Category Archives: WORLD

CROATIA, EUROPE, WORLD

A Polish-Croatian team discovered an Ancient Roman Temple under a Croatian 18th Century church

A Polish-Croatian team discovered an Ancient Roman Temple under a Croatian 18th Century church

A Polish-Croatian team discovered an Ancient Roman Temple under a Croatian 18th Century church

Under an 18th-century church, the Church of St. Daniel in Danilo near Sibenik, Croatia, the foundations of an ancient Roman temple have been found.

Sibenik is the location of the former Roman city of Ridit, though the secret of the ancient temple was previously unknown.

Finding the temple made use of LIDAR aerial scanning technology.  Using LIDAR techniques, the Polish-Croatian team found the frame of the temple’s entrance, which is likely all that remains of an old colonnade.

According to archaeologists, the temple once measured 66 feet by 33 feet and had walls that were significantly larger than they are now.

Discovering team, in addition to the church, the team also found a nearby cemetery, which is said to have been in use between the 9th and 15th Centuries.

Georadar surveyed around the church in Danilo, under which relics of the Roman sacral building were discovered.

Polish research leader, Professor Fabian Welc of the Institute of Archaeology of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw said that the temple was most likely part of a larger forum, which would have once been the location of several important public buildings, including courts and offices. He said, “The data we have collected indicate that under today’s church and the adjacent cemetery, there are relics of a temple, which was part of the forum, the most important part of a Roman city.”

He added that the forum was the centre of the social and economic life of the inhabitants of every Roman municipium (city). This forum was located at the intersection of the main communication arteries and was also the central point in the city.

Reconstruction of a building with a courtyard made by Professor Fabian Welc.

According to scientists, the church was not the only structure built on the ruins of the former temple. The nearby cemetery, which operated from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, was also partially within its original range.

Some medieval graves were dug directly into Roman bath relics, as was the adjacent massive building with a central courtyard and a portico surrounded by numerous rooms.

Professor Welc said: “This means that the extensive medieval cemetery was founded directly on the relics of Roman buildings.”

A fragment of an ornamented monumental beaming of the Roman temple was unearthed in the 1950s in the medieval cemetery near the church in Danilo.

Archaeological research has been undertaken in Danilo for the last 70 years. The joint Polish-Croatian project started in 2019.

It is carried out by researchers from the Institute of Archeology of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw, the Institute of Archaeology in Zagreb, and the Šibenik City Museum.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Long-lost ancient mural rediscovered in northern Peru after more than a century

Long-lost ancient mural rediscovered in northern Peru after more than a century

A team of student archaeologists has rediscovered a 1,000-year-old multicoloured mural depicting a deity surrounded by warriors which were last seen a century ago in northern Peru.

Swiss archaeologist Sâm Ghavami with his team of Peruvian students at the Huaca Pintada in northern Peru.

Known as the Huaca Pintada, the 30-metre-long wall painted with fantastical images depicting mythical scenes was first found in 1916 by a band of treasure-hunting tomb raiders in Illimo near the city of Chiclayo.

The full splendour of the mural was captured in photographs taken at the time by Hans Heinrich Brüning, a German ethnographer whose work galvanised the archaeological study of the pre-Columbian ruins and relics in the region.

But then the grave robbers destroyed part of the wall after being forbidden from looting their find, and the site fell back into obscurity.

More than a century went by until a Swiss-Peruvian team led by Sâm Ghavami from the University of Fribourg decided to take on the mystery and rediscover the lost mural which had disappeared from view under carob trees and undergrowth.

Sâm Ghavami uses a brush to reveal the mural.

“When we got access to the site, it was a huge relief,” Ghavami, 33, told the Guardian by phone from northern Peru. One of the main challenges was accessing the site which is located on private land, he explained. It took two years to persuade the fiercely protective landowning family to allow them to excavate.

The Swiss archaeologist and some 18 Peruvian students began excavations in 2019, thanks to a grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. After a pause in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they were able to continue in 2021 completing the dig in November this year.

A detail from the mural.

“The first time we saw the huge wall, it was by just scratching the sand,” said Ghavami. “We could see the walls were unexcavated.” In the final two months of the dig, the team rediscovered the murals that had been lost during Brüning’s time, as well as new panels stretching some 11 to 12 metres that had not been uncovered by the looters.

“It was a lot of work,” said Ghavami. “No one could see its monumentality when it was covered by trees.

“When that was cleared away, people start to see it in a new way,” he added.

Archaeologists believe the mural dates back to the Lambayeque culture of the 9th century AD. It was buried in a pyramidal mound in La Leche valley near another site called Túcume, in the Lambayeque region.

“It’s the most exciting and important find of recent years,” said Luis Jaime Castillo, an archaeology professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. “The long-lost murals of Huaca Pintada have been recuperated after more than 100 years.”

The excavation site is on private land near the city of Chiclayo.

“The depictions have a mixture of Mochica and Lambayeque iconography,” said Castillo. The Mochica civilization flourished in the region between AD100 and 700. “They show a transition, and maybe changes in the cosmologies.

“They give us a unique opportunity to contemplate the ancient societies of northern Peru, their deities and myths,” he added.

For now, the site has been covered up to preserve it but Ghavami – who is writing his doctoral thesis about the sociocultural changes that occurred in Lambayeque at the time when the mural was made – would like it to be restored to its former glory and, eventually, opened to the public.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

An Ancient Fast Food Restaurant in Pompeii That Served Honey-Roasted Rodents Is Now Open to the Public

An Ancient Fast Food Restaurant in Pompeii That Served Honey-Roasted Rodents Is Now Open to the Public

The thermopolium, or fast food restaurant, of Regio V in Pompeii. Photo courtesy of Archaeological Park of Pompeii.

Archaeologists studying the Roman city of Pompeii recently discovered a thermopolium—a kind of ancient fast food restaurant—and it is now open to the public.

Visitors won’t be able to try the Roman delicacies that would have been served at the original restaurant—since this is a society that thought honey-roasted rodents raised in jars were a delicacy—but they will be able to see the establishment’s colourful fresco paintings.

One artwork seemingly features ingredients that would have been prepared at the thermopolium, such as a rooster, while another shows a scene from mythology, with a Nereid riding a sea-horse.

A third depicts a collared dog and Roman-era graffiti that roughly translates to “Nicias Shameless Shitter,” presumably an insult to the owner, Nicias.

A fresco of a collared dog at the thermopolium with Roman-era graffiti.

The discovery, in 2019, “led to a greater understanding of the diet and daily life of Pompeians,” Massimo Osanna, the former head of the Pompeii archaeological park and now director general of Italy’s museums, said in a statement.

Experts believe prepared food would have been displayed in large dolia jars set in holes carved in the stone counter, similar to today’s take-out restaurants.

The excavations uncovered duck, pig, goat, and fish bones, as well as snail shells amid shards of earthen pottery, suggesting that some kind of meat and seafood stew may have been on the menu. Typical dishes served at a thermopolium would have included salty fish, baked cheese, lentils, and spicy wine, according to the Guardian. (One jar apparently still smelled strongly of wine when archaeologists first discovered it.)

The dining culture and culinary traditions of Pompeii are currently the subject of “Last Supper in Pompeii,” an exhibition at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor museum.

The city’s sudden destruction with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79 A.D. instantly carbonized food and cookware, leaving a record of day-to-day life frozen in time.

The thermopolium was a fixture of Pompeii—the newly discovered site is just one of 80 such restaurants that have been found in the city—because poor Roman families couldn’t afford to have kitchens in their homes. And, in an inversion of contemporary society, the wealthy didn’t go out for expensive meals. Instead, they had enslaved workers prepare feasts at home, served up in richly decorated banquet halls.

The thermopolium, or fast food restaurant, of Regio V in Pompeii.

Archaeologists uncovered the thermopolium during excavations at Regio V, a section of Pompeii that is not yet fully open to the public and has been home to most of the active digging on the site since the 1960s. In addition to the restaurant, sections of the Casa di Orione and Casa del Giardino mansions are also opening to visitors this week.

Other recent Regio V finds include a skeleton of a man believed to have been killed fleeing the volcano and a selection of amulets that may have belonged to a female sorcerer.

Human bones found at the new thermopolium suggest the business’s proprietor may have died on the premises.

An Ancient Fast Food Restaurant in Pompeii That Served Honey-Roasted Rodents Is Now Open to the Public
ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway

In an unexpected find, archaeologists in England have unearthed three Roman busts near the ruins of an abandoned medieval church roughly 50 miles outside of London. 

U.K. Archaeologists Make a ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ Discovery: Three Well-Preserved Roman Busts Buried Along a Future Railway
Dr. Rachel Wood with one of the adult Roman busts discovered at the St Mary’s Archaeological dig in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire.

Two of the stone statues, found surprisingly intact, depict the faces and torsos of an adult man and woman, while the third represents the head of a child.

All are characteristic of early Roman sculpture, suggesting that they may date to when England belonged to the Roman Empire from A.D. 43 to about A.D. 410.

“The statues are exceptionally well preserved, and you really get an impression of the people they depict,” said Rachel Wood, the leading archaeologist on the dig, in an announcement. “Literally looking into the faces of the past is a unique experience.” 

Wood and her team excavated the objects at the remains of St. Mary’s Church in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, where they’ve been at work for the last six months on a dig funded by the national Department of Transport.

The site sits in the path of the controversial new HS2 high-speed railway, which will connect corners of the United Kingdom over three phases of construction. (The first, a 140-mile passage from London to the West Midlands region, is expected to open between 2029 and 2033.)

It is one of some 60 sites along the future route that have been flagged for excavation, although detractors point out that a 2013 HS2 environmental impact survey identified nearly 1,000 potential sites. 

A Norman house of worship, St. Mary’s was erected in 1080, renovated in the 13th, 14th, and 17th centuries, and then abandoned in the late 19th century, according to the Guardian. Prior to that, the spot may have been home to a Bronze Age burial site, experts believe, followed by a Roman mausoleum.

An ancient glass vessel was unearthed at the St. Mary’s archaeological dig.

At the same site, researchers also uncovered a well-preserved hexagonal glass jug, which is similarly believed to be Roman and more than 1,000 years old, as well as roof tiles, cremation urns, and pieces of painted plaster.

The archaeologists compared the jug to one currently on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

The objects are being moved to a laboratory for further cleaning and examination, the statement explained. Where they’ll end up after that has not yet been determined. 

“Of course, it leads us to wonder what else might be buried beneath England’s medieval village churches,” Wood added. “This has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime site, and we are all looking forward to hearing what more the specialists can tell us about these incredible statues and the history of the site before the construction of the Norman church.”

EUROPE, GERMANY, WORLD

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town

A 19-Year-Old Intern Unearthed a Rare, 2,000-Year-Old Roman Dagger in a Tiny German Town
A restorer of the LWL-Archaeology for Westphalia holds a 2,000-year-old dagger in his hands in North Rhine-Westphalia, Münster on February 14, 2020.

An intern working for the Westphalie Department for the Preservation and Care of Field Monuments in Germany shocked his employers when he uncovered a rare Roman dagger at an archaeological site.  

Likely used in battles against the Germanic tribes in the first century AD, the 2,000-year-old object was unearthed last April at Haltern am See, a small town in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

It was an extremely rare find for the team of archaeologists, and one made even more special for the well-preserved state in which the dagger was found.

“The discovery of the dagger was emotional. We were lost for words,” Bettina Tremmel, an archaeologist working for the Westphalie Department told Live Science. “Imagine: Though thousands of Roman soldiers were stationed in Haltern over almost 15 years or more, there are only a few finds of weapons, especially complete and intact ones.”

The dagger was corroded to the point of being unrecognizable when Nico Calman, the 19-year-old man on work-study unearthed it and the remains of a decorated leather belt from the grave of a soldier. But after a rigorous restoration effort that lasted nine months, conservators in Germany unveiled the ornate 13-inch-long weapon and its bejewelled sheath underneath the grime this week.

Eugen Müsch, at right, a restorer of the LWL-Archaeology for Westphalia and the 19-year-old Nico Calmund, trainee and finder, hold a 2,000-year-old dagger of a legionnaire in their hands.

Silver and brass adorn the dagger’s handle, while its iron scabbard features inlaid wood, glass, and red enamel.

The weapon likely belonged to a legionary or auxiliary infantryman or a centurion officer in the Roman army, Tremmel says. But why the weapon was buried with its owner remains a mystery, she says, explaining that “it was not the normal practice for Roman soldiers to be buried with their military equipment.” 

Located at the edge of the Roman empire, Haltern am See was home to a large military camp during the Augustan period (27 BC to AD 14), where three legions of soldiers, each consisting of some 5,000 men, were slain by Germanic tribes.

Roman fighters killed during the battles were buried at a cemetery nearby.

Despite archaeological digs taking place at the site for nearly 200 years, a weapon as sophisticated and well-preserved as the dagger has never before been found.

The newly restored dagger will go on view in Haltern’s Roman history museum beginning in 2022.

EUROPE, WORLD

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros

Winepress Found at Georgia’s Roman Fort of Apsaros
Remains of the wine press immediately after soil removal and cleaning.

The well-preserved remains of an ancient winepress have been found near the Roman fort Apsaros (today’s Gonio near Batumi, Georgia).

According to the Polish-Georgian team of archaeologists, the installation almost certainly formed part of a farm producing wine for the Roman troops. The winepress was located a few hundred meters from the garrison. 

Polish team leader, Dr. Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski from the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology of the University of Warsaw said: “From the point of view of the military regulations, this area should be clear. But people have always been interested in doing businesses. Therefore, brothels were built near this and other Roman camps, and, in this case, a winepress.”

The Georgian side is represented by Shota Mamuladze from the Agency for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Adjara.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski added that businesses near camps were often owned by veterans – retired soldiers who, thanks to good contacts with the camp command, started lucrative activity. Both legionaries and auxiliary troops (soldiers who did not have Roman citizenship), were probably stationed in Apsaros.

After examining the installation the archaeologists were able to also guess the kind of wine that was produced there.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski said: “It had to be Kvevri wine we also know from today’s Georgia. The wine fermented in clay vessels buried below ground. It had a very different taste from the wine aged in barrels or steel tanks. The wine was earthy and sweet.”

The Polish-Georgian expedition is carrying out research within the walls of the fort and outside the fortress. The winepress was discovered outside the walls with laser scanning (LiDAR), which revealed terrain anomalies.

Polish-Georgian team during excavations

The installation was used in the 2nd and 3rd century CE, when the Roman garrison was stationed in Apsaros.

Archaeologists believe that the installation almost certainly formed part of a farm producing wine for local needs, including for the Roman troops.

Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski said: “It is worth noting that the winepress has structural features typical of the local winemaking tradition but hydraulic mortar characteristic of Roman constructions was used to seal the working surface and the must tank.

The winepress is thus a testimony to the exchange of ideas on the border between the Roman Empire and the local Kingdom of Iberia.”

The successes of this year’s expedition, which took place in spring, also include the discovery of a large number of items used to write and illuminate the workplace.

Thanks to these finds, the researchers received confirmation of earlier assumptions that the building discovered in previous years served as the headquarters (principia) – the most important building in a Roman garrison.

Polish-Georgian excavations in the Roman fort Apsaros have been conducted since 2014. This is today’s Gonio, located near the holiday resort Batumi in West Georgia.

As part of the research project, a number of significant discoveries have already been made, including a mosaic floor in the garrison commander’s house. This is a unique discovery in Georgia. Today, Gonio is one of the major tourist attractions near Batumi.

Apsaros (as the fortress was known among the ancients), was built approx. 2,000 years ago on the border of the Roman province of Cappadocia. Due to its strategic location, the fort had an important role in the defence system of the eastern borders of the Roman Empire.

Today, picturesque ruins remain. Only fortifications are well preserved. Their interior is mostly an empty space with some outlines of the foundations of old buildings. Near the fortress there was once the only convenient road from Colchis (Western Georgia) to the Roman provinces in Asia Minor.

ASIA, IRAQ, WORLD

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed

Residues in Mesopotamia’s Mass-Produced Pottery Analyzed
Bevelled Rim Bowls

The world’s first urban state societies developed in Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, some 5500 years ago. No other artefact type is more symbolic of this development than the so-called Beveled Rim Bowl (BRB), the first mass-produced ceramic bowl.

BRB function and what food(s) these bowls contained have been the subject of debate for over a century. A paper published today in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports shows that BRBs contained a variety of foods, but especially meat-based meals, most likely bone marrow-flavoured stews or broths.

Chemical compounds and stable isotope signatures of animal fats were discovered in BRBs from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora located in the Upper Diyala/Sirwan River Valley of north-eastern Iraq.

An international team led by Professor Claudia Glatz of the University of Glasgow has been carrying out excavations at Shakhi Kora since 2019 as part of the Sirwan Regional Project.

Trench at Shakhi Kora where Beveled Rim Bowls were found.

BRBs are mass-produced, thick-walled, conical vessels that appear to spread from southern, lowland sites such as Uruk-Warka across northern Mesopotamia, into the Zagros foothills, and beyond. BRBs are found in their thousands at Late Chalcolithic sites, often associated with monumental structures.

Stylised BRBs appear on the earliest written documents, early cuneiform tablets, and are conventionally interpreted as ration containers used to distribute cereals or cereal-based foods to state-dependent labourers or personnel. Inherently taxable and storable, cereal grains such as wheat, emmer, and barley, have long been considered the economic backbone and main source of wealth and power for early state institutions and their elites.

However, the paper titled “Revealing invisible stews: New results of organic residue analyses of Beveled Rim Bowls from the Late Chalcolithic site of Shakhi Kora, Kurdistan Region of Iraq” states: “Our analytical results challenge traditional interpretations that see BRBs as containers of cereal-based rations and bread moulds. The presence of meat- and potentially also dairy-based foods in the Shakhi Kora vessels lends support to multi-purpose explanations and points to local processes of appropriation of vessel meaning and function.”

Dr Elsa Perruchini, Institut National du Patrimoine, Paris, and University of Glasgow, who carried out the chemical analysis, said: “The combined approach of chemical and isotopic analysis using GC-MS and GC-C-IRMS was employed to identify the source(s) of lipids extracted from ceramic sherds, with the aim of providing new insights into the function of BRBs.”

Professor Claudia Glatz, a Professor of Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and director of the Shakhi Kora excavations, said: “Our results present a significant advance in the study of early urbanism and the emergence of state intuitions.

“They demonstrate that there is significant local variation in the ways in which BRBs were used across Mesopotamia and what foods were served in them, challenging overly state-centric models of early social complexity.

“Our results point towards a great deal of local agency in the adoption and re-interpretation of the function and social symbolism of objects, that are elsewhere unambiguously associated with state institutions and specific practices.

As a result, they open up exciting new avenues of research on the role of food and foodways in the development, negotiation, and possible rejection of the early state at the regional and local level.”

Professor Jaime Toney, Professor of Environmental and Climate Science at the University’s School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, said: “We have been collaborating closely with Claudia and her team for several years to minimise contamination during the collection of vessels from archaeological sites and it is fascinating to see this pay off with the analysis of fossil residues and the stable isotope analysis clearly indicate that they once held animal fats.”

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Spider Monkey at Teotihuacan May Have Been a Maya Gift

Spider Monkey at Teotihuacan May Have Been a Maya Gift

The complete skeletal remains of a spider monkey — seen as an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico — grants researchers new evidence regarding social-political ties between two ancient powerhouses: Teotihuacán and Maya Indigenous rulers. 

The discovery was made by Nawa Sugiyama, a UC Riverside anthropological archaeologist, and a team of archaeologists and anthropologists who since 2015 have been excavating at Plaza of Columns Complex, in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

The remains of other animals were also discovered, as well as thousands of Maya-style mural fragments and over 14,000 ceramic sherds from a grand feast. These pieces are more than 1,700 years old.

The spider monkey is the earliest evidence of primate captivity, translocation, and gift diplomacy between Teotihuacán and the Maya.

Details of the discovery will be published in the journal PNAS. This finding allows researchers to piece evidence of high diplomacy interactions and debunks previous beliefs that Maya presence in Teotihuacán was restricted to migrant communities, said Sugiyama, who led the research. 

The complete 1,700-year-old skeletal remains of a female spider monkey were found in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

“Teotihuacán attracted people from all over, it was a place where people came to exchange goods, property, and ideas. It was a place of innovation,” said Sugiyama, who is collaborating with other researchers, including Professor Saburo Sugiyama, co-director of the project and a professor at Arizona State University, and Courtney A.

Hofman, a molecular anthropologist with the University of Oklahoma. “Finding the spider monkey has allowed us to discover reassigned connections between Teotihuacán and Maya leaders.

The spider monkey brought to life this dynamic space, depicted in the mural art. It’s exciting to reconstruct this live history.”

Researchers applied a multimethod archaeometric (zooarchaeology, isotopes, ancient DNA, palaeobotany, and radiocarbon dating) approach to detail the life of this female spider monkey. The animal was likely between 5 and 8 years old at the time of death.

Its skeletal remains were found alongside a golden eagle and several rattlesnakes, surrounded by unique artefacts, such as fine greenstone figurines made of jade from the Motagua Valley in Guatemala, copious shell/snail artefacts, and lavish obsidian goods such as blades and projectiles points.

This is consistent with the evidence of the live sacrifice of symbolically potent animals participating in state rituals observed in Moon and Sun Pyramid dedicatory caches, researchers stated in the paper.

Nawa Sugiyama, a UC Riverside anthropological archaeologist, at work in Teotihuacán, Mexico.

Results from the examination of two teeth, the upper and lower canines, indicate the spider monkey in Teotihuacán ate maize and chilli peppers, among other food items. The bone chemistry, which offers insight into the diet and environmental information, indicates at least two years of captivity. Prior to arriving in Teotihuacán, it lived in a humid environment, eating primarily plants and roots.

The research is primarily funded by grants awarded to Sugiyama from the National Science Foundation and National Endowment for the Humanities. Teotihuacán is a pre-Hispanic city recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site and receives more than three million visitors annually. 

In addition to studying ancient rituals and uncovering pieces of history, the finding allows for a reconstruction of greater narratives, of understanding how these powerful, advanced societies dealt with social and political stressors that very much reflect today’s world, Sugiyama said. 

“This helps us understand principles of diplomacy, to understand how urbanism developed … and how it failed,” Sugiyama said. “Teotihuacán was a successful system for over 500 years, understanding past resilience, its strengths and weaknesses are relevant in today’s society. There are many similarities between then and now. Lessons can be seen and modelled from past societies; they provide us with cues as we go forward.”