Category Archives: EUROPE

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Pottery Unearthed at Pompeian Villa

Pottery Unearthed at Pompeian Villa

The ancient city of Pompeii has long been celebrated as one of the richest archaeological sites of all time, and now its surrounding suburbs are finally getting their due attention.

Pottery Unearthed at Pompeian Villa
Newly discovered pottery at the villa Civita Giuliana, an archaeological site in the suburbs of Pompeii.

Researchers have announced new additions to the growing list of unique finds that have recently been made at a nearby villa, Civita Giuliana.

These items of pottery include fired ceramic bowls found upside down along the walls of a room that was likely part of the servants’s quarters within a vast residential complex. It is assumed that this crockery was in situ at the time of the final phase of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 C.E.

Two years ago, the site made headlines for the stunning discovery of a ceremonial chariot decorated with silver reliefs, a stable containing the remains of a horse still dressed in a caparison as well as evidence of what may have been a small slave family in an adjoining room.

In 2020, two bodies that are believed to be a man and a slave attempting to escape the eruption were also found.

The dig began in 2017, but attempts to unearth the secrets of Civita Giuliana have long been impeded by looters who targeted the site as its more remote position left it relatively unprotected.

To counter these illegal excavations, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the prosecutor’s office for the local city and commune of Torre Annunziata and the Archaeological Park of Pompeii in 2019 and renewed in 2021.

This unique partnership is the first of its kind in ensuring collaboration and mutual support between archaeological researchers and law enforcement.

“In a territory so rich in history and yet so abused, which still hides important traces of the past, as the discoveries of recent years have shown, it is essential that the protection of cultural heritage and legality go hand in hand,” said Massimo Osanna, former director of the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

The agreement has supported researchers in a new scientific investigation of the site, which includes stratigraphic studies to reveal details about daily Roman life that aren’t well documented in written sources from the period.

This work has required the closure of a modern road running through the site, which had already been made structurally vulnerable by the elaborate network of underground tunnels made and used by looters.

The Civita Giuliana villa will become part of the wider Pompeii system and will eventually welcome tourists.

“These finds demonstrate the commitment and ability of the state to stem the scourge of clandestine excavations and the trade in archaeological goods,” said Italy’s minister of culture Gennaro Sangiuliano.

“Pompeii is the pride of Italy and it is our intention to further defend and promote a heritage that is unique worldwide.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

Scientists Review Beethoven’s Health With Hair Samples

Scientists Review Beethoven’s Health With Hair Samples

Beethoven suffered from liver disease – possibly from his alcohol consumption – and hepatitis B, researchers found

Beethoven had a likely genetic predisposition to liver disease and a hepatitis B infection months before his death, tests have revealed.

A team of researchers led by Cambridge University analysed five locks of hair to sequence the composer’s genome. They were, however, unable to establish a definitive cause of his hearing loss.

Lead author, Tristan Begg, said genetic risk factors, coupled with Beethoven’s high alcohol consumption, may have contributed to his liver condition.

The international team analysed strands from eight locks of hair kept in public and private collections, in a bid to shed light on Beethoven’s health problems.

Five locks were deemed “authentic” by the researchers and came from a single European male. Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, in 1770 and died at the age of 56 in Vienna, in 1827.

Scientists Review Beethoven’s Health With Hair Samples
The so-called Halm-Thayer Lock and the Bermann Lock of what is believed to be Beethoven’s hair

The prodigious composer and pianist suffered progressive hearing loss, which began in his mid to late 20s and led to him being functionally deaf by 1818.

A scientist examines the Moscheles Lock, believed to be Beethoven’s hair, in a laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History

Mr Begg said the team surmised from the composer’s “conversation books” – which he used in the last decade of his life – that Beethoven’s alcohol intake was regular, but the volumes he consumed were difficult to estimate.

“While most of his contemporaries claim his consumption was moderate by early 19th Century Viennese standards, this still likely amounted to quantities of alcohol known today to be harmful to the liver,” he said.

“If his alcohol consumption was sufficiently heavy over a long enough period of time, the interaction with his genetic risk factors presents one possible explanation for his cirrhosis.”

The Stumpff Lock is one of five pieces of Beethoven’s hair studied in a bid to determine the composer’s health issues

The team said, based on the genomic data, that Beethoven’s gastrointestinal issues were not caused by coeliac disease or lactose intolerance.

Johannes Krause, from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said: “We cannot say definitely what killed Beethoven but we can now at least confirm the presence of significant heritable risk and infection with hepatitis B virus.

“We can also eliminate several other less plausible genetic causes.”

Dr Axel Schmidt, of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University Hospital of Bonn, said: “Although a clear genetic underpinning for Beethoven’s hearing loss could not be identified, the scientists caution that such a scenario cannot be strictly ruled out.”

The so-called Stumpff Lock, believed to be Beethoven’s hair, which was tested to sequence the genome of the composer

Genetic genealogists also identified what they describe as an “extra-pair paternity event” – a child resulting from an affair – in Beethoven’s direct paternal line.

Mr Begg added: “We hope that by making Beethoven’s genome publicly available for researchers, and perhaps adding further authenticated locks to the initial chronological series, remaining questions about his health and genealogy can someday be answered.”

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Innovative Construction Technique Spotted in Notre Dame

Innovative Construction Technique Spotted in Notre Dame

Notre Dame Cathedral before it underwent a massive reconstruction due to a fire.

In 2019, a fire broke out inside Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, severely damaging the iconic medieval building. However, the catastrophic fire gave researchers an opportunity to study the building’s architecture like never before.

A few months after the inferno was extinguished, researchers discovered that the stones used to build the Gothic-style cathedral were held together using iron staples, a technique that had never been documented before in a building from this time period, according to a study published March 15 in the journal PLOS One.

Notre Dame was constructed in multiple phases starting in the early 12th century and continuing for the next 300 years, according to the Notre Dame Cathedral website.

“This is the first building of its kind in which we see this,” lead author Maxime L’Héritier, a professor in the Department of History at Paris 8 University, told Live Science. “This shows [that the builders] at the time were trying to experiment with new forms of construction.”

L’Héritier and his team analyzed 12 of the iron staples, which measure approximately 20 inches (50 centimeters) long and were part of the “iron skeleton” holding the building together, L’Héritier wrote in an essay for the archaeology publication Sapiens.

The staples offered additional reinforcements to the cathedral’s stonework, including holding together the large arches in the nave of the building’s towering 226-foot-tall (69 meters) twin towers.

Without the staples’ support, this architectural feat would likely have been impossible to accomplish in 1160, when construction of the building began, according to the study.

“When we studied other Gothic churches of that time period, none used iron in their construction,” L’Héritier said. “We believe that the staples were what enabled them to build this structure at such a terrific height.”

Researchers radiocarbon dated the iron staples and discovered that they were used during one of the initial construction phases, “confirming that the production date of the staples was the same as the masonry, which also dated to around 1160,” L’Héritier said.

However, L’Héritier cautioned that it will take further analysis to know the iron’s exact origins.

“We’re trying to figure out if it’s local or more distant,” L’Héritier said. “There also seems to be different ore sources depending on whether the construction occurred in the 12th or 13th centuries. We do know that the [cathedral’s] bishop died at the end of the 12th century, so it’s possible that a new ore resource was used years later. We should know more in a year or two.”

In the four years following the blaze, Notre Dame has been undergoing reconstruction and is expected to reopen to visitors in December 2024, according to AP News.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Prehistoric “Engravings Room” Rediscovered in Spain

Prehistoric “Engravings Room” Rediscovered in Spain

Prehistoric “Engravings Room” Rediscovered in Spain
Researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) in front of the prehistoric cave paintings of Cova de la Vila.

More than 100 prehistoric engravings have been discovered, arranged on an eight-meter panel, inside the cave known as Cova de la Vila, in La Febró (Tarragona), in Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia.

The depictions found in the Mediterranean underground gallery have been described as “exceptional, both for their singularity and for their excellent state of conservation” by a team from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES).

According to IPHES specialist Ramón Viñas, this mural represents the world view of first farmer societies during the Chalcolithic-Bronze age.

The engravings were first discovered on May 13, 2021 by a group of three cave explorers and subsequently underwent analysis by archaeologists and paleontologists from IPHES, the institute said in a statement.

Among the cave art samples, there are representations of different figures of quadrupeds, zigzags, linear, angular and circular lines, and a series of zoomorphs (possibly bovids and equines), star shapes and reticular lines.

The discovery of the cave art constitutes “one of the few representations of underground schematic art in the entire Mediterranean Arc,” said the regional government of Catalonia.

The discovery marks “a historic milestone for prehistoric archaeology,” according to IPHES.

The cave had been explored by Salvador Vilaseca in the 1940s, but its location had been lost. IPHES researchers managed to open a small hole between blocks of stone and came into an oval room of more than 90 square meters.

The first person to enter was Juli Serrano, who, to his surprise, saw a “mural full of lines and figures.” He says that when he came into the large, circular cavity and saw what it contained, he felt “a very great emotion, which I will take with me for life.” Without knowing it, he had just discovered one of the most important assemblages of prehistoric cave art. From that moment on, researchers Ramon Viñas and Josep Vallverdú from IPHES got to work on the site.

Viñas underscored how the panel of engravings is structured along five horizontal lines, one on top of the other, and how each of them contains different engraved figures that have their own meaning and symbolism.

The scientist points out that it is an “absolutely unusual” composition that indicates “a worldview on the part of the populations of the territory during the neolithization process.”

The prehistoric engravings in the underground complex of Cova de la Vila.

One of the singularities is that this cave art was made “exclusively with the engraving technique,” using a stone or wooden tool or directly with the fingers, explained Viñas.

The researcher considers that this, as well as the fact that it is “stylistically very homogeneous,” indicates a symbolic meaning. It is not a composition that is the result of chance.

During the transition period between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age, between the late 5th and the late 3rd millennia BC, human groups were generally found outdoors, their presence being very scarce in the underground cavities of Catalonia, in the northeast of the Iberian peninsula. Elsewhere in Spain, instances of underground dwellings have also been found in Andalusia, Segovia, Burgos, and Soria.

To guarantee its conservation, the regional government has closed access to Sala dels Gravats (Engravings Room). The site has been designated a cultural asset of national interest and work is underway to create a 3D model of the cave.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Roman villa mosaic found under Aldi supermarket site

Roman villa mosaic found under Aldi supermarket site

Roman villa mosaic found under Aldi supermarket site
The “intricate” mosaic was found at the site of a new Aldi supermarket in the town near Milton Keynes

Archaeologists have uncovered what they believe are the remains of a Roman villa and bath house under land earmarked for a supermarket.

The discovery, which features mosaic brickwork, was made in Warrington Road in Olney, Buckinghamshire.

The site is being prepared for the construction of a new Aldi supermarket.

Oxford Archaeology, who carried out the work for developer Angle Property, deemed the mosaic “archaeological remains of high significance”.

The dig was commissioned due to the site’s proximity to the existing Roman Site at Olney.

Archaeologists said the mosaic featured “vibrant colours and intricate decorative patterns” made up of red, white and blue tiles.

The roman villa with a “vibrant” mosaic was deemed of “high significance”

Much of the ancient artworks were believed to extend under Warrington Road so could not be fully investigated, the digl team said.

Oxford Archaeology said that following consultations with Historic England and Milton Keynes Council, the mosaic has been preserved in situ.

It means materials have been placed over the brickwork to protect it, to allow construction to continue without causing damage.

John Boothroyd, senior project manager at Oxford Archaeology, said: “Due to the site location we anticipated some notable Roman remains, but the discovery of this fantastic mosaic far exceeded those expectations.

“To be able to preserve remains of this quality and importance is a brilliant outcome, and one that could only have been achieved with the support of Angle Property.”

Anthony Williamson, executive director of Angle, said the find had “taken us all by surprise” and promised it “will be fully recorded” and information about it published.

The site was excavated due to its proximity to an existing Roman settlement monument
EUROPE, WORLD

6,000-Year-Old Settlement Was home to Europe’s first megalithic monument makers

6,000-Year-Old Settlement Was home to Europe’s first megalithic monument makers

6,000-Year-Old Settlement Was home to Europe’s first megalithic monument makers

Archaeologists in France unearthed the remains of a series of wooden buildings within a defensive enclosure that were built at the same time as the first stone monuments were being erected.

People in west-central France built a variety of megalithic monuments during the Neolithic period, including mound-like barrows and “dolmens” — a type of single-chamber tomb supported by two or more upright megaliths. While these stone monuments are visible and have withstood the test of time, traces of their homes have been more difficult to find — until now.

Now, Dr. Vincent Ard from the French National Center for Scientific Research. and a team of researchers working in the Charente department has identified the first known residential site belonging to some of Europe’s first megalithic builders.

“It has been known for a long time that the oldest European megaliths appeared on the Atlantic coast, but the habitats of their builders remained unknown,” said Dr. Vincent Ard.

Since it was first found during an aerial survey back in 2011, the enclosure at Le Peu, in the commune of Charmé, has been the focus of an intense investigation.

The results of this work, published in the journal Antiquity, revealed a palisade encircling several timber buildings built during the fifth millennium BC.

This makes them the oldest wooden structures in the region and the first residential site contemporary with the Neolithic monument makers. At least three homes were found, each around 13 meters long, clustered together near the top of a small hill enclosed by the palisade.

The structures at Le Peu, the researchers said, represent both the oldest-known wooden structures in the region as well as the first known residential site that existed at the same time that the Neolithic monuments were being built.

To test this, the archaeologists carried out radiocarbon dating that revealed these monuments are contemporary with Le Peu, suggesting the two sites are linked.

While the people of Le Peu may have built monuments to the dead, they also invested a lot of time and effort in protecting the living. Analysis of the paleosol recovered from the site revealed it was located on a promontory bordered by a marsh. These natural defenses were enhanced by a ditch palisade wall that extended around the site.

The entrance had particularly heavy defenses, guarded by two monumental structures. These appear to have been later additions, requiring part of the defensive ditch to be filled in.

“The site reveals the existence of unique monumental architectures, probably defensive. This demonstrates a rise in Neolithic social tensions,” said Dr. Ard.

However, these impressive defenses may have proved insufficient as all the buildings at Le Peu appear to have been burnt down around 4400 BC. However, such destruction helped preserve the site.

As a result, Dr. Ard and the team are hopeful that future studies at Le Peu will continue to provide insight into the lives of people whose only known contributions to human history are memorials. Already, it demonstrates the monumental scale of their residential sites, which was unprecedented in prehistoric Atlantic society.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Monumental Roman complex discovered in France

Monumental Roman complex discovered in France

In the city of Reims in northeastern France, archaeologists have discovered an ancient Roman-era monumental complex dating from the 2nd – 3rd century AD.

The structure consists of two porticoed galleries 65 ft lengthy forming the arms of a U. Greater than 20 rooms occupy the galleries, from corridors to residing areas with chalk flooring and fireplaces. 9 of the rooms had been a part of the traditional baths. 5 of them had a hypocaust underfloor heating system; lots of the pilae stacks (sq. tile piles) that supported the ground are nonetheless in place and in glorious situation.

Within the empty house between the galleries are two rectangular masonry buildings that had been possible a part of backyard. One of many two was a basin or fountain. Two pressurized water pipes had been discovered that stuffed the basin and/or fed the water function.

In the centre, foundation of an ancient basin surrounded by remains of its porticoed gallery, discovered in Reims (Marne), in 2023. An ancient monumental site from the 2nd-3rd centuries was discovered there.

Archaeologists discovered painted plasters adorned with floral motifs. Some of the pigments used, such as a blue similar to “Egyptian blue,” are extremely rare.

This discovery typifies a very simple set. The large number of rooms, their organization, the wealth of the decorations, the two large galleries, the hydraulic network, and the archaeological elements discovered (ceramics, architectural blocks, copper alloy tableware, and so on) allow for two interpretations. These relics could be the domus (house) of a wealthy individual or a spa complex, possibly open to the public, given the monumentality.

The Porte de Mars, the largest remaining Roman triumphal arch from the third century A.D., is just 100 meters (328 feet) away from the monumental complex. One of four imposing gates in the city walls, the arch was named after a nearby Temple of Mars.

Pilettes of the first hypocaust (underfloor heating system) discovered in Reims (Marne), in 2023.

In the third century, this was a very prestigious location, but by the beginning of the fourth, the area had all but been abandoned, and its buildings had been quarried for recycled construction materials.

The construction of Reims’ 4th-century walls may have caused the shift. For the next 1400 years, the neighborhood was used for agriculture before becoming a populated area at the end of the 18th century.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

Prehistoric Rock Art Discovered in Western Turkey

New paintings believed to be from the prehistoric era have come to light during the ongoing studies on Mount Latmos (Beşparmak), home to significant rock paintings from ancient times.

Located in the western province of Aydın, the Latmos region is one of the places that attracts attention with its natural beauties, as it is also on the route of local and foreign tourists who want to explore nature and history.

While studies have been carried out to preserve the region and reveal its historical importance, the rock paintings of Latmos shed light on prehistoric times.

The number of the first known prehistoric rock paintings in Western Anatolia, discovered by German Archaeologist Anneliese Peschlow in 1994, has reached 200, with new paintings found since then.

The main subject of Latmos rock paintings, which have unique features in terms of subject and style, is related to the relationship between men and women, family, spring festivals and wedding ceremonies. In many paintings, decorations and figures resembling weaving patterns are also seen.

The newly discovered painting, which is believed to date back to prehistoric times, was found on a rock and in its cavities during the research conducted by the Ecosystem Conservation and Nature Lovers Association (EKODOSD).

Stating that they applied to the Aydın Cultural Heritage Preservation Board after the new discovery, EKODOSD President Bahattin Sürücü said, “There are human figures and ornamental motifs in the paintings drawn on a rock surface and its natural cavities.

It is seen that a figure drawn in a natural cavity has a different shape from the previous rock paintings. Peschlow, who has been working on prehistoric rock paintings in the Latmos region for years, has studied the newly found paintings. It was reported that the painting with interesting figures was not in Peschlow’s records.”

He said that further examinations will be made on the rock paintings by the Directorate General for Preservation of Natural Heritage.

After the first rock painting was discovered in Söğütözü in 1994, nearly 200 paintings have been so far found, Sürücü said.

“Considering that there are thousands of rock shelters and caves on a wide area among the rugged, stacked rocks of the Latmos Mountains, it is a fact that it is difficult and takes decades to study and detect them.

It is not easy to find rock paintings in the complex structure of the Latmos Mountains, which is almost an open-air museum with its castles, ancient stone roads, monasteries and defensive structures.”

“The newly found rock painting shows once again that many paintings drawn by prehistoric artists on thousands of rocks in the Latmos region are waiting to be discovered. Latmos Mountains are world heritage and should be protected as a whole,” he added.