Claims by Italian archeologists that they are about to solve one of the greatest murder mysteries in the history of art are nonsense, according to the respected British art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon.

“The whole thing is academic,” he says.

Last month a team of archeologists led by the anthropology professor Georgio Gruppioni claimed to have recovered the remains of the Renaissance artist Caravaggio. They announced plans to use scientific tests to check that the artist’s remains were genuine and finally discover whether he died of typhus, collapsed on the beach of malaria or was assassinated, as some experts have suggested.

“We will check the DNA extracted from the bones and teeth for possible matches against that of the painter’s male descendants,” Gruppioni told Reuters. His team would then use carbon-dating technology to find out how Caravaggio died, he said. Read the rest of this entry »

Tombs discovered near Egypt’s great pyramids reinforce the theory they were built by free workers rather than slaves.

The location of the tombs, where workers who built the pyramids of Khufu (Cheops) and Khafre (Chephren) are buried, suggests they were not slaves.

The tombs, made from bricks of dried mud, date back 4,500 years.

They are the first to be discovered since the first such workers’ tombs were found in 1990.

“These tombs were built beside the king’s pyramid, which indicates these people were not by any means slaves,” Zahi Hawass, the chief archaeologist heading the Egyptian excavation team, said in a statement. Read the rest of this entry »

Remains of a prehistoric building, the earliest ever discovered in the Tel Aviv region and estimated to be between 7,800 and 8,400 years old, were recently discovered in an archaeological excavation in Ramat Aviv.

Ancient artifacts thought to be 13,000 and 100,000 years old were also discovered there.

Archaeologist Ayelet Dayan, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said that “this discovery is both important and surprising to researchers of the period. For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region 8,000 years ago.”

“The site is located on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, not far from the confluence with Nahal Ayalon. We can assume that this fact influenced the ancient settlers in choosing a place to live. The fertile alluvium soil along the fringes of the streams was considered a preferred location for a settlement in ancient periods,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »

Centuries ago, come September, galleys would be rowed into Mġarr ix-Xini harbour and loaded with amphorae filled with wine that had been pressed in the valley.

Winemakers would fill shallow basins with grapes and, once pressed, the juice would flow through holes and channels into a deeper collecting holder, all carved into the rock.

These wine presses, said to date back to 500 BC, can still be seen embedded in the Gozitan valley and are being studied and documented in a project carried out by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage and the Sannat and Xewkija local councils with the support of Camilleri Wines.

Apart from safeguarding heritage, the project offers an interesting insight into Malta and Gozo’s past. Read the rest of this entry »

A rarely seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as “the Land of Flowers” and put China at the centre of the world went on display on Tuesday at the Library of Congress.

The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas. Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was the first Westerner to visit what is now Beijing in the late 1500s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.

The map includes pictures and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa was noted to have the world’s highest mountain and longest river. The description of North America is brief with mentions of “humped oxen” or bison, wild horses and a region named “Ka-na-ta.” Several South American places are named, including “Wa-ti-ma-la” (Guatemala), “Yu-ho-t’ang” (Yucatan) and “Chih-Li” (Chile).

Ricci gave a brief description of the discovery of the Americas. Read the rest of this entry »

The archeological digs at Egypt’s Wadi Gawasis have yielded neither mummies nor grand monuments.

But Boston University archeologist Kathryn Bard and her colleagues are uncovering the oldest remnants of seagoing ships and other relics linked to exotic trade with a mysterious Red Sea realm called Punt.

“They were the space launches of their time,’’ Bard said of the epic missions to procure wondrous wares.

Although Nile River craft are well-known, the ability of ancient Egyptian mariners to ply hundreds of miles of open seas in cargo craft was not so fully documented.

Then the team led by Bard and an Italian archeologist, Rodolfo Fattovich, started uncovering maritime storerooms in 2004, putting hard timber and rugged rigging to the notion of pharaonic deepwater prowess. Read the rest of this entry »

The skeletal remains of a Native American woman who likely lived more than 3,000 years ago were uncovered by trenching work at Carmel Valley Ranch.

Construction workers uncovered the ancient grave Friday, and appropriate county and state officials were notified, said county Planning Director Mike Novo.

Salinas archaeologist Gary Breschini went to the site with a coroner’s deputy, which he often does when possible remains of Native Americans are discovered.

“Usually they are animal bones,” he said Tuesday. “This one was human.” Read the rest of this entry »

The recent discovery of mysterious stones buried in the construction site of the new City Pillar Hall in Vientiane has given archaeologists new insight into these puzzling objects.

More than 90 stones, which archeologists describe as city pillars, were found in Phiavath village, Sisattanak district, during excavations for the new building.

Experts believe the use of these stone monuments first began in the north of Laos. This latest discovery has inspired them to dig deeper into their history.

Director General of the National Heritage Department of the Ministry of Information, Mr Thongsa Sayavongkhamdy, said they have identified engravings on the stones which they believe will provide valuable information about their origin and purpose. Read the rest of this entry »

An East Yorkshire-based gas storage facility has been making some incredible discoveries after six months of archeological excavations in advance of construction work starting at the site.
A team from Humber Field Archaeology has been working on the Centrica Storage Limited (CSL) site at Caythorpe, carefully extracting and investigating remains of prehistoric, Roman and Anglo-Saxon date.

Perhaps the most amazing discovery made during the work on the pipeline at the site so far is that of a late Iron age (pre-Roman) iron sword and spearhead, recovered from the grave of what archaeologist’s believe to be a warrior. This discovery is the first of its kind in the region for over 25 years (picture attached).

The sword and spearhead are contents removed from just one of five graves, which have been investigated. Some surrounded by distinctive square ditches, typical of burial of this period in East Yorkshire. Read the rest of this entry »

With the help of enhanced imagery and an expert in Elizabethan script, archaeologists are beginning to unravel the meaning of mysterious text and images etched into a rare 400-year-old slate tablet discovered this past summer at Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in America.

Digitally enhanced images of the slate are helping to isolate inscriptions and illuminate fine details on the slate—the first with extensive inscriptions discovered at any early American colonial site, said William Kelso, director of research and interpretation at the 17th-century Historic Jamestowne site (Jamestown map).

The enhancements have helped researchers identify a 16th-century writing style used on the slate and discern new symbols, researchers announced last week. The characters may be from an obscure Algonquian Indian alphabet created by an English scientist to help explorers pronounce the language spoken by the Virginia Indians. Read the rest of this entry »