Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

Researchers Uncovered a 5,000-Year-Old Crystal Dagger Buried in Spain

Researchers Uncovered a 5,000-Year-Old Crystal Dagger Buried in Spain

Inside an ancient tomb near Seville, researchers found the remains of several individuals buried in a ritualistic fashion, as well as a most striking artefact: a quite beautiful dagger made from rock crystal.

The intricately carved crystal dagger has been dated to at least 3000 BCE, making it the “most technically sophisticated and esthetically impressive collection of rock crystal material culture ever found in Prehistoric Iberia,” according to Spanish researchers who investigated the site.

Prehistoric humans in Europe made most of their tools from chert and flint. Tools made by knapping ‘rock crystals’ (macro-crystalline quartz) were far less prevalent, but nevertheless, people developed a technique for their manufacturing that appeared during late prehistory in certain European regions, such as the southwest Iberian Peninsula in the third millennium BCE.

Although rock crystal tools were more difficult to fashion and the raw materials weren’t as abundant as sedimentary rock, prehistoric people likely cherished them due to their social value.

Just as we stand in awe today at their sight, one would imagine that people were even more impressed by the thousands of years ago.

This particularly exquisite rock crystal tool, an 8.5-inch long dagger, was found in one of eight megalithic tombs from Valencina de la Concepción, a site near Seville in Spain that is considered one of the most significant for the study of Copper Age Iberia.

The tomb, known as the Montelirio tholos, was excavated between 2007 and 2010.

It is a great megalithic construction with a 39-meter (128-foot) corridor leading to the main chamber with a 4.75-meter (15.5-foot) diameter from which, through a narrow corridor, a secondary chamber is accessible.

Researchers Uncovered a 5,000-Year-Old Crystal Dagger Buried in Spain

Researchers found the remains of at least 25 individuals, alongside numerous sumptuous grave goods, including shrouds and clothes made of tens of thousands of perforated beads and decorated with amber beads, as well as many flint arrowheads, found fragments of gold blades, ivory objects, and of course the dazzling crystal core.

The arrowheads, blade, and rock crystal dagger were found at the back of the main chamber. No other objects were found in the rest of the chamber, which is suspicious.

The accumulation of artefacts right next to the main chamber’s access corridor “suggest an offering similar to those discovered in the main corridor, where the arrowheads, although made of lower quality materials, were found in large groups associated with an altar and other offerings (plants),” said researchers at the University of Granada and the University of Seville in a study published in Quaternary International.

At least several females and one male-identified within Montelirio tholos are believed to have died due to poisoning.

The remains of the women were arranged in a circular fashion in a chamber next to the bones of the male, who may have been a person of high status. The dagger itself was found in a different chamber “in association with an ivory hilt and sheath.”

There are no sources of quartz of the kind used in the dagger near the site, which suggests the materials were sourced from far afield.

The researchers say this is another reason why these crystal daggers and arrowheads may have been reserved to a few elite individuals who could afford them, having a dual significance.

“On the one hand, it had a social significance due to the exoticism of the material and the fact that its transformation required very specific skills and probably some degree of technical specialisation. They probably represent funerary paraphernalia only accessible to the elite of this time period. The association of the dagger blade to a handle made of ivory, also a non-local raw material that must have been of great value, strongly suggests the high-ranking status of the people making use of such objects.”

“On the other hand, rock crystal must have had a symbolic significance as a raw material invested with special meanings and connotations. The literature provides examples of societies in which rock crystal and quartz as raw materials symbolise vitality, magical powers and a connection with ancestors.”

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

This was once onE of ancient Israel’s most powerful cities

This was once one of ancient Israel’s most powerful cities

Gezer used to be a major city. Some 3,000 years ago, this settlement – situated between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – was considered one of the main regional cities, along with Jerusalem and Beit She’an.

This was once one of ancient Israel's most powerful cities
Down the rabbit hole: Visitors to Gezer’s ancient water system.

Twenty-five layers of habitation have been found here during decades of archaeological excavations. Its earliest structures were built about 5,500 years ago.

The Bible recounts how the king of Egypt “had taken Gezer and burnt it with fire,” giving it as a loving wedding gift to his daughter who married King Solomon (1 Kings 9:16). Solomon subsequently rebuilt the city.

There is always a crucial question when it comes to ancient sites: what can we see there today? Are these just piles of “important” ruins, or can you actually enjoy the place and is it interesting?

Tel Gezer offers several wonderful observation points.
It can get a bit dark in the ancient water system at Gezer.

With Gezer, the answer is a resounding yes – especially now its ancient water system is open to the public.

The residents of Gezer dug out this water system 3,600 years ago in order to reach groundwater. It’s the largest Canaanite water system ever discovered, established around 600 years before the presumed reign of King Solomon.

On the eastern side is Solomon’s Gate and the Canaanite steles, an area used for worshipping that features a stone basin and 10 huge stone monuments.

The first person to find it was the Irish archaeologist Robert Macalister, in the early 20th century. That excavation also yielded the Gezer calendar – one of the earliest Hebrew inscriptions, which is now on show in an Istanbul museum.

The water system was blocked over the years and only recently excavated. A new stairwell has been installed, allowing us to look and be amazed.

The system is 90 meters long and 7 meters high (295 x 23 feet), and groundwater is used to accumulate at the bottom, at a depth of some 40 meters. This pool is currently dry (you should bring a flashlight when visiting).

The water system is not the only attraction. There is also a Canaanite gate that served as the entryway into the city, flanked by a high guard tower.

These are the largest such fortifications found in Israel to date.

On the eastern side is Solomon’s Gate and the Canaanite steles, an area used for worshipping that features a stone basin and 10 huge stone monuments. The western end of the site boasts large jujube (Ziziphus) tree, providing pleasant shade.

Tel Gezer offers several wonderful observation points, allowing you to gaze over the green fields and beautiful vineyards surrounding the moshav of Karmei Yosef.

Tel Gezer seen from the air.

The western side also features the tomb of Sheikh Mohammed al-Ghazali. Up until 1948, 1,000 residents of the Arab village of Abu Shusha lived next to the archaeological mound.

They grew cereals and fruit trees. The village’s houses were all destroyed when the village was conquered during the War of Independence.

Spring can be found southeast of the site with a memorial honouring Itay Steinberger from Karmei Yosef, who fell during the Second Lebanon War in 2006.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

2,400-Year-Old Tea Residue Found in China

2,400-Year-Old Tea Residue Found in China

“China is the first country in the world to discover and cultivate tea,” said Professor Shuya Wei from the Institute of Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology at the University of Science and Technology Beijing and her colleagues.

A small tea bowl was found in the ancient capital of the Zhu Kingdom in Zoucheng, Shandong province, China.

“In Chinese legend, tea was first discovered as an antidote by Emperor Shen Nung in 2737 BCE, according to the first monograph on Chinese herbal medicine Shennong’s Classic of Materia Medica.”

“The first mention of tea planting is believed to occur in the Xiaxiaozheng, a Chinese earliest almanac recording traditional agricultural affairs, probably written in the Warring States period (475-221 BCE).”

“According to the literature, in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BCE), tea had been used as a sacrifice and vegetable, in the Warring States period and the early Western Han dynasty, tea cultivation, tea making techniques and tea-drinking custom in Sichuan province began to spread to other places.”

The physical evidence of tea is very important to confirm the origin, development, function and culture of tea.

“As archaeological plant leaves remain have been buried for many years, most of them have rotted or charred, it is difficult to find archaeological plant leaves remains in archaeological excavation,” the researchers explained.

“Recently, 2,400-year-old charred tea remains were found in a bowl unearthed from tomb No. 1 at Xigang in the ancient capital city site of the Zhu Kingdom in Zoucheng City, Shandong province.”

“If the remains could be determined as tea, that would be the direct evidence for tea drinking in the ancient time.”

2,400-Year-Old Tea Residue Found in China
The 2,400-year-old tea residue from a bowl was found in the ancient capital of the Zhu Kingdom in Zoucheng, Shandong province, China.

In the study, Professor Wei and co-authors analyzed the sample from the Warring State tomb using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and several other methods. They used modern tea and modern tea residue as reference samples.

Their results show that the sample contains abundant calcium phytoliths identifiable as tea and that its FTIR spectra are similar to that of the modern tea residue.

They also detected caffeine, methoxybenzene compounds, organic acids, and several other compounds in both the ancient sample and the modern tea residue.

“Since ancient times, the Chinese people have always had the habit of drinking tea, but there is no physical evidence to prove when tea actually appeared, until the discovery of tea in the Han Yangling Mausoleum, which proved that Chinese tea has a history of at least 2,150 years, which has earned recognition from Guinness World Records as the oldest tea in 2016,” the scientists said.

“The identification of the tea remains in Zoucheng — the early stage of Warring States, approximately 2,400 years ago — has advanced the origin of tea by nearly 300 years.”

“Furthermore, the tea was found in a small bowl, providing additional evidence of the usage of tea.”

“Our results indicate that tea drinking culture may start as early as in Warring State period.”

The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.

WORLD

How many early human species existed on Earth?

How many early human species existed on Earth?

We Homo sapiens didn’t use to be alone. Long ago, there was a lot more human diversity; Homo sapiens lived alongside an estimated eight now-extinct species of humans about 300,000 years ago. As recently as 15,000 years ago, we were sharing caves with another human species known as the Denisovans. And fossilized remains indicate an even higher number of early human species once populated Earth before our species came along.

How many early human species existed on Earth?
An Australopithecus skull

“We have one human species right now, and historically, that’s really weird,” said Nick Longrich, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom. “Not that far back, we weren’t that special, but now we’re the only ones left.”

So, how many early human species were there? 

When it comes to figuring out exactly how many distinct species of humans existed, it gets complicated pretty quickly, especially because researchers keep unearthing new fossils that end up being totally separate and previously unknown species.  

“The number is mounting, and it’ll vary depending on whom you talk to,” said John Stewart, an evolutionary paleoecologist at Bournemouth University in the United Kingdom. Some researchers argue that the species known as Homo erectus is in fact made up of several different species, including Homo georgicus and Homo ergaster.

“It’s all about the definition of a species and the degree to which you accept variation within a species,” Stewart told Live Science. “It can become a slightly irritating and pedantic discussion because everyone wants an answer. But the truth is that it really does depend.”

What is a species?

The definition of a species used to be nice and simple: If two individuals could produce fertile offspring, they were from the same species. For example, a horse and a donkey can mate to produce a mule, but mules can’t successfully reproduce with each other. Therefore, horses and donkeys, though biologically similar, are not the same species. In recent decades, however, that simplicity has given way to a more complex scientific debate about how to define a species. Critics of the interbreeding definition point out that not all life reproduces sexually; some plants and bacteria can reproduce asexually. 

Others have argued that we should define species by grouping together organisms with similar anatomical features, but that method has weaknesses as well. There can be significant morphological variation between the sexes and even individuals of the same species in different parts of the world, making it a very subjective way of classifying life. 

Some biologists prefer to use DNA to draw the lines between species, and with advancing technology, they can do so with increasing precision. But we don’t have the DNA of every ancient human — the genome of Homo erectus, for instance, has never been sequenced, Live Science previously reported. 

The skulls of various human species

It gets even murkier when you consider that as much as 2% of the average European’s DNA comes from Neanderthals and up to 6% of the DNA of some Melanesians (Indigenous people from islands directly northeast of Australia in Oceania) comes from Denisovans. So, are we a separate species from these ancestors? 

“Some people will tell you that Neanderthals are the same species as us,” Stewart said. “They’re just a slightly different type of modern humans and the interbreeding is the proof, but again the definition of species has moved on from just interbreeding.”

After taking all of this into account, some experts have argued that the concept of a species doesn’t actually exist. But others say that, while a cast-iron definition of a species is almost impossible to achieve, it’s still worth the effort so that we can talk about evolution — including the evolution of our own species — in a meaningful way. 

So we muddle on, knowing that a species means different things to different people — which means, of course, that people will disagree on how many species of human have ever existed. It’s also a question of what constitutes a human. To answer this question, it helps to understand the word hominin, a large group that includes humans and chimps going back to their shared ancestor.

“The chimpanzee and we have evolved from a common ancestor,” Stewart said. If we decide that humans are everything that arrived after our split from ancient chimpanzees about 6 million to 7 million years ago, then it’s likely to be a diverse group. The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History has listed at least 21 human species that are recognized by most scientists. Granted, it’s not a totally complete list; the Denisovans, for instance, are missing. 

Those on the list include Homo sapiens, Neanderthals, the Indonesian hobbit-sized people, Homo erectus and Homo Naledi. The list also includes other species that existed closer in time to the common ancestor of humans and chimps, and so look more like chimpanzees than modern-day humans. Despite their looks, these species are still known as early humans. “You can’t go back 5 million years and expect them to look like us,” Stewart said.

If the Smithsonian says there are 21, then you can be sure the diversity is much greater, Stewart said. That’s because the list errs on the side of caution, picking the species that are close to universally recognized. For instance, the recently discovered dwarf human species Homo luzonensis, which is known from just a few bones from a cave in the Philippines, is not included on the Smithsonian’s list.

Researchers also suspect there are many other fossilized species yet to be excavated. “The list has only ever grown and I don’t see why that will change,” Stewart said.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Evolution of Personhood: Earliest Adorned Female Infant Burial in Europe Reveals Significant Insights

Evolution of Personhood: Earliest Adorned Female Infant Burial in Europe Reveals Significant Insights

Ten thousand years ago, just after the last Ice Age, a group of hunter-gatherers buried an infant girl in a cave in what is now Italy. They entombed her with a rich selection of their treasured beads and pendants, and an eagle-owl talon, signalling their grief and showing that even the youngest females were recognized as full persons in their society.

The excavations and analysis of the discovery are published this week in Nature Scientific Reports and offer insight into the early Mesolithic period, from which few recorded burials are known.

Claudine Gravel-Miguel, the postdoctoral researcher with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University and co-author on the paper, performed the analysis of the ornaments, which includes over 60 pierced shell beads and four shell pendants.

Evolution of Personhood: Earliest Adorned Female Infant Burial in Europe Reveals Significant Insights
The mouth of the Arma Veirana cave, a site in the Ligurian mountains of northwestern Italy.

Mortuary practices offer a window into the worldviews and social structure of past societies. Child funerary treatment provides important insights into who was considered a person and afforded the attributes of an individual self, moral agency and eligibility for group membership. The seemingly “egalitarian” funerary treatment of this infant female, whom the team nicknamed “Neve,” shows that as early as 10,000 years ago in Western Europe, even the youngest females were recognized as full persons in their society.

“The evolution and development of how early humans buried their dead as revealed in the archaeological record have enormous cultural significance,” said Jamie Hodgkins, ASU doctoral graduate and paleoanthropologist at the University of Colorado Denver.

The excavation

Arma Veirana, a cave in the Ligurian pre-Alps of northwestern Italy, is a popular spot for local families to visit. Looters also discovered the site, and their digging exposed the late Pleistocene tools that drew researchers to the area.

The research team started surveying the site in 2015 and discovered the remains during the last week of the 2017 field season. The team of project coordinators includes Italian collaborators Fabio Negrino from the University of Genoa and Stefano Benazzi from the University of Bologna, as well as researchers from the University of Montreal, Washington University, University of Ferrara, University of Tubingen and ASU Institute of Human Origins.

The first two excavation seasons were spent near the mouth of the cave, exposing stratigraphic layers that contained tools over 50,000 years old typically associated with Neandertals in Europe (Mousterian tools).

They also found the remains of ancient meals such as the cut-marked bones of wild boars and elk and bits of charred fat. In addition, they found stone tools that were much more recent and that had likely been eroding from deeper inside the cave. To better understand the stratigraphy of the cave and document its occupation history, the team opened new sections further inside the cave in 2017.

As the team explored this new section, they began to unearth pierced shell beads, which Hodgkins examined more carefully back in the lab.

Illustration showing the placement of beads and shells along with the cranium.

A few days after they found the first bead, one of the excavators uncovered a small piece of the infant’s cranial vault.

“I was excavating in the adjacent square and remember looking over and thinking, ‘That’s a weird bone,’” Gravel-Miguel said. “It quickly became clear that not only we were looking at a human cranium, but that it was also of a very young individual. It was an emotional day.”

Using dental tools and a small paintbrush, researchers spent that week and the following field season carefully exposing the whole skeleton, which was adorned with articulated lines of pierced shell beads.

“The excavation techniques are state-of-the-art and leave no doubt to the associations of the materials with the skeleton,” said Curtis Marean, who was not involved in the study. Marean is associate director of the Institute of Human Origins and Foundation Professor with the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. 

Important changes in human prehistory

In a series of analyses coordinated across multiple institutions and numerous experts, the team uncovered critical details about the ancient burial. Radiocarbon dating determined that the child lived 10,000 years ago, and amelogenin protein analysis and ancient DNA revealed that the infant was a female belonging to a lineage of European women known as the U5b2b haplogroup.

“There’s a decent record of human burials before around 14,000 years ago,” Hodgkins said. “But the latest Upper Paleolithic period and earliest part of the Mesolithic are more poorly known when it comes to funerary practices. Infant burials are especially rare, so Neve adds important information to help fill this gap.”

“The Mesolithic is particularly interesting,” said co-author Caley Orr, ASU doctoral graduate and paleoanthropologist and anatomist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. “It followed the end of the final Ice Age and represents the last period in Europe when hunting and gathering was the primary way of making a living. So, it’s a really important time period for understanding human prehistory.”

Detailed virtual histology, or study of the tissue and structure, of the infant’s teeth, showed that she died 40 to 50 days after birth and that she experienced stress that briefly halted the growth of her teeth 47 days and 28 days before she was born. Carbon and nitrogen analyses of the teeth revealed that the baby’s mother had been nourishing the infant in her womb on a land-based diet.

The child as a member of the community

Gravel-Miguel performed an analysis of the ornaments adorning the infant, which demonstrated the care invested in each piece and showed that many of the ornaments exhibited wear that proves they were passed down to the child from group members. The details of this research — along with further results — are the focus of a separate article, currently under review.

Citing a similar burial of two infants dating to 11,500 years ago at Upward Sun River, Alaska, Hodgkins said the funerary treatment of Neve suggests that the recognition of infant females as full persons has deep origins in a common ancestral culture that was shared by peoples who migrated into Europe and those who migrated to North America. Or it may have arisen in parallel in populations across the planet.

The research, excavation and analysis were made possible with funding from The Wenner-Gren Foundation, Leakey Foundation, National Geographic Society Waitt Program, Hyde Family Foundations, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, and the Max Planck Society.

EUROPE, FRANCE, WORLD

Isotope analyses unlock Iron Age secrets

Isotope analyses unlock Iron Age secrets

According to a statement released by Flinders University, chemical analysis of 2,600-year-old copper ingots discovered off the coast of southwest France in 1964 indicates they came from a variety of locations.

For the first time, a scientific team led by Flinders University archaeologists, working with the Institute of History (CSIC) in Spain, has examined the origins of Iron Age metal items from an archaeological site in southwest France and found they were sourced from a variety of Mediterranean locations.

The underwater site of Rochelongue believed to be four small boats located west of Cap d’Agde in southwestern France and discovered in 1964, dates to about 600 BCE and its cargo included 800kg of copper ingots and about 1,700 bronze artefacts. They contain very pure copper with traces of lead, antimony, nickel and silver.

Isotope analyses unlock Iron Age secrets
Rochelongue’s underwater site artefacts in-situ during the campaign of 1964

Flinders University maritime archaeology researcher Dr Enrique Aragón Nunez says the isotope analysis shows the composition of different ingots in the cache is consistent with Iberian and also eastern Alpine metalliferous sources, and possibly some Mediterranean sources – illustrating that water trade and movement was active in this period between Atlantic, Continental and Mediterranean circuits.

This now provides a key to investigate the coastal mobility and cultural interactions between the Languedoc area in France and the broader Western Mediterranean basin in 600 BCE – before permanent Greek settlement occurred in this region.

Trade for metals, especially with seafaring people from the Levant, Aegean and Greek mainland, influenced these indigenous communities with the introduction of their foreign cultural goods and practices.

While the various sizes, shapes and composition of the various ingots found at Rochelongue show they originated from diverse geographical sources, the elemental and lead isotope analyses provide much more comprehensive knowledge, showing that a broad and diverse exchange network existed in this period for metals that includes continental and maritime routes.

“These metallic objects are important diagnostically because they lend themselves to source tracing of geological components, and technological studies of their processing and manufacture,” says Flinders University Maritime Archaeology Associate Professor Wendy van Duivenvoorde.

“The copper ingots were made of unalloyed copper with low levels of impurities – and more than half can be linked to the Iberian Peninsula.

This points to the circulation of metal through the wider Mediterranean region, but also to local and western alpine mining and manufacture, and possibly north-western Sardinia.

“Therefore, the Rochelongue items speak of indigenous agency rather than maritime intervention.”

All mass spectrometry work on the copper ingots was performed at SGlker Lab from the University of the Basque Country (UPV) Bilbao, Spain.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Skeletons Found near-dead Sea Scrolls likely belonged to an Enigmatic Religious Group

Skeletons Found near-dead Sea Scrolls likely belonged to an Enigmatic Religious Group

More than 30 newly discovered 2,200-year-old skeletons could finally help to reveal who wrote the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. Remains found near the site where the scrolls were discovered suggest the bodies were linked to a celibate Jewish brotherhood known as the Essenes.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated scholars and historians since the ancient texts were found around 70 years ago scattered within a series of caves in the West Bank.

Thought to have been written between 200 BC and 100 AD, the scrolls inscribe some of the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament.

Despite experts citing the texts as among the biggest archaeological finds of the 20th Century, their origins and authorship have remained a mystery for decades.

More than 30 newly discovered 2,200-year-old skeletons could finally help to reveal who wrote the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. Remains found near the site where the scrolls (file photo) were discovered suggest they were linked to an ancient Jewish group known as the Essenes

Ever since their discovery, a number of suggestions have been put forward as to who created or oversaw the texts, including soldiers, craftsmen, people from the Iron Age, or Bedouins.

Now an analysis of remains found in 33 newly uncovered graves could help experts to understand the mysterious texts’ history.

Analyses of the bones support a previous theory that the scrolls were written or guarded by members of a celibate, all-male Jewish sect called the Essenes. The mysterious group flourished in Palestine from the 2nd century BC to the end of the 1st century AD.

Like the scrolls themselves, the graves were found in Qumran, an archaeological region in the West Bank along the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea. Anthropologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem radiocarbon-dated the bones, revealing they are about 2,200 years old, around the same age as the scrolls.

But it was not just the age of the bones that linked them to the ancient texts.

All but three of the 33 skeletons were identified as probably male, based on factors such as body size and pelvic shape.

The Dead Sea Scrolls have fascinated scholars and historians since the ancient texts were found around 70 years ago scattered within a series of caves in the West Bank

The remaining remains may have belonged to men too, but not enough skeletal evidence exists to be sure.

Of the 30 skeletons identified as male, each was aged between 20 and 50 – or possibly older – when they died.

These parallels suggest the skeletons were once members of the mysterious Essenes crypt, the researchers claimed.

‘I don’t know if these were the people who produced the Qumran region’s Dead Sea Scrolls,’ project scientist Dr Yossi Nagar told ScienceNews.

‘But the high concentration of adult males of various ages buried at Qumran is similar to what has been found at cemeteries connected to Byzantine monasteries.’

Given the lack of signs of injury on their bones, the men were unlikely to have been soldiers, the researchers said. Dr Nagar presented the findings last Thursday during the annual meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

As there appear to be no women in the burial, the group was likely a ‘community of ideologically celibate men… child proportion and adult age at death distribution match the common desert monasteric societies of the subsequent periods’, the researchers, led by Dr Nagar, wrote in their paper.

Previous finds at sites around Qumran have suggested it was founded more than 2,700 years ago. The people of Qumran abandoned the area after the war tore the region apart, returning to reoccupy it for 200 years, up to around 68 AD. An early theory on the creation of the Dead sea Scrolls claimed that members of an ancient, celibate Jewish sect, the Essenes, lived in Qumran.

Thought to have been written between 200 BC and 100 AD, the scrolls inscribe some of the oldest known foundations of the Old Testament

The theory says the group either wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls or were caretakers of the legal, philosophical and religious documents. Over the past 30 years, many other theories have been put forward, including that the scrolls were written by Bedouin herders, craftsmen and Roman soldiers. 

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologists Unearth Celtic Warrior Grave Complete With Chariot, Elaborate Shield

Archaeologists Unearth Celtic Warrior Grave Complete With Chariot, Elaborate Shield

Some archaeological finds have to be seen to be believed, and the discovery of the 2,200-year-old grave of a male Celtic warrior has experts very excited indeed – as you’ll understand once you take a peek at the haul.

Among the findings in the grave is an ornate shield described as “the most important British Celtic art object of the millennium” by archaeologist Melanie Giles from the University of Manchester in the UK, as reported by the Independent.

Made in an early Celtic art style known as La Tène, the shield features an unusual scalloped edge and a triple spiral design called a triskele. The shield also shows organic forms such as mollusc shells, along with signs of having been repaired.

The shield was buried alongside a 2,000-year-old chariot drawn by two horses.

“The popular belief is that elaborate metal-faced shields were purely ceremonial, reflecting status, but not used in battle,” says archaeologist Paula Ware from the MAP Archaeological Practice in the UK, according to the Yorkshire Post.

“Our investigation challenges this with the evidence of a puncture wound in the shield typical of a sword. Signs of repairs can also be seen, suggesting the shield was not only old but likely to have been well used.”

Measuring 75 centimetres or nearly 30 inches across, the shield would have been crafted by hammering a bronze sheet of metal from underneath. Any leather and wood trappings that once existed on the defensive weapon have since rotted away.

Besides the shield, in a rather grim turn, the grave also features what looks to be a chariot, complete with horses – though it’s not clear if the horses were sacrificed for the purposes of the burial or had already died beforehand.

“These horses were placed with their hooves on the ground and their rear legs looking as though they would leap out of the grave,” Ware explained.

The horse remains.

Seeing all this weaponry, a method of transportation and provisions packed into the grave indicates how seriously Celtic tribes of the time considered the move to the afterlife.

The society that this warrior would have lived in would have wanted to give him as much help as possible in whatever came next.

The man himself is thought to have been in his late 40s or older when he died, sometime around 320-174 BCE. Nothing like this type of burial has ever been seen in the UK before, although another chariot-and-horse grave was uncovered in Bulgaria in 2013.

These latest findings haven’t yet appeared in a peer-reviewed paper, but come from a burial site originally uncovered in 2018, near the town of Pocklington, Yorkshire. A red glass brooch and pig remains (another potential animal sacrifice) have also been discovered in the same grave.

As work continues on the artefacts uncovered from the site, expect to hear more about this ancient warrior and his unusual burial in the months and years to come – there are still plenty of unanswered questions.

“We don’t know how the man died,” Ware said, according to the Yorkshire Post. “There are some blunt force traumas but they wouldn’t have killed him. I don’t think he died in battle; it is highly likely he died in old age.”

“What his role was I can’t tell you. He has collected some nice goodies along the way – he is definitely not run of the mill.”