A tiny, 48-million-year-old primate Horse Looked Like a Badger
The 48-million-year-old beast could have resembled a modern-day badger, according to a reconstruction of a wild horse the size of a small dog.
Experts named the early equid ‘Propalaeotherium voigti’ after it was discovered in an oil pit in Messel, near Frankfurt, in southern Germany, in 2015.
The Messel Pit, which was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in late 1995, is a decommissioned quarry that has yielded numerous amazingly preserved fossils.
A reconstruction of a primitive horse the size of a small dog has revealed that the 48-million-year old creature may have looked like a modern-day badger. Pictured, the P. voigti fossil
These have included mammals, fish, beetles, and even crocodiles and alligators.
Propalaeotherium voigti belonged to a genus of ancestral horses that was native to both Europe and Asia during the early Eocene epoch and broadly resembled the tapirs of today’s South America and Asia.
These creatures would have weighed in at just around 22 pounds (or 10 kilograms) and stood at around 20 inches (50 centimeters) tall.
According to experts, P. voigti would have sported a coat much like that of a modern-day deer and would have lived in small herds.
The fossilised specimen’s short neck, arched back and splayed, nail-life ‘hooflets’ — rather that the hooves of modern horses — indicate that it was adapted for a life of foraging amid the subtropical rainforests that once covered Europe.
In fact, fossil evidence from the Messel oil pit has revealed that the diminutive horses dined on berries and leaf matter that they picked from the forest floor.
It was not be until the late Eocene — around 33.9 million years ago — that horses in general began to evolve longer legs and shift their weight onto individual toes in order to better escape predation as their habitats shifted to grassland.
Palaeontologist Martin Fischer of the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena collaborated with artists Amir Andikfar and Jonas Lauströer to turn a high-resolution computer tomography (or CT) scan of the Propalaeotherium voigti specimen into a 3D reconstruction, pictured
It was this change, also, which resulted in the horse family moving their diet from foliage to grass — selecting for the evolution of longer, more durable teeth.
Propalaeotherium voigti is to be recognised this year — the 25th anniversary of the Messel pit obtaining UNESCO status — as the ‘heraldic animal’ by the Hessian Landesmuseum Darmstadt, which holds the largest collection of fossils from the pit.
Palaeontologist Martin Fischer of the Friedrich-Schiller University in Jena collaborated with artists Amir Andikfar and Jonas Lauströer to turn a high-resolution computer tomography (or CT) scan of the specimen into a 3D reconstruction.
The reconstruction will be on display at the Hessian Landesmuseum Darmstadt from August 18, 2023.
The Mysterious Origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant Finally Revealed
There’s a huge chalk image of a man with a powerful erection and no clothes on his butt located in the hills of Dorset, England. After centuries of speculation, the origins of the Cerne Abbas Giant may finally have been determined, according to a recent study.
The Cerne Abbas Giant is a large rural drawing carved into the chalk hillside in the village of Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England. Spanning approximately 180 feet (55 meters), this figure’s origins likely date back to ancient times, but its exact purpose remains uncertain.
Some interpret the figure as carrying natural symbolism related to fertility and sexuality, while others see it as purely symbolic of ancient beliefs.
Some even postured that the figure was meant to make a mockery of Oliver Cromwell, the 17th-century statesman who was jokingly dubbed “England’s Hercules” by his enemies.
According to this theory, the prominent phallus was to mock Cromwell’s Puritanism.
But now, after hundreds of years of debate, academics believe they have the answer to the hillside riddle and declared the figure probably depicts the Greek hero Hercules. Hence, he was probably created as a pagan idol during the Iron Age in Britain.
Historians suggest the hill the huge chalk carving is located on could have once been a mustering point for Anglo-Saxon troops, with the giant acting as a rallying symbol.
However, the story was later rewritten by meddling monks, perhaps hoping to secure the fortunes of the local patron saint.
In a paper published in journal Speculum, researchers say the giant was adopted by Christians who claimed it depicted their saint. It also argues the ‘British god’ idea was a myth which arose from a mistranslation.
The researchers note that Hercules is almost always depicted in artworks with a club, as well as other motifs seen on the Cerne Abbas Giant, such as nudity and prominent ribs.
Historians believe they have now answered the mystery of what Dorset’s Cerne Abbas carving is meant to depict – with academics suggesting it shows Greek hero Hercules.
“At first glance, an early medieval date seems odd for a figure which looks like the classical god Hercules,” Dr Helen Gittos and Dr Thomas Morcom write.
“The club is the clue. Hercules was one of the most frequently depicted figures in the classical world, and his distinctively knotted club acted as an identificatory label, like the keys of Saint Peter or the wheel of Saint Catherine. He was usually depicted in motion, as at Cerne, and the ribs, lower line of the stomach, and nakedness are all typical,” the study authors explain.
“Alongside his club, he was most often associated with his lionskin mantle, and it is likely that one of these originally hung from the giant’s left arm,” they add.
Despite the pagan imagery, the artwork is relatively recent and dates to the early Middle Ages, sometime between 700 CE and 1100 CE. Researchers say there are many references to Hercules in the British Isles during the time the giant was constructed.
Another theory came to prominence after the giant was dated, with people claiming it was a depiction of an Anglo-Saxon god called Helith. This has been discounted by modern theories.
Researchers Morcom and Gittos traced the root of this idea to one text, with the name Helith coming from a 13th-century mistranslation of the Latin word for Elijah, the Old Testament prophet. It seems that Helith never existed.
Even though the most recent study purports to have provided an answer to the giant’s origins mystery, scientists acknowledge that the real significance of the Cerne Abbas will likely remain a matter of debate for many years to come.
1,400-year-old coins found in a piggy bank in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis
Archaeologists unearthed a collection of 10 coins believed to date back nearly 1,400 years, retrieved from what appears to be a piggy bank in the ongoing excavations at the ancient city of Hadrianopolis in Karabük’s Eskipazar district, Türkiye.
Excavations started in 2003 at the structures in Hadrianopolis and continue in periods under the direction of Ersin Çelikbaş, a lecturer at the Archaeology Department of Karabük University (KBÜ).
The ancient city is known as “Zeugma of the Black Sea” due to its mosaics depicting various animals such as horses, elephants, panthers, deer, and griffons. Zeugma is a mosaic museum in Gaziantep, Türkiye’s southeastern province.
Hadrianopolis, known for its churches decorated with mosaics, has produced important discoveries that include walls, villas, defensive fortifications, rock tombs, theaters, arched and domed structures, and monumental cultic niches.
Discussing the recent findings with Anadolu Agency (AA), Çelikbaş highlighting their efforts to uncover new structures across extensive areas with a dedicated team of approximately 60 individuals.
Explaining the discoveries within a particular building whose exact function remains partially ambiguous, Çelikbaş suggested: “We presume it might have served as a kitchen based on the artifacts found within.
Various vessels and kitchen utensils were among the unearthed items. Stratigraphy indicates the building’s prolonged use, though specifics about its final phase remain elusive.”
The 1,400-year-old coins were unearthed in the ancient city of Hadrianopolis, Karabük, Türkiye.
Remarkably, a significant archaeological finding emerged from this area in the form of a money box containing 10 coins dating back to the era of Constans II, believed to span from A.D. 641 to 666, marking the apparent culmination of the building’s usage during the seventh century.
While defining these coins as a treasure in archaeological terms, Çelikbaş suggested an alternative use, saying: “We suspect it was employed as a primitive form of a piggy bank, possibly by a female member of the household during that era, rather than for hiding or burying money.”
The unearthing of these coins provides a glimpse into the final phase of the building’s utilization. It offers valuable insights into ancient domestic practices, highlighting the intersection of archaeology and everyday life in antiquity.
Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia, also known as Eskipazar, was a city situated in southwestern Asia Minor, located approximately 3km west of the modern town of Eskipazar in the Karabuk Province.
The city was inhabited from at least the 1st century BC until the 8th century AD and was named after the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD.
Hadrianopolis was established during the late Hellenistic, Roman, and early Byzantine periods.
When Emperor Theodosius I (347-395) established a new province called Honorias, combining Paphlagonia and Bithynia, the city became known as Hadrianopolis in Honorias. It was largely due to its Christian diocese that it was listed among the current titular sees in the Annuario Pontificio.
Carbon-Based Paleolithic Paintings Found in France
Employee in the Lascaux Cave Replica (2022).
A paper was published this month by researchers at the Center de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France, revealing that the first carbon-based cave art has been found in Dordogne’s famous Bison Cave.
Researchers Ina Reiche, Yvan Coquinot, Antoine Trosseau, and Anne Maigret have published their findings from the Font-de-Gaume cave in southern France, which is being celebrated as a potential breakthrough for precise radiocarbon dating.
The site was discovered in 1901 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1979 as part of the Prehistoric Sites and Decorated Caves of the Vézère Valley.
More than 200 caves filled with Paleolithic (dating from roughly 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago) wall drawings can be found in France’s Dordogne region.
Most of these paintings have been made with iron and manganese oxides, which cannot be dated through radiocarbon dating technologies. This has prevented accurate dating of the designs. However, the first-ever discovery of black carbon-based designs in the Font-de-Gaume cave have opened up an opportunity for groundbreaking reevaluations across the region.
The first discovery of charcoal-based prehistoric cave art in Dordogne. Sci Rep 13, 22235 (2023).
Before these discoveries were made, the wall paintings in the Dordogne were dated to around 12,000 to 17,000 years ago, during the Magdalenian Period. With the new discovery, this could be reevaluated to a much more accurate timeline, pushing dates back more than 2,000 years. The team first found the charcoal-based drawings in February 2020.
The Bison Cave is named after the Paleolithic drawings of animals on its main gallery walls. It is considered one of the best examples of ancient wall painting along with the nearby Lascaux cave.
There are 80 bisons shown on the walls of Font-de-Gaume, in various colors achieved with natural pigments. The French chemist and pharmacist Henri Moissan’s work to identify the pigments used in the drawings won him the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The first discovery of charcoal-based prehistoric cave art in Dordogne. Sci Rep 13, 22235 (2023).
New research has been done using visible-light and infrared photography, x-ray fluorescence, and spectroscopy, revealing the carbon-based drawings underneath previously known designs. Charcoal depictions of horses, deer, and bison were discovered.
This research will aid comparative research across other sites in the region, and is being heralded as “crucial for archaeological research in the coming years.”
A 2,500-year-old celestial map carved on the surface of a circular stone found in Italy
Two circular stones measuring 50 centimeters in diameter have been discovered in Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo, an ancient hilltop fortress in the Italian province of Trieste, and one of them may be one of the oldest celestial maps found in Italy.
The discovery was announced in a press release by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).
Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo is a defensive structure. Used as a fortification from an era between 1800 and 1650 BC. until 400 BC, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the most important castles, as well as the first brought to light.
Among the many castles in the Karst area, that of Rupinpiccolo is one of the best preserved. It stands immediately outside the town, on a limestone hill, the top of which is enclosed by a wall 3-4 meters thick, but which in some places reaches up to 7 meters. The height has been preserved for a maximum of 3 meters, but originally it must have reached 7-8 meters.
Two large circular stones – two thick discs about 50 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep – were found near the entrance to the Castelliere and attracted the attention of archaeologists.
Aerial view of Castelliere di Rupinpiccolo.
One of the stones, according to Paolo Molaro of INAF and researchers from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice and ICTP, is a representation of the sun, while the other is a carved celestial map dating from the 4th century BC.
The German astronomy journal Astronomische Nachrichten published a study about the stones, in which the study’s authors said the celestial map shows the sky above Rupinpiccolo some 2,500 years ago, making the discovery the oldest known One of the celestial maps laid out in Italy.
“I was contacted by Federico Bernardini, whom I didn’t know, telling me that he needed an astronomer”, Molaro said to Media Inaf, “because he seemed to have identified the constellation of Scorpio in a stone from the Carso.
My first reaction was incredulity, given that the southern part of Scorpio is just above the horizon in our latitudes. But then, discovering that the precession of the equinoxes raised it by about 10-12 degrees and the impressive coincidence with the constellation, I began to delve deeper into the question… So I identified Orion, the Pleiades, and, in the back, Cassiopeia. All points present except one.”
29 engravings on the stone have been identified by the team, and they perfectly match the constellations of Cassiopeia, Orion, Scorpius, and the Pleiades. The researchers hypothesize that the carvings were probably created by the same person using a hammer and a crude metal chisel with a 6-7 mm tip based on the angle of the cut marks in the stone.
The researchers also used the program Stellarium to simulate the night sky because a star called Theta Scorpii was so low on the horizon in the 1800s BCE that it cannot be seen today.
But let’s get to the 29 signs. All but one are superimposable on the stars of Scorpius, Orion, the Pleiades and probably – also considering the 5 signs on the back of the stone – Cassiopeia. And it is an overlap with very high statistical significance, the authors specify: the p-value is much lower than 0.001. In other words, it is highly unlikely that the arrangement of those signs was purely the result of chance. Not only that: the deviations from the true positions are of the order of the size of the signs, demonstrating considerable care in the execution.
All except one, we said. But the 29th sign could also be there on purpose. The intruder could represent a supernova, the authors propose. Or a so-called “failed supernova”. So one of those objects that astronomers call transients: at a certain point they make their appearance, and then disappear again. If this were the case, researchers suggest, there could be a black hole there in that point of the sky today.
The Nebra disk, a bronze artifact from Germany that dates to approximately 1600 BC and has gold applications to represent the Sun, Moon, and Pleiades, is likely the oldest known representation of the night sky. However, it’s more of a symbolic representation than a true map. We have to go back to the first century BC for “faithful” maps, during which time maps were most likely derived from the 135 BC Hypparcos catalog.
A Corinthian helmet and marble statue of Aphrodite are among 30 artifacts repatriated by the United States to Greece during a ceremony on December 15.
A Corinthian helmet and marble statue of Aphrodite are among 30 artifacts repatriated by the United States to Greece during a ceremony Friday.
The antiquities—which also include breastplates, a Byzantine silver plate, and a bronze chariot attachment—were recovered by Homeland Security Investigations, the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Collectively, the pieces are valued at $3.7 million. Bragg said in a statement that 19 of the pieces were voluntarily surrendered by New York gallery owner Michael Ward and three were seized from British art dealer Robin Symes.
A source familiar with the case said that the remaining eight items are in the possession of investigators, who know that the items were stolen, but have not yet specified where, how, or by whom they were stolen or recovered from.
“A nation’s cherished history should never be pilfered, peddled, or marketed for sale, yet for years these antiquities were kept in collectors’ homes, prestigious institutions, and even storage lockers,” said Erin Keegan, the HSI acting special agent in charge in New York.
“Cultural heritage is an integral part of our identity as people and nations. It is therefore essential and nowadays crucial to protect and preserve cultural heritage for future generations,” Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said in a statement.
Ambassador Dinos Konstantinou, the consul general of Greece in New York, called the artifacts “fabulous” and “stunningly preserved.”
“Their monetary value amounts to millions of dollars but their actual value goes far beyond that,” Konstantinou said. “They are priceless for the Greek people.”
Medieval Lead Token Recovered at England’s Oxburgh Hall
One side of the ‘boy bishop’ token found at the Oxburgh estate in Norfolk depicts a long cross.
They are the last resort for the most challenging of recipients, such as moody teenagers or the eccentric uncle you see once a year – but gift tokens also came in handy at Christmas in medieval times.
National Trust archaeologists have discovered a token dating from between 1470 and 1560 that was probably given by the church to poor people to be exchanged for food.
It was found near Oxburgh Hall in Norfolk, having probably originated at Bury St Edmunds Abbey, nearly 30 miles away in Suffolk.
One side of the token is very corroded, but would probably have shown the head of a bishop. The other side is well-preserved, depicting a long cross.
The token may have been doled out by a choirboy acting as the “boy bishop” during the Christmas period. In medieval and early Tudor times, on the feast day of St Nicholas – 6 December – cathedrals chose a choirboy to parody the bishop, leading some religious services and processions, and collecting money for the church.
Boy bishops also gave out tokens to poor people which could be spent between St Nicholas Day and Holy Innocents Day on 28 December.
A 16th-century depiction of a ‘boy bishop’.
Angus Wainwright, an archaeologist with the National Trust, said: “The token is not a thing of particular beauty, but it does have an interesting story. It was found by one of our metal detectorists who had been doing a survey of the West Park field at Oxburgh as part of our parkland restoration and tree planting.”
The trust’s efforts to find out more about the field’s history had yielded “fantastic” results, he said, “revealing not only part of a medieval village including horseshoes, handmade nails and tools but also part of a Roman village. This token most likely comes from Bury St Edmunds Abbey which was one of the biggest and richest in the country, St Edmund being one of the patron saints of England.
“Although tokens could be spent in the local town they may also have been kept as keepsakes, but the one we have found could also simply have been dropped and lost.”
The token was found in a field on the estate around Oxburgh Hall, Norfolk.
The tokens, made of lead, came in equivalent sizes to a penny, halfpenny and groat (worth four pennies). The one found at Oxburgh is the size of a groat.
“We believe that one of the inhabitants from Oxborough village must have made the long trip to Bury St Edmunds, around 27 miles, to see the festive ceremonies in the massive Abbey Church where they may have acquired the token. As one of the biggest buildings in western Europe this must have been a mind-blowing experience for someone from a tiny village,” said Wainwright.
“This discovery shows how rich the cultural life of even the poorest folk could be in the middle ages. It’s also interesting that the Christmas period was a time for fun and celebration aimed at children, with a child taking on the role of the bishop, and St Nicholas as patron saint of children.”
Saints’ days gradually disappeared after the Reformation in the 16th century, including that of St Nicholas. Old Father Christmas was invented as a spirit of the season, but the name St Nicholas eventually became Santa Claus.
Oxburgh Hall was built by the Bedingfeld family in 1482 as a statement of power and prestige. The family suffered generations of persecution for their Catholic faith.
2,000-Year-Old Skeleton of Sarmatian Man Identified in England
DNA analysis showed that this young man travelled to Cambridgeshire from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago
How did a young man born 2,000 years ago near what is now southern Russia, end up in the English countryside?
DNA sleuths have retraced his steps while shedding light on a key episode in the history of Roman Britain. Research shows that the skeleton found in Cambridgeshire is of a man from a nomadic group known as Sarmatians. It is the first biological proof that these people came to Britain from the furthest reaches of the Roman empire and that some lived in the countryside.
The remains were discovered during excavations to improve the A14 road between Cambridge and Huntingdon. The scientific techniques used will help reveal the usually untold stories of ordinary people behind great historical events.
They include reading the genetic code in fossilised bone fragments that are hundreds of thousands of years old, which shows an individual’s ethnic origin.
Dr Marina Silva extracted the ancient DNA and then made sense of its genetic code
Archaeologists discovered a complete, well-preserved skeleton of a man, they named Offord Cluny 203645 – a combination of the Cambridgeshire village he was found in and his specimen number. He was buried by himself without any personal possessions in a ditch, so there was little to go on to establish his identity.
Dr Marina Silva of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute, in London, extracted and decoded Offord’s ancient DNA from a tiny bone taken from his inner ear, which was the best preserved part of the entire skeleton.
“This is not like testing the DNA of someone who is alive,” she explained.
“The DNA is very fragmented and damaged. However, we were able to (decode) enough of it.
“The first thing we saw was that genetically he was very different to the other Romano-British individuals studied so far.”
The latest ancient DNA analysis methods are now able to flesh out the human stories behind events that, until recently, have been reconstructed only by documents and archaeological evidence.
These largely tell the tales of the wealthy and powerful.
The latest research is a detective story which uses cutting edge forensic science to unravel the mystery of an ordinary person – a young man buried in a ditch in Cambridgeshire between 126 and 228 AD, during the Roman occupation of Britain.
At first, archaeologists thought Offord to be an unremarkable discovery of a local man. But DNA analysis at Dr Silva’s lab showed that he was from the furthest reaches of the Roman Empire, an area that is currently southern Russia, Armenia, and Ukraine. The analysis showed him to be a Sarmatian, who are Iranian-speaking people, renowned for their horse-riding skills.
So how did he end up in a sleepy backwater of the empire so far from home?
To find the answers, a team from the archaeology department of Durham University used another exciting analysis technique to examine his fossilised teeth, which have chemical traces of what he ate.
Analysis of his teeth showed that his diet had gradually changed since the age of five
Teeth develop over time, so just like tree rings, each layer records a snapshot of the chemicals that surrounded them at that moment in time. The analysis showed that until the age of six he ate millets and sorghum grains, known scientifically as C4 crops, which are plentiful in the region where Sarmatians were known to have lived.
But over time, analysis showed a gradual decrease in his consumption of these grains and more wheat, found in western Europe, according to Prof Janet Montgomery.
“The (analysis) tells us that he, and not his ancestors, made the journey to Britain. As he grew up, he migrated west, and these plants disappeared from his diet.”
A scene depicting the defeat of the Sarmatian army by Roman forces in 175 AD
Historical records indicate that Offord could have been a cavalry man’s son, or possibly his slave. They show that around the time he lived, a unit of the Sarmatian cavalry incorporated into the Roman army was posted to Britain.
The DNA evidence confirms this picture, according to Dr Alex Smith of MOLA Headland Infrastructure, the company that led the excavation.
“This is the first biological evidence,” he told BBC News.
“The availability of these DNA and chemical analysis techniques means that we can now ask different questions and look at how societies formed, their make-up and how they evolved in the Roman period.
“It suggests that there was much greater movement, not just in the cities but also the countryside.”
The remains were discovered as part of excavations undertaken as part of the A14 road improvement scheme between Cambridge and Huntingdon
Dr Pontus Skoglund, who heads the ancient genomics laboratory at the Crick, told BBC News that the new technology is transforming our understanding of the past.
“The main impact of ancient DNA to date has been improving our understanding of the Stone and Bronze Ages, but with better techniques, we are also starting to transform our understanding of the Roman and later periods.”
The details have been published in the journal, Current Biology.
