Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town’s destruction

According to new research, the combined analysis of animal and plant remains, as well as written evidence, is leading to more precise dating of archaeological finds.

“We can now often determine not only the year but also the season. This allows us to reconstruct the events that produced the finds much more precisely,” say archaeologists Prof. Dr. Achim Lichtenberger from the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster and his Tel Aviv University colleague Prof. Oren Tal.

“The destruction of the Greek town Tell Iẓṭabba in present-day Israel by a military campaign waged by the Hasmoneans, a Judean ruling dynasty in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, has so far been dated to between 111 and 107 BC,” say Lichtenberger and Tal.

“More recent research dates it to 108/107 BC, based on coin finds and the siege of the city of Samaria at the same time.

Now, using our multi-proxy approach that makes use of several analytical methods, we can for the first time date the events with certainty to the spring of 107 BC.”

“We came across chicken leg bones in the dwellings destroyed by the Hasmoneans. Analyzing them revealed residues containing medullary bone deposits in the marrow that served to produce eggshells during the laying season in spring.

This indicates that the chickens were slaughtered in spring,” explain Achim Lichtenberger and Oren Tal. “We also discovered the shells of field snails, which were often eaten at this time of year.”

Botanical examinations of the remnants of flowers on the floors of the dwellings reveal that these plants flowered in spring.

Analysis of the objects is always accompanied by an analysis of written evidence: “The contemporary Hebrew scroll of Megillat Ta’anit about the Hasmonean conquest, also known as the Scroll of Fasting, reports the expulsion of the inhabitants in the Hebrew month of Sivan, which corresponds to our May/June.”

‘Only the multiplicity of analytical methods makes precise statements possible’

“From an archaeological point of view, this makes spring the season of destruction,” says Lichtenberger and Tal, which underlines previous findings on Hellenistic warfare, as military offensives usually took place in spring and early summer.

“The individual data taken on their own would not justify determining such a clear chronology,” emphasizes Lichtenberger, who, together with his colleague Oren Tal and an interdisciplinary team comprising natural scientists, is leading a research project on the archaeology of the Hellenistic settlement Tell Iẓṭabba, in ancient Nysa-Scythopolis, a Greek city in the ancient Near East.

“Only by taking an overall view of the results from all analytical methods can we provide more precise information about the time of the destruction of Tell Iẓṭabba, and thus about the course of the Hasmonean campaign.” The finds must therefore be interpreted in the light of the seasons.

Pathogens Detected in Bronze Age Remains in Greece

A team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, the British School at Athens and Temple University has found evidence of pathogens in the teeth of individuals from the Bronze Age that could explain why two ancient civilizations failed.

In their paper published in the journal Current Biology, the group describes their genetic study of teeth found inside a cave called Hagios Charalambos on the island of Crete.

Prior research has shown that the Old Kingdom of Egypt and the Akkadian Empire, both Bronze Age civilizations, experienced sudden declines in population several thousand years ago.

It has been suggested that climate change and/or other unknown factors led to the decline, which also resulted in damage to infrastructure, reductions in trade and major cultural changes.

In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence suggesting that diseases could have been behind the decline.

The work involved studying the teeth from the remains of people dated back to approximately 2290 and 1909 BCE that had been brought to them from the dig site on Crete.

They found evidence of typical bacteria found in the modern human mouth—the kind that can lead to tooth decay. But more importantly, they also found evidence of Yersinia pestis—the bacteria behind the plague—and Salmonella enterica, which is the bacteria responsible for typhoid fever.

The findings suggest that an epidemic could have been responsible for the population decline in either or both of the Bronze Age civilizations.

The researchers note that there is one caveat—the strain of Yersinia pestis they found was not the same one that devastated so much of Europe centuries later; it has gone extinct, as has the Salmonella enterica strain they found.

Thus, it is not known how transmissible either were, or how deadly. Still, the evidence of such pathogens means that historians must factor in the possibility of disease as a reason for the fall of the two major civilizations.

They suggest further genetic studies be done on other ancient samples to determine how widespread such infections may have been.

Archaeologists unearth a 3,500-year-old warrior’s grave in Greece

Archaeologists in Greece have made a rare and exciting discovery – an ancient unlooted tomb with the remains of an unknown warrior and a huge hoard of treasure.  The Greek Ministry of Culture announced that it is the most important treasure to have been discovered in 65 years.

The Ministry of Culture announced the finding today, revealing that two US archaeologists, Jack L. Davis and Sharon R. Stocker from the University of Cincinnati, made the discovery while excavating the 3,500-year-old Palace of Nestor on Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula.

The Palace of Nestor, located at the top of the hill of Epano Englianos, near Pylos, is the best preserved Mycenaean Greek palace discovered. It once consisted of a two-storey building with reception rooms, baths, workshops, store rooms, and an established sewage system.

The tomb, which measures 2.4 meters in length and 1.5 meters in width, was discovered on the site of the palace complex.

However, it had been placed there many years before the palace was built. Surprisingly, the tomb had not been looted in antiquity, unlike most of the other Mycenaean-era tombs found to date.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists discovered the remains of a wooden coffin containing the skeleton of an unknown warrior, aged between 30 and 35 years old. 

Next to him were his weapons – a bronze sword with a gold and ivory handle and a gold-hilted dagger.

Considering his place of burial and the treasures he was buried with, he is believed to have been a person of great importance.

According to the Ministry of Culture, the treasures also included gold rings, an ornate string of pearls, 50 Minoan seal stones carved with imagery of goddesses, silver vases, gold cups, a bronze mirror, ivory combs, an ivory plaque carved with a griffin, and Minoan-style gold jewellery decorated with figures of deities, animals, and floral motifs.

Many of the artefacts found in the tomb have been traced to Crete, the island upon which the Minoan civilization arose.

James C. Wright, the director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, told the New York Times that the finding of the tomb “will help scholars understand how the state cultures that developed in Crete were adopted into what became the Mycenaean palace culture on the mainland.”

Archaeologists now plan to carry out a DNA analysis on the warrior’s remains to try to determine his origin.  They also plan to carry out radiocarbon tests on the plant material recovered from the tomb, which may allow more accurate dating of the burial.

The Rare Metal Of Atlantis – Orichalum – Recovered From Shipwreck

According to the legend, there was an 8th continent known as Atlantis. This mysterious continent was said to have sunk a long time ago and when it did it took all of its orichalum with it.

Orichalum is a metal that is mentioned in several ancient writings including the story of Atlantis in the Critias dialogue, which was recorded by Plato around 360 BC. According to the dialogue, orichalcum was very valuable and was second only to gold in value.

Now a team of divers say they have recovered no less than 39 blocks of this precious metal from a shipwreck that is believed to have happened 2600 years ago.

This ship was likely from somewhere in Greece or somewhere in Asia Minor and was carrying this metal to Gela in Southern Sicily when it was then caught in a storm and sank to the bottom of the ocean about 300 meters from the port.

“Nothing similar has ever been found, we knew of orichalum from ancient texts and a few ornamental objects.” 

In the aforementioned Critias this metal was mined only on Atlantis and was used to completely cover the inside of Poseidon’s temple.

Many scholars today, agree orichalum is a brass-like alloy, made in antiquity by cementation. This process was reportedly achieved with a reaction to zinc ore, copper metal and charcoal in a crucible.

The 39 ingots, which were found, were analyzed with X-Ray fluorescence by Dario Panetta, of Technologies For Quality and, sure enough, the metal turned out to be made with 75-80% copper, 15-20% zinc, and a small percentage of nickel, iron and lead.

Tusa also stated: 

“The finding confirms that about a century after its foundation in 689 B.C., Gela grew to become a wealthy city with artisan workshops specialized in the production of prized artifacts.” 

He says this because the 39 ingots were destined for workshops in Gela and were used in very high-quality decorations.

Tusa’s team of divers plans to excavate the entire shipwreck to shed some more light on the history of Sicily, and possibly, Atlantis.

Archaeologists find a skeleton in Alexander the Great-era tomb

Archaeologists in Greece have uncovered a skeleton from a tomb dating back to the era of Alexander the Great. The excavation has refuelled rumours about the Greek conqueror, whose final resting place remains a mystery.

Greece’s Culture Ministry confirmed on Wednesday that an excavation site in the country’s north had once again produced exciting results, namely, that of a skeleton.

The remains would “be studied by researchers,” the Culture Ministry announced in a statement.

An archaeological team digging roughly 600 kilometres (370 miles) north of Athens near the city of Amphipolis in recent months discovered the bones in the third chamber of the massive tomb.

According to preliminary information, parts of the skeleton were strewn around a rectangular wooden casket, which had been buried under the floor (pictured) of the cavernous room.

The occupant was probably some “outstanding personality, a great general,” head archaeologist Katerina Peristeri said.

Peristeri is to disclose the findings in detail at the end of November.

Nearly intact statues and expansive mosaics have fascinated the team, which is gradually making its way through the mysterious tomb. While the opulence points to a final resting place for an important person, the archaeologists on site still do not know to whom it belonged.

The discovery of a skeleton was “a very important find because it will help us learn the sex of the person buried there, and possibly their approximate age,” University of Thessaloniki archaeology professor Michalis Tiverio, who is not participating in the dig, told the Associated Press news agency.

Tomb fuels speculation

The tomb dates back to the time during which Alexander the Great ruled much of the surrounding region. Born in 356 BC, the young king of Macedon launched a successful military campaign through the Middle East, pushing into Asia to modern-day India, as well as into northeastern Africa.

Following his death in 323 at the age of 32, his wife, Roxana, and their son, Alexander, were exiled to Amphipolis. They, along with his mother, brother and sister-in-law were later murdered there.

Alexander the Great’s final resting place is believed to be in Alexandria, Egypt.

However, the findings of the current excavation in northern Greece have re-fuelled speculation that perhaps he had been buried closer to his home after all.

Hercules’ head found in the treasure hoard of a 2,000-year-old shipwreck

The Roman ship is thought to have sunk near Antikythera, a Greek island in the southern Aegean Sea in the second quarter of the first century B.C. While divers first found a number of stunning artefacts from the wreck 100 years ago, a wealth of new treasures has been discovered after experts created the first phases of a precise digital 3D model of the shipwreck.

Scientists used made the model using thousands of underwater photographs of the seafloor site in a technique known as photogrammetry.

And more discoveries are likely on the way thanks to this new model, but this is not the only thing that helped experts to uncover the treasure trove.

An earthquake is thought to have occurred sometime after the sinking of the ship, and archaeologists had to remove several large boulders that were strewn over the wreck as a result of the event.

In May and June this year, experts used underwater lifting equipment of pressurised airbags to remove the boulders, some of which weighed about 9.5 tons (8.5 metric tonnes).

After this, the huge wealth of treasure that was contained within what was once the ship’s hull was then revealed. While carrying this out, the marine archaeologists were reportedly working at depths of 50 metres so they could access the areas that had never been explored before.

The ship is thought to have once been around 180ft long, but experts say the wooden hull has since rotted away. Amongst the treasure was a huge marble head of a sculpture likely depicting the Greek/Roman demigod Hercules.

Prof Lorenz Baumer, an archaeologist at the University of Geneva, said: “It’s a most impressive marble piece. 

“It is twice lifesize, has a big beard, a very particular face and short hair. There is no doubt it is Hercules.”

Experts suspect that this head was once attached to a sculpture with the rest of Hercules’ body that was in fact first found by divers way back in 1900.

During this time, they also discovered the Antikythera Mechanism – a mechanical model of the sun, moon and planets that is now on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Prof Lorenz Baumer said that both finds were likely made in the same area of the ship.

He told Live Science: “The site is quite big.

“It’s some 50 meters [164 feet] across, and it’s covered by rocks. It’s possible that [more fragments] are hiding in the rocks, but they could be anywhere.”

The ship also contained Greek artworks, a number of bronze statues, and over 38 marble sculptures. The research team also discovered two human teeth inside marine deposits and fragments of copper and wood.

Now, experts are hoping to analyse isotopes in the enamel of the teeth as this can help to uncover the geochemistry of the environment at the time that the teeth were formed.

This can help to reveal things such as a person’s diet or place of origin, and they can also contain DNA.

Stratos Charchalakis, the mayor of Kythira, said: “The ship could have gone down anywhere but, that said, every discovery puts us on the map and is exciting.

“The truth is that for an island with just 30 inhabitants, the wreck has had a huge social and economic impact. It has helped keep its shops and people going.”

People Are Saying This Ancient Greek “Laptop” Is Proof of Time Travel

A conspiracy theorist’s YouTube video about how this ancient Greek grave marker depicts a laptop more than 2,000 years before personal computers were even a thing has resurfaced and went viral over the weekend. 

We obviously don’t need to tell you that this definitely is not a laptop, and no, the ancient Greeks didn’t possess the technology to go time travelling in search of a better way to communicate with the Oracle of Delphi – a divine being who acted as the official conduit between man and the gods – but what the hell is it?

Currently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum in California, the marble carving entitled “Grave Naiskos of an Enthroned Woman with an Attendant” has been dated to around 100 BC, and sourced possibly to Delos – a tiny island to the east of the Greek mainland with enormous mythological, cultural, and archaeological importance.

Stretching 94 cm high and more than 120 cm across, the carved funerary relief depicts a wealthy woman reclining on an armchair, reaching out to an object being offered up by a servant girl.

“The depiction of the deceased reaching out for an item held by a servant has a long history in Greek funerary art and probably alludes to the hope of continuing earthly pleasures in the afterlife,” the Museum notes.

The official description of the laptop-like item is a “shallow chest”, and despite YouTuber StillSpeakingOut (he sure is) insisting that a tourist’s picture taken from a different angle shows that the object is too wide and narrow to be a jewellery box, US-based classical archaeologist Dorothy Lobel told Discovery News what we’re all thinking.

“The claim is ridiculous as it is clearly a box,” she says. 

Another well-known classical archaeologist, Janet Burnett Grossman, told Discovery that the object is likely a flat box or a mirror, while others have suggested that it’s a wax writing tablet, which was used to record official documents at the time, such as birth certificates.

“If we look at other similar depictions in Greek art, we can see that a tablet – of the ancient variety, not the modern kind – looks a lot like a small laptop, and like the object in this grave marker,” Kristina Killgrove writes for Forbes. 

“Usually it is men who are depicted with a wax tablet, though, so why this wealthy woman? There is also evidence of the goddess Athena being shown with a writing tablet and stylus, so the association between the wealthy deceased woman and Athena via a wax tablet makes some sense.”

Okay sure, but what about those USB ports with weird holes on the side?

As Killgrove notes, conspicuous holes aren’t uncommon in ancient Greek sculpture work, as they were sometimes embellished with perishable materials, such as holes drilled into the fists of soldiers or the heads of horses to allow for realistic reigns to be added in. Maybe the box had an elaborately carved wooden face that slotted into the two holes.

“This particular stele shows evidence of reworking,” adds Killgrove. “It was originally a three-sided grave marker, but it is now missing the top pediment, the wall on the left side, and an inscription on the bottom. The holes could relate to any of the pieces that are now missing.”

So there you have it – the conspiracy theory that didn’t need debunking: debunked.

If nothing else, it’s a nice excuse to pay attention to an incredibly beautiful and skilful work created by humans more than two millennia ago, and for archaeologists to take some time out of their busy day to deliver a sick burn or two, like this one from Lobel King:

“Any time traveller would know that laptops are powered by electricity, whilst the Greeks did not have sockets.”

Researchers Return to Greece’s Antikythera Shipwreck

The so-called Antikythera mechanism, recovered from the wreckage of an ancient cargo ship off the coast of Antikythera Island in Greece, might be the world’s oldest analogue computer. The mystery surrounding its purpose and origin continues to fascinate scientists and enthusiasts alike to this day. But it’s not the only treasure salvaged from that Antikythera wreck.

An ongoing underwater archaeological project most recently recovered a large marble head of a bearded male figure believed to be part of a statue of Hercules. Divers also recovered a marble plinth with the lower legs of another statue, two human teeth, and several pieces of the cargo ship’s equipment.

As we’ve previously reported, in 1900, a Greek sponge diver named Elias Stadiatis discovered the wreck, which was apparently surrounded by rotting corpses on the sea floor. The captain, Dimitrios Kondos, didn’t believe Elias at first and thought the nitrogen in his breathing mix had affected the diver’s senses. So Kondos dove down to the site himself, emerging with an arm from a bronze statue. 

Kondos and his crew had recovered all kinds of artefacts from the shipwreck by mid-1901, including 36 marble sculptures (representing Hercules, Ulysses, Diomedes, Hermes, and Apollo, among others); a bronze statue dubbed “The Philosopher” (circa 340 BCE); a bronze lyre; pieces of glasswork; and three marble horse statues. Along with the Antikythera mechanism, these precious artefacts are now housed in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

The salvage work ended that summer, however, after one diver died and two others were paralyzed from decompression sickness. No further attempt was made to excavate the treasures of the Antikythera wreck until famed explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau visited the site in 1953. Twenty-three years later, Cousteau returned and worked with archaeologists to recover nearly 300 more artefacts. They dredged a section of the wreck to reveal artifacts previously hidden from view.

These included hull planks, ceramic jars, bronze and silver coins, jewellery, and more marble and bronze statues. Cousteau’s 1976 expedition also recovered scattered human bones from at least four different people.

The wreck was left alone again for nearly 40 years until a Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) marine archaeologist named Brendan Foley (now at Lund University in Sweden) got permission from the Greek government in 2012 to undertake a complete diving survey of the wreckage site. As a bonus, they found a second ancient shipwreck just a few hundred meters south of the Antikythera wreck.

Foley’s team used mixed-gas closed-circuit rebreather technology for their survey, which gave divers over half an hour of time underwater each day—much longer than prior expeditions. Furthermore, the Exosuit—described as “Iron Man for underwater science”—allowed divers to descend to 1,000 feet (over 300 meters) and remain underwater for several hours, with no need to decompress as they returned to the surface.

Since then, the Return to Antikythera project has recovered numerous additional items, and the team believes there could be hundreds more buried beneath the sediment. For instance, the 2014–2016 fieldwork yielded wood from the hull or decks, parts of two lead anchors, bronze nails and spikes, bronze spears from statues, glass bowls, ceramic decanters, a gold ring, and several “puzzling bronze objects.”

The highlight was an ancient weapon known as a “dolphin”: a lead bulb with an iron spike on its tip that could be dropped through the deck and hull of an enemy vessel.

The divers also recovered parts of a human skeleton in 2016: a partial skull with three teeth, two arm bones, several ribs, and two femurs, all from a single individual. Because the bones were surrounded by iron objects that had corroded during their time in the ocean, all the bones were stained an amber-red from iron oxide.

Even more parts of bronze and marble statues were recovered during the 2017 excavation, along with a red marble sarcophagus lid, a large section of hull planking, and even more human remains. All of these will be closely examined to learn more about the wreck itself and the unfortunate people on board.

The 2022 expedition managed to relocate several natural sea-floor boulders (each weighing about 8.5 tons) that had been partially covering the wreck, allowing divers to explore new parts of the ship.

The marble head they recovered most likely belongs to a headless statue, dubbed “Herakles of Antikythera,” retrieved by the sponge divers back in 1900.

The marble plinth is being cleaned and restored; it was covered in various marine deposits. The objects will be analyzed with X-rays, among other techniques, while the teeth will undergo genetic and isotopic analysis.

The exact location where each artefact was found has been carefully documented and will be added to the 3D model of the site currently being developed. The team also collected sediment samples for micro-analysis in hopes of learning more about the dimensions of the wreck. The Return to Antikythera project will continue its work, and perhaps one day it will unearth more pieces of the original Antikythera mechanism—or something even more amazing.