Stone spheres could be from Ancient Greek board game
Archaeologists from the University of Bristol have suggested that mysterious stone spheres found at various ancient settlements across the Aegean and Mediterranean could be playing pieces from one of the earliest ever board games.
There has been quite a lot of speculation around these spheres found at sites on Santorini, Crete, Cyprus, and other Greek Islands with theories around their use including being for some sort of sling stones, tossing balls, counting/record-keeping system or as counters/pawns.
Previous research by the same team from the University of Bristol indicated that there was variability in sphere size within specific clusters and collections of spheres.
Groups of spheres from Akrotiri.
Following on from this the team wanted to explore potential patterning within these sphere concentrations, to help give an insight into their potential use.
The latest study published this week in the Journal of Archaeological Science Reports by Drs Christianne Fernée and Konstantinos Trimmis from the University of Bristol’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology examined common features on 700 stones – which range from around 4,500 to 3,600 years old – found at the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini.
The stones, which are smaller than golf balls, are in various colours and made from different materials. The analysis put the stones into two groups larger stones and smaller ones. In addition, in Akrotiri and in other settlements across the Aegean there are stone slabs with shallow cup marks where the spheres could have sat or been placed.
Dr Ferneé said: “The most important finding of the study is that the speres fit two major clusters (one of smaller and one of larger stones).
This supports the hypothesis that they were used as counters for a board game with the spheres most possibly have been collected to fit these clusters rather than a counting system for which you would expect more groupings.”
If these spheres are in-fact part of a boardgame, they will be one of the earliest examples, along with similar examples from the Levant and Egypt, such as the Egyptian Mehen and Senet.
Dr Trimmis added: “The social importance of the spheres, as indicated by the way they were deposited in specific cavities, further supports the idea of the spheres being part of a game that was played for social interaction. This gives a new insight into the social interaction in the Bronze Age Aegean.”
The next stage of the research is to apply a similar methodology to the slabs to see if there is clustering in the cup marks and trying to associate the spheres and slabs together. The team also hope to use artificial intelligence techniques to determine how the game was actually played.
The Basilica cistern, which is said to have the sarcophagus of Medusa or the Mysterious Snake Woman, was restored
The Basilica Cistern, one of the magnificent ancient structures of Istanbul, was restored. Besides being the greatest work of the Roman period, the cistern is the focus of interesting narrations.
The two Medusa heads, used as supports under the two columns at the northwest end of the cistern, are considered the reason why the cistern is mentioned in strange rumours, except that it is a great work of the Roman period.
The Basilica Cistern is located southwest of Hagia Sophia. This large subterranean water reservoir was built for Justinianus I, the Byzantium Emperor (527-565), and is known as the “Yerebatan Cistern” among the public due to the buried marble columns. It is also known as Basilica Cistern since there used to be a basilica at the location of the cistern.
In 2017, Istanbul Municipality started restoration work on the Basilica Cistern. Istanbul Municipality President Ekrem İmamoğlu announced on his Twitter account that the restoration work, which lasted for 4 years, has ended and the visits to the Basilica Cistern will begin at the weekend.
The entrance and exit sections of the Basilica Cistern, which have not undergone extensive restoration work for 1,500 years, were arranged.
Due to the large number of people who wanted to visit the cistern and the narrowness of the entrance area, the visitors were forming long queues at the gate. The restoration covered the entrance area with glass eaves and a waiting area was made. Necessary plan changes were made in the exit section of the cistern, and a suitable and useful area was created for the building.
The Basilica Cistern is located in a rectangular area 140 meters long and 70 meters wide. The building, which has a water storage capacity of approximately 100,000 tons in an area of 9,800 m2, is accessible by a 52-step stone staircase.
There are 336 columns, each 9 meters high, inside the cistern. The columns are 4.80 meters long, forming 12 rows of 28 columns each.
The majority of the columns, most of which are understood to have been compiled from ancient structures and sculpted of various kinds of marble, are composed of a single part and one of them is composed of two parts. The head of these columns bears different features in parts. 98 of them reflect the Corinthian style and part of them reflect the Dorian style.
The restoration work of the Basilica Cistern took 4 years.
The two Medusa heads, used as supports under the two columns at the northwest end of the cistern, are considered the reason why the cistern is mentioned in strange rumours, except that it is a great work of the Roman period.
The fact that the structure from which the Medusa heads were taken is not known is a very remarkable detail. The researchers often consider that it has been brought for being used as support to the column at the time of construction of the cistern. However, this has not prevented myths about the heads of Medusa.
During the research on the Medusa heads in the Basilica cistern, some documents mentioned in Kara Kaplı, a diary kept by Sultan Abdülhamit II, were found. These documents in Kara Kaplı have carried the Medusa narrative to a very different dimension.
In 1456, a delegation of Italian origin income from Venice to meet with Fatih Sultan Mehmet. They demand to meet with the Sultan, but the Sultan assigns the grand vizier to meet with the delegation. The delegation tells the vizier about the treasure in the Basilica Cistern, but they say that they can only tell the Sultan the location of the treasure.
Medusa heads, Basilica Cistern
The subject attracts Sultan’s attention and he agrees to meet with a member of the delegation. The chosen representative tells the Sultan that the treasure in the Basilica Cistern is not a material thing, but a corpse. The committee, which offered a lot in return for this corpse and the sarcophagus (coffin) in which it was found, could not get what it wanted. According to what is mentioned in Kara Kaplı, this delegation is a member of a paganist sect.
After Fatih Sultan Mehmet, Abdulhamit Han took a close interest in the Medusa sarcophagus. When a delegation was sent to Abdülhamit Han to discuss this issue several times, the Sultan’s interest in Medusa increased and he asked for research on this subject. Abdülhamit Han, who decided to take out the sarcophagus in line with the information learned from the research and the delegations, and the people he assigned in this regard, find the sarcophagus in one of the corridors of the Basilica Cistern.
Inside the sarcophagus is the deteriorated mummy of a terrifying creature. The head of this creature resembles a human head, but with its entire body curves, it resembles a giant snake. This sarcophagus is taken under protection by the order of the Sultan. It is decided that the sarcophagus, which is wanted to be hidden from the public first, will be brought to light later on the condition that its cover is not removed.
The news of the sarcophagus of Medusa was published in Resimli Gazeta.
One day, a child entered one of the corridors and saw the corpse inside and said to the people of Istanbul, “I saw Şahmeran!” event is heard. This sarcophagus weighing tons is brought to light with great difficulty and taken to the courtyard of Fatih Mosque and shown to the public for a short time.
By order of Abdülhamit Han, the photograph of the corpse was taken and published in the newspapers of that period. Today, there is no trace of the newspapers in which the photographs of this sarcophagus were published.
Although it is known that many foreigners are after the Medusa sarcophagus, it is also said that the delegations that came to the Sultan held rituals around this sarcophagus for years. It is a matter of curiosity whether these delegations have anything to do with the confiscation of the newspapers and the cover-up of the event.
The news is titled “Our Sultan has found Medusa”.
The legend of Şahmeran: The legend tells about the great love of Şahmeran, a half-snake half-human woman, with Tahmasp. He mentions that Şahmeran is hidden in a cave, that he knows the secret of the world and that the one who eats his flesh will be healed. Those who seek Şahmeran for the health of the sick sultan find him thanks to Tahmasp and at the end of the legend, the vizier kills Şahmeran. Although it is not known what happened to Şahmeran’s body after he died, Tahmasp may have hidden Şahmeran’s body in a sarcophagus.
Perhaps we will never find out if Şahmeran and Medusa are the same women. However, these legends, which have been going on for centuries, will continue to circulate centuries later.
The impressive Statue of young Hercules was unearthed in Philippi, Northern Greece
A larger-than-life youthful Hercules statue dating to the 2nd century A.D. have been found in the ancient city of Philippi in northern Greece. The Statue of Hercules, unearthed by archaeologists from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, may have adorned a public fountain.
The statue depicts a youthful Hercules, the Roman equivalent of the Greek Heracles. The statue of Hercules dates to the 2nd century A.D. and is in unusually good condition despite suffering some damage.
The club and the right arm are fragmented, and the right leg below the thigh is missing, but the head is intact, as are the torso and the tell-tale skin of the Nemean Lion.
On top of his abundant mane of curls is a wreath of vine leaves tied around his head by a band that dangles down his neck and shoulders.
Alongside the statue, a richly decorated structure, potentially a fountain, was also found.
A lion’s pelt hangs from the statue’s left arm, attesting to its identity as the ancient hero Hercules.
According to the research team, based on the excavation findings, the statue adorned a much later building from the 8th or 9th century.
According to contemporary sources, Classical and Roman-era statues were used to decorate buildings and public spaces until the Late Byzantine period.
The discovery at Philippi confirms that pre-Christian statues were used to decorate public spaces in important Byzantine empire cities.
According to the announcement from the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, excavations were carried out in Philippi by the Aristotle University team, which included Professor Natalia Poulos, the excavation’s director, and collaborators Assistant Professor Anastasios Tantsis and Emeritus Professor Aristotle Menzos.
The excavation involved a total of twenty-four AUTH students. Aristotle University and the AUTH Research Committee funded the study.
The archaeologists believe the statue adorned a public fountain.
The excavation is set to continue next year.
The ancient city of Philippi was first built in 360 BC. It was founded as Crenides by colonists from the island of Thassos. The town was conquered by Philip II, King of Macedon, and refounded as Philippi in 356 BC. It rose to prominence as a result of its proximity to gold mines and strategic location on the royal route through Macedonia.
Little remains of the Greek city today. It is famed as the site of the final battle between the armies of Caesar’s partisans Octavian and Mark Antony and those of his assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus in 42 B.C.
Philippi prospered under the Roman Empire, continuing through the fall of the Western Empire and, centuries later, the fall of the Byzantine Empire. It was abandoned only after the Ottoman conquest of the 14th century.
On Friday, September 16, 2022, the excavation research was carried out by a team from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AuTH) in Philippi, with the director of the excavation Professor Natalia Poulos and collaborators Assistant Professor Anastasios Tantsis and Emeritus Professor Aristotle Menzos, was completed, the Ministry of Sport and Culture announced.
Twenty-four AuTH students (18 undergraduates, 3 postgraduates and 3 PhD candidates) participated in the excavation.
The research was funded by the regular budget of the University and the Research Committee, AUTH.
This year, the excavation continued on the eastern side of one of the main streets of the city, which at this point meets another main axis that passes further north.
The point of convergence of the two streets is formed by a widening (a square) dominated by a richly decorated building, probably a fountain.
The building had a special architectural decoration, fragments of which were uncovered.
Its decoration was completed by an impressive statue from Roman times (2nd century AD). The statue, whose size is larger than life, depicts Hercules with a youthful body.
The club, which has been found in fragments, and the lion hanging from the outstretched left hand attest to the identity of the mythological hero.
On the earl’s crest, he wears a wreath of vine leaves which is held at the back by a band whose ends end at the shoulders.
The specific statue adorned a building which, according to the excavation findings, dates to the 8th/9th century AD.
We know from the sources as well as from the archaeological data that in Constantinople statues from the classical and Roman periods adorned buildings and public spaces until the late Byzantine period.
This find demonstrates the way public spaces were decorated in the important cities of the Byzantine Empire, including Philippi.
Archaeologists find Bronze Age tombs containing a trove of gold artefacts
Archaeologists have discovered a trove of engraved jewellery and gold artefacts in two Bronze Age tombs that could shine a new light on life in ancient Greece.
The discovery was announced on Tuesday in Greece. The team had spent more than 18 months excavating and documenting their findings — including a multitude of cultural artefacts and beautiful jewellery — that could add to our understanding of early Greek civilization.
The University of Cincinnati (UC) archaeologists found a gold ring depicting two bulls flanked by sheaves of grain, which was identified as barley by a paleobotanist who consulted on the project.
A gold ring depicts bulls and barley, the first known representation of domesticated animals and agriculture in ancient Greece.
“It’s an interesting scene of animal husbandry — cattle mixed with grain production. It’s the foundation of agriculture,” UC archaeologist Jack Davis said in a statement.
“As far as we know, it’s the only representation of grain in the art of Crete or Minoan civilization.”
Some of the artwork featured mythological creatures, as well. An agate sealstone featured two lion-like creatures called genii standing upright on clawed feet. According to UC archaeologist Sharon Stocker, they carry a serving vase and incense burner — a tribute to the altar before them, featuring a sprouting sapling between horns of consecration.
A 16-pointed star is seen above the genii. That same star appears on a bronze and gold artefact in the grave, researchers said.
“It’s rare. There aren’t many 16-pointed stars in Mycenaean iconography. The fact that we have two objects with 16 points in two different media (agate and gold) is noteworthy,” Stocker explained in a statement.
UC archaeologists found a seal stone made from semiprecious carnelian in the family tombs at Pylos, Greece. The seal stone was engraved with two lionlike mythological figures called genii carrying serving vessels and incense burners facing each other over an altar and below a 16-pointed star. The other image is a putty cast of the seal stone. (University of Cincinnati Classics Department)
The scientists believe the two tombs paint a picture of princely wealth and status.
“I think these are probably people who were very sophisticated for their time,” Stocker said. “They have come out of a place in history where there were few luxury items and imported goods. And all of a sudden at the time of the first tholos tombs, luxury items appear in Greece.”
“You have this explosion of wealth and people are vying for power,” she added. “It’s the formative years that will give rise to the Classical Age of Greece.”
New Thoughts on Societal Changes in Bronze Age Crete
A modern scientific analysis of ancient stone tools is challenging long-held beliefs about what caused radical change on the island of Crete, where the first European state flourished during the Bronze Age: the ‘Minoan civilization.’
Lead researcher Tristan Carter in front of a quarry obsidian exposure on Melos
About 3,500 years ago, Crete underwent significant cultural transformations, including the adoption of a new language and economic system, burial customs, dress and drinking habits – all of which could be traced to the neighbouring Mycenaean Greek mainland.
At roughly the same time, many important sites across the island were destroyed and warriors’ graves appeared at the famed palace of Knossos, leading scholars to long believe that these seismic changes had been the result of a Mycenaean invasion.
A new study, published online in the journal PLOS One questions that theory.
“Our findings suggest a more complex picture than previously believed,” explains Tristan Carter, a lead author of the study and professor in the Department of Anthropology at McMaster University who has conducted research in north-central Crete for nearly three decades.
“Rather than wholescale cultural change, our study has found evidence of significant continuity after the alleged invasion. While new practices can be initiated through external forces such as invasion, migration, colonialism, or cross-cultural intermarriage, we also know of examples where locals choose to adopt foreign habits to distinguish themselves within their own society,” says Carter.
Rather than looking at things like burial, art, or dress, practices that tend to shift with fashion, archaeologists have begun to look more closely at more mundane, everyday practices as a better insight into a culture’s true character, he explains.
For the study, the researchers analyzed a sample of tools the Bronze Age Cretans fashioned from obsidian, a black volcanic glass which is sharper than surgical steel when freshly flaked.
Vassilis Kilikoglou, director of the Demokritos national research centre in Athens, used a nuclear reactor to determine the origin of the raw materials and found them to be from the Cycladic island of Melos.
When these results were considered together with the way the obsidian blades had been made and used for work such as harvesting crops, it was clear the community had lived the same way their predecessors had for the past thousand years, which continued to be distinct from life on the Greek mainland.
“Our analysis suggests the population had largely remained local, of Minoan descent,” says Carter and Kilikoglou.
“This is not to say an invasion of Crete didn’t occur, but that the political situation across the rest of the island at this time was more complex than previously believed with significant demographic continuity in many areas.”
The researchers believe that while local elites were strategically aligned with Mycenaean powers, as evidenced by their conspicuous adoption of mainland styles of dress, drinking, and burial, most people continued to live their lives in much the same way as before.
Chicken bones and snail shells help archaeologists to date ancient town’s destruction
Spring 107 BC destruction layer of the Seleucid settlement of Tell Izṭ abba.
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.
Location of archaeological sites with evidence of Y. pestis and S. enterica subsp. enterica from the LNBA (A) Map of Eurasia indicating relevant LNBA sites with genetic evidence of Y. pestis (circles) and S. enterica subsp. enterica (triangles). Hagios Charalambos in pink, previously published sites in black. (B) Map of Crete showing the location of Hagios Charalambos (pink) and important Bronze Age palatial sites (black).
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.
