From The Independent: Archaeologist begins search for wreck of slave ship that mutinied.
An archaeologist is to begin searching the South African coast for a slave ship that was the site of a dramatic battle between Madagascan slaves and their Dutch captors in 1766. Jaco Boshoff hopes to find the wreck of the Meermin and shed new light on the slave trade.
In December 1765, the Dutch East India Company controlled the Meermin and sent it from Cape Town round the tip of South Africa to buy slaves on the west coast of Madagascar, 1,700 miles away. The crew picked up 147 slaves there, and set sail to return home. At sea, the Dutch crew ordered some of the slaves to clean the guns and some spears they had picked up as souvenirs. The quick-witted slaves used the arms to kill half the 60-member crew and ordered the survivors to sail the ship back to Madagascar.
The sailors did as they were ordered by day, but at night they steered the ship back towards Cape Town - at a faster pace. When the boat finally dropped anchor in Cape Town, some of the Madagascans went ashore, only to be overpowered by farmers. The rest remained on board until the ship hit a sandbank and they were captured. The authorities abandoned the damaged Meermin on the sand.
Now Mr Boshoff, who works with the government-run Iziko Museums in Cape Town, believes he can find the remains of the ship. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Long-lost map points back to roots of Botanic Garden.
A long-lost map found gathering dust in a basement is set to give a fascinating insight into the history of Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Garden.
The 150-year-old map has been restored from the brink of disintegration after being found by chance in a basement beneath the Botanics library.
Botanists and curators at the garden are excited by the find and believe it could shed light on the garden's past and reveal important facts about the work of the garden in the 19th century.
They now aim to study the map in detail to find out as much as they can from it and are convinced it holds more facts about how the garden used to look and why many of the features which remain today were created. [continue, see photo]
From ICWales.co.uk: Roman 'motorway' secrets unveiled.
Archaeologists excavating along the ancient Via Egnatia in Greece are revealing the secrets of the ancient Romans’ equivalent of an Interstate highway.
Stretching 535 miles across modern-day Albania, Macedonia and Greece, the stone-paved road made the going easy for charioteers, soldiers and other travellers. It was up to 30 feet wide in places and was dotted with safety features, inns and service stations.
"This was a busy road, and the Romans managed to make it completely functional," archaeologist Polyxeni Tsatsopoulou told The Associated Press.
Built between 146 and 120 B.C. under the supervision of the top Roman official in Macedonia, proconsul Gaius Egnatius, the highway ran from the Adriatic coast in what is now Albania to modern Turkey, giving Rome quick access to the eastern provinces of its empire.
Ancient engineers did such a good job that the Via Egnatia remained in use for some 2,000 years, sticking to its original course even as its paving slabs were plundered for building material. But over the last century, [continue]
From Yahoo News: For sale: one megalithic tomb (if buyer passes muster).
BAGNEUX, France (AFP) -Pascal Normand has decided to sell his 5,000-year-old megalithic tomb, but he is being very choosy about who gets it.
"Ive got to feel that the buyer has a real passion for the monument, even if he decides not to open it to the public," Normand said about his dolmen -- a Neolithic tomb consisting of two or more upright stones with a capstone -- in Bagneux, western France.
No passion, no sale, he says.
To sweeten the deal, Normand is throwing in a bar and two apartments on the 2,300-square-metre (half-acre) plot, asking 1.5 million euros (1.8 million dollars) for the lot.
The dolmen, at 23 metres (75 feet), is the longest in France, Normand says, adding that it was classified as a historic monument in the 19th century by Prosper Merimee, the playwright and author who was also state archaeologist. [continue]
Related:
Le Dolmen de Bagneux - saumur-dolmen.com
From novinite.com: IXth Century Monastery Remains Unearthed in Bulgaria.
Well-preserved monastery vault arches dated back to the IXth century were found during excavation works in the Karaach Tepe area near Varna.
The arches are the only ones that have remained from the monastery constructions of the Middle Ages, experts claim. The new findings prove that in the early stages of the Middle Ages the Bulgarians were able to compete with the Byzantines in that kind of construction works. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Power of seven.
Whatever tenant arrangements were agreed around 5,000 years ago, number seven house at Skara Brae village in Orkney has been pretty good value for money. Structurally, it's solid and the furniture - beds, dresser, cupboards, cool-store for the food - is still in tip-top condition. And if the original roofing (whalebone, skin, turf or suchlike) had been regularly attended to, it could be advertised as "ready for occupation".
Certainly, there wouldn't have been the modern condensation problem, caused by the latter-day addition of a glass roof, or the stresses caused from thousands of feet pounding along what was meant to be the upper level of somebody's home. Which is why Julie Gibson, Orkney's county archaeologist, reckons the preservation work being done this summer on the neolithic house has made present-day visitors appreciate the unique value of the site even more. [continue]
From sfgate.com: Renaissance garden grows insight into the lives of long-gone sailors.
The Vasa was a magnificent ship. Decorated with symbolic sculptures, carvings and gold leaf, and bronze guns polished to a fare-thee-well, she was built to impress and strike fear as the pride of Sweden's 17th century Royal navy. On a fine August day in 1628, with king, court and populace gathered, she was launched. Within minutes -- sails set, flags flying, gun ports open for the royal salute -- she caught a gust, heeled over and sank.
The Vasa lay in the Stockholm harbor for 333 years. In 1961, she was brought up from centuries of enveloping mud. With the salvage came skeletons of the drowned along with about 24,000 preserved objects. In 1990, the Vasamuseet, located less than a nautical mile from the spot where she capsized, opened to display her restoration. The museum -- with its interactive exhibits and films that bring to life the Vasa and her times -- has become Scandinavia's most visited attraction. [continue]
More about the Vasa:
Vasa - Wikipedia
Vasamuseet - the Vasa Musuem site, available in Swedish, English, and many other languages
More old garden stuff at Mirabilis.ca:
Ninfia
Makeover for monk's garden
A lost garden and its traditions rescued in Cornwall
Found: 500-year-old Tudor garden
12th century medicinal herb garden recreated
Tudor garden rediscovered
Medieval Garden Intrigues British Archaeologists
From mosnews.com: Estonian Archaeologists Play Flute Recovered from 600-Year Old Loo.
Estonian archaeologists have found an ancient flute in an outhouse dating 600 years back, the DELFI news portal reports. The chief researcher praised the finding and said that the ancient musical instrument was still playable.
The dig site where the flute was found is located in the town of Tartu near the border with Russia. Chief researcher Andres Tvauri has said that the flute was in “working condition” after staying in an outhouse for six centuries and added that to his awareness there was no equally old woodwind instrument in Estonia that could still be played. [continue, see photo]
From the Beeb: Grave reveals medieval Caesareans.
The medieval remains of a mother and daughter found in North Yorkshire shows signs of an attempted Caesarean operation, scientists have revealed.
The 900-year-old grave at Wharram Percy held the remains of a woman aged between 25 and 30 with a baby.
A study of the remains by English Heritage showed the woman died during her pregnancy and the foetus was cut free from the womb in a bid to save it.
Nearly 700 skeletons have been found at the 12th century site near Malton.
It is thought the woman died during her pregnancy which was 10 weeks short of full-term.
Simon Mays, skeletal biologist at English Heritage's Centre for Archaeology, said the find contradicts previous notions that medieval people got used to death.
He said it suggests life was precious and people were prepared to carry out drastic acts to preserve it. [continue]
From ansa.it: Ancient Egypt gems on Italian isle.
Pantelleria, August 25 - A priceless set of ancient jewellery, probably from Egypt, is the latest archaeological jackpot experts have struck on this southern Italian island .
Excavations at the 16th-century BC settlement of Mursia, on the north-western part of the isle, have uncovered a beautiful oriental style ring, necklace and pair of ear-rings .
The discovery comes on the back of a string of spectacular recent finds made here which date back to ancient Roman times. [continue]
Posted at 09:30 AM . Permalink
From iol.co.za: Archaeologists hail mosaic find in Sinai.
A nine-metre-long Roman mosaic dating from the 2nd Century has been unearthed by an Egyptian-Polish archaeological team in northern Sinai, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) said on Wednesday.
The mosaic was found while the archaeologists were restoring a Pelusium Roman theatre in an area 25km east of the Suez Canal.
"It is the most unique piece of mosaic ever found in Sinai," said SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass.
The mosaic, made from a combination of glass, marble, clay and limestone, features a blooming garden with two birds on a tree branch and other birds flying over roses.
It is believed to have once been part of the theatre's decorated floor. [continue]
From iol.co.za: Inca ruins uncovered near frosty peaks.
A Czech scientific expedition has claimed to have found in the Andes mountains of Bolivia the ruins of an Inca city at the highest altitude recorded to date, according to the Czech expert who led the research team.
Consisting of several sites, the Inca settlement near Lake Titicaca extended for about 10 square kilometres at an altitude between 3 000m and 4 000m, said Ivo Bartecek, a Czech specialist in Ibero-American studies.
"Up higher, there are only glaciers," said Bartecek, who is also head of the philosophy faculty at the University of Olomouc in the eastern Czech Republic.
The expedition of two Czech scientists and two researchers spent three weeks during the South American winter exploring the region.
The team's main goal was to prove the hypothesis that Inca and pre-Inca civilisations existed in the highest possible regions of the Andean mountain range. [continue]
From physorg.com: Salt production started in ancient China.
Harvard researcher Rowan Flad and colleagues said they found multiple lines of evidence of large-scale salt production at an archeological site near Zhongba, along the Yangzi River in central China.
The chemical compositions of the soil and nearby brine were found to be similar to other salt-production facilities. Likewise, the researchers said the form and composition of various ceramics found at the site are similar to salt production pottery discovered in other regions of the world.
The scientists say their study indicates salt production was a significant activity at the site during the first millennium B.C., and possibly earlier. [continue]
From This is North Scotland: Ancient bead may be clue to king of Orkney.
A Small brown and yellow bead which travelled 600 miles from one end of the country to the other has yielded another clue about where a King of Orkney might have lived around 2,000 years ago.
The round Meare bead has just been found in what was thought to be a rubbish site beside the Minehowe rock-built underground structure.
Excavation started in 2000 after local farmer Douglas Paterson of Tankerness rediscovered the site. It was originally found in the 1950s and covered up again for the safety of farm animals. The latest dig has been focusing on a ditch, encircling the Iron Age underground structure, and a metalworker's workshop nearby. [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Ancient riddle eludes archeologists.
University of Haifa archeologists digging in the ancient city of Hippos-Sussita have uncovered more than what they expected this season. One of their surprises was the discovery of a lintel from a structure built during the Byzantine era with Jewish symbols, which was originally thought to be a synagogue, but now believed to be a church.
The sixth season of the archeological excavation at Hippos-Sussita overlooking Kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the Kinneret, has produced several astonishments like the lintel, says Prof. Arthur Segal of the university's Zinman Institute of Archeology. The lintel was uncovered in a public building in the southwestern residential quarter of Sussita, which according to Ancient Jewish sources indicated that such a synagogue existed in this predominantly Greek city.
Segal later reached the conclusion that it was actually a church. He explained that the structure could have served first as a synagogue and later been turned into a church. In another explanation he suggested that the synagogue may have existed in close proximity to the church, and following the synagogue's destruction the lintel was reused in the church. [continue]
From The Telegraph: 'Henry VIII hunting whistle' unearthed.
A silver huntsman's whistle, which may have belonged to Henry VIII, has been unearthed during a metal detectors' club gathering.
The whistle is engraved with motifs that appear to link it to the king's first wife, Catherine of Aragon. It is being studied at the British Museum.
The finder, Keith Stuart, 62, was taking part in the club event in a field on the Isle of Wight and is now waiting to be told the whistle's value after having it declared treasure by a coroner's court.
Archaeologists have dated it to the 16th Century and have told Mr Stuart that it will fetch many thousands of pounds. The whistle, 2½ in long, is engraved with roses and pomegranates, the latter being the emblem of Catherine of Aragon, Henry is believed to have hunted on the Isle of Wight and the whistle may have been dropped during a visit. [continue]
From the BBC: Early humans 'may have spread TB'.
The tuberculosis bacterium emerged in East Africa three million years ago and may have spread around the world when early humans left their ancestral home, a genetic study suggests.
According to molecular analysis of modern strains, the pathogen is much older than previously thought, predating other human afflictions such as the plague. [continue]
From Iceland Review:Grave of Egil Skalla-Grímsson found?.
Icelandic State Radio reports that the possible grave site of Egil Skalla-Grímsson, one of Iceland's most famous vikings, has been found under the altar of a church from the settlement period. No bones were found at the burial site.
Jessie Byock, archeology professor at the University of California in Los Angeles who is in charge of the excavation, emphasizes that the work being done in Mosfellsdal is not directed at finding the grave site of Egil Skalla-Grímsson. The excavation has taken many years and the church at Hrísbrú is the seventh dig site.
The purpose of the dig is to map the settlement in Mosfellsdal as it was in the time of the Vikings and understand how people lived. Professor Byock told television station Stod 2 that if they also find the burial site for Egil Skalla-Grímsson he will be very happy; it is known that Egill was buried in the area.
In the Icelandic Saga, Egil's Saga, Egil is said to have been buried underneath a church that his foster daughter Thórdís had built, but his bones were subsequently moved to a site near Mosafellsdal. The grave under the church is over two meters long, and Egil is described as having been a tall and powerfully built man. [continue]
Related:
Ruins discovered at Kárahnjúkar - IcelandReview.com
Egil's bones - Scientific American article reprinted at ucla.edu. ("An Icelandic saga tells of a Viking who had unusual, menacing features, including a skull that could resist blows from an ax. He probably suffered from an ailment called Paget's disease.")
From Ananova: Medieval peasants had 'better teeth'.
Medieval peasants had better teeth than people today because they spent longer chewing their food, say researchers.
Professor Wolfgang Arnold, from the University of Witten/Herdecke, studied the remains of people buried between the 5th and 9th centuries.
He found they had better teeth than their descendants, even though they never brushed their teeth.
He said: "The portrayal of the typical person from the middle ages as having rotten teeth is wrong.
"There was sweet food items available then, but despite this and the fact there were no toothbrushes, not a single body showed signs of tooth decay. [continue]
Related:
Medieval teeth 'better than Baldrick's' - BBC
The medical world of medieval monks - BBC
Medieval and Renaissance dental hygiene, mouthwashes - gallowglass.org
From discovery.com: Fancy Roman Dining Hall Found.
Startling evidence of ancient Romans' most exclusive way of dining has been uncovered in a villa in southern Italy, local archaeologists announced.
Excavation at the residence of an aristocratic family in Faragola, in Puglia, has brought to light a rare example of a stibadium, a semicircular couch on which selected guests sat at the most fashionable dinner parties.
Complete with a fountain, which provided fresh water for the meals, the stibadium consisted of a semicircular platform of masonry that formed the basis for mattresses or bolsters on which the guests reclined. (...)
Built in the 4th century, the residence reached its height of splendor during the 5th century. Belonging to the senatorial Cornelii Scipiones Orfiti family, it featured big and luxurious thermal baths, with rooms for cold, lukewarm and hot baths.
In a large room with a precious mosaic floor, guests indulged in massages.
But the most spectacular room was the cenatio, the dining hall. The dominus, the house owner, sat at the right on the stibadium, while the most important guest sat at the left in front of the dominus. [continue, see photos]
From iol.co.za: Archaelogists on trail of ancient warships.
Italian archaeologists believe they are on the verge of finding the ancient ships downed in the battle of the Aegates Islands more than 2000 years ago thanks to modern technology and a police tip-off.
"This project has an enormous historical value, but perhaps more important is the relevance for archaeology," Sebastiano Tusa, Sicily's chief of marine culture, said on Friday.
"What we find will help us understand how wars were waged at that time and how battleships were built."
After two years of underwater searches around the islands, which lie west of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea, experts last year found a bronze helmet and some amphorae from about 241 BC, the date of the decisive Roman victory over the Carthage fleet.
At around the same time, a team of Italy's famed art police busted a collector who had a ship's bronze battering ram from the same period on display in his home. It turned out the relic had been illegally looted using nets from the same area. [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Archaeologists uncover Roman graveyard in Austria.
Archaeologists said Saturday they have unearthed a large Roman-era burial ground in the western Austrian city of Wels that contained at least 50 skeletons, numerous urns and coins.
The graveyard, believed to date to 2 or 3 B.C., was discovered about a year ago during excavation to build an office complex and an underground parking garage, said Renate Miglbauer, the archaeologist in charge of the site. [continue]
A few years ago I blogged about where St Matthew's remains might be; some say his bones are resting near Issyk Kul in Kyrgyzstan. Now the Kyrgyzstan Development Agency reports that the remains of a very old monastery have been found in that area.
The Issyk-Kul Regional Archaeological Expedition of the Kyrgyz Russian Slavic University led by Academician, Vladimir Ploskih has been searching for an Armenian Brothers' Monastery shown on the Katalan map of the world made in the 14th century for several years. Several days ago they found an underground temple. (...)
We discovered that the entrance to the cave was blocked and it had rained the day before so the clay was wet and it was dangerous to go into an unknown place but we really wanted to. The historians started their descent. We recognised at once that it was an architectural construction. One could see the professionally built arches and well thought-out design. Rooms cross at right angles and there are several passages that end in small cells. The main room just before the entrance sloped downwards and turned left and then there was an obstruction although its vault could be seen for several metres further.
When was it built? We found the answer in one of the arches where several deeply hammered in and totally corroded metal rods were found there, which could only have got in that state over a long period of time. The next day, Academician Vladimir Ploskih investigated the find and walked around all the rooms. In the evening he reported to all scientific and historical centres that the Armenian Brothers’ Monastery had finally been found and it was a sensation. (...)
It might be that this is the monastery where, according to the 14th Century map, the Apostle Mathew’s relics are kept. [read full article]
Thanks to Laura of Faynights for writing to tell me about the above article.
Related Mirabilis.ca content
Are St Matthew's remains in Kyrgyzstan? (September, 2002)
Elsewhere on the web
Is the relic of the Apostle Saint Matthew buried on the shore of Issyk-Kul? - ipvnews.com
Archeologists Discover Medieval Monastery In Kyrgyzstan - rferl.org
From the Beeb: Experts 'decipher' Inca strings.
Researchers in the US believe they have come closer to solving a centuries-old mystery - by deciphering knotted string used by the ancient Incas.
Experts say one bunch of knots appears to identify a city, marking the first intelligible word from the extinct South American civilisation.
The coloured, knotted pieces of string, known as khipu, are believed to have been used for accounting information.
The researchers say the finding could unlock the meaning of other khipu. [continue]
Thanks to Ross at Stryder.com for writing to let me know about this story.
Related news articles
Inca Tax Records Were Tied Up in Knots, Study Says - National Geographic
Anthropologists unravel message of Inca's knotted strings - CBC
Related Mirabilis.ca content
Pre-Incas kept detailed records
Incan Counting System Decoded?
Inca used knots to record information
From iol.co.za: Ruins of lonely Mesopotamian city still stand.
Hatra, Iraq - Over 2 000 years ago this thriving Mesopotamian oasis city welcomed caravans of camels carrying travelers between East and West, twice held back Roman invaders, and was famous for its tolerance of different religions.
Now Hatra sits in ruins in a vast desert. Parts of its giant temples, columns and arches are still standing under the incessant sun but its city center is probably visited by more rabbits than people. Around it stands a nation still struggling to heal ancient grievances between feuding religious and ethnic groups, hoping to revisit high points in its history where the roots of civilization once sprouted.
The United Nations has declared it a world heritage site, but few people these days risk journeying to the ruins, 320km north of Baghdad. [continue]
From Reuters: Goat crowned King of Ireland at ancient festival.
A wild mountain goat was crowned King of Ireland on Wednesday in an ancient annual ritual whose origins are lost in the mists of history.
For three days, Charlie, a grey male goat with brown trimmings, will reign over this year's Puck Fair -- one of Ireland's oldest and best-loved street festivals -- in Killorglin, in the southwestern county of Kerry.
"Nobody really knows how it came about or when," said Jean Kearney, a spokeswoman for the festival, which is expected this year to attract more than 100,000 visitors for a marathon of music, drinking and dancing.
"It has been traced back to the 1600s, but some say it dates back to a festival held in pagan times."
One theory is that the event pays tribute to a wild goat that alerted the town to the advancing armies of military leader Oliver Cromwell in the 17th century. [continue].
The Puck Fair website has more on the event and the story behind it.
From ansa.it: Ancient Roman temple found.
An ancient Roman temple dating to the first or second century AD has been unearthed by archaeologists in the southern island of Pantelleria.
They have already dug up a three-metre portion of one of the walls of the temple, situated on a hill known as Cossyria.(...)
The archaeologists hit gold in the same area two years when they brought to light the marble busts of Caesar, the emperor Titus and a high-born court lady. [continue]
From discovery.com: Rome's Greatest Brickmakers Identified.
Two brothers are behind Rome's greatest monuments, according to Italian archaeologists who have discovered two furnaces that provided the bricks for buildings such as the Colosseum and the Pantheon.
Found in Mugnano in Teverina, a tiny village some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Rome, the furnaces belonged to Tullus and Lucanus, brothers of the Domitii family, as an inscription found on the road leading to the brickfield confirms: "iter privatum duorum Domitiorum" (private road of the two Domitii).
The furnaces provided bricks for grandiose buildings such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Market of Trajan and the Diocletian and Caracalla Baths, said archaeologist Tiziano Gasperoni, who discovered the furnaces.
"The bricks used to erect these building all bear the same maker's marks. At the Domitii furnaces we found more than 100 of these marks, so there is no doubt that the site at Mugnano provided bricks to build Rome's most important monuments," Gasperoni told Discovery News. [continue]
From AllAfrica.com: Mystery Ship And Chinese Genes At the Kenyan Coast.
According to archaeological information, the Chinese connection with the East African coast, though not as heavily documented as that of the Arabs and Portuguese, dates back to the ninth century.
At first, the ties were maintained through intermediaries, mainly Arab traders who brought the Chinese porcelain that can today be found at all major historical sites and towns along the East African coast.
Mr Herman Kiriama, a National Museums of Kenya archaeologist, told Lifestyle that for years Arab merchants and sailors imported goods from India and China to places such as Kilwa in Tanzania, Mombasa and Malindi in Kenya and Mogadishu in Somalia.
"It was not until in the 15th century that Chinese sailors started their voyage to the East African coast mainly for trade but also to explore this region. The Chinese heritage at the coast is very strong," he says.
Historical evidence indicates that [continue]
See also: Sunken Ship to Be Dug Out.
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Ancient Chinese map of Africa
Ancient Chinese explorers
From discovery.com: Study: Atlantis Sinking Has Scientific Basis.
Plato's account of how the fabled city of Atlantis sank below the surface of the ocean does have scientific grounding, according to a seafloor survey of an island west of the Straits of Gibraltar.
Marc-André Gutscher of the University of Western Brittany in Plouzané, France, performed a detailed mapping of the seafloor on Spartel Island, already proposed as a candidate for the origin of the Atlantis legend in 2001 by French geologist Jacques Collina-Girard.
Lying 60 meters beneath the surface in the Gulf of Cadiz, the island is right "in front of the Pillars of Hercules," or the Straits of Gibraltar, as stated by Plato.
Analysis of sedimentary deposits revealed [continue]
From the Yorkshire Post Today: Saucy secrets of upmarket Pompeii.
Archaeologists from Yorkshire believe they may have found an ancient version of Harrods in the ruins of the Roman city of Pompeii.
The discovery of unusual fish bones in the bottom of a crushed ceramic jar unearthed from the ash has offered fresh clues to life in the city before it was destroyed when Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD79. [continue]
From ABC News: Scientists Study Patterns on Ancient Teeth.
Studying wear patterns on prehistoric teeth, scientists hope to determine what types of food their owners ate and what kind of food humans were designed to eat.
Answering the second question is more important. If scientists could determine the best foods for humans, they might be able to help prevent chronic, degenerative diseases, said Peter S. Ungar, an anthropology professor at the University of Arkansas.
"What's the ultimate human diet? What are we designed to eat?" Ungar asked.
In a study published in science journal Nature on Thursday, Unger and colleagues from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Stony Brook University and Penn State University detail a technique known as dental microwear texture analysis. [continue]
From expatica.com: Reconstructing the Middle Ages.
Every year more than 250,000 tourists visit an old quarry in the hamlet of Guedelon about two hours south of Paris, to chat up the workmen and marvel at the medieval fortress emerging, stone-by-stone, from the ochre-coloured ground.
"This is an open-air laboratory where we're building, not restoring," Marilyne Martin, the site director and co-founder of the eight-year old project told AFP.
Only medieval construction techniques are allowed and there are only 50 or so builders - half the number there would have been 800 years ago, although things do speed up a bit in the summer when up to 140 volunteers pitch in. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
A new medieval castle
From the BBC: The medical world of medieval monks.
Anaesthetics and disinfectants are thought to be a modern medical invention but evidence is coming to light that medieval doctors knew of them too.
Evidence found at the ancient Soutra Hospital site, in Scotland, suggests the medieval Augustine monks also knew how to amputate limbs, fashion surgical instruments, induce birth, stop scurvy and even create hangover cures.
The excavations at Soutra have also unearthed fragments of pottery vessels that were once used for storing medicines such as an analgesic salve made from opium and grease and treatment for parasitic and intestinal worms.
Dressings have also been found, some still with salves or human tissues attached and the scientists have discovered a mixture of Quicklime (calcium oxide) which scientists believe was used as a disinfectant and a deodorant. [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Remains of ancient church discovered in Egypt.
The remains of an ancient church and monks' retreats that date back to the early years of monasticism have been discovered in a Coptic Christian monastery in the Red Sea area, antiquity officials said Saturday. (...)
The remains include the column bases of a mud-brick church and two-roomed hermitages in which monks used to live in seclusion. The hermitages had front-door steps but no ceilings.
The remains of a small oven and a stove for food were found in one hermitage room, Hawass said. Another room had Coptic writing on the walls and a small mud-brick basin. [continue]
From Cornell University: Scientists and humanists join forces to use X-ray technology to shed new light on ancient stone inscriptions.
In an unusual collaboration among scientists and humanists, a Cornell University team has demonstrated a novel method for recovering faded text on ancient stone by zapping and mapping 2,000-year-old inscriptions using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) imaging.
The research, carried out at the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS), applies a nondestructive chemical analysis technique widely used in geology, archaeology and materials science.
"X-ray fluorescence imaging has the potential to become a major tool in epigraphy [the study of incised writing on various surfaces, including stone]," said Robert Thorne, professor of physics and co-author of an article in a German journal titled "Recovering Ancient Inscriptions by X-ray Fluorescence Imaging." "It's just so much more powerful than anything that's been used in the past." [continue]
Link found here at ArchaeoBlog.
From the BBC: Abbey oak door 'Britain's oldest'.
A 900-year-old door - once thought to be covered in human skin - has been identified as the oldest in the UK.
Archaeologists discovered the oak door in Westminster Abbey was put in place in the 1050s, during the reign of the Abbey's founder, Edward the Confessor.
It makes it the only surviving Anglo Saxon door in Britain.
Tests also showed fragments of hide stuck to the door - which legend said was the skin of a punished man - was cow hide, said an Abbey spokeswoman. [continue]
From the New York Times: King David's Palace Is Found, Archaeologist Says
An Israeli archaeologist says she has uncovered in East Jerusalem what may be the fabled palace of the biblical King David. Her work has been sponsored by a conservative Israeli research institute and financed by an American Jewish investment banker who would like to prove that Jerusalem was indeed the capital of the Jewish kingdom described in the Bible.
Other scholars are skeptical that the foundation walls discovered by the archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, are David's palace. But they acknowledge that what she has uncovered is rare and important: a major public building from around the 10th century B.C., with pottery shards that date to the time of David and Solomon and a government seal of an official mentioned in the book of Jeremiah.
The discovery is likely to be a new salvo in a major dispute in biblical archaeology: whether the kingdom of David was of some historical magnitude, or whether the kings were more like small tribal chieftains, reigning over another dusty hilltop. [continue]
Related:
King David's fabled palace: is this it? - iht.com
Digging up biblical dynamite (copy of the NYT article quoted abov) - TaipeiTimes.com
From scotsman.com: Lawyer finds historic gem under floorboards.
A lawyer has discovered a 370-year-old medical textbook under the floorboards of his city home.
The dirt-coated book was found by workmen at advocate Michael Stuart's home in the Grange when he was having conversion work carried out in the attic.
The 17th-century illustrated surgical book was nearly thrown away in the rubbish until Mr Stuart decided to have it examined by experts.
The book has lost many of its opening pages, including those detailing its title and author, but the lawyer realised it may be of great historic interest.
He passed it to experts at the Faculty of Advocates' library who identified it as the work of a pioneering French surgeon. [continue, see photo]
From discovery.com: Biblical-Era Child Mummy Resurrected.
The mummy of a little Egyptian girl who lived 2,000 years ago has undergone a high tech resurrection.
The resulting 3D interactive model of the mummy represents the world's most detailed mummy visualization.
A powerful Stanford University AXIOM Siemens scanner generated 60,000 ultrathin, multidimensional image slices of the child versus the 1,700 that were taken of King Tut by other researchers earlier this year.
Since mummies of youths are quite rare, the analysis also provides a unique window into Egyptian childhood circa the Biblical era and just after the reign of Cleopatra VII. [continue]
From IsraelNationalNews.com: Royal Seal Unearthed in City of David.
A royal seal dating to the period of the First Temple has been found in an archeological dig in the City of David, adjacent to the Old City of Jerusalem. The seal’s inscription has the name of Jehudi, son of Shelemiah, one of the top officials in the court of the last Judean king prior to the destruction of the First Temple, King Zedekiah. He is mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah. The seal dates from about 580 B.C.E.
The seal was found at the site which the is the site of the palace of the Judean kings, according to archaeologists under the supervision of Dr. Eilat Mazar of the Hebrew University. Several years ago, another circa-580 B.C.E. royal seal was found in the same site. It had the name of Gemaryahu, son of Shafan, who is also mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah, and was a top official in the court of King Zedekiah's predecessor, King Yehoyachim. [continue]
From the BBC: Roman ruler's head found in sewer.
A 1,700-year-old carved marble head of Emperor Constantine has been found in a sewer in central Rome.
Archaeologists found the 60cm (2ft) head while clearing an ancient drainage system in the ruins of the Roman Forum.
Eugenio La Rocca, superintendent of Rome's artefacts, described the head as a rare find and said it was possible it had been used to clear a blocked sewer.
Constantine, who reigned from 306 to 337, is known for ending persecution of Christians and founding Constantinople.
Although most of his subjects remained pagans, he is credited with helping to establish Europe's Christian roots by proclaiming religious freedom.
The white marble head was [continue]
From EurekAlert: Ancient Iraqi harp reproduced by Liverpool engineers.
Engineers from the University's Lairdside Laser Engineering Centre (LLEC) employed revolutionary laser technology to engrave authentic designs onto Gulf Shell (mother of pearl) - the original material used to decorate the body of the harp.
Dr Carmel Curran, who carried out the work at the LLEC, commented: "This is the first time we have laser processed this type of material and the results are remarkable. It is fantastic to be involved in the recreation of such a piece of history."
"The shells we engraved came from the Indian Ocean. The laser techniques we used to engrave the shell are normally applied to materials such as plastics, metals, fabric and wood."
The Lyre was discovered in a mass suicide grave in the ancient city of Ur in Iraq by British archaeologist, Sir Leonard Woolley. Uncovered in 1929, the remains were kept in a museum in Baghdad until they were destroyed during the recent war in Iraq.
The original gold lyre – nearly 5,000 years old - belonged to the Sumerian Royal family and was found with three other musical instruments alongside 74 bodies in the grave of Queen Puabi, who died around 2,600 BC. [continue]
From EurekAlert: Ancient Tiberias reveals more of its beauty.
Further revelations of the beauty of the ancient city of Tiberias and of its uniqueness as a Jewish center were revealed in this season's excavations there. (...)
Excavations this year focused on the city's basilica complex, which was first discovered several years ago and is identified with the seat of the Sanhedrin, the ancient supreme Jewish religious authority. The eastern wall of the structure was preserved to a height of two meters and was bounded by the promenade.
The structure itself was built in the 4th century C.E. as a gigantic complex of at least 2,000 square meters. It has some 25 rooms with three main components: a colonnaded courtyard, which served as a gathering place for the townspeople, a passageway, and a reception hall with a semi-circular apse. Under the courtyard, excavators found a water cistern, supported by arches, that has survived the centuries unscathed. [continue]
From the Hindustan Times: Travel as the Romans did on ancient Roman highway.
Archaeologists excavating along the ancient Via Egnatia are revealing the secrets of the ancient Romans' equivalent of an Interstate highway.
Stretching 861 kilometers (535 miles) across modern-day Albania, Macedonia and Greece, the stone-paved road made the going easy for charioteers, soldiers and other travelers. It was up to 30 feet wide (9 meters) in places and was dotted with safety features, inns and service stations.
"This was a busy road, and the Romans managed to make it completely functional," archaeologist Polyxeni Tsatsopoulou told The Associated Press.
Built between 146 and 120 B.C. under the supervision of the top Roman official in Macedonia, proconsul Gaius Egnatius, the highway ran from the Adriatic coast in what is now Albania to modern Turkey, giving Rome quick access to the eastern provinces of its empire.
Ancient engineers did such a good job that the Via Egnatia remained in use for some 2,000 years, sticking to its original course even as its paving slabs were plundered for building material. But over the last century, what's visible of it has dwindled to less than three kilometers (two miles) in total. [continue]
From the BBC: Ancient Roman puzzle yields clues.
For more than 500 years scholars have been wrestling with an ancient Roman puzzle that would test even the most cunning of quiz-masters.
How do you put together a giant stone jigsaw when 80% of the pieces are missing and you have even lost the lid?
Now with a joint Italian-US team on the case using a hi-tech approach the answer might finally be within reach.
The Forma Urbis, or Severan Marble Plan, is a giant map of the city of Rome constructed around AD200 by the Emperor Septimius.
It was fixed onto the wall of the Templum Pacis (Temple of Peace) in the heart of the city - a massive display symbolising both the greatness of the city, and the emperor's power to know its every nook and cranny.
But with the decline of the empire from the 4th Century, the vast marble map - measuring 18m by 13m (59 feet by 43 feet) and intricately carved onto 250 separate slabs - was prised off the wall.
The building stones were stolen, crushed into cement or merely slid down off the wall to lie buried in the gardens below for the next 1,000 years.
The rediscovery of some of the pieces during the Renaissance ignited an interest in reconstructing the map that has bewitched scholars ever since. [continue]
From ansa.it: Roman Legion Founded Chinese City.
Roman soldiers who disappeared after a famous defeat founded a city in eastern China, archaeologists say.
The phantom legion was part of the defeated forces of Marcus Licinius Crassus, according to the current edition of the Italian magazine Archeologia Viva.
The famously wealthy Crassus needed glory to rival the exploits of the two men with whom he ruled Rome as the First Triumvirate, Pompey the Great and Julius Caesar.
Crassus decided to bring down the Parthian Empire - a fatal choice.
His forces were routed in 53 BC outside the Mesopotamian city of Carre - today's Harran - and he was beheaded.
According to the Roman historian Pliny, the Romans who survived were taken to a prison camp in what is now northern Afghanistan.
When Rome and Parthia sued for peace in 20 BC - 33 years after Crassus's last battle - all trace of the prisoners had disappeared.
The survivors of Crassus's legion became a mystery, walking ghosts in Roman legends. A Chinese historian in the Han Empire, China's second dynasty, provided an answer to the riddle in the early 3rd century AD. [continue].
From The Guardian: Scientists seek fresh chance to dig up Stonehenge's secrets.
Stonehenge has always mystified. Julius Caesar thought it was the work of druids, medieval scholars believed it was the handiwork of Merlin, while local folk tales simply blamed the devil.
Now scientists are demanding a full-scale research programme be launched to update our knowledge of the monument and discover precisely who built it and its burial barrow graves. [continue]
From Novisti: Medieval wooden palace to be reconstructed in Moscow.
The Moscow city administration has decided to reconstruct the unique 17th-century palace at Kolomenskoye Park in the south of Moscow.
Three hundred years ago, under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the tsar's legendary wooden palace in the park was described as a wonder of the world.
It was a unique complex of log chambers, connected by passages and decorated with fancy carving, turrets, weather vanes, windows, arches and other feats of wooden architecture.
The palace reflected the spirit of Russian folk tales, much like Notre Dame de Paris reflects the spirit of Paris. [continue]
From the BBC: Bulgaria unearths Thracian riches.
Archaeologists in Bulgaria have unearthed the treasure-filled tomb of what is thought to be a Thracian king.
A golden crown, ring, armour and other artefacts dating back 2,400 years were found with the skeleton in a tomb near the south-eastern town of Zlatinitsa.
National Museum of History director Bozhidar Dimitrov said the Thracian king was a young ruler who was buried with two horses and a favourite dog.
Excavations of burial mounds across Bulgaria have unearthed similar finds.
But Professor Dimitrov says there is something different about this burial. [continue, see photo]
Related
Golden wreath of laurels unearthed in Bulgaria - CTV.ca
Golden Treasure Unearthed in Bulgaria - WashingtonPost.com
From the Vancouver Sun: The relic hunters: Vancouver software firm aids Iraq in recovering looted treasure.
Technology from Vancouver is being applied to repatriate priceless pieces of ancient history looted from Iraq after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Software developer Minisis Inc. is working with the Iraqi National Museum to make a computerized inventory of some 20,000 missing artifacts, some more than 5,000 years old, as well as millions more that are vulnerable to insurgent attacks at archeological sites or in poorly guarded vaults.
Agents with the international police agency, Interpol, will then be better equipped to identify missing antiquities and restore them to the Iraqi people.
Eventually, the electronic ledger will be posted on a website, where curators and collectors can check to see if they are being offered looted goods. The site will also be open to members of the public who want to learn more about ancient Babylon and Mesopotamia, and a region often described as the cradle of civilization.
Some of the most compelling images during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq arose from the plunder of treasures from the museum in Baghdad. Mobs and well-organized thieves made off with irreplaceable statues, golden bowls, jewelry, and ancient clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform, the oldest known form of writing.
"The Iraqis know what they have lost, but they don't have a lot of documentation on it," said Christopher Burcsik, CEO of Minisis. "Our technology will allow them to fully document their pieces electronically, making it harder for stolen objects to be sold and reducing the likelihood that more treasures will go missing." [continue]
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Minisisinc
From Forbes: The Madness of King George: A New Suspect.
The strange case of King George III's fragile psyche has taken a new twist, with research now suggesting that arsenic may have contributed to his "madness."
During his reign, which stretched from 1760 to 1820 and included the loss of "the colonies" during the American Revolution, George suffered five major bouts of prolonged mental derangement. The original diagnosis of mental illness was challenged several decades ago when two British researchers said they had uncovered evidence that the king was actually experiencing severe attacks of porphyria, a genetic defect in which toxic byproducts are created as the body manufactures a component of hemoglobin.
Symptoms of porphyria include muscle weakness, abdominal pain -- and psychiatric disorders. The belief that George III had the condition has gradually and grudgingly come to be accepted -- more or less -- in part because his urine had the vivid red tinge caused by the disorder. Also, historical documents suggest that members of the royal family had mild cases of porphyria.
Now a group led by Martin James Warren, a biochemist at the University of Kent, reports in this week's issue of The Lancet that an analysis of five strands of George's hair showed unusually high levels of arsenic, which could have made his attacks more severe. [continue].
Related:
Arsenic drug linked to madness of King George - CBC
From abc.net.au: Pre-Incas kept detailed records too.
A sophisticated arrangement of knots and strings, found on the site of the oldest city in the Americas, indicates ancient Peruvians were skilled at conveying detailed information much earlier than once thought.
Archaeologists say the string arrangement, known as a quipu or khipu, indicates ancient Americans were expert communicators thousands of years earlier.
Until now the oldest known quipus, often associated with the Incas, dated from about 650 AD.
But Dr Ruth Shady, an archeologist leading investigations into the Peruvian coastal city of Caral, says quipus were among a treasure trove of articles discovered at the site, which is about 5000 years old.
"This is the oldest quipu and it shows us that this society ... also had a system of 'writing' [which] would continue down the ages until the Inca empire and would last some 4500 years," Shady says. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Incan Counting System Decoded?
Inca used knots to record information
From The Jerusalem Post: Archaeologists unveil ancient Pompeii treasure.
Decorated cups and fine silver platters were once again polished and displayed Monday as archaeologists unveiled an ancient Roman dining set that lay hidden for two millennia in the volcanic ash of Pompeii.
In 2000, archaeologists found a wicker basket containing the silverware in the ruins of a thermal bath near the remains of the Roman-ruled city, said Pietro Giovanni Guzzo, head of Pompeii's archaeological office. [continue]
From mg.co.za: Sensational find in Germany: 600 year-old Papal seals.
In one of the most sensational archaeological discoveries in Germany, four papal seals dating back 600 years have been uncovered from a medieval toilet shaft in the northeastern city of Greifswald, officials said on Thursday.
The four round seals cast in lead date to the papacy of Pope Bonifatius IX (1389-1404). The 3,5cm seals, each weighing about 50g, bear the inscription "BONIFATIUS VIIII" on one side and images of the apostles Peter and Paul on the other.
Regional archaeology office director Hauke Joens said the find -- in the shaft of a toilet on the campus of Greifswald University -- was "sensational".
He noted that over the years, individual papal seals would occasionally be found in various places. But the Greifswald find was the first in which several papal seals were discovered. [continue]
From icCoventry.co.uk: 800-year-old ring is full of mystery.
An 800-year-old mystical ring unearthed in Warwickshire goes on public display for the first time tomorrow.
The precious gold and garnet band features a mysterious cryptic message, written in olde worlde French which has archaeology experts baffled.
It appears to say the words "Je suis une fleur" (I am a flower) and "amour" (love) but some of letters of the inscription are reversed and turned upside down.
Boffins from the British Museum believe it could be a coded token of affection between two lovers, or even a medieval spell. [continue]
From ftimes.com: Biblical Scroll Fragments Found in Israel.
A secretive encounter with a Bedouin in a desert valley led to the discovery of two fragments from a nearly 2,000-year-old parchment scroll — the first such finding in decades, an Israeli archaeologist said Friday.
The finding has given rise to hope that the Judean Desert may yield more treasures, said Professor Chanan Eshel, an archaeologist from Tel Aviv's Bar Ilan University.
The two small pieces of brown animal skin, inscribed in Hebrew with verses from the Book of Leviticus, are from "refugee" caves in Nachal Arugot, a canyon near the Dead Sea where Jews hid from the Romans in the second century, Eshel said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The scrolls are being tested by Israel's Antiquities Authority. Recently, several relics bearing inscriptions, including a burial box purported to belong to Jesus' brother James, were revealed as modern forgeries.
More than 1,000 ancient texts — known collectively as the Dead Sea Scrolls — were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in 11 caves overlooking the western shores of the Dead Sea.
"No scrolls have been found in the Judean Desert" in decades, Eshel said. "The common belief has been that there is nothing left to find there."
Now, he said, scholars may be spurred on to further excavations. [continue]
Related:
Bedouin wanders across Biblical manuscript - abc.net.au
Biblical scroll found in desert - Guardian
From The Guardian: Statue of Orpheus unearthed.
A rare statue of the ancient Thracian hero Orpheus has been unearthed in Bulgaria, near a place archaeologists say might house the hero's tomb, the leader of excavations said.
The 9cm (3.5in) bronze statue, dating from the 1st or 2nd century AD, was found in the village of Tatul, 200 miles south-east of Sofia, an archaeologist, Nikolai Ovcharov, said.
The statue, which was perfectly preserved, was found a few days ago by villagers, and handed to archaeologists working on the site, he said. [continue]
Here's a Guardian article about a medieval charnel house in London: House of the medieval dead lurks in lawyers' basement.
The charnel house was a consecrated store for bones from the cemetery at Spitalfields in London - sited in the "hospital fields" which gave the area its name - allowing graves to be re-used at a time when, archaeological evidence suggests, the hospital was overwhelmed by the plague.
One of four charnel houses surviving in England, it is the only medieval building in the east London borough of Tower Hamlets.
Architectural historian Dan Cruickshank, a neighbour, praised the building as a conduit to the beliefs of medieval Londoners. "This is a beautiful house of the medieval dead, where bones were preserved against the day of judgment when the righteous would enjoy paradise while the damned were consigned to the torments of hell."
More than 10,000 buried human remains, the largest single excavation in Britain, were found in the 14th-century building. It was discovered in 1999 during archaeological excavations and has been integrated into the basement of a Norman Foster building which houses law firm Allen & Overy. [continue]
From scotsman.com: World's oldest creature alive and well in Scotland.
Natural history experts from across the world will learn this month that the world's oldest creature is still alive and well, and living in Scotland.
It was believed the tadpole shrimp, dating from the Triassic period, had gone the way of the dinosaurs, but it was, literally, just being a stick-in-the-mud in a pond near Dumfries. [continue]
From the Hindustan Times: Ancient shoes beat most modern footwear.
Lined with hay and held together by a net of rough string, the leather shoes look bulky, itchy and downright uncomfortable.
But if they were good enough for Oetzi, the 5,300-year-old man found in an alpine glacier in 1991, they're good enough for the modern foot, insists Petr Hlavacek, a Czech shoe expert who has created replicas, taken them out for a walk and pronounced them far better than most modern footwear.
"These shoes are very comfortable. They are perfectly able to protect your feet against hard terrain, against hot temperatures, against cold temperatures," he said, showing off the replicas in his office at Tomas Bata University in this eastern Czech town. Despite their flimsy leather soles, the shoes offer a good grip and superb shock absorption, and are blister-free, Hlavacek said. It's like going barefoot, "only better," he said. "In the Oetzi shoes, you feel something like freedom, flexibility." Scientists have already learned much from the hunter nicknamed Oetzi (rhymes with curtsey), that his last meal included venison, that he was killed by an arrow, and that he probably spent most of his life within about 50 miles (80 kilometers) of where his body was found. [continue]
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From The Guardian: Mexico offers up ancient footprints.
A group of British scientists claimed yesterday to have identified human footprints in central Mexico that are 40,000 years old, almost three times older than the most generally accepted evidence for human settlement in the Americas.
The team from universities in Liverpool, Bournemouth, and Oxford are convinced that the footprints are human and represent several adults and children who walked in freshly fallen volcanic ash in the Valsequillo Basin, about 80 miles south-east of Mexico City. [continue]
From The Hindu: New structure near Taj Mahal unearthed.
Archaeologists have found a new structure adjoining the Taj Mahal, which according to preliminary investigations, served as a rest house for travellers. The discovery was made during excavations to determine original water levels surrounding the Taj Mahal.
"Excavations were being conducted to study original water levels here. We have found one tank in the centre of the hall, and a whole water channel system. We are making further excavations to enable us to review the entire system and find out the actual purpose of the place," said D. Dabhalan, chief archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India. [continue]
From csmonitor.com: Clues of climate and the Bible's seven lean years.
When archaeologists sift through the debris of a vanished culture, they should consider the ancient climate. It can shed light on the bygone habitat and give plausibility to old myths. It can also give a useful perspective on our own climatically uncertain times.
Take the biblical tale of Joseph. The famous seven-year cycle of feast and famine appears to be one of Egypt's regular routines, according to Dmitri Kondrashov, Yizhak Feliks, and Michael Ghil at the University of California at Los Angeles.
The scientists used new statistical techniques to fill in gaps in 1,300 years of Nile River water levels recorded from AD 622 through 1922. They then searched these data for climatically significant cycles. Their results, reported in Geophysical Research Letters, suggest "quite strongly" that North Atlantic circulation influences East African climate. The scientists add that "most strikingly," their analysis picked out a North Atlantic driven seven-year cycle of high and low river levels that is "possibly related to the biblical cycle of lean and fat years." [continue]
From iol.co.za: Cairo heralds discovery of large sarcophagus.
A large sarcophagus dating to the reign of King Ramses II (1279-1213 BC) was discovered in Saqqara, south of Cairo, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Tuesday.
The sarcophagus, made of red granite, bears hieroglyphic text and different titles of the deceased. It belongs to an overseer of stables during the reign of Ramses II. [continue]
From discovery.com: Hi-Tech Stone Age Site Found.
A 2.34-million-year-old tool manufacturing site in East Africa may have been the Stone Age's center for high tech, according to French archaeologists who studied more than 2,600 artifacts excavated there.
The archaeologists believe relics at the site in Kenya, called Lokalalei 2C, display a level of tool-making sophistication among its dwellers that was unique to the Late Pliocene, which occurred between 2.6 and 2.0 million years ago.
"Planning, productivity and the existence of a real knapping method are not yet demonstrated in other sites for this time period," said co-author, Anne Delagnes, referring to the early technique of shaping stones into tools.
"We suggest that the Lokalalei 2C knappers had a greater technical knowledge for stone tool making than most of their counterparts who lived during the Late Pliocene," she said. [continue]
From ekathimerini: Greek treasures easy prey for antiquities traffickers.
The net profits that come from the international trade in antiquities are akin to those of human and narcotics trafficking.
Organized crime networks legalize revenues from illegal activities by purchasing antiquities, while professional dealers in illegal antiquities arm themselves with cutting-edge technology to locate artifacts buried deep in the ground. On the Internet, meanwhile, an endless number of sites hold non-stop "auctions" of items that can date as far back as the sixth century BC.
At the same time, unprotected from the greedy hands of antiquities traffickers, tens of thousands of priceless ancient objects are lying on the Greek seabed, there for the taking. It is estimated that there are over 12,000 shipwrecks around the country and, according to officers of the Department of Antiquities Trafficking, the majority of them are easy prey for antiquities smugglers from all over Europe and the United States.
"Normally, they appear as wealthy individuals who come to Greece by yacht after having established their buyers. They mostly look for bronze and gold artifacts, since pottery is abundant and therefore of less value," explains Giorgos Gligoris, who heads the Department of Antiquities Trafficking.
"Tracking them down is extremely difficult because the shipwrecks cannot all be patrolled, while once they have been brought up, we cannot prove they have been stolen because they have to be photographed and filed by the authorities first," explains Gligoris. [continue]
From the BBC: Web family archive branches out.
A website to help trace family trees is expanding to put Scotland at the forefront of online genealogy.
The ScotlandsPeople site contains 43 million records, ranging through from 1513 to 1954.
Massive record books and microfilm files of births, deaths and marriages have been transferred as digital images from Edinburgh's New Register House.
Now wills and testaments have been added to the website for the first time, helping complete the picture. [continue]
From ekathimerini: A rich Greek archaeology frontier lying on the seabed.
The recent discovery of the remains of a shipwrecked fourth-century BC vessel, nicknamed Kythnos I after the Greek island near which it was found, is the latest example of the archaeological riches still submerged in Greek waters.
It also demonstrates the technological advances that underwater archaeology has made in this country in recent years.
Greece has no shortage of skilled archaeologists. But when it comes to underwater research, the Ministry of Culture has only recently begun mixing academic knowledge with high-tech wizardry. [continue]
From the Beeb: Major excavation at Roman forts.
Three weeks of digging to excavate what could be the largest Roman garrison fort in Wales start on Monday.
The site, which dates from the first century AD, was first found at Dinefwr Park, near Llandeilo, in 2003.
Experts said the south Wales discovery could rewrite our understanding of the Roman conquest in the area.
Recent surveys confirmed the site, which is invisible from the surface, is much larger than first thought and is made up of two overlapping forts.
Emma Plunkett Dillon, archaeologist for the National Trust in Wales, said their teams would be digging nine trenches across the site.
"It is lifting the lid off selected areas of part of the site, to determine the character of what is buried beneath the soil because there is nothing to see on the surface," she said. [continue]
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From discover.com: Ancient Egyptians Loved Their Dead Animals.
To most people, Egyptian mummies are a handful of dead pharaohs wrapped in linen bandages and buried in pyramids outside Cairo. In reality, virtually everyone in ancient Egypt who could afford it - as many as 70 million people over 3,000 years - wound up going through the elaborate two-month mummification process.
Additionally, millions of animals were mummified and buried alongside their owners. They were, says Richard Sabin, curator at the Natural History Museum of London, something of a send-off status symbol, much like large bouquets of flowers at funerals today. "In the 1800s there were literally tons of them dug up from old and new dynasty burial sites," says Sabin. So many, in fact, that Sabin began to suspect some may have been mass-produced for sale. "They were wrapping anything they could get their hands on," says Sabin, including cats, birds, antelopes, and even livestock. [continue]
From scotsman.com: New Roman finds could turn history on its head.
Britain was home to Roman citizens some 50 years before the AD43 "invasion" date that generations of schoolchildren have been taught, new research has revealed.
The previously accepted version of the Roman invasion has its origins in the work of ancient spin-doctors trying to boost the reputation of the Emperor Claudius.
Archaeologists believe that a series of military artefacts unearthed in Chichester, Sussex, and dated decades before the AD43 date will turn conventional Roman history on its head.
The experts also believe that when the Romans arrived in Chichester they were welcomed as liberators by ancient Britons who were delighted when the "invaders" overthrew a series of brutal tribal kings guilty of terrorising southern England.
The conventional story of the landing, at Richborough, Kent, in AD43, of 40,000 Roman soldiers who then marched through the English countryside conquering all before them, is being questioned by Dr David Rudkin, a Roman expert, who led the research. [continue]
Related:
Revealed: our friends the Romans did not invade Britain after all - The Independent
From This is London: Nelson's watch set for a record.
It is an artefact touched by the hand of history: treasured by Britain's greatest naval hero and worn by him at the moment of his glorious death.
Now Lord Nelson's gold pocket watch - bought from a shop in Charing Cross - is set to fetch up to £350,000 and establish a new record price for a Nelson memento.
Described by auctioneer Sotheby's as "the greatest Nelson relic in private hands", the watch is the star of a sale marking the 200th anniversary of Trafalgar. [continue]
From the BBC: Stonehenge quarry site 'revealed'.
A university professor believes he has solved one of the oldest Stonehenge mysteries - the exact location in Wales where the bluestones were quarried.
Tim Darvill has found what he thinks is an ancient quarry at Carn Menyn high in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire.
The bluestones - which form the inner circle of Stonehenge - were transported over 240 miles to Salisbury Plain.
Local archaeologists say Professor Darvill had made a "convincing and compelling" argument. [continue]
From haaretz.com: Who carved the man in the stone?.
Sculptor Yuval Lufan, of Kibbutz Ginosar, has been making basalt sculptures for a few years. Ground-clearing work carried out on the kibbutz last summer to make room for banana groves supplied an abundance of sculpting material as the tractors unearthed large chunks of stone in the fields. When Lufan went to the area to choose some suitable stones, he was surprised to find traces of etching on one of them.
Lufan and his brother Moshe are veteran archaeology buffs. In 1986, when Lake Kinneret was at an all-time low, they found a 2,000-year-old boat submerged in the muddy lake bed, which had been preserved practically whole. The boat was reconstructed and is on display in the nearby Yigal Allon Center. Many Christian tourists come to see what has been dubbed "the Jesus boat."
The stone with the engravings, however, is a remnant from artists from a much earlier era, the likes of which Yuval had never seen. Stones engraved with the images of animals and people have been discovered along the desert routes of the southern Negev and Sinai. In northern Israel, this phenomenon was unknown. [continue]
From Deutsche Welle: Ancient 'Bog Body' Unearthed in Germany.
A body found in a peat bog in northern Germany, first thought to be a murder victim, turned out to be a sensational archeological find: the 2,700 year old mummified corpse of a teenage girl.
At first the police thought the body of a teenage girl they were alerted to was evidence in an unsolved murder case. But upon closer examination, it turned out the suspected victim of foul play found a peat bog in the town of Uchte, Lower Saxony, was actually slightly older than first thought, some 2,700 years older. [continue]
From the Telegraph: Stonehenge druids 'mark wrong solstice'.
Modern-day druids, hippies and revellers who turn up at Stonehenge to celebrate the summer solstice may not be marking an ancient festival as they believe.
The latest archaeological findings add weight to growing evidence that our ancestors visited Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice.
Analysis of pigs's teeth found at Durrington Walls, a ceremonial site of wooden post circles near Stonehenge on the River Avon, has shown that most pigs were less than a year old when slaughtered.
Dr Umburto Albarella, an animal bone expert at the University of Sheffield's archaeology department, which is studying monuments around Stonehenge, said pigs in the Neolithic period were born in spring and were an early form of domestic pig that farrowed once a year. The existence of large numbers of bones from pigs slaughtered in December or January supports the view that our Neolithic ancestors took part in a winter solstice festival. [continue].
From The Telegraph (India):Temple titan with carnal carvings.
An ancient temple complex four times bigger than Nalanda with stone carvings not seen even in Khajuraho has been discovered at Sirpur, a town on the Mahanadi near here.
About 200 mounds, 100 Buddha vihars, four Jain vihars and more than 100 Shiva temples spread across 25 sq km were found during excavations that began in February but have had to be suspended for the monsoon.
While this makes it the biggest temple complex of the sixth and seventh centuries to be uncovered so far, the finding is significant not for size alone.
For the first time, stone carvings depicting sexual activity among animals have been found. "This is the rarest of carvings seen in Indian archaeology," said K.K. Muhhamed, superintending archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India. These are not seen even at Khajuraho and Ellora, he stressed. [continue]
From ICWales: Fort shows what we did for Roman army.
Ancient Welsh history has been turned on its head by the discovery of a huge Roman fort.
Archaeologists using special equipment to scan underneath the countryside have confirmed that a 2,000-year-old settlement at Dinefwr in Carmarthenshire would have been a huge centre of Roman military might.
Spanning an area greater than two rugby pitches, it indicates controlling our ancestors was far harder work than had previously been believed.
Emma Plunkett Dillon, the National Trust in Wales's archaeologist, said, 'At Dinefwr we appear to have one of the most significant Roman archaeological landscapes in Wales preserved under the turf and invisible on the surface.
'The forts are shown to be associated with roads, a civilian settlement and a possible bathhouse and the quality is remarkable.
'The site has the potential to enhance and possibly rewrite our understanding of the Roman conquest of Wales.' [continue]
Related:
Dig to reveal secrets of Roman fort - newswales.co.uk
From The Guardian: Search on for secret of Greek sea battle.
They were hopelessly outnumbered, but even then the Greeks knew it would be the battle that could change history.
The Asian invaders had entered the Aegean. The "comeliest of boys" had been castrated; the throats of the "goodliest" soldiers ripped out.
Mounted on his marble throne, Xerxes, Persia's formidable warrior king, looked over the bay of Salamis, confident that he was about to enslave Europe. But instead of victory came defeat.
As the Greeks' triremes trapped the Asian fleet, smashing it with their bronze rams, Xerxes watched incredulously. His soldiers, he said, were fighting like women.
That was 480BC. Nearly 2,500 years later, the quest to better understand the battles that the victorious Greeks would see as a defining point in their history has reached new heights, as experts yesterday began searching for the lost fleets of the campaign in the northern Aegean. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Searching for triremes
Trireme replica
From Ananova: Germans blamed for Viking invasion.
German arms dealers have been blamed for the Viking invasion of Britain after archaeologists found the swords they used were made in Germany.
The new research has discovered that German weaponsmiths were actively selling their swords to the Viking invaders around the 9th century AD.
The Norse invaders who terrorised the British coastline laying waste to towns and villages were all kitted out by master sword makers from the Rhine. [continue]
From ExpressIndia.com: Excavators find ancient urban settlement in south Kashmir.
Excavators have stumbled into the remains of a bustling ancient urban settlement in Anantnag district of south Kashmir with tiled pavements 'stamped in colourful human and animal motifs' and inscriptions in the now defunct Karoshti script. [continue]
And arrrrgh, where are the photos?
Here's the Omniglot page on the Kharosthi script.
Related links:
Kharosthi - Wikipedia
Kharosthi - AncientScripts.com
Kharosthi - AncientIndia.com
From the Beeb: Jewellery find puzzles Russians.
Archaeologists in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad have uncovered 16th Century jewellery which they say is unlike any found in the area before.
They were found in a 10cm round box during an excavation at the site of a medieval castle in the city.
It contained 11 items made of gold, silver, tin and hematite, covered with hieroglyphs and inscriptions in Hebrew, ancient Greek and Latin.
Kaliningrad was formerly known by its German name of Koenigsberg.
Anatoly Valuev, from the Kaliningrad museum of history and arts, told Russia's Ren TV that one of the objects depicts an allegorical scene portraying human beings with heads shaped like stars. [continue, see photo]
From abc.net.au: Lost da Vinci treasure hidden behind wall?.
The long-lost "Battle of Anghiari," considered Leonardo da Vinci's best work, could lie hidden behind a wall of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, say art experts.
Maurizio Seracini, a world-renowned expert in art diagnostics whose investigations are referred to in Dan Brown's best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, said a recent conference he had found a suspicious cavity behind the council room's east wall.
The wall now houses a mural by 15th-century painter, architect and writer Giorgio Vasari.
"We believe that the lost fresco is hidden there. Indeed, Vasari himself left an important clue. On a tiny green flag in his painting, he wrote: 'Cerca, trova' - seek and you shall find," says Seracini. [continue]
From the Washington Post: Evidence of Glassmaking In Ancient Egypt Found.
.Scientists said yesterday that they have unearthed the first conclusive evidence of a glass factory in ancient Egypt, offering new insights into production techniques for a commodity so highly prized that nobles used it interchangeably with gemstones.
Analyzing glass and clay fragments at Qantir-Piramesses in the eastern Nile Delta, researchers described a two-step process in which factories melted crushed quartz to form "semifinished" glass, then re-melted and colored it to make glass "ingots" for shipment to artisans elsewhere. They melted the glass again and shaped it into inlays, ornaments and other objects. [continue]
From Canada.com: Baker has archeologists hot on trail of Ville Marie fort.
One of Montreal's first settlers might have been a careless and messy baker.
After he made bread for the settlers, he raked the coals out of the oven and onto the floor.
Those quickly forgotten remains are part of archeologist Brad Loewen's set of clues to the location of Montreal's first settlement, Ville Marie fort.
"Thank goodness for sloppy bakers," he said.
In 1642, Montreal's first European inhabitants arrived. Their settlement, Ville Marie fort, would become the first on the island.
While historians and archeologists presume it was located on the Pointe a Calliere, where the museum of the same name now stands, the fort's exact location has remained a mystery.
Until now. [continue]
Related:
Ville-Marie -montreal.qu.ca
Montréal - Wikipedia
From Aftenposten: Ancient structures found near highway.
Two longhouses estimated to be about 2000 years old have been found during excavations near the E6 highway just south of Sarpsborg.
For the first time archeologists in Norway have been able to reveal a large surface area linked to known helleristninger - rock carvings - and the dig has produced results.
Traces of two 12-15 meter (39-49 foot) long constructions have come to light in the middle of the key area for rock engravings in Østfold County, near Solbergkrysset in Skjeberg. A few meters to the side of the longhouses lies a large stone bearing carved drawings of a great ship and a rider on a horse.
"The houses are probably built during the Roman iron age, in the first few centuries AD. In one of the houses we have found an iron knife, ceramics and burnt animal bone, the remains of a ritual burial of sacrifices to protect the house and its inhabitants," Bårdseth said. [continue]
From The Times Online: Roman mosaic 'worthy of Botticelli'.
A spectacular Roman mosaic discovered in Libya has been hailed as one of the finest examples of the artform to have survived.
British scholars yesterday described the 2,000-year-old depiction of an exhausted gladiator as one of the finest examples of representational mosaic art they have seen — a masterpiece comparable in quality with the Alexander mosaic in Pompeii.
Mark Merrony, an archaeologist who specialises in Roman art, said: "What struck me was the realism of the depiction. It’s absolutely extraordinary.
"I have examined hundreds of mosaics across the Roman Empire, but I have never seen such a vibrantly realistic depiction of a human.
"The image of the recumbent gladiator is nothing less than a Roman masterpiece executed by the Sandro Botticelli of his day. The human expression is captured in a realistic manner hitherto unknown in Roman mosaics."
Archaeologists from the University of Hamburg were working along the coast of Libya when they uncovered a 30-ft stretch of five multicoloured mosaics created during the 1st or 2nd century. The mosaics show with extraordinary clarity four young men wrestling a wild bull to the ground, a warrior in combat with a deer and a gladiator. The gladiator is shown in a state of fatigue, staring at his slain opponent. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Scots village moved for being 'ugly'.
It was the village deemed too ugly to be viewed by the aristocracy. The sight of the common folk of Scone was too hideous for the 3rd Earl of Mansfield to stomach. So he ordered the whole village of Scone be moved from his line of vision as he stood gazing out from his family seat at Scone Palace.
In one of the most extraordinary episodes in Scotland's history the entire village - which had been a Pictish capital of Scotland - was transplanted two miles east. [continue]
Related:
Scone Palace - scone-palace.net
Scone Palace - Wikipedia
From the New York Times: After a 2,000-Year Rest, a Seed Sprouts.
Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old.
The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders. [continue]
I don't think you'll need a password in order to read the rest of this article.
From nature.com: Mayan crypt reveals power of women.
Archaeologists have entered a long-sealed crypt in Guatemala to find an ancient murder scene. The tomb, in the ancient city of Waká, contains the remains of two women, one pregnant, arranged in a ritual tableau.
Researchers say the young, wealthy women were probably slaughtered as part of a power struggle between Mayan cities. And that, they say, sheds new light on the role of women in the Mayan culture 1,600 years ago.
"This tomb tells us that women were extremely powerful," says Dorie Reents-Budet, a Maya specialist who works for the Smithsonian Institution from North Carolina. "When there were political disagreements, women were killed." [continue]
From the Western Daily Press (UK): Ancient boat's sweet course for museum.
An ancient log boat built in the Iron Age is to be put on public display in the West - after spending the last decade buried in sugar, it emerged yesterday. The bizarre treatment preserved the 32ft-long craft that was built by the Durotriges tribe in about 300BC.
It was fashioned from a single oak trunk and designed specifically for use in Poole harbour, Dorset, where it was found. [continue]
Related:
Poole Museums
From The Independent: Found: Europe's oldest civilisation.
Archaeologists have discovered Europe's oldest civilisation, a network of dozens of temples, 2,000 years older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids.
More than 150 gigantic monuments have been located beneath the fields and cities of modern-day Germany, Austria and Slovakia. They were built 7,000 years ago, between 4800BC and 4600BC. Their discovery, revealed today by The Independent, will revolutionise the study of prehistoric Europe, where an appetite for monumental architecture was thought to have developed later than in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
In all, more than 150 temples have been identified. Constructed of earth and wood, they had ramparts and palisades that stretched for up to half a mile. They were built by a religious people who lived in communal longhouses up to 50 metres long, grouped around substantial villages. Evidence suggests their economy was based on cattle, sheep, goat and pig farming. [continue]
Also in The Independent today: How 7,000-year-old temples reveal the elaborate culture of Europe.
From Xinhuanet.com: Beheaded skeletons found in tombs.
Two skeletons without skulls, buried together in the same tomb, have bewildered archeologists in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, who are trying to uncover the centuries-old mystery.
Though headless, the skeletons were otherwise well-preserved, said Ma Fenglei, an archeologist with the Chifeng City Museum who headed the excavation. "Even the copper bracelets and rings they wore remain intact," he said.
It was one of the 13 tombs recently discovered in Songshan Mountain on the city's outskirts. The other 12 tombs contained just one human skeleton each, Ma said.
Tara, director of the Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archeology in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, assumed the tombs could date back 2,000 years ago. [continue]
From The Guardian: Forgotten Bach aria turns up in shoebox.
For three centuries it was hidden in an old shoebox, concealed beneath a couple of blank pages. But yesterday music experts across the world were hailing the discovery of a previously unknown work by the German composer and genius of the baroque era, Johann Sebastian Bach.
The work, for a soprano and harpsichord, was written in October 1713 as a birthday present for Bach's patron, Duke Wilhelm Ernst of Saxe-Weimar.
Bach, then the court organist in Weimar, penned the composition to go with a 12-stanza poem dedicated to the duke, but its existence was swiftly forgotten. The manuscript was apparently swept away into a box, together with numerous other poems and letters written to celebrate the duke's 52nd birthday.
The library in Weimar where the music was stored for several centuries recently burned down, but by chance, the box containing the score had already been removed. Two weeks ago a member of the Bach Archive in Leipzig, Michael Maul, stumbled on the composition while looking through material relevant to Bach's tempestuous but thinly documented life. The box contained more than 100 poems and verses, together with a mysterious "strophic aria". [continue]
From the Prague Daily Monitor: Archaeologists make discovery in downtown Prague.
Archaeologists unearthed a ceramic goblet and a large number of small, silver coins in the courtyard of a house between Stepanska and Skolska streets in the centre of Prague last week, said Vojtech Kaspar from the Archaia archaeological society.
The coins were minted in Kutna Hora in the middle or late 15th Century. According to experts, the finding is unique since such a large number of coins is seldom unearthed in Prague.
The so-called "Lostice goblet" was covered under the floor of a Gothic stone house. Archaeologists unearthed its foundations under the tarmac covering of the courtyard. There were about 700 to 1,000 0.4-gramme silver coins in the goblet.
Such coins, marked with the Czech lion, were minted in Kutna Hora at a time when the traditional Prague Groschen were not minted there, Kaspar said. One Grosche was worth seven such coins. [continue]
From Aljazeera: 3600-year-old Egyptian statue found.
Buried for nearly 3600 years, a rare statue of Egypt's King Neferhotep I has been brought to light in the ruins of Thebes by a team of French archaeologists.
Officials said on Saturday that the statue was unusual in that the king is depicted holding hands with a double of himself, although the second part of the carving remains under the sand and its form has been determined by the use of imaging equipment.
Archaeologists unearthed the 1.8m-tall statue as they were carrying out repairs around Karnak Temple in the southern city of Luxor, Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said. [continue]
Yahoo News has this same story, and they've included a photo. Yahoo stuff always seems to vanish after a couple of days, so look now if you want to see it.
From Rippon Today: Makeover for monk's garden.
English Heritage has delved into medieval herb-lore to breathe new life into a monk's garden at Mount Grace Priory, near Northallerton.
The fragrant plot, within the walls of a 600 year-old monk's cell, was recreated 11 years ago after laying fallow for centuries. Once it would have provided its Carthusian monk with everything from a cure for flatulence to foliage for masking unpleasant smells.
Now scores of new varieties have been planted in a major revamp, re-creating the atmosphere and pungent scents of those far-off days. [continue]
From Rippon Today: Makeover for monk's garden.
English Heritage has delved into medieval herb-lore to breathe new life into a monk's garden at Mount Grace Priory, near Northallerton.
The fragrant plot, within the walls of a 600 year-old monk's cell, was recreated 11 years ago after laying fallow for centuries. Once it would have provided its Carthusian monk with everything from a cure for flatulence to foliage for masking unpleasant smells.
Now scores of new varieties have been planted in a major revamp, re-creating the atmosphere and pungent scents of those far-off days.
Head custodian Becki Wright said: "Herbs were incredibly important in medieval times and we know that many Carthusian monks were keen gardeners.
"While we can't be sure exactly what was cultivated at Mount Grace, we do have a fair idea and some of the varieties we have planted would certainly have been here."
Hundreds of plants have been laid out according to their uses in religious rites, medicines and cooking.
Among the herbs replanted are: [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Jewish home found in City of David.
A Second Temple Jewish house has been uncovered in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Sunday.
The 2,000 year old private home, which archeologists believe was part of a complex of homes belonging to affluent people, was discovered during an excavation at the history-rich site last month.
Several rooms of the split-level house - as well as a ritual bath - were found at the compound, archeologist Tzvika Greenhaut who was charged with excavation at the site said. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Call to honour the man who gave us time.
During an expedition in the mountains of north Wales in 1774, a saddle-weary James Hutton wrote: "Lord pity the a*** that's clagged to a head that will hunt stones."
But the world has reason to celebrate the fact that his rear-end did not rule the head of the geologist, one of Scotland's greatest scientists.
For some, he was "the man who found time" - proving the then blasphemy that the Earth was millions of years old, rather than less than 6,000, as Biblical scholars taught and most scientists until then had believed.
Even the great Sir Isaac Newton, who looked at the age of the Earth and agreed with the clergy, was proved wrong.
Hutton's research made his contemporaries "grow giddy looking so far into the abyss of time", according to his contemporary biographer, the eminent Professor John Playfair. [continue]
Related:
James Hutton - Wikipedia
From the BBC: Extreme genealogy.
A family tree researched by conventional methods can only go back so far before patchy records stymie progress. Now amateur genealogists are turning to DNA testing to trace their ancestry. But how much can this tell us about where we come from?
My family tree is rooted in Scotland, as far back as my mother has managed to trace the branches. But having reached the early 1800s, the trail has gone cold. There are blanks, dead-ends and inconsistencies thanks to lost, absent or incomplete written records. [continue]
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The softer, caring side of the marauding Viking
DNA for genealogy
Did Vikings settle amongst Inuit?
DNA test to tackle Arctic mystery
Viking DNA in England
From discovery.com: Ancient Pompeii Restaurant Reopens Doors.
Pompeii's busiest restaurant reopened its doors on Saturday for the first time since it was buried in Mount Vesuvius' lava nearly 2,000 years ago.
Frozen in time with the rest of the city in 79 A.D. by the most famous eruption in history, the restaurant is located in Via Nocera, not far from one of the city's gates.
"The volcanic ash has kept plants, radishes, pollens almost intact. We have been studying them for 10 years and learned a lot about what the inhabitants of Pompeii ate," biologist Anna Maria Ciarallo, who heads the project for Pompeii's archaeological office, told Discovery News.
Ciarallo revived Pompeian food by replanting the original vegetables and fruits in the ancient town's gardens.
"The use of plants was rather different from today. People in Pompeii ate boiled broom, poppies and mallow. Lemons, sage and rosemary were use as medicinal plants, while basil was used to create perfumes," Ciarallo said.
Catering to middle-class merchants and travelers, the restaurant had a large kitchen. A long table held charcoal to cook with and trivets to hold pots.
The oven was used to make "libum," a quiche-like pastry shell filled with cheese, similar to today's ricotta, and served on bay leaves. [continue]
From the Times Online: Henry V’s payroll cuts Agincourt myth down to size.
The scale of Henry V’s triumph at Agincourt, which has been feted as one of the greatest victories in British military history, has been exaggerated for almost six centuries, a new book is to reveal.
The English and Welsh were still outnumbered, according to Anne Curry, professor of medieval history at Southampton University — but only by a factor of three to two. For the last 50 years historians have believed the odds were at least four to one.
Curry is the first academic to untangle the true scale of Henry’s victory in 1415 by sifting through original enrolment records at the National Archives in London and the French Bibliothèque Nationale.
"The figures have been exaggerated over the centuries for patriotic reasons," said Curry, whose book Agincourt: A New History will be published next month. "It was a myth constructed around Henry to build up his reputation as a king." [continue]
From scotsman.com: Ruins may have links to St Baldred.
An innocent accident between a farmer's plough and fragments beneath the soil has led to a remarkable discovery that is shedding new information on the beginnings of Christianity in eastern Scotland.
The owner of Auldhame Farm, near North Berwick, has uncovered skeletal remains while tilling the land that looks on to the Firth of Forth. Archaeologists have been astonished at their early findings.
"A church has been found, and it's a most intriguing church in the sense that it has rounded corners," says Patrick Ashmore, principal inspector of ancient monuments at Historic Scotland. "When it was first discovered it was thought it might go with some pottery from the 13th century, (but) to me it looks if the church may be earlier."
The original church measures 6.5 metres by 4.1 metres and is made of stone, similar dimensions and construction to a chapel excavated 20 years ago at the Hirsel, an estate and park near Coldstream, which was dated to the 10th century. However, what has Ashmore and the archaeologists working at the site intrigued is that the building – with its four rounded corners – is similar to houses constructed in the 7th or 8th century, making it possible the church is from the first millennium.
"I think we've got a very surprisingly early church – if the evidence turns out to be correct," Ashmore notes with caution. "It's very exciting indeed." [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Unearthing of skeletons sheds light on legend of saint
Dig may have found ancient monk's home
A bit of news from Cumbria Online:
An undiscovered stretch of Hadrian's Wall has been unearthed by archaeologists on the route of the £30 million Carlisle Northern Development by-pass.
Well, it's not undiscovered anymore, then, is it?
The team of archaeologists from Cumbria County Council have discovered a section of the Roman wall and fragments of ancient pottery on the banks of the River Eden near Stainton, west of Carlisle. (...)
A county council spokesman said archaeologists had found several fragments of Roman pottery. He said: "A single course of flat stones was also discovered, which is likely to have been the base of the wall, and on the southern side of the wall there was clear evidence of the vallum - an earthwork mound and ditch. The position of the new find broadly matches the assumed line of Hadrian's Wall west of the city." [continue]
From The Scotsman: Woolly Socks and Sandals: How Romans Survived the North.
With names such as Versace dominating the world's catwalks, the Italians may regard themselves as being the modern-day epitome of sartorial chic.
But while their Armani suits and Gucci bags show their contemporary flair for the ultra-trendy, evidence has emerged to show that things were once very different.
Their Roman ancestors made what today would be the ultimate fashion faux-pas – wearing thick woolly socks with their sandals.
The evidence has emerged [continue]
From news24.com: Ancient gods uncovered.
Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a Nabataean monument during an excavation at Jordan's ancient city of Petra, the English language newspaper Jordan Times reported on Wednesday.
It quoted Patricia Bikai, who headed the excavation team that made the discovery, as saying that they "initially thought the building was either a shrine or a royal residence".
"However, after further examination we identified the monument as a banquet hall, which was decorated with 22 stone heads of ancient gods," she added.
Bikai, an archaeologist at the American Centre of Oriental Research (ACOR), pointed out that the monument, which dated back to the first century, was only found last week after her team had been digging in the area for the past four years.
She said the remains of the building, which had probably collapsed after a major earthquake in 363 AD, were buried in its basement that was covered by sand. [continue]
From The Scotsman: Archaeologists Unearth Britain's Own Miniature Coliseum.
Archaeologists have discovered evidence of Britain's own miniature Coliseum, it was revealed today.
The two-tier stone built structure, in Chester, which dates back to 100AD, hosted gladiatorial contests, floggings and public executions.
Experts say the amphitheatre is the only one of its kind in Britain and the new evidence proves that Chester must have been an important site within the Roman Empire.
Dan Garner, senior archaeologist for Chester City Council, said: "Previous findings have suggested that the amphitheatre was a two-tier structure, but it was always believed the second tier was made of timber.
"We have now discovered the upper level was actually made of stone and stood about ten metres (33ft) high.
"It would have looked like a mini Coliseum and had a seating capacity of around 10,000 to 12,000. [continue]
From the BBC: Chinese made first use of diamond.
Stone age craftsmen in China were polishing jade objects using diamond 2,000 years before anyone else had the same idea, new evidence suggests.
Quartz was previously thought to be the abrasive used to polish ceremonial axes in late stone age, or neolithic, China.
But the investigations of a Chinese-US team of scientists indicate that quartz alone would not have been able to achieve such lustrous finishes.
The team reports its diamond findings in the journal Archaeometry.
Harvard University physicist Peter Lu and colleagues studied four ceremonial burial axes, the oldest of which dates to about 4,500 years ago. [continue]
From The Herald: Did the Vikings drive natives from the isles?
Viking settlers may have "ethnically cleansed" Scotland's islands, waging a genocidal campaign against native Pictish tribes as they arrived, according to evidence uncovered by archaeologists.
Excavations on Orkney could finally settle a centuries-old historical debate over whether the Norsemen integrated with indigenous locals or slaughtered them at the dawn of the last millennium.
Work at Langskaill farm, in Westray, shows signs of a Pictish culture vanish abruptly with the arrival of the Scandinavians, underlining the theory that the Northern Isles were taken violently.
The dig uncovered remains dating from the early Iron Age through to the fourteenth century, with the pre-Norse evidence disappearing suddenly as the settlers arrived in larger numbers. [continue]
From the BBC: Peru ruins reveal their history.
Archaeologists digging at the ruins of Pachacamac in Peru say they have discovered a multi-level burial site.
Mummy bundles of entire families were found in the graves from various eras, built on top of each other, they say.
The researchers described the find as "exceptional" as the previously ignored cemetery had not been looted and is completely intact.
Pachacamac, south of the capital, Lima, is thought to have been ruled by the Ychsma lords from 900 to 1470.
The Incas turned it into a place of pilgrimage and it was abandoned after the Spanish conquest. [continue]
From National Geographic: "Antibiotic" Beer Gave Ancient Africans Health Buzz.
Humans have been downing beer for millennia. In certain instances, some drinkers got an extra dose of medicine, according to an analysis of Nubian bones from Sudan in North Africa.
George Armelagos is an anthropologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. For more than two decades, he and his colleagues have studied bones dated to between A.D. 350 and 550 from Nubia, an ancient kingdom south of ancient Egypt along the Nile River.
The bones, the researchers say, contain traces of the antibiotic tetracycline. Today tetracycline is used to treat ailments ranging from acne flare-ups to urinary-tract infections. But the antibiotic only came into commercial use half a century ago. So how did tetracycline get into the Nubian bones?
Armelagos and his team say they found an answer in ancient beer. The brew was made from grain contaminated with the bacteria streptomycedes, which produces tetracycline. [continue]
From the International Herald Tribune: A lost garden and its traditions rescued in Cornwall.
Heligan is the Rip van Winkle of gardens. Nurtured by successive generations of the Tremayne family for four centuries, it fell into disarray after almost all the workers who maintained it marched off to war in France in 1914. By the end of the 20th century, a jungle of ivy, bramble and laurel had engulfed flower beds and shrubs.
Far from the tourist track near St. Austell, Cornwall, in southwestern England, which is noted mainly for the towering white cones of waste from its kaolin (china clay) mines, Heligan was all but forgotten by the time Tim Smit happened along. Smit, now 50, was born in the Netherlands, studied archaeology in Britain, prospered in rock 'n' roll as a songwriter and promoter and then, in 1987, moved to Cornwall.
Three years later, a chance meeting led to his excited discovery and exploration, sometimes on hands and knees, of the overgrown acres.
He and a group of enthusiastic associates subsequently leased the property and launched a crusade to save what they christened, with an unerring instinct for public relations, "The Lost Gardens of Heligan."
Now, almost 15 years after they began hacking, digging and replanting, the 80-acre, or 32-hectare, garden flourishes anew on its plateau overlooking St. Austell Bay, a tranquil arm of the English Channel. [continue]
Related:
The Lost Gardens of Heligan - heligan.com
From sky.com: China's hidden village.
Archaeologists in China have discovered what they believe could be their own version of Italy's Pompeii.
They have found an entire village which could have been buried in an earthquake 700 years ago. [continue]
Related:
Archeologists unearth 'Chinese Pompeii' destroyed in quake 700 years ago - Yahoo News
From the BBC: 'First platypus' still intact.
It may be more than 200 years old, but the story of the "first platypus" is still told in Australian schools.
When European settlers sent back a specimen of this bizarre creature, scientists were baffled and concluded it was probably a fake.
It was only when more examples arrived from "Down Under" that the issue was resolved.
But what happened to that original specimen that so famously bamboozled the experts? [continue]
Related:
Platypus facts - BBC
Platypus - Wikipedia
From The Independent: Battle for the books of Herculaneum.
They look like lumps of coal, and when the Swiss military engineer and his team who first explored the buried town of Herculaneum in the 18th century encountered them, that was how they were treated: as ancient rubbish, to be dumped in the sea.
But before being hit by a cascade of molten volcanic rock at more than 400C (the so-called pyroclastic flow that inundated the town), these now-blackened and nondescript objects were part of the library of the grandest villa in the town, where the father-in-law of Julius Caesar was regaled with the epigrammatic gems of his in-house Epicurean philosopher, Philodemus.
They were the papyri on which the ancient world preserved its literature, as the tunnelling archaeologists of 250 years ago belatedly understood. Some 1,800 have so far been recovered, and although both papyrus and ink were carbonised, modern thermal imaging techniques have made it possible to decipher them, with the help of a considerable amount of computing muscle. [continue]
Related:
Herculaneum - Wikipedia
Friends of Herculaneum - herculaneum.ox.ac.uk
Secrets of the dead: Pompeii and Herculaneum - channel4.com
From the Mercury News: Exploring the mysteries under St. Peter's.
There's a reason St. Peter's Basilica was built where it stands. A reason Michelangelo's dome, Bernini's spiral-columned canopy and the main altar are all precisely where they are.
It's found in a single verse from the Gospel of Matthew: "And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church."
For 1,700 years, dating back to the construction of the original St. Peter's by the emperor Constantine, Roman Catholic tradition has held that the main altar stands directly over St. Peter's tomb. Today, a tiny fraction of the hundreds of thousands who visit St. Peter's each year are guided back through time, along an ancient subterranean path between two rows of fragile pagan and Christian tombs to view the evidence: a small pillar reputed to be part of one of the earliest monuments over the saint's grave, a wall that once bore a faint Greek inscription sometimes translated as "Peter is here," and 18 small bones enclosed in two plastic glass boxes, viewed through a small ragged hole in a wall 33 feet below the floor of the modern basilica. [continue]
You'll need a password if you want to read the full article.
From Reuters: Leprosy originated in Africa or Near East - Study.
Leprosy, a disease widely believed to have been spread out of India, in fact appears to have originated in Africa or the Near East, scientists said on Thursday.
"The disease seems to have originated in Eastern Africa or the Near East and spread with successive human migrations," researchers reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
This is not what historians had believed.
"Leprosy is believed to have originated in the Indian subcontinent and to have been introduced into Europe by Greek soldiers returning from the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great. From Greece, the disease is thought to have spread around the Mediterranean basin, with the Romans introducing leprosy into the Western part of Europe," the researchers wrote.
In fact, the new study suggests that until Europeans explored and conquered much of the world, the disease that carries perhaps more stigma than any other was fairly contained, they said. [continue]
From the print edition of today's National Post: Early trendsetters set stage for 16th-century cliques.
By today's speed-dial pace, 16th century Europe was very definitely life in the slow lane. Yet centuries before plasma-screen TVs or even Morse code, there was an unmistakable buzz in the air as people began to forge new societies - bonds built not on social rank, family connections or landholdings but on artistic tastes, intellectual endeavors or political beliefs.
Trying to understand how that happened - how cultural ideas spread, and how the roots of that early modern period shaped, and continue to influence our own - is the focus of a major interdisciplinary research project based at McGill University.
Led by Paul Yachnin, a Shakespeare scholar at McGill, three dozen academics from Canada, the United States and Europe will spend the next five years looking not only at the great works of art and literature that emerged from the era but also at the audiences, or "publics," that embraced them.
With $2.5-million from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and smaller grants from partner universitites, Making Publics: Media, Markets and Association in Early Modern Europe, 1500-1700 will attempt to shed light on trend-setting movements in history, art, literature, theatre, music, science and economics.
(The article is available on the National Post website, but it's only for subscribers. Phooey.)
For more details, take a look at the project summary at the Making Publics website.
From adnki.com: Medieval Muslim Burial Ground Unearthed
Skeletons belonging to some 35 corpses have surfaced from a Portuguese excavation site which archaelogists believe could be one of the the largest medieval Muslim burial grounds in Europe. The corpses, found in vaults carved out of the rockface were buried facing due west in the direction of the Muslim holy city, Mecca. The remains were unearthed at the Largo de Candido Dos Reis park, near the northern Portuguese city of Santarem.
Local authorities believe the burial ground, discovered by Portuguese archaeologist, Antonio Matias, could extend over an area of 3,400 square metres and that more graves will be discovered as digging at the site continues. [continue]
From Scotsman.com: Stolen Scots relic heads home.
A historic document seized by Edward I from the Lothians 700 years ago is to be returned to the Capital.
The 13th century artefact records a dispute between the Scottish king and a group of Edinburgh tenants and was taken south by "the Hammer of the Scots" in 1296.
It is to be returned from exile tomorrow after the Lord Chancellor agreed it should be transferred from London to the Scottish Records Office in Edinburgh.
Edward I claimed many of the major symbols which showed Scotland as a kingdom in its own right and took them to England.
They included the Scottish Crown Jewels, the Regalia and the Stone of Destiny.
Edward also took all the Scottish records from Edinburgh Castle, such as charters, papal bulls, bonds and records of debts and accounts, as he meant to control the means of justice in Scotland.
Apart from the Stone of Destiny, which was returned to Scotland in November 1996, most of Edward’s spoils disappeared. [continue]
From the BBC: Dig reveals clues to area's past.
Artefacts dating back to the Bronze Age have been recovered during an archaeological dig on the site of new police headquarters in Middlesbrough.
Experts have found the site, on the former St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, has been used since pre-historic times.
Finds include a 4,000 year old flint tool and medieval pottery. [continue]
From National Geographic: Egypt's "King Tut Curse" Caused by Tomb Toxins?.
Stories of "the mummy's curse" or "King Tut's curse" excited the world after the discovery in 1922 of the ancient pharaoh's tomb in Egypt. Lord Carnarvon, a British sponsor of archaeology in Egypt, died shortly after attending the tomb's opening, inspiring speculation that supernatural forces were at work.
In recent years a scientific mummy's-curse theory was offered for Carnarvon's death. Was he killed by exposure to ancient, toxic pathogens from the sealed tomb? Did they prove too much for his immune system, which was weakened by a chronic illness he had experienced before he went to Egypt? [continue]
From the Beeb: Iron Age shoe unearthed at quarry.
A shoe, believed to be 2,000 years old, has been dug up at a Somerset quarry.
The Iron Age relic was found in a hollowed tree trunk set into the ground at Whiteball Quarry, near Wellington.
Archaeologists say the shoe is the equivalent of a size 10 and is so well-preserved that stitches and lace holes are still visible in the leather. [continue]
From The Cultured Traveler: The Ghosts of Mdina, Malta's Silent City.
It’s the ghosts that keep Mdina quiet.
They say the lack of city noise has something to do with narrow curved streets designed to stop arrows (and coincidentally not admit automobiles) or towering stone walls with the power to muffle 10,000 footsteps. But the primary reason is the ghosts. With their presence sensed all about, respectful silence just seems to be the order of the day.
Here in this walled citadel, perched in the middle of an island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, the ghosts come from a club sandwich of history. For 1,100 years, Mdina has kept the name given by Arab Saracens who set out her present street plans. In Arabic, the word simply means "city." Malta is a small island that had only one town for a very long time, so the generic Saracen name didn’t confuse anybody. [continue]
Related:
Mdina and Rabat - visitmalta.com
Mdina - Wikipedia
From di-ve.com (Malta): Archaeological Excavations at Cathedral Square.
An archaeological investigation is currently underway at Cathedral Square, Mdina, after the ongoing paving project came across a stretch of ancient masonry directly in front of the Cathedral parvis.
The archaeological work, which is being carried out under the direction of the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, is revealing previously unknown aspects of this historic town's ancient history.
The Superintendence established that the newly uncovered remains consisted of parts of a very extensive ancient monument, possibly dating to the Roman era. The remains consist of a single line of ancient masonry built in remarkable blocks of Coralline Limestone measuring 1.5 metres in length and 0.5 metres wide. The construction technique of this wall, which has been traced for approximately 8 metres, is very similar to the other monumental structures that date back roughly to the 3rd to 1st Century B.C., when Malta was dominated by the Romans. [continue]
What's more fun than diagnosing the illnesses of people who've been dead for centuries? Last week the focus was on Napoleon; now we've moved on to Christopher Columbus. From the Washington Post: Doc Says Arthritis Killed Columbus.
Bad food or a sexually transmitted disease probably crippled Christopher Columbus, a researcher suggested Friday.
The famed explorer was struck with a mysterious illness while returning from his first voyage to the New World, and doctors at the time blamed gout. Although he made four trips to the Americas, the disease progressively became worse and he died a crippled man.
Dr. Frank C. Arnett, a rheumatologist at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, said Columbus more likely was struck with reactive arthritis, caused by a number of bacteria responsible for food poisoning as well as sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia. [continue]
From the BBC: Artefact tag scheme is expanding.
A scheme to protect Dartmoor's ancient artefacts from thieves is to be expanded.
The project which uses electronic tags to make items like granite crosses less attractive to criminals is to be used more widely across the South west. [continue]
From haaretz.com: Meron - an old story may be getting older.
The synagogue and the splendid buildings uncovered in the many excavations carried out during the last century at Meron in the upper Galilee, near the eponymous moshav at the foot of Mt. Meron, have left scholars with little doubt: This was the site of an important Jewish settlement during the Roman period, from the late first century BCE until the fourth century CE.
During the Middle Ages, the Jews of Safed believed the Messiah would come if and when the gate of the Meron synagogue fell. Archaeologist Yossi Stepansky of the Israel Antiquities Authority has pinpointed the beginning of this tradition in the Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, page 98a, where it is written that the Messiah will be found among the injured in the battle of the End of Days near the "gate of the city," near the cave of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai. That cave is in Meron. Later, it was also taught in the name of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma that "the falling of the gates" will bring about the coming of the Messiah.
Since archaeological research began at Meron in the 1920s, the accepted belief has been that the site was not settled before the Roman period. [continue]
Today must have been quite amazing in Prague. From Radio Praha: Gunfire at the radio.
Exactly 60 years ago, on 5th May 1945, the Prague Uprising against the German occupiers began here in the very building that houses Radio Prague. "Calling all Czechs" went the now legendary appeal over the airwaves, as defiant radio journalists here at our headquarters in Vinohradska Street, called on the people of Prague to rise up against their occupiers. In the three days that followed over 2,000 Czechs lost their lives in intense street fighting that focused more than anywhere else on the radio building.
On Thursday morning once again shots and explosions could be heard in the streets around the radio. This was the beginning of four days of events in the city to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the war, as military history enthusiasts staged a re-enactment of the battle for the radio, watched by curious onlookers standing out of harm's way across the road. Here is what one of those watching the battle told Radio Prague: [continue, see photos]
Related:
Czechs commemorate Prague revolt - BBC
An English village revisits its Czech history: The Benes years in Buckinghamshire - Radio Praha
From The Telegraph: Cancer clue in Napoleon's trousers
The secret as to what caused the death of Napoleon Bonaparte lay in his trousers, Swiss doctors have claimed.
A team of researchers studied 12 pairs of the French emperor's trousers worn during his six years in exile to demonstrate that the weight he lost leading up to his death proved he was killed by stomach cancer.
Using the garments, which were made anew as he became ever-slimmer, and data on the thickness of Napoleon's stomach fat, the doctors calculated that his weight fell within five months from 14st 4lb to 11st 11lb on the day he died. He was 5'5" tall.
The difference between the waists of his largest and smallest pairs of trousers was five inches.
Comparisons with weight loss and waist sizes of current-day sufferers of stomach cancer led the Swiss team to conclude that - as his doctors claimed then - Napoleon also suffered from a stomach tumour. [continue]
Link found here at The Commonplace Book of Zadok the Roman.
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Napoleon: died from too many enemas?
Elsewhere:
Napoleon 'killed by his doctors' - BBC
So What Killed Napoleon? - crimelibrary.com
The strange story of Napoleon's wallpaper - grand-illusions.com
From The Herald: Unearthing of skeletons sheds light on legend of saint.
About 200 skeletons dating as far back as 1200 years have been unearthed.
The foundations of a medieval church and graveyard have also been found by Historic Scotland near Tantallon Castle, by North Berwick.
Archaeologists were called in earlier this year when human remains were found during ploughing at Auldhame farm.
Some of the graves are believed to be medieval, but others could date from the time of St Baldred, who lived in the eighth century.
The saint founded a monastery at nearby Tyninghame and lived as a hermit on Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth before his death in 756AD.
Historic Scotland said some of the earlier burials might provide evidence of links between Auldhame and St Baldred.
It is believed that the team could uncover structures dating from the time of the saint. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Dig may have found ancient monk's home.
Elsewhere:
Panorama of Tantallon castle
St Baldred - Catholic Encyclopedia
Saint Baldred - geo.ed.ac.uk
From: npr.org: The Ancient Origins of Modern Board Games.
One easily recognizable older game is pachisi: four opponents receive four game pieces to be moved along a board shaped like a cross. The first player to get all four pieces back home wins. Kids know it today as parcheesi.
These games weren't just for recreation. India's Snakes and Ladders -- a precursor of Chutes and Ladders -- taught spiritual and moral lessons. In China, The Official Mandarin Promotion Game showed how to climb the ladder of bureaucracy.
NPR's Asian games image gallery is worth a peek.
From ekathimerini.com: Mycenaean port of Athens found?
Archaeologists in the capital’s southern coastal suburb of Palaio Faliro have uncovered what appear to be traces of ancient Athens’s first port before the city’s naval and shipping center was moved to Piraeus, a report said yesterday.
A rescue excavation on a plot earmarked for development has revealed artifacts and light structures dating, with intervals, from Mycenaean times to the fifth century BC, when the port of Phaleron - after which the modern suburb was named - was superseded by Piraeus, according to Ta Nea daily. [continue]
From haaretz.com: The end of the Exodus from Egypt.
Outside it looks like a ruin, but after the guard opens the door to admit visitors, it turns out that there once was a synagogue here. Behind a small courtyard covered with building debris stands a Holy Ark. Its doors are broken, and from its top dangles a Star of David, hanging by a thread. The guard explains that the ceiling of the building collapsed in 1992, and the pile of debris was never cleared away.
It looks like just another Cairo synagogue that has come to a sad end. At least 20 such synagogues have been destroyed since the 1970s, and most of them were larger and more magnificent than the small Maimonides synagogue in Harat al-Yahud, the medieval Jewish quarter of Cairo. But this synagogue is not just any synagogue; it is one of the most important Jewish sites in Egypt and in the entire world. [continue]
Thanks to Egyptology Blog and PaleoJudaica for pointing out this article.
From discovery.com: Reconstruction Reveals Mummy's Face.
The face of "Bess," an Egyptian woman who died 3,000 to 3,500 years ago, is once again visible as technology brings to life what an artist's hand used to. (...)
The woman's face was modeled in a four-step process that began in 1998. High-resolution CT scans, which captured detailed visual slices every millimeter, were stacked together to create a virtual three-dimensional model of the subject.
Next, digital multidimensional files representing Bess' bone and skin surfaces were created. To do this, researchers arranged markers at lengths representing the depth of flesh over the bone at certain key areas on the virtual skull. "Digital clay" then was formed around the markers.
For the third, and most unusual, step, the digital models were sent to a Z-corp 3-D printer. This high-tech machine uses inkjet technology to print layers of liquid binder onto plaster powder. The final physical model consists of thousands of such layers stacked together.[continue]
From scotsman.com: DNA shows Celtic hero Somerled's Viking roots.
A historic Celtic hero credited with driving the Vikings out of western Scotland was actually descended from a Norseman, according to research by a leading DNA expert.
According to traditional genealogies, Somerled, who is said to have died in 1164 after ousting the Vikings from Argyll, Kintyre and the Western Isles, was descended from an ancient royal line going back to when the Scots were living in Ireland.
But Bryan Sykes, an Oxford University professor of human genetics who set up a company called Oxford Ancestors to research people’s DNA past, has discovered that Somerled’s Y-chromosome - which is inherited through the male line - is of Norse origin.
Prof Sykes' studies of three Scottish clans have also led to the conclusion that some 500,000 people alive today are descended from Somerled - a number only bettered by Genghis Khan, who, among historical figures studied to date, has an estimated 16 million living descendants. [continue]
East Anglian Daily Time reports that the remains of a Roman bathhouse have been unearthed in Colchester.
A single 2,000-year-old room was discovered beneath Colchester Sixth Form College during work to build a fire access road near the college's information technology block.
A leading archaeologist said yesterday it was one of the finest finds of its kind. The room from the bathhouse may now be preserved as an attraction.
Philip Crummy, of the Colchester Archaeological Trust, said he and colleagues had been on a "watching brief" as work at the college was carried out. (...)
The walls of the room, which has a plain red tessellated floor, are of stone and unusually stand about 4ft high.
But the most exciting feature is a wooden water main lying under the floor and crossing the centre of the basin.
Mr Crummy said: "This shows that the water must have been under pressure and, therefore, either provided a small fountain or, more likely, was drawn off via a tap.
"Vents in the bench show the room must have been heated and we think it was filled in during the Roman period when it was no longer needed. [continue]
The Science Musuem (UK) has some pages on old clocks, starting with this introduction:
There was a mechanical clock working in Milan by 1335. It is the first for which there is firm evidence although there are suggestions that there were some mechanical clocks in existence before 1300. By 1350, several mechanical clocks were working in Italy. The oldest surviving mechanical clock in Britain and probably anywhere was installed in Salisbury Cathedral in 1386. By 1392 another mechanical clock was installed at Wells Cathedral.
The mechanism for the Well's clock was replaced in 1838. However the original is now in the Science Museum, along with steel bells added in the 1880s.
Mechanical clocks brought about a change in the way in which time was measured. Before the 14th century, the system of dividing a period of one day and one night into 24 equal hours was only used by astronomers. [continue]
There are pages about The Salisbury Cathedral clock, the Wells Cathedral clock, and several other interesting old clocks, too.
I'd love to go see some of these. I wonder if any are as impressive as the Prague Orloj, though.
From edp24.co.uk: Bronze Age artefact found in garden.
One of the biggest hauls of Bronze Age artefacts ever found in Norfolk has been uncovered in a garden - but it very nearly ended up in a skip.
The 145 items dating from circa 800BC were discovered in Norwich by gardener Simon Francis as he landscaped the grounds of a house on Poplar Avenue, near Newmarket Road.
Norfolk County Council archaeologists have described the haul as one of the largest and most significant they have known, providing a vital insight into the era. (...)
Since the initial discovery of 135 items on Friday, archaeologists have revisited the site and found more items including a Viking broach.
The haul included axe heads, spear-heads, sword parts, tools and ingots. [continue]
From the Beeb: Ancient tombs found near obelisk.
Archaeologists have found a vast new network of royal tombs in Ethiopia, near the site where the 1,700-year-old Axum obelisk is to be re-erected.
Experts using sophisticated imaging equipment discovered the burial chambers, even older than the obelisk, under a 1963 car park, said the UN. [continue]
From discovery.com: Ancient Metalworkers Burned Out of History.
Evidence for ancient metalworking is sparse, and now historians who recreated Bronze Age smelting techniques know why — the clues naturally disappear.
The finding explains why, despite the discovery of 10 British mines dating from 2050 to 1500 B.C., very few remains of actual metalworking sites have been excavated around the world.
For the study, students at the University of London's Birkbeck college conducted a number of smelting experiments, including the construction of crude furnaces, at Butser Ancient Farm Project in Hampshire.
Findings are published in the current issue of British Archaeology. They also will be outlined in a British Archaeological Reports book to be published later this year.
"One of the reasons for making these furnaces and for monitoring how they weather on abandonment is to show how little archaeological record they might leave," said Simon Timberlake, excavations director of the Early Mines Research Group and one of the metalworking project's leaders.
"Such ephemeral, once-only furnaces, particularly if they were dug out after use, might be difficult to detect archaeologically, and even harder to interpret as such if found." [continue]
From the Times of India: Perfect mummies found in China.
Remarkably well-preserved mummies have been discovered at an ancient burial site in China.
Archaeologists unearthed 167 tombs at the Xiaohe Tomb complex in the Lop Nur desert in the northwest Xinjiang region. The site is 174 km from the ruins of the Loulan Kingdom, an ancient civilisation that vanished 1,500 years ago.
"The mummies were unbelievably well preserved, even better than the mummies in Egypt," said Zhu Hong, director of the Archaeology Study Department of Jilin University. "Even the lice in the heads has been preserved," Zhu added.
Experts believe that the tomb complex might belong to the Bronze Age.
They are attempting to determine the date of the tombs through the tree-ring analysis on wooden coffin boards and chronometry on the earth from the tombs. [continue]
From the BBC: Roman relics spark village dig.
Archaeologists are to excavate what they think could be the site of a Roman lead mine dating back more than 1,000 years.
In June last year, Cambria Archaeology unearthed the best preserved example of a medieval track in Wales in a peat bog near Borth in Ceredigion.
But workers also stumbled across evidence of what they described as a Roman "industrial estate."
Next month they are going back to the village to probe the area again.
Cambria Archaeology, from Llandeilo, intends to find out the date of the site, what was happening there and who was working it. [continue]
From the University of Cincinnati: Albanian Temple Unearthed By UC Archeologists.
It took a hunch, hard work and a heck of a lot of diplomacy. But the payoff is spectacular: Archeologists from the University of Cincinnati have discovered a previously unknown Greek temple outside the ancient Greek city-state of Apollonia.
The monumental temple is "the third of its kind to be discovered at Apollonia and only the fifth in all of Albania," said Jack L. Davis, the Carl W. Blegen Professor of Greek Archaeology at the University of Cincinnati. Davis is co-director of the international team that has located the temple in a rural site in what is now modern-day Albania.
The hunch had its roots in work begun more than 40 years ago, when a farmer's tractor uncovered terracotta figurines outside the walls of Apollonia. The site appeared to include remains of a sanctuary. An Albanian-Russian archeological team explored it, finding traces of brick walls and dating hundreds of the figurines to the 4th-2nd century BC. Their work went unnoticed, however: the rupture in Soviet-Albanian relations in 1960 kept the team from publishing much about their work. [continue]
From This is Local London: Searching for Abbey’s hidden history.
Archaeologists are awaiting results of a geophysical survey carried out around Bisham Abbey last weekend which could reveal the long-lost history of the site.
Bisham Abbey, off the A404 Marlow Bypass, is believed to date as far back as 1337, and a special survey hopes to reveal the original foundations of the ancient building.
The modern abbey is currently the home of Sport England's National Sports Centre, and six volunteers took to the lawns of the tennis courts to try and detect the foundations. [continue]
Related:
Bisham Abbey - BerkshireHistory.com
Bisham - windsor.gov.uk
From the Beeb: Ancient necropolis found in Egypt.
Archaeologists say they have found the largest funerary complex yet dating from the earliest era of ancient Egypt, more than 5,000 years ago.
The necropolis was discovered by a joint US and Egyptian team in the Kom al-Ahmar region, around 600 km (370 miles) south of the capital, Cairo.
Inside the tombs, the archaeologists found a cow's head carved from flint and the remains of seven people.
They believe four of them were buried alive as human sacrifices.
The remains survived despite the fact that the tombs were plundered in ancient times. [continue]
From The Telegraph: Ethiopia rejoices as Italy returns plundered obelisk.
Ethiopians yesterday welcomed home the first of three giant sections of the 1,700-year-old Axum Obelisk, one of their most prized antiquities looted by Italy's fascists in the 1930s.
Priests chanted and church bells rang out as a huge Antonov cargo jet returning the monument's first 60 ton chunk landed safely after flying over the runway four times, watched anxiously by a crowd of thousands.
The 80 ft obelisk has stood in Rome's city centre since it was plundered in 1937 but is being returned piece by piece. Italy is paying the entire £4.3 million bill for the operation. [continue]
Related:
Obelisk points to ancient Ethiopian glory - BBC
From the Daily Times (Pakistan): Woman finds 409 ancient coins.
A village woman shepherding her cattle atop a mountain has found 409 ancient coins dating back to the Abbasid era. "It was merely a chance when Moza Al Esayah, a shepherdess, while grazing her cattle in the Dhahira region, hit an old jar buried under the earth," reported Oman Tribune, quoting officials. [continue]
The sad thing about living in Vancouver is that I have absolutely no chance of digging up ancient coins (or, say, a Roman tablet or an Iron Age fort) in the garden.
From The Local (Sweden): Pompei discovery for Swedish archeologists.
Swedish archeologists have discovered a Stone Age settlement covered in ash under the ruins of the ancient city of Pompei, indicating that the volcano Vesuvius engulfed the area in lava more than 3,500 years before the famous 79 AD eruption.
The archeologists recently found burnt wood and grains of corn in the earth under Pompei, Anne-Marie Leander Touati, a professor of archeology at Stockholm University who led the team, told AFP.
"Carbon dating shows that the finds are from prehistoric times, that is, from 3,500 years BC," Leander Touati said. It was until now believed that Pompei was first inhabited during the Bronze Age.
The group of archeologists - part of a larger international project - were mapping a Roman neighbourhood of Pompei when they made the discovery. [continue]
Yes, I know I blogged this yesterday (see Reading previously illegible ancient manuscripts), but what follows is a much more detailed article. From The Independent: Decoded at last: the ‘classical holy grail’ that may rewrite the history of the world.
For more than a century, it has caused excitement and frustration in equal measure - a collection of Greek and Roman writings so vast it could redraw the map of classical civilisation. If only it was legible.
Now, in a breakthrough described as the classical equivalent of finding the holy grail, Oxford University scientists have employed infra-red technology to open up the hoard, known as the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and with it the prospect that hundreds of lost Greek comedies, tragedies and epic poems will soon be revealed.
In the past four days alone, Oxford's classicists have used it to make a series of astonishing discoveries, including writing by Sophocles, Euripides, Hesiod and other literary giants of the ancient world, lost for millennia. They even believe they are likely to find lost Christian gospels, the originals of which were written around the time of the earliest books of the New Testament.
The original papyrus documents, discovered in an ancient rubbish dump in central Egypt, are often meaningless to the naked eye - decayed, worm-eaten and blackened by the passage of time. But scientists using the new photographic technique, developed from satellite imaging, are bringing the original writing back into view. Academics have hailed it as a development which could lead to a 20 per cent increase in the number of great Greek and Roman works in existence. Some are even predicting a "second Renaissance". [continue]
From The Independent: Eureka! Extraordinary discovery unlocks secrets of the ancients.
Thousands of previously illegible manuscripts containing work by some of the greats of classical literature are being read for the first time using technology which experts believe will unlock the secrets of the ancient world.
Among treasures already discovered by a team from Oxford University are previously unseen writings by classical giants including Sophocles, Euripides and Hesiod. Invisible under ordinary light, the faded ink comes clearly into view when placed under infra-red light, using techniques developed from satellite imaging. [continue]
From haaretz.com: ‘Impressive’ villa mosaic unearthed near Caesarea.
A 500-square-meter mosaic depicting an intricate design of flamingos, peacocks, ducks and other animals that adorned the floor of a fifth-century C.E. villa, was unearthed recently on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean near Caesarea.
Parts of the floor were first discovered in the 1950s by archaeologist Shmuel Yeivin. However, it was not fully excavated at the time due to budgetary constraints.
This time, after an initial week-long excavation by Dr. Yosef Porat and Peter Gendelman of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the authority refused to continue the dig, citing a lack of funds. The Caesarea Development Corporation has agreed to pay for conservation so the floor can be put on display.
One expert, who is not connected with the dig but visited the site two weeks ago, told Haaretz the villa is "the most impressive ever discovered so far in Israel."
The floor was apparently part of a central courtyard in the two-story villa, which covered 1.5 dunams and was destroyed during the Arab conquest in 640 C.E. [continue, see photo]
From the Guardian: Sub wreck could reveal Japanese peace offer.
An American Vietnam veteran could be about to answer one of the most intriguing questions arising from the second world war: was Japan preparing to seek peace with the allies more than a year before the war ended?
Paul Tidwell, a shipwreck salvager, said yesterday he believes wreckage of a Japanese submarine sunk by US warplanes in the Atlantic on June 23 1944 could contain a peace proposal from Tokyo that never made it into the hands of its intended recipient. [continue]
Thanks to Lorna for pointing out this article, too. Mail from Lorna is always a good thing.
From the Yorkshire Post Today: Skeleton find could tell us more about the Roman way of death.
Another headless skeleton discovered in York is among a series of gruesome archaeological finds which could hold the key to unlocking secrets behind Roman burial rituals.
The latest discovery of human remains by archaeologists follows in the wake of another headless skeleton found shackled in a grave and a Roman mummy which was also unearthed in The Mount area of the city.
A total of 57 bodies – 50 adults and seven children – and 14 sets of cremated remains have been found during excavations, most by the York Archaeological Trust at a site in Driffield Terrace.
Archaeologists are now confident the bodies will provide perhaps the clearest indication yet on the Roman attitude to death.
It is thought the Romans could have beheaded corpses to release the human spirit, which they believed was contained in the head. [continue]
From the Persian Journal: Macrocephaly Traced in Burnt City, Iran.
The latest excavations in the archaeological site of Burnt City, in Sistan-Baluchistan has led to the discovery of a five-thousand-year old female skeleton which shows traces of macrocephaly. This is the first example of such illness found in the ancient site.
According to head of the anthropology team in the Burnt City, Farzad Forouzanfar, the discovered skull has a very thick shell, which shows that the woman has died of macrocephaly. However, since it is badly damaged, no more information has been obtained from it. Studies on the skull show that the woman has died young due to the disease. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Lord Nelson's Battle of the Nile heroes rise again after 207 years.
The remains of sailors and soldiers who fought alongside Admiral Horatio Nelson in one of his most decisive naval victories over the French have been discovered off the north coast of Egypt.
The bodies were found on an island in Abu Qir bay, east of Alexandria, where Nelson inflicted a catastrophic defeat on Napoleon’s French fleet during the Battle of the Nile.
Paulo Gallo, an archaeologist, had been excavating the island for Greek and Roman artefacts when he discovered the remains of the 30 British sailors and soldiers, some dating to the 1798 battle and others to 1801, when Britain landed an expeditionary force in the area. [continue]
From the University of Michigan News Service: Scientists use manufacturing methods to reconstruct mastodon.
Combining 13,000-year-old bones with 21st century auto manufacturing techniques, scientists and exhibit preparators at the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural history are reconstructing a male mastodon skeleton for an exhibit that opens to the public May 21.
Meanwhile, museum visitors can peek through special viewing windows to watch preparators assemble the skeleton, which will bear 7-foot tusks. [continue]
Link found here at Beyond the Beyond.
From swissinfo.org: Ancient Cypriot copper mine for sale.
A copper mine in Cyprus where the metal has been mined since Biblical times faces closure unless the Church of Cyprus can find a buyer, officials said on Wednesday.
The Skouriotissa mine, which produced copper ore at a site where there has been mining for some 4,000 years, suspended operationsin January, leaving its workers unpaid and with debts labour unions estimate at 14 million pounds.
Herod the Great, who in the Bible ordered the Massacre of the Innocents in an attempt to murder the infant Jesus, has been recorded among those having rights to mine at the site in Cyprus's picturesque Troodos Mountains. [continue]
From the BBC: Remains of Roman rabbit uncovered.
The remains of a 2,000-year-old rabbit - found at an early Roman settlement at Lynford, Norfolk - may be the earliest example of rabbit remains in Britain.
The bones - which show evidence the animal had been butchered and buried - are similar to those of a small Spanish rabbit, common in Roman times.
It is thought rabbits were introduced to Britain following the Roman invasion in AD43.
The remains will be officially dated at the Natural History Museum in London. [continue]
From Eurekalert: New method for dating ancient earthquakes through cave evidence developed by Israeli researchers.
A new method for dating destructive past earthquakes, based on evidence remaining in caves has been developed by scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Geological Survey of Israel.
Using this method, they discovered for the first time evidence of earthquakes that can be documented some distance from the Syrian-African rift that runs from Syria through Lebanon, Israel and Jordan and down into Africa. This rift caused great shifts in the topography of the region in prehistoric times. [continue]
From the Hindustan Times: Tipu Sultan collection to be auctioned by Sotheby's.
A range of works of art, weaponry, textiles, books and photographs relating to India, including the Tipu Sultan collection, will be auctioned by well known auctioneer Sotheby's for two days from May 25.
The Tipu Sultan Collection was originally formed by Robin Wigington, author and leading authority on Tipu firearms, over a period of 30 years. Although it has since changed hands, but remains completely intact. [continue]
I'd love to browse through that collection. Do you know about Tipu Sultan? (Alternative spelling: Tipoo.) Here's the Tipu Sultan page at Wikipedia, and here's the BBC's Tiger of Mysore gallery.
The collection of stuff Sotheby's will auction doesn't include Tipu's Tiger; the Victoria and Albert Museum has that. I found a description of Tipu's Tiger for you, though, and this page from the V&A, which invites you to "Watch an animation of automaton Tippoo's Tiger and listen to the sounds it makes." Oh, and here you'll find a photo and yet more information, courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland.
Related:
Early Automata: The Tipu Tiger - Mechanical Music Digest Archives
From Medical News Today: Importance of alcohol production in the ancient world, study.
While the modern era has a fondness for the business lunch, the ancient world viewed the feast as an important arena of political action. Yet, new research in the April 2005 issue of Current Anthropology suggests that the story of how the food and drink arrived to the table is just as critical to our understanding of the past as the social behaviors at the table.
Since alcoholic beverages were liberally consumed at many of these feasts (often occurring over several days), a sponsor often faced the daunting problem of assembling prodigious amounts of alcohol in the weeks preceding a feast. In this paper, researchers from the University of California at Santa Barbara consider certain traditional methods for making maize beer, barley and emmer wheat beer, rice beer, agave wine, and grape wine from a variety of regions around the world. By exploring the recipes used to make each of these beverages, they demonstrate how details of each drink's manufacture, such as shelf life, plant maturation, and labor crunches, offered challenges and opportunities to sponsors who attempted to organize their mass-production.
They argue that "differences in the operational chains of food and beverages helped to shape feasting strategies by presenting both diverse processing challenges and unusual opportunities." [continue]
From the BBC: Early hominid 'cared for elderly'.
Ancient hominids from the Caucasus may have fed and cared for their elderly, a new fossil find has indicated.
The 1.77 million-year-old specimen, which is described in Nature magazine, was completely toothless and well over 40; a grand old age at the time.
This may suggest that the creature lived in a complex society which was capable of showing compassion.
These hominids - like humans - may also have valued the old for their years of acquired knowledge, researchers think. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Revealed: The softer, caring side of the marauding Viking.
Far from their marauding, pillaging stereotypes, Viking warriors were homemakers who couldn’t wait to ship their wives over to settle the lands they had conquered, new research reveals.
Scientists studying Scots of Viking ancestry in Shetland and Orkney have discovered that there must have been far more Viking women in the Dark Ages settlements than originally thought.
However, it appears that Viking wives refused to go deeper into Scotland, with little evidence they made it as far as the Western Isles.
Researchers from Oxford University took DNA samples from 500 residents of Shetland using a toothbrush to extract some of their saliva. The scientists were able to identify genetic traits in the Scots which they share with modern day Scandinavian populations.
By examining two elements of DNA, one that is passed from father to son and one passed down the female lineages, they could work out the gender balance of the original Viking populations. They could also compare it to results of other studies conducted in the Western Isles. [continue]
Related news article:
Vikings who chose a home in Shetland before a life of pillage - Telegraph
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Viking DNA in England
DNA test to tackle Arctic mystery
Did Vikings settle amongst Inuit?
DNA for genealogy
From Scotsman.com: Mystery of bones find at church.
Mystery surrounds the discovery of six bodies dating back to the 16th century in the grounds of a historic church in Leith.
Archaeologists uncovered four skeletons and the remains of at least another two bodies during construction work on the 19th-century St Mary's Star of the Sea Church in Constitution Street.
Carbon dating by scientists has revealed the bodies date back to around the time of the Siege of Leith from 1559 to 1560, which involved French, English and Scots forces.
But experts believe the bodies - one a teenager - could also be executed criminals or victims of the devastating plague. [continue]
From The Guardian: Swiss watchers.
Are the Pope's colourfully uniformed guards just for show? The question has frequently been asked in the wake of John Paul II's death. The answer is that these soldiers are indeed not only "stood up" for ceremonial purposes. They are members of the Swiss Guard - often referred to as the papal guards or Swiss mercenaries - an elite, company-sized military force that has defended a succession of popes for more than five centuries and not always without bloodshed.
Recognisable by their Renaissance-era striped uniforms (legend has it the uniform was designed by Michelangelo), armour, halberds and helmets plumed with Ostrich feathers, the Swiss Guards are best known to outsiders as the armed men who stand watch throughout the Apostolic Palace, including at the doors to the Pope's private apartments and the exterior gates of the Vatican. The guards are a favorite subject of photographers and tourists, and their quiet presence is an impressive show of force much like the US marines at the White House and the various regiments that guard Buckingham Palace. [continue]
Related:
Swiss Guard - vatican.va
Vatican Swiss Guard - Wikipedia
Swiss guards in the Vatican - InfoRoma.it
From the Derry Journal: Holy Water Font Unearthed.
A Derry archaeologist has unearthed what's believed to be a holy water font dating back hundreds of years in the Galliagh area.
It's thought the discovery may be associated with an old abbey which is reputed to have been situated in the area many hundreds of years ago.
Local archaeologist Ian Leitch made the discovery when he visited the land of Winston Bell near Glenabbey Cottages on the Upper Beragh Hill Road to investigate a large but intriguing rock with a depression in its centre. [continue]
From Xinhuanet.com: Ancient musical instruments unearthed.
Chinese archaeologists have unearthed hundreds of ancient musical instruments from the tombs of Yue State noblemen in East China's Jiangsu Province. Among the discoveries are rare clay instruments called Fou. It was popular during China's Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States Period.
All together, about 500 musical instruments made from clay were unearthed from the tombs. Experts consider them outstanding in both quantity and quality. [continue]
From Reuters: Ancient Maya Entrepreneurs Made Salt, Study Finds.
Ancient Mayan entrepreneurs working along the coast of what is now Belize distilled salt from seawater and paddled it to inland cities in canoes, all without government control, researchers reported on Monday.
They found evidence of 41 saltworks on a single coastal lagoon and the remains of a 1,300-year-old wooden canoe paddle. [continue]
From iol.co.za: France's first royal mistress was poisoned.
More than five centuries after her death, forensic tests on the remains of France's first officially recognised royal mistress have determined that she was killed by mercury poisoning.
However scientists who examined fragments of Agnes Sorel's skull, jaw and hair were unable to confirm suspicions that the consort of Charles VII was murdered. The toxin could also have been taken as a treatment for worms.
A famous beauty who bore three children by the king, Sorel died of a "flux of the stomach" in Normandy in 1450, but rumours abounded at the time that she had been killed -- possibly by Charles' son the future Louis XI.
Last September her marble tomb in the mediaeval royal lodge at Loches in central France was opened prior to its removal to a nearby building, and archaeologists were authorised to remove the body parts from a funerary urn inside. [continue]
Related
Was Agnès Sorel, the first official royal mistress of France, poisoned? - esrf.fr
Agnès Sorel - Wikipedia
From Radio Praha: Why Czechs drive on the right.
Nowadays, Britain and some of its former colonies are the only countries where people drive on the left. Sticking to the left was originally the general rule, and was legislated by a papal decree around 1300. Under Robespierre, France switched to the right, or from my point of view as an Irishman, the wrong side of the road. This was evidently a gesture of independence from Rome, and Napoleon imposed the change on the countries he conquered around the continent.
The states that had resisted Napoleon kept broadly left, including the Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the empire broke up most its former territories stayed left, including Czechoslovakia. Austria itself was a curiosity, with half the country driving on the left and half on the right, with the dividing line reflecting Napoleon's conquests of 1805. [continue]
Can anybody give me more information on the papal decree mentioned above?
Why in Britain do we drive on the left? - 2pass.co.uk
Rules of the road - Wikipedia
From the Times Online: Curse of mummy to be uncovered by medical check-up.
Ancient Egyptian mummies on display in museums and stately homes are beginning to offer up their secrets to modern medicine.
Scientists have taken samples of tissue from more than 1,000 mummies to build a medical map revealing the way that disease has evolved over 5,000 years.
Egyptologists at the KNH centre for biomedical Egyptology at Manchester University have been charting the evolution of schistosomiasis, more commonly known as bilharzia, from antiquity to the modern day.
Researchers have found that a privileged lifestyle was no barrier to debilitating symptoms and sometimes also painful death from the waterborne parasite that causes the disease — the upper classes swam in the garden pools fed by the same canals as everyone else. [continue]
From Eurekalert: Boston University chemists probe secrets in ancient textile dyes from China, Peru.
Although searching for 3,000-year-old mummy textiles in tombs under the blazing sun of a western Chinese desert may seem more Indiana Jones than analytical chemist, two Boston University researchers recently did just that. Traveling along the ancient Silk Road in Xinjiang Province on their quest, they found the ancient fabrics – and hit upon a research adventure that combined chemistry, archaeology, anthropology, botany, and art.
The chemists, Richard Laursen, a professor in the Boston University Department of Chemistry, and Xian Zhang, a chemistry graduate student, have refined a technique that helps archaeologists and anthropologists identify the plant species that ancient people used to make fabric dyes. Their technique has not only provided researchers with a new, more powerful tool for analyzing previously known dye types, it also has led to the discovery of at least one never-before described dye. In addition, the BU chemists have started a catalogue of plant sample characteristics for use by dye researchers around the world. [continue]
From Scotsman.com: Canterbury hails return of medieval Easter texts.
An 11th century manuscript has been returned to Canterbury Cathedral after going missing for hundreds of years.
The manuscript is a double-page spread from a gospel lectionary, thought to have been written by a highly-skilled scribe from the Holy Roman Empire.
It was discovered in Germany by an academic researching medieval texts, who spotted that the pages matched those in the book of gospels in Canterbury Cathedral.
It is thought the scripts, on the subject of Easter, went missing from the cathedral, like many others, during the mid-16th century Reformation. [continue]
From The Herald: Mummy specialists uncover secrets of ancient Egyptian queen.
Skeletal remains held by the National Museum of Scotland have been identified as a lost Egyptian queen and her child.
The discovery has been made by scientists who used forensic investigative techniques to attempt to solve the mystery of the remains.
The bodies were acquired for the collection a year after being discovered by Sir Flinders Petrie in 1909 at Qurna, a village on the west bank of the Nile, which has been the focus of illegal excavations.
The burial discovery, displayed at the Royal Museum for decades, consisted of two coffins containing the skeletal remains with jewellery, a ceremonial fly whisk, a Syrian oil horn, furniture, pottery, and food. [continue]
From Britain's Channel 4: The worst jobs in history.
The history we are taught usually features the lives and times of the great and the good, of the haves and not the have-nots. But the famous aristocrats and monarchs could not have existed without the battalions of minions who performed the tasks that were beneath their masters.
In this website, we take you on a journey through 2,000 years of British history and the worst jobs of each era. Tony Robinson, presenter of the Channel 4 series, has devised a quiz to see how suited you would be to certain jobs in the past. The skills agency learndirect has provided information on current offbeat careers, and finally, we show you how to take your interest further.
Link found here at Metafilter.
From Xinhuanet.com: Ancient tombs found in desert.
About 330 ancient tombs have now been discovered at the Xiaohe Mausoleum compound in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. They contain dried corpses still preserved inside their coffins.
The site is located in the Luobu Desert about 150 kilometers away from the famous ruins of ancient Loulan city. [continue]
Ah, more on that rare coin. This news24.com article has details, and a photo:
Jerusalem - A rare Crusader coin dating from the mid-13th century has been excavated by archaeologists digging up a flea market in the suburbs of Tel Aviv, the Israeli Antiquities Authority (IAA) said on Wednesday.
The silver half drachma has been dated to between 1251 and 1257 and is imprinted with a cross, fleur-de-lis and an Arabic inscription of the Christian Trinity - the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, said the IAA. [continue]
From the Boston University Bridge: Archaeologist discovers ancient ships in Egypt.
Kathryn Bard had "the best Christmas ever" this past December when she discovered the well-preserved timbers and riggings of pharaonic seafaring ships inside two man-made caves on Egypt’s Red Sea coast. They are the first pieces ever recovered from Egyptian seagoing vessels, and along with hieroglyphic inscriptions found near one of the caves, they promise to shed light on an elaborate network of ancient Red Sea trade.
Bard, a CAS associate professor of archaeology, and her former student Chen Sian Lim (CAS’01) had been shoveling sand for scarcely an hour on their first day of excavation on a parched bluff rising from the shore at Wadi Gawasis when a fist-sized hole appeared in the hillside. "I stuck my hand in, and that was the entrance to the first cave," Bard says. "Things like that don’t happen very often in archaeology." [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Ancient coin found in Jaffa market.
A rare coin with the words "The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost" in ancient Arabic has been uncovered in an archaeological excavation in a Jaffa market, Israel's Antiquities Authority announced Thursday.
The Crusader-era half-drachma coin, which was found in 12th century building, includes other classic Christian motifs such as the cross, and an Egyptian blessing.
Wowza. From the Globe and Mail: Vatican's vaults hold surprising Canadiana.
Inuit kayaks from the Canadian Western Arctic are rare. Until recently, only five were known to exist. Then Robert Fung, the chairman of the Toronto Waterfront Revitalization Corp., located a sixth -- one he hopes to put on public display.
But the rare historic piece is owned by the Vatican, and it isn't known whether the Roman Catholic Church would be willing to give it up.
Mr. Fung's discovery capped a remarkable odyssey that began with an overheard conversation in Toronto, took a detour to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, captured the imagination of the Royal Ontario Museum and finally ended in Rome.
Neither Mr. Fung nor the ROM formally asked to borrow the kayak or other Canadian artifacts that form part of the Vatican's vast collection of artworks and cultural artifacts.
But every so often, the Vatican allows its treasures and curiosities to be put on display outside Rome, so the idea of a Toronto exhibit is not out of the question.Mr. Fung, 66, knows the kayak exists because he and two ROM curators saw it in late November, hidden in the bowels of the Vatican Museums. "It's several floors below the Sistine Chapel," Mr. Fung said. "We were taken to a lab on a dark floor. The kayak was sitting outside the door." [continue]
Related:
Canadian artifacts found in Rome - CBC
From the Guardian: A clever new broom for ancient homes.
English Heritage has decided to dust down its ancient monuments using a vacuum cleaner invented in-house for issue to local staff.
Spring-cleaning trials of the £210 backpack kit began yesterday at Helmsley Castle in North Yorkshire, where it gobbled up grime, mould and the odd bit of wormy wood.
"It's going to make my life a lot easier," said Mark Hodgson, the organisation's site supervisor at the medieval ruin, where cleaning contractors have previously been hired for major jobs. "It will be on hand to tackle any special problems we come across immediately, rather than having to wait for someone to come in."
The machine, which has a range of nozzles and filters to deal with delicate objects and vulnerable parts of buildings, will be used by monument custodians throughout the country under the guidance of English Heritage conservators. [continue]
From Merimbula News Weekly: Dr Cameron of Tura finds a 2300-year-old shroud.
A team coordinated by Tura Beach archaeologist Dr Judith Cameron has discovered and preserved the oldest complete shroud found in Southeast Asia, dating back some 2,300 years to the Bronze Age Dongson culture.
The cloth was found in a wooden boat-shaped coffin covered by thick black mud in a canal in the Red River plains area of Vietnam in December last year.
In what has been hailed as a major find, team leader Professor Peter Bellwood of the Australian National University said that the boat coffin - unearthed at Dong Xa, 50km southeast of Hanoi - was possibly also the oldest in Southeast Asia.
But Dr Cameron, who is Australia's only textile archaeologist, said that the shroud was the primary artifact and the major target of the research team. [continue]
from icWales: Townhouse reveals real skeletons in closet.
Skeletons in the closet were a real-life problem for Ashford Price when he opened a cupboard in his late aunt's bedroom to be confronted with dozens of human remains.
The grand Georgian townhouse in the stately sweep of Swansea's leafy St James's Crescent had hidden a secret for decades until its owner, Brenda Morgan, 84, passed away.
Police were immediately called after the discovery, but suspicions were dampened when it was noticed all the bones had been carefully cleaned and numbered.
The remains were in fact 42 human skeletons dating back over 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. They had been discovered at Dan yr Ogof caves by the Morgan family 80 years ago. [continue]
From discovery.com: Neanderthals Sang at High Pitch?
Neanderthals possessed strong, yet high-pitched, voices that the stocky hominins used for both singing and speaking, according to recent British news reports.
The theory suggests that Neanderthals, who once lived in Europe from around 200,000 to 35,000 B.C., were intelligent and socially complex. It also indicates that although Neanderthals likely represented a unique species, they had more in common with modern humans than previously thought.
Stephen Mithen, a professor of archaeology at Reading University, made the determination after studying the skeletal remains of Neanderthals. His work coincides with last week's release of the first complete, articulated Neanderthal skeleton. [continue]
From the New York Times: Mother Culture, or Only a Sister?.
On a coastal flood plain etched by rivers flowing through swamps and alongside fields of maize and beans, the people archaeologists call the Olmecs lived in a society of emergent complexity. It was more than 3,000 years ago along the Gulf of Mexico around Veracruz.
The Olmecs, mobilized by ambitious rulers and fortified by a pantheon of gods, moved a veritable mountain of earth to create a plateau above the plain, and there planted a city, the ruins of which are known today as San Lorenzo. They left behind palace remnants, distinctive pottery and art with anthropomorphic jaguar motifs. Most impressive were Olmec sculptures: colossal stone heads with thick lips and staring eyes that are assumed to be monuments to revered rulers.
The Olmecs are widely regarded as creators of the first civilization in Mesoamerica, the area encompassing much of Mexico and Central America, and a cultural wellspring of later societies, notably the Maya. Some scholars think the Olmec civilization was the first anywhere in America, though doubt has been cast by recent discoveries in Peru.
Archaeologists have split sharply over how much influence the Olmecs had on contemporary and subsequent Mesoamerican cultures. Were Olmecs the "mother" culture? Or were they one among "sister" cultures whose interactions through the region produced shared attributes of religion, art, political structure and hierarchical society? [continue]
I don't think you'll need a password to read the rest of this article. If you do, there's always BugMeNot.
From the Times Online: Cleopatra seduced the Romans with her irresistible . . . mind.
Long before Shakespeare portrayed her as history’s most exotic femme fatale, Cleopatra was revered throughout the Arab world — for her brain.
Medieval Arab scholars never referred to the Egyptian queen’s appearance, and they made no mention of the dangerous sensuality which supposedly corrupted Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. Instead they marvelled at her intellectual accomplishments: from alchemy and medicine to philosophy, mathematics and town planning, a new book has claimed.
Even Elizabeth Taylor, who famously played the title role in the 1963 epic Cleopatra, would have struggled to inject sex appeal into this queen. Arab writers depict Cleopatra’s court as a place of intellectual seminars and scholarship rather than the more traditional vision of kohl-rimmed eyes and hedonistic intrigue. [continue]
From Xinhuanet.com: Ancient-style ship to navigate maritime Silk Road.
An ancient-style ship will depart Tuesday from Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province for a renavigation of the maritime Silk Road opened by a prestigious Chinese sea voyager 600 years ago.
A ceremony will be held Tuesday in Qingdao City for the voyage, which is to commemorate the 600th anniversary of the seven voyagesof Zheng He, a Muslim eunuch in the imperial Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) who traveled to West Asia and East Africa between 1405 and 1433, according to local sources.
Pioneering the first express sea-route through the western Pacific and the Indian Ocean, Zheng He's voyages were 87, 92 and 114 years earlier than those of Columbus, Vasco da Gama and Magellan. [continue]
From the Guardian: Archaeologists tackle chess puzzle.
A grubby green cousin of the world's most famous chessmen is puzzling archaeologists.
The little knight on horseback, recently found by an amateur using a metal detector on farmland in north Nottinghamshire, is startlingly similar to chesspieces found hundreds of miles away in 1831, on a beach on the isle of Lewis. (...)
Not being of great commercial value, but of immense historic importance, the knight is the sort of find that might not previously have been reported.
The Lewis chessmen, made of walrus ivory, are thought to be part of at least four different sets, so dozens of pieces are missing. Although the knight cannot be one - he is copper alloy - his helmet and shield are very like those of the Lewis knights. The style suggests a late 11th or early 12th century date, similar to the Lewis men. [continue]
This would be a fine time to visit The Lewis Chessmen page at the British Museum website. Stunning images there, and some good information, too.
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Birth of the Chess Queen
From the Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency: Ancient Relief and Inscription Found in Boushehr.
Tehran, Mar. 13 (CHN) – Excavation in Dashtestan in the southern province of Boushehr has led to the discovery of a stone inscription in New Babylonian language and a relief of the Achaemenid King, Darius.
The excavation was carried out in Darius palace in Dashtestan, also known as Bardak Siah Palace, and led to the discovery of new historical remains.
According to an official with Boushehr ICHTO, Ali Zakeri, some pieces of the stone southern entrance of the palace hall, and a column base with an inscribed line have been discovered.
Although the beginning and end of the inscription is lost, it still includes some words that are right now being studied by linguists and scholars of ancient languages.
The preliminary studies by linguists such as Dr. Abdolmajid Arfa’i show that the handwriting is in New Babylonian language. [continue]
From Eurekalert: Viking sagas read through the lens of climate change.
Ancient Icelandic sagas may be full of treachery, death and destruction, but the real villain behind all the foment could well have been climate change. According to a Canadian scientist, there's a direct link between changes in regional temperatures and the thematic content of the sagas.
The research is based on newly reconstructed temperature records gained from ocean sediment cores collected off the coast of Vestfirdir, the northwest peninsula of Iceland by scientists from the University of Colorado. Analysis of mollusc shells within these cores has provided an astounding, almost weekly, record of temperature changes in the region.
"The difficult social periods in the sagas and other histories correspond to periods when cooler winters were coupled with what were some of the coldest summers of the last 2,000 years," says Dr. William Patterson, an associate professor of geology at the University of Saskatchewan who is leading the research linking seasonal climate change and Norse sagas.
The new temperature record was gleaned from microscopically thin layers cut from the mollusc's growth rings, each layer representing a few days in the animal's submarine life. The layers were powdered and the oxygen and carbon isotope values measured to create a record of environmental stresses, that were primarily due to temperature, on the Icelanders. [continue]
From abc.net.au: Skeleton over 2,000 years old found in Geneva cathedral.
A skeleton of a Gaul more than 2,100 years old was discovered under Geneva's cathedral and is believed to be that of military or religious dignitary from the Allobroges tribe.
The body of a man aged about 45, buried around 120 BC, was found some 10 metres underneath the church's choir, the weekly newspaper Le Matin said.
Only the legs, pelvis, arms and half of the lower spinal cord have been exposed, as the rest of the body was covered by rocks that were difficult to move.
"I would not be surprised if it is the remains of a great military leader," said Charles Bonnet, the archaeologist who made the discovery, who is known for having found the statues of the black pharaohs in Sudan in 2003. [continue]
From the BBC: Pigs domesticated ‘many times’.
Pigs were domesticated independently at least seven times around the globe, a new study has found.
The discovery was made by linking the DNA of tame porkers with their wild relatives, Science magazine reports.
The researchers found tame pigs in several locations were closely related to wild boar in the same region, suggesting local domestication.
This challenges the notion that boar were tamed just twice before being transported throughout the world.
Many archaeologists have assumed the pig was domesticated in no more than two areas of the world, the Near East and the Far East, but our findings turn this theory on its head," said Keith Dobney, of the University of Durham.
"Our study shows that domestication also occurred independently in Central Europe, Italy, Northern India, South East Asia and maybe even Island South East Asia." [continue]
From Newsday: Malaria, not murder, killed Medicis.
Two brothers in the Medici dynasty of Renaissance Italy likely were not the long-rumored victims of murder, a new analysis of their centuries-old bones has concluded.
Despite the tremendous wealth and power of the Florence-based family, one that produced popes and intellectuals, commissioned art by Michelangelo and protected Galileo from persecution, the two teenagers and their mother instead may have succumbed to a disease that killed without regard to fame or fortune: malaria. (...)
The revelations began with the exhumation of Cosimo I, his wife, Eleanora di Toledo, and two of their sons, Giovanni Cardinale and Don Garcia.
The 16-year-old, Garcia, was rumored to have slain his 19-year-old brother, Giovanni, after an argument during a hunting trip in 1562. In a rage, Cosimo I then supposedly ran Garcia through with his sword, and Eleanora died less than a week later from a broken heart.
But Brier said neither boy bore any marks on the sternum, rib, or vertebrae bones that would suggest foul play. And in an archive, historian Donatella Lippi from the University of Florence found a letter from the Medici family physician, warning of a malaria infestation at the chosen site. A second letter, written by Cosimo himself, describes Giovanni's high fever and death, perhaps hinting at malaria instead of a family cover-up for Cosimo's rage, as had been suggested. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Exhuming the Medici family
Medici murder plot solved
Medici assassination solved
Bad blood flows as Medicis go digging up their past
The Jews and the Medici
Medicis' secret crypt unearthed
Medici family murders debunked
From the Turkish Daily News: Coin discovery sheds light on Turkic civilization.
Ancient coins from the first known Turkic culture, the Göktürks, have been discovered during archeological excavations in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, reported the Dogan News Agency.
Associate Professor Yavuz Daloglu, an instructor at Dokuz Eylül University who presented the findings of historian Dr. Babayar Gaybullah to the public, stated that claims asserting that the Göktürk people did not have any structure of governance have been proven wrong by this discovery. He commented that this discovery refutes claims that the Turkic peoples were merely plunderers and barbarians. [continue]
From Reuters: Medieval Plague May Explain Resistance to HIV.
The persistent epidemics of hemorrhagic fever that struck Europe during the Middle Ages provided the selection pressures that have made 10 percent of Europeans resistant to HIV infection, according to a UK study. [continue]
From National Geographic: Neandertal Advance: First Fully Jointed Skeleton Built.
Scientists have for the first time constructed a fully articulated, or jointed, Neandertal skeleton using castings from real Neandertal bones.
The reconstruction, which has been part of several exhibitions, presents a striking visual image of what the Neandertal (often spelled Neanderthal) looked like, experts say.
"At last I felt that somehow I had actually met a Neandertal," said Ian Tattersall, the curator of the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in New York City. [continue]
From the Telegraph: Secrets from tomb of the ancient unknown warrior.
An ancient British warrior leader found buried in his chariot beside the A1 in west Yorkshire probably originated from Scandinavia or the Scottish Highlands.
Experts have been unable to establish how the slim, 5ft 9in tall man met his death 2,400 years ago when he was 30 to 40 years old.
But the find has opened the possibility that the site at Ferrybridge may have been of great significance to ancient Britons, perhaps the venue for a mass rally. Unusually for the time, the man had good teeth and his skeletal remains showed no evidence of wounding or long-term illness.
He had been laid on the chariot, which was buried intact. Many of its metal fittings were well preserved when it was discovered during road improvements. [continue]
See also: Ancient chariot excites experts at the BBC.
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Ancient chariot unearthed
From The Independent: Bronze Age shipwreck loaded with jewellery is found off Devon.
The site of a Bronze Age shipwreck, loaded with French-made weapons and jewellery, found off the coast of Devon, has been hailed as the most important prehistoric find of its kind for 30 years.
The discovery, half a mile out to sea near Salcombe, sheds new light on Britain's overseas trade 3,350 years ago.
A team of amateur marine archaeologists, the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, found at least two dozen French-made weapons, tools and pieces of gold and bronze jewellery beneath 18 metres of water.
Although the boat itself has long since rotted, the French imports survived extremely well. They include a solid gold neck ring, a gold bracelet, three bronze rapiers, three spear heads, three axe heads, several dagger blades, an arrow head and part of a bronze cauldron. [continue]
The Telegraph also has an article about this, and they have the good sense to include a photo. A small photo, but still.
From the BBC: King Tut ‘died from broken leg’.
King Tutankhamun was not murdered and may have died of complications from a broken leg, say researchers who hope the pharaoh will now be left alone.
A CT scan on the Egyptian king's 3,300 year-old mummified body indicates that he may have suffered the fracture shortly before his death, aged 19.
Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said the research suggests the boy king died after the wound became infected.
Not all the team agree, but all now reject the long-standing murder charge. [continue]
From the Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency: Discovery of 3000-year-old Artist in Espidej.
The skeleton of a 3000-year-old artist buried alongside the tools used for his metalwork has been found in Espidej of Sistan-Baluchistan.
Excavations in the 3000-year-old site of Espidej led the archaeologists to the discovery of a tomb belonging to an artist, buried with his tools which include an awl, a bronze scoop, a grindstone, and a water container used for freezing copper and bronze.
The tools are evidence that metal arts were blooming in the area, and even sent from Espidej to other regions inside and outside Iran. [continue]
From scotsman.com: 700-year-old tunnels dug out on farm.
A farmer has unearthed a network of 700-year-old tunnels beneath his Lothians farm.
The network, which does not appear on any records, features a large arched tunnel which runs for around a mile beneath Park Farm, near Linlithgow, West Lothian.
Peter Waddell was shocked when he uncovered the large stone-built cavern believed to be built by medieval monks.
Excited archaeologists believe the tunnel, just a few miles from the historic Linlithgow Palace, dates back to the early 14th century when a secretive sect of monks farmed the land.
Some locals even believe the tunnels may have provided escape routes and hiding places for the Carmalite monks when their friary was under threat. [continue]
From MehrNews.com: Acorn bread was staple food in ancient Izeh.
TEHRAN, Mar. 7 (MNA) -- A little bread oven, a grindstone, and the remains of acorns discovered at the historical site of Izeh in Khuzestan Province indicate that acorns were used as the main flour for baking bread in the region over 3000 years ago.
According to the Ayapir cultural heritage team, almost forty kinds of plant species were discovered during the recent excavation at the site, before it was submerged by the rising waters of the reservoir of the Karun-3 Dam.
Acorns were one of the most common types of vegetable matter discovered at the site, said Hajir Kiani, the head of the team. [continue]
From the Seattle Post Intelligencer: Experts uncover ancient Mayan remains.
Scientists working at the Copan archaeological site in western Honduras said Sunday they have unearthed the 1,450-year-old remains of 69 people, as well as 30 previously undiscovered ancient Mayan buildings.
Copan, about 200 miles west of Tegucigalpa, the capital, flourished between A.D. 250 and 900, part of a vast Mayan empire which stretched across parts of modern-day Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. The site was eventually abandoned, due at least in part to overpopulation, historians believe. [continue]
From the McCord Museum of Canadian History: Mind your manners.
Adopt the role of a late 19th century character...
... and try to earn your place in a world where every move is governed by the rules of etiquette.
Can you select the right clothing for every situation, and behave impeccably at home, in the park, at a ball, and so forth? Here's your chance to find out. (Requires Flash. Oh, and do turn your speakers on.)
Link found here at Metafilter.
From the Beeb: Eyebrow razed at Nelson discovery.
A waxwork model of Lord Nelson, Britain's greatest naval hero, has undergone cosmetic surgery to remove half of his right eyebrow.
The alterations were made at the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth to make the figure historically accurate.
Lord Nelson, killed during the Battle of Trafalgar 200 years ago, lost his right arm and sight in one eye.
But historian Dr Ann-Mary Hills has discovered that a French cannonball also claimed part of his eyebrow. [continue]
From The Guardian: How prehistoric farmers saved us from new Ice Age.
Ancient man saved the world from a new Ice Age. That is the startling conclusion of climate researchers who say man-made global warming is not a modern phenomenon and has been going on for thousands of years.
Prehistoric farmers who slashed down trees and laid out the first rice paddies and wheatfields triggered major alterations to levels of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, they say.
As a result, global temperatures - which were slowly falling around 8,000 years ago - began to rise. ‘Current temperatures would be well on the way toward typical glacial temperatures, had it not been for the greenhouse gas contributions from early farming practices,’ says Professor William Ruddiman of Virginia University. [continue]
From Reuters: Ethiopia Archaeologists Make Important Fossil Find.
Archaeologists studying human origins in eastern Ethiopia have discovered 12 fossils that appear to be older than the famous fossil "Lucy," the team leader said on Saturday.
"The discovery of 12 early hominid fossil specimens estimated to be between 3.8 to 4 million years old will be important in terms of understanding the early phases of human evolution before Lucy," Ethiopian archeologist Yohannes Haile Selassie told a news conference. [continue]
From Xinhuanet.com: Ruins of 1,000-year-old palace discovered in Nepal.
A huge archaeological site believed to be over 1,000 years old has been discovered in southeastern Nepal, The Rising Nepal newspaper reported Friday.
A team from the Archaeology Department uncovered a huge structure having a 340-meter wall made up of artistic bricks on a foundation of stone laid over soil at Kanakpatti of Khoksar Prabaha village in Saptari district, some 200 km southeast of Kathmandu.
"The structure must have been either a palace or a monastery and its age could be over a thousand years, because the swans and geometric shapes present in the walls is similar to that of the Pal period," the state-run English daily quoted Archaeology Department Officer Prakash Darnal as saying. [continue]
From The Independent: 2,500 years old, and as fresh as the day she was buried.
The green eyes stare out unblinkingly from the beaded mask. The woman's dark eyebrows and terracotta face look as fresh as they ever did.
Yet the figure covered in turquoise beads and swaddled in black linen, nestling in a wooden sarcophagus, is believed to be 2,500 years old.
Egypt's chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, yesterday proudly unveiled what he described as probably one of the best-preserved mummies ever.
He stood among the treasures that were uncovered by accident by an Australian team of archaeologists in Saqqara, the burial site of Memphis, once the capital of ancient Egypt. [continue]
From a Middle East Online article:
The mystery of an ancient Mesopotamian city has finally been lifted after 25 years of meticulous work by a French archaeologist who has revealed it was one of the first "modern cities", purpose-built in the desert for the manufacture of copper arms and tools.
In a new book entitled "Mari, the Metropolis of the Euphrates", Jean-Claude Margueron said the third millennium BC city, in modern day Syria, was "one of the first modern cities of humanity. Created from scratch in one phase of construction with the specific goal of becoming this metallurgical centre."
This was an astounding concept for the period when cities developed from villages or trading posts and showed that the Mesopotamians were way ahead of their time in terms of urban design and development. [continue]
From icCoventry.co.uk: Experts' joy over Iron Age relics.
An important archaeological discovery has led experts to believe Ryton-on-Dunsmore was home to a high-ranking Iron Age family more than 2,000 years ago.
Scientists have found the first-ever complete example of an Iron Age kiln, which they believe a prehistoric family may have used to turn smelt iron into tools or jewellery.
The clay oven was unearthed on the site of a £3 million safety improvement scheme on the A45, near the junction with the A445.
Before, fragments of kilns had been dug up elsewhere in Britain, but the Ryton discovery means scientists will be able to work out exactly what they were used for. [continue]
Remember reading about the Orkney burial site that was recently uncovered by storms? 24 Hour Museum has more on that story:
The skeletons were found on the foreshore below St Thomas' Kirk and the broch at Hall of Rendall, northwest of Kirkwell on mainland Orkney. The AOC team cleared trenches in the shingle and found several burials, some underneath a layer of rubble from a fallen wall.
"It looks as if the sea has destroyed the burial further out from where the team is digging," said Ronan Toolis, AOC Archaeology Group excavation team leader.
"We found 21 skeletons and we excavated 14," he told the 24 Hour Museum. "Those were under imminent threat of coastal erosion." The remaining burials have been covered up, to be preserved in situ. "They are graves, so we have to respect them," noted Ronan.
"They seem to belong, broadly speaking, to the medieval period," he said.
"The skeletons will be studied by specialists looking for evidence about how old they were when they died, if they had any diseases and the skeletal changes caused by particular kinds of work," he continued. [continue]
From National Geographic: New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Argentina.
A newfound dinosaur species from Argentina suggests that fleet-footed, meat-eating dinosaurs with sickle-like claws on their hind feet roamed both the Southern and Northern Hemispheres through the end of the dinosaur age.
The new species, named Neuquenraptor argentinus, was about seven feet (two meters) long and similar in shape and size to Velociraptor mongoliensis, the smart, speedy, sickle-clawed dinosaurs immortalized in the movie Jurassic Park. [continue]
From The New York Times: Surprising Footprints in Old Sand.
Today, a barefoot walk on one of the North Atlantic beaches of Nova Scotia is a chilly experience. But 350 million years ago, Nova Scotia lay near the Equator, and scientists have found thousands of footprints left by animals trundling across this tropical paradise.
To the scientists' surprise, the footprints, varying in length from half an inch to the size of a hand, were made by a wide range of feet, though all of them five-toed.
The finding suggests that animals adapted to a new life on land more quickly, at least on evolutionary time scales, than was thought.
The very first four-legged creatures to flop ashore did so only about 370 million years ago, and, while capable of occasional forays on land, they nevertheless spent most of their lives in water. Fossils of these earliest land animals show that their fins-turned-feet had as many as eight toes. [continue]
If you need a password for the rest of the article, try this.
From Manchester Online: Diggers find oven at Roman hotspot.
A Roman oven and pieces of pottery have been uncovered beneath the site of a new shopping arcade. (...)
In addition to the Roman oven and pottery, remains of Westerwold German stoneware have been uncovered at the shopping centre site off Station Road.
The discoveries are being examined and categorised by experts.
Wigan was the site of a Roman fort known as Coccium, which was in existence in the second century AD.
Three Roman roads have been traced in the Wigan area and researched by the Wigan Archaeological Society.
Other Roman finds in the area include hordes of coins, cremation urns and a headless statue of the Persian god Cautopates. [continue]
From Horncastle Today: Ancient art helps dormouse boom
A "baby boom" amongst Lincolnshire's dormice population has prompted the Forestry Commission to step-up work to expand its habitat by re-introducing the art of coppicing.
The rare mammal had been extinct in the county for over two decades until conservation agencies joined forces to release 32 captive-bred adults in Chambers Farm Wood, near Wragby.
Experts are astonished and delighted to discover that numbers have doubled since then and the dormice are breeding well. [continue]
I suppose this is good news for those who want to eat a dormouse or two. The ancient Romans were into that, you know.
Related:
The ancient art of coppicing
Britain's National Archives has some good pages on palaeography, including an interactive tutorial. From the intro page:
Palaeography is the study of old handwriting. This web tutorial will help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800.
At first glance, many documents written at this time look illegible to the modern reader. By reading the practical tips and working through the documents in the Tutorial in order of difficulty, you will find that it becomes much easier to read old handwriting. You can find more documents on which to practice your skills in the further practice section.
Where was this years ago, back when I was wading through far too many old census records on microfiche?
Link found at Scribbling Woman, who found it at Catalogue Blog.
From a Reuters article at swissinfo.net: Medieval love letters ignite war of words in France.
Two star-crossed medieval lovers, Abelard and Heloise, are again stirring passions in France as a literary controversy rages nearly 900 years after their affair.
At the heart of the drama is an obscure Latin text that some scholars say contains the long lost love letters written by the ill-fated pair. Others say the correspondence is fake.
The illicit liaison between Abelard, an up and coming 12th century philosopher, and the gifted young woman he tutored, shocked medieval Europe not least for its gruesome end. [continue]
From the BBC: India finds more ‘tsunami gifts’.
Indian divers have found more evidence of an ancient port city, apparently revealed by December's tsunami.
Stone structures that are "clearly man-made" were seen on the seabed off the south coast, archaeologists say.
They could be part of the mythical city of Mahabalipuram, which legend says was so beautiful that the gods sent a flood that engulfed six of its seven temples.
Other relics were revealed when the powerful waves washed away sand as they smashed into the Tamil Nadu coast.
The Archaeological Survey of India launched the diving expedition after residents reported seeing a temple and other structures as the sea pulled back just before the tsunami hit. [continue]
Thanks to Roy for writing to point out this story.
From Xinhuanet.com: Test shows sticky porridge used to cement ancient Chinese wall.
The legend that ancient Chinese craftsmen used glutinous rice porridge in the mortar while building ramparts has been verified by archaeological research in northwest China's Shaanxi Province.
In a recent maintenance to the ancient city wall of Xi'an, the provincial capital, workers discovered that the plaster remnants on the ancient bricks were quite hard to remove, said Qin Jianming,a researcher with the Xi'an Preservation and Restoration Center ofCultural Relics.
A chemical test showed that the mortar reacted the same as glutinous rice to the reagent. And infrared spectral analysis alsoshowed that the mortar displayed similar molecule structure to glutinous rice.
"Thus we can conclude that the sticky material was in the mortar," Qin said.
The use of this sticky material, Qin said, helps explain why many ancient Chinese brick structures are still standing. [continue]
From the BBC: Manuscripts ‘treated as fossils’.
A palaeontologist has come up with a novel way of studying historical manuscripts, by treating them as fossils from an extinct species.
John Cisne, writing in Science magazine, says manuscripts from the Middle Ages have a lot in common with animal populations.
For this reason, he claims, he can work out how many copies of a manuscript once existed and how regularly they were destroyed, simply by applying a biological model.
Historians have cautiously welcomed this rare link between the arts and sciences.
"If it encourages collaborative work across the disciplines, it could really go somewhere," historian Florence Eliza Glaze, from Coastal Carolina University, US, told the BBC News website.
However, she also thought the technique needed some refinement. "He has got to adjust his model if it is going to be valid," she said. [continue].
From Aftenposten: Viking ship cracking up.
Experts are worried about one of Norway's national treasures . Archaeologists have discovered cracks in the hull of he famed Oseberg Viking ship, which may halt plans to move the vessel to a new museum.
The archaeologists have been carefully going over the nearly 1,200-year-old ship, and are concerned about what they see, reports newspaper Aftenposten..
Removal of the vessel's top deck has revealed some exciting new details, like graffiti from the Viking age and details of the ship's rigging. But it's also exposed cracks that make archaeologists worry the ship won't tolerate any move to new quarters. [continue, see photo]
From scotsman.com: Mystery of 36 decapitated Roman bodies.
Archaeologists have been left mystified by the discovery of 36 decapitated bodies, it was revealed yesterday.
Experts from the York Archaeological Trust unearthed the skeletons of 49 young men and seven children at a Roman cemetery in the Mount area of the city.
But they were stunned to find that most of the men had had their heads chopped off, while another was bound with iron shackles. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Archaeological dig sniffs out world's oldest perfumery.
Musky, with a woody tone and spicy hints of cinnamon - the perfect fragrance for a Bronze Age date.
Italian archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest perfumery and have identified the smells popular with the people of the time.
The perfumery was found at a sprawling archaeological site on a hillside overlooking the Mediterranean at Pyrgos-Mavroraki, 55 miles south-west of Nicosia.
"This is 4,000 years old. Without a doubt, it is the oldest production site for perfume in the world," said Maria Rosario Belgiorno, the excavation team leader.
The site was destroyed by an earthquake in antiquity but the calamity helped preserve the finds and it is now expected to unlock ancient secrets about the surprisingly advanced production methods.
"It is possible to reconstruct the technology of the site," Ms Belgiorno said. "It was very sophisticated for the time." [continue]
From the Guardian: Medieval finds block new exit from Uffizi.
The plans for a new exit for the Uffizi Museum in Florence by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki were scrapped yesterday because excavations in the area had revealed the foundations of medieval houses which were levelled when the museum was built in the 1500s.
"In the light of the archaeological findings, Isozaki's project can no longer be carried out," an Italian culture ministry statement said, after a meeting with the architect last week.
Roberto Cecchi, head of the ministry's architectural department, said that one of the two big pillars of Isozaki's proposed cubical structure would sit on the ruins of an 11th-century boundary wall.
"We need to rethink the project to make it compatible with the new needs."
He added: "The excavations have brought to light interesting medieval ruins that are not very well known in a Renaissance town like Florence, and deserve to be shown." [continue]
From Kathimerini: Digs at Archontiko, Pella uncover more gold-clad warriors.
The gold of the ancient Macedonians still gleams on the soldiers' uniforms being unearthed by excavations in the ancient necropolis of Archontiko in Pella.
Fully armed Macedonian aristocrats, gold-bedecked women in elaborate jewelry, faience idols and clay vases of exceptional beauty had lain concealed for centuries in 141 simple rectangular trench graves that were discovered recently in the ancient settlement.
In their tombs, Macedonian officers wore armor and — in the late Classical and early Hellenistic periods — were equipped for the journey after death with coins for Charon, copper utensils made by local metalworkers, and rare incense or oil containers with the war of the giants depicted in relief. [continue]
From scotsman.com: Island storms uncover medieval bones.
Severe storms which hit Orkney last month have exposed human skeletons at a historic burial site.
Now a team of archaeologists are racing against time to excavate and study the site before the sea destroys it altogether.
The January storms revealed the remains on the foreshore below St Thomas’s Kirk and the broch at Hall of Rendall, near Tingwall. The Orkney Archaeological Trust informed Historic Scotland of the damage, and a decision was taken to move forward an excavation planned for this summer.
Patrick Ashmore, the head of archaeology for Historic Scotland, said: "St Thomas’s Kirk itself probably dates to the 12th century, and the cemetery is probably medieval. [continue]
From the New York Times: Venice Turns to Future to Rescue Its Past.
VENICE - When Jane da Mosto scrambles from the water taxi onto the front steps of her family's ancient palazzo on the Grand Canal, her gaze is tinged with mourning. The once glorious Casa da Mosto is now little more than a decaying, waterlogged shell of a building, the rising and increasingly salty water of Venice lapping at the door and eating away at its walls.
"One day it will just fall into the canal," said Ms. da Mosto, a researcher with Corila, a consortium of groups studying the Venice lagoon in hopes of saving it.
Now, a daring multibillion-dollar construction project sponsored by the Italian government is just getting under way, in an effort to meet that goal. But many, including Ms. da Mosto, are skeptical that it will be enough. "I don't like to think about where Venice might be in 100 years," she said. "It's so overwhelming and sad. Maybe it will be closed off as a lake. Maybe it will be underwater and tourists can see it from a glass-bottom boat." [continue]
(I'm guessing you won't need a password to read the rest of this article. In case you do need a password, here's one.)
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Venice's sinking problem, and possible solutions
If Venice is sinking
Saving Venice
Venice sank this much in 300 years
Were other Italian cities built on water?
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From a Reuters article at abc.net.au: Panda skeleton found in ancient tomb.
The skeleton of a giant panda has been found in a 4,000-year-old tomb in central China.
Wu Xianzhu from the Hubei Provincial Archaeology Research Institute says the giant panda was most likely part of a burial ritual.
Wu says pigs and dogs have been used in burials as funerary objects since the early New Stone Age, dating back about 8,000 years.
"Burying the giant pandas with the dead shows that ancient people had close contact with the creatures," he said. [continue].
From Deutsche Welle: A Place to Rest for German Kings.
When an engraved stone was dug up nearly a century ago on a building site, it didn't excite many. But now an archeologist has determined that it's actually part of Germany's oldest throne, sat in by Emperor Charlemagne. [continue]
From abc.net.au: Ancient mangrove forests found under reef.
North Queensland marine researchers have opened a window into the past by exposing ancient mangrove forests entombed beneath the Great Barrier Reef.
Dr Dan Alongi from the Australian Institute of Marine Science says they have unearthed 9,000-year-old mangroves in old river channels that were swamped when sea levels rose after the last ice age. [continue]
The Royal Armouries has put photographs of its top ten items on their website for us to gawk at. (They're doing one of those "people's choice" things; you can vote for your favourite object.) Go here, scroll down, and marvel at items ranging from elephant armour to a most peculiar horned helmet.
The Royal Armouries site seems a bit sparse, but there are pages that might interest you. History of war, anyone? Or hmmm, maybe you'd like to see a few more of the items in the collection.
Link found here at 24 Hour Museum.
From scotsman.com: Cosmic Rays to Solve Ancient Mexican Mystery.
Sub-atomic particles created by cosmic rays from space are to be used to probe a giant Mexican pyramid and solve one of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries.
Investigators are to install detectors beneath the Pyramid of the Sun that look for muons – charged particles generated when cosmic rays hit the atmosphere which continuously shower the Earth.
They hope the rate at which muons pass through the pyramid will reveal any hidden burial chambers inside. [continue]
From The Independent: Shakespeare's Rose theatre to rise again after centuries under London silt. [UPDATE: sorry, article no longer available.]
The Rose, the Elizabethan theatre immortalised in the Oscar-winning film Shakespeare in Love, is to be recovered from the London silt after being buried for centuries, and opened to the public.
Leading figures from the British stage, including Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Judi Dench will next month launch a £5m plan to resurrect the historic building, which first staged Shakespeare's early plays, including Titus Andronicus and Henry VI Part I. Supports plan to reopen it in four years' time.
The remains of the venue were unearthed at Bankside in London in 1989 - close to where the reconstructed open-air Globe theatre is now sited - in what has been described as the most exciting find in British theatrical history. (...)
The Rose was built in the bustling "anything goes" environment on the south side of the Thames in 1587, alongside brothels and bear-baiting arenas. A black flag would be flown to signify that a tragedy was playing, while white would herald a comedy.
Shakespeare, who also acted at the Rose, eventually moved to the theatre's larger rival, the Globe, and by 1606 the Rose was no longer a working theatre, simply disappearing from the map. [continue]
From the Hindustan Times: Coptic manuscripts unearthed in tomb in Egypt.
Polish experts excavating in the southern city of Luxor have discovered three ancient Coptic manuscripts in a pharaonic tomb, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said on Saturday.
The find was the single most important Coptic discovery since 1945 when a pair of Bedouins stumbled onto the Coptic codices in Nag Hammadi in Egypt's western desert, it said.
The manuscripts date to the sixth century and were concealed in a Middle Kingdom (2000-1800 BC) tomb in Luxor, about 710 kilometres south of Cairo, the council said.
The texts may have been hidden there by Christians who were being persecuted at the time by the Romans, it said. [continue]
Al-Ahram notes: that "Restoration carried out at the Sitt Wassila House in mediaeval Cairo has revealed the sumptuousness of Ottoman architecture." From Scenes from mediaeval Cairo:
While cleaning the walls of the maqaad al-sayfi (summer reception room) on the first floor, restorers came across a fresco three metres wide by two-and-a-half high showing the entrance to a fortified city located beside a look-out tower, which in turn leads to a green space with vaulted buildings. "The restoration meant not only conservation but also excavation, as well uncovering these mural paintings of Islamic history," Abdel-Moneim says.
Twenty other wall paintings showing green parks, Islamic buildings with soaring towers and vases of red flowers were found on other walls during the removal of modern paint added by people who lived in the house after Al-Sitt Wassila's time. The most outstanding and attractive of these is a scene of pilgrimage that shows the Kaaba of Mecca and its black cover decorated with gold. Another features an exquisite 19th-century clock ornamented with coloured flowers. Most of these murals are very well preserved, and still bear most of their features and their vivid colours. [continue, see photos]
From cathnews.com: Archeologists discover St Paul's tomb.
Vatican archeologists believe that they have identified the tomb in Rome's St Paul Outside the Walls basilica, following the discovery of a stone coffin during excavations carried out over the past three years.
Catholic World News reports that a sarcophagus - or stone coffin - which may contain the remains of St Paul has been identified in the basilica, according to Giorgio Filippi, a archeology specialist with the Vatican Museums.
"The tomb that we discovered is the one that the popes and the Emperor Theodosius (379- 395) saved and presented to the whole world as being the tomb of the apostle," Filippi reports. [continue]
From the CBC: Underwater arrowheads, tools dazzle Maritime historians.
Archaeologists are showing off a treasure trove they call one of the most significant discoveries of Mi'kmaq artifacts in Nova Scotia.
Hundreds of arrowheads and tools, some 8,000 years old, were discovered last summer along the Mersey River, near Kejimkujik National Park in the southwest region of the province.
Workers from Nova Scotia Power were doing repairs to generating stations on the river. As water levels dropped in some areas, the riverbed was exposed for the first time since dams were built 70 years ago.
Suddenly hundreds of artifacts appeared in the mud. [continue]
From discovery.com: Ancient Egyptians Hoarded Crude Oil.
New research suggests that oil and its by-products were valued and traded in the Mideast at least 3,000 years ago, the same region that dominates world production and export of crude oil today.
Evidence for the discovery came from surprising sources — mummies.
According to a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Geoarchaeology, scientists found tar on several ancient Egyptian mummies. Because every batch of tar contains unique biochemicals, the researchers were able to trace the sticky substances back to their origins.
Since the study found that crude oil sources were scattered over hundreds of miles throughout the Middle East, the researchers now believe that ancient Egyptians not only valued oil, but that they traded it, using routes that have changed little over the millennia. [continue]
From EDP24: Peeling back the sands of time.
It is the largest exercise of its kind ever attempted in Britain.
And yesterday archaeologists began their ambitious bid to peel back the sands of time in Yarmouth.
A team from Norfolk County Council has begun drilling about 200 bore holes in the town's medieval core to build up unique map detailing its rich history.
The exercise is taking place within a 144-acre space held entirely within the town walls, which was home to 10,000 people in the 1350s.
The project will use a combination of bore holes and past excavation records to build up a series of maps through the ages, detailing everything from 1960s industrial buildings to Georgian houses, and allowing households to trace their foundations. [continue]
From a Reuters article at iol.co.za: Tutankhamun murder mystery hangs on report.
Experts expect to announce in March whether the latest test results on the mummified body of Tutankhamun will provide evidence for the theory that the boy pharoah was murdered.
Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian government's Supreme Council for Antiquities, told Reuters that results from a high tech x-ray scan of the mummy would help explain a bone chip in the skull that has sparked the murder theory.
"This hole in the skull, people talked about it a lot, we have to tell the public and the scholars what is this hole exactly and therefore we need time," Hawass said.
"We are finishing the examination and the announcement will be at the beginning of March."
Although the treasures and artifacts from his burial tomb have famously toured the world, the mummified body of the boy king has been examined only four times in detail since British archaeologist Howard Carter stunned the archaeology community by finding Tutankhamun's tomb intact in 1922.
The mummified corpse will be given its first CT (computed tomography) scan, which uses special x-ray equipment to obtain image data from different body angles. [continue]
(Copies of the above article can be found at ABC News and at Reuters.uk.)
Oh, and guess what the big news was on February 17th, 1923? The Times Online gives us On This Day - February 17, 1923:
This has perhaps been the most extraordinary day in the whole history of Egyptian excavation. Whatever anyone may have guessed or imagined of the secret of Tutankhamun’s tomb, they surely cannot have dreamed the truth as now revealed. Entrance today was made into the sealed chamber, and yet another door opened beyond that. No eyes have yet seen the King, but to a practical certainty, we now know that he lies there, close at hand, in all his original state undisturbed. [continue]
From abc.net.au: Alpine iceman reveals Stone Age secrets.
Some 5,300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps is slowly revealing his secrets to a global team of scientists.
But despite more than a decade of high-tech efforts by geneticists, botanists and engineers many questions about his life and death remain unsolved.
And rumours of a deadly curse on those who found him continue to swirl.
German amateur mountaineer Helmut Simon and his wife spotted Oetzi, as he became known, in the mountains between Italy and Austria, near the Oetztal valley, in 1991. [continue]
From EDP24: Pot of Roman coins detected.
The beeping of a metal detector delivered a windfall to a couple who found Norfolk's biggest ever hoard of Roman silver coins.
Pat and Sally Buckley were indulging their hobby on a ploughed field near Dereham just before Christmas when they came upon a few silver coins in the dirt.
As they carried on, they realised they had found a remarkable treasure.
The find has been kept secret until now to allow Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service a proper search, and the exact location is not being publicised.
Finds officer Dr Adrian Marsden said the collection of 900-plus Roman denarii is a significant discovery and includes coins from 270 years of early British history.
The earliest coins – from 32BC – feature Marc Anthony, consort to Cleopatra, whereas the most recent date from 240AD and the short-lived reign of teenage emperor Gordian III. [continue]
From the Guardian: Palace find lends weight to myth.
Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a royal palace in the heart of the Italian capital which dates back to the time when the mythical twins Romulus and Remus were said to have founded the city.
Until now, legend has described how Rome was founded in 753BC by the sons of Mars, the god of war, who were found and nurtured by a wolf. Museums have had nothing but statues of the twins drinking milk from a she-wolf to symbolise the origins of the city.
While there is little evidence of the existence of Romulus and Remus, the discovery of the palace offers tantalising indications that the legend had roots in fact.
In the last month, archaeologists digging in the Roman Forum have uncovered what they believe to have been a royal palace that dates back to the period. [continue].
Related:
Archeologists find ruins that correspond to timing of Roman foundation myth - CBC
Ruins reveal part of legend of Rome's start may be true - Seattle Times
From the 24 Hour Museum: Medieval love rings unearthed as future of portable antiquities scheme secured.
These rings, one larger than the other, both bear the inscription: mon cuer entier - ‘my whole heart’, leading archaeologists to conclude they are a pair.
A group of metal detectorists has unearthed a series of gold rings bearing messages of love and dating back to the medieval age in East Sussex. [continue, see photos]
From the Times Online: Roman coffin discovered intact.
A Roman wooden coffin has been unearthed in London, the only example of its kind found in Britain.
Archaeologists expressed excitement that it had survived intact, centuries after other examples had disintegrated without trace. In dating from AD120, the new find is an unusually early example of a Roman burial.
It was not until the 3rd century AD that the Roman Britons generally buried their dead. Prior to this they usually favoured cremation. The skeleton belonged to a man over the age of 25, at a time when only 10 per cent lived beyond the age of 45.
The coffin, which went on display yesterday at the Museum of London, was found during building work in Holborn, on a steep side of the River Fleet, one of the many rivers that flow beneath London’s streets to the Thames. [continue]
Link found here at Roman Archaeology.
From the BBC: Tsunami throws up India relics.
The deadly tsunami could have uncovered the remains of an ancient port city off the coast in southern India.
Archaeologists say they have discovered some stone remains from the coast close to India's famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami.
They believe that the "structures" could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn temple.
Three pieces of remains, which include a granite lion, were found buried in the sand after the coastline receded in the area after the tsunami struck. [continue].
Those interested in the history of Rome may want to peek at On the Water Management of the City of Rome (De Aquaeductu Urbis Romae) by Sextus Iulius Frontinus. The translated version is now on the web, in all its footnoted glory. Whee!
Thanks to Bill White from Summa Minutiae for mentioning this.
From eKathimerini: Science to test Argonaut myth.
Gold jewelry found last year in an unplundered Mycenaean royal tomb on the outskirts of Volos will be tested for links with one of the most enduring ancient Greek myths, the Argonauts’ expedition, an archaeologist said yesterday.
The 14th century BC treasure — gold beads from necklaces and jewelry made of gold and semiprecious stones — was found with vases and other offerings in four pits inside the tholos tomb, a beehive-like subterranean structure usually associated with Late Bronze Age royal burials. [continue]
From the Independent: A mouse's nightmare: 300-year-old Woburn cat rises from the grave.
After three centuries buried in an airtight brick container, the Duke of Bedford's beloved cat is to take centre stage at an exhibition of mummified animals next week.
While he is undoubtedly showing his age, experts believe the cat, discovered in the foundations of Woburn Abbey, is by far the best preserved example they have seen.
Tradition once decreed that good rat catchers were buried in foundations to protect the house after their death and across the capital similar mummies remain interred beneath houses.
"It is very likely that the cat was one of the estate mousers, and was probably a very good one. It was buried in the foundations to protect the building against rodents and infestation," explained Richard Sabin, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum.
The museum found one cat under its own entrance and another was discovered during renovations on a Georgian house in Knightsbridge. "The owner was pretty shocked when he was told about it, and brought the mummy in to us," Mr Sabin said. [continue]
From the CBC: TB may have killed off leprosy.
Human remains dating from the 1st Century A.D. suggest tuberculosis killed off leprosy in Europe in the Middle Ages, British researchers say.
Leprosy was widespread and much-feared on the continent for centuries, but began to decline in medieval Europe at the same time that TB began its rise to become a long-running, global epidemic. [continue]
From Yorkshire Today: Medieval chapel open after half century.
A medieval chapel at a Yorkshire landmark has been re-opened to the public after remaining locked for half a century.
The chapel at Clifford's Tower was also used as a Royal apartment and provided regal accommodation for Queen Isabella of France, who notoriously plotted the grisly murder of her husband, King Edward II.
However, the room has been off-limits to visitors of the 13th century fortress since the 1950s. Its re-opening is part of a revamp to give visitors more information about the site which is owned by English Heritage. [continue].
Related:
Clifford's Tower - cliffordstower.com
Clifford's Tower - york.unitedkingdom.co.uk
From Innovations Report: Scientists find fossil proof of Egypt's ancient climate.
Earth and planetary scientists at Washington University in St. Louis are studying snail fossils to understand the climate of northern Africa 130,000 years ago.
While that might sound a bit like relying on wooly bear caterpillars to predict the severity of winter, the snails actually reveal clues about the climate and environment of western Egypt, lo those many years ago. They also could shed light on the possible role weather and climate played in the dispersal of humans "out of Africa" and into Europe and Asia. Periods of substantially increased rainfall compared to the present are known to have occurred in the Sahara throughout the last million years, but their duration, intensity, and frequency remain somewhat unconstrained. [continue]
The traditional Shrovetide Football games sounds like rather wild events. From allinfoabout.com:
In Ashbourne, Shrovetide football has been played for such a long time that the people of this Derbyshire market town - who talk of Bonnie Prince Charlie marching into their cobbled marketplace - have forgotten when the game first started.
The Shrovetide football match (not to be confused with soccer) is a traditional sport dating back to the 12th century. Many English villages have their own variant of the game - once known as ‘camping’ - which usually involves the entire community. A whole village is often used as a pitch, local features become goal posts and streams turn into obstacles. Brute force is an essential element in scoring goals, and the ball is usually kicked, carried or thrown. There are hardly any rules and no limit on the number of players or goals.
"After dinner (at Shrovetide) all the youth of the City goes out into the fields to a much-frequented game of ball. The scholars of each school have their own ball, and almost all the workers of each trade have theirs also in their hands. Elder men and fathers and rich citizens come on horse-back to watch the contests of their juniors, and after their fashion are young again with the young..."
- William Fitz Stephen (c.1183)
[continue]
Related:
Ashbourne Shrovetide Football - BBC
Royal Shrovetide Football - DerbyshireUK.net
Prince starts ‘maddest’ game - BBC
Medieval Football - Royal Shrovetide Football in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, UK - doctordanger.com
From New Scientist: Menagerie of mummies unwraps ancient Egypt.
A new collection of mummified creatures could help unravel some of the mysteries surrounding ancient Egyptian society.
The Egyptians mummified both humans and animals to preserve them for the afterlife. Mummified cats, birds, monkeys and even gazelles have in the past been found buried alongside their owners.
Researchers say the new collection - including mummified cats, birds, baboons and crocodiles gathered from a variety of collections - adds weight to the idea that the humble house cat was first domesticated animal to provide a source of ritual offerings for the gods.
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, UK, compared numerous specimens and used X-rays to peer beneath the animals' bandages. They found fresh evidence that many were killed specifically to provide religious offerings. [continue, see photos]
There are attempts to revive hedgelaying skills in the UK. From a Cambridge News article:
Hedgelaying is being taught at a traditional skills workshop in Cottenham.
The practical workshop will hark back to medieval times when hedgerows were faithfully maintained as landscape markers used to distinguish parishes and estates.
Today hedges are home to more than 60 species of bird, 1,500 types of insect and 20 varieties of butterfly.
But hedgelaying, the rejuvenation of an old hedgerow or pulling of a recently planted one into shape, is a dying art. [continue]
The BBC has a similar article, Ancient country skills revived:
A countryside skill which has all but died out is being revived by a university in mid Wales. [continue]
Related:
The National
Hedgelaying Society
Hedgelaying and hedges - a definitive guide
Hedge (gardening - Wikipedia
From 24 Hour Museum: Decorators uncover architect's lost interior at Glasgow University.
A spot of decorating at the University of Glasgow’s 19th century Lilybank House has uncovered an interior created by one of Scotland’s most treasured architects.
Hidden beneath layers of paint, decorators discovered colourful stencilling work dating back to 1863 when Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson (1817-1875) added this extension to the house. [continue, see photos]
From the BBC: Engravings found in county cave.
Engravings thought to be about 10,000 years old have been found in a North Somerset cave once used as a cemetery.
Bristol University's Speleological Society discovered the engravings recently in a cave in the Mendip Hills.
The inscribed crosses were found on the wall of Aveline's Hole in Burrington Combe, one of the earliest known cemeteries in the UK.
It was used for burials shortly after the end of the last Ice Age, during the early Mesolithic period. [continue]
From Aftenposten: Ancient church found.
The site of a nearly 1,000-year-old church has been found in Skien, making it likely Norway's oldest. Norway may have been converted to Christianity far earlier than believed.
The remains were found in 2001 but have only now been dated radiologically. Experts believe the find strengthens theories that Norway was Christian in several spots long before Håkon the Good, Olav Tryggvason and Olav Haraldsson began their missionary raids.
"It is fun to see confirmation of what we have long believed, that there was a Christianization of Norway long before the two Olavs came," said Jan Brendalsmo, archeologist at the Foundation for Cultural Heritage Research (NIKU). [continue]
From the Isle of Wight County Press: Rare bronze age ring find.
A crumpled piece of metal found in a field in the Newchurch parish turned out to be an extremely rare Bronze Age decorative ring of national importance.
A treasure trove inquest was told how it was unearthed by illustrator Alan Rowe, of Alvington Road, Carisbrooke, while out metal detecting last summer.
Experts believe the ring, known as a composite ring and which comprises of three ribs fused together, may have hung from a twisted torc worn around the neck or from a bracelet.
Frank Basford, county archaeologist, said the piece, which weighs 3.57 grams and is 82 per cent gold, probably dated back to the middle Bronze Age period, making it around 3,500 years old.
"There is very little Bronze Age gold work around, making this a very significant and important find in a national and Island context," he said. [continue]
From icCoventry: Dig uncovers Roman links.
Coventry's medieval history is well documented, but experts excavating in the city centre have made a discovery which could indicate there was a Roman settlement here hundreds of years before.
A team of archaeologists digging up the site near the Herbert Art Gallery ahead of the construction of the city's new history and archive museum have unearthed a Roman brooch. The find indicates there was Roman activity in the area - and could mean there was a settlement on the site.
The team has already found a number of other objects, including a Tudor salt container, several pieces of medieval pottery and a pit containing cat bones.
The remains indicate a textile production outfit as cat fur was used to make cloth in medieval times. [continue]
From icSurreyOnline: Archaeologists find 500-year-old Tudor garden.
Council bosses this week owned up to keeping a huge archaeological secret - a rare Tudor garden which has lain hidden for over 500 years close to Carew Manor in Beddington.
The great significance of the find by heritage project manager John Phillips has excited English Heritage, the Government body which assesses and collates information about historic buildings. (...)
Believed to have been created by Sir Francis Carew in the 16th century, the garden is a detailed example of the style of intricate gardens popular with Tudor aristocrats. (...)
Mr Phillips said: "It is the most exciting and important find and must be protected. Everything we have discovered so far has been hidden away. There are also the remains of a grotto, the first found in the country. (...) [continue]
Posted at 12:55 AM . Permalink
From Scotsman.com: Dig may have found ancient monk's home.
Archaeologists may have found the home of St Baldred of the Bass, one of the best known monks of 8th century Scotland.
Relics from one of the first settlements at North Berwick suggest the hermit lived at Anchor Green, next to the site of the Scottish Seabird Centre at the town’s harbour. [continue]
Related:
Saint Baldred - www.geo.ed.ac.uk
St Baldred - Catholic Encyclopedia
From the BBC: Treasure found in Viking market.
Archaeologists believe what they originally thought was a Viking burial ground in Cumbria, may actually have been a 10th Century market.
Excited experts unearthed a wealth of treasures at the site, near Barrow.
They were particularly impressed with a merchant's weight, which is the size of a finger and shows a dragon design with two figures. [continue]
From the New York Times: A New Language Arises, and Scientists Watch It Evolve
Linguists studying a signing system that spontaneously developed in an isolated Bedouin village say they have captured a new language being generated from scratch. They believe its features may reflect the innate neural circuitry that governs the brain's faculty for language.
The language, known as Al Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language, is used in a village of some 3,500 people in the Negev desert of Israel. They are descendants of a single founder, who arrived 200 years ago from Egypt and married a local woman. Two of the couple's five sons were deaf, as are about 150 members of the community today.
The clan has long been known to geneticists, but only now have linguists studied its sign language. A team led by Dr. Wendy Sandler of the University of Haifa says in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences today that the Bedouin sign language developed spontaneously and without outside influence. It is not related to Israeli or Jordanian sign languages, and its word order differs from that of the spoken languages of the region. [continue]
You'll need a password if you want to read the rest of the article.
Related:
New Language Has Surprising Structure - LiveScience.com
From icWales: Abbey ruins reveal ‘city of light’ community.
Picturesque ruins near a remote village once housed the political powerhouse and religious capital of Wales, archaeologists have revealed.
Experts from the University of Wales, Lampeter, say the abbey at Strata Florida was once a city of light to rival Westminster Cathedral and Oxford.
Situated near Pontrhydfendigaid in rural Ceredigion, the abbey is now in ruins, providing the area with a place of outstanding beauty. There are rumours it once held the most sacred of all icons, the Holy Grail, but there were very few other clues as to its hugely important past.
Now work by archaeologists, led by Professor David Austin, has revealed the ruins were once 10 times the size they now appear. And deciphering names of farms over a wide radius has helped uncover the true scale of a massive monastic operation on the site hundreds of years ago. [continue]
From payvand.com: Ancient Millimeter-Precise Ruler Unearthed in the Burnt City.
An Ancient ruler with half a millimeter precision was discovered in the Burnt City, Sistan-Baluchistan, southeast of Iran.
The Burnt City which is located a few kilometers out of Zabol, Sistan-Baluchistan province, dates back to some 5000 years ago and belongs to a developed civilization living at the time when cities of the world were just beginning to form.
Recent excavations in the archeological site of the Burnt City led to the discovery of a ruler with millimeter measurement units. Experts believe now that the ancient residents of the city used precise units for measurements and was skilled in areas of mathematics and geometry. [continue]
From The Telegraph: Give us back our chariot, Umbrian villagers tell the Metropolitan Museum
A tiny Umbrian village is taking on the mighty Metropolitan Museum in New York, claiming that one of its most exalted exhibits, an Etruscan chariot, was illegally exported from Italy 100 years ago.
The sixth-century bronze and ivory chariot, the pride of the museum's Etruscan collection, was originally sold to two Frenchmen by a farmer who dug it up in a field at Monteleone di Spoleto, near Perugia, in 1902. [continue]
From Scotsman.com: New broom to make togas the Roman way.
Researchers in the ancient Roman town of Pompeii are attempting to revive 2,000-year-old traditions to reproduce imperial cloth used to make togas and uniforms.
The project follows successful production of Roman wine two years ago using methods that would have been employed in vineyards buried by a devastating eruption from Mount Vesuvius in AD79. Historians at the archaeology department in Pompeii are experimenting with wild broom as the base product to make the textiles. [continue]
From the Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency: 5000-Year-old Cumin Found in Burnt City.
Iranian archeologists have found a large amount of cumin along with its fragrant plant in the Burnt City (Shahr-e Sokhteh) in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran.
The new season of excavations in the Burnt City supervised by Dr. Mansoor Sajadi started about a month ago. An Italian archaeobotanist group collaborates with the Iranian archeologists in this project. As in the previous season of excavations, archeologists have found a great amount of cumin that proves the oldest cumin in the world has been discovered in the Burnt City. [continue]
From the Beeb: Turin shroud ‘older than thought’.
The Shroud of Turin is much older than suggested by radiocarbon dating carried out in the 1980s, according to a new study in a peer-reviewed journal.
A research paper published in Thermochimica Acta suggests the shroud is between 1,300 and 3,000 years old.
The author dismisses 1988 carbon dating tests which concluded that the linen sheet was a medieval fake.
The shroud, which bears the faint image of a blood-covered man, is believed by some to be Christ's burial cloth.
Raymond Rogers says that his research and chemical tests show the sample used in the 1988 radiocarbon analysis was cut from a medieval patch woven into the shroud to repair fire damage.
This was responsible for an erroneous date being assigned to the original shroud cloth. [continue]
Related Mirabilis.ca content:
Turin Shroud update - April, 2004
New shroud theory (germs!) - June, 2003
Shroud of Turin - October, 2002 (includes a number of related links)
From the Globe and Mail: Archeologist unearths biblical controversy.
Canadian archeologist Russell Adams's interest is in Bronze Age and Iron Age copper production. He never intended to walk into archeology's vicious debate over the historical accuracy of the Old Testament -- a conflict likened by one historian to a pack of feral canines at each other's throats.
Yet by coincidence, Prof. Adams of Hamilton's McMaster University says, he and an international team of colleagues fit into place a significant piece of the puzzle of human history in the Middle East -- unearthing information that points to the existence of the Bible's vilified Kingdom of Edom at precisely the time the Bible says it existed, and contradicting widespread academic belief that it did not come into being until 200 years later.
Their findings mean that those scholars convinced that the Hebrew Old Testament is at best a compendium of revisionist, fragmented history, mixed with folklore and theology, and at worst a piece of outright propaganda, likely will have to apply the brakes to their thinking. [continue]
From Eurekalert: Want to petrify wood without waiting a few million years? Try this.
Yongsoon Shin and colleagues at the Department of Energy lab have converted wood to mineral, achieving in days what it takes nature millions of years to do in such places as the Gingko Petrified Forest, an hour up the Columbia River. There, trees likely felled in a cataclysmic eruption and, buried without oxygen beneath lava, leached out their woody compounds and sponged up the soil's minerals over the eons.
Shin's petrified wood journey began in a less dramatic fashion, a few minutes away at Lowe's, Shin's group reports in the current issue of the journal Advanced Materials, in the do-it-yourselfer chain's lumberyard,. There they picked up their raw material: pine and poplar boards. Back at PNNL, they gave a 1 centimeter cube of wood a two-day acid bath, soaked it in a silica solution for two more (for best results, repeat this step up to three times), air-dried it, popped it into an argon-filled furnace gradually cranked up to 1,400 degrees centigrade to cook for two hours, then let cool in argon to room temperature.
Presto. Instant petrified wood, the silica taking up permanent residence with the carbon left in the cellulose to form a new silicon carbide, or SiC, ceramic. The material "replicates exactly the wood architecture," according to Shin. [continue]
Thanks to Scott for emailing me a link to this article. (Now, if the rest of you feel like sending any interesting links my way, please do!)
From the Indy Star: Couple craft research into humanity's roots.
Using a needle several inches long, a hand surgeon slid wires into Nicholas Toth's and Kathy Schick's forearms and hands.
Then the two began chipping away, shaping simple stone tools the way that human ancestors did for millions of years. Signals began flowing along the wires in an experiment that helped to reveal which muscles are important in making tools.
Volunteering their bodies to figure that out is only one example of how far the husband-and-wife anthropologist team from Indiana University will go in their quest to understand the roots of humanity. [continue]
Wow! That's some dedication there.
Related links:
The Stone Age Institute -StoneAgeInstitute.org
Kathy Schick - Professor of Anthropology - indiana.edu
Nick Toth - Professor of Anthropology - indiana.edu
Stone Tool Production - muohio.edu
Making Silent Stones Speak: HumanEvolution and the Dawn of Technology - innovationwatch.com
From The Guardian: The mysterious end of Essex man.
Divisions in British culture may be deeper than we thought. Scientists have discovered startling evidence that suggests different species of early humans may have fought to settle within our shores almost half a million years ago.
They have found that two different groups - one wielding hand-axes, the other using Stone Age Stanley knives to slash and kill - could have been rivals for control of ancient Britain.
‘The evidence is only tantalising, but it is intriguing,’ said palaeontologist Chris Stringer, of the Natural History Museum, London. ‘Certainly it suggests Britain may well have been multicultural 400,000 years ago.’
This new interpretation of our prehistory is based on the recent discovery of a site - by archaeologists working with engineers building the Channel Tunnel high-speed rail link at Ebbsfleet in Kent - that shows ancient hunters once chased a giant elephant into a bog in Kent, trapped it there and then cut it to pieces, eating its flesh raw. [continue]
Note: I've linked to the text only version of this story, because the standard version has an icky popup.
From the Globe and Mail: Mexican archeologists unearth evidence of human sacrifice.
It has long been a matter of contention: Was the Aztec and Mayan practice of human sacrifice as widespread and horrifying as history books say? Or did Spanish conquerors overstate it to make the cultures appear primitive?
In recent years, archeologists have uncovered mounting evidence that corroborates the Spanish accounts in substance, if not number.
Using high-tech forensic tools, archeologists are proving that such sacrifices often involved children and a broad array of intentionally brutal killings.
For decades, many researchers believed Spanish accounts from the 16th and 17th centuries were biased, aiming to denigrate Indian cultures; others argued that sacrifices were largely confined to captured warriors, and still others conceded the Aztecs were bloody but believed the Maya were less so.
"We now have the physical evidence to corroborate the written and pictorial record," archeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan said. [continue]
From New Scientist: Gladiators fought for thrills, not kills.
Gladiators' combat had become a martial art by the beginning of the first millennium, according to a controversial theory based on reconstructing the fighters' tactics from Roman artefacts and medieval fight books.
To amuse the crowds around the arena the gladiators would display broad fighting skills rather than fight for their lives, argues archaeologist Steve Tuck of the University of Miami. "Gladiatorial combat is seen as being related to killing and shedding blood," he says. "But I think that what we are seeing is an entertaining martial art that was spectator-oriented."
Gladiatorial art adorns everything from cheap Roman lamps to gems to large-scale wall paintings. Tuck focused on the tactics used by pairs of gladiators in one-to-one combat, rather than mass battles or staged events, and examined 158 images that show active combat, such as a gladiator pinning down an opponent, his shield and sword on the ground.
To try to better understand what these scenes show, he turned to the pages of fighting and martial arts manuals produced in Germany and northern Italy in medieval and Renaissance times. These manuals provided instruction in everything from sword-fighting to wrestling. They are a good parallel for gladiatorial combat, Tuck argues, in part because opponents were professionals who used similar arms and armour. "And they're incredibly important because they show sequences of moves, and have accompanying descriptions," he says. [continue]
From the Telegraph: Potholers discover ancient Roman mosaic.
Potholers exploring a site near Nero's palace have discovered a mosaic showing ancient Romans trampling grapes to make wine.
The 10ft by 6.5ft mosaic depicts three naked figures crushing the grapes with their feet, while a fourth entertains them by playing a double flute and another man piles the fruit in a basket.
Using a remote-controlled camera, the potholers filmed the fragment at the edge of the largely unexcavated, 14-acre bathing complex in Rome built by the Emperor Trajan, itself lying on top of the ruins of Nero's lavish residence, known as the Golden House.
Walter Veltroni, the Italian capital's mayor, described the discovery as "one of the most important finds in recent years".
According to archaeologists, an entire section of the ancient city of Rome may be lying preserved beneath the site. The spot where they were discovered was apparently not that of Nero's palace but the place where the baths were built over street after street of the city. [continue]
Related:
In Rome, Hints of Buried Treasure
Romans hail discovery of their ‘new Pompeii’
From discovery.com: Christopher Columbus' Bones Get DNA Testing.
DNA technology might reveal the last voyage of Christopher Columbus' bones, according to Spanish scientists who exhumed the explorer's remains on Monday.
The aim is to solve the mystery over Columbus' final resting place. Is the world's most famous explorer buried in the Gothic cathedral of Santa Maria in Seville, the city from where he set sail in 1492, or is he resting under a towering, cross-shaped monument in Santo Domingo, where he made his historic landfall in the New World?
To solve the riddle, Granada University researchers removed two boxes from an ornate tomb in the Spanish cathedral. One is thought to contain Columbus' bones; the other is known to hold the remains of Hernando, Columbus's son through an extramarital affair. [continue]
From discovery.com: Ancient Egyptians Sold Fake Cats.
Ancient Egyptian mummy wrappings hide a number of frauds and flaws, which a high-tech, digital X-ray machine recently exposed among the collections at Chicago's Field Museum.
The machine saw through a mummified cat dated to approximately 500 B.C. that contained only twigs and cotton. It also revealed mummification tools that someone accidentally left inside a real mummy, and it solved a 15,000-year-old mystery surrounding what is believed to be the world's oldest known mummy.
The findings support the theory that the ancients were just as prone to mischief and mistakes as we are today. Experts believe the Mikron Digital Imaging portable X-ray machine, along with a Radpro X-ray tube, may one day become standard devices for research use at museums, universities and remote excavation sites.
Curators and scientists alike were surprised when the machine showed that the cat mummy did not contain any feline remains.
"The person who bought it probably used it as an offering to the goddess Bestat, who possessed the head of a cat," said William Pestle, anthropology collections manager at the Chicago natural history museum. [continue].
Saturday's National Post featured a fascinating article by Teresa Riordan on the history of the bustle. Here's an excerpt from the paper edition.
How is it that proper Victorian ladies, who would have considered it uncivilized to powder their noses in public, did not give a second thought to strapping on large prosthetic buttocks under layers of ribbon and braid? If, as Balzac wrote, dress is a revelation of a woman's "most secret thoughts, a language and a symbol," we can only wonder: What were they thinking?
A bustle is often thought of as a mutation of the hoop skirt. But a hoop skirt can be appreciated in three dimensions, while the bustle, much like the buttocks themselves, can be viewed only in profile or from the rear. Indeed, in terms of sexual ornament, the buttocks are the flip side of the breasts.
Bustles have come in and out of fashion over the past several centuries. In 18th-century caricatures they are frankly called "false bums." When they reappeared in the 19th century, they were more genteelly referred to as bustles, although even this term was too evocative; many an American lady Frenchified this into tournure or pannier or euphemized it into a "dress improver."
I'd love to link to the rest of the article, but it's available only to paid subscribers. Oh well; there are lots of bustle-related pages on the web. Fashion-era.com includes information about the Victorian first and second bustle era, including how to differentiate between bustles of 1870 and 1883. (I know you've been awake nights wondering about that.) Truly Victorian offers bustle history, complete with illustrations. Why, you can even order your own bustle if you're feeling eccentric enough.
Back to Teresa Riordan, who wrote the National Post article quoted above. It turns out that she also wrote Inventing Beauty: A history of the innovations that have made us beautiful. (In fact, what do you want to bet that the National Post article is an excerpt from her book? I should have taken the time to read the whole article while I had the chance.) You might want to read the interview with Teresa over here at mit.edu.
Related:
Inventing Beauty: A history of the innovations that have made us beautiful - Amazon.ca
From Reuters: Hitler wanted Pope Pius kidnapped.
Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler gave one of his generals a direct order to kidnap Pope Pius XII during World War Two but the officer did not obey, Italy's leading Roman Catholic newspaper has reported.
Avvenire, which is owned by the Italian Conference of Roman Catholic bishops, said on Saturday new details of the plot had emerged in documents presented to the Vatican in favour of putting the controversial wartime Pontiff on the road to sainthood.
Elements of alleged plots to abduct the Pope during Germany's occupation of Italy have already emerged in the past from some historians, but Avvenire's full-page report said its details were new.
Avvenire said Hitler feared the Pope would be an obstacle to his plans for global domination and because the dictator wanted to eventually abolish Christianity and impose National Socialism as a sort of new global religion. [continue]
From The Guardian: Babylon wrecked by war.
Troops from the US-led force in Iraq have caused widespread damage and severe contamination to the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, according to a damning report released today by the British Museum.
John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient Near East department and an authority on Iraq's many archaeological sites, found "substantial damage" on an investigative visit to Babylon last month.
The ancient city has been used by US and Polish forces as a military depot for the past two years, despite objections from archaeologists.
"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," says the report, which has been seen by the Guardian.
Among the damage found by Mr Curtis, who was invited to Babylon by Iraqi antiquities experts, were cracks and gaps where somebody had tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the Ishtar Gate.
He saw a 2,600-year-old brick pavement crushed by military vehicles, archaeological fragments scattered across the site, and trenches driven into ancient deposits. [continue]
I have no polite words to say about this.
From the Archaeology Magazine: Tabletop Tactics.
Medieval Europeans may have had more fun than you think.
An English nobleman of the early medieval period, weary of the hard benches in the cold royal hall, bored with the old stories that filled the dark winter evenings, might well have felt a bit glum. If he found a friend, he could dispel his malaise the way an Old English poem, from Maxims, recommends: "Two shall sit together at a board game until their misery leaves them/they shall have joy on the board."
In medieval northern Europe, board games were a combination of [continue]
From the Beeb: Ancient rock carvings go online.
Archaeologists have discovered more than 250 new examples of prehistoric rock carvings, it has been revealed.
The panels were unearthed during a two-and-a-half year search of the moorlands of Northumberland by Newcastle University archaeologists.
They will feature on a new website featuring 6,000 images, which is thought to be the most comprehensive of its kind in the world.
The carvings are thought to have been made between 3,500 and 6,000 years ago. [continue]
The Northumberland Rock Art site includes information about the sites, and an interactive zone featuring images and virtual tours.
From CNN: Was ancient Indian town swallowed by tsunami?.
For generations, the people of Poompuhar have spoken of the days when their sleepy fishing town was the capital of a powerful kingdom, and traders came from Rome, Greece and Egypt to deal in pearls and silk.
Then, more than 1,500 years ago, it was gone. The thriving town, according to ancient Tamil-language texts, was "kodalkol" — "swallowed by the sea."
Perhaps, archaeologists and historians thought, the sea water had gradually risen. Or, some think now, perhaps it was something else.
"Nobody knew what had happened," said Murugaiyan, a 38-year-old fisherman whose family has long talked of a long-gone kingdom. On December 26, though, it all became clear to him, when the tsunami slammed into coastlines across Asia and Africa.
"Now I know," he said. "It must have been another tsunami." [continue]
From mehrnews.ir: Ancient seal corroborates Bistun Inscription text.
An ancient seal has been discovered by chance which confirms the information recorded in the text of the Bistun Inscription in Kermanshah Province, an expert of the Hamedan Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department announced on Wednesday.
Fariba Sharifian explained that the Iranian police recently confiscated the seal from smugglers in the town of Asadabad in Hamedan Province, adding, "It is not clear when and where the seal was unearthed, but the information and reliefs carved on it narrate significant and interesting material."
The seal is made of green jasper, she said.
A cuneiform inscription in ancient Persian on one side of the cylindrical seal reads "Dadar Shish, Satrap of Bactria". [continue]
From chn.ir: Parthian Circular City Found in Khorasan.
Iranian archeologists have found the architectural plan of a Parthian circular city in Nehbandan castle in southern Khorasan.
Nehbandan castle is one of the most important ancient cities in Iran that has signs of different historical periods. Though it hasn’t been much excavated, archeologists have found remains from Parthian (250 BC – 226 AD) to Safavid (1501 – 1722) eras.
“As this site hasn’t been studied much, we began studying the structures in this historical complex 2 years ago and found out that it has a circular form”, Naser Nasr-abadi, head of excavations in this site, told CHN.
Aerial photographs have been a great help in identifying the circular form of this city that has a diameter of 250 meters and covers an area of about 50 sq meters, said Nasr-abadi. [continue]
From Reuters: Ancient Astronomer's Work Found on Roman Statue.
A Roman statue of Atlas — the mythical titan who carried the heavens on his shoulders — holds clues to the long-lost work of the ancient astronomer Hipparchus, an astronomical historian said on Tuesday.
The statue in question is known as the Farnese Atlas, a 7-foot tall marble work which resides in the Farnese Collection in the National Archeological Museum in Naples, Italy.
What makes it important to scientists is not the titan's muscular form but the globe he supports: carved constellations adorn its surface in exactly the locations Hipparchus would have seen in his day, suggesting that the sculptor based the globe on the ancient astronomer's star catalog, which no modern eyes have seen. [continue]
Related:
An ancient mystery may have been solved by LSU Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy Bradley E. Schaefer - hypography.com (includes small photo)
Discovery of the lost star catalog of Hipparchus on the Farnese Atleas - phys.lsu.edu (includes good photos)
From The Independent: Discovery of hidden laboratory sheds light on Leonardo's genius.
Researchers have discovered the hidden laboratory used by Leonardo da Vinci for studies of flight and other pioneering scientific work in previously sealed rooms at a monastery next to the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata, in the heart of Florence.
The workshop rooms, located between the Institute for Military Geography and the Basilica, contain frescos painted by Leonardo that have "impressive resemblances" to other examples of his experimental work. The frescos include a triptych of birds circling above a subsequently erased representation of the Virgin Mary that "constitutes a clear citation of the studies by the maestro on the flight of birds", the three researchers, Alessandro del Meglio, Roberto Manneschalchi and Maria Carchio, said yesterday.
An angel at the side of the fresco scene bears a striking resemblance to the angel in a painting of the annunciation attributed to Leonardo in the Uffizi Gallery, they added.
Leonardo's use of the rooms was referred to in letters written by Pietro di Novellara to Isabella D'Este and they were cited by Giorgio Vasari in his 16th-century biography, Lives of the Artists, they said.
"The finds are particularly interesting as they will help us to understand the context in which Leonardo was working in these rooms exactly 500 years ago," said Professor Alessandro Vezzosi, a Leonardo scholar. [continue]
There's another article about this at The Times: Found: the studio where Leonardo met Mona Lisa.
From Xinhuanet: Scientists to start DNA analysis of ancient horse skeletons
Chinese and British scientists are planning the DNA analysis of 12 horse skeletons unearthed from the burial ground of a prominent duke who lived more than 2500 years ago in China's northwestern Shaanxi Province, the state media reported today.
Archaeologists with Beijing and Cambridge University used a professional database to process data collected from the skeletons, including the size and weight of the skulls, spinal columns and limbs.
A Cambridge laboratory will be entrusted to carry out the DNA analysis, after the state administration of the Cultural Heritage of China gives it the green signal, Xinhua news agency quoted a source with the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology as saying.
The DNA test is expected to find out more facts about ancient horses, including their skeletal bone mineral density and other trace elements, which may shed light on how horses were fed and tamed back then, he said. [continue]
From The Seattle Times: "Prisoner of the Vatican": A pope's last stand and the birth of the new Italy.
When, on Sept. 20, 1870, Italian troops finally broke through Rome's walls and claimed the city as part of the new Italian state, Pius proclaimed himself a "prisoner of the Vatican." Denouncing the "usurper" state, he retreated into the Vatican complex and, spurning the government's entreaties, refused to come out.
Since the mid-20th century, Italy and the Vatican have been inextricably linked. Tourists visit Vatican City, which at 100 acres is the world's smallest sovereign state, while sightseeing in Rome. And the popular image of Italy today is of a Catholic country with a special and close bond to the pope, who has throughout most of the history of Christianity made his home on the left bank of the Tiber, the river that bisects Rome.
But in his riveting and fast-paced history, "Prisoner of the Vatican," David I. Kertzer uses historical documents only recently released by the Vatican to tell the startling story of how late-19th-century popes plotted against the unification of Italy and its sovereignty. [continue]
Link found at the Catholic Spectator.
Related Book:
Prisoner of the Vatican: The Popes' Secret Plot to Capture Rome from the New Italian State - Amazon.ca
From the Beeb: ‘High status’ Viking site found.
Archaeologists in Cumbria say they have discovered what could be the country's most important Viking burial site.
Experts are so excited about the find and its wealth of treasures, they are keeping its location a secret so they can work undisturbed.
All that has been revealed is that it is near Barrow and contains artefacts dating back to the 10th Century.
Another burial site has been uncovered in Cumbria, close to Cumwhitton village, near Carlisle. (...)
Barrow archaeologist, Steve Dickinson, who has been involved in the dig, said experts were particularly excited about a merchant's weight, which is the size of a finger and shows a dragon design with two figures. [continue]
From the Boston Globe: A rain forest debate: Could it have been home to complex societies?
High along bluffs overlooking the confluence of the mighty Negro and Solomes rivers, super-sized eggplants, papayas and cassava spring from the ground.
Their exuberance defies a long-held belief about the Amazon. For much of the last half-century, archeologists have viewed the South American rain forest as a "counterfeit paradise" whose inhospitable environment precluded the development of complex societies.
But new research suggests that prehistoric people found ways to overcome the jungle's natural limitations and thrive in large numbers.
The secret, say the theory's proponents, is in the ground beneath their feet. The highly fertile soil called terra preta do indio, Portuguese for Indian black earth, was either intentionally created by these pre-Columbian people or is the accidental byproduct of their presence.
The research has implications not only for history but for the future of the Amazon rain forest. If scientists could discover how the Amerindians transformed the soil, farmers could use the technology to maximize the productivity of smaller plots of land, rather than cutting down ever larger swaths of jungle. The benefits of this "gift from the past" are already known to farmers in the area, who plant their crops wherever they find terra preta.
"It's made by pre-Columbian Indians and it's still fertile," said Bruno Glaser, a soil chemist from the University of Bayreuth in Germany who took samples of terra preta recently near the jungle town of Iranduba. "If we knew how to do this, it would be a model for agriculture in the whole region." [continue]
From sbs.com.au: Ancient mummy gets CT scan.
A team of researchers removed the mummy of ancient Egypt’s King Tut from its tomb for a CT scan in a bid to solve the mystery over how the boy pharaoh died 3000 years ago.
A machine in a specially-equipped van took the images while parked near his underground tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Around 1,700 images were taken during the 15-minute scan, and researchers hope they will provide the key to questions surrounding his life and death, including his royal lineage, his exact age – now estimated at 17 – and the cause of his death.
King Tutankhamun's toes and fingers and an eerie outline of his face could be seen as the scans were taken.
A simpler x-ray taken 36 years ago showed bone fragments inside his skull, but was not sophisticated enough to determine whether they signified a blow to the head. [continue]
From the East Anglian Daily Times: Roman chariot race track found.
Archaeologists are awaiting confirmation they have unearthed what has been hailed as a "major" discovery — the first Roman chariot-racing track in Britain.
Experts have unearthed in Colchester what they believe to be the remains of the world's biggest Roman chariot-racing track outside Italy and the first one to be found in Britain.
Stone fragments from what could have been a stadium similar in look and size to Rome's famous Ben Hur amphitheatre have been discovered during a dig at Colchester Garrison. [continue]
See also Rome's boy racers took chariots to Colchester in The Times.
From a McMaster University press release: Ancient DNA helps solve the legend of giant eagles.
Gigantic eagles swooping from the skies to rescue Frodo and Sam in the Lord of the Rings may not be just the stuff of legends and fairytales, according to research published in the journal PloS Biology.
McMaster University anthropologist Michael Bunce has shed new light on the evolution of the extinct Haast’s eagle, the giant bird that once ruled the skies over New Zealand.
Weighing between 20 and 30 pounds, the enormous Haast's Eagle dominated its environment. It was 30 to 40 per cent heavier than the largest living bird of prey around today, the Harpy Eagle of Central and South America.
Working in New Zealand, Bunce extracted DNA from fossil eagle bones dating back about 2000 years.
He says, "When we began the project it was to prove the relationship of the extinct Haast's Eagle with the large Australian Wedge-tailed Eagle. But the DNA results were so radical that, at first, we questioned their authenticity."
The results showed that the New Zealand giant was in fact related to one of the world's smallest eagles — the Little Eagle from Australia and New Guinea, which typically weighs under two pounds. [continue]
(Link to above article found here at Science Blog.)
There's more at the BBC, the Telegraph, and at The Times. You might also be interested in the full article at the PLos Biology Journal: Ancient DNA Provides New Insights into the Evolutionary History of New Zealand's Extinct Giant Eagle. A synopsis is also available.
From payvand.com: 32 Sassanid Kings Had 100 Types of Crowns.
Studies on over 100 Sassanid coins, bas reliefs, and vessels show that there has been over 100 types of crown in the Sassanid era.
The Sassanid era, one of the most important historical periods in Iran, lasted about 400 years. Sassanid era began with the kingdom of Shapoor the first in 1st century and came to an end in the 5th century. [continue, see photo]
From The Herald: Mystery of ancient broch unlocked after 2000 years.
A team of archaeologists has helped unlock 2000-year-old secrets of an ancient tower described as one of the wonders of European archaeology.
Mousa Broch, located on the island of Mousa in Shetland, is one of the finest examples of an Iron Age tower or broch.
The impressive structure was used as a fortification when the islands were racked by warfare but was also mentioned in the sagas as an eloping lovers' hideout.
Experts used the latest laser scanning techniques to record every detail of the historic monument and check whether it has shifted or deteriorated over the years. [continue]
From the Telegraph: Out-of-town shopping malls ‘were pioneered by rich Romans’.
The luxury housing estate and out-of-town shopping centre may need to be added to the long list of what the Romans did for Britain.
Work in Bath suggests that rich Romans were so keen to live close to city centre attractions that they abandoned the empire's traditional habit of building lavish villas in the countryside, well away from the neighbours and commerce within the city walls.
Excavations in Bath reveal that at least half a dozen elegant homes existed near each other and within easy reach of leisure areas. One villa was found while sprinkler pipes were being laid across a golf course. A second villa with mosaic floors was found a few hundred feet away. [continue]
From Science Daily: Conquerors' Hopes Dashed.
Dutch researcher Florine Asselbergs has discovered the Spanish conquering of Guatemala portrayed on an indigenous painting. This sixteenth-century panel had scarcely been investigated up until now and provides a detailed overview of the battles and the landscape. It is an important find, as relatively little is known about the conquest of Guatemala.
Asselbergs studied the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan, a panel of more than two by three metres from the Quauhquecholteca, an indigenous people from Central America. Until recently, scientists thought that the painting represented campaigns of conquest by the Quauhquecholteca and Spaniards through Central Mexico. However, the researcher established that the document portrays a campaign of conquest through Guatemala by the Spanish conqueror Jorge the Alvarado in 1527-1529.
In about 1400, the Quauhquecholteca settled in present-day San Martín Huaquechula, to the south-east of Mexico City. By fighting with the Spanish, the indigenous people hoped to rid themselves of the tyranny of the Aztecs and to gain their own land and riches. They described their military successes in pictograms in paintings such as the Lienzo de Quauhquechollan. Not long after this however, the Spaniards brutally overruled all of the peoples in Central America, including the Quauhquecholteca. [continue]
From the Tehran Times: Parthian era subterranean village discovered near Maragheh.
Iranian archaeologists have discovered a Parthian era village under the earth near the Mehr Temple of the northwestern city of Maragheh, the director of the Maragheh Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department said on Wednesday.
"Since the Mehr Temple is one of the little known sites of Iran, our team planned to carry out some excavations around it to ascertain some details about the temple. The excavations resulted in the discovery of an underground village which archaeologists believe dates back to the Parthian era," Nasser Zavvari added.
The Mehr Temple, which was constructed in the Parthian era (247 B.C. - 224 C.E.), is located 65 kilometers from the city of Maragheh in East Azarbaijan Province. It was one of the main temples of the religion of Mithraism in ancient Iran.
The village is located at a depth of one meter below ground level and some holes were used as entrances into the underground community, he said. [continue]
From Rednova: Ancient Heights.
Using altitude-dependent differences in fossil leaves, geologists have developed a tool that they say can track land elevations over geologic epochs. The scientists plan to use the new technique to better chronicle the rise and fall of mountain ranges.
Trees' leaves breathe in carbon dioxide through tiny pores, called stomata, that can be seen with a microscope in both modern and fossilized samples. At higher altitudes, the leaves grow with more tightly packed pores to compensate for the thinner air. Jennifer C. McElwain of the Field Museum in Chicago has taken advantage of this anatomical adaptation to turn fossil leaves into a measure of ancient altitudes. She details the strategy in the December Geology.
McElwain used leaves from living California black oak, or Quercus kelloggii. Unlike most trees, it can grow from near sea level all the way to 2,500 meters. Using a microscope, McElwain counted the pores per square millimeter for leaves collected at different altitudes. She then developed an equation relating the density of pores to the altitude at which the plant lived. [continue]
Perhaps you've heard by now:
Hundreds of biblical artefacts in museums all over the world could be fakes, it has emerged after Israeli investigators uncovered what they claim is a sophisticated forgery ring.
Four men have been charged with the faking of some of the most important biblical discoveries in recent years.
The artefacts in question include an ossuary which was believed to contain the bones of James, the brother of Jesus, and a tablet with a written inscription by a Jewish king in the ninth century before Christ.
Here are the juicy details:
Doubts about the artefacts emerged after Israeli police began to hear rumours of an Egyptian craftsman living in Israel who would boast of his part in the forgeries while drinking in Tel Aviv. Detectives launched an investigation two years ago which rapidly became a global exercise. (...)
The forgers were accused of using an authentic artefact and then adding an inscription. They would then add a coating to emulate the grime that accumulated over centuries.
The fakes fooled experts for years and the virtually worthless artefacts were grossly multiplied in value. [continue]
All that's from Forgers ‘tried to rewrite biblical history’ at The Guardian.
From The Herald: Sunshine, slavery and bad cheeses.
It is the story of one family's journey which spanned continents and centuries, but lay forgotten in a cellar for 100 years.
Marion Campbell, an author and archaeologist, had always been interested in her family's history.
For three centuries, her ancestors had lived in Kilberry Castle, in Argyll and Bute, and their lives produced an array of letters, some in cellar boxes and sundry deed boxes, others in bundles, tied up with pink tape and withering elastic bands.
But more than 30 years ago, Ms Campbell came across correspondence which traced many of the eighteenth-century Campbells to the West Indies, where they settled and wrote to family members in Argyll through the Steam Packet Company.
At the time, Ms Campbell, a fervent nationalist and published author, decided to catalogue the correspondence to satisfy her own curiosity.
Now however, four years after her death at the age of 80, Ms Campbell's work has been published by a small Argyll library.
Letters by the Packet reveals the extent of the slave trade in Jamaica as well as those Scots who sought out new lives in Canada and Australia in the nineteenth century. (...)One letter, sent by John Campbell — believed to be the first of his family to settle in Jamaica — to his father-in-law, Archibald of Knockbuy, reveals the difference in climate proved something of a culture shock.
It reads: "Your kind present of cheeses came to hand a few days ago, & tho' I am equally the same obliged to you for them, yet I am sorry to tell you they all proved so bad that we were forced to distribute them among the Negroes: as I am fearful therefore this Highland Manufacture will not stand this Climate it wou'd be quite unnecessary to put you to the pains of sending any more." [continue]
From The Herald: Discovery weaves a picture of life for villagers.
Excavations at a village have unearthed the graves of weavers from the eighteenth and nineteenth century, giving researchers an insight into the lifestyles of the workers at the time.
Derek Alexander, archaeologist with the National Trust for Scotland, said two digs had taken place at different locations in Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire.
"There was an excavation at the Weaver's Cottage, and a separate one which was instigated by some rebuilding work along the south side of the graveyard at Kilbarchan West Parish Church. (...)
Many of the remains identified as possibly those of weavers were to be found in an area of tightly-packed poorer burials.
The clue to their occupation was in their teeth.
The workers' incisors had been worn down from biting thread as they weaved. [continue].
From The Guardian: Medieval mural's tales of sorcery.
A mural which has come to light in Tuscany has been identified by a British university lecturer as the earliest surviving representation of witchcraft in Christian Europe.
A book published in Italy by George Ferzoco, director of the centre for Tuscan studies at the University of Leicester, argues that at least two of the women in the porno-erotic wall painting are sorceresses.
"I have no doubt that this is by far the earliest depiction in art of women acting as witches," he said.
The 13th-century mural was discovered four years ago at Massa Marittima, a town south-west of Siena. Dr Ferzoco believes it was intended as a warning, by supporters of the papacy, of the anarchy and licentiousness that would supposedly engulf the town if it fell into the hands of their political rivals.
That would give the bizarre mural an additional significance as the only surviving example of a medieval political "poster". [continue]
From the Telegraph: Medieval villagers ‘passed human TB on to their cattle’.
Research using the latest DNA techniques suggests that tuberculosis may have been passed from humans to animals and not the opposite way round as previously believed.
Examinations of skeletons from a churchyard in an abandoned medieval village also challenge the traditional ideas of fresh air and the open countryside as a cure for the disease.
Deformation in bones excavated from Wharram Percy in the Yorkshire Wolds show that people were infected by the same strain of the disease as those in urban slums in the Middle Ages.
The village, which survived from before the Norman Conquest until the Black Death arrived in the 14th century, is more than 30 miles from the nearest large settlement at York. [continue]
From the BBC: Mexico's ancient drink under threat.
In Mexico, producers are warning that the so-called "nectar of the gods" is in danger of extinction.
The popularity of the pre-Hispanic alcoholic drink, pulque, is fading in favour of more conventional beverages such as beer and rum.
Mario Grajedo wobbles slightly as he perches on a stool by the side of the road in Ixmiquilpan in Mexico's Hidalgo state.
This is pulque heartland. On the simple table in front of him is a large maize tortilla covered in hot sauce.
Beside it is a jug of the milky liquid.
Eating with one hand, he swigs deeply using the other.
His voice slightly slurred, he says: "Pulque is a very strong tradition in Hidalgo. The flavour is either bitter or sweet — depending on how you like it.
"If you like it strong then you drink it neat, and if not you put in a bit of honey. It's like tequila — it's very healthy." [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Archeologists find ancient village near Tel-Aviv.
Archeologists have discovered a village near the Mediterranean coast dating from the 4th century B.C., the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Sunday — a rare find.
The discovery provides an unusual insight into a turbulent period when there were intense struggles for control over the area, said Uzi Ad, who led the dig.
During this period the region was under the rule of the Egyptian Ptolemy empire and then the Selucid Greeks from Syria before it was conquered by the Jewish Hasmonean dynasty in the second century B.C.
"The village was abandoned after the area was conquered by the Hasmoneans," Ad said. It was found just south of Tel Aviv, about 4 kilometers (2 1/2 miles) inland from the Mediterranean Sea. [continue]
Have you read the biography of Catherine the Great? It's fascinating, and completely memorable. Now some of Catherine's letters have been published in a book entitled Love and Conquest: Personal Correspondence of Catherine the Great and Prince Grigory Potemkin.
The TLS, bless them, have given us a peek at the book. This is from their article, That fornicatress Catherine.
On February 21, 1774, Catherine II of Russia wrote what has been described as one of the most revealing letters ever penned by a European monarch. In it she listed her lovers (just four in addition to her unsatisfactory late husband) and confessed: "The trouble is that my heart is loath to be without love even for a single hour . . . . If you want to keep me forever, then show me as much friendship as love, and more than anything else, love me and tell me the truth". The recipient, the dashing Guards officer Grigory Potemkin, was installed as official favourite forthwith. He relinquished the post in 1776, but continued to love Catherine, and mostly to tell her the truth, until his death in 1791.
Love and Conquest chronicles their relationship in 464 annotated letters, originally in Russian interspersed with French and ranging from a few scribbled, undated lines ("You naughty little thing, are you going to pout for long?"), to long discussions of politics. The texts in this, the most comprehensive and scholarly English-language edition to date, are drawn from Viacheslav Lopatin’s landmark publication (Moscow, 1997) of 1,162 items of personal correspondence. The fate of the letters after their authors’ deaths deserves a book in its own right. Those that survived (Catherine burned most of Potemkin’s early billets-doux) were locked away, then subjected to both tsarist and Soviet censorship, the latter on the grounds that the writings of the "great fornicatress" were of no historical or literary value. [continue]
From the Seattle Times: Ancient Peru site older, much larger.
A Peruvian site previously reported as the oldest city in the Americas actually is a much larger complex of as many as 20 cities with huge pyramids and sunken plazas sprawled over three river valleys, researchers report.
Construction started about 5,000 years ago — nearly 400 years before the first pyramid was built in Egypt — at a time when most people around the world were simple hunters and gatherers, a team from Northern Illinois University and Chicago's Field Museum reports in today's issue of the journal Nature.
The society and its people — known only as the Andeans — persisted in virtually the same form for 1,200 years before they were overrun by more warlike neighbors. That is the longest time any known ancient civilization survived, according to archaeologist Jonathan Haas of the Field, who led the expedition. [continue]
From Reuters: New Finds Unearthed at Reputed Jesus Miracle Site.
Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed a paved assembly area and water channel at the site of a pool where some Christians believe Jesus gave sight to a blind man, Israel's Antiquities Authority said on Thursday.
The discovery allows them to build a better picture of what the Siloam Pool might have looked like nearly 2,000 years ago — suggesting it was meant for ritual immersion rather than for use as a reservoir as some have thought.
"We have excavated it and dated it very accurately with coins found in the cement which the pool was built of," Roni Reich of Haifa University, one of the dig leaders, told Reuters. "Hopefully we can continue the dig."
The earliest coins to be found dated from the middle of the century before Jesus's birth.
A wide flight of steps has been uncovered leading down toward the site. A narrow channel carries water through the honey-colored rocks. [continue]
From Payvand's Iran News: 5000 Years Ago, Women Held Power In Burnt City.
Tehran (Iranian Cultural Heritage News Agency) - According to the research by an archeological team in the burnt city, women comprised the most powerful group in this 5000-year-old city.
The archeological team has found a great number of seals in the women's graves. In ancient societies, holding a seal was a sign of power, and was of 2 kinds: personal and governmental.
The burnt city ancient site located in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran, dates back to between 2000 and 3000 BC.
"In the ancient world, there were tools used as a means of economic control. Whoever had these tools at his disposal was among the most powerful people in the society", Mansour Sajjadi, the Iranian archeologist responsible for excavations in the burnt city told CHN.
According to Sajjadi, during the excavations in the burnt city cemetery, 90% of the graves in which the seals were found belonged to women. Only 5% of these seals were found in men's graves. [continue]
From NPR: Ancient, Complex Peruvian Communities Explored.
Along the coast of central Peru, a remarkable sight is emerging from underneath the desert sand. Archeologists have found the ruins of some 20 communities clustered along three rivers. Some date back 5,000 years. People there grew crops and built huge stone monuments that predate the Egyptian pyramids. [continue]
More at the BBC, and at New Scientist.
From the Times Online: Women warriors from Amazon fought for Britain's Roman army.
The remains of two Amazon warriors serving with the Roman army in Britain have been discovered in a cemetery that has astonished archaeologists.
Women soldiers were previously unknown in the Roman army in Britain and the find at Brougham in Cumbria will force a reappraisal of their role in 3rd-century society.
The women are thought to have come from the Danube region of Eastern Europe, which was where the Ancient Greeks said the fearsome Amazon warriors could be found.
The women, believed to have died some time between AD220 and 300, were burnt on pyres upon which were placed their horses and military equipment. The remains were uncovered in the 1960s but full-scale analysis and identification has been possible only since 2000 with technological advances. [continue]
From the (Calcutta, India) Telegraph: 500-year-old palace dug out.
Archaeologists excavating the ruins at Gour Malda have stumbled upon an entire palace complex over 500 years old, complete with zenana khanas and what seems to be a mint.
At the site, Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) men are carefully brushing away layers of soil from what seem like large brick kilns where, most probably, the former nawabs of Bengal used expert metallurgists to mint coins.
Inside the kilns, the ashes — still intact from the last fire that burned — are also being dusted away by the workers. [continue]
From the Jerusalem Post: Ancient Galilee settlement uncovered in Kfar Kana.
The Israel Antiquities Authority recently uncovered the remains of what has been identified as Kana in the Galilee, a settlement known from both Jewish and Christian traditions.
Authority spokesperson said Tuesday that during excavations in the western section of Kfar Kana, an Arab Israeli village in the Lower Galilee, archeologists discovered building remains, household utensils, and a mikve (Jewish ritual purification bath). [continue]
The CBC has more.
From scotsman.com: Carved Imagine May Be Ancient Map.
An image on a carved stone thought to date back more than 4,000 years may depict an ancient map, it was revealed today.
English Heritage archaeologists said the relic, which is unique in England and considered internationally significant, may show a map or landscape drawing – thought to be a first for rock art.
The stone was uncovered after a wildfire devastated two and a half square kilometres of heather moorland on the North York Moors at Fylingdales, near Whitby, in September last year. [continue]
There's more here at the 24 Hour Museum.
From Aftenposten: Archaeologists strike gold in secret spot.
Eleven small, golden reliefs have been unearthed at an archaeological dig somewhere in eastern Norway. Officials won't say where, because they think more of the 1,400-year-old gold objects will be found at the site.
"This is a tremendously unique and exciting discovery, the kind an archaeologist makes only once in a lifetime," professor Heid Gjøstein Resi told newspaper Aftenposten. Resi, who's tied to the Oslo museum housing Viking treasures (the Oldsakssamlingen at the Kulturhistorisk Museum), has been leading the excavation where the gold objects were found.
They were first unearthed in October, before digging was forced to stop for the winter. Resi said they found on the excavation's first day, and the thrill intensified when no less than 10 more were found later.
The archaeologists call the small reliefs gullgubber, which basically translates to "golden old men." That's because the first of their kind found in Scandinavia depicted men with beards, even though those found this fall depict a man and a woman. [continue]
From eircom.net: New archaeological discovery uncovered at Carrickmines.
A new discovery of archaeological remains, thought to be those of a "curtain wall" extending up to 80 metres and dating from the 17th century, has been made at Carrickmines Castle in south Co Dublin.
The area of the remains, on a hillside to the south-west of an existing farmhouse, indicates the castle itself was a considerably larger complex than was originally thought, according to archaeologists. [continue]
Related:
Carrickmines - Friends of Medieval Dublin
Curtain Walls - castles-of-britain.com
From the BBC: Medieval artefacts unearthed.
Archaeologists have unearthed well-preserved remains of early medieval buildings in Winchester, Hampshire.
The dig is taking place at Northgate House, in advance of the planned redevelopment of the site.
A series of walls have been discovered in the excavation, the biggest that the city has seen for twenty years.
Artefacts from the Roman era that have also been found include a commemorative coin from 300 AD, a miniature set of scales, and a tool for etching.
Senior archaeologist Phillip Emery said: "It's probably the largest piece of archaeological fieldwork going on in the UK at the present time. [continue].
From 24 Hour Musuem: Iron age fort in Leicestershire defended from raiding rabbits.
During the Iron Age it stood up to marauders, protecting the people of ancient Leicestershire against anyone that might do them harm. But a couple of thousand years later Burrough-on-the-Hill was in need of a little defending of its own.
They might not sound as fearsome as a neighbouring tribe, or even the might of the Roman Empire, but the ancient hill fort has recently been under attack from the local rabbit population.
However, under the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affair’s Countryside Stewardship Scheme, farmer and Country Park Ranger, Tim Maydwell, has been fighting back. [continue]
From East Anglian Daily Times: Roman remains found by busy road.
The remains of a "waterfront" settlement dating from Roman times have been discovered in a Suffolk village.
Archaeologists have found pottery, brooches, coins and other items on a site at Stoke Ash, beside a tributary of the River Dove and close to the A140 road, itself Roman in origin.
Information gleaned from the site and from the adjacent Thornham Estate is adding to the academic understanding of the Roman occupation of Britain.
It also suggests the area has been a hive of human activity for many thousands of years, with evidence of early agriculture, industry and buildings.
However, the recent discovery of the waterfront settlement at Stoke Ash - sparked by the finding of a toggle made from a stone called jet – is considered the "icing on the cake". [continue]
From eKathimerini.com: Ancient treasure trove on Thasos.
Two gold rings and a pair of earrings decorated with floral and marine motifs, as well as the goddess Nike (l) were among the rich finds from an ancient cemetery on Thasos made public yesterday.
Rich grave offerings dating from the fourth century BC, including exquisite gold and silver jewelry, have been discovered in a crowded ancient cemetery on the northern Aegean island of Thasos, it was announced yesterday.
Around 150 artifacts have been excavated so far from the seaside necropolis at Limenas, close to the island’s new port. The closely clustered group of graves dates to between the fourth and the first centuries BC. [continue, see photo]
From nature.com: Mystery of ‘chirping’ pyramid decoded.
A theory that the ancient Mayans built their pyramids to act as giant resonators to produce strange and evocative echoes has been supported by a team of Belgian scientists.
Nico Declercq of Ghent University and his colleagues have shown how sound waves ricocheting around the tiered steps of the El Castillo pyramid, at the Mayan ruin of Chichén Itzá near Cancún in Mexico, create sounds that mimic the chirp of a bird and the patter of raindrops.
The bird-call effect, which resembles the warble of the Mexican quetzal bird, a sacred animal in Mayan culture, was first recognized by California-based acoustic engineer David Lubman in 1998. The ‘chirp’ can be triggered by a handclap made at the base of the staircase.
Declercq was impressed when he heard the echo for himself at an acoustics conference in Cancún in 2002. After the conference, he, Lubman and other attendees took a trip to Chichén Itzá to experience the chirp of El Castillo at first hand. "It really sounds like a bird", says Declercq. [continue]
From Science Daily: McMaster Researchers Seek To Unlock The Mysteries Of Ancient Potters.
In a remote village in southwestern Italy, Kostalena Michelaki stands over an open flame firing pots as would have been done more than seven thousand years ago.
By looking even deeper into the clay shards, the McMaster archaeologist will begin to understand the way Neolithic people lived, and in the process will dispel the myths and stereotypes surrounding ancient societies. [continue]
From the Independent: For the cradle of English civilisation, go to the Wirral.
The people of Merseyside have another reason to stoke their sense of pride — the history of England may have been forged in Wirral.
Viking enthusiasts looking for the site of an epic battle that was instrumental in the birth of the idea of Englishness believe they have found it at what is now Bromborough, south-east of Bikenhead.
At the Battle of Brunanburh, in 937 A.D., an army of Norwegian Vikings and Strathclyde Scots were defeated by Anglo-Saxons from the Midlands and the South led by King Athelstan, grandson of Alfred the Great. It was a turning point in England's history, with Athelstan hailed as a Christian hero who had united Anglo-Saxon forces to conquer the Vikings. In effect, he had created Englishness. The battle was commemorated in a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a contemporary history — yet no one knew for certain where it had taken place.
Dumfriesshire was suggested as were Northamptonshire and Yorkshire. But three University of Nottingham scholars - Paul Cavill, who runs the English Place-Name Society, Steve Harding, a scientist, and Judith Jesch, a Viking studies lecturer - have identified Wirral as the site of what was described as the bloodiest battle to have taken place in England. Five British kings and seven earls were killed on the Celtic side as were numerous Saxons, including two of Athelstan's cousins. [continue]
From Reuters: Ice-age ivory flute found in German cave.
A 35,000-year-old flute made from a woolly mammoth's ivory tusk has been unearthed in a German cave by archaeologists, says the University of Tuebingen.
The flute, one of the oldest musical instruments discovered, was pieced together from 31 fragments found in a cave in the Swabian mountains in southwestern Germany, the university said on Friday. [continue]
On which days should parsley be planted in Great Britain, and why? Which common flower is "known as the fiore di morte and is frequently planted on the graves of children" in Italy?
A Telegraph article about the Compendium of Symbolic and Ritual Plants in Europe explains lots of this garden lore. For example:
...the popularity of the carnation as a buttonhole is a hangover from the Elizabethan belief that wearing one protected you from dying on the scaffold.
In portraits of the period young men are often depicted holding a pink, although the flower is also a symbol of love and may refer to a recent betrothal. Those holding lilies-of-the-valley, on the other hand, were being identified as physicians, since this plant was much used in medicine.
Not all plant associations are obvious. For instance, the cheerful pot marigold, while linked with wealth because of its golden colour, also symbolises pain and grief because, as an Ancient Greek emblem of "gratitude and fond memories", it was often depicted on funerary monuments. Equally equivocal is the poppy, at once a symbol of remembrance (the so-called Flanders poppy) and oblivion (the opium poppy).
Blood-red Papaver rhoeas will, of course, appear wherever ground has been disturbed and first provided a symbol of sacrifice and resurrection on a Belgian battlefield in 1694 - long before the First World War. Other flowers that seem perfectly innocent turn out to have a sinister side. In Italy the periwinkle is known as the fiore di morte and is frequently planted on the graves of children, while in medieval England garlands of vinca were worn by felons going to the gallows. [continue]
I'd love to read that book, and, in particular, to see the authors' sources.
From Reuters: Ancient Gold Mask to Be Returned to Peru.
A gold mask dating back more than 1,000 years to a pre-Inca civilization in northern Peru will be returned home next year after being turned in to police by a collector in Italy, a museum official said on Friday.
The well-preserved mask, measuring 14 inches (35 cm) long by 8.7 inches (22 cm) wide, represents the sea god Naylamp from the Sican culture, Carlos Elera, director of the National Sican Museum in Peru told Reuters by telephone.
"It's authentic. It's classic Sican, gold with deep red mercury sulfide which had religious importance in the beliefs of the ancient Peruvians," Elera said. [continue]
From Wikipedia: The Declaration of Sports.
The Declaration of Sports (also known as the Book of Sports) was a declaration of James I of England issued in 1617 listing the sports that were permitted on Sundays and other holy days. It was originally issued at the request of Thomas Morton, bishop of Chester, to resolve a dispute in Lancashire between the Puritans and the gentry (many of whom were Roman Catholics). In 1618, James required all ministers to read the declaration from the pulpit, but there was strong opposition from the clergy and James withdrew his command.
The declaration listed archery, dancing, "leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation" as permissible sports, together with "May-games, Whitsun-ales and Morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles". Amongst the activities that were prohibited were bear- and bull-baiting, "interludes" and bowling. The declaration rebuked Puritans and other "precise persons", and was issued to counteract the growing Puritan calls for strict abstinence on the Christian sabbath (Sabbatarianism). [continue]
From the Persian Journal: Iran's Burnt City Throws up World’s Oldest Backgammon.
The oldest backgammon in the world along with 60 pieces has been unearthed beneath the rubbles of the legendary Burnt City in Sistan-Baluchistan province, southeastern Iran.
Iranian archeologists working on the relics of the 5,000-year-old civilization argue this backgammon is much older than the one already discovered in Mesopotamia and their evidence is strong enough to claim the board game was first played in the Burnt City and then transferred to other civilizations.
"The backgammon reveals intriguing clues to the lifestyle of those people," said Mansour Sajjadi, head of the research team.
"The board is rectangular and made of ebony, which did not grow in Sistan and merchants used to import it from India." He added the board features an engraved serpent coiling around itself for 20 times, thus producing 20 slots for the game, more affectionately known in Persian as Nard. The engraving, artistically done, indicates artisans in the Burnt City were masters of the craft. [continue].
Related:
Takhteh - berkeley.edu
From ekathimerini.com: Farmer turns up Roman trophy.
A farmer plowing his fields near the central Greek town of Orchomenos has stumbled across the marble trophy set up by a victorious Roman general following the defeat of a rebel army over 2,000 years ago, the Ministry of Culture announced yesterday.
A careful excavation turned up a large number of pieces from the monument set up on the 86 BC battlefield by Lucius Cornelius Sulla to celebrate his second victory in quick succession over Archelaos, a general of King Mithridates of Asia Minor. The fragments are in good condition, and experts believe the entire trophy — which originally stood up to 4 meters high — can be restored in situ.
The monument is a rendition in stone of the rough trophy set up by victorious ancient generals on the field of battle — which consisted of tree trunks festooned with the armor of their vanquished foes. This stood on a stone base decorated with relief sculpture. An inscription on the base includes the names of Sulla and Mithridates. [continue]
From The Telegraph: History haunts the Plain of Jars.
Deep in the mountains of northern Laos is one of the most dangerous archaeological sites ever. The last remnants of an ancient civilisation are next to 30-year-old craters and unexploded US ordnance left by the greatest aerial bombardment of all time.
Little is known of the people who carved the huge sandstone containers that give the Plain of Jars its name. The purpose of the artefacts is not known though they are believed to be connected to burial rituals.
Ringed by mountains, the plateau is a magnificent place to spend eternity. The containers are gathered in seemingly haphazard clusters on promontories and levels, some upright, others fallen over. They reveal scant details of their origins. [continue]
From ExpressIndia.com: Geophysical prospecting to find out what lies beneath.
Plans are afoot to dig out more information about the buried medieval city at Champaner-Pavagadh, without actually digging any further. A technique called ‘Geophysical prospecting’ would be used by archaeologists from Bradford University, UK, early next year to uncover parts of the buried city. [continue]
From SignOnSanDiego.com: Threads of old.
In 1993, Russian archaeologist Natalia Polosmak discovered an undisturbed kurgan, or tomb, in the rugged Ukok Plateau of Siberia, just inside a strip of no-man's land between Russia and China. It belonged to the Pazyryks, Iron Age horsemen who inhabited the steppes of western Asia up until the second century B.C.
The first kurgans discovered in the 1940s contained meticulously embalmed bodies with internal organs and muscles removed and the skin sewn back together with horsehair thread.
After weeks of digging through 20 feet of ice, Polosmak's team discovered the frozen remains of six horses. Below was a wooden chamber.
"You feel you are about to unveil a secret when you open the lid," she remembers. "A face, or something else, might appear through the ice."
Polosmak's team pried four heavy copper nails off the lid. By dripping cupfuls of heated water into the coffin, they began to melt the ice. As it thawed, the team sniffed. An unmistakable smell arose.
Wet wool.
Fabric remains are exceedingly rare in archaeological sites, but here was a young woman beautifully preserved in finely sewn clothes. The ice maiden's thigh-high riding boots were still supple. Her dress, woven 2,400 years ago of sheep's wool and camel hair, was held at the waist by a braided cord banded in colors and hung with tassels. She wore a 3-foot black felt headdress adorned with griffins and birds. [continue]
Related:
Natalia Polosmak - mnsu.edu
Society through Textiles - lu.se
The Siberian Ice Maiden - explorenorth.com
Siberian Ice Maiden - pbs.org
Pazyryk and The Ice Maiden - Wikipedia
From The Jewish Press: The Mystery Of Prague’s Missing Vav.
The glistening golden letters around the statue of Jesus have always been a matter of controversy for Prague's Jews. The statue with the letters raised around it is a central feature on the Charles Bridge, the bridge that spans the Vltava River, joining the two halves of Prague.
It was built in Prague's golden age by King Charles I, the Czech king who went on to become Charles IV of the Holy Roman Empire. The bridge is one of the artistic wonders of Prague, a city full of crowds admiring the statues of saints and kings bedecking the sides of the structure, long since converted into a pedestrian avenue. But the statue of Jesus has long been the center of contention.
In 1696, the Prague authorities accused a local Jewish leader, one Elias Backoffen, of blasphemy. As his punishment he was ordered to raise the funds for the purchase of gold-plated Hebrew letters, to be placed around the head of the statue and spell out "Holy, Holy, Holy, the Lord of Hosts," the Hebrew prayer from the Kedusha. The inscription was a symbolic humiliation and degradation of Prague’s Jews, who were forced to pay for a set of golden letters referring to God and hung around the neck of the statue of Jesus. [continue]
From EDP24: ‘Duck pond’ turns out to be a moat.
It appeared to be nothing more than a duck pond, but a chance comment and some research have revealed otherwise.
The mysterious moat could have more ancient origins as a medieval swannery, a Roman lookout, a refuge for people on the run – or there could be another explanation for it.
Whatever the story behind the structure on a farmer's land near Stalham, it will soon be restored to somewhere near its former glory. [continue]
From The Telegraph: China was drinking wine 9,000 years ago.
A mixed fermented wine of rice, honey and fruit was being drunk in northern China 9,000 years ago, more than a thousand years before the previously oldest known fermented drinks, brewed in the Middle East.
In the past scientists relied on the stylistic similarities of early pottery and bronze vessels to argue for the existence of a prehistoric fermented beverage in China.
Today's findings provide the first direct chemical evidence from ancient China for such beverages, which were of cultural, religious, and medical significance. [continue]
Related:
Earliest Signs of Winemaking Found in China - Reuters
From PBS: Babatha's Life and Times.
In 1961, Yoseph Porath, a volunteer on an archeological expedition to what is now known as the Cave of Letters, along the west coast of the Dead Sea in Israel, stepped on a wobbly stone deep within the dusty cavern. It proved to be a giant step for our understanding of Jewish life 2,000 years ago. For beneath that stone, Yigael Yadin, the expedition's leader, having been alerted by Porath, discovered a bundle of papyrus scrolls. The cache turned out to be the valuable personal documents of a Jewish woman named Babatha, who lived and died in the second century A.D.
Babatha's documents — covering everything from a sale of property to a petition to the governor, from a court summons to a marriage contract — don't tell us what she looked like or what she felt or thought. But they do tell us, by standards of evidence unearthed from early Jewish history, an enormous amount about her life and times. As Richard Freund, an archeologist who led an expedition to the cave between 1999 and 2001, writes in his new book Secrets of the Cave of Letters, Babatha, who owned property both in Petra (in modern Jordan) and in En-gedi (in modern Israel), "revolutionized the way that we think about Jewish women in antiquity." [continue]
Thanks to Miriam for writing to tell me about this site.
Related book:
Secrets of the Cave of Letters: Rediscovering a Dead Sea Mystery - Amazon.ca
From the Tehran Times: Experts studying mysterious burial tradition at Bam Citadel.
The team of experts working at the ruins of the Bam Citadel is trying to shed light on the reasons why children were buried within the walls of the citadel in ancient times, it was announced here on Saturday.
Archaeologists have discovered a number of ancient skeletons in the ruins of the Bam Citadel. The remains of forty-nine children have been found within the walls so far. [continue]
From Reuters: Bones Suggest Women Went to War in Ancient Iran.
These days Iranian women are not even allowed to watch men compete on the football field, but 2,000 years ago they could have been carving the boys to pieces on the battlefield.
DNA tests on the 2,000-year-old bones of a sword-wielding Iranian warrior have revealed the broad-framed skeleton belonged to woman, an archaeologist working in the northwestern city of Tabriz said on Saturday. [continue]
From BritainExpress.com: Follies in the English landscape.
If ever an architectural feature expressed an aspect of national character in tangible terms, the English love of that peculiarity we call a "folly" does so. Just for the purpose of definition let us call a folly an architectural construction which isn't what it appears to be. Although most of the buildings we now call follies are a part of English garden and landscape design, a folly need not be part of a garden.
The first rush of folly construction in England seems to have been precipitated by Sir Thomas Tresham's Rushton Lodge (1595). The Lodge was an exercise in expressing Tresham's views on the secret symbolism of numbers, the Passion of Christ, and the Trinity. It's symbolism was based on ... yes, the number three. There are three sides to the lodge, three floors, three trefoil windows on each floor, and three smoke-holes in the chimney!
And there we have a perfect example of what is behind many, though certainly not all, follies — a symbolic statement. Many follies are constructed as tangible symbols for certain ideas or ideals.Rushton Lodge was concurrent with another early folly, Preston Tower in Surrey (also 1595). As the 17th century began, so did a craze among the well-to-do of building follies of all description. But that was nothing compared to what was to follow in the 18th century. [continue]
For more details about Rushton Lodge (and a photo!) see this page from HeritageTrail.co.uk.
FollyTowers.com has photos and descriptions of lots and lots of English follies.
From the International Herald Tribune: Ancient tombs and temples.
Rural populations in the Near and Middle East usually assume that whatever archeologists say they are up to, in reality they are searching for treasure. An Italian archeological mission has been excavating Arslantepe, a remote ancient site near the town of Malatya and the source of the Euphrates in south-eastern Turkey, for more than 40 years. Comparatively little gold, in the form of small ornaments, has come to light at Arslantepe, but the site has yielded a wealth of information about the development of one of the world's oldest urban civilizations, and an impressive list of "firsts": the first known palace, swords, toothed locks operated with a key and a princely tomb with what appears to be evidence of human sacrifice.
The palace contains some of the earliest and best preserved ancient wall paintings. They were executed on plastered surfaces, and consist of stylized representations of human beings and animals. An antique painter's palette, a flat stone with a hollowed-out depression still bearing traces of color, has even been unearthed there.
These finds all date to more than 5,000 years ago. The Neo-Hittite Lion Gate that was to give Arslantepe (Lion Hill) its Turkish name came later. Built around 3,000 years ago, the gate now stands at the entrance of the Museum of Anatolian Cultures in Ankara. [continue].