Armchair Archaeologist (via Google Earth)

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 07:20 AM

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

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: 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: Bill D
Date: 16 Apr 21 - 01:36 PM

Right here in the USA

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 06:17 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 - 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: 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: 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