Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 13 Jan 22 - 05:07 PM

I'll second that!!

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Donuel
Date: 09 Jan 22 - 11:10 AM

oops something went wrong with that interesting link

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 19 Dec 21 - 11:09 PM

here's one of the articles I posted - updated

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: 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 - 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 23 Nov 21 - 02:21 AM

I also found an article about the mosaic table ...

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.