For Those Interested in Archaeology

"Tests have confirmed that a large bone stumbled across by a marine worker in south-west Scotland belonged to a woolly mammoth.
The find was made in 2018 on the coast near Stranraer and passed to National Museums Scotland (NMS).
It has now been able to confirm that the bone came from a mammoth and dates back about 45,000 years.
It means that they could say with "reasonable certainty" that the creatures roamed the area at that time.
The bone was discovered by Nic Coombey, co-ordinator of the Solway Coastwise project, while he was out walking on the beach.
He said was about 2ft (60cm) in length, and much bigger than any other bone he had previously found in the area.
He took it to the local museum service who in turn passed it on to NMS.
They described it as a "potentially significant discovery".
Woolly mammoths roamed Galloway 45,000 years ago - BBC News

 

"A mysterious set of wooden pieces with connections to an ancient celestial calendar has been uncovered by Chinese researchers.
The 23 wooden strips were unearthed from a preserved 2,000-year-old grave in the Wulong district of southwestern China.
Each one measures around an inch wide and four inches long and has inscriptions of Chinese characters linked to the "Ten Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches" system.
The traditional Chinese astronomical calendar tracked time through cyclical combinations of ten celestial stems and twelve earthly branches.
It was made during the Shang dynasty that ruled China from 1600 BC to 1045 BC.
One of the wooden pieces might reveal the year when the tomb was first sealed, archaeologists have said.
The other 22 slips may have been used to represent other exact years from the calendar, suggesting they might have been a tool for chronometers.
Ed Krupp, an astronomer and the director of the Griffith Observatory who was not involved in the Wulong discovery, told Live Science: "The wooden slips with calendric notations are significant as the first and only known example of that kind of inscription on that kind of object.”"
Archaeology breakthrough as 'celestial calender' unearthed from 2,000-year-old tomb | Science | News | Express.co.uk

 

I've told you mob that Australia is OLD...Our mountains have worn down...Some of our plants and animals are hundreds of millions of years old...



The Jack Hills

The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: Hadean zircons that formed around 4.404 billion years ago. These zircons have enabled deeper research into the conditions on Earth in the Hadean eon.

 

Lovely bit of preservation.
"The flooding from Storm Henk has revealed the outline of an English Civil War fort from the 1600s.
Aerial photos show The Earith Bulwark in the Cambridgeshire Fens, which was built around 1643 to protect crossing points on the local rivers, including the River Great Ouse.
The heavy rain helped fill a moat around the earthworks, highlighting the 400-year-old fort which was built by Oliver Cromwell's forces.
The fort, which is only revealed very rarely and after extreme flooding, is described by Historic England as 'amongst the most elaborate fortifications' from the Civil War.
It covers about 60 square metres with bastions at each of the four corners.
The Earith Bulwark was built on a narrow strip of land known as the Hundred Foot Washes by Parliamentary forces to protect the bridge where the Huntingdon to Ely road crosses the river.
t was strategically placed to command an important river crossing at the western end of the fen causeway which linked Huntingdon to the Isle of Ely, according to Historic England.
The Bulwark is believed to be the work of two English engineers, Richard Clamp and Captain John Hopes, although the design is largely based on the Dutch school of military fortification."
Heavy rain and flooding from Storm Henk reveals outline of English Civil War fort built in 1643 by Oliver Cromwell's forces | Daily Mail Online

 

Tourists unearth 100 million-year-old marine predator in western Queensland
Wouldn’t want to pull this into the boat…

 

More of an update than 'news'.
"The country's first-ever bog body met an untimely and brutal end, though archaeologists still aren't entirely sure what exactly happened to the Lindow Man.
It came on a day like any other when a peat cutter working in the Cheshire countryside was going about his work. He saw what he thought was a piece of wood moving along his conveyor belt and was tasked with getting rid of it.
Managing to free it off the belt, he threw it away, and as it hit the ground, an altogether different image appeared on the wood's surface.
The dirt and debris fell from the object, and no longer was it a piece of wood but the remains of a human leg. What the peat cutter found would become one of the greatest finds of the time, for the remains belonged to a man who lived 2,000 years ago, and marked the first time a so-called bog body had ever been found in the UK.
That was back in 1984, and this year will mark 40 years since the historic find. Much work has since been done on the body — known as the Lindow Man or in some circles as Pete Marsh — to try and find out more about the person who once owned it."
Archaeologists horrified by brutal death after 2,000-year-old bog body found in UK | UK | News | Express.co.uk

 

"Archaeologists have untangled the intricate story behind one of the largest troves of Roman-era treasure ever found in the Britain Isles.
While the Knaresborough Hoard, as it came to be known, was found way back in 1864, never has there been a detailed analysis of the items included in it.
The people who found the hoard, in the tiny Yorkshire town, were also unsure about the story behind the hoard. All they knew was that it dated to the Roman period.
That has all changed after archaeologists at Newcastle University carried out the first comprehensive study of the collection, something that has finally 'revealed the mystery' after all this time.
Exactly 30 items make up the hoard, most of which are now on display in the Yorkshire Museum in York.
They were donated to the museum in 1864 by Thomas Gott, an ironmonger who was also a Town Councillor and lived in Knaresborough — though he was reluctant to reveal where they had been found or who owned the and from which they were pulled.
The research, carried out by Jessica De Maso as part of her MA degree and published in The Antiquaries Journal, has found that the hoard's likely location was a boggy area near Farnham, in the Vale of Mowbray, around two miles north of Knaresborough.
Two important Roman roads ran through the vale back when the Romans ruled Britain, and both provided a vital connection to York and Hadrian's Wall, at one time the empire's frontier.
Because of the region's strategic significance, it was probably packed with wealthy and elite Roman figures and was home to several Roman villas.
The items, it is thought, likely came from one of these villas or a wealthy person in the area, and so the hoard would have once belonged to an important person.
It is the only known example of a late Roman hoard of its kind to be recovered from a bog or a marsh in Britain and is the largest of its kind found anywhere in the British Isles."
Mystery of 'unusual' Roman hoard discovered in tiny UK town finally solved | UK | News | Express.co.uk

 

"Archaeologists have untangled the intricate story behind one of the largest troves of Roman-era treasure ever found in the Britain Isles.
While the Knaresborough Hoard, as it came to be known, was found way back in 1864, never has there been a detailed analysis of the items included in it.
The people who found the hoard, in the tiny Yorkshire town, were also unsure about the story behind the hoard. All they knew was that it dated to the Roman period.
That has all changed after archaeologists at Newcastle University carried out the first comprehensive study of the collection, something that has finally 'revealed the mystery' after all this time.
Exactly 30 items make up the hoard, most of which are now on display in the Yorkshire Museum in York.
They were donated to the museum in 1864 by Thomas Gott, an ironmonger who was also a Town Councillor and lived in Knaresborough — though he was reluctant to reveal where they had been found or who owned the and from which they were pulled.
The research, carried out by Jessica De Maso as part of her MA degree and published in The Antiquaries Journal, has found that the hoard's likely location was a boggy area near Farnham, in the Vale of Mowbray, around two miles north of Knaresborough.
Two important Roman roads ran through the vale back when the Romans ruled Britain, and both provided a vital connection to York and Hadrian's Wall, at one time the empire's frontier.
Because of the region's strategic significance, it was probably packed with wealthy and elite Roman figures and was home to several Roman villas.
The items, it is thought, likely came from one of these villas or a wealthy person in the area, and so the hoard would have once belonged to an important person.
It is the only known example of a late Roman hoard of its kind to be recovered from a bog or a marsh in Britain and is the largest of its kind found anywhere in the British Isles."
Mystery of 'unusual' Roman hoard discovered in tiny UK town finally solved | UK | News | Express.co.uk

 

"The set of fishing tools offers an unparalleled insight into how ancient humans worked on the precipice of leaving their nomadic lifestyles behind.
Studying the way ancient humans used to sustain themselves is one of the hardest things to do in archaeology. Much of the materials they once used have long since perished, things like plant fibres and wood.
That is until archaeologists working in Israel came across one of the largest collections of early fishing technology.
It offered an unprecedented insight into how our ancestors survived in what was a brutal environment.
Some things like spears and daggers have been found, but other modes of hunting, like fishing, have long been mysteries.
Found in Jordan River Dureijay in the Hula Valley, northern Israel, researchers believe that the grooved stones were used as weights for the rods, and were crafted some 12,000 years ago.
The groundbreaking research study, published in 2021, was explored in BBC Science Focus magazine, in which Professor Gonen Sharon of Tel Hai College, Israel, told the publication: "The hooks are amazingly similar to modern hooks – in size, in features (like barbs) and in the dexterity of making."
He continued: "Moreover, the hooks present features that are rarely found in modern-day hooks – for example, an outer lower barb aiming to function as a ‘point of no return’ to prevent the fish from escaping the hook."
The methods are believed to have emerged during a vital waypoint in human history. Around that time, they were transitioning from nomadic to agricultural lifestyles, beginning to settle down in one place and toil the land."
Archaeologists unearth 'amazing' ancient tools used by humans 12,000 years ago | World | News | Express.co.uk

 

Except all the fishing gear is very portable…and tradable.
Australian indigenous made fish traps going further than 12k…

 

.Unveiling the Visage of a 14th-Century Warrior: Researchers Bring Medieval Past to Life.