Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Palaeontologists Unearth Dozens of Giant Dinosaur Eggs in Fossilized Nest in Spain

Paleontologists Unearth Dozens of Giant Dinosaur Eggs in Fossilized Nest in Spain

Archaeologists have extracted 30 titanosaur dinosaur eggs found in a two-ton rock in northern Spain and believe there could be as many as 70 deeper inside the boulder.

The titanosaur was a long-necked sauropod that lived until the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago. The eggs were found at a dig site in Loarre in the northeastern Spanish province of Huesca in September.

Preliminary tests indicate that the nests belonged to the titanosaur, a quadruped herbivore with a long tail and neck that could reach up to 66 feet in length.

Paleontologists Unearth Dozens of Giant Dinosaur Eggs in Fossilized Nest in Spain
The first extracted titanosaur egg near Huesca in northern Spain.

An international team of palaeontologists led by the Aragosaurus-IUCA Group of the University of Zaragoza did the work in collaboration with Nova University Lisbon in Portugal.

Miguel Moreno-Azanz, Carmen Nunez-Lahuerta and Eduardo Puertolas are leading 25 palaeontologists and students from Spanish, Portuguese and German institutions in the project.

Moreno-Azanza, who is affiliated with Nova University Lisbon, said in an interview that two nests were excavated in 2020, and about 30 eggs have been discovered in the rock.

Carmen Nunez Lahuerta, a director of the excavation, works on a block containing a dinosaur nest near Huesca in northern Spain.

“The main objective of the 2021 campaign was the extraction of a large nest that contains at least 12 eggs that were integrated into a block of rock weighing over two tons,” he said. “In total, five people dedicated eight hours a day for 50 days to excavate the nest, which was finally removed with the help of a bulldozer.”

Moreno-Azanza pointed out that it was unusual to extract such a large rock. He said it and 10 smaller rocks from the site were now in a warehouse in Loarre and will eventually be displayed at the future Laboratory Museum.

Laura de Jorge and Cristina Sanz Ascaso prepare a 2-ton block for extraction in the discovered dinosaur nest near Huesca in northern Spain.

“It is expected that next spring the space will open its doors to visitors, who will be able to follow the process of preparing and studying the fossils of this site in person,” Moreno-Azanza said.

“The museum has two exhibition rooms where the methodology of a complex paleontological excavation will be explained.”

He said the exhibition would be a satellite room of the Museum of Natural Sciences of the University of Zaragoza and feature specimens from the Loarre site and replicas of dinosaur eggs from other parts of the world.

Moreno-Azanza also said the Loarre Dinosaur Eggs project has obtained funding for the next three years.

The excavation team poses at the site where the titanosaur eggs were found near Huesca in northern Spain.

The excavation work is being funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Spanish Ministry of Science.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Egypt breakthrough: How lost Tutankhamun artefact was found after ‘vanishing for decades’

Egypt breakthrough: How lost Tutankhamun artefact was found after ‘vanishing for decades’

Tutankhamun was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule at the end of the 19th Dynasty during the New Kingdom. Known as “the boy king,” he inherited the throne at just nine years old and mysteriously died less than a decade later, with his burial rushed and his legacy seemingly wiped, leading many to claim he was murdered. In 1922, Howard Carter discovered KV62 in the Valley of the Kings, jam-packed with the most luxurious collection of artefacts, along with Tutankhamun’s body.

Now, almost a century later, an item that was thought to have been lost or stolen has reemerged thanks to the construction of a new museum, Channel 5’s “Secrets of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings” revealed.

The narrator said in March: “300 miles north of the valley in Giza, in the shadow of the pyramids, the magnificent treasures found in Tutankhamun’s tomb are getting a new home.

“British archaeologist Howard Carter found over 5,000 artefacts and set the standard for modern archaeology by spending years meticulously cataloguing them.

“However, the huge collection ended up scattered in locations across Egypt. 

Egypt breakthrough: How lost Tutankhamun artefact was found after 'vanishing for decades'
The artefact was buried with Tutankhamun
The team were packing up boxes to move to the new museum

“This £700million museum and research centre will reunite the collection for the first tie in a century.

“Now, in the new museum’s labs, scientists and Egyptologists use modern technology to study and analyse each artefact.”

The series went on to describe how one of Mr Carter’s original boxes was uncovered.

It added: “But some of Tut’s greatest treasures are yet to arrive.

“300 miles south in Luxor, Eissa Zidan is preparing 122 of Tut’s artefacts for their move to Giza.

The archaeologists uncovered a box

“But a few hours into the packing, Eissa gets some unexpected news. 

“During the move, the team have unearthed one of the original boxes Howard Carter used to transport Tut’s treasures out of the tomb.

“It was hidden in the corner of a storeroom and it’s been lost for decades.”

Inside the box, archaeologists found an amazing piece of history. The narrator explained: “These delicate wooden pieces are ancient boat parts and belong to one of the model boats that Howard Carter found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Inside was a model boat
What Howard Carter saw when he opened KV62

“The idea of eternal life was essential to ancient Egyptians as it is to major religions today.

“They believed the deceased would begin the journey by boat, so model boats were precious grave goods.

“The vessels often came complete with crew, because it was believed the replicas would come to life and help with fishing and transport in the afterlife.”

The afterlife was essential to ancient Egyptians and the goods they were buried with were said to be a key part of the journey.

The series continued: “The pharaohs used a special vessel to sail across the sky for eternity. 

“Ordinary people also thought they could reach the afterlife by boat, rowing up the Nile on these models and into the next world.

“Records show that the box was sent to Luxor in 1973, but had gone missing, presumed lost or stolen.

“The mast and the boat must have become separated decades ago.”

The discovery came before the opening of the new exhibition in London: “Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh.” More than 150 artefacts have travelled from Egypt to the Saatchi Gallery and will be on display now until May 3, 2020.  

For the first time ever, 60 items have left the country, before they return to their permanent home in the new Grand Egyptian Museum next year.   Recently closed in Paris, the exhibition became France’s most visited of all time with an attendance of over 1.4 million.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologists stunned as ‘Britain’s most exciting’ mystery solved after 4,000 years

Archaeologists stunned as ‘Britain’s most exciting’ mystery solved after 4,000 years

In 2004, Wessex Archaeologists Ltd were called in by architects to excavate land at Cliffs End Farm prior to building a new housing development.

Suspicions were heightened after earlier investigations showed that the site had been occupied during the early and late Bronze Age, between 2,400BC and 700BC and again in the early Saxon period of 400AD to 600AD.

But what archaeologists found came to be dubbed “Britain’s most exciting historical discovery,” as numerous deposits of human remains were found alongside near-complete carcasses of animals in what was believed to be ritual burials.

Now, more than a decade later, archaeologist Tori Herridge pieced together the exact contents of these mass graves during Channel 4’s “Bone Detectives” series.

She said during Saturday’s show: “It’s hard to believe, but beneath this estate lies one of Britain’s most exciting historical discoveries. 

“Back in 2004, when these houses were still drawings on an architect’s plan and this whole area was a farmer’s field, archaeologists were called in.

“What they found was an extraordinary complex of structures, a deep oval-shaped pit and a disturbing collection of bones, human bones.

Archaeologists stunned as ‘Britain’s most exciting’ mystery solved after 4,000 years
The discovery was made in Cliffsend
A housing development now stands on top

“But who were these people and what happened to them?”

Dr Herridge went on to detail more specifics.

She added: “They were excavated, specifically this northeastern corner here in a place called the Isle of Thanet, but not an island today, I hasten to add.

“They were around here between Ramsgate and Sandwich, that’s where they were excavating.”

Dr Herridge then took viewers to look at one skeleton in specific, before asking osteoarchaeologist Jackie McKinley to explain what she had discovered.

Tori Herridge is investigating

Dr McKinley said: “This is from the Late Bronze Age, so it’s ninth to 11th century BC, 3,000 years ago.

“We have 23 individuals in total from this site, most of them were adults.

“We have rather more females than males, overall 12 females to eight males (three unidentified).

“The really interesting ones were the six in situ ones that were associated with the pit, five of which were in the base and this was one of those.”

Dr Herridge explained why this skeleton stuck out to experts the most.

Some of the remains gave an insight
One skeleton showed a skull had been stabbed several times

She added: “This is the eldest of the individuals that we had, she was the primary deposit, the first to be deposited in the base of this pit and buried there.

“She was certainly over 55 years of age, it’s quite difficult to age people when they get to that kind of age because you are going on degenerative processes.

“If you look at this one, this is the neck vertebrae and you can see the breakdown in the surface, you’ve got pitting, you’ve got little holes and new bone around the edges.

“This level of wear really shows a very old individual this has happened to.

“If you look up here you can see this incredible amount of wear to the teeth, all the enamel has worn away, so that’s telling me she was very old.”

However, the discovery also apparently proved the people had not been murdered, contrary to original theories.

Dr Herridge continued: “Usually we can’t tell what people die of, there aren’t many acute diseases that affect the bone, but in this instance, I know exactly how she died.

“For that, we just need to look at the skull, she’s been killed quite violently with a sword.”

But even stranger, strontium and oxygen isotope analyses revealed evidence for a mixture of people from the Western Mediterranean, Scandinavia and locals from Kent in the assemblage. 

These long distances are made all the more remarkable as they were undertaken when some of the individuals were between the ages of three and 12.

The discovery suggests that Cliffsend was hugely important in Bronze Age Britain and held a very high spiritual importance to maintaining a strong civilisation.

ANTARCTICA, WORLD

Ernest Shackleton’s Lost Ship Endurance, Found Off Antarctica Coast After 107 Years

Ernest Shackleton’s Lost Ship Endurance, Found Off Antarctica Coast After 107 Years

An expedition that set out in search of the lost ship of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton has found it — 106 years after the vessel sank off Antarctica. The wooden ship Endurance has been located remarkably intact about 10,000 feet underwater in the Weddell Sea.

In 1915, the ship Endurance became trapped in ice during Ernest Shackleton’s failed expedition to cross Antarctica.

The find is “a milestone in polar history,” said Mensun Bound, a maritime archaeologist and the director of the exploration on the expedition, called Endurance22.

“This is by far the finest wooden shipwreck I have ever seen. It is upright, well proud of the seabed, intact and in a brilliant state of preservation. You can even see ‘Endurance’ arced across the stern,” Bound said.

Ernest Shackleton's Lost Ship Endurance, Found Off Antarctica Coast After 107 Years
The Endurance was located by an expedition this week, 106 years after it sank into the Weddell Sea.
The name Endurance is still visible on the ship’s stern.

Shackleton’s trans-Antarctic expedition went dangerously awry

As World War I was beginning in 1914, the British explorer Shackleton set out to traverse Antarctica. The plan was for Shackleton to take 27 men on two ships, the Endurance and the Aurora, that would arrive at different locations on the continent to explore two routes by which to sledge across the ice. But in January 1915, the Endurance became trapped in ice off the coast of Antarctica.

Strenuous endeavours were made to free the Endurance from the ice on Feb. 14 and 15, 1915, but those efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.

The men lived on the ship for months, but pressure from the ice began to slowly crush it. On Oct. 27, 1915, Shackleton gave the order to abandon the Endurance. The men were told to gather no more than 2 pounds each of personal gear from the ship; much of the ship’s supplies had already become inaccessible because of broken timbers in the hull. The Endurance finally broke up and sank into the Weddell Sea on Nov. 21, 1915.

The crew made a new camp on an ice floe, and any ambition to cross Antarctica dissipated. The mission was now one of survival, a saga that would stretch into August 1916 before all the men were rescued.

The Aurora also became trapped in ice. Three men from that voyage died before the final members of the crew were rescued in early 1917.

The crew of the Endurance poses on the ship’s deck on Feb. 7, 1915.

An expedition to find the long-missing ship is successful

This year’s expedition to find the Endurance set sail from Cape Town, South Africa, on Feb. 5.

John Shears, the expedition leader, said the hunt for the Endurance was “probably the most challenging shipwreck search ever undertaken.”

An expedition called Endurance22 set sail from Cape Town, South Africa, on Feb. 5 to find the lost ship Endurance.

The expedition used sonar to find the sunken ship. It was located about 4 miles south of where Capt. Frank Worsley had noted the ship’s location back in 1915.

Then the team used an autonomous underwater vehicle with a camera on it to swim over the hull and the deck and confirm what the team had found.

The Endurance’s starboard (right) bow.

“It can only be one ship,” Shears said. “In this area, few ships have ever even been here. We’re only, I think, the fourth ship to ever get into this place in the Wendell Sea. It’s Endurance. It can be nothing else.”

Shears says he was stunned by the good condition of the vessel: There’s hardly anything living on it, and even some of the original paint is intact.

“You can see inside the hatchways, the stairs. You can see the ropes and the rigging. It’s as if it sank only yesterday,” he said.

Marc De Vos (from left), the senior meteorologist/oceanographer, shows weather data to Jean-Christophe Caillens, off-shore manager; Nico Vincent, expedition subsea manager; and Lasse Rabenstein, chief scientist, on the bridge of the S.A. Agulhas II, seen here last month during the Endurance22 expedition. The expedition team worked from the South African polar research and logistics vessel.

The wreck will stay where it was found, protected as a historical site and monument under the Antarctic Treaty. That means that though the Endurance is being filmed and surveyed, it won’t be disturbed.

The expedition crew now returns to Cape Town.

Mensun Bound (left), director of the exploration for the Endurance22 expedition, and John Shears, expedition leader, stand on the ice of the Weddell Sea.

Bound, the expedition’s exploration director, said the discovery is not only about the past but also about bringing the story of Shackleton and the Endurance to the next generation.

“We hope our discovery will engage young people and inspire them with the pioneering spirit, courage and fortitude of those who sailed Endurance to Antarctica,” Bound said. “We pay tribute to the navigational skills of Capt. Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance, whose detailed records were invaluable in our quest to locate the wreck.”

The Expedition22 team worked from the South African polar research and logistics vessel S.A. Agulhas II.
ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Large Roman Villa Site in England Surveyed

Large Roman Villa Site in England Surveyed

The scale of a sprawling villa that housed one of the most important mosaics found in Britain in decades has been revealed. The Rutland mosaic was made public in November – but the size of the complex around it was only hinted at.

Large Roman Villa Site in England Surveyed
The three panels show, from bottom to top, Achilles fighting, dragging and selling Hector

Now ground-penetrating surveys have shown an area as large as five football pitches, boasting possible formal gardens, a bathhouse and a mausoleum.

Survey lead Dr John Gater said it was the largest site his team had covered.

Two areas of excavation, including the mosaic, have revealed less than 3% of the site

The mosaic was described by Historic England as “one of the most remarkable and significant… ever found in Britain” and by TV presenter and academic Professor Alice Roberts as “important and exceptional“.

Rather than standard scenes of hunting or mythology, its panels illustrated an unusual version of a scene from the Trojan war, where the warrior Achilles ransoms the body of fallen enemy Hector.

Dated to the 3rd and 4th Century AD, the 11m x 7m (36ft x 23ft) floor, while impressive, was only one time period in, and one part of, the villa.

But for security reasons, its full size and complexity were kept under wraps, except for an admission less than 3% of the site had been excavated.

Magnetometry revealed a series of box-like ditches, while radar detailed the buildings inside

Now a geophysical survey of the area has been released, showing a complex of structures worthy of such a centrepiece.

One set of scans, which uses magnetic variations, showed the 5-hectare site was surrounded by ditches.

Dr John Gater, of SUMO Geophysics Ltd, said: “This is the largest site we have worked on and on a par with the largest villas in the Cotswolds.

“The ditches could date from the Iron Age, with the villa occupying an already defended area, or they could be Roman, marking the villa.”

The survey team has put forward ideas on what the buildings may be, based on size and shape

But what is inside the huge ditches, shown by the ground-penetrating radar, is remarkable.

Dr Gater said: “To find a mosaic is exciting but to find the whole complex it is part of is really impressive.

“And for me the clarity of the surveys is incredible – you can see not just walls but individual pits and wells.”

Villas varied in size from the large – like this one at Gargrave, North Yorkshire – to smaller examples with one or two buildings

While definitive answers will have to wait for archaeologists, the pattern of buildings already found is highly suggestive.

“It looks like a large number of villa buildings, along with a probable bathhouse and perhaps even mausolea and a chapel,” said Dr Gater.

“There is also an aisled building which might be Anglo-Saxon, perhaps showing the use of the site continued after the Romans.”

Excavation work, led by the University of Leicester and funded by Historic England, is due to resume later this year.

EUROPE, SCOTLAND, WORLD

Pictish Carved Stone Unearthed in Scotland

Pictish Carved Stone Unearthed in Scotland

Archaeologists have uncovered a Pictish symbol stone close to the location of one of the most significant carved stone monuments ever uncovered in Scotland.

Pictish Carved Stone Unearthed in Scotland

The team from the University of Aberdeen hit upon the 1.7metre-long stone in a farmer’s field while conducting geophysical surveys to try and build a greater understanding of the important Pictish landscape of Aberlemno, near Forfar.

Aberlemno is already well known for its Pictish heritage thanks to its collection of unique Pictish standing stones the most famous of which is a cross-slab thought to depict scenes from a battle of vital importance to the creation of what would become Scotland – the Battle of Nechtansmere.

The archaeologists were conducting geophysics surveys of the ground early in 2020 in an effort to better understand the history of the existing stones as part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded Comparative Kingship project.

Taking imaging equipment over the ground, they found anomalies that looked like evidence of a settlement. A small test pit was dug to try and establish whether the remains of any buildings might be present but to their surprise, the archaeologists came straight down onto a carved Pictish symbol stone, one of only around 200 known.

Their efforts to establish the character of the stone and settlement were hindered by subsequent Covid lockdowns and it was several months before they were able to return to verify their find.

The team think the stone dates to around the fifth or sixth century and, over the last few weeks, they have painstakingly excavated part of the settlement and removed it from its resting place – finding out more about the stone and its setting. 

Professor Gordon Noble who leads the project says stumbling upon a stone as part of an archaeological dig is very unusual.

“Here at the University of Aberdeen we’ve been leading Pictish research for the last decade but none of us has ever found a symbol stone before,” he said.

“There are only around 200 of these monuments known. They are occasionally dug up by farmers ploughing fields or during the course of road building but by the time we get to analyse them, much of what surrounds them has already been disturbed.

“To come across something like this while digging one small test pit is absolutely remarkable and none of us could quite believe our luck.

To come across something like this while digging one small test pit is absolutely remarkable and none of us could quite believe our luck”

~Professor Gordon Noble.

“The benefits of making a find in this way are that we can do much more detailed work in regard to the context. We can examine and date the layers underneath it and extract much more detailed information without losing vital evidence.”

Research fellow Dr James O’Driscoll who initially discovered the stone describes the excitement: “We thought we’d just uncover a little bit more before we headed off for the day. We suddenly saw a symbol. There was lots of screaming. Then we found more symbols and there was more screaming and a little bit of crying!

“It’s a feeling that I’ll probably never have again on an archaeological site. It’s a find of that scale.”

Like the other stones at Aberlemno, the new discovery appears to be intricately carved with evidence of classic abstract Pictish symbols including triple ovals, a comb and mirror, a crescent and V rod and double discs. Unusually the stone appears to show different periods of carving with symbols overlying one another.

The stone has now been moved to Graciela Ainsworth conservation lab in Edinburgh where a more detailed analysis will take place. Professor Noble hopes that it could make a significant contribution to understanding the significance of Aberlemno to the Picts.

“The stone was found built into the paving of a huge building from the 11th or 12th century. The paving included Pictish stones and examples of Bronze Age rock art. Excitingly the 11th-12th century building appears to be built directly on top of settlement layers extending back to the Pictish period” he added.

“The cross-slab that stands in the nearby church at Aberlemno has long been thought to depict King Bridei Mac Bili’s defeat of the Anglo Saxon King Ecgfrith in 685, which halted the expansion of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to the north.

“The settlement of Dunnichen, from which the battle is thought to have taken its name, is just a few miles from Aberlemno. In recent years scholars have suggested another potential battle site in Strathspey, but the sheer number of Pictish stones from Aberlemno certainly suggests the Aberlemno environs was a hugely important landscape to the Picts.

“The discovery of this new Pictish symbol stone and evidence that this site was occupied over such a long period will offer new insights into this significant period in the history of Scotland as well as helping us to better understand how and why this part of Angus became a key Pictish landscape and latterly an integral part of the kingdoms of Alba and Scotland.”

The project has had help from Aberdeenshire Council Archaeology Service and the Pictish Arts Society to get the stone lifted and to the conservation lab, with radiocarbon dating funded by Historic Environment Scotland.

Bruce Mann, Aberdeenshire Council Archaeologist, said: “We have been providing a service to Angus Council for many years and I can say this is one of the most important discoveries made in the area in the last thirty years. To find prehistoric rock art re-used in the floor of this building would be exciting in its own right, but to have the Pictish symbol stone as well is just amazing.”

Researchers will now be working with the Pictish Arts Society to develop a fundraising campaign for the conservation and display of the stone.

ASIA, WORLD

Archaeologists find more than 6,500-year-old pearl beads in Qatar’s tomb

Archaeologists find more than 6,500-year-old pearl beads in Qatar tomb

The discovery of the oldest known natural pearl bead in Qatar has yet again shone the spotlight on the pearl-diving history of the peninsular country that is on its toes as the host of the upcoming FIFA 2022 World Cup to be played about eight months later.

A local excavation mission led by Ferhan Sakal, Head of Excavation and Site Management at Qatar Museums, dug out the oldest known natural pearl bead in Qatar, corresponding to the earliest human settlements on the peninsula.

Dated to 4600 BCE, the bead was found within a grave at Wadi Al Debaian, one of the country’s oldest Neolithic sites.

The oldest pearl bead found in Qatar recently reveals just how long pearl trading and diving has been practised in the region. (Qatar Marine)

Until oil was discovered on the peninsula close to 1940, fishing for pearls was the mainstay of the local population. People went on months-long voyages on wooden boats known as ‘dhows’ and would dive into the sea without oxygen tanks or diving suits to bring up oysters that would be later opened up to yield natural pearls. One might have to open scores or even hundreds of oysters to find one which has a pearl.

“With each new remnant of Qatar’s past that comes to light, we gain a clearer understanding of and appreciation for our religious history and identity, which ultimately inform our aspirations for a sustainable future.”

The recently discovered grave points to the earliest known evidence of Qatar’s antique pearl diving industry, which over centuries formed the centre of trade and economic influx to the country.

It also offers new insights into the early civilizations occupying the peninsula, including prevalent social structures and wealth distribution.

Located a few kilometres south of Al Zubarah on Qatar’s northwest coastline, Wadi Al Debaian has yielded several important archaeological finds over the years with pottery originating from the Ubaid period (ca. 6500 to 3800 BCE) of South Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), obsidian from Anatolia (modern Turkey) and further burial sites among the ancient remnants.

Wadi Al Debaian falls under Qatar Museums’ conservation and outreach scope.

Through its year-round excavations and fieldwork, Qatar Museums aims to preserve and document Qatar’s heritage through the epochs, and to construct a link between modern communities and their past.

The Wadi Al Debaian Neolithic cemetery was excavated as part of the National Priority Research Programme “Human Populations and Demographics in Qatar from the Neolithic to the Late Iron Age” led by Sidra Medicine and funded by the Qatar National Research Fund. IANS

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

7000-year-old grain reveals the origin of the Swiss stilt houses

7000-year-old grain reveals the origin of the Swiss stilt houses

Nowhere else are so many Neolithic pile dwellings known around the Alps. However, how this particular construction boom got its start is a mystery. Researchers at the University of Basel have now uncovered new evidence: Settlers on Lake Varese in northern Italy may have played a major role.

Remains of crops from the Neolithic period – here naked barley and naked wheat – indicate connections between geographically distant settlements.

When workers discovered the first pile-dwelling settlement on Lake Zurich in the mid-19th century, a whole branch of archaeological research began. 111 pile-dwelling villages in the Alps now belong to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage. So far, however, it was unclear where this unique design came from. Until a few years ago, experts assumed that this was a local phenomenon.

Researchers around Prof. Dr However, Ferran Antolín from the Department of Integrative Prehistoric and Natural Scientific Archeology (IPNA) at the University of Basel are now providing new clues as to how the pile-dwelling culture came to the areas north of the Alps. 

Prehistoric plant remains from a settlement on Lago di Varese in northern Italy show the same composition as the useful plants from the oldest Swiss lake dwelling settlements in Zurich and in Egolzwil in Lucerne. 

The researchers report on this in the “Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports”.

Durum wheat, barley, opium poppy and flax

The team collected sediment cores around a prehistoric settlement on the Isolino Virginia and radiocarbon dated crops in the deposits. According to this, people seemed to have visited this artificial island as early as 4950 to 4700 BC. to call their home. The oldest known pile-dwelling settlements in Switzerland date back to around 4300 BC. Chr.

Through comparisons with the IPNA reference collection, the archaeobotanists were able to identify the composition of the approximately 7000-year-old plant material from this earliest settlement phase on Isolino Virginia: naked wheat (durum wheat), naked barley, opium poppy and flax. The same types of plants as those cultivated by the inhabitants of Switzerland’s oldest pile-dwelling settlements.

Connection to the western Mediterranean

However, these plant species are atypical for the northeast Italian population of the time, whose agriculture concentrated on the cultivation of spelled wheat such as emmer. 

The crops found around Lake Varese tended to be cultivated in the western Mediterranean. From this, the research team concluded that the settlement on the Isolino Virginia was probably founded by groups that came from the western Mediterranean or were closely connected with it through trade. 

“These groups probably played a major role in the spread of the pile-dwelling phenomenon north of the Alps,” says archaeobotanist Antolín.

The period between 4700 B.C. BC, when the settlement on the Isolino Virginia was temporarily abandoned, and 4300 BC, when the first pile-dwelling villages emerged north of the Alps, remains fraught with unanswered questions. 

The researchers suspect that other archaeological evidence, such as other settlements, may have remained undiscovered or lost.

In addition, ongoing research shows that there is also a wealth of evidence of prehistoric pile dwellings in other areas of Europe, such as in the central Balkans. Here, too, the team from the University of Basel is involved in research into the Neolithic pile-dwelling settlements.

However, these sites have a different agricultural tradition, so a direct connection to the pile dwellings of Switzerland seems unlikely.

According to Antolín, the origin of the pile dwellings remains a complex phenomenon that can hardly be explained from the remains of the buildings themselves. “However, the analysis of crop residues can make an important contribution here.”