Some of the world's first farmers may have sped around in two-wheeled carts pulled by camels and bulls, suggests a new analysis on tiny models of these carts that date to 6,000-5,000 years ago. The cart models, which may have been ritual objects or children's toys, were found at Altyndepe, a Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement in Western Central Asia near Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Together with other finds, the cart models provide a history of how wheeled transportation first emerged in the area and later developed. "Horsepower" is a common term today, but the ancients had bull-power, followed by camel-power, researcher Lyubov Kircho explained to Discovery News. "I think that the carts pulled by bulls were mostly used in agriculture in the 4th millennium, when the climate was more humid," said Kircho, who is at the Institute for the History of Material Culture at the Russian Academy of Sciences. [...]

The Tower of Hercules has served as a lighthouse and landmark at the entrance of La Coruña harbour in north-western Spain since the late 1st century A.D. when the Romans built the Farum Brigantium. The Tower, built on a 57 metre high rock, rises a further 55 meters. It is divided into three progressively smaller levels, the first of which corresponds to the Roman structure of the lighthouse. Immediately adjacent to the base of the Tower, is a small rectangular Roman building. The site also features a sculpture park, the Monte dos Bicos rock carvings from the Iron Age and a Muslim cemetery. The Roman foundations of the building were revealed in excavations conducted in the 1990s. Many legends from the Middle Ages to the 19th century surround the Tower of Hercules which is unique as it is the only lighthouse of Greco-Roman antiquity to have retained a measure of structural integrity and functional continuity. The site of La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle watch-making town-planning consists of two towns situated close to one another in a remote environment in the Swiss Jura mountains, on land ill-suited to farming. Their planning and buildings reflect watch-makers’ need of rational organization. Planned in the early 19th century, after extensive fires, the towns owed their existence to this single industry. Their layout along an open-ended scheme of parallel strips on which residential housing and workshops are intermingled reflects the needs of the local watch-making culture that dates to the 17th century and is still alive today. The site presents outstanding examples of mono-industrial manufacturing-towns which are well preserved and still active. The urban planning of both towns has accommodated the transition from the artisanal production of a cottage industry to the more concentrated factory production of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The town of La Chaux-de-Fonds was described by Karl Marx as a “huge factory-town” in Das Kapital where he analyzed the division of labour in the watch-making industry of the Jura. [...]

With its five flat peaks, Mount Wutai is a sacred Buddhist mountain. The cultural landscape numbers 53 monasteries and includes the East Main Hall of Foguang Temple, the highest surviving timber Building of the Tang Dynasty with life size clay sculptures. It also features the Ming Dynasty Shuxiang Temple with a huge complex of 500 statues representing Buddhist stories woven into three dimensional pictures of mountains and water. Overall, the buildings on the site present a catalogue of the way Buddhist architecture developed and influenced palace building in China over more than one millennium. Mount Wutai, literally, the five terrace mountain, is the highest mountain in northern China and is remarkable for its morphology characterized by precipitous sides with five open treeless peaks. Temples have been built on the site since the 1st century AD to the early 20th century. [...]

Cidade Velha has been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, marking Cape Verde's entry to the international community's inventory of properties of outstanding universal value. The World Heritage Committee, chaired by María Jesús San Segundo, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO, inscribed the historic centre, which dates back to the late 15th century and bears testimony to the history of Europe's colonial presence in Africa and to the history of slavery. The town of Ribeira Grande, renamed Cidade Velha in the late 18th century, was the first European colonial outpost in the tropics. [...]

Insurers have suspended their support for a controversial dam project in southeastern Turkey amid concern about its environmental and cultural impact. Export credit insurers in Austria, Germany and Switzerland said on Tuesday they had told suppliers to suspend work on the Ilisu dam on the Tigris river. They are giving Ankara 180 days to meet standards set by the World Bank. The ancient Hasankeyf fortress is in the area that would be flooded and more than 50,000 people would have to move. The hydroelectric project near Turkey's borders with Syria and Iraq is part of a scheme to develop the mainly Kurdish region, which has suffered for decades from poverty, neglect and conflict. Environmentalists say the dam would destroy archaeological treasures, including Roman remains. The dam consortium plans to create a culture park on the edge of the reservoir and transfer key monuments from Hasankeyf there. [...]

Burkina Faso joined the rank of countries that have World Heritage properties on their territory with the inscription of the Ruins of Loropéni on UNESCO’s List on Friday. The 11,130m2 property, the first to be inscribed in the country, with its imposing stone walls is the best preserved of ten fortresses in the Lobi area and is part of a larger group of 100 stone enclosures that bear testimony to the power of the trans-Saharan gold trade. Situated near the borders of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo, the ruins have recently been shown to be at least 1,000 years old. The settlement was occupied by the Lohron or Koulango peoples, who controlled the extraction and transformation of gold in the region when it reached its apogee from the 14thto the 17th century. Much mystery surrounds this site large parts of which have yet to be excavated. The settlement seems to have been abandoned during some periods during its long history. The property which was finally deserted in the early 19th century is expected to yield much more information. [...]

Sulamain-Too Sacred Mountain of Kyrgyzstan has become the country’s first site to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Shushtar Historical Hydraulic System, Bridges, dams, canals, buildings and watermills from ancient time to present (Iran) and the Royal Tombs of the Joseong Dynasty (Republic of Korea) were also added to the List on Friday. Sulamain-Too Sacred Mountain (Kyrgyzstan) dominates the Fergana Valley and forms the backdrop to the city of Osh, at the crossroads of important routes on the Central Asian Silk Roads. For more than one and a half millennia, Sulamain was a beacon for travellers revered as a sacred mountain. Its five peaks and slopes contain numerous ancient places of worship and caves with petroglyphs as well as two largely reconstructed 16th century mosques. [...] The Royal Tombs of the Joseon Dynasty form a collection of 40 tombs scattered over 18 locations. Built over five centuries, from 1408 to 1966, the tombs honoured the memory of ancestors, showed respect for their achievements, asserted royal authority, protected ancestral spirits from evil and provided protection from vandalism. Spots of outstanding natural beauty were chosen for the tombs which typically have their back protected by a hill as they face south toward water and, ideally, layers of mountain ridges in the distance. Alongside the burial area, the royal tombs feature a ceremonial area and an entrance. [...]

A team of Dutch anthropologists has arrived to the Bulgarian village of Dzhulyunitsa to research the Neolithic archaeological site there. The object of their research will be oldest funeral in the Balkans - a funeral of a person at the age of 12-13, which dates back to 6300-6150 BC. The early Neolithic funeral was discovered in 2004 by Nedko Elenski, an archaeologist at the Regional History Museum of the nearby city of Veliko Tarnovo. The anthropologists from the Netherlands are taking samples from the bones of the buried child in order to conduct further research. They are going to use DNA analysis in order to reveal more information about the people who lived in central northern Bulgaria some 8000 years ago. The Neolithic settlement at Dzhulyunitsa existed between 6300 and 5700 BC. The causes of its demise are still known, according to Elenski. Two other graves dating back to 4000 BC have also been discovered nearby. [...]

Western Michigan University is eyeing a plan to build a research center in Niles to aid its archaeological work at Fort St. Joseph. During a recent council meeting, city officials agreed to consider the idea offered by anthropology professor Dr. Michael Nassaney, who has led student field work at the fort site. "It basically is a conceptual idea," Niles City Administrator Terry Eull said. "We don't yet know what the building would be. Western is doing all the work," he added. The proposed center may feature an area for artifacts, a classroom and living quarters where students could stay when they come from Kalamazoo to Niles to conduct archaeological digs at Fort St. Joseph, Eull said. Nassaney's field work with students led to the discovery in 2002 of the fort site along the St. Joseph River near Bond Street, south of the French Paper Company dam. Nassaney was invited years ago by the Niles group, Support the Fort, to search for the elusive fort. The group surveyed an overgrown, swampy area that had once been a farm field and city dump and the perimeter of the old fort site. Fort St. Joseph was a garrison-mission-trading post created by the French in 1691 but was occupied by various settlers for the next hundred years. [...]

Egypt plans to conduct a DNA test on a 3,500-year-old mummy to determine if it is King Thutmose I, one of the most important pharaohs. Zahi Hawass, Egypt's antiquities chief, said Thursday that the DNA test and an X-ray will be carried out on a mummy found at the site of ancient Thebes on the west bank of the Nile, what is today Luxor's Valley of the Kings, the Middle East News Agency reported. Dr. Hawass said a mummy on display in the Egyptian Museum that was purported for many years to be Thutmose I was not actually the ancient ruler's remains. Thutmose I was the third pharaoh of Egypt's 18th dynasty of pharaohs. His reign is generally dated from 1506 to 1493 BC. He was succeeded by his son, Thutmose II, who in turn was succeeded by Thutmose II's sister, Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh. Egypt has acquired a $5-million DNA lab, funded by the Discovery Channel, and which has become a centrepiece of an ambitious plan to identify mummies and re-examine the royal mummy collection. [...]