All posts by Archaeology World Team

ASIA, KAZAKHSTAN, WORLD

Thousands of Gold and Precious Metal Items Found in Saka Burial Mound

Thousands of Gold and Precious Metal Items Found in Saka Burial Mound

In an ancient funeral mound in Kazakhstan, archeologists have discovered a trove of millennia-old golden jewelry. The Saka was once the home of the remote mountains of Tarbagata, where Kazakhstan meets north China.

The skilled horsemen were nomadic people who moved throughout Eurasia across Iran, India, and Central Asia for hundreds of years — until they were conquered by Turkic invaders in the 4th century A.D. 

It’s believed these glittering objects may have belonged to members of their elite.

The burial mound is one of 200 or so found on the Eleke Sazy plateau.

Although many myths about the people of Saka remain, their metal abilities are well known. Among the findings are intricate earrings shaped like small bells, a necklace studded with precious stones, and piles of chains and gold plates.

Tiny animals have been expertly wrought out of gold. The items show evidence of micro-soldering, a highly sophisticated technique for artifacts estimated to be as much as 2,800 years old.

Precisely who the people buried with these precious treasures are is still unknown, with their graves yet to be excavated by archaeologists.

Zainolla Samashev, the archaeologist in charge of the excavation, said they were believed to be “a man and a woman,” and perhaps “the reigning persons” of that society.

Gold items belonging to the Saka people that were discovered in Kazakhstan.

Perhaps the most famous discovery connected to the Saka occurred in 1969 when archaeologists found the tomb of a prominent warrior outside of Almaty, the country’s largest city.

He had been buried in a wooden casket alongside a total of 4,800 gold adornments, including rings, earrings, a sword, and even a gold-encrusted whip. Some scholars have since suggested that he may have been a young king who died at just 18 years of age.

Some 200 other burial mounds have since been found on the fertile Kazakh plateau, which was regarded as a paradise by Saka kings.

Few have been found with quite so much treasure, however, since widespread looting during the time of Peter the Great depleted many of the burial sites of their riches.

Experts say that the area has become a focus for archaeologists, who hope to find other precious objects in other sites. “There are a lot of burial mounds here and the prospects are very large,” Kazakh archeologist Yerben Oralbai told Mail Online.

The high-level metalwork exhibits the advanced skills of the Saka people

Local politicians are celebrating the discovery, which they say helps to inform them about their ancestors.

“This find gives us a completely different view of the history of our people,” former Prime Minister Danial Akhmetov said, in an interview with Kitco News. “We are the heirs of great people and great technologies.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Mysterious Shipwreck Artifacts Found Off England’s Coast To Be X-Rayed

Mysterious Shipwreck Artifacts Found Off England’s Coast To Be X-Rayed

Tons of items retrieved from the wreck of a sailing boat from the Dutch East India company will be scanned by new X-ray equipment to reveal hidden details.

In January 1740, after landing on Goodwin Sands, the Rooswijk [ a so-called ‘ retrochip ‘ built on long travels ] sank off Kent Coast. Archaeologists visited the wreck and recovered many artifacts — including silver coins and ingots, wooden chests, and a brass wine pot — between 2005 and 2018.

Due to a £150,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation to upgrade Historic England X-ray equipment, many of these objects will now be examined in more detail.

Originally destined for Batavia — modern-day Jakarta — the merchant ship Rooswijk sank around 5 miles (8 kilometers) off of the British coast on its second voyage to the East, with none of its believed 237-strong crew surviving the accident.

Its wreck was first discovered at a depth of 79 feet (24 metres) by an amateur diver back in 2004 — with the bulk of recovery efforts taking place between 2005 and 2018, with the objects from the vessel legally belonging to the Dutch state. Among the artefacts recovered from the wreck were bars of silver, gold coins, knives, scabbards, human remains, pots, jars and thimbles. 

The grant from the Wolfson Foundation charity will be used to upgrade the power and resolution of the equipment at at Historic England’s large, walk-in X-ray facility for scientific and archaeological analysis at Fort Cumberland, Portsmouth.

The existing facility has been at that centre of the organisation’s archaeological assessment, analysis and conservation work.

When the upgrade is complete, Rooswijk artefacts will be among the first to be scanned by the revamped facility, in a collaboration between Historic England and Rijksdienst Voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, the Netherlands’ cultural heritage agency.

Many of the finds from the wreck are covered with hard concretions of matter that will require the extra power of the new equipment to be successfully scanned. 

The Rooswijk — a so-called ‘retourschip’ built for long journeys — sank off of the coast of Kent in January 1740 after running aground on Goodwin Sands. Pictured, thimbles covered in hard concretions that were recovered from the wreck of the vessel
Archaeologists visited the wreck and recovered many artifacts — including silver coins and ingots, wooden chests, and a brass wine pot — between 2005 and 2018. Pictured, an X-ray image taken of one of the wooden chests from The Rooswijk, which contained thimbles
Many of the finds from the wreck are covered with hard concretions of matter that will require the extra power of the new equipment to be successfully scanned. Pictured, pewter jugs recovered from The Rooswijk

‘This generous investment will place Historic England at the forefront of heritage X-radiography for many years to come,’ said Historic England head Duncan Wilson.

‘With this new technology, we will be able to analyse, conserve and better understand many more objects recovered from historic shipwrecks or excavated from archaeological sites.’

‘We are very grateful to The Wolfson Foundation for their support to this vital grant.’

The new X-ray machinery will also ‘greatly improve’ the analysis of Roman-era artefacts, Historic England said — as the scanner will be able to penetrate dirt and debris build-ups around such objects without the risk of damaging them. 

‘We are excited to support this important piece of equipment – bringing together Wolfson’s longstanding interests in science and heritage,’ said Wolfson Foundation chief executive Paul Ramsbottom.

‘The beauty of X-ray technology is the way in which it reveals hidden secrets of the past as well as helping with conservation.’

‘We are particularly delighted to be supporting the heritage sector at this challenging moment for us all.’

Its wreck was first discovered at a depth of 79 feet (24 meters) by an amateur diver back in 2004 — with the bulk of recovery efforts taking place between 2005 and 2018, with the objects from the vessel legally belonging to the Dutch state. Pictured, coins from the wreck
Its wreck was first discovered at a depth of 79 feet (24 metres) by an amateur diver back in 2004 — with the bulk of recovery efforts taking place between 2005 and 2018, with the objects from the vessel legally belonging to the Dutch state. Pictured, coins from the wreck
The new X-ray machinery will also ‘greatly improve’ the analysis of Roman-era artefacts, Historic England said — as the scanner will be able to penetrate dirt and debris build-ups around such objects without the risk of damaging them. Pictured, top, a piece of Roman armour covered in concretion and, bottom, the interior of such revealed by X-ray imaging.
AUSTRALIA, WORLD

Mining Camp Found in Southeast Australia

Mining Camp Found in Southeast Australia

Researchers from Macquarie University were examining remains of industrial equipment that was used to haul shale out of the valley when New South Wales National Parks rangers alerted them to the presence of other structures and artifacts, including wall foundations, hearths, paving, corrugated iron roofing, ceramics, and glass that had been previously hidden by vegetation.

Chris Banffy, NPWS ranger, and Dr. Bec Parkes, a principal archaeologist with Lantern Heritage at the remains of an old hut.

Since the summer bushfires, a staff camp has emerged near the Ruined Castle in the Jamison Valley. The fires uncovered previously vegetated remnants and artifacts, including the wall bases, hearths’ paving, and corrugated iron roofing, as well as ceramics and glass.

The remains of a shale mining settlement used by workers from the 1880s until around 1914 was studied by a team at Macquarie University.

Associate professors Tanya Evans and Shawn Ross, from the history and archaeology department, are working on the project with Professor Lucy Taksa from the Centre for Workforce Futures at Macquarie Business School.

The team was originally invited by NPWS and the Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute to survey the industrial remains associated with the Bleichert Ropeway, which was erected to haul the shale from the valley up the escarpment.

“Then NPWS approached the team about some ‘huts’ they had noticed while doing other work,” Associate Professor Evans said.

Local Katoomba identity, Phil Hammon, knew that workers had lived there during the mining period and encouraged that focus of the project. The team is now concentrating on new archaeological surveys and excavations in and around the mining settlement.

“Archaeologist members of the team will head to the Mountains ASAP to undertake another survey of the site, building on two earlier surveys,” Professor Evans said.

“Historian members will undertake archival research and organize oral history interviews and focus groups with local community members as soon as COVID-19 restrictions allow us.”

Professor Taksa said the team will combine archival, documentary, oral, photographic, and material evidence to reconstruct life in the village.

“The aim is to give ‘flesh and voice’ to the people who lived and worked at this place,” she said.

The summer fires will also enable them to assess the impact of bushfires on heritage sites.

“The study will be looking at the effects of ‘de-industrialization’ on the landscape – that is, the story of how this industrial village basically has returned to nature but has left certain impacts on the landscape.”

The information discovered through the study will be used for conservation and heritage, and also for tourism and education purposes.

Down the track, Professor Evans said they hope to gather more information on the area’s rich history through oral history interviews and focus groups.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Mask of the red queen A.D 670 Mexico

Mask of the red queen A.D 670 Mexico

One of the richest known burials of the Mayan women monarch is the funeral assemblage of Palenque’s Lady Tz’akbu Ajaw, nicknamed the Red Queen as it was discovered to be covered in cinnabar.

Her sarcophagus was in Temple XIII, next to the Temple of the Inscriptions, where her husband, K’inich Janaab Pakal I, was entombed; her malachite funerary mask echoes his jadeite version. 

She also wore a headdress ornamented with shell eyes and fangs, probably representing a deity, and a necklace of multicolored beads. A Spondylus shell containing a limestone figurine probably represents a dedicatory offering performed when the queen was laid to rest.

More than 100 of malachite fragments were carefully put back together to reassemble the Red Queen’s funerary mask. The piercing eyes were made from obsidian and jade.

The funeral complex of Tz’akbu Ajaw, the lady of Palenque called the Red Queen for having been found covered in cinnabar, comes from one of the most sumptuous tombs of a female Mayan ruler. 

Her sarcophagus was located in Temple XIII, located next to the Temple of the Inscriptions where her husband K’inich Janaab Pakal I was buried. Her malachite face mask evokes her husband’s jade version.

She was also wearing a headdress adorned with shell eyes and fangs, probably to represent a deity, as well as a multi-colored bead necklace. A Spondylus shell containing a limestone figurine may represent a dedicatory offering made for the queen’s burial.

Skeleton of the Red Queen

Who Was the Red Queen?

The researchers called the woman found in the tomb the ”Red Queen”. Her remains were transported to the laboratory of the Mexican National Institute of Archaeology and History.

Researchers found that she lived between 600 and 700 AD – a date suggested by the pottery discovered inside the tomb.

The analysis included carbon 14 testing and facial reconstruction. With this, the team found that the woman died when she was about sixty years old and had osteoporosis. Moreover, her diet was revealed to be based mostly on meat.

She also had very healthy teeth, something that was not typical for the Maya people during that time.

Although the burial was a magnificent discovery, the researchers couldn’t hide their disappointment: Inside the chamber, they did not find any inscription or indication which could allow them to confirm her name.

The researcher Arnoldo Gonzalez Cruz believes that she was Tz’ak-bu Ajaw, the wife of Pakal and the grandmother of the last Mayan king.

Currently, the team is looking for the tombs of Pakal and his sons. Comparing the DNA of the woman with Pakal’s sons could help them with this hypothesis.

Mask of the Red Queen from the tomb found in Temple XIII The diadem and mask are made of pieces of jade and malachite.

The Legendary City of Palenque

Palenque was called Lekamha by the Maya people. This word means ”Big Water”. It was an impressive city which was built around the 3rd century BC and was inhabited until the end of the 8th century AD.

This was a political center and the capital for many male and female rulers. Now the site is located in a part of the state of Chiapas. It covers up to 2.5 square kilometers (1 square mile). Archaeologists claim that only 10% of the ancient city of Palenque has been explored so far.

View of Temple XIII and Temple of Inscriptions from the Palace at Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico

Apart from the tomb of the Red Queen, another important discovery has been the tomb of K’inich Janaab Pakal, also known as Pacal the Great. He ruled during the 7th century AD and was buried in the temple called The Temple of the Inscriptions.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Nabta Playa: The World’s First Astronomical Site Was Built in Africa and Is Older Than Stonehenge

Nabta Playa: The World’s First Astronomical Site Was Built in Africa and Is Older Than Stonehenge

Nabta Playa has been assessed by an inventory of Egyptian archeological sites in accordance with the UNESCO World Heritage Convention as having “theory solar and stellar alignments.”

This stone circle of 7,000 years has tracked the summer solstice and the arrival of the annual monsoon season. It’s the oldest known astronomical site on Earth

Ancient civilizations around the world constructed huge stone circles for thousands of years, aligning them with the sun and stars to identify the seasons. These early calendars foretold the coming of spring, summer, fall, and winter, helping civilizations track when to plant and harvest crops.

They also served as ceremonial sites, both for celebration and sacrifice.

These megaliths — large, prehistoric monuments made of stone — may seem mysterious in our modern era, when many people lack a connection with, or even view of, the stars.

Some even hold them up as supernatural or divined by aliens. But many ancient societies kept time by tracking which constellations rose at sunset, like reading a giant, celestial clock.

And others pinpointed the sun’s location in the sky on the summer and winter solstice, the longest and shortest days of the year, or the spring and fall equinox.

Europe alone holds some 35,000 megaliths, including many astronomically-aligned stone circles, as well as tombs (or cromlechs) and other standing stones. These structures were mostly built between 6,500 and 4,500 years ago, largely along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts.

The most famous of these sites is Stonehenge, a monument in England that’s thought to be around 5,000 years old. Though still old, at that age, Stonehenge may have been one of the youngest such stone structures to be built in Europe.

The chronology and extreme similarities between these widespread European sites lead some researchers to think the regional tradition of constructing megaliths first emerged along the coast of France. It was then passed across the region, eventually reaching Great Britain.

But even these primitive sites are at least centuries younger than the world’s oldest known stone circle: Nabta Playa.

The stone circle of Nabta Playa marks the summer solstice, a time that coincided with the arrival of monsoon rains in the Sahara Desert thousands of years ago.

Located in Africa, Nabta Playa stands some 700 miles south of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It was built more than 7,000 years ago, making Nabta Playa the oldest stone circle in the world — and possibly Earth’s oldest astronomical observatory.

It was constructed by a cattle worshiping cult of nomadic people to mark the summer solstice and the arrival of the monsoons.

“Here is human beings’ first attempt to make some serious connection with the heavens,” says J. McKim Malville, a professor emeritus at the University of Colorado and archaeoastronomy expert.

“This was the dawn of observational astronomy,” he adds. “What in the world did they think about it? Did they imagine these stars were gods? And what kinds of connections did they have with the stars and the stones?”

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

New DNA analysis reveals ancient Scythian warrior was a 13-year-old girl

New DNA analysis reveals ancient Scythian warrior was a 13-year-old girl

Throughout Greek mythology there existed a tribe called Amazone, comprising only of women, and a hunting tribe that tamed horses and fought.

While it is said that Amazon exaggerated the tribal tribes that lived on the Black Sea coast, the Scythians of the nomadic horse races that appeared in the record from around the 9th century BC were actually girls of age 13 years old. DNA tests revealed that there was a ‘female warrior’.

The myth of ‘ female warriors ‘ has been considered a purely imaginary product for many years but in the last years, archeological evidence has been found of the existence of female warriors.

Remains of the young ancient Scythian warrior.

By the end of 2019, it was revealed that the two Scythian warriors found in western Russia, buried about 2500 years ago, are women.

The two female warriors were buried together with the other women, and the burial items included an iron knife, over 30 arrowheads, and a harness for horse riding.

It is said that one of them was wearing a headdress with a flower-shaped decoration at the age of 40 to 50 years old, and the other was buried at the age of about 30 to 35 years old, straddling a horse.

‘We can say that these two were indeed horsemen,’ said Valerii Guliaev, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Guliaev’s research team seems to have discovered 11 women who were buried under the armed condition in the past 10 years, and female warriors were undergoing the same burial ceremony as male warriors.

The Scythian remains with the headdress

In the wake of Guliaev’s findings, another research team focused on the Scythian warriors found in the Tuva Republic in 1988.

Varvara Busova, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, discovered that the warrior was a young man because he had found burial items such as axes and bows that would normally be housed with men and no burial items associated with women such as beads and mirrors. It was thought to have been.

The warrior was housed in a larch casket with various weapons and was partially mummified.

When the research team examined the DNA of the body, it was found that the body was female and that the age was not even 14 years old. Girl warrior is wearing, such as fur coats, coat dipodidae seems to have been made by Awa connect the skin.

Radiocarbon dating of burial items suggests that the girl was buried between the 7th and 5th centuries BC, but Busova’s research team wants to more accurately identify when the girl was buried. thinking about.

In addition, it may be possible to find out the cause of the girl’s death by performing restoration work of the burial goods and CT scan of the body.

Historian Adrian Mayer pointed out that the Scythians had female warriors because they were small as a social group. ‘Since they lived in a small tribe, it makes sense that everyone in the tribe is a stakeholder. They all had to contribute to defense, war, and hunting.’ Says Mayer.

By Vladimir Semyonov
BRAZIL, SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD

A 9,000-year-old head with amputated hands laid over could be the oldest ritual beheading in the Americas

A 9,000-year-old head with amputated hands laid over could be the oldest ritual beheading in the Americas

The Amazon rain forest has long inspired gruesome stories of ritualistic violence from 19th-century tales of tribes searching for “trophy heads” to Hollywood films such as Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto.

But a much longer history than commonly believed can be portrayed of civilizations such as the Incas, Nazcas, and the Wari cultures making human sacrifices in South America may have a much longer tradition than previously thought.

Recent research, reported in PLOS One, records the discovery of a 9,000-year-old case of ritualized human decapitation that seems to be the oldest in the Americas by some margin.

Amputated hands had been laid over the face of the decapitated skull and arranged opposite each other

Execution or burial?

The researchers found the remains of the beheaded young man from a rock shelter in Lapa do Santo, East-Central Brazil. Quite astonishingly the decapitated remains date to between 9,100 and 9,400 years ago.

The decapitated skull was found with an amputated right hand laid over the left side of the face, with fingers pointing to the chin. It also had an amputated left hand laid over the right side of the face with fingers pointing to the forehead, making it highly ritualistic and extremely unusual.

Plastered skull from Jericho in the British Museum.

However, the process of extracting the body parts from the victim seems straight out of a horror movie. The man was decapitated by blows from a sharp instrument to the neck, but there was also evidence that the head was distorted and twisted in places, suggesting there was difficulty getting the head off the body.

Furthermore, the cuts left on the bones were signs that the flesh had been removed from the head prior to it being buried. However, there’s no evidence to suggest decapitation was the cause of death.

Discovered parts.

The decapitation is reminiscent of Neolithic skull cults from the Middle East, which often buried their deceased under the floors of their homes – sometimes with the skull removed, plastered, and painted.

The placement of the hands is also similar to partial coverage of facial gestures that we see in different cultural settings today (such as signs of tiredness, shock, horror, etc).

This ritualistic behavior may seem barbaric to us today but it is becoming clearer that during the Neolithic period decapitations, skull cults, and ancestor worship were an important cultural practice. Excavations of neolithic sites in the Middle East have uncovered ancestors that had their fleshed removed in a similar way before being buried in the houses of their relatives.

The rituals undoubtedly involved many of the community to honour their ancestors and may be similar to what has been discovered at Lapa do Santo.

Local but unusual man

The researchers also undertook a number of scientific analyses to find out more about the individual. One of these was to analyze the teeth for isotopes of strontium, which is taken up in the human body through food and water.

The analysis of the tooth enamel, which is formed during childhood can be compared to the isotope signatures in the local geology. This can tell whether or not the individual was related to the place they were buried.

The analysis showed that the man was clearly associated with his place of burial. This implies he was a local man who grew up in the area and not a captured trophy from a warring faction.

But perhaps most intriguingly, they took measurements of the skull and compared it to measurements of other skeletons, including ones excavated at the same site. In this case, the young man’s head was a little bit of an outlier on the overall size of the skull, being slightly larger. Did he look different from the other men? Was he somehow distinctive? The remarkable evidence from this site suggests he was unique to their community but living with them and perhaps chosen for this reason?

This forensic approach to understanding archaeological remains is now shedding light on how much information can be gleaned from these deposits and the value of careful and meticulous work.

More broadly, this is one of many revelations that are starting to appear regarding South American archaeology ranging from evidence of early extensive burning of the landscape 9,500 years ago, through to large-scale deforestation and the production of glyphs by pre-European culture.

It remains to be seen how many more discoveries like this will be made in the future but there is one clear message, losing your head in South America is not a new phenomenon!

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Vikings blacksmith tools and weapons found in the grave, ca.800 A.D Norway

Vikings blacksmith tools and weapons found in the grave, ca.800 A.D Norway

Last autumn, farmers Leif Arne Nordheim borrowed a backhoe from his neighbor to remove some pesky flagstones from his garden in Sogndalsdalen on the southwestern coast of Norway.

Lifting the last flagstone revealed tools — a hammer and tongs — which Nordheim first assumed were of relatively recent manufacture.

When he found a bent blade, he realized it was likely archaeological and called in the county Cultural Department.

Archaeologists from the University Museum of Bergen soon followed and an excavation of the find site ensued.

The find turned out to be far greater than originally realized, and the ancient blacksmith tools were impressive enough already.

Archaeologists unearthed a large collection of forging tools and weapons, including three hammers of different sizes, two anvils, blacksmith tongs, coal tongs, a rake to remove coals, a tray used to add coals, a chisel, a scythe, a sickle, a drill, pieces of a grindstone, nails, a single-edged sword, an axe, two arrows, and a knife.

Underneath the tools and products of the blacksmith trade archaeologists found more personal items: a razor, beard trimming scissors, tweezers, a frying pan, and a poker.

The deepest layer of excavation contained ashes, charcoal, and small bone fragments. The pieces of bone haven’t been identified yet, but archaeologists believe they are human remains, likely the blacksmith owner of the marvelous tools above.

Between the ashes and bones fragments, researchers found the objects that the deceased was probably wearing when his body was cremated: beads and a bone comb.

In total, the excavation yielded about 60 artifacts and 150 assorted fragments. Forging tools have been found in graves before, but this is an exceptionally rich collection for a blacksmith burial. Indeed, it’s the richest burial, blacksmith or not, found in the area in years.

“We think that the blacksmiths’ contemporaries wished to show how skillful he was in his work by including such an extensive amount of objects. He might have forged many of these tools himself.”

“The grave gives the impression that this was a local blacksmith and he enjoyed a high status in his society beyond being his trade,” says [co-leader the excavation Asle Bruen] Olsen.

The design of the axe and some of the other metal objects dated them to the 8th or 9th century A.D. Subsequent radiocarbon dating confirmed the date of the burial to be around 800 A.D.

The artifacts are currently being conserved by experts at the University Museum of Bergen. Once they’re stabilized they will go on display, possibly in a dedicated exhibition.