The ancient Kingdom Discovered Beneath Mound in Iraq
In the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, archaeologists have discovered an ancient city called Idu, hidden beneath a mound. Cuneiform inscriptions and works of art reveal the palaces that flourished in the city throughout its history thousands of years ago.
A domestic structure, with at least two rooms, that may date to relatively late in the life of the newfound ancient city, perhaps around 2,000 years ago when the Parthian Empire controlled the area in Iraq.
Located in a valley on the northern bank of the lower Zab River, the city’s remains are now part of a mound created by human occupation called a tell, which rises about 32 feet (10 meters) above the surrounding plain.
The earliest remains date back to Neolithic times when farming first appeared in the Middle East, and a modern-day village called Satu Qala now lies on top of the tell.
The city thrived between 3,300 and 2,900 years ago, said Cinzia Pappi, an archaeologist at the Universität Leipzig in Germany. At the start of this period, the city was under the control of the Assyrian Empire and was used to administer the surrounding territory. Later on, as the empire declined, the city gained its independence and became the centre of a kingdom that lasted for about 140 years, until the Assyrians reconquered it.
The researchers were able to determine the site’s ancient name when, during a survey of the area in 2008, a villager brought them an inscription with the city’s ancient name engraved on it.
Excavations were conducted in 2010 and 2011, and the team reported its findings in the most recent edition of the journal Anatolica.
“Very few archaeological excavations had been conducted in Iraqi Kurdistan before 2008,” Pappi wrote in an email to LiveScience. Conflicts in Iraq over the past three decades have made it difficult to work there. Additionally, archaeologists before that time tended to favour excavations in the south of Iraq at places like Uruk and Ur.
The effects of recent history are evident on the mound. In 1987, Saddam Hussein’s forces attacked and partly burnt the modern-day village as part of a larger campaign against the Kurds, and “traces of this attack are still visible,” Pappi said.
Ancient palaces
The art and cuneiform inscriptions the team uncovered provide glimpses of the ancient city’s extravagant palaces.
When Idu was an independent city, one of its rulers, Ba’ilanu, went so far as to boast that his palace was better than any of his predecessors’. “The palace which he built he made greater than that of his fathers,” he claimed in the translated inscription. (His father, Abbi-zeri, made no such boast.)
Two works of art hint at the decorations adorning the palaces at the time Idu was independent. One piece of artwork, a bearded sphinx with the head of a human male and the body of a winged lion, was drawn onto a glazed brick that the researchers found in four fragments. Above and below the sphinx, a surviving inscription reads, “Palace of Ba’auri, king of the land of Idu, son of Edima, also king of the land of Idu.”
This work shows a bearded sphinx with a human male head and the body of a winged lion. Found in four fragments it was also created for King Ba’auri and has almost the exact same inscription as the depiction of the horse.
Another work that was created for the same ruler, and bearing the same inscription as that on the sphinx, shows a “striding horse crowned with a semicircular headstall and led by a halter by a bearded man wearing a fringed short robe,” Pappi and colleague Arne Wossink wrote in the journal article.
Even during the Assyrian rule, when Idu was used to administer the surrounding territory, finely decorated palaces were still built. For instance, the team discovered part of a glazed plaque whose coloured decorations include a palmette, pomegranates and zigzag patterns. Only part of the inscription survives, but it reads, “Palace of Assurnasirpal, (king of the land of Assur).” Assurnasirpal refers to Assurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.), the researchers said, adding that he, or one of his governors, must have built or rebuilt a palace at Idu after the Assyrians reconquered the city.
A hero facing a griffon
Another intriguing artefact, which may be from a palace, is a cylinder seal dating back about 2,600 years. When it was rolled on a piece of clay, it would have revealed a vivid mythical scene.
The scene would have shown a bow-wielding man crouching down before a griffon, as well as a morning star (a symbol of the goddess Ishtar), a lunar crescent (a symbol of the moon god) and a solar disc symbolizing the sun god. A symbol called a rhomb, which represented fertility, was also shown.
“The image of the crouching hero with the bow is typical for warrior gods,” Pappi wrote in the email. “The most common of these was the god Ninurta, who also played an important role in the [Assyrian] state religion, and it is possible that the figure on the seal is meant to represent him.”
Future work
Before conducting more digs, the researchers will need approval from both the local government and the people of the village. “For wide-scale excavations to continue, at least some of these houses will have to be removed,” Pappi said. “Unfortunately, until a settlement is reached between the villagers and the Kurdistan regional government, further work is currently not possible.”
Although digging is not currently possible, the artefacts already excavated were recently analyzed further and more publications of the team’s work will be appearing in the future. The archaeologists also plan to survey the surrounding area to get a sense of the size of the kingdom of Idu.
Life-size human statues and column bases from a long-lost temple dedicated to a supreme god have been discovered in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.
Life-size human statues and the remains of an ancient temple dating back some 2,500 years have been discovered in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The region’s hilly environment is shown here.
The discoveries date back over 2,500 years to the Iron Age, a time period when several groups — such as the Urartians, Assyrians and Scythians — vied for supremacy over what is now northern Iraq.
“I didn’t do excavation, just archaeological soundings —the villagers uncovered these materials accidentally,” said Dlshad Marf Zamua, a doctoral student at Leiden University in the Netherlands, who began the fieldwork in 2005.
The column bases were found in a single village while the other finds, including a bronze statuette of a wild goat, were found in a broad area south of where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey intersect.
For part of the Iron Age, this area was under the control of the city of Musasir, also called Ardini, Marf Zamua said. Ancient inscriptions have referred to Musasir as a “holy city founded in bedrock” and “the city of the raven.”
A lost ancient temple
“One of the best results of my fieldwork is the uncovered column bases of the long-lost temple of the city of Musasir, which was dedicated to the god Haldi,” Marf Zamuatold Live Science in an email.
Haldi was the supreme god of the kingdom of Urartu. His temple was so important that after the Assyrians looted it in 714 B.C., the Urartu king Rusa I was said to have ripped his crown off his head before killing himself.
A 19th-century drawing of an ancient relief that depicts the sacking of the temple of Haldi by the Assyrians.
He “threw himself on the ground, tore his clothes, and his arms hung limp. He ripped off his headband, pulled out his hair, pounded his chest with both hands, and threw himself flat on his face …” reads one ancient account (translation by Marc Van De Mieroop).
The location of the temple has long been a mystery, but with the discovery of the column bases, Marf Zamua thinks it can be narrowed down.
Additionally, Marf Zamua analyzed an ancient carving of Musasir, discovered in the 19th century at Khorsabad. The carving, he found, shows hillside houses with three windows on the second floor and a doorway on the ground floor. Such a design can still be seen today in some villages, the bottom floor being used as a stable and storage area, he noted.
Life-size statues
This long-lost temple is just the tip of the archaeological iceberg. During his work in Kurdistan, Marf Zamua also found several life-size human statues that are up to 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) tall. Made of limestone, basalt or sandstone, some of these statues are now partly broken.
They all show bearded males, some of whom “are holding a cup in their right hands, and they put their left hands on their bellies,” said Marf Zamua. “One of them holds a hand axe. Another one put on a dagger.”
Originally erected above burials, the statues have a “sad moment” posture, Marf Zamua said. Similar statues can be found from central Asia to eastern Europe. “It is art and ritual of nomads/pastorals, especially when they [buried] their chieftains,” Marf Zamua said.
Mostof the newfound statues date to the seventh or sixth century B.C., after Musasir fell to the Assyrians, and during a time when the Scythians and Cimmerians were advancing through the Middle East.
Modern-day dangers and ancient treasures
Over the past few weeks, conflict in Iraq has been increasing as a group called the “Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant” (ISIS) has taken several cities and threatened to march on Baghdad. The Kurdistan area, including this archaeological site, is autonomous, and its militia has been able to prevent ISIS from entering it.
Several life-sized human statues of bearded males, dating back to the seventh or sixth centuries B.C., have also been discovered in Kurdistan.
Marf Zamuasaid there are risks associated with living and working in the border area. Due to the conflicts of the past few decades, there are numerous unexploded land mines, one of which killed a young shepherd a month back, he said. Additionally, the National Iraqi News Agency reports that Iranian artillery recently fired onto the Iraqi side of the border, and there have been past instances where planes from Turkey have launched attacks into Iraqi Kurdistan.
Despite these risks, there are also terrific archaeological finds to be made. In addition to the statues and column bases, Marf Zamuafound is a bronze statuette of a wild goat about 3.3 inches (8.4 centimetres) long and 3.2 inches (8.3 cm) tall. Researchers are now trying to decipher a cuneiform inscription on the statuette.
Marf Zamua presented the discoveries recently in a presentation given at the International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East, held at the University of Basel in Switzerland. In addition to his doctoral studies, Marf Zamua teaches at Salahaddin University in Erbil, which is the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
Ancient, underground Etruscan pyramids spotted in Italy
The first-ever Etruscan pyramids have been located underneath a wine cellar in the city of Orvieto in central Italy, according to a team of U.S. and Italian archaeologists. Carved into the rock of the tufa plateau — a sedimentary area that is a result of volcanic activity — on which the city stands, the subterranean structures were largely filled. Only the top-most modern layer was visible.
“Within this upper section, which had been modified in modern times and was used as a wine cellar, we noticed a series of ancient stairs carved into the wall. They were clearly of Etruscan construction,” David B. George of the Department of Classics at Saint Anselm, told Discovery News.
As they started digging, George and co-director of the excavation Claudio Bizzarri of the Parco Archeologico Ambientale dell’Orvietano noted that the cave’s walls were tapered up in a pyramidal fashion. Intriguingly, a series of tunnels, again of Etruscan construction, ran underneath the wine cellar hinting at the possibility of deeper undiscovered structures below.
The subterranean pyramids found in Orvieto, Italy could offer a unique insight into the mysterious Etruscan culture. Stairs carved into the wall can be seen on left.
After going through a mid-20th century floor, George and Bizzarri reached a medieval floor. Immediately beneath this floor, they found a layer of fill that contained various artefacts such as Attic red-figure pottery from the middle of the 5th Century B.C., 6th and 5th century B.C. Etruscan pottery with inscriptions as well as various objects that dated to before 1000 B.C.
Digging through this layer, the archaeologists found 5 feet of gray sterile fill, which was intentionally deposited from a hole in the top of the structure.
“Below that material there was a brown layer that we are currently excavating. Intriguingly, the stone-carved stairs run down the wall as we continue digging. We still don’t know where they are going to take us,” Bizzarri told Discovery News.
The material from the deepest level reached so far (the archaeologists have pushed down about 10 feet) dates to around the middle of the fifth century B.C.
“At this level we found a tunnel running to another pyramidal structure and dating from before the 5th century B.C. which adds to the mystery,” George said.
Indeed, the Etruscans have long been considered one of antiquity’s greatest enigmas.
A fun-loving and eclectic people who among other things taught the French how to make wine, the Romans how to build roads, and introduced the art of writing to Europe, the Etruscans began to flourish in Etruria (an area in central Italy area that covered now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna and Umbria) around 900 B.C., and then dominated much of the country for five centuries.
Known for their art, agriculture, fine metalworking and commerce, they started to decline during the fifth century B.C., as the Romans grew in power. By 300-100 B.C., they eventually became absorbed into the Roman empire.
Their puzzling, non-Indo-European language was virtually extinguished and they left no literature to document their society. Indeed, much of what we know about them comes from their cemeteries: only the richly decorated tombs they left behind have provided clues to fully reconstruct their history.
The subterranean pyramids in Orvieto could offer a unique insight into this civilization as the structures appear to be unique.
“The caves have indeed a shape unknown elsewhere in Etruria,” Larissa Bonfante, professor emerita of classics at New York University and a leading expert on the ancient Etruscans, told Discovery News.
According to Bizzarri, there are at least five Etruscan pyramids under the city. Three of these structures have yet to be excavated.
“Clearly, they are not quarries or cisterns. I would say that there is nothing like these structures on record anywhere in Italy,” Bizzarri said.
According to George, the underground pyramids could represent some sort of a religious structure or a tomb. In both cases, it would be a discovery without precedent.
“Most likely, the answer waits at the bottom. The problem is we don’t really know how much we have to dig to get down there,” Bizzarri said.
French farmer finds rare coin featuring Charlemagne just before his death
A rare 1,200-year-old silver coin featuring Charlemagne — one of the only known portraits made of the emperor during his lifetime — was recently rediscovered and promptly taken on a wild journey from a farm in France, to the bidding grounds of eBay and, finally, to a museum in Germany.
This rare silver coin shows a portrait of Charlemagne that was made during his lifetime.
The coin’s modern travels began when a man in France wanted to build a house but was short on cash. He remembered that he had inherited a coin collection from his grandfather, a farmer in the Paris region. After going through his grandfather’s collection, the man discovered the Charlemagne coin, known as a denarius, and he put it up for auction on eBay.
“We have here some experts that regularly check what is on eBay concerning archaeology,” said Frank Pohle, director of the Route Charlemagne, a group of municipal museums in Aachen, Germany, that focus on cultural history. “One of them told me ‘Hey, there is a piece of money in eBay France that could be a real denarius of Charlemagne.”
The museum decided to enter a bid. To their relief, they got the coin depicting Charlemagne and his imperial title: IMP(erator) AVG(ustus), a reference to Emperor Augustus, the first Roman emperor and a title used by the many emperors of the Roman Empire, whom Charlemagne was trying to emulate. (Pohle wouldn’t reveal the coin’s price, but said, “It was not that expensive. We are very content.”)
Charlemagne (ruled A.D. 768 to 814), also known as Charles the Great, was king of the Franks and became the first ruler to unite Western and Central Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. Due to his political power, military might and close relationship with the Vatican, Charlemagne was crowned emperor of the Romans on Christmas day in A.D. 800.
So, perhaps it’s no surprise that, in this coin portrait, Charlemagne “presents himself really as Roman emperor,” Pohle told Live Science. “He has the laurel on his hat, which is quite unusual for Frankish kings. He is wearing a dress like a Roman general.”
The portrait also reveals that Charlemagne had a round face, a moustache and a short neck, the latter a detail noted by Charlemagne’s biographer Einhard, Pohle said.
Putting his portrait on the 0.7-inch-diameter (1.9 centimetres) coin “has something to do with his ambitions,” Pohle told Live Science. “That type of coin is quite a good copy of what the Roman emperors did in their times … to use money as a piece of their own marketing purposes.”
There are only about 50 individual denarii coins bearing a portrait of Charlemagne created in his lifetime. “Most [denarii] only have his name on it, no portrait,” Marjanko Pilekić, a numismatist and research assistant at the Coin Cabinet of the Schloss Friedenstein Gotha Foundation in Germany, who is not involved with the newfound coin, told Live Science.
The back of the coin features a building, which has a Christian cross on it and looks like a mix between a Roman temple and a church, Pohle said.
The back of the coin features a mix between a Roman temple and a church.
When was it minted?
Museum experts have determined that the 0.5-ounce (1.5 grams) coin was likely minted in Aachen due to the city’s importance, as that’s where Charlemagne was born and later died. But the date of its minting is unclear.
After being crowned Roman emperor, he didn’t immediately use the title “Emperor Augustus” found on the coin.
“Although he was already crowned in 800, he didn’t use that title [until] 812,” Pohle said. “It had something to do with his diplomatic connections with Byzantium,” also known as the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire. Instead, Charlemagne used the title “Emperor Governing the Roman Empire,” according to Britannica.
Finally, in 812, the Byzantine Empire recognized Charlemagne’s emperorship, so he started using the title found on the coin, making this a possible date for the coin’s minting, Pilekić said.
The coin also could have been minted in the year 813, when Charlemagne’s son, Louis the Pious, was appointed as co-emperor and had similar coinage made.
“Charlemagne was ill during the last three to four years of his life, i.e. around 810-814, and was particularly concerned about the future of the empire,” Pilekić said. “He had only one son left, whom he appointed co-emperor in 813. One theory is that the portrait coinage was created in the last year of his life. That is, at a time when he was probably striving for an orderly succession.”
Another idea is that “these coins were specifically intended to commemorate the occasion of the emperor’s coronation and therefore did not really serve as money like the other denarii of Charlemagne, which do exist in significantly larger numbers without a portrait and imperial title,” Pilekić added.
It’s hard to say how much this coin was worth at the time. “The amount of silver is quite low,” but if you had 12 to 20 denarii, you could probably buy a cow, Pohle said.
Ernest Shackleton’s Lost Shipwreck Found After 100 Years
A team of researchers from the Falkland Islands Maritime Heritage Foundation announced the discovery of the Endurance, the search for which resumed in early 2022. This ship, which sank off the coast of Antarctica in 1915, was found in the Weddell Sea at a depth of more than three kilometres.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
Speaking of Antarctic explorers, not everyone now remembers Sir Ernest Shackleton. Most likely, this is due to the fact that even his contemporaries did not fully appreciate what the Endurance team faced and overcame (Endurance). And this is understandable – there was the First World War.
In 1914, the Imperial Transantarctic Expedition, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton, began the purpose of which was to cross overland throughout Antarctica.
A team of 56 people went to the South Pole on two ships – the Endurance and the Aurora. The crew of the Endurance planned to approach the coast of the Weddell Sea, spend the winter in Fasel Bay, and then move to the South Pole.
However, the ship encountered dense ice already in December 1914 and began to drift. In the autumn of the following year, the expedition members finally left the ship, squeezed by ice, which soon sank. Despite the most difficult conditions, the crew of the Endurance managed to escape.
The Endurance ship was crushed between ice and days before it sunk.
Researchers finally found and photographed the wreckage of the sunken ship Endurance
Modern explorers have repeatedly attempted to find the sunken ship. It was assumed that the wreckage of the ice-crushed Endurance was well preserved, as it was all these years in conditions of extreme cold, lack of light, and low oxygen levels.
The next major search expedition, Endurance22, launched in early 2022 from Cape Town.
The Endurance22 team, led by John Shears, reported that they were able to locate the wreckage of the Endurance. This was done during the survey of the search area in the Weddell Sea. According to scientists, Ernest Shackleton’s ship was at a depth of 3008 meters.
Polar explorers conducted their work from the South African ship “Agulhas II”, which had been preparing for the expedition for two years.
The Saab Sabertooth underwater search vehicles, equipped with the necessary sensors, lights, and cameras, made it possible to find the Endurance.
As you can see, the Endurance appears to be in almost perfect shape under the ice.
British maritime archaeologist who participated in the expedition, Mensun Bound (Mensun Bound) reported that the discovered ship was in excellent condition.
“It stands upright, holds well on the seabed, is intact, and is in excellent condition. You can even see the Endurance sign on the stern.”
The wreck is protected as a historic site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty, which ensures that the wreck cannot be touched or disturbed in any way during surveys.
14th-century sarcophagus found at fire-ravaged Notre Dame Cathedral
The discovery was made as maintenance crews were preparing to install scaffolding before restoring the spire of the 800-year-old cathedral, which survived a huge fire in the spring of 2019.
French archaeologists conducting excavations in Notre Dame Cathedral found several burials made no later than the 18th century. Among them stands out the discovered anthropomorphic lead sarcophagus, which probably belonged to a high-ranking dignitary who died no later than the 14th century.
Notre Dame: History and recent fire
The Notre Dame Cathedral is located in the centre of the French capital, on the Ile de la Cité island, built-in 1163-1345 on the site of the Gallo-Roman temple of Jupiter and the Christian Basilica of Saint Stephen.
The temple is a Gothic five-nave basilica with a short transept, a choir, and a crown of chapels. The facades of this building are decorated with sculptures, including scenes from the life of the Mother of God and the Last Judgment.
In the XVII-XVIII centuries, the interior and facade of the cathedral were significantly rebuilt. During the restoration, which took place in the middle of the 19th century, a 96-meter oak spire was built, which was decorated with bronze statues of the apostles and evangelists.
On April 15, 2019, a fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the fight against which took about 14 hours. Most of the structure that caught fire was wooden frame built in the 12th-13th centuries from 1300 oaks.
The source of the fire was located at the base of the spire, where restoration work was underway at that time, which began in 2018. Through the scaffolding, the fire quickly spread to the entire roof of the cathedral. As a result, the spire collapsed, damaging the vaults of the building.
New excavations at Notre Dame found a human-shaped sarcophagus
Archaeologists from the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research of France from February 2 to March 25, 2022, are conducting excavations in Notre Dame Cathedral, which precede the installation of scaffolding necessary for the reconstruction of the spire.
The researchers focused their attention on the central part of the temple, where the transept crosses the main nave.
The human-shaped sarcophagus beneath the Notre Dame.
Although some work on this site was carried out in the 19th century, archaeologists managed to find valuable historical finds. Scientists have unearthed several burials that were made no later than the 18th century.
Among them, a well-preserved lead sarcophagus made in an anthropomorphic form stands out. Archaeologists believe that it belonged to a high-ranking dignitary who died no later than the 14th century.
The coffin rested in the middle of brick pipes (a 19th-century underground heating system) and was well preserved, but slightly deformed under the weight. Inside, there are still pieces of cloth, hair, and a pillow of leaves.
Head of a man among other finds.
Below the level of the temple, the researchers found the remains of medieval pits, which contained fragments of polychrome sculptures.
According to the researchers, these artefacts are the remains of the original altar barrier of the 13th century, which separated the altar part of the temple from the nave. Some of these finds discovered earlier, are currently exhibited in the Louvre.
The Trailblazing Archaeologist Uncovering the Untold Stories of Prehistoric Skeletons
Archaeology has always fascinated Efthymia Nikita. She was drawn to the mystery and joy of uncovering the buried past. In her first year of archaeology studies at the Aristotle University, in Thessaloniki, she happily joined a six-week dig at a Neolithic – late Stone Age – site in northern Greece. The multitude of findings included pottery, figurines, stone tools and animal bones. And, toward the end of the excavations, the remains of a human skeleton were found.
“Our team had experts for everything, who almost immediately could tell us exactly what we were looking at, no matter how fragmented it was,” Nikita recalls. “But we had no osteoarchaeologist on the team, so no one could say even the most basic thing about this skeleton: Was it a man or a woman? How old was he/she when they died? We knew nothing.” That, she says, is when she decided to become an osteoarchaeologist.
As its name suggests, osteoarchaeology is the study of skeletal remains, both human and animal, from excavations. It is a specialized field within the broader realm of bioarchaeology, whose purview “includes not only bones but also plants and any other organic material that may be preserved in the archaeological record,” Nikita explains.
Today, at just 38, Nikita is at the pinnacle of her profession, author of a textbook on osteoarchaeology that is considered the last word on the subject, and the developer of methods to analyze ancient bones. Despite her young age, she has been awarded prizes and honours and has received numerous research grants. The latest award bestowed on her is the 2022 Dan David Prize, the world’s largest prize given to scholars in history-related disciplines, which gives $300,000 each to nine different laureates, with another $300,000 going for scholarships for young researchers. The award ceremony will take place in May at Tel Aviv University. (Prior to 2021, the prize, which is granted under the auspices of the university, was given across a wider range of fields)
Our conversations – conducted via both Zoom and email – take place both from her office at the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia, where Nikita is an assistant professor in bioarchaeology and from her home nearby. She moved to Cyprus in 2017 from her native Greece when the institute, a research body specializing in science and technology, offered her a research and teaching position. She was joined by her husband, with whom she raises their 4-year-old son.
Osteoarchaeology is an offshoot of osteology, the scientific study of bones, which in the past was utilized to support racial theories of various sorts. “Even though human osteology started largely as a ‘race science,’ where scholars measured crania to separate humans into races,” says Nikita, “it actually proves the exact opposite. Despite the anatomical variation seen across human groups, which is largely associated with our adaptation to different environments, when you strip people of their skin colour, hair colour, material culture, etc., and you are left with nothing but their bones, there is a deep sense of connectivity.”
She has worked with human skeletal remains from the prehistoric period until post-medieval times in a range of locations: Tunisia, Morocco, Libya, Britain, Greece, Cyprus, and Lebanon. “My work,” she says, “has made me realize even more clearly how much all human populations share and have always shared throughout their history. We see differences in the frequencies of different pathologies or dietary patterns or other bioarchaeological aspects, but the similarities are much more pronounced.” For example, the impact of harsh external conditions on human skeletons in the past and the present is very similar, however different the settings. “Since the skeleton has specific means to respond to stress, usually through the new bone formation and bone resorption, we see the same signs of ‘suffering’ on skeletons of individuals in very different contexts.”
The “Lovers of Valdaro” bone remains, some six millennia old, found near Mantua, Italy. Emotional neutrality is not always possible.
What you say brings to mind the work of pathologists, who try to determine the cause of death through the remains.
“Definitely. Osteoarchaeology draws methods and approaches from biology, genetics, anatomy, chemistry and geology. And, in particular, forensic anthropology, which deals with the study of recently deceased individuals, shares many methods and approaches with osteoarchaeology. In forensic anthropology, the key aim is to identify the deceased, as well as determine the circumstances of death. Therefore, great emphasis is placed on determining the age at death, sex, stature and ancestry of the individual to whom the skeleton belongs, but also different types of trauma that may manifest on the skeleton – such as sharp force or blunt force.
“In osteoarchaeology,” Nikita continues, “we also estimate age at death, sex and stature, and we assess various pathological lesions, including trauma. Almost all the methods we have for estimating sex and age at death have been developed with the help of modern skeletal collections where the sex and age of the deceased were known in advance. However, our aim is to explore what the living conditions were like in the past, rather than the circumstances of death.”
Estimating the age at death and gender can offer clues to the demographic profiles of different groups; for example, whether infant mortality was high, or whether men died younger than women. In any event, Nikita adds, “I appreciate that the study of human skeletal remains is a privilege and not a right, and such remains should be treated with dignity and respect. Although I try to be emotionally neutral, this is not always possible. For example, in cases where I have an individual with some serious pathology, it is impossible not to think how painful his or her life must have been.”
When you strip people of their skin color, hair color, material culture, etc., and you are left with nothing but their bones, there is a deep sense of connectivity.
Efthymia Nikita
Everyone dies in the end
In the year 900 B.C.E., a people known as the Garamantes occupied the core of the Sahara Desert; they lived in the region for the next 1,500 years. The prevailing view among archaeologists and prehistorians was that, given the external conditions, life there, in what is today the Libyan desert, was nasty, brutish and short. Nikita, together with scientists from Cambridge and Leicester universities, decided to examine this hypothesis by comparing data from skeletal remains found in the heart of the Sahara with similar remains from other African communities along the Mediterranean coast and the banks of the Nile. The analysis showed that life in the desert was not necessarily more difficult or shorter than life next to water sources and that nutrition, too, was apparently not more meager.
In terms of how strenuous life in the Sahara was, an analysis of the remains of the Garamantes “suggests a population successful at coping with a harsh environment of high and fluctuating temperatures and reduced water and food resources,” Nikita says. Few differences were found between men and women, though “the lower limbs were significantly stronger among males than females, possibly due to higher levels of mobility associated with herding.”
A second question related to life in the Sahara studied by Nikita involved the mobility of residents. The classical archaeological material evidence supported the assumption that a large number of individuals crossed the Sahara Desert, despite the extreme conditions prevailing there. But Nikita’s findings refuted this hypothesis. “Our study,” she explains, “examined whether the desert inhibited extended gene flow among populations. Gene flow was assessed by means of cranial morphology. On this basis, we found that despite the fact that this population was at the centre of various networks, the Sahara Desert posed important limitations to gene flow between the Garamantes and other North African populations.
Efthymia Nikita at an excavation site.
Another project examined differences between Garamantian women and men with regard to mobility. On the one hand, it was hypothesized that mobility among men might be higher, due to combat or commerce; on the other hand, women might have been more mobile, due to marriage, in whose wake they might have moved to other settlements to be with their husband’s families. The bones showed that mobility was equally low in both sexes: Neither men nor women moved about very much.
Classical archaeology can find graves and grave goods, describe the material culture and can suggest for instance whether the deceased was rich or poor. Osteoarchaeology can suggest whether a seemingly wealthier person really did live an easier life, Nikita explains. Skeletal remains may also reveal familial ties and provide a broader picture of past communities.
More recently, she examined “human mobility in Cyprus during the Early Christian and Late Byzantine-Frankish periods,” which relates to Nikita. “For a case study, we used the [burial] site of the Hill of Agios Georgios in Nicosia. The results identified one individual who likely originated outside Cyprus and several more [from Cyprus] who were nonlocal to the burial site.” In other words, there was mobility, but it was likely more regional than far-flung. “Regarding men and women, no significant difference was found and they are both represented among the ‘nonlocals,’ so we cannot attribute the mobility to some gender-based factor.” This could not have been determined only from analysis of inanimate objects found at the burial site. The study of bones, Nikita emphasizes, provides a broad demographic picture. In the end, everyone dies: rich and poor, exalted military leaders and slaves. Whereas, say, the examination of objects in cemeteries, can provide much information about the way the living buried the dead, the study of bones will tell an all-inclusive story.
For example, a study Nikita conducted together with colleagues, involved two Cypriot communities that, according to the evidence, engaged principally in agriculture during the 16th and 17th centuries – the transition from the Venetian period to the Ottoman. A comparison was made between adults and children and between women and men of the two populations. The researchers found that despite the similarity in the ways of life of the two communities, one of them experienced greater everyday physical stress. The researchers found more injuries and greater attrition of the skeletal remains. The disparity is discernible among the children as well: Among the population that led a harder life, the bones of the children showed that they, too, were not spared.”
Among the grounds for awarding you the Dan David Prize, the foundation states that you have made it your goal to tell the untold stories of those who have been forgotten, such as children and women, “in order to form a more well-rounded view of the past.” What motivates your research?
“I would say that anger is my main motivation… I am Greek, and I get frustrated when I hear our politicians refer to our ‘glorious past and ancestors,’ obviously referring to men, to distill a rather misguided sense of ethnic pride. While I respect the importance of feeling proud of one’s country and the fact that a country’s history is an important factor for such pride, it is our obligation as scientists to promote a deeper understanding of our history. Osteoarchaeology gives us direct access to our ancestors – not just the politicians and military men, but the everyday people who comprised the vast majority of our ancestors. With the prize money, my priority will be to expand osteoarchaeological research in the Eastern Mediterranean, in conjunction with historical evidence, but also to create a series of resources for educators, parents and the general public to effectively communicate our findings.”
Excavation of Byzantine shipwreck in Aegean reveals 5th-century ceramics
Excavations of a Byzantine shipwreck off the coast of the Greek island Samos have revealed that the ship and its contents likely date to some time between 480 and 520 AD, the Greek Culture Ministry announced.
A Byzantine shipwreck in Greece was dated to some time between 480 and 520 AD.
The shipwreck is located in the sea near the small Fournoi island group, which is southwest of Samos. The 15 amphorae found in the sand near the wreck, along with the wooden skeleton of the ship itself, were in remarkably good condition.
There are nearly 60 shipwrecks from various historical periods located in the region.
Despite the fact that the shipwreck was found in one of the steepest and most inaccessible areas of the islands, it was chosen for further study during the 2021 excavation season due to the fact that it was extremely well-preserved.
Experts believe that the ship’s wooden framing survived throughout the centuries because it was crushed under the rest of the ship and oxygen couldn’t reach it, stalling the process of decay.
Archaeologists found 15 amphorae at the site of a Byzantine shipwreck in Greece. Archaeologists worked throughout last year to clear sand and debris from the wreck in order to provide access for experts to conduct studies of the site.
This allowed archaeologists to discover the 15 amphorae, many of which have been linked to various areas across the surrounding region.
The distinct style of one amphora is linked to the city of Sinope on the Black Sea, and six other amphorae are thought to be from Crimea and Heaclea Pontica on the Black Sea. Some ceramics found at the site are also connected to Phocaea in Asia Minor.
These finds reflect the expansionist trade policy of the Byzantine Emperor Anastasius I, who was the ruler during the time the shipwreck occurred.
Greek archaeologist Giorgos Koutsouflakis is heading the underwater excavations at the site, and his team includes 25 divers, among whom are students, archaeologists, photographers, and others.
In total, they have completed nearly 300 dives at the site and spent over 200 hours underwater excavating the shipwreck. Work at the site will continue into future seasons.
There are many ancient shipwrecks across the Greek seas, and archaeologists have found countless historic treasures in these sunken archaeological sites.
Off the Greek island of Alonissos, one such shipwreck has been transformed into an underwater archaeology museum, where divers can explore the shipwreck underwater.
At the 5th century BC wreck of Peristera, divers accompanied by guides can get a close look at the huge pile of amphorae, which extends to the sea bottom for a length of 25 meters (82 feet).
The shipwreck, which is one of the most important in all of classical antiquity, was loaded with thousands of wine amphorae from Mendi, an ancient city of Halkidiki, and Peparithos, today’s Skopelos, areas known in antiquity for their wine.
