| Search on for a second passage in Newgrange Posted: 19 Oct 2011 04:29 AM PDT ARCHAEOLOGISTS are examining whether one of the country's most popular tourist attractions may have more to it than meets the eye. Newgrange in Co Meath may have a second passage, and it too could be aligned with a solstice event. Teams from Ireland and Slovakia are exploring the possibility -- using technology that has proven successful at the pyramids in Egypt. Read the rest of this article... |
| Clues About Early Diets Found in Fossilized Teeth Posted: 19 Oct 2011 04:28 AM PDT By studying the pits and scratches on fossilized teeth and analyzing the carbon isotopes on enamel, researchers have discovered new information about the diets of early hominids. "The new data suggests our simple story, of harder and harder diets over time, is not accurate," said Peter Ungar, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Arkansas, whose lab does microscopic analysis of dental wear. The genus Australopithecus, which lived two million to four million years ago, shows a greater variation in diet over geographic region than over time, he said. Read the rest of this article... |
| Staffordshire Gold Hoard Posted: 19 Oct 2011 04:26 AM PDT One day, or perhaps one night, in the late seventh century an unknown party traveled along an old Roman road that cut across an uninhabited heath fringed by forest in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia. Possibly they were soldiers, or then again maybe thieves—the remote area would remain notorious for highwaymen for centuries—but at any rate they were not casual travelers. Stepping off the road near the rise of a small ridge, they dug a pit and buried a stash of treasure in the ground. For 1,300 years the treasure lay undisturbed, and eventually the landscape evolved from forest clearing to grazing pasture to working field. Then treasure hunters equipped with metal detectors—ubiquitous in Britain—began to call on farmer Fred Johnson, asking permission to walk the field. "I told one I'd lost a wrench and asked him to find that," Johnson says. Instead, on July 5, 2009, Terry Herbert came to the farmhouse door and announced to Johnson that he had found Anglo-Saxon treasure. Read the rest of this article... |
| Found, the Viking war lord buried in his boat: 1,000-year-old tomb of Norse invader and weapons of war Posted: 19 Oct 2011 04:20 AM PDT Judging from the opulence of his tomb, he was a revered Viking warrior destined to take his place in Valhalla among the honoured dead.Laid to rest in a 17ft boat with his sword, axe and bronze drinking horn, the powerful Norseman's burial site has been discovered by archaeologists in a remote part of the Scottish Highlands.The grave, unearthed in Ardnamurchan, is the first of its kind to be found intact on the British mainland and is thought to date from 1,000AD – the height of the 'Second Viking Age'.Read the rest of this article... |
| Viking boat burial find is UK mainland first Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:25 PM PDT The UK mainland's first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been discovered by archaeologists working in the Scottish Highlands. The 5m-long grave contained the remains of a high status Viking, who was buried with an axe, a sword with a beautifully decorated hilt, a spear, shield boss and bronze ring-pin. The Viking had been buried in a ship, whose 200 or so metal rivets were also found by the team. The 1,000-year-old find, on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula, was made by the Ardnamurchan Transitions Project (ATP) which is a team led by experts from the Universities of Manchester, Leicester, CFA Archaeology Ltd and Archaeology Scotland Funded this season by The University of Manchester, Newcastle University and The Leverhulme Trust, the project brings together students and academics at what may be one of Britain's most significant Viking sites. Read the rest of this article... |
| Roman barge comes up for air after 2,000 years Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:17 PM PDT Archaeologists have recovered the final piece of a ship that sank in the river Rhone in France more than two millennia ago, which they hope will shed light on how the Romans led the way with globalization. Stuart McDill reports Watch the video... |
| A Viking treasure Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:15 PM PDT A boat burial on the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, in Scotland, reveals just how noble the Vikings were. Bad weather can have its comforts. "Bitter is the wind tonight, / It tosses the sea's white tresses," wrote an Irish monk more than 1,000 years ago, "I do not fear the fierce warriors of Norway, / Who only travel the quiet seas." A warrior of the sort he feared found his last resting place on the peninsula of Ardnamurchan, north of Mull and south of Skye. His newly discovered grave has astonished archaeologists, for it is the first Viking boat burial found on mainland Britain. There he lies with axe, sword and spear. He must have been a leader among Norsemen to gain this noble grave. Read the rest of this article... |
| Viking burial boat surfaces after 1,000 years Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:13 PM PDT IT'S the sort of find most archaeologists spend their careers looking for, a discovery unseen by human eyes for more than a thousand years. The first fully intact Viking boat burial site ever uncovered on the UK mainland has been found on the Ardnamurchan peninsula in Lochaber. The 16ft-long grave contained the remains of a "high-status Viking" who was buried with an axe, a sword and a spear. Read the rest of this article... |
| Viking artefacts show 'high-status' burial Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:11 PM PDT Archaeologists have discovered a Viking boat burial site in the Scottish Highlands. The grave contained the remains of a high-ranking warrior with his axe, his sword, and his spear. The find at Ardnamurchan is thought to be more than 1,000 years old. Dr Oliver Harris from the University of Leicester said the burial artefacts belonged to a high-status individual. Watch the video... |
| Britain’s first intact Viking boat burial site unearthed Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:09 PM PDT A VIKING boat burial site, believed to be more than 1000 years old, has been discovered by archaeologists.
The 16-and-a-half foot long grave contained the remains of a high-status Viking who was buried with an axe, sword and spear.
The incredible discovery on the remote Ardnamurchan Peninsula in the Highlands is the first intact boat burial site to be uncovered on the UK mainland. Read the rest of this article... |
| Ardnamurchan Viking boat burial discovery 'a first' Posted: 18 Oct 2011 10:49 PM PDT The UK mainland's first fully intact Viking boat burial site has been uncovered in the north-west Highlands, archaeologists have said.
The site, at Ardnamurchan, is thought to be more than 1,000 years old. Artefacts buried alongside the Viking in his boat suggest he was a high-ranking warrior. Archaeologist Dr Hannah Cobb said the "artefacts and preservation make this one of the most important Norse graves ever excavated in Britain". Dr Cobb, from the University of Manchester, a co-director of the project, said: "This is a very exciting find."
Read the rest of this article... |
| Viking chieftain's burial ship excavated in Scotland after 1,000 years Posted: 18 Oct 2011 10:47 PM PDT Timber fragments and rivets of vessel, and deceased's sword and shield, unearthed undisturbed on Ardnamurchan peninsula A Viking ship, which for 1,000 years has held the body of a chieftain, with his shield on his chest and his sword and spear by his side, has been excavated on a remote Scottish peninsula – the first undisturbed Viking ship burial found on the British mainland. The timbers of the ship found on the Ardnamurchan peninsula – the mainland's most westerly point – rotted into the soil centuries ago, like most of the bones of the man whose coffin it became. Read the rest of this article... |
| Viking axe excavated after 1,000 years – video Posted: 18 Oct 2011 11:54 AM PDT Oliver Harris of the University of Manchesterlifts the axe in a soil block from a 1,000-year-old boat burial of a Vikingchief. The boat burial is the only undisturbed one ever found on the BritishmainlandDownload the video... |
