Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Strange Elongated Skulls Discovered
Archeologists in Siberia have discovered an unusual series of ancient, mishapen skulls.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Archaeology - Discovery World
Discovery World in Milwaukee, Wisconsin presents "Archaeology: The Distant Mirror", an artistic and thought-provoking look at how our city has evolved.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Groundbreaking New Series coming soon
Join Archaeologist and Presenter James Balme in his brand new Archaeology/History series DIG 9660 which is currently in development for release on DVD from November 2009. Written, presented and produced by James the series covers many subjects from the Prehistoric period through to the Norman Conquest of Britain.
James is Director and Producer of Historic Media Productions providing film and documentary specialist services for history and heritage projects in England and in particular The Middlewich heritage festivals since 2001. James has himself made many exciting archaeological discoveries duing the course of his research over the past 30 years.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
River Archaeology - A Neolithic Discovery
Archaeologist & Historian James Balme is well known for his work and discoveries of ancient artefacts left behind in the soils and rivers that surround us by our ancestors here in Britain. James discovered an ancient settlement in a village close to his home almost 12 years ago where he found evidence dating back over 8000 years of human occupation. Recently James turned his attentions to serarching a river that has run through the settlement for thousands of years and the results of his new investigations are to say the least stunning with a Roman bronze bracelet and flint tools already recovered.
During the making of this short film James recovered a Neolithic flint tool as the cameras were present. See for yourself this wonderful flint implement as it sees the light of day for the first time in over 6000 years. Buried deep in the river bed James recovered it with nothing more technical than a spade and a sand sieve and plenty of determination and belief in what he researches.
This find is yet another important piece in the historical jigsaw of the area that James is slowly but surely putting back together.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tsunami Disaster
A collection of footage from the horrible Asian Tsuanami from 2005 and the clean up following, in hopes we don't forget about helping others. Video footage and stills Please don't bother posting rude, or profane posts as I will delete them daily. Respect and prayers only!!
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Jamestown Archeology Project - Current Dig
A brief interview with Dr. William Kelso, Chief Archeologist at Jamestown about the current dig site and recent discoveries.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
1607 First Landing
An incredile, original outdoor drama about the settlement of Jamestown & Virginia beach that runs now till Sept 3rd at Fort Story in Virginia Beach, Virginia Thursday thru Sunday @ 6pm. More info check out www.firstlandingfoundation.com
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Jamestown Settlement Discovered - VOA Story
A Treasure Trove of History Long believed washed away, archeologists have found the original Jamestown settlement and are digging up more than they expected.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Dor Underwater Excavations 2008
Israel's Channel 2 report on the ongoing underwater archeological excavations at Dor \ Tantura beach in Israel.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
WWII. Lo Sbarco in Sicilia su Archaeological Bunker
On July 10th 1943, in the morning, the British 8th Army and the US 7th Army arrived in the Gulf of Noto and in the Gulf of Gela, respectively. The military fortress of Augusta and Siracusa, while having the largest number of defensive devices in the island, capitulated soon, almost without offering any resistance. In 39 days the Allies completed the invasion. More than 15000 died.
La mattina del 10 Luglio 1943 l'8ª Armata britannica e la 7ª Armata statunitense misero piede rispettivamente nel Golfo di Noto e in quello di Gela. La piazzaforte militare di Augusta e Siracusa, pur avendo il maggior numero di dispositivi difensivi dell'isola, capitolò subito, quasi senza opporre resistenza. In 39 giorni l'esercito anglo-americano completò l'invasione. Erano morte più di 15.000 persone.
Questo clip è tratto dal documentario di Ezio Costanzo "Sicilia 1943" edito da Le Nove Muse.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Archaeological Proofs for the Book of Mormon
The LDS (Mormon) Church is truly and American Church. The Book of Mormon tells of a family leaving Jerusalem and traveling to the Americas. It also tells of Christ visiting the Americas and setting up his church among the people. This video was done with the permission of Good News for LDS Org.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Little Salt Spring Archaeological Excavation
University of Miami professor Dr. John Gifford explores Little Salt Spring and describes a few of the challenges of working an underwater archaeological excavation.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Irish Archaeological Field School from RTE Nationwide
Do you want to earn university credits by undertaking archaeological fieldwork and excavation at beautiful Irish historic sites under the tuition of leading experts?
Would you like to experience life as an archaeologist while immersing yourself in the richness of the Irish life?
If the answer to one of more of these questions is YES, then the Irish Archaeological Field School is for you.
We are Irelands leading provider of university accredited, site based archaeological research and training. The ethos of the school is to provide an opportunity for students and enthusiasts of archaeology and anthropology to experience at first hand the excitement of archaeological excavation within an established research framework.
Excavations are undertaken in a research environment led by a team of highly qualified and experienced archaeologists using the most sophisticated technologies, including GPS topographical survey, geophysics, photo-planning and more.
In addition to the archaeological excavations, an extensive programme of cultural activities is on offer, including tours of historic sites, folklore, reconstructions, re-enactments, language, music, food and more.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Forbidden Archeology - Secret Discoveries of Early Man
It's Indiana Jones meets The X-Files in this intriguing film that tackles the age-old question "Where did we come from?
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
One of China's Greatest Archaeological Discoveries
One of China's Greatest Archaeological Discoveries.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Top 10 Archeological Discoveries
Terracotta Warriors to the Rosetta Stone, we present 10 amazing archeological discoveries.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Underwater Archaeology: Excavating the Nile with Dr Hawass
Dr Zahi Hawass examines some of the finds being excavated from the bottom of the River Nile near Aswan, explaining that the river was used as a trade route, with boats carrying various materials and goods along the Nile. Sometimes, boats would sink and with them the goods they carried, which is what is being excavated. Dr Hawass explains that archaeological discoveries are not only found in the desert sands, but also in the waters of the river.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Visual Interaction Tool for Archaeology
We present VITA (Visual Interaction Tool for Archaeology), an experimental collaborative mixed reality system for offsite visualization of an archaeological dig.
Our system allows multiple users to visualize the dig site in a mixed reality environment in which tracked, see-through, head-worn displays are combined with a multi-user, multi-touch, projected table surface, a large screen display, and tracked hand-held displays.
We focus on augmenting existing archaeological analysis methods with new ways to organize, visualize, and combine the standard 2D information available from an excavation (drawings, pictures, and notes) with textured, laser rangescanned 3D models of objects and the site itself. Users can combine speech, touch, and 3D hand gestures to interact multimodally with the environment. Preliminary user tests were conducted with archaeology researchers and students, and their feedback is presented here. (Authors: Hrvoje Benko, Edward Ishak, Steven Feiner, Columbia University.
Largest stone age settlement found near Chennai
In what could be a major find, a large number of stone tools and weapons said dating back to more than 80,000 years ago were unearthed from a dry lake bed in Singadivakkam, a remote hamlet some 65 km south of Chennai, a couple of days ago.
The discovery, by Professor S Rama Krishna Pisipaty and his student S Shanmugavelu of the department of Sanskrit and culture at Sri Chandrasekaharendra Saraswathi Viswa Mahavidyalaya in Enathur, Kancheepuram, was part of an ongoing excavation work partly funded by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
They have so far found hand-axes, choppers, scrappers and borers as well as microlithic tools (small stone implements) and pointed tools of different sizes and shapes. Most could have been used for hunting and fishing, they said.
The huge number of tools found, said to be over 200, at the one-hectare-site indicates that it could have hosted a large human settlement, Prof Pisipaty said. Most of the settlers may have migrated from the northern parts of the country, he added. "The settlement, as can be guaged from the tools found, shows transition from early to middle Paleolithic age, also known as the Stone Age," Prof Pisipaty noted.
This period, the geo-archeologist added, encompassed the first widespread use of technology as humans progressed from simple to complex development stages. It is generally said to have begun approximately 500,000 years ago and ended about 6,000 BCE with the development of agriculture, the domestication of certain animals and the smelting of copper ore, he said. It is termed pre-historic since writing hadn't begun. In the early Paleolithic period, each clan or family group regarded itself as "the people" and excluded others, Prof Pisipaty said. Strangers were not even thought of as human. In this settlement, the community identity started becoming more important than individual identity, he said.
Unlike other similar finds, including the first Paleolithic tool (a hand axe) discovered at Pallavaram in 1863 by British geo-archeologist Robert Bruce Foote, the one at Singadivakkam is, Prof Pisipaty said, unique at least for one reason: The site has evidence in the form of tools and weapons showing the transition from the Stone Age to the modern age. In the rest of the Paleolithic sites discovered so far, he added, there had been a break in the sequence. This makes it the largest Paleolithic settlment near Chennai, he said.
The professor and his student also discovered fossil remains of animals and trees at the site. "There are a few research institutes in the country, including IIT Madras, where they cane be tested for age and we plan to send them there," Prof Pisipaty said.
Professor Pisipaty and Shanmugavelu, who had been conducting excavations at the site since February 2009, began with basic research, including field visits. A large number of pebbles in different forms and the nature of soil convinced them of the importance of the area. Before starting the exercise, Pisipaty made a presentation to the authorities and got permission through the state archeological department. "Kancheepuram was ideal for early settlers with its large number of safe water bodies a lifeline for any human settlement," Pisipaty, who did his doctoral thesis at Benaras University in Lucknow, told TOI.
Source from great site : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Sifting through South Africa's archaeologically rich lands
Morris Sutton, a Tennessee factory-manager-turned-archaeologist, feels the wonder of hunting for fossils and Stone Age tools and uncovering a time when mankind was in its adolescence.
When Morris Sutton picks a chipped, ordinary-looking rock from the soil, he's the first to touch the stone tool since an ancestor of man used it nearly 2 million years ago.
In his dim, cool cavern at the bottom of a 30-foot ladder, he feels the wonder of it, breathing in the loamy smell, peering through a window deep into time.
Sutton, 47, an archaeologist, was a Memphis, Tenn., factory manager who grew tired of the flat horizon of commerce and manufacturing and of laying off fellow employees.
So he quit to pursue his hobby: hunting for fossils and Stone Age tools. He went back to college to study archaeology and later moved to South Africa, where he is a postdoctoral researcher with the Institute for Human Evolution at Witwatersrand University.
South Africa is a mecca for archaeologists; its fossils cover an unbroken sweep of prehistoric time, from the first smudge of life through the dinosaur era to early hominids and beyond. Some of the world's most significant fossils were discovered here: the Taung child, Little Foot and, in April, a young male hominid, believed to be a new species, Australopithecus sediba, whose remains appear to be nearly 2 million years old.
"You can look at the latest forms of life and the first evidence of life and all the way through the dinosaurs, all the way through the first emergence of hominids and our ancestors, right through to today. There's nowhere else in the world where you can find that," says Andrea Leenen, head of the Paleontological Scientific Trust, a South Africa not-for-profit organization that sponsors paleontological research.
At Witwatersrand University, the fossil treasures include several eggs of a small dinosaur species, preserved just as they were hatching. Thousands more items sit on shelves and in boxes, not yet chipped out of their rock casings. It will take decades to process them.
Fossil hunters are famous for their egos, jostling for media attention and research funds and holding sniffy debates about whose find is the oldest or the closest ancestor of man.
The soft-spoken Sutton doesn't fit the stereotype of an Indiana Jones-style wunderkind, desperate to unearth the oldest human ancestor. He calibrates his assertions cautiously as he clambers over a rough, dry landscape pocked with caves.
He's excavating at Swartkrans in the Sterkfontein Valley, pulling out specimens more than a million years old. He's the kind of man who gets excited about an almost imperceptible layering of different-colored soils — deposits from different millenniums, windows into different times.
Yet he could dig here for years without finding that once-in-a lifetime breakthrough — a missing link, a new species, evidence of early cooking. The hole might yield nothing new.
"Well," he pauses hesitantly. "You don't have to discover anything new. You can look at things from a different angle, bring a new perspective."
It's now possible, for example, to analyze the microscopic residue of meat or plants left on stone tools nearly 2 million years old and learn what the tools were used for.
More than a third of the world's hominid fossils were found in one small area at Sterkfontein. The stone tools here are from the era when humankind's predecessors and related primates were evolving, a million years ago and more. Homo ergaster is one such predecessor, whereas Australopethicus robustus was a chunky, large-jawed branch on the same family tree that died out.
"This is a very important phase in humankind's evolution. It's like our adolescence," Sutton says.
In past decades, scientists at Swartkrans turned up evidence of some of the earliest controlled use of fire, as much as 1.5 million years ago. They found evidence that robustus coexisted with early humans. Scientists can only guess why they died out while the others continued to evolve.
Sutton gestures with quiet pride at an excavated area not much bigger than a double bed: That's five years' digging there. He and his South African assistant, Andrew Phaswana, 35, scrape away the soil layer by layer, unearthing as many riddles as answers.
Phaswana sits in the sunshine, using tweezers to sort through a chunky pile that looks like breakfast cereal. It's run-of-the-mill stuff: thousands of bones and teeth of tiny mouse-like rodents and chips of stone that went flying as the ancients fashioned their tools. He classifies them and bags them up.
Like Sutton, Phaswana once had an unsatisfying job, as a gas station attendant. He loves the thrill of finding huge, flat robustus molars, probably used for grinding fibrous vegetation such as roots.
"I like this job because I learn more every day. I learn where I come from and how the old people were behaving and how they were eating and how they used fire," Phaswana said. In the study of mankind's ancestors and related species, blind alleys, contested theories and revisions are the norm. So Sutton is cautious about jumping to conclusions.
The fossils of burned bones found at Swartkrans don't prove that man's ancestors cooked their meat. Sutton would want clearer evidence, like bones that had been butchered as well as burned.
He's also on the lookout for proof that robustus used stone tools. The earliest stone tools predate the earliest Homo species by several hundred thousand years.
"It could be that we haven't found the earliest Homo yet. Or it could be that robustus were using tools," he says.
Swartkrans contains at least three Stone Age-era deposits. Sutton needs funding to excavate the two older areas, which have both yielded hominid fossils.
"As an archaeologist, there's a huge attraction that you are picking up something like a stone tool that maybe some hominid dropped a million years ago."
Source from Great Site :http://www.latimes.com
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Underground peep show reveals artifacts of life
Walking along the scrubby countryside of central Turkey, Compton Tucker — bandana draped over his head and under his straw hat — looks like he's hauling a pushmower back to a tool shed.
But the boxy equipment that he's dragging isn't cutting down weeds, it's actually a kind of radar that can see underground. Like a beachcomber with a metal detector, Tucker and colleagues walk up to 10 miles (16 kilometers) a day, seven days a week, across sweltering ancient Turkish archaeological grounds in search of bone fragments, pottery and tombs.
Tucker, an earth scientist with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Joe Nigro, a geographic information systems (GIS) specialist and archaeologist working at Goddard through Science Systems and Application Inc., are combining NASA satellite data and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) technology to map and protect the famed spot where Alexander the Great cut fabled King Midas' Gordian knot. As legend has it, Midas dedicated the oxcart of his peasant-turned-king father, Gordius, to the gods by tying it up with an intricate knot. When Alexander arrived, he tried and failed to untie the knot and remove the symbolic cart, so he sliced through it with his sword. (A Gordian knot has since become a metaphor for solving a seemingly unsolvable problem with a bold stroke.)
In the past, NASA radar has been used on satellites and spacecrafts to detect ice deposits and to explore deep canyons on the moon's surface. On Earth, GPR has been used to survey Civil War cemeteries and battlefields. The radar works by bouncing pulses of microwave energy off buried objects to create a subterranean snapshot.
"We don't want to be limited by our eyes, so we use electromagnetic spectrum radar to look beneath the surface," Tucker said.
Researchers spent three weeks at the site compiling information about human settlement, artifacts and agriculture, using tools that traditional archaeologists usually don't have access to.
Archaeology is hard work, not to mention expensive, so an entire site is rarely excavated, said Philip Mink II, an archaeologist from the University of Kentucky, who was not involved with the mission.
"GPR and other geophysical techniques allow us to collect data on parts of the site we might otherwise not be able to investigate," Mink said. "These investigations may locate archaeological features such as houses, tombs, burials, trash and storage pits, and ceramic firing areas that can be targeted for excavation given the limited money and time field archaeologists often face."
A refined search will prevent trampling of burial sites, as well as dissuade the scourge of the archaeologist — looters.
"One of the reasons we do the work, and are very passionate about it, is that we feel like what we're doing is fighting against looters and plunderers who would find the more valuable things, trash everything else, and send them to Switzerland where anyone can buy them," Tucker said.
"The context of how these objects were buried is completely lost, and instead they just become some sort of trophy on someone's mantle," Tucker added.
Both Tucker and Nigro anticipate the techniques developed by the mission will be applicable to many other culturally sensitive archaeological sites, such as the Hasanlu site in Iran and Tikal in Guatemala.
Source from Great Site : http://www.msnbc.msn.com
The oldest mummies in the world are found in Chile South America not Egypt
Learning global history will give you a better global and rich view of your own history. Research the Chinchorros Mummies.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Peru Archaeology Vacation - Juanita Mummy, Arequipa - Peru
The depository for the preservation and exhibition of objects and mummies found atop the volcanoes that surround the city.These mummies were offered to Apu deities as an appeal for bountiful seasonal harvests and to prevent volcanic eruptions.
Most of those ritually sacrificed were children and adolescents.The most famous of the mummies is the Lady of Ampato, a girl who was between 12 and 14 years old, found buried in the ice atop Mount Ampato.Also known as the Ice Queen or Juanita, mummy died sometime between 1440 and 1450.
She was found in 1995 by anthropologist Johan Reinhard and his Peruvian climbing partner Miguel Zarate.Remarkably well-preserved after 500 years, Juanita was subject to biological tests on her lungs, liver, and muscle tissue.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Mummy Move - Burke Museum, Seattle
Burke archaeologists move a 2,000 year old mummy and a 3,000 year old coffin from storage to the museum gallery for temporary public display.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Discovery of a mummy in Egypt
Archaeologists discover an ancient mummy in Saqqara in Egypt.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Archaeology Dig - The Preparation Stage - Lincoln County, NC 2009
Archaeologist, January Porter, and her assistant Ed, lay the grid for the Keener Farmstead site near the hamlet of Pumpkin Center in northeast Lincoln County, North Carolina. Preliminary research shows the original deed dating back to 1751. The structure and its significance has yet to be determined. Stay tuned.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Glasgow Archaeological Dig 2007 clydevideo 38 videos Subscribe Edit Subscription Loading...
Archaeologists from around the world came to Glasgow to dig at the site of what will be the M74 road.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Forensic Reconstruction of Ancient Mummies
A series of mummies & skeletons artistically reconstructed to represent a living version based on bone structure.This was done as a challenge, and the painted versions of these photos are in no way intended to be the FINAL WORD regarding any of these mummies' actual appearances--real or imagined.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Smuggs - Smugglers' Notch Archaeology Dig
Join archaeologist Corbett Torrance and discover the past on Vermont's Lamoille River. Abenaki artifacts from 1,000 years ago have been discovered in the river valley below Smugglers' Notch, and we invite you to join the dig or take a tour of the site. Special thanks to Underhill resident Nathan Steinbauer for this submission.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Historic St. Augustine, Archaeological Dig
panish Colonial St. Augustine: a Resource for Teachers provides content and classroom materials pertaining to Florida's Spanish colonial heritage. It includes materials on Native American life, early exploration, settlement, missions, Fort Mose, and much more. Everything on this site — artwork, readings, primary sources, etc. — may be reproduced freely for use in the schools.
Teachers can obtain background on Spanish colonial Florida from "Links" and "Readings." For curriculum, consult "Lesson Plans" or design your own lesson using resources from "Readings," "Primary Sources," "Maps," and "Images." A timeline of Florida history is available to guide learning.
Web concept developed from the Landmarks of American History workshop "Between Columbus and Jamestown: Spanish St. Augustine." Creation of this website is a joint project of the Florida Humanities Council and the University of Florida Libraries and the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History, sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities through its "We the People" initiative.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Digging for Trouble - Israel/Palestine
Are Israeli settlers taking control of archaeological digs to manipulate
history and consolidate claims to Palestinian land? Some Israeli
archaeologists are starting to speak out.
The Palestinian village of Silwan is located just below the ancient City of
David, in the heart of Jerusalem. Archaeological digs here are under the
control of the right wing group, ELAD. The constant threat of demolition
hovers over people's houses. It's part of ELAD's program to take over and
occupy large parts of Silwan and make it Jewish?, complains archaeologist Dr
Rafi Greenberg. Locals have already defeated one plan to destroy close to
100 houses. But despite this victory, the nature of Silwan has changed
beyond recognition. As Greenberg laments?The place I knew as an Arab
village with archaeology, turned into a place with armed guards, a place
with amplified symbols of Israeli presence?.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
16th Archaeological Excavation Site
The 16th Archaeological Excavation Site stage in campaign mode of Tekken 6.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Archaeologists Unearth Oldest Hebrew Text
Israeli archaeologists claim to have unearthed the oldest Hebrew text ever found. Discovered while excavating a fortress city, apparently it dates back from the 10th century B.C. and refers to the Bible when King David slew Goliath. Here's more on the story.
Archaeologists uncover Israel's most foregone past near the ancient battlefield in the Valley of Elah. It is now home to wineries and a satellite station.
The professor of archaeology at the Hebrew University led the archaeology excavations.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
2008 Yamhill Field School, Oregon State University
Channel 8 news interview at the Oregon State University Yamhill Archaeology Field School.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Archaeological Excavation of the Most Ancient Arched Gate in the world
The Archaeological Excavation of the most Ancient Arched Gate in the world - The Canaanite City of Ashkelon (1850 BCE)Israel -1
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Archaeological excavation in Puwera
Student explains archaeeological excavations e.g. pits, drains, walls and postholes. Sound affected by wind, but basically it is an irrigation system wuth floors.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations.
Monday, September 20, 2010
NASA to Fly Historic Jamestown Artifact, Mementos on Space Shuttle
NASA, intently focused on leading the next phase of American exploration, is preparing to honor those who led one of the first phases 400 years ago.
NASA will fly a nearly 400-year-old artifact unearthed at the site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas into space aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis scheduled for launch in March. Upon completion of the flight, the artifact -- a lead cargo tag reading "Yames Towne" -- will have logged more than four million miles over four centuries traveling from England to Jamestown, then to and back from the International Space Station.
This lead cargo tag -- which readsImage to right: This lead cargo tag -- which reads "Yames Towne" -- is believed to have been discarded from a shipping crate or trunk arriving at Jamestown, the site of the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, from England in about 1611. NASA will fly this artifact and two sets of Jamestown commemorative coins aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis in March 2007. Credit: NASA
Two sets of Jamestown commemorative coins, recently issued by the U.S. Mint, will also fly aboard Atlantis.
Virginia Secretary of Technology Aneesh Chopra presented the artifact and coins to NASA Langley Research Center Director Lesa Roe at AeroSpace Day in Richmond Wednesday.
"This exploratory shuttle flight connects our adventurous past with the innovation and continued intellectual curiosity that guides our future as we commemorate America's 400th," Secretary Chopra said. "We embrace that future by contemplating Jamestown's pivotal role as the place where our nation's defining characteristics -- democracy, free enterprise, cultural diversity and the spirit of exploration -- took root."
The tag, found at the bottom of a well during an archeological dig at the site of James Fort on Jamestown Island, is most likely a discarded shipping tag from a crate or a trunk arriving from England around 1611. It indicates the strengthening of trade patterns during the colony's early days.
Archaeological excavation at Punta Negra, Livingston Island
Three rock shelters corresponding to the period of 1820-1830 were excavated
during this study. One shelter was shown to be a fire place, one shown to be
shoe storage, and the last shown to be a sleeping room.
Geographic Coverage
Imagery ©2010 NASA - |
Aerospace Archaeologists "Dig" Spaceport's Past
Thomas Penders, the cultural resource manager for the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing's Civil Engineer Squadron, is not afraid to get his hands dirty.
The archaeologist for the squadron, Penders is one of about only 20 professional archaeologists in the burgeoning field of aerospace archaeology. The responsibilities of the cultural resource manager encompass all the historic launch complexes, cemeteries, and launch-related buildings on Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and their related areas, such as the Malabar Training Annex.
He shares information with Kennedy Space Center's Historic Preservation Officer Barbara Naylor. Penders also is the facility manager of the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and has oversight of all World War II facilities and Cold War buildings at Patrick.
An aerospace archaeologist's pursuit is to find, document, recover and preserve sites important in aerospace history. Although primarily missile crash sites, structures and facilities used in the space program also are included.
One such site that Penders has been studying on Cape Canaveral is a crater left by a Jupiter missile accident more than 50 years ago. Almost all the fragments identified are from the lower and middle interior areas of the missile.
In a more traditional archaeological excavation, Penders and a group of volunteers from the Indian River Anthropological Society, a local chapter of the Florida Anthropological Society, have been working a site on Cape Canaveral called Little Midden, found in 2006.
Named after the heaps of earth and artifacts that were left by ancient dwellers, Little Midden is a 7,500-square-foot patch of soil one-and-a-half-feet deep. Unfortunately, the site was partially destroyed during the 1960s when the area was used to process meteorological rockets. Remnants of their infrastructure are still visible among the undergrowth.
"It appears that the rocket processing facility destroyed part of the site," Penders said. "Some of the midden material was removed and used to stabilize some unpaved roads nearby. We are left with a small snapshot of what was once a significantly larger site."
With much of the history already lost, the goal now is to extract as much remaining information as possible by painstakingly filtering shovelfuls of dirt, shells and roots to recover the 500 to 1,000-year-old shards of pottery, stone tools, and even shark's teeth and vertebrae.
"There are numerous middens at Cape Canaveral, but not many with the number of atypical artifacts as we are seeing here from our archaeology excavations to date," Penders said. "The animal bones suggest the site may have been used for a temporary seasonal camp, but the artifacts suggest there may have been a more permanent settlement here at one time."
All artifacts discovered at the Little Midden site will be kept at Cape Canaveral. Once the current archaeology excavation is finished, a report will be sent to the Florida State Historic Preservation Office. The Air Force then will be allowed to develop the property if needed.
Another rather unique site under evaluation is the Sarah site, named for the woman who identified it in 2008 during the annual scrub jay census. Sarah had attended a presentation Penders made at the Space Coast Birding Festival.
Located near the north boundary of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the Sarah site is a large site that has not been impacted by development or previous investigations. At first, the site was thought to be a relatively small scatter of prehistoric artifacts, but recent analysis suggests the site could be one-mile long. This midden site promises to be an important site and identifying its significance and boundaries is under way.
The artifacts found so far include check-stamped pottery, an indication that the site dates to the Malabar II Period, from AD 750 to 1565, as well as animal bones, shell tools, and a ship's spike that may date to a time of early European contact. A small percussion cap from a black powder rifle also found is direct evidence of the mid-19th century homestead known to have existed there.
"We have a lot more testing to do before we can make any final assumptions about the site," Penders said.
In the meantime, Penders is working on a paper on the Jupiter missile site, which he will be presenting at a conference of the Society for Historical Archaeology in January.
NASA Earth Scientists Advance Space Archaeology
Two NASA Earth scientists have traded in their air-conditioned offices for the sweltering fields of central Turkey. Toiling nine or more hours per day, seven days a week, they walk up to 10 miles a day searching ancient Turkey archaeological grounds for bone fragments, pottery and tombs. But they aren’t using shovels, picks, and brushes to do the job.
Instead, scientists Compton Tucker from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. and Joe Nigro, who works at Goddard through Science Systems and Application Inc., are combining NASA satellite data and ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology to map and protect areas of archaeological interest for an archaeology excavation project, located at the famed spot where Alexander the Great cut fabled King Midas’ Gordian knot. In the past, NASA radar has been used on satellites and spacecrafts to detect ice deposits and to explore deep canyons on the moons surface.
“The radar assists in archaeology excavations by helping archaeologists identify areas where there are features under the ground, but GPR is also used as a non-invasive technique so that the site doesn’t have to be excavated,” said Joe Nigro, a geographic information systems specialist and archaeologist by training.
After winning a NASA Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) grant last year, the two men will join about 150 others affiliated with the Turkish Antiquity Service, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthroplogy’s Gordion Archaeological Project. Tucker, Nigro and Jennie Sturm, a radar specialist from TAG Research, spent three weeks at the site compiling information about human settlement, artifacts, and agriculture, using tools that traditional archaeologists usually don’t have access to.
“Archaeology is inherently a labor intensive, and thus expensive in terms of time and money, so we rarely get to excavate an entire site. GPR and other geophysical techniques allow us to collect data on parts of the site we might otherwise not be able to investigate,” said Philip Mink II, a GIS manager and staff archaeologist from the University of Kentucky, Department of Anthropology. “These investigations may locate archaeological features such as houses, tombs, burials, trash and storage pits, and ceramic firing areas that can be targeted for excavation given the limited money and time field archaeologists often face.”
Mink, who has no affiliation with the Gordion project, believes that GPR is one of the most diverse and useful tools of all geophysical techniques used in archaeology.
The scientists spend hours dragging the radar device, which looks similar to a domestic lawn mower, across the fields of Gordion. Vital to archaeological excavation, GPR sends pulses of microwave energy underground. The energy bounces off buried objects and layers, and scientists can use the pattern of radar echoes received on the surface to create a subterranean snapshot.
“It looks like a box, you drag it across the ground and depending on the wavelength, it dictates how deep it goes. The lower the frequency, the deeper the penetration,” Nigro said.
NASA Earth scientist Joe Nigro sets up his equipment to survey the fields of Turkey.
Joe Nigro, a geographic information specialist, sets up his equipment to survey the fields of Turkey. Credit: NASA/Compton Tucker
› View larger image State of the art software will be used to process the 3-D radar data and construct virtual representations of the buried features. According to Mink, the amount of data collected per unit area surveyed by GPR definitely surpasses the other geophysical techniques because it is collecting data constantly at a variety of depths.
Nigro, who used the technology in graduate school to survey Civil War cemeteries and battlefields, and Tucker, who has participated in GPR surveys at other archaeological sites in Turkey, hope to use the data to pinpoint the position of tombs and artifacts prior to excavation, protecting them from both, natural elements, and looting in a country with a large market for illegal antiquities.
“One of the reasons we do the work, and are very passionate about it, is that we feel like what we’re doing is fighting against looters and plunderers who would find the more valuable things, trash everything else, and send them to Switzerland where anyone can buy them,” Tucker said.
“The context of how these objects were buried is completely lost, and instead they just become some sort of trophy on someone’s mantle,” he added.
GPR also allows the scientist to carry out their work while remaining culturally sensitive to the land, preventing the disturbance of burial sites or relics from the past; activity that may be considered taboo to some indigenous groups.
For years, archaeologists have collected incomplete spatial information about the Gordion site. Previous excavations have failed to produce exact referencing data, a major obstacle to the spatial and chronological analysis of the excavated material. In addition to the GPR work, Tucker and Nigro will create a multi-layer, three-dimensional common mapping system for the site in a geographic information system (GIS).
“This site level data on buried archaeological phenomena is a luxury many modern archaeologists often don’t get. We often test hypotheses and make interpretations based on the limited data we are able to excavate,” Mink said about why Tucker and Nigro’s field work is significant. “Having GPR and other geophysical data that shows other archaeological features throughout the entire site area allow the archaeologists to look for patterns across the site.”
From satellite images and digital elevation data the team of space archaeologists will anchor and standardize reference points using Global Positioning Systems (GPS), first developed by the U.S. military. They will compare land measurements with computed GPS data to correctly locate archaeological features by creating a network of points partially based on existing maps. Aerial and balloon photography from previous years will also serve to better locate trenches and structures from various excavation seasons.
In addition, the team is also using remote sensing technology to detect the dynamic changes in the environment caused by both natural processes and human practices, such as climate and agriculture. These environmental changes may be hidden to the naked eye.
“We don’t want to be limited by our eyes, so we use electromagnetic spectrum radar to look beneath the surface,” Tucker said.
To observe land use and land cover change in Central Turkey from 1950 to 2010 the project will also examine NASA Landsat satellite images. The imagery will be processed and analyzed to map natural and human-induced vegetation changes. For each time period the Landsat data will categorically be divided by areas with variations of water, forest, pastures and cultivation. Aside from contributing to the continued preservation of Turkey’s cultural legacy, the data from these NASA images will further promote sustainable development, according to Tucker and Nigro.
“It is important because we can figure out an excavation or preservation strategy based on our work,” Nigro said. “The agricultural change aspect of our study may help other archaeologists in developing and assessing a methodology and protection plan for preserving their sites.”
Both men anticipate the techniques developed in the Gordion Project will be applicable to many other archaeological sites with similar mapping problems, such as the Hassanlu site in Iran and Tikal in Guatemala.
“What these instruments do is expand our ability to study things,” Tucker said. “This is something NASA does to make our technology available to other people.”
Source from Great Site : http://www.nasa.gov
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival 2007 Update
Talk about “roots”! We enter AD 2007 at full-throttle, buoyed by the notion that, somewhere under an acacia tree on the hard-baked sediments of northern Kenya’s Lake Turkana Basin, Louise Leakey is dusting off hominid fossils and readying the keynote address for her May 1 appearance at the opening of this year’s TAC Festival in Eugene, Oregon. Reflecting on Louise’s notoriety and the interest it will create, we look forward now to our best-ever Festival event. Celebrity attracts, of course, and we are pleased to host yet another distinguished visitor: The Executive Editor of Archaeology Magazine, Mark Rose, will attend all the way from New York to produce a feature article on TAC Festival for the magazine. To say the least, all of us here at Archaeological Legacy Institute are excited about the prospects for this year’s event, as we anticipate the arrival of these, and other, illustrious guests.
But there is much more to staging an international film festival than celebrity appearances–namely, the films themselves. In our last TAC Newsletter we discussed Dr. Leakey’s upcoming visit and told you about the growing list of film submissions arriving from around the world. Those films are now in–all 86 of them from 23 different countries including the USA. Each has been carefully viewed and scored by objective criteria to rate the quality of its production, content and message. Despite some difficult choices, this year’s Festival program is now set, and our Director says that the quality of these 21 films is the highest he has seen. The remaining entries will also be listed and described in the Festival Program, and made available for individual viewing at the Festival’s Video Bar. Coordination and promotion of TAC Festival 2007 is now underway.
In addition to the fine slate of films this year, we are also excited to tell you about the associated events and activities which will enhance this year’s theatre presentations. Besides the Video Bar, planning is underway for our annual Symposium on Heritage Film, a field trip to a nearby rock shelter site containing ancient rock art, a Native American storytelling session, a mock archaeological dig, and several other events. We will tell you more about these events, and other visiting dignitaries, in the next issue of the Newsletter.
In related news, our traveling mini-festival— ArchaeologyFest Film Series: Best of 2006—is well underway, taking the top eight films from Festival 2006 on the road statewide in Oregon. In the latter half of last year, ArchaeologyFest hosted appearances in Eugene, Portland, and the coastal town of Newport, while in January 2007 we visited the campus of Southern Oregon University, in Ashland, for four evening showings there. This mobile event concludes in June, with a scheduled appearance in LaGrande in the eastern part of our state. Although, admittedly, the logistics of producing ArchaeologyFest are challenging, we remain committed to the project as a way of sharing the wealth of TAC Festival films more widely.
But back to the main Festival. All is in readiness. The film program is the very best that our producers and the latest technology can provide. Each glorious film will appear on the big screen at the main Festival venue—Eugene’s grandest, most historic performing arts palace, The McDonald Theatre. And there’s nothing quite like the comfort and ambience of settling back into the seats of a beautifully-redecorated Vaudeville-era theatre, is there? Considering the superb quality of the films, we truly hope that you can join us for what promises to be a most enjoyable and informative Festival week. Come see what’s happening in the colorful world of heritage film, hear Dr. Leakey speak, and find out what’s new in the search for humanity’s deepest roots: our African origins.
Read more interesting topic about archaeology excavations
The Arizona Archaeological Society
The Arizona Archaeological Society was founded in 1964 as an independent, non-profit, state-wide volunteer organization. Prior to this there was no organized group in Arizona practicing responsible amateur archaeology. Sites were being destroyed by development, natural forces and vandalism and the need arose for increased public education towards protection and preservation of the sites.
The goals of the Society were to encourage better public understanding and concern for archaeological and cultural resources; to serve as a bond between professional archaeologists and nonprofessional volunteers; to foster interest in the research, protection and preservation of Arizona's cultural resources; to provide an education in archaeological techniques in order to assist the professional community; and to publish the results of the Society's scientific investigations.
The Arizona Archaeological Society today comprises approximately 1200 members in thirteen chapters throughout the state. Each chapter has a professional archaeologist as an advisor. Some of the finest professional archaeologists in the state support the AAS by providing lectures, teaching courses and offering volunteer opportunities on their archaeological projects. No archaeological research or activity is conducted by AAS members without the supervision of a professional archaeologist. In return, the Society is a dependable source of trained and qualified volunteers who assist many of the state's professional archaeologists on their projects. Society activities include monthly meetings with lectures provided by authorities in various aspects of archaeology. Hikes, field trips, field schools, courses and workshops provide further education on the archaeology of Arizona and the Southwest.
The Society has a nationally recognized Certification Program, providing knowledge and skills in a variety of archaeology-related topics. Thirty seven courses range from the introductory "Prehistory of the Southwest," which provides members with an overview of the prehistoric cultures of this region, to the more intense, skill-enhancing Field Techniques, Lab Techniques, Ceramic Analysis, Osteology, Faunal Analysis, and so forth. Courses in prehistoric technologies such as flint-knapping and ceramic manufacture are extremely popular with AAS members and serve to enhance understanding of prehistoric lifestyles.
The Society has a long and rich publication record, having published 36 monographs since 1967, as well as a number of occasional papers, chapter publications and site reports. In addition, the Society's newsletter, "The Petroglyph," is published ten times per year. The monographs, on topics relating to the prehistoric and historic archaeology of the Southwest, and published as the "Arizona Archaeologist" series, are available for sale on the AAS website at http://www.azarchsoc.org/azarchaeologist.html.
AAS activities being offered this summer include the ongoing field school at Elden Pueblo in Flagstaff, Arizona. Courses in Field Crew I and II and Stabilization and Reconstruction will be taught during the two one-week sessions, June 25-29 and July 2-6. Located at the base of Mt. Elden, in the cool pines, Elden Pueblo is a 60-70 room Sinagua pueblo dating to the period AD 1100-1275.
In addition, the society is offering a "Site Preservation and Stabilization Course" at Q Ranch Pueblo, a 250 room, three-story pueblo dating from AD 1265 to 1380. The pueblo, on the historic Q Ranch, is situated in the pine forests near Young, Arizona. Authorities in stabilization and site preservation techniques will provide instruction in the field, and afternoon lecture sessions will be provided by a variety of guest lecturers who have conducted some of the most successful stabilization and site preservation projects in Arizona. A two-day field trip will enhance the educational component of the course. This course will provide all participants with the knowledge and practical experience to participate in future stabilization and site preservation projects. You are welcome to attend this course for one week or two. There will be sufficient hours of fieldwork and lectures in the two-week session to achieve AAS certification in this course.
Friday, September 17, 2010
2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?
There apparently is a great deal of interest in celestial bodies, and their locations and trajectories at the end of the calendar year 2012. Now, I for one love a good book or movie as much as the next guy. But the stuff flying around through cyberspace, TV and the movies is not based on science. There is even a fake NASA news release out there...
- Don Yeomans, NASA senior research scientist
Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.
Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we're frequently asked regarding 2012.
Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway.
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.
Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.
Addition information concerning 2012 is available on the Web, at:
* NASA Astrobiology Institute: "Nibiru and Doomsday 2012"
* Bad Astronomy: "The Planet X Saga: The Scientific Arguments in a Nutshell"
* Sky and Telescope Magazine: "2012: The Great Scare"
Source from Great Site : http://www.nasa.gov
Read More Interesting News about archaeology excavations
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)