A temple built on a circular base, possibly consecrated to the Aztec wind god, has been found in the historical centre of Mexico City.

Archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma told the German Press Agency Matos Moctezuma, Mexico’s most respected archaeologist and coordinator since 1978 of excavations on the remnants of the former Aztec capital, said the building was found behind Mexico City’s Metropolitan Cathedral.

Experts believe it was consecrated to the Aztec wind god, Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, because “such temples had as their characteristic the presence of a circular base and of a square base.”

The temple was part of the great Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan, and is believed to have been built in the late 15th century, Matos Moctezuma said. Read the rest of this entry »

Newly discovered archaeological sites in southern and northern India have revealed how people lived before and after the colossal Toba volcanic eruption 74,000 years ago, according to Press Trust of India (PTI) on Tuesday.

The international and multidisciplinary research team, led by Oxford University in collaboration with Indian institutions, has uncovered what it calls ‘Pompeii-like excavations’ beneath the Toba ash.

The seven-year project examines the environment that humans lived in, their stone tools, as well as the plants and animal bones of the time.

“This suggests that human populations were present in India prior to 74,000 years ago, or about 15,000 years earlier than expected based on some genetic clocks,” said project director Michael Petraglia, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. Read the rest of this entry »

British Columbia, Canada: DNA recovered from ancient caribou bones reveals a possible link between several small unique caribou herds and a massive volcanic eruption that blanketed much of the Alaskan Yukon territory in a thick layer of ash 1,000 years ago, reports research published today in Molecular Ecology.

It’s just part of the story being read from ancient caribou remains by an international team of scientists from the U.S., U.K. and Canada who have been studying the history of this iconic and fragile Canadian species.

Tyler Kuhn, a Whitehorse native and Simon Fraser University graduate researcher, were able to coax short bits of ancient DNA from caribou bones found in 6,000-yr-old ice patches scattered across an area just north of the British Columbia border.

He and colleagues from Alberta, Alaska, Pennsylvania and Oxford compared this ancient DNA with DNA from caribou living nearby today. To their surprise, DNA from bones older than 1,000 years in the Whitehorse area did not match with the local caribou grazing nearby. Read the rest of this entry »

A section of city wall that enclosed ancient Jerusalem and was probably built by King Solomon in the 10th century BC was found during recent digs, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said on Monday.

The unearthed wall is six metres high (20 feet) and 70 metres (230 feet) long, a statement said.

“We can estimate, with a high degree of certainty, that this was built by King Solomon toward the end of the 10th century BC,” archaeologist Eilat Mazar, who excavated for three months, said in the statement.

According to the Bible, Solomon built the first Jewish temple of Jerusalem, which was destroyed by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar in 586 BC.

The latest discovery “could corroborate written descriptions which recount construction projects carried out by King Solomon in Jerusalem,” the statement said. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last three decades, technological advancement has allowed archeologists to answer longstanding questions and refute misconceptions about missing details of Egypt’s history. From the remains of ancient rulers to Napoleon’s flagship, et takes you through some of archeology’s most significant discoveries in the last 30 years.

Tombs of the Pyramid Builders

For years it has been assumed that sites exist that could shed light on the lives of the Giza pyramid builders. Now that assumption is backed up by proof.

Since 1990, an Egyptian archeological team headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass has been excavating the remains of the town where the permanent workforce of pyramid artisans and their supervisors lived, In addition, the team also excavated a section where temporary workmen were housed and fed, and a vast cemetery in which all of the pyramid builders were buried. Read the rest of this entry »

A temple complex in Turkey that predates even the pyramids is rewriting the story of human evolution.

They call it potbelly hill, after the soft, round contour of this final lookout in southeastern Turkey. To the north are forested mountains.

East of the hill lies the biblical plain of Harran, and to the south is the Syrian border, visible 20 miles away, pointing toward the ancient lands of Mesopotamia and the Fertile Crescent, the region that gave rise to human civilization. And under our feet, according to archeologist Klaus Schmidt, are the stones that mark the spot—the exact spot—where humans began that ascent.

Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. Read the rest of this entry »

Bricks dating back 5,000 to 7,000 years have been unearthed in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, adding between 1,000 to 2,000 years onto Chinese brick-making history, archaeologists claimed Saturday.

“The five calcined bricks were unearthed from a site of the Yangshao Culture Period dating 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Previously, the oldest known bricks in the country were more than 4,000 years old,” Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology researcher Yang Yachang said.

The bricks, including three red ones and two gray ones, all uncompleted, Yang said. The site under excavation is located at Liaoyuan Village of Baqiao District, and Huaxu Town, Lantian County of Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province. Read the rest of this entry »

His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, minister of heritage and culture, yesterday presided over the launch ceremony of Omani heritage website enlisted in the World Heritage list.

The launching ceremony, held at the office of HM the Sultan adviser for cultural affairs, was attended by Sayyid Ali bin Hamoud bin Ali Al Busaidi, minister of the Diwan of Royal Court; Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al Rowas, HM the Sultan adviser for cultural affairs; Sheikh Abdullah bin Salim bin A’amir Al Rowas, minister of regional municipalities and water resources and other officials.

Sayyid Haitham, while expressing satisfaction over the launch of this website, affirmed that the constant and new archaeological discoveries in the Sultanate reflect the historic and cultural status of the country. Read the rest of this entry »

A well-built aqueduct from time of King Herod was unearthed last week near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem during work on infrastructure in the area.

The site of the discovery is not far from the place where a Byzantine street was recently unearthed.

Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists say they found about 40 meters of the ancient waterway, which was part of the sophisticated aqueduct that brought water to Jerusalem from springs in the Hebron hills to the south to the Mamilla pool, which still exists today, and from there through the aqueduct to Hezekiah’s Pool within the walled city.

Archaeologists say the aqueduct was first built in the first century BCE, and was in use in the second century. Within it were discovered roof tiles from the Roman Tenth Legion, which controlled the city at that time. Read the rest of this entry »

The buried antiquities of Ur could one day outshine those of ancient Egypt, archaeologists at a large-scale excavation in Iraq believe.

With the country ravaged by war and strife since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Baghdad’s struggling government has had greater priorities than funding large-scale digs at Ur - the birth place of Abraham and one of the cradles of civilisation - where only small teams have been working since 2005.

“When the (large-scale) excavations restart, tons of antiquities will see the light of day, filling entire museum wings,” enthused Dhaif Moussin, who is in charge of protecting a site that has been prone to looting.

“This site will become perhaps more important than Giza,” he added, referring to the plateau outside the Egyptian capital of Cairo where some of mankind’s most treasured antiquities have been unearthed, including the Sphinx and several notable pyramids. Read the rest of this entry »