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Top 10 Discoveries of 2011: Please refer ARCHAEOLOGY Volume 65 Number 1, January/February 2012. (world)

Years from now, when we look back on 2011, the year will almost certainly be defined by political and economic upheaval. At the same time that Western nations were shaken by a global economic slump, people in the Middle East and North Africa forcefully removed heads of state who had been in power for decades. “Arab Spring,” as the various revolutions have collectively been named, will have far-reaching implications, not just for the societies in which it took place, but also for archaeology. No year-end review would be complete without polling archaeological communities in the affected areas to determine whether sites linked to the world’s oldest civilizations, from Apamea in Syria to Saqqara in Egypt, are still intact.

Of course, traditional fieldwork took place in 2011 as well. Archaeologists uncovered one of the world’s first buildings in Jordan. In Guatemala, a Maya tomb offered rare evidence of a female ruler, and, in Scotland, a boat was found with a 1,000-year-old Viking buried inside.

We also witnessed the impact that technology continues to have on archaeology. Researchers used a ground-penetrating radar survey of the site of a Roman gladiator school to create a digital model of what it may once have looked like. And scientists studying an early hominid have taken their investigation online by tapping the scientific blogging community. The team is seeking help to determine if they have actually found a sample of fossilized skin that appears to be more than 2 million years old. These projects stand as clear evidence that as cultures around the world undergo sweeping changes, so too does the practice and process of archaeology.

§  January: Teams commence a survey of the World War II Auxiliary Units headquarters site at Coleshill on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border in England.^[1]

§  Spring: Excavation of unused British escape tunnel “George” (c. September 1944) at the site of the Stalag Luft III camp in Żagań (present-day Poland) by a British team.^[2]

§  Robert Van De Noort - North Sea Archaeologies: a maritime biography 10,000 BC–AD 1500 (Oxford University Press).

§  February 16 – Scientists from the Natural History Museum publish^[3] an analysis of human skulls from 14,700 years BP found at Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, England, around 1987, which they believe were deliberately fashioned into ritual drinking cups. Human bones butchered and discarded nearby also suggest the practice of cannibalism.^[4]

§  March – Archaeologists writing in Science argue that 15,500 BP finds from near Austin, Texas overturn the theory that the Clovis culture represents the earliest settlers in North America.^[5]

§  January 11: An article in Journal of Archaeological Science reveals the discovery of the earliest known winemaking equipment in caves in Armenia, from 6,000 years BP.^[6]

§  February 11 - Marine archaeologists from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announce the discovery of artefacts from the whaling ship Two Brothers which sank off the French Frigate Shoals atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands on February 11, 1823 under Captain George Pollard, Jr.^[7][8]

§  March 10 - English archaeologists report finding one of the earliest complete Neolithic pots in the country on a housing development in Didcot. It is thought to be about 5,500 years old.^[9]

§  March 25 – The discovery of the Jordan Lead Codices, a series of codices from a cave in Jordan, is announced. The books, which reportedly contain early Christian symbols are purportedly around 2,000 years old. The authenticity of the codices is doubted.^[10][11]

§  October 19 – The discovery of the United Kingdom mainland’s first fully intact Viking ship burial site, at Ardnamurchan in the western Scottish Highlands, is announced.^[12]

§  February 11 – The Pergamon Museum in Berlin stages a major exhibition of reconstructed Neo-Hittite sculpture and other material from Max von Oppenheim‘s collection (largely destroyed in1943).^[13]

§  July – The site of Venta Icenorum in Norfolk, England, is taken into public ownership.^[14]

Viking Boat Burial Ardnamurchan, Scotland	Neolithic Community Centers Wadi Faynan, Jordan	Open Source Australopithecus Malapa, South Africa	First Domesticated Dogs Předmostí, Czech Republic	Rare Maya Female Ruler Nakum, Guatemala
Gladiator Gym Goes Virtual Carnuntum, Austria	Ancient Chinese Takeout Shaanxi/Xinjiang, China	War Begets State Lake Titicaca, Peru	Atlantic Whaler Found in Pacific French Frigate Shoals, Hawaii	Arab Spring Impacts Archaeology Libya/Egypt/Tunisia/Syria
Sites Under Threat
Altamira Cave	Pompeii	Texas

Explorations

• January: Teams commence a survey of the World War II Auxiliary Units headquarters site at Coleshill on the Oxfordshire/Wiltshire border in England.^[1]

[edit]Excavations

• Spring: Excavation of unused British escape tunnel “George” (c. September 1944) at the site of the Stalag Luft III camp in Żagań (present-day Poland) by a British team.^[2]

[edit]Publications

• Robert Van De Noort - North Sea Archaeologies: a maritime biography 10,000 BC–AD 1500 (Oxford University Press).
• February 16 – Scientists from the Natural History Museum publish^[3] an analysis of human skulls from 14,700 years BP found at Gough’s Cave in Cheddar Gorge, England, around 1987, which they believe were deliberately fashioned into ritual drinking cups. Human bones butchered and discarded nearby also suggest the practice of cannibalism.^[4]
• March – Archaeologists writing in Science argue that 15,500 BP finds from near Austin, Texas overturn the theory that the Clovis culture represents the earliest settlers in North America.^[5]

[edit]Finds

• January 11: An article in Journal of Archaeological Science reveals the discovery of the earliest known winemaking equipment in caves in Armenia, from 6,000 years BP.^[6]
• February 11 - Marine archaeologists from the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announce the discovery of artefacts from the whaling ship Two Brothers which sank off the French Frigate Shoals atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands on February 11, 1823 under Captain George Pollard, Jr.^[7][8]
• March 10 - English archaeologists report finding one of the earliest complete Neolithic pots in the country on a housing development in Didcot. It is thought to be about 5,500 years old.^[9]
• March 25 – The discovery of the Jordan Lead Codices, a series of codices from a cave in Jordan, is announced. The books, which reportedly contain early Christian symbols are purportedly around 2,000 years old. The authenticity of the codices is doubted.^[10][11]
• October 19 – The discovery of the United Kingdom mainland’s first fully intact Viking ship burial site, at Ardnamurchan in the western Scottish Highlands, is announced.^[12]

[edit]Awards

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[edit]Miscellaneous

• February 11 – The Pergamon Museum in Berlin stages a major exhibition of reconstructed Neo-Hittite sculpture and other material from Max von Oppenheim‘s collection (largely destroyed in1943).^[13]
• July – The site of Venta Icenorum in Norfolk, England, is taken into public ownership.^[14]