Scientists Found 168 More Ancient Figures Etched Into the Peruvian Desert
The Nazca Desert in Peru is decorated with hundreds of mysterious figures, called geoglyphs, that were etched into the soil by the Indigenous peoples who lived in this area between 2,500 and 1,500 years ago.
The ancient drawings, collectively known as the Nazca Lines, cover an estimated 170 square miles of this arid terrain.
Many of the figures are visible only from an aerial viewpoint, leaving researchers puzzled about the purpose of this huge artistic display.
Now, an international team of researchers from Japan and Peru have discovered 168 previously unknown geoglyphs in this Peruvian desert, including depictions of humans, birds, orcas, cats, snakes, and camel relatives, according to a statement from Yamagata University released on Friday.
The figures date back nearly 2,000 years, according to preliminary research, and were identified with the help of high-resolution aerial images captured by drones during field surveys from June 2019 to February 2020.
Many of the newly discovered geoglyphs are relatively small, measuring only ten to 20 feet across, which kept them hidden from past searches.
One of the most memorable figures looks to be a bearded man with an Anton Chigurh-style haircut, but the new haul also includes a wide variety of animals, from marine mammals to birds, reflecting the ecological richness of the area thousands of years ago.
Researchers led by Masato Sakai, an archaeologist and anthropologist at Yamagata University, made the discovery in collaboration with Jorge Olano, a Peruvian archaeologist based at Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
These breakthroughs follow the 2012 establishment of the Institute of Nazca, a research center in the area supported by Yamagata University.
Sakai and his colleagues are hopeful that their efforts will uncover many more of these enigmatic drawings in the coming years, perhaps revealing new insights into the meaning of this natural desert canvas to the people who lived here long ago.
New Findings from 3,000-year-old Uluburun shipwreck
New Findings from 3,000-year-old Uluburun shipwreck: Uzbekistan Nomads Supplied a Third of the Bronze Used Across Ancient Mediterranean
A new study of the 3,000 years old Uluburun shipwreck revealed a complex ancient trading network during the late bronze age. In the year 1,320 BCE, a ship sailed from modern-day Haifa carrying copper and tin, the two metals required to make bronze, the era’s high technology.
The ship was scuttled in a storm, and when it was found in 1982, it had become the largest Bronze Age collection of unprocessed metals ever discovered and a superbly preserved, international treasure of marine archaeology.
The new research called the “Uluburun shipwreck” revealed that while two-thirds of the tin onboard was mined in the Taurus Mountains within the vast Hittite empire, in modern-day Turkey, one-third came from mines thousands of miles away in Uzbekistan.
This origin, the study authors say, reveals a complex system of trading routes that moved tons and tons of material thousands of miles to the Mediterranean’s multicultural marketplaces.
After years of investigation, advances in geochemical analysis have enabled researchers to determine that much of the tin on the ship (roughly one-third) came from an ancient mine in modern Uzbekistan, thousands of miles away from where the ship sank.
According to the researchers, this discovery suggests that intricate trade networks stretched across Central Asia and the Mediterranean as early as the Late Bronze Age.
“Miners had access to vast international networks and — through overland trade and other forms of connectivity — were able to pass this all-important commodity all the way to the Mediterranean,” says Michael Frachetti, a study author and an archaeologist at Washington University, according to a press release.
The terrain between the Muiston mine in Uzbekistan and Iran and Mesopotamia would have been a mix of rugged ground and mountains, no doubt filled with potential bandits, making it extremely difficult to transport tons of heavy metal.
“It’s quite amazing to learn that a culturally diverse, multiregional and multivector system of trade underpinned Eurasian tin exchange during the Late Bronze Age,” Frachetti said.
Tin from the Mušiston mine in Central Asia’s Uzbekistan traveled more than 2,000 miles to Haifa, where the ill-fated ship loaded its cargo before crashing off the eastern shores of Uluburun in present-day Turkey.
Adding to the mystique is the fact that the mining industry appears to have been run by small-scale local communities or free laborers who negotiated this marketplace outside of the control of kings, emperors or other political organizations, Frachetti said.
“To put it into perspective, this would be the trade equivalent of the entire United States sourcing its energy needs from small backyard oil rigs in central Kansas,” he said.
When the Uluburun wreck was discovered in the 1980s, experts were baffled. They simply didn’t know how to track down the source of the metals aboard the ship. However, for the first time in the 1990s, the idea of using tin isotopes to figure out where the tin in ancient artifacts came from emerged.
While the required analytical methods remained inconclusive for a long time, advances in recent years have allowed scientists to begin tracing tin artifacts to specific mining sites using their unique chemical makeups.
The Uluburun ship’s tin’s isotopic composition was compared to that of tin in deposits around the world, and the results showed that about one-third of the metal came from the Muiston mine in Uzbekistan.
Further excavations may reveal if the stones of the previously unrecorded cairn were raised to honour the dead or to display dominance over the area.
The cairn, atop a rocky hill near the Aura river, is largely overgrown by forest vegetation.
An archaeological survey has identified a previously unrecorded Bronze Age monument in the Haaga district of the city of Turku on Finland’s southwest coast. The site could possibly date back as much as 3,500 years.
The cairn — a pile of granite stones typical of Bronze Age burials — is located at the highest point of a rocky hill area overlooking the Aura river.
Stone burial cairns were typical for western Bronze Age culture which in Finland is dated to around 1,500–500 BCE.
These cairns were usually constructed of granite boulders quarried from the cliff face below the crest of a ridge or collected from the site itself.
Thousands of these monuments from the Bronze Age and early Iron Age have been recorded in Finland, mostly in coastal areas. Only a fraction of these cairns have been excavated.
This latest find in Turku, made in late November, measures 10 metres long and seven meters wide, but only about 40 centimetres high.
Researchers say that the cairn was probably higher and more compact when constructed, but its stones have become scattered over time.
Bronze Age cairns are considered primarily as graves, but not all contain evidence of burials. Based on their locations on visible promontories, some are thought to have been built to display territorial dominance or control over certain areas.
More precise dating of the find will require excavation, but according to Turku University archaeology instructor Juha Ruohonen, the remains already help complete the picture of Bronze Age settlement in what is now the city of Turku.
Following up on tips from local residents, the same survey team that discovered the Bronze Age cairn also identified two nearby cupstones, stones incised with small cup-like markings, that are believed to have been ritual sites during the Iron Age.
Jewelry Recovered from 18th Dynasty Tomb in Upper Egypt
A British mission from Cambridge University working at Tell El-Amarna necropolis in Minya governorate in Upper Egypt discovered a small collection of gold and steatite (soapstone) jewellery in an 18th Dynasty (1550 to 1292 BC) cemetery.
Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, explained that the jewellery had originated from the interment of a young adult female, who was buried wearing a necklace of petal-shaped pendants and three finger rings.
She had been wrapped in textile and plant-fibre matting and interred in a small shaft-and-chamber tomb, along with several other individuals.
Ana Steven, deputy director of the mission said that her burial is located at the Amarna North Desert Cemetery in the low desert west of the North Tombs. It includes a small number of burial shafts and tombs, as well as pit graves.
The Amarna Project has been investigating the cemeteries of Amarna since 2005, with the aim of exploring life experiences and burial customs at the ancient city of Akhetaten.
The ancient Egyptian city of Amarna continues to transform our understanding of how human society has developed. Not only was it home to the monotheistic King Akhenaten, his wife Nefertiti and the young Tutankhamun, it remains one of the world’s pre-eminent archaeological sites for understanding how people lived in the pre-Classical world.
The Cambridge University mission started excavations in Tel El-Amarna in 1977 at several sites including the grand Aten Temple, the Al-Ahgar village, the northern palace and the Re and Banehsi houses, according to Director-General of Antiquities in Middle Egypt Gamal El-Semestawi.
The mission has also carried out restoration works at the Small Atun Temple and the northern palace.
Tel El-Amarna, which lies around 12 kilometres southwest of Minya city, holds the ruins of the city constructed by King Akhenaten and his wife Queen Nefertiti to be the home of the cult of the sun god Aten.
The ruins of this great city include magnificent temples, palaces and tombs.
The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has announced the discovery of archaeological artefacts at Dibba site in Musandam Governorate, dating back to the first millennium BC, most notably incense burners, bronze axes, and utensils made of copper and steatite.
The Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, in cooperation with an archaeological mission from the Italian Sapienza University, announced the discovery of a number of artefacts at the Dibba site in the Musandam Governorate, dating back to the first millennium BC.
Work is underway for the seventh and final season of excavations in the mass grave CG2, which is 24 metres long and more than 3 metres deep.
A number of important artefacts have been uncovered, most notably a censer, bronze axes, and utensils made of copper and steatite.
These recent excavations come as a prelude to the establishment of the visitor centre, which will start implementation soon, in cooperation with OQ Company, and it will be the first of its kind in the Sultanate of Oman and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
It will be built directly above the archaeological evidence. The centre will include a museum displaying the artefacts discovered at the site.
It is noteworthy that this site is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Oman and dates back to the first millennium BC, when it was a trading centre associated with neighbouring civilisations in India, Persia and Mesopotamia.
Many diverse and precious collectables, locally made and imported from neighbouring civilisations, were found in it.
Archaeologists unearth largest wooden ‘haniwa’ statue ever found in Japan
The remains of a 3.5-meter-tall wooden haniwa statue were found Thursday at one of the ancient kofun burial mounds making up the Mozu-Furuichi Kofun Group, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Habikino, in Osaka Prefecture.
With the parts also measuring 75 centimeters wide and around 8 cm thick, the statue is believed to be one of the biggest wooden haniwa found in Japan so far.
According to the education board of the city of Habikino, the haniwa was unearthed during an excavation of a moat surrounding the 96-meter-long Minegazuka Kofun, which is believed to have been built at the end of the fifth century.
The statue is an Iwami-style haniwa, which “has only been found at 15 kofun tumuli in Japan so far,” according to an official of the education board.
“The haniwa is a very rare artifact as it is made of kōyamaki (Japanese umbrella pine), which was a type of wood favored by people in power at the time,” the official said.
Remaining parts of a 3.5-meter-tall wooden haniwa statue unearthed from the Minegazuka Kofun in Habikino, Osaka Prefecture | HABIKINO BOARD OF EDUCATION / VIA KYODO
The haniwa is the tallest ever found, exceeding the 2.6-meter-tall Iwami-style specimen excavated from the Ohakayama Kofun in the city of Tenri in neighboring Nara Prefecture, according to the Habikino education board.
“Wooden haniwa made out of kōyamaki, which can be logged in only a few areas in Japan, have only been found from kofun tumuli in the Kinki region and are extremely few in number,” said Hiroaki Suzuki of the Nara Prefectural Government’s cultural property preservation division, who is familiar with wooden haniwa.
“It’s possible that a figure then at the center of power was buried (at the Minegazuka Kofun),” Suzuki added.
Ireland to return mummified remains and sarcophagus to Egypt
Mummified human remains and a sarcophagus is among the ancient objects that an Irish university says it plans to repatriate to Egypt.
This wooden sarcophagus is thought to have belonged to a man called Hor
All of the artifacts being returned by the University College Cork (UCC) date from between 100AD and 975BC. An inscription on the wooden sarcophagus, which was donated to UCC, suggests it belonged to a man named Hor.
UCC said it plans to return the items in 2023.
The human remains are thought to be that of an adult male and were donated to the UCC in 1928.
The items also include a set of four canopic jars – containers used by ancient Egyptians during mummification – and funerary head and body coverings known as cartonnage.
The jars are the oldest items, likely dating between 945-700BC, and were bought by the UCC from an antique dealership in Yorkshire.
There are no records indicating how the cartonnage made its way to the university.
The sarcophagus was excavated by Italian Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli in the early 1900s.
The announcement of the items’ return follows ongoing discussions between UCC, the Egyptian and Irish governments, and the National Museum of Ireland.
Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Simon Coveney, said he was “delighted” that his department could help in what he described as an “important project”.
Egypt’s ambassador to Ireland, Mohamed Sarwat Selim, expressed his thanks to everyone involved in the repatriation.
The items’ return will be documented in a creative project called Kinship, which is being lead by the Irish artist Dorothy Cross.
“The essence of Kinship is the return of a mummified body of an Egyptian man from Ireland to Cairo, mirroring the tragic displacement and migration of thousands of people from their homelands today,” Ms. Cross said.
The 2,300-year-old mummy under the floorboards that UCC has been in custody dispute with Egypt over has been spotted on the move in the library #UCCpic.twitter.com/CDpIqddSTZ
Stone Tools Offer Clues to Rice Domestication in China
Rice plants near the Shangshan site in the Lower Yangtze River Valley in China.
A new Dartmouth-led study analyzing stone tools from southern China provides the earliest evidence of rice harvesting, dating to as early as 10,000 years ago. The researchers identified two methods of harvesting rice, which helped initiate rice domestication. The results are published in PLOS ONE.
Map illustrating Shangshan and Hehuashan sites in the Lower Yangtze River Valley of China.
Wild rice is different from domesticated rice in that wild rice naturally sheds ripe seeds, shattering them to the ground when they mature, while cultivated rice seeds stay on the plants when they mature.
To harvest rice, some sort of tools would have been needed. In harvesting rice with tools, early rice cultivators were selecting the seeds that stay on the plants, so gradually the proportion of seeds that remain increased, resulting in domestication.
“For quite a long time, one of the puzzles has been that harvesting tools have not been found in southern China from the early Neolithic period or New Stone Age (10,000—7,000 Before Present), the time period when we know rice began to be domesticated,” says lead author Jiajing Wang, an assistant professor of anthropology.
“However, when archaeologists were working at several early Neolithic sites in the Lower Yangtze River Valley, they found a lot of small pieces of stone, which had sharp edges that could have been used for harvesting plants.”
“Our hypothesis was that maybe some of those small stone pieces were rice harvesting tools, which is what our results show.”
In the Lower Yangtze River Valley, the two earliest Neolithic culture groups were the Shangshan and Kuahuqiao. The researchers examined 52 flaked stone tools from the Shangshan and Hehuashan sites, the latter of which was occupied by Shangshan and Kuahuqiao cultures.
A selection of stone flake tools from the Shangshan (a-h) and Kuahuqiao cultures (i – l). Red dots delineate the working edge of tools.
The stone flakes are rough in appearance and are not finely made but have sharp edges. On average, the flaked tools are small enough to be held by one hand and measured approximately 1.7 inches in width and length.
Our hypothesis was that maybe some of those small stone pieces were rice harvesting tools, which is what our results show.
JIAJING WANG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY
To determine if the stone flakes were used for harvesting rice, the team conducted use-wear and phytolith residue analyses. Phytolith refers to the silica skeleton of plants.
For the use-wear analysis, micro-scratches on the tools’ surfaces were examined under a microscope to determine how the stones were used. The results showed that 30 flakes have use-wear patterns similar to those produced by harvesting siliceous, or silica-rich, plants, likely including rice.
Fine striations, high polish, and rounded edges distinguished the tools that were used for cutting plants from those that were used for processing hard materials, cutting animal tissues, and scraping wood.
Through the phytolith residue analysis, the researchers analyzed the microscopic residue left on the stone flakes. They found that 28 of the tools contained rice phytoliths.
“What’s interesting about rice phytoliths is that rice husk and leaves produce different kinds of phytolith, which enabled us to determine how the rice was harvested,” says Wang.
The findings from the use-wear and phytolith analyses illustrated that two types of rice harvesting methods were used—“finger-knife” and “sickle” techniques. Both methods are still used in Asia today.
The stone flakes from the early phase, 10,000—8,200 BP, showed that rice was largely harvested using the finger-knife method in which the panicles at the top of the rice plant are reaped. The results showed that the tools used for finger-knife harvesting had striations that were mainly perpendicular or diagonal to the edge of the stone flake, which suggests a cutting or scraping motion, and contained phytoliths from seeds or rice husk phytoliths, indicating that the rice was harvested from the top of the plant.
Schematic representation of rice harvesting methods using a finger-knife, at left, and sickle.
“A rice plant contains numerous panicles that mature at different times, so the finger-knife harvesting technique is especially useful when rice domestication was in the early stage,” says Wang.
The stone flakes however, from the later phase, 8,000—7,000 BP, had more evidence of sickle harvesting in which the lower part of the plant was harvested. These tools had striations that were predominantly parallel to the tool’s edge, reflecting that a slicing motion had likely been used.
“Sickle harvesting was more widely used when rice became more domesticated, and more ripe seeds stayed on the plant,” says Wang. “Since you are harvesting the entire plant at the same time, the rice leaves and stems could also be used for fuel, building materials, and other purposes, making this a much more effective harvesting method.”
Wang says, “Both harvesting methods would have reduced seed shattering. That’s why we think rice domestication was driven by human unconscious selection.”
