Victor Mair, Professor of Chinese Language and Literature, University of Pennsylvania, and member of the scholarly team for this exhibition, presents an illustrated lecture discussing current research about the Tarim mummies. Hundreds of well-preserved mummies have been found at an ancient cemetary in the Tarim Basin, dating from 1800BCE to 200CE. Also at the site are numerous poles, thought to be phallic symbols.
Spring Equinox is one of only four times all year that the public are allowed access to the stone circle of Stonehenge, in Wiltshire. The event will begin at sunrise, approximately 5am, and continue until 8.30am. Expect to be joined by up to 5,000 revellers, including Druids and archaeologists, as the sun is exactly above the equator.
Pre-eminent archaeologist of the Neolithic Near East
British archaeologist, James Mellaart, was born in London in 1925. His family moved to Holland where his father worked as an expert in Dutch old master paintings and drawings. At the outbreak of World War II, Mellaart secured a position at the museum in Leiden, where he worked until the war ended. Then he enrolled in University College in London where he studied egyptology. His studies led him to join the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, Turkey.
In the early 1950s, he began an archaeological survey of Anatolia. His first dig at Hacular produced a cache of painted pottery and female figurines that led to speculation about an early culture that worshipped a mother-goddess. Then, in November 1961, he began excavating a 20-meter high mound on the plains of Konya known locally as Çatalhöyük. There, he unearthed thirteen levels of occupation dating back over nine thousand years that contained the remains of a population center housing up to 10,000 people at its zenith.
Archaeologists in South Africa have recently unearthed some of the earliest evidence of human behavior - a cache of ostrich eggs dating back 60,000 years, etched with intricate geometric designs.
The abstract carvings are signs of what archaeologists call 'symbolic thinking,' a capacity particular to Homo sapiens. Unlike earlier hominids, our brains allow us to affix meaning to objects, to draw associations, to recognize and create symbols.
Symbolic thinking is the roots of writing, language and art; it is, to risk grandiosity, what makes us human.
So when the team at Diepkloof Rock Shelter, led by prehistorian Pierre-Jean Texier, dug up the 60,000-year-old decorated ostrich eggs, they knew they'd found something special. The eggs suggest that we 'became human' - i.e. started creating art, decorating objects and thinking symbolically - 20,000 earlier than scholars had originally thought.
Blombos Cave is a limestone cave site in South Africa famous for archaeological discoveries which have altered scholars' conception of the origins of modern thought. Christopher Henshilwood, an archaeologist from State University of New York (Stony Brook), found two pieces of ochre decorated with intricate etching patterns, a collection of necklace beads and bone tools which dated to 77,000 years ago. The artifacts are evidence of symbolic thought in humans, 40,000 years earlier than scientists had originally hypothesized.
The Yorkshire Museum in York, England, was established in 1830, covering themes of archaeology, astronomy, biology and geology. It is also the home to the 1,000 year old Cawood sword, which is regarded as one of the finest Viking swords ever discovered. The Museum was founded by the Yorkshire Philosphical Society to accommodate their geological and archaeological collections.
The Yorkshire Museum re-opens on 1 August 2010 after a large refurbishment project which will extend the Museum to hold five new themed galleries displaying some of Britain's finest archaeological treasures, rare animals, birds and fossils.
The ancient Latin city of Gabii was a city-state that was both a neighbour of, and a rival to, Rome in the first millennium BC. Gabii is located in the region of Italy once known as Latium. The site of Gabii was occupied since at least the 10th century BC until its decline in the second and third centuries AD. Major excavations have been carried out on the cemetery of Osteria dell'Osa in Gabii. These tombs have been divided into 14 groups, with each group exhibiting a set of distinctive traditions and each believed to represent a different community which has settled in the area.
Archaeologists in South Africa have recently unearthed some of the earliest evidence of human behavior - a cache of ostrich eggs dating back 60,000 years, etched with intricate geometric designs. 
A multi-national team of Egyptian and European archaeologists excavating at the site of 
