Category Archives: WORLD

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Britain’s Hidden Treasures: The Pieces of Rare Iron Age Helmet Found at Snettisham

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Britain’s Hidden Treasures: The Pieces of Rare Iron Age Helmet Found at Snettisham

Britain’s Hidden Treasures: The Pieces of Rare Iron Age Helmet Found at Snettisham

Thanks to advanced scientific testing, the copper alloy fragments unearthed at Snettisham, Norfolk, at one of Britain’s most significant archaeological sites have been identified as parts of a highly uncommon Iron Age helmet.

The British Museum, which had been engaged in a 15-year project to examine 14 hoards of gold, silver, and bronze torcs (stiff, twisted metal rings worn as jewelry) discovered at Snettisham, Norfolk, between 1948 and the 1990s, made this amazing discovery.

At Snettisham, near Hunstanton, on a forested hillside with a view of the northwest Norfolk coast, amazing discoveries have been made. Because so many gold and silver alloy neck rings (also known as “torcs”) and coins were found at Ken Hill, the site of the discoveries is referred to as the “gold field.” Known as the “Snettisham Treasure,” these artifacts comprise one of the greatest concentrations of Celtic art and one of the largest collections of prehistoric precious metal objects ever found.

The items were discovered in at least 14 different hoards that were interred between 150 BC and 100 AD. These hoards covered the late Iron Age and early Roman eras, with the late Iron Age seeing the most activity.

Dr. Julia Farley, the Museum’s Iron Age curator and co-editor of The Snettisham Hoards, says this item is especially unique because there are only about ten known Iron Age helmets in Britain, and each one is unique.

The study’s confirmation that Iron Age metalworkers had perfected the art of mercury gilding—applying gold to bronze using a poisonous mercury-gold amalgam—was among its most startling findings. Both the helmet and the extensive collection of torcs from the Snettisham hoards were made in this way.

Metals conservator Fleur Shearman was jigsawing the pieces together when she realised one was a nose piece (centre) for a helmet and others were its eyebrows.

“There is a reason why everyone was so surprised in that room… helmets from Iron Age pre-Roman Britain, are just vanishingly rare,” Dr Farley, who co-edited The Snettisham Hoards with Dr Jody Joy told the BBC. “ And this one is a one-off, it’s got a kind of nasal bridge which is really unusual and these little brow pieces and it’s all hammered out from incredibly thin sheet bronze, and that’s a tremendously skilled thing to be able to do. We didn’t know they could do this in Britain 2,000 years ago”.

Dr. Joy, a former European Iron Age curator at the British Museum and one of the project’s top researchers, said the helmet fragments, which were previously believed to be pieces of a vessel, were long regarded as one of the unsolved mysteries of the Snettisham Hoards.

He explained that the materials had been meticulously reconstructed by metals conservator Fleur Shearman, who had put them together like a complicated archaeological jigsaw puzzle.

Researchers believed it was probably not complete when it was put into the ground because so much was missing. Most likely, Dr. Joy thinks, it was saved for personal or sentimental reasons, and might have even been used to carry other objects (like the torcs, for example).

The torcs came in a range of sizes and were buried in 14 separate Iron Age metal hoards recovered in Norfolk.

In the fields and forests of Ken Hill, close to Snettisham, about 400 torcs have been found, and their varied sizes indicate that they can be worn as neck, arm, or bracelet rings.

The Snettisham Great Torc, one of the most intricate golden artifacts to emerge from ancient world excavations, was among the more than 60 rings that were found to be whole or nearly whole.

The British Museum, in partnership with Norwich Castle Museum, which owns a portion of the collection, began this extensive research project because the torcs had been largely left unexamined for many years.

Researchers from the British Museum were able to uncover minute details about these ringed objects, like wear patterns and polishing on areas that would have come into contact with the body or clothing, thanks to advanced scientific analysis, which included the use of electron microscopes.

The wear and tear on these valuable and valued items was significant, the researchers concluded, as it suggested they’d been worn by their owners for a long time and were prized possessions.

The team confirmed that the torcs (metal rings) were likely worn by men, women, and even younger individuals, rather than being reserved exclusively for high-status men.

Dr Farley told BBC: “Torcs are unique, individual, you wear them on your body [while] coins are mutually indistinguishable. You can give them to lots of people and they can be scattered and brought back. So the two things don’t work well together.

Our theory is these torcs are too special, too unique and too important to be melted down and turned into coins, and instead people decided to have a ceremony to bring people together and put them in the ground.”

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

2,000 Bronze Statue Fragments Found in Ancient Scrap Yard

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2,000 Bronze Statue Fragments Found in Ancient Scrap Yard

2,000 Bronze Statue Fragments Found in Ancient Scrap Yard

Archaeologists in Izmir, Turkey have made an extraordinary discovery in the ancient city of Metropolis: Approximately 2,000 bronze  statue fragments have been found in a section believed to have served as an “ancient scrap yard”.

The excavations are being carried out within the scope of the ‘Heritage to the Future Project’ of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, under the direction of Prof. Serdar Aybek, Professor of Archaeology at Dokuz Eylül University, and in cooperation with the Sabancı Foundation.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence of many civilizations, from the earliest settlements in the Late Neolithic Age to the Classical Age, from the Hellenistic Age to the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman periods, in the ancient city of Metropolis, also called the “City of Mother Goddess,” where excavations have been going on since 1990.

In the ancient city, where many monumental structures were unearthed,  these fragments, uncovered in an area believed to have served as an “ancient scrap yard,” offer a unique glimpse into the cultural and religious shifts of the region during the Late Antiquity period.

Professor Serdar Aybek stated that the bronze statue fragments were found in a corner of a space referred to as an “ancient scrap yard,” where they had been broken apart for melting and stored in bulk.

Aybek explained that the findings include statue pieces from the Hellenistic period and figures from the Roman era, describing them as “extraordinary discoveries, even for our field of work. We have uncovered approximately 2,000 bronze statue fragments,” he said.

He highlighted the significance of the bronze statues being broken into pieces, noting, “The collection and recycling of statues in the Late Antiquity provide concrete evidence in Metropolis. Among the findings are parts such as heads, eyes, fingers, and sandals.”

Drawing attention to the dismantling of these statues, Aybek said, “In the Late Antiquity, as mythological beliefs were abandoned in favor of monotheistic religions and Christianity became dominant in the region, bronze statues from mythological and earlier eras were dismantled.

Although we do not yet have archaeological evidence to confirm this claim, we can suggest that a significant portion of them was repurposed for minting coins.

During that period, rather than producing new materials, bronze groups, mainly consisting of outdated or damaged statues, were broken apart by the ancient scrap yard worker and prepared for melting.”

The fragments might be from the statues built to honor the benefactors listed in the “Metropolitan Apollonios” inscription, according to Aybek, who also underlined the historical significance of bronze statues in antiquity.

What makes this discovery even more remarkable is the evidence of recycling practices that date back over a millennium.

In addition to the fragmented statues, archaeologists discovered square and rectangular bronze plates that were probably used for statue casting and repair. This implies that, at its height, Metropolis might have served as a center for the creation or repair of bronze statues.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Researchers discovered clay tablets with ancient cuneiform writing, a game board, and large structural remains in Kurd Qaburstan

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Researchers discovered clay tablets with ancient cuneiform writing, a game board, and large structural remains in Kurd Qaburstan

Researchers discovered clay tablets with ancient cuneiform writing, a game board, and large structural remains in Kurd Qaburstan

Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, associate professor of history at the University of Central Florida (UCF), and a researchers team have made important discoveries at Kurd Qaburstan, an urban-sized Bronze Age site in northern Mesopotamia, southwest of Erbil in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Researchers have made important discoveries, the objects date to about 1800 BCE, and include clay tablets with ancient cuneiform  writing, a game board, and large structural remains, which could provide a wealth of information about this Middle Bronze Age city and shed light on Mesopotamia’s hidden history.

The clay tablets are the first of their kind found in the region and are still being interpreted. Studying the clay tablets may help historians understand the ancient city’s relationship to neighboring cities in the Middle Bronze Age – a period of northern Iraq’s history that is poorly understood.

For example, by studying people’s names, word choice and writing styles, scholars may better understand literacy in the region and the city’s cultural identity, Earley-Spadoni says in her fieldwork summary.

“We hope to find even more historical records that will help us tell the story of [the city] from the perspective of its own people rather than relying only on accounts written by their enemies,” Earley-Spadoni says. “While we know a great deal about the development of writing in southern Iraq, far less is known about literacy in northern Mesopotamian cities, especially near Erbil where Kurd Qaburstan is located.”

Today, Mesopotamia encompasses eastern Syria, southeastern Türkiye, and most of Iraq. Its name comes from the Greek for “between rivers” referring to the area between the Tigris River and the Euphrates.It is often regarded as the birthplace of urban civilization. These cities, preserved as towering tells, mounds formed by centuries of accumulated cultural debris, have captivated scholars for generations.

One of three clay cuneiform tablets discovered at the Middle Bronze Age site of Kurd Qaburstan in northeast Iraq. It was found in a debris-filled corridor in the lower town palace. Early interpretations of this tablet suggests dramatic events and possibly ancient warfare.

“We know quite a bit about Mesopotamian cities in the south, and that’s considered the traditional heartland of cities,” Earley-Spadoni says. “When people think about where cities first arose, they imagine cities in southern Iraq, like Uruk. We seek to fill in this gap in the scholarship by investigating a large urban site, one of the few that’s ever been investigated in northern Iraq.”

Earley-Spadoni and researchers have been working in two primary areas: the northwest residential neighborhoods and a newly discovered administrative complex identified as a lower town palace, which was theorized to exist based on findings made in 2022.

Researchers used technologies such as magnetometry, which allows researchers to peer through the ground to see architectural plans, to help excavate the site.

The research is valuable its own right and helps shed light on regional history and worldwide heritage, she says.

“The focus of the research is the organization of ancient cities, and it’s specifically the organization of Kurd Qaburstan,” Earley-Spadoni says. “You may have heard of King Hammurabi, who erected the famous law code. So, this is about that same time almost 4,000 years ago.

We decided that this would be an interesting place to investigate what it was like to be an everyday person at a city during the Middle Bronze Age, which has been an understudied topic. People like to excavate palaces and temples, and very few residential areas have been excavated.”

Standing mudbrick architecture from a 10-meter by 10-meter excavation in the Kurd Qaburstan lower-town palace, view to north.

Excavations in the palace revealed monumental architecture, human remains and evidence of destruction, suggesting a significant historical event. The complex, identified through geophysical surveys, is being excavated to establish its characteristics and better understand its function.

Digging in the northwest neighbourhoods revealed exterior courtyards, clay drainpipes, cups, plates, bowls and storage jars. Fine details on the pottery, and animal remains which include both game and domesticated animals suggest that there was a greater degree of wealth among ordinary residents than previously assumed for ancient Mesopotamian cities.

It is possible that the 4,000-year-old city is the hidden city of Qabra, referenced in Old Babylonian monuments.

“Kurd Qaburstan is believed to be ancient Qabra, an important regional center mentioned in the records of other city-states,” Earley-Spadoni says. “The presence of  writing, monumental architecture, and other administrative artifacts in the lower town palace further supports this identification since the site must have been an important city of its time.”

The city’s historical importance could be even greater if it is identified as Qabra, a major regional center referenced in Old Babylonian monuments like the famed Stele of Dadusha, according to Earley-Spadoni.

“The first of the three tablets was discovered in a trash-filled deposit along with building rubble and human remains,” she says. “Its context suggests dramatic events, possibly evidence of ancient warfare. We hope our work in 2025 will tell us more about this story.”

The research and excavation efforts are funded through the U.S. National Science Foundation and in partnership with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The work occurred from May to July 2024, with previous work conducted from 2013 to 2023 by a team from Johns Hopkins University that included Earley-Spadoni.

EUROPE, POLAND, WORLD

Hidden Royal Trove of rulers of Poland and Lithuania discovered in the underground vaults of Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania

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Hidden Royal Trove of rulers of Poland and Lithuania discovered in the underground vaults of Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania

Hidden Royal Trove of rulers of Poland and Lithuania discovered in the underground vaults of Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania

A unique find was made in the dungeons of the Vilnius Cathedral: The royal funerals of the Polish and Lithuanian monarchs were discovered in the underground vaults of Vilnius Cathedral in Lithuania.

Found last month, the treasure includes crowns, scepters, orbs, and other regalia once intended for the tombs of 15th and 16th-century rulers.

A cache of Polish and Lithuanian royal treasures was buried in 1939, at the start of World War II. A scepter, crowns, medallions, rings, and plaques were hurriedly collected and placed in a crypt in the Vilnius Cathedral, where they would be concealed for almost nine decades.

Last December, researchers inspecting the cracks and cavities in the walls of the Lithuanian church’s vaults uncovered the handsome trove, bringing to light princely and historical artifacts that have survived centuries.

Presented to the public during a press conference earlier this week, the artifacts were described as “priceless treasures” by Archbishop Gintaras Grušas of the Vilnius Archdiocese.

“These burial insignia of the monarchs of Lithuania and Poland are magnificent works of goldsmithing and jewelry. They symbolize a long-standing tradition of Lithuanian statehood and Vilnius’s role as a cultural and political center,” Grušas said.

The royal jewelry discovered at the Vilnius Cathedral.

Vidmantas Bezaras, Director of Lithuania’s Department of Cultural Heritage (KPD), called the discovery “one of the greatest in the history of today’s heritage protection,” adding, “What generations of historians and heritage enthusiasts have dreamed of has now come true.

This discovery enriches our understanding of Lithuania’s history, strengthens our sense of statehood, and allows us to present this remarkable history to visitors from around the world.”

The treasures in the stash bear the insignia of rulers including Alexander Jagiellon, King of Poland from 1501–06; and Elizabeth of Habsburg and Barbara Radziwiłł, the first and second wives of Sigismund Augustus, who reigned as king from 1548–72. Both kings were key members of the Jagiellon dynasty, which ushered in Poland’s golden age in the 16th century.

A scepter discovered at the Vilnius Cathedral.

The crowns of the king, Elizabeth, and Barbara were among the hoard, as were a host of coffin plates and votive offerings, including rings, crosses, and bishops’ insignia.

According to the Vilnius Cathedral, the set of regalia was first discovered in its basement in 1931, when a flood revealed the burial chambers of the Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland.  In September 1939, the jewelry was collected in a newspaper and placed in a niche in the staircase when war threatened the structure. Time forgot its precise location, but its existence was never forgotten.

A crown discovered at the Vilnius Cathedral.

While the regalia required a little more effort, the treasury was rediscovered in 1985. Using non-invasive techniques like georadar, thermal imaging, metal detectors, and the testimony of a witness who was there when the regalia was hidden, the Vilnius Archdiocese hired experts to look for the location, but they were unable to find it.

Unfortunately, funding was not secured for their 2023 plan to map the vaults in detail using a 3D scanner. Ultimately, an endoscopic camera was inserted through the walls’ pre-existing holes and cracks on December 16, 2024.

The long-lost royal funerary regalia was finally captured on camera after multiple unsuccessful attempts. In order to document, catalog, and relocate the items to a safe location, the wall was taken down and the items were taken out.

ASIA, TURKEY, WORLD

Game Bone Stones from a Roman Military Strategy Game Found in Hadrianopolis Ancient City, Türkiye

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Game Bone Stones from a Roman Military Strategy Game Found in Hadrianopolis Ancient City, Türkiye

Game Bone Stones from a Roman Military Strategy Game Found in Hadrianopolis Ancient City, Türkiye

During the excavations in Hadrianopolis Ancient City in Eskipazar district of Karabük, 2 bone game stones belonging to the military strategy game, which are thought to belong to the 5th century, were unearthed.

Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia was a city in southwestern Asia Minor, located approximately 3km west of the modern town of Eskipazar in the Karabuk Province.

The city was named after the Roman emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. The city of Hadrianopolis is also known as Caesarea and Proseilemmene and is famous for being the birthplace of two saints: Alypios the Stylite, and Stylianos of Paphlagonia.

Ongoing excavation efforts, led by associate professor Ersin Çelikbaş from the Department of Archaeology at Karabük University’s Faculty of Literature, continue at the ancient city, which was used as a settlement during the late Chalcolithic, Roman, and early Byzantine periods.

The ancient city of Hadrianopolis is called “Zeugma of Black Sea” because of its mosaics depicting many animals such as horses, elephants, panthers, deer and griffons.

The last discovery, together with previous findings, also points to the role of Hadrianopolis as a Roman military base in southern Paphlagonia.

The site is thought to have been a Roman garrison, and it is located not far from the eastern edge of the great Roman Empire. In his previous statements, Çelikbaş had said that Rome had built this military base on the easternmost borders of the empire to defend against invasions from the Black Sea region.

Researchers have previously discovered an iron Roman cavalry mask dating to the 3rd century AD in the region.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ersin Çelikbaş stated that they found 2 game stones and said, ‘These bone objects are in the form of lentils and discs. There is a 4-armed symbol on one stone and an 8-armed symbol on the other. These symbols show us that these stones could be game stones.’

Explaining that there were games played with bone stones in the past and that the stones they found belonged to a military strategy game, Çelikbaş continued as follows:

‘The discovery of strategy games in Hadrianopolis further concretises the existence of the military unit here because it is known that the strategy games played with bone stones in antiquity were ‘Ludus Latrunculi’ and ‘Doudecim Scripta’. Both games are based on a strategic basis.

The ancient cities where these games emerged are also frequently encountered in Anatolia. It is also known that these games were strategy games that soldiers loved to play. Finds of this type reinforce the existence of a military unit in Hadrianopolis for many centuries. They clearly support the existence of a Roman headquarters, a Roman unit, and a Roman fortress in Hadrianopolis from the 2nd to the 5th century BC.’

Ludus latrunculi was a two-player strategy  board game played throughout the Roman Empire. There are two rows of pieces facing each other, with sixteen pieces for each of the two players. The objective of the game is to seize every piece that the opposition has.

 Doudecim Scripta was a board game popular during the Roman Empire. This Roman game is a relative, and probably ancestor, of backgammon. It is played on a board of three rows of twelve columns of playing spaces, and its name means “game of twelve lines”.

ASIA, WORLD

Manot Cave yielded evidence for ritualistic gathering 35,000 years ago, the earliest on the Asian continent

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Manot Cave yielded evidence for ritualistic gathering 35,000 years ago, the earliest on the Asian continent

Manot Cave yielded evidence for ritualistic gathering 35,000 years ago, the earliest on the Asian continent

Archaeological research at the Manot Cave in what is now the Galilee in northern Israel has uncovered evidence of ritualistic gatherings dating back 35,000 years. This important discovery is shedding new light on the earliest inhabitants of the Asian continent.

Manot Cave was used for thousands of years as a living space for Neanderthals and humans at different times. In 2015, researchers from Case Western Reserve helped identify a 55,000-year-old skull that provided physical evidence of interbreeding between Neanderthal and homo sapiens, with characteristics of each clearly visible in the skull fragment.

Manot Cave may have once been a ritualistic gathering site for early humans some 35,000 years ago, likely making it the earliest ritual site in Southwest Asia.

An important development in anthropological research, this discovery was just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal. Under the direction of three Israeli researchers, the project included international partners, including a team from the School of Dental Medicine (CWRU) at Case Western Reserve University, which has been working at the location for more than ten years.

The study found that the cave residents resided nearer to the entrance. The ritual chamber, however, was located approximately eight stories below the cave’s entrance. A carved rock that resembled a turtle shell was found inside the chamber; it seemed to have been placed there on purpose in a niche. The carving was similar to the oldest cave paintings in France.

Stone tools, butchered animal bones, and other artifacts from regular human occupations between 46,000 and 33,000 years ago have been previously excavated at various locations close to the entrance of Manot Cave. That includes the time spent at the back of the cave performing group rituals.

Activity in the ritual chamber dates to a time when artifacts in the living areas display influences of Europe’s ancient Aurignacian culture.

An engraved rock with a carved symbolic turtle was placed in a niche in the ritual space.

“It may have represented a totem or spiritual figure,” said Omry Barzilai, Head of Material Culture PaleoLab at the University of Haifa and the Israel Antiquities Authority, and team leader, in a press release. “Its special location, far from the daily activities near the cave entrance, suggests that it was an object of worship.”

The cavern has natural acoustics favorable for large gatherings, and evidence of wood ash on nearby stalagmites suggests prehistoric humans carried torches to light the chamber.

Though it is not yet known what rituals took place in this specific chamber, there is evidence that cultures, such as the Mayans, used caves for rituals like human sacrifice.

Manot Cave was discovered in 2008 by workers building condominiums in a mountain resort close to Israel’s border with Lebanon.

Case Western Reserve’s School of Dental Medicine got involved in the excavation in 2012.  Students from Case Western Reserve’s School of Dental Medicine began assisting archeological teams because of their ability to identify bones from rocks.

“Most people would not suspect that a dental school would be involved in an archaeological excavation,” said Mark Hans, professor and chair of orthodontics at the dental school, in a press release. “But one of the things that are preserved very well in ancient skeletons are teeth because they are harder than bone.

There is a whole field of dental anthropology. As an orthodontist, I am interested in human facial growth and development, which, it turns out, is exactly what is needed to identify anthropological specimens.”

Experts from a variety of disciplines have collaborated internationally on the Manot Cave project. One of them, Linda Spurlock, a physical anthropologist from Kent State University, has added a visual element to the findings by sharing her knowledge of reconstructing human faces from skulls.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Evidence of Early Forms of Pottery Production and 8,000-Year-Old Buildings Belonging to the Elite of the Time Discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan

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Evidence of Early Forms of Pottery Production and 8,000-Year-Old Buildings Belonging to the Elite of the Time Discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan

Evidence of Early Forms of Pottery Production and 8,000-Year-Old Buildings Belonging to the Elite of the Time Discovered in Iraqi Kurdistan

Archaeologists from the University of Udine have uncovered two ancient human settlements in the Rovia sub-district of Dohuk province in Iraqi Kurdistan, thought to date back some 8,000 years.

The discovery took place at the site of Kanispan, a Neolithic settlement from the 7th millennium BC.

Late Chalcolithic kiln at the Asingeran site, view from the north.

The province’s Director of Antiques and Heritage, Bekas Brifkani, told Shafaq News Agency that the sites were discovered in Asinkran and Kanisban areas, located in the Nafkor plain near the Rovia district in eastern Duhok.

Important information about the earliest agricultural societies and how they evolved into more complex communities has been uncovered by these excavations, which were conducted as part of the Asingeran Excavation Project in cooperation with the Directorate of Antiquities of Dohuk.

The project, coordinated by Marco Iamoni, is part of the Humanities and Cultural Heritage Department of the University of Udine. ‘The information obtained in Asingeran and the new Kanispan site is exceptional,’ emphasizes Professor Iamoni, lecturer in Archaeology and Art History of Ancient Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Some of the oldest methods of grain processing and  pottery making, which date back more than 8,000 years, were found in Asinkran.

Meanwhile, evidence of early agricultural specialization and craft production was discovered at the Kanisban site, a Neolithic settlement from the 7th millennium BCE.

At the nearby Asinkran site, two monumental buildings dating back about 7,000 years were uncovered. “These buildings, the Rectangular Mudbrick Building and the White Building were constructed on a high mound and likely served as residences for the social elite of that era,” he explained.

Large buildings at Asingeran indicate the presence of sophisticated social structures from very early times, while early evidence of  ceramic production and cereal cultivation at Kanispan represents a significant milestone in prehistoric archaeology.

The project’s primary objective is to determine how early egalitarian agricultural societies developed into more complex communities with social stratification and labor specialization. Modern societies are thought to have been influenced by this transformational model.

The rectangular mud brick building is visible in the foreground.

Brifkani described the discovery as an “important step” in reconstructing the history of human development in the region, highlighting the Kurdistan Region’s significance as “one of the main centers of early civilization.”

The results will be examined in specialized labs using DNA, paleobotanical, and ceramic analyses. These studies are being carried out in partnership with the National Museum of Denmark and the universities of Padua and Bologna.

The findings will shed light on the subsistence and social organization systems in the Navkur plain and aid in reconstructing the social structure of the area’s first communities and their agricultural practices.

The Asingeran site shows a continuous occupation from the Ceramic Neolithic to the early 3rd millennium BCE, with a significant period of reoccupation in the 2nd millennium BCE. In addition to the two large buildings mentioned, the area has revealed traces of Ottoman-era dwellings (1500–1800 CE), including small stone houses, hearths, and domestic ovens.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Drone Mapping Reveals Shockingly Huge Size of 3,000-Year-Old Caucasus Settlement

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Drone Mapping Reveals Shockingly Huge Size of 3,000-Year-Old Caucasus Settlement

Drone Mapping Reveals Shockingly Huge Size of 3,000-Year-Old Caucasus Settlement

Using drone mapping, an academic from Cranfield University in the UK has revealed that Dmanisis Gora, a 3,000-year-old mountainside fortress in the Caucasus Mountains, is much larger than previously thought.

Among the first of its kind in this region of Eurasia, Dmanisis Gore, which is inside the boundaries of the Republic of Georgia, has long been regarded as a significant Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age settlement.

Dr Nathaniel Erb-Satullo, Senior Lecturer in Archaeological Science at Cranfield Forensic Institute, has been researching the site since 2018 with Dimitri Jachvliani, his co-director from the Georgian National Museum, revealing details that re-shape our understanding of the site and contribute to a global reassessment of ancient settlement growth and urbanism.

Research on the fortress – named Dmanisis Gora – began with test excavations on a fortified promontory between two deep gorges.

A subsequent visit in Autumn, when the knee-high high summer grasses had died back, revealed that the site was much larger than originally thought.

Scattered across a huge area outside the inner fortress were the remains of additional fortification walls and other stone structures. Because of its size, it was impossible to get a sense of the site as a whole from the ground,  prompting the use of advanced drone technology to create aerial imagery.

Structures in the outer settlement with 1km long fortification wall visible in upper left.

“The drone took nearly 11,000 pictures, which were processed using specialized software to produce high-resolution digital elevation models and orthophotos,” Dr. Erb-Satullo explained.

“These datasets allowed us to identify subtle topographic features and create precise maps of fortification walls, graves, field systems, and other structures within the outer settlement.”

The drone survey showed that the fort is expansive, with its outer settlement protected by a fortification wall that stretches a kilometer long. This makes Dmanisis Gora more than 40 times the size initially estimated.

The research team used a DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone which can provide relative positional accuracy of under 2cm as well as extremely high-resolution aerial imagery.

In order to obtain a highly accurate map of human-made features, the team carefully checked each feature in the aerial imagery to confirm its identification.

The researchers merged aerial photographs with declassified Cold War–era spy satellite images to identify ancient structures from recent modifications attributable to the advent of modern farming. That gave researchers much-needed insight into which features were recent, and which were older.

It also enabled researchers to assess what areas of the ancient settlement were damaged by modern agriculture. All of those data sets were merged in Geographic Information System (GIS) software, helping to identify patterns and changes in the landscape.

Hillshade (top left) and orthophoto (top right) of fortress core, with plan of trench 2 excavations.

The massive size and defensive architecture of the site suggest that it was a major settlement in an era of evolving social and political complexity in the region.

The authors note that the data from Dmanisis Gora supports theories that pastoral mobility was still a major element of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age cultures in the Caucasus region, meaning the people remained on the move much of the time even though they constructed facilities that would suggest they were getting ready to urbanize in a major way.

The site exhibits evidence of low-intensity occupation, which may indicate seasonal use, despite the significant investment in stone architecture. This lends credence to ideas that pastoral mobility was still significant in Late Bronze and Early Iron Age societies.

This work has been funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation, the Gerald Averay Wainwright Fund and the British Institute at Ankara.