– Terrestrial Archaeology, Marine Archaeology & Astro-Archaeology – News Headlines Archive – August 2011 – new archaeological discoveries on land and underwater – with emphasis on the ancient sciences reflected in astro-archaeology and archaeoastronomy from new discoveries revealing its practice in ancient societies under ancient skies
The events of July 16th – 22nd 1994, when the remnants of a fragmenting comet, P/Shoemaker-Levy 9, bombarded the
surface of Jupiter causing fireballs many times the size of our own planet, were an abrupt wake-up call even for those
who were aware of them. The historical sciences generally, and archæology in particular, have collectively painted
a picture of the past as if our planet ‘stands alone in empty space’. Nothing could be further from reality. Our resilient planet exists in a solar system that has had a very dynamic history over the past 20,000 years or so and it is only from this wider solar system perspective that the true history of human civilisation can ever
be fully understood. Therefore, The Morien Institute archive contains information from many disciplines
some news sources require registration but this is usually free
“Saudi Arabia has found traces of a civilisation that was domesticating horses about 9,000 years ago, 4,000 years earlier than previously thought, the kingdom said.
‘This discovery shows that horses were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time more than 9,000 years ago, whereas previous studies estimated the domestication of horses in Central Asia dating back 5,000 years’, Ali al-Ghabban, vice-chairman of the department of museums and antiquities, said at a news conference late Wednesday.
The remains of the civilisation were found close to Abha, in southwestern Asir province, an area known to antiquity as Arabia Felix. The civilisation, given the name al-Maqari, used ‘methods of embalming that are totally different to known processes’, Mr Ghabban said.
Among the remains found at the site are statues of animals such as goats, dogs, hawks, and a metre-tall bust of a horse, Mr Ghabban said.”
“Saudi Arabia has found traces of a civilisation that was domesticating horses about 9,000 years ago, 4,000 years earlier than previously thought, the kingdom said.
‘This discovery shows that horses were domesticated in the Arabian Peninsula for the first time more than 9,000 years ago, whereas previous studies estimated the domestication of horses in Central Asia dating back 5,000 years’, Ali al-Ghabban, vice-chairman of the department of museums and antiquities, said at a news conference late Wednesday.
The remains of the civilisation were found close to Abha, in southwestern Asir province, an area known to antiquity as Arabia Felix. The civilisation, given the name al-Maqari, used ‘methods of embalming that are totally different to known processes’, Mr Ghabban said.
Among the remains found at the site are statues of animals such as goats, dogs, hawks, and a metre-tall bust of a horse, Mr Ghabban said.”
“Archaeologists have unearthed a human dwelling in Haldummulla, Sri Lanka, which they believe is the oldest of its kind identified on the island so far.
Prof. Raj Somadeva of the post graduate institute of Archaeology in the Kelaniya University said that it was discovered in an archaeological excavation carried out near Koswatta village in Haldumulla.
The archaeological site is situated 850 meters above sea level where the foundations of four houses, fireplaces, coal, iron, rock tools, pieces of clay pots and beads have been found.”
“New excavation work in the ancient city of Tlos in Mug(la’s Fethiye district has unearthed several ancient sculptures of Roman emperors.
The archaeological team found sculptures of Roman emperors Hadrian; Antonius Pius and his daughter Faistinaminor; Mareus Aurellus as well as the Goddess Issis, according to Taner Korkut, who is leading the dig.
The excavation, which is being conducted with a 40-person team and 36 workers, has unearthed traces of sculptures and archaeological artifacts dating back 10,500 years.”
“A team of Archaeologists is currently working on the Arastu Tepe in order to find signs of the Kura-Aras culture in the mound located near the town of Malard in the southwest of Tehran.
Signs of the Kura-Aras culture were previously discovered during a series of initial excavations done by the team led by Akbar Purfaraj of Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabai University.
They gathered a large number of shards scattered on the ground of the mound in the excavations, Tehran Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Department Director told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday.”
“A team of archaeologists believe the famed figure picked up his travel stories second-hand from Persian merchants.
His journeys across mountain ranges and deserts opened the eyes of mediaeval Europe to the exotic wonders of China and the Silk Road, establishing him as one of history’s greatest explorers.
But a team of archaeologists believe Marco Polo never even reached the Middle Kingdom, much less introduced pasta to Italy after bringing it back from his travels, as legend has it.
Instead they think it more likely that the Venetian merchant adventurer picked up second-hand stories of China, Japan and the Mongol Empire from Persian merchants he met on the shores of the Black Sea, thousands of kilometres short of the Orient.
He then cobbled them together with other scraps of information for what became a best-selling account, A Description of the World, one of the first travel books.”
“Stone Age man created a massive network of underground tunnels criss-crossing Europe from Scotland to Turkey, a new book on the ancient superhighways has claimed.
German archaeologist Dr Heinrich Kusch said evidence of the tunnels has been found under hundreds of Neolithic settlements all over the continent.
In his book – Secrets Of The Underground Door To An Ancient World – he claims the fact that so many have survived after 12,000 years shows that the original tunnel network must have been enormous.”
“SOME claim climate change will destroy our species; now it seems it also helped forge it. The rapid fluctuations in temperature that characterised the global climate between 2 and 3 million years ago coincided with a golden age in human evolution.
The fossil record shows that eight distinct species emerged from one hominin species, Australopithecus africanus, alive 2.7 million years ago.
The first members of our genus appeared between 2.4 and 2.5 million years ago, while Homo erectus, the first hominin to leave Africa, had evolved by 1.8 million years ago.”
“A team of research scientists have concluded that early humans, or hominins, were creatures primarily of the African savanna, and for much longer than many have previously thought.
The study, involving a new method of measuring and analyzing chemical isotopes in comparative samples of modern and fossil-bearing (paleosol) soils, allowed a team of scientists to determine the canopy density or tree cover in East African prehistoric environments going back more than 7 million years, the time when human ancestors and their ape cousins were evolving.
The result: Wherever the fossils of early human (hominin) and related ape species were discovered, there was strong evidence that the prehistoric environments in which they lived consisted predominantly of open habitats much like the savannas we see today — wide-open grasslands spotted with trees.”
[In October 1900, Captain Dimitrious Kondos was leading a team of sponge divers near the the island of Antikythera off the coast of Greece. They noticed a shipwreck about 180 feet below the surface and began to investigate. Amongst the artifacts that they brought up was a coral-encrusted piece of metal that later archaeologists found was some sort of gear wheel.
The rest of the artifacts, along with the shape of the boat, suggested a date around 2000 years ago, which made the find one of the most anomalous that had ever been recovered from the Greek seas. It became known as The Antikythera Mechanism.
In 2006 the journal “Nature” published a letter, and another paper about the mechanism was published in 2008, detailing the findings of Prof. Mike G. Edmunds of Cardiff University. Using high-resolution X-ray tomography to study the fragments of the anomalous Antikythera Mechanism, they found that it was in fact a bronze mechanical analog computer that could be used to calculate the astronomical positions and various cycles of the Moon – as seen from the Earth: – Ed]
More news stories and websites about The Antikythera mechanism
“For more than a century this ‘Antikythera mechanism’ puzzled academics, but now, more than 2000 years after the device was lost at sea, scientists have pieced together its intricate workings.”
“This is the true history of an astonishing machine during the time when the island of Rhodes was the centre of both cultural and intellectual activity within the Roman Empire.
Made on the island of Rhodes around 71BC, the computer was lost beneath the waves for almost 2000 years.”
“The first great discovery in underwater archaeology yielded not only a fine collection of art treasures but also the most enigmatic, most complicated piece of scientific machinery known from antiquity.”
