Eureka Archaeology News
EurekAlert! - ArchaeologySulfur in marine archaeological shipwrecks -- the 'hull story' gives a sour aftertaste
(Swedish Research Council) Sulfur in marine archaeological shipwrecks -- the "hull story" gives a sour aftertaste.
NC State researcher finds El Niño may have been factor in Magellan's Pacific voyage
(North Carolina State University) A new paper by North Carolina State University archaeologist Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick and University of Calgary researcher Dr. Richard Callaghan shows that Ferdinand Magellan's historic circumnavigation of the globe was likely influenced in large part by unusual weather conditions -- including what we now know as El Niño -- which eased his passage across the Pacific Ocean, but ultimately led him over a thousand miles from his intended destination.
Long lost sisters
(American Friends of Tel Aviv University) A Tel Aviv University mathematician finds humanity was genetically divided for as much as 100,000 years
Marian Koshland Science Museum forms partnership with Science Center Singapore
(The National Academies) In a new collaboration, the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences is licensing several components of its global warming and infectious diseases exhibits to the Science Center Singapore. The partnership marks an expansion of the Koshland Science Museum's efforts to bring its work to international audiences by teaming up with other museums and science centers around the world.
Monitor Sanctuary in good health overall, but historic shipwreck still faces threats
(NOAA Headquarters) The natural resources of the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary off the North Carolina coast are in good condition overall, but the wreck of the Civil War ironclad encompassed by the site is at risk from human activity and natural deterioration, according to a new NOAA report.
Archaeologist uses satellite imagery to explore ancient Mexico
(Rochester Institute of Technology) Satellite imagery obtained from NASA will help RIT archaeologist Bill Middleton peer into the ancient Mexican past. In a novel archaeological application, multi- and hyperspectral data will help build the most accurate and most detailed landscape map that exists of the southern state of Oaxaca, where the Zapotec people formed the first state-level and urban society in Mexico. National Geographic funding will help look at how climate and vegetation patterns changed over time.
New evidence from earliest known human settlement in the Americas
(Vanderbilt University) New evidence from the Monte Verde archaeological site in southern Chile confirms its status as the earliest known human settlement in the Americas and provides additional support for the theory that one early migration route followed the Pacific Coast more than 14,000 years ago.
X-rays power discoveries at Chicago's Field Museum
(Field Museum) Digital medical imaging and information technology is helping The Field Museum discover and analyze secrets hidden within its world-class collections. A computed radiography system enables the museum—for the first time—to capture, archive and share digital x-ray images from more than one million priceless artifacts in its Anthropology collection. The museum is also using a picture archiving and communications system (PACS) to manage, view and store the growing collection of digital images.
Sunflower debate ends in Mexico, researchers say
(Florida State University) Ancient farmers were growing sunflowers in Mexico more than 4,000 years before the Spaniards arrived, according to a team of researchers that includes Florida State University anthropologist Mary D. Pohl.
Ancient sunflower fuels debate about agriculture in the Americas
(University of Cincinnati) Lentz and his fellow researchers have documented archaeological, linguistic, ethnographic and ethnohistoric data demonstrating that the sunflower had entered the repertoire of Mexican domesticates by 2600 B.C., that its cultivation was widespread in Mexico and extended as far south as El Salvador by the first millennium B.C., that it was well known to the Aztecs, and that it is still in use by traditional Mesoamerican cultures today.
Shell-breaking crabs lived 20 million years earlier than thought
(Cornell University Communications) While waiting for colleagues at a small natural history museum in the state of Chiapas, Mexico last year, Cornell paleontologist Greg Dietl chanced upon a discovery that has helped rewrite the evolutionary history of crabs and the shelled mollusks upon which they preyed.
Synchrotron light unveils oil in ancient Buddhist paintings from Bamiyan
(European Synchrotron Radiation Facility) The world was in shock when in 2001 the Talibans destroyed two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Behind them, there are caves decorated with precious paintings from 5th to 9th century A.D. The caves also suffered from destruction but today they have become the source of a major discovery. Scientists have proved, thanks to experiments at the ESRF, that the paintings were made of oil, hundreds of years before the technique was "invented" in Europe.
Tip sheet for International Seismology Research Conference
(Seismological Society of America) Excavating for clues to past earthquakes, tracking extreme ocean storms, glimpsing past Soviet nuclear testing, and more discussed as seismologists gather in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Unearthing clues of catastrophic earthquakes
(Seismological Society of America) The destruction and disappearance of ancient cultures mark the history of human civilization, making for fascinating stories and cautionary tales. The longevity of today's societies may depend upon separating fact from fiction, and archeologists and seismologists are figuring out how to join forces to do just that with respect to ancient earthquakes, as detailed in new studies presented at the international conference of the Seismological Society of America.
Plan brokered by UCLA, USC archaeologists would remove roadblock to Mideast peace
(University of Southern California) Two professors, one from USC and another at UCLA, led a group of Israeli and Palestinian archaeologists over the course of five years to draft a plan that covers the fate of the antiquities, and the sacred places, in the event of a two-state solution. They are hoping to remove these treasures from the political arena and remove a potential roadblock on the path to peace.
Ancient DNA: reconstruction of the biological history of Aldaieta necropolis
(Elhuyar Fundazioa) A research team from the Department of Genetics, Physical Anthropology & Animal Physiology in the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Leioa campus of the University of the Basque Country, and led by Ms. Concepción de la Rúa, has reconstructed the history of the evolution of human population and answered questions about history, using DNA extracted from skeleton remains.
Keeping African artifacts in Africa
(University of Calgary) University of Calgary researcher Julio Mercader, along with University of Boston Ph.D. student Arianna Fogelman have established the first museum of its kind in Mozambique which will officially open in August. The Museu Local aims to be an interactive cultural heritage center and is supported by the Smithsonian Institution.
NYU dental professor discovers biological clock linking tooth growth to other metabolic processes
(New York University) NYU dental professor Dr. Timothy Bromage discovered the rhythm while observing incremental growth lines in tooth enamel, which appear much like the annual rings on a tree. He also observed a related pattern of incremental growth in skeletal bone tissue -- the first time such an incremental rhythm has ever been observed in bone.
Russian-American research team examines origins of whaling culture
(University of Alaska Fairbanks) Recent findings by a Russian-American research team suggest that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, 1,000 years earlier than was previously known.
The voyage to America
(University of Copenhagen) A team of researchers led by Danish professor Eske Willerslev shows that the ancestors of the North American Indians who came from Asia were the first people in America, and that they were of neither European nor African descent. It also shows that immigration to North America took place approximately 1,000 years earlier than assumed. These findings call for a revision of our understanding of the early immigration route to the American continent.
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