Archaeology News

CONTENTS: Found the Skeleton of the World´s Oldest Child (21.09.2006)  . Oldest Writing in the Americas (15.09.2006) . Gibraltar, Last Outpost of the Lost Neanderthal (14.9.2006) . China's Celtic Mummies (28.8.2006) . Neanderthal Creative Skills (28.08.2006) . Moche Treasure Found (18.08.2006) . Man Came From Africa (11.08.2006) . Observatory Found in Amapa State (29.06.2006) . Ancient Pyramid Found in Itzapala (7.04.2006)

* Found Skeleton of World's Oldest Child (21.09.2006): The skeleton of the world's oldest child has been found in an African desert where the three-year-old girl lived more than three million years ago. She had a human-like lower body, a gorilla's shoulders and the hands of a chimp. She lived  3.3 million years ago, at a time when Australopithecus afarensis lived in Africa., and would have made sounds more like those of a chimp than a human.

* Oldest Writing in the Americas found in Mexico (15.09.2006): A stone block found in mexico is thought to be the oldest writing found in teh Americas. The writing on the 12 kg block, found at Cascajal (Veracruz), could date back to the first milennium BC. It is thought to be the work of the Olmec civilization. The 62 symbols inscribed on the block contain distinct elements, repeated characters, and what appear to be sentences. Several paired sequences could be poetical couplets.    When found, the block was surrounded by ceramic fragments and broken stone artefacts. Along with other clues, these helped scientists date it to the 'San Lorenzo' phase of Olmec culture ending around 900 BC-about 400 years before writing was thought to have first appeared in the West. The surface of the block is concave, leading researches to believe that symbols had repeatedly been carved on it and erased.    The Olmec people appeared on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico around 1200 BC. They quickly flourished, becoming a sophisticated society which built monumental structures and left behind carved stone heads 8 feet tall.

* Gibraltar, last outpost of the lost neanderthal? (14.09.2006): Primitive stone tools and remnants from wood fires recovered from Gorham's cave on the easternmost face of the Rock suggest neanderthals found refuge there, and clung to life for thousands of years after they had died out elsewhere.    Carbon dating of charcoal fragments excavated alongside spear points and cutting tools indicates the cave was home to a group of around 15 neanderthals at least 28,000 years ago.    Modern humans and neanderthals split from a common ancestor, Homo heidelbergensis, around 500,000 years ago when the power of fire was first harnessed. The discovery throws into doubt the theory that the arrival of modern humans was solely responsible for the demise of the neanderthals, by outcompeting them for food or even engaging in the earliest acts of genocide. More likely, the neanderthals were already struggling to adapt to rapid changes in crucial food resources. A modern human child (left) compared with a Gibraltar Neanderthal child (right). Image: Christoph Zollikofer, Marcia Ponce de Leon.

Gorham's Neanderthal Skull Neanderthal Skull @ Gibraltar Museum Gorham's Cave

* Archaeologists Discover Ancient Pyramid Beneath Mexico City  (7.04.2006): A pre-Hispanic pyramid dating from the sixth century has been found in a Mexico City beneath a hilltop site in the Itzapalapa district. The pyramid was bult by the Teotihuacan culture, whose people built a vast citadel consisting of two large pyramids dedicated to sun and moon deities. The pyramid measures 150 metres by 120 metres and is as high as nine-storey building. The site was abandoned around AD800, when the Teotihuacan culture colapsed for unknown reasons.
* Ancient Astronomical Observatory Found in Northern Brazil (29. 6.2006): A prehistoric grouping of granites blocks found in Amapa state may be the remains of an astronomical observatory. What is called the tropical Stonehenge, is actually a grouping of 127 granite blocks, each 10ft high and spaced at regular intervals. On the winter solstice, 21 December, the shadow of one of the blocks disappears. The site was once habitated by the Palikur Indians, and pottery discovered there may be more than 2,000 years old.
* Artefacts Support Theory Man Came from Africa (11.08.2006): Fragments of ostrich eggs, perforated beads and finely shaped arrowheads have provided the first firm archaeological evidence for the 'out of Africa' origins of the world's human population. Scientist have found stark similarities in the ancient artifacts made and used by Stone Age people who migrated out of Africa and into Asia more than 50,000 years ago. A comparative study of Stone Age artefacts found in Africa and India has revealed remarkable cultural and technological similarities that suggest a common origin. The African and Asian artefacts (ostrich eggshell beads, stones used as arrow, and spearheads and barbs, and a criss-cross art style are virtually identical despite being found 3,000 miles appart.
* Peruvian Treasure Found (18.08.2006): A Peruvian treasure lost for nearly 20 years has turned up in the offices of a London law firm. The treasure is a pre-Inca headdress estimated to be at least 1,300 years old, and made by the Moche civilization of northern Peru. The gold artifact, which bears the image of a feline sea god with tentacles, had vanished from a royal tomb in Peru in the late 1980s. It was brought to the law firm by a client who says he did not know that it had been stolen.
Face reconstruction of young female Neanderthal (35,000 years ago, France)(AFP) * Excavation Reveals Neanderthal Creative Skills (28.08.06): Neanderthals lived in Europe long before the early Homo sapiens, 40,000 years ago. The two sub-species existed side-by-side for about 10,000 years. According to a new examination of finds from a cave at Chatelperron in cental France, Neanderthal were much more advanced than has been thought and designed and made their own jewellery.  The sophisticated artifacts found in the cave (bone points, jewellery, etc.) belonged to Neanderthal who live there 44,000 years ago.
* China's Celtic Mummies (28.08.06): The mummified corpse of Cherchen Man (3,000 years ago) was found (with three mummies of three women and a baby) in a burial site thousand of miles to  the east where the Celts established their biggest settlements in France and the British Isles. DNA testing confirms that he and hundreds of other mummies found in Xinjiang's Tarim Basin are of European origin. The bodies are far better preserved than the Egyptian mummies. The burial sites of Cherchen Man and his fellow people were marked with stone structures that look like dolmens from Britain These mummies seem to suggest that the Celts penetrated well into central Asia, nearly making it as far as Tibet... Even older than the Cherchen find is that of the 4,000-year-old Loulan Beauty, who has long flowing hair and is one of a number of mummies discovered near the town of Loulan. One of these mummies was an eight-year-old child wrapped in a piece of patterned wool cloth, close with bone pegs.   A Tocharian female mummy with long blond hair	A Tocharian man with red-blond hair