teen-Discover-Constellations-Archaeology-Satellite-Stars-Gadoury/

updated - the old link was broken - the story changed over the months. Here is more about it

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 06:08 PM

I keep saying Guatemala but the Mayan discoveries are predominantly in the northern Yucatan Peninsula.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 07:03 PM

Acme, we spent two days in Varenna last June. We were staying directly across the lake in Griante in a fabulous little alberghetto and we liked Varenna so much on our first visit that we went for a second day, when we climbed (in the heat!) to Castello Di Vezia, from the top of which we had glorious views, all the better as a vicious thunderstorm the night before had cleared away the customary haze. My camera went berserk. That was one of our best holidays ever.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 07:59 PM

Taiwan trembles from a 6.4 earthquake. Are there real time satellite images?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 08:16 PM

That would be Vezio. Grr.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 18 - 08:16 PM

I've wondered if there's a way to subscribe to a closer to real-time satellite service. I'm sure the FBI, the CIA, and the Kremlin do. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jul 19 - 03:09 PM

Is anyone doing any interesting armchair travelling this summer?

Archaeologists uncover ancient palace of the Mittani Empire in Kurdistan Region

Only last year, due to a lack of rainfall and water, archeologists were able to launch a spontaneous rescue excavation of the ruins exposed by the receding water levels.

The research was headed by Dr. Hasan Ahmed Qasim (Duhok) and Dr. Ivana Puljiz (Tübingen), as a joint project between the University of Tübingen and the Kurdistan Archaeology Organization (KAO) in cooperation with the Duhok Directorate of Antiquities.

"The Mittani Empire is one of the least researched empires of the Ancient Near East," Ivana Puljiz of the Tübingen Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies (IANES) said.

"Information on palaces of the Mittani Period is so far only available from Tell Brak in Syria and from the cities of Nuzi and Alalakh, both located on the periphery of the empire."

One of the few helpful aspects of climate change, uncovering ancient ruins.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jul 19 - 02:20 PM

https://www.thedailybeast.com/one-of-the-oldest-mosques-in-the-world-was-just-discovered-in-israel (you may have to disable your ad blockers.)

Archaeologists surveying a future construction site in Rahat, Israel have unearthed something unexpected: the remains of one of the oldest mosques in the world. According to the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), the building was constructed around 600 or 700 A.D., when the region was mostly rural farmland. If this date is correct, this means that the newly discovered mosque was built only a few years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D.

I'm not sure one can fly there via Google Earth, it may not have been tagged on the map yet. If you look at the photos in the BBC article, it appears to be out on the fringes of town somewhere, and there appears to be lots of construction around the edge of town.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49036815

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 28 Jul 19 - 04:53 PM

Not as interesting as all of your armchair travels, but when I discovered the name of the street in Wales where my Grandma was born, I Googled it and saw the row of houses where she lived. That was exciting to me. I have never travelled overseas and most likely I never will so this is the next best thing for me.

When our house was newly built and for a few years afterwards if I went to street view and virtually drove past the house at the front and turned down the side street, the front view of the verandah was partially completed and the side view showed a completed verandah. A virtual TARDIS!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Jul 19 - 05:19 PM

Thanks, Stilly... I'll browse those and others.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mr Red
Date: 30 Jul 19 - 01:07 PM


Is anyone doing any interesting armchair travelling this summer?

Do it all the time. To locate Village Halls, because they rarely have Post Codes and even if they do it could be the caretaker's house some distance.
And because I hunt OS Bench Marks (benchmarks.mister.red) I prefer to see the terrain first - narrow roads with no footpath forewarn me of the danger of any plan. And recently I found the Milestone Society website has 12000 logs and many photos, a percentage of which reveal Bench Marks - at lest 600 in total, and I don't even have to be there! Good as the Milestone Society is, they have anomalies and it is rewarding to go GE and see where the problem is or is in my imagination.

And http://what3words.com use GE - the URLs of which I publish on the Bench Mark website, so if people want to go find - I can point to within 3 metres. eg Sidmouth Anchor Gardens, where better to hold an outdoor ceilidh than at ///jumps.plus.scared or ///gladiators.bumps.games ?
or a singsong at ///sing.volunteered.values

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 01 Aug 19 - 04:05 PM

I have started watching a TV show presented by Dr Alice Roberts: King Arthur's Britain and the initial investigation begins with an aerial view of Tintagel in Cornwall, so I am planning to do a bit of armchair investigations of my own when I have finished watching the show.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Aug 19 - 01:11 PM

If you go to Rahat, Israel on GE, there is a large construction area south of the main part of the town... and one of the images> on the story page shows houses in the background. I think the discovery must be in that basic location.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Aug 19 - 02:05 PM

That's what I concluded also. But with so many cul-de-sac neighborhoods marked out, you can't tell exactly which one.

That reminds me - do you ever find yourself driving past a house or property and telling yourself "I'm going to look that up on Google Maps when I get home?" I often forget, doing the same exercise several times before I actually do pull up the map. Exploring my own neighborhood, in person and virtually.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 02 Aug 19 - 09:31 PM

Yes... I do that a lot. I also look up all my old addresses from the past.. only to find urban renewal has eaten up many of them.
But I did find an OLD B&W pic in a family album of where my father was born in 1907 in Pitcairn, PA... with the address noted. I went to GE and LO! The house is till there and recognizable and occupied. I also find ancestors' cemeteries and look up where they are buried.... and, because the Santa Fe Trail went right by a tiny town where my father went to school, there is a site that collects old pics & info about it, and my family owned the hotel there from about 1911 to 1920 or so. About 8 years ago, I sent them some info and pics, which are included near the bottom. I now have even more to send.
(and because I know where you live after the Katlaughing memorial, I browse your neighborhood also...)

My GoogleEarth placemarks are around 50-60 now.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: JennieG
Date: 04 Aug 19 - 08:59 PM

Interesting photos, Bill! Tell me, please - what is "Booster Day", as shown in some of those pics? I have never heard the term before.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Aug 19 - 09:49 PM

A "booster" is someone who promotes the local businesses in a community for the benefit of both. It can probably be used on a larger scale, but I'm thinking in particular of a novel. If you've ever read Sinclair Lewis's Babbitt, he is a big booster in his community.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Aug 19 - 10:07 PM

Yep.. like an early version of Civic Associations.... promoting the virtues and attractions of the town. I have one photo of a model T with a big sign hanging on the side saying "Good Eats at Day Hotel"
I was in Lost Springs once... when I was about 10-12... for my father's HS reunion. All I really remember is that it was still small, off the main road, and had nothing for kids to do! Boosting only works when you have something to offer.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 19 - 12:25 PM

This travel is more time consuming and distant but is also interested in ancient history - Mars Missions Stop in Their Tracks as Red Planet Drifts to the Far Side of Sun. (Google Earth didn't participate in this one, but I think they do have a site for exploring the moon.) Through some glitch this page has the message repeated several times, the actual article is only five paragraphs).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Aug 19 - 10:09 PM

Here's something interesting from Smithsonian magazine: This Map Lets You Plug in Your Address to See How It’s Changed Over the Past 750 Million Years.

Interactive Map the article describes how to use it.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Sep 19 - 03:06 PM

This one via YouTube, Sir David Attenborough and the Giant Dinosaur, the Titanosaur, this one found in Patagonia, Argentina.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27441156

https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/permanent/orientation-center/the-titanosaur

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Sep 19 - 03:11 PM

Bones of Roman Britons provide new clues to dietary deprivation

Researchers at the University of Bradford have shown a link between the diet of Roman Britons and their mortality rates for the first time, overturning a previously-held belief about the quality of the Roman diet.

Using a new method of analysis, the researchers examined stable isotope data (the ratios of particular chemicals in human tissue) from the bone collagen of hundreds of Roman Britons, together with the individuals' age-of-death estimates and an established mortality model.

The data sample included over 650 individuals from various published archaeological sites throughout England.

The researchers—from institutions including the Museum of London, Durham University and the University of South Carolina—found that higher nitrogen isotope ratios in the bones were associated with a higher risk of mortality, while higher carbon isotope ratios were associated with a lower risk of mortality.

Romano-British urban archaeological populations are characterised by higher nitrogen isotope ratios, which have been thought previously to indicate a better, or high-status, diet. But taking carbon isotope ratios, as well as death rates, into account showed that the nitrogen could also be recording long-term nutritional stress, such as deprivation or starvation.

Differences in sex were also identified by the researchers, with the data showing that men typically had higher ratios of both isotopes, indicating a generally higher status diet compared to women. (The rest is at the link)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Sep 19 - 06:51 PM

Hidden Japanese Settlement Found in Forests of British Columbia



More than 1,000 items have been unearthed there, among them rice bowls, sake bottles and Japanese ceramics

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 01:09 AM

Is this an old enough site to be classified as "archaeology"? Probably not, but interesting:

Missing man's remains found after 22 years thanks to Google Earth

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 10:19 AM

wow!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 11:03 AM

Agreed - wow! There are lots of archaeological discoveries made this way also.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 11:20 AM

Helen, I was about to post that!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 03:49 PM

Great minds, Mrzy!!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Sep 19 - 11:13 PM

If your armchair was at the beach or on a boat: 11 amazing message-in-a-bottle stories.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 19 - 10:15 AM

Temple to ancient Roman cult resurrected beneath London

In central London, seven meters underground, lies an ancient Roman temple to a mysterious god called Mithras.

Nearly 2,000 years after the temple was frequented by the all-male members of an exclusive, enigmatic cult, it has now been faithfully restored and opened to the public.

Visitors descend into a dimly lit cave beneath the new London headquarters of business news outlet Bloomberg. The temple slowly comes to life as torch light flickers and a recording of a low chanting fills the room.

Channels of light and haze extend from the rocky ruins, recreating shadowy columns to give the impression of the temple's superstructure.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 19 - 02:26 PM

I was introduced to Mithra in History 101 in college about 1958. It was explained as descending from Persian Zoroastrianism and having been brought, in various forms, to Rome...probably by slaves... where gradually, Mithra became the focus until it was displaced by, as DR. J. Kelly Sowards called it "dockyards Christianity".

Here is a quote from the Zoroastrian Avesta scriptures: " We sacrifice to Mithra, The Lord of all countries, Whom Ahura Mazda created the most glorious, Of the Supernatural Yazads. So may there come to us for Aid, Both Mithra and Ahura, the Two Exalted Ones,...."
Rome has a myriad of barely explored underground tunnels and tombs. Some may never be excavated due to the city above them.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 19 - 04:08 PM

I recognize the name because it periodically comes up in historical novels. :-/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 07:08 PM

Interesting related programme on BBC One just now - "Earth from Space".

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 10:15 PM

Canine Archaeologists Sniff Out 3,000-Year-Old Graves in Croatia

A new study shows how canines trained to find human remains could help archaeologists locate new sites

Dogs have helped law enforcement and search-and-rescue crews discover human remains for decades. But recently, a new group has enlisted the help of canines and their olfactory superpowers: archaeologists.

In a recent paper in the Journal of Archeological Method and Theory, Vedrana Glavaš, an archaeologist at the University of Zadar in Croatia, and Andrea Pintar, a cadaver dog handler, describe how dogs trained to find human remains helped them track down gravesites dating to around 700 B.C. . . .To test the dogs, Glavaš had them sniff around an area where they she had excavated three grave sites the year before. The human remains had been removed, and due to weathering, it was no longer apparent where the excavations had taken place. Two dogs, working independently, easily located all three spots.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: leeneia
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 06:38 PM

that's interesting. And amazing. Thanks, SRS.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Dec 19 - 01:22 PM

WWI German vessel Scharnhorst found off of Falkland Islands

Maritime archaeologists have located the wreck of the S.M.S. Scharnhorst, an armored battle cruiser that served as the flagship of German Admiral Maximilian Graf von Spee’s East Asia Squadron during World War I, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust announced this week.

The Scharnhorst sank in the south Atlantic on December 8, 1914, with more than 800 crew members onboard. The cruiser was one of four German ships lost during the Battle of the Falkland Islands; according to official dispatches, two support vessels from the squadron were later evacuated and scuttled.

Per a press release, the heritage trust started looking for the sunken ships on the centenary of the battle in 2014. Initial search attempts were unsuccessful, but archaeologists recently returned to the site of the naval engagement with state-of-the-art subsea exploration equipment, including a specialized vessel called the Seabed Constructor and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs).

The rest is at the link.

There are other views of it here.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Dec 19 - 06:33 PM

thanks for posting, Stilly, I now have a new bookmark (here) - Live Science, lots of interesting stuff.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 07:14 AM

Yes indeed, thanks for your Herculean efforts Professor Sage.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 07:35 AM

google lidar Earth

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 12:06 PM

Lidar! Another way to get sucked into the close details using Google Earth. It's also very good for hard science.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 01:20 PM

I was comparing photos of the polar regions of Saturn and Jupiter and noticed a profound similarity. Saturn has a north polar vortex that is in the perfect shape of a hexagon. Jupiter has a brand new polar storm of 6 hurricanes that trace a hexagon shape, all surrounding a central storm. There are obviously forces that resolve into a hexagon shape around planetary gas giant polar regions. THE questions are how and why.

Ancient images of the hexagon and star of David as well as Gurjiefian and Kabalistic cosmology may have no bearing but there is an intriguing cosmic question here.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 03:11 PM

Back on Earth there are many early Olmec sites but the Mayans have on occaision built on top of other ancient structures so even lidar can not show everything.

The Olmec people interest me the most since they are the most global cosmpolitan ancient civilization I have ever seen. There are quite a few links with India Hindu statues of various gods like Garuda and Shiva as well as stone heads with African features. Europeans, not so much.

I am leaning toward India as the heart of ancient civilization. Now I will look at the genetic records, architecture and dates to see if my guess is reasonable.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 03:22 PM

Check the Grand Egyptian Museum's construction, not far from the pyramids.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 03:54 PM

WHY ? What do we look for?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 03:57 PM

Could follow its construction (will be the biggest museum in the world, I think), as priceless items are moved across Cairo from the old museum.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Dec 19 - 04:00 PM

Ramses II does look buff.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 12:05 PM

This one is out of this world: Indian Moon Lander Crash Site located by an amateur astronomer.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Iains
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 01:04 PM

I am leaning toward India as the heart of ancient civilization. Now I will look at the genetic records, architecture and dates to see if my guess is reasonable.

Conventional archeology holds that the Romans built Baalbek. They may have built the temple to jupiter However this sits atop 3000ton dressed megaliths. Funny the Romans left no written record of how they moved those megaliths. Even stranger they had the technology to move them.
But this is a pattern repeated throughout the world, ancient ruins are built on top of carefully dressed megaliths. Frequently the basal craftmanship is of far greater quality than the overlying constructions.
This suggests to me that conventional archeology needs to get out and about more and rethink a few basics. Gobekli Tepi has given them a bit of a poke in the eye as far as shifting boundaries back is concerned. In the last 20000 years sea level has risen 400feet. How many ruins lie under the sea? I suspect a paradigm shift is in the offing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 02:22 PM

Archaeological materials underwater are old news, Iains, New World and Old, with divers finding Mayan relics in an underwater cave and Robert Ballard has pushed those limits even further with discoveries of the ancient ruins under the Black Sea. To say nothing of Alexandria, Egypt, many Greek ruins, all sorts of Mediterranean stuff, etc.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Iains
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 03:26 PM

Not disputing some are old news. Others are more recent news. If the accepted dating of gobekli tepi is 12000BP then I would anticipate many more underwater discoveries. It is probably no exaggeration to say we know more of the surface features of Mars than the underwater features of our own planet.
The Yonaguni Island Submarine Ruins are subject to controversy as to whether they are manmade or natural.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 06:37 PM

wikipedia on Yonaguni Monument

thanks to all who post here, I've seen so many interesting pages & bookmarked several more pages.

I've been buying 2 magazines over the past year or so as my local libraries no longer get archaeology magazines (shock, horror, no regular archaeology!) & a growing pile of magazines when I'm trying to downsize. Fortunately I have a friend who volunteers on archaeological sites ...

Current World Archaeology - Archaeological Institute of America
Current World Archaeology

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 08:17 PM

When I was in college in the 1960s, I remember a lecture noting that Mohenjo-daro in India and Harappa in what is now Pakistan were some of the earliest known major cities known. Other excavations find evidence of settlements, but very few large ones.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 08:23 PM

Admiral O Voyus says it is clear that sea levels were significantly lower in the past. In addition to the underwater architecture already mentioned, there are structures remaining off of Japan, Cuba, India, China, Argentina and HERE

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Dec 19 - 09:14 PM

I am a huge Globeki Tepi fan. Some distance away in Turkey there is an underground city with ventillation and room for livestock that is nearly 20 stories deep.

I've climbed cliffside dwellings and seen pictures of mountain top temples in Nepal, Peru, underground cities and now underwater cities. We are damn clever animals especially in trying to escape other predatory people or enviorments. We are now looking to interplanatary travel while our ancestors were more advanced in building with 'unliftable stone'.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Dec 19 - 12:04 AM

I probably saw this in Smithsonian when it first came out and forgot all about it. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Iains
Date: 19 Dec 19 - 04:51 AM

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150325-underground-city-cappadocia-turkey-archaeology/

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2016/05/20160511-Maya-Lost-City-Canadian-Teen-Discover-Constellations-Archaeology-Satell

I wonder how that Mayan City?is going to play out.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jan 20 - 11:58 AM

Archaeologists find a Roman London Bridge in a very short video added to British Pathé.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 03 Jan 20 - 08:21 PM

thanks, Stilly, that link led me to other good info

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jan 20 - 12:51 AM

Down the rabbit hole, eh?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 Jan 20 - 01:24 AM

yes!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 03:17 PM

This will keep a few of you busy. Crank up the Google Earth and start exploring. (You might want to save a copy of this map in case the link isn't durable.)

You're welcome. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 06:31 PM

Not shown on the map from SRS, Aborigines were probably trading with Malay people back then.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 06:48 PM

Many things aren't shown, this is the Big Picture wide-ranging stuff. There was lots of trading in the Americas, literally from North to South and between the coasts.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jan 20 - 07:54 PM

I had a problem with "Ragusa" on the map, a town which I know from Sicily. Having been forced to look it up, I discovered that it's also the ancient name for Dubrovnik. So I've learned something today!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 03:04 PM

From Reddit, "The Roman Empire at its height, superimposed on modern borders" https://www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/comments/etzi6v/the_roman_empire_at_its_height_superimposed_on/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 06:24 PM

I think Scotland is just as happy that Hadrian built that wall.

"No, nothing of interest up here. Those sheep in the south will keep you busy."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 06:55 PM

Hadrian's Wall doesn't anything like follow the modern-day Scottish border. Its western end is pretty close but the eastern end is almost 70 miles south of the border. It's very unlikely that the wall was built to keep out (or in) the ravening hordes. In fact, passage across the wall was probably fairly free, and its function was more likely to be something akin to a customs border. I'm amazed and disgusted with myself that I've never seen it (even though I've crossed its path a good few times).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: robomatic
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 07:04 PM

This is fascinating stuff. Once between flights in an airport I met a guy who had seen Youtube videos of white (Beluga) whales in Alaska and, according to him, noticed something that no one else had. He'd observed that while the whales had no dorsal fins, they were able to contract their bodies along their sleek sides and form them into a kind of triangular cross-section effectively giving their spine-side a more vertical shape. His observations had gotten him a free trip to Alaska to tell people about it.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 07:39 PM

citizen science.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 20 - 10:53 PM

I saw this mentioned somewhere but can't find it now. Archaeologists have found a bottle with nails in it - if they want to find a modern version of that, my work bench and just about every family workshop probably has something similar. Suspected ‘Witch Bottle’ Full of Nails Found in Virginia

In 2016, archaeologists excavating sections of a southern Virginia interstate unearthed dinnerware and a brick hearth at a Civil War encampment called Redoubt 9. Near the hearth, they found a blue glass bottle made in Pennsylvania between 1840 and 1860. Eerily, the vessel was filled with nails.

At first, the team didn’t know what to make of the bottle, theorizing it was perhaps just a place to collect spare nails. Now, however, experts suspect the container may be a “witch bottle”—one of less than a dozen such protective talismans found in the United States to date, according to a statement from the College of William & Mary.

Witch bottles originated in England during the 1600s, when a witch panic was overtaking Europe. Per JSTOR Daily’s Allison C. Meier, the charms were believed to use hair, fingernail clippings or urine to draw in evil spirits that were then trapped in the bottle by sharp objects like nails, pins or hooks. An alternative theory regarding the vessels suggests they were used not to fight bad luck, but to attract good luck, longevity and health.

Placed near a hearth, metal items enclosed in the bottles would heat up, making them more effective. A witch bottle filled with fishing hooks, glass shards and human teeth, for instance, was found in an English pub’s chimney last November. . .

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 08:00 AM

There's a thread on it above the line, Maggie. Maybe someone thought you could get a tune out of it... :-)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 05:53 PM

Speaking of glass jars ancient Egypt had glass jars and perhaps windows

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 04:19 PM

The 2 mile high glaciers over N America and Europe were mostly melted by 10 K BC. The inundation covered an area of 10,000,000 sq. mi., the size of China and Europe combined. The archeological ruins of the prior seaside civilizations would therefore be under water today. What google earth technologies allows us a peek underwater?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Feb 20 - 06:56 PM

Rats were the 'first curators' at Sydney museum Hyde Park Barracks Rat infestations may have been a nightmare for convicts at Sydney's Hyde Park Barracks in the 1800s, but today historians are grateful for the rodents.
Scuttering beneath the floorboards, the rats hoarded scraps of fabric, food and personal treasures.
Researchers joke that these rats inadvertently became the barracks' first curators.
The material looked like big piles of dusty, dirty rubbish when it was discovered in 1979, but archaeologists were thrilled upon closer inspection.
"It turns out the accumulated rat nests contained more than 80,000 archaeological artefacts that had been trapped under the floorboards and undisturbed for up to 160 years," said Beth Hise from Sydney Living Museums.

A short history of the Hyde Park Barracks with links to other articles on Sydney's Living Museums, including archaeology & history of music in these former homes & Government buildings.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 20 - 08:32 PM

Will LIDAR work to look under water?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Iains
Date: 20 Feb 20 - 03:12 AM

https://gisgeography.com/lidar-light-detection-and-ranging/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 08:59 AM

You don't have to go far, some of you, to check out this lost bit of history: Long-Forgotten Secret Passageway Discovered In A Wall At U.K. Parliament

Within the wood paneling of a hallway in the British House of Commons, there was a small brass keyhole.

Members of Parliament and staff walked past the tiny hole each day. The rare person who noticed the hole took it for an electrical cabinet.

Enter a team of historians planning the much-needed restoration of the Palace of Westminster, which is home to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The oldest part of the estate, Westminster Hall, dates to 1099 and is still in use.

The team was at the Historic England Archive poring over some 10,000 uncatalogued documents relating to the palace when they found something interesting: plans for a doorway in the cloister behind Westminster Hall.

Back at the palace, they found that tiny keyhole in the wood paneling — just where the plan suggested it would be. They had a key made so they could open the door – and they discovered a secret passageway 360 years old. . . .

If you can't read the rest of the story from outside the US let me know and I'll paste it in later.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Feb 20 - 09:07 AM

thanks, stilly

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 05:12 PM

I decided to refresh this thread because during social isolation we can't travel in real life but we can do it virtually.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 05:47 PM

Technically this probably doesn't count as an archaeological site in that I don't think anyone has dug around it looking for clues to the past but as a link to the history of our land it stacks up as one of the biggest and best:

Uluru aka Ayers Rock

For some impressive photos of the rock drag the little yellow sightseeing icon from bottom right to the Sunset Viewing Area to the right and below the rock.

But an important archaeological site in Australia is
Lake Mungo in NSW

Mungo National Park

"Scientists have discovered artefacts of this ancient culture dating back over 50,000 years across the expanses of the last ice age. This makes Mungo one of the oldest places outside of Africa to have been occupied by modern humans since ancient times."

I have said before that making some visits to outback Australia has been the highlight of my travels and I was privileged to visit Lake Mungo on a bus tour arranged through our University. We had a man who had studied indigenous people, an historian and the bus driver was a geologist. We also visited Wilpena Pound which is an impressive rock formation.

In all of the three places it was not just the sightseeing aspect which impressed me. It was the spiritual power of those places and the connection going back over 50,000 years for the indigenous people of our land.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 07:18 PM

I can see the ice age glacial scour marks in parllel that indicate direction. The glacier that carried that rock must have been a mile or more high. The rock dropped and the glacier scrubbed it from above.

50,000 years! There are some possible indications of man at 75,000.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 07:19 PM

or not?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 27 Mar 20 - 07:55 PM

Well, I was quoting the Mungo website on the "over 50,000 years" but I recall seeing an article recently which placed them here at around 60,000 years.

I don't think glaciers had anything to do with the formation of Uluru. I'd have to do a bit of searching to find out more, but I'd be surprised if we had glaciers slap bang in the centre of Australia.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 12:32 AM

I love looking at landscapes using Google Earth. I pulled it up just now to look in north Quebec to get a link to some of the glacial scars, then noticed Lac Manicouagan, a circular lake with land in the middle. But that's not a volcanic area, so I looked it up. Wow! It's a meteor crater!

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manicouagan_crater
If you plug this into Google Earth or maps you should go straight to it.
51°27'24.83" N 68°43'43.84" W

What a pleasure, a site that I can go do more reading about. Thanks for reopening this, Helen. In this case, it would be for an armchair geologist or astrophysicist or whoever it is who explores meteors - but wait! This might be part of a "multiple-impact event." From Wikipedia:

The Manicouagan crater may have been part of a multiple impact event which also formed the Rochechouart crater in France, Saint Martin crater in Manitoba, Obolon' crater in Ukraine, and Red Wing crater in North Dakota. The five craters form a chain, indicating the breakup and subsequent impact of an asteroid or comet,[5] like the impacts of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994.

The Wikipedia site has several links in that paragraph.

Enjoy!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 02:33 AM

Uluru from wikipedia

Uluru is an inselberg, literally "island mountain".[6][7][8] An inselberg is a prominent isolated residual knob or hill that rises abruptly from and is surrounded by extensive and relatively flat erosion lowlands in a hot, dry region.[9] Uluru is also often referred to as a monolith, although this is a somewhat ambiguous term that is generally avoided by geologists.[10]

The remarkable feature of Uluru is its homogeneity and lack of jointing and parting at bedding surfaces, leading to the lack of development of scree slopes and soil. These characteristics led to its survival, while the surrounding rocks were eroded.[10]

For the purpose of mapping and describing the geological history of the area, geologists refer to the rock strata making up Uluru as the Mutitjulu Arkose, and it is one of many sedimentary formations filling the Amadeus Basin.[6]

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 11:29 AM

Those who have traveled through the Texas panhandle know that the region is a flat plain, cut by the passage of water (to create such marvels as Palo Duro Canyon. But north of Amarillo there is an ancient buried mountain range that pushed to the surface and is the source of metamorphic minerals (rubies, etc.) and in Central Texas there are remnant ancient mountains that have igneous granite, quartz, tourmaline, silver, etc. and topaz. While topaz is number 9 on the Moe hardness scale (diamond being 10), it formed in igneous areas, versus diamonds as carbon under pressure in metamorphic areas. Who knows, maybe one day they'll find diamonds in the Texas Panhandle.

Anyway, this riff is offered up as an appreciation of ancient rocks that stick up out of the newer surrounding stuff. It can be very interesting.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Mar 20 - 02:34 PM

Australia started off in Antarctica https://youtu.be/UkDzSZfWFAQ

Land of glaciers

It's still moving about 20 feet Northeast per 20 years.
One day Australia will approach Hawaii.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Mar 20 - 10:53 PM

I clipped this some time ago to add to a site I work on, but it is a great one for this thread also:

5,200-year-old grains in the eastern Altai Mountains redate trans-Eurasian crop exchange

Most people are familiar with the historical Silk Road, but fewer people realize that the exchange of items, ideas, technology, and human genes through the mountain valleys of Central Asia started almost three millennia before organized trade networks formed. These pre-Silk Road exchange routes played an important role in shaping human cultural developments across Europe and Asia, and facilitated the dispersal of technologies such as horse breeding and metal smelting into East Asia. One of the most impactful effects of this process of ancient cultural dispersal was the westward spread of northeast Asian crops and the eastward spread of southwest Asian crops.

http://www.geologypage.com/2020/02/5200-year-old-grains-in-the-eastern-altai-mountains-redate-trans-eurasian-crop-exchange.html

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 01 Apr 20 - 03:39 AM

We moved to West Clare in Ireland 20 years ago and have visited here since the early 70s, yet have never ceased being amazed by the archeological wonders of 'The Burren', fifteen miles from our doorstep
It is 250 km of limestone plateau covering most of North Clare covered with Bronze Age remains and ruined medieval churches as well as containing some rare plants in the grikes (limestone (fissures)
New sites are being worked on and opened up for public access fairly regularly and it is so respected that, after a long battle, the council was forced to close a hideous car part, visitors centre that it began to construct a few decades ago
It features on the programme of our local History Society regularly, both as a lecture topic and on our guided tour programmes
POULNABRONE DOLMEN and THE CLIFFS of MOHER tend to be overused but both are well worth a visit when the crowds have gone home
The cliffs are said to be the highest in Europe - they aren't but they've got a better publicity tear - they are in Donegal
Like all worthwhile visitors spots, it's great to take an overview, but it takes time to see the really place

The Traditional music of Clare is rightly reputed to be the best in Ireland, but the true officiados avoid Doolin like Covit 19 - that's where the visitors with 12 string guitars and Bodhrans go to listen to (or talk over) each other - try Ennis off better still (he boasted) Miltown Malbay
Well worth an Google Earth (or Bing) viewing, or better still, an as-long-as-you-can-manage visit
Caed mile failte (he said in his best Liverpool Irish)
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 02 Apr 20 - 04:30 PM

Just reading this article:

Skull of a toddler is the oldest known fossil of the earliest human, Homo erectus

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 02 Apr 20 - 04:32 PM

Oops. Lost the last "s" in homo erectus. Too long for the Mudcat Linkmaker, I'm guessing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Apr 20 - 12:56 AM

Fixed it. It didn't affect the link itself.

Here's one someone posted on the Mudcat Facebook page (though that isn't really the place, unless there's a song about it? I'm pasting it in with only a glance at the content)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/maine-shipwreck-colonial.html

In 1769, a cargo ship laden with flour, pork and English goods set sail from Salem, Mass., headed to Portland, Maine.

The ship encountered a fierce storm and never made it to its destination. Now a maritime archaeologist believes he may have solved the mystery.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Apr 20 - 08:17 AM

thanks for posting this link, stilly

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 20 - 05:35 PM

Here's an interesting story: The real Lord of the Flies: what happened when six boys were shipwrecked for 15 months

The article begins with a discussion of the Golding story, then switches to information about Captain Peter Warner, who discovered some boys actually shipwrecked on an island in the Tonga archipelago. This is the "armchair archaeology part of the story:

On the way home he took a little detour and that’s when he saw it: a minuscule island in the azure sea, ‘Ata. The island had been inhabited once, until one dark day in 1863, when a slave ship appeared on the horizon and sailed off with the natives. Since then, ‘Ata had been deserted – cursed and forgotten. . . .

And here's more from the article:

No one noticed the small craft leaving the harbour that evening. Skies were fair; only a mild breeze ruffled the calm sea. But that night the boys made a grave error. They fell asleep. A few hours later they awoke to water crashing down over their heads. It was dark. They hoisted the sail, which the wind promptly tore to shreds. Next to break was the rudder. “We drifted for eight days,” Mano told me. “Without food. Without water.” The boys tried catching fish. They managed to collect some rainwater in hollowed-out coconut shells and shared it equally between them, each taking a sip in the morning and another in the evening.

Then, on the eighth day, they spied a miracle on the horizon. A small island, to be precise. Not a tropical paradise with waving palm trees and sandy beaches, but a hulking mass of rock, jutting up more than a thousand feet out of the ocean. These days, ‘Ata is considered uninhabitable. But “by the time we arrived,” Captain Warner wrote in his memoirs, “the boys had set up a small commune with food garden, hollowed-out tree trunks to store rainwater, a gymnasium with curious weights, a badminton court, chicken pens and a permanent fire, all from handiwork, an old knife blade and much determination.” While the boys in Lord of the Flies come to blows over the fire, those in this real-life version tended their flame so it never went out, for more than a year. . . .

They survived initially on fish, coconuts, tame birds (they drank the blood as well as eating the meat); seabird eggs were sucked dry. Later, when they got to the top of the island, they found an ancient volcanic crater, where people had lived a century before. There the boys discovered wild taro, bananas and chickens (which had been reproducing for the 100 years since the last Tongans had left).

https://matangitonga.to/2020/04/16/ata-archaeology

http://readingthemaps.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-slave-raids-on-tonga-documents-and.html

https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/sold-slavery

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/27-02-2017/they-have-six-fingers-on-their-hands-part-1-of-the-strange-story-of-tongas-lost-island-of-ata/

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/28-02-2017/a-masterpiece-of-pacific-story-telling-part-2-of-the-strange-story-of-tongas-lost-island-of-ata/

https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/01-03-2017/the-long-nightmare-of-imperialism-part-3-of-the-strange-story-of-tongas-lost-island-of-ata/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBAta

Here area few of the links I found in searching out this story. Down a rabbit hole!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 11 May 20 - 09:18 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?Ata

To read about it and get Google Earth link...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jun 20 - 12:00 AM

The Dead Sea Scrolls contain genetic clues to their origins

Animal DNA gleaned from parchments is helping researchers piece together the scrolls’ history

Researchers have used animal DNA from fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the one shown here, to identify which pieces come from the same manuscripts and where those documents originated.

Genetic clues extracted from slivers of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls are helping to piece together related scroll remnants and reveal the diverse origins of these ancient texts, including a book of the Hebrew Bible.

The scrolls are made of sheepskin and cow skin, which retain DNA from those animals. Analyzing that DNA represents a new way to figure out which of the more than 25,000 Dead Sea Scroll fragments come from the same animals, and thus likely the same documents, say molecular biologist Oded Rechavi of Tel Aviv University and his colleagues.

Findings so far suggest that the Dead Sea Scrolls reflect religious and biblical developments across southern Israel around 2,000 years ago, not just among people who lived near the caves where many scrolls were stored, as some scholars have contended, Rechavi’s team reports June 2 in Cell.

The rest is at the link.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 10:59 AM

.... and what a lot of 'rest' at the link! I got the basic point, but the details of DNA, locations, linguistic features...etc. is for scholars.
What I, personally, took from the link is that there were several
'versions' of certain biblical manuscripts, and that decisions as to which to make part of accepted text were highly selective.... depending on theological persuasions. Not a bit surprising...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 20 - 09:52 PM

It was mostly an excuse to poke around the area in Google Earth, but I notice the resolution over Israel isn't very good. Probably on purpose.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: JHW
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 08:20 AM

Walking one recent day a few miles from home and 2metres from a farmer also walking he pointed to a flat field of green grain. "Try Google Earth, there are barely known Roman remains in that field".

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Jun 20 - 11:42 AM

Send us the coordinates and we can take a look!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 02:13 PM

A Massive, Late Neolithic Pit Structure associated with Durrington Walls Henge (the durable link https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.55.4 brings you here)

A series of massive geophysical anomalies, located south of the Durrington Walls henge monument, were identified during fluxgate gradiometer survey undertaken by the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project (SHLP). Initially interpreted as dewponds, these data have been re-evaluated, along with information on similar features revealed by archaeological contractors undertaking survey and excavation to the north of the Durrington Walls henge. Analysis of the available data identified a total of 20 comparable features, which align within a series of arcs adjacent to Durrington Walls. Further geophysical survey, supported by mechanical coring, was undertaken on several geophysical anomalies to assess their nature, and to provide dating and environmental evidence. The results of fieldwork demonstrate that some of these features, at least, were massive, circular pits with a surface diameter of 20m or more and a depth of at least 5m. Struck flint and bone were recovered from primary silts and radiocarbon dating indicates a Late Neolithic date for the lower silts of one pit. The degree of similarity across the 20 features identified suggests that they could have formed part of a circuit of large pits around Durrington Walls, and this may also have incorporated the recently discovered Larkhill causewayed enclosure. The diameter of the circuit of pits exceeds 2km and there is some evidence that an intermittent, inner post alignment may have existed within the circuit of pits. One pit may provide evidence for a recut; suggesting that some of these features could have been maintained through to the Middle Bronze Age. Together, these features represent a unique group of features related to the henge at Durrington Walls, executed at a scale not previously recorded.

And a side trip dictated by the text of the abstract, the Larkhill causewayed Enclosure.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Jul 20 - 06:51 PM

Which just goes to show that there's still hidden history even in our most intensively-studied places ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jul 20 - 04:40 PM

There was a program on PBS this week a program called "Secrets of the Dead" looking at Viking graves on a particular island and warrior excavated in the last century who has turned out to be a woman. A blurb about it says Nearly 20 miles from Stockholm, Björkö, Sweden, is a small island just two miles long and a half-mile wide. From 750-950 AD, it was home to Birka, one of the most powerful towns in the region and one of the major centers for trade in the Viking world. What I find surprising is just how far inland that island is, way upstream from the Baltic Sea. Google Earth goes to both Birka, Sweden or Björkö, Sweden, the former taking you to the archaeological site.

Viking Warrior Queen on PBS may only be viewable in the US.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 20 - 02:03 PM

Some Polynesians Carry DNA of Ancient Native Americans, New Study Finds

A new genetic study suggests that Polynesians made an epic voyage to South America 800 years ago.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/science/polynesian-ancestry.html

The results of a new study suggest that they did. Today, people on Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, and four other Polynesian islands carry small amounts of DNA inherited from people who lived in Colombia about 800 years ago. One explanation: Polynesians came to South America, and then took South Americans onto their boats to voyage back out to sea.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jul 20 - 04:31 PM

There is more proof Pharoic Egypt traded with the ancient Venezuealeans.

Polenesian navigators still possses amazing power.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jul 20 - 10:40 AM

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/researchers-in-museums/2019/04/20/cocaine-mummies-the-search-for-narcotics-in-historic-collections/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Sep 20 - 11:47 PM

Egyptian Authorities Have Discovered 13 Completely Sealed 2,500-Year-Old Coffins

"Saqqara is believed to have served as the necropolis for Memphis, once the capital of ancient Egypt. For 3,000 years, the Egyptians interred their dead there; as such, it's become a site of much archaeological interest.

It's not just the high-ranking nobility and officials buried there, with their grave goods, their cartouches, their mummified animals, and their richly appointed tombs. Those are more likely to be found, since their interment was more elaborate - but recent excavations have turned up simpler burials, likely of people from the middle or working class."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 03:24 AM

tahanks, Stilly

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mr Red
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 04:41 AM

Years ago a colleague once told me that Wednesbury was built on an Iron Age Hillfort. The topography is fairly hilltop, and there are roads that now run downhill with strange level section. Tell-tale signs of ditched.

I have since looked at other towns with the same eye, Tetbury for instance. And Old Sarum outside Salisbury** is a good historical reminder. It is still a hillfort with the outline of a cathedral within, which was demolished when they re-located and built an humungous edifice in the valley. The hillfort became a rotten borough which clearly indicated that it had been a bustling town (aka village) when the cathedral was there. And hillforts (a misnomer) were what Ceaser called opida, they were fortified conurbations. And it would be inevitable that some had continued occupation in one form or another throughout history, and a church at the top, in a sort of Norman corporate identity fashion. Hence Wednesbury (aka Wodensburg) and Walsall (fro Wales sale - eg market town).

** you can see the foundations of the old cathedral.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:25 AM

Red, have you ever watched the series "Ancient Britain'?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 12:17 PM

You may have to click on the button to "view as list" - from Mashable in 2012, 10 Amazing Google Earth and Maps Discoveries. As old as the article is, not all of the links go to the photos or map coordinates original linked, but if you pull up Google Earth and search you'll often find the sites.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 07:44 PM

I often find that searching for a place... for example, London, will bring up many links, but usually near the top of the list is the Wikipedia article-- at least for most site with names.
thus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London

In the upper right corner will be the clickable HTML to the coordinates... clicking it takes to the "Geohack" page
for 51° 30' 26? N, 0° 7' 39? W

This gives a list for many map links. I use almost entirely the GoogleEarth links, (but you may find some items of special interest).... If you have G.E. installed, these will download and send the correct address to G.E. and start it up and take you directly to a spot over London.
   From there, you can browse..or enter specific search terms...

Play with it.. or use the Wikipedia + Geohack links to do many things.. I seldom find sites that show coordinates as well or in a clickable format as Wikipedia.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 02:37 PM

Good tip. I love simply looking as closely at some areas as possible, to see the marks on the ground of old roads, foundations, earth moving evidence, etc. Then marking if it I want to go back later. It's ridiculously easy to mark places, even if you didn't intend to. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 08:17 PM

I have 30-40 places with markers. Some are places I used to live.. some are locations from my geneology researches in Western PA... and some are just interesting places. They can be named, explained in a note... etc. Sure saves trying to remember exactly where something is.
I use a Microsoft keyboard and it has 5 programmable buttons to open things in one click.... my #4 is G.E.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Mr Red
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 02:32 AM

Red, have you ever watched the series "Ancient Britain'?

Can't say specifically, but tell you what .................

I live it.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 04:11 PM

Bill I explored some unusual places in PA. Ever heard of Gallitzin?
The old steel baron mansions given to religious orders?
A waterfall from 50 carved half shells placed into a mountain side spilling from one shell to the next. A 50 yard long slip and slide carved by water into solid rock, wierd stuff.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 11:53 AM

No, Don... I'll go search on it as an interesting place, but my primary concern was how G.E. helped me view my ancestors' locations in Green County and a couple other far western areas.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 12:40 PM

I was up in the Catskills with a friend many years ago and he knew about the masonry remains of a huge old Revolutionary War-era foundry or mill of some sort, now ruins standing in a forest. It was a remarkable area and I need to dig out the slides and digitize them.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 04:38 PM

Antarctica archeology

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 05:41 PM

Really?

Two minutes into that and alarm bells about hocum are going off.

Gregg Braden (born June 28, 1954)[citation needed] is an American New Age author, who is widely known for his appearances in Ancient Aliens and his show Missing Links, and other publications about linking science & spirituality.[1] He became noted for his claim that the magnetic polarity of the earth was about to reverse.[2][3][4] Braden argued that the change in the earth's magnetic field might have effects on human DNA.[5] He has also argued that human emotions affect DNA and that collective prayer may have healing physical effects.[6][7] He has published many books through the Hay House publishing house. In 2009, his book Fractal Time was on the bestseller list of The New York Times.[8]His works consist mainly of parascience.

Lets stick to actual sites.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 06:01 PM

Yes, let's... ;-)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 08:08 AM

Modern humans are a complex mixture of neanderthals , homo sapiens, Denosovians and others. Irrelevant bells went off for me too regarding the big head hype in that link BUT the idea of Denosovian archaeology and still existing architecture is intriguing while never proved. Sometimes if you don't look you won't see. There are plenty of scholorly sites that put the 'out of Africa' theory in the shade.

I should paint a grinning 14ft. tall Denisovian holding an adult Hobbit in one hand. :^/

Didn't Pharoh Achenaton have a wierd head?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 10:06 AM

Sometimes you have to look deeper - find actual legitimate searches for stuff on the ground under the Antarctic ice. Just because Braden has mastered SEO doesn't mean he actually has anything to say. Just to sell.

Go enter your search terms into Google Scholar and see if something turns up.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 10:56 AM

All we can say with certainty is that our understanding of the diversity of human form in the very recent past has increased once again, and that the mysterious Denisovans have at last come in from the cold. If you want to search for giants you will find Andre' was real.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 11:07 AM

I wouldn't throw epigenetics out the window with the bathwater
just because Brayden sounds like a nutter.
Thats the second time I should have watched the entire you tube.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 04:34 PM

This is related to the wannabe Indians with their spiritual crystal-worshiping teepee-sleeping drivel that they push out that is so offensive to actual people who are American Indians and to people who study and discuss actual American Indian literature, music, art, etc. New Age is simply different packaging for snake oil.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 20 - 12:16 PM

https://www.livescience.com/meteorite-crater-australia-outback.html

"When geologists at Evolution Mining, an Australian gold mining company, came across some unusual rock cores at Ora Banda, they called Jayson Meyers, the principal geophysicist, director and founder of Resource Potentials, a geophysics consulting and contracting company in Perth. Meyers examined the geologists' drill core samples, as well as rock samples from the site, and he immediately noticed the shatter cones — telltale signs of a meteorite crash."

This is a geology story, not an anthropology one, but it's another opportunity to prowl around the desert with your Google Earth.

"Shatter cones form when high-pressure, high-velocity shock waves from a large impacting object — such as a meteorite or a gigantic explosion (such as would occur at a nuclear testing site) — rattle an area, according to the Planetary Science Institute (PSI), a nonprofit group based in Tucson, Arizona, which was not involved with the new find. These shock waves shatter rock into the unique shatter cone shape, just like a mark that a hard object can leave on a car's windshield.

Because "we know they didn't do any nuclear testing at Ora Banda," the evidence suggests that an ancient impact crater hit the site, Meyers told Resourc.ly."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Sep 20 - 04:59 PM

‘The mystery is over’: Researchers say they know what happened to ‘Lost Colony’

BUXTON, N.C. — The English colonists who settled the so-called Lost Colony before disappearing from history simply went to live with their native friends — the Croatoans of Hatteras, according to a new book.

“They were never lost,” said Scott Dawson, who has researched records and dug up artifacts where the colonists lived with the Indians in the 16th century. “It was made up. The mystery is over.”

Dawson has written a book, published in June, that details his research. It is called “The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island,” and echos many of the sentiments he has voiced for years.

A team of archaeologists, historians, botanists, geologists and others have conducted digs on small plots in Buxton and Frisco for 11 years.

Dawson and his wife, Maggie, formed the Croatoan Archaeological Society when the digs began. Mark Horton, a professor and archaeologist from England’s University of Bristol leads the project. Henry Wright, professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan, is an expert on native history.

Teams have found thousands of artifacts 4-6 feet below the surface that show a mix of English and Indian life. Parts of swords and guns are in the same layer of soil as Indian pottery and arrowheads.

The excavated earth looks like layer cake as the centuries pass.

“In a spot the size of two parking spaces, we could find 10,000 pieces,” he said.

Pieces found during the project are on display in the community building in Hatteras Village. The rest are in storage.

The rest is at the link.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Sep 20 - 10:40 PM

Australia - stunning rock art 6,000-9,400 years old Key points
    Archaeologists and Traditional Owners have documented rock art from 87 sites across north west Arnhem Land
    The team identified more than 570 images of animals, humans and spirits created between 6,000 and 9,400 years ago
    The images are painted in a style, known as Maliwawa, not seen elsewhere before

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 01:33 PM

Egypt Unveils 59 ancient coffins.

Story on Al Jazeera.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Oct 20 - 02:16 PM

Sandra, your article mentions rock art of dugong - on "Arnem Land" - I looked that up and find it is close enough to water for it to be something the artist would see in their regional travels. I wonder if they hunted them, or revered them, or both? I suppose bone fragments would have to tell that story.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 08:52 AM

google search on dugong rock art arnham land gives many references, I'm not sure how many would help,

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Oct 20 - 09:30 AM

Here's a likely discussion: Introducing the Maliwawa Figures: a previously undescribed rock art style found in Western Arnhem Land.

In the Maliwawa paintings, human figures are frequently depicted with animals, especially macropods (kangaroos and wallabies), and these animal-human relationships appear to be central to the artists’ message. In some instances, animals almost appear to be participating in or watching some human activity.

Another key theme is a male or indeterminate human figure holding an animal, often a snake, or another human figure or an object.

Such scenes are rare in early rock art, not just in Australia but worldwide. They provide a remarkable glimpse into past Aboriginal life and cultural beliefs.

and further on

We first found some of these figures during a survey in 2008-2009 but they became the focus of further field research from 2016 to 2018.

So I guess understanding the relationships between these humans and animals is still being studied.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Oct 20 - 01:23 PM

In my Instagram feed I follow a number of science-related sites, including one to do with geological features around the world. This morning they posted a photo of Izvor Cetina or Cetina spring, in Croatia. You look at a place like that and instinctively know that it was always an important human site, even in the current rural configuration of the area.

From Wikipedia:

The Cetina Valley and the narrow passage at Klis have always functioned as a principal trade route between the Croatian coast and hinterland. Strategically, it has been pivotal to the development, not only of the Balkans, but also of significant parts of Europe.[3]


Mouth of the Cetina river in Omiš, 2017
The earliest evidence for agricultural activity is from the Early Neolithic in the upper part of the valley. In the Early Bronze Age the Cetina culture, a geographically pervasive group with contacts throughout the Adriatic basin, became dominant. Extensive mound fields are recorded on the lower valley slopes at several locations around Cetina, Vrlika and Bajagic. As in other parts of Europe, the river appears to have been the focus of the intentional deposition of artifacts throughout prehistory. This is particularly true at the confluence of the Cetina and Ruda rivers at Trilj.

The area is intimately associated with the heartland of the Delmatae and the area's strategic importance is emphasised by the citing of the legionary fortress at Tilurium (Gardun), just above today's city of Trilj, which guards the entrance to the valley from the south and the approach to the provincial capital at Salona.

During the early medieval period, toponymic evidence suggests that the Cetina Valley and perhaps the river itself became a frontier between Slavic and Late Roman power. The area around Sinj eventually emerged as a centre of Slavic power and ultimately established itself as a heartland of the Early Croatian State, especially in the areas of its upper flow.

During later periods the area was highly contested and passed between a number of regional and local powers before conquest by the Ottoman Empire during the early 16th century. After this it retained a frontier role between Ottoman Empire and Republic of Venice until the reconquest of the area 150 years later.

Okay as far as that goes, but this is a karst region and that means caves. So I went looking for information about cave art, because if ever a place screamed out to be a Clan of the Cave Bear setting, this is it. :)

The First Cave Art of the Balkans May Date Back 30,000 Years

34,000-Year-Old Figurative Cave Paintings Found in Croatia

PHOTOS: First prehistoric figurative cave art identified in Croatian cave by archaeologists

These stories all seem to be from last year. Here's a story from 2004 by an archeologist from the UK, his version of a published article in a subscription journal. So people can read it for free, one presumes.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Oct 20 - 10:32 AM

A Japanese high tech technolody called muon photography can detect cavities inside solid rock. Used on the great pyramid it was able to detect another enormous previously undiscovered great gallery above the great gallery we have all seen.

From our perspective a muon decays in a couple of milliseconds but due to a relativistic effect from moving at the speed of light it can travel many hundreds of km before it goes poof. A gamma ray hits our atmosphere and with a collision, gives birth to muons as well as a host of other sub atomic particles. The Japanese found a way of placing detector plates similar to X ray film and render a picture with super computers. It takes months to expose the 'film' and more time to render. Egypt's antiquites director Zwass is not thrilled with this technology.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Oct 20 - 03:59 PM

That would be Zahi Hawass.. and he is no longer director. I think Sharif eased him out..(translation...fired)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Oct 20 - 05:29 PM

Hawass revealed too much, obstructed too many and lied alot but that is a whole different story.
Muon tech is well over 10 years old now.

Hawass is still too big for his trousers. :^/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Oct 20 - 08:44 PM

I have no idea what you're talking about - and I could Google it, but maybe you'd like to look at the links and see if there is a particularly well represented story about this and post the link?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 07:19 AM

Here's a link with a Texan scientist.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/great-pyramid-giza-egypt-void-1144325

Hundreds of Japanese links but language is not my forte'

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 05:57 PM

The Wikipedia page on Hawass says about as much as I know...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 20 - 07:23 PM

thanks for posting the link, Bill, I wonder when it will be updated.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Oct 20 - 04:50 PM

Possible Neanderthal Artifacts Unearthed in Denmark

It's just the abstract, but there are enough key words to do some more digging:

ROSKILDE, DENMARK—Yahoo! News reports that worked flint and mussel shells thought to have been shaped by Neanderthals some 120,000 years ago have been found in a steep cliff on the Danish island of Ejby Klint by archaeologists from Denmark’s National Museum and Roskilde Museum. It had been previously thought that reindeer hunters first settled Denmark some 14,000 years ago. “I did not think we would find anything at all, but we have actually found some stones that have possible traces of being worked by people, and that in itself is amazing,” said Lasse Sørensen of the National Museum. Between 130,000 and 115,000 years ago, Denmark was about four degrees warmer than it is today, and was home to beavers, steppe bison, fallow deer, wood rhinos, forest elephants, Irish giant deer, and red deer. “The door may have been opened for more excavations to be made for Neanderthals in Denmark,” added Ole Kastholm of Roskilde Museum. To read about a Neanderthal gene variant that may make those who have inherited it more susceptible to pain, go to "Painful Past."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Nov 20 - 06:36 PM

Some of these network stories don't stick around long, but there will be keywords to find more about it later.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/archaeologists-uncover-ancient-viking-ship-burial-site-norway/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab8c&linkId=104286086


Archaeologists uncover 1,000-year-old Viking ship burial site in Norway

By Sophie Lewis

November 11, 2020 / 12:24 PM / CBS News

Archaeologists in Norway have uncovered a unique Viking burial site, hidden deep underground, dating back over 1,000 years ago. Using only a radar, researchers identified a feast hall, cult house, farmhouse and the remnants of a ship.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 12 Nov 20 - 07:03 PM

I was sure I saw this earlier... a search on 'Gjellestad ship' finds
https://www.khm.uio.no/english/visit-us/viking-ship-museum/gjellestad-ship/index.html

and
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2020/01/17/confirmed-norways-gjellestad-ship-is-from-the-viking-age/?sh=7e5896a99bb2

and more

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Nov 20 - 08:53 PM

Mayan high civilization was advanced in astronomy projecting events by more than a quarter million years into the past and future. Math and literature has less evidence since most of it has been destroyed.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?
They descended into madness and society collapsed en masse.

Here is the explanation; They had a magnificent water purification and storage technology. In their city plazas they created an expansive water collection area that filtered through fine sand and minerals to purify the water and directed it to underground storage and irrigation complexes. All well and good but the decorative buildings and temples were painted a bright vermillion red that was full of mercury. Over time the entire filtration layers became polluted with mercury that flowed off the pyramids and structures. Mad as a hatter is the English expression for those who made hats with mercury. China had its tradgedies with mercury and so did the Mayans. In Rome their pollution was lead.
The transition to madness from a poison water supply may have been a remarkable story that probably took longer to take hold than we might expect.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 12:00 PM

That's an interesting theory.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 06:31 AM

Today most of the mercury we injest originates at coal fired power plants tainting land and sea food.. I heard the theory on a PBS documentary.
Drifting farther; On Amazon prime I learned about liquid salt Flouride Thorium nuclear power plants that were invented in 1958 that can not melt down, never runs out of fuel and is not under pressure.
It was not used since the Pentagon since thorium did not make plutonium for bombs. More than here are the other benefits here
Or google floride thorium reactors
I am a nuke plant advocate since it really can replace oil, gas an wind and solar, which seems likely.

Part of the cure for climate change is found in our ignored past.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 03:13 PM

"other benefits"? All I see there is a list of movies. Why would info on reactors be found on Amazon Prime?

But upon searching, I did find this list of disadvantages

More research perhaps, but for the foreseeable future I'd prefer solar, with banks of collectors in deserts and roof-top panels like two of my neighbors have. Add in some new wind turbines that can sit on city buildings, and the need for fossil fuels can be greatly reduced.

Ask Germany and Spain...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 05:58 PM

The same guy who was the creator of the initial N plants also invented the Flouride Thorium reactors. The atomic regulatory agency handed him his hat when he pushed for his safe reactor designs. I like the no 'forever' waste part.

The movie I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rL08J7fDA

If we ever crack the fusion problem thorium sounds like a good alternative for the next 50-100 years. I am just a consumer and not a scientist.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Nov 20 - 06:22 PM

A slicker video you tube

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 17 Nov 20 - 05:02 PM

I'll look, but I almost never look to YouTube for news and information.

My hearing is bad and I don't process spoken words quickly..unless it is close-captioned. I really prefer to read at my own pace from several trusted web sites.

Far too many videos are by proselytizers who don't have an HTML address, and who are advancing 'odd' personal theories.... and YouTube then links you to other similar ones.

we shall see.. in my copious spare time.. :>)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Nov 20 - 11:09 AM

Norway ice melt reveals 'frozen archive' of ancient reindeer-hunting arrows

London (CNN)Archaeologists have uncovered a haul of ancient artifacts from a melted ice patch in Norway, including a record number of arrows used for reindeer hunting from more than 6,000 years ago.

The team found 68 arrows at the Langfonne ice patch in the Jotunheimen Mountains, tracing the artifacts back to various periods of time across thousands of years, from the Stone Age all the way through to the Medieval Period.

The discovery, published this week as a study in The Holocene journal, also included the remains of reindeer antlers, Iron Age scaring sticks used in reindeer hunting and a 3,300-year-old shoe from the Bronze Age. The arrows mark the earliest ice finds in Northern Europe, according to the study's authors.

Norway's Jotunheimen Mountains are located more than 200 miles (in excess of 320 kilometers) north of the capital, Oslo.

The Langfonne ice patch, where the arrows were found, has retreated by more than 70% over the past two decades as global warming has caused dramatic ice melt, the study says.

"With the ice now retreating due to climate change, the evidence for ancient hunting at Langfonne is reappearing from what is in essence a frozen archive," said Lars Pilø, the study's lead author and an archaeologist from the Innlandet County Council, in a statement.

"The ice melt, sad as it is, provides an unprecedented archaeological opportunity for new knowledge."

The oldest arrows, dating back to 4000 BC, are in poor condition. But surprisingly, the arrows from the Late Neolithic period (2400-1750 BC) were better preserved in comparison to those from the following 2,000 years, according to the study.

Using ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology, researchers believe that the bad state of the oldest arrows may be due to ice movement.

GPR data revealed ice deformation deep inside of the patch may have broken the old, brittle arrows, but it also helped to bring them to the surface to be discovered.

"Ice patches are not your regular archaeological sites," Pilø said. "Glacial archeology has the potential to transform our understanding of human activity in the high mountains and beyond."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Nov 20 - 06:27 PM

thanks, stilly

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Nov 20 - 09:42 PM

I pulled that Norwegian location up on Google Earth; it's an odd looking piece of land, and I'd really like to see a topographic map of the area, but wasn't able to find any.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 08:50 AM

WOOF Follow the shoe and the broken arrow. Ice mining for artifacts in melting glacial ice with the assistance of GPR, sounds like the way to go. Of course we can only look where we are allowed to look.

I would personally prefer a nicer climate and buried architectural remains that have carvings of the early Holocene animals and even a dinosaur or two. Someplace in Turkey to the fertile crescent. China would be great too but these places are politically off limits lately.
Sneaky satillites are the key to seeing with new eyes.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 05:40 PM

These things kind of come in clumps.

Frozen Bird Found in Siberia is 46,000 Years Old

In 2018, a well-preserved frozen bird was found in the ground in the Belaya Gora area of north-eastern Siberia. Researchers at the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a new research center at Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, have studied the bird and the results are now published in the scientific journal Communications Biology. The analyses reveals that the bird is a 46,000-year-old female horned lark.

"Not only can we identify the bird as a horned lark. The genetic analysis also suggests that the bird belonged to a population that was a joint ancestor of two sub species of horned lark living today, one in Siberia, and one in the steppe in Mongolia. This helps us understand how the diversity of sub species evolves," says Nicolas Dussex, researcher at the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 05:59 PM

I've heard of flash
freezing events in a temperate Siberia ~40,000 years ago

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Nov 20 - 09:39 PM

Best images & maps I found of the Norwegian ice patch

https://secretsoftheice.com/news/2020/04/16/mountain-pass/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 02:53 AM

Bill, that is an amazing website, I've spent the best part of hour following links from that article. The site is now bookmarked

like this one showing a 1720-1850 woven hat

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 04:24 AM

after my archaeology binge, I checked out my regular news sites & found more archaeology - 'Sistine Chapel of the ancients' rock art discovered in remote Amazon forest

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 10:49 AM

What deep rabbit holes Bill and Sandra have provided! And so many photos and maps! Good stuff!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 02:57 PM

It was links inside of links..often buried down the page. Just reading how the research and collection was done is amazing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 03:08 PM

The graffiti chapel of the ancients is great! It reminds me of NYC

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 04:39 PM

It reminds ME of taking the metro from Silver Spring to Metro Center... every structure that faces the tracks was a potential target for graffiti.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Nov 20 - 11:59 PM

I know it's a form of vandalism and some of it is significant in the message, but a lot of the graffiti out there from taggers is actually quite attractive. I suspect I hold a minority opinion (and this is acknowledging that a lot of it turns up in less than public places that are inappropriate, like private property, fences, houses, etc.) I'm thinking in particular of the sides of trains.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Dec 20 - 12:41 PM

In the trip I referred to one legendary writer, Cool “Disco” Dan, has been featured in a local graffiti museum. See this search

Disco Dan & others

A friend of mine who used to ride the line daily wrote a song about him.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Dec 20 - 12:54 PM

BANKSY - silver spring

I've seen TV documentaries of the highest forms of graffiti art that are painted over after viewing. What is the the name of the NYC graffiti arist that sells works for 5 figures?

Pigments mixed with egg yolk (tempura) can last thousands of years.

Egg whites can weather seal old wooden instruments on te inside.
Today I use 1 micron thick glass which transmits sound the same as spruce.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Dec 20 - 01:13 PM

Maybe here?
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/10-new-york-graffiti-legends-still-kicking-ass

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Dec 20 - 11:58 AM

I wonder if Bob Ross ever imagined some of his 'Liquid clear' techniques for global shading would be used by graffiti artists.
Ancient Egyptian graffiti exists in the Great Pyramid as well as the valley of the kings. They range from just names to sexual acts on the intended honored. Roman graffiti is a subject of its own. Some folk tunes are the musical graffiti of its time. - jus ramblin

Mostly I am impressed by the cliffside painting discovery

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Dec 20 - 12:28 PM

Keith Haring got his start doing graffiti in NY City subway stations.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 04 Dec 20 - 10:26 PM

This TV show has just started in Oz a couple of weeks ago. Brilliant!

Earth From Space

I'm probably going to buy the DVD so that I can watch it over and over again. I'm also probably going to buy a copy for my nephew's young family.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Dec 20 - 04:27 PM

The clips are the best I've ever seen.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Dec 20 - 05:38 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 05:59 PM

Pterosaurs evolved from small, wingless reptiles called lagerpetids

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 06:23 PM

"But what they discovered may help fill a 28-million-year gap in the evolution of flying reptiles instead."

Those pesky gaps! That one looks like a chasm. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Dec 20 - 09:07 PM

I enjoy eating mini dinosaurs. Tonight I had chicken. Scaley two legged creatures with beaks and the later advancement of warm blood and feathers. They sort of split the difference between us and dinos.
Due to climate even some tyranosaurs had beautiful feathers not unlike peacocks. Evolution found a path to flight with size vs weight issues a million years AFTER the first dragon flies that were over a meter long.

Dragon flies did not taste like chicken.

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".

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 03:03 AM

'Unique' petrified tree up to 20m years old found intact in Lesbos First came the tree, all 19.5 metres of it, with roots and branches and leaves. Then, weeks later, the discovery of 150 fossilised logs, one on top of the other, a short distance away.

Nikolas Zouros, a professor of geology at the University of the Aegean, couldn’t believe his luck. In 25 years of excavating the petrified forest of Lesbos, he had unearthed nothing like it.

“The tree is unique. To discover it so complete and in such excellent condition is a first. To then discover a treasure trove of so many petrified trunks in a single pit was, well, unbelievable.” (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 11:19 AM

I love petrified wood. petrified forest
I have some. In Australia petrified wood has opalized.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 21 - 10:15 PM

I visited a couple of friends who were rangers at Petrified Forest and spent time hiking - we parked in a narrow area of the park, walked out onto private property where there is just as much petrified wood, and picked some up. We walked back through the park and tried not to look like we were each carrying 50 pounds of rocks. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Feb 21 - 08:13 PM

Pompeii archaeologists find intact ceremonial chariot at site of illegal dig

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 06:52 AM

That Pompei find is amazing. It's a wonderful place and there's still a lot more excavating to do. The young new director's stated philosophy is to go slowly and carefully and to leave much unexcavated for now because new techniques in the future might yield better results than are possible today.

I've been twice to Pompei, once in 1968 (on a school trip: I have fond memories of the priest leading the trip standing at the entrance of the little street that contained the prostitutes' houses, the ones with erotic frescoes, with his arms folded, firmly denying us access) and once in 2013 (I made a beeline for that street, of course). The years peeled away... A full day's visit wouldn't do Pompei justice. It's huge and it's fabulous and it's confusing, even if you have a guide book. You can go round with a guide, but that misses things out and is all a bit "potted."

And, next day, go to Herculaneum!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Feb 21 - 09:48 AM

Two victims of Vesuvius eruption discovered in Pompeii.

Several of these casts made the museum rounds years ago, and I saw some of these casts (of what once were apparently just air gaps in the site, then someone decided to fill it in and see what had been there - and the shapes of people appeared.) I saw them at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Mar 21 - 09:41 AM

Ferrari is hoping the chariot is one of theirs. ;^/
Pompei shows the life of the common and rich Romans alike.
The conveniences and luxuries of life in 97 AD has many similarities with today.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Mar 21 - 04:34 PM

There is a programme on the BBC just now looking at the honeycomb-like construction of Çatalhöyük in Turkey, where folks moved about not by roads or paths but via the roof's of neighbours - arriving home via a kind of chimney.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 05 Mar 21 - 06:19 PM

I know this odd underground city well. Underwater cities weren't always underwater

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Mar 21 - 07:17 PM

interesting reading Wikipedia The Yonaguni Monument also known as "Yonaguni (Island) Submarine Ruins", is a submerged rock formation off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost of the Ryukyu Islands, in Japan. It lies approximately a hundred kilometres east of Taiwan.
Marine geologist Masaaki Kimura claims that the formations are man-made stepped monoliths.[1] These claims have been described as pseudoarchaeological.[2] Neither the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs nor the government of Okinawa Prefecture recognise the features as important cultural artifacts and neither government agency has carried out research or preservation work on the site.[3]

Lots of great photos on all types of sites (diving & pseudoarchaeological)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 05:07 PM

Mummy Cold Case: Tracing the Identity of the Mystery ‘Persian Princess’

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Mar 21 - 05:09 PM

Thats more hideous than Piltdown man.

In the realm of pseudo archeology are my musings of highly advanced civilizations of the zep tepi or older that did not build in stone and left virtually no trace like our own perishable buildings of today. They could be 10 to fourteen thousand years old when the ice age gave way in great pulse melts. I ponder lost recipees of thin cement/concrete that mimics stone or semi opaque buildings of silica. Based on actual geologic events I can't rule out advanced civilizations by humans 50 to 70,000 years ago. The imagination of fantasy writers can run wild in such places.
Fragile remnants are found in deserts and peat bogs but little fragility remains under the great rising water of the ocean

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 10:18 AM

Whimsey is one thing but the absence of evidence and my grasp on sanity prevents me from believing in an alien connection as seen on TV.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-idiocy-fabrications-and-lies-of-ancient-aliens-86294030/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 11:45 AM

Checking out other links beside that story about the modern murder victim dressed up as an ancient mummy, a Pict male was violently murdered a very long time ago. The facial reconstruction is interesting.

As a child I remember reading about the Picts - how they were portrayed as mysterious, dark, short people who were ruthless fighters; that was, of course, the classic disreputable attempt to diminish foes by the winners of whatever battles took place back then. Wikipedia "Pict" entry is nicely populated with material about society, religion, art, writing, culture. . . it makes interesting reading.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Mar 21 - 08:26 PM

Ancient Origins is a great site for fact & pseudoarchaeology.

I read the facts, tho not usually the pseudoarchaeology. Tho in my younger days I owned several books by von danikin (or however he spells it.)

sandra (older - yes, & wiser? - dunno)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 07:10 PM

I've been reviewing Neanderthals lately regarding birth, pelvic size, early cranial growth and immunity factors. Basicly they are much like us but with high tinny voices. We are mostly Cro Magnon.

One of the better sites I found: https://www.inverse.com/science/the-abstract-vikings-neanderthals-setting-the-genetic-record-straight

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 07:31 PM

My fav You look just like Mr. Pinski!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 07:49 PM

Now, they have published data revealing how these 'Neanderthalized' brain organoids behave.

On Thursday, a team, including Muotri, published a study in the journal Science detailing brain organoids they grew with the Neanderthal variant of NOVA1, a gene that influences neurodevelopment and function.

The addition, in turn, caused the organoids to differ from those strictly of the Homo sapien variety: They developed slower, expressed different electrophysical properties, and displayed higher surface complexity.

Muotri tells Inverse it’s fair to say these changes would influence specific abilities. “We know that even small perturbations during early development might have a dramatic impact on human behavior,” he says.

And while it’s premature to say Neanderthals acted in one way or another, the results do add to our understanding of the differences between these extinct humans and us. It’s understood we evolved to be a unique type of human. Cells in a dish may explain why.

WHAT’S NEW — This study helps explain why modern humans are different from Neanderthals by recreating a potential version of the past.
“This reverse-engineering approach can teach us how the archaic version of the gene behaves in the relevant cell types,” Muotri says.
“By knowing this, we can then create hypotheses on why these differences emerged.”

Genomic analysis comparing the genomes of Neanderthals to a diverse population of modern humans revealed there are 61 protein-coding genes different between the two groups. The study team decided to zero in on the gene NOVA1 because it’s “a master regulator of hundreds of other genes during neurodevelopment,” Muotri says.

Neanderthal brain organoids
The brain organoids with the Neanderthal version of NOVA1 developed uneven surfaces.Muotri Lab/UC San Diego

With the help of CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technology, the team replaced the modern human allele of the NOVA1 gene in human pluripotent stem cells with the archaic NOVA1 gene from the Neanderthal genome.

Observations revealed this reintroduction caused changes in “alternative splicing” in genes involved in neurodevelopment, proliferation, and synaptic connectivity. Alternative splicing is a mechanism the nervous system uses to generate complexity and variability, Muorti explains. NOVA1 typically regulates alternative splicing in developing nervous systems.

“The archaic NOVA1 targets these genes to be spliced in different ways, generating new isoforms that we don’t detect in modern humans or will only appear at different stages,” Muorti says.

The organoids looked different too. Modern human brain organoids have a smooth surface, while the archaic versions have uneven surfaces.
Human brain organoids
Modern human brain organoids, without the archaic version of NOVA1.Muotri Lab/UC San Diego
Brain organoids, for their part, differ from actual brains in important ways. Their gene expression generally mirrors that of a developing brain in utero, but they are not a perfect reproduction of brain cell types, and there is some concern growing organoids can introduce unintended mutations. In a 2019 interview with Inverse, Muotri emphasized brain organoids are human-like — but not exactly human.

But experts suggest they do have the potential to revolutionize medical research when it comes to disease modeling and drug screening. And now, it appears they may revolutionize our understanding of what it means to be human.

WHY IT MATTERS — These results suggest the modern human version of NOVA1, which likely became a fixed part of Homo sapien DNA after our ancestors diverged from Neanderthals, some 500,000 to 800,000 years ago, was critical to our species’ evolution.

brain organoids
A tray of modern human brain organoids.Muotri Lab/UC San Diego
“The neural network consequence of the archaic NOVA1 is something we are super excited about and what to explore further,” Muotri says.

If we can watch brain organeles from Neanderthals beave next to sapian organelles you know damn well we could watch a neanderthal infant grow up this decade. CRISPR goes beyond our current ethics and philosphies imo.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Mar 21 - 08:12 PM

I've always been very interested in the area near Naples known as Campi Flegrei, or the Phlegraean Fields, which is a caldera eight miles across, largely submerged in the Bay of Naples but with some manifestations on land, the Solfatara volcano for example. There was a huge supereruption of Campi Flegrei around 39000 years ago which measured 7 on the VEI scale (which basically means a very big eruption, the biggest in Europe for 200,000 years). Very shortly after the eruption there was a sharp climatic cooling, and at the same time the Neanderthals died out in Europe, to be replaced by modern humans. There are notions afoot, not settled by science, that these events were linked to the eruption. The caldera is still active, with a shallow magma chamber "hotspot" that was recently shown to be linked to the one under Vesuvius, about 12 miles away. The Solfatara crater is full of boiling mud pools and fumaroles, a great place to visit (there's a nice café/bar at the entrance and a nearby campsite that provides smelly nights). The area is noted for its rather scary bradyseism, large areas of land rising and falling in response to the magma underneath shifting around. In the early 80s the town of Pozzuoli was uplifted very sharply over a couple of years by several feet, and was evacuated for fear of an eruption. That time all was well. Like Yellowstone, it's a place worth keeping a wary eye on.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 05:39 AM

I've only watched scuba diving shows of that caldera.
The ol Neanders' were out and about even 200,000 years ago. They faded away as little as 20,000 years ago, Assimilated along with at least 5 other hominid species we are still a diversity of other hominids in our genes. For example Sherpas in Nepal have more denosovian genes and Europeans have more ancient South east asian genes. wtf?
There has been a whole lotta sex and travel goin on for some time.
Science trys to show a detailed path of mankind.
Maybe our gene pot is so stirred by now, linear trends may only be an illusion
or not.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 06:19 AM

There is no evidence that Neanderthals were extant 20,000 years ago. Even 30,000 years is a stretch, with only scant and inconclusive evidence. The best estimate, based on solid evidence, is extinction around 40,000 years ago, and that the sharp cooling after the Campanian Ignimbrite, which lasted for at least a year, with acid rain being another adverse environmental factor for years afterwards, were quite likely pivotal in their extinction. I prefer to look things up before I post...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 09:04 AM

There you go with a personal dig as always. Some new and challengable evidence is in the last links I provided. I can see how pockets remained longer than we thought. I too think climate and floods share extinction factors.

Also new is CRISPR technology so we can write new inheritable code into our DNA. Now that use for our 7,000 genetic diseases is reasonable imo but going beyond that is a risky and dangerous path fraught with unknowable results. China has already crossed the line. Believe me or not, individuals will sooner than later have home devices that can read and write inheritable genes.

The CRISPR application to ancient paleological and anthropological is greater than we may be able to know today.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 09:33 AM

Correcting misinformation is not a dig. I'm simply asking you to check information before you post. Accurate information posted in threads such as this makes for a more pleasant experience.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 11:40 AM

I've poked around that part of the planet using Google Earth in the past. A visit today offered up an interesting photo of a sulfur vent Solfatara Volcano. I grew up around sleeping volcanoes (the Pacific Rim of Fire runs under the Cascade Mountains in the Pacific Northwest) but would think more than twice about living in such close proximity as the Naples community is situated.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 02:13 PM

The town of Pozzuoli is a workaday sort of place, but at the bottom of the town is the Macellum, or market place, which has three upstanding marble columns which have signs of erosion caused by molluscs a long way up them, showing that the ground level was much lower in Roman times, another example of the bradyseism I mentioned. It's a bit of an uphill slog from there, passing some unexcavated Roman remains below the road at one point, until you reach the Solfatara crater. In 2013 it was €6 to go in, but you can bet it's gone up since then. The crater floor is flat and covered in a stark white deposit. There are plenty of menacing fumaroles spouting sulphureous fumes accompanied by loud hissing. There are also areas of boiling mud pools, one of which was the scene of a tragedy in 2017 when a young boy and his parents died - the lad fell in and the parents died trying to rescue him. In the early 4th century San Gennaro, patron saint of Naples, and San Proculus, patron saint of Pozzuoli, were both beheaded in the Solfatara. You can still see San Gennaro's bones in the crypt of the duomo in Naples (if you really want to). There was a phreatic eruption (ground water reacting with the underlying magma chamber) in 1198, so you wonder whether the volcano is flexing its muscles...

There are two amazing Roman villas in nearby Stabiae (where Pliny The Elder died during the 79 AD eruption of Vesuvius). If you take a look at the satellite photo on wiki you can clearly make out the circle of the caldera, and you can see the little white patch which is the Solfatara crater. And plenty more. I don't half rattle on a lot about that area, but it's my absolute favourite place in the whole world. Sorry about that!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 03:04 PM

That was an interesting detour from the things I intended to be doing right now!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 03:40 PM

Agreed, and I'd also fancy a detour for a swim in nearby Cala di Nisida - Location on Google Maps

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 06:27 PM

wow!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Mar 21 - 06:56 PM

Naples is the third-largest urban area in Italy, taking in over three million people, most of whom live between Vesuvius on one side and Campi Flegrei on the other :-) You'd think that it was one of the most dangerous places on earth to live, and it probably is, but the Vesuvius observatory is pretty high-tech and keeps a wary eye on anything moving around underground. There's a huge contingency evacuation plan in place should there be adverse rumblings. But three million...?

The wonderful thing if you're a tourist is that Sorrento (a busy, lovely town: contact me for info on the best gelateria...) at one end and Naples at the other are connected by the Circumvesuviana railway. The whole journey from one end to the other is less than an hour and a half, and it costs next to nothing, and the trains are frequent. But en route you can stop off at stations for Stabiae, Pompei and Herculaneum, and you will! Beat that!! In Naples you have the archaeological museum, which is hot, steamy, un-air-conditioned and utterly stunning. To get to Pozzuoli and the Solfatara volcano you take a Metropolitana train from Naples, half an hour. Watch your pockets! And you simply must have a pizza in Napoli!

We stayed for a week just outside Sorrento, in a scruffy but brilliant place called Marina Grande. From there we could see right across the Bay of Naples to Naples and Vesuvius, and wonder why all those millions choose to live so dangerously. Maybe, like me, they just think it's the best place on Earth...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 02:07 AM

Scientists may have solved ancient mystery of 'first computer' - Researchers claim breakthrough in study of 2,000-year-old Antikythera mechanism, an astronomical calculator found in sea

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 07:11 AM

Getting the sun to revolve around the earth was standard operating procedure back then. There is another way to make a hollow tube without a lathe. The mind that conceived of this 'eclipse predictor' is the real mystery and not just the mechanism. For a seafarer, a compass would be more valuable. Ancient polynesians used more subtle human senses for navigation. The ancient Ronco home dial a planet gizmo still remains cool and fragile.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 13 Mar 21 - 08:15 AM

"Maybe, like me, they just think it's the best place on Earth..." (Steve)...and the fertile earth!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 12:44 AM

yuk! Whole Rattlesnake Including Fangs Found Inside Lump of Fossilized Human Poo

Archaeologists Match 300-Year-Old Clump of Fecal Matter to the Bishop that Made

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 12:55 AM

wow! Face of incredibly preserved 700-year-old mummy found by chance

oops, 2nd link above doesn't work, so I tried blickifying again. When I paste this in the last 3 digits won't appear - TWICE, https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/archaeologists-match-300-year-old-clump-fecal-matter-bishop-made-it-007058 so pop it into your own search engine

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 09:54 AM

I edited that second link. I worked in the Mammoth Cave area years ago; the friend who owned the commercial cave where I was working used to be a guide in the dry Mammoth Cave (National Park Service). There is a lot of evidence of human activity in there and the speleological folks drag out artifacts by the trash bag full. Including coprolites. All of it is supposed to be left in place, but there is no enforcement in there, apparently.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 10:26 AM

thanks, stilly

it is so easy to remove stuff - tho sometime stuff gets returned

The Mystery Of The Uluru 'Curse' Take photos but leave the rocks. It's Australia's most famous rock and annually there are 300,000 people who visit the World Heritage listed site.
Sadly, a portion of those visitors feel that they want to take home more than just photos and memories. They "souvenier" a piece of the rock itself. Apart from it being an ethically and environmentally adverse thing to do, there are many who feel that the rocks they take from the rock are cursed.
While there is no curse that the Anangu, the traditional custodians, are aware of, they acknowledge that the removing of rocks from the area is hugely disrespectful to their beliefs and culture. It can also be expensive! Tourists caught trying to take pieces of nature from the national park can face fines of up to $8500 ... (read on & learn about the Sorry Rocks)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 11:48 AM

Do you suppose the Ancient Egyptians realized carrying heavy stones beneath their ships would allow for heavier loads and stability?
Meso Americans knew this trick. It also appears the Olmec had ocean trade routes to obtain jade.

40,000 year old ice age art
Great show worth the $1.99 if you don't have the science channel.
Even back then we were fscinated by cats, but probably for different reasons.

I love Mammouth cave.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Senoufou
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 02:36 PM

I saw something on TV last night that I didn't know about. Apparently, on the beach at Happisburgh (Norfolk coast) ancient footprints of very early human beings have been discovered. They are about 800,000 years old, and only Africa has any older ones.
Oi orlways reckon'd wair bin hair a roit lorng toim bor!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 03:45 PM

Lucy is over 3 million years old. Your beach friend is a youngster.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 05:49 PM

This totally doesn't fit the thread name, but where else am I going to post it? :-D

Oh well, maybe it does fit the thread. The structure is over 200 years old and was a marvelous piece of engineering and construction.

The Secret Life Of Lighthouses
Documentary

"Presenter Rob Bell takes us on a voyage around Britain and Ireland to reveal the hidden secrets that make offshore lighthouses such extraordinary feats of engineering. Braving the awesome might of the North Atlantic to the tempestuous moods of the North Sea, Rob takes a look behind closed doors to crack the code of these of these enigmatic structures."

I've watched the two episodes aired so far on Oz TV station SBS.

Yesterday while busking on St Pat's Day across the road from a new high-rise building construction with a humongous counterweighted crane on top, I was thinking of the episode on the Bell Lighthouse which I had been watching the day before. Robert Stevenson, the engineer who designed and project-managed the construction of that lighthouse also had the bright idea to use a counterweight on large construction cranes.

The site of the Bell Lighthouse is a reef of rocks submerged except at low tide so construction was problematic, and some people said it was impossible. I also like the idea of the huge interlocking stone pieces used in the tower so that it could withstand onslaughts from the sea. The parabolic reflectors and later the Fresnel lenses to project the light were also interesting.

It was built between 1907 and 1810.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 07:19 PM

oops a little typo - It was built between 1907 and 1810.

It was built between 1807 and 1810.

thanks for the link, Helen

wikipedia - Bell lighthouse off the coast of Angus, Scotland, is the world's oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse -
photo caption "Bell Rock Lighthouse with reef just visible" there it is poking out of the sea, what an amazing piece of technology

I wondered if there were pics of it during construction & found this in the same article, caption "Engraving of the lighthouse under construction in 1809, next to the temporary beacon that was constructed alongside it to accommodate the workers and serve as a temporary lighthouse"

Bell Rock Lighthouse – A stone tower in stormy seas The oldest surviving sea-washed lighthouse, the Bell Rock Lighthouse is a triumph of engineering and persistence. - more pics & engineering info

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 07:44 PM

No, you see Sandra, that's what makes it an archaeological marvel. They used the TARDIS to go back in time to build it. LOL

Thanks for the correction and the further info.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 04:50 PM

I once lived in a house in North Wales that was probably named after a Scottish lighthouse. That was Skerryvore

The lighthouse was built by Alan Stephenson son of Robert in a whole tribey of lighthouse engineers. A lot of engineers but somewhere in that tree, you will also find the well know author Robert Louis.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 06:17 PM

You had me worried there, Jon, because given that the Stephens surname is in our family tree I thought I had misspelled "Robert Stevenson's" surname and I should have known better, however having done a quick Google the Scottish civil engineer was Robert Stevenson born 1772 - responsible for the Bell Lighthouse - and the English civil engineer was Robert Stephenson born 1803 - responsible for the steam engines.

Phew! What a relief! I won't be haunted by my relatives.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 06:22 PM

Sorry about my spelling, Helen.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 06:32 PM

Well, actually, thanks because I didn't realise there were two engineers named Robert Stevenson or Stephenson. Very confusing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 11:44 PM

https://www.pri.org/stories/2012-11-28/archaeologists-confirm-indian-civilization-2000-years-older-previously-believed#:~:text=A Dikshit has a point!
At 8,000 years old it looks like they're as old if not older than the Sumarians.
Indians were around 22,000 years ago but not as a high civilization.
Ask mainstream Brit authoriies and they will tell you a different story about Indian antiquity as being 4 or 5K old. Its one of those looking through a biased imperial lens things. Evidence of civilizations are still all post ice age after the great melt and flood times. Perhaps the absolute oldest cultures may have gone under water long ago if they existed.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 07:53 AM

An addendum to the antikythera mechanism (first computer) is that an American scientist took a second look at the artifact and published an article about it in Scientific American Magazine in 1959. Today the mechanism has been recreated as a working model that has amazing abilities to even compute apogee and perogee variable orbits.
What this means to me along with other finds that are merely in museum storage is where archeologists really need to explore with new eyes. Our paradigms have changed along with scientific methods that did not exist when many artifacts were packed away.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 09:17 AM

Spirals look like galaxies or all orbits in time or DNA but global ancient rock art spirals meant - what. symbols


Cute article: Amongst the numerous images found on the walls of Palaeolithic caves, fluted lines, made by fingers dragged through a skin of wet clay remain some of the most intriguing. In their study of images at Rouffignac, the authors undertook experiments with a range of modern subjects who replicated the flutings with their hands. Comparing the dimensions of the experimental flutings with the originals, they conclude that the patterns on the roof of Chamber A1 at Rouffignac were made by the fingers of children aged between 2 and 5 years old. Given the current height of the chamber, such children would have needed to be hoisted aloft by adults. Who knows what lessons in art or ritual were thereby imparted to the young persons…

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Mar 21 - 08:08 PM

I just learnt that photos contributed to Google Maps (more than 6,000 in my case with more than 6,000,000 views) may also be added to Google Earth; I shall have a look at that one day...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 01:33 PM

...either way, be better, one feels, if Google, Twitter, etc., were owned and managed by the United Nations.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: mg
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 01:57 PM

i don't do much on google earth..but i am fascinated by archeological shows. i like to watch time team..on hulu I think. What mystifies me is how much pottery they find. Of course it was breakable...but did people just leave broken pottery around? Why is there so much? And coins...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 02:03 PM

I have overviewed studies of denosovian inter breeeding with modern humans that range from from 800,000 years ago to only 15,000 years ago in Papu New Guinea. Both are two seperate events and not continuous.
With mitochondrial DNA from large denosovian teeth it has shown populations in South Asian Indonesia show as much as 5% denosovian dna present especially in shared Gene 2. At any rate it doesn't matter much in this day and age, 'lawn chair paleoarcheologists agree'.
There does seem to be a mysterious relative or relatives with 46 chromosomes that started the human hominid branch in all its early diversity.

Dave btw in January I slipped and fell in Niagara Falls on the American side at Terrapin point. The exact spot was deemed too dangerous and was dynamited years ago. I was saved by my actual fingernails and two friends as I was only in up to my waist in slow current but the edge was only meters away. I remember how my pants were frozen solid on the walk back to the car.
People do inner tube in the fast Niagara river miles above Horseshoe Falls in July.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 Mar 21 - 02:38 PM

I think I saw footage where it was temporarily damned to work on the fall itself, yes?

As you may know, Donuel, unlike yourself, Matthew Webb, the first to swim the English channel, sadly didn't live to tell the tale of swimming the Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Mar 21 - 05:08 AM

Dig reveals 6,000-year-old salt hub in North Yorkshire

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 31 Mar 21 - 07:39 AM

Going back much further, Neanderthals are being tracked by the mineral signatures in the very few workable flint outcroppings that were shared for thousands of years.

Some of the last Denosovians bred with modern humans on an island in Indonesia. Other rare remains were found in Nepal.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Apr 21 - 09:06 PM

Arabian coins found in US may unlock 17th-century pirate mystery

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 21 - 09:18 PM

Interesting - though it's a head-scratcher how they ended up in the soil in such a random fashion (of course, we don't know what was once on that soil - buildings, an encampment, etc., things not durable enough to leave marks).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 03 Apr 21 - 01:00 PM

http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/kalahari-humans-09512.html

"Innovative Humans Thrived in Water-Rich Kalahari 105,000 Years Ago"

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Apr 21 - 12:00 PM

I recognized the calcite crystals before I read the article - the interesting angles of crystal growth.

Quartz and iron pyrite (for example) would be useful together for sparks (fire starter) but calcite doesn't have that kind of use. Assuming that crystals were for decorative and ceremonial use is something we can do by associating our own attraction to shiny or pretty colors. Determining where the calcite came from would help determine trade routes or migratory habits of the people who spent time in that shelter. There's a comparable travelled rock from the Texas panhandle, a form of microcrystaline quartz found in the Alibates Flint Quarry. If you go to the site you see all of these spots where plants are growing in distinct round spots about 6 feet across scattered across the landscape. The quarries (hundreds, maybe thousands of them) were small holes dug, with rocks chipped out as they were mined, and over time they filled with blown topsoil. Plants were able to grow in that soil where the surrounding areas are still so rocky most plants can't get established. Those filled in quarries also would hold moisture to keep plants green year-round.

The flint from Alibates has been found down into Mexico and hundreds of miles east and west of the location. The surmise is that nodules of the beautifully-color quartz were easily carried for trade for knapping into points where they ended up. You wouldn't do that with calcite, it's too soft.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 09:03 AM

Just from my informal observation as a people watcher I have seen faces of people who resemble early hominids in SE Asian populations (pigmentation aside) and Neanderthals in North America whose features were textbook and ancestry tinged with inbreeding in Zor Valley NY.
Honest to god some of the features were stark. I have not been so affected by tke features of native Americans who I find possess a global beauty of world wide variation.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Apr 21 - 04:35 PM

In Bill's neck of the woods there are gigantic white boulders of shocked quartz scattered everywhere. What is now the Chesepeak Bay was an impact site that created all the shocked quartz. Maany peple proudly display these white boulders in their yard as decoration.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 07:36 PM

Stone slab found in France thought to be Europe’s oldest 3D map

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Apr 21 - 11:56 PM

I don't think this one has been shared here yet: Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Apr 21 - 05:32 AM

3,000-year-old ‘lost golden city’ of ancient Egypt discovered
BBC - 'Lost golden city' found in Egypt reveals lives of ancient pharaohs
national Geographc story

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Apr 21 - 06:06 AM

Boomerangs were the multi-tool of early Indigenous Australians

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 21 - 01:36 PM

Right here in the USA

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 16 Apr 21 - 07:13 PM

I've always thought the mounds down South were uilitarian spaces of high ground to take shelter in floods of the Missisipi and hurricanes.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Apr 21 - 09:02 PM

The World’s Largest Intact Ancient Mosaic Opens to Public in Antakya, Turkey

The hotel being built on the site was redesigned so as not to damage the 2nd & 5th century mosaics.   architecture of the Museum Hotel

Journey with us into the story of ancient Antioch through videos, touch screens and 3D projections that bring the past to life before the absorbing the raw energy of the site itself.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 07:20 AM

Harriet Tubman: archaeologists find abolitionist’s lost Maryland home
Harriet Tubman home discovered

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 08:18 AM

Wow! The mosaic is brilliant. Thanks for posting Sandra.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Apr 21 - 10:37 AM

what I love is the strength of the mosaic vs. earthquake, all those tiny little pieces were so well fastened down, it just bent not broke.

The hotel is an amazing piece of architecture, sitting around a heritage site. An example for other owners of heritage sites of what can be done by a thoughtful (vs. money making) owner.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Apr 21 - 09:55 AM

I noticed how 3D illusions were part of these mosaics

Why were Neanderthals wiped out? My personal musings imagine that Neanderthals must have been an evolved species that were originally out of Africa but adapted to cold and 1/10th the sunlight. As unlikely as it sounds, were they wiped out by what was essentailly their ancestors?
Was (lack of) beauty an element of their extinction? Did different vocalization or language play a role? Did a form of racism shape the encounters with other humans? Perhaps some humans believed Neanderthal lives matter but maybe many didn't. Did weapon technology like the bow and arrow play a role? It seems earth changes and climate is the prevaling status quo explanation today.
jus askin, i'm not accusin.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Apr 21 - 10:32 AM

The Campanian Ignimbrite, a super-eruption in the Bay of Naples 39000 years ago, probably played a part. Most of the caldera is submerged under the sea, but there are still fumaroles, boiling mud pools and bradyseism in the area. It's an entertainingly dangerous place of the Yellowstone ilk. If it goes off again it won't be a few thousand Neanderthals, but the three million people in and around Naples who may be doomed.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Apr 21 - 12:47 PM

Over here paleontologist heaven is in Nebraska for the millions of easy to recover mamallian fossils. (with help from native Americans).
Dino fossils are further west washed up in amalgams of multiple animals from when glacial dams broke and flooded what we now call the bad lands.

Ask Rap about the beautiful places among the badlands.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Apr 21 - 03:08 PM

I think the ancient city of Cahokia has largely gone unconsidered, when compared to the large stone edifices built in the south of Mexico, in Central America, and in the northern reaches of South America. But it was impressive and large in contrast to just about anything around (though there were some large communities with mounds down along the southern Mississippi River also).

What Doomed the Great City of Cahokia? Not Ecological Hubris, Study Says

Excavations at the city, famous for its pre-Columbian mounds, challenge the idea that residents destroyed the city through wood clearing.

A thousand years ago, a city rose on the banks of the Mississippi River, near what eventually became the city of St. Louis. Sprawling over miles of rich farms, public plazas and earthen mounds, the city — known today as Cahokia — was a thriving hub of immigrants, lavish feasting and religious ceremony. At its peak in the 1100s, Cahokia housed 20,000 people, greater than contemporaneous Paris.

By 1350, Cahokia had largely been abandoned, and why people left the city is one of the greatest mysteries of North American archaeology.

Now, some scientists are arguing that one popular explanation — Cahokia had committed ecocide by destroying its environment, and thus destroyed itself — can be rejected out of hand. Recent excavations at Cahokia led by Caitlin Rankin, an archaeologist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, show that there is no evidence at the site of human-caused erosion or flooding in the city.

The story is a lot longer, find the rest at the link.

There isn't a lot to be seen from above on Google Earth but if you search Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site you'll see a 360^o photo from the tallest mound.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Apr 21 - 05:58 PM

I lived in St. Louis one Fall semester at college, but had never heard of it not far on the other side of the river. I guess in 1959, not many others had.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Apr 21 - 04:16 AM

Pregnant Egyptian mummy I checked out a lot of articles trying to find best pics - here are a few others

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1429740/archaeology-news-pregnant-ancient

Archaeology & history articles

and a bonus not about Egyptian mummies - Nazi gold (almost) found

---

URL fixed in Nazi gold article. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Apr 21 - 08:43 PM

Trove of Bronze Age jewellery discovered

Sculpture of mystery king dating back 3,000 years found in Israel (2018 story)

Discovery of ancient Aboriginal burial ground (2018 story) last par - Despite the community's concerns, global miner Rio Tinto has assured Mapoon residents a clear process is already in place to ensure the mine works with traditional owners to identify and manage cultural heritage. Last year Rio Tinto legally destroyed 46,000yo rock shelters in another state

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 May 21 - 10:01 PM

scroll to no. 8- What was found from an archeology dig in Amsterdam

Below the surface - Amsterdam Metro dig finds approximately 700,000 objects found from 119,000 BC to 2005 when the dig started. Click on each pic for a description - from 119000 BC seashells to a 2005 spinning top!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 21 - 01:00 AM

The Amsterdam one was interesting, but those outhouses were certainly worth a look. And that model of the Mississippi - quite an idea in it's day. Too bad it's such a mess now, you'd think they'd figure out a way to bring new life to a project like that.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 May 21 - 02:39 AM

Messy Nessy - Blogging on the Off-Beat the Unique and the Chic It's a treasury of interesting articles & sites. I can spend hours there looking at articles, then the articles mentioned below, then ....

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 May 21 - 07:52 AM

I have been watching the series 'First Footprints' about the 50,000 year old rock paintings in Australia. They are more amazing than the French caves imo.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 May 21 - 09:22 AM

Excellent links Sandra. I only discovered Messy Nessie a month ago while researching Liebensborn. The results have been most satisfying.

River beds are a treasure trove whether its on Earth or Mars. :^/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 May 21 - 09:43 AM

speaking of riverbeds - Mudlarking on the Thames
Listen to interviews with London's top mudlarks and see their collections

a google search on 'Thames mudlarks' gives zillions of results & lotsa' videos & pictures of their finds

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 18 May 21 - 08:18 PM

When waterways get dredged, new gets mixed with old so artifacts can turn up that aren't expected.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 May 21 - 10:17 PM

infill from 19th-21st century work on the Thames banks contains very interesting items.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 21 - 06:15 PM

I reminds me of reading about the area inside Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. They go in with a bulldozer after rainstorms and turn the soil so more stuff can come to the top. Park visitors go out in gear for mud and sift through the soil for diamonds.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 May 21 - 07:49 PM

diamonds!! ooohhh

much better than medieval shoes or pottery shards

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 21 May 21 - 04:57 PM

Because glass and all sorts can be cut with them, of course!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 21 - 12:10 AM

Crater of Diamonds State Park

Google search on Crater of Diamonds images.

The thing about this place is that these are diamonds just as much as those found in Africa, but (maybe it's on the site) DeBeers never authenticated or maybe the Arkansas folks refused to join the diamond cartel, but the Arkansas diamonds aren't counted in the same way as the mined ones from Africa.

https://arktimes.com/sponsored/visit-arkansas/2017/04/06/visitor-finds-7-44-carat-diamond-at-arkansass-crater-of-diamonds-state-park

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 May 21 - 02:58 AM

Real on-the-ground archaeology news: the University of Sheffield wants to shut down its archaeology department. Which is one of the most important in the UK.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 May 21 - 06:36 AM

here in the Land oo Oz we are also losing 'unnecessary' university departments & courses but I can't find the article I read recently.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 May 21 - 06:59 AM

3 amazing tombs -
Warrior Burial Is Scythian Amazon Girl No Older Than 13

Examining the Stunning Treasures in the Siberian Valley of the kings reconstructed clothes & lots of gold

Siberian Ice Maiden who died of breast cancer

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 22 May 21 - 08:29 AM

In NYS near Herkimer I found 50 carots of Herkimer diamonds in matrix.
https://www.google.com/search?q=herkimer%20diamonds&oq=herkimer+diamonds&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i457j0l3j46i175i199i395i422i424j0i39

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 21 - 11:50 AM

I've poked around the the Herkimer area; that rock is hard to break up to get the clear quartz. I decided to buy a couple of pretty pieces in the gift shop. (I learned about that quartz in a geology class, so when I was working in the New York area for a few years I made plans to go by there.)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 May 21 - 04:05 AM

Site in Syria could be world’s oldest war memorial, study finds

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:46 AM

In the Amazon we have found only 16 sites with wonderful cliff paintings. Paintings of giant seabirds that have gone extinct in the meantime was on one cliff. Carbon dating of the ochre paint spilled on a stump tested at 27 thousand years old. The most recent was 12 thousand.

Maggie you seem to have had so many mirrored experiences that I can relate to, its surreal. However sadly I have never been outside the north american continent.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 21 - 06:45 PM

I haven't been out of North America either. We have a wide-ranging set of similar interests.

They Syrian monument is shown in the article, and the bodies are described - I do wonder how they know how the bodies are placed without taking the monument apart? I'm guessing it wasn't a huge mound of dirt piled, by the basketful, on top of the bodies, but some other burial arrangement.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 May 21 - 08:01 PM

there are lots of references to the news article/press release, this is the only one I could find with links to further info

Syria, Tell Banat - scholarly references

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 May 21 - 08:16 AM

Not sure about all ochre paintings but gather it depends on the location, however I am sure that Aboriginal clans renew theirs regularly.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 21 - 11:18 AM

Aboriginal clans renew theirs regularly.

I agree with Dave and others. You are daft.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 May 21 - 11:33 AM

Culturally, art can be renewed if it has custodians who have the knowledge to do so. Legally that would be vandalism, but it is all right for Govt regulations to allow big business - miners, etc. to destroy it.

Sometime back I read an article about an Indigenous man being fined for renewing art in his Country, but I can't find the article but found this instead - Why Australia's Aboriginal rock art will disappear

John Meredith - miscellaneous photos and artifacts He was one of our earliest folklore collectors & also researched Aboriginal rock art.
Between 1948 & 1951 John Meredith & Brian Loughlin located & drew Aboriginal rock carvings which led to an article in Walkabout in 1951. Merro's meticulous drawings are held by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. (Keith McKenry's biography of John Meredith, pp.91-94)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 29 May 21 - 11:41 AM

I may have added SOME Aboriginal clans, SRS, but otherwise that was not a daft post at all - I got distinctions at uni for "Pre-Colonial Aboriginal Society" and "Aborigines and the State".

No need to say what you are or even what letter it begins with.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 21 - 11:43 AM

A mixedblood friend wrote several novels from the point of view of tribal people here in the US. In one he had the Southwestern reservation residents concocting a scheme to move back into some of the historic dwellings, in costume, and charge a lot of money admittance to the white tourists who wanted to see the Indians in their natural habitat. That way they could all put the latest appliances in their nearby modern homes and simply take turns doing their costumed stint at the historic village.

Native/aboriginal people aren't museum pieces. Colonization changed each continent and we all live in the the twenty-first century. Proving a link to art 27,000 years old requires DNA, not simply a few pots of yellow paint stored out in the garage.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 11:47 AM

Shackled skeleton identified as rare evidence of slavery in Roman Britain

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 12:00 PM

One assumes that the evidence is rare, slavery wasn't.

Pacific Northwest coastal tribes enslaved members of other tribes (defeated in battle) from the area; I think slaves could work their way out of the status but if they didn't, chances are that anyone who died a slave ended up buried in the middens, not in some other ceremonial location.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jun 21 - 12:03 PM

This was a link on the side of your last page, Sandra: Roman ruins in Yorkshire are a first of their kind.

And I re-upped in my quarterly donations to the Guardian.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 07:11 AM

wow!

oops I hadn't seen it (blush)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 12:04 PM

`In our lifetimes the secrets of the great pyramid regarding the transportation and contruction are 99% solved. Even the labor division, food, beer and competition of over 2,000 expert laborers along with their families over 25 years has been worked out from the smallest teams of 40 to larger groups.
The inner rough stone with morter and rubble and the outer carved stone with passages are completly different in the way they were lifted. The next problem of lifting the stone was done with 2 ratcheted sloping galleries that lifted inner stone and the outer spiral ramp, stone was lifted up to 425 feet for the outer structure. Stone came by boats 200 feet away either on their deck or for larger stone slung underneath.
95% of the remains of a hydraulic ram pump for water is also a feature of the great pyramid that is not totally understood as to how and why it was used. One theory is it supplied water for an underground canal ceremony or irrigation. The whole structure is more of a public utility than a tomb.

All but one grand gallery with ratcheted lifting capacity has been directly explored. At this point density data only suggests where it is. Could there be more left undiscovered? Sure but I am satisfied how it was done.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 12:21 PM

Back to the remarks about slaves, I got that information from archeologists working at San Juan Island Natl. Historical Park at English Camp, where there was a long gentle slope down to the water where the small fortifications were built. The group was doing a grid of core samples into the area because it was the locations of a pre-European settlement village and there was a huge middens. If in the course of twisting down to get a sample (at least 6-10 feet deep, as I recall) they hit human bone they tented the area off and dug down. They said that people discarded in the middens would have been slaves.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 12:39 PM

From imagination alone I picture the sides of the pyramid with glass smooth flowing water reflecting the sun with 98% blinding reflectivity.

Much of the work probably was in building the man made waterways to get all the materials to the contruction site.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 05:26 PM

Slavery has been ubiquitous in most ancient societies. There is an intellectual arguement for slavery in civilization, seperate from race but often not, but even I find it difficult to be a devil's advocate for such a notion. Slavery on an uber scale hasn't been used in over


75 years.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Jun 21 - 08:54 PM

Shackled adult & child skeletons unearthed in Roman necropolis in France

Roman shipwreck in South America

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jun 21 - 08:16 AM

Sure the Romans made the trip, so did the Egyptians or they traded with the Romans to get things like cocaine. Asians walked there.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Jun 21 - 07:19 AM

UK - Medieval fashion for pointy shoes linked to rise in bunions

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 12:34 PM

I had one bunion and scheduled surgery to fix it before it was so bad that they'd have to break any bones. I'm very careful about the shoes I wear now; no heels, and with plenty of room (not falling off loose, but not so tight as I sometimes wore).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 04:52 PM

Good luck with that, Maggie. Mrs Steve had bunion issues big time about 20 years ago and it was a tough time. She's been wearing nice loose shoes and sandals ever since. I get mixoid cysts on both big toes (and on one thumb). They spoil the look of my otherwise beautiful feet ;-) but they don't hurt. As for archaeology, I dug out a patch of grass yesterday, right next to one side of the house, that's been there (as far as I know) since the house was built 130 years ago. I want to make a bigger car parking area next to the house and am laying down the same gravel that covers the rest of the drive. I was delighted to find that the site was underlaid with the rubble from the construction of the house, so hardcore wasn't needed. But I did unearth several iron objects, pins, nails, rings, that sort of thing, and an ancient pair of scissors. I assume they were all to do with the building of the house. On a more sinister note, there was also a pretty large limb bone, right next to the house wall. I assume it's from a big dog, but I didn't investigate it further. I wondered why you'd bury your dog right under the house wall...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jun 21 - 07:27 PM

one of my friends bought an inner-city house way back in the 90s, it had been an inn, built c.1860 when his suburb was an outlier of Old Sydney Town, & he found horseshoes & giant nails, & a very modern small plastic doll in his dig!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 09:41 AM

While not archaeology this is worthwhile thead drift.
250 million year old life
This gives panspermia a shot in the arm.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 21 - 11:19 AM

Have you read the lovely piece of fiction about the Smithsonian Barbie? The place I picked up this text thinks it's real, it isn't, but it IS charming. :)

Smithsonian Institute
207 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20078

Dear Mr. Williams:

Thank you for your latest submission to the Institute, labeled "93211-D, layer seven, next to the clothesline post... Hominid skull." We have given this specimen a careful and detailed examination, and regret to inform you that we disagree with your theory that it represents conclusive proof of the presence of Early Man in Charleston County two million years ago.

Rather, it appears that what you have found is the head of a Barbie doll, of the variety that one of our staff, who has small children, believes to be "Malibu Barbie." It is evident that you have given a great deal of thought to the analysis of this specimen, and you may be quite certain that those of us who are familiar with your prior work in the field were loathe to come to contradiction with your findings. However, we do feel that there are a number of physical attributes of the specimen which might have tipped you off to its modern origin:

1. The material is molded plastic. Ancient hominid remains are typically fossilized bone.

2. The cranial capacity of the specimen is approximately 9 cubic centimeters, well below the threshold of even the earliest identified proto-homonids.

3. The dentition pattern evident on the skull is more consistent with the common domesticated dog than it is with the ravenous man-eating Pliocene clams you speculate roamed the wetlands during that time.

This latter finding is certainly one of the most intriguing hypotheses you have submitted in your history with this institution, but the evidence seems to weigh rather heavily against it. Without going into too much detail, let us say that:

A. The specimen looks like the head of a Barbie doll that a dog has chewed on.

B. Clams don't have teeth.

It is with feelings tinged with melancholy that we must deny your request to have the specimen carbon-dated. This is partially due to the heavy load our lab must bear in its normal operation, and partly due to carbon-dating's notorious inaccuracy in fossils of recent geologic record. To the best of our knowledge, no Barbie dolls were produced prior to 1956 AD, and carbon-dating is likely to produce wildly inaccurate results.

Sadly, we must also deny your request that we approach the National Science Foundation Phylogeny Department with the concept of assigning your specimen the scientific name Australopithecus spiff-arino. Speaking personally, I, for one, fought tenaciously for the acceptance of your proposed taxonomy, but was ultimately voted down because the species name you selected was hyphenated, and didn't really sound like it might be Latin.

However, we gladly accept your generous donation of this this fascinating specimen to the museum. While it is undoubtedly not a Hominid fossil, it is, nonetheless, yet another riveting example of the great body of work you seem to accumulate here so effortlessly. You should know that our Director has reserved a special shelf in his own office for the display of the specimens you have previously submitted to the Institution, and the entire staff speculates daily on what you will happen upon next in your digs at the site you have discovered in your Newport back yard.

We eagerly anticipate your trip to our nation's capital that you proposed in your last letter, and several of us are pressing the Director to pay for it. We are particularly interested in hearing you expand on your theories surrounding the trans-positating fillifitation of ferrous ions in a structural matrix that makes the excellent juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex femur you recently discovered take on the deceptive appearance of a rusty 9-mm Sears Craftsman automotive crescent wrench.

Yours in Science,

Harvey Rowe
Chief Curator-Antiquities

Here's the Snopes story about how it came about. It's a great piece of epistolarial fiction.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jun 21 - 05:26 AM

brilliant, I've shared it with some doll-collecting friends.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 16 Jun 21 - 07:00 AM

Brilliant SRS!!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Jun 21 - 08:07 PM

Discovery of Black Death bacterium in 5,000-year-old body shows ancient roots of medieval plague (The Black Death, bubonic plague 1347 - early 1350s with many reappearances)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 09:39 PM

Woof! Virus archeology sounds wicked. Our pandemic is 1 to 3% deadly, 1918 was 5% deadly and the black death was 33% fatal. Earlier plagues are unknown. There is plenty of permafrost that's melting to release some very old bugs.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 12:06 PM

A month ago I claimed we have a fundamental understanding as to the construction of the great ancient stone structures but no one was contentious enough to scream BS!
As we know the devil is in the details

There are villains to modern archeology and we know who they are.

I came across 'Nigel Guy' who is one of the most affectionate sarcastic speakers I have ever heard...While making no claims but posing good questions, ladies and gentlemen I present
what...wait

where's the audience?

There were several conundrums I was unaware of.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Jul 21 - 12:40 PM

There is an inaccurate Facebook meme out there identifying this as a "10,000 year old hidden library." It was walled up, apparently, but the New Yorker had a story about it a number of years ago that is a good antidote to the click bait piece.

A Secret Library, Digitally Excavated

Just over a thousand years ago, someone sealed up a chamber in a cave outside the oasis town of Dunhuang, on the edge of the Gobi Desert in western China. The chamber was filled with more than five hundred cubic feet of bundled manuscripts. They sat there, hidden, for the next nine hundred years. When the room, which came to be known as the Dunhuang Library, was finally opened in 1900, it was hailed as one of the great archaeological discoveries of the twentieth century, on par with Tutankhamun’s tomb and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The library was discovered by accident. In the early Middle Ages, Dunhuang had been a flourishing city-state. It had also long been famous as a center of Buddhist worship; pilgrims travelled great distances to visit its cave shrines, comprised of hundreds of lavishly decorated caverns carved into a cliff on the city’s outskirts. But by the early twentieth century, the town was a backwater, and its caves had fallen into disrepair. Wang Yuanlu, an itinerant Taoist monk, appointed himself their caretaker. One day, he noticed his cigarette smoke wafting toward the back wall of a large cave shrine. Curious, he knocked down the wall, and found a mountain of documents, piled almost ten feet high.

This is the debunking article about the Facebook nonsense.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jul 21 - 03:30 PM

That made me wonder about the credibility of the pre Neanderthal discoveries of Dragon Man and the recent Isreali discovery.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Jul 21 - 01:58 PM

I don't remember this being posted before. It is fascinating to see evidence of 'art' by people even older than most known civilizations.
Giraffe carvings in the Sahara

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 21 - 02:10 PM

Something more to love about the Tuareg region.

Years ago I was listening to All Things Considered and they did a story about Ali Farka Toure, who is from that region. I poked around on the map to find out more about it (fascinating history and archeology) and I immediately ordered the CD they talked about (Niafunke).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 05:52 AM

Faces of the dead emerge from lost African American graveyard Bones of enslaved furnace workers tell the grim story of their lives.

links to related stories are included - at least 6, I think, I lost count. Then I went to google for more information & pictures.

sandra (overwhelmed)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 10:02 AM

The work had to include skimming the molton slag from atop the liquid iron. There are huge mounds of it that now resemble volcanic glass.
The place is now like a mountain park with plaques and tours of the master's house. We kind of avoid that mountainous area along with Fort Dettrich in Frederick that has the level 3 bio warfare labs. The evil in that area that would hatch out if the dead could talk is overwhelming.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Jul 21 - 12:07 PM

This was a link from that article about "Faces of the dead" - A Maryland attic hid a priceless trove of Black history. Historians and activists saved it from auction.
Among the artifacts is an account of escape from enslavement that is among the oldest ever found

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Jul 21 - 11:07 PM

Derbyshire cave house identified as ninth-century home to exiled king

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 11:39 AM

Sandra, I pulled up that location on Google Earth. If you follow the link to the story about the church where Hardulph is buried, you see:      

This has to be one of the most important churches in the two counties if not in the whole of the UK because of its unique Saxon carvings – but more on that later. This church is dramatically sited on a limestone hill being cut-away by the quarry below and can be seen for many miles.

The second sentence is vague with its subjects - which is visible for miles - the church or the hill or the quarry? Google Earth confirms that there is a large and currently active quarry with various levels in view. It's almost wrapped on three sides by that excavation.

Your article says the project is looking at 170 sites - in England? The UK? That's a lot of caves. I've read about caves in China and Tibet (some of them very difficult to reach), in Italy and other parts of Europe. In the Middle East (full of Dead Sea scrolls). Interesting that I never really thought about caves getting much use in the UK (though I've always known about Fingal's Cave, of musical fame).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 09:14 PM

stilly, I did wonder when I started reading the article if the conclusion (the King slept here!) was pseudoscience, but the final par showed it was a real excavation/archaeological project.

Another article with a link to the survey Anchor Church Caves: Anglo-Saxon Home and Oldest House in Britain? ... Archaeologists from Wessex Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Institute of the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) recently joined forces to survey of the Anchor Church Caves in the English county of Derbyshire, listed as a grade II building. The results of this new study have been published in the Proceedings of the UBSS (University of Bristol Spelaeological Society)

When I started reading this I also wondered if was wish-fulfillment - The Quest to Understand Haliphat’s Speaking Handshapes but Plato in the 5th century BC mentioned sign language used by "dumb" people.

Now when did I start this post? It's definitely time to get back to stuff I need to do, no more browsing on interesting (time wasting???) sites!

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 10:36 PM

In the frugal last meal of a man 2,400 years ago, scientists see signs of human sacrifice
A study of the gut of a well-preserved body from a bog in Denmark has offered new details that researchers say hint at dark rituals.

I haven't read it all, but I wanted to pass it along before I lose track of the page.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 11:08 PM

Who Were These Vikings Buried Sitting Upright?
What Comforting Items Did Vikings Have That Are Still the Height of Luxury Today
Norse Warrior Took Comfy Duvet (and a Beheaded Owl) to the Afterlife

Thanks for posting it, Stilly, I was so busy reading these articles & many other related articles yesterday that altho I saw an article about Tolland man, I didn't read it. I spent a lot of time down that rabbit hole.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 06:46 AM

2,300-year-old solar observatory awarded Unesco world heritage status

---

Link fixed. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 09:20 PM

oops, I don't always test links, but I tested this one!

Ancient Roman ship laden with wine jars discovered off Sicily

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 09:46 PM

Doggerland: Lost ‘Atlantis’ of the North Sea gives up its ancient secrets A virtual tour of the exhibition Doggerland: Lost World in the North Sea, which will be physically available to visit until 31 October, can be viewed on the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden’s YouTube channel

The guided tour is amazing - especially the graphic at the end showing the effect for the Netherlands of the projected 9 metre rise in sea level in 700-800 years!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 02 Aug 21 - 02:27 AM

Saw that link and video yesterday and found it very interesting. I also liked the prominence given to the 'amateurs' who report their finds. Makes you wonder what other artefacts are tucked away in various cupboards and drawers.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Aug 21 - 05:06 AM

the exhibition might bring them out, especially as the Museum values them & their finders.

Back in the 70s when I was wandering along a beach, I found a worn piece of glass & a not-so-worn ceramic piece so I thought I might have a look at them. They live on a plastic plate at the end of my bath along with other finds picked up over the decades, including several other bits of glass & ceramics & a little bit of pumice(?) I don't remember where or when I found them, apart from a piece of coral which was in a street planter near a shop that sold mixed bags of pretty shells! Some kid must have tossed it away as it wasn't pretty.

getting back to our topic - another Guardian story Fruit baskets from fourth century BC found in ruins of Thonis-Heracleion

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Aug 21 - 10:42 PM

prehistoric cheese!


& from the same site - Egtved girl, & lots more

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 22 Aug 21 - 06:18 AM

Thanks for the links Sandra.

You have to love archaeologists. From the article itself:

"may be the preserved remains of cheese making"

"the possible remains of a failed attempt of cheese making"

"preliminary guess is that it could be the failed result of cheese making"

And the headline to the article is:

"Burnt cheese casts light on 3,000 year-old family drama"

I watched the last two episodes of

Archaeology: A Secret History. Presented by Dr. Richard Miles.

It was originally broadcast in 2013 but i missed it then.

Archaeology: A Secret History

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 21 - 12:59 PM

The nomad guide who decodes the Sahara's secrets

By the 16th Century, more people – 100,000 – lived in Timbuktu than lived in London

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 21 - 01:41 PM

Mysterious Stone Balls Found in Deteriorating Scottish Tomb
Dating back some 5,500 years, the polished stone balls could’ve been used as weapons.

Archaeologists working in the Orkney Islands of Scotland have uncovered two polished stone balls dating back to the Neolithic.

The stone balls were found inside the Tresness stalled cairn, an early Neolithic tomb located on Sanday, one of dozens of islands in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago. It’s a significant discovery, as only a small handful of these prehistoric balls have ever been found in a burial context.

“A cracking find from the tomb!,” tweeted team co-leader Hugo Anderson-Whymark, an archaeologist with National Museums Scotland (NMS), on August 18 after his team found the first of the two balls. “Only 20 or so Neolithic polished stone balls have been found in Orkney and few have been recovered from secure contexts,” he added.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 21 - 02:18 PM

Lots of these stories are turning up today.

Trove of 239 Rare Gold Coins Discovered in Walls of French Mansion
Renovators discovered a hidden box and pouch stuffed with rare gold coins, minted during the reigns of French Kings Louis XIII and Louis XIV

Beginning in 2016, all treasures discovered in France automatically became property of the state. However, since the mansion owners purchased the property in 2012, they have the rights to sell their finds, reports France 3. Per French law, the proceeds from the sale will be split in half, with half going to the married couple who owns the property and half to be split evenly among the three discoverers.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 08 Sep 21 - 06:25 PM

Australian 'cave ' paintings here compared to elsewhere further down

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Sep 21 - 10:46 PM

links I sent to a friend recently. For a few years she has spent holidays participating in excavations overseas & had been looking forward to a trip to Greece last year, & no doubt would have found one this year too!

https://dustyoldthing.com/first-pregnant-egyptian-mummy/

https://dustyoldthing.com/5th-century-bohemian-graves/

https://dustyoldthing.com/spanish-stonehenge-uncovered/

https://dustyoldthing.com/processional-chariot-pompeii/

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/05/australian-mathematician-discovers-applied-geometry-engraved-on-3700-year-old-tablet

UC discovers princely tombs near 'Griffin Warrior' Startling find adds to amazing story of powerful Greek figure

New evidence of a Roman road in the Venice Lagoon

Human remains in tomb are best-preserved ever found in Pompeii

---

Fixed the Guardian/mathematician link. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Sep 21 - 01:55 AM

oops, a little typo?

many thankyous

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 21 - 11:56 PM

Trying again (too many windows open before):

Piles of animal dung reveal the location of an ancient Arabian oasis is a for-profit site that aggregates science articles. So I went looking and found this, with more information, but still not the whole story.

Abstract
Aim
Dryland ecosystems, such as those in southern Arabia, are particularly vulnerable to climate and land-use change. Aridification and human subsistence changes at the end of the Holocene Humid Period at 6–4 ka have been used as an iconic example for evaluating such impacts to resilience of arid systems. Although records of ancient environments can provide critical insight into the biotic and abiotic mechanisms that alter ecosystems, traditional archives, such as lake deposits, are not common in southern Arabia after 6 ka; thus, we must use alternative archives.

Location
Yemen.

Taxon
Plants; Rock Hyrax (Procavia capensis).

Methods
We use fossil pollen and stable isotopes (d15N; d13C) of rock hyrax (P. capensis) middens from Wadi Sana, Yemen, to look at changes in ecosystem structure and function across this key transition from 6 ka to the present. A total of 17 middens were radiocarbon-dated and stable isotopes were measured. Of these, pollen was extracted from hyraceum of 14 middens and identified using a light microscope. Fossil pollen assemblages were then compared to existing modern pollen samples from throughout Arabia.

Results
During the mid-Holocene from at least 6 to 4.7 ka, the pollen flora reflects a landscape with abundant tropical trees. These included foundational woody taxa, such as Terminalia and Boswellia sacra (frankincense), which had a strong positive influence on local hydrology and the economy, respectively. Increased charcoal abundances also suggest that wildfire occurred periodically.

Main conclusions
Connections with archaeological evidence suggest a strong link between human management and the presence of Terminalia woodland during the mid-Holocene. These may have promoted increased groundwater storage and ponding as regional rainfall was decreasing. The mid-Holocene expansion of Boswellia sacra (frankincense) may have helped support resin trade that became a critical export from the region. Fires were more common than today, suggesting semi-arid but continuous vegetation cover across what is now bare ground. Finally, after 1 ka, increased sedge abundances at the expense of grasses and trees suggest the development of desert conditions.

It turns out this may be a very old story, because another link I found is this: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281474114_Early_Arabian_Pastoralism_at_Manayzah_in_Wadi_Sana_Hadramawt

I've accidentally deleted this page once, so I'll submit this message and sort it out later. What I find interesting is the archaeological information found in the middens of small desert animals. The same is true of packrat middens in the US desert southwest.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Sep 21 - 08:50 PM

Scientists find evidence of humans making clothes 120,000 years ago

Study by Yale University Experts Proves Vinland Map is a Hoax

The Posthumous Disgrace of the Dark Master of Archaeological Hoaxes

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Sep 21 - 10:56 AM

Good articles, Sandra!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Sep 21 - 11:19 AM

lots of good info around, including in my stash of archaeology magazines. Since lockdowns started last year I've been grabbing magazines when I see them as supplies of any overseas magazines are erratic, when is why I had a stash of 6 unopened magazines! I only have 4 now. Some folk might spend their money on alcohol or shoes, I spend mine on magazines!

When lockdown ends & "unessential" businesses re-open I'll take all my read magazines (at least a dozen) to a charity shop where a retired volunteer used to go on digs (BC, of course, everything is BC in the world now) & eagerly devours them before putting them out for sale.

I also have friend who used to go on digs & is sorely missing them. She was due to go back to Greece last year ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Sep 21 - 06:07 AM

and now for something a little bit different - Dinosaur fossil with ‘totally weird’ spikes in skeleton stuns experts

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 21 - 10:08 AM

I found a link to this wonderful story (sorry, it's music in the BS section) down at the bottom of the page with Sandra's story: ‘We’re like Mork and Mindy!’ Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, music’s odd couple. :) This makes me happy!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Sep 21 - 07:41 PM

Here's a worm you won't want to meet in your travels. (One reason why armchair travel is a safer option.)

"The man was plagued by an unknown species related to the Guinea worm, one that may have recently jumped from reptiles to humans."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Sep 21 - 06:36 AM

Ancient footprints could be oldest traces of humans in the Americas White Sands National Park, in southern New Mexico, is known for chalk-coloured dunes that stretch for hundreds of square kilometres. But at the height of the last Ice Age, the region was wetter and grassier. Mammoths, giant sloths and other animals walked the muddy shores of shallow lakes that grew and shrank with the seasons. And they had company.

In a landmark study published on 23 September in Science1, researchers suggest that human footprints from an ancient lakeshore in the park date to between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. If the dating is accurate — which specialists say is likely — the prints represent the earliest unequivocal evidence of human occupation anywhere in the Americas. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 04:52 AM

Gibraltar cave chamber discovery could shed light on Neanderthals’ culture Researchers find space in Gorham’s Cave complex that has been closed off for at least 40,000 years.
Researchers excavating a cave network on the Rock of Gibraltar have discovered a new chamber, sealed off from the world for at least 40,000 years, that could shed light on the culture and customs of the Neanderthals who occupied the area for a thousand centuries. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Oct 21 - 12:04 PM

Marble of ancient Greek statue traced to its likely origin

One of the great statues of antiquity has been connected to its likely birthplace by analysis of its marble.

The Colossus of the Naxians on the Greek island of Delos once stood about 9 metres tall, but is now in pieces. One is at the British Museum in London, while the rest are in Greece. The statue’s name refers to the island of Naxos, which has been a major source of marble since the Greek archaic era from 800 BC to 480 BC – but it isn’t from either of two known quarries of that period.

Instead, the marble has the chemical signature of a deposit in another part of the island, found by Scott Pike at Willamette University in Oregon. He will present his results at a meeting of the Geological Society of America on 11 October.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Oct 21 - 10:05 AM

Medieval Remains of ‘Noble Girl’ Discovered Under Real Alcázar in Spain Archaeologists have unearthed the skeleton of a 5-year-old, blonde-haired girl, buried in the late 13th or early 14th century beneath a chapel floor in the Real Alcázar in the Virgen de la Antigua in Seville, Spain. On analysis of this Alcázar burial , they believe her coffin was moved to an even more sacred spot beside the main altar in the 1930s. This discovery hints at the possible existence of a hidden crypt full of treasure-laden royal burials. (read on)

Closer to home - a very famous mystery The Tamam Shud Enigma: Australian Cold Case with Ancient Persian Connection Re-opens. On December 1, 1948, authorities were called to Somerton beach in Adelaide, South Australia. A dead body had been found. Little did police realize they were about to encounter what is now considered one of Australia’s most profound mysteries, with connections to the ancient world.
They found his cold body on the sand, slumped at the base of a seawall. He was a middle-aged man in top physical condition, smartly dressed in a suit and tie, his sophisticated black shoes polished. Despite the hot weather, he wore a knit pullover and suit-jacket. His corpse revealed no obvious cause of death. Nobody knew who he was, or where he had come from. After collecting the body, police examined his possessions and clothes for a hint of who he was, but the tags and labels had been carefully removed, leaving no trail. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Oct 21 - 11:17 AM

Thank you Sandra, Origins.com in its entirety has become one of my virtual time machine guilty pleasures.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Oct 21 - 08:06 PM

I enjoy reading it, it's a gi-normous rabbit hole ...

If I believed in New Years' Day resolutions (as we all know every day is new year's day) I'd make one to delete bookmarks for my rabbit hole sites - I have soooo much I need to do!

delete bookmarks??? shudder, my tummy feels sick at the thought ...

sandra (off to Jigsaw Explorer which is not a time waster as it only gives me 2 new jigsaws each day, well, it does have archives aka More Puzzles)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Oct 21 - 11:04 PM

I'm headed to the local thrift store that carries used jigsaw puzzles. I'm finding them a fascinating way to take a close look at various interesting sites and objects. Woe to me if I get hooked on online puzzles.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Oct 21 - 11:13 PM

healthy addictions in a word are 'fun'.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Oct 21 - 08:18 AM

Stilly, I had a large (3 or 4 shelves) collection of old jigsaws, puzzles I'd bought in the 70s + used jigsaws I'd bought in recent years, all gone except for 2 (1942 Gen Macarthur Battle of Midway & 1952 Qoronation) I bought & 2 that belonged to my grandmother, cos I only have one table & online jigsaws are sooo much easier.

Tell yourself you have a house & have no need for on-line jigsaws, besides buying from the thrift shop is for a good cause. Mine all want to charity shops, amany came from charity shops.

sandra (supporting the circular economy)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Oct 21 - 11:26 AM

I have a box ready to ship to Mudcatters Jen and Art in New Mexico, it's one in a series they have collected. Good! I donated two others back to the shop. I have a space that I created during the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown when I rearranged two rooms in the house. Now the one that people first walk into is light and airy, my triple window full of plants looks lush and inviting, and my table is set up for puzzles, even rather large puzzles. (Fully extended I think this table can seat 12).

It does seem to offer a form of armchair travel (though I usually stand, not sit, for a few minutes at a time to work on this, then go back to whatever took me past the room to begin with.) The one I've shipped represents Paris during the time of an Exposition. Now I'm working on one from NY City, and the one I set aside for a time I am told by a couple of friends is the famous Split Rock Lighthouse on Lake Superior in Minnesota. (Identified by actual traveller Joe Offer.)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Oct 21 - 08:06 PM

a jigsaw room! with a view!

My 4 windows are full of plants, the north facing bedroom window has a sheer curtain & thin bright yellow curtains so looks lovely when the sun hits for a few hours in the morning. My other 3 windows just look across the courtyard to the neighbours, but the plants & blue wren decals give me a pretty view from my living room thru the sheet curtain, which is bordered with heavier curtains of green & brown ferns.

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Oct 21 - 08:08 PM

oops, I opened this thread to post this -
Skeleton buried in Vesuvius eruption found at Herculaneum Archaeologists find remains of fugitive during first dig at site near Pompeii in almost three decades

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Oct 21 - 10:07 PM

Sharp-eyed diver finds crusader’s ancient sword on Israeli seabed Metre-long relic, encrusted with marine organisms, is believed to be about 900 years old

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 05:02 AM

more about the crusader sword

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 06:45 AM

I've been to Herculaneum twice. It's a lot more compact than Pompei and you can see the best of it in just a few hours. It's stunning. Unlike at Pompei, a lot of the buildings' roofs didn't collapse in the eruption, so many of the interiors are really well-preserved. The most poignant sight is the skeletons stranded in open-fronted buildings that were once on the sea shore (sea levels have changed significantly, so what was the shoreline is now well back on dry land). There's still plenty of excavating to do there.

See Pompei and Herculaneum before you die if you can. The best way to arrive at both is on the ultra-cheap Circumvesuviana railway that runs from Sorrento to Naples. When you get off at Ercolano Scavi station you do have to walk up the hill through the rather rough little town but it looks scarier than it is (you are in the vicinity of Naples, don't forget!). Pompei is easier. Vesuvius looms menacingly over both towns, though it lost a lot of its height in the eruption.

Give me a week to go wherever I like on the planet and there's nowhere I'd rather be...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 07:00 AM

I hope you get back to travelling to interesting places sometime soon.

I do my archaeological travel via magazines & websites, I have too many sore bits to do "real" travelling (poor me!) I give my old magazines to a charity shop where they are first read by a volunteer who used to volunteer on excavations in his earlier years.

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 10:26 AM

My daughter returned from Italy about 10 days before the new immunization mandates went into effect - I imagine those who haven't gone to work now because of no vaccination have slowed things throughout the workforce. Good timing for the tourist to have finished the trip before now.

Right now I'm working a puzzle to do with Times Square in NYC. Jigsaw puzzle travel, a subset of armchair travel. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 04:41 PM

My tow truck driver used google earth to find my car today.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Oct 21 - 04:45 PM

Someday there may be a Google LIDAR Earth for Armchair Archaeologists.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Oct 21 - 07:05 PM

Solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago

I tried to post these 3 references yesterday but had a connection problem
Unfreezing the ice age: the truth about humanity’s deep past
For more than a century, this sacred treasure was hidden in a New Zealand swamp from the podcast series Stuff the British stole

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Oct 21 - 02:31 AM

Have Sumatran fishing crews found the fabled Island of Gold? It was a fabled kingdom known in ancient times as the Island of Gold, a civilisation with untold wealth that explorers tried in vain to find long after its unexplained disappearance from history around the 14th century. The site of Srivijaya may finally have been found – by local fishing crews carrying out night-time dives on the Musi River near Palembang on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Their extraordinary catches are treasures ranging from a lifesize eighth-century Buddhist statue studded with precious gems – worth millions of pounds – to jewels worthy of kings ...

Treasures now retrieved by the fishers are simply being sold before archaeologists can properly study them, ending up with antiquities dealers, while the fishers using dangerous diving equipment and buckets receive a pittance of the true value.
“They are lost to the world,” Kingsley warned. “Vast swathes, including a stunning lifesize Buddhist statue adorned with precious gems, have been lost to the international antiquities market. Newly discovered, the story of the rise and fall of Srivijaya is dying anew without being told.”

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Oct 21 - 07:20 AM

I have a feeling that we all had a connection problem yesterday!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Oct 21 - 07:31 AM

Sandra posts are a treasure trove of antiquities in themselves.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Oct 21 - 05:54 AM

another treasure! A new National Geographic documentary series - National Geographic TV

Egyptians used advanced embalming methods 1,000 years earlier than thought ... It is among major discoveries to be revealed in National Geographic’s documentary series, Lost Treasures of Egypt, starting on 7 November. It is produced by Windfall Films, and the cameras follow international archaeologists during the excavation season in Egypt. The mummification discovery will feature in episode four – entitled Rise of the Mummies – on 28 November.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 06:23 PM

Huge restored mosaic unveiled in Jericho desert castle

Hisham's Palace - 8th Century Islamic desert castle near Jericho

Hisham’s Palace - 2016 article

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Oct 21 - 06:45 PM

DNA only lasts awhile and Carbon 14 has its drawbacks but a way to determine gender has been found for fossilized remains millions of years old. Cochlear size differentiation is the key. Women have bigger cochleas to hear higher frequencies.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Oct 21 - 06:16 AM

Well-preserved statues of a Roman man, woman and child were dug up from under the ruins of a Norman church in Stoke Mandeville. The church had been demolished a few decades ago, and the rubble was being cleared to make way for Boris Johnson's vanity waste-of-money project, the HS2 railway, when the remains were found. There was also a hexagonal Roman glass jug.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 21 - 06:07 PM

Two new species of large predatory dinosaur discovered on Isle of Wight, UK

A bit larger time jump than we usually encounter in these stories, but interesting!

The discovery of spinosaurid dinosaurs on the Isle of Wight was a long time coming. “We’ve known for a couple of decades now that Baryonyx-like dinosaurs awaited discovered on the Isle of Wight, but finding the remains of two such animals in close succession was a huge surprise” remarked co-author Darren Naish, expert in British theropod dinosaurs. . . . Although the skeletons are incomplete, the researchers estimate that both Ceratosuchops and Riparovenator measured around nine metres in length, snapping up prey with their metre-long skulls. The study also suggested how spinosaurids might have first evolved in Europe, before dispersing into Asia, Africa and South America.

Dr Neil J. Gostling of the University of Southampton, who supervised the project, said: “This work has brought together universities, Dinosaur Isle museum and the public to reveal these amazing dinosaurs and the incredibly diverse ecology of the south coast of England 125 million years ago.”

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Oct 21 - 08:25 PM

wow!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 02 Nov 21 - 10:43 AM

Famous "Cloth of Gold" ship decaying due to bacteria poop - Mary Rose

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Nov 21 - 08:41 PM

Tudor wall paintings uncovered in Yorkshire ‘discovery of a lifetime’

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 02:35 AM

Intact 1,200-Year-Old Canoe Recovered From Wisconsin Lake

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 12:14 PM

That is impressive. At first the archeologist dismissed it as an old Boy Scout project. Good thing she looked again.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 08:32 PM

when I was looking for more info I found stories about many other older & younger canoe finds around the world.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 08:59 PM

Anatolian Neolithic Weavers At Çatalhöyük Used Trees to Make The Oldest Cloth ... To obtain a definitive answer for the material used to make the cloth at Çatalhöyük, a team of archaeologists with expertise in this area collaborated on a study of pieces of clothing fabric recovered during 1993—2017 excavations led by Stanford University archaeologist Ian Hodder. These fabrics were made between 8,700 and 8,500 years ago and were still quite well preserved despite the immense passage of time. ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 18 Nov 21 - 10:22 AM

Something slightly different.

Some friends of mine were having an extension built on there late 19th century property. During the work a skeleton was found underneath part of the property.

The local archaeological tean were called in. That was about 2 years. They recently updated my friends as follows:

According to our bone specialist:

     ‘The available evidence combines to suggest that the bones recovered relate to a single individual.  The skeleton represented is of a relatively tall, adult male, aged 25–35, although the attrition of the molars could indicate slightly younger age.‘

There was nothing to indicate why he died but I think we may presume ‘natural causes’....This seems to be how long many people in the prehistoric past actually lived.

Having got the bones looked at, we selected a good, solid leg bone and sent it off to Queens University, Belfast for radio carbon dating. This individual died some where between 2467 and 2204 BC (mostly like date, 2351BC) – so well over 4000 years ago. This places our man in the Early Bronze Age, during what archaeologists call the Beaker Period – towards a 1000 years before Dover’s famous Bronze Age boat.

We have also been working on the pieces of broken pottery found with the bones and have had some success in identifying it as the remains of a Beaker - the typical pot of the period (perhaps a beer tankard). Interestingly, another one of these Beaker pots came up near Connaught Park during the 19th century, but that got lost in the War.

 
Here is a link to

Dover Bronze Age Boat

Which was mentioned above.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 07:06 PM

thanks for the story & link, Rain Dog

Batavia shipwreck revealing new information about historic Dutch shipwrights - 1629 shipwreck - mutiny & massacre, see also 3 Related stories at the end of the article, links to 3 graves found in 2015

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 07:20 PM

Every morning after reading the ABC site I go to The Guardian & just found this!

‘It was terrifying’: ancient book’s journey from Irish bog to museum treasure

wikipedia - Faddan More Psalter

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 07:43 PM

i know its just pattern recognition wiring of the brain but I see gargoyle faces in the bog book of psalms

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Nov 21 - 07:57 PM

I'm watching 60 minutes and they showed a Caligula palace mosaic in the form of a coffee table found in a NYC apartment.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 02:21 AM

I also found an article about the mosaic table ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Nov 21 - 06:34 AM

another mosaic discovery - ‘Oh wow’: remarkable Roman mosaic found in Rutland field

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Nov 21 - 03:15 PM

Decorated ivory 'pendant' carved from mammoth tusk is oldest example of ornate j jewellery in Eurasia, archaeologists say

but it could also be a boomerang!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 07:44 PM

Just keeps coming..
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/26/1059341809/leicester-england-archaeologists-ancient-roman-mosaic

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 01:57 AM

it does indeed -

p.s. there's a really good typo in the report - The mosaic is believed to date back to the late Roman Empire, roughly 250-450 BCE, and is part of a massive villa complex buried beneath a farmer's field.

Looks like your newspapers/news organisations were not the only ones to dispense with that un-necessary occupation - the proofreader!

According to Professor Google (who of course knows everything) the late Roman Empire was AD (using the old Christian dating) or CE (using the newer, all-embracing category!)

Pedants like me had fun after our local papers cut out those unneeded staff members ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 06:32 AM

Even as a dyed-in-the-wool atheist I'm still more than happy to stick with BC and AD! I mean, 'common era" - I mean, qu'est-ce que c'est que ça!

(Even though Jesus was apparently born several years BC...). ;-)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Nov 21 - 07:16 AM

the Census was 4BC if I remember correctly - that is, remembering my reading of Ancient History, not any personal memories ...

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Dec 21 - 09:23 AM

I am delighted to learn that a civilization centralized near present day St. Louis built pyramids of clay existed during the decline of the Mayan cities and was bigger than European cities in 1,000 AD.
They extended their civilization via the Mississippi.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Dec 21 - 10:30 AM

I fear that the main remnants of those cultures are the mounds that are contained in various state and national parks.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 13 Dec 21 - 12:04 PM

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Builders#Archaeological_surveys

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 07:06 AM

Fossil discovery shows some Australian 'thunder birds' had painful bone infection before species went extinct.
Around 50,000 years ago, a giant flightless bird roamed the open woodlands and lake edges of southern Australia.
This mihirung paringmal (giant bird), sometimes called a "thunder bird" (Genyoris newtoni), weighed five to six times that of an emu, was 2 metres tall, and had a huge beak.
But what caused the demise of the species isn't entirely settled. read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 07:26 AM

It is suspected that climate change caused the civilization to no longer grow corn all year around and that floods became severe.
https://cahokiamounds.org/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Dec 21 - 04:13 PM

Rare Roman crucifixion victim found in UK ... Only one other Roman crucifixion has been confirmed with human remains, a man who died in Israel in the 1st century ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 05:48 PM

Ancient jar that may have been used to anoint Anglo-Saxon kings is found after 1,000 years underground in hoard of treasure 'buried to hide it from Vikings'

    Experts found 'extraordinary' Roman rock crystal jar in Viking-era treasure hoard found buried in Scotland
    Galloway Hoard has more than 100 objects including bracelets, brooches, a gold ring and a Christian cross
    Derek McLennan, a retired businessman and metal detectorist, found the stash at Kirkcudbrightshire in 2014
    The jar was wrapped in delicate gold thread by the finest medieval craftsman in late 8th or early 9th century

lots of amazing pics!

one of us posted something about the Galloway Hoard at some stage since this thread started in Jan 2018, but Google just throws me to the whole thread! ... Scuttering beneath the floorboards, the rats hoarded scraps of fabric, ... Conserving the Galloway Hoard - it was in an urn & wrapped in textiles

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 06:47 PM

Was the "someone" who posted about the Galloway Hoard you??

Sandra in Sydney - PM Date: 13 Dec 20 - 07:52 AM

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 11:04 PM

did you read every post, or does your google search go to the exact post? I used firefox & chrome, I searched both phrases - Galloway Hoard + Scuttering beneath the floorboards

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Dec 21 - 11:09 PM

here's one of the articles I posted - updated

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 20 Dec 21 - 12:48 AM

Oh yeah, I definitely read every post! LOL - Not.

The Google brought up the whole thread, not the divided sections, and then I just used the Edit/Find in Page function on the toolbar.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Dec 21 - 04:30 PM

Edit/Find in Page function???

Mudcat is a great place to learn stuff!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Dec 21 - 04:27 PM

Scientists find perfectly preserved dinosaur embryo preparing to hatch like bird

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Dec 21 - 04:53 PM

World’s oldest family tree revealed in 5,700-year-old Cotswolds tomb ... The researchers have discovered that 27 were biological relatives from five continuous generations of a single extended family. The majority were descended from four women who all had children with the same man. ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jan 22 - 04:01 PM

First Human Skeleton From Bronze Age Tsunami Discovered in Turkey
Archaeologists find remains of a young man and dog left behind by a natural disaster some 3,600 years ago in the Mediterranean

A massive volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean Sea some 3,600 years ago might just be the worst natural disaster in human history. The event contributed to the decline of Minoan culture on Thera—now the Greek island of Santorini—and also created a huge tsunami that demolished communities all along the sea’s coastline.

For the first time, archaeologists in Turkey have found an articulated human skeleton in the debris field left behind by the tsunami, reports Maya Margit for the Media Line. The researchers made the discovery and published their findings in the peer-reviewed journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 22 - 08:12 PM

Santorini is an amazing place - from pics I hasten to add, I've never been there.

The 10 Most Exciting and Extraordinary Artifact Finds Of 2021

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jan 22 - 08:25 PM

forgot to add this

Pompeii of the East: 4,000 year-old victims of Chinese earthquake includes pic of Pompeii victims

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 09 Jan 22 - 11:10 AM

oops something went wrong with that interesting link

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Jan 22 - 11:16 AM

Fixed it. There have been a couple of broken links lately - usually because the last few characters of the link were chopped off.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Jan 22 - 04:46 PM

oops I forgot to check it - DaveRo's simple linkifier created after I had trouble blickying a long URL

Medieval warhorses no bigger than modern-day ponies, study finds but I checked this & it works.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jan 22 - 06:27 AM

UK's biggest railway project = biggest archaeology project - HS2 - national high-speed railway linking London, Birmingham, Leeds   ... Helen Wass, HS2’s head of heritage, said: “Archaeology is a double-edged sword. We wouldn’t be doing it if construction wasn’t happening. You can’t have one without the other. We make sure that if construction happens, we record our heritage to the best of our ability.”

latest discovery - ‘Exquisite’ wooden Roman figure found on HS2 dig in Buckinghamshire ...The carved wooden figure was “a fantastic find”, said Pitt. “It’s really rare to get Roman carved woodwork in Britain. Even in its fractured, weathered state, it has something in the pose of the figure and in the dress that says this is probably Roman.”

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jan 22 - 12:47 PM

Off to the side on the stories you link to there are always other gems. The Guardian does a good job of reporting these discoveries. You may have shared this one, in which case I missed it (from October last year).

‘Astounding’ Roman statues unearthed at Norman church ruins on route of HS2
Heads of man, woman and child found on site of Stoke Mandeville church built in 1080 and abandoned 800 years later

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jan 22 - 12:59 PM

And, upon taking a dive back to late 2021 I didn't find that link, but I did find one that Don and Sandra referred to but didn't actually share.

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC
Authorities returned the ancient artwork, now on view at a museum near Rome, to Italy following a multi-year investigation

In 2013, Dario Del Bufalo, an Italian expert on ancient marble and stone, was signing copies of his book Porphyry in New York when he overheard a shocking conversation. Two people paging through the volume had spotted a photo of a Roman mosaic that disappeared toward the end of World War II. Suddenly, one of them exclaimed, “Oh, Helen, look, that’s your mosaic.”

Once part of the dance floor on one of Roman Emperor Caligula’s pleasure ships, the marble masterpiece was recovered from the depths of Lake Nemi in the 1930s, only to vanish the following decade. Art dealer Helen Fioratti and her husband, Nereo, purchased the mosaic from an aristocratic Italian family in the 1960s and used it as a coffee table in their Manhattan apartment for some 45 years. Now, reports Anderson Cooper for CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” the priceless artifact is back in Italy, where it recently went on display at the Museum of Roman Ships in Nemi.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jan 22 - 02:49 PM

Stilly you are a great sleuth.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jan 22 - 05:07 PM

I'll second that!!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jan 22 - 08:10 PM

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/finding-archaeological-relevance-during-a-pandemic-and-what-c

Ethnocentric pandemics seem to be different overall than I was taught.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Jan 22 - 09:27 PM

Error 494 - page not found - maybe the URL is too long?

I found it by searching for title - Finding Archaeological Relevance during a Pandemic and What - & it is indeed

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-antiquity/article/finding-archaeological-relevance-during-a-pandemic-and-what-comes-after/CB0492613EF4547C1191FBAC57C3F24B

here tis, using DaveRo's linkifier ... Recognizing that human populations most severely impacted by COVID-19 are typically descendants of marginalized groups, we investigate pre- and postcontact disease vectors among Indigenous and Black communities in North America, outlining the systemic impacts of diseases and the conditions that exacerbate their spread. We look at how material culture both reflects and changes as a result of social transformations brought about by disease, the insights that paleopathology provides about the ancient human condition, and the impacts of ancient globalization on the spread of disease worldwide. By understanding the differential effects of past epidemics on diverse communities and contributing to more equitable sociopolitical agendas, archaeology can play a key role in helping to pursue a more just future ...

Epidemic Disease among Indigenous Peoples, Black Communities, and Other Underrepresented Groups
Best-selling books such as Jared Diamond's Pulitzer Prize–winning Guns, Germs, and Steel (Reference Diamond1999) and Charles Mann's 1491 (Reference Mann2005) draw attention to the devastation of Indigenous communities due to epidemic diseases introduced through European colonialism ...

I just skimmed thru it, I don't have the concentration to read it at the moment.

DaveRo's linkifier

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jan 22 - 07:10 AM

Sometimes there was an enormous delay between exposure and pandemic spread. Not what I expected after learning about Spaniard small pox and the Aztecs. My bet is that jet travel did not exist in ancient times :^/

Anyway it reminded me that Amazon indigenous tribes may be at risk in Brazil.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jan 22 - 02:20 PM

Right now everyone seems to be "dying of Stupid," when a casual encounter with a contagious anti-vaxxer is spreading COVID like wildfire. Everyone of them is a little Colonel Henry Bouquet.

The archeological work that happens indoors (covered with awnings, etc.) may be on hold. Perhaps digs in the fresh air can continue.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jan 22 - 06:03 PM

for those who need a constant archaeology fix, you could bookmark these sites
UK's biggest railway project = biggest archaeology project
Ancient Origins
Smithsonian archaeology

Any other good sites I can add to my bookmarks?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 02:41 AM

Archaeology’s sexual revolution Graves dating back thousands of years are giving up their secrets, as new ways to pin down the sex of old bones are overturning long-held, biased beliefs about gender and love
I Emilie Steinmark
Mon 17 Jan 2022 00.00 AEDT

Last modified on Mon 17 Jan 2022 06.13 AEDT

In the early summer of 2009, a team of archaeologists arrived at a construction site in a residential neighbourhood of Modena, Italy. Digging had started for a new building and in the process workers unearthed a cemetery, dating back 1,500 years. There were 11 graves, but it quickly became clear that one of them was not like the others. Instead of a single skeleton, Tomb 16 contained two and they were holding hands.

“Here’s the demonstration of how love between a man and a woman can really be eternal,” wrote Gazzetta di Modena of the pair, instantly dubbed “the Lovers”. However, according to the original anthropological report, the sex of the Lovers was not obvious from the bones alone. At some point, someone tried to analyse their DNA, but “the data were so bad”, says Federico Lugli at the University of Bologna, that it looked like “just random noise”. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 05:43 AM

That was an interesting article Sandra, and a reminder, if one was needed, of the amount of guesswork that is involved when it comes to interpreting archaeological finds.

A few of the recent British finds have been covered in the latest series of the BBC TV programme Digging for Britain

Well worth a watch. It covers numerous digs that took place last year and before. It does remind us that even now so much remains buried in this country.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 05:56 AM

From the BBC

Crocodile found under Rhondda school floor

'A 120-year-old skeleton of a crocodile discovered under a school classroom has gone on display.

The bizarre find was made when builders lifted the floorboards of a Rhondda Cynon Taf school during renovation work.

Until then the story of a creature buried beneath Ysgol Bodringallt in Ystrad was long thought to be a myth.

Now the "legendary" saltwater crocodile has pride of place in the school after more than two years of restoration.

"I'd heard a story that parents and school staff had buried a crocodile under the school some time between the two world wars," head teacher Dr Neil Pike said at the time.

"But I thought it was a myth and didn't take any notice - until laid on the floor of the hall was the crocodile!"'

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 06:50 AM

wow! then I clicked on the link 'The mysterious medieval tunnel found by accident' & found another interesting article.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 09:15 AM

Beyond achaeology is paleotology. Today I learned of a pandemic virus that killed plankton leaving thier white micro skeletal behind.
That 'chalk' is what we call the white cliffs of Dover today which is a mass plankton graveyard. It used to go all the way across today's English channel but got washed away by geological forces in a flood of epic proportions. Eons ago some events are slow but some are quick
like the undersea volcano by Tonga this weekend.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 09:33 AM

edit: Missing are the n in paleontology and the word remains.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 12:03 PM

Thanks for mentioning that link Sandra.

A little searching led me to the following article on a site you might find of interest.

Mediaeval Mythbusting Blog #5: The Tintern Tunnels

I was amused to see a reference in the article to "the rumoured tunnel between Dover Castle and St Radegund’s Abbey". Even now locals talk of
a tunnel between the castle and the fortifications on the Western Heights. There are indeed a lot of tunnels and manmade caves under the castle and in other areas of the town. The chalk does lend itself to tunneling. During the 2nd World War the military expanded the facilities under the castle and a number of caves in the town were used as air raid shelters.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 04:57 PM

added to my bookmarks, thanks Rain Dog.

love these quotes - Scepticism of secret tunnels is not even a recent phenomenon. In 1913, whilst discussing the rumoured tunnel between Dover Castle and St Radegund’s Abbey, a writer for the Invicta Magazine for the Homes and People of Kent pulled no punches when they stated that ‘the cellars and drains of this old abbey provide food for those superstitious people who love underground passages to furnish with phantoms and ghosts and other disembodied creatures’ (Fielding 1913, 196-201).

A few years later S. E. Winbolt was a little more generous when he said that: ‘Underground passages are of course, always ‘intriguing’, and until the pick, shovel and the light of an electric lamp are brought to bear on them, extravagant legends persist… Drainage is the less romantic explanation of many of them’ (Winbolt 1935, 195).

Perhaps Jeremy Errand put this more poetically when he concluded that ‘a large proportion of stories of secret passages contain more moonshine than a fisherman’s boast’ (Errand 1974, 156).

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Jan 22 - 03:57 AM

Excellently preserved, complete crossbow from 2,200 years ago found at Terracotta Warrior site ... Reported by news site China.org to be the most complete crossbow found to date at the site, it has a 145 centimeter (57 inch) arch and, incredibly, the bow string remains intact and measures 130 centimeters (51 inches) long. Researchers believe the string is made of animal tendon rather than fabric, which would have degraded and disappeared long ago.

Featured image: Bronze crossbow similar to one recently excavated from the terra cotta army pit at Xi’an, Shaanxi province. This weapon was from a war chariot excavated from the Tomb of The First Emperor, Lintong, Shaanxi Province Qin Dynasty, circa 210 B.C. Representational image only. Credit: Oberlin College of Arts & Sciences

The pic of the bow as found in the site is not quite as beautiful as the featured image, but it's even more interesting.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Feb 22 - 05:47 PM

Archaeologists uncover ancient helmets & temple ruins in southern Italy inds date to sixth-century BC Battle of Alalia, in which the Greeks defeated Etruscans and Carthaginians. Two ancient warrior helmets, metal fragments believed to have come from weapons, and the remains of a temple have been discovered at Velia, an archaeological site in southern Italy that was once a powerful Greek colony.
Experts believe the helmets, which were found in good condition, and metal fragments date to the sixth-century BC Battle of Alalia, when a Greek force of Phocaean ships clinched victory over the Etruscans and their Carthaginian allies in a naval battle off the coast of Corsica. One of the helmets is thought to have been taken from the enemies ...

photo of helmet
another photo of helmet

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 08 Feb 22 - 10:40 AM

Remember before 8th February 2005 ??

Happy Birthday Google Maps

BBC World Service
Witness History
The invention of Google Maps

In 2005, a revolutionary online mapping service called Google Maps went live for the first time. It introduced searchable, scrollable, interactive maps to a wider public, but required so much computing power that Google's servers nearly collapsed under the strain.

Lars Rasmussen, one of the inventors of Google Maps, talks to Ashley Byrne.



https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1x6n
9 minutes

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 01:07 AM

Ancient crocodile's last meal may have been a dinosaur Australian scientists say they've discovered a new species of crocodile, and its last meal may have been a dinosaur.

The crocodile, called a Broken Dinosaur Killer, was recovered on a sheep station in outback Queensland, and is believed to be more than 95 million years old.

Researchers say while piecing together the fossilised croc, they made a startling discovery — the partial remains of a young ornithopod dinosaur inside its stomach. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 11:58 AM

I recently discovered a ancient dna controversy in European vs. American scientific strategies. Because of poor funding Americans are not dna testing the tarter from ancient teeth but Europe is.
Eoropean discoveries of ancient 'meals' has far out paced the US.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/ancient-tooth-tarter-provides-glimpse-into-early-trade-and-menu-items/

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 05:22 AM

good article, Donuel

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 04:16 PM

NIH did give ancient tarter research a small grant a couple years ago.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 04:12 PM

‘Every year it astounds us’: the Orkney dig uncovering Britain’s stone age culture

The world of Stonehenge

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 09:11 PM

Ancient Toilet Unearthed in Jerusalem Shows Elite Were Plagued by Intestinal Worms
Mineralized feces chock-full of parasitic eggs indicate that it wasn’t the lower classes alone who suffered from certain infectious diseases

About two years ago, while building a new visitor center in Armon Hanatziv Promenade, an outlook in Jerusalem known for its beautiful vistas, construction workers dug up remains of a fine ancient structure. After examining fragments of exquisite balustrades and elegant window frames, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority determined that they once belonged to a palace or a luxury villa built in the mid-7th century B.C.E. “The fragments were of the finest quality ever found in Israel,” says Ya’akov Billig, who leads the excavation efforts at the Antiquities Authority. But as they dug further, the team was in for an even greater treat—a prehistoric latrine. And even more excitingly, the researchers’ newfound archaeological gem held what the ancient toilet-goers left behind: mineralized poop.

The Iron Age toilets are indeed a rare find, in part because few families had them—most individuals did their business in the bush—and in part because these usually simple structures did not survive very long. But those that stood the test of time are a trove of information about our ancestors, including their diets, health problems and potentially even their medicinal substances, says microarchaeologist Dafna Langgut of Tel Aviv University. She studies microscopic remnants the naked eye can’t see. After peering into the prehistoric poop for cues about the individuals who produced it, she came up with a curious conclusion: While the palace residents lived in a luxury villa surrounded by a lush garden, they suffered from debilitating parasitic infections that gave them stomach aches, nausea, diarrhea and other ills. Langgut’s team described their findings in the International Journal of Paleopathology, along with a theory of why these infections may have been so widespread that everyone was affected.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 17 Feb 22 - 05:00 AM

Why Archaeologists Love Digging Up Privies

Discovery of 2,700-year-old toilet in Israel delights researchers The simple square block with a hole in the middle would have been a rare luxury item at the time it was in use
Clay pots and animal bones were also found, giving scientists a potential glimpse into what people from the period ate, and the diseases that plagued them ...

Treasure hunters privy to an outhouse's buried secrets

So many articles!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Feb 22 - 07:12 AM

https://www.livescience.com/ice-age-mammoth-graveyard-uk

I watched an extended Richard Attenborough show about Mammoths in Southern England. I used to live near a mass graveyard of Mammoths in Batavia NY.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Feb 22 - 03:59 AM

Australia - Brisbane’s convict past unearthed during busway excavations

Brisbane is the 3rd oldest capital city in Australia & was settled in 1824, 36 years after Sydney was settled.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Feb 22 - 10:34 AM

I saw that program also, Don. Fascinating! One wonders if there are chipped up fossils in the roadbeds and building foundations in the region or if those big pieces were all discarded in past years of quarrying. (They did show a piece of bone that was discarded, hence the question. There might be a real interesting tailings pile somewhere around there.)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Feb 22 - 04:46 PM

Lavish Roman mosaic is biggest found in London for 50 years Archaeologists say ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ finds near London Bridge are from heyday of Londinium. The largest expanse of Roman mosaic found in London for more than half a century has been unearthed at a site believed to have been a venue for high-ranking officials to lounge in while being served food and drink.

Dating from the late second century to the early third century, the mosaic’s flowers and geometric patterns were a thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime find, said Antonietta Lerz, of the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola).

It was discovered about a month ago at a construction site near London Bridge. The mosaic, which is eight metres long, will be lifted later this year for preservation and conservation work, with the eventual hope of it being publicly displayed ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Feb 22 - 06:14 PM

In 2004 we visited the Ancient Greek/Roman site at Kourion in Cyprus. We came across mosaics that were completely open to the elements and which you could actually walk all over! (I hasten to add that we didn't). It was a stunning site which included the "earthquake house," very poignant. I sort of like the freedom to wander all over amazing historical sites unencumbered. When I was in my teens we could wander all over Stonehenge without paying a penny and without being shut out by fences. It's a magical thing to be able to do. Sadly, I can also see the need to be very protective of these treasures, so mixed feelings...

The mosaic in London is absolutely stunning.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Feb 22 - 06:32 PM

A bit too ancient to be archaeological, but a fantastic fossil of a Jurassic pterosaur (I think we used to call them pterodactyls) has been found on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It has a wing span of about two metres and is really well-preserved. It's being lauded as one of the best dinosaur fossils found in Britain since May Anning did her stuff. It would take me until at least three in the morning to create a link, so you'll have to rely on Dr Google!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Feb 22 - 03:48 AM

I meant Mary Anning, not her fictitious sister May... :-(

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Feb 22 - 06:09 AM

Remains of ‘world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur’ recovered in Scotland ... Fossil hunters in Scotland say they have recovered the remains of the world’s largest Jurassic pterosaur, adding the creature – known informally as a pterodactyl – also boasted a mouthful of sharp teeth for spearing and trapping fish.

With a wingspan of about 2.5 metres or larger – around the size of the largest flying birds today, such as the wandering albatross – the creature sheds new light on the evolution of pterosaurs, given they were not thought to have reached such a size until about 25m years later.

“When this thing was living about 170m years ago, it was the largest animal that had ever flown, at least that we know of,” said Prof Steve Brusatte, a co-author of the research from the University of Edinburgh.

“We’ve really dragged back in time the evolution of large pterosaurs,” he said ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Feb 22 - 05:50 AM

see my post 20 Feb 22 - 03:59 AM

Australia - Brisbane’s convict past unearthed during busway excavations

Brisbane is the 3rd oldest capital city in Australia & was settled in 1824, 36 years after Sydney was settled.

5 days later - Remnants of Brisbane’s convict era lasted centuries, gone within days Archaeological remnants of convict-era Brisbane were allowed to be excavated this week for a $1.3 billion busway project to proceed ... By Thursday afternoon, however, they were removed by a small bulldozer, which pried out every piece of stone to be carted away ... The stone stairs, 190-year-old stone wall and foundations will not be returned to Adelaide Street, despite providing a rare glimpse of Brisbane’s early convict days.

“Opportunities are under consideration for people to physically see the items in the future,” the lord mayor’s spokeswoman said, while ruling out the original site ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Feb 22 - 04:49 PM

Doomed ship of gold’s ghostly picture gallery is plucked from the seabed Eerie photographs recovered from the 1857 wreck of the SS Central America are now being published for the first time ...“Glass plate photos had preserved the faces of miners, merchants and their families, staring up at the living from the seabed.”
The portraits are eerie, but beautiful. These were the loved ones of those who had been on a ship that sank 150 miles from the Carolina coast with the loss of 425 lives. A judge and a comedian were among the passengers ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 22 - 09:19 PM

This is a video from my weather channel and it feeds into another one (a whole series). It's just the first about the shipwreck that I'm posting about.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Apr 22 - 04:54 AM

Rewriting history: Phoenician ‘harbour’ revealed to be religious site that aligns with the stars Off the west coast of Sicily lies the remains of the ancient city of Motya. There, a compound of temples and shrines offers a window into the life of Phoenicians settlers who journeyed from Lebanon across the Mediterranean in the first millennium BC.

While it has been studied for a century, the site is still giving up new secrets. Earlier this month a rectangular basin, long-believed to have served as an artificial harbour for protecting naval ships and participating in trade, was revealed to be something else entirely – a religious site, designed and constructed to perfectly align with the stars.

The basin, larger than an Olympic-sized swimming pool, was rebuilt in 550 BC along with Motya after it was destroyed in an attack by Carthage, another Phoenician colony from across the sea. The city was then abandoned in Roman times. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Apr 22 - 07:02 AM

We've been to Sicily a number of times, but always to the east side of the island because we generally have to get off at Catania airport, as that's the only airport we can even remotely conveniently fly to from the Westcountry. We love Sicily and we want to get there again now that this disease is somewhat losing its grip. There are Greek/Roman remains everywhere, a positive cornucopia of ancient riches. We have a favourite hotel (and restaurant just up the road from it) on the hillside above Taormina which both have the most amazing view of Etna at sunset, with nearby Castelmola perched further up the hill and the grand sweep of the bay below down to Giardini Naxos. Taormina has an ancient Greek amphitheatre which still puts on plays. Further down the east side there's Siracusa, which has an archaeological park with both Greek and Roman amphitheatres, the Greek one especially stunning. Our best friends are currently staying in nearby Ortigia, where we stayed in 2016, an incredibly beautiful tiny island connected to Siracusa by two bridges. We've yet to visit the ruins at Agrigento. Could be the next stop!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: DaveRo
Date: 28 Apr 22 - 07:16 AM

We've yet to visit the ruins at Agrigento. Could be the next stop!

And after that, Selinunte - though it's a bit out of the way.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Apr 22 - 07:26 AM

Steve, thanks for sharing your memories, I hope you can return sometime soon.

WOW!, thanks for the link, Donuel

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 04 May 22 - 05:21 PM

Stonehenge exhibition explores parallels with Japanese stone circles Objects never before seen outside Japan will be part of show on site’s similarities to Jomon monuments.
They were separated by thousands of miles and the two sets of builders could not conceivably have met or swapped notes, but intriguing parallels between Stonehenge and Japanese stone circles are to be highlighted in an exhibition at the monument on Salisbury Plain.

The exhibition will show that ancient people in southern Britain and in Japan took great trouble to build stone circles, appear to have celebrated the passage of the sun and felt moved to come together for festivals or rituals.

Circles of Stone: Stonehenge and Prehistoric Japan will flag up similarities between the monuments and settlements of the middle and late Jomon period in Japan and those built by the late neolithic people of southern Britain – and point out some of the differences.

The exhibition will feature 80 striking objects, some of which have never before been seen outside Japan. Key loans announced on Wednesday include a flame pot, a highly decorated type of Jomon ceramics, its fantastical shape evoking blazing flames. Such pots were produced in Japan for a relative short period, perhaps only a few hundred years ...

Among the Japanese sites that will be in focus is that of theWikipedia - Oyu Stone Circles in northern Japan

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 22 - 07:41 PM

Bronze Age Daggers Were Tools to Butcher Animals, Not Markers of Status

Excavations of Bronze Age “warrior graves” throughout Europe have nearly always led to the recovery of copper alloy Bronze Age daggers. However, their function has been poorly understood. It has long been speculated that they, in fact, didn’t serve any practical purpose and were symbols of status and identity. Now, a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports has suggested that they served a functional purpose and were used to butcher and carve animal carcasses.

Makes sense!

While archaeologists have used a variety of chemical tests to analyze ceramic, stone and shell artifacts , no specific test had hitherto been developed for copper-alloy metals, according to the recent study. And so, the debate around the use of prehistoric Bronze Age daggers made of these alloys has always been speculative.

That was, until now. An international research team, led by Newcastle University in the UK, devised a revolutionary new non-destructive technique for extracting organic residues from copper-alloy metals.

New Tech Finds Animal Residues On Bronze Age Daggers!
The team selected and analyzed 10 daggers recovered in 2017 from Pragatto, a Bronze Age site in Italy . The new analysis “enabled the world's first extraction of organic residues,” which revealed “for the first time, how these objects were used, for what tasks, and on what materials,” said the research team in the Newcastle University press release.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 May 22 - 05:14 PM

Scientists find fossil of dinosaur ‘killed on day of asteroid strike’ Scientists believe they have been given an extraordinary view of the last day of the dinosaurs after they discovered the fossil of an animal they believe died that day.
The perfectly preserved leg, which even includes remnants of the animal’s skin, can be accurately dated to the time the asteroid that brought about the dinosaurs’ extinction struck Earth 66m years ago, experts say, because of the presence of debris from the impact, which rained down only in its immediate aftermath. (read on)

Ancient cemetery of flying reptiles unearthed in Chile’s Atacama desert. Scientists say remains belong to pterosaurs, who lived alongside dinosaurs more than 100m years ago (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 12 May 22 - 04:55 PM

Those are remarkable finds!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 May 22 - 07:15 AM

another interesting story - Researcher doesn’t want a war over ancient hand grenade study When Professor Carney Matheson published a paper claiming to have found evidence of a medieval hand grenade, he knew he was himself stepping into an academic battleground.
A large number of rounded containers of a similar shape (referred to as sphero-conical by researchers, with a rounded top and a tapered base) have been found across the Middle East dating from between the 9th and 15th centuries ... The research has been published in the journal PLOS One.(read on)

PLOS one paper - Composition of trace residues from the contents of 11th–12th century sphero-conical vessels from Jerusalem

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 22 - 11:04 AM

You can go to PBS and stream the current episodes of NOVA (a two-hour special this week) about the last day for that dinosaur. It really is a remarkable production. And nice that this one happened in North Dakota. So often they have to trek off to China or Chile to find the fossils they need. :)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 May 22 - 05:36 AM

Rare stone circle found at prehistoric ritual site in Cornwall Archaeologists find pits lying in crooked horseshoe formation at Castilly Henge near Bodmin.
A rare stone circle has been found at a prehistoric ritual site in Cornwall, with seven regularly spaced pits mapped by a team of archaeologists.

Bracken and scrub were cleared over the winter at Castilly Henge near Bodmin to allow archaeologists to survey the site. They found the pits lying in a crooked horseshoe formation.

Experts believe the pits may once have formed a complete ring but ground conditions at the time of the survey left archaeologists unable to gather clear data on the northern part of the henge interior.

Some stones had been removed and taken elsewhere, while others were probably pushed face down into the pits in which they once stood upright. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 May 22 - 04:17 AM

oh, pooh!

Stonehenge builders ate undercooked offal, ancient faeces reveals

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 May 22 - 03:53 AM

The oldest still-inhabited buildings in the world
Matera, an Italian town built into the rocks, dates back 9,000 years and hosts more than 60,000 people today
    Kandovan, more than 800 years old and tucked away in the north of Iran, is the world's largest cave dwelling
    Saltford Manor, built in Somerset sometime before 1150 is England's oldest continuously occupied house

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 22 - 08:45 AM

We do have a number of stone circles in Cornwall (the Merry Maidens, the Nine Maidens and the Hurlers spring to mind) and we have lots of Bronze Age settlement remains on Bodmin Moor. Close to us we have the impressive hill fort at Warbstow Bury. Quite a few dolmens too, and there's Men an Tol ,a doughnut-shaped stone ring on its edge accompanied by a somewhat phallic standing stone pointing at it. What COULD it mean.. ;-) I think that most people who go to it crawl through the hole!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 22 - 09:40 AM

Nestled on top of a cliff in New Mexico is Acoma Pueblo, believed to be the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in North America. It has been occupied by the Acoma people since 1150 - though today it only has 50 full-time residents, and no running water, electricity or sewage system

A more accurate description instead of "on top of a cliff" would be "on a mesa" (a flat hill - "mesa" in Spanish is "table").

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 May 22 - 10:56 AM

When I was young I wanted to visit UK/Europe & see places like your neighbourhood, Steve, but I bought an apartment instead. Other folks travel in their retirement, but I have too many sore bits (chronic lower back & leg pain, poor me!), so I travel via Google, archaeology magazines & history books.

And this thread!

thanks for your contributions, Steve & Stilly.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 29 May 22 - 07:10 PM

Mentioned by Donuel back in Jan. 2021...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe

Really fascinating place..only partially excavated.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 May 22 - 06:19 AM

thanks for the link, Bill

Pompeii victim’s genome successfully sequenced for first time Scientists say man shares similarities with modern Italians and others who lived in region during Roman empire (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 May 22 - 06:53 AM

Smithsonian archaeology page

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 May 22 - 07:30 AM

Bill the hand made construction of Gobekli Tepi is surpassed by the ancient hand burial of the entire site. The site is controversial over an accusation of modern tampering with a bas relief carving of a Stegasaurus.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 May 22 - 08:18 AM

The Sandra link https://www.smithsonianmag.com/category/archaeology/
is probably the single most interesting link in this thread that could keep the curious busy learning for years. It took 30 minutes just to scroll down the interesting articles.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Jun 22 - 07:32 AM

GOLD!! GOLD!! GOLD!! Two additional shipwrecks found off Colombian coast close to San José galleon. Colombian naval officials conducting underwater monitoring of the long-sunken San José galleon have discovered two other historical shipwrecks nearby. (read on)

Alas they are not gold ships ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jun 22 - 10:26 AM

I could use those blue and white dishes, I've found ship dishes are thick.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 07:28 AM

There is a brief, but fantastic video released showing some footage of the wreck that Sandra so kindly posted.

video

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 10:39 AM

gold again, but not good news

I missed this article when it appeared, but read about the same theft on an archaeology site, so went looking for more info.

‘Ukraine’s heritage is under direct attack’: why Russia is looting the country’s museums

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jun 22 - 12:33 AM

Mass frog burial baffles experts at iron age site near Cambridge An unprecedented trove of 8,000 bones presents archaeologists at a road dig with a prehistoric mystery.
Archaeologists working near the site of an iron age home near Cambridge were perplexed when they uncovered a vast trove of frog skeletons. Quite why more than 8,000 bones had been piled up and preserved is a prehistoric mystery.

They were all recovered from a single 14-metre-long ditch, right next to the site of an iron age roundhouse at Bar Hill, where there was a settlement during the middle and late iron age (400BC-AD43). The discovery was made by the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) Headland Infrastructure, conducting excavations as part of the National Highways A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon road improvement scheme.

Although it is not unusual to find frog bones at ancient sites, archaeologists are baffled by the sheer quantity of those unearthed at Bar Hill. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Jun 22 - 06:03 PM

very ancient wooden artifacts. The Clackton spear was mentioned in a news article - Wood 'shaped the whole of human history', says this expert, which is why we must protect trees so I went looking for info

Clacton Spear The Clacton Spear, or Clacton Spear Point, is the tip of a wooden spear discovered in Clacton-on-Sea in 1911. It is 400,000 years old and the oldest known worked wooden implement.(read on)

the article mentioned the Schöningen spears The Schöningen spears are a set of ten wooden weapons from the Palaeolithic Age that were excavated between 1994 and 1999 from the 'Spear Horizon' in the open-cast lignite mine in Schöningen, Helmstedt district, Germany. They were found together with animal bones and stone and bone tools.[1][2][3][4] The excavations took place under the management of Hartmut Thieme of the Lower Saxony State Service for Cultural Heritage (NLD).
The age of the spears, originally assessed as being between 380,000 and 400,000 years old,[5][6][7][8] was estimated from their stratigraphic position, 'sandwiched between deposits of the Elsterian and Saalian glaciations, and situated within a well-studied sedimentary sequence.'[9] However, more recently, thermoluminescence dating of heated flints in a deposit beneath that which contained the spears date the spears to between 337,000 and 300,000 years old, placing them at the end of the interglacial Marine Isotope Stage 9.[10][11] The Schöningen spears thus postdate the earlier fragmented Clacton spear point, attributed to Marine Isotope Stage 11,[12][13] but remain the oldest complete wooden weapons (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 22 - 11:21 AM

First Australians ate giant eggs of huge flightless birds, ancient proteins confirm

Proteins extracted from fragments of prehistoric eggshell found in the Australian sands confirm that the continent’s earliest humans consumed the eggs of a two-metre tall bird that disappeared into extinction over 47,000 years ago.

Burn marks discovered on scraps of ancient shell several years ago suggested the first Australians cooked and ate large eggs from a long-extinct bird – leading to fierce debate over the species that laid them.

Now, an international team led by scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Turin have placed the animal on the evolutionary tree by comparing the protein sequences from powdered egg fossils to those encoded in the genomes of living avian species.

Humans were hard on charismatic megafauna on the North American continent as well. Over-hunting to extinction. Mammoths are one NA example.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Jun 22 - 07:26 PM

Australian satillite sky

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Jun 22 - 08:44 PM

Beautiful picture Donuel, just where in Australia is it????

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 12:39 PM

Western Australia desert in an area called the spires or towers. Time lapse shows more satillites than I am used to seeing.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: DaveRo
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 02:34 PM

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Jun 22 - 06:31 PM

I'd forgotten APOD, I used to have it bookmarked, thanks for the reminder. I've bookmarked it again.

The Pinnacles check out the tiny little tourists among the pinnacles

Mystery of Black Death’s origins solved, say researchers International team link spike in deaths at cemeteries in Kyrgyzstan in 1300s to start of plague pandemic

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 16 Jun 22 - 07:54 AM

An astonishing Anglo Saxon graveyard was discovered last year on the line of the HS2 railway in the UK.




https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/16/stunning-anglo-saxon-burial-site-found-along-hs2-route

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 22 - 08:05 AM

It seems that rock formations (the Pinnacles, for example) look as interesting to us today and they must have looked to our distant ancestors. A good place to look for signs of ancient life.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Jun 22 - 10:42 AM

The Windover Bog Bodies, Among the Greatest Archeological Discoveries Ever Unearthed in the United States t was only after the bones were declared very old and not the product of a mass murder that the 167 bodies found in a pond in Windover, Florida began to stir up excitement in the archeological world. Researchers from Florida State University came to the site, thinking some more Native American bones had been unearthed in the swamplands. They were guessing the bones were 500-600 years old. But then the bones were radiocarbon dated. It turns out the corpses ranged from 6,990 to 8,120 years old. It was then that the academic community became incredibly excited. The Windover Bog has proven to be one of the most important archeological finds in the United States.

In 1982, Steve Vanderjagt, the man who made the find, was using a backhoe to demuck the pond for the development of a new subdivision located about halfway between Disney World and Cape Canaveral. Vanderjagt was confused by the large number of rocks in the pond as that area of Florida was not known to be particularly rocky. Getting out of his backhoe, Vanderjagt went to investigate and almost immediately realized that he had unearthed a huge pile of bones. He called the authorities right away. It was only thanks to his natural curiosity that the site was preserved. After the medical examiners declared them ancient, the specialists from Florida State University were summoned (another brilliant move by Vanderjagt- too often sites are ruined because experts are not called). Deeply intrigued, EKS Corporation, the developers of the site, financed the radiocarbon dating. Once the striking dates were revealed, the State of Florida providing a grant for the excavation. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 16 Jun 22 - 12:46 PM

One detail I find delightful:

> halfway between Disney World and Cape Canaveral.

.... between fantasy made manifest and science fiction made fact. I couldn't have made that up if I tried. I can see it now: scientists in hazmats converging from one side, and the Seven Dwarfs from the other. Which team will be whistling the Hi-Ho Song?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Jun 22 - 08:16 AM

Mystery of Waterloo’s dead soldiers to be re-examined by academics Modern techniques to test traditional explanation that most bones from 1815 battle were ground into powder for fertiliser.

It was an epic battle that has been commemorated in words, poetry and even a legendary Abba song, but 207 years to the day after troops clashed at Waterloo, a gruesome question remains: what happened to the dead?

While tens of thousands of men and horses died at the site in modern-day Belgium, few remains have been found, with amputated legs and a skeleton unearthed beneath a car park south of Brussels among the handful of discoveries.

The long-held explanation is grisly: according to reports made soon after the conflict, the bones were collected, pulverised and turned into fertiliser for agricultural use. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Jun 22 - 08:37 PM

The taint land between Disney and Canaveral has ancient bodies so well preserved but fragile that brain tissue is intact unless shaken or stirred. Excavation is needed before rising salt water ruins the ponds.

PS Off shore the Bermuda triangle has analagous sites along a similar parallel. Maybe these sites are more than a place where rogue waves cause havoc. The legends are fun if they weren't so tragic.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 02:17 PM

The Bad Lands of North Dakota at the dry creekbed of Hell Creek is devoid of any green living thing but 66 million years ago it was full of life. It is here that the last day of the dinosaurs has been identified as being caused by the Chixalub Iridium asteroid.
chose" Dinosaurs the last day with Richard Attenbourough

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Jun 22 - 05:48 PM

10,000 years ago during a recent ice age this supernova first exploded.
Now we call it the veil nebula.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jun 22 - 08:04 AM

I know Paleontology is the study of fossils, while archaeology is the study of human artifacts and remains. Its getting to the point where all that separates the two are DNA traces. In popular culture it was assumed that ancient amber is nature's zip lock baggie for DNA. meh

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Jun 22 - 10:04 AM

Pompeii excavation unearths remains of pregnant tortoise Animal thought to have been seeking place to lay egg in ruins of quake-hit home when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Archaeologists in Pompeii have discovered the remains of a pregnant tortoise that sought refuge in the ruins of a home destroyed by an earthquake in AD62 only to be covered by volcanic ash and rock when Mount Vesuvius erupted. The 14cm (5.5in) long Hermann’s tortoise and her egg were discovered during excavations of an area of the ancient city that, after being levelled by the quake, was being rebuilt for the construction of public baths, officials said Friday. Pompeii was then destroyed after the volcanic eruption in AD79 (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 06:29 PM

perfectly preserved baby wooly mammoth found by gold miners in western Canada.
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/06/24/mummified-woolly-mammoth-calf-discovered-by-gold-miners-in-yukon.html

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 02:12 PM

This isn't archeological (unless someone next digs up his bones): A ‘Sleeper’ Discovered at Auction Tells a Very Dutch Tale
A naval commander killed centuries ago has come back to life — artistically, at least — thanks to the persistence of a New York art dealer.

AMSTERDAM — In art world parlance, you’d call the drawing a “sleeper.” A small auction house in Massachusetts offered it for sale as a “an unidentified gentleman, initialed I.L., and dated 1652,” with an estimate of $200 to $300. Within about 10 minutes, it sold for half a million dollars.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 02:28 PM

https://news.artnet.com/market/jan-lievens-discovery-tefaf-2130975

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 06:47 PM

Although interesting though they were Donuel and SRS, your last two posts have not concerned archaeology.

Could I politely suggest you start a new thread with such posts, perhaps entitled ancient art works.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Jun 22 - 08:39 PM

What is your Raggytash professional advice regarding DNA evidence?
8 years ago I held a Rembrandt drawing in Michigan, with security guard assistance.
Do you know the one about the $34 1st century marble Roman head?

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 06:29 AM

Donuel. I was making what I consider to be a valid point. I am not going to get involved with you about it.

We have an expressionn this side of the pond "you can't educate pork.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 10:22 AM

Raggy, I started this thread years ago as a place to store interesting stories, mostly to do with archeology, but sometimes geology or other hard sciences, so new threads wouldn't be needed.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 02:12 PM

"mostly to do with archeology, but sometimes geology or other hard sciences"

And fascinating it has been too SRS, I don't see how renaissance art fits into your criteria though.

Much as it is interesting I consider a separate thread would be the order of the day, that too could then be expanded on with futher contribution of a similar nature.

I have often clicked onto what sounds like an interesting discussion only to find that thread creep has lead the original topic into something far removed from the title.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 04:05 PM

https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/archaeology
No offense RT but you can be as strict as Frau Blucher.
A Blucher is a hide glue maker that holds instruments together.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 04:46 PM

We had a professor at my university who was well-known for her detective work in identifying works of art that turned up with no provenance. She got to dig around in monasteries and museums in Europe to do her work. I heard her lecture a couple of times, and the knowledge of materials and brush strokes, of art formats (paint, drawing, lithograph, etc. makes it as interesting a discovery as some of the archaeological finds either out in the landscape or things found and stored away in museum vaults without any knowledge of what they were till later.

Oddball things creep into the thread because of the nature of the research into such old objects. Best to ignore the few that aren't exactly dinosaur fossils or cave paintings and just enjoy the ride.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 06:11 PM

I don't think dinosaur fossils fall into the realms of archaeology either. However, I'm not bothered and I enjoy the ride.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 06:39 PM

a few sites I found recently

Spanish Stonehenge discovered

Blood Stained Glass Panels At Canterbury Cathedral Saw Becket Die

English Heritage brings Roman town’s lost Edwardian navvies to life

UC discovers princely tombs near 'Griffin Warrior' Startling find adds to amazing story of powerful Greek figure

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 06:54 PM

I decided to create a new post because I don't find a current article on the topic I was looking for. Back when I was in high school my oceanography class (yes, not archeology) took a field trip to the Olympic Peninsula, where among other things, we were going to visit the western-most point of the contiguous US, at Cape Alava. It's in a rain forest area where it rains so much that the trail exists but has a long line of planks to walk on for much of the length of it. I don't remember if we ever got to where we were going, or if it was raining so hard that when we got there we just turned around and headed back.

This is on the Makah Reservation, and the village near there was Ozette. Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village.

Ruth Kirk’s Ozette: Excavating a Makah Whaling Village presents a detailed account of a world-famous archaeological site on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Full-scale excavations from 1966 to 1981 revealed houses and their contents—including ordinarily perishable wood and basketry objects that had been buried in a mudflow well before the arrival of Europeans in the region.

Aside from the archeological site, there are several small villages on Cape Flattery, and basket making is an activity there, for tribal use and for sale to tourists. They have a unique way of making baskets that includes a crosshatch base made of thinly split cedar, and I collected a few over the years.

Probably 20 years ago now there were some stories in the news about canoe whaling, that Makah tribal members proved that it is possible to kill a whale from canoes, that the stories about it weren't just tribal tall tales. A Native Tribe Wants to Resume Whaling. Whale Defenders Are Divided
The Makah are the only Native Americans with an explicit treaty right to hunt whales, but they have not been allowed to do so for 20 years. A recent proposal could change that.

The whole larger area is called Cape Flattery, and the nearest town is Neah Bay.

So here are some of the tidbits about Ozette.

Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site

From the Washington Post archives,
Civilization Lost...And Found

The University of Washington Special Collections has a short video online: The Tribe and the Professor Petroglyphs and Artifacts, approximately 1975

The National Park Service has a PDF of a booklet about the site: The Ozette Archeological Expedition

And finally, the Makah Museum has a website https://makahmuseum.com/about/ozette-archaeological-site/

Map coordinates: 48°09'54.22" N 124°38'00.22" W"

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 07:56 PM

Looks like I have a full day tomorrow looking at all these links !!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 28 Jun 22 - 10:39 PM

2 posts - a zillion inteseting links! I could add more ...








sometime later!

thanks, stilly for your links, I'd never heard off the area. I've only scanned your first 2 links - so far - lots of interesting reading there.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 10:55 AM

Rare ‘time capsule’ cobalt mine abandoned over 200 years ago is discovered in Cheshire   Interactive tour of the mine Take a look underground at Alderley Edge in this state of the art immersive fly-through. See the newly-discovered mine up close, thanks to cutting edge 3D scanning technology.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 12:06 PM

This article has a few images with a nifty left-right slider so that you can see what a place looked like before and just after the recent floods in NSW:

Aerial images show south-west Sydney suburbs before and after July flood disaster

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 12 Jul 22 - 06:30 PM

And another nifty slider article, this time around the valley where I grew up:

Aerial images show how roads and a highway to
major regional NSW towns were submerged in July flood

The first two images with sliders show something else, too. If you look at the grass in the before images, they must have been taken before the drought broke because there is not much green to be seen, but in the after images with the floods there is green grass and trees, so at least the recent rainy periods have had some positive effect. But more rain isn't better. Just enough would have been good.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Rain Dog
Date: 14 Jul 22 - 09:30 AM

Ancient Cave Art in Alabama May Be The Largest Ever Found in North America

"New details of our past are coming to light, hiding in the nooks and crannies of the world, as we refine our techniques to go looking for them. Most lauded is the reconstruction of the evolution of humanity since our African origins around 300,000 years ago, by analyzing our living and fossil DNA.

Replete with the ghosts of African and Eurasian populations of the deep past, these have been resurrected only through the ability of science to reach into the world of the minuscule by studying biomolecules.

Now, digital analysis of rock surfaces reveals how other ghosts of the deep past – this time from almost 2,000 years ago in North America – have been coaxed into the light.

Writing in the journal Antiquity, professor Jan Simek of the University of Tennessee and colleagues have published images of giant glyphs carved into the mud surface of the low ceiling of a cave in Alabama.

The motifs, which depict human forms and animals, are some of the largest known cave images found in North America and may represent spirits of the underworld."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 22 Jul 22 - 02:44 AM

‘Weird, wonderful’: rare dig at Arthur’s Stone writes new story of neolithic site Visitors flock to Herefordshire burial plot that inspired CS Lewis amid excitement at what is being found.
High above one of western Britain’s loveliest valleys, the silence is broken by the sound of gentle digging, scraping and brushing, along with bursts of excited chatter as another ancient feature is revealed or a curious visitor stops by to find out what is going on.

This summer archaeologists have been granted rare permission to excavate part of the Arthur’s Stone site, a neolithic burial plot with soaring views across the Golden Valley in Herefordshire and the Black Mountains of south-east Wales.

Using their version of keyhole surgery, the archaeologists unearthed features, including what appear to be stone steps leading up to the 5,000-year-old tomb, and tools used by the first people to farm this landscape. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 31 Jul 22 - 06:47 AM

After 350 years, sea gives up lost jewels of Spanish shipwreck Marine archaeologists stunned by priceless cache long hidden beneath the Bahamas’ shark-infested waters.
It was a Spanish galleon laden with treasures so sumptuous that its sinking in the Bahamas in 1656 sparked repeated salvage attempts over the next 350 years. So when another expedition was launched recently, few thought that there could be anything left – but exquisite, jewel-encrusted pendants and gold chains are among spectacular finds that have now been recovered, having lain untouched on the seabed for hundreds of years ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Jul 22 - 09:48 AM

The Bahamian gold is destined for the Bahamas Maritime Museum.

The expedition is also collecting data on the reef health, seafloor geology and plastic pollution to understand how the archaeology and marine environment interact.

“The sea bottom is barren,” said Allen. “The colourful coral that divers remembered from the 70s is gone, poisoned by ocean acidification and choked by metres of shifting sand. It’s painfully sad. Still lying on those dead grey reefs, though, are sparkling finds.”

Sad.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Aug 22 - 06:55 PM

Discoveries in Pompeii reveal lives of lower and middle classes Archaeologists are enriching our knowledge about those who were ‘vulnerable class during political crises and food shortages’
A trunk with its lid left open, a wooden dishware closet and a three-legged accent table topped by decorative bowls. These are among the latest discoveries by archaeologists that are enriching knowledge about middle-class lives in Pompeii before Mount Vesuvius’s furious eruption buried the ancient Roman city in volcanic debris.

Pompeii’s archaeological park, one of Italy’s top tourist attractions, announced the recent finds on Saturday.

Its director, Gabriel Zuchtriegel, said the excavation of rooms in a domus, or home, first unearthed in 2018 had revealed precious details about the domestic environment of ordinary citizens of the city, which was destroyed in 79AD. (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Aug 22 - 07:31 PM

Sandra you make this thread exciting,

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 Aug 22 - 06:33 AM

I read interesting sources & & like sharing what I find

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Aug 22 - 10:51 AM

A link about this was posted on Facebook today. There are other pages devoted to it. This one seems to have the most detail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9177867/Rare-5-000-year-old-crystal-dagger-uncovered-Prehistoric-Iberian-megalithic-tomb-Spain.html

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Aug 22 - 08:58 AM

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-there-wasnt-an-advanced-civilization-12-000-years-ago/

We would have to go back hundreds of millions of years when there were no homosapiens and a different species built a civilization in which any trace is now ground to dust.
We’re used to imagining extinct civilizations in terms of sunken statues and subterranean ruins. These kinds of artifacts of previous societies are fine if you’re only interested in timescales of a few thousands of years. But once you roll the clock back to tens of millions or hundreds of millions of years, things get more complicated.

I don’t believe the Earth once hosted a 50-million-year-old Paleocene civilization. But by asking if we could “see” truly ancient advanced civilizations, what is left is life itself in DNA or other unknown things to look for. Some things will always be unseen but as they say anything is possible, just not likely.

Did someone mutter exo aliens? Sorry Bill the only evidence is for actual flying objects, everything else are just stories.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 12 Aug 22 - 05:57 AM

one of my sources is the Smithsonian Magazine

Why Did 16th-Century Andean Villagers String Together the Bones of Their Ancestors? Researchers suggest the practice was a response to Spanish conquistadors’ desecration of the remains ...
... The dates the researchers obtained from the vertebrae fall in a range between 1520 and 1550 C.E. The reeds, meanwhile, date from about 1550 to 1590, which coincides with the time period the Spanish arrived in Chincha. To Bongers and his colleagues, this timeline points to a tentative explanation: The vertebrae were collected from previously buried, disjointed human remains and put on reeds as a deliberate mortuary practice, developed perhaps in response to European destruction of the tombs ...

Archaeologists Uncover Remains of 13 Hessian Soldiers at Revolutionary War Battlefield The discovery came as a surprise to the team at New Jersey’s Red Bank Battlefield Park ...

Evidence of Fur and Leather Clothing, Among World’s Oldest, Found in Moroccan Cave Humans likely sported clothes made of jackal, fox and wildcat skins some 120,000 years ago ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 13 Aug 22 - 06:35 PM

In the Greek islands, the Antikythera shipwreck yields statues, human teeth and the missing head of Hercules In 1900, sponge divers working near the Greek island of Antikythera accidentally discovered a 2,000-year-old mystery.

Dressed in a canvas suit with a helmet made of copper, Elias Stadiatis plunged through the cool ocean depths, in search of the soft sponges he had spent his career gathering.

But as he reached the rocky bottom at a depth of about 50 metres, he uncovered a long-forgotten tragedy.

Hidden between layers of debris on the ocean floor were what appeared to be rotting corpses and horses.

Stadiatis immediately began signalling to the crew above and was soon dragged back to the surface, apparently shaking with fear and mumbling about "seeing a heap of dead people".

They feared Stadiatis was delirious, suffering from nitrate poisoning or seasickness ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Aug 22 - 06:57 PM

I have a 15 volume Art encyclopedia that is almost 50 years old that has photos of UR and other ancient sites that look much nicer than they do today. They also have many Iraq artifacts that are now looted and lost. I expect to find more surprises. Some of the assumptions made 50 years ago are absurd today but the plates are great.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 06:00 PM

Huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones discovered in Spain Archaeologists says prehistoric site in Huelva province could be one of largest of its kind in Europe.
A huge megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones has been discovered in southern Spain that could be one of the largest in Europe, archaeologists have said.

The stones were discovered on a plot of land in Huelva, a province flanking the southernmost part of Spain’s border with Portugal, near the Guadiana River.

Spanning about 600 hectares (1,500 acres), the land had been earmarked for an avocado plantation. Before granting the permit the regional authorities requested a survey in light of the site’s possible archaeological significance. The survey revealed the presence of the stones ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 06:09 PM

Stones? Y'mean that people had already been eating avocados there?

I'll get me coat... :-(

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Aug 22 - 06:29 PM

Seriously though, I've just been reading about it. It's a truly amazing find and it's good to see that there are plans to restore the site.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 09:58 AM

Experience: I unearthed a mammoth from the ice age Not me, unfortunately, I live in the wrong hemisphere, but it was in the Yukon where a lucky bloke (guy, blokes live in the Land of Oz in this hemisphere) made this discovery

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Aug 22 - 10:31 AM

The stones at Carnac have faired better than those in Spain unless Carnac has received extensive restoration. Stonehenge is 2,000 years younger.

All the Mammoth bones found level with the Great Lakes latitudes are not well preserved but is not easy finding elephant graveyards. In Alaska some of the remains still smell of necrotic decomposition.

baby elephant dna is valuable. I wonder if stem cells are a factor.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 09:22 AM

‘Missing Detail’ From the Cerne Abbas Giant Story Revealed The Cerne Abbas Giant, a crude, naked, male-giant figure, drawn on an English hillside with chalk, measuring a whopping 180 feet (55 meters) tall has obviously been an eternal source of fascination. Over the years, many tiny details have emerged, helping reveal more and more about this artistic perversion, a seemingly comical figure brandishing a disproportionately large club, along with a 36-foot (11-meter) long phallic erection on full display, near the village of Cerne Abbas in Dorset.

Last year a key detail in unravelling the enigma of the Cerne Abbas Giant emerged. The figure was scientifically dated through the existence of snail shell remains in the soil. This dating conclusion put the Cerne Abbas Giant’s date of creation in the time frame of the Cerne Abbey at the base of the hill. Now this has led to previously unconsidered speculation about the relationship between the two constructions. So, what might the connection between the naked giant and the ancient abbey be? (read on!!)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Aug 22 - 11:32 AM

Amusing lecture regarding 3,500 year old writing.
cuniform

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Aug 22 - 05:56 PM

The need to look 300 meters below the sea
when we looked under 2 miles of ice

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 27 Aug 22 - 01:20 AM

Portugal man accidentally uncovers a 25-metre-long dinosaur skeleton in his own backyard ... they have unearthed the vertebrae and ribs of a possible brachiosaurid sauropod that would have stood approximately 12 metres tall and 25 metres long ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Aug 22 - 11:23 AM

Underwater research is incredibly expensive, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the future of archaeology lies at least partly under the waves.
boat migration 15,000 years ago
Underwater LIDAR should help this process.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Aug 22 - 06:28 PM

DNA from medieval skeleton reveals XXY chromosome condition, Klinefelter syndrome Key points:
    Researchers analysed the DNA and bones of a 1,000-year-old skeleton excavated from modern-day Portugal
    They found the individual had a genetic condition which meant they were born with an extra X chromosome
    The diagnosis explains some of the skeleton's features, such as its unusual height and wide pelvis

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Aug 22 - 06:49 AM

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/klinefelter-syndrome.html

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 09:04 AM

In a report in todays Guardian a Palestinian farmer has unearthed a Byzantine mosaic floor thought to date from the 5th-7th century.


https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/sep/19/ornate-byzantine-floor-mosaic-discovered-by-palestinian-farmer

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 09:42 AM

thanks for the link, raggytash, it's an amazing find - ... Salman al-Nabahin unearthed the mosaic pavement, thought to date from the fifth to the seventh century AD, six months ago while working in his olive orchard in Bureij refugee camp, about half a mile from the border with Isra ...   Gaza is rich in antiquities, having been an important trading spot for civilisations dating as far back as the ancient Egyptians and the Philistines depicted in the Bible, to the Roman empire and the Crusades from the 11th to the 13th centuries ...

another find from today news, on the other side of the border - 'Extremely rare' Rameses II-era burial cave found in Israel

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 01:12 PM

Yes - that Gaza find is fascinating, but only a half-mile from the trumped-up Israeli border - lets hope this find is treated well and stays with Gaza.

Several discoveries have been made in recent years. Due to a lack of funds and expertise, Gaza has usually invited international groups to help with the process of excavation and preservation.

And one the Egyptian burial cave, I see that

The cave has been resealed and is under guard while archaeologists develop a plan to excavate it, the IAA said.

It said "a few items" had been looted between its discovery and when it was closed.

That cave probably needs a large security detail at this point, and watch for people tunneling in from the side. Someone needs to guard the guards.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 04:45 PM

All I found in my backyard was an early abandoned plow blade.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 05:28 PM

late last century my colleague living a few miles from Sydney's original English settlement found nails & other small interesting stuff - his c.1861 house had been an inn - as well as a small plastic doll! We examined all his finds.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Sep 22 - 05:50 PM

In 2004 we visited the ancient site of Kourion in Cyprus. There's lots of amazing stuff there from the Roman and Byzantine periods, and at that time we were able to wander at will over the whole huge site. We saw several examples of rather fine mosaic floors - mostly completely exposed to the elements and with no-one stopping you from walking all over them. Arrgh!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Sep 22 - 05:36 PM

Israeli archaeologists find traces of opium in 3,500-year-old pottery Archaeologists say find supports theory that drug was used in burial rituals, possibly to ‘enter ecstatic state’

Earliest-known surgical limb amputation found in 31,000-year-old skeleton from Borneo cave

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Sep 22 - 08:23 AM

1.8 million year old human tooth found near Tiblisi Georgia. Some of the first folks who ventured out of Africa.
More underwatwer finds : https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/dec/22/israeli-archaeologists-find-treasure-trove-among-mediterranean-shipwrecks

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 01:37 PM

These Amazing Aqueducts Built By the Nazca Culture in the Peruvian Desert 1,500 Years Ago Are Still in Use Today

They are pretty amazing. "Built by the Nazca people during the pre-Columbian period of Peruvian history, the Cantalloc Aqueducts continue to serve their original purpose, with local farmers still relying on this them to bring water to the arid region."

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 07:40 PM

The conical shape of the reservoirs naturally creates higher pressure/faster flow at the bottom and minimizes evaporation per volume of water at the surface. pretty schmart

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 23 Sep 22 - 11:12 PM

2 great articles & an interesting new bookmark, thanks Donuel & Stilly

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Sep 22 - 09:50 AM

Tutankhamun’s burial chamber may contain door to Nefertiti’s tomb Hidden hieroglyphics could suggest the king is buried within a much larger structure housing the Egyptian queen.
The discovery of hidden hieroglyphics within Tutankhamun’s tomb lends weight to a theory that the fabled Egyptian queen Nefertiti lies in a hidden chamber adjacent to her stepson’s burial chamber, a world-renowned British Egyptologist has said.

Nicholas Reeves, a former curator in the British Museum’s Department of Egyptian Antiquities, said that while the theory remained unproven after inconclusive radar scans, it has been given fresh impetus following the new clue.

Reeves realised that cartouches depicting Tutankhamun being buried by his pharaonic successor, Ay, had been painted over cartouches of Tutankhamun burying Nefertiti, the legendary beauty, queen of Egypt and wife of King Akhenaten ... (read on)

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Oct 22 - 03:30 AM

700-Year-Old Moai Statues Irreparably Damaged by Fire on Easter Island A shocking case of possible arson, still officially being called a forest fire, has caused irreparable damage to the ancient moai statues on Easter Island. The iconic towering stone heads and other archaeological elements have been charred by a fire, with “consequences going beyond what the eyes can see” ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 19 Oct 22 - 03:56 PM

Not from Google Earth, but an interesting DNA study:

Black Death shaped the evolution of immune system genes and modern autoimmune disorders

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Oct 22 - 05:03 PM

Of course, there are no 'forests' any more on Easter Island.. brush & dry grass, I guess.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 21 Oct 22 - 03:45 AM

Fire on Easter Island - NASA images ... Preliminary estimates indicate that as many as 80 of the moai were damaged by the fire. There are 265 moai outside of the crater and 121 inside of it, according to Chile’s Undersecretary of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

another interesting bookmark - NASA - image of the day

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Oct 22 - 09:55 AM

I was reading that story Sandra posted a couple of days ago. "Destroy" is too strong a word; stones may be altered by the appearance of carbon on their surface, but a grassfire isn't going to destroy stone. The "burn scar" is a temporary area where fire took out the brush and grass.

This island once had forests. If forests return and they burn it probably wouldn't destroy rocks, though if there was a prolonged fire in a deep fuel area it could crack them.

I worked in forestry for a number of years and was around a lot of fires at that time. The life of that island is probably improved when fire passes through, releasing more nutrients into the ecosystem. The rocks may look a little different but the char may wash off.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 24 Oct 22 - 06:29 AM

I did wonder about stone burning & wondered if "getting sooty" would be a better description - but couldn't visualise it as a headline.

As we're heading towards Santa Claus time (I know it is cos halloween crap is in the stores, which means chrissy crap is stored behind, ready to take it's place in the sun, or in northern hemosphere terms - the snow ...

Saint Nicholas Discovery! Has the Tomb of the Real Santa Been Found in Turkey? - read on to find out!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Oct 22 - 07:39 AM

By soaking lavastone (basalt) with wax you can burn the stone. I have seen it done.

Pompei eruption is now determined to have happened in the fall and not Aug. New molds of victims show heavy woolen clothing on the bodies.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Oct 22 - 08:26 PM

A few miles from us is Pencarrow, a rather grand Cornish country house dating from the 17th/18th century (these things were never built in one go). The estate belonging to the house has formal and rather pleasant landscaped gardens at the front and a large, mainly wooded area beyond. There's a lake, an ice house and a crystal grotto to see. A walk around the whole estate takes at least an hour, and that's what we spent this morning doing (before the rain set in). At the far end of the estate, after a bit of an uphill slog, you reach a very fine example of an Iron Age hillfort with several rings of well-preserved banks and ditches. The site has never been excavated. It probably dates from around a few hundred years BC. It's possible to book a guided tour of the house. We've done that before so we didn't do it today. The house is beautifully preserved inside and it contains, among other art works, several paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1882 Sir Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan, composed part of Iolanthe here, and the piano at which he composed it is preserved. In 1999, an original Beethoven manuscript containing a 22-bar fragment of a previously unknown string quartet was found here.

The grounds contain impressive collections of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias and conifers (perhaps not best seen in late October, though the autumn colours were lovely). The story goes that, in the 19th century, a visitor was very impressed by the sight of an Araucaria tree, remarking that the complicated nature of its branching would have puzzled a monkey. To this day, the tree is still known as the monkey puzzle tree. And that, I tell you, is a true story!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Oct 22 - 05:02 PM

Archaeologists unearth 2,700-year-old rock carvings in Iraq Experts find artefacts from ancient empire during restoration of historic site destroyed by Islamic State

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 27 Oct 22 - 11:49 AM

On Secrets of the dead on the Smithsonian channel they blamed the hundred year decline and fall of the Roman Empire on Climate change and Pandemic. Evidence came from tree rings and human teeth that revealed the plague DNA.

Their climate change was a 2 degree drop in temperature and 18 months of darkness from an iceland volcano.

The coup de gras was from the invading nomads and lack of respect for the Goths.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Oct 22 - 12:37 PM

Fascinating about that house, Steve. I did some research on the trees related to the "monkey puzzle" tree - they're all originally from the South Pacific. Odd thing is how adaptable they are, we had a couple of them in our neighborhood in Seattle and they didn't seem to suffer from the colder weather that far north.

There were people living in North America at the same time your Iron Age fort was built, but you have to go to certain parts of the New World continents to find the durable structures. From Central America spreading into the northern end of South America and the southern portions of North America you find many fine stone buildings, roads, water-management structures, agricultural sites, etc. Into Arizona, New Mexico, and California you find stone and adobe structures and things like ball courts. Moving north and east dwellings tended to be made of mud, wood, or skins and there are fewer archaeological signs; sites for rich information tend to be middens and burial sites.

There was an interesting interview yesterday on a locally produced public radio talk show about the problem of finding mummified human remains on private land in Texas. In particular in the driest area of West Texas. People can "own" these mummies and their artifacts. It's a disheartening state of affairs. Here's a link to the discussion and the blurb about it:

When Native American artifacts are discovered on private land, who owns them? New Yorker contributing writer Rachel Monroe joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the moral and legal questions of finding objects – even bodies – in Texas and who has a right to display them, profit off them and even own them. Her article is “The Bodies in the Cave.”

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Oct 22 - 07:24 AM

Bodies in the cave was an interesting article.

Speaking of disheartening the election in Brazil this month will determine the life or death of the Amazon rainforest.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 29 Oct 22 - 03:00 AM

3D Analysis Uncovers Hidden Details in Easter Island Rongorongo Tablet Easter Island is best known for its gigantic stone monumental statues . But it has produced a number of other intriguing artifacts, including wooden rongorongo tablets and other items inscribed with a type of pictorial writing that is wholly unique to the island. Developed by the indigenous Rapa Nui people, this script—known as rongorongo—is comprised of glyphs (small stylized pictures of real-life objects or figures) that are strung together in rows to form sentences ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 05:08 AM

Norfolk Island find solves part of Pacific’s most enduring mystery For six years, Pitcairn descendant Neil “Snowy” Tavener didn’t tell anyone that he believed he had found evidence of an ancient Polynesian settlement on Norfolk Island that could solve part of the Pacific’s most enduring enigma.

Did the Polynesians ever live there for long periods? And if so, why did they leave?

Archaeologists describe Norfolk as one of the Polynesian mystery islands because it was uninhabited when discovered by Captain James Cook in 1774. Describing the island as a paradise, with distinctive pine trees once thought to be useful for ship masts, Cook declared it for the British Crown.

... the new site provided evidence of extensive occupation by Polynesian ancestors across the island, solving part of the mystery. “It is more than just a fleeting settlement,” she said. ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 01:27 PM

That was a nice Google Earth exploration of Norfolk Island and environs. Very pretty area!

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 30 Oct 22 - 06:09 PM

I've been there twice - once in 1975 & again in 2016 for a history tour - see 1st pic for th pine cook saw, & pic 3 for the reason Norfolk Island pines were no use for masts! At the time I posted that pic, I couldn't find any pics on the www showing their insides.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Helen
Date: 08 Nov 22 - 02:10 PM

Italy hails 'exceptional' discovery of ancient bronze statues in Tuscany

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 08 Nov 22 - 03:56 PM

great minds think like! I was just going to add this article, so I search for 'bronze statues San Casciano dei Bagni' & found up lots of articles & pics! It's a current sensation, articles have been published in many countries in the past 12 hours.

Extraordinary Bronze Statues Discovered at the Sanctuary of San Casciano dei Bagni

Votive statue of a baby from San Casciano, Italy. “SAN CASCIANO DEI BAGNI – A mountain of votive offerings linked to the healing power of sacred waters, with simulacra of babies in swaddling clothes and even a breast in bronze foil. And then the wonder of the coins, by the thousands, in gold, orichalcum, bronze, still intact, as if they had just been thrown into the water ...

'Exceptional discovery': Over two dozen 2,300-year-old bronze statues found in Italy - SEE PICS

The History Blog - article from Saturday, August 7th, 2021 re first 4 years of the excavation, before recent discovery of statues Excavations this summer in San Casciano dei Bagni, a picturesque Tuscan hilltop town 40 miles southeast of Siena renowned for its hot springs, have discovered archaeological treasure including hundreds of gold, silver, orichalcus and bronze coins, a bronze putto, a marble relief of a head of a bull, five bronze votive figurines, miniature lamps, a bronze foil belt and other religious offerings that mark the baths as a uniquely rich religious sanctuary beyond its importance as a thermal resort.
The perpetually 42°C (107.6°F) hot springs at San Casciano dei Bagni have been in continuous use since the Etruscans occupied the area. The thermal pools are used as an open-air bath adjacent to the ruins of the Roman spa built there under Augustus, but centuries of water and hot mud have taken their toll on the archaeological remains and complicate management of the ancient material as well as the modern spa facilities.
Last year’s excavations, carried out between July and October under COVID health protocols, explored an abandoned wilderness a 20 meters south of the pools ...
Perhaps the most unexpected surprise of the dig season was found on the surface of the sacred basin. It is covered in “footprints” carved into the travertine. Traces of lead and silver were found inside of them, so when they were new, they would have shimmered silver-white in the water. The footprints are of varied sizes — adults, youths, children — and were carved as if they’d been left by sandaled feet ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 09 Nov 22 - 04:45 PM

Oldest known sentence written in first alphabet discovered – on a head-lice comb

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Nov 22 - 11:20 PM

The Iceman, Revisted:

Rewriting the Story of Ötzi, the Murdered Iceman
A new study suggests that nearly everything archaeologists thought they knew about the 5,300-year-old corpse’s preservation was wrong

At the time, researchers assumed that the find was an unusual one-off, the result of a perfect storm of weather and climate conditions that just so happened to coalesce to preserve the body—essentially, they thought it was a happy accident.

But new research suggests otherwise. And, as global temperatures rise because of human-caused climate change and ice melts around the world, more historic bodies and other artifacts are likely to surface, according to a new paper published this week in The Holocene.

When archaeologists first began to ponder the conditions that preserved Ötzi, one prevailing theory went like this: Late in the year, the iceman was running away from someone or something, possibly a conflict, and decided to hide out in the mountains. He ultimately died there and quickly became buried in winter snow. Ötzi fell into a shallow gully, which protected him from the movement of glaciers. Then, not long after, the climate evolved and temperatures dropped for hundreds of years, encasing his body in ice.

He remained that way until 1991, scientists agreed, when the snow and ice began to melt away and revealed part of his body.

“The general understanding was that Ötzi marked this beginning of a cooler period, as people were sure that [he] must have been within the ice without interruption since his death,” says Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zürich in Switzerland who was not involved in the new paper, to Science’s Andrew Curry.

Now, however, archaeologists believe there wasn’t so much serendipity involved. Some 30 years after the discovery of Ötzi, some researchers decided to take a fresh look at the evidence—and that led them to a new theory. Based on radiocarbon dating and other analyses of the leaves, seeds, moss, grass and dung found near his body, they believe Ötzi actually died in the spring, rather than the fall, which means his corpse was exposed during the summer. And because some of these organic materials were found to be younger than Ötzi, the team posits that the site was open to the air on multiple occasions during the last 5,300 years. This all points to a different story: that Ötzi was regularly exposed to the elements, not cocooned in an iron-clad, frozen time capsule.

follow the link for the rest of it.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 11 Nov 22 - 04:51 PM

oops, your link doesn't work - 404 - File or directory not found. - link includes mudcat.org

Rewriting the Story of Ötzi, the Murdered Iceman

and I now have a new bookmark - Smart news - to add to my Archaeology bookmark

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Nov 22 - 08:45 PM

There wasn't a "mudcat" in that URL, but somehow it kept getting added in. I hadn't put the "https:" part in though, so it was doing its own thing, I guess. Anyway, now it's there twice.

It's pretty amazing that anything was there and in such condition if he was exposed several times. They say that because of much newer things found with him, he was exposed, but there is another easy answer: perhaps those things were suspended in the ice above him, and as the ice melted they descended to his level. I spent a lot of time climbing on glaciers in my late teens and 20s - any dark object on the ice surface warms and sinks and you can see pieces of rock, etc., in shallow depressions or deeper holes, depending on how long they've been there.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 15 Nov 22 - 05:02 PM

Hand of Irulegi: ancient Spanish artefact could help trace origins of Basque language The Vascones, an iron age tribe from whose language modern Basque is thought to descend, previously viewed as largely illiterate.
More than 2,000 years after it was probably hung from the door of a mud-brick house in northern Spain to bring luck, a flat, lifesize bronze hand engraved with dozens of strange symbols could help scholars trace the development of one of the world’s most mysterious languages...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 03:49 AM

Revolutionary Era Log House Found Hidden in US Building The vast majority of historic structures and monuments are carefully preserved and cherished. But sometimes there are structures that are overlooked and are hiding in plain sight. This is the case with an 18th-century log house that was found in America. This historic building was about to be demolished when its true nature was established, to the astonishment of the local community and experts.

The remarkable find was made in Washingtonville, Philadelphia. This small town was established in 1731. Local officials had commissioned a project to redevelop some of the run-down areas of the town and they were ‘cracking down on blighted properties’ reports WTOC. A bar with some apartments on the corner of Water and Front Streets was selected as among the first to be demolished. This building had been condemned three years ago and it was empty. Demolition contractors were hired to pull the old bar down, which was only several decades old ...

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Stanron
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 04:20 AM

If you go far enough down the page in the above link, you can find an article on The Green Man. Very interesting.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 07:03 AM

Ancient Origins is a very interesting site, with a mix of archaeology, mythology & some stuff that doesn't interest me.

I've found a lot of good stuff there

sandra

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 09:36 AM

Mythology is a valuable source of communication. It was used by Velikovsky, all religions, Graham Hancock, Joseph Campbell...all to varying degrees.
I would say it is as valuable as the carvings at Göbekli Tepe.

Be it snakes or dragons they often warn of what we now call comets.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Nov 22 - 10:27 AM

One pillar at Gobekli Tepi is being compared to the Rosetta stone because it shows multiple 'comets' coming from the direction of two
identified constellations.
It was found that the entire site is 5 times larger than previously imagined by using ground penetrating technologies. Megalithic sites far older than previously thought are being found world wide that share the end of ice age dates. The Mythology of Gods arriving by ship and teaching advanced building and civilization techniques sounds like the "Zep Tepi" (a previous advanced civilization.) whose culture had been erased by a 120 meter sea rise catastrophe.
Old text books said 12 meter sea rise.

Subject: RE: Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Dec 22 - 06:48 AM

So many things are found in ones own walls and backyards that it is worth a look. Being your own archeologist is really worth a look.
Attics are a easy start.