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WORLD

Mathematical Discovery Could Shed Light On Secrets Of The Universe

Mathematical Discovery Could Shed Light On Secrets Of The Universe

A grand challenge in modern theoretical physics is to find a ‘unified theory’ that can describe all the laws of nature within a single framework — connecting Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes the universe on a large scale, and quantum mechanics, which describes our world at the atomic level.

Such a theory of ‘quantum gravity’ would include both a macroscopic and microscopic description of nature.

“We strive to understand the laws of nature and the language in which these are written in mathematics. When we seek answers to questions in physics, we are often led to new discoveries in mathematics too.

Mathematical Discovery Could Shed Light On Secrets Of The Universe

This interaction is particularly prominent in the search for quantum gravity — where it is extremely difficult to perform experiments,” explains Daniel Persson, Professor at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Chalmers university of technology.

An example of a phenomenon that requires this type of unified description is black holes.

A black hole forms when a sufficiently heavy star expands and collapses under its own gravitational force so that all its mass is concentrated in an extremely small volume.

The quantum mechanical description of black holes is still in its infancy but involves spectacularly advanced mathematics.

A simplified model for quantum gravity

“The challenge is to describe how gravity arises as an ’emergent’ phenomenon. Just as everyday phenomena — such as the flow of a liquid — emerge from the chaotic movements of individual droplets, we want to describe how gravity emerges from the quantum mechanical system at the microscopic level,” says Robert Berman, Professor at the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the Chalmers University of Technology.

In an article recently published in the journal Nature Communications, Daniel Persson and Robert Berman, together with Tristan Collins of MIT in the USA, showed how gravity emerges from a special quantum mechanical system, in a simplified model for quantum gravity called the ‘holographic principle’.

“Using techniques from the mathematics that I have researched before, we managed to formulate an explanation for how gravity emerges by the holographic principle, in a more precise way than has previously been done,” explains Robert Berman.

RIpples of dark energy

The new article may also offer new insight into mysterious dark energy. In Einstein’s general theory of relativity, gravity is described as a geometric phenomenon.

Just as a newly made bed curves under a person’s weight, heavy objects can bend the geometric shape of the universe. But according to Einstein’s theory, even the empty space — the ‘vacuum state’ of the universe — has a rich geometric structure.

If you could zoom in and look at this vacuum on a microscopic level, you would see quantum mechanical fluctuations or ripples, known as dark energy. It is this mysterious form of energy that, from a larger perspective, is responsible for the accelerated expansion of the universe.

This new work may lead to new insights into how and why these microscopic quantum mechanical ripples arise, as well as the relationship between Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum mechanics, something that has eluded scientists for decades.

“These results open up the possibility to test other aspects of the holographic principle such as the microscopic description of black holes. We also hope to be able to use these new connections in the future to break new ground in mathematics,” says Daniel Persson.

EUROPE, WORLD

Mysterious 7,500 years old Vinca Figurines depict Contact with an Ancient Alien Race

Mysterious 7,500 years old Vinca Figurines depict Contact with an Ancient Alien Race

There was once a mysterious European culture, which left a legacy in the form of valuable artefacts covered with an unknown, never successfully deciphered script. These artefacts have been excavated from sites in south-east Europe.

The culture that flourished from about 6000 BC to 3000 BC, was named Vinca-Tordos Culture of Yugoslavia and western Romania and derived its name from the village of Vinca located on the banks of the Danube river, only 14 km downstream from Belgrade.

A century ago, a great discovery was made at the Danube riverbank. Panta, an old man from Vinča accidentally found a strange clay figurine: This mysterious figurine was puzzling to him so he took it to the  National Museum in Belgrade in order to find the explanation. The figurine was soon recognized as an artefact that dated back to the late Stone Age.

Since then, a number of archaeological excavations have revealed numerous cultural layers of a civilization and its largest Neolithic settlement in Europe, dating back more than 7,000 years BC.

The Vinca legacy includes among others, curious masks and the most informative costumed figurines depicting women in extremely modern clothes like narrow skirts, and sleeveless upper-body panels, complimented with hip belts, aprons, jewellery, shoes, caps, hairstyles, bracelets, necklaces, and medallions.

Prediconica mask, Vinca culture 4500 BC-4000 BC

There have also been unearthed different kinds of tools and weapons and the remains of prehistoric houses with the furniture and many other objects created in the Vinca region or brought from remote areas.

Since the language of the Vinca still remains undeciphered, unearthed artefacts constitute the only source of knowledge about this culture. Vinca’s living style reminds us of our own. They lived in houses that had very complex architectural layouts and several rooms.

The houses faced northeast-southwest and were separated by streets. Vinca people had stoves in their houses, preceding the Romans in using these devices. They used special holes only for rubbish, and had the same tradition as we have, to bury people in cemeteries.

The development of copper metallurgy is evident during the latter part of the Vinca culture’s evolution. Among unearthed artefacts, there have been found a large number of figurines made of clay and other artefacts depicting worshipped deities and women in miniskirts, short tops, wearing jewellery.

It is hard to believe that women that lived several millennia ago wore miniskirts, unless, the cult of Mother Goddess was very widespread and reached both the south-east parts of Europe and ancient India.

Similar, made of ceramic clay, figurines of Mother Goddess, were found in excavations in Mohenjo-Daro, located along the Indus River in ancient India (present-day Pakistan). Was this kind of clothes popular 7,500 years ago?

The Vinca Culture – Europe’s biggest prehistoric civilization – point to a metropolis with a great degree of sophistication and a taste for art and fashion.

Numerous figurines related to the Vinca Culture bear ‘markings that clearly indicate clothing, bequeathing a wealth of costume detail. The Vinca culture in the Danube River basin, from the end of the sixth through the fifth millennia B.C., left the most informative costumed figurines.

These images bear deep incisions encrusted with white paste or red ocher emulating fringe, hip belts, aprons, narrow skirts, and sleeveless upper-body panels. The Vinca artisans sans also modelled a variety of shoes, caps, hairstyles, bracelets, necklaces, and medallions…

Figurines with clothing and ornaments appear either bare-breasted or fully clad. Several dress combinations recur persistently on bare-breasted images. Some wear only a hip belt or a hip belt supporting either an apron or an entire fringed skirt. Others wear a tight skirt and nothing else…’ 1

An important question is: Is the legacy of the Vinca culture evidence of the ever known earliest manifestation of the Divine Power and well-evolved and widespread Mother Goddess worship cult?

Many terracotta figurines of the Mother Goddess were recovered in excavations at various archaeological sites of Indus Valley. Naturally, orthodox science proposes a classical explanation to this phenomenon and say that the proto Mother, the symbol of female fertility, is depicted in prehistoric figurines.

On many of the artefacts excavated from sites in south-east Europe, there have been found the Vinca symbols. Here are common symbols used throughout the Vinca period:

They probably represent the earliest form of writing ever found and predating ancient Egyptian and Sumerian writing by thousands of years. Since the inscriptions are all short and appear on objects found in burial sites and the language represented is not known, it is highly unlikely they will ever be deciphered.

In some way, Vinca’s past is both forgotten and lost.

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

460-Year-Old Hunting Bow Discovered Underwater in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park

460-Year-Old Hunting Bow Discovered Underwater in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park

National Park Service employees made an unlikely discovery in the backcountry of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska this past September: a 54-inch wooden hunting bow that was found under 2 feet of water, but still intact.

460-Year-Old Hunting Bow Discovered Underwater in Alaska’s Lake Clark National Park
NPS archaeologist Jason Rogers and Alaska State archaeologist Rich VanderHoek carefully inspect the bow.

Scientists and archaeologists are analyzing the hunting bow in an attempt to learn more about its origin and history. According to radiocarbon dating conducted by the NPS, the bow is estimated to be 460 years old, ranging in origin between 1506 and 1660. The real mystery lies not in how old the bow is, but where it came from.

Park officials found the antique weapon on Dena’ina lands, an Athabascan indigenous people whose ancestral lands cover much of South-Central Alaska, including a large portion of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.

However, preliminary research suggests that the handcrafted bow might not be of Dena’ina origin. After consulting with Elders and comparing the bow with similar artefacts from that time period, experts believe the artefact has more in common with a Yup’ik or Alutiq style bow.

Lake Clark National Park and Preserve are located on Dena’ina lands in south-central Alaska.

The homeland of the Dena’ina, which comprises roughly 41,000 square miles along the coast of the Cook Inlet, is called the Denaʼina Ełnena, and it includes lands where present-day Anchorage is located. Dena’ina lands also cover much of Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, including the lake itself, which is traditionally known as “Qizhjeh Vena”. 

The Dena’ina culture, which prioritizes a connection to nature and respect for the wilderness, has a rich history in the Athabascan region.

“We call this ‘K’etniyi’ meaning ‘it’s saying something,” writes Karen Evanhoff, a cultural anthropologist for Lake Clark National Park and Preserve.

Anthropologists have also learned that the Dena’ina regularly interacted with indigenous peoples from neighbouring regions, including the Yup’ik who live in the coastal region of southwestern Alaska, from Bristol Bay along the Bering coast and up to Norton Sound.

This intercultural history would help explain how a Yup’ik bow might end up on Dena’ina homelands in the first place.     

“For the Dena’ina people, trading and sharing knowledge with their Yup’ik neighbours as well as other groups such as the Tanana, Tlingit, Ahtna, Deg Hit’an and coastal residents of Prince William Sound and Kodiak was common,” the NPS explains. 

Experts are still working to piece together the clues, however, and the cultural history of the bow is just one part of the puzzle. 

Dr. Priscilla Morris takes a closer look at the bow with a hand lens.

Soon after it was discovered, the bow was transported to the Park Service’s Regional Curatorial Center in Anchorage, where experts have inspected the artefact and analyzed its natural origins. As part of this analysis, the NPS brought in Dr. Priscilla Morris, a wood identification consultant with the U.S. Forest Service.

“After inspecting the artefact, I am leaning towards spruce,” Morris told the NPS after taking a closer look at the bow. “Birch is also a suspected species, but I did not see any anatomical characteristics that lead me to believe birch over spruce.”

Morris explained that her hypothesis was based solely on what she could see underneath a hand lens and that a concrete identification would require looking at a cut-up sample underneath a microscope.

This is unlikely to happen anytime soon, however, as the NPS wants to preserve the bow and keep it intact for the time being. As NPS archaeologist Jason Rogers explained, these discoveries are rare in Alaska, especially when compared to Europe and other more developed parts of the world. 

“In Alaska, we just don’t have that kind of development so it’s very rare,” Rogers told the local news earlier this week. “It’s very rare for us to come across material like this.”

ASIA, IRAN, WORLD

8,000 years old Stone Tools Found on Iran’s Gav-Bast Mountain

8,000 years old Stone Tools Found on Iran’s Gav-Bast Mountain

Archaeologists have found arrays of stone tools and relics on top of Gav-Bast Mountain, which is situated in southern Iran, north of the Persian Gulf.

Fereidoun Biglari, an archaeologist and cultural deputy of the National Museum of Iran, briefed attendees on the discovery during the 19th Annual Symposium on the Iranian Archaeology held in Tehran.

Gav-Bast Mountain is of great importance in Iranian rock art archaeology due to the existence of a prehistoric rock shelter that contains a hunting scene including archers, animal games, and a large carnivore.

In his lecture, Biglari first reviewed the history of archaeological research in Eshkat-e Ahou Rockshelter, which began with Khaled Sadeghi’s efforts in 2001 that later led to the registration of this prehistoric site in the National Monuments List in 2005 by the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage of Hormozgan.

Regarding his motivation for starting a new study in Gav-Bast Mountain, Biglari said that the focus of previous studies was more on the rock art panel in the shelter itself and the surrounding areas have not been surveyed by archaeologists.

As a result of several short field surveys in 2010 and 2021, which were carried out with the support of the municipality and Bastak Charity Association and the permission of the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research and the General Directorate of Hormozgan Cultural Heritage, new information about prehistoric settlements on these mountain highlands was obtained.

He added that this research proved that Neolithic human groups used natural resources of these highlands- between 1,100 and 1,800 meters above sea level – probably on a seasonal basis about 7,000 – 8,000 years before present.

8,000 years old Stone Tools Found on Iran’s Gav-Bast Mountain
Archaeologists have found arrays of stone tools and relics on top of Gav-Bast Mountain, which is situated in southern Iran, north of the Persian Gulf.

The researcher also spoke about the importance of preservation of the prehistoric motifs of Gav-Bast and the measures taken to document the art and its context, including drone mapping, 3D model of the shelter, and its panel using photogrammetry, and other related measures.

In conclusion, Biglari expressed hope that in the near future, the detailed 3D model of the shelter and its paintings will be displayed in the Bastak Museum and the National Museum of Iran would allow visitors to see this remote site and its painting panel in the museum.

Furthermore, he emphasized that this research would not have been possible without the help and support of the Bastak Municipality and Charity Association.

Gav-Bast Mountain is lined with the Zagros Mountains, extending northwest-southeast from the border areas of eastern Turkey and northern Iraq to the Strait of Hormuz. The Zagros range is about 1,600 km long and more than 240 km wide.

Situated mostly in what is now Iran, it forms the extreme western boundary of the Iranian plateau, though its foothills to the north and west extend into adjacent countries.

The first well-documented evidence of human habitation is in deposits from several excavated cave and rock-shelter sites, located mainly in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and dated to Middle Paleolithic or Mousterian times (c. 100,000 BC).

From the Caspian in the northwest to Baluchistan in the south-east, the Iranian Plateau extends for close to 2,000 km. It encompasses the greater part of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan west of the Indus River containing some 3,700,000 square kilometres.

Despite being called a “plateau”, it is far from flat but contains several mountain ranges, the highest peak being Damavand in the Alborz mountain range at 5610 m, and the Dasht-e Loot east of Kerman in Central Iran falling below 300 m.

SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

How Was Tuberculosis Transmitted in South America?

How Was Tuberculosis Transmitted in South America?

Nearly one-quarter of the world’s population is suspected to have been exposed to the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis, a disease that accounts for the highest global mortality from a bacterial infection.

TB’s global distribution was once viewed as support for its emergence deep in our past, where it was thought to have evolved in Africa tens of thousands of years ago and became distributed throughout the world following migrations with its host. Its ability to infect a number of mammalian species also make it a highly adaptable pathogen.

Analyses of ancient TB genomes have stirred up controversy about when this host-pathogen association began and precisely how TB became globally distributed.

How Was Tuberculosis Transmitted in South America?
South American sea lions at the Ballestas Islands in Peru.

A 2014 study led by research teams at the University of Tübingen and Arizona State University reported on three ancient TB genomes from coastal Peru, which revealed aspects of its history that was incompatible with prevailing assumptions on TB’s origins.

First, rather than identifying one of the well-characterized human-associated strains of the pathogen, the team identified a comparatively rare strain that today infects mostly marine mammals such as seals and sea lions (pinnipeds). In addition, their data suggested that TB was a much younger disease than previously thought, having emerged only sometime in the last 6000 years.

“At the time, we assumed that TB made its way from Africa to the Peruvian coast through travel with infected seal populations,” comments Kirsten Bos of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology who co-led the new study.

“We assumed the source of the infection in Peru had been a zoonosis from seals. It was not clear, though, if the specific TB infection we identified in the three people was a local phenomenon restricted to the area, or whether its distribution was broader”.

TB is an infection well known to specialists in bone lesions and pathology. Paleopathologist Jane Buikstra of Arizona State University has extensively studied human skeletal remains across the Americas, and clear cases of TB infection are easily identified across the continents in the pre-contact period. “We’ve known for decades that a form of TB infection was present in the western coast of South America through the study of human remains.

Now, with 21st-century scientific advances, ancient DNA is the best tool available to investigate the relationships between the TB manifestations we observe osteologically in different parts of the Americas”.

In a study published this week in Nature Communications, the team reports on three new cases of pre-contact era South American TB, this time from human remains that come from inland archaeological sites, two of which are situated in the highlands of the Colombian Andes.

All three people were infected with the marine-associated strain of TB, thus making a simple zoonosis from seals unlikely.

TB’s entry into South America through human exposure to infected seals is still the strongest hypothesis, but how TB was subsequently distributed on land remains an open question. Lead authors Åshild Vågene and Tanvi Honap are confident that these new cases present strong evidence that the TB variant currently found in seals was once able to travel long distances on land.

“The TB bacterium can infect numerous mammalian species, so there are many candidates for its terrestrial dispersal, including humans themselves,” says Vågene.

“Vast trade networks may have played an important role in transporting the pathogen from the coast”. Honap adds that “recovering ancient TB DNA in animal remains from the pre-contact era Americas may one day allow us to explore the transmission chains responsible for bringing this marine variant so far inland”.

Anne Stone of Arizona State University who specializes in the evolutionary history of TB and co-led the current study sees the new results as an opportunity for deeper exploration into the ecology of the disease in the Americas before the colonial period.

“It’s an exciting time in ancient DNA research, as we can now look at genome-level differences in these ancient pathogens and track their movements across continents and beyond.

For TB, the open question is how widespread the seal-associated strain was in human populations of the Americas prior to its replacement by the more virulent strains that arrived with the Europeans.”

EUROPE, PORTUGAL, WORLD

The Mysterious Lapedo Child — A Neanderthal / Human Hybrid?

The Mysterious Lapedo Child — A Neanderthal / Human Hybrid?

A great mystery was unburied in 1998, in the bed of a rock shelter in the Lapedo Valley which lies 85 miles to the north of Lisbon, Portugal. Buried for millennia, archaeologists discovered the bones of a four-year-old Lapedo child, which was the first complete Paleolithic skeleton, dug in the Iberian Peninsula.

What added gravity to the discovery?

The unearthing had far greater significance because, after complete analysis, it was revealed that the child had the lower arms and chin of a human, however, the jaw had the characteristics of a Neanderthal, that is, a subspecies of archaic humans who inhabited the region of Eurasia some 30,000 years ago and went extinct due to a variety of factors related to modern human evolution.

However, some people discredit this theory and claim that Neanderthals mated with the early modern humans, and initially, the genetic combination made them a part of daily life. This theory, however, poses dramatic implications for evolutionary theorists around the globe.

The discovery of the Lapedo Child in a nutshell:

The discovery was revealed in November 1998 by archaeologists João Maurício and Pedro Souto who went to the Lapedo Valley to investigate reports about prehistoric rock paintings which actually came out to be true. In due course of their investigation, they encountered a limestone rock-shelter, the Lagar Velho site.

The upper fill, of two to three meters, had been earlier bulldozed away by the landowner in 1992, which left a remnant of sediment hanging in a fissure along the back of the wall.

The matter of the fact was, this arrangement contained the density of the Upper Palaeolithic age consisting of stone tools, animal bones, and charcoal, making it clear that Lagar Velho had been an important occupation site.

This assumption was confirmed by subsequent excavations, producing radiocarbon dates within the bracket of 23,170 to 20,220 years.

While collecting the external materials that had loosened out from the remnant, João and Pedro investigated a break in the back wall. The loose sediments that were being scrutinized, they found the residues of several small human bones, stained with red ochre. 

This was subsequently found out to be a child’s grave, the sole Palaeolithic burial ever found in the Iberian Peninsula.

The child was buried with the utmost care in a shallow pit, making sure that the head and feet were placed higher than the hips. The body was placed on a burnt Scots pine branch, consisting of a hide covered in red ochre.

The remains of a rabbit were found between the child’s legs along with six other ornaments – four deer teeth which were assumed to be a part of a headdress, two periwinkle shells from the Atlantic, which was also surmised to have been a part of a pendant.

The mystery of the lapedo child uncovered:

For the task of retrieving the remnants of the lapedo child’s body, an excavation project was launched. The work was immensely tedious since the petite roots of the plants had penetrated into the spongy bones. About 160 cranial fragments were recovered after the sediments were sieved, which accounted for 80 percent of the total skull.

The bulldozer had hampered the skull but luckily missed the remaining body by two centimeters. If not, humankind wouldn’t have been subjected to such a great discovery.

The skeletal residues, post the recovery process, were sent to anthropologist Erik Trinkaus from Washington University for further analysis.

The astonishing discovery was then made. Erik found that the proportions of the lower limbs did not resemble those of a modern human, but rather, it had the characteristics of a Neanderthal. The entire skull, on the other hand, was modern in shape, as in the features of its inner ears and teeth. Although the skull resembled the features of a contemporary human, one peculiarity was noticed, a pitting in the occipital region which is a genetic trait of Neanderthals.

It was concluded by Trinkaus that the Lapedo child was a hybrid of Neanderthals and modern humans, a kind of morphological mosaic.

However, a debate arose following this conclusion. Researchers were of the view that these two forms of human are not thought to have coexisted later than 28,000 years ago in Iberia. Then how can the child consist of features of both? This debate got heated among the experts, some of whom accepted that the detection of the Lapedo child meant that Neanderthals interbred with modern humans, while others continue to hold on to the traditional view that the Neanderthals were wiped out and were replaced by another species.

In the contemporary era, the most popular theory which exists is that the remains of the child are those of an anatomically modern human with genetically inherited Neanderthal traits, which summarises that the last Neanderthals of Iberia had a role to play in contributing to the gene pool of subsequent populations.

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Carved stone pillar found on B.C. beach identified as an Indigenous artefact

Carved stone pillar found on B.C. beach identified as an Indigenous artifact

A carved stone pillar found at low tide on a beach in Victoria last summer is an Indigenous cultural treasure, the Royal B.C. Museum has confirmed.

Carved stone pillar found on B.C. beach identified as an Indigenous artifact
The stone could be the same one mentioned by Lekwungen elders to German-American anthropologist Franz Boas in the late 1800s.

The museum is working with the Songhees and Esquimalt First Nations to determine the most suitable home for the pillar carved with the features of a face, Songhees Chief Ron Sam said in an interview on Wednesday.

Over the years, many artefacts have been unearthed in the area, he said, but nothing has matched the 100-kilogram stone pillar.

“I can’t wait to find out more information from our elders,” said Sam, noting interactions with elders are limited now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said Songhees and Esquimalt elders will guide the decision-making around whether and how the stone pillar may be displayed publicly.

A local resident, Bernhard Spalteholz, received a tip about the carved stone found along the beach below Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park last July and shared photos with the museum, said the museum’s archaeology curator Grant Keddie.

“I right away realized, my gosh, this is exciting,” Keddie said of the find.

Spalteholz did the right thing by contacting the museum to ensure it would be properly cared for, said both Keddie and Sam.

A local resident, Bernhard Spalteholz, received a tip about the carved stone found along the beach below Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park last July and shared photos with the museum, said the museum’s archaeology curator Grant Keddie.

Pillar may have stood at the edge of a cliff

Conservationists worked to protect the integrity of the stone, which was covered in algae after being submerged in seawater, said Keddie.

He speculates the pillar once stood near the edge of a cliff above the beach where it was found until parts of the cliff came down in a landslide.

“I think possibly some storm had turned [the stone] up,” he said. “It may have been buried further out to sea covered with seaweed and maybe only in recent years was shifted up onto this beach and then exposed.”

Radiocarbon dating is effective only on organic items such as bone and wood, but written and oral histories can provide insight into the stone’s significance, said Keddie.

It’s very likely a special stone that was used in rituals and ceremonies, he said, explaining that Coast Salish peoples had “weather specialists.”

They were believed to have “special powers to draw the salmon in when they were late, or you could undertake rituals [with] certain stones to change the weather to make it good for fishing, to make it worse for your enemies,” he said.

The stone could be the same one mentioned by Lekwungen elders to German-American anthropologist Franz Boas in the late 1800s, said Keddie.

“Indigenous elders told this very brief little one-liner about these stone figures down near Finlayson Point, right where this thing was found.”

The location of the discovery matches Boas’ description of that figure as being “not far” from the military gun batteries once found nearby, he said.

“I always wonder, are there more of them out there?” Keddie added.

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ancient Coast Salish war club discovered in Vancouver Island man’s backyard

Ancient Coast Salish war club discovered in Vancouver Island man’s backyard

Mark Lake found a little piece of history in his backyard while cleaning up after a storm last April.

Ancient Coast Salish war club discovered in Vancouver Island man's backyard
Mark Lake found the Indigenous artefact on his property while cleaning up after a storm, and brought it to the K’omoks First Nation.

Lake, of Gartley Point near the seaside village of Royston in Vancouver Island, came across an interesting piece of wood sticking out from under his maple tree — which turned out to be an ancient Coast Salish war club.

After friends saw pictures of it, they directed Lake to the K’omoks First Nation.

Chief Nicole Rempel of the K’omoks First Nation says it was pretty exciting.

“I’ve worked with various people repatriating artefacts since 2013 for our nation and I hadn’t seen a piece like this, completely intact,” she said.

From left, Mark Lake, Chief Nicole Rempel and Mark’s wife Katie Lake. Rempel says the K’omoks First Nation is working with an archaeologist to learn more about the club, which she’s holding in this photo.

Rempel says the club is quite significant to the nation’s culture and that it’s always exciting when something can be returned to its “rightful place.”

“It helps us understand more about our ancestors in the way that we live, the tools that we created,” she said.

Mark and Katie Lake with Chief Nicole Rempel (right). Rempel says the artefact will help the K’omoks First Nation better understand its ancestors and history.

“It truly must have been a labour of love to have made something so intricate, and with so little tools, back in those times, so it really gives us a bit more information about who we were, who our ancestors were in the past,” she said.

Lake says he’s just as excited about returning the artefact and learning more about it from the nation.

“They’ve been very open with exchanging any information they have gleaned on it as to its history and where it may have come from and so that’s reward enough for us and we really enjoyed being part of the process,” he said on CBC’s All Points West.

Rempel says they are working with an archaeologist to determine more about the artefact.

“We can do some geotechnical testing on the club, or geochemistry, which would figure out what kind of stone it was made of and what region it came from or whether it was traded,” she said.

Rempel says what Lake did was commendable, as many people who find things like this don’t always bring them forward.

“I just really encourage everyone that finds an artefact or ancestral remains for that matter to reach out to the local Indigenous communities because it’s really just building our database of knowledge and identifying who we are and who we were,” she said.