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Pottery offers clues to origin of Chinese characters www.chinaview.cn 2006-03-22 21:10:18 HEFEI, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese archaeologists claim that pottery utensils dating back 7,000 years ago which bear inscriptions of various symbols are probably one of the origins of Chinese characters. They made the conclusion on the basis of several years' study into the symbols carved on over 600 pottery ware items unearthed from the New Stone Age site in Shuangdun village, Xiaobengbu town of Bengbu, a city in East China's Anhui Province. The symbols include rivers, animals and plants, and activities such as hunting, fishing and arable farming,...

New analysis of pottery stirs Olmec trade controversy Clearing -- or perhaps roiling -- the murky and often contentious waters of Mesoamerican archeology, a study of 3,000-year-old pottery provides new evidence that the Olmec may not have been the mother culture after all. Writing this week (Aug. 1, 2005) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a team of scientists led by University of Wisconsin-Madison archeologist James B. Stoltman presents new evidence that shows the Olmec, widely regarded as the creators of the first civilization in Mesoamerica, imported pottery from other nearby cultures. The finding undermines the...

Pompeii pottery may rewrite history Heather Catchpole ABC Science Online Monday, 8 November 2004 A broken plate is one of the pieces in the puzzle of how ancient cultures traded (Image: Jaye Pont) Archaeologists may need to change their view of Pompeii's role in trade and commerce, after a ceramics expert's recent discovery. Australian researcher Jaye Pont from the Museum of Ancient Cultures at Sydney's Macquarie University says people who lived in Pompeii bought their pottery locally and didn't import it. Pont said the find could "make waves" among archaeologists looking at trade in the Mediterranean. And she said researchers...

Mysterious pottery shows true face of first Pacific settlers Staring out from an ancient piece of pottery, the mysterious face of a bearded man has given scientists a unique glimpse of what the first settlers of Fiji may have looked like. Researchers say the "extraordinary discovery" is a vital clue in mapping out how the South Pacific came to be inhabited some 3,000 years ago, suggesting the first direct link to islands some thousands of kilometres away. Thought to be the work of the Lapita people - a long-lost race which originated near modern-day Taiwan then migrated to Polynesia -...

On September 19, 1997, the New York Times announced the discovery of a group of earthen mounds in northeastern Louisiana. The site, known as Watson Brake, includes 11 mounds 26 feet high linked by low ridges into an oval 916 feet long. What is remarkable about this massive complex is that it was built around 3400 B.C., more than 3,000 years before the development of farming communities in eastern North America, by hunter-gatherers, at least partly mobile, who visited the site each spring and summer to fish, hunt, and collect freshwater mussels... Social complexity cannot exist unless I it...

Ancient pottery with plowing design unearthed www.chinaview.cn 2004-08-07 10:57:27 LANZHOU, Aug. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- A 4,800-year-old piece of colored pottery bearing designs of plowing was recently unearthed at Lintao County in northwest China's Gansu Province. Chinese archaeologists believe the pottery, which is 30-cm-talland 34-cm in width, belongs to the Majiayao culture, a historical period in about 3300 B.C. to 2050 B.C.. The picture on the pottery vividly portrays a scene of plowing in simple black lines. Beside the farmland is a river, painted in several zigzag lines. Wang Zhi'an, president of the Gansu Provincial Majiayao Culture Society, said the design...

Mon, Sep 16 2002 12:39 AM AEST Ancient warrior grave unearthed in Lebanese port Archaeologists have unearthed several Bronze Age graves, including that of an ancient warrior interred with his axe, in the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon. Excavation team director Claude Doumet Serhal said the excavations are "among the most important archaeological projects in Lebanon as they are taking place in the centre of the city of modern Sidon." He also said the warrior's grave dated back to the Middle Bronze Age, around the second millennium BC, and included an unusually well preserved bronze duck-bill axe with a...

Inner Mongolia Yields New Discoveries More than 80 leading archeological experts are participating in an international conference in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, to exchange the latest information on Hongshan, a prehistoric relics site. Relics excavated at the Hongshan ("Red Mountain") site originated around 5000 BC to 6500 BC. Now a part of Chifeng City, the site was discovered in 1935. Some of the relics found at Hongshan have led archeologists to conclude that the heads of Chinese dragons may have been inspired by boars in addition to horses and cattle. Primitive people who struggled to survive by fishing and...

Home   Mexico City dig reveals diversity of pre-Columbian people     Mexico City, Jan 29, 2003 (EFE via COMTEX) -- Recent archaeological excavations in Greater Mexico City suggest the Aztecs, far from being a homogeneous people, were an aggregate of diverse groups who conquered their enemies without wiping out their languages and traditions.    Source:  Agencia EFE Date:  01/29/2003 15:58 Price:  Free Document Size:  Very Short (less than 1 page) Document ID:  FE20030129590000063 Subject(s):  Efe; Expansion; Explosion; Mexico; Population; Regulations; Utilities; Water; Yield Mexico City dig reveals diversity of pre-Columbian people Story Filed: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 3:58 PM EST Mexico...

Pre-Columbian tunnel complex discovered in southeastern Peru Story Filed: Thursday, August 15, 2002 8:40 AM EST Lima, Aug 15, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- A pre-Columbian tunnel complex has been discovered in southeastern Peru, officials said. Chumbivilcas Mayor Florentino Layme told Panamericana Television that the tunnels were discovered in the southeastern province of Chumbivilcas, some 1,300 kilometers (about 808) miles southeast of the capital. The tunnels apparently were made by the Wari people who lived in the area prior to the emergence of the Inca empire and are located under the village of Lliqui. The walls of the tunnels, or...

Patrick McGovern "The site is very rich archeologically, has been excavated for the last 50 years by the University of Pennsylvania Museum. It has a large palace area with rooms, some of which are thought to have been kitchens for making the food for the palace, with jars of barley and other goods. Also, it has a whole series of tombs in which the burial was done in a special wooden chamber beneath a very large mound. It's almost as if you cut it yesterday and put the structure together. It is the earliest intact human building made of...