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Silver medal featuring winged Medusa discovered at Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall

Silver medal featuring winged Medusa discovered at Roman fort near Hadrian’s Wall

Silver medal featuring winged Medusa discovered at Roman fort near Hadrian's Wall
The Roman phalera, or military medal, features Medusa with two wings atop her head.

A nearly 1,800-year-old silver military medal featuring the snake-covered head of Medusa has been unearthed in what was once the northern edge of the Roman Empire.

Excavators discovered the winged gorgon on June 6 at the English archaeological site of Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort that was built in the late first century, a few decades before Hadrian’s Wall was constructed in A.D. 122 to defend the empire against the Picts and the Scots.

The “special find” is a “silver phalera (military decoration) depicting the head of Medusa,” according to a Facebook post from The Vindolanda Trust, the organization leading the excavations. “The phalera was uncovered from a barrack floor, dating to the Hadrianic period of occupation.”

The hand-size Medusa medal dates to the Hadrianic period at Vindolanda, a Roman auxiliary fort in England.

Medusa — who is known for having snakes for hair and the ability to turn people into stone with a mere glance — is mentioned in multiple Greek myths.

In the most famous story, the Greek hero Perseus beheads Medusa as she sleeps, pulling off the feat by using Athena’s polished shield to indirectly look at the mortal gorgon so that he wouldn’t be petrified, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. 

Roman culture drew on Greek myths, including Medusa’s story.

During the Roman age, Medusa was seen as apotropaic, meaning her likeness was thought to repel evil, John Pollini, a professor of art history who specializes in Greek and Roman art and archaeology at the University of Southern California, told Live Science. Pollini was not involved in the find at Vindolanda.

Alexander the Great is depicted as wearing a breastplate with the gorgon Medusa in this famous mosaic of him from Pompeii.

“From Greek times on, this is a potent apotropaic to ward off bad things, to keep bad things from happening to you,” Pollini said.

Medusa’s serpent-surrounded head is also seen on Roman-era tombs, mosaics in posh villas, and battle armor. For instance, in the famous first-century mosaic of Alexander the Great from Pompeii, Alexander is depicted with the face of Medusa on his breastplate, Pollini noted.

Medusa is also featured in other Roman-era phalerae, but the details vary. For instance, the Vindolanda Medusa has wings on her head. “Sometimes you see her with wings, sometimes without,” Pollini said. “It probably indicates she has the ability to fly, sort of like [the Roman god] Mercury has little wings on his helmet.” 

Silver phalerae of the Roman soldier Titus Flavius Festus in the Neues Museum (of the Staatliche Museen) in Berlin. Two Medusa heads are represented in the second row of the display on each side of the horned head of Ammon Zeus.

Because phalerae were awarded for “valor in battle,” military men would attach them to straps and wear them during local parades, Pollini said, noting that the discovery of the Vindolanda phalera is rare.

“There aren’t very many of them, obviously, because they were a precious metal,” he said. “Eventually, most of them were probably melted down.” 

Many phalerae are found in burials, but the Vindolanda one appears to be lost. “This isn’t something you would toss away,” Pollini said.

The silver artifact is now undergoing conservation at the Vindolanda lab. It will form part of the 2024 exhibition of finds from the site.

Archaeologists say 12,000-year-old flutes discovered in northern Israel may have been used to lure falcons

Archaeologists say 12,000-year-old flutes discovered in northern Israel may have been used to lure falcons

Archaeologists say 12,000-year-old flutes discovered in northern Israel may have been used to lure falcons

New research reveals that about 12,000 years ago, in northern Israel, humans turned the bones of small birds into instruments that imitated the songs of certain birds.

The small flutes could have been used to make music, call birds or even communicate over short distances, the researchers suggest on June 9 in Scientific Reports.

The authors of the study explain that Palaeolithic communities could use the sound of these objects to communicate, attract preys when hunting, or even to make music.

An international team of archaeologists and ethnomusicologists led by José Miguel Tejero, a researcher at the University of Barcelona’s Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar (SERP) and the University of Vienna’s Laboratory of Paleogenetics, and Laurent Davin, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), conducted the study.

The objects were discovered at the archaeological site of Eynan (Ain Mallaha) in northern Israel, which dates from the Late Natufian archaeological period or culture and has been excavated by a Franco-Israeli team since 1955.

The archaeological site of Eynan (Ain Mallaha)was inhabited from 12,000 BCE to 8,000 BCE, around the time when humans were undergoing a massive revolution from nomadic hunter-gatherers to more sedentary, semi-settled communities.

These seven flutes (each shown from three views) made from the bones of small waterfowl are the oldest known wind instruments from the Middle East, a new study says. The largest measures only about 63 millimeters, or 2.5 inches.

The French-Israeli team of archaeologists discovered fragments of seven different flutes, dating to around 10,000 BCE, which is the largest collection of prehistoric sound-producing instruments ever found in the Levant.

Dr. Laurent Davin, a postdoctoral fellow at Hebrew University, was looking over some of the recovered bones when he noticed tiny holes drilled at regular intervals along a few of them.

The holes were initially dismissed by experts as normal wear and tear on the delicate bird bones. However, when Davin examined the bones more closely, he noticed that the holes were at very even intervals and were clearly made by humans.

“One of the flutes was discovered complete, and so far as is known it is the only one in the world in this state of preservation,” Davin said in a press release that accompanied the article’s publication.

The instruments were unearthed from the remains of small stone dwellings at a lakeside site called Eynan-Mallaha. All of the flutes were made from the wing bones of waterfowl that spent winter months at the lake, Laurent Davin notes. Of the seven flutes found, the largest appears to be intact and is about 63 millimeters (2.5 inches) long.

The wing bone of a modern female mallard was used by Davin and his team to create a precise replica of the prehistoric flute. When played, the instrument made high-pitched sounds similar to common kestrel and Eurasian sparrowhawk calls, raising the possibility that the instruments were used to entice birds.

Davin says that such flutes may have been worn while hunting. The largest flute was red ochre-decorated and had a worn spot where it may have hung from a string or a strip of leather.

The flute represents an important discovery, but it’s not music to everyone’s ears. But it opens a window into a fascinating point in human development, the complexity of society and their ability to make tools.