http://phys.org/science-news/archaeology-fossils/ en-us Phys.Org provides the latest news on archaeology, fossils, archaeological sciences and archaeological technology. Hereditary inequality began over 7,000 years ago in the early Neolithic era, with new evidence showing that farmers buried with tools had access to better land than those buried without. http://phys.org/news257415590.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 28 May 2012 15:00:14 EST news257415590 A team of Australian and New Zealand researchers have discovered fresh evidence that could finally unravel the mystery of what killed Tasmania's giant marsupials over 40,000 years ago. http://phys.org/news257413145.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 28 May 2012 08:40:03 EST news257413145 At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that was the size of a school bus and tipped the scales at more than eight tons. http://phys.org/news257316386.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Sun, 27 May 2012 13:00:02 EST news257316386 German archaeologists of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena found one of the oldest archaeological evidence so far of Jewish Culture on the Iberian Peninsula at an excavation site in the south of Portugal, close to the city of Silves. http://phys.org/news257162889.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 25 May 2012 11:08:55 EST news257162889 The first modern humans in Europe were playing musical instruments and showing artistic creativity as early as 40,000 years ago, according to new research from Oxford and Tübingen universities. http://phys.org/news257151977.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 25 May 2012 08:30:01 EST news257151977 Argentine experts have discovered the near-complete remains of a new species of Jurassic-era dinosaur that stood on its rear legs and had tiny arms, according to a leading paleontologist. http://phys.org/news257133644.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 25 May 2012 03:01:02 EST news257133644 New dates from Geißenklösterle Cave in Southwest Germany document the early arrival of modern humans and early appearance of art and music. http://phys.org/news257104075.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 24 May 2012 18:51:32 EST news257104075 The French media like to call him the "Indiana Jones of the graveyards", but perhaps a better tag would be the Sherlock Holmes of forensic science. http://phys.org/news257050776.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:02 EST news257050776 Palaeontology has gone high-tech: no more wax and plaster-cast models. Instead, 3D data from computed tomography (CT) scans is overturning long-held views of how the earliest land animals moved. http://phys.org/news257014818.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 23 May 2012 18:00:38 EST news257014818 Israeli archaeologists have discovered a 2,700-year-old seal that bears the inscription "Bethlehem," the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday, in what experts believe to be the oldest artifact with the name of Jesus' traditional birthplace. http://phys.org/news257013964.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 23 May 2012 17:46:21 EST news257013964 Shifts in exchange patterns provide a new perspective on the fall of inland Maya centers in Mesoamerica approximately 1,000 years ago. This major historical process, sometimes referred to as the "Maya collapse" has puzzled archaeologists, history buffs, and the news media for decades. The new research was published online today in the journal Antiquity. http://phys.org/news256998034.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 23 May 2012 13:23:59 EST news256998034 More than ten thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the Lingjing site, Henan Province during 2005 and 2006. By taking statistical analyses of the skeletal elements of the two predominant species in this assemblage, aurochs (Bos primigenius) and horse (Equus caballus), scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, found that hominids at this site have already practiced sophisticated hunting techniques and subsistence strategies and may be quite familiar with the ecological and anatomical characteristics and nutritional values of the large-sized prey animals and can accordingly take different processing and handling strategies at the hunting site, as reported in the journal of Science China Earth Sciences, 2012, 55 (2). http://phys.org/news256988782.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 23 May 2012 10:47:43 EST news256988782 The stubby arms of Tyrannosaurus rex obviously weren't designed for hand-to-hand combat. However, the abelisaurids of the Southern hemisphere were even less well equipped in that department–and upper limb reduction began very early in their evolution. http://phys.org/news256965600.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Wed, 23 May 2012 04:21:20 EST news256965600 (AP) -- Pups in her womb, a large eye visible behind the rib cage, one baby stuck in the birth canal: all fossilized evidence that this ancient marine beast, the Ichthyosaur, died in childbirth. http://phys.org/news256893306.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 22 May 2012 08:15:16 EST news256893306 (Phys.org) -- An international team of scientists in the University of Leicester’s Department of Geology has found a solution to a research problem involving fossils right next door - in the University’s Chemistry Department. http://phys.org/news256891293.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 22 May 2012 07:49:22 EST news256891293 (Phys.org) -- An international team of researchers, including a University of Virginia professor, has found that two ink sacs from 160-million-year-old giant squid fossils discovered two years ago in England contain the pigment melanin, and that it is essentially identical to the melanin found in the ink sacs of modern-day squid. http://phys.org/news256814781.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 21 May 2012 15:00:07 EST news256814781 Researchers from Tel Aviv University have recently discovered a collection of gold and silver jewelry, dated from around 1100 B.C., hidden in a vessel at the archaeological site of Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. One piece — a gold earring decorated with molded ibexes, or wild goats — is "without parallel," they believe. http://phys.org/news256820749.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 21 May 2012 12:06:04 EST news256820749 (AP) -- A fossil of a fearsome T. Rex relative has been auctioned in New York City despite the Mongolian government's objections and a judge's order blocking the sale. http://phys.org/news256809526.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 21 May 2012 08:58:56 EST news256809526 (Phys.org) -- Large clusters of rock art spanning thousands of years but located at the same site may hold key to detecting massive cultural changes in prehistoric hunter-gatherers of the north. http://phys.org/news256797610.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 21 May 2012 05:40:32 EST news256797610 Danjiangkou reservoir is located in the northwest of Hubei province and southwest of Henan province at the headwaters area of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project. In October, 2004, Scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted a survey around the margin of the reservoir that will later be submerged upon completing a new section of the dam, and found 367 lithic artifacts with handaxes and picks from 43 open-air sites, distributed upon different terraces along the Hanshui River and its tributary Danjiang River. The finding of handaxes and picks offers new materials to discuss the diffusion and cultural communication of early hominids, researchers reported in the latest issue of Acta Anthropologica Sinica 2012 (2). http://phys.org/news256549263.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 18 May 2012 08:42:44 EST news256549263 Two studies led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and National Geographic's Genographic Project reveal new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas. The studies identify the historical relationships among various groups of Native American and First Nations peoples and present the first clear evidence of the genetic impact of the groups' cultural practices. http://phys.org/news256493988.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 17 May 2012 17:20:13 EST news256493988 Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such a specimen – the fossilized remains of a 60-million-year-old South American giant that lived in what is now Colombia. http://phys.org/news256475090.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 17 May 2012 13:00:05 EST news256475090 The Liuhuaishan site is an important early Paleolithic site found in the Bose Basin. In December 2008, Scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Youjiang Museum for Nationalities, Bose, carried out a short survey around this site and found three new Paleolithic localities with a collection of 37 stone artifacts. This new finds will help better understand the human behavior at open-air sites in south China, researchers reported in the latest issue of Acta Anthropologica Sinica 2012 (2). http://phys.org/news256462045.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 17 May 2012 08:30:17 EST news256462045 (Phys.org) -- At least seven different killer dinosaurs once lived in what is now south-eastern Australia, a new study has found. http://phys.org/news256457434.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Thu, 17 May 2012 08:00:03 EST news256457434 Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones... if they're over two meters long! A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human arthritis in the jaw of a pliosaur, an ancient sea reptile that lived 150 million years ago. Such a disease has never been described before in fossilized Jurassic reptiles. http://phys.org/news256311603.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 15 May 2012 18:00:01 EST news256311603 Sulphur and iron compounds have now been found in shipwrecks both in the Baltic and off the west coast of Sweden. The group behind the results, presented in the Journal of Archaeological Science, includes scientists from the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University. http://phys.org/news256316372.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 15 May 2012 15:59:44 EST news256316372 The oldest agricultural settlement ever found on a Mediterranean island has been discovered in Cyprus by a team of French archaeologists involving CNRS, the National Museum of Natural History, INRAP, EHESS and the University of Toulouse. Previously it was believed that, due to the island's geographic isolation, the first Neolithic farming societies did not reach Cyprus until a thousand years after the birth of agriculture in the Middle East (ca. 9500 to 9400 BCE). However, the discovery of Klimonas, a village that dates from nearly 9000 years before Christ, proves that early cultivators migrated to Cyprus from the Middle Eastern continent shortly after the emergence of agriculture there, bringing with them wheat as well as dogs and cats. http://phys.org/news256287928.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Tue, 15 May 2012 08:05:44 EST news256287928 Anthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research, reported in the most recent edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows the piece to be approximately 37,000 years old and offers rich evidence of the role art played in the daily lives of Early Aurignacian humans. http://phys.org/news256225903.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Mon, 14 May 2012 15:00:08 EST news256225903 Vicarious travellers and students of history can take a virtual stroll through the vast necropolis build by the ancient Egyptians in the Giza Plateau, thanks to a 3D Internet project launched this week. http://phys.org/news255957261.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 11 May 2012 12:14:32 EST news255957261 Prof. Yosef Garfinkel, the Yigal Yadin Professor of Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, announced today the discovery of objects that for the first time shed light on how a cult was organized in Judah at the time of King David. During recent archaeological excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa, a fortified city in Judah adjacent to the Valley of Elah, Garfinkel and colleagues uncovered rich assemblages of pottery, stone and metal tools, and many art and cult objects. These include three large rooms that served as cultic shrines, which in their architecture and finds correspond to the biblical description of a cult at the time of King David. http://phys.org/news255952351.html Other Sciences - Archaeology & Fossils Fri, 11 May 2012 10:52:52 EST news255952351