This week in archaeology

Science Daily: More than 1,000 ancient sealings discovered

Classical scholars have discovered a large number of sealings in southeast Turkey. More than 1,000 sealings give new insights into the Greco-Roman pantheon. The finds were in a late antique building complex point to a hitherto unknown church.

Sauce: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207102508.htm

Journal of Archaeological Science: Bronze Age artifacts used meteoric iron

Bronze Age iron artifacts could be derived from either meteoritic (extraterrestrial) or smelted (terrestrial) iron. This unresolved question is the subject of a controversy: are some, all or none made of smelted iron? In the present paper we propose a geochemical approach, which permits us to differentiate terrestrial from extraterrestrial irons. Instead of evaluating the Ni abundance alone (or the Ni to Fe ratio) we consider the relationship between Fe, Co and Ni abundances and their ratios. The study of meteoritic irons, Bronze Age iron artifacts and ancient terrestrial irons permit us to validate this chemical approach.

Sauce: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440317301322?via%3Dihub

Live Science: Viking-Era Stone Carved with Runes Found in Norway

This whetstone (a stone used for sharpening knives) has letters known as runes engraved on it, archaeologists found. Discovered recently during excavations in Oslo, the stone dates back to the Middle Ages, a time when the Vikings flourished in Norway

Sauce: https://www.livescience.com/61100-mysterious-rune-stone-norway.html

BBC News: Oxford medieval road discovered under field near Willow Walk

A medieval stone causeway has been discovered underneath a field in Oxford during excavations ahead of a flood alleviation scheme. The Environment Agency's £120m project aims to reduce the risk of flooding to homes and businesses in the city. Oxford Archaeology has spent three months evaluating the city's floodplain. It also found evidence of Bronze and Iron Age settlements and stone flints from hunter-gatherers. The causeway, uncovered in a field near Willow Walk, is made of rounded river pebbles, limestone and chalk rocks. Some of the stones appear to be marked with ruts made by cartwheels.
Horseshoes were found among the cobbles and will be analysed by X-ray to determine their age.

Sauce: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-42169973

The Guardian: Caesar's invasion of Britain began from Pegwell Bay in Kent, say archaeologists

Julius Caesar’s invasion of Britain was launched from the sandy shores of Pegwell Bay on the most easterly tip of Kent, according to fresh evidence unearthed by archaeologists. Researchers named the wide, shallow bay the most likely landing spot for the Roman fleet after excavators found the remains of a defensive base dating to the first century BC in the nearby hamlet of Ebbsfleet, near Ramsgate.

Sauce: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/nov/29/caesars-invasion-of-britain-began-from-pegwell-bay-in-kent-say-archaeologists

Science Nordic: Lost medieval village discovered in Denmark

Traces of three courtyards surrounded by a ditch marks out an area, which archaeologists have interpreted as the centre of a village dating back to the Middle Ages in Tollerup, East Denmark.
Historical sources suggest that the farms belonged to the village rulers. A cellar in the largest farm was probably used to store tax revenues in the form of objects collected from the villagers.
“The interesting thing about this find is that we have some very old written sources that [give us] an entirely new understanding from what we can interpret from the excavation alone,” says Gunvor Christiansen, archaeologist at Roskilde Museum, Denmark.

Sauce: http://sciencenordic.com/lost-medieval-village-discovered-denmark

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