Category Archives: ASIA

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

The 9,000-Year-Old Underground Megalithic Settlement of Atlit Yam

The 9,000-Year-Old Underground Megalithic Settlement of Atlit Yam

Atlit Yam is an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel.

Not far off the coast of the village of Atlit in the Mediterranean Sea, near Haifa in Israel, lies the submerged ruins of the ancient Neolithic site of Atlit Yam.

The prehistoric settlement, which dates back to the 7th millennium BC, has been so well preserved by the sandy seabed that a mysterious stone circle still stands as it was first erected, and dozens of human skeletons lay undisturbed in their graves.

Atlit Yam is one of the oldest and largest sunken settlements ever found and sheds new light on the daily lives of its ancient inhabitants.

Today, Atlit Yam lies between 8 – 12 metres beneath sea level and covered an area of 40,000 square metres. The site was first discovered in 1984 by marine archaeologist Ehud Galili, and since then underwater excavations have unearthed numerous houses, stone-built water wells, a series of long unconnected walls, ritual installations, stone-paved areas, a megalithic structure, thousands of flora and faunal remains, dozens of human remains, and numerous artefacts made of stone, bone, wood and flint.

A diver explores a well at the site of Atlit Yam, an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel.

At the centre of the settlement, seven megaliths (1.0 to 2.1 metres high) weighing up to 600 kilograms are arranged in a stone semicircle.

The stones have cup marks carved into them and were once arranged around a freshwater spring, which suggests that they may have been used for a water ritual. Another installation consists of three oval stones (1.6 – 1.8 metres), two of which are circumscribed by grooves forming schematic anthropomorphic figures.

Another significant structural feature of the site is the stone-built well, which was excavated down to a depth of 5.5. metres. At the base of the well, archaeologists found sediment fill containing animal bones, stone, flint, wood, and bone artefacts. This suggests that in its final stage, it ceased to function as a water-well and was used instead as a disposal pit. The change in function was probably related to salinization of the water due to a rise in sea-level.

The wells from Atlit-Yam had probably been dug and constructed in the earliest stages of occupation (the end of the 9th millennium BC) and were essential for the maintenance of a permanent settlement in the area.

The ancient artifacts unearthed at Atlit Yam offer clues into how the prehistoric inhabitants once lived.

Researchers have found traces of more than 100 species of plants that grew at the site or were collected from the wild, and animal remains consisted of bones of both wild and domesticated animals, including sheep, goat, pig, dog, and cattle, suggesting that the residents raised and hunted animals for subsistence. In addition, more than 6,000 fish bones were found. Combined with other clues, such as an ear condition found in some of the human remains caused by regular exposure to cold water, it seems that fishing also played a big role in their society.

The archaeological material indicates that Atlit-Yam provides the earliest known evidence for an agro-pastoral-marine subsistence system on the Levantine coast.

The inhabitants were some of the first to make the transition from being hunter-gatherers to being more settled farmers, and the settlement is one of the earliest with evidence of domesticated cattle.

Human Remains Reveal Oldest Known Case of Tuberculosis

A human skeleton was found at the site of Atlit Yam, an ancient submerged Neolithic village off the coast of Atlit, Israel.

Ten flexed burials encased in clay and covered by thick layers of sand were discovered, both inside the houses and in the vicinity of Atlit Yam, and in total archaeologists have uncovered 65 sets of human remains.

One of the most significant discoveries of this ancient site is the presence of tuberculosis (TB) within the village. The skeletons of a woman and child, found in 2008, have revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis in the world. The size of the infant’s bones, and the extent of TB damage, suggest the mother passed the disease to her baby shortly after birth.

What Caused Atlit Yam to Sink?

One of the greatest archaeological mysteries of Atlit Yam is how it came to be submerged, a question that has led to heated debate in academic circles. An Italian study led by Maria Pareschi of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Pisa indicates that a volcanic collapse of the Eastern flank of Mount Etna 8,500 years ago would likely have caused a 40-metre-high tsunami to engulf some Mediterranean coastal cities within hours.

Some scientists point to the apparent abandonment of Atlit Yam around the same time, and the thousands of fish remains, as further evidence that such a tsunami did indeed occur.

However, other researchers have suggested that there is no solid evidence to suggest a tsunami wiped out the settlement. After all, the megalithic stone circle still remained standing in the place in which it had been constructed. One alternative is that climate change caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise and the settlement became flooded by a slow rise in the level of the Mediterranean that led to a gradual abandonment of the village.

Whatever the cause of the submerging of the settlement, it was the unique conditions of clay and sandy sediment under salty water that enabled this ancient village to remain so well preserved over thousands of years.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Jackpot: 900-Year-Old Gold Coins, Dating Back to The Crusades, Found in Israel

Jackpot: 900-Year-Old Gold Coins, Dating Back to The Crusades, Found in Israel

Archaeologists in Israel have uncovered a trove of rare gold coins and a 900-year-old gold earring at the site of a Crusader massacre. Officials announced the discovery earlier this week, explaining that the artefacts were found at the ancient city of Caesarea on Israel’s coast.

A small bronze pot, which contained 24 gold coins and the earring, was found hidden between two stones in the side of a well located in the remains of a 900-year-old house.

“The coins in the cache dating to the end of the eleventh century, make it possible to link the treasure to the Crusader conquest of the city in the year 1101, one of the most dramatic events in the medieval history of the city,” explained excavation directors Dr. Peter Gendelman and Mohammed Hatar of the Israel Antiquities Authority, in a statement.

Citing contemporary sources, the experts noted that most of Caesarea’s inhabitants were massacred by a Crusader army led by King Baldwin I of Jerusalem.

“It is reasonable to assume that the treasure’s owner and his family perished in the massacre or were sold into slavery, and therefore were not able to retrieve their gold,” they said in the statement.

The bronze pot with gold earrings inside.

The stunning artefacts were found in the area of a sacred compound built by King Herod the Great more than two millennia ago. Other treasures have also been found nearby. In the 1960s, for example, a pot containing gold and silver jewellery was discovered at Caesarea, while a collection of bronze vessels was found in the 1990s.

The house where the latest treasures were found was built about 1,000 years after Herod’s reign.

The turbulent Crusader era in the Holy Land began in the 11th century and lasted until the 13th century.

The excavation project at Caesarea is sponsored by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and involves the Caesarea Development Corporation, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, as well as the Israel Antiquities Authority.

The discovery also came just before the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, when it is traditional to give children “Hanukkah gelt,” which are chocolate coins.

“It is symbolic that the gold coins were discovered on the eve of Hanukkah,” said Caesarea Development Corporation CEO Michael Karsenti, in a statement. “For us, this is certainly ‘Hanukah gelt,’ and a testament to how much more is still hidden within Caesarea.”

Israel’s Crusader sites continue to be a source of fascination. In a separate project, for example, archaeologists recently discovered a Gothic hall at a medieval Crusader fortress in northern Israel.

Last year, amazing medieval jewellery was found during the excavation of a Crusader castle on Tittora Hill in the town of Modi’in-Maccabim-Re’ut.

In 2016, a centuries-old hand grenade that may date back to the time of the Crusaders was among a host of treasures retrieved from the sea in Israel. The hand grenade was a common weapon in Israel during the Crusader era.

Over decades, archaeologists have also uncovered the ruins of the once-thriving Crusader city in the modern Israeli city of Acre.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

Scientists discover remains of Hobbit humans that stood only 3ft high and lived 700,000 years ago in Indonesia

Scientists discover remains of Hobbit humans that stood only 3ft high and lived 700,000 years ago in Indonesia

SCIENTISTS have discovered the fossils of a “hobbit” that lived 700,000 years ago on an Indonesian island.

Scientists discover remains of Hobbit humans that stood only 3ft high and lived 700,000 years ago in Indonesia
A scientist’s estimation of what the “hobbits” might have looked like

The homo floresienis were ancient humans that lived between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago.

Adults stood just three-and-a-half feet tall and their brains were roughly one-third the size of our own, about the size of a chimpanzee’s.

Because of their miniature size, researchers nicknamed the unusual findings Hobbits.

The discovery consists of just six tiny teeth and a fragment of a small lower jawbone, but researchers say it is enough to suggest the fossils belonged to a direct ancestor of the Hobbits.

One theory states the Hobbits may have arrived on the island from Java after being washed out to sea by a tsunami.

The fossils included some tiny teeth.
As well as a piece of the lower jawbone

Over time, they could have shrunk on their new island home – a strange yet common phenomenon known as island dwarfism.

This relies on a variety of factors, from limited food sources to a lack of predators to defend themselves against.

Other researchers believe the fossils belonged to anatomically modern humans who suffered from some type of disorder that led to extreme disorder.

Microcephaly and Down syndrome have both been proposed.

However, the new discovery suggests otherwise – hobbits who wound up on the island seemed to defy traditional evolution and growth.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Luxurious 1,200-year-old mansion found in southern Israel

Luxurious 1,200-year-old mansion found in southern Israel

Between two mosques in Rahat, archaeologists uncover an opulent home with a finished basement that likely belonged to a wealthy landowner in the early Islamic Period

Luxury can be found in unexpected places. Archaeologists announced Tuesday the discovery of a 1,200-year-old estate in Israel’s southern Negev desert, boasting unique underground structures that allowed its owners to overcome the searing summer heat.

In a statement on the discovery, the Israel Antiquities Authority said the sprawling property may have been the residence of a wealthy landowner overseeing farmsteads in the area.

It was discovered during excavations conducted ahead of the expansion of the Bedouin city of Rahat, just north of Beersheba.

Archaeologists said the mansion, dated to the early Islamic Period in the 8th or 9th century CE, had four wings and was erected around the main courtyard. Finely coloured frescoes adorned the walls and floor in one of the wings, they said, while other rooms featured very large ovens, likely used for cooking.

The most surprising discovery, however, was made under the courtyard – a three-meter-deep cistern dug into the rock that provided the residents with cool water throughout the year, and adjoining vaulted structures.

Workers are seen on a 1,200-year-old rural estate, discovered during excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority during the expansion of the town of Rahat.
Aerial view of the rural estate uncovered in Rahat, with the vaulted complex in the centre.

The archaeologists directing the IAA excavation, Oren Shmueli, Elena Kogan-Zehavi and Noé D. Michael, said that the subterranean vaulted structures were used to store foodstuffs, and enabled the residents to move around freely underground without having to emerge into the punishing sun.

“The luxurious estate and the unique impressive underground vaults are evidence of the owners’ means,” the archaeologists said in the statement.

Luxurious 1,200-year-old mansion found in southern Israel
The water cistern.

“Their high status and wealth allowed them to build a luxurious mansion that served as a residence and for entertaining; we can study the construction methods and architectural styles, as well as learn about daily life in the Negev at the beginning of Islamic rule,” they said.

Eli Eskosido, the director of the IAA, touted the archaeologists’ cooperation with the local community in Rahat, among whom he said the discovery was generating “interest and excitement.”

The estate, he added, “was uncovered in an area located between two ancient mosques, perhaps among the earliest ever discovered.

The Israel Antiquities Authority and the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin are planning together to conserve and exhibit the finds to the general public.”

The IAA said that on Thursday the site would be open to the public for free public tours, including family digging and sieving activities.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Ancient DNA adds to evidence of Native Americans’ east Asian ancestry

Ancient DNA adds to evidence of Native Americans’ east Asian ancestry

An ancient woman’s skull from south-west China suggests she was related to a population that migrated from east Asia to North America 14,000 years ago, DNA has shown.

Researchers have sequenced the genomes of ancient human fossils from the Late Pleistocene in southern China for the first time. Current Biology publishes data that suggests the mysterious hominid may have been related to an extinct maternal branch of modern humans that may have contributed to Native American origins.

Bing Su of the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences says ancient DNA techniques are compelling. The Red Deer Cave dwellers were modern humans rather than archaic species like Neanderthals or Denisovans, despite their unusual morphological features.

Side view of an ancient skull found in Red Deer Cave, China

Genomes from these fossils were compared with genomes from people around the globe. Upon further investigation, they determined that the bones belonged to someone with roots in East Asian Native American culture.

These findings, combined with data from earlier research, led the researchers to propose that some South East Asians had reached Siberia tens of thousands of years ago via Japan along the coast of present-day East China.

In this way, they reached North America for the first time by crossing the Bering Strait, which separates Asia from North America. Almost 30 years ago, Chinese archaeologists discovered large bone fragments in a cave in the Yunnan province, in the south of the country, called Maludong or Red Deer, kickstarting the path to the recent find.

According to carbon dating, the fossils date from the Late Pleistocene, approximately 14,000 years ago, when modern humans were migrating around the globe.

Researchers recovered a hominid’s skull with modern and archaic features in the cave. For example, a Neanderthal-like skull shape and smaller brains were seen in the specimens.

Due to this, some anthropologists believed that the skull likely belonged to an unknown archaic human species or to a hybrid population of archaics and modern humans.

In 2018, Bing Su and his colleagues successfully extracted ancient DNA from the skull in collaboration with Xueping Ji.

This was in collaboration with the Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. The genome of the hominid shows that it descended from an extinct maternal lineage of modern humans. These descendants live in East Asia, the Indochinese peninsula, and the Southeast Asian islands.

The findings also demonstrate that southern East Asian hominins possessed more genetic and morphological diversity than northern East Asians during the Late Pleistocene. Based on this, Su suggests that the first humans in East Asia settled in the south before some moved north.

The study provides important evidence for understanding early human migration, Su says. Next, the team plans to sequence more ancient human DNA using fossils from southern East Asia, especially those that predate the Red Deer Cave dwellers.

In addition to a better understanding of how our ancestors migrated, these data will also be helpful in understanding how humans have changed their physical appearance over time as they adapted to a changing environment. Su concludes: “These data may provide us with information about how humans have changed their physical appearance as they have adapted to local environments over time.”

ASIA, IRAN, WORLD

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?

A mysterious writing system that is nearly as old as cuneiform but used a different set of symbols and that has remained undeciphered for centuries may have finally been deciphered.

Have Scholars Finally Deciphered a Mysterious Ancient Script?
Over the past century, archaeologists have uncovered more than 1,600 Proto-Elamite inscriptions, but only about 43 in Linear Elamite, scattered widely across Iran.

Based on ancient silver vessels, the researchers propose a new method for decoding the Linear Elamite script, which contains 80 symbols written left to right in vertical columns.

Ancient writing systems are among the most difficult to crack.

The Rosetta Stone, which translated a Demotic decree (the language of everyday ancient Egyptians) into Greek and hieroglyphics, gave us an understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics in 1799. Had a French soldier not stumbled across it by chance, we would have had a pretty difficult time understanding Egyptian writing. But even with the discovery of the precious stone, Jean-Francois Champollion spent over two decades trying to decipher the strange Egyptian symbols.

Among millennia-old scripts, only a few are unreadable. An obscure system used in what is now Iran might finally be deciphered thanks to a team of European scholars led by French archaeologist Francois Desset.

“This is one of the major archaeological discoveries of the last decades,” explains Massimo Vidale, an archaeologist at the University of Padua who was not involved in the research. “It was based on the same approach of Champollion’s breakthrough—identifying and reading phonetically the names of kings.”

Proto-Elamite, derived from Linear Elamite, was used between 2500 and 2220 BC and is named such because its registers are similar to Linear Cretan. Inscriptions on 40 documents from Susa, the ancient urban oasis and capital of Elam, a bustling society that was once one of the first to use written symbols, are the only indications of its existence. Only a partial decipherment of this writing had been accomplished.

Those circumstances have now changed, according to Desset, who gained access to an unusual collection of silver vases encircled with cuneiform and Linear Elamite script.

They were excavated in the 1920s and sold to Western merchants, so their authenticity and provenance have been questioned. Nevertheless, analysis of the vessels revealed that they were ancient rather than modern forgeries.

This image depicts the 72 deciphered alpha-syllabic signs used in Linear Elamite’s transliteration system.

It is thought that they were discovered in a royal cemetery hundreds of kilometres southeast of Susa, dating back to around 2000 BC, as for their origin. According to experts, Elamite linear script was in use around this time.

The silver vases, according to the study, contain the oldest and most complete examples of Royal Elamite inscriptions in cuneiform script. They belonged to two different dynasties.

According to Desset, the vessels were ‘the jackpot’ for deciphering Linear Elamite due to their juxtaposition of inscriptions.

Several cuneiform names, including those of well-known Elamite kings, could now be compared with symbols in Linear Elamite, including Šilhaha. The French professor used repeated symbols that are likely proper names to interpret the geometric shapes of the inscriptions. The verbs “made” and “gave” were also translated by him.

More than 96 per cent of known linear Elamite symbols were able to be read by Desset and his co-authors. “Even if a complete decipherment cannot yet be claimed, mainly due to the limited number of inscriptions, we are not far away,” the experts write in their study.

These findings may shed light on a previously unknown society that flourished between ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley in the dawn of civilization if the researchers are right and their peers are debating the claim hotly.

The paper describing the discovery was published in the journal Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie.

As per experts, this analysis could also rewrite the evolution of writing itself.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad

An archaeological dig in Al-Suwaira, some 60km south of Baghdad, has revealed an ancient Parthian (247BC to 224AD) city and unearthed more than 200 artefacts.

Archaeologists uncover the ancient city and hundreds of artefacts close to Baghdad
A Parthian site has been discovered south of Baghdad

According to a statement from Iraq’s State Board of Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) the recently completed 150-day mission took place in Abu Ghafil, near the Al-Suwaira air base, and revealed wooden residential structures as well as 233 artefacts that were sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad.

“It was a salvage project to dig two mounds at the site of Abu Ghafil,” the archaeologist Mohammed Sabri, the head of the expedition, explains.

“The main discovery was a manufacturing and residential settlement of the Parthian period, which I believe was a kind of a vassal settlement.”

The artefacts that were found during excavation, he says, are mainly household items and include “a typical, simple Parthian jar with a tipped base that was common in that era”.

The Parthian empire was located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Dynasty of China, and it encompassed Persian, Hellenistic and regional cultures.

Around 233 artefacts have been sent to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, including this well-preserved vase

Sabri says that the site, near the air base that defended Baghdad against Iranian missiles in the 1980s, was officially discovered in 2017 but that it may have been referenced in a mid-20th century survey conducted by the US archaeologist and scholar McGuire Gibson.

“In accordance with the latest surveys conducted by Iraqi staff of the SBAH, we have about 15,000 archaeological sites, registered and non-registered [in Iraq]” he explains.

“Some were registered from the beginning of the last century and even before that. To dig this number of sites we will need millions of years since it is a precise, scientific work that requires patience, trillions of dinars, and tens of thousands of archaeologists to supervise the work.”

The SBAH has long-term plans, he says, “to dig a specific number of sites for scientific and other practical reasons, besides the restoration, rehabilitation and survey projects in our ancient and heritage sites”.

Chaos and instability unleashed after the 2003 invasion, Isis’s reign of terror, as well as the recent pandemic, have slowed some of SBAH’s work. But the archaeologist Tobin Hartnell of the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani—who will accompany a tour of ancient sites this fall organised by the Detroit-based tourism company Spiekermann Travel—notes that, even before 2003, “Under Saddam, the Parthian era sites were often overlooked as their restoration could appear to be glorifying the Persian empire at the time of the Iran/Iraq war”.

The exception, Hartnell says, was Hatra (recently restored post-Isis) which was celebrated and maintained by Saddam because of its association with “Arab kings”.

He says: “Lots of major projects were focused more on the ancient Tigris/Euphrates area rather than Wasit that was further east and closer to Iran. Just another reason why this is an underappreciated part of Iraq’s heritage.”

Hartnell says the new discovery is significant. “Wasit was a major industrial region of ancient and medieval Iraq whose history will be illuminated by this project.”

ASIA, MONGOLIA, WORLD

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Construction workers employed in road building near the Onon River in the Khentii province of Mongolia, have discovered a mass ԍʀᴀvᴇ containing the remains of many ᴅozᴇɴs of human coʀᴘsᴇs lying upon a large rudimentary stone structure.

Archaeologists Unearth Tomb Of Genghis Khan

Forensic experts and archaeologists were called to the site, which was revealed to be a Mongolian royal tomb from the 13th century that the scientists believe to be Genghis Khan’s.

The team of scientists affiliated with the University of Beijing has concluded that the numerous skeletons ʙuʀιᴇᴅ on top of the structure were most likely the slaves who built it and who were then мᴀssᴀcʀᴇᴅ to keep the secret of the location.

The remains of twelve horses were also found on the site, certainly sᴀcʀιғιcᴇᴅ to accompany the Great Khan in death.

A total of 68 skeletons were found ʙuʀιᴇᴅ together, almost directly over the top of a rather crude stone structure

The content of the tomb was scattered and badly deteriorated, presumably due to the fact that the site was located beneath the river bed for hundreds of years until the course of the Onon river changed in the 18th century. The ʀᴇмᴀιɴs of a tall male and sixteen female skeletons were identified among hundreds of gold and silver artefacts and thousands of coins.

The women are presumed to have been wives and concubines of the leader, who were κιʟʟᴇᴅ to accompany the warlord in the afterlife. The amount of treasure and the number of sᴀcʀιғιcᴇᴅ animals and people immediately led the archaeologists to consider that the site was certainly the ʙuʀιᴇᴅ site of a really powerful Mongol warlord.

After realizing an extensive set of tests and analysis, they were able to confirm that the ʙoᴅʏ belonged to a man aged between 60 and 75, who ᴅιᴇᴅ between 1215 and 1235 AD. Both the age, the date, the location, and the opulence of the site seem to confirm that the tomb does indeed belong to Genghis Khan

The simple rock dome discovered by the archaeologists was presumably ʙuʀιᴇᴅ beneath the Onon river for centuries.

The incontestable historical importance of Genghis Khan makes this new discovery one of the most important in the history of archaeology. Born Temüjin (which means “of iron”), he was the founder and ԍʀᴇᴀтκнᴀɴ (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise.

He is known for uniting the tribes of Mongolia and merging them into one before launching a series of military campaigns in cнιɴᴀ, Central Asia, the Middle East and even Eastern Europe.

He conquered more than 31 million square kilometres of land during his lifetime. His legacy has taken many forms besides his conquest and can still be found today, making him one of the most influential men in the history of mankind.

He connected the East and the West through the creation of the Silk Route, a trade route that would become and remain for centuries, the main network of trade and cultural transmission in Eurasia, opening long-distance, political and economic interactions between the civilizations.

Genghis Khan also has an incredible number of descendants, as some genetic studies have shown that he could be the direct ancestor of 1 human out of every 200 who are alive today. In Mongolia alone, as many as 200,000 of the country’s 2 million people could be Genghis Khan descendants.