During their time off, relaxing by the River Váh, near Hlohovec, a local came across an object that they found interesting. Only when they returned home, did they discover that it was an archaeological find and paid a visit to the nearest museum?
Similar finds should be handed over to the regional offices of the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic.
The local had discovered a short sword, or a long dagger, with a length of almost 26 cm and a weight of almost 150 g, the Trnava Office of the Monuments Board said. Its handle from organic material has not been preserved. Only traces of the rivets remained.
The recently discovered sword is the fourth reported and handed over find from the River Váh in the Trnava Region since 2002.
Potential link between two weapons
Similar short swords have been found in the Danube basin, stretching from southern Germany to the Vojvodina province in Serbia.
“They are typical for the emerging Tumulus culture, which began to dominate the central European region in the 16th century BC, that is during the Middle Bronze Age,” said Matúš Sládok from the Trnava Office.
In the past, a similar sword was discovered in Včelince, near Rimavská Sobota, where it was part of discovered bronze objects.
Long daggers from the Early and Middle Bronze Ages are often found in richly filled tombs, as part of mass discoveries, and often in rivers.
The sword found in the River Váh may have fallen into the water as part of the cult, but it may also be a lost object, Sládok said. The dagger’s owner could have lost it, for example, when wading the river, he added.
At the end of the Early Bronze Age, the first metal swords began to appear in Central Europe, as a separate invention that most likely evolved from long bronze daggers.
The sword from the Váh could serve as a very interesting developmental link between these two types of weapons, Sládok argued.
More Váh finds
The sword is the fourth find from the River Váh in the Trnava Region since 2002, which has been reported and handed over, the year the Monuments Office of the Slovak Republic was established.
In the Váh, people have found a bronze blade from a dagger on a stick from the early Bronze Age, iron semi-finished products dating to the 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD, and a fragment of a millstone.
5,000-Year-Old Town Discovered Underwater in Greece
Archaeologists surveying the world’s oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 years ago — at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.
These remarkable findings have been made public by the Greek government after the start of a five-year collaborative project involving the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and The University of Nottingham.
As a Mycenaean town, the site offers potential new insights into the workings of Mycenaean society. Pavlopetri has added importance as it was a maritime settlement from which the inhabitants coordinated local and long-distance trade.
The ruins of Pavlopetri are located a short distance from the coastline, just a few meters underwater in Vatika Bay in southern Greece.
Could the Pavlopetri site in southern Greece have been the inspiration for Plato’s story of Atlantis?
The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project aims to establish exactly when the site was occupied, what it was used for and through a systematic study of the geomorphology of the area, how the town became submerged.
This summer the team carried out a detailed digital underwater survey and study of the structural remains, which until this year were thought to belong to the Mycenaean period — around 1600 to 1000 BC.
The survey surpassed all their expectations. Their investigations revealed another 150 square metres of new buildings as well as ceramics that suggest the site was occupied throughout the Bronze Age — from at least 2800 BC to 1100 BC.
The work is being carried out by a multidisciplinary team led by Mr Elias Spondylis, Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture in Greece and Dr Jon Henderson, an underwater archaeologist from the Department of Archaeology at The University of Nottingham.
The resulting research project used a novel combination of archaeology, underwater robotics, and state-of-the-art graphics to survey the seabed and bring the ancient town back to life.
Dr Jon Henderson said: “This site is unique in that we have almost the complete town plan, the main streets and domestic buildings, courtyards, rock-cut tombs and what appear to be religious buildings, clearly visible on the seabed. Equally, as a harbour settlement, the study of the archaeological material we have recovered will be extremely important in terms of revealing how maritime trade was conducted and managed in the Bronze Age.”
Possibly one of the most important discoveries has been the identification of what could be a megaron — a large rectangular great hall — from the Early Bronze Age period. They have also found over 150 metres of new buildings including what could be the first example of a pillar crypt ever discovered on the Greek mainland. Two new stone-built cist graves were also discovered alongside what appears to be a Middle Bronze Age pithos burial.
Mr Spondylis said: “It is a rare find and it is significant because as a submerged site it was never re-occupied and therefore represents a frozen moment of the past.”
The Archaeological coordinator Dr Chrysanthi Gallou a postdoctoral research fellow at The University of Nottingham is an expert in Aegean Prehistory and the archaeology of Laconia.
Dr Gallou said: “The new ceramic finds form a complete and exceptional corpus of pottery covering all sub-phases from the Final Neolithic period (mid 4th millennium BC) to the end of the Late Bronze Age (1100 BC).
In addition, the interest from the local community in Laconia has been fantastic.
The investigation at Pavlopetri offers a great opportunity for them to be actively involved in the preservation and management of the site, and subsequently for the cultural and touristic development of the wider region.”
The team was joined by Dr Nicholas Flemming, a marine geo-archaeologist from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton, who discovered the site in 1967 and returned the following year with a team from Cambridge University to carry out the first-ever survey of the submerged town.
Using just snorkels and tape measures they produced a detailed plan of the prehistoric town which consisted of at least 15 separate buildings, courtyards, streets, two-chamber tombs and at least 37 cist graves.
Despite the potential international importance of Pavlopetri, no further work was carried out at the site until this year.
Through a British School of Archaeology in Athens permit, The Pavlopetri Underwater Archaeology Project began its five-year study of the site with the aim of defining the history and development of Pavlopetri.
A digital reconstruction of the buildings at Pavlopetri was submerged by the sea about 1100 BC.
Archaeology bombshell: 7,000-year-old find older than Pyramids stuns scientists
The archaeological discovery was hiding in plain sight for centuries, tucked away in a field near the village Łysomice in northern Poland. But with the aid of Google Earth scans, archaeologists were able to spot concentric outlines of where the ancient structures, or pans, once stood. The researchers now believe the buildings were raised by some of the first European communities to farm the land.
The discovery dates the neolithic structures to about 2,000 years before the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in Egypt.
Mateusz Sosnowski from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Nicolas Copernicus praised the unexpected find.
The archaeologist said: “Our discovery can be boldly dubbed sensational due to the fact the pans are located east of the Vistula river.
“These constructions are the most north-eastern of their type in Europe. We did not expect such a discovery in this region.”
Researchers have found ancient, neolithic structures in Poland
The ancient structures were hidden in plain sight
The ringed structures or pans were found roughly three miles (5km) apart outside of Łysomice.
The structures measure approximately 278ft (85m) across and feature three concentric ditches with a common centre.
When viewed from space with the aid of Google Earth and Google Maps, the pans left distinct impressions in the land now used for modern farming.
The archaeologists speculate the structures may have had ties to early astrological efforts due to the direction of their construction.
Dr Sosnowski said: “What is is also interesting, is that the entrances are most likely directly opposite one another on a northwest-southeast axis.
“We suppose they could also be linked to astronomical observations.”
The entrances likely faced the direction of the rising sun during the Winter Solstice.
Dr Sosnowski said: “In order to confirm this concept we will need further analysis.”
To date, archaeologists have found more than 130 of these pan-like structures all over Europe.
At least one-third of these structures can be found in Austria.
The rest are peppered across Poland, Hungary, Germany, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
The neolithic structures were found in northern Poland
The structures were built by the first Europeans to farm the land
In this particular case, the archaeologists believe the structures were “planned and raised by a large group of people”.
According to some researchers, they may have served ceremonial roles or acted as temples for pagan practices. The European pans were typically surrounded by concentric ditches and wooden palisades, which suggests they could have been defensive structures.
Dr Sosnowski and his team now want to visit the sites in person in the winter.
The discovery comes after archaeologists in South America uncovered the 2,000-year-old remains of two infants wearing helmets. The unusual remains were found on the coast of Central Ecuador at a burial site called Salango.
Archaeologists in the UK have also made an incredible 8,000-year-old discovery at the bottom of the sea. The ancient find is likely a boat from the Stone Age, found just off the coast of Great Yarmouth.
Archaeologists have also solved an incredible Roman mystery after discovering a “forgotten city” buried in the Mediterranean.
Ancient pyramid SHOCK: How tombs older than Egyptian pyramids reveal CANNIBAL horrors
Pyramid-like structures hidden across north-central Poland have stunned archaeologists with evidence of bloodcurdling neolithic rituals. These so-called “Polish pyramids” in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian region are believed to predate the Great Pyramids of Giza by thousands of years.
Archaeologists estimate the tombs were built between the 4th and 3rd millennium BC, making them at the very least a thousand years older than the Pyramid of Cheops. This was the time of the Stone Age, or the neolithic when well-defined cultures were emerging across Ancient Poland.
The unusual stone tombs, much like their Egyptian counterparts, were fashioned from great big slabs of stone.
But the comparisons end there because the Polish pyramids were neither as grand and were built flat across the land.
The tombs are triangular in shape and extend in one direction for quite a distance before tapering off.
The structures are slightly raised above the ground and their burial chambers are set into the soil with entrances to the outside world.
Ancient pyramids: These neolithic tombs contain remains of humans eaten gnawed on by people
Archaeologists who examined these entrances were stunned to discovered the remains of gnawed on human bones.
And a few more clues from the past reveal the unfortunate denizens were likely eaten by whoever killed them.
An information plaque from a historical site in the village of Wietrzychowice reads: “About 50cm above the central grave another interesting cavity was discovered. It turned out, it was a dugout earthwork for a mass grave.
“The exact number of people buried there could not have been determined. The discovered bones could have blonde to two to nine individuals.
“What is surprising, is one part of the bones was likely burned and intentionally broken, perhaps to gain access to the bone marrow.
“Signs suggesting biting or the tearing off of muscles were also observed on two thigh bones.
“All of this could be interpreted as evidence of a cannibal feast or a mass offering towards a deceased.”
The Wietrzychowice site is an archaeological reserve established in an area settled around 5,500 years ago.
Some of the Polish pyramids measure as much as 492ft (150m) in length and the stones used in their construction weigh in at seven to 10 tonnes.
Archaeological evidence shows only men were buried in the stone monolithic tombs and the constructions housed wooden structures for ceremonial rites.
The tombs most likely belonged to important warlords, leaders, priests and other important figureheads.
In one of the tombs, researchers found the remains of a man who underwent trepanation – the process of making a surgical hole in the skull.
Ancient pyramids: Built in the Stone Age, the ancient tombs predate the Great Pyramid of Giza
The reserve’s website states: “The deceased – a person high up in the tribal hierarchy – was buried in a straightened position at the helm of the tomb.
“Sometimes two to three individuals were buried simultaneously this way.
“Pots and clay spoons, flint relics, arrowheads, hatchets and war axes have survived to our times.
“The amount of effort put into raising these structures is undoubtedly evidence of a strong tribal bond and the social variety or existence of tribal leaders.”
Ancient pyramids: The stone structures were flat but very long
Quick facts about the Egyptian pyramids:
1. Archaeologists have discovered more than 130 pyramids across the sandy landscape of Egypt.
2. The history of Ancient Egypt is divided into the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom eras.
3. The famous Queen Cleopatra was not Egyptian but Greek Macedonian and a descendant of the Ptolemaic dynasty installed during Alexander the Great conquests.
4. There are three chambers in the Great Pyramid, one of which remains unfinished.
5. The Ancient Egyptians invented one of the first forms of writing and a form of paper known as papyrus.
6. The pyramids are precisely aligned with the north.
7. The Great Pyramid of Giza, or the Pyramid of Cheops, is the largest and biggest of the three iconic structures.
8. The privilege of being mummified after death was reserved for the wealthiest members of Egyptian society.
9. The Great Pyramid of Giza stood as the largest structure in the world for more than 3,800 years.
10. Women in Ancient Egypt are understood to have had the same rights as men and could buy and sell property.
Archaeology shock: Ancient skeleton and gold found buried in Siberia’s ‘Valley of Kings’
The incredible archaeological discovery was made by a team of Polish researchers on the Southern Siberian Steppe. This barren part of the Russian Federation is known as the “Siberian Valley of the Kings” thanks to mysterious structures dotting its landscape.
Ancient mounds raised from the ground by a long-lost civilisation, known as kurgan barrows, give a hint as to what lies beneath the soil. Archaeologists from the Jagiellonian University in Kraków made their discovery at the Chinge Tey dig where nine of these kurgans were built in a row.
According to lead archaeologist Dr Łukasz Oleszczak, the Scythian remains date back at least 2,500 years.
Researchers have found the remains of a Scythian warrior in Siberia
The Scythians were a nomadic civilisation of warriors
He told the Polish Press Agency (PAP): “Inside was the skeleton of a fully equipped young warrior.
“Near the skull of the deceased, there were decorations: a gold sheet pectoral, a glass bead, a gold spiral braid ornament.”
Alongside the warrior’s skeletal remains, the archaeologists have found many of his weapons.
These included an ice axe stylised into the shape of an eagle, an iron dagger, bow fragments and arrows.
Dr Oleszczak added: “Objects made out of organic materials have also been well preserved.
“Among them is a leather quiver, arrow shaft, ice axe shaft and a belt strap.”
The Scythians were an ancient nomadic people who thrived between the 11th century BC and 2nd century AD to the east of the Roman Empire. Scythia covered much of what is today’s Siberia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and even touched upon China.
The Scythians were known for their warmongering practices, as demonstrated by the contents of their burial sites.
Unfortunately, many of the Scythian artefacts buried across Siberia are at risk of disappearing thanks to looters.
According to Dr Oleszczak, the first of two barrows found in Chinge Tey was robbed before the archaeologists uncovered them.
Ancient Scythian burial sites in Siberia
The discovery was made in Southern Siberia
The archaeologists did, however, discover partially preserved bones and an arrowhead.
The researchers will analyse the second kurgan barrow for its contents next year.
The main discovery, however, was made in a third kurgan nearby.
Dr Oleszczak said: “For our research, we chose an inconspicuous, almost invisible kurgan with a diameter of about 25m.
“We had hoped it had remained unnoticed by robbers.”
The Polish archaeologists have joined an international team of researchers at Chinge Tey.
Their discovery comes after another team of archaeologists in Poland found the site of an unusual settlement from 2,500 years ago.
8000-year old underwater burial site reveals human skulls mounted on poles
A team of researchers with Stockholm University and the Cultural Heritage Foundation has uncovered the remains of a number of Mesolithic people in an underwater grave in a part of what is now Sweden.
Anterior view of crania F296 showing well-preserved facial bones.
In their paper published in the journal Antiquity, the group describes the site where the remains were found, the condition of the remains and also offer some possible explanations for the means by which the remains found their way to the underwater burial site.
People living during the Mesolithic were hunter-gatherers, the researchers note, which is why the burial site and its contents are so surprising.
At the time of its use, the burial site would have been at a shallow lake bottom covered with tightly packed stones upon which the remains of humans had been laid.
The remains were all skulls, save for one infant. The adult skulls (except one) were missing jawbones, and at least two of the skulls showed evidence of a stick thrust through the opening at the base through the top of the skull—normally associated with posting a skull to scare enemies.
But hunter-gatherers were not known for posting skulls or engaging in gruesome funeral rituals. Instead, they were known for disposing of their dead in simple, respectful ways.
The gravesite was found in what is now southern Sweden, near an archaeological site known as Kanaljorden.
Archaeologists have been working at the site since 2009, but it was not until 2011 that the human remains were found—until that time, researchers had been finding animal remains. To date, the researchers have found the remains of 11 adults.
In another surprise, the team discovered that all of the adult skulls bore signs of trauma—each had been whacked in the head multiple times. But the trauma was inflicted differently depending on gender.
The males were hit on top or near the front of the head, while the females were typically hit from behind. None of the wounds appeared life-threatening, however, though, without the rest of the corpse, it was impossible to identify what had killed them.
Cranium F318 with a wooden stake.
The researchers are unable to offer an explanation for what they have found at the site, though they suggest it was possible the victims had died or been killed elsewhere and then transported to the burial site. Possibly because they were considered exceptional in some way.
Researchers Say 5000-year-old Metal Tubes May’ve Been Used As Straws For Drinking
Artist’s interpretation of the straws in use.
A set of gold and silver tubes found 125 years ago in the northern Caucasus are likely drinking straws, not sceptres, according to a re-analysis of the ancient artefacts.
Russian archaeologist Nikolai Veselovsky uncovered the items in 1897 at the Maikop Kurgan burial mound in the northern Caucasus. This is a Bronze Age site of great significance, as it was found to contain three skeletons and hundreds of objects, including beads of semi-precious stone and gold, ceramic vessels, metal cups, and weapons.
The 4th millennia BCE mound dates back to the Maikop Early Bronze Age Culture (3700 to 2900 BCE), which were named after the burial site.
Illustration showing the eight tubes, four of which were decorated with bull figurines.
(Photographs by V. Trifonov; Courtesy of the Institute for the History of Material Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia)
It was among these many objects that Veselovsky found eight long, thin tubes—burial goods carefully and deliberately placed to the right-hand side of a high-ranking individual found buried in ornate clothing.
The tubes, made from gold and silver, measured over 3 feet (1 meter) in length, four of which were decorated with a small gold or silver bull figurine. The items were eventually relocated to the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, where they’re kept to this day.
In his accounting of the ancient relics, Veselovsky referred to the tubes as “scepters”—a reasonable guess, given the apparent status of the buried individual and the oh-so-careful positioning of the items. That these 5,000-year-old objects were used as scepters (i.e. wands or staffs held by ruling monarchs) seemed plausible, but new research published in Antiquity is now questioning this interpretation, arguing instead that the items were drinking straws.
Should this interpretation be correct, “these fancy devices would be the earliest surviving drinking straws to date,” Viktor Trifonov, an archaeologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg and a co-author of the new paper, said in a press release.
Of critical importance to the reanalysis was the detection of barley granules inside one of the straws, in addition to cereal phytoliths (fossilized particles of plant tissue) and pollen grains from a lime tree.
This was taken as direct evidence that the tubes were used for drinking. And because traces of barley were found, the scientists say the beverage in question was likely beer.
It’s not a stretch to suggest that Bronze Age Maikop people consumed fermented barley. The practise dates back some 13,000 years to the Natufian period, while large-scale brewing operations began to appear in Asia during the 5th and 4th millennia BCE.
The notion that Maikop households were drinking barley beer flavoured with herbs and lime flowers is entirely plausible, but as the researchers point out, they “cannot prove conclusively the presence of a fermented beverage,” so “results should therefore be treated with caution, as further analyses are needed.”
The reconstruction shows eight straws being used communally and one being used individually.
Importantly, the tips of the Maikop straws were equipped with metal strainers, which likely performed the function of filtering out impurities—a common feature of ancient beer.
The scientists hypothesize that the drinking tubes, with straw-tip strainers, were “designed for sipping a type of beverage that required filtration during consumption,” and that this was done as a communal activity. A large vessel found at Maikop Kurgan would’ve been capable of holding seven pints for eight drinkers, the scientists say.
The straw-tip strainers found at Maikop Kurgan bear a striking resemblance to those found on Sumerian drinking straws. Ancient Sumerians of the 3rd millennium BCE are known to have sipped beer from communal vessels, as evidenced by archaeological artefacts and artworks depicting the practice.
As for the oldest evidence of drinking straws, that dates back to the 5th and 4th millennia BCE, as evidenced by artwork found in northern Iraq and western Iran.
A silver tube tip-strainer yielded evidence of (2-3) barley starch granules, (4) pollen grain from a lime tree, and (5) ceretal phytolith.
The Maikop straws—if that’s indeed what they are—are special in that they’re the oldest surviving drinking straws in the archaeological record, but they appear to have originated in the Middle East, hundreds of miles away from the northern Caucasus. The presence of drinking straws so far away suggests this practice had spread to the surrounding areas.
“The finds contribute to a better understanding of the ritual banquets’ early beginnings and drinking culture in hierarchical societies,” Trifonov said. “Such practices must have been important and popular enough to spread between the two regions.”
Indeed, the presence of drinking straws in the Maikop Kurgan hint at cultural and economic ties between the regions. What’s more, the scientists say a “taste for Sumerian luxury and commensality” had emerged in the Caucasus by the fourth millennium BCE, and that the drinking straws would go on to carry significant symbolic importance given their use as funerary items for elite individuals.
As this and other archaeological finds have shown, drinking is fun, but it’s even better—and more socially useful—when performed in the company of others.
Swiss archaeologists dig up youngest Roman amphitheatre
A construction project in Kaiseraugst, Switzerland has unearthed a lost ancient Roman amphitheatre that was once used for gladiator fights and animal hunts. Dating to the 300s CE, it’s about 50 meters (164ft) long and 40 meters (131ft) wide.
The amphitheatre was found in Augusta Raurica, located on the southern edge of the Rhine river. Once a Roman city, it is now an open museum and archaeological site. The reason for the construction was a new boathouse being put in for the Basel rowing club.
In December 2021, the construction team was accompanied by excavators with Aargau Cantonal Archaeology.
These archaeologists were quite surprised when they came across an ancient Roman construct.
Part of this surprise resulted from the fact that they were working in a spot thought only to be an abandoned Roman quarry.
Here are some details on how the amphitheatre was built:
It had three southern entrances. One large one stood in the middle of two smaller ones on either side of it. Another entrance was found on the western side of the amphitheatre.
Both of the entrance spots were made with sandstone that has been preserved to our present day. The inner walls were covered in plaster and the grandstands were made of wood.
It’s the third ancient Roman amphitheatre discovered in the Augusta Raurica, and also the youngest, dating to the 4th century CE.
It’s the eighth ancient Roman amphitheatre discovered in Switzerland.
Some of the others are known as: “Avenches (Aventicum), Martigny (Forum Claudii Vallensium), Nyon (Colonia Iulia Equestris) and on the Enge peninsula in Bern (Brenodurum)”.
The construction plans for the boathouse have been modified to accommodate the new discovery.
Here are some images of the ancient building as it is today:
The water is the Rhine river. You can see here how close the amphitheatre was to the water.
