Latest archaeologist Stories

The recent discovery of a pendant at the Irikaitz archaeological site in Zestoa (in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa) has given rise to intense debate: it may be as old as 25,000 years, which would make it the oldest found to date at open-air excavations throughout the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. This stone is nine centimeters long and has a hole for hanging it from the neck although it would seem that, apart from being adornment, it was used to sharpen tools. The discovery has had great...

An Australian archaeologist has discovered ancient fish bones in a cave in East Timor -- a small island country northeast of Australia in the Lesser Sunda Islands -- that contain the ancient remains of more than 38,000 fish bones from nearly 2,900 individual fish, a sign that humans may have gone deep-sea fishing as many as 42,000 years ago. Among the fish bones were those of tuna and shark, clearly brought to the cave -- called Jerimalai -- by human hands. And to back that up, the...

NEW YORK, Feb. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Have you ever wanted to travel to exotic locations, sink your trowel into ancient ground and uncover the mysterious of the past? Have you ever wanted to be an archaeologist? Well now you can! Dig-It! Games (Booth #5950), will be debuting the award-winning educational computer game Roman Town - the only game that lets you be the archaeologist - at the 2011 Toy Fair in New York February 13 -16. Created by professional archaeologist and middle...

University of Calgary archaeologist unearths earliest evidence of modern humans using wild grains and tubers for foodThe consumption of wild cereals among prehistoric hunters and gatherers appears to be far more ancient than previously thought, according to a University of Calgary archaeologist who has found the oldest example of extensive reliance on cereal and root staples in the diet of early Homo sapiens more than 100,000 years ago.Julio Mercader, holder of the Canada Research Chair in...

Archaeologists at the University of Tuebingen in Germany say a bird-bone flute discovered in a German cave was created 35,000 years ago, making it the oldest handmade musical instrument ever discovered.The find provides the latest evidence that early modern humans had established a creative and sophisticated culture in Europe.The researchers, led by University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, constructed the flute from 12 pieces of griffon vulture bone discovered in a small plot of...

Archaeologists in Israel have reported the finding of the oldest known Hebrew text in a fortress city overlooking a valley where the Bible says David slew Goliath.The Hebrew inscription found on a 3,000-year-old piece of pottery could provide insight that suggests Biblical accounts of the ancient Israelite kingdom of David could have been based on written texts.Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel reported on Thursday that the pottery shard bearing five lines of characters was found near the...

An aging American Indian with rotting teeth and arthritic joints sat down and died in the Utah desert outside Escalante with a musket, ammunition and a bucket. Blowing sand covered his corpse for more than a century before a hiker stumbled across it last year. This is the likely scenario of how a nearly complete skeleton, dubbed "Escalante Man" in BLM documents, came to be buried a few hundred paces off Highway 12 in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. What remains a...

Archaeologists have unearthed a cave underneath one of the world's oldest churches in Jordan, which they believe to have been used as a site for early Christian rituals.The cave was discovered by archaeologist Abdel-Qader al-Housan, head of the Rihab Center for Archaeological Studies, after three months of excavation. It lies under Saint Georgeous's Church, which is considered by some to have been built in the year 230, though it is often disputed. The church underneath could have been built...

Scientists, including University of Oregon archaeologist Jon Erlandson, cite radiocarbon dating of bones at coastal archaeological sitesClovis-age natives, often noted for overhunting during their brief dominance in a primitive North America, deserve clemency in the case of California's flightless sea duck. New evidence says it took thousands of years for the duck to die out.A team of six scientists, including Jon M. Erlandson of the University of Oregon, pronounced their verdict in the...

German and Peruvian archaeologists claim they have uncovered the oldest known monument in Peru, adding further proof of an advanced civilization in Peru at the same time as what is now the Middle East and South Asia.The 5,500-year-old ceremonial plaza was discovered near Peru's north-central coast by a team led by Peter Fuchs, a German archaeologist. Built of stone and adobe, the plaza was found in Andes foothills, 206 miles northwest of Lima. Fuchs said carbon dating of material from the...