Michelle Moran's Blog, page 76
August 31, 2010
Israel archeologists uncover 2,000-year-old cupid in City of David dig
Israeli archeologists unveiled a 2,000 year old semi-precious cameo bearing the image of Cupid on Monday, which the Israel Antiquities Authorities (IAA) said was among several items located in the City of David archeological area in Jerusalem's Old City in the last 12 months.
Oldest house in Ontario discovered at 4,500 year old settlement near Lake Huron, Canada
Read the rest here.
August 30, 2010
Archaeologists find new clues why the Maya left
YUCATAN, Mexico— Bird calls ring from the forest, echoing amid the crumbling ruins whose darkened doorways have long beckoned explorers and scholars. The Maya ancients who built the ruins of Kiuic (kee-week) here fled those doorways in a hurry, an international archaeology team now realizes. Left behind may be frozen-in-time clues to the fabled collapse of their civilization.
Read the rest in USA Today.
Acoustic archaeology: The secret sounds of Stonehenge
Just after sunrise on a misty spring morning last year, my fellow acoustician at the University of Salford, Bruno Fazenda, and Rupert Till of the University of Huddersfield, UK, could be found wandering around Stonehenge popping balloons. This was not some bizarre pagan ritual. It was a serious attempt to capture the "impulse response" of the ancient southern English stone circle, and with it perhaps start to determine how Stonehenge might have sounded to our ancestors.
Read ...Archeologists Find Gateway to the Viking Empire
By Matthias Schulz
For a century, archeologists have been looking for a gate through a wall built by the Vikings in northern Europe. This summer, it was found. Researchers now believe the extensive barrier was built to protect an important trading route.
August 26, 2010
What have the Romans ever done for us (socks and sandals excepted)?
They gave the world decent roads, indoor plumbing and some of the goriest spectator sports known to man, but now it appears that the Romans made a hitherto secret contribution to global civilisation by pioneering the wearing of socks with sandals.
Mayan pool in the rainforest
Since 2009, researchers from Bonn and Mexico have been systematically uncovering and mapping the old walls of Uxul, a Mayan city. "In the process, we also came across two, about 100 m square water reservoirs," explained Iken Paap, who directs the project with Professor Dr. Nikolai Grube and the Mexican archaeologist Antonio Benavides Castillo.
August 25, 2010
Roman 'industrial estate' unearthed in North Yorkshire
Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Roman "industrial estate" in North Yorkshire.
The site includes remains of a water-powered flour mill used to grind grain and produce food. Clothes, food remains and graves were also uncovered.
Read the rest on the BBC.
August 24, 2010
24 August 410: the date it all went wrong for Rome?
Tuesday marks the 1,600th anniversary of one of the turning points of European history - the first sack of Imperial Rome by an army of Visigoths, northern European barbarian tribesmen, led by a general called Alaric.
Greek Archaeologists Claim They Discovered Odysseus' Palace
Greek archaeologists have claimed they have found the palace of Odysseus during excavations on the Ithaca island in the Ionian Sea.
