Archaeologists have unearthed artifacts, including a small bone flute, indicating that a temple found at the site of Selinunte  in Sicily was dedicated to Demeter, the goddess of grain and agriculture. A central colonnade and pottery decorated with grazing animals were also found. The temple dates to the sixth century B.C.

David Peterson of Idaho State University has determined that the Bronze Age inhabitants of Russia’s Eurasian steppe decorated their ornaments with a process now known as depletion gilding. The technique concentrates a small amount of gold on the outer surface of an object making it look as if it had been crafted of solid gold. “Finding the use of this technique in the Russian steppes is fascinating because it’s an example of the use of a remarkable technology simply for ornamentation, more than a thousand years before gilding techniques were perfected in ancient Greece and Rome,” he explained.

A new genetic study of more than 300,000 variations of DNA known as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms suggests that most of today’s American Indians are descended from a single group of migrants that traveled from Asia to Alaska some 15,000 years ago. Two later migrations of people mixed with those who had settled in the Arctic after the first wave. “The Asian lineage leading to First Americans is the most anciently diverged, whereas the Asian lineages that contributed some of the DNA to Eskimo-Aleut speakers and the Na-Dene-speaking Chipewyan from Canada are more closely related to present-day East Asian populations,” said David Reich of Harvard Medical School. Others have also claimed a three-stage migration  based upon the relationships of American Indian language groups and physical features such as teeth.

At a site in southern Maine that may have been home to a seventeenth-century fortified garrison, a residence, and tavern, an archaeology student from the University of Southern Maine found a silver Spanish coin  known as a piece of eight. “A shortage of currency led to Spanish coins making their way into the English colonies after being minted in South America and traded in the Caribbean. This find is an example of how an artifact helps tell the story of a region’s economy and people’s livelihood hundreds of years ago,” said Neill De Paoli of Southern Maine Community College. The field school students also unearthed foundation stones, clay pipe fragments, stoneware dishes, and flasks.

This entry was posted by Jessica E. Saraceni on Thursday, July 12, 2012. Discussion of this blog entry is now closed.

Comments posted here do not represent the views or policies of the Archaeological Institute of America.