今年の発見トップ１０

アメリカの一般雑誌Archaeologyが今年の考古学発見トップ１０を発表した模様。なかなか考古学的に面白い発見があった年なのでしょうか？ものすごい発見と言う発見は目に付きませんが、ヨーロッパ最古のホモ・エレクタスのあごの骨の発見、42,000年前の中国から発見された人骨から靴をはいていた可能性が指摘されるなどが興味を引きます。

さて、海事考古学に関する発見も2件ほど入っております。やはり、ナミビアのダイヤモンド採掘所で発見されたポルトガル船の発見が挙げられています。そのほかにもロシアで発見された3000年前の捕鯨跡の遺跡・遺物も当時の人々と海とのつながりを教えてくれます。

来年はどんな発見があるのでしょうか？特に発見ではありませんが、来年からUNESCOの水中文化遺産保護法案が正式に条例として認められます。これに関し日本も含め各国がどう動くか見守る必要があるでしょう。

 

 

 

The secret of Maya Blue: Scientists analyzed bits of the sacred blue pigment the Maya used during human sacrifices and other ceremonies – and concluded that it was made through the ritual burning of a mix of ingredients, including indigo, minerals and copal incense.
Masked mummy of Peru: An intact 1,700-year-old mummy, bearing a wooden mask with seashell eyes, was discovered in a burial mound beneath a busy Lima neighborhood. Archaeologists suspect the remains were those of a master weaver from Peru’s Wari culture, based on the knitting needles and balls of yarn that were buried along with the mummy.
The stone with soul: Researchers found a 2,800-year-old funerary monument in southeastern Turkey that provided a fresh perspective on ancient religious beliefs. A 13-line inscription was chiseled into the basalt stone, in which a high official refers to food offerings that were made “for my soul that is in this stele.” This proves that the Iron Age culture believed the soul was separate from the body and could inhabit a monument.
Brown gold from Oregon: About that ancient poop … the 14,300-year-old preserved feces found in eastern Oregon’s cave provided the best evidence yet that humans had colonized the Americas that long ago. Researchers even extracted DNA from the coprolites – which could help clear up longstanding mysteries about the identity of the first Americans.  
Oldest oil paintings: Researchers discovered the world’s oldest-known paintings in a maze of caves in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley – yes, the same place where the Taliban blew up two giant statues of Buddha in 2001. (You’ll find more about Bamiyan below.)
The first European? An excavation in a cave in northern Spain turned up a chunk of a Homo erectus jawbone that has been dated back to 1.3 million years ago. That suggests that the ancestors of modern humans made their way into Europe about 500,000 years earlier than previously thought. 
The earliest shoes: An analysis of 42,000-year-old human toe bones from a dig in China provided evidence that the person, known as Tianyuan 1, wore some form of footwear.
Pristine Portuguese shipwreck: Geologists working on an underwater diamond-mining project off the coast of Namibia turned up something more scientifically valuable: a 16th-century cargo ship that was buried on the seafloor, safe from underwater treasure hunters. The find netted almost 50 pounds of gold coins, plus navigational instruments, elephant tusks and other treasures.
The colossal heads of the Roman Empire: Archaeologists are uncovering the monumental marble heads of Roman emperors at a dig in central Turkey, where a first-century metropolis once flourished. Last year, Hadrian’s head was found at the site of Sagalassos’ Roman baths. This year, the researchers recovered fragments of statues depicting Marcus Aurelius and Faustina the Elder (wife of the emperor Antoninus Pius).
The origins of whaling: A 20-inch-long walrus tusk, found at an archaeological site on Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula, bears the carvings of a seal, a bear and a boatful of people hunting a whale from a boat. The tusk dates back about 3,000 years, which would make the carving “the earliest evidence for whaling,” said Daniel Odess, curator of archaeology at the University of Alaska Museum.

引用元：http://www.archaeology.org/