Monthly Archives: January 2012

The excavations by Orkney College at the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, Scotland. Wiki Commons

January 31, 2012 1 Comment

Archaeologists and pagans alike glory in the Brodgar complex

Archaeologists are notoriously nervous of attributing ritual significance to anything (the old joke used to be that if you found an artefact and couldn’t identify it, it had to have ritual significance), yet they still like to do so whenever possible. Archaeology News

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January 31, 2012 0 Comments

Teeth could unlock Toi Moko ancestral home

Researchers from Waikato University have announced that new scientific tests carried out on the enamel of possum teethe, may enable them to find the key to the origins of many Māori Toi Moko. Archaeology News

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January 31, 2012 0 Comments

Discovery of Road at Ho Dynasty Citadel

Archaeologists in Vietnam announce the discovery of a previously unknown stone road at the ruined World Heritage site of Ho Dynasty Citadel.

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Students from Heritage Without Borders : HWB

January 31, 2012 0 Comments

Conserving Albania’s Cultural Heritage – Heritage Without Borders awarded £25,000 by the Headley Trust

Heritage Without Borders (HWB), a newly established social enterprise founded at UCL (University College London), is getting media and donor attention thanks to its innovative approach to capacity building where communities require help and support to conserve their cultural heritage. Archaeology

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January 30, 2012 0 Comments

Mayan hojas from Cahal Pech discovered in Downtown San Ignacio

A collection of mayan vessals and human remains have been discovered during the development of a 2.7 million dollar building project in San Ignacio.

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January 30, 2012 0 Comments

Intriguing find at Venta Icenorum

An archaeologist from the University of Nottingham has been working on a seemingly unique Roman building discovered near the Roman town of Venta Icenorum in Norfolk (UK).

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January 28, 2012 0 Comments

Cities of the Classical World by Colin McEvedy

What makes a city? A simple mass of people, a great temple, a hub of learning, trade or transport? Colin McEvedy’s idiosyncratic book, a survey of 120 “centres of ancient civilisation”, doesn’t ask the question, but unwittingly suggests some answers. In doing so, it tells us almost as much about contemporary urban life as it does about the distant past.

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Limburg railyard bombed 23 Dec 1944 : Wiki Commons

January 28, 2012 0 Comments

Italian memorial to recall second world war ‘friendly fire’ tragedy

1,100 British, South African and American prisoners of war were put on a train to be taken to a camp in Germany. On January 28, 1944, they were crossing the Orvieto Railroad Bridge North in Allerona, Umbria, when the American 320th Bombardment Group arrived to bomb the bridge.

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Piz Buin Voralberg 3312m with glaciers : Wiki Commons

January 28, 2012 1 Comment

What really happened prior to ‘Snowball Earth’?

In a study published in the journal Geology, scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science suggest that the large changes in the carbon isotopic composition of carbonates which occurred prior to the major climatic event more than 500 million years ago, known as ‘Snowball Earth,’ are unrelated to worldwide glacial events.

Track or Fiction? – The Icknield Way

The Icknield Way is commonly known and referred to as an ancient track that stretches from the Wessex Downs to Norfolk. Accepted as being one of the original Green Roads of Britain it is believed to date from the Neolithic period and associated with trade, exchange and long distance communication. But is this road really just a myth that has grown up around a legend, and through the process of time and historical Chinese whispers, been turned into something that never actually existed?

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Ruins of York Castle / Clifford's Tower : Wiki Commons

January 27, 2012 0 Comments

York’s Jewish History Trail to launch on Holocaust Memorial Day this week

Project gives a rounded history of both dark and bright times, as well as the everyday life of Jews in the historic city : Archaeology News

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Horn of Africa - Gateway to the World : Wiki Commons

January 26, 2012 0 Comments

Following genetic footprints out of Africa

A new study, using genetic analysis to look for clues about human migration over sixty thousand years ago, suggests that the first modern humans settled in Arabia on their way from the Horn of Africa to the rest of the world.

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January 26, 2012 0 Comments

Liverpool’s world heritage waterfront faces ‘irreversible damage’, report says

Unesco delegation says skyscraper proposal will result in ‘serious loss of historic authenticity’

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January 26, 2012 0 Comments

Museums hear fate after 29 bid for share of £60m Renaissance money

Winners include Brighton, Birmingham, Oxford and Cambridge. Losers include Sheffield which warns of job losses and a fall in exhibition standards

Iron Age Warriors : Archaeology at East Chisenbury by the soldiers of The 1st Battalion, The Rifles

The abiding public image of the current conflict in Afghanistan is the repatriation parades for fallen soldiers through the village of Royal Wootton Bassett in the country of Wiltshire. However further to the south of the county a project has been developed to deal with the hidden casualties of the conflict. Archaeology News

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Two Hadzabe men in Tanzania hunting : Wiki Commons

January 25, 2012 1 Comment

A new study of hunter-gatherers suggests social networks sparked evolution of cooperation

Ancient humans may not have had the luxury of updating their Facebook status, but social networks were nevertheless an essential component of their lives, a new study suggests.

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Victory (1737), model in the National Maritime Museum : Wiki Commons

January 25, 2012 0 Comments

HMS Victory wreck given to charitable trust

The ship, which precedes Admiral Nelson’s flagship preserved at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, sank in a storm in 1744 with the loss of over a thousand crew.

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January 25, 2012 0 Comments

‘So long as the Stone of Brutus is safe, so long will London flourish.’

Popular legends of the stone include the remains of an ancient stone circle that is alleged to have stood on Ludgate Hill, and even the stone from which King Arthur withdrew the legendary “Sword in the Stone”.

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1878 Epsom Derby winner Sefton : Wiki Commons

January 25, 2012 0 Comments

‘Speed gene’ in modern racehorses originated from British mare 300 years ago, scientists say

Scientists have traced the origin of the ‘speed gene’ in Thoroughbred racehorses back to a single British mare that lived in the United Kingdom around 300 years ago, according to findings published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

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January 25, 2012 0 Comments

More than 7,500-year-old fish traps found in Russia

A team of international archeologists, led by the Spanish National Research Council, has documented a series of more than 7,500-year-old fish seines and traps near Moscow. The equipment found, among the oldest in Europe, displays a great technical complexity.

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Looking after Wincobank Hill : Friends of Wincobank Hill

January 24, 2012 2 Comments

Ancient Iron Age Monument under threat from housing

Local residents in Sheffield England and members of a local history group called “Friends of Wincobank Hill” are in protest over proposals to build 22 homes on part of Wincobank Hill, site of a scheduled Iron Age hill Fort and surrounding monuments, as part of Planning Application Reference: 11/03972/FUL

The Rise and Fall of the ‘C’ word (Celts)

Currently, the term ‘Celtic’, and its variations, is alternatively loved or loathed by archaeologists, historians, the general public and the media. Why is this? What has happened to the way the word is defined that causes disparity?