Iron Age house unearthed in Jersey

An iron age settlement has been unearthed in Jersey after a two month excavation. The work on the site in St Clement has discovered objects dating back over 2,000 years. 

After a two month excavation, a settlement site in St Clement has been discovered as well as  objects dating back more than 2,000 years [Credit: channelonline.tv] 

Field Archaeologist, Robert Waterhouse, said the site had produced evidence of the first Iron Age house to be discovered on the island. 

He said the site dates from the 2nd Century BC to the early 1st Century AD and was likely a private home.

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Dating the second timber circle at Norwich

In the late 1990s two remarkable Bronze Age timber circles were discovered on Holme Beach. One of these – Seahenge – was excavated in 1998 and 1999. Since the excavations the second circle has been monitored and evidence of damage by coastal processes has been recorded. 

The second timber circle uncovered 15 years after the first, dubbed Seahenge, was found along the Norfolk coast. The Bronze Age timber circle has been tested by archaeologists and  dates to the summer of 2049 BC.[Credit: © NPS Archaeology] 

In the last year tree ring dating (dendrochronology) has shown the timbers used to build the second circle were felled in the spring or summer of 2049 BC. This means that the timbers were felled at exactly the same time as those used to build Seahenge. The felling date places the construction of both circles early in the Bronze Age.

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French archaeologists discover an exceptional Gallic chariot tomb at Warcq in France

The excavation has currently revealed only the upper levels of this 15 m² funerary chamber. 

© Denis Gliksman, Inrap.

PARIS.- A combined team composed of archaeologists from the Ardennes departmental archaeology unit and from Inrap is currently excavating a Gallic aristocratic tomb at Warcq (Ardennes). Curated by the State (Drac Champagne-Ardenne), this site is located on the route of the A304 motorway being constructed by the Dreal between Charleville-Mézières and Rocroi. 

Starting on 3 June for a three week period, archaeologists and an anthropologist have been working to uncover this chariot tomb. This type of aristocratic tomb emerges in the 7th century B.C. – during the first Iron Age – and ends with the end of the Gallic period. The oldest chariots have four wheels (like that found at Vix), while those from the second Iron Age have only two. The deceased person – who could be male or female – was generally inhumed on the chariot, which was an object of prestige and a symbol of social status. Champagne-Ardenne is famous for such tombs (particularly at Bourcq and Semide in the Ardennes), which are generally dated to the start of the second Iron Age (5th-4th century B.C.). 

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4,000-Year-Old Burial with Chariots Discovered in South Caucasus

Here, the roof of a 4,000-year-old burial chamber buried in a Kurgan (mound) in the country of Georgia.

Credit: Photo courtesy Zurab Makharadze

An ancient burial containing chariots, gold artifacts and possible human sacrifices has been discovered by archaeologists in the country of Georgia, in the south Caucasus.

The burial site, which would've been intended for a chief, dates back over 4,000 years to a time archaeologists call the Early Bronze Age, said Zurab Makharadze, head of the Centre of Archaeology at the Georgian National Museum.

Archaeologists discoveredthe timber burial chamber within a 39-foot-high (12 meters) mound called a kurgan. When the archaeologists reached the chamber they found an assortment of treasures, including two chariots, each with four wooden wheels.

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More on Polish meteorite venerated by Neolithic man

Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology (IAE) PAS in Szczecin discovered a meteorite fragment inside the remains of a hut dating back more than 9,000 years in Bolków by the lake Świdwie in Western Pomerania. 

The meteorite fragment was found inside the remains of a hut dating back more than  9,000 years in Bolków by the lake Świdwie in Western Pomerania [Credit: T. Galińs] 

It is a natural pyrite meteorite fragment with cylindrical shape and porous, corrugated side surface. It has a height of 8 cm, width of 5.3 cm at the base and 3.5 cm at the top. 

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Découverte d’une tombe à char gauloise exceptionnelle à Warcq (Ardennes)

Une équipe mixte, composée d’archéologues de la cellule départementale d’archéologie des Ardennes et de l’Inrap, mène actuellement la fouille d’une tombe aristocratique gauloise à Warcq (Ardennes). Sur prescription de l’État (Drac Champagne-Ardenne), ce chantier est réalisé sur le tracé de l’autoroute A304, aménagé par la Dreal, entre Charleville-Mézières et Rocroi.

Depuis le 3 juin et pour une durée de trois semaines, archéologues et anthropologue dégagent cette « tombe à char ». Ce type de tombe aristocratique émerge dès le VIIe siècle avant notre ère – au cours du premier âge du Fer – et s’achève avec la fin de la période gauloise, au début de notre ère. Les chars les plus anciens sont équipés de 4 roues (comme celui de Vix) ; et de 2 roues au second âge du Fer. Le défunt, homme ou femme, est généralement inhumé sur le char, objet de prestige et symbole social. La Champagne-Ardenne est célèbre pour de telles découvertes (notamment Bourcq et Semide dans les Ardennes…) généralement datées du début du second âge du Fer (Ve-IVe siècles avant notre ère).

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Oldest ever schistosomiasis egg found may be first proof of early human technology exacerbating disease burden

Chalcolithic burial at Zeidan.

Credit: Gil Stein, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago

The discovery of a schistosomiasis parasite egg in a 6200-year-old grave at a prehistoric town by the Euphrates river in Syria may be the first evidence that agricultural irrigation systems in the Middle East contributed to disease burden, according to new Correspondence published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Schistosomiasis is a disease caused by several species of flatworm parasites that live in the blood vessels of the bladder and intestines. Infection can result in anemia, kidney failure, and bladder cancer. This research shows it may have been spread by the introduction of crop irrigation in ancient Mesopotamia, the region along the Tigris-Euphrates river system that covers parts of modern-day Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey.

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Archaeo-astronomy steps out from shadows of the past

This week, a developing field of research that merges astronomical techniques with the study of ancient human-made features and the surrounding landscapes will be highlighted at the National Astronomy Meeting (NAM) 2014 in Portsmouth. From the 'Crystal Pathway' that links stone circles on Cornwall's Bodmin Moor to star-aligned megaliths in central Portugal, archaeo-astronomers are finding evidence that Neolithic and Bronze Age people were acute observers of the Sun, as well as the Moon and stars, and that they embedded astronomical references within their local landscapes. 

The Pipers Outliers to the main circles. When standing between the stones, one to the right and the other to the left, one looks North & South. When lining both up one faces East & West [Credit: B. Sheen] 

"There's more to archaeo-astronomy than Stonehenge," says Dr Daniel Brown of Nottingham Trent University, who will present updates on his work on the 4000-year-old astronomically aligned standing stone at Gardom's Edge in the UK's Peak District. 

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A diver from the National Monuments Service’s Underwater Archaeology Unit records a 12m-long Bronze Age logboat at the bottom of Lough Corrib.

For up to 4,500 years, a series of sunken dug-out canoes have been lying, forgotten, on the bottom of Lough Corrib in Co. Galway. Now these vessels are beginning to surrender their secrets once more, in an investigation by Ireland’s Underwater Archaeology Unit, spearheaded by Karl Brady.

Precisely what happened that 11th century day on the waters of Lough Corrib is lost in the mists of time, but one thing is certain: it was an ignominious end to what should have been an ostentatious journey. Earlier, a Medieval Irish dignitary had set out across the vast lake – which covers 176km² of what is now Co. Galway – in a finely crafted logboat. Propelled by four rowers, the 6m-long vessel would have skimmed swiftly over the waters.

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DANISH ANTLER AXE FIND REVEALS NEOLITHIC GERMAN TRADE

During ongoing excavations of prehistoric settlements at Syltholm east of Rødbyhavn in Denmark, archaeologists have been investigating an area of land located on the periphery of a settlement. In the Mesolithic and Neolithic, the area was overgrown with reeds, but excavation has identified numerous tools and bones that prehistoric people had deliberately placed into this liminal zone.

Careful deposition in a Danish marshland

Interestingly, archaeologists have been able to recognise patterns in the way these artefacts are sorted by type and function and then deposited according to certain rules rather than just being randomly cast into the shallow water. The current understanding of this area is now more subtle than ever before as it is possible to separate different activities through time.

The main concentration lies around the first centuries of the Neolithic period (ca. 4000-3500 BC in this region) when technologies for the new way of life came to Denmark from Central Europe via Germany.

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Archaeologists search for new portal into bygone era

Iron Age combat sessions and an expert view on life in Leicestershire over 2000 years ago will be on offer at one of the county's most striking historic features, Burrough Hill, on Sunday 29 June. 

Archaeologists working on the stone wall in the SW corner of the hillfort 

[Credit: John Thomas/ University of Leicester] 

University of Leicester archaeologists have been uncovering the past and this summer will be undertaking the final season of excavations at Leicestershire's finest Iron Age hillfort. 

The nationally important hillfort, marked by dramatic earthworks, located near Melton Mowbray has been the setting for a five year research project which has helped redefine understanding of the hillforts use with the help and support of English Heritage and landowners the Ernest Cook Trust.

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Oldest human faeces show Neanderthals ate vegetables

The team collected the ancient faecal matter at the El Salt archaeological site in Spain

Analysis of the oldest reported trace of human faeces has added weight to the view that Neanderthals ate vegetables.

Found at a dig in Spain, the ancient excrement showed chemical traces of both meat and plant digestion.

An earlier view of these early humans as purely meat-eating has already been partially discredited by plant remains found in their caves and teeth.

The new paper, in the journal PLOS One, claims to offer the best support to date for an omnivorous diet.

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'Prehistoric Sistine Chapel' gets world heritage status

There are more than 1,000 drawings inside the Decorated Cave of Pont d'Arc

A cave in southern France dubbed the "prehistoric Sistine Chapel" has been added to Unesco's World Heritage list.

The 1,000 drawings carved in the walls of the Decorated Cave of Pont d'Arc, or Grotte Chauvet, are 36,000 years old and include mammoths and hand prints.

Cave experts only discovered it in 1994 as the entrance had been concealed by a rockfall 23,000 years earlier.

It was one of several cultural and natural wonders granted the status by a committee of delegates in Doha, Qatar.

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Human and Chimp Genes May Have Split 13 Million Years Ago

The ancestors of humans and chimpanzees may have begun genetically diverging from one another 13 million years ago, more than twice as long ago as had been widely thought, shedding new light on the process of human evolution, researchers say.

Scientists also discovered that male chimps pass on far moregenetic mutations to their offspring than male humans do, revealing previously unknown evolutionary differences between the species.

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Mesolithic settlement found in North Yorkshire

Archaeologists were stunned to discover evidence of a Mesolithic settlement alongside the A1, which stretches 410 miles from London to Edinburgh. 

The route, which is now the A1 between London and Edinburgh, may have been in use for a  staggering 10,000 years, newly-discovered archaeological evidence suggests. Experts  have discovered ancient artefacts during the widening of the road through  North Yorkshire [Credit: North News & Pictures Ltd] 

The site, near Catterick in North Yorkshire, is believed to have been used by people travelling north and south as an overnight shelter, similar to today’s motorway service stations. 

Items discovered at the settlement include flint tools that date back to between 6000 and 8000 BC. 

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Archaeologists discover Britain's longest road to be 10,000 year old

Archaeologists were stunned to discover evidence of a Mesolithic settlement alongside the A1, which stretches 410 miles from London to Edinburgh.

The site, near Catterick in North Yorkshire, is believed to have been used by people travelling north and south as an overnight shelter, similar to today’s motorway service stations.

Items discovered at the settlement include flint tools that date back to between 6000 and 8000 BC.

Archaeologist Steve Sherlock said: “This was a place that people knew of – a place they could return to on many occasions to stay overnight during their travels. There is evidence of people using the route and moving through the area over periods of time. It is also adding to our knowledge of the early Mesolithic period, a time we don’t know very much about.

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3,000-year-old remains of baby found in Meath

3,000-year-old remains of a baby have been found during inaugural archaeological works at a Meath site reputed to be the birthplace of Halloween. The remains were found at the base of a 1.5 metre ditch at Tlachtga, near Athboy. 

The excavations at Tlachtga [Credit: Meath Chronicle] 

It’s believed the fully intact skeleton is of a baby between seven and 10 months old, but it is not thought the child was the victim of any human sacrifice on the ritualistic site. 

The remains will now be taken to the School of Archaeology at University College Dublin for further examination. 

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Human face shaped by millions of years of fighting, study finds

Human faces have evolved to minimise the damage caused by fist fight over millions of years, study finds

Evidence suggests that men's jaws have evolved to minimise damage from bruising altercations after our ancient ancestors learned how to throw a punch Photo: Alamy

Millions of years of fist fights have altered the human face to leave men's jaws more robust than women's, a study has found.

Evidence suggests it evolved to minimise damage from bruising altercations after our ancient ancestors learned how to throw a punch.

Researchers studied the bone structure of australopiths, ape-like bipeds living four to five million years ago that pre-dated the modern human primate family Homo.

They found that australopith faces and jaws were strongest in just those areas most likely to receive a blow from a fist.

It is a legacy that continues to this day, helping to explain why men's faces are more robust than women's, say the scientists.

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Male faces 'buttressed against punches' by evolution

The jaw bone is frequently fractured in fist fights and was strengthened in some of our evolutionary ancestors

A new theory suggests that our male ancestors evolved beefy facial features as a defence against fist fights.

The bones most commonly broken in human punch-ups also gained the most strength in early "hominin" evolution.

They are also the bones that show most divergence between males and females.

The paper, in the journal Biological Reviews, argues that the reinforcements evolved amid fighting over females and resources, suggesting that violence drove key evolutionary changes.

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Une nécropole protohistorique à Marigny-le-Châtel, inhumations et incinérations

En amont de l’implantation par GRTgaz d’une importante canalisation de transport de gaz dite Arc de Dierrey  traversant la Champagne-Ardenne, une équipe de l’Inrap a mené une fouille sur le tracé de l’ouvrage au niveau de la commune de Marigny-le-Châtel (Aube) en avril 2014. Cette fouille de 1,5 hectare, prescrite par l’État (Drac Champagne-Ardenne), a révélé des monuments funéraires et des tombes datés de la fin du Bronze moyen et du début du Bronze final, soit environ 1350 avant notre ère. La nécropole compte une quarantaine de sépultures, inhumations et crémations confondues, associées à ces monuments funéraires. L’intérêt du site réside par ailleurs dans sa situation géographique, une zone de plateau peu sujette aux investigations archéologiques, contrairement aux vallées alluviales de la Seine et de l’Yonne au sein desquelles sont connus la plupart des sites de référence régionaux pour cette période.

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2,300-year-old false tooth removed in northern France

Iron implant is same size and shape as incisors found with Celtic woman's remains – and was likely added after death

An iron false tooth found with real teeth at a Celtic grave at Le Chene, France. The implant is the oldest of its kind so far discovered in western Europe. 

Photograph: Antiquity Publications Ltd

An iron tooth implant fitted about 2,300 years ago has been found in the grave of a young woman in northern France. Archaeologists believe it may have been fitted to beautify her corpse, as it would have been too excruciating to have had it hammered into the living jaw.


The corroded piece of metal is the same size and shape as the other incisors from her upper jaw – which did not survive as the timber tomb collapsed and crushed her skull – and its appearance may originally have been improved by a wooden or ivory covering.

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Iron Age settlement unearthed at building site

A small Iron Age settlement has been found during excavations at the site of a new housing development near Swindon. 

Further digging at Ridgeway Farm is expected to continue for up to three weeks  

[Credit: Taylor Wimpey/BBC] 

A number of "round houses" with hundreds of pits for storage are among the discoveries at Ridgeway Farm, where Taylor Wimpey is building 700 homes. 

Other items found include loom weights for weaving, quern stones for grinding corn and various personal items.

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GIS technology verifies Caesar and Helvetii history

According to Caesar, more than a quarter of a million Helvetii were settled in the Swiss plateau before they decided to abandon their territory and invade Gaul in 58 BCE

AN INTERNATIONAL team is using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) modelling to assess Julius Caesar’s account of his war with a Celtic tribe.

According to Caesar, more than a quarter of a million Helvetii were settled in the Swiss plateau before they decided to abandon their territory and invade Gaul in 58 BCE.

In his Gallic Wars he says the Helvitii were running out of food.

UWA archaeologist Tom Whitley is developing a GIS model to test Caesar’s population estimate and is testing geophysical techniques to see if they can detect signs of the migration and war.

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7,000-year-old cave paintings found in Spain

Archaeologists in eastern Spain have discovered 12 prehistoric rock paintings depicting hunting scenes from 7,000 years ago. 

The site's location is being kept a secret until the necessary security  precautions are in place [Credit: Vilafranca Town Hall] Town hall representatives in the Valencian municipality of Vilafranca announced the finding on Tuesday, the first of its kind and importance for many years in the region. 

Although archaeologists are still searching the area for more rock paintings, their work has already unveiled detailed depictions of prehistoric hunting; including bulls, goats and archers chasing them down.

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Earliest houses, Bronze Age cremations and tools found by archaeologists in Scotland

An early Bronze Age food vessel found at East Challoch Farm in the south of Scotland

© Guard Archaeology

A Neolithic home which is south-west Scotland’s earliest known house, two cemeteries carrying 20 Bronze Age cremations, a pair of rare jet necklaces and thousands of flint tools used in Mesolithic coastal industries have been discovered during the creation of a bypass in Dumfries and Galloway.

Work on the new Dunragit intersection has uncovered a huge variety of artefacts from 7,000 years of Scottish history. Criss-crossing palaeochannels on the edge of a former estuary obscured a house which is thought to date from 6000 BC, accompanied by a perforated stone adze used to work wood.

The remains of Neolithic dwellers are thought to come from a nearby ceremonial complex excavated by Manchester University diggers more than a decade ago, unearthing three concentric rings of timber posts initially spotted through aerial photography.

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Baby mammoth goes on display in UK

A perfectly preserved baby mammoth which died 42,000 years ago has been unveiled at the Natural History Museum in London.

Named Lyuba by the Siberian deer herder who discovered her in 2007, the specimen is 130cm tall and weighs 50kg.

Palaeontologist Prof Adrian Lister described seeing her for the first time as an "incredible experience".

Transported in a box that was opened on Monday, the juvenile female mammoth looked almost intact.

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Scottish road works unearth Iron Age village

An Iron Age village along with a host of ancient artefacts including tools and jewellery have been discovered on a construction site of a new bypass for a Scottish town. 

Archaeologists have uncovered a range of artefacts and sites, including an Iron Age village, ahead of construction of a new road in southwest Scotland [Credit: Historic Scotland] 

The treasure trove unearthed during the building of the £17 million A75 Dunragit bypass in Wigtownshire sheds new light on land use and settlement in the area over the past 9,000 years. 

The discoveries include a rare and complete 130-piece jet bead necklace dating about 2000BC – the first of its kind ever discovered in south-west Scotland.

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Dunragit road works unearth ancient treasure trove

A neolithic arrowhead found during the construction of Dunragit bypass. 

Picture: Transport Scotland

AN IRON Age village along with a host of ancient artefacts including tools and jewellery have been discovered on a construction site of a new bypass for a Scottish town.

The treasure trove unearthed during the building of the £17 million A75 Dunragit bypass in Wigtownshire sheds new light on land use and settlement in the area over the past 9,000 years.

The discoveries include a rare and complete 130-piece jet bead necklace dating about 2000BC – the first of its kind ever discovered in south-west Scotland.

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Tomb found in Ayios Silas in Limassol

Workers came across significant archaeological finds when digging for a landscaping assignment

THREE burial chambers estimated to be from the late Hellenistic period were accidentally discovered on Tuesday afternoon in a plot in Ayios Silas in Limassol.

The tomb came to light when during landscaping works, an excavator hit the roof of a cave which collapsed and revealed skeletal remains, amphorae and coins.

The Antiquities Department was notified by the police.

So far, amphorae, seven skeletal remains and other small items were found. According to Yiannis Violaris, archaeologist of the Antiquities Department’s Limassol District, the tomb is estimated to be from the late Hellenistic period, between the second and first centuries BC, while modern day items which were found in the tomb are attributed to a probable older collapse of the roof.

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Stone Age items unearthed by work in Surrey

Rare archaeological findings dating back 10,000 years were unearthed during work to replace water mains in Surrey.

Archaeologists excavating the Roman villa uncovered near the River Mole [Credit: BBC] 

Work on the 2.2km pipe finished in May 2012 and it has taken two years to identify what was discovered.

 A Stone Age hunting camp and a Roman villa were among finds made during the work in Cobham Road, Fetcham, carried out by Sutton and East Surrey Water.

 The camp was the oldest find along items from the Bronze and Iron Ages, according to a report by researchers.

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Sunken body clue to American origins

The skull has been removed from the cavern but most of the skeleton remains in place

The ancient remains of a teenage girl discovered deep underground in Mexico are providing additional insights on how the Americas came to be populated.

Divers found the juvenile's bones by chance in a vast, flooded limestone chamber on the Yucatan Peninsula.

Aged 15 or 16 at death, the girl lived at least 12,000 years ago.

Researchers have told Science Magazine her DNA backs the idea that the first Americans and modern Native American Indians share a common ancestry.

This theory argues that people from Siberia settled on the land bridge dubbed Beringia that linked Asia and the Americas some 20,000 years ago before sea levels rose.

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Archaeologists say Stonehenge was "London of the Mesolithic" in Amesbury investigation

David Jacques (far right) helping volunteers uncover artefacts from the Blick Mead dig in October 2013

© Courtesy University of Buckingham

Bones of cattle twice the size of bulls and pink flints which change colour have led the way to an archaeological breakthrough in Amesbury

Giant bull, wild boar and red deer bones left at a settlement a mile from Stonehenge prove that Amesbury is the oldest settlement in Britain and has been continually occupied since 8820 BC, according to archaeologists who say the giant monuments were built by indigenous hunters and homemakers rather than Neolithic new builders.

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UK's OLDEST town revealed: Amesbury dates back more than TEN millenia

Archaeologists are confident they finally know the identity of the country's oldest town[PA]

Archaeologists at the University of Buckingham believe Amesbury, 40 miles from Stonehenge, is the oldest settlement in Britain not the previously thought Thatcham.

Researchers believe the town holds the distinction of being the birthplace of history in Britain.

They say the new findings dismiss previous theories that the Wiltshire town was conceived by European immigrants - instead, relics uncovered during a painstaking search point to British settlers being behind the settlement, which dates back to more than 10 millennia.

David Jacques, research fellow in archaeology at the University of Buckingham, who led the dig, said: "The site blows the lid off the Neolithic Revolution (deemed the first agricultural revolution in Middle Eastern history) in a number of ways. It provides evidence for people staying put, clearing land, building and presumably worshipping monuments.

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Thieves destroy ancient rock painting in Spain

Ancient rock art near the town of Quesada in Spain's southern Andalusia region. File image: YouTube/gualayriver

A 5,000 year-old rock painting in southern Spain has been destroyed by thieves who tried to steal the Unesco World Heritage-listed artwork by chipping it off the cave wall where it was housed.

Residents of the Santa Elena in Spain's southern Jaén province are reeling after news of the damage.

Local mayor Juan Caminero said the painting was now "irreparable" and condemned the act of vandalism as "heartless", Spanish daily La Vanguardia reported on Monday.

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Amesbury in Wiltshire named oldest UK settlement

History will have to be rewritten – astonishing new findings reveal Amesbury is now the oldest place in the country, where history began, and is also the longest continuous settlement in the UK. Previously it was thought that Stonehenge was conceived by European immigrants but this shows that British settlers were behind its construction. 

Amesbury - including Stonehenge - is the UK's longest continually occupied settlement 

[Credit: PA/BBC]

 Carbon dating from an archaeological dig by the University of Buckingham shows that the parish of Amesbury, which includes Stonehenge, has been continually occupied for every millennium since 8820BC. The origins of Amesbury have been discovered as a result of carbon dating bones of aurochs (twice the size of bulls), wild boar and red deer following a dig at Vespasian’s Camp, Blick Mead, a mile and a half from Stonehenge last year.

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Vikings Online Course

Vikings: Raiders, Traders and Settlers 

12 May to 25 July 2014

Vikings: Raiders, Traders and Settlers is an online archaeology course run by the University of Oxford's Department of Continuing Education.

The course runs for ten weeks and successful completion carries an award of ten CATS points. Students write two short assignments as part of the course.

Online forums for each unit enable students to discuss the topic being studied, and help from the online tutor is always available

You can find more details here...

You can find details of other online archaeology courses here...

Scientists Uncover Evidence of Change from Hunting to Herding at Early Neolithic Settlement

An international team of researchers examining the earliest known pre-ceramic Neolithic mound site in Turkey, called Aşıklı Höyük, suggests that humans shifted from hunting wild ungulates and small animals to managing sheep and goats at the site over a period of a few hundred years beginning on or before 8200 BCE. 

The mound, located in south-central Turkey about 25 km southeast of Aksaray, Turkey, has been the subject of a number of studies and excavations in recent years, beginning with Professor Ian A. Todd in 1964. Subsequent investigations included salvage excavations by Professor Ufuk Esin (University of Istanbul) beginning in 1989, followed by those of Nur Balkan-Ath, also of Istanbul University, and more recent excvations in 2010. 

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Neanderthals were not less intelligent than modern humans, scientists find

Neanderthal and modern human skulls. Photograph: Sabena Jane Blackbird/Alamy

Scientists have concluded that Neanderthals were not the primitive dimwits they are commonly portrayed to have been.

The view of Neanderthals as club-wielding brutes is one of the most enduring stereotypes in science, but researchers who trawled the archaeological evidence say the image has no basis whatsoever.

They said scientists had fuelled the impression of Neanderthals being less than gifted in scores of theories that purport to explain why they died out while supposedly superior modern humans survived.

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Iron Age human remains uncovered in the Cotswolds

Human remains dating from the Iron Age have been found during archaeological excavations in Gloucestershire. 

The remains are thought to date from the Iron Age [Credit: BBC] 

The skeleton was found at a nature reserve on the outskirts of Bourton-on-the-Water near Salmonsbury Camp, an ancient hill fort. 

The work also revealed what is thought to be a roundhouse and a series of pits that may have been used to store grain. 

Tom Beasley-Suffolk, Cotswolds reserves manager, said the remains will be cleaned and then analysed.

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Prehistoric North Sea 'Atlantis' hit by 5m tsunami

A prehistoric "Atlantis" in the North Sea may have been abandoned after being hit by a 5m tsunami 8,200 years ago.

The wave was generated by a catastrophic subsea landslide off the coast of Norway.

Analysis suggests the tsunami over-ran Doggerland, a low-lying landmass that has since vanished beneath the waves.

"It was abandoned by Mesolithic tribes about 8,000 years ago, which is when the Storegga slide happened," said Dr Jon Hill from Imperial College London.

The wave could have wiped out the last people to occupy this island.

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