For Those Interested in Archaeology

It's easier to see metal colors (determine the heat) if it's relatively dark. Sun light makes it almost impossible to do so.

 

Good point...

 

But the mainland is covered in cairn tombs too. Been in a few.
"Stone Age mass graves unearthed on Scottish islands could have been used to house prehistoric tsunami victims, according to a controversial new study.
The Orkney islands is home to at least 72 stone tombs – known as 'cairns' – dating back as far as 6,000 years ago.
Scientists believe this type of mass burial, which is also found on the Shetland Islands, is conventionally believed to relate to ancient social and spiritual practices.
However, according to a new study, these mass graves may have actually been created to bury vast numbers of people wiped out by a tsunami 5,500 years ago.
Experts from the University of Oxford claim the cataclysmic event would have resulted in people hastily burying bodies after sea levels rose dramatically by almost 10 metres (32ft).
However, many researchers are sceptical of the latest claims, since previous archaeological evidence does not suggest the Stone Age tombs were built in haste."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6010441/Stone-Age-mass-graves-Scottish-islands-filled-prehistoric-TSUNAMI-victims.html

 

And one wouldn't find too many bodies after a Tsunami...and what were the buriers doing when the Tsunami hit?

 

Aye, why not just put the bodies in a convenient hollow and cover with turf or something?

 

No, just that there are 72 cairns in the islands. Can't find anything on population figures just now.
The fact some of the cairns contained 300 bodies doesn't necessarily mean they were all buried at the same time; the site could have been used for generations.

 

That doesn't sound like a tsunami to me.

 

"The first traces of Palaeolithic man have been found on the ancient land bridge – now mostly sunken – which once joined Russia and America, say scientists.
These are the first pictures of the new archaeological site on the remote Siberian island of Stolbovoy which is 550 miles (885km) above the Arctic Circle.
Our prehistoric ancestors ventured here at a time when the lost continental link – called Beringia – was still in place and the incredible find represents the first tangible confirmation of human presence on the territory.
The new implements are currently believed to be up to 300,000 years old but further research needs to be conducted, experts say.
Situated in the icy Laptev Sea, the island is reported to be the most northerly evidence of ancient man anywhere in the world.
Stone implements found on Stolbovoy island are from the Palaeolithic era, according to archaeologist Tomas Simokaitis from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Detailed tests will be carried out on the finds and Russian archaeologists plan an urgent excavation to investigate further.
Scientists now believe that America was originally populated from Siberia by ancient people crossing via Beringia some 15,000 to 23,000 years ago.
'We suppose the site is Palaeolithic,' said Dr Simokaitis.
'We suppose these implements we have found are hundreds of thousands years old, but so far we have no iron proof.'
Tests and an imminent dig at the site – called Palaeolena – will reveal more details, he said. "
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6066691/How-Palaeolithic-man-conquered-Arctic-en-route-America.html

 

A bit misleading; once you read the article, you discover it's not the only village of that antiquity
"IN EGYPT, an ancient village has been discovered by a group of archaeologists which dates back as far as 5,000 BC, making it older than the famous Great Pyramid of Giza.
The team of archaeologists made the discovery of the ancient village 87 miles north of Cairo in Tell el-Samara.
It was confirmed by the ministry of antiquities it is one of the oldest settlements in the country, dating back before the pharaohs.
They estimate the village is as old as 5,000 BC - older than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
The pyramid construction began 2,500 years after, according to records."
www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/1012522/egypt-news-great-pyramid-of-giza-wonder-of-the-world-ancient-village-discovery

 

A bit closer to home-
"The enormous skull of an extinct Irish elk has been pulled from a lake by fishermen in Northern Ireland.
The near fully intact skull and antlers, which measure six feet (1.8 metres) across, are estimated by scientists to be 10,500 years old.
Irish elk roamed Europe up to 10,000 years ago, and are actually a large species of deer - one of the biggest to ever walk the Earth.
They went extinct as Ireland's changing climate triggered the rapid growth of thick forests, which proved tricky for the antlered animal to navigate.
Fishermen Raymond McElroy and Charlie Coyle caught the antlers in their net in Lough Neagh, a large freshwater lake in Northern Ireland.
They were fishing about a half mile (0.8 kilometres) from shore in water less than 20 feet (6 meters) deep
'I was shocked to begin with when I got it over the side [of the boat] and saw the skull and antlers,' Mr McElroy told BelfastLive.
Irish elk stood up to seven feet (2.1 metres) at the shoulder, with antlers spanning up to 12 feet (3.65 metres).
The species is actually misnamed, for it was neither an elk nor exclusively Irish, roaming large swathes of Europe, northern Asia and northern Africa.
The name 'Irish' has stuck because well-preserved fossils of the giant deer are especially common in lake sediments and peat bogs in Ireland."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6151627/Enormous-10-000-year-old-skull-antlers-pulled-lake-Ireland.html

 

So wonder who built it?
"Britain's longest ancient monument may be 300 years old older than thought - and built by generations before the king who gave it his name.
Offa's Dyke, which runs 177 miles along the England-Wales border, was named after the 8th century Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia.
But historians have discovered the building of the dyke could possibly have begun between 430 and 650 AD - up to 300 years before Offa ruled the land.
Offa's Dyke runs from Chepstow in South Wales to Prestatyn on the North Wales coast and was a barrier between the kingdom of Mercia and the wild Welsh tribes.
But opinion is divided about the actual age of the dyke, part of which runs through the castle's grounds.
An examination of part of the dyke by experts suggested work may have started much earlier than the widely-accepted date of construction.
Now members of the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust are leading a survey at Chirk Castle which they hope will help provide more answers.
They hope that by finding charcoal deposits to radio carbon-date they will show that the dyke may have been started by an earlier king."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6199015/Offas-Dyke-date-300-years-Offa-came-throne.html

 

430 puts it near the end of Roman Britain doesn't it? Wonder if they did some of the basic work and Offa or others added to it.

 

It's a strange one. Romans troops were taken across the channel by Constantine III around AD407 when he rebelled, but that came to nothing. Faced with Saxon incursions and defenceless, the Romano-British appealed for help to Emperor Honorius in 410 and got fobbed off with the Rescript of Honorius, telling them to look after themselves since Rome was fighting for its own life.
They expected Saxons landing on the East coast, but the Scotti were also raiding through Wales. Probably started by a local warlord and undoubtedly added to by others.
Would love to know who though.
End of Roman rule in Britain - Wikipedia

 

"Two 6,000-year old human skeletons with perfectly preserved teeth have been found on a Brazilian construction site.
The remains were found at a site on the BR-470 road in the Ilhota municipality in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.
The skeletons' skulls and leg bones appear to be well-preserved with the full set of teeth still clearly visible.
It is believed the site would have been an island in a lagoon when the ancient humans were alive.
The skeletons, which were found during works to extend the road in May, were sent to the Beta Analytics laboratory in Florida which found they were 5,880 years old.
Archaeologist Valdir Luiz Schwengber from the University of Southern Santa Catarina, who is coordinating the find, said the skeletons were found around 60 centimetres (23 inches) under the surface.
Dr Schwengber said that the island would have been isolated and would have had no drinking water.
Experts believe the site was probably used for ceremonies and funeral rituals.
Scientists say the skeletons may belong to people from one of the hundreds of Jiquabu tribes that inhabited Brazil as long as 10,000 years ago up until the colonial period."
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6210719/Two-6-000-year-old-human-skeletons-Brazilian-construction-site.html

 

Fascinating; the iron coffin definitely did its job.
"The secret identity of 150-year-old female body found buried in an iron coffin in an abandoned lot in New York City has finally been revealed.
Construction workers in 2011 had been shocked when they discovered the human remains buried under an an abandoned lot in the Elmhurst neighborhood of Queens, New York.
The body, wearing a white gown and knee-high socks, was in such good condition they called 911, worried it could be a recent homicide case.
Scott Warnasch, then a New York City Office of Chief Medical Examiner forensic archaeologist, told the New York Post: 'It was recorded as a crime scene. A buried body on an abandoned lot sounds pretty straightforward.'
But when forensic scientists took a closer look, they discovered that the body actually belonged to a young African American woman born before the Civil War who died from smallpox just a few years after New York abolished slavery.
She was buried in the grounds of a church founded in 1830 by the first generation of free African-Americans after the state abolished slavery in 1827.
Now the identity of the woman has finally been revealed as Martha Peterson.
According to the 1850 Census of New York City, the first to list everyone in the population by name, age, sex and race, Martha worked and lived in the household of white coffin maker William Raymond, who had abolitionist leanings.
He was a partner in the iron-coffin maker Fisk & Raymond - the same company that made Martha's iron coffin.
She was the daughter of John and Jane Peterson, prominent figures in Newtown's newly created African American community, where she was found buried 150 years later.
Martha was 26 when she died from smallpox, and the iron coffin kept her in such an excellent state of preservation that the smallpox lesions were still apparent.
'The body was so well preserved that I would not have been shocked if the smallpox virus had survived,' said Warnasch. Thankfully, scientists confirmed the virus had degraded."
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6224537/Secret-identity-150-year-old-woman-buried-iron-coffin-New-York.html

 

Intriguing.
"A room full of 800-year-old black wooden statues that stand more than two foot tall (27.5 inches/70 cm) has been found in Peru.
The archaeological gem has been found in the ruins of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Chan Chan.
Some of the figurines are wearing clay masks and all the figurines are tucked into an individual alcove.
The eerie figures line a passageway through to a ceremonial courtyard in the Utzh An complex.
Chan Chan was the largest city in pre-Columbian America and became a World Heritage site in 1986.
It reached its peak around 900 - 1470 and was home to more than 10,000 buildings.
The settlement crumbled after being defeated and absorbed by the Inca Empire.
After his point the city was on a downward trajectory and eventually fell into a state of disrepair and later abandoned.
'In the passageway, recently found in the citadel of Chan Chan, 19 wooden idols covered with clay masks have been found,' Minister of Culture Patricia Balbuena.
The 108-foot (33-metre) passageway lined by the unusual figures represents a distinct phase i the history of the region. according to the team of archaeologists that unearthed the site. "
www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6328913/Nineteen-mysterious-black-wooden-statues-800-years-old.html

 

There's currently a series on the BBC about the Silk Road. Very interesting.