Archaeology

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/868327

Archaeologists in the west of England are on a highly unusual hunt to find the remains of an elephant who once starred in a Victorian-era traveling show known as Bostock & Wombwell’s Menagerie.

The show allegedly arrived near Kingswood, England in 1891, when the local Bristol Mercury identified the ill-fated animal as Nancy, “a fine nine-year-old elephant.” According to a local tale, she died from yew leaf poisoning, and is believed to have been respectfully interred near either Whitefield’s Tabernacle or the Holy Trinity Church.

According to a Live Science report, archaeologist Aleksey Timoshchenko of the Russian Academy of Sciences and his colleagues have found a hooked piece of bronze at the waist of skeletal human remains in an intact, 3,000-year-old grave in Siberia. Similar metal artifacts have been found in Bronze Age graves containing horses and chariots in China, and it is thought that charioteers could use such hooks to affix the reins to their waists, allowing them the use of their hands. The square stone tomb, thought to belong to the cattle-breeding Lugav culture, had been covered with a mound of earth and also contained a bronze knife and bronze jewelry. Team member Oleg Mitko of Novosibirsk State University explained that the inclusion of the bronze belt accessory in the burial may have been symbolic, since remains of chariots have not been found in any burials in Siberia to date.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/789199

In Britain, the Mesolithic period (10BC to 4000BC) was the last time people lived exclusively as hunter-fisher-gatherers. The recent discovery and excavation of a series of large Mesolithic pits at Linmere, Bedfordshire, is important for rethinking how historians have previously considered life and society during this period.

Twenty-five monumental pits, up to 5m wide and 1.85m deep, have been identified in a series of linear alignments, probably extending beyond the excavated area. Radiocarbon dating on associated bones, including deer, marten and auroch (massive, extinct wild cattle), indicate that these pits were dug 8,500 years ago. Their purpose is unclear, but they show signs of having been re-excavated, perhaps over many centuries. This suggests that they were of considerable continued importance.

Mesolithic archaeology in Britain has, historically, largely been understood through finds of stone tools. These finds have the context of massive environmental change over 6,000 years – from final deglaciation, to reforestation and separation from the continent due to rising sea levels, all in the wake of the last ice age.

In a biological preserve in Mexico’s Campeche State, a team of archaeologists has documented pyramids, palaces, a ball court and other remains of an ancient city they call Ocomtún.

Armed with machetes and chain-saws, hacking through fallen trees and wading through dense scrub, the archaeologists cleared a path down rocky trails.

At last, they reached their destination in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula: a hidden city where pyramids and palaces rose above crowds over 1,000 years ago, with a ball court and terraces now buried and overgrown.

Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History hailed their work late last month, saying they had discovered an ancient Maya city in “a vast area practically unknown to archaeology.”

“These stories about ‘lost cities in the jungle’ — very often these things are quite minor or being spun by journalists,” said Simon Martin, a political anthropologist who was not involved in the work. “But this is much closer to the real deal.”