Lost cities / archaeology / ancient history

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI

I wholeheartedly recommend checking out the rest of stans back catalogue too

Oh nice!

Hope the Tuunbaq doesn't get them

Agreed, he's amazing

An interesting underwater find, but I always hope for more about sunken settlements.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/12/stone-age-wall-found-at-bottom-of-baltic-sea-may-be-europes-oldest-megastructure

Another one of those stories that I like, where something we found turns out to be very old indeed:

The researchers say the tools may be as much as 1.4m years old, but other experts say the study methodology suggests that they may be just over 1m years old, placing them in roughly the same date range as other ancient tools unearthed in Spain.

The earliest stone tools of this type yet found were unearthed in eastern Africa and date back to 2.8m years ago, said Rick Potts, who directs the Smithsonian Institution’s human origins programme.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/06/ancient-stone-tools-found-in-ukraine-offer-oldest-evidence-of-human-presence-in-europe

Obviously, dating techniques may be problematic, but if true this would show just how early and how far people dispersed. Needless to say, they will have had many other tools than just stone tools, which are merely the only thing likely to be preserved from so long ago. And, as ever, I don't like this thinking in terms of 'species', which I think is just wrong.

A little more recent but interesting
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/08/descendants-of-king-william-iis-killer-keen-to-donate-triptych-depicting-death-to-british-museum

A mea culpa for killing party-boy rufus

Does this look fake?

Pembroke Castle/ Wogan Cavern.

An excellent find in Wales.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/02/humongous-fort-found-in-wales-may-disprove-theory-of-celtic-roman-peace

I'm particularly looking forward to more work on the roads in the area.

And Stonehenge:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/14/stonehenge-megalith-came-from-scotland-not-wales-jaw-dropping-study-finds

Apparently, it would take ten days to walk from John O'Groats to Stonehenge today ...

Even by modern standards, John o’Groats to Wiltshire is a bit of a trek: nearly 500 miles, 13 hours by car or a 10-day walk – and that is without having a six-tonne block of stone in tow.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/aug/17/stonehenges-altar-stone-carried-north-east-scotland-but-how

50 miles in a day sounds like elite-level walking to me.

Specially if you do it for 10 consecutive days.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy5ppxgg5wo

I did Trailwalker twice. It's 60 miles and took 26 and 27 hours. That was about 24 hours of walking and 2-3 hours of breaks and no sleep.

Sounds like the journalist just looked at google maps and divided it by 24!

My mum found these items at a fish trap on the Clyde. She is fairly sure the first two are flint scrapers. You can see they have been worked to an edge. She thinks the latter is an axe head, but could just be a stone. Any thoughts?

2 Attachments

I think not unfortunately, the edges are far too clean to have survived that long without being worn down. I could be wrong though. I'd be more interested in further images of the first stone.

I think they were both submerged in mud, which may have preserved them. The one to the right has a less defined edge and was more exposed I think as it has some barnacles on it. My mum says there is no naturally occuring flint within hundreds of miles, so she is convinced they are tools. They do seem to have been worked and feel very ergonomic for a right handed person.

I will ask her to send more photos of the potential axe head.

Well that changes things a bit. They could well be.

there is a great series on YouTube, where a clockmaker is recontructing the Antikythera Mechanism using some period correct techniques: https://youtu.be/ML4tw_UzqZE

Clickspring is still going with this, seven years later... I think he mentioned in one episode recently that the project slowed down due to a whole bunch more rigour and collaboration from academics getting involved?

Anyway, it's an amazing project, and Chris' work (including his video production) is spellbinding.

It's an incredible channel, the stuff he does is fantastic. And he's all the way up in Cairns, which I find very odd.

In the deep human past, highly skilled seafarers made daring crossings from Asia to the Pacific Islands. It was a migration of global importance that shaped the distribution of our species – Homo sapiens – across the planet.

These mariners became the ancestors of people who live in the region today, from West Papua to Aotearoa New Zealand.

For archaeologists, however, the precise timing, location and nature of these maritime dispersals have been unclear.

For the first time, our new research provides direct evidence that seafarers travelled along the equator to reach islands off the coast of West Papua more than 50 millennia ago.

https://theconversation.com/new-evidence-from-west-papua-offers-fresh-clues-about-how-and-when-humans-first-moved-into-the-pacific-231686

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/25/the-guardian-view-on-the-invention-of-prehistory-telling-the-story-before-records-began

This is about contemporaneous with when Sapiens reached Australia? I can't understand prehistoric seafarers. How did people set off over the horizon on small vessels with no knowledge of what lay beyond? What was the ratio of those who made landfall and those who died at sea?

Yes I can't imagine what would drive someone to get on a boat in to the complete unknown with no way back