3000 year old seeds / Ice Age ecosystem

3000 year old seeds found  

Archaeologists found many well-preserved fruit and vegetable seeds, including almonds and melon seeds, from more than 3,000 years ago — some even look like new seeds — according to the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology on Nov. 20. (Source)

It is suggested that people from the Zhou Dynasty had storage units that were capable of keeping things fresh. 500 almonds, 10 prunus seeds, 150 Cucurbitaceae seeds, 108 unbroken and 839 half broken seeds have been found.

"The inner walls under the covers were evenly smeared with cob of two to three centimeters, and then were dried. With the four angles as the boundary line, there are two layers of soil in the pit, with the upper layer being light brown soil and the lower layer being yellow-gray soil. The upper layer soil is loose and contains a few processed stone drills, animal bones and potteries. The lower layer soil is compact but has obviously less amount of soil and a large number of plant seeds can be seen with naked eyes." (Source)

Source: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90782/7207914.html

 Ice Age ecosystem found near Snowmass

DENVER — Back at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, crews that spent a month of frenzied fossil discovery at a 130,000-year-old muddy lake bed near Snowmass Village are finding their Ice Age treasure even more magnificent than previously revealed. (Source)

Museum workers — 67 individuals — recovered more than 500 bones representing eight to 10 American mastodons, four Columbian mammoths, four Ice Age bison, two deer, Colorado's first-ever Jefferson's ground sloth, several smaller animal species and hundreds of pounds of plant material. (Source)

Look at these amazing pictures: http://www.snowmasssun.com/article/20101118/FRONTPAGE/101119967/1001&parentprofile=1044
More on this: http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20101119/NEWS/101119827/1001