Swedish orienteering enthusiast finds Bronze Age treasure trove
A Swedish orienteering enthusiast working on a map stumbled across a stash of some 50 Bronze Age relics dating back over 2,500 years, authorities said.
Mainly consisting of ancient jewellery, the find outside the small town of Alingsas in western Sweden represents one of “the most spectacular and largest cache finds” from the Bronze Age ever in the Nordic country, the County Administrative Board said in a statement.
Among the relics, believed to be from the period between 750 and 500 BC, are some “very well preserved necklaces, chains and needles” made out of bronze.
Some of the bronze Age treasures discovered near Alingsas
The objects were lying out in the open in front of some boulders out in the forest.
“Presumably animals have dug them out of a crevice between the boulders, where you can assume that they had been lying before,” the government agency said.
Tomas Karlsson, the cartographer who made the discovery when he was out updating a map, at first thought, it was just junk.
“It looked like metal garbage. Is that a lamp lying here, I thought at first,” Karlsson told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
He told the paper he then hunched over and saw a spiral and a necklace.
“But it all looked so new. I thought they were fake,” he continued.
He reported the find to local authorities who sent out a team of archaeologists to examine the site.
“Most of the finds are made up of bronze items that can be associated with women of high status from the Bronze Age,” Johan Ling, professor of archaeology at the University of Gothenburg, said in the statement.
“They have been used to adorn different body parts, such as necklaces, bracelets and ankle bracelets, but there were also large needles and eyelets used to decorate and hold up different pieces of clothing, probably made of wool,” Ling added.
New evidence shows humans moved to Europe 10,000 years earlier than thought
Modern humans arrived in western Europe about 10,000 years earlier than previously thought. A human tooth found in southern France suggests an early attempt by our species to colonise the continent that lasted for over a thousand years before the Neanderthals re-established themselves. A single tooth found in France’s Rhône Valley shows that modern humans had arrived in western Europe about 54,000 years ago.
Sites along the Rhône valley show evidence of advanced Neronian tools, unlike anything that was made immediately before or after it.
A new paper involving a Museum scientist suggests it belongs to Homo sapiens, and that the species arrived in western Europe significantly earlier than previously known. However, researchers believe they didn’t stay long, abandoning the site. After a gap, the Neanderthals returned, before giving way to modern humans again around 45,000 years ago.
Prof Chris Stringer, a Research Leader in human evolution at the Museum and co-author on the paper, says, ‘This finding demonstrates there is even more complexity for the arrival of modern humans in Europe than previously known.
‘These early modern humans probably dispersed around the Mediterranean and went up the Rhône Valley, where they may have lived for more than a thousand years before the Neanderthals eventually returned to these cave sites.
On opposite sides of the Mediterranean, similar stone points were made by Homo sapiens around the same time.
‘It really suggests that modern humans tried to establish themselves in Europe again and again before they eventually succeeded.’
The paper, by an international team of researchers, was published in the journal Science Advances.
First Africa, then the world
The history of modern humans and their close relatives is a complex one, with many disagreements and debates over the exact timing of key events. It’s generally agreed that hominin species evolved from a common ancestor with chimpanzees around seven million years ago, and gave rise to the australopithecines which were among the first of our ancestors who could walk upright. Subsequently, Homo erectus emerged with similar body proportions to modern humans and was the first human species known to have spread beyond Africa.
Following a period of development that is still subject to the intense ongoing debate, our species, Homo sapiens, diverged from the lineage of the Neanderthals, Homo neanderthalensis, around 600,000 years ago. Evolving in Africa, Homo sapiens attempted to spread to new lands on multiple occasions. However, the Neanderthals, who lived across Europe and Asia, were entrenched in their home as Chris explains.
‘We’ve got what seems to be a Homo sapiens fossil in Greece at Apidima Cave dated at around 210,000 years ago,’ he says. ‘However, that is a really early incursion that seemingly didn’t go any further and there’s no archaeology with it to suggest how these people were behaving at that time.
‘At the same site about 40,000 years later, we find a Neanderthal fossil. This suggests that our species appeared here at least briefly, but that Neanderthals then returned later.’
While modern humans continued to disperse into Asia, other groups went west as they attempted to enter Europe over thousands of years. While their migration was initially thought to have occurred quite late, new finds such as modern human fossils from Czechia and Bulgaria and groups of artefacts known as the Initial Upper Palaeolithic pushed this date back to around 45,000 years ago.
However, over in France, there were another group of artefacts that didn’t seem to fit.
‘There’s a series of sites in the Rhône Valley in France where there’s a strange stone tool industry called the Neronian,’ Chris says. ‘It exists for just a short time between two distinct periods of Neanderthal Mousterian tools.
‘Neronian tools have what seem to be little projectile point heads – either tiny spearpoint heads or even more intriguingly they could be arrowheads. These are really distinctive. There’s nothing else like them in Europe at this time.’
These Neronian points have no equivalent technology among the Neanderthal groups that lived before and after the arrival of the first modern humans in Grotte Mandarin.
While similar tools had been found in Africa and the Middle East, there wasn’t enough evidence to suggest conclusively this was anything other than a unique Neanderthal group. However, one site in the Rhône Valley, known as Grotte Mandarin, contained more concrete evidence of who made these tools as they were found alongside nine teeth.
A human tooth was found in the Neronian layer at Grotte Mandrin.
Cultural and anthropological evidence in Grotte Mandrin shows the arrival of Homo sapiens in the heart of Neanderthal territories.
The first of many?
These teeth were scattered amongst the different layers, representing at least seven different humans. As DNA couldn’t be extracted from them, the shape of each tooth was compared to those of modern humans and Neanderthals to try and assess their species. The researchers found that the single tooth from the Neronian layer was set apart from the rest, which all looked, Neanderthal. It showed characteristics that were instead like those of modern humans. In addition, the layer it was found in dated to between 56,800 to 51,700 years ago.
While a child’s tooth can show a great deal of variation compared to that of an adult, Chris is confident it provides the oldest evidence of Homo sapiens in this area.
‘We’ve only got a single tooth at the moment, and it’s a shame we don’t know more about these people,’ Chris says. ‘But together with the completely distinct Neronian industry, it provides a persuasive scenario for modern humans in western Europe at this surprisingly early time.’
The archaeological evidence of the site suggests that modern humans could have taken over from Neanderthals in the area in as little as one year, perhaps aided by their Neronian tools. Several other sites in the area also have these tools, which are found for a short period of time.
While it’s likely that modern humans and Neanderthals came in contact during this time, there’s currently no contemporaneous genetic evidence that they did. It is known from later evidence that the species bred together, with most people living today have inherited around 2% of their genome from Neanderthals. As for the French sites, the full story remains to be uncovered. How modern humans came so suddenly, and why they disappeared just as rapidly, is still unknown. However, the site offers clues that may allow us to discover the answers.
‘To get to the Rhône Valley, we assume there will be sites along the northern Mediterranean coast,’ Chris says. ‘If this really is a dispersal, then we could be looking for sites in Italy, in Greece, in Turkey, and back to Syria and Lebanon even. There are also some other mysterious industries in central Europe such as the Bohunician. There’s speculation that may have been made by early modern humans as well because it’s nothing like anything the Neanderthals were made before or after.’
Though the Neanderthals subsequently returned to Grotte Mandrin, this came amid the beginning of the end for the species. While Homo sapiens would continue to disperse across the globe, Homo neanderthalensis became less common and diverse, before vanishing forever some 40,000 years ago.
Carthaginians sacrificed their own children, archaeologists say
A collaborative paper by academics from institutions across the globe, including Oxford University, suggests that Carthaginian parents ritually sacrificed young children as an offering to the gods.
The paper argues that well-meaning attempts to interpret the ‘tophets‘ – ancient infant burial grounds – simply as child cemeteries are misguided.
And the practice of child sacrifice could even hold the key to why the civilisation was founded in the first place.
A Tophet outside Carthage, a special part of a cemetery dedicated to the burial of infants, according to Josephine Quinn.
The research pulls together literary, epigraphical, archaeological and historical evidence and confirms the Greek and Roman account of events that held sway until the 1970s when scholars began to argue that the theory was simply anti-Carthaginian propaganda.
Dr Josephine Quinn of Oxford University’s Faculty of Classics, and author of the paper, said: ‘It’s becoming increasingly clear that the stories about Carthaginian child sacrifice are true. This is something the Romans and Greeks said the Carthaginians did and it was part of the popular history of Carthage in the 18th and 19th centuries.
‘But in the 20th century, people increasingly took the view that this was racist propaganda on the part of the Greeks and Romans against their political enemy and that Carthage should be saved from this terrible slander.
‘What we are saying now is that the archaeological, literary, and documentary evidence for child sacrifice is overwhelming and that instead of dismissing it out of hand, we should try to understand it.’
The city-state of ancient Carthage was a Phoenician colony located in what is now Tunisia. It operated from around 800BC until 146BC when it was destroyed by the Romans.
Children – both male and female, and mostly a few weeks old – were sacrificed by the Carthaginians at locations known as tophets. The practice was also carried out by their neighbours at other Phoenician colonies in Sicily, Sardinia and Malta. Dedications from the children’s parents to the gods are inscribed on slabs of stone above their cremated remains, ending with the explanation that the god or gods concerned had ‘heard my voice and blessed me.
Dr Quinn said: ‘People have tried to argue that these archaeological sites are cemeteries for children who were stillborn or died young, but quite apart from the fact that a weak, sick or dead child would be a pretty poor offering to a god, and that animal remains are found in the same sites treated in exactly the same way, it’s hard to imagine how the death of a child could count as the answer to a prayer. It’s very difficult for us to recapture people’s motivations for carrying out this practice or why parents would agree to it, but it’s worth trying.
‘Perhaps it was out of profound religious piety, or a sense that the good the sacrifice could bring the family or community as a whole outweighed the life of the child. We have to remember the high level of mortality among children – it would have been sensible for parents not to get too attached to a child that might well not make its first birthday.’
Dr Quinn added: ‘We think of it as a slander because we view it in our own terms. But people looked at it differently 2,500 years ago.
‘Indeed, contemporary Greek and Roman writers tended to describe the practice as more of an eccentricity or historical oddity – they’re not actually very critical.
‘We should not imagine that ancient people thought like us and were horrified by the same things.’
The backlash against the notion of Carthaginian child sacrifice began in the second half of the 20th century and was led by scholars from Tunisia and Italy, the very countries in which tophets have been found.
Dr Quinn added: ‘Carthage was far bigger than Athens and for many centuries much more important than Rome, but it is something of a forgotten city today.
‘If we accept that child sacrifice happened on some scale, it begins to explain why the colony was founded in the first place.
‘Perhaps the reason the people who established Carthage and its neighbours left their original home of Phoenicia – modern-day Lebanon – was because others there disapproved of their unusual religious practice.
‘Child abandonment was common in the ancient world, and human sacrifice is found in many historical societies, but child sacrifice is relatively uncommon. Perhaps the future Carthaginians were like the Pilgrim Fathers leaving from Plymouth – they were so fervent in their devotion to the gods that they weren’t welcome at home anymore.
‘Dismissing the idea of child sacrifice stops us from seeing the bigger picture.’
A previously undiscovered wreck has been found outside of Fjällbacka on the Swedish west coast. Analysis of wood samples shows that it is the oldest shipwreck ever found in the province of Bohuslän. This is also one of the oldest cogs that have yet to be found in Europe.
“The wreck is made from oaks cut between 1233 and 1240, so nearly 800 years ago,” says Staffan von Arbin, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Gothenburg.
This wreck from the Middle Ages was found by the island of Dyngö outside of Fjällbacka in the Swedish municipality of Tanum. This last autumn, the University of Gothenburg conducted archaeological diving inspections along the coast of Bohuslän to find out more about known wrecks on the seafloor.
“We collected wood samples to determine the age by dating the tree rings—known as dendrochronology,” says Staffan von Arbin.
It was during this work that the maritime archaeologists came upon the wreck outside of Fjällbacka which has been given the name “Dyngökoggen.” This limited survey of the wreck shows that it is a cog, a type of ship that was widely used from around the 12th century onward.”
The bottom planking is flush-laid (carvel), while the side planks are overlapping (clinker). Seams between planks are also sealed with moss, which is typical for cogs.
The surviving hull section is about 10 meters long and 5 meters wide. Staffan von Arbin believes, however, that originally the ship would have been up to 20 meters long.
A cog ship on the town seal of Stralsund dated to 1329. Even if the depiction is nearly 100 years later than the Dyngö cog ship, it provides a good idea of what cogs may have looked like.
Maritime archaeologist Anders Gutehall from Visuell Arkeologi Norden inspects the bottom at Dyngö.
Was the ship attacked by pirates?
Analysis of the wood samples shows the ship was built of oaks from north-western Germany. How did it end up outside of Fjällbacka?
“Cogs are mentioned often in written sources about the medieval Hanseatic League, but ships of this type were common throughout the Middle Ages in northern Europe.” Staffan von Arbin argues that the find also points to the importance of Bohuslän as a transit route for international maritime trade during this period.
This is also one of the oldest cogs that have yet to be found in Europe.
It is not yet known why the ship sank but that would likely be an exciting story. The survey of the ship clearly shows indications of an intense fire.
“Perhaps the ship was attacked by pirates? Written sources tell us that Norway’s southern coast, including Bohuslän, had periods with intense pirate activity during the Middle Ages.”
But it might also have been a simple accident, perhaps a fire spread while the ship was docked. Or the ship was sunk in battle? The first decades of the 12th century were a turbulent time in Norway, which Bohuslän was a part of, with intense internal struggles for the Norwegian crown.
What happens now?
There are currently no plans for more surveys of the wreck. However, they hope to conduct new dives of the wreck in the future.
But this requires both a permit from the county administrative board and extensive external funding that is currently unavailable. The results and observations by the marine archaeologists are currently being analyzed for a larger scholarly article.
13th-Century Tiled Floor Unearthed at Friary Site in England
Archaeologists at a city dig site have uncovered a medieval tiled floor dating back to around the 13th Century. The discovery was made in Gloucestershire at the location of the new £107m development, The Forum.
The medieval floor was found two meters below ground level
The floor, made of glazed white and green tiles, belonged to the cloister of the city’s medieval Whitefriars Carmelite Friary and was unearthed by the Cotswold Archaeology team.
Archaeologist Anthony Beechey described the find as “extra special”.
Mr Beechey explained that the “beautiful tiled floor is in remarkably good condition”.
“Most of our Whitefriars findings are fragments of the original structure while this floor is largely intact, making the discovery extra special” and the excavation process “endlessly fascinating”, he added.
‘Best-preserved finding’
Andrew Armstrong, the city archaeologist at Gloucester City Council, said: “It is thrilling to see yet more evidence of Whitefriars emerge and this is the best-preserved finding to date.”
He added: “The friary played an active role in the city for 300 years and yet, until these excavations started, very little was known about it.”
Whitefriars’ exact location in Gloucester was the subject of speculation for decades until the archaeological investigations began, following the demolition of the former multi-storey carpark on Bruton Way in early 2020.
The Forum is being developed into a new social and digital quarter by the council and Reef Group.
Councillor Richard Cook said the findings are shining “a light on Gloucester’s historic heritage”.
In September 2021, a1,800-year-old figurine was uncovered by Cotswold Archaeology close to the area of the site currently being excavated.
Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector
When his children were born, Michael Leigh-Mallory gave up his passion for metal detecting. Now, 10 and 13, they encouraged him to take up the hobby again. On the first day he used his new metal detector, he found the oldest gold coin in England, dating back to the 13th century.
“The day after it arrived, I went out into this field. It was a bright, sunny day, and within 15 minutes, I found the coin. I knew it was gold, but I had no idea how important it was,” Leigh-Mallory told The Guardian.
The 52-year old ecologist and amateur historian had dug up the rare gold penny as it glistened in a field in Devon, South West England, and was advised to take it to the British Museum.
The gold coin was found by the father of two, dates back to the thirteen century. Spink auction house
It was discovered to be one of only eight in existence, and the last one was found 260 years ago, according to The Metro.
The coin, made from North African gold, was minted in the reign of Henry III, who was the English king between 1217-72.
Father discovered a medieval English gold coin worth a record $875,000 on the first day he tried out his new metal detector
Not only did it bring immense joy to Leigh-Mallory and his family, but also a record-breaking hammer price of £540,000 – with extra fees taking the total £648,000 ($878,778) – when the coin was sold at Spink and Sons auctioneers in London, last week.
Spink told Insider that the sale price made it the most valuable coin ever sold in the UK. A private collector bought it, say reports.
The gold coin was found by the father of two, which dates back to the 13th century. Spink auction house
“It is quite surreal, really,” Leigh-Mallory told the paper. “I’m just a normal guy who lives in Devon with his family, so this really is a life-changing sum of money which will go towards their futures.”
In a statement to Insider, Leigh-Mallory said that he is “humbled and honoured to be linked with the discovery and subsequent history afforded to us by the staggering research undertaken by Spink and the wider academic community about this coin.”
He will split the profits of the find with the landowner. “The money will be put towards my children’s future, who show the same passion for our history as me. In fact, I really owe it to them for having found the coin in the first place, as they were my inspiration to go out prospecting,” Leigh-Mallory added.
Woolly mammoth and rhino among Ice Age animals discovered in Devon cave
The remains of Ice Age animals including mammoths, woolly rhinoceros and hyenas have been uncovered in a cave near Plymouth. The finds offer a glimpse of an ancient ecosystem from over 30,000 years ago and have started a campaign to prevent the cave from being sealed off once more.
Bones from Ice Age animals, such as the jaw of a woolly rhinoceros, were found during excavations and are now being studied.
Some of the earliest residents of a new town in Devon are not quite what you’d expect. The bones of mammoths, woolly rhinoceros and hyena are among the remains discovered in a cave during the construction of new houses in Sherford, near Plymouth. They date to the middle of the last Ice Age between 60,000 and 30,000 years ago. Rob Bourn, the lead archaeologist on the project, described the find as a major discovery of national significance,’ adding it was a once in a lifetime experience for those involved.’
He said, ‘To find such an array of artefacts untouched for so long is a rare and special occurrence. Equally rare is the presence of complete or semi-complete individual animals. We look forward to reaching the stage where the discoveries can be shared and displayed so that everyone can find out more about our distant past.’
The Ice Age remains are expected to go on display locally at The Box, a newly opened museum in Plymouth, amid debate over what should happen to the site of their discovery.
An Ice Age is any period of Earth’s history when the planet has a large number of ice covers, such as polar ice caps and glaciers. There have been five Ice Ages in Earth’s history, with the first taking place over two billion years ago. This has been followed by others such as the Cryogenian Ice Age when it is thought that ice sheets could have reached as far as the Equator.
What we tend to refer to as the Ice Age is simply the last glacial period. Ice sheets covered much of northern Europe until the current interglacial began around 11,700 years ago.
Dr Victoria Herridge, an expert in fossil elephants at the Museum who was not involved with the discovery, says, ‘The Sherford Ice Age fossils are from the middle of last major cold period, known as the Devensian. During this time, ice sheets covered much of Wales and northern England but did not reach as far south as in some earlier glaciations.
‘At this time, Devon then would have been a bitterly cold and dry place to be, even in summer. However, it was also a huge open grassland, capable of supporting vast herds of cold-tolerant animals like the woolly mammoth, the woolly rhino and reindeer, as well as the big carnivores like hyena and wolf that preyed upon them.’
The conclusion of this Ice Age also spelled the end for many of these animals, with climate change and the activity of early humans both suggested as potential causes. This had a significant impact on the planet, with dramatic changes in ecosystems resulting from the extinction of large herbivores.
Archaeological work at Sherford has previously uncovered Bronze Age remains at the site.
What was found in Sherford, and what happens now?
The Sherford finds include an almost complete wolf skeleton, as well as the tusk and bones of a woolly mammoth and part of the skull of a woolly rhinoceros. Even though the bones have been found together, it doesn’t necessarily mean the animals all lived at the same time. One suggestion is that the animals fell into a pit over thousands of years, while another is that the bones may have been washed into the cave or moved by predators.
Victoria says, ‘As our most recent geological period, the Ice Age fossil record is very rich in what are known as ‘superficial’ geological deposits – the gravels and sands deposited by ancient glacial streams. This means that Ice Age fossils turn up pretty frequently during construction projects or as a result of quarrying for gravel and sand.
‘The Museum has a huge number of Ice Age fossil mammals in its collections that were discovered during construction projects that shaped modern London. These include finds from the construction of the London Underground, while the tooth of a straight-tusked elephant was found during the construction of the Museum itself.
While the Sherford remains are set to go on display at The Box, the future of the site they were discovered in is being debated. A petition has been launched by Tara Beacroft, conservation officer for caving organisation the Devon and Cornwall Underground Council, to prevent the cave from being sealed.
Speaking to BBC News, she said that the site should be preserved for future generations and researchers as a ‘unique presence’ for the new town.
‘Let’s keep pushing so that we can continue the scientific research,’ Tara said. ‘We can find out more about the site’s potential ecology, we can find out more about the past climate and explore this incredible historical time capsule.’
However, The Sherford Consortium, which is developing the new town, said that it intends to seal the entrance, adding that the public should not attempt to visit the site.
In a press release, the developers said, ‘The underground space will be conserved, and no construction will take place on top of it. However, the entrance will be closed to both protect the historic site and ensure public welfare. It is not, nor will it be, possible for the public to safely access the area in which the discoveries have been made.’
While the debate continues, scientists will continue to research the remains found in the cave and add to our knowledge of the UK in the last Ice Age. Victoria says, ‘Every new discovery if excavated properly, has the potential to advance our understanding of what this past world was like.
‘This is vital knowledge. Scientists are still unravelling what role climate and humans played in the extinction of the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhino – and what we can learn from that to protect species threatened by both today.’
Dozens of decapitated skeletons found in Roman cemetery dig
Archaeologists have discovered at least 40 beheaded skeletons in a Roman cemetery on the route of the high-speed HS2 railway. The 50-strong team made the grisly discovery in Fleet Marston near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
More than 400 bodies were exhumed and around 10 per cent were decapitated, with several having their heads placed between their legs or next to their feet.
HS2 Ltd said the decapitations suggest the bodies are of “criminals or a type of outcast”, although decapitation was a “normal, albeit marginal” part of burial during the late Roman period.
Archaeologists working on the HS2 project in St. James’s burial ground
The cemetery is the largest of its kind in Buckinghamshire.
The bodies are being held in storage for further analysis.
Unlike those exhumed from Christian grounds such as St James’s Gardens in north London, HS2 is under no obligation to rebury the bodies. The archaeologists discovered more than 1,200 coins at Fleet Marston, which suggests it was an area of trade and commerce.
Domestic objects including spoons, pins and brooches were found, while gaming dice and bells suggest that gambling and religious activity were popular at the site. The excavation was carried out over more than a year by Cotswold Archaeology and Oxford Archaeology (Copa), working on behalf of an HS2 contractor.
Copa senior project manager Richard Brown said: “The excavation is significant in both enabling a clear characterisation of this Roman town but also a study of many of its inhabitants.
“Along with several new Roman settlement sites discovered during the HS2 works it enhances and populates the map of Roman Buckinghamshire.”
Fleet Marston is one of more than 100 archaeological sites examined by HS2 since 2018 on the route of the first phase of the railway between London and Birmingham.
HS2 Ltd’s head of heritage Helen Wass said: “The HS2 archaeology programme has enabled us to learn more about our rich history in Britain.
“The large Roman cemetery at Fleet Marston will enable us to gain a detailed insight into the residents of Fleet Marston and the wider Roman Britain landscape.
“All human remains uncovered will be treated with dignity, care and respect and our discoveries will be shared with the community.”
