Sometimes a dark discolouration in the soil is enough to open a window onto a long-forgotten world. In the Lower Bavarian village of Großköllnbach (Dingolfing-Landau district) just such a clue led to a discovery that is posing new questions for archaeologists: in a pit they uncovered the remains of a person who lived around 7,000 years ago.

But it is not just the great age of the find that makes it remarkable. Above all, it is the unusual position of the skeleton: unlike the burials that were customary at the time, the body lies in a striking, twisted posture. The condition of the cervical spine is also puzzling researchers.

The discovery came to light during archaeological investigations in the future Steigäcker IV development area. The excavation team had been examining the site for five weeks when what initially appeared to be a nondescript change in soil colour turned out to be a pit containing human bones.

For district archaeologist Dr Florian Eibl, it is above all the type of burial that is unusual. The people of the Linear Pottery culture (Linienbandkeramik), one of the earliest farming cultures in Central Europe, often buried their dead in crouched burials.

The deceased were laid on their side with their legs drawn up, in a posture resembling a sleeping person.

I’m an international student and I’m in my last year for my MA. I’m debating on whether to go back to my country or stay in the uk. My main interest is in artifact conservation and collections. I know there are a lot of chances for archeology in the uk, but I’m honestly not sure if getting a worker visa or trying to get a sponsorship is really worth it compared to just going back home. I’d couldn’t go back to my parents anyway and I’d have to go pretty far in my country to find a job and location for me. I’ve been considering paid internships and everything, but I think I want a more permanent solution, but honestly I’m not really sure.

I have some experience in conserving artifacts, but my degree won’t really give me a lot of hands on experience. I’m finding a lot of volunteer opportunities as an object handler for a museum, organizing a zooarcheology project into new shelving, and helping cataloging, analog, and rebagging collections for museums.

I’m also considering doing americorps, but I kind of don’t really understand the loans thing they do.

Today is the 60th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act, a US law which set up protections for historical sites. A special section of this act, Section 106, requires developers to work with archaeologists prior to certain construction projects.

But now, a proposed law stands to change everything. Embedded in the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act is language which would take archaeologists out of this process, remove all opportunities for public comment, and allow development to continue even if historical sites are encountered.

If you're in the US, please consider calling your congresspeople before November 9th and ask them to protect US archaeology by opposing the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. Learn more at https://www.106strong.com/

A few years ago, excavations at Stainton West near Carlisle turned up two carved oak "tridents" in a waterlogged river channel, dated to the early 4th millennium BC. Similar objects are known from Ehenside Tarn in Cumbria and from County Armagh. Each is carved from a single oak plank, with three tines and a pair of shaped projections, or "ears", where the tines meet the body. Nobody is sure what they were for.

My theory is that they're turf cutters and lifters.

Why turf: Neolithic Britain used enormous amounts of it. Long barrows, henge banks, houses and Silbury Hill all contain cut turf, sometimes tens of thousands of sods in a single monument. Yet no turf-cutting tool has been identified from the period. Something had to do that job.

Why this shape:

• It's one piece of oak. A hafted flint, bone or antler blade adds a joint that breaks. A turf specialist tried an ox-scapula mattock, and it was slow and snapped.
• The tines slip past roots and push them aside, where a solid blade would jam.
• It's used low and nearly flat, thrust in to start the cut, then swivelled and levered. The ears act as a pivot to flip the turf onto a plank.
• The best turf grows on flat, stone-free, damp ground such as river floodplains, which is where several of these have been found.

The wear: the complete Stainton example looks to me like a tool at the end of its life. The gaps between the tines have worn from a rounded shape into a V, which traps roots rather than shedding them. Reshaping it further would snap the tines off, and one of the pair did have broken tines. A longer example exists, which I read as a fresher tool earlier in its life.

The test: I carved a one-piece wooden replica on a long handle and tried it on a meadow and a lawn. It lifted sods cleanly. The catch is that I copied the worn Stainton example, so my tines were too short and blunt. It worked anyway, and a fresh, sharp one should work better.

Has anyone seen any other suggested ancient turf lifters?

Video Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfWlXHCuHmU

Sources: F. Brown (2013), IfA Finds Group newsletter, on the Stainton West finds; R. Loveday (2006), "Turf – an Invisible Component", Scottish Archaeological Journal 28(2).

Happy to answer questions. Tear it apart

A villager in Egypt's Nile Delta reported a carved block on his land, and an emergency excavation has since uncovered two colossal royal statues, at least one of them Ramesses II, plus a pink granite block bearing the pharaoh's titles. How they ended up in a village known for a temple built almost nine centuries after his reign remains unexplained.

A man in Behbeit el-Hagar, a village in Egypt’s Gharbia province, was working on a plot of land in front of his house when he came across a block covered in carvings.

He told the local antiquities inspectorate. What came out of the ground afterwards, according to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, were the remains of two enormous royal statues. One shows Ramesses II.

The other, in all likelihood, shows the same pharaoh. A block of pink granite carrying part of his titles in hieroglyphs turned up with them. Inspectors visited the site and confirmed that the block was ancient. The local inspectorate followed the legal procedure and drew up a report, and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, the state body in charge of the country’s archaeological sites, set up a committee and a specialist team to open a rescue excavation.

That kind of dig is not part of any research plan. It happens when something unexpected surfaces and has to be recorded and protected before it is lost.

Archaeologists at the ancient city of Kayalıpınar in central Turkey have uncovered a Hittite royal archive of 184 cuneiform tablets and fragments preserved for about 3,400 years.

The current excavation, led by Koç University in collaboration with Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, recovered 131 tablets this season, adding to the 53 found at the site in previous years.

Kayalıpınar is located in the Yıldızeli district of Sivas Province, on land the Hittites once knew as Šamuḫa. This site served as an administrative and religious center that is frequently mentioned in surviving Hittite texts.

Excavations have been ongoing since 2021, led by Koç University Associate Professor Çiğdem Maner and a multidisciplinary team from Turkey and abroad.

The land of Šamuḫa was known for the worship of Šauška, a goddess associated with love and war.

Previous excavations have uncovered more than 50 seal impressions stamped into clay, belonging to Hittite royalty, priests, and administrators. The team suspects a building used to seal official documents may lie beneath layers containing early Christian burials.

The site has been occupied for thousands of years, with evidence of Assyrian trading posts before the rise of the Hittite state, as well as Roman and Byzantine occupation.

The newly discovered tablets add another layer to this sequence, documenting a Bronze Age period through texts written in both Hittite and Hurrian.

Finds suggest account in medieval folklore of a camp near Frenni Fawr hill was rooted in reality.

Magnus Maximus, the Roman emperor who ruled Britain in the fourth century, led his troops against the Picts and Scots, but a theory that he also established a military camp near Frenni Fawr hill in Wales has so far been based on folklore.

Now fourth-century coins, among other finds at a newly identified Roman fort in Pembrokeshire, suggest the medieval tale was rooted in reality, to the excitement of archaeologists.

The fort was discovered by Dr Mark Merrony, a leading Roman specialist at the University of Oxford. He heads an excavation that is bringing to life a story about Magnus Maximus, as told in the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval epic tales of myth, magic and miracles.

Merrony expressed excitement that this landscape held the only Roman military site close to where the Mabinogion places the emperor.

“If Magnus Maximus was there, there must have been an army there,” he said.

Really enjoyed this interview with comedian and actor George Fouracres on The Archaeologists Notebook. Always interesting to see people from outside the profession with a genuine enthusiasm for archaeology!