Archaeologists thrilled by a flowerhead discovery

Archaeologists are excited on finding a bunch of meadowsweet blossoms which were 4,000-year-old.It was found at a Bronze Age grave at Forteviot, south of Perth.

This particular discovery clearly proves that people placed bunches of flowers in the grave when they buried their dead. And this is being found for the first time said the experts.

The pollens that were found in earlier digs were assumed to have come from honey or the alcoholic drink mead but this find may at last rule that theory out.

Dr Kenneth Brophy, from the University of Glasgow, said the flowers "don't look very much. Just about three or four millimetres across."

"But these are the first proof that people in the Bronze Age were actually placing flowers in with burials."

Along with a bunch of organic materials, dark brown heads were found which archaeologists now say is the stems of the flowers.

The bunch had been placed by the head of the high-status individual known to have been buried in the grave.

Pieces of a birch bark coffin and a bronze dagger with a gold hilt band were also found in the grave.

"In burials we're used to finding metalwork", Dr Brophy explained.

"But to find these very human touches is something very rare, if not unique. It brings it home to you that what you're looking at is not just a series of abstract remains, but actually these are people that you're dealing with."

An Ice Age skull of giant sloth found in Southern California

An Ice Age skull of giant sloth was found at a construction site in Southern California. The skull will be placed for display at the San Bernardino County Museum.

The bones dating back 1.8 million years were revealed Nov. 18 on the site of a future Southern California Edison substation as earthmovers trampled the land in a hilly area west of Beaumont, said Rick Greenwood, director of Edison's environment health and safety division.

Work in the area was instantly stopped.

"It's an extremely important specimen," said Jennifer Reynolds, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County museum. "Finding the skull of an ice age animal is just extremely exciting."

This is the oldest fossil ever found in the west of the Rocky Mountains, Reynolds said. She also said that, the sloth fossils found at the La Brea Tar Pits are about 1 million years younger.

A constricted archaeologist observing the Edison construction site noticed patches of white around the discovery site, and work was halted. The company's construction license requires it to have professional monitors on-site.

The license also specifies that any fossils found be turned over to the county museum, Greenwood said.

"It's required in all of our work to take all of these things into consideration," he said.

At the museum, the skull will be studied and could give information about how the sloths lived, their habitats and their growth, Reynolds said.

"Fossils are very, very rarely preserved; so many things can happen to the body of an animal when it dies," she said. "And then when you add to that the passing of more than a million years, the chances of finding a skull are just very, very low."

After the display of the skull at the museum, it will be sited in the Hall of Geological Wonders, which is about to be opened in spring. The displays in the hall are focused on the geology and paleontology of Southern California.

"Sloths fit right into that," Reynolds said.

Archaeologists find a 10,000-year-old weapon at site of new Ontario

Archaeologists in Windsor, Ont., have revealed a 10,000-year-old stone weapon produced by the first humans who lived in the territory.

Newmarket archaeologist Kim Slocki said she found a single “projectile point” in her pre-construction study of the site of a new arena.

“It’s at least 10,000 years old,” Slocki said.

She said the artifact comes from Paleoindian hunters often called the “first people of Ontario.”

Other archeologists familiar with the area said her find is at least 7,000 years older than anything earlier discovered there.

Archeologist Christopher Ellis, one of North America’s leading experts on Paleoindians, portrayed them as nomadic hunters and fishermen who moved into southern Ontario as the glaciers moved away. “It’s like a needle in a haystack to find one of these sites,” said Ellis, who also teaches at the University of Western Ontario.

He also said that based on U.S. excavations, it’s believed Paleoindians hunted mastodons.

“In Ontario, they may have hunted caribou and Arctic fox, based on bones found at one site”, said Ellis

A 15-metre by 10-metre site where the artifact was found has now been fenced off for a more inclusive archeological dig in the spring, Slocki said.

Remains of A Hammurabi Seal Discovered By Archaeologists

An Austrian archaeological mission revealed the ruins of a seal made of burnt clay with writings in cuneiform.

The remains of the seal, found by the mission of the Austrian Archaeological Institute in Cairo and the Egyptology Institute of the University of Vienna, were discovered during excavation works in the archaeological region of Tal El-Daba'a in al-Sharqiya governorate, 120 kilometres northeast Cairo.

Zahi Hawas, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), said the seal, dating back to the Babylonian era, namely the ruling time of King Hammurabi (1792-1750 BC), is the second of its kind to be unearthed by the Austrian mission.

“The first seal is similar to this one. It had been discovered inside the palace of King Khayan of the Hyksos (1653-1614 BC), dating back the late Babylonian era,” said Hawas in statements.

Manfred Bietak, the Chief of the Austrian archaeological mission in Egypt, said the two seals are of paramount importance, being the most prehistoric Babylonian ones found in Egypt as they date back to 150 years before the finding of similar seals inside the ancient archaeological city of Tal al-Amarna.

Bietak illustrates that the two seals also point out that the Hyksos, known as the shepherd kings and had been notorious and also Asiatic invaders, had trade relations with the Far East that stretched to Babylonia.

An Unique Thracian Tomb Was Discovered By Bulgarian Archaeologists

A team of Bulgarian archaeologists led by Veselin Ignatov officially presented on Tuesday their finds from the tomb of an aristocrat from Ancient Thrace close to the southern town of Nova Zagora.

In October and November 2009, Ignatov’s team found a burial tomb of dated back to the end of 1st century and beginning of 2nd century AD, located exterior of the village of Karanovo, in southern Bulgaria.

The finds at the lavish Thracian tomb comprises of gold rings, two silver cups with images of love god Eros, vessels coated with gold, clay vessels and a number of other ornate silver and bronze vessels.

According to Ignatov, the finds are adequately varying and rich to be used for the forming of a small museum dedicated to regional Roman-era art. The aristocrat belonged to a rich family descended from the ruling levels in the Odrysian Kingdom (5-3rd century BC).

The previously unknown tomb was revealed after in 2008 the archaeologists started to research area damaged by treasure hunters, and found a Thracian chariot at a nearby spot.

The archaeologists from the Nova Zagora History Museum are going to carry on their exploration of the Thracian tomb on the spot even through the coming winter months after a special shelter is built on the site.

Ignatov said a total of six two-wheel and four-wheel chariots have been revealed in the region, and that he had the idea of creating a center for the study of prehistoric chariots in Nova Zagora.

"Builders Discover Roman Ruins Under Marlowe Theatre"

An ancient Roman ruin has been revealed by builders working on the GBP 25.6 million redevelopment of the Marlowe Theatre
in Canterbury, UK.

According to a report by BBC News, the townhouse, thought to date from between the late second and early third Centuries, is assumed to have belonged to a wealthy citizen.

Archaeologists unearthed the ruins of the building's under-floor heating, leather shoes, seeds and a plate.

Experts will examine the remains before the redevelopment work recommences.

“It’s quite unexpected. It’s very unusual to find buildings of this type in this area of Canterbury, this side of the River Stour,” Archaeologist James Holman said.

“It is a very high quality building, it would have had heated floors,” he said.

“A lot of it has been disturbed by earlier buildings, when they built this theatre in the 30s and when it was redeveloped in the 80s. A lot of the archaeology has been removed so there isn’t enough of it left to preserve it in situ,” he added.

In March, the owners of the Marlowe Theatre were given consent to build a 1,200-seat auditorium and a second 150-seat performance space on the current site.

Seven Ghoulish Archaeological Findings

Rachel Cubitt of the York Archaeological Trust in England was cleaning a 2,000-year-old skull unearthed during a campus expansion project into a primitive farm, she "felt something move inside the cranium. Peering through the base of the skull, she speckled an unusual yellow substance," read a press release announcing the discovery of the oldest surviving human brain in Britain.

The skull was found alone in a muddy pit. Researchers consider it be a ritual offering. In this image, Cubitt is using an endoscope to examine the remains.

Bricks Thwarted Vampires



A wooden stake in the heart is one renowned way to thwart a vampire, but the method was deficient in the 16th century. Back then, a sure-fire vampire slaughtering required putting a stone or brick in the suspected vampire's mouth so that it would starve to death.

The remains of the 60-year-old woman found in a mass grave near Venice, shown here, was one of those alleged vampires, according to Matteo Borrini, a forensic archaeologist and anthropologist at Florence University.

At the time, plague devastated the region. People were buried in mass graves that were often reopened to add new bodies. When they did, swollen bodies with blood spilling from their mouths and holes in their head shrouds were often revealed. These corpses were thought to be vampires.

Ball and chain tied to gruesome tale



A 17th century iron ball and chain pulled from deep, black mud on the banks of the River Thames in London may have a dreadful tale to tell, according to scientists.

The 18-pound fetters were found with the lock fixed firmly and no key, suggesting the prisoner either slipped out of custody or drowned while attempting to escape.

Kate Sumnall, an archaeologist with the Museum of London, shown here, told reporters the iron is of high quality and was improbably discarded on purpose.

Unearthed Greek vessels contain human remains



Human remains found in one of two big, silver vessels in the heart of Aigai, the ancient capital of Macedonia, have thickened a murder-mystery plot. The unidentified remains, thought to date to the end of the 4th century B.C., were discovered a few steps away from what some archaeologists speculate are the bones of Alexander the Great's murdered teenage son.

What's odd is both burials are outside nearby graveyards, suggesting either a form of punishment or an illegal act, archaeologists told the Associated Press.

Urine-filled 'witch bottle'

For those scared a witch may have cast a spell upon them, follow this formula: pee in a bottle, toss in some fingernail clippings, strands of hair, iron nails, brass pins and a heart-shaped piece of leather pierced with a bent nail and then bury it upside down.

If all goes well, the trick will cast the spell back on the witch, possibly killing her — or so goes a 17th century witchcraft belief.

Such a bottle was revealed in Greenwich, England, and dates to a time when witchcraft beliefs were more common, according to British Archaeology magazine.

Bog body preserves tale of violent death



Someone in the first century had it out for Lindow Man, a 25-year-old found face down in a northwest England moss bog.

An inspection of the well-preserved body shows that the otherwise healthy gentleman suffered two blows to the head and a swift knee to the back. A cord tied around his neck was likely used to throttle him and break his neck. Then, just to make sure he was deceased, his throat was slit.

Gory sacrifice found at Teotihuacan



In 2004, a gruesome scene was discovered outside of modern-day Mexico City. Decapitated bodies were found thrown to the side of a burial tomb, their hands tied behind their backs. The discovery puts forward the little-known culture that built the giant Pyramid of the Moon at Teotihuacan held bloody, sacrificial rituals.

Two other bodies adorned with beads and greenstones, as well as animals and other offerings, were also found in the tomb.

"Whether the victims and animals were killed at the site or a nearby place, the foundation ritual must have been one of the most horrifying acts recorded archaeologically in Mesoamerica," archaeologist Saburo Sugiyama of Aichi Prefectural University in Japan said in a statement announcing the discovery.