All posts by Archaeology World Team

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

An archaeological dig in Newfoundland unearths what could be Canada’s oldest English coin

Archeological dig in Newfoundland unearths what could be Canada’s oldest English coin

Archaeologists in Newfoundland have unearthed what may be the oldest English coin ever found in Canada—and perhaps North America. Working at the site of a former English colony, the team dug up a rare two-penny piece that was minted more than 520 years ago, between 1493 and 1499, reports Chris O’Neill-Yates for CBC News.

Minted in Canterbury between 1493 and 1499, the silver half groat dates to the middle of Henry VII’s reign, when a rebellion led by pretender Perkin Warbeck threatened to unseat the nascent Tudor dynasty.

Known as a half groat, the coin dates to the reign of England’s first Tudor king, Henry VII, who ruled from 1485 to 1509. It was uncovered at Cupids Cove Plantation Provincial Historic Site, where English merchant John Guy established a colony in 1610.

Researchers found the object near what would have been a bastion in the fortified settlement.

“Some artefacts are important for what they tell us about a site, while others are important because they spark the imagination,” says archaeologist William Gilbert, who discovered the site in 1995 and continues to lead excavations there today, in a statement.

“This coin is definitely one of the latter. One can’t help but wonder at the journey it made, and how many hands it must have passed through from the time it was minted … until it was lost in Cupids sometime early in the 17th century.”

A better-preserved example of a Henry VII half-groat.

Gilbert showed the newly unearthed, nickel-sized coin to Paul Berry, a former curator at the Bank of Canada Museum who helped authenticate the piece reports the Canadian Press.

The silver coin was minted in Canterbury around the middle of Henry’s reign when a rebellion led by pretender Perkin Warbeck threatened to unseat the nascent Tudor dynasty.

Previously, the oldest known English coin found in the country was a silver groat minted during the reign of Henry’s granddaughter Elizabeth I, in 1560 or 1561, and discovered at Cupids Cove in 2001.

Other centuries-old English coins found on the continent include a circa 1558 groat buried on Richmond Island in Maine around 1628 and a 1560 silver coin unearthed in Jamestown, Virginia.

Guy, accompanied by a group of 39 English settlers, founded what was then called Cuper’s Cove on Conception Bay in Newfoundland. Within a few years of the settlement’s establishment in 1610, the colonists had built numerous structures, including a fort, sawmill, gristmill and brewhouse, reports Bill Gilbert for BBC News. But the winter of 1612 proved “punishing,” according to the CBC, and most of the settlers—including Guy—eventually abandoned the site. The company that funded the venture went bankrupt in 1631.

Exactly who left the half-groat at the settlement is open to interpretation. Gilbert posits that one of the Cuper’s Cove settlers dropped it when the fort’s bastion was under construction. The half-goat was found within a few feet of a post that was part of the fortification’s foundation.

“My best guess is that it was probably dropped by either John Guy or one of the early colonists when they were building … in the fall of 1610,” the archaeologist tells CBC News. “That’s what I think is most likely.”

READ ALSO: ‘HELLBOY’ HORNED DINOSAUR SPECIES DISCOVERED IN CANADA

Given that the coin is about 60 years older than the Elizabethan groat found on the cove in 2001, it’s also possible that it was lost before the colonists arrived, perhaps by an early explorer of Canada.

“[The] coin was minted around the time John Cabot arrived in England in 1495,” Gilbert tells CBC News. “It’s during the period that Cabot would have been active in England and setting out on his early explorations of the new world.” (Per Royal Museums Greenwich, the Italian explorer landed on Newfoundland—literally a “newfound land”—in 1497, one month after setting sail from Bristol in hopes of discovering a shorter route to Asia.)

Analysis of the coin is ongoing, but researchers hope to display it at the Cupids Cove historical site in time for the 2022 tourist season.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Peru: Skeletal remains of 25 people found at Chan Chan archaeological site

Peru: Skeletal remains of 25 people found at Chan Chan archaeological site

According to an Andina report, the remains of 25 people and some 70 artefacts and ceramic vessels have been uncovered in a raised area near the southern wall at Chan Chan, the 1,100-year-old Chimu capital on the coast of northern Peru. 

Peru: Skeletal remains of 25 people found at Chan Chan archaeological site

It was located in Trujillo Province (La Libertad region) – archaeologists behind this important find have reported.

According to Jorge Meneses —head of the archaeological research project— this find is unusual due to its characteristics and location in a raised area of ​​the Utzh An (Great Chimu) walled complex.

“Most of them (the remains) belonged to women under 30 who were buried with objects used in textile activities, a couple of children, and a couple of teenagers.

It is a very specific population, not too young considering the average human lifespan was 40 years, “I have remarked.

Meneses said that this discovery took place three weeks ago during the fourth season of works on the southern wall at Chan Chan. 

The skeletal remains were found in an area of ​​10 square meters, arranged in two levels of the embankment, along with approximately 70 vessels and objects used in textile work.

Burial place for Chimu elite


For her part, Sinthya Cueva —head of the Chan Chan Archaeological Research Program— confirmed that the discovery took place three weeks ago and may have been a burial place for members of the Chimu elite.

“This is something new to us because, in spite of this, we are finding individuals and not simple ones, but of a more relevant category due to the number of objects placed with them as an offering. We may be walking over more remains, “Cave stated.

“We have found several individuals in the western part (of the site) since 2020, and we expect to continue to do so across the eastern sector in the coming seasons. That’s why we suggest that all this raised area could be a pre-Hispanic cemetery, “she added.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

Ancient human sacrifice victim’s last meal revealed

Ancient human sacrifice victim’s last meal revealed

Shortly before his violent death in 400 B.C., a man — whose remains are known as Denmark’s famous bog body “Tollund Man” — ate a meal of porridge and fish, a new study finds.

Ancient human sacrifice victim's last meal revealed
The well-preserved head of Tollund Man, who lived about 2,400 years ago.

Tollund Man also had several parasitic infections from whipworms and mawworms, as well as the first reported case of tapeworm ever found in an ancient body preserved in a bog, said the researchers, who made the finding by studying a piece of Tollund Man’s colon.

“We have been able to reconstruct the last meal of Tollund Man in such great detail that you can actually recreate the meal,” study lead researcher Nina Nielsen, an archaeologist and head of research at Museum Silkeborg in Denmark, told Live Science. “That’s quite fascinating because you can get so close to what actually happened 2,400 years ago.

The ancient man’s remains were found in 1950 by a family from the nearby village of Tollund while they were digging for fuel in a peat bog. His body — and the rope tied around his neck — were so well preserved, the family thought he was a recent murder victim, prompting them to call the police, according to Museum Silkeborg. 

But it soon became apparent that the Tollund Man had lived long ago and that the low-oxygen environment of the peat bog had preserved his remains. Over the years, studies have found that he died between 405 B.C. and 380 B.C., at the beginning of the Danish early Iron Age, and that he was between 30 and 40 years old when he died in a possible human ritual sacrifice.

Tollund Man had been hanged and placed in a sleeping position in a peat pit — an “extraordinary treatment” given that most dead people from that time and place were cremated and buried on dry land, the researchers wrote in the study.

A 1951 study on Tollund Man’s gut found that he chowed down on porridge for his last meal. However, techniques to analyze the gut have improved since then, so a team of researchers took another look at Tollund Man’s last few bites.

Clockwise from top left: A map showing where Tollund Man was found; a photo of Tollund Man’s colon; the jars holding Tollund Man’s colon; a photo of Tollund Man’s head.

Last meal

By looking at a previously cut and preserved piece of Tollund Man’s large intestine, the team found that the 1951 study was fairly accurate but had missed a few things, including the proportions of the meal’s ingredients.

The new analysis showed that by weight, the porridge was 85% barley (Hordeum vulgare), 9% a weed called pale persicaria (Persicaria lapathifolia) and 5% flax (Linum usitatissimum). The remaining 1% included a variety of seeds, including those from the weed corn spurrey (Spergula arvensis), the mustard family plant gold of pleasure (Camelina sativa) and three wetland plants: marsh willowherb (Epilobium palustre), compact/soft rush (Juncus conglomeratus/effusus) and marsh violet (Viola palustris). In addition, the team found pollen from barley, grasses and open dryland plants.

Barley and flax grow in different seasons, so the seeds of the weed pale persicaria were “presumably harvested along with the barley crop,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Except for the fish, here are the foods that Tollund Man ate and their respective quantities: 1) Barley, 2) pale persicaria, 3) flax, 4) black-bindweed, 5) sand, 6) gold-of-pleasure, 7) fat hen, 8) corn spurrey, 9) hemp-nettles and 10) field pansy.
Magnified photos of (a) barley, (b) sand, (c) food crust and (d) the pointed ends of flax seeds from Tollund Man’s gut
Magnified images of (a) a cluster of barley pollen, (b) epidermis cells from flax, (c) epidermis cells from barley; (d) a whipworm egg, (e) a mawworm egg and (f) a tapeworm egg from Tollund Man’s gut.
A magnified photo of Tollund Man’s gut contents.

Usually, when farmers clean and sieve grain, the small weed seeds that were collected alongside it, such as those from pale persicaria, fall out, Nielsen said. But it appears that in Tollund Man’s case, this waste material — including tiny bits of charcoal, charred food crust (indicating the porridge had been cooked in a clay vessel) and sand grains — was added to the porridge, possibly as a ritual practice, she said.

A chemical and protein analysis revealed that Tollund Man ate a fatty fish along with the porridge about 12 to 24 hours before he died. While Iron Age people in Denmark ate fish, it wasn’t a large part of the diet then, the researchers noted. Additional analyses revealed parasite eggs, which Tollund Man likely got by eating raw or undercooked meat and drinking contaminated water, Nielsen said. 

The circumstances leading to Tollund Man’s death are a mystery, but the meal does offer clues, the researchers said.

“Our interpretation of Tollund Man was that he was ritually sacrificed,” Nielsen said. “At this time in the Iron Age, it was common to use wetlands for ritual activities.”

READ ALSO: HUGE AND EXQUISITE GOLD HOARD FROM IRON AGE DISCOVERED IN DENMARK

An earlier analysis revealed that though Tollund Man likely died from suffocation, his neck wasn’t broken. Perhaps a number of rituals took place before Tollund Man was hanged, including the consumption of his last meal, she said.

The study “extends our knowledge on the diet and the preparation of meals in the Danish Iron Age,” said Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac Research in Bolzano, Italy, who was not involved with the research but did a similar “last meal” study on Ötzi the Iceman, who lived about 5,300 years ago in the Alps.

“It shows that it is important to re-analyze such samples, as scientific methods are continuously improving and thereby new information can be added,” Zink told Live Science in an email. “For example, we have learnt from this study that the Tollund man most likely consumed fish and meat.”

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

130-Million-Year Old Proteins Still Present in Dinosaur-Age Fossil

130-Million-Year Old Proteins Still Present in Dinosaur-Age Fossil

Microscopic pigment structures and proteins that graced the feathers of a Cretaceous-age bird are still present in its 130-million-year-old fossil, a new study finds.

The newfound Cretaceous-age Eoconfuciusornis specimen from northern China has 130-million-year-old beta-keratin and melanosomes on it.

The results, which confirm the oldest evidence of the structural protein beta-keratin, show that molecules can survive in their original state for hundreds of millions of years without fossilizing and that researchers can use modern techniques to identify them, the researchers said.

The tiny and ancient structures were found on Eoconfuciusornis, a crow-size early bird that lived in what is now northern China during the Early Cretaceous.

Eoconfuciusornis is one of the first birds known to have a keratinous beak and no teeth. (Not all avian predecessors were toothless. For instance, Archaeopteryx, a transitional animal between dinosaurs and birds, had sharp teeth.)

The Eoconfuciusornis specimen came from the Jehol Biota in northern China, a site known for its well-preserved fossils.

The specimen is currently housed in China’s Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature, the world’s largest dinosaur museum, according to a 2010 Guinness World Records award.

At first, the researchers suspected that the fossil held pigment structures called melanosomes. However, to make sure that the tiny structures weren’t simply microbes that had accrued over the millennia, they had to do a number of tests, said Mary Schweitzer, a professor of biology at North Carolina State University with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

Schweitzer co-authored the study with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“If these small bodies are melanosomes, they should be embedded in a keratinous matrix, since feathers contain beta-keratin,” Schweitzer said in a statement. “If we couldn’t find the keratin, then those structures could as easily be microbes, or a mix of microbes and melanosomes,” which would lead to inaccurate predictions of pigmentation.

To learn more, Schweitzer and her colleague’s used scanning and transmission electron microscopy to get a better view of the fossilized feathers’ surfaces and internal structures. In addition, using a technique called immunogold labelling, the scientists attached gold particles to antibodies. These gold antibodies then bind to specific proteins (in this case, keratin), which makes them visible under an electron microscope.

In addition, the scientists used high-resolution imaging to map the copper and sulfur within the feathers.

The sulfur was broadly distributed, as would be expected in a keratinous material, as “the keratin protein family incorporates high concentrations of amino acids rich in sulfur,” the researchers wrote in the study, published online in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

READ ALSO: SKELETON WITH BIRD SKULL IN ITS MOUTH IDENTIFIED AS A 12-YEAR-OLD SCANDINAVIAN GIRL FROM 17TH CENTURY

In contrast, copper is found in melanosomes but not in keratin. After the mapping analysis, the researchers found the copper only in the fossil melanosomes, they said. This indicates that the Eoconfuciusornis specimen has 130-million-year-old melanosomes and that it wasn’t contaminated during its decomposition and fossilization, the researchers said. 

“This study is the first to demonstrate evidence for both keratin and melanosomes, using structural, chemical and molecular methods,” said study author Yanhong Pan, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“These methods have the potential to help us understand — on the molecular level — how and why feathers evolved in these lineages.”

This isn’t the first time that researchers have found ancient structures within fossils. Schweitzer and her colleagues have also found an 80-million-year-old blood vessel belonging to a duck-billed dinosaur, and collagen proteins from a Tyrannosaurus rex. Despite these discoveries, it would be extremely challenging to use these findings to clone a dinosaur, she said.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Gold and Amethyst Ring Discovered at Byzantine Winery

Gold and Amethyst Ring Discovered at Byzantine Winery

In the huge excavation conducted at Yavne by the Israel Antiquities Authority​, as part of the Israel Land Authority’s initiative to expand the city, a spectacular gold ring was recently uncovered, with an inlay of a purple stone.

An examination of the ring by Dr Yotam Asher at the analytical laboratory of the Israel Antiquities Authority showed that the stone is mostly made of silica – a material from which many gemstones are composed. This examination ruled out the possibility that the purple inlay is made simply of glass. The ring weighs 5.11 grammes.

Dr. Amir Golani, an expert on ancient jewellery at the Israel Antiquities Authority, who examined the find, said that “the person who owned the ring was affluent, and the wearing of the jewel indicated their status and wealth.

Such rings could be worn by both men and women”. Golani adds that, “a semi-precious stone, called an amethyst, was placed in the ring.

Amethysts are mentioned in Bible as one of the 12 precious stones worn by the high priest of the Temple on his ceremonial breastplate.  Many virtues have been attached to this gem, including the prevention of the side effect of drinking, the hangover”.

Gold and Amethyst Ring Discovered at Byzantine Winery
The spectacular gold ring with the inlaid semi-precious amethyst stone

This characteristic attributed to the stone is particularly interesting, given the context in which the ring was discovered, at a site where a huge winery operated, the largest in the world known from the Byzantine period.

“Did the person who wore the ring want to avoid intoxication due to drinking a lot of wine? We probably will never know,” says Dr. Elie Haddad, the director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, together with Liat Nadav-Ziv and Dr. Jon Seligman, adding “the ring was found just 150 metres from the remains of a long warehouse, which was used to store wine jars (amphorae)”.

Some of the jars were found upside down on their mouths and it may have been a warehouse full of empty jars before they were taken to the winepresses, to fill with wine”.

It is possible that the splendid ring belonged to the owner of the magnificent warehouse, to a foreman, or simply to an unlucky visitor, who dropped and lost their precious ring, until it was finally discovered by us.”

Researchers are debating the date of the ring. It was found in a fill dated to the end of the Byzantine period and the beginning of the Early Islamic period – the 7th century CE, but it is possible that the ring, due to its beauty and prestige, was transmitted from generation to generation over the centuries.

READ ALSO: POSSIBLE CRUSADER CAMPSITE FOUND IN ISRAEL

Gold rings inlaid with amethyst stone are known in the Roman world, and it is possible that the ring’s find belongs to the elites who lived in the city as early as the 3rd century CE.

According to Eli Eskozido, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “The small, everyday finds that are discovered in our excavations tell us human stories and connect us directly to the past.

It is exciting to imagine that the man or woman to whom the ring belonged, walking right here, in a different reality to what we know in today’s city of Yavne”.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Researchers discover exclusive kitchenware set in Roman officer’s villa

Researchers discover exclusive kitchenware set in Roman officer’s villa

An exclusive kitchenware set in the villa of a Roman officer in the legionary camp Novae in Bulgaria has been discovered by Polish archaeologists. Consisting of pots with lids, bowls and cups, the researchers also found glasses resembling today’s beer glasses.

The area of research conducted by Polish archaeologists in Novae.
The area of research conducted by Polish archaeologists in Novae.

Carried out by a mission of the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe Research Centre of the University of Warsaw, the archaeologists are continuing excavations of the so-called House of Centurion. 

This is one of the largest buildings previously exposed in the area of the camp Novae, occupying an area of a quarter of a hectare and resembling a luxurious villa rather than a military commander’s quarters. 

The centre of the complex is a spacious courtyard with a pool with niches on its ends. The walls of the building were decorated with wall paintings and the floors in some rooms were lined with ceramic plates.

Lead archaeologist Professor Piotr Dyczek said: ’Unexpectedly, one of the most interesting discovered artefacts was a set of kitchenware used in the House of Centurion. The set is unique. 

“Not only is it made of great quality clay, but it also presents a full set of used forms, indirectly giving us insight into the culinary tastes of the lady of the house.

“In addition, the execution and clay are of very good quality.

A vessel was discovered in the House of Centurion.

“There are also small cups, one beer pint that resembles our modern pints. But the pot we discovered has no handle and its surface is formed so that it can be easily and firmly held in the hand.

“Its size indicates that food was prepared for a small group of people, probably the centurion and his deputies or the guests.”

The dishes were either made in a single pot or boiled and roasted – a pan fragment is preserved. The researchers also found oyster shells next to the set which they assume are the remnants of a feast.

Dyczek continued: “After conservation and analysis of the vessels, we will be able to say more about the food. It will be also possible by analysing the bones we have found nearby. It is already clear that the food prepared for centurion was more sophisticated than that for ordinary legionnaires.”

A vessel was discovered in the House of Centurion.

The House of Centurion also had porticos, mandatory in Roman residential architecture, and an extremely large (nearly 40 m long) hypocaust system used to heat some of the rooms and the bath complex that included pools. 

READ ALSO: REMAINS OF WOODEN SAFE EXCAVATED FROM THE BURNED-OUT ROMAN VILLA IN SPAIN

This year, archaeologists also discovered a toilet. Dyczek said: “The only part preserved to this day is a hole in the ground, which once was timbered with boards. This is an important discovery because there are very few of them known from similar buildings in the Empire.”

A vessel was discovered in the House of Centurion.
EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

New findings from the 3,500-year-old tomb of a bronze age warrior

New findings from the 3,500-year-old tomb of a bronze age warrior

The discovery, in the words of one of the archaeologists who uncovered it, was “the find of a lifetime.” The tomb of a Bronze Age warrior left untouched for more than 3,500 years and packed to the brim with precious jewellery, weapons and riches has been unearthed in southwestern Greece, according to researchers at the University of Cincinnati.

University of Cincinnati researcher Sharon Stocker stands in the shaft tomb of a wealthy Bronze Age warrior.

The shaft tomb, about 5 feet deep, 4 feet wide and 8 feet long, was uncovered in May by a husband-and-wife team from the university. But the find was kept under wraps until an announcement Monday by Greek authorities.

Sharon Stocker and Jack Davis began excavating the site near the modern-day city of Pylos, Greece, in May. They were working near the Palace of Nestor, a noted destination in Homer’s “Odyssey.” That site was uncovered by famed University of Cincinnati archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939.

Stocker and Davis initially thought they might have stumbled upon a Bronze Age home just outside the palace, but as they continued digging, they uncovered one bronze piece after another.

“That’s when we knew,” Stocker told the Los Angeles Times in a phone interview from Greece, where she is still working.

What she and a team of dozens of researchers uncovered were incredible riches in a rare solo grave of a Mycenaean warrior who was buried several centuries before the rise of classical Greek culture.

Here’s a sampling of what they uncovered:

Solid gold jewelry and precious stones on his right

This picture provided by Greece’s Culture Ministry shows a gold signet ring decorated with two acrobats vaulting over a bull, found in the tomb.

Four solid gold rings, carved with intricate designs, were found in the tomb near the warrior’s remains. The researchers say this is more than has been found in any other single burial in all of Greece.

A unique solid-gold necklace, unearthed in the warrior’s tomb.
The necklace is more than 30 inches long and features two gold pendants on each end, decorated with ivy leaves.

More than 1,000 precious stone beads were also uncovered, many of them with holes drilled in the centre for stringing together. The beads were made of carnelian, amethyst, jasper, agate and gold, researchers say. Some may have even been sewn to a burial shroud of woven fabric, a tiny square of which survived 35 centuries in the grave.

A solid-gold chain necklace, more than 2 feet long with pendants on either end, was also found near his neck.

Weapons on his left

A 3-foot sword with a handle made of ivory and overlaid in gold lay at the warrior’s left chest. Underneath it was a dagger that was decorated with gold using an intricate technique that resembles embroidery.

Other weapons, made of bronze, including a slashing sword and spearhead, were found at his legs and feet, and the remnants of a bronze suit of armour were found on top.

Stone seals with intricate designs and carvings

One of more than four dozen seal stones with intricate Minoan designs found in the warrior’s tomb. Long-horned bulls and human bull jumpers soaring over their horns are common motifs in Minoan designs.

Dozens of seal stones, which were decorated with detailed etchings in the Minoan style, were found to the left and right of the warrior’s skeleton. About the size of a quarter, the seal stones depicted goddesses, lions and bulls, and men jumping over a bull’s horns, a common sport in the Minoan civilization.

Beauty essentials: combs and a mirror

warrior grave
A bronze mirror with an ivory handle was among the more than 1,400 objects found in the grave.
One of six ivory combs found in the warrior’s tomb.

Six fine-toothed ivory combs, mostly intact and about 6 inches long, were uncovered in the grave. They were intricately decorated and accompanied by a bronze mirror with an ivory handle. Stocker says it’s significant that the warrior was buried alone, and that jewels, combs, and a mirror accompanied him.

It was extremely rare for a person to be buried alone, Stocker says, and archaeologists uncovering group graves in the past have had trouble determining which objects are associated with which remains, male or female. “In the past, people have wondered if you could divide finds along gender lines. Did the beads go with women? Did the combs go with women and the swords with the men?” Stocker told The Times.

“Since it’s only one burial, we know that all these objects went with this man.”

A rich person’s cups, bowls and jugs – made with bronze

Most graves from this era were packed with ceramics and another stoneware, Stocker says. But piled on top of the jewels and weapons were vessels, bowls and basins made strictly of bronze, some ringed with gold and silver trim.

Some of the bronze vessels, once round, had been flattened by centuries of earth weighing down on them.

READ ALSO: RARE 20-MILLION-YEAR-OLD PETRIFIED TREE MEASURING 62 FEET TALL DISCOVERED IN GREECE

“This guy was really, really rich,” Stocker says. His bones indicate he was “strong, robust … well-fed,” she says. He may have been royalty or even the founder of a new dynasty at the Palace of Nestor. (A conqueror may not have wanted to be buried in a communal grave with generations of the previous dynasty, Stocker says).

The man, who was 30 to 35 years old when he died, could have been a warrior who led a raiding party to the nearby island of Crete and whose loot was buried with him. Or even a trader who acquired the goods through commerce.

“We don’t know his name, and we don’t really know anything else about him,” she says.

AFRICA, WORLD

700,000 Ancient African Books survived in Timbuktu University, Mali

700,000 Ancient African Books survived in Timbuktu University, Mali

Many writers on African history did not believe until recently that African societies had any sort of tradition of writing. This idea has gradually lost recognition since the rediscovery of ancient collections of manuscripts, some dating back to at least the 8th century A.D.

In present-day Ethiopia, about 250,000 old manuscripts from the Timbuktu libraries survive. Also, at the southern Egyptian site of Qasr Ibrim, thousands of documents from the medieval Sudanese empire of Makuria, written in at least eight different languages have been dugout.

In the western African cities of Chinguetti, Walata, Oudane, Kano, and Agadez, thousands of more ancient manuscripts have survived similarly.

Approximately 1 million manuscripts have since managed to survive from the northern edges of Guinea and Ghana to the shores of the Mediterranean, against the real and present dangers posed by fires, insects, and plundering.

National Geographic also predicts 700,000 manuscripts in the city of Timbuktu alone have survived.

Ancient texts from Timbuktu, the evidence

Local families and institutions still own and maintain over 60 libraries in Timbuktu, some of which are collections that survived the turmoil through the city, as well as the ravages of nature.

The Ahmed Baba Institute, established in 1979 and named after the famous scholar of the 16th/17th century, considered the greatest in Africa, is a true example of this.

Text saved from burning

Today, the institute has only about thirty thousand manuscripts, which are constantly being examined, catalogued and stored, but at the time of the French colonial administration of Timbuktu (1894-1959), many of the manuscripts were taken by the occupying colonialists and brought to light.

As a result, many families there are still refusing to allow researchers entry, anticipating a repeat of the French treatment. Many texts were lost due to climatic effects including drought, which forced many people to bury them and evacuate.

Of the surviving manuscripts, these are:

* Main Islamic texts include Korans, hadith collections (actions or prophet’s sayings), Sufi texts and devotional texts

* Activities of the Islamic law school in Maliki

* ‘Muslim science’ texts, including grammar, mathematics and astronomy

* Historical works from the area, including contracts, commentaries, historical chronicles, poetry, and marginal notes and jottings, proving to be a remarkably rich source of historical evidence.

For whatever reason, much of the manuscripts themselves are of great interest to the owners. For example, those who have so far claimed royalty have been found to be from the servile class because of the manuscripts’ evidence.

Certain documents also exposed one family’s atrocious relations with another, which may have occurred a very long time ago but still have meaning to this day. As in contested ownership of land and properties.

READ ALSO: BELOVED GAZA BOOKSHOP BECOMES A CASUALTY OF ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT

These raise the question as to why to this day these manuscripts are of utmost importance. Many of those in possession of the manuscripts hid them during colonial times or even had them buried.

In addition, French was forcibly introduced as the region’s language and instruction, meaning that many owners lost their ability to read and understand the manuscripts in the languages they were originally written in.

Eventually, it wasn’t until 1985 that much energy was breathed into this region’s academic life, meaning it would take a long time to fully understand the full scope and import of the manuscripts that were found.