Free Republic

Thanks to the careful work of archaeologists, we learned more in the past year about Stonehenge's hidden monuments, Richard III's gruesome death and King Tut's mummified erection. From the discovery of an ancient tomb in Greece to the first evidence of Neanderthal art, here are 10 of Live Science's favorite archaeology stories of 2014. 1. An Alexander the Great-era tomb at Amphipolis [snip] 2. Stonehenge's secret monuments [snip] 3. A shipwreck under the World Trade Center [snip] 4. Richard III's twisted spine, kingly diet and family tree [snip] 5. A teenager in a "black hole" [snip] 6. Syria by satellite...

'In July 2010, amid the gargantuan rebuilding effort at the site of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, construction workers halted the backhoes when they uncovered something unexpected just south of where the Twin Towers once stood. At 22 feet (6.7 meters) below today's street level, in a pit that would become an underground security and parking complex, excavators found the mangled skeleton of a long-forgotten wooden ship. Now, a new report finds that tree rings in those waterlogged ribs show the vessel was likely built in 1773, or soon after, in a small shipyard near Philadelphia. What's more,...

Archaeologists helping to excavate the World Trade Center site have uncovered a second piece of the more than 200-year-old ship that was discovered there last summer. The find, made last Friday, came as workers began digging up the east side of the construction area, which once housed the World Trade Center complex... Archaeologists first noticed remnants of the ship -- curved pieces of wood buried 25 feet below street level -- last July and spent two weeks excavating the artifact, which turned out to be a 32-foot-long section of the boat's hull. The piece that was found last Friday belongs...

Lucky coin? Ever since the 2nd century B.C. -- not long after Romans began minting coins -- shipbuilders have been slipping a coin into the structure of their ships. It's a tradition that continues today. In fact, the USS New York -- made partially from steel recovered from the World Trade Center towers -- did it as well (see "What is Stepping the Mast?"). For the ancient Romans it was likely a continuation of religious customs. Now it's just a tradition and done for good luck. So we didn't find it during the five days we were actually excavating it....

The ship was buried as junk two centuries ago - landfill to expand a bustling little island of commerce called Manhattan. When it re-emerged this week, surrounded by skyscrapers, it was an instant treasure that popped up from the mud near ground zero. A 32-foot piece of the vessel was found in soil 20 feet under street level, amid noisy bulldozers excavating a parking garage for the future World Trade Center. Near the site of so many grim finds - Sept. 11 victims' remains, twisted steel - this discovery was as unexpected as it was thrilling. Historians say the ship,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32-foot-long ship hull that apparently was used in the 18th century as part of the fill that extended lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.....

'Archaeologists working at the World Trade Centre site in New York have found the remains of a wooden ship apparently buried there more than 200 years ago. The remains of the 30ft length of a wood-hulled vessel were found when workers excavating the site, where a new World Trade Centre is being built, hit a row of wood timbers, The New York Times reported.'