Archaeology breakthrough: 3,600-year-old ‘time capsule’ exposes ancient disaster
The time capsule was preserved by the volcanic eruption of Santorini that rocked the Mediterranean and changed the course of history. It now may be the first instance of physical remains unearthed from among one of the tens of thousands of people who likely perished.
The international team of researchers published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In it, they presented evidence of a catastrophic tsunami that followed the eruption of Thera, in modern Santorini, a volcanic island in the Aegean Sea, some 3,600 years ago.
The volcanic eruption of Santorini is still regarded as one of the most devastating eruptions in human history.
It was rated at a seven or an eight on the volcanic explosivity index, which marks it as a “super-colossal” explosion that only occurs once in thousands of years.
Archaeology breakthrough: 3,600-year-old ‘time capsule’ exposes ancient disaster
Santorini is essentially what remains after an enormous volcanic explosion that destroyed the earlie
Volcanoes of this size have smoke plums to reach 25 kilometres in height and spread over hundreds of kilometres.
Some researchers have compared the volcano to the detonation of millions of Hiroshima-type atomic bombs.
Scholars also believe that the traumatic memory caused by this eruption may also be responsible for many of humanities’ myths and legends.
They believe that the Bronze age ever, occurring in 1600 BC, could be seen in Plato’s allegory of the sunken city of Atlantis, which was composed more than a thousand years later.
Illustration of the Santorini group in the Aegean Sea
The devastation of the event has also been linked to the biblical Ten Plagues, as volcanic eruptions frequently cause hailstorms, unending darkness, and moist atmospheres well suited for locusts.
The researchers have been excavating at the archaeological site of Çesme-Bağlararası, which is located in the popular resort town of Çesme on Turkey’s Aegean coast and more than 100 miles north-northeast of Santorini.
Archaeologists have been digging in the area since 2009 at a site that appeared to be a thriving coastal settlement that occupied almost continuously from the mid-third millennium to the 13th century BC.
Aside from some well-preserved buildings and roads that were previously uncovered, the researchers found a lot of artefacts that were in a pretty damaged shape.
Neanderthal Hand Axe Results in Steppe Mammoth Graveyard
Archaeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five prehistoric mammoths at a site ‘where cave-dwellers dined 215,000 years ago after finding a Neanderthal axe in a Cotswolds field. Experts discovered the remains of five of the animals – two adults, two juveniles and an infant – at a quarry near Swindon.
Digging at the site began after two keen fossil hunters, Sally and Neville Hollingworth, spotted a Neanderthal hand axe at the site. Experts from DigVentures then went on to find remains belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth.
Other discoveries at the site included delicate beetle wings and fragile freshwater snail shells as well as stone tools from the Neanderthal age.
The site will feature in Attenborough And The Mammoth Graveyard (above) on BBC1 on December 30
The site will feature in Attenborough And The Mammoth Graveyard on BBC1 on December 30.
Sir David Attenborough will join Professor Ben Garrod and archaeologists from DigVentures to learn why the mammoths were there and how they died.
The discovery of the Neanderthal tools could mean the site was a ‘massive buffet’, according to experts.
Prof Garrod, of the University of East Anglia, said: ‘This is gold dust. It could be that Neanderthals were camping there, maybe they caused the deaths of these animals, chasing them into the mud and enjoying a massive buffet.’
‘Maybe they found them there already and got a free meal,’ he told the Telegraph.
‘If the lab shows the cut-marks are human-made, our site will be one of the oldest scientifically excavated sites with Neanderthals butchering mammoths in Britain.’
Steppe mammoths lived from approximately a 1.8million years ago to about 200,000 years ago. Lisa Westcott Wilkins, from DigVentures, said: ‘Finding mammoth bones is always extraordinary, but finding ones that are so old and well preserved, and in such close proximity to Neanderthal stone tools is exceptional.
‘Words can’t quite capture the thrill of seeing a mammoth tusk still in the ground or the feeling of standing in the middle of a site that has the potential to change how we see our closest human relatives and the Ice Age megafauna they shared their world with.’
Hundreds of steppe mammoth bones have been discovered – tusks, enamel, leg bones, in addition to stone instruments, together with a stone hand axe (proper).
Experts from DigVentures then went on to find remains belonging to a species of Steppe mammoth, an ancestor of the Woolly mammoth
The discovery of the Neanderthal tools could mean the site was a ‘massive buffet’, according to experts
Ms Hollingworth, of Swindon, told the BBC: ‘We were originally hoping to find marine fossils, and finding something so significant instead has been a real thrill.
‘Even better than that is seeing it turn into a major archaeological excavation
‘We couldn’t be more pleased that something we’ve discovered will be learned from and enjoyed by so many people.’
Research is ongoing to understand why so many mammoths were found in one place, and whether they were hunted or scavenged by Neanderthals.
Duncan Wilson, Chief Executive of Historic England, said: ‘This represents one of Britain’s most significant Ice Age discoveries in recent years.
‘The findings have enormous value for understanding the human occupation of Britain, and the delicate environmental evidence recovered will also help us understand it in the context of past climate change.’
DigVentures is a team of archaeologists who also organise archaeological digs that are open to members of the public to join.
A large Roman fort built by Caligula discovered near Amsterdam
A large Roman fort believed to have played a key role in the successful invasion of Britain in AD43 has been discovered on the Dutch coast. A Roman legion of “several thousand” battle-ready soldiers were stationed in Velsen, 20 miles from Amsterdam, on the banks of the Oer-IJ, a northern branch of the Rhine, research suggests.
An illustration of the first Roman fort in Velsen. Archaeological evidence was first uncovered in 1945 by schoolchildren who found shards of pottery in an abandoned German anti-tank trench.
Dr Arjen Bosman, the archaeologist behind the findings, said the evidence pointed to Velsen, or Flevum in Latin, having been the empire’s most northernly castra (fortress) built to keep a Germanic tribe, known as the Chauci, at bay as the invading Roman forces prepared to cross from Boulogne in France to England’s southern beaches.
The fortified camp appears to have been established by Emperor Caligula (AD12 to AD41) in preparation for his failed attempt to take Britannia in about AD40 but was then successfully developed and exploited by his successor, Claudius, for his own invasion in AD43.
Roman emperor Caligula is thought to have established the fort at Velsen.
Bosman said: “We know for sure Caligula was in the Netherlands as there are markings on wooden wine barrels with the initials of the emperor burnt in, suggesting that these came from the imperial court.
“What Caligula came to do were the preparations for invading England – to have the same kind of military achievement as Julius Caesar – but to invade and remain there. He couldn’t finish the job as he was killed in AD41 and Claudius took over where he left off in AD43.
“We have found wooden planks underneath the watchtower or the gate of the fort, and this is the phase just before the invasion of England. The wooden plank has been dated in the winter of AD42/43. That is a lovely date. I jumped in the air when I heard it.”
Claudius’s invading forces, untouched by the Germanic tribes, made their landing in Kent and by the summer of AD43, the emperor was confident enough to travel to Britain, entering Camulodunum (Colchester) in triumph to receive the submission of 12 chieftains.
Within three years, the Romans had claimed the whole of “Britannia” as part of their empire.
Bosman said: “The main force came from Boulogne and Calais, but the northern flank of that attack had to be covered and it was covered by the fort in Velsen. The Germanic threat comes up in Roman literature several times.
“It was an early warning system to the troops in France. It didn’t matter what the Germanic tribes put in the field as there was a legion there.”
The first evidence of a Roman fort in Velsen, North-Holland, had been uncovered in 1945 by schoolchildren who found shards of pottery in an abandoned German anti-tank trench. The research was undertaken in the 1950s during the building of the Velsertunnel, under the Nordzeekanaal, and archaeological excavations took place in the 1960s and 70s.
In 1997, Bosman’s discovery of Roman ditches in three places, and a wall and a gate were thought sufficient evidence for the area to become a state-protected archaeological site. But at this stage, the Velsen camp, identified as having been used between AD39 and AD47, was thought to have been small.
This theory was complemented by the discovery in 1972 of an earlier fort, known as Velsen 1, which is believed to have been in operation from AD15 to AD30. A thoroughgoing excavation of that site found it had been abandoned following the revolt of the Frisians, the Germanic ethnic group indigenous to the coastal regions of the Netherlands. Archaeologists discovered human remains in some former wells, a tactic used by retreating Romans to poison the waters.
The existence of the two forts within a few hundred metres of each other had led researchers to believe for decades that they were both likely to have been mere castellum, minor military camps of just one or two hectares.
It was only in November, through piecing together features of the later Veslen fort that were noted in the 1960s and 70s, but not recognised at the time as Roman, and taking into account his own archaeological findings over the last quarter of a century, that a new understanding was reached.
“It is not one or two hectares like the first fort in Velsen, but at least 11 hectares,” Bosman said. “We always thought it was the same size but that is not true. It was a legionary fortress and that’s something completely different.”
Bosman added: “Up to this year I wondered about the number of finds at Velsen 2, a lot of military material, a lot of weapons, long daggers, javelins, far more than we found on Velsen 1.
“And we know there was a battle at Velsen 1, and on a battlefield you find weapons. The number of weapons at Velsen 2 can only be explained in a legionary context. Several thousand men were occupying this fort.
“At 11 hectares, this would not be a complete fort for a full legion of 5,000 to 6,000 men but we don’t where it ends in the north and so it could have been larger.”
The Velsen 2 fort was abandoned in AD47 after Claudius ordered all his troops to retreat behind the Rhine. Roman rule of Britain ended around AD410 as the empire began to collapse in response to internal fighting and the ever-growing threats from Germanic tribes.
Traces of 2,250-Year-Old Settlement Found in England
The foundations of an Iron Age settlement have been uncovered during work to build a new roundabout. The discoveries, including pottery dating back about 2,250 years, came to light at the site of a junction near Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire.
The Iron Age site came to light during work to build a roundabout near Upton-upon-Severn, Worcestershire
In August and September digs took place after surveys showed Iron Age remains might be found there.
The finds give a “vital glimpse” into life at the time, archaeologist Robin Jackson said.
The site was first spotted on aerial photos during the planning stage to improve the junction of the A38 and A4104, the county council said.
The discovery gives archaeologists a “vital glimpse” into Iron Age life, one expert said
An initial investigation turned up the pottery which showed the site had been occupied between 300 and 100BC.
Archaeologists also found a large ditched enclosure at the heart of the area which they believe may have been used to protect and distribute cereal harvests.
Only about a third of the site had been explored as excavations were restricted to the area disturbed by work for the roundabout, Mr Jackson said.
“It has given us a vital glimpse into what life would have been like in the Iron Age”, he added and said more analysis of the findings will take place in 2022.
Only a third of the settlement has been excavated as this is the area disturbed by the roundabout work
Previous roadworks have uncovered other archaeological finds in the county.
Musket balls and belt buckles were among English Civil War artefacts from the Battle of Worcester in 1651, unearthed during work on the A4440 Southern Link Road, Worcester, in 2019.
Water Surprise: Ancient Aqueduct Unearthed At Edge Of Roman Empire
Archaeologists have unearthed what they say is the easternmost aqueduct built by the Roman Empire. Researchers from the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and from the University of Münster in Germany said they discovered the remains of the arched aqueduct in the ancient Armenian city of Artaxata.
Excavation of the aqueduct began in 2019, and the University of Münster released a statement this month detailing the findings of a study published in the journal Archäologischer Anzeiger.
Professor Achim Lichtenberger of the University of Münster said Romans constructed the aqueduct between A.D. 114 and 117.
Samples taken from the soil near the construction site were dated to between A.D. 60 and 460. This led the researchers to conclude that the aqueduct was most likely built under the reign of Emperor Trajan, during which the Roman Empire reached its territorial peak.
Trajan was considered a successful military ruler who oversaw the second-greatest military expansion in the history of the Roman Empire, after Augustus.
Torben Schreiber, the paper’s co-author, said that the construction was never actually completed, as Trajan died in A.D. 117 and the next emperor, Hadrian, gave up the province of Armenia, leaving the aqueduct half-completed.
The excavation area in Artaxata, Armenia, where researchers found what they say is the easternmost aqueduct built by the Roman Empire, with Mount Ararat visible behind it just over the modern border in Turkey.
Hadrian ruled from A.D. 117 to 138 and abandoned many of his predecessor’s expansionist military campaigns including the one in Armenia, resulting in disapproval from much of the empire’s elite.
He is known in Britain for having built Hadrian’s Wall, which served as a marker for the northernmost point of Roman-controlled Britannia.
Aqueducts were a cornerstone of Roman cities and towns, used to bring water into the populated territories from the surrounding areas.
German and Armenian experts used a variety of methods drawn from the fields of geophysics, archaeology, and geochemistry in the excavation work.
Geomagnetic examinations were carried out to locate areas of interest in Artaxata, then samples were taken using drills to pinpoint the aqueduct’s location. Mkrtich Zardaryan, a co-author of the study, said satellite and infrared imagery was then used to chart the path of the aqueduct’s pillars.
“We reconstructed the planned course of the aqueduct by means of a computer-assisted path analysis between the possible sources of the water and its destination,” he said.
The researchers concluded from the findings that the incomplete aqueduct in Armenia is evidence of the empire’s failure to expand into the region.
Detectorist finds 10,000 Roman coins in Huntingdon hoard
A hoard of almost 10,000 Roman coins has been found in two pottery containers, nested inside each other “a bit like Russian dolls”. They were discovered by a metal detectorist in a field near Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in spring 2018.
All the 9,724 coins were made of base metal and were probably hidden at a time of turmoil in the wake of the 3rd Century breakaway empire.
The “muddy hoard” was taken to the British Museum for conservation.
The coins were removed from the pot in three layers
The county’s finds liaison officer Helen Fowler said the detectorist initially unearthed one copper-alloy coin.
“Then a few more were found and as the number of signals from the detector increased, so did the concentration of the spread of the coins,” she said.
“Before the end of the day the finder had dug down and seen the top of a hoard of coins.”
Other Gallic Empire emperors include Postumus, Tetricus I and II, Victorinus, Marcus Aurelius Marius and Domitanus II
The detectorist, who had the landowner’s permission for the search, promptly covered it up and reported the find.
Miss Fowler and the British Museum’s Dr Andrew Brown spent two days excavating the hoard, which had originally been hidden in two pottery containers, “one nested directly inside the other, a bit like Russian dolls”, she said.
She suspects the inner pot had started to crack under the weight of the coins, so a second larger pot was required.
The experts nicknamed it the “muddy hoard”, she added.
The find took two days to excavate before being taken to the British Museum for sorting and conservation
The coins date to AD251-74 and are believed to have been hidden in the wake of the reconquest of the breakaway Gallic Empire.
It had been established in AD260 and ruled Britain, Gaul (roughly modern-day France) and Spain until Emperor Aurelian reunited the Empire in AD274.
Now the hoard has been declared treasure by Cambridgeshire Coroner’s Court, it is awaiting independent valuation.
Two Cambridgeshire museums have expressed interest in acquiring the hoard.
British Museum experts said most of the coins were imitations, made at a time when official coinage was in short supply
A Corinthian Helmet from the Battle of Marathon found with the warrior’s skull Inside
The Corinthian helmet type is one of the most immediately recognisable types of helmet, romantically associated with the great heroes of Ancient Greece, even by the Ancient Greeks themselves who rapidly moved to helmet types with better visibility, but still depicted their heroes in these helmets.
In modern portrayals of Ancient Greek warriors, it is always the Corinthian type that is depicted, although often modified to suit the look desired – for instance in one movie the helmet was modified to expose more of the face of the actor.
It was a helmet made of bronze which in its later styles covered the entire head and neck, with slits for the eyes and mouth. A large curved projection protected the nape of the neck. Out of combat, a Greek hoplite would wear the helmet tipped upward for comfort.
This practice gave rise to a series of variant forms in Italy, where the slits were almost closed since the helmet was no longer pulled over the face but worn cap-like.
Although the classical Corinthian helmet fell out of use among the Greeks in favour of more open types, the Italo-Corinthian types remained in use until the 1st century AD, being used, among others, by the Roman army.
This helmet was excavated by George Nugent-Grenville, 2nd Baron Nugent of Carlanstown, on the Plain of Marathon in 1834, according to letters from Sutton dated 2 & 20 August 1826.
Mound (Soros) in which the Athenian dead were buried after the battle.
2,500 years earlier, on the morning of September 17, 490 BC, some 10,000 Greeks stood assembled on the plain of Marathon, preparing to fight to the last man. Behind them lay everything they held dear: their city, their homes, their families. In front of the outnumbered Greeks stood the assembled forces of the Persian empire, a seemingly invincible army with revenge, pillage and plunder on its mind.
The two sides faced each other directly, waiting for the fight to start. The Athenians stalled for days, anticipating reinforcements promised by Sparta. But they knew they could not wait for long.
The Persians, expecting as easy a victory as they had won against enemies so many times before, were in no hurry.
The Greeks, knowing the time for battle had come, began to move forward. Ostensibly, they advanced with focus and purpose, but beneath this firm veneer, as they looked on a vastly larger enemy — at least twice their number — many must have been fearful of what was to come.
The Persian archers sat with their bows drawn, ready to loose a barrage of arrows that would send fear and confusion through the Greek ranks. Eventually, though, the infantry on both sides engaged in battle. Moving towards each other and perhaps with the Greeks running the final 400 metres whilst undoubtedly under fire from the Persian archers, the two armies clashed.
A few hours later the bloody battle ended. Herodotus records that 6,400 Persian bodies were counted on the battlefield, and it is unknown how many more perished in the swamps. The Athenians lost 192 men and the Plataeans 11.
Pheidippides giving the word of victory at the Battle of Marathon
One final legend of Marathon and one which has carried its name up to the present day is Herodotus’ account of a long-distance messenger (hēmerodromos) named Phidippides.
He was sent to enlist the help of the Spartans before the battle and he ran to Sparta, first stopping at Athens, a total distance of 240 km (a feat repeated by an athlete in 1983 CE).
Later sources, starting with Plutarch in the 1st century CE, confuse this story with another messenger sent from Marathon after the battle to announce victory and warn of the Persian fleet’s imminent arrival in Athens.
In any case, it was from this second legend that a race – covering the same distance as the 42 kilometres between Marathon and Athens – was established in the first revival of the Olympic Games in 1896 CE to commemorate ancient Greek sporting ideals and the original games at Olympia.
Fittingly, the first marathon race was won by a Greek, Spiridon Louis.
Here is the list of top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2021
Archaeology is the closest thing we have to a time machine. Instead of using flux capacitors, however, archaeologists rely on technology like ground-penetrating radar, scanning electron microscopes, DNA sequencing, and of course, the good-old-fashioned shovel.
Equipped with the right tools and techniques, the work of these scientists allows us to reconstruct the past and imagine things as they once were.
Years from now, when we look back on the year that was 2021, archaeology won’t be the first thing that comes to mind. But that’s not to say it wasn’t a good year for this important scientific discipline, here is the list of the 10 most prominent archaeological discoveries to hit the headlines in 2021.
10. Slave Tag
A tag worn by an enslaved person who was hired out by his or her enslaver has been discovered in the remnants of a mid-nineteenth-century kitchen on the campus of the College of Charleston. Such tags, which were issued from the late eighteenth century until 1865, bore registration numbers and identified enslaved people by their trades, such as carpenter, blacksmith, fisherman, or domestic servant. This example, badge number 731, dates to 1853 and is stamped with the word “servant.”
While other southern cities had similar hired labour arrangements, Charleston is the only one that produced such tags, says archaeologist R. Grant Gilmore III of the College of Charleston. “What is uncommon about this discovery is that this object was found in context, unlike many other examples now in the hands of private collectors that have no provenance,” he says. “An enslaved person living in the house may have discarded the tag in the hearth, or someone on loan from across town may have lost it one day.” Property records for the kitchen and those who worked in it may help connect the object with specific enslaved individuals. “These objects are emblematic of urban slavery and the way it worked in Charleston,” says Bernard Powers, a College of Charleston historian. “You have a designation of an occupation and a connection to an individual that breaks through an amorphous group of enslaved humanity and allows for an identity and a personhood to emerge.”
9. Crusader Mass Grave
A mass burial containing the remains of at least 25 soldiers who were killed defending Christian-held Sidon during the Crusades was uncovered during excavations close to the town’s Saint Louis Castle. Archaeologists uncovered a belt buckle of a style worn by French-speaking Crusaders, as well as a coin dating to between 1245 and 1250. These objects led them to conclude that the men were likely killed during a 1253 attack by an army of the Mamluk Sultanate, an Islamic empire that spanned Egypt, much of the Levant, and part of the Arabian Peninsula from 1250 to 1517. Bournemouth University archaeologist Richard Mikulski says the large number of wounds to the men’s necks suggests they were killed by assailants on horseback wielding heavy medieval weapons, such as swords, axes, and war clubs or maces, possibly while fleeing. This is one of only two archaeologically documented mass burials of Crusaders. “For a period that is meant to be so full of violence and conflict,” says Mikulski, “we actually have very little physical evidence of battle from the Crusades.”
8. When the Vikings Crossed the Atlantic
When a settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows, at the northern tip of Newfoundland, was first excavated in the 1960s, the style of its buildings made clear they were constructed by Vikings who had arrived from Greenland in the tenth or eleventh century. But exactly when they made their voyage, becoming the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic Ocean, was a matter of debate. Now, a team of researchers led by Margot Kuitems of the University of Groningen has used a new method of dating wood associated with the settlement to determine precisely when the Vikings were there. The researchers took advantage of a rare solar storm that occurred in A.D. 992, significantly increasing the amount of radioactive carbon-14 absorbed by trees the next year. By identifying the tree ring containing elevated levels of radiocarbon in each of three wood samples and then counting the number of rings to the bark edge of the wood, they found that the wood all came from trees that had been felled in A.D. 1021.
The Vikings do not appear to have intended to colonize L’Anse aux Meadows, says Birgitta Wallace, a retired Parks Canada archaeologist who has worked at the site for decades. “It was a base for further exploration, a gateway to other sites,” she says. “They were going to see what there was in this new territory that could benefit them.” Among the coveted resources they collected from farther south, most likely from present-day New Brunswick, were hardwood lumber, butternuts, and possibly even grapes. After a decade or so, the Vikings headed back across the seas. “They decided, ‘It is very good land, but there is danger here because of the Indigenous people,’” says Wallace, “‘so we’ll go home to Greenland and stay there.’”
7. Rare Boundary Marker
A rare stone that once demarcated the boundary of ancient Rome’s sacred precinct was unearthed by workers renovating the city’s sewer system. The six-foot-tall limestone block was found embedded in the ground where it had been placed almost 2,000 years ago and is one of only 10 of its kind ever discovered. The marker, which is known as a cippus, was one of the dozens that were installed around the city to mark the pomerium, a hallowed zone where activities were dictated by a strict set of rules. For example, no one could be buried within its limits, and crossing the boundary bearing arms was forbidden. This symbolic barrier was the border between Rome proper—the urbs—and its outlying territory—the ager—and separated religious activities from civic and military life.
The pomerium was periodically expanded as Rome grew outward from its original core. Roman legend holds that Romulus, the city’s mythical founder, created the original pomerium in the eighth century B.C. around his fledgling settlement. An inscription on the newly discovered cippus indicates it was erected in A.D. 49 when the emperor Claudius (r. A.D. 41–54) significantly redrew the city’s limits.
6. Bronze Age Map
When a team of researchers led by Clément Nicolas, an archaeologist at Bournemouth University, first saw archival photographs of a broken schist slab held at France’s National Archaeology Museum, they were intrigued. Because the seven-by-five-foot slab was carved with repeated motifs linked by a network of lines, they suspected it might be some sort of map. The slab had been excavated in 1900 from a barrow in Brittany, where it formed one of the walls of a stone tomb dating to the end of the Early Bronze Age, from roughly 1900 to 1640 B.C. The artefact, which weighs more than a ton, had been in storage for over a century when Nicolas and his colleagues, including Yvan Pailler of the University of Western Brittany and France’s National Institute of Preventive Archaeological Research, retrieved it to take a closer look.
The archaeologists recognized that a triangular hollow at the slab’s left edge resembles the shape of the Odet River Valley near where it was discovered. A square motif in this hollow appears to represent a prominent granite mass in the landscape. Likewise, the lines on the slab closely match the area’s river network. Nicolas’ team concluded that the slab is a map of an area measuring some 19 miles by 13 miles and that it dates to approximately 2150 to 1600 B.C. “This is the oldest map of a territory that we can recognize in Europe,” says Nicolas. A motif in the centre of the slab may mark an enclosure, leading the researchers to suggest that the map depicts the realm of a small Bronze Age kingdom and that its purpose was to stake a claim to this territory.
5. Oldest Animal Art
Twelve panels depicting images of camels and wild donkeys are now known to be the oldest life-size animal reliefs in the world. By using techniques such as analyzing tool marks and erosion, as well as radiocarbon dating associated artefacts, researchers have dated the reliefs at what is known as the Camel Site to the middle of the sixth millennium B.C.—some 5,000 years earlier than they had originally thought. During the Neolithic period (ca. 8000–3000 B.C.), northern Arabia was much wetter than it is now, and nomads herded sheep, cattle, and goats and hunted abundant wildlife. Animals would have had a crucial role in the herders’ existence, which may help explain why they created the massive reliefs.
Archaeologist Maria Guagnin of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History explains that the site was clearly used for centuries, and possibly even millennia and new reliefs were periodically added or old ones re-carved when details began to fade. “I wonder if the site was visited regularly, but reliefs were only added on special occasions,” she says. “Or was it only visited for special occasions, when new reliefs were added or existing ones repaired?” Guagnin has no question, however, regarding the mastery displayed by the Neolithic artists, who worked high atop cliffs where they would never have been able to see the entire animal while carving it. “The level of naturalism and detail is astonishing,” she says, “and the technical skill and community effort involved in the creation of these reliefs is evidence of the importance of rock art in the social and symbolic life of the Neolithic herders of northern Arabia.”
4. The First Americans
Over the past two decades, archaeologists have discovered a number of sites that show that people first arrived in the Americas as early as 16,000 years ago. Some scholars have explored sites that have yielded even earlier dates, but other researchers have questioned the legitimacy of these discoveries, arguing that artefacts recovered from them are not unambiguously the work of human hands. Now, radiocarbon dating of material associated with fossilized human footprints at White Sands National Park has shown that people were living in North America up to 23,000 years ago.
The prints are part of hundreds of fossilized human trackways archaeologists have found at the park that was left in what were once muddy surfaces surrounding an extinct lake. A team including Cornell University archaeologist Tommy Urban identified a series of such trackways, left mainly by teenagers and younger children, that were superimposed on top of each other over the course of millennia. Radiocarbon dating of aquatic plant seeds found below and above six of these trackways shows they were created between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. “Scholars can question whether a stone or bone artefact was actually shaped by humans,” says Urban, “but there’s no mistaking who made a human footprint.”
3. Earliest Leatherworkers
While sorting through some 12,000 bone fragments excavated from Contrebandiers Cave near the Atlantic coast of Morocco, archaeologist Emily Hallett of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History noticed that some were smooth and shiny, as if they had been intentionally shaped by human hands. Upon consultation with colleagues, she determined that 62 of the fragments are bone tools dating to between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago. These include a number of tools made from animal rib bones of a type well known for its use in fur and leatherworking. “Once you have an animal skin, there are a lot of steps that have to be taken to process it so it’s supple, smooth, and ready to wear,” says Hallett. “These tools remove the connective tissues and fats from the skin without piercing and damaging it.”
Amid the assemblage, Hallett also identified bones of carnivores such as sand foxes, golden jackals, and wildcats that had marks indicating they had been skinned for their hides or fur. Together, the carnivore bones and bone tools appear to provide the earliest known evidence of people making clothes. This fits well with previous genetic studies of clothing lice that suggested clothing was first worn by humans in Africa up to 170,000 years ago. Hallett says it’s also possible that people at Contrebandiers Cave produced leather to string small beads together to make symbolic personal ornaments. Pierced shells from the snail genus Nassarius dating to around the same time as the bones have also been found in the cave.
2. World’s First Artists
The world’s earliest rock art may have been made by two creative children who lived in Tibet between 226,000 and 169,000 years ago. The young artists, probably either Neanderthals or members of the related Denisovan species, left a series of closely grouped handprints and footprints on an outcrop of a type of limestone called travertine. Travertine, which builds up around mineral springs, is initially soft enough to hold impressions. These can eventually harden after the spring changes course. Other ancient prints have been found preserved in travertine near the hot spring where the children’s prints were discovered, says Guangzhou University geologist and environmental archaeologist David Zhang. “The local people associate them with the Buddha,” he says, “but they were puzzled by these prints because they are so small.”
Zhang and his colleagues used uranium-series dating, which examines trace amounts of uranium and thorium in calcium carbonate deposits such as travertine, to determine when the prints were left on the outcropping’s surface. Since uranium decays to thorium at a known rate, the researchers were able to calculate the age of the travertine from the ratio of the two elements. “I was shocked by the date,” says Zhang. “They are so early and there is no utilitarian explanation for how they are grouped together. They had to have been deliberately composed.” Zhang acknowledges that some might consider the prints childish doodles rather than true art. “What is play and what is art?” he asks. “We think these prints are both.”
1 Golden City
A settlement that was buried beneath the sand for thousands of years—and eluded archaeologists for centuries—is believed to be one of the largest ancient Egyptian cities ever unearthed. The site was discovered by a stroke of good luck when archaeologists began searching for the mortuary temple of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun (r. ca. 1336–1327 B.C.) along the west bank of the Nile in Luxor. What they found instead was a well-preserved urban settlement filled with houses, streets, and walls, some of which still stand 10 feet tall. Hieroglyphic inscriptions indicate the city was called tehn Aten, or “dazzling” Aten, and that it was founded by Tutankhamun’s grandfather Amenhotep III (r. ca. 1390–1352 B.C.). “I call this the ‘Golden City’ because it dates to the reign of Amenhotep III, which was the golden age of ancient Egypt,” says project director Zahi Hawass.
Aten was Egypt’s main administrative and industrial center. The city’s remarkable state of preservation is providing researchers with an unprecedented view of life there more than 3,000 years ago. Although only about one-third of the site has been excavated thus far, archaeologists have uncovered houses containing everyday objects including ceramic vessels, children’s dolls, and limestone gaming pieces. They have also identified bakeries, kitchens, and other areas associated with food production, as well as a vessel containing more than 20 pounds of dried meat prepped by a butcher named Luwy. There are also workshops that produced mudbricks and decorative amulets, and a residential and administrative neighbourhood that was encircled by distinctive zigzag walls. Scholars do not yet understand why Aten fell into decline, but it may have been abandoned when Amenhotep III’s son, Akhenaten (r. ca. 1349–1336 B.C.), moved the Egyptian capital from Luxor to Amarna, 250 miles away.
