08-09 MARS 2014 NEWS: Cusco - Santorin - St Augustine - Coulee Region -
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PEROU – 
Cusco - Archaeologists find 3,000-year-old graves. Experts say the artifacts and skeletal remains come from the pre-Inca Marcavalle culture. Excavators working in the city of Cusco have discovered a burial site containing five individuals from the Marcavalle culture, a pre-Inca society.Andina news agency reports that the skeletal remains date back to around 1,000 BC. The burial site, which contained two double graves and one single grave, was found on land owned by a Cusco center for juvenile rehabilitation. Three of the individuals found at the site were adults at the time of their deaths, while one was a child and the other an adolescent. In addition to the skeletal remains, some of which were buried wearing beaded necklaces. Tools made from obsidian and camelid bones also accompanied the bodies, as did ceramic fragments bearing artistic motifs known to be associated with the Marcavalle culture. Andina reports that investigations related to this find go back as far as 1960. No intact human remains of the Marcavalle culture had previously been found. This most recent dig began in late 2013. Archaeologists are now planning to continue excavations in the area to learn more about the Marcavalle.
VIDEO = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfnrl8oW47Q
http://www.peruthisweek.com/news-archaeologists-find-3000-year-old-graves-in-cusco-peru-102459
GRECE – 
Santorin - According to a recent international study, the volcano of the island Santorini, Greece, erupted in the 16th century BC and not earlier. The survey characterized a number of research studies that took place in the past and have indicated that Santorini’s volcano may have erupted a century earlier, as unreliable because the method based on tree-ring measurements that they used, could not provide them with accurate results.An international team of researchers led by Paolo Cherubini from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) has demonstrated in the scientific journal Antiquity, that this method cannot provide reliable results. The scientists show that the14C dating of individual pieces of olive wood enveloped by volcanic ash is too unreliable for precise dating. “Investigating such wood samples only makes sense if it can be clearly shown that the trees were still alive at the time of the eruption. In the case of old olive trees in the Mediterranean region, it is not at all unusual for dead branches to stay in place for several decades,” says Paolo Cherubini. If 14C dating is carried out, it must use an international reference curve, which in the case of the period of the volcanic eruption is based on tree-ring measurements from trees that are more than 4,000 years old. According to Cherubini, the uncertainties mentioned above can easily give rise to differences of several decades in the dating of Santorini’s eruption. Therefore, he believes that the hypothesis that Santorini’s volcano erupted almost a century earlier cannot be confirmed using current methods. In his opinion, answers are more likely to be found through interdisciplinary research involving close cooperation between archaeologists, climatologists, geoscientists, dendroclimatologists and historians, allowing a general view of the situation to emerge. The question whether this natural disaster occurred 3,500 or 3,600 years ago is of great historiographical importance and has indeed at times been the subject of heated discussion among experts. The traditional belief that the volcano erupted during the 16th century BC, seems to be confirmed by this new study.
USA – St Augustine - Archeologists are preparing to begin excavating a previously uncharted area in St. Augustine that was once occupied by Native Americans and early Spanish settlers.The St. Augustine Record reports that in a week researchers are set to begin digging at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. The site has been regularly excavated since 1976 and has led to the discovery of about 97,000 artifacts. The colony was settled in 1565 by explorer Pedro Menendez and is believed to be the earliest example of European explorers and Native Americans working together. Researchers say only about 30 percent of the park has been explored.
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/4770852f6f8e4f1494438a593334c871/FL--Archaeology-Dig
USA – 
Coulee Region - Local pieces of history were on display at the Valley View Mall Saturday. Artifacts from the Coulee Region could be seen at the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center artifact show. Area collectors displayed their own collections, some dating back to 1800 B.C., and staff from the Archaeology Center brought pieces they've recovered.
VIDEO = http://www.wxow.com/story/24923713/2014/03/08/area-artifacts-on-display