Archaeological dig suggests nomads built homes

MASHANTUCKET, Conn. -- A long-held theory about the migrations of ancient inhabitants of eastern Connecticut might change in light of an archaeological dig that has unearthed homes built into a hillside.

Researchers had long believed that the native people who lived in the region about 9,000 years ago were nomadic hunters who moved frequently and did not create permanent living spaces.

But an archaeological dig taking place near a Foxwoods Resort Casino parking garage has uncovered dozens of pit houses, structures built into a hill and supported by timbers.



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Discoveries in a Gibraltar cave suggest over closest relative was closer than previously thought

Primitive stone tools and remnants from wood fires recovered from the vast Gorham's cave on the easternmost face of the Rock suggest Neanderthals found refuge there, and clung to life for thousands of years after they had died out elsewhere.


Carbon dating of charcoal fragments excavated alongside spear points and basic cutting tools indicates the cave was home to a group of around 15 Neanderthals at least 28,000 years ago, and possibly as recently as 24,000 years ago. Previously uncovered remains lead scientists to believe the Neanderthals died out in Europe and elsewhere some 35,000 years ago.


The discovery marks more clearly than ever before the time of death of our closest relative, and completes one of the most dramatic chapters in human evolution.

Today, Gorham's cave is perched on a cliff face lapped by the Mediterranean, but the view from the east-facing entrance was once of rolling sand dunes pocked with vegetation. A freshwater stream running down from the north led to the sea 4.8km away.

Link to more: Neanderthals: Not so far removed

Artifacts locked in time spawns 'museum in action'

For archaeologists, discovery of the Peinan site in southeastern Taiwan has proved invaluable in terms of information about the unwritten past of Taiwan's early inhabitants. For the National Museum of Prehistory, exhibiting the excavated treasures not only offers an opportunity to educate visitors about Taiwan's prehistoric past but also provides a link to the island's present, and thus helps to tell the full story of Taiwan's indigenous culture.



This also explains the museum's future direction: located in Taitung City, a major aboriginal conurbation, it hopes to become a window of the Austronesian-speaking cultures that cover a large part of the earth's surface from Madagascar off the coast of Africa to Easter Island in the eastern Pacific, and from New Zealand in the south to Hawaii and Taiwan in the north.

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Taiwan Prehistoric Past