A sarcophagus determined to belong to the Roman era has been unearthed during the excavation works of an apartment demolished within the scope of the urban transformation project in Istanbul.
The sarcophagus came to light during the foundation excavation of the demolished building in the Büyükçekmece district.
It was determined that there were bones belonging to the human body, and the tomb was made of carved stone.
Two archaeologists and an anthropologist from the Istanbul Archaeological Museums Directorate conducted an examination of the construction site where the sarcophagus was uncovered.
As a result of the three-hour examination, the human bones found in the tomb were taken out.
The expert team also determined that the tomb is nearly 2,000 years old, dating to the Roman period.
After the completion of the examinations, the sarcophagus was lifted with a crane and taken to the Istanbul Archaeological Museums Directorate.
Since Istanbul’s foundation, the city has developed under the domination of several civilizations and has been the center of various cultures.
Three of the most powerful empires in history, Rome, Byzantine and Ottoman, declared the city as their capital.
As a result, numerous temples, buildings, churches, palaces and baths from several cultures have been located in the city.
After the conquest of the city by Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, the city became the new capital of the empire. On the other hand, freedom of religion and social rights were granted to the former residents.
With the religious buildings of former residents, Turkish Art left its marks on the city, and domes and minarets dominated the city skyline.
3,000-year-old wishing well uncovered in Germany. Take a look at the items left inside
Archaeologists in Germering uncovered a wooden well with over 100 items carefully placed inside as offerings during a drought, photos show.
Whether it’s Rome’s iconic Trevi Fountain or a water feature at the nearby mall, wish-filled waterworks are common — but perhaps not a new phenomenon.
Archaeologists in Germering unearthed a 3,000-year-old wooden wishing well, the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection said in a Dec. 20 news release. Unlike today’s coin-filled fountains, this well was filled with over 100 well-preserved artifacts.
At the bottom of the 16-foot well, archaeologists found a variety of items that appeared intentionally placed.
Considering the depth of the well, the artifacts may have been ritual offerings or religious sacrifices made during a long drought, archaeologist Marcus Guckenbiehl said in the release.
Over 70 finely crafted clay vessels were unearthed from the well, with photos showing the decorated cups, pots and bowls. Experts noted these ceramics were not everyday items.
Pottery vessels found at the bottom of the well.
The excavation also revealed 26 bronze robe pins at the bottom of the well.
Bronze needles or robe pins were found at the bottom of the well.
A bracelet, two metal spirals, and four amber beads were all recovered from the well, too.
Amber beads found in the well.
Additionally, archaeologists found a mounted animal tooth and a wooden scoop inside the well. The number and quality of items indicated the artifacts did not fall into the well accidentally, experts said.
A mounted animal tooth found in the well.
A partially-intact wooden scoop found in the well.
The wishing well is one of over 70 found at the excavation area – but the only well found with relics inside. The findings are extremely rare, archaeologist Jochen Haberstroh said in the release.
Archaeologists are excavating the site before the construction of a letter distribution center.
The wishing well and its trove of artifacts will be studied further to gain more insight into the daily life of settlers 3,000 years ago.
A view of the well as construction takes place nearby.
Germering is about 10 miles west of Munich in the southern region of Bavaria.
Byzantine Woman’s Remains Found at a Castle in Turkey
Archaeological excavations in the historical Kadıkalesi Castle in the western province of Aydın have unearthed the skeleton of a woman, which is believed to date back to the 13th century.
The excavation team said that the female skeleton found in a tomb in the church section is believed to belong to the wife of a bureaucrat or someone who donated to the church.
The female skeleton was found under the water channel stones that were removed during the excavations in the monumental church in the ancient city of Kadıkalesi (Anaia), which was used as a settlement from the prehistoric period to the Ottoman Empire in the Kuşadası district.
Anthropologists think that the woman was buried in the 13th century and she was buried in the church because she made a large amount of donation to the church or because she was the wife of a bureaucrat.
In the examinations, it was determined that the woman was 34-38 years old and 1.63 meters tall.
Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Umut Tuncer, who made examinations in the area, said, “The things that turn a cultural structure into a tourist attraction are the findings there. Kadıkalesi is a very rich destination in this sense. It is full of findings that reveal new mysteries that excite us.
During the studies carried out last month, a tomb dating back to 1,300 A.D. was discovered.
The female skeleton, which we estimate to be approximately 1.63 meters tall, was found in the tomb.”
Art historian Umut Kardaşlar from the excavation team said, “We thought it might actually be a water channel. When we opened it, we realized that it was a burial of a woman.
In fact, it is not very common to put a woman’s burial inside churches. Probably, this woman must have been a woman who donated a significant amount to the church, or she must have been the wife of a bureaucrat.”
Londoner solves 20,000-year Ice Age drawings mystery
Researchers concluded 20,000-year-old markings on drawings could refer to a lunar calendar.
Ancient cave paintings, like animal figures and handprints, are generally thought to have meanings, however, the specifics of these drawings have long eluded experts. But now, British scientists have claimed to have decoded why Ice Age hunter-gatherers drew cave paintings.
Independent researcher Ben Bacon took an interest in cave art drawings. “The meaning of the markings within these drawings has always intrigued me so I set about trying to decode them,” he told the BBC.
Mr Bacon spent hours at the British library searching for photos of cave art online and collected “as much data as possible and began looking for patterns”.
He analysed 20,000-year-old markings on the drawings and concluded that they could refer to a lunar calendar.
As his research and idea progressed, Mr Bacon reached out to academics to collaborate with them. He published a study in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal along with senior academics from Durham University and University College London (UCL), which revealed that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were using markings combined with drawings of their animal prey to store and communicate “sophisticated” information about the behaviour of species crucial to their survival at least 20,000 years ago.
In the study, the researchers explained that as the marks, found in more than 600 images on cave walls and objects across Europe, record information numerically and reference a calendar rather than recording speech, they cannot be called “writing” in the sense of the pictographic and cuneiform systems of early writing that emerged in Sumer from 3,400 BC onwards.
Instead, the team refers to them as a “proto-writing system” – pre-dating other token-based systems that are thought to have emerged during the Neolithic period by at least 10,000 years.
The researchers in particular examined a ‘Y’ sign on some paintings, which they felt might be a symbol for “giving birth” as it showed one line growing out from another.
Their study showed that the sequences record mating and birthing seasons and found a “statistically significant” correlation between the number of marks the position of the ‘Y’ sign and the months in which modern animals mate and birth respectively.
Professors Paul Pettitt of Durham University said, “This is a fascinating study that has brought together independent and professional researchers with expertise in archaeology and visual psychology, to decode information first recorded thousands of years ago.”
“The result show that Ice Age hunter-gatherers were the first to use a systematic calendar and marks to record information about major ecological events within that calendar. In turn, we’re able to show that these people – who left a legacy of spectacular art in the caves of Lascaux and Altamira – also left a record of early timekeeping that would eventually become commonplace among our species,” Mr Pettitt added.
Post a commentIn the study, the researchers showed that despite the difficulties, researchers can crack the meaning of at least some of the symbols. For Bacon, the findings had even more significance. “As we probe deeper into their world, what we are discovering is that these ancient ancestors are a lot more like us than we had previously thought,” he said. “These people, separated from us by many millennia, are suddenly a lot closer,” Mr Bacon added.
Digital Reconstruction Depicts Face of “Jericho Skull”
The latest research gives a new face to the most famous of the plaster-covered skulls discovered near Jericho in 1953, showing a man who died about 9,500 years ago.
A famous, 9,000-year-old human skull discovered near the biblical city of Jericho now has a new face, thanks to efforts by a multi-national team of researchers.
The so-called Jericho Skull — one of seven unearthed by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in 1953 and currently housed in the British Museum in London — was found covered in plaster and with shells for eyes, apparently in an attempt to make it look more lifelike.
This prehistoric design was “the first facial reconstruction in the world,” Brazilian graphics expert Cícero Moraes, the leader of the project, told Live Science in an email.
In 2016, the British Museum released precise measurements of the Jericho Skull, based on a micro-computed tomography, or micro-CT — effectively a very detailed X-ray scan. The measurements were then used to create a virtual 3D model of the skull, and the model was used to make an initial facial approximation.
But the new approximation, published online on Dec. 22 in the journal OrtogOnline, uses different techniques to determine how the face may have looked, and goes further by artistically adding head and facial hair.
Although the skull was initially thought to be female, later observations determined it belonged to a male individual, Moraes said, so the new approximation shows the face of a dark-haired man in his 30s or 40s. (Based on how a lesion on the skull has healed, archaeologists suggest he was “middle-aged” by today’s standards when he died.)
An initial facial reconstruction was made from the anatomy of the skull in 2016, but the new reconstruction uses advanced digital techniques.
An unusual feature of the British Museum’s Jericho Skull is that the cranium, or upper skull, is significantly larger than average, Moraes said.
In addition, the skull seems to have been artificially elongated when the man was very young, probably by tightly binding it; some of the other plastered skulls found by Kenyon also show signs of this, but the reason isn’t known.
Jericho skulls
Jericho, now a Palestinian city in the West Bank, is thought to be one of the oldest settlements in the world.
It appears in the biblical Book of Joshua as the first Canaanite city attacked by the Israelites after they crossed the Jordan River in about 1400 B.C. According to the biblical story, Jericho’s walls collapsed after Joshua ordered the Israelites to circle the city for seven days while carrying the Ark of the Covenant, and then to blow their trumpets and shout.
But archaeological research has failed to find any evidence of this event, and it’s now thought to be Judean propaganda, according to historians writing in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans, 2000).
The new facial reconstruction used new techniques developed by the researchers and derived from new anatomical studies and statistical projections from 3D X-ray scans of living people.
Archaeologists have determined, however, that Jericho has been continually inhabited for about 11,000 years; and in 1953 Kenyon excavated seven skulls at a site near the ancient city.
Each had been encased in plaster, and the spaces inside the skulls were packed with earth. They also had cowrie seashells placed over their eye sockets, and some had traces of brown paint.
Kenyon speculated that the skulls might be portraits of some of Jericho’s earliest inhabitants; but more than 50 plastered skulls from about the same period have since been found throughout the region, and it’s now thought they are relics of a funerary practice, according to a study by Denise Schmandt-Besserat, a professor emerita of Art and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
The skull is one of seven discovered by the British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon near the ancient city of Jericho in 1953. It’s now thought to be a relic of a common funerary practice at the time it was made, about 9,500 years ago
The skull is now held by the British Museum in London, and the latest facial reconstruction is based on precise photographs of it published in 2016.
The techniques used by the researchers are also used to plan plastic surgeries and manufacture artificial body parts.
New approximation
Moraes said he’s been unable to find many details of the 2016 facial approximation, but it seems to have used what’s known as the Manchester method, which has been developed since 1977 and is based on forensic analyses.
It is now widely used for facial approximations, especially of the victims of crimes.
The latest approximation, however, used a different approach, which is based on anatomical deformation and statistical projections derived from computed tomography (CT) scans— thousands of X-ray scans knitted together to create a 3D image — of living people, he said.
The techniques are also used to plan plastic surgeries and in the manufacturing of prostheses (artificial body parts), but neither were used in the 2016 study, he said.
“I wouldn’t say ours is an update, it’s just a different approach,” he said. But “there is greater structural, anatomical and statistical coherence.”
Moraes hopes to carry out digital approximations of other plastered skulls from the region, but so far only the precise measurements of the Jericho Skull in the British Museum have been published. “There is a lot of mystery around this material,” Moraes said. “Thanks to new technologies we are discovering new things about the pieces, but there is still a lot to be studied.”
2,000 years of genetic history in Scandinavia elucidates Viking age to modern day
Underwater Kronan excavations.
A new study published in the journal Cell on January 5 captures a genetic history across Scandinavia over 2,000 years, from the Iron Age to the present day.
This look back at Scandinavian history is based on an analysis of 48 new and 249 published ancient human genomes representing multiple iconic archaeological sites together with genetic data from more than 16,500 people living in Scandinavia today.
Among other intriguing findings, the new study led by Stockholm University and deCODE genetics (Reykjavik) offers insight into migration patterns and gene flow during the Viking age (750–1050 CE). It also shows that ancestries that were introduced into the area during the Viking period later declined for reasons that aren’t clear.
“Although still evident in modern Scandinavians, levels of non-local ancestry in some regions are lower than those observed in ancient individuals from the Viking to Medieval periods,” said Ricardo Rodríguez-Varela of Stockholm University.
“This suggests that ancient individuals with non-Scandinavian ancestry contributed proportionately less to the current gene pool in Scandinavia than expected based on the patterns observed in the archaeological record.”
“Different processes brought people from different areas to Scandinavia [at different times],” added Anders Götherström, Stockholm University.
The researchers hadn’t originally planned to piece together Scandinavian history over time and space. Rather, they were working on three separate studies focused on different archaeological sites.
Sandby borg archaeological excavations.
“When we were analyzing the genetic affinities of the individuals from different archaeological sites such as the Vendel period boat burials, Viking period chamber burials, and well-known archaeological sites like the Migration period Sandby borg ringfort, known for the massacre that occurred there [in] 500 CE, and individuals from the 17th-century royal Swedish warship Kronan, we start to see differences in the levels and origin of non-local ancestry across the different regions and periods of Scandinavia,” Rodríguez-Varela explained.
“Initially, we were working with three different studies,” Götherström said. “One on Sandby borg, one on the boat burials, and one on the man-of-war Kronan. At some point it made more sense to unite them to one study on the Scandinavian demography during the latest 2,000 years.”
The goal was to document how past migrations have affected the Scandinavian gene pool across time and space to better understand the current Scandinavian genetic structure.
As reported in the new study, the researchers found regional variation in the timing and magnitude of gene flow from three sources: the eastern Baltic, the British Irish Isles, and southern Europe.
British Irish ancestry was widespread in Scandinavia from the Viking period, whereas eastern Baltic ancestry is more localized to Gotland and central Sweden.
In some regions, a drop in current levels of external ancestry suggests that ancient immigrants contributed proportionately less to the modern Scandinavian gene pool than indicated by the ancestry of genomes from the Viking and Medieval periods.
Finally, the data show that a north-south genetic cline that characterizes modern Scandinavians is mainly due to differential levels of Uralic ancestry. It also shows that this cline existed in the Viking Age and possibly even earlier.
Underwater Kronan excavations.
Götherström suggests that what the data reveal about the nature of the Viking period is perhaps most intriguing. The migration from the west impacted all of Scandinavia, and the migration from the east was sex biased, with movement primarily of female people into the region.
As the researchers write, the findings overall “indicate a major increase [in gene flow] during the Viking period and a potential bias toward females in the introduction of eastern Baltic and, to a lesser extent, British-Irish ancestries.
“Gene flow from the British-Irish Isles during this period seems to have had a lasting impact on the gene pool in most parts of Scandinavia,” they continued. “This is perhaps not surprising given the extent of Norse activities in the British-Irish Isles, starting in the 8th century with recurrent raids and culminating in the 11th century North Sea Empire, the personal union that united the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and England.
The circumstances and fate of people of British-Irish ancestry who arrived in Scandinavia at this time are likely to have been variable, ranging from the forced migration of slaves to the voluntary immigration of more high-ranking individuals such as Christian missionaries and monks.”
Overall, the findings show that the Viking period in Scandinavia was a very dynamic time, they say, with people moving around and doing many different things. In future work, they hope to add additional genetic data in hopes of learning more about how the ancestries that arrived during the Viking period were later diluted. They’d also like to pinpoint when the north-south cline was shaped based on study of larger ancient datasets from the north.
“We need more pre-Viking individuals form north Scandinavia to investigate when the Uralic ancestry enter in this region,” Rodríguez-Varela said. “Also, individuals from 1000 BCE to 0 are very scarce, [and] retrieving DNA from Scandinavian individuals with these chronologies will be important to understand the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in this part of the world. Finally, more individuals from the Medieval period until the present will help us to understand when and why we observe a reduction in the levels of non-local ancestry in some current regions of Scandinavia.”
“There is so much fascinating information about our prehistory to be explored in ancient genomes,” Götherström said.
Archaeologists have made a detailed three-dimensional model of the surviving timbers of the hull using laser scans and digital photography.
Much of the wooden hull of a rare Elizabethan-era ship has been found in a flooded quarry in southeast England, hundreds of yards from the nearest coast.
Few vessels from this time have survived, so an analysis of the find may shed new light on a key period in seafaring, when the country rapidly expanded its trading links throughout Europe through its control of the English Channel.
“To find a late-16th-century ship preserved in the sediment of a quarry was an unexpected but very welcome find indeed,” said Andrea Hamel, a marine archaeologist for Wessex Archaeology, which investigated the discovery on behalf of Historic England, a government agency dedicated to historical preservation.
“The ship has the potential to tell us so much about a period where we have little surviving evidence of shipbuilding, but yet was such a great period of change in ship construction and seafaring,” she said in a statement from Wessex Archaeology.
The remains of the ship were found in April in a flooded quarry being dredged for gravel on the Dungeness headland in Kent, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of London.
Workers from the quarry firm CEMEX reported the discovery to local government officials, who then contacted Historic England to arrange specialist support and emergency funding to recover the remains, according to the statement.
Analysis shows that the ship was built from trees felled in the late 16th century, a transitional time for shipbuilding and seagoing trade.
Moving coastline
The quarry site now lies about 1,000 feet (300 meters) from the nearest coast, but archaeologists think that the site formed part of the coastline in the 16th century and that the ship may have been abandoned there after it was wrecked on the rocky headland or discarded after it was no longer seaworthy.
The vessel has not been identified, but dendrochronological analysis of more than 100 timbers from the hull — based on the patterns of tree growth rings — show it was built from trees of English oak (Quercus robur) felled between 1558 and 1580.
The ship was built in the “carvel” style of flush planks nailed to an internal frame, which made stronger but heavier ships than those built in the traditional “clinker” style of overlapping planks.
According to the Wessex Archaeology researchers, that date estimate places the ship during a transitional period in shipbuilding in northern Europe, when the traditional “clinker” construction of overlapping hull planks was replaced by the stronger but heavier “carvel” construction developed in the Mediterranean, which used flush hull planks nailed to an internal frame.
The remains of the ship found at Dungeness had this newer carvel type of construction, and its introduction led to much heavier ships than had been built before, including those that would explore the Atlantic coastline of the New World in later decades, the researchers said.
The hull timbers were found in April in a flooded quarry being dredged for gravel. The quarry is now half a mile from the sea, but it is thought to have been on the coast 400 years ago.
When the archaeological analysis is complete, the timbers will be reburied in the flooded quarry so that they will be protected by a layer of silt.
Rare find
Wood quickly rots away in both air and water, and it usually lasts only a few years unless it is protected by an anaerobic layer of sediment — that is, a layer that protects it from oxygen. That means the wrecks of very few old wooden ships have survived to be found. And in the case of the Dungeness ship, the remaining hull timbers may have been covered by an anaerobic layer of silt beneath the floor of the quarry lake.
“The remains of this ship are really significant, helping us to understand not only the vessel itself but the wider landscape of shipbuilding and trade in this dynamic period,” Antony Firth, head of marine heritage strategy at Historic England, said in the statement.
Using laser scanning and digital photographs, archaeologists are documenting what’s left of the ship, and when the analysis is finished, the timbers will be carefully reburied in the quarry lake so they can continue to be protected by the silt layer.
High-Tech Tools Offer a Glimpse Into a Medieval Reliquary
An interdisciplinary research team led by the Leibniz Center for Archeology (LEIZA) has revealed the secret of a gold-plated pendant that was found in 2008 in a medieval rubbish pit in the old town of Mainz.
Thanks to non-destructive investigations at the research neutron source Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRM II) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), the researchers were able to locate the smallest bone splinters inside the object, which are probably relics.
The restored reliquary. Outside it is decorated with images of Jesus and Mary.
Analysis of the tomography and Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) with neutrons revealed five individual packets made of silk and linen – bone splinters were packed in each. “Neutron non-destructive testing was particularly helpful because we couldn’t just open the trailer and look inside.
The object and above all the locking mechanism are severely damaged by centuries of corrosion, and opening it would mean destroying it irrevocably,” explains restorer Matthias Heinzel from LEIZA.
During the restoration, Heinzel discovered a cord fragment in the suspension eyelet which, on closer examination, was identified as silk. “This is the first evidence that such pendants may have been worn around the neck on a silk cord.
Using neutron tomography at the TUM, we were also able to measure the thread thickness and thread spacing of the textiles on the inside,” adds the restorer.
Neutron analysis makes organic substances visible
In 500 hours of work, Heinzel freed the found object from corrosion deposits. Initial investigations showed that the pendant, which is about six centimeters high and wide and one centimeter thick, was probably a storage container for relics.
Since the organic content of the object was not recognizable on the first X-ray images, the investigation using neutrons from the FRM II was used: Dr. Burkhard Schillinger from TUM conducted the ANTARES instrument performed a neutron tomography, which made the individual textile packages with the bone splinters inside visible. Unlike X-rays, the neutrons can penetrate metals and make organic substances visible.
The researchers determined individual elements of the sample by using neutrons to excite them to emit characteristic gamma radiation during the PGAA.
“It is not possible to find out whether the bones belong to saints and which saints the bone splinters can be assigned to. A strip of parchment with the name of the saint is usually attached to a relic parcel. In this case, unfortunately, we cannot see it.
As an archaeological research institute of the Leibniz Association, we see it as our task to preserve the historical authenticity of the object for posterity in the best possible way and use the modern possibilities of non-destructive examination at the Technical University of Munich,” explains Heinzel.
Only three other reliquaries of this type, called phylactery, are known so far. Phylacterium translates from Greek as means of preservation or protection. Their owners wore them on their bodies, usually around their necks.
On the outside, the gilded copper pendant is enameled with images of Jesus, the four evangelists, Mary and four female saints.
The researchers date it to the late 12th century and assign it to a workshop in Hildesheim, Lower Saxony. The find is in the possession of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, Directorate of State Archeology Mainz and can be viewed until further notice in the medieval exhibition “AUREA MAGONTIA – Mainz in the Middle Ages” of the State Museum Mainz.
