Farmer finds pots filled with gold silver ornaments while tiling his land in India, telangana.
On Wednesday, farmers in the Sultanpur village of Vikarabad in Telangana district find two pots with gold and silver ornaments. A total of 25 gold and silver ornaments were found in the pots, according to the reports.
A Mohammad Siddiqui had bought the land two years ago. With the monsoon approaching, he had started tilling the land for farming.
While ploughing the field he had suddenly stumbled on the pots. He had reportedly informed the government authorities.
As per the report, most of the ornaments in the pot included large-size anklets.
The officials from the revenue department reached the spot and had taken control of the findings. A goldsmith was called to check the ornaments for their gold or silver content.
Mandal Revenue Officer, Vidyasagar Reddy was quoted by the New Indian Express as saying, “The place doesn’t have any history of finding such treasure. We will inform the archaeology department about it.”
Soon, news spread in the village about the artefacts and locals started descending on his home to take a look at them.
The pots contained almost 25 ornaments, including chains, rings, anklets and traditional utensils. Speaking to Express, Mandal Revenue Officer Vidyasagar Reddy said, “The village does not have any historical significance. We will inform the Archeology Department about the findings.”
Over 25 ornaments found
A total of 25 gold and silver ornaments were found in the pots.
The pots contained almost 25 ornaments, including chains, rings, anklets and traditional utensils.
Police and revenue officials reached the spot to inspect the treasure. A goldsmith was asked to verify if they were actually made of gold and silver
The Dead Sea Scrolls contain genetic clues to their origins
Fragment of Scroll 4Q72a found in Qumran Cave 4 in the West Bank.
The Dead Sea Scrolls’ genetic analysis of leather helped to place various fragments in new historical contexts. The Dead Sea scrolls consist of a collection of approximately 1,000 ancient manuscripts, including the earliest edition of the Hebrew Bible in the cave of the Judean Desert.
However, because the manuscripts were uncovered in fragments, it was impossible to piece them together to interpret the texts properly. The question is exacerbated by the fact that many scrolls were not obtained directly from scholars from the Qumran caves, but from antiquities dealers.
“Oded Rechavi of Tel Aviv University, one of the study’s corresponding authors, said: ‘ The discovery of the 2000 years old Dead Sea scrolls was one of the primary archeological findings ever made. ‘
However, he added, “most of them were not found intact but rather disintegrated into thousands of fragments, which had to be sorted and pieced together. … Depending on the classification of each fragment, the interpretation of any given text could change dramatically.”
To sort out how different fragments of text are related to one another as well as to place them into the larger historical context, Rechavi and his colleagues analyzed ancient animal DNA isolated from the scrolls. As they reported in Cell on Tuesday, this allowed them to refine the relationships between different scroll fragments.
They obtained DNA samples from 26 Dead Sea Scroll fragments in consultation with conservators from the Israel Antiquities Authority and DNA samples from a dozen other objects like waterskins that were found alongside the scrolls.
They extracted the ancient DNA for deep sequencing and conducted Blast, phylogenetic, and other analyses to uncover the source of the materials used for the scrolls.
Through their analysis of this ancient DNA, the researchers found that all the Dead Sea Scrolls, save two, were made from sheep skin. The remaining two scrolls, both containing fragments of text from the biblical Book of Jeremiah, were made from cow skin.
The relationship between the various fragments of text from Jeremiah has been unclear. For instance, three fragments, dubbed 4Q71, 4Q72a, and 4Q72b, were originally thought to be from the same scroll, but an analysis of the text suggested otherwise and they have been published as distinct manuscripts.
Through their ancient DNA and additional mitochondrial DNA analysis, the researchers found that 4Q72b was made of cow skin, while 4Q71 and 4Q72a were made of sheep skin, providing further evidence that 4Q72b is not related to 4Q71 or 4Q72a.
The sheep used to make 4Q71 and 4Q72a, meanwhile, exhibited only low relatedness.
Additionally, as cows couldn’t be raised in the Judean desert and as there was no evidence of cow skin processing in Qumran, the researchers surmised that text written on those scrolls had to originate elsewhere. This indicates that different versions of the same book circulated at the same time, they noted.
“This teaches us about the way this prophetic text was read at the time and also holds clues to the process of the text’s evolution,” Rechavi added.
The Dead Sea Scrolls also include non-biblical texts, such as multiple copies of the Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice, a literary, liturgical work.
DNA gleaned from Dead Sea Scroll pieces, many of which were found in caves such as this one near a site called Qumran has yielded clues to the geographic spread of ideas and beliefs in those ancient manuscripts.
Different copies of the text found in various Qumran caves were made using skin from related sheep, the researchers found, while a version found in Masada came from a genetically distinct sheep, suggesting the text may also have been in wide circulation.
The researchers noted that their analysis was only of a portion of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And while the genetic data they amassed can inform how scholars interpret the texts, they wrote, it can only “reveal part of the picture and not solve all of the mysteries.”
The Great Death Pit of Ur: Mass Human Sacrifice in Ancient Mesopotamia
As Sir Charles Leonard Woolley excavated at Ur between 1922 and 1934, every burial without a grave chamber was called the “death pit” (known also as ‘grave pits’).
Woolley and his team excavated the PG 1237, which Woolley called ‘ The Great Death Pit, ‘ due to the number of bodies that were found in it. These bodies were arranged neatly in rows and were richly dressed.
They are generally believed to be sacrificial victim who accompanied their master / mistress in the afterlife. It is unclear, however, if they had done so voluntarily.
PG 1237 – The Most Famous Pit of Death at Ur
During Woolley’s archaeological excavations at Ur, a total of six burials were assigned as ‘death pits’. Generally speaking, these were tombs and sunken courtyards connected to the surface by a shaft. These ‘death pits’ were thought to have been built around or adjacent to the tomb of a primary individual.
This hypothesis, however, has been challenged in recent times. In any case, the ‘death pits’ discovered by Woolley and his team were filled with the remains of retainers belonging to an important individual.
‘Ram in a Thicket’ found in PG 1237.
The most impressive of Woolley’s ‘death pits’ is PG 1237, which was named by Woolley as the ‘Great Death Pit’. In this ‘death pit’, Woolley and his team identified a total of 74 individuals, six of whom were male and the rest female.
The bodies of the six men were found near the entrance of the ‘death pit’ and were equipped with a helmet and weapons. It is thought that these men played the role of guards and were responsible for protecting the tomb from potential grave robbers.
As for the women, the majority of them were arranged in four rows in the northwestern corner of the tomb, whilst six were under a canopy in the southern corner and another six near three layers near the tomb’s southeastern wall.
The site map of the Great Death Pit.
Woolley was of the opinion that all the individuals in the ‘Great Death Pit’ were the retainers of an important personage whose tomb chamber had been destroyed sometime in the past. This view, however, has been challenged in more recent times.
In Aubrey Baadsgaard’s 2008 doctoral dissertation on fashion in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia, the author suggested that the person for whom the ‘Great Death Pit’ was built was buried in that tomb, and that Woolley may have missed her.
Body 61
Baadsgaard pointed out that one individual, dubbed Body 61, was more richly adorned than the rest of the female attendants. Unlike the other women, who wore simple headdresses of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, the headdress worn by Body 61 was much more elaborate.
The only other woman known to possess a similarly ornate headdress is Puabi, who is generally regarded to have been a queen. The jewelry ensemble of Body 61 is also found to have resembled that of Puabi and the unknown royal woman in PG 1054, hence leading to the conclusion that Body 61 is the owner of the ‘Great Death Pit’.
Sumerian necklaces and headgear discovered in the royal (and individual) graves, showing the way they may have been worn. British Museum.
Other questions regarding the ‘Great Death Pit’, however, still remain. The most intriguing of which is perhaps that pertaining to the way the attendants died.
Based on the organization of the bodies, Woolley proposed that these individuals had voluntarily accompanied their mistress into the afterlife. Woolley also suggested that they had taken some kind of poison, which either killed them or made them unconscious.
Questions Remaining
A study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology on the skulls of a woman and a soldier, however, found signs of pre-mortem fractures caused by a blunt instrument.
One of the theories emerging from this finding is that the dosage of poison consumed by some of the attendants was not enough to kill them, and therefore they were struck on their heads to prevent them from being buried alive.
Reconstruction of the headdress and jewelry worn by one of Queen Pu-Abi’s attendants who was sacrificed to serve her in the afterlife.
Alternatively, it has been suggested that the victims were first given a sedative and then clubbed to death when they were unconscious.
This seems unlikely, however, as it would have been messier than was necessary, and, if it were true, then all the skulls would have displayed signs of pre-mortem fracture as seen in the two skulls that were studied. In short, this question is still an open one, and further research is needed to solve it.
Medieval Sugarcane crusher Found in Northern India
The archaeology department of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has excavated a “stone sugarcane crusher” of the late medieval period.
AGRA, INDIA—The Times of India reports that a stone sugar mill has been unearthed on farmland in northern India.
AGRA: The archaeology section of Aligarh Muslim University AMU) has excavated a “stone sugarcane crusher or mill” belongs to Medieval period
Manvendra Kumar Pundhir of Aligarh Muslim University said medieval sugar mills were comprised of a mortar and pestle to crush sugarcane and extract sugarcane juice.
The recovered piece of this mill measures about 12 feet long and about eight and one-half feet in diameter. Geared sugar rolling mills came into use in the seventeenth century.
According to Prof Manvendra Kumar Pundhir of AMU’s history department, the huge stone object was unearthed during the excavation of agricultural land in Dhanipur village in the district.
“The stone object appeared to be a stone sugar mill or a sugarcane crusher. The length of the discovered object is approx. 3.75 meters and its diameter is 2.6 meters.
During the medieval period, sugarcane crushers were made of two parts – mortar and pestle. Indians knew the art of extracting sugarcane juice to make jaggery and sugar since ancient times,” he explained.
He said that the sugar industry progressed greatly in medieval India.
Irfan Habib, professor emeritus, AMU, has written in his Economic History of Medieval India (1200 A.D.-1500 A.D.), that “Sugar mills appeared in India shortly before the Mughal era.
Evidence for the use of a drawbar for sugar-milling appears at Delhi in 1540, but may also date back earlier, and was mainly used in the northern Indian sub-continent.
Geared sugar rolling mills first appeared in Mughal India, using the principle of rollers as well as worm gearing, by the 17th century.”
Abul Fazl in his Ain-e-Akbari describes various techniques used in Mughal-era karkhanas (workshops).
One of them was the gear mechanism, which enabled the conversion of circular motion in vertical and was used in water-lifting devices, the sugarcane industry, and the oil pressing industry. IANS
Burial of an ancient female warrior discovered in Armenia
A teenage Armenian woman was at the frontline of a war more than 2,000 years ago. Now her newly discovered remains allow archeologists to see how ancient societies lived and died on the battlefield.
The skeletal remains, which have sustained a number of injuries. Jewelry discovered with the skeleton indicates that the woman was of high status.
In 2017 researchers excavated the poorly preserved remains and found the woman buried on her side with flexed arms and legs and her head oriented to the northwest.
Her skeleton was “fragmented and incomplete,” with cracks and fractures occurring on her bones in the thousands of years since her burial.
An analysis of her dental wear, cranial sutures, and other indicators of trauma allowed for an understanding of the type of injuries she suffered just before her death.
A metal arrowhead was found buried in her femur likely shot by a bow, strongly suggesting that the woman was injured in some type of combat.
Healing around the site of the arrowhead indicates that she lived for some time with the injury before dying, possibly from an additional sword or hatchet blows to the pelvic bone, femur, and tibia in a “rich array of traumatic lesions.”
“During the combat, the woman had been most likely exposed to direct blows to the defensive shield (the power transmitted from the end of the shield to the ulna), or direct blows when the forearm was used to ward off the blow,” study author Anahit Khudaverdyan told daily mail.
It was determined that the woman died aged between 20 and 29. Radiocarbon dating of the artifacts located in and around her grave indicates that she was likely a woman of stature.
“We know nothing about her social position, but the burial with rich inventory testifies to high status.
Though the overall position of women was lower than men, yet, on the whole, the position of woman was good,” write the authors of the study published in International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, noting that upper-class women enjoyed the freedom and were generally well-respected.
Archaeologists also discovered injuries to her thigh likely caused by a long-range weapon
During her time, the Kingdom of Urarti (Urartu), or Bianili, was an “uncommon developed culture” flourishing in the Armenian Highland from the 9th century BCE to 585 BE.
Strategically located between Europe and Asia, it is likely that the society had contacts with major empires of the ancient world. The defensive architecture suggests that the city likely experienced warfare and fear of assault.
As soon as they passed eight or 10, boys rode on horseback and hunted deer, buffalo, and mountain goats in much the same way that they used for defensive purposes.
“For the people of the Armenian Highland, bows, and arrows turned into an efficient weapon to be used against the intruders, particularly when shot from horseback.
Research shows that both men and women rode horseback while participating in battles and hunting. This is evidenced by female warrior graves discovered in many parts of the Caucasus,” wrote the authors.
Her remains are the second burial discovered in Armenia that provides evidence on female warriors.
As Khudaverdyan notes, evidence suggests that Urartian kings fought with the enemy along with their wives, potentially serving as the “prototype of the Amazons,” the Greek myth of the tribe of warrior women that supposedly came from the Caucasus, which Armenia is part of.
She probably died as a direct result of subsequent battle scars including to her pelvic bone and finished off with a hatchet as seen in this artist drawing
Her injuries suggest she was struck by a sword and died in battle. Studies of her bones suggest she was hit in the pelvis
NORTH GYEONGSANG PROVINCE, SOUTH KOREA—According to a Korea Herald report, a pair of gilt-bronze shoes thought to date to the late fifth or early sixth century A.D. was found in one of three tombs at a burial site in Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Silla Kingdom in eastern South Korea.
The tomb also contained saddles, bronze ware, iron pots, and earthenware. Researchers from the Silla Cultural Heritage Research Institute said such shoes were covered with T-shaped holes and were only used for funeral ceremonies.
The shoes were newly excavated from an ancient Silla tomb in Gyeongju for the first time in 43 years.
Tomb No. 120 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province (CHA)
A pair of gilt bronze shoes, a silver plate to embellish a belt, and horse harness ornaments were excavated from Tomb No. 120-2 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, the Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Wednesday.
Gilt bronze shoes from the Silla Kingdom were intended for funerals, not everyday use. This is the first time that such shoes were found from an ancient Silla tomb in Gyeongju since 1977 in ancient tombs in Inwang-dong.
The gilt-bronze shoes discovered May 15 in tomb No. 120-2 in Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province (CHA)
The pair of shoes featuring T-shaped holes on the surface and Buddhist gilt bronze ornaments were discovered near the feet of the buried body.
The excavation process for the shoes is still ongoing as of Wednesday. Gilt bronze shoes of a similar shape were found from the southern mound of Hwangnam DaeChong tomb in Gyeongju.
“The presence of gilt bronze shoes suggests that the buried person was from a royal family,” said senior researcher Kim Kwon-il at the Silla Cultural Heritage Research Center, which is in charge of the excavation.
In addition, a silver plate to embellish a belt was found near the legs and several Buddhist gilt bronze ornaments were found near the head.
The Cultural Heritage Administration said the Buddhist ornaments may have been used as part of or to decorate a hat. For grave goods, various horse harness ornaments, including a gilt bronze saddle and other gilt bronze embellishments, bronze irons, cast iron cauldrons, and earthware were found.
Tomb No. 120 in Hwangnam-dong is located in the Daereungwon royal tomb site. A tomb number was assigned but the past existence of an ancient tomb was unclear as a private residence was built on the site.
The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Gyeongju municipal government identified additional tombs in the north and south of Tomb No. 120 during its excavation last year.
1100-year-old monolithic sandstone Shivling unearthed in Vietnam’s Cham temple complex
The Indian Archeological Survey on Wednesday exposed a monolithic sandstone Shiva Linga from the 9th Common Era during its conservation project. The structure was excavated from the Cham Temple Complex at the My Son Sanctuary of Vietnam.
Monolithic sandstone Shiv Linga of 9th c CE is the latest find in ongoing conservation projects. Applaud @ASIGoI team for their work at Cham Temple Complex, My Son.
My Son in Quang Nam province of Vietnam excavated the Shiva Ling. After the Shiva Linga was unearthed, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar called it “a great cultural example of India’s development partnership”. He even lauded India and Vietnam’s “civilizational connect”.
My Son sanctuary in Vietnam is a designated UNESCO world heritage center and a home to a cluster of Hindu temples built over 10 centuries. The temples here are dedicated to Lord Shiva, known under various local names, the most important of which is Bhadreshvara.
The UNESCO site describes the ancient complex as follows: “Between the 4th and 13th centuries, a unique culture which owed its spiritual origins to Indian Hinduism developed on the coast of contemporary Viet Nam.
This is graphically illustrated by the remains of a series of impressive tower-temples located in a dramatic site that was the religious and political capital of the Champa Kingdom for most of its existence.”
The 2000-year old shared history between Vietnam and India
Tourists visit My Son Sanctuary.
India and Vietnam share a long, rich civilizational history that dates back to 2,000 years ago when the latter’s first civilized society was established.
The Champa civilization or the Cham civilization occupied what is today known as central Vietnam. India’s influence on the Cham civilization ranges from its archaeology to language with city names like Indrapura, Simhapura, Amaravati, Vijaya, and Panduranga.
“The oldest artifacts of a distinctly Cham civilization—brick flooring, sandstone pillars and pottery found at Tra Kieu in Quang Nam Province—date to the second century A.D,” a 2014 report in the National Geographic said.
Internationally renowned and award-winning marine archaeologist Robert Stenuit claimed that residents of the Cham civilization were great sailors and builders. He added that the Cham society also most likely practiced Shaivite Hinduism.
When President Ram Nath Kovind visited Vietnam in 2018, he began his journey from Da Nang, where the world heritage site of Mỹ Sơn falls — a place believed to have strong civilizational connect with India and the majority Hindu population.
Till today, archaeologists continue to discover citadels in this cluster and about 25 temple sites have survived in Vietnam.
According to the official website of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, “Many of their shrines honour Shiva—often shown as a linga, while their carvings depict all manner of Hindu deities.
Hindu doctrines were blended with homegrown beliefs, such as their conviction that they were descended from a goddess named Po Nagar, born from heavenly clouds and seafoam.”
Massive Finding At Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi, India.
In another massive discovery, a five-foot Shivaling, seven pillars of black touchstone, six pillars of red sandstone, and broken idols of Devi-Devtas were found at Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi temple site.
Informing about the findings, Champat Rai, General Secy of Sri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirth Kshetra Trust, said that for 10 days the ground at the site was being leveled and that is when the pillars in the debris and other items were found.
2000-Year-Old Bronze Pot With Unknown 3,000 Ml Liquid Unearthed!
Archaeology Org reports that a 2,200-year-old tomb has been excavated in central China, at an ancient city site situated along the route between the two ancient capitals of Xi’an and Luoyang.
According to Zhu Xiaodong of the Sanmenxia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the tomb may have belonged to a low-ranking official buried around 200 B.C.
Archaeologists discovered the pot with a curved neck in the shape of a swan in a tomb in the city of Sanmenxia. Also unearthed from the tomb included a bronze helmet, a bronze basin, and swords made of iron and jade.
A 2,000-year-old bronze pot freshly unearthed in central China’s Henan Province has contained more than 3,000 ml of unknown liquid.
The unknown liquid in the pot was yellowish-brown in color with impurities. The sample was sent to Beijing for further tests.
Preliminary judgment based on the form of the tomb indicates the tomb was built at the turn of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) and the Han Dynasty (202 BC-AD 220). Its owner might be a low-ranking official with a title.
The bronze pot was excavated from an ancient tomb when the archaeologists were examining the site of a local shantytown renovation project, said Zhu Xiaodong, deputy head of Sanmenxia’s institute of cultural relics and archaeology.
This was also the first bronze pot of its kind ever discovered in Sanmenxia, according to Zhu.
The archaeologists invited a senior veterinarian to help identify the shape as of a swan.
“The design resembles that of a mute swan,” said Gao Ruyi, a senior veterinarian with the Sanmenxia wetland park, adding that the beak of a swan is longer than that of a goose, which has been degenerated as a result of being fed by human beings.
Archaeologists speculated that the ancient craftsmen may have observed swans closely to create the pot in such a realistic shape.
“We can boldly estimate that swans may have appeared in Sanmenxia during the late Qin and early Han dynasties,” said Zhu.
Sanmenxia has been receiving swans from Siberia in winter since the 1980s. Local people are fond of the graceful birds and feed them voluntarily.
Located between Xi’an and Luoyang, two ancient capitals in Chinese history, Sanmenxia used to serve as a military and traffic artery. As a result, the city is rich in historical relics.
