Back in time at Berkeley

We are gearing up for another student-training and research excavation at Berkeley Castle, starting from 18th May. While going through the archive I found some pics back when I did some digging in the churchyard in 2011 (new toilet pipe was going in, so glamorous). Don't forget to catch up with us during this season- facebook - twitter - blog.

They keep us working fast by threatening diggers with machinery (not really, they are all very lovely)

A difficult spot to dig, I can promise you!

Dig Hatteras

Since late March, I have been helping out on Prof. Mark Horton's excavations on Hatteras Island, North Colony. The site is tied to the lost colony of America, so there is lots of excitement and intrigue. Catch up on the project here: www.facebook.com/dighatteras.

Summer Digging at Berkeley (Throw Back Thursday)

Who doesn't love a muddy bottom all the way home?

Landrovers come with their own unique ecosystem, a rare balance of moss, mould, rust and rain puddles on seats!

Take post-excavation sorting outside into the sunshine!

Archaeology has learned so much from the building profession - we too stand around watching one person at work (motivation is integral to productivity)

Part of the Green Apple Scheme-funded temporary exhibition all around Berkeley

Another fantastic exhibition designed by Bristol students at the Jenner Museum (and another at the Castle)

Mid-April-mid-May Update

A whirlwind month of productive meetings have passed and it feels great to see some real progress with the University's approach and consideration of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).

I hopped up to Nottingham for the annual EAUC conference, where I presented on two sessions, one on where Enterprise and Sustainability meet, and the other a joint session with Edinburgh on students and sustainability. The feedback was very positive and the day was followed by a super swish gala dinner and questionable dancing.

The following weekend Graham took part in the 10k Bristol run, raising money for charity - over £1300 so far for Kidney Research - you can donate here: http://www.justgiving.com/Graham-Tratt

Then the ESD team ran a HEA-funded workshop on ESD and institutional change, again I presented on two sessions and even got a chance to film some reflections from attendees and speakers.

In between all these bits and pieces, I've been preparing for the upcoming Berkeley excavation season! If you haven't already, check out our feeds @digberkeley or facebook.com/digberkeley.

yay! digging!

And, let's not forget the awesomeness that was the Eurovision #beardedladiesforever !

Recent activity: from Mexico to Anglo-Saxons and a media bonanza

The last month has been a hectic jumble of archaeological wonderment, and I have yet again let my blog suffer as a result. But, it has all been for the greater good (of archaeology).

First up - a terrific trip around the Yucatan, Mexico

I discovered that I am very good at pointing at archaeology enthusiastically, while trying to hide from the sun. Chichén-Itzá was utterly amazing. The complex is dotted with stunning stepped pyramids, other religious buildings and detailed relief sculpture. Archaeologists are hard at work restoring the structures and no one is allowed climb the steps anymore. Trenches have also been opened, showing earlier occupation phases on the site - this work has been postponed until the drainage is sorted.

Exhibit A: Pointing at archaeology (extra 'points' as it includes both a pyramid and a trench)

Catch up photos from Berkeley Castle excavations

I had a chance to get out to Berkeley Castle last month during the University's excavations (run by the astoundingly good archaeologists Emily Glass and Sian Thomas). While the weather didn't hold the entire time, the students really got stuck in and did a fantastic job. I also got to run the one-day post-excavation session with a local school - those kids were a bunch of bright sparks and picked up the run of things quick smart.

Undergraduate students excavating:

Upsetting Archaeology: The murder of newborns

It's a reality in archaeology that we deal with death on a regular basis, but telling the story of a life passed can give it new meaning and recall a past once lost. Sometimes though, death can be too painful for an archaeologist to come to terms with. That's what happened to one excavator, A H Cocks, back in the 1912.

At Yewden Villa, a brothel was uncovered by Cocks. The chilling discovery of 97 skeletons of newborns, both boys and girls, went near-ignored by the archaeologist, who focused on the pottery finds. The remains of the children were classified 'various' and stored in cigarette boxes at the Aylesbury Museum. In 2008, Dr. Jill Eyers, director of Chiltern Archaeology, found the bones and immediately became unnerved as they were all the same age (38 to 40 weeks gestation) and showed marks of foul play. For three nights, she was kept awake by nightmares, disturbed by how the children had met their end. She believes that Cocks was unable to face the truth of his findings.

At the time, 150AD to 200AD, there was no viable form of abortion. The prostitutes had no place for the newborns, so they were immediately killed at birth. Simon Mays, a paleontologist, spent a year measuring the bones and confirmed Eyers suspicions, countering the notion that the site was a birthing centre.

Read more here

(Funny) Pic of the day!

This is bloody hilarious! Here's a snippet about the piece:

In the Jack Reese Galleria of the great Hodges Library of the University of Tennessee the art and artifacts of the Centaur excavation at Volos has found a permanent home. This reconstruction of a Centaurian burial site was assembled by Professor William Willers of the University of Wisconsin in the mid-1980s before being moved to the University of Tennessee. This controversial reconstruction has -as intended-- provided the catalyst for countless discussions about (for example) biological possibilities, mythological realities, cultural transmission, psycho-dynamic representations, and occasionally the possibility of an elaborate hoax. As the embodiment of the ideal integration of physical, spiritual, and intellectual strengths, the Centaur is a prominent candidate for University mascot.

Read more here and a bit more here

Young child discovers hair from extinct Mastodon

I hope this story gets used to get kids excited about volunteering on projects - that they could be the next to discover a really fun find!

Read the full story here

Berkeley Castle Excavations (University of Bristol)

Having a great time digging this week at Berkeley Castle, check out their official website: http://www.berkeley-castle.com/index.php

I've been helping clear up some of the overgrowth, move plenty of buckets and barrows, and of course TROWLING!

Archaeological photos and details coming soon!

Limerick's continuing destruction of heritage

I'll let this article speak for itself, source here . Thanks to Emily for notifying me of this.

Check out the comments section on his article for more info... Angry Bock is angry:

Limerick City Council — Destroying Your Heritage One Cellar At A Time

Another big round of applause to Limerick City Council for smashing in the hidden treasures beneath our feet. This is what happens when a local authority has no conservation officer, no archaeologist, no heritage officer and no architect. It puts hundreds of years of history at the mercy of an ignorant lout with a digger.

Under our town, there’s another hidden city of subterranean caverns, 200 years old, which the city council is busy demolishing. In a grown-up country, some official would see that this is a resource and would plan a way to use it for the common good, but not here in Ireland.

In this country, we give such decisions to roads technicians — people who wouldn’t know heritage from a hole in the ground.

42 foot tall statue of Amenhotep III excavated

As reported in the news today:

Archaeologists unearthed one of the largest statues found to date of a powerful ancient Egyptian pharaoh at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, the country's antiquities authority announced Tuesday.

The 13 meter (42 foot) tall statue of Amenhotep III was one of a pair that flanked the northern entrance to the grand funerary temple on the west bank of the Nile that is currently the focus of a major excavation.

The statue consists of seven large quartzite blocks and still lacks a head and was actually first discovered in the 1928 and then rehidden, according to the press release from the country's antiquities authority. Archaeologists expect to find its twin in the next digging season.

Excavation supervisor Abdel-Ghaffar Wagdi said two other statues were also unearthed, one of the god Thoth with a baboon's head and a six foot (1.85 meter) tall one of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet.

Archaeologists working on the temple over the past few years have issued a flood of announcements about new discoveries of statues. The 3,400-year-old temple is one of the largest on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor, where the powerful pharaohs of Egypt's New Kingdom built their tombs.

Amenhotep III, who was the grandfather of the famed boy-pharaoh Tutankhamun, ruled in the 14th century B.C. at the height of Egypt's New Kingdom and presided over a vast empire stretching from Nubia in the south to Syria in the north.

The pharaoh's temple was largely destroyed, possibly by floods, and little remains of its walls. It was also devastated by an earthquake in 27 B.C. But archaeologists have been able to unearth a wealth of artifacts and statuary in the buried ruins, including two statues of Amenhotep made of black granite found at the site in March 2009.

Amazing Animals: Roman Mosaic from Lod, Israel

First unearthed in 1996 in a rescue excavation in Lod, ancient Diospolis, Israel, a large and extraordinarily detailed floor mosaic was recently lifted from its site and conserved. Found in a large villa believed to belong to a wealthy Roman, the exquisitely preserved floor dates to about AD 300. This glorious mosaic is in the United States for a limited time before it returns to Israel to become the focus of the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Center. The Legion of Honor is one of only four museums to display this treasure before its final and permanent installation in Lod.

Exhibition curator Renée Dreyfus says, “Other Roman mosaics have been found in Israel, but this one is exceptional in its lively imagery and its excellent state of preservation. We are thrilled to be able to display such an amazing work of art in our museum and think about what a great city Lod must have been in Roman times. Each excavated work in the Holy Land reveals so much about the history and people who lived in this remarkable land.”

Read more here

Lost city of Atlantis - new claims!

A U.S.-led research team may have finally located the lost city of Atlantis, the legendary metropolis believed swamped by a tsunami thousands of years ago in mud flats in southern Spain.

"This is the power of tsunamis," head researcher Richard Freund told Reuters.

"It is just so hard to understand that it can wipe out 60 miles inland, and that's pretty much what we're talking about," said Freund, a University of Hartford, Connecticut, professor who lead an international team searching for the true site of Atlantis.

To solve the age-old mystery, the team used a satellite photo of a suspected submerged city to find the site just north of Cadiz, Spain. There, buried in the vast marshlands of the Dona Ana Park, they believe that they pinpointed the ancient, multi-ringed dominion known as Atlantis.

The team of archeologists and geologists in 2009 and 2010 used a combination of deep-ground radar, digital mapping, and underwater technology to survey the site.

Freund's discovery in central Spain of a strange series of "memorial cities," built in Atlantis' image by its refugees after the city's likely destruction by a tsunami, gave researchers added proof and confidence, he said.

Atlantis residents who did not perish in the tsunami fled inland and built new cities there, he added.

The team's findings will be unveiled on Sunday in "Finding Atlantis," a new National Geographic Channel special.

While it is hard to know with certainty that the site in Spain in Atlantis, Freund said the "twist" of finding the memorial cities makes him confident Atlantis was buried in the mud flats on Spain's southern coast.

"We found something that no one else has ever seen before, which gives it a layer of credibility, especially for archeology, that makes a lot more sense," Freund said.

Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Atlantis some 2,600 years ago, describing it as "an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Hercules," as the Straits of Gibraltar were known in antiquity. Using Plato's detailed account of Atlantis as a map, searches have focused on the Mediterranean and Atlantic as the best possible sites for the city.

Tsunamis in the region have been documented for centuries, Freund says. One of the largest was a reported 10-story tidal wave that slammed Lisbon in November, 1755.

Debate about whether Atlantis truly existed has lasted for thousands of years. Plato's "dialogues" from around 360 B.C. are the only known historical sources of information about the iconic city. Plato said the island he called Atlantis "in a single day and night... disappeared into the depths of the sea."

Experts plan further excavations are planned at the site where they believe Atlantis is located and at the mysterious "cities" in central Spain 150 miles away to more closely study geological formations and to date artifacts.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Greg McCune) / Source

Ancient party garden!

A newly discovered 7th century B.C. palace garden near Jerusalem could reveal details about how royals liked to let loose in ancient times.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Germany's Heidelberg University uncovered the royal garden at the site of Ramat Rachel, a kibbutz (communal farm) in Israel, and are leading the first full-scale excavation of this type of archaeological site in Israel.

"We have uncovered a very rare find," archaeologist Oded Lipschits of Tel Aviv University said.

The garden was a massive and lush green space royals would use to relax. Such pleasure spots were once the ultimate symbol of power, according to the researchers.

Read more here

Pyramids, with homes on top?

John Roach at National Geographic News has a lot to say about an odd pyramid that had rooftop homes and possible ritual sacrifices ... At rare Peru site, elites linked to copper industry lived on high, experts say.

Yes, it's yielded human remains—including five females who may have been ritually sacrificed. But it's the signs of life that make a half-excavated Peruvian pyramid of the Moche culture stand out, archaeologists say.

"Often these pyramidal mounds were built as mortuaries more than anything else," said excavation co-leader Edward Swenson. (See pictures from the tomb of the Moche "king of bling.")

"In most instances [a pyramid] is not where people live, it is not where they were cooking their food," the University of Toronto archaeologist added.

But the newly exposed 1,400-year-old flat-topped pyramid supported residences for up to a couple dozen elites, who oversaw and perhaps took part in copper production at the site, evidence suggests.

The pre-Inca pyramid dwellers likely presided over important rituals, feasted on roasted llama and guinea pig, and drank corn beer, according to archaeologists working at the site.

Among the signs of occupation are at least 19 adobe stands where large vessels of water and corn beer were stored, as well as scattered llama, dog, guinea pig, and fish bones and traces of coca leaves and red peppers.

"There's a far more robust domestic occupation than what we would have expected," said expedition co-leader John Warner, an archaeologist with the University of Kentucky.

Read more of his great article here.

Playing games with archaeology

Did you know: the work checkmate comes from the Persian "Shah Mat", which means "the king is dead"...

Chess seems to have followers across the globe, and further back in history it was no different. It is disputed as to where the game was invented, but likely candidates are northern India or China. By the year 1,000 A.D. the popular game had spread to Europe.

Now a collection of 2,500 year old chess pieces have been discovered in China. The 10 pieces are made of bone and were found piled one atop the other. According to the researcher Fan Shuai, from the Hebei Institute of Archaeology, such chess pieces are very rare. Read more here.

Archaeology field school places in high demand

It's no surprise that field school places are in high demand - smart students know that getting some field experience is worth its weight in gold and is the best way to land a job in commercial archaeology.

The Irish Times has reported that a County Clare field school has attracted three applicants for every place. This is bad news for the students that miss out but good news for those running the course.

The course helps fund research in the area, as part of the Caherconnell Archaeological Project.

Most of the applicants are from North America - the source of much funding for Masters and PhD programs in Ireland and the UK (as such students pay international fees - their contribution is tremendously important).

South Asia's oldest living city

Most cities and dwellings see a natural rise and fall, with periods of occupation followed by reduction in size or abandonment.

Going back to at least 539BC, the city of Peshawar commands the title of South Asia's oldest living city, based on excavations at Gor Khatri.

You can read more about the archaeological work in the city here.

Global warming reveals more archaeology

Not really a silver lining to the possible destruction of the earth...but new archaeology discoveries in any case...sigh...

Melting ice patches in Colorado have revealed archaeological remains that have been preserved for thousands of years. 10,000 year old weapons have been discovered by archaeologist Craig Lee of the University of Colorado.

Researchers have little choice but to collect all of the finds as they find them as, otherwise, the items will very quickly degrade due to their fragile condition.

You can read a bit more about the weapons here.