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Monday, January 23, 2012

Archaeology News: January 23, 2012

Posted On Monday, January 23, 2012 by Lauren Axelrod | 0 comments


Governor Rick Scott caused quite a stir when he questioned the value of an anthropology major. His point was, with rising college costs and weak employment, students might be better off with a major that could land them a job. Not to mention that our tax dollars would be better spent in public education that's relevant to the times.

James Marquez, a White Mountain Apache and board director for MACT — a nonprofit providing services to Indians in Mariposa, Amador, Calaveras and Tuolomne counties — says his organization has both a building and a “pretty spectacular collection” of 250 Indian-made baskets and other cultural artifacts. Recognizing the enormous challenges and myriad details involved in developing, operating and curating a full-blown museum, however, he and his fellow board members are “trying to figure out whether to take the next step” into serious fundraising.

A recently discovered mysterious "winged" structure in England, which in the Roman period may have been used as a temple, presents a puzzle for archaeologists, who say the building has no known parallels.

A silver-gilt Roman cavalry helmet of international importance has been pieced together at the British Museum, from thousands of fragments of corroded metal lifted in a block of mud from a Leicestershire hillside more than 10 years ago.

The Harappan Civilization was spread over large parts of western region of the Indian Subcontinent. Its earliest roots can be found from 7000 BC in Mehrgarh but its peak urban period is around 2500 to 1900 BC.

Mexican archaeologists have discovered in the southern part of the country a kiln used by the ancient Zapotecs to make ceramics more than 1,300 years ago, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

Any doubts about the existence of mass graves at the Treblinka death camp in Poland are being laid to rest by the first survey of the site using tools that see below the ground, writes forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls.

The remains of the first HMS Victory are to be raised from the sea bed nearly 300 years after it sank, it was reported today. The vessel, predecessor of Nelson's famous flagship, went down in a storm off the Channel Islands in 1744, taking more than 1,000 soldiers to their deaths.

In the dark depths of an underwater cave in eastern Mexico, archaeologists uncovered the ancient remains of four prehistoric bears in the Yucatan Peninsula. Officials believe they could date back to the ice age.

The Mithras temple is being dismantled by a team from the Museum of London and will be rebuilt on its original site 90 metres away. One Saturday afternoon in September 1954, a handsome, faintly smiling god looked up from the London mud. His name was Mithras, and the rediscovered Roman temple to his cult became a sensation in a gloomy postwar capital pitted with bombsites and still recovering from rationing.

A group of amateur archaeologists working under the guidance of professional archaeologists discovered eight 6th century gold coins in a potato field near Biesenbrow in Uckermark, northeast Germany, last November.

Theresa McDonald, Managing Director of the Achill Archaeological Field School, voiced her objections over the Achill-Henge structure which was built at Pollagh (Achill Island, County Mayo, Ireland) in November by Joe McNamara. The archaeologist believes that a prehistoric site could be less than half a kilometer from where Achill-Henge is now standing.

Seeing beneath Stonehenge’ has been developed as part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project, using data gather by the combined team from the Universities of Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and London.

The horrors of tunnel warfare are key to Sebastian Faulks's first world war novel, Birdsong. Much of the action is set beneath no man's land in a terrifying world where soldiers dug, listened for the enemy and laid explosives in the hope of helping their compatriots above ground.

UNC Coastal Institute Explores U-701

Posted On Monday, January 23, 2012 by Lauren Axelrod | 1 comments


You may recall my article on U-boat Museums and exhibits. Most of the U-boats from WWII were used for scrap metal. Some found themselves in the many Uboat museums around the world, and others found their home at the bottom of the ocean.
The U701 was sunk by aerial depth charges dropped from an A-29 Bomber on July 7, 1942. The remains of the vessel are located almost 30 miles offshore, in 120 feet of water near Diamond Shoals in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

This dive video was created by the UNC Coastal Institute formed in 2003, which offers educational opportunities, provides community outreach programs, and enhances communication among those concerned with the unique history, culture and environment of the maritime counties of North Carolina.


U-701 from UNC-CSI on Vimeo.

According to the UNC-CSI , the U-701 sites is well known for challenging conditions and potentially strong currents, often making it a difficult dive. It was well worth it in my opinion, as this video provides us a glimpse into the unique history of submarine warfare.

Picture

© UNC Coastal Institute

Monday, January 16, 2012

Breaking News: The Senator Burns to the Ground

Posted On Monday, January 16, 2012 by Lauren Axelrod | 4 comments


What a shame! In August of last year I wrote an article on The Senator. The Senator at Big Tree Park is one of the largest Cypress trees in America. The Senator was used as a landmark by the Seminole Indians, as well as the other Native American tribes in the area. During the Hurricane of 1925, the top of the Senator was destroyed, lopping off 47 feet of the original 165 feet.

© Ancient Digger

© Ancient Digger


Today, the Senator fell to the ground in a blaze, just minutes from my home.  The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that "they are awaiting a complete explanation for why investigators ruled out arson. If the fire wasn't set, how did it start? It's important to get answers because another massive cypress tree, Lady Liberty, is still standing at Big Tree Park. Though smaller and less elderly (2,000 years old instead of 3,500), it needs to be preserved and protected if security at the park is lacking."



Lats year I shot footage of my trip to the Senator, accompanied by music by Mary Gunderson. You can see it here in all its grandeur. What a sad day for Florida, as part of our history is lost

Archaeology News: January 16, 2012

Posted On Monday, January 16, 2012 by Lauren Axelrod | 0 comments


Department of Archaeology and Heritage in Umm Al Qaiwain has announced new discoveries at al-Dur archaeological site, north eastern of the emirate.

Archaeologists will carry out a three-week excavation at Birley Fields in Hulme before a new university campus is built on the land.One aim of the project is to find remains of a farm that could date back to the late Medieval period – thought to be the first time people lived in the area.

Archaeologists from Egypt and Switzerland have unearthed the 1,100-year-old tomb of a female singer in the Valley of the Kings.

It is the only tomb of a woman not related to the ancient royal families ever found in the valley, said Mansour Boraiq, the senior official at the Antiquities Ministry in Luxor.

The Field Museum plans a rare display of mummies from its own collection, many of which haven't been seen by the public since the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893.

The complete H.L. Hunley was unveiled in South Carolina after a decade of conservation work that has kept most of it hidden from view. In 1864, the Confederate submarine torpedoed the Union warship Housatonic, but then sank, killing its crew of eight. “The submarine was a perfect time capsule of everything inside,” said archaeologist Ben Rennison.

Archaeologists are investigating the site of a future Irish Cultural Museum, which will be built in the French Quarter of New Orleans.

The Northern Tutchone people did not become dependent upon Fort Selkirk, a fur trading post in the Yukon, according to research conducted by Victoria Castillo of Yukon College and the University of Alberta. She found few First Nation artifacts at the fort, indicating that not much trade took place.

The contents of a bathroom dating to the late 1850s  have been removed from Dunleith Plantation in Natchez, Mississippi, and will be reassembled in a Greek Revival mansion in Natchez National Historical Park. Jeff Mansell of the National Park Service says that there are fewer than 20 such bathrooms left in the country.

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