Category Archives: WORLD

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egyptian Light Bulb: What You Need To Know To Separate Fact From Fiction

Egyptian Light Bulb: What You Need To Know To Separate Fact From Fiction

Egyptian Light Bulb: What You Need To Know To Separate Fact From Fiction

A wall inscription in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera seemingly depicts an ancient Egyptian light bulb which some interpret as evidence that the Egyptians had electricity. It has been suggested that the inscriptions resemble a Crookes Tube, an experimental electrical discharge tube invented in the 19th century. Archaeologists and Egyptologists have dismissed these claims as fiction but the Dendera light continues to spark curiosity. We will embark on a journey to the ancient past to separate truth from myth and explain the origin and history of the so-called Dendera light.

Dendera Light: What Does It Mean?

The temple complex at Dendera in Upper Egypt was the cult centre of Hathor, the ancient Egyptian goddess of the sky, fertility, women, and the mother of the sun god Ra. An inscription on a stone relief located in an underground passageway beneath the main temple has been a source of controversy for several decades. Pseudohistorians have interpreted the inscription, otherwise known as the Dendera light bulb, as evidence that the ancient Egyptian possessed knowledge of electricity and actually had electric lights. Their theory has been dismissed by archaeologists and Egyptologists who maintain that the carving is a depiction of an Egyptian creation myth.

– Pseudohistorians Claim the Carving Depicts an Ancient Light Bulb

At first glance, the inscription appears to resemble an elongated bulb and a wavy line inside that looks like a wire. The ‘wire’ leads to a small box on which we see a deity kneeling. Next to the bulb, we see two-armed Djed pillars connected to the wire-like object in the middle and a baboon armed with two knives.

According to the Swiss pseudo-archaeologists and novelist Erich Von Daniken, the carving represents a light bulb. He and other non-mainstream historians interpret it as proof of the existence of electrical lighting in Ancient Egypt. Daniken goes even further and suggests the snake served as a filament and the Djed pillar as an insulator while the tube itself was an ancient light bulb. The baboon is interpreted as a guardian who makes sure the device is not misused.

– It’s Not a Light Bulb, But a Scene From One of the Oldest Egyptian Myths, Egyptologists Say

Where pseudo-historians see a light bulb, Egyptologists see a depiction of a well-known motif from ancient Egyptian mythology. On closer inspection, it becomes clear the wire is, in fact, a snake emerging from a lotus flower. If we’re to understand what the carving really depicts, it’s necessary to refer to an ancient Egyptian creation myth. The bulb-like object is believed to depict the womb of the sky goddess Nut, the wife of the earth god Geb, through which the sun god Ra travelled every day. A consensus among Egyptologists is that the snake we see in the middle of the bulb-like object is the god Harsomptus, commonly known as Horus. It has also been suggested that the bulb-like object symbolizes the womb of Nut, from which Horus emerges in the guise of a serpent to give birth to a new day.

Horus: The Unifier of Two Lands and the God of the Sky

One of the most important ancient Egyptian deities, Horus, known under various other names such as Her, Heru, and Hor, plays a crucial role in Egyptian mythology. Horus had been worshipped in prehistoric Egypt and later came to be associated with kingship and the political unity of Egypt. He is depicted in many forms, including that of a serpent, falcon, and child. An Egyptian myth mentions Ihy, the son of Horus and Hathor, coming into existence out of a lotus flower. It has prompted some Egyptologists to put forth a theory that ancient light bulbs depicted on temple carvings are lotus flower bulbs serving as divine incubators.

A Lotus in a Shape of a Lamp or Evidence of Electricity in Ancient Egypt?

For most Egyptologists, the inscriptions beneath Hathor’s temple at Dendera are firmly rooted in Egyptian mythology. However, a Norwegian electrical engineer was the first to claim that the image depicted an ancient Egyptian lamp. The theory was brought to public attention when two Austrian authors published a book in which they argued that the Dendera light served as an electrical device that illuminated the Temple of Hathor.

Another electrical engineer constructed a working model of the Dendera light and found that the: “The light filament grows wider until it fills the whole glass balloon. This is exactly what we see in the pictures in the subterranean chambers of the Hathor sanctuary.”

– The Dendera Relief Is Not Alone in Depicting Lotus Shaped ‘Lamps’

The lotus flower was sacred to ancient Egyptians for many reasons. In one version of the ancient creation myth, the lotus flower had been the first thing to emerge from the waters of the shoreless primordial sea that existed before the creation of the world. The lotus then gave birth to the sun god Atum-Ra, the first deity thought to have created other gods. The lotus in the shape of a lamp frequently appears as a motif on ancient reliefs and carvings. This is sufficient proof for most Egyptologists who interpret the Dendera light as a symbol of the sun god emerging from the lotus flower.

– Why the Dendera Light Controversy Persists

Despite the consensus among Egyptologists, some find the idea of the existence of ancient Egyptian electricity too exciting to give up on. According to them, the Dendera light had been a secret known only to priests who had access to the sacred parts of the temple and performed rituals. As a part of the New Year celebrations, the priests in the temple created a small amount of light that would have emanated in waves from the serpent’s body. Nevertheless, the inscriptions do not seem to corroborate this theory. Numerous sources suggest the Dendera inscriptions have a mythological meaning, while the evidence that would support the light bulb theory is entirely lacking.

– Is There a Secret Message Hidden in Dendera Inscriptions?

No historical texts referring to the existence of ancient Egyptian lighting techniques have been discovered. Archaeologists haven’t found any electrical artefacts in tombs and ancient sites throughout Egypt. It is possible, however, that our knowledge is incomplete and that there’s a deeper meaning to Dendera wall reliefs. The absence of definitive proof leaves room for speculation.

– A Short History of Dendera Temple Complex

The temple complex at Dendera is arguably the best-preserved temple complex in Egypt. Dendera was the cult centre of the goddess Hathor, one of the most important ancient Egyptian deities. The site on which the temple had been built served as a necropolis in the Early Dynastic Period, but the existing structure dates back to the Ptolemaic period. The temple complex remained in use during Roman times when the hypostyle hall was built.

The large temple complex houses several temples, shrines, a basilica, two birth houses, and a sacred lake within its walls. Roman Emperors from Tiberius (14 – 37 AD) to Marcus Aurelius (161 – 180 AD) continued to make additions to the complex that remained in use until the Christian period.

Hathor: Ancient Egypt’s Most Beloved Goddess

The splendour of the Dendera Temple Complex and its continuous use bears witness to the extraordinary popularity of Hathor. The goddess was worshipped from pharaonic to Roman times as a symbol of fertility and life. According to an ancient Egyptian belief, Hathor would travel from her temple at Dendera to Edfu, where the temple of her husband Horus is located. The period was referred to as a ‘Happy Reunion’.

The Temple of Hathor is also famous for the Zodiac of Dendera, a bas-relief depicting human and animal figures discovered on the ceiling of a chapel in the Temple of Hathor. Egyptologists believe it represents a night skyscape that the Egyptians used as a map of the sky. It was previously thought it served as a giant horoscope. The Zodiac of Dendera was taken to France in the 19th century and is on display in the Louvre Museum.  ,

Conclusion

Dendera reliefs remain a source of controversy, with some claiming that it depicts a light bulb while Egyptologists dismiss the theory, stating the reliefs refer to an ancient creation myth. Evidence for the former is lacking as the theory rests on conjecture and is not consistent with what we know of Ancient Egypt. Still, the Dendera light remains a mystery for a number of reasons:

  • The inscription seems to depict a bulb-like object and a wire and a cable
  • It was found in an underground corridor beneath the Temple of Hathor, where sacred rituals were performed
  • Some suggest that the Dendera bulb was used in New Year celebration rituals
  • Egyptologists believe the inscriptions depict a sun god emerging from a womb

The Dendera reliefs will continue to be an object of study for Egyptologists and those intrigued by the possibility they might depict an ancient light bulb.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago

Archaeologists in southern Italy announced last week that they unearthed two helmets, fragments of weapons and armour, bits of pottery and the remains of a possible temple to Athena at an archaeological excavation of the ancient Greek city of Velia, reports Frances D’Emilio for the Associated Press (AP).

These Ancient Greek Helmets Tell of a Naval Battle 2,500 Years Ago
Chalcidian helmets such as this one were often worn by ancient Greek warriors.

Researchers, who have been working at the site since last July, announced in a translated statement that they believe that these artefacts are linked to a major maritime battle that changed the balance of power in the Mediterranean nearly 2,500 years ago.

Ancient Greeks may have left the items behind after the Battle of Alalia. Between 541 and 535 BCE, a fleet of Phocaean ships—who had set up a colony, Alalia, on the island of Corsica—set sail on the nearby Tyrrhenian Sea to fend off attacks from neighbouring Etruscan and Carthaginian forces, per the statement.

An archaeologist works to free one of the helmets from the dig site.

Though the Greeks emerged victoriously, the costly sea battle ultimately spurred the Phocaean colonists to leave Alalia and establish a colony closer to other Greek settlements along the southern coast of Italy.

Settlers from Phocaea sailed for the mainland and purchased a plot of land that would eventually become Velia, according to the Guardian.

Initial studies of the helmets reveal that one was designed in the Greek Chalcidian style, while the other helmet resembles the Negua headpieces typically worn by Etruscan warriors, per ANSA. 

The archaeologists suggest Greek soldiers might have stolen these helmets from conquered Etruscan troops during the Battle of Alalia, per the statement.

An aerial view of the dig site at the acropolis of Velia, an ancient Greek colony in present-day southern Italy that was founded shortly after the Battle of Alalia.

In another major find, researchers also unearthed several brick walls that date to Velia’s founding in 540 B.C.E. and may have once formed a temple to the mythical Greek goddess of war and wisdom, Athena, as Angela Giuffrida reports for the Guardian.

Measuring about 60 feet long by 23 feet wide, the walls were likely constructed in the years just following the Battle of Alalia, says Massimo Osanna, the archaeological park director and head of Italian state museums, per Italian news agency ANSA. The archaeologists say the Phocaeans may have offered the enemy armour as a tribute to the goddess.

Archaeologists unearthed two helmets including one, pictured here, that appears to be created in the Etruscan “Negua” style. Experts suggest that Greek soldiers might have stolen this piece of armour from Etruscan forces during the Battle of Alalia.

“It is, therefore, possible that the [Phocaeans] fleeing from Alalia raised [the temple] immediately after their arrival, as was their custom, after purchasing from the locals the land necessary to settle and resume the flourishing trade for which they were famous,” says Osanna in the translated statement. “And to the relics offered to their goddess to propitiate her benevolence, they added the weapons snatched from the enemies in that epic battle at sea.”

Located near the structure, the team found fragments of pottery inscribed with the Greek word for “sacred,” several pieces of bronze and metal weapons and bits of what appears to be a large, decorated shield.

Researchers plan to clean and analyse the artefacts in a laboratory for further study, where the director says they hope to find more information, particularly on the helmets.

She says in that statement that there may be inscriptions inside of them, something common in ancient armour, that could help trace the armour’s history, such as the identity of the warriors who wore them.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

The Stolen Nostradamus manuscript is returned to the library in Rome

The Stolen Nostradamus manuscript is returned to the library in Rome

An ancient manuscript by the French astrologer Michel de Nostredame, better known as Nostradamus, stolen from a library in Rome has been returned to the Italian capital.

The Stolen Nostradamus manuscript is returned to the library in Rome
The 500-page Nostradamus manuscript is about 300 years old.

The manuscript, entitled Nostradamus M Prophecies and dating back about 500 years, was rediscovered last year when it was put up for sale by a German auction house.

It is unclear exactly when the 500-page manuscript was stolen from the historical studies centre of the Barnabite fathers of Rome, but it is believed to have been in about 2007.

The book passed through flea markets in Paris and the German city of Karlsruhe before an art dealer tried to sell it through an auction house in Pforzheim, Baden-Württemberg, at a starting price of €12,000 (£10,200).

In April last year investigators from Italy’s cultural heritage protection squad came across the book on the auction house’s website. They identified it as originating from the library in Rome via a stamp dated 1991 on one of the pages.

Rome’s public prosecutor contacted his counterpart in Pforzheim, who began an investigation.

German experts established the book was an original work of Nostradamus, who was famous for his cryptic prediction of world events, and was the one trafficked from Rome.

The manuscript was returned to the library on Wednesday.

Italy’s cultural heritage protection team was established in 1969 and has retrieved more than 3m stolen artefacts.

In December 2021 the US returned about 200 antiquities, including an ancient Roman sculpture that almost ended up in possession of Kim Kardashian West, that had been stolen and smuggled out of Italy.

 The text and picture caption was amended on 10 May 2022. An earlier version said the manuscript dated about 300 years; we should have said nearly 500 years.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Traces of Hyde Abbey Found in England

Traces of Hyde Abbey Found in England

Remains of the core of a medieval wall have been found just 80cm below the garden of a house near Winchester in a major archaeological discovery this week. The excavation at Hyde Abbey, the burial place of Alfred the Great, also discovered a huge foundation, for what believed to be the north wall of a church.

Householder Paul McCulloch described the beakhead find to visitors at the Open Day.
Traces of Hyde Abbey Found in England
Foundation of the north wall of the church with adjacent buttress.
The discovery at Hyde Abbey, shows the floor layer of the church, most probably having been covered with tiles.
Karen McCleary, Fran Sluman and Ginny Pringle make the first find of a Morris Minor bumper.
Sculptured beakhead
Founder and major mover behind the Hyde Abbey Garden Barbara Hall (left) discussing the dig with householder Kat McCulloch.

Most stonework from the abbey has been robbed over time for reuse. Hence the archaeological team was delighted that the trench revealed some intact stonework to the north and floor surfaces to the south. This is the first discovery of the church nave of Hyde’s medieval abbey, according to the archaeologists.

Dig organiser David Spurling said the nave of the huge church under the gardens of Hyde had never been found before despite being the burial place of Alfred the Great. Over 80 metres long, it has remained hidden beneath the houses, gardens and roads in Hyde.

The latest dig, known as Hyde900, has now located the north wall for the first time, only some 80cm below the garden of 6 King Alfred Place.

Householders, Paul and Kat McCulloch had already had their garden dug during the 2020 Hyde900 Community Dig, but no remains of the abbey were found apart from demolition materials left over after the destruction of the abbey.

However, that dig, and the subsequent dig in 2020 at four other gardens in the vicinity, indicated that the trench in number 6 King Alfred Place missed the north wall of the nave by only two or three metres.

Mr Spurling said: “When we put together the new information from previous digs and had the results from the University of Winchester’s ground-penetrating radar survey done by David Ashby, we talked it over with Paul and Kat who jumped at the offer that we could once again dig the garden again – but to avoid Kat’s peony.

“Consequently, Hyde900 organised a limited scale single trench dig, to be staffed by some of our experienced volunteers, as it was expected that any remains would be at least 1.5 metres below the grass. As ever Professor Martin Biddle took a keen interest in the plans, and visited the dig at an early stage, being in Winchester for the launch of a further volume in the Winchester Excavations series.

“After an early find of a Morris Minor bumper and plenty of demolition rubble left over from the Bridewell, the prison built in 1793 over the site of the church, the team were delighted to see the remains of the core of a medieval wall, amazingly only 80cm below ground level.

“Further digging revealed a huge foundation, for what can only be the north wall of the church, no less than 2.7 metres in width.”

Prof Biddle expressed his pleasure at the results and said: “What a tremendous amount of new and important information from one trench.

“It’s a really vital addition to what we know about this important abbey.”

Paul and Kat McCulloch were also delighted at the discovery.

They said: “This dig has achieved results far beyond our expectations.

“To find intact stonework from the 12th-century abbey is rare; the excavation now confirms the exact location of the abbey nave.

“In addition, the find of a rare sculptured beakhead, perhaps representing a mythical beast, such as a Griffin, was a bonus. It is most likely to be a fragment of a voussoir (the wedge-shaped stone which is part of an arch) forming one of the orders of the arch over the doorway to the church. This will shortly be on display in Winchester Museum.”

The results of the dig have helped the Hyde900 expert cartographer Dave Stewart to redraw the north wall abbey church with certainty – but the west end is perhaps for the next annual Hyde900 Community dig scheduled for August 18-21.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Two more Giants were discovered at Mont’e Prama

Two more Giants were discovered at Mont’e Prama

The powerful torsos of two boxers, a large flexible shield that covers the stomach and envelops an arm; then ahead, legs and other body parts – just days after the resumption of the latest excavation campaign, the Mont’e Prama Nuragic necropolis at Cabras has yielded the remains of two new monumental statues. 

They are two giants that join the army of warriors and boxers that are still shrouded in mystery and have made the Sardinian archaeological site famous all over the world.

Superintendent Monica Stochino told ANSA that the discovery was truly “important” and bodes well for more surprises in the coming weeks.

Culture Minister Dario Franceschini expressed enthusiasm too and recalled that the find has taken place just under a year after the birth of a foundation for the site featuring the culture ministry, the Cabras town council and the Sardinian regional government.

“It’s an exceptional discovery and others will follow,” he commented.

The field study, which began on April 4, has confirmed that the necropolis stretches southwards and there is a major burial road flanking the tombs.

“It is evidence for us that we are on the right road,” stressed Alessandro Usai, the archaeologist who has been the scientific director of the excavation since 2014.

The two new giants have different characteristics from the boxers uncovered at the site in the middle of the 1970s after the accidental discovery of this incredible place, Usai explained.

He said they are of the “Cavalupo” type, like the last two uncovered in 2014, not far from the current dig, distinguished by their very distinctive curved shield.

“It is a rare figure in the model of the Nuragic bronze statuette conserved in the Etruscan Museum in Villa Giulia in Rome,” said the archaeologist, referring to the little masterpiece that came from a tomb at the Cavalupo necropolis at Vulci, in Lazio.

Careful examination, cleaning and the removal of the two large torsos – which will take time due to the particular fragility of the limestone they are sculpted from – is certain to provide new elements of study.

Stochino said that the new intervention, financed by the archaeology, fine arts and landscape superintendency for the metropolitan city of Cagliari and the provinces of Oristano and South Sardinia with a gross figure of 85,000 euros, comes ahead of an another bigger one of 600,000 euros involving the regional secretariat of the culture ministry.

This is on top of the 2.8-million-euro project to restore everything that was discovered between 2014 and 2016 in order to put the new statues on show along with the others at the Cabras Museum.

It is a team effort that involves a variety of professional figures and universities working alongside the superintendency and the foundation – anthropologists, restorers and architects, as well as archaeologists. They will all work together to find answers to the historical problems raised by this special cemetery from 3,000 years ago, built along a burial road and reserved almost exclusive for young men, said Usai, explaining that “elderly and children are almost completely missing” and there are very few women in the 170 tombs studies so far.

A great deal of mystery remains about this site, which was started around the 12th century BC, and the giants, which experts date between the 11th and 8th centuries BC, as well as about their end.

Who were these colossal, two-metre-high pieces of stone – ancient custodians of a sacred area, representations of the social functions of the buried, heroes, ancestors or identity symbols of a community? And why had they fallen down and been reduced to rubble on the tombs they were meant to watch over? Was their end the consequence of a fight between local communities or was it down to the Carthaginians? Usai said that he was inclined towards another hypothesis, that of “natural” destruction.

“My opinion is that the giants fell down one at a time on their own, as the way they were made was overbalanced forwards,” he said The passage of time, the movements of the earth and the cultivations of this stretch of land, which has always been precious for wheat crops, would have done the rest, The archaeologist concluded that it is necessary to go beyond stereotypes.

“Here we are seeking answers based on facts,” he said.

Who knows? Perhaps the new period of research will produce decisive discoveries.

WORLD

The Face of the Earliest Human Ancestor, Revealed

The Face of the Earliest Human Ancestor, Revealed

Nearly 25 years after scientists described the first fossil traces of Australopithecus anamensis, this unsung human ancestor is finally having its moment.

The Face of the Earliest Human Ancestor, Revealed
Australopithecus anamensis. Credit: Dale Omori and Liz Russell (photograph); Jennifer Taylor and Cleveland Museum of Natural History (composite image of hands holding “MRD”)

Researchers working in Ethiopia have found a nearly complete cranium of this long-vanished member of the hominin group, which includes Homo sapiens and its close extinct relatives.

The fossil, dated 3.8 million years ago, reveals the never before seen face of A. anamensis, a species previously known mainly from jaws, teeth and a smattering of bones from below the head. Traits evident in the specimen hint that our family tree may need revising.

By some accounts, A. anamensis is the oldest unequivocal hominin, with some fossils dating from as far back as 4.2 million years ago.

For years it has occupied a key position in the family tree as the lineal ancestor of Australopithecus afarensis, which is widely viewed as the ancestor of our own genus, Homo.

Based on the ages and characteristics of the available fossils, paleoanthropologists thought A. anamensis gave rise to A. afarensis through an evolutionary process termed anagenesis, in which one species transforms into another. The new fossil throws a wrench into the works of that theory.

Yohannes Haile-Selassie of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and his colleagues recovered the cranium from an area in northeastern Ethiopia’s Afar region known as Woranso-Mille. Features of its teeth and jaws link it to the previously known fragmentary remains of A. anamensis.

The fossil shows a creature with a projecting face, large canine teeth, flaring cheekbones, a crest atop its head that anchored strong jaw muscles, and a long, narrow braincase that held a brain the size of a chimpanzee’s.

The discovery team suspects the cranium belonged to an adult male A. anamensis.

Here is how it could upend the conventional wisdom: on the basis of the more complete A. anamensis anatomy seen in the newly discovered cranium, Haile-Selassie and his colleagues argue that an enigmatic 3.9-million-year-old forehead bone from the site of Belohdelie, also located in Ethiopia’s Afar region, belongs to A. afarensis. If this supposition is right, A. anamensis, which is known from fossils spanning the time between 4.2 million and 3.8 million years ago, and A. afarensis, which apparently lived from 3.9 million to 3.0 million years ago, actually overlapped for at least 100,000 years in the Afar. And that overlap would imply that A. anamensis could not have evolved into A. afarensis by means of anagenesis. Instead A. afarensis split off from A. anamensis, which continued to exist for a time alongside its daughter species.

This branching model of evolution, known as cladogenesis, can occur when populations of a species become isolated from one another and are thus able to evolve in different directions.

But the case for cladogenesis over anagenesis hinges entirely on that 3.9-million-year-old forehead bone from Belohdelie belonging to A. afarensis—no other A. afarensis remains recovered thus far are that old. Problematically, with only one A. anamensis forehead bone to compare it with—the one in the new fossil—one cannot exclude the possibility that other A. anamensis individuals might have had foreheads that looked like the Belohdelie one. Only the discovery of more fossil faces can resolve that unknown.

NEW ZEALAND, WORLD

The 40,000-Year-Old log is found underneath New Zealand’s swamp

The 40,000-Year-Old log is found underneath New Zealand’s swamp

A 45,000-year-old log discovered during excavations for a new power station could explain a mysterious global event which may have dramatically changed the Earth’s climate. 

Scientists in New Zealand believe the 60-tonne log could hold the answers to the ancient Laschamp Event – where the earth’s north and south poles switched with each other 40,000 years ago. 

The 60-tonne Kauri log was found nine metres beneath the surface in Ngāwhā on New Zealand’s north island in February and was handed over to local Maoris on Wednesday after a major excavation operation. 

Top Energy, the company building the power station, began earthworks in 2017 and had excavated 900,000 cubic metres of the soil before stumbling across the 16-metre log.  

On Wednesday 60-tonne tree had sections cut off either end so it could be moved using two large mobile cranes and transporter vehicles, to then be loaded onto a truck and be taken five kilometres down the road, where it was handed over to the local Maoris

Scientist Alan Hogg, from Waikato University, determined the tree dates back to 40,500 years ago, NZ Herald reported. 

The mammoth log’s age sparked an interest in scientists studying the Laschamp Event – a ‘magnetic reversal’ where the Earth’s north and south magnetic poles switched places.

It was not known exactly when the reversal occurred but it was thought to have been about 41,000 years ago.

Scientists hope that studying the level of radioactive carbon in the tree’s rings would allow them to determine when the reversal occurred and for how long. 

Kiwi scientists believe the magnetic reversals — and the accompanying drop in the Earth’s magnetic field strength, which allowed more solar radiation to reach the Earth’s surface — could have a major effect on climate.

‘This tree is critical, we’ve never found one of this age before,’ Mr Hogg says finding the tree was a stroke of luck which will play a huge role in future research.

The 40,000-Year-Old log is found underneath New Zealand's swamp
Scientists in New Zealand believe the 60-tonne log could hold the answers to the ancient Laschamp Event – where the earth’s north and south poles switched over 40,000 years ago

Going by its size the tree was likely to have been 1500-2000 years old when it died, Mr Hogg said. 

The 16-metre log was transported to nearby Ngāwhā Marae (sacred place) on Wednesday, where a ceremony was held to welcome the ancient tree to the hapū’s care (a division of Maoris).    

Ngāwhā Trustees committee chairman Richard Woodman said it was a ‘fantastic acknowledgement’ from Shaw that the tree was being returned to its rightful owners rather than gifted.  

Transporting the tree was a major operation, with sections of about 1.5m long needing to be cut off either end so it could be moved, with the stump alone weighing 28 tonnes. 

The three sections were lifted by two 130-tonne cranes, then taken by truck five kilometres down the highway, with the whole operation taking four hours.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

In a burial ground full of Stone Age men, one grave holds a ‘warrior’ woman

In a burial ground full of Stone Age men, one grave holds a ‘warrior’ woman

The mysterious 6,500-year-old burial of a woman and several arrowheads in northern France may reveal details of how women were regarded in that society during the Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, a new study finds.

In a burial ground full of Stone Age men, one grave holds a 'warrior' woman
Scientists tested the ancient DNA of 14 people interred at the monumental cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne and found that only one individual buried there was female.

The researchers investigated giant graves known as “long barrows” — large earthen mounds, often hundreds of feet long and sometimes retained by wooden palisades that have since rotted away. Of the 19 human burials in the Neolithic cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne in Normandy, the team analyzed the DNA of 14 individuals; but only one was female.

The woman was buried with “symbolically male” arrows in her grave, and the researchers argue that she may have had to be regarded as “symbolically male” to be buried there.

“We believe that these male-gendered artefacts place her beyond her biological sexual identity,” said study lead author Maïté Rivollat, an archaeologist and geneticist at the University of Bordeaux. “This implies that the embodiment of the male sex in death was necessary for her to gain access to burial in these gigantic structures.”

Archaeologists attribute the barrows at Fleury-sur-Orne to the Neolithic Cerny culture. Several other Cerny cemeteries have been found hundreds of miles away in the Paris Basin region to the southeast, but Fleury-sur-Orne is the largest yet found in Normandy.

The first monumental graves at Fleury-sur-Orne in Normandy were built in the early Neolithic period about 6,500 years ago. They consist of earthen mounds or “long barrows” up to 1,200 feet long.

But while the two regions shared the common Cerny culture, there seem to have been local differences about who could be buried in high-status graves. While both men and women were buried in almost equal numbers in the Paris Basin, the cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne was almost exclusively male, so it was surprising to find a woman in one of the barrows, Rivollat told Live Science in an email.

However, it’s challenging to know what kind of life the woman led. “I don’t think we can speculate anyhow about her status — we don’t have enough elements for that,” she said.

More might be revealed about the mysterious Neolithic woman by ongoing scientific work, such as isotopic analysis — an examination of elemental variants in her remains — that could reveal details about her diet and geographical origins, Rivollat said. 

Women were buried at other cemeteries attributed to the same Cerny culture elsewhere in northern France. But the researchers suggest that societal rules that only symbolically male “hunters” might have been buried at Fleury-sur-Orne.

Neolithic cemetery

The Neolithic cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne near Caen was discovered in aerial photographs taken in the 1960s, and the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) has led a major “rescue excavation” there since 2014.

The latest excavations have been huge, covering more than 60 acres (24 hectares) and have revealed several Neolithic barrow graves and other monuments, including the longest barrow ever discovered in Europe, measuring 1,220 feet (372 meters) long. 

Rivollat’s team had access to samples of the human remains in the Fleury-sur-Orne barrows; the new studies of their ancient DNA revealed which remains were male — with an X and a Y sex chromosome — and which were female, with two X chromosomes.

The team also used the samples of ancient DNA to determine any family links between the people buried there, and the scientists found that almost all the barrow occupants were unrelated, except for a father and a son who had been buried in the same barrow.

This clue, as well as other aspects of the DNA analysis, suggested the barrow burials at Fleury-sur-Orne were from a patrilineal community — in which social authority was inherited along the male lineage — while the daughters of a family left to live with the families of their mates, the researchers suggested. 

However, the woman buried alongside arrows at the site “questions a strictly biological sex bias in the burial rites of this otherwise ‘masculine’ monumental cemetery,” the researchers wrote in the study. It’s not known if only the flint arrowheads were placed in the woman’s grave, or if they were originally attached to wooden shafts that have since rotted away. 

Replicas of the arrowheads and other flint objects found in the barrows at Fleury-sur-Orne. A burial with arrows, quivers, or bows is thought to distinguish the symbolically male “hunter” class of people in Cerny culture.
The Neolithic cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne was discovered by aerial photographs in the 1960s. The French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (Inrap) has led a major “rescue excavation” there since 2014, ahead of planned construction work.
The only woman at the Fleury-sur-Orne cemetery was buried with flint arrowheads, which may have indicated she was “symbolically male,” researchers say.

Individuals of power

Earlier studies of Cerny cemeteries in the Paris Basin distinguish one particular category of “individuals of power” by burying them with arrows, quivers and possibly bows — perhaps thereby identifying them as “hunters.”

Those studies showed that such hunters were always men, with stress markers on their bones that were consistent with drawing bows, the researchers of the new study noted, writing that. “Together, the recognition is given to the masculine, to archery or to hunting, or even more broadly, to the wild world, characterizes the Cerny ideology in the Paris Basin.” 

It’s not known whether the woman buried at the Cerny cemetery at Fleury-sur-Orne was formally regarded as a “hunter” by her community, but “she was buried with four arrowheads, a type of artefact that is considered to be exclusively male in its associations in the Cerny culture,” the researchers wrote in the study.

This, in turn, implied that her burial at the site was an absolute necessity; and that her gender was “presented as masculine, which has granted her access, through the funerary rites, to this monumental cemetery,” they wrote. 

Chris Fowler, a senior lecturer in later prehistoric archaeology at the University of Newcastle in the United Kingdom, who wasn’t involved in the latest study but who’s led investigations of Neolithic tombs in the UK, noted the woman buried at Fleury-sur-Orne seemed to have been held in the same regard as the men buried there.

He added that the individuals buried in different barrows were unrelated and that not all members of the much larger community were buried in the barrows.

“It is fascinating that so many lineages shared the same burial ground while selecting if you like, just one or two representatives from their lineage to be buried at the cemetery marked by these extensive mounds,” he told Live Science in an email. “This raises further questions about the social and political dynamics among these lineages.”

The study was published on April 21 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.