For Those Interested in Archaeology

the pipes. ..and Paul McCartney
Mull of Kintyre

 

Almost as good as the Mull of Darwin...great song. Gotta luv the pipes...

 

And one from my own neck of the woods-
"Shocked workmen discovered human remains buried beneath a main street through Stirling city centre.
Gas workers were in disbelief when they unearthed parts of a skeleton last week.
Workers for SGN had been carrying out work to cap a redundant gas pipe in Murray Place when they made the grim discovery on Saturday, November 9. It’s understood that a human leg bone was discovered there.
Further human remains were discovered there last week.
Archaeologists were still on-site on Thursday afternoon continuing investigations and it is thought four skeletons have been unearthed.
Gas workers had opened the road to a depth of several feet.
Following the discovery police were called. A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Enquiries are continuing and it’s suspected the remains are historical.
“Officers are working with the relevant partners to establish the full circumstances of the discovery.”
Observer columnist and Stirling Council Archaeologist, Dr Murray Cook, was contacted by police to provide his expertise and surmised that the remains may have been part of an ancient burial ground. He said: “I went for a look on Sunday (November 10) and thought it was likely to be part of the Dominican Friary which was founded in 1233 and destroyed in the 1560s at the Reformation. This ran from Friars Street to where McDonald’s is now sited. It’s worth noting that Edward I stayed here when he took over Scotland.”
www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/skeletons-uneartherd-workmen-under-stirling-20928795?fbclid=IwAR0WZYnzZgGuhdzHIZCk56Px16Y3oVf2gaNhUQv92tgB-ZUU1g6o0b46hRU

 

I love these finds in Britain...such a rich history. A history of interesting people/s...As a descendant (as are most of us on the forum) its also a window into what the olds were up to in their day.
The oldest skeleton found in Australia is at least 42 000 years old - Respect to this person


The oldest (found) in Europe are almost 200 000 years old!
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/na...n-remains-outside-africa-20190710-p525zs.html

 

I'm anticipating the day they locate the remains of the victims of the 1645 plague in Stirling. They're known to have been buried down in Boroughmuir, then outside the town walls, and now a massive housing scheme, but no remains have ever been discovered that I know of.
www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/3876393/building-road-stirling-bypass-plague-cemetery-dr-murray-cook/

 

Remind me of Classical-era ship's anchors, which were basically just triangular rocks with a hole bored through for a rope.
"Archaeologists have unearthed nine ‘very rare’ carved stones from a dig at an electric substation at Finstown, on Orkney, that date back around 4,000 years.
The 'amazing' series of stones — which may have been used to tie off mooring ropes and help secure the roof of a building — stand at up to 20 inches (50 cm) tall.
Researchers from the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology (ORCA) had to dig through around 24 inches (60 cm) of midden (waste) deposits to expose the stones.
The archaeologists dubbed the first one to be unearthed the 'Finstown Fella'.
Each of the sculptures appear to have been worked to give them crude shoulders, a neck and what is likely a head.
They were found scattered around a hearth within the remains of structure that contained three cists — small stone-built coffin-like boxes — two hearths and a partial ring of holes packed with broken-off upstanding stones.
Three of the roughly carved figures were found incorporated within either the structure of one of the hearths or the foundations of one of the standing stones."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7772213/Nine-rare-stone-carved-figures-buried-electrical-substation-Orkney.html

 

"The remains of Scotland’s first railway have been celebrated as one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the year.
The Tranent to Cockenzie Waggonway, discovered in June, has been named in the top five of ‘Scotland’s Most Amazing Archaeological Finds from 2019’, according to Scottish Archaeological Network Dig It!.
The Waggonway, opened in 1722, pre-dated traditional steam railways and had links to the 1715 Jacobite revolution.
It could be the oldest waggonway ever discovered, as the remains pre-date those from 1785 found elsewhere in the UK.
Remnants of the 300-year-old wooden rails were discovered in June by the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Group, which was created in 2017 to preserve and promote the railways.
The remains were found 1m below the surface on the route of the Waggonway, just north of Meadowmill.
The rails were rotten, but there was evidence of them in imprints and holes in the ground, and a cobbled pony track was also found.
While the site of the Waggonway was well known, rails had not been excavated before."
www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/retro/remains-scotlands-first-railway-discovered-east-lothian-1336900

 

The old railway that brought troops and supplies to Darwin (WW2) still exists in small sections...we have it running through my workplace, covered where there are roads and car parks, but left exposed in the sheds here...

 

Any pics?

 

"A dog walker claims to have stumbled across a 65 million-year-old skeleton on a Somerset beach – thanks to the sharp noses of his dogs.
Jon Gopsill, 54, was walking his two pets on the coast of Stolford, Somerset on Saturday when they sniffed out a bone that turned out to be part of a five-and-a-half foot long fossil, exposed by recent storms.
Mr Gopsill, an amateur archaeologist, believes the fossil is of the prehistoric order of porpoise-like sea creatures known as ichthyosaurs that lived during the Jurassic period.
Dr Mike Day, Curator in the Earth Sciences department at the Natural History Museum, confirmed that the skeleton was likely to belong to an ichthyosaur.
'Looking at this specimen, based on the number of bones in the pectoral paddle, the apparent absence of a pelvic girdle, as well as the distinctive "hunch" of the back, this is likely to be the remains of an ichthyosaur,' he said.
'It is not possible to identify the exact type of ichthyosaur from these images alone however.'"
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7796945/Dog-walker-stumbles-five-half-foot-long-Jurassic-fossil-Somerset-beach.html

 

From a FB group-
"We report the results of underwater archaeological investigations at the submerged Neolithic settlement of Tel Hreiz (7500 – 7000 BP), off the Carmel coast of Israel. The underwater archaeological site has yielded well-preserved architectural, artefactual, faunal and human remains. We examine and discuss the notable recent discovery of a linear, boulder-built feature >100m long, located seaward of the settlement. Based on archaeological context, mode of construction and radiometric dating, we demonstrate the feature was contemporary with the inundated Neolithic settlement and conclude that it served as a seawall, built to protect the village against Mediterranean Sea-level rise. The seawall is unique for the period and is the oldest known coastal defence worldwide. Its length, use of large non-local boulders and specific arrangement in the landscape reflect the extensive effort invested by the Neolithic villagers in its conception, organisation and construction. However, this distinct social action and display of resilience proved a temporary solution and ultimately the village was inundated and abandoned."
A submerged 7000-year-old village and seawall demonstrate earliest known coastal defence against sea-level rise

 

Give it a thousand years and this report will be on Venice...

 

"Evidence of the world's oldest forest, dating back some 385 million years, has been discovered in an abandoned quarry in upstate New York, according to a new study published in Current Biology.
The fossilized roots-- footprints of an ancient landscape-- belonged to trees with wood and leaves, similar to what we see today, the study says.
This find was made in Cairo, about 40 miles south of Albany. Previously, scientists thought a fossilized forest in Gilboa, New York, was the earliest, but the one in Cairo is two or three million years older and dramatically different.
A person from the New York State Museum was the first to spot the large, root-like structures in the bottom of the quarry.
Christopher Berry, study co-author and a paleobotanist at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, told CNN he was a bit skeptical the first time he visited the site. He thought a modern tree might have grown into the rock and been removed.
Upon closer inspection of the soil profile, researchers quickly confirmed they were looking at the footprint of something much, much older."
World's oldest known fossil forest found in quarry in upper New York state - CNN

 

Do you mean these?
What Happened to the Stromatolites, the Most Ancient Visible Lifeforms on Earth? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine

 

"ARCHAEOLOGISTS solved a 2000-year-old mystery after discovering 500 stone tablets revealing the secrets of the Roman Empire.
Neapolis was a major ancient hub, established as a trade port by the Greeks of Cyrene in the fifth century before it became a port when the Roman Empire conquered North Africa. Now, a city known as Nabeul stands where the metropolis once was, built on top of most of the remains, making them inaccessible and likely mostly destroyed. However, researcher Mounir Fantar discovered multiple tanks in this ancient city in 2017, leading him to theorise that Neapolis was an exporter of a fish sauce called garum.
Two years later, stone tablets discovered in Carlisle, Cumbria, during Channel 5’s “Ancient Mysteries” series confirmed his suspicions.
The narrator said in October: “Neapolis was actually the epicentre for the mass production of fish sauce.
“But how did its producers in Neapolis, on the southern boundary of the vast Roman world, manage to reach its markets thousands of miles away?
“The answer can be found in a unique collection of documents that suggest Neapolis was part of the ancient world’s greatest supply chain, one that would power the Roman military machine as it conquered over two million square miles.
he series continued: “Among the meany treasures, archaeologists have uncovered around 500 letters sent to and from Roman troops based at the fort.
“Many contain requests for favourite foods from back home, the find reveals that, even here, soldiers were being sent a variety of goods from their home countries.
“Among the most sought after products was garum.”
At the time of their discovery, the tablets were the oldest surviving handwritten documents in Britain."
www.express.co.uk/news/world/1214367/archaeology-news-roman-empire-mystery-vindolanda-tablets-hadrians-wall-spt

 

Aanndd...a bit of controversy. Used to love watching Mortimer Wheeler on Chronicle, back in t'days when BBC2 was the culture channel.
In fairness, radiocarbon dating wasn't developed until years after the dig.
"It was written into the history books as one of the nation’s most dramatic and horrific battles.
But the tale of a Roman assault on Dorset’s Maiden Castle in AD43 was invented by an archaeologist with a flair for storytelling, research claims.
For decades, the clash has been described as the massacre of a tribe of Ancient Britons by a Roman legion led by future emperor Vespasian.
A colourful account was first written by archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler after he excavated the site with his wife in the 1930s – and found what he said was a ‘war cemetery’.
He claimed British warriors had been hurriedly buried – some with terrible injuries including arrows through the centre of their skull. English Heritage, which runs the hillfort site on the outskirts of Dorchester, still encourages visitors to believe the account – though it concedes that those who died may also have done so in ‘local skirmishes’.
However, Dr Miles Russell, Professor of Archaeology at Bournemouth University believes the battle tale is ‘misleading’.
He said: ‘Most archaeologists know there is absolutely no evidence for such a “great battle” at Maiden Castle, a site which in any case had been largely abandoned a century before the arrival of Rome… another case, I guess, of not wanting an epic myth to be slain by ugly facts.’ Sir Mortimer wrote the first report on Maiden Castle in 1943. Dr Russell, in the latest volume of the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, said that since then ‘countless books, papers and television documentaries have treated a speculative Roman assault upon the hillfort as definitive fact.
‘The account of a furious but futile defence of property, family and land by the local tribe of the Durotriges, leading eventually to their slaughter or enslavement, is undeniably powerful and remains one of the more potent stories relating to the demise of British prehistory.’
Maiden Castle was excavated by Sir Mortimer between 1936 and 1937. He wrote that he found ‘skeletons in tragic profusion, displaying the marks of battle and making actual one of the best-known events in British history: the Roman conquest’.
But Dr Russell said a series of studies shows the idea the bodies were dumped hastily in the graves, was false as in fact they were carefully laid in position.
Although 74 per cent of the 52 bodies found had died of violent deaths, there was a great variation in date ranging from 100BC to 50AD ‘suggesting the population had lived through multiple periods of stress, competition and conflict’. The ‘most damning finding of all’ Professor Russell said was that by 43 AD Maiden Castle ‘had largely been abandoned’."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7826865/Archaeologist-accused-inventing-AD43-battle-digging-skeletons-ancient-tribe.html