AVEBURY MIGHT HAVE BEEN A SINGLE FAMILY HOME

A trio of researchers from the University of Leicester and the University of Southampton has found evidence that suggests the Avebury monument might have started out as a single-dwelling home.

The Avebury monument is a Neolithic site situated approximately 20 miles from the more famous monument Stonehenge. Like Stonehenge, Avebury is made mostly of large stones. In the case of Avebury, the stones are smaller and spread wider. The monument consists of both standing stones and other stones arranged in circles. There is also a much larger ring of stones encircling the other stone structures, which is itself encircled by an embankment. No one knows why the monument was built, though, as with Stonehenge, there are many theories. The site has not been excavated since the 1930s and is now designated as a World Heritage Site. In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about the monument by using modern technology rather than digging.

They claim that the evidence suggests that the house was built sometime around 3700 BC. They also found evidence suggesting that the stone square around the house was added later, as were the circles of stone that enclosed them both. They theorize that the site began as a simple abode for a single family, but was deemed special by those who came later. Those later arrivals apparently treated the house as a shrine after its inhabitants had passed on, and built the rings and other structures to honor them.

MIDDLE EAST FEATURES - FOUND BY U2 SPY PLANE

In the 1950s and early '60s, with the Cold War at its peak, the United States flew U2 spy planes across Europe, the Middle East, and central eastern Asia, taking images of interesting military targets. Though the missions typically connected Point A to Point B, say an air field and an important city, in many cases the camera kept recording between those spots, capturing thousands of photos of the desert, steppes, fields, and villages below. Such a collection can represent a goldmine for landscape archaeologists. indexed or scanned. Knowing the potential insight offered by the U2 images, Hammer and Ur began sifting through the materials. By analyzing thousands of high- and low-resolution frames, they discovered many historical and archeological features, including prehistoric hunting traps, 3,000-year-old irrigation canals, and 60-year-old marsh villages no longer visible today. The work, which they published in the journal Advances in Archaeological Practice, represents the first archaeological use of U2 spy plane imagery--and a new and exciting window into history.

The hours of work paid off, revealing many important archaeological features, including prehistoric hunting traps called desert kites in eastern Jordan, an Assyrian canal system in northern Iraq, and marshes in southern Iraq, case studies the researchers highlighted in their paper.

Desert kites, stone-wall structures that date back 5,000 to 8,000 years, were used to trap gazelle and other similar animals. The dry desert of eastern Jordan preserved many of them, but agricultural expansion in western Jordan dismantled or destroyed many more. The satellite images bring them back to life, showcasing a web of diamond-shaped enclosures with what look like long kite tails, offering the best view, to date, of these important hunting tools.

The second feature, the canal system in northern Iraq, provides insight into how an early empire maintained its power and governed, Hammer explains. "The Assyrians built the first large, long-lasting, multi-cultural empire of the ancient world, so many people are interested in how they organized territory, controlled people, built their huge cities, and managed the land," she says. "The irrigation system fed the royal capitals, made agricultural surplus production possible, and provided water to villages."

Finally, the U2 images of southern Iraq present the layout, size, and environmental position of Marsh Arab communities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, many of which disappeared after massive hydroelectric dams in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq impounded the rivers, and especially after the government of Saddam Hussein deliberately drained the marshes. Before that, "people lived a unique lifestyle there for thousands of years, herding water buffalo, building houses and all manner of things out of reeds, living on floating islands of reeds, planting date palms, and fishing," Hammer says. "Now we can study the spatial organization, demography, and lifestyles of these communities."

CHACO CANYON NEEDS PRESERVING FROM DRILLING

The battle over oil and gas development across the high desert that surrounds Chaco Culture National Historical Park has been brewing for years. The campaign to curb drilling in one of the nation's oldest basins has spanned at least three presidential administrations, with concerns expanding beyond environmental impacts to the preservation of cultural landmarks in what historians say was once an economic and ceremonial hub.

Native American tribes joined environmentalists and archaeologists in calling for a reset in the San Juan Basin. And now, New Mexico's all-Democratic congressional delegation has reintroduced legislation aimed at protecting the area.

A UNESCO World Heritage site, Chaco park includes what's left of an ancient civilization whose monumental architecture and cultural influences have long been a mystery. While the park represents the heart of the area, numerous archaeological sites lie well outside its boundaries.

Aside from archaeological sites containing stone structures and pottery shards, researchers say the landscape helps explain what drew people to Chaco centuries ago. They've noted less tangible features, such as unobstructed views to distant buttes or mountain peaks. Scientists agree the location offered something of a religious or ritualistic experience for the ancestors of today's Native American pueblos. Many of the structures align with celestial events, such as the summer solstice.

Supporters say passage of the latest federal bill would help permanently protect the area's archaeological resources and sensitive landscape. Federal land managers in recent years have denied the leasing of parcels within a 10-mile (16-kilometer) radius of the park, but the measure would formalize that practice for future development on federal inholdings within the area.

The proposed protection zone stretches across 1,420 square miles (3,680 square kilometers) of federal, state, private and tribal land. Congressional staffers say the bill would withdraw nearly 500 square miles (1,280 square kilometers) of minerals owned by the federal government. The New Mexico State Land Office also plans to withdraw state trust land within the buffer from future mineral development.

Critics have argued that the buffer is arbitrary. And, the bill will be a tough sell in the Republican-led U.S. Senate.

The All Pueblo Council of Governors, which represents a coalition of New Mexico tribes, has called for a moratorium on drilling around Chaco park. Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez has said his people cannot afford the risk of water contamination from drilling. However, the tribe hasn't banned it and a resolution to oppose hydraulic fracking expired this year without a final vote by tribal lawmakers. The legislation also would not halt existing development. According to the Bureau of Land Management, there are 133 active wells within the proposed buffer zone.

Navajo Nation lawmaker Daniel Tso. "We're still trying to fight for protection of those communities."

Members of Congress are touring Chaco this weekend and holding a field hearing Monday in Santa Fe on the impact of oil and gas drilling on air quality and sacred sites. The House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, led by Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva and New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, is expected to hear from tribal leaders, top state officials, archaeologists and other advocates. The hearing comes as the federal agency continues to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs on revamping the basin's resource management plan. A draft is expected in a few months.

DR. JODI MAGNESS ELECTED TO TREMENDOUS HONOR

Dr. Jodi Magness, the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism in the Department of Religious Studies, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The new members announcement can be found here.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the oldest and most prestigious learned societies in the United States, and its members include more than 250 Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. From the Academy’s website:

Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors excellence and convenes leaders from every field of human endeavor to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and work together “to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

Prof. Magness came to Carolina in 2003, after having previously taught at Tufts University from 1992 to 2002. She holds a B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her widely acclaimed publications include The Archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (Eerdmans 2002), The Archaeology of the Early Islamic Settlement in Palestine (Eisenbrauns 2003), and The Archaeology of the Holy Land from the Destruction of Solomon’s Temple to the Muslim Conquest (Cambridge 2012).

She is also the current President of the Archaeological Institute of America (2017-2019). She has participated in over 20 different archaeological excavations in Israel and Greece, and since 2011 she has directed excavations at the site of Huqoq in Galilee (www.huqoq.org).

We congratulate Jodi on this tremendous honor!

NEW HOMININ BONE FOUND IN PHILIPPINES

Armand Mijares didn’t initially realize the significance of what he had found, but it would turn out to change the paleoanthropologist’s life – and rewrite human history.

At an archaeological site on the Philippine island of Luzon in 2007, his team unearthed a wide array of ancient animal bones, dated to be about 67,000 years old. The researchers couldn’t identify the fossils out in the field, so Dr. Mijares sent them to a zoologist colleague.

“He called me on my cellphone” one evening, recalls Dr. Mijares, an associate professor at the University of the Philippines. “He called me, ‘Hey, hi mate, you have human remains!’ I said, ‘What?’ ‘You have one human remain.’”

Among the ancient bones was a single human toe bone. But which human species did it belong to?

Now, after studying more hominin bones discovered at the site in 2011 and 2015, the researchers have come to a history-shaking conclusion: A human species previously unknown to science once lived on Luzon. The researchers introduced the new species, dubbed Homo luzonensis, in a paper published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

CHINA'S ARTIFACTS ARE RETURNING FROM iTALY

Italy’s culture minister, handed over nearly 800 artifacts to Luo Shugang, China’s minister of culture, at a meeting at the National Roman Museum Palazzo Altemps, according to a CNN report. The artifacts came to light when they were put up for sale in a town in northern Italy, and were recovered by cultural heritage authorities.

The objects are thought to have been looted from regions across China, and range in age from the Neolithic period (3500–1700 B.C.) through the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1368–1664). Representatives of the two countries also signed a symbolic agreement to work together to combat