Archaeology

[Volkonski]

Archaeologists uncover ancient ceremonial carriage near Pompeii

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ital ... ce=twitter

The almost perfectly preserved four-wheeled carriage made of iron, bronze and tin was found near the stables of an ancient villa at Civita Giuliana, around 700 metres (yards) north of the walls of ancient Pompeii.

Massimo Osanna, the outgoing director of the Pompeii archaeological site, said the carriage was the first of its kind discovered in the area, which had so far yielded functional vehicles used for transport and work, but not for ceremonies.

“This is an extraordinary discovery that advances our understanding of the ancient world,” Osanna said, adding that the carriage would have “accompanied festive moments for the community, (such as) parades and processions”.

The culture ministry called it “a unique find, without any precedent in Italy”.

[Estiveo]

[Liz]

way cool.

Archeologists found the remains of at least 25 individuals within Montelirio tholos. Previous analysis has suggested that at least one male and several females died from ingesting poison. The remains of the women were seated in a circular fashion in a chamber next to the bones of whom may have been the chief.

[Volkonski]

Researchers Reveal New Insight Into Reasons for Prehistoric Massacre

https://www.courthousenews.com/research ... -massacre/

More than 6,000 years ago, 41 men and women were massacred in what is now Potočani, Croatia, with the victims ranging from as young as 2 years old to as old as 35. Although still researchers don’t understand why these people were murdered, research published in the journal PLOS ONE on Wednesday reveals new information about them.

“This mass burial definitely cannot be defined as ‘normal’ or ‘usual’ for the time period we’re talking about,” said Mario Novak, a senior researcher at the Institute for Anthropological Research in Zagreb, Croatia.

During Neolithic and Eneolithic periods, people in the region ritualistically buried their dead crouched on their side with ceramic vessels. Reaching 3 feet deep and 6 feet wide, the Potočani site contained the remains of at least 41 individuals, indiscriminately scarred by fatal wounds to the head and extremities.

Though other massacre sites been found in what is now know as Germany and Austria, these sites are considered rare.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/10/europe/f ... index.html

(CNN)Archaeologists working at an ancient complex in southeastern Spain say women probably held political power in the Bronze Age society that ruled the area 4,000 years ago -- a sharp contrast with earlier views of the civilization.

Researchers said women of the ruling class may have been important in governing the El Argar society, the Research Group in Mediterranean Social Archaeoecology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona said in a news release published Thursday.



The fact that elite women were buried with such opulent funerary goods points to their important role in Argar society, according to researchers.

"In the Argaric society, women of the dominant classes were buried with diadems, while the men were buried with a sword and dagger. The funerary goods buried with these men were of lesser quantity and quality," they said. "As swords represent the most effective instrument for reinforcing political decisions, El Argar dominant men might have played an executive role, even though the ideological legitimation as well as, perhaps, the government, had lain in some women's hands."

The couple found in the tomb died simultaneously, or around the same time, in the mid-17th century BCE. They weren't related, and had a daughter together, who was buried nearby.

[Uninformed]

“Scientists unlock mysteries of world's oldest 'computer'”

“A 2,000-year-old device often referred to as the world's oldest "computer" has been recreated by scientists trying to understand how it worked.
The Antikythera Mechanism has baffled experts since it was found on a Roman-era shipwreck in Greece in 1901.”

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56377567

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... astic-life

A French-Norwegian archaeological team has discovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Western Desert, revealing monastic life in the region in the fifth century AD, the Egyptian antiquities ministry said.

“The French-Norwegian mission discovered during its third excavation campaign at the site of Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz in the Bahariya Oasis several buildings made of basalt, others carved into the bedrock and some made of mud bricks,” it said in a statement on Saturday.

Archaeologists unearth bronze age graves at Stonehenge tunnel site
Read more

The complex is comprised of “six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monks’ cells”, whose “walls bear graffiti and symbols with Coptic connotations”, said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities at the ministry.

Mission head Victor Ghica said “19 structures and a church carved into the bedrock” were discovered in 2020, according to the statement.

The church walls were decorated with “religious inscriptions” and biblical passages in Greek, revealing “the nature of monastic life in the region”, Ghica said.

It clearly showed that monks were present there since the fifth century AD, he added.

[Volkonski]

A tisket, a tasket, a 10,000 year old basket.

New piece of Dead Sea Scrolls jigsaw discovered after 60 years

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-isra ... ce=twitter

Israeli archaeologists racing against treasure hunters to search caves near the Dead Sea have discovered a trove of artefacts, including fragments of a biblical text, the like of which has not been seen for decades.

The finds, preserved by the hot, dry air of the Judean desert, also include the 6,000-year-old partly mummified skeleton of a child, and a perfectly intact, finely woven basket dating back 10,500 years that the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Tuesday was likely to be the oldest in the world.

The Authority has overseen a survey of more than 100 km (65 miles) of cliffs and the caves carved or eroded into them.

The fragments of parchment, about 2,000 years old, bear biblical verse, written in Greek, and match a scroll discovered about 60 years ago called the “Book of the 12 Minor Prophets”.

[MsDaisy]

Very cool!

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... rcher-says

When Neanderthals, Denisovans and homo sapiens met one another 50,000 years ago, these archaic and modern humans not only interbred during the thousands of years in which they overlapped, but they exchanged ideas that led to a surge in creativity, according to a leading academic.

Tom Higham, a professor of archaeological science at the University of Oxford, argues that their exchange explains “a proliferation of objects in the archaeological record”, such as perforated teeth and shell pendants, the use of pigments and colourants, decorated and incised bones, carved figurative art and cave painting: “Through the early 50,000s, up to around 38,000 to 40,000 years ago, we see a massive growth in these types of ornaments that we simply didn’t see before.”

Between 40,000 and 150,000 years ago, our cousins included the Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans.

“Now it’s just us; there aren’t any other types of humans on the planet,” Higham says. “We always thought that the origins of art and complex cognitive thought was the hallmark of us – modern humans. This was called the human revolution. The basis of this hypothesis, which came out in the 1970s, was that humans came out of Africa and brought with them a cognitive ability that no other types of humans – particularly Neanderthals – had ... Now what we think is happening is that … it’s not restricted to modern humans at all.

[Liz]

... and if there were still 4 forms of humans, how would they be treated?
Too many of Us don't even treat our kind of humans equally as humans.

[Volkonski]

... and if there were still 4 forms of humans, how would they be treated?
Too many of Us don't even treat our kind of humans equally as humans.

If the forms of humans were Homo Sapiens, Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, Homo luzonesis and the Denisovans it is hard to think how the latter four could possibly have survived contact with Homo Sapiens. The Homo Sapiens lived in larger groups, would over populate the others and push them off the best land.

The Neanderthals were never very numerous. Their population is thought to have been only 5000 to 70,000 at its peak. Small population groups are vulnerable to extinction from many causes.

[Uninformed]

“Greek bull figurine unearthed after heavy downpour”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56460693

[Volkonski]

Vesuvius killed people of Pompeii in 15 minutes, study suggests
Cloud of ash and gas engulfed Roman city within minutes and suffocated inhabitants, research says

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... 1616422008

Numerous studies have confirmed that the estimated 2,000 people who died in the Roman city were asphyxiated rather than killed by the lava. And work by researchers from the University of Bari, in collaboration with the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) and the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, says the pyroclastic flow – a dense, fast-moving current of solidified lava pieces, volcanic ash and hot gases – engulfed Pompeii just a few minutes after the volcano erupted.

The lethal cloud had “a temperature of over 100 degrees (C) and was composed of CO2, chlorides, particles of incandescent ash and volcanic glass”, said Roberto Isaia, senior researcher of the Vesuvius Observatory of the INGV. “The aim of the work was to develop a model to try to understand and quantify the impact of pyroclastic flows on the inhabited area of Pompeii, about 10km [6 miles] from Vesuvius,” he added.

The study confirms that the inhabitants had no escape, and most of those who died suffocated in their homes and beds, or in the streets and squares of the city. Isaia’s model estimates the gases, ash and volcanic particles would have engulfed the city for between 10 and 20 minutes.

“It is probable that dozens of people died due to the rain of lapilli that fell on Pompeii after the eruption, but most of them died of asphyxiation,” Isaia said, adding the pyroclastic flow would have reached Pompeii a few minutes after the explosion.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/ ... iscovered/

On Monday, Historic St. Mary’s City announced that Parno, director of research for the organization, and Horsley had indeed found the outlines of the palisaded fort that was erected in Southern Maryland by White settlers in 1634.

Horsley’s scans had revealed the imprint of post holes that formed a large rectangle with a semicircular bastion at one corner.

The scans also showed evidence of what appeared to be dwellings inside the fort, including several that may have been Native American.

Excavation later turned up evidence of the brick cellar of a guardhouse or storehouse, the trigger guard for a musket, and a quartzite arrow head that was 4,500 years old.

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... te-mystery

A handful of coins unearthed from a pick-your-own-fruit orchard in the US state of Rhode Island and other random corners of New England may help solve a centuries-old cold case.

The villain in this tale: a murderous English pirate who became the world’s most-wanted criminal after plundering a ship carrying Muslim pilgrims home to India from Mecca, then eluded capture by posing as a slave trader.

Jim Bailey, an amateur historian and metal detectorist, found the first intact 17th-century Arabian coin in a meadow in Middletown.

That ancient pocket change – the oldest ever found in North America – could explain how pirate Capt Henry Every vanished.

[John Thomas8]

BBC's Time Team is attempting to restart and needs help restarting:

"We're putting the band back together!"

[AndyinPA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/mi ... story.html

CAIRO — A 3,000-year-old "lost golden city" has been unearthed in the southern city of Luxor, a discovery that could be the most significant find in Egypt since the tomb of the boy king Tutankhamen, the archaeological mission said Thursday in a statement.

The lost city, known as Aten, is believed to have been founded by King Amenhotep III, the ninth king of ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty who ruled the country from 1391 to 1353 B.C., the mission’s statement said. It is believed to be the largest administrative and industrial settlement in that era, nestled on the western bank of Luxor.

“The discovery of this lost city is the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamun,” Betsy Bryan, an Egyptology professor at Johns Hopkins University and member of the mission, said in the statement.

[Volkonski]

Call for Dame Mary Beard!!

Roman site uncovered in Scarborough hailed as first of its kind in UK

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... 1618409610

The remains of a Roman settlement believed to be the first of its kind discovered in Britain – and possibly the whole Roman empire – has been uncovered near the North Yorkshire seaside town.

The find might have caused a headache for the developer Keepmoat Homes but has sparked excitement among experts, with Historic England describing it as “easily the most important Roman discovery of the last decade”.

The large complex of buildings – approximately the size of two tennis courts – includes a cylindrical tower structure with a number of rooms leading from it and a bathhouse. As excavations and analysis continue, historians believe the site may have been the estate of a wealthy landowner, which could have later become a religious sanctuary or even a high-end “stately home cum – gentleman’s club”.

Keith Emerick, an inspector of ancient monuments at Historic England, said the site gave a fascinating new perspective on the Roman north.

[Maybenaut]

Just finished with the last season of The Detectorists. I won’t spoil it, but a plot point was the discovery of Roman ruins during excavation prior to development.

One episode had a very nice montage of different people using the same bit of land for different purposes over a long period of time, each group leaving evidence of their presence behind.

[Volkonski]

These mysterious stone structures in Saudi Arabia are older than the pyramids
Researchers think the region’s "mustatils" form the oldest ritual landscape in the world. But exactly what they were for isn’t clear.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science ... d_nn_tw_ma

Thousands of monumental structures built from walls of rock in Saudi Arabia are older than Egypt's pyramids and the ancient stone circles of Britain, researchers say – making them perhaps the earliest ritual landscape ever identified.

A study published Thursday in the journal Antiquity shows that the mysterious structures dotted around the desert in northwestern Saudi Arabia – called "mustatils" from the Arabic word for "rectangle" – are about 7,000 years old. That’s much older than expected, and about 2,000 years older than either Stonehenge in England or the oldest Egyptian pyramid.

“We think of them as a monumental landscape,” said Melissa Kennedy, an archaeologist at the University of Western Australia in Perth and an author of the study. “We are talking about over 1,000 mustatils. These things are found over 200,000 square kilometers [77,000 square miles], and they’re all very similar in shape ... so perhaps it’s the same ritual belief or understanding.”

“There must have been a great level of communication over a very big area, because how they were constructed was communicated to people,” lead author Hugh Thomas, an archaeologist at the same university, said.

[AndyinPA]

Cool!

[Dave from down under]

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2021-05- ... /100109090

A Swedish orienteering enthusiast working on a map earlier in April has stumbled across a stash of some 50 Bronze Age relics dating back over 2,500 years.

Mainly consisting of ancient jewelry, the find outside the small town of Alingsas in western Sweden represents one of "the most spectacular and largest cache finds" from the Bronze Age ever in the country, the County Administrative Board said.

Among the find are some "very well preserved necklaces, chains and needles" made out of bronze, the board said.

[RTH10260]

Archaeologists Discover the Largest, Oldest Maya Monument Yet
The structure, believed to have served as a ceremonial center 3,000 years ago, was discovered in Tabasco, Mexico.
villahermosa mexico

THE MAYAN CULTURE built city-states across Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize for centuries, but we’re only starting to appreciate how extensive Maya civilization was and how drastically Maya farmers and engineers reworked the Mesoamerican landscape. Over the past few years, lidar surveys have revealed an ancient landscape previously hidden beneath vegetation and features that are too large-scale to recognize from the ground. Aguada Fenix, a newly discovered monument site, is the latter.


“A horizontal construction on this scale is difficult to recognize from the ground level,” wrote University of Arizona archaeologist Takeshi Inomata and his colleagues. The earthen platform is 1.4 kilometers (0.87 miles) long and 10 to 15 meters (33 to 49 feet) tall, with raised earthen causeways connecting it to groups of smaller platforms nearby. Based on excavations at the site, it served as a ceremonial center for the Maya.

"This area is developed—it’s not the jungle, Inomata said. "People live there, but this site was not known because it is so flat and huge. It just looks like a natural landscape. But with lidar, it pops up as a very well-planned shape.” The team first noticed the platform in a set of low-resolution lidar images collected by the Mexican government, and they followed up with higher-resolution surveys and then excavations at the site.

That lidar survey found 21 other monumental platforms, clustered in groups around the region. But Aguada Fenix is by far the largest—in fact, it’s the largest single Maya structure archaeologists have ever found. It took between 3.2 million and 4.3 million cubic meters (113 million to 151 million cubic feet) of clay and soil to build up the platform. That’s a larger volume than the famous pyramids built centuries later during what’s known as the Maya Classic Period.



https://www.wired.com/story/archaeologi ... ument-yet/

based on this

Archaeologists discover the largest—and oldest—Maya monument ever
The huge earthen platform discovered in Tabasco, Mexico, dates back 3,000 years.
KIONA N. SMITH - 6/3/2020, 7:06 PM

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/06 ... ment-ever/

[Lani]

Exclusive: This 7,000-year-old woman was among Sweden's last hunter-gatherers
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/hist ... 48368741AA

To the archaeologist who excavated her remains, she’s Burial XXII. To the staff at the museum where she will be displayed, she’s known as the “Seated Woman” (for now, at least, though they’re open to other suggestions). And to the artist who reconstructed her life-size image and imagined her piercing stare, she’s the “Shaman.”

Her real name was likely last uttered some 7,000 years ago in the fertile marshes and forests of what is now southwest Sweden. But while that name is forgotten to history, a team led by archaeologist and artist Oscar Nilsson was able to breathe life into her remarkable burial with a reconstruction that will be unveiled at Sweden’s Trelleborg Museum on November 17.

The woman was buried upright, seated cross-legged on a bed of antlers. A belt fashioned from more than 100 animal teeth hung from her waist and a large slate pendant from her neck. A short cape of feathers covered her shoulders.

She was dark skinned and pale eyed.