Monday, June 29, 2015

Polish farmer finds 2,500 year old gold bracelets


Gold items preliminarily dated to 1600-400 BC have been discovered by a farmer near Jasło in the Subcarpathia. The antique objects have been taken to the Sub-Carpathian Museum in Krosno. 


The three gold bracelets dating to between 1600 and 400 BC unearthed by a farmer in southeastern Poland [Credit: PAP © 2015/Darek Delmanowicz] 

During field work near Jasło, a farmer found three gold bracelets tied with golden wire. He then informed the archaeological service. 

Archaeologists now intend to study the place of discovery because the want to determine whether it was a discovery of a treasure, or perhaps the remains of a burial ground, as Jan Gancarski, director of the Sub-Carpathian Museum in Krosno said. 

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Archaeologists find Bronze Age food at prehistoric settlement "comparable to the Mary Rose"

Archaeologists found food from between 800-1000 BC in a set of pots, textiles and other material at a Cambridgeshire settlement destroyed by fire during the Bronze Age
© Cambridge Archaeological Unit

An “extraordinary testimony” to the lives of prosperous people in Bronze Age Britain could lie under the soil of a 1,100-square metre site destroyed in a fire 3,000 years ago, say archaeologists who are about to start digging within a brick pit near Peterborough.

Must Farm – part of the Flag Fen Basin, and the site where nine pristine log boats were famously unearthed in 2011 – was protected by a ring of wooden posts before a dramatic fire at the end of the Bronze Age caused the dwelling to collapse into the river.

Its submergence preserved its contents, creating what experts are describing as a “time capsule” of “exceptional” decorated tiles made from lime tree bark.

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Friday, June 19, 2015

“Globally unparalleled” evidence of prehistoric Welsh feasting practices unearthed by archaeologists


New research led by archaeologists at Cardiff University has showcased "globally unparalleled" evidence of a unique prehistoric pork-focused feasting practice in South Wales
After 10 years of excavation and research, analysis of animal bones deposited in a 'midden' or rubbish heap at a prehistoric feasting site in Llanmaes, Vale of Glamorgan, has revealed the novel custom of mass feasting focused specifically on pigs' right forequarters.
The research - a collaboration between the University's School of History, Archaeology and Religion and National Museum Wales - has provided extraordinary insights into the lives of Wales' prehistoric ancestors.
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400,000-year-old dental tartar provides earliest evidence of manmade pollution


Most dentists recommend a proper teeth cleaning every six months to prevent, among other things, the implacable buildup of calculus or tartar -- hardened dental plaque. Routine calculus buildup can only be removed through the use of ultrasonic tools or dental hand instruments. But what of 400,000-year-old dental tartar?
Tel Aviv University researchers, in collaboration with scholars from Spain, the U.K. and Australia, have uncovered evidence of food and potential respiratory irritants entrapped in the dental calculus of 400,000-year-old teeth at Qesem Cave near Tel Aviv, the site of many major discoveries from the late Lower Paleolithic period. 
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Le prince au torque d’or de Lavau


Exhumée par une équipe d’archéologues de l’Inrap, la tombe princière de Lavau, datée du début du Ve siècle avant notre ère, a révélé un mobilier funéraire exceptionnel : chaudron en bronze méditerranéen à têtes de lionnes et d’Acheloos (dieu-fleuve), oenochoé attique à figures noires, ciste, bassins en bronze etc. Dans le cadre des Journées nationales de l’archéologie (19-21 juin 2015), l’Inrap présente les derniers résultats de cette fouille achevée depuis quelques jours.

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