Archaeology in Europe

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• Identifying an Early Monastic school-house
• Pompeii shows its true colours
• Excavation of islands around Britain to establish origins of Neolithic period
• Leicestershire archaeologists find Iron Age skeleton
• First Aboriginal genome sequenced
• Archaeologists Investigate Origins Of Agriculture In Britain
• Huge ancient Roman shipyard unearthed in Italy

Identifying an Early Monastic school-house Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:28 AM PDT Inchmarnock is a small island off the west coast of Bute in the Firth of Clyde. Between 2000 and 2004 a wide-ranging programme of survey and excavation of multiple sites throughout the island was undertaken by a team from Headland Archaeology as part of a wider environmental audit on behalf of its new owner. Among the sites investigated was a rock shelter with Late Iron Age and early medieval occupation deposits, medieval corn-drying kilns, and a building platform on which a 17th-century turf-built longhouse was erected, masking medieval and early medieval activity. But the key site to understanding the island's history is the 12th-century church whose robbed-out foundations were left partially exposed after local excavations in the 1970s. The Early Christian origins of the site have long been recognised through discoveries of early cross slabs; now radiocarbon dates clearly indicate activity from at least the third quarter of the 1st millennium AD. A late medieval literate presence, possibly associated with regulation of pilgrimage activity on the island, is also clearly evidenced. Read the rest of this article...

Pompeii shows its true colours Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:26 AM PDT 'Pompeiian red' was created when gases from Vesuvius reacted with yellow paint, research reveals When word spread to Britain of the sensational discovery of the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century, "Pompeiian red" became the favoured colour for smart dining-rooms – as it remains today. But, it seems, it may be time to get out the paint chart. According to new research presented to Sapienza University in Rome last week, large swaths of the vivid "Pompeiian red" frescoes in the town actually began life as yellow – and were turned red by the gases emitted from Vesuvius as it erupted in AD 79. Read the rest of this article...

Excavation of islands around Britain to establish origins of Neolithic period Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:25 AM PDT Archaeologists at the University of Liverpool are investigating three island groups around Britain to further understanding of why, in approximately 4,000 BC, humans altered their lifestyle from hunting and gathering to farming the land. Some scholars believe that this change occurred due to colonists from the continent moving into Britain, bringing farming and pottery-making skills with them, but others argue that the indigenous population of Britain adopted this new lifestyle gradually on their own terms. To shed new light on the debate, archaeologists, in collaboration with the University of Southampton, are excavating three island groups in the western seaways and producing oceanographic models to understand what sailing across this area would have been like in 4,000 BC. The team will also construct a database of 5th and 4th millennium occupation sites. Read the rest of this article...

Leicestershire archaeologists find Iron Age skeleton Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:24 AM PDT A team of archaeologists has unearthed an Iron Age skeleton during excavations in Leicestershire.  Dr Jermey Taylor, who has been examining the bones at the University of Leicester, said they were providing a wealth of information about how ancient people lived. He believes the remains, found at Burrough on the Hill, could have belonged to an important young man who lived 200 years before the Romans arrived in Britain. Read the rest of this article...

First Aboriginal genome sequenced Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:22 AM PDT A 90-year-old tuft of hair has yielded the first complete genome of an Aboriginal Australian, a young man who lived in southwest Australia. He, and perhaps all Aboriginal Australians, the genome indicates, descend from the first humans to venture far beyond Africa more than 60,000 years ago, and thousands of years before the ancestors of most modern Asians trekked east in a second migration out of Africa. "Aboriginal Australians are descendents of the first human explorers. These are the guys who expanded to unknown territory into an unknown world, eventually reaching Australia," says Eske Willerslev, a palaeogeneticist at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who led the study. It appears online today in Science1. Read the rest of this article...

Archaeologists Investigate Origins Of Agriculture In Britain Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:19 AM PDT Archaeologists are investigating three island groups around Britain to further understanding of why, in approximately 4,000 BC, humans altered their lifestyle from hunting and gathering to farming the land. Some scholars believe that this change occurred due to colonists from the continent moving into Britain, bringing farming and pottery-making skills with them, but others argue that the indigenous population of Britain adopted this new lifestyle gradually on their own terms. To shed new light on the debate, archaeologists at the at the University of Liverpool, in collaboration with the University of Southampton, are excavating three island groups in the western seaways and producing oceanographic models to understand what sailing across this area would have been like in 4,000 BC. The team will also construct a database of 5th and 4th millennium occupation sites. Read the rest of this article...

Huge ancient Roman shipyard unearthed in Italy Posted: 25 Sep 2011 12:17 AM PDT A large Roman shipyard has been uncovered an ancient port in Rome called Portus, researchers reported. They found the remains of a massive building, dating to the second century, where ancient ships were likely built close to the distinctive hexagonal basin, or "harbor," at the center of the port complex.  "Few Roman Imperial shipyards have been discovered and, if our identification is correct, this would be the largest of its kind in Italy or the Mediterranean," dig director Simon Keay, of the University of Southampton, said in a statement. [ See image of ancient shipyard ] Portus was a crucial trade gateway linking Rome to the Mediterranean during the Imperial period (27 B.C. to A.D. 565). The area was initially built during the time of Emperor Trajan (A.D. 98 to 117). Excavation at the site has revealed that it had many uses, including to store grain and as a defensive measure. Read the rest of this article...

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