Category Archives: EUROPE

French farmer finds rare coin featuring Charlemagne just before his death

French farmer finds rare coin featuring Charlemagne just before his death

A rare 1,200-year-old silver coin featuring Charlemagne — one of the only known portraits made of the emperor during his lifetime — was recently rediscovered and promptly taken on a wild journey from a farm in France, to the bidding grounds of eBay and, finally, to a museum in Germany.

This rare silver coin shows a portrait of Charlemagne that was made during his lifetime.

The coin’s modern travels began when a man in France wanted to build a house but was short on cash. He remembered that he had inherited a coin collection from his grandfather, a farmer in the Paris region. After going through his grandfather’s collection, the man discovered the Charlemagne coin, known as a denarius, and he put it up for auction on eBay.

“We have here some experts that regularly check what is on eBay concerning archaeology,” said Frank Pohle, director of the Route Charlemagne, a group of municipal museums in Aachen, Germany, that focus on cultural history. “One of them told me ‘Hey, there is a piece of money in eBay France that could be a real denarius of Charlemagne.”

The museum decided to enter a bid. To their relief, they got the coin depicting Charlemagne and his imperial title: IMP(erator) AVG(ustus), a reference to Emperor Augustus, the first Roman emperor and a title used by the many emperors of the Roman Empire, whom Charlemagne was trying to emulate. (Pohle wouldn’t reveal the coin’s price, but said, “It was not that expensive. We are very content.”)

Charlemagne (ruled A.D. 768 to 814), also known as Charles the Great, was king of the Franks and became the first ruler to unite Western and Central Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. Due to his political power, military might and close relationship with the Vatican, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans on Christmas day in A.D. 800.

So, perhaps it’s no surprise that, in this coin portrait, Charlemagne “presents himself really as Roman emperor,” Pohle told Live Science. “He has the laurel on his hat, which is quite unusual for Frankish kings. He is wearing a dress like a Roman general.”

The portrait also reveals that Charlemagne had a round face, a moustache and a short neck, the latter a detail noted by Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard, Pohle said. 

Putting his portrait on the 0.7-inch-diameter (1.9 centimetres) coin “has something to do with his ambitions,” Pohle told Live Science. “That type of coin is quite a good copy of what the Roman emperors did in their times … to use money as a piece of their own marketing purposes.”

There are only about 50 individual denarii coins bearing a portrait of Charlemagne created in his lifetime. “Most [denarii] only have his name on it, no portrait,” Marjanko Pilekić, a numismatist and research assistant at the Coin Cabinet of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany, who is not involved with the newfound coin, told Live Science. 

The back of the coin features a building, which has a Christian cross on it and looks like a mix between a Roman temple and a church, Pohle said. 

The back of the coin features a mix between a Roman temple and a church.

When was it minted?

Museum experts have determined that the 0.5-ounce (1.5 grams) coin was likely minted in Aachen due to the city’s importance, as that’s where Charlemagne was born and later died. But the date of its minting is unclear.

After being crowned Roman emperor, he didn’t immediately use the title “Emperor Augustus” found on the coin. 

“Although he was already crowned in 800, he didn’t use that title [until] 812,” Pohle said. “It had something to do with his diplomatic connections with Byzantium,” also known as the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. Instead, Charlemagne used the title “Emperor Governing the Roman Empire,” according to Britannica.

Finally, in 812, the Byzantine Empire recognized Charlemagne’s emperorship, so he started using the title found on the coin, making this a possible date for the coin’s minting, Pilekić said.

The coin also could have been minted in the year 813, when Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious, was appointed as co-emperor and had similar coinage made. 

“Charlemagne was ill during the last three to four years of his life, i.e. around 810-814, and was particularly concerned about the future of the empire,” Pilekić said. “He had only one son left, whom he appointed co-emperor in 813. One theory is that the portrait coinage was created in the last year of his life. That is, at a time when he was probably striving for an orderly succession.”

Another idea is that “these coins were specifically intended to commemorate the occasion of the emperor’s coronation and therefore did not really serve as money like the other denarii of Charlemagne, which do exist in significantly larger numbers without a portrait and imperial title,” Pilekić added.

It’s hard to say how much this coin was worth at the time. “The amount of silver is quite low,” but if you had 12 to 20 denarii, you could probably buy a cow, Pohle said.

14th-century sarcophagus found at fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral

14th-century sarcophagus found at fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral

The discovery was made as maintenance crews were preparing to install scaffolding before restoring the spire of the 800-year-old cathedral, which survived a huge fire in the spring of 2019.

French archaeologists conducting excavations in Notre Dame Cathedral found several burials made no later than the 18th century. Among them stands out the discovered anthropomorphic lead sarcophagus, which probably belonged to a high-ranking dignitary who died no later than the 14th century. 

Notre Dame: History and recent fire

The Notre Dame Cathedral is located in the centre of the French capital, on the Ile de la Cité island, built-in 1163-1345 on the site of the Gallo-Roman temple of Jupiter and the Christian Basilica of Saint Stephen.

The temple is a Gothic five-nave basilica with a short transept, a choir, and a crown of chapels. The facades of this building are decorated with sculptures, including scenes from the life of the Mother of God and the Last Judgment.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the interior and facade of the cathedral were significantly rebuilt. During the restoration, which took place in the middle of the 19th century, a 96-meter oak spire was built, which was decorated with bronze statues of the apostles and evangelists.

On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the fight against which took about 14 hours. Most of the structure that caught fire was wooden frame built in the 12th-13th centuries from 1300 oaks.

The source of the fire was located at the base of the spire, where restoration work was underway at that time, which began in 2018. Through the scaffolding, the fire quickly spread to the entire roof of the cathedral. As a result, the spire collapsed, damaging the vaults of the building.

New excavations at Notre Dame found a human-shaped sarcophagus

Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research of France from February 2 to March 25, 2022, are conducting excavations in Notre Dame Cathedral, which precede the installation of scaffolding necessary for the reconstruction of the spire.

The researchers focused their attention on the central part of the temple, where the transept crosses the main nave.

The human-shaped sarcophagus beneath the Notre Dame.

Although some work on this site was carried out in the 19th century, archaeologists managed to find valuable historical finds. Scientists have unearthed several burials that were made no later than the 18th century.

Among them, a well-preserved lead sarcophagus made in an anthropomorphic form stands out. Archaeologists believe that it belonged to a high-ranking dignitary who died no later than the 14th century.

The coffin rested in the middle of brick pipes (a 19th-century underground heating system) and was well preserved, but slightly deformed under the weight. Inside, there are still pieces of cloth, hair, and a pillow of leaves.

Head of a man among other finds.

Below the level of the temple, the researchers found the remains of medieval pits, which contained fragments of polychrome sculptures.

According to the researchers, these artefacts are the remains of the original altar barrier of the 13th century, which separated the altar part of the temple from the nave. Some of these finds discovered earlier, are currently exhibited in the Louvre.

The Trailblazing Archaeologist Uncovering the Untold Stories of Prehistoric Skeletons

The Trailblazing Archaeologist Uncovering the Untold Stories of Prehistoric Skeletons

Archaeology has always fascinated Efthymia Nikita. She was drawn to the mystery and joy of uncovering the buried past. In her first year of archaeology studies at the Aristotle University, in Thessaloniki, she happily joined a six-week dig at a Neolithic – late Stone Age – site in northern Greece. The multitude of findings included pottery, figurines, stone tools and animal bones. And, toward the end of the excavations, the remains of a human skeleton were found.

“Our team had experts for everything, who almost immediately could tell us exactly what we were looking at, no matter how fragmented it was,” Nikita recalls. “But we had no osteoarchaeologist on the team, so no one could say even the most basic thing about this skeleton: Was it a man or a woman? How old was he/she when they died? We knew nothing.” That, she says, is when she decided to become an osteoarchaeologist.

As its name suggests, osteoarchaeology is the study of skeletal remains, both human and animal, from excavations. It is a specialized field within the broader realm of bioarchaeology, whose purview “includes not only bones but also plants and any other organic material that may be preserved in the archaeological record,” Nikita explains.

Today, at just 38, Nikita is at the pinnacle of her profession, author of a textbook on osteoarchaeology that is considered the last word on the subject, and the developer of methods to analyze ancient bones. Despite her young age, she has been awarded prizes and honours and has received numerous research grants. The latest award bestowed on her is the 2022 Dan David Prize, the world’s largest prize given to scholars in history-related disciplines, which gives $300,000 each to nine different laureates, with another $300,000 going for scholarships for young researchers. The award ceremony will take place in May at Tel Aviv University. (Prior to 2021, the prize, which is granted under the auspices of the university, was given across a wider range of fields)

Our conversations – conducted via both Zoom and email – take place both from her office at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, where Nikita is an assistant professor in bioarchaeology and from her home nearby. She moved to Cyprus in 2017 from her native Greece when the institute, a research body specializing in science and technology, offered her a research and teaching position. She was joined by her husband, with whom she raises their 4-year-old son.

Osteoarchaeology is an offshoot of osteology, the scientific study of bones, which in the past was utilized to support racial theories of various sorts. “Even though human osteology started largely as a ‘race science,’ where scholars measured crania to separate humans into races,” says Nikita, “it actually proves the exact opposite. Despite the anatomical variation seen across human groups, which is largely associated with our adaptation to different environments, when you strip people of their skin colour, hair colour, material culture, etc., and you are left with nothing but their bones, there is a deep sense of connectivity.”

She has worked with human skeletal remains from the prehistoric period until post-medieval times in a range of locations: Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Britain, Greece, Cyprus, and Lebanon. “My work,” she says, “has made me realize even more clearly how much all human populations share and have always shared throughout their history. We see differences in the frequencies of different pathologies or dietary patterns or other bioarchaeological aspects, but the similarities are much more pronounced.” For example, the impact of harsh external conditions on human skeletons in the past and the present is very similar, however different the settings. “Since the skeleton has specific means to respond to stress, usually through the new bone formation and bone resorption, we see the same signs of ‘suffering’ on skeletons of individuals in very different contexts.”

The Trailblazing Archaeologist Uncovering the Untold Stories of Prehistoric Skeletons
The “Lovers of Valdaro” bone remains, some six millennia old, found near Mantua, Italy. Emotional neutrality is not always possible.

What you say brings to mind the work of pathologists, who try to determine the cause of death through the remains.

“Definitely. Osteoarchaeology draws methods and approaches from biology, genetics, anatomy, chemistry and geology. And, in particular, forensic anthropology, which deals with the study of recently deceased individuals, shares many methods and approaches with osteoarchaeology. In forensic anthropology, the key aim is to identify the deceased, as well as determine the circumstances of death. Therefore, great emphasis is placed on determining the age at death, sex, stature and ancestry of the individual to whom the skeleton belongs, but also different types of trauma that may manifest on the skeleton – such as sharp force or blunt force.

“In osteoarchaeology,” Nikita continues, “we also estimate age at death, sex and stature, and we assess various pathological lesions, including trauma. Almost all the methods we have for estimating sex and age at death have been developed with the help of modern skeletal collections where the sex and age of the deceased were known in advance. However, our aim is to explore what the living conditions were like in the past, rather than the circumstances of death.”

Estimating the age at death and gender can offer clues to the demographic profiles of different groups; for example, whether infant mortality was high, or whether men died younger than women. In any event, Nikita adds, “I appreciate that the study of human skeletal remains is a privilege and not a right, and such remains should be treated with dignity and respect. Although I try to be emotionally neutral, this is not always possible. For example, in cases where I have an individual with some serious pathology, it is impossible not to think how painful his or her life must have been.”

When you strip people of their skin color, hair color, material culture, etc., and you are left with nothing but their bones, there is a deep sense of connectivity.

Efthymia Nikita

Everyone dies in the end

In the year 900 B.C.E., a people known as the Garamantes occupied the core of the Sahara Desert; they lived in the region for the next 1,500 years. The prevailing view among archaeologists and prehistorians was that, given the external conditions, life there, in what is today the Libyan desert, was nasty, brutish and short. Nikita, together with scientists from Cambridge and Leicester universities, decided to examine this hypothesis by comparing data from skeletal remains found in the heart of the Sahara with similar remains from other African communities along the Mediterranean coast and the banks of the Nile. The analysis showed that life in the desert was not necessarily more difficult or shorter than life next to water sources and that nutrition, too, was apparently not more meager.

In terms of how strenuous life in the Sahara was, an analysis of the remains of the Garamantes “suggests a population successful at coping with a harsh environment of high and fluctuating temperatures and reduced water and food resources,” Nikita says. Few differences were found between men and women, though “the lower limbs were significantly stronger among males than females, possibly due to higher levels of mobility associated with herding.”

A second question related to life in the Sahara studied by Nikita involved the mobility of residents. The classical archaeological material evidence supported the assumption that a large number of individuals crossed the Sahara Desert, despite the extreme conditions prevailing there. But Nikita’s findings refuted this hypothesis. “Our study,” she explains, “examined whether the desert inhibited extended gene flow among populations. Gene flow was assessed by means of cranial morphology. On this basis, we found that despite the fact that this population was at the centre of various networks, the Sahara Desert posed important limitations to gene flow between the Garamantes and other North African populations.

Efthymia Nikita at an excavation site.

Another project examined differences between Garamantian women and men with regard to mobility. On the one hand, it was hypothesized that mobility among men might be higher, due to combat or commerce; on the other hand, women might have been more mobile, due to marriage, in whose wake they might have moved to other settlements to be with their husband’s families. The bones showed that mobility was equally low in both sexes: Neither men nor women moved about very much.

Classical archaeology can find graves and grave goods, describe the material culture and can suggest for instance whether the deceased was rich or poor. Osteoarchaeology can suggest whether a seemingly wealthier person really did live an easier life, Nikita explains. Skeletal remains may also reveal familial ties and provide a broader picture of past communities.

More recently, she examined “human mobility in Cyprus during the Early Christian and Late Byzantine-Frankish periods,” which relates to Nikita. “For a case study, we used the [burial] site of the Hill of Agios Georgios in Nicosia. The results identified one individual who likely originated outside Cyprus and several more [from Cyprus] who were nonlocal to the burial site.” In other words, there was mobility, but it was likely more regional than far-flung. “Regarding men and women, no significant difference was found and they are both represented among the ‘nonlocals,’ so we cannot attribute the mobility to some gender-based factor.” This could not have been determined only from analysis of inanimate objects found at the burial site. The study of bones, Nikita emphasizes, provides a broad demographic picture. In the end, everyone dies: rich and poor, exalted military leaders and slaves. Whereas, say, the examination of objects in cemeteries, can provide much information about the way the living buried the dead, the study of bones will tell an all-inclusive story.

For example, a study Nikita conducted together with colleagues, involved two Cypriot communities that, according to the evidence, engaged principally in agriculture during the 16th and 17th centuries – the transition from the Venetian period to the Ottoman. A comparison was made between adults and children and between women and men of the two populations. The researchers found that despite the similarity in the ways of life of the two communities, one of them experienced greater everyday physical stress. The researchers found more injuries and greater attrition of the skeletal remains. The disparity is discernible among the children as well: Among the population that led a harder life, the bones of the children showed that they, too, were not spared.”

Among the grounds for awarding you the Dan David Prize, the foundation states that you have made it your goal to tell the untold stories of those who have been forgotten, such as children and women, “in order to form a more well-rounded view of the past.” What motivates your research?

“I would say that anger is my main motivation… I am Greek, and I get frustrated when I hear our politicians refer to our ‘glorious past and ancestors,’ obviously referring to men, to distill a rather misguided sense of ethnic pride. While I respect the importance of feeling proud of one’s country and the fact that a country’s history is an important factor for such pride, it is our obligation as scientists to promote a deeper understanding of our history. Osteoarchaeology gives us direct access to our ancestors – not just the politicians and military men, but the everyday people who comprised the vast majority of our ancestors. With the prize money, my priority will be to expand osteoarchaeological research in the Eastern Mediterranean, in conjunction with historical evidence, but also to create a series of resources for educators, parents and the general public to effectively communicate our findings.”

Excavation of Byzantine shipwreck in Aegean reveals 5th-century ceramics

Excavation of Byzantine shipwreck in Aegean reveals 5th-century ceramics

Excavations of a Byzantine shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Samos have revealed that the ship and its contents likely date to some time between 480 and 520 AD, the Greek Culture Ministry announced.

Excavation of Byzantine shipwreck in Aegean reveals 5th-century ceramics
A Byzantine shipwreck in Greece was dated to some time between 480 and 520 AD.

The shipwreck is located in the sea near the small Fournoi island group, which is southwest of Samos. The 15 amphorae found in the sand near the wreck, along with the wooden skeleton of the ship itself, were in remarkably good condition.

There are nearly 60 shipwrecks from various historical periods located in the region.

Despite the fact that the shipwreck was found in one of the steepest and most inaccessible areas of the islands, it was chosen for further study during the 2021 excavation season due to the fact that it was extremely well-preserved.

Experts believe that the ship’s wooden framing survived throughout the centuries because it was crushed under the rest of the ship and oxygen couldn’t reach it, stalling the process of decay.

Archaeologists found 15 amphorae at the site of a Byzantine shipwreck in Greece. Archaeologists worked throughout last year to clear sand and debris from the wreck in order to provide access for experts to conduct studies of the site.

This allowed archaeologists to discover the 15 amphorae, many of which have been linked to various areas across the surrounding region.

The distinct style of one amphora is linked to the city of Sinope on the Black Sea, and six other amphorae are thought to be from Crimea and Heaclea Pontica on the Black Sea. Some ceramics found at the site are also connected to Phocaea in Asia Minor.

These finds reflect the expansionist trade policy of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I, who was the ruler during the time the shipwreck occurred.

Greek archaeologist Giorgos Koutsouflakis is heading the underwater excavations at the site, and his team includes 25 divers, among whom are students, archaeologists, photographers, and others.

In total, they have completed nearly 300 dives at the site and spent over 200 hours underwater excavating the shipwreck. Work at the site will continue into future seasons.

There are many ancient shipwrecks across the Greek seas, and archaeologists have found countless historic treasures in these sunken archaeological sites.

Off the Greek island of Alonissos, one such shipwreck has been transformed into an underwater archaeology museum, where divers can explore the shipwreck underwater.

At the 5th century BC wreck of Peristera, divers accompanied by guides can get a close look at the huge pile of amphorae, which extends to the sea bottom for a length of 25 meters (82 feet).

The shipwreck, which is one of the most important in all of classical antiquity, was loaded with thousands of wine amphorae from Mendi, an ancient city of Halkidiki, and Peparithos, today’s Skopelos, areas known in antiquity for their wine.

Valley of the Kings archaeologists unearth treasures in Siberia dating back 2,500 years

Valley of the Kings archaeologists unearth treasures in Siberia dating back 2,500 years

Archaeologists have discovered a large burial mound in the Siberian “Valley of the Kings” dating to more than 2,500 years ago.

The ancient tomb holds the remains of five people, including those of a woman and a toddler who was buried with an array of grave goods, such as a crescent moon-shaped pendant, bronze mirror and gold earrings.

The mounds were made by the Scythians — a term used to describe culturally-related nomadic groups that lived on the steppes between the Black Sea and China from about 800 B.C. to about A.D. 300.

The Scythian woman and the child were buried together in a wooden burial chamber within a burial mound.

The burial mound, known as a kurgan, is located near a previously excavated kurgan belonging to a Scythian chief. Given the proximity of the woman’s burial mound to the chief’s — only 656 feet (200 meters) away — and the valuable artefacts buried with her, “I think that she was a person of great importance in the society of nomads,” said Łukasz Oleszczak, an archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, who led the Polish team, which worked alongside Russian archaeologists at the site.

The crescent pendant stood out immediately, he added. “She was buried with this artefact that we had believed to be a sign of male burials,” because similarly shaped pendants had previously been found in men’s burials in kurgans in southern Siberia, Oleszczak told Live Science.

The gold grave goods were found near the woman.
The woman had gold earrings and gold ornaments, possibly from a hat, near her head.

Archaeologists have known about the “Valley of the Kings” (a phrase coined by a journalist years ago, harkening to Ancient Egypt’s Valley of the Kings) for more than a century. This vast valley, known as Touran-Uyuk in Tuva, a Russian republic, is replete with numerous Scythian royal burials. 

One of the previously excavated kurgans, dating to the eighth or ninth century B.C., holds the earliest known elite Scythian burial ever found. Most of these kurgans, however, have yet to be formally excavated, Oleszczak said.

At the invitation of Russian archaeologists, Oleszczak and his team conducted excavations in the valley during the 2019 and 2021 field seasons.

The kurgan, detected by aerial laser scanning, is about 82 feet (25 m) in diameter and has a destroyed, flattened centre, according to Science in Poland, a news site coordinated by the Polish government and independent journalists.

The kurgan is relatively short today — just 12 inches (30 centimetres) high, Oleszczak added.

During excavations, the archaeologists found the burials of five people. In one chamber, at the centre of the kurgan, the researchers found a looted burial chamber with weapons, including arrows, suggesting that a warrior had been buried there.

The excavations at the kurgan in Siberia.

The team found the remains of the woman and child in an unlooted wooden burial chamber with three layers of beams.

The sheer amount of wood was likely a symbol of wealth, as “there are not many trees in that area,” Oleszczak said. “Wood is quite valuable.”

According to an anatomical analysis, the woman died at about age 50, and the child was 2 to 3 years old. Along with the crescent pendant, the woman was buried with a number of other grave goods, including gold ornaments near her head that were possibly part of a hat, an iron knife and an engraved wooden comb tied with a leather loop to a bronze mirror.

This comb-mirror duo had been placed in a leather bag. It’s not yet clear how the woman and toddler died, Oleszczak added.

Another burial in the kurgan held the remains of a young male warrior buried with weapons, including a knife, a whetstone and gold ornaments. The fifth burial was found in a pit on the kurgan’s outskirts.

This grave held the remains of a teenager. “Graves of children on the perimeter or just outside the ditch surrounding the barrow are a typical part of the funeral rites of this early Scythian culture,” Oleszczak told Science in Poland.

Using a metal detector, the archaeologists discovered evidence of bronze objects that were left around the kurgan’s perimeter, including dozens of horse-riding equipment pieces, a bronze axe and a goat-shaped ornament. These objects likely became scattered due to deep ploughing from a farm collective that existed in the area in the 20th century.

Roman Malting Oven Uncovered in England

Roman Malting Oven Uncovered in England

Roman Malting Oven Uncovered in England
Archaeologists unearthed the remains of a Roman oven during excavations at Field 44 in Bedfordshire, at a dig taking place near the Black Cat roundabout

Archaeologists have identified evidence of 2,000-year-old beer production at a site of a road improvement scheme. The remains of a Roman malting oven and charred spelt grains were found during digging in Bedfordshire, as part of the proposed work on the A428 between the Black Cat roundabout and Caxton Gibbet.

Experts have analysed the grains and said they suggested people who lived there were involved in making beer.

The site, known as Field 44, was excavated from July to February.

During the dig, the team from the Museum of London Archaeology (Mola) and the Cambridge Archaeological Unit discovered the remains of a farmstead that they believed was in use from the Middle Iron Age to the late Roman period.

The Iron Age in Britain ran from about 800BC until the period of Roman rule, which ran from AD43 until about AD410.

They said archaeobotanists, who specialise in the study of past human-plant interactions, had since identified that the charred spelt grains were left to germinate before being dried in a kiln.

“As large quantities of grains are only allowed to germinate when the aim is to produce malt – the first step in the brewing process – this strongly suggests the people living at the settlement were involved in beer production,” a Mola spokesperson said.

Archaeologists prepared soil samples for analysis
The grains were probably burnt by accident, but it helped their research, project science advisor Rachel Ballantyne said

However, they added that little evidence of the structures needed for brewing had yet been identified, so it was unclear whether the people at Field 44 were completing the process on-site.

Project science advisor Rachel Ballantyne said: “It is possible only malt was being produced here, which was then taken to be brewed elsewhere.

“This raises interesting questions about how the people living on this farm might have been interacting with neighbouring communities as part of a wider trade network.

“The germinated grains are likely to have been accidentally burnt, but this ancient mistake has benefitted our research.”

Mola said research on the discoveries at Field 44 continued.

The dig revealed the remains of a farmstead, thought to be in use from the Middle Iron Age to the late Roman period

New Technology Employed to Protect Pompeii

New Technology Employed to Protect Pompeii

A four-legged robot called Spot has been deployed to wander around the ruins of ancient Pompeii, identifying structural and safety issues while delving underground to inspect tunnels dug by relic thieves.

The robot is capable of inspecting even the smallest of spaces while ‘gathering and recording data useful for the study and planning of interventions.

The dog-like robot is the latest in a series of technologies used as part of a broader project to better manage the archaeological park since 2013 when Unesco threatened to add Pompeii to a list of world heritage sites in peril unless Italian authorities improved its preservation.

Spot, made by the US-based Boston Dynamics, is capable of inspecting even the smallest of spaces while “gathering and recording data useful for the study and planning of interventions”, park authorities said.

The aim, they added, is to “improve both the quality of monitoring of the existing areas, and to further our knowledge of the state of progress of the works in areas undergoing recovery or restoration, and thereby to manage the safety of the site, as well as that of workers.”

Until Spot came along, no technology of its kind had been developed for archaeological sites, according to Gabriel Zuchtriegel, the director of Pompeii archaeological park.

Park authorities have also experimented with a flying laser scanner capable of conducting 3D scans across the 66-hectare (163-acre) site.

A drone is flown over the Pompeii site.

Zuchtriegel said: “Technological advances in the world of robotics, in the form of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, have produced solutions and innovations typically associated with the industrial and manufacturing world, but which until now had not found an application within archaeological sites due to the heterogeneity of environmental conditions, and the size of the site.”

The spot will also be tested for use in underground tunnels made by tombaroli, or tomb raiders, who for years made a fortune by digging their way into the ruins and stealing relics to sell to art traffickers around the world.

The thieves have been less successful since 2012, when Italy’s art police intensified a crackdown on cultural crime, although tunnels are still being found in the area around Pompeii.

“Often the safety conditions within the tunnels dug by grave robbers are extremely precarious, and so the use of a robot could signify a breakthrough that would allow us to proceed with greater speed and in total safety,” said Zuchtriegel.

Unknown symbols are written by the lost ‘painted people’ of Scotland unearthed

Unknown symbols are written by the lost ‘painted people’ of Scotland unearthed

What seemed like an eventful evening turned into an emotional discovery for the history books after archaeologists in Scotland came upon a stone covered with ancient geometric carvings. The symbols were etched in stone by the Picts, Scotland’s indigenous people, about 1,500 years ago.

The 5.5-foot-long (1.7 meters) stone is covered with Pictish symbols.

The 5.5-foot-long (1.7-meter) stone artefact was discovered in Aberlemno, a parish and small village in the Scottish council area of Angus. The site was already famous for four previously discovered Pictish carvings from between 500 AD and 800 AD, which exhibit a range of symbols, from Pictish symbols to overtly Christian iconography. 

Fierce people who a strong culture

For a very long time, the ancient Roman Empire wanted to seize Scotland, known during Roman times as Caledonia. The province was the site of many enticing resources, such as lead, silver, and gold. It was also a matter of national pride for the Romans, who loathed being denied glory by some ‘savages’.

Despite their best efforts, the Romans never really conquered the whole of Scotland. The farthest Roman frontier in Britain was marked by the Antonine Wall, which was erected in 140 AD between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde, only to be abandoned two decades later following constant raiding by Caledonia’s most ferocious clans, the Picts.

The name given to these northern people means ‘Painted Ones’ in Latin. The Picts constituted the largest kingdom in Dark Age Scotland until they disappeared from history at the end of the first millennium, their culture having been assimilated by the Gaels. But although not very much is known about these people who dominated Scotland for centuries, evidence suggests that Pictish culture was rich, perhaps with its own written language in place as early as 1,700 years ago, a 2018 study found.

It’s unclear what the geometric symbols carved in the newly found stone at Aberlemno represent, which include abstract symbols in the shape of a comb and a mirror, a crescent, double discs, and triple ovals. According to Gordon Noble, excavation leader and a professor of archaeology at the University of Aberdeen, the most plausible explanation is that the symbols represented Pictish names, although there’s no hard evidence at the moment to back this claim. Some of these symbols overlap with one another, which suggests some were added later in different time periods.

Excavation leader Gordon Noble works at the site.

A tearful discovery

Archaeologists excavate the Pictish-carved stone in Aberlemno, Scotland.

The extraordinary find was made while the archaeologists were surveying the site as part of a five-year investigation into early medieval kingdoms in northern Britain in Ireland. Researchers had deployed geophysical equipment to the area, which they used to look for signs of any potential object of interest beneath the ground without having to dig an inch. The radar eventually picked up an anomaly that looked like it might be something interesting, perhaps the remains of a settlement, and the archaeologists were eager to work.

Unfortunately, this was early 2020 when the pandemic was sweeping Britain and there were still many frightening unknowns. The archaeologists would have to wait a couple of months before they could get back to Aberlemno — and all that anticipation eventually paid off.

At the bottom of the pit they dug, the archaeologists hit a stone, which they expected to be the remnants of some wall. But when they brushed the dirt off, everyone freaked out. The stone was covered in symbols, definitely of Pictish origin.

“There are only around 200 of these monuments known. They are occasionally dug up by farmers ploughing fields or during the course of road building but by the time we get to analyse them, much of what surrounds them has already been disturbed,” Noble said in a statement.

“To come across something like this while digging one small test pit is absolutely remarkable and none of us could quite believe our luck.”

Dr. James O’Driscoll, the researcher who was the first to discover the stone, described his excitement:

“We thought we’d just uncover a little bit more before we headed off for the day. We suddenly saw a symbol. There was lots of screaming. Then we found more symbols and there was more screaming and a little bit of crying!”

“It’s a feeling that I’ll probably never have again on an archaeological site. It’s a find of that scale.”

The researchers recounted their initial reaction to this priceless moment in the video below.

The marvellous carved stone was dated to the 5th or 6th century AD, not that long after the last Roman legionnaires left Britain for good.

Interestingly, the stone was found below the foundation of a huge building from the 11th or 12th century. The researchers aren’t sure why the building was built directly on top of the settlement layers extending back to the Pictish period. Perhaps the stone was simply lost and the people who built the building were simply not aware of its existence. Only 200 Pictish stones have been found in total.

“The discovery of this new Pictish symbol stone and evidence that this site was occupied over such a long period will offer new insights into this significant period in the history of Scotland as well as help us to better understand how and why this part of Angus became a key Pictish landscape and latterly an integral part of the kingdoms of Alba and Scotland,” Professor Noble said.