All posts by Archaeology World Team

BULGARIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Ancient Bones Found in Bulgarian Cave Are Oldest Evidence of Modern Humans in Europe

Ancient Bones Found in Bulgarian Cave Are Oldest Evidence of Modern Humans in Europe

According to new research, modern humans have overlapped with Neanderthals in Europe longer than previously thought. Remains of Homo sapiens found in a Bulgarian cave are roughly 44,000 to 46,000 years old, making them the oldest directly dated remains of modern humans in Europe, reports Bruce Bower for Science News.

Nicola Davis for the Guardian reports that Neanderthals had been stumpy, cold-adapted hominins living across Europe and as far east as Siberia until about 40 000 years ago.

Neanderthal remains to live on in modern human DNA, indicating that our species and theirs met and interbred, but how long the two groups overlapped is unclear.

Excavations at the Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria uncovered ancient human bones along with stone tools, animal bones, bone tools, and pendants.

Other human remains previously discovered in the United Kingdom and Italy have been dated to between 41,000 and 45,000 years ago, but their ages were measured indirectly, relying on the fossils’ archaeological and geological surroundings rather than the specimens themselves, reported Jonathon Amos for BBC News in 2011.

The direct dating of these newly unearthed remains from the Bacho Kiro Cave in northern Bulgaria comes from two sources: radiocarbon dating and DNA extracted from a tooth and six shards of bone identified as belonging to H. sapiens.

Both methods dated the remains to around 44,000 to 46,000 years ago, the researchers report in two papers published in the journals Nature Ecology & Evolution and Nature.

“Our work in Bacho Kiro shows there is a time overlap of maybe 8,000 years between the arrival of the first wave of modern humans in eastern Europe and the final extinction of Neanderthals in the far west of Europe,” Jean-Jacques Hublin, a paleoanthropologist at the Max Planck Institute and co-author of the research, tells the Guardian.

The new estimate adds as much as 5,000 years of biological, cultural, and behavioral interaction between the species compared to the chronology suggested by other researchers, he tells the Guardian.

Hublin and his colleagues began their new excavation at the Bacho Kiro Cave in 2015. The site was first excavated by archaeologists in 1938 and then again in the 1970s.  The new dig turned up animal bones, tools made of stone and bone, beads and pendants, and, of course, a handful of ancient human remains.

The team had some 1,200 fragments of bones and teeth, but only a single molar could be visually identified as having come from a modern human. To figure out which species all the other fragments belonged to, the researchers extracted proteins from each specimen.

The protein’s structure can be used to tell species apart. This massive screening process yielded six additional chunks of human remains. Genetic evidence also corroborated the identities of six out of the seven fossils.

“In my view, this is the oldest and strongest published evidence for a very early upper paleolithic presence of Homo sapiens in Europe, several millennia before the Neanderthals disappeared,” Chris Stringer, an expert in human origins from London’s Natural History Museum, tells the Guardian.

In 2019, Stringer was part of a team that reported an incomplete skull found in Greece may have belonged to a modern human that lived some 210,000 years ago. However, both the age and species assigned to the skull have been disputed.

Initial Upper Paleolithic artifacts, including blades and a sandstone bead, from the Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria.

The tools and ornaments found alongside modern humans remain at Bacho Kiro, such as pendants made of cave bear teeth, closely resemble artifacts from Neanderthal sites in western Europe dated several thousand years later, Hublin tells Science News.

The similarities provide “evidence that pioneer groups of Homo sapiens brought new behaviors into Europe and interacted with local Neandertals,” Hublin adds.

Stringer tells the Guardian that he has doubts about whether subsequent Neanderthal jewelry and tools were influenced as a result of interactions with early modern humans. In an interview with Science News, Stringer cites Neanderthal jewelry made out of eagle talons from roughly 130,000 years ago.

The new findings highlight the mystery of why Neanderthals disappeared when they did, if, as these new findings suggest, they coexisted with modern humans for millennia. If they were able to persist side by side for so long, what finally drove Neanderthals to extinction?

According to Richard Klein, a paleoanthropologist at Stanford University who was not involved in the research, who spoke with Tom Metcalfe of NBC News, “that’s the ultimate question.”

Stringer tells the Guardian that there simply may not have been enough of these early modern human pioneers in Europe to establish and sustain a significant presence, adding that an unstable climate could have also kept them at bay.

CROATIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Historic Weapon Unearthed in Croatia

A valuable piece of Croatian warrior heritage found at Krka National Park

LOZOVAC, CROATIA— Archaeology Org reports that an artillery weapon was found in a defensive wall in a tower at the fourteenth-century site of Nečven fortress, which is located in southern Croatia’s Krka National Park.

The bronze object, known as a mačkula, is similar to a mortar and was used to attack fortified settlements. This one is thought to date to the seventeenth or eighteenth century. 

“A mačkula is a weapon that holds a special place in Croatian warrior heritage. During the traditional manifestation Sinjska Alka, every hit „u sridu“ (‘in the middle’) is celebrated by a shot from the mačkula.

Its value is enhanced even more during the ceremony for the winner when several mačkula are shooting from Sinj’s old fortified walls,” Krka NP said in a statement.

The mačkula was found in the defensive wall of the hexagonal tower right from the entrance of the fortress.

Archaeological research of Nečven fortress started back n 2011 and along with archaeological excavations conservation works of the fortress was also carried out. Metal and stone findings were conserved at the Krka NP conservation workshop.

“The mačkula is another valuable finding that will complete the Krka NP archaeological collection and contribute to the valorization of the cultural and historical heritage of our region,“ Nella Slavica, director of the Public Institute of Krka National Park said.

Slavica says that the conservation of the Nečven fortress is a long-lasting project to preserve heritage along with preparatory activities for the future construction of a 462-meter pedestrian suspension bridge over the Krka River connecting Nečven and Trošenj fortresses.

The bridge which will connect the fortresses

The bridge will be a tourist attraction with its fascinating views of the Krka canyon and Nečven and Trošenj Fortresses without causing any burden on the underlying phenomenon.

“Built at the beginning of the 14th century, the Nečven fortress is one of the most valuable monuments of medieval fortification architecture in Dalmatia. It was owned by the Nelipić family for two centuries.

In the 16th century, Nečven was conquered by the Ottomans but a year before the final expulsion of the Ottomans and the liberation of the City of Knin in 1688, Skradin inhabitants took over Nečven fortress and from it guarded the border.

Opposite Nečven fortress above the Krka canyon, the Trošenj fortress has proudly stood for centuries. Both fortresses represent valuable monuments of Croatian cultural heritage.

Nečven and Trošenj fortresses, built and owned by great Croatian families Nelipići and Šubići as part of the medieval defense system, today are valued within Krka National Park,” Krka NP stated.

BULGARIA, EUROPE, WORLD

Over 40 Ancient Ships Discovered on the Bottom of the Black Sea

Over 40 Ancient Ships Discovered on the Bottom of the Black Sea

A group of maritime archeologists studying sea levels in the Black Sea have uncovered over 40 shipwrecks as a “complete bonus.”

The shipwrecks provide new data on the maritime interconnectivity of the Black Sea.

Scientists have discovered a rare collection of over 40 shipwrecks in the Black Sea, including those from the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, which provide insight into the ways of life and seafaring that stretch back into prehistory.

Researchers from the University of Southampton in the UK were surveying the Bulgarian waters of the Black Sea, where areas of land were inundated as the water level rose following the last Ice Age.

Members of the expedition mapping submerged ancient landscapes, the first of its kind in the Black Sea, discovered and inspected the shipwrecks, many of which provide the first views of ship types known from historical sources, but never seen before.

The wrecks, which include those from the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires, provide new data on the maritime interconnectivity of the Black Sea coastal communities and manifest ways of life and seafaring that stretch back into prehistory.

“We’re endeavoring to answer some hotly-debated questions about when the water level rose, how rapidly it did so and what effects it had on human populations living along this stretch of the Bulgarian coast of the Black Sea,” said Jon Adams, Principle Investigator on the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea MAP).

“As such, the primary focus of this project is to carry out geophysical surveys to detect former land surfaces buried below the current sea bed, take core samples and characterize and date them, and create a palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of Black Sea prehistory,” said Adams, Founding Director of the University of Southampton’s Centre for Maritime Archaeology.

Based on board the Stril Explorer, an off-shore vessel equipped with some of the most advanced underwater survey systems in the world, researchers are surveying the sea bed using two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs).

“The wrecks are a complete bonus, but a fascinating discovery, found during the course of our extensive geophysical surveys,” said Adams.

“They are astonishingly preserved due to the anoxic conditions (absence of oxygen) of the Black Sea below 150 meters,” he said.

Photogrammetric model of a Byzantine period wreck.

“Using the latest 3D recording technique for underwater structures, we’ve been able to capture some astonishing images without disturbing the sea bed,” Adams said.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

1,600-Year-Old Elongated Skull with Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found in Mexico Ruins

1,600-Year-Old Elongated Skull with Stone-Encrusted Teeth Found in Mexico Ruins

The 1600-year-old skeleton of an upper-class woman whose skull was purposely deformed and teeth encrusted with mineral stones was found by archeologists near ancient Teotihuacan ruins of Mexico.

Archeologists who found the 1,600-year-old skeleton near Mexico’s ancient Teotihuacan said the woman was 35-40 when she died with intentionally deformed skull and teeth encrusted with mineral stones

When she died, between the ages of 35 and 40, the woman was buried with 19 jars that served as offerings, the National Anthropology and History Institute said.

The institute said in a statement that her cranium had been elongated by being compressed in a “very extreme” manner, a technique commonly used in the southern part of Mesoamerica, not the central region where she was found.

Her teeth contained two round pyrite stones, which were encrusted in her top front teeth.

This was a practice that was used among the nobility in Maya regions in southern Mexico and Central America. 

The Maya are credited with being the masters of cosmetic dentistry as they were known to decorate teeth by embedding them with precious stones or by carving notches and grooves into them.

Tiny holes were chipped out of teeth and ornamental stones—including jade—were attached with an adhesive made out of natural resins, such as plant sap, which was mixed with other chemicals and crushed bones.

The dentists likely had a sophisticated knowledge of tooth anatomy because they knew how to drill into teeth without hitting the pulp inside.

Gold studded teeth, Pre-Columbian Ecuador.

Last year, archaeologists discovered liquid mercury in a subterranean tunnel beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan, which may represent an underworld river that leads the way to a Royal tomb or tombs.

The remains of the kings of Teotihuacan, some of the most powerful rulers of the pre-Hispanic world, have never been found.

Such a discovery would be monumental as it would unravel many of the mysteries surrounding this ancient civilization.

The enigmatic pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Mexico City, thrived between the first and eighth centuries, after which its civilization vanished.

Its two majestic Sun and Moon pyramids are major tourist attractions.

The 1,600-year-old skeleton of an upper-class woman found near Mexico’s ancient Teotihuacan wore a prosthetic lower tooth made of a green stone known as serpentine

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

The remains were believed to be Richard III

Archaeologists found a skeleton under a car park in the city of Leicester. The remains were believed to be Richard III

Experts from the University of Leicester said DNA from the bones matched that of descendants of the monarch’s family. Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley, from the University of Leicester, told a press conference to applause: “Beyond reasonable doubt it’s Richard.”

The earliest surviving portrait of Richard III in Leicester Cathedral. Archaeologists are hoping to find his grave under a council car park in Leicester.

Richard, killed in battle in 1485, will be reinterred in Leicester Cathedral. Mr. Buckley said the bones had been subjected to “rigorous academic study” and had been carbon-dated to a period from 1455-1540.

Dr. Jo Appleby, an osteo-archaeologist from the university’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History, revealed the bones were of a man in his late 20s or early 30s. Richard was 32 when he died. His skeleton had suffered 10 injuries, including eight to the skull, at around the time of death. Two of the skull wounds were potentially fatal.

One was a “slice” removing a flap of bone, the other was caused by a bladed weapon that went through and hit the opposite side of the skull – a depth of more than 10cm (4ins).

‘Humiliation injuries’

Dr Appleby said: “Both of these injuries would have caused an almost instant loss of consciousness and death would have followed quickly afterwards.

“In the case of the larger wound, if the blade had penetrated 7cm into the brain, which we cannot determine from the bones, death would have been instantaneous.”

Other wounds included slashes or stabs to the face and the side of the head. There was also evidence of “humiliation” injuries, including a pelvic wound likely to have been caused by an upward thrust of a weapon, through the buttock. Richard III was portrayed as deformed by some Tudor historians and indeed the skeleton’s spine is badly curved, a condition known as scoliosis.

However, there was no trace of a withered arm or other abnormalities described in the more extreme characterisations of the king.

Missing princes

Without the scoliosis, which experts believe developed during teenage years, he would have been about 5ft 8ins (1.7m) tall, but the curvature would have made him appear “considerably” shorter.

Dr Appleby said: “The analysis of the skeleton proved that it was an adult male but was an unusually slender, almost feminine, build for a man.

“Taken as a whole, the skeletal evidence provides a highly convincing case for identification as Richard III.”

Richard was a royal prince until the death of his brother Edward IV in 1483. Appointed as protector of his nephew, Edward V, Richard instead assumed the reins of power. Edward and his brother Richard, known as the Princes in the Tower, disappeared soon after. Rumors circulated they had been murdered on the orders of their uncle.

Challenged by Henry Tudor, Richard was killed at Bosworth in 1485 after only two years on the throne.

DNA trail

He was given a hurried burial beneath the church of Greyfriars in the center of Leicester. Mr. Buckley said the grave was clumsily cut, with sloping sides and too short for the body, forcing the head forward.

“There was no evidence of a coffin or shroud which would have left the bones in a more compact position.

“Unusually, the arms are crossed and this could be an indication the body was buried with the wrists still tied,” he added. Greyfriars church was demolished during the Reformation in the 16th Century and over the following centuries, its exact location was forgotten.

However, a team of enthusiasts and historians managed to trace the likely area – and, crucially, after painstaking genealogical research, they found a 17th-generation descendant of Richard’s sister with whose DNA they could compare any remains. Joy Ibsen, from Canada, died several years ago but her son, Michael, who now works in London, provided a sample.

The researchers were fortunate as, while the DNA they were looking for was in all Joy Ibsen’s offspring, it is only handed down through the female line and her only daughter has no children. The line was about to stop.

Tomb plans

But the University of Leicester’s experts had other problems. Dr. Turi King, project geneticist, said there had been concern DNA in the bones would be too degraded: “The question was could we get a sample of DNA to work with, and I am extremely pleased to tell you that we could.”

She added: “There is a DNA match between the maternal DNA of the descendants of the family of Richard III and the skeletal remains we found at the Greyfriars dig.

“In short, the DNA evidence points to these being the remains of Richard III.” In August 2012, excavation began in a city council car park – the only open space remaining in the likely area – which quickly identified buildings connected to the church. The bones were found in the first days of the dig and were eventually excavated under forensic conditions.

The spot (circled in red) where archaeologists found the remains of the 15th century monarch
The final resting place of Richard III? A body matching his description was found here buried in a shroud

Details of the reburial ceremony have yet to be released, but Philippa Langley from the Richard III Society said plans for a tomb were well advanced. She said of the discovery of Richard’s skeleton: “I’m totally thrilled, I’m overwhelmed, to be honest, it’s been a long hard journey. I mean today as we stand it’s been nearly four years.

“It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work. I think, as someone said to me earlier, it’s just the end of the beginning.

“We’re going to completely reassess Richard III, we’re going to completely look at all the sources again, and hopefully there’s going to be a new beginning for Richard as well.”

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

How 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck discovery ‘redefined’ history

Archaeology breakthrough: How 2,000-year-old Roman shipwreck discovery ‘redefined’ history

Scuba researchers explored waters in Florida when they came across the shipwreck of a Roman vessel. The ship was called ‘Panarea III,’ and was expected to have sailed between Rome and Carthage about 218-210 AD during the Second Punic War.

In 2010 US archeologists using sonar equipment and a remotely operated submersible find it at 130 meters depth.

In the center of the researchers, the Italian archeologists considered that the ship was a supply vessel in the fleet of the Roman consul Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

Among the stunning artefacts were “small fishing plates, kalathoi, pitcher, and the louterion,” the archaeologists said.

They said the latter was probably used as a sacrificial altar on board the ship.

Jarrod Jablonski, one of the divers, added: “Metal supports still embedded in the base were likely used for fastening to the deck.

Underwater researchers were exploring waters in Florida when they came across the shipwreck of a Roman vessel.

“The Louterion (the ship) is one of many unique discoveries that promise to help redefine what we understand about ancient trade routes and commerce in the 3rd century BC.”

A similar discovery was made in the waters of the Mediterranean when a Phoenician vessel was found by researchers.

The Phoenicians were the direct descendent of the Canaanites of the south Syrian and Lebanese coast – known as a great maritime people who had developed a high level of shipbuilding technology.

It was found at a depth of 125 metres below the surface.

According to Science News, after they find, Dr. Gambin said: “This shipwreck may offer new and significant information about Phoenician seafaring and trade in the central Mediterranean during the archaic period.

“To date, little is known about the earliest contact of Phoenician mariners with the Maltese islands.”

The researchers claimed that the ship was sailing from Sicily to Malta when it sank.

It was about 15 metres long and carried a cargo of 20 grinding stones (about 35 kg each) and 50 amphorae of seven different types – indicating the ship had been indifferent harbours.

Archaeology news: They believe the ship was from Sicily

Dr. Gambin added: “This discovery may be considered as one of the best-preserved archaeological sites in Malta datable to the early Phoenician period.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

3500-year-old Ancient Egyptian stone chest could lead archaeologists to a royal tomb

3500-year-old Ancient Egyptian stone chest could lead archaeologists to a royal tomb

The stone artifact also contains a wooden chest engraved with the name of Thutmose II, a famous boy Pharaoh who took the throne aged just 13.

Discovered at the ancient site of Deir el-Bahari, the extraordinary find indicates an untouched royal tomb may be hidden nearby.

Several packages wrapped in linen canvas were found inside the box. One contained the goose and another held the egg of a bird known as an ibis.

Professor Andrzej Niwiński, from Warsaw University, told the Polish Press Agency: “The chest itself is about 40 cm long, with a slight smaller height.

“It was perfectly camouflaged, looked like an ordinary stone block. Only after a closer look did it turn out to be a chest.”

Several packages wrapped in linen canvas (top left) were found inside the chest. One contained the goose and another contained the egg of a bird known as an ibis. One package contained a wooden box (bottom left and top right)

Encased inside the stone chest was a wooden box wrapped in four layers of canvas.

Within this box was a second box in the shape of a chapel. It featured one of the names of Pharaoh Thutmose II.

Thutmose II was married to the famous Queen Hatshepsut. It’s thought he took the throne in his early teens and reigned for just three years before his death aged 16.

Archaeologists made the extraordinary find at the famous Egyptian site of Deir el-Bahari. It’s not clear how or why the goose was sacrificed.

It’s a vast complex of temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt.

Based on the artefacts’ symbolism and engravings, Professor Niwiński said he had high hopes of finding a hidden royal tomb somewhere nearby the burial.

“The royal deposit implies that a temple or a tomb was erected for the king here,” he said.

Mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Dayr al-Bahri, Egypt, c1457 BC. Archaeologists announced the discovery of a stone chest and a bundle in Dayr al-Bahri that could lead to the discovery of a royal temple

“And because we are in the middle of a royal cemetery, there is no doubt that it must be a tomb.

“The discovery of this deposit suggests that we are in the process of finding a tomb.”

The stone chest discovery was made in March last year but only made public this month.

Archaeologists continued their work in October 2019 but are yet to find an entrance to a secret tomb.

EUROPE, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Ice Age Graveyard Discovered Containing 22 Giant Sloths Preserved In Their Own Feces

Ice Age Graveyard Discovered Containing 22 Giant Sloths Preserved In Their Own Feces

A surprising find was made in Ecuador by paleontologists – a group of giant Ice Age sloths.

The 22 sloths of elephants, from the ice age, were found as fossilized. Paleontologists made the grand discovery preserved in asphalt during a dig at the Tanque Loma site in the Santa Elena peninsula, western Ecuador.

The fossils of the Panamerican ground sloths, known as Eremotherium laurillardi, were spotted during this dig.

Paleontologists excavating the site reported stumbled-upon bones belonging to 15 adults, five juveniles, and two newborns or foetuses of the mammoth creatures.

Experts believe these creatures roamed the Earth in modern-day Ecuador some 20,000 years ago.

Elephant-like in size, the sloths may have weighed several tonnes. The ancient animals also boasted the impressive ability to walk on two legs. This is unlike their current incarnations who walk the Earth today.

Experts unearth fossilised remains of 22 elephant-sized sloths
 Elephant-like in size, the sloths may have weighed several tonnes

Palaeontologist Jose Luis Roman-Carrion of the National Polytechnic University in Ecuador said: “The Tanque Loma site presents a rare accumulation of fossils that provides very relevant data.

“We now know that the Eremotherium lived in groups and had parental behaviour.”

The fossils were likely so well preserved because they had been coated in seeping asphalt. The mammoth sloths were discovered alongside an ancient horse, a deer, an armadillo-like pampathere, and an elephant-like gomphothere.

Experts remain unable to determine the exact cause of death simply by looking at the fossilized bones. However, researchers believe the deaths may have resulted from drought or illness caused by drinking water contaminated with their own faeces.

A lifesize depiction of mammoths stuck in tar is on display at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

The University of California, Los Angeles palaeontologist Dr Emily Lindsey, led the study of the sloth fossils.

Dr. Lindsey explained to Gizmodo: “For years, everyone has thought of the classic scenario at the La Brea Tar Pits, where a large herbivore would get stuck in asphalt, then a bunch of carnivores would be attracted to the trapped animal and get stuck.

“Nothing got stuck at Tanque Loma! The animals died in an aquatic setting like many other fossil sites, and the bones just fortuitously got preserved by seeping asphalt.”

The news arrives almost exactly two years after a similarly amazing ancient sloth discovery. A fossilised human footprint was found nestled inside a giant sloth footprint in April 2018.

Experts now believe the series of surprisingly well-preserved set of tracks describe the story of an ancient sloth hunt.

This was because inside the outline of the sloth’s 20-inch-long foot was a human footprint. There were at least 10 of these tracks, all lined-up in a row.

Professor Matthew Bennett of Bournemouth University said in a statement: “It slowly dawned on me what was happening.

“Thousands of years ago, a ground sloth had walked along with this site, and a person had followed it, carefully matching its every step.

The remains of a giant sloth depicted climbing a tree at the Natural History Museum in London.