Category: Ann - Part 7

Enormous Gallo-Roman temple complex unearthed near Le Mans, France

The circular temple is younger than the main temple, and dated to the 2nd or 3rd century AD. - Image Copyright Herve PAITIER, INRAP Archaeologists have discovered a large Gallo-Roman religious complex located only a few kilometres from the ancient city of Le Mans. The ancient sanctuary is thought to have been an important pilgrimage area, visited by thousands to honour the gods.

The religious complex unearthed in Neuville-sur-Sarthe about 5km north of Le Mans, France is excavated by archaeologists from the French National Institute of Archaeological Research (INRAP) and dated to the 1st to 3rd century AD. Traces of the complex were first revealed on aerial photographs taken in 2003, when an long period of drought scorched much of the vegetation on the site, yet nobody anticipated its sheer size the complex spans more than 4 acres.

The ancient sanctuary, clearly divided in three areas, contains several Gallo-Roman temples (fana) in various shapes quadrangular, polygonal and circular and sizes, linked by roads and galleries.

In the west, the main temple and five shrines are located. The temple (or fanum) is a 15m square structure characterized by a sanctuary, a central altar dedicated to the gods, surrounded by a gallery where the faithful would worship. The few architectural fragments discovered, suggest that it was a Corinthian style building with plaster wall paintings. The structures are surrounded by a 60m by 40m quadrangular brick wall enclosure (or temenos).

VIDEO: The Neuville-sur-Sarthe Gallo-Roman Sanctuary Dig

Un site gallo-romain dcouvert dans la Sarthe

The large number and diversity of theartefacts unearthed within the sacred enclosure all dated to the 1st century AD testify to the importance of the sanctuary.

Worshippers left behind plenty of coin, bronze and silver fibulae (cloak fasteners), knives and a dagger likely a soldier’s offering. The most preciousfind is a golden ring,decorated with green quartz bearing the effigy of a deity (visible in the video on the left).

South of the main temple, the excavations revealed a curiously designed circular temple, 12m in diameter, flanked by a smaller square temple annex. Both are constructedaround 200AD. Although compared to the main sanctum, the round temple is only scarcely decorated, its circular structure is exceptional. So far, only three or four similar examples have been excavated in France. Another particularity is that the temple’s entrance is oriented to the north rather than to the more common east. The discovery of numerous postholes suggests a pergola over fifty metres long covered the entranceway.

North, a 8m by 8m E-shaped structured aligned to the main temple’s entrance was revealed. It is believed this building was used for welcoming pilgrims and for selling them various religious objects, which the devout could then offer to the god(s).

No dedication to a specific deity have been unearthed at the Gallo-Roman sanctuary, yet the presence of eye-shaped votive offerings suggests the sanctuary was part of a cult devoted to a god of healing.

The archaeologists have until September to complete the excavation. The finds will likelygo on display at the Carr Plantagent, the archaeology and history museum in Le Mans.

‘Digging for Britain’ with Alice Roberts – New Archaeology Series on BBC2

Dr Alice Roberts, presenter of 'Digging for Britain', with a hoard of Roman Coins found in Somerset in 2010 - Image copyright 360 Production Photo by Mike Hogan Britain, man your TVs and iPlayers!Great Britain might be a small island but it has a huge history and, every year, hundreds of excavations bring lost treasures up to the surface. Presented by Dr Alice Roberts, ‘Digging For Britain‘ joins these excavations in a new BBC Twohistory series.

‘Digging for Britain’ is produced by 360 Production (a look behind the scenes) and follows ayear of archaeology around the country, revealing and contextualising some of the newest finds, research and social history.

Its four episodes focus onfocus on the Roman, Prehistoric, Anglo-Saxon and Tudor eras.

Digging the Romans

In the first episode of the series, ‘The Romans’, Dr Alice Roberts follows the story of the Hambleden infanticide and the discovery of 97 murdered babies buried beneath a field in Buckinghamshire. The original excavation made by Alfred Heneage Cocks in 1912 is well documented, but the human remains themselves were believed to have been lost (preview video). Their recent re-discovery has allowed skeletal biologist Dr Simon Mays and Dr Jill Eyers to examine the remains. Was the infanticide at Yweden Villa the result of a Roman brothel?

Dr Roberts is also on the trail of the Frome Hoard, one of the biggest Roman coin hoards ever to be found in Britain. In April 2010, metal detectorist Dave Crisp uncovered more than 52,000 coins dating from the 3rd century AD in a field near Frome, Somerset. Following the three-day excavation,PAS experts Dr Roger Bland and Sam Moorhead spent nine weeks on sorting the hoard, identifying the coins at a rate of 5,500 per week.Dr Robertshears their theories on the treasure trove being a votive offering to the gods and never intended to be recovered from the ground.

Preview: Habledon Villa Human Remains (360 Production)

‘The Romans’ episode also investigates the mystery of a man buried face down on a bed of meat in rural Dorset and the extensive excavation project at the Fort of Vindolanda.

Digging up Prehistory

The further back in time we go, the more rare those glimpses into our ancestors become and, with no written records, the pieces of evidence pulled from the ground are the only clues about the mysterious world of pre-historic Britain.

At Happisburgh in Norfolk, Dr Roberts follows the discovery of seventy flint flakes showing clear evidence of having been worked by humans a find that pushes back the earliest known human occupation of Britain by at least 200,000 years. The discovery of these tools challenge the conventional belief that the earliest human species would not have been able to survive in northern Europe.

Dr Robertsjoins the excavation team at Bronze Age siteForteviot in Scotland, who have discovered that Bronze Age people placed flowers meadowsweet in the graves of their dead.

Digging for Britain’sPrehistory episode also uncovers a 3,000-year-old tragedy at sea, the earliest rock art ever uncovered in Britain and what is potentially the earliest metal working site discovered in Britain.

Digging for the Anglo-Saxons

At Bamburgh, on the North East coast, skeletons excavated by the Bamburgh Research Project (blog) offer insight into the illnesses and conditions the aristocratic Anglo-Saxons suffered, and hold clues about the societies in which they lived clues that are somewhat at odds with the stereotypical, warlord Anglo Saxon people have come to know.

There are thousands of grave goods to clean and conserve at the Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in Sittingbourne in 2008.Dr Robertslearns about a unique way of dealing with the sheer volume of material a pioneering project in the heart of Sittingbourne that’s engaging the whole community.

The programme would not be complete without a glimpse at the richest ever Anglo Saxon find in Britain: the Staffordshire Hoard, discovered by a metal detector last year and a visit to Sutton-Hoo which is still revealing new insights more than 70 years after it was first discovered.

‘Digging for Britain’ (video preview) is a four-part series. ‘The Romans’ airs this Thursday August 19, 9pm on BBC Two. (Prehistory August 26, Anglo-Saxons September 2, Tudors September 9)

Caerleon Fortress Mapping Reveals Palatial Scale Building

Reconstruction of Caerleon - or Itca, by its Roman name - showing the newly discovered monumental suburb - Image copyright 7reasons Archaeology students learning to use mapping equipment have discovered a complex of monument buildings outside the Roman fortress at Caerleon, South Wales. The team says it will lead to a complete rethink about how Britain was conquered and occupied by the Roman forces almost 2,000 years ago.

The students from the Cardiff Universitys School of History, Archaeology and Religion were learning how to use geophysical equipment in fields outside the Caerleon fortress. Squeezed into the ground between the amphitheatre and the River Usk, the outlines of a series of huge buildings were revealed. The discovery of the settelement’s monumental suburb came as a surprise. It was thought the Roman legionaries had little use for this area outside the fortress walls.

Caerleon is one of the best-known Roman sites in Britain, so it was a great surprise to realise that we had found something completely new and totally unexpected, said Dr Peter Guest, Senior Lecturer in Roman Archaeology.

The biggest is enormous and must be one of the largest buildings known from Roman Britain.

It is difficult to be certain about what we have been found because nothing like this has been discovered in Roman Britain before.

The building’s ground plans do suggest that the structures were of some importance. They could have included markets, administrative buildings, bath-houses, store buildings, and possibly even a temple. But it is the largest, enormous structure that is most fascinating.

The biggest is enormous and must be one of the largest buildings known from Roman Britain. We can only guess what it was for, but at the moment were working on the idea that it had something to do with a harbour on the river, although it does look uncannily like a residential villa building if thats the case it was built on a palatial scale.

Caerleon is one of only three permanent legionary fortresses in Britain. The ancient military base was originally an Iron Age hill fort. When the conquest of Roman Wales started inthe first century AD, the locationbecame the headquarters of the Legio II Augusta.

Around Isca Augusta, the usual array of military buildings such as a hospital, a bath house, barracks, metal shops and granaries were built. The settlement even included an amphitheatre, which in medieval times became known as ‘King Arthur’s Round Table’.

An interpretation of the geophysical survey, shows the various monumental buildings outside the fortress - Image copyright GeoArch

Most of the fort is thought to have been demolished in the late 3rd century and by 4th century the Roman baths were nothing but a cattle pen.

The layout and scale of the buildings look like they should be at the centre of a town or city, continued Dr Guest, but here at Caerleon we seem to have the central public spaces without the surrounding city where are the people who would have used these buildings?

Perhaps they were intended for the legionaries of the Second Augustan, but it is also possible that this is the first evidence for Roman plans to develop the fortress at Caerleon into a major settlement in western Britain plans that for some reason never came to fruition. Thats the great thing about an archaeological discovery like this lots of new questions that we just dont have definite answers to at the moment.

Over the last four years, excavations at the site have uncovered eight previously unknown barrack blocks, three large granaries, a monumental metal workshop and a very large store building. Until 17 September 2010, the team of archaeologists will be at Caerleon for their final season of excavation. Taking place near the site of the new discovery, the team hope to uncover yet more information about the fortress and its inhabitants. Follow the Carleon Dig on twitter and its excavation blog on the British Archaeology website.

We will be spending six weeks in Caerleon this summer, excavating within the fortress walls with colleagues from UCL. We hope to reveal yet more information about the fortress and its legion and I am sure that our work will produce some really exciting results, said Dr Guest.

The dig is open to the public and wed be delighted to see people coming along with family and friends to find out more about the work we are doing.

Earlier this week it was announced evidence of a Romanfort at least twentyyears older than Itca Augusta has been uncovered at Monmouth, about 20 miles from Caerleon. It is thoughtthe fort covered most of the town centre and could hold up to 2,000 troops. Steve Clarke of Monmouth Archaeology told theSouth Wales Argus that theMonmouth Roman fortexisted in AD55 and is likely the oldest in Wales.

Guided tours of the Caerleon Roman fortress Priory Field excavation are available twice daily (11 am and 2.30 pm, except Mondays).Throughout the Summer Bank Holiday weekend (28th 30th August 2010) there are ‘Open Days’. As well as tours, there will be displays of the latest finds, a mini-dig, and the chance to talk to archaeologists about how they excavate ancient sites.

Oldest Evidence for Stone Tools and Eating Meat Discovered in Ethiopia

The bones discovered by the Dikika research project Thinking of Lucy strolling around the east African landscape in search of food, we can nowpicture her looking for meat with a stone tool in hand.

Bones foundin Ethiopia, push back the earliest known stone tool use and meat consumption by almost one million years and provide the first evidence that these behaviours can be attributed to Lucy’s species.

Aninternational team of researchers has discovered evidence our ancestors were using stone tools and ate the nutricious meat and marrow of large mammals 1 million years earlier than previously documented.

While working in the Afar region of Ethiopia, the Dikika Research Project (DRP) found bones bearing evidence of stone tool use; cut marks made while carving meat off the bone and percussion marks created while breaking the bones open to extract marrow.

The bone fragments – dated to roughly 3.4 millionyearsago- also provide the first record of stone tool use and meat consumption by the Australopithecus afarensis. Until now onlytracesof stone tool use by members of the genus Homo were found.

This discovery dramatically shifts the known timeframe of a game-changing behaviour for our ancestors, says paleoanthropologist Dr Zeresenay Alemseged. Tool use fundamentally altered the way our earliest ancestors interacted with nature, allowing them to eat new types of food and exploit new territories. It also led to tool making – the precursor to such advanced technologies as aeroplanes, MRI machines, and iPhones.

With stone tools in hand to quickly pull off flesh and break open bones; animal carcasses would have become a more attractive source for food. This type of behaviour sent us down a path that later would lead to two of the defining features of our species – carnivory and tool manufacture and use.

Although the butchered bones may not look like particularly noteworthy fossils to the lay person, Alemseged can hardly contain his excitement when he describes them. “This find will definitely force us to revise our text books on human evolution, since it pushes the evidence for tool use and meat eating in our family back by nearly a million years,” he explains. “These developments had a huge impact on the story of humanity.”

The team’s research,reported in the August 12th issue of Nature, shows that the marks were created before the bones fossilized. This means recent damage can be eliminated as cause of the cut-marks.

One cut mark even contained a tiny, embedded piece of rock left behind during the meat cleaving.

“Most of the marks have features that indicate without doubt that they were inflicted by stone tools,” explains Dr. Curtis Marean from the Arizona State University, who performed the mark identifications. “And the range of actions includes cutting and scraping for the removal of flesh, and percussion on the femur for breaking it to access marrow.”

Cutting-edge technology

Until now, the oldest known evidence of butchering animals with stone tools camefrom Bouri, Ethiopia, where several cut-marked bones date to about 2.5 million years ago. The oldest known stone tools, dated to between 2.6 and 2.5 million years ago, were discovered at Gona, Ethiopia and most scientists believe the stone instruments were made and used only by early members of the genus Homo.

The new cut-marked fossil animal bones from Dikika have been dated to approxiamately 3.4 million years ago. They were founda few hundred meters away from where Alemseged’s team previously discovered ‘Selam’, a young A. afarensis girl who lived about 3.3 million years ago.

Two parallel cut marks made by stone tools cutting into tissues on the rib of a cow-sized or larger hoofed animal. – Image copyright the Dikiki Research Project

A cut mark make by a stone tool cutting into flesh on the upper leg bone of goat-sized young bovid. A cut mark made by a stone tool cutting into flesh on the upper leg bone (femur) of goat-sized young bovid. – Image copyright the Dikiki Research Project

The location and age of thebone fragments clearly indicate that members of the Australopithecus afarensis species made the cut marks.

The only hominin species we have in this part of Africa at this time period is A. afarensis, and so we think this species inflicted these cut marks on the bones we discovered, notes Alemseged.

Dating the bones

To determine the age of the bones, project geologist Dr. Jonathan Wynn relied on a very well documented and dated set of tuffs (volcanic deposits).

These same tuffs were previously used to determine Selam’s age and are known from nearby Hadar, where Lucy was found.

The new find site is located in a drainage that contains only deposits older than a tuff securely dated to 3.24 million years ago. Below the find site is a tuff dated to 3.42 million years ago.

Because the cut-marked bones are much closer to the lower tuff, the bones’ age is most likely 3.4 million years old.

Large beasts on the menu

Both of thebones came from large mammals.

“The bones come from 2 animals, one (a femur) the size of a goat and the other (a rib) at least the size of a cow,” notesMarean. “Our closest living relatives, the chimps and bonobos, don’t hunt or scavenge animals this size, so this suggests that the Dikika australopithecines had already begun to engage in hunting or scavenging larger mammals.”

This placed them in risky competition with other carnivores, which would likely have required them to engage in an unprecedented level of teamwork.

The two bone fragments were discovered in the Andedo drainage part of the Dikika project area, Ethiopia. - Image copyright Dikika Research Project

A stone tool industry at Dikika?

While it is clear that the australopithecines at Dikika were using sharp-edged stones to carve meat from bones, it is impossible to tell from the marks alone whether they were making their tools or simply finding and using naturally sharp rocks.

So far, the research team has not found evidence of stone tool manufacture at Dikika from this early time period.

It is possible the Dikika residents were simply opportunistic about finding and using naturally occurring sharp-edged stones. However, there is another potential explanation.

“For the most part, the only stones we see coming from these ancient sediments at Dikika are pebbles too small for making tools,” says Dr. Shannon McPherron, archaeologist with the DRP and research scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. “The hominins at this site probably carried their stone tools with them from better raw material sources elsewhere.

The team plans to return to Dikika and see if they can find these locations and evidence that at this early date hominins were actually making, not just using, stone tools.

Evolutionary ideas

While many questions remain about the history of tool use and tool making and about the timing and motivation of dietary changes among human ancestors, this discovery adds a rich new chapter to the story.

“Now, when we imagine Lucy walking around the east African landscape looking for food, we can for the first time imagine her with a stone tool in hand and looking for meat,” says Dr. McPherron.

“With stone tools in hand to quickly pull off flesh and break open bones; animal carcasses would have become a more attractive source for food. This type of behaviour sent us down a path that later would lead to two of the defining features of our species – carnivory and tool manufacture and use.”

Star Carr Stone Age remains are Britain’s Oldest Home

Archaeologist working on Stone Age remains at a site in North Yorkshire say it contains Britain’s earliest surviving house. It dates to at least 8,500BC when Britain was part of continental Europe.

The team from the Universities of Manchester and York unearthed the 3.5 metres circular structure next to an ancient lake at Star Carr, near Scarborough.

The 10,500-year-old house, which was first excavated by the team two years ago, was comparable to an Iron Age roundhouse. It had post holes around a central hollow which would have been filled with organic matter such as reeds, and possibly a fireplace.It predates what was previously Britain’s oldest known dwelling at Howick, Northumberland, by at least 500 years.

“This is a sensational discovery and tells us so much about the people who lived at this time, said Dr Nicky Milner from the University of York. “From this excavation, we gain a vivid picture of how these people lived. For example, it looks like the house may have been rebuilt at various stages.

We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape

Dr Chantal Conneller and Barry Taylor from The University of Manchester with Dr Nicky Milner from the University of York have been working at Star Carr since 2004.

To an inexperienced eye, the areamight lookunremarkable – just a series of little rises in the landscape, but the archaeologists say the ancient lake is a hugely important archaeological landscape many miles across, comparable even to Stonehenge.

The peaty nature of the landscape has enabled the preservation of many treasures including the paddle of a boat, the tips of arrows and red deer skull tops which were worn as masks, explain Taylor.

Remains of abirchtreehave also been excavated.Despite being 11,000 years old, the large trunk is well preserved with its bark still intact.

It is likely there was more than one house at Star Carr.

The researchers are currently excavating a large wooden platform next to Lake Pickering, which is possibly the earliest evidence of carpentry in Europe.

The platform is made of hewn and split timbers; the earliest evidence of this type of carpentry in Europe. And the artefacts of antler, particularly the antler head-dresses, are intriguing as they suggest ritual activities, said Dr Milner.

The team hopes the new excavation will tell them more about the state of preservation the Star Carr remains are in. The peat is drying out, so it’s a race against time to continue the work before the archaeological finds decay, says Taylor.

The site was inhabited by hunter-gatherers from just after the last ice age, for a period of between 200 and 500 years. According to the team, they migrated from an area now under the North Sea, hunting animals such asdeer, wild boar, elk and enormous wild cattle known as auroch. Though they did not cultivate the land, the inhabitants did burn part of the landscape to encourage animals to eat shoots and kept domesticated dogs.

“This changes our ideas of the lives of the first settlers to move back into Britain after the end of the last Ice Age,
Dr Conneller said.

“We used to think they moved around a lot and left little evidence. Now we know they built large structures and were very attached to particular places in the landscape.”

PASE Domesday Online Database launches ahead of BBC Two Domesday Special

PASE Domesday, a database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources, has been launched online today, ahead of tomorrows Domesday special to be broadcast on BBC Two (preview video ‘The Domesday Inquest’). In the documentary, Dr Stephen Baxter seeks to prove that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes, arguing that it is about something far more important than money. According to Dr Baxter, its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England.

The Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is the product of a great survey of England commissioned by William the Conqueror and completed in 1086, twenty years after the then Duke landed with his 7,000 soldiers (Top 10 Norman Conquest Facts). It was written in Latin, and is England’s earliest surviving public record, a thorough survey of the who owned every piece of land and property in the the kingdom.

The making of Domesday Book was a huge logistical exercise. Commissioners set out across the country to attend intimidating local inquests. These established who owned what both in 1066, before the Norman Conquest, and in 1086, after 20 years of Norman rule. The results of these inquests were then collected, edited and written up, by one scribe. It consists of two independent works, the Little Domesday covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex and the Great Domesday, covering the rest of England, with a few omissions such as Anglo-Saxon London.

Domesday records the trauma of the Norman Conquest the greatest social and political upheaval in England’s history. It confirmed that land once owned by the English was now legally in the hands of the Normans. This was a revolution in land ownership. It was given the name Domesday Book by Anglo-Saxons (How does that sound? Anglo-Saxon Aloud for your iPhone!)who felt that its authority was as final as The Day of Judgement.

PASE Domesday Online Database

PASE Domesday (Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon EnglandDomesday)makes it possible to list, map and quantify the estates of the landholders named in the survey of conquered England and is the first database of Domesday Book linked to mapping resources to be made freely available online.

Video: The Domesday Inquest BBC Two (Dr Stephen Baxter)

Thedatabase will form the basis of a new two-year research project on the aristocracy defeated by the Normans in 1066, Profile of a Doomed Elite.

“The breakthrough has been made possible by the wonders of modern technology, in selecting and arranging the data, in generating the maps, and in presenting the possibilities,”says Professor Simon Keynes, of the University of Cambridge’sDepartment of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, and a co-director of the PASE project. “One can then begin to detect the patterns and to make the informed judgements which will help to produce a significant result.”

Yet, the new online database is not solely aimed at scholars. It is designed with abroader audience in mind.

Ever wondered who owned your town or village at the time of the Norman conquest? Its now possible to find out at the flick of a button, explains Dr Baxter, a Reader in Medieval History at King’s College London, and one of the projects co-directors.

Having done so, you can create maps and tables of the estates held by the same lords elsewhere in England. Results are delivered quickly, and the scale of the dispossession of the English by Norman billionaire-like barons comes vividly to life.

BBCTwo Domesday Special

PASEDomesday’s launch coincides with, and will be featured in, a one-hour documentary on Domesday Book to be broadcast on BBC2 (August 10, 20.00, part of the Norman Season), written and presented by Dr Stephen Baxter.

In this programme on the Domesday Book, Dr Stephen Baxter willreveals the human and political drama that lies within the parchment of England’s earliest surviving public record. Most historians believe that Domesday is some kind of tax book for raising revenue, but Baxter has his own theory. He seeks to prove that the Domesday Book could not have been used to collect taxes and he argues that it is about something far more important than money. Its real purpose was to confer revolutionary new powers on the monarchy in Norman England.

Teotihuacan Tunnel found under Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent

3D image tunnel entrance temple of the feathered serpend Archaeologists have discovered a 1,800 year old tunnel that leads to a system of galleries 12 meters below Teotihuacan’s Temple of Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent, in Mexico.

Spanning an area of more than 83 square kilometres, Teotihuacan is one of the largest archaeological sites in Mexico and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The city had nearly 250,000 inhabitants when it was at its height in the early 1st millennium AD. It also contains some of the largest pre-Columbian pyramids in the New World.

Archaeologists hope that the galleries they detected are actually the tombs of Teotihuacans rulers. “For a long time local and foreign archaeologists have attempted to locate the graves of the ancient city’s rulers, but the search has been fruitless, said project director Sergio Chaves Gomez. “That’s why every day our expectations are increasing, as there are many chances that they are sitting inside a large tomb or offering.

As early as 2003 archaeologists suspected the tunnel was there after a rainstorm caused the ground to sink at the Temple of Quetzalcoatl, also known as the Feathered Serpent Pyramid. It took archaeologists Gomez and Julie Gazzola several years to plan the excavations and raise the necessary funds. They began work last year and discovered the entrance to the tunnel a few weeks ago.

several indications suggest that access to the underground passage was closed between 200 and 250 AD, probably after depositing something inside

Before the start of the excavations, a systematic survey of the tunnel was made. Ground penetrating radar or GPR and laser scanning were used to generate a 3D image of the archaeological site, allowing researchers to estimate the length of the tunnel, and to confirm the presence of the rock-cut chambers.

The tunnel is accessed by a vertical shaft of almost 5 by 5 metres wide and runs 14 metres deep, which gives access to a corridor nearly 100 metres long ending in a series of rock-cut galleries which may be the tombs of Teotihuacan’s rulers.

The entrance to the underground passage which runs under the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, the most important building of Teotihuacan’s Citadel is located only a few metres away from the temple itself .

A small opening was made and the scanner captured the first images. Angel Mora, from the CNMH Technological Support Unit, and engineer Juan Carlos Garcia, scanner operator, mentioned that when introducing the laser only a 37-meter length was registered for the tunnel. According to Mora, this indicates that the beam bumped into something, maybe rocks, a landside, or a change of level.

The entrance to the 12 metres deep ancient tunnel, and Sergio Gomez in front of the excavation area, where he hopes to open a 1800-year-old burial chamber. Photos by Flickr user DerMikelele.

Although the archaeologists still have two metres to dig before they reach the tunnel’s floor, the images will help them plan how to enter the tunnel. So far, about 200 tons of soil and debris have been removed from the tunnel and nearly 60,000 fragments of artifacts have been recovered.

Specialists of Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) plan to enter the tunnel in about 2 months time, when the vertical shaft is fully excavated. Then, they’ll start scanning the tunnel, which leads away east from the entrance.

The complete process might take another 2 months of work, we must continue exploration the same way done so far, to avoid losing important information that will allow us knowing activities conducted there by Teotihuacan people hundreds of years ago and why they decided to close it, mentioned Gomez Chavez.

Why was the tunnel closed?

It is not known why or when exactly the tunnel was closed. Yet, the excavation of the shaft has already offered some clues, says Gomez. He adds, “several indications suggest that access to the underground passage was closed between 200 and 250 AD, probably after depositing something inside.

The archaeologists now know for certain that the tunnel already existed when the Citadel and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent were constructed. When the tunnel was closed, large stones were thrown in to block its access. It is thought this happened around the same date of a large structure because of its shape thought to be a ball court.

Let’s hope Mr Gomez hasbetter luck than Dr Hawass when reaching the end of the tunnel of Seti I? As so far, no ‘royal remains’ have been found at Teotihuacan,the discovery of some kind of King (albeitlong time deceased)wouldmake foran amazing discovery.

Ipswich Museum celebrates opening of new Egyptian gallery with ‘CSI My Mummy’

colchester MRI scan lady ta-hathor This week sees the opening of the Ipswich Museum‘s new Egyptian Gallery. Visitors will be able tomarvel at the mummy of Lady Tahathor, or find out about daily life in ancient Egypt as they journey down the Nile. But wait… there has been a terrible crime! A thief has broken into the museum, and stolen a very rare and precious Egyptian artefact! Can you- or your kids -help solve the mystery?

This Saturday, on the 7th of August, the Ipswich Museum celebrates the grand reopening of its Egyptian Gallery. At the centre of the new set-up is the mummy of Lady Tahathor, complete with her sarcophagus. Excitingly, the results from the Lady’s recent visit to the hostpital – she needed a CTscan-are shown on video.

Thescan on the 2,500 year old revealedthat Tahathorlikely died of natural causes, aged in her mid-twenties. Between her thighs, an odd bundle was discovered, thought to be the remains of her organs, removed during mummification. As was customary in ancient Egypt, the woman’s heart had been placed back in her body,so it could be weighed againstthe ‘feather of truth’, a vital step on her journey through the afterlife.

The new gallery is interactive, full of stunning objects and shows just how relevant and exciting museums can be for families, school pupils and general visitors

“There does appear to be a bundle of some description between (Ta-Hathor’s) thighs which may be a parcel containing her other organs such as the lungs and intestines,” explains Caronline McDonald, curator of archaeology at Colchester and Ipswich Museums. “In early Egyptian history these were placed in separate containers known as canopic jars but later they were simply wrapped and placed back in the body.”

The exhibition further explains the 70-day process of mummification using a jackal-shaped canopic jar, the golden mask of Syros and the golden mask of Titos Flavios Demetrios a Roman citizen who died in Egypt in the 1st century AD.

A true-to-life portrait of a 2,000 year old young man from Hawara, excavated by renowned 19th century archaeologist Flinders Petrie, is on loan from the Manchester Museum. Other artefacts in the ‘Journey Down the Nile’ exhibition include a rare 4000 year old chair, a beautiful 3000 year old hunting bow, exquisite jewellery, alabaster cosmetic jars and bronze figures of the gods such as Osirisand Bastet, the cat goddess.

The new gallery is interactive, full of stunning objects and shows just how relevant and exciting museums can be for families, school pupils and general visitors, says Councillor Andrew Cann from Ipswich Borough Council. Ancient Egypt is a fascinating subject for many people and this gallery showcases not only beautiful objects and rich stories but also gives a flavour of what is to come in the future redevelopment of Ipswich Museum.

The revamped exhibition includes a tactile wall showing what materials the ancient Egyptians used, as well as a working model of a Shaduf (a water lifting machine, still in use in modern day Egypt). Yet, it’s not just ‘hands on’ at the Ipswich Museum. Have you ever smelled the scent of a lotus flower?

Embalming &CSIMy Mummy

To celebrate the opening, from Tuesday the 10th to Friday the 13th of August, the museum is organising ‘CSI My Mummy’, a quest to retrieve a very rare and precious Egyptian artefact, stolen from the museum. The eventoffers children the opportunity to become part of the crime scene investigation squad looking into the artefact’s theft. They’ll learn how to examine a crime scene, cast teeth marks and dust and lift finger marks using state of the art equipment. But that’s not all. In order to solve the crime, they’ll need to know about ancient Egyptian customs, beliefs and technology as well. Full CSI suits, gloves and masks which the rookie detectives get to keep – will be provided.

On Saturday the 7th of August, join the ‘Excellent Egyptians’ event to take part in ’embalming class’, suitable for children ages 7 years and up.Join the high priest and his apprentice as they prepare the body of the previous pharaoh for the afterlife. Theyll show you how the Egyptians removed the mummy’s organs, which gods they prayed to, what went with the pharaoh on his journey to the afterlife and how they painted the pharaohs tomb.

The Ipswich Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 5pm. Entrance to the museum is free. ‘CSI My Mummy‘ takes place every day from August 10th to 13th. Sessions are 10.30am -1pm (8 -11 years) or 2pm-4.30pm (12-16yrs). ‘CSI My Mummy’ costs 12 per child, and booking (Tel 01473 433691) is essential.

A real archaeological puzzle: Germans reassemble ancient sculptures destroyed in WWII

Lion relief tell halaf restored and pre destruction After nine years of shifting through WWII bombing debris, restoration experts have puzzled back together over 30 Aramaean sculptures and reliefs. Watch the slideshow.

When in November 1943 an air raid on Berlin destroyed the Tell Halaf Museum and its contents, it was thought one of Germany’s most important Near Eastern collections was lost forever. A year later more than 27,000 fragments were recovered from the museum’s ruins and taken to the cellars of the Pergamon Museum for storage. Luckily, archaeologists never throw something away. Restoration of the 3000-year-old sculptures and bas-reliefs eventually started in 2001. Now, after almost a decade, the team is near finished and over 30 Aramaean artefacts are ready to go on display again.

The Ancient City of Tell Halaf

Tell Halaf, in the Syrian desert, was discovered by Max von Oppenheim in 1899, but he did not start excavating until 1911. From 1911 to 1913 and after the First World War, from 1927 to 1929, the mission unearthed a citadel containing two palaces, an inner and outer city wall, gate complexes, several tombs and the so-called ‘cult-room’.

It would be great, if the individual pieces could be brought to the Staatlichen Museen, to be reassembled later. – Max von Oppenheim, 1944

The ancient settlement is dated to the second millennium BC, when after the fall of the Hittite empire, Aramaean tribes crossed the Euphrates and moved into northern Syria, founding small independent Kingdoms.Tell Halaf became the city-stateof Guzana, or Gozan.

Inscriptions found by Oppenheim at Tell Halaf say the Western Palace was constructed by Aramaean ruler Kapara, of the house of Bachiani, probably around the 9th century BC.

Yet, the site was inhabited even earlier. Oppenheim’s team discovered painted pottery, now dated to the sixth and fifth millennium BC.

New excavations at the archaeological site started in 2006.

Click images for a larger version

The Tell Halaf Museum

Oppenheim brought many of the artefacts to Berlin. Yet, the Berlin Royal Museums could not afford purchasing them and the Aramaean treasures were not housed in the Pergamon Museum as originally planned. Instead, they got their own dedicated museum, a converted machine shop in Berlin-Charlotteburg.

The Tell Halaf Museum opened in 1930 and its monumental reconstruction of the Western Palace’s faade was the focus of national and international attention at the time.

World War IIDestruction

In 1943, the museum was hit by a World War IIphosphor bomb, triggering a huge fire. The blaze destroyed all wooden and limestone artefacts, as well as the plaster casts.

The basalt rock statues and bas-reliefs withstood the scorching heat, but not the temperature shock caused by the cold water used in an attempt to extinguish the fire. The surviving Aramaean artefacts shattered in thousand pieces.

Oppenheim did not give up, and envisioned a rescue attempt. It would of course be truly wonderful if the smashed fragments of the stone images could somehow be gathered together and brought to the Staatlichen Museen and reassembled at a later date, Oppenheim requested in 1944.

So it happened. Nine truckloads of debris were gathered and taken to the Pergamon Museum for storage.

Restoring and Reassembling

Only after the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, the Cologne-based Oppenheim Foundation got access to the Tell Halaf fragments, kept in wire baskets on pallets in the museum’s basement. A first survey in 1933 raised the hopes that restoration of at least a few pieces such asthe two large lions from the entrance to the West Palace, the head of a sphinx and the torso of a big bird would be possible. Negotiations between the Max Baron von Oppenheim Foundation, owner of the valuable debris, and the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage commenced.

In 2001, the basalt fragments were brought to their sorting hall, and the tedious reassembly and restoration work started. About 27,000 fragments were spread out on more than 200 wooden palettes, and the pieces that could be identified separated.

Almost ten years later, archaeologists and restorers have reassembled more than 90% of the archaeological collection, with only about 2,000 unidentified fragments left.

After 68 Years, On Display Again

Starting next year, 68 years after their destruction, the restored treasures will again be shown to the public, in an exhibition that willrival the dislay of the Armanaean collection at the Aleppo Museum. A specially designed lighting concept will help present the monumental sculptures and relief panels in their original glory – without covering up their scars and wounds. Accompanying theartefacts will be information on the restoration process, as well as original film footageand photographs from Max von Oppenheim’s excavations.Alongside the now completed restoration project, the excavations that recommenced at Tell Halaf in 2006 will also be presented to the public in the exhibition.

From January 28 to August 14 2011, the artefacts will be shown in the North Wing of thethe Pergamon Museum, in ‘Die geretteten Gtter aus dem Palast vom Tell Halaf‘,after whichthe artefacts will be integrated into the new entrance to the museum’s Near East department.

AMNH Explorer iPhone App – Map of the American Museum of Natural History Goes Mobile and Beyond

In this digital age, largemuseum maps and heavy guide booksbadly needed when visitingthe bigger institutions seem so passe. But how exactlydo you get around then? At the American Museum of Natural History in New York, you can now chart your own course with their AMNH Explorer (video preview) a brand new app that is part custom navigation system and part personal tour guide for the museum’s world-famous halls.

The app promises totake youfrom the edge of the universe to the age of the dinosaurs, providing turn-by-turn directions.When you urgentlyneed to find the bathroom, it will even calculate you the quickest route possible!

Top 5 Museum iPhone apps

AMNH Explorer (DL)
MEanderthal (DL)
Streetmuseum (DL)
i-MIBACTop 40(DL)
Musee du Louvre (DL)

Using the Museums new public WiFi system, Explorer – after AMNHDinosaurs, themuseum’s second mobile app – pinpoints a users location and offers turn-by-turn directions to exhibits, cafs, restrooms, and other facilities as well as information about more than 140 objects and specimens, custom tours, and a dinosaur treasure hunt.

You can choose from a variety of museum-designed tours, either focussing on the Museum’s highlights or in-depth guided tours. Alternatively,you create their own tours on the spot, choosing from a variety of popular exhibits, specimens or artefacts. If you see somethingyou like,share youradventures by posting to Facebook and Twitter, or bookmark yourfavourite objects to receive links with more information to explore from home.

The AMNH Explorer app (freely available for iPhone and iPod Touch) can be downloaded from the iTunes store, or you can borrow one of the 300 devices from the museum (at no charge, although a $250 hold will be placed on your credit card). If you run into any troubles or questions using it, just ask the Museum’s staff, they’ll gladly help you out.

Video: AMNH Explorer App for iPhone & iPod touch

The American Museum of Natural History’s mobile application isn’t the first, but it surely is one of the most impressive ‘Museum Guide’ so far.

Compared to the many ‘social media’ and personalisation options in Explorer, the Louvre‘s mobile endeavour (although it has video) seems overly static.

Any real competition for the AMNH Explorer is most likely to come from the Brooklyn Museum.One of New York’s smallest museums,it was the first (as far as I know) to get a seriously functioning app out there.In addition, through the Brooklyn Museum API,they aregivinginterested developers access to their collection data.

Most entertaining mobile app award still goes to the Smithsonian’s MEanderthal app, whichmorphs you into a caveman in no time.

Click To Watch Video

MEanderthal iPhone app – Morph yourself (and your friends) into a caveman!

If you’re non-African there’s a good chance 1 to 4% of your DNA is ‘Neanderthal’. But how would we look if we were 100% ‘prehistoric man’? Find out with this free app for iPhone and Android.

CLICK TO WATCH

As I tend to repeatedly get lost – or at least seriously disoriented – in the British Museum (I have a huge suspicion that over the centuries the institution evolved so all roads lead to or Roman galleries and/or the gift shop!) I can’t help butbeing a tad jealous. Why aren’t we getting anyneatmobile apps (besides the Museum of London’s Streetmuseum)?

‘A History of the World in100 Objects’ would have made excellent content for a museum-based app?London is the centre of innovation (right?), so could we please have a cool iPhone or Android app to guide us through its most famous museum? Maybe in time for the Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition? I’d love to take the journey through the afterlife on mobile.