Category Archives: WORLD

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Temple Dedicated to the Sun God Unearthed in Egypt

Temple Dedicated to the Sun God Unearthed in Egypt

Part of the uncovered sun temple is seen in this image.

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a 4,500-year-old temple dedicated to the Egyptian sun god Ra at the site of Abu Ghurab, about 12 miles (20 kilometres) south of Cairo. 

The temple was built sometime during ancient Egypt’s fifth dynasty (circa 2465 B.C. to 2323 B.C.) — a “period in which the cult of the sun reached its apex with the construction of a new type of monument specifically devoted to the sun god, commonly known as ‘Sun Temple,'” said Massimiliano Nuzzolo, co-director of the archaeological dig and a researcher at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Cultures of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. He co-directs it with Rosanna Pirelli of the University of Naples “L’Orientale” in Italy. 

The sun cult was a powerful cult in ancient Egyptian religion. In later times, Ra merged with Amun — the chief god of Thebes (Luxor) — to form Amun-Ra who was regarded, at least by some Egyptians, as being the most powerful of the Egyptian gods.

He was worshipped until around 1,500 years ago when Egyptian polytheism became extinct.

Here we see the excavated Sun Temple from ancient Egypt.

The newly uncovered sun temple was made from mud bricks and measured at least 197 feet long and 66 feet wide (60 meters by 20 m). It contained an L-shaped entrance portico, a courtyard, storage rooms and rooms that may have been used for cultic purposes, Nuzzolo told Live Science in an email.

“The walls of this building were all plastered in black and white and often also show traces of painting in red and blue,” Nuzzolo said.

The entrance portico was partially made of white limestone and had two limestone columns. 

The temple was ritually demolished, possibly before it was even finished, so a new sun temple could be made from stone at the site for a pharaoh named Niuserre (reign circa. 2420 B.C. to 2389 B.C.). Niuserre “reused part of the structure as a platform or sub-foundation for his new temple,” Nuzzolo said.

The archaeologists found two deposits of artefacts, one of which has dozens of intact beer jars and a few finely made and red-slipped vessels, while the other contains seal impressions, including the seals of pharaohs who ruled during the fifth and sixth dynasties.

One of the earliest seals belongs to Shepseskare, an “enigmatic” pharaoh who ruled Egypt before Niuserre, Nuzzolo said.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art(opens in new tab) in New York City lists Shepseskare as reigning from circa 2438 B.C to 2431 B.C., and Raneferef (also known as Neferefre) ruling from circa 2431 B.C. to 2420 B.C.

These artifacts were found in the same deposit and include jars used to store beer.
This artefact contains the seal of Shepseskare, a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the fifth dynasty.

Archaeologists aren’t sure which pharaoh began construction of the mud brick sun temple, but it was likely either Shepseskare or Raneferef, Nuzzolo said. 

Continue reading Temple Dedicated to the Sun God Unearthed in Egypt →
ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

9,000-Year-Old Underground Settlement With Megalithic Stone Circle, Discovered Beneath The Mediterranean Sea

9,000-Year-Old Underground Settlement With Megalithic Stone Circle, Discovered Beneath The Mediterranean Sea

Not far off the coast of the village of Atlit in the Mediterranean Sea, near Haifa in Israel, lies the submerged ruins of the ancient Neolithic site of Atlit Yam.

The prehistoric settlement, which dates back to the 7th millennium BC, has been so well preserved by the sandy seabed that a mysterious stone circle still stands as it was first erected, and dozens of human skeletons lay undisturbed in their graves. 

Atlit Yam is one of the oldest and largest sunken settlements ever found and sheds new light on the daily lives of its ancient inhabitants.

9,000-Year-Old Underground Settlement With Megalithic Stone Circle, Discovered Beneath The Mediterranean Sea

Today, Atlit Yam lies between 8 – 12 metres beneath sea level and covered an area of 40,000 square metres.

The site was first discovered in 1984 by marine archaeologist Ehud Galili, and since then underwater excavations have unearthed numerous houses, stone-built water wells, a series of long unconnected walls, ritual installations, stone-paved areas, a megalithic structure, thousands of flora and faunal remains, dozens of human remains, and numerous artefacts made of stone, bone, wood and flint.

At the centre of the settlement, seven megaliths (1.0 to 2.1 metres high) weighing up to 600 kilograms are arranged in a stone semicircle. The stones have cup marks carved into them and were once arranged around a freshwater spring, which suggests that they may have been used for a water ritual.

Another installation consists of three oval stones (1.6 – 1.8 metres), two of which are circumscribed by grooves forming schematic anthropomorphic figures.

Top: A diver examines megaliths at Atlit Yam. Bottom: Artist’s reconstruction of stone formation.

Another significant structural feature of the site is the stone-built well, which was excavated down to a depth of 5.5. metres. At the base of the well, archaeologists found sediment fill containing animal bones, stone, flint, wood, and bone artefacts. This suggests that in its final stage, it ceased to function as a water-well and was used instead as a disposal pit.

The change in function was probably related to the salinization of the water due to a rise in sea level. The wells from Atlit-Yam had probably been dug and constructed in the earliest stages of occupation (the end of the 9th millennium BC) and were essential for the maintenance of a permanent settlement in the area.

The ancient artefacts unearthed at Atlit Yam offer clues into how the prehistoric inhabitants once lived. Researchers have found traces of more than 100 species of plants that grew at the site or were collected from the wild, and animal remains consisted of bones of both wild and domesticated animals, including sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, and cattle, suggesting that the residents raised and hunted animals for subsistence.

In addition, more than 6,000 fish bones were found. Combined with other clues, such as an ear condition found in some of the human remains caused by regular exposure to cold water, it seems that fishing also played a big role in their society.

The archaeological material indicates that Atlit-Yam provides the earliest known evidence for an agro-pastoral-marine subsistence system on the Levantine coast. The inhabitants were some of the first to make the transition from being hunter-gatherers to being more settled farmers, and the settlement is one of the earliest with evidence of domesticated cattle.

Human remains reveal the oldest known case of Tuberculosis

Ten flexed burials encased in clay and covered by thick layers of sand were discovered, both inside the houses and in the vicinity of Atlit Yam, and in total archaeologists have uncovered 65 sets of human remains. One of the most significant discoveries of this ancient site is the presence of tuberculosis (TB) within the village. 

The skeletons of a woman and child, found in 2008, have revealed the earliest known cases of tuberculosis in the world. The size of the infant’s bones, and the extent of TB damage, suggest the mother passed the disease to her baby shortly after birth.

What caused Atlit Yam to sink?

One of the greatest archaeological mysteries of Atlit Yam is how it came to be submerged, a question that has led to heated debate in academic circles.

An Italian study led by Maria Pareschi of the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Pisa indicates that a volcanic collapse of the Eastern flank of Mount Etna 8,500 years ago would likely have caused a 40-metre-high tsunami to engulf some Mediterranean coastal cities within hours.

Some scientists point to the apparent abandonment of Atlit Yam around the same time, and the thousands of fish remains, as further evidence that such a tsunami did indeed occur.

However, other researchers have suggested that there is no solid evidence to suggest a tsunami wiped out the settlement. After all, the megalithic stone circle still remained standing in the place in which it had been constructed.

One alternative is that climate change caused glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise and the settlement became flooded by a slow rise in the level of the Mediterranean that led to a gradual abandonment of the village.

Whatever the cause of the submerging of the settlement, it was the unique conditions of clay and sandy sediment under salty water that enabled this ancient village to remain so well preserved over thousands of years.

ASIA, INDIA, WORLD

10,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Depict UFOs And Aliens

10,000-Year-Old Rock Paintings Depict UFOs And Aliens

The State Department of Archaeology and Culture in Chhattisgarh, India, is seeking assistance from the Indian Space Research Organisation to research a set of ancient rock paintings found inside caves near the town of Charama in Kanker district, in the tribal Bastar region, according to a news report in the Times of India. 

According to one archaeologist, the art reflects the belief among ancient humans that we are not alone in the universe.

The Indian state of Chhattisgarh has an abundance of ancient rock paintings, according to their website. Many sites have paintings of humans and animals in everyday scenes.

Old Rock Paintings

However, some researchers have referred to more unusual paintings, such as those depicting what appear to be kangaroos and giraffes, which are not native to the country, as well as human-fish hybrid creatures. Now, it is claimed that aliens and UFOs can be added to this collection.

“The paintings are done in natural colours that have hardly faded despite the years. The strangely carved figures are seen holding weapon-like objects and do not have clear features. Especially, the nose and mouth are missing. In a few pictures, they are even shown wearing space suits,” said archaeologist JR Bhagat.

Bhagat, who has studied rock art, claims that the newly-discovered depictions date back some 10,000 years, although the dating method has not been clarified.

Bhagat suggests that the images may depict extra-terrestrials and UFOs as the paintings include large, humanoid beings descending from the sky, some wearing what looks like a helmet or antennae, as well as a disc-shaped craft with three rays (or legs) coming from its base.

“The findings suggest that humans in prehistoric times may have seen or imagined beings from other planets which still creates curiosity among people and researchers.

“Extensive research is needed for further findings. Chhattisgarh presently doesn’t have any such expert who could give clarity on the subject,” Bhagat told the Times of India.

One of the ancient rock paintings

Bhagat explained that there are several beliefs among locals from the area.

While few worship the paintings, others narrate stories they have heard from ancestors about “rohela people”, which translates to “the small sized ones”. 

According to legend, the rohela people used to land in the sky in a round-shaped flying object and take away one or two persons of the village who never returned.  However, Bhagat does concede, 

“We can’t refute the possibility of imagination by prehistoric men.”

Bhagat has not made reference to the fact that the paintings in question depict what, in other contexts, archaeologists typically identify as shamanic images of humans, human-animal hybrids, and geometric forms. Images of figures with antlers, antennae, or spirit rays are familiar, and in fact quite common, in shamanic art.

The research on the rock paintings is ongoing, and Bhagat says more archaeologists will be consulted to help identify the mysterious creatures and objects in the ancient artwork.

CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

The 7,000-Year-Old Elongated Skull Mummies Of Chile

The 7,000-Year-Old Elongated Skull Mummies Of Chile

The Chinchorro culture existed on the coast of present-day northern Chile and southern Peru as much as 9,000 years ago, and interestingly they purposefully mummified their dead.

Mummification first arose about 7,000 years ago, making them 4,000 years older than the same practice carried out in Egypt.

The brain and other organs were removed on purpose, and replaced with vegetable matter. There is also evidence that the mummies were not immediately buried after death, but were carried on litters and proudly displayed for extended periods of time; a practice that the famous Inca also did.

The 7,000-Year-Old Elongated Skull Mummies Of Chile

They also practised mummification in all classes of their society, and often the elderly, children and even fetuses were given the most elaborate levels of preparation.

Most other cultures that did this practice reserved it solely for the elite.

What intrigued me even more than the fact that these ancient people performed mummification was that many of their skulls appeared to be elongated, as shown in these photos from the Iquique museum, located on the coast of Chile.

I have been studying the subject of cranial deformation, especially in Peru for many years.

Cranial deformation was a technique practised all over the world, and was most prevalent about 2000 years ago, mainly at the royal levels of society.

In Peru, the Paracas culture is perhaps the most famous, as well as the ancient people of Tiwanaku and the Inca.

Some early results show that many of the elongated skulls from Paracas had natural red hair.

The above skull from Iquique is strikingly similar to those found in Paracas, yet could be several thousand years older.

The only DNA analysis of elongated skulls to my knowledge is being carried out by me and Peruvian associates. Initial results from our US-based geneticist stated:

“Whatever the sample labelled 3A has come from – it had mtDNA with mutations unknown in any human, primate or animal known so far. The data are very sketchy though and a LOT of sequencing still needs to be done to recover the complete mtDNA sequence.

“But a few fragments I was able to sequence from this sample 3A indicate that if these mutations will hold we are dealing with a new human-like creature, very distant from Homo sapiens, Neanderthals and Denisovans.

“I am not sure it will even fit into the known evolutionary tree. The question is if they were so different, they could not interbreed with humans. Breeding within their small population, they may have degenerated due to inbreeding.”

AFRICA, WORLD

Neolithic Watermelons May Have Been Valued for Their Seeds

Neolithic Watermelons May Have Been Valued for Their Seeds

The oldest known seeds from a watermelon relative, dating back 6,000 years to the Neolithic period, were found during an archaeological dig in Libya.

An investigation of these seeds led by biologist Susanne S. Renner at Washington University in St. Louis reveals some surprises about how our ancestors used a predecessor of today’s watermelon.

These results and two new genomes of ancient seeds are published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Renner

Scientists generally agree that watermelons came from Africa, but exactly where and when watermelons with red, sweet flesh were first domesticated from their wild form is debatable.

The most recent data point to watermelon getting its start in the Nile valley, which is consistent with archaeological evidence.

However, the very old seeds discovered at Uan Muhuggiag, a rock shelter in what is now the Sahara Desert in Libya, seemed at odds with this explanation. There was no way to be certain of their identity prior to this investigation.

“The oldest seeds of watermelons cannot be securely identified as either belonging to a sweet-pulped domesticated form, or instead to one of the bitter-pulped wild forms,” said Renner, an honorary professor of biology in Arts & Sciences. “The seeds of the seven species of Citrullus are basically undistinguishable.”

“Now, having a chromosome-level genome, we can be sure that Neolithic Libyans were using a bitter-fleshed watermelon,” she said. “We suspect they used the fruits to get at the (numerous!) seeds, which even today are eaten air-dried or roasted or also boiled in soups or stews.”

Co-senior author Guillaume Chomicki, a National Environmental Research Council fellow at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, collected dozens of samples of watermelon and watermelon relatives from herbarium specimens in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as part of the quest to trace the path of watermelon’s domestication.

He and Renner also obtained much older samples: the 6,000-year-old Libyan seeds and another set of 3,300-year-old Sudanese seeds.

Neolithic Watermelons May Have Been Valued for Their Seeds
An unexpected new insight from this study is that Citrullus appears to have initially been collected or cultivated for its seeds, not its sweet flesh, consistent with seed damage patterns induced by human teeth in the oldest Libyan material.

“These seeds were a riddle because they were thought to be the oldest true watermelon seeds,” Chomicki said. “Yet they were from Libya, which was never thought to be the cradle of watermelon domestication.”

The scientists generated genome sequences from the seeds from Libya and Sudan and from the herbarium collections and analyzed these data together with resequenced genomes from important germplasm collections.

They discovered that the oldest seeds came from a plant known as an egusi melon, a watermelon relative that is currently restricted to western Africa.

“Both plant ‘fossils’ were C-14 dated and, as far as we know, are among the oldest plant genomes ever obtained,” Renner said.

“An unexpected new insight is that Citrullus appears to have initially been collected or cultivated for its seeds, not its sweet flesh, consistent with seed damage patterns induced by human teeth in the oldest Libyan material,” Chomicki said.

“This study documents the use of the seeds (rather than the fruit) of a watermelon relative more than 6,000 years ago, prior to the domestication of the watermelon.”

“Watermelons — the wild species, as well as the domesticated form — have very numerous seeds that are tasty and oil-rich,” Renner said.

“Different from the pulp, the seeds never contain the extremely bitter cucurbitacin chemical. Snacking on those easily available nutritious seeds may have been a good thing.”

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

HUNDREDS Of Megalithic Monuments Discovered Around Stonehenge

HUNDREDS Of Megalithic Monuments Discovered Around Stonehenge

In a groundbreaking news release, archaeologists have revealed the results of a four-year-long project to map the hidden landscape beneath the surface of the Stonehenge environs, and what they found is nothing short of amazing.

Through their high-tech devices, they could see a landscape teeming with burial mounds, chapels, shrines, pits, and other structures, which had never been seen before, including another massive megalithic monument composed of 60 giant stones stretched out along a 330-metre long c-shaped enclosure.

According to The Independent, the discovery dramatically alters the prevailing view of Stonehenge as the primary site in the landscape. Instead, it presents the Salisbury Plain as an active religious centre with more than 60 key locations where ancient peoples could carry out sacred rituals and fulfil their religious obligations.

HUNDREDS Of Megalithic Monuments Discovered Around Stonehenge

“This is not just another find,” said Professor Vince Gaffney of the University of Birmingham. “It’s going to change how we understand Stonehenge.”

Using powerful ground-penetrating radar, which can scan archaeological sites to a depth of up to four metres, investigators from Birmingham and Bradford universities and from the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute in Vienna discovered hundreds of hidden monuments and features that cover the landscape in all directions.

The biggest surprise was a 330-metre-long line of up to 60 buried stone pillars, inside the bank of a large, bowl-shaped feature called Durrington Walls, Britain’s largest henge, which sits beside the River Avon.

The 3-metre long and 1.5-metre wide stones are laid horizontally inside the mound, although they may have once stood vertically.

“Up till now, we had absolutely no idea that the stones were there,” said Professor Gaffney.

The line of megalithic stones seems to have formed the southern arm of a c-shaped ritual enclosure which faced directly towards the river, the rest of which was made up of an artificially scarped natural elevation in the ground.

The monument was later converted from a c-shaped to a roughly circular enclosure, now known as Durrington Walls – Britain’s largest pre-historic henge, roughly 12 times the size of Stonehenge itself.

In addition to this monumental discovery, the research team found more than 60 other previously unknown pre-historic monuments scattered across Salisbury Plain, including 20 large ritual pits up to 5 metres in diameter, 8 previously unknown Bronze Age burial mounds, 4 Iron Age shrines or tombs, 6 Bronze Age and Iron Age livestock enclosures, and 17 other henge-like Neolithic and Bronze Age structures, each between 10 and 30 metres in diameter.

Some may well have consisted of circles of large timber posts – wooden equivalents of conventional prehistoric stone circles.

“It shows that, in terms of temples and shrines, Stonehenge was far from being alone,” said Professor Gaffney.

Map showing the existence of existing and newly-discovered monuments in Salisbury Plain.

Another significant discovery was a mound between Durrington Walls and Stonehenge, located approximately 3 km from Stonehenge, which has been revealed as a 33-metre long, wooden ‘House of the Dead’.

Archaeologists found evidence of ritual practices including excarnation, in which the skin and organs of the deceased were removed.  The building is thought to have been used for seven generations by a single family before it was buried in chalk and forgotten for thousands of years.

A visualisation of the long barrow, which experts think was used for complex rituals, including the removal of flesh and limbs from dead bodies.

The research team is now analysing the data in an attempt to piece together exactly how Neolithic and Bronze Age people used the Stonehenge landscape. Using computer models, they are trying to work out how all the newly discovered monuments were connected with each other.

This incredible discovery has been announced ahead of a two-part special BBC Two documentary titled ‘Operation Stonehenge: What Lies Beneath, in which the research team will release the full extent of their findings.

Watch trailer of the Operation Stonehenge BBC series:

AUSTRALIA, WORLD

9,000-Year-Old Stone Houses Found On Australian Island

9,000-Year-Old Stone Houses Found On Australian Island

Archaeologists working on the Dampier Archipelago, just off the West Australian coast, have found evidence of stone houses dated to shortly after the last ice age, between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago – making them the oldest houses in Australia.

The Dampier Archipelago is a group of 42 islands, and on one of the islands, the team uncovered knee-high rock walls.

“Excavations on Rosemary Island, one of the outer islands, have uncovered evidence of one of the earliest known domestic structures in Australia, dated between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago,” said lead researcher Jo McDonald, from the University of Western Australia.

“This is an astounding find and has not only enormous scientific significance but will be of great benefit to Aboriginal communities in the area, enhancing their connections to their deep past and cultural heritage.”

The researchers suggest that the structures’ inhabitants used branches or other plant materials to make the roofs. The houses are also quite sophisticated, with multiple ‘rooms’.

“Inside the houses, you have separate areas – it could have been a sleeping area and a working area. There is evidence of people grinding seeds on the rock floors inside the houses as well as shell food remains,” McDonald told Paige Taylor from The Australian. 

“We don’t really know what they were used for as these types of structures were not used in the historic periods.”

This particular structure should help researchers to investigate how Aboriginal groups lived after the ice age – a time when sea levels rose 130 metres, at a rate of 1 metre every five to 10 years. This would have eventually cut the Archipelago islands off from the mainland.

“We assume they were a way of marking out social space for groups living close together as the sea level rose after the ice age, pushing groups inland into smaller territories,” says McDonald.

“While these people were hunter-gatherers, these structures suggest people were developing social strategies to be more sedentary, to cope with environmental change.”

The team discovered the houses back in 2014, but they have only recently been dated using shells of edible mangrove gastropods found inside.

Although the researchers haven’t yet published a paper, so we can’t get too excited until then, there should be more information released as the team find it, and they will hopefully publish a paper in the next few months.

Murujuga, which includes the islands and the nearby Burrup peninsula, are also hugely culturally important to the Aboriginal people in the area, and important for researchers trying to understand the past. A number of interest groups are pushing for Murujuga to become World Heritage listed.

“As well as containing more than one million rock engravings of great scientific and cultural significance, the Archipelago is home to one of the country’s largest industrial ports,” McDonald said in a statement today.

She says that research from the last 12 months indicates that there was a human occupation in the area dating back 21,000 years, even before the last ice age.

Just 100 km west, on Barrow Island, researchers have also found evidence of human occupation dating back 50,000 years. 

According to McDonald, although there are similar structures around Australia, the houses on Rosemary Island are the oldest found.

We hope this valuable area will be protected for many years to come. 

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Maya rulers’ ashes turned into pelota balls – expert

Maya rulers’ ashes turned into pelota balls – expert

Some Maya rulers may have been incinerated and their ashes mixed with rubber to make the balls used in the game of pelota, an archaeologist says. Burnt human remains uncovered at the ruins of a Maya city have led to a new theory about the death rites of the ancient civilisation.

Descendants of the Maya have been trying to revive the ball game
Descendants of the Maya have been trying to revive the ball game

Archaeologist Juan Yadeun Angulo came up with the hypothesis after finding urns containing human ashes, rubber and roots at a Maya temple in Mexico.

Pelota is among the oldest team sports.

Mr Yadeun, an archaeologist with Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), has been studying a recently uncovered crypt underneath the Sun Temple at the Toniná archaeological site in southern Mexico.

Inside the underground crypt and its antechamber, archaeologists found 400 urns containing a mixture of human ashes, coal, rubber and plant roots.

Vases containing human ashes and rubber were found in a crypt 8m (26ft) underground

Mr Yadeun believes the crypt was used to burn the bodies of the dead in a religious ritual.

The ashes were then added to other organic material to make the heavy balls used in pelota, the team game played in Mesoamerica thousands of years ago, the theory goes.

The Toniná archaeological site may not be as well-known as that of Mayan ruins in Palenque but it is an impressive complex built on a hill in the jungle of Chiapas.

Among the constructions preserved to this day is the sunken ballcourt where the Maya played pelota.

The sunken ballcourt at Toniná is well preserved

According to Mr Yadeun, stone carvings at key locations inside the ballcourt offer clues that back up his theory.

He says the stone carvings suggest that three rulers, all of whom died between 722AD and 776AD, were taken to the “cave of the dead” for their “transmutation”.

“Just as Egyptians tried to preserve [bodies], we know here they were transformed in another way,” Mr Yadeun told Reuters news agency.

The archaeologist thinks that the Maya wanted the bodies of their rules to “be converted into a life force, something to stimulate their people” and therefore worked their ashes into the rubber used to make balls for the game.

“We have evidence they were incorporated into balls, during the Classic Period the balls were gigantic,” Mr Yadeun explained.

A carved stone disc found at a different site in Chiapas suggests the size of the pelota ball in the 6th Century and how players propelled it with their hips.

The disc of Chinkultic, which dates back to 590, depicts a Maya ball player