Easter Island archaeology project digs up island’s secrets
New photographs reveal what lies beneath the surface of Easter Island, one of the most remote places in the world — the carved bodies of the island’s 887 famous guardians.
Most people think of the 63-square-mile Pacific island’s silent stone sentinels as simple heads. But the heads all have bodies — and a backstory that’s only now being pieced together, explained Jo Anne Van Tilburg, director of the Easter Island Statue Project.
“Those statues which are the most photographed are standing in the quarry. They’re buried up to mid-torso level. So it’s understandable that the general public didn’t have a clue that those statues had bodies,” she told FoxNews.com.
Bit behind the times in the story, as they say they started building them in 1100, when they probably weren’t even there yet.
Preferably in the Bahamas or the eastern Mediterranean: How to Uncover Underwater Artifacts
Five-gallon buckets are so very useful. Little did I think we would use them to explore ancient Maya offerings underwater. While dive gear consists of high technology like trimix gases and the underwater camera, archaeology gear consists of low technology, like the bucket and shovel. During excavations, archaeologists usually fill the buckets with dirt, which is then sifted through half-inch or quarter-inch mesh screens for artifacts. But here, Chip would be using the buckets underwater — at a depth of nearly 200 feet.
The plan was to begin excavations downslope from the ceremonial building on the southwest edge of Pool 1, where we think anything the Maya threw in would roll down. But first we had to find empty pigtail buckets at the local gas station. John Carr at the Banana Bank Lodge offered us the use of a broken shovel. Now we were ready to go.
Sadly, rather uninformative, including the video.
RIP, Bob Greengo:
ROBERT EUGENE GREENGO
Robert “Bob” Greengo, professor emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Washington and loving father and husband, died of natural causes on May 8, 2012. Born July 31, 1923 in Emmetsburg, IA, he was raised in Waconia, MN and served in the US Army during WWII. After undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota, he earned a Masters Degree at the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D from Harvard University. He moved to Seattle in 1957 where his career spanned over 30 years in the Dept. of Anthropology at the University of Washington. The community will remember him for his life’s work: he spent many years leading archeological digs, collecting data, and meticulously documenting the ancient peoples of Washington State. He also was an expert in Pre-Columbian Meso-American history, which he researched with frequent trips to Mexico. Robert, a devoted husband and father, is survived by his wife Rosalie of twenty-four years, by his three daughters Nanette, Rebecca, and Leslie, by his six grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his brothers Irving and Donald Greengo. His first wife of thirty-seven years, Adele Mae Fancoeur, died in 1985. His family will sorely miss his good humor, love for the natural world, zest for life, and relentless puns. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations may be made to the Burke Museum, Archaeology Gift Fund, Box 353010, Seattle, WA 98195.
‘Fraid I didn’t know Greengo very well, as he was mostly retired by the time I started grad school. I did take one course from him on Central/South American or New World archaeology. He was one of the old school “culture history” archaeologists — though not stuck in the past (heh) by any means — and I don’t think the faculty at the time had much. . . .I don’t want to say ‘respect’. . . .but they looked upon him gently as perhaps past his prime by that time. Very nice and decent man though. I saw him a few years ago giving a talk about the Marymoor site that he excavated in the late ’60s — an important site around these parts. Still sharp as ever and just as personable. I saw him going into the IMA (the UW gym facility) every now and then, probably every day, still chatting with all the students and staff. What a great guy. Definitely someone to emulate in many respects. Requiescat in Pace, Greengo.
Engravings of Female Genitalia May Be World’s Oldest Cave Art
Since their discovery in 1994, the spectacular paintings of lions, rhinos, and other animals in southern France’s Chauvet Cave have stood out as the oldest known cave art, clocking in at about 37,000 years old.* But there have been occasional sightings of other cave art that is equally ancient, although its dating has been more uncertain. Now a team working at another site in the south of France claims to have discovered what appear to be engravings of female genitalia that are as old as or older than Chauvet, possibly making them the world’s most ancient cave art.
Fairly innocuous drawings that have been interpreted as vulva (more like a Pac-Man actually) which, as one quoted researcher says about them “Who the hell knows” what they really are supposed to represent. Mostly the significance is in the dating.
Skulls in Florida Backyard Belong to Peru, Date Back to 1200
The discovery of two skulls in a Florida backyard sparked questions of intrigue and murder when they were found in January, but now investigators say the origin of the bones is even more mysterious than they thought.
The two skulls, of a 10-year-old boy and older man, date to 1200 to 1400, and show signs of being from Peru or South America, thousands of miles and a millenium from Winter Garden, Fla.
“The mystery is how they ended up there,” medical examiner Jan Garavaglia said today. “We don’t have any way of finding out.”
Video at the link (which is actually quite uninformative). I was skeptical when I first saw the headline, thinking it was one of those “Maya in the Southeast” type stories, but it’s legit: they know it’s a secondary burial. Hard to tell how they got there since we’re not given much information on the history of the property — it’s a housing development now, but a recent one. Just odd that it was buried like that, you’d think people would hang on to that sort of thing.
There was no weekend blogging from me. Blame it on absolutely wonderful weather, many estate chores that got put off because of the fieldwork last week (and more this week), but also there wasn’t a whole lot going on. The wires were mostly full of the Maya find from below and not much else.
I’d relate my fieldwork adventures from last week, but it was decidedly deadly dull. Usually even if you’re not finding anything you still have to pay attention to the sediments and describe them in some detail, but the work here was so shallow that it was practically the same stuff for a mile and a half. Friday they excavated a couple of deep pits, but that only provided a brief respite from the sedimentary boredom.
Back out for a couple of days this week, but working for a different company.
Panel reviews merits of archaeology ordinance in Savannah
Had federal law not required an archaeologist’s review of a construction site near the Savannah Visitors Center in 1984, an untold part of Savannah’s history might never have been found.
. . .
With that much potential lurking below ground, city of Savannah officials, with guidance from Chatham County-Savannah Metropolitan Planning Commission staff, are beginning to explore whether the city should have a local ordinance that would require archaeological reviews before excavation and construction begins on city property.
. . .
The goal, said Tom Thomson, executive director of the MPC, is to develop an ordinance, but to do it with community input and discussion with the development community.
“I think the key is to bring private developers on board and not frighten them,” he said.
This has to do with city property so I’m not sure how it really relates to developers. If it’s city land, then isn’t it on the city to provide for any archaeological surveys? I can see why you would want developers and what-not on board though and it’s good that they’re including them in the process.
Bronze Age Boat attempt founders
The crew of a half-sized replica of the Dover Bronze Age boat had to abort the vessel’s maiden voyage when it failed to stay afloat as it entered the water.
The vessel, Boat 1550 BC, was lowered into Dover Harbour, Kent, at 1pm but immediately began to take on water, a spokeswoman for Canterbury Christ Church University, which is helping to co-ordinate the project, said.
The project, in which a team of specialist archaeologists built the vessel over three months on the Roman Lawns at Dover Museum, is supported by the European Union and brings together seven partners from Britain, France and Belgium.
Seems odd, you’d think they would have been able to tell if it were watertight or not before putting it in the water.
Finally. One of the dullest projects I’ve worked on. Usually even if we’re not finding anything there is at least interesting sediments to describe. Not this time. A mile and a half of 6″ or the same junk over and over again. Well, I had a little excitement this morning when they did four deep test pits and at least it was something different although still not interesting. Check that: there was some blue-gray anoxic sand at the very bottom. Be still my heart. . . .
Otherwise, about all I had to entertain myself and prevent me from stabbing myself with my trowel just to keep from going comatose were the odd field mouse or two escaping the depredations of the track hoe. One young’un even got a little elevator ride on my trowel up the steep bank.
Yessirree, Mr. Excitement. . . .
Painted Maya Walls Reveal Calendar Writing
Hacking through jungle growth and clearing away rubble, archaeologists made their way to excavate a house buried at the edge of ruins of a large Maya city in the remote Petén lowlands of northeastern Guatemala. It turned out to have been the studio for royal scribes with a taste for art and a devotion to the heavens as the source of calculations for the ancient culture’s elaborate calendars.
Inside, two of the three standing masonry walls were decorated with a faded but still impressive mural, including a painting of a seated king with a scepter and wearing blue feathers. It seemed that, like the Alec Guinness character in the 1958 movie “The Horse’s Mouth,” no Maya artist could abide a wall without a touch of inspired paint. The third wall, on the east side, appeared to have served as the scribes’ blackboard.
Read the whole thing.
