All posts by Archaeology World Team

Unique sword casts new light on Viking voyages across the North Sea

Unique sword casts new light on Viking voyages across the North Sea

The hilt has unique details in gold and silver and exquisite details not previously known.

The sword was found in three pieces by two metal detector enthusiasts, independent of each other, in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, already renowned for the grave of the so-called Gausel queen. Found in 1883, it is considered to be one of the richest women’s graves from the Viking Age.

Like the women buried in the Oseberg ship, the Gausel queen had rich artefacts from the British Isles with her in her grave.

The sword would have been one of the most spectacularly ornamented and heaviest types of swords from the Viking Age. The blade is missing, but the hilt has unique details in gold and silver, and exquisite details not previously known.

Only about 20 such swords have been found in Norway—out of a total of around 3,000 Viking sword finds.

Lavish and complicated décor

The sword is currently under conservation at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger. It is still difficult to see the details in the hilt, but the décor includes gilded elements of the typical animal styles found during the Iron and Viking Ages, between ca. 550 and 1050.

“It is very exciting to work on a find like this. It is challenging work, but we uncover new details daily,” conservator Cora Oschmann, in charge of the conservation, says.

The hilt also contains geometrical figures in silver, made with the so-called niello technique. This means that a metallic mixture of sorts was used to make black stripes in the silver.

The sword undergoing conservation.

Both ends of the crossguard are formed as animal heads.

“The technique is of a very high quality, and both the lavish and complicated decor and the special formation of the crossguard make this a truly unique find,” archaeologist Zanette Glørstad from the museum says.

Most likely imported

This particular type of sword has been found in both Eastern and Western Europe. The few swords of this type found in Norway were most likely imported.

“But it is possible to imagine that copies of these types of swords were made by very competent sword smiths in Norway,” Zanette Glørstad points out.

“The décor suggests that the sword was made in France or England and that it can be dated to the early 800s, like the sword found on the island Eigg,” Glørstad says.

Norway and the British Isles

It has previously been speculated whether the Jåttå/Gausel-area was the starting point for extensive alliances and looting.

Unique sword casts new light on Viking voyages across the North Sea
This is what the sword looks like when conservator Cora Oschmann has joined the pieces together.

“The location of the find, close to the Gausel queen, means that we have to take a new look at the entire Jåttå/Gausel area,” says Håkon Reiersen, a researcher at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger.

“The outstanding collection of imported spectacular finds connected to both men and women in this area shows that this has been an important hub for the contact across the North Sea,” he says.

The metal detector enthusiasts immediately turned in their finds to the Cultural heritage management as Norwegian law demands. This ensured that the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger immediately could take care of the parts and start the conservation work.

The sword will be exhibited at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger when the conservation work is finished.

Military Officer’s Tomb Discovered in Egypt

Military Officer’s Tomb Discovered in Egypt

A Czech archaeological mission working near the Giza plateau has uncovered the tomb of an ancient Egyptian military official who commanded battalions made up of foreign soldiers, according to a statement from the Egyptian antiquities ministry.

The find has led experts to conclude that ancient Egypt was much more globalised than they once thought, the ministry said. The tomb is believed to have belonged to Wahibre merry Neith, who lived between the late 26th dynasty and early 27th around 500 BC.

His tomb was found about 12km south-east of the Pyramids of Giza, very close to an embalming cache discovered in February, which also belonged to Wahibre-merry-Neith.

The main well of the tomb of an ancient Egyptian military commander named Wahibre-merry-Neith. The tomb was discovered by a Czech mission working in Giza’s Abusir necropolis.

The tomb was found by a mission from the Egyptology Department at Prague’s Charles University, one of the oldest in Europe.

The tomb is divided into separate parts by narrow bridges cut into the natural rock.

Measuring 14 metres square, its main well was about 6 metres deep. However, as is the custom in ancient burial sites from the time, there was a smaller and deeper shaft in the middle of the main well that led to the double sarcophagus where Wahibre-merry-Neith was buried.

At the bottom of the deeper well, which measures 6.5 x 3.3 metres, at a depth of about 16 metres, the mission found two sarcophagi, one inside the other.

The inner sarcophagus of an ancient Egyptian dignitary, whose tomb was discovered in 2022 by a Czech archaeological mission working in Giza’s Abusir necropolis.

The outer sarcophagus is made of two large slabs of white limestone, said the ministry’s statement, while the inner coffin is made out of basalt rock and fashioned in the shape of the human body.

The upper part of the basalt sarcophagus was inscribed with excerpts from the 72nd chapter of the Egyptian Book of Dead, according to a statement from mission head Dr Marslav Barta.

The texts depict the resurrection of the deceased and his journey to the afterlife.

The basalt sarcophagus measures 2.30 metres long and 1.98 metres wide.

The sarcophagus did not contain a mummy, leading the mission to conclude that the tomb had been raided around the 4th or 5th centuries AD, Barta confirmed in a statement.

A scarab was found inside the tomb of Wahibre-merry-Neith, a 26th dynasty dignitary who commanded the country’s foreign military forces. The tomb had been robbed in the 4th or 5th century AD so the scarab was one of a handful of relics found inside the tomb

He said his team was able to approximately date the theft because of two ceramic vessels that were left behind in the main well. The upper part of the basalt sarcophagus was found smashed, said the ministry’s statement, suggesting that this was where the graverobbers entered the tomb.

Though the tomb was markedly light on artefacts, the mission was able to extract an intricately carved scarab, around 400 ushabti statues made of faience (a sintered-quartz ceramic material prevalent in ancient Egypt) and two alabaster canopic jars (containers that held the eviscerated organs of the deceased which were an important part of ancient burial customs).

Canopic jars and ceremonial cups were found inside the tomb of Wahibre-merry-Neith, a 26th dynasty ancient Egyptian military commander whose tomb was discovered in 2022 by a Czech archaeological mission working in Giza’s Abusir necropolis.

Dr Muhammad Mujahid, deputy head of the Czech Mission, said that “although the archaeological excavations of the cemetery of Wa-ip-Ra Meri Nate did not provide us with many important archaeological finds or elaborate funerary items, this cemetery is considered unique and important”.

He explained that it provides new insight into the turbulent period that marked the beginning of Persian domination over ancient Egypt.

On his part, Dr Waziri said: “The design of this well-tomb has no identical counterpart in ancient Egypt.”

The Eighth Wonder of the World: Sigiriya “The Lion Rock”

The Eighth Wonder of the World: Sigiriya “The Lion Rock”

The Sigiriya Rock Fortress, or the palace in the sky, is a masterpiece of ancient Sri Lankan ingenuity. The monolithic rock of Sigiriya is one of the most valuable historical monuments of Sri Lanka and the locals refer to it as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Sigiriya, Sri Lanka. Author: Bernard Gagnon CC BY 3.0

This ancient rock fortress is located in the central Matale District between the towns of Dambulla and Habarane in the Central Province of Sri Lanka. Sigiriya, also known as the “Lion Rock”, is 200 meters (660 ft) higher than the surrounding jungles and a popular tourist attraction of the spectacular beauty in Sri Lanka.

Sigiriya.

As one of the eight World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka, it has also been declared by UNESCO as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

This ancient rock fortress and palace ruin is surrounded by the remains of an extensive network of gardens and reservoirs. The gardens of Sigiriya are among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world.

The gardens of Sigiriya, as seen from the summit of the Sigiriya rock.

The name “Lion Rock” comes from the enormous lion which greets visitors halfway up the rock on a small plateau. In 476 CE, King Dhatusena ruled over Sri Lanka and next in line was his son Moggallana, but Moggallana’s brother named Kashyapa, had other plans.

The Lion Gate and Climbing Stretch.

Kashyapa schemed with the commander of the army to overthrow King Dhatusena. He usurped the throne from his father by force and imprisoned him to die slowly and painfully. Kashyapa drove his brother Moggallana into exile in Southern India and he crowned himself king in 477 CE.

Close up of the Lion’s Paw.

King Kashyapa was afraid of losing the throne so he relocated the royal seat to Sigiriya from the capital of Anuradhapura. He chose Sigiriya because of its strategic position that offered fantastic 360-degree views.

King Kashyapa built his palace on the top of the rock and decorated its sides with colourful frescoes.

The entire complex featured five gates and was nearly two miles wide (3 km) and over a half-mile long (1 km).  Frescoes covered the western wall of Sigiriya but only eighteen frescoes have survived to this day. The frescoes are depicting nude females but their identity remains unknown.

The Mirror Wall and spiral stairs leading to the frescoes.

One theory says that the females are Kasyapa’s wives, while another one that they are women who participated in religious observances.

The mirror wall borders and protects the world-famous gallery. In the past, it was so thoroughly polished that the king could see his reflection in it.

The mirror wall is painted with inscriptions and poems written by the visitors of Sigiriya and some of those notes dates from the 8th century CE.

Sigiriya

Moggallana, the rightful heir to King Dhatusena’s throne, later defeated Kashyapa in 495 CE. After the battle, King Moggallana moved the capital back to its historic place in Anuradhapura.

After Kasyapa died, Sigiriya was as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain

A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain

The Hoxne Hoard is the largest cache of late Roman silver and gold which had been discovered in Britain. It was found on 16th November 1992 in the village of Hoxne by a metal detectorist Eric Lawes who was only looking for a lost hammer.

He discovered a hoard that consists of 865 Roman gold, silver and bronze coins from the late fourth and fifth century, currently estimated at around $4.3 million.

The largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold was discovered in Britain.

The hoard contains several rare and important objects and one of them is the Empress pepper pot.

It was excavated by professional archaeologists, who estimated a particular significance in the items found, for they were largely undisturbed and intact.

The hoard was discovered in a field of a farm, about 2.4 kilometres southwest of the village of Hoxne in Suffolk.

The hoard had been placed in a wooden oak chest and within the chest, there had been some objects placed in smaller boxes while others had been wrapped in a woollen cloth.

Front view of a light miliarense coin from the Hoxne Hoard.

The Hoxne Hoard contains 569 gold coins which date to the reigns of eight different emperors, 191 silver coins (siliquae – silver coins produced from the 4th century CE) and 24 bronze coins (nummi).

The coins date after AD 407, which coincides with the end of Britain as a Roman province.

The silver Hoxne Tigress has become the best-known single piece out of over 15,000 objects in the hoard.

The jewellery in the hoard is entirely made of gold. There is one body chain, six necklaces, three rings, and nineteen bracelets.

The most precious jewel in the hoard is the body chain which is made of four finely looped gold chains, attached at front and back to plaques.

This kind of body chain can be seen in Roman art, sometimes on the goddess Venus or Nymphs.

Frontal view of the gold body chain from the Hoxne Hoard.
Piperatoria – display of a selection of spice dispensers from the hoard, the pepper-pot on the right depicts an elegant and educated ady.

One of the most important finds in the hoard is the Empress pepper pot.

The empress’ hair, clothing and jewellery are carefully represented and she is holding a scroll in her left hand, giving the impression of education as well as wealth.

There are other pepper pots in the hoard: The Hercules pepper pot and Antaeus pepper pot.

A 13 cm (5.1 in) long ladle from the hoard, with decoration including a Chi-Rho and sea-creatures.

The hoard also contains a lot of silver-gilt items: four pepper pots, a beaker, a vase, four bowls, a small dish and 98 silver spoons.

Display case reconstructing the arrangement of the hoard treasure when excavated.

Iron and organic materials from the remains of the outer wooden chest were found in large iron rings, double-spiked loops and hinges, angle brackets, iron strips, strap hinges and nails.

The most important items are on display in a perspex reconstruction of the chest at the British Museum alongside the roughly contemporary Thetford Hoard.

Sutton Hoo: One of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England

Sutton Hoo: One of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England

In 1939, an excavation was carried out on two 6th and 7th-century cemeteries at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England.  Beneath Mound No. 1, a stunning archaeological discovery was made. 

Historians were amazed to find an undisturbed ship burial that contained a wealth of outstanding artefacts of significant cultural and historical significance.

The archaeological team found the complete outline of the ship perfectly preserved in the sand of the burial chamber.  The wood of the ship had decomposed, but the stains in the sand gave an accurate depiction of the construction of the ship, and all the metal rivets were perfectly in place. 

The ship was built from oak and was found to have a tall, rising stem and stern that measured 27 meters.  At its broadest part, the ship was 4.4 meters wide, and it had an inboard depth of 1.5 meters.  The hull followed a clinker construction style, with nine planks on each side of the hull riveted together with iron rivets.

The ship had been laboriously carried from the river and carefully placed in a prepared trench.  It was buried at a depth where only the stem and stern posts peeked out of the ground. 

The body and all the funeral artefacts were then placed in the ship, and the site was covered with a soil mound.  The burial place remained undisturbed until carefully uncovered by archaeologists in 1939.

Sutton Hoo Helmet at the British Museum

This excavation was an incredibly important find, as it straddled the time in English history between myth and legends and the creation of historical documentation. It is generally accepted that the ship was the tomb of Raedwald, who was the ruler over East Anglia.

There was no body found, but analysis of the soil indicates that there was a body that had been destroyed by the acidic soil.  The coffin or wooden platform that carried the body was close to 9 feet long. 

From the distribution of the artefacts, it appears the head was placed at the western end of the platform.  The archaeologists found an iron ringed bucket, an iron lamp that still had its beeswax fuel inside, and high-quality personal items such as a helmet, belt buckle, shoulder tabs, jewellery, coins, silverware, and armour. 

The artefacts found in the tomb have provided a wealth of information about the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia as well as the Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Replica of the Sutton Huo Helmet in the British Museum

Only one occurrence of Middle Eastern bitumen had been found in the British Isles prior to this discovery, but the Sutton Hoo bitumen is older than the previously discovered specimen. This new discovery is very exciting, as it adds further evidence to the theory that the Anglo-Saxons traded over a far wider territory than was previously thought.

The bitumen was not left in the grave by mistake.  It was deliberately placed at the head and foot of the body, and its proximity to the body indicates its value to the people.  It is not clear if this bitumen was a diplomatic gift or if it was a product gained through trade routes, but its presence in the grave indicates that the Anglo-Saxons traded widely and made use of goods brought from afar.

Model of the ship’s structure as it might have appeared, with chamber area outlined Photo Credit

It is evidence that the bitumen deposits in the Middle East were traded north through the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe to reach as far north as England, Mail Online reported.

The discovery of trade goods such as this bitumen adds extensively to our understanding of how people lived in this era since the myths and legends of that time tend to obscure facts.  Historians can use these artefacts to try to identify how trade routes worked, and thus learn more about how people moved and interacted so long ago.

This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People

This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People

Chicago, like a lot of other modern cities, has a hidden secret: It’s home to miles of passageways deep underground that allows commuters to get from one place to another without risking nasty weather.

This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People

Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Dallas all have their own networks of underground tunnels, as well.

But there’s a place in Eastern Europe that puts those forgotten passages to shame. Welcome to Derinkuyu — the underground city.

A Subterranean Suburb

Picture this. It’s 1963, and you’re on a construction crew renovating a home. You bring your sledgehammer down on a soft stone wall, and it all crumbles away, revealing a large, snaking passageway so long that you can’t see where it ends.

This is the true story of how the undercity at Derinkuyu was (re-)discovered. While those workers knew they’d found something special, they couldn’t know just how massive their discovery had been.

Stretching 250 feet (76 meters) underground with at least 18 distinct levels, Derinkuyu was a truly massive place to live. Yes, live. There was room for 20,000 people to stay here, complete with all necessities (and a few luxuries) — fresh water, stables, places of worship, and even wineries and oil presses. It isn’t the only underground city in the area known as Cappadocia, but it’s the deepest one we know of, and for many years, it was believed to be the largest as well. (Another recently discovered location may have been home to even more people.)

Derinkuyu and the other 40-ish underground cities nearby are made possible thanks to the prevalence of tuff in the area, a kind of volcanic rock that solidifies into something soft and crumbly. That makes it relatively easy to carve enormous subterranean passages — but why would you want to? The answer lies in the cities’ origins.

Defense Against the Sword Arts

Derinkuyu isn’t exactly inhospitable on the surface level (after all, that’s where the people who found it were living). So why did ancient people decide to build their living quarters below the surface? Because they weren’t hiding from the broiling sun or annual meteor showers.

They were clearly hiding from invading forces, with massive, rolling stone doors to block off each floor should any armies breach the fortress. But who were the people of the caves, and who were they defending themselves against? The answer to the second question depends on the answer to the first.

The earliest known people to live in the area were the Hittites, who ruled the Turkish Peninsula from about the 17th to 13th centuries B.C.E. — well over three millennia ago.

Some scholars point to artefacts with Hittite cultural elements, such as a small statue of a lion, found in the underground caves. That suggests these ancient people would have been taking refuge from invading Thracians.

This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People

If they were, it didn’t work forever: A tribe of Thracians, the Phrygians, conquered the area next. It’s possible that the Hittites never lived underground, however; an alternate theory says that it was the Phrygians, not the Hittites, who spawned the subterranean city.

Since the construction of many of the immense underground complexes is dated to some time between the 10th and 7th centuries B.C.E., and the Phrygians lived there until the 6th century B.C.E., they’re generally regarded to have created the first caves. In that case, they may have been hiding from the Persian host under Cyrus the Great that eventually did take over the region.

Lost and Found

The Persians would have used those caves as well, as would all of the people to come after. Eventually, according to some sources, early Christians around the 2nd century C.E. took root in the caves as they fled Roman persecution. This pattern continued throughout the centuries and millennia to come — in fact, Greek Christians were still using the caves as late as 1923.

It’s pretty incredible, then, that the caves would have been forgotten in the 40-odd years between their last residents and their “re-discovery.”

It’s more likely, then, that it wasn’t the caves themselves, but the extent of the caves that were forgotten. While the holes burrowed into the area’s fairy chimneys would have been obvious even from a distance, it’s likely that the people living in more modern accommodations never realized that the caves in the wilderness outside of the urban area reached 18 stories down.

Iron Age Rock Art Discovered During Rescue Excavation Beneath House in Turkey

Iron Age Rock Art Discovered During Rescue Excavation Beneath House in Turkey

An unexpected discovery has revealed ancient artwork that was once part of an Iron Age complex beneath a house in southeastern Turkey. The unfinished work shows a procession of deities that depicts how different cultures came together.

Looters initially broke into the subterranean complex in 2017 by creating an opening on the ground floor of a two-story home in the village of Başbük. The chamber, carved into the limestone bedrock, stretches for 98 feet (30 meters) beneath the house.

When the looters were caught by authorities, a team of archaeologists did an abbreviated rescue excavation to study the significance of the underground complex and the art on the rock panel in the fall of 2018 before erosion could further damage the site. What the researchers found has been shared in a study published Tuesday by the journal Antiquity.

Archaeologists followed a long stone staircase to an underground chamber, where they found rare artwork on the wall.

The artwork was created in the 9th century BC during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which began in Mesopotamia and expanded to become the largest superpower at the time.

This expansion included Anatolia, a large peninsula in Western Asia that includes much of modern-day Turkey, between 600 and 900 BC.
“When the Assyrian Empire exercised political power in south-eastern Anatolia, Assyrian governors expressed their power through art in Assyrian courtly style,” said study author Selim Ferruh Adali, associate professor of history at the Social Sciences University of Ankara in Turkey, in a statement.

An example of this style was carved monumental rock reliefs, but Neo-Assyrian examples have been rare, the study authors wrote.

Combining cultures

The artwork reflects an integration of cultures instead of outright conquest. The deities have their names written in the local Aramaic language. The imagery depicts religious themes from Syria and Anatolia and were created in the Assyrian style.

“It shows how in the early phase of Neo-Assyrian control of the region there was a local cohabitation and symbiosis of the Assyrians and the Arameans in a region,” Adali said. “The Başbük panel gives scholars studying the nature of empires a striking example of how regional traditions can remain vocal and vital in the exercise of imperial power expressed through monumental art.”

The artwork shows eight deities, all unfinished. The largest is 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) in height. The local deities in the artwork include the moon god Sîn, the storm god Hadad and the goddess Atargatis. Behind them, the researchers could identify a sun god and other divinities.

The depictions combine symbols of Syro-Anatolian religious significance with elements of Assyrian representation, Adali said.

Part of the artwork features Hadad, the storm god, and Atargatis, the principal goddess of northern Syria.

“The inclusion of Syro-Anatolian religious themes (illustrates) an adaptation of Neo-Assyrian elements in ways that one did not expect from earlier finds,” Adali said. “They reflect an earlier phase of Assyrian presence in the region when local elements were more emphasized.”
Upon discovering this artwork, study author Mehmet Önal, a professor of archaeology at Harran University in Turkey, said, “As the dim light of the lamp revealed the deities, I trembled with awe as I realized I was confronted with the very expressive eyes and majestic face of the storm god Hadad.”

Mysteries remain

The team also identified an inscription that may show the name of Mukīn-abūa, a Neo-Assyrian official who served during the reign of Adad-nirari III between 783 and 811 BC.

The archaeologists suspect that he had been assigned to this region at the time and was using the complex as a way to win over the appeal of the local population.

But the structure is incomplete and has remained unfinished for all this time, suggesting that something caused the builders and artists to abandon it — perhaps even a revolt.

“The panel was made by local artists serving Assyrian authorities who adapted Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context,” Adali said. “It was used to carry out rituals overseen by provincial authorities. It may have been abandoned due to a change in provincial authorities and practices or due to an arising political-military conflict.”

Adali was the epigraphist of the team who read and translated the Aramaic inscriptions in 2019 using photos captured by the research team, who had to work quickly to study the site.

“I was shocked to see Aramaic inscriptions on such artwork, and a sense of great excitement overtook me as I read the names of the deities,” Adali said.

The site was closed after the 2018 excavations because it is unstable and could collapse. It is now under the legal protection of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The archaeologists are eager to continue their work when excavations can safely resume and capture new images of the artwork and inscriptions and possibly uncover more artwork and artefacts.

Skeleton With Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found In Mexico Ancient Ruins

Skeleton With Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found In Mexico Ancient Ruins

Archaeologists who found the 1,600-year-old skeleton near Mexico’s ancient Teotihuacan said the woman was 35-40 when she died with an intentionally deformed skull and teeth encrusted with mineral stones

Archaeologists in Mexico have recently uncovered a 1,600-year-old skeleton of a woman who had mineral-encrusted teeth and an intentionally elongated skull – evidence that suggests she was part of her society’s upper class.

While it isn’t uncommon for archaeologists to find deformed remains, the new skeleton is one of the most “extreme” ever recorded.

“Her cranium was elongated by being compressed in a ‘very extreme’ manner, a technique commonly used in the southern part of Mesoamerica, not the central region where she was found,” the team said, according to an AFP report.

The team, led by researchers from the National Anthropology and History Institute in Mexico, found the woman in the ancient ruins of Teotihuacan – a pre-Hispanic civilisation that once lay 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Mexico City, existing between the 1st and 8th century AD before it mysteriously vanished.

The woman, who the researchers have named The Woman of Tlailotlacan after the location she was found inside the ancient city, not only had an elongated skull, but she had her top two teeth encrusted with pyrite stones – a mineral that looks like gold at first glance.

She also had a fake lower tooth made from serpentine – a feature so distinctive, the team says it’s evidence to suggest that she was a foreigner to the ancient city.

The researchers don’t give any details on how these body modifications were performed 1,600-years-ago, or why they were common in the first place.

But based on other cultures, such as the Mayans, artificial cranial deformation was likely done in infancy using bindings to grow the skull outwards, possibly to signal social status.

While very little is known about the woman’s faux-golden grill, researchers from Mexico did find 2,500-year-old Native American remains with gems embedded in their teeth back in 2009.

In that study, the team said that sophisticated dental practices made the modifications possible, though they were likely used purely for decoration and weren’t symbols of class. 

“It’s possible some type of [herb-based] anaesthetic was applied prior to drilling to blunt any pain,” team member José Concepción Jiménez, from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, told National Geographic.

It’s also important to note that the current team’s findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal, so we will have to take their word on it for now until they can get their report ready for publication.

The Mexican team aren’t the only ones to discover some interesting human remains lately, either. Back in June, researchers from Australia uncovered 700,000-year-old ‘hobbit’ remains on an island in Indonesia.

More recently, just last week, researchers in China what might be a skull bone belonging to Buddha inside a 1,000-year-old shrine in Nanjing, China.

Needless to say, archaeologists all over the world have been quite busy this year, and we can’t wait to see what they uncover next.