Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Princely tomb of Iron Age mystery man discovered in Italy. And there’s a chariot inside

Princely tomb of Iron Age mystery man discovered in Italy. And there’s a chariot inside.

A lavish ‘Princely tomb’ belonging to an Iron Age man was found in Italy full of treasures including a bronze helmet, weapons and a whole chariot. The tomb of a pre-Roman prince has been saved from ‘imminent’ destruction after aerial photos revealed the ancient treasure trove before it could be built over.  

The body of the unidentified prince has not been found and no mound remains to mark his resting place – it may have been lost while the site was used for farming. The hoard, found in Corinaldo, Italy, was on the site of a future sports complex and wasn’t spotted until a survey of the land was carried out before the building started. 

The value of the discovery and the site is now being assessed before any decision over whether to move the tomb or move the sports complex is made. 

Inside the tomb archaeologists found the remains of a complete chariot, it’s chassis can be seen on the outer edge of this block, as well as weapons and armour
Princely tomb of Iron Age mystery man discovered in Italy. And there's a chariot inside.
The full study of the pottery and other finds within the tomb, including the chassis of what was likely a chariot (seen here) will likely prompt entirely new insights into the cultural, trading and gift-exchange relationships of the aristocracy in the area
‘Aerial photography led to the first identification of the site,’ said Professor Boschi. The grey area in this photo highlights where the tomb was found

The tomb is believed to date back to the seventh century BC when it was constructed for a prince of the largely-unknown Piceni people, whose land was eventually annexed by Rome in 268 BC. 

‘We identified circular crop marks, comparable to large funerary ring ditches,’ said Federica Boschi, an archaeologist at the University of Bologna. 

‘A large and slightly off-centre pit contained an extraordinary collection of cultural material.’

It is the only discovery of its kind in the region, the archaeologist confirmed.

 ‘As the first such monument identified and excavated in northern Marche this has provided an extraordinary opportunity to investigate a site of the Piceni culture,’ said Professor Boschi. 

‘Until now, this culture has been poorly documented and little understood despite its undoubted importance in the pre-Roman development of the area.’ 

She added: ‘The recovery from complete obscurity and imminent danger of archaeological material of this scale and importance is a rare event within contemporary European archaeology.’ 

The body of the unidentified prince has not been found and no mound remains to mark his resting place – possibly both were destroyed during the land’s long history of agricultural use. 

Nonetheless, Professor Boschi believes that the lavish tomb is evidenced enough of his status. 

She said: ‘The extraordinarily rich funerary deposit testifies to a high-status tomb dedicated to a princely leader within the early Iron Age society of the region.

‘One outstanding find among the hundred or more ceramic vessels recovered from the pit was an olla imported from ancient Daunia. 

‘This undoubtedly symbolises the commemorated leader’s significant political, military and economic power. 

‘The full study of the pottery and other finds will undoubtedly prompt entirely new insights into the cultural, trading and gift-exchange relationships of the aristocracy in the area.’ 

After seeing aerial photos of the tomb site, archaeologists initially performed a resistivity survey, where electrical currents are run through the ground to see if anything metallic is buried there. 

‘Aerial photography led to the first identification of the site,’ said Professor Boschi. 

‘A resistivity survey then provided an initial understanding of the extent and internal articulation of the funerary area, including a third ring-ditch not revealed by the aerial photographs. 

‘A targeted geomagnetic survey then produced significant information about the survival of the underground deposits, providing supporting secure evidence for a massive deposit of ironwork.’

It’s not entirely clear what will happen to the site next, whether the tomb and its contents will be moved or whether a new home will be found for the sports centre. The findings have to be properly valued, both for their financial worth and their cultural worth, before anything can happen.

‘The next steps are going to move toward the valorization and public fruition of the site within and in agreement with the project of the new sports complex,’ said Professor Boschi.

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Mysterious Papyrus found Indside a Hidden “Crypt in Agia Sophia: What do they say?

Mysterious Papyrus found Indside a Hidden “Crypt in Agia Sophia: What do they say?

The reason for identifying this special find was the observation of a Muslim believer who went to Hagia Sophia to pray (UNESCO condemned Turkey’s court decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque).

The Muslim saw that a stone about 10 cm long and 30 cm wide had come off a wall and notified the authorities.

Surprised, the police could not believe their eyes when they rushed to the spot, discovering five parchments with Hebrew writing (as they first estimated) hidden in a bag.

The first estimates for the parchments found in a crypt in Hagia Sophia were made by art historian Selçuk Eracun.

“The parchments are not written in Hebrew as originally written,” Selçuk Eracun told CNN Turk, adding that “one is written in Romanian and one in runic writing.”

“Some parchments contain wishes. The person who wrote the parchment in Romanian wishes good luck to his family. He also writes about his dream of living in America. “There are also the names of the children of his family,” he said.

He continued: “The other parchment contains writing similar to the runic alphabet used in Scandinavia.”

“As we can see, the parchments are not very old. Those who go to Hagia Sophia to pray, write wishes and leave them. It’s a tradition,” said the art historian.

“It is not uncommon to find parchments in crypts on the walls, as marble often falls,” he concluded.

CYPRUS, EUROPE, WORLD

3000-Year-Old Gold Jewellery Found Inside Bronze Age Tombs in Cyprus

3000-Year-Old Gold Jewellery Found Inside Bronze Age Tombs in Cyprus

Since 2010, the New Swedish Cyprus Expedition (The Söderberg Expedition) has had several rounds of excavations in Cyprus. In 2018, archaeologists discovered two tombs in the form of underground chambers, with a large number of human skeletons.

Managing the finds required very delicate work over four years since the bones were extremely fragile after more than 3,000 years in the salty soil.

In addition to the skeletons of 155 individuals, the team also found 500 objects. The skeletons and ritual funeral objects were in layers on top of each other, showing that the tombs were used for several generations.

The same five-year-old also had this necklace.

“The finds indicate that these are family tombs for the ruling elite in the city. For example, we found the skeleton of a five-year-old with a gold necklace, gold earrings and a gold tiara.

This was probably a child of a powerful and wealthy family,” says Professor Peter Fischer, the leader of the excavations.

3000-Year-Old Gold Jewellery Found Inside Bronze Age Tombs in Cyprus
One of the skeletons belonged to a five-year-old buried with lots of gold jewellery, including this tiara.

The finds include jewellery and other objects made of gold, silver, bronze, ivory and gemstones and richly decorated vessels from many cultures.

Large vessel with war chariots from Greece (ca. 1350 BCE). The ceramic vessels, particularly those imported from Greece and Crete, are decorated with painted scenes of horse-drawn chariots, individuals carrying swords, animals and flowers.

“We also found a ceramic bull. The body of this hollow bull has two openings: one on the back to fill it with a liquid, likely wine, and one at the nose to drink from. Apparently, they had feasts in the chamber to honour their dead.”

A message thousands of years old

One particularly important find is a cylinder-shaped seal made from the mineral hematite, with a cuneiform inscription from Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), which the archaeologists were able to decipher.

“The text consists of three lines and mentions three names. One is Amurru, a god worshipped in Mesopotamia.

The other two are historical kings, father and son, who we recently succeeded in tracking down in other texts on clay tablets from the same period, i.e., the 18th century BC.

We are currently trying to determine why the seal ended up in Cyprus more than 1000 kilometres from where it was made.”

Among the finds is the red gemstone carnelian from India, the blue gemstone lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and amber from around the Baltic Sea, which shows that the city had a central role in trade during the Bronze Age.

The gold jewellery, along with scarabs (beetle-shaped amulets with hieroglyphs) and the remains of fish imported from the Nile Valley, tells the story of intensive trade with Egypt.

Wide-ranging trading network

By comparing with similar finds from Egypt, the archaeologists were also able to date the jewellery.

“The comparisons show that most of the objects are from the time of Nefertiti and her husband Echnaton around 1350 BCE. Like a gold pendant, we found: a lotus flower with inlaid gemstones. Nefertiti wore similar jewellery.”

Egyptian lotus jewellery with inlaid stones (ca. 1350 BCE).

The ceramic finds are also important.

“The way that the ceramics changed in appearance and material over time allows us to date them and study the connections these people had with the surrounding world. What fascinates me most is the wide-ranging network of contacts they had 3,400 years ago.”

The next step will be DNA analysis of the skeletons.

“This will reveal how the different individuals are related with each other and if there are immigrants from other cultures, which isn’t unlikely considering the vast trade networks,” says Peter Fischer.

In the tombs, the archaeologists found figurines of goddesses with bird faces. This is likely a goddess with a bird’s head holding a child that is half bird and half-human.
MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Aztec altar with human ashes uncovered in Mexico City

Aztec altar with human ashes uncovered in Mexico City

Sometime after Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan in modern-day Mexico City in 1521, an indigenous household that survived the bloody Spanish invasion arranged an altar including incense and a pot with human ashes.

Aztec altar with human ashes uncovered in Mexico City
The altar was found underneath a modern home near Plaza Garibaldi in Mexico City

The remains of that elaborate display have been unearthed by archaeologists near what is today Garibaldi Plaza, famed for its revelry and mariachi music, Mexico’s culture ministry said on Tuesday.

In the wake of the fall of Tenochtitlan, likely within the years of 1521 and 1610, the offering from the family of the Mexica people was made “to bear witness to the ending of a cycle of their lives and of their civilization,” the culture ministry said in a statement.

The interior patio where rituals took place is about four meters (13 feet) below ground level, according to a team of archaeologists who spent three months analyzing the site.

They found various layers of what had been home over the centuries, the statement said, along with 13 incense burners, five bowls, a cup, a plate and a pot with cremated skeletal remains.

The incense burners found at the altar would have been used during rituals
The pot containing human ashes was one of the items found at the altar

The finding coincides with the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest, which Mexico’s government commemorated by building a towering replica of the Templo Mayor, the Aztec civilization’s most sacred site, in downtown Mexico City.

A number of ancient discoveries in the Mexico City area in recent years, including some in the capital’s bustling downtown, have shone light on the Aztec civilization. They include the remains of a ceremonial ball court, a sacrificial wolf adorned with gold and a tower of human skulls.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had previously sought an apology from Spain and the Vatican for human rights abuses committed during the conquest of what is modern-day Mexico.

AFRICA, WORLD

Enigmatic footprints, once thought to belong to a bear, linked to the unknown human ancestor

Enigmatic footprints, once thought to belong to a bear, linked to unknown human ancestor

Ancient footprints reveal a mysterious relative of humans who may have lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous human ancestor “Lucy” in Tanzania. Strangely, these enigmatic tracks possess an unusual cross-stepping gait where one leg is crossed over the other during walking, a new study finds.

The oldest solid evidence of upright walking among hominins — the group that includes humans, our ancestors and our closest evolutionary relatives — are tracks discovered at Laetoli in northern Tanzania in 1978. The footprints date back about 3.66 million years, and previous research suggested they were made by Australopithecus afarensis, the species that ranks among the leading candidates for direct ancestors of the human lineage and includes the famed 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy.”

Other footprints discovered at the nearby “site A” in 1976 proved more enigmatic. One possibility was that these unusually shaped tracks — five consecutive footprints — were left by an unknown hominin. Another was that they were made by a bear walking on its hind legs.

These strange “Laetoli A” tracks were never fully excavated. To solve the mystery of the origins of these tracks, scientists have now fully examined these footprints and compared them with tracks from humans, bears and chimpanzees.

One of the first major hurdles as the scientists began this research “was our difficulties trying to track down original casts of the Laetoli A prints from their initial discovery,” study lead author Ellison McNutt, a biological anthropologist at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University, told Live Science. “We were unable to locate any original casts and were concerned that exposure to the sun and decades of seasonal rains may have destroyed the original fossil prints.”

Luckily, when the researchers went back to Laetoli to re-excavate the prints, they found “the rains had actually washed nearby sediment over the original footprints, which protected them and allowed them to remain beautifully preserved,” McNutt said. 

Here, a topographic map of the footprints found at Laetoli Site A in Tanzania.

The scientists went on to clean, measure, photograph and 3D-scan the footprints. “Looking at the fully excavated ‘A’ prints, we knew immediately that these were really intriguing and potentially different from the other two bipedal trackways at Laetoli,” McNutt said.

Next, McNutt and her colleagues teamed up with Ben and Phoebe Kilham, who run the Kilham Bear Center, a rescue and rehabilitation center for black bears in Lyme, New Hampshire. They identified four semi-wild juvenile black bears at the centre that have feet similar in size to that of the Laetoli A tracks.

The researchers used maple syrup or applesauce to lure the bears to stand up and walk on their two hind legs across a trackway filled with mud to capture their footprints. They found the gait seen with the Laetoli A tracks bore a closer resemblance to those of hominins than those of bears.

“As bears walk, they take very wide steps, wobbling back and forth,” study senior author Jeremy DeSilva, a paleoanthropologist at Dartmouth University, said in a statement. “They are unable to walk with a gait similar to that of the site A footprints, as their hip musculature and knee shape does not permit that kind of motion and balance.

Enigmatic footprints, once thought to belong to a bear, linked to unknown human ancestor
This image shows a Laetoli A3 footprint (on left) and a cast of the Laetoli G1 footprint (on right).

In addition, the prints suggest feet more like those of hominins than bears. Bear toes and feet are fan-like and they have tapering heels, while the Laetoli A prints, like those of hominins, are squared off with a prominent big toe and a wide heel.

The researchers also collected more than 50 hours of video of wild black bears. The bears walked on their hind legs less than 1% of the total observed time, making it unlikely that a bear made the footprints at Laetoli A, especially given that no footprints were found of this individual walking on four legs. Moreover, the scientists noted that although thousands of animal fossils have been found at Laetoli, none are from bears.

Ellison McNutt, a study author, collects data from a juvenile female black bear (left.) A footprint from one of the juvenile male black bears, right.

However, the Laetoli A tracks are unlike those of any other known hominin. The footprints are unusually wide and short, and the feet that made them may have possessed a big toe capable of thumb-like grasping, similar to the big toe of apes.

All in all, McNutt and her colleagues concluded the Laetoli A prints were made by an as-yet-unidentified hominin, and not by A. Afarensis. 

“Our work suggests that the Laetoli A prints are one of the oldest unequivocal pieces of evidence in the hominin fossil record of multiple hominin species coexisting in the same area at the same exact time,” McNutt said. “It is not inconceivable that the individual who made the A trackway could have looked across the landscape and seen A. afarensis individuals.”

Curiously, this hominin walked with an unusual cross-stepping gait — each foot crossed over the body’s midline to touch down in front of the other foot.

“The ability of this individual to demonstrate cross-stepping is actually one of the additional lines of evidence that Laetoli A was made by a hominin,” McNutt said. Primates that primarily walk on all fours, such as chimps, “lack the necessary anatomical adaptations in their hips and knees to allow them to maintain their balance while placing one foot across the midline past the other.” 

Although humans typically do not cross-step, “it does happen occasionally,” McNutt said. “It can be used as a strategy to help walk across uneven or slippery surfaces.” 

Still, the cross-stepping may not have resulted from a hominin attempting to keep its balance. “Other potential options include that this particular individual hominin walked in a peculiar manner,” McNutt said. “It is also possible that this unknown hominin species was adapted to walk in this way. We’ll be able to answer these questions more clearly as more footprints are discovered.”

In the future, the researchers aim to continue excavations at Laetoli around site A. “Additional prints from this individual or others made by the same species may give us further insight into how they moved across the landscape and what species they belonged to,” McNutt said. The scientists detailed their findings in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature.

WORLD

Neanderthal Known as “Old Man of La Chapelle” Re-Examined

Neanderthal Known as “Old Man of La Chapelle” Re-Examined

Neanderthal Known as “Old Man of La Chapelle” Re-Examined
The skull of a Neanderthal man known as the “Old Man of La Chapelle.” Unearthed in 1908, it was the first relatively complete Neanderthal skeleton to be found.

Scientists studying ancient disease have uncovered one of the earliest examples of spillover — when a disease jumps from an animal to a human — and it happened to a Neanderthal man who likely got sick butchering or cooking raw meat.

Researchers were reexamining the fossilized bones of a Neanderthal who was found in a cave near the French village of La Chapelle-aux-Saints in 1908. The “Old Man of La Chapelle,” as he became known, was the first relatively complete Neanderthal skeleton to be unearthed and is one of the best studied.

More than a century after his discovery, his bones are still yielding new information about the lives of Neanderthals, the heavily built Stone Age hominins that lived in Europe and parts of Asia before disappearing about 40,000 years ago.

The man, thought to be in his late 50s or 60s when he died about 50,000 years ago, had advanced osteoarthritis in his spinal column and hip joint, a study from 2019 had confirmed.

However, during that reanalysis, Dr. Martin Haeusler — a specialist in internal medicine and head of the University of Zurich’s Evolutionary Morphology and Adaptation Group at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine — realized that not all the changes in the bones could be explained by the wear and tear of osteoarthritis.

“Rather, we found that some of these pathological changes must be due to inflammatory processes,” he said.

“A comparison of the entire pattern of the pathological changes found in the La Chapelle-aux-Saints skeleton with many different diseases led us then to the diagnosis of brucellosis.”

The study with those findings was published in the journal Scientific Reports last month.

Zoonotic disease

Brucellosis is a disease that’s still widespread today. Humans generally acquire the disease through direct contact with infected animals, by eating or drinking contaminated animal products, or by inhaling airborne agents, according to the World Health Organization.

Most cases are caused by unpasteurized milk or cheese from infected goats or sheep.

It’s also one of the most common zoonotic diseases — illnesses that are transmitted from animals to humans. They include viruses like HIV and the coronavirus that caused the Covid-19 pandemic.

Brucella has a wide range of symptoms, including fever, muscular pain and night sweats, Haeusler said. It can last from a few weeks to many months or even years. Long-term problems resulting from the disease are variable but can include arthritis pain, back pain, inflammation of the testes — which can lead to infertility — and inflammation of the heart valves known as endocarditis, which Haeusler said was the most common cause of death from the disease.

The paper said the case was “the earliest secure evidence of this zoonotic disease in hominin evolution.”

The disease has also been found in Bronze Age Homo sapiens skeletons, which date back to around 5,000 years ago.

Diet

Brucellosis is found in many wild animals today, and Haeusler said that the Neanderthal man likely caught the disease from butchering or cooking an animal that had been hunted as prey. Possible sources include wild sheep, goats, wild cattle, bison, reindeer, hares and marmots — all of which were components of the Neanderthal diet.

However, the paper said that the two large animals Neanderthals hunted, mammoths and woolly rhinoceros, were unlikely to be the disease reservoir — at least based on the animals’ living relatives, in which brucellosis has been largely undetected.

Given the man lived to what must have been a very old age for the period, Haeusler suspected that the Neanderthal may have had a milder version of the disease.

The “Old Man of Chapelle” played a significant role in misconceptions about Neanderthals being primitive Stone Age brutes, according to the Smithsonian. More recent research suggests that they were just as smart as we are.

Early reconstruction of the skeleton depicted the man with a slouching posture, bent knees and the head jutted forward. It was only later that scientists realized the skeleton had a deforming kind of osteoarthritis and perhaps was not a typical Neanderthal.

Haeusler said the study he published in 2019 showed that, even with the wear and tear from degenerative osteoarthritis, the “Old Man of Chapelle” would have walked upright. The man also had lost most of his teeth and may have had to have been fed by other members of his group.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

3600 Year Old Pits Full Of Giant Hands Discovered In Egypt Archaeologists Discovered

3600 Year Old Pits Full Of Giant Hands Discovered In Egypt Archaeologists Discovered

An astonishing discovery occurred in the fall of 2011 when a team of archaeologists working in the palace of ancient Avaris, Egypt, found the remains of 16 human hands in four graves in the compound.

Two of the pits, located in front of the throne room, contain one hand each. And the other two holes, located outside the palace, have the remaining 14.

The team of archaeologists who made the discovery determined that all the bones date to about 3,600 years ago, indicating that they all came from the same ceremony.

3600 Year Old Pits Full Of Giant Hands Discovered In Egypt Archaeologists Discovered

All the hands appear to be abnormally long or even more significant than usual. They were classified into four different graves within what scientists believe was the actual Hyksos complex.

The Austrian archaeologist, Manfred Bietak, in charge of the excavation of the ancient city of Avaris, explained to the Egyptian Archeology newspaper that the hands seem to support the stories found in the writings and art of ancient Egypt, this being the first physical evidence of that the soldiers cut off the right hands of their enemies to receive a reward of gold in return.

Besides cutting off the enemy’s hand being a symbolic means of removing the enemy’s force, the meaning of this ceremony would also be supernatural as this was done in a sacred place and temple as part of a ritual.

So far, there is no evidence to show what kind of people these hands belonged to. Whether the hands belong to Hyksos or Egyptians cannot yet be determined.

When Bietak was asked to explain why he believed this ritual might have been performed, he said: “You deprive him of his power forever. Our finding is the first and only physical evidence. Each moat represents a different ceremony.”

The two pits, each containing a hand, were placed directly in front of a throne room. This section of Egypt was once controlled by an occupying force that most historians believe were initially Canaanites, so there may be a connection to the invasion.

The other hands, which may have been buried at the same time or a later date, are found on the outer grounds of the palace.

These sacrifices are not surprising in an area that faced a foreign invasion.

Egyptians often called on their gods to punish invading armies with plagues, famine, or general misfortune. It is possible that these sacrifices were part of a curse against the invading armies.

Much more needs to be investigated, but many signs point to this being some ritual for a god or gods. It is not known to whom these hands belonged. But the fact that the hands were abnormally large indicates that these people were specially selected, which is more characteristic of a sacrifice than killing an invading army.

Two hands were buried separately may indicate that these offerings were intended to be incredibly satisfying to the gods. In addition, it could enter the theory of the Hyperborean civilization, where some ancient writings comment that this civilization was vast, that they came from Lemuria where the waters of the Indian Sea submerged that continent.

This find could reveal the true story of a civilization of enormous dimensions. The discovery of these giant hands could shed light on ancient previously discussed stories, which were only fables or inventions of conspiracy theorists.

ANTARCTICA, WORLD

Interesting Claim: “Antarctica Is The Place Where Fallen Angels Are Still Alive But Locked In”

Interesting Claim: “Antarctica Is The Place Where Fallen Angels Are Still Alive But Locked In”

A recent movie was made and published by an Israeli news reporting channel.

The movie is titled “Fallen Angels are locked in Antarctica and Are Still Alive” and according to them, it is an unbiased view of the conspiracy theory.

Most theorists around the globe were pretty sceptical about it, as most news reporting channels don’t wish to delve too deep into these theories, but luckily, the movie was actually quite well made, to say the least.

You can tell that the creators put a lot of time and thought into it, especially the commentator Steven Ben-Nun who speaks of his own experience studying the apocryphal script The Book of Enoch.

The Book of Enoch showcases the story of how Enoch became the intermediary between the Fallen Angels and the Angels of Justice.

The two races were fighting one another because the Fallen Angels wished to procreate with human females and after doing so they created the Nephilim, also known as the Giants.

The Giants dethroned the Fallen Angels and, in this movie, they claim that the Fallen Angels’ base Mount Hermon was then taken over by the Giants.

According to the film, the Fallen Angels are now locked somewhere in Antarctica and we need to find out where they are so we can release them or at the very least study them.