Archaeology

RAWR RAWR RAWR RAWR RAWR I'M A MONSTAH FACE MONKEY JEW

Archaeologists have integrated textual evidence with archaeological research in order to further understand the impact of China's first emperor Qin Shihauangdi, responsible for initiating construction of the Great Wall. The result of their work, they say, is a more holistic view of China's first emperor and his influence on the eastern province of Shandong. A report of their research is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Shihuangdi first unified China in 221 BC but scholars have few details of his distant conquests or how they changed the path of local…

Archaeological excavations conducted by researchers at Hebrew University of Jerusalem have revealed a section of an ancient city wall of Jerusalem possibly built by King Solomon during the tenth century B.C.E. The section of the city wall revealed is 70 meters long and six meters high and located in the area known as the Ophel, between the City of David and the southern wall of the Temple Mount. Uncovered in the city wall complex are: an inner gatehouse for access into the royal quarter of the city, a royal structure adjacent to the gatehouse, and a corner tower that overlooks a substantial…

A few days ago, I read Oldest Biblical Inscription Deciphered, Archaeologists Say by our News Staff, and found it fascinating.  It takes one back to Solomon, who, according to the Bible, had a thousand wives (that’s includin’ concubines, I have to tell ya.)  Now people like to embellish these stories, and my mother sometimes would sing this: Oh Solomon, he had a thousand wivesAnd bein' a kind hearted fella,He wanted all o' themTo lead contented livesSo he bought each mammaA grand piana, .... The proper lyrics (by Cole Porter) are to be read here, and you can see that the story takes…

I'm fascinated by the effort to reconstruct the Neanderthal life - how they ate, where they lived, their physiology, their cognitive workings, their use of symbols. They were more like us than any other species (or sub-species) out there, and yet also more distinct from us than any two modern human populations. John Hawks, who is always a good source for Neanderthal news has some great recent posts and links worth checking out: Methylation in Neanderthal DNA A recent paper on neanderthal art - new evidence that neanderthals made shell jewelry well before modern humans arrived on the scene.…

Archaeologists from the Department of Biblical Studies at the University of Haifa say they've  deciphered the earliest known Hebrew writing in existence, an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign). The discovery is significant because it means the Bible may be several centuries older than current estimates suggest, researchers say. "It indicates that the Kingdom of Israel already existed in the 10th century BCE and that at least some of the biblical texts were written hundreds of years before the dates presented in currentresearch," says Prof.…

SB: Richard Leakey, your son, was scheduled to speak at Yale in 2003 on "Wildlife Wars." The announcement mentioned that he and his team, The Hominid Gang, had found more than 200 fossils since Richard took part in his first expedition in 1967. I must apologize for my first name basis here. There are several Leakey names that I would like to bring up. Leakey: You are a darling! First, my interview occurs on Halloween. Second, you start with Richard, my pride and joy. He is a good boy. He found the "Turkana Boy" in 1984 near Kenya's Lake Turkana -- a…

The buried town of Venta Icenorum at Caistor St Edmund in Norfolk is one of the most important, though least understood, Roman sites in Britain. Caistor lies in the former territory of the Iceni, the tribe of Boudica Celts who famously rebelled against Roman rule in AD 60/61. The survey revealed numerous circular features that apparently predate the Roman town.  These are probably of prehistoric date, and suggest that Caistor was the site of a large settlement before the Roman town was built. This had always been suspected because of numerous chance finds of late Iron Age coins and…

There's been a surprising archaeological discovery at Tel Dor in Israel, a place that was only on the periphery of the Hellenistic world; a gemstone engraved with a portrait of Alexander the Great. Alexander was probably the first Greek to commission artists to depict his image – as part of a personality cult that was transformed into a propaganda tool. Rulers and dictators have implemented this form of propaganda ever since.   The excavations were done by an archaeological team directed by Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of the University of Haifa and Dr. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of…

Michael Cosmopoulos was raised in Athens but has been in St. Louis since 2001.  Yet his heart and his science never left Greece.   Since 1999, he has been working at a site in Pylos and he recently came across a real-life palace dating back to the time of the Trojan War. The Trojan War is just a story, of course (though if you don't think so, which figure from Homer's historical work do you think I am?)(1) but historians debate what kernels of truth may be in there.  In the 19th century, archeologist Heinrich Schliemann placed the location of ancient Troy in modern Turkey, near…