All posts by Archaeology World Team

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey

Archaeologists have been continuously involved in excavations in the ancient city of Assos for 42 years. Assos ancient site has much to offer. A recent discovery at the ancient site of Assos, a 2,200-year-old Roman fountain,  informed the head of archaeological digs on Monday.

Ruins of the Temple of Athena, Assos, Turkey.

Located within the borders of the village of Behramkale in the Ayvacik district of Çanakkale province, the ancient city of Assos sheds light on its long historical past. Long-lasting excavations have already revealed a large number of Roman and Byzantine artefacts.

“Since the working conditions in the field were a bit intense in the winter, we continued to document the archaeological materials we previously found during that period. In addition, we prepared for the restoration of the city walls,” the head of excavations Professor Nurettin Arslan from the Faculty of Science and Letters at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s Archaeology Department, said, as cited by Daily Sabah.

“With the arrival of summer, our active work on the land has started. We are excavating different areas in the ancient city.”

Remains Of A 2,200-Year-Old Roman Fountain Discovered In Assos, Turkey
Archaeologists found the remains of a 2,200-year-old Roman fountain in Assos, northwestern Turkey, on Aug. 15, 2022.

These excavations are extremely valuable and drew the attention of scientists and academics from some universities in Germany and a team of 30 people that took part in the latest excavations, Arslan informed.

This season, the team is focused on home to a gymnasium dating back to the Hellenistic period. He stated that they are focusing on the cisterns built as an add-on during the Roman period in the well-protected gymnasium, which was the high school of the Hellenistic era.

Assos is located on a high hill, in an area devoid of natural water resources. For this reason, there are underground water tanks and cisterns made by carving or cutting rocks in both official buildings and homes in the ancient city.

The fountain structure, Arslan informed, has its location in front of the Roman-era cisterns of the gymnasium.

The ancient Theatre of Assos overlooking the Aegean Sea, with the nearby island of Lesbos on the horizon, at right.

“According to our initial findings, we learned that it was a magnificent fountain structure. We know of many cisterns in Assos, but this is the first time we’ve come across a monumental fountain structure, ” the researcher said, adding that in terms of urban architecture, the fountain, is no doubt, an important structure, however, it had been seriously damaged during the Byzantine period.”

The team will do their best to re-erect the existing fragments of the 2,200-year-old Roman fountain.

Once the excavation is complete, one day in the near future, visitors will get the opportunity to see the ancient Roman work and feel the atmosphere around it.

Assos (also known as Behramkale), was once one of the most important port cities of its era and dates back to the period of Roman rule in the region. The ruins of Assos include an ancient theatre, agora, necropolis and the city’s protective walls. The theatre was discovered on the south slope of the ancient city across Midilli (Lesbos) and is thought to have been destroyed during an earthquake. From its construction technique and plan, it is understood that the theatre – with the capacity to hold 2,500 people – also dates back to the Roman era.

The agora is a central public space in which people would meet and gather while stoas are closed areas that protect people from the sun and rain. Also, there is a gymnasium and bouleuterion (assembly building) around the agora.

Among other archaeological finds within the area of the necropolis, the team found the oldest remains were found in jars as ashes. There were some items found placed beside the bodies as presents.

Then sarcophaguses were used as graves. The most interesting gift to the dead inside the sarcophaguses was a sculpture of a women’s orchestra.

Assos – where Turkish archaeologists started excavations in 1981 – was added to UNESCO’s Tentative World Heritage List on April 15, 2017.

First Female Viking Grave Discovered In Swedish Mountains

First Female Viking Grave Discovered In Swedish Mountains

Archaeologists in Sweden have every reason to be excited after learning a mountain climber came across an extraordinary 1,200-year-old brooch.

Based on recent reports, everything indicates the first female Viking grave was located in the Swedish mountains. It is a unique and surprising find that is believed to provide scientists with much better knowledge of Vikings in the mountains regions of Sweden.

The brooch was discovered by mountain hiker Eskil Nyström who stumbled upon a rock last year. While setting up and securing his tent, Nyströn noticed something odd was sticking up from the ground.

“My first thought was that I had found a mine, but then when I had dug around, I understood that it can’t be, Nyström told TT.

Nyström took the brooch home and asked around, but no one knew what it was or where it came from. One year later, he came in contact with the museum Jamtli in the city of  Östersund and understood the archaeological and historical value of the brooch he had found.

“It’s an incredible archaeological discovery,” Anders Hansson, chief archaeologist at Jamtli, told Swedish Radio (SR).

This week, Hansson and his archaeology team travelled to Jämtland and inspected the place where the brooch was found. At the site, scientists unearthed burned bones, suggesting this was a cremation burial.

The Vikings had complex burial rituals, and every discovery offers new insight into how people sent their loved ones to the afterlife. Fire played a central role in spectacular burial rituals practised by the Vikings.

When a great Viking chieftain died, he received a ship burial. Another option was for the Vikings to be burned, and cremation was common during the early Viking Age. Ashes were later spread over the waters. The vast majority of the burial finds throughout the Viking world are cremations.

The Viking brooch was discovered in the Swedish mountains in Jämtland.

At the site in Jämtland, Hansson also found another oval brooch which is not much of a surprise because such pins are usually unearthed in pairs.

“What has been established is that it is a cremation grave from the Viking Age and “most likely” a woman’s grave, Hansson says. Previously, only five other Viking graves have been found in the mountains, and all have belonged to men.

“You get the feeling that these people were on their way somewhere when the woman died. The burial took place here, where the woman took her last breath. They could have taken the woman home where they lived, but instead, they make a cremation pit on the mountain,” Hansson told TT.

Hansson says the female Viking tomb is richly equipped.

Examination of the Viking brooch.

“It’s really pretty. It is completely socially and religiously correct. The Viking woman took all her most precious objects to the grave, but there are no monuments, burial mounds, or cairns. It’s just a flat hill. This grave is thus different compared to Viking graves in Iron Age settlements,” Hansson explained, adding excavations of the grave are not planned this year.

Regular excavations will only be relevant next year.

“The grave has been there for 1,200 years. It will undoubtedly survive one more year,  Hansson told P4 Jämtland.

The world of archaeology is full of surprises, and we have seen on many occasions small findings can lead to much larger treasures. This time a tiny 9th-century brooch may open a new chapter in the history of Vikings in Sweden.

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain

Side view of a menhir and stone platform at La Torre-La Janera megalithic site near Huelva.

A massive megalithic complex of more than 500 standing stones has been discovered in southern Spain that could be one of the largest in Europe, archaeologists have said.

The stones were discovered on a plot of land in Huelva, a province flanking the southernmost part of Spain’s border with Portugal, near the Guadiana River.

Spanning about 600 hectares (1,500 acres), the land had been earmarked for an avocado plantation. Before granting the permit the regional authorities requested a survey in light of the site’s possible archaeological significance. The survey revealed the presence of the stones.

“This is the biggest and most diverse collection of standing stones grouped together in the Iberian peninsula,” said José Antonio Linares, a researcher at Huelva University and one of the project’s three directors.

It was probable that the oldest standing stones at the La Torre-La Janera site were erected during the second half of the sixth or fifth millennium BC, he said. “It is a major megalithic site in Europe.”

At the site, they found a large number of various types of megaliths, including standing stones, dolmens, mounds, coffin-like stone boxes called cists, and enclosures.

“Standing stones were the most common finding, with 526 of them still standing or lying on the ground,” said the researchers in an article published in Trabajos de Prehistoria, a prehistoric archaeology journal. The height of the stones was between one and three metres.

At the Carnac megalithic site in northwest France, there are about 3,000 standing stones.

Massive Prehistoric Complex, with More than 500 Standing Stones, Found in Southern Spain
Alignments of Menhirs of Menec in Carnac, western France.

One of the most striking things was finding such diverse megalithic elements grouped together in one location and discovering how well preserved they were, said Primitiva Bueno, co-director of the project and a prehistory professor at Alcalá University, near Madrid.

“Finding alignments and dolmens on one site is not very common. Here you find everything all together – alignments, cromlechs and dolmens – and that is very striking,” she said, hailing the site’s “excellent conservation”.

An alignment is a linear arrangement of upright standing stones along a common axis, while a cromlech is a stone circle, and a dolmen is a type of megalithic tomb usually made of two or more standing stones with a large flat capstone on top.

Most of the menhirs were grouped into 26 alignments and two cromlechs, both located on hilltops with a clear view to the east for viewing the sunrise during the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes, the researchers said.

Many of the stones are buried deep in the earth. They will need to be carefully excavated.

The work is scheduled to run until 2026, but “between this year’s campaign and the start of next year’s, there will be a part of the site that can be visited”, Bueno said.

Remains of Victims of Stalin’s Great Purge Identified

Remains of Victims of Stalin’s Great Purge Identified

Three Georgian victims of Stalin-era crimes whose remains were found near Batumi have been identified by geneticists from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin.

The research is the last key part of the historical and archaeological work of the international team identifying victims of the Great Purge.

In total the remains of 27 victims murdered in 1937 were found in a monastery near Batumi. This is the first case of identifying victims of the Stalinist regime in the history of Georgia, and the first direct evidence of Soviet executions in this country.

Scientists from the Szczecin medical university, working as part of the Polish Genetic Database of Victims of Totalitarianisms – Pomeranian Medical University Research Centre, obtained good quality DNA from bone material and built the genetic profiles of victims and their families before then conducting comparisons and biostatic calculations, making it possible to determine the victims’ identities. 

‘Based on historical data and anthropological research by Georgian and American anthropologists, a group of people who could be buried there was selected.

Anthropological research is inconclusive, hence the +last link+, or genetic research, was necessary’, says the head of Department of Forensic Medicine at the Pomeranian Medical University, Dr. Andrzej Ossowski.

He adds that for his team it was an interesting experience, and each matter of this type and specificity of work in each region of Europe or the world is different, because of the approach of both the state authorities and the public.

Ossowski said: “These are very delicate issues, they require understanding of many sides. We know that both Catholics and Muslims have been buried here, so the work is particularly difficult.

“The discovered remains were well preserved, and the samples allowed scientists to obtain very good quality genetic profiles, followed by the process of collecting comparative material.

“Collecting genetic material from the possible families of victims was a huge challenge for our colleagues in Georgia. We had a +hot line+ for some time, as we would often deal with multi-generational families and it was necessary to consult on from whom to sample the material.”

He added that researchers working in Georgia reached many family members of the victims who could have been buried in Batumi.

After confirming the identity of three people (their names were not made public) and providing information to their families, which, as Ossowski points out, was widely commented on in Georgia, the geneticists are now working on identifying more victims.

Work in Batumi was conducted by an international team participating in the Georgian Recovery, Documentation and Identification Project (GDIP). One of the goals is the genetic analysis of the remains found in mass graves in Batumi between 1937-38.

The project leader is Dr. Meri Gonashvili, a forensic anthropologist and President of the Georgian Association of Forensic Anthropology (GAFA).

The 1930s was a period of Stalinist repression (purges), which particularly intensified in 1937-38. In 1968, British historian Robert Conquest introduced the term the Great Terror to describe the peak period of Stalinist repressions.

Over 1.5 million people were arrested and approx. 750,000 were executed. The NKVD trials most often ended in a death sentence or a sentence to life in the Gulag labour camps.

Possible Use for Australia’s Ancient Boomerangs Tested

Possible Use for Australia’s Ancient Boomerangs Tested

Possible Use for Australia’s Ancient Boomerangs Tested

A new study into the multipurpose uses of boomerangs has highlighted that hardwood objects were used to shape the edges of stone tools used by Australian Indigenous communities.  

The research, published in PLOS ONE, demonstrated how boomerangs could function as lithic (or stone) tool retouchers by investigating the use-wear generated on the boomerangs’ surfaces during retouching activities. 

It was found that these use-wear impacts on boomerangs were comparable to those observed on Paleolithic bone retouching tools, which date back to more than 200,000 years ago.  

The research adds to a previous study into boomerang uses led by the same team from Griffith University’s Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution, but also highlights the broader topic of the multipurpose application of many Indigenous tools throughout Australia.  

ARCHE PhD Candidate Eva Francesca Martellotta said the study revealed a deep functional connection between bone and wooden objects – a topic rarely investigated in archaeological contexts. 

“Studying the shaping techniques applied to stone tools is crucial to understanding our past,” Martellotta said.  

“Thinking in modern terms, it is like understanding the difference between a butcher knife and a bread knife: their blades have different shapes – one straight, the other serrated – because they are used to cut different materials. That is, to perform different functions. 

 “Australian boomerangs are mainly used as hunting and fighting weapons. However, they also have many other functions, linked to the daily activities of Aboriginal communities.”  

“In our article, we put together traditional knowledge and experimental archaeology to investigate a forgotten use of boomerangs: modifying the edges of stone tools. 

“This activity is fundamental to producing a variety of stone implements, each of them with one or more functions. 

PhD candidate Eva Francesca Martellotta.

“Traditionally handcrafted experimental replicas of boomerangs proved very functional to shape stone tools.  

“Our results are the first scientific proof of the multipurpose nature of these iconic objects.” 

 “While our results for the first time scientifically quantify the multipurpose nature of daily tools like boomerangs, this is something that Aboriginal people have known for a very long time.” 

Study co-author Paul Craft, a Birrunburra / Bundjalung / Yugambeh / Yuggera / Turrbal man, contributed two of the four hardwood boomerangs used in the lithic tool knapping (shaping) experiments, which were performed in the Griffith Experimental Archaeology Research Lab located outdoors at the Nathan campus.  

The EXARC Experimental Archaeology Association partially funded the project through a 2021 Experimental Archaeology Award

The findings ‘Beyond the main function: An experimental study of the use of hardwood boomerangs in retouching activities’ have been published in PLOS ONE

Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town’s destruction

Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town’s destruction

Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town's destruction
Spring 107 BC destruction layer of the Seleucid settlement of Tell Izṭ abba.

According to new research, the combined analysis of animal and plant remains, as well as written evidence, is leading to more precise dating of archaeological finds.

“We can now often determine not only the year but also the season. This allows us to reconstruct the events that produced the finds much more precisely,” say archaeologists Prof. Dr. Achim Lichtenberger from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster and his Tel Aviv University colleague Prof. Oren Tal.

“The destruction of the Greek town Tell Iẓṭabba in present-day Israel by a military campaign waged by the Hasmoneans, a Judean ruling dynasty in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, has so far been dated to between 111 and 107 BC,” say Lichtenberger and Tal.

“More recent research dates it to 108/107 BC, based on coin finds and the siege of the city of Samaria at the same time.

Now, using our multi-proxy approach that makes use of several analytical methods, we can for the first time date the events with certainty to the spring of 107 BC.”

“We came across chicken leg bones in the dwellings destroyed by the Hasmoneans. Analyzing them revealed residues containing medullary bone deposits in the marrow that served to produce eggshells during the laying season in spring.

This indicates that the chickens were slaughtered in spring,” explain Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal. “We also discovered the shells of field snails, which were often eaten at this time of year.”

Botanical examinations of the remnants of flowers on the floors of the dwellings reveal that these plants flowered in spring.

Analysis of the objects is always accompanied by an analysis of written evidence: “The contemporary Hebrew scroll of Megillat Ta’anit about the Hasmonean conquest, also known as the Scroll of Fasting, reports the expulsion of the inhabitants in the Hebrew month of Sivan, which corresponds to our May/June.”

‘Only the multiplicity of analytical methods makes precise statements possible’

“From an archaeological point of view, this makes spring the season of destruction,” says Lichtenberger and Tal, which underlines previous findings on Hellenistic warfare, as military offensives usually took place in spring and early summer.

“The individual data taken on their own would not justify determining such a clear chronology,” emphasizes Lichtenberger, who, together with his colleague Oren Tal and an interdisciplinary team comprising natural scientists, is leading a research project on the archaeology of the Hellenistic settlement Tell Iẓṭabba, in ancient Nysa-Scythopolis, a Greek city in the ancient Near East.

“Only by taking an overall view of the results from all analytical methods can we provide more precise information about the time of the destruction of Tell Iẓṭabba, and thus about the course of the Hasmonean campaign.” The finds must therefore be interpreted in the light of the seasons.

Reconstruction Offers a Glimpse of the Face of “Penang Woman”

Reconstruction Offers a Glimpse of the Face of “Penang Woman”

GEORGE TOWN: Five years after researchers from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) found a prehistoric human skeleton, dubbed the “Penang Woman”, believed to be at least 5,000 years old, they scored another major breakthrough.

Prehistoric 5,000-year-old ‘Penang Woman’ finally has a face

This time around, the same researchers have put a face to the Penang Woman using the Forensic Facial Approximation method. The skeleton was found during the construction of a gallery for the Guar Kepah neolithic site in Kepala Batas in 2017.

With the help of Cicero Moraes, a 3D graphics expert from Brazil, they used the 3D virtual reconstruction method to create the Penang Woman’s facial features based on a scientific date obtained from a CT scan performed on the skeleton.

The same team was also instrumental in reconstructing the facial features for the more than 10,000-year-old “Perak Man” using the same method last year.

Shaiful Idzwan Shahidan, the team’s correspondent author, said they took between three and four months to come out with the facial features, which was completed on July 5.

A paper, titled “Forensic Facial Approximation of 5000-Year-Old Female Skull from Shell Midden in Guar Kepah, Malaysia”, was published in the Journal of Applied Sciences on Aug 5.

Shaiful said when they found the skeleton back in 2017, one of their objectives was to conduct a more in-depth study about the life of the Penang Woman.

“We were curious to know how the Penang Woman really looked back then. From the facial features, we can tell that Penang Woman is possibly a mixture between the Australomelanesoid and Mongoloids.

“It is likely that the Guar Kepah population then was a mixture of the Australomelanesian and Mongoloid races,” he said.

Shaiful, however, said a more detailed study could be conducted if Malaysia brought back the 41 skeletons from three shell middens in Guar Kepah, which were excavated by British archaeologists between 1851 and 1934 and are currently at the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland.

When the Penang Woman skeleton was found in April 2017, researchers came across a skull, a femur bone and a rib cage beneath the floor of a house which had been demolished to make way for the gallery.

The skeletal remains were the first and only remaining Neolithic skeleton found in a shell midden in Malaysia. Shell middens refer to mounds of kitchen debris consisting mostly of shells and other food remnants and indicate ancient human settlements and are sometimes used as burial sites.

The remains were discovered in shell midden C with her arms folded and surrounded by pottery, stone tools and several types of shells, a sign of her important position in her society.

In total, 41 skeletons from three shell middens, identified as A, B and C in Guar Kepah, were excavated by British archaeologists between 1851 and 1934 and those skeletons are now at the National Natuurhistorisch Museum in Leiden, Holland.

The original Penang Woman is being carefully conserved in USM as it had to be in a temperature and humidity-controlled environment, which meant the skeleton currently showcased at the gallery is a replica of the original.

Heat Wave Reveals 17th-Century English Gardens

Heat Wave Reveals 17th-Century English Gardens

A stately home’s “ghost gardens” have become visible after the recent extreme heat.

Heat Wave Reveals 17th-Century English Gardens
The Elizabethan house features impressive gardens, housing a safari park

Grass on parts of Longleat’s baroque garden in Wiltshire has dried out to such an extent it has revealed historic features long buried in the landscape.

New overhead drone images of the imprints show what the grounds would have looked like in the 17th Century.

The parch marks have been described as an “invaluable window” into the site’s history.

Evidence shows possible remains of a 17th-century flower bed or fountain

Outlines of pathway fountains, long-lost walls and statues, as well as a maze and bowling green have emerged.

The images hint at what the 70-acre (4,046 sq m) gardens would have looked like four centuries ago.

The earliest visible features discovered so far are parts of the walled gardens to the front of Longleat House.

These date back to earlier in the 17th century and were painted by the renowned Flemish landscape artist Jan Siberechts in 1675, in what is believed to be the first painting of Longleat.

Jan Siberechts created the first ever painting of Longleat

“It is fascinating to be able to see these ‘ghost’ gardens and other features literally appearing out of the ground around the house,” said curator James Ford.

“While we are extremely fortunate to have contemporary engravings and paintings here at Longleat, there is nothing to compare with actual physical evidence.

“These parch marks, that will entirely disappear again when the rain and cooler weather return, provide us with an invaluable window into a lost world and an opportunity to accurately plot the design and layout of these important elements of Longleat’s history,” he added.

As with many of the great estates, Longleat’s formal gardens were transformed into naturalistic parkland in the 18th century by landscape gardener ‘Capability’ Brown.

The 17th Century canals were transformed by teams of workmen, digging by hand, to create Half Mile Pond, which is now home to a colony of California sea lions and a pair of hippos.