Category Archives: ASIA

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Massive Ancient City Containing Huge Pyramid Unearthed in China

Massive Ancient City Containing Huge Pyramid Unearthed in China

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of an ancient lost city in China where human sacrifice was practised. The Neolithic site known as Shimao, in present-day Shaanxi province, was once thought to be an unexcavated part of the Great Wall of China.

The pyramid was decorated with eye symbols and “anthropomorphic,” or part-human, part-animal faces.

Those figures “may have endowed the stepped pyramid with special religious power and further strengthened the general visual impression on its large audience,” the archaeologists wrote in the article. 

This figure shows images of the step pyramid. a) part of the stone buttresses of the second and the third steps of the pyramid; b) eye symbols that decorate the pyramid c) a view of the buttresses under excavation; d) a general view of the pyramid before excavation.

For five centuries, a city flourished around the pyramid. At one time, the city encompassed an area of 988 acres (400 hectares), making it one of the largest in the world, the archaeologists wrote. Today, the ruins of the city are called “Shimao,” but its name in ancient times is unknown.

The pyramid contains 11 steps, each of which was lined with stone. On the topmost step, there “were extensive palaces built of rammed earth, with wooden pillars and roofing tiles, a gigantic water reservoir, and domestic remains related to daily life,” the researchers wrote.

The city’s rulers lived in these palaces, and art and craft production were carried out nearby. “Evidence so far suggests that the stepped pyramid complex functioned not only as a residential space for ruling Shimao elites but also as a space for artisanal or industrial craft production,” the archaeologists wrote.

A sacrificial pit of human skulls discovered at Shimao. The people sacrificed may have been captives captured in war. This photo was first published in 2016 in an article in the Chinese language journal Kaogu yu wenwu.

A series of stone walls with ramparts and gates was built around the pyramid and the city. “At the entrance to the stepped pyramid were sophisticated bulwarks [defensive walls] whose design suggests that they were intended to provide both defense and highly restricted access,” the archaeologists wrote.

The remains of numerous human sacrifices have been discovered at Shimao. “In the outer gateway of the eastern gate on the outer rampart alone, six pits containing decapitated human heads have been found,” the archaeologists wrote.

Some of the victims may be from another archaeological site called Zhukaigou, which is located to the north of Shimao, and the people of Shimao may have conquered the neighbouring site.

“Morphological analysis of the human remains suggests that the victims may have been related to the residents of Zhukaigou, which could further suggest that they were taken to Shimao as captives during the expansion of the Shimao polity,” the study said.

Additionally, jade artefacts were inserted into spaces between the blocks in all of Shimao’s structures. “The jade objects and human sacrifice may have imbued the very walls of Shimao with ritual and religious potency,” the archaeologists wrote.

While archaeologists have known about Shimao for many years, it was once thought to be part of the Great Wall of China, a section of which is located nearby.

It wasn’t until excavations were carried out in recent years that archaeologists realized that Shimao is far older than the Great Wall, which was built between 2,700 and 400 years ago.

The pyramid and the surrounding area were fortified with ramparts

The team of archaeologists that wrote the article includes Li Jaang, a professor at the School of History at Zhengzhou University; Zhouyong Sun and Jing Shao, who are both archaeologists at the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology; and Min Li, an anthropology professor at UCLA.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

World’s Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag

World’s Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag

About half a million years ago, early homo Erectus on java was already using freshwater mussel shells as weapons and as a “canvas” for engraving. An international team of researchers, led by Leiden archaeologist José Joordens, published this discovery Nature.

The discovery provides new insights into the evolution of human behaviour.

Not only Homo sapiens made engravings

“Until this discovery, it was assumed that comparable engravings were only made by modern humans (Homo sapiens) in Africa, starting about 100,000 years ago,” says lead author José Joordens, a researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University.

World’s Oldest Art Identified in Half-Million-Year-Old Zigzag
Scientists found deliberate scratching on a fossil Pseudodon, likely an engraving made by Homo erectus at Trinil in Indonesia.

A team of 21 researchers studied hundreds of fossil shells and associated finds and sediments from the Homo erectus site Trinil, on the Indonesian island of Java.

The shells are part of the Dubois Collection that has been held at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center since the end of the 19th century. The shells were excavated by the Dutch physician and researcher Eugène Dubois, the discoverer of Pithecanthropus erectus — now known as Homo erectus.

Engravings older than weathering

The discovery of an engraved geometrical pattern on one of the shells came as a total surprise. The zig-zag pattern, which can only be seen with oblique lighting, is clearly older than the weathering processes on the shell arising from fossilization.

The study has excluded the possibility that the pattern could have been caused by animals or by natural weathering processes and shows that the ‘zigzag’ pattern is the work of Homo erectus.

Five hundred thousand years old

By applying two dating methods, researchers at the VU University Amsterdam and Wageningen University have determined that the shell with the engraving is minimally 430,000 and maximally 540,000 years old. This means that the engraving is at least four times older than the previously oldest known engravings, found in Africa.

Purpose or meaning of the engraving?

“It’s fantastic that this engraved shell has been discovered in a museum collection where it has been held for more than a hundred years. I can imagine people may be wondering whether this can be seen as a form of early art,” says Wil Roebroeks, Professor of Palaeolithic Archaeology at Leiden University.

Viewed up close, one fossil Pseudodon shell from Java shows evidence of engraving.
See the hole on the inside of this fossil Pseudodon shell? Homo erectus likely bored into the shell at exactly at the spot where the adductor muscle attaches to pop it open.

He was able to finance this long-term research with his NWO Spinoza Prize. “At the moment we have no clue about the meaning or purpose of this engraving.”

Early human-like mussel collector

This research has shown that these early human-like people were very clever about how they opened these large freshwater mussels; they drilled a hole through the shell using a sharp object, possibly a shark’s tooth, exactly at the point where the muscle is attached that keeps the shell closed.

“The precision with which these early humans worked indicates great dexterity and detailed knowledge of mollusc anatomy,” says Frank Wesselingh, a researcher and expert on fossil shells at Naturalis. The molluscs were eaten and the empty shells were used to manufacture tools, such as knives.

Possible follow-on research

This discovery from the historical Dubois collection sheds unexpected new light on the skills and behavior of Homo erectus and indicates that Asia is a promising and, so far, relatively unexplored area for finding intriguing artifacts.

From the Netherlands, researchers at Leiden University, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center, the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the universities of Wageningen and Delft, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands were involved in the research.

This research is being financed by research funding from the NWO Spinoza Prize.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

Was this Massive Sword from the 15th Century used by a Giant Samurai?

Was this Massive Sword from the 15th Century used by a Giant Samurai?

The Norimitsu Odachi is displayed in its full glory at the Kibitsu Shrine in the Okayama Prefecture. The giant sword has captivated Japan and its foreign visitors with its size and grandeur.

The Norimitsu is so large, legends have stated that the weapon was once forged and wielded by a giant warrior. Other than its measurements, 12.37 feet in length and 31.97 lbs in weight, the exact origins of the Norimitsu Odachi continues to be shrouded in mystery.

A Look into the Mysterious Norimitsu Odachi

Samurais have been a part of Japanese culture since the start of the tenth century. They were fierce warriors who swore oaths to protect their respective clans. One of the things they were most renowned for was their primary weapon of choice: the sword.

The giant sword is 12½ feet long (3.8m), the body being 7 ½ feet (2.3m) and the nakago 5 feet (150m). It weighs about 31lb 15.47249oz pounds (14.5 kg). 1)

There are a wide variety of blades produced by the skilled swordsmiths of Japan. The katana is without a doubt the most popular one due to its connection to the samurai.

A lesser-known traditional Japanese sword is the odachi, which literally translates to “large/great sword.” In order to be classified as an odachi, the weapon must have a blade length of 3 shaku (35.79 inches or 90.91 cm), though there have been some records of blades reaching around 6.56 feet in length.

What was the purpose of the odachi?

The odachi functioned either as ceremonial objects or infantry swords. As an offering to a shrine’s patron gods. Some odachi was actually used as an offering to the gods to protect warriors in battle. Others were displayed in temples as mythological symbols.

As a ceremonial object.  Production of the odachi was at an all-time high during the Edo period where it was used in various ceremonies. Researchers have also stated that the odachi had a more “ritualistic” role when it came to war, similar to that of flags during a battle.

The odachi was also said to be a weapon of choice during the fourteenth century, specifically the Nanboku-chō period. This claim is backed up by literary works such as the Heike Monogatari and the Taiheiki. 

As a weapon for war, the odachi’s large size proved to be a problem. It was believed that samurai would carry it on their back or by hand.

During the Muromachi era, samurais would have their assistants carry the massive sword to help draw it during battle. Foot soldiers were more likely to carry the sword slung across their backs as opposed to katanas, which were typically carried on the side.

Fumon Tanaka, a traditional Japanese martial arts practitioner, uses a special drawing technique for a “shorter” odachi. It involves pulling out the sheath rather than drawing the actual blade. Swordsmanship schools around the country have adopted this method, as well as the Shin musō Hayashizaki-ryū and Iaidō.

Production and decline

Forging the odachi proved to be no easy feat. Their length made heat treatment more complicated due to its expense and technique. Polishing was quite the challenge too.

Because of their size, the odachi needed to be hung from the ceiling or carefully placed in a stationary position to be polished as opposed to normal swords that are merely moved over polishing stones.

The odachi’s reverence dwindled down after the 1615 Siege of Osaka (Osaka Natsu no Jin), in which the Tokugawa Shogunate annihilated the Toyotomi clan. The loss was said to be due to the Shogunal government prohibiting swords above a set length. Odachi swordsmiths were forced to cut down the length to meet the standards.

So what is the truth behind the Norimitsu Odachi?

Everyone agrees that if the sword truly had an owner who took it out to battle, they would have been a giant of unproportionate measures.

However, if one were to disregard mythology and folklore, it looks like the Norimitsu odachi was nothing more than a ceremonial sword created by a skillful craftsman. Whoever was behind the forging of this beautiful weapon certainly wanted to showcase their skills—or wealth, for that matter.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Possible 2,700-Year-Old Face Cream Found in China

Possible 2,700-Year-Old Face Cream Found in China

According to a Nature report, a team of researchers led by Bin Han of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified a bronze vessel containing remnants of a 2,700-year-old cosmetic among the artifacts recovered from a nobleman’s tomb at the Liujiawa site in northern China.

The ornate bronze jar was still sealed when researchers unearthed it at the Liujiawa archaeological site in northern China. That allowed Yimin Yang at the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and his colleagues to analyze the composition of the yellowish lumps inside the pot.

The lumps consisted of beef fat mixed with minerals that absorb sweat and skin oil. Those minerals came from ‘cave moon milk’, a powdered form of white stalactites found in limestone caves.

Caves were important to the Taoist philosophy prevalent during the nobleman’s day, and the cream would have had symbolic power as well as the ability to moisturize and whiten the face.

The presence of similar pots in many royal and noble graves suggests that a cosmetics industry serving elite customers had appeared in China by roughly 700 BC.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Lost Civilization? 172000 Year Old River Discovered in Thar Desert India

Lost Civilization? 172000 Year Old River Discovered in Thar Desert India

Researchers have found evidence of a “lost” river that ran through the central Thar Desert, near Bikaner, as early as 172 thousand years ago, and may have been a life-line to human populations enabling them to inhabit the region. The findings, published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews, represent the oldest directly dated phase of river activity at Nal Quarry in the central Thar Desert.

The study by researchers from The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, Anna University in Tamil Nadu, and IISER Kolkata indicates that Stone Age populations lived in a distinctly different Thar Desert landscape than we encounter today.

This evidence indicates a river that flowed with phases of activity dating to approximately up to 172 thousand years ago, nearby to Bikaner, Rajasthan, which is over 200 kilometers away from the nearest modern river.

Sand Dunes in Bikaner, Rajasthan

These findings predate evidence for activity in modern river courses across the Thar Desert as well as dried up course of the Ghaggar-Hakra River, the researchers said. The presence of a river running through the central Thar Desert would have offered a life-line to Paleolithic populations, and potentially an important corridor for migrations, they said.

The researchers noted that the potential importance of ‘lost’ rivers for earlier inhabitants of the Thar Desert has been overlooked.

“The Thar Desert has a rich prehistory, and we’ve been uncovering a wide range of evidence showing how Stone Age populations not only survived but thrived in these semi-arid landscapes,” said Jimbob Blinkhorn from The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

“We know how important rivers can be to living in this region, but we have little detail on what river systems were like during key periods of prehistory,” Blinkhorn said.

Studies of satellite imagery have shown a dense network of river channels crossing the Thar Desert, according to the researchers.

“These studies can indicate where rivers and streams have flowed in the past, but they can’t tell us when,” explained Professor Hema Achyuthan of Anna University.

“To demonstrate how old such channels are, we had to find evidence on the ground for river activity in the middle of the desert,” Achyuthan said.

The team studied a deep deposit of river sands and gravels, which had been exposed by quarrying activity near the village of Nal. The researchers were able to document different phases of river activity by studying the different deposits.

“We immediately saw evidence for a substantial and very active river system from the bottom of the fluvial deposits, which gradually decreased in power through time,” Achyuthan said.

The researchers used a method called luminescence dating to understand when quartz grains in the river sands were buried. The results indicated that the strongest river activity at Nal occurred at approximately 172 and 140 thousand years ago, at a time when the monsoon was much weaker than today in the region.

River activity continued at the site between 95 to 78 thousand years ago, after which only limited evidence for the presence of a river at the site, with evidence for a brief reactivation of the channel 26 thousand years ago, the study found.

The river was flowing at its strongest during a phase of weak monsoonal activity in the region, and may have been a life-line to human populations enabling them to inhabit the Thar Desert, the researchers said.

The timeframe over which this river was active also overlaps with significant changes in human behaviour in the region, which have been linked with the earliest expansions of Homo sapiens from Africa into India, they said.

“This river flowed at a critical timeframe for understanding human evolution in the Thar Desert, across South Asia and beyond,” said Blinkhorn.

“This suggests a landscape in which the earliest members of our own species, Homo sapiens, first encountered the monsoons and crossed the Thar Desert may have been very different to the landscape we can see today,” he added.

ASIA, LAOS, WORLD

10-Foot-Tall Stone Jars ‘Made by Giants’ Stored Human Bodies in Ancient Laos

10-Foot-Tall Stone Jars ‘Made by Giants’ Stored Human Bodies in Ancient Laos

Stonehenge inspires awe, but there’s an even more mysterious ancient scene in Laos. The Plain of Jars consists of thousands of prehistoric stone vessels scattered over hundreds of square kilometres near Phonsavan, in the northeastern part of the country—a hilly area, despite the “plain” in the name. The huge jars form a surreal sight—some are up to ten feet tall and weigh several tons. It’s an archaeological wonder that experts still haven’t pinned down. 

Several human burials, thought to be around 2,500 years old, have been found at some of these sites in Laos, but nothing is known about the people who originally made the jars.

An expedition of archaeologists from Laos and Australia visited the Xiangkhouang region in February and March this year to document known jar sites and to search for new jars-of-the-dead sites and stone quarries.

Local legends say the carved stone jars were created by a race of giants to brew rice beer, but archaeologists think they were used in burial rituals.

The new finds show that the mysterious culture that made the stone jars were geographically more widespread than previously thought, said Louise Shewan, an archaeologist at the University of Melbourne, and one of the expedition leaders.

The joint Australian and Laos archaeological expedition searched for new jar sites in the Xiangkhouang region and excavated a previously known jar site.

The largest and best-known jar site is the famous Plain of Jars, located in relatively open country near the town of Phonsavan. That site contains around 400 carved stone jars, some as tall as 10 feet (3 m) and weighing more than 10 tons (9,000 kilograms), and the first archaeological investigation of it was made in the 1930s.

But Shewan said that the majority of the jar sites usually contained fewer than 60 carved stone jars, and were found in forested and mountainous terrain surrounding the Plain of Jars, spread over thousands of square miles.

Ancient stone jars

Shewan told Live Science that the search for new jar sites took the expedition into “extremely rugged, forested terrain,” as the researchers looked for ancient relics reported by local people.

Relying on local knowledge meant the archaeologists could avoid the ever-present danger of unexploded Vietnam War-era bombs, she said. U.S. warplanes dropped an estimated 270 million cluster bombs on Laos during the war.

The Laos government agency that oversees clearance efforts reports that more than 80 million unexploded bombs are scattered around the country.

Although the region is best known for the stone jars on the Plain of Jars, most of the ancient jar sites are in heavily forested and mountainous areas.

The latest expedition, in addition to accurately mapping many of the reported sites in the Xiangkhouang region, found 15 new jar sites, containing a total of 137 ancient stone jars.

Shewan said that the newly discovered jars were similar to those found on the Plain of Jars, but some varied in the types of stone that they were made from, their shapes and the way the rims of the jars were formed.

Burial rituals

Local legends include a story that the enormous stone jars were made by giants, who used the vessels to brew rice beer to celebrate a victory in war. But archaeologists think that at least some of the carved stone jars were used to hold dead bodies for a time before their bones would be cleaned and buried.

Australian and Lao archaeologists found more than 137 ancient stone jars at 15 new sites in the remote and rugged Xiangkhouang region.

Although the remains of elaborate human burials have been found at some of the jar sites, archaeologists aren’t sure if the jars were made for the purpose of the burials or if the burials were performed later.

Excavations in 2016 revealed that some of the stone jars were surrounded by pits filled with human bones and by graves covered by large carved disks of stone. These appear to have been used to mark the grave locations.

The latest expedition also found buried disks and other artefacts. Those included several beautifully carved stone disks, decorated on one side with concentric circles, human figures and animals. Curiously, the stone discs were always buried with the carved side face down.

“Decorative carving is relatively rare at the jar sites, and we don’t know why some disks have animal imagery and others have geometric designs,” expedition co-leader Dougald O’Reilly, an archaeologist at Australian National University in Canberra, said in a statement.

The excavations around some of the stone jars also revealed decorative ceramics, glass beads, iron tools, decorative disks that were worn in the ears and spindle whorls for cloth making. Researchers also discovered several miniature clay jars that looked just like the giant stone jars and that were buried with the dead.

The scientists will now use the data and photographs from the new jar finds to reconstruct the sites in virtual reality at Monash University; then, archaeologists across the globe can use the VR to examine the sites in detail.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Hidden for 1,000 years-“Underground Great Wall” of China

Hidden for 1,000 years-“Underground Great Wall” of China

The Song Dynasty (960AD-1127AD) battled for 200 years with the Liao and Jin Dynasties, which at the time were ruled by minorities of China’s Northern Territories, the Khitans, and Jurchens respectively.

The battleground was an endless flat ground, with no mountains or rivers that could be used to help defend against attack, but their secret was found more than half a century ago, when locals in the Yongqing village, Hebei, experienced a great flood.

Villagers were running for their lives when the course of the flood suddenly diverted and disaster was averted – exposing a series of underground passages spanning more than 300 square kilometers (115 square miles).

Experts in China discovered the Yongqing ancient war passages were widespread and formed part of a large-scale construction used to house troops during times of war.

The structure of the caves was complicated and possessed advanced military facilities such as camouflaged exits, covers, and locking gates. More recently though, the existence of a modern “underground Great Wall” tunnel network was unveiled in the mountainous regions of Hebei.

The labyrinthine tunnel system was built by the engineering unit of the Second Artillery in 1985 for concealing, mobilising and deploying China’s growing arsenal of nuclear weapons.

China has a serious of underground tunnels
The ancient tunnels were found half a century ago

Who Built the Ancient War Passages and When?

Experts discovered that the Yongqing ancient war passages were widespread. They were in fact a large-scale construction used to house troops during times of war.

The structures of the caves were complicated and complete, possessing military facilities such as camouflaged exits, covers, and locking gates. Facilities for housing people were also found, such as ventilation holes, lampstands, and heatable brick beds.

The “blue bricks” used in the construction of the passageways were 30×16×8 cubic centimeters in size. This kind of brick, created using fine soil baked at high temperatures, was very solid and robust; the use of such facilities suggests a well thought out and sophisticated underground network had been established at some point in time.

Military figures, Northern Song dynasty, 11th century, pottery, iron brown pigment and clear glaze, Lowe Art Museum.

Further investigation revealed that the blue bricks found in Yongqing County were the same as the bricks found in underground passages in Qigang, Xiong County from the Song Dynasty.

The creation and maintenance of such a massive underground network required a great number of these bricks. It is believed that these ancient war passages were constructed as part of a large nation-wide project created and overseen at a national level by the governing authorities of the time.

The Passages Spread Over 1,600 Square Kilometers

Experts have dug out similar war passages in Yongqing, Xiong county, and Bazhou. The ancient war passages are about 65 kilometers from east to west, 25 kilometers from north to south, which extend through 1,600 square kilometers.

When the border between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty went as far west as Rongcheng county and Xushui county, it is thought that many ancient war passages existed in that area. How far the ancient war passages extended eastwards from Yongqing is still unknown.

The tunnels were found in Hubei

Hiding Soldiers in the Ancient War Passages to Defend the Country

Amidst many legends about the underground network, one states that the ancient war passages were built by General Yang and his family; a family that produced three great generals over three generations.

Another legend suggests that General Yang Liulang used the underground passageways to defend the border. At the time (960-1127 AD), soldiers of the Liao Dynasty strictly guarded the lands north of Yongqing County. It is said that Yang Liulang built the passages to hide his soldiers underground so they could quickly defend against attacks launched by the Liao soldiers.

“Four Generals of Zhongxing” by Southern Song Dynasty artist Liu Songnian (1174–1224).

Experts point out that the underground passages may have been used as a base for launching attacks during wars fought in ancient China. As a means of defense throughout the years, people have built great walls in mountainous areas and water fields near rivers and lakes to block cavalries.

However, in the open plains, where it is difficult to use the terrain as a means of defense, the tunnels would have allowed soldiers to travel unseen below the earth.

The ancient war passages have become famous for the advantages they provide whether the troops are attacking or defending, and they have been named the “underground Great Wall.”

Similar tunnels are now used by the Chinese military
ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

Traces of Tenth-Century Temple Unearthed in Eastern India

Traces of Tenth-Century Temple Unearthed in Eastern India

The Hindustan Times reports that researchers led by Arun Malik of the Archaeological Survey of India uncovered traces of a building thought to be a tenth-century temple while excavating an area next to the eleventh-century Suka-Sari temple complex, which is located near eastern India’s city of Bhubaneswar.

ASI officials said while carrying out scientific cleaning of the two-acre land adjacent to the 11th-century Suka-Sari temple complex, they found the floor of the temple as well as a portion of wall containing beautifully engraved statues of danseuses of the temple that was earlier buried under the campus of a demolished Sanskrit college in Bhubaneswar.

“We think the temple was built on the Panchayatana model like the Brahmeshwara and Chitrakarini temples which are of the 10th-century origin.

A base (Shakti) of Shivling has also been found during digging at the site.

Another side of the wall is being dug out and it will require 10 more days to completely bring out the structures,” said Arun Mallick, superintendent of ASI’s Bhubaneswar circle.

Mallick said many ancient structures around the vicinity of Lingaraj temple are believed to have been damaged during the demolition drive carried out by the Odisha government for renovation of the old town area under Ekamra Kshetra Project.

“Bhubaneswar is said to be the city of more than 1000 temples. We believe many structures have been demolished during the current demolition exercise.

We tried to reason with them about not carrying out indiscriminate demolition. But the state government did not take note of our protests,” he said.

Among the heritage structures demolished around the Lingaraj temple is the 11th century Ganesh temple called Budha Ganesh on the northern side of Lingaraj complex.

It has been listed as a protected monument years ago and is one of the smallest Ganesh temples of Bhubaneswar.

The oldest structure in Bhubaneswar is Baitala temple, that is believed to have been built during the 8th century by the Bhaumakara kings.