7.5 Million Annual Elephant Skulls Fossil Were Found in Turkey “Choerolophodon Pentelic”
A complete skull fossil from 7.5 million years ago was discovered on the bank of the Yamula Dam in the central Kayseri Province of Turkey. This is a major discovery. The skull belongs to Choerolophodon Pentelic, known as the ancestor of elephants.
The study of the fossils found last year was carried out by one of the few experts on Proboscidea – the taxonomic order of African mammals – in the world, Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality said in a statement.
The statement stated that Juha Saarinen, a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences and Geography at the University of Helsinki, came to Kayseri and completed the final examination of the skull.
Okşan Başoğlu, head of the excavation team which continues working at the discovery site, said the Finnish scientist Saarinen “worked on the big and complete skull for two full days.”
“This will be published in a very respected journal abroad because it is a very significant fossil,” she quoted Saarinen as saying.
Juha Saarinen works on the elephant skull, Kayseri, central Turkey, (AA Photo)
Başoğlu said it would be a benchmark for them and soon the names of Kayseri and Yamula would take their place in the world’s literature on the subject.
“For this reason, it is a very essential development for us. Kayseri, in one sense, will be a centre of palaeontology,” she said, referring to the study of the history of life on Earth based on fossils.
She said studies in the laboratory are continuously ongoing.
Saarinen, who has worked in many areas from Europe to the Middle East and China to the US, stated that the complete skull fossil belonging to Choerolophodon Pentelic is the only specimen in the world and it is larger in mass than any fossil elephant found in other contemporary fossils. localities of the world.
When it comes to the fully preserved and unique skull specimens and other fossils found in the province, he said that Kayseri will become a reference point for international palaeontology.
In previous studies in the region, samples of giraffes, 4-5 species known as the ancestors of elephants, rhinoceros, triple hoofed horses, and wasp were found.
Builders found human bones when doing reconstruction on a kindergarten in Brestovany, a village near Trnava. They called archaeologists from the Monuments Board of Trnava and the Western Slovakia Museum in Trnava who found that the builders had discovered a grave.
More detailed research showed that it is a 4,000-year-old grave from the Early Bronze Age containing women’s jewels, such as bone beads, a copper bracelet and two willow-shaped earrings, the Monuments Board Trnava informed.
The skeleton belonged to a woman buried in a curled position on her left side.
Based on the found objects and the character of the grave, archaeologists were able to classify the discovery as from the Early Bronze Age, specifically to the bearers of the so-called Nitra culture.
It belongs to the oldest culture of the Bronze Age in Slovakia and its representatives are characterised by the gradual introduction of bronze production, an alloy of already used copper with tin, which resulted in the metal of better strength and hardness.
“Uncovering the grave was a bit different than usual because all the classes of the local primary school and kindergarten arrived to watch our research and discoveries,” archaeologist Peter Grznár said.
Uncovering the grave thus changed to a live exhibition of archaeologists’ work and lessons about the life and tradition of our ancestors.
The kindergarten is located in the area of the national cultural monument manor house and park in the cadastral area of Malé Brestovany.
The manor house dates to the period of classicism from the first half of the 19th century. However, its location on a slight ridge is interesting, which could have also been attractive as a prehistoric settlement.
Severe Drought Unveils Ruins of Hidden Ancient ‘Bridge of Nero’ in Rome
After a period of unusually hot weather and low rainfall, it’s now possible to see the resurfaced remains of an ancient bridge in the Tiber River in Rome, Italy.
A severe drought in Italy has revealed an archaeological treasure in Rome: a bridge reportedly built by the Roman emperor Nero that is usually submerged under the waters of the Tiber River.
The dropping water levels of the Tiber, which according to Reuters(opens in new tab) is flowing at multi-year lows, have exposed the stone remains of the Pons Neronianus (Latin for the Bridge of Nero), WION News, a news agency headquartered in New Delhi, India, reported.
Emperor Nero, who ruled as the Roman Empire’s fifth emperor from A.D. 54 to 68, was a controversial sovereign who built public structures and won military victories abroad, but also neglected politics and instead focused much of his time and passion on the arts, music and chariot races.
Rome’s coffers were also drained during his rule, partly as a result of building the “Domus Aurea” (the Golden Palace), which Nero built in the centre of Rome after the great fire. During his reign, he killed his mother and at least one of his wives, and he struggled to rebuild Rome after a huge fire ravaged the city in A.D. 64. Nero killed himself in A.D. 68 at the age of 30 after being declared a public enemy by the Roman senate.
Live Science talked to several experts, who noted that the remains of this bridge have become visible in the past due to low water levels. They also note that, despite its name, it’s not certain if this bridge was built by Nero.
“The remains of this Roman bridge are visible whenever the water level of the Tiber falls, therefore whenever there are lengthy periods — like now — of very low rainfall,” Robert Coates-Stephens, an archaeologist at the British School at Rome, told Live Science in an email.
Multiple sources told Live Science that the bridge was possibly built before Nero’s rule. “The origins of the bridge are uncertain, given that it is likely a bridge existed here before Nero’s reign and therefore the Pons Neronianus was probably a reconstruction of an earlier crossing,” Nicholas Temple, professor of architectural history at London Metropolitan University, told Live Science in an email.
The name Pons Neronianus “appears for the first time only in the 12th-century catalogues of Rome’s monuments,” Coates-Stephens said. “It’s true that Nero had extensive gardens and properties in the area of the Vatican, and so a bridge at this point would have given easy access to these.”
Bad place to build?
After a period of unusually hot weather and low rainfall, it’s now possible to see the resurfaced remains of an ancient bridge in the Tiber River in Rome, Italy.
A number of scholars told Live Science that the bridge was constructed on a poorly chosen site.
The bridge “was built on a tight bend in a floodplain,” which is “a terrible idea,” Rabun Taylor, a classics professor at the University of Texas at Austin, told Live Science in an email.
“River bends cutting through pure sediment tend to wander and change shape, so their banks are prone to losing contact with bridge abutments” that connect the bridge to the ground, Taylor said.
He noted that “that’s probably what happened to Nero’s bridge — and it may well have happened by the mid-200s A.D., less than two centuries after Nero’s death.” Taylor’s research into the bridge’s history “suggests the bridge was dismantled at about that time, and the stone piers were reassembled to create a new bridge in a more stable area downstream.
The Pons Neronianus connected Rome to an area that didn’t have a lot of development at the time. While one side of the river had the Campus Martius, a drained wetland that at this point in time had some public buildings (such as baths and temples), and was used to organize military parades, the other side connected to an area where the Vatican is now that had some large houses.
“It was always good to connect the two banks of the Tiber,” but “the Vatican area was mostly private estates until the Fire of 64,” Mary Boatwright, a professor emerita of classical studies at Duke University, told Live Science in an email. Boatwright noted that it wasn’t until the 130s A.D. that development picked up in the area.
The bridge did, however, have some military and religious importance for Rome, Temple argued. “The Pons Neronianus was both strategically and symbolically important,” Temple told Live Science.
One side of the bridge was located near an area where Roman troops would assemble to march in a triumph (a politically and religiously significant victory parade) and was likely part of the parade route. “The precise route of this procession is uncertain but it seems probable that the Pons Neronianus [and any bridge that preceded it] served as the bridge crossing for this purpose,” Temple said.
This bridge may also have been used to transport high-profile prisoners, Temple added, noting that the crossing may have been “used by St. Peter when he was taken in chains” after his trial to the Vaticanus, where he was crucified in around A.D. 64, Temple said.
“The Pons Neronianus has potentially a double significance, as the crossing point into Rome of triumphal armies, and in the opposite direction for St. Peter’s journey to the site of the crucifixion,” Temple said.
Depending on how climate change affects the Tiber’s water levels, it’s possible that the remains of the bridge may become visible more often. It probably will be visible more often, Boatwright said, adding that “I’d personally rather it be submerged, and Italy not be threatened with drought.”
Unique sword casts new light on Viking voyages across the North Sea
The hilt has unique details in gold and silver and exquisite details not previously known.
The sword was found in three pieces by two metal detector enthusiasts, independent of each other, in the Jåttå/Gausel area in Stavanger, already renowned for the grave of the so-called Gausel queen. Found in 1883, it is considered to be one of the richest women’s graves from the Viking Age.
Like the women buried in the Oseberg ship, the Gausel queen had rich artefacts from the British Isles with her in her grave.
The sword would have been one of the most spectacularly ornamented and heaviest types of swords from the Viking Age. The blade is missing, but the hilt has unique details in gold and silver, and exquisite details not previously known.
Only about 20 such swords have been found in Norway—out of a total of around 3,000 Viking sword finds.
Lavish and complicated décor
The sword is currently under conservation at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger. It is still difficult to see the details in the hilt, but the décor includes gilded elements of the typical animal styles found during the Iron and Viking Ages, between ca. 550 and 1050.
“It is very exciting to work on a find like this. It is challenging work, but we uncover new details daily,” conservator Cora Oschmann, in charge of the conservation, says.
The hilt also contains geometrical figures in silver, made with the so-called niello technique. This means that a metallic mixture of sorts was used to make black stripes in the silver.
The sword undergoing conservation.
Both ends of the crossguard are formed as animal heads.
“The technique is of a very high quality, and both the lavish and complicated decor and the special formation of the crossguard make this a truly unique find,” archaeologist Zanette Glørstad from the museum says.
Most likely imported
This particular type of sword has been found in both Eastern and Western Europe. The few swords of this type found in Norway were most likely imported.
“But it is possible to imagine that copies of these types of swords were made by very competent sword smiths in Norway,” Zanette Glørstad points out.
“The décor suggests that the sword was made in France or England and that it can be dated to the early 800s, like the sword found on the island Eigg,” Glørstad says.
Norway and the British Isles
It has previously been speculated whether the Jåttå/Gausel-area was the starting point for extensive alliances and looting.
This is what the sword looks like when conservator Cora Oschmann has joined the pieces together.
“The location of the find, close to the Gausel queen, means that we have to take a new look at the entire Jåttå/Gausel area,” says Håkon Reiersen, a researcher at the Museum of Archaeology in Stavanger.
“The outstanding collection of imported spectacular finds connected to both men and women in this area shows that this has been an important hub for the contact across the North Sea,” he says.
The metal detector enthusiasts immediately turned in their finds to the Cultural heritage management as Norwegian law demands. This ensured that the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger immediately could take care of the parts and start the conservation work.
The sword will be exhibited at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger when the conservation work is finished.
A Search for a Lost Hammer Led to the Largest Cache of Roman Treasure Ever Found in Britain
The Hoxne Hoard is the largest cache of late Roman silver and gold which had been discovered in Britain. It was found on 16th November 1992 in the village of Hoxne by a metal detectorist Eric Lawes who was only looking for a lost hammer.
He discovered a hoard that consists of 865 Roman gold, silver and bronze coins from the late fourth and fifth century, currently estimated at around $4.3 million.
The largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold was discovered in Britain.
The hoard contains several rare and important objects and one of them is the Empress pepper pot.
It was excavated by professional archaeologists, who estimated a particular significance in the items found, for they were largely undisturbed and intact.
The hoard was discovered in a field of a farm, about 2.4 kilometres southwest of the village of Hoxne in Suffolk.
The hoard had been placed in a wooden oak chest and within the chest, there had been some objects placed in smaller boxes while others had been wrapped in a woollen cloth.
Front view of a light miliarense coin from the Hoxne Hoard.
The Hoxne Hoard contains 569 gold coins which date to the reigns of eight different emperors, 191 silver coins (siliquae – silver coins produced from the 4th century CE) and 24 bronze coins (nummi).
The coins date after AD 407, which coincides with the end of Britain as a Roman province.
The silver Hoxne Tigress has become the best-known single piece out of over 15,000 objects in the hoard.
The jewellery in the hoard is entirely made of gold. There is one body chain, six necklaces, three rings, and nineteen bracelets.
The most precious jewel in the hoard is the body chain which is made of four finely looped gold chains, attached at front and back to plaques.
This kind of body chain can be seen in Roman art, sometimes on the goddess Venus or Nymphs.
Frontal view of the gold body chain from the Hoxne Hoard.
Piperatoria – display of a selection of spice dispensers from the hoard, the pepper-pot on the right depicts an elegant and educated ady.
One of the most important finds in the hoard is the Empress pepper pot.
The empress’ hair, clothing and jewellery are carefully represented and she is holding a scroll in her left hand, giving the impression of education as well as wealth.
There are other pepper pots in the hoard: The Hercules pepper pot and Antaeus pepper pot.
A 13 cm (5.1 in) long ladle from the hoard, with decoration including a Chi-Rho and sea-creatures.
The hoard also contains a lot of silver-gilt items: four pepper pots, a beaker, a vase, four bowls, a small dish and 98 silver spoons.
Display case reconstructing the arrangement of the hoard treasure when excavated.
Iron and organic materials from the remains of the outer wooden chest were found in large iron rings, double-spiked loops and hinges, angle brackets, iron strips, strap hinges and nails.
The most important items are on display in a perspex reconstruction of the chest at the British Museum alongside the roughly contemporary Thetford Hoard.
Sutton Hoo: One of the most magnificent archaeological finds in England
In 1939, an excavation was carried out on two 6th and 7th-century cemeteries at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge in Suffolk, England. Beneath Mound No. 1, a stunning archaeological discovery was made.
Historians were amazed to find an undisturbed ship burial that contained a wealth of outstanding artefacts of significant cultural and historical significance.
The archaeological team found the complete outline of the ship perfectly preserved in the sand of the burial chamber. The wood of the ship had decomposed, but the stains in the sand gave an accurate depiction of the construction of the ship, and all the metal rivets were perfectly in place.
The ship was built from oak and was found to have a tall, rising stem and stern that measured 27 meters. At its broadest part, the ship was 4.4 meters wide, and it had an inboard depth of 1.5 meters. The hull followed a clinker construction style, with nine planks on each side of the hull riveted together with iron rivets.
The ship had been laboriously carried from the river and carefully placed in a prepared trench. It was buried at a depth where only the stem and stern posts peeked out of the ground.
The body and all the funeral artefacts were then placed in the ship, and the site was covered with a soil mound. The burial place remained undisturbed until carefully uncovered by archaeologists in 1939.
Sutton Hoo Helmet at the British Museum
This excavation was an incredibly important find, as it straddled the time in English history between myth and legends and the creation of historical documentation. It is generally accepted that the ship was the tomb of Raedwald, who was the ruler over East Anglia.
There was no body found, but analysis of the soil indicates that there was a body that had been destroyed by the acidic soil. The coffin or wooden platform that carried the body was close to 9 feet long.
From the distribution of the artefacts, it appears the head was placed at the western end of the platform. The archaeologists found an iron ringed bucket, an iron lamp that still had its beeswax fuel inside, and high-quality personal items such as a helmet, belt buckle, shoulder tabs, jewellery, coins, silverware, and armour.
The artefacts found in the tomb have provided a wealth of information about the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of East Anglia as well as the Anglo-Saxon civilization.
Replica of the Sutton Huo Helmet in the British Museum
Only one occurrence of Middle Eastern bitumen had been found in the British Isles prior to this discovery, but the Sutton Hoo bitumen is older than the previously discovered specimen. This new discovery is very exciting, as it adds further evidence to the theory that the Anglo-Saxons traded over a far wider territory than was previously thought.
The bitumen was not left in the grave by mistake. It was deliberately placed at the head and foot of the body, and its proximity to the body indicates its value to the people. It is not clear if this bitumen was a diplomatic gift or if it was a product gained through trade routes, but its presence in the grave indicates that the Anglo-Saxons traded widely and made use of goods brought from afar.
Model of the ship’s structure as it might have appeared, with chamber area outlined Photo Credit
It is evidence that the bitumen deposits in the Middle East were traded north through the Mediterranean Sea and across Europe to reach as far north as England, Mail Online reported.
The discovery of trade goods such as this bitumen adds extensively to our understanding of how people lived in this era since the myths and legends of that time tend to obscure facts. Historians can use these artefacts to try to identify how trade routes worked, and thus learn more about how people moved and interacted so long ago.
This Ancient Underground City Was Big Enough to House 20,000 People
Chicago, like a lot of other modern cities, has a hidden secret: It’s home to miles of passageways deep underground that allows commuters to get from one place to another without risking nasty weather.
Los Angeles, Boston, New York, and Dallas all have their own networks of underground tunnels, as well.
But there’s a place in Eastern Europe that puts those forgotten passages to shame. Welcome to Derinkuyu — the underground city.
A Subterranean Suburb
Picture this. It’s 1963, and you’re on a construction crew renovating a home. You bring your sledgehammer down on a soft stone wall, and it all crumbles away, revealing a large, snaking passageway so long that you can’t see where it ends.
This is the true story of how the undercity at Derinkuyu was (re-)discovered. While those workers knew they’d found something special, they couldn’t know just how massive their discovery had been.
Stretching 250 feet (76 meters) underground with at least 18 distinct levels, Derinkuyu was a truly massive place to live. Yes, live. There was room for 20,000 people to stay here, complete with all necessities (and a few luxuries) — fresh water, stables, places of worship, and even wineries and oil presses. It isn’t the only underground city in the area known as Cappadocia, but it’s the deepest one we know of, and for many years, it was believed to be the largest as well. (Another recently discovered location may have been home to even more people.)
Derinkuyu and the other 40-ish underground cities nearby are made possible thanks to the prevalence of tuff in the area, a kind of volcanic rock that solidifies into something soft and crumbly. That makes it relatively easy to carve enormous subterranean passages — but why would you want to? The answer lies in the cities’ origins.
Defense Against the Sword Arts
Derinkuyu isn’t exactly inhospitable on the surface level (after all, that’s where the people who found it were living). So why did ancient people decide to build their living quarters below the surface? Because they weren’t hiding from the broiling sun or annual meteor showers.
They were clearly hiding from invading forces, with massive, rolling stone doors to block off each floor should any armies breach the fortress. But who were the people of the caves, and who were they defending themselves against? The answer to the second question depends on the answer to the first.
The earliest known people to live in the area were the Hittites, who ruled the Turkish Peninsula from about the 17th to 13th centuries B.C.E. — well over three millennia ago.
Some scholars point to artefacts with Hittite cultural elements, such as a small statue of a lion, found in the underground caves. That suggests these ancient people would have been taking refuge from invading Thracians.
If they were, it didn’t work forever: A tribe of Thracians, the Phrygians, conquered the area next. It’s possible that the Hittites never lived underground, however; an alternate theory says that it was the Phrygians, not the Hittites, who spawned the subterranean city.
Since the construction of many of the immense underground complexes is dated to some time between the 10th and 7th centuries B.C.E., and the Phrygians lived there until the 6th century B.C.E., they’re generally regarded to have created the first caves. In that case, they may have been hiding from the Persian host under Cyrus the Great that eventually did take over the region.
Lost and Found
The Persians would have used those caves as well, as would all of the people to come after. Eventually, according to some sources, early Christians around the 2nd century C.E. took root in the caves as they fled Roman persecution. This pattern continued throughout the centuries and millennia to come — in fact, Greek Christians were still using the caves as late as 1923.
It’s pretty incredible, then, that the caves would have been forgotten in the 40-odd years between their last residents and their “re-discovery.”
It’s more likely, then, that it wasn’t the caves themselves, but the extent of the caves that were forgotten. While the holes burrowed into the area’s fairy chimneys would have been obvious even from a distance, it’s likely that the people living in more modern accommodations never realized that the caves in the wilderness outside of the urban area reached 18 stories down.
Iron Age Rock Art Discovered During Rescue Excavation Beneath House in Turkey
An unexpected discovery has revealed ancient artwork that was once part of an Iron Age complex beneath a house in southeastern Turkey. The unfinished work shows a procession of deities that depicts how different cultures came together.
Looters initially broke into the subterranean complex in 2017 by creating an opening on the ground floor of a two-story home in the village of Başbük. The chamber, carved into the limestone bedrock, stretches for 98 feet (30 meters) beneath the house.
When the looters were caught by authorities, a team of archaeologists did an abbreviated rescue excavation to study the significance of the underground complex and the art on the rock panel in the fall of 2018 before erosion could further damage the site. What the researchers found has been shared in a study published Tuesday by the journal Antiquity.
Archaeologists followed a long stone staircase to an underground chamber, where they found rare artwork on the wall.
The artwork was created in the 9th century BC during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which began in Mesopotamia and expanded to become the largest superpower at the time.
This expansion included Anatolia, a large peninsula in Western Asia that includes much of modern-day Turkey, between 600 and 900 BC. “When the Assyrian Empire exercised political power in south-eastern Anatolia, Assyrian governors expressed their power through art in Assyrian courtly style,” said study author Selim Ferruh Adali, associate professor of history at the Social Sciences University of Ankara in Turkey, in a statement.
An example of this style was carved monumental rock reliefs, but Neo-Assyrian examples have been rare, the study authors wrote.
Combining cultures
The artwork reflects an integration of cultures instead of outright conquest. The deities have their names written in the local Aramaic language. The imagery depicts religious themes from Syria and Anatolia and were created in the Assyrian style.
“It shows how in the early phase of Neo-Assyrian control of the region there was a local cohabitation and symbiosis of the Assyrians and the Arameans in a region,” Adali said. “The Başbük panel gives scholars studying the nature of empires a striking example of how regional traditions can remain vocal and vital in the exercise of imperial power expressed through monumental art.”
The artwork shows eight deities, all unfinished. The largest is 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) in height. The local deities in the artwork include the moon god Sîn, the storm god Hadad and the goddess Atargatis. Behind them, the researchers could identify a sun god and other divinities.
The depictions combine symbols of Syro-Anatolian religious significance with elements of Assyrian representation, Adali said.
Part of the artwork features Hadad, the storm god, and Atargatis, the principal goddess of northern Syria.
“The inclusion of Syro-Anatolian religious themes (illustrates) an adaptation of Neo-Assyrian elements in ways that one did not expect from earlier finds,” Adali said. “They reflect an earlier phase of Assyrian presence in the region when local elements were more emphasized.” Upon discovering this artwork, study author Mehmet Önal, a professor of archaeology at Harran University in Turkey, said, “As the dim light of the lamp revealed the deities, I trembled with awe as I realized I was confronted with the very expressive eyes and majestic face of the storm god Hadad.”
Mysteries remain
The team also identified an inscription that may show the name of Mukīn-abūa, a Neo-Assyrian official who served during the reign of Adad-nirari III between 783 and 811 BC.
The archaeologists suspect that he had been assigned to this region at the time and was using the complex as a way to win over the appeal of the local population.
But the structure is incomplete and has remained unfinished for all this time, suggesting that something caused the builders and artists to abandon it — perhaps even a revolt.
“The panel was made by local artists serving Assyrian authorities who adapted Neo-Assyrian art in a provincial context,” Adali said. “It was used to carry out rituals overseen by provincial authorities. It may have been abandoned due to a change in provincial authorities and practices or due to an arising political-military conflict.”
Adali was the epigraphist of the team who read and translated the Aramaic inscriptions in 2019 using photos captured by the research team, who had to work quickly to study the site.
“I was shocked to see Aramaic inscriptions on such artwork, and a sense of great excitement overtook me as I read the names of the deities,” Adali said.
The site was closed after the 2018 excavations because it is unstable and could collapse. It is now under the legal protection of Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The archaeologists are eager to continue their work when excavations can safely resume and capture new images of the artwork and inscriptions and possibly uncover more artwork and artefacts.
