Social Items

Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts


An excavation of a tomb where many high priests were buried in the Minya Governate, about 186 miles (300km) south of Cairo, revealed one burial site dedicated to an otherworldly presence. Researchers from Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities discovered a sarcophagus dedicated to Horus inside the tomb.

Horus was considered the god of the sky in Ancient Egypt and was a deity associated with death and resurrection. Horus was also the son of the goddess Isis and the god of the underworld Osiris. Together with Isis and Osiris, Horus formed the principal trinity among Egypt’s gods and goddesses.
In total, the latest mission from the Egyptian archaeologists unearthed 16 tombs containing 20 sarcophagi, some engraved with hieroglyphics, all of which date to around 3,000 years ago.



Other findings include 10,000 blue and green ushabti (funerary figurines), 700 amulets, several of which were made from pure gold, and bearing scarab shapes. The Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany said the Minya region “continues to reveal its secrets”. Mohamed Wahballah, a member of the archaeological team, added two of the sarcophagi were still sealed and in “very good” condition.

Minya has become a hotspot for Egyptian archaeology, with several major findings discovered in the region.

Just last year, archaeologists discovered tombs containing mummies dating back to the Cleopatra era in Minya. Cleopatra belonged to the Macedonian Greek dynasty of the Ptolemies, with European origins dating back to northern Greece. The burial chambers were said to be in good condition shedding a light on how ancient Egyptians lived thousands of years ago.

Sarcophagus of Egyptian God discovered in major excavation


The last decade had major archaeological discoveries, from the 10-month excavation of a Bronze Age settlement in England to what could be the world’s oldest figurative artwork, which was found in Indonesia last year. To find out more, nine archaeologists and scholars share their thoughts on which of these finds was the most the most significant?

Peggy Brunache
Lecturer in the history of slavery, University of Glasgow

In 2017, the domicile room of Sally Hemings at Thomas Jefferson’s historic Virginia mansion, Monticello, was discovered. Hemings, an enslaved woman, is believed by many to have given birth to several children of one of America’s beloved Founding Fathers. (The theory is supported by DNA evidence.) This discovery once again puts a focus on the entangled roles of enslaved people in the founding of the United States and, more importantly, on the private life of the man who famously wrote “All men are created equal,” and yet, over the course of his life, was a slaveholder of hundreds of Black lives.

Catherine Frieman
Associate professor of European archaeology, Australian National University

There have been many spectacular finds over the last decade. But, the one I personally consider most significant is the (beautifully excavated) waterlogged, burnt-down Bronze Age village at Must Farm in Whittlesey, England. The combination of conflagration and water logging means that organic preservation is unbelievable, offering a richly textured, tangible vision of daily life 3,000 years ago. Usually, our stories of the Bronze Age concern chiefs, swords, gold, and war; but Must Farm’s data lets us explore sewing, cooking, carpentry, and the sort of day-to-day existence that would have been familiar to most Bronze Age people.

Roland Enmarch
Senior lecturer in Egyptology, University of Liverpool

For me, the most remarkable archaeological discovery of this decade was the finding of the oldest known inscribed papyri at the ancient port of Wadi el-Jarf on the Red Sea. Almost 4,600 years old, they are the administrative archive of one of the officials who controlled the gangs who quarried and ferried stone for the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It’s amazing to have even a fragmentary glimpse of the day-by-day records of the work of the pyramid builders.

Sofia Samper Carro
Lecturer in archaeology, Australian National University

During the last decade, several findings have shaken up our previous knowledge or assumption in palaeoanthropology and prehistoric archaeology disciplines. I reckon the most significant discovery has been the evidence that there were more hominins sharing the world at the same time, such as Denisovans or the recently found H. luzonensis. This makes research in prehistoric archaeology much more complex and exciting than what it was previously, pushing for more systematic and scientifically-based interpretations of human evolution paths.

Most Significant Archaeological Discoveries of the last Decade according to Four Historians

A rare medieval priestly burial was among over 50 burials unearthed by archaeologists at Lincoln Cathedral.

One of the many complete skeletons found is believed to be that of a medieval priest, who had been buried in the area that is now the building’s West Parvis.

The priest had been carefully buried with a pewter chalice and paten, used during communion and key symbols of the work of the priest. Similar examples have been dated to as far back as the 12th and 13th centuries.

In addition to the skeletons excavated during the project, several other historic artifacts are currently being studied and dated. Some will be displayed as part of the new Lincoln Cathedral visitor center, which is due to open in summer 2020.


Other finds from the excavations include a hand from a statue that may be from a very early frieze, and a coin depicting the face of Edward the Confessor, the last king of the House of Wessex, who ruled from 1042 to 1066. The coin was minted between 1053 and 1056, so pre-dates the building of the current Cathedral.
Evidence was also uncovered of high-status Roman buildings in the area of the new visitor’s center, which is within a building previously used as a deanery.

Highly-decorated painted wall plaster from three different rooms, a near complete incense burner, a perfume jar and a Roman spoon were among the notable finds.Some of the Roman wall plaster was painted with an intricate flowers and leaves design, while the rest features colored bands. It may be possible for some to be reconstructed in the near future.

“Since our work began on the Cathedral as part of the Connected project in 2016, we have uncovered significant evidence of Lincoln’s medieval, Saxon and Roman past. The objects we have found are not only beautiful and interesting in themselves but importantly they enable us to better interpret the lives of those who occupied the city in previous centuries.”- Natasha Powers, Senior Manager at Allen Archaeology.

The overall project includes vital restoration and renovation works to the iconic building, which are due to be completed in 2022.

Further discoveries are expected after the excavation of Roman and medieval features around the gothic landmark.

Medieval Priest's remains discovered at Lincoln Cathedral

Archaeologists in northern Poland have made an unexpected discovery: certain local graves from the Middle Ages belonged to warriors from Scandinavia.

The discovery was made in a medieval cemetery in the village of Ciepłe, in the Pomeranian region in northern Poland.

Some of the graves are around 1,000 years old; they belong to people who lived during the reign of Bolesław the Brave, the first King of Poland, who lived from 967 to 1025.

Four graves located in the centre of the cemetery caught researchers’ attention.
“Men, probably warriors, were buried in them, as shown by the weapons and equestrian equipment laid there with them,” said Sławomir Wadyl of the Archeological Museum in Gdańsk, who has been conducting research at the graveyard.
A study of this site was edited by him, entitled “Ciepłe. An elite early medieval cemetery in eastern Pomerania”, was released in Poland last year.
Interpretation of the graves at the cemetery by artist " K. patalon"

One of the questions that Wadyl and his colleagues wanted to answer in their research was where the people buried in the cemetery came from.

Samples from some of the remains were sent off for genetic and stromium isotope analysis, which can provide researchers with information about where someone lived.
This analysis yielded some surprising results: the four warriors buried at the centre of the cemetery were not locals. Instead, they came to Poland from Scandinavia – most probably Denmark, according to Wadyl.

Indeed, some of the weapons found with the warriors, primarily swords and spearheads, appear to have been made in western Europe or Scandinavia, rather than by local swordsmiths.

The graves themselves provide a further clue: the four warriors were buried in graves made of wood  a type of grave found in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, but rarer in medieval Poland, unlike the other bodies in the cemetery, which were buried directly in the ground.

The discovery of the Scandinavian warriors provides researchers with further insights into society in early medieval Poland.
Wadyl says: “Buried in the central part of the cemetery, they represented the social elite at the time, as shown by the monumental nature of their graves and rich equipment.
“They probably belonged to a group of elite riders, but their role was probably not limited to warriors’ functions.”

Archeologists find VIKING graves in Polish village



Small stone tools probably arrow and spear tips found in a cave in Sri Lanka are rewriting the story of how humans moved into challenging new environments nearly 50,000 years ago. New radiocarbon dating shows that the microliths are the oldest found in South Asia and among the oldest in all Eurasia. The tools appear to have been part of a “survival toolkit” that enabled Homo sapiens to move into rain-forests and other difficult settings much earlier than previously thought.

Until recently, rain-forests were seen as barriers to human migration, with disease, dangerous animals, the scarcity of carbohydrate-rich plants and limited resources all posing challenges. Therefore, research on human migration in Asia has focused on the coast and Savannah. But over the past decade, growing archaeological evidence has shown H. sapiens lived in tropical rain-forests in South Asia, South-East Asia and Melanesia between 45,000 and 36,000 years ago. Missing from this picture was a good understanding of the technology humans used to survive.
code Copy and paste this code on your site.
So, the discovery of a huge repository of microliths in the Fa-Hien Lena Cave in Sri Lanka’s evergreen rainforest piqued the interest of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and colleagues from Sri Lankan and other international institutions.
Excavations in 2009, 2010 and 2012 yielded an extraordinary 9,216 artifacts, and these have finally been closely analysed for the first time.

The researchers, with funding from the National Geographic Society, found that the microliths – stone tools less than 40mm long – were up to 48,000 years old, making them at least as old as similar tools associated with H. sapiens in Europe.
code Copy and paste this code on your site.
Writing in PLOS One, they say the sophisticated, miniaturised tools used by the occupants of the Sri Lankan caves changed little over the long period of human occupation, which ended only 4,000 years ago. This suggests they were remarkably successful. In Europe and Africa, the earliest appearance of hewn stone tools is linked to hunting medium and large-sized animals in grassland or woodland settings, or as adaptations to risky environments during periods of climatic change.

But the small, quartz microliths found in Fa-Hien Lena Cave were more likely to have been used to hunt tree-dwelling prey and small mammals. The miniaturisation of stone tool technology is seen as a major step in the development of technologies such as the bow and arrow. The researchers conclude that our ancestors were able to adapt their stone technology to the requirements of new environments, making microliths a flexible toolkit for survival as H. sapiens spread out of Africa.

Intriguingly, the idea that early humans in Sri Lanka could have produced microliths so long ago was first floated in the 1980s but was overlooked because scientists did not believe humans there could have produced such tools before European humans. Michael Petraglia, one of the paper’s authors, says more research is underway on bone tools and fragments from Fa-Hien Lena Cave.

“Whatever the results, these miniaturized stone tools place Sri Lanka in a central position in terms of discussing technological sophistication among our species.”

Sri Lanka’s Sophisticated Stone Tools Dated to 48,000 Years Ago


Dating back 1,800 years, the brass balsamarium shows head of a man wearing a cap made from the skin of a feline.(Image: © Daniela Agre)

The skeleton that was found in the grave belonged to a man who died when he was about 35 to 40 years old. Also buried with the remains, the team found a blade used to scrape sweat and dirt from the skin. Along side it rested the 1800 year old balsamarium: 


The balsamarium resembles a man with a goatee and a nose that looks to be broken or bent as if it had been injured and not fully healed. The man wears a cap that is made from the skin of a feline, probably a leopard, as archaeologists wrote in a paper published in the October issue of the American Journal of Archaeology. 



Many balsamariums have near identical features, such as a crooked or bent nose, have been found elsewhere in the Roman Empire and are often interpreted as depicting boxers or wrestlers.
"In our opinion, the grave belongs to a Thracian aristocrat, who has practiced sport in his everyday life, rather than to a professional athlete," Said Daniela Agre - archaeologist at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who led archaeological work at the site. 


The grave of the sports man or enthusiast will allow many researchers to have a better understanding of life in Thrace during the Roman Empire. It shows that at least the local elite have acquired many  practices from the Romans. This find shows how popular the sport was in these regions.

Ancient Sports-Man or Fan Found Buried with 1800 year old Head-Shaped Jar


A metal detector hobbyist has unearthed a rare 1,700-year-old gold collar in Estonia. Jegor Klimov was exploring a field at the ancient sacrificial site of Saaremaa as part of a search team led by archaeologist Marika Mägi when his metal detector alerted. The team had already decided to pack up and leave, but Klimov started to dig and revealed a tell-tale yellow glint. Archaeologists joined in and excavated a coiled up ring of gold with a serpent head on one end.

The collar dates to the Roman Iron Age, around the 3rd century A.D. Neck rings from this period were marks of high rank in Scandinavia, the more complex the design and construction, the more elite the wearer. Almost all the ones that have been discovered were found in bogs; none of them were found in graves. A few more simple arm rings and neck rings have been found in cremation burials. Studies of artifacts have found that objects buried in bogs were not, as a rule, the same as those buried in graves. Votive deposits were more precious, the best possible objects dedicated as sacrifices at sacred sites. Of the 60 or so extant gold neck rings from the Scandinavian Iron Age, almost all of them have been found in Sweden and Denmark. A handful have been found in Finland; one in Poland. This is the first of its kind found anywhere else in the Baltic states.

Very few artifacts from this period have been discovered in Estonia and gold objects from any period are extremely rare in the Estonian archaeological record. They can literally be counted on the fingers of one hand. At 175 grams in weight, this piece is the heaviest, most valuable gold archaeological artifact ever found in Estonia and must have belonged to someone of the highest rank among the Nordic elite. Its discovery supports the hypothesis that what is now western and northwestern Estonia had meaningful cultural contact with the peoples around the Baltic Sea and in Scandinavia as well as with the tribes in the modern-day Baltic states and Russia.

The Saaremaa piece may have been a bracelet, spiral collar or necklace. It’s difficult to say because, as is common with sacrificed objects, it was deliberately deformed, but its heavy weight and length suggests it was probably a neck ring.

“One can say that this is likely the most valuable single find,in the material sense, to be unearthed in Estonia,” Mägi explained to ETV news broadcast “Aktuaalne kaamera.” “It is believed that whoever wore these, they were a symbol of belonging to the highest echelons of society. So these are not regular bracelets. How this particular bracelet ended up in Saaremaa is an exciting question in its own right, and one we’ll likely never get a real answer for. This is a type of jewelry which throughout Scandinavia is considered one of the most significant items of the Roman Iron Age, and it is associated with royal power and royal families.”

Metal Detector Hobbyist Unearths a Rare 1,700-year-old Gold Collar in Estonia


Unearthed remains of a previously unknown military site include many coins and French tableware.


During redevelopment of the site in the Devon city archaeologists have described the important discovery, which occurred as important and unexpected. A Roman ditch was first uncovered, with further excavations revealing two more ditches running parallel to each other. These belonged to a previously unknown military site, which was either a fort occupied by an army unit or a defended compound.


Coins and pottery made in the area for the troops, as well as fine red samian tableware imported from France, were also discovered. The find was made by Cotswold Archaeology, which is working with Kier , the construction company, in the run-up to the renovation of a bus station and leisure complex.
Andrew Pye (archaeology officer at Exeter city council) said: “This is a very important, and completely unexpected, discovery, in an area that has been heavily changed by previous postwar redevelopment."
Along with other recent work in Exeter, it show just how much of the city’s history can survive in unlikely places, despite the damage caused by bombing and modern concrete foundations.


Roman fort discovered by Accident under Exeter bus station

Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)