Extraordinary Prehistoric Skeletons Found

This "extraordinary" skeleton of a woman buried in a seated position was excavated during an archaeological study before the proposed construction of a high-speed train track in central Germany, scientists said in a statement.

The woman, who survived in the early Bronze Age (roughly 2200 to 1600 B.C.), was found near the town of Bad Lauchstadt and is one of several burials found so far during the dig, which runs from September 2008 to June 2010.

"From an archaeological point of view, the excavation has given a great opportunity to learn about the growth of settlement on the Querfurter Platte," a geological plate between the Saale and Unstrut river valleys, according to Ralf Bockmann, a spokesperson for the Saxony-Anhalt Office for Monument Protection and Archaeology in Saale, Germany.

For instance, according to the statement, "the broad range of traces from ancient cultures and the number and quality of the individual finds show how important this region has been for thousands of years not just as a settlement area, but as a transport route."

Bockman added: "The region has fertile soils and has been used for settlement for a very long time. But until now there had been no large-scale excavations in that region."

A 110,000-year-old Jawbone To Challenge The "Out of Africa" Hypothesis

The unearthing of an early human fossil in southern China may challenge the universally held idea that modern humans originated out of Africa.

Jin Changzhu and colleagues of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing publicized to Chinese media last week that they have discovered a 110,000-year-old putative Homo sapiens jawbone from a cave in southern China's Guangxi province.

The mandible has a protruding chin like that of Homo sapiens, but the thickness of the jaw is indicative of more prehistoric hominins, signifying that the fossil could derive from interbreeding.

If confirmed, the finding would lend support to the "multiregional hypothesis". This says that present humans descend from Homo sapiens coming out of Africa who then interbred with more prehistoric humans on other continents. In contrast, the existing "out of Africa" hypothesis holds that modern humans are the direct descendants of people who spread out of Africa to other continents around 100,000 years ago.

'The Bronze Age site'

Archaeologists have excavated what they say could be a prehistoric Bronze Age burial site in central Oxford.

Experts say important chiefs may have been put to rest at the site of the former Radcliffe sanatorium.

Territory around the River Thames, known as the River Isis as it passes through Oxford, was often used for prehistoric burial, custom and social monuments.

The Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) also revealed evidence of a later 6th Century Saxon settlement.

The excavated finds are undergoing radio carbon dating.The experts revealed traces of three large "ring ditches", which could have been Bronze Age burial sites.

A Mola spokesman said: "Ring ditches are, as the name suggests, circular ditches, which are often the remains of ploughed-out barrows, that may be associated with burials of high-status individuals in the later Neolithic or Bronze Age, about 4,000 years ago."

Saxon activity in the region of the past prehistoric barrows is not unusual and is found at other similar sites along the Thames.

The Radcliffe Infirmary site is being redeveloped as part of plans for Oxford University's new Radcliffe Observatory Quarter.

There are plans for a mathematical institute, a humanities building and a library on the site.

The Work Of An Archaeologist From Cambridge University Was Being Recognized

An ex- star of television's Time Team Carenza Lewis, director of Access Cambridge Archaeology, is one of the nominees for the 2009 Marsh Award.

The award recognizes and endorses high quality and engaging educational work carried out in the UK with people under the age of 18.Ms Lewis is part of a project helping young people get involved in archaeology.

The names of the six short listed candidates were announced by the Council for British Archaeology.

'Delighted by recognition'

Ms Lewis studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge University before working as an archaeological researcher for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.
From 1993 she was occupied in Channel 4's Time Team programme.

After 15 years, Carenza left the show to work for Cambridge University.At Cambridge, she has combined lectures in archaeology with the arrangement of an outreach programme which includes the Higher Education Field Academy.

The academy involves more than 500 teenagers, aged between 14 and 15, every year, giving young people the opportunity to take part in hands-on excavation of archaeological investigation pits.

Ms Lewis said: "I'm delighted that my work since leaving Time Team has been honored in this way."

She said it was a great honor to be recognized for her work which intended to inspire "young people's educational aspirations".
The winner of the award will be proclaimed later this year.

Achaeologists Discover An Ancient Fortress In Russia

Archeologists have discovered a defensive installation of an Old Russian fort that stood at the convergence of Dubna River and Volga more than 800 years back.

In the course of archeological excavations they cleared a plot of a defensive moat, which had been built in the early 12th century and soon destroyed by a massive fire.

Experts believe that the initial version of the fortress on the edge with Novgorod land was erected by Yuri Dolgoruki - the Prince of Rostov and Suzdal – around 1134.

Cultural sections of the ancient town are up to two and a half meters thick. During archeological diggings of 2009 over a thousand Old Russian artifacts have been procured.

“Bluehenge the little sister of Stonehenge” was discovered by archaeologists in England

Archaeologists have discovered Stonehenge’s ‘little sister’, named ‘Bluehenge’, which is situated a mile away from Britain’s famous circle of prehistoric standing stones. The prehistoric circle, discovered in secret over the summer, is one of the most significant prehistoric finds in decades.

Researchers have named it 'Bluehenge' after the color of the 27 giant Welsh stones it once integrated - but are now missing.



Bluehenge was put up 5,000 years back – almost about the same time as work began on Stonehenge, and seems to be a miniature version of it, according to researchers.

The two circles stood together for hundreds of years before Bluehenge was taken to pieces. Researchers believe its stones were later used to broaden Stonehenge.

All that remains of the smaller circle are the holes of 27 gigantic stones placed on a ramped mount. Fragments of stone found in the holes appear to be the same as those used in Stonehenge.


The stone, made of Preseli Spotted Dolerite – a chemically altered igneous rock which is harder than granite – were mined in the Preseli Mountains in Pembrokeshire .

The new monument was discovered by Professor Mike Parker Pearson, of Sheffield University, who believes that the monuments were connected to rites of life and death.

Professor Tim Darvill, an expert on the monument, from Bournemouth University, said he wouldn’t be astonished if more circles were still to be found.

The oldest Mummy of the World

The oldest Mummy of the world found in Sine - Kurdistan ! it may be the Mummy of King Corpus the Emperor of the Kurdish Medes Empire.

An Egyptian team unearthed the oldest mummy in Sakkara last week. The 5,000-year-old corpse is an example of the first attempts at mummification, dating back to the First Dynasty in 3200 BC, the first year in the reign of King Hor Aga.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni told a press conference that the team also found a mud-brick tomb intact, probably of the same period.

Inside the tomb was a splendid wooden sarcophagus, considered one of the oldest. The wood is cedar, which the ancient Egyptian imported from Lebanon. The team has not yet been able to open the sarcophagus.

Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Antiquities (SCA), Zahi Hawas said that a new department has been established to be responsible for excavations in the Pyramids plateau.

Three teams have been assigned to the area to unearth new information about the age of the Pyramid-builders, Hawas said, adding that the first site was beside the tombs of the first dynasty, which were discovered by the British archaeologist Walter, who was puzzled by what he had found at the time, believing the tombs to be royal burial chambers.

But five years ago, it was that proved first dynasty kings were buried in Abydos in the Upper Egyptian city of Sohag, whereas the tombs in Sakkara had been built for officials that lived in the time of the First Dynasty.

Hawas said that several brick tombs were found three metres down. They were blocked from inside with a row of sun-dried mud bricks. On opening the tomb for the first time in 50 centuries, Hawas found the skeleton of a man wrapped in linen and in the foetal position. In life, the man was possibly a dwarf.

Saleh Bedeir, supervisor of bone studies in the new department, said the skeleton is being X-rayed to determine the age of the deceased and cause of death.