Archeological Discoveries in Asia
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The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs Courtesy of Jeannine Davis-Kimball. Prudes shouldn’t go into archeology. The patina of antiquity may make a carved ivory phallus, Venus figurine, or vulva painting on a cave wall priceless, communicating to us from a mute, distant past.
Prehistoric pornography: Chinese carvings show explicit copulation
Is this the world's first pornography? The incredibly explicit images carved in north-west China 4,000 years ago
The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs depict of an intense fertility ritual Uniquely for the ancient world, they explicitly show a wild orgy They are thought to date back to the second century BC By Damien Gayle PUBLISHED: 14:56 GMT, 19 February 2013 | UPDATED: 15:10 GMT, 20 February 2013 These remarkable images show some of the earliest known examples of what we these days might dub pornography. The Kangjiashimenji Petroglyphs, in Xinjiang, north-west China, depict an intense fertility ritual the likes of which is almost unique in the ancient world.
Notes 1.Barber & Barber, 2005, p. 2. (Return to previous page) 2. Illustrated Bokovenko 1995, Fig. 14; Jacobson-Tepfer 2005. (Return to previous page.)
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Archaeologists baffled by eight-ton, 2,000-year-old 'panda statue' discovered at Chinese excavation site
Ten-foot long statue is 4ft wide, 5ft 7in tall and shaped like an animal Discovered in China's Sichuan territory, originally pandas' natural habitat By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 17:55 GMT, 10 January 2013 | UPDATED: 17:55 GMT, 10 January 2013 A giant stone animal has been found at an excavation site in Chengdu, southwestern China, baffling archaeologists as to what it may be. The mysterious rock beast was unearthed in the capital of Sichuan province today and is thought to be 2,000 years old.
Pompeii of Japan: Scientists unearth body of 6th century Japanese 'warrior' who was buried by molten ash
First time a warrior been found buried wearing his armour Warrior is from high-caste due to positioning of body and quality of armour By Sean O'hare PUBLISHED: 16:11 GMT, 18 December 2012 | UPDATED: 17:40 GMT, 18 December 2012 The remains of a 1,400-year-old Japanese warrior wearing body armour has been found by archaeologists at a site known as the 'Pompeii of Japan'. The body of the sixth-century Kofun-period man had been buried by hot ash from an erupting volcano and as a result has been well preserved. The fact that the body was found facing the direction from which the molten rock flowed has led archaeologists to believe the warrior had tried to calm its wrath as it flowed towards his settlement.
Mystery of Angkor Wat's massive stones solved - they were 'brought to the area by a massive network of canals'
Findings reveal how 12th century temple complex was built out of millions of stone blocks weighing up to 1.5tons in just a few decades By Damien Gayle PUBLISHED: 11:14 GMT, 1 November 2012 | UPDATED: 17:38 GMT, 1 November 2012 The huge stones from which the Cambodian temple complex Angkor Wat is built were carried to the area by a series of since-filled in canals, a new study claims.
Building blocks of Angkor Wat were shipped in by canal - life - 20 October 2012
IT IS never too late to find a shortcut. Centuries after the construction of Cambodia's Angkor Wat , archaeologists have uncovered traces of a series of canals that suggest the 5 million tonnes of sandstone used to build the temples took a far shorter route than previously thought. The sandstone blocks each weigh up to 1.5 tonnes and originate from quarries at Mount Kulen.Mystery of Angkor Wat Temple's Huge Stones Solved
The massive sandstone bricks used to construct the 12th-century temple of Angkor Wat were brought to the site via a network of hundreds of canals, according to new research. The findings shed light on how the site's 5 million to 10 million bricks, some weighing up to 3,300 pounds (1,500 kilograms), made it to the temple from quarries at the base of a nearby mountain. "We found many quarries of sandstone blocks used for the Angkor temples and also the transportation route of the sandstone blocks," wrote study co-author Estuo Uchida of Japan's Waseda University, in an email. In the 12th century, King Suryavarman II of the Khmer Empire began work on a 500-acre (200 hectare) temple in the capital city of Angkor , in what is now Cambodia. The complex was built to honor the Hindu god Vishnu, but 14th-century leaders converted the site into a Buddhist temple.
Discovered by a Nazi expedition in 1936, the incredible 1,000 year old Buddhist statue made from a METEORITE
Researchers astonished to find priceless stature was made from rare meteorite 24cm tall, 10kg statue portrays the god Vaisravana By Mark Prigg PUBLISHED: 18:14 GMT, 26 September 2012 | UPDATED: 12:00 GMT, 27 September 2012 In a discovery that sounds uncannily like the plot of an Indiana Jones film, researchers have discovered that a 1,000 year old buddhist statue found by a Nazi expedition in 1938 is made from a meteorite. The findings, published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science, reveal the priceless statue to be a rare ataxite class of meteorite.
Royal discovery: Canadian student digs up 3,000-year-old sculpture of King Suppiluliuma
Darren Joblonkay, 23, was digging at an archeological camp in southeastern Turkey he discovered the two-tonne statue of King Suppiluliuma Regal figure reigned over the Neo-Hittite kingdom of Patina in the 9th century B.C. The enormous sculpture which is preserved from the waist up stands almost 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall Alongside the statue, archaeologists found another carving, a semicircular column base bearing the images of a sphinx and a winged bull By Jill Reilly PUBLISHED: 16:34 GMT, 1 August 2012 | UPDATED: 17:15 GMT, 1 August 2012 Archeologists can spend a whole career exploring and never uncover a worthy find, but one lucky student has discovered an archeological treasure chest and he is still only 23.Pots are oldest pottery ever discovered Date from 10,000 years before humans 'settled down' and became farmers Push invention of pottery back to last ice age Archaeologists struggling to work out how and why they were made Thought to have been used by roving hunter-gatherers By Rob Waugh PUBLISHED: 09:51 GMT, 29 June 2012 | UPDATED: 12:20 GMT, 29 June 2012 Pottery fragments found in a south China cave have been confirmed to be 20,000 years old, making them the oldest known pottery in the world, according to archaeologists. Earlier theories have held that the invention of pottery happened during the period about 10,000 years ago when humans moved from being hunter-gathers to farmers.
Mysterious clay pots in China are 20,000 years old - baked 10,000 years before humans settled down and became farmers
PUBLISHED: 14:56 GMT, 24 June 2012 | UPDATED: 07:13 GMT, 25 June 2012 Glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen has been found in an ancient tomb in Japan. In a sign the empire's influence may have reached the edge of Asia, t hree glass beads discovered in the 5th Century 'Utsukushi' burial mound in Nagaoka, near Kyoto, were probably made some time between the first and the 4th century. The government-backed Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties has recently finished analysing components of the glass beads, measuring five millimetres (0.2 inches) in diameter, with tiny fragments of gilt attached. Treasure: Pieces of glass jewellery believed to have been made by Roman craftsmen were discovered in a 5th century burial ground in Kyoto, western Japan
Ancient Roman jewellery found in fifth century burial site... 6,000 miles away in JAPAN
Hidden treat: The Easter Island heads also have BODIES
By Eddie Wrenn PUBLISHED: 12:38 GMT, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 02:51 GMT, 26 May 2012 The enduring image in the public's mind of the mysterious heads on Easter Island is simply that - heads.By Eddie Wrenn PUBLISHED: 17:13 GMT, 20 June 2012 | UPDATED: 06:14 GMT, 21 June 2012 Easter Island - the land where giant stone heads gaze distantly at the sea - is both a fascinating conundrum and a wonderful microcosm of a society which moved to a new land, accidentally destroyed the ecosystem, and then eventually destroyed themselves. Legend and tells us that the ancient monuments, which range in height from four to 33 feet, were dragged into place from a distant quarry by Polynesian settlers, who sailed a thousand miles across the Pacific in canoes around AD800, before almost instantly embarking on their campaign of building the mysterious monuments. But one thing has always led to debate: how exactly did the tribe move the 'moai' - some of which weigh more than 80 tons - to their final destinations without the benefit of modern technology.