England
An astonishing discovery here in my local county of Dorset, by archaeologists from the university in the town where I currently live – Bournemouth – may completely revolutionise the understanding of Celtic Britain and its tribal groups.
The sinister finds at Winterborne Kingston, situated around ten miles north-west of Poole, include the rearranging of animal bones to form mythical hybrid beasts.
This bizarre activity leaves one wondering what on earth was going on in the minds of our ancestors, but it does suggest trading links with ancient Greece. The question now is – did Greek mythology influence the Celtic tribes of Europe, or did the Greeks get their myths a long time ago from the British tribes, so far back into history there is no evidence of it remaining? Or did these mythologies arise independently and suggest something more about the human psyche?
Anyone about to embark on a PhD? 🙂
Mexico
Is it a hill? No, it’s one of the largest Maya pyramids ever found!
Astonishing to think such discoveries are still possible with all our modern technology, but it’s equally surprising what the jungle can hide. There is no doubt there are hundreds of other structures still to be found in the jungles of Mexico and other countries.
Previously it was thought that this pyramid, discovered just five years ago, was built on a natural hill, but it turns out the hill IS the pyramid, and therefore it is much larger than previously thought. It has also been discovered that the pyramid forms the central point of an acropolis, now known as Tonina Chiapas, and the city has seven distinct districts and probably dates to the late 7th Century.
In the future this city will be as important as Uxmal, Chichen Itza, and all the other tourist sites in Mayan Mexico, but it will be many more years before it will be fully ready to take on tourism. In the meantime, the site continues to reveal stunning stonework and hieroglyphs.
India
Several mistakes have been made in this report, not to mention the title error and the date of 3500 AD, but the general gist is an ancient port, some 4,500 years old, on the Zuari River, near Panaji (Panjim), in Goa.
For those who have been to Goa, it’s not hard to imagine what a paradise the area was in those days, long before the Portuguese realised the place has an excellent trading position, and much longer before the hippy trail landed here a few decades back.
It’s quite amazing, what with the length of the port wall and the steps that descend into the river itself, that no one actually noticed this before… Still, if you go to the market and you’re not looking for onions, then you jolly well might not see any!
http://www.ndtv.com/goa-news/remnants-of-indias-one-of-the-oldest-port-found-in-goa-781846
