Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed

A team of anthropologists studying Salorno, a stretch of scorched earth in northern Italy, say the site is a Late Bronze Age cremation platform where the remains of at least 172 individuals may have been burned. What’s more, the researchers believe the remains were simply left on the ground for the last 3,000 years.

Remains at Bronze Age Funeral Pyre in Italy Analyzed
The ustrinum at Salorno during excavations in 1987.

The site is called Salorno—Dos de la Forca, and it dates from 1150 BCE to 950 BCE. Besides the cremains (cremated remains) researchers found charred animal bone fragments, pottery shards, and bronze burial goods.

There was also a uniquely shaped boulder on the site (seen in the image above); it’s unknown whether it had any ceremonial purpose.

Though Salorno was first excavated in the 1980s, researchers only recently completed a bioanthropological analysis of the remains on the site. The team’s analysis was published last week in PLoS One.

“What is interesting at Salorno is that different from contemporary known cemeteries characterised by fields of cinerary urns or burials, this site appears as something very different: a pyre of dead bodies that were not selected for burial but intentionally left in the open, commingled with offerings and their own personal goods,” said Federica Crivellaro, a bioanthropologist at Stony Brook University and a co-author of the recent paper, in an email to Gizmodo.

“Salorno must have been a ‘sacred’ place for its community, in the way it was chosen but also protected from being looted or destroyed, but we cannot assess why exactly,” she added. “The fact that it serendipitously was preserved till today is simply very special.”

The site is a ustrinum, Latin for a cremation platform. Cremation was a widespread means of disposing of bodies in the Late Bronze age, but often the remains would be buried after they were burned.

At Salorno, they were simply left in situ, setting the site apart from other ustrina.

Tooth fragments from the site.

Crivellaro’s team looked at the number of human remains and calculated the likely number of individuals that were burned on the site at between 48 and 172, based on the total mass of the cremains. (The number of individuals represented at the site depends on whether all individuals were cremated and left in situ, or some bones were later buried elsewhere.)

In any case, the team knows the individuals were burned because of the bones’ condition (specific cracks in the fragments indicate heat-induced trauma) as well as their white colour (a shade distinct from ordinary, hydrated bones), which suggests the pyre temperatures may have exceeded 1292° Fahrenheit (700° C). The site was used over a couple of centuries, judging from the style of grave goods and pottery found on the site.

Because the individuals at Salorno were burned, it’s difficult to discern whether they were all related genetically.

“Cremated human remains are never sexy for traditional physical anthropology as they are fragmented, deformed, and skeletons and teeth are normally depleted of DNA,” Crivellaro said.

But based on the quality of the goods, and the sizes of contemporary settlements in the area, the team posited that the individuals burned and left in Salorno may have been a small number of nuclear families or a group of local elites.

Though the researchers don’t know who started the fire, they know it burned for about 200 years and incinerated nearly 50 people at a minimum in that time. ‘Ashes to ashes, dust to dust’ takes on a new meaning when the remains are left right where they were burned; if not fodder for worms, the remains are great fodder for archaeologists.

EUROPE, ICELAND, WORLD

Viking-Era Structures Explored in Iceland

Viking-Era Structures Explored in Iceland

Ongoing excavations of Viking-era, man-made caves near Oddi in South Iceland have revealed an extensive system of interconnected structures that is not only much larger than originally thought but also much older. Mbl. is reports that excavations, substantiated by tephra layers, show that the caves at Oddi were the first dugout in the middle of the 10th century.

“There really are no words to describe it,” archaeologist Kristborg Þórsdóttir said of the experience of standing in what is one of the best-preserved man-made structures of the Viking era. Kristborg is leading the current interdisciplinary study on the caves, which has been ongoing since 2020.

“The size of these structures is just so vast, there hasn’t been a study of such large structures, and definitely not from this time period in Iceland.”

An important medieval cultural and political centre

The first intact, man-made cave at Oddi was discovered in 2018, which was a remarkable discovery in and of itself. But further investigation of the site revealed a much larger cave connected to the first. It is this cave that is currently being excavated by Kristborg and her team.

The historic site of a church, farm, and vicarage, Oddi was once one of Iceland’s most important cultural and political seats and home to a powerful clan known as the Oddverjar. The current study has been ongoing for two years, with the primary aim of shedding light on the writing culture that was there during the 11th and 12th centuries, when the Oddverjar were at the height of their powers. Sæmundur fróði (Sæmundur the Learned, 1056-1133) was the most famous member of the clan. He studied in France and wrote one of the earliest histories of the Norwegian kings, although that manuscript was lost. Sæmundur’s grandson, Jón Loftsson, was a powerful chieftain who fostered Snorri Sturluson, the renowned historian, poet, and lawspeaker who is thought to have authored or partially authored major medieval works such as the Prose Edda (known as Snorri’s Edda in Icelandic), the most significant extant source on Norse mythology, as well as the Heimskringla, a saga of the Norwegian kings that was likely based on Sæmundur fróði’s lost manuscript.

Kristborg Þórsdottir. The excavation site seen from above

A race against time

“We’ve just partially opened up the large, collapsed cave that our little cave is connected to,” explained Kristborg. “We still have deeper to dig; we’re just working on making conditions safe. It’s gotten very deep and the rock isn’t sound. So it’s taken some time.”

Kristborg notes that the excavation is unique in terms of how demanding on-site conditions are. The caves are not only at a significant depth, which is dangerous for the archaeologists involved in digging them out, but also built into sandstone. “The rock is so porous that it just crumbles before our eyes.” It’s thought that the caves were not used for very long because they are so prone to disintegration.

Resources for the archeologists also remain limited. “We only have limited funds and time and you never know what’s going to happen next year. Maybe we can continue, maybe not. And information is always lost from year to year, preservation gets worse.”

A long and complex history, waiting to be uncovered

Kristborg says that the cave currently being excavated may possibly be Nautahellir, Bull Cave, which is mentioned in Jarteinabók Þorláks Biskups (Bishop Þorlákur’s Legends of Saints), which dates back to 1210 – 1250. The manuscript relates how Nautahellir collapsed with 12 bulls in it. One was then rescued from the rubble.

“Although it’s older than that, it’s likely that [the cave] was used for livestock,” explained Kristborg. “Whether it was for that specific bull, we don’t know. But the history of its use obviously goes back further than we’ve managed to trace yet.”

The caves at Oddi have a complex and fascinating story to tell, says Kristborg, but the scope of the current investigation is such that she and her team need to keep their focus narrow. “These are huge structures and an unbelievably large system of caves that we’re only just starting to come to grips with. […] We’d need to undertake a much, much larger study with a much bigger crew in order to get to the bottom of this and trace this history in full, the history of these caves’ use.”

WORLD

Satellite: Nephilim Giant Caught on Satellite Imagery Of The Patagonian Mountains

Satellite: Nephilim Giant Caught on Satellite Imagery Of The Patagonian Mountains

Have you ever given any thought as to why there are so many stories and myths about giants on the Earth?

Satellite: Nephilim Giant Caught on Satellite Imagery Of The Patagonian Mountains

Could it be that this “Society of Giant People” dwells in cities within the Earth but have above-ground access to secluded areas like the Patagonian Mountains located at the southern end of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile?

The existence of these unknown beings, known as the Patagones or Patagonian giants, was brought to light for the first time in the 1520s when Ferdinand Magellan and his crew saw them while exploring the coastline of South America en route to their circumnavigation.

It could well be that Magellan and his crew saw the Tehuelche.

These people were indeed very tall. But as he wrote explicitly about Patagonian giants, who were supposed to have exceeded at least double normal human height, some accounts giving heights of 12 to 15 feet, we may assume that they really saw Patagonian giants instead of the Tehuelche.

Further evidence of the existence of these giants is depicted on a map by Diego Gutiérrez from 1562, which shows Patagonian giants, who somehow related to the ancestors of the Nephilim and Rephaim, named the Didanum people.

Many people say that the story of the Patagonian giants is just a myth because there is no hard evidence that these giants have existed, but maybe the satellite imagery of the Patagonian Mountains showing a possible Giant being could change their minds.

Although the images taken from Google Earth are not really clear, the shape of a giant being sitting on a rock is recognizable, especially its head, eyes, nose, mouth, right hand and fingers as well as its left leg, foot and toes can be seen.

Roger inKC who discovered the being shows a detailed overview of the area in the next video.

Google Earth coordinates 54°50’32.78″S 69°21’57.08″W

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

250 mummies in coffins among the latest discoveries from Egypt’s Saqqara treasure trove

250 mummies in coffins among the latest discoveries from Egypt’s Saqqara treasure trove

Egyptian archaeologists have revealed another massive haul of priceless artefacts from the Saqqara Necropolis, a bountiful site near Cairo that likely still holds untold secrets.

On display Monday were dozens of newly-discovered, beautifully decorated coffins or sarcophagi, still sealed up with their owners mummified inside, along with dozens of bronze statues.

Monday’s big reveal, with artefacts lined up in front of Saqqara’s Step Pyramid of Djoser for journalists to admire, was the fifth by the archaeologists working at the site since 2018, and there are still many years of work left to carry out there.

Sarcophogi, or coffins, still sealed and containing the good-condition mummified remains of ancient Egyptians, are seen on display at the Saqqara Necropolis near Cairo, in Egypt, in a photo provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, May 30, 2022.

The latest discoveries, including about 250 still-sealed sarcophagi, came from the “Cemetery of Sacred Animals” at Saqqara, Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, told CBS News.

There have now been more than 450 decorated, sealed coffins containing mummies in good condition discovered at the cemetery, all of them dating back some 2,500 years.

The cemetery site at Saqqara was previously called “Bubasteion,” a reference to the ancient Egyptian goddess Bast, who was worshipped in the form of a cat.

Many of the statues initially discovered there depicted the goddess. In 2019, however, the site has renamed the Cemetery of Sacred Animals after archaeologists discovered other mummified animals and statues of other Egyptian deities there, Dr Mohamed Al Saidi, the mission’s director, told CBS News.

A sarcophagus that is around 2,500 years old, from the newly discovered burial site near Egypt’s Saqqara necropolis, is seen during a presentation in Giza, Egypt, May 30, 2022.

The artefacts displayed on Monday included about 150 bronze statues of Egyptian deities of different sizes, including some portraying the gods Anubis, Osiris, Nefertem, Isis, and Hathor.

“Today’s discovery confirms that the temple wasn’t exclusively for cats, but for other Egyptian deities too,” Al Saidi told CBS News.

Two wooden statues are seen on display at the Saqqara Necropolis near Cairo, in Egypt, in a photo provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, May 30, 2022.

“We found two beautiful wooden statues with golden faces of the deities Isis and Neftis, named the protectors of the coffin,” he said of the artefacts pulled from one of the dig shafts at the cemetery.

“They were in a seated position [by one coffin], one of them by the head of the coffin and the other by the feet, in a position called ‘the mourners’ or ‘weepers’ for the deceased.”

Inside the same coffin, the archaeologists discovered a papyrus roll they believe maybe 10 yards long and containing chapters of the “Book of the Dead.” The papyrus has been sent to a lab at the Egyptian Museum for further examination.

The worksite is almost 440 yards long, and the archaeologists working there have only carried out excavations on the first 100 yards, so Al Saidi told CBS News the site likely still has a lot more treasures to reveal.

An archaeologist cleans a sarcophagus, or coffin, still sealed and containing the mummified remains of an ancient Egyptian, as artefacts are displayed at the Saqqara Necropolis near Cairo, Egypt, in a photo provided by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, May 30, 2022.

Egypt’s tourism industry is trying to get back on its feet after the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the war in Ukraine has dealt a fresh blow. Russians and Ukrainians represented a significant proportion of the foreign tourists visiting the country before those calamities struck.

PERU, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru

Researchers in Peru have discovered a complex underground world belonging to the ancient Chavín culture that has been identified as burial chambers that date back thousands of years.

The culture developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru between 1,300 and 550 BC. The Chavín extended its influence to other civilizations along the coast.

The Ancient Chavin civilization developed advanced knowledge not only in metallurgy, but in soldering, and temperature control. The ancient Chavin used early techniques to develop refined gold work.

Not, researchers have discovered galleries, ceramics and even a place where this civilization carried out burials, located beneath the surface. They say it’s the most important archaeological discovery made in the last 50 years.

Archaeologists Find Massive Underground World Belonging To A Long Lost Civilization In Peru
Seen in this image are the new underground galleries that have been found containing the first human burials of the Chavin period.

Since June of 2018, a team of archaeologists has unearthed three new galleries in an area adjacent to the circular plaza of Chavín. In the place, they have found remarkable pieces of ceramics, utensils and intact human burials.

According to an American anthropologist and archaeologist John Rick, in charge of the Archaeological and Conservation Research Program of Chavín, the three discovered galleries come from the late period of this civilization that developed between 1,300 and 550 BC.

“What these galleries show is that Chavín has a much larger underground world than we think,” said Rick.

The Ministry of Culture estimates that to date only 15% of the area has been explored.

Inside one of these underground galleries, archaeologists discovered artefacts that belonged to the later Huaraz culture.

These successive occupations, found at different levels in the archaeological complex demonstrate the cultural and religious importance that Chavin had in the central highlands for centuries.

The project’s specialists used small robots with built-in micro-cameras to carry out the explorations. These machines – designed on-site by engineers from Stanford University – entered very small areas and discovered cavities in the Chavin labyrinths, where pottery was preserved.

Chavin de Huantar was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985. So far 35 interconnected underground passageways have been found at the site, Peru’s culture ministry said.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover Another Buried Sphinx In Egypt

Archaeologists Discover Another Buried Sphinx In Egypt

Egyptian archaeologists working on a groundwater reduction project at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan have discovered a sandstone sphinx, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities on Sunday.

The discovery comes as a surprise as in the last few months, archaeologists working in Egypt have uncovered the remains of two Sphinx statues.

A few weeks ago, we wrote about how construction workers working near the Luxor Temple Complex stumbled across the remains of a buried Sphinx statue.

Archaeologists Discover Another Buried Sphinx In Egypt
The Sphinx found near the Kom Ombo Temple

Initial reports by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquity suggested that the Sphinx uncovered at Luxor is similar in design to the Great Sphinx of Giza: It has the body of a lion and the head of a human.

The most famous Sphinx in Egypt is without a doubt the massive statue located on the Giza plateau.

The Great Sphinx of Giza is considered an ancient marvel not only because of its size and confusing design but because of the countless mysteries that surround this ancient structure.

Together with the three pyramids, the Great Sphinx found on the plateau of Giza – about 500 km from the place where the new statue was found – is one of the most emblematic monuments of Egypt.

Now, archaeologists near Aswan made another stunning discovery by finding another Sphinx statue.

The unearthed Sphinx after it was restored.

Mostafa Waziri, general secretary of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, explained that the piece probably dates from the Ptolemaic dynasty, as the Sphinx statue was found on the southeast side of the temple, in the same place where two sandstone reliefs of King Ptolemy V were discovered two months ago.

The Ptolemaic Dynasty ruled over Egypt for 275 years, from 305 to 30 BC, and they were the last dynasty of ancient Egypt.

The Kom Ombo temple complex was constructed during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.

Kom Ombo Temple before reconstruction.

Ptolemy V was the fifth ruler of the Ptolemaic dynasty from 204 to 181 BC. He inherited the throne at the age of five, and under a series of regents, the kingdom was paralyzed. It is noteworthy to mention that to famous Rosetta Stone was produced during his reign as an adult.

The sculpture, discovered at the Kom Ombo Temple in Aswan bears hieroglyphic and demotic inscriptions and has already been transported to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, where it will be carefully studied and restored by the archaeological mission to obtain more information about its origin.

After restoration, the newly-found Sphinx will be exhibited to the public.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Lost Ancient City Discovered In The Heart Of The USA

Lost Ancient City Discovered In The Heart Of The USA

When speaking about lost cities, the first thing that jumps to mind is a lost city, buried beneath the sands somewhere in Egypt. Or a lost city located somewhere in the most unexplored parts of the Amazon. However, sometimes, lost cities are found in the mundane of places. If you travel to Arkansas City, Kansas you’ll find evidence of one such ancient city.

by Janice Friedman

Archaeologists believe they have come across the city of Etzanoa (the “Great Settlement”), an ancient settlement mentioned by Spanish explorers during the 16th century.

Image: One of the few maps allegedly showing the location of the Native American city of Etzanoa (labelled in the top middle)

For hundreds of years, the ‘Great Settlement’ is thought to have been the home of more than 20,000 people.

This fact places the city of Etzanoa as one of the oldest native American settlements in the United States, second only to the ancient ‘Pyramid’ city of Cahokia, in central Illinois.

The first accounts mentioning the ancient city of Etzanoa come from Spanish gold-seeking conquistadores.

Translated records from the 1600’s tell the story of Juan de Oñate, a Spanish conquistador, founder, and governor of New Mexico who travelled from New Mexico into southern Kansas, in search of the lost city of Quivira—one of the mythical “Seven Cities of Gold” that were never found.

Juan de Oñate’s expedition was greeted peacefully by the inhabitants of Etzanoa.

However, after the Spaniards started taking hostages, the residents fled.

Eventually, the conquistadores explored the area, and their homes searching for valuables but decided it was too risky as the Natives could attack them at any moment.

Eventually, they decided to return to New Mexico, but de Oñate’s expedition was attacked by one thousand warriors belonging to the Escanxaque tribe.

After suffering heavy losses, the conquistadores returned to New Mexico.

Nearly a century later, French explorers travelled to the region but found nothing. The entire city vanished, and the French found no evidence of the people of the city of Etzanoa.

A Discovery That Changes Early American History

For years have people in present-day Arkansas City come across a number of ancient artefacts like arrowheads, and pottery, but no one was aware of the fact that there was a massive, archaeological gold mine hidden beneath their feet.

That is until Anthropologist and archaeologist professor Donald Blakeslee decided to take a more detailed look.

According to the L.A. Times, Blakeslee used translated documents written by the Spanish conquistadors (the expedition led by Juan de Oñate) who came across the land more than 400 years ago to conclude that these ancient artefacts were the remnants of the Native American lost city of Etzanoa.

“‘I thought, ‘Wow, their eyewitness descriptions are so clear it’s like you were there,’” Blakeslee told the Times about reading the conquistador’s accounts. “I wanted to see if the archaeology fit their descriptions. Every single detail matched this place.”

Based on ancient accounts, maps as well as artefacts that have so far been recorded, it is estimated that the Native American city of Etzanoa was in fact home to a massive population of Native American Indians.

In fact, according to Blakeslee, Etzanoa is most likely the second-largest settlement in the modern-day United States. The city spanned more than 5 miles between the Walnut and Arkansas rivers, where 20,000 people lived in “thatched, beehive-shaped houses.”

WORLD

This Ancient Sumerian Cylinder Seal Is Said To Depict 12 Planets In Our Solar System

This Ancient Sumerian Cylinder Seal Is Said To Depict 12 Planets In Our Solar System

There is an Ancient Sumerian Cylinder Seal, believed to be around 4,500 years old that curiously seems to depict our Sun and twelve planets within our Solar System, one of them supposedly being Nibiru, the elusive planet lurking somewhere on the outer edges of the Solar System.

This Ancient Sumerian Cylinder Seal Is Said To Depict 12 Planets In Our Solar System

One of the most controversial seals ever discovered and discussed among scholars is dubbed VA/243 and seems to depict – according to many — 12 planets within our Solar System with the Sun at its centre.

The Seal which dates back –at least- from the third millennium B.C. can be found at the State Museum in Easter Berlin and is catalogued as VA/243.

According to numerous researchers, this ancient Akkadian Cylinder Seal is one of the most ancient cylinders seals ever discovered and appears to be one of the most mysterious as well.

The reason? Well, it allegedly depicts the entire family of our Solar System and a rogue planet identified by authors such as Sitchin as Planet X, or Nibiru, the home planet of the Ancient Anunnaki.

Zecharia Sitchin discusses the cylinder seal in great detail in his book the 12th Planet.

According to Sitchin, the cylinder seal undoubtedly depicts our solar system with the numerous heavenly bodies and their relative size.

There are nine planets we know of today, – if of course you still think Pluto should be a planet and not a dwarf planet — our moon, the Sun, and a rogue planet commonly referred to as Nibiru.

If the mysterious objects depicted on the cylinder seal are in fact planets, how is it possible that the ancient Sumerians knew about our complete solar system in the 3rd millennium BC?

Not only that but how did they know their approximate size?

This leads to other questions like… where did the Sumerians obtain this knowledge from?

Did they develop it independently?

Or is it possible as many ancient cultures suggest, that some of that knowledge was passed on to them by ‘gods’ who came down from heaven and brought vast knowledge to man?

Does this ancient Sumerian Cylinder Seal depict the Solar System with all of its planets including Nibiru as Sitchin indicates?

Or is it possible that authors such as Michael S. Heiser are correct, and that the cylinder seal does not have any astronomical value and DOES NOT depict our solar system, planets, the moon, or the sun?

There are other questions that must be raised when looking at the cylinder seal. For example, would a cylinder seal be the ‘appropriate’ medium by which someone — 4,5000 years ago — would transmit such important astronomical knowledge?