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The discovery of a 2,300-year-old shipwreck between the classical trading centers of Rhodes and Alexandria adds to the corpus of evidence that is challenging the long-held assumption that ancient sailors lacked the navigational skills to sail large distances across open water, and were instead restricted to following the coastline during their voyages. Four other possibly ancient wrecks lie nearby... Despite its depth, the site is typical for an ancient shipwreck. The vessel came to rest on the bottom and eventually listed over onto its side. In this case, the ship heeled over to port. As its wooden hull lost...

FURNESS DIG MAY HAVE FOUND ST PATRICK'S BIRTHPLACE Published on 12/07/2005 ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe they have found the birthplace of St Patrick. A dig in Urswick has uncovered a Roman fort which may be the Banna Vernta Berniae, thought by scholars to be where Ireland’s patron saint was born. Excavations are being led by Steve Dickinson, from Ulverston, who tutors archaeology at Lancaster University. Evidence of the Romans in Furness is rare. But Mr Dickinson is convinced the finds at Urswick are Roman with their typical layout of foundations and ditches. Mr Dickinson said: “I can’t tell you how important it...

Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of what they believe could be an Bronze Age bathing site, or a sauna. The metre-deep pit with a channel to a nearby stream was discovered at Stronechrubie, Assynt, in the north west Highlands. The find was made by the Fire and Water Project, which is run by archaeology and history group Historic Assynt. The project team had been trying to understand what a crescent shaped mound of stones had been created for. Excavations at the mound by archaeologists and volunteers unearthed the pit and channel from beneath a layer of clay. Archaeologists believe it...

France’s biggest trove of Gaulish coins has been unearthed in Brittany. Archeologists found them while searching along the route of a bypass under construction in the Côtes d’Armor. The coins are in the hands of specialist restorers and will go on display in the département. The trove consists of 545 gold-silver-copper coins: 58 staters and 487 quarterstaters. ‘Stater’ is the generic term for antique coins. They lay a foot beneath the earth’s surface near Laniscat, 64km south of Saint-Brieuc, at a known Iron Age manor house or farm site, and date to 75- 50BC. They are very well preserved. Inrap,...

Divers surprised by iron age port Maev Kennedy, arts and heritage correspondent Tuesday September 17, 2002 The Guardian Archaeologists diving deep beneath the ferries and yachts criss-crossing Poole harbour have found startling evidence of the oldest working harbour in Britain, built centuries before the Roman invasion. Timber pilings excavated from a deep layer of silt on the sea bed have been radio-carbon dated at 250BC, the oldest substantial port structures by several centuries anywhere on the British coast. They suggest an iron age trading complex, with massive stone and timber jetties reaching out into the deep water channel, providing berths...

The Shipping of Michigan Copper across the Atlantic in the Bronze Age (Isle Royale and Keweenaw Peninsula, c. 2400BC-1200 BC) Summary Recent scientific literature has come to the conclusion that the major source of the copper that swept through the European Bronze Age after 2500 BC is unknown. However, these studies claim that the 10 tons of copper oxhide ingots recovered from the late Bronze Age (1300 BC) Uluburun shipwreck off the coast of Turkey was “extraordinarily pure” (more than 99.5% pure), and that it was not the product of smelting from ore. The oxhides are all brittle “blister copper”,...

Foca will be linked to Marselle in a special project to revisit the history: A Turkish crew will travel the route from the Izmir district to the French city in the next two months, just as their ancestors did centuries ago. Building a replica of an ancient vessel, the group is set to sail to Marseille in as conditions as true to those in 600 B.C. as possible. The replica of an ancient vessel is retracing the historic route from Foca off the coast of Turkey to Marseille off France some 2,600 years later. The project "A Journey into History:...

Pytheas was a contemporary of Aristotle and Alexander the Great. He reached the Arctic Circle in his search for new sources of tin (essential for the making of bronze) and amber (usually sourced from the German coast) around 330 to 325 BC... As Pytheas continued his journey north along Britain's west coast he came across Ireland and rounded the tip of Scotland. At that point in his journey, he learned of an island situated further north at a distance of six days sailing which he refers to as "Thule" (most probably Iceland). Geminus of Rhodes (1st century BC) quoting directly...

Pytheas visited the Isle of Man in 300BC - claim ANCIENT GREEK: The explorer Pytheas By ADRIAN DARBYSHIRE AN Ancient Greek explorer's extraordinary voyage took him to the Isle of Man 300 years before the birth of Christ, new research claims. Scientist and geographer Pytheas (pronounced Puth-e-as) is now believed to have visited the Island in about 325BC to take sun measurements during a three-year voyage – the first recorded circumnavigation of the British Isles. Pytheas was born in the Greek settlement of Massalia, now Marseille, about 360BC and was a contemporary of Alexander the Great (356-323BC). Marseille at that...

A devon archaeologist believes he has found the Lost City of Apollo.Dennis Price, who shot to prominence after finding a missing altar stone from Stonehenge, is the man behind what could be an amazing discovery. Mr Price, a father-of-two who lives in Broadclyst, has undertaken years of research on the stone circle. With the help of language experts from Exeter University, Mr Price has translated the early works of the Greek mariner Pytheas of Massilia, who was one of the earliest visitors to Britain, in around 325BC, and who wrote of the City of Apollo. Now, after dedicated work, Mr...

One of the enduring consequences of the era of Phoenician influence -- which had by around 800 BC progressed from trading outposts to full-blown colonies in southern Spain -- was the adoption of alphabetic writing by the native population, first in the south-west. The number of known Tartessian inscriptions on stone is now about 90 and steadily rising with new discoveries. Concentrated densely in southern Portugal (the Algarve and Lower Alentejo), there is a wider scatter of fifteen over south-west Spain. The best exhibition of the inscriptions is on view in the new and innovative Museu da Escrita do Sudoeste,...