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Here are the list of top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2019

Here are the list of top 10 Archaeological Discoveries of 2019

2019 was another exciting year for archaeology. Modern technology and extensive excavations have revealed a slew of fascinating finds-from Bronze Age “megalopolis” in Israel, a “cachette of the priests” near Luxor, Egypt, and a massive ancient wall in western Iran are just a few of the many incredible archaeological stories that came to light in 2019. Here, Archaeological World takes a look at 10 of the biggest archaeology discoveries that emerged this year, it was difficult to narrow this list to only 10.

10. Iron Age Celtic Woman Found Buried In Zurich Tree Trunk

The woman was found buried in a woolen dress and shawl, with bronze bracelets, a bronze belt chain, iron clasps and pendants, and a glass and amber necklace.

Construction of the Kern school complex in Zurich’s Aussersihl district was fairly mundane right up until the discovery of a 2,200-year-old Iron Age Celtic woman buried in a hollowed-out tree trunk. Researchers were confident this was a woman of high regard, according to LiveScience. The woolen dress, shawl, sheepskin coat, and necklace made of amber and glass beads certainly support that conclusion.

Analysis of the remains indicated she was around 40 when she died — and that she had a sweet tooth. Experts also believed she grew up in what is now modern-day Zurich’s Limmat Valley. While the preservation of her body and belongings is certainly impressive enough, the ingeniously modified tree trunk she was laid to rest in was just as remarkable.

This wasn’t the first instance of historical remnants being discovered in the region, either. In 1903, construction workers found the grave of a Celtic man buried with his sword, shield, and lance. This woman, interestingly enough, was discovered a mere 260 feet away. Previous evidence suggested a Celtic settlement dating to the 1st century B.C. existed there. While some posited the two were buried in the same decade, that aspect remains unclear. To learn more, archaeologists salvaged, conserved, and analyzed the remains.

To add further curiosity to the matter, researchers assess that from 450 B.C. to 58 B.C, when the two Celts were buried, a “wine-guzzling, gold-designing, poly/bisexual, naked-warrior-battling culture” called La Tène flourished in Switzerland’s Lac de Neuchâtel. In terms of finding a final resting place, both of these Celts could’ve done worse than find it there.

9. 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Eggs

A 10-year-old boy in China who was out playing near a lake accidentally unearthed a fossilized egg that led to the discovery of a dinosaur nest that is 66 million years old. The find was just the latest in a city that has become famed for its number of dinosaurs finds, especially fossilized eggs, Héyuán, in Guangdong province.

Zhang Yangzhe was playing on an embankment near the Dong River under the supervision of his mother when he made the find while trying to find something to crack a walnut with. While digging in the soil, the boy saw what looked like a strange stone, so he dug it up very carefully. Once alerted to the find, experts immediately confirmed that the strange stone was a fossilized egg. In the following days, they began to excavate the site where Zhang had made his discovery and they found 10 more eggs. They determined that Zhang had found a dinosaur nest because they were all unearthed in a small area.

8. Massive wall

Satellite images of the Gawri Wall

A wall stretching for about 71 miles (115 kilometers) was documented in western Iran. Running north-south between the Bamu Mountains in the north and an area near Zhaw Marg village in the south, it took an estimated 1 million cubic meters [35,314,667 cubic feet] of stone to build. While local people and a few archaeologists had known about the existence of the wall, it had never been described in a journal until this year when an article in the journal Antiquity, written by Sajjad Alibaigi, an assistant professor of Iranian archaeology at Razi University in Kermanshah, Iran, was released.

“Remnants of structures, now destroyed, are visible in places along the wall. These may have been associated turrets [small towers] or buildings,” Alibaigi wrote. He noted that the wall is made from “natural local materials, such as cobbles and boulders, with gypsum mortar surviving in places.”

It’s not clear when the wall was built, who built it or why. Pottery found beside the wall suggests that it was constructed between the fourth century B.C. and sixth century A.D., Alibaigi wrote. The Parthians (who ruled between 247 B.C. and A.D. 224) and the Sassanians (A.D. 224-651) are two empires that flourished in the area, and either one of them could have built the wall.

7. The Oldest Figurative Cave Painting in the World Was Discovered in Indonesia

A researcher studying what was previously believed to be the world’s oldest figurative art in a Borneo cave. The find has been supplanted by a new discovery in Indonesia.

The oldest pictorial art in the world is now believed to be an ancient hunting scene painted on the walls of an Indonesian cave some 43,900 years ago. The prehistoric artwork is even more significant, however, because it shows imaginary figures with both human and animal features. That suggests that the concept of religious thinking originated not in Europe, as previously thought, but much earlier, and on the opposite side of the globe.

6. Most colorful tomb

The colors of the paintings seen in this 4,400-year-old tomb in Egypt are remarkable. The tomb was constructed for an official named Khuwy.

Egypt divulged a wealth of ancient secrets in 2019. By far the most colorful discovery was that of the 4,400-year-old tomb of Khuwy, an official who lived at a time when the pyramids were being constructed in Egypt.

Hieroglyphs found in the tomb reveal Khuwy’s many titles included “overseer of the khentiu-she of the Great House,” “great one of the ten of Upper Egypt” and “sole friend” of the pharaoh. All these titles indicate that he was an official of some importance. But what sets this discovery apart is the remarkable preservation of the tomb’s colorful paintings. The paintings include depictions of ships at sail, Egyptians working in the fields and complex patterns that are almost impossible to describe in words. The colors bring these paintings to life; and the fact that they are so well preserved, despite the passage of more than 4 millennia of time, is unusual.

5. Bronze Age “megalopolis”

A 5,000-year-old Early Bronze Age “megalopolis” that was home to around 6,000 people (a large population at the time) was discovered at the site of En Esur in Israel. Millions of pottery fragments, flint tools, basalt stone vessels and a large temple filled with burnt animal bones and figurines were discovered in the city. One of the figurines depicts a human head with a seal impression on it, showing human hands lifted into the air. The temple had a huge stone basin that held liquids that were probably used for religious rituals. The city’s residential and public areas, streets, alleyways and temples appear to have been carefully planned out.

“This is a huge city — a megalopolis in relation to the Early Bronze Age, where thousands of inhabitants, who made their living from agriculture, lived and traded with different regions and even with different cultures and kingdoms in the area,” Itai Elad, Yitzhak Paz, and Dina Shalem, the directors of the excavation, said in a statement announcing the discovery. They said that the city was the “early Bronze Age New York” of the region.

4. A Temple and Countless Treasures in a Sunken City

In July, Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities announced that marine archaeologists diving at the ancient submerged city of Heracleion (named after Hercules who legend claimed had been there) off the coast of the Nile Delta discovered the remains of a temple, docks, and boats containing ancient treasures.

Known as Thonis in Egypt, and submerged under 150 feet of water, the city sits in what is today the Bay of Aboukir, but in the 8th century BC when the city is thought to have been built, it would have been situated at the mouth of the River Nile delta where it opened into the Mediterranean Sea. The dive team found a “clutch of new ports” which effectively extends their map of the ancient sunken city “by about two-thirds of a mile” and they have also added to their mapping of Canopus, a second submerged city close to Heracleion. What’s more, one of the scores of ancient ships at the site from the fourth century BC was found to contain crockery, coins, and jewelry.

3. Preserved And Harnessed Pompeii Military Horse Unearthed

The remains of a military official’s horse, discovered in Pompeii.

When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., there was little anyone in its vicinity could do but run and pray to the gods. The choking, toxic cloud of gas and the searing, white-hot ash of the eruption spared neither slave nor Roman military officer — Vesuvius even took the officer’s horses. According to the Associated Press, the petrified remains of a harnessed horse and an accompanying saddle were found lying in a stable in the Villa of the Mysteries. The ancient homestead in the suburbs of Pompeii overlooks the Bay of Naples and formerly belonged to a high-ranking military officer, possibly even a general. Excavated in the early 1900s, the site had previously been re-buried.

Director of the dig site, Massimo Osanna, was confident this horse was a military steed. Saddled in a wooden and bronze harness, archaeologists believe that the horse was being prepared for the officer who would be needed to help evacuate the citizens of the city. The animal was also well-groomed and decorated with rich metals, further suggesting this was not just anyone’s horse. It was found alongside several other horses who died in the stable.

Neither of the two theoretical causes of death is what one would call preferable: either the horses suffocated from the endless cloud of volcanic ash that blanketed the city and its surroundings, or it was essentially boiled alive from the inside-out from the extreme temperatures of the volcanic gases that would have accompanied the ash cloud.

2. Largest Mass Child Sacrifice in The World Unearthed In Peru

Researchers believe the mass sacrifice was a ritualistic offering to the Chimú’s moon god, in order to ward off El Niño-related weather.

In August 2019, archaeologists in Peru uncovered the largest mass child sacrifice in recorded history. The site contained the remains of 227 victims and was found north of Lima in the coastal town of Huanchaco. According to the BBC News, ever single victim was between five and 14 years old. It’s believed that their last breaths were taken over 500 years ago, with some of the remains remarkably still having hair and skin. There was also evidence that the children were killed during wet weather.

With their deaths occurring at some point before the 1500s and their bodies facing the ocean, researchers theorized they died as offerings to the gods worshipped by the Chimú people of the region. This group was one of the strongest and most independent at the time. The Chimú culture peaked between 1200 and 1400 A.D. before the Incas conquered them and the Spanish subsequently conquered the Incas. According to CNN, it was the Chimú who constructed Chan Chan — the largest pre-Columbian city in South America. The civilization worshipped Shi, a moon god they thought was more powerful than the sun, and human sacrifices were common as appeasements to Shi. The researchers who stumbled upon this remarkable find also found the remains of 40 warriors, further illuminating the culture of the Chimú.

“This is the biggest site where the remains of sacrificed children have been found,” said lead archaeologist Feren Castillo. “It’s uncontrollable, this thing with the children. Wherever you dig, there’s another one.” For biological anthropologist John Verano, the discovery was just another reminder of how vital archaeology is to our understanding of the past.

1. 30 mummies discovered in Valley of the Kings

30 mummies discovered earlier this year in Luxor and estimated to be 3,000 years old.

Archaeologists discovered 30 perfectly preserved sealed wooden coffins, dating back 3,000 years, in “El-Assasif,” a necropolis near Luxor, Egypt, in 2019. They called the discovery the “cachette of the priests” since some of the mummies appear to be those of ancient Egyptian priests. A cachette is a place where things were hidden away. The vividly colored and complex patterns on the coffins are well preserved despite the passage of 3 millennia.

The mummies within the coffins are also well preserved. When two of the coffins were opened at a news conference, the outer wrappings of the mummies looked untouched. Archaeologists found that 23 adult males, five adult females and two children were buried in the 30 wooden coffins. Analysis of the mummies and translation of the hieroglyphs is ongoing, and more finds about this cache will likely emerge in the next year or two. It’s remarkable that so many sealed coffins, their mummies still intact, were preserved for such a long period of time. Grave robbing was a common occurrence in Egypt in both ancient and modern times.

BIBLICAL, WORLD

Has Jesus had a wife? New Coptic Papyrus Tests May Give Answers

Did Jesus Have a Wife? New Tests on Ancient Coptic Papyrus May Give Answers

To order to determine if the papyrus fragment is authentic strict forensic and academic analysis has been carried out for the controversial “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife

The much-debated gospel, if legitimate, might show that at one point it was believed Jesus had taken wife, contrary to the current doctrines of Christianity.

In 2012, Harvard University professor Karen L. King revealed the faded papyrus, which quickly became the international headlines. The announcement of a papyrus which might alter the historical record of Christian faith was met with elation, anger, and skepticism.

The text is known now as the “ The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife ” is written in Coptic (an Egyptian language), mentions a woman named Mary, and contains the translated phrases, “ Jesus said to them, my wife….”, and ” she will be able to be my disciple,” which suggests not only that Jesus may have married (some belief to Mary Magdalene) but also it raises the argument for women to become ordained priests.

An editorial in the Vatican’s newspaper declared that the papyrus was a fake, as did a number of other scholars. Additionally, the Church of England has dismissed the claims, saying it is closer to the fictional ‘Da Vinci Code’ than historical accounts.

‘Jesus as a friend of children’ (1845), by Marie Ellenrieder
‘Jesus as a friend of children’ (1845), by Marie Ellenrieder

However, the fragment has been thoroughly tested by scientists who conclude, in a report published in the  Harvard Theological Review, that the ink (actually pigment) and papyrus have ancient origins, and the fragment is not, therefore, a modern forgery. The researchers date it to 1,200 years ago, between the sixth and ninth centuries.

According to LiveScience, new research has been done on the disputed papyrus but the study has yet to be published.  Scientists at Columbia University are conducting new tests on the pigments used on the papyrus. When compared with the pigments from other known authentic or fraudulent gospels, comparisons can be made and legitimacy established.

Scientists at Columbia University are not commenting until their results are published, but according to the LiveScience article, the Jesus gospel was compared to another fragment from the “Gospel of John”, which was written in a rare ancient dialect of Coptic known as Lycopolitan.

The two texts are said to be very similar, but the John gospel dates to between the seventh and ninth centuries, leading some to say “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” was a fake modeled after this.

However, “James Yardley, a senior research scientist at Columbia University, told Live Science that the new tests suggest that the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife was written by another person than that who wrote John papyrus,” reports MailOnline.

Yardley told LiveScience, “In our first exploration, we did state that the inks used for the two documents of interest [the John papyrus and the Gospel of Jesus’s Wife] were quite different. The more recent results do confirm this observation strongly.”

Additionally, the language on the fragment has been examined, and many scholars say it is also very similar to the early Christian “ Gospel of Thomas ”.

This gospel can be found online with modern-day typos. Skeptical scholars point out similar typos in the Jesus gospel, but proponents rebut, saying that typos and grammatical errors were just as prevalent in ancient scribe-work as they are now, and the Jesus gospel is another interesting example of that.

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci ( Wikimedia). In the novel, ‘The Da Vinci Code’, Dan Brown writes that the figure at the right hand of Jesus is Mary Magdalene.

What remains to be sorted out is the mysterious provenance (source or chronology) of the artifact. Many scholars are drawing their own conclusions that the papyrus is a modern fake, and that opinion is supported by the unclear ownership of the piece, and where it might have originated.

The person who currently owns the ancient papyrus remains anonymous but claims the gospel came to him with other Coptic texts from Germany. The texts were reportedly purchased from a man named Hans-Ulrich Laukamp in 1999, who himself allegedly got them in 1963 in Potsdam, in what was East Germany.

A copy of the signature of Hans Ulrich Laukamp (September 1997), as found online by LiveScience.

The claim that Laukamp previously owned the gospel text has been strongly disputed by his former friends and business partners. Laukamp died in 2002, and representatives of his estate say Hans-Ulrich had no interest in antiquities and did not collect them.

Further, he was living in West Berlin in the ’60s, and due to the infamous wall that divided Berlin from 1961 to 1989, it was improbable he crossed into East Berlin to acquire artifacts. Laukamp had no children or living relatives to confirm or deny the claims.

The LiveScience article points out that Laukamp’s handwritten signature can be located online on notarized documents from between 1997 and 2001, and these could be compared to the signature on the sales documents provided by the current anonymous owner.

Last year in a Harvard Theological Review article professor King said that the anonymous owner, “provided me with a photocopy of a contract for the sale of ‘6 Coptic papyrus fragments, one believed to be a Gospel’ from Hans-Ulrich Laukamp, dated Nov. 12, 1999, and signed by both parties.” Further, King notes that “a handwritten comment on the contract states, ‘Seller surrenders photocopies of correspondence in German. Papyri were acquired in 1963 by the seller in Potsdam (East Germany).’”

Until comparisons are made between known signatures and those on the contracts, the provenance of the artifact remains unverified.

If it can be shown Laukamp did indeed get the enigmatic papyrus from East Germany, where did it come from before that? Discovering the true origins of the ancient artifact will go a long way in determining authenticity.

Until conclusive evidence can be shown that reveals “The Gospel of Jesus’s Wife” is indeed a convincing forgery, all experts can go on for now is the ancient date of the ink and interpretations of the timelines of the Coptic language. As this ancient papyrus presents such a controversial idea, the debate will undoubtedly rage until then.

EUROPE, SWITZERLAND, WORLD

Scientists Examine Iceman’s Neolithic Hunting Kit

Scientists identify 5,300-year-old sinew bowstring used by Otzi the Iceman

Swiss researchers are astounded to have identified Ötzi’s bowstring. Even though the Iceman had still been working on his bow, he carried a finished twisted string in his quiver which was made of animal fibers and not of plant fibers. It is elastic, extremely resilient, and is therefore ideal as a bowstring.

A length of cord found alongside the body of Ötzi the Iceman, the Neolithic hunter who was discovered entombed in ice high in the Dolomites, has been identified as a string for his wooden bow.

An extensive research project was carried out by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) which examined materials of Neolithic bows and arrows in detail for the first time. These were then compared to Ötzi’s equipment.

The cord, which was found tucked into a quiver used by the 5,300-year-old Iceman for keeping his arrows, is made of animal sinew – ideal material for producing a strong, powerful bow.

It is two meters long, almost exactly the same length as the bow that was found beside the mummified body of the hunter when he was discovered by a pair of hikers on the Schnalstal glacier in 1991.

“We had long hoped (for this) and now it has finally been confirmed by science: the cord in Ötzi’s quiver is indeed a bowstring and it fits his bow perfectly,” the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology, where the mummified body of the Neolithic tribesman is kept in a climate-controlled chamber, said in a statement.

The preserved remains of Ötzi the Iceman

It was previously thought the cord was made of plant material, but plant fibers “would not have withstood the tension of the bow and as such wouldn’t have been suitable for a bowstring,” said experts from the museum in Bolzano, in the German-speaking north of Italy.

The bowstring has been declared the oldest known and best preserved in the world.

The scientists from the Swiss National Science Foundation also discovered that the Copper Age hunter’s bow had been freshly-cut from a yew tree. It was not yet finished – they found marks left by a hatchet which would have been used to whittle and shape the wood.

A length of cord has been identified as a string for his wooden bow

“While arrows and arrowheads are relatively common finds worldwide, complete sets of hunting equipment consisting of bows, arrows, and sometimes even quivers are extremely rare and are only known from glacier finds of the Alpine arc,” the scientific team said.

“Prehistoric bowstrings are among the rarest of all finds in archaeological excavations. “The cord contained in Ötzi’s quiver may be the oldest preserved bowstring in the world,” said the experts, who published their research in the Journal of Neolithic Archeology.

They found that the hunter’s quiver was stitched from the skin of a chamois. A flap of leather protected the interior of the quiver, which held 14 arrows when Ötzi died.

“If required, it could be opened very quickly and an arrow could be pulled out with a single motion of the arm,” the scientists said. The discovery of Ötzi, in a 3,210m high mountain pass on the border of Austria and Italy, caused a sensation.

Intensive analysis of his weapons, clothes, and body – older than Stonehenge and the Pyramids – have added immeasurably to the understanding of the Neolithic age.  

Ötzi died after being struck in the back by an arrow, sparking a long-running mystery as to who may have wanted to kill him and why – the ultimate cold case.

His body and belongings were superbly preserved by the snow and ice of the mountains. He is thought to have been about 45 when he was murdered – a good age for the era.

EUROPE, SWEDEN, WORLD

Archaeologists uncover part of the 16th-century ship in central Stockholm

Archaeologists uncover part of the 16th-century ship in central Stockholm

Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, can be popular for a lot, but it was an unexpected event to discover a 500-year-old shipwreck in the center of the city.

The most likely shipwreck is from the Swedish cargo ship Samson, built-in 1598 at Enånger in Hälsingland by AndersPedersson.

Relics of the ship were accidentally found in the middle of Stockholm under a Kungsträdgården (Swedish for “King’s Garden”) courtyard.

The courtyard had to be lowered while conducting renovation work to strengthen the foundation of a property

In these projects archeologists usually participate, in case anything of historical value will be found, were amazed when they noticed wooden parts of this old ship.

The study of wreckage was carried out by the maritime archeologists of the Norwegian Maritime Museum of Transport History and it has been determined it’s part of the Samson ship that was over 30 meters long.

In an interview with TT archaeologist Philip Tonemar who has commissioned the survey on behalf of the county administrative board, explained it’s a very rare archaeological discovery.

Archaeologists examine the shipwreck discovered in the middle of the city of Stockholm.

Tonemar said the dating of the timber, the shipbuilding technology as well as the size perfectly matches Samson.

“A finding from this transition period between the older and newer shipbuilding of the era is very unusual. There are really no other direct examples, and that it is completely built with pine and its special design details also makes it unique,” Tonemar said.

Little is known about Samson’s fate and there are only brief historical notes about the ship’s history. For some unknown reason, after 1607 Samson vanished from historical records.

Tonemar thinks the ship was most likely abandoned.

“When the ship was abandoned in the early 1600s, it was probably stripped of material, chopped up and left on the shore.

Discovering parts of the Samson cargo ship thrilled archaeologists.

We found garbage from residents in the area that were thrown directly over the ship,” Tonemar said.

In addition to the shipwreck, archaeologists also discovered coins, pipes, ceramics, glass and a small ball of clay in mud that perhaps a child had lost.

Today, only a part of the bottom of one hull remains from Samson. It’s a historical ship and the latest remains will be covered with a ground cloth,  protective material, and preserved for future generations.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Huge Statue of God Horus Found in Egyptian Temple

Huge Statue of God Horus Found in Egyptian Temple

Throughout excavations at the site of remains of The House of Millions of Years Temple for Amenhotep III, the Egyptian-German Joint Archeological Mission in the Koam-al-Hetan area of Luxor’s West Bank discovered an “enormous” statue of Horus.

The newly-discovered Horus statue. 

In a statement issued on Thursday, the statue, which shows the god Horus in the shape of a falcon, consists of black granite and measures 1.85 meters in length, said the Director-General of West Luxor Antiquities Mr. Fathy Yassin.

The statue is without legs and has broken arms as well, he added.

The find is part of a long-term restoration project of the Memnon statue and the Temple of King Amenhotep III, which began in 1998 under the supervision of the Ministry of Antiquities and the German Archaeological Institute.

The aim of the project is to preserve the remains of the temple and rebuild it again, said co-head of the Egyptian-German mission Horig Sorosyan.

Two statues of Amenhotep III (Memnon’s pillars) at the entrance to his temple

She stressed that the discovered statue was in good condition and of an important artistic, scientific and archaeological value, as it would contribute to presenting the full image of the temple, especially after its collapse after a devastating earthquake in the twenty-eighth century BC.

Stones were used to building temples and other royal statues in the Ramesside era, she pointed out, adding that the statue in question is currently undergoing restoration.

The mission, meanwhile, will continue to search for the missing legs of the statue.

The Egyptian-German archaeological expedition previously discovered a number of large statues depicting deities, Amenhotep III, and his wife Queen T, in addition to a significant number of statues of the goddess Sekhmet.

Amenhotep III accumulated various Sekhmet statues in his temple The House of Millions of Years in order to protect it from danger.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Lost ‘Atlantean Treasures’ Unearthed in Crete

Lost ‘Atlantean Treasures’ Unearthed in Crete

In excavations on the west of the islet of Chrysi by Lasithi Ephorate, large numbers of porfyra and houses of Minoan settlements survived the ancient carved fish ponds across the coast.

The several broken porfyra shells found in the rooms of the houses are evidence of a very early cottage industry of porfyra dye established during Crete’s first palaces.

The settlement had a flourishing economy not apparent from the architectural remains but from the fine quality artifacts found in the houses.

Chrysi islet is situated in the south of Crete in the administrative Region of Lasithi and belongs to the Ierapetra Municipality. The surface survey conducted between 2008-2011 provided evidence of human activity and habitation since the Bronze Age.

In 2018 and 2019 the by now systematic excavation on Chrysi under the Lasithi Antiquities Ephorate’s Head Chrysa Sophianou, brought to light a large building with many rooms, known as B2, which was inhabited without interruptions during the Protopalatial and Neopalatial period, from the Middle Minoan IIB to the Late Minoan IB period (ca 1800-1500 BC).

The rooms had simple architectural elements, such as built-in vats, stone benches, work surfaces, hearths and a staircase with stone slabs. Pottery is a typical mixture of vessels for drinking, eating, cooking, and storage, while many stone tools were recovered.

It was a surprise to discover no evidence in this entire building of a cottage industry for the production of porfyra, unlike the other excavated houses of the settlement.

Despite their simple architecture, two rooms contained “treasures/hoards” of metal, glass and semiprecious stones. The first treasure was found in 2018 in a room that most probably was used as a storage area.

The deposit contained two parts of copper talents, a mass of slag and jewellery: a gold ring, a gold bracelet, 26 gold beads (disc-shaped, round and shaped like a papyrus), one bead of silver, 5 of bronze and the band of a bronze ring.

A collection of gold beads found at the site.
Beads found during excavations on the western part of the islet Chryssi.

There was also a large number of different shaped glass beads (39 round and 25 papyrus-shaped), 4 of so-called Egyptian blue, 20 of corneal stone, 1 of amethyst, 10 of lapis, one agate seal depicting a ship whose prow has the shape of an animal’s head and a stone amulet shaped like a monkey.

While continuing the excavation in 2019, another treasure of talents was discovered in the corner of a room in the same building, along with a large saw and three vessels, one made of copper.

A copper vase found at the site.

Their overall weight is 68 kilos and together with the parts of the other treasure, they are in all over two talents. It is the largest treasure of metals found to date on Crete.  Moreover, stored inside a vessel were pieces of a tin talent.

The latter is considered a rare find being the second from the Late Minoan period found on Crete. The first was discovered in a settlement on the islet of Mochlos.

The above data leads to the hypothesis that the inhabitants of building B2 in the Late Minoan period (ca 1500 BC) belonged to a higher social class and played a different part in the society of Chrysi; probably one of administration. They managed production, the promotion of products, the trading of porfyra dye and the import or distribution of metals.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Archaeologists uncover two Bronze Age ‘royal’ tombs lined with GOLD that promise to unlock secrets about life in ancient Greece 3,500 years ago

Archaeologists uncover two Bronze Age ‘royal’ tombs lined with GOLD that promise to unlock secrets about life in ancient Greece 3,500 years ago

Historians from the classic department of the American University of Cincinnati are readdressing what is known of early Greek history based on their once-in-a-lifetime discovery of two treasure-filled tombs that were once lined with gold leaf.

The two beehive-like graves were uncovered by a team of archeologists in last year and they announced in last Tuesday in Pylos while they were investigating the tomb of the renowned Greek military leader Griffin Warrior, who had been identified with the remarkable collection of weapons armors and jewelry in 2015

The scientist Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker from the UC Classics department reported in an article on the UC Web Site that they spent 18 months excavating both graves and similarly to the Griffin Warrior’s tomb, they were called ‘princely.’

The burials were discovered overlooking the Mediterranean Sea close to the palace of Nestor, a ruler mentioned in Homer’s famous works the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Davis and Stocker´s team are excavating in Greece in the wake of the late Carl Blegen who was head of UC’s Classics Department and was responsible for having discovered the Palace of Nestor in 1939 with Greek archaeologists Konstantinos Kourouniotis.

Stone lines the entrance to a grave called Tholos IV near the former Palace of Nestor, both discovered by the late UC Classics archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939.

Within the two tombs, a wealth of cultural artifacts were recovered, including delicate jewelry. As an added mark of the extreme opulence of the family, the researchers found, “The tombs were littered with flakes of gold leaf that once papered the walls.”

When interpreted alongside the artifacts recovered from the tomb of the Griffin Warrior, historians expect to use these burials to gain a deeper understanding of early Greek civilization and Pylos’ links with ancient Egypt.

Pylos is a town in the Bay of Navarino and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. It has an exceptionally long history – having been inhabited since the Neolithic era. In Classical times the site was uninhabited yet hosted the Battle of Pylos in 425 BC, during the Peloponnesian War.

Pylos was one of the last places which held out against the Spartans in the Second Messenian War and it sank out of history until the seventh year of the Peloponnesian War, during which according to the Greek historian Thucydides in his  History of the Peloponnesian War, the area was together with most of the country and “round, unpopulated.”

An aerial view of the site shows the Tholos IV tomb, far left, found by UC archaeologist Carl Blegen in 1939 in relation to the two family tombs called Tholos VI and Tholos VII, uncovered last year by UC archaeologists Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, the identity of the ‘Griffin Warrior’ is an assumption based on the types of armor, weapons, and jewelry found in his tomb – which all suggest he had military and religious authority. It is thought that he may have been the king known in later Mycenaean times as a ‘Wanax.’

The name ‘Griffin Warrior’ was chosen after the mythological creature, the Griffin, which is composed of parts from eagles and lions, a depiction of which was found engraved on an ivory plaque in the warrior’s tomb alongside his armor, weaponry, and gold jewelry.

The new artifacts discovered in the two princely tombs include a gold ring with two bulls within sheaves of barley, and an incredibly detailed carnelian seal depicting an image of two ‘genii,’ which like the Griffin are lionlike mythological creatures. The depictions of the genii are shown below a 16-pointed star and they hold serving vessels and an incense burner over an altar.

According to Dr. Stocker, “16-pointed stars are rare” to find in Mycenaean iconography and he sees the discovery of two objects depicting 16-pointed stars, in both agate and gold, as “noteworthy.”

In one of the two family tombs, UC archaeologists found a carnelian seal stone featuring two mythological creatures called genii with serving vessels and incense over an altar.

A National Geographic article says the two tombs were found holding “lots of gold” but also Baltic amber, Egyptian amethysts, and imported carnelian – which the archaeologists think belonged to “very sophisticated” people at a time when very few luxury items were being imported into Pylos – which was later a central location on the Bronze Age trade routes, said the archaeologists.

Dr. Davis said the discovery of a gold pendant displaying what might be a depiction of the Egyptian goddess Hathor is “particularly interesting considering the role she played in Egypt as protectress of the dead.” And if this is the Egyptian goddess Hathor than new evidence has been discovered suggesting early trade links between Pylos, Greece, and Egypt.

UC archaeologists found several gold pieces, including this double argonaut (octopus type of creature).
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Ancient anti-witchcraft potion found at old Northamptonshire pub

Ancient anti-witchcraft potion found at old Northamptonshire pub

Throughout Western Europe, about 200,000 witches were murdered, burned, or hanged, between 1484 and 1750 according to historians, while between 1644 and 1646, around 300 so-called witches were killed.

In the 1560s, the practice of witchcraft was a major offense. Many witches in Britain were often old women and were part of poor families.

A Victorian bottle that is supposed to be used to prevent evil spells has recently been found. As per the experts in Watford, Northamptonshire, the bottle has been found at the birthplace of the witch.

History of the Lancashire Witches is in the John Rylands Library in Manchester Wikimedia Commons

Angeline Tubbs, a famous witch, who is still a popular name, was born at the former Star and Garter Inn at Watford village in 1761.

Known as the Witch of Saratoga she is one of the major subjects of ghost tours at Saratoga Springs in New York, where she moved at the age of 15 and used to foretell the future.

But the 19th-century weird bottle was found during roof repairs of her house in Northamptonshire.

The bottle contains fish hooks, human teeth, glass, a liquid and suddenly appeared after several years when a chimney was demolished at the building.

The suspected witch bottle

As reported by BBC, Dr. Ceri Houlbrook, lecturer in folklore and history at the University of Hertfordshire said, “It’s certainly later than most witch bottles, so sadly not contemporary with Angeline Tubbs, but still a fascinating find.”

The researchers who studied the bottle at the Museum of London Archaeology mentioned that such vessels were believed to have been used as a protection method hundreds of years ago.

As per the experts, earlier these glass or stone vessels were found under the floors of historic buildings, mostly in the churchyards and riverbanks.

It should be mentioned that most of these vessels had contained weird things, such as human nails and pins as well as human urine