Asia
Archaeological news from Asia.
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China’s First Emperor Ordered Official Search for Immortality Elixir
The first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, wanted to live forever. Newly discovered documents reveal that 2,200 years ago, he even put out an executive order to search for a potion that would give him eternal life, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Qin Shi Huang was born in 259 B.C., and by the time of his death in 210…
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Experts bowled over by ancient urn found on bed of Lake Biwako
An underwater robot has snapped photographs of a pottery urn probably dating from the seventh or eighth century that has been left almost intact at the bottom of Lake Biwako. The jar, which was spotted 71.5 meters down on the bed of the lake, is 30-40 centimeters in height with a 20-cm opening, Ritsumeikan University announced Dec. 26. It was…
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7000-year-old residence found in western Iran
“The second season of excavations at the site has so far yielded several stages of construction, considerable numbers of pottery pieces, as well as remains of residential units associated with the everyday life that are estimated to date from the 5th millennium BC,” IRNA quoted Hannan Bahranipour, who leads the excavations team, as saying on Sunday. Identification of ancient layers…
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Ancient Chinese bronze mirror unearthed whole in Fukuoka dig
A remarkably preserved 1,900-year-old bronze mirror made in China around the early second century was unearthed whole at an archaeological site here, city authorities said. The buried cultural properties division of the Fukuoka city government said Dec. 5 that the mirror from the late Yayoi Pottery Culture period (300 B.C.-A.D. 300) was excavated from the Nakashima archaeological site in the…
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Magical new 4,500 year old finds add to ‘oldest toy collection in the world’
The rare discoveries of the pre-historic toys were made at the Itkol II burial ground in the Republic of Khakassia, southern Siberia. The doll had ‘carefully worked out facial features’ and was made of soapstone – a soft rock made mostly of talc, said archeologist Dr Andrey Polyakov, from the Institute of History of Material Culture in St Petersburg. The…
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First infertility diagnosis made 4,000 years ago discovered in cuneiform tablet in Turkey
The first diagnosis to determine infertility was made 4,000 years ago, an ancient Assyrian clay tablet discovered by Turkish researchers in central Kayseri province revealed Thursday. Various researchers from different universities led by Şanlıurfa’s Harran University examined a 4,000-year-old Assyrian tablet containing a prenuptial agreement and found out that the first infertility diagnosis was made in central Kayseri province’s Kültepe…
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2,000-year-old luxury baths discovered in NE China
Archaeologists recently found three 2,000-year-old luxury baths in northwest China’s city of Xi’an, the local heritage department said Monday. Three ancient city sites, dating back to different dynasties, were discovered by a team at an archeological site at the ancient city of Liyang, according to Liu Rui, a researcher on the team. Liyang, a former capital in the Qin and…
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Chinese archaeologists discover cave-dwelling agrarian society
Chinese archaeologists have found a large amount of carbonized rice grains in caves dating from the New Stone Age, challenging the conventional view that cave dwellers were solely hunter gathers and did not cultivate land for food. More than 10,000 grains were discovered at the No. 4 cave in the Nanshan ruins in east China’s Fujian Province, which dates back…
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2,400-year-old horse and chariot pit unearthed in China
Archaeologists in central China’s Henan Province have excavated a 2,400-year-old pit containing horses and chariots beside a tomb possibly belonging to a lord. The No. 3 Horse and Chariot Pit is one of a cluster of tombs belonging to noble families of the Zheng State, a vassal state during the Spring and Autumn (770-476 B.C) and Warring States periods (475-221…
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Ancient Skull May Be History’s Earliest Known Tsunami Victim
In 1929, an Australian geologist named Paul S. Hossfeld was investigating the northern coast of Papua New Guinea for petroleum. He found bone fragments embedded in a creek bank about seven miles inland and about 170 feet above sea level. At first, Dr. Hossfeld believed that the specimen was from the skull of Homo erectus, an extinct relative of modern…
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