viernes, 16 de julio de 2010

Archaeologists find what could be ancient village near Jerseyville (EEUU)

Archaeologists find what could be ancient village near Jerseyville (EEUU)

Archaeologists excavating a location south of Jerseyville in west-central Illinois believe they have found remnants of a village dating back to AD 600.

So far, about 40 pits have been found across 4 acres along U.S. 67.

Included among them are “some very large storage pits and one bell-shaped pit that appears to have had hundreds of tons of limestone hauled in and has a flagstone floor,” said David

Nolan, Western Illinois Field Station coordinator for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey.

Working with the Illinois Department of Transportation prior to completion of the section of Corridor 67 south of Jerseyville eventually will be a four-lane highway from the Quad Cities to Alton.

The group began in April and should be done in about a month, according to Robert “Rob” Hickson of Jacksonville, Western Illinois Field Station assistant coordinator.

“We have three sites, two sites on the west side of U.S. 67 and another site on the east of the present highway about a quarter mile south of this site,” Nolan said.

The archaeologists believe there are also archaeological deposits going back 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and a more current excavation dating to the 1830s or 1840s.

“The excavations on the west side are yielding very well-preserved bone fragments as well as pottery pieces,” Nolan said. “It appears this was a large communal village, but may not have been used year-round, our later analysis of our data will have to tell us that.”

The materials gathered from the excavations will be sent to the Jacksonville field station to be cleaned, inventoried and analyzed.

Fuente: Jacksonvillen Journal Courier: http://www.myjournalcourier.com/news/archaeologists-27922-village-jerseyville.html

No hay comentarios: