http://www.megalithic.co.uk News and new discoveries from the Megalithic Portal en-us http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=19208 Standing Stones in Russia. The Urals intends to develop pilgrimage to the "Russian Stonehenge" [here we go again... MegP Ed] A new museum complex to study and preserve ancient megaliths (ceremonial structures of massive stones) will be soon created in the Isle of Vera, Lake Turgoyak of the Chelyabinsk region. According to Senior Research Scientist of the Chelyabinsk Research Center of the Institute for History and Archeology of the Urals department of RAS Stanislav Grigoryev, researchers have a great work on their hands to restore megaliths and improve the territory of the island. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413056 Archaeologists from Oxford have discovered what are thought to be the oldest examples of human decorations in the world. The international team of archaeologists, led by Oxford University's Institute of Archaeology, have found shell beads believed to be 82,000 years old from a limestone cave in Morocco. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413460 Researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Florida State University have confirmed evidence of domesticated sunflower in Mexico - 4,000 years before what had been previously believed. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=3454 Cairn-circle in Devon. Circle diameter: 33 feet. Shown as a cairn on the OS Map, this well-preserved cairn is easily accessible from the nearby road. It is disguised by the surrounding gorse and bracken, but only six stones are missing from the close-set kerb of stones. A field wall curves slightly in order to avoid the cairn. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=19164 A Klallam Indian Village and Cemetery site in Clallam County Washington.The village itself was occupied as long ago as 700 BC. The villagers were forced to abandon the village in 1915. However, the ancient cemetery was no longer in active use at that time; the ground being considered sacred and held fallow. The burials are from the pre-contact era. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413459 Priceless archaeological treasures are being "left exposed in open-air sites" because the National Museum of Ireland has accumulated so many artifacts that it has no place to store them. An unanticipated consequence of the massive road-building programme is that archaeology is one of the State's largest growth industries. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413458 With the help of local herdsmen, a huge cluster of ancient rock drawings has been unearthed in northern China's Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. Over one thousand drawings from the Bronze Era were discovered about 55 kilometers west of Hailiutu county, reports CCTV International. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=19169 Stone Axe Factory in Powys. Cwm Mawr Axe Factory, Hyssington, Archaeological Survey and Excavation 2007. A programme of survey and trial excavation has now been completed in an attempt to confirm the source of the Group XII Bronze Age battle axes and axe hammers which have been found in Wales and the Marches. The axes are made from a distinct rock type known as picrite which is has a very limited distribution, with one of the known outcrops being a small hill near Cwm Mawr, just to the north-west of the village of Hyssington in eastern Montgomeryshire. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18645 Holy Well in Cheshire. Found on the left hand side of Station Road, as you leave the village of Burton on the Wirral. The remains of this well were restored and the garden made in 1975 by Ellesmere Port Borough Council and although it is first mentioned in the early 1600s it may have been used iron age settlements at Burton Point and the Anglo-Saxon settlement. http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146413447 Along with superstars like Harrison Ford, the newest Indiana Jones movie promises to showcase one of the most enigmatic classes of artifacts known to archaeologists, crystal skulls that first surfaced in the 19th century and that specialists attributed to various "ancient Mesoamerican" cultures. Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh shares her own adventures analyzing the artifacts that inspired "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and details her efforts tracking down a mysterious "obtainer of rare antiquities" who may have held the key to the origin of these exotic objects.