Best Archeological Finds of 09

National Geographic has listed their Top 10 Archeology Finds for the past year, which includes some really great discoveries. My personal favorites:

Blackbeard Pirate Relics!

Who wouldn't want to get their hands on some genuine pirate booty? (Okay, let me rephrase). Who wouldn't want to get their hands on a real-life pirate chest? (Oh, nevermind!) Read the article you scallywags:

Some of the newfound relics add to evidence that the ship belonged to the pirate. ""We feel pretty comfortable that that's what this is," said Marke Wilde-Ramsing, director of the Queen Anne's Revenge project for the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology.

...and...

Navigational instruments were favorite targets of looting pirates, because the tools could easily be sold or traded, said archaeologist David Moore of the North Carolina Maritime Museum, who is working on the wreck site.

World War II Samurai Subs

These WWII era submarines discovered off the coast of Hawaii were at the peak of naval stealth technology for the age and even carried folding-wing planes for sneak attacks. Maybe they should be called Ninja Subs? From the article:

Specifically designed for a stealth attack on the U.S. East Coast--perhaps targeting Washington D.C., and New York City--the "samurai subs" were fast, far-ranging, and in some cases carried folding-wing aircraft, according to Dik Daso, curator of modern military aircraft at the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum, speaking in the new National Geographic documentary Hunt for the Samurai Subs.

No word on whether the Samurai Sub commanders understood that DC and NYC are clear on the other side of North America....

Pre-Stonehenge Structure Found....Surrounded by Crop Circles!

Cue the sci-fi music, this one is just plain eerie. Archeologists found this site spanning nearly 500 acres when they examined aerial photos of crop circles. What they found were the remains of an undiscovered 6,000 year-old temple complex complete with tombs and burial mounds. From the article:

During the late Stone Age, it's believed, people in the region left their dead in the open to be picked clean by birds and other animals.

Skulls and other bones of people who were for some reason deemed significant were later placed inside the burial mounds, Wickstead explained.

"These are bone houses, in a way," she said. "Instead of whole bodies, [the tombs contain] parts of ancestors."

This one is among my favorites because there are so many unanswered questions. Were the crop circles just coincidence? Or do they exist to draw attention to the site? Be sure to check out both pages of this article on Nat Geo's site.

Read the complete list--it's chock full of fodder for pulp adventure, including the largest Anglo-Saxon treasure every discovered (pictured up top). Wait, let's try that again. I also take no small pride in that I covered one of the discoveries about the "Vampire crypt" on this blog, back in August. Score!

So there's like, 10 new ideas for you--now go have fun!

All photos: National Geographic

Venician Vampire Grave Unveiled ...MUHAHAHAHA!

Photo: Matteo Borrini / AP via MSNBC

I need to do a little catching up on some older stories. This first one is about a suspected "vampire" grave discovered at a dig site outside of Venice, Italy. A woman's well-preserved skeleton was found with a brick in her mouth--which apparently is how you keep vampires from waking up and biting you (how come we never saw THAT in a movie?).

In addition to being a decidely old-school method of beating the devil, it was also decidely dumb because--anyone, anyone? That's right! There's no such thing as vampires!

But that doesn't mean there wasn't good reason to believe that the dead might raise. After all, there was this (very circumstantial) eye-witness evidence. MSNBC drives a stake through it:

During epidemics, mass graves were often reopened to bury fresh corpses and diggers would chance upon older bodies that were bloated, with blood seeping out of their mouth and with an inexplicable hole in the shroud used to cover their face.

"These characteristics are all tied to the decomposition of bodies," Borrini said. "But they saw a fat, dead person, full of blood and with a hole in the shroud, so they would say: 'This guy is alive, he's drinking blood and eating his shroud.'"

Thanks to modern science we know that the bloating occurs from gas building up in corpses (yuck!). In any case, why let science ruin it--she was obviously a bloodsucker who deserved a brick sandwich, right?

Anyone?

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