Sep 22, 2006

English Channel's Role in British Prehistory



Even at times of low sea level, when Britain was not an island, the Channel posed a major barrier to colonisation.

This was because a massive river system flowed along its bed, UK researchers told a palaeo-conference in Gibraltar.

Today the English Channel is 520km long, 30-160km wide, about 30-100m in depth and slopes to the south-west.

Even now, the bed of the Channel is incised by a network of valleys, the remains of the river system, which may have been cut by catastrophic drainage of meltwater from further north. —BBC News

Sep 21, 2006

Gallipoli Survey to Move Forward



The survey, which will be conducted by researchers from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey, will also aim to identify any significant trenches, command posts, outposts and key battle areas, says a spokesperson for the federal department of veterans' affairs.

"Basically [we hope to produce] a catalogue of the ones we know of and also see if there's any ones we weren't aware of," the spokesperson says.

"[The researchers] hope to get together a comprehensive record of sites, gauge their condition and also recommend any ways that we can possibly protect them and enhance them." —ABC Science Online (Australia)

Tech Restores 700-Year-Old Hindu Manuscript

Drought Reveals Louisiana Archaeological Sites Long Under Water

Part of the reason can be blamed on the creation of Toledo Bend Reservoir. An idea borne out of a 1958 feasibility study, the 186,000-acre lake—the fifth largest in the nation—was once 150,000 acres of standing timber straddling the meandering Sabine River. Land acquisition began in 1963, with construction of the earthen dam, spillway and power plant following in 1964. Impoundment of water began in 1966.

During the construction phase, at least one Caddo Indian burial site was discovered and hundreds of remains were exhumed. "It was a site dated to the 16th century," Girard said.

The burial ground unknowingly was located behind Earline and Robert Bison's home, south of Converse, that once sat close to the Sabine River. The Bisons moved to higher ground before the lake swallowed up their family home, and Earline Bison recalls watching the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University college students painstakingly remove the Native Americans' remains. —The Shreveport Times

Sep 20, 2006

World's Oldest Human Baby Found

The skeleton, belonging to the primitive human species Australopithecus afarensis, is remarkable for its age and completeness, even for a region spectacularly rich in fossils of our ancient ancestors, experts say.


Some experts have taken to calling the baby skeleton "Lucy's baby" because of the proximity of the discoveries, despite the fact that the baby is tens of thousands of years older. —National Geographic

Sep 19, 2006

Humans Tried to Colonize Britain at Least 700,000 Years Ago

There were eight waves of migration from continental Europe to the British Isles, the scientists say. Each migration attempt occurred when ice sheets retreated northward and the climate became warmer.

The ancient humans ventured to Britain during periods of low sea level (when much of the water was locked up in ice sheets), strolling across land bridges that now lie underneath the English Channel and parts of the North Sea. —National Geographic

Barnum's "Fake" Mummy is Real


The experts from Quinnipiac University, Jerry Conlogue and Ron Beckett, confirmed that the mummy was that of someone 18 years or older. But its gender and whether it truly is the Egyptian priest is still a mystery. —MSNBC

Oldest Writing in the Americas Pushed Back 300 Years

"We are dealing with the first, clear evidence of writing in the New World," said Stephen Houston, a Brown University anthropologist. Houston and his U.S. and Mexican colleagues detail the tablet's discovery and analysis in a study appearing this week in the journal Science. —Discovery Channel News