Ust-Kova site: 20,000 year old figurine carved from mammoth ivoy

Ancient mammoth ivory carving technology reconstructed by archaeologists. 

Musatils in Saudi Arabia 7,000 years old.

 Massive stone structures in Saudi Arabia may be some of oldest monuments in the world. "It is quite possible that these structures would have been visually spectacular, and perhaps quite extensively painted."Huw Groucutt. 

Few artifacts associated with them and seem distinct from the "kite" structures. Too low to be animal corrals. 

Ancient Native American canal discovered in Gulf Shores, Alabama

Ancient Native American canal discovered in Gulf Shores. Not for irrigation. It's likely a highway for ferrying goods, but what the hell do I know? 

 The canal, dug in 600 A.D., once ran south from Oyster Bay to the northern shore of Little Lagoon in Gulf Shores. It would have served as a sort of prehistoric super highway, facilitating travel by dugout canoe from Mobile Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

golden-eyed priestess of Balochistan

A good mystery story is fun:

(AGI) - Rome, 21st November - In the Balochistan desert, a city burned down long ago, a mysterious necropolis, a five thousand-year-old tomb, the skeleton of a woman, with a golden eye. This is the real-life mystery of a discovery in Iran, at Shahr-i Sokta on the border with Afghanistan, of the remains of a shaman - the custodian, according to tradition, of secret lore. The discovery was made at the end of 2006 by Iranian archaeologists under the direction of M. Sajjadi from the Iranian Centre for Archaeological Research, with assistance from an Italian mission which has been wording in the area since 1967 on funds supplied by the Foreign Office, the Ministries of Heritage and the Museum of Oriental Art of Italy's Institute for Africa and the Orient(ISIAO) formerly ISMEO the institution founded by that great explorer of that territory, Giuseppe Tucci. But the story of the priestess with the golden eye is still there to be written, and a new mission will be on its way on 30 November to carry on with Shahr-i Sokhta's investigations, to re-start analysis of the eye prosthesis in collaboration with their Iranian colleagues. The woman was 1 metre 82 centimetres in height with African physiognomy, a pronounced jaw, perhaps dark-skinned. "The find was made by Iranian archaeologists working in the vast necropolis - Lorenzo Costantini, head of the Italian mission to Shahr-i Sokta, told AGI. The city is located on the frontier with Battriana which was a cross-roads for caravans coming from the West, headed for the Orient. The burial, according to my calculations, is 5,000 years old". The gold eye was set in the right socket. And this is how the scientists found her. They have tried to find similar finds in archaeological history, but without success.

Teuku Jacob dead

Cryptomundo has a long post noting the death of Teuku Jacob last month on October 17th. In no way am i gloating, but it will be interesting to see if research on the fossils identified as Homo floresiensis will move forward now.

Wushan Man

There's a post about two million years old human fossils that were discovered over the past twenty years in Wushan County in Chongqing municipality in China over on Remote Central.

a very old iron workshop found in Turkey

Damn it to hell. You don't declare "oldest" anything without throwing out a number, even if it's pulled out of your ass. Bronze Age is kinda sketchy. I want a number estimate. Anyway, the "oldest iron workshop found" in Turkey:

ÇORUM - Anatolia News Agency

The world's oldest iron workshop has been uncovered during excavations in the central Black Sea province of Çorum and archaeologists hope the find will draw tourists to the region, the dig's leader said yesterday.

The workshop, dating back to the Bronze Age, was found in Alacahöyük, Ankara University Archaeologist Aykut Çınaroğlu, told the Anatolia news agency.

�Besides the iron workshop, some ceramic and stone pieces, as well as ornaments, were also among the findings, which reveal evidence regarding the daily lives of the Hittites,� he said, adding around 100 pieces were unearthed as part of the excavations.

In previous years, archaeologists have found a dagger with a golden handle in a prince and princess' graves at the same site, Çınaroğlu said.

The findings were handed over to the Çorum Museum, he said, adding archaeologists have restored some of the findings and displayed them for public viewing in an old museum building, located on the excavation site.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry is also planning to use king graves found in the region for tourism, a plan they call the "Alacahöyük King Graves Revival Project."

All infrastructure work for the project has been completed and awaits the ministry's approval.

�If the fund is allocated for the project, we can kick off the implementation of the project with the opening of the next excavation season. Our aim is to promote Alacahöyük, an important center for the Hittite and Hatti civilizations of (the) Bronze Age period, for culture tourism,� Çınaroğlu said.

The project is the first of its kind in Turkey and the first to display six Hatti graves in a glass bell, together with skeletons and grave gifts.

15,000 year-old hunters' camp site in Russia

Maybe there'll be more about this in the coming weeks...

KHABAROVSK, November 12 (RIA Novosti) - Archaeologists have found a 15,000 year-old hunters' camp site from the Paleolithic era near Lake Evoron in Russia's Far East, a source in the Khabarovsk archaeology museum said on Monday.

"The site dates back to the end of the Ice Age, a period which is poorly studied" Andrei Malyavin, chief of the museum's archaeology department said. "That is why any new site from this period is a discovery in itself."

The site, found during a 2007 archaeological expedition to Lake Evoron, is the largest of four Stone Age sites, discovered near the Amur River so far, and was most likely established by mammoth hunters.

"We came to this conclusion after studying flint pikes, arrowheads and a stone scraper," Malyavin said, adding that a comprehensive archaeological excavation could take a couple of years.

In 2006, archaeologists discovered an Iron Age burial mound around 2,500 years old containing a unique fragment from an iron dagger, which had been preserved in the Amur Region's acidic soil.

Median wooden ring discovered in Iran

It's interesting enough that it is a wood ring that has been preserved, which must be at least 2,500 years old, but it is Median, and from what little that i understand, that's an even more rare site to discover.

Tehran , Nov 12 : Archaeologists have discovered a unique ring belonging to the Median era (Bronze Age) in western Iran.

The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in the northwestern portions of present-day Iran, and roughly the areas of present day Kurdistan, Hamedan, Tehran, Azarbaijan, Esfahan and Zanjan. This area was known in Greek as Media.

The ring, which was found in an excavation by archaeologists in Iran's western province of Loresta is carved with Farvahar, which is a symbol of Zoroastrianism.

This symbol is currently thought to represent a Fravashi (a guardian angel) and is influenced by the "winged sun " hieroglyph appearing on Bronze Age royal seals.

The ring, which is 2.5 cm in diameter, is made of a type of bronze which is an alloy of copper, tin and zinc.

The figure in the Farvahar is depicted wearing Mede attire and a hat. This man, who is shown to be long-bearded, is facing the left as he emerges from the Sun. Wide open wings ca also be seen on the two sides of his body. Two moving feet can also be seen on the ring.

Some other relics including bronze necklaces, rings and bracelets as well as metal arrows and daggers were also found during the excavation. (ANI)

excavations continue at Jiroft while war drums beat

Yep... as Jiroft further emerges as one of the more important centers of early civilization, the march continues for America to start a war with Iran. (Here's some photos of the Konar-Sandal site.) Bush would probably direct tactical nukes on the site, just because he's a clueless asshole. Kermān Province seems to be economically important.

On the bright side, i ran across this post this morning dissecting how disingenuously misleading that Zogby poll is that declares that 52% of Americans support an airstrike on Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear capabilities. No, "disingenuously misleading" is not quite right... it's more like an outright lie. Read that post. Zogby is a shill for the strange hawkish forces that continue to mire the U.S. in losing wars, destroying our military and needlessly creating new enemies.

4,000 year old temple found in Peru

The murals are the exciting bit for me.

By Marco Aquino

LIMA (Reuters) - A 4,000-year-old temple filled with murals has been unearthed on the northern coast of Peru, making it one of the oldest finds in the Americas, a leading archaeologist said on Saturday.

The temple, inside a larger ruin, includes a staircase that leads up to an altar used for fire worship at a site scientists have called Ventarron, said Peruvian archaeologist Walter Alva, who led the dig.

It sits in the Lambayeque valley, near the ancient Sipan complex that Alva unearthed in the 1980s. Ventarron was built long before Sipan, about 2,000 years before Christ, he said.

"It's a temple that is about 4,000 years old," Alva, director of the Museum Tumbas Reales (Royal Tombs) of Sipan, told Reuters by telephone after announcing the results of carbon dating at a ceremony north of Lima sponsored by Peru's government.

"What's surprising are the construction methods, the architectural design and most of all the existence of murals that could be the oldest in the Americas," he said.

Lambayeque is 472 miles from Lima, Peru's capital.

Discoveries at Sipan, an administrative and religious center of the Moche culture, have included a gold-filled tomb built 1,700 years ago for a pre-Incan king.

Peru is rich in archaeological treasures, including the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in the Andes. Until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1500s, the Incas ruled an empire for several centuries that stretched from Colombia and Ecuador in the north to what are now Peru and Chile in the south.

"The discovery of this temple reveals evidence suggesting the region of Lambayeque was one of great cultural exchange between the Pacific coast and the rest of Peru," said Alva.

traffic on Beringia land bridge flowed both ways

Proposing that the original colonists of the Americas were of greater genetic diversity than originally proposed makes sense to me, but there doesn't seem to be any mention of a southern route.

The Beringia land bridge just isn't enough for me anymore. Not only am i sympathetic to the coastal sea route in the Americas, but i'm believing that people crossed the open oceans from Polynesia relatively early. Craziness, but so what?

Sumerian cuneiform in North Carolina

The story as to how this Sumerian cuneiform tablet wound up in the hands of a drywall hanger in Fayetteville, North Carolina still sounds fishy to me. The story that Veenker is connecting the tablet to, about 14 missing tablets sold in 1962 in Philadelphia to the Oriental Institute in Chicago might fit some facts, like the inscriptions matching the ones transcribed from an inventory made years ago, but again, this is Fayetteville, North Carolina.

I'm sticking with my wild guess that the tablet is a piece from the Iraqi National Museum.

8,000 year old embracing couple found in Turkey

So there is now a new "oldest couple embracing" record in finding an 8,000 year old couple embracing in a newly unearthed tomb in Turkey. There might be more to the story than that. The article mentions that the previous couple that dates to 5,000 years ago were discovered in Verona, Italy.

This far, far predates the Etruscan questions, but there does seem to be some cultural connection between Anatolia and and Tuscany, as well as the concrete examples of a genetic one. Maybe it goes even further back than suspected. I'm wondering if these burial ritual were not isolated incidents, but some tiny fragments of a nearly obliterated tradition.

neolithic metalworking in Serbia?

This story about the neolithic metalworking in Serbia sounds wildly unlikely, but i'd feel remiss if i ignored it. 7,500 years ago? Even the Bosnian "pyramid" was fun for a few days.

Remote Central points out that the Bronze Age was thought to start much later than is recognized now, until the discovery of a bronze axe head by the body of Ötzi.

Acheulean villages

I ought to confess that i'm very sympathetic to the idea that Homo erectus had villages. Laugh at me. I promise not to cry. It's just that the jump from tool-using nomadic apes to agrarian villages seems like a big one. What Bednarik proposes does not seem that outrageous.

via Remote Central.

Update: This has been nagging me for the past day. Please let me clarify that "villages" should be just that... "villages" in quotes. I doubt whether they were villages as we understand the word now. It's just that a relentlessly nomadic model for the entire species doesn't sit well.

chewing yucca for posterity

It's not just remarkable that human DNA (from saliva) was found in masticated yucca leaves that ranged in age from 800 to 2,400 years old, it's that the information could be used to track human migration patterns. They've also found DNA on "aprons" or menstrual pads, and plan to check sandals, textiles, and cane cigarettes. Scientists hope to answer the question of whether agriculture was indigenously invented in the Southwest United States or imported from migrations from Mexico.

This makes me very happy. I become quite annoyed with the games that are played with human remains, as i'm more interested in history than respecting burial ceremonies. Yes, this probably makes me an asshole to many people. I do respect cultural traditions, but being satisfied with ignorance is a vast disservice to everyone. jj

cuneiform tablet in Fayetteville, North Carolina

I don't mean to be a complete bastard, but this story about a myseterious tablet of cuneiform is mighty fishy. An incredibly well-preserved tablet of cuneiform surfaces in Fayetteville, North Carolina. This is the story one of the people came up with to explain its presence:

According to Buie, Eddie has had the tablet for at least a couple of years. “He had it long before his wife died. I think it came out of Pennsylvania,” he said.

As the story goes, a girl brought the tablet along when she visited Eddie’s wife. Somehow, Eddie’s wife wound up with it.

Buie said he doesn’t know much else about the artifact’s recent history.

Riiiiggghhht... I'm sorry, but i doubt this. Just looking at the condition of the tablet in that photos, i'd wager that it is a piece looted from National Museum of Iraq.

Pennsylvania? Come on... this is Fayetteville, North Carolina. This is Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base. Something is not right here, and this is probably why the FBI is involved.

The question is more likely whether this is just an illicit souvenir from a thoughtless soldier who didn't understand what he was doing or a hint of evidence of a larger, organized operation.

Two Great Sphinxes?

Is this another Bosnian Pyramid?

The theory is based on a lot of interpretative readings of old inventories and suppositions about mythology. It's a nice theory, but from what i've read, there is not actual concrete evidence, just a desire for symmetry through duality.

Cairo, Aug 31 (ANI): Two Sphinxes existed on the Pyramids Plateau, according to a new study by Egyptologist Bassam El Shammaa.

El Shammaa said the famed half-lion, half man statute was an Egyptian deity erected next to another Sphinx, which has since vanished without a trace.

This theory, however, is in contradiction to the general belief that a single colossal statue functioned as a guard to the pyramids.

El Shammaa said the idea of two Sphinxes is more in line with ancient Egyptian beliefs, which were mainly based on duality.

"The pyramid texts recovered at Saqqara, especially from the Wanis Pyramid, contain descriptions of the ancient Egyptian conception of how the universe was created. Basically, this concept underlined the belief in duality," El Shammaa said.

"Whenever we have to deal with the solar cult, we should speak of one lion and one lioness facing each other, posing parallel to each other or sitting in a back-to-back position.

"The double avenue of the ram-headed Sphinxes fronting the first Karnak pylon and its counterpart of human-headed Sphinxes at the Temple of Luxor emphasize this duality, alongside other indications like the double crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, Isis, Osiris, Habtoor and Horus," elaborated El Shammaa," he said.

He said ancient Egyptian records and mythology suggested that lightening destroyed part of the Sphinx, adding that this might be in reference to the second Sphinx, which was eliminated after a curse by the chief Egyptian deity.

"Utterance No. 600 says that Atum - the 'complete one' and creator god in ancient Egyptian mythology - created his son Shu and daughter Tefnut, shaping them as a lion and a lioness and placing each one on an extreme tip of the universe," he said.

"Shu was to take the solar disc between his jaws and hand it to his sister Tefnut who in turn would capture it between her jaws and by so doing they would achieve the full cycle of the sun," he added.

He said that cycle represented sunrise and sunset and the journey from life to death, and also accounted for the presence of two Sphinxes.

El Shammaa also pointed out the Dream Stela carved by Thutmosis IV, which he said, clearly depicted two Sphinxes.

"The inventory Stela exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo did the same. The display showed that King Cheops - builder of the Great Pyramid - had undertaken the task of restoring the damage to the Sphinx's neck caused by lightening," El Shammaa said.

"Examination of the Sphinx revealed that damage in its neck, matching the measurements mentioned in the inventory Stela, had been restored. But we also discover that, besides the Sphinx's neck, the lightening destroyed a sycamore tree as well as an object between the tree and the Sphinx whose remains have settled behind the Valley Temple.

"The Endeavor Satellite released by NASA over the Pyramids Plateau confirmed the finding. But it makes a lot of sense that lightening could have damaged the Sphinx because the statue was often depicted wearing a double metal crown that must have conducted the shock to the neck," he said.

He said the Pyramids of Giza predated the magical utterances recovered at Saqqara.

However, the lion deities were predynastic and mythological figures, which always appeared in duo inspired the building of the pyramids, he said.

"My own interpretation is that the miracle structures were dedicated to the lion deities that also ensured their protection. The demolished temple in front of the Sphinx's paws and the Valley Temple that stands next to the site of what we assume to be the second Sphinx are proof that those two statues were deities," he said.

"For some reason Tefnut has been cursed, as it is not uncommon in world mythology that the chief deity would curse one of the minor gods. The incident of the lightening that wiped out Tefnut must have been exploited by priests to justify her curse and the silence on her disappearance.

"Because they hunt from night to dawn, lionesses have been associated with moisture perceived by priests as destructive for temples and tombs and this is one reason they must have been banished.

"But I would also like to note that the monuments at the Pyramids Plateau are devoid of any hieroglyphic texts and they must have been a riddle for the Ancient Egyptians who lived after the era of the Old Kingdom," he added.

El Shammaa said the temples raised near the Sphinxes also came after the Giza Pyramids were built, further proof of the sacred status of these statues.

"At the end of the day our interpretation of mythology could be right or wrong. But we can't ignore the archaeological evidence existing at the site and the stelae. John Wilkinson (1797-1875), who depicted the Dream Stela in one famous painting, placed two hieroglyphic words under the second Sphinx, which meant 'shun,' or 'avoid'. This issue will always be shrouded in mystery," Daily News Egypt quoted him as saying. (ANI)

via Egyptology blog.

Tell Brak

There are a couple of stories on the Tell Brak site in Syria, on BBC and New Scientist. New research suggests that the city did not arise from centrally directed, autocratic rule. There seems to have been 15,000 people living there 5,400 years ago. Nifty. More details at the stories obviously.

It's wrong of me to think of Space Ghost.