Excavations continue at Despotikon

The important excavation that has been going on during the last few years on the little island Despotikon and the islet Tsimindiri, just outside Antiparos, will continue. The excavation is conducted by the 21st Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities and is directed by archaeologist Giannos Kouragios.

It is a five-year project that has already obtained grants from the Kanellopoulos and Latsis Foundations, and has the approval of the Central Archaeological Council.

This excavation program will enable the discovery of new parts of a significant Archaic sanctuary dedicated to the cult of Apollo and Artemis. The inhabitants of Paros island built this temple on Despotikon as a sign of their predominance in the Aegean.

According to Archaeology News Network, during the excavations the tower and the two rectangular buildings, which haven’t been excavated yet., will also be examined. In addition, the numerous rooms of the southern complex on Despotikon will be examined. The archaeological surveys will also include the five buildings revealed on Tsimindiri.

So far, 12 buildings have been located on the uninhabited islet of Depotikon, which in the past were connected by an isthmus to Despotikon. Among other finds in the sanctuary, archaeologists have as well revealed 20 marble bases of Archaic statues, 65 parts of Kouroi, the head of a Kore, and part of a marble Archaic life-sized Kouros, which was revealed this year on the island.

Archaeologists are also planning a small scale restoration of the sanctuary –namely the elevation of some columns, so that the third dimension of the temple can be recovered, which at some point in the past reached eight meters high. However, before proceeding to any such actions, the Central Archaeological Council should first give them the green light. According to archaeologist Giannos Kouragios, the creation of an archaeological park on Despotikon remains for now unfulfilled, due to the peculiar ownership situation of the islet.

[source: Greek Reporter]

Augustan-era Sculptures Discovered by Archaeologists

Archaeologists say they've uncovered an "exceptional" group of sculptures dating to the 1st century BC in a villa in Rome's suburb of Ciampino.

The sculptures, found in an ancient villa owned by Roman general Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, a patron of the poet Ovid, tell the myth of Niobe, the proud daughter of Tantalus who lost all her 14 children after boasting to the mother of Apollo and Artemis, Leto, about her fertility.

Niobe, regarded as a classic example of the retribution caused by the sin of pride or hubris, was turned to stone. Excavations at the villa have also revealed a thermal bath area with fragments of artistic mosaics and a swimming pool as long as 20 meters with walls painted blue.

Inside the bath area were found seven sculptures dating to the Augustan age, as well as a complete series of fragments that experts say can be reassembled. The group tells the story of Niobe, which figured in Ovid's epic poem of transformation, the Metamorphoses, published in AD 8. La Repubblica newspaper said Tuesday a team of archaeologists made the valuable discovery last summer.

"Statues of Niobe have been found in the past, but in the case of Ciampino, we have a good part of the group," of statues, said Elena Calandra, superintendent of archaeological heritage.

According to their reconstruction of the bath area, experts say the statues were carved on all four sides of the swimming pool, which may have been buried by an earthquake in the 2nd century AD.

Source: Gazzetta del Sud

Archaeology News: January 7, 2013

Ancient digger brings you latest in archaeology news and discoveries. Here's what's been discovered today JANUARY 7, 2013.

Remains of Göring's first wife Discovered

Swedish scientists have solved the mystery over a a zinc coffin found 21 years ago at the German estate of Hitler's right-hand man, Hermann Göring, by identifying the skeletal remains as those of Göring's first wife Carin.

Ancient manuscripts indicate Jewish community once thrived in Afghanistan

A trove of ancient manuscripts in Hebrew characters rescued from caves in a Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan is providing the first physical evidence of a Jewish community that thrived there a thousand years ago.

On Thursday Israel's National Library unveiled the cache of recently purchased documents that run the gamut of life experiences, including biblical commentaries, personal letters and financial records.

Staffordshire Hoard: 'Opening a window into the Mercian kingdom'

Speculation has already begun about how much 81 newly-discovered pieces of the Staffordshire Hoard will be worth.

The pieces of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver were declared treasure by coroner Andrew Haigh on Friday and will now be valued by the British Museum.

There are two items in the current collection that do not sparkle as much as the others but which could be the most valuable to archaeologists researching the hoard.

Unearthing our Ulster Scots history

The history of Ulster Scots is unearthed in a new television series celebrating the archaeology and history of Northern Ireland’s past.

Ulster Unearthed begins on Monday night with the first in a series six half-hour programmes delving into the history of Ulster Scots links to Northern Ireland.

Using laser technology and state-of-the-art computer imaging, a team of experts explores a variety of local sites and digs across Ulster and reveals exciting new finds.

The Ulster Unearthed series is presented by UTV’s Rita FitzGerald and produced by Televisionary:NI - a new, local independent production company.

'The Tutankhamun dig of aviation': Brits to begin digging up missing Spitfires buried in Burmese jungle

A Lincolnshire farmer who has spent 17 years investigating rumours that dozens of factory-fresh Spitfires could be lying buried under Burmese soil expects to find the aeroplanes “perfectly preserved”.

David Cundall, 62, who has four decades experience excavating military aircraft, set out on an expedition to excavate the first of three possible burial sites this morning.

He expects to find the planes packed up in sealed wooden crates, which he hopes will have protected them from corrosion. A 91-year-old British veteran of the Burma campaign, Stanley Coombe, who says he remembers seeing “double-decker bus-sized crates” being prepared for burial at the end of the war, is accompanying the 21-person expedition team.

World's Oldest Shipwreck Reveals Treasure Trove 

An entire decade of archaeological investigation into what is the world’s oldest known shipwreck has revealed a vast cornucopia of ancient treasures, and the wreck was voted by Scientific American journal to be one of the ten greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Following the chance discovery of the wreck in 1982, archaeological excavations were carried out between 1984 and 1994 by George F. Bass and Cemal Pulak of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology. Due to the wreck’s tricky location on a steep rocky slope 50 metres beneath the surface, excavation time for each diver had to be limited to 20 minutes per dive, twice a day. The total number of dives to take place was 22,413.

Dried, hollowed squash Holds Key to Bloodline

Two centuries after the French people beheaded Louis XVI and dipped their handkerchiefs in his blood, scientists believe they have authenticated the remains of one such rag kept as a revolutionary souvenir.

Researchers have been trying for years to verify a claim imprinted on an ornately decorated calabash that it contains a sample of the blood of the French king guillotined in Paris on January 21, 1793.

The dried, hollowed squash is adorned with portraits of revolutionary heroes and the text: "On January 21, Maximilien Bourdaloue dipped his handkerchief in the blood of Louis XVI after his decapitation".

Top Archaeology News: November 9, 2011

New evidence of a lost civilization in an area of the Sahara in Libya has emerged from images taken by satellites. Using satellites and air photographs to identify the remains in one of the most inhospitable parts of the desert, a team from the University of Leicester in England has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating between AD 1 to 500.

The site of what is now Rotterdam’s Yangtzehaven was inhabited by humans in the Middle Stone Age. At a depth of 20 metres, in the sea bed, unique underwater archaeological investigation found traces of bone, flint and charcoal from around 7000 BC.

It is prehistoric mystery that has baffled scientists for decades and sparked a long-running debate with archaeologists. But new DNA evidence from ancient horse bones has proved the horses depicted in prehistoric cave paintings actually existed 25,000 years ago.

The colorful history of Minneapolis’ Tangletown area, including the remnants of a long-gone mill, is influencing construction and prep work for a new Lyndale Avenue bridge over Minnehaha Creek.

More than four centuries after English adventurer Sir Francis Drake went to his watery grave off Panama's coast, archaeologists believe they have found two of the last ships he commanded.
In emerald Caribbean waters where the privateer is said to lie buried in a lead coffin, explorers using deep sea oil technology found three large ship sections offering strong clues that they belonged to Drake's Elizabeth and Delight.

Larry Grantham, an archaeologist with the Missouri Department of Transportation's Environmental Studies and Historic Preservation department, said his team has discovered a pair of Native American archaeological sites bookending the Mo. 168 bridge over the North River just west of Palmyra.

In a new examination of Laetoli in northern Tanzania, where a 3.6-million-year-old track of footprints of the bipedal human ancestor Australopithecus is preserved, researchers now argue that the classic understanding of this site is mistaken. The footprints have been buried since the mid-1990s for preservation, but a section recently opened for study as Tanzanian officials make plans for a museum on the site.

The University of Salford has announced a four year archaeology project which will see 9,000 people involved in digs. Dig Greater Manchester, which will also include a study in Blackburn, will see volunteers work alongside experts at 11 sites.

Utah Archaeology Week, to be held May 5-12, 2012, celebrates Utah's rich archaeological and cultural resources with a special week of statewide lectures, programs, activities, demonstrations and tours.

A rare stone sculpture depicting a bullock cart has been found by professor and students of Government First Grade College, HD Kote. The sculpture is assumed to be of the Punnata era.

Archaeology News: September 26, 2011

Archaeologists are digging for artifacts in a battle-scarred and history-rich stretch of the upper Hudson River where thousands of Europeans, Americans and Native Americans fought and died during more than a century of sporadic warfare, culminating in the Americans' defeat of the British at Saratoga

Current Research at the Center for Desert Archaeology – Tracking Kayenta, Understanding SaladoA 17th century knight in full armour was spotted clattering through streets and playgrounds on Wednesday. The civil war warrior was promoting a community archaeology project which will delve into the history of Thornhill Hall, the remains of which stand in Rectory Park.

Trowels, screens, shovels, cameras and hand tools are required gear for such a dig. That means researchers from St. Cloud State University who paddled and portaged 15 miles to get to their excavation site at Knife Lake carried what they needed to survive and what they needed to uncover history.

The town of Kampsville was crawling with "arches," bronzed archaeology students in snug-fitting denim cutoffs, grubby bare feet and long hair. Each day, we'd be trundled off in beat-up school buses to a site in the middle of a sun-baked corn field. There, we learned to carefully dig for bits of pottery, stone tools, animal bones and other evidence of prehistoric human activity.Archaeologists are investigating three island groups around Britain to further understanding of why, in approximately 4,000 BC, humans altered their lifestyle from hunting and gathering to farming the land.

For a week, 32 volunteers, 11 archaeologists and two tribal representatives from Round Valley lived on the Mendocino National Forest to work on a Passport in Time (PIT) archaeology project.

University of Southampton and British School at Rome (BSR) archaeologists, working with the Italian Archaeological Superintendancy of Rome, uncovered the remains of the massive building (shipyard) close to the distinctive hexagonal basin or ‘harbour’, at the centre of the port complex.

A genetic study of a 90-year-old hair sample indicates that some These first explorers met Neanderthals and Denisovans along the way to Asia. Samples from different Aboriginal Australians suggest that looking for Denisovan DNA in Asian populations could help scientists track ancient waves of migration.

Two royal burials have been discovered at the Maya site of Nakum in Guatemala. A 1,300-year-old tomb, which had been badly damaged by rodents, had been placed on top of a 2,000-year-old tomb containing the remains of a woman ruler.

A developer has agreed not to build on an Ohlone burial site in Santa Cruz, California, after the remains of an Ohlone child were uncovered at the site last month. The land will be set aside for use by the Ohlone and the homeowners association of the new housing complex.

In Kaikoura, New Zealand, construction workers uncovered the remains of two people, along with jewelry, hand tools, and ochre. The finds will be examined by an archaeologist and the remains will be reburied.

Excavations on the Channel Islands, the Isles of Scilly, and the Outer Hebrides could tell archaeologists if Britain’s indigenous population gradually made the change to agriculture, or if colonists from Europe brought farming with them.

A man’s skeleton from the Iron Age has been unearthed in Leicestershire, England. Jermey Taylor of the University of Leicester talks about the bones in a short video by the BBC.

Colonial-era bricks and pottery have been found at a construction site in Kempsville, Virginia. “We’ve never been able to find anything. Now we know at least some of it is still here. When you think about all the development going on here today, it’s amazing that something from the 1750s is still intact,” said archaeologist Tony Smith.

The J. Paul Getty Museum will return three marble artifacts to Greece that it acquired in the 1970s.

Resources Used

Archaeology news, Google News

Ancient Digger Message

It's nearing the end of the month and midterms are swiftly approaching. As many of you know, I'm the only person running the Ancient Digger. There's no little mice in a wheel churning out material while I'm away, so please allow me to apologize for the sporadic nature of the posts these past weeks. As I settle in to my new MacPro, a hectic schedule, a new blogging software, oh yeah, and an engagement, please be patient and all will be smooth sailing quite soon.

Anthropologists Debate: Neanderthal and Human Brains No Longer Similar

I was watching a movie today in an Anthropology class called Neanderthal The Rebirth featured on BBC. Two individual sets of bones were fused together to form an almost complete skeleton of a Neanderthal.

The legs, of course, were a bit shorter, the rib cage flares at the bottom, an indication of the lung capacity and the ability to survive cold climates.

The cranial capacity, however, was compared very closely to modern humans. A endocast was created to study the indentations or imprints left by the brain to study cognitive abilities. There was barely any debate in the mental processing abilities of both modern humans and neanderthals.

Imagine my surprise and disbelief after finding a video today stating neanderthal and human brains are not as similar as once thought.

This video explains the development and research by Svante Paabo of the neanderthal genome at the Max Plank Institution of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Among humans, however, the internal organization of the brain is more important for cognitive abilities than its absolute size is. The brain's internal organization depends on the tempo and mode of brain development.

Website of the Neandertal Genome project

German archaeologists recover Nazi-era ‘degenerate art’

Subway workers and archaeologists in Berlin have discovered a trove of early 20th-century art that was thought to be destroyed by the Nazi regime.

Workers building a new subway line in the German capital stumbled onto the remains of sculptures that were part of a list of ‘degenerate art’ the Nazi regime deemed too Jewish or un-German.

No one is entirely sure how the sculptures survived Nazi propagandists and the Second World War, although there is speculation that an anti-Nazi Berliner saved the works  from destruction. Der Spiegel also has a photo gallery of the works which are now housed in Berlin’s Neues Museum.

Read the entire story about  German archaeologists recover Nazi-era ‘degenerate art’

Professor Ehud Netzer: Died Thursday After Fall At Archaeological Site

In, 2007, Professor Ehud Netzer discovered the famed site of King Herod. On Monday, Netzer fell six meters after a wooden bean collapsed. He was admitted immediately to Hadassah University Hospital, suffering a fractured skull and neck vertebrae

Professor Netzer, considered one of the most senior researchers on
Herod, has been excavating at the Herodium site south of Jerusalem
since 1972 in efforts to identify the burial site of the King of the
Jews. Netzer continued his active participation in the excavations
following the discovery, despite reaching the age of 76.

Netzer died Thursday after succumbing to wounds at the Tomb of King Herod. Ancient Digger would like to extend our sincere condolences to his family. It's a great lose to the community and to the field of archaeology.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "Netzer's tragic death is a loss for his family, for research into the heritage of Israel and for archaeology."

Source and Quotes: Haaretz
Picture: Wikipedia

Archaeology News: Thursday October 28, 2010

Paleontologists have revealed the earliest known African anthropoids found to date - three previously unknown kinds of the primates from Dur At-Talah in central Libya that apparently date back 38 million to 39 million years ago. The diversity and timing of the new anthropoids raises two scenarios. Anthropoids might simply have emerged in Africa much earlier than thought, and gone undiscovered by modern paleontologists. Or they could have crossed over from Asia, where evidence suggests that anthropoids lived 55 million years ago, flourishing and diversifying in the wide-open ecological niches of an anthropoid-free Africa.

Niah Caves Should Be A World Heritage Site. The Niah Caves, located some 120 kilometres from Miri city, should be another world heritage site in Sarawak for its uniqueness, Chief Minister, Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud said here.

Italy: DNA tests may reveal true fate of Sicilian 'Robin Hood'. - The tomb of one of Italy's most legendary bandits was due to be opened on Thursday in Sicily to gather forensic evidence that will either fuel or put to rest suspicion that the body inside doesn't match the name on the sarcophagus: Salvatore Giuliano.

Archaeologists solve mystery of Silbury Hill (maybe) It is one of England's most mysterious monuments. Just a short walk from the massive stone circle complex of Avebury, Silbury Hill is a giant, flat-topped mound rising 120 feet above the surrounding countryside. Researchers have proposed dozens of theories over the years to explain its purpose, suggesting everything from a giant burial mound to a platform for religious music. 

Archaeologists find pre-historic migrants "This is of great regional significance, and it will generate national interest", said Edward Biddulph, senior project manager with Oxford Archaeology which conducted the dig.

Cornell Archaeologist Makes Neolithic Era Discovery. A project led by a Cornell professor is helping to re-write the early prehistory of Cyprus, the island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. By taking a new approach to examining human civilization, Prof. Sturt Manning, classics, and his team of undergraduate and graduate students from Cornell, the University of Toronto and the University of Cyprus, have uncovered new evidence that agricultural settlements had been formed up to half a millennium earlier than previously believed. 

Ayodhya verdict based on ASI report: Archaeologist. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court relied heavily on  the ASI report  in its verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute, says Dr AK Mishra, one of the three observer-archaeologists appointed by the high court for their vigil during the excavation by ASI at the disputed site in Ayodhya.

Top Archaeology News: Tuesday October 26, 2010

An Armenian archaeologist says that scientists have discovered a skirt that could be 5,900-year-old. Pavel Avetisian, the head of the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography in Yerevan, said a fragment of skirt made of reed was found during recent digging in the Areni-1 cave in southeastern Armenia.

Learn what archaeologists found under and around the 263-year-old house of the Rev. John Hancock in a program to be held Sunday afternoon at Buckman Tavern in Lexington.

Silbury Hill mysteries are unravelled in new book.

Egyptian pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world. However, a study conducted by UK’s Truprint Photo Company, a digital photo printing service, has also revealed that Egypt’s Giza Pyramids are photographed the most by British tourists.

The mausoleum was created about 2,200 year ago and served as a tomb for Qin Shi Huang – the first emperor of China. While the emperor’s tomb is largely unexcavated, archaeologists have found thousands of life-size terracotta figures nearby. It’s believed that this army was created to serve the emperor in the afterlife.

The Shakers were known for their simple, economical ways. But as archaeologists discovered Monday, even their dirt was clean. 

Click on the links for more information and the full story. Have a wonderful week from Ancient Digger!

Top Archaeology News: Saturday October 23, 2010

A team of Chinese archaeologists dedicated to the excavation and study of the world famous terracotta warriors in northwest China's Xi'an City on Friday received the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences in Spain.

Archaeologists have found remains of five females who may have been ritually sacrificed in a 1,400-year-old flat-topped pyramid in the Lamayaeque region's southern Jequetepeque Valley.

Her life has been celebrated in song, story and a Disney cartoon, but no one knew where Pocahontas tied the knot with a tobacco farmer—until now.

Archaeologists unearth 10,000 year old camp site along US/Canada border. A team of archaeologists has spent the last several weeks gathering and collecting artifacts along the banks of the Saint Croix River on property owned by the federal government behind the U.S. Customs Port of Entry in Forest City.

Hundreds gathered for the annual meeting of the North American Sea Glass Association, to celebrate a hobby that seems an odd mix of amateur archaeology, environmental monitoring and antique collecting, with a little chemistry thrown in. 

The discovery of starch remnants on stone tools indicates that our ancestors were making flour out of starchy roots 30,0000 years ago. Karen Hopkin reports.

Russian Submarine SC-213 discovered by divers from Black Sea Wreck Divers near the coast of Constanta, Romania (Black Sea)

A group of archaeologists from Queensland University have discovered the oldest known high altitude human settlement.

Click on the links for more information and the full story. Have a wonderful weekend from Ancient Digger!

Top Archaeology News: Friday October 21, 2010

Groton's rolling hills are vestiges from ice-age glaciers of long ago. Life was non-existent until the age of glaciations ended and five-thousand feet of ice in our region slowly melted, approximately 15,000 years ago.

Magdeburg, Germany - Hundreds of Germans paid their last respects Friday to an English queen born 1,100 years ago, during a reburial ceremony in the cathedral of the eastern city of Magdeburg.

Peruvian archaeologists have unearthed four perfectly preserved mummies at an ancient burial site in the capital city, Lima.

More skeletal remains been uncovered at the Gisborne District Court extension site.

A 400-year-old village of 10 longhouses has been uncovered in Ontario, on the banks of Strasburg Creek. Some artifacts from the site are even older, dating back 4,500 and 9,000 years. “The descendants of the people from that site are now among the Six Nations today,” said contract archaeologist Paul Racher. ~Archaeology News


After yesterday's site visit, archaeology team says passageway is around three centuries old; blueprint of GPO building may be available at British Library in the UK

Many ancient artifacts have been curated at the Sunshine Coast Museum, but very little information exists around the meaning and function of these items.

Top Archaeology News: Thursday October 21, 2010

Most victims of Mt. Vesuvius' massive eruption in 79 AD probably died from thermal shock, rather than the previous generally accept theory of suffocation, according to a new study.

Nearly 3,000 of those once-buried treasures are kept at the Siegfried H. Horn Archeological Museum & The Institute of Archeology at Andrews University just outside Berrien Springs.

The University of Winchester’s archaeological excavations at St Mary Magdalen, on the outskirts of Winchester, have revealed evidence for what may be Britain’s earliest known hospital.  

It has been 100 years since excavations started on the Madinat Al Zahra, the magnificent 10th century palace city near Cordoba in southern Spain.

Archaeologists think they've found the site of a cabin that belonged to southern Oregon pioneer photographer Peter Britt

The mummies of a woman and three children from the Huari culture have been discovered in Lima, Peru, in an intact tomb at the top of a pyramid. The tomb is estimated to be 1,150 years old.  ~Archaeology News

East Contra Costa road work unearths more Indian graves. Shea Homes construction crews have found 30 sets of human remains over the past couple of months while widening a stretch of Marsh Creek Road just west of where it intersects the Highway 4 bypass.

Cornell archaeologists are helping to rewrite the early prehistory of human civilization on Cyprus, with evidence that hunter-gatherers began to form agricultural settlements on the island half a millennium earlier than previously believed.


Make sure you click on the links for the entire story. Have a great day and thanks for visiting Ancient Digger.

Top Archaeology News: Wednesday October 20th, 2010

Archaeologists and Middle Tennessee State University students believe the remains of a mastodon are behind a Franklin home, about 20 miles south of Nashville. Mastodons are prehistoric, elephant-like creatures, believed to have weighed up to 12,000 pounds.

Swiss archaeologists find 5,000-year-old door that may be one of the oldest ever found in Europe.

Egypt's top archaeologist has shown off a newly discovered tomb of a pharaonic priest, a find he says could point the way to a new necropolis to be excavated near the famed Giza pyramids.

When freelance artist Ben Wood and archaeologist Eric Blind heard about a hidden 18th-century mural at Mission Dolores in 2004, they wanted to see it. With permission from the church, they lowered a camera into a 3-by-3-foot trap door in the attic.

One of the stars of the Oriental Institute’s new show, “Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond,” is a clay tablet that dates from around 3200 B.C. On it, written in cuneiform, the script language of ancient Sumer in Mesopotamia, is a list of professions, described in small, repetitive impressed characters that look more like wedge-shape footprints than what we recognize as writing.


This Thursday evening, Oct. 21, Verde Valley residents will have their first opportunity to hear about the recently proposed Verde Valley Archaeological Center, during the monthly meeting of the Verde Valley Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological Society.

A World War II-era bomb crater was spotted in Darwin, Australia. The city was subjected to 63 bombing raids during the war.

Make sure you click on the links for the entire story. Have a great day and thanks for visiting Ancient Digger.

Monday Ground Up Poll Results Are In

This is an off week for the Monday Ground Up as I'm evaluating the demand for this special edition. I ran a poll for a week to determine whether the Monday Ground Up is valuable enough to the readers, that's you. Out of the hundreds of readers I have on Ancient Digger, only 10 of you sounded off.

This result concerns me a bit, as I'm either not giving you, the readers, what you want or you just don't find that the edition isn't any different that regular posts during the week.

Once I start back to school, which is in 3 weeks, I won't have as much free time to research the special editions. My question is, how many of you actually find value in the articles?

Are there topics that have not been focused on and you'd like to see on the special editions?

This is your time to speak up. If you have no voice, nether will Ancient Digger. Please leave your comments below, as I want the readers to discuss what needs to happen on Mondays.

Stone Age Discovery: Were our Ancestors Skilled Surgeons?

For those of you Pre-history buffs on the Ancient Digger, this was an interesting and bizarre find. The evidence of an elderly man with a perfectly amputated arm was found at a tomb in Buthiers-Boulancourt, about 40 miles south of Paris. The tomb was dated 7000 years ago when early Neolithic surgeons were performing precise operations, more advanced that anything we had ever seen before.

The findings ultimately "suggests an incredible degree of medical knowledge was available in 4900BC and the revelation could force a reassessment of the history of surgery".

Read the entire story about the discovery of this 7000 year old surgery on Daily Mail

Neanderthals Likely Didn't Like Brussels Sprouts: Discovery News

Spanish researchers say they're a step closer to resolving a "mystery of evolution" -- why some people like Brussels sprouts but others hate them.

They have found that a gene in modern humans that makes some people dislike a bitter chemical called phenylthiocarbamide, or PTC, was also present in Neanderthals hundreds of thousands of years ago. Read more about Neanderthals Likely Didn't Like Brussels Sprouts: Discovery News

Archaeological News from Archaeology Magazine

One of my favorite online magazines is sharing some it's latest discoveries on digs sites. Check out their recent finds.

A rare Bronze Age cist burial has been unearthed at the site of Forteviot in Scotland, which also has a Neolithic henge and a medieval cemetery. “The real treasure of this burial is not the metal objects in it, but the organic remains. This sort of material rarely survives in Scotland and it gives us an insight into what other objects were being used, not just the things that usually survive such as flint tools,” said Gordon Noble of Aberdeen University. This second article on the grave also has photographs of it. Archaeological News from Archaeology Magazine

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Incomplete posts are currently being deleted due to site updates. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ultra-Rare Shark Found, Eaten

National Geographic introduces us to a rare find that made its way into the tummy instead of an aquarium.

The odd specimen was brought in by fishermen and given to local project manager Elson Aca of WWF, an international conservation nonprofit.

Aca immediately identified it as a megamouth shark and encouraged the fishers not to eat it. But the draw of the delicacy was too great: The  1,102-pound (500-kilogram) shark was butchered for a shark-meat dish called kinuout.

While it is sad that this rare mega mouth shark was ultimately lost, the discovery highlights the incredible biodiversity found in the Donsol area and the relatively good health of the ecosystem.

Ultra-Rare Shark Found, Eaten