The Archaeology News Network

A stone discovered by chance on the Isle of Canna is Scotland's first known example of a bullaun "cursing stone", experts have revealed.  The bullaun stone was found in an old graveyard [Credit: National Trust for Scotland] Dating from about 800 AD, the stones are associated with early Christian crosses - of which there is one on the isle.  It was found in an old graveyard by a National Trust for Scotland (NTS)...

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History’s most famous hearing, the trial of Socrates, which took place some 2,500 years ago, will be repeated through state-of-the-art technology and may deliver a new verdict: Will the Athenian philosopher be found innocent or guilty?  The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787) [Credit: Wiki Commons] The initiative belongs to the Onassis Foundation and is set to take place on Friday, May 25. Eminent European and...

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In the spring of 1887 a Lebanese villager named Mohammed Sherif discovered a well near Sidon that led to two underground chambers. These turned out to be a royal tomb containing 18 magnificent marble sarcophagi dating back to the fifth century BC. The Ottoman sultan, Abdul Hamid II, ordered the sarcophagi exhumed, placed on rails and carried down to the Mediterranean coast, where they were sent by ship to Istanbul. The largest...

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Ancient rock art has been likened to a prehistoric form of Facebook by a Cambridge archaeologist.  Cambridge archaeologist Mark Sapwell believes he has discovered an ‘archaic version’ of social networking site Facebook [Credit: Cambridge News] Mark Sapwell, who is a PhD archaeology student at St John’s College, believes he has discovered an “archaic version” of the social networking site, where users share thoughts and...

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Ancient tombs are among intriguing archaeological finds unearthed during major redevelopment work at historic Wakefield Cathedral.  Archaeologists carry out excavation work inside Wakefield Cathedral. [Credit: Jonathan Gawthorpe] Cathedral chiefs are inviting the public to view the historic artefacts before they are re-buried.  The excavations have revealed worship has taken place on the site of the 800-year-old...

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Events marking the Pontian Greek genocide in Asia Minor are to be held in Athens and Thessaloniki on May 19. Hellenism all across the world will commemorate the tragic historical event.  The date has been chosen by Parliament as a national memorial day to commemorate the massacre of some 353,000 ethnic Pontian Greeks (Black Sea coast) in 1919 by Ottoman forces.  Evzoni of the Presidential Guard appeared, for the...

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Roman coins more than 2,000 years old have been discovered in Staffordshire in what experts described today as a significant find.  The silver coins were unearthed by metal detecting enthusiast father-of-three Scott Heeley, from Hednesford.  At least one of 242 coins bears the head of Roman politician and military general Mark Antony, the loyal friend of Julius Caesar.  Experts say it is the most exciting...

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Danjiangkou reservoir is located in the northwest of Hubei province and southwest of Henan province at the headwaters area of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project.  Cores, flakes, scrapers and choppers collected in Danjiangkou reservoir area. 1-3 Double platforms core, 4.-5 Cortical platform flake, 6 Plain platform flake, 7 Double-edges scraper, 8 Multiple-edges scraper site, 9 Single-edge scraper,...

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A cist burial (burial chamber) was opened by a team of archaeologists headed by K. P. Rao of the University of Hyderabad, as part of the ongoing archaeological excavation at the megalithic site on the campus of SR&BGNR Government Degree College here on Thursday.  The team launched excavation of two stone circles and one stone circle with cairn pack burial of the megalithic site early this month.  Around 20...

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Five hundred years ago, a Native American village hugged the banks of the Catawba River in present-day Morganton.  Sam Avery (left), Emma Richardson, Abra Johgart, and archeologist David Moore hold timbers that will be used to build the wall around a recreation of the native american town that existed in Morganton 500 years ago [Credit: Charlotte Observer] Archaeologist Emma Richardson, who has dug many artifacts from the...

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The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs announced yesterday that a high-level government official returned six pre-Columbian artifacts to Ambassador Carlos Bonilla Sandoval for repatriation to Costa Rica.  According to an official release by France Diplomatie,  Jean-Paul Balzamo made the return of six ceramic and pottery objects, some made into human and animal shapes. The Agence France-Presse quoted a...

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The Bureau of Land Management is responding to vandalism at rock art sites located on public lands, including the archaeological and historic site of Land Hill.  Land Hill is part of the Santa Clara River Reserve – a 6,500-acre area of public land collaboratively managed by BLM and the cities of Ivins and Santa Clara, in part to protect the many prehistoric sites found there, including a high concentration of rock art sites...

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May 29 is the day when the Turks celebrate their conquest of Constantinople in 1453, a day when the metropolitan municipality puts on its annual grand celebration. We can expect a symbolic boat to be pulled over the heights of Beyoğlu and a re-enactment of the final assault, complete with fireworks that mimic the fire and thunder of Fatih Sultan Mehmed II’s cannon.  Modern painting of Mehmed II and the Ottoman Army...

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Scientists have discovered fossilized bones near Utah's iconic Arches National Park representing a new species of raptor dinosaur that was about the size of a coyote, the state's top paleontologist announced on Friday.  The raptor was among several discovered at or near Doelling's Bowl Bone Bed, about 230 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, which has yielded several new species in the last two decades and is thought to be...

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Pollution is warming the atmosphere through summer thunderstorm clouds, according to a computational study published May 10 in Geophysical Research Letters. How much the warming effect of these clouds offsets the cooling that other clouds provide is not yet clear. To find out, researchers need to incorporate this new-found warming into global climate models.  Pollution makes thunderstorm clouds bigger. Their anvil-shaped tops...

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Douglas McCauley and Paul DeSalles did not set out to discover one of the longest ecological interaction chains ever documented. But that's exactly what they and a team of researchers – all current or former Stanford students and faculty – did in a new study published in Scientific Reports.  The researchers found a link between replacing native trees with non-native palms and the health of the manta ray population off Palmyra...

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Researchers at MIT, NASA and elsewhere have detected a possible planet, some 1,500 light years away, that appears to be evaporating under the blistering heat of its parent star. The scientists infer that a long tail of debris -- much like the tail of a comet -- is following the planet, and that this tail may tell the story of the planet's disintegration. According to the team's calculations, the tiny exoplanet, not much larger than...

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Archaeologists say they’re poised to unravel the mystery behind a set of “hugely significant” ancient Aboriginal remains discovered near lake Cargelligo last year.  Aerial view of Lake Cargelligo [Credit: Lachlan Shire Council] A man found the remains near an old water course late last February while working on a property outside Lake Cargelligo.  The remains – confirmed to be tens of thousands of years old –have...

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Babylon's Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but heritage appears to be no match for Iraq's booming oil industry in a dispute over a new pipeline.  A general view shows the archaeological site of Babylon, south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad. Babylon's Hanging Gardens were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, but heritage appears to be no match for Iraq's booming oil industry in a...

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The Liuhuaishan site is an important early Paleolithic site found in the Bose Basin. In December 2008, Scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Youjiang Museum for Nationalities, Bose, carried out a short survey around this site and found three new Paleolithic localities with a collection of 37 stone artifacts. This new finds will help better understand the...

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