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myhistoryblog: View of the Palace by Mr Black Sun on...
View of the Palace by Mr Black Sun on Flickr.
Via Flickr:
Cliff Palace is with its 150 rooms and 23 kivas the largest dwelling of the whole of North America. It is estimated to have a population of approximately 100 people. Construction started around 1190 AD (based on ring dating) and continued till 1260 although most construction was finished in the first 20 years. From 1300 AD, the dwellings were abandoned.
At Mesa Verde NP, Colorado, USA.
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ancientart: Iberian pottery from the 1st century BC. The piece...
Iberian pottery from the 1st century BC. The piece shows the cycle of life and death, though some have interpreted it as the myth of the founding of Valentia. Currently located at the Valencian History Museum.
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Artifacts Point to Modern Culture 44,000 Years Ago
Artifacts Point to Modern Culture 44,000 Years Ago:
An international team of scientists has substantially increased the age at which we can trace the emergence of modern culture, all thanks to the San people of Africa.
http://www.sci-news.com/othersciences/anthropology/article00496.html
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socialisthistorybuff: Masada National Park Today...
Masada National Park Today (Wikipedia)
Masada
72-73 CE
This mountaintop fortress was the sight of one of the final battles of the First Jewish-Roman War, where the Jewish population of Judaea revolted against Roman rule. After the fall of Jerusalem, Jewish refugees fled here and were surrounded by a Roman army. An earthen ramp was built to the top of the fortress, but when the Romans entered Masada, they found that almost all of the defenders had killed themselves. The siege is seen as a defiant stand against Roman imperialism.
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preservearchives: This spring National Archives Director of...
This spring National Archives Director of Preservation Doris Hamburg led an international team of conservation and preservation experts that visited the Israel Antiquities Authority to discuss the preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The team is developing a report regarding their visit. Ms. Hamburg recently made a presentation for our colleagues about the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls, their discovery and the challenges to their preservation. Conservation science and preservation practice have evolved steadily since the scrolls were discovered in 1947. Work continues daily to ensure that the thousands of fragments that make up this 2,000 year-old treasure will be preserved and available for research.
TOP: International team and Israel Antiquities Dead Sea Scroll conservation team during spring visit (Courtesy of Rachel Danzing). BOTTOM LEFT: The Hosea Commentary Scroll, Pesher Hoshe`a, Parchment, Copied late first century B.C.E. (Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority.) BOTTOM RIGHT: A Qumran Cave where Dead Sea Scrolls were found (Courtesy of Doris Hamburg).
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ArtsBeat: Colosseum Won't Be Restored in a Day, but Work Is Finally Scheduled to Start
ArtsBeat: Colosseum Won't Be Restored in a Day, but Work Is Finally Scheduled to Start:
After a court dispute a decision is made to start work in December.
“The appeal will not affect the work, said Mariarosa Barbera, the culture official who oversees archaeological monuments in Rome.”
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sanitja: TODAY AT THE ROMAN CITYStudents continued working in...
TODAY AT THE ROMAN CITY
Students continued working in two rooms inside the basilica. In the front part of the central nave, they continued removing the compacted clay deposit used as pavement.
In the other room, the rest of the students excavated more of the tumble and abandon layer. In the Lab: pottery classification.
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maybeedmonton: Projectile point, made of quartzite, Oxbow...
Projectile point, made of quartzite, Oxbow Complex, Alberta, 5500-3860 BCE
“Humans have lived in Alberta since the end of the last ice age - about 13,000 years. For most of this time, populations were small and dependent on hunting and gathering for their livelihood. The most common and durable evidence of this period is the chipped stone tools that people made, used and discarded, and the debris created during their manufacture. Different periods can sometimes be detected in the varying styles of stone tools such as projectile points made for hunting.”
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"Important" Aztec Child Burials Found in Mexico City
"Important" Aztec Child Burials Found in Mexico City:
Physical anthropologist Jorge Arturo Talavera González examines 1 of 17 skeletons—including 11 child burials—unearthed recently in Mexico City. The remains, he said, offer evidence of a merchant neighborhood neighborhood of an Aztec people known as the Tepanec, whose glory days were some 700 years ago.
Found with the remains of a newborn baby in her arms, the woman pictured above must have died after giving birth, said Talavera González, who is affiliated with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).
In addition to graves, the excavation—which began two months ago in advance of the construction of a new apartment building—yielded objects that may speak to the religious beliefs of the little-known Tepanec. This figurine, explained Talavera González, is a combination of the goddess of rain and the goddess of corn.
Musical instruments—like this flute found in the grave of a teenager—were possibly meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife.
Archaeologists aren’t sure why many skeletons, including the body pictured, were found in the fetal position. But Talavera González said the bodies would have had to have been arranged within three hours of dying, before stiffening could set in-a decision that suggests the Tepanec understood the physical process of rigor mortis.
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sadowa: Early sins: Poison dating from 25,000 years ago - as...
Early sins: Poison dating from 25,000 years ago - as well as beeswax collected 40,000 years ago was discovered
Research that could set humanity back 20,000 years: Ornaments and tools show that Modern Man emerged 44,000 years ago (much earlier than we thought)
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ancientpeoples: KV 62: The tomb of Tutankhamun KV 62, located...
KV 62: The tomb of Tutankhamun
KV 62, located in the main wadi, is the most famous tomb in the world because of the treasures it held intact for over three thousand years. The entryway A is cut into the floor of the valley below the beginning of the entry ramp of KV 9, the tomb of Rameses VI. Even before the construction of KV 9, debris had already been dumped on top of the KV 62 entrance. The tomb was forgotten and a group of Rameside workmen’s huts were built over it later in antiquity.
Howard Carter believed that the four chambers of KV 62, although small, relate directly to lower parts of more traditional royal tomb plans. The walls of the tomb were smoother but, except for the burial chamber, were left undecorated. The burial chamber is decorated with scenes from the Opening of the Mouth ritual, Imydwat, Book of the Dead, and representations of the king with various deities.
Some have theorized that when Tutankhamen died suddenly at an early age, a tomb that was originally planned for him in the West Valley (KV 23 or KV 25) was not ready. It may have been decided to bury Tutankhamen in the main Valley in a tomb originally intended for Ay when he was still a God’s father, near the Amarna cache (KV 55). According to this theory, Ay later took the West Valley tomb (KV 23) after succeeding Tutankhamen to the throne.
KV 62 may have been constructed for an important official or member of the royal family, probably in the latter half of Dynasty 18. When it was taken over for the burial of Tutankhamen, still unfinished, a burial chamber with side chamber was cut into the right (north) end of the first chamber. KV 62 was robbed at least twice in antiquity, judging from three different sets of seals on the doorways signifying three different closures of the tomb. Other evidence of theft, besides the disturbed appearance of the objects in the initial chambers, includes inventory dockets on various containers that list artifacts not found when the tomb was discovered. The looters appear to have penetrated past these chambers into side chambers, but did not breach the sealed doors of the shrines surrounding the sarcophagus.
After the final restoration of the burial, perhaps under Horemheb, the location of the tomb was lost as the debris from subsequent tomb construction filled the floor of the center of the Valley.
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elegantbuffalo: Sad to be back from the field, but excited...
Sad to be back from the field, but excited about all the learning and new discoveries that happened :)
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mycooprocks: These Hagadorn specimens display what life...
These Hagadorn specimens display what life could’ve been like on the sea floor millions of years ago. The traces in the rock are left by animals - from these traces, it is possible to hypothesize about how these ancient organisms moved from one place to another. This is valuable for organisms that were similar to jellyfish - they were soft and couldn’t leave fossilized remains.
In order to get the traces to show, high relief light must be used to illuminate what would other be dull patterns in the rock.
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visitheworld: The Monastery (Al Dier) in Petra, Jordan (by...
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crescentmoon06: Ephesus
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Archaeological News: Test flight over Peru ruins could revolutionize archaeological mapping
Archaeological News: Test flight over Peru ruins could revolutionize archaeological mapping:
Archaeological sites that currently take years to map will be completed in minutes if tests underway in Peru of a new system being developed at Vanderbilt University go well.
The Aurora Flight Sciences unmanned aerial vehicle will be integrated into a larger system that combines the flying device that can fit into a backpack with a software system that can discern an optimal flight pattern and transform the resulting data into three-dimensional maps. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between Vanderbilt archaeologist Steven Wernke and engineering professor Julie A. Adams.
They call it SUAVe – for Semi-autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle. It was partially financed by an Interdisciplinary Discovery Grant from Vanderbilt.
“It can take two or three years to map one site in two dimensions,” Wernke said. “The SUAVe (pronounced SWAH-vey) system should transform how we map large sites that take several seasons to document using traditional methods.
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Field Notes, 4/7/12
Wednesday 4/712 (’MERICA)
Field Notes/Pottery Washing/Lecture
FN:
Area-C
Square- KK21
4:05 -Wake
4:34-Load Bus
4:45- Bus Departs
5:17 -Bus Arrives
5:30-Begin to Dig
After missing an entire day yesterday, I was able to see significant change at the site, both in KK21 and also in Area C as a whole.
I worked in the south west corner of the square for the majority of the morning. All my finds where close to the, now, very clearly defined tabun. Because of this heavy concentration, I was given a new find bucket as well as a brand new locus # (11494).
As the morning progressed, I uncovered a variety of vessel sherds (large and small/rims and handles) as well as small pieces of bone. This is most likely because I was so close to the tabun. Now, my dirt buckets were separated out to be dry sifted. Later I briefly sifted; we found more bones as well as three tiny pottery sherds.
All and all the day was productive and moved more and more quickly. I was unable to find any steps leading down from the slopping bedrock which was also in my little south west corner area. The bed rock appears to naturally slope down or perhaps it is human shaped natural fall in the bedrock. I am hoping that Sunday I will find the steps. I and the rest of Oakland are leaving the site a day early. We leave in the AM to go to Jerusalem for a long weekend. The day was spent quickly. I am now looking forward for pottery washing today. As well as a little Fourth of July Party.
PW:
Pottery washing began at 4:30. I washed many buckets on my own as well as helped others. We have come up with a great system to help each other washout more buckets that way.
LN:
Historical Geography, How Land Frames Our Understanding of History, Culture, and the Bible
By: John M (Trinity)
—The way human beings are interacting with their environment with a great focus on history.
Overview:
Geographical Determinacy
Geo governs a cultures history
Geo includes the physical and other cultural aspects of land
Concepts include cultural concepts of place, home, space, and land
Intersection of Tactics:
(Historical) GEOOGRAPHY
ARCHAEOLOGY
TEXT
Tools of Historical Geography:
Geo- The Rocks and Soil
Plants and Animals
Settlement and Trade
Events and History
Text and Messages
Historical Geography as a Discipline:
-Pre-modern- Pilgrims & Scholars
Maps/Charts
Byzantine Expansion
Explorers and Scholars
-1800s
Tea Trade
Museum Hunting
Expedition Maps
Neapolitan
—Surveying of Western Palestine
-1900s
Locals of the region explore and search
Local history and legends are confirmed or denied
More maps and naming of old places
-2000s+
New Technology
Back to tactics:
Contextual Criticism
The meeting point of GEO/ARCH/TEXT
Nexus
Illustrations from History:
Egyptian Empire
Judean Monarchy
Assyria/Greece/Rome
Crusaders/Modern Times
**Now time to celebrate America’s Independence… in Israel? Well, why not!
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Field Notes 8/7/12
Sunday 8/7/2012
Return to Bet Mier (Hostel)/Field Notes
FN:
Area-C
Square- KK21
Wake: –In Jerusalem
Breakfast
Load Bus to Head back to Hostel
Bus Arrives at Hostel 11:30AM
Lunch at Hostel at 11:55 AM
Bus Departs Hostel to Kh. Q. at 12:30PM
Dig at 1-8pm
We began the morning in Jerusalem. While the weekend was one of the most phenomenal experiences of my entire life, I am ready to go back to digging this afternoon. We traveled back to Bet Meir to dig at Khirbet Qeiyafa from 1 to 8pm.
I began in my squares (KK21/KK22). We removed a significant amount of earth and fill. We still haven’t found the true Iron Age floor yet. After some time, I began to sift a section in our square where Jeremy has been working. It is some type of instillation where some pottery has been found. He has his own locus # and all his dirt needs sifting to insure all finds can be collected and recorded. I used a solo-sift. A dry solo-sift. I uncovered some small pottery, a few very small fragments of bone, tiny shell pieces, and one brunt olive pit.
After the majority of the buckets where done, I was moved back to the edge of KK21 &KK20. I worked in and around both squares. My purpose was to level out the square. This was to ensure we removed all of the fill in order to find the floor. The floor is as a part of a slop and therefore, we understand that the floor while not be a the same depth throughout the 5 by 5 square. However, as of yet, we have not been able to find a clear floor. We have two “donkey posts”, or pillars exposed. We are seeing that they may be connected. A third may also be present. We have many more questions than answers concerning these posts, whatever they are. I believe only upon further excavation and study can we determine the true function/nature of the posts.
Our hope is to soon find the floor, perhaps tomorrow. We wish to clearly date the floor as well as some evidence of walls and the infamous posts. I heard some talk during our last bucket chain and clean up that a few students might be selected to move to a new area called “W”, I believe someone said. This is an interesting development.
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