All posts by Archaeology World Team

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

65,000-year-old ‘Swiss Army knife’ reveals the key to early human survival

65,000-year-old ‘Swiss Army knife’ reveals the key to early human survival

The presence of ancient multi-tools in southern Africa may suggest that communication between ancient humans spanned long distances, according to a study published in Scientific Reports on Thursday.

Map of the seven sites where ancient ‘Swiss Army knives were found in southern Africa that were analyzed in the study.

But ancient humans weren’t only talking to each other, the research found, they were also sharing knowledge that may have aided in the overall survival of the human race.

The Howiesons Poort blade is known as the “stone Swiss Army knife” of prehistory because it is an early example of a composite tool that had multiple purposes. While stone tools were not revolutionary for the time, the Howiesons Poort blades were so groundbreaking because they are ‘hafted‘ — meaning that the stone blades are affixed to handles — using glue and adhesives.

Ancient humans in southern Africa produced these early multi-tools in large numbers for hunting (fashioned into spears and arrows) and cutting wood, plants, bone, skin, feathers and flesh.

Stone tools from the Sibudu Cave site in South Africa, whose similarities with other tools in the region indicate that early humans were sharing knowledge with each other 65,000 years ago.

Researchers compared the Swiss Army knife-like tools from seven sites across southern Africa and found that they all had the same shape and used the same template.

Hafted tools were developed independently in other parts of the world across vastly different time periods — and they took on many shapes. But these southern African cultures chose to make their tools look the same, something researchers found “culturally meaningful.”

The team of international scientists analyzing these 65,000-year-old tools was led by University of Sydney archaeologist Amy Way. They concluded that the similarities among the tools across southern Africa indicate that early humans must have been sharing information with each other — they were social networking.

“The really exciting thing about this find is that it gives us evidence that there was a long-distance social connection between people, just before the big migration out of Africa, which involved all of our ancestors,” Way said via The Guardian.

Early humans had been migrating out of Africa in smaller numbers before the large exodus approximately 60,000 years ago.

“Why was this exodus so successful where the earlier excursions were not? The main theory is that social networks were stronger then,” Way added.

“This analysis shows for the first time that these social connections were in place in southern Africa just before the big exodus.”

But just how far did this knowledge-sharing reach? Way says Howiesons Poort blades have been found 1,200 kilometres apart in southern Africa.

“One hundred kilometres takes five days to walk, so it’s probably a whole network of groups that are mostly in contact with the neighbouring group,” she said.

Social networking may have been the reason why homo sapiens were so successful at migrating across the world where other early human species failed, according to Paloma de la Peña, a senior research associate at the University of Cambridge and a lead author in the study.

“The main theory as to why modern humans replaced all the other humans living outside Africa around 60-70,000 years ago is that our ancestors were much better at social networking than the other species, such as Neanderthals, who were possibly smarter and stronger as individuals, but not great at sharing information,” de la Peña said.

Perhaps this research suggests that what makes us people is not intelligence alone, but our capacity to help our fellow humans.

ASIA, SYRIA, WORLD

Remains of Possible Early Muslims Identified in Syria

Remains of Possible Early Muslims Identified in Syria

A new study combining archaeological, historical and bioarchaeological data provides new insights into the early Islamic period in modern-day Syria. The research team was planning to focus on a much older time period but came across what they believe to be the remains of early Muslims in the Syrian countryside.

Remains of Possible Early Muslims Identified in Syria
Excavation at the Neolithic site of Tell Qarassa in modern-day Syria.

The Middle East is well known as a region with a rich and fascinating history embracing a wide range of ethnicities, cultures and religious practices.

While a great part of this diverse and dynamic history is known through historical records, the impressive material culture and archaeological sites in the region until recently important bioarcheological data was more difficult to retrieve due to the poor preservation of organic materials in harsh environments.

New technologies that are more capable of analysing degraded material, however, have changed this and stories from prehistoric to historic times have emerged, enriching our knowledge of this region at the crossroads between three continents.

Now, a multinational and interdisciplinary team is presenting new bioarchaeological insights into the early Islamic period in modern-day Syria.

Before the Syrian civil war

During 2009 and 2010, excavations at the Neolithic site of Tell Qarassa in modern-day Syria encountered a number of burials.

These excavations were coordinated by a Spanish-French team integrating Syrian students in all archaeological campaigns, thereby contributing to their training in archaeology.

The research was conducted with permission from and in constant coordination with the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums (DGAM) of the Syrian Arab Republic. Shortly after these excavations, the Syrian civil war began, which continues to this day.

“With the goal of studying the first farming groups in the region, we subjected the remains of 14 humans to ancient DNA analysis,” says archaeogeneticist Cristina Valdiosera of the University of Burgos, Spain, who coordinated the study.

Human remains in graves dated to the Umayyad era in the late 7th and early 8th centuries (the second caliphate).

“Only two individuals from the upper layers of the site contained sufficient amounts of endogenous DNA and these came from graves that we assumed belonged to a later prehistoric period. After radiocarbon dating, it became clear we had something unexpected and special.”

Umayyad Era

The graves dated to the Umayyad era in the late 7th and early 8th centuries (the second caliphate). In light of these surprisingly recent dates, a reassessment of the burial style showed that it would be consistent with early Muslim burial practices.

It would have been impossible to pinpoint this cultural identity without the radiocarbon dates as there were no previously known Muslim settlements or burial sites in the area and the archaeological site itself was only known as a prehistoric site.

“The genomic results were also surprising as the two individuals seemed genetically different from most ancient or modern-day Levantines. The most similar – though not identical – modern-day groups were Bedouins and Saudis, suggesting a possible connection to the Arabian Peninsula,” says evolutionary biologist Megha Srigyan, who conducted the data analysis during her Master’s studies at Uppsala University, Sweden.

“Most of our evidence is indirect but the different types of data, taken together, point to this man and woman belonging to transient groups far from home, suggesting the presence of early Muslims in the Syrian countryside,” says population geneticist Torsten Günther at Uppsala University, who co-coordinated the study.

The analysis of one man and one woman provided evidence of new cultural/religious practices arriving in the Levant.

“It is extraordinary that by studying just two individuals, we were able to uncover a small but remarkable piece of the colossal puzzle that makes up the history of the Levant,” says Cristina Valdiosera.

“In this particular case, there was no way we could have reached a conclusion without combining the archaeological, historical and bioarchaeological data, as each of these provided essential clues, highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary approach,” Torsten Günther concludes.

The human remains recovered in Qarassa, as well as the rest of the archaeological material, was deposited at the Archaeological Museum of Sweida (Syria) and, from that moment, they have been under the responsibility of the Syrian DGAM, as per their regulations. 

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists uncover coffins that have been shut for 2,500 years; it’s Saqqara again

Archaeologists uncover coffins that have been shut for 2,500 years; it’s Saqqara again

In 2020, archaeologists in Egypt unsealed a mummy coffin sealed 2,500 years ago in front of a live audience in Egypt. The mummy was wrapped in an ornate burial cloth, which had been decorated to resemble a deceased priest’s face.

Archaeologists uncover coffins that have been shut for 2,500 years; it's Saqqara again
Egypt uncovers 2,500-year-old coffins

Greg Lewis, New Zealand’s ambassador to Egypt, also shared a video of unsealing the mummy coffin on Twitter.

According to a press release by Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, initially, three burial wells at different depths between 10 and 12 metres, with 13 coffins, were discovered in Saqqara.

Earlier in 2020, Archaeologists found 59 sealed wooden sarcophagi in the necropolis of Saqqara, south of Cairo near Memphis.

Saqqara is home to several pyramids, including the famous Giza Pyramids. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the 1970s.

Recently, another team of archaeologists in Saqqara uncovered a new trove of coffins that are believed to have been left untouched for 2,500 years.

The incredible dig at a cemetery in Saqqara uncovered mummies as well as statues of the gods Anubis, Amun, Min, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet and Hathor – along with a headless statue of the architect Imhotep, who built the Saqqara pyramid. The coffins have been shut for 2,500 years

The team found hundreds of statues of ancient Egyptian gods — Anubis, Amun, Min, Osiris, Isis, Nefertum, Bastet, and Hathor. Besides the statues, the diggers also unearthed 250 ancient sarcophagi.

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in a statement that 250 coffins, 150 bronze statues, and other objects dating back to about 500 BC were found in Saqqara.

“The mission of the Supreme Council of Antiquities succeeded in discovering the first and largest cache of 150 bronze statues from the late period in the cemetery of the sacred animals in Saqqara, as well as burial wells containing 250 closed coloured wooden coffins containing mummies, which will be displayed in the Grand Egyptian Museum,” Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in an online statement.

Photos of the incredible finds have been shared on Facebook by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

Reports said the coffins were found in remarkably good condition in burial shafts. They contained mummies, amulets and smaller wooden boxes.

They will not be taken to the Grand Egyptian Museum, which is currently under construction near the Great Pyramids of Giza.

“We also found a statue of Imhotep … and we hope we can find his tomb soon,” Head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa El-Waziri, told ABC News.

Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to the Pharaoh Djoser, possible architect of Djoser’s step pyramid, and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis. Very little is known of Imhotep as a historical figure.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Europe’s ‘largest ever’ land dinosaur was found on the Isle of Wight

Europe’s ‘largest ever’ land dinosaur was found on the Isle of Wight

Remains of Europe’s largest-ever land-based predator dinosaurs have been discovered on the Isle of Wight, scientists say.

Europe's 'largest ever' land dinosaur was found on the Isle of Wight
The dinosaur was a two-legged, crocodile-faced predator and measured more than 10m long

Palaeontologists at the University of Southampton identified the remains, which measured more than 32ft (10m) long and lived 125 million years ago.

The prehistoric bones belonged to a two-legged, crocodile-faced, predatory spinosaurid dinosaur.

PhD student Chris Barker, who led the research, said it was a “huge animal”.

The remains, which include pelvic and tail vertebrae, were discovered on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight.

The carnivore has been dubbed the “white rock spinosaurid”, after the geological layer in which the remains were found.

Bone fragments, including pelvic and tail vertebrae, have been discovered
The remains of the predator were found on the south-west coast of the Isle of Wight

“This was a huge animal, exceeding 10m in length and probably several tonnes in weight,” Mr Barker said.

“Judging from some of the dimensions, it appears to represent one of the largest predatory dinosaurs ever found in Europe – maybe even the biggest yet known.”

It would have lived at the beginning of a period of rising sea levels and would have stalked lagoonal waters and sandflats in search of food.

Co-author of the research, Darren Naish, said: “Because it’s only known from fragments at the moment, we haven’t given it a formal scientific name. We hope that additional remains will turn up in time.”

The dinosaur has been dubbed the “white rock spinosaurid”, after the geological layer in which the remains were found

Most of the fossils were found by Isle of Wight dinosaur hunter Nick Chase, who died just before the Covid pandemic.

Jeremy Lockwood, another co-author of the study and a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth and Natural History Museum, said: “I was searching for remains of this dinosaur with Nick and found a lump of the pelvis with tunnels bored into it – each about the size of my index finger.

“We think they were caused by bone-eating larvae of a type of scavenging beetle. It’s an interesting thought that this giant killer wound up becoming a meal for a host of insects.”

The discovery follows previous work on spinosaurids by the University of Southampton team, which published a study on the discovery of two new species in 2021.

Isle of Wight dinosaur hunter Nick Chase (pictured centre with his children) found most of the fossils
ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

China’s mysterious 8,000-year-old structure ‘guarded by the military could hold key secrets

China’s mysterious 8,000-year-old structure ‘guarded by the military could hold key secrets

More than 100km outside the ancient city of Xi’an, among the overgrown forests, rise scores of pyramid-shaped mounds that have been shrouded in mystery for thousands of years. The West learnt about them when Fred Meyer Schroder, an American trader, first reported the enigma in 1912.

At the time, he was travelling through the Shaanxi Province with a guide, where he recorded a thorough description in his diary, noting he had seen one giant pyramid approximately 1,000 feet tall and nearly twice that size in length, surrounded by a number of smaller pyramids.

Fast-forward three decades and US Airforce pilot James Gaussman would be left mesmerised by a “pure white” structure spotted while flying over Asia, said to be twice the size of the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

He said: “The remarkable thing was the capstone, a huge piece of jewel-like material that could have been crystal.

“There was no way we could have landed, although we wanted to. We were struck by the immensity of the thing.”

Two years later, Colonel Maurice Sheahan, the Far Eastern director for Trans World Airline, reported the same experience.

China’s mysterious 8,000-year-old structure 'guarded by the military could hold key secrets
China has a mysterious structure that could be key to understanding the country’s history.
China has a number of pyramid structures

In the early Nineties, German investigator Hartwig Hausdorf searched for the massive pyramid, but he was unsuccessful in finding it.

Instead, he found “the Chinese military meticulously patrolling the area,” according to reports.

Today, Google Earth will show anyone with the right coordinates evidence of not just one, but around 40 known pyramids, but not all are easily distinguishable to the human eye.

They are covered with trees and grass, and many date back 8,000 years. This region, in essence, is China’s version of both Egypt’s Giza and the Valley of the Kings in one, particularly because there is a huge amount of royalty rumoured to be beneath the surface that no one has disturbed.

Two farmers discovered the famous terracotta army of China’s First Emperor

As early as the 17th century, a Roman Jesuit wrote about the pyramids, and in 1785, the French orientalist and sinologist Joseph de Guignes wrote ‘An Essay in Which We Prove The Chinese Are an Egyptian Colony’.

Western archaeologists have, to this day, rarely been permitted to investigate the sites and some have claimed photos show shrubs have been deliberately planted to keep the secret under wraps.

But experts theorise there are almost certainly lost emperors and artefacts below the mounds that would dwarf Howard Carter’s 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun. In 1974, the world got a peek at a truly extraordinary history of China when two farmers were digging just outside Xi’an and discovered the famous terracotta army of China’s First Emperor – Qin Shi Huang.

There were legends that he had been buried inside a veritable mini-city with palaces, carriages, treasures, and anything else he’d need in the afterlife – and through luck, or fate, these farmers hit the jackpot. The site is so massive, that researchers are “going to be digging there for centuries,” archaeologist Kristin Romey told Live Science in 2012.

The mounds are shrouded in secrecy
Some can be seen on Google Earth

But the Emperor himself has never been found.

The authorities have opened up sites like the Han Yang Ling Mausoleum to tourists, but no one is allowed to excavate them.

Xi Jinping’s government say the technology does not exist yet to disturb the pyramids without damaging their contents, citing King Tut’s discovery for reference.

Dr Romey previously remarked: “It’s really smart what they’re doing.

“Think about all the information we lost just based on the excavation techniques of the 1930s.


“There’s so much additional [information] that we could have learned, but the techniques back then weren’t what we have now.

“Even though we may think we have great archaeological excavation techniques [at present], who knows, a century down the road if we open this tomb [they could be even better].”

Chinese strong “veneration of tradition” culture could mean they simply wish to leave their royalty at peace, which means there will be no choice but to watch them recede back into the Earth with their secrets – until someone decides otherwise.

But, due to the area being shrouded in secrecy, there are also doubts from some experts about whether the White Pyramid even exists.

Experts have squabbled over both the location and the feasibility of such a monumental structure.

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Damaged pieces of rare Viking sword reunited after 1,200 years apart

Damaged pieces of rare Viking sword reunited after 1,200 years apart

Two pieces of an ornate Viking sword that had been separated for about 1,200 years have been reunited and still fit together like a puzzle. The pieces were discovered a year apart by amateur treasure hunters in Norway.

Damaged pieces of rare Viking sword reunited after 1,200 years apart
A researcher examines the remains of a Viking Age sword discovered in Norway.

The first finding occurred last year, when a metal detectorist in Stavanger, along Norway’s west coast, uncovered a small, odd piece of metal while poking around a farm.

The man handed the fragment over to the local archaeological museum and was unsure what it was — until this spring when his friend and fellow metal detectorist unearthed the rest of the artefact nearby.

Those two small chunks of metal turned out to be part of a massive Viking Age sword.

The sword is “of a rare type, known from Scandinavia but also found in Western Europe (in the areas known today as France, Britain and Ireland) and Eastern Europe, e.g. Hungary,” Ann Zanette Glørstad, an archaeologist at the University of Oslo in Norway, told Live Science in an email.

Though the blade is missing, the sword’s hilt is richly decorated with intricate carvings and gold and silver details. Each end of the cross-guard is shaped like an unidentified animal.

Based on its ornamentation, Glørstad thinks that the sword may have been forged in the Frankish Empire or England around 800 A.D.

However, it could possibly have been forged by a talented Norwegian smith who was inspired by Frankish weapons, she noted. Of the roughly 3,000 Viking swords recovered in Norway, only about 20 match the newly discovered weapon’s profile — and its owner remains a mystery. 

Both ends of the crossguard depict an animal head.
The richly decorated hilt of the sword from the Viking era.

“We can only speculate as to whom it belonged,” Glørstad said.

“However, it was a highly decorative and impressive sword, and it must have belonged to someone with the means to acquire it, as well as someone who wanted to demonstrate their social status.” 

Swords from this era sometimes had their owner’s names inscribed on the blade, according to the Art Institute Chicago(opens in new tab), but because this weapon’s blade is lost, archaeologists will have to rely on other clues to infer its owner’s identity.

The area has seen its share of Viking royalty; in 1883, the grave of a rich Viking queen was unearthed not far from where the sword was discovered.

“We knew that this area was of special importance, but that we should find something like this was very unexpected!” Håkon Reiersen, the acting head of the museum’s collection department, said in a translated statement(opens in new tab).

The sword has joined the collection at the Stavanger Museum of Archaeology, where it will be on display once it has been properly restored and preserved.

In the meantime, archaeology enthusiasts can follow the museum’s website(opens in new tab), and Instagram(opens in new tab) for updates on the sword’s restoration.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Metal detectorist unearths 2,000-year-old penis pendant

Metal detectorist unearths 2,000-year-old penis pendant

A metal detectorist recently discovered a silver, penis-shaped pendant in Kent, England that was likely worn around the neck to protect a person from misfortune around 1,800 years ago. 

This Roman pendant made of silver depicts a penis. The streaks at the top appear to depict pubic hair.

Ancient Roman writers such as Marcus Terentius Varro (lived 116 B.C. to 27 B.C.) and Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23 to 79) mention how the phallus and representations of it are thought to have had the power to protect a person from evil.

Many depictions of the phallus have been found throughout the Roman Empire and scholars often believe that they were created to avoid bad luck. 

The pendant (also called an amulet) is about 1.2 inches (3.1 centimetres) long, with a tiny ring at the top for a string (necklace) to go through. It dates back to a time when the Romans controlled England, between A.D. 42 and 410. 

While such amulets in the shape of a penis were frequently seen throughout Roman Britain, they are typically made of copper-alloy rather than silver like the one from Kent, Lori Rogerson, a finds liaison officer with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS), wrote in a report(opens in new tab) on the artefact. 

“Being a higher-quality metal than copper-alloy, silver may have been thought to strengthen the phallus’ protective abilities,” Rogerson told Live Science in an email.

“We know that children were protected by these apotropaic [having the power to stop evil] devices, and the archaeological evidence suggests their use in Britain was very popular within the Roman army.”

Roman men, women, children and even animals wore pendants like this, in an effort to ward off the so-called evil eye, said Cyril Dumas, a scholar at Musée Yves Brayer who has researched and written about these artefacts. “This amulet is against the effects of ‘the evil eye,’ a personification of bad luck,” Dumas told Live Science in an email.

As for the choice of metal, perhaps the person who commissioned or bought the piece of jewellery had enough money for a higher-quality metal.

“The choice of silver as a material can be for many reasons, one of which is simply because the wearer could afford it and the pendant then also becomes an object of display,” Rob Collins a project manager and research coordinator at Newcastle University’s School of History, Classics and Archaeology, told Live Science in an email.

“However, I suspect that silver also has magical properties or affiliations associated with it as a material,” added Collins, who has studied and written about artefacts like this one.

Wendy Thompson found the penis pendant while metal-detecting.

Metal detectorist Wendy Thompson found the amulet on Dec. 31, 2020, and she reported her to find to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, a program run by the British Museum and National Museum Wales that tracks finds made by metal detectorists.

The artefact is now going through the treasure process required by U.K. law, which may result in it entering a museum collection in Britain.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Rusty saber, possibly wielded by medieval Turkish pirates, unearthed in Greece

Rusty saber, possibly wielded by medieval Turkish pirates, unearthed in Greece

A rusty medieval saber, or one-edged sword, unearthed at a fortified Christian monastery in northern Greece might be a deadly weapon that either raiding Turkish pirates or the monastery’s defenders wielded hundreds of years ago. The discovery of the saber is unusual, as iron weapons from this period usually quickly rust away.

Rusty saber, possibly wielded by medieval Turkish pirates, unearthed in Greece
Archaeologists think the one-edged curved sword — a type of saber — dates from a raid on the monastery that took place in the 14th century.

The style of this weapon, too, is unusual — but it turns out that such curved, one-edged swords were used both by Turks and Byzantines at around the time of the attack in the 14th century, said archaeologist Errikos Maniotis, a doctoral candidate at Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic, who studied the sword.

“It’s hard to determine if the sword belonged to the Byzantine defenders, or to the probably Turkish [raiders],” Maniotis told Live Science in an email. “They both used similar weapons in this period.”

Maniotis is working with Theodoros Dogas, an archaeologist for the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chalcidice and Mount Athos, the region’s government archaeological agency, to excavate the medieval site, which is called the “Monastery of Agios Nikolaos of Chrysokamaros” in honour a local saint.

The ruins are located on the coast of the middle of the three prominent peninsulas of Chalkidiki (also called Chalcidice), about 40 miles (64 kilometres) southeast of the city of Thessaloniki on the northwest coast of the Aegean Sea.

But although the location by the sea is picture-perfect today, it hasn’t always been a peaceful place. The sword could be from any one of at least three military events that took place in the region in the 14th century alone, Maniotis and Dogas said.

The ruins of the monastery are in the middle of the three prominent peninsulas at Chalkidiki. Archaeologists think it was destroyed by fire during a raid in the 14th century.

Medieval monastery

Historical records mention a monastery at the site from at least the 11th century, although it’s not known if it was independent or a metochi — an “embassy church” of the Mount Athos monastery, a powerful establishment on the easternmost of the Chalkidiki peninsulas, Maniotis said.

Archaeologists briefly excavated the site in 2000 and 2001, when the one-edged sword was found; but the excavations this year have established that the monastery was surrounded by a sturdy wall made of granite rocks between 5.5 and 6 feet (1.7 to 2 meters) thick, Dogas said.

Such well-built monasteries and churches were often used as a local refuge during attacks, such as pirate raids. These ecclesiastical centres might also have had riches of their own, such as religious items made of gold, and often held a supply of grain, he said. In fact, archaeologists have found grain seeds in the lower levels of a tower at the monastery, which indicated it might have been used for food storage, Dogas noted. 

The tower is now about 16 feet (5 m) high, but the research shows it was once much higher. There’s evidence the structure was badly damaged by fire at some point. Moreover, weapons, including axes, arrowheads and the one-edged sword, were discovered in the same archaeological layer as the fire damage.

This is “evidence that leads us to conclude that the tower was destroyed by strong fire after a raid,” the researchers wrote in an academic presentation given in Athens on May 27.

Archaeologists found a large number of glazed pottery vessels, mainly from the 14th century, in the same layer; and, based on their styles, the researchers reason the destruction probably occurred in the second half of the 14th century and possibly as late as the beginning of the 15th century.

The iron sword was badly damaged in the fire that destroyed the monastery and is badly corroded. But the assembly includes metal rings that were part of the scabbard that enclosed it.
Swords of this type, with a single sharp edge and a curve throughout its length, were used by both Byzantine soldiers who may have been defending the monastery and Turkish pirates or soldiers who may have been attacking it.
Well-built monasteries along the coast were often used as a refuge during pirate attacks, and archaeologists think it may have also been targeted for its stores of grain.

One-edged sword

Although the sword is distinctive, the archaeologists can’t tell for certain just who might have wielded it, or when. Sabers had been used in Turkish lands for centuries; for example, they are depicted in an illustrated Seljuk manuscript from the 13th century that is now held at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul.

But research by the archaeologists has also shown such swords were used by Byzantine soldiers — perhaps those helping defend the monastery from a raid by Turkish pirates, for instance.

Icons of Byzantine saints from the 13th century depict curved, one-edged swords, and it’s known that Byzantine soldiers used the swords as early as the sixth century, after facing them while fighting the nomadic Avars and the Sassanid Persians, who had assimilated them from the warriors of the Eurasian steppes, the researchers wrote. 

Maniotis and Dogas have identified three military actions in the 14th century that could have led to the sword being used there: attacks along the coast by Turkish pirates, which included the kidnapping in 1344 of administrators from the Mount Athos monastery; the occupation of the region from 1345 until about 1371 by the forces of the Serbian king Stefan Dušan, who aspired to conquer Byzantine territories in the West; and the siege of Thessalonica by Ottoman troops from 1383 until 1387, when the Chalkidiki region was often raided for food.

Maniotis can’t say for sure, but he thinks the sword may be of Turkish origin, and that it was used in a pirate raid on the monastery. It’s now in poor condition, having been bent during the attack that destroyed the monastery, although several metal rings from the scabbard that once contained it can still be seen.

Nearly 18 inches (45 centimetres) of the blade of the sword remain whole, but not enough to determine by its shape alone whether it is of Turkish or Byzantine origin, the researchers wrote.

But it has historical importance in any case: “this particular sword is the only find from this category of swords in a closed archaeological assembly in Greece,” the researchers wrote. “It may in fact be one of the few swords of the late Byzantine period found in Greece.” 

The discovery of the sword and other artefacts from the excavations will be the subject of an upcoming research paper, Maniotis and Dogas said.