Latest news with #archaeology
Malay Mail
5 hours ago
- General
- Malay Mail
Peru gas workers unearth 1,000-year-old child mummy beneath Lima street
LIMA, June 20 — Peruvian gas workers this week found a thousand-year-old mummy while installing pipes in Lima, their company said, confirming the latest discovery of a pre-Hispanic tomb in the capital. The workers found the trunk of a huarango tree (a species native to coastal Peru), 'which served as a tomb marker in the past,' at a depth of 50cm, archaeologist Jesus Bahamonde, scientific coordinator of Calidda gas company, told reporters. The mummy of a boy aged between 10 and 15, was found at a depth of 1.2m, he added. 'The burial and the objects correspond to a style that developed between 1000 and 1200,' he said. The remains discovered on Monday were found 'in a sitting position, with the arms and legs bent,' according to Bahamonde. They were found in a shroud which also contained calabash gourds. Ceramic objects, including plates, bottles and jugs decorated with geometric figures and figures of fishermen, were found next to the mummy. The tomb and artefacts belong to the pre-Inca Chancay culture, which lived in the Lima area between the 11th and 15th centuries. They were discovered while gas workers were removing earth from an avenue in the Puente Piedra district of northern Lima. In Peru, utility companies must hire archaeologists when drilling the earth, because of the possibility of hitting upon heritage sites. Calidda has made more than 2,200 archaeological finds since 2004. Lima is home to over 500 archaeological sites, including dozens of 'huacas' as ancient cemeteries are known in the Indigenous Quechua language. — AFP
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Were Exploring a Cave—and Found 100 Prehistoric Structures
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: The discovery of more than 100 prehistoric structures in the Cova Dones cave in Spain makes it one of the most significant prehistoric underground sites in the world. Archaeologists found stalagmites intentionally reassembled within the caves, dating them to prehistoric times. Questions remain about the purpose of the underground structures in a cave already known for a wealth of finds. Prehistoric humans intentionally modified stalagmites in the Cova Dones cave in Spain, forming over 100 structures—known as speleofacts—as a result. The recent archaeological find becomes one of the most significant prehistoric underground discoveries in the world, according to the team behind the discovery. 'This finding shows the adaptation of the environment by the prehistoric communities and places the site as the second most important in the world in this category, only behind the French cave of Saint-Marcel,' the discovery team from the universities of Alicante and Zaragoza wrote in a translated statement. Located in Millares, Cova Dones may have just jumped to the forefront of prehistoric underground discussions, but answers may be hard to come by. The archaeological team identified more than 100 speleofacts coming from the fracture, displacement, or regrouping of stalagmites to form structures. Experts believe this is 'convincing evidence of the planned occupation of the underground environment by prehistoric societies.' Still, some of the patterning of the recreated forms leaves questions as to their purpose, whether ritual or instead related to site planning by forming boundaries. The team was able to start dating the speleofacts thanks to calcium regrowth on the fractures, allowing them to 'attribute, at least partially, these interventions to prehistoric periods.' The researchers plan to continue to study the speleofacts to better date the timing of the underground work and 'accurately determine the scope and chronology of these structures.' This isn't the first time the prehistoric nature of Cova Dones has surfaced. In 2023, Antiquity published a study classifying the cave as home to the largest set of Paleolithic rock art on the eastern Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, with more than 100 paintings and engravings dated around 24,000 years old. The paintings included at least 19 animal representation in three different zones in the cave, some roughly 1,300 feet from the entrance. The study noted that all the zones were easily accessible without any climbing required. Key animals shown in the graphics included horses, deer, aurochs, and a stag. The researchers were able to date the cave art because of an overlap with cave bear claw marks and the artwork. Cave bears went extinct roughly 24,000 years ago. Shortly after the rock art finding, the existence of a 1,900-year-old Roman sanctuary was revealed in a room roughly 650 feet from the entrance of the cave, with a set of inscriptions and a coin of Emperor Claudius. The 2023 study noted that much of the cave system was yet unexplored by modern archaeologists, opening the possibility for additional finds. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Fox News
10 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Cellar unearthed beneath America's oldest Black schoolhouse reveals artifacts
Archaeologists at William & Mary University in Virginia unearthed a piece of American history tied to the oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children. A near-complete foundation - including a chimney base - and cellar were excavated, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The building belongs to the Williamsburg Bray School, which taught mostly enslaved students in the 1760s using a religious framework to justify slavery. The Williamsburg Bray School was later transformed into a dormitory for some of the first women to attend college. William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research, Tom Higgins, said the cellar "was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid" as it was not lined with bricks, reported AP. Artifacts found from the 18th century through the mid-20th century are not known to connect to the school. Recovered artifacts such as buttons and a slate pencil from the 18th century will be researched to determine their origins and connections. Katherine Rowe, William & Mary's president, said, "The roots of our city and university entwine here." "Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century," she added, according to AP. The structure was discovered in 2020 by historians and is being restored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Evidence is building that people were in the Americas 23,000 years ago
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. The age of "rarely preserved" ancient human footprints dotting the landscape at White Sands National Park in New Mexico has been hotly debated for years. Now, a new study has found that these footprints really are around 23,000 years old — but the date isn't accepted by everyone. If the 23,000-year-old age is accurate, it would mean that humans were in North America around the peak of the Last Glacial Maximum, the coldest part of the last ice age — far earlier than archaeologists had previously thought. In the new study, the researchers radiocarbon-dated organic sediment in core samples from the site, which provided dates for the footprints as well as for the entire paleolake and river system that once existed there. The analysis was done in labs unaffiliated with earlier studies. "Our data supports the original data" that dated the site to 23,000 years ago, study first author Vance Holliday, a professor emeritus of anthropology and geosciences at the University of Arizona, told Live Science. "Plus, we now have an idea of what the landscape was like when people were out there." The saga of dating the roughly 60 footprints goes back to 2021, when a study reported the discovery of the footprints and dated them to between 21,000 and 23,000 years old. However, a 2022 rebuttal took issue with using the seeds of ditch grass (Ruppia cirrhosa), a water plant, for radiocarbon dating. Water plants get their carbon from underwater, which can be much older than carbon from the atmosphere. This can skew the levels of carbon 14, a radioactive version of the atom, in the samples, making the plants appear older than they really are. So, in 2023, researchers redated the site with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, which revealed when quartz or feldspar grains in the tracks were last exposed to sunlight, and radiocarbon dating of ancient conifer pollen from the footprint layer — which proved to be another way to use carbon 14 without relying on water plants. Related: The 1st Americans were not who we thought they were Again, the scientists found that the footprints were 21,000 to 23,000 years old. While some scientists called the results "very convincing," others, including those who wrote the 2022 rebuttal, were still wary of the results, saying the samples weren't taken from the right layer. Now, the new study offers more evidence that the footprints date to the Last Glacial Maximum, when the area was a vast wetland inhabited by ice age animals. The footprints likely came from hunter-gatherers who arrived in the Americas after traveling along the Bering Land Bridge, which connected Siberia and Alaska when sea levels were lower, research suggests. For decades, researchers thought the earliest Americans were the Clovis, who lived in North America around 13,000 years ago. But the footprint discovery and others are slowly revealing that Indigenous people reached the Americas much earlier than thought. Holliday has been working at White Sands since 2012, and some of his data was used in the original 2021 study, making him a co-author, he noted. This time, Holliday and his colleagues radiocarbon-dated mud cores from the site. They found that the trackways date to between 20,700 and 22,400 years ago, which closely matches the original dates. When added together, there are now a total of 55 radiocarbon-dated samples of mud, seeds and pollen from the footprint layer that support the 21,000- to 23,000-year-old dates, Holliday said. Ancient human footprints are "so rarely preserved," he said. And now, scientists have "dates on three different materials that all coincide" on a time for these tracks. "You get to the point where it's really hard to explain all this away," he said in a statement. "As I say in the paper, it would be serendipity in the extreme to have all these dates giving you a consistent picture that's in error." However, more work is needed to securely date the footprints at White Sands, said Michael Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University, who was not involved with the study. "Even with these new data, I remain concerned about the radiocarbon ages generated to date the footprints at White Sands," Waters told Live Science in an email. He reiterated the known Ruppia issue, saying the radiocarbon dates "are likely too old" because the plant got its carbon from the water. In fact, the same underwater carbon issues could have also affected the sediments dated in the new study, he said. "The new ages on bulk organic sediments presented in this paper are interesting, but it is unclear about the origin of the carbon being dated," Waters said. RELATED STORIES —13 of the oldest archaeological sites in the Americas —Ice age children frolicked in 'giant sloth puddles' 11,000 years ago, footprints reveal —How did humans first reach the Americas? Furthermore, Holliday and his colleagues acknowledge that their study doesn't address another hot-button issue: Where are the artifacts or settlements from these ice age people at White Sands? That question remains to be answered, Holliday said. But it's unlikely that hunter-gatherers would have left behind valuable items in the short time it took them to trek around the wetland. "These people live by their artifacts, and they were far away from where they can get replacement material," Holliday said in the statement. "They're not just randomly dropping artifacts. It's not logical to me that you're going to see a debris field."
Fox News
14 hours ago
- General
- Fox News
Secret cellar unearthed beneath America's oldest Black schoolhouse reveals artifacts
Archaeologists at William & Mary University in Virginia unearthed a piece of American history tied to the oldest surviving schoolhouse for Black children. A secret cellar was found with many artifacts such as slate pencil fragments and jewelry, The Associated Press (AP) reported. The building belongs to the Williamsburg Bray School, which taught mostly enslaved students in the 1760s using a religious framework to justify slavery. The Williamsburg Bray School was later transformed into a dormitory for some of the first women to attend college. William & Mary's Center for Archaeological Research, Tom Higgins, said the cellar "was probably dug soon after the foundations were laid" as it was not lined with bricks, reported AP. Handmade ceramics associated with sites of enslavement and a shard of glass depicting Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, war and the arts, were also found. Katherine Rowe, William & Mary's president, said, "The roots of our city and university entwine here." "Every layer of history that it reveals gives us new insights into our early republic, from the Williamsburg Bray School through the generations that followed, up through the early 20th century," she added, according to AP. The structure was discovered in 2020 by historians and is being restored by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.
