For Those Interested in Archaeology

Nothing rudimentary about those weapons...did you notice the skull teeth have no overbite? Apparently western people all have overbite because we cut up our meat and veg before putting it in our mouths...not so long ago we used to put the meat straight into our mouths and tear off a peice, as the human animal does...without doing that the muscles in our bottom jaw aren't as big as they should be and contract slightly from lack of use...creating an overbite. This skull shows how the teeth used to line up...I thought it interesting enough to mention.

 

Here's one for you Gordon. Ancient palace discovered under the Tomb of Prophet Jonah, due to the damage left behind by ISIS.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/27/previously-untouched-600bc-palace-discovered-shrine-demolished/

Like post #1280. Hadn't heard about that. I keep hoping one day when we are out digging trial pits we might discover something.

 

Just...wow.

 

Thanks MsM...Is isil any different than isis
Sad to think they may have looted it, but at least they didn't destroy more than they already had.

Does Mutley do dinosaurs?...Plenty of those/these bones around here. ..Maybe a work /vacation is in order.

She typed in my family tree, and scared me...also said there was a mightier warlock who monitors these threads.

 

I screwed up there Poppy, I should call them neither ISIS or ISIL, but Daesh, they hate that. Think Daesh is a slur on them, something to do with goats! It is sickening to think what they looted from the tomb. With a bit of luck the rancid air quality might have wiped out some of those murdering b******s.

No, no dinosaurs. An old colleague was addicted to dinosaur bone hunting. She did many field trips both to US and Canada.

Been on sites where the archeologists have to do there assessment first. But still not turned up anything in our own surveys yet. I keep hoping.

Who's this mighty warlock you're referring to? You've lost me there.

Gordon, can't wait to see more info and pictures from this discovery. Bet you'd love a nosey round that palace. I sure would.

 

Off topic but ...

I try to use that term as well. Not sure that they would consider something with goats to be a slur though. My understanding is that it is very close to a term that means "unbeliever" in Arabic .... That they hate and that's why a lot of Arabic countries use the term as well as the French I believe.

Here's a long winded description of it:
https://www.freewordcentre.com/explore/daesh-isis-media-alice-Guthrie

Here's a much shorter if perhaps less technically correct one:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/what-daesh-mean-isis-threatens-6841468
The "sowers of discord" was what I was thinking of above.

 

Damn right, Maria. Would finally have the excuse to splash out on that IR scope I've had an eye on for years.
On the subject of fossils, used to holiday on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset/Hampshire when I were a lad. You could literally walk along the cliffs and dig them out with a pencil. The IoW is hoaching with 'em-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaurs_of_the_Isle_of_Wight

 

Ms Mutley, you referred to someone else here who also does the genealogy thing...The name escapes me now.

 

Went fossil hunting on Skye Gordon, many years ago. Some wonderful fossils there. Picked up some Devil's toenails. I would like to go back and see the dinosaur footprints that were discovered.

Did you see the Knights Templar caves discovered in Shropshire? http://knightstemplarinternational....-church-found-beneath-an-english-field-video/

Meant to post this about the oldest microfossils discovery in Canada https://www.theguardian.com/science...scientists-quebec-haematite-377bn-428bn-years

Also wondering where this tunnel system might lead to in Edinburgh http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/02/mysterious-druid-tunnel-network-mapped-in-scotland/

Right, time to get on with some digging while the sun is out. Cheers Maria

 

Yeah, saw the Shropshire caves; skeptical about it being anything remotely to do with the Templars, but that's just me. They seem to be the default answer to any unsolved mysteries- like the Gilmerton caves as well. Not sure why they think "druids" would have carved out caves for worshipping, when copses and forests were more their style.
The number of places round here that were recorded as "Templar lands" by Nimmo in the 18th Century is unreal; and none of them actually were. What started out as a folk memory of land owned by the church pre-Reformation got turned into yet another "Knights Templar Preceptory" by the time he wrote it down.
Always mean to explore the "caves" in Edinburgh Old Town, actually the grid system by which the North and South bridges were built. Both were constructed as a series of boxes, the idea being that by the time the bridges were finished, all that space could be used as housing and shops. Because the road surface was never properly waterproofed, rain poured through and down to the lower levels (and still does), so they gradually turned into slums and worse and got abandoned. Someone does a roaring trade there with ghost tours.
http://unusualvenuesedinburgh.com/venues/the-caves-venue-edinburgh
http://www.cityofthedeadtours.com/tours/

 

Here's a few tips for this year's holidays...
"Roman military borders and fortifications were part of a grand strategy of territorial defence in the Roman Empire. Forts, Castra and military camps stretched across the vast empire, in concentration on the borders and in some of the most remote of locations to enforce Roman authority and control."
http://www.heritagedaily.com/2016/12/10-remote-roman-forts/113779

 

Just checking- thought we'd lost this thread.

"An ancient village believed to be one of the oldest human settlements ever found in North America has been discovered during an excavation on a remote island in British Columbia.

The village, which is estimated to be 14,000 years old, has been found on a rocky spit on Triquet Island, about 500 kilometres northwest of Victoria, Canada.

It is estimated the village is older than Egypt’s pyramids.

Scientists said the artefacts being unearthed, which include tools for lighting fires, fish hooks and spears dating back to the Ice Age, are painting a picture of how civilisation began in North America, CTV Vancouver Island News reports. "
14,000-year-old village discovered in Canada

 

And here we go again...
"A controversial find could rewrite the history of humans in North America.
Archaeologists claim to have found evidence an unknown species of human was living on the continent as early as 130,000 years ago - 115,000 years earlier than previously thought.
Researchers discovered the butchered remains of an enormous mastodon in San Diego, with evidence of chips and fractures made by early humans - but they admit they don't know if they were Homo sapiens, Homo erectus, Neanderthals, or something else.
The findings could dramatically revise the timeline for when humans first reached North America, although many researchers are sceptical of the find, claiming there are issues with the dating technique used and 'many questions' over the research."
Did humans conquer America 130,000 YEARS ago? | Daily Mail Online

 

Struggling to think of a reason why they wouldn't have...
"In human history, the transition from hunting and gathering to farming is a significant one, with the two groups thought about as two entirely different sets of people.
But new research casts doubt on this long-believed theory.
Archaeologists have discovered DNA evidence in Romania that suggests that hunter-gatherers and farmers lived side-by-side, intermixing with each other, and even having children.
Researchers from the University of Potsdam in Germany looked at ancient DNA from between 8,800 and 5,400 years ago.
Professor Michael Hofreiter, who led the study, said: 'We expected some level of mixing between farmers and hunter-gatherers, given the archaeological evidence for contact among these communities.
'However, we were fascinated by the high levels of integration between the two communities as reconstructed from our ancient DNA data.'"
Hunter-gatherers intermixed with farmers 8,000 years ago | Daily Mail Online

 

There's pretty strong evidence the Mound Builders here in the US were both (not two separate groups). Their downfall was thought to have been the fact that their farming was monoculture and their population grew to the point that hunting and gathering became too difficult in the vicinity of their cities.

 

"Not sure there were any "far away, affluent empires" in the Ice Ages, but hey.
Ice Age Europeans trekked thousands of miles from their birthplace to become immigrants in faraway empires, new research has revealed.
Researchers studying the DNA of men and women from the Ice Age found that more than half were buried hundreds of miles away from their place of birth.
And around one in five Ice Age dwellers migrated up to 3,175km (1,973 miles) in their lifetime, which is roughly the distance from London to Egypt.
Archaeological data suggests prehistoric populations moved around the globe to join faraway affluent empires, according to researchers.
Until recently, assumptions about origins were based on where people were buried, researchers said.
'However, this does not take into account the migrations which we now know took place thousands of years ago,' said Dr Eran Elhaik, assistant professor of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, who carried out the research.
Using a recently-developed technology, the ancient Geographic Population Structure (aGPS) tool, the researchers were able to find the geographical origins of ancient DNA.
This in turn enabled them to combine hundreds of snapshots from the past into a reconstruction of modern history from 12,000 BC to the modern era.
'This is by far the most comprehensive reconstruction of our genetic history,' Dr Elhaik said."
Until recently, assumptions about origins were based on where people were buried, researchers said.
'However, this does not take into account the migrations which we now know took place thousands of years ago,' said Dr Eran Elhaik, assistant professor of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, who carried out the research.
Using a recently-developed technology, the ancient Geographic Population Structure (aGPS) tool, the researchers were able to find the geographical origins of ancient DNA.
This in turn enabled them to combine hundreds of snapshots from the past into a reconstruction of modern history from 12,000 BC to the modern era.
'This is by far the most comprehensive reconstruction of our genetic history,' Dr Elhaik said."
Ice Age men trekked thousands of miles in their lifetime | Daily Mail Online

 

Be watching this one with interest.
"An ancient city known as Xarab-i Kilashin has been discovered on the banks of the Great Zab river in what used to be northern Mesopotamia in the late 3rd millennium BCE.
The region has been off-limits to archaeologists for many years, first because of political instability in the area and later due to the presence of Isis. The terrorist group has destroyed cultural artefacts and landmarks in Iraq and Syria, including the ancient city of Palmyra. But many of the historic cities of the region still lie below ground, unexcavated, and have escaped their destruction.
The discovery of Xarab-i Kilashin is part of a major archaeological investigation of a 3,000 square kilometre area in the Fertile Crescent. This region is often considered the birthplace of agriculture about 10,000 years ago. The investigations began in 2012 and will conclude this year.
"What is surprising is the size of this settlement," one of the expedition leaders, Rafał Koliński of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, told IBTimes UK.
"All the earlier settlements evidenced in the area are very small in size, rarely exceeding 1 hectare. The same can be said of settlements contemporary to Xarab-i Kilashin, our urban site, which were mere villages."
4,000-year-old lost Mesopotamian city discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan

 

Nice find Gordon, please keep us updated. I see the survey was only possible once ISIS was moved on. I hope they are eradicated before they can destroy anymore artifacts. Amazing they found 12,000 items on the surface alone.

 

Aye, magical stuff. Been watching a couple of programmes on BBC 4 recently about an archaeologist from Alabama who is using satellite photography to find new sites. The one on the Roman sites she found was amazing enough, the latest was on Egypt.
She applies an infra-red filter to the pics, and it highlights stuff so deep it doesn't even show as cropmarks on normal pictures. She just finished a survey of ancient Egypt, and literally found thousands of new sites that will need investigating.
At the risk of sounding tragic, it's amazing stuff-
.Sarah Parcak - Wikipedia