Rowan Public Library has called in archaeological help from Wake Forest University to determine where the original structure may have been positioned that covered the 250-year-old well on its site. Kenneth Robinson, director of public archaeology at Wake Forest, set out grids next to the well Thursday and used ground-penetrating radar to measure various levels of compaction in the soil, possibly indicating where the posts were located for the original cover. Find those post holes, and the library will have the dimensions of that first structure. The data collected through the radar device Thursday will be taken back to the university for processing, analyzing and creating a map. Robinson and his student assistant, Mary Kate Wagner, plan to return next Wednesday for an excavation of the site that should provide even better information. [...]

Chester is blessed with one of the most active town historians in the state, and his exemplary service was recognized by the New York State Archaeological Association at its conference in Ellenville last weekend. Town of Chester Historian Clifton Patrick received the association’s Meritorious Service award. “Clifton had an immediate positive impact upon joining the Orange Chapter,” said Professor Peter Pratt, State Awards Committee Chair, said when presenting the honor. Pratt noted that Patrick is the editor and publisher of the chapter’s newest venture, ‘Occasional Papers,’ where members can submit their research about significant archaeological sites. As a town historian, he has reported 19 archaeological sites for registration with the state. Patrick also collaborated on the original research and documentation of the enslavement of native Americans in Orange County, and has co-authored a paper on that subject now under review by the editorial board of the New York State Historical Society. [...]

Jennifer Smith, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University, recently found a sample of alum in the Dakhleh Oasis in the Eastern Sahara. After working with the material, she was able to link it to blue paint that was found in Egyptian pottery during the New Kingdom. The blue in the pottery was a much paler blue than was found in many of the other blue paints from the area. Similar paints have been found across the New Kingdom, which lasted from 1550–1079 B.C.E. and spread from Egypt to the Middle East to Sudan. Therefore, archaeologists wanted to see if this sample in fact contained the same elements as the blue paint or if it was used for other purposes. Smith’s main field is geology, so she was asked to help investigate. “I was just asked to figure out whether the material that was being mined…was something that was being mined to create the blue pigment,” Smith said. “We were really just trying to see if it was possible that the material we had in the Oasis could be used to make the blue paint.” [...]

Mise à jour | Update

This month has proved very fruitful for the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). Three of its excavation missions, in Isamilia, Bahariya Oasis and Fayoum have all uncovered distinguished Roman treasures that reveal more about the fabric of this significant era in Egyptian history. An SCA archaeological team working in the area of Tel Al-Maskhouta in Ismailia found the 19th-Dynasty mud-brick tomb of the overseer of royal records, Ken-Amun. Nearby they found 35 Roman tombs and an ancient limestone stela dating from the reign of an unidentified 19th-Dynasty Pharaoh. "It is a very important discovery for ancient Egyptian history," Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the SCA, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The tomb consists of a rectangular room with a domed stone ceiling and a deep squared shaft. [...]

Bulgarian police have captured a number of invaluable archaeological finds in a police operation in Sofia and the eastern town of Stara Zagora. The operation was carried out by the Unit for Combating the Traffic of Cultural and Historical Items of the main directorate for fighting organized crime (GDBOP), the police directorate in the city of Sliven announced. In Sofia, the police searched about several addresses where they seized two ancient ceramic vessels, 9 silver Roman coins, an ancient bronze application with a silver image of Medusa, and a metal detector. Simultaneously, the police searched two locations in Nova Zagora where they found over 500 ancient coins, jewelry, medallions, ceramic figurines and vessels, horns encrusted with horns, a bronze head – all from the period of Ancient Greece, Thrace and Rome. In addition, the police discovered several artifacts dated back to the Middle Ages, “of high historical and artistic value” which are not described in detail by the police. [...]

May 1st kicks of a week long celebration of Utah’s ancient past and archaeology. Utah Prehistory Week, May 1-8, 2010, is a statewide event in which local communities celebrate ancient heritage. Events are scheduled throughout the state and range from tours of archaeological sites, lectures, kids activities, and museum exhibit openings. In Salt Lake, families can attend the Utah Division of State History open house on May 1st and practice their ancient spear and atlatl throwing skills and learn about prehistoric technology through hands on activities. Individuals can also consult with a professional archaeologist during their “Ask An Archaeologist” event, scheduled for May 4th. A workshop for kids is planned on May 6th and a presentation on ancient skeletal remains is scheduled for May 5th. Saturday May 8th, families have an opportunity to visit a National Historic Landmark, Danger Cave archaeological site, near Wendover , Utah (normally gated to prevent public access). [...]

Mise à Jour | Update

In this picture you see a cast of the skeleton of the new raptor dinosaur Linheraptor exquisitus. I discovered the fossil of Linheraptor with Michael Pittman, a graduate student at the University College of London, while we were hunting for fossils in red sandstone rocks in Inner Mongolia, a province in northern China. I was walking along a cliff when I saw the sharp tip of a claw poking out of the rock. Michael and I quickly started to dig at the edge of the cliff, and we kept exposing more bones. We guessed then that we had found something important, but it wasn't until the specimen was taken back to Beijing and prepared in the lab that we knew we had found a new species of raptor. Xu Xing of the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing led an international research team (including Michael and me) that reported this exciting conclusion. Linheraptor was about six feet long, probably weighed around 50 pounds, and lived approximately 75 million years ago. Like most other dromaeosaurids (the scientific name for raptor dinosaurs), it has a large claw on the second toe of its foot and a tail stiffened by long bony rods that project from the vertebrae.  [...]

Iraqi archaeologists have received 13 artifacts dating to the Third Dynasty of Ur, which flourished in southern Iraq more than 4,000 years ago. The artifacts were illegally dug up by an Iraqi man from an unprotected ancient site in the southern Province of Dhiqar of which the city of Nasiriyah is the capital. Dhiqar covers the area where the ancient Sumerian civilization thrived with its magnificent capital, Ur. Ancient Ur, known by its fabulous ziggurat, or stepped tower, is one of Iraq’s most fascinating tourist attractions. “The pieces handed in to us represent clay tablets with Sumerian cuneiform writing. Some texts seem to be of a mathematical nature,” said Amer al-Zaidi, head of Nasiriyah’s antiquities office. The person who returned the artifacts was not named. However, he was reported as saying that he came across the tablets while digging on an unguarded ancient mound. Dhiqar is one of the richest Iraqi provinces with antiquities. Zaidi said there were up to 12,000 ancient mounds in the province. “The total number of guards we have is 98,” he noted. The site of Ur was heavily damaged by U.S. occupation troops, which used it as their main barracks in southern Iraq. [...]

Une semaine durant et sous la conduite de Véronique Brunet-Gaston, archéologue, une quinzaine de plongeurs subaquatiques parmi lesquels six membres d'Aquagray, se sont relayés pour prospecter le lit de la rivière, à Port-sur-Saône, tout près de l'endroit où, au XIXe, l'archéologue local, Gustave Gallaire, avait localisé les vestiges d'une villa gallo-romaine. En 2006, déjà, le traces des dépendances agricoles de cette dernière avaient été diagnostiqués. C'est cette fois en quête de embarcadère qui, on le présume, l'aurait desservie, que les recherches ont été conduites. Les plongeurs ont eu le bonheur de localiser une voie empierrée traversant la Saône en diagonale, à environ un mètre sous la surface. Or, on le sait, cette hauteur correspond à celle de la rivière voici deux millénaires. Il existe de fortes présomptions pour qu'il s'agisse là d'un antique passage à gué, ce que d'autres prospections et analyse permettront sans doute d'affirmer. [...]

In the frozen reaches of Canada, warmer temperatures brought on by climate change have yielded a bounty of historical information for archaeologists. Using the new discipline of ice patch archeology, scientists in recent years have uncovered in the Mackenzie Mountains 2,400-year-old spears, 1,000-year-old snares, and bows and arrows dating back 850 years. Ice patches are accumulations of snow that used to remain frozen all year, but which are now melting and revealing artifacts that have been hidden for centuries. In addition to archaeologists, biologists have benefited from access to the exposed, once-frozen terrain. Finds include dung containing plant remains, insect parts, pollen and caribou parasites, as well as DNA evidence that’s yielding information on the lineage and migration patterns of caribou. “We’re just like children opening Christmas presents,” said Tom Andrews, an archaeologist who’s leading the International Polar Year Ice Patch Study. “I kind of pinch myself.” [...]