Category Archives: EUROPE

CZECH REPUBLIC, EUROPE, WORLD

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic

A small farmer in the Opava region in the northeast of Czechia made a unique discovery while working in a field, unearthing a golden belt dating back to the Bronze Age. The ornamented piece, which is exceptionally well-preserved, should go on display at the Bruntál museum at the end of next year.

The golden belt had been lying underground for thousands of years before being unearthed by a farmer while he was harvesting beetroots.

The founder, who wishes to remain in anonymity, discovered the ancient piece of apparel at the end of September and immediately contacted archaeologists from the Silesian Museum in Opava.

Jiří Juchelka, head of the museum’s archaeology department, says that as soon as he saw a photo of the item, he knew it was something exceptional.

The first hypothesis was that the thin golden sheet of metal, which is around 50 centimetres long, was a tiara. However, after examining the object in greater detail, experts now believe it was actually part of a belt:

“It is decorated with raised concentric circles and topped with rose-shaped clasps at the ends. We realized that it was too long to fit on someone’s head.  So we actually think it is not a tiara, but something much rarer – a part of a belt.

“Belts at the time were made of leather and this was strapped to its front part. It was crumpled when the finder found it, probably as a result of agricultural activity, so it is a miracle it has been so well preserved. It may be missing a few tiny parts, but otherwise, it is in perfect condition.”

The thin metal sheet is made mostly of gold, along with some silver and traces of copper and iron. A preliminary analysis places its origin around the 14th century BC, says Tereza Alex Kilnarová, conservator at the Museum of Bruntál.

“It is estimated to be from the middle to the late Bronze Age, but it is only a preliminary determination based on the decoration.

“Similar decorative ornaments appear in more than one prehistoric culture and therefore more detailed research and analysis of the metal is needed.

“It probably belonged to someone in a high position in society, because items of such value were rarely produced at the time. That’s why we are talking about someone more esteemed.”

While the monetary value of the belt is yet to be determined, it is already clear that the object has an incalculable cultural and historical value, says Ms Kilnarová:

“Such objects are rarely found even during excavations, so it is a really unique discovery, not only in our region but all over Czechia. I think it is safe to say that it will be one of the most valuable objects that will have on display in our museum.”

The rare item, which will become part of the Museum of Bruntál collections, will now be thoroughly examined and conserved, before going on display for the public.

The ancient Golden Belt Discovered in the Czech Republic
EUROPE, IRELAND, WORLD

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland

Megalithic Portal Tomb Identified in Ireland
Connemara-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons now says there is conclusive evidence the Carraig á Mhaistin stone structure at Rostellan on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour is a megalithic dolmen.

New research looks set to answer a long-standing question about the status of a mysterious tomb-like structure uncovered in Cork Harbour many years ago.

Archaeologists have been split as to whether it was prehistoric or a more recent 19th-century “folly”.

However, Connemara-based archaeologist Michael Gibbons now says there is conclusive evidence the Carraig á Mhaistin stone structure at Rostellan on the eastern shore of Cork Harbour is a megalithic dolmen.

Mr Gibbons has also discovered a previously unrecognised cairn close to the dolmen which would have been concealed by rising sea levels, and which he is reporting to the National Monuments Service.

The Carraig á Mhaistin dolmen at Rostellan is listed by some guides as Ireland’s only inter-tidal portal tomb.

In fact, there are two such inter-tidal tombs, Mr Gibbons says.

The small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide.

He says doubt about Carraig á Mhaistin’s age meant it was not included in the State’s survey of megalithic tombs of Ireland conducted by Professor Ruaidhrí de Valera and Seán Ó Nualláin over 40 years ago.

“At that time, it was suggested that it could have a folly or type of ornamental structure commissioned by local gentry at the nearby Rostellan Castle estate, and dating from the 19th century,” Mr Gibbons says.

The small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide. Picture: Michael Gibbons

His recent field trip to Rostellan has thrown up additional details, including the discovery that the small chamber at the tomb stands at the western end of the cairn, which is 25m long and 4.5m wide.

This is significant, as a portal and court tombs “occasionally have intact long cairns which are both intended to provide structural support to the chamber itself, and to enhance visual presence in the landscape”, he says.

The cairn is “partially entombed in estuarine mud” and it is probable a great deal more of the structure is concealed below the surface, Mr Gibbons says in a report he has written on the monument.

He notes it is not known for certain when the area was inundated by rising sea levels, but levels at this part of the Cork Harbour shoreline are believed to have been stable for 2,000 years.

Mr Gibbons says the only other known inter-tidal portal tomb on the island is at “the Lag” on the river Ilen, between Skibbereen and Baltimore in West Cork.

Portal tombs or dolmens were often known as “Diarmuid and Gráinne’s bed”, being associated in folklore as resting places for the fugitive couple who were pursued by Fionn mac Cumhaill, Gráinne’s husband.

Mr Gibbons says many were built close to the coast, but the two known tombs in the inter-tidal zone may have been part of a wider network which did not survive the “high energy environment” of the Atlantic seaboard.

He says recent extreme weather has destroyed Sherkin Island’s sole megalithic tomb on Slievemore townland, just 3m to 4m above the high water mark.

Mr Gibbons says the Sherkin structure had been an example of a “very fine wedge tomb”, but it was initially severely hit by the storms of 2014, which caused substantial damage to coastal archaeology in a number of locations.

What remains of the Sherkin wedge tomb has been almost entirely eroded away by recent storms, but there are some structural stones remaining which would warrant a rescue excavation, he says.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey

Possible Burial Place of St. Nicholas Uncovered in Turkey
A fresco of Jesus in a church in Turkey’s Antalya region hinted at the exact location of Saint Nicholas’ burial.

Archaeologists in southern Turkey have just uncovered the original burial place of Father Christmas himself, formally known as St. Nicholas, but whose modern nicknames of Santa Claus, Saint Nick and Kris Kringle are known by children the world over.

While researchers already knew that the saint’s body was buried in the fourth century A.D. church in Turkey’s Antalya province, the holy man’s remains were stolen around 700 years after he died, so the specific spot where he was originally interred was a mystery.

Now, clues gathered during a new excavation of this church, including the ecclesiastical building’s similarity to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and the placement of a fresco depicting Jesus, hint at exactly where St. Nick’s body was likely laid to rest.

Located on Turkey’s southern coast, the modern town of Demre boasts the Church of St. Nicholas, built in A.D. 520 on top of an older church where the Christian saint served as bishop in the fourth century A.D. Then known as Myra, the small town was a popular Christian pilgrimage spot following St. Nicholas’ death and burial there in A.D. 343.

Very little is known about Nicholas’s life, but legends abound — he is said to have rescued three girls from prostitution, to have chopped down a demon-possessed tree, to have resurrected three murdered children who were pickled in brine, and to have gotten into a fist-fight during the First Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, according to Britannica(opens in new tab). And, of course, Nicholas was said to have frequently given away his inherited wealth anonymously to the poor, eventually leading to the legend of St. Nick as Santa Claus.

Unfortunately, in A.D. 1087, “some wise and illustrious men of Bari [Italy]… discussed together how they might take away from the city of Myra… the body of the most blessed confessor of Christ, Nicholas,” according to a contemporaneous manuscript translated from Latin by late medievalist Charles W. Jones.

Their plan was to “break open the floor of the church and carry away the holy corpse.” The group succeeded, carting off most of the skeletal remains of St. Nicholas, and leaving just a few bones and a broken sarcophagus in Myra.

In spite of this desecration, the church of St. Nicholas in Demre itself has survived for more than a millennium, with archaeological excavation beginning at the end of the 20th century.

Through this work, researchers discovered the foundations of the earliest church, covered by many feet of sand and silt. Last week, Osman Eravşar, chairman of the Antalya Cultural Heritage Preservation Regional Board, announced the discovery of the location of St. Nicholas’s tomb at the base of a fresco of Jesus.

In an interview(opens in new tab) with the Turkish news organization DHA (Demirören Haber Ajansı), Eravşar noted that the current excavations have revealed “the floor on which St. Nicholas’s feet stepped” from the original church.

“This is an extremely important discovery, the first find from that period,” DHA’s English coverage quoted Eravşar as saying.

The sarcophagus of Saint Nicholas is located in a church named after the saint in the down of Demre, Turkey. The saints’s bones were stolen centuries ago, but the sarcophagus survived. New research has pinpointed the exact burial spot where St. Nick was originally interred.

The original burial place of St. Nicholas has also been found, according to Eravşar. When the Bari contingent removed the saint’s bones in the 11th century, they also shoved some sarcophagi aside, obscuring their original location. Eravşar told DHA that “his sarcophagus must have been placed in a special place, and that is the part with three apses covered with a dome.

There we have discovered the fresco depicting the scene where Jesus is holding a Bible in his left hand and making the sign of blessing with his right hand.” A marble floor tile with the Greek words for “as grace” could mark his exact grave.

Supporting that hypothesis is the shape of the church itself. Just as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has an unfinished dome on top, so does the Church of St. Nicholas at Myra.

When it was restored by Emperor Alexander II of Russia in the 1860s, the dome was never completed. This unfinished dome may have been a purposeful attempt to link St. Nicholas with the story of Jesus’s crucifixion and ascension into the sky.

“It’s not unusual for churches to be built atop one another,” William Caraher, an archaeologist at the University of North Dakota with a speciality in early Christian architecture, who was not involved in the excavation, told Live Science in an email. “In fact, the presence of an earlier church on a site has been a reason to build a church since Early Christian and Byzantine times.” 

But Caraher thinks that the marble floor tile with Greek letters could be from some other context, reused possibly in antiquity because of the common word “charis” (grace) etched into it.

Caraher noted that St. Nicholas is significant in Orthodox and Catholic traditions, with churches and chapels dedicated to him throughout the Mediterranean. “I think many people — from eager kiddos on Christmas Eve to world-weary science reporters and grizzled archaeologists — have at some point in their lives hoped to get a little glimpse of the real St. Nick,” Caraher said.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

New Thoughts on Fish Consumption in Iron Age Britain

New Thoughts on Fish Consumption in Iron Age Britain

A woman who lived in Orkney 1,800 years ago had a diet that was unusually rich in seafood, say archaeologists. Very little evidence has been found of fish being consumed in Iron Age Britain, despite the abundance of marine life, according to the UHI Archaeology Institute.

Possible reasons for this may have included social restrictions or taboos around eating seafood.

Experts at the institute have been involved in analysing a tooth from a woman’s jawbone that was uncovered during excavations at The Cairns in South Ronaldsay.

The bone appeared to have been carefully placed inside a container made from a whale vertebra, and studies of the tooth have revealed the woman had eaten “fish suppers” all through her life.

Archaeologists suggest she may have had a special role or status and have nicknamed her The Elder.

The jawbone was found inside a vessel made from a whale vertebra
A tooth from the woman’s jawbone was analysed

The UHI Archaeology Institute has been working with the University of York and the British Geological Survey’s National Environmental Isotope Facility in analysing the tooth.

The studies have involved looking at layers of dentine laid down over time as the tooth grew, and of dietary isotopes – evidence of foods – embedded in those layers.

Archaeologists said the tooth was sampled multiple times when the woman was estimated to have been three, seven, nine, 11, 13 and 15 years old.

The results showed seafood had been a fairly consistent part of her diet during her childhood.

Earlier analysis had already shown she was eating fish towards the end of her life.

Martin Carruthers, site director of The Cairns excavations and a lecturer in archaeology at the UHI Archaeology Institute, said: “It’s remarkable to be able to reach back and solve a problem like the question over her diet, which was previously unclear.

“Now we can see that the marine foodstuffs that she ate were after all a normal part of life for her, and this allows us to move on with the further investigation of the mystery over the apparent lack of seafood in Iron Age society at this time.”

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

An 8,500-year-old human skeleton and musical instrument were found in the garden of the apartment

An 8,500-year-old human skeleton and musical instrument were found in the garden of the apartment

An approximately 8,500-year-old human skeleton and a three-hole musical instrument were found during an excavation in the garden of an apartment in the Bahçelievler District of Bilecik.

This place, which is likely to be one of the first points of human settlements in Western Anatolia, was discovered for the first time when a resident of Bilecik reported some ceramic pieces found here to the Archeology Museum.

An 8,500-year-old human skeleton and musical instrument were found in the garden of the apartment

As a result of two years of work, 11 human skeletons estimated to be 8,500 years old and musical instruments with three holes from the same period were found in the garden of the apartment.

Archaeologists also found grains such as lentils, barley and vetch, as well as varieties of wheat used to make bread and pasta.

Stating that this year’s most important find is a three-hole wind instrument, Fidan added: “We also found religious objects such as ornamented boxes made of terracotta, human-shaped amulets and animal figures during the excavations. In addition, a skull we found in the courtyard gives us information about the religious life of that period.”

8,500 years old 3-hole musical instruments found in Bilecik

Fidan said, “We think that this musical instrument, which has 3 holes, is a part of a musical instrument that makes sounds and changes sound notes. He also stated that the tool can be used thanks to an appliqué mouthpiece attached to this piece.

The head of the excavation, Assoc. ErkanFidan said, “The human skeletons found in the excavation area belong to the oldest adolescent people in the Neolithic Age in Western Anatolia.”

Fidan stated that “the human communities that came here 9 thousand years ago and stayed here for about a thousand years, unearthed the first villages.” In addition, Fidan said that people living in the region who know how to do agriculture also domesticated animals.

8,500 years old 3-hole musical instruments found in Bilecik

Fidan also noted that they found other human skeletons in the excavation area and that these skeletons were examined in detail at the Hacettepe University Anthropology Department Laboratory.

He also stated that they aim to learn a lot about these people in the near future, about their age, gender, illness and the food they eat.

The finds found in the excavation will be exhibited in the Bilecik Archeology Museum after the restoration and research works are completed.

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

1000-year-old Sword uncovered in Southern Poland

1000-year-old Sword uncovered in Southern Poland

An almost one-metre-long sword estimated to be around a thousand years old has been found in southern Poland. Historians say it is one of the most valuable discoveries in the region in a long time.

The sword was found only 30 centimetres below ground level near the village of Lewin Klodzki, close to the border with the Czech Republic, by Konrad Oczkowski who is exploring the area with the permission of archaeologists.

No remains were found alongside the sword to indicate who its owner was, and neither were any other metal objects.

1000-year-old Sword uncovered in Southern Poland

Mr. Konrad Oczkowski explored the site with our permission and with all the permits – said archaeologist Marek Kowalski from the Wałbrzych branch of the Lower Silesian Monuments Conservation Department. – On Monday morning, he informed us about the possible discovery of an archaeological monument.

Mr Konrad was very professional. Since he was not an archaeologist, after removing the layer of soil and realizing it was a sword head, he covered and masked the monument with earth, marked the find’s location in a familiar way, and notified the conservation services. On Tuesday, July 19, archaeological services emerged at the site and picked up medieval weapons from the ground.

The sword is in good condition. However, it was deposited directly in the ground, so it was partially corroded due to oxygen ingress. The shaft is separated from the rest, and the blade is cracked at the blade.

The sword was found in a place that restorers do not want to disclose yet. The fact is that there was a settlement in the area before 1945, but its origins date back only to the 17th century.

“Such a sword is priceless,” said archaeologist Marek Kowalski, quoted by Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

“It had the value of one or even several villages. So it undoubtedly belonged to some knight. Such things were not simply abandoned.”

It is not yet known whether the sword ended up underground in the 11th century or later. However, the expert who inspected the weapon, Dr Lech Marek from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Wrocław, has no doubts regarding the sword’s age, said Kowalski.

“Identical swords have been excavated at Ostrów Lednicki, where one of the most important castles of the Piast state was,” Kowalski added, referring to the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland, which ruled Poland until the 14th century.

The first Piasts, probably of West Slavic and Lechitic tribe descent, appeared around 940 in the territory of Greater Poland (Wielkopolska).

The archaeologists speculate that there may have been a fortress near the site where the sword was found. In the 11th century, Bolesław the Brave, the first king of Poland, who was in conflict with the Czechs, ordered his son, Mieszko II, to invade Bohemia, today the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic.

The sword will now be subjected to a historical analysis, examined for metallography using CT scans in an attempt to find inscriptions despite the corroded surface, Kowalski told Gazeta Wyborcza.

This might help the researchers to determine where the sword was made and who was its potential owner.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

13,000-year-old buildings discovered in Mardin

13,000-year-old buildings discovered in Mardin

The ongoing excavations in the southeastern province of Mardin have uncovered the remains of several buildings, which feature many beads with various depictions engraved on them dating back 13,000 years.

Mardin

“There are structures dated much older in the world called pre-neolithic temporary shelters,” said archaeologist Ergül Kodaş, who leads the excavation works. “However, some structures unearthed in Boncuklu Tarla [Beaded Field] site in Mardin date back 13,000 years, and they are among the first examples of permanent villages.”

The site is one of the rare settlements which gives information about the entire early Neolithic period, according to Kodaş.

The archaeologist also pointed out that some structures unearthed at the site are 1,000 years older than Göbeklitepe, which is known as the oldest temple in the world.

Göbeklitepe, declared an official UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018, was discovered in 1963 by researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Chicago.

Various historical artefacts, including a 65-centimetre-long human statue dating back 12,000 years, have been discovered during the excavations.

“The remains of 12,000-year-old buildings that were built on top of each other from three different periods have been found during the excavations,” the expert noted.

She stated that the buildings were presumed to be temples, but it is not known what exactly they were used for.

“The buildings can be thought of as a communal living centre. What we know is that these are not residences, but we don’t know whether they were buildings used for gatherings on special occasions, for rest, for storage purposes, or if they were religious buildings.”

“It’s hard to call many of these buildings faith-centred, which is why we call them public buildings,” she added.

Stating that they encountered figures such as mountain goats, scorpions, bullhead, snakes and spider on the beads, Kodaş said these were used as pendants.

“They carved the bone and put bead stones on it,” she explained, adding that most of them belong to 8,000-9,000 B.C.

With the support of the Turkish Historical Society, the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums, Mardin Metropolitan Municipality, Dargeçit Municipality and the Dicle Development Agency (DİKA), excavations have been completed in a four-decare area of the site.

After the excavation works to be started in the new areas are completed, the region will be opened to tourism. Boncuklu Tarla was discovered in 2008 during a field survey. Its first excavations started in 2012.

Houses with quarry stone walls and stiffened clay floors from the Aceramic Neolithic Age, which date back to 10,000 B.C. and 7,000 B.C., were found during the excavations at the site in Dargeçit.

Along with thousands of beads used in ornaments, obsidian or flint blades, waste from ornament making and stone chipping tools were found at the site.

The tools include blades, gimlets, arrowheads and microliths.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Pesticides May Have Contributed to Corrosion on Roman Bowl

Pesticides May Have Contributed to Corrosion on Roman Bowl

A corroded Roman bowl dated almost 2,000 years old contains traces of a modern chemical once used in pesticides.

The study highlights that soil polluted with chlorobenzenes may pose a continuing threat to the preservation of archaeological material still in the ground.

The chemicals are synthetic compounds that can be toxic at high levels and most have been banned in the UK following concerns about environmental pollution.

However, it is thought these compounds accumulated in the environment through previous agricultural and industrial use.

A Roman bowl from the late iron age

In the new study, researchers from the University of Oxford, and Conservation Science Investigations (CSI): Sittingbourne, analysed a Roman bowl from the Late Iron Age (between 43 and 410 AD).

Made of a copper alloy, the vessel was found in 2016 on a farm in Kent, a site that was known to have been used for agriculture since at least 1936.

Luciana da Costa Carvalho and colleagues analysed the green and brown-coloured corrosion on the bowl to identify their different components.

They found elements that were indicative of the changes over time in the soil caused by human activities.

Researchers found chlorobenzenes present in the green-coloured corrosion.

The authors also found diethyltoluamide (also known as DEET) in the brown-coloured corrosion, a modern compound that is still used in insect repellents.

They suggest that the chlorobenzenes were associated with increased corrosion in the Roman bowl.

They say that even though the chemical is no longer used in the UK, polluted soil may still threaten the preservation of archaeological material still buried and more research needs to be undertaken to better understand the processes involved.

Writing in the Scientific Reports Journal, the authors said: “Chlorobenzenes are common soil contaminants in rural areas from the use of pesticides, many of which were banned more than 50 years ago.

“Here we show that their presence is associated with accelerated corrosion and this provides a threat to the preservation of archaeological metal objects in the ground.”