Dakhleh Oasis Project

The Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP) is a long-term regional study of the interaction between environmental changes and human activity in the closed area of the Dakhleh Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt, but including the larger area of the Palaeoasis. The study includes all the time since the first incursion of humans in the Middle Pleistocene, perhaps 400,000 years ago, down to the 21st century oasis farmers, and all the human activity and all the changing environmental conditions for which there is evidence within the time period.

To achieve such an assessment, it is necessary to gather data on the modern environment and all past environmental conditions. The environment is seen as one of the most important influences on all human activity. The evidence for this is sought in the geological, geomorphological, the botanical and the faunal records. These data are collected by various field workers, specialists in their particular fields, who ultimately will provide a consensus of the environmental history of the region. The DOP environmentalists to date are Professor R. F. Giegengack, Jr., Dr. Jennifer Smith, Professor C. S. Churcher, Dr. Ursula Thanheiser and Mag. Johannes Walter. Formerly, there have also been Professor J. C. Ritchie and Professor I. A. Brookes.

The activities of humans within these environmental settings must be investigated by a wide range of expertise. The settling and development of cultural evolution within the oasis area, the expansion into and from other Saharan regions and, of course, connections with the Nile Valley are all of interest. These studies are performed by geoarchaeologists, Old Stone Age African specialists, Holocene-Neolithic archaeologists, historical periods specialists - Pharaonic, Ptolemaic-Roman-Christian archaeologists, Islamic archaeologists; by physical anthropologists, and by linguists. So far, no social or cultural anthropologists have participated in the DOP. These investigators include Professor M. R. Kleindienst, Dr. M. M. A. McDonald, Dr. C. A. Hope, Professor A. J. Mills, Professor F. Leemhuis, Dr. O. E. Kaper, Professor R. S. Bagnall, Professor J. E. Molto, Professor M. Woidich, Professor K. A. Worp, Professor I. Gardner, and a great number of field assistants and experts brought into the project to study specific specialized aspects of our finds.

To understand both the cultural evolution and the environmental changes and their interdependence properly, the oasis has to be studied in great local detail, as well as in a much wider context of northeastern Africa. The general trends, both cultural and natural, throughout the Sahara, and Nile Valley and the eastern and central Sahara as well as locally in the oasis itself must be understood to place the Dakhleh Oasis in its proper setting. Because the Dakhleh Oasis is both an isolated unit and a microcosm of much wider trends, the study is important. No such large oasis area of the eastern Sahara has yet been so broadly examined and in such great detail. What occurs in the Dakhleh Oasis, will in all probability also occur in other places, with local variations. For example, because of human interference and natural destruction, early adaptation in the Nile Valley is imperfectly understood. The Dakhleh Oasis is isolated but not too distant from the Nile, is subject to many of the same but a much less complex group of influences, and the DOP will be able to shed light on such a problem area.

Through an understanding of the cultural development in the oasis, and in the variety of ways people have had to adapt and accomodate themselves to their changing world, and also how they have influenced or created change in their world, it should become easier to understand the present-day problems of life in an hyper-arid environment, with fertile soils but with a finite water supply. Past solutions and mistakes and results can often better inform mankind. This in turn will inform development agencies for future planning and programs in such regions.
general view of Qasr

The Dakhleh Oasis lies some 800 km SSE of Cairo, surrounded by the wastes of the eastern Sahara, centered at 25o 30'N and 29o 07'E. The oasis is some 80 km west to east and 25 km maximum wide. The population (in 2002) is about 75,000. The local economy is based in agriculture, and there are no known mineral or other viable resources. The capital is at Mut, which has been the main town since at least the Eighteenth Dynasty, about 1,500 BCE. Before then, the site of 'Ain Asil at Balat in eastern Dakhleh had been the seat of the government, since 2,500 BCE, and before that the less settled Neolithic and earlier populations inhabited the area. The Dakhleh Oasis has had a continuity of settlement for about the last 8,000 years but only since 2,500 BCE has it been politically tied to the Nile region. Climatic trends and events that can be discerned in most of the eastern Sahara are also seen at Dakhleh.

The first European traveller to 'discover' the Dakhleh Oasis was Sir Archibald Edmonstone, in 1819. He was followed by several other early travellers, but it was not until 1908 that the first egyptologist, Herbert Winlock visited the oasis and noted its monuments in a systematic manner. Only in the 1950s was any real interest taken, first by Dr. Ahmed Fakhry, and in the late 1970s an expedition of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale and the Dakhleh Oasis Project each began detailed studies in the oasis.

The Dakhleh Oasis Project has been conducting this wide study since 1978, supported by a number of universities and organizations. Among these have been Monash University, The University of Durham, the University of Toronto, Columbia University, The Royal Ontario Museum, the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities, the American Research Centre in Egypt, the Egyptology Society of Victoria, The Dakhleh Trust, as well as the many institutions of the various participating scholars which support individuals. Support for the DOP is governmental, institutional, corporate and individual and is invited at all times.

The results of the DOP fieldwork are published as quickly as possible, in order that they enter the public domain without delay. The Bibliography of titles generated by the Project members is complete and is also found in this website. It will give the reader access to all our research and reporting.

Source from Great Website :http://arts.monash.edu.au/archaeology/excavations/dakhleh/index.php

Ismant el-Kharab, ancient Kellis

Archaeology excavations
The site of ancient Kellis, modern-day Ismant el-Kharab, is located in the Dakhleh Oasis, Egypt. The name Kellis is attested in documentary material from the site, which also reveals that the village once belonged to the Mothite nome. The ancient settlement is denoted by numerous mud-brick structures and a dominant temple complex, and the main phases of occupation at the site are dated from the early Roman to late Roman Period (i.e., 1st-2nd to 4th-5th centuries CE). Kellis covers an area of approximately one square kilometer and is bounded upon its northwest and southeast by dried up wadis (water courses).


Several early travellers and modern Egyptologists visited the site and left brief reports of their observations. They include: B. Drovetti, J. G. Wilkinson, H. E. Winlock, G. Elias and Ahmed Fakhry. The first detailed examination, however, did not commence until 1981-2, during an extensive archaeological survey of the oasis undertaken by the Dakhleh Oasis Project (DOP). In accordance with the DOP's system of reference, the site was ascribed the number 31/420-D6-1. The primary stages of planning and mapping of the site were conducted at this time in conjunction with small-scale test excavations. Consequently, the site was divided into areas (see map below) as part of the initial surveying process. Major archaeology excavations at Ismant el-Kharab began in 1986 under the auspices of the DOP. The principal investigators for this site are Dr. Colin Hope and Dr. Gillian Bowen of Monash University.

Areas Investigated
The Gladiator Jug
The Gladiator Jug

* Area A
* This area includes Houses 1-5, a Bath House, the Small East and Large East Christian Churches, and a Nymphaeum.
* Area B
* The area contains a large colonnaded complex, adjacent complexes, richly decorated residencies and columbariums.
* Area C
* This area includes residential and industrial zones which exhibit some of the earliest activity on the site, perhaps contemporary with the early phases of the temple.
* Area D
* This area is dominated by the Temple of Tutu, a series of enclosure walls surrounding it, the West Church Complex and tombs.
* North Tomb Group
* The group features a row of monumental and large tombs located in the northwest of the site.
* South Tomb Group
* This southern group contains similar monumental tombs as found in the north of the site.

Source From Great site: http://www.arts.monash.edu/archaeology/excavations/dakhleh/ismant-el-kharab/index.php

Historical Archaeology of the Americas

This course explores recent theoretical, methodological, and thematic developments in historical archaeology in North America and the Caribbean. The course subjects concern the time period of 1400 AD through 1900 AD. We will examine how historical archaeologists use artifactual, documentary, and oral history evidence in interpreting the past, and how historical archaeology can contribute to our understanding of the ways by which material culture can be used to study race, class, gender, and ethnic identities.

We consider questions such as: How can we analyze the material remains of past culture groups to account for the varied ways in which human societies organized themselves? What cultural, social, political, and ecological processes contributed to continuity or change in past social forms and material culture? How do we recognize and study the past dynamics of ethnicity, class, gender, and racialization in archaeological remains? This course will similarly explore the role that historical archaeology can play in making visible those people poorly represented in the documentary record of the past, such as enslaved African Americans and Native Americans, and it will help us to appreciate their significant roles in shaping the history of the New World.

For example, the role of African Americans in building our nation's history is a central part of historical archaeology studies of this time period and region. This course will engage students in examining the ways in which African Americans dealt with and persevered against past racializing ideologies, and the lessons to be learned from such studies of past racism, including possible ways of combating racism in the present and future.

Locations and Instructor Background

Class will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 11am to 12:20pm, in Room 180 of Bevier Hall. Instructor: Chris Fennell, office in 296 Davenport Hall, phone 244-7309, email cfennell@uiuc.edu; office hours, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30am to 10:30am.

I am an anthropologist and lawyer (MA, U. Pennsylvania, 1986; JD, Georgetown U., 1989; Ph.D., U. Virginia, 2003), specializing in historical archaeology as an Assistant Professor of Anthropology. My research projects address aspects of African-American cultural heritage and the dynamics of social group affiliations among African Americans and European Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These research efforts include the development of interpretative frameworks focusing on regional systems theories, diaspora studies, theories concerning social group identities, ethnic group dynamics and racialization, stylistic and symbolic analysis of material culture, and the significance of consumption patterns. I am an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Landscape Architecture, the Center for African Studies, and the Department of African American Studies, and a faculty member of the College of Law.

Resources :

I have created a course web page using the University's Compass program. Enrolled students can access the course web page by logging onto the Compass system, which will display all existing web pages for your courses. Choose "Historical Archaeology" from the display list and you can access the course syllabus, assignments, lecture notes and illustrations, and other online class resources. The logon page for Compass is available at: http://www.cites.uiuc.edu/edtech/courseware/compass/index.html.

Internet resources on historical archaeology, which are suggested only and not required reading for this course, are available at: http://www.anthro.uiuc.edu/faculty/cfennell/bookmark2.html.

Internet resources on African and African-American archaeology, cultures, and history, which are suggested only and not required reading for this course, are available at: http://www.diaspora.uiuc.edu/bookmark3.html.

A non-exhaustive bibliography of other studies in historical archaeology is provided below, following the course schedule, as suggested readings only.

New finds of old temples enthuse archaeologists

Some recent discoveries have archaeologists excited, as the archaeology excavations may have well unearthed some of the oldest temples in the state. Experts are particularly thrilled about the discovery of the Subramanya shrine in Saluvankuppam and the Veetrirunda Perumal Temple in Veppattur near Kumbakonam.

T Satyamurthy, retired superintendent archaeologist at the Archaeological Survey of India and founder of REACH Foundation, says, "The post-tsunami discovery of the Subrahmanya shrine at Saluvankuppam is unique. On the basis of available evidence like the brick size, orientation and other factors, this structure immediately antedates the Pallavas. This is the earliest brick temple in Tamil Nadu identified as of now. No temple of such nature is reported from south India."

The site is not new, and among the protected monuments at Mamallapuram was a boulder located about 2 km from the Shore Temple, as it was found to contain a Tamil inscription of Kulothunga III dated to 1215 AD. Satyamurthy credits the December 2006 tsunami with revealing a second and older inscription on the boulder.

Satyamurthy says, "The retreating waves of the December 2006 tsunami dragged about three feet of sand covering the rock on the seaside. This uncovered an inscription of Rashtrakuta king Krishna III, which can be dated back to 976 AD. Exploration of areas around the boulder revealed a sand mound, leading to the discovery of a brick temple." Further archaeology excavation revealed the discovery of two pillars bearing the inscription of Dantivarman and Nadivarman III between 813 AD and 858 AD.

He says that the temple itself has undergone three stages of construction. "Originally the temple was constructed during the pre-Pallava period and after a devastating tidal wave it was restored by the Pallavas by adding stone slabs over the plinth. After devastation, it was rebuilt by the Cholas by adding huge dressed stone blocks. This structure was also found destroyed by another catastrophe," he says.

Carbon-14 dating done by Reach Foundation on the paleo-tsunami evidences, comprising sea shells and debris, near the site show that they had been deposited in different periods between 405 AD and 564 AD and between 1019 AD and 1161 AD. The materials have been sent for independent C-14 dating. Results are awaited.

Satyamurthy says that the Veetrirunda Perumal Temple discovered in Veppattur, some 8 km south of Kumbakonam, is a contemporary of the Subramanya shrine. Satyamurthy cites the evidence to indicate that the temple belonged to the pre-Pallava period. Here the brick sizes are those used in the pre-Pallava era. The site has three types of paintings, belonging to different periods. The temple only has a side

access and no direct access, a feature seen only at pre-Pallava Buddhist temple sites. It also has openings in all four cardinal directions.

Satyamurthy says that according to the Seven Pagoda theory more such discoveries are likely. "Several small mounds have been seen around the area. There is a high likelihood that excavations will turn up three or four more such discoveries," he says.

However, not everyone agrees that it predates the oldest known temples in the state. R Nagaswamy, former director, Tamil Nadu Archeology Department, says, "With no actual evidence or verifiable data, it is hard to acknowledge this discovery. I feel more scientific data is needed to substantiate this claim. If the Subramanya shrine had been an important place of worship, there would have been some reference of it either in the local tradition or in literature."

Arcadia Mill Archaeology Site and Museum Reopened!

After extensive renovations following the destructive effects of Hurrican Ivan, the Arcadia Mill Archaeology Site and Museum just to the north of Pensacola has finally reopened. Arcadia is one of the oldest industrial sites in the Southeast. Built in the late Spanish colonial period (1817) and burned in 1855, this water-powered industrial complex had a sawmill, grist mill and slave-labor textile factory before the Civil War. Arcadia has been developed for the public and is handicapped-accessible. Arcadia House has a wide variety of artifacts on display associated with saw milling and cotton cloth production. The site is deeply wooded with trails which include a swinging bridge over Pond Creek and a long, beautiful boardwalk over the levees which leads visitors to the unique sandstone masonry foundations and old textile plant floors.

The site is open from Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, contact site director Monica Beck at (850) 626-3084 or mbeck@uwf.edu.

The Mummification Process

The ancient Egyptians developed a sophisticated method to preserve a dead body for the afterlife: mummification. First, the internal organs were removed and all moisture from the body was eliminated. Next, the body was wrapped with long strips of linen, and then covered with a large linen cloth. Follow the steps of the mummification process in this short animation about the Getty Museum's Romano-Egyptian mummy Herakleides.

Excavations restarting at İkiztepe in northern Turkey

İkiztepe ancient site, which was discovered by archaeologists in 1940 in the Black Sea city of Samsun's Bafra district, is being excavated for 36 years and nearly 11,550 artifacts have been unearthed so far. This year's archaeology excavations has restarted in the region and will continue until Sept 10.

Excavations at İkiztepe, which have continued in the Black Sea province of Samsun’s Bafra district since 1974, are being carried out in the area again this year.

İkiztepe was discovered in 1940 by archaeologists who carried out excavations in the Dündartepe region around Samsun.

Many artifacts from the early Bronze Age (3000-2000) and the Hittite period (1900-1800 BC) have been unearthed so far during the excavations led by the Istanbul University Archaeology Department’s Professor Önder Bilgi.

“This year’s excavations, which have continued in İkiztepe for 36 years, will end on Sept. 10,” said Bilgi, adding that they finished works in one area last year and searched for layers of the early Bronze Age period.

“The number of findings that have been unearthed in İkiztepe reached nearly 11,550. Last year’s excavations were carried out at Hill One and have ended. This year’s excavations continue on a slope that we call İkiztepe. A team of 34 people, including five students and three expert anthropologists, is working there. Last year significant artworks were found, revealing the cultural development in the region. We also had a chance to profile the layers of the early Bronze Age. Two furnaces and two graves have been unearthed so far,” Bilgi said, adding that the archaeology excavations shed light on the cultural history of the central Black Sea.

Settlements until 1700 BC

During the excavations, which had been carried out at the ancient site, traces of Caolithic period (between 5000-4000 BC) were found, which revealed that the settlement existed there until 1700 B.C.

A tumulus from the Hellenistic period (330-39 BC) was found as well as a number of artworks and remnants from the early Bronze Age. Weapons, furnaces, symbols, jewelry and stone tablets found during the excavations show that the people of İkiztepe played an important role in the development of the Anatolian art of mining. It is known that they used a mixture of copper and arsenic in metal objects, and it is estimated that they obtained copper from the Merzifon region and arsenic from Gümüşhacıköy in present-day Amasya.

The most interesting findings unearthed during the excavations are skulls, which underwent surgical operation. In the graveyard on the highest hill in the ancient site, dating back to 2300-2100 BC, eight out of the 690 skeletons had skulls with traces of surgical operation. These skulls have archaeological importance since they are the only ones unearthed in Anatolia. They also show that people who lived there did not have the characteristics of Mediterranean people but of southern Russians and Bulgarians.

Some of the findings from the İkiztepe excavations are being displayed at the Samsun Archaeological and Ethnography Museum.

Source from Great site : http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com

Archaeological dig concludes

A six-week-long archaeological excavation recently concluded in downtown Hastings near the Highway 61 bridge.

The site was once home to the St. John’s hotel and a neighboring saloon. Both were destroyed by one of the largest fires in Hastings history, the Christmas fire of 1899.

Crews from Two Pines Resource Group found evidence of the fire, uncovering brick rubble and burned wood and ash. The hotel was rebuilt and stood on the site until 1983. Many artifacts from the site’s time as a hotel were uncovered, including broken fragments of bottles, dishes and glassware. Crews also found old coffee beans, fish bones, animal bones and egg shell fragments.

Two Pines also found a number of interesting personal artifacts, ranging from a small China cat, marbles, tobacco pipes, combs and buttons at the site.

“The overall integrity of the site was just so good,” said Michelle Terrell of Two Pines. “A lot of times, people think that, especially in a rural area like Hastings, how can things survive as well, and as long, as they do?”

Crews were at the site from May 17 to June 30. They are now busy cleaning and identifying the thousands of artifacts collected.

A complete report detailing the findings will be finished next year. A local display of some of the artifacts from the project is planned.

“There was just so much interest from the community (while crews were at the site),” Terrell said. “We’d like to do something local so everyone can see the artifacts. I think you’ll be able to see some interesting things.”

It will take a few months for the team to complete its work, so any such exhibit is a ways off yet.

“We’re still working our way through the analysis,” Terrell said.

One member of the Two Pines team is combing through the various bones that were found so as to determine what animal they came from. That will help archaeologists determine what sorts of resources were being used to feed guests at the hotel and patrons of the saloon. Thus far, the obvious bones were found, including those from cows, pigs and chickens. There were bones from fish, deer and ducks.

Two Pines conducted a preliminary archaeology dig in 2008 to see what lay below the surface. They found the foundation of the hotel building and a few artifacts. That led federal, state and local agencies to agree the remains were historically significant and should undergo further archaeological investigation prior to construction of the new bridge.

Source: http://www.dglobe.com

Archaeologists Find Ancient Hammurabi-Like Law Code in Israel Clay Tablet

Archaeologists have uncovered for the first time in Israel fragments of a law code that resemble portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi.

The code was found on two fragments of a clay tablet, and is between 3,700 and 3,800 years old, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem said today in an e-mailed statement.

The fragments “refer to issues of personal injury law relating to slaves and masters, bringing to mind similar laws in the famous Babylonian Hammurabi Code of the 18th century B.C. that were found in what is now Iran over 100 years ago,” the statement said. “The laws also reflect, to a certain extent, biblical laws of the type ‘a tooth for a tooth’.”

The discovery opens an interesting avenue for investigation of a connection between Biblical law and the Code of Hammurabi, according to Wayne Horowitz of the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, who is preparing the law code fragments for publication. The style of the text is similar to that of the Hammurabi Code, he said.

The tablet, written in Akkadian cuneiform script, was discovered in Hazor, in the north of Israel. Words that have been deciphered include “master,” “slave” and a word referring to bodily parts, apparently the word for “tooth.”

The two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest body of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents found dealt with subjects including the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute, and a text of multiplication tables.

The Hazor archaeology excavations are under the direction of Amnon Ben-Tor and Sharon Zuckerman of the Hebrew University. Previous excavations were directed at the site by Yigael Yadin in the 1950s and 1960s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alisa Odenheimer in Jerusalem at aodenheimer@bloomberg.net

Source : http://www.bloomberg.com

Archaeology: Excavations on St. Ivan island reveal potential relics from John the Baptist

Archaeology Excavations on Saint Ivan island, the largest of five Bulgarian islands in the Black Sea, have unearthed an exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church’s altar, the historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National History Museum and minister without portfolio in charge of Bulgarians abroad, told Focus news agency on July 28 2010.

He suggested that the reliquary might hold the relics of John the Baptist.

Once the island was converted to Christianity, a monastical complex was built between the 5th-6th century on top of the ruins of the old Roman temple, including the Basilica of the Mother of God. Around the 7th-9th century, the basilica was abandoned only to be reconstructed in the 10th century.

The Monastery of John the Forerunner and the Baptist grew into an important centre of Christianity in the region. Archaeological research was carried out after 1985 for a a period of two years, which revealed a royal residence, a library, part of the fortified wall with the gate and several monastic cells.

Kazimir Popkonstantinov, an archaeologist professor is overseeing the archaeology excavations on the island. Dimitrov said that the reliquary will be opened for the media in a few days after the "necessary religious ceremonies are carried out".

St. Ivan is the largest Bulgarian island in the Black Sea, with an area of 0.66 square kilometres just off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast near Sozopol, a town rich in history and a popular tourist destination, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island. It is 920m from the Stolets peninsula, the location of Sozopol's Old Town.

Archaeologists Discover 2,400-Year-Old Weapons and Tools in Valencia

The hilt of an eagle-shaped sword dated from 4th Century B.C. and made of iron is pointed at by one one of the archaeologists working at an archeology excavation in the site of La Bastida de les Alcusses in Moixent, Valencia, during its presentation at Archeological Museum of Valencia, Spain 28 July 2010. Five sets of iron weapons belonging to Iberian warriors, and dated from 4th B.C. were found at the site of Bastida de Les Alcusses two weeks ago and presented, among others, by director of Prehistory Museum of Valencia, Helena Bonet (not seen) on 28 July 2010. EPA/MANUEL BRUQUE.

VALENCIA.- The finding of a set of useful weapons for warriors from 2400 years ago in La Bastida de les Alcusses located in Moixent (Valencia) has confirmed this excavation as "the peninsular town of reference to study the Iberian period."

This has been assured by the delegate of the department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Valencia, Salvador Enguix, the director of the Museum of Prehistory of Valencia and co-director of the excavation campaign, Helena Bonet, and archaeologist and co-director of the excavation at La Bastide Alcusses, Jaime Vives-Ferrandiz, have presented at a press conference the details of the findings announced yesterday by the county.

Excavations have recovered over 60 iron objects in a small area of the western entrance to the village of La Bastida, including weapons, rods and nails belonging to the jamb of a door, the experts explained.

Archaeological excavations in the Iberian settlement of La Bastida de les Alcusses of Moixent have been indertaken this year in the West Gate. This entry to the town had already been excavated in 1998 but the evidence of the existence of an older entry at this point has led to the excavation this year.

In this set, stand out outfits - set of weapons and tools - for warriors located in the village. There are, Helena Bonet said, five sets of weapons, belonging to as many Iberian warriors from 2,400 years ago, which are the "most spectacular" find and enable to document "a unique ritual in Iberian Archaeology consisting of the intentional deposition of five complete sets of iron weapons, food offerings and ceramic vases, all burned together with wood and iron structures of the door and sealed under a layer of earth. "

12th century Gethsemane fresco to be displayed in Israel Museum

Israel Antiquities Authority: This is the largest painting ever to come out of an archaeological excavation in the country.

An enormous impressive wall painting (fresco) that was discovered in excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Monastery of Miriam in the Gethsemane courtyard in Jerusalem will be displayed for the first time when the renewed Israel Museum opens its doors to the public on July 26, 2010.

In 1999 the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted salvage excavations in Nahal Kidron, next to the Garden of Gethsemane, under the direction of Jon Seligman, the Jerusalem region archaeologist. The archaeology excavations uncovered several buildings dating to the twelfth century that were part of the Abbey of St. Mary of the Valley of Jehoshaphat, most of which had been destroyed by Saladin. But to the excavators' surprise a nine meter long wall that was decorated with a painting of breathtaking beauty was exposed in one of the rooms.

Thanks to a generous contribution by the Friends of the Israel Museum, the painting has been restored by a team of art conservators of the Conservation Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority, headed by Jacques Nagar, and will be placed on exhibit in the museum’s new Crusader period gallery.

According to Seligman, the subject of this wall painting - only the bottom part of which survived and which originally rose to a height of about nine meters - is apparently a scene of deésis (meaning supplication in Greek). This is a known iconographic formula whereby Mary and John the Baptist beseech Jesus for forgiveness, for the sake of humanity. Only the bottom parts of the figures are visible in the main picture: Jesus sitting in the center, with Mary to his right and John the Baptist to his left. Two other pairs of legs, probably those of angels, can be seen next to Mary and John. In the middle of the painting are colorful floral tendrils on either side of which is a Latin inscription of a saying by Saint Augustine: "Who injures the name of an absent friend, may not at this table as guest attend." We can conclude from this that the painting adorned the wall of a dining room - the refectorium - in the monastery. The prohibition to gossip is surprising since the monks there were Benedictines who refrained from unnecessary conversation. According to the researchers, the maxim was apparently intended for visitors who arrived at the monastery and were invited to dine there.

According to Nagar, "This is one of the most important paintings that have been preserved from the Crusader period in Israel. The painting is the largest to come out of an archaeological excavation in the country and the treatment the painting underwent in the laboratories of the Israel Antiquities Authority was, from a conservation standpoint, among the most complicated ever done here. This wall painting is special because of its size and quality. It measures 9 meters long and 2.7 m high, and is extremely rare because very few wall paintings have survived from the Crusader churches that were built in Jerusalem during the Crusader period. The excellent quality of the painting was in all likelihood the workmanship of master artists and the vibrant colors reflect the importance of the abbey in the twelfth century, which was under the patronage of the Crusader queen Melisende."

"We are proud to include this unique wall painting in our new gallery of Crusader art," said Na'ama Brosh, curator of Islamic art in the Israel Museum and who was responsible for placing it on exhibit in the new gallery. "We wish to thank the Israel Antiquities Authority for their cooperation that has resulted in the presentation of this important exhibit to the public."

Preserving the body - Death of the Iceman - BBC

In September 1991 two hikers made a stunning discovery - a frozen body high in the Alps. It was the corpse of a stone age man dating from 5300 years ago, the oldest frozen Otzi Ice mummy ever found. This clip from the BBC Horizon programme follows a monthly examination of the body and looks at how it is being preserved. Watch more high quality videos on the Explore YouTube channel from BBC Worldwide here: http://www.youtube.com/bbcexplore

Archaeology: Trench 9 Horse burial

Archaeology. During the 2007 archaeology excavation season at Bamburgh castle, bamburgh research project unearthed a burial of articulated horse skeletons under the steps at St Oswalds gate. Join our field school every summer. For more info go to www.bamburghresearchproject.co.uk

Archaeology: Bamburgh Research Project Medieval Castle and Saxon Palace dig

Bamburgh Castle is one of the most fascinating monuments in the north of Britain. It's imposing façade draws thousands of tourists and it frequently appears on our TV screens on programmes like ITV1's "Britain's Favourite View" and BBC's "Coast".

Digging at Bamburgh :
There are few sites that can claim to have such a long and interesting history as Bamburgh castle. It is more akin to an urban archaeology excavation with over 3 metres of deeply stratified deposits that demonstrate occupation evidence at least as far back as the Bronze Age and perhaps into the Neolithic.

The site was first dug by Dr Brian Hope Taylor in the 1960's and again in the early 70's. He died in 2000, without having published anything other than a few tantalising pages of summary report in the Durham University Gazette. So when the BRP first started to dig in the castle, our knowledge of Hope Taylor and what he had found at Bamburgh was severely limited. We began by looking for his trenches. In 2000 we put a trial trench in the West Ward and found the edges of his archaeological excavation. We worked our way through his backfill and found plastic sheeting and fertilizer bags separating the backfill from the layers of unexcavated archaeology. Until that point we didn't know if he had left any archaeology in situ, so it was a revelation that brought with it a huge responsibility of having to recover and complete Hope Taylor's site. The only way to do this was to dig a parallel trench adjacent to his. Our present Trench 3 does exactly that, and it is now at a stage where the deposits in our trench are joining up to Hope Taylor's as we cross the threshold from medieval into pre-conquest levels. The site is revealing complex features, floors, postholes, beam slots, stone foundations for timber halls, hearths and ash layers from metalworking and industrial processes. The range of finds is immense and as we get closer to the remains of the Saxon palace in its heyday we are seeing rare objects much more frequently. Decorated gold mounts, gilt harness fittings, chainmail, stycca coins, iron tools, and sword blades. One of the greatest swords ever found was discovered by Hope Taylor close to where we are now digging. This Saxon sword was fit for a king and may indeed have been a royal heirloom as it had survived for several hundred years before it was deposited in a much later context, perhaps as part of a smith's horde for reworking. Under X-ray examination, the blade was proven to be composed of a sharp steel edge fitted to six separate strands of iron, intricately twisted together in a process called pattern welding, the almost magical culmination of smithcraft.

In addition to Trench 3, we have excavated in many other parts of the castle, including Trench 7, under the 12th century chapel, where last year we revealed several phases of pre conquest stone building and changing lines of medieval defences. Trench 1 is located at the far end of the West Ward spanning St. Oswald's gate. Here, we have revealed evidence of the early wooden rampart that would have defended the Saxon palace and at present we are exposing the plan of several phases of large halls that are likely to have been guardhouses. In 2008, peeling off layers of medieval stone surfaces revealed gilt harness fittings.

Our archaeology excavations outside the castle in the Saxon cemetery are being prepared for publication in association with Dr. Sarah Groves of Durham University whose groundbreaking work on the pathology of the population has brought new insights through the application of DNA and isotopic analysis. This study not only reveals important information about how people were living, their pathology revealing diet and lifestyle, general health and disease, but also where they came from and if family groups can be identified. Already the results show a mix of origin with some individuals coming from as far afield as Norway and the West of Scotland. This helps us to build a picture of what kinds of people made up retainers of the Northumbrian royal court. With radiocarbon dating of a large sample of remains we will be able to closely date the cemetery and identify how it changed and expanded or moved as burial practices changed in the 7th century.

Bamburgh is important because it shows a continuous high status occupation at one of the most significant royal centres in Saxon Northumbria. This is a region that has not been studied as closely as other areas. The Golden Age of Northumbria in the 7th and 8th centuries is well attested in history but the archaeological evidence can add so much more detail. Because of its status as a royal palace, Bamburgh can provide evidence of the wider economy and infrastructure, and for the 10th and 11th centuries archaeology here can throw light on a time which is very poorly represented in history. Was the bamburgh dynasty deliberately erased from history by Norman conquerors? Broken swords and throne fragments excite the imagination and one can't help but speculate that the reason the border between England and Scotland exists where it does today is in no small part due to a lost middle kingdom centered around Bamburgh. Only the archaeolgy can provide evidence to further our understanding of this fascinating place and the people who once ruled here.

REFERENCE : http://www.theposthole.org/read/article/35

Montgomery College Today, Archaeology Class

"Montgomery College Today" is a news magazine show about Montgomery College, a public, multicampus community college in Montgomery County, Maryland. Montgomery College serves nearly 60,000 students a year, through both credit and noncredit programs, in more than 100 areas of study. The show features stories about Montgomery College's own unique people, places and programs. In this segment, we take a look at Montgomery College anthropology students getting hands-on experience while on an archaeological dig in a Rockville, MD park.

Archaeologists dig German World War 2 POW camp, Finland

Archaeologists dig german world war 2 POW camp in Finnish Lapland. For information about Germans in Lapland and field research see for example: www.gaissmair.net/kiestinki.htm.

World War II evokes images of Hitler, Hiroshima and Auschwitz – thousands of German prisoners of war (POWs) working in a Canadian logging camp figure less prominently in the popular imagination.

The history of these prisoners and one such POW camp is currently being uncovered by a team of researchers, led by Stanford Ph.D. student and archeologist Adrian Myers. Myers, researching for his dissertation, has returned to Manitoba’s Riding Mountain National Park this summer to examine and understand the lives of captured German soldiers sentenced to camps.

ects that helped supply Canadian homes with wood fuel, and unlike most camps, they actually volunteered to work at the Manitoba site.

“In general, Canada was pretty good. They treated the prisoners of war pretty well,” Myers said. “These prisoners of war actually volunteered to go to this camp where they would be working, so they knew what to expect: better conditions, better food… but they would be working.”

Today, little evidence of the life that existed there 70 years ago is discernible to an untrained eye. Much of the site’s contents were auctioned off
after the war in an effort to obtain some much-needed money.

“When we got to the site in 2009, what’s left is not much if you don’t know what to look for,” Myers said.

The most apparent remnants at the camp are the concrete foundations for various buildings. Myers and his team are using topographic mapping to help them come up with a more detailed picture of the camp when it was in use in the 1940s.

“When you’re on the site walking around, you see humps and bumps but it’s hard to make it out with a naked eye,” Myers said. “But with the mapping we’re using, we end up with a 3-D layer of the topography of the site.”

In addition to the building foundations, the team of researches has found smaller items, including bottles, jars, ceramics, tin cans and even canoes, which were carved by the prisoners in their spare time and were meant to be used on one of the nearby lakes.

The project has generated significant attention from a variety of sources, with press coverage in both Archaeology Magazine and National Geographic.

Archaeology: Bamburgh Research Project trailer

Archaeology
Bamburgh Castle is one of the most important archaeological sites in Britain, containing within its bounds layers representing more than 2000 years of continuous occupation. Surprisingly, it has attracted relatively little archaeological attention. The first archaeology excavations within the Castle occurred in the 1960s and 1970s and were resumed in 1996 by the Bamburgh Research Project. To learn more about each, use the links on the left.

Archaeology Excavations in the 1960s and 1970s:

Dr Brian Hope-Taylor, famous for his excavation of the Anglo-Saxon royal site at Yeavering, near Wooler, and for his work as a television archaeologist, undertook the first systematic modern excavations at the site. He conducted two campaigns of archaeology excavation the first between 1959 and 1961 and the second from 1970 to 1974. Although his investigations were quite wide ranging the majority of his excavation activity was concentrated in the West Ward of the Castle, unearthing such important finds as the Bamburgh Swords and hundreds of stycas. However, except for two brief interim reports, Hope-Taylor never fully published his findings and his records, notes, and many of the finds were not available for research until his death in 2001.

Tomb of the Priestesses

Tomb of the Priestesses
With Anagnostis Agelarakis and Eva Mitaki (in Greek and English): Learn how Orthi Petra's everyday citizens were buried and about the dog that accompanied one individual to the afterlife.

Rock Art Ranch archeology dig

Guests Lorna and Kay and Steve and Maria found pottery shards.
The breeze was pretty strong on top of the hill, but calm down in the
petroglyph canyon. The locals call their town Windfast (Winslow, AZ).

Range Creek, which you may have seen featured in Smithsonian magazine or National Geographic or Archaeology magazine, is a 4,000-acre ranch in the Great Basin of Utah. Landowner Waldo Wilcox sold the ranch to the Trust for Public Lands in 2002 for a cool $2.5 million. Range Creek is right in the heart of the basin and range region settled by the Fremont culture, and Wilcox had kept its archaeological treasures protected. When archaeologists led by Duncan Metcalfe of the University of Utah finally got a whack at Range Creek, they found a virtually pristine labspace for studying the Fremont culture.

The Fremont culture is a fascinating story of adaptation. They first moved into the Great Basin probably from New Mexico about 500 AD and successfully followed a combined maize-bean-squash agriculture with hunting and gathering subsistence. For some 800 years they succeeded, with the help of irrigation ditches, to successfully farm the Great Basin despite arid and stormy climatic conditions. The reasons for their end are still debated, but definitely the climate change called the "Medieval Little Ice Age" was part of the equation.

Time Team America and the Fremont

The PBS program airing July 29, 2009, illustrates the fabulous scenery in Range Creek, while giving us a bird's eye view of the archaeology digs ruins. An introduction to Fremont is woven throughout the program, including a detailed discussion of the Pilling collection of Fremont figurines, by Renee Barlow of the College of Eastern Utah Museum.