|
Sent
free to subscribers to nzaawebsubscribers at yahoogroups.com
RSS link for this
news:
The
New Zealand archaeological Wiki.
archaeopedia.com
Want to be an archaeologist? -
our page on Careers
in Archaeology will help.
More
Touring
New Zealand? - look at this page - Archaeological
Sites for the Cultural Tourist. More
|
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Otatara Pa Historic Reserve invitation
The first stage of a programme to upgrade information on Otatara Pa Historic Reserve has been completed this year and the Department of Conservation (DOC), Ngati Paarau of Waiohiki Marae and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (HPT) are inviting the people of Hawke?s Bay to help celebrate. An unveiling of new whakairo and a waharoa at the carpark entrance to the reserve will take place at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 27th July, and members of the public are invited to participate in activities that will include a powhiri and guided walk on to the lower part of the archaeological site. "
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Neil Cossons - English Heritage visit
Antarctic Related Events Christchurch: 9 October: A public talk by Sir Neil Cossons, Chair of English Heritage as part of Heritage Week events, 7-14 October 2005."
Ancient phallus unearthed in cave
A sculpted and polished phallus found in a German cave is among the earliest representations of male sexuality ever uncovered, researchers say.
The 20cm-long, 3cm-wide stone object, which is dated to be about 28,000 years old, was buried in the famous Hohle Fels Cave near Ulm in the Swabian Jura.
Monday, July 25, 2005
Study targets damage to Cook Islands coral reefs
University of Otago researchers say they will use a US$6000 ($9000) grant to develop a record of human exploitation of the coral reefs of the Cook Islands over the past 1000 years.
Darrin Drumm, from the university's marine science faculty, will work with anthropologist Dr Richard Walter on marine ecology, anthropology and archaeology.
'This will help focus conservation efforts by providing a baseline of the historical, pre-impact conditions and an understanding of the magnitude of human-related impacts on the coral reefs and their resources,' said Mr Drumm. "
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Vanuatu Excavation
Ed: I wasn't going to use these, not wanting to precede the excavators, but as a pic of the burial has now appeared in the press, here they are:
Saturday, July 23, 2005
CAR Australasian Archaeometry Conference 2005
Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
December 12th-15th 2005
The 2005 Australasian Archaeometry Conference will be held at the ANU, Canberra, hosted by the Department of Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, and the Centre for Archaeological Research.
The 2005 conference contains sessions (lectures and workshops) covering all aspects of scientific applications (biological, physical and chemical sciences) in archaeology. We are encouraging theoretical and interpretative sessions as well as those discussing archaeometrical techniques both within and beyond Australasia."
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Poll: NZAA E-News
What do you like to read here?
Your help in identifying features you would like to see in the E-News would be appreciated.
It is assumed that NZ archaeology and archaeologist news stories and Australasian conferences will be the basic ingredients.
The poll asks you to rate other areas of interest where we have had some stories in the past.
Robotics show Lucy walked upright
Australopithecus afarensis, the early human who lived about 3.2 million years ago, walked upright, according to an 'evolutionary robotics' model.
The model, which uses footprints to predict gait, suggests 'Lucy', as the first fossil afarensis was called, walked rather like us.
This contradicts earlier suggestions that Lucy shuffled like a bipedally walking chimpanzee. "
The Lost Tribe of Surveyors
New Zealand Skeptics:
Did the ancestors of the Celts sail to New Zealand and establish a network of megalithic survey points and astronomical sight lines? Some think so"
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Dig unearths new theory [16jul05]
THE discovery of 16 human skeletons about 3000 years old in Fiji provides evidence that the country was first settled by seafarers, scientists have said.
A team from Fiji's University of the South Pacific and the Fiji Museum in Suva found the skeletons during a recent trip to Bourewa on the southwest of the main island of Viti Levu.
Team leader Patrick Nunn, the university's professor of geography, said the find bolstered evidence the site was the first settlement in the Fiji archipelago and was probably occupied from about 1200BC.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Historic house is demolished
Attempts to save an historic Christchurch house used by some of Antarctica's most renowned explorers has failed.
Demolition crews on Saturday moved in on the home near Sumner as a small group of protestors looked on.
They had been lobbying against plans by local businessman Phillip Carter to bulldoze the house, saying it has a special place in the city's history."
Skeletons clues to Polynesian mystery
New Zealand researchers excavating a 3000-year-old cemetery in Vanuatu say it may offer clues to why mysterious voyagers who sailed through Melanesia - creating the Polynesian race - travelled so fast.
One possibility was that they were trying to outrun the worst form of malaria - not realising they were carrying the parasite in their bloodstreams, says New Zealand paleo-pathologist Hallie Buckley.
Early analysis of the first skeletons found late last year has shown the people had a heavy burden of disease-causing organisms, in particular parasites that cause malaria. "
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Google Earth archaeological and other sites in Australasia
Cultural heritage sites in New Zealand and Australia
This first listing has 24 sites - they have been selected only from areas with high resolution photography.
Courtesy NZAA e-News.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites (All 788 of them!)- for Google Earth
If you followed up my Google Earth recommendation last time here is a file which has sites pre-found for you!
To use the file you need to have Google Earth loaded on your machine - see Google Earth It is a beta test at the moment and not always available - persist - it's worth it.
Then get the file of sites. Go to this site linked in the heading and download the file, or right click this link and save on your machine:
WH List
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=12116
Provided you have installed Google Earth clicking on the downloaded file will open Google Earth with the sites displayed.
It has all the world heritage sites - the majority of which are cultural heritage sites. Sites at risk are differentiated. Sadly many of them are inaccurately placed - the list has not been checked - I suppose it mostly comes from the UNESCO nomination data, which does not say much for that. Many sites are also in low resolution areas and cannot be seen. The sites in Britain I visited were all accurately located.
The strength of this list is the live links to Google Images which can bring up other pictures of the site from its name.
ArchAtlas: ArchAtlas on Google Earth
This is another Google Earth file of links. The above post has information for getting Google Earth. Then go to the site linked in the heading and download this data file or right click and save this link and save the file on your machine.
ArchAtlas http://www.arch.ox.ac.uk/archatlas/web/googleearth/_ArchAtlas_0_0_1.kml
Provided you have installed Google Earth clicking on the downloaded file will open Google Earth with the sites displayed.
This is a small file but is good for the middle east - some sites are quite low res though. The reference for the Nazca Lines was 90 km out!
The best bit of this set is the clickable links back to the ArchAtlas detailed pictures.
ArchAtlas: Home Portal
Mostly middle east / Mesopotamia - satellite and aerial pics of archaeological sites.
Friday, July 15, 2005
WAC Inter-Congres - now at new location
Dear all,
This is to let you know that the WAC Inter-Congress titled "The uses
and abuses of archaeology for indigenous populations" will be moved
to Auckland, NZ. It will be held at the Waipapa Marae on the
University of Auckland Campus. Maori Studies and Anthropology of
Auckland University are supporting this Inter-congress. The dates of
this Inter-Congress are November 8-12, 2005. The conference
conveners are Des Kahotea, Joe Watkins and Caroline Phillips.
Submissions of abstracts for papers should be sent to the Academic
Program Chair, Stephanie Ford, stephanie_ford_wac@hotmail.com
For more information, please see the WAC website
http://ehlt.flinders.edu.au/wac/site/home.php or contact one of the organisers.
NB The website is still showing the old locaiton.
Heads found in pots in Vanuatu dig
Skulls belonging to some of the earliest inhabitants of the Pacific have been unearthed by ANU archaeologists working in Vanuatu.
Headless skeletons of the Lapita people aged between 3200 and 3000 years old were excavated by ANU archaeologists Professor Matthew Spriggs and Dr Stuart Bedford at Teouma near Vanuatu's capital, Port Vila last year, after construction workers stumbled across the ancient remains while constructing a prawn farm.
The archaeological excavation is a joint project with the Vanuatu National Museum and also involves collaboration with researchers from French and New Zealand universities.
As part of an ancient ritual of the Lapita people, the heads of all bodies at the cemetery had been removed.
This year, the archaeologists returned to the site, the earliest cemetery known in the region, for a second season of excavation, which is revealing some surprising insights into the Lapita culture.
“What happened to the heads was a mystery until the burial of an old man was found with three heads placed on his chest. He too had no head and none of the skulls found on his chest belonged to him. Even more mysteriously, one of those skulls had a lower jaw but the jaw didn't belong to any of the three skulls,” Professor Spriggs said.
The archaeological team has found rare examples of complete Lapita pots at the site — one of which contained a human skull.
The work in progress.
Thursday, July 14, 2005
Google Earth
Try this - whole world aerial pnoto atlas - just amazing - try new zealand north shore as a search to see what it is capable of.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
WHAT LIES BENEATH
An 8 part television series on archaeology in New Zealand
Television New Zealand has commissioned a series of eight half hour programmes on archaeology in New Zealand. The task of producing it has fallen to Natural History New Zealand Ltd based out of Dunedin. The producer is John Hyde assisted by Max Quinn. The series was devised by Auckland producer Garry McAlpine and will be presented by well known TV current affairs personality Simon Dallow. This is his first foray out of the studio in a major location based series. He has a passion for history and will take viewers into underground tunnels, onto ancient pa sites, into swamps and under cities guided by archaeologists from Otago and Auckland Universities as well as those working in the freelance field.
The series is tentatively scheduled to begin screening on TV One on the 22nd September this year.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Polynesians came from Taiwan
A genetic study helps confirm the theory that Polynesians, who settled islands across a vast swathe of ocean, started out in Taiwan, researchers reported on Monday.
Mitochondrial DNA, which is passed along virtually unchanged from mothers to their children, provides a kind of genetic clock linking present-day Polynesians to the descendants of aboriginal residents of Taiwan.
Samples taken from nine indigenous Taiwanese tribes - who are different ethnically and genetically from the now-dominant Han Chinese - show clear similarities between the Taiwan groups and ethnic Polynesians, Jean Trejaut and Marie Lin of Mackay Memorial Hospital in Taipei and colleagues reported.
Comment: This mostly sensible article somehow got linked to the uniformly awfull TV1 Sunday programme on the same subject. The new popular myth? Polynesians came from Polynesia - worth repeating to anyone who will listen.
Monday, July 11, 2005
NZAA News Page
Now with a new news feed link-
You choose:
NZAA E-news
moreover archaeology news feed (worldwide but US bias)
Archaeology in Europe news feed (new link)
Google archaeolgy news (mostly US)
About Com news feed (worldwide)
Elders demand artefacts
A GROUP of Aboriginal elders has appealed to the Victorian Government to compulsorily acquire 150-year-old items due to be returned to British institutions.
Two Federal Court rulings over the past week have effectively cleared the way for Museum Victoria to return two bark etchings and a ceremonial emu figure, which were on loan from London.
Victorian Aboriginal Affairs Minister Gavin Jennings has the power under federal legislation to issue a preservation order to keep the artefacts in Victoria. "
More Evidence of Skull's Link to Humans
Scientists who three years ago discovered a nearly complete 7 million-year-old skull in central Africa have dug up additional evidence supporting the conclusion that the skull belonged to the earliest known human ancestor.
The new findings -- two jaw bones and an upper premolar tooth -- lend credence to the proposition that the creature was probably among the first hominid, or human-like, primates to live after humans and chimpanzees diverged from each other a little more than 7 million years ago."
Did ancient Polynesians visit California? Maybe so. / Scholars revive idea using linguistic ties, Indian headdress
Scientists are taking a new look at an old and controversial idea: that ancient Polynesians sailed to Southern California a millennium before Christopher Columbus landed on the East Coast.
Key new evidence comes from two directions. The first involves revised carbon-dating of an ancient ceremonial headdress used by Southern California's Chumash Indians. The second involves research by two California scientists who suggest that a Chumash word for 'sewn-plank canoe' is derived from a Polynesian word for the wood used to construct the same boat. "
Saturday, July 09, 2005
'Fires wiped out' ancient mammals
Eggshell of the extinct giant bird Genyornis newtoni (Image courtesy of Gifford H Miller )
The first humans to arrive in Australia destroyed the pristine landscape, probably by lighting huge fires, the latest research suggests.
The evidence, published in Science magazine, comes from ancient eggshells.
These show birds changed their diets drastically when humans came on the scene, switching from grass to the type of plants that thrive on scrubland.
The study supports others that have blamed humans for mass extinctions across the world 10-50,000 years ago. "
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Scientists finally study Kennewick Man
After a legal battle that lasted nearly eight years, scientists will finally get to study the ancient skeleton known as Kennewick Man.
The remains were found in July 1996 along the shores of the Columbia River in Washington State.
Estimated to be more than 9,000 years old, the Kennewick skeleton is one of the oldest, most complete specimens ever found in North America"
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Archaeological Guide to British Ceramics in Australia, 1788-1901
By Alasdair Brooks
Price: $35 (Australian)
This volume offers a readable and practical guide to the archaeological
analysis of British ceramics found in Australia from the beginning of
European settlement at Sydney through to Federation. Intended for students
and experienced researchers alike, it presents the latest in international
ceramics research in a manner relevant to Australasian archaeologists.
Footprints of 'first Americans'
People left traces of their presence in the sediments of a shoreline
Human settlers made it to the Americas 30,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence.
A team of scientists came to this controversial conclusion by dating human footprints preserved by volcanic ash in an abandoned quarry in Mexico.
They say the first Americans may have arrived by sea, rather than by foot.
New moa species discovered
A team of evolutionary biologists at Massey University claim to have identified five additional types of moa ? and the discovery is attracting world attention.
The researchers say they now have evidence that may increase the number of known moa species from 9 to 14. One of the five additional types appears to be a giant moa of well over 140 kg approaching the size of the large Dinornis (moa)."
Tairua marina declined
Developers have been refused consent for a marina in a Tairua bay that is home to threatened birds and the country's oldest archaeological find.
In a decision released yesterday, developers Craig Watts and Jim Mason had an appeal against an earlier ruling on Paku Bay disallowed, with costs reserved.
Environment Judge David Sheppard and two environment commissioners ruled the plan would damage a habitat for nationally threatened birds and erode its natural beauty.
decision. 'We hope [it] will encourage other communities under inappropriate development pressure.'
The proposed site is zoned for a marina and judges found merits in providing safe access to boat berths, a recreation reserve and some protection for a nearby Maori midden that was found to have the oldest evidence of human settlement uncovered in New Zealand.
But the benefits served relatively few compared to the environmental costs, judges said.
The proposal was opposed by Environment Waikato, the Thames Coromandel District Council, the DoC and local iwi. "
Nature, Culture, and Heritage: Toward a Culture of Nature
Wednesday, July 27 2005
WEH Stanner Bldg, Centre for Cross-Cultural Research, ANU
A one-day workshop with Canadian scholar Dr Thomas Heyd in conjunction with Professor Howard Morphy (ANU), Associate Professor Brian Egloff, University of Canberra and other heritage professionals.
This workshop aims to bring into discussion the concepts of heritage, nature and culture. It will explore in part the need to distinguish between heritage and inheritance, as well as between nature and artifice. It will specifically address the World Heritage notion of “cultural landscapes” and how it suggests that we can understand culture so that it makes sense to speak of a “culture of nature.” These concepts will be examined further in the light of the Asia-Pacific and within the context of Indigenous cultural knowledge systems. Registered participants will be involved, with speakers and facilitators, in working through these ideas in a workshop format.
|
Become
a Member of the N.Z. Archaeological Association
|
Members
get our quarterly magazine, Archaeology in New Zealand and discounts on publications
and events. |
|
|
This
message is intended to be compliant with New Zealand Law: The Unsolicited
Electronic Messages Act 2007. Please communicate with the webmaster on any
issues that may arise in this regard.
|
Opinions
in items linked in this column are not those of the Association.
An
archive of news posts can be accessed at http://www.nzarchaeology.org/blog/archive/
|
|
