All posts by Archaeology World Team

Possible Spanish Cross Discovered at St. Mary’s Colonial Fort

Possible Spanish Cross Discovered at St. Mary’s Colonial Fort

The tiny, dirt-encrusted cross showed up in the sifting screen at the Maryland dig site, and when archaeologist Stephanie Stevens spotted it she said she gasped, “Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!”

It was a strange object, with two crossbars instead of one, and unusual flared ends on the vertical and horizontal pieces. Stevens, the crew chief at the newly-discovered colonial fort at St. Mary’s, Md., didn’t know exactly what she had, but she knew it was important.

What she had found was a rare 370-year-old Spanish cross that had likely been made in the pilgrimage city of Caravaca, Spain, around 1650 and had made its way 4,000 miles to a meadow in southern Maryland.

Possible Spanish Cross Discovered at St. Mary’s Colonial Fort
HANDOUT- A rare Caravaca cross with two crossbars that probably originated in the town of that name in southeastern Spain. On the left is the cross before it was cleaned up. On the right is the cleaned-up version.

“It’s a … fascinating object,” said archaeologist Travis Parno, director of research for Historic St. Mary’s City. “We’ve grown accustomed to finding Catholic artefacts… just because there was such a powerful Catholic and particular Jesuit presence.

But research soon revealed this cross was Spanish in origin and tied to an ancient Spanish legend about the appearance of a miracle cross that held a splinter of the one on which Jesus died.

But St. Mary’s was an English colony.

“What is a Spanish artefact doing here?” Parno said Thursday. . “Given the [tense] relationships between Spain and England it’s always interesting to find a Spanish object.”

The find came on Oct. 25 during excavation of the historic fort at St. Mary’s, the first permanent English settlement in Maryland and one of the earliest in what would become the United States.

Last March, Historic St. Mary’s City announced that the outlines of the palisaded fort, which had been erected by White settlers in 1634, had finally been discovered. Archaeologists had been looking for it since the 1930s.

Maryland’s original 150 colonists, including many English Catholics fleeing Protestant persecution, had arrived at St. Mary’s on two ships, the Ark and the Dove, in late March 1634.

The fort soon began giving up secrets to the archaeologists. Pieces of pottery, pins, hundreds of musket balls and birdshot, arrowheads, a trigger guard for a musket turned up.

ST. MARY’S, MD — MARCH 3: Archaeologist Dr Travis Parno, foreground, with his dig among the outline of the original fort at St. Mary’s City, the first settlement in Maryland in 1634, in St. Mary’s, MD.

Then, last April, Parno revealed that a 380-year old English shilling, made of silver in the royal mint in the Tower of London, had been found — also by crew chief Stevens.

“It was quite a revelation,” Parno said at the time.

Now, here was another one, excavated from what appears to be the cellar of a large building inside the fort.

At first, the archaeologists weren’t exactly sure what it was.

“It stuck out … because it’s got the double bar cross,” Parno said. “Usually, if you’ve got a double bar cross and a slash at the bottom of the cross you associate that with Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox.”

“Without that slash at the bottom, it was, ‘Ok, where did this thing come from?’” he said. Was it a French Cross of Lorraine, which has two plain horizontal pieces?

“This one didn’t quite match any of those images,” he said. “It’s got those flares on the ends of the bars. It almost looks like bells, [with] a very ornate almost Baroque design to it.”

“That was when we started really digging into this and found this example of these Caravaca crosses,” he said.

The crosses stem from a 700-year-old legend about angels miraculously delivering a cross, said to hold a fragment of Christ’s cross, to an imprisoned priest who was about to say Mass before a Muslim king in Caravaca.

In later versions of the cross, the angels carry it by the vertical bar, while Jesus hangs crucified on the upper bar. The St. Mary’s cross lacks the angels and the figure of Jesus. “This is sort of the stripped-down version,” Parno said.

The artefact is tiny and fits easily in the palm of a hand. It’s made of a copper alloy, Parno said. And it probably was manufactured in or near Caravaca, about 250 miles southeast of Madrid. It has a broken hole at the top of the vertical piece, perhaps for a necklace or rosary.

But how did it get to Maryland?

Was there a Spaniard at St. Mary’s? There’s no such evidence, Parno said. Was it brought to St. Mary’s by a Jesuit Catholic priest who had visited Spain? Also unlikely, because dates don’t line up well, he said.

Was it carried by a devout Catholic among the settlers? Possibly.

Perhaps the best scenario is that the cross was acquired in a trade with local Native Americans, Parno said.

“We know that Spanish material culture, particularly religious material culture, was … traded in … networks up and down the East coast,” he said. There were then Spanish outposts in Florida and South Carolina. The cross might have been given to Native Americans as part of Spanish missionary work and then traded to someone at St. Mary’s, he said.

“If you have a Catholic colonist who’s interested in a Caravaca cross that an indigenous person is wearing … maybe it was a reverse exchange — an object that was European and ended up in indigenous hands and then ended up back in colonial hands,” he said.

“Every day we’re going out there, we’ve got new mysteries that we’re shaking our heads at,” he said. “Every time we think we’ve figured something out, three more questions emerge.”

1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Depicts Jesus Feeding 5000 People Unearthed Near The Galilee Sea

1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Depicts Jesus Feeding 5000 People Unearthed Near The Galilee Sea

A 1,500-year-old mosaic depicting Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand has been unearthed during an excavation of an ancient city near the Sea of Galilee. The discovery of the so-called Burnt Church in Hippos, northern Israel, has enthralled archaeologists who have spent the summer combing it for historical evidence. 

A fire destroyed the fifth-century church in 700AD but the mosaic-paved floor has been remarkably preserved throughout the centuries by a layer of ash.

Located in the heart of the Holy Land, Hippos overlooks the Sea of Galilee – also known as the Kinneret – where it was once the site of a Greco-Roman city.

1,500-Year-Old Mosaic Depicts Jesus Feeding 5000 People Unearthed Near The Galilee Sea
A 2,000-year-old mosaic depicting Jesus’s feeding of the five thousand has been unearthed during an excavation of an ancient city near the Sea of Galilee
The discovery of the so-called Burnt Church in Hippos, northern Israel, has enthralled archaeologists who have spent the summer combing it for historical evidence

The mosaic purports to capture one of the miracles referred to in the New Testament where Jesus used just five loaves and two fish to feed 5,000 people gathered on the banks of the water. 

A team from the University of Haifa found the Burnt Church in 2005, but only began the dig this summer.

Head archaeologist Dr Michael Eisenburg said: ‘There can certainly be different explanations to the descriptions of loaves and fish in the mosaic, but you cannot ignore the similarity to the description in the New Testament.

‘For example, from the fact that the New Testament has a description of five loaves in a basket or the two fish depicted in the apse, as we find in the mosaic.’

He added that the generally accepted location of the miracle performed by Christ may have to be reconsidered in light of the new evidence. 

A team from the University of Haifa found the Burnt Church in 2005, but only began the dig this summer
A fire destroyed the fifth-century church in 700AD but the mosaic-paved floor has been remarkably preserved throughout the centuries by a layer of ash

The historian said: Nowadays, we tend to regard the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha on the north-west of the Sea of Galilee as the location of the miracle, but with a careful reading of the New Testament it is evident that it might have taken place north of Hippos within the city’s region. 

‘According to the scripture, after the miracle, Jesus crossed the water to the northwest of the Sea of Galilee, to the area of Tabgha/Ginosar, so that the miracle had to take place at the place where he began the crossing rather than at the place he finished it. 

‘In addition, the mosaic at the Church of Multiplication has a depiction of two fish and a basket with only four loaves, while in all places in the New Testament which tell of the miracle, there are five loaves of bread, as found in the mosaic in Hippos. 

‘In addition, the mosaic at the burnt church has a depiction of 12 baskets, and the New Testament also describes the disciples who, at the end of the miracle, were left with 12 baskets of bread and fish.

‘There is no doubt that the local community was well familiar with the two miracles of Feeding the Multitude and perhaps knew their estimated locations better than us.’

After centuries of falling into the hands of several empires and religious groups, Hippos was abandoned in around 600AD when an earthquake devastated the hilltop city.

Ancient city found in Ethiopia sheds new light on the country’s history

Ancient city found in Ethiopia sheds new light on country’s history

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient, forgotten city in Ethiopia once thought to be the home of giants. The discovery reveals important new information about the origins of international trade and Islam in the country between the 10th and early 15th centuries.

This is the first evidence that proves Eastern Ethiopia was well connected with the Gulf, Egypt and India hundreds of years ago and highlights how skilled craftsmen traded with communities around the world and lived alongside people from different areas around the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea.

A dig in Harlaa, Eastern Ethiopia, has revealed a 12th-century mosque, evidence of Islamic burials and headstones as well as glass vessel fragments, rock crystal, carnelian, glass beads, imported cowry shells, and pottery from Madagascar, the Maldives, Yemen and China. Archaeologists have found bronze and silver coins from 13th-century Egypt.

A dig in Harlaa, Eastern Ethiopia, has revealed a 12th-century mosque.

There has so far been very little archaeological research carried out in Islamic sites in Ethiopia, with experts more focused on finding early humans in the region.

Archaeologists had not previously carried out extensive work in this part of Ethiopia. Farmers had been uncovering pottery and coins for many years in the area and were convinced there was rich information about Ethiopia’s history to be found underground.

The size of some of the building stones also found created a local legend that the area had been home to giants.

Archaeologists worked with the community for two years to make the discoveries, which will be exhibited in a heritage centre run by local people designed to bring income to the area.

Some findings will be displayed in the country’s national museum in Addis Ababa. The work was completed in partnership with the Ethiopian Authority for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage.

Professor Timothy Insoll, from the Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter, who led the research, said: “This discovery revolutionises our understanding of trade in an archaeologically neglected part of Ethiopia. What we have found shows this area was the centre of trade in that region.

The city was a rich, cosmopolitan centre for jewellery making and pieces were then taken to be sold around the region and beyond. Residents of Harlaa were a mixed community of foreigners and local people who traded with others in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and possibly as far away as the Arabian Gulf.”

Harlaa is 120km from the Red Sea coast and 300km from Addis Adaba. The architecture of the mosque is similar to those found in Southern Tanzania and Somaliland, showing connections between different Islamic communities in Africa.

Remains found in the dig suggest jewellers were making high-quality, delicate pieces in silver, bronze and semi-precious stones and glass beads. They used some technology usually associated in that period with jewellers in India, suggesting trade or immigration from that country to Harlaa.

The settlement, which is around 500m by 1,000m, has buildings and walls constructed with large stone blocks – leading people to assume only those with enormous stature or strength could have built it, and encouraging local legends about giants having inhabited the region.

The remains of some of the 300 people buried in the cemetery are being analysed to see what their diet consisted of.

Professor Insoll said: “The archaeological findings suggest this place was home to a very mixed community. Local people were extremely keen for us to solve mysteries. Farmers had been finding strange objects, including Chinese coins, as they were working on their land, and a legend began that the area was home to giants. We have obviously disproved that, but I’m not sure they fully believe us yet. Some people have said the bodies we have discovered are the children of giants!”

The research is funded by the European Research Council and previously by the Max Van Berchem Foundation in Switzerland.

The archaeologists, from the Universities of Exeter, Addis Ababa and Leuven, will dig again next year, in other sites and deeper underground, to uncover more evidence of people who lived there earlier in history. So far, they have excavated down to a depth of 2.5 metres and dated this to the 6th century.

Professor Insoll said: “We know jewellery was being made here for trading into the African interior, and materials to do this came in from the Red Sea, East African Coast and possibly India, but we don’t know what was given in exchange for that jewellery. During the next stage of our archaeological research in this era, we hope to examine this by working on other sites up to 100km away.”

5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece

5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece

Archaeologists surveying the world’s oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 years ago — at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.

These remarkable findings have been made public by the Greek government after the start of a five-year collaborative project involving the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and The University of Nottingham.

As a Mycenaean town, the site offers potential new insights into the workings of Mycenaean society. Pavlopetri has added importance as it was a maritime settlement from which the inhabitants coordinated local and long-distance trade.

The ruins of Pavlopetri are located a short distance from the coastline, just a few meters underwater in Vatika Bay in southern Greece.
Could the Pavlopetri site in southern Greece have been the inspiration for Plato’s story of Atlantis?

The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project aims to establish exactly when the site was occupied, what it was used for and through a systematic study of the geomorphology of the area, how the town became submerged.

This summer the team carried out a detailed digital underwater survey and study of the structural remains, which until this year were thought to belong to the Mycenaean period — around 1600 to 1000 BC.

The survey surpassed all their expectations. Their investigations revealed another 150 square metres of new buildings as well as ceramics that suggest the site was occupied throughout the Bronze Age — from at least 2800 BC to 1100 BC.

The work is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team led by Mr Elias Spondylis, Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture in Greece and Dr Jon Henderson, an underwater archaeologist from the Department of Archaeology at The University of Nottingham.

The resulting research project used a novel combination of archaeology, underwater robotics, and state-of-the-art graphics to survey the seabed and bring the ancient town back to life.

Dr Jon Henderson said: “This site is unique in that we have almost the complete town plan, the main streets and domestic buildings, courtyards, rock-cut tombs and what appear to be religious buildings, clearly visible on the seabed. Equally, as a harbour settlement, the study of the archaeological material we have recovered will be extremely important in terms of revealing how maritime trade was conducted and managed in the Bronze Age.”

Possibly one of the most important discoveries has been the identification of what could be a megaron — a large rectangular great hall — from the Early Bronze Age period. They have also found over 150 metres of new buildings including what could be the first example of a pillar crypt ever discovered on the Greek mainland. Two new stone-built cist graves were also discovered alongside what appears to be a Middle Bronze Age pithos burial.

Mr Spondylis said: “It is a rare find and it is significant because as a submerged site it was never re-occupied and therefore represents a frozen moment of the past.”

The Archaeological coordinator Dr Chrysanthi Gallou a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Nottingham is an expert in Aegean Prehistory and the archaeology of Laconia.

Dr Gallou said: “The new ceramic finds form a complete and exceptional corpus of pottery covering all sub-phases from the Final Neolithic period (mid 4th millennium BC) to the end of the Late Bronze Age (1100 BC).

In addition, the interest from the local community in Laconia has been fantastic.

The investigation at Pavlopetri offers a great opportunity for them to be actively involved in the preservation and management of the site, and subsequently for the cultural and touristic development of the wider region.”

The team was joined by Dr Nicholas Flemming, a marine geo-archaeologist from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton, who discovered the site in 1967 and returned the following year with a team from Cambridge University to carry out the first-ever survey of the submerged town.

Using just snorkels and tape measures they produced a detailed plan of the prehistoric town which consisted of at least 15 separate buildings, courtyards, streets, two-chamber tombs and at least 37 cist graves.

Despite the potential international importance of Pavlopetri, no further work was carried out at the site until this year.

Through a British School of Archaeology in Athens permit, The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project began its five-year study of the site with the aim of defining the history and development of Pavlopetri.

A digital reconstruction of the buildings at Pavlopetri was submerged by the sea about 1100 BC.

Archaeology bombshell: 7,000-year-old find older than Pyramids stuns scientists

Archaeology bombshell: 7,000-year-old find older than Pyramids stuns scientists

The archaeological discovery was hiding in plain sight for centuries, tucked away in a field near the village Łysomice in northern Poland. But with the aid of Google Earth scans, archaeologists were able to spot concentric outlines of where the ancient structures, or pans, once stood. The researchers now believe the buildings were raised by some of the first European communities to farm the land.

The discovery dates the neolithic structures to about 2,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt.

Mateusz Sosnowski from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Nicolas Copernicus praised the unexpected find.

The archaeologist said: “Our discovery can be boldly dubbed sensational due to the fact the pans are located east of the Vistula river.

“These constructions are the most north-eastern of their type in Europe. We did not expect such a discovery in this region.”

Archaeology bombshell: 7,000-year-old find older than Pyramids stuns scientists
Researchers have found ancient, neolithic structures in Poland
The ancient structures were hidden in plain sight

The ringed structures or pans were found roughly three miles (5km) apart outside of Łysomice.

The structures measure approximately 278ft (85m) across and feature three concentric ditches with a common centre.

When viewed from space with the aid of Google Earth and Google Maps, the pans left distinct impressions in the land now used for modern farming.

The archaeologists speculate the structures may have had ties to early astrological efforts due to the direction of their construction.

Dr Sosnowski said: “What is is also interesting, is that the entrances are most likely directly opposite one another on a northwest-southeast axis.

“We suppose they could also be linked to astronomical observations.”

The entrances likely faced the direction of the rising sun during the Winter Solstice.

Dr Sosnowski said: “In order to confirm this concept we will need further analysis.”

To date, archaeologists have found more than 130 of these pan-like structures all over Europe.

At least one-third of these structures can be found in Austria.

The rest are peppered across Poland, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

The neolithic structures were found in northern Poland
The structures were built by the first Europeans to farm the land

In this particular case, the archaeologists believe the structures were “planned and raised by a large group of people”.

According to some researchers, they may have served ceremonial roles or acted as temples for pagan practices. The European pans were typically surrounded by concentric ditches and wooden palisades, which suggests they could have been defensive structures.

Dr Sosnowski and his team now want to visit the sites in person in the winter.

The discovery comes after archaeologists in South America uncovered the 2,000-year-old remains of two infants wearing helmets. The unusual remains were found on the coast of Central Ecuador at a burial site called Salango.

Archaeologists in the UK have also made an incredible 8,000-year-old discovery at the bottom of the sea. The ancient find is likely a boat from the Stone Age, found just off the coast of Great Yarmouth.

Archaeologists have also solved an incredible Roman mystery after discovering a “forgotten city” buried in the Mediterranean.

Ancient pyramid SHOCK: How tombs older than Egyptian pyramids reveal CANNIBAL horrors

Ancient pyramid SHOCK: How tombs older than Egyptian pyramids reveal CANNIBAL horrors

Pyramid-like structures hidden across north-central Poland have stunned archaeologists with evidence of bloodcurdling neolithic rituals. These so-called “Polish pyramids” in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region are believed to predate the Great Pyramids of Giza by thousands of years.

Archaeologists estimate the tombs were built between the 4th and 3rd millennium BC, making them at the very least a thousand years older than the Pyramid of Cheops. This was the time of the Stone Age, or the neolithic when well-defined cultures were emerging across Ancient Poland.

The unusual stone tombs, much like their Egyptian counterparts, were fashioned from great big slabs of stone.

But the comparisons end there because the Polish pyramids were neither as grand and were built flat across the land.

The tombs are triangular in shape and extend in one direction for quite a distance before tapering off.

The structures are slightly raised above the ground and their burial chambers are set into the soil with entrances to the outside world.

Ancient pyramid SHOCK: How tombs older than Egyptian pyramids reveal CANNIBAL horrors
Ancient pyramids: These neolithic tombs contain remains of humans eaten gnawed on by people

Archaeologists who examined these entrances were stunned to discovered the remains of gnawed on human bones.

And a few more clues from the past reveal the unfortunate denizens were likely eaten by whoever killed them.

An information plaque from a historical site in the village of Wietrzychowice reads: “About 50cm above the central grave another interesting cavity was discovered. It turned out, it was a dugout earthwork for a mass grave.

“The exact number of people buried there could not have been determined. The discovered bones could have blonde to two to nine individuals.

“What is surprising, is one part of the bones was likely burned and intentionally broken, perhaps to gain access to the bone marrow.

“Signs suggesting biting or the tearing off of muscles were also observed on two thigh bones.

“All of this could be interpreted as evidence of a cannibal feast or a mass offering towards a deceased.”

The Wietrzychowice site is an archaeological reserve established in an area settled around 5,500 years ago.

Some of the Polish pyramids measure as much as 492ft (150m) in length and the stones used in their construction weigh in at seven to 10 tonnes.

Archaeological evidence shows only men were buried in the stone monolithic tombs and the constructions housed wooden structures for ceremonial rites.

The tombs most likely belonged to important warlords, leaders, priests and other important figureheads.

In one of the tombs, researchers found the remains of a man who underwent trepanation – the process of making a surgical hole in the skull.

Ancient pyramids: Built in the Stone Age, the ancient tombs predate the Great Pyramid of Giza

The reserve’s website states: “The deceased – a person high up in the tribal hierarchy – was buried in a straightened position at the helm of the tomb.

“Sometimes two to three individuals were buried simultaneously this way.

“Pots and clay spoons, flint relics, arrowheads, hatchets and war axes have survived to our times.

“The amount of effort put into raising these structures is undoubtedly evidence of a strong tribal bond and the social variety or existence of tribal leaders.”

Ancient pyramids: The stone structures were flat but very long

Quick facts about the Egyptian pyramids:

1. Archaeologists have discovered more than 130 pyramids across the sandy landscape of Egypt.

2. The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom eras.

3. The famous Queen Cleopatra was not Egyptian but Greek Macedonian and a descendant of the Ptolemaic dynasty installed during Alexander the Great conquests.

4. There are three chambers in the Great Pyramid, one of which remains unfinished.

5. The Ancient Egyptians invented one of the first forms of writing and a form of paper known as papyrus.

6. The pyramids are precisely aligned with the north.

7. The Great Pyramid of Giza, or the Pyramid of Cheops, is the largest and biggest of the three iconic structures.

8. The privilege of being mummified after death was reserved for the wealthiest members of Egyptian society.

9. The Great Pyramid of Giza stood as the largest structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.

10. Women in Ancient Egypt are understood to have had the same rights as men and could buy and sell property.

Archaeology shock: Ancient skeleton and gold found buried in Siberia’s ‘Valley of Kings’

Archaeology shock: Ancient skeleton and gold found buried in Siberia’s ‘Valley of Kings’

The incredible archaeological discovery was made by a team of Polish researchers on the Southern Siberian Steppe. This barren part of the Russian Federation is known as the “Siberian Valley of the Kings” thanks to mysterious structures dotting its landscape.

Ancient mounds raised from the ground by a long-lost civilisation, known as kurgan barrows, give a hint as to what lies beneath the soil. Archaeologists from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków made their discovery at the Chinge Tey dig where nine of these kurgans were built in a row.

According to lead archaeologist Dr Łukasz Oleszczak, the Scythian remains date back at least 2,500 years.

Archaeology shock: Ancient skeleton and gold found buried in Siberia's 'Valley of Kings'
Researchers have found the remains of a Scythian warrior in Siberia
The Scythians were a nomadic civilisation of warriors

He told the Polish Press Agency (PAP): “Inside was the skeleton of a fully equipped young warrior.

“Near the skull of the deceased, there were decorations: a gold sheet pectoral, a glass bead, a gold spiral braid ornament.”

Alongside the warrior’s skeletal remains, the archaeologists have found many of his weapons.

These included an ice axe stylised into the shape of an eagle, an iron dagger, bow fragments and arrows.

Dr Oleszczak added: “Objects made out of organic materials have also been well preserved.

“Among them is a leather quiver, arrow shaft, ice axe shaft and a belt strap.”

The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who thrived between the 11th century BC and 2nd century AD to the east of the Roman Empire. Scythia covered much of what is today’s Siberia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and even touched upon China.

The Scythians were known for their warmongering practices, as demonstrated by the contents of their burial sites.

Unfortunately, many of the Scythian artefacts buried across Siberia are at risk of disappearing thanks to looters.

According to Dr Oleszczak, the first of two barrows found in Chinge Tey was robbed before the archaeologists uncovered them.

Ancient Scythian burial sites in Siberia
The discovery was made in Southern Siberia

The archaeologists did, however, discover partially preserved bones and an arrowhead.

The researchers will analyse the second kurgan barrow for its contents next year.

The main discovery, however, was made in a third kurgan nearby.

Dr Oleszczak said: “For our research, we chose an inconspicuous, almost invisible kurgan with a diameter of about 25m.

“We had hoped it had remained unnoticed by robbers.”

The Polish archaeologists have joined an international team of researchers at Chinge Tey.

Their discovery comes after another team of archaeologists in Poland found the site of an unusual settlement from 2,500 years ago.

Archaeologists in northern Poland have also two neolithic structures predating the Great Pyramid of Giza by 2,000 years.

Researchers have also found signs of cannibalistic rituals at an ancient burial site in Poland’s Kuyavian-Pomeranian region.

Archaeologists Will Study Life on the International Space Station

Archaeologists Will Study Life on the International Space Station

A group of researchers has launched the first-ever archaeological study of humans in space, observing the lives of the crew living on the International Space Station.

The experiment, which will analyze and document the unique “MicroSociety in a mini-world,” began this week with associate professors Alice Gorman from Flinders University in Australia and Justin Walsh of Chapman University in California leading the effort.

“We’re the first to try to understand how humans relate to the items they live with in space,” Walsh said in a statement.

Archaeologists Will Study Life on the International Space Station
“By bringing archaeological perspectives to an active space domain, we’re the first to show how people adapt their behaviour to a completely new environment,” Associate Professor Justin Walsh of Chapman University said of the experiment.

He added: “By bringing archaeological perspectives to an active space domain, we’re the first to show how people adapt their behaviour to a completely new environment.”

Over the course of the project, the team will investigate how a space culture has emerged and evolved since the opening of the ISS in November 2000 and the effects on the development of long-term missions on those who are aboard to solve technical, engineering or medical issues.

“What they usually don’t realize is every one of those problems has social and cultural dimensions — and if they ignore those, their solutions will be sub-optimal,” the research team explained on Twitter.

Walsh and Gorman hope to address several big-picture questions that have not previously been posed by other earthbound archaeologists in the field, including: How do crew members interact with each other and with equipment and spaces originating in other cultures? How does material culture reflect gender, race, class, and hierarchy on the ISS? How do spaces and objects frame interactions of conflict or cooperation? How have crew members altered the space station to suit their needs or desires? What are the effects of microgravity on the development of society and culture?

Rather than digging through ancient dirt to unearth the secrets of how past societies once lived, the space-focused research team will begin its exploration of the “archaeological site” through a series of 1-meter-square photographs taken by crew members aboard the ISS.

By dividing the site into a grid of squares along the walls of the station, the scientists say they’ll gain a better understanding of the entire site.

“Instead of digging them to reveal new layers of soil representing different moments in the site’s history, we will have them photographed each day to identify how they’re being used and how they change over time,” Gorman explained.

The first phase of the experiment will last 60 days and updates will be posted on the International Space Station Archaeological Project’s website.