Mexican archaeologists find 2,500-year-old altar

gwebarchaeology:

“An altar and a stela estimated to date from as early as 800 B.C. were found at the Chalcatzingo archaeological site in the central state of Morelos, Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, or INAH, said.

The altar is rectangular and covered with engravings representing rain

A few meters (yards) away from the altar was an unfinished stela standing 1.7 meters (5 feet 6 inches) tall.

The pieces are thought to have been made between 800 and 500 B.C., about the same age as another altar and a relief depicting three cats that archaeologists from INAH’s Morelos Center found at Chalcatzingo less than a year ago.

The latest discoveries came during excavations of a residential area that appears to date from the Late Classical period of the Olmec culture, A.D. 700-900, archaeologist Carolina Meza said.

She said the difference in age between the new pieces and their surroundings can be explained by an Olmec practice of repurposing and - in some cases - decommissioning architectonic elements.

The altar and stela from the Preclassical period would have been buried inside buildings to strip them of their original significance in Olmec rites, she said.

The latest finds bring to 44 the number of altars, stelas and reliefs discovered at Chalcatzingo, INAH said. EFE. “

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egyptomaniac: Artist’s Gridded Sketch of Senenmut, 18th Dynasty, limestone and ink, Metropolitan Museum of Art

egyptomaniac:

Artist’s Gridded Sketch of Senenmut, 18th Dynasty, limestone and ink, Metropolitan Museum of Art

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myeulogy: Forensic sleuth probes fate of royal lovers and lion hearts Pathologist Philippe Charlier looks at the skull of Agnes Sorel, French King Charles VII’s lover, in 2004. With powerful microscopes and hi-tech diagnostics that tease out chemical signatures and DNA telltales, Charlier pores over centuries-old remains to probe the riddles of history. The French media like to call him the “Indiana Jones of the graveyards”, but perhaps a better tag would be the Sherlock Holmes of forensic science.

myeulogy:

Forensic sleuth probes fate of royal lovers and lion hearts

Pathologist Philippe Charlier looks at the skull of Agnes Sorel, French King Charles VII’s lover, in 2004. With powerful microscopes and hi-tech diagnostics that tease out chemical signatures and DNA telltales, Charlier pores over centuries-old remains to probe the riddles of history.

The French media like to call him the “Indiana Jones of the graveyards”, but perhaps a better tag would be the Sherlock Holmes of forensic science.

(Source: myowneulogy.com)

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Archaeological News: Human Evolution Discoveries in Iraq

archaeologicalnews:

Iraq is the home of the Fertile Crescent, the Cradle of Civilization. But the country’s importance in human history goes back even further, to the time of the Neanderthals. In 1951, American archaeologist Ralph Solecki discovered Neanderthal remains in Shanidar Cave. The cave sits in the…

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Stratigraphic profile of a unit at a 1763 house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The large hole bisects the privy feature and was dug by a groundhog, who pushed out large amounts of nearly intact artifacts as he dug. 

Stratigraphic profile of a unit at a 1763 house in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The large hole bisects the privy feature and was dug by a groundhog, who pushed out large amounts of nearly intact artifacts as he dug. 

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coolchicksfromhistory: Unclear caption, may refer to location as one of the uppermost islands in the Tonga archipelago.

coolchicksfromhistory:

Unclear caption, may refer to location as one of the uppermost islands in the Tonga archipelago.

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Archaeological News: Oldest Art Even Older: New Dates from Geißenklösterle Cave Show Early Arrival of Modern Humans, Art and Music

archaeologicalnews:

ScienceDaily (May 24, 2012) — New dates from Geißenklösterle Cave in Southwest Germany document the early arrival of modern humans and early appearance of art and music.

Researchers from Oxford and Tübingen have published new radiocarbon dates from the from Geißenklösterle Cave in Swabian…

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Archaeological News: More human bones dug up at MDOT work site in Northeast Michigan

archaeologicalnews:

OSCODA, MI — Archaeologists excavating a Michigan Department of Transportation work site along U.S. 23 have found additional human bone fragments in the weeks since a partial skull and other bone pieces were unearthed.

MDOT spokesman Bob Felt said two department archaeologists and a team…

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Drs. Nathan Hamilton and Robin Hadlock-Seeley excavate on Smuttynose Island, Maine, at a prehistoric and 17th-20th century historic occupation. 

Drs. Nathan Hamilton and Robin Hadlock-Seeley excavate on Smuttynose Island, Maine, at a prehistoric and 17th-20th century historic occupation. 

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archaeology: Gnawed Roman skeleton that inspired Sylvia Plath poem goes on display The skeleton of a Roman woman and the bones of the mouse and shrew that gnawed her ankle in her coffin, inspiring one of Sylvia Plath’s most haunting poems, have gone on display. Plath saw the massive stone sarcophagus and its contents soon after it was excavated in the 1950s, when she was a student at Cambridge. Staff at the university’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropologymounted the rodent bones on a piece of card – also on display again – and showed them in the coffin alongside the remains of the middle-aged woman, which is grimacing as if in pain. The viewing prompted Plath’s 1957 poem All the Dead Dears, in which she describes “this antique museum-cased lady” and the “gimcrack” bones of the rodents “that battened for a day on her ankle-bone”, and fears that the “barnacle dead”, strangers or members of her family will drag her down and suck her life away. Six years later, the poet killed herself. The sarcophagus, with its inner lead coffin, was one of a group of high-status burials discovered by chance by builders clearing land for a housing estate at Arbury, on the outskirts of Cambridge.

archaeology:

Gnawed Roman skeleton that inspired Sylvia Plath poem goes on display

The skeleton of a Roman woman and the bones of the mouse and shrew that gnawed her ankle in her coffin, inspiring one of Sylvia Plath’s most haunting poems, have gone on display.

Plath saw the massive stone sarcophagus and its contents soon after it was excavated in the 1950s, when she was a student at Cambridge.

Staff at the university’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropologymounted the rodent bones on a piece of card – also on display again – and showed them in the coffin alongside the remains of the middle-aged woman, which is grimacing as if in pain.

The viewing prompted Plath’s 1957 poem All the Dead Dears, in which she describes “this antique museum-cased lady” and the “gimcrack” bones of the rodents “that battened for a day on her ankle-bone”, and fears that the “barnacle dead”, strangers or members of her family will drag her down and suck her life away. Six years later, the poet killed herself.

The sarcophagus, with its inner lead coffin, was one of a group of high-status burials discovered by chance by builders clearing land for a housing estate at Arbury, on the outskirts of Cambridge.

(via gwebarchaeology)

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