Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, ROMANIA, WORLD

Wolf skull atop 1,800-year-old grave was left by a robber who feared revenge, experts say

Wolf skull atop 1,800-year-old grave was left by a robber who feared revenge, experts say

The range of the studied burial mound in Cheia, Dobrogea.

A wolf skull was supposed to protect robbers from the revenge of the spirit of the deceased buried in a great mound 2,000 years ago. Archaeologists came across this unusual find in the town of Cheia, Romania – in a robber’s dig from ancient times.

The mound is now almost invisible to the naked eye because it is located in a cultivated field and has been ploughed up. The latest geophysical research shows that its diameter could be up to 75 m. The tomb is located in the village of Cheia in the central part of Dobrogea in south-eastern Romania. This region has been the target of the Romanian-Polish expedition since 2008.

Exploration of the interior of the barrow.

Archaeologists have found two graves. The first one, located in the centre of the mound, was looted in antiquity.

‘The closing of the robber’s dig was interesting and unusual. A few stones were placed there, with a wolf skull on top of them. It was probably a magical ritual aimed at closing the looted space to prevent the robbed spirit from exiting and taking revenge,’ says Poland’s research leader Dr. Bartłomiej Szymon Szmoniewski from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences. 

The head of research on the Romanian side is Dr. Valentina Voinea from the Muzeul de Istorie Națională și Arheologie in Constanța.

Wolf skull atop 1,800-year-old grave was left by a robber who feared revenge, experts say
Wolf skull, partially cleaned.

The robbers did not steal everything from the grave. In the robber’s dig, the archaeologists found a fragment of a clay oil lamp, broken during the robbery. Its other part of which was in the grave pit.

According to Dr. Szmoniewski, in the grave pit itself, there are partially burnt parts of a wooden structure, which was joined with nails and decorated with bronze fittings.

Parts of the wooden structure from the crematory grave (M1).

‘It was probably a wooden box that contained the body of the deceased and grave goods. It was burned on the spot, as evidenced by the strong burn of the walls and the bottom of the pit. Then, the pit was covered with wooden boards and filled in. Barrows with very similar cremation burials were discovered in Hârșova, known in the Roman period as Carsium, on the lower Danube,’ Szmoniewski says.

There is not much left of the skeleton, because the deceased was cremated during the funeral; only burnt human bones have been preserved.

The researchers also found a large number of burnt walnut seeds preserved whole and as shells, parts of pine cones and other plant remains.

Burnt walnut seed from the crematory grave (M1).

‘The presence of burnt walnut seeds in the burial is an interesting custom known from crematory graves from the early Roman period. In the sepulchral context, walnuts are interpreted as a kind of grave gift – special food for the soul. In the Casimcea river valley in Dobrogea, where we are conducting research, this is the first find of this kind,’ Szmoniewski says. 

This was not the only grave discovered in the barrow. The other one was located at a distance from the centre of the barrow. Archaeologists found a skeleton in it, placed in a wooden structure, probably a coffin, the remains of which were found both above and below the skeleton. 

According to Dr. Szmoniewski, the deceased had a glass unguentarium placed on the stomach – a kind of container for liquid fragrances and toilet perfumes, and in the mouth, there was a bronze coin (an assarius) from the reign of Emperor Hadrian, minted in 125-127 CE.

‘The coin in the mouth of the buried refers to the ancient custom of Charon’s obol, when a coin inserted into the mouth was to be used as payment to Charon for transporting the soul of the deceased across the River Styx in Hades,’ Szmoniewski says. 

Skeletal grave (M2).

Both graves date from the mid-2nd century CE. This is an important discovery for scientists because barrows have not been discovered in this region until now.

‘The unusual wolf skull found at the exit of the robber’s dig in one of the graves may indicate that the robbery was committed by the Dacians – a people who had lived in this area before the arrival of the Greeks and Romans,’ says Dr. Szmoniewski. ‘In turn, the deceased buried in the two graves were probably Romans who came to this area during the Roman colonisation.’

Crematory grave (M1).

The graves were discovered in 2022. Archaeologists plan to continue the research this year. The season will start in August. (PAP)

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

See the face of ‘Ava,’ a Bronze Age woman who lived in Scotland 3,800 years ago

See the face of ‘Ava,’ a Bronze Age woman who lived in Scotland 3,800 years ago

See the face of 'Ava,' a Bronze Age woman who lived in Scotland 3,800 years ago
Researchers used scans of a Bronze Age woman’s skull to create a facial approximation of what she may have looked like 3,800 years ago.

In 1987, Scottish workers accidentally unearthed the burial of a Bronze Age woman during a road construction project.

The stone, coffin-like tomb, called a cist, contained the woman’s skeletal remains alongside grave goods, including a short-necked pottery beaker, a cow bone fragment, and small pieces of flint.

The burial in Achavanich, in northern Scotland, came to be known as the Achavanich Beaker Burial. However, not much was known about the woman, whom archaeologists nicknamed “Ava,” other than what they determined through anthropological analysis.

She was between 18 and 25 years old when she died, and based on measurements of her tibia (shinbone), she was tall, standing approximately 5 feet, 7 inches (1.71 meters), according to a study published online on June 22. 

Based on her grave goods, it’s possible that Ava was part of the Bronze Age “Bell Beaker” culture, which was common in Europe during this time period and known for its distinctively round pottery drinking vessels.

Now, a new image offers a glimpse of what this mystery woman might have looked like.

To make the three-dimensional facial approximation, researchers used existing computed tomography (CT) scans of Ava’s roughly 3,800-year-old skull.

However, since the cranium was missing a mandible, or lower jaw, the team used data culled from CT scans of living donor individuals to piece together the final image, according to the study.

“Thanks to anatomical, statistical and logical data, it was possible to reconstruct” her face even without the mandible, study author Cícero Moraes, a Brazilian graphics expert, told Live Science in an email. “I then set out to trace the profile of the face, which we do through a combination of soft tissue thickness markers, which inform the limits of the skin,” he explained.

From there, the team performed an “anatomical deformation” of the virtual donor “that is adjusted until the donor’s skull converts to the skull of Ava,” Moraes said, “causing the skin to follow the deformation, resulting in a face compatible with the approximated individual.”

A 2016 analysis of Ava’s likeness showed her with light skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. But a separate facial approximation of Ava in 2018 analyzed her DNA and determined that she most likely had brown eyes and black hair and that “her skin [was] slightly darker than today’s Scots’,” the researchers wrote in the new study.

The researchers speculated, based on her height and facial features, that she may have been considered imposing during that time period.

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

This 48-Million-Year-Old Fossil Has an Insect Inside a Lizard Inside a Snake

This 48-Million-Year-Old Fossil Has an Insect Inside a Lizard Inside a Snake

Palaeontologists have uncovered a fossil that has preserved an insect inside a lizard inside a snake – a prehistoric battle of the food chain that ended in a volcanic lake some 48 million years ago.

Pulled from an abandoned quarry in southwest Germany called the Messel Pit, the fossil is only the second of its kind ever found, with the remains of three animals sitting snug in one another.

“It’s probably the kind of fossil that I will go the rest of my professional life without ever encountering again, such is the rarity of these things,” palaeontologist Krister Smith from Germany’s Senckenberg Institute told Michael Greshko at National Geographic. “It was pure astonishment.”

Smith and his team suspect that the iguana ate a shiny insect meal, and then two days later was swallowed headfirst by a juvenile snake. 

It’s unclear how the snake ultimately died, but what we do know is it got too close to the deep volcanic lake that once bubbled in the Messel Pit, and was either poisoned or suffocated by the toxic fumes.

Its corpse likely slid into the lake after death, where the Russian doll of skeletons was preserved perfectly for millions of years.

Rare ‘Nesting Doll’ Fossil Uncovers Beetle in Lizard in Snake. Snake with lizard and beetle: The rare tripartite fossil food chain from the Messel Pit.
Beetle inside a reptile inside a snake.

“To see this kind of trophic scale recorded within the gut of a snake is a very cool thing,” UK palaeontologist Jason Head from the University of Cambridge, who wasn’t involved with the study, told National Geographic.

While the combination of snake-lizard-bug is entirely unique in the fossil record, this isn’t the first time a prehistoric turducken has been discovered. 

Back in 2008, Austrian researchers found a 250-million-year-old fossil that had preserved a shark that had eaten some kind of amphibian that had eaten a small fish. 

It’s far more fragmentary than the Messel Pit fossil, but it was the first real indication that the food web of the time was far more complex than researchers had thought.

If anywhere is likely to be harbouring more of these types of fossils, it’s the Messel Pit, which in the past has served up the now notorious Darwinius masillae fossil, a fossilised beetle with its turquoise iridescence largely intact, and two turtles caught in the middle of doing, erm, turtle things…

The best-preserved fossils in the world from the Eocene epoch, which ran from around 56 to 34 million years ago, have been found here, and Smith and his team are already planning another trip back.

“This fossil is amazing,” says one of the researchers, Agustín Scanferla. “We were lucky men to study this kind of specimen.”

The find has been published in Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments.

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

Iron Age Celtic Woman Wearing Fancy Clothes Buried in This ‘Tree Coffin’ in Switzerland

Iron Age Celtic Woman Wearing Fancy Clothes Buried in This ‘Tree Coffin’ in Switzerland

THE ANCIENT corpse of a woman buried in a hollowed-out tree has been found in Switzerland.

It’s believed the woman, who died 2,200 years ago, commanded great respect in her tribe, as she was buried in fine clothes and jewellery.

The ancient corpse of a woman buried in a hollowed out tree in Zurich, Switzerland. Pictured are parts of her remains including her skull (top), as well as her jewellery (blue, bottom)Credit: Zurich archaeology department

Scientists say the woman was Celtic. The Iron Age Celts are known to have buried members of their tribe in “tree coffins” buried deep underground.

The woman’s remains were found in the city of Zurich in 2017, according to Live Science.

An analysis carried out by the city’s archaeology department shows she was around 40 years old when she died in 200 BC.

Her bones suggest she did little manual labour during her lifetime, suggesting she was someone of importance.

Iron Age Celtic Woman Wearing Fancy Clothes Buried in This 'Tree Coffin' in Switzerland
Artist’s impression of the woman in her coffin. The coffin was made out of a hollowed tree trunkCredit: Zurich archaeology department
And here’s how they found itCredit: Zurich archaeology department

“A specialist determined the order of the layers of clothing on the basis of the textile, fur and leather scraps preserved in the grave,” a statement said.

“So the woman wore probably a dress made of fine sheep’s wool, about another woolen cloth and a coat of sheepskin.”

Her jewellery consisted of bronze bracelets, a delicate bronze belt and a stunning necklace strung with amber and glass beads.

And of particular interest to scientists was the clasp on the woman’s necklace.

Both ends of the bling had a clip known as a brooch that allowed the woman to string blue and yellow beads onto it.

Jewellery buried with the womanCredit: Zurich archaeology department
A necklace found in the coffinCredit: Zurich archaeology department

It’s been proposed the woman may have known a Celtic man who was buried about 260 feet from her grave.

He was found buried with a sword, shield and lance. The pair were buried in the same decade.

The Celts are most commonly associated with Britain, but actually stretched as far as modern day Turkey.

They were renowned for being fierce fighters – the conquering Romans built Hadrian’s Wall to protect themselves from the Celts who had fled north.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Unlocking 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls were buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted

Unlocking 2,000-year-old Herculaneum scrolls were buried when Mount Vesuvius erupted

Scientists have succeeded in reading parts of an ancient scroll that was buried and blacked when Mount Vesuvius erupted almost 2,000 years ago.

The scroll was one of the hundreds that form the world’s oldest surviving library – and researchers say they are now hopeful it could reveal all of its secrets.

It was retrieved from the remains of a lavish villa at Herculaneum, which along with Pompeii was one of several Roman towns that were destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in A.D. 79.

A close-up of the Herculaneum Papyrus scroll. Scientists have succeeded in reading parts of an ancient scroll that was buried in a volcanic eruption almost 2,000 years ago, holding out the promise that the world¿s oldest surviving library may one day reveal all of its secrets.

Some of the texts from what is called the Villa of the Papyri have been deciphered since they were discovered in the 1750s. 

But many more remain a mystery to science because they were so badly damaged that unrolling the papyrus they were written on would have destroyed them completely.

‘The papyri were completely covered in blazing-hot volcanic material,’ said Vito Mocella, a theoretical scientist at the Institute of Microelectronics and Microsystems (CNR) in Naples who led the latest project.

Previous attempts to peer inside the scrolls failed to yield any readable texts because the ink used in ancient times was made from a mixture of charcoal and gum. 

This makes it indistinguishable from the burned papyrus.

Mocella and his colleagues decided to try a method called X-ray phase-contrast tomography that had previously been used to examine fossils without damaging them.

Phase contrast tomography takes advantage of subtle differences in the way radiation — such as X-rays — passes through different substances, in this case, papyrus and ink.

Using lab time at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, France, the researchers found they were able to decipher several letters, proving that the method could be used to read what’s hidden inside the scrolls.

‘Our goal was to show that the technique is sensitive to the writing,’ said Mocella. In a further step, the scientists compared the handwriting to that of other texts, allowing them to conclude that it was likely the work of Philodemus, a poet and Epicurean philosopher who died about a century before the volcanic eruption.

The next challenge will be to automate the laborious process of scanning the charred lumps of papyrus and deciphering the texts inside them, so that some 700 further scrolls stored in Naples can be read, Mocella said.

Two words in a hidden layer of the fragment. In the top the sequence of Greek capital letters spells PIPTOIE (pi-iota-pi-tau- omicron-iota-epsilon); in the bottom the letter sequence of the next line, EIPOI (epsilon-iota-pi-omicron-iota)
Previous attempts to peer inside the scrolls failed to yield any readable texts because the ink used in ancient times was made from a mixture of charcoal and gum.

Scholars studying the Herculaneum texts say the new technique, which was detailed in an article published in the journal Nature Communications, may well mark a breakthrough for their efforts to unlock the ancient philosophical ideas hidden from view for almost two millennia.

‘It’s a philosophical library of Epicurean texts from a time when this philosophy influenced the most important classical Latin authors, such as Virgil, Horace, and Cicero,’ said Juergen Hammerstaedt, a professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Cologne, Germany, who was not involved in the project.

‘There needs to be much work before one can virtually unroll carbonized papyrus because one will have to develop a digital method that will allow us to follow the layers,’ he said.

 ‘But in the 260 years of Herculaneum papyrology, it is certainly a remarkable year.’ 

EUROPE, IRELAND, WORLD

‘Extraordinary’ 800-year-old chain mail discovered in Co Longford shed

‘Extraordinary’ 800-year-old chain mail discovered in Co Longford shed

A vest of chain mail, which is more than 800 years old, has been handed into the Knights and Conquests Heritage Centre in Granard, Co Longford.

‘Extraordinary’ 800-year-old chain mail discovered in Co Longford shed
It is understood the chain mail dates back to 1172 shortly after the Normans arrived in Ireland.

At an event last weekend, a member of the public disclosed that they had a hauberk, or coat of chain mail, in their garden shed.

The centre’s general manager Bartle D’Arcy said he was astonished when a member of the public brought in the artefact, which is in excellent condition.

“We had a Norman heritage day as part of [national] heritage week. I was walking around wearing a chain mail coif when people came up to me and said that they had ‘some of that’ in their shed. I said ‘What do you mean you have some of that in your shed?’

“They brought it to me two days ago and it is a full hauberk, 800 years old. They took it out of a drain a few years ago with a digger and just had it in their shed. It is extraordinary.”

Mr D’Arcy brought the chain mail to the National Museum of Ireland on Thursday. Officers there said that they were amazed to see an intact hauberk, having only ever seen fragments of chain mail.

“It is an amazing, extraordinary find. This all happened because of a chance encounter. They didn’t know what it was because it got stuck in the digger bucket. Unless you knew your history you wouldn’t really know what it was.

“It wasn’t discovered in Granard but it was discovered locally, but we are protecting the identity of the person. We are doing everything by the book and have declared it to the museum and so on,” he said.

Plans are afoot to put the chain mail on display in Longford. Mr D’Arcy said the museum would take the chain mail away to carry out some work on it.

Mr D’Arcy said the chain mail was in such good condition because it was in the water for so many years.

“It only rusts if you have water and air and if it’s only in water it survives. When the digger brought it up it was in peat.”

It is understood the chain mail dates back to 1172 shortly after the Normans arrived in Ireland. It will be restored and preserved before it goes on display.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Meet Sparta, the 28,000 Year Old Perfectly Preserved Lion Cub

Meet Sparta, the 28,000 Year Old Perfectly Preserved Lion Cub

Scientists say the remains of a lion cub, named Sparta and found in Siberia in 2018, are 28,000 years old and in excellent condition.

Meet Sparta, the 28,000 Year Old Perfectly Preserved Lion Cub
A cave lion cub named Sparta, which was found preserved in Siberia’s permafrost. Cave lions have been extinct for thousands of years. Photograph: Reuters

They say the lion cu, may still hold some of its mother’s milk inside it.

The cub was a female cave lion that researchers named Sparta. Her remains were discovered in the permanently frozen ground at the Semyuelyakh River in Russia’s Yakutia area.

The findings were part of a study published in the journal Quaternary.

According to the study, the cubs were found fifteen meters away from each other. However, scientists claim many generations separated them. The research showed that Boris lived around 43,448 years ago.

Boris, a male cave lion cub, lived and died about 15,000 years before Sparta. Photograph: Reuters

Cave lions died out thousands of years ago. The two cubs, aged one to two months old, were found by mammoth tusk collectors. Mammoths were large, hairy prehistoric elephants with very long tusks.

“To my knowledge, this is the best-preserved frozen specimen from the last Ice Age ever found,” study author Love Dalén, an evolutionary geneticist at Stockholm University’s Centre for Palaeogenetics, tells NBC News. “Sparta is in near-perfect condition.”

Cave lions coexisted with early humans for thousands of years, according to the study. For example, the Chauvet Cave in France depicts cave lions drawn on walls. The early cave paintings are estimated to be more than 30,000 years old.

The coloration of cub fur appears different than that of mature cave lions, requiring further study to determine if aging causes changes. Researchers also noted similarities in the fur between the big cats and lions of the Ice Age that still roam the savannas of Africa.

The species is thought to have smaller manes than African lions while adapting to colder climates.

Other lion cubs found in Siberia

Two other lion cubs have also been found in Siberia’s Yakutia area in recent years.

Valery Plotnikov is one of the study’s writers. He told Reuters that Sparta was so well-preserved that her fur, organs, and skeleton were still intact.

“The find itself is unique; there was not any other such find in Yakutia,” he said.

Plotnikov added that the scientists hope to find evidence of mother’s milk inside Sparta in order to learn about the diet of cave lions.

There have been numerous other similar discoveries in Russia’s larger Siberian area in recent years.

Climate change is warming the Arctic faster than the rest of the world. That increase in temperature has melted the ground in some areas that were permanently frozen.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

A gigantic Roman mosaic was discovered in a farmer’s field in the United Kingdom

A gigantic Roman mosaic was discovered in a farmer’s field in the United Kingdom

The first ever mosaic illustrating scenes from Homer’s Iliad, it would have decorated an imposing dining and entertainment space within a major villa complex

This drone photograph captures the scale of the newly discovered Rutland mosaic and surrounding villa, with Historic England staff and team members from ULAS/University of Leicester during the excavations

A battered but magnificent Roman mosaic—the first ever found in the UK illustrating scenes from Homer’s Iliad, has been discovered under ploughed fields in Rutland.

The mosaic depicting the Greek hero Achilles would have cost a fortune and would have flattered a wealthy owner who could have boasted to guests of his knowledge of classical literature.

It must have decorated an imposing dining and entertainment space within a major villa complex, and is regarded as the most important find of its kind in a century. The site is today given official protection by the government on the advice of Historic England.

The bottom panel of the mosaic showing Achilles (left) and Hector duelling on chariots

The mosaic has been damaged by later building work and has scorch marks from fires, which with human remains found in the rubble layer over it suggest that at a very late Roman or early medieval date the site lost its original opulent character and was repurposed.

Further study of the bones and other finds should yield more clues to its later history, and the much debated later life of the villa site as Roman wealth and power shrank back from the edges of the empire.

The top panel of the mosaic, shows the body of Hector being returned to his father King Priam (right) in exchange for his weight in gold.

The mosaic, measuring 7m by 11m, lies close beneath the surface, and was discovered at the height of last year’s lockdown by Jim Irvine, the son of the landowner Brian Naylor, who was out for a walk with his family when he spotted some broken pottery in a field of wheat. “Later, looking at the satellite imagery, I spotted a very clear crop mark, as if someone had drawn on my computer screen with a piece of chalk. This really was the ‘oh wow’ moment, and the beginning of the story.”

The middle panel of the mosaic, where the defeated Hector is dragged by Achilles in his chariot.

Recognizing its potential significance he contacted archaeologists at Leicestershire County Council. Historic England secured urgent funding to send in a team of excavators in August 2020, and further work followed in September 2021 by students and staff from the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History.

A member of the team from ULAS/University of Leicester during the excavations of the large mosaic.

John Thomas, the deputy director of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services and project manager of the excavations, called it the most exciting mosaic find in the UK in a century, and hugely significant because the entire surrounding villa site appears to survive.

“It gives us fresh perspectives on the attitudes of people at the time, their links to classical literature, and it also tells us an enormous amount about the individual who commissioned this piece,” he says. “This is someone with a knowledge of the classics, who had the money to commission a piece of such detail, and it’s the very first depiction of these stories that we’ve ever found in Britain.”

A member of the team from ULAS/University of Leicester during the excavations of a mosaic pavement.

The room was the centerpiece of a large villa complex dating from the late 3rd or early 4th century AD.

Most of the site has not been excavated but geophysical surveys that reveal underlying structures show a complex of buildings including aisled barns, circular structures, which may be grain stores, and a possible bath house.

Jim Irvine and Brian Naylor pictured first discovering the Roman mosaic in their field during the 2020 lockdown

Further excavation is planned for next year, and while work continues on the finds, including a study by David Neal—internationally recognized as a leading expert on Roman mosaics—the floor has been re-buried to protect it. The archaeologists also hope to create an off-site display with support from the Lottery Heritage Fund.

The scheduled monument status granted to the site today is intended to protect it from illegal metal detectors and other disturbances.

The site had been damaged in the past by ploughing, and Historic England is working with the landowners to return the field to gentler use.