For the past 46,000 years, a small bird that perished in the last ice age was frozen, protected from deterioration and scavenger until the body in Siberian permafrost was found by two Russians searching for fossil mammoth tusks.
Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, who was with the ivory hunters, Boris Berezhnov and Spartak Khabrov, when they spotted the bird, said that the bird was in such fine condition that it seemed “like it had] died just a few days ago,”
Dalén told Live Science in an email. “The bird is in pristine condition,” The discovery is remarkable, as “small animals like this would normally disintegrate very quickly after death due to scavengers and microbial activity.”
The frozen flier is a one-of-a-kind find, too: It’s the only near-intact bird carcass documented from the last ice age, Dalén added.
When the fossil hunters first uncovered the bird in September 2018, Dalén and his colleagues had no idea of the mystery bird’s age or species. So, Dalén “collected a couple of feathers and a small piece of tissue for radiocarbon dating and DNA sequencing,” he said.
The 46,000-year-old bird’s delicate feet are still in good shape.
He brought the ice age samples to his lab, where postdoctoral researcher Nicolas Dussex, the lead author of a new study on the bird, analyzed the remains.
Radiocarbon dating revealed that the bird lived during the same time as other ice age beasts, including mammoths, horses, woolly rhinos, bison, and lynx.
To discover the bird’s species, the researchers sequenced its mitochondrial DNA, genetic data that is passed down through the maternal line.
Although the bird’s mitochondrial DNA was fragmentary — there were “many millions of short DNA sequences,” Dalén said, a common occurrence in ancient specimens — the team was able to piece together these short sequences with the help of a computer program.
Then, the scientists took the finished mitochondrial DNA puzzle and searched for a match in an online database that has the genetic sequences of nearly every bird alive today. The results revealed that the ice age bird was a female horned lark (Eremophila alpestris).
This discovery sheds light on the transformation of the so-called mammoth steppe. When this bird was alive, the land was a mix of steppe (unforested grassland) and tundra (treeless, frozen ground), according to pollen records from 50,000 to 30,000 years ago.
When the last ice age ended about 11,700 years ago, the mammoth steppe transitioned into the three main Eurasian environments that exist today: the northern tundra, the taiga (a coniferous forest) in the middle, and the steppe in the south said Dalén, the senior researcher on the new study.
Nowadays, there are two subspecies of horned lark: “one living on the tundra in the far north of Eurasia and the other in the steppe in the south, in Mongolia and its neighboring countries,” Dalén said.
The horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), also known as the shore lark in Europe, is a small songbird that breeds across the northern hemisphere. It has 42 formally recognized subspecies that are divided into six different clades, each of which could warrant reclassification into distinct species clusters.
It appears that the newly discovered bird is an “ancestor of two different subspecies of the horned lark,” he said. As the environment changed, however, the horned lark diverged into the two evolutionary lineages that exist today, Dalén said.
“So all in all, this study provides an example of how climate change at the end of the last ice age could have led to the formation of new subspecies,” he said.
Excavation in Western Turkey Reveals 2,000-Year-Old Sculpture
Hurriyet Daily News reports that a fragment of a sculpture depicting the head of a priest has been unearthed in the large ancient city of Laodicea, which is located in western Turkey.
Laodicea on the Lycus, situated in the western province of Denizli, was an ancient metropolis and an obscure archaeological site prior to 2003. The city came to light only after the excavation activities that were started by the Denizli Museum.
A team of Turkish archaeologists headed by Pamukkale University’s Professor Celal Şimşek has been working in Laodicea continuously.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Şimşek said that they have unearthed an exciting artefact in the 15,000-seat western theatre of the 7,500-year-old city.
Noting that they are trying to restore the theatre by preserving it precisely, Şimşek said that they found a priest statue, which was believed to be around 2,000 years old, during the excavation works.
“There was an eight-meter embankment next to the fortification wall extending west from the stage building of the theatre and was built at the beginning of the fifth century.
We encountered a stunning statue of a priest during the removal of the filling, which was the waste of buildings destroyed by earthquakes,” Şimşek noted.
“It is among the most beautiful finds of the year 2020 in terms of its age, profession, and especially being a very vibrant portrait, which we can date to the late Hellenistic early empire period,” he added.
Ancient sources say that the city was founded in honour of Laodice, the wife of Seleucid King Antiochus II Theos, in the third century B.C. However, excavations revealed that the history of Laodicea dates back to 5,500 B.C.
The city had its golden period between the first and third centuries A.D and according to the calculations, the city’s population was around 80,000 during that period.
Considering that the ancient cities of Hierapolis and Tripolis had populations of around 40,000, Laodicea can be called a metropolis.
In three rescue excavations near the town of Radnevo, three different ancient settlements are discovered funded by a coal mining company, the most interesting was a new artefact was a statuette of the ancient goddess Athena, an early Thracian settlement a town from the time of the Roman Empire, and an early Byzantine and mediaeval Bulgarian settlement.
This bronze statuette of Ancient Thracian, Greek, and the Roman goddess Athena has been found on the fringes of a Roman Era settlement from the 2nd – 4th century AD near Radnevo in Southern Bulgaria during rescue digs sponsored by a state-owned coal-mining conglomerate.
The rescue excavations have been carried out by the Maritsa East Archaeological Museum in Radnevo with funding from the Maritsa East Mines Jsc company, a large state-owned coal mining company, on plots slated for coal mining operations.
An Early Ancient Thracian settlement has been discovered in the first researched location to the west of the town of Polski Gradets, Radnevo Municipality, Stara Zagora District, (in an area called “Dyado Atanasovata Mogila”), the Maritsa East Mines company has announced.
The Maritsa East Archaeological Museum has not announced the precise dating of the site but the Early Thracian period would typically refer to ca. 1,000 BC, the Early Iron Age.
The rescue excavations on the site of the Early Thracian settlements were carried out in September and October 2020 by a team led by Assoc. Prof. Krasimir Nikov and Assoc. Prof. Rumyana Georgieva, both of them archaeologists from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia.
The archaeologists have discovered the ruins of Thracian residential and “economic” buildings. The artefacts discovered in the site include anthropomorphic figurines, pottery vessels, ceramic spindle whorls, loom weights, millstones, stone tools used for polishing and hammering. Inside the ritual pits of the Early Thracian settlement near Radnevo, the archaeologists have found human burials.
In them, the humans were buried in a fetal position (in archaeological texts in Bulgaria and some other European and Asian countries, it is known as the “hocker position” – in which the knees are tucked against the chest).
The Maritsa East Museum says that the discovery of the Early Thracian settlement has yielded new “information about the settlement structure of the Thracian Age.”
A human burial with the deceased placed in a fetal position inside one of the ritual pits from the Early Thracian settlement discovered near Polski Gradets, Radnevo Municipality, in Southern Bulgaria
An aerial photograph of the archaeological site where the ruins of the Early Thracian settlement have been discovered in rescue digs by a coal-mining company near Bulgaria’s Radnevo.
In the second location subject to rescue excavations near Bulgaria’s Radnevo (in an area called “Boyalaka”), an archaeological team has found the periphery of a settlement from the 2nd – 4th century AD, i.e. the period of the Roman Empire, which also existed in later periods, all the way into the Middle Ages.
The excavations in question have covered a large area of about 40 decares (10 acres) on a plot slated for coal mining. The archaeological team has performed a total of 32 drillings at selected spots in order to designate areas for further more detailed excavations.
On the surface, the archaeologists have found pottery from different time periods – from the Roman Era, the Early Byzantine Era, the Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages – the time of the medieval Bulgarian Empire. The archaeologists have unearthed bricks, tegulae, and a glazed plate from the Late Antiquity period.
“We assume this was the periphery of a settlement from the Roman Era – 2nd – 4th century AD, which developed in the western direction. The eight [Roman] coins that we have found during the drillings also confirm this dating,” says Plamen Karailiev, Director of the Maritsa East Archaeological Museum in Radnevo. The most interesting artefact from the Roman Era settlement in question is a bronze statuette depicting Ancient Thracian, Greek, and the Roman goddess Athena.
This bronze statuette of Ancient Thracian, Greek, and Roman goddess Athena has been found on the fringes of a Roman Era settlement from the 2nd – 4th century AD near Radnevo in Southern Bulgaria during rescue digs sponsored by a state-owned coal-mining conglomerate.
“What’s generating interest is the bronze statuette depicting goddess Athena, which is the first of its kind to become part of the collection of [our] museum,” the museum director states. In the same location, however, the archaeologists have also discovered for the first time pottery fragments from the Bronze Age, which the Museum says is adding information to the site’s stratigraphy for future excavations to precede the coal mining there.
The third location excavated at the request of the state mining company near Radnevo in 2020 is near the town of Troyanovo (in an area called “Vehtite Lozya”), where an archaeological team has discovered structures from a settlement from the Early Byzantine period, i.e. Late and Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, and from the medieval period when the region at different times was part of the First and Second Bulgarian Empire and the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire).
There the archaeological team led by Krasimir Velkov from the Tvarditsa Museum of History and Tatyana Kancheva from the Maritsa East Museum of Archaeology has found a wide range of early medieval and medieval structures.
These include a total of 12 dwellings, 7 semi-dugouts which, however, were not used as homes, i.e. for residential purposes, a total of 14 pits, two household kilns and one hearth. The excavations of the “layer settlement from the Early Byzantine and medieval period” covered an area of 4 decares (app. 1 acre), and were carried out from early August until early October 2020.
The wide range of archaeological artefacts discovered on the site including a number of coins, including two Byzantine “cup-shaped” coins, the so-called scyphates, fragments from bronze and glass bracelets, an iron spur, iron arrow tips, small knives, an iron fishing hook, numerous spindle whorls, clay candlesticks, and lids of pottery vessels.
The 2020 rescue archaeological excavations in all three locations around the town of Radnevo, which is the largest coal mining area in Bulgaria, have been funded by the state-owned Maritsa East Mines company with a combined total of more than BGN 240,000 (app. EUR 120,000).
In a release, the Maritsa East Mines company points out that the first-ever rescue archaeological excavations in the area of Radnevo in Southern Bulgaria were carried out back in 1960 right at the start of the industrial coal mining there.
“For many decades now, Maritsa East Mines Jsc have contributed to the preservation of artefacts from past millennia. The extraction of coal begins only after the respective plots have been researched by archaeologists. The finds from these rescue archaeological expeditions, some of which are unique, have been processed and exhibited at the Maritsa East Museum of Archaeology in Radnevo,” the state-owned company says.
A very interesting archaeological artefact discovered during rescue excavations near Radnevo funded by the coal mining conglomerate has been an Ancient Thracian clay altar from the 4th century BC.
2,300-Year-Old Burials Discovered in Southern Greece
According to a Keep Talking Greece report, Greece’s Ministry of Culture and Sports announced the discovery of eight burials dated to the late fourth through the second century B.C. during rescue excavations on private land in southern Greece.
A recent rescue excavation by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Ilia on a privately owned land plot at the location “Droubes or Paliabela” within the Municipality of Ilida, the Regional Unit of Ilia.
According to the preliminary examination of the offerings, the tombs are dated from the end of the 4th to the 2nd century BC.
Three burial pits, four box-shaped ones and a tiled tomb roof tomb were found.
These tombs are part of the western necropolis of the ancient city of Ilida, from which more than 200 tombs dating to the late classical and Hellenistic period have been excavated to date.
“Particularly important are the findings of burial pit 1, including a bronze urn with its base, which has a floral decoration on the handles and lion heads at the junction of the handles with the rim and a bronze folding mirror,” the Ministry said.
From the first assessment of the offerings, the burial pit dates to the end of the 4th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC.
Apart from a large number of vessels from the Hellenistic period, mainly from the findings of the other tombs, a marble tombstone with a gabled crown stands out”, the Culture Ministry said.
Metal Detectorist In Scotland Unearths Rare Medieval Knife
Scottish history enthusiast and metal detectorist Craig Johnstone had worked out that woods near Penicuik were probably an escape route from a 1666 battle and he went to see what he could find.
But after coming across some musket balls which confirmed his theory, he unearthed something which turned out to be much older and unusual – a small, highly-decorated knife and scabbard which has been dated between 1191 and 1273.
“When I found the knife it was covered in mud,” he said. “The knife was stuck inside the scabbard and I thought it was the top of a railing someone had cut off.
“I showed it to a couple of people and one of my friends worked for Midlothian council – he took it into their archaeologist and straight away she knew it was a knife. The knife and its scabbard have been dated to between 1191 and 1273
The knife and its scabbard have been dated to between 1191 and 1273
“She advised us to heat it up slowly so we put it in the oven at really low heat with the door open. It was a pure Excalibur moment for me when I pulled out the handle and there was a blade.”
There were also two pieces of leather inside the scabbard to protect the knife. Mr Johnstone, who lives in Penicuik and has his own data communications business, took his find from Deanburn woods to an independent expert in Edinburgh. “He knew it was from the medieval period, but he didn’t realise how early it was – he thought maybe the 16th century.
“After that, I realised I had better report it to Treasure Trove – but they dismissed it as a ‘relatively modern item’.”
The knife is highly decorated and could have belonged to a nobleman.
Undeterred, he paid to have it carbon-dated privately and was told it could be over 800 years old, originating between 1191 and 1273.
“I wasn’t expecting it to come back with such an early date.”
He passed the carbon-dating details to Treasure Trove and the knife is due to be considered by the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel. Mr Johnstone said the knife was about the same size as a skean dhu. “The blade is only about three inches and it’s a high-grade, hollow-ground blade.
Craig Johnstone had only been metal-detecting for six months when he found the knife
“It’s a very highly decorated item for its time. The blade would have had a silver leaf on it, the handle is bronze would have been covered in gold.
“It would have belonged to a nobleman or someone of some substance.
“This is an important item. There’s never been one found before that’s as early as this.”
Mr Johnstone had only been metal-detecting for about six months when he made his discovery. He has since found a bronze age spearhead which has been dated around 1500 BC and he received £200 for it.
The scabbard, knife and leather insert were unearthed at Deanburn woods, Penicuik
The scabbard, knife and leather insert were unearthed at Deanburn woods, Penicuik.
But he says: “None of this is about the money or how much these things are worth. It’s about Scottish history and the knife getting the recognition it deserves.”
A Treasure Trove spokeswoman said: “This is a highly unusual object, comprising of a blade with a hilt and a metal scabbard with leather inside. While the leather and blade date from the medieval period, the hilt and scabbard are unusual for the period.
“Treasure Trove is still carrying out investigations into the object. It was due to be x-rayed as part of the investigation process, but this has unfortunately been delayed due to Covid-19 restrictions.”
Roman treasure discovered by chance: Hundreds of ancient gold coins hidden for centuries
A precious cache of ancient Roman coins discovered on the site of a former theatre in northern Italy is being investigated by archaeologists. The coins, at least 300 of them, date back to the late Roman imperial era and were discovered in the basement of the Cressoni Theatre in Como, north of Milan, in a soapstone jar.
An absolutely astonishing find that will provide significant information about several Roman emperors.
“We do not yet know in detail the historical and cultural significance of the find,” said Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli in a press release. “But that area is proving to be a real treasure for our archaeology. A discovery that fills me with pride.”
Whoever placed the jar in that place “buried it in such a way that in case of danger they could go and retrieve it,” said Maria Grazia Facchinetti, a numismatist — or expert in rare coins — at a press conference.
27 of the Roman coins were put on display during the reveal of the discovery.
“They were stacked in rolls similar to those seen in the bank today,” she said, adding the coins have engravings about emperors Honorius, Valentinian III, Leon I, Antonio, and Libio Severo “so they don’t go beyond 474 AD.”
“All of this makes us think that the owner is not a private subject, rather it could be a public bank or deposit,” Facchinetti added.
Archaeologists also uncovered a golden bar inside the jar.
According to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, coins were transferred to the Mibac restoration laboratory in Milan where archaeologists and restorers are examining them.
The ministry did not place a value on the coins. But reports in the Italian media suggest they could be worth millions of dollars.
The historic Cressoni Theater opened in 1807 before transitioning into a cinema and eventually closing in 1997. The site is not far from the Novum Comum forum area, where other important Roman artefacts were discovered, according to the ministry.
The find is one of several surprising discoveries of Roman coins in recent years.
In 2016, archaeologists unearthed a rare 2,000-year-old Roman a gold coin in Jerusalem. The coin featured the face of Nero, the Roman emperor best known for playing the fiddle while Ancient Rome burned, and was likely struck in 56-57 AD.
A quadrillion tons of diamonds lie deep beneath the Earth’s surface It was discovered at the Mount Zion archaeological dig, south of the Old City of Jerusalem, where a University of North Carolina-Charlotte team was excavating throughout the summer.
That same year, a team of archaeologists unearthed 10 ancient Roman and Ottoman coins from the ruins of a castle in Okinawa, Japan.
800-year-old Pueblo Indian blanket made out of 11,500 turkey feathers
There are more uses for a turkey than the centerpiece of your Thanksgiving feast. Researchers believe the flightless fowl held a deep significance for ancient Pueblo Indians in the American Southwest, who domesticated the bird but didn’t eat it.
Archaeologists at Washington State University examined an 800-year-old feather blanket from southeast Utah, one of the few remaining examples of its kind. They determined it took more than 11,000 turkey feathers to make the spread, likely plucked painlessly from live birds during molting periods. It would have taken between four and ten turkeys to make this single blanket, now on display at the Edge of the Cedars State Park Museum in Blanding, Utah.
‘The birds that supplied the feathers were likely being treated as individuals important to the household,’ said anthropologist Bill Lipe. ‘This reverence for turkeys and their feathers is still evident today in Pueblo dances and rituals.’
An 800-year-old blanket from Pueblo Indians in the Southwest US took more than 11,500 turkey feathers to make, according to a new report. Turkeys were an integral part of tribal life for thousands of years, and not really a food source until the 11th or 12th century
An 800-year-old blanket from Pueblo Indians in the Southwest US took more than 11,500 turkey feathers to make, according to a new report. Turkeys were an integral part of tribal life for thousands of years, and not really a food source until the 11th or 12th century.
To determine how many turkeys would have been needed for this blanket, Lipe’s team counted feathers from the pelts of wild modern-day turkeys ethically sourced from dealers in Idaho.
Such feathers were widely used to make blankets and robes by the Ancestral Pueblo people but, because they’re so fragile, few examples have survived.
‘The goal of this study was to shed new light on the production of turkey feather blankets and explore the economic and cultural aspects of raising turkeys to supply the feathers,’ said Lipe, lead author of a paper in Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Protective fabrics made from animal pelts, fur, and feathers would’ve been needed as tribes ventured into higher, colder elevations in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Feathers from modern-day turkeys used to help determine how many would have been needed for the blanket, Researchers counted feathers from the pelts of wild turkeys ethically sourced from dealers in Idaho.
Feathers from modern-day turkeys used to help determine how many would have been needed for the blanket, Researchers counted feathers from the pelts of wild turkeys ethically sourced from dealers in Idaho.
Turkey-feather blankets were made by weaving feathers into nearly 600 feet of yucca fiber cord.
Turkey-feather blankets were made by weaving feathers into nearly 600 feet of yucca fiber cord. The ancestors of the modern-day Pueblo Indians, who include the Hopi and Zuni, tended to live at elevations above 5,000 feet, where the winters were brutal and even summer nights could be cold.
Made by women, the fabrics would have served tribespeople through various stages of life — as blankets for sleeping, cloaks in cold weather, and finally as funerary dressing.
This particular blanket measured 39 by 42.5 inches and took approximately 11,550 soft body feathers wrapped around almost 600 feet of yucca fiber cord.
Turkey feathers began replacing rabbit skin as the preferred material for twined blankets between 400 BC and 700 AD, according to Lipe. They lasted longer and plucking turkey rather than skinning hares would have allowed for an ongoing resource.
Turkeys were one of the very few domesticated animals in North America before Europeans arrived but they weren’t really used as a food source until the late 12th century when deer became more scarce.
Turkeys were one of the very few domesticated animals in North America before Europeans arrived but they weren’t really used as a food source until the late 12th century when deer became more scarce.
New feathers could be collected several times a year for the life of the turkey, which could more than a decade.
‘As ancestral Pueblo farming populations flourished, many thousands of feather blankets would likely have been in circulation at any one time,’ said Shannon Tushingham, a professor of anthropology at WSU and co-author of the study. ‘It is likely that every member of an ancestral Pueblo community, from infants to adults, possessed one.’
Surprisingly, the turkeys would have been treated more like pets or members of the family than dinner.
Turkey feathers began replacing rabbit skin as the preferred material for twined blankets about 2,000 years ago. They lasted longer and plucking turkey rather than skinning hares kept the animal alive and made them a renewable resource
Washington State University archaeologists Bill Lipe (left) and Shannon Tushingham hope understanding how Ancestral Pueblo people made turkey blankets will shine a light on the animal’s role in their culture
Turkey feathers began replacing rabbit skin as the preferred material for twined blankets about 2,000 years ago. They lasted longer and plucking turkey rather than skinning hares kept the animal alive and made them a renewable resource
Turkeys were one of the very few domesticated animals in North America before Europeans arrived but they weren’t really used as a food source until the late 12th century when deer became more scarce.
Turkey remains found among the ancient Pueblo were usually whole skeletons that had been intentionally buried, not scattered bones in hearths or trash heaps. That indicates a ritual or cultural significance for the birds, Lipe believes.
‘They are right up there with eagle feathers as being symbolically and culturally important,’ he said.
Thousand-Year-Old Goblet Shows Ancient Romans Used Nanotechnology
Finally, researchers have discovered why the jade-green cup appears red when lit from behind. The colourful secret of a 1,600-year-old Roman chalice at the British Museum is the key to a supersensitive new technology that might help diagnose human disease or pinpoint biohazards at security checkpoints.
The Romans may have first come across the colourful potential of nanoparticles by accident, but they seem to have perfected it.
When lit from the front, the glass chalice, known as the Lycurgus Cup because it bears a scene involving King Lycurgus of Thrace, appears jade green when lit from the front but blood-red when lit from behind—a property that puzzled scientists for decades after the museum acquired the cup in the 1950s.
The mystery wasn’t solved until 1990 when researchers in England scrutinized broken fragments under a microscope and discovered that the Roman artisans were nanotechnology pioneers: They’d impregnated the glass with particles of silver and gold, ground down until they were as small as 50 nanometers in diameter, less than one-thousandth the size of a grain of table salt.
The exact mixture of the precious metals suggests the Romans knew what they were doing—“an amazing feat,” says one of the researchers, archaeologist Ian Freestone of University College London.
The ancient nanotech works something like this: When hit with light, electrons belonging to the metal flecks vibrate in ways that alter the colour depending on the observer’s position.
Gang Logan Liu, an engineer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who has long focused on using nanotechnology to diagnose disease, and his colleagues realized that this effect offered untapped potential.
“The Romans knew how to make and use nanoparticles for beautiful art,” Liu says. “We wanted to see if this could have scientific applications.”
When various fluids filled the cup, Liu suspected, they would change how the vibrating electrons in the glass interacted, and thus the colour. (Today’s home pregnancy tests exploit a separate nano-based phenomenon to turn a white line pink.)
Since the researchers couldn’t put liquid into the precious artefact itself, they instead imprinted billions of tiny wells onto a plastic plate about the size of a postage stamp and sprayed the wells with gold or silver nanoparticles, essentially creating an array with billions of ultra-miniature Lycurgus Cups.
When water, oil, sugar solutions and salt solutions were poured into the wells, they displayed a range of easy-to-distinguish colours—light green for water and red for oil, for example.
The prototype was 100 times more sensitive to altered levels of salt in solution than current commercial sensors using similar techniques.
It may one day make its way into handheld devices for detecting pathogens in samples of saliva or urine, or for thwarting terrorists trying to carry dangerous liquids onto airplanes.
The original fourth-century A.D. Lycurgus Cup, probably taken out only for special occasions, depicts King Lycurgus ensnared in a tangle of grapevines, presumably for evil acts committed against Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.
If inventors manage to develop a new detection tool from this ancient technology, it’ll be Lycurgus’ turn to do the ensnaring.
