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The DNA tests that revealed how the famed boy-king Tutankhamun most likely died solved another of ancient Egypt's enduring mysteries - the fate of controversial Pharaoh Akhenaten's mummy. The discovery could help fill out the picture of a fascinating era more than 3,300 years ago when Akhenaten embarked on history's first attempt at monotheism. During his 17-year rule, Akhenaten sought to overturn more than a millennium of Egyptian religion and art to establish the worship of a single sun god. In the end, his bold experiment failed and he was eventually succeeded by his son, the young Tutankhamun, who rolled back his reforms and restored the old religion. No one ever knew what became of the heretic pharaoh, whose tomb in the capital he built at Amarna was unfinished and whose name was stricken from the official list of kings. Two years of DNA testing and CAT scans on 16 royal mummies conducted by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, however, gave the firmest evidence to date that an unidentified mummy - known as KV55, after the number of the tomb where it was found in 1907 in Egypt's Valley of the Kings - is Akhenaten's. The testing, whose results were announced last month, established that KV55 was the father of King Tut and the son of the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, a lineage that matches Akhenaten's, according to inscriptions. [...]

Nine blindfolded and buried bodies found during construction of a beachfront luxury hotel likely were East Timorese freedom fighters executed and put in a mass grave early in the Indonesian occupation, experts said Friday. Archaeologists are searching for more unmarked graves at the site seven miles (12 kilometers) west of Dili where construction workers last month uncovered human bones while digging the foundation of a five-star hotel. All nine were wearing remnants of blindfolds. Two Portuguese military uniforms among the remains suggested all nine bodies were of freedom fighters, said Gregorio Saldanha, who heads a government commission that searches for victims of Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation of this former Portuguese colony. Resistance fighters used old Portuguese military uniforms and weapons in the early years of the occupation and used stolen Indonesian equipment in later years. [...]

Thick slabs of stone are set at a 30-degree angle into the side of a hill, cloaked in a tangle of undergrowth. Known as El Porvenir, this pre-Columbian indigenous site in a remote part of western Venezuela has never been truly examined by archaeologists. And now it looks like it may never be. The government plans to flood the valley in which El Porvenir lies to create a hydroelectric dam, wiping out the stones and leaving archaeologists unable to determine whether the site was built by a local indigenous tribe. True examination of the site has been limited due to the remote location and difficult working conditions — the area is know for its particularly aggressive lancehead vipers. Archaeologist Reina Duran, director of the Tachira Museum in the state capital San Cristobal, said she first visited El Porvenir in 1979 and worked on it each dry season for 10 years. “During those years when we came and went it was overgrown and full of mud again,” she said. “Every time we arrived at the site we had to begin the work again.” [...]

When the Spanish arrived on the coast of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, they observed small houses near the beaches which were woven like baskets.   In, what is now South Carolina and Georgia, these “basket houses” were only used in the warm months as fishing camps.  However, the Tequesta People living in the coastal areas of far southeastern Florida lived in them year round. The houses were literally woven from dry palmetto fronds like they were oversized baskets.  They functioned much like a screened porch today - air could circulate, but insects and rain drops couldn’t penetrate the walls. Very similar woven houses were used by the Potawatomi People in the Upper Great Lakes Region in the late summer and early autumn, when they were gathering wild rice and fishing on the lakes.  It is quite possible that the “basket house” were once a tradition throughout much of North America for summer time housing.  Since their construction was basically woven leaves, reinforced with saplings, nothing remains of these houses on archaeological sites. [...]

Several readers commented on the article about the Sweet Potato Village near Atlanta.  They questioned how the archaeologists could know that the Sweet Potato Village was a permanent farming settlement.  How did it differ from any of the other early Native American communities, we have discussed in this series?  The answer comes both from the artifacts and footprints left by the buildings in Sweet Potato. A common characteristic of the mounds and villages constructed by Native Americans prior to the time of the Sweet Potato Village is that very little remains of the buildings. Even when Europeans began colonizing North America, most indigenous peoples of North America outside the Southwest and Southeast still framed their homes with saplings. Saplings were much easier to cut with stone tools and were transportable. Often all that archaeologists find at such sites are hearths and the detritus of daily living.  Archaeologists assume there was once a hut or teepee, where now there is only a hearth. Pottery and grinding stones are heavy. They are not something that most people would want to carry around if their camp site was constantly on the move.  Baskets and gourds were much lighter and therefore, more appropriate for migratory peoples.  One of the many cultural changes one sees when native societies became more sedentary because of farming is the increased quantity and quality of pottery.  This is true both in the Southwest and the Southeast. [...]

Construction by local residents, ignored by the authority has imperiled an Achaemenid tomb, believed to be the tomb of Cyrus I, the Achaemenid king and son of Teispes and grandfather of Cyrus II the Great, near the village of Tang-e Eram in Bushehr Province. Experts have demarcated a 100-meter perimeter for the site, which was registered on the National Heritage List in 1997, the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency reported on Wednesday. Any construction done on this perimeter is illegal, however, construction of buildings has increased in the vicinity of the boundary. The first breach of the site’s perimeter was done by the Islamic Republic regional electrical supplier when they installed a power line some 4 meters from the tomb a few years ago. Known as Gur-Dokhtar (the burial of Daughter) by the local people, the site was discovered in 1960 by Belgian archaeologist Louis Vandenberg, who believed the tomb belonged to Cyrus I. [...]

Fifty beheaded young men found in a burial pit last year were probably executed Vikings, archaeologists revealed today. Teeth samples from 10 of the decapitated warriors discovered in Weymouth, in Dorset, show that they were Scandinavian invaders who fell into the hands of Anglo Saxons. Dating back to between AD910 and AD1030, the mass war grave is among the largest examples ever found of executed foreigners buried in one spot. The remains have been analysed by Dr Jane Evans and Carolyn Chenery at NERC Isotope Geosciences Laboratory, part of the British Geological Survey, based in Nottingham. The isotopes - variations of elements - found in the men's teeth show that they grew up in countries where the climate is colder than in Britain, with one individual thought to be from north of the Arctic Circle. [...]

One of Bulgaria’s top Ancient Thrace sites, the Starosel Tomb, has been dated to the 4th century BC after years of research. With German help a team of archaeologists of the Bulgarian National History Museum led by Dr. Ivan Hristov has managed to estimate the timing of the construction of the largest underground temple on the Balkan Peninsula, the Starosel Tomb, located in the Hisarya Municipality, Plovdiv District. In the summer of 2009, the archaeological team took samples from a stake in the middle of the tomb where gifts to the Greek goddess of the hearth Hestia were laid. The radio carbon dating analysis carried out in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laboratory of Dr. Bernd Krommer, have shown that the stake was burned in the period after 358 BC, when the temple was constructed, and the earth was heaped on top of it to form a burial mound. The analysis of the lab research and of the events which happened at that time have given archaeologist Ivan Hristov grounds to conclude that the temple in the village of Starosel, in the so called Chetinyova Mound, and the nearby Thracian ruler’s residence under Mount Kozi Gramadi were built during the reign of the Thracian King Amatokos II (359-351 BC), of the Thracian Odrysian state (5th-3rd century BC. [...]

Rare finds, among them the architectural ruins of tombs, pottery and clay statuettes, were brought to light during archeological excavations conducted at the Royal Necropolis in the region of Livadia, near the village of Aiane in the prefecture of Kozani, northwestern Greece. The land of Aiane is rich in unique and rare archaeological finds, according to the head of the 30th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in charge of the excavations, referring to recent discoveries that include 25 tombs dating back to the Archaic and Classical Period and 4 tombs of the late Bronze Age. The latest finds will be presented in the 23rd Scientific Meeting on the Archaeological Work in Macedonia and Thrace to be held at Thessaloniki Aristotle University (AUTH) on Thursday. [...]

SeaZone, a leader in the field of marine geographic information solutions, and the University of Southampton have teamed up in a collaborative project that aims to improve the management of marine historic environments by merging both reference and archaeological data for marine spatial planning. The ‘AMAP2 – Characterising the Potential for Wrecks” project, commissioned back in October, was setup to study the relationship between surviving shipwrecks and the natural environment.

The goal of the project: the development of a characterisation model that can be applied to areas of maritime archaeological potential (AMAP). Based on the environmental parameters affecting the survival of wrecks, the model should provide a more exact appraisal of the potential of unrecorded wrecks. Following the 2008 AMAP1 pilot project, the AMAP2 project will further the monitoring and management of the marine environment by facilitating the assessment of potential threat to archaeological points of interest.

The project will be undertaken in close collaboration with the University of Southampton and English Heritage. SeaZone is noted for its SeaZone HydroSpatial data product – the first “off the shelf” authoritative digital marine map. SeaZone Solutions Limited is wholly owned by Admiralty Holdings Ltd (AHL), which is owned by the UK Secretary of State for Defence and operated on his behalf by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO).

by: Matt Thompson
TheArchaeologicalBox.com

Photo accredited to SeaZone