Category Archives: WORLD

AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICA, WORLD

Lost City in South Africa Discovered Hiding Beneath Thick Vegetation

Lost City in South Africa Discovered Hiding Beneath Thick Vegetation

What was once thought to be a scattering of ancient stone huts on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, has turned out to be the remnants of a thriving city, lost to history for 200 years?

Beneath the dense vegetation, there isn’t much to see with the naked eye. And after three decades of careful research, archaeologists in South Africa have barely scratched the surface of this long-lost settlement.

Now, however, thanks to the cutting-edge laser technology of LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), this site has been revealed for what it truly was: a veritable metropolis made up of hundreds of households and trade networks.

The vast area where the lost city, known as Kweneng, once stood.

The research has brought this city, called Kweneng, back to life. Home to a Tswana-speaking ethnic group, Kweneng’s 800 homesteads are now thought to have housed no less than 10,000 people.

“What this means is filling in a huge historical gap, especially for southern Africa, because we know the pre-colonial history of southern Africa has no written record,” explains Fern Imbali Sixwanha, an archaeologist at the University of Witwatersrand involved in the research.

“So now we’re starting to fill in the gaps using this LIDAR technology.”

It’s the same technology that scientists used to locate that ancient Mayan megalopolis early last year. Today, it’s helping to fill a massive historical blindspot in southern Africa.

Bouncing billions of laser light pulses off the lower western slopes of the Suikerbosrand hills near Johannesburg, the researchers were able to virtually ‘see’ through all the vegetation and preconceived notions that have obscured this once-bustling city.

Researchers created 3D images of the city which had been lost to the world for 200 year

Studies now reveal that Kweneng, which spanned about 20 square kilometers (8 square miles), was at its prime between the 15th and 19th centuries. And in its heyday, the researchers think it was probably a rich and thriving city.

The researchers documented the structural remains of the lost city.

Several pairs of parallel rock walls suggest there were numerous passageways into the city, many of which look like cattle drives, built to herd cows and other livestock through parts of the city.

What’s more, in the middle of Kweneng are remnants of two massive enclosures, which together take up a space estimated at 10,000 square meters (108,000 square feet). Archaeologists on the case think these may have been kraals that housed nearly a thousand head of cattle.

But just like many other Tswana cities, this one is also thought to have fallen into decline after civil unrest.

Gone are the citizens, the stone towers, the homesteads, the livestock, the wealth. Thanks to LIDAR, however, history will live on.

“One of the most enlightening things is, as I’ve been able to understand what we were doing in our past you know, it gives us a broader idea of the people of southern Africa who they were and the types of activities that they did because you can now rediscover that activity line and just general interaction within the society,” Sixwanha told Africa News.

South African ‘lost city’ found using laser technology
NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Possible War of 1812 Cemetery Found in Vermont

Possible War of 1812 Cemetery Found in Vermont

Vermont Public Radio reports that the possible remains of soldiers who died during the War of 1812 were found buried in rows at a construction site in northwestern Vermont.

They’re human remains, bones that researchers say that have been around for a while. In fact, they say they’re the remains of a soldier from the War of 1812 and there could be others buried nearby. The project is ongoing and is being overseen by the University of Vermont’s Consulting Anthropology Program, with support from the State Division for Historic Preservation.

University of Vermont Anthropology Asst. Professor John Crock spoke with VPR’s Mitch Wertlieb about the find and what it means. crock is the director of UVM’s Consulting Anthropology Program. Their interview is below. It has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mitch Wertlieb: So what exactly has been found here and when was this discovery made?

John Crock: The discovery was made last week. Initially, an excavator – and I’d like to give him credit: Mike Weston, at Don Western Excavating – noticed human bone in one of the first or second backhoe pulls from a proposed house addition in Burlington and did the right thing: he called the police.

The police came and looked at it and recognized it as likely human remains. They called the medical examiner, who then came in to basically clarify that it wasn’t a recent human. Then, they called the state archeologist who then called us at UVM to further investigate.

How do you know what era the remains are from?

The War of 1812 had a battery in Burlington, basically a big army base that we now know mainly from Battery Park, which kind of memorializes that. There was a large hospital barracks. Although Burlington was only fired upon once in 1813, it was a major base, with as many as 4,000 people that were serving other battles, including one in Plattsburgh.

Archaeologists from UVM’s Consulting Archaeology program work at a site in Burlington, where remains that likely date back to the War of 1812 were recently discovered.

But the main function was actually that there was a military hospital here and a lot of people were treated there for injuries that were incurred during warfare. There were references to people being buried in a cemetery on private property not too far from that hospital. But the exact boundaries of that [are unknown] – there were no records. Essentially, the military did not keep records of cemeteries or burials until the Civil War. So this is essentially an unmarked burial ground.

I don’t know what the scientific method is for checking this – maybe it’s carbon dating – but had the bones been checked for that to say, “OK, they are this many hundreds of years old”?

Carbon dating is a little bit… It’s harder… with this archeologically recent timeframe of only a couple hundred years.

Previously we found some remains related to the same period of time on a project on North Street and these had preserved with them, military buttons. In one case, an individual was buried with musket balls and a pocketknife that further led us to conclude that these were indeed military burials.

In this case, we’ve identified a number of them in a cluster, in cemetery rows, within just a small area of the landowner’s addition, which leads us to believe that this indeed is part of the larger cemetery that was referenced in historical documents.

According to the state archeologist, there could be around 700 soldiers buried around the city at this time. Why so many?

That’s possible. [There were] a lot of diseases. You know, there was an epidemic in the winter of 1812-1813 of pneumonia or influenza. Soldiers were also battling typhus.

The majority of those who died were really deaths that resulted from this kind of close-quarters living with epidemic disease raging through these camps. [These are] things that we’re more familiar with now in the era of COVID, [where we’re] reflecting on how these things get transmitted so quickly in crowds.

How confident are you that these are definitely the remains of an American soldier? And is there any way of determining, if so, who that soldier might have been?

We’re very confident, I’d say, at this point, that these are remains of soldiers and there are ways.

We have the enlistment records that our program historian has really [curated]. She combed through microfilm back in the microfilm era to get the list of enlistment records. So we know the stature of individuals, their surname and we know their occupation prior to becoming soldiers. That gives some indication of what their human remains might look like.

And then there are other things that we can do with bone chemistry to try to figure out what area person was from. If, for example, these weren’t Vermonters, we could easily identify those that enlisted, for example, from North Carolina or farther south because their bone signature through isotope studies has a different pattern than those who would have grown up here in New England.

What do you ultimately hope to learn, to find?

You know: the whole package. Where did these people come from? What communities did they represent? Many of them were farmers. How did that affect the farming communities of New England, to send all of their able-bodied men, including what we would consider adolescents now? Some as young as 12 were enlisting. We hope to learn more about that.

Also: the burial practices. Was there ceremony involved? We found an individual in the previous case on North Street that was buried, for example, with a gun sling under their head as a pillow. So it was clear that people were presiding over the funeral or burial. That’s telling us things that just aren’t in the written records and things that only archeology can tell us as we learn more.

The coffins, for example, weren’t mass-produced. They were built to-size; they were built for individuals. And interestingly – we’re just coming up with this information this week – in some of the grave shafts that we’re investigating, that we’ve exposed, we’re finding that the individual had already been exhumed. This is likely from UVM medical students in the 1820s and 1830s who were using this burial ground to access anatomical specimens. So some of these soldiers effectively donated themselves to science without knowing it.

And how long do you think this overall project will take, now that these bones have been discovered?

We’re hoping to get done with it within the week. That’s the best we can do, as fast as we can go, being careful and also honoring what is really the country’s first veterans.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Headless Vikings The “Most exciting & Disturbing” Archaeological Discoveries in Britain In Recent Years

Headless Vikings The “Most exciting & Disturbing” Archaeological Discoveries in Britain In Recent Years

Archeologists made a surprising finding in Dorset, England in June 2009, in the coastal town of Weymouth. During excavations in preparation for the planned Weymouth Relief Route, archaeologists discovered a mass grave containing 54 dismembered skeletons and 51 skulls in a pile within a disused Roman quarry.

This odd discovery prompted us to ask who these people were and why they were so tragically murdered. Through scientific testing and analysis, archaeologists concluded that the remains belonged to Scandinavian Vikings.

It is particularly shocking the sheer scale of this discovery, “as any mass grave is relatively uncommon, but to find one on this scale, from this period of history, is extremely unusual,” said David Score of Oxford Archaeology

A pile of heads was found separate to the rest of the bodies in a mass grave.

Although exact dating has not been confirmed, it is believed that the remains are those of individuals who lived sometime during the early Middle Ages, between the 5 th and 10 th centuries.

The deaths likely occurred during, and as a result of, the conflict between the Anglo-Saxons and Viking invaders. All of the remains are from males mostly aged from their late teens to 25 years old, with a few being somewhat older.

None of the remains show any sign of battle wounds, beyond wounds inflicted during the execution, so it is likely that these men were captives rather than members of the military. No clothing or other remnants were found within the pit, leading to speculation that the men were naked when they were executed.  

The bodies are believed to belong to Viking warriors, executed by Anglo Saxons

The men appear to have been killed all at the same time, and the executions appear to have been carried out hastily and rather chaotically. Some of the individuals showed multiple blows and deep cuts to the vertebrae, jawbones, and skulls.

Damage to the hand and wrist bones indicates that some of them may have braced against the execution with their hands.  When the remains were discovered, the skulls, leg bones, and rib bones were arranged into separate piles. It appeared that the pit had not been dug specifically for this purpose and that it just happened to be a convenient spot to dump the bodies.

One interesting detail is that there were three fewer skulls than the number of skeletons within the pit. It is believed that three of the heads may have been kept as souvenirs or placed on stakes. They may have been high-ranking individuals.

The mass grave of headless Vikings found in Dorset. 

There have been multiple theories as to who these men were and why they were executed. As a group, they appear to have been healthy and robust individuals. They were all of the fighting age, and they were far from home when executed.

Scientific isotope testing conducted on the men’s teeth indicates that they were of very diverse origins, and likely from Scandinavia.  Kim Siddorn, author of Viking Weapons and Warfare, has speculated “[t]hey had left their ship, walked inland, ran into an unusually well-organized body of Saxons, and were probably forced to surrender.”

This is corroborated by the fact that the location of their deaths was a central location in conflicts between native Saxons and invading Vikings.

It is also speculated that the executions may have taken place in front of an audience, as some sort of display of power, authority, and triumph. In a documentary by National Geographic, called Viking Apocalypse, Dr. Britt Baillie suggested a link between these executions and the St. Brice’s Day massacre, or that those executed were actually defectors or traitors killed by their own men.

A gruesome find such as this brings forth many questions. It is hoped that further archaeological discoveries in the area may help provide answers to what occurred on that fateful day.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologist Discovered Grauballe man, a preserved bog body from the 3rd century B.C

Archaeologist Discovered Grauballe man, a preserved bog body from the 3rd century B.C

Two years after the discovery of the Tollund man, another bog body was found on the 26 of April 1952, by local peat cutters in the nearby bog, Nebelgard Fen, situated near the town of Grauballe, Denmark.

Longest-lasting missing person The Grauballe Man

Around the time of Grauballe man’s discovery, it was argued that the body belonged to that of Red Christian, a local peat cutter that mysteriously vanished in the area around 1887.

It was trusted that Red fell into the bog after drinking to much alcohol, as it was said that two drunk Englishmen from Cheshire suffered the same fate by falling into Lindow moss in 1853. It was not long before the body was sent to the Prehistory museum at Aarhus for examination and preservation.

Visual examination:

Once the body of Grauballe man was fully revealed, many wondered at how well the body was preserved. A brisk examination of the Body at the site revealed that Grauballe man was naked and had no items or belongings with him.

When Grauballe man was analyzed with more detail at the museum, it was revealed that he was around 30 years of old at the time of his death. It was also revealed that the body of Grauballe man was 1.75 m Height, and still had hair of about 5 cm long as well as a stubble on his chin. Grauballe man’s hands and fingers, when closely inspected, showed no signs of manual labor.

Scientific investigation:

So, we know, based on a VISUAL examination, that Grauballe man was 30 years of age, was 1.75 m Height, still had hair and his hands showed no sign of no physical work.

But how could we know his age? How did we know that his hands showed no sign of labor? The basic answer is that ‘we’ use Science.

When Grauballe man was scientifically inspected, through a wide array of techniques, numerous features where revealed, such as what Grauballe man ate and what wounds he sustained. The scientific examination of Grauballe man has been listed below.

Radiocarbon dating. Used to date the age of the body, which was around 310 B.C – 55 B.C. Placing the Grauballe man in the late Iron age. Scanning Electron microscope. Utilized for a closer examination of the body. Scientists, and Archaeologists worked out that Grauballe man was not a very hard worker by using the microscope to Determine his fingerprints, which were relatively smooth.

It was also used to show what Grauballe man had eaten. Results from an examination inside the stomach uncovered that Grauballe mans last meal consisted of porridge made from corn, seeds from more then 60 different herbs, and grasses which was uncovered to contain traces of a poisonous fungi, known as fungi ergot.

Grauballe man is believed to have died in winter or early spring as there is a lack of FRESH herbs and berries in his stomach.

Forensic analysis. Used to determine the wounds that the body sustained, which consisted of a cut to the throat that extended from ear to ear, cracks to the skull and right tibia, which was believed to be caused by a weapon, however when the body was re-examined again it was in fact caused by the pressure in the bog.

It has also been noted that there were 4 missing lumbar vertebrae. Forensics have also been able to reconstruct the face of Grauballe man, as well as numerous other faces from various bodies.

Templates from the x-rays of the skull were utilized and the skull was sculpted from clay over these templates. CT scanning and Computer Generated imagery was also used to help modify the facial reconstruction.

Cause of death:

There are many speculations associated with Grauballe’s man’s death. The cut on the throat is said to be the cause of Grauballe’s man’s death.

It is believed that Grauballe man was a criminal who paid the cost of death. But how would we know this? Based on the written sources of Tacitus, the Roman historian, the clans of northern Europe had a very strict society. So if one broke the law or committed an offence, they would be put to death.

A criminal or a prisoner of war would fit this description. But, what about his hands? As said before, Grauballe man’s hands showed no sign of manual labor, recommending that he was used for sacrificial purposes. Tacitus mentions that the clans of northern Europe have a connection to mother earth.

He says that during spring she visits these clans and upon departing, a selection of people are sacrificed . Based on the wounds, and the hands of Grauballe man, as well as sources to back it up, this seems to be Grauballe man’s likely cause of death.

But what about the poisonous fungi found in his stomach? New data suggests that if this fungi was to make Grauballe man sick, then it would of more then likely make him incapable to work.

It would have also caused agonizing symptoms which are historically known as St. Anthony’s Fire. Symptoms of this disease include convulsions, hallucinations and burning of the mouth, feet and hands. It is more than likely that Grauballe mans ingested the fungus by natural means.

If there was any bad luck in the village then the Grauballe man would be at the forefront of the allegations, which would regard him as being the cause of these woes and mishaps.

He would be seen as someone corrupted by an evil spirit, and therefore put to death and deposited in a bog far from town. The exact cause of death is however a mystery and therefore there is no single explanations of how Grauballe man died.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Couple find £5,000,000 in one of biggest ever treasure hoards

Couple find £5,000,000 in one of biggest ever treasure hoards

In an area in Somerset, in the West of England, a pair of metal detectorists found their existence when they uncovered a hoard of ancient coins worth about 6 million dollars.

The historical discovery, which has been deemed to be one of the greatest hidden treasures in the UK, is to be revealed in the British Museum.

The 2,571 Anglo-Saxon and Norman coins were unearthed by Adam Staples ‘ and Lisa Grace Treasure hunters when they searched farmland with their trusty metal detectors. The couples have described the hoard as “stunning” and “absolutely mind-blowing” in an interview with Treasure Hunting Magazine.

Adam Staples and partner Lisa Grace unearthed the ‘once in a lifetime’ find of almost 2,600 ancient coins that date back 1,000 years. Their discovery came on a farm in the northeast of Somerset.

They reported their find to the authorities as required by UK law, and the coins were soon sent to the British Museum for evaluation.

The British Museum has been assessing the find for the past seven months and is due to reveal more information about the coins to the public next week.

A spokesperson for the institution confirmed to the Daily Mail that the “large hoard” was handed over as possible treasure and that it appears to be “an important discovery.”

Under the UK’s 1996 Treasure Act, if a find is officially declared treasure, it must first be offered for sale to a museum at a price set by the British Museum’s Treasure Valuation Committee. If no museum can raise the money to acquire the coins, they can then be offered for sale at auction.

The owner of the land where the coins were found is entitled to half of the proceeds. The metal detectorists are keeping the exact location of their discovery under wraps, although the trove is called the Chew Valley Hoard after an area in North Somerset.

William the Conqueror (left) and Harold II coins. Photo by Pippa Pearce. Copyright the Trustees of the British Museum.

A coin expert at the London auctioneers Dix Noonan Webb has valued the coins at around £5 million ($6 million).

They include mint-condition silver King Harold II pennies, coins from the reign of William the Conqueror, which could be worth as much as £5,000 ($6,000) each, as well as pieces minted by previously-unknown moneyers.

The King Harold II coins are particularly rare due to his short reign. The last Anglo-Saxon king was on the throne for just nine months before he died during the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The expert said that the hoard may prove too pricey for museums, which might have to launch an appeal for sponsors to raise funds to acquire them.

The coins would have belonged to a wealthy person who probably buried them for safekeeping at some point after the Norman Invasion of 1066 and probably before 1072.

The biggest collection of buried treasure ever discovered in the UK was the Staffordshire Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork, but this latest find could worth $1 million more, and have as great or even more historic value.

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

When someone asked what the coolest thing you accomplished as a newly minted teenager, most people would probably have to confess something like “successfully pulled off a kickflip” or “puberty.” But not Luca Malaschnitschenko, who at age 13, recently found a cache of buried coins and treasure that once belonged a 10th Century Danish king. 

Luca Malaschnitschenko, who at age 13

During a trip to the German island of Rugen in the Baltic Sea back in January, Malaschnitschenko — a budding archaeology student — was scouring a field with a metal detector searching for treasure, as any kid with a metal detector is wont to do.

He was accompanied by his teacher and amateur archaeologist, René Schön, and when they heard the device blip they dug down and uncovered what they at first thought was just a worthless piece of aluminium.

But, they later realize it was actually a piece of silver, and appeared to be an old coin. That’s when they called up the state archaeology office, which cordoned off a nearly 5,000 square feet in order to conduct a proper dig.

Both Schön and Malaschnitschenko were invited to participate in the final excavation and uncover the hoard in its entirety, which turned out to be quite a doozy. A trove of crazy old coins, jewellery, and other fancy items that once belonged to a Danish king who ruled over a millennium ago.

Much of what was found is likely linked to King Harald Bluetooth, who reigned from the year 958AD to 986AD, and is credited with having brought Christianity to Denmark.

Specifically, it includes things like braided necklaces, pearls, brooches, Thor’s hammer, rings, and roughly 600 coins, according to a report by The Guardians. 

A 13 Year old just Discovered 1,000-year-old silver treasure hoard in Denmark

“This trove is the greatest single discovery of Bluetooth coins in the southern Baltic Sea region and is therefore of great significance,” lead archaeologist, Michael Schirren, told a local news service, per the daily newspaper.

If you are wondering why “Bluetooth” shares the same name as the tech you use to pair your headphones and computer mice, it’s because it’s actually named after him. 

The story goes that it was named in his honour since he was known for uniting Scandinavia, in the same sense that the Swedish inventors of Bluetooth technology intended to unite PC and wireless devices.

Further, the official Bluetooth logo is actually a melding of the King’s initials in an ancient Scandinavian alphabet. 

As of now, it’s unclear where the uncovered treasure will go on display or end up, but it’s certainly safe to assume this 13-year-old should have no trouble padding his college applications with some uniquely impressive accomplishments.

A coin from King Harald Bluetooth, about 975 to 980″. Photographed just as it came out of the earth.
Robert Hemming Poulsen at the site of his discovery.
EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden

The uncovered ancient dog is still over 8400 years old at the grave ground of the Stone Age city in Sweden. The canine was buried with remains of individuals, who were part of a traditional custom called ‘grave goods,’ the living would leave valuables or sentimental objects with the dead.

The bones were studied by an animal osteologist but there was no modern dog like that, who said it was ‘like a powerful greyhound. Originally established close to the ocean, the settlement was covered by rising sea levels that layered sand and mud over the remains that kept the artifacts preserved for thousands of years.

The location where the dog was discovered is part of an extensive site where municipal authorities and archaeologists perform one of the biggest archaeological digs ever in the city.

8,400 years old Dog Remain found at Stone Age burial site in Sweden
Archaeologists uncovered ancient dog remains more than 8,400 years old at a Stone Age area burial site in Sweden. The canine was buried alongside human remains, which was part of an ancient tradition called ‘grave goods

The settlement is located in what is now Ljungaviken in Sölvesborg and has been a prime site for archaeologists since 2015. During the excavation, the team has found evidence of at least 56 structures that once stood at the site, along with postholes and pits.

The dog bones are a new discovery and have not been removed from the ground yet but archaeologists plan to eventually take them to the Blekinge Museum for study.

Osteologist Ola Magnell of the Blekinge Museum said of the discovery near the town of Solvesborg, said: ‘The dog is well preserved, and the fact that it is buried in the middle of the Stone Age settlement is unique,’

Museum project manager Carl Persson said ‘a sudden and violent increase of the sea level’ flooded the area with mud that had helped preserve the burial site. An ongoing archaeological excavation has involved removing layers of sand and mud.

The Swedish archaeologists said the dog was buried with a person, noting that survivors often leave valuable or sentimental objects with the dead. Such findings ‘makes you feel even closer to the people who lived here,’ Persson said in a statement.

The settlement, originally built near the coast, was covered by rising sea levels that layered sand and mud over the remains that kept the artifacts preserved for thousands of years
The area where the dog was found is part of a vast site where local authorities and archaeologists are currently carrying out one of the largest archaeological digs ever undertaken in the region. 

A buried dog somehow shows how similar we are over the millennia when it comes to feelings like grief and loss.’ The area is believed to have been inhabited by hunters during the Stone Age. A residential community is expected to be built on the burial site once the archaeologists are done.

Dogs seem to have been man’s best friend for thousands of years, as archaeologists are uncovering remains all over the world that suggest they were domesticated pets.

Earlier this month, a team discovered what they believe could be the oldest ever remains of a pet dog. Experts suspected the remains are between 14,000 and 20,000 years old, spanning back to the very dawn of the special relationship between humans and canines.

Researchers from the University of Siena in Italy hope their discovery can shed light on how dogs made the change from wild carnivores to loving companions.

One theory is that wolves became scavengers out of necessity due to a lack of food, and this took them close to human settlements. Some experts believe the animals and humans slowly developed a bond and the symbiotic relationship flourished from there.

Others think wolves and humans worked together when hunting and this is how the relationship spawned. The research team from Siena University hopes that the surviving fragments of one of the first dogs to live alongside humans as a pet could help find a definitive answer.

Dr. Francesco Boschin led a piece of research, published in August in Scientific Reports, on early canine remains found at two paleolithic caves in Southern Italy, the Paglicci Cave, and the Romanelli Cave.

Writing in this study, the scientists say: ‘Our combined molecular and morphological analyses of fossil canid remain from the sites of Grotta Paglicci and Grotta Romanelli, in southern Italy, attest of the presence of dogs at least 14,000 calibrated years before present.

‘This unambiguously documents one of the earliest occurrences of domesticates in the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe and in the Mediterranean.’

Writing in this study, the scientists say: ‘Our combined molecular and morphological analyses of fossil canid remain from the sites of Grotta Paglicci and Grotta Romanelli, in southern Italy, attest of the presence of dogs at least 14,000 calibrated years before present’

However, a further analysis which is still ongoing shows this figure could indeed be much later, towards 20,000 years, Dr. Boschin told RealPress.

From an archaeological point of view, the oldest remains of domesticated dogs were found in Central Europe and date back 16,000 years,’ Boschin said.

‘In the Mediterranean area we have now established that domesticated dogs lived here 14,000 years ago for sure, but possibly even 20,000 years ago

AFRICA, WORLD

Archaeologists Uncover 1,700-year-old Roman Villa With Stunning Mosaics in Libya

Archaeologists Uncover 1,700-year-old Roman Villa With Stunning Mosaics in Libya

In the 1700-year-old villa in Ptolemais, a major trading port of the ancient Romans on the Libyan coast, archaeologists have uncovered statues, elaborate mosaics, and other treasures.

Mosaics depicting Dionysus and a sleeping Ariadne discovered in Ptolemais

Artifacts and a hoard of 553 silver and bronze coins from Republican times were discovered in a vast building 600 square metre dating back to the 3rd century C.E.

Archaeologist Jerzy Zelazowski of the University of Warsaw said: Most of the coins have been found in a room in the house where produced terracotta lamps. The coins may have been the earnings of local craftsmen.

The ancient city was established almost 2,300 years ago, at the turn of the 4th century B.C.E., by ancient Greeks. Its original name is not known, but it gained the name “Ptolemais” during the reign of the Ptolemaic empire over Egypt.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom had been founded in 305 B.C.E. by Ptolemy I Soter, whose Hellenistic dynasty ruled a vast area stretching from Syria to Nubia, with its capital in Alexandria.

Statuetka Asklepiosa- Stone sculpture of Asklepion.
Oil lamp depicting gladiatorial combat.

The Ptolemaic rulers declared themselves successors to the Egyptian Pharaohs: the famed Cleopatra was the daughter of the late Ptolemaic ruler Ptolemy XII Neos Dionysos.

Ptolemais

As the power of the Romans rose, however, that of the Ptolemys waned, and they began losing territory to Macedonia and the Seleucids. Hoping to preserve what they had, the Ptolemies became vassals of the Romans.

Cleopatra’s father would pay the Romans through the nose in order to secure his dynasty, but after his death, Cleopatra ultimately failed to hold onto power.

In 96 B.C.E. the entire province of Cyrenaica, including Ptolemais, was handed over to the Romans peacefully (400 years before the house in question was built).

Rome however showed little interest in their new province, which deteriorated into a pirate’s nest. Not until the Wars of Mithradates (between the Roman Empire and the tiny Kingdon of Pontus south of the Black Sea, ruled by King Mithradates IV)  in the 1st century C.E., did the Romans make an effort to restore order to Cyrenaica, to Romanize the locals and while about it, to resolve conflicts brewing between the Greeks and Jews living in the province.

Images of the gods

The villa with the recovered mosaics was built hundreds of years later around a courtyard in classic Roman peristyle arrangement. Among the loveliest of its mosaics is one depicting a sleeping Dionysus and Ariadne – a daughter of King Minos, who according to legend, would become the god’s wife.

Another mosaic depicts the Achillean cycle (the collection of epic poems about Achilles’ adventures) representing Achilles on the island of Skyros – where his mother, fearful that he would meet his death at Troy, dressed him as a girl to avoid military recruiters.

Two other mosaics in the villa, one in the courtyard and one in the dining room, bear the name “Leukaktios”. The name was superimposed on the stonework at a later date, possibly due to ownership change during its centuries of occupation.

Bronze sestercii
Head of Dionysus.

The villa walls bore colorful frescos, imitating marble revetments with geometric designs. Several walls are covered with figural paintings, mainly depicting various species of birds.

The end of this elegant house, after centuries of occupation, was probably due to the endless earthquakes plaguing the region. Two in particular, striking in the mid 3rd-century C.E. and in 365 C.E, may have doomed the house: the treasure of silver and bronze coins were found within the destruction layers inside the house.

Stone sculpture of male figure depicted in armour reminiscent of the Hellenistic linothorax type, worn, i.a., by Alexander the Great

The city of Ptolemais, however, survived. At least for a while. It would remain the capital of Cyrenaica until the year 428 when it was destroyed by the Vandals, who invaded North Africa too from their Germanic home base.

Ptolemais would be rebuilt under Justinian I, the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. But after the Arab forces razed it again in the 7th century, that would be its end.