Category Archives: WORLD

EUROPE, NORWAY, WORLD

Melting Norwegian glacier releases 500-year-old perfectly preserved wooden box full of candles

Melting Norwegian glacier releases 500-year-old perfectly preserved wooden box full of candles

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a beeswax candle used to assist Vikings to find their farms in a 500-year-old wooden box discovered in a perfectly preserved form when a glacier in Norway melted.

Archaeologists removed the tight lid of the pine box with the leather straps, uncovered in Norway’s Lendbreen ice patch, discovering the candle that was essential to Vikings hundreds of years ago.  

The team suggests the box – which was first uncovered in 2019 – was used to transport the long candles that were used by Vikings to light the path between their main farm and summer farm.

The Lendbreen ice patch has become a sought-out destination for archaeologists since 2011 when teams discovered thousands of artefacts sticking out from the melting Norwegian glacier.

At first, the team thought it was a tinderbox that was lost accidentally in the pass, but a further analysis proved otherwise, The History Blog reports.

The box found at the Lendbreen ice-patch containing a well-preserved beeswax candle.

‘It is radiocarbon-dated to AD 1475-1635, so 400-500 years old,’ glacial archaeologists from the Secrets of the Ice team shared in a statement. 

‘The content of the box was analyzed at the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo: We were in for a big surprise – the content is beeswax!

‘What we are seeing inside the box is very likely the remains of a beeswax candle.’

Candle boxes were a common item among Vikings that were used to house expensive beeswax candles as Vikings made their travels to different farms. 

The melting glaciers, brought on by climate change, is creating a valuable archaeological site in Norway, which was an ancient passageway used by Vikings for thousands of years and littered with forgotten artefacts. 

The Lendbreen ice patch has produced more than 6,000 artefacts since archaeologists began investigating the area.

Last November, teams unearthed nearly 70 arrow shafts, plus shoes, textiles and reindeer bones on a mountainside in Jotunheimen, about 240 miles from Oslo.

Last November, teams unearthed nearly 70 arrow shafts, plus shoes, textiles and reindeer bones on a mountainside in Jotunheimen, about 240 miles from Oslo
Clothes, tools, equipment and animal bone have also been found by a team in Norway’s mountainous region.

Based on radiocarbon dating, the oldest arrows are from around 4100 BC, with the most recent dating from 1300 AD.

Clothes, tools, equipment and animal bone have also been found by a team in Norway’s mountainous region, according to the journal Antiquity. 

Researchers collected a haul of more than 100 artefacts at the site includes horseshoes, a wooden whisk, a walking stick, a wooden needle, a mitten and a small iron knife.

Although a warming world is revealing these extraordinary relics, archaeologists are in a race against time because the ice is what is keeping them preserved.

Archaeologist Regula Gubler told AFP in October 2020: ‘It is a very short window in time. In 20 years, these finds will be gone and these ice patches will be gone.’

‘It is a bit stressful.’

She explained that materials like leather, wood, birch bark and textiles can be destroyed by erosion.

And the only reason they have stayed preserved is because of the ice.

AFRICA, WORLD

The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N’Ajjer, Algeria

The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N’Ajjer, Algeria

Just Outside the Desert Oasis of Djanet, Algeria, there’s a national park brimming with pieces of the past. A trip through the alien-like landscape of Tassili n’Ajjer is like stepping into an open-air art gallery, where the sandstone rock formations become canvases for more than 15,000 prehistoric carvings and paintings.

The Dessert around Djanet

Tassili n’Ajjer shot into worldwide fame in the 1930s, not for its landscape but for the precious collection of ancient rock art in the area.

Since their discovery, more than 15,000 petroglyphs and paintings have been identified representing 10,000 years of human history and environmental change.

Petroglyph depicting a possibly sleeping antelope, located at Tassili n’Ajjer in southern Algeria.

One of the most striking features of these petroglyphs is the way they evolved with the change in the climate.

The oldest art belongs to the so-called “Large Wild Fauna Period” (10,000-6,000 BC) characterized almost entirely by engravings of animals such as hippopotamus, crocodiles, elephants, giraffes, buffaloes and rhinos, depicting the abundant wildlife at a time when the Sahara was green and fertile.

Humans appear as tiny figures dwarfed by the immensity of these animals and are often shown holding boomerangs or throwing sticks, clubs, axes or bows.

Overlapping with this era is the Round Head Period (8,000-6,000 BC) where human figures with elaborate attires took dominance. These figures ranged from a few centimetres to several meters tall.

The majority of Round Head paintings portray people with round featureless heads and formless bodies. Some of the pieces seem to suggest shamanism with bodies flying through space or bowing before huge male figures that tower above them.

About 7,000 years ago, domesticated animals began to appear in art. This period is known as the Pastoral Period. Rock art from this period reflects a changing attitude towards nature and property.

Human figures became more prominent, and man was no longer shown as part of nature but portrayed as being above nature, yet able to derive sustenance from it.

Wild animals gave way to cattle and stock. Later drawings (3500 years ago) depicts horses and horse-drawn chariots. It’s unlikely that chariots were ever driven across the rocky Sahara, so researchers believe the figures of chariots and armed men are symbolic, representing ownership of land, or control of its inhabitants.

As the climate became progressively drier, horses were replaced by camels as evident from the rock art from the most recent period about 2000 years ago.

Tassili N’Ajjer lies about 500 meters above the level of the desert. The plateau can only be reached by climbing on foot, with camping materials and supplies drawn by donkeys and camels.

Large diurnal temperature variations and the absence of basic amenities make the trip extremely challenging, so only the young and the hardy attempt to reach it. Recent violence and insecurity in the country have further isolated Tassili N’Ajjer from the routes of most tourists.

Detail of a petroglyph depicting a bubalus anticus.
  • The Prehistoric Rock Art of Tassili N'Ajjer, Algeria
CANADA, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found, 445 Million Years Old

Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found, 445 Million Years Old

Few modern animals are as deserving of the title “living fossil” as the lowly horseshoe crab. Seemingly unchanged since before the Age of Dinosaurs, these venerable sea creatures can now claim a history that reaches back almost half a billion years.

The oldest horseshoe crab in the fossil record (Lunataspis aurora, left) is 445 million years old and was discovered in Ordovician strata from Manitoba, Canada. Horseshoe crab shells are made of protein and normally are not mineralized like typical fossils, making this a truly remarkable find. Despite the age of this fossil, it looks remarkably similar to the modern animal pictured to the right

In a collaborative research article published recently in the British journal Palaeontology, a team of Canadian scientists revealed rare new horseshoe crab fossils from 445 million-year-old Ordovician age rocks in central and northern Manitoba, which are about 100 million years older than any previously known forms.

Palaeontologist Dave Rudkin from the Royal Ontario Museum, with colleagues Dr. Graham Young of The Manitoba Museum (Winnipeg) and Dr. Godfrey Nowlan at the Geological Survey of Canada (Calgary), gave their remarkable new fossils the scientific name Lunataspis aurora, meaning literally “crescent moon shield of the dawn” in reference to their shape, geological age and northerly discovery sites.

Although they are more “primitive” in several aspects than other known horseshoe crabs, their resemblance to living forms is unmistakable.

The fossil horseshoe crabs were recovered in the course of fieldwork studies on ancient tropical seashore deposits, providing yet another important link to their modern descendants that are today found along warmer seashores of the eastern United States and the Indian Ocean.

One of the fossils of the new genus of horseshoe crab (Lunataspis aurora) was photographed underwater to show some of the fine details.

This is particularly significant, explains Rudkin. “Understanding how horseshoe crabs adapted to this ecological niche very early on, and then remained there through thick and thin, can give us insights into how ocean and shoreline ecosystems have developed through deep time.”

Today, marine shorelines worldwide are being threatened by human activity, and although some horseshoe crab populations are endangered, their enviably long record on Earth indicates that they have successfully weathered many previous crises, including the mass extinction that saw the demise of the dinosaurs and many other life forms 65 million years ago.

“We do need to be concerned about horseshoe crabs and many of the other unusual life forms found on marine shores,” said Dr. Young.

“Nevertheless, we can also be mildly optimistic that some of these things have demonstrated a toughness that may allow them to survive our abuse of these environments.”

Living horseshoe crabs are extensively studied, especially in the fields of ecology and medical research. The exciting discovery of these unusual early fossil relatives adds a new introductory chapter to their remarkable story.

David Rudkin is Assistant Curator in the Department of Natural History (Palaeobiology) at the Royal Ontario Museum and holds an appointment to the Department of Geology, University of Toronto, as a Lecturer in palaeontology.

Rudkin joined the former Department of Invertebrate Palaeontology at the ROM in 1975 and began working on fossils from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Palaeontologists discover nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in China – fossil is ’70 per cent intact’

Palaeontologists discover nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in China – fossil is ’70 per cent intact’

Palaeontologists in southwest China have unearthed a fossil from the Jurassic period that is 70 per cent intact and belongs to a dinosaur believed to be nearly 8 metres in length.

The fossil, which dates back 180-million-years, was discovered in late May in the city of Lufeng, which is in the province of Yunnan in Southern China.

Following the groundbreaking discovery, staff with the Dinosaur Fossil Conservation and Research Center started carrying out emergency excavations to help prevent damage to the remaining bones. It was done quickly as the area is prone to soil erosion, according to reports.

Palaeontologists discover nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in China - fossil is '70 per cent intact'
Lufengosaurus is a genus of massospondylid dinosaurs who lived in the early Jurassic period in what is now known as southwestern China.

Wang Tao, Head of the Dinosaur Fossil Conservation and Research Center of Lufeng City, said finding a nearly complete Lufengosaurus is very rare, adding that the find is a ‘national treasure’.

“Such a highly complete dinosaur fossil is a rare find around the world. Based on the fossil that was have discovered over the years, on its tail, and thigh bones, we believe this is a type of giant Lufengosaurus, which lived during the Early Jurassic period,” he said.

Photos were taken at the excavation site show workers delicately brushing the red soil to uncover the skeleton.

Lufengosaurus is a genus of massospondylid dinosaurs who lived in the early Jurassic period in what is now known as southwestern China.

The species grabbed international headlines in 2017 when scientists found 195-million-year-old collagen protein in the rib of a Lufengosarus fossil.

This isn’t the only significant dino fossil find in China this year. Back in January, a 120-million-year-old fossil helped researchers and scientists to bridge the gap between dinosaurs and modern birds.

After researchers analysed and studied the fossil, the species was dubbed as ‘Wulong bohaiensis’ or ‘the dancing dragon’ and described as a strange mix between a bird and a dinosaur.

The researchers from China and the United States said the dinosaur was about the size of a raven with a long and bony tail.

Further study revealed its body was covered with feathers with two plumes at the end of the tail.

EUROPE, UKRAINE, WORLD

Ukraine discovers a 5,000-year-old megalithic Stonehenge like monument!

Ukraine discovers a 5,000-year-old megalithic Stonehenge like monument!

Archaeological digs still reveal historical aspects that remain puzzling to some. Such is the case with these archaeologists who are on a mission in Ukraine in the village of Novooleksandrivka, about ten kilometres south of the city of Dnipro.

According to them, they discovered a place where blocks of stone several meters high form a circle. In archaeology, this is known as the Cromlech (megalithic monument made of menhirs in a circle) or Stonehenge, based on the one in the United Kingdom: The Stonehenge in Amesbury, which attracts millions of visitors every year. An original discovery for Ukraine!

The Stone Hill by Novooleksandrivka

The 5-channel television station reports that a 4,500 to 5,000-year-old burial mound has been discovered. “In the middle of the tumulus (Kurgan in Ukraine), archaeologists found a gigantic cromlech – stone blocks several meters high that form a circle.”

Ukrainian Burial Mound Dig Reveals 5,500-Year-Old Stonehenge-like Structure

According to the journalistic report, each block of stone weighs about a ton. The blocks are carefully cut into a circle. Compared to the pyramids of Egypt, this side would be even older than 500 years.

Novooleksandrivka would not be the first Stonehenge discovered in Ukraine, but it is the youngest. And most importantly, it seems to be the largest ever discovered.

The stone circle discovered within the Ukrainian burial mound.

Oleksandr Kolomiytsev, the spokesman for the regional road service, explains: “The construction involved moving a huge volume of earth and a considerable workforce.

It is possible that the person buried and protected by the Cromlech was highly regarded in society. This is the only way to explain the monumental character of this construction. “”

In fact, the various StoneHenge that has been discovered in the world all function as funerary memorials.

The Novooleksandrivka site was to become an open-air museum. A stroke of luck for Ukraine, which believes that this ancient monument can attract millions of tourists every year!

The secret of the British StoneHenge!

The StoneHenge in Amesbury, UK, was not built where it is now, according to a study in Cambridge University’s Antiquity magazine.

This observation follows the discovery of a place where large stones were excavated … But no trace of these stones nearby. They conclude that these stones were brought to the location of the current StoneHenge.

The circle was dismantled by Merlin and shipped by 15,000 men to Amesbury in the Salisbury Plain. Merlin wanted the Giants Dance Stones for their magical and healing properties. 

Indeed, if the UK location is already a major tourist hit, Ukraine could attract many historic tourists too! Ukraine is a beautiful country that bears the historical mark of Chernobyl! But there are so many other things to discover there: Kiev, for example, is a jewel!

EUROPE, FINLAND, WORLD

Prehistoric Teeth Pendants Worn in Ancient Dance 8,000 Years Ago Incite Body Movements

Prehistoric Teeth Pendants Worn in Ancient Dance 8,000 Years Ago Incite Body Movements

“Ornaments composed of elk teeth suspended from or sown onto clothing emit a loud rattling noise when moving,” says auditory archaeologist and Academy of Finland Research Fellow Riitta Rainio from the University of Helsinki.

“Wearing such rattlers while dancing makes it easier to immerse yourself in the soundscape, eventually letting the sound and rhythm take control of your movements. It is as if the dancer is led in the dance by someone.”

Rainio is well versed in the topic, as she danced, for research purposes, for six consecutive hours, wearing elk tooth ornaments produced according to the Stone Age model.

Rainio and artist Juha Valkeapää held a performance to find out what kind of wear marks are formed in the teeth when they bang against each other and move in all directions.

The sound of a tooth rattler can be clear and bright or loud and pounding, depending on the number and quality of the teeth, as well as the intensity of movement.

Prehistoric Teeth Pendants Worn in Ancient Dance 8,000 Years Ago Incite Body Movements
Adult male from grave 76a in Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov drawn as if he were alive during a dance session: 140 elk teeth on the chest, waist, pelvis, and thighs rattle rhythmically and loudly.

Microanalysis demonstrates that tooth wear marks are the result of dancing.

The teeth worn out by dancing were analyzed for any microscopic marks before and after the dancing. These marks were then compared to the findings made in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov graves by Evgeny Girya, an archaeologist specialized in micro-marks at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Girya documented and analyzed the wear marks in the elk teeth found in four graves chosen for the experiment. Comparing the chips, hollows, cuts and smoothened surfaces of the teeth, he observed a clear resemblance between teeth worn out by dancing and the Stone Age teeth.

However, the marks in the Stone Age teeth were deeper and more extensive. According to Girya, the results show that the marks are the result of similar activity.

Archaeological research recently showed how prehistoric pendants incited sounds and body movements in ancient dance about 8,000 years ago.

“As the Stone Age teeth were worn for years or even decades, it’s no surprise that their marks are so distinctive,” Girya says.

Associate Professor of Archaeology Kristiina Mannermaa from the University of Helsinki is excited by the research findings.

“Elk tooth rattlers are fascinating since they transport modern people to a soundscape that is thousands of years old and to its emotional rhythms that guide the body.

You can close your eyes, listen to the sound of the rattlers and drift on the soundwaves to a lakeside campfire in the world of Stone Age hunter-gatherers.”

See Also: MORE ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

A total of 177 graves of women, men and children have been found in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov burial site, of which more than half contain several elk tooth ornaments, some of them composed of over 300 individual teeth.

AFRICA, ETHIOPIA, WORLD

The Atlantic Ocean was known as the Ethiopian Ocean until the 19th century

The Atlantic Ocean was known as the Ethiopian Ocean until the 19th century

Up to the 19th century, the southern part of the Atlantic Ocean was formally known as the Ethiopian/Aethiopian Sea in classical geographical works. This was the name that appeared on ancient maps, up to the 19th century.

1747 map showing the oceans and seas surrounding the African continent

The roots of such etymology can be described by how over time, areas referred to as place names often expand or contract. As such, what is termed “toponymic displacement” or geographic displacement? becomes commonplace.

European geographers used the term ‘Libyan’ to refer to North African people of Berber background. The people who inhabited lands further south of the Sahara were called ‘Ethiopians’ (or Aethiopians) and the name used for the lands below the Sahara was ‘Ethiopia.’

Ethiopia was also used as the synonym for the Nubian Kingdom of Kush (or Meroe).

The present country called Ethiopia was hardly known, and when it came to the knowledge of European geographers it was called ‘Abyssinia’ (from the Arabic ethnic designation ‘Habesh.’

The word Ethiopia was also used for unknown or quasi-mythical lands situated to the south or east of the Mediterranean.

1710 map of Africa by Daniel de la Feuille

The African interior, which was unknown to European ‘explorers’ and geographers around the 15th-16th centuries, was generally called Ethiopia.

The eastern South Atlantic Ocean was called the Aethiopian/Ethiopian Sea/Ocean due to the fact such part of the ocean was in proximity to the landmass called Ethiopia. This part of the ocean was commonly dubbed the “Ethiopian Ocean” (or Sea) through the 1700s.

In the maps of this time, the Ethiopian Ocean was shown to stretch from the South Atlantic into the western Indian Ocean.

Oceans and seas were conceptualized and titled as strips of water surrounding landmasses.

The discreet naming of oceans surfaced in the 1800s.

See Also: MORE ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

Decades after the classical use of the name had become obsolete, botanist William Albert Setchell (1864–1943) used the term for the sea around some islands near Antarctica.

MEXICO, NORTH AMERICA, WORLD

Humans Arrived in North America More Than 30,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests

Humans Arrived in North America More Than 30,000 Years Ago, Study Suggests

According to an unexpected finding made by an Iowa State University researcher, the earliest people may have arrived in North America approximately 20,000 years earlier than previously thought.

Andrew Somerville, an assistant professor of anthropology in world languages and cultures, says he and his colleagues made the discovery while studying the origins of agriculture in the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico.

As part of that work, they wanted to establish a date for the earliest human occupation of the Coxcatlan Cave in the valley, so they obtained radiocarbon dates for several rabbit and deer bones that were collected from the cave in the 1960s as part of the Tehuacan Archaeological-Botanical Project.

Coxcatlan Cave, a rock shelter located within the southern portion of the Tehuacan Valley in Mexico.

The dates for the bones suddenly took Somerville and his colleagues in a different direction with their work. The dates for the bone samples from the early depositional levels of the cave ranged from 33,448 to 28,279 years old.

Somerville says even though previous studies had not dated items from the bottom of the cave, he was not expecting such old ages. The findings add to the debate over a long-standing theory that the first humans crossed the Bering Land Bridge into the Americas 13,000 years ago.

“We weren’t trying to weigh in on this debate or even find really old samples. We were just trying to situate our agricultural study with a firmer timeline,” Somerville said. “We were surprised to find these really old dates at the bottom of the cave, and it means that we need to take a closer look at the artefacts recovered from those levels.”

Somerville says the findings provide researchers with a better understanding of the chronology of the region. Previous studies relied on charcoal and plant samples, but he says the bones were a better material for dating. However, questions still remain. Most importantly, is there a human link to the bottom layer of the cave where the bones were found?

To answer that question, Somerville and Matthew Hill, ISU associate professor of anthropology, plan to take a closer look at the bone samples for evidence of cut marks that indicate the bones were butchered by a stone tool or human or thermal alternations that suggest the bones were boiled or roasted over a fire. He says the possible stone tools from the early levels of the cave may also yield clues.

“Determining whether the stone artifacts were products of human manufacture or if they were just naturally chipped stones would be one way to get to the bottom of this,” Somerville said. “If we can find strong evidence that humans did in fact make and use these tools, that’s another way we can move forward.”

Year-long journey to even find the bones

Not only was this discovery unexpected, but the process of tracking down the animal bones to take samples was more than Somerville anticipated. The collection of artifacts from the 1960s Tehuacan Archaeological-Botanical Project was distributed to different museums and labs in Mexico and the United States, and it was unclear where the animal bones were sent.

After a year of emails and cold calls, Somerville and his collaborator, Isabel Casar from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, had a potential lead for a lab in Mexico City. The lab director, Joaquin Arroyo-Cabrales, agreed to give Somerville and Casar a tour to help search for the missing collection. The tour proved to be beneficial. Among the countless boxes of artifacts, they found what they were looking for.

“Having spent months trying to locate the bones, we were excited to find them tucked away on the bottom shelf in a dark corner of the lab,” Somerville said. “At the time, we felt that was a great discovery, we had no idea it would lead to this.”

Once he located the bones, Somerville got permission from the Mexican government to take small samples — about 3/4 inch in length and 1/4 inch in width — from 17 bones (eight rabbits and nine deer) for radiocarbon dating. If closer examination of the bones provides evidence of a human link, Somerville says it will change what we know about the timing and how the first people came to America.

“Pushing the arrival of humans in North America back to over 30,000 years ago would mean that humans were already in North America prior to the period of the Last Glacial Maximum, when the Ice Age was at its absolute worst,” Somerville said.

“Large parts of North America would have been inhospitable to human populations. The glaciers would have completely blocked any passage over land coming from Alaska and Canada, which means people probably would have had to come to the Americas by boats down the Pacific coast.”