Strolling Down Grand Gulch
Comet explosions did not end the prehistoric human culture, known as Clovis, in North America 13,000 years ago, according to research published in the journal Geophysical Monograph Series.
Researchers from Royal Holloway university, together with Sandia National Laboratories and 13 other universities across the United States and Europe, have found evidence which rebuts the belief that a large impact or airburst caused a significant and abrupt change to the Earth’s climate and terminated the Clovis culture. They argue that other explanations must be found for the apparent disappearance.
via Prehistoric humans not wiped out by comet, say researchers.
AUSTIN, Texas — For centuries, the fate of the original Otomí inhabitants of Xaltocan, the capital of a pre-Aztec Mexican city-state, has remained unknown. Researchers have long wondered whether they assimilated with the Aztecs or abandoned the town altogether.
According to new anthropological research from The University of Texas at Austin, Wichita State University and Washington State University, the answers may lie in DNA. Following this line of evidence, the researchers theorize that some original Otomies, possibly elite rulers, may have fled the town. Their exodus may have led to the reorganization of the original residents within Xaltocan, or to the influx of new residents, who may have intermarried with the Otomí population.
Using ancient DNA (aDNA) sampling, Jaime Mata-Míguez, an anthropology graduate student and lead author of the study, tracked the biological comings and goings of the Otomí people following the incorporation of Xaltocan into the Aztec empire. The study, published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology, is the first to provide genetic evidence for the anthropological cold case.
via Aztec Conquest Altered Genetics among Early Mexico Inhabitants, New DNA Study Shows | News.
TEPIC, NAYARIT.- Archaeologists from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH-Conaculta) recently found a complex panel of petroglyphs that must have been carved between 850 and 1350 AD (some of which are over 1,000 years old), in a site called “Cantil de las animas” [Soul Ledge] near the town of Jesus Maria Cortes in Tepic, Nayarit.
The bas-relief symbolic representations, which are attributed to ancient groups of the Aztlan culture, were located in a practically new archeological zone of the region –Nayarit’s mountainous zone of the southern high plateau–, and they cover a surface of about 4 meters (13.12 feet) long and 2 meters (6.56 feet) wide, which is facing south.
The symbolic content of the representations –detailed archaeologist Manuel Garduño Ambriz from INAH Center in Nayarit–, seems to divide the petroglyph panel composition in two parts.
via Mexican archaeologists find complex panel of 1,000 year-old petroglyphs in Nayarit.
IN the next couple of weeks, there will be a plate of hat-shaped biscuits in front of archaeologist Richard Buckley.
Late last year, he was standing in the car park of the Leicester City Council social services unit in a flouro vest and hardhat about to crack the bitumen of the outdoor car park floor and lead a dig for a 500-year-old missing person, albeit a former King of England.
“The only bones they will find will be inside an old Kentucky Fried Chicken box,” a councillor from the city council remarked at the time. Most, including Buckley, agreed.
Others were just unhappy at having to give up a car space on the whim of a historical society looking for a long lost king. Not just any king mind you, but Richard III, despised in history, courtesy of Shakespeare, as a murderous, withered-armed hunchback royal, killed in battle with a swipe to the skull and an arrow in the side.
via Remains of Richard III appear to have been found in Leicester | News.com.au.
ROME —A long-delayed restoration of the Colosseum’s only intact internal passageway has yielded ancient traces of red, black, green and blue frescoes — as well as graffiti and drawings of phallic symbols — indicating that the arena where gladiators fought was far more colorful than previously thought.Officials unveiled the discoveries Friday and said the passageway — between the second and third levels of the 1st Century Colosseum — would open to the public starting this summer, after the €80,000 $100,000 restoration is completed.
via Colosseum cleaning yields old frescos, graffiti | www.957jamz.com.
AArrrghh… it’s just maddening!
In 2008 archaeologists discover the 2nd century tomb of a wealthy senator, distinguished consul, and highly decorated battle-hardened general who led 20 years worth of Roman military campaigns for Emperor Marcus Aurelius against the Germanic tribes. Marcus Nonius Macrinus was possibly the closest confidant of the philosopher Emperor, and also served as proconsul in Asia. (Btw, Macrinus was the figure upon which screenwriter Franzoni very loosely based Russel Crowe’s character Maximus in Gladiator, hence the name used colloquially for the tomb.)
via The Gladiator Tomb.
A National Science Foundation-funded research team working on the slopes of the world’s southernmost active volcano appears to have found the remains of a camp used by explorers of the so-called “Heroic Age” of Antarctic exploration, a century after the camp was abandoned.
Although photos of the site, known as “the highest camp”, appear to match an archival photograph taken by members of the 1912 Terra Nova expedition led by Royal Navy Captain Robert F. Scott, conservators from the New Zealand-based Antarctic Heritage Trust have been asked to verify the historic find.
The find comes in the closing days of the centennial of the so-called “Race to the Pole” between Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Amundsen reached the geographic South Pole on Dec. 14, 1911, five weeks before Scott’s party. In the tragic finish to the race, Scott and his men perished on the ice on their return trip, only a few miles from safety.
via NSF-funded researcher finds camp site from the ‘heroic age’ of Antarctic exploration.
Chemical analysis reveals first cheese making in Northern Europe in the 6th millennium BCThe first unequivocal evidence that humans in prehistoric Northern Europe made cheese more than 7,000 years ago is described in research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, UK, published today in Nature.By analysing fatty acids extracted from unglazed pottery pierced with small holes excavated from archaeological sites in Poland, the researchers showed that dairy products were processed in these ceramic vessels. Furthermore, the typology of the sieves, close in shape to modern cheese-strainers, provides compelling evidence that these specialised vessels have been used for cheese-making.
via Chemical analysis reveals first cheese making in Northern Europe in the 6th millennium BC.
Archaeologists Identify Oldest Spear Points: Used in Hunting Half-Million Years Ago
ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2012) — A collaborative study involving researchers at Arizona State University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Cape Town found that human ancestors were making stone-tipped weapons 500,000 years ago at the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 — 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. This study, “Evidence for Early Hafted Hunting Technology,” is published in the November 16 issue of the journal Science.
via Archaeologists identify oldest spear points: Used in hunting half-million years ago.
Most Ancient Pottery Prehistoric Figurine of the Iberian Peninsula Found in Begues
November, 09 2012
Via. Science Daily
Its chronostratigraphic unit makes it, until now, the most ancient human figurine of the Prehistory in Catalonia. it is dated 6500 years ago.
The figurine is dated 6500 years ago and named l Encantat de Begues . (Credit: Image courtesy of Universidad de Barcelona)
The figurine, which is also the most ancient one found in the Iberian Peninsula, is an important indicator of the relevance that Can Sadurni might have had as a meeting point for the inhabitants of the closest areas during the Neolithic Age. This is not the first discovery that has been made in the cave, where the CIPAG researchers have been working for 34 years, and where the most ancient evidence of production and consumption of beer were previously identified. These discoveries point that Can Sadurni might have hosted some feasts, in which rare products might have been consumed. Moreover, other rituals with a mark symbolic nature might have been hosted there, any kind of crucial celebration to bring together groups scattered around the area and to ensure their economical, ideological and sexual reproduction.
via 201211098579 | Most Ancient Pottery Prehistoric Figurine of the Iberian Peninsula Found in Begues.
Archaeologists find burnt stucco floor related to astronomical event 1,350 years ago…
November, 09 2012
During the excavations in Panhu, an archaeological zone which will soon open its doors to the public in the municipality of Tecozautla, Hidalgo, archaeologists registered a burn stucco floor, evidence that its main pyramid was desacralized approximately 1,350 years ago.
Archaeologists from INAH found a burnt stucco floor, evidence of practices related to an astronomical event that happened approximately 1,350 years ago. Photo: DMC INAH M. Tapia.
This coincides with an astronomical event which was thought, by its inhabitants, to be a cataclysm.
Archaeologist Fernando Lopez Aguilar, director of the site’s investigation project promoted by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH Conaculta), informed that there was a solar eclipse at sunrise the 3rd of August in the year 650 AD.
via 201211098582 | Archaeologists find burnt stucco floor related to astronomical event 1,350 years ago.
Ancient Thracian gold hoard unearthed in BulgariaReuters – Fri, Nov 9, 2012 Email Share726 3 PrintRelated Content Gold artefacts are seen after they were unearthed from an ancient Thracian tomb near the village of Sveshtari, some 400km 248 miles north-east of Sofia, November 7, 2012. Bulgarian archaeologists unearthed numerous golden artifacts, including bracelets with snake heads, a tiara and aplications for horse harnesses during excavation works at an ancient Thracian tomb in northern Bulgaria, they said on Thursday. The new golden artifacts are dated back to the end of the fourth or beginning of the third century BC and we found in the biggest of 26 ancient tombs of the Getes, a Thracian tribe that was in contact with the Hellenistic world. Picture taken November 7, 2012. REUTERS/Emil Iordanov/BGNES BULGARIA – Tags: SOCIETY FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. BULGARIA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN BULGARIAEnlarge Photo Gold artefacts are seen after they …SOFIA Reuters – Bulgarian archaeologists unearthed ancient golden artifacts, including bracelets with snake heads, a tiara with animal motifs and a horse head piece during excavation works at a Thracian tomb in northern Bulgaria, they said on Thursday.[Related: Trove of ancient jewelry discovered]The new golden artifacts are dated back to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the third century BC and were found in the biggest of 150 ancient tombs of a Thracian tribe, the Getae, that was in contact with the Hellenistic world.
via Ancient Thracian gold hoard unearthed in Bulgaria – Yahoo! News.
CORVALLIS, Ore. -
A new study of lake sediment cores from Sanak Island in the western Gulf of Alaska suggests that deglaciation there from the last Ice Age took place as much as1,500 to 2,000 years earlier than previously thought, opening the door for earlier coastal migration models for the Americas.The Sanak Island Biocomplexity Project, funded by the National Science Foundation, also concluded that the maximum thickness of the ice sheet in the Sanak Island region during the last glacial maximum was 70 meters – or about half that previously projected – suggesting that deglaciation could have happened more rapidly than earlier models predicted.Results of the study were just published in the professional journal, Quaternary Science Reviews.The study, led by Nicole Misarti of Oregon State University, is important because it suggests that the possible coastal migration of people from Asia into North America and South America – popularly known as “First Americans” studies – could have begun as much as two millennia earlier than the generally accepted date of ice retreat in this area, which was 15,000 years before present.
via New deglaciation data opens door for earlier First Americans migration.
There’s a mystery to be solved in the Great Basin Desert.
The clues date back thousands of years and are found in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs — rock art left by people living on the shores of Lake Lahontan, an ancient lake that once covered portions of northwest Nevada, northeast California and southern Oregon.
Rock art can be found throughout Nevada, but a good place to start your exploration is seven miles east of Fallon at Grimes Point Archaeological Area and at nearby Hidden Cave.
via Prehistoric artists left mysterious marks | Reno Gazette-Journal | rgj.com.
