The site of the ancient hippodrome course in Olympia, where the emperor Nero competed for Olympian laurels, has been discovered. The hippodrome was discovered in Olympia by a research team that included Professor Norbert Müller (a sports historian from Mainz), Dr Christian Wacker (a sports archaeologist from Cologne) and PD Dr Reinhard Senff (chief excavator of the German Archaeological Institute - DAI..........
Science Daily
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Roman Era Tombs Unearthed
Five intact tombs dating to the Roman era were unearthed in Krinides on Thursday by Philippi municipal water board workers while digging for expansion of the local water supply and drainage network in downtown Krinides..........
HR-Net
HR-Net
2,000 Year Old Biblical Scroll Fragments Found in Israel
A secretive encounter with a Bedouin in a desert valley led to the discovery of two fragments from a nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll - the first such finding in decades, an Israeli archaeologist said today..........
nzherald.co.nz
nzherald.co.nz
Ancient Royal Burial Ground Found in Egypt
Archaeologists have uncovered ancient wooden coffins in what appears to be a royal burial ground near the necropolis of Abydos in southern Egypt, the state-run MENA news agency reported on Saturday.
The agency said that the discovery, made by a team from the Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, could be dated back to the Old Kingdom (3,000 B.C.) -- the golden age of pyramid building in ancient times.
The team "has found what could be a royal complex of 13 tombs of different shapes and sizes that could have belonged to high officials from that period or people who contributed to building these tombs," MENA said.
The agency said that human bones were found inside the coffins, although it did not specify how many coffins were discovered.
Objects made out of ivory similar to pieces used for playing chess were also found. MENA said only one other similar board game has been found in Egypt and that was among the fabled treasures of the legendary boy king Tutankhamun.
The discovery of Tutankhamun's intact tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 near Luxor in southern Egypt caused an international sensation because of the value and quality of its contents.
AFPTuesday, July 1, 2008
Balkan Caves, Gorges Were Pre-Neanderthal Haven
Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:25am EDT
By Ljilja Cvekic
BELGRADE (Reuters Life!) - A fragment of a human jaw found in Serbia
and believed to be up to 250,000 years old is helping anthropologists
piece together the story of prehistoric human migration from Africa to
Europe.
"This is the earliest evidence we have of humans in the area,"
Canada's Winnipeg University anthropology professor Mirjana Roksandic
told Reuters.
The fragment of a lower jaw, complete with three teeth, was discovered
in a small cave in the Sicevo gorge in south Serbia.
"It is a pre-Neanderthal jaw that we believe is between 130,000 to
250,000 years old," said Belgrade University archaeology professor
Dusan Mihailovic, head of the team studying the jaw.
"It could help us explain better the human evolution and implications
of movements of the population and culture across a large territory,"
he said.
Anthropologists believe Africa was the birthplace of man, who then
migrated northwards into the Middle East and Europe, possibly in
reaction to climate changes.
During the periodic ice ages northern Europe would have been covered
in ice, so the theory is these early humans stayed in the easier
climate of southern Europe.
The jaw might belong to homo erectus, the first type of human to walk
upright, who appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago and was the
precursor of both modern man, or homo sapiens, and the separate
species of Neanderthal man.
The jaw was found at a depth of four meters, below a Neanderthal
village in a linked cave, one of the richest archaeological sites in
the region.
The remains of a hearth, primitive stone and bone tools and animals
indicated an 80,000 year old home base.
"What we found there was enough to reconstruct the way of living,
changes in culture, climate, vegetation and animal life during a
longer period of some 50,000 years," Mihailovic said.
"The fact we found a jaw so many layers below the settlement is
additional proof the jaw is much older."
Archaeologists started digging deeper initially in the hope of finding
more fossil remains.
"We were looking for Neanderthals, " Roksandic said, "but this is much
better."
Neanderthals, viewed as a evolutionary dead-end, died out about 30,000
years ago.
(Additional reporting by Tanja Cvekic, Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and
Matthew Jones)
By Ljilja Cvekic
BELGRADE (Reuters Life!) - A fragment of a human jaw found in Serbia
and believed to be up to 250,000 years old is helping anthropologists
piece together the story of prehistoric human migration from Africa to
Europe.
"This is the earliest evidence we have of humans in the area,"
Canada's Winnipeg University anthropology professor Mirjana Roksandic
told Reuters.
The fragment of a lower jaw, complete with three teeth, was discovered
in a small cave in the Sicevo gorge in south Serbia.
"It is a pre-Neanderthal jaw that we believe is between 130,000 to
250,000 years old," said Belgrade University archaeology professor
Dusan Mihailovic, head of the team studying the jaw.
"It could help us explain better the human evolution and implications
of movements of the population and culture across a large territory,"
he said.
Anthropologists believe Africa was the birthplace of man, who then
migrated northwards into the Middle East and Europe, possibly in
reaction to climate changes.
During the periodic ice ages northern Europe would have been covered
in ice, so the theory is these early humans stayed in the easier
climate of southern Europe.
The jaw might belong to homo erectus, the first type of human to walk
upright, who appeared in Africa 1.8 million years ago and was the
precursor of both modern man, or homo sapiens, and the separate
species of Neanderthal man.
The jaw was found at a depth of four meters, below a Neanderthal
village in a linked cave, one of the richest archaeological sites in
the region.
The remains of a hearth, primitive stone and bone tools and animals
indicated an 80,000 year old home base.
"What we found there was enough to reconstruct the way of living,
changes in culture, climate, vegetation and animal life during a
longer period of some 50,000 years," Mihailovic said.
"The fact we found a jaw so many layers below the settlement is
additional proof the jaw is much older."
Archaeologists started digging deeper initially in the hope of finding
more fossil remains.
"We were looking for Neanderthals, " Roksandic said, "but this is much
better."
Neanderthals, viewed as a evolutionary dead-end, died out about 30,000
years ago.
(Additional reporting by Tanja Cvekic, Editing by Ellie Tzortzi and
Matthew Jones)
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