All posts by Archaeology World Team

CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

A Kiln That Fired Millions of Clay Pipes Was Unearthed Under a Montreal Bridge

A Kiln That Fired Millions of Clay Pipes Was Unearthed Under a Montreal Bridge

A bustling pipe-making district at the intersection of four Montreal neighborhoods catered to Canadians in need of a tobacco fix, during the 19th Century.

The leading Henderson pipe plant manufactured millions of pipes each year was one of the manufacturers operating in the area.

According to Max Harrold of CTV News, a key component of the factory operations was discovered by archaeologists: a “massive” kiln where Henderson clay pipes were fired before being sold to smokers.

A Kiln That Fired Millions of Clay Pipes Was Unearthed Under a Montreal Bridge
A massive pipe kiln from the Henderson factory, unearthed by archaeologists.

The team discovered the kiln beneath the Jacques Cartier Bridge, a now-iconic landmark that connects Montreal and the city of Longueuil while conducting survey work prior to the installation of a drainage system near piers on the Montreal side of the bridge.

Per a press release from Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Incorporated (JCCBI), archaeologists embarked on the dig with the specific goal of locating the Henderson kiln.

Historic maps confirmed that the team’s chosen dig spot was once the site of the Henderson factory and even identified the location of a kiln spanning between 16 and 19 feet in diameter.

Hundreds of pipes have previously been found in the area, many of them stamped with the “Henderson/Montreal” label-another sign that the kiln was hiding nearby.

“We knew we’d come across it this time around,” archaeologist Christian Roy tells Jessica Leigh Hester of Atlas Obscura.

The kiln had been largely demolished, but Roy says the excavation team found chambers “through which the air would flow into the oven,” along with “other openings where they could put charcoal in to heat up the kiln.”

Archaeologists suspect the structure dates to sometime between 1847 and 1892. According to JCCBI, which spearheaded the dig, the kiln may have been rebuilt while still in operation, as “this type of equipment required regular maintenance and repairs.”

Pipes found on land near the kiln

Tobacco smoking was a fashionable habit in centuries past. In Scandanavia, it was much more popular to consume tobacco in the form of snus. Even today, this is still very popular and is consumed via slim or large portions placed under the lip. However, in other areas of the world, smoking tobacco was most common. To capitalize on the trend, companies in Europe and North America produced an array of pipes made from such materials as wood, porcelain, clay, and plaster.

Irish immigrants who flocked to Canada to escape the Great Famine of the 1840s may have sparked Montreal’s pipe-making craze. Prior to their arrival, the city “had little if any prior history of pipe making,” explains the late Iain Walker, a leading clay pipe researcher. “Irish immigrants were forced to make their own pipes.”

The Henderson factory was founded in 1847 by a Scotsman named William Henderson Sr. His company manufactured clay pipes engraved with delicate fruits, flowers, and other designs.

Clay tobacco pipes were fragile but cheap and are among “the most commonly-found [artifacts] on colonial and post-colonial settlements in Canada,” Walker explained in a 1970 paper.

Cigarettes, Walker added, “did not become the most popular means of taking tobacco in Great Britain and the United States until the end of the First World War.”

Henderson’s factory was a thriving business. It processed between 225 and 300 tons of clay each year, according to JCCBI, and by 1871, the company was producing some seven million pipes annually. Most of the people who worked in the factory were Scottish and Irish immigrants.

Henderson’s grandsons, known as the Dixon brothers, took over the factory in 1876. By the 1980s, reports Hester, the factory’s operations were winding down, and in the 1920s, the land was razed to make way for the new bridge.

The newly unearthed kiln will soon be reburied; exposing it to the harsh Canadian winter would result in its destruction, and the structure is too fragile to relocate. Roy tells Hester that an interpretive plaque may be added to the site in a nod to Montreal’s history as a prominent center of Canada’s pipe-making industry.

ASIA, JORDAN, WORLD

These Mysterious Geoglyphs in Jordan Are 6,000 Years Older Than Peru’s Nazca Lines

These Mysterious Geoglyphs in Jordan Are 6,000 Years Older Than Peru’s Nazca Lines

Although the finished product of giant earth designs has been difficult to discern, archeologists recently announced that at least some of the great “works of old men” (as the Bedouin called them in 1927) of the Middle East are significantly older than the famous Nazca Lines of Peru.

Researchers have also shown that, in the past, one cluster of the wheels could have been linked with astronomical knowledge and that some of the geoglyphs were probably connected with the burials.

It has been concluded by archeologists that at least two of the giant Wadi Al Quattafi ‘ Wheels ‘ from Wadi Al Qattafi and the Wisad Pools, in the Black Desert of Jordan are at least 8,500 years old – making them older than the famous Nazca Lines in Peru by about 6,000 years. 

BBC reports that by using optically stimulated luminescence ( OSL), the archaeologists were able to show not only the date of creation of the two wheels but also that one of them was repaired about 5,500 years ago.

The research, soon to be published in the journal Antiquity, demonstrates that at the time of the creation of these two wheels the climate of the Black Desert would have been very different, making life in the area easier.

The two “wheels” of the Black Desert were created 8,500 years ago.

Archaeological evidence for their claim came in the form of “Charcoal from deciduous oak and tamarisk [a shrub that] were recovered from two hearths in one building dated to ca. 6,500 BC.”

Furthermore, Discovery News has reported that the recent study suggests that at least some of the geoglyphs are related to an astronomical interest by the ancient inhabitants.

Specifically, they have found importance in one group of designs in the Azraq Oasis, as “The majority of the spokes of the wheels in that cluster are oriented for some reason to stretch in a SE-NW direction – where the sun rises during the winter solstice.” This may be no more than an educated “hunch” however, as other geoglyphs in the area do not show apparent “archaeoastronomical information.”

The two wheels and the cluster make up just a small section of the famous “Works of Old Men” that cross the Arabia region – “from Syria across Jordan and Saudi Arabia to Yemen” according to the researchers from the current study.  

The geoglyphs of the Middle East were first spotted in 1927 by RAF Flight Lt. Percy Maitland, while he was flying an airmail route over Jordan. he has written.

Some of the wheel-shaped structures are clustered closer together, while others appear to be solitary. Some structures have more of a rectangular shape, while many of them are round. Some of the circular structures contain two spokes that form a bar…The wheels are sometimes found on top of the kites.

A “kite” geoglyph in Jordan.

The purpose of the geoglyphs probably varied according to their location and/or design.

Gary Rollefson, co-director of the Eastern Badia Archaeological Project, says that “The presence of cairns suggests some association with burials since that is often the way of treating people once they died.” However, he was also quick to add that “there are other wheels where cairns are entirely lacking, pointing to a different possible use.”

Regarding the construction of the geoglyphs, it is evident that quality also differs from one structure to the next. Speaking of the two wheels in the Black Desert, Rollefson said that they “are simple in form and not very rigidly made, according to geometric standards.

They contrast sharply with some other wheels that appear to have been set out with almost as much attention to detail as the Nazca Lines.” The precision of the other wheels may have been due to the use of a long rope and a stake.

In contrast to the designs located further north, David Kennedy, co-director of the Aerial Photographic Archive for Archaeology in the Middle East  (APAAME) has said that the forms in Saudi Arabia and Yemen “tend to be small and have only one or two bars instead of spokes.

Some of the “wheels” are actually shaped like squares, rectangles or triangles.” The APAAME has also noted kites and interconnecting walls of stones, which he has dubbed as “gates.”

Some of the geoglyphs found in Saudi Arabia.

APAAME is currently unable to conduct on-site or aerial imaging research of the “wheels” in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, thus they are studying aerial images from the 20th century and free satellite imaging from Google Earth and Bing for now.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Human teeth made into pendants in Turkey 8,500 years ago

Human teeth made into pendants in Turkey 8,500 years ago

In a prehistoric archaeological site in Turkey the first evidence of this practice in the Near East, a region that encompasses Western Asia and Turkey, researchers discovered two 8 500-year-old human teeth that were used as pendants in necklaces and bracelets.

The University of Kopenhagen researchers has stated that although evidence has shown that human teeth were used for ornamental purposes at European sites, this practice has never before been documented at these or subsequent periods in the Near East.

The study published by the Journal of Archeological Science on the basis of the rare findings revealed that the human teeth had deep symbolic significance for the people who wore them.

The researchers including scholars from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark uncovered three 8500 -year-old-teeth during excavations in Catalhoyuk, Turkey between 2013 and 2015.

They said the unearthed teeth appeared to have been intentionally drilled to be worn as beads in a necklace or bracelet.

Photo of first excavations at the site of the human teeth, Çatalhöyük.

On further analysis, the researchers confirmed that two of the teeth had indeed been used as beads or pendants.

“Not only had the two teeth been drilled with a conically shaped microdrill similar to those used for creating the vast amounts of beads from animal bone and stone that we have found at the site, but they also showed signs of wear corresponding to extensive use as ornaments in a necklace or bracelet,” said Scott Haddow, University of Copenhagen archaeologist and first author of the study.

According to the study, the two teeth pendants were probably extracted from two mature individuals postmortem.

“The wear on the teeth’s chewing surfaces indicates that the individuals would have been between 30-50 years old.

And since neither tooth seems to have been diseased-which would likely have caused the tooth to fall out during life, the most likely scenario is that both teeth were taken from skulls at the site,” Haddow added.

The most interesting insight from the study is the fact that human teeth and bone were not selected and modified more often, the researchers said.

“Because of the rarity of the find, we find it very unlikely that these modified human teeth were used solely for aesthetic purposes but rather carried profound symbolic meaning for the people who wore them,” Scott Haddow explained.

Human teeth found at the site together with a representation of the type of necklace that could have been used.

Haddow added that burials at the site often contained beads and pendants made from animal bone/teeth and other materials, indicating that it may have been a deliberate choice not to include items made from human bone and teeth with burials.

The researchers postulated that these human teeth pendants were perhaps related to specific – and rare – ritual taboos.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Monkey from Southern Asia Identified in Ancient Greek Artwork

Monkey from Southern Asia Identified in Ancient Greek Artwork

A painting from the Bronze Age on a Greek island depicts a monkey in Asia from a hundred thousand kilometers. The findings suggest that the trading and exchange of ideas were ancient far-distant civilizations.

Wall painting of grey langur monkeys at Akrotiri on the Greek island of Thera (Santorini)

The painting is one of several wall paintings in a building at Akrotiri on the Greek island of Thera (Santorini) in the Aegean Sea.

Akrotiri was a settlement in Bronze Age Greece of the Minoan civilization that was buried by ash in around 1600 BC from a volcanic eruption ..

Many of the pictures show monkeys although at that time there were no monkeys in Greece. Most of the monkeys have been identified as Egyptian species like olive baboons.

This is important because the Minoan civilization was in contact with Egypt, which extended over several Aegean islands. However, others were harder to identify.

Marie Nicole Pareja at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia teamed up with primatologists to re-examine the mystery monkey paintings. One stood out. “When they looked at this wall painting, they all straight away unambiguously said ‘that’s a langur’,” says Pareja.

The team has identified the monkey as a grey langur (Semnopithecus). As well as its distinctive fur, the monkey was depicted holding its tail in a characteristic S shape.

Grey langurs live in southern Asia in what is now Nepal, Bhutan and India – and particularly in the Indus Valley.

During the Bronze Age, the region was home to the Indus Valley Civilisation, one of the most important societies of that time.

Although it was past its peak, the Indus Valley Civilisation was still advanced for its time, with large cities and elaborate water supply systems.

Somehow, the artist who painted the monkey picture must have seen a grey langur. But how?

Did Minoan Greeks visit the Indus? “I wouldn’t be surprised if someday in the future we found evidence for that kind of direct contact,” says Pareja, but right now there is none. It is also possible the visit was the other way round, but again there is no evidence.

Instead, it may be that Greece and Indus were connected via Mesopotamia, another Bronze Age civilization centered on what is now Iraq. Langurs may have been imported to Mesopotamia for menageries, where visiting Greeks saw them.

“It’s evidence of this far-reaching trade, these relationships with these far-flung areas,” says Pareja. Even in the Bronze Age, it seems there was a lot of exchange between seemingly separate civilizations.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

Narrative Cave Art in Indonesia Dated to 44,000 Years Ago

Cave Art in Indonesia Dated to 44,000 Years Ago, and the cave art is the earliest known record of ‘storytelling’, researchers say

The artwork found in a limestone cave in 2017, was dated to nearly 44,000 years ago using uranium-series analysis, which they said in the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

A team of archaeologists and researchers from Indonesia’s National Research Centre for Archaeology and Griffith University, work in Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 limestone cave in South Sulawesi, Indonesia December 4, 2019. The picture was taken on December 4, 2019.
AFRICA, WORLD

Buried Christian (and pagan) basilica discovered in Ethiopia’s ‘lost kingdom’

Buried Christian (and pagan) basilica discovered in Ethiopia’s ‘lost kingdom’

Recently, in an area of Ethiopia that once was home to the Aksumite Empire, Archeologists discovered the oldest known Christian Church in Subsaharan Africa.

Smithsonian magazine reported that the existence of an early basilica, built-in 313 around the time when Constantine legalized the Christian community, leads scholars to believe that this time the faith spreads into Ethiopia. It would become the first Christian kingdom in Aksum Africa.

I understand that this finding is ‘ the earliest physical evidence for a church in Ethiopia, [as well as all of sub-Saharan Africa,]” Aaron Butts, a professor of Semitic and Egyptian languages at Catholic University in Washington, told Smithsonian. Butts was not involved with the excavation.

In Beta Samati, close the modern border with Eritrea, the basilica was found at 70 miles southwest of the Red Sea. The name of the town means “house of the audience” in the local Tigrinya language.

The area is “home to temples built in a southern Arabian style dating back many centuries before the rise of Aksum, a clear sign of ancient ties to the Arabian Peninsula,” the magazine said.

“The temples reflect the influence of Sabaeans, who dominated the lucrative incense trade and whose power reached across the Red Sea in that era.”

The excavators’ biggest discovery was a massive building 60 feet long and 40 feet wide resembling the ancient Roman style of a basilica.

Developed by the Romans for administrative purposes, the basilica was adopted by Christians at the time of Constantine for their places of worship.

They also uncovered a stone pendant carved with a cross and incised with the ancient Ethiopic word “venerable,” as well as incense burners. Near the eastern basilica wall, the team came across an inscription asking “for Christ [to be] favorable to us.”

One of the striking finds from the early Christian church at Beta Samati is this pendant, decorated with a cross and a motto reading “venerable” in Ethiopia’s ancient Ge’ez

According to Ethiopian tradition, Christianity first came to the Aksum Empire in the 4th century,  when a Greek-speaking missionary named Frumentius converted King Ezana, Smithsonian said. “Butts, however, doubts the historical reliability of this account, and scholars have disagreed over when and how the new religion reached distant Ethiopia.”

“This is what makes the discovery of this basilica so important,” he adds. “It is reliable evidence for a Christian presence slightly northeast of Aksum at a very early date.”

While the story of Frumentius may be apocryphal, other finds at the site underline how the spread of Christianity was intertwined with the machinations of commerce.

Stamp seals and tokens used for economic transactions uncovered by the archaeologists point to the cosmopolitan nature of the settlement.

A glass bead from the eastern Mediterranean and large amounts of pottery from Aqaba, in today’s Jordan, attest to long-distance trading.

Woldekiros added that the discoveries show that “long-distance trade routes played a significant role in the introduction of Christianity in Ethiopia.”

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Red Granite Bust of Ramesses II Unearthed in Giza

Red Granite Bust of Ramesses II Unearthed in Giza

On Wednesday, December 11, an Egyptian archeological expedition from the Ministry of Antiquities revealed an unusual royal bust of King Ramses II made of red granite in a private area in the village of Mit Rahina, Giza.

The bust that has recently been discovered is emblazoned with the “Ka,” a symbol of strength, life force and spirit.

The King Ramses II bust is sculptured with red granite and shows Ramses II carrying the symbol of “Ka.” The bust has a length of 105 cm, a width of 55, and a thickness of 45 cm.

After the landowner was caught carrying out unlawfully excavating on his land, the mission team discovered this rare bust during excavations on private land in Giza.

The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Mostafa Waziri, announced that the uncovered King Ramses II bust is one of a kind because the only similar bust is one carved in wood and belongs to 13th Dynasty King Hor Awibre, which is now on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The mission has also discovered a group of huge red granite and limestone blocks engraved with scenes showing Ramses II during the Heb-Sed religious ritual, which indicates that these blocks could belong to a great temple dedicated to the worship of the deity Ptah.

The bust and the blocks have been transferred to Mit Rahina open-air museum for restoration, and excavations will continue at the site.

One of the main achievements of King Ramses II is building Abu Simbel temple to impress Egypt’s southern neighbors, and also to reinforce the status of the Egyptian religion in the area.

Abu Simbel was one of six rock temples erected in Nubia during the ruling period of Ramses II and its construction took 20 years from 1264 BC to 1244 BC.

Abu Simbel is made up of two temples. The smaller one was built for Queen Nefertari and has two statues of her and four pharaohs; each about 33 feet (10 meters) in height.

According to many scholars, this great temple was created to celebrate the victory of Ramses II over the Hittites at the Battle of Qadesh in 1274 BC.

This means that the temple was situated on the border of the conquered lands of Nubia after many military campaigns were carried out by the Pharaoh against Nubia.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Celtic shield buried with Bronze Age warrior 2,000 years ago is ‘UK’s most important find’

Celtic shield buried with Bronze Age warrior 2,000 years ago is ‘UK’s most important find’

Archeologists uncovered an amazing Iron Age shield within a 2,200-year-old tomb together with a cart and two ponies hidden in a springing location, in what archeologists call one of the UK’s biggest discoveries.

The grave in the vicinity of Pocklington was found by a group of archeologists headed by Paula Ware of MAP Archaeological Practice Ltd.

Ware told Yorkshire, “The shield, which has a diameter of approximately 30 inches, but its true glory was only revealed recently once conservation was completed,” Ware told Yorkshire post.

It has similarities with the Wandsworth shield boss circa 350 BC 150 BC

The restoration revealed that the shield is decorated with a series of complex swirls and what looks like a sphere protruding from its center. 

The grave also held the remains of a man who was in his 40s when he died. In addition to the chariot and two “leaping” ponies, the site was filled with several pig joints and a feasting fork attached to a pork rib, Ware said.

A chariot along with two ponies found in a leaping pose was buried near the remains of a man who was in his 40s when he died.
The shield when it was first unearthed

Two small brooches — one made of bronze and the other of glass — were also found in the tomb. The elaborate nature of the burial indicates that the deceased man must have been “a significant member of his society,” Ware said. 

Ware agreed with what other media outlets have suggested about the significance of the find: It is one of the most important ancient discoveries ever made in the U.K. “Yes, especially as it has been excavated under modern archaeological conditions,” she told Yorkshire post. 

Ancient chariots are not altogether uncommon in burials. A 2,000-year-old Thracian chariot was discovered in 2008 alongside the bones of two horses and a dog in what is now Bulgaria, Yorkshire post previously reported.

The practice of burying noblemen near chariots in Bulgaria was especially popular during the time of the Roman Empire, which lasted from about 2,100 to 1,500 years ago.

Some 2,500 years ago, a Celtic prince in what is today France was buried in a lavish tomb complete with gorgeous pottery, a gold-tipped drinking vessel and… a chariot,  Yorkshire post reported.

Archaeologists announced in 2014 that they had discovered a 4,000-year-old burial chamber holding two four-wheeled chariots and plenty of treasures in the country of Georgia, in the south Caucasus.

The newfound grave and chariot were discovered when the archaeological team was excavating an area where homes were going to be built. The researchers plan to submit a paper describing the finds to a scientific publication.