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Two prehistoric villages found in Mongolia

The remains of two 5,000-year-old villages have been found in Mongolia.

he archaeologistsin north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region found the ruins in Hamin’aile Village, of Horqin Left-wing Middle Banner (County).

The remains were identified in the spring as possibly originating from Hongshan Culture, dating back 5,000 years, said Ji Ping, a researcher at the Institute of Cultural and Historical Relics and Archaeology of Inner Mongolia.

About 1,200 square meters had been excavated out of an estimated 200,000 square meters, and homes and tombs had been discovered, said Ji, reports Xinhua.Pitted earthenware, such as jars and pots, were also found, which was the first time that have been unearthed in the prehistoric ruins in northeast China,” he said.

“We have also found bones of deer and rodent animals, on which we suppose they lived by hunting,” he added.

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13,000-year-old artifacts found at bottom of Florida salt spring

A collection of prehistoric artifacts have been found 90 feet below the surface of the Little Salt Spring, south of Tampa, Florida.

Artifacts are delicately uncovered from a ledge 90 feet below the surface, archaeologists say, offering up glimpses of what life was like for who is believed to have been Florida’s first residents.

John Gifford, an underwater archaeologist with UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science along with aquarium divers are working together to gather the artifacts.

“In the last ice age, between about 10,000 and 13,000 years ago, the water level was 90 feet lower then than it is today,” Gifford said. “It’s generally thought that along that early beach area, those early humans left their tools or whatever artifacts they found at that site.”

The site has been under excavation by scientists sporadically over the past three years, and only about 6 percent of the submerged ledge has been scoured.

Little Salt Spring,” Gifford said, “is where we have at least a fighting chance at finding some traces of human activity say 9,000 or 10,000 years ago.”

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Marden Henge: The builder’s yard for Stonehenge

Evidence found at Marden Henge hints it may have been the builder’s yard for Stonehenge.

If it wasn’t a village, or a temple, or a farm, or a cemetery, what was Marden for? Leary suspects the answer may be emerging in stone working tools, and flakes of sarsen, turning up all over the site. If you were going to drag sarsens the size of double decker buses from their original site to Stonehenge, he said, the obvious route is straight through a natural gap in the hilly landscape, which would take them through Marden.

The evidence that Marden was a sort of builder’s yard for the most famous prehistoric monument in the world may have been in the mud under the boots of Leary’s puzzled predecessors.

So why did the site’s temporary occupants leave? Maybe with Stonehenge complete, the sarsens shaped into the giant trilithons that still fill the hordes of modern visitors with awe, their job was done. They tidied up nicely, turned out the lights, and left.

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Prehistoric Italian artifacts discoloured by chemicals

Prehistoric Italian artifacts stored in a former military armoury have turned blue due to pollutants in the air.

A mysterious blue sheen that is creeping over precious archaeological artefacts has sparked a political firestorm in Italy. Scientists are battling local authorities to save the damaged collection — and determine who is to blame.

The prehistoric treasures — including human bones and stone tools — come from sites near Verona, which were inhabited by some of Europe’s last known Neanderthals when anatomically modern humans were beginning to dominate the region. Scientists say that comparing DNA from the remains with DNA from Neanderthal bones found elsewhere may show how the last Neanderthals moved across the continent seeking refuge, for example.

But now some of the remains face irreparable damage, as they lie deteriorating in a former military armoury in northern Italy. The artefacts were moved there in 2007 and 2008 after Verona’s town council sold their original home — an eighteenth-century castle that provided overflow storage for Verona’s Natural History Museum. The money from the sale was intended to refurbish the arsenal to provide a new home for all of the museum’s collections, but the funds were subsequently reallocated.

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Maintenance worker finds 3,000-year-old carving

A council worker carrying out maintenance work in the Ecclesall Woods in Yorkshire has stumbled across a 3,000-year-old carving.

He discovered a boulder with a series of markings, lines and cuts – which, after being examined by experts, has been declared a significant archaeological find.

Jim McNeil, of South Yorkshire Archaeological Service, said: “I was called in and recorded the discovery, taking photographs.

“I have taken advice from a specialist who considers this to be an important piece of prehistoric rock art. This is the second example of such rock art from Ecclesall Woods, although other examples are known from the Peak District and further north in the Pennines.”

Despite having been examined by experts, the meaning of the carvings is unclear.

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