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‘Jurassic Pompeii’ yields thousands of ‘squiggly wiggly’ fossils

‘Jurassic Pompeii’ yields thousands of ‘squiggly wiggly’ fossils

Palaeontologist Tim Ewin is standing in a quarry, recalling the calamity that’s written in the rocks under his mud-caked boots.

'Jurassic Pompeii' yields thousands of 'squiggly wiggly' fossils
Fossilised seafloor animals from the Jurassic, all piled on top of each other

“They tried to protect themselves, adopting the stress position of pulling their arms in,” he continues. “But it was all in vain; you can see where their arms got snagged open, right up to the crown. They were pushed into the sediment and buried alive.”

There’s a little smile creeping across Tim’s face, and he’s got reason to be happy. The misfortune that struck this place 167 million years ago has delivered to him an extraordinary collection of fossil animals in what is unquestionably one of the most important Jurassic dig sites ever discovered in the UK. We can’t be precise about the location of the excavation for security reasons, but you’ll recognise from the gorgeous, honey-coloured limestone that we’re somewhere in the Cotswold country.

Things have changed a bit since Jurassic times, though.

No quaint villages and dry-stone walls back then; these parts were covered by a shallow sea, maybe 20-40m deep. And it was a damn sight warmer than your traditional English summer. The movement of tectonic plates means Britain was roughly where North Africa is today. So you can imagine the types of creatures that would have been living on this ancient, near-tropical seafloor.

The fossils are in clay layers that intersperse the Cotswold limestone

Stalked animals called sea lilies were tethered to the bed in great “meadows”. Their free-floating cousins, the feather stars, were ambling by, looking to grab the same particles of food. And down in the sediment, starfish and brittle stars were feeling their way across the bottom with their fives arms, no doubt bumping into the occasional passing sea urchin or sea cucumber. It’s exactly this scene that’s preserved in the rocks of our mystery quarry. The quantities involved are astonishing. Not hundreds, not thousands, but perhaps tens of thousands of these animals that scientists collectively call “the echinoderms”. It’s a great name, derived from the Greek for “hedgehog”, or “spiny”, “skin”. What is a sea urchin, if not an “underwater hedgehog“?

Echinoderms- Animals of the sea floor

  • Some may look like plants but they are all animals
  • Skeletons are made from calcite (calcium carbonate)
  • They display radial symmetry, in multiples of five
  • They have no brain but do have a nervous system
  • Arms and tube feet are moved by pumping seawater
  • Lost parts can be regrown, much like a gecko’s tail

Most of what we know about the deep history of echinoderms from British fossils comes from the few specimens that emerged from railway cuttings and quarrying in the Victorian age. Tim Ewin’s institution, the Natural History Museum in London, has these items tucked away in a small space that will now be utterly inadequate to accommodate the truckload of new examples that is coming.

The individual calcite plates, or ossicles, that made up the skeletal frames are preserved

“In this age of a rock from the Middle Jurassic, only two species of starfish were known, represented by five specimens,” he says. “In just a few days of collecting here, we’ve got 12 starfish specimens, and expect to find many more.

“And it’s the same for the comatulids, or stemless crinoids (feather stars) – 200 years’ worth of collecting is represented at the museum by about 25 specimens. Here, we’ve probably got 25 specimens just under our feet, and we’ve collected over 1,000.”

The NHM was given only a few days in the private quarry to collect the specimens

But it’s also the quality of the preservation that’s jaw-dropping. Lean in close to a slab of rock that’s just been cleaned up and you’ll observe what, at first sight, reminds you of a plate of noodles. It is in fact a great mass of fossil arms from who knows how many sea lilies. You can clearly discern the individual calcite plates, or ossicles, that made up the skeletal frames of these animals when they were alive. What’s more, the specimens are fully articulated. That’s to say, all parts are still intact. Everything is captured in three dimensions.

“We talk about the fives (radial symmetry) in echinoderms. They’re all there; you can see them,” says NHM senior fossil preparator Mark Graham. Specialists in fossil echinoderms believe the Cotswold quarry will help them better categorise the species’ different life stages, their ecology and their proper position in evolutionary history. To paraphrase that old cliche: the textbooks might not need to be rewritten but some extensive notes will almost certainly have to be added to the margins.

The arms of another crinoid are imprinted on a piece of Jurassic wood

And the new learning will go wider still, says echinoderm specialist Jeff Thompson.

“We live in a changing world today, and if we want to understand how climate change might affect not only the future of humanity but of all life on Earth’s surface, then the echinoderms are one of the best groups to study,” he tells me.

“We know quite well what happened to them through a variety of mass extinctions, so their experience can be really helpful as we try to understand the major changes in biodiversity across geological time.”

Sally Hollingworth is half-standing, half-sitting at the edge of a pool of muddy water. She’s busy trying to ease yet more feather stars from the clay layers that intersperse the quarry’s limestone units.

She’s gently prodding with a spatula, attempting to get under the specimens to lift them without breaking them.

“I call them ‘squiggly wigglies’,” she laughs. “The stalked crinoids, I call those ‘stalkie walkies’.”

It’s Sally and her husband, Neville, that the NHM have to thank for finding this marvellous site. The pair are keen amateur palaeontologists. They spend their weekends investigating the Cotswold hills and their surrounds, looking for interesting rocks. The most promising items they take home to “his and hers” studios (a shed and a garage) where they use air abrasion tools to lift off any obscuring sediment. It was while cooped up during lockdown that Sally and Neville first identified the potential of the quarry. After examining the location on Google Earth and comparing it with geological maps of the area, they sought permission from the landowner for a recce, which Sally says seemed somewhat underwhelming at the time.

“We were finding only tiny fragments of Jurassic sea creatures and we said, ‘well, OK, let’s take a slab home and see what we can reveal if we can clean it up’,” she recalls.

“I remember Nev shouting from the garage, ‘Sal, Sal! You’ve got to come and have a look at this!’ It was this beautiful sea lily emerging, coming to life, from the slab.”

Anatomy of a Crinoid (Sea Lily)

  • Sea lilies are the stalked variety of crinoids
  • Adult animals anchor themselves to the seabed
  • Their crowns are pointed into the water current
  • Feathery pinnules catch floating food particles
  • This detritus is propelled down towards a mouth

When Tim Ewin was notified, he immediately recognised the quarry’s importance and arranged for an expert team to come in and conduct a systematic search. Sally and Neville, far from being pushed aside by the professionals, are integral members of the group. Their local knowledge and homemade elderflower cordial are greatly appreciated.

Working the site is a mucky business. Recent rains have turned the floor of the quarry into a mud bath, and the precise and careful process of fossil excavation means the researchers have no choice but to get down on their hands and knees in the sticky mess.

“Some nice things are being protected by overturned food trays. It might not look like it in all this mud but there are actually some places where we’re not supposed to put our feet,” says NHM curator Zoe Hughes. “But there’s such an abundance, it’s maybe not such a concern,” quips colleague Katie Collins. “There’s such a bonanza of stuff.”

Slabs go through a triage process to select the best fossils for future study

The focus is those clay layers. These hold the mass of echinoderms. The context appears to be a busy swathe of sea-bottom where nutrients were constantly being delivered to the site. You see this in the occasional chunk of Jurassic wood that pokes out from the goo. Maybe there was a delta not far away that was directing food-laden waters to this scene. This can explain the abundance of fossil animals but it doesn’t explain their supreme preservation. For that, we have to return to the idea of a calamity. The clue to the drama is recorded in the harder, more sand-rich bands of clay – a signal of a sudden shift towards a more energetic environment.

“What we have is something very suggestive of a dramatic mudflow,” explains Zoe. “We have this happy little ecosystem and then, boom! – something catastrophic happens.

“Perhaps there was an earthquake that caused the mudslide and this came in and covered everything up. This is why the preservation is so amazing because the scavengers couldn’t then get to all those animals to pick them apart.”

As Neville Hollingworth likes to put it: “What we’ve got here is a sort of Jurassic Pompeii.”

NHM senior fossil preparator Mark Graham cleans up the fossils using a blast of air and powder
Fossil

Archaeologists discover a 6th-century coin hoard in ancient Phanagoria

Archaeologists discover a 6th-century coin hoard in ancient Phanagoria

“Treasures are not often found,” explains Vladimir Kuznetsov, head of the Phanagoria archaeological expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “As a rule, they are evidence of catastrophic events in people’s lives, as a result of which the one who hid money or valuable items was unable to return and use their savings.

A rare find made by archaeologists in July this year is associated with a dramatic and mysterious page in the history of medieval Phanagoria – the capital of one of the earliest Christian dioceses in Russia.”

This was the third season of the Phanagoria expedition of the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The archaeologists are examining when the city was destroyed in a fire, which may have taken place as the result of an attack by Huns or Turks. Residential buildings, wineries, public buildings perished in the fire, and a large amount of ash, soot, fragments of burnt wooden floors of buildings, broken dishes and the remains of burnt grain in amphoras speak of a significant scale of the disaster. Finds associated with this event include a broken marble countertop and a baptismal font, which bear witness to the destruction of an early Christian basilica nearby.

In previous years, a gold coin of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (527 – 565) was found in the layer of fire. It made it possible to establish the date of the catastrophe: the second or third decades of the 6th century. Not far from this find, in a layer of conflagration, the treasure of copper coins of the 2021 season was found.

“The very context of his find speaks of the extraordinary circumstances under which he was hidden, of the sudden attack of enemies,” said Vladimir Kuznetsov. “In a hurry, a resident of Phanagoria hid a bundle with 80 coins in the throat of an old broken amphora that had turned up under his arm and covered the hole with earth.

Copper staters found in 2021.

Similar events took place elsewhere. For example, in the neighbouring town of Kepy, the owner of one of the houses managed to hide the treasure in the hearth, but he himself was killed by an arrow near it. And at the settlement “Volna1” the treasure of gold was wrapped in a rag and thrown into a utility pit, its owner managed to put part of the coins under a stone, and spilled the other on the floor of the house. In the city of Kitey, on the opposite side of the Kerch Strait, the stater treasure was hidden in a home stove.”

Phanagoria was part of the Bosporan Kingdom, a Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula in the Black Sea region. The kingdom lasted for about 800 years before declining at the end of the fourth century AD.

As the researchers explained, according to the composition of the treasure, one can determine what money was in use in the internal market of the Bosporus in the 6th century.

These are copper staters of the Bosporan kings of the late III – first half of the fourth century. The last issue of the Bosporan coin was carried out in 341; later, no money was minted in the Bosporan. However, a huge mass of staters made of cheap copper-lead alloy continued to circulate in the Bosporus for several centuries. The role of “expensive” money was played by Byzantine gold: that is why the treasure of copper coins and the solidus of Justinian were found almost nearby.

Expansion of the Bosporan Kingdom from the 5th century BC to the 1st century AD.

Researchers believe that the unique finds are associated with turbulent historical events in the Bosporus in the sixth century when the Bosporus cities voluntarily became part of the Byzantine Empire.

The transition of the Bosporus from the rule of the nomadic Huns to the rule of Byzantium took place during the reign of Emperor Justin I in 518-527. Perhaps the first mention of the episcopal see in Phanagoria in 519 is connected with this event: the Phanagorian bishop John put his signature on the documents of the Patriarchal Synod in Constantinople, to which the Phanagorian diocese was directly subordinate.

The Byzantine writer Procopius of Caesarea noted that Kepa and Phanagoria were “taken and destroyed to the ground by the barbarians who lived in neighbouring lands.” It is customary to associate these events with one of the two fires of the 6th century, traces of which archaeologists have identified in Phanagoria.

Who and when destroyed Phanagoria in the 6th century? Some researchers associate the events described by Procopius of Caesarea with the nomadic Huns.

They defeated the Byzantine garrison in the city and killed the military leader (tribune). At the turn of the 520s and 530s, Emperor Justinian I dispatched a mercenary army, reinforced by the Goths. The city of Bosporus (Kerch) was returned to the rule of Byzantium. Perhaps at the same time, Kep and Phanagoria returned under the rule of Byzantium.

According to another version, the destruction of the cities of Kepa and Phanagoria, as reported by Procopius of Caesarea, took place already in the middle of the 6th century, when the Avars who fled under the pressure of the Turks approached the Bosporan Kingdom: a message about this event is found in Evagrius Scholastica’s “Church History”. The Turks themselves appeared in the region in the 570s.

In Phanagoria, as in other nearby cities, archaeologists have discovered two layers of 6th-century fires. The first, early layer of the conflagration, in which shells from throwing machines were found, testifies that in the first half of the 6th century Phanagoria was devastated and destroyed. These events are associated with the revolt against Byzantium of its vassal – the Hunnic leader Gord (Grod) in 528 or 534.

The second layer of the fire in Phanagoria dates back to the end of the 6th century and is associated with the events of 576 – the campaign of the Turks against the Bosporan Kingdom when most of the fortresses and small towns of the Kerch and Taman peninsulas were damaged.

“The gold coin of Justinian I found two years ago in Phanagoria serves as proof that the new treasure is associated with the second, late fire of the 6th century. But who exactly – the Avars or the Turks – destroyed the capital of the Phanagorian diocese remains unknown so far. The new treasure from Phanagoria is invaluable evidence of historical events and the economy of the early Middle Ages” added Kuznetsov.

Arkaim: Stonehenge of Russia and its Unspeakable Secrets

Arkaim: Stonehenge of Russia and its Unspeakable Secrets

Who in his life had never heard of Stonehenge? An enigmatic prehistoric monument north of the city of Salisbury, England, for more than 5,000 years, today it is a place that continues to develop speculation and theories beyond rationality.

At ground level, the Stonehenge ruins look a bit casual and chaotic, but the aerial view reveals the ring’s order. The place began modestly around 3100 AD. Pr. Kr. Like a wide ring of wooden poles surrounded by a ditch and a bank. In about 1,500 years, famous giant rock slabs, some brought from hundreds of miles away, have been placed in the interior.

The terrain was excavated, radiographed, measured and examined. Despite everything that has been learned about its age and construction, its purpose remains one of the world’s greatest mysteries.

It’s no secret, though, that Stonehenge isn’t the only megalithic circle of stones in the world. Some exist as collections of circles, such as the Senegambian circles in the Gambia, Senegal, which are considered a single circle on the world list but are actually made up of more than 1,000 to 15,000 individual monuments spread over a territory of 100 km wide and 350 km in length

There are many of these Neolithic sites in Britain, but they do not have a monopoly on the Henges. Some of the most interesting Neolithic monuments stand out within the borders of the former Soviet Union. Arkaim is one of those forgotten places, but they are an important part of the mysterious constructions.

Arkaim, beyond the history books

Arkaim: Stonehenge of Russia and its Unspeakable Secrets
Reconstruction of Arkaim archaeological site in Russia.

Some consider the Archaic to be the most important and enigmatic archaeological site in Northern Europe. This site is embroiled in controversy and is sometimes called Stonehenge, Russia. It is located on the outskirts of the Chelyabinsk region, south of the Urals, slightly north of the border with Kazakhstan.

According to experts, Arkaim is a remnant of an ancient settlement, which is essentially a village fortified by two large round stone walls. The enigmatic site covers an area of ​​about 20,000 square meters and consists of two house wheels separated by a street with a central square. 

Discovered by a team of Russian archaeologists, causing a wave of excitement throughout the archaeological community. The site and its artefacts dating back to the 17th century. Pr. AD, and it is thought to have been built 4,000-5,000 years ago, which is interesting to attribute to the same age group as Stonehenge.

Arkaim aerial view.

Arkaim has another name, it is called swastika in the city or, alternatively, the city of Mandala. It has this name for several reasons: first, if you use fantasy, the layout of the homes around the central square almost looks like a swastika. As we all know, the swastika is a sign of appropriation of the Nazi and so-called Aryan races and was adopted by modern groups of white chiefs. 

The second reason is that they originated from the Sintashta culture, which is an Indian and Iranian race from the ancient Eurasian steppes or, more generally, an Aryan race. So there are those who argue that Archim is actually the birthplace of the higher white race. While few in basic science see any value in this reasoning, there are changes.

Secrets of arching

Comparison of Stonehenge and Arkaim.

There are more interesting secrets on the site, such as linking it to a politically incorrect aspect of our culture. This was of great interest to archaeoastronomical, hence the reason for his connection with Stonehenge. Some experts said Stonehenge was built for astronomical observations. In fact, it is technically known as an observatory. This is because Stonehenge has allowed and may still allow the observation of 10 astronomical phenomena using 22 elements, and some argue that Archim allows the observation of 18 phenomena using 30 elements.

This basically means that certain events in the sky could be observed and followed by the area in certain ways and from different situations and that Arkaim offers more observable events than Stonehenge itself. In other words, it would seem that Arkaim is an even better astronomical observatory than its namesake. According to Russian archaeologist KK Bystrushkin, Stonehenge offers a 10-degree arc observation accuracy of one degree, and Arkaim offers a 1-minute arc accuracy. This precision is unheard of in the time allowed, descending from the ancient Greek Almagest, built 2,000 years later.

So it may seem obvious to some, but the fact that these places were built apparently deliberately to function as astronomical observatories and even as certain calendars until the same experience was achieved in the great founding empires like the Egyptians. and the Greeks are apparently strong evidence for attributing the further development and sophistication of these prehistoric cultures.

But apart from their history, it is interesting that Stonehenge and Archim are in the same latitude. However, “Arkaim” has also become a reference point for the UFO community, it is already customary to observe many UFOs, strange flashes of light in the sky or even some mysterious fog moving like an intellectual object.

But in addition to the well-known area, Archim also has a much more mysterious area where excavations are still taking place and visitors are not allowed. Even conspiracy theorists warn that not even the locals themselves fall into the mysterious area. Experts believe this theory is due to the energy flowing throughout the area, with unimaginable power that can make anyone lose their head.

There was a case where an archaeology student claimed to have heard a voice calling her from the centre of the building. She approached what happened next, only she knows. Over time, he said, he accepted the ghosts of the former inhabitants of Archim. Apparently, she reached another dimension and couldn’t stand it, she had to be admitted to a psychiatric centre. On closer analysis, curiously similar incidents occurred after the discovery of the Egyptian pyramids.

Because of all these mysterious phenomena over the centuries, the locals have always believed that it is a sacred place. An example can be found in the fact that pilgrims travel all year round to get healing water from the nearby river Bolshaya, and also used clay in the summer to treat various diseases.

Is our true origin hidden from us?

Mysterious structures such as Arkaim offer clues to the existence of an unknown or lost civilization in our distant past. Arkaim is just one example of rich archaeological gifts hidden deep in Russia. The country’s industrial progress has lost similar places, such as Sarkel, a limestone and brick fortress built by the Khazar culture in the 830s or 840s and flooded by the Russian government in 1952 due to the construction of the Tsimlyansk depository.

A similar aspect could be seen all over the world, but due to secrecy and the lack of cooperation between governments, or even to eradicate our origins, they have not yet been researched, analyzed, let alone discovered places that could decipher our true origins.

Discovery at Dartmoor mine rewriting more than 1,000 year’s worth of history

Discovery at Dartmoor mine rewriting more than 1,000 year’s worth of history

A new discovery at a Dartmoor mine in England dates human activity there back potentially by more than 1,000 years. Initial examination of waste deposits at Kelly Mine, an iron ore mine near Lustleigh, reveals that iron-smelting occurred there far earlier than the contemporary mining activity for which the site is renowned.

Kelly Mine, which operated from the 18th century until 1951, produced a unique type of iron oxide that was utilized for a number of industrial applications.

A concentration of slag was discovered when volunteers were repairing one of the old mine workings, and it turned out to be leftovers from bloomery smelting, an ancient method used to make wrought iron from iron ore.

Dr. Lee Bray, an archaeologist at Dartmoor National Park, has been inspecting and recording the fragments.

He said: “The finds are very exciting because it puts the history of human activity at Kelly Mine back probably by over a thousand years, certainly much earlier than the 18th Century.

An exciting discovery has been made at Kelly Mine on Dartmoor

“The types and quantities of slag present suggest iron was being produced on a relatively small scale, probably just for local needs.

The material looks unlike the typical waste from Medieval or Roman iron production, and it is possible we are looking at evidence for prehistoric smelting on the site. It’s a valuable insight into a lesser-known part of Dartmoor’s history.”

“While its tin mining and industrial sites attract lots of attention, it’s fascinating to discover fresh information that shows a wider range of minerals have been exploited in the region.”

Kelly Mine is one of Dartmoor’s important industrial historical sites. The first reference to workings dates to around 1797 but the first official record of the mine is in 1877.

It ultimately shut down in 1951.  For years, the equipment and location sat idle until 1984, when the landowner leased the property to a group of mining enthusiasts.

Ancient Roman Road Discovered at the Bottom of Venice Lagoon

Ancient Roman Road Discovered at the Bottom of Venice Lagoon

In the Venice lagoon, an ancient and now submerged road was unearthed in a location that would have been accessible by land 2,000 years ago during the Roman era.

Fantina Madricardo at the Marine Science Institute in Venice and her colleagues made the discovery after mapping the floor of an area of the lagoon called the Treporti channel.

“We believe it was part of the network of Roman roads in the northeast of the Venice area,” says Madricardo.

The remains of a Roman road have been found underneath Venice, according to a new Italian study.

In the 1980s, the archaeologist Ernesto Canal proposed that there are ancient human-made structures submerged in the Venice lagoon.

This suggestion prompted decades of debate, but couldn’t be confirmed until now as the previously available technology was insufficiently advanced to explore such a challenging environment.

“The area is very difficult to investigate by divers because there are strong currents and the water in the Venice lagoon is very turbid,” says Madricardo.

The team used a multibeam echosounder mounted on a boat to form a picture of what lies underwater. This device sends out acoustic waves that bounce off the lagoon floor, allowing the team to reconstruct images of whatever structures are down there.

Ancient Roman Road Discovered at the Bottom of Venice Lagoon
Reconstruction of the Roman road in the Treporti channel in the Venice lagoon

The researchers found 12 structures up to 2.7 metres tall and 52.7 metres long that extended along 1140 metres in a southwest to the north-eastern direction in the configuration of a road.

The presence and layout of these structures suggest that there may have been a settlement in the area.

It was then submerged about 2000 years ago – partly due to human activity that diverted the flow of rivers and starved the area of the sediment that was needed to keep it above water.

“Presumably, the road is giving access to this rich environment.

The margins of the land and the water are full of resources that people might have been exploiting,” says James Gerrard at Newcastle University in the UK. “It’s not normal to find, if you like, ‘drowned’ landscapes or be able to study them in this kind of detail.”

Scientists decode how ropes were made 40,000 years ago

Scientists decode how ropes were made 40,000 years ago

Prof. Nicholas Conard and members of his team, present the discovery of a tool used to make rope in today‘s edition of the journal: Archäologische Ausgrabungen Baden-Württemberg.

The context of the rope-making tool at the time of discovery in August 2015 .

Rope and twine are critical components in the technology of mobile hunters and gatherers. In exceptional cases impressions of string have been found in fired clay and on rare occasions string was depicted in the contexts of Ice Age art, but on the whole, almost nothing is known about string, rope and textiles form the Paleolithic.

A key discovery by Conard’s team in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany and experimental research and testing by Dr. Veerle Rots and her team form the University of Liège is rewriting the history of rope.

The find is a carefully carved and beautifully preserved piece of mammoth ivory 20.4 cm in length with four holes between 7 and 9 mm in diameter. Each of the holes is lined with deep, and precisely cut spiral incisions.

The new find demonstrates that these elaborate carvings are technological features of rope-making equipment rather than just decoration.

Close up of the rope making tool from mammoth ivory from Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, ca. 40,000 years old .

Similar finds in the past have usually been interpreted as shaft-straighteners, decorated artworks or even musical instruments.

Thanks to the exceptional preservation of the find and rigorous testing by the team in Liège, the researchers have demonstrated that the tool was used for making rope out of plant fibers available near Hohle Fels.

“This tool answers the question of how rope was made in the Paleolithic”, says Veerle Rots, “a question that has puzzled scientists for decades.”

Excavators found the rope-making tool in archaeological horizon Va near the base of the Aurignacian deposits of the site. Like the famous female figurines and the flutes recovered from the Hohle Fels, the rope-making tool dates to about 40,000 years ago, the time when modern humans arrived in Europe.

The discovery underlines the importance of fiber technology and the importance of rope and string for mobile hunters and gatherers trying to cope with challenges of life in the Ice Age.

Prof. Conard’s team has excavated at Hohle Fels over each of the last 20 years, and it is this long-term commitment that has over and over again paid off, to make Hohle Fels one of the best known Paleolithic sites worldwide.

Hohle Fels and neighboring sites from the Ach and Lone Valleys have been nominated for UNESCO World Cultural Heritage status.

Rope making tool from mammoth ivory from Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany, ca. 40,000 years old.

The excavations at Hohle Fels near Schelklingen in the Ach Valley are funded by the HeidelbergCement AG, the Ministry of Science of Baden-Württemberg and the Heidelberger Academie of Sciences.

Artefact Found in Germany Hints at Neanderthal Hunting Practices

Artifact Found in Germany Hints at Neanderthal Hunting Practices

Neanderthals from the Swabian Jura hunted horses and reindeer with hafted leaf-shaped stone points 65,000 years ago. The evolution of hunting is recorded by a recently found leaf tip from the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hohle Fels Cave.

Artifact Found in Germany Hints at Neanderthal Hunting Practices
Hohle Fels. Leaf point

A team under the direction of Professor Nicholas Conard for the University of Tübingen and the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment in southern Germany recovered the artefact underlying a layer dating to 65,000 years ago, which represents a minimum age for the find.

Microscopic studies document that this carefully made projectile point was mounted on a wooden shaft and used as a thrusting spear to kill a large game. Results of the excavations and analysis of the leaf point appear in two papers in this week’s publication of Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg and Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte.

“The new discovery represents the first time a leaf point has been recovered from a modern excavation, allowing researchers to study the fresh find with state-of-the-art methods,” says Conard. The last time researchers in the region recovered such artefacts was in 1936.

The chert artefact is 7.6 cm long, 4.1 cm wide, 0.9 cm thick and weighs 28 grams. Conard adds that “our results document how the tool was made, used and why it was discarded.” Thanks to a series of four ESR-dates the find is securely dated to over 65,000 years ago.

Until now finds of leaf points were interpreted as belonging to the period between 45,000 and 55,000 years ago, and belonging to the last cultural phase of the Neanderthals in Central Europe. Conard reports “The new results demonstrate that our assumptions about the dating of the cultural groups of the late Neanderthals were wrong and need revision.”

Dr. Veerle Rots from the University of Liège in Belgium conducted detailed microscopic analyses of the leaf point. Damage to the tip indicates that the artefact was used as a hafted spear point and that the spear was likely thrust into prey rather than being thrown.

Rots’ work documents how Neanderthals used plant-based glue and bindings made from plant fibres, sinew or leather to secure the leaf point to the spear. Neanderthals clearly used the spear for hunting. While they re-sharpened the tool it broke, leading to its discard.

Rots remarks “Neanderthals were expert stone knappers and knew exactly how to make and use complex technologies combining multiple parts and materials to produce and maintain deadly weapons.” Earlier fossil humans during the time of Homo heidelbergensis used sharpened wooden spears for hunting, but these spears lacked mounted stone points like those used by Neanderthals.

Hohle Fels. The chert artefact in finding a position.

The leaf point from Hohle Fels will be on display at the “Find of the Year” at the Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren from July 22 until January 2022.

“Hohle Fels is a remarkable site where after 25 years of excavation by the current team, spectacular discoveries from the period of the Neanderthals and early modern humans are still being made,” says Dr. Stefanie Kölbl, the director of the Museum of Prehistory.

The Museum of Prehistory in Blaubeuren is the central research museum for topics related to the UNESCO World Heritage sites of the Swabian Caves and for Ice Age Art.

It contains many of the earliest examples of figurative art including the Venus of Hohle Fels and the earliest musical instruments known worldwide.

Rock-Cut Chambers Unearthed in Turkey’s House of the Muses

Rock-Cut Chambers Unearthed in Turkey’s House of the Muses

Rock-Cut Chambers Unearthed in Turkey’s House of the Muses

Within the scope of ongoing excavations in the ancient city of Zeugma, located in the southeastern province of Gaziantep’s Belkıs district, two rock chambers have been unearthed in the area previously discovered and called the “House of Muses” due to the mosaics on its floor.

Professor Kutalmış Görkay, the head of the excavations, said that the rock chambers would be opened to visitors after the completion of the works.

The excavations, which started in 2005, are ongoing in the ancient city of Zeugma, which is located on the Euphrates River in the form of two cities facing each other.

Recently, two rock chambers were brought to light in the House of Muses, which was discovered in 2007.

Görkay stated that the rock chambers were found after the excavation of 16 meters of earth fill in the House of Muses, adding, “We excavated 16 meters of earth fill above the rock chambers that we identified and shifted the work in this direction.

After taking this weight on it, we started excavating inside the rock chambers. Work is still continuing in this chamber, where the earth inside was emptied. We will provide the protection and reinforcement of these chambers. In particular, there are risky cracks on the ceilings in the chamber.

We will complete the excavations in the other rock chamber this year, too. Later, we plan to open these areas to visitors by taking protective measures and ensuring room security with injections or steel structures.”

Pointing out that the rock chambers were used as dining rooms and that the mosaics unearthed from the house carry traces of intellectual life, Görkay said: “Muses are the most important personifications of classical Greek education, especially in antiquity.

In the mosaic found in this house, goddesses and personifications believed to contribute to Greek literature, history, poetry and music are depicted.

We named it the ‘House of Muses’ because of this mosaic. When we found the Muses mosaic in 2007, we decided to continue our work. The house shows us traces of the intellectual life of its owner at that time.”

Stating that the ancient city of Zeugma was one of the most important cities in Anatolia, especially on the Eastern Roman border, Görkay said that the excavations in the House of Muses, which have been ongoing since 2007, provided important information about the private lives, personal preferences and identities of the inhabitants of Zeugma.

“When we look at the places and the general structure of the house, we think that Zeugma belonged to a family having better than the middle-class economy.

These houses may have one or two courtyards. Courtyards are areas where air and water enter, where rainwater is collected and used as water collection basins. In these wet areas, we see more water-related scenes.

The courtyards of these houses were also used for dinner parties. The courtyards were filled with water, helping the house to stay cool during hot weather.

The two rock chambers found here may also have been used as dining rooms. We are currently working on reinforcement. We aim to open them to visitors as soon as possible,” he said.