Category Archives: AFRICA

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

A Pregnant Ancient Egyptian Mummy Has Been Discovered in a Shocking World First

A Pregnant Ancient Egyptian Mummy Has Been Discovered in a Shocking World First

A team of Polish scientists say they have discovered the only known example of an embalmed pregnant Egyptian mummy. The discovery was made by researchers at the Warsaw Mummy Project and revealed in the Journal of Archaeological Science on Thursday.

A Pregnant Ancient Egyptian Mummy Has Been Discovered in a Shocking World First
Polish archaeologists described the discovery as “really special”

The project started in 2015, uses technology to examine artefacts housed at the National Museum in Warsaw. The mummy was previously thought to be a male priest but scans reveal it was a woman in the later stages of pregnancy.

Experts from the project believe the remains are most likely of a high-status woman, aged between 20 and 30, who died during the 1st Century BC.

The scans of the pregnant mummy revealed a mummified fetus, as seen in these abdominal scans of her remains

“Presented here is the only known example of a mummified pregnant woman and the first radiological images of such a foetus,” they wrote in the journal article announcing the find.

Using the foetus head circumference, they estimate it was between 26 and 30 weeks when the mother died for unknown reasons.

A CT scanner and radiologists have been assisting the archaeological work

“This is our most important and most significant finding so far, a total surprise,” team member Wojciech Ejsmond of the Polish Academy of Sciences told the Associated Press.

Four bundles thought to be wrapped and embalmed organs were found within the mummy’s abdominal cavity but scientists say the foetus had not been removed from the uterus.

The scientists said it was unclear why it had not been extracted and embalmed separately, but speculated spiritual beliefs about the afterlife or physical difficulties with removal may have contributed.

‘The Mysterious Lady’

Researchers from the mummy project have dubbed the woman as the Mysterious Lady of the National Museum in Warsaw because of conflicting accounts around her origins.

They say the mummified remains were first donated to the University of Warsaw in 1826. The donor alleged the mummy was found in royal tombs in Thebes, but researchers say it was common in the 19th century to falsely ascribe antiquities to famous places to increase their value.

Inscriptions on the elaborate coffin and sarcophagus had led 20th Century experts to believe the mummy inside was that of a male priest named Hor-Djehuti.

But now scientists, having identified it as female with scanning technology, believe the mummy was at some point placed in the wrong coffin by antiquity dealers during the 19th Century when looting and re-wrapping of remains were not uncommon.

Amulets, thought to be items known as the Four Sons of Horus, accompany the mummified body

They describe the condition of the mummy as “well-preserved” but say damage to the neck wrappings suggest it was at some point targeted for valuables.

The experts say at least 15 items, including a “rich set” of mummy-shaped amulets, were found intact within the wrappings.

One of the researchers on the project, Dr Marzena Ożarek-Szilke, told the Polish state news agency that her husband had first spotted what appeared to be “a little foot” on one of the scans.

She told the outlet that the team hope next to study small amounts of tissue to establish the woman’s cause of death.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover ‘Lost,’ 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Sun Temple

Archaeologists Discover ‘Lost,’ 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Sun Temple

Archaeologists in Egypt have unearthed the remnants of a lost “sun temple” dating back to the 25th century BCE. Experts believe it to be one of just six such temples erected as a shrine to sun god Ra during the Old Kingdom, although to date, only two other sun temples have been found.

Archaeologists Discover ‘Lost,’ 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Sun Temple
The site of the Nyuserra sun temple in Abu Ghurab.

The structure was discovered below a separate temple—itself one of the other known sun temples—at Abu Ghurab, roughly 12 miles south of the capital city of Cairo.

The newer temple is thought to have been built between 2400 and 2370 BCE by Nyuserra (also referred to as Nyuserre and Niuserre), an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who ruled during the Fifth Dynasty. 

The structure was first excavated by archaeologists in 1898. It turns out, however, that they didn’t uncover all that the site had to offer. 

“The archaeologists of the 19th century excavated only a very small part of this mud-brick building below the stone temple of Nyuserra and concluded that this was a previous building phase of the same temple,” Massimiliano Nuzzolo, the archaeologist who co-led the dig, told CNN this week. “Now our finds demonstrate that this was a completely different building, erected before.” 

The Nyuserra sun temple in Abu Ghurab.

From the older temple, the archaeologists uncovered a pair of columns from a portico and an entrance threshold, all made of limestone.

Nuzzolo—who is an assistant professor of Egyptology at the Warsaw-based Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures—explained that Nyuserra likely used the bones of the previous temple to erect his own. 

“We knew that there was something below the stone temple of Nyuserre, but we don’t know if it is just another building phase of the same temple or if it is a new temple,” the archaeologist elaborated for the Daily Telegraph.

“Actually, the fact that there is such a huge, monumental entrance would point to a new building. So, why not another sun temple, one of the missing sun temples?”

Nuzzolo and his team also uncovered seals engraved with the names of kings, as well as dozens of beer jars. The latter vessels have been dated to the mid 25th century BCE, meaning they were created well before Nyuserra’s construction.

These findings were featured in an episode of the series Lost Treasures of Egypt that aired on the National Geographic channel last weekend. However, whoever was responsible for building the older temple remains an unanswered question.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Cloncavan man: A 2,300-year-old murder mystery

Cloncavan man: A 2,300-year-old murder mystery

In March 2003, the body of a man who lived during the Iron Age was discovered in a peat bog in Ireland. Known as the Clonycavan Man, the well-preserved remains indicate that the body was not that of a man who died a natural or honourable death, but one who was brutally murdered.

The mysteries surrounding his death are plentiful. Who was this man? Why was he so brutally murdered? How was his body so well preserved for so many years? And what is the significance of his highly groomed hair?

The Clonycavan Man’s remains are referred to as a “bog body.” The discovery of ancient and well-preserved bodies in peat bogs has been fairly widespread.

When a dead body is deposited into bog water that is highly acidic, low in temperature, and low in oxygen, the body can remain intact for thousands of years, including skin, hair, and organs.

This unintended mummification gives us a glimpse into the lives and deaths of ancient humans who weren’t necessarily honoured as royal or dignitary, like the mummified remains found in Egypt.

Clonycavan Man, who lived around the 4th or 3rd century B.C., is now a “bog body,” on display at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin.

The Clonycavan Man was found in Clonycavan, County Meath in Ireland, in a machine that had been harvesting peat. The remains, which have been dated to 2,300 years old, consisted of a head, neck, arms, torso, and upper abdomen. 

It is likely that the peat harvesting machine was responsible for severing his lower body. It is estimated that he was between the ages of 24-40 when he died. The visible details of the Clonycavan Man are astonishing.

His estimated height was five feet, two inches tall. His nose was squashed, and his teeth crooked. The pores of his skin were still visible, and it has been concluded that his diet consisted mostly of fruits and vegetables.

Due to the damage from the peat harvesting machine, the Clonycavan Man did not have hands, but other bog bodies have been discovered to have very well-manicured fingernails.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Clonycavan Man was his hair. On his face, he wore a goatee and a moustache, while on his head was a very distinguished hairstyle.

The front of his hair was shaven, giving him a higher hairline on his forehead. The remainder of his hair was several inches long, and was intricately folded forward and then back in what has been described as an “ancient Mohawk.”

It is believed that standing at only five feet, two inches, the Clonycavan Man chose this hairstyle to make himself appear taller.  Scientists even discovered an ancient form of hair gel in his hair, made of plant oil and pine resin.

The presence of this hair gel indicates that he was fairly wealthy during his lifetime, because it was made from materials found in France and Spain.

The most mysterious aspect of the Clonycavan Man is the manner of his death. Some have suggested that he was a King, who was ceremoniously sacrificed.

The injuries to his body suggest a particularly grisly death, which may have possibly been the result of torture. There is evidence of three significant blows to his head, to the point where his skull split open. He had also been hit in the nose and the chest and was disembowelled.

His nipples had been sliced off, which is specifically believed to be a sign of a failed kingship. In ancient Ireland, sucking on a king’s nipples was a sign of submission. Removing the nipples was intended to make a man incapable of kingship.

Unfortunately, the bog only preserves the body and doesn’t leave behind much other evidence. While it is fairly clear that he died a mysterious death, possibly akin to murder, there isn’t much else to tell us about who he was or why he died.

The preservation of his body was not intentional, and it is unlikely that anyone ever intended for future civilizations to try to unravel the mystery of his death.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egyptian pharaoh’s 3,500-year-old mummy gets unwrapped digitally for the first time

Egyptian pharaoh’s 3,500-year-old mummy gets unwrapped digitally for first time

A CT scan reveals Amenhotep I’s skull

The mummified body of an ancient Egyptian pharaoh has been studied for the first time in millennia after being digitally “unwrapped”.

The mummy of Amenhotep I, who ruled from 1525 to 1504 BC, was found at a site in Deir el-Bahari 140 years ago. But archaeologists have refrained from opening it in order to preserve the exquisite face mask and bandages.

Computed tomography (CT) scans have now revealed previously unknown information about the pharaoh and his burial.

“We got to see the face of the king that has been wrapped for more than 3,000 years,” Dr Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at Cairo University’s Faculty of Medicine and lead author of the study published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, told the BBC.

Egyptian pharaoh’s 3,500-year-old mummy gets unwrapped digitally for first time
Dr Saleem says the scans of the body did not show any wounds or disfigurement due to disease

She said the first thing that had struck her was how Amenhotep I‘s facial features resembled those of his father Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of ancient Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, with a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair, and mildly protruding upper teeth.

The researchers also established that Amenhotep I was approximately 169cm (5ft 6in) tall and that he was about 35 years old when he died.

Dr Saleem said the scans showed he was in the very good physical condition and in good health at the time of his death, with no signs of any wounds or disfigurement due to disease. That suggested he died as a result of an infection or a virus.

The researchers were able to gain insights about the mummification and burial of Amenhotep I, including that he was the first pharaoh to have his forearms folded across his chest and that, unusually, his brain was not removed.

They also concluded that his mummy was “lovingly repaired” by priests of the 21st Dynasty, which ruled about four centuries after this death.

Amenhotep I’s mummy was twice reburied by priests of the 21st Dynasty

The scans showed that the mummy suffered from multiple post-mortem injuries that were likely to have been inflicted by grave robbers.

They also showed that the priests fixed the detached head and neck to the body with a resin-treated linen band, covered a defect in the abdominal wall with a band and placed two amulets beneath, and wrapped the detached left arm to the body.

Dr Saleem said the 30 amulets and “unique” golden girdle with gold beads that Amenhotep I was wearing disproved theories that the priests might have removed his jewellery for use by later pharaohs.

The mummy of Amenhotep I was reburied by the priests in the Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache, a complex of tombs and temples near Luxor, to keep them safe.

AFRICA, EGYPT, EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Egypt retrieves 36 smuggled artefacts from Spain

Egypt retrieves 36 smuggled artifacts from Spain

Pharaonic artefacts that were smuggled out of Egypt in 2014 were returned to the country on Monday. The 36 pieces were seized on arrival at Valencia, Spain, that year.

“This handover came as a result of effective judicial co-operation, and the result of concerted efforts between the Public Prosecution, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of the Arab Republic of Egypt in Spain,” read a prosecution statement posted on Facebook on Monday.

The repatriated items include busts made from limestone, marble and granite; bowls, vases, figurines and an ornate wooden box.

A collection of 36 ancient Egyptian artefacts that were just returned to Egypt 7 years after they were smuggled out of a port in Alexandria.

Prosecutors celebrated the return of the smuggled artefacts as a win for Egyptian-Spanish bilateral relations.

In their statement, they thanked Spain’s security officials for their commitment to preserving Egypt’s cultural heritage.

The artefacts were received by an Egyptian delegation including the country’s ambassador at a ceremony held at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid on Monday.

They had been taken there to be assessed before the Egyptian delegation was contacted to come and retrieve them.

Spanish and Egyptian officials attend a ceremony at Madrid’s National Archaeological Museum. The ceremony was held to mark the return of a group of smuggled artefacts from Spain to Egypt.

Investigations into the smuggling of these artefacts began in June 2014, the public prosecutor’s statement read.

It said that security officials had proved at the time that the smuggled items left the coastal Egyptian city of Alexandria before they were seized by Spanish officials at the port of Valencia in the same year.

Egypt repatriates 114 smuggled artefacts from France

The items had been hidden onboard a container ship and forged documents were submitted to Spanish authorities to facilitate the smuggling.

Since 2014, Egyptian prosecutors have been following up on the case with Spanish authorities, the statement, released on Monday, said.

This year, Spain’s judiciary ruled that the items should be returned to Egypt. Word was sent to Egyptian officials, who formed a delegation to retrieve them.

A collection of ancient Egyptian relics was seized by Spanish authorities at a port in Valencia in 2014. The items were smuggled out of Egypt in 2014 and returned in 2021.

Egyptian artefacts have long been smuggled overseas.

The practice increased markedly in the period that followed a popular uprising in 2011 that caused a wave of political instability and lapses in security. The country’s tourism ministry announced this year that in the past decade, Egyptian authorities had repatriated 30,000 artefacts.

They had reached France, Denmark, Belgium and the US, among many countries.

Several prominent Egyptologists have launched awareness campaigns to help Egypt to retrieve smuggled artefacts, many of which are sold at discreet auctions at some of the world’s foremost auction houses.

A haul of more than 5,000 artefacts housed at the Museum of the Bible, in Washington, DC, was returned to Egypt in January.

AFRICA, WORLD

Stone Age beads made from ostrich eggshells formed the earliest known social network

Stone Age beads made from ostrich eggshells formed the earliest known social network

Humans are social creatures, but little is known about when, how, and why different populations connected in the past. Answering these questions is crucial for interpreting the biological and cultural diversity that we see in human populations today. DNA is a powerful tool for studying genetic interactions between populations, but it can’t address any cultural exchanges within these ancient meetings.

Now, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have turned to an unexpected source of information—ostrich eggshell beads—to shed light on ancient social networks.

In a new study published in Nature, researchers Drs. Jennifer Miller and Yiming Wang report 50,000-years of population connection and isolation, driven by changing rainfall patterns, in southern and eastern Africa.

A string of modern ostrich eggshell beads from eastern Africa.

Ostrich eggshell beads: a window into the past

Ostrich eggshell (OES) beads are ideal artefacts for understanding ancient social relationships. They are the world’s oldest fully manufactured ornaments, meaning that instead of relying on an item’s natural size or shape, humans completely transformed the shells to produce beads.

This extensive shaping creates ample opportunities for variations in style. Because different cultures produced beads of different styles, the prehistoric accessories provide researchers with a way to trace cultural connections.

“It’s like following a trail of breadcrumbs,” says Miller, lead author of the study. “The beads are clues, scattered across time and space, just waiting to be noticed.”

To search for signs of population connectivity, Miller and Wang assembled the largest ever database of ostrich eggshell beads. It includes data from more than 1500 individual beads unearthed from 31 sites across southern and eastern Africa, encompassing the last 50,000 years. Gathering this data was a painstakingly slow process that took more than a decade. 

Climate change and social networks in the Stone Age

By comparing OES bead characteristics, such as total diameter, aperture diameter and shell thickness, Miller and Wang found that between 50,000 and 33,000 years ago, people in eastern and southern Africa were using nearly identical OES beads.

The finding suggests a long-distance social network spanning more than 3,000 km once connected people in the two regions. 

“The result is surprising, but the pattern is clear,” says Wang, co-corresponding author of the study. “Throughout the 50,000 years we examined, this is the only time period that the bead characteristics are the same.”

Oldupai Gorge, Tanzania, an important site in studies of human evolution, is experiencing drying and shorter, more irregular rainy reasons

This eastern-southern connection at 50-33,000 years ago is the oldest social network ever identified, and it coincides with a particularly wet period in eastern Africa. However, signs of the regional network disappear 33,000 years ago, likely triggered by a major shift in global climates.

Around the same time that the social network breaks down, eastern Africa experienced a dramatic reduction in precipitation as the tropical rain belt shifted southward. This increased rain in the large area connecting eastern and southern Africa (the Zambezi River catchment), periodically flooding riverbanks and perhaps creating a geographic barrier that disrupted regional social networks. 

“Through this combination of paleoenvironmental proxies, climate models, and archaeological data, we can see the connection between climate change and cultural behaviour,” says Wang.

Weaving a story with beads

Stone Age beads made from ostrich eggshells formed the earliest known social network
Digital microscope images of archaeological ostrich eggshell beads.

Together, the results of this working document a 50,000-year-long story about human connections, and the dramatic climate changes that drove people apart.

The data even provides new insight into variable social strategies between eastern and southern Africa by documenting different bead-use trajectories through time. These regional responses highlight the flexibility of human behaviour and show there’s more than one path to our species’ success. 

“These tiny beads have the power to reveal big stories about our past,” says Miller. “We encourage other researchers to build upon this database, and continue exploring the evidence for cultural connection in new regions.”

AFRICA, WORLD

Researchers discovered a 2 billion-year-old ancient nuclear reactor in Africa

Researchers discovered a 2 billion year old ancient nuclear reactor in Africa

The Oklo-reactor in Gabon, Africa is one of the most intriguing geological formations found on planet Earth. Here, naturally occurring fissile materials in two billion-year-old rocks have sustained a slow nuclear fission reaction like that found in a modern nuclear reactor.

Uranium-235 is a radioactive element with a half-life of 700 million years.

Traces of it are found in almost all rocks, especially magmatic rocks, and its decay is believed to be one of the sources of Earth’s inner heat. Because it decays over time at a constant rate, its concentration in the Earth’s crust is almost everywhere the same – except in Oklo.

The Oklo-Formation, a succession of sandstone and siltstone, was deposited two billion years ago by a large river. Microbial activity of the first lifeforms caused the element uranium, derived from weathered magmatic rocks, to become concentrated in certain layers of the sediments.

Later tectonic movements buried the layers deep underground.

Simplified geology of the Oklo-Okèlobondo natural nuclear reactors.

In 1972, chemical analysis showed an unusually low concentration of uranium-235 in the ore mined in the Oklo open pit mine. However, there were high concentrations of elements like caesium, curium, americium and even plutonium to be found. Such elements are formed today only in nuclear reactors, as the uranium decays during controlled nuclear fission.

When uranium-235 decays, it will emit three neutrons. If one of the emitted neutrons hits another uranium atom, this atom will also decay and a chain reaction will begin. In most rocks, there is either not enough uranium to sustain nuclear fission or it decays too fast to cause a chain reaction.

In the Oklo-reactor, two factors came together to sustain slow nuclear fission for hundreds of thousands of years. Weathering of magmatic rocks and bacterial activity concentrated the uranium enough to start a nuclear chain reaction. Then the water that infiltrated the formation along faults slowed down the emitted neutrons enough to sustain slow and stable nuclear fission. As the uranium decays, it forms other radioactive elements fueling the reactor.

Over time the Oklo-reactor has produced large quantities of toxic plutonium and caesium-isotopes, which have since decayed into stable and harmless barium. During this process, however, no harmful radioactivity has leaked into the environment.

As the planet warms due to our carbon emissions, burning oil and coal is no longer a sustainable way to meet humanity’s hunger for energy.

Many experts believe that nuclear energy could be a temporary solution until renewable energy sources are ready to meet the demand. Unfortunately, nuclear energy comes with radioactive waste.

A permanent repository for nuclear waste must contain toxic elements and radioactivity for at least 100,000 years. The problem is that we don’t know what materials to use for the containers to store the waste.

Steel will rust, concrete can leak and even glass is damaged by the emitted radiation. By studying the Oklo-reactor, scientists hope to find a way to safely dispose of nuclear waste as produced by modern reactors.

Research by a team of scientists of the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D. C. and published in the journal PNAS has investigated how the Oklo-reactor was able to work so long and yet not pollute the environment. In rocks recovered from the Oklo mine, barium (the ‘trace’ left by the former radioactive elements) is not found evenly distributed but rather found in nests surrounded by a thin layer of ruthenium compounds.

Native ruthenium is a rare and inert metal often associated with ore of other elements. The scientists believe that the radioactive plutonium and caesium were encapsulated and safely isolated from the environment by a shell of ruthenium-compounds. If so, containers made of ruthenium alloys could be used to safely store radioactive waste for a very long time.

As the Oklo-reactor demonstrates, the ruthenium compounds remain stable even if exposed to radioactivity and corrosion by water over vast geological periods.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Cosmic-Ray Muons Reveal Hidden Void in the Great Pyramid

Cosmic-Ray Muons Reveal Hidden Void in the Great Pyramid

Cosmic rays have revealed a hidden void inside the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, scientists said Thursday. They don’t know what’s in it or what it was built for, but it does not look like a secret burial chamber.

Cosmic-Ray Muons Reveal Hidden Void in the Great Pyramid
3D artistic view made by the ScanPyramids mission shows a hidden internal structure in Khufu’s Pyramid, the largest pyramid in Giza.

It’s shaped more like a 30-yard-long gallery or corridor, the international team of researchers reported in the journal Nature.

“We open the question to Egyptologists, architects and archaeologists: what could it be?” Hany Helal of Cairo University told reporters on a telephone briefing.

3D artistic view made by the ScanPyramids mission shows a hidden internal structure in Khufus Pyramid, the largest pyramid in Giza.

“We don’t know for the moment if it’s horizontal or inclined if it is made from one structure or several successive structures,” Mehdi Tayoubi, president of France’s Heritage Innovation Presentation (HIP) Institute, added.

“What we do know is that this void is there, that it is impressive, that it was not expected by any kind of theory.”

Rumours have abounded for centuries about hidden rooms in the pyramids at Giza. But it’s hard to get through the tons of stone blocks used to make the 455-foot-high great pyramid of Khufu (or Cheops.) Radar can’t do it well.

“A lot of people tried to dig some tunnels looking for chambers,” Tayoubi said. Tourists get in through the “robbers’ tunnel,” dug out centuries ago.

Visitors looking for mummies or treasure have been disappointed. The 4,500-year-old tomb was robbed millennia ago.

Yet archaeologists have long believed there is more to the inside than the three chambers, corridors and air shafts that have been discovered.

The international ScanPyramids team used special film plates to catch, over a period of months, particles called muons that are created when high-energy cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere.

They are few and far between — that’s why it took months — but they can pass through the stone and collect on the plates.

They produced a fuzzy image of some kind of open space above what’s known as the Grand Gallery of the pyramid.

“These results constitute a breakthrough for the understanding of Khufu’s Pyramid and its internal structure,” the researchers wrote. “While there is currently no information about the role of this void, these findings show how modern particle physics can shed new light on the world’s archaeological heritage.”

It’s the “first major inner structure found in the Great Pyramid since the 19th century,” the team added.

Muon imaging has also been used to peer inside Fukushima’s nuclear reactor, at archaeological sites near Rome and into the Teotihuacan Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico.

Now the question is how to get a better look at what’s in there, but that would require drilling.

Nonetheless, Jean-Baptiste Mouret of France’s national institute for computer science and applied mathematics is working to design a small drone that could explore the space if the team gets permission from the Egyptian government.

Last year, the same team used muon detection and infrared measurements to image some kind of corridor right above the entrance to the pyramid.