Category Archives: WORLD

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

DNA analysis reunites Viking relatives in Denmark after 1,000 years

DNA analysis reunites Viking relatives in Denmark after 1,000 years

The 150 bones have been lent to the Danish museum by the Oxfordshire Museum in Britain for three years. Separated for 1,000 years, two Viking warriors from the same family were reunited last week at Denmark’s National Museum, as DNA analysis helps shed light on the Vikings’ movements across Europe.

DNA analysis reunites Viking relatives in Denmark after 1,000 years
Two skeletons of relatives lie in a showcase at the National Museum of Denmark, after one of them was found in a mass grave in Oxford, Britain, and will be reunited in the exhibition ‘Join the Vikings – the raid’ later this month, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

One of the Vikings died in England in his 20s in the 11th century, from injuries to the head. He was buried in a mass grave in Oxford. The other died in Denmark in his 50s, his skeleton bearing traces of blows that suggest he took part in battles.

DNA mapping of skeletons from the Viking era — from the eighth to the 12th century — enabled archaeologists to determine by chance that the two were related.

“This is a big discovery because now you can trace movements across space and time through a family,” museum archaeologist Jeanette Varberg told AFP.

Two of her colleagues spent more than two hours on Wednesday piecing together the skeleton of the man in his 20s, from the remains freshly arrived from Oxford.

Employees from the National Museum of Denmark unpack the skeleton of a man found in a mass grave in Oxford, England, in Copenhagen.

The 150 bones have been lent to the Danish museum by the Oxfordshire Museum in Britain for three years.

The historical consensus is that Danish Vikings invaded Scotland and England in the late eighth century.

The younger of the two men “may have been cut down in a Viking raid, but there is also a theory that they (the skeletons in the mass grave) were victims of a royal decree by English King Ethelred the Second, who commanded in 1002 that all Danes in England should be killed,” Varberg said.

It is very rare to find skeletons that are related, though it is easier to determine the relationships for royals, according to Varberg.

While the two were confirmed to be relatives, it is impossible to determine their exact link. They may have been half-brothers, a grandfather and grandson, or an uncle and nephew.

“It’s very difficult to tell if they lived in the same age or they differ maybe by a generation because you have no material in the grave that can give a precise dating. So you have a margin of 50 years plus or minus,” Varberg said.

EUROPE, WORLD

Mysterious Perfectly Preserved Ship Found in the Baltic Sea

Mysterious Perfectly Preserved Ship Found in the Baltic Sea

Beneath the frigid waters of the Baltic Sea, investigators have discovered perhaps the best-preserved ship from the Age of Discovery. It was found on the seafloor and it is almost intact. The researchers were amazed by the condition of the vessel, which is roughly 500 years old and this means that it is a very important find.

Underwater Detection of Mysterious Shipwreck

The ship has been detected at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in Swedish territorial waters and is possibly the best-preserved ship ever found from the Age of Discovery and the Renaissance. However, the origin and the identity of the ship and how it came to sink is something of a mystery.

The shipwreck was first detected by side-scan sonar during a project to lay down some gas pipes in 2009. However, it was only this year that the private Swedish marine exploration company MMT thoroughly investigated the site and established that it was an early modern ship. The project is led by Dr Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz.

MMT scanned the seabed with photo-imaging equipment and they established that the shipwreck was almost intact. According to the Independent, it was found at a “depth of around more than 131 yards (120 meters) some 100 miles (161 kilometres) south-east of Stockholm”. The experts from MMT deployed underwater robots with artificial intelligence (AI) to survey the shipwreck.

Launching the ROV, to explore the shipwreck, from the Stril Explorer.

This was possible because of the support of graduates “from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm” reports the Archaeology News Network. Marine archaeologists and students from the University of Southampton also collaborated on the project.

The Intact Sunken Ship

The international team found that the shipwreck’s “condition is pristine” reports the New York Times. Its hull is intact, and its mast is still standing, which still has some rigging. The ship’s tender boat, which was used to ferry the crew still remains sitting on the deck.

According to the Independent, “the bilge pump and elements of the rigging can be seen. The bowsprit and decorated transom stern are also clearly visible”. There are still some swivel guns and a small cannon on the bow.

Photogrammetric model of the ship’s stern.

The vessel on the seafloor measured about 52 feet (16 meters) long. The fantastic state of preservation is probably a result of the unique environment of the Baltic Sea. Science alert reports that “the cold, slightly salty, hypoxic waters of the Baltic Sea’s deeper waters” helped preserve the vessel. The anchor of the vessel was also found, and this was crucial in the dating of the shipwreck.

Photogrammetric model of the shipwreck, the ship’s bow showing the anchor still in place.

Oldest Discovered Shipwreck in Baltic

The team believes that the ship dates to the late 15th and early 16th century, this is the era of the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. It comes from the time when Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were making their masterpieces and when Christopher Columbus and Vasco De Gama were exploring the seas.

Science alert quotes Pacheco-Ruiz as saying, “We know it’s the oldest shipwreck in the Baltic”. There is no other ship this old that is in such a pristine condition. Most shipwrecks have only timbers, this is the case with the battleship Mars that exploded during a battle in the Baltic in 1564.

Archaeology News Network reports that “It is rare to find a ship in such an astonishing condition that predates the larger and more powerful vessels involved in the later Northern Seven Year’s Wars (1563-1570)”. The vessel was possibly a forerunner of the much larger vessels that allowed the Swedes, Danes, and later the Dutch to dominate the Baltic Sea.

The identity of the ship is not yet known, and it may be hard to establish. This is because ships were rarely formally named in that era. The team has called it the “’Okänt Skeep’ Swedish for unknown ship” reports the New York Times.

Establishing the identity of the sunken vessel is a priority for the investigators. It appears that it was a merchant vessel because it does not have large cannons.

Did the Ancient Ship Sink in Battle?

Another aspect of the shipwreck that is mysterious is how it sank. It could have gone down in a storm, which was common at the time. The Independent reports that the ship’s “guns being in their ‘ready to fire’ positions” would indicate that it was involved in some battle or engagement, which may have resulted in its sinking.

This ship was probably built and designed in northern Europe. However, it was very similar to the ships used by Da Gama and Columbus on their historic voyages. The design of the vessel can help researchers to better understand the naval technologies that allowed Europeans in the Age of Discovery to sail around the globe.

The team will resume their investigation of the shipwreck next year. This project shows the value of private companies such as MMT collaborating with universities. The discovery and survey of the mysterious shipwreck in the Baltic is only the latest success for the company and the University of Southampton. In recent years they have identified some 65 wrecks, dating back to Classical times in the Black Sea.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Rare Byzantine Plates Found Off Coast Of Southern Turkey

Rare Byzantine Plates Found Off Coast Of Southern Turkey

One of the world’s richest plate sets from the Eastern Roman Empire has been discovered off the coast of the southern province of Antalya’s Adrasan district. 

Rare Byzantine Plates Found Off Coast Of Southern Turkey

“We were not hopeful of finding anything considerable,” said Selçuk University Archaeology Department academic Hakan Öniz. “Just then, we found a solid, very beautiful plate with its own colours. It made us very happy.

We were amazed by the designs on it. As we found the others, we were surprised by the motifs on each plate. There are fish and flower motifs unique to the era. The workmanship was very good. All of them were 800-900 years old.”

Rare Byzantine Plates Found Off Coast Of Southern Turkey

Among the most striking plates in the set are unique ones that are in the same design and colour but in different sizes. The ship that was carrying the plates is thought to have sunk after hitting a rock sometime in the 12th century.

The Byzantine Empire underwater excavations started in 2014 in collaboration with Dokuz Eylül University, Selçuk University and the Antalya Museum. 

The finds are being cleaned of salt at the Antalya Museum Directorate’s laboratory. When the work is done, the plates will be displayed at the Antalya Museum. 

Öniz said the plates off Adrasan were scattered over an area of 15 to 20 meters. 

“The ship was loaded with plates from two different plate factories. We don’t know where these factories are. I say two different factories because there are two different techniques used on the plates. We see that the plate set existed 900 years ago, too, and that women took care of their sets,” he said.

He said they had found the plates underwater on top of each other. Most of them were broken, while some had been taken by people, he added.

There are a number of other plates along the coasts of Antalya and Mersin, but many are too deep to retrieve, he said.

He said the ship carrying the plates had possibly been caught in a storm while en route. “The region where the ship wreckage was found looks like a harbour in which to shelter during storms. These harbours are called false harbours because when you look at these harbours, you would think they would protect you from the storm. The captain of the ship thought it was a safe place and anchored there, but even though the wind stopped, the current did not, and the ship hit a rock and was broken into pieces.”  

‘We have not reached the ship’ 

Öniz said they had not yet reached the wood of the ship during the underwater excavations. “There is a type of worm called Teredo Navalis in the Mediterranean Sea. It eats the wood. If wood is close to the surface, this worm will eat it. For example, you can find all artefacts in the Baltic Sea in one piece because this worm does not live there, but it does in the Mediterranean.” 

The academic said they had found an unbroken plate during work in 2014. “The plates on the surface were broken as if some people had used a hammer when trying to remove them from the rocks. 

Largest one in the world 

The plates that were discovered are exceedingly rare, Öniz said.

He said a plate set excavation had also been conducted underwater in Greece but the set in Adrasan was one of few rich plate set wreckages in the world. 

He said 100 unbroken and 300 broken plates had been removed and highlighted the importance of the laboratory at the Antalya Museum. 

“The materials like an amphora and ceramic plates have micro holes, and salt piles up in these holes. When the plate is left under direct sunlight, the salt swells and breaks the artefact. The plates removed from under the water will be cleaned from the salt over the next months and then become ready for display,” Öniz said. 

He also said diving had been banned in the region of the wreckage 10 years ago by the Culture and Tourism Ministry. “It has been under protection for 10 years, but how can it be protected in a cove? Maybe some people came and dove here after this ban.”

The current excavations in the area are expected to finish next year.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

‘Cursed’ Mummies From El-Mezawaa Necropolis Restored

‘Cursed’ Mummies From El-Mezawaa Necropolis Restored

A team from Egypt’s Mummies Conservation Project has finished restoring a group of seven mummies in the El-Muzawaa necropolis in Dakhla oasis, completing the first phase of the project, Gharib Sonbol, head of Ancient Egyptian restoration projects at the Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online.

'Cursed' Mummies From El-Mezawaa Necropolis Restored

The restoration of Al-Muzawaa necropolis mummies came within the framework of the project, which was launched three years ago by the ministry to preserve and maintain all mummies stored in Egyptian storehouses.

Aymen Ashmawi, head of the Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the ministry, explains that the project started with the conservation of mummies in the Mostafa Kamel gallery storehouses in Alexandria and at the Alexandria National Museum, as well as those in the Kom Ushim stores in Fayum.

According to Sonbol, the second phase of the project will begin shortly and will involve the restoration of several more mummies.

He explained that during the recently completed work, the team noted that two mummies have “screaming” faces, a term used to describe mummies with open mouths.

The hands of a third mummy were bound with rope.

“This is not the typical form of mummification, but it indicates that those people were cursed by the god or the priests during their lifetime,” Sonbol said.

He continued that the project offers a great opportunity for restorers to learn more about the death and life of those mummified people.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

The ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound

The ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound

Scientists found the first recorded example of a bandaged wound on a mummified body, which could offer more insight into ancient medical practices. The finding was published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, a peer-reviewed journal.

Scientists have found the first example of a bandaged wound on a mummified body from Ancient Egypt, pictured here next to a scan showing the bandage.

The researchers said they discovered the bandages on the remains of a young girl, aged no more than four years, who died about 2,000 years ago. The dressing wrapped a wound that showed signs of infection, the study said.

“It gives us clues about how they [ancient Egyptians] treated such infections or abscesses during their lifetime,” Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Studies in Bolzona, Italy, and an author of the study, told Insider.

The mummy was thought to be taken from the “Tomb of Aline” in the Faiyum Oasis, located southwest of Cairo, the study said.

Location of the Faiyum Oasis, Egypt.

The finding had come as a surprise to the scientists, who didn’t set out looking for the bandages.

“It was really exciting because we didn’t expect it,” Zink said. “It was never described before.”

A rare glimpse into medical history

Ancient Egyptians are thought to have had an adept understanding of medical practices.

They wouldn’t have known things we would now take for granted, like how a heart functions, how microbes cause infection, or how rogue cells cause cancer — but they did have a fairly good idea of how to treat symptoms of disease, Zink said.

“We know from other evidence, like papyrus, that they had a good experience of treating wounds and injuries,” said Zink.

So it’s surprising that these types of bandages have never been seen in a mummy before, he said.

In this case, Zink said, the bandages were spotted while the scientists carried out routine CT scans of mummies, as can be seen in the scans below and annotated with the full-lined arrow.

The wound appeared to have been infected when she died, as the scans showed signs of “pus,” Zink said. These signs of infection are marked by the dotted arrows in the scans below.

A side view of the mummy’s foot is seen in a CT scan.
A cross-section of the mummy’s legs is shown.

“It’s very likely that they applied some specific herbs or ointment to treat the inflammation of this area,” which further analysis could identify, Zink said.

Zink said he wanted to get samples from the area to understand what caused the infection and how people at the time treated it.

But that could entail unwrapping the mummy, which Zink said he was reluctant to do. Another option would be to collect a sample using a biopsy needle, he said.

The ancient Egyptian mummy of a young girl is first with a bandaged wound
The mummy of the child, seen with a portrait of the girl on its front and gilded buttons decorating the wrappings.

The mystery of the missing bandages unfurls

Zink says there was no clear explanation why, in this particular case, the bandages were left in place.

“The question is whether it was just left in place and it remained despite the embalming process or whether they placed it,” he said, referring to the embalmers.

Wound dressings typically did not survive the mummification process. But it’s possible the embalmers added the bandage on the body after the girl’s death.

Ancient Egyptians believed that the mummified body should be as perfect as possible for life after death, Zink said: “Maybe they tried somehow to continue the healing process for the afterlife.”

As to why other such examples of bandaging had not been spotted before, it is plausible that scientists had simply failed to spot them until now, or mistaken them for other mummy wrappings. Zink now hopes that more examples of mummy wrappings can be uncovered.

“There are always some surprises when we study mummies. I have now studied, I don’t know how many mummies in my scientific career, but there’s always something new,” he said.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

16th-Century E. coli Sample Extracted from Italian Mummy

16th-Century E. coli Sample Extracted from Italian Mummy

16th-Century E. coli Sample Extracted from Italian Mummy
Researchers studied the mummified remains of an Italian nobleman. He died in 1586, from what is thought to be chronic gallbladder inflammation from gallstones. Division of Paleopathology of the University of Pisa

E. coli, short for Escherichia coli, has been among the most thoroughly studied bacteria since it was discovered in the 19th century, but researchers are only starting to understand its evolutionary history.

Now, for the first time, scientists have extracted the genetic code of a 400-year-old version of the pathogen from an Italian mummy.

In a study published Thursday in the journal Communications Biology, an international team of researchers analyzed the mummified remains of an Italian nobleman from the Renaissance period, whose well-preserved body was recovered along with other nobles in Naples, Italy, in 1983.

Giovani d’Avalos — the individual studied — was 48 when he died in 1586, from what is thought to be chronic gallbladder inflammation from gallstones.

“It was so stirring to be able to type this ancient E. coli,” Erick Denamur, who led the French research team that collaborated on the study, said in a statement.

While the genome was unique, Denamur said it was evolutionarily similar to bacteria that still cause gallstones today.

George Long, who co-authored the new study, identified and extracted the genetic code of E. coli from mummified remains.

While most strains of E. coli are harmless, some result in serious infections and make humans sick. But unlike smallpox, an infection with outward signs on the human body, like red spots on the skin, and E. coli infection is characterized by stomach problems and is not visible to the human eye.

“When we were examining these remains, there was no evidence to say this man had E. coli,” George Long, a graduate student at McMaster University and lead author of the new study, said in a press release. “No one knew what it was.”

Colorized 2006 scanning electron microscope image of E. coli bacteria.

“We were able to identify what was an opportunistic pathogen, dig down to the functions of the genome, and provide guidelines to aid researchers who may be exploring other, hidden pathogens,” Long said.

Long and the rest of the team hope understanding the genome of an ancestor to the modern version of E. coli will help future scientists unravel how the bacteria evolved over time.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

The Guadeloupe Woman: A Human Skeleton Dating Back 28 Million Years

The Guadeloupe Woman: A Human Skeleton Dating Back 28 Million Years

In 1810 the British seized the French Island of Guadeloupe and sent a large stone slab back to England containing a skeleton of a headless and footless woman.  This particular skeleton has become the object of controversy regarding the age of the skeleton and the Creation debate.  We will discuss this skeleton and add to this debate.

We came across this oddity when reading the website Bad Archaelogy.wordpress.com written by Keith Fitzpatrick Matthews, an English archaeologist.  Frankly, his precision and attention to specific detail regarding the skeleton were refreshing even though they demonstrated a traditional and narrow perspective.  We understand that science must be rigorous.

We also understand that it is necessary for science to disprove various theories in order to get to an accurate and truthful assessment of any object, artefact, or skeleton.  However, narrowness and rigid adherence to traditional methodologies do not guarantee correctness.  Since science, itself, is an exercise in probabilistic truth; it can’t guarantee certainty.

So, what do we have?  Well, we have a skeleton found in a slab of rock one mile long with an unknown date of origin.  Matthews states that the original investigator declared the stone to be a kind of sandstone made up of a concretion of calcareous sand.  Well, so far so good. Additionally, Matthews tells us that there is a graveyard near the site of the skeleton’s excavation began at the time of Columbus’ discovery of the island in the Caribbean in 1493.

Therefore, he believes this skeleton is not of Miocene age, 28 million to 5 million years old, but of a recent date, possibly in the 15th century.

Now, this skeleton may indeed be a 15th-century skeleton.  However, it is not proven to be so.  It still could be of a much older age even 28 million years old. 

This skeleton’s age may not be “discredited” at all because of the probabilistic nature of science and the fact that a modern age has not been proven either.  To properly determine its age one would have to examine the geology of the matrix surrounding the skeleton, examine the skeleton, itself, and properly study the geology of the island of Guadeloupe.  To the best of my knowledge, none of these things has been done.  So, there is a real lack of evidence on the side of traditional “mainline” archaeology to support a claim of a recent, 15th century, the age for this skeleton.

Now, can we find any other evidence to support a claim of an older age?  Yes!  First, the skeleton was embedded in rock.  This is a process that takes some time.  Second, we can consider a new technique, one that I have pioneered, that is the use of plate tectonics – the movement of the continental plates.

If we do this we arrive at an unexpected surprise.  Guadeloupe, as with all the islands of the West Indies rests on the Caribbean plate and neither on North America nor South American plates. 

This means if we extend the location of Guadeloupe backward in time we find that at the end of the Cretaceous Period, 66 million years ago, it was located south to southwest of the Yucatan. 

With the meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs, a huge tidal wave of 1100 feet in height flooded all of Mexico and the surrounding area and could have carried the bodies of individuals to Guadeloupe. 

A closer look at the eastern side of the island shows an indentation that could have been caused by this tidal wave. Of course, additional geological research is needed to confirm this.

So, we claim that the skeleton has not been discredited until further research is done.  Furthermore, the fact of the Caribbean plate movements due to place Guadeloupe much closer to the Yucatan opens the door to the possibility that the skeleton maybe not be 28 million years old but 66 million years old.  The question is still open.

Author’s Note:  There is an impact crater in the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Virginia that is 35 million years old. The crater is 53 miles wide and fractured the Earth to a depth of between 6 to 12 miles. This impact could have resulted in a massive tidal wave that carried the Guadeloupe Woman to her present resting place.

ASIA, INDONESIA, WORLD

44,000-Year-Old Cave Painting Could Be the Earliest Known Depiction of Hunting

44,000-Year-Old Cave Painting Could Be the Earliest Known Depiction of Hunting

A 44,000-year-old cave painting of a hunting scene that involves humans and animals might be the oldest recorded story. It was discovered, by a group of archaeologists from Griffith University, Australia, in a cave on the Indonesian island Sulawesi.

Researchers think this mural might be the oldest rock art ever painted — the first sign of the ability of human being’s to paint, but also the earliest proof of our relationship with the spiritual or supernatural.

The painting in the cave depicts a scene where a group of part-human, part animal-like figures are hunting large animals that look a lot like pigs found in Sulawesi, along with a species of small-bodied buffalo called the ‘anoa’. Human beings with heads of animals seem to be carrying spears or ropes to help in their hunt.

The animals in the rock art that is being hunted by the half-human, half-animals beings.

Half-animal, half-human figures

The “human” figures in rock art, dubbed “therianthropes” are human figures with animal characteristics. These types of figures have shown up in cultures all around the world — from 17,000-year-old paintings of bird-headed human beings being charged by a bison in France’s Lascaux caves to a 40,000-year-old carved figure called “the Lion Man” in Germany.

“The hunters represented in the ancient rock art panel at Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 are simple figures with human-like bodies, but they have been depicted with heads or other body parts like those from birds, reptiles, and other faunal species endemic to Sulawesi,” Adhi Agus Oktaviana, a rock art expert and PhD student in Griffith University, said in a statement.

This depiction of therianthropes may be the oldest evidence of the human ability to “imagine the existence of supernatural beings, a cornerstone of religious experience,” which means that they might have begun to have a semblance of understanding of religion or spiritual ideas.

“The images of therianthropes at Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 may also represent the earliest evidence for our capacity to conceive of things that do not exist in the natural world, a basic concept that underpins modern religion,” Adam Brumm, an archaeologist who was part of the study said.

“Early Indonesians were creating art that may have expressed spiritual thinking about the special bond between humans and animals long before the first art was made in Europe, where it has often been assumed the roots of modern religious culture can be traced.” 

There is a handprint in red, at the left end of the mural that acts as a signature of the artist.

Cave art at a possible sacred site

The cave itself, researchers think, might have been a sacred site. It is not easily accessible, what with it being perched on a clifftop 20 meters above the valley floor — it would have required some climbing.

“Accessing it requires climbing, and this is not an occupation site. So people were going in there for another reason,” Maxime Aubert, an archaeologist part of this study told Ars Technica in an interview.

There was no evidence of the cave being used as a living place. There was no trace of the usual debris of human life—stone tools, discarded bones, and cooking fires—anywhere in the cave or in the much larger chamber beneath it.

The entrance of the cave is 20 meters above the valley.

The cave, which was given the name “Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4” when it was unearthed in 2017, is one of the hundreds of caves in the Maros-Pangkep limestone-rich region of South Sulawesi in Indonesia. In an interview with Nature, Brumm said, “I’ve never seen anything like this before. I mean, we’ve seen hundreds of rock art sites in this region, but we’ve never seen anything like a hunting scene.”

To confirm the art was the oldest, the group of archaeologists carried out dating tests by calcite build-up on the painting. The researchers were able to determine that calcite build-up on one pig began forming at least 43,900 years ago. The build-up on the two buffaloes is older than 40,900 years. The rock art previously considered to be the oldest was found in sites in Europe, and dated back to between 14,000 to 21,000 years ago.

A wide view of the entire painting, with annotations.

Archaeological findings like these are growing important in our understanding of humankind’s roots and evolution. There’s a fear this rock art might soon be lost altogether because of deterioration. The art is peeling and they do not know what is causing it.

“It would be a tragedy if these exceptionally old artworks should disappear in our own lifetime, but it is happening,” Oktaviana said.

“We need to understand why this globally significant rock art is deteriorating – now.”