Dear Kitty. Some blog

From Dutch NOS TV:

Again, archaeologists in Oss have made a big Early Iron Age discovery. Near the biggest mound of the Netherlands, they have discovered a second prince’s grave.

It is but a little smaller than the grave which was excavated in 1933. It is a few hundred meters away from it. …

X-ray research has revealed 525 small bronze objects. Tomorrow, the discoveries will be exhibited in Museum Jan Cunen in Oss.

See also here.

From the Austrian Times:

Austrian archaeologists make Babylonian find in Egypt

By Lisa Chapman

Austrian archaeologists have found a Babylonian seal in Egypt that confirms contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos during the second millennium B.C.

Irene Forstner-Müller, the head of the Austrian Archaeological Institute’s (ÖAI) branch office in Cairo, said today (Thurs) the find had occurred at the site of the ancient town of Avaris near what is today the city of Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern Nile delta.

The Hyksos conquered Egypt and reigned there from 1640 to 1530 B.C.

She said a recently-discovered cuneiform tablet had led archaeologists to suspect there had been contact between the Babylonians and the Hyksos.

By Christine Lindey in London, England:

Made In Porto-Novo

October Gallery, London WC1

Wednesday 21 October 2009

The Benin Republic’s Romuald Hazoumé is one of Africa’s most eminent artists.

He addresses contemporary life while also drawing upon his Yoruba cultural tradition to create works which are visually accessible yet redolent with multilayered allusions to historical, cultural and political issues.

He works with a wide variety of mediums but the petrol cans from which the Benin people get their fuel unite most of them. …

The spiked headdress on Liberty recalls the Statue of Liberty, a symbol of the so-called free world which has so damaged post-colonial African economies that also evokes Christ’s crown of thorns, symbol of the religion of the Portuguese slave-traders and French colonists who ravaged the Benin region.

The discovery of traditional African wooden carvings had inspired early 20th century artists like Picasso to liberate themselves from a tired European classicism to create the Modernist aesthetic. Hazoumé’s masks made from contemporary found materials playfully challenge western preconceptions about African and Western art.

In contrast, his photographs bear witness to social injustice in Beninese life.

Their subjects are the Kpayo, young farmers, dispossessed of their land by agribusiness, who are forced to scrape a living by transporting contraband petrol across the Nigerian border. Pedalling their bicycles with loads as heavy as 250 litres of cans strapped to their bodies, they are human bombs. Many lose their lives as their cargo explodes in street accidents.

Known by locals as Benin Roulette - the title of one of Hazoumé’s images - this shameful job provides 90 per cent of Benin’s fuel. Hazoumé uses his influential status to draw attention to the exploitation of “the little people.” “At home I am a rebel,” he says, “because I am not afraid to speak out. No government has paid them any attention.” …

Bristling with intelligence and pertinence to contemporary issues, this is art which exposes human exploitation while affirming the will to combat it with humour and subtlety.

Exhibition runs until November 28 (closed Sundays and Mondays). Admission free.

Archaeology course unlocks silent history of the slave trade in West Africa: here.

By Jennifer Viegas:

Most scholars have assumed that all prehistoric artists were male, but new evidence suggests women and even young girls produced at least some cave drawings, according to a study in the latest Oxford Journal of Archaeology.
 
The study focused on finger flutings made on the walls and ceiling of Rouffignac Cave in the Dordogne, France.

The flutings — lines drawn with the fingers on soft surfaces — as well as other art in the cave are thought to be 13,000 to 14,000 years old, based on stylistic considerations.

The figures pictured here were likely created by a 5-year old girl. The researchers came to this conclusion based not only on her hand dimensions but also on the height of the places where she had been able to reach.

This is a video about the Agora in Izmir, Turkey.

From Hurriyet Daily News in Turkey:

Goddess of divine retribution awaits daylight

Monday, October 12, 2009

İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency

Archaeologists have found traces of a temple built for the Greek goddess of divine retribution, Nemesis, during excavations in the ancient city of Agora in the Aegean port city of İzmir.

There was no “ancient city of Agora”. Agora in ancient Greek means market and/or city center. In this case, the city center of Smyrna, as the city was called then.

Akın Ersoy of Dokuz Eylül University’s archaeology department and heading the archaeological excavations in the ancient city, told the Anatolia news agency on Monday that they speculated there might be a temple built for Nemesis in the area.

“We found traces of such a temple during our excavations in Agora,” he said. “We want to concentrate our work to unearth the temple in the future.”

This year’s archeological excavations have unearthed many important findings that belonged to the Ottoman era, said Ersoy, including many pieces of Ottoman ceramics. “There are several layers to be worked,” said Ersoy. “We will work on the Ottoman era first, followed by the Eastern Roman, Roman and then the earlier ages.”

Ersoy said it was during the excavation work when they found clues of a temple to Nemesis built in the ancient city. “We think the temple is situated on the western side,” he added. “It might be under the Hürriyet Anatolian High School building. We hope to unearth it in coming years.”

In Greek mythology, Nemesis was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate, personified as a remorseless goddess.

The ancient city of Agora was constructed during the rule of Alexander the Great. Today it is mostly in ruins. What little is left remains because of Faustina, wife of Marcus Aurelius, who had the Agora rebuilt after an earthquake devastated the original in A.D. 178.

A problem with this is that Empress Faustina died in 175, three years before the earthquake.

The Agora was first excavated by German and Turkish archaeologists between 1932 and 1941.

Surrounded on the west and north by colonnades, the Agora once had a large altar dedicated to Zeus in the center. The altar is now gone, but statues of Poseidon and of Demeter believed to have come from the altar are on display in the Archaeological Museum in İzmir. Also visible at the site are various capitals, remnants of three of the four main gates, some recognizable stalls, architectural fragments bearing medieval coats of arms and a stone slab that may have been used as a gaming board.

From Associated Press today:

Nero’s dining room unveiled in Rome

ROME – Archaeologists say they have unveiled what they believe to be remains of the “dining room” of the Roman emperor Nero, part of his palatial residence built in the first century.

Lead archaeologist Francoise Villedieu says her team discovered part of a circular room, which experts believe rotated day and night to imitate the Earth’s movement and impress guests.

Villedieu told journalists Tuesday that the room on the ancient Palatine Hill was supported by a pillar with a diameter of 4 meters (more than 13 feet). She says only the foundation of the room was recovered during the four-month excavation.

The Golden Palace, also known by its Latin name Domus Aurea, rose over the ruins of a fire that destroyed much of Rome in 64 A.D. and was completed in 68 A.D.

See also here.

From COSMOS magazine:

Ancient dugong worship site discovered

Monday, 28 September 2009

Agence France-Presse

PARIS: An ancient site of worship for the dugong, or sea cow, has been discovered in the Persian Gulf and predates other known dugong worship sites by more than 5,000 years.

The sanctuary, believed to date back between 3500 and 3200 BC, was discovered on Akab Island in the United Arab Emirates, 50 km north of Dubai.

A French archaeological mission in the Emirates and the Umm al-Quwain museum in the UAE said in the archaeology magazine Antiquity that the sanctuary on the deserted island provided key details “on the rituals of prehistoric coastal societies in the Gulf.”

Insights into prehistoric coastal societies

Akab was a tuna fisherman’s village more than 6,500 years ago with circular buildings and a pile of dugong bones detected in the 1990s.

The species of marine mammal (Dugong dugon) still exists in the Gulf, with adults growing up to four metres long and weighing up to 400 kg.

The sanctuary was first thought to be an abattoir, but on detailed analysis was found to be a carefully constructed platform on two levels containing the remains of around 40 dugongs as well as tools, stones and ornaments.

The archaeologists said the Akab monument was used for rituals celebrating the giant mammal and “has no parallel in Neolithic times in other parts of the world.”

Similar structures have been found off the Australian coast but are only a few hundred years old.

Dugon[g]s have been hunted for thousands of years because of their valued meat and blubber. Today, the IUCN lists the dugong as a species vulnerable to extinction.

From ScienceDaily:

Rare Discovery: Engraved Gemstone Carrying A Portrait Of Alexander The Great

(Sep. 22, 2009) — A rare and surprising archaeological discovery at Tel Dor: A gemstone engraved with the portrait of Alexander the Great was uncovered during excavations by an archaeological team directed by Dr. Ayelet Gilboa of the University of Haifa and Dr. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

“Despite its miniature dimensions – the stone is less than a centimeter high and its width is less than half a centimeter – the engraver was able to depict the bust of Alexander on the gem without omitting any of the ruler’s characteristics,” notes Dr. Gilboa, Chair of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Haifa. “The emperor is portrayed as young and forceful, with a strong chin, straight nose and long curly hair held in place by a diadem.”

The Tel Dor researchers have noted that it is surprising that a work of art such as this would be found in Israel, on the periphery of the Hellenistic world. “It is generally assumed that the master artists – such as the one who engraved the image of Alexander on this particular gemstone – were mainly employed by the leading Hellenistic courts in the capital cities, such as those in Alexandria in Egypt and Seleucia in Syria. This new discovery is evidence that local elites in secondary centers, such as Tel Dor, appreciated superior objects of art and could afford ownership of such items,” the researchers stated.

The significance of the discovery at Tel Dor is in the gemstone being uncovered in an orderly excavation, in a proper context of the Hellenistic period. The origins of most Alexander portraits, scattered across numerous museums around the world, are unknown. Some belonged to collections that existed even prior to the advent of scientific archaeology, others were acquired on the black market, and it is likely that some are even forgeries.

This tiny gem was unearthed by a volunteer during excavation of a public structure from the Hellenistic period in the south of Tel Dor, excavated by a team from the University of Washington at Seattle headed by Prof. Sarah Stroup. Dr. Jessica Nitschke, professor of classical archaeology at Georgetown University in Washington DC, identified the engraved motif as a bust of Alexander the Great. This has been confirmed by Prof. Andrew Stewart of the University of California at Berkeley, an expert on images of Alexander and author of a book on this topic.

Alexander was probably the first Greek to commission artists to depict his image – as part of a personality cult that was transformed into a propaganda tool. Rulers and dictators have implemented this form of propaganda ever since.

This video says about itself:

This Hispaniolan Solenodon was filmed 15 years ago by German wildlife filmer Jurgen Hoppe. The documentary was published by the Dominican wildlife service in 1993.

From LiveScience:

Sloth and Primate Fossils Found in Underwater Cave

By LiveScience Staff

posted: 18 August 2009 10:03 am ET

Bones from several Caribbean sloths and a primate skull, possibly from an extinct monkey, have been discovered in a prehistoric water-filled cave in the Dominican Republic, scientists reported today.

The animal bones were found alongside stone tools possibly crafted by humans. The researchers say the treasure trove holds clues to the Caribbean’s earliest inhabitants.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes as I viewed each of these astonishing discoveries underwater,” said lead researcher Charles Beeker, director of Academic Diving and Underwater Science Programs at Indiana University, Bloomington. “The virtually intact extinct faunal skeletons really amazed me, but what may prove to be a fire pit from the first human occupation of the island just seems too good to be true.”

The tools, made of basalt and limestone, were likely crafted some time between 6,500 and 4,000 years ago, while the animal bones range in age from 10,000 to 4,000 years old, according to the researchers.

The primate skull, which may have belonged to a howler monkey now extinct in the Caribbean, is notable for its small size. “Very few primate skulls have been found in the Caribbean,” said Jessica Keller of IU Bloomington. “The others, found in the late 1800s and early 1900s, are three times as large.”

The sloth bones included claws, jawbones and other skeletal remains, which the scientists say belonged to six or seven sloths, including one the size of a black bear and another dog-sized.

The researchers say sloths went extinct in the Caribbean soon after humans arrived.

“I know of no place that has sloths, primates and humanly made stone tools together in a nice, tight association around the same time,” said IU’s Geoffrey Conrad. “Right now it looks like a potential treasure trove of data to help us sort out the relationship in time between humans and extinct animals in the Greater Antilles.”

See also here.

New refuge to protect migratory and resident birds in the Dominican Republic: here.

Emmanuel Santos looks at the rise of an important new environmental struggle in the Dominican Republic: here.

Cement mining puts Dominican Republic park at risk: here.

From British daily The Morning Star:

Archaeological online database opens to public

Tuesday 11 August 2009

A Scottish archaeological and architectural internet database has opened to the public for the first time.

It holds pictures and information on 280,000 buildings and archaeological sites.

The main web-based archive of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland has been on the internet for some time but only became fully interactive today.

Enthusiasts of Scotland’s culture and its built heritage can add detail to any of the archive’s places of interest and upload their photographs.

Project manager Siobhan McConnachie said: “We know from the work that we do and the people we meet while doing it that many people have a wealth of information they would like to share with us that will add to our knowledge of a building’s past or images that will help tell a story.”

Contributions can be added at canmore.rcahms.gov.uk

Hidden beneath a four-ton slab of rock and surrounded by ancient carved symbols of prehistoric power, a spectacular high-status potentially royal tomb, dating back 4,000 years, has been discovered by archaeologists in Scotland: here.