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Ancient Irish musical history found in modern India Press Trust of India | Melbourne May 15, 2016 Last Updated at 11:57 IST Ancient Irish musical traditions, thought to be long dead, are alive and well in south India, according to a new study of musical horns from iron-age Ireland. The realisation that modern Indian horns are almost identical to many iron-age European artifacts shows a rich cultural link between the two regions 2,000 years ago, said PhD student Billy O Foghlu, from The Australian National University (ANU). "I was astonished to find what I thought to be dead soundscapes alive...

An archaeologist studying musical horns from iron-age Ireland has found musical traditions, thought to be long dead, are alive and well in south India. The realisation that modern Indian horns are almost identical to many iron-age European artefacts reveals a rich cultural link between the two regions 2,000 years ago, said PhD student Billy O Foghlu, from The Australian National University (ANU). "Archaeology is usually silent. I was astonished to find what I thought to be dead soundscapes alive and living in Kerala today," said the ANU College of Asia-Pacific student... The findings help show that Europe and India had...

The project, called Contexts of and Relations between Early Writing Systems (CREWS)... is led by Dr Philippa Steele of the University's Faculty of Classics... For instance, today the notion of "alphabetical order" is used to arrange everything from dictionaries to telephone books, but why is the alphabet organised the way it is? Alphabetical order as we would recognise it first appeared over three thousand years ago in Ugaritic, written in a cuneiform script made of wedge-shaped signs impressed on clay tablets. The Ugaritic alphabet was in use in the ancient city of Ugarit, uncovered at Ras Shamra in modern Syria....

Not even four miles south of Athens lies Phaleron — a site unknown to most tourists. A port of Athens in classical times, Phaleron also boasts one of the largest cemeteries ever excavated in Greece, containing more than 1,500 skeletons. Dating to the 8th-5th centuries BC, Phaleron is significant for our understanding of the rise of the Greek city-state. And, in particular, for understanding the violence and subjugation that went with it. Two mass burials at Phaleron include people who were tossed face-down into a pit, their hands shackled behind their backs. To learn more about these deviant burials and...

A statue showing a young girl holding up what appears to be a laptop -- complete with USB ports -- has sparked a frenzy among conspiracy theorists. The statue, 'Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant' is in The J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, California. 'I am not saying that this is depicting an ancient laptop computer,' said YouTuber StillSpeakingOut. 'But when I look at the sculpture I can't help but think about the Oracle of Delphi, which was supposed to allow the priests to connect with the gods to retrieve advanced information and various aspects.' In...

Archaeological excavations on the Ionian island of Lefkada have brought to light a previously undiscovered and sizeable ancient theater, the culture minister announced on Wednesday. It said the find was made on Koulmou hill toward the end of 2015. Test "sections" were cut in an area on the northeast flank of Koulmou's middle hill, which forms an amphitheatrical downward hollow ending in a lengthy flat section, the ministry announcement said. It noted that archaeologists knew very little about the city's ancient theater, which was not mentioned in any ancient sources, though the logs of an early 20th-century archaeological excavation under...

Ancient tomb found on Greek island By NICHOLAS PAPHITIS Associated Press WriterA partly demolished, 3,000-year-old tomb recently discovered on the western Greek island of Lefkada is seen in this undated hand out photo released by Greek Culture Ministry on Wednesday, March 5, 2008. Archaeologists said the beehive-shaped tomb, which contained several human skeletons and grave offerings, was the first major Mycenaean-era monument to be found on the island.ATHENS, Greece --Road construction on the western Greek island of Lefkada has uncovered and partially destroyed an important tomb with artifacts dating back more than 3,000 years, officials said on Wednesday. The find...

ATHENS (AP) -- A powerful earthquake Thursday struck islands in western Greece, sending panicked residents and tourists into the streets and causing some injuries and damage, officials said. The quake, with a preliminary magnitude of 6.4, occurred at 8:15 a.m. (0515 GMT) near the Ionian Sea island of Lefkada, about 290 kilometers (175 miles) northwest of Athens, said the Athens' Geodynamic Institute. Rescue officials said the main hospital on the island treated at least 10 people for minor injuries. A fire official, Panayiotis Fourlas, said there did not appear to be widespread serious damage to buildings, but authorities had...

One hundred and ten of Greece’s best beaches are on sale by Greece’s privatization agency, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (TAIPED) in the name of supposed “development” and “utilization of public assets”. In fact a sale off of Greece best beaches for cash so that the debt-ridden country can pay back its lenders. The beaches plots are to be on sale with “50 years of utilization by the new owners.” In the list of TAIPED are featured among others Myrto Beach in Kato Achaia, Vasiliki Beach in Lefkada, Kalmitsi beach in Chalkidiki and – what a shame – two...

IT LOOKS like Neanderthals may have beaten modern humans to the seas. Growing evidence suggests our extinct cousins criss-crossed the Mediterranean in boats from 100,000 years ago - though not everyone is convinced they weren't just good swimmers. Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean from 300,000 years ago. Their distinctive "Mousterian" stone tools are found on the Greek mainland and, intriguingly, have also been found on the Greek islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. That could be explained in two ways: either the islands weren't islands at the time, or our distant cousins crossed the water somehow. Now, George Ferentinos of...

IT LOOKS like Neanderthals may have beaten modern humans to the seas. Growing evidence suggests our extinct cousins criss-crossed the Mediterranean in boats from 100,000 years ago - though not everyone is convinced they weren't just good swimmers. Neanderthals lived around the Mediterranean from 300,000 years ago. Their distinctive "Mousterian" stone tools are found on the Greek mainland and, intriguingly, have also been found on the Greek islands of Lefkada, Kefalonia and Zakynthos. That could be explained in two ways: either the islands weren't islands at the time, or our distant cousins crossed the water somehow....

The Institute of Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Studies in Venice is the continuation of a Greek fraternity founded in 1498 The story began in 1498, a few decades after the fall of Constantinople, when the Greeks in Venice — la nazione greca (or the Greek nation) — gained permission from the Serene Republic to create a fraternity. Merchants and simple migrants from Western Greece, refugees from Constantinople, artists and others from Venetian-ruled Crete — all were Orthodox Christians who spoke Greek. The Most Serene Republic of Venice — the Serenissima — which ruled the Eastern Mediterranean, willingly offered them asylum; first,...

In 1964, Italian fishermen off the coast of the Adriatic Sea pulled out of international waters a nearly complete, life-size ancient bronze statue of an athlete. Standing with his weight on his right leg, the nude athlete reaches with his right arm toward the wreath on his head. Victorious in his competition, he will take off his crown and dedicate it to the gods. "The round face, with wide-set eyes, small nose, motionless cheeks, and petite, pointed chin appears somewhat vacuous," writes Jens M. Daehner of the Victorious Athlete. "The face subtly conveys a state of exhaustion, a situational realism...

...located in today’s Russia at the mouth of the River Don to the Azov Sea... said Dr. Marcin Matera from the Institute of Archaeology of the University of Warsaw... that the embankment was built after the conquest of Tanais by Polemon". Polemon was a king of Bosphorus, who ruled in the late first century BC... University of Warsaw expedition conducts excavations in the western part of the ancient Tanais since 1996... The most important discoveries made by Polish archaeologists include a unique defence system of the western gates of the city, established in the Hellenistic period and rebuilt, probably at...

The sharing of food and alcoholic beverages is extremely important today as in the past because provides a wealth of information on societies where this occurred. So far however, most of these practices known through archaeology have been primarily those undertaken by people from the same individual community or regional district. The Bronze Age site of Roca (2) in Southern Italy, has produced clear evidence for the existence at this place of one of the earliest inter-cultural feasting 'party' in Mediterranean Europe, dating to c.a. 1200 BC. This small (about 3 hectares nowadays, although it was larger in the past)...

The discovery of the Acra last week is "a dream come true" for archaeologists, who have been speculating on the citadel's location for 100 years, the IAA said. The discovery of Acra comes at a delicate time, for it reveals the story of the Maccabees, Antiochus and the coming Antichrist. All this is understood once we connect the dots and see the parallels between the Grecian Empire at the time of the Maccabees harassing God's people and the Antichrist who is also from the same empire (Asia Minor) harassing God's people today.

By using aerial photographs and geophysical surveys, Warsaw archaeologists not only confirmed the location of settlement dating back more than two thousand years in Respublikaniec (Kherson Oblast), but also discovered previously unknown structures in its area... Archaeologists determined that the settlement was probably founded in the 2nd century BC. Researchers also discovered the exact outline of its fortifications -- defensive walls and ditches. In addition to defensive functions, the place also served as a venue of trade between residents of the Dnieper steppes and the ancient world, represented by the nearby Greek colony -- Olbia. The settlement could also have...

On Monday afternoon, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) sent a newsbrief to reporters in Jerusalem, calling for a press conference the following day to announce the “solution to one of the greatest questions in the history of Jerusalem.” Tuesday’s announcement did not disappoint: On site, in Jerusalem’s City of David, archaeologist Doron Ben-Ami announced that the famed Akra (citadel) of Antiochus Epiphanes had been discovered. Up until that announcement, little had been found testifying to the massive Hellenistic intrusion into the city early in the second century B.C. Yet here, at the northwestern portion of the City of David, a...

Nickel's evidence includes newly translated ancient records that tell a fantastic tale of giant statues that "appeared" in the far west, inspiring the first emperor of China to duplicate them in front of his palace. This story offers evidence of early contact between China and the West, contacts that Nickel says inspired the First Emperor (which is what Qin Shi Huangdi called himself) to not only duplicate the 12 giant statues but to build the massive Terracotta Army along with other life-size sculptures. Before the First Emperor's time, life-size sculptures were not built in China, and Nickel argues the idea...

A recent discovery by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem’s City of David may reveal the answer to one of archaeology's most enduring mysteries: the location of the Greek Acra citadel. The exact location of the famous stronghold built by Antiochus IV, to control Jerusalem and monitor activity on the Temple Mount, has long been unknown due to the paucity of architectural remains that can be traced to the Greek presence in Jerusalem. Over the past 100 years of archaeological research in Jerusalem, numerous theories have been put forth identifying the location of the Acra, which was eventually overtaken by...