Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking

Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking

6,000 years ago, a circular pit with the bodies of seven people on a bed with seven arms sheds fresh light on violent disputes. Experts claim the gruesome discovery tells the tale of a devastating raid on a settlement in eastern France that may have wiped out an entire family.

Bloodthirsty attackers will also take arms as war trophies and tortured the victims before burying their bodies.

The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux. 

A circular pit, bearing the skeletons of seven people placed on a bed of severed arms (pictured), is shedding new light on violent conflicts of 6,000 years ago. The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux
A circular pit, bearing the skeletons of seven people placed on a bed of severed arms (pictured), is shedding new light on violent conflicts of 6,000 years ago. The 6.5ft (two metres) deep circular pit was found in Bergheim by archaeologists from Antea Archéologie in Habsheim and the universities of Strasbourg and Bordeaux

It contains seven human skeletons and part of a child’s skull on top of the remains of seven amputated human arms. The find, dubbed Pit 157, measures almost 5ft (1.5 metres) in diameter at the base and 6.2ft (1.9 metres) in diameter at its top.

The experts believe two men, one woman and four children were killed in a raid or some sort of violent encounter.  Their bodies were thrown in the pit on top of a pile of left arms, thought to have been fractured then hacked off using hand axes.

Scattered hand bones on the bottom layer suggest hands from severed limbs were chopped into pieces. Study author Fanny Chenal of Inrap told Gizmodo: ‘For a long time, Neolithic societies were considered relatively egalitarian and peaceful. 

‘But for several years a lot of research has shown that it was not the case.’

In fact, she thinks the war was common in Neolithic times and while there is no clear evidence of this in France, there is evidence in Germany from the same time. It is not clear to whom the arms belong, since the skeletons on top of them have both their arms, apart from the remains of one male.

As well as missing his arm, which may or may not be in the pit, his skull shows signs of violence that likely resulted in his death. The researchers are unsure whether the burial suggests some sort of macabre post-battle ritual. 

A Neolithic axe from France
The gruesome find seemingly tells the tale of a devastating raid that may have wiped out an entire family. This graphic shows the jumble of skeletons, shown in different colours to differentiate them. Carbon dating shows the bones are between 5,500 and 6,000 years old

They are also unsure why the attackers targeted people’s left arms, however, they hypothesise the limbs may have been hacked off as war trophies. Dr Chanal said the arms were buried with the remains but think they are from the same social group.

‘Pit 157 represents clear evidence of what was probably an act of inter-group armed violence, that is to say, “war,” although the true nature of these practices remains difficult to understand,’ explained the study. 

Carbon dating shows the bones are between 5,500 and 6,000 years old. At this time, it was common for bodies to be buried in circular pits among farming communities across central and Western Europe.

But the unusual Bergheim grave is the first evidence that those butchered in raids were buried in the same way. Dr Chenal added: ‘It’s a very important result, but it raises more questions than it answers.’

There is already debate about whether such circular pits were remnants of storage pits and repurposed for people not deemed worthy of a grander burial, or were used for high-ranking people.

The bodies were thrown in the pit on top of a pile of left arms thought to have been fractured then hacked off using hand axes. This image from the journal Antiquity shows notches from an attack on the arm bones
Pit of Amputated arms in France from 6,000 years ago suggest war and trophy taking
Scattered hand bones on the bottom layer suggest hands from severed limbs were chopped into pieces. These images shown the severed arm bones at the bottom of the pit, with the other skeletons removed

Some pits containing the remains of several people suggest slaves or relatives were killed to be buried with an important person, and there are even theories saying circular pits were used for human sacrifices.

But the study explained: ‘The evidence from pit 157 undoubtedly testifies to armed violence, and the amputated arms, most probably trophies, are suggestive of an act of war. 

‘The presence of women and children in the pit does not go against this hypothesis: They may have been victims of raids, killed on the scene of the confrontation or captured and executed afterwards – although women and children were often enslaved, they were also sometimes tortured and killed.

‘Whether they were victims of warfare or the recipients of judicial punishment, the case supports the idea that the haphazardly deposited individuals were either dependants or excluded individuals.’

Of the 60 pits uncovered in Bergheim, 14 contained human bones and only one, described in the study published in the journal Antiquity, showed signs of violence or limb loss. It is possible the victims were either tortured, or their limbs were amputated after death to intimidate the living or offend the dead – a practice documented in Florida in the 16th century, which seems to echo that of the Bergheim burial. 

‘The evidence from this site challenges the simplicity of existing interpretations, and demands a more critical focus on the archaeological evidence for acts of systematic violence during this period,’ the study concluded.

It is not clear to whom the arms belong, since the skeletons on top of them have both their arms, apart from one man whose skull also shows signs of violence (shown above) that likely resulted in his death. A child’s skullcap was also found on top of the pile of bones, plus the remains of a separate female
The researchers said it is possible the victims were either tortured, or their limbs were amputated after death to intimidate the living, or offend the dead. This practice, documented in Florida in the 16th century (illustrated), which seems to echo that of the Bergheim burial
EUROPE, WORLD

Code is hidden in Stone Age Art Maybe the Root of Human Writing

Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing

A Recent Scientist article by Alison George – Code hidden in Stone Age art may be the root of human writing – reports on the painstaking investigation of Europe’s cave art which has revealed 32 shapes and lines that crop up again and again and could be the world’s oldest code.

‘When she first saw the necklace, Genevieve von Petzinger feared the trip halfway around the globe to the French village of Les Eyzies-de-Tayac had been in vain.

The dozens of ancient deer teeth laid out before her, each one pierced like a bead, looked roughly the same. It was only when she flipped one over that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. On the reverse were three etched symbols: a line, an X and another line.

Von Petzinger, a palaeoanthropologist from the University of Victoria in Canada is spearheading an unusual study of cave art. Her interest lies not in the breathtaking paintings of bulls, horses and bison that usually spring to mind, but in the smaller, geometric symbols frequently found alongside them.

Her work has convinced her that far from being random doodles, the simple shapes represent a fundamental shift in our ancestors’ mental skills.

Black tectiforms at Las Chimeneas, Spain

The claviform symbol appears in the Magdalenian caves of France & Spain. There are 15 claviform symbols in Niaux alone. 

The first formal writing system that we know of is the 5000-year-old cuneiform script of the ancient city of Uruk in what is now Iraq. But it and other systems like it – such as Egyptian hieroglyphs – are complex and didn’t emerge from a vacuum.

There must have been an earlier time when people first started playing with simple abstract signs. For years, von Petzinger has wondered if the circles, triangles and squiggles that humans began leaving on cave walls 40,000 years ago represent that special time in our history – the creation of the first human code.’

Between 2013 and 2016, von Petzinger visited 52 caves in France, Spain, Italy and Portugal. The symbols she found ranged from dots, lines, triangles, squares and zigzags to more complex forms like ladder shapes, hand stencils, tectiforms and penniforms. Her most startling finding was how few signs there were – just 32 in all of Europe. There was consistency in the use of symbols.

At El Castillo in Spain, a black penniform and bell-shapes

With von Petzinger’s database, she can now see trends – signs in regions, new signs appearing, other signs disappearing. In other words, cultural changes can be discerned, pointing at migration and trade routes.

Further research: some of the most stunning cave art in Europe was only discovered in 1985 when divers found the mouth of the Cosquer cave 37 metres below the Mediterranean coastline near Marseilles in southern France.

Its entrance had been submerged as sea levels rose after the last ice age. What other similar caves are waiting to be discovered? With this in mind, von Petzinger has teamed up with David Lang of OpenROV in Berkeley, California, which makes low-cost underwater robots.

Next year, they plan to use them to hunt for submerged cave entrances off Spain’s north coast. The region is rich in painted caves, many close to the shoreline, so it seems likely that others could be hiding below the waves. If they find any, the pair will send in the remote-controlled mini-submarines, armed with cameras, to safely explore the new sites.

Moreover, as well as the symbols painted, drawn and engraved onto the cave walls, von Petzinger plans to expand her ‘Stone Age dictionary’ by analysing the wealth of signs on portable objects, such as the etched deer teeth from Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière in France.

Etched deer teeth from Saint-Germain-de-la-Rivière, France

The article describes how the research has allowed her to consider the meanings of the symbols, and possibly the origins of writing systems.

Von Petzinger believes the invention of the first code represents a complete shift in how our ancestors shared information. For the first time, they no longer had to be in the same place at the same time to communicate with each other, and information could survive its owners.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

The Lovers of Valdaro: for 6,000 years, a pair of skeletons had been locked in an eternal embrace

The Lovers of Valdaro: for 6,000 years, a pair of skeletons had been locked in an eternal embrace

For 6,000 years, two young lovers have been locked in an eternal embrace, hidden from the eyes of the world.

A pair of human skeletons found at a construction site outside Mantua, Italy, is believed by archaeologists to be a man and a woman from the Neolithic period, buried around 6,000 years ago

This past weekend, the Lovers of Valdaro — named for the little village near Mantua, in northern Italy, where they were first discovered — were seen by the public for the first time.

The lovers are in fact two human skeletons, dating back to the Neolithic era; they were found in a necropolis in the nearby village of Valdaro in 2007, huddled close together, face to face, their arms and legs entwined.

They were displayed this past weekend at the entrance of Mantua’s Archaeological Museum, thanks to the effort of the association Lovers in Mantua, which is seeking a permanent home for the ancient couple.

After the discovery, many thought that the couple had been killed. It would fit in well with the history of an Italian region famous for many tragic love stories.

Mantua is the city where Romeo was exiled and was told that his Juliet was dead. The composer Giuseppe Verdi chose it as the location for his opera Rigoletto, another story of star-crossed love and death.

But subsequent research revealed that the skeletons did not have any signs of violent death. They were a woman and a man, ages between 18 and 20 years old. Some have wondered if they died together, holding each other in a freezing night.

Professor Silvia Bagnoli, the president of the association Lovers in Mantua, doesn’t exclude this possibility, but she says that more likely the skeletons were laid out in that position after their deaths.

The mystery might never be solved. Still, many want to see the couple. The association Lovers in Mantua is campaigning for their right to have a room of their own.

According to Bagnoli, €250,000 will be enough for an exhibition centre and another €200,000 could pay for a multimedia space to tell the world the mysterious story of these prehistoric lovers.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

120,000-Year-old Neanderthal Artifacts Unearthed in Denmark

120,000-Year-old Neanderthal Artifacts Unearthed in Denmark

Ancient flint tools in the hills of a Danish island gave an indication that 120,000 years ago Neanderthals may have been living there. The first humans in Denmark have been thought to be reindeer hunters from 14,000 years ago.

The slopes of Isefjord’s Ejby Klint between Roskilde and Holbæk were excavated by archaeologists from Denmark’s National Museum and Roskilde Museum. The researchers found ancient mussel shells and flintstones that may have been shaped by humans.

In Denmark Ejby Klint is one of the few places archaeologists can easily locate deposits from the warm time between two ice ages between the ages of 115,000-130,000 years ago.

But more than 100,000 years earlier, Neanderthals lived in Germany, and researchers believe they could have reached modern-day Denmark. 

In a six week dig, archaeologists investigated two slopes at Ejby Klint, finding the tools which are now on display in Denmark’s National Museum. 

The National Museum has found a number of stones (pictured) that appear to have been carved by human hands
Archaeologists from the National Museum and Roskilde Museum are excavating part of Ejby Klint. Even in a small area of ​​only six square meters, they have already found exciting objects

Lasse Sørensen, head of research at the National Museum, says “It’s absolutely wild and very unique that we’ve had the opportunity to dig here at all.”

“I did not think we would find anything at all, but we have actually found some stones that have possible traces of being worked by people, and that in itself is amazing.”

“If we find out that these stones have been worked by Neanderthals, it will resonate all over the world.”

During the warm period between the last two ice ages 115,000 to 130,000 years ago, it was four degrees warmer in Denmark than it is today. 

The country’s large hornbeam forests were home to large prey such as beavers, steppe bison, fallow deer, wood rhinos, forest elephants, Irish giant deer and red deer.

At the National Museum, there is already a flint that has been carved with the same technique as the one used by the Neanderthals. However, the flint was not found in a layer of soil that can be dated accurately.

Excavation leader Ole Kastholm from Roskilde Museum said, “Helping to dig on a steep cliff looking for the oldest people in Denmark right here around Roskilde has been a huge experience. 

“It must be up to the experts to decide how interesting what we have found is. But now the door may have been opened for more excavations to be made for Neanderthals in Denmark.”

A map showing the relative dates at which humans arrived in the different Continents, including Europe 45,000 years ago. Humans and Neanderthals co-existed for about 8,000 years before Neanderthals went extinct.
EUROPE, SLOVAKIA, WORLD

Tourist finds ancient silver coins under an uprooted tree

Tourist finds ancient silver coins under an uprooted tree

The Slovak Spectator reports that a cache of medieval coins was discovered under an uprooted tree in western Slovakia by a tourist who reported the find to the Regional Monuments Board. 

He has reported it to the Regional Monuments Board (KPÚ) in Trnava. Its workers found 147 middle-age silver coins after searching with a detector.

The coins are mostly Wiener pfennigs but there are also Hungarian imitations of Wiener pfennigs that were minted in the years 1251 and 1330.

Tourist finds ancient silver coins under an uprooted tree
The Regional Monuments Board Trnava

The coins were probably stored in a leather or fabric wrapper, Matúš Sládok of KPÚ Trnava opined, but there were no traces left of the wrapper.

Died or did not remember

Mass findings of pfennigs, which were hidden during the mid-14th century, are not uncommon, according to Sládok.

“Owners hid their movable property, especially finances, in unstable times when they were trying to protect it from enemies and robbers,” Sládok said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The fact that these coins were discovered means that the owners probably died or forgot to unearth their hidden money, Sládok explained.

An expert will now estimate the value of the discovery. The tourist who found the coins has asked for a finder’s fee.

BULGARIA, EUROPE, WORLD

19th-Century Polish Sword Unearthed in Bulgaria

19th-Century Polish Sword Unearthed in Bulgaria

A sword in a Bulgarian museum has been identified as a 19th-century Polish nationalist sabre. It was discovered near the city of the Veliko Tarnovo in northern Bulgaria where curators from the Archaeological Museum saw it had a Polish inscription.

An expert from the University of Warsaw recognized the inscription Vivat Szlachcic Pan I foundation wojska (“Long live the Noble Lord and founder of the army”) and engraved iconography as one wielded by Polish patriots during the January Uprising against Russia’s autocratic rule.

The January Uprising (1863-1864) was one several attempts by Polish patriots to re-establish the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth in the Russian Kingdom of Poland. Russian Poland was carved out of the Duchy of Warsaw at the Congress of Vienna in 1815.

The kingdom was supposed to be largely autonomous, nominally under the rule of the Tzar, but governed by its own parliament, defended by its own army and bound by the Polish constitution.

Tzar Alexander I and his successor Nicholas I had other plans, and between the two of them, they quashed the country’s traditional religious and political freedoms and made it a puppet state of the Russian Empire.

Nationalist resistance to Russian rule grew in the wake of its losses in the Crimean War. In January 1863, pro-Russian Polish aristocrat Aleksander Wielopolski, adjutant to the Polish viceroy, ordered the conscription of Polish nationalists into the Imperial Russian Army for 20-year terms.

He knew the movement for Polish independence was working up to an uprising and thought strongarming its young men into military service would break up the movement. Instead, it triggered the very uprising he was trying to prevent.

It was the longest uprising for Polish national unity under Russian rule, but it too ultimately collapsed under the weight of Russia’s superior military strength.

The results were brutal — executions, mass deportations to Siberia, punitive taxation, the complete erasure of the Polish language in government and schools and the replacement of all Polish government officials with Russians.

The newly-discovered sword was inscribed during this period. The curved karabela type, a Polish sabre used during the halcyon days of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th and 18th centuries, was an emblem of Polish culture and independence.

During the uprisings of the 19th centuries, they were engraved with slogans and imagery harkening back to the Commonwealth.

[Professor Piotr Dyczek] added: “The sabre was probably the spoils of an officer of the Tsarist army who participated in the suppression of the January Uprising in 1863 and 1864, who then fitted it with a silver hilt typical for a shashka – a sabre with an open hilt with a split pommel.”

19th-Century Polish Sword Unearthed in Bulgaria

Presumably that Russian soldier took the sword out of Poland after the uprising was suppressed. At that time, Bulgaria was under the Ottoman rule as it had been since 1393, but a decade after the January Uprising, Bulgaria had an uprising of its own in April 1876.

Russia was a fan of this one, though, since wresting the Balkans out of Ottoman hands would extend their sphere of influence which had been whittled away by the Crimean War.

They jumped on the opportunity and the Russo-Turkish War began in 1877. It ended when the Imperial Russian Army took Tarnovo in July 1878. The Polish sword was probably used (and lost) in that battle.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Turkey: 9-century old Harran Palace’s gate unearthed

Turkey: 9-century old Harran Palace’s gate unearthed

The main gate of the nine-century-old Harran Palace in an archaeological site in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, one of the world’s oldest settlements on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List, has been unearthed.

The excavation work has been continuing for six years at the site located in the Harran district of Şanlıurfa, Mehmet Önal, the head of the excavation team and head of the Archeology Department at Harran University, told the state-run Anadolu Agency.

Harran, located 44 kilometers southeast of central Şanlıurfa near the Syrian border, was an important Mesopotamian trade center on a road running south to Nineveh in modern Iraq, while the site was constantly inhabited from 6,000 B.C. to the present and had also served as the capital of the Assyrians and Umayyads.

The excavation team had worked hard for two years to reveal the main gate of the historical palace, Önal said.

“We completely unearthed one of the two known gates of the historical Harran Palace. The gate, about 7 meters high, is made of basalt stones. Star motifs were also unearthed in our excavations near the ground.”

Turkey: 9-century old Harran Palace's gate unearthed

Önal underlined that the team had also unearthed other inscriptions written in Arabic on a basalt stone, adding that these inscriptions will contribute to trace the exact date of the historic construction.

He also said that the inscriptions and symbols on the stamp seals, rings, and arrowheads found in the excavations in the palace were also being analyzed by archaeologists.

Noting that a three-domed bathhouse in the Harran Palace has been discovered during the previous excavations, Onal said the bath with cooling, warming, and heating rooms was built in the 12th and 13th century and belonged to the Zengid dynasty and the Ayyubids period.

Stating that the palace, which dates back 900 years, has hundreds of rooms, he pointed out that the Harran Palace is one of the rare examples of palaces that have survived since the Middle Ages in the Middle Eastern countries.

Önal said that the year-long extension of the excavation period given by the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry well indicated the importance of this historical area.

If the excavations continue throughout the year, more historical artifacts could come to light, he added.

The first excavations in Harran began in 1950, and the site has been on UNESCO’s tentative list since 2000.

Harran is an important ancient city where trade routes from Iskenderun to Antakya (ancient Antioch) and Kargam were located, according to UNESCO’s website.

“The city is mentioned in the Holy Bible,” says the website. “It is important not only for having hosted the early civilizations, but it is the place where the first Islamic university was founded. The traditional civil architecture and mudbrick houses with conic roofs are unique.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Possible Medieval Graffiti Found at Church Site in England

Possible Medieval Graffiti Found at Church Site in England

Medieval graffiti associated with repelling evil spirits has been discovered by HS2 archaeologists. A series of lines radiating from a drilled hole was discovered on two stones at the remains of a church in Buckinghamshire.

Historians believe such markings are witches’ marks, created to ward off evil spirits by trapping them in an endless line or maze.

They can also be interpreted as early sun dials.

Possible Medieval Graffiti Found at Church Site in England
Medieval graffiti associated with repelling evil spirits has been discovered by HS2 archaeologists

The location of one of the stones at the medieval church of St Mary’s, Stoke Mandeville, suggests the markings could have been created for protection.

The route of HS2 will go through the site of the 12th-century church, which was abandoned in 1866 when a new church was built closer to the village.

Work by archaeologists to dismantle and excavate the church will continue into next year and include the removal and reburial of bodies in graves.

HS2 Ltd lead archaeologist Michael Court said: “The archaeology work being undertaken as part of the HS2 project is allowing us to reveal years of heritage and British history and share it with the world.

“Discoveries such as these unusual markings have opened up discussions as to their purpose and usage, offering a fascinating insight into the past.”