http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44819678/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Someone gave that prehistoric dog a bone...
Mammoth treat probably put there by human; find shows relationships with canines
By Jennifer Viegas
updated 10/7/2011 2:33:59 PM ET
The remains of three Paleolithic dogs, including one with a mammoth bone in its mouth, have been unearthed at Predmosti in the Czech Republic, according to a new Journal of Archaeological Science paper.
The remains indicate what life was like for these prehistoric dogs in this region, and how humans viewed canines. The dogs appear to have often sunk their teeth into meaty mammoth bones. These weren’t just mammoth in terms of size, but came from actual mammoths.
In the case of the dog found with the bone in its mouth, the researchers believe a human inserted it there after death.
"The thickness of the cortical bone shows that it is from a large mammal, like a rhinoceros, steppe bison or mammoth," lead author Mietje Germonpre told Discovery News. "At Predmosti, mammoth is the best represented animal, with remains from more than 1,000 individuals, so it is probable that the bone fragment is from a mammoth."
Germonpre, a paleontologist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, and colleagues Martina Laznickova-Galetova and Mikhail Sablin, first studied the remains, focusing on the skulls, to see what animals they represented. In the fossil record, there is sometimes controversy over what is a wolf, dog or other canid.
"These skulls show clear signs of domestication," Germonpre said, explaining they are significantly shorter than those of fossil or modern wolves, have shorter snouts, and noticeably wider braincases and palates than wolves possess.
She described them as large, with an estimated body weight of just over 77 pounds. The shoulder height was at least 24 inches.
"The shape of their skull resembles that of a Siberian husky, but they were larger and heavier than the modern Husky," she said.
The dogs died when they were between 4 and 8 years old, suffering from numerous broken teeth during their lifetimes.
Based on what is known of the human culture at the site, the researchers believe these dogs “were useful as beasts of burden for the hauling of meat, bones and tusks from mammoth kill sites and of firewood, and to help with the transport of equipment, limiting the carrying costs of the Predmosti people.”
Since mammoth meat was likely the food staple, the scientists further believe that the surplus meat “would have been available to feed the dogs.”
The dog skulls show evidence that humans perforated them in order to remove the brain. Given that better meat was available, the researchers think it’s unlikely the brains served as food.
Instead, based on these archaeological finds and the ethnographic record, it’s possible that the body manipulation after death held ritual importance.
"Among many northern indigenous peoples, it was believed that the head contains the spirit or soul," Germonpre explained. “Some of these peoples made a hole in the braincase of the killed animal so that the spirit might be released.”
The mammoth bone in the dog's mouth could signify "that the dog was 'fed' to accompany the soul of the dead person on its journey."
Rob Losey, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Alberta, told Discovery News that the new study is "very convincing," and shows "quite clearly that the dog domestication process was underway thousands of years earlier than previously thought."
He added, "The distinctive treatment given some of the remains also is compelling, and this indicates to me that a special connection had developed between people and some canids quite early on — long prior to any good evidence for dogs being buried."
http://www.norwaypost.no/culture/melting-glaciers-reveal-ancient-artifacts-25795-25795.html
Melting Glaciers Reveal Ancient Artifacts
A well preserved male hunter’s coat from around the year 300 A.D. was found this summer in the Breheimen National Park, making it the oldest piece of clothing in the country.
The coat was found in the rock bed left by a melting glacier.
The warmer weather caused by climate change provides archaeologists, researchers and museums with new opportunities to find artifacts dating back hundreds of years. A new exhibition at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo will feature all finds from the melting glaciers, most of which date back to Roman times.
"This find is sensational, not only in Norway, but internationally," says Marianne Vedeler, Manager and Textile Expert at the Museum of Cultural History. The number of garments this old in all of Northern Europe can be counted on one hand, she explains to Aftenposten.
In total, seventeen textiles and garments have been received at the museum, including a leather shoe and several other pieces of clothing. However, the men’s coat is the first one that has been dated and preserved.
"The technique used is very advanced and makes the pattern look like small diamonds," Vedeler says. "It is well-used, and has a few tears that have been patched together." They will do further chemical analysis to determine its colour, and expect the finds to reveal more important information about clothing in Roman Norway.
Other finds in the same area, an old camp and hunting ground, included containers that may have been used as bags/purses, a wooden spade, horseshoes arrows and arrowheads.
(Aftenposten)
Julie Ryland
http://news.discovery.com/history/perhistoric-teen-grave-henge-111006.html
PREHISTORIC TEEN GIRL'S GRAVE FOUND NEAR HENGE
The finding of the 17-year-old girl's grave adds more evidence that henges were linked to death rituals.
By Jennifer Viegas
Thu Oct 6, 2011 02:31 PM ET
THE GIST
· A prehistoric teen girl was found buried near an apparent henge, along with two other women.
· The graves were found inside a ringed ditch in Kent, England.
· The new henge is only the second one known from south-east England.
Four to five thousand years ago, a wealthy teenage girl was laid to rest in a grave at what archaeologists believe is a newly found henge in Kent, England.
The discovery of the 17-year-old's grave -- along with a unique prehistoric pot inside of a ringed ditch near two other women -- strengthens the idea that important death-related rituals took place at many of these mysterious ancient monuments when they were first erected.
"What is becoming clear is that with a series of major excavations in Kent linked to road and rail works, and new aerial photography, there are many circular earthworks that look part barrow and part henge, and like the one fully excavated example at Ringlemere (Kent), some of these may be both," said archaeologist Mike Pitts, publisher of British Archaeology, where a summary of the recent finds appears.
"This comes after many years in which archaeologists believed there were no henges in south-east England at all," Pitts told Discovery News.
Staff from Oxford Wessex Archaeology, during recent extensive excavations, discovered the early teen's grave on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, near what is now Manston Airport. The girl was buried laying on her side with flexed limbs, with an unusual pot standing by her right elbow.
Pitts explained that the pot consists of three small bowls joined together. Separately made pots were joined with bridging clay before decorating and firing, he suspects. Neil Wilkin, a researcher at the University of Birmingham studying early vessels, said the features of the pot confirm its suspected age and attribution.
Only one other example of multiple joined pots from the time has been seen before, Pitts said. In that other case, just two small bowls were attached together.
Two other women, aged 25-30 and 35-50, were also found buried inside the 72 feet-wide ditch. It remains unclear if the number of attached pots was somehow tied to the number of women found at the site. What is clear is that they must have been wealthy individuals. A conical amber button was located near the teenager's head. She might have then worn clothing bejewelled with amber accents.
A separate Kent excavation, near Maidstone, uncovered the new likely henge. Such monuments are seen across Britain, but this latest one may be only the second henge known to exist in south-east England.
Pitts said the henge "is 49 meters (161 feet) across with clear entrances at the north-west and south-east...Two parallel straight ditches were seen apparently preceeding the ring ditch on the west, and two lengths of enclosing ditch were also exposed."
Paul Wilkinson, who conducted the dig and is director of the Kent Archaeological Field School, found charcoal, bones and pottery laying on the surface of both ditch terminals. Some of the pottery was discovered crushed and in tight clusters with small fragments of burnt bone, suggesting the pots had been urns holding cremated remains.
"The clincher will be if it is Grooved Ware," said Pitts, who explained that this type of decorated pottery tends to be associated with many henges.
Kent may be home to even more henges, according to archaeologist Paul Hart of the Trust for Thanet Archaeology. He explained that "sandstone doggers (boulders) can be found in deposits which are exposed in the cliff of Pegwell Bay and may also exist in pockets along the southern coast of the Isle."
Accessibility to materials like these boulders, and the stones of Stonehenge, likely influenced where early monument builders worked. But henges made of wood were probably even more common, leaving behind what are now often difficult-to-detect traces of their existence.
http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/004548.html
A massive prehistoric monument under the Loch of Stenness?
5 October 2011
Survey work in the Loch of Stenness (Ortkney, Scotland) has revealed what could be a massive prehistoric monument lying underwater to the south of the Ring of Brodgar. The underwater 'anomaly' has come to light in a project looking at prehistoric sea level change in Orkney. The project, The Rising Tide: Submerged Landscape of Orkney, is a collaboration between the universities of St Andrews, Wales, Dundee, Bangor and Aberdeen.
Although it is tempting to speculate that the ring-shaped feature, which lies just off the loch's shore, is the remains of a henge or perhaps a prehistoric quarry, at this stage the project leaders are urging caution. Orkney-based archaeologist, Caroline Wickham-Jones, a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen, explained: "The preliminary results are suggesting that there is an unusual 'object' in the shallow water just off the shore, but more work is needed before we can identify it or even confirm whether it is a natural, perhaps geological, feature, or something man-made."
Dr Richard Bates from the School of Geosciences, St Andrews University, added: "The character and size of this feature - approximately 90m in diameter - are about the size of the main Ring of Brodgar. If it turns out to be artificial, the massive anomaly has to predate the influx of the sea into the Stenness Loch basin."
When prehistoric Orcadians started to build the stone circles in Stenness, the landscape would have been much different to what it is today and the sea would have been about a metre below current levels. Even then, the impact of the rising water in the Loch of Stenness was a bit slower. "We think there was a gradual incursion of the sea over time, preceded by a number of storm events that saw seawater crash over the rock lip and begin to form what was to become the Loch of Stenness," said Ms Wickham-Jones.
As well as the Stenness Loch, the project has also focused on Hoy, Hoxa and the Bay of Firth. In the latter, the surveys have revealed how the landscape was transformed from the start of the Mesolithic period (c.7000 BCE), when the "bay" was dry land, to the late Neolithic/Bronze Age (c.2000 BCE), when sea water had filled in the lower-lying areas leaving Damsay as a tidal island.
Dr Martin Bates, of the University of Wales, commented: "Survey has identified a possible lake site in the Finstown basin before the sea flooded the area, and this may have been a focus of activity during the Mesolithic. In future, diving at the margins of this lake might reveal evidence for such activity".
Ms Wickham-Jones added: "Archaeologists study what's there, but sometimes it's more interesting to ask what's not there. The early Neolithic tombs around the bay for example: where are they? Many other early Neolithic tombs in Orkney - such as Unstan - are found near present sea level, on low-lying land. Were the earliest tombs around the Bay of Firth built on land that has since been covered by sea?"
Edited from Orkneyjar (3 October 2011)
http://www.huntspost.co.uk/news/latest-news/iron_age_gold_coins_discovered_in_kimbolton_1_1081859
Iron Age gold coins discovered in Kimbolton
Thursday, October 6, 2011
3:00 PM
A HOARD of gold coins more than 2,000-years-old has been discovered in Kimbolton.
The 67 Iron Age coins were discovered by a metal detector in October last year but details of the find, described as significant by a curator at the British Museum, were only made public last week. The coins were subject to an inquest at Lawrence Court in Huntingdon on Thursday (September 29), where it was down to the deputy coroner of Cambridgeshire, Belinda Cheney, to determine if the hoard should be officially classified as treasure.
After their discovery, the coins were sent by a local finds liaison officer to the British Museum in London, where they were examined by the curator of Iron Age and Roman coins, Ian Leins. In his report to the inquest, Mr Leins expressed his opinion that the coins were treasure, as defined by the 1996 Treasure Act.
The inquest heard that the coins were discovered by Andrew Thomas, from Loughborough, in a field owned by John Williams, on October 26. The find included 67 gold coins known as staters, and a single quarter-stater coin.
After hearing the details of the find and noting Mr Leins report, Mrs Cheney declared: “It’s treasure!”
Mr Leins told The Hunts Post the coins were a significant find and explained that they were in circulation in 30-40BC – 50 to 60 years before the Roman invasion of Britain.
He added: “They are one of the earliest examples of money to be circulated on our island; they are right on the cusp of pre-history. Coins are one of the only pieces of evidence we have for this period of history.”
The coins found in Kimbolton are described as South Ferriby type coins, after the town close to the Humber estuary where they were first found.
Mr Leins said: “Different areas at the time had different style coins. This sort of coin almost certainly comes from the Lincolnshire area; being found in Cambridgeshire is a little bit off where we would expect to find them. It’s right on the southern edge of where these coins circulated.”
He said that Iron Age coins are not common to find.
“We know of about 50,000 Iron Age coins which sounds a lot but we have been recording them for hundreds of years. In the last 15 years alone, we have found a quarter of a million Roman coins.”
He said that on average, one coin is expected to be found every day.
“It’s quite common to make a find, things are coming up all the time, but compared to medieval or Roman, Iron Age is pretty rare.”
Bob Burn-Murdoch, curator at the Norris Museum in St Ives, said: “It’s a remarkable thing to find anywhere in the country. Huntingdon is a very interesting area during the Iron Age, certainly towards the end. We were in a hostile area, between three warring tribes: the Iceni, from just across the Fens, the Catuvellauni, who were based in St Albans and were a large, expanding, prosperous tribe, and the Coritani. During periods of conflict, people would bury treasure for safe-keeping, such as a collection of coins.
“This is a very interesting find.”
Three further items, including a medieval silver-gilt bar mount and a post-medieval silver bodkin, both found in Kimbolton, and a post-medieval cufflink element discovered in Great and Little Chishill, were also declared to be treasure by Mrs Cheney, at inquests held on Friday (September 30).
TREASURE
Under English law a landowner has sole title to any archaeological artefacts found on their property but legitimate metal detectorists usually come to an agreement with the owners to share any proceeds from treasure sales.
Under the 1996 Treasure Act, treasure is:
• All coins from the same hoard. (A hoard is defined as two or more coins, as long as they are at least 300 years old when found). If they contain less than 10 per cent gold or silver there must be at least 10 in the hoard for it to qualify.
• Two or more prehistoric base metal objects in association with one another.
• Any individual (non-coin) find that is at least 300 years old and contains at least 10 per cent gold or silver.
• Objects substantially made from gold or silver but are less than 300 years old, that have been deliberately hidden with the intention of recovery and whose owners or heirs are unknown.
http://news.discovery.com/history/reconstructed-face-of-simon-of-sudbury-111003.html
BEHEADED ARCHBISHOP'S FACE REVEALED
Analysis by Rossella Lorenzi
Mon Oct 3, 2011 07:56 AM ET
The face of a 14th-century former Archbishop of Canterbury has been revealed 630 years after he was beheaded by angry peasants.
Resembling a character out of a science fiction movie, the medieval cleric Simon of Sudbury now stares at visitors in St. Gregory's Church at Sudbury in Suffolk, where the 3-D model is on permanent display alongside the original skull.
"There was a gasp when people saw what he looked like as his sculpture was unveiled. He was compared to characters such as Spock and Shrek, and some were surprised by the size of him. Indeed, he is quite a big guy," forensic artist Adrienne Barker from the University of Dundee told Discovery News.
Simon of Sudbury, who was Chancellor of Salisbury and Bishop of London before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1375, crowned King Richard II at Westminster Abbey in 1377.
Named Lord Chancellor of England three years later, the mild and gentle archbishop soon became the target of the peasants' hatred.
Seen as responsible for introducing the third poll tax, Simon met a grisly end when insurgents stormed the Tower of London during the Peasants' Revolt, or the Great Rising of 1381. They dragged him from his chamber to Tower Hill, struck off his head and placed it on a spike on Tower Bridge.
It is believed that the gruesome trophy was spotted by a man from Sudbury, who grabbed it in the middle of the night and brought it back to his hometown in a barrel of brine.
While the archbishop's body was buried in Canterbury Cathedral, the head has been kept at St. Gregory's Church at Sudbury in Suffolk ever since.
To reconstruct the archbishop's face, Barker first carried out CT scans on his partly mummified skull.
The scans provided grim details about the execution.
"The CT images showed evidence of only one blow, which would have cut through the neck tissue at least halfway and would have severed the cervical spinal nerve 4, causing respiratory arrest," Barker said.
"This is not to say that there weren't more blows; however these would have occurred to tissues we no longer had access to," she added.
Barker, who created a website detailing how the reconstruction worked step by step, made use of known measurements of the thickness of soft tissue at key areas on human faces.
Once a cast of the skull was produced, she stuck in wooden pegs cut to the lengths of the desired tissue thickness on the corresponding points of the skull.
She then plastered the cast with layers of clay matching the thickness specified by the pegs and made the final touches simulating skin and tissue. Features such as the nose, lips, eyelids, eyebrows and ears were modeled on top, their shape determined by the skeletal details.
"His odd-shaped skull is relatively small for a male of his age. I was surprised about how big a guy he ended up being," Barker said.
http://colorado.edu/news/r/2179daa9db0d87b50586b81315ab9f3c.html
CU-Boulder team discovers ancient road at Maya village buried by volcanic ash 1,400 years ago
October 5, 2011
University of Colorado Boulder-led team excavating a Maya village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption 1,400 years ago has unexpectedly hit an ancient white road that appears to lead to and from the town, which was frozen in time by a blanket of ash.
The road, known as a "sacbe," is roughly 6 feet across and is made from white volcanic ash from a previous eruption that was packed down and shored up along its edges by residents living there in roughly A.D. 600, said CU-Boulder Professor Payson Sheets, who discovered the buried village known as Ceren near the city of San Salvador in 1978. In Yucatan Maya, the word "sacbe" (SOCK'-bay) literally means "white way" or "white road" and is used to describe elevated ancient roads typically lined with stone and paved with white lime plaster and that sometimes connected temples, plazas and towns.
The sacbe at the buried village of Ceren -- which had canals of water running on each side -- is the first ever discovered at a Maya archaeology site that was built without bordering paving stones, said Sheets. The road was serendipitously discovered by the team while digging a test pit through 17 feet of volcanic ash in July to analyze agricultural activity on the edges of Ceren, considered the best preserved Maya village in Central America.
"Until our discovery, these roads were only known from the Yucatan area in Mexico and all were built with stone linings, which generally preserved well," said Sheets of CU's anthropology department. "It took the unusual preservation at Ceren to tell us the Maya also made them without stone. I'd like to say we saw some anomaly in the ground-penetrating radar data that guided us to the Ceren sacbe, but that was not the case. This was a complete surprise."
The sacbe was struck almost dead-on by the excavators of the 3-meter by 3-meter test pit, said Sheets, with the full width of road visible. In order to follow the sacbe, two subsequent test pits were excavated to the north and confirmed the sacbe had a minimum length of at least 148 feet long -- about half the length of a football field.
The sacbe appears to be headed toward two Ceren ceremonial structures less than 100 feet away -- buildings that were unearthed in Ceren by Sheets and his team in 1991. One structure is believed to have been used by a female shaman. The adjacent community ceremonial structure contained evidence -- including the bones of butchered deer, a deer headdress painted red and blue and a large alligator-shaped pot -- that large quantities of food and drink were being prepared and dispensed to villagers in the town plaza during what Sheets believes was a crop-harvesting ceremony.
"We know there was a celebration going on when the eruption hit," said Sheets. "And we've found no evidence of anyone going back to their houses, gathering up valuables, and fleeing, because all the household doors were tied shut. We think people may have left the plaza and run south, possibly on the sacbe, because the danger was to the north."
Radiocarbon dates from Ceren indicate the eruption occurred in roughly A.D. 630, and CU researchers have even pinpointed the month and time of day the fiery mass of ash and debris from the Loma Caldera volcano rained down on the town from less than a third of a mile away. Sheets believes the eruption hit at roughly 7 p.m. on an August evening because of the mature corn stalks preserved in ash casts, the fact that the farming implements had been brought inside, the sleeping mats had not yet been rolled out, meals had been served but the dishes were not yet washed, and corn was set into pots to soak in water overnight.
Sheets said it is logical that the villagers in the plaza might have used the white sacbe as an emergency route to flee the destruction of the volcano in the dark of night. "How far they might have gotten, I don't know," said Sheets. "It would have been a footrace. I think it is very likely we will find bodies as we follow the sacbe southward in future excavations." To date, no human remains have been found at the village.
Sacbeob, the plural of sacbe, had strong practical, political and spiritual connotations in the Pre-Columbian Yucatan, said Sheets. Some were fairly long -- up to 40 miles -- while others stretched less than 50 feet. Because of the high level of preservation at Ceren, the researchers can see hand marks of farmers who were repairing the edges of the sacbe.
While there is speculation the Ceren sacbe may have led to the Maya center of San Andres roughly three miles to the south, there is no evidence of that yet, Sheets said.
While some refer to Ceren as "The New World Pompeii," Sheets is quick to point out the differences. Pompeii was an affluent Roman resort community with multi-story concrete houses, stone streets and marble statues, while Ceren was a modest farming community. Because tiny particles of hot, moist ash blanketed Ceren and packed the thatch-roofed structures, gardens and agricultural fields, the preservation of organic materials is greater than at Pompeii, where dry, pea-sized particles rained down in the Mount Vesuvius eruption of A.D. 79.
Sheets has visited Pompeii, and researchers from Pompeii have visited Ceren, analyzing the similarities and differences at the sites. "When they tell me they wish they had this kind of preservation level at Pompeii, I tell them I wouldn't mind finding a marble statue or two at Ceren," said Sheets.
The Ceren preservation is so great that researchers have found marks of finger swipes in ceramic bowls, human footprints in gardens hosting ash casts of plants like corn and manioc, thatched roofs, woven baskets and pots filled with beans. Researchers have found the remains of mice that lived in the thatched roofs of kitchen areas, and entomologists have even been able to discern that two species of ants inhabited the village, Sheets said.
Thus far 12 buildings at Ceren -- which is believed to have been home to about 200 people -- have been excavated, including living quarters, storehouses, workshops, kitchens, religious buildings and a community sauna. There are dozens of unexcavated structures and there may even be another undiscovered settlement or two under the ash, which covers an area of roughly two square miles.
While much of the Maya archaeological record points to rigid, top-down societies where the elite made most political and economic decisions, there is evidence of some autonomy at Ceren, including divergent choices by farmers regarding crop cultivation techniques that were discovered this summer, said Sheets. He believes a community building with two large benches in the front room may have hosted village elders when it came time to make community decisions at Ceren.
In addition to Sheets, the 2011 team included CU-Boulder graduate students Christine Dixon, Alexandria Halmbacher and Theresa Heindel, University of Cincinnati Professor David Lentz, University of Cincinnati graduate student Christine Hoffer, Celine Lamb from the Sorbonne in Paris and 23 local Salvadoran workers. The 2011 field season was funded by the National Science Foundation.
"Students on the project are essential," said Sheets. "They put up with less than ideal living conditions and they do valuable work, sometimes pursuing their own research paths based on discoveries they make at the site." Since 1978, more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students have worked under Sheets at Ceren, including 14 who have received or are pursuing master's or doctoral degrees.
"When I first heard about Ceren, I immediately wanted to know more," said master's degree candidate Theresa Heindel, who came to CU-Boulder after graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and who spent the 2011 field season assessing crop cultivation in Ceren's agricultural fields that were frozen in time by ash. "We don't see this type of cultivation anywhere in Central America, and we don't see this level of preservation anywhere in the world."
In 2009 Sheets and his team discovered a previously unknown Maya agriculture system at Ceren -- intensively cultivated manioc fields that yielded at least 10 tons of manioc shortly before the eruption 1,400 years ago. It was the first and only evidence of intense manioc cultivation at any New World archaeology site and Sheets and others believe such large manioc crops could have played a vital role in feeding indigenous societies living throughout tropical Latin America, he said.
Sheets has collaborated with the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution, the Getty Conservation Institute and a number of universities since 1978. The 10-acre Joya de Ceren Archaeological Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.
"When the radiocarbon dates on the thatched roofs came back in 1978, I saw the rest of my professional life. I knew I did not need to look for any more new archaeological sites," said Sheets. "There is well over a century of research still to be done at Ceren -- in some ways we've only scratched the surface."
Contact
Payson Sheets, 303-492-7302
Payson.sheets@colorado.edu
Jim Scott, CU media relations, 303-492-3114
Jim.scott@colorado.edu
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=113285&CultureCode=en
Hundreds of undiscovered artefacts found at Gallipoli
05 October 2011 University of Melbourne
More than 100 artefacts from the First World War have been uncovered in an archaeological fieldwork survey on the Gallipoli battlefield, leading to some interesting theories about life on the frontline according to University of Melbourne survey archaeologist Professor Antonio Sagona.
The discoveries were made as part of a second season of fieldwork undertaken as part of the Joint Historical and Archaeological Survey – the only systematic survey of the battlefields of Gallipoli since the First World War.
The survey covered the northern frontline areas on the Turkish and Allied sides. One of the most significant finds was the Malone’s Terraces area at Quinn’s Post.
William Malone commanded New Zealand’s Wellington Infantry Battalion. Malone’s men relieved the Australians at Quinn’s Post in June 1915. This was a key position, where even the smallest advance by the Turk’s would have forced the evacuation of the Anzacs.
Malone, who was killed on 8 August 1915, greatly improved living arrangements at the post, including building terraces for troops to sleep in. These terraces were thought to have been lost.
The team also uncovered more than a thousand metres of trenches, dugouts and tunnel openings. Some 130 artefacts depicting life on the battlefields were also recovered and handed to a local museum for preservation.
Some of the findings included three water bottles with bullet holes, pieces of medical bottles, tin food containers, expended ammunition, glass shards, shrapnel and barbed wire fragments.
“We also found that Turkish kitchens were much closer to the frontline than on the Allied side, indicating access to fresh meals. Processed food containers were common on the Allied side but not the Turkish,” Professor Sagona said.
“In some areas it is clear that the Turkish soldiers used local materials – bricks and ceramic roof tiles – to reinforce their trench and tunnels whereas, no bricks or tiles were found on the Allied side.”
The team also discovered the complexity of trenches near the frontline, noting that some trench networks were so dense that they would be difficult to map using even modern day techniques.
The survey was conducted by a team of 17 archaeologists, historians and researchers from Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. Maps of the survey area, a selection of images of artefacts, a historical image of William Malone and further background on the survey is available at www.dva.gov.au/media.
http://newsroom.melbourne.edu/news/n-647
Introducing the Nov/Dec issue of British Archaeology,
available from Friday October 7
STORIES EMBARGOED UNTIL THURSDAY OCTOBER 6 2011
Mike Pitts, editor
07940 591422
mike@diggingdeeper.co.uk
ON THE COVER
Bouldnor Cliff
There’s no silver down there, but there is a whole world, where hunters and gatherers walked and fished 8,000 years ago on land now under the sea off the Isle of Wight. Our feature explains how archaeologists and divers have tackled the difficult job of excavating in cold, murky waters
AMONG OTHER STORIES
A NEW HENGE IN KENT
Excavation in Kent has produced two stone age surprises: what may be only the second henge known in south-east England, and a unique pot with three bowls in the grave of a teenage girl
ARCHAEOLOGY AT THE FESTIVAL OF BRITAIN
Sixty years ago a Labour government opened the Festival of Britain, a “tonic” to a nation wracked by war and economic depression. Its focus was an ambitious exhibition in London, extolling “faith in the nation’s future”. No room for the past, you might think. Harriet Atkinson found otherwise
THE FLOWING EARTHWORKS OF BEDFORD
A discovery in Google Maps ¬–a huge “underwater cropmark” in the river flowing through Bedford – could be an Anglo-Saxon weir, and the start of a new understanding of historic river towns and rivers
THE LIVING STONES OF BRITTANY
Brittany is famous for the sheer quantity of megalithic monuments, unsurpassed anywhere in Europe. They first appeared when newly arrived farmers met the last indigenous hunters
WADI FAYNAN
A team that includes many British archaeologists has been excavating in Jordan, hoping to throw light on the origins of farming nearly 12,000 years ago. What they found astonished them all
CRAIG PHADRIG
An imaginative approach by Forestry Commission Scotland and the Highland Council is creating a real public benefit from historic environment records