Top 10 Archaeology Discoveries of 2010

[MattSh]

Decades from now people may remember 2010 for the BP oil spill, the Tea Party, and the iPad. But for our money, it's a lock people will still be excited about the year's most remarkable archaeological discoveries, which we explore (along with one "undiscovery") in the following pages.

This was the year we learned that looters led archaeologists to spectacular and unparalleled royal tombs in both Turkey and Guatemala. An unexpected find brought us closer to Pocahontas, and an underwater archaeological survey in the high Canadian Arctic located the ill-fated HMS Investigator, abandoned in 1853.

Archaeologists weren't just busy in the field, though. A number of breakthroughs happened in the lab, too. A new radiocarbon dating technique was perfected this year that will allow scientists to date artifacts without harming them.

Laboratory analysis of the bones of a close relative of Lucy revealed how early hominins walked. And anthropologists in Germany announced startling news about the Neanderthal genome that might send you scrambling to submit your own DNA for sequencing.

http://www.archaeology.org/1101/topten/

[HopeHoops]

1. And yet they STILL haven't found Dubya's alcohol-pickled brain.

:shrug:

[LiberalEsto]

5. It only exists as a hypothesis nt

[TexasObserver]

2. recommend

[WolverineDG]

3. I don't have the patience to do a dig

but archaeology fascinates me. I love it when they find something interesting! :) Thanks for sharing this!

dg

[Kadie]

4. Thank you for the link.

K&R

[guardian]

6. Thanks for posting. n/t

[myrna minx]

7. Thanks for the link. K&R n/t

[Warren Stupidity]

8. k&r& ty