archaeology

Absolute dating
Whenever it is possible to date an artefact or a site to a particular year (or interval of years). This can be made using dendrochronology, carbon-14, or datable objects such as coins.

AIMA
Australasian Institute of Maritime Archaeology

Aircraft
There are plenty of sunken aircraft underwater, many of them from World War Two. Some are just fragments, but others are intact. This area is researched by Steven Carmichael-Timson and Adam Wilson at Sea-Tech Exploration, UK.

Airlift
A wide tube is lowered to the excavation site. Into the lower end of the tube compressed air is pumped from the surface. The air bubbles up and creates a suction. This pulls up water, sand, and small objects. All of this can be sifted on deck. Photo at right by Mary Rose Trust. (more…)

Mummies Around the World

By Dr Joann Fletcher

The mummy is associated with the legends of Egypt, but archaeologists have excavated preserved human remains the world over. Dr Joann Fletcher explores the fascinating and varied history of mummification across continents.

21st dynasty mummmy case for an Egyptian priest

Beyond the Hype

Although the recent discovery of a 2500-year-old Persian mummy has proved to be a fake, the word ‘mummy’ is generally believed to derive from a Persian word, mummiya, meaning ‘bitumen’, used to describe the blackened state of ancient Egyptian bodies. The term is now generally applied to all human remains which retain their soft tissue, either by natural means or artificial preservation.
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Left. Black and White photo by Abbott of bridge with water flowing under it [SPEC]

The earliest visitors to Sabino Canyon are believed to be hunter-gatherers of the Clovis culture. [Guide, p.2] They hunted big game, such as bison, Columbian mammoth, and other large mammals that lived in southern Arizona when the climate was cooler and more moist. Later, as the climate changed, the Cochise culture became dominant. The Cochise hunted small game and gathered edible plants. With the climate warming and water becoming less plentiful, the mountain canyon would have been an attractive place to see food and shelter. Archaeologists believe that they have correctly identified flat grindstones, called metates, stone points and other tools left behind in Lower Sabino Canyon by these people. [Lazaroff, p.80] The Clovis hunters could have come to the canyon as early as 12000 to 15000 years ago. The Cochise were most likely visitors closer to 8000 B.C.

The Hohokam became the predominant people in this area after the Cochise. The peak of their culture occurred around 1100 AD. [Guide, p.2] We are not sure where the Hohokam came from, whether they were descendants of the Cochise, or were migrants who came to Southern Arizona from Central America. The Hohokam were farmers, known for their use of irrigation systems to maintain their crops. The Hohokam built villages along Tucson’s rivers and foothills. Archaeologists have found evidence of small dams west of the canyon. [Lazaroff, p.80-1] These check dams caught rainwater and soil. On the canyon floor there are indentations worn in the rock where the Hohokam ground beans. Hohokam pot sherds have also been found. By 1300 the population of the Tucson basin began to decrease, leading to the collapse of the Hohokam culture around AD 1450. No one is certain what caused the disappearance of this group: climatic changes, disease, social problems.

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By John Vincent Bellezza, Published: Dec. 1, 1998

Fig. 1: Looking down at a roof, Black Rock

In August and September of 1998 I discovered a series of pre-Buddhist archaeological sites in the western Tibet province of Ngari (mNga’ ris) (1). Located in close proximity to what had been important prehistoric sources of fresh water, these ancient sites include burial mounds, villages and ceremonial structures. Situated at 4500 meters in the Changthang (Byang thang), the vast northern plains of Tibet, these finds significantly add to our knowledge of Tibet before the spread of Buddhism in the 7th to 11th centuries.

Until I began systematic exploration of Changthang, more than ten years ago, little was known about the character of its ancient civilization. In that time, I have charted dozens of sites spread over 400, 000 square kilometers, documenting the existence of the legendary Zhang zhung kingdom. Zhang zhung, according to classical Tibetan texts, was a powerful nation which dominated the Tibetan plateau before being conquered by the central Tibetan Pugyal (sPu rgyal) dynasty in the 7th or 8th century (2). Textual sources aside, there was little evidence for Zhang zhung before I began my work.

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Left. Trees and sky reflect in Sabino Creek in the lower Canyon area

Sabino Creek begins 6,000 feet above the desert floor, in the pine forest that shades the slopes of Mt. Lemmon in the Santa Catalina mountains. [Lazeroff, p.11] The Catalinas, like other mountain chains, force moisture from the air as it rises up the mountain slope. Thus, the mountains receive more rain than the surrounding desert. In the summertime, Tucsonans look for billowing cumulus clouds forming over the Catalinas and neighboring Rincon and Santa Rita mountains as an indication of afternoon storms.

Sabino Creek winds its way 10 miles through the mountain canyons before reaching the desert, where much of it eventually sinks into the ground, adding to Tucson’s supply of groundwater. [Lazeroff, p.11-12] The amount of water that is found in the creek varies dramatically. In winter, melting snow from the mountaintops combined with the normal winter rainy season leads to a generous amount of water in the creek. It is commonplace for the creek to overflow the stone bridges, leading canyon walkers to hop the rocks edging the bridge or get their feet wet.

Right. During times of little or no rain, streambeds are dry

By May, much of the water has disappeared, as the long months of relatively dry, hot weather take their toll. At some points the creek disappears entirely, going underground. Still pools dot the creek bed, waiting for the next rain. During the summer monsoons, the creek experiences sudden rushes of water during the torrential downpours. The creek dries out again after the summer storms, waiting for the gentle winter rains to begin the cycle again.

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A terra cotta sculpture of Hanuman in India. The reddish colour is due to iron oxide in the source clay. Clays with low iron content can result in paler colours on firing, ranging from white to yellow.

Terra cotta (Latin: "baked earth") is a waterproof ceramic. Its uses include vessels, water & waste water pipes and surface embellishment in building construction. The term is also used to refer to items made out of this material and to its natural, brownish orange color.

Production and properties

An appropriate refined clay "mud" is partially dried and cast, molded, or hand worked into the desired shape. After further thorough drying it is placed in a kiln, or atop combustable material in a pit, and then fired. After pit firing the hot ware is covered with sand to cool, and after kiln firing the kiln is slowly cooled. When unglased, the material will not be waterproof, but it is suitable for in-ground use to carry pressurized water (an archaic use), for garden ware, and sculpture or building decoration in tropical environments, and for oil containers, oil lamps, or ovens. Most other uses such as for table ware, sanitary piping, or building decoration in freezing environments require that the material be glazed. Terra cotta, if uncracked, will ring if lightly struck, but not as brightly as will ware fired at higher temperature, which is called stoneware. The fired material is relatively weak compared to stoneware. Owing to the low firing temperatures it is possible to use lead-containging glases, which although once widely used are now recognized as producing both health and environmental hazzards. (more…)

A New Exhibition Brings the Doomed Residents of Pompeii and Herculaneum Vividly To Life

By Doug Stewart

Ministero per i Beni e le Attivita Culturali-Soprintendenza archeologica di Pompei/Field Museum, Chicago.

Daybreak, August 25, A.D. 79. Under a lurid and sulfurous sky, a family of four struggles down an alley filled with pumice stones, desperately trying to escape the beleaguered city of Pompeii. Leading the way is a middle-aged man carrying gold jewelry, a sack of coins and the keys to his house. Racing to keep up are his two small daughters, the younger one with her hair in a braid. Close behind is their mother, scrambling frantically through the rubble with her skirts hiked up. She clutches an amber statuette of a curly-haired boy, perhaps Cupid, and the family silver, including a medallion of Fortune, goddess of luck.

But neither amulets nor deities can protect them. Like thousands of others this morning, the four are overtaken and killed by an incandescent cloud of scorching gases and ash from Mount Vesuvius. In the instant before he dies, the man strains to lift himself from the ground with one elbow. With his free hand, he pulls a corner of his cloak over his face, as though the thin cloth will save him. (more…)

Hanuman (Sanskrit: Hanumat; nominative singular Hanumān), known also as ‘Anjaneya’, is one of the most important personalities in the Indian epic, the Ramayana. He is a vanara who aided Lord Rama (an avatar of Vishnu) in rescuing his wife, Sita from the Rakshasa king Ravana.

Biography

Birth

Hanuman was born in the Treta Yuga, to Anjana, a female Vanara. Anjana was actually an apsara or a celestial being, named Punjiksthala, who, due to a curse, was born on the earth as a female vanara. The curse was to be removed upon her giving birth to an incarnation of Shiva. Anjana was the wife of Kesari, a strong vanara who once killed a mighty elephant that was troubling sages and hermits. He therefore got the name "Kesari", meaning lion, and is also called Kunjara Südana, the elephant killer. The combination of Vanara and the celestial give Hanuman strength, divinity and quick wits – his main characteristics.

Along with Kesari, Anjana performed intense prayers to Lord Shiva to beget Him as her Child. Pleased with their devotion, Shiva granted them the boon they sought.[1] (more…)