Holding cell for gladiators and wild animals uncovered in excavation of Richborough Roman amphitheatre
Archaeologists have been aware of the amphitheater since 1849, but the holding cell for gladiators is a new discovery.
Archaeologists say that the amphitheatre in Richborough, Kent, could hold up to 5,000 spectators who cheered on charging gladiators and roaring wild animals in epic fights.
Today, the Roman-era amphitheatre in Richborough, Kent, blends into the landscape. But it was once the site of violent gladiatorial combat, and archaeologists with English Heritage have just come across a holding cell, called a “carcer,” where gladiators waited to fight.
“The discoveries we’ve made during the excavation at Richborough are startling and exciting, and dramatically transform our understanding of the structure of the amphitheatre and the nature of adjacent settlement in the town,” said Paul Pattison, English Heritage senior properties historian.
Richborough is now believed to have been occupied for almost the entire period of Roman rule in Britain
Researchers have known about the amphitheatre since 1849 when Victorian archaeologists discovered it. But the most recent examination of the site revealed a cell within the arena. With walls more than six feet tall, the cell once held “those who entered the arena to meet their fate, whether wild animals, criminals, or gladiators,” according to English Heritage.
Though much is unknown about the amphitheatre, its chalk and turf construction suggests it was built around the 1st century, when Romans first invaded Britain. At its peak, it would have been an impressive sight: Archeologists found surprising traces of “vivid” red and blue paints on its interior walls.
“The evidence of painted decoration we have found on the arena wall, a unique find so far in amphitheatres in Britain, is remarkable, and a wonderful reminder that aspects of Roman culture abroad were also a feature of life in Roman Britain,” explained Tony Wilmott, senior archaeologist at Historic England.
Wilmott noted that the amphitheatre could probably hold about 5,000 spectators, who — just like in Rome — descended to watch bloody gladiator fights. Sometimes, these fights pitted gladiators against each other. Other times, in especially violent battles called venationes, prisoners or gladiators fought against wild animals like lions and bears.
The mere existence of the amphitheater speaks to Richborough’s important place in the Roman Empire. Then called Rutupiae or Portus Ritupis, the settlement likely existed from the 1st to the 4th century, or as long as the Romans occupied Britain. And it was said to be renowned throughout the empire for the quality of its oysters.
“As Richborough is coastal, it would have provided a connection between what was at the time called Britannia and the rest of the Roman Empire,” explained Pattison, noting that Richborough would have been unique and diverse.
“Because of that, all sorts of Romans who came from all corners of the Empire would have passed through and lived in the settlement.”
Alongside the carcer, archeologists found several artifacts that help paint a picture of life in Roman-era Richborough. They found coins, pottery, the bones of butchered animals, and jewelry. Remarkably, archeologists also found the carefully buried skeleton of what appeared to be a pet cat.
The skull of what appeared to be a carefully buried pet cat.
Dubbed “Maxipus” by archeologists — after Russell Crowe’s character in The Gladiator — the cat was found buried just outside the amphitheater walls. It may have had nothing to do with the amphitheater itself but “appeared purposefully buried on the edge of a ditch,” according to English Heritage.
In addition, the most recent excavation also uncovered the puzzling remnants of two “badly burnt” and “bright orange” rectangular areas just outside the amphitheater.
“It is not yet known what function these buildings fulfilled,” noted English Heritage, “but it is possible they stood on each side of an entrance leading up to the seating bank of the arena.”
The fire that destroyed the structures, the organization said, “must have been dramatic.”
Today, Richborough’s amphitheater exists only as a circular field covered in grass. But, as the existence of the holding cell suggests, this part of the world once rang with thousands of screaming spectators, roaring animals, and charging gladiators.
English Heritage is hopeful to share it with the world. Following the end of their excavation, the on-site museum in Richborough will undergo a “major refurbishment and re-presentation.” It will open to the public in summer 2022.
‘Astounding’ Roman statues unearthed at Norman church ruins on route of HS2
Archaeologists in central England working on the HS2 project have uncovered a set of incredible rare Roman statues whilst excavating a Norman Church in Stoke Mandeville.
In the final stages of the excavation at the site of the old St Mary’s Norman church in Buckinghamshire, archaeologists were excavating a circular ditch around what was thought to be the foundations of an early medieval tower.
As they dug down, they uncovered three stone busts that are stylistically Roman. Two of the busts comprise of a head and torso which had been split before deposition, and the other just the head. The two complete statues appear to be one female adult and one male adult, with an additional head of a child.
The discovery of these amazing artefacts caused excitement amongst the team working on the site who described it as “uniquely remarkable for us as archaeologists”. The work has been carried out by HS2’s Enabling Works Contractor, Fusion JV, and their archaeological contactor, L-P Archaeology.
In addition to the statues, an incredibly well-preserved hexagonal glass Roman jug was also discovered. Despite being in the ground for what is thought to be over 1,000 years, the glass jug had large pieces still intact. Archaeologists working at the site were able to remove what they believe to be almost all of the fragments.
The team can only find one comparison for this, a completely intact vessel that is currently on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Other finds include large roof tiles, painted wall plaster, and Roman cremation urns.
“For us to end the dig with these utterly astounding finds is beyond exciting,” says Dr Rachel Wood, Lead Archaeologist for Fusion JV. “The statues are exceptionally well preserved, and you really get an impression of the people they depict – literally looking into the faces of the past is a unique experience. Of course, it leads us to wonder what else might be buried beneath England’s medieval village churches. This has truly been a once in a lifetime site and we are all looking forward to hearing what more the specialists can tell us about these incredible statues and the history of the site before the construction of the Norman church.”
As the dig at Stoke Mandeville comes to an end, the team working there have been able to piece together a more detailed analysis of the historic use of the site.
The site appears to be a natural mound, which has then been deliberately covered with soil to create a taller mound. It is possible this may have formed a Bronze Age burial site. It appears this was then replaced by a square building that may have originated in the Roman period.
Archaeologists now believe the square building that pre-dates the Norman church is a Roman mausoleum. Roman materials found in the ditch around are too ornate and not enough in number to suggest the site was a domestic building.
Rare Roman glass jug – Artefacts from St Mary’s Archaeological dig – Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire
The Roman building appears to have been finally demolished by the Normans when building St Mary’s church, after possible reuse during the Saxon period.
The walls and demolition rubble of the Roman building are directly beneath the Norman foundations with no soil build-up in between.
Saxon pottery was also found in a cut of the ditch, as well as a Saxon coin. Further analysis of the data is being undertaken and the team hope to confirm this hypothesis.
The disfiguration of the Roman busts, namely the removal of the head of each, is not entirely unusual as it is common for statues such as these to have been vandalised in some way before being torn down.
These are early examples of how statues and historic artefacts have been discarded as society has evolved over time.
The artefacts will now be taken to a specialist laboratory where they will be cleaned and examined. Roman statues were typically painted bright colours, so evidence of pigmentation in the creases of the statue will be examined. The final destination for the Roman finds will be determined in due course.
HS2 archaeologists excavating Roman artefacts
“HS2’s unprecedented archaeology programme has given us new insights into Britain’s history, providing evidence of where and how our ancestors lived,” comments Mike Court, Lead Archaeologist at HS2.
“These extraordinary Roman statues are just some of the incredible artefacts uncovered between London and the West Midlands. As HS2 builds for Britain’s future, we are uncovering and learning about the past, leaving a legacy of knowledge and discovery.”
Industrial-Sized Tannery Detected at Medieval Abbey in England
It is Britain’s biggest and most famous monastic ruin and one that conjures up bucolic images of peace, reflection and very little noise apart, perhaps, from the occasional waft of Gregorian chanting.
In reality, archaeologists have revealed, Fountains Abbey near Ripon was as busy, noisy and industrialised as anywhere in 12th- and 13th-century Britain.
The National Trust has announced the discovery of the foundations of a medieval tannery at the abbey, part of a world heritage site. Experts were astonished.
The purpose of a long, bowling alley-type extension close to the River Skell had long puzzled archaeologists.
This really is a wonderful discovery, it is very important,” said Mark Newman, a trust archaeologist.
Fountains are probably the most investigated Cistercian abbey in Britain, “so when you discover a major building on this scale, that was completely unknown … you don’t get many of those in a career.
Radar image highlighting the two substantial buildings found by the bank of the River Skell.
Newman said many assumed there was nothing more to be discovered about Fountains but one puzzle had always been what a long, bowling alley-type extension, close to the River Skell, was used for.
Ground-penetrating radar has made discoveries of previously unknown monastic buildings, including one 16 metres wide and 32 metres long. They have lined pits and tanks around them. These and the close proximity to water have led to the firm conclusion that it is the remains of a tannery, a place for producing materials for clothing, belts, bedding and book bindings.
It is the scale of the tannery and how close it is to the monks that have further surprised archaeologists. “A tannery of this size, spanning such a large area of the site, reveals an operation on an industrial scale,” said Newman.
Illustration of man sorting skins after drying.
A medieval tannery was a horrible place. Animal skins and hides would first have hooves and horns removed before they were washed to remove dung, dirt and blood. Fat, hair and flesh were then removed, usually by being submerged into a lime or urine solution and being scraped with knives.
Newman said the noise, activity and stench of tanneries had led to an assumption it would be sited much further away from monks and their worship. “We see now that the tannery was much closer and a far cry from the idea of a quiet, tranquil abbey community,” he said.
Newman said people would have been astonished at the number of people who lived and worked so industriously at Fountains, with Cistercian monks being “the first ones to apply themselves to these industrial scales of living and managing the landscape”.
He said the findings also showed the importance of lay brothers at the site. Lay brothers were not literate, like the monks, and were often recruited to do more physical jobs. That left monks more time to study, pray and worship.
The lay brothers, considered “separate but equal” to monks, were provided with weatherproof animal skin capes for outdoor work and slept under sheepskins. “Fountains recruited hundreds of lay brothers in its early decades, all of whom needed to be equipped this way,” said Newman. “This tannery provided the means for that.”
He said though he was taken aback by the scale of the operations that had been discovered, it all made sense. The monks at Fountains were, by necessity, “pioneering farmers and land managers on an industrial scale”.
The radar research was carried out with partners including the University of Bradford. Chris Gaffney, a professor of archaeological sciences, said the technology provided “stunning, unexpected and intriguing glimpses” into life at the abbey.
The trust said it was the largest tannery discovered at a monastic site in Britain and was being seen as a kind of “missing link” in the history of the abbey, which operated from the early 12th century to 1539 and the dissolution of the monasteries.
“It is so easy with a place like Fountains to think this is exactly as the monks saw it,” said Newman. “What we are finding is that there is a whole unrecognised history.”
Man finds ancient grave and remains while digging foundation for garage
The Slovak Spectator reports that a man digging a foundation for a new garage in western Slovakia alerted the authorities when he discovered human remains. Further investigation revealed a grave containing the bones of two women.
A grave containing two female skeletons was uncovered by archaeologists in the town of Gbely, Trnava Region, in early October 2021.
A man was digging the foundations for his new garage in the town of Gbely, western Slovakia when he discovered a human skull. He immediately reported it to the police.
Upon further inspection, the police and an anthropologist came across another skull. They discovered that the remains were older than half a century so they informed the Regional Monuments Board (KPÚ) Trnava about the discovery in early October.
The area in the town of Gbely where two female skeletons were uncovered.
Archaeologists and other experts have dated the discovered grave, using radiocarbon analysis, to 421-541 CE. This period is also known as the Migration Period.
Pathological change
They found two women, aged 20-25 and 25-40, in the grave. Both were placed in an upright position on their backs with their heads facing west and their feet pointed east.
“An interesting pathological change was found on one skeleton,” said the KPÚ archaeologist Matúš Sládok. “The coccyx stood significantly asymmetrically.”
He added that this may be due to a post-traumatic condition that results in the coccyx growing into the sacrum following a strong hit during a fall, for example.
Grave robbery
In the Migration Period, the Quadi, Huns, Heruli, Lombards, and perhaps other tribes such as the Goths and Rugians inhabited the territory of what is now western Slovakia.
Sládok noted that a few graves with several individuals buried in each of them were found in the past and were attributed to the Lombards. Some of these known burial sites in western Slovakia are located in Devínska Nová Ves, Rusovce, Šamorín, and Gáň.
The Lombards lived in the area in the years 488-560/568, which is why experts think the recently uncovered grave was dug in the years 488-541.
Moreover, during the Migration Period, grave robbery was common, and the absence of any personal objects found in the Gbely grave, including jewellery, suggests this grave was robbed too, the archaeologist said, further supporting his argument by noting that the upper part of one skeleton was damaged.
Housing estate
This recent discovery is the first of its kind in Gbely, and experts are convinced there are more graves to be uncovered as human bones were found in several places on the plot. Bones had been found in the area before, but they were not archaeologically recorded.
“The findings of daub and ceramic shards from vessels from different periods of prehistory and Roman times suggest there was also a housing estate or several housing estates in the locality,” added Sládok.
Blackened mummy cake found intact 79 years after WWII air raid
A cake baked 79 years ago has been found in the Old Town district of the city of Lübeck, which is located near the coast of northern Germany, according to a Live Science report.
A 79-year-old nutcake lies on a table in the workshop of the Department of Archaeology for the Hanseatic City of Lübeck Historic Monuments Protection Authority.
Though the charred delicacy hasn’t been edible for a very, very long time, it’s still recognizable as a cake, representatives of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck said in a statement.
The cake’s overall shape, nut fillings, details in the sugar icing decorations and even its wax-paper wrappings remained intact after the pastry was burned into a crisp, cake-shaped charcoal briquette during a World War II air raid.
Archaeologists have previously discovered the burnt remains of long-ago meals, but they rarely find food that’s a whole and well-preserved as this cake was, according to the statement. It offers a glimpse into a dark moment in Germany’s history and illuminates the fragility of life during wartime, Lübeck representatives said.
On the night of March 28, 1942 (and into the early morning hours of March 29), the British Royal Air Force bombed Lübeck, a historic city and a nonmilitary target, in retaliation for the Nazi blitz of Coventry, England, in 1940, said Dirk Rieger, head of the Department of Archaeology for the Hanseatic City of Lübeck Historic Monuments Protection Authority.
The nut-filled cake had recently been unwrapped when the bombs landed, and all of the building’s stories collapsed into the cellar, Rieger told Live Science. Somehow, the cake escaped being crushed, and the intense heat of the flames rapidly scorched and carbonized the confection amid the wreckage.
Founded in 1143, Lübeck is one of the best-preserved medieval urban sites in northern Europe, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which added Lübeck to its World Heritage List of protected sites in 1987.
From 1230 until 1535, Lübeck — a port city on the Baltic Sea — served as the capital of an international merchants’ organization known as the Hanseatic League, and much of the city’s extraordinary medieval architecture remains intact to this day, UNESCO says.
Artefacts and other remains deep underneath the buildings, in Lübeck’s sediments, are also exceptionally well preserved, Rieger said.
Restorer Sylvia Morgenstern cleans the preserved nutcake with a brush and vacuum cleaner.
“The subsoil is made of clay, so the preservation for organic material is awesome,” he explained. “You dig down like 7 meters [23 feet], and you are in the 1100s.
We have every single feature of urban and mercantile activity throughout eight or nine centuries, which is absolutely unique in the way it’s been preserved.”
To date, more than 4 million objects have been recovered from excavations around Lübeck — “everything from tiny children’s shoes to whole medieval ships,” Rieger said.
Workers found the cake in April during infrastructure work in Lübeck’s Old Town district, “close to the town hall and the main market area,” Rieger said. In the ruined parts of the city that the British had bombed, “the town left the cellars within the soil and built new houses on top of them,” he said. Because of Lübeck’s important historic status, archaeologists supervise all of the city’s construction work.
Experts were already present when the workers opened the cellar and discovered the blackened cake, along with plates, knives, spoons and vinyl records that included Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” according to the statement.
Scientists brought the cake to the city’s restoration laboratory, where conservators carefully cleaned it with delicate picks, brushes and vacuums, and then collected samples to identify the nutty filling, Rieger said. But their work to preserve the rare carbonized confection has just begun.
Bombs that the British Royal Air Force dropped on Lübeck contained incendiary chemicals, such as phosphorus, and the archaeologists need to make sure that there are no traces of such materials on the cake that could react when exposed to chemicals used in the preservation of valuable artefacts.
“This cake is like a window into 80 years ago,” Rieger said, and the view is bittersweet. When the cake is finally ready for public display and people can peer through that window, “they will hopefully see not only the destruction of the war but also the joy that people had,” he added.
“Because this was a family celebration, they listened to music, they wanted to have a nice cup of tea, they wanted to have this cake. It’s a very intimate situation that was immediately destroyed by this war.”
The 1,500-Year-Old Byzantine Sandals with Sweet Message in Greek
The ancient sandals were discovered almost intact in the Istanbul dig.
A pair of Byzantine sandals uncovered during an excavation in Istanbul has become one of the city’s most popular exhibits at the archaeological museum. The sandals have a message in Greek which reads: “Use in health, lady, wear in beauty and happiness.”
The astonishing find was discovered during digs prompted by the Marmaray project, the undersea railway tunnel connecting the Asian and European sides of Istanbul under the Bosporus.
The excavations, which started in 2004, have revealed new historical aspects of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Some 60,000 artefacts unearthed over a span of around nine years are being preserved in Istanbul Archeological Museum until a special museum is built for them, the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reports.
The Byzantine Empire was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for another thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe.
Byzantine sandals belonged to a woman
Scientists say that the sandals discovered are more than 1,500 years old and they belonged to a woman.
The Byzantines loved colour and patterns, and they made and exported very richly patterned cloth, especially Byzantine silk, which was woven and embroidered for the upper classes and resist-dyed and printed for the lower.
Modesty was important for all, and most women appeared to be almost entirely covered by rather shapeless clothes.
There has been a considerable amount of footwear recovered in this excavation project, with sandals, slippers and boots to the mid-calf seen commonly in manuscript illustrations also found in the dig. Many of the items are richly decorated in various ways.
The colour red, reserved for Imperial use in male footwear, is actually by far the most common colour for women’s shoes. Purses are rarely visible and seem to have been made of textile matching the dress, or perhaps tucked into the sash.
Byzantine men’s shoes of partially gilded leather, 6th century.
Istanbul excavations reveal gems from the Byzantine Empire
The excavations have found the first traces of civilizations from different periods, including the skeletons of the first Istanbulites; 8,500-year-old footprints’ the Harbor of Eleutherios (Theodosius), a port known in world literature but with no traces having been found previously; and the world’s largest medieval sunken ship collection, as well as 60,000 animal bones of 57 species along with plant fossils.
The Harbor of Eleutherios, which was one of the ports of ancient Constantinople, is located beneath the modern Yenikapi neighbourhood of Istanbul. It was built at the mouth of the Lycus River, which ran through the city to the Propontis.
The harbour was built in the late 4th century, during the reign of Theodosius I, and was the city’s major point of trade in Late Antiquity. It continued to be used until the 11th century.
Silt from the Lycus eventually filled the harbour entirely and the area was later transformed for agricultural use due to the effects of upstream erosion and deposition. In Ottoman times, the area was entirely built over.
In November 2005, workers on the Marmaray project discovered the silted-up remains of the harbour.
Excavations produced evidence of the 4th-century Portus Theodosius. There, archaeologists uncovered traces of the city wall of Constantine the Great, and the remains of over 35 Byzantine ships from the 7th to 10th centuries, including several Byzantine galleys, remains of which had never before been found.
Various findings from the Byzantine era.
In addition, the excavation has uncovered the oldest evidence of settlement in Constantinople, with artefacts, including amphorae, pottery fragments, shells, pieces of bone, horse skulls, and nine human skulls found in a bag, dating back to 6000 BC.
Spanish court throws out lawsuit against US treasure hunters
A Spanish court has shelved a lawsuit against American treasure hunters that accused them of having destroyed an underwater archaeological site when they looted a sunken galleon for tons of precious coins over a decade ago.
In 2007, the Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration scooped up over half a million silver and gold coins from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean when it discovered a sunken Spanish galleon.
Spain disputed the company’s claim to the treasure, which was worth an estimated US$500 million ($667.95 million).
A block of encrusted silver coins from the shipwreck of an 1804 galleon, on its first display to the media at a Ministry building, in Madrid, after a U.S. salvage company gave up following a five-year international ownership dispute. A Spanish court has definitely shelved a lawsuit against American treasure hunters that accused them of having destroyed an underwater archaeological site when they looted a sunken galleon for tons of precious coins over a decade ago.
Following a five-year legal battle in US courts, Odyssey had to return the treasure to Spain in 2012.
A separate case investigating whether the Odyssey had committed a crime by allegedly destroying the underwater site where it found the Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes ship was tossed out in 2016.
Now, another court has said that an appeal by Spanish archaeologists against that decision has been thrown out as well. This decision is not open to appeal.
In court documents seen by The Associated Press, the panel of three judges presiding over the court in the southern city of Cádiz said the five-year statute of limitations for the alleged crime had already passed.
But they also complained that a 2013 request made to the US for the owners of Odyssey to be questioned in the case was never heeded. “Even though we share our surprise, puzzlement, and even anger, for what we can only call the unprecedented course of this case, it would be senseless to let it go on if we consider the statute of limitation,” the judges wrote.
The Mercedes galleon was sunk by British ships near the Strait of Gibraltar in 1804. It was transporting 574,553 silver coins and 212 gold coins from metals that were mined and minted in the Andes.
Upon its return from the US, the treasure was given a home at Spain’s National Museum of Underwater Archaeology in the Mediterranean city of Cartagena.
120 Million Year Old Map Discovered Proof Of Advanced Ancient Civilization
A discovery by Bashkir scientists contradicts all traditional notions of human history: stone slabs which are 120 million years old and covered with the relief map of the Ural Region. This seems to be impossible. Scientists of Bashkir State University have found indisputable proofs of an ancient highly developed civilization’s existence.
The question is about a great plate found in 1999, with pictures of the region done according to an unknown technology. This is a real relief map. Today’s military has almost similar maps. The map contains civil engineering works: a system of channels with a length of about 12,000 km, weirs, powerful dams. Not far from the channels, diamond-shaped grounds are shown, whose destination is unknown.
The map also contains some inscriptions. Even numerous inscriptions. At first, the scientists thought that was the Old Chinese language. Though, it turned out that the subscriptions were done in a hieroglyphic-syllabic language of unknown origin.
The scientists never managed to read it “The more I learn the more I understand that I know nothing,” – the doctor of physical and mathematical science, professor of Bashkir State University, Alexandr Chuvyrov admits. Namely, Chuvyrov made that sensational find. Already in 1995, the professor and his post-graduate student from China Huan Hun decided to study the hypothesis of possible migration of the Old Chinese population to the territory of Siberia and Ural. In an expedition to Bashkiria, they found several rock carvings done in the Old Chinese language.
These finds confirmed the hypothesis of Chinese migrants. The subscriptions were read. They mostly contained information about trade bargains, marriage and death registration. Though, during the searches, notes dated the 18th century were found in archives of the Ufa governor-general. They reported about 200 unusual stone stabs which were situated not far from the Chandar village, Nurimanov Region. Chuvyrov and his colleague at once decided that stabs could be connected with Chinese migrants. Archive notes also reported that in the 17th-18th centuries, expeditions of Russian scientists who investigated the Ural Region had studied 200 white stabs with signs and patterns, while in the early 20th century, archaeologist A.Schmidt also had seen some white stabs in Bashkiria. This made the scientist start the search. In 1998, after having formed a team of his students, Chuvyrov launched the work. He hired a helicopter, and the first expedition carried a flying around of the places where the stabs were supposed to be.
Though, despite all efforts, the ancient stabs were not found. Chuvyrov was very upset and even though the stabs were just a beautiful legend. The luck was unexpected. During one of Chuvyrov’s trips to the village, ex-chairman of the local agricultural council, Vladimir Krainov, came to him (apropos, in the house of Krainov’s father, archaeologist Schmidt once staid) and said: “Are you searching for some stone stabs? I have a strange stab in my yard.” “At first, I did not take that report seriously, – Chuvyrov told. – Though, I decided to go to that yard to see it. I remember this day exactly: July 21, 1999. Under the porch of the house, the stab with some dents lied. The stab was so heavy that we together could not take it out. So I went to the city of Ufa, to ask for help.” In a week, work was launched in Chandar.
After having dug out the stab, the searches were stroke with its size: it was 148 cm high, 106 cm wide and 16 cm thick. While it weighed at least one ton. The master of the house-made special wooden rollers, so the stab was rolled out from the hole. The find was called “Dashka’s stone” (in honour of Alexandr Chuvyrov’s granddaughter born the day before it) and transported to the university for investigation. After the stab was cleaned of earth, the scientists could not entrust to their eyes… “At first sight, – Chuvyrov said, – I understood that was not a simple stone piece, but a real map, and not a simple map, but a three-dimensional. You can see it yourself.”
Dashka stone.
“How did we manage to identify the place? At first, we could not imagine the map was so ancient. Happily, the relief of today’s Bashkiria has not changed so much within millions of years. We could identify Ufa Height, while Ufa Canyon is the main point of our proofs because we carried out geological studies and found its track where it must be according to the ancient map. Displacement of the canyon happened because of tectonic stabs which moved from the East.
The group of Russian and Chinese specialists in the field of cartography, physics, mathematics, geology, chemistry, and Old Chinese language managed to precisely find out that the stab contains the map of the Ural region, with rivers Belya, Ufimka, Sutolka,” – Alexandr Chuvyrov said while showing the lines on the stone to the journalists. – You can see Ufa Canyon – the break of the earth’s crust, stretched out from the city of Ufa to the city of Sterlitimak. At the moment, Urshak River runs over the former canyon.”
The tablets appear to show a highly accurate topographical map of Bashkiria, a specific area of the Ural Mountains, at a scale of approximately 1:1.1 km.
The map is done on a scale of 1: 1.1 km. Alexandr Chuvyrov, being a physicist, has got into the habit of entrusting only to results of the investigation. While today there are such facts. The geological structure of the stab was determined: it consists of three levels. The base is 14 cm thick, made of the firmest dolomite. The second level is probably the most interesting, “made” of diopside glass. The technology of its treatment is not known to modern science. Actually, the picture is marked on this level. While the third level is 2 mm thick and made of calcium porcelain protecting the map from external impact. “It should be noticed, – the professor said, – that the relief has not been manually made by an ancient stonecutter. It is simply impossible. It is obvious that the stone was machined.” X-ray photographs confirmed that the stab was of artificial origin and has been made with some precision tools.
At first, the scientists supposed that the ancient map could have been made by the ancient Chinese, because of vertical inscriptions on the map. As well known, vertical literature was used in the Old Chinese language before the 3rd century. To check his supposition, professor Chuvyrov visited the Chinese empire library. Within 40 minutes he could spend in the library according to the permission he looked through several rare books, though no one of them contained literature similar to that one on the stab. After the meeting with his colleagues from Hunan University, he completely gave up the version about the “Chinese track.” The scientist concluded that porcelain covering the stab had never been used in China.
Although all the efforts to decipher the inscriptions were fruitless, it was found out that the literature had hieroglyphic-syllabic characters. Chuvyrov, however, states he has deciphered one sign on the map: it signifies the latitude of today’s city of Ufa. The longer the stab was studied, the more mysteries appeared. On the map, a giant irrigation system could be seen: in addition to the rivers, there are two 500-metre-wide channel systems, 12 dams, 300-500 metres wide, approximately 10 km long and 3 km deep each.
The dams most likely helped in turning water in either side, while to create them over 1 quadrillion cubic metres of earth was shifted. In comparison with that irrigation system, Volga-Don Channel looks like a scratch on today’s relief. As a physicist, Alexandr Chuvyrov supposes that now mankind can build only a small part of what is pictured on the map. According to the map, initially, the Belaya River had an artificial riverbed. It was difficult to determine even an approximate age of the stab. At first, radiocarbon analysis was carried out, afterwards levels of stab were scanned with uranium chronometer, though the investigations showed different results and the age of the stab remained unclear.
While examining the stone, two shells were found on its surface. The age of one of them – Navicopsina munitus of Gyrodeidae family – is about 500 million years, while the second one – Ecculiomphalus Princeps of Ecculiomphalinae subfamily – is about 120 million years. Namely that age was accepted as a “working version.”
“The map was probably created at the time when the Earth’s magnetic pole situated in the today’s area of Franz Josef Land, while this was exactly 120 million years ago, – professor Chuvyrov says. – The map we have is beyond of traditional perception of mankind and we need a long time to get used to it. We have got used to our miracle. At first, we thought that the stone was about 3,000 years. Though, that age was gradually growing, till we identified the shells ingrained in the stone to sign some objects. Though, who could guarantee that the shell was alive while being ingrained in the map? The map’s creator probably used a petrified find.” What could be the destination of the map? That is probably the most interesting thing. Materials of the Bashkir find were already investigated in the Centre of Historical Cartography in Wisconsin, USA. The Americans were amazed.
According to them, such a three-dimensional map could have only one destination – a navigational one, while it could be worked out only through the aerospace survey. Moreover, namely now in the US, work is being carried out at the creation of a world three-dimensional map like that. Though, the Americans intend to complete the work only in 2010.
The question is that while compiling such a three-dimensional map, it is necessary to work over too many figures. “Try to map at least a mountain! – Chuvyrov says. – The technology of compiling such maps demands super-power computers and aerospace survey from the Shuttle.” So, who then did create this map? Chuvyrov, while speaking about the unknown cartographers, is wary: “I do not like talks about some UFO and extraterrestrial. Let us call the author of the map simply – the creator.” It looks like those who lived and built at that time used only air transport means: there are no ways on the map. Or they, probably, used waterways.
There is also an opinion, that the authors of the ancient map did not live there at all, but only prepared that place for settlement through draining the land. This seems to be the most probable version, though nothing could be stated for the time being. Why not assume that the authors belonged to a civilization which existed earlier? The latest investigations of the map bring one sensation after another. Now, the scientists are sure of the map being only a fragment of a big map of the Earth. According to some hypotheses, there were totally of 348 fragments like that. The other fragments could be probably somewhere near there. In the outskirts of Chandar, the scientists took over 400 samples of soil and found out that the whole map had been most likely situated in the gorge of Sokolinaya Mountain (Falcon Mountain). Though, during the glacial epoch, it was tore to pieces. But if the scientists manage to gather the “mosaic,” the map should have an approximate size of 340 x 340 m.
After having studied the archive materials, Chuvyrov ascertained approximate place where four pieces could be situated: one could lie under one house in Chandar, the other – under the house of merchant Khasanov, the third – under one of the village baths, the fourth – under the bridge’s pier of the local narrow-gauge railway. In the meanwhile, Bashkir scientists send out information about their finds to different scientific centres of the world; in several international congresses, they have already given reports on the subject: The Civil Engineering Works Map of an Unknown Civilization of South Ural.” The find of Bashkir scientists has no analogues. With only one exclusion. When the research was at its height, a small stone – chalcedony – got to professor Chuvyrov’s table, containing a similar relief. Probably somebody, who saw the stab wanted to copy the relief. Though, who and why?
