At www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/one-europes-oldest-decorative-wood… … informs us that archaeologists have recovered a decorative wood carving dating to 6000 years ago – on a hilside in the Valleys (at, of all things, a wind farm in the Rhondda). Twelve pieces of timber were found in a waterlogged peat deposit – one of them was decorated with some kind of pattern (which could mean virtually anything although the usual spokesperson thought they knew the answer).
At www.pasthorizonspr.com/index.php/archives/07/2013/d-reams-can-shed-new-l… … is inspired by the discovery of an ancient burial which included flowers – such as sage, figwort and mint, plants with a rich aroma. The Hebrew University used a new kind of mass spectrometer to determine the age of archaeological samples – measuring the concentration of C14. It is planned to use this instrument to date the movement of modern humans out of Africa (or those that ended up in what is now Israel). The new mass spectrometer has also thrown a spoke into Early Bronze Age chronology (in Palestine). Rather than coming to an end in 2300BC, the current consensus date, they are saying that Early Bronze ended some 200 years earlier – so what is the happening here? Does it smooth out the plateaus, or ignore them? How does it cope with calibration?