All posts by Archaeology World Team

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

157-year-old Civil War Shell Discovered Intact in Georgia

157-year-old Civil War Shell Discovered Intact in Georgia

A group of archaeologists poking around in the dirt at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield in Georgia stumbled upon an intact Civil War bomb, according to the Southeast Archeological Center.

157-year-old Civil War Shell Discovered Intact in Georgia
A team of archaeologists working at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park in Georgia found a 10-pound Parrott shell from the Civil War buried in the dirt.

The bomb was deemed still viable, and the Cobb County Police Department Bomb Squad was summoned to the site, just west of Marietta.

“After examination and review, the Civil War-era explosive was moved to the bunker for storage until the bomb squad can counter charge the cannon shell,” the Cobb County Police Department wrote in a Feb. 28 Facebook post.

“This 157-year-old parrot shell was discovered 10 inches below the surface and was used extensively in the Civil War by the Union Army.”

During an archaeological survey at the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield archeologists discovered an unexploded ordnance (UXO). Our Bomb Squad was notified and Bomb Technicians Sgt Duncan and Detective Mathis arrived on scene. They finished carefully digging it out of the battlefield. After examination and review the civil war era explosive was moved to the bunker for storage until the bomb squad can counter charge the cannon shell. This 157 year old parrot shell was discovered 10 inches below the surface and was used extensively in the Civil War by the Union Army.

The 2,965-acre Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park preserves the battleground where Union and Confederate forces fought from June 19 through July 2 in 1864.

The fighting was part of the Atlanta Campaign, during which “more than 67,000 soldiers were killed, wounded and captured,” Explore Georgia says. The Southeastern Archaeology Center reports the bomb was found last week as a team did “a metal detecting survey for a new hiking trail.”

“There is an old ‘truism’ in archaeology — the most exciting find is almost always on the last day. And this project was no exception,” the centre wrote on March 3 on Facebook.

“This shell had a percussion fuse that did not ignite when it hit the ground.” Many commenters on social media called for the bomb to be preserved. But the safest approach is a controlled detonation, Cobb County officials wrote.

“The bomb squad stated that they would love nothing more than to preserve this piece of history, however, there is no way to safely render it without counter charging it,” police said.

“They try to use the smallest charge appropriate. This charge is very small and will perforate the case. Unfortunately, even a small amount of live explosives can set the whole shell off.”

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Looted Artifacts Returned to France

Looted Artifacts Returned to France

The United States has returned a set of illegally obtained artefacts, including a skull from the Parisian catacombs and golden ingots from an Atlantic shipwreck, to their rightful owner: France. 

The prized objects, which also included an ancient Roman coin, were handed over on Wednesday during an official “restitution” ceremony at the French ambassador’s residence in Washington.

Steve Francis, a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, along with French Ambassador Philippe Etienne, unveiled the pieces and detailed how American authorities had worked with their French counterparts to get them back into French hands.

Artefacts are displayed during a ceremony marking the restitution of cultural property from the U.S. to France at the ambassador’s residence in Washington, D.C., on March 2, 2022. The items include five gold ingots from the Prince de Conty, which sank near the Breton coast in 1746, a gold coin from the third century discovered in 1985 of Corsica’s Gulf of Lava, and a skull from the Paris catacombs.

“These objects tell the history of France, its commerce, and its people,” Francis said in a statement. “HSI is proud to have played a role in ensuring these artefacts continue to be part of France’s history for future generations to enjoy.”

The five golden ingots had originally been looted from the Prince de Conty, a ship that wrecked in December 1746 off the French island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, near mainland France, according to a handout provided by the French embassy.

The vessel, which was on a return trip from China, had long been forgotten until a teacher in 1975 came across archival documents mentioning its location. He received authorization to excavate the site, but it was quickly looted, with many of the ingots disappearing before arrests were made.

However, in December 2017, five ingots matching the description of the Prince de Conty gold appeared on a list of items up for auction in California.

A French agency dedicated to underwater archaeology notified American authorities, who stepped in to seize the objects.

“The evidence that was provided by the French government was overwhelming,” said David Keller, a U.S. agent who focuses on cultural property and antiquities.

“These marks on them identify the people that actually made the ingots in the Qing dynasty,” Keller told AFP, “so there’s a lot of history just wrapped up in it.”

The golden coin is much older, dating back to the third century AD.

It is part of a larger treasure trove of ancient Roman objects, known as the Treasure of Lava, which was found in 1985 on the French island of Corsica, and was sold without official permission.

According to the French Embassy, specialists in currency “consider it one of the most important monetary treasures in the world.”

The skull originated in the Parisian catacombs, extensive caverns created in the late 18th century to house relocated remains from local cemeteries.

The site, known as an ossuary, is the largest in the world, containing the bones of more than six million Parisians.

The skull was recovered from an antiquities dealer in Houston, Texas in 2015. It will be returned to the Catacombs Museum in Paris, to join the collections of the ossuary, DHS said.

Over the years, Homeland Security Investigations has returned many artifacts to France, including a painting by Picasso stolen from France’s National Museum of Modern Art; a manuscript stolen from the French Navy Archival Depository Fund; and a painting by Edgar Degas stolen from the Musée Malraux in Le Havre, France.

“It is unacceptable that cultural property can be stolen and trafficked, and this is one of the mutual priorities between the United States and France,” Ambassador Etienne told AFP Thursday.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Ancient papyrus holds the world’s oldest guide to mummification

Ancient papyrus holds the world’s oldest guide to mummification

The oldest known instructions for the ancient art of embalming mummies were recently discovered on a medical papyrus from ancient Egypt. How-to descriptions of the mummification process are exceptionally rare in the archaeological record — only two other such “manuals” are known.

Ancient papyrus holds the world’s oldest guide to mummification
Section of the papyrus deals with swellings of the skin.

This newest example, found in an ancient scroll dating to around 1450 B.C., predates other mummification texts by more than 1,000 years. The guide contains many helpful suggestions, such as how to make herbal insect repellent and using red linen wrappings to reduce facial swelling.

Sofie Schiødt, a research assistant in the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen, discovered the embalming manual while translating a papyrus for her doctoral thesis, which will be published in 2022, university representatives said in a statement.

Half of the papyrus scroll is in the university’s Papyrus Carlsberg Collection, and the other half is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. Prior to that, each piece was privately owned, and they were acquired by the university and the Louvre in 2015 and 2006, respectively, Schiødt told Live Science in an email. It wasn’t until 2018 that experts learned that the two pieces were part of the same scroll.

In its entirety, the papyrus measures nearly 20 feet (6 meters) long and is inscribed on both sides. It is the second-longest medical papyrus from ancient Egypt, and Schiødt’s translation project relies mostly on high-resolution photographs of the precious artefact.

“This way we can move displaced fragments around digitally, as well as enhance colours to better read passages where the ink is not so well-preserved,” Schiødt said. “It also aids in reading difficult signs when you can zoom in on the high-res photos.”

The papyrus contains new evidence of the procedure for embalming the deceased’s face, where the face is covered with a piece of red linen and aromatic substances.

Succinct recipes

There are five sections in the medical papyrus. The first is short medical recipes, followed by a section on herbs. Next is a long section on skin diseases, followed by the embalming manual, “and finally another section of succinct medical recipes,” Schiødt said. 

Only a small portion of the papyrus — just three columns of text — covers embalming. Though the mummification section is brief, it’s packed with details, many of which were absent from later embalming texts. 

“Several recipes are included in the manual describing the manufacturing of various aromatic unguents,” Schiødt told Live Science, referring to substances used as ointments.

However, some parts of the embalming process, such as drying the corpse with natron — a desiccating compound made of sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate (salt and baking soda) — aren’t described at length. 

“As such, the text reads mostly as a memory aid, helping the embalmer remember the most intricate parts of the embalming process,” she said.

According to the manual, embalming a person took 70 days, and the task was performed in a special workshop near the person’s grave. The two main stages — drying and wrapping — each lasted 35 days. 

Schiødt said that one of the exciting new pieces of information from the text involves a procedure for embalming a dead person’s face.

The instructions include a recipe that combines plant-based aromatics and binders, cooking them into a liquid “with which the embalmers coat a piece of red linen,” she said. 

“The red linen is then applied to the dead person’s face in order to encase it in a protective cocoon of fragrant and anti-bacterial matter,” and this was repeated every four days, according to the study. On days when the embalmers were not actively treating the body, they covered it with straw infused with aromatic oils “in order to keep insects and scavengers away,” according to Schiødt.

Work on the mummy typically wrapped up by day 68, “after which the final days were spent on ritual activities allowing the deceased to live on in the afterlife,” Schiødt wrote.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Huge cemetery with at least 250 rock-cut tombs discovered in Egypt

Huge cemetery with at least 250 rock-cut tombs discovered in Egypt

About 250 tombs, some with fancy layouts and hieroglyphics, have been discovered cut into a hill at Al-Hamidiyah cemetery to the east of Sohag, in Egypt’s the Eastern Desert, about 240 miles (386 kilometres) southeast of Cairo, Egypt’s antiquities ministry said.

Huge cemetery with at least 250 rock-cut tombs discovered in Egypt
About 250 tombs have been found cut into the sides of a hill in Egypt’s the Eastern Desert. They date between roughly 4,200 and 2,100 years ago.

The tombs were constructed at different times in Egypt’s history, the archaeologists said in a statement from the ministry.

The earliest were constructed about 4,200 years ago, at a time when Egypt’s “Old Kingdom,” as modern-day Egyptologists call it, was collapsing.

At this time, the pharaohs of Egypt were losing control of the country, as a number of local governors gained power. Why these tombs were cut into the hill is not clear but it was not an uncommon practice in ancient Egypt. 

The tombs in the cemetery that date to the end of the Old Kingdom tended to have a more elaborate architecture that included an entrance corridor leading down to a gallery with a burial room located in the southeast part of the structure.

The archaeologists also found pieces of limestone with hieroglyphic inscriptions in some of these tombs; they also discovered what may be the remains of plates that were placed as funerary offerings to tomb owners, the ministry said in the statement. 

Animal remains, including these horns, were found inside some of the tombs.
In some of the tombs dating back 4,200 years, archaeologists found limestone pieces that have hieroglyphic writing on them. They may have been part of plates that were used as offerings to tomb owners.
The rock-cut tombs have different architectural layouts. Shown here, is the interior of one of those tombs.
Painted spherical vessels were found in some of the tombs. They may have been used to store liquids.

In one tomb that dated to the end of the Old Kingdom, archaeologists found paintings that depict the tomb owner slaughtering animal sacrifices, and people making offerings for the deceased, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in the statement. 

The latest of the tombs found in the cemetery date to almost 2,100 years ago, the end of what modern-day scholars call the “Ptolemaic Period.”

At this time, pharaohs descended from Ptolemy I, who was one of Alexander the Great’s generals, ruled Egypt.

Roman power in the region was growing around 2,100 years ago, and in 30 B.C., after Cleopatra VII died by suicide, Egypt became a Roman province.

The team discovered numerous artefacts inside the tombs, including cups, jars and plates — some of which were full-sized examples that may have been used in daily life, and others that were miniature vessels possibly used as symbolic offerings for the deceased, the ministry said in the statement.

The tombs also contained painted spherical vessels that could have been used to store liquids. What was left of a round metal mirror was found in one tomb, and many of the tombs held both animal and human remains.

Research at the site is ongoing and more tombs may be found in the future, Waziri said.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization

Archaeologists working in the village of Konthagai in southern India have found a rusted iron dagger preserved in a burial urn alongside skeletal remains, the Times of India reports. The discovery is part of a major excavation effort in the state of Tamil Nadu that seeks to shine a light on the ancient Keeladi civilization.

Archaeologists Unearth Ancient Dagger Linked to Enigmatic Indian Civilization
This iron dagger’s well-preserved wooden handle may help researchers date artefacts found in Konthagai.

Though the dagger’s 16-inch steel blade was rusted and broken in half, part of its wooden handle remained intact. R. Sivanandam, director of the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, tells the Hindu that this type of weapon was used by warriors during the Sangam period, which spanned roughly the third century B.C.E. through the third century C.E.

The wood’s unusual preservation may allow researchers to precisely date the artefacts found at the site. Sivanandam says a lab in the United States will attempt to date the dagger handle.

Since the start of the digging season in February, archaeologists in Konthagai have discovered 25 burial urns. Some were filled with bones, weapons and other objects. Scientists at Madurai Kamaraj University in Tamil Nadu are conducting DNA tests on human remains.

As the Times notes, the researchers think that Konthagai was a burial site for the Keeladi civilization. Teams are also excavating ancient Keeladi sites in the villages of Agaram, Manulur and Keeladi—the place that gives the civilization its name.

Per the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology, carbon dating of artefacts dated some to as early as 580 B.C.E. The digs have yielded large numbers of cow, ox, buffalo and goat skeletons, suggesting agricultural activity by the ancient Keeladi people.

Archaeologists have also found structures with clay floors; brick walls; and post-holes, which may have held wooden poles used to support roofs. Artefacts recovered at the site show that members of the civilization played board games and inscribed letters on pottery using the Tamil-Brahmi script.

The Keeladi civilization may be linked to the famed Indus Valley, or Harappan, civilization.

Many discoveries made in the area date to around 500 B.C., when an agricultural surplus allowed people to build urban centres in what’s known as the subcontinent’s “second urbanization.” (The name reflects a contrast with the much earlier “first urbanization” of the Harappan, or Indus Valley, civilization, which began around 2500 B.C.E.) While scholars previously believed that the second urbanization happened mostly along the Central Ganges Plain in northern India, the new evidence suggests a similar phenomenon occurred in the south as well.

Sivanandam tells DT Next’s J. Praveen Paul Joseph that findings at the Keeladi sites show evidence of ancient industrial production sites. Archaeologists have found spinning and weaving tools, cloth dyeing operations, brick kilns, and ceramic workshops.

In 2019, M.C. Rajan of the Hindustan Times reported that discoveries at Keeladi suggest the community that lived there—also referred to as the Vaigai civilization after a nearby river—may have descended from the Harappan civilization. As it declined, its people may have travelled south to start new lives.

The findings also offer material evidence about the Sangam period, which is known mainly for its Tamil literature.

Based on the archaeological evidence, some researchers now say the Sangam period began earlier than previously thought, around 600 B.C.E.

T. Udayachandran, secretary of the state archaeological department, told the Hindustan Times that the civilization was “an Indigenous, well developed self-sustaining urban culture with an industry and script, indicating that the people of that era were highly literate.”

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

The mystery of a 300-year-old mummified ‘mermaid’ with a ‘human face’ and tail has baffled scientists

Mystery of a 300-year-old mummified ‘mermaid’ with ‘human face’ and tail has baffled scientists

Japanese scientists are probing a mysterious 12-inch creature, which was allegedly caught in the Pacific Ocean, off the Japanese island of Shikoku, between 1736 and 1741. The baffling mummified creature is now kept in a temple in the city of Asakuchi. Shaped like a mermaid, the creature has hair, teeth, nails, and a lower body with scales.

Mystery of a 300-year-old mummified 'mermaid' with 'human face' and tail has baffled scientists
It’s not yet clear how or when the mummy came to the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.

With a grimacing face, pointed teeth, two hands, and hair on its head and brow, it has an eerily human appearance – except for its fish-like lower half.

Researchers from the Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts have taken the mummy for CT scanning in a bid to unravel its secrets, as per an NYT report.

Hiroshi Kinoshita of the Okayama Folklore Society, who came up with the project, told NYT the bizarre creature could have religious significance.

“Japanese mermaids have a legend of immortality,” he added.

“It is said that if you eat the flesh of a mermaid, you will never die.”

“There is a legend in many parts of Japan that a woman accidentally ate the flesh of a mermaid and lived for 800 years.”

“This ‘Yao-Bikuni’ legend is also preserved near the temple where the mermaid mummy was found.”

“I heard that some people, believing in the legend, used to eat the scales of mermaid mummies.”

“There is also a legend that a mermaid predicted an infectious disease,” Hiroshi stated.

Also, a historic letter from 1903, apparently penned by a former owner, was stored alongside the mummy and gives a story about its provenance.

“A mermaid was caught in a fish-catching net in the sea off Kochi Prefecture,” the letter states.

“The fishermen who caught it did not know it was a mermaid, but took it to Osaka and sold it as unusual fish. My ancestors bought it and kept it as a family treasure.”

It’s not yet clear how or when the mummy came to the Enjuin temple in Asakuchi.

But chief priest, Kozen Kuida, said it was put on display in a glass case some 40 years ago and is now kept in a fireproof safe.

“We have worshipped it, hoping that it would help alleviate the coronavirus pandemic even if only slightly,” he told The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper.

Kinoshita, however, takes a more pragmatic view of the creature.

One claim of the origins is that it might be a hoax and the creature may be an article of the show meant to be exported to Europe, according to another report.

The findings of the scientists are expected to be published later in 2022.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

A 5,000-year-old wooden boat used by the pharaohs is discovered by French archaeologists

A 5,000-year-old wooden boat used by the pharaohs is discovered by French archaeologists

French archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old wooden boat in an expedition in Egypt, it has emerged. The significant discovery was made in Abu Rawash, west of Cairo, the antiquities ministry in Egypt said.

Mohammed Ibrahim, the antiquities minister, said: ‘It goes back to the era of Pharaoh Den, one of the First Dynasty kings’.

The six-metre long and 1.5-metre wide pharaonic solar boat ‘is in good condition,’ he added.

A 5,000-year-old wooden boat used by the pharaohs is discovered by French archaeologists
Discovery: French archaeologists have discovered a 5,000-year-old pharaonic solar boat in an expedition in Egypt, it has emerged

Its planks are now undergoing renovation before it is put on display in a museum.

The pharaohs believed that solar boats, buried close to them at death, would transport them in the afterlife.

According to Middle East Online, the boat’s wooden sheets were transported to the planned  National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation where they will be restored. 

Once the museum is finished, it is expected they will be put on display at some point next year.

The group of French archaeologists were working for the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO).

Significant: The discovery was made in Abu Rawash, west of Cairo
Stunning: An archaeologist is seen working on the skeleton of the newly discovered wooden boat. The pharaohs believed that solar boats, buried close to them at death, would transport them to the afterlife

The group first started its excavation work in Abu Rawash in the early 1900s.

In 1954 an Egyptian archaeologist discovered what may be the Pharaoh Khufu’s 43-metre solar ship, made of cedar, in a Giza pyramid.

The 4,500-year-old intact vessel is on display near the pyramid.

It is one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved vessels from antiquity and has been identified as the world’s oldest intact ship.

It is known as a ‘solar barge’, a ritual vessel to carry the resurrected king with the sun god Ra across the heavens.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists in southern Italy announced last week that they unearthed two helmets, fragments of weapons and armour, bits of pottery and the remains of a possible temple to Athena at an archaeological excavation of the ancient Greek city of Velia, reports Frances D’Emilio for the Associated Press (AP).

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago
Chalcidian helmets such as this one were often worn by ancient Greek warriors.

Researchers, who have been working the site since last July, announced in a translated statement that they believe that these artefacts are linked to a major maritime battle that changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean nearly 2,500 years ago.

Ancient Greeks may have left the items behind after the Battle of Alalia. Between 541 and 535 BCE, a fleet of Phocaean ships—who had set up a colony, Alalia, on the island of Corsica—set sail on the nearby Tyrrhenian Sea to fend off attacks from neighbouring Etruscan and Carthaginian forces, per the statement.

An archaeologist works to free one of the helmets from the dig site.

Though the Greeks emerged victoriously, the costly sea battle ultimately spurred the Phocaean colonists to leave Alalia and establish a colony closer to other Greek settlements along the southern coast of Italy.

Settlers from Phocaea sailed for the mainland and purchased a plot of land that would eventually become Velia, according to the Guardian.

Initial studies of the helmets reveal that one was designed in the Greek Chalcidian style, while the other helmet resembles the Negua headpieces typically worn by Etruscan warriors, per ANSA. 

The archaeologists suggest Greek soldiers might have stolen these helmets from conquered Etruscan troops during the Battle of Alalia, per the statement.

An aerial view of the dig site at the acropolis of Velia, an ancient Greek colony in present-day southern Italy that was founded shortly after the Battle of Alalia.

In another major find, researchers also unearthed several brick walls that date to Velia’s founding in 540 B.C.E. and may have once formed a temple to the mythical Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena, as Angela Giuffrida reports for the Guardian.

Measuring about 60 feet long by 23 feet wide, the walls were likely constructed in the years just following the Battle of Alalia, says Massimo Osanna, the archaeological park director and head of Italian state museums, per Italian news agency ANSA.

The archaeologists say the Phocaeans may have offered the enemy armour as a tribute to the goddess.

Archaeologists unearthed two helmets including one, pictured here, that appears to be created in the Etruscan “Negua” style. Experts suggest that Greek soldiers might have stolen this piece of armour from Etruscan forces during the Battle of Alalia.

“It is, therefore, possible that the [Phocaeans] fleeing from Alalia raised [the temple] immediately after their arrival, as was their custom, after purchasing from the locals the land necessary to settle and resume the flourishing trade for which they were famous,” says Osanna in the translated statement. “And to the relics offered to their goddess to propitiate her benevolence, they added the weapons snatched from the enemies in that epic battle at sea.”

Located near the structure, the team found fragments of pottery inscribed with the Greek word for “sacred,” several pieces of bronze and metal weapons and bits of what appears to be a large, decorated shield.

Researchers plan to clean and analyze the artefacts in a laboratory for further study, where the director says they hope to find more information, particularly on the helmets.

She says in that statement that there may be inscriptions inside of them, something common in ancient armour, that could help trace the armour’s history, such as the identity of the warriors who wore them.