45,000-year-old Cave Lion Figurine Uncovered At Denisova Cave

Three months ago a group of archeologists from the Novosibirsk Institute of Archeology and Ethnography performed a groundbreaking discovery in the Altai Mountains.

An upper paleolithic artist created between 40,000 and 45,000 years ago the precious little figure – of 42 mm long, 8 mm thick and 11 mm high – of a Cave Lion (Panthera Spelaea, Lat).

It was located in the 11th layer of the Denisova cave South Gallery. This is the oldest zoomorphic sculptural image ever found in Siberia and in Northern and Central Asia.

The exact age has not yet been verified, but Siberian archeologists have provided a cautious datation that implies that this could be the oldest animal figure in the world.

The head of the lion is missing the hind legs, groin back and belly are visible, decorated with a design of eighteen rows of notches. There are two extra rows with four notches on the lion’s right side.

 

‘The figurine depicts an animal with its tummy tucked in, its hind legs bent. It is either galloping, jumping or getting ready to jump. The animal is shown in a typical for big cats position for the moment when they are ready to catch a prey’, said Mikhail Shunkov, head of the Institute’s Stone Age Archeology Department.  

The mammoth ivory for the statuette was delivered from quite a distance away, Russian scientists say. It had to be carried for at least 100 kilometres from the northern footsteps of the Altai Mountains. 

After finishing the figurine, the cave artist used red ochre to paint it.  So far traces of it were found mostly around the stomach area – which even led to an idea that it could be symbolising a bleeding wound – but researcher Alexander Fedorchenko believes that most likely the whole animal was painted red. 

Remains of ocher were found only in the southern gallery of the Denisova cave.  In 2018 a ‘pencil’ and a marble stone with traces of ocher powder were discovered in the same area where later archaeologist unearthed the cave lion – making the trio the first set of such kind in the history of Siberian archaeology. 

It is still unclear if the figurine depicts a male or a female lion, as well as the purpose of the find. The archaeologists believe it is ‘too simplistic’ to assume this was a toy, but there is no proof that it could have been a cult item.

The artist’s identity is another question to be answered. The assumption is that it was a Denisovan, but as professor Shunkov added, ’45000 years ago was the time when Homo sapiens already wondered around Siberia, so it was quite likely that they could have influenced the Denisovans.’

Was this one of the first-known artistic collaboration then? 

The answer is yet to come, say archaeologists, but they are certain that by the style it was made the Denisovan Cave Lion doesn’t resemble anything previously found in the world. 

The closest in style are cave lions figurines from Vogerfelt Cave in south-west Germany, and from caves in south-west France. The Denisova Cave lies right at the border of the Altai region and the Altai Republic in the south of Western Siberia. 

Locals call it Ayu Tash, which means Bear Rock.  Now world-famous, the cave first caught the attention of Soviet scientists in 1970s when they found first paleo-archaeological remains. 

It was inside the Denisova Cave in 2008 that Siberian archaeologists discovered a tiny finger bone fragment of ‘X woman’, a juvenile female believed to have lived around 41,000 years ago. 

The analysis showed she was genetically distinct from thick-browed Neanderthals and modern humans. The recent addition to the human family tree was christened Denisovan. 

Further research showed that the Denisovans were a sister group of Neanderthals. The two groups split from a common ancestor around 390,000 years ago. 

Like Neandertals, Denisovans lived until about 40,000 years ago.  The Denisova Cave is relatively small with a floor area of about 270m2.  It has three galleries – the cosy Central Chamber with high, arched ceiling and a hole that lets in natural light, the South Gallery and the East Gallery. 

The cave is nicely positioned above river Anuy, which must have given all three hominids – the Neanderthals, the Denisovans and the Homo Sapiens – some stunning sunset views over the past 120,000 years.  Now the site has a permanent research camp, a pride of Novosibirsk Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography. 

Mummified Woman with Christian Cross Dashes Hopes of Finding Russian Fortress

A woman with traditional Yakut clothes with a copper cross on her chest was found to be an unusually well preserved mummified body in summer 2019.

The research team that worked on the discovery of the first Russian fortress constructed at Yakutia was surprised to see the level of preservation, considering that she had been buried in the sand rather than permafrost soil.

The copper cross on her chest was also a striking feature. We can assume that the woman was Christian.

There have been suggestions that graves on the site where the mummified woman was found – some 70km north of Yakutsk, the regional capital – were of an era that would allow them to be a burial site at the first Russian settlement in Yakutia.

It was founded in 1632 by Cossack Petr Beketov, one of Siberia’s most famous explorers, under the name Lensky Ostrog. Indeed earlier radiocarbon dating of the graves indicated that burials were from the years 1440 to 1670.

Yet there has been a concern that these dates were not reliable, and now the discovery of the well-preserved Christian woman’s grave tends to suggest the burials here are later, from the mid-19th century. 

The woman – while Christian – was almost certainly ethnic Yakut and not Russian.

The head of this year’s emergency excavation at the site Elena Solovyova, researcher at Arctic Research Centre of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), told The Siberian Times: ‘The woman buried in a wooden coffin was very well-preserved, including her soft tissues in the process of natural mummification.

‘I can’t quite understand yet why the body got mummified since sand is rather aggressive to all organic material; possibly because the woman was buried in winter.

‘Clothes she wore on the lower part of her body, including fur-lined shorts (a piece of traditional female underwear at the time in Yakutia) and long fur-lined leather stockings up to her hips have also preserved.’   

On these stockings, the woman had ‘torbasa’, traditional Yakut soft leather boots lined up with fur. Clothes on top of the woman’s body didn’t preserve. The only item she took with her to the afterlife was a copper cross on her chest. 

‘After we cleaned this cross, we noticed that it didn’t quite look traditional,’ said Elena Solovyova. 

‘We analyzed the inscriptions and came to the conclusion that they were made by a local Yakutian master because there were some ‘mistakes’ in the lettering.’

Elena Solovyova said: ‘We did not carry the full morphological research of this woman, even though there was a plan to take the skulls of people buried on this cemetery, to understand their anthropological type. 

‘I could not do this with ethical reasons. The woman was mummified, she wasn’t just scattered bones, and I could not make myself to separate her head from the body.

‘I’m certain that she was Yakut. She was quite short, about 150 centimeters, the aged woman laid to rest in a set of traditional Yakut clothes.’

The find helped to understand that this burial could not be related to the first Russian settlement in Yakutia, as the researchers initially thought. 

As Elena explained, the more recent graveyard which they studied this summer could have been built at the place of a much older one, but the team hasn’t found any proof of it yet. 

The search goes on for this fortress which is a key site in the Russian history of Siberia. It existed only two years before being flooded when a decision was made to move to the site of Yakutsk. 

It was from Lensky Ostrog that in 1633 Tobolsk Cossack Ivan Rebrov with a detachment of Yenisei Cossacks led by Ilya Perfilyev, went down the Lena River and reached the shores of the Arctic Ocean. This was also the first Russian sea voyage from the mouth of the river Lena. 

17th-century warships linked to Sweden’s historic Vasa found

Two wrecks suspected to be warships of the 17th Century were discovered by Swedish maritime archaeologists and at least one is likely the sister ship of the iconic Swedish vessel “Vasa”, which sank on its maiden voyage, the Swedish Museum of Wrecks said Friday.

“I saw the wall 5-6 meters high as I came down as the first divers … then I came up and there was a massive warship,” Jim Hansson, diver, and maritime archeologist told AFP adding, “it was a thrilling feeling.”

Both the wrecks are found outside the city of Vaxholm in the Swedish archipelago, a strait leading into Stockholm.

At least one of the ships is believed to be the sister ship Sweden’s most famous warship the “Vasa,” a 69-meter ship carrying 64 cannons, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.

Named after one of Sweden’s kings, it was originally meant to serve as a symbol of Sweden’s military might but instead capsized after sailing just over 1,000 meters.

Vasa was salvaged in 1961 and is currently on display at the Vasa Museum in Stockholm, one of Sweden’s most popular tourist spots.

Three other ships were however ordered from the same shipwright: Applet (the Apple), Kronan (the Crown) and Scepter, and unlike their predecessor, they all served in the Swedish navy and participated in naval battles.

“We think that some of them were sunk in the area,” Patrik Hoglund, another maritime archeologist, and diver at the newly established Museum of Wrecks.

The ships are believed to have been sunk on purpose after they were decommissioned, serving as underwater spike strips for enemy ships.

The divers took wood samples of the ships which will be sent to a laboratory for dating.

“Then we can even see where the timber has been cut down and then we can go back and look in the archives and I think we have good chances to tell exactly which ship this is,” Hansson said.

Despite being centuries old, the wrecks — just like the Vasa — are in fairly good condition, thanks to the brackish waters of the Baltic Sea.

“We don’t have saltwater and some organisms that live in other waters don’t exist in the Baltic so it is very well preserved generally in our waters,” Hoglund said.

As the wrecks are better preserved in the sea, there are currently no plans to salvage them.

Roman made jewellery found on the body of a 2000-year-old barbarian woman from the Caucasus

In the fine jewellery of the Roman Empire were the bones of an ancient barbarian woman who was almost 2,000 years old.

Located in the Northern Caucasus it is believed to have been a “high-ranking” within her family – perhaps a prominent warrior’s spouse, sister or mother, or chieftain.

She has found in a tomb of Kabardino-Balkaria’s mountains in Russia.have surprised archaeologists, in part due to the fact the jewellery was of Roman origin.

The archaeologist Anna Kadieva, head of an expedition at Zyukovo-2 burial site said that she had two rings on her fingers made with the use of very complicated technology.

‘Each of them is cast from the transparent white glass with golden fibres from the same material, with a dark glass installation in the middle.’

Ms Kadieva said the fact the jewellery was Roman-made is ‘beyond any doubt’.

She added: ‘It is quite expensive for the time, and priceless for the barbarian world because there was no glass production in the North Caucasus back then.’

The beads on her shoes were made of glass but also contained carnelian, an orange coloured mineral that is part of the Quartz family.

She was also discovered wearing a bright violet amethyst medallion.

‘This is a high-class gem worthy of its gold casing,’ said the archaeologist from the State Historical Museum of Russia.

The woman is probably from the Alans warrior people who made incursions into the Caucasus in the first and second centuries AD, the team speculated.

‘We came to the conclusion that wealthy warriors from North Caucasus presented expensive jewellery to their loved ones,’ Ms Kadieva said.

‘The woman most likely was a close relative of the warriors – mother, wife, or sister – because the catacomb is a family burial.’

She was interred alongside a warrior and two other males.

‘It is not clear how they died, but given the integrity of the skeletons, the time between their deaths was short,’ she said. 

Further studies are being made into the finds.

Américas – Skeleton mystery solved: One-legged remains of Napoleon’s favorite general identified

DNA tests on a one-legged skeleton found under a dance floor in Russia have officially confirmed the identification of one of Napoleon’s favorite generals

In Smolensk, Russia, a team of French and Russic archeologists discovered the remains of General Charles-Étienne Gudin, one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s most admired military commanders.

The one-legged military man was killed by a cannonball when he was 44 on Aug. 22, 1812, according to LiveScience — and his remains were left buried until now.

Found on July 6 beneath the foundations of a dancefloor, the skeleton was indeed missing a left leg and also showed evidence of injury on the right leg — two essential details that suggest that these remains, in fact, belong to Gudin.

Records from 1812 note that the man had his leg amputated below the knee after sustaining grievous harm during the Russian invasion. Upon his death, Napoleon ordered Gudin’s name to be inscribed on the Arc de Triomphe while his bust was put in the Palace of Versailles, and a Parisian street was named after him.

Meanwhile, his heart was removed and placed in a chapel in Paris’ Père Lachaise Cemetery as a token of honor.

“It’s a historic moment not only for me but for our two countries,” said French historian and archaeologists Pierre Malinovsky, who helped find Gudin’s remains.

“Napoleon was one of the last people to see him alive, which is very important, and he’s the first general from the Napoleonic period that we have found.”

Bonaparte and Gudin were childhood friends and attended the Military School in Brienne together. Gudin’s death had a profound impact on his old friend. Napoleon reportedly cried when he heard the news and immediately ordered that the man receive high honors.

In July, the research team eagerly planned on testing the skeleton for DNA to officially lay all doubt about its identification to rest, Reuters reported.

“It’s possible that we’ll have to identify the remains with the aid of a DNA test which could take from several months to a year,” the Russian military-historical society explained. “The general’s descendants are following the news.”

According to CNN, Malinovsky has since eradicated any uncertainty. In November 2019, he revealed that he transported part of the skeleton’s femur and several teeth from Moscow to Marseille shortly after the excavation to conduct a detailed analysis.

The overnight trip concluded with a genetic comparison between the remains and that of the deceased general’s mother, brother, and son.

The resourceful scientist had simply packed the bone and teeth in his luggage to do so. The results were satisfactory, to say the least.

“A professor in Marseille carried out extensive testing and the DNA matches 100 percent,” he said. “It was worth the trouble.”

Malinovski said Gudin will likely be buried at Les Invalides. The historic compound of military monuments and museums will see the one-legged general in good company — as it also holds the body of Napoleon, himself.