Zahi Hawass has a new television show coming out on History Channel tomorrow, called “Chasing Mummies“. We had a look at the trailer and it seems like they are going for a highly pop-culture adventure-like, make-the-big-finds angle to attract the thrill-seekers. You had Ice Road Truckers, now get ready for Sand Dead Diggers starring the High Plains Sifter? It all has to be good for making archeology more exciting and discovering history more fun. But at the same time, you have to wonder if the History Channel, on the heels of Discovery Channel’s King Tut Unwrapped, is mixing up the…
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The Tunit made our country habitable. They built the line of boulder cairns that guide caribou to the river-crossings where they can be ambushed by hunters, and they furnished the rivers with fish-weirs. An Inuit story, from Ancient People of the Arctic by Dr. Robert McGhee Today archaeologists believe that the Tunit, who are mentioned in Inuit stories, flourished in the arctic during ancient times, vanishing around the 14th century AD. Archaeologists first encountered their remains in 1925 at a place called Cape Dorset on Baffin Island. They gave them the name Dorset culture, a term that is still used…
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A metal-detector enthusiast has found one of the biggest ever hoards of Roman coins. It is the biggest hoard ever found in a single vessel in Britain, numbering 52,500 Roman coins of varying denominations. The finder was Dave Crisp, who was out with his metal detector in a field near Frome, in Somerset, when his machine alerted him to what turned out to be an earthenware pot full of coins from the third century AD. The coins were contained in a large earthenware jar and altogether weighed 160kg. It is estimated that they would have been worth the equivalent of…
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Somewhere in the world bones from an ancient skeleton are discovered buried in an unmarked grave. The head is missing, most of the chest is gone and only a small fragment of the pelvis has survived. Researchers are then faced with a problem how do you tell if this person is male or female? The pelvis holds the answer, but only a small amount of it is left. Today a team of researchers lead by John Bytheway and Ann Ross, from North Carolina State University, and Sam Houston State University, announced a solution to thisproblem – in the form of…
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Archaeologists have discovered two ancient Egyptian tombs, belonging to a father and his son, at the Saqqara necropolis in Egypt. The rock-hewn painted tombs were unearthed last week, and with at least one tomb never looted, are considered an important find. The discovery was made during routine excavations at ‘Gisr El-Muder’, west of Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the first pyramid in Egyptian history. Work in the area has been ongoing since 1968. Dr Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s antiquities chief, says the tombs belong to 6th Dynasty government official ‘Shendwa’ and his son, ‘Khonsu’. The older tomb consists of a painted false door…
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King Arthurs Round Table wasnt just the romantic meeting place of Arthurs warriors but a massive building on the edge of a huge Roman city. What’s more, it was a powerful symbol of Roman authority that survived for some 600 years after the Romans left Britain. (Skip to the Video) Thats the bold conclusion made by archaeologists in a new documentary that shows how the monumental Roman structure was transformed from an amphitheatre into a fortified stronghold. King Arthurs Round Table Revealed explores this and other mysteries surrounding by the iconic British hero King Arthur. The documentary is an exploration…
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A previously unknown Roman villa has been discovered in England by archaeologists excavating an area in preparation for a pipeline to be laid near Tewkesbury. The excavation has uncovered part of a wealthy Roman villa north of Bredons Norton in Gloucestershire. Two burials pre-dating the villa have also been discovered. According to Stuart Foreman, an archaeologist from Oxford Archaeology, the most likely dating of the villa is the late-third to the mid-fourth centuries AD. He said: So far we have discovered a masonry building with plaster walls. It’s not impossible that it’s a shrine, but the most likely explanation is…
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The July issue, volume 114.3, of the American Journal of Archaeology (AJA) is out now. This month’s issue brings six main articles on subjects ranging from the statues of Manitushu, the culture of late Bronze Age Mycenaean settlements in Thessaly and the legendary ideals of Greek womanhood. While the emphasis is heavily on the Classical period, with some articles on the Bronze Age and the Akkadian empire as well, there is little inclusion of archaeology of the post-Classical world, save for reviews of two publications looking at Medieval pottery and an 11th century shipwreck. The lead article, by Karen Stern,…
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The debate over the origin of the Dead Sea Scrolls may end up coming down to a very basic element water. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in the 1940s and 50s near the site of Qumran in the modern day West Bank. Its a mystery as to how they got there. Recent archaeological work by Yuval Peleg and Yitzhak Magen suggests that Qumran had nothing to do with the scrolls. It was first used as an outpost by the Hasmonean army and later became a centre of pottery production. They suggest that the scrolls were deposited in the caves…
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An unusual Roman burial has been uncovered at a site near Hereford. The female, buried in the first or second century AD, was unusually strong and is buried in a well made coffin. Robin Jackson, senior project manager from Worcestershire council’s Historic Environment and Archaeology Service, was excavating at the site. He said: We’ve been working on the site for three months now and four burials have been found under a building. One of these is slightly unusual, in that it contains the remains of a woman who was very strongly built. She had obviously done hard physical work during…