Red Lady OfPaviland Goat’s Hole cave, Paviland 33,000 years old. It is therefore the old- est ceremonial burial of a human anywhere in Western Europe. Awesome! The Red Lady Of Along with the bones Sardinian stonePaviland. Actually a mis- were also discovered warriorsnomer as the remains a mammoth’s skull andare of a young man, several ornamental If you thought thebut that doesn’t prevent items. The mammoth’s Terracotta Army wasthe discovery, in my skull was later lost. old and cool, check outopinion, being the most Just how do you lose a the Sardinian stoneimportant find in Wales, mammoth’s skull? It’s warriors. They wereand unless Atlantis is not like it could drop carved from solid stone.found here it’s probably behind the sofa cush- They were discoveredalways going to be so. ions, it’s the size of a smashed but are nowIt’s a fairly complete small car. being reassembled byUpper Paleolithic-era experts. Astonishinglyhuman male skeleton As some idea of howdyed in red ochre. long ago this young man He was discovered in1823 by Rev. William lived, while the cave heBuckland in a cave onthe Gower Peninsular was found in is now onin South Wales. Itwas later radio carbon the coast, at the timedated and found to be it was some 70 miles inland and overlooked a plain. Source: British Archaeology (CBA) Stephen Aldhouse-Green. 50
they are life size and come with At that time only two of the warriorsweapons and shields. They are 500 were repaired, with the rest beingyears older than the terracotta war- stored at a museum locally. Finallyriors. work began by conservators in ‘04 to fix the rest. It took 8 years to repair 25 of the33 warriors. They were smashed to They will be on display at Sardinia’sbits by invading Carthaginians. It’s Cagliari Museum. That’s in Centralnot unusual for invaders to destroy Sardinia, if you’re planning to goanything they think is a symbol of there.power, religion or rank from those Source: The Independent, Feb 17they defeat. They were exception- 2012.ally thorough though, the diggersfound some 5000 bits. That’s a hellof a jigsaw puzzle. Lost Archaeology A couple of example of archaeol- ogy that has been destroyed due to building before excavation.Fragments were found in the 70s First, Istanbul, Turkey. Workers bull-but the site wasn’t properly exca- dozed ancient ruins at Ïnönü Stadiumvated until the early 80s by the to make way for a new football sta-Italian archaeologist Carlo Troncheti. dium. Lost treasures include a vault- ed ceiling. The site was supposed to have been recorded but the build- ers got in first and destroyed the lot. Such action is of course illegal51
but the fines are much less than the ed by archaeologists.money lost by delaying the building. Archaeologist Marco Guillén Hugo,Archaeologists from the Istanbul who led research and excavationArchaeology Museum report that at the site, said it was not the firstarchaeological features, including time the firms had tried to take overthe vaulted ceiling, were illegally the land. “They say they are thedestroyed when the old Ïnönü Stadium owners, even though this land iswas demolished. Construction work- untouchable. The damaged causeders had been instructed to stop if was irreparable”.any artifacts were found. A new sta- Source: The Huffington Post.dium will be built in the area.Source: Archaeology (Arch. Institute Can you see a pattern yet?of America). In 2007, construction workers inLima. A 5000-year-old pyramid was Nanjing, China, uncovered 10 intri-bulldozed by builders. The ancient cately embroidered family tombstemple in the El Paraiso archae- dating back to the third century.ological complex in central Peru They then bulldozed it all to makewas demolished. Fortunately it had way for an IKEA shop.already been excavated and record-52
There are of course, The past is full of stories of theeven in china, laws to incompetent destroying archaeologyprevent this sort ofthing from happening list of sites of interest in your private collec-but they get in the way tion should be illegal butof profits and, again, I should point out that strangely isn’t. The lossthe fines are meaning- anyone finding histori- to our national knowl-lessly small compared cal items in the ground edge is huge. Metalto the money to be ought to check out the detectors are excellentmade by pressing on guidelines on a Council when used correctlywith the building. Yeah, For British Archaeology and these days manylike the Chinese need website at site directors work withto bring in foreigners to http://new.archaeolo- detectorists. That waymake cheap furniture. gyuk.org/best-practice the finds can be record-Source: Radio Australia, for what to do. ed.July ‘07. Digging up finds and It goes on and on. It’s selling them or puttingnothing new, the pastis full of stories of theincompetent destroy-ing archaeology, fromthe pyramid-robbers tothe destruction of allthe cities above Troy,removed unrecorded inorder to get at the trea-sure. The chronology ofthe lost layers gone for-ever. Sad, isn’t it? As a former fieldarchaeologist, I feel thatbefore launching into a 53
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