ARCHAEOLOGISTS are investigating a mystery Roman building underneath the Dewa Roman Experience premises in the city centre.

They will tunnel through the brickwork and sandstone blocks above the Roman foundations of the secret building and into the void behind.

There are plans for a 58-bed hotel at the Pierpoint Lane site, off Bridge Street, but any significant structures and finds will be accommodated within the design, possibly through the use of glass floors.

Archaeologist Mike Emery said: “It’s something substantial but we don’t know that is. It has been suggested it might be Roman hospital but no-one quite knows. Read the rest of this entry »

Did our Neolithic ancestors turn to agriculture so that they could be sure of a tipple? US Archaeologist Patrick McGovern thinks so. The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops.

It turns out the fall of man probably didn’t begin with an apple. More likely, it was a handful of mushy figs that first led humankind astray.

Here is how the story likely began — a prehistoric human picked up some dropped fruit from the ground and popped it unsuspectingly into his or her mouth. The first effect was nothing more than an agreeably bittersweet flavor spreading across the palate. But as alcohol entered the bloodstream, the brain started sending out a new message — whatever that was, I want more of it! Humankind’s first encounters with alcohol in the form of fermented fruit probably occurred in just such an accidental fashion. But once they were familiar with the effect, archaeologist Patrick McGovern believes, humans stopped at nothing in their pursuit of frequent intoxication. Read the rest of this entry »

The ancient Mayans may have had enough engineering know-how to master running water, creating fountains and even toilets by controlling water pressure, scientists now suggest.

Perhaps the earliest known example of the intentional creation of water pressure was found on the island of Crete in a Minoan palace dating back to roughly 1400 BC. In the New World, the ability to generate water pressure was previously thought to have begun only with the arrival of the Spanish.

Scientists investigated the Mayan center at Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico. At its height, this major site, inhabited from roughly 100 to 800 AD, had some 1,500 structures — residences, palaces, and temples — holding some 6,000 inhabitants under a series of powerful rulers. Read the rest of this entry »

The radiocarbon dates of archaeological sites from New Phor, Movolomi and Khüsomi were recently received from the Beta Analytic in Miami, United States. The dates further ‘pushed back’ the antiquity of Naga ancestral sites as early as 50 BC, according to Dr. Anungla Aier and Dr. Tiatoshi Jamir of Anthropological Society of Nagaland.

The Beta Analytic Inc., an internationally renowned institute of physical and chemical sciences has been providing efficient technical assistance to the research since the early part of this year, a note from the two researchers said.

Dr. Anungla Aier and Dr. Tiatoshi Jamir stated in a letter received here today: “The calibrated dates assigned to the sites were as per scientifically accepted procedures using Calibration Database INTCAL 04 Radio Carbon Age Calibration. Read the rest of this entry »

After 14 centuries, a giant monolith from a submerged temple was raised from the seabed in Alexandria last week.

There was more activity than usual in Alexandria’s Eastern Harbour last week as a team working offshore made preparations to ready the dock for the unloading of a giant piece of history. An enormous yellow crane stood ready to lift a pylon, or ceremonial entrance tower, belonging to the Ptolemaic temple of Isis Lochias which has been under the sea for 14 centuries.

Meanwhile, five underwater archaeologists in diving gear were inspecting the planned route on the seabed along which pylon tower would be moved. Read the rest of this entry »

Duane Hamacher, a doctoral candidate at Macquarie University, used ancient folklore from an Australian Aboriginal people and modern Google maps to locate a meteorite crater in central Australia. Hamacher considers himself an educator within the field of astronomy. He is associated with the Sydney Observatory and the Foundation for Astronomy at Macquarie University.

He investigates how the Australian Aboriginal peoples have incorporated the darkened sky above their lands into their ancient cultures.

Duane Hamacher looks at paintings, stone arrangements, historical literature, and other ancient folklore to understand their cultures with respect to astronomy, archaeoastronomy, and ethnoastronomy.

And, with his education, experience, and expertise at investigating the Aboriginal peoples, Hamacher has incorporated ancient Arrernte dreaming stories and modern Google maps to find a bowl-shaped meteorite crater at Palm Valley. Read the rest of this entry »

Stonewares of the Neolithic Age have been found in Medog County, Nyingchi Prefecture, southeastern Tibet, according to the Nyingchi Prefectural Bureau of Culture, Radio and Television.

During the third national cultural relics survey, members of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Survey Team and the Nyingchi Prefectural Survey Team discovered 34 stonewares and collected 28 of them, including axes, adzes and chisels.

Experts of the Shaanxi Provincial Archeology Research Institute and the Tibet Autonomous Regional Cultural Relics Research Institute judged that the stonewares belonged to the Neolithic Age and that the river banks where the stoneware were found saw frequent human activities in ancient times. Read the rest of this entry »

In a plastic container inside the storerooms at St. Augustine’s Government House is a slender wooden stick with a carved knob on one end. Think of it as an electric mixer without the electricity.

That humble whisk — known as a molinillo — is a big deal to archaeologists because it proves that chocolate dates back at least to the 1500s in St. Augustine.

“It shows a probable connection to Mexico or Central America that St. Augustine had,” said City Archaeologist Carl Halbirt. “It’s evidence for the presence of the chocolate drink (in St. Augustine).”

The molinillo could also be the earliest evidence of chocolate’s presence in North America, although Halbirt won’t say that. He can only relate the find to St. Augustine. Read the rest of this entry »

When archaeologist Ruth Iren Øien noticed a cluster of tiny iron beads in the ground, she knew she was onto something. She did not know, however, that her team had stumbled upon Scandinavia’s oldest and most complex group of iron forges.

And not only that, it would be months before Øien, with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s Museum of Natural History and Archaeology, would discover the actual significance of her find.

The iron beads were first found in November 2008, right at the very end of a highly weather-dependent field season in Norway. With frost about to set in, further investigation had to wait until the summer of 2009. But in July, Øien’s team returned to the site. Read the rest of this entry »

The tomb of Cao Cao, a renowned warlord and politician in the third century, was unearthed in Anyang City of central China’s Henan Province, archaeologists said Sunday.

Cao Cao (155-220 A.D.), who built the strongest and most prosperous state during the Three Kingdom period (208-280 A.D.), is remembered for his outstanding military and political talents.

Cao Cao is also known for his poems that reflected his strong character. Some of the poems are included in China’s middle school textbooks.

Three ancient corpses, one man and two women, were found in the two-chamber tomb in Xigaoxue village of Anyang. The man was found to have died in his sixties, which coincides the age of Cao Cao when he died, Liu Qingzhu, director of the academic committee of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told a press conference in Beijing. Read the rest of this entry »