Oetzi, the Iceman, was buried: archaeologists claim

A new theory revealed by archaeologists on Thursday: Oetzi, the 5,300-year-old "Iceman", may not have died at the site in the Italian Alps where he was found 19 years ago, but was only ceremonially buried there.

Up till now, archaeologists thought Oetzi, whose mummified corpse was exposed in a high mountain pass in the Oetztal Alps in 1991, died at that spot from wounds he had continued in a fight.

But an archaeologist Alessandro Vanzetti from Rome University told the Austrian daily Die Presse he believes the Bronze Age warrior actually died much nearer sea-level, but was then buried months later with full ceremonial honours high up in the mountains.

Alessandro Vanzetti and his archaeology excavation team have been investigating the site at 3,210 metre above sea-level for the past five years.
Vanzetti told the newspaper: The new theory would explain why some of the weapons discovered next to the mummy were not ready for use and why so many objects were found next to the corpse.

The archaeology also stated that some of the objects were valuable and would surely have been looted by his murderer if Oetzi had died in a fight at the spot where he was found.

Moreover, an analysis of his stomach had shown that the man died in April, while pollen found at the spot indicated the body was buried in August or September. The ice would have melted, making a rise to such a height possible.

This famous mummy will remain the subject of intense theory and become a new research for decades to come.

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The World's First Temple

At first glance, the fox on the surface of the limestone pillar appears to be a trick of the bright sunlight. But as I move closer to the large, T-shaped megalith, I find it is carved with an improbable menagerie. A bull and a crane join the fox in an animal parade etched across the surface of the pillar, one of dozens erected by early Neolithic people at Göbekli Tepe in southeastern Turkey. The press here is fond of calling the site "the Turkish Stonehenge," but the comparison hardly does justice to this 25-acre arrangement of at least seven stone circles. The first structures at Göbekli Tepe were built as early as 10,000 B.C., predating their famous British counterpart by about 7,000 years

The oldest man-made place of worship yet discovered, Göbekli Tepe is "one of the most important monuments in the world," says Hassan Karabulut, associate curator of the nearby Urfa Museum. He and archaeologist Zerrin Ekdogan of the Turkish Ministry of Culture guide me around the site. Their enthusiasm for the ancient temple is palpable.

Archaeology Excavations have revealed that Göbekli Tepe was constructed in two stages. The oldest structures belong to what archaeologists call the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic A period, which ended around 9000 B.C. Strangely enough, the later remains, which date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period, or about 8000 B.C., are less elaborate. The earliest levels contain most of the T-shaped pillars and animal sculptures.

Archaeologist Klaus Schmidt downplays extravagant spiritual interpretations of Göbekli Tepe, such as the idea, made popular in the press, that the site is the inspiration for the Biblical Garden of Eden. But he does agree that it was a sanctuary of profound significance in the Neolithic world. He sees it as a key site in understanding the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, and from tribal to regional religion.

Source From Great Source: http://www.archaeology.org/0811/abstracts/turkey.html

The World's First Archaeologists and Their Role in Defining History

The roots of archaeology – “the study of human history and prehistory through the archaeology excavation of sites and the analysis of physical remains,” to quote the Oxford English Dictionary – can be traced back in their most basic form as late as the age of the last emperor of Babylon, Nabonidus, in the 6th century BC, and perhaps even further, to the ancient Egyptians.

In the thousands of years that have passed since, the discipline has become a highly professionalised pursuit, with a broad and firmly-established range of techniques and practices, a complex theoretical framework and a strong ethical code. But it hasn’t taken a direct route to get there.

The origins of archaeology as an actual science were only really established after the Enlightenment in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the likes of Englishmen John Aubrey (1627-1697) and William Stukeley (1687-1765), Italian Count Marcello Venuti (circa 1738) and German Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768), started conducting systematic, recorded studies of sites and artefacts using techniques recognisable to modern antiquarians.

These were the Founding Fathers of archaeology, who first broke ground in the discipline as we know it today.

Source from Great site : http://heritage-key.com/world/worlds-first-archaeologists-and-their-role-defining-history