For Those Interested in Archaeology

Well, bang go the history books...
"A previously unknown Egyptian-style pyramid has been found in a remote area of the Kazakhstan steppe some 3,900 miles northeast of Cairo.
The structure is now substantially in ruins but it is believed that it was a lookalike of the famous Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt, and built around 1,000 years earlier.
Archeologists discovered it last year but until now have kept their 'sensational find' under wraps.
Scientists are due to explore the unopened burial chamber of the pyramid complex 'within days'.
'It was built more than 3,000 years ago in Saryarke for a local 'pharaoh', a leader of a local mighty tribe dating to late Bronze epoch,' said archeologist Viktor Novozhenov.
'Work on opening the main burial chamber will begin within days.
'All finds will be passed to the archaeology museum of Karaganda State University.'
Images released today of what Novozhenov called a 'sensational find' show artifacts already unearthed at the site, and the layout of the foundations of the pyramid.
The discovery was made by specialists from the Saryarkinsky Archeology Institute in Karaganda under the leadership of Igor Kukushkin."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3741937/Scientists-discover-known-pyramid-Kazakhstan-structure-built-1-000-years-Egypt-s-similar-tomb-Djoser.html#ixzz4HS6fMCKa

 

Thank God someone with local knowledge was on the ball, or this might have been permanently lost.
"Between 43 and 410 AD, the Roman army created 2,000 miles (3,200km) of surfaced roads across the UK.
Now a snapshot of this part of history has been discovered, in the form of a pristine section of Roman road dating back almost 2,000 years.
The road was stumbled upon during building work in the centre of Rochester, and is now on display.
The find began when conservationist and developer Mark Lucas and his son Zac bought a unit in Rochester high street.
They planned to renovate and convert into a shop - without knowing the road was there.
The pair was tipped off about the potentially historic find in the basement of the building by the previous owner."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3785376/Perfectly-preserved-road-led-Roman-soldiers-London-coast-2-000-years.html#ixzz4K5r8zJe9

 

Occurred to me that a mate's replica of the Sutton Hoo lid (completed earlier this year) might be of interest to some here.
It's quite good...

Danegeld Historic Jewellery

 

Now that is what you call talent.

 

Is it just ME that's really getting suspicious of the number of historical events that are being dated to c. 12,5-600 years ago???

Earlier this month I read an article that dated a monster meteoroid strike to just around the same time...

...and there are ALL those "counter-history" events dated to the same time - the storms and torrential rains that MAY have weathered the Sphinx, the sinking of Yonaguni, and so many others...

And suddenly here's a largescale population migration across a relatively inhospitable ice/land bridge to the Americas. Perhaps the next step here is to think why they attempted such a journey 12,600 years ago; were they perhaps migrating away from the devastation caused by said meteoroid strike, and the subsequent weather chaos??? Were all those " years with no summer", and the constant, torrential rains for months if not years after a sea strike the flooding of the Giza Plateau and the eroding of the Sphinx?

Oh - and let's not forget the number of ancient societies and civilisations around the world that contain Flood myths at the heart of their religious canon. Many of which seem...just by chance of course...dateable to -

c. 12,500 to 12,600 years ago.

It's all coincidence, of course.

 

No, I'm the same. Just seems a bit too bloody convenient.

 

Sadly, archeological doctrine is even more relunctant to grasp change than Roman Catholic dogma LOL And archeologists who step outside the bounds of imagination get pilloried just as readily as the Vatican burned people at the stake.

 

Yeah, I noticed that 20 years ago when I was involved with the Defence of Britain Project. The "real" archaeologists tended to look down their noses at us amateurs, after asking us to get involved in the first place. There were always a few smirks when someone suggested a possible use for an unidentified structure that didn't fit with what the experts thought they knew.
Different now, of course. They're much more amenable to offbeat theories.

 

What a superb find!
"Rock paintings dating back 14,000 years have been found in a cave in a Spanish seaside resort town.
Around 50 paintings depicting horses, bisons and lions were found in a cave located under a building in the centre of Lekeitio, a village in the Basque country.
The Armintxe cave is 'extremely difficult to access' and located under a residential building in the centre of Lekeitio in the Basque country, senior local official Andoni Iturbe said.
Cave specialists and archaeologists have examined the paintings found in May and declared them to be the most 'spectacular and striking' of their kind ever found in the Iberian peninsula.
The paintings measure up to 150 centimetres (60 inches), say the research team.
They also confirmed that the cave would not be opened to the public both to preserve the paintings and because it is difficult to access."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3837953/50-striking-animal-images-engraved-Spanish-cave-hidden-14-000-years.html#ixzz4N4NurxFh

 

A whole month since the last post?!
"An Ancient Thracian gold treasure “from the time of Alexander the Great" has been discovered by archaeologists during the rescue excavations of a Thracian burial mound near the Black Sea resort of Primorsko in Southeast Bulgaria.
The treasure consists of a total of 37 gold appliques which decorated the harness of the horse of an Ancient Thracian dynast (i.e. ruler) during parades and formal religious ceremonies, Primorsko Municipality has announced.
It has been discovered in a tomb during the rescue excavations of an Ancient Thracian burial mound located in an area known as Silihlyar, about 7 km away from the town of Primorsko, near the Black Sea coast.
The gold appliques are dated to the end of the 4th – beginning of the 3rd century BC, more precisely, to ca. 320 – 280 BC.
What has already been dubbed the “Primorsko Gold Treasure" has been presented at a news conference at the Primorsko Museum of History in the Black Sea town by its discoverers, archaeologists Assoc. Prof. Petar Balabanov from New Bulgarian University in Sofia and Daniel Pantov, Director of the Primorsko Museum. Primorsko Mayor Dimitar Germanov also participated in the presentation."
http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2016/10/26/ancient-thracian-gold-treasure-discovered-in-rescue-digs-of-burial-mound-near-bulgarias-primorsko/

"Researchers from the archeology department of the University of York, Britain, are scrutinizing a Saudi archeological facility in the region of Tabuk, dating back to the Stone Age, an approximate eight thousand year ago.
According to Professor Jeff Bailey, an expert in Arabian archeology, the facility is considered to be one of the rarest archeological sites in the world, raising many scientific questions around it, as reported by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA."
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/variety/2016/10/24/Archaeologists-examine-Saudi-site-aged-10000-years-.html

"The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project had intended to find out how quickly water levels rose in the Black Sea after the last Ice Age, but the team ended up discovering a whole lot more than they had bargained for, Quartz reports. While examining the seabeds, the scientists found dozens and dozens of previously undiscovered shipwrecks — 41 in all.

"The wrecks are a complete bonus, but a fascinating discovery, found during the course of our extensive geophysical surveys," the project's principal investigator, Jon Adams, said in a statement.

Many of the shipwrecks were in spectacular condition due to the low oxygen levels that exist nearly 500 feet below the surface."
http://theweek.com/speedreads/657223/archaeologists-accidentally-discover-dozens-ancient-shipwrecks-bottom-black-sea

 

Interesting, I know Robert Ballard found a Roman cargo ship in perfect condition when he went looking for evidence of the pre-Flood dry land and culture beneath the Black Sea a few years ago.

The low oxygen levels mean very VERY few of the sorts of worms and parasites that would eat their way into wooden wrecks...and a very low level of chemical reaction so little rot. It's also literally black down there...cold; the cold inhibits reactions too, its why WWII aircraft are being brought up from Russian lakes and Norwegian fjords in such good nick, the cold and dark has greatly inhibited chemical reactions I.E. corrosion.

 

Well, I wouldn't have been in a hurry to wander into the interior either.
"Humans arrived in Australia around 10,000 years earlier than we had thought. Archaeologists are suggesting this with the finding of ancient artifacts located in a southern Australian cave that has been dated to as far back as 49,000 years ago.

This means once humans first set foot on the coastline of Australia, it took around 1,000 years for them to expand out into its dry interior. This is further evidence of what now stands as the oldest society on Earth.

The site is a newly-discovered cave inside the Flinders Ranges, which is around 550 kilometers north of Adelaide; the site is also known as the Warratyi rock-shelter. The archaeologist Giles Hamm from La Trobe University in Melbourne guided the dig at the cave. His team found what seemed to be some of the oldest quartz tools and bones ever discovered in Australia. Additionally, this is one of the earliest known uses of the pigment ocher in the country’s history."

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/12/07/the-hamm-finding-was-most-likely-older-the-methodology-of-this-study-is-good-as-it-gets-and-she-believes-that-its-an-important-site-and-a-really-significant-find/

 

hhmmm...plenty of questions here...im glad they said "Humans" as there were 3 distinct "waves" of humans...so its wrong to just say Aboriginals as the second wave wiped out the first and the third wiped out most but not all of the second wave's people...On a recent TV show (made by Aboriginals) they said that Aboriginal culture was the oldest existing culture on Earth..."Outside of Africa" So is it the oldest or oldest outside of Africa?
"The oldest culture on Earth" is certainly a big statement, but does a stone age (maybe pre stone age) culture really going to work in todays modern world? Is it a blessing or a curse? I don't have the answer...but it doesn't seem so.

 

Well, according to this, they're the oldest civlisation period-
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/22/asia/indigenous-australians-earths-oldest-civilization/index.html

 

Interesting...but they got the 'civilisation' thing wrong, Aboriginal culture is hardly civilised or derived from a 'civilisation'...that's certainly not a derogatory comment, just true.

 

Not so much "new" as rediscovered, then.
"A megalithic stone circle in Brazil hints that the indigenous people of the Amazon may have been more sophisticated than archaeologists first thought.
Rego Grande, known as the 'Amazon Stonehenge' after the famous prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, is located in Amapá state, near the city of Calçoene.
Experts say the unusual stone arrangement may have been used as a place of worship as well as for astronomical observations related to crop cycles.
Taking its name from a nearby stream called the Rego Grande, the stone arrangement comprises 127 blocks of granite, standing upright in a circle over 98 feet (30m) across.
Each of the blocks stands up to 13 feet (4 metres) tall and weighs several tonnes and appear to be irregularly shaped.
The stones appear to to have been arranged to coincide with the winter solstice, when the sun is at its lowest.
The shadow of one of the blocks is said to disappear when the sun is directly above it.
The site was first reported by Swiss-Brazilian naturalist Émil Goeldi in the late 19th century, but it wasn't comprehensively studied until much later."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4037576/The-mystery-Amazon-Stonehenge-1-000-year-old-Megalithic-stone-circle-Brazil-hints-ancient-civilizations-sophisticated-thought.html#ixzz4T10dnaoa

Much more interested in this one though-
"Scottish archaeologists have been awarded almost £1 million to investigate the “lost kingdoms” of north-west Europe “beyond the edges of the Roman Empire”.
Researchers from the University of Aberdeen will excavate sites of lost kingdoms and seats of power in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. They will study in detail sites such as Burghead in Moray, Aberdeenshire, Cashel in County Tipperary, Republic of Ireland, and Dunseverick near the Giant’s Causeway in County Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Dr Gordon Noble from the university’s school of geosciences, who is leading the five-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust, said the nature of societies which filled the chasm left by the demise of the Roman Empire in the fifth century AD remains one of the relative unknowns of history. He said while the names Burghead, Cashel and Dunseverick may not resonate in the same way as the late and post-Roman seats of power of mainland Europe, they have for centuries been overlooked in their historical importance."
http://www.scotsman.com/regions/aberdeen-north-east/1m-boost-to-investigate-post-roman-lost-kingdoms-1-4318847

 

Can't beat a gut instinct,
"A history fan who spent his £32,000 life savings buying a field because he believed there were secrets hidden below the soil has been proved right after unearthing a lost medieval city.
Stuart Wilson bought the 4.6 acre plot of land in South Wales more than a decade ago, because he believed it would become significant in Norman history.
Now, twelve years on, the 37-year-old has pieced together his findings to unveil the site as the ancient industrial town of Trellech, South Wales.
The city, which lies between Monmouth and Trelleck, is believed to date back to the 13th century and is thought to have been home to around 10,000 people, including Norman lords of the de Clare family who used it as a place to mass produce iron.
So far, Mr Wilson and his volunteers have discovered the remains of a manor house with two halls and a courtyard, enclosed with curtain walls and a massive Round Tower.
Within that manor house complex, the group has discovered several different rooms - both with fireplaces."
"http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4083716/History-fan-spends-32-000-life-savings-buying-field-digs-discover-lost-medieval-city.html#ixzz4UhyL5ojV

 

Don't know who told this "journo" that Rheged was "lost".

"A “lost” dark age kingdom has been discovered in Dumfries and Galloway after archaeologists finally solved the mystery surrounding the location of the elusive stronghold.

The kingdom of Rheged has been found following excavation work by Gatehouse of Fleet in Dumfries and Galloway.

Previously, it was thought the kingdom was headquartered in Cumbria although no evidence of it was ever found.

Archaeologists were first drawn to the site by Pictish carvings in stones at Trusty’s Hill given the unusual southerly location of the markings.

But the team from GUARD Archaeology now believe the carvings belong to the stronghold of King Urien’s where inauguration ceremonies for the Britons of Galloway were held around 600AD.

Ronan Toolis, who led the excavation, said: “The new archaeological evidence suggests that Galloway may have been the heart of the lost Dark Age kingdom of Rheged, a kingdom that was in the late sixth century pre-eminent amongst the kingdoms of the north.”

http://www.scotsman.com/news/lost-dark-age-kingdom-discovered-in-galloway-1-4342467

 

So it was patchier than thought?
"Ancient DNA analyses show that – unlike elsewhere in Europe – farmers from the Near East did not overtake hunter-gatherer populations in the Baltic. The findings also suggest that the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family originated in the Steppe grasslands of the East.

New research indicates that Baltic hunter-gatherers were not swamped by migrations of early agriculturalists from the Middle East, as was the case for the rest of central and western Europe. Instead, these people probably acquired knowledge of farming and ceramics by sharing cultures and ideas rather than genes with outside communities.

Scientists extracted ancient DNA from a number of archaeological remains discovered in Latvia and the Ukraine, which were between 5,000 and 8,000 years old. These samples spanned the Neolithic period, which was the dawn of agriculture in Europe, when people moved from a mobile hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a settled way of life based on food production. "
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/baltic-hunter-gatherers-adopted-farming-without-influence-of-mass-migration-ancient-dna-suggests

 

The mind just boggles-
"The discovery of an 'extremely rare' Bronze Age spearhead and sword have been hailed as a find of 'international significance' after it was unearthed at a Scottish building site.
The weapons were among a ground-breaking hoard of ancient artefacts discovered in a pit being developed into council football pitches close to the small town of Carnoustie.
A leather and wooden sword sheath was also found and is believed to be the best preserved Late Bronze Age scabbard in Britain.

The stockpile of metalwork hints at the wealth of the local warrior society who lived in the area around 1,000-800BC.
The dig also uncovered the largest Neolithic hall ever found in Scotland - dating back to 4,000BC."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4226934/3-000-year-old-spearhead-sword-building-site.html#ixzz4YmDkY6ht